Israel in Prophecy
What Happens?
Part Six
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Then I saw in the right hand of Him who was seated on the throne a scroll written within and on the back, sealed with seven seals. And I saw a mighty angel proclaiming with a loud voice, "Who is worthy to open the scroll and break its seals?" And no one in heaven or on earth or under the earth was able to open the scroll or to look into it, and I began to weep loudly because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look into it. And one of the elders said to me, "Weep no more; behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, has conquered, so that He can open the scroll and its seven seals." (Rev 5:1–5)
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6.
The prophet Daniel is told,
Fear not, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand and humbled yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come because of your words. The prince [sar] of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days, but Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I was left there with the kings of Persia, and came to make you understand what is to happen to your people in the latter days. For the vision is for days yet to come. (Dan 10:12-14)
The vision Daniel received was for his people Israel in the latter days, not for his age but for when “many of those who sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt” (Dan 12:2). Until then, the long vision Daniel received was sealed and to be kept secret (vv. 4, 9). And Matthew’s Jesus said this vision Daniel received was for the time of the end (Matt 24:15). So it was never for Daniel’s day, or for two centuries later, the time period when tradition has the vision being fulfilled. Rather, it was sealed and kept secret until the time of the end: it couldn’t be understood by 1st-Century BCE sons of light, or by a 19th-Century prophetess, or by a 20th-Century ad man. It cannot be understood now if humanity hasn’t entered that specific period known as the time of the end.
It needs to be understood that any vision that is of God will be twice given, either twice to the same person as in the visions of Joseph (Gen 37:6–10) and the visions of Pharaoh that Joseph interpreted (Gen 41:1–7), or to two different people as occurred with Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar (Dan chap 2) … Daniel’s visions of chapters seven and eight—two visions that are the same vision—are of the same prophetic events as the vision given to Daniel in chapters ten through twelve.
All of Daniel’s visions are about what happens to his people in the latter days; in the generic period identified as the time of the end, not about all that happens throughout the course of history but about what happens in the restricted referent of the time of the end.
If a vision is given only once as John’s vision, the Book of Revelation, would seem to be, then disciples can expect the vision to be given again even if not in a form immediately recognized by disciples … Joseph was not born of spirit when he interpreted Pharaoh’s visions. Daniel was not born of spirit when he received his visions. No one was born of spirit—as opposed to being filled with spirit—until the spirit of God [pneuma Theou] in the bodily form of a dove descended upon and entered into [eis] the man Jesus when John raised Him from the waters of the Jordan. Jesus was then, not before, twice born; that is born of woman (the water of the womb), and born of spirit, the breath (used metonymically) of God.
In John’s vision, the scroll that the Lamb of God opens by removing seals is written within and without (Rev 5:1), so the “without” portion of the scroll, or the back of the scroll, can be “read” even before the Lamb removes the seals—and reading this “without” portion of the scroll will be as darkly receiving the vision; for despite the inner declaration that the events described in the vision are “near in time” and “soon to occur” and that the vision isn’t sealed (Rev 22:10), the vision is and has been sealed by two literary tropes, the first being that the vision occurs in the day of the Lord, not a calendar day but when the single kingdom of this world is given to the Son of Man (Dan 7:9–14; Rev 11:15–18), a one-time occurrence that hasn’t yet happened. And if John is “in spirit on the Lord’s day” (Rev 1:10), with the Lord’s day being when the Lord receives dominion over the kingdom of this world, then the events of the vision haven’t occurred and haven’t been near in time.
In using the literary trope of verbally transporting the witness to futuristic events forward in time to when these events are soon to occur, actually occur, or are near in time, leaves a problem: in order for a vision or prophecy to be preserved for posterity by the ones who receive it, the events described in the vision must actually occur, thus seemingly fulfilling the vision. In order for this to happen, the vision must pertain to two or more fulfillments, with one fulfillment being physical and resulting in the vision being historically preserved. This fulfillment is analogous to the breath of life every human person receives from the first Adam.
But as there was a first Adam, there is a second or last Adam. And as Elohim [singular in usage] breathed the breath of life into the nostrils of the man of mud (Gen 2:7), God the Father “breathed” His breath, His spirit, the holy spirit [pneuma ’agion], onto and into (Mark 1:10) the man Jesus, an Israelite without sin, the raw material chosen for the creation of sons of God and thereby analogous to the red mud sculpted into the first Adam.
As nephesh (breathing creatures) are formed from the base elements of this earth, the elements that also form clay and clay deposits, not even most of the clay of this world is engaged in the construction of living creatures. Most of the world’s clay remains in undisturbed deposits, the product of the watery creation of the earth. Likewise, most of humanity, the raw material from which sons of God are sculpted, is not yet born of spirit, and has not received a second breath of life … the mass construction of sons of God remains in the future, and awaits this earth entering into its land Sabbath, the Thousand Year long reign of the glorified Christ Jesus as King of kings and Lord of lords.
So with the giving of the spirit first by God the Father to Christ Jesus, then by the glorified Christ to ten of His first disciples (John 20:22) when He breathed on them, the creation of sons of God began, with all who are truly born of spirit having two indwelling breaths of life, first the breath that Elohim breathed into the nostrils of Adam, and second the breath/spirit of God that He breathed on the man Jesus following John raising Jesus from the watery grave of baptism in the Jordan. … A twice-born son of God functions in this world as a human person, having all of the problems that human persons have (and usually a few more), but the twice-born son of God also has indwelling eternal or heavenly life, held inside the spirit of the person [to pneuma tou ’anthropou] by the indwelling spirit of Christ [pneuma Christou] in which dwells the glory of God, His spirit [pneuma Theou].
A twice-born person as a son of Adam becomes a walking dual referent; for this twice-born person has been born from the breath of life of the first Adam and from the breath of heavenly life of the second or last Adam. So when John, as a twice-born son of God, receives from the glorified Christ letters he is to deliver to seven named assemblies, the letters he writes will have two referents, two assemblies bearing the same name, the first being physical and given to ensure that the account of John’s vision is copied by others and preserved. And because two referents, the first physical and the second spiritual, will exist for each of the seven named assemblies, the vision is twice given even when this doesn’t seem to be the case.
The second trope that seals John’s vision is that appearance equates to function: how a thing, an entity appears in John’s inscription of his vision is how the thing or entity functions in the plan of God.
John’s exile to the Isle of Patmos where he receives his vision represents a physical separation from the remaining remnants of the 1st-Century Body of Christ, a separation that will have John standing between the seven named assemblies on the Roman mail route through Asia Minor and the seven endtime assemblies that are joined together by shared mindsets. Hence, application of Paul’s dual referent theology permits endtime disciples to understand John’s vision, or to understand how John’s vision is twice given so as to make it of God.
Consider the preceding declarative sentence: when Christian reader sophistication reaches the point where endtime disciples can simultaneously assign (and keep track of) two referents for linguistic signifiers, a once-given vision becomes twice-given …
Concerning Daniel’s generic the time of the end, the Apostle Paul wrote to the holy ones at Corinth,
I do not want you to be unaware, brothers, that our fathers were all under the cloud, and all passed through the sea, and all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, and all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank from the spiritual Rock that followed them, and the Rock was Christ. Nevertheless, with most of them God was not pleased, for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things took place as examples for us, that we might not desire evil as they did. … Now these things happened to them as an example, but they were written down for our instruction, on whom the end of the ages has come. (1 Cor 10:1–6, 11 emphasis and doubled emphasis added)
Did the end of the age come upon Paul while he lived physically? No, not at all. But from Paul’s perspective, the end of the age was at hand, with Paul writing to the Thessalonians,
For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. Therefore encourage one another with these words. (1 Thess 4:16–18)
Paul was either wrong in what he wrote; in what he believed; or the end of the age was at hand as one referent for the identifying expression … did Paul, when he wrote to the Thessalonians, consider the possibility that Daniel’s time-identifier, the time of the end, could have two referents? Probably not. Most likely not. But in introducing the concept of dual referent theology through comparing the glorified Christ to Abraham (Gal 3:29); through identifying Jesus as the last Adam (Rom 5:14, 1 Cor 15:45); through identifying a “Jew” as a person circumcised of heart (Rom 2:25–29), Paul placed no limitations on expansion of the concept. So why not assign to the generic identifying expression, the time of the end, dual referents, the first when the spiritual Body of Christ visibly perished at the end of the 1st-Century with the death of John, the other at the beginning of the 21st-Century when Daniel’s visions were unsealed via possession of the key of David, given with the calling to reread prophecy?
The undergirding premise of The Philadelphia Church is that humanity entered the period known prophetically as the time of the end at the second Passover [May 8th] 2001, that in 2002 the visions of Daniel were unsealed, their unsealing then being publicly known with the publication of the 1st-edition of A Philadelphia Apologetic.
The unsealing of Daniel’s visions came through understanding that the historical events which seemed to have fulfilled Daniel’s visions were actually the means by which these visions were sealed and kept secret; that the visions were about demonic kings and heavenly wars of which humanity could know nothing without divine revelation …
The following is from APA, 2013, Vol. 1:
A point on a two-dimensional plane would (if it could) perceive a cylinder as a circle: none of the cylinder’s height (a third dimension) would be discernable. But because a point on a two-dimensional plane perceives a cylinder as a circle doesn’t make the cylinder any less tall, and if the point were to call a cylinder a circle, the point would merely illuminate the limitations that have been placed upon it.
Likewise, three-dimensional objects in a fourth dimension—space-time, a dimension necessary to allow for movement of entities possessing mass—will be unable to perceive evidence of life in another inclusive dimension; i.e., heaven. And that is what heaven is: a timeless supra-dimensional realm in which the four known forces exist as unfurled primal force. It is the dimension that exists on the other side of a sudden creation, a dimension in which all living entities must function as one entity in a similar way to how cells in a human person function together to produce one person. Timelessness dictates that what-is must co-exist with what-was and what-will-be, and in this analogy, disobedience or lawlessness is like a cancerous tumor. Because of conflicting values, disobedience produces paradoxical gridlock in a timeless realm, and as such, must be eliminated whenever found. Thus, denying the existence of an inclusive dimension and a supreme deity reveals the limitations placed upon the thoughts of the person doing the denying.
(There is another understanding of a fourth dimension that makes it like the first three dimensions, an understanding that does explain some of the difficulties produced by quantum mechanics.)
Returning to the paragraph preceding the citation from APA Vol 1: unsealing of Daniel’s visions came through understanding that the historical events which seemed to have fulfilled Daniel’s visions were actually the means by which these visions were sealed and kept secret … from the perspective of scholars and pundits not born of spirit, the events that sealed Daniel’s visions were the fulfillment of these visions. The visions were single referent visions: from the perspective of scholars not born of spirit, Daniel’s visions had to be about physical or historical events, even though the historical events assigned as the visions’ fulfillment differ a little from the visions themselves. Therefore, modern scholars move the composition of Daniel’s visions forward to when the end of these visions differs from the historical events assigned as their fulfillment. They move the composition of these visions into the 2nd-Century BCE. So for these scholars, the man Daniel didn’t receive these visions.
Now back to the citation from APA: Nietzschean antinomianism is both valid observation and a revealing of how little is culturally known about the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. His declaration that Gott ist tot can be likened to a point both describing a cylinder in two dimensions and denying the cylinder’s existence in an unperceived third dimension.
Although that point on a two dimensional plane when encountering a cylinder would not be able to perceive any of the cylinder’s height, if the cylinder cast its shadow onto the two dimensional plane, that point could determine the cylinder’s height by observing where the light was and where the light was absent (or where it was dark). However, the shadow would be meaningless unless the point knew to attach significance to the presence and absence of “light,” which would through the cylinder’s shadow reveal to the point the height of the “circle” (the point would not have a word for a “cylinder”). [emphasis added]
Now move to more dimensions: human beings are not points on a two dimensional plane, but rather, they are enlivened jars of clay in four dimensions. But human beings will have no more knowledge of what occurs in another dimension—heaven—than a point on a two dimensional plane has of height. Only through shadows can human beings “see” into the heavenly realm, but these shadows are not cast upon the earth’s geography … shadows made in the heavenly realm are cast upon the mental topography (mental landscape) of humankind, with this mental topography revealed though the actions or acts of fleshly human beings. Unrighteousness is, now, spiritual darkness stemming from something or
someone in the heavenly realm blocking the “light” that is God. And it is the prince of this world that blocks that light. Therefore, the visible things that have been made—the left hand enantiomers—reveal the invisible things of God as the physical precedes the spiritual. The first Adam, a clay corpse before the Lord breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, serves as the visible, physical shadow and copy of the last Adam, a living human being before the divine breath of the Father descended upon Him as a dove, thereby imparting a second life, a spiritual life—as the right hand enantiomer—within the same mortal tent of flesh as was born of water from the womb of Mary. The first Adam and the last Adam are enantiomorphs, with chirality being the central metaphor informing typological exegesis.
Divine revelation is about assigning significance to what human persons would not otherwise assign significance, or know is significant.
The time of the end is a short period that precedes and includes seven endtime years of tribulation—the seven years or 2520 days between the Second Passover liberation of a second Israel and the Second Advent, the promised coming of the Messiah. It is during the time of the end that The Philadelphia Church delivers Jesus’ words of and about the Endurance, the last 1260 days of these seven endtime years … The Philadelphia Church delivers the endtime good news that all who endure to the end shall be saved (Matt 24:13; 10:22). All shall be saved from Death, the fourth horseman; for this demonic king will have been defeated, will have been dealt a death blow with the resurrection of the two witnesses, and will have had his body given over to be burned halfway through those seven years (Dan 7:11–12). The kingdom of the world will, then (halfway through), have become the kingdom of the Most High and of His Christ. Satan will have been cast from heaven, and will no longer be the prince of the power of the air. A ransom of firstborns—including the firstfruits of God the Father—will have been paid for the liberation of humanity. And the third part of humanity will be, during the second half of those seven years, tested as gold is tested (i.e., under pressure), and will be refined as silver is refined (i.e., by smelting). This third part of humanity, as the third son born to the last Eve, will be accepted by God, and will become the progenitors of humanity during Christ’s Millennium reign as Seth, the third son of the first Adam, was the progenitor of present day humanity, a statement that has caveats. All of this, however, must be seen in unsealed prophecies.
Daniel, greatly loved by God, was given knowledge of what would happen to his people at the end of the age (Dan 10:14; 8:17, 26; 2:28; 12:4, 9) … in actuality, Daniel was given the same vision four times (twice squared), with differing aspects emphasized in the four visions, these aspects placing the visions (when unsealed) in their context.
The word of knowledge that Daniel received was understood by him, but he was given no knowledge of long much time would pass before his people Israel [Daniel was a eunuch and as such was separated from physically circumcised Israel] arrived at the generic time of the end.
The first of Daniel’s visions is the one that troubled King Nebuchadnezzar:
You saw, O king, and behold, a great image. This image, mighty and of exceeding brightness, stood before you, and its appearance was frightening. The head of this image was of fine gold, its chest and arms of silver, its middle and thighs of bronze, its legs of iron, its feet partly of iron
and partly of clay. As you looked, a stone was cut out by no human hand, and it struck the image on its feet of iron and clay, and broken them in pieces. Then the iron, the clay, the bronze, the silver, and the gold, all together were broken in pieces, and became like the chaff of the summer threshing floors; and the wind carried them away, so that not a trace of them could be found. But the stone that struck the image became a great mountain and filled the whole earth. (Dan 2:31-35)
Traditionally, prophecy pundits armed with Daniel’s interpretation of this vision have laid the vision atop secular history and have figuratively shouted, Eureka!, as if truly enlightened and not simply deceived. These single breath-of-life pundits cluster with many others of like mind, all saying the same things, the things that others before them proclaimed … they are as two-dimensional points that upon stumbling onto a cylinder, speak profoundly about the circumference of the circle, their wisdom then taught to successive generations of students as if they truly had something worth saying.
Traditional prophecy pundits have concluded that the humanoid figure seen by King Nebuchadnezzar has very long, stilt-like legs that are the many revivals of the Roman and Holy Roman Empire.
Nowhere in Daniel’s visions is there any mention of Rome or the Roman Empire. Babylon is mentioned; Persia is mentioned; Greece is mentioned, but not Rome. For the vision ends with just before the “sons of Light” victory over the King of the North, which in the physical isn’t Rome but is the Seleucid Empire, which lasted from 312 to 63 BCE when the Parthians held the eastern majority of the Empire and Rome the western portion … much of the eastern portion of the Seleucid Empire was conquered by the Parthians under Mithridates I mid 2nd-Century BCE, but Seleucid kings continued to rule a pared down state from Syria until their ultimate overthrow by the Roman Pompey. The Seleucids never linked themselves to any geographical area as Parthians did, as Persians did; so the Seleucid king appears in secular records as the <King of Syria> and as the <King of Asia>; yet at its height, Chinese ambassadors favorably compared the Seleucid Empire to their own empire, and theirs was the equal of the Roman Empire. So this Hellenistic Greek Empire was far more important and powerful than most Western Christians realize.
Spiritual sons of light will defeat the demonic king of the North is a far different way than the Maccabees defeated armies sent south by the King of Syria.
Western Christians usually know more about the Greek Ptolemaic Empire than they do about the Seleucid Empire, thanks to plays about Cleopatra (Cleopatra VII Philopator) and her dalliances with Caesar and Mark Anthony … in the physical—the history that sealed and kept secret Daniel’s visions—the King of the South was represented by the Ptolemaic Empire while the King of the North was represented by the Seleucid Empire. These are the two legs of the humanoid image King Nebuchadnezzar saw in vision. In the physical, these two empires represent two of the four horns that appear from around the stump of the broken first horn, the great king of the King of Greece (Dan 8:8). But in the spiritual, all four horns are demonic kings that appear after the first and great demonic king that serves as the firstborn son of the Adversary is suddenly broken (because he is “first”) at the Second Passover liberation of Israel. Broken because he is first, an uncovered [by the blood of Christ] firstborn.
Again, the Roman Empire has no place in Daniel’s visions.
Inserting the Roman Empire into Daniel’s vision is adding to Scripture what never was in Scripture and what doesn’t belong in Scripture—
Inserting Rome into Daniel’s visions should never have happened and certainly shouldn’t be continued. But human nature, received from God as King Nebuchadnezzar learned (Dan 4:16–17) and subject to the broadcast of the Prince of the power of the air (Eph 2:2) and not solely a derivative of biology, causes humankind to assign meaning to signs and symbols, even when the assignment is illogical … the meanings assigned will “seem right” to the person assigning them, but when their assignment defies logic, someone needs to say something. However, the scent of logic, no matter how faint, goes far when that scent is found in Scripture.
If there’s a whiff of logic supporting an assigned meaning, the matter is satisfactorily established for most of Christendom: the meaning of sealed and secret signs [visions] is said to be known, the prophecy “understood,” and fellowships and denominations incorporate the assignment into prophetic gospels that are not of God.
Again, when it comes to Daniel’s visions, the easiest means of determining whether an assignment is of God will be to see if the assignment incorporates Rome, the Roman Empire, or the Roman Church into Daniel’s visions. If the assignment does, the assignment is of Protestant or Arian Christian origin, and the one making the assignment lacks spiritual understanding.
Remember, the angel that brought Daniel knowledge of what would happen to Daniel’s people was resisted by the prince and kings of Persia. When he left Daniel, he would have to fight with the prince of Persia, then would come the prince of Greece (Dan 10:20). So the rulers or sars of these secular nations are, in reality, powerful spirit beings. The angel who spoke with Daniel had, himself, stood up to confirm and strengthen Darius the Mede (Dan 11:1).
Daniel’s sealed prophecies are about what happens in the spiritual realm at the end of the age. They were sealed by their shadows seeming to fulfill the described events. Therefore, Protestant or Arian pundits that would have Daniel’s visions being about their earthly shadows are themselves physically or carnally minded. These pundits, whether ad men or con men, have used their natural minds and history books to deceive many. They are false prophets, teaching false interpretations, creating false expectations, thereby insuring that these prophecies remain sealed and secret, and causing the people of God to perish for lack of knowledge, with those who are perishing believing that these false prophets genuinely proclaim the endtime gospel that will prepare a people for Christ Jesus. Truly, Satan employs disguised ministers of righteousness to keep from the saints knowledge that they, as the firstborn sons of God, need as they await being sacrificed as Christ Jesus, the first of the firstfruits, was sacrificed.
Because prophecies have been sealed and because the hirelings shepherding the Christian laity remain carnally minded, saints will go to their deaths with as little awareness of why they are being slaughtered as had the lambs awareness of why they were sacrificed on the altar in the stone temple at Jerusalem. As a result, many, certainly most of the saints will rebel against God when the lawless one (the man of perdition) is revealed (2 Thess 2:3). This lawless one comes by the workings of Satan (v. 9). He is the one who attempts to change times and the law (Dan 7:25), the one who will declare himself God on day 220 of the Affliction, the day of the Apostasy.
In recording his vision, John wrote, “I, John, your brother and partner in the Affliction and Kingdom and Endurance in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. I was in spirit on the Lord's day …” (Rev 1:9–10). There is no definite article for “Kingdom” or “Endurance” or “spirit”; so these nouns are not definite nouns. Rather, the “Kingdom” and “Endurance” are joined to the “Affliction” (which has its definite article) to form one continuous period seven prophetic years long, that is 2520 days long.
The Affliction forms the mirror image [enantimer] of the Endurance in Jesus, both being 1260 days long. But the Affliction cannot be superimposed on the Endurance; for they are reversed images and not on the same plane. In the Affliction, the lawless one will be a human person, an Arian Christian, that is possessed by the Adversary on day 220, the count beginning with the Second Passover liberation of a second Israel as day zero. But on the doubled day 1260, dominion over the kingdom of this world is taken from the Adversary and given to the Son of Man (e.g., Dan 7:9–14; Rev 11:15–18). So on the doubled day 1260, on the first day 1260 the Adversary remains the prince of this world, but this dominion is taken from him so that on the second day 1260 (the beginning the countdown to the Second Advent), dominion has been given to the Son of Man who is then the Prince of this world—and the Adversary, given the mind of a man, has been cast to the earth:
Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon. And the dragon and his angels fought back, but he was defeated, and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, "Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God. And they have conquered him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, for they loved not their lives even unto death. Therefore, rejoice, O heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to you, O earth and sea, for the devil has come down to you in great wrath, because he knows that his time is short!" (Rev 12:7–12)
Satan wasn’t cast from heaven in the 1st-Century CE. Christ Jesus doesn’t presently reign over the mental landscape of living creatures: He is not responsible for the evil one human person does to another. The Adversary is. The Adversary remains the prince of the power of the air, and humanity remains sons of disobedience, consigned to disobedience by God so that He can have mercy on all (e.g., Eph 2:2–3; Rom 11:32). So in no honest assessment of the human condition can the conclusion be drawn that God and His Christ rule the mental landscape of living creatures. And about this subject, the prophet Isaiah records,
There shall come forth a shoot from the stump of Jesse, and a branch from his roots shall bear fruit. And the pirit of the Lord shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. And His delight shall be in the fear of the Lord. He shall not judge by what His eyes see, or decide disputes by what His ears hear, but with righteousness He shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth; and He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips He shall kill the wicked. Righteousness shall be the belt of His waist, and faithfulness the belt of His loins. The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, and the calf and the lion and the fattened calf together; and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze; their young shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. The nursing child shall play over the hole of the cobra, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the adder's den. They shall not hurt or destroy in all my holy mountain; for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. In that day the root of Jesse, who shall stand as a signal for the peoples—of Him shall the nations inquire, and His resting place shall be glorious. In that day the Lord will extend His hand yet a second time to recover the remnant that remains of His people, from Assyria, from Egypt, from Pathros, from Cush, from Elam, from Shinar, from Hamath, and from the coastlands of the sea. (Isa 11:1–11 emphasis added)
The Messiah comes from the root of Jesse, not David, and is therefore of a parallel line of kings to the kingly line that descended from David. And in that day when the animal natures of the great predators is changed so that there shall be no harm in all of the Lord’s holy mountain, the branch grown from the stump of Jesse shall extend His hand a second time to recover the remnant of His people, the first time being when He extended His hand to bring the fathers of Israel out from slavery in Egypt in the days of Moses, meaning that the branch grown from the stump of Jesse preexisted both Jesse and David, the solution to the riddle of the Psalm that Matthew’s Jesus used to silence Pharisees.
The solution to the riddle given Daniel—“‘And from the time that the regular burnt offering is taken away and the abomination that makes desolate is set up, there shall be 1,290 days. Blessed is he who waits and arrives at the 1,335 days’” (Dan 12:11–12)—is in when to start the count for the 1290 days … what is translated as the regular burnt offering or as the daily sacrifice is in text simply <the daily>, and what do Christians do daily? They put on the righteousness of Christ Jesus, theologically known as “grace” with this righteousness functioning as a garment that cloaks the disciples, thereby covering the transgressions of the disciple in the heavenly realm so that these transgressions cannot be seen by anyone other than Christ, the disciple’s High Priest. This is the reality of the Azazel, with both goats representing Israel’s sin offering (Lev 16:7–10), the goat sacrificed on the altar atoning for Israel’s sins in this world, the Azazel covering the sins of Israel in a far land, heaven.
At the Second Passover liberation of a second Israel, the greater Christian Church, disciples will be filled-with and empowered by the spirit of God, but not born of spirit. However, being filled with spirit will liberate disciples from indwelling Sin and Death. No longer will disciples need the cloak of Christ’s righteousness; no longer will disciples be covered by grace. Disciples will be figuratively disrobed (Luke 17:30) and made naked before God, covered only by their own obedience.
Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. (Rom 6:16–19)
Following the Second Passover liberation of a second Israel from slavery to indwelling Sin and Death, the daily will be Christians daily being obedient to God, thus presenting themselves to God as slaves of righteousness leading to sanctification. So the Christian daily will end with the Apostasy, when the vast majority of greater Christendom will rebel against God, thereby taking Sin back inside themselves, which will be unforgivable blasphemy against the spirit … by returning to Sin when no sacrifice remains for transgression of the Law, the Christian’s life becomes his or her sacrifice. And with only one life to give, the Christian will perish in the lake of fire.
The difference between Christ Jesus and Christians in the greater Church is that Christ had two lives, two breaths of life, dwelling in one earthly body. Thus, He was able to give one life at Calvary for the sins of Israel, the reality of the goat sacrificed on the altar on Yom Kipporim. And according to Peter, in His second “life” He preached to imprisoned spirits (1 Pet 3:18–20) for the three days His earthly body lay dead in the Garden Tomb.
The Elect have been born of spirit, having passed from death to life without coming under judgment; thus, the Elect have two indwelling breaths of life, and can therefore be sacrificed for Israel and still live, simultaneously life as Jesus did following Calvary, the riddle of the two witnesses’ testimony against Death, the fourth horseman (Rev 6:8).
Death as a demonic king cannot kill the human person truly born of spirit even though Death can kill the person’s fleshly body, with Matthew’s Jesus telling His disciples, “‘And do not fear those who kill the body [soma] but cannot kill the soul [psuche]. Rather fear Him who can destroy both soul and body in hell’” (Matt 10:28).
The mortal wound dealt to Death, the demonic king of the North, the beast that appears as a cross, comes via Death’s inability to kill the two witnesses, with this inability to kill Christ, who came from heaven, and inability to kill the two witnesses who are sons of Adam (dual referents) revealing Death to be a fraud, his sting of no greater consequence than a bee sting.
So, returning to Daniel’s visions, the end of the daily comes with the Apostasy 2300 days before the restoring of all things:
Then I heard a holy one speaking, and another holy one said to the one who spoke, "For how long is the vision concerning the regular burnt offering, the transgression that makes desolate, and the giving over of the sanctuary and host to be trampled underfoot?" And he said to me, "For 2,300 evenings and mornings. Then the sanctuary shall be restored to its rightful state." … The vision of the evenings and the mornings that has been told is true, but seal up the vision, for it refers to many days from now." (Dan 8:13–14, 26)
The sanctuary will be restored to its rightful state with the coming of Christ as King of kings and Lord of lords [the Second Advent], day zero of the Endurance in Christ. This will be 1260 days after dominion over the single kingdom of this world is given to the Son of Man.
The Christian daily ends with the rebellion of greater Christendom against God; ends when the Christian Church universal ceases to cover itself with obedience to God stemming from belief of God [faith, pisteos]. And this taking away of the daily occurs 2300 days before restoration of the sanctuary occurs with the Second Advent. And subtracting 2300 from 2520, disciples find that the Apostasy will occur on day 220 of the Affliction, and disciples will find that the Apostasy is centered around worship of Christ on the day after the Sabbath, and is therefore a transgression of the Sabbath.
A couple of principles can here be introduced that will be examined in later installments of this series: Christ Jesus was sacrificed on the day portion of the 14th day of the first month. He was “buried” in the Garden Tomb all day on the 15th day of this first month, the High Sabbath, or great Sabbath of the Sabbath (John 19:31). He was then in the tomb all day on the 16th day of this first month, and all day on the 17th day of this first month, with the 17th day being the weekly Sabbath. Then before dawn on the 18th day of this first month, He was resurrected from death and He left the tomb in the dark so that He was gone from the tomb when Mary came at or just before dawn on the day after the Sabbath (John 20:1).
If Jesus is to be believed, He was three days and three nights in the heart of the earth, meaning that He was crucified on Wednesday, the 14th day of the first month, and resurrected on the 18th day of the first month, the day after the Sabbath. Therefore, this will have the first high Sabbath of Unleavened Bread, the 15th day, occurring on a Thursday.
When possible or likely years for Jesus’ crucifixion are examined, this day-to-date linking has the year of His crucifixion being 31 CE, and the date of His crucifixion being April 25th (Julian).
Jesus entered Jerusalem as the Passover Lamb of God on Sabbath, the 10th day of Aviv, the day when Passover lambs were to be selected and the day when the children of Israel crossed the Jordan to enter the Promised Land (Josh 4:19).
When taking these dates to rabbinical Judaism’s calculated calendar (which wasn’t in existence until after the razing of the temple in 70 CE), we find that they would have occurred in the second month, the month of Iyyar; that the 15th day of Aviv as reckoned by temple officials is the 15th day of Iyyar, the second Passover.
When God is involved, coincidences usually aren’t coincidences: seven prophetic years, or 2520 days, is 35 days short of seven solar years. If what the Lord told Moses about the month of the Passover being the beginning of months (Ex 12:2), and if the Passover is one of two referents for the linguistic signifier <Passover>, the Second Passover liberation of a second Israel being the spiritual referent, then disciples should expect the month of the Passover to be the beginning of months for Israel in the Millennium, with a remnant of Israel entering into the Millennium on the 10th day of the first month, five days before the Passover about which Matthew’s Jesus told His disciples, “‘I tell you I will not drink again of this fruit of the vine until that day when I drink it new with you in my Father's kingdom’” (Matt 26:29).
To get the Passover to line up with the Passover seven years later, the 35 day difference between prophetic years and solar years must be addressed … if a person were to go from the second Passover in an example year such as 2017—May 11th, a Thursday—and count forward 2520 days, a person arrives at April 4, 2024, also a Thursday and five days before the beginning of the new sacred year. Thus, by beginning the count for the seven endtime years on the second Passover in a year like 2017, the beginning of the sacred new year seven years in the future would be 2520+5 days away.
If a person were to go to an example year such as 2024, the second Passover would be on May 23rd, a Thursday, and 2520 days later would be April 17, 2031, a Thursday following (by a day) the second high Sabbath of the Feast of Unleavened Bread.
What’s seen is that 220 days after a Thursday will be a Sunday; that 2520 days after a Thursday will be a Thursday a month earlier in the year.
Now, what if any is the significance of the preceding?
The Second Passover liberation of a second Israel will occur on a second Passover in a year when the second Passover falls on a Thursday. The Lamb of an appropriate size for the household of God has been slain, and was slain between the evens as Pharisees reckoned when Passover lambs were to be slain in the year 31 CE. It could be that Christ returns in the year 2031, which would then require that the second Passover falls on a Thursday, and it does. It could be that Christ returns in the year 2024, which would require that the second Passover in 2017 fall on a Thursday, and it does. It could be that Christ returns on any year seven years after the second Passover falls on a Thursday. 2011 was such a year, as was 2014. And the Second Passover liberation didn’t occur on either of these years. But if it shall be at the end of the age as it was in the days of Noah, with Noah entering the Ark on the 10th day of his second month, the implication of which is that Noah functioned as a sacrificial lamb for a then unknown second Passover liberation from death, with Noah and the seven with him in the Ark forming the earthly shadow of the glorified Christ and the seven angels to the seven churches, with these seven churches—as if they were seven pairs of clean animals—crossing from one world into the following world.
Because the back side [outside] of the still sealed Scroll that Christ will soon open can be read, revealing darkly the contents of the Scroll, a time line accurate to within plus or minus five days can be established for revealed events before the Second Passover occurs. While the year of the Second Passover cannot be known with certainty, the years on which the Second Passover will not happen can be identified with considerable certainty. It is, therefore, time to address more fully the riddle of the 1290 days.
A Thursday in May begins the seven endtime years, with the Apostasy occurring on a Sunday in December, 220 days later—and from when the Apostasy occurs, the daily is cut off for the next 2300 days (until the Second Advent). Now counting forward from the Apostasy, 1290 days will come 250 days into the Endurance in Jesus, or 250 days after dominion over the single kingdom of this world is given to the Son of Man.
Throughout the Affliction, the first 1260 days of the seven endtime years (the ministry of the two witnesses), the Adversary remains the prince of this world. Thus, the Apostasy occurs because greater Christendom, even though filled with spirit and with the Law written on hearts and placed in their minds, will believe the Adversary rather than God—will believe the still reigning prince of this world. It is takes the Adversary only 220 days to seemingly end what God, Father and Son, have done in liberating greater Christendom from Sin and Death. In fact, between day 220 and day 580, most Christians who are faithful to God will be slain, with this year represented by the opening of the fifth seal (Rev 6:9–11). Therefore, the wrath of the Lamb (the sixth seal, Rev 6:12–17) can come without harming faithful disciples. There simply will not be many left alive. And in this model, faithful disciples are as righteous Abel was, slain by his brother, and rebelling Christians will be as Cain was, a murderer marked by the Lord.
When dominion over the single kingdom of this world is given to the Son of Man, the spirit of God will be poured out on all flesh (Joel 2:28), thereby changing the animal natures of the great predators (Isa 11:6–9) … human nature will also be changed, with all of humanity not previously filled with spirit now so filled and given the nature of Christ Jesus, the newly installed Prince of this world.
The Adversary will be cast to earth and will come claiming to be the Messiah. But wars don’t end. And the Adversary will have a rebellion against him with which he has to deal … 250 days into the Endurance, the majority of humanity will rebel against the Adversary. This is the significance of the 1290 days.
If a person, never before having known God or Christ Jesus as the First of His firstborn sons, believes God and begins to keep the Sabbath; to keep the Law [Torah], this person will have rebelled against the Adversary who has come declaring himself to be the Messiah. Enough of this third part of humanity will believe God that 250 days into the Endurance, the majority of the third part of humanity will be keeping the Sabbath, the least of the Commandments—and if those who have rebelled against the Adversary by keeping the Sabbath, keep the Sabbath for six more weeks, they will have arrived at 1335 days, at which time what the angel tells John in vision applies:
Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus. And I heard a voice from heaven saying, "Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on." "Blessed indeed," says the spirit, "that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!" (Rev 14:12–13)
In a somewhat literal sense, Satan has his fangs pulled on day 1335, counted from the Apostasy; for it will no longer do him any good to kill or have killed a faithful disciple, regardless of whether new in the faith or one of the Elect … blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on, not from before but from when their rebellion against the Adversary as the Antichrist is established through seven weeks of “doing” what they know if right.
In the next installment, we’ll return to Daniel’s visions and work forward.
(To be continued.)
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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."