Israel in Prophecy
What Happens?
Part Eleven
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He said to Moses, "Come up to the Lord, you and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel, and worship from afar. Moses alone shall come near to the Lord, but the others shall not come near, and the people shall not come up with him." … Then Moses and Aaron, Nadab, and Abihu, and seventy of the elders of Israel went up, and they saw the God of Israel. There was under His feet as it were a pavement of sapphire stone, like the very heaven for clearness. And He did not lay His hand on the chief men of the people of Israel; they beheld God, and ate and drank. The Lord said to Moses, "Come up to me on the mountain and wait there, that I may give you the tablets of stone, with the law and the commandment, which I have written for their instruction." So Moses rose with his assistant Joshua, and Moses went up into the mountain of God. And he said to the elders, "Wait here for us until we return to you. And behold, Aaron and Hur are with you. Whoever has a dispute, let him go to them." Then Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. The glory of the Lord dwelt on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days. And on the seventh day He called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud. Now the appearance of the glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the sight of the people of Israel. Moses entered the cloud and went up on the mountain. And Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights. (Ex 24:1–2, 9–18)
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11.
Whereas the nation of physically circumcised Israel in Egypt was called the firstborn son of God (Exod 4:22), with the exception of Joshua and Caleb, none of this nation entered God’s rest even though Nadab, Abihu, and seventy elders saw the God of Israel with their own eyes … where were these seventy elders when Aaron made for Israel elohim in the form of a gold calf—
So all the people took off the rings of gold that were in their ears and brought them to Aaron. And he received the gold from their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made a golden calf. And they said, "These are your gods, O Israel, who brought you up out of the land of Egypt!" When Aaron saw this, he built an altar before it. (Ex 32:3–5)
Who were the <they>, the antecedent for the pronoun? Is not this antecedent “the people of Israel,” the people including the seventy elders? And this being forty days after these elders saw the God of Israel.
Miracles don’t change hearts or minds. Miracles don’t bring a people to God except as Moses turned aside to see the burning bush that wasn’t being consumed by the flames coming from it. Miracles attract attention, but do little more. People will talk about miracles, but will not permit miracles to disrupt their dinner plans, figuratively speaking. So in seeing the God of Israel, the seventy elders would have been suitably impressed, but when they no longer saw the Lord—when they no longer saw Moses—they didn’t know what happened to either the Lord or to Moses. So they took matters into their own hands and make for themselves gods that had brought them out from Egypt.
(The preceding is what’s wrong with every Christian praise and healing ministry: healings are miracles that don’t delay serving dinner. While healings will attract attention, the attention they attract is spiritually unfruitful and focuses attention onto the person, not onto God.)
The people of Israel had to know that the gold calf cast for them in the wilderness had nothing to do with their liberation from slavery … from the perspective that Israel was not a stupid people, in order for the gold calf incident to have any internal logic, the people had to believe that a sky god in the likeness of a bull brought the people out from Egypt. They had to believe that a shape-shifting god that could appear as either a man or a bull was their liberator—and we don’t have to look far to find such a bull sky god: Toru El, “Bull El” or “the bull god,” with this El bearing many names from Creator of creatures to the Creator of the world or Creator eternal [qaniyunu ‘ôlam, with the epithet ‘ôlam appearing in Hebrew as ’el ‘ôlam, “God Eternal” from Gen 21:33].
There would have been human logic for Israel in the wilderness to cast for themselves a gold calf, and for the children of Israel in the Promised Land to worship in groves; for what does Abraham do when he worships ’el ‘ôlam: “Abraham planted a tamarisk tree in Beersheba and called there on the name of the LORD [’el ‘ôlam], the Everlasting God” (Gen 21:33).
But the Lord is a jealous God (Ex 34:14), unwilling to share His glory with shape-shifting figments of imagination.
In the physical, Israel’s rebellion at Mount Sinai serves as an example of confused worship of the Lord, mistaking the Lord for a deity the people were already worshiping in a manner analogous to how Christians in the Church universal will return to worshiping the Jesus they presently worship on day 220 of the Affliction … hold this thought for a moment: when all Israel “drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ” (1 Cor 10:4), then Israel’s rebellion against the Lord is rebellion against Christ Jesus, who Israel didn’t know other than as <El Shaddai> or <El olam>. Now when “Tyre” is read as <the Rock>, “Tyre” becomes readable as a false rock, a false Christ, and the prince of Tyre will be the reigning ruler over false Christendom. (This is not a stretch.) The prince of Tyre will be a man, but not any ordinary man; for this man will declare himself God when he is no god; when he puts his pants on one leg at a time.
This prince of Tyre will be the Christ of greater Christendom; the Christ that allegedly heals the infirm when invoked by Christian faith healers; the Toru El of Israel at Mount Sinai—and those who worship this false Christ will never be convinced that they do not worship the true Rock from which a second Israel “drank” at their Second Passover liberation from indwelling Sin and Death.
The damage the Adversary has done to greater Christendom is extensive; is so great that most Christians cannot recover even when liberated from indwelling Sin and Death on the Second Passover. Most of greater Christendom will rebel against God on day 220 of the Affliction, again the first 1260 days of seven endtime prophetic years. And while prophecy can fail—while Christians can en masse turn to God and form righteous Abel—if Christians intended to turn to God when filled with spirit, they wouldn’t today mock God, Father and Son, as they do … when it is really easy to keep the least of the Commandments, the Sabbath Commandment, they would. But when there is no desire to obey God, the miracle of filling every Christian with spirit will not prevent Christians from worshiping their Toru El while still burying the dead of themselves.
In the late 1st-Century CE, when Christians didn’t know what had become of Christ Jesus who should have returned before the temple was razed by Roman soldiers, Christians made for themselves a “Christ” who allegedly freed them from the burden of law-keeping. They made for themselves a Christ who was both simultaneously man and God. They made for themselves a Christ that they believed existed but didn’t exist and never had existed; a Christ that intended to save all who came to Him just as they were. They made for themselves a Rock they called “Christ,” with the Christian clergy serving as His princes. And they worshiped this Rock that seemed as impregnable as fortress Tyre, especially after a Roman emperor picked it up and skipped it across the waters of Western Europe.
It has been said by academics that early orthodox [right belief] Christendom prevailed over competitors because of the three C’s: creed, canon, and clergy. This is not entirely true; for orthodox Christianity reinvented Christ enough times that Christianity went from being an anti-family theology, with no one able to come to Christ unless drawn by the Father, to being family-friendly, the second generation believing what parents believed, the third generation holding fast to the traditions of parents and grandparents, the fourth generation being living fossils, calcified in ideology and intimidated by the clergy for if the clergy withheld the sacraments, the Christian was condemned to the lake of fire. Thus, Christian sons of God, as if wethers, left their intellects safely packed in hope chests, not to be opened until the Wedding Supper.
Actually, the nation of Israel that left Egypt after their Passover liberation forms the left-hand enantiomer of the right hand greater Christian Church following the Second Passover liberation of this second nation of Israel: the liberation of a physically circumcised nation from physical slavery to a physical king in a physical land forms the physical left hand enantiomer of a spiritual right hand enantiomer that exists one plane higher in a theological hierarchy that has the Most High God in that “most high” position. Therefore, the Jesus Movement’s late 1st-Century falling away from Christ Jesus doesn’t represent the Apostasy about which Paul warned the Thessalonians (2 Thess 2:3); rather, this Jesus Movement embraced lawlessness that didn’t creep into the 1st-Century Church but broke down its doors long before 95 theses could be nailed to them.
The alignment of narratives, the Second Passover placed atop the first Passover, discloses the course of events to be seen during the seven endtime years and beyond, going into and through the millennial reign of Christ Jesus, with the compression and expansion of time produced by the timelessness of the heavenly realm where twice-born disciples also have life. And when the Second Passove is figuratively pinned atop the Passover and Exodus in the days of Moses, the rebellion of Israel at Sinai (Ex chap 32) followed by the rebellion of Israel in the wilderness of Paran (Num chap 14) discloses that Christians in the Church universal will rebel against God before the Apostasy of day 220 of the Affliction, with this first rebellion being a substitution of a shape-shifting Christ for the Christ they saw from afar at the Second Passove; being their return to worshiping the Christ they presently worship. For Israel in Egypt worshiped a pantheon of deities that this nation didn’t leave in Egypt but carried across the Sea of Reeds and into the wilderness:
On the day when I chose Israel, I swore to the offspring of the house of Jacob, making myself known to them in the land of Egypt; I swore to them, saying, I am the LORD your God. On that day I swore to them that I would bring them out of the land of Egypt into a land that I had searched out for them, a land flowing with milk and honey, the most glorious of all lands. And I said to them, Cast away the detestable things your eyes feast on, every one of you, and do not defile yourselves with the idols of Egypt; I am the LORD your God. But they rebelled against me and were not willing to listen to me. None of them cast away the detestable things their eyes feasted on, nor did they forsake the idols of Egypt. (Ezek 20:5–8)
Instead of leaving their pantheon of deities in Egypt, the people of Israel, doing as Rachel did when she stole her father’s household gods (Gen 31:19, 30–35), smuggled their deities out from Egypt …
I led them out of the land of Egypt and brought them into the wilderness. I gave them my statutes and made known to them my rules, by which, if a person does them, he shall live. Moreover, I gave them my Sabbaths, as a sign between me and them, that they might know that I am the LORD who sanctifies them. But the house of Israel rebelled against me in the wilderness. They did not walk in my statutes but rejected my rules, by which, if a person does them, he shall live; and my Sabbaths they greatly profaned. Then I said I would pour out my wrath upon them in the wilderness, to make a full end of them. But I acted for the sake of my name, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, in whose sight I had brought them out. Moreover, I swore to them in the wilderness that I would not bring them into the land that I had given them, a land flowing with milk and honey, the most glorious of all lands, because they rejected my rules and did not walk in my statutes, and profaned my Sabbaths; for their heart went after their idols. (Ezek 20:10–16 emphasis added)
Instead of the outwardly circumcised nation of Israel entering the Promised Land—instead of the seventy elders entering—the uncircumcised children of Israel born in the wilderness crossed the Jordan and were immediately circumcised.
These uncircumcised children of Israel entered the Land Beyond the River, the land representing God’s rest as found in Sabbath observance, but they entered with smuggled contraband, the gods of their fathers.
I said to their children in the wilderness, Do not walk in the statutes of your fathers, nor keep their rules, nor defile yourselves with their idols. I am the LORD your God; walk in my statutes, and be careful to obey my rules, and keep my Sabbaths holy that they may be a sign between me and you, that you may know that I am the LORD your God. But the children rebelled against me. They did not walk in my statutes and were not careful to obey my rules, by which, if a person does them, he shall live; they profaned my Sabbaths. Then I said I would pour out my wrath upon them and spend my anger against them in the wilderness. But I withheld my hand and acted for the sake of my name, that it should not be profaned in the sight of the nations, in whose sight I had brought them out. Moreover, I swore to them in the wilderness that I would scatter them among the nations and disperse them through the countries, because they had not obeyed my rules, but had rejected my statutes and profaned my Sabbaths, and their eyes were set on their fathers' idols. (Ezek 20:18–24 emphasis added)
The children of Israel were to have entered the Promised Land as the unblemished, chosen Passover lamb of God—they entered on the 10th day of the first month (Josh 4:19)—but they entered blemished by the idols of their fathers, the ingested gold of their Toru El, the bull god, that functioned for them as the false Christ that Christians worship functions for greater Christendom.
Whereas the uncircumcised children of Israel that were born to Israel during its forty year trek through the wilderness form the left hand enantiomer to the third part of the little ones (from Zech 13:9), none of whom today wants anything to do with greater Christendom, the Christ Jesus that the third part of the little ones worship in the Endurance in Jesus as they are refined as silver is refined and tested as gold is tested will not be the Lord until the end of the Endurance, when this third part’s refining and testing is complete. Then, this third part will enter into God’s rest at the end of seven endtime years of tribulation, either entering into heaven as glorified sons of God or living into the Millennium as physical human persons filled with spirit, knowing the Lord, but the ancestors to those who will rebel when the Adversary is loosed at the end of the Thousand Years.
Again, in pinning the Second Passover over the Passover in the days of Moses disciples today—before liberation and rebellion occurs—can know what will happen and when things happen to within five days of accuracy throughout the seven endtime years of tribulation, but they cannot know if they place faith in signs or miracles; for both signs and miracles would deceive even the Elect if that were possible.
Unfortunately, there is an expectation within the Christian Church universal that once God sets His hand to save humanity, there will be miracles aplenty; there will be public healings, public feedings of the hungry; public exorcisms of demons. But what endtime Christians do not and will not understand is that the healings of Christ Jesus took place because Christ spoke the words of the Father, words formed from the spirit/breath of God, words too “large” to be uttered by human breath (by physical sound waves). Thus in Jesus speaking only the words of the Father, the portion of the Father’s words that could not be vocalized by human breath healed the infirm, fed the hungry, cast out demons. So there will not be public healing ministries in the Tribulation of the sort Christians envision; for the two witnesses will be speaking their own words, even though they will borrow words from the indwelling Jesus.
Again, in the Affliction, the first 1260 days of the seven endtime years, the miracles to be done will be by the two witnesses, with these two being the nemeses of humanity, calling droughts into existence, turning waters into blood, striking the earth with plagues whenever they desire (Rev 11:6), which is why they will not be speaking the words of God the Father. The miracles they do will be to attract attention to themselves; for they are to be witnesses that death has lost its sting for no one will be able to harm them until the demonic king of the Abyss [Abaddon in Hebrew, Apollyon in Greek] kills them as his last act. For these two are to be witnesses that death has lost its sting.
Today, the two witnesses most likely live (are alive)—and no reasonable person wants them to anticipate the beginning of their ministry by calling a drought into existence, or striking people with plagues. It is better that no miracles occur than for the two witnesses to anticipate their ministry.
Again, the two witnesses are to make themselves hated by all peoples so that all will watch, will take notice when they are killed in the streets of the Jerusalem-above (a euphemistic expression for being killed inside of greater Christendom), where spiritual Gentiles will trample this holy city throughout the days of their prophesying. The peoples of this world will then see, three and a half days later, these two publicly raised from death, their resurrection from death being their testimony that Death has been dealt a mortal wound … a “thing” is not established by the testimony of one witness, even if that witness is the man Jesus the Nazarene. Rather a thing is established by the testimony of two or three: Christ Jesus, plus the two witnesses, the three ribs that the bear cannot devour.
And behold, another beast, a second one, like a bear. It was raised up on one side. It had three ribs in its mouth between its teeth; and it was told, “Arise, devour much flesh.'” (Dan 7:5)
This bear is a demonic king (Dan 7:17), one of four kings or horns that emerge from around the stump of the broken (because he is first) great horn of the King of Greece, with this bear that comes making war being the king of the Abyss.
Concerning the two witnesses, John from within his vision writes,
And when they have finished their testimony, the beast that rises from the bottomless pit will make war on them and conquer them and kill them, and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city that symbolically is called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified. For three and a half days some from the peoples and tribes and languages and nations will gaze at their dead bodies and refuse to let them be placed in a tomb, and those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and make merry and exchange presents, because these two prophets had been a torment to those who dwell on the earth. But after the three and a half days a breath [pneuma] of life from God entered them, and they stood up on their feet, and great fear fell on those who saw them. Then they heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, "Come up here!" And they went up to heaven in a cloud, and their enemies watched them. (Rev 11:7–12)
One of the two tropes John used to seal his seemingly unsealed vision is that John writes from within his vision, with this narrative perspective differing from how Daniel records his visions, giving the sum of the matters seen, consciously writing after the fact.
As the cloud covered the mountain when Moses was called up onto the mountain by the Lord, the two witnesses will enter into the cloud when they are called up into the first heaven … the two witnesses will be, when entering into the cloud, as Jesus was when resurrected from death but before He ascended to the Father where He was accepted as the Wave Sheaf Offering, the offering that began the harvest of firstfruits. The two witnesses will be as the two loaves of bread, baked with fine flour and with leavening, when these loaves are waved before the Lord, thereby formally ending the harvest of firstfruits (Lev 23:16–17).
The glorified two witnesses will not precede to heaven the harvest of firstfruits, but will be as Jesus was for those missing fifteen hours between when He was resurrected after three days and three nights in the heart of the earth, and when He ascended to the Father (and was accepted) after speaking to Mary Magdalene (John 20:17).
The Endurance in Jesus, the last 1260 days of the seven endtime years, will be a period of enduring for the two witnesses as it will be for the third part of humanity; for the two witnesses will have to wait to be accepted by God the Father until all of the firstfruits are gathered to God. Their acceptance by God ends the harvest of firstfruits. And the preceding will have the two witnesses simultaneously being the last of the harvest of firstfruits and the first of the general harvest of God in the great White Throne Judgment. These two witnesses will be for the general humanity in the White Throne Judgment what Jesus was as the first sheaf (the Wave Sheaf Offering) of ripe grain for the harvest of firstfruits.
The difference between the healing miracles Jesus did and the destructive miracles [calling into existence plagues and droughts] of the two witnesses stems from the difference between the harvest of firstfruits and the general harvest of humanity …
A person can turn on the radio most any Sunday morning and hear the syrupy voices of pastors describing the love Jesus has for all humankind. This message of love is televised 24–7 on broadcast channels devoted to spreading the word of God to everyone. But nowhere in the Christian messages passing through the air is any mention of the reality that only those human persons drawn from this world can come to Christ Jesus prior to the Second Passover liberation of a second Israel … perhaps those broadcasting these You-all come messages really don’t know that their ministries are unneeded; that with the New Covenant, the Law will be written on hearts and placed in minds so that every person knows the Lord, being taught by the Lord Himself. Perhaps they truly don’t know Scripture or the power of God, being themselves like the Sadducees scholars that Matthew’s Jesus addressed (Matt 22:29).
So, yes, the resurrected and outwardly glorified two witnesses will, by their acceptance by the Father, mark the end of the harvest of firstfruits that began with Christ Jesus and ends with them … these two sons of new oil will spend the Endurance with the glorified Jesus who will be here on earth at its beginning, having come to fight on a (indefinite article) day of battle (Zech 14:3–4). Thus, these two will be with the 144,000 that follow the Lamb wherever He leads (Rev 14:1–5). And they will most likely remain with the 144,000 when Jesus returns to heaven to lead a host of angels against world powers, spiritual and physical.
Greater Christendom, even though filled with spirit, will oppose the two witnesses whose miracles don’t heal but kill, their ministry deliberately structured to attract attention and hatred to themselves; for again, these two have to anger the world sufficiently that the world not only watches but cheers when they are killed … praise and healing ministries are of the Christ invented—as Tyre, the Rock, invented Melqart—by Greek philosophers when Christian dogmas calcified into creeds and canon.
Singing praises of thanksgiving to the Father is appropriate, but would it be appropriate for a son of God—a person truly born of spirit who is today one with Christ Jesus and is therefore Christ, having the mind of Christ—to sing praises to him or herself?
Narratives have narrative vectors like forces have force vectors, the direction from which the force is applied. Thus a song has a narrative vector, and a hymn of thanksgiving will have the vector going from the one singing—the one who is thankful—to the one being thanked. This is appropriate. But when a person prays to receive, the narrative vector goes to the person desiring to receive, the traditional give-me prayers of spiritual infants. Therefore the direction of narrative vectors establishes what is and what isn’t appropriate praise music; for a Christian ought not be praising him or herself for the “specialness” attached to being a son of God. The person did nothing to get himself born of spirit, as a human infant does nothing to get the infant born of the water of the womb. The person should be thankful that for whatever reason, God the Father foreknew the person and predestined the person to be born of spirit while the person continued to dwell in a fleshly house.
Healings are inevitably about the self … Paul prayed three times, according to him, for removal of a thorn in his flesh—and each time he was told, My grace is sufficient, with grace being the covering of the garment of Christ Jesus’ righteousness, thereby healing the person from spiritual death.
The thorn in Paul’s flesh caused Paul to think about himself; to focus his thoughts on the thorn, whereas what Paul needed to do was look outward, look at others who were not “healed” from death, and do what he could for them.
Unfortunately, praise ministries really aren’t about praising God, Father and Son, but about praising the Christ analogous to the bull god that Israel lugged out from Egypt; are about praising the Christ the 1st-Century Church universal invented when Jesus delayed His return and the people didn’t know what happened to Him. And again, this usurpation of praise is typified by the children of Israel planting grooves where they worshiped their idols in a manner typified by Abraham planting a tamarisk tree in Beersheba and there worshiping the Lord.
What Abraham did would have gotten the children of Israel in the Promised Land rejected by God, but where there is no Law, there is no transgression of the Law. It doesn’t matter whether Abraham kept the Sabbath; for Abraham, after being expelled from Egypt, physically lived in the land that would come to represent Sabbath observance … Abraham lived as a sojourner in a land that was not his, except for the cave in which he buried Sarah. Endtime disciples live in a theological land that is not theirs, but remains the Lord’s who is the Lord of the Sabbath (Matt 12:8; Mark 2:28; Luke 6:5). The Elect cannot claim the Sabbath as their own day of worship; for the Sabbath continues to belong to the Son of Man. All Christians sanctified by the Lord will keep the Sabbath following the Second Passover, or they will commit blasphemy against the spirit. No exceptions.
Again, it would certainly be appropriate to sing thanks to the Father for all He has done for the disciple; for His sons. It would be appropriate to sing thanks to Christ Jesus as every son of God’s older brother, without whom there would be no human sons of God. But praise and healing ministries, by their structure, focus on the self and on a wrong Christ, a shape-shifter that is simultaneously both man and God … the “praise vector” is pointed in the wrong direction. Therefore, truly born of spirit Christians should not have anything to do with a “Christian” praise and healing ministry.
Christians do not have to teach other Christians the mysteries of God for all will be taught by God:
No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him. And I will raise him up on the last day. It is written in the Prophets, “And they will all be taught by God.” Everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to me— (John 4:44–45)
If a Christian today and especially following the Second Passover knows anything spiritual, the person has heard and learned from the Father; for the Father draws a person from this world by giving to the person a “taste” of the goodness of God. Too often, the person identifies this taste as spiritual meat when that is not the case; thus, the person mistakenly believes that he or she is spiritual when the person is not yet called by Christ Jesus. Again, too often such persons believe they have been born of spirit when they continue to walk in this world as a person of the nations … no person truly born of spirit walks in this world in any manner other than how Jesus walked. Therefore, all who are truly born of spirit will keep the Commandments, and will truly want to keep the Commandments even when their fleshly bodies fail them.
When God, under the New Covenant, writes the Law on hearts and places it inside the person so that all will know the Lord, no one will need to teach the Christian the mysteries of God. All will know them. There is, therefore, no justification for “Christian ministry” once the Second Passover occurs. There is no work for Christians to do.
Likewise, when the single kingdom of this world is given to the Son of Man, angels [three angels] deliver the messages that the third part of the little ones need to hear. Again, there is no work that human persons have to do.
Now, taking all of this back to praising the Father for all He has done and will do for His sons: in giving the Father thanks for making it possible to escape death, the disciple should echo President Kennedy’s words, My fellow Americans, ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country, with there really being no work that needs done. Hence, the question is how can a disciple serve his fellow human person. How can the disciple feed the hungry, give shelter to the homeless, clothe the naked, comfort the grieving—how can a disciple do all of these things in song? How can the disciple give others a merry heart? And this will have to be a question others more qualified answer.
God creates. The Beloved of God creates, created all that physically exists. Sons of God should be creators, not satisfied with what is but exploring to see what can be; what is possible. And in both the Affliction and Endurance, the old ways of this world will fail humanity. New ways must be fashioned that are outside of today’s transactional economy, new ways that do not require buying or selling, new ways that do not require fracking, strip mining, million dollars apiece windmills, acre after acre of solar panels … so-called green energy is expensive energy; so-called fossil energy is expensive. A horse-drawn buggy isn’t expensive. Eating local isn’t as expensive as participation in global Food Inc. But these are solutions of antiquity to problems. And the amount of methane—the only greenhouse gas that isn’t capped by Beer’s Law—produced by horses or cows will be consumed by anaerobic bacteria in a prey-predator relationship reminiscent of the Arctic hare-lynx relationship.
If a son of God creates—music, texts, criticism, a cross-bred tomato—the son of God does in miniature what this son’s older Brother does and has done. So doing a work for God isn’t (unless specially called to a particular task) about preaching Christ to the world, or about verbally witnessing for Christ, but about quietly endeavoring to expand what exists; about feeding the hungry in a sustainable way that doesn’t require buying and selling. Presently, it is difficult for an American Christian to step outside of the nation’s transactional economy and perceive another way of feeding oneself without creating income and purchasing what is needed, usually gasoline for vehicles or chainsaws. However, with the Second Passover liberation of a second Israel, the world’s present economic system will come to a whimpering halt, to never again be restarted even though much energy will be expended in attempting to return the world to what its was before a third of humanity, all uncovered firstborns, died suddenly and unexpectedly.
If miracles will only attract attention and will not cause Christians to repent and turn in humility to God, what would be the point of God performing miracles once He fills all who profess that Jesus is Lord with spirit? Would it not be more reasonable for the Adversary to perform miraculous displays to lure liberated Christians back into ideological serfdom to him? Actually Christian praise and healing ministries today lure potential sons of God (and sons of God) away from Christ Jesus, a reason why “healed” persons fall backwards, fall away from God when hands are laid on them.
The prophet Isaiah declared,
In that day the LORD of hosts will be a crown of glory,
and a diadem of beauty, to the remnant of His people,
and a spirit of justice to Him who sits in judgment,
and strength to those who turn back the battle at the gate.
These also reel with wine
and stagger with strong drink;
the priest and the prophet reel with strong drink,
they are swallowed by wine,
they stagger with strong drink,
they reel in vision,
they stumble in giving judgment.
For all tables are full of filthy vomit,
with no space left.
“To whom will He teach knowledge,
and to whom will He explain the message?
Those who are weaned from the milk,
those taken from the breast?
For it is precept upon precept, precept upon precept,
line upon line, line upon line,
here a little, there a little."
For by people of strange lips
and with a foreign tongue
the LORD will speak to this people,
to whom He has said,
"This is rest;
give rest to the weary;
and this is repose";
yet they would not hear.
And the word of the LORD will be to them
precept upon precept, precept upon precept,
line upon line, line upon line,
here a little, there a little,
that they may go, and fall backward,
and be broken, and snared, and taken. (Isa 28:5–13)
Indented lines are spiritual portion of couplets.
Within greater Christendom, the Bible is studied precept upon precept, line upon line in a manner seemingly received from the Lord—in a manner given to the drunk priests of Ephraim that they might fall backwards and be taken, broken, snared, destroyed by inscribed words …
Following the Second Passover liberation of a second Israel, Christian theologians from this present era will use Scripture to entice liberated Christians to return to disobedience and unbelief of God even though God will have written the Law on their hearts and placed it inside each of them. They will use “this line” with “that line,” assembling arguments for why Christians have been liberated from the Law and are no longer under it and can therefore ignore the Commandments that will have been written on the hearts of laity as well as ministry. And unfortunately, they will be fairly successful in convincing a reluctant-to-believe laity to take sin [lawlessness via unbelief] back inside themselves, thereby committing unforgivable blasphemy against the spirit.
There are not enough words; there are not strong enough words to prevent liberated Christians [liberated from indwelling sin and death] from “killing” their righteous selves as Cain killed Abel, these Christians giving birth to a spiritual Cain in the Apostasy. And without removing from greater Christendom its newly given freewill—before the Second Passover, all not born of spirit remained as involuntary sons of disobedience, therefore without true freewill—God, Father and Son, can not prevent the birth of spiritual Abel, a firstborn son of the Adversary that with “birth” is marked and condemned to the lake of fire.
No Christian has to rebel against God. And this is the message that every person numbered among the Elect can quietly deliver to all who ask about the hope that lies within each … again, the endtime gospel that will be delivered to all nations as a witness to all people is that all who endure to the end shall be saved. This gospel is for the third part of the little ones in the Endurance, but in principle [because the Endurance is the mirror image of the Affliction] this gospel pertains to greater Christendom following the Second Passover: every Christian with the Law of God written on the Christian’s heart and placed in the Christian’s mind must endure in faith; in belief of God to the end, which for most of the faithful will be as martyrs in the Affliction.
Every person who shall live spiritually has to make a journey of faith equivalent to Abraham’s journey of faith from Ur of Chaldeans [spiritual Babylon] to Haran [spiritual Assyria, Death of the old man] then on to Canaan [the Promised Land representing Life]. If the person goes too far, journeying down to Egypt [Sin], God will extract the person [expel the person] from spiritual Egypt and return the person to the Promised Land as long as the person continues to believe God … under the New Covenant, a person’s transgressions of the Law are no longer remembered—when a person’s transgressions are no longer remembered, it isn’t what the person does that truly matters, but what the person believes. Hence, the Christian who today keeps Sunday as the Sabbath will, following the Second Passover, have seven months of grace, of mercy, before the finality of the Apostasy transforms unbelief into unforgivable blasphemy against the spirit.
Spiritual Cain, like spiritual Abel, will be “born” in a day, this day being the day of the Apostasy, day 220 of the Affliction, a Sunday in December of an unknown year.
Because of Cain killing Abel on the day of the Apostasy, the opening of the fifth seal can be established in relationship to the Second Passover, this day being that Sunday of the Rebellion against God … the third part of the little ones (again from Zech 13:9) will attach no special significance to Sunday, but Christians with the Church universal will, their attachment laying the base for the Apostasy.
The Elect are born of spirit prior to the Second Passover liberation of a second Israel—and the Elect will, because of the indwelling of Christ Jesus, keep the Sabbath as Jesus kept the Sabbath. So for the Elect, Sunday is merely the first work day of a seven day weekly cycle. And for the third part of the little ones, Sunday is of no great significance as evidenced by attendance at sporting events, by boat traffic in marinas, by the number of people on golf courses on this first day after the Sabbath. So while the third part of little ones doesn’t keep the Sabbath, this third part doesn’t attempt to enter into God’s presence on the day after the Sabbath.
Within greater Sabbatarian Christendom, there continues to linger the ghostly remnants of Herbert W. Armstrong’s disciples … Armstrong never understood spiritual birth, suggesting that he himself wasn’t born of spirit. For the person who has truly been born of spirit will know that he or she is not the same person that previously lived in the person’s fleshly body. Inner change occurs with spiritual birth, change that may not be immediately apparent for a human infant is born with the mind of man but, again, doesn’t think the thoughts of a mature man or a mature woman. Likewise, the person born of spirit is spiritually born with the mind of Christ (see 1 Cor 2:16), but an infant son of God doesn’t think the thoughts of Christ; doesn’t know the things of God, the reason why newly born sons of God are commanded to grow in grace and knowledge, with Peter telling those who have “faith of equal standing with” Peter’s:
For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. (2 Pet 1:5–8)
Where all of this becomes important is in understanding the difference between the Elect and greater Christendom before the Second Passover and just after the Second Passover; for being filled with the spirit of God [pneuma Theou] is not being born of spirit, regardless of what those who then will be filled with spirit declare.
Concerning not having grown sufficiently in grace and knowledge to know the things of God, the author of Hebrews writes,
In the days of his flesh, Jesus offered up prayers and supplications, with loud cries and tears, to Him who was able to save Him from death, and He was heard because of His reverence. Although He was a son, He learned obedience through what He suffered. And being made perfect, He became the source of eternal salvation to all who obey Him, being designated by God a high priest after the order of Melchizedek. About this we have much to say, and it is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by constant practice to distinguish good from evil. (Heb 5:7–14 emphasis added)
So, a son of God can not grow in grace and knowledge [can spiritually stagnate] for an extended period, usually because simple doctrinal hangups hinders growth such as Armstrong’s infamous pin test in which Armstrong contended that if the flesh of a person bled when poked with a pin, the person wasn’t truly born of spirit, his declaration revealing how little he really knew about Scripture … if a female person is baptized into Christ and thereby puts on Christ (i.e., the righteousness of Christ), this person, according to Paul, is no longer female (Gal 3:27–28) even through the gender of the fleshly body doesn’t change. The person who submerges in water a woman, raises from this watery grave a woman in the flesh (the flesh that bleeds), but raises a genderless son of God that has made a public appeal for a good conscience (1 Peter 3:21).
The inner self of the person born of spirit is without gender but is as the angels are:
The same day Sadducees came to Him, who say that there is no resurrection, and they asked Him a question, saying, “Teacher, Moses said, 'If a man dies having no children, his brother must marry the widow and raise up offspring for his brother.' Now there were seven brothers among us. The first married and died, and having no offspring left his wife to his brother. So too the second and third, down to the seventh. After them all, the woman died. In the resurrection, therefore, of the seven, whose wife will she be? For they all had her.” But Jesus answered them, "You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven. And as for the resurrection of the dead, have you not read what was said to you by God: “I am [’o Theos] of Abraham, and [’o Theos] of Isaac, and [’o Theos] of Jacob”? He is not [Theos] of the dead, but of the living.” And when the crowd heard it, they were astonished at his teaching. (Matt 22:23–33 emphasis added)
To not understand spiritual birth is to not understand the Scriptures nor the power of God, with understanding beginning in grasping that the God of Abraham was the God of the physically living; the God of the fleshly person that can be outwardly circumcised; and not the God of the dead inner self, dead from never having received the breath of life—and resurrected from death though receipt of a second breath of life, the breath of God the Father [pneuma Theou] in the breath of Christ [pneuma Christou] in the spirit of the person [to pneuma tou ’antrhopu], with the breath/spirit of Christ being the “vessel” that came from heaven that is able to hold the glory of God inside the spirit of the person. For without being held in a vessel that has come from heaven, the bright fire that is the glory of God would utterly consume the person. And it is for this reason that those Christians who are filled with the spirit of God at the Second Passover liberation of a second Israel can commit unforgivable blasphemy against the spirit by taking sin back inside themselves, the evidence of unbelief [no faith].
The person truly born of spirit hears the word of Jesus, believes the One who sent Jesus into this world, and has passed [past tense] from death to life without coming under judgment (John 5:24). This person was foreknown by God the Father as the first disciples were. This person was predestined to be glorified as fruit borne out of season. This person was then called by Christ Jesus as the first disciples were. This person was then justified by Christ Jesus dying for the person while the person was still a sinner (Rom 5:8), just as the first disciples were justified by Jesus’ death at Calvary. This person was then glorified as the first disciples were when Jesus breathed on the ten and said, Receive spirit holy (John 20:22) … the outer or fleshly selves of the disciples were not glorified when Jesus breathed on the ten, but their inner selves were raised from death, with Peter, in feeding lambs [infant sons of God], saying,
To those who are elect exiles of the Dispersion in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, in the sanctification of spirit into obedience and sprinkling of blood of Jesus Christ, grace to you and peace may it be multiplied. Blessed the God and Father of the Lord of us, Jesus Christ, the one according to His great mercy [again-born — ’anagennesas] into a living hope through resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead, to an inheritance that is imperishable, undefiled, and unfading, kept in heaven for you, the ones in the power of God being guarded through faith for salvation ready to be revealed in the last time. (1 Pet 1:1–5)
When using analogies to make visible what has been concealed from humanity, endtime disciples need to return to Moses entering into the cloud that had covered Sinai for six days … darkness (a lack of spiritual understanding) has engulfed the world; has engulfed even Israel in the Promised Land; has engulfed the Christian Church universal. And it is here where this piece will break, to be continued to Section Twelve.
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"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."