Can You Help Me Understand Scripture? Fifth Principle - Commentary From the Margins

May 31, 2014 ©Homer Kizer

Printable File

Commentary — From the Margins

The Question Asked,

“Can You Help Me Understand Scripture?”

____________

Fifth Principle

In that day [YHWH] of hosts will be a crown of glory, [p/p — 1^st couplet]

and a diadem of beauty, to the remnant of His people, [s/p]

and a spirit of justice to him who sits in judgment, [p/s — 2^nd couplet]

and strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate. [s/s]

These also reel with wine [p/p/p]

and stagger with strong drink; [s/p/p]

the priest and the prophet reel with strong drink, [p/s/p]

they are swallowed by wine, [s/s/p]

they stagger with strong drink, [s/s/s]

they reel in vision, [p/s/p]

they stumble in giving judgment. [s/s/p]

For all tables are full of filthy vomit, [p/s/s]

with no space left. [s/s/s]

“To whom will he teach knowledge, [p/p/p]

and to whom will he explain the message? [s/p/p]

Those who are weaned from the milk, [p/s/p]

those taken from the breast? [s/s/p]

For it is precept upon precept, precept upon precept, [p/s/p]

line upon line, line upon line, [s/s/p]

here a little, there a little.” [s/s/s]

For by people of strange lips [p/p/s/p]

and with a foreign tongue [s/p/s/p]

[YHWH] will speak to this people, [p/s/s/p]

to whom He has said, [s/s/s/p]

"This is rest; [p/s/s/p]

give rest to the weary; [s/s/s/p]

and this is repose"; [p/s/s/s]

yet they would not hear. [s/s/s/s]

And the word of [YHWH] will be to them [p/p]

precept upon precept, precept upon precept, [s/p]

line upon line, line upon line, [s/p/p]

here a little, there a little, [s/s/p]

that they may go, and fall backward, [p/s/s]

and be broken, and snared, and taken. [s/s/s] (Isa 28:5–13)

The citation [Isa 28:5–13] was presented in block or prose form in section 4 … I have had past comments from long time readers that they didn’t comprehend the significance of the physical/spiritual juxtaposition present in Hebraic poetry, a significance that could only be heard with ears when the inscription was read and words were formed from the consonant clusters. We are dealing with a bastardize text in that the root consonant clusters that Isaiah inscribed were redacted during the Babylonian captivity, then saw further redactions when vowel pointing was added by Masoretes, groups of 5^th to 10^th Century scribes that established pronunciation and grammar conventions, verse divisions and cantillation for the Tanakh [Old Testament Scripture], with the ben Asher family of Masoretes being primarily responsible for the preservation of the Masoretic Text from which English translators have “translated” the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings. The Masoretic Text differs from the source text used by the translators of the Septuagint in usually small but sometimes significant ways, with Christ being a little more difficult to find in the Masoretic Text than in the source text for the Septuagint. Thus, when presenting a cursory structural analysis of the form of Isaiah inscription that can be read by modern English language users, some of the calls I make are based upon having criticized poems of others in graduate Form workshops, having written and publish poetry, and having read much verse. And again, the sophistication of Hebrew verse, even when received in a bastardized form, is impressive, with considerable meaning lost when these thought-couplets are presented in prose rather than poetic form.

Some of the better examples of meaning lost in translation are in the writings of King David, a man after the Lord’s heart, and one of the few authors who knew that the Lord, the Creator, wasn’t alone in heaven, especially in his later psalms:

Praise [Yah]! [physical]

Praise [YHWH], O my soul! [spiritual] (Ps 146:1)

Here David places Yah [YH] in the physical position of the thought couplet, the position that pertains to darkness or night; the position that pertains to the surface of things such as circumcision of the flesh. In the spiritual position of this couplet, David inserts the always unpronounced Tetragrammaton YHWH, thereby making Yah not a contraction for the Tetragrammaton, but completion of the deity of which the physical manifestation is in the things that have been made; in the things for which there are words that can be uttered … the reality that the Tetragrammaton YHWH is a linguistic determinative and as such never uttered before being considered too sacred to be uttered has great significance in David’s verse; for in using Yah and the Tetragrammaton in the physical/spiritual structure of thought-couplet verse, David juxtaposes what can be uttered [Yah] with what cannot be uttered [YHWH] in the manner Paul did when He wrote that the invisible things of God are revealed by the things that have been made (Rom 1:20).

David confirmed what he knew of the Lord in at least three witnesses:

Praise [Yah]! [p/]

Praise [YHWH] from the heavens; [s/p]

praise Him in the heights! [s/s]

Praise Him, all His angels; [p/s/s]

praise Him, all His hosts! [s/s/s]

Praise Him, sun and moon, [p/ s/s]

praise Him, all you shining stars! [s/s/s]

Praise Him, you highest heavens, [p/s/s]

and you waters above the heavens! [s/s/s] (Ps 148:1–4)

Praise [Yah]! [p/p]

Sing to [YHWH] a new song, [s/p]

His praise in the assembly of the godly! [s/s]

Let Israel be glad in his Maker; [p/p/s]

let the children of Zion rejoice in their King! [s/p/s]

Let them praise His name with dancing, [p/p/s]

making melody to Him with tambourine and lyre! [s/p/s]

For [YHWH] takes pleasure in His people; [p/s/s]

He adorns the humble with salvation. [s/s/s] (Ps 149:1–4)

The fifth principle for understanding Scripture is that you have to work with the text you have received, with the most important text being the physically unwritten one that comes via the Parakletos, the indwelling spirit of truth every truly born of spirit Christian has. This spirit of truth will be a contrary spirit with those of demons and with the prince of this world, who apparently easily slipped a spiritual cyanide capsule into the New Testament in the form of a Second Sophist novel [the Book of Acts] …

The second or last Adam differs from the first Adam in that the man of dust was incomplete and required creation of a helpmate before He was able to bring forth offspring in his likeness. The name <Eve> conveys the sense of being the life-giver. Thus to Adam and Eve, together, outside the Garden of Eden, Adam brought forth offspring, three of whom are named: Cain, Abel, Seth.

The last Adam, Christ Jesus, during His earthly ministry was as the first Adam was when initially placed in the Garden: no helpmate could be found for Him from the beasts inhabiting the temple mount: “‘Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! … You serpents, you brood of vipers, how are you to escape being sentenced to hell?’” (Matt 23:29, 33). Thus, a deep sleep in the form of the death of Jesus’ fleshly body came upon this last Adam, and following the glorified Jesus’ resurrection and acceptance by God as the reality of the Wave Sheaf Offering, Jesus returned to His disciples and on the day of the Wave Sheaf Offering Jesus breathed His breath [pneuma Christou] onto ten of His disciples and said, Receive spirit holy [Labete pneuma ’agion] (John 20:22), thereby directly transferring to these ten a second breath of life, giving birth to ten sons of God. And in giving spiritual birth to these ten disciples in the form of a second breath of life, the glorified Jesus demonstrated that He was indeed a life-giving spirit, an Eve spirit. Unlike the first Adam who was unable by himself to bring forth kind after his kind, the last Adam was able to bring to life whomever the Father gave Him from this world.

John’s Jesus says,

No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. … the spirit [to pneuma] is [eotin] the thing [to] making alive [zoopoioun]; the flesh does not profit anything. The words that I have spoken to you are spirit and life. But there are some of you who do not believe. … This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless it is granted him by the Father. (John 6:44, 63–65 first two clauses of verse 63 are directly translated)

Until the Second Passover liberation of Israel—patterned after the Passover liberation of outwardly circumcised Israel in the days of Moses—no person can come to Christ Jesus unless the Father draws the person from this world and gives the person to Christ Jesus. Decision theology (the teachings of Billy Graham and others) is false; for a person doesn’t make a decision for Christ. Rather, the Father does all of the choosing. And if the Father chooses a person to be His son, born out of season (i.e., born of spirit prior to the Second Passover liberation of Israel), then the person will be involuntarily given to Christ Jesus for birth and nurturing. This person can fight against the pricks, can attempt to flee from God as Jonah fled from the Lord, but this person will be born of spirit and brought into covenant with God. The person has no choice in the matter.

Does a human infant have any say in its conception and birth? No, the infant has no say in where and when he or she is humanly born. The same pertains spiritually: an infant son of God has no say in where, when, or whether it will be born of spirit. So Christian ministry is without substantial merit … the justification for Christian ministry is principally found Matthew 28:18–20,

And Jesus came and said to them, "All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."

But there is an overlooked framing element in what the glorified Jesus tells the Eleven: until dominion over the single kingdom of this world is taken from the Adversary and his angels halfway through the seven endtime years of tribulation, this dominion [authority] then given to the Son of Man, a one-time event, Jesus does not have all authority in heaven and on earth. Thus, the scene the author of Matthew’s Gospel describes doesn’t not occur in the 1^st-Century CE, but sometime in the 21^st-Century. Compare,

As I looked, thrones were placed, and the Ancient of Days took his seat; his clothing was white as snow, and the hair of his head like pure wool; his throne was fiery flames; its wheels were burning fire. A stream of fire issued and came out from before him; a thousand thousands served him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him; the court sat in judgment, and the books were opened. I looked then because of the sound of the great words that the horn was speaking. And as I looked, the beast was killed, and its body destroyed and given over to be burned with fire. As for the rest of the beasts, their dominion was taken away, but their lives were prolonged for a season and a time. I saw in the night visions, and behold, with the clouds of heaven there came one like a son of man, and He came to the Ancient of Days and was presented before him. And to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages should serve him; His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom one that shall not be destroyed. (Dan 7:9–14)

Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ, and He shall reign forever and ever." And the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying, "We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, who is and who was, for you have taken your great power and begun to reign. The nations raged, but your wrath came, and the time for the dead to be judged, and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints, and those who fear your name, both small and great, and for destroying the destroyers of the earth." Then God's temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple. There were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail. (Rev 11:15–19)

These two descriptions of the same event function as witness marks by which all biblical prophecy can be aligned, with John the Revelator giving to his readers the structural form of the Book of Revelation:

I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation [Affliction] and kingdom [transference of dominion over the Kingdom] and endurance [endurance lacks both the definite article the and the word patient] that are in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. I was in spirit [pneumatic — no definite article] in [en, not on] the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet saying, "Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea." (Rev 1:9–11)

The difference between being John in spirit in the Lord’s Day or on the Lord’s Day is the difference between being in vision transported into the future to a specific moment in time identified as the Lord’s Day, or being in spirit on a particular day where and when he lived physically. One of two tropes used to conceal John’s vision (which of itself isn’t concealed) is that John’s vision doesn’t occur [isn’t set] in the 1^st-Century CE, but in the 21^st-Century: John the Revelator [probably the Apostle John] will be the brother and partner of 21^st-Century disciples as John the Baptist prepared the way for the ministry of Jesus in the 1^st-Century. But in order for John to be the brother and partner of end-of-the-age disciples, he and his words have to bridge the centuries in-between without being understood … the second trope used to conceal John’s vision is how things “appear” in Revelation is how these things will function in the plan of God. Appearances are functions; thus, the glorified Christ Jesus who functions as the slain Passover Lamb of God appears as a slain lamb. The seven spirits to the seven churches function as eyes for Christ Jesus; so they appear as eyes. The seven churches do not form the Body of Christ but function in this world as Christ Jesus, the Head of the Son of Man, functions so they appear as seven horns on the head of the slain lamb—the glorified Christ will marry His Bride in a Wedding Supper following His return as the Messiah, with His Bride being His spiritual Body as the Woman functions as the Body of her Husband, bringing forth for her Husband offspring, his Seed. But the Elect are already one with the glorified Christ through the indwelling of Christ. The Elect do not become one with Christ at the Wedding Supper. The Elect were glorified [received an indwelling second breath of life] when Christ Jesus dies for them while they were still sinners (Rom 5:8). It is the Elect whom the Father draws from this world and gives to Christ to bring to life and to nurture until they reach their majority.

In the place where John the Revelator introduces the two witnesses, he records,

Then I [John in vision] was given a measuring rod like a staff, and I was told, "Rise and measure the temple of God and the altar and those who worship there, but do not measure the court outside the temple; leave that out, for it is given over to the nations, and they will trample the holy city for forty-two months. And I will grant authority to my two witnesses, and they will prophesy for 1,260 days, clothed in sackcloth." (Rev 11:1–3)

The temple to be measured when John is in vision isn’t found in earthly Jerusalem, but in heaven. It is in this temple where the man of perdition will declare that he is God (2 Thess 2:4), not in an earthly temple to be constructed sometime in the future—

The person who claims a lifetime of Bible study but who doesn’t yet understand that the Church is the temple of God (cf. 1 Cor 3:16–17; 12:27; 2 Cor 6:16) has not been much of a student. He is worse than a dullard; for if he were merely dull—a yellow pencil without lead—he would have realized in less than 45 years endtime biblical prophecies aren’t about physical nations and peoples, but are dual in nature, having a physical application that usually occurred during the prophet’s lifetime (why his words were preserved — see Deut chap 13) and a spiritual endtime application that pertains to the Second Passover liberation of a second nation of Israel, the nation to be circumcised of heart.

When Elohim [singular in usage] breathed the breath of life into the man of mud’s nostrils (Gen 2:7) and the first Adam became a breathing creature, a nephesh, this first man formed the physical shadow and type [the chiral image] of the spirit of God descending upon and entering into the man Jesus when raised from baptism by John the Baptist … the spirit/breath of God [pneuma Theou] entering into Jesus gave to Jesus a second breath of life, the breath of God the Father, in a similar way to how Elohim breathing into the man of mud’s nostrils gave to this particular lump of clay physical life that separated this lump of clay from all other lumps of clay.

Note,

Then [YHWH] God said, "It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him." Now out of the ground [YHWH] God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. So [YHWH] God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. And the rib that [YHWH] God had taken from the man He made into a woman and brought her to the man. Then the man said, "This at last is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man." Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. (Gen 2:18–25)

It is immaterial whether the story of Adam and Eve’s creation is true or false: the story has long existed as a physical thing in this world. Hence, it is the story itself, not the phenomenon that inspired the story, that has significance and that reveals the hidden things of God. The story functions in this world as poetry functions literarily; for it is always inappropriate to ask whether a poem is true or false. The focus of a poem is the poem itself, not the events that caused the poem to be written. Thus, a poem can be a faithful narrative account of a phenomenon, but the poem isn’t “a poem” unless the words of the poem are artfully crafted. As such, the focus of the poem is the artifice itself—how do the words work together, one with the other—not what caused the construction of the artifice. The beauty of the poem is the sound of the words, the sentiment of the words, the thought conveyed by the words, not those things outside of the words that may or may not be mimetically represented by the words. And the antiquity of the stories of the first eleven chapters of Genesis causes these stories to literarily function as poems. These stories are the “shadows” cast by the story of Jesus and His ministry, into and through the seven endtime years of tribulation.

The story of Noah, the story of crossing from one world (age) into the next world, forms the visible shadow and copy of the futuristic story of dominion over the single kingdom of this world being taken from the Adversary and his angels and given to the Son of Man, Head [Christ Jesus] and Body [the Christian Church as the Body of Christ — from 1 Cor 12:27] in a one-time event halfway through these seven endtime years. The destruction of the world by the flood—the world being baptized into death—forms the chiral image of the creation of a new world by baptism in spirit and into life …

Again, chirality refers to “handedness” as the left hand is the non-symmetrical mirror image of the right hand: the physical things of this world reveal and precede the spiritual things of God, thus the physical forms the chiral image of the spiritual as the first Adam is to the last Adam as the left hand is to the right hand. In the physical life precedes death: a human fetus doesn’t exist until an ovum is fertilized by the father’s sperm. A human person has no preexisting dead state. There is only non-existence until life is present. Rather, death follows life: what was once alive “dies” when it loses its breath of life. This, however, is not true in the mirror image of physical life: a human person as a physically living entity is analogous to the single lump of clay from which the first man was sculpted. To this single-lived person must be added spiritual life.

The person new to Bible Study can be easily misled by the minions serving the Adversary as his sons, with Bible prophecy being the easiest place for the Adversary to spin the person in circles until the person is disoriented, confused, and will swallow spiritual poison.

In the past I have written much about biblical prophecy, and I will write more, but frankly, the subject is of little value when it comes to salvation … the Mormon practice of setting-by (storing up) everything the person will need for a year is useful and perhaps would be of more worth to the person than study about red heifers and construction of the Third Temple. Nevertheless, faith/trust cannot be placed in the person’s food reserves or in anything physical. MREs [meals ready to eat] are really of no value when the Christian has to endure seven years from when the Second Passover occurs to when Christ Jesus will return. What is of value is being able to grind grain (even grass seed), press cooking oil from oil seeds, start a fire without matches, heat the place where one shelters without reliance on electricity or without much electricity, possess a safe source of drinking water. Physical things that pertain-to and sustain the physical body. For the spiritual things of God will come to the person born of spirit through the Parakletos, the spirit of truth. Whereas the prophet Elijah sheltered with the widow woman and while there, her flour jar and oil jug never ran dry, the last Elijah will shelter inside the disciple born of spirit, and this inner person will not run out of knowledge of the things of God. However, in moving from physical to spiritual, the people of Israel who perished in the drought of Ahab are analogous to the fleshly bodies of the Elect in the Affliction and Endurance in Christ, each 1260 days long, with the Affliction forming the chiral image of the Endurance: the Kingdom is represented by the doubled day 1260 between the Affliction and Endurance.

To begin unraveling prophecy will cause these principles to become a book, and really a book I have already written. So I will here end my answer to how can Scripture be understood. It can only be understood through the indwelling of Christ Jesus who has the Father give to the called and chosen person the Parakletos, the spirit of truth, with the Greek concept of truth being the revealing of what has been concealed—and what has been concealed by the flesh is the inner self, the inner person of the person, the soul [psuche] of the person.

* * *

Homer Kizer Ministries