About Prophecy - The Book - Chapter One

About Prophecy

The Book

—serialized—

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by an information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

__________________________________________________

Printable/viewable PDF format to display Greek or Hebrew characters

Chapter One

____________

Christians are not a people of the flesh; for with baptism into Christ, there is no longer Jew or Greek [Circumcised or Uncircumcised], male or female, free or slave (Gal 3:27–28). The Apostle Paul also wrote, “I tell you this, brothers: flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable” (1 Cor 15:50 emphasis added). A Christian’s flesh and blood body is perishable flesh; so if what Paul wrote is true—and it is—then it isn’t the Christian’s fleshly body [soma] that will be changed in the twinkling of an eye at the last trump into imperishable spirit, but it will be the Christian’s non-physical inner self that will be changed, with the inner self consisting of the spirit of man [to pneuma tou ’anthropou] in the soul [psuche], which together with the body [soma] make up the whole of a human person (1 Thess 5:23).

If a Christian’s fleshly body is not the Christian that will be glorified, then Christians within greater Christendom need to rethink what they believe about the Way Christians are to walk in this world, with the truism of what John wrote coming to the forefront:

Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. (1 John 2:15–17)

Do Christians collectively love this world and the things in this world, especially authority over one another? Yes, they do. Are Christians not collectively conformed to the world, making up approximately a third of the world? But again using Paul as a benchmark, what did Paul say about Christians being of this world: “Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect” (Rom 12:2). Elsewhere Paul wrote,

· “I urge you, then, be imitators of me” (1 Cor 4:16);

· “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ” (1 Cor 11:1);

· “Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children” (Eph 5:1);

· “Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us” (Phil 3:17);

· “And you became imitators of us and of the Lord” (1 Thess 1:6);

· “For you, brothers, became imitators of the churches of God in Christ Jesus that are in Judea” (1 Thess 2:14).

Christ Jesus lived as an observant Jew, a man of Judea, outwardly and inwardly circumcised. Paul lived as an observant Jew, outwardly and inwardly circumcised; however, Paul said that circumcision of the flesh had no value spiritually, which is true for as long as disciples [Christians] are the temple of God and by extension, the Body of Christ. For to enter the physical temple of God, the person needed to be physically circumcised. To enter the spiritual temple of God in this Christian era, the person needs to be circumcised of heart. And to enter the rebuilt physical temple in the Millennium when the Son of Man reigns as prince of this world, the person needs to be both physically and spiritually circumcised—

And say to the rebellious house, to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord [YHWH]: O house of Israel, enough of all your abominations, in admitting foreigners, uncircumcised in heart and flesh, to be in my sanctuary, profaning my temple, when you offer to me my food, the fat and the blood. You have broken my covenant, in addition to all your abominations. And you have not kept charge of my holy things, but you have set others to keep my charge for you in my sanctuary. Thus says the Lord [YHWH]: No foreigner, uncircumcised in heart and flesh, of all the foreigners who are among the people of Israel, shall enter my sanctuary. (Ezek 44:6–9)

Today, the Adversary remains as the prince of this world, the prince of the power of the air (Eph 2:2–3), and Christians remain as sons of disobedience, consigned to disobedience so that God can have mercy on all (Rom 11:32). For there is, today, no physical temple of God. Circumcision of the flesh is of no spiritual value, nor is being male, or is being born “free,” a son of liberty; for freedom is at best only surface deep.

Do not evangelical Christians in America “love” the U.S. Constitution, often referring to it as a divinely inspired document? Do not these same Christians accept as true the declaration,

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness—

But Paul wrote,

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? (Rom 6:16)

Is an obedient slave free? I worked in Georgia-Pacific’s Toledo, Oregon, Pulp and Paper mill when I was first married and just starting out at 18 years old. And one stormy night while working as boiler helper, the boiler fireman, George Wyscaver, began telling a story about an old Japanese woodcarver who had carved the butt stock of a Model 94 Winchester George had purchased from the base exchange when he was in Japan. For whatever reason, George was troubled by what the woodcarver had said to him: Americans—all slaves, not free. George said he had corrected the woodcarver, saying, “Americans are all free.” But the woodcarver, said, No. not true. Americans punch timeclock. Not free.

George brought up the incident on that particular stormy night when he and I were alone together on the boiler because what the woodcarver finally rang true for him: he was not free to quit the mill. He was building a home and had large fiscal obligations. He had a stock portfolio that wasn’t doing as well as he had hoped. He wasn’t even free to sleep in his own bed that night, but was obligated to be at work, keeping boilers One and Two going until he was relieved in the morning—and if not relieved, he was obligated to work another eight hour shift regardless of how tired he was. And I think George was indirectly warning me not to get myself trapped into fiscal servitude as he had gotten himself.

I have often thought about what George said in the forty-plus years since then, but I have thought more often about what the Apostle Paul wrote …

If a Christian habitually transgresses the Commandments because of the Christian’s unbelief, is this Christian not a slave of sin that leads to the second death? Likewise, if a Christian habitually keeps the Law by faith (out of belief of God), is this Christian not a slave of obedience that leads to righteousness? So, the question to be asked is, will the slave of sin cease to sin and move from being a slave of the Adversary to being a slave of obedience and righteousness and of God? The motivation to shift allegiances is salvation itself. That would seem to be enough motivation to cause a Christian to keep at a minimum the least of the Commandments, the Sabbath Commandment. But evidence shows this not to be the case: the slave of sin—the son of disobedience—is not free to keep the Commandments, but must transgress the Royal Law in at least one point, which makes the Christian a lawbreaker, even if the other nine commands of the Royal Law are kept.

Likewise, the Christian who is a slave of obedience and righteousness cannot deliberately break a Commandment even when the Christian thinks he or she can. The Christian’s conscience won’t permit the Christian to do what his or her lawless neighbors and relatives do. The Christian may well fail to measure up to the stature of Christ Jesus in a particular situation, but this failure to measure up will haunt the Christian for decades afterwards, effectively eliminating repeat transgressions.

Are you not haunted by memories of transgressions of the Law? Of times when you didn’t measure up? If you are not, then you remain a slave of sin, and presently consigned to the second death.

So the American Christian who believes the U.S. Constitution affords the person “liberty” will find that this is not the case: the Christian remains a slave of sin or a slave of obedience, hence a slave. God granted to the Christian no rights over even the Christian’s own thoughts, let alone over Happiness, a philosophical code word for Pleasure and the Pursuit of Pleasure, with its numerical Pleasure index.

If the Christian loves the things of this world, the Christian loves nothing of permanence and may as well place his or her love in the arms of the wind that is here today and gone tomorrow, never to return to the way things were.

One time when I was by his house, George showed me the Winchester the old woodcarver had carved: typical Japanese design. Okay work, not exceptional. But the work of a free man who wasn’t dependent upon a paycheck from an employer, the woodcarver’s prosperity determined by how others valued his workmanship. And since quitting the pulpmill in late 1972, over the issue of Sabbath observance, I have also earned my living as a woodcarver, working in the Northwest Coast tradition and in Formline design. I understand the point the old woodcarver was trying to get through to a then very young American boiler fireman on a Merchant Marine ship, the woodcarver living in Occupied Japan and not free to own a rifle himself.

The best way to keep a slave from escaping is to convince the slave that he or she is free. The Adversary’s ultimate disinformation campaign began long ago when he sought to convince Christians that they had been set free from the Law, that they had been liberated from the Law and were under no obligation to keep the Law, which like all disinformation campaigns has a root in truth: Christians have been liberated from the Law, but Christians are not free to transgress the Law without returning to being under the Law and under the death penalty that transgressions carry. The Christian is now free to keep the Law, whereas while being a slave of sin the Christian was not free to keep the Law but was compelled to break the Law in at least one point.

But in nearly every case where a Christian transgresses the Law, no one held a gun to the Christian’s head and said something akin to, Work on the Sabbath if you want to live! No, the slavery was internal: George was working graveyard shift on a stormy night when there was certain to be problems with pumps, with pneumatic instruments, with the salt system. He would have preferred being home in bed. But he didn’t believe he could pay his bills and keep his affairs in order if he missed a single day of work. I know I was then fast approaching that situation … if a person worked at the pulpmill, every business was eager to extend the person credit, so much that I began to think that Georgia-Pacific had made a deal with local merchants to underwrite its employees’ obligations that kept employees on the job even when they were sick enough that they should have been home in bed; obligations that kept employees vying for overtime.

Today, America’s Affordable Health Care Act [Obamacare] will cost the nation a few million jobs, a good thing according to the Act’s apologists; for workers will no longer be tied to jobs they hate so that they can receive employer-paid health insurance. Workers will be as free as that old Japanese woodcarver was; workers will be freed from having to punch timeclocks and will be able to paint and sculpt and carve wood, for the Federal Government will subsidize health insurance costs while providing the person with Food Stamps and home heating credits, thereby purchasing the worker from industrial moguls and placing the worker in a political auction where the worker will be sold to the politician who promises the most Pleasure and the least amount of Pain—and there will be pain, lots of it, as that woodcarver in Occupied Japan knew; for again, he was not free to even own a gun, let alone use one to defend himself.

The Christian’s fleshly body operates under the illusion of being free when his fleshly body is enslaved by the appetites of the belly and loins, the reason why using sex to sell hamburgers works.

When hungry enough, most every Christian will compromise even deeply held beliefs for a bowl of lentils, which in real world application in the Affliction, the first 1260 days of the seven endtime years of tribulation, will see Christians who today believe in a triune deity pledging fidelity to the largest Arian Christian denomination the world has known in order to keep their fleshly bodies alive; for Trinitarian Christendom has made no provision other than purchasing gold to survive the economic turmoil following the Second Passover liberation of Israel, whereas this Arian denomination set up an office inside its headquarters for leveraging food into discipleship a half century ago. And with now more than three-quarters of a century of collective preparation, this Arian denomination is well prepared to survive from the Second Passover to when the Apostasy of day 220 occurs; i.e., to when the lawless one [the man of perdition] will be revealed. And because its Prophet forewarned this Arian Church to be prepared, members of this denomination will lead the rebellion against God, something that will cause the two witnesses to send drought and plagues against an already dry intermountain region.

Is the fleshly body of a Christian “free” to go forty days without food or drink? No, not at all. So what about Moses twice going forty days without food or drink, and Elijah going forty days without food or drink, or about Jesus going forty days without food or drink? Did any of these human bodies really go so long without drink without dying of dehydration? I will temporarily leave the question unanswered—

A Christian’s fleshly body is to the non-physical inner self as the whale’s body was to the prophet Jonah, who was returned to life inside the whale or great fish, with the ancient world making no distinction between fish and mammalian whales …

When I first attended Seventh Day Adventist services as a twelve year old high school freshman in 1959, talk was about successful research showing that in a particular species of whale, it was possible for Jonah, though cramped, to live for three days. But the research missed the point of the Jonah narrative: Jonah didn’t live, but died and was returned to life—

I called out to [YHWH], out of my distress,

and He answered me;

out of the belly of Sheol I cried,

and you heard my voice.

For you cast me into the deep,

into the heart of the seas,

and the flood surrounded me;

all your waves and your billows

passed over me.

Then I said, “I am driven away from your sight;

yet I shall again look upon your holy temple.”

The waters closed in over me to take my life;

the deep surrounded me;

weeds were wrapped about my head

at the roots of the mountains.

I went down to the land whose bars closed upon me forever;

yet you brought up my life from the pit,

O [YHWH] my God. (Jon 2:2–6)

Hebraic poetics have a structure not usually seen in Indo-European language poetics: I have used the term thought-couplets to express this structure in poetry, where one subject is twice presented in similar language, the first presentation being physical or of the natural world, and the second presentation being spiritual, with this structure rooted in night/day metaphor, the physical representing darkness and the spiritual being represented by light.

Longer Hebrew narratives also use this night/day structure, with the first half of the narrative representing the natural world and the second half representing the spiritual world. Hence, the patriarch Abraham is the natural equivalent of Christ Jesus in the manner Paul expressed:

And the Scripture, foreseeing that God would justify the Gentiles by faith, preached the gospel beforehand to Abraham, saying, "In you shall all the nations be blessed." So then, those who are of faith are blessed along with Abraham, the man of faith … in Christ Jesus the blessing of Abraham might come to the Gentiles, so that we might receive the promised spirit through faith … if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise. (Gal 3:8–9, 14, 29)

Likewise, the first Adam, the man of mud, was the natural equivalent to Christ Jesus, the reality of not only the patriarchs but the entirely of Scripture, Old and New Testaments … Paul wrote in a sometimes questioned epistle,

Therefore let no one pass judgment on you in questions of food and drink, or with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ. Let no one disqualify you, insisting on asceticism and worship of angels, going on in detail about visions, puffed up without reason by his sensuous mind, and not holding fast to the Head, from whom the whole body, nourished and knit together through its joints and ligaments, grows with a growth that is from God. (Col 2:16–19 emphasis added)

Were Gentile converts worshiping God before they came among Christians, or were they worshiping angels and figments of their own imaginations? They certainly were not keeping the Commandments—and neither would have their families and former friends, the ones who would be passing judgment on the convert now keeping festivals, new moons, and the Sabbath for the first time in the convert’s life; for Moses and all that Moses wrote forms the shadow, the left hand enantiomer, of the right hand enantiomer, Christ Jesus. And using an analogy employed by a supporter, the shadow of Christ doesn’t come before God on a different day than Christ comes before God. The shadow of Christ that is seen in the festivals with their annual High Sabbaths discloses that Christ keeps these festivals of which He is the substance: they would not be His shadow if He had abolished them. The shadow of Christ as the Passover Lamb of God is seen in the ancient sacrifice of Passover lambs on the 14^th day of the first month at even, and is seen today in Christians taking the Passover sacraments of blessed bread and drink on the dark portion of the 14^th day of the first month. So what if few Christians take the Passover sacraments on the night that Jesus was taken, which wasn’t a Thursday night—all that only a few taking the sacraments on the night that Jesus betrayed means is that there are only a few Christians genuinely born of spirit. Most remain sons of disobedience, as seen by the day on which they attempt to enter into God’s presence.

So to use Christ being the substance of Moses as an excuse for not believing the writings of Moses is to reveal how little the Christian understands about Hebrew narration. Of course Christ is the substance of Moses, whose name means the son, or a son is born. The name Moses lacks the preceding identifier of who is born as in the examples, Tuthmosis I, Tuthmosis III, Ahmose II, where Tuth is born or Ah is born. Thus, the one born [in type] for whom Moses is named is “unnamed,” the deity that refused to give Jacob His name. And it is for this reason that Jesus said to Jews seeking His life,

You search the Scriptures because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me, yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life. I do not receive glory from people. … Do not think that I will accuse you to the Father. There is one who accuses you: Moses, on whom you have set your hope. For if you believed Moses, you would believe me; for he wrote of me. But if you do not believe his writings, how will you believe my words?" (John 5:39–41, 45—47 emphasis added)

Indeed, how will they hear the voice of Jesus and believe His words when Jesus is the substance—the internal reality—of what Moses wrote?

Within greater Christendom, Christians are the mental slaves of Christian dogmas and doctrines that are rooted in lawlessness; hence, Christians are with very few exceptions, serfs of the Adversary, the property of the ground [mental landscapes] in which they toil.

In Hebrew narration, the similarity between physical and spiritual can perhaps be best expressed by Greek chirality [handedness], in which the left hand forms the non-symmetrical mirror image of the right hand, with left and right hands being enantiomers that are together an enantiomorph.

For the predominantly right-handed person, the right hand is the substance and reality of the left hand, which does little more than hold whatever it is on which the right hand works. Few carpenters hammer with both hands. Few mechanics twist wrenches with both hands. As a woodcarver, I use only my right hand to power my knives or adzes; my left hand serves as a vise. Yet my left hand is similar in appearance to my right hand as the writings of Moses are similar to the words of Jesus. To have read Moses’ words is to have heard Jesus’ words—and to hear Jesus’ words is to hear the words of God the Father without thunder attached to them.

The Book of Jonah has Hebrew-style narrative structure, with Jonah fleeing from the Lord and being swallowed by the whale representing the physical or natural portion of the narrative, and with Jonah in Nineveh representing the spiritual portion of the narrative—and why did Jonah not want to go to Nineveh? He knew that the great city would repent (Jon 4:2) and that if the city repented, the Lord would repent of the evil He had declared against the city. So it is in the spiritual portion where readers learn why Jonah fled. It is in the spiritual portion of the sign of Jonah where readers learn how first Israel, then the remaining third part of humanity will be saved through being baptized in spirit.

Jesus used of the sign of Jonah for both the natural and spiritual models present in the narrative, with these two models forming one narrative that serves as the natural or physical shadow of salvation coming to humanity. To review, Jonah as an air-breathing person is thrown overboard and enters the sea where he cannot breathe. The Logos [’o Logos] as the Creator of all things physical enters His physical creation where He has no spiritual breath. Jonah is swallowed by the whale, a mammalian “fish” that really isn’t a fish, but because of having lungs rather than gills is not far from Jonah on the hierarchy of life. The Logos is “born” as the son of Himself from Mary’s womb, with Mary as a righteous Israelite woman [the life-giver] being different from common humanity and not far from Christ Jesus being a life-giving spirit (1 Cor 15:45). The breath of life is returned to Jonah while Jonah is inside the whale. The breath of God [pneuma Theou] that Jesus had before the world was created is returned to Jesus when the breath of God in the bodily form of a dove descends upon and enters into [eis] the man Jesus after He is raised from the watery grave of baptism (Mark 1:10). After the breath of life is returned to Jonah, the whale pukes Jonah forth onto dry land (Jonah 2:10), where Jonah does the work he had sought to escape. After the breath of God is returned to the man Jesus, the fleshly body of this man dies at Calvary and pukes forth the inner self of Jesus that then goes to preach to imprisoned spirits (1 Pet 3:18–21), that by extension is a work He had sought to escape, not because He knew they would repent, but because He knew that they wouldn’t. The living spirit and soul of Jesus preached to imprisoned spirits until the glory the Logos had before the world existed is returned to the Son of Man (see John 17:5). And the juxtaposition of Jonah and Jesus forms one Hebrew structured narrative, in which each part has a physical component that precedes the spiritual component of each part, with the physical revealing the invisible things of God (Rom 1:20; 1 Cor 15:46).

Jonah’s prayer continues beyond what is quoted, but from what has been quoted, the nature of Hebrew-style narration and Hebraic poetics is apparent: again, the physical precedes the spiritual, and together—physical and spiritual—the repetition of thought forms one complete thought …

In the natural or physical, Jonah declares that he called out to God, out of his distress, and in the natural’s spiritual compliment, Jonah said that He answered me. But this compliment [thought-couplet] is merely the natural portion of a doubled compliment, with the spiritual portion of the doubled compliment also having a natural declaration—out of the belly of Sheol [the grave] I cried—and its spiritual compliment: and you heard my voice.

Again, for pedagogical repetition: Hebraic poetry is not audibly rhymed in its construction, but structured in thought-couplets that feature complimentary ideas or concepts twice presented, the first being physical or of darkness [night] or of the outside [i.e., circumcision of the flesh] or of the public [nations or peoples], with the second being spiritual or of light [day] or of the inside [i.e., circumcision of the heart] or of the person [individual salvation].

In the natural or physical presentation of a biblical prophecy, whatever is declared pertains to physical peoples in physical lands, but in the spiritual, biblical prophecy is about thoughts, attitudes, belief of God—is about mental topography, mindsets. And the veracity of poetry is never an issue; for poetry is to reveal truth without necessarily being true. And a truth revealed by the Jonah narrative is that a person’s fleshly body is to the person’s inner self as the whale’s body was to the prophet. So to diligently search for which species of whale would permit a man to remain alive inside it for three days and three nights misses the point of the narrative: the inner self inside the body of flesh is spiritually dead—as Jonah was when in the belly of Sheol and waters closed in over Jonah to take his life and Jonah went down to the land whose bars closed upon him forever—but this inner self will be raised to life so that, as Jonah expected, the inner self will look upon the holy temple of God.

Evidence of genuine spiritual birth comes in the form of having the mind of Christ so that the mysteries of God can be understood. Evidence of being born again comes from the person’s ability to comprehend movement from physical to spiritual; from the Law being written on two tablets of stone that can be carried in hands to being written on two tablets of flesh, the heart and the mind, euphemisms for the inner self of the person, spirit [pneuma] and soul [soul]. Stated in its most simple form, if a Christian doesn’t understand the movement of the Law from hand to heart, from body to mind, the Christian has not received a second breath of life and remains a son of disobedience. If the Christian doesn’t understand the criterion for salvation moving from the good works that the flesh does to the cleanliness of the person’s inner mindscape, the person is not of God and is an actual enemy of God regardless of prayers prayed, good works done, or visions seen.

The cleanliness of a Christian’s home, the attire of a Christian, the prosperity of the Christian, the good works of hands and body can conceal internal wickedness and unbelief and are, therefore, unreliable indicators when it comes to disclosing the contents of the Christian’s heart. The better indicator is the person’s desire to keep the Commandments when the person is under no legal or cultural obligation to do so. The better indicator is in how the person responds to personal adversity, and to accusations made against neighbor and brother. Does the Christian rightly judge a matter, shunning the unrepentant evildoer while embracing the person who has been falsely accused? Can the Christian discern the content of hearts, even when outward appearances are false flags? How would a Christian accurately discern the contents of another Christian’s heart? It can be done, and rather easily done when the Christian is able to see through the surface of things so that spirits can be tested. But surfaces scatter light, and too often prevent spirits from being tested. Thus, it is essential that a Christian realizes he or she is not the fleshly body in which the Christian temporarily dwells; that the Christian realizes every other Christian is not the person seen with eyes, but the inner person that reveals itself by the things done in the flesh when no one is seemingly looking.

In blunt terms, the Christian who kicks his or her dog will also kick a person the Christian believes is inferior to him or herself, and will suck up to any person the Christian believes is superior, thereby making the Christian the worst kind of respecter of persons. For what price does the Christian pay for kicking a dog; i.e., for showing what is in the Christian’s heart? No price in this world. The dog is unreasonably loyal, and won’t turn on the Christian as another person would.

The Christian when set free from the Law doesn’t have to keep the Law, but not keeping the Law discloses the Christian’s inner unbelief and rebellion against God. When set free from the righteous requirement of the Law—death for transgressions—the Christian can figuratively kick the dog and get away with it. However, God has inserted a check on hidden bad behavior:

Paul declared,

For God shows no partiality. For all who have sinned without the law will also perish without the law, and all who have sinned under the law will be judged by the law. For it is not the hearers of the law who are righteous before God, but the doers of the law who will be justified. (Rom 2:11–13 emphasis added)

The inner self of the person who believes God and desires to please God will keep the Sabbath as the least of the Commandments, the easiest Commandment to keep, the one no Christian should get wrong …

The Sabbath begins at sunset Friday evening [between the evens], not at a particular clock hour. The Sabbath then extends forward to sunset Saturday evening, again irrespective to what clocks declare. In Kenai, Alaska, when there were four time zones rather than two in the state, sunset in December came about 2:30 in the afternoon on the shortest day of the year.

For a couple of years, I worked for Ron Swanson of Ron’s Rent-All in both his father’s Kenai Corners location and in the blue metal building he purchased next to the airstrip … Ron had attended high school at Kenai until about the middle of his senior year when he got in a fight with another student who would go on to become the OSHA inspector for Southcentral Alaska. Both students were suspended for the year and thus unable to graduate from Kenai. Ron went to Oregon to live with his mother, who was separated from his father, and he graduated that year from Eugene High.

The bad blood between Ron and the future OSHA inspector was never resolved.

Ron hired me to repair chainsaws mostly [I worked on every sort of small engine], and he hired me knowing that I kept the Sabbath, Friday sunset to Saturday sunset, and that I kept the High Sabbaths. This particular year, because of his Stihl sales increase, Ron had won a week-long vacation in Hawaii, but the week happened to coincide with the Feast of Tabernacles.

Either Ron or I had to be in the shop to ensure that things went smoothly … his wife went to Hawaii, I went to Anchorage for Feast, and Ron stayed home tending the shop.

Kenai was beginning to experience an economic downturn; so business was slow into November and early December. Pressures were mounting on Ron, and me leaving in what seemed to be the middle of Friday afternoons wasn’t helping; so I quit checking in with him when I left and started checking in with his wife who was keeping the time.

About 2:00 pm I would begin to clean the shop, rolling up hoses, hanging up tools, and dumping the buckets of gas in which we washed parts. When the shop looked pretty good, I would wave at his wife and go out the back door, done working for the week. And this is what I did on the Friday before Christmas, 1976. I was home by 2:45, close to when the Sabbath began.

At 3:00, Ron’s nemesis entered Ron’s rental business for a surprise OSHA inspection.

On Monday, Ron told me his heart sank when he saw who entered the door; for he knew what the shop looked like on a Friday afternoon, and he could see an easy $50,000 in fines. And with every step he took closer to the shop, the greater the imagined fines became … when he rounded the corner and saw the shop about as spic and span as it could be, he was genuinely surprised, and the OSHA inspector was visibly disappointed.

Ron never said anything negative to me about taking off early for the Sabbath, or about not being there during the Feasts: he was good to his word that the Sabbath would not be a problem … I once told him, before I went to work for him, that I had a funny religion. He pointed to his wife, a devout Catholic, and said, She has a funny religion. Yours at least makes sense.

For Christians, biblical prophecies are not about physical peoples in physical lands, but are about demonic kings broadcasting attitudes and mindsets that determine how a person thinks, which in turns determines what the person does.

Baptism doesn’t remove evidence of circumcision, or mute the biology of gender, or liberate the enslaved. The Jew outwardly circumcised on the eighth day, or the outwardly circumcised Muslim doesn’t cease to be outwardly circumcised when baptized as a Christian convert. A woman doesn’t cease to be a woman when baptized even though she is a son of God, with all rights of a son, including the right to speak the words of Christ Jesus, her spiritual Head. She is not, however, free to speak as a woman; for with baptism into Christ there no longer is male or female, but then there never was male or female inner selves. There was only living or dead inner selves.

Baptism which symbolizes death in a watery grave doesn’t cause the fleshly body of the person to die. Nor does baptism wash away sins as if transgressions of the Law dissolve in water … the Sunday-keeping Christian doesn’t suddenly become a Sabbath-keeper when caught in a downpour in the church parking lot (no sprinkling of holy water will so thoroughly drench the Christian). Rather, baptism represents real death of the inner self, the sort of death Jonah experienced inside the whale.

The inner person consists of spirit [to pneuma tou ’anthropou] and soul [psuche], with the spirit being in the soul as the soul is in the fleshly body in a manner understood by a husband being in his wife for the purpose of procreation [human sexuality is not confined to procreation, but biological gender originated as a model of divine procreation]. Thus, the spirit is to be the head of the soul as the soul is to be the head of the fleshly body as the husband is to be the head of his wife—not the head of every woman. For a man and every woman does not equate to two being one flesh. Even backing up to where the spirit of Christ [pneuma Christou] enters into the human spirit of the person thus causing the spirit in the person to be born of God as a son of God [the fleshly body isn’t the son of God], the spirit of Christ doesn’t enter into every person, but only into the spirits of those persons the Father draws from this world (John 6:44) and gives to Christ Jesus, the theological basis for why David could have a dozen wives and not sin, and why Solomon by his many foreign wives sinned against God.

The prohibition given to Israel against marrying foreign wives (and daughters of Israel marrying the sons of foreigners) functions as prophecy although that is not how the statutes and ordinances Moses gave to the people of Israel are taught to spiritual infants … spiritually, wives represent the body over which the inner self is its head. Solomon’s many wives did not submit to Solomon, just as the Christian Church today does not submit to Christ Jesus, its Head, with Christendom’s refusal to submit easily seen in the day on which greater Christianity worships, the one [after] the Sabbath — te mia ton Sabbaton.

Does the Church not understand the week of record moved from the physical week before Calvary to the seven day long spiritual week after Calvary, that the fourth day [Wednesday] aligns with the fourth day on which there will be two lights created, with the greater to rule day and the lesser to rule the darkness, with the transitional step/week being the seven days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, when all who are of Israel will live without sin; i.e., without transgressing the Law.

A red sky at dawn or dusk is a primitive weather forecast, giving to the sailor a few hours of advance notice of what the weather could be, enough advance notice that plans can be made for the day or for the night. Biblical prophecy is also about giving advance notice of what could or will physically happen to a nation or a people, thereby making biblical prophecy a sign for the times at hand.

But to plan one’s life and economic prosperity around the color of the sky going into night or day would seem to be superstition run amuck. To plan one’s life around the Second Passover liberation of Israel would seem to be superstition run amuck …

If the person out of habit takes the Passover sacraments on the Christian Passover, the dark portion of the 14^th day of the month that begins with the first sighted new moon crescent following the spring equinox wherever the person is (which will have the Southern Hemisphere being six months out of sync with the Northern Hemisphere and which makes determining the date of the Second Passover impossible until after it occurs), the firstborn person needs to take little thought about the Second Passover beyond making reasonable provisions to survive the collapse of society—

Yes, the collapse of society, not just the fiscal collapse of a nation or the collapse of a nation from natural disasters such as drought-caused famine.

What is at stake is the collapse of modern life as all of us have come to know it; for with the death of all uncovered firstborns, God will deliver to the reigning prince of this world a below-the-belt blow that doubles over spiritual Babylon and sends this present world order reeling, staggering, wobbling—a blow from which Babylon never recovers although it will take a second blow to actually topple Babylon. Two blows, two times a third of humanity will be suddenly slain, once at the beginning of the Affliction, the first 1260 days of the seven endtime years of tribulation, and once near its end (within its last 30 days). And as very little of the antediluvian world was carried into this present era, very little from this present era will be carried into the Endurance in Jesus, the last 1260 days of the seven endtime years, and then carried on into the Millennium.

Today, nearly two millennia after Christ Jesus used the example of a red sky being a readable sign of the times, we have satellite weather forecasts that are fairly reliable out to ten days or so; yet Christians within the greater Church cling more tightly than ever to biblical prophecies about Gog and Magog, Cush and Persia, Edom and Moab, Judah and Israel, picking through sentences with divining rods in hopes of discovering advanced warnings about what will happen next in global affairs about which Christians really can do nothing for this isn’t their world.

I spent a few years in the Aleutians, fishing a small vessel in the waters around Unalaska and Akutan Islands—and in the Aleutians, wind passing over waves two, three, five hundred miles away transferred energy to the sea that was felt by operators of small craft a day or more before the wind arrived to pile seas high in the passes between the islands. Sky color wasn’t important. The feel of the water was. So I never thought much about what Jesus said concerning a red sky until I began to reread prophecy. It was then that I realized the person who earnestly desires to believe the literalness of words or of collections of words is the wrong person to determine the veracity of the words, a concept I expressed in a differing form in an essay written in graduate school—

To digress for a moment: I encountered a phenomenon this summer of 1979 that I should have previously realized. Some of the first generation Norwegian skippers had a reputation within the fleet for bravery, for fishing weather that kept every other vessel in port. In the Guppy, I couldn't get the marine weather forecasts: I had neither an AM radio, nor a particularly useful CB. As a result I never knew what the weather was supposed to be. I had to quickly learn to forecast my own weather, and most of the time I just didn't pay any attention to the weather. So I would find myself fishing with these highliners whose reputations for bravery were truly impressive when most everyone else stayed in port. Of course, I wasn't as far off-shore as were those highliners.

What I realized was the highliners didn't necessarily believe the weather forecasts. "Ve go out & see what it's like." And they would leave port and sail out to their fishing grounds. Once they were there, they would say something like, "Now that ve here, ve fish awhile." First thing they knew they had a full hold and an extra day of fishing over the boats that had stayed in port. They weren't braver than other skippers; they just didn't believe everything they were told. And I was out on those days because I didn't receive the forecasts that said to stay in port. I probably would have stayed in port if I had received those forecasts. (“SMITH, LOGGER, FISHERMAN, WRITER.” From the Margins. 2001.)

If a person believes a sign of the times; believes that a red sky at dawn means a sailor is to take warning, the person handicaps him or herself as the person is herded here and there as if the person were without individual discernment. The person is pushed into buying gold to protect the person’s accumulated wealth; is pushed into reducing the person’s carbon footprint; is nudged into carpooling; is fed a diet of disinformation and genetically modified corn and wheat, soybeans and canola oil. The person feels like he or she is being pushed through a cattle chute and headed for the slaughterhouse’s killing floor, but what does the person grasp-hold-of to prevent being knocked in the head? Not an edition of the New York Times nor even a Fox News broadcast. Not Scripture, for the Christian will inevitably read Scripture as the Christian was taught to read Scripture and will thus continue the Christian’s rebellion against God.

The highliners fishing out of Dutch during the summer and fall of 1979, were mostly skippers from Ballard, Washington, with the majority of these skippers being first or second generation Norwegians who spoke to each other in Norwegian but who seemed to unconsciously switch to English when approached by someone who wasn’t a squarehead. And the defining characteristic of these highliners as a collective was their unbelief of easy answers, easy solutions. They challenged what they were told—and in doing so, they found better ways to work gear, handle their catch, even build their boats.

When I sold a chainsaw-outboard dealership on the Kenai spring 1979, I knew nothing about commercial fishing or going to sea. I knew so little that a rumor began to circulate about me being lost at sea. Personal property I left in a mobile home with the rent paid in advance for months was ransacked by Worldwide Church of God members, with a deacon overseeing the looting, justified of course for they would have found one copy of a Playboy magazine among household items and cached food stuffs, precision tools and chainsaw parts. I don’t remember why I had the issue—I’d had it for several years—but having it would have been a “sign” to overly superstitious Church members that I was a sinner, and as a sinner, I couldn’t possibly be protected by God. Therefore, I had to be lost at sea; for no one had heard from me for a month.

The logic seems twisted, but then, much of what happened within the Worldwide Church of God in 1979 was twisted beyond recognition.

Another member of the same congregation stepped in and salvaged as much as he could of what other members had left strewn around the yard of the mobile home I was renting. I owe him thanks that I may never have expressed because I walked away from the whole affair and didn’t return to Kenai, wintering instead in Anchorage or Kodiak and eventually Fairbanks in the following years.

I heard after the fact that if I had complained to the minister, Earl Roemer (who was in Pasadena when the looting occurred), people would have been disfellowshiped, but I absorbed the loss. I could afford-to. I made $1,700/day for every day I fished that summer.

Like the red sky or the issue of Playboy, the sign of Jonah is also context-specific, with meaning and opposing meaning assigned to the same sign in a similar dusk/dawn context, with the night or day for the sign of Jonah residing in the absence or presence of God in this world.

The structure of Jesus’ utterance about a red sky (as the author of Matthew’s Gospel produces it in his Hebrew-style narrative that has its first half forming the shadow and copy of its second, or spiritual half) has the red sky being a sign of the times, a sign of this world, whereas the sign of Jonah is a heavenly sign that has physical and spiritual compliments.

In the physical presentation of the sign of Jonah, Matthew’s Jesus said,

Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered Him, saying, "Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you." But He answered them, "An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and behold, something greater than Jonah is here. The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here.” (Matt 12:38–42)

The sign of Jonah as understood physically will have Jesus being three days and three nights in the heart of the earth—entombed in earth—as Jonah was three days and three nights entombed by the fleshly body of the whale [great fish]. This is not a spiritual understanding of the sign of Jonah, but an earthly one. This is the understanding given to those who are not born of spirit nor called by Christ Jesus. And even then, greater Christendom has denied this understanding of the sign of Jonah and has insisted that Jesus was not entombed for three days and three days—seventy-two hours—but entered the grave Friday evening and rose from the grave Sunday morning, one day and two nights, leaving greater Christendom straddling a chasm of unbelief, one foot standing on Christ and the other foot standing on the Adversary, a theological situation worse than being lukewarm.

Greater Christendom has believed that Jesus was crucified, buried, then raised from death by God the Father—this is the foot that is firmly planted on Christ. But greater Christendom has denied and continues to deny that Christ Jesus was the Passover Lamb of God, slain on the mid week [Wednesday] Preparation day for the High Sabbath, the first day of the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the 15^th day of the first month in year 31 of the Common Era, and then resurrected from death after the third day of Unleavened Bread, ascending to the Father at the hour of the Wave Sheaf Offering (as Sadducees reckoned when the first handful of barley was to be waved) on the morrow after the weekly Sabbath, the fourth or mid week day of Unleavened Bread. This reckoning will have Jesus entering Jerusalem on the weekly Sabbath, the 10^th day of the first month, as both the selected Passover Lamb of God and as the future high priest of Israel (the reason He rides the colt, not her mother). This will now have Jesus eating the Passover on the dark portion of the 14^th day of the month, the First Unleavened (see Matt 26:17 in Greek, and do not insert the extra words translators have inserted), at the hour and on the day when Israel under Moses ate the first Passover in Egypt. Jesus was then taken this same night, and crucified on the day portion of the 14^th day, dying about 3:00 p.m. and being buried as the sun set, the beginning of the 15^th day, the Great Sabbath of the Sabbath (John 19:31 in Greek), the first High Day of the seven day long Feast of Unleavened Bread.

Why greater Christendom doesn’t believe the physical application of the sign of Jonah that would have Jesus being entombed in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights—all day on the 15^th, the High Sabbath; all day on the 16^th; all day on the 17^th, the weekly Sabbath—cannot be explained by Christians except through the fallacious concept of inclusive counting that will have a partial day counting as a full day, not something found in the Hebrew construction of the Book of Jonah, where “day” is the hot portion of a twenty-four hour period, and “night” is the twisting away, or turning away from the light. Besides the movement from midweek of the physical week to midweek of a spiritual week has significance in assigning meaning to the sign of Jonah that is addressed in Jesus saying, The men of Nineveh will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it … the queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it.

In the physical application of the sign of Jonah, movement is from being physically alive to a common judgment of humanity, Israelite and non-Israelite, after death, this judgment occurring outside of space-time so that all phenomena occur in the same unchanging moment. In the spiritual application of the sign of Jonah, movement is from spiritual death to spiritual life while the person remains physically alive, with the breath of life of record going from the nostrils, the front of the face (represented by the nasal consonant <n>), to where the breath of God [pneuma Theou] in the bodily form of a dove entered into [eis — from Mark 1:10] the man Jesus the Nazarene following His baptism. This movement of breath is seen in the difference between “Simon the son of John” [Simon ’o uios ’Ioannou] (John 1:42) and “Simon bar Jonah” [Simon Bariona] (Matt 16:17). Aspiration is represented by the /ah/ radical, which in the name “John,” the name of Peter’s natural father, precedes the nasal consonant /n/, but follows the nasal consonant /n/in “Jonah.”

Jesus knew Peter’s natural father’s name was John, but Jesus identified Peter’s father as being Jonah when Jesus told Peter that flesh and blood had not revealed to him that Jesus was the Christ (Matt 16:16), but the Father of Jesus, the one in the heavens (v. 17), had revealed Jesus’ identify to Peter.

In Jesus “misidentifying” Peter’s father, substituting Jonah for John, Jesus disclosed that Peter’s parentage had gone from physical birth parents to godly birth parents.

Israel under Moses ate the first Passover on the dark portion of the 14^th day of the first month, not on the dark portion of the 15^th day as rabbinical Judaism today eats the first of their two Seder meals; for Israel under Moses was prohibited from leaving their houses until dawn of the 14^th day, the Preparation Day for leaving Egypt in a hurry. Only after dawn did Israel spoil the Egyptians, taking from them what reflected the light of the sun as a sign of Christ being taken from this world. Only after dawn were herds and flocks gathered. And between spoiling Egyptians and gathering flocks, there would have been no time for a lump of leaven starter to do its work of leavening dough then Israel baking raised bread before Israel left their slave quarters in haste, not to ever return.

The sign of Jonah representing Jesus being entombed for three days and three nights corresponds to the red sky at dusk signifying fair sailing weather, a sign of the times. The sign of Jonah representing the Body of Christ—when the Passover lamb is slain, both head and body dies—being entombed until the third day (of the Genesis “P” creation account) is complete corresponds to the red sky at dawn signifying turmoil and trouble, the sign of seven endtime years of tribulation, the sign of our times, this present age and what is about to begin.

Every body must have a head, but a head can temporarily be without a body as seen in Daniel’s vision of Belshazzar’s first year, when the body of the fourth king is burned after its head is dealt a mortal wound, with this wound being healed when the beast is seen in Revelation chapter 13. The concept of headship without a body is also seen in the lad David being anointed king of Israel (1 Sam chap 16) and thereby made the head of Israel years before he receives the office of king.

The resurrection of Christ, Head and Body, from death can be physically understood by spiritual infants. But what it takes to understand the spiritual application of the sign of Jonah is to have both feet firmly planted on Christ, and to cease straddling the chasm between life and death, the chasm that Abaddon rules, his weapon of war being unbelief, his great sword being a single voiced cutting blade that prevents Christians from understanding that spiritually, two are one.

The Apostle Paul delivered to Christendom the principles for understanding Hebrew style narration:

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For His invisible attributes, namely, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. (Rom 1:18–20 emphasis added)

And,

It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. Thus it is written, "The first man Adam became a living being"; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit. But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. The first man was from the earth, a man of dust; the second man is from heaven. As was the man of dust, so also are those who are of the dust, and as is the man of heaven, so also are those who are of heaven. Just as we have borne the image of the man of dust, we shall also bear the image of the man of heaven. (1 Cor 15:44–47 emphasis added)

Shortened, the visible, physical things of this world reveal and precede the invisible, spiritual things of God. And as the physical exists, the spiritual will also exist. Hence, Israel’s Passover liberation from physical slavery to a physical king in a physical land forms the shadow and copy of spiritual Israel’s Second Passover liberation from spiritual bondage to a spiritual king [the King of Babylon — Isa 14:4].

The argument that will be made throughout this book is expressed in two being one, with self-similarity producing the geometry of marriage, of penetration, of headship.

Night is the non-symmetrical, natural image of day, and night and day together form one “day”; thus, the natural is without spiritual life. The natural is in spiritual darkness; for the prince of this world remains the Adversary, the King of spiritual Babylon. Dominion over this world will not be taken from the Adversary and his angels until halfway through the seven endtime years of tribulation—the first 1260 days of the seven endtime years are in John’s vision identified as the Affliction; the latter 1260 days are identified as the Endurance in Jesus (from Rev 1:9), which will have the Affliction and the Endurance being mirror images [enantiomorphs] of one another … the Affliction and Endurance are separated by the Kingdom, the doubled day 1260 when the kingdom of this world is taken from the Adversary and given to the Son of Man.

Circumcised in the flesh Israel is the non-symmetrical, natural image of circumcised of heart Israel, with circumcision of the flesh and of the heart Israel being the nation of Israel that lives throughout the Millennium, the thousand year long Sabbath of the land that will not see worldly economies based on transactions but based on self-sufficient, sustainable agriculture.

Elohim [singular in usage] breathed the breath of life one time into the nostrils of humanity (Gen 2:7), then created Eve from living flesh and bone taken from Adam so that Adam and Eve were one flesh (vv. 22–24) … in marriage, two become one, with the man being the head of his wife (1 Cor 11:3) through his penetration of his wife. In spiritual birth, the spirit of Christ [pneuma Christou] penetrates the spirit of the person [to pneuma tou ’anthropou] thereby becoming one with the person as well as the Head of the person, with the spirit of Christ being a life-giving spirit [pneuma]. The person has now been born of God as a son of God and has passed from death to life without coming under judgment (John 5:24); for with spiritual birth came belief of God that leads to obedience by faith [pisteos] … belief of God does not precede the Father drawing the person from this world and delivering the person to Christ Jesus (John 6:44), who then calls the person, justifies the person [i.e., is crucified for the person while the person is still a sinner — Rom 5:8], and glorifies the person by bringing to life the spirit of the person so that the person not only knows the things of man (1 Cor 2:11) but also the things of God through having the indwelling of Christ in the form of the mind of Christ.

Two are one—the spirit of Christ in the spirit of the person becomes the Head of the person; becomes the Bridegroom, with the spirit of the person functioning as the Bride, the Body of Christ, with Bridegroom and Bride being one spirit as a husband and his wife are one flesh.

In Jesus’ prayer shortly before He was taken, Jesus asked the Father,

I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me. (John 17:20–23 emphasis added)

The spirit of the Father [pneuma Theou] entered into (penetrated) the spirit of Christ [pneuma Christou] that in turns enters into (penetrates) the human spirit of a person [to pneuma tou ’anthropou] that is in the soul [psuche] of the person that is housed in a fleshly body, male or female.

Flesh and blood are perishable: they cannot enter heaven, nor will they—because they are perishable—inherit immortality … it won’t be flesh and blood that is changed in the twinkling of an eye and raised imperishable (1 Cor 15:52), but the soul [psuche] of the person who has been born of spirit as a son of God.

In making the two-part move from death to life, humanity sheds its fleshly body to never return to it.

* * *

[About Prophecy] [ Home ]