About Prophecy - The Book, Serialized - Chapter Five

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.

__________________________________________________

PART TWO

The Demonstration—the Demonstration

with eyes still red, swollen he said,

it shouldn't have happened, my son

did nothing wrong

it wasn't fair,

he blamed God for not caring

I listened without words—

too much has been written about when

bad things happen to good people

without me adding to the confusion

when rebellion rattled foundations

a third believed, others were unsure

for them a proof was designed

lab animals were needed

to show lives of competition

will prove no life at all

but no one wants manipulated

so the mice were left unfettered

in their round cage

the rebellious were released

to plead their case for six days

but the Sabbath belongs to the designer

to show all what love will do

as I watch my student begin to drink

possessions away, I tell him

get help … I'd intervene

more forcefully

if professional ethics allowed—

but my tongue is bound

by decisions made years ago

I understand better the dilemma

of a designer who has given

freedom from intervention

till we & others know

that without His love

none of us would live

Chapter Five

____________

And the word of [YHWH] came to me: "Son of man, when a land sins against me by acting faithlessly, and I stretch out my hand against it and break its supply of bread and send famine upon it, and cut off from it man and beast, even if these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they would deliver but their own lives by their righteousness, declares the Lord [YHWH]. (Ezek 14:12–14)

____________

There are few men declared righteous within the histories and prophecies of the Old Testament. Noah, Daniel, and Job are three who were: “‘Or if I send a pestilence into that land and pour out my wrath upon it with blood, to cut off from it man and beast, even if Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, as I live, declares the Lord [YHWH], they would deliver neither son nor daughter. They would deliver but their own lives by their righteousness’” (Ezek 14:19–20).

Noah, Daniel, and Job have one thing in common besides their righteousness: none of them could have entered the temple of God, the house of God. Noah and Job lived before there was any temple. Daniel was a eunuch, and Solomon’s temple was razed by the armies of Nebuchadnezzar. And because there was no standing temple with its Holy Place and Holy of Holies, there was no barrier that prevented Noah, Daniel, and Job from coming to God; no high priest; no ritual; no required animal sacrifice. For the author of Hebrews wrote,

Now even the first covenant had regulations for worship and an earthly place of holiness. For a tent was prepared, the first section, in which were the lampstand and the table and the bread of the Presence. It is called the Holy Place. Behind the second curtain was a second section called the Most Holy Place, having the golden altar of incense and the ark of the covenant covered on all sides with gold, in which was a golden urn holding the manna, and Aaron's staff that budded, and the tablets of the covenant. Above it were the cherubim of glory overshadowing the mercy seat. Of these things we cannot now speak in detail. These preparations having thus been made, the priests go regularly into the first section, performing their ritual duties, but into the second only the high priest goes, and he but once a year, and not without taking blood, which he offers for himself and for the unintentional sins of the people. By this the holy spirit indicates that the way into the holy places is not yet opened as long as the first section is still standing (which is symbolic for the present age). According to this arrangement, gifts and sacrifices are offered that cannot perfect the conscience of the worshiper, but deal only with food and drink and various washings, regulations for the body imposed until the time of reformation. (Heb 9:1–10 emphasis added)

If the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies are symbols; if the Ark of the Covenant with its Mercy Seat and cherubim were symbols; if the jar of manna, Aaron’s budded staff, and the tablets of stone were symbols; if the Levitical priesthood and the temple’s high priest were symbols; if Israel in the 1^st-Century was a symbol—if Judaism and its outward trappings were all symbols of Christ Jesus [the high priest] and born of spirit disciples [priests] and disciples not yet born of spirit [Israel], then there is absolute consistency between what Paul wrote and what Peter taught and what I write today, nearly two millennia later. But there is no unity between what greater Christendom teaches and the trappings of Judaism.

The Apostle Paul identified the disciples individually and collectively as the Body of Christ (1 Cor 12:27) and the temple of God (1 Cor 3:16–17; 2 Cor 6:16); thus spiritually, as long as the Body of Christ lived, the way to God was closed except through the temple [the Christian Church] and its High Priest, the glorified Christ Jesus.

In the Body of Christ was the reality of Aaron’s budded staff [resurrection from death], the jar of manna [the indwelling of Christ Jesus], and the two tablets of stone on which Moses had inscribed the Covenant in the words of the Ten Commandments [the Law written on hearts and placed in minds]. Therefore, for as long as the temple stood, no Hindi in India could come to God without first becoming a Christian. No Buddhist could come to God without first becoming a Christian. No Gentile of any sort could come to God without first becoming a Christian. The way to God was restricted to Israel and to Israel’s proselytes.

Again, everyone not a Christian truly born of spirit was prevented from coming to God for as long as the temple stood, the Body of Christ lived. This included self-identified Christians not born of spirit, those who were part of Paul’s mystery of lawlessness (2 Thess 2:7).

To modern sensibilities, preventing non-Israelites from coming to God—like patriarchal Israel’s treatment of women—doesn’t seem fair, doesn’t seem right, doesn’t seem to come from a God that is love. For where is love in not letting others come to Him except through Israel and the temple? Why didn’t He tear down the temple as He tore down outward circumcision that prevented Gentiles as well as women from coming to Him?

But contained within the logic of the temple is the element of Thirdness that Paul appreciated but didn’t understand; that he couldn’t understand without going to the third heaven where he heard things that could not be told (2 Cor 12:2–4). And even after visiting the third heaven, he lacked the language necessary to express things he saw and heard, the reality behind the symbolism, with Paul’s apparently weepy eyes being his constant reminder of what human eyes cannot see … Moses was placed in a cleft in the rock and could only see the backside of the Lord in His glory, and Moses’ eyes remained undimmed to his taking. There was no cleft in the rock for Paul, and his eyes troubled him throughout the fourteen years plus years of his ministry.

According to human logic, God should have pulled down Herod’s temple when the curtain separating the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies was rent. Instead, He left it in place as a symbol, a sign, until Roman soldiers pulled it down in 70CE. It has never been rebuilt although Simon bar Kokhba laid the foundation for a new temple during his short-lived revolt against Roman rule (132–135 CE). But after bar Kokhba, nothing. And there will be nothing physical until dominion over the single kingdom of this world is taken from the Adversary and given to the Son of Man. This, too, is symbolic.

For as long as the Body of Christ, the spiritual temple of God, stood as a man stands, the way to God was only through Christ Jesus, and only through living as a Judean by faith without being outwardly circumcised. But no one could come to Christ Jesus unless or until the Father drew the person from this world (John 6:44, 65), a one-by-one salvation that was seemingly anti-family; for unless the Father also drew the spouse and parents and children, the Believer was ideologically separated from the person’s family and thus compelled to become family with other Believers rather than with biological relatives. And how did one know if an outward Believer was truly called by God, especially when the Believer was him or herself an infant in Christ? Even the Apostle Paul couldn’t discern genuine from false Believers until damage was done to fellowships by false brethren.

Logically, once God ceased to draw individuals from this world and deliver them to Christ Jesus, thereby ensuring the physical death of the Body of Christ by providing no new recruits as physical bodies died either in martyrdom or of old age, God should not permit rebuilding of the temple, the Body of Christ. However, the Elect are not of the Body of Christ, a seemingly sleight-of-hand dealing from a stacked deck: again, the Elect are all foreknown by God, predestined by God, called by Christ, justified by Christ, and glorified by the indwelling of Christ when it isn’t the season for fruit. The Elect are called to be younger siblings of Christ Jesus (Rom 8:29–30) and to do the heavy lifting here on earth during the reality of the First Unleavened and the Feast of Unleavened Bread. They are to sow rebellion against the Adversary within the Adversary’s administration of the kingdom of this world as the Adversary sowed rebellion against God in heaven before iniquity was found in this anointed guardian cherub. And rebellion against rebellion, the double negative, produces obedience to God and Believers keeping the Commandments by faith. Thus, the Elect are also symbols and their faith symbolic of what happened in the chiral image of their faith here on earth; i.e., rebellion in heaven against God.

There were rebels within the ranks of natural Israel, but rebels against God:

Then all the elders of Israel gathered together and came to Samuel at Ramah and said to him, "Behold, you are old and your sons do not walk in your ways. Now appoint for us a king to judge us like all the nations." But the thing displeased Samuel when they said, "Give us a king to judge us." And Samuel prayed to [YHWH]. And [YHWH] said to Samuel, "Obey the voice of the people in all that they say to you, for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me from being king over them. According to all the deeds that they have done, from the day I brought them up out of Egypt even to this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are also doing to you. Now then, obey their voice; only you shall solemnly warn them and show them the ways of the king who shall reign over them." (1 Sam 8:4–9)

To demonstrate what Satan did so that humankind and angels that didn’t rebel could see and appreciate the subtly of the Adversary, a symbol of the Adversary’s rebellion was needed: natural Israel, descended from twice selected men of righteousness and faith (Noah and Abraham) formed a reasonable shadow and type of the Adversary’s inner corruption and the spread of his corruption to other angels until there was a full-blown rebellion occurring in heaven. Natural Israel also demonstrates the difficulties of rooting out this rebellion, the seeds of which will continue to sprout until God conclusively demonstrates that economies based on transactions are universally doomed to fail, and governance by the proletariat will never succeed. Both Capitalism and Communism (Marxism in any form) are doomed to fail, with Capitalism having produced the material wealth, goods, and services that permit the endtime Elect to do an even greater work than was done by Christ Jesus, or by His first disciples.

In Israel’s rebellion against God, Israel failed God, but didn’t fail in fulfilling the symbolism for why this physical people was physically called to be the firstborn son of the Lord (Ex 4:22); for angels are sons of God (Job 38:7) in that they have no parent but God. However, the nature of the creation of angels in timeless heaven doesn’t permit angelic sons of God to be heirs of God; for their absence of life prior to their creation prevents them from entering into the same moment in heaven in which the Father and Son have life. They didn’t have life in this moment; hence, they can never have life in this moment that in timeless heaven functions as a geographical location here on earth functions. And this inability to have life in the moment that continues to exist before angels were created is something the Adversary never understood, but humanly understandable because of our existence inside of space-time.

Because human sons of God receive heavenly life inside of changeable time, receiving the life that is in the Father with the breath/spirit of the Father being in the breath/spirit of Christ that is then in the spirit of man, human sons of God have received life from the same heavenly moment as the Father and the Son have life; therefore, human sons of God are heirs that can inherit the heavenly moment possessed by the Father and the Son, the Most High moment that was symbolized by the summit of Mount Sinai where Moses entered into the presence of the Lord, but the people of Israel were forbidden under threat of death from stepping foot on the mountain, the people of Israel thus symbolizing angels that cannot enter into the heavenly moment in which the Father and the Son have life.

Most of natural Israel succumbed to the broadcast of the Adversary and refused to separate themselves from surrounding nations even when in the land of Canaan … when Israel was in Egypt, Egyptians separated Israel from themselves, which is also symbolic of the world separating itself from Christendom, using modern language to express its separation that sounds eerie familiar to why Egyptians wouldn’t eat at Joseph’s table. This separation is symbolic of the natural repulsion human persons have for rebelling angels, a repulsion expressed in the Lord telling the serpent in the Garden, “‘I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel’” (Gen 3:15).

The wild card that will be played in the Affliction and Endurance is the role demonic angels play in attempting to interact with human persons … the man of perdition will be an Arian Christian possessed by the Adversary, and others of the Adversary’s hierarchy will possess or attempt to possess human persons. But these high order demonic kings although presenting problems for the Elect will not be the demonic spirits that most greatly affect the Elect—

Glorified saints will judge angels, not the angels that didn’t rebel against God (i.e., join the Adversary in rebellion), but rebelling angels, with these glorified saints serving as divine Appellate Judges that will confirm the death sentences to which rebelling angels have already been sentenced, or amend these death sentences to better fit individual rebels who were overcome by the Adversary’s broadcast of rebellion. This means that rebelling angels will most likely attempt to corrupt the figurative jury pool by somehow ingratiating themselves to the Elect, a trap that the Elect will have to avoid if they are to remain impartial judges. And it will not be easy to avoid interacting with rebelling angels that do not want to die, but don’t know how to bring forth fruit worthy of repentance.

Hence, as Jesus tore down the barrier that separated the Circumcised from the Uncircumcised (Eph 2:11–16), God the Father tore down the barrier that separated humanity from Himself, this barrier being the temple that was the Body of Christ—and the temple was truly a barrier as great as circumcision; for the world was psychologically unwilling to live as detestable Jews, not that there was anything inherently detestable about being a Jew for no one can please God who doesn’t by faith live in this world as a Judean.

Peter taught Gentile coverts at Antioch to live as uncircumcised Judeans (read Gal 2:14 in Greek), which wasn’t the cause of Paul taking him to task.

Paul publicly rebuked Peter because Peter, outwardly circumcised, separated himself from the converts he was teaching to live as uncircumcised Judeans when members of the Circumcision Faction came from Jerusalem, thereby returning importance to the surface of things; to the fleshly body, when it is the inner self that is a Christian, not the fleshly body. Peter was trying to go-along to get-along, just cause for a Christian being rebuked by another Christian.

Although there are many scriptural passages that address circumcised Israel being recognized as a hissing and a curse, permit me to here place the two previous quotations from Ezekiel chapter 14 in context:

Then certain of the elders of Israel came to me and sat before me. And the word of [YHWH] came to me: "Son of man [Adam], these men have taken their idols into their hearts, and set the stumbling block of their iniquity before their faces. Should I indeed let Myself be consulted by them? Therefore speak to them and say to them, Thus says the Lord [YHWH]: Any one of the house of Israel who takes his idols into his heart and sets the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and yet comes to the prophet, I [YHWH] will answer him as he comes with the multitude of his idols, that I may lay hold of the hearts of the house of Israel, who are all estranged from Me through their idols. Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord [YHWH]: Repent and turn away from your idols, and turn away your faces from all your abominations. For any one of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who sojourn in Israel, who separates himself from Me, taking his idols into his heart and putting the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and yet comes to a prophet to consult Me through him, I [YHWH] will answer him Myself. And I will set My face against that man; I will make him a sign and a byword and cut him off from the midst of my people, and you shall know that I am [YHWH]. And if the prophet is deceived and speaks a word, I, [YHWH], have deceived that prophet, and I will stretch out My hand against him and will destroy him from the midst of My people Israel. And they shall bear their punishment—the punishment of the prophet and the punishment of the inquirer shall be alike—that the house of Israel may no more go astray from Me, nor defile themselves anymore with all their transgressions, but that they may be My people and I may be their God, declares the Lord [YHWH]." (Ezek 14:1–11 emphasis added)

The emphasized passages condemns Israel’s transgressions in the structured way of Hebraic thought-couplets, but with the physical presentation being spiritual in nature (have taken their idols into their hearts) and with the spiritual presentation being a step above the physical presentation (set the stumbling block of their iniquity before their faces); for in the spiritual presentation the Israelite’s iniquity [lawlessness, or sin] serves as the idol Israel worships whereas in the physical presentation the idol remains a thing [a stick or stone] that the Israelite worships.

Does Israel continue in its idolatry of Ezekiel’s day?

Well, does Israel continue to worship its lawlessness? In John’s Gospel, Jesus on the fourth day of the Feast of Tabernacles said to assembled Jews, “‘Has not Moses given you the law? Yet none of you keeps the law’” (John 7:19). And what has changed for the better during the past two millennia? Does rabbinical Judaism keep the Passover as Moses commanded? Does greater Judaism keep the Sabbath as the Lord commanded, or are there more Jews on the nation of Israel’s beaches on the Sabbath than there are in synagogues?

For all of Israel’s disregard for the Sabbath in the nation-state of Israel, there remain a great many Israelites that have made the Sabbath into the foremost idol of both Judaism and Sabbatarian Christendom, and have made Scripture as a book into an idol like the Sabbath. Even greater Christendom genuflects before the Book that is a humanly inscribed book like other books, with its every word initially written by a person … the only words the Lord wrote were on two tablets of stone that Moses broke—and the senior of the endtime two witnesses will be tasked to follow in Moses’ footsteps, breaking not two stone tablets that were of God but the “Book idol” that greater Christendom worships, thereby eliminating another barrier (like that of outward circumcision) separating non-Believers from God.

The Holy Bible is but the shadow and type of the heavenly Book of Life. The Holy Bible is a physical object and therefore by extension, not Holy. Yes, the Bible is the playbook of the Most High God, the operational manual for humanity, but the writings of Moses were redacted more than two and a half millennia ago, and in this redaction into Imperial Hebrew during an era when Israel remained far from the Lord, this era following on the heels of the House of Judah having lost the Book of the Covenant (see 2 Kings 22:8–11) and no Passover of the sort commanded by the Lord through Moses having been kept since the days of the Judges (2 King 23:21–23), the plural linguistic determinative <YHWH> became the singular name assigned to the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and as such too holy to pronounce—

As a linguistic determinative, the Tetragrammaton YHWH was never uttered. Those who could read through the time of the judges knew better than to give voice to linguistic determinatives; thus, when the natural evolution of Hebrew compelled the proto-Hebrew in which Moses wrote to be translated into Imperial Hebrew, the language of Israel’s kings, scribes knew that the Tetragrammaton was not pronounced, but they had lost the reason for not pronouncing this linguistic determinative. Determinatives were no longer used.

Monotheism became the principle idol Judaism, and by extension, primitive orthodox Christendom worships, with orthodox Christendom attempting to fit three entities into a triangle shaped one deity.

In the translation of Moses from proto-Hebrew into Imperial Hebrew, singular verbs and pronouns were given to the regular plural determinative YHWH except in a few overlooked places, with this being the subject of a following chapter …

Israel became a stench the world could not bear:

The word came to me [Ezekiel]: "Son of man, when the house of Israel lived in their own land, they defiled it by their ways and their deeds. Their ways before me were like the uncleanness of a woman in her menstrual impurity. So I poured out my wrath upon them for the blood that they had shed in the land, for the idols with which they had defiled it. I scattered them among the nations, and they were dispersed through the countries. In accordance with their ways and their deeds I judged them. But when they came to the nations, wherever they came, they profaned my holy name, in that people said of them, 'These are the people of [YHWH], and yet they had to go out of His land.' But I had concern for my holy name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the nations to which they came. Therefore say to the house of Israel: It is not for your sake, O house of Israel, that I am about to act, but for the sake of my holy name, which you have profaned among the nations to which you came. And I will vindicate the holiness of my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, and which you have profaned among them. And the nations will know that I am [YHWH], when through you I vindicate my holiness before their eyes. (Ezek 36:16–23 the determinate used as determinatives have been removed)

The world was and remains anti-Semitic, its anti-Semitism coming from the Adversary and the enmity placed between the Woman and her offspring and the Serpent and his seed.

The two witnesses will be hated worldwide:

And when they have finished their testimony, the beast that rises from the bottomless pit will make war on them and conquer them and kill them, and their dead bodies will lie in the street of the great city that symbolically is called Sodom and Egypt, where their Lord was crucified. For three and a half days some from the peoples and tribes and languages and nations will gaze at their dead bodies and refuse to let them be placed in a tomb, and those who dwell on the earth will rejoice over them and make merry and exchange presents, because these two prophets had been a torment to those who dwell on the earth. (Rev 11:7–10)

Yes, the two witnesses will have called many plagues into existence and will have caused great misery to come upon peoples and nations that rebel against God, but God will not have set His hand to save all people during the ministry of the two witnesses. He will have set His hand to save all Christians through filling Christians with His spirit, thereby liberating them from indwelling sin and death. But the majority of Christendom will have rebelled against God on day 220 of the Affliction, thereby inviting onto themselves the ire of God, Christ, and the two witnesses.

The enemies of rebellious Christendom should grieve when the two witnesses are slain; they should not rejoice. Rebellious Christians will rejoice, however. So either rebellious Christendom has “conquered” every other ideology during the Affliction, which will be mostly the case, or the “some” who will not permit the bodies of the two witnesses to be buried are only a third of humanity.

Understanding prophecy requires understanding that for as long as the temple stood, the way to God required going through Israel. For as long as the Body of Christ lived, the way to God required going through the Christian Church and through Christ Jesus. But when the earthly temple was razed, the way to God was open to all. When the Body of Christ died from want of spirit/breath, the way to God was open to all—and the Body of Christ was alive throughout Paul’s ministry, and was still alive when Second Peter was written; when Mark’s Gospel was written; when Matthew’s Gospel was written, but barely alive when John’s Gospel was written. It seems that the living Body of Christ had been reduced to one person when John received his vision, making John the Elder the reality of John the Baptist, both tasked with preparing the way of the Lord, John the Baptist for Christ Jesus; John the Elder for the two witnesses, for John reached across time when he wrote, “I, John, your brother and partner in the [Affliction] and Kingdom and Endurance in Jesus, was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus” (Rev 1:9 emphasis added) — the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy (Rev 19:10).

John continued, “I was in the spirit on the Lord's day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet saying, ‘Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches, to Ephesus and to Smyrna and to Pergamum and to Thyatira and to Sardis and to Philadelphia and to Laodicea’” (Rev 1:10–11).

Since the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy, the spirit John was in on the Lord’s day was the spirit of prophecy that for John came upon him as a vision inside of deportation [being exiled to Patmos], thereby likening John’s vision to the visions of the prophet Ezekiel, and likening the letters to the seven named churches to Ezekiel’s prophecies where the Lord said that He would not be inquired-of by the elders of rebellious Israel, John’s letters to the seven named churches being the chiral image of the occasions when the elders of Israel sat before Ezekiel, who wasn’t telling them what they wanted to hear.

I was tasked to reread prophecy, not to repeat what has already been said about biblical prophecy—and in rereading prophecy, those who would seem to be somebody within greater Christendom will get hurt feelings and slapped hands; for rereading prophecy necessarily requires overturning their idols and slapping down their pet interpretations. The John Hagees of greater Christendom will stammer and sputter and stagger on red carpets before they perish in their unbelief of God, their unbelief manifested in lawlessness when they have no covering for their sins but their own obedience.

When Jesus passed by a man blind from birth and His disciples asked who sinned [His disciples apparently believed that birth defects came from sin], the man or his parents, Jesus said neither: the man was blind that the works of God might be manifested in him, meaning that ultimately God was responsible for the man’s blindness, and his healing (John 9:1–5). The John Hagees of this world are ultimately not responsible for their spiritual blindness. God is; for God could just as easily have called John Hagee to reread prophecy as He called me, with John Hagee seemingly the better person to call.

Jesus didn’t ask the blind man if he wanted healed as He had asked the man lame for 38 years (John 5:6). Rather, Jesus spat on the ground, made mud from His saliva, and anointed the man’s eyes with the mud, then commanded the man to go and wash in the pool of Siloam, meaning Sent (John 9:6–7). The man returned with sight that he hadn’t before had. And Pharisees were angry because it was a Sabbath—they wanted to know how he had received sight. He told these Pharisees: He put mud on my eyes, and I washed, and I see (v. 15). But these Pharisees weren’t concerned about the man, but about Jesus having healed the man on the Sabbath, which for them made Jesus a sinner. However, there was a schism between Pharisee and Pharisee, with some insisting that Jesus was a sinner and others insisting that no one not from God could do such a miracle.

Again, the blind man was questioned, declaring that Jesus was a prophet (John 9:17), and it is under the guise of Jesus being a prophet that the remainder of what is recorded occurs:

So for the second time they called the man who had been blind and said to him, "Give glory to God. We know that this man is a sinner." He answered, "Whether he is a sinner I do not know. One thing I do know, that though I was blind, now I see." They said to him, "What did he do to you? How did he open your eyes?" He answered them, "I have told you already, and you would not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become his disciples?" And they reviled him, saying, "You are his disciple, but we are disciples of Moses. We know that God has spoken to Moses, but as for this man, we do not know where he comes from." The man answered, "Why, this is an amazing thing! You do not know where he comes from, and yet he opened my eyes. We know that God does not listen to sinners, but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does his will, God listens to him. Never since the world began has it been heard that anyone opened the eyes of a man born blind. If this man were not from God, he could do nothing." They answered him, "You were born in utter sin, and would you teach us?" And they cast him out. Jesus heard that they had cast him out, and having found him he said, "Do you believe in the Son of Man?" He answered, "And who is He, sir, that I may believe in Him?" Jesus said to him, "You have seen Him, and it is He who is speaking to you." He said, "Lord, I believe," and he worshiped Him. Jesus said, "For judgment I came into this world, that those who do not see may see, and those who see may become blind." Some of the Pharisees near Him heard these things, and said to him, "Are we also blind?" Jesus said to them, "If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, 'We see,' your guilt remains. (John 9:24–41 emphasis added)

The John Hagees of this world say that they see—they may even say that the full moon of the Passover in 2014 will be a blood moon portending a spectacular occurrence during the month. And they may be correct, for the thirty days between Passover and the second Passover in the year of the Second Passover has significance that is not disclosed by the Passover model for reasons I have been writing about for a decade. But these John Hagees of this world are spiritually blind even though they claim to see and understand the mysteries of God`, and because they claim to understand the mysteries of God, their sins remain with them. There is no forgiveness for them. Their fates were sealed in Matthew’s Gospel as well as in John’s Gospel:

[Jesus said] "Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing but inwardly are ravenous wolves. You will recognize them by their fruits. Are grapes gathered from thornbushes, or figs from thistles? So, every healthy tree bears good fruit, but the diseased tree bears bad fruit. A healthy tree cannot bear bad fruit, nor can a diseased tree bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. Thus you will recognize them by their fruits. Not everyone who says to me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. On that day many will say to me, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many mighty works in your name?' And then will I declare to them, 'I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness.'” (Matt 7:15–23)

False prophets in sheep’s clothing, recognized by their fruits—by the hubris that would permit a man to walk on a red carpet. Not every pastor, not every disciple who calls Jesus, Lord, will enter the kingdom. Only those who do the will of the Father will enter. Therefore, those mighty works done in the name of Christ Jesus will do the person with sufficient hubris to strut before his congregation on a red carpet no good; for Christ Jesus will deny knowing the pastor when judgments are revealed. The fates of these workers of iniquity were established in the 1^st-Century.

When Jesus gave to His first disciples the holy spirit by breathing His breath on the ten (John 20:22), Jesus also said, “‘If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld’” (v. 23).

The authority to forgive sins and withhold forgiveness continues with the Elect, those disciples truly born of God, with all of the Elect keeping the Commandments by faith, by belief of God. Hence, the two witnesses will have the authority to forgive sins or withhold forgiveness. And the sins of the John Hagees of this world are not now covered by grace, the righteousness of Christ, but by the absence of spiritual life in these Christians who willingly refuse to keep the Law—

Again, to break one of the Commandments makes the person a Law-breaker, and by extension a sinner either under the Law or a sinner without the Law, with the sinner without the Law to perish without the Law (Rom 2:12). It will be better for the sinner under the Law who can, under the law, plead for mercy as David pleaded for mercy and took his chances with God rather than with his enemies. For the hitherto un-discussed portion of the sign of Jonah has the Lord relenting of His intention to erase Nineveh from human consciousness: “When God saw what they did, how they turned from their evil way, God relented of the disaster that He had said He would do to them, and He did not do it” (Jon 3:10). And Jonah knew that God would relent if he warned Nineveh about what was to happen to that great city:

[Jonah] prayed to [YHWH] and said, "O [YHWH], is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. Therefore now, O [YHWH], please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live." (Jon 4:2–3)

If I warn the John Hagees of this world about what will happen to them—about what is certain to happen to them if they do not repent—will they repent as the men of Nineveh repented at the preaching of Jonah? Sadducees and Pharisees didn’t repent when Jesus warned them of what would happen to them. And the mirror image of Nineveh versus Judaism forms the shadow and copy of Christian authorities versus the third part of humanity (from Zech 13:9), with Jesus and the two witnesses being the inverse of the men of Nineveh and the third part of humanity:

· Jonah corresponds to Jesus as the two witnesses correspond to the Lamb and the Elect;

· The men of Nineveh corresponds to Pharisees as the third part of humankind in the Endurance corresponds to greater Christendom in the Affliction;

· As the men of Nineveh repented at the preaching of Jonah and as Pharisees collectively did not repent at the preaching of Jesus, greater Christendom will not repent at the preaching of the two witness in the Affliction but the third part of humanity will repent at the preaching of the Lamb and the Elect in the Endurance.

It would take God intervening directly to humble men such as the John Hagees of this world before these red-carpet-striders will repent and come into obedience to God. But if God intended to humble such striders prior to the Second Passover, He would have already done so. That Christ Jesus hasn’t yet humbled them suggests that He doesn’t know them so as to discipline them for their lawlessness. And if He doesn’t know them today, He isn’t going to like them at all when they lead the rebellion against Him on day 220 of the Affliction when the man of perdition is revealed.

Nebuchadnezzar had the bad habit of castrating the young foreign nationals chosen to serve in his administration. Theoretically, this suppressed palace coups although in the Book of Ester, Mordecai exposed a coup planned by the king’s eunuchs:

On that night the king could not sleep. And he gave orders to bring the book of memorable deeds, the chronicles, and they were read before the king. And it was found written how Mordecai had told about Bigthana and Teresh, two of the king's eunuchs, who guarded the threshold, and who had sought to lay hands on King Ahasuerus. And the king said, "What honor or distinction has been bestowed on Mordecai for this?" The king's young men who attended him said, "Nothing has been done for him." (Ester 6:1–3 emphasis added)

Note for sake of general information, the chronicles of ancient kings were not historical treatises, but records of what was special, unusual, memorable—

The king of Persia had enemies whose minds should have been mellowed by an absence of testosterone … it was standard practice throughout the ancient world for kings to castrate male palace help, thereby ensuring the security of harems and of the kings themselves. Daniel and his friends would not have been excepted. And as eunuchs, Daniel couldn’t have entered the temple. He would have had no access to God if the temple still stood.

The Ethiopian eunuch who had allegedly come to Jerusalem to worship (Acts 8:26–39) couldn’t have entered the temple, but then, the Sophist novelist who wrote Acts wouldn’t have known this even as a convert to Christianity … in the past two years I have said many times, Acts is a historical Sophist novel, not a historical treatise.

Because the temple didn’t stand for most of the period when Daniel was in Babylon, serving as an administrator, there was no high priest blocking him from coming to God. Because the Body of Christ as the spiritual temple of God was dead by the end of the 1^st-Century and mostly dead after 71 CE, the spiritual temple didn’t and doesn’t stand: Christ serves as the high priest for the Elect, not for the Body of Christ—and then the relationship between Christ and the Elect isn’t well served to call Christ the Elect’s High Priest. He, not the Church, is their spiritual elder brother and “mother,” not something I thought I would write even three years ago. But again, this last Adam became a life-giving spirit, an Eve spirit. And as the giver of life, Christ Jesus serves in the role of mother to deliver to sons of God the glory of God, but Christ serves in this role of life-giver without gender attached to the role.

It would never be appropriate to say that Christ is a woman; for even the spirit within biological women is neither male nor female. The maleness of a man is only flesh deep. Likewise, the femaleness of a women is flesh deep. Below the flesh, there is neither ethnicity (Jew or Greek) nor gender (male or female) or social status (free or slave). There are not “black souls” in African-Americans; nor are there “white souls” in Caucasian Americans. There are not “female souls” in biological women, nor “male souls” in biological men. In answering a test question by Sadducees, Jesus said, “‘You are wrong, because you know neither the Scriptures nor the power of God. For in the resurrection they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but are like angels in heaven’” (Matt 22:29–30).

There are far more Christians who do not know Scripture or the power of God today than there ever were 1^st-Century Jews in all sects combined. And to beat on a drum already played: if Christians are not their fleshly bodies that are today male or female, Caucasian or African, proletariat or bourgeoisie, then endtime biblical prophecies are not about fleshly bodies, but about the “heart” or inner self inside fleshly bodies and earthly nations, with most biblical prophecies being about demonic kings and the war they fight against each other as they realize their time is short, that they are about to be no more forever, something the Adversary assured them wasn’t possible.

Today, because the spiritual temple doesn’t stand, there is no high priest blocking anyone from coming to God. Christ Jesus, the High Priest of spiritual Israel, doesn’t prevent anyone from coming to God. John Hagee is as free to come to God as is any Buddhist or Muslim; for where in Matthew 25:31–46 is there any mention of Christ Jesus, or salvation coming only through the name/authority of Christ Jesus? Doesn’t exist—and doesn’t exist for cause. For Matthew’s Gospel anticipates the death of the Body of Christ. The Jesus of Matthew’s Gospel is the indwelling Christ Jesus that gives life to the Elect.

It is in Acts 4:10–12 where it is found that there is salvation in no other name than that of Jesus the Nazarene—and Acts is a Sophist novel. A person familiar with this Greek genre will recognize the predictable motifs of Acts, and will realize that Acts’ abrupt ending comes from someone early on recognizing the theological problem inherent to this genre and tearing off the last pages in which Paul would have died in place of Jesus, such was the plot-uniformity of Sophist novels, the reason why they are not regularly read today. Only the names and places changed in these novels. The motifs were seldom shuffled and redealt.

The unfortunate characteristic of the John Hagees of this world is that their pride, their hubris, will not permit them to admit that they have never understood the mysteries of God. Instead of coming to Christ Jesus as teachable individuals, they will huff and puff and threaten to destroy anyone who doesn’t bow down and acknowledge the greatness of Christ Jesus that they have usurped in doing their works for Him without being called to these works. I suspect these red-carpet-striders can preach the dead into hell, but I know that they cannot save themselves; for they absolutely refuse to come to Christ Jesus as little children, as spiritual infants that need their diapers changed.

There was no temple when Noah preached righteousness. There was no temple when Job was perfect in all of his ways out of fear of God. There was no temple when Daniel received his visions. And there is no standing temple today: the person who fears God and who practices living righteously can come to God as Noah, Daniel, and Job did …

Death reigned over humanity from Adam to Moses (Rom 5:14), not from Adam to Christ Jesus. And Moses murdered an Egyptian who was beating a Hebrew. Moses didn’t have to come to the aid of one of his people, but he did. He looked like an Egyptian (Ex 2:19), and he had been adopted into the household of Pharaoh, but he chose to identify with Israel, the people of God—and he was rejected by Israel who didn’t want him for a prince (v. 14), just as Jesus was rejected by Israel who didn’t want Him as either their prophet or high priest.

Any person desiring to live righteously can today come before God even if the person doesn’t know the name Jesus the Nazarene. This doesn’t mean that the righteous individual will be numbered among the Elect. Rather, from what I can determine, most of the Elect were not all that righteous before being called by Christ Jesus. They were, however, true rebels that God “turned” as espionage agencies “turn” enemy agents into double agents—God “turned” the rebellion of those individuals whom He foreknew and predestined against the Adversary, giving the Adversary a taste of his own medicine. And to “rebel” against disobedience is to become obedient, keeping the Law by faith when the person doesn’t have to keep the Law.

No person has done something or things too great for repentance to cover; so it isn’t what has been done in a person’s past that is the barrier to salvation. It is the person’s resistance to repenting that is the problem; for the person who believes the lies he or she tells him or herself to justify in the person’s mind what the person has done, believes disinformation; believes the glasnost of the person. And when a person believes what the person knows is a lie, the person commits spiritual suicide. No repentance is ever again possible.

To believe the lie the person uses to justify his or her transgression of the Law returns the person to being as Israel was when this people set the stumbling block of its iniquity before its face (Ezek 14:4 et al).

Perhaps I should conclude this section by citing the remainder of Ezekiel chapter 14:

Son of man, when a land sins against me by acting faithlessly, and I stretch out my hand against it and break its supply of bread and send famine upon it, and cut off from it man and beast, even if these three men, Noah, Daniel, and Job, were in it, they would deliver but their own lives by their righteousness. If I cause wild beasts to pass through the land, and they ravage it, and it be made desolate, so that no one may pass through because of the beasts, even if these three men were in it, as I live, they would deliver neither sons nor daughters. They alone would be delivered, but the land would be desolate. Or if I bring a sword upon that land and say, Let a sword pass through the land, and I cut off from it man and beast, though these three men were in it, as I live, they would deliver neither sons nor daughters, but they alone would be delivered. Or if I send a pestilence into that land and pour out my wrath upon it with blood, to cut off from it man and beast, even if Noah, Daniel, and Job were in it, as I live, they would deliver neither son nor daughter. They would deliver but their own lives by their righteousness. How much more when I send upon Jerusalem my four disastrous acts of judgment, sword, famine, wild beasts, and pestilence, to cut off from it man and beast! But behold, some survivors will be left in it, sons and daughters who will be brought out; behold, when they come out to you, and you see their ways and their deeds, you will be consoled for the disaster that I have brought upon Jerusalem, for all that I have brought upon it. They will console you, when you see their ways and their deeds, and you shall know that I have not done without cause all that I have done in it." (vv. 13–23 emphasis added and linguistic determinatives removed)

The seven endtime years of tribulation, notably the 1260 day long Affliction, will be a time like none other. Human survival will be in doubt; for Matthew’s Jesus said, “‘For then there will be great tribulation, such as has not been from the beginning of the world until now, no, and never will be. And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the Elect those days will be cut short’” (Matt 24:21–22).

By just existing, the endtime Elect have a role to play, perhaps a more important role than any other but for Christ Jesus’ role; for without the Elect maintaining their faith, the third part of humankind would not get its chance to enter the harvest of firstfruits. The Adversary wouldn’t win, but he would have foiled the plan of God that has fallen angels being replaced by human sons of God on a near one-for-one basis as the children of Israel in the census conducted on the plains of Moab (Num chap 26) replaced the men of Israel numbered in the census of the second year at Mount Sinai virtually one-for-one.

* * *

[ About Prophecy ] [ Home ]