May 24, 2008 ©Homer Kizer
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Commentary —
From the Margins
Chapter Six: A New War Scroll
_______________
In February 2004, in the Shaffer
House at Old Bedford
Village, Bedford, Pennsylvania,
I wrote A New War Scroll, an e-book
length essay that marked a transition in understanding from using typology to
reread prophecy to using typology as prophecy. Chapter One appeared as the
commentary dated March 27, 2008. Chapter Six is here presented:
Chapter Six
Following the signing of the Declaration
of Independence, George
Washington and the Continental Army took on perhaps the most powerful army in
the world. It wasn’t possible for Washington
to defeat the British in a single all-out battle, but either intentionally or
unintentionally he developed the strategy of just keeping an army in the field
and letting the British make enemies of their Colonial allies. This is the
essence of guerilla warfare. The invading army eventually alienates the
civilian population simply by being an occupying force. All Washington had to do was to win a battle
once in a while so that his forces appeared viable; he just had to stay in the
field, stay fighting, keep the fight going. And this is the essence of
Christianity. All a disciple must do is to keep fighting against lawlessness.
Do what is right. Lawlessness cannot be defeated in a day, nor does it need to
be. The fight is over a lifetime.
Once a human
being—a son of disobedience—is born of spirit, lawlessness becomes
an alien mindset, an occupying force arising from within the fleshly members
that had been ruled by the “old man,” or old self. Lawlessness is
the mind and nature of the Adversary. And the infant son of God must fight
against the lawlessness that continues to reside in the flesh … the
Apostle Paul did not understand his own actions (Rom 7:15). He did not
understand why he did what he didn’t want to do and didn’t do what
he knew to do. What he concluded was that the law of God was in his mind, but
the law of sin and death continued to reside in his flesh (vv. 21–25). And this is and will be the state of every
disciple until the second Passover liberation of Israel, when disciples are
empowered by, or filled with the Holy Spirit [B<,Ø:" –(4@<], thereby leaving no room in their flesh for sin
and death. Then, whatever the mind of the disciple desires to do, the flesh
will respond: the mind of the disciple shall rule over the flesh. And the
disciple who desires to keep the law of God and to serve God with heart mind
and body shall be able to do so.
The second
Passover is about the liberation of Israel from indwelling sin and
death—and with liberation, the Son of Man shall be revealed (Luke
17:26–30). Both the presently uncovered Head [Christ] and covered Body
[the Church] will be made naked, and will be covered only with its obedience.
No longer will Christ Jesus need to bear the sins or lawlessness of Israel in the
heavenly realm; for without indwelling sin, disciples will be able to cover
their own nakedness with their obedience to God. And if they do not cover their
nakedness with obedience, they will take sin back within themselves when no
sacrifice for them remains: they will commit blasphemy against the Holy Spirit,
which will not be forgiven them.
When the Father
delivers Israel into the
hand of the man of perdition (Dan 7:25) because of the lawlessness of this holy
nation (1 Pet 2:9)—and Israel
has indeed been a lawless nation—He will first empower disciples through
the Holy Spirit so that no sin remains dwelling within their flesh.
As Paul commanded
the saints at Corinth to deliver the man who was with his father’s wife
to Satan for the destruction of the flesh (1 Cor 5:5); and as the Lord
delivered first the house of Israel into the hand of the Assyrians, then the
house of Judah into the hand of the Babylonians, the Lord of hosts shall cut
off two parts of Israel—the sheep of the Shepherd whom He caused to be
struck (cf. Zech 13:7; Matt
26:31)—and shall deliver these two parts into the hand of the Adversary
and his agent for the destruction of the flesh so that their spirit might be
saved in the day when judgments are revealed … the Church does not miss
any part of the Tribulation. It will not go to a place of physical safety. It
will not be raptured to heaven. It will not spend the Millennium in heaven
while havoc reigns on earth. Instead, it will perish because of its disbelief
that has become disobedience. Only a remnant of the pre-Tribulation Church will
enter the last 1260 days of the seven endtime years (Rev 12:17).
The woman of
Revelation chapter 12 is Zion,
the last Eve, and her offspring are the children she shall bring forth in a day
(Isa 66:8). She, however, is not her offspring—and she will flee through
the split Mount of Olives (Zech 14:3–5) that closes behind her to swallow
the armies of the man of perdition (Ex 15:12; Rev 12:16) … the 144,000
that follow the Lamb wherever He goes are not part of today’s Christian
Church, but are natural Israelites who are born of spirit, and born empowered,
during the first 1260 days of those seven endtime years. They will be spiritual
virgins, meaning that they will never have committed sin in the heavenly realm,
which also means that they never had life in the heavenly realm when sin dwelt
in their flesh to make the new creature obey its dictates. They were born of
spirit after demonstrated obedience by faith—and it will take
considerable faith to keep the Sabbath once the man of perdition attempts to
change times and the law.
In the natural
world, the labor pains of childbirth precede the birth of the child for a short
while. For a firstborn son or daughter, the labor pains might last as long as a
day, possibly longer although today, a baby would be taken before allowing hard
labor to go on for so long. The point is the hard labor pains of childbirth
precede delivery, but when Zion
brings forth a spiritual Cain and a spiritual Abel, childbirth will precede
this woman’s hard labor pains.
The prophet Isaiah
records,
Before she was in labor
she gave birth;
before her pain came upon her
she delivered a son.
Who has heard such a thing?
Who has seen such things?
Shall a land be born in one day?
Shall
a nation be brought forth in one moment?
For as soon as Zion was in labor
she brought forth her children. (66:7–8)
The labor pains of
the first Eve would have preceded the delivery of Cain, Abel, and Seth. But the
labor pains of the last Eve, Zion,
shall follow the birth of the three parts of humankind: Cain, Abel, and halfway
through the seven endtime years, Seth. The first 1260 days of the seven endtime
years of tribulation will be the hard labor pains for a spiritual Cain and a
spiritual Abel, with the last 1260 days being the hard labor for a spiritual
Seth. However, the woman shall be saved through childbirth, and those human
beings who endure the first year of the last 1260 days shall be blessed. Those
who endure to the end shall be saved (Matt 24:13), and this is the endtime
gospel that must be proclaimed to all the world as a witness to all nations (v. 14).
Again, the first
1260 days of the Tribulation are the hard labor pains of Zion bringing forth
two sons, one a murderer, one righteous … in typology the visible things
of this natural world reveal the invisible things of God (Rom 1:20), but they
do so as a darkened [unlit] mirror.
When first
examined, the natural things of this world form the spiritually lifeless
shadows of the things of God: physically circumcised Israel
is the lively representation (Jonathon Edwards’ phrase) of the
spiritually circumcised [i.e., circumcised of heart] nation of Israel.
The natural Israelite dwelling in a house in Egypt and serving Pharaoh as
Pharaoh’s bondservant forms the shadow and copy of a born of spirit
disciple dwelling in a tent of flesh in this world, serving the prince of this
world as a bondservant to disobedience. This imagery is easy to visualize: a
person merely has to observe his or her own shadow to see that the shadow is a
lively but lifeless representation of the person in one less dimension than the
person occupies. Light coming from behind a standing person will form a shadow
lying on the ground that stretches horizontally in a proportional scale to the
height of the person and the angle with which the light strikes the person.
Therefore, the shadow cast by the humanoid image King Nebuchadnezzar
saw—this image in heaven—stretches across history from
Nebuchadnezzar to Antiochus Epiphanes IV, lying not on the earth but upon the
mental topography of human beings: the vertical image casts a horizontal
shadow, with God being the light that is “blocked” by the humanoid
image of Satan’s reigning hierarchy. And all of this is so simple that
spiritual toddlers old enough to recognize symbols (meaning that they are
spiritually equivalent in age to a human infant of 36 months) can grasp
typological exegesis at this level.
With light coming
from behind a person and as the person observes his or her shadow and reaches
up with the person’s right hand to tug on the person’s right ear
lobe, the shadow will display this same motion of tugging on the ear lobe that
lays to the person’s right side. Now—and here is the
catch—when this darkened shadow receives a little illumination as the
moon dimly reflects the light of the sun, what is seen in the shadow is not the
back of the person’s head, where the light strikes the person to form the
shadow, but the mirror image of the person’s face … the shadow
faces the person as 2,ÎH faces 2,`< (John 1:1–2), with the accents over the
“o” disclosing this face to face relationship imbedded within the
Tetragrammaton YHWH. As the Father
looked “down” from heaven upon His firstborn Son, the Son looked
“upward” from the earth toward the Father, thereby continuing the
relationship that had existed prior to 2,ÎH entering His creation (v. 3) as His only Son (John 3:16; 1:14), the man Jesus of Nazareth.
The Promised Land
of Canaan is a type of God’s rest (Ps 95:10–11), for the
“eyes of the Lord [YHWH] your
God [Elohim] are always upon it, from
the beginning of the year to the end of the year” (Deut 11:12). And it is
entering into this “presence” of the Lord—this continual
observation—that constitutes entering into His rest. Moses records,
“And he [YHWH] said, ‘My
presence will go with you, and I will give you rest’” (Ex 33:14),
and Moses came down from the mountain not knowing “that the skin of his
face shone because he had been talking with God” (Ex 34:29). And from henceforth
Moses put a veil over his face except when speaking the words of the Lord and
when in the tent of meeting with the Lord. The glory that radiated from
Moses’ face was the ongoing testimony of the Lord that Moses had entered
into His presence, into His rest. This glory was concealed from Israel by a
veil that formed the shadow and copy of the veil of the temple that barred
priests from entering into the Holy of holy, the presence of God, except on Yom Kipporim and then only after the
high priest made an atonement for himself and for Israel.
In the shadow, the
glory that shone from Moses’ face was received prior to Moses putting on
the veil—Moses entered into the presence of God prior to putting on the
veil—but in the reality, the veil precluded Israel from entering into
God’s glory until that glory came in the form of the man Jesus of
Nazareth. Then the veil was rent, top to bottom, for the eyes of the Father
looked downward on His firstborn Son. The way was made by which disciples could
enter into the Father’s presence face to face whereas Moses could only
see the back of the Lord, for Moses entering into the presence of God formed
the lifeless shadow of disciples entering His presence.
Understanding
typological exegesis at a child-like level overwhelms most Christians and
leaves them lost and confused, but comprehending typology as an adolescent son
of God causes even greater problems, especially for biblical literalists. The
son of God who has grown in grace and knowledge will reveal the concealed mysteries
of God that disclose the deceit and falseness of all literalists, but this son
of God will not be understood by those spiritual infants still nursing the
teats of sola scriptura.
When an earthly
shadow of an intangible heavenly phenomenon receives even a little
illumination, disciples realize, because the first Eve’s labor pains
preceded childbirth and the last Eve’s labor pains will follow
childbirth, that spiritual Abel will be revealed before Cain is: today,
disciples collectively form spiritual Isaac (Gal 4:21–31), but are
individually either of Esau or Jacob, twins sons of Isaac that have not yet
been born through Zion giving birth to a nation in a day. Paul wrote,
“[W]hen Rebecca had conceived children by one man, our forefather Isaac,
though they were not yet born and had done nothing good or bad—in order
that God’s purpose of election might continue, not because of works but
because of his call—she was told, ‘The older will serve the
younger.’ As it is written, ‘Jacob I loved, but Esau I hated’”
(Rom 9:10–13). There is a correspondence between Cain and Esau, and
between Abel and Jacob:
·
At the second
Passover, unlike in the 1st-Century when salvation came first to the
Jew then to the Gentile, liberation from indwelling sin and death will come first
to the Gentile convert now a professed Christian then to the Jew who today
denies Christ.
·
The nation
born in a day will be liberated from indwelling sin and death prior to this
nation eating the Passover sacraments of bread and wine on the night that Jesus
was betrayed: today, few in Christendom take the sacraments as Jesus gave the
example and as Paul commanded (1 Cor 11:23–26).
·
When liberated
from indwelling sin, all of Christendom will be as righteous Abel was.
·
But when the
man of sin is revealed(2 Thess 2:3), most of Christendom will rebel against God
and will return to sin, thereby revealing who is of Cain; for those who rebel
will seek to kill their righteous brothers.
·
Yet today,
while both sons are in the womb of grace, the one who will be of Cain is hated
by God while the one who will be of Abel is loved even though no sin is imputed
to either; for the one who is of Cain does not attempt to walk uprightly as a
man before God.
In order that God’s purpose of election might
continue, not because of works but because of call, two sons strive together within Christendom, one
a son of light, the other a son of darkness who has been called by God as Judas
Iscariot was called so that Scripture would be fulfilled (John 17:12) …
within Christendom are many sons of God called to fulfill Scripture about
brothers betraying brothers and hating one another and false prophets leading
disciples astray and the love of many growing cold (Matt 24:9–12). Within
Christendom many disciples have been called to be made into vessels of wrath,
prepared for destruction, endured for a season (Rom 9:22–23). Many have
been called who will not be chosen (Matt 22:14). And disciples can today
identify a large portion of these many
by driving by church parking lots on Sunday mornings; for the son of God who
will not attempt to enter into God’s rest while the promise of entering
stands—Sabbath observance representing this rest—will take sin back
inside the “Christian” shortly after being liberated from indwelling
sin and death.
The son of light
who has been predestined, called, justified, and who will be glorified must
make war against the crucified (but not yet dead) old nature, the old self that
organized its thoughts through lawlessness. This son of light must keep the
fight going today against indwelling sin. This son needs to win once in a
while, and must never surrender. Never accept a defeat, even when one occurs.
Keep battling away. A liberator is on His way. Liberation is on its way. In a
Christian’s walk with God, there are many more winters spent in Valley Forge than actual skirmishes fought where shots
are fired. These winters are called living by faith.
But the disciple
who would walk as Jesus walked is too often tripped by other disciples, sons of
darkness, who label sons of light as legalists, Judaizers, heretics. The end
for these sons of darkness is already recorded: they are of Esau if they only
“relax” the least of the commandments (Matt 5:19), and of Cain if
they break a commandment once liberated from indwelling sin. The mark they will
take is the mark of death [P>lr].
Because the
earthly shadow is also the dimly illuminated mirror mirage of a heavenly
reality, and because the Prophets reveal how to transpose the image revealed by
its shadow, Moses and Aaron form the shadow and type of the endtime two
witnesses, with Aaron as the spokesman for Moses and as his older brother
disclosing that the spokesperson for the two witnesses will be the younger
brother of the other. Every genuine disciple is the younger brother of Christ
Jesus. So as Esau and Jacob correspond to Cain and Abel, and as all four form
the spiritually lifeless shadow of two endtime nations that come from one
nation born in a day (the second Passover), the two witnesses will be two
brothers who are younger brothers to Christ Jesus. And these two brothers will
not teach Israel to know the
Lord, for all of Israel
will know the Lord; rather, they will testify to what will happen to the many and to the chosen during the first 1260 days of the Tribulation. And their
testimony will be that halfway through seven endtime years of tribulation, the
kingdom of this world will become the kingdom of the Father and His Christ.
Death will be defeated. Satan will be cast from heaven and will come claiming
to be the Messiah, but wars will continue to the end. And blessed will be those
disciples who survive the first year after Satan is cast to earth. Their
testimony will also be that they will be slain then raised from the dead after
three days. They are the witnesses by which all can believe that Death, the
fourth horseman, has been defeated; for a thing is established by the rules of
evidence upon the testimony of two or three witnesses, not by the testimony of
one witness who came down from heaven … it takes faith to believe one
witness.
Traditionally, the
light/darkness metaphor imbedded in
Scripture has been used to pit good
against evil, with these two opposing
forces wrestling like schoolboys for dominance over humanity. A simplistic
overview of Ellen G. White’s Great
Controversy has Christ Jesus wrestling Satan for the souls of humanity in a
manner similar to how the War Scroll’s angel of light fights against the
angel of darkness. In Qumran’s War
Scroll, God creates both the angel of light and the angel of deceit or darkness,
a theologically troublesome position that makes God the source of evil.
However, the conclusion of the Genesis temptation account has Elohim, in plural usage, saying that the
man has indeed become like God, knowing both good and evil (Gen 3:22). Then Elohim [singular in usage] proceeds to
drive the man from Eden
before Adam can eat of the tree of life and thereby live forever.
An aside needs
mentioned: Ellen G. White and other American prophets, notably Joseph Smith,
pit good against evil as if they were two brothers or equals, both created by God as
archangels, with God letting good
fight against evil to win as much of
humanity as has been predestined to be saved. However, if score were kept, the
clear winner of this fight is evil.
But this entire premise is a resurrection of Bishop Arius’ error that has
the Father creating Jesus either in the womb of Mary or at some moment prior to
the creation of the universe. The Logos
who was 2,ÎH was never the servant of 2,`< as Lucifer, Michael, and Gabriel were and are, but
was from the beginning the Helpmate of 2,`< as Eve was the helpmate of Adam. And beyond this,
Scripture is silent. Scripture does not address whether 2,ÎH came from 2,`< as Eve came from Adam. This possibility would
require a second and probably a third tier in the supra-dimensional realm
identified as heaven. Not enough information has presently been revealed from
Scripture to affirm or to refute a claim about multiple levels or tiers
existing in heaven although the probability of a second tier is implied by the
creation of angelic beings.
If God knows both
good and evil, and if Adam knew both good and evil after he ate the forbidden
fruit, was it the fruit that gave Adam this knowledge? Does that fruit have
anything to do with God knowing good and evil? Or is “good”
obedience to God [i.e., not eating forbidden fruit] and “evil”
disobedience, or more precisely, is evil determining for oneself what is good
and what is evil? If God knows both, then it logically follows that it is God
who defines or determines both. Thus, within this rubric, good is doing what
God says, and evil is doing all other things, beginning with usurping the
authority to determine what is good.
Taking a step
back, the question must be asked, “Just how much knowledge can be
quantified in a piece of forbidden fruit?” The prophet Malachi
established the juxtaposition that returning to God amounted to bringing tithes
and contributions into the storehouse so that there would be food in the house
of God (3:6–12). Paul equated his teachings to milk, the food of infants
in the house of God (1 Cor 3:1–3) as the Gentile converts at Corinth sought God. The
writer of Hebrews equated the basic principles of the oracles of God to milk,
not solid food (Heb 5:12). So a scriptural tradition exists that has food (as
in the tithe of Judean fields) in the physical house of God forming the shadow
and copy of knowledge in the spiritual house of God. This tradition, now, will
have the land flowing in milk and honey
being a land of controversy over what constitutes “true” knowledge
of God, a typological step of too great a distance for infant sons of God to
make thus a subject to which I will return in a later chapter.
Jesus told the
rich young ruler that only God is good (Luke 18:19). Only God has the ability
to know both good and evil and to then limit activities to only
“good.” But the inherent singleness of the English linguistic icon
/God/contains within itself an alien
concept: “God” is a house, the house in which the Father dwells, a
house like that of the tent of flesh in which a disciple dwells while here on
earth. Paul wrote,
For we know that if the tent, which is our earthly
home, is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands,
eternal in the heavens. For in this tent we groan, longing to put on our
heavenly dwelling, if indeed by putting it on we may not be found naked. For
while we are still in this tent, we groan, being unburdened—not that we
would be unclothed, but that we would be further clothed, so that what is
mortal may be swallowed up by life. He who has prepared us for this very thing
is God, who has given us the Spirit as a guarantee. (2 Cor 5:1–5)
If the new
creature born of spirit is of the heavenly realm and thus of a different
dimension from the tent of flesh—our earthly house [¦B\(,4@H º:ä< @Æ6\"]—in which this son of God dwells, then is
the house [@Æ6\"<] not made with hands, eternal in the heavens, of a
different and of a “lower” realm from the Father, whose house this
is? Typologically, this would be so, and this would make for a second level or
tier within the heavenly realm, with God being the “house” in which
Jesus went ahead to prepare many mansions (French usage of the icon) or stays
(as in legal proceedings), and with glorified disciples being of this house and
even pillars in this house (Rev 3:12), but with the one who occupies the house
being of a higher realm than is the house … and this is as far as
Scripture allows disciples to speak intelligibly about the structure of heaven.
When Adam ate
forbidden fruit (not when Eve ate, for Adam was Eve’s covering), Adam and
Eve’s eyes were opened, and they realized they were naked (Gen 3:7)
… they were physically naked before, but they were covered by
Adam’s obedience to his creator, with this obedience functioning as a
garment that concealed physical nakedness from the eyes of both the man and the
woman.
Paul ups the ante:
for disciples, our fleshly bodies are equivalent to Adam’s obedience in a
manner analogous to the tithe of the harvest of Judean hillsides equating to
disciples’ knowledge of God, with the number of disciples holding
knowledge of God translating to how full the storehouse of God is with the
tithes of the house of Jacob.
·
Intangible
obedience to God in this world covers the nakedness of a disciple in the
heavenly realm as a garment of animal skins covers nakedness in this world (Gen
3:21).
·
Jesus’
obedience in this world becomes a disciple’s covering in the heavenly realm
in a manner analogous to how a physically circumcised Israelite dwelt in a tent
of animal skins in the wilderness.
·
Thus, a
disciple’s tent of flesh serves as his outer covering in this world, with
the foreskin symbolizing the “covering” nature of the flesh.
·
Physical
circumcision is a making naked of the inner creature or self, requiring that
this inner self cover itself with obedience in this world in which the flesh is
visible for all to see.
·
Circumcision
of the heart is, now, a making naked of the new creature that is from heaven,
requiring that this new creature, born of spirit, cover itself with obedience
in the heavenly realm where spirit beings see this new creature’s
nakedness.
Grace is the
mantle or garment of Christ Jesus’ righteousness that covers the
nakedness of disciples who are circumcised of heart … when food in the
storehouse of the temple in this world equates to knowledge of God in the
Church, tents of animal skins and of fabric in this world equates to garments
of obedience in the heavenly realm, with disciples either covering themselves
with Christ’s obedience/righteousness or attempting to cover themselves
with their own obedience as Esau was covered with a coat of hair. In this era,
physical circumcision for theological reasons is a rejection of Christ’s
righteousness. Physical circumcision is a rejection of grace.
When the rich
young ruler asked Jesus, “‘Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit
eternal life’” (Luke 18:18), Jesus told the rich young ruler,
“‘No one is good except God [2,`H] alone’” (v. 19).
·
The linguistic
icon /God/ represents obedience to
the Father, with this obedience functioning as a garment or tent or
house—
Jesus told
Sadducees, “‘[H]ave you not read what was said to you by God [2,@Ø]: “I am the God [2,ÎH] of Abraham, and the God [2,ÎH] of Isaac, and the God [2,ÎH] of Jacob?” He is not God [2,ÎH] of the dead, but of the living’”
(Matt 22:31–32).
Remember,
“In the beginning was the Word [8`(@H], and the Word [8`(@H] was with God [2,`<], and the Word [8`(@H] was God [2,ÎH]” (John 1:1). “And the Word [8`(@H] became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen
his glory: glory as [of an only one—:@<@(,<@ØH] from the Father” (v. 14). The man Jesus of Nazareth was the only Son of 2,ÎH (John 3:16). He was the only Son of the God of
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, not of the Father [2,`<]. He was the firstborn Son of the Father, the
firstborn of many sons. But He was an “only one” from the Father,
for there were no others but 2,ÎH & 2,`< who were of the house of God in the beginning.
·
Obedience
equates to life and is of the living, not the dead. God alone is obedient; God
alone is good. And the house of God incorporates all who are obedient.
·
Paul cites the
Psalmist and writes, “‘None is righteous, no, not one; / no one
understands; / no one seeks for God’” (Rom 3:10–11 citation
is from Ps 14:1–3 & 53:13).
·
Until Jesus
died at Calvary, He was not fully covered by
obedience even though He was without sin. But following His death, His
obedience to the end returned Him to the house of God, permitting the Father to
glorify Him with the glory He had with the Father before the world existed
(John 17:5). He had to endure to the end in obedience to be saved.
A human
being’s fleshly body will die because of the transgression of the one
man, Adam. This fleshly body is the person’s covering in this world;
thus, death leaves a human being as naked as eating forbidden fruit left Adam
and Eve naked. But death will not leave the disciple naked for disciples have a
building or house from the Father, a house in which Jesus went ahead to prepare
a room (John 14:2) or a staying. This house is the Father’s house. This
house is to the Father as a tent of flesh is to the disciple, meaning that this
house is not the Father, nor is it the Son, both of whom dwell in the Father’s
house as glorified disciples will dwell in this house, one with the Father and
the Son (John 17:20–23). The house is called in Greek, 2,— (plus a case ending), and called in English
(which doesn’t use case endings), God. Glorified disciples will be of
this house—that is, of God—in the same way that the Father and the
Son are presently of this house.
Evangelical
Christendom cringes whenever the reality of what Scripture reveals about Christ
(Christology) or about the nature of disciples is discussed, for that
particular division of Greek Christendom (as opposed to American Christendom or
Judean Christendom) quickly points to the sin of Satan:
You said in your heart,
“I will ascend to heaven;
above the stars of God
I will set my throne on high;
I will sit on the mount of assembly
in the far reaches of the north;
I will ascend above the heights of the clouds;
I will make myself like the Most High. (Isa 14:13–14)
For some reason,
logically unexplainable, Evangelical Christendom has not thought through what
it means to be born of spirit: if a disciple is a son of God—and the
disciple is indeed a son—then it is not blasphemy for a son to call
himself a son, whereas it would be blasphemous for a servant to call himself a
son. Angels are servants; they can only be servants as Moses was a servant (Heb
3:5), able only to receive the promise of inheriting eternal life and not
possessing such life. Disciples, however, are not servants but sons of God.
They have been born of the spirit of God [B<,Ø:" 2,@Ø]; they have received actual life in the heavenly
realm. And if Jesus is not ashamed to call disciples “brothers”
(Heb 2:11), and if Jesus is not ashamed to identify the Father as His Father,
thereby making Him the Son (John 5:17–18), then disciples should also not
be ashamed to call Jesus their elder brother (Rom 8:29) and the Father their
Father, for all who are glorified will dwell together in the Father’s
house as one. All will be of this single house surnamed God.
Obedience covers a
person in the same way that the tent of flesh covers a person—and
obedience can only be manifested through the tent of flesh living by every word
that has proceeded from the mouth of God. If this tent of flesh covers itself
with obedience, then there is no record of debt with its legal demands standing
against the tent of flesh. Death has no claim against the tent of flesh even
though this tent of flesh only has physical life.
But all of
humankind has sinned and come short of the glory of God, for all of humankind
has been consigned to disobedience so that God can have mercy on all (Rom
11:32). So every tent of flesh—because obedience is unavailable to the
person—needs a second covering, with this second covering being grace,
the righteousness of Christ Jesus, the garment of Christ (Gal 3:27). And this
second covering will be needed until the Son of Man is revealed through the
empowerment by the Holy Spirit of the now-covered Body of Christ.
Intangible personhood is not the tent of flesh,
which will perish and will leave this personhood
as naked as Adam was naked in the Garden … the concept that “a
person” is not the tent of flesh in which the self-aware essence of the
person dwells should be readily apparent to every person who has aged beyond
the person’s youthful decades: a man or a woman who has reached the age
of seventy does not mentally identify him or herself as an “old”
person, but as the person was when in his or her twenties or thirties. The tent
of flesh will usually have weather damage of some sort, but the person dwelling
within this tent of flesh has not usually weathered as the flesh has. Thus, an
apparent person becomes trapped
within a decaying tent of flesh, with the person’s
only “out” being receipt of a new tent, a new house, a building
from God. Therefore, it has been easy for the Adversary to convince first
ancient and now modern philosophers that an immortal soul dwells within the
person, with the consciousness of the person coming from that immortal soul.
And it has been equally easy for the Adversary to convince a better educated,
endtime generation that Greek Christendom promises more than it can deliver,
that those attributes of personhood
long attributed to the soul come from complex chemical interactions within the
brain, thereby seeming to cause humans to have minds whereas the beasts of the
field have only instinct and brains. (In American Christendom, this inner
self-awareness is credited to an angelic being that has come from heaven to
dwell within the flesh, and this false teaching has perhaps more logic than
Greek Christendom’s teaching that a person receives an immortal soul from
a man having his way with a woman in the backseat of a Chevrolet.)
Although ancient
philosophers and theologians realized that human self-awareness was separate
from the physical body, they did not have a computer to which to make an
analogy: “human nature” is perhaps best described as the software
of a computer’s operating system as opposed to the hardware of silicon
chips, circuit boards and hard drives.
This software doesn’t “wear out” as the bearings of
hard drives do, but this software can be overwritten to do what it wasn’t
intended to do in a way that the intrinsically rigid hardware cannot be. Hence,
a person’s sexual identity can be at variance with the person’s
biological plumbing, with this variance having explainable or non explainable
origins. To the amusement of politically conservative radio talk show hosts, a
person can mentally be in the biologically unexplainable classification of a
male lesbian, a classification in which the person’s biology is male and
the object of the person’s sexual interest is female, but the
person’s gender identity is also female. Something happened to this
operating system that doesn’t prevent it from functioning, but causes it
to function in a socially unacceptable manner within the parameters of
Christian mores.
Therefore, it is
surprising that ancient philosophers and theologians who knew that the
“self” was not the flesh did not ascribe the same characteristics
to God as they saw in themselves, especially in light of Scripture disclosing
that humankind was to be created in the image and after the likeness of YHWH Elohim (Gen 1:26). Greek paganism
ascribed to its pantheon human characteristics of lust and love, jealousy and
betrayal, but Greek Christianity was unable to envision the Father and the Son
dwelling in a common house as a human father and his eldest son might dwell
together.
·
Intangible
knowledge of God in this world becomes, for a disciple, the tithes and
offerings of this son of God’s increase in the heavenly realm thereby
making the disciple’s increase a function of the number of infant sons of
God taught the principles of God in this world by the disciple.
The battle between
good and evil isn’t a wrestling match between Jesus and Satan; it
isn’t a war of strategic maneuverings between the angel of light and the
angel of darkness. It is, simply, acknowledging Jesus before men (Matt 10:32)
as the second lawbreaker on the cross did, as opposed to mocking Jesus as the
first lawbreaker did. Both lawbreakers asked Jesus for what was possible for
Him to do. Jesus could have saved Himself (John 19:11), but His kingdom was not
of this world (John 18:36). It was absolutely necessary that He be made sin in
order for Him to die, for though tempted in all things as all of humanity has
been, He never sinned. He never placed Himself in bondage to sin and death. The
Cross had no lawful claim to His life, as the second lawbreaker acknowledges.
Jesus voluntarily accepted death on a cross, thereby making Himself His
Father’s sacrificial Lamb, slain from the foundation of the world.
The reality of the
human experience hasn’t been a battle between good and evil, for none are
good but God alone, but the struggle for life against the inevitability of
death. The Apostle Paul writes, “Did that which is good [the law], then
bring death to me? By no means! It was sin [lawlessness — from 1 John
3:4], producing death in me through what was good, in order that sin might be
shown to be sin, and through the commandments might become sinful beyond
measure” (Rom 7:13).
The Apostle Paul
says that which is good, spiritual, and holy produced death in him by revealing
to him the nature of the lawlessness in which he was enslaved. He writes
elsewhere that death through lawlessness entered the world through one man and
spread to all of humanity, but that this lawlessness is not counted against
humanity where there is no law (Rom 5:13). Sin isn’t revealed to be
exceedingly sinful where there is no law, and as such isn’t counted
against humanity. A person is judged by what has been revealed to the person.
The three crosses
on Calvary represent all of humanity in
judgment. The first lawbreaker to speak blasphemed Jesus, accusing Him,
‘“Are you not the Christ? Save yourself and us!’” (Luke
23:39). This lawbreaker demanded that Jesus save physical life, which was
placed in subjection to death when Adam was driven from Eden (Rom 5:12). Plus, the words of Jesus are
that He came to die (John 12:27–33), and with His death, He
‘“will draw all people to myself’” (v. 32). He said that
‘“whoever does not take his cross and follow me is not worthy of
me. Whoever finds his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life for my sake
will find it’” (Matt 10:38–39). So the lawbreaker [all of
humanity has come short of perfection and are lawbreakers] who seeks to save
his or her physical life doesn’t seek that which is above, or is of the
heavenly realm. The person has not taken up his or her cross to follow Christ,
and is not worthy of Christ. Rather, this person continues to hang on his or
her cross, tethered to death, seeking to find or keep the person’s life.
This person is as the first lawbreaker was. This person will acknowledge that
Jesus is the Christ, but this person will not hear the words of Jesus, nor
believe the One who sent Him (John 5:24). This person will not cover his or her
sins with the blood of the Lamb of God. Instead, this person will attempt to
tell Christ how and when the sacraments are to be taken.
Again, all
disciples sin even after being born from above. But those sins are covered by
the blood of Jesus of Nazareth, who said drink
of this cup, all of you, for this is my blood of the covenant, which is poured
out for many for the forgiveness of sins (Matt 26:28). Sins are covered by
the blood of the Passover covenant. But those disciples who have consistently
neglected to take the Passover sacraments on the night that Jesus was betrayed
have voluntarily removed themselves from this covenant. They knowingly or
unknowingly ask the Father to deliver them to Satan—they will not last
long when liberated from indwelling sin.
The second
lawbreaker to speak rebuked the first: ‘“Do you not fear God, since
you are under the same sentence of condemnation. And we indeed justly, for we
are receiving the due reward of our deeds; but this man has done nothing
wrong’” (Luke 23:40–41). This second lawbreaker asked only
that he be remembered when Jesus received His kingdom (v. 42), and this second lawbreaker was justified. This second
lawbreaker received the promise of everlasting life.
The second
lawbreaker was just as guilty of transgression as the first, but he
acknowledged God and Christ Jesus, and he acknowledged his own guilt and the
justice of his sentence to death. In doing so, he demonstrates that he knows
God, knows that Jesus is unworthy of death and is as such being sacrificed, and
he demonstrates that he knows the law is good. The Apostle Paul writes that the
Israelite who lives by the righteousness that comes by faith (Rom 10:6 — cf. Deut 30:11–14) has only to
confess with the mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in the heart that the
Father raised him from the dead to be saved (Rom 10:9). So when the second
lawbreaker confesses the justice of his death, he places himself into the Moab covenant
as mediated by Moses. So when asking to be remembered, this second lawbreaker
acknowledges with his mouth that Jesus is Lord, an acknowledgment that conveys
his belief in his heart that God will raise Jesus from the dead. All that
remains for this second lawbreaker to receive everlasting life is for him to
have his sins forgiven, which is what Jesus does when He tells this second
lawbreaker that this day [the day of him being raised up to judgment] he will
enter Paradise.
The second
lawbreaker knows what his judgment shall be; his judgment has been revealed. He
is one of a few exceptions whose judgment is revealed prior to Jesus coming in
power as the Messiah. But this lawbreaker doesn’t precede Jesus to Paradise, thereby making him the first of the
firstfruits. Jesus will lie in the grave three days, so He will not be in Paradise the day of His death. Rather, the cross
represents death. Taking up one’s cross is to take hold of one’s
death, to break one’s tether to the world, and to carry one’s death
as the person follows Christ, that death now covered by the blood of the Lamb
of God.
At Calvary, the three men raised on Roman crosses retained
physical life for a short while after their official deaths. Figuratively, they
lived after death as if resurrected. And while still alive but bound on a
cross, they were as humanity will be in the great White Throne Judgment when
every word uttered determines the person’s fate. For the mass of mankind
has not been afforded the opportunity to take up their crosses and follow
Jesus. They never had the choice of life or death placed before them. They were
created from dust (Gen 2:7), given the same breath of life as given to beasts
(Eccl 3:18–20), and died because sin and death dwelt in their hearts and
minds and flesh. Adam was driven from Eden
before he could eat of the tree of life and live forever (Gen 3:22–24).
Judgment, however,
is today upon the household of God (1 Pet 4:17), and every word uttered
determines the disciple’s fate, the reason for yeas to be unadorned yeas,
and nays to be nays. But if judgment is upon a disciple today, and if the disciple
is given the criteria by which he or she will be judged, then the disciple has
also been given control of the disciple’s fate. So yes, a provision of
the Moab
covenant has judgment being given to disciples, who have had life and death set
before them (Deut 30:15–20). They are told to choose life, which comes
down to hearing the words of Jesus and believing the One who sent Him (John
5:24). But believing is more than acknowledging, for even the demons believe
that God is. Believing for born-from-above disciples is living by the laws of
God that will be written on hearts and minds through being filled with the Holy
Spirit. It is the way by which born-out-of-season disciples acknowledge that
the law is good, just as the second lawbreaker acknowledged the justice of his
death. And grace is Christ Jesus bearing the failures of disciples to overcome
the law of sin and death that dwells in their members. Grace is not a license
that allows disciples to jettison the laws of God that will be written on inner
tablets of flesh following the second Passover.
Ultimately, since
all disciples sin, a disciple’s judgment is reduced to whether the
disciple will cover his or her sins by the blood of the Lamb of God. If the
disciple will drink from the cup as Jesus established the example, then the
disciple chooses life and covers the new creature with the obedience of Christ.
If the disciple determines for him or herself what is good and if the disciples
either doesn’t drink of the cup or drinks from an alien cup, the disciple
chooses death. The disciple would not hear the words of Jesus and believe the
One who sent Him.
Death by
crucifixion differs from other forms of civil execution in that physical life
was extended beyond legal death. A beheaded person died instantly. A person
drawn and quartered died within moments or minutes of being drawn. But a person
crucified could hang around for a day or longer before he tired enough he could
no longer raise himself on the nails to breathe: crucifixion kills by taking
away breath. A person lives by receiving the physical breath given to Adam. A
son of God lives by receiving the spiritual breath of God [B<,Ø:" 2,@Ø] given to the last Adam (Matt 3:16). So
crucifixion is the one form of execution that physically symbolizes a spirit
being or a born-from-above disciple losing spiritual life by being cast into
the lake of fire. The symbolism of crucifixion works far better than burning at
the stake. But equally important, this form of execution allows for
conversation after legal death, which came with being raised up. As such,
crucifixion becomes a graphic representation of spiritual life imprisoned in
time.
Again, the battle
between good and evil isn’t a wrestling match between Jesus and Satan, and it
isn’t a war of strategic maneuverings between the angel of light and the
angel of darkness, sons of light and sons of darkness. It is, simply,
acknowledging Jesus before men (Matt 10:32) as the second lawbreaker on the
cross did, as opposed to mocking Jesus as the first lawbreaker did.
Obedience to God
means abandoning Satan, and joining the other side … my German professor
taught English in the University in Vienna
before the WW2. When the Nazis drafted him and gave him a rifle, he began
walking toward the English front lines. He dropped his rifle when he crossed
the front, raised his hands in surrender, and kept right on marching, not even
breaking stride. Disciples need to leave disobedience just as quickly if they
can—and if they can’t, they need to fight their out.
* * *
"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."
* * * * *
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