Israel in Prophecy — the Series - Who Is Israel?

Israel in Prophecy — the Series

What Happens?

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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 your 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). 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 secret until the time of the end (Dan 12:4, 9). It couldn’t be understood by 1^st-Century BCE sons of light, or by a 19^th-Century prophetess, or by a 20^th-Century ad man. It cannot be understood now if humanity hasn’t entered that specific period known as the time of the end.

But the underpinning premise of The Philadelphia Church is that humanity entered the period known prophetically as the time of the end in 2002. The time of the end is a short period that precedes and includes seven years of tribulation that end with the coming of the promised Messiah. It is during this period that The Philadelphia Church delivers Jesus’ words of patient endurance; that The Philadelphia Church delivers the good news that all who endure to the end shall be saved. They shall be saved, for Death, the fourth horseman, will have been defeated, will have been dealt a death blow, and will have had his body given over to be burned halfway through those seven years. 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. 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, but he was also given three other visions that place (when unsealed) in context the knowledge he received. These three visions also are internally dated to the time of the end, and the first of these 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 forthcoming interpretation of this vision have overlaid that interpretation on secular history, and have concluded that this humanoid figure has very long, stilt-like legs that are many revivals of the Roman and Holy Roman Empire. This overlay was, perhaps, necessary for a season. It was adding to Scripture, and as such should not have happened (and certainly shouldn’t be continued). But human nature, received from God as King Nebuchadnezzar learned and not solely the derivative of biology, causes humankind to assign meaning to signs and symbols that seem like they ought to have meaning, even if the assignment defies logic. Thus, when some logic appears to support an assignment of meaning, the matter is satisfactorily established: the meaning of sealed and secret signs is said to be known. The prophecy is “understood,” and fellowships and denominations incorporate their particular assignment of meaning into prophetic gospels that are not of God. And the easiest means of determining whether an assignment of meaning is of God is to see if the assignment incorporates Rome, the Roman Empire, or the Roman Church. If the assignment does, the assignment is of Protestant or Arian Christian origin, and 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). The 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, 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. Because prophecies have been sealed and because the hirelings shepherding them 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 1290 days before the Messiah comes (Dan 12:11 with Dan 11:31 & Matt 24:15). God will deliver the saints into the hand of this man of perdition (again, Dan 7:25). God who allowed slain the Man who stands beside Him (Zech 13:7), whom Jesus identified as Himself (Matt 26:31), will turn His hand against two-thirds (or two of three parts) of the little ones (Zech 13:8). When the Tribulation begins, disciples don’t go to a place of physical safety; they are not bodily raptured to heaven. Rather, they are slain. They die either spiritually when they rebel against God and He sends a great delusion over them, or they die by the hands of their murderous brothers in the Lord.

Consciously or unconsciously, disciples today are preparing the harvest of humanity. They do this in conjunction with Christ Jesus by preparing first themselves to be blemish free, an acceptable sacrifice to the Lord. The language has always been there: disciples are to present their bodies “as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God” (Rom 12:1). Jesus said, “A disciple is not above his teacher, nor a servant above his master. It is enough for the disciple to be like his teacher, and the servant like his master” (Matt 10:24-25). Paul wrote, “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children. And walk in love, as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us, a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God” (Eph 5:1-2). Moses wrote, concerning the Logos and the nation that left Egypt, “The Rock, his work is perfect, for all his ways are justice. A God of faithfulness and without iniquity, just and upright is he. They have dealt corruptly with him; they are no longer his children because they are blemished; they are a crooked and twisted generation” (Deu 32:4-5). The acceptable sacrificial lamb is without blemish. Again, disciples are to present themselves as acceptable sacrifices to God—and as Jesus was, they will be sacrificed for the liberation of the one part of three that shall be God’s people when Christ returns (Zech 13:9). Endtime disciples will be like their Teacher and Master. They have no choice, other than to rebel against God.

Disciples as sons of the last Eve will be as Cain, who was marked as a murderer, or they will be as his righteous brother, who offered an acceptable sacrifice to God. Except for a remnant who keep the commandments and have the spirit of prophecy (Rev 12:17 with Rev 19:10), disciples who begin the seven, endtime years of tribulation will either take upon themselves the mark of the beast, the mark of Death, the tattoo of the Cross [chi xi stigma], thereby revealing themselves to be a blemished and crooked generation—or they will be slain as was righteous Abel, as was Jesus, as faithful saints ever since have been. They are not virgins, in that they have not known sin since their spiritual birth; thus, they are not the 144,000 who in the last half of the seven endtime years follow Jesus wherever He goes (Rev 14:1-5). Rather, they are the reality of the Levitical priesthood, claimed by God in lieu of the firstborn sons of Israel (Num 3:45). They are His to do with as He pleases. And as He gave the life of His Son to redeem those to whom He has given birth as the spiritual nation of Israel, He will give the firstborn of Israel to redeem the third part of humanity. One part will take upon itself the mark of Death, the fourth horseman (Rev 6:8). A second part will be without blemish as righteous Abel was. The third part will be saved if they endure to the end (Matt 10:22; 24:13); they will be saved for their blood price was paid by the firstfruits of God, with Christ Jesus as the first of the firstfruits. And through enduring to the end, the harvest of the earth shall ripen and be reaped.

Disciples are the temple of God (1 Cor 3:16-17), located in the Jerusalem above (Gal 4:26) They are the spiritual reality of the physical temple that Solomon built in the present day Jerusalem three millennia ago. And about the temple Solomon built, the stone was “prepared at the quarry so that neither hammer nor axe nor any tool of iron was heard in the temple while it was being built” (1 Kings 6:7). In the Most Holy Place—the inner sanctuary—of Solomon’s temple, no stone was seen. Cedar overlaid the stone, and gold covered the cedar. The entirety of the inner sanctuary was sheathed in gold, as was the nave…the radiance or brilliance of pure gold cannot be easily appreciated in an age when gold is alloyed with copper to increase its toughness and wearability. As a result, disciples in the modern era, each dwelling in tabernacles of flesh that are comparable to stone or earthenware vessels (disciples are living stones — 1 Pet 2:5), do not well appreciate how they, as sons of God, appear in the spiritual realm. The inner sanctuary of Solomon’s temple was sheathed in gold to better represent this earthly temple as the shadow of a single spiritual temple in the Jerusalem above. The single temple consists of every disciple as if every disciple was a hologram representing the entirety of the temple. The radiance of pure gold—and of pure silver—crudely approximates the brilliance of life in the heavenly realm. Therefore, since rest was given to Israel during Solomon’s reign (1 Chron 22:9, 17-19), Solomon’s reign and his construction of the temple is analogous to the creation of the Church, especially during the millennial reign of Christ Jesus. The radiant brilliance of gold, then, is used in analogy to portray spiritual life.

The above point needs remembered: gold and silver were as common as stone in Jerusalem during Solomon’s reign (2 Chron 1:15). During Christ Jesus’ millennial reign, all of humanity will have been born of Spirit (Joel 2:28); all will have spiritual life. Thus, during Christ’s reign, spiritual life will be as common as physical life is today—gold and silver will be as common as stone. And during Solomon’s reign, the weight of bronze was not sought (2 Chron 4:18) for there was so much of it.

Returning now to the image that Daniel and King Nebuchadnezzar saw, four metals were present: gold, silver, bronze, and iron. In making Solomon’s temple, the same four metals are mentioned, with no sound of iron being heard in Jerusalem. Gold has the greatest luster, the greatest radiance, and as such is most valuable. Silver is next in luster, radiance, and is next to gold in value. Bronze is the utilitarian metal, with so much of it present that it isn’t weighed. And the shaping of stone and wood with iron tools is done off-site, done at the quarry. Likewise, the shaping of disciples as living stones is not done in the Jerusalem above, but here on earth. The shaping and fitting together of disciples into the living temple of God occurs prior to the beginning of Christ’s millennial reign.

The feet of the image Nebuchadnessar saw were iron mixed with miry (or unfired) clay. If the radiance of metals represent the brilliance of spiritual life, then clay has no spiritual life. Nor will physical life better cling to spiritual life than soft clay does to metal. Clay clinging to a shovel is rather easily knocked off; it is certainly not alloyed to the iron of the shovel. However, when clay is fired and vitrified (made into a ceramic object), even a chard of the object will whet iron, will wear away iron, will sharpen the hardest steel edge. Therefore, maintaining consistency in imagery, the clay of the image’s toes neither has spiritual life, nor is the third part of humanity that will be refined as silver is refined and tested as gold is tested (again, Zech 13:9), an important point to remember in the timing of events.

Daniel interprets the dream that he and Nebuchadnezzar saw:

This is the dream. Now we will tell the king its interpretation. You, O king, the king of kings, to whom the God of heaven has given the kingdom, the power, and the might, and the glory, and into whose hand he has given, wherever they dwell, the children of man, the beasts of the field, and the birds of the heavens, making you rule over all—you are the head of gold. (Dan 2:36-38)

Men do not rule over the birds of the heaven: eagles and hawks migrated over Judea and Chaldea on their way from Europe and Asia to Africa centuries before Nebuchadnezzar came to power and centuries after. Their migrations and their predator natures are controlled by the prince of the power of the air (Eph 2:2), into whose hand God has consigned humanity (Rom 11:32) so that He can have mercy on all. But when the Holy Spirit is poured out on all flesh (again, Joel 2:28), the nature of both great and small predators will change: the lion shall lie down with the lamb (Isa 11:6-9). There shall no longer be harm in the holy mountain of God, for Satan will have been cast down (Rev 12:9-10) and bound in the bottomless pit (Rev 20:2-3). It is Satan who is the spiritual king of Babylon (Isa 14:4-21).

Nebuchadnezzar never ruled over the children of men in China or Chili. Either Daniel addresses the king in hyperbole, or what he tells the king (satisfying as it is to the king) pertains to the spiritual king of Babylon, of which Nebuchadnezzar is his earthly shadow, used by God to punish Israel for the nation’s lawlessness. The Apostle Paul commanded the saints at Corinth to turn the one who had his father’s wife over to Satan for the destruction of the flesh so that the man’s spirit might be saved (1 Cor 5:1-13). So too did God turn His firstborn son (Exod 4:22) Israel over to the king of Babylon for the destruction of the nation so that some might be saved through spiritual circumcision of heart and mind (Deu 30:1-6). Likewise, God turned the Church over to the spiritual king of Babylon for the same lawless reasons that He sent the physical nation into captivity—the Church by the 4^th-Century would not walk in His ways and profaned the Sabbaths of God. And herein is how the visions of Daniel have been sealed and kept secret until the time of the end. Earthly Babylon serves as the lively shadow of spiritual Babylon, the appearance of which is seen in the image Daniel and the king saw.

All of biblical prophecy is about two kingdoms, both represented by human-like figures. The first is Babylon, presently reigning over the earth. The other is the Son of Man, the Head of which is Christ Jesus, the body of which are disciples, glorified when Christ returns. Because of the timeless nature of the heavenly realm, what is must co-exist with what will be in a dance of oneness. Thus, the Son of Man, however, cannot reign over the same mental topography that Babylon presently rules. Babylon must fall before the Son of Man can receive power. Therefore, the seven, endtime years are about the breaking of Babylon and the emergence in power of the Son of Man. The middle of these seven years sees the transference of power. And as the first half of these seven years sees the decline and fall of Babylon, the second half sees the harvest of humanity and the establishment of those human beings who, by faith, will rule with and will be ruled by Christ Jesus.

Because saints as the Body of the Son of Man cannot receive power until Babylon falls, and because saints are liberated from lawlessness through empowerment by the Holy Spirit at the beginning of the seven endtime years of tribulation, saints must necessarily be delivered into the hand of the man of perdition for a time, times, and half a time (again, Dan 7:25). With empowerment, saints are no longer under bondage to the law of sin that presently dwells in their members (Rom 7:25). They will have complete power over the flesh in a foretaste to glorification. Thus, they are placed in subjection to a man of sin, to an outside power that they must overcome.

(to be continued)

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