The Remainder of The Temptation

November 30, 20045 ©Homer Kizer
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Commentary — From the Margins

Mel Gibson’s movie The Temptation powerfully conveys the suffering of Christ Jesus when Theos, the Logos, was made sin for the salvation of humanity. But servants are not greater than their Master. Jesus said that if they, the religious leaders of the holy nation of Israel, persecuted Him, they will similarly persecute His disciples. This is not persecution by civil authorities, but by those who believe they do God a favor when they kill Believers. Thus, Gibson’s movie leaves unshown the remainder of the spiritual temptation account foreshadowed in Genesis, when disobedience produced death.

The creation narrative (Gen 1:1 through 2:3) is the abstract for the plan of redemption conceived before the foundations of the universe were strung. In this abstract, Elohim [plural] agree to make humankind in their image, and after their likeness (v. 26). And Elohim [singular] creates humankind in his own image; He creates humankind male and female (v. 27) on the sixth day. He then finishes His creation and rests from all of His labors on the seventh day; He makes the seventh day holy. And by making the day holy, He set the day apart for His use—being made holy, or being sanctified conveys the sense that the thing or person has been separated from similar things or people for God’s use. On this thing or person, God has exercised His claim of ownership. And on the seventh day of a creation week, Elohim [singular] rests from His work of creating. The entirety of the creation is completed with Him resting on this seventh day.

But on the cross at Calvary, the Logos, born as the man Jesus of Nazareth, says, It is finished, and He dies (John 19:30). Something wasn’t finished when the Logos was born as the man Jesus of Nazareth, and what wasn’t finished was the plan of salvation, the pathway by which mortal human beings could be made one with God. The work of Redemption remained undone until Jesus died at Calvary.

The need for salvation doesn’t occur until after lawlessness enters the world through Adam, for with lawlessness came death (Rom 5:12). Lawlessness or sin (1 John 3:4) first appeared when Eve believed the serpent that she would not die, and she eat the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. She then became like God, knowing good and evil (Gen 3:22), thereby able to decide for herself what is good, which potentially placed her at odds with God.

Eve’s disobedience, however, was covered by her husband, from whom she was made. Thus, when Adam ate, sin entered the world, for Adam was a son of God (he had no other parent but God). His covering for sin was his obedience to God. As such, it is his disobedience that condemns all of his descendants to death. And it is the last Adam’s (1 Cor 15:45) obedience that covers this death sentence so that a second birth becomes possible for every descendant of Adam. Therefore, what was finished at Calvary was the solution for what was introduced through the first Adam’s disobedience—and as typology will show, the solution was in place before the problem was created. Hence, Elohim [singular] could rest from all of His labors on the seventh day.

Too often, disciples read over the creation account, and over the single verse of genealogy (Gen 2:4) that serves as a narrative marker. They place the creation and temptation account of Eve in the week[s] following the creation of the Sabbath. This, however, cannot be so, for in verse 27 of the creation account Elohim [singular] creates Eve. He creates no other female before Eve, or at least none that Scripture records. So in the first compound clause of verse 27, Adam is created outside of Eden, then placed in Eden, then names the animals, from which no helpmate was found. And while still in the first compound clause of verse 27, the deep sleep falls over Adam during which Elohim takes a rib from his side, and inside of Eden, creates the woman.

Jesus of Nazareth as the last Adam was born into the tribe of Judah, none of whom were qualified to serve as High Priest. Yet Jesus serves as the High Priest (Heb 9:11) of the spiritual holy nation of God (1 Pet 2:9). As such, expounding only a portion of a long typological argument, Jesus was born outside of spiritual Eden as the first Adam was born outside of a physical Eden. But by the 1^st-Century, Eden and the promised land of Judea had been reduced in geographical size to the area of the temple mount at Jerusalem (disciples are now the temple of God). And Jesus was placed in the temple by God the Father in the same way that Adam was born outside of Eden, then placed in the garden of God by Elohim [singular]. There, in the temple, Jesus names the animals (hypocrites, vipers — Matt chptr 23) from which no helpmate was found. So a deep sleep/death comes over Him, and from a wound in His side, the last Eve was created inside Eden (in the minds of His disciples) when the glorified Jesus breathes on ten of His disciples and says, ‘"Receive the Holy Spirit [Pneuma ’Agion]"’ (John 20:22). And the Church as the last Eve will give birth to the many heirs of God when the glorified Jesus marries this Bride—He marries the Church when He returns as the Messiah to reign over humanity for a thousand years. Therefore, the Church’s desire today is for her husband [to be], Christ Jesus, and the Church’s salvation is in childbirth. But the Church will experience great pain in childbirth; i.e., the hard labor pains of the Church bringing many heirs to glory are the seven years of tribulation that immediately precede the Second Coming of Christ Jesus. So Elohim’s pronouncement against the first Eve will come to pass spiritually for the last Eve immediately prior to when Christ Jesus begins His rest as the King of kings, and Lord of lords.

The Psalmist (Ps 95:10–11) and the writer of Hebrews typologically link the promised land of Judea with God’s rest, a diminutive type of which is the weekly Sabbath day (Heb 4:9), with the larger type being Christ’s millennial reign over humanity after the Holy Spirit has been poured out upon all flesh. The reality of this rest is glorification of the saints as younger brethren to Christ Jesus. Therefore, the seventh day of the physical creation week is analogous to, or a type of the seventh millennium of a spiritual creation week, which in turn will be a type or shadow of Heaven. And because the last Adam will not marry His Bride until He returns at the end of the sixth millennium, or sixth spiritual day, Satan is cast from heaven (Rev 12:9–10) before the wedding supper. Hence, in Genesis, Elohim’s pronouncement against the serpent, a representation of Satan, no longer walking upright but being condemned to crawl on his belly (Gen 2:14) comes before the Sabbath is created. All of Eve’s temptation account occurs on the sixth day of the creation week—the cool of the evening in which Elohim was walking (Gen 3:8) was the evening of the sixth day. Adam and Eve were driven from Eden at the end of the sixth day; they were driven from Eden before God rested. And after driving them from Eden, Elohim saw everything He had made and beheld that it was very good (Gen 1:31), for the redemption of humanity had been in place since the end of the fourth day (Rev 12:1 — this woman is Israel, the Church, clothed with the sun; the moon is her reflection; hence the circumcised nation of Israel served as the reflected glory or type of the Church).

The philosophical problems that arise from the weekly Sabbath being a diminutive type of God’s rest are not because the typology used is faulty, but because the greater Church as the last Eve swallowed Satan’s lie that She would not die (Gen 3:4), that She had an immortal soul. Thus, the greater Church teaches some form of belief that has the regenerated soul entering God’s rest at death. As a result, this last Eve ate the forbidden fruit of determining for Herself sound doctrine. She, in her cloak of Christ’s righteousness, decided She would enter heaven before she was judged worthy or unworthy (1 Cor 4:5 — Paul writes that judgments will be revealed when Jesus returns). And in the cool of the evening, just before the rest of God begins, She will be driven from Eden. She will be like the Israelites that left Egypt, in that She will not enter God’s rest because of unbelief that becomes disobedience when She tries to enter the following day (Heb 3:19 & 4:6).

The Son of Man will be revealed at the end of the age (Luke 17:26–30). The Son of Man will be made naked, with His only covering being His obedience to God. Christ Jesus is the head of the Son of Man. He was obedient; He was without sin. And today, the Church is clothed in His righteousness as if His righteousness were a garment. This is the reality of grace.

Disciples form the Body of Christ; hence, disciples form the Body of the Son of Man, revealed suddenly in the same manner as the flood of Noah’s day came upon all the earth. Christ’s righteousness will be suddenly removed from the Body. It will no longer be needed when the Body is liberated from bondage to the law of sin that has dwelt in its members (Rom 7:25)—liberated in a manner analogous to how the ancient nation of Israel was liberated from physical bondage to Pharaoh. And once liberated, the Body’s covering for sin will be obedience to the laws of God. The Body will be as the Head was during Jesus’ earthly ministry. The Body will be empowered by the Holy Spirit as Jesus’ disciples were in Matthew chapter ten. And the Body, by faith, will be able to cover its nakedness with its obedience to God. To say otherwise will be blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, will be saying that the Holy Spirit did not liberate the person from bondage to sin and is not sufficient for obedience.

If the Body practices disobedience—and the Body will (2 Thess 2:3) when the man of sin is revealed—the Body will be driven from Eden before it eats of the tree of life. The Body (i.e., the greater Christian Church) has not used grace to practice walking uprightly before God, has not used grace to practice keeping the laws of God. Therefore, when the Son of Man is revealed, the Body will see its nakedness, its disobedience before God. It will see itself as grasshoppers in comparison to the sons of Anak (Num 13:33). It will see obedience to God as a giant too large to defeat. And it will return to sin, to a spiritual Egypt, by trying to enter God’s rest on the following day.

The physical creation week was seven days long, not eight. Elohim [singular] didn’t rest on the first day. His last act of creating was to rest on the seventh day. So when liberated from sin, if the Body of the Son of Man attempts to enter God’s rest on the first day of the week, or on the eighth day (i.e., the first day of the following week), the Body blasphemes the Holy Spirit. However, the Body—like the ancient nation that left Egypt—will, according to prophecy, attempt to enter God’s rest on the following day, and for doing so, the entire nation of Israel died in the wilderness. Likewise, when the Body tries to enter God’s rest on the day following the Sabbath, God will send a great delusion over the Body (2 Thess 2:11–12) so that the entirety of the Body will perish because it didn’t love righteousness enough to have practiced walking uprightly before God when still cloaked in grace. Eve was driven from Eden before she could eat of the tree of life and live eternally. So too will the last Eve be driven out of the temple and away from the marriage supper because of Her uncovered lawlessness.

An apron of fig leaves will not cover nakedness caused by disobedience to God. The wages of sin is death. Sin requires the shedding of blood. And Elohim [singular] covered Adam and Eve’s sin with garments of animal skins—because of sin, animals had to die in Eden prior to Adam and Eve being driven from this garden of God.

The remainder of the temptation of the Son of Man occurs when the seven years of endtime tribulation begin. Except for a remnant represented by Joshua and by Caleb, the entirety of the greater Church will be consigned to death during the first 1260 days of the Tribulation. The Church won’t be bodily raptured to heaven, nor will it go into a place of physical safety during these 1260 days. Rather, it will die just as the nation that left Egypt died in the Wilderness of Sin. If a born-from-above Christian attempts to save his or her physical life through compromising with the laws of God (especially the Sabbath commandment), this disciple will lose his or her spiritual life and will become a spiritual zombie, destined for the lake of fire. If a disciple will willingly sacrifice his or her physical life as Jesus sacrificed His, then this disciple will save his or her spiritual life and will be glorified when Christ returns. The servants are not greater than the Master. The Body of the Son of Man has had two millennia to practice walking uprightly before God under the covering of grace. It only has to walk uprightly covered by its own obedience through faith for seven years, those years represented by the seven days of Unleavened Bread (Passover Week).

The sadness recorded in prophecy is that 2300 days before Christ returns, the greater Christian Church will rebel against God and will determine for itself right and wrong. It will believe the evil report of the ten witnesses that say obedience to God to too large of a giant to defeat, and it will try to enter God’s rest on the following day. On a specified day, the greater Christian Church will determine that it should keep Sunday as the day of rest rather than the Sabbath. And on this specified day, the greater Christian Church will condemn itself to the lake of fire. This greater Church will then, as Cain did Abel, begin to persecute and kill those disciples who keep the Sabbath. And since the servants are not greater then the Master, the disciples who will save their spiritual lives will experience the remainder of The Temptation. These first 1260 days of the Tribulation will be an extremely difficult period for all who remain faithful to God.

But the good news that must be proclaimed to the world before the end of the age comes is that all who endure to the end shall be saved (Matt 24:13–14). When the first two sons of the last Eve are dead—righteous Abel because Cain physically killed him, and Cain because he is a marked murderer—a third son will be born. The Holy Spirit will be poured out upon all flesh (Joel 2:28). All of humanity will become self-identified Christians when Satan is cast from heaven (Rev 12:9) and the kingdom of the world becomes the kingdom of the Most High and of His Christ (Rev 11:15). But some "Christians" will take the mark of the beast; some will not. And a type of a Joshua and of a Caleb will lead those disciples who refuse the mark of the beast into God’s rest. Thus, those who refuse the mark of the beast, which is the tattoo of the cross [chi xi stigma or the tattoo of Xx], have only to endure to the end to be saved. Nothing more will be asked of them beyond enduring in faith.

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Homer Kizer Ministries

Commentary — From the Margins

The Remainder of The Temptation