March 17, 2003 © Homer Kizer
Printable File
Commentary — From the Margins
Open Letter to Dr. Alan Manning
Brigham Young University
Dear Alan,
Thank you for your prompt and considered reply: at your suggestion, I will post and expand the contents of the attachment you were unable to open. That attachment consisted of the text of the following letter sent to many Evangelical pastors and media, and my commentary March 9, 2003, available from the commentary archives under that date:
A plethora of biblical experts vie with each other to be heard as current events suggest that humanity has arrived at a turning point in its history. I wasn't one of them until Thursday of the second full week of January a year ago. In a story I have now told in two books, I was drafted to explicate endtime prophecies, drafted used as it would be if I had received a please-report-to letter from Selective Service, drafted being a word choice from which I neither shy away, nor for which I apologize. I was given a job for which I had been prepared, but which I neither desired, nor sought. Except in a few poems, I had never previously expressed anything spiritual or theological. Yet, I suddenly found myself rereading and writing explication of biblical prophecy as if I were deconstructing secular literature.
As France, Germany, Russia and other nations oppose military action in Iraq, a distinction has become apparent between what I read in the biblical text and what other prophecy specialists find in Scripture. Because this distinction is great, I feel I should make our divergent readings a matter of public record. My explications of prophetic passages are posted on my website, along with other apologetic writings. But I thought I would invest the small amount that it takes to send a recent commentary to you.
The visions of Daniel were sealed until the generic period known as the time of the end began. My argument is that period began a year ago, when Daniel's visions could finally be understood. My argument goes one to state that all earlier readings of Daniel are faulty because the visions were supernaturally sealed. You, of course, will have to determine the merit of my claims as you become familiar with them. I will be happy to answer questions as they occur to you.
Respectfully,
You provided some of that training I received, and as a former student of yours, I wrote you not to warn, but to confirm from a different source the tremendous success that the L.D.S. church will have in this endtime era. But I do not see in prophecy that successbeing long-lived.
As there was a first Adam, there was a second. The first was physical, the second spiritual. From the first Adam comes the first Eve: when the glorified Christ returns the evening of His ascension, He breathes on His disciples and creates the second Eve (John 20:22-23), at the corresponding time when the first Eve was presented to the first Adam. Likewise, there was a first nation of Israel, holy by covenant (Ex 19:5-6); there is a second nation of Israel, holy by covenant (1 Pet 2:9). The first physical, the second spiritual. There was a schism within the nation of Israel, from which came the house of Israel (the northern kingdom), and the house of Judah (the southern kingdom). Within spiritual Israel, there was a similar schism from which came the spiritual house of Israel, holding the theological position that prior to His birth as Jesus of Nazareth, Christ was a created being; and from which came the spiritual house of Judah, holding the theological position that Father, Son and Holy Spirit form a triune godhead. Just as the northern kingdom of Samaria warred with the southern kingdom, Arian Christians have warred with Trinitarian Christians, and just as the northern and southern kingdoms went into captivity, first to Assyria, then to Babylon, so have the two houses of spiritual Israel. And since analogies aren't one-to-one correspondences but the juxtaposition of similarities, as physical Israel was liberated from Egyptian slavery, so will be both houses of spiritual Israel during the Tribulation—the two witnesses correspond to Moses and Aaron, wholed physical Israel out of Egypt and into the wilderness. Thus, there will be another Passover during which all spiritual and physical firstborns not covered by the blood of the Lamb of God will be killed. Prophetically, it appears that a third of humanity will be killed during this second Passover.
I don't claim to be a prophet. I have been drafted to read existing prophecies, and in reading them, I see where there will be additional prophecy given, that sons and daughters will prophesy. The test, though, of whether my reading of prophecy is valid is the same as for being a prophet: will what I read come to pass. If it does, then the reading was valid. God made known what He would do prior to the phenomena occurring.
Returning now to why I wrote: the remnant of the spiritual house of Judah that has been making its way back to spiritual Jerusalem for four centuries has taught for the past two centuries that the founding peoples of the United States weren't Gentiles, but were physical Israelites, descendants from the northern kingdom of Samaria. The hard evidence for this belief was scant. However, with the Iron Curtain having rusted away, additional evidence has surfaced in the West to suggest that during the drought of Ahab, Israelites from the northern kingdom migrated both east and west, with some of the westward migrants arriving in Carthage and eventually North America in the 7th and 8th Centuries BCE, and with some of the eastern migrants eventually arriving in Northern Europe. These migrants are in addition to the Israelites taken captive by Assyria. The hard evidence is still not definite enough to say with scholarly certainty that the United States is the revived northern kingdom of Israel, but it now is strong enough to suggest that. So just as the house of Judah has been restored and has received sovereignty in the modern nation of Israel, the ancient house of Israel has also been restored, receiving for itself national sovereignty. Thus, with two houses of Israel on the world's stage today, one unrecognized as being Israelite, the physical fulfillment of endtime prophecies are not as straightforward as many experts proclaim.
With the realization that the United States is at least a portion of endtime house of Israel (Britain is also a portion), what the United States does in the physical realm will also be done in the spiritual realm by a denomination theologically descended from the Vandals. This realization is neither good or bad, but the prophetic reality of how I read the text.
We are seeing, today, the toppling of the existing world order: prophetically, the spiritual king of Greece is flying out of the west to trample the spiritual king of Persia/Babylon. The shadow of Daniel's vision at Susa was the success of Alexander the Great, but the vision was for the time of the end; it is for now. The United States with its coalition will form a new world order in which democratic ideals prevail; we will be unbelievably successful, as much so as was Alexander. But just as Alexander's reign was broken, so will be this new world order. However, before it's broken, the spiritual house of Israel will have at least equal success as the United States experiences physically. It will trample the existing theology of spiritual Persia/Babylon. So why I wrote you was to prepare you for unprecedented success. If I were to warn you of anything it would be not to accept the mark of the beast, which isn't 666, but Chi xi stigma, or the tattoo of
Xx, the mark only being required during the last 1260 days of the Tribulation. It is unlikely that you'll believe me about the killing of firstborns: I wouldn't have introduced the subject if you hadn't been concerned about my salvation. But because you areconcerned, judge me by how I read Scripture. Understand that I teach that Paul's "law offaith" (Rom 3:27) goes to his "righteousness that comes from faith" (Rom 10:6-8), which points to the second covenant of Moses, made with uncircumcised Israelites (Deu chptrs 29-31) and which has Israelites keeping everything written in Deuteronomy. Following the liberation of the second Passover, all of spiritual Israel will begin keeping by faith what is written in Deuteronomy. God didn't write His laws on hearts and minds to have spiritual Israelites ignore the fine print.
Christ as the Lamb of God, penned in Jerusalem on the 10th and sacrificed on the 14th just as circumcised Israel penned and sacrificed its Passover lamb, has already been killed, but the remainder of what happened on that first Passover night in Egypt hasn't yet occurred spiritually. It will. When it does, you will know what my credentials are. Concerning the matter of salvation, as long as you do what you know is right, regardless of whether you agree with anyone else, you will establish the habit of always doing what is right. This habit then sets your character, and it is this character that is useful to God. The gates of hell cannot prevail against the Church, because it is the process of choosing to do what is right rather than the product that is of importance; our
righteousness is as a filthy rag. That process, though, cannot be created directly by God, but only through indirection. Thus, it isn't holding a theological error that causes a lost of salvation, but hypocrisy. The person must be fully convinced that what the person does is right—a person cannot believe one thing and do something else and expect to be glorified. I believe that you do and will do what you know in your heart and mind is correct. As such, I have no quibble with you even though we hold differing beliefs. Of course I believe I'm right and you're wrong on some points, but unless you were to be fully convinced of my position, you would error in adopting it. Therefore, continue in well doing. Practice love, and forgiveness, the latter most important following this future Passover.
Respectfully,
Homer Kizer