May 16, 2008 ©Homer
Kizer
Printable/viewable PDF
format
Commentary — From the Margins
Chapter Five: A New War Scroll
_______________
In February 2004, in the Shaffer
House at
Chapter Five
Christians
are the beneficiaries of
Both conciliar and Arian Christianity were expelled
from heavenly
To remain in heavenly
Entering into God’s rest was, for the
children of the nation that left
Jeroboam caused the house of Israel to sin from the
beginning of his reign, for he built temples other than at Jerusalem and he
appointed priests from among all of the people (1 Kings 12:26–31). The
house of
When Jeroboam set up temples in
The glory of God did not return to
When the glory of God departed from
When God sent first the house of
Entering into God’s rest now means entering into the temple or house of God. And this temple is built on the foundation Paul laid, with Christ Jesus being the cornerstone.
God gave Moses His rest (Ex 31:14) when Moses entered into the presence of God: God’s rest is entering into His presence. Hence, observing the Sabbath equates to entering geographical Judea (cf. Heb 3:16–4:11; Ps 95:10–11; Num chap 14), and as God did not allow the nation numbered in the census of the second year (with the exceptions of Joshua and Caleb) to entered into His rest, God does not allow unbelieving disciples to keep the Sabbath, a realization that should but doesn’t frighten visible Christendom that feels no compunction to keep the Sabbath.
Note well the above! God does not allow unbelieving disciples to keep the Sabbath. The
pastor of the local
The above stands as a warning for Sabbatarian disciples who practice lawlessness or unbelief such as not coming before God on the high Sabbaths … if God has not spared visible Christendom, but has condemned sincere but unbelieving disciples to destruction when the temple of God is dedicated, He will also condemn lawless Sabbatarians to similar destruction. God gives birth to many sons that will not all enter into His rest. While it remains His will that none perish, He knows that most will for many have been called but few will be chosen (Matt 22:14). Most of His sons will rebel against Him. They will claim that He’s too stern, too strict, too much of a disciplinarian. He’s a jealous God, and His sons don’t want to worship a jealous God. They want love and license to be free, to experiment with alternative lifestyles, with those things the prince of this world offers. They want to choose for themselves what is good and what is evil. After all God gave His sons good minds and the right to use them; so any God that hinders experimentation is not a God they will worship or honor.
Every person in Western nations has heard these arguments for a “daddy” God who will tolerate every manner of rebellion because disciples are all covered by grace: these arguments are the baaing of sheep and the lowing of cattle destined to be sacrificed when the temple is dedicated. Listen if you will, but please, don’t add your voice to the baaing.
John the Revelator records, “Then came one of
the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues and spoke
to me, saying, ‘Come, I will show you the Bride, the wife of the
Lamb.’ And he carried me away in the Spirit to a great, high mountain,
and showed me the holy city Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God,
having the glory of God” (Rev 21:9–11) … the angel who showed
John the Bride, the wife of the Lamb, showed him New Jerusalem. The
Although the commercial asks its audience to
believe that
Heavenly Jerusalem is not a city here on earth, and
it doesn’t come down to earth until after Death and Hades are thrown into
the lake the fire, and until after this first heaven and first earth pass
away—until there is no longer matter, mass, and time. Heavenly
The key to understanding Scripture is, again, in all things the visible things that have been made reveal the invisible things of God, and this remains true concerning the temple:
Using wealth
and material King David assembled, Solomon built the first temple, which lasted
until God delivered
The second
temple was built by the hands of Zerubbabel, and it was completed in 70 years
(586 » 516 BCE) after the
The seventy
year interruption in offering sacrifices is what separates the first from the
second temple, and is the reason why Judaism considers Herod’s temple as
the second temple for there was no interruption in the offering of sacrifices
in moving from the
But the second temple built by the hands of Zerubbabel did not have within it the Ark of the Covenant, or the Urim and Thummim, or some of the gold vessels.
Without the Ark of the Covenant and the Urim (אוּרִים) and Thummim (תּוּמִים), the second temple was an unfinished structure.
As the first Adam was the type and shadow of the last Adam, the first temple was the type and shadow of the second temple; thus, as Jesus was born as a man and received the presence of the Father in Him when the divine breath of the Father [pneuma Theon] descended as a dove, lit, and remained on Him, the second temple was constructed as the first temple was [i.e., of stone and timber], then received the presence of God (it was the angel Gabriel who spoke to Zechariah, not Theos) in it when Jesus entered it and cleansed it at the first Passover of His ministry (John 2:13–22). But the presence of the Father as He dwelt in Jesus did not remain in this temple built with hands.
This first cleansing of the temple has spiritual significance: as Jewish family ritual has replaced temple ritual since 70 CE because there has been no place for the temple rituals to occur, Jesus’ cleansing of the temple—like washing hands—replaced the temple ritual that could not be made before God because the Ark of the Covenant and the Urim and Thummim were not then within the second temple.
Understand, the first man [Adam] was constructed
from the elemental elements of this earth; he was constructed from red mud. The
last Adam was born of Mary as a man constructed of the elemental elements of
this earth, but to these elemental elements was added the breath of God [pneuma Theon]. Therefore at
The second temple goes from being a building constructed of stone and timber as the first temple was constructed of stone and timber to a transitional phase which sees God in the form of the spiritual life dwelling within Jesus, received when the dove lit and remained on Him, enter the temple and cleanse it by ceremonially driving out the mercantile kingdom of this world in a manner that becomes the inverse of what the prophet Ezekiel saw when the glory of God left the temple and left Jerusalem (chap 10). This cleansing of the temple becomes a “washing” of the temple, which equated to the “washing” of a person in John’s baptism unto repentance. As Jesus first cleansed or purified Himself even though He was already clean through John’s baptism in a manner analogous to the high priest cleansing himself before entering into the presence of God in the Holy of holies, Jesus then cleansed the temple in a manner analogous to the high priest cleansing the people of Israel by making atonement for them on Yom Kipporim, with Himself to become the reality of the two goats [of both goats] that represent Israel’s sin offering.
Without the Ark of the Covenant and the Urim and Thummim residing in the second
temple, the high priest did not, on Yom
Kipporim, enter into the presence of God: remember it was the angel Gabriel
that was in the Holy of holies when in the course of the priesthood it became
Zechariah’s turn to make atonement for
For the main crop wheat harvest of God, the high Sabbath Yom Kipporim becomes a compression of the Passover season, representing symbolically the entire period from the 10th day of the first month through the 22nd day; representing the period of the early harvest of firstfruits, with Christ Jesus being the First of the firstfruits (afflicting oneself becomes the lively representation of not eating bread during the days of Unleavened Bread). Therefore, because in the repetition of the holy day calendar Yom Kipporim represents the earlier spring harvest, the cleansing of the high priest on Yom Kipporim represents in type Jesus’ cleansing of the temple as He puts on the garments of the high priest, which is now the temple itself after the third cleansing of the temple [one described by John at the beginning of His ministry; one the day He enters Jerusalem described by Matthew and Luke; and one the following day described by Mark].
The garments of the high priest of the first temple were holy garments made from linen, with the Urim and Thummim held on the breast-piece. But the garments of the high priest in the second temple were not the same garments, for without the Urim and Thummim they were at best poor substitutes for the garments of the high priest in the first temple. Plus, without the Ark of the Covenant in the Holy of holies, there was no presence of God in the second temple even on Yom Kipporim. The priesthood was going through the motions of serving God, but the temple King Cyrus ordered built for YHWH, the God of heaven, was no more than the garments of the high priest that await the arrival of the high priest promised to King David (Ps 110:4) as his son, moshiach, the anointed one.
When Jesus first cleanses the temple, He justified what He did by saying, “‘Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up’” (John 2:19). Three years later, when the chief priests and the Council sought false testimony against Jesus so as to condemn Him to death, at least two witnesses said, “‘This man said, “I am able to destroy the temple of God, and to rebuild it in three days”’” (Matt 26:61). And it is this claim that has not been believed nor well understood by physically-minded Sabbatarian disciples, especially by those that look for a third temple being built in earthly Jerusalem.
Again, Jesus was born being fully a man; He was born of Mary as her other children were born with the exception that His father was not Joseph or anyone descended from the first Adam, but Yah, the Logos, who was Theos. Therefore, Jesus was not born consigned to sin but born free to keep the law. But He was not born fully God. He could not be moshiach if He were not born as a man, the son of David through Mary.
Note the above: if Jesus were born fully God and fully man, He could not be the moshiach who would be a man descended from David. The moshiach is not born as God; is not Yah or YHWH.
Jesus was born as the only Son of Theos (John 3:16), but He became the Son of Theon when the divine breath of Theon descended upon Him as a dove after He was baptized by John. He was, literally, born of spirit when the dove lit and remained on Him—and because the breath of God [pneuma Theon] was seen as a visible thing that revealed an invisible thing of God, Jesus’ receipt of the breath or spirit of God [pneuma Theon] forms the pattern or model for how disciples are invisibly born of spirit as sons of God.
The temple with the presence of God within it would
have life in it in a manner analogous to a tent of flesh having received a
second birth through being born of spirit … the stones and timbers of the
physical temple structure is analogous to the tent of flesh of a human being.
Without the presence of God in the form of a second birth from receiving the
breath of God, a tent of flesh is spiritually lifeless regardless of the
physical activities undertaken by this tent of flesh. Likewise, without the Ark
of the Covenant and without the Urim and
Thummim, the temple was spiritually lifeless regardless of the activities
conducted within or without the temple. The temple built by Zerubbabel and the
temple built by Herod were like the physically circumcised and physically
uncircumcised children of
It is difficult for a person to think in terms of the second temple being like a living person who has not been born of spirit, but this is the analogy presented when Jesus cleanses the temple and justifies His action by saying that He is the temple He, because the Father is in Him and they are therefore one, will rebuild in three days, these days representing (1) the three years between the first Passover of His ministry and Calvary; (2) the three days He would be in the Garden Tomb; and (3) the resurrection to life of His spiritual Body after the third day of the Genesis “P” creation account. Therefore, as only Joshua and Caleb of the nation that was numbered in the second year census entered into God’s rest, only those Jews who choose life entered into the second temple—and only those Gentiles who cleansed hearts and kept the precepts of the law (analogous to the uncircumcised children at Moab) entered into the presence of God by becoming disciples of Christ Jesus.
The prophet Malachi records,
For I the Lord [YHWH] do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed. From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. But you say, “How shall we return?” Will a man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, “How have we robbed you?” In your tithes and contributions. You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you. Bring the full tithes into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. (3:6–10 emphasis added)
Malachi writes after sacrifices were being made in
the second temple—and the Lord [YHWH]
had not then returned to
Malachi also recorded, “‘Behold, I send
my messenger and he will prepare the way before me. And the Lord [Adoni—human Lord] whom you seek
will suddenly come to his temple’” (3:1). This human Lord is the moshiach, and the messenger sent to
prepare the way for him was John the Baptist, but—and this is the
“but” which rabbinical Judaism has never been able to
understand—the visible physical things of this world reveal the
concealed, invisible spiritual things of God. The man John, who was not born of
spirit, becomes the shadow and copy of the endtime messenger who will be sent,
with this last messenger being born of spirit; and the man Jesus, born of
spirit, in physical Jerusalem in the 1st-Century is the shadow and
copy of the glorified Jesus coming suddenly to the temple [disciples] that is
heavenly Jerusalem at the Second Advent. Now, will this glorified Jesus be seen
by human eyes if He comes suddenly to heavenly
The above question has its basis in how the house of Jacob, the natural name of Israel, could return to God: if Jacob could return to God by bringing the full tithes into the storehouse so that there would be food in the house of God, the temple, then moving from shadow to reality will have the tithes of the harvest of Judean fields equating to knowledge of God in the Church when disciples become the temple of God. Today, the Church is starved by its lack of knowledge about God … knowledge is both quantifiable and qualifiable. The number of people holding knowledge determines the quantifiable base, spiritually making knowledge like water or another tangible substance: one hundred people holding a quart of knowledge have ten times the amount of knowledge as ten people holding the same quart of knowledge, not how human beings are accustomed to thinking about knowledge. But the Apostle identifies what he writes to the saints at Corinth as milk (1 Cor 3:2), making the knowledge of God that Paul conveyed to these saints a food substance like the tithes the Lord told the house of Jacob to bring to the storehouse so there would be food in the temple. Thus, the quantifiable amount of the knowledge of God held by disciples becomes a derivative of the number of disciples who know to keep the Sabbath.
The usual way to reckon the amount of knowledge held is by a vertical standard rather than a horizontal standard, meaning that knowledge is piled atop knowledge until it becomes a nearly un-scalable mountain. The repository of this knowledge isn’t many people, but as few as one. And it is now the ever-increasing quality of this knowledge that is identified as the “amount” of knowledge held, but this is the way men perceive knowledge and not necessarily the way of God does.
In typology, the size of the
Therefore, it is difficult for lawless men to think in terms of the temple being like a tent of flesh, with God, a spirit, dwelling in the temple as the new creature, born of spirit, dwells within a tent of flesh. But this image has the house of the Father, in which Jesus has prepared a staying, being the temple, the basis for what Paul writes. And this image allows for the second temple to undergo a transitional phase from when a disciple is born of spirit until all disciples are resurrected when Jesus returns as moshiach, the anointed one. And because this transitional phase here on earth will include a period when disciples are delivered into the hand of the man of perdition (Dan 7:25), the sacrifice will be stopped here on earth; so a third temple will be built here on earth but not in the heavenly realm where saints “sleep” under the altar [i.e., rest in Christ] in anticipation of receiving glorified bodies, and where the glorified Jesus is high priest in a temple built without hands.
The construction of a third temple, assumed necessary by Orthodox rabbis who have not understood that the second temple will return as the glorified heavenly city of New Jerusalem, will not be like the second temple. Whereas the second temple goes from being a building constructed of stone and timber to being a house constructed of spirit, the third temple will be the earthly time-linked shadow of New Jerusalem. The third temple will not undergo metamorphosis into a spiritual house as the second temple does. And the third temple will not be a continuation of the second temple; for the sacrifice presently being made in the second temple for disciples here on earth will end when the Father delivers saints into the hand of the man of perdition for the destruction of the flesh.
Thus, as review: in the first temple the high
priest entered into the presence of Theos
once a year when he entered the Holy of holies on Yom Kipporim, and in this Holy of holies was the Ark of the
Covenant. There was no
Within the temple built by Solomon, the judgment of God was sought through the Urim and Thummim, the domain of the high priest. How the objects associated with how this means of divination appeared has been lost, but plural-quality of the linguistic icons /Urim/ and /Thummim/, like the plurals /Kipporim/ and /Elohim/, doesn’t stem from pluralis intensivus, the state of singular icons being inscribed as plurals to magnify their apparent majesty, but from the plurality of the shadows’ spiritual reality. For as Israel’s Elohim consisted of Theos & Theon, and as both goats on Yom Kipporim represented the twin coverings of Israel’s sins, the Urim and Thummim were shadows of the authority invested in disciples to bind and loose in this world even to giving or withholding forgiveness of sin (Matt 16:19; John 20:23). Thus, with authority given to disciples to curse or to forgive, the Urim and Thummim were returned to the second temple when this temple was rebuilt by Jesus.
There is a catch, however: the new covenant is not yet in effect, for disciples still see a need to teach neighbor and brother to, “Know the Lord” (Heb 8:11). Quantifiable knowledge of God does not yet cover the surface of the earth; so the new covenant will not be in effect until blood is again shed at Passover, until disciples are again clothed in power from on high. So the temple that Jesus rebuilds is still under construction: the third day of the Genesis chapter one creation account (the “P” account) has not ended. Only the head of the Body of Christ has been resurrected from death.
The Church Jesus built began when He cleansed the temple and became the temple and then raised up that temple when He breathed on ten of His disciples and said, “‘Receive the Holy Spirit’” (John 20:22). This temple was rebuilt with living stones, and this temple is the continuation of the second temple. Jesus became the cornerstone of this temple and He will be its capstone when He comes as moshiach, the anointed one. Disciples form the structure between the cornerstone and the capstone, the beginning and the end. But this “temple” will not be here on earth until a thousand years after Jesus comes as moshiach; so for this thousand years, a third temple will be here on earth before New Jerusalem comes adorned as a bride.
The seventy
years prophecy of Jeremiah pertains to the temple, not to the people of
The prophet Jeremiah records, “‘For
thus says the Lord: When seventy years are completed for
In the first year of Darius the son of Ahasuerus
… I, Daniel, perceived in the books the number of years that according to
the word of the Lord to Jeremiah the prophet, must pass before the end of the
desolations of Jerusalem, namely seventy years. … To us, O Lord, belongs
open shame, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have
sinned against you. To the Lord our God belong mercy and forgiveness, for we
have rebelled against him and have not obeyed the voice of the Lord our God by
walking in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets. All
Has there ever been a more appropriate indictment
of the Christian Church than what Daniel wrote about
As Daniel was repulsed by the lawlessness of
Unfortunately, most of visible Christendom cannot now enter into God’s presence because of prolonged rebellion against God … if someone who is of the synagogue of Satan sincerely believes that he or she is not condemned to being a vessel of wrath, destined for destruction, and presently endured for a season, then let this person begin to keep the Sabbaths of God—and what will be found is that the person will not enter into God’s rest even when invited to do so. The person will not keep the Sabbath. The person cannot. God will not permit the person to keep His Sabbaths. The person made him or herself into spiritual livestock when first born from above. So now the person mocks those who keep the Sabbaths of God without any comprehension of how filthy this person appears to God.
With the second Passover liberation of Israel on
the near event horizon, knowing that almost one of every three people is a
firstborn who will not cover his or her lawlessness with the blood of Christ,
the genuine disciple goes about his or her affairs, waiting in checkout lines,
gathering mail from postal boxes, buying fuel, nodding greetings to the person
met on the street (yes, this is still done in rural America), without really
thinking about the fact that on a specific day God will again suddenly take the
lives of men and women on a scale that is truly incomprehensible. The world as
we know it will suddenly cease to be, and the seven endtime years of
tribulation will be upon humankind. Yes, this indescribably massive loss of life
will mark the implementation of the new covenant, beginning first with
Those “Christians” in Sunday morning
services who pray for the hasty coming of the
Returning now to the seventy weeks prophecy of
Daniel: the seventy years spoken of by Jeremiah are followed by the seventy
weeks that continues forward until the prince to come “‘shall put
an end to sacrifice and offering’” (Dan 9:27). Jesus did not
put an end to sacrifice and offering, for He was the
reality of every sacrifice and offering. In the second temple, sacrifices are
continued by every disciple who daily puts on the garment of Jesus’
righteousness [i.e., grace]. Even when Israel is liberated from indwelling sin
and death, the sacrifices will continue for as long as Israel continues in
obedience (there will be no need for sacrifices when Israel offers to God
“obedience”). But
The horrible truth that the ambiguity of Scripture
has concealed is that
The grinch who steals Christmas will be Christ Jesus.
Are you beginning to see how deep the rebellion against God is? And the visible Christian Church has led this rebellion for most of the past 1900 years.
Instead of the Christian Church remaining in
heavenly
How can one know that the oracles of God have been mishandled? Jesus told Jews seeking His life,
Whoever hears my words and believes him who sent me has eternal life. … How can you believe, when you receive glory from one another and do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope. If you believed Moses, you would have believed me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words? (John 5:24, 44–47)
The first test of whether the oracles of God have been mishandled is Moses, or believing what Moses wrote. Visible Christendom and Islam fail this test, and Judaism in the 1st-Century failed this test (John 7:19). So how does Judaism fair today?
Moses wrote:
And now, Israel, what does the Lord your God require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, to love him, to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, and to keep the commandments and statutes of the Lord, which I am commanding you today for your good. … Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn. For the Lord your God is God of gods and Lord of lords, the great, the mighty, the awesome God, who is not partial and takes no bribe. He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. (Deut 10:12–13, 16–18)
If a person hears Moses, the person will love God with heart and mind and will love neighbor as self and will thereby keep the commandments, especially the commandment the person considers least. For the person who keeps the commandments and who teaches others to do likewise will be considered great in the kingdom of God (Matt 5:19). Jesus’ words parallel what Moses wrote. And any other rendering of the oracles of God is false, and the person who teaches otherwise is false, condemned by the law as a servant of sin.
How does Judaism fare? The nation’s theology, by definition, prevents the nation from having circumcised hearts.
To circumcise the heart, the person will, when far from God, turn to the Lord and begin to love the Lord with heart and mind, keeping the commandments by faith in a world consigned to lawlessness (Deut 30:1–2, 6, 10–14). This is what Paul labeled as the righteousness that comes from faith (Rom 10:6–8); this is his law of faith (Rom 3:27). And to this, the person must profess that Jesus is Lord, and believe that the Father raised him from the dead (Rom 10:9): this is the application of faith every Observant Jew must make to circumcise the heart.
The seventy Babylon years prophesied by Jeremiah (586 BCE > 516 BCE) become the type and shadow of the seventy spiritual weeks between when there was no Israelite in heavenly Jerusalem to when the resurrected temple is completed at Christ’s coming—and until the end of the age, these spiritual weeks are not time-linked.
Continued in Chapter Six.
* * *
"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."