IVa: Macro Role, of Alpha Precedence | IVb: ..of Body | IVc: ..of Trial Combat | IVd: ..of Your Own Destiny |
For a Text-to-Speech rendition of this webpage, see the audio player below:
Well, that's the problem Christendom largely has had about this Rapture thingy: they're forgetting about "X", Christ! So, they waste a whole lot of time with this doctrine, millions of hapless folks all searching in the wrong direction, because they ask "When?", though they should be asking, "Why?" Yes, the Rapture is extremely important, the culmination of history, even (verses saying so, will be listed in Part IVb): virtually every other doctrine of Scripture is woven into the Rapture. In fact, so woven, it's one big seamless, interconnected whole of such intricacy and magnitude, just seeing the fit alone would prove God wrote This Book. So it's easy to get some key fact amiss, thus screw up maybe years of research. For, we humans are always prone to look too low, and the Uppermost Truth, The Most Obvious Truth, Is What We Least See. If you will reconcile anything in Scripture, start at the Top, never the bottom. CogitA ergo sum, not Cogito ergo me confundo. God thinks therefore I exist, not I think and thus confound myself.
So you always ask, in Scripture accounting, too: What's the purpose of a Material Item? [Nerd note: in accounting, a "material" item is generally defined as something which, if misrepresented or misreported, would have a 'material effect' on the financial picture of the entity being audited. Think of Enron. See, accounting rules did not require Enron's extensive partnerships be reported on its balance sheet (assets and liabilities statements, a type of financial snapshot); so, the financial health of Enron looked far better than it was. Same, for WorldCom, and (in a way) Parmalat. We didn't have to react so violently and trash the companies due to what may have been the wrongs of a few.]
Of course, everything in Scripture is Material, but some items are more important than others. Such as, WHY Does God Choose A Rapture; not, when the Rapture will occur. The latter tells you nothing about God. Especially, since in Acts 1, the Lord made it plain, the date is not for man to know! For, in Scripture Accounting, Asking The Wrong Questions, Searching For The Wrong Answers, Is Fatal To Proper Interpretation. So now you know why all that date-setting, 'prophecy-based newscasting' stuff you see on Christian TV, is just plain wacko. "Avoid such persons as these", 2Tim2:26-3:7. If an interpretation is goofy, it's not God's. We know that stuff is goofy, because it's not even about God, but about titillation, stressing man all the time. Just like the Bible (mis!)translations. 2Tim2:26 uses a cool verb for someone having a hangover -- Paul hoping they will awaken sober and hurting, learning a lesson from their drunken stupor, to better avoid getting drunk on Satan's religious lies, yet again. Drunks are goofy, like in that classic movie, "Lost Weekend", starring Ray Milland (sp?). These folks are still on a prophecy bender, k? So one should avoid them like the Spiritual AIDS they peedle (pee+peddle), and pray God they sober up.
Whew again. No need to cull newspapers to see if the European Union is "up to something", since Paul's Eph3 prayer is with reference to Every Generation (Eph3:15-21). Because, Every Generation Will By Design, Be Equipped To Be, Potentially, The Rapture Generation. Whew. That sure saved a lot of chasing down details I didn't need.
So the Next Accounting Step, to save my 'client' billable time, since He hears me 24/7 and wouldn't want me to waste HIS time seeing if Jacques Chirac was this generation's candidate for the Anti-Christ, is -- hmmm. Well, if there's a Purpose, there must be a PLAN. If there's a precedence, the Marriage Contract, then the PLAN relates to that Contract, right?
Bingo. For, the Most Obvious Of God's Plan Truths should be utterly patent by now, if you've been following this webseries from the beginning: GOD RE-ROUTES BLESSING. Ephesians 1 is a flagship passage on this, but Isa53:10-12 are firmly in view throughout Ephesians: the "Bridal Contract" link on this page provides a corrected translation of that passage.
Consequently, God designed everything for the Son, Who is THE Beneficiary, Isa53:10-12 (yireh..bayado yitslah+alleq-LO b'rabbim clauses, especially). Galatians 3 is a flagship chapter on that fact. Thus, the Divine Benefit Plan Father grants, is to benefit the Son. We are Beneficiaries of that Plan Through the Son, which is why the "in Christ", "in Him", and "in Christ Jesus" phrases are so commonly used, in the NT. All this, is the Implementation of what Isa53:10-12, describes. Israel benefits through us: Book of Hebrews explains how that re-routing works, as a result of Israel's Rejection.
So, then: what is the "Divine Benefit"? Well, think of it as a Huge Pile Of Money to be divided out among folks: who gets how much? In eternity past, Father knew How Much Wealth It Would Take To Fulfill Son's Desire To Spend It All; What Types Of Wealth, Distributed HOW And In WHAT Amounts And To WHOM, To Make A Perfectly Happy Kingdom, for Son.
Technically, the "Divine Benefit" to be funded is:
See, whatever you're doing, you're thinking something. Question is, How Pleasing To Father, is What You Think? That's what Christ cares about, which is why paying for sins on the Cross was done via His Thinking: Isa53:10-11, both BHS and LXX texts, combined. Because, God is Omniscient, so all history is all playing all at once before Him, at all times. So every thought, every experience, every action, every feeling is always online and He experiences it all at once. (So also, Son and Spirit, obviously, since Each is also, Wholly God Himself.)
Initially, Father funded each of us such that each of us could become Pleroma: each one, a King. So we're talking a Whole Lot Of Money Set Up In Eternity Past. For, God doesn't want pet animals to entertain His Son, nor Himself: instead, He wants equals, KINGS. "For He is not ashamed to call them, brothers" it says in Hebrews 2. (Satan would have you think God wants us all doing pet tricks, the Brother-Foot pandering which passes for Christianity, today. Well, that's Churchinanity, not God's Plan. God Is Never Goofy, remember. But Satan always paints Him that way, which is why all religion is always so goofy. )
"Present value" is a financial term (Bible uses "deposit" sometimes in that way), and means CAPITAL. A Current Pot Of Money Of Sufficient Size, to Generate a Particular Amount Of REVENUE. For example, $1 on deposit at 5% interest, will earn 5 cents annually. So the present value, is $1. The income, is 5 cents. So notice the "capitalization" of 5 cents of annual income, is $1. Aka, the "present value". So it is, in Christ's thinking: His thinking in our heads generates thus a bunch of spiritual money, "dividends" or "interest", if you will; we couldn't get that thinking, if HE didn't first have it. Likewise, in the eternal state (and prior), there will be (and have been) such 'sweet savor' dividends occurring in the heads of maybe millions of believers. So the "present value" had to be furnished, for all those dividends, to occur. Since Christ didn't go to the Cross immediately upon Adam's fall, the ACCUMULATED COST was paid at the Cross, but an Advance Payment Was Made On Behalf Of All Of Us Living Post-Cross. So, see? the "Present Value" operates backwards and forwards. Accumulating "interest", in those who learn Father's Holy Son. What a Divine Benefit, to us!
For, Son wants to spend the money to glorify Father, and for that He needs a 'kingdom' of priests. A whole kingdom of them. All other kingdoms benefit Through the Priest-Kingdom, so the eternal state is a Federation of Kingdoms, all of them headed by the King-Priest, Our Lord -- who uses the Priest-Kingdom, to carry out His Rule. (Millennium will be different -- there, we play a lesser role, of ruling Gentile nations to benefit Israel.) Israel was supposed to grow up in the Law, to GET that kingdom-of-priests, role. But, Israel didn't; instead, she rejected the Groom who would Head that Kingdom. So, we Church become Esther, and get that role. That's why Isaiah is kinda ambiguous: who are the "great ones", in Isa53: 12? Well, they coulda been, the "Jeshurun" among Israel. But -- though those Jeshurun will still get their vast individual inheritances, count on it! -- the "great ones" who are among Bride (as we now know), are the Pleroma folks in Church. So Israel still benefits, and those in Church who refuse to grow up to Pleroma also still benefit -- but indirectly. Through, the "great ones". This fact will become clearer in your head, as you keep reading. [Nerd note: pretend that Israel as Bride would have been apportioned $1 bizillion; pretend further that because she forfeited her role, only the Jeshurun among her, get (say) $.3 bizillion: then, through Church, I'm guessing the other $.7 bizillion still goes to Israel's benefit. Might not work out that way, but I'm certain that Israel will be thrilled the way it does work out. When God re-routes, The Result Always Has To Be A Bizillion Times More Profitable, Than The Original Route. God is a good businessman, see: gotta get the proper ROI for the cost!]
Frankly, this re-routing of funds is most analogous to the way Fully Funded Retirement Plans Should Work: those who stay in until retirement, get the benefits. Everyone else, forfeits. Since that concept takes too long to explain, think of it this way: Stay In God's System, Or Your Benefits Go To Someone Else, such that you instead INDIRECTLY benefit from those who GET your benefits, rather than DIRECTLY benefit By Getting Them Yourself. This is roughly analgous to your cousin getting your money, but then he spends it in a way that THRILLS you (so you know we're talking heaven here, lol)! Remember the parable about the stingy servant, whose one talent was given to the guy who had 10? Well, that's God's simpler description of how He re-routes blessing. FOR GOD FULLY FUNDED ALL BENEFITS (including for those who chose Hell rather than God), since Eternity Past: In Order To Benefit Himself, in and by means of (Greek preposition, "en") His SON (theme of Eph1). For, it's never about us, but always about Christ.
God's Divine Benefit Plan kinda works like an earthly "defined benefit plan", except (see Isa53:10-12, Eph1):
People have trouble with abstracts, so here's an example of the enormity of a "defined benefit" value. In America, $75,000 per year is about middle income; can't do much with it. But do you know, to generate that much income every year, at age 55 you have to have over $1,300,000 continually invested somewhere? [Nerd note: the monthly APR was calculated using J&S 100% IAM83a mortality table with a large setback; an expense load; and 5% interest.] That is, if you want to be sure you'll get it annually. So, see? Quite a lot of money is needed to fund one's retirement. Those governmental/employer retirement income statements, which look like such small monthly sums, represent large pots of money (which no government in the world has adequately funded, so you can't depend on Social Security-type programs, but hey).
Tech notes: When my pastor covers this doctrine, he likes to use the terms "escrow officer" and "escrow", and he likes to stress how God's funding in eternity past was IRREVOCABLE. That term means God can't take the money back. God has forbidden Himself (!) from getting the money back. So, the money can ONLY go to the beneficiaries under the terms of the Trust: Christ being THE Beneficiary. So HE determines how the apportionments go, Isa 53:12. That is what the Bema, is for (i.e., 1Cor3, which actually occurs, in Rev4). [If you're under my pastor, you'll recall he often mentions that you can see what you lost as a memorial, if you didn't make it to Pleroma, in eternity. Yep, because the assets are irrevocable. That fact doesn't mean, though, that God doesn't re-route the actual USE of the funds. Fact is, once we all are up there, we will ardently want the assets we refused, used by whomever -- since EVERYTHING GLORIFIES CHRIST. So, the Memorial depicts what could have been, versus the reality: it's not a contradiction, that the actual use of these committed assets, don't function as the could-have-been history. By the way, here on earth, other types of trust funds aren't always irrevocable, but most are (better tax benefits, for irrevocable trusts). So many a will sets up a trust at the decedent's death, into which all of his estate essentially 'pours'. Retirement plans also are irrevocable (again, due to tax benefits), though certain "reversions" (returns) of money to the Employer, can occur (but in the US, reversions are taxed at 50%-80% in addition to the regular corporate income tax, so not many reversions occur).]
Do you see the Enormous Impact of this Divine Benefit Plan? How Much Hung On Christ, While He Was Here? Father Irrevocably Committed Himself to a Burden of so Great a Magnitude, I can only use the term "bizillion", to reference it -- and, what if Christ didn't WANT to finish His Cross? He's GOD, you know. He didn't HAVE to do it. But -- He wants to kill Himself for Father, all the time. He loves Father that much. So to Him, the Cross is what He wanted the most (i.e., see context for Luke 22). Love is like that. Father's love is like that -- committing Himself in Eternity past! Spirit's love is like that -- imagine, having to doodle with us stupid believers, forever, getting our thinking built and functioning, what mother-hen care! Love, ABSOLUTE. No object, or whatever object. Satan is loved just as much. Awesome, this Commitment! Freely given, no strings!
Note the Fabulous Grace, Turning on its Head, all the stupid lording-it-over-games, played down here: Everyone Will Be Associated With A Pleroma Person, because all the PEOPLE are "booty" as well, in Isa53:12 (how clever of God to do that) -- and the Pleroma persons become the Rulers forever. So everyone either inherits a kingdom, or is IN one: so no one loses, everyone gains. So the money never goes to waste. There's no "reversion" in God's Divine Benefit Plan. The reason to Want to Vest, is to HONOR Him; not, to preen. You want more so you can SPEND more. Not, to beat your chest in front of a mirror like a gorilla.
God explains all this funding most deftly, via the phrase "every spiritual blessing", in Eph1. A shorter Bible moniker for this term is "all things" (Bible Greek keyword: panta); then there's "riches", or "riches of..Glory", and many metaphorical synonyms like gold, etc. CHRIST IS THE BENEFICIARY ("Seed", Gal3). Spiritual riches are the HIGHEST TYPE, because God is Spirit, and they who worship Him worship Him in Spirit and in Doctrine: Jn4:24. So Spiritual Wealth Births All Other Types (i.e., per 1Tim6:17). So if you would be rich, become rich in His Thinking (2Pet3:18).
As noted earlier, God doesn't need money; He can bing whatever He likes, whenever He likes. What He 'Can't' Do, Is Force You To Learn His Son. (He won't do that, since it violates love, righteousness, freedom, to coerce or manipulate.) And what He likes to hear most of all, is His Son's Thinking. Of Whom, we are all partakers (term in Peter). So, we learn to partake of His Thinking. Father expresses His Pleasure in our Learning That Thinking In The Exact Same Way as He did the Son's Thinking on the Cross, so we are thus apportioned 'booty' (Greek merizw=share/apportion; this whole concept is explained in Isa53:10-12 and Eph4:11-16). That 'booty' is a whole lot of physical and non-physical BENEFIT, especially tailored to our tastes. Every day is Christmas. But here's the irony: the most enjoyable thing to 'do', is learn Him! So every day, is Super Christmas, however bad it is externally, for His Thinking is true enjoyment! So it's Super-Christmas every day, with the 'booty', added! Especially, because You Get To Know Father Is Pleased! That's the greatest Christmas gift of all! It's no 72 houris, k? It's Way Better -- Rapport wealth-of-thinking makes even a hovel, heavenly. So how much more do you think compatibility is heavenly, in Heaven itself?
You kinda know this already, for if you are in a bad mood, the nice weather outside doesn't make you feel better. So too, with all 'earthly things': How You Think Determines How You Enjoy. So the True Wealth, is Shared Thinking. Everything else is colored by it. So if you are thinking how much you LOVE someone, even if the person is in hospital or looks like gefilte fish, your love only increases. But if you hate someone, even if the person is attractive, your hatred only increases. So understand that if you have Every Spiritual Blessing, you have EVERY Blessing. And, frankly, as you grow up in Him, the Fourth Reason for Royalty (Part III) will come to be what you prefer, Wormship. Because, you already have everything, in Him who is TaPanta, everything. Heh.
The Pleroma person Wants To Spend Himself On Christ. It's a need so deep, an outlet so desired, that when Christ apportions out to the Pleroma, all they want to do, is Spend It On Those Ruled. Not take. See the angels in Rev4:6ff, how they throw down their crowns? That's an ancient-world expression of giving self away to Him. The crowns represent all their rewards given them by God for not having rebelled with Satan&Co. (angels got their own escrows, too). But what do these highest seraphim do with all that wealth? Throw It Away. Not stupidly, like today's welfare programs, but Smartly. To glorify Him. So they need all that wealth, so they can get the outlet of spending themselves. Not, wasting the lives of others. Wasting themselves: just like He so ardently wanted to do -- and did! -- on the Cross.
Each CHANGE in the method-of-deposit (covenant) is Warranted And Justified By Some Kind of Failure, and Some Kind Of Success, in the Recipient Group. So, the Blessing RE-ROUTES through the "great ones", even now, while we're still in these puny bodies. Thus the human race keeps on being blessed-by-association. With the Uppermost Truth. God. Coming Down to Us. To Save Us. Now, UP, Risen, Ascending, Ascended, Seated, Footstool! Ruling! Uppermost of Uppermost (Heb1), The Lexeme Of Lexemes, waiting for "Operation Footstool" (my pastor's term) to COMPLETE, teleiow, plerow, hagiazw. To Resurrect Us. Purpose, again. But this time, we know The Plan.
Of course He PRIMARILY re-routes Blessing individually; or, cursing, when individuals fail (Jeconiah's curse, for example); so all the more, He does it when individuals succeed (Abram, David, etc)! He thus also amalgamates all these individuals to re-route Blessing Funds corporately, when GROUPS fail or succeed (region, nation, even a whole covenantal people, Lev26&Deut28). He also does it even if only 3! are in a 'group' (Abram, Isaac, Jacob). Sometimes He re-routes temporarily, i.e., making Deborah a judge in Israel (should have been a man's job, so great apostacy was rampant). [God, HE is the Ultimate Feminist: Gen3:15. So to say that authority vests in the man in certain situations like marriage, pastor-teacher, is no slur on womanhood. Again, we humans need to Ask The Right Questions, not the wrong ones.]
Capacity for enjoyment isn't a la-la, smiley thing. It's an appreciation too deep for emotion. One which responds with respect, a sense of responsibility, and relaxation. Insecure people are always tense. Learning Bible in God's System (link at pagetop), lessens and gradually eliminates the tension. So those bunny hops, flop! And you can begin to actually ENJOY inferiority or superiority. Because, God enjoys everything. Think: it's a horror to be superior, and saddled with drooling babies all day long. Think: it's a horror, to be a drooling baby, saddled with these big people making loud noises you don't understand, all day long. We are all variantly INcompatible with each other, and it's a tension, to be so close yet so unalike. Even more, the incompatibility vis á vis God, is Total! That's why we make up those goofy religions in the first place (Satan's not to blame, really -- we like Churchinanity). So the first order of business, is to get facts: yes, you aren't as good as someone else in "z" endeavor; so what? So Bleeping What? Yes, they (or you) should be paid more (less) than you because of their relative abilities, versus yours: so what? So Bleeping What? As you calm down over being unequal, you cheer up over being whatever you are. Over whatever are your circumstances. Because, you know they are all designed to Train You in HIM: so bleeping what, about anything else? Ahhhh, now capacity, is increasing.
Now, port those individual ideas over to a group: groups of individuals are also, more or less capacious. More or less, tense. Folks who band together to crusade or claim rights, have zero capacity for happiness. Your big clue: they are demanding something from someone ELSE. Happy people don't do that. And nothing you give an unhappy person, can make him happy, just as the bright sun outside won't cheer you up if you are in a bummed-out mood. GOD alone can make one happy, and only His Son's Thinking being progressively deposited, accomplishes that goal. Then, even a cross will 'make' you happy. So: same for groups. People tend to congregate with others who are like them. So people tend to move out of areas where they are too "different" from those around them; so, over a long period of time, the people in an area, are very much alike -- so, when they are all too negative as a group, bam! Divine Discipline occurs to wake them up. Or, conversely, if that group is growing, bam! Divine Prosperity occurs to bless them. Oh: overt disaster is often a prosperity, so don't narrow your idea of "good" and "bad" to puny human standards. Abram was being tested to think God "bad" because God didn't give him the promised heir for 25 more years (age 75-age 99), heh. Because, God was building Abram's Capacity for a Whole Universe Of Sons! Talk about blessing to a group from an individual!
He, being Infinite; He, being Three Infinite -- well, how much more yield must there be, if the first group screws up -- which screwup, He Must See Forever past present future? It's not like Omniscience turns 'off'. So someone peeing 5,000 years ago, is 'still peeing', to Omniscience. The Cross Is Always Occurring. So, the Yield on the Cross is Always Occurring. So That Yield Must Be Increased, if a group which has a covenant, screws up its 'end'. So it is, with Israel. Re-routed, so Bigger For Israel, too. To Church. not replacing Israel, but Blessing Israel. Let's see how.
So the Uppermost Truth about the Rapture which so many miss, is GOD'S USE OF PRECEDENCE. Precedence is the 'lens' through which Truth needs to be discerned. If this lens is NOT used, or is ABused, or MISused, the resulting 'picture' will be like an unfocused or misshot photograph, worth only a pitch in the trash. Precedence, of course, is a double-entendre word, since everything in the universe is a hupostasis. Infinity itself is a type of hupostasis: in order for "all" to be ALL, there must be Harmoniously-United Opposites. Else, "Absoluteness" isn't (structural, hence 'moral', for lack of a better word) Integrity.
So "Precedence" must be a hupostasis, too. And, it is. Precedence, What Preceded in Time, and What Preceded in Importance. Connected, though. Not just any ol' past thing is precedence. There Must Be A Justice Connection Warranting It. Here, of course, we found a just connection: Israel's never-completed marriage contract. The 'connection' is the GROOM. For He Finished His Side of the Isaiah 53:11 Contract. Both in Time, and in Importance. Uh-oh, we've another Hupostasis. New Precedence: His+Israel's Marriage Terms. Ok. Now we have a Plan, and a Precedence to work with to see how that Plan tells us about Rapture. (The critical importance of Precedence is discussed at greater length in DueDisclosure.htm, compared to here. For, it's our purpose, so must be disclosed: the most Important Precedent of all, the Hypostatic Union, Our Lord's God-Man Nature. Virtually everything in the universe expresses that Structure at all times. So all Scripture reflects Him, too.)
That's the only reason why anyone goes to 'hell': They Never Agreed To God's Terms For Getting Into Fellowship. That's the only reason why most believers will be 'naked' (poor) in heaven -- they didn't finish the Spiritual Growth Contract of Part III, Eph3:15-21. So if one of the spiritual life contracts is Priestly Brideship (maximum intimacy), and not enough Corporately Complete it, the contract remains OPEN.
"To perfect" in legal English and most other languages means to finish/ fulfill the Terms Of The Contract. Bible uses teleiow (pronounced tel-eye-OH-oh) this way, so English often translates the verb and its cognates with "to perfect" or "perfect". Contracts, especially testamentary wills which transfer a great amount of wealth, are usually if-then in structure. So to say all contracts had been completed except Brideship is to say the "party of the first part" (Jesus the Christ) fulfilled the conditions.
So, if party "A" COMPLETES certain actions/conditions, THEN party "A" inherits. However, the actual RESULTANT DELIVERY is a separate set of clauses. So there is a LAG TIME between the completion of the contract by party "A", and the RECEIPT of whatever party "A" is promised. This rule of contract law is as old as time, so was already a well-established language of accommodation by the time God had Moses write the Pentateuch. All those rituals you see in the OT are CONTRACT-RECOGNITION rituals of one category or another. Contract delivery also goes by terms of the contract which apply to the grantor/provider (God the Father, here); oftentimes the delivery is delayed, subject to certain other conditions, and even can remain abrogable.
Per Isaiah 53:10-11 in the LXX, the Divine Benefit Plan Delivery Preparation Terms, are that Father will Purify, Plunder, Exhibit, Sculpt, and Justify the Plunder. Then, Isa53:12: the delivery TO Christ, occurs. He then apportions the plunder TO the "great ones", Based On The Same Criteria as the Criteria Which made Him (again, v.10-11, combined texts). In other words, the "great ones" are Made the Same Way as Christ was made, Isa53:10-11 (combined texts). So those who rejected the vv10-11 contract terms, forfeited, and become booty to be apportioned among the "great ones". Thus, all those other people share IN the Inheritance: indirectly.
See? God blesses everyone exactly according to what the individual, chooses. By Contract. With SON. To Make Sons. That's the Ultimate Precedence: It was Son's Individual Choice to Fulfill the Terms, which the Holy Spirit Enacted upon Him; so it becomes our Individual Choice to Receive the same Action By Father (via the Spirit again, note the consistency), upon us. The individuality nature of the contract is so blatant in the OT, you can't miss it. In fact, the only group contract in the entire Bible, was the one given to Israel, and that, only due to Moses and later, David (2Sam7 basically cuts Israel out and hands her to David, just as Levi was cut out and handed to Aaron). Paul loves this Individuality Nature of God's Contract Provision so much, he can't stop using Greek marital-intimacy words, mixing them with Greek construction vocabulary, in all his letters. For the Last Adam gets a Wife Fitly Built for Him. Heh: I wonder how he could stop smiling and laughing long enough, to write!
Note how the Contract is Sweeping, and a Whole, even while it remains Individual. So Israel was under the Contract, and everyone who believed in Him had the same terms (but at a lower level, since Christ was not yet come, John 7:39); but they did NOT fulfill the Corporate Marriage Contract, the Mosaic Law's "training" purpose (theme of Romans 11) to make them into an Entire Priest Nation (not merely a nation with a priesthood, as under the "schoolmaster", the Mosaic Law, see Gal 3 and Heb5-10). So that Contract by party "B" (Body), remained UNfulfilled. That's why we get it, Matt16:18. Which was also a Choice by the Groom: "Upon This Rock" -- pointing to Himself, the Petra, the Holy of Holies Bedrock -- "I will build My Church." Will build, future tense of oikodomeo. Which Building, heh: is the whole point, Building SONS. Temple, get it?
That's What Your Life Really Means, And You Are Under This Contract. Whether you choose abrogation, is up to you. Israel chose abrogation, which is the only reason why the Contract of Brideship is still Open to us. DDNA webseries (starting with DDNA.htm) provides whopping additional detail; its thrice-repeated summary, "God's Soliloquy" (Soliloquy.htm) is a dramatization of Father Talking about this Contract.
Consistency Is Expressed By Parallelism. Same for "A", as for "B", core tenet of Justice. So, Precedence determines Parallelism, too. Idea of Same Treatment. Equality before the law. Impartiality. So, when evaluating what is or sets Precedent, one must be careful in diagnosing, the "parallel". Most importantly, look for ESSENTIALS, not forms. Meaning, rather than motions. To mix these up, is to violate Precedence, Consistency, Justice.
[Tithing is income tax, never a spiritual thing. Voluntary giving is always voluntary, never a set amount. In the OT, God set rules about giving when you want to do it, to teach you. And the irony is that the Levitical system of giving was agriculturally phrased, so only if God blessed you enough, would you be able to give. So yes, there are tithing concepts -- since the idea of a tenth for income tax was well known, even back in Jacob's day, Gen 38:22. But no, they are voluntary to God, as the whole context of Leviticus 27, shows. Tithes were allowed among many other valuation formats to decide what God gets; and other formats were allowed, and phrased even as mandates so you would be doing your voluntary giving according to rules which taught you something about God. But the income tax is separate, as Lev27 stresses. That whole chapter is about redeeming what you had voluntarily dedicated, versus taxation: so see verses 1, 26, 31, 32 in context. If you can buy it back, it's not a tax, get it? Further, whatever you dedicated, you can still keep. Idea is you now hold it for the LORD (see v.28). Idea is, if you give something and then want to get it back, you add 20% in the buy-back, for the opportunity cost. But the gifts and especially the taxes, were never a means to buy anything from God. So much for the kooky idea that tithing is to go to the Church. Some dingbats claim that since the concept of tithing predates Israel (yep, it does), then Church isn't getting that precedence from Israel. But they don't bother to research the precedence: tithing was a form of income tax, which is why Jacob is voting for God as KING when he says Gen38:22. Abraham giving Melchizedek the King of Salem (Jerusalem) a tithe was done at the behest of the king of Sodom whose property it was, since Abraham did not take spoil, Gen 14:17-21. (The King of Sodom was with Melchizedek, as you'll see if you pay attention to the verses. Had this 10th not been given at the King's behest, then Abram's refusal of spoil is a sham, and Abram would have been a thief.) What a sad travesty is made of tithes today, totally blasphemous in every jot and tittle. If you have The Hebrew Workbook of the Old Testament, look up eser (ayin sim resh), and read what it says about tithing as a voluntary thing, and the abuses of it which had occurred. My pastor gets positively bilious when he covers the subject of how tithing is abused, today: Church is not Israel, k? Tithing was Income Tax To A King.]
God's "tithe" isn't 10%, but 100%: "You shall love the Lord Your God with All Your Heart And Soul And Mind." First Commandment. So if we're talking tithe for the Church, baby -- it's ALL of you, and it goes to GOD, not some collection plate. Remember that verse in Timothy which talks about how the believer who doesn't take care of his own family, being worse than an unbeliever. Again -- see how the MISuse of Bible in the name of 'tradition' or 'precedence' can be so evil?
The list could go on and on, because there are as many variations of abuses as there are people. Precedence Demands Precision. God's. MISunderstood, or sometimes blatantly abused. Do Your Homework. Use 1Jn1:9 like breathing. Ask God To Help You Avoid These Landmines. I swear, internet searches on Bible Doctrines are like Trips to Twilight Zone, the scholarship is soooo shoddy. Don't be like them: The Holy Spirit is God, so obviously is Smart. Get in God's System, breathe 1Jn1:9 and think Bible 24/7 (keep trying to do that) -- and you'll see Just How Smart God Makes You. So you can avoid these billions of MISuses.
GOD'S RE-ROUTING PRECEDENCE KEY → When a covenant is broken, there are terms inside or outside of the agreement which govern what happens next. Moreover, if another agreement is made, or a successor group receives the terms, Terms Previous Which Were Essential And Incomplete 'port Over' To The New Agreement Or Successor Group. Again, due to the inherent rule that justice should continue and be fair. Any Change In Terms would have to have either its Own Precedence, or some Other Just Cause For Change, lest Justice somehow be misused with respect to a group signatory under the current or previous contract. (For example, the state of California can't grant you a license to be a retailer with terms more favorable than it would grant to another retailer, without justifying why.)
PRECEDENCE is therefore always a hupostasis, since the God-man is Himself, by very nature, a MARRIAGE between Infinite (Godness) and Finity (humanness). Which is why theologians call His married nature, "The Hypostatic Union" (term comes from Hebrews 1:3). So, that's why all prophecy is likewise, DUAL: dual-entendre, dual-usage. For, the only difference between "prophecy" and "teaching" is that the former is also PREDICTIVE. More importantly, the dual-usage shows the Precedent Condition was Not Heeded, if the Second Usage occurs. It's always about the Contract, even and especially, with respect to prophecy. So its Duality Paradigm First Reflects His Duality, and THEREFORE is still a Double-Pronged-Teaching, which is the more important reason for it; Prediction is made to Protect or otherwise Benefit those Hearing it in Advance. Just as would be true, for any Teaching. Especially, if from God. For, all prophecy represents Teaching about the Coming One Who Himself is a Duality, the God-Man, Messias. Learning about God, after all, is rather more important, than being able to predict something about your own life.
So of course, He Comes Twice: first to Make Payment (remember the opportunity cost tables from Part II); and second, to Deliver The Contractual Fulfillments. Book of Hebrews takes the reader through all these dualities, and is well worth however many months it takes, to master that Book's contents.
And unless there was a Fit Bride, No Valid Acceptance Of The Groom's Offer, Would Occur. So the Groom is Party "A", The Alpha Glory, "Becoming", Immanuel; but Israel was Party "B", Body, Bride -- potentially. Hence she had the Mosaic Law to Learn How To Become Fit. Axiomatic principles like Brideship, Nature of God, and a whole welter of Fundamental Contract Doctrines are communicated in Bible by means of wordplay. The very etymology of words and their kindred roots, reveals this. Bible is woven into every syllable of the Hebrew language. You can't see this in translation, but it really sticks out in the original text, and thoughtful lexicographers are always remarking on it (like TWOT, a standard seminary lexicon). [This fact was widely known among Bible scholars in the 19th century (i.e., Thorleif Boman's Hebrew Thought Compared with Greek), and of course has always been known among the Jews. Improper use of this fact, not ignorance, is the cause for the predominance of bad interpretation. So when you hear today that the Law is some kind of magical vehicle for salvation, or any other stuff making the Law into a credit-self vehicle, just laugh. Look: people misuse the Bible without compunction -- Epistle of Jude is even rude on their rudeness -- so it shouldn't be too surprising that the most scholarship is slipshod, lying, stupid, who-knows-which. It's not rocket science to prove wrong. If I hear Matt16:18 misused again during some alleged 'scholarly' documentary, I'll scream.]
In Deuteronomy, when Moses is briefing the second generation just prior to their entry into the Land, he reminds them of these provisions, and how they are to Become A Priest Nation by fulfilling the Law (e.g., the five "an holy people" clauses in KJV, like Deut 28:9; which are variantly incorporated by reference in hundreds of later-book verses). Fulfilling the Law was always a POST-salvation contract, so was never about sin per se -- but about the Conditional Bridal Contract with the Lord. If you read Deuteronomy even in translation, you'll find Moses uses an if-then construction (hallmark characteristic of contracts) to review the contractual terms, and they all relate to the prosperity or adversity the people will experience, if they (respectively) obey or reject the terms. Nowhere do you find even a hint that these terms relate to salvation. For, you had to first believe in Adonai for Him to 'become' Elohenu (OUR God). He's not your God until you BELIEVE in Him. By the same token, you have to believe in the Contract Provisions, to obey them. So If You Do Not Believe In Them, You Are Abrogating The Relationship.
Hosea 4:6, even in translation, makes it clear what abrogation means (whole book is on the topic, with Gomer representing unfaithful Israel): in the KJV of BibleWorks 5, the verse reads like this: "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge:
[There's lots of contextual wordplay in Hosea, and especially in this verse. There's the "worn out with serving Baal" sound play in the word here translated "destroyed", balaiy: really, "mibaley", idea that they are fornicating with Baal and thus birthing destruction, instead of having marital relations with da'ath ("knowledge", Divine Truth, the Law). Wordplay also runs rife between da'ath, damam, and similar words. Idea that if you silence/destroy the Word, you yourself will be silenced/destroyed. Awesome stuff. The word da'ath is also used in Isa53:11's Hebrew text. A lexicon like TWOT which analyzes wordplay will help you see why I translate it "Mastery of Thinking" in Isa53.htm, etc. If my pastor had but one message he wanted us to get during his 50+ years of teaching, it was that we needed to get the Thinking of Christ in our heads, 24/7. Hosea 4:6 is a verse he thus uses a lot to remind us of this mandate.]
Preview of coming attractions, and how God re-routes: That verse was said to the Northern Kingdom, aka "Samaria" and "Israel" (Hosea was one of their prophets). Assyria was used to fulfill that verse circa 725BC(?). Jonah was later sent to Ninevah to convert the Assyrians there, and they all became Jews (Book of Jonah). So all the Jews got delivered. After that generation, Assyria went steadily downhill, so it got punished (fulfilling the running prophecy that God uses other nations to punish Israel, then punishes the punishers). God keeps His Promises. [God uses negative volition, in the sense that He lets it run its course. Satan&Co. get to discipline negative volition. They love seducing God's people into being negative for that reason, and they love abandoning anyone they seduce. So unbelievers are seduced into attacking believers (here, Samaria), and then they are abandoned: we are all just pawns to be used! God lets them do this, so God Takes Responsibility for it. True Love never coerces, and never shrinks from the harsh measure.]
Notice how there's nothing there about losing salvation. It's the post-salvation blessing of Priest Nation, Contingent on the Law of Learning being Fulfilled, that they lose. Notice also how the entire Book of Hosea is crafted in marital-relations terms (Hosea calls it a divorce case in Hebrew of 6:7): First Commandment. A command to learn Love. They rejected it, instead wearing themselves out with Baals of this world (Hebrew sound-plays on that, but KJV renders it "destroyed", so you can't see that meaning in English). Adultery. Cause for breach of contract. A Contract to Learn something. Not works. [Hosea really did marry Gomer (and he loved her utterly); and she really was graphically unfaithful to him, though becoming faithful, in the end. Imagine how much grown up in Love Hosea must have been, that he would endure so much infidelity, and even make it public in order to get the Word out! Since the written form of this message came after the time of his ministry (which is the norm, since you only need a written record if it's to be a timeless thing), imagine how grateful both Hosea and Gomer were that they could tell this story to all generations. Awesome love for God, here.]
So ISRAEL's Signing/ 'Voting Yes' meant that enough IN Israel were a) believers, and b) Loved The Groom Enough To Want His Rule. |
Israel was Offered Brideship In Addition To Her Other Covenants, but that Covenant was INCOMPLETE, because the Groom would have to |
So now let's match up both a)'s and b)'s to see what would have completed this contract. If Israel had also accepted Christ contingent upon HIS Fulfilling His Own "b)", then Israel's Acceptance Would Have Been Valid Once Christ's Own Fulfillment BECAME Valid. |
So notice the derivation of Part III's Corollaries from His Completion at the Cross, our Macro Issue. God's Royal Accounting Standards are for a) Assets due to the Alpha Precedence of Our Lord (see Corollary 3a in Part III); and b), Balancing to/ for the Body Who Gets the Assets, Christ (see Corollary 3b-d in Part III). |
This Royal Asset Accounting and Balancing shows why the Second Advent had a specific, prophetic, SEQUENCE. For, the Second Advent was always Contingent upon the FULFILLMENT of the First. Which, as we see, had Two Signatory Parties: Christ, and Israel. So when Messiah came, and explained His Rulership role, the question was, would ENOUGH among the people Israel respond to Him and thus become Bride? Bible prophecies are always in two categories: a) kickoff, which is always "imminent", and b) child, which is due to the kickoff occurring, and hence always dateable. Much more about these two categories will be said in PartIVb. For now, note that the a) and b)'s of the table above, reflect the dual nature of God's Prophecy Design. (Everything is always a pairing with God, because He is Infinite, therefore Full-Spectrum Balance, and Christ is God-Man.) So if the a)'s got fulfilled, then the b)'s could be dated. Which, as we learned from the history, they were: by Matt16:18, Vashti had refused. So, b)'s date began the rest of His Ministry (hence the shift of vocabulary in Matthew, to Bridal). So, His Own Days were numbered (though we couldn't know how long) -- to the point of the Cross. And, He died right on time, having been (uncrowned) King as long as David was King over united Israel, 33 years. And, so the Temple was destroyed right on time (516-483-70-33=70AD), having lasted exactly 586 years, the same number as the date the First Temple, was razed by Nebuchadnezzar. God keeps His appointments!
So notice how those a)'s and b)'s being completed, give rise to our a) and b), which is the Same AS (Precedence, again) Israel's was: a) believers-only are in the count, and b) ENOUGH believers have to LOVE the Groom. But, because HE completed His a) and b), our b) changes to Eph3:15-19, "to come to know the Love for Christ" (ingressive aorist, there, my pastor reminds us every pass), which then justifies "that you may be filled with pan to pleroma tou Theou". Pleroma. Higher than Israel's standard, because the blessing got re-routed from Israel, to Church.
Ok, now pretend you're Satan. Pretend further it's circa 27AD, and you've just left the Lord, having given your greatest genius temptations possible, temptations no one should have been able to resist, in (what we know as) Matt4; but He does resist them! So: oy, now what do you do?
And no one got a better 'deal' from God, than Israel. But as history had proved, Israel didn't want God, they wanted goodies. Saul replaced God as King of Israel, and it went downhill from there, saving a few bright lights like David, Hezekiah (greatest of the kings). So if Israel Rejects the Groom, then the Best-Blessed vote "no", and I win! thinks Satan. Which helps balm his sore ego, considering how he was just defeated by the Lord's starving Humanity. Oh, yeah. Isha was the weaker one, in the Garden. So this Betrothed has always been the weaker one. Ahhhhh.
Note How That Red Clause Can Work Both Ways: Gentiles Saving Jews, Or Vice Versa. Like how that red clause, whichever direction it goes, ends up 'delivering', 'sewing up', all the human race. What a Sense of Humor! Then again, He IS the God Who chose to Covenant via a phallus (w/Abram)! And how appropriate, since through that phallus, God chose to Beget the entire saved human race! Abram Was Not A Jew, until circumcised (Rom4). So not-My-people can rescue My-people, too (see Hosea)! Kill me now: was there ever a God like ours, even if we pretended there could be one? Oh! Oh! Oh! Out-lawyering Satan, the smartest creature ever made by the Son! ("Satan" means "opposing attorney" in a court case, remember.)
As was observed in Part II, Israel didn't do its evangelization job very well. So, was sent out ("diaspora") several times in its history. Even so, the world wasn't exactly receptive. So, the world kept on declining with each 'advance', as we saw in Part II; man could rely more and more on himself; he was getting pretty tired of needing some god's help, and especially tired of these three-continent, landbridge, merchant-trading "Jews" who kept on telling everyone only their "Adonai" was the Real God, the Promise of Whom was to take on Humanity and conquer the world! Yeah, right. Octavian already did that: became the Divine Augustus, even. Was deified not too long ago, when his wife Livia poisoned him-to-death with his favorite figs. Been there, done that. Hoo-boy: why does everyone want to be a Caesar?
Looking at Daniel 9, one could well estimate His Birth; it revealed that hey -- in Daniel 9:25-26, Messiah would come at the end of the 69 "sevens" following the Decree to Rebuild Jerusalem (which one could also construe as beginning with the decree to rebuild the Temple); plus, the 70 missed sabbatical years, not stated there in Daniel, but in Jeremiah (see Dan 9:2). For, the Jews, like most folks in the world, measured time by the number years after some ruler or benchmark began: #years since Abraham, #years since Moses, #years since Temple, etc. So from 6BC onward, everyone started looking for Him.
Moreover, David's line length was to be mirrored by the New Covenant Millennium, the idea being that "restore Israel" meant to Make Good On Losses. Mosaic Law was all about, RESTITUTION. The reason for the punishments was to motivate Israel to BE restored; at which point, whatever Time was lost, was also restored. That's why the "weeks" calculation in Daniel, is used: its 490-year setup ties severally to various benchmarks to Restore The Time for each of them: you can see Paul apply it to a kingship benchmark (Israel's rejection of God as King), in Acts 13. Hence the Savior, the Redeemer, REDEEMS TIME. (Church is supposed to redeem time, too -- Eph5:16, Col4:5 are but two of many such passages on our like-Him role, and of course are usually mistranslated so you don't see the Bible keyword, Redeem/Ransom.) But Savior also comes to redeem the Gentiles ("light of the Gentiles" and related OT passages). So the Gentiles had a vested interest in knowing this prophecy, too. [Nerd note: "the nations" (ta ethne) means the Gentiles, in Bible. Gentiles is a better idiomatic translation, because the term means all non-Israel.]
So by 3BC, David's reigning lineage was 1000 years old (David became king of all Israel, in 1003BC). So Messiah had to come soon, to Restore the Line and thus pave the way for the Millennium which would Restore to Israel, Her Lost Years. In fact, that's the Year He was actually born. So He is born of water (John 3:5's idiom for birth, even today --breaking of amniotic sac) and Spirit, from birth: Luke 1:35 and Heb10:5, "A Body You prepared for Me", fulfilling also Ps40:5ff. By this, the Jews were to know that an Ending of Israel's "time" (Age, in our parlance) was at hand, because the Birth of Messiah was a sign of impending Judgment: i.e., if they accepted Messiah, His (yet-unknown-how) Isa53 Payment for sins, Resurrection, Ascension, would follow. Then, the "times of the Gentiles", which included the Tribulation. Hence, Luke 2. Shepards who were charged with keeping the sacrificial sheep, forbidden from entering the Temple by the Levitical priests for this very reason -- these outcast shepards got to see the angels passing in review on the way to the feeding trough ("manger", to you), to see the Baby wrapped in corpse bandages ("swaddling" for burying a corpse in a tomb). Because, He came to die. So, the shepards came to see their Lamb.
[Gratuitous, Irrelevant Sidebar on Shroud of Turin: it's a classic example of how a shocked brain picks something goofy, to substitute for examination of truth. First, Christ didn't have long hair -- see how Paul excoriates men having long hair in Corinthians. Second, He was only 33 years old when He died, and He died at the peak of health -- aside from the fact that He was beaten up beyond recognition, per Isaiah 53. So He wouldn't be emaciated like the Shroud image. Worse: you wrapped a dead body like a mummy, with STRIPS of cloth wound around each part of the body. It's a practice done on dead people and babies from Latin America to China, very well known in anthropology. So, then: the "Shroud" should have also left imprints of these strips being wound around the limbs, etc. Which, it doesn't. Of course, there should be no imprint of body OR strips ON the "Shroud", since He was only in the tomb for three days, dummy! Body doesn't have enough time to decompose and leave a mark: and the body was wrapped with those strips (though apparently the women didn't know) by Joseph of Arimathea (Luke 23:53, Mark 15:46, Matt27:59-60 are summary statements -- but He was wrapped in STRIPS, "sthonia", John 20:6). But after a longer period the body would start to swell and burst from the internal gases breaking down; so if there were to be any mark on a shroud, it wouldn't look human. Worse: millions of hapless Christians read the translation and think there was a shroud only, when it's the shroud which is missing (Peter saw the strips). Worst of all: people want God to leave a fully-naked picture of His Son's Body on a cloth, when instead God spent over 1500 years leaving a Full 'Naked Picture' Of The 'Body' Of His Thinking, Bible! Sheesh. So either the Shroud is a very bald hoax, or it's someone who is clearly NOT Christ; even IF the Shroud's textiles match that 1st-century face cloth (including blood type) relic in that Spanish church. Maybe a sudden burial of a criminal (who wouldn't get such burial care), since NO STRIPS. Sheesh: all these years people have maybe been pouring over some murderer's shroud, when they could have spent their time learning BIBLE, His Living Body's Thinking! How embarrassing for them.]
So you'll see the Gospels shift into a bifurcated, due diligence disclosure: first, here's the "X" offer; if you refuse it, "W" will happen, and the "Wife" will be these Gentiles, not Israel, If You Reject Messiah Now. The tribulation timeline cannot be avoided by rejecting Messiah; and rejecting Messiah means the goyim get to have the honor of Brideship, not the sons of Abraham. It was an upsetting choice: understand that the Jew correctly knows he's superior, so to have to be subject to goyim! Yet they didn't want their own Brideship. So they are choosing with full knowledge and consent, an informed decision. They wanted another Saul; their idea of Messiah was political, only. He wasn't offering what they wanted. He had a Better Offer, but it would hurt. They had three years to consider their alternatives, and refuse His offer.
Messiah, of course, was not there to solve the problems of the world (3rd Temptation), so was not there to become a King of the World (as He'd explained to Pilate) -- so if you're voting Messiah, you're voting for the rest of prophecy to be fulfilled, God's way. But they wanted a political leader, not the Father's Son. So became Vashti, which led to the finding of Esther.
Again, if a Gentile believed in Adonai during the "time" of the Jews, he thus became Jewish, just as maybe 2/3rds of that going-out population in 1440BC (Exodus), was Gentile ("mixed multitudes" in English Bibles). Moses' second wife, was Ethiopian, remember (which upset Miriam so much, she became leprous with jealousy, and then God made her leprous on the outside, to match). For the children of the Promise, though by blood a supernaturally-created race due to Abraham's faith via Isaac, still had to Elect All That Went With The Promise. Which meant, tribulation. Again, Isaiah 53's contract To And For CHRIST, applies to all of us. He had a Cross to accept, and then He'd become King-Priest. We have the same terms paradigmally; Israel had the same terms paradigmally, which is why Isaiah 53 reads as it does (using the sameness-of-contract terms as its jumping-off point in Isa52:13). If you believe in Christ, you inherit all He is and has: starting with, His Own Contract, For Better or For Worse. [Fourth Reason for Royalty covers this 'cross' meaning, and it applies to all believers. You will suffer, one way or the other. Question is, will you Suffer and Grow in it, or shrivel? See also the "2-3-4-5" table of Part III. Again, precedence is Christ, and that's the real reason why Israel still suffers. She is bound forever, and isn't turning to be healed. But even if she does, Tribulation is all the promised TIME that's left for her to corporately go through (but as a people, since the National Contract is abrogated).]
So, now, with the "W" counteroffer replacing the "X" offer, any Jew who believed in Christ, would become Part of that Replacement Promise, too. Because, it's the Promise, which matters (see Rom4 and 9, 11, Romans 11).
Repeating, Note the Fine Print: Gentiles benefit THROUGH Israel. Doesn't mean the only way they benefit is IF Israel becomes a Bride. It can work, Vice Versa. Peter stresses that fact via his OT quotes in 1Pet2 (showing the precedence and re-routing, thereby). Lawyers, sheesh. God, the smartest of the smart, sure knows how to craft a loophole. Here you see Him use it. Reversing, we still go through Israel, since Christ has Completed. So, now Israel who abrogated, can still get in, through being part of Church. They get a Better Replacement Contract, too, if they do (threaded theme in Book of Hebrews). Only God is this smart. Only God is this Loving. Shemah, shenayim! Adonai Elohenu, Adonai Echad-united!
Messiah is the Heart of the Promise, "X" or "W" version. Because, all covenants go through Him as Seed (Gal3). So, again: Precedence and thus Consistency of Justice, are met.
So too, since "W" replaces "X", then a re-routing occurs, which means the "W" promise will be much harder to live with than "X" would have been. It's a post-Cross promise, that the "W" precedence and terms, are those of the Completed Groom -- no longer, the more childlike covenant which was Israel's, had she elected to become Bride. Which is why Church is a New Covenant to implement the New Covenant to Israel, under the "Footstool" banner (main theme in Book of Hebrews).
Of course, Brideship is harder to have, because intimacy with the God-Man Seated and Ruling, requires a higher spiritual life, which is why Christ's was the toughest -- ergo that long-ago promise if Brideship was elected, that the Word would be Written on their minds and hearts (Jer31:31-34, explained in Heb8:8-10:17). So again, Consistency: what Israel's contract would have SHIFTED TO, had she elected the "X" Brideship offer, would have been harder. But since she did NOT, the "W" offer would have the same attributes as IF had she accepted -- plus Much Harder ones, because she didn't; because, as a result of her refusal, a re-routing must occur.
Consistency: the Law is altogether about restitution, redemption, restoration. And NOW due to "W", the Cost of Restoration makes the Entire Cost, higher. In fact, the cost WAS the sins of the human race; but the cost IS, His Own Nature, NOW. For obviously to go from doo-doo to Royal Bride is far more expensive, than to merely restore the sinless status Adam had in the Garden; far more, to go to the goyim, than go to Israel already familiar with the Law. So the Yield On those Added Costs, the Profit on them, must Now be way higher, still. So, "to whom much is given, much is expected", and the "W" offer therefore requires "much" be much more. Christ is plainly telling them all these facts, via His explanations and parables -- so they can make an informed choice.
That "W" offer is a choice every believer faces. We don't have an "X" offer to refuse, since only the "W" offer is open, now. And, 99.9% of us, historically speaking, don't even choose to believe in Him for salvation and thus get into the "W"; much less, to elect the "W", once we are believers and thus Body. So, there's a time-bubble quality to our lives: as if the First Advent, hadn't ended. For the issues facing us, are paradigmally the same, as faced the world while He was down here. Stepped up, though, to the "W" level. Will we choose the "tribulation" of learning His Thinking, even as He had to BECOME the Truth, to go through that Maximum Tribulation, the Cross? Will we take up our own crosses, rather than drool after the political and other nonsense which characterizes "earthly things"? Our choice, Romans 8, every day.
We are Church, Body of Christ, Bride: these terms reflect the Contract Conditions And Delivery. But, The Precedence Changes. For, as we saw at the end of Part II and just saw above, Christ Fulfilled His Conditions. By crafting a New Spiritual Life, as we saw in Part III. So, no longer can the conditions for Brideship be the same as Israel's was, based on the OT system of spirituality; but rather, it must be based on the Groom's Completion. For, Prior to "Church", The Groom Completed His Own Seed Contract, Isa53:10-11. So here is the corrected, amalgamated translation of that text. The bolded text is operative for Church. Note The Infinitives. [What follows below is copied from the Fourth Aspect of DDNA.htm, which is a fuller description. The whole chapter is translated with exegetical notes in Isa53trans.htm.)
So our Standards for "Completion" are Like His. This, Part III illustrated in great detail. Scripture on this fact is all over the place; every time I look at Bible, I find another passage stressing this "Like His Life" Mandate, for Church. My pastor has taught it for years. Today (1/21/04), when listening to a lesson of his and examining the Greek to understand him better, I stumbled onto 1Jn2. 1Jn stresses this theme over and over, even in translation. So does every NT epistle. We all know we are supposed to be 'Christlike', but how often do we check what Scripture says that means? Well, it means FULLY LIKE, not just a little bit, Eph4:13. Yikes! No wonder we need the Power Of The Spirit 24/7! Nonetheless, we see Consistency. For, the Groom fashioned From The Law, His Unique Spiritual Life. The Four paired Reasons in Part III explained how this Uniqueness passes on to us. Thus, the Mosaic Law, being fulfilled, expanded exponentially, to Full Intimacy In And With Father -- which, Israel did not have, as their spiritual life was focused on Son's Deity. For, the Promise to them was, Son would become Messiah: depicted by that Ark in the Holy of Holies. Depicted by the Rock (Petra, big keyword in LXX) which the Ark sat on. But in our case, like Hebrews 5-10 painstakingly explains, We have a Different Priesthood Because Our High Priest Has A New Priesthood. to FATHER. So everything must change. NO precedence from the Mosaic Law, anymore. Here, "rightly dividing the Word of Truth" (KJV phrase in Timothy) is vital. For, again -- if you don't distinguish between form and substance in deciphering "Precedence", you'll mess up understanding what Bible says Changed, for Church. | |
As we saw in Part III, the terms of our Precedence in HIM reverse nearly every characteristic of the OT system. The basic reason for the reversal is that the OT folks looked forward to the Incarnation. But we are POST-Session. They looked forward to His coming Down. We look up, because He Rose. That's why, as noted in the "Third Reason for Invisibility" section of Part III, the NT writing style is abstract, mathlike. It's aerial, see: not like the earthy, concrete, child's (compared to us) spiritual life of the OT with its paint-by-numbers rules. Here is an incomplete synopsis of the differences. [A proper listing would have to be very long, over a hundred items. Someday maybe I'll be able to list at least more of the salient reversals. I'm typing as fast as I can, off the top of my head!] WHEREAS, [Legal word introducing precedence or basis for a contract or Corporate Resolution, in US.]
In the other segments of Part IV, and also in Part V, we'll see the Macro Effect of this Intimacy in/to/with Father which Church is caused to have, due to and through the Seated Christ, on all History. Father's Choice, As Wedding Present For His Son: Endowered, Fit, Bride. | |
Of course, as is always true in all God's Covenants of Association, some basics remain the same. So, "Church" (ekklesia) derives its precedence from synagogue, and has the same meaning: We Are To Learn Something. The ekklesia was a place where people assembled to hear didaskaloi, Teachers who Taught About God. Going To God's School. So the term is not even remotely related to a socializing with other believers. The Heb10 "not forsaking the assembling of themselves" is thus seriously ABused by religion, to get believers to play hookey. Piously, of course.
Hence LEARNING is the quintessential condition, just as it was back in the Garden. (The first condition, of course, was to be a believer, for no unbeliever is Church.) "Body of Christ" is Part Of Christ, Who is the Head. We are staff, completing (perfecting, legal term) Him. So, we are part of the "party of the first part", because we are His "Body". That is a condition with precedence, too:
"Bride" is what we are called when we are completed/perfected (legal sense), meaning the requisite number is fulfilled (theme of Part IVb). So, the "Body" is complete: all because we Church learned enough, and thus developed enough. Remember the funding criterion of God's Divine Benefit Plan, in the first part of the "Legal Precedence" section, how God re-routes blessing? Funding for the eternal polities is based on the 'money' of Thinking which Father Will Hear Forever. Starting now, since we are alive (and hence thinking), Now. So when that criterion's funding goal is met (technically, all the present values are enough such that the accumulated eternal values are enough), then we are Raptured up. This topic is the central focus of Part IVb. NOTE WELL: just as for Israel, we too have an open-ended option to reject or accept Learning Him. First Commandment requires Like-Mindedness. So, if we refuse, then the Body is not yet complete. It's not how many believe in Him, any more than it was how many believed back in the OT or First Advent. It's How Many Fulfill The First Commandment, so to speak. Consummation of a marriage requires the wife "know" her husband. Hebrew OT was quite strong about this: "to know" (jadah) and "to have sex" (davaq) were used interchangeably; so having intercourse with God meant knowing God. Hence, infidelity was not knowing God: see Hosea 4. You'll find parallel scathing indictments all over the NT, like in Philippians 3:15ff, Romans 12:2-3, 1Cor4:8, 2Tim2:26-3:7. 2Peter is so strong about dogs returning to their vomit (negative believers), it's hard to read. Rev2 and 3, of course, are famous for their severity and, Husbandly tenderness.
One of the cardinal rules of both translating and interpreting text written in the past, is to interpret it in accordance with the 'time' of its writing. So, for Shakespeare, you have to know a lot of special olde English vocabulary, to get what Shakespeare meant: look up "codpiece" to see the term is not about dinner. So, especially for Scripture, part of textual criticism is to find out the meaning of a word at the time of writing. At the time of writing, while the world was largely monogamous, there was a worldwide tradition of royal or very wealthy men having (what in the Middle East was called) harems. These harems were often just legal arrangements to cement alliances, and the 'brides' had little or no contact with the husband. In short, just the form of marriage. Not love, not even much sex: just a legal form, to prevent ruffled feathers. For a ruler or a very wealthy man needed to have alliances, and these alliances were traditionally cemented by marrying someone in the group with whom the alliance was to be made. It was better than having hostages, which was the other common practice of assuring loyalty of the other group. So often those in the harems, were strangers, and had honorary but pretty menial jobs. That's how This Contract is Described for Church, too. You will be as close to Him as you choose, though. So the only 'alliance' issue is of your own choosing. He already Chose Oneness. Question is, do we choose as far as He did? We can, Eph4:13. But we don't, else we'd all be in heaven by now. Principle: those who reject Learning Him will have little or no contact: just a minor and distant member of Christ's 'harem' Bride. Well-cared-for, to be sure; happy, oh yeah; but well, the person didn't want to know Him, so He doesn't 'want' to know that person. Forever. The "Lord, Lord" verse is talking about unbelievers, but there's a parallel for believers, too: "Alert! I come suddenly!" That's the corrected translation of the Revelation refrain (which the Lord also used in the Gospels), idou erchomai TACHÚ. Not, "quickly", or "soon", but SUDDENLY. Like a thief, who suddenly swoops in, relying on his speed to get away. (If you've ever been overseas in poor countries, you see this same swift manner of theft.) Revelation 16:15 goes so far as to warn you of not getting torched for sleeping on WATCH, "naked" being a term for no rewards at Bema (ties to 1Cor3, yet he himself shall be saved, as though through fire).
You can tell if you love God if you keep wanting to know Him better, just because. When people are genuinely interested, they keep spending their thoughts on the object. They don't regard what they spend as being of any merit, but are too busy enjoying the object of their thoughts. Self is not in view, because they are too busy thinking about the object of their love. You don't see anyone who loves building model airplanes pat himself on the back over how good he is to do that. So, he really loves the activity. So if you catch yourself trying to tell yourself how good you are due to something you did, then love is absent, not present, to that extent. Talk to God all the time if you can, no matter what. That builds love. And when you do love Him, you'll keep on thinking that you don't. If you don't love Him, you'll keep on telling yourself how much you love Him. Heh: sin nature always denies the truth, so whatever you have the urge to think, the truth is the OPPOSITE. Rulers must be like-minded, as we saw in Part III. So if not a ruler, Not Close. Frankly, even hell sounds better than so much eternal distance! What, do you want to live on (what's the equivalent of our) 'Pluto', seeing Him way off in the distance, King riding by in a carriage but once every Millennium, if you are lucky? You don't have to settle for that! Don't miss the growth! | |
So we are a new spiritual species, created in Him (2Cor5:17, Eph2:10); so, we have a new contract, new precedence, yet something old: consistency of the two fundamentals of Believe and Learn. Believing, means being "pro-" the object of belief. Learning also means being "pro-", the object Learned. And Love has to be learned. For only God is Love. But we can Learn His Love, by learning His Word (Rom5:5, 1Cor13, Eph3:15-19, 1Jn4, etc). Since Our Origin derives from the Old Contract Israel was offered, its Completion terms also have to port over, else God is not consistent. These Believe and Learn variables, therefore, are what Justify The Call Home. Our terms are necessarily harder than theirs, since blessing had to be re-routed through us, and since Messiah completed His Contract; so, any Bridal terms which remained unfinished, we must get. As we saw earlier in the "Israel's Signing/'Voting Yes'" white table on this page, those criteria were two: a) enough had to be Believers, and, and b) Enough had to Love the Groom. Simplified, these two Call Criteria constitute Completed Votes Pro-Him.
The body-count issue is part of a much bigger criterion of Father's, and will be covered in Part IVb. For, due to this much bigger 'Body' criterion of Father's, there are 'child' (corollary) issues (pun intended). Be prepared for many great shocks! |
So where are we? Well, since Israel played Vashti, the Gentiles become Esther, STILL with the purpose of rescuing the Jews. And idou, look! They Still Get The Contract, But Upgraded: they are grafted back IN (theme of Romans 9-12). So the call goes out to them from the very Gentiles who saw the Light, Isa52:15, and deiknumi clause in Isa53:11, LXX; with Matt22 as its fulfillment, playing Right Now; thus, Matt22 becomes an Invitation to Their Own Wedding, if they too believe in Him! Matchless, Infinite Grace! Paul can't stop exulting over this fact in Romans: it's a major subtheme of that letter.
You bet!!!! And it's the Best of Loopholes, too: His Son! Idou, Look at this! Repeating: Messiah Seed (Gal3) had Completed His Contract, Ascended, was Seated "at the Right Hand" (Highest-Authority idiom), so is OWED DELIVERY On His Contract! So we saw Father's Eph1 wit, in Part III's beginning: the King of Kings, had no kingdom! Hence, the calling out of the Bride from among the Gentiles (see Eph3, Rom10-11, all "mystery" verses, 1Cor2:7).
Which, of course, we even knew before He finished the Cross, beginning with that first announcement to Peter (Matt16:18), "On this Rock" --epi tautei tei Petrai, thus pointing to Himself (see also touton of John 6:27), because Petra=Messiah=Bedrock on which the Ark sat! --"I Will Build My Church."
Proof: what the Lord announced in Matt16:18, Ephesians explains. How Israel is affected by that announcement, Romans 9-11 and Hebrews explain. The primary impetus for each of these books, is to show What Changed, and how the Promises to Israel, Would Be Rescued. [Try repeated rereading of those books, even in translation, with that focus in mind. See if they don't suddenly make a lot more sense. Suggest Romans first, then Ephesians, then Hebrews. Or, cross over to another book's chapter on the same topic -- i.e., when reading Romans 9-11, after that switch to all of Hebrews. Check lexicons when you see what you think are keywords, because keywords track the story for you and are always multilayered and interlocking, in their meanings. Most Christians bristle at this heavy level of Word pursuit, claiming that it's not right, that to argue all should do this, is elitist. What self-righteous garbage: God Runs His System, so we have no excuse. Everyone thus gets to sit at Father's table. Where we choose to be AT that table, is up to us. Do we take Him up on His Offer and get into His System, hence mature in Word as He Initially Gave It? Or do we make lame excuses to prefer the Word in some diluted fashion, like the people in Matt22?]
So "Rescue" is Primarily an Education Problem:
Educating Israel as to her current status, and what to do about it.
The rest of this webpage covers How God Addresses this Problem.
The Education Problem itself is subdivided into another two goals (everything with God is Hypostatic, Union of Opposites, God-Man). These Two Education Goals are: Educate via Scripture ALONE, and Educate via Comparing Scripture to Observable History. For that's always how God 'played' it with Israel: Leviticus 26, Hosea4 (etc). is the pattern. If you won't Hear Word, then you will hear Warring. So the History (next division of this webpage) plays a Confirming Witness to Scripture Role of Warring, i.e., No Temple, No Covenant.
We just saw above how the Bridal Contract itself, and its Precedence, provide a huge amount of comparative data for Jews to see how what WAS to be their own Fulfillment, still is occurring -- but via Church. So they can get in on it, "while it is yet Today", as Hebrews Chapters 3-4, explain. They get in, via Church. They become Church if they believe in Christ, no matter what they call themselves. Jews typically have a hard time thinking of themselves as "Christians", even once they have believed in Christ, but what they call themselves, doesn't matter. They ARE Church, simply by faith in Christ, even as we all are.
The other big problem the Jews have, is their excessive (but quiet) prejudice against non-Jews. This prejudice is built from many spokes of history. They are better, truly: smarter, more attractive, more healthy, more witty, more talented in every way. This makes them receive more prejudice, so they understandably react. No one is more persecuted than the Jew: God placed Israel in the Spot Most Likely To Be Attacked for its sheer geographical commercial Travel Value, as we saw at the first link of this Part IVa. So that's part of the prejudice. It truly is hard to be better than others, and yet have to deal with them. It is truly hard to have the Truth about God and know that, yet have to deal with all those who wanna argue or fight with you about it. So Jews aren't particularly receptive to our claim that what they had right, is now totally Wrong, because they are stuck in the past.
So, God provides a Tracking System they can Use to verify it's God Who's telling them they are wrong -- rather than, some goyim. After all, no one likes to hear he's wrong. God thus employs a tracking system in the WORD, so the Jews can know it's HIM speaking: special keys and keywords help them (and us, of course) track the main 'flow' of the Change. This tracking takes you all over the Bible, and you have to think like a thesaurus. (Jews are trained to do that, from infancy (usually). It's part of their gift in Abraham, to think from hubs with spokes. Read the Mishnah sometime, you'll see it. They get tangled up in their spokes, their genius for seeing many sides of a question. But then, so do we.)
So note, in the following table, how these keys trace the main outline of the Precedence, the Continuity, the Upgrade, the Change and above all, the Faithfulness of God. All of these keywords tie directly back to Isaiah 53, which is the Master Contract for All Covenants in History. So you'd expect the NT to be full of these keywords. And, it is.
Precedence is expressed by CONTINUITY. So When Precedence Changes, There Must Be Some Explanatory Tieback To What Was The Precedence For The Change; So You Can See The Continuity. Something Old, giving rise to something New. So you know the jurisprudence is Genuine. Like, the Old Testament, giving rise to the New One.
In short, the objective is to show the OT is fulfilled in Christ. Remember in the earlier discussion about Precedence, that when Party "A" completes the contract, there are a separate set of clauses regarding When And How And If Delivery on the promise to "A", shall occur. For example, you buy something from Amazon; but then you have to choose how and when the purchased item, shall be shipped. To where, whom, etc. That's an easy example of an implicit contract -- Amazon promises you'll get what you purchased, but now there are terms regarding how, when, and if: since if something goes wrong in the process (i.e., the package is lost), you might not get the item delivered, at all. So here, the task for the Jew (and us) to understand, is that a DELIVERY of something COMPLETED, is where we are in history. Messiah has Come and Left the Building, Daniel 9:26, Matt24. It's not something future.
You get the idea, by now: the NT is chock-full of OT vocabulary to show how Messiah FULFILLED Prophecy. But the Jews are stuck in the past, because they are rejecting Word. (Just like us Christians.) They only mouth it, and that rotely. Bobbing in front of the Wailing Wall, rushing through the Hagadah as quickly as they can at Passover Seder, priding themselves on how they all read the same Torah portion every Saturday, all over the world -- glorifying thus themselves, pretending that glorifies God. It's sick. It's derisive of God. Kissing the Torah -- well, kissing your fingers, then touching the Scroll as it is paraded around the aisles -- but never learning it. Chanting songs, praising good deeds, making sure dues are paid, boy oh boy -- making sure you are "seen of men"! Meanwhile, all along at least once a year they have to go through the 'Torah portion' from Jeremiah. So when they mindlessly chant on Saturday the portion containing Jeremiah 3:16, they don't recognize that promise of a dead piece of stone and the dead box atop it, being replaced by a Living Ark Who will Stand for All Time. So when they mindlessly chant on Saturday the portion containing Jeremiah 31:31-34, they don't remember the tfellin significance: The Word is to be WRITTEN on your hearts and minds. The Living Word in your own words, 1Cor1:5, 10, 1Cor5:7-8 (Greek). But the writer of the Book of Hebrews sure understood it: those two Jeremiah verses, plus Isa53 (and all the rest of Scripture) form the legal outline of his God-breathed book. Telling us how the past is obsoleted: for "better things", Attick "kreittwn", the New Covenant, has Come! Sanctifying, for all time, Heb10:10-17! [1 Cor is egregiously mistranslated in important verses. Corr trans of 1Cor1:5, 10 is in ArchiDes.htm's first footnote "[1]"; partial explan and corr trans of 1Cor5:7-8 is there, too: just search on "1Cor5:7" to go to that part of the page.]
For, as every Jew who studies Torah should know, Legal Contracts are SELF-CONTAINED.
So the Bible uses OT keywords to prove to the Jews by grafting-in aka incorporation by reference, that the NT is just as much from God, as the OT. Here are sample keywords in the NT, you can trace. "REMNANT" is evocative of the Vine, the grape gleanings so small, everyone else abandoned them. Much about the "remnant" in the OT. Thesauretically, "rest", "remnant", "remainder", and of course, all the verb forms. Writer of Hebrews uses the verb "kataleipw" (kat-ah-LAY-poh) in Heb4:1, to show the Change in Precedence. Its "leipw" (LAY-poh) ending is most significant. Writer uses this ending with various prefixes to craft his letter (ekleipw, apoleipw, etc). So he plays with its many related meanings: you'll need a detailed lexicon. Essence of kataleipw: something is Deliberately Left Out, Left Behind, 'Remaining' In The Sense Of Pending Completion Or Acquisition. Very pointed incorporation by reference of the Promise Still to be grabbed while it is yet "today", in the Book of Hebrews.
Usage of "menw" is a more pregnant a tieback to the OT than even "remnant", which in Hebrew is rooted in "sheba", meaning "seven", the PROMISE itself; verb=shaba (shin beth ayin), too; often means to take an oath; so the writer of Hebrews incorporates by reference both meanings throughout, especially in the last half of Heb6 (to demonstrate fulfillment of God's Promised One). So the very-much-related Greek word "menw", the main theme of John 15 and most of the NT, has to do with VINE-ness. The first usage of VINE is in Genesis 40:9, the very BASIS for Israel becoming Israel, Joseph's interpretation of the cupbearer's dream. Had Joseph not done that, there'd BE no Israel. So Joseph had to Abide waiting until God delivered him; so Jacob had to Abide thinking Joseph was dead; so Israel had to Abide in Egypt when the famine came, and then of course Abided there until the Lord delivered them. So ABIDE is thesauretically the heart of VINE. So the Lord takes all this connectedness into account, when talking about Vine and Branches, in John 15. You'll find that VINE is used as a major OT keyword for ABIDING in the Word, in the OT. God is Wine, see. Wine is associated with Blood, therefore with the Heart of Messiah, Whose Blood (Thinking) would save Mankind, Isaiah 53. See? Bible is sheer Genius, so a race of geniuses were crafted to understand it. And these Geniuses -- the Jews -- are so tangled UP in their abilities, they are blinded to the God Who Made them. But God knows what tracking metaphors they need to get their sight back. Now, if you recognize "remnant" plus "menw", you also gain understanding of the mechanics of the spiritual life; which you can track, in the NT. For example, now all those "endure to the end" verses will no longer be confused with salvation verses: for, "hupomenw" means to endure. And WHAT are you enduring in, staying in, abiding in, at home in, remaining in? IN The Vine. IN His Thinking. Not, enduring to get saved, for crying out loud. See, if You Weren't Already Saved, you couldn't be Abiding under Christ, get it? See 2Cor5:14-21. So it's about Enduring IN His Thinking; IN the Witness Box, the Post, at Home IN Him (main theme of 1Jn, Eph3). Until, you GO Home, TO Him (1Cor15). It's not works, But God Works in your own soul, to Make You Compatible with His Son, Eph2:10. [Eph2:10 is mistranslated; it's proper translation is covered in the First Criterion of "Father's Criteria for Fit Bride" table of Part IVb.] My pastor calls this "hupomenw" verb and its cognate noun hupomone, "staying power". That, it sure is: Isaiah 53:11, 52:13, by means of His Mastery of Thinking, He endured. Which Hebrews 12:2 references. His Thinking Sustains You: 2Cor5:14.
For the gist of the entire NT contract message is this (summarized in John 14-15): There are many other important keywords to track. A really important one is PLEROW (play-ROH-oh), to fill up, fulfill. Every NT writer uses this verb; and the many other words formed from it, explain Christ's Thinking getting filled IN us, via the Spirit Filling us with His Thinking (Rom8's theme). This is the whole spiritual life, which the Greek of Heb11:1,2 and 6, stress. ["aiwnas" in v.2 should be translated "Ages", meaning covenantal epochs, not "worlds". Dunno how the heck anyone could get 'worlds' out of this term for Divisions of Time. Seems that because the term is sometimes used to describe a group of people on earth over a given period of time, someone thought "world" should be used. Not a good idea. Obfuscates what God says.]
Thus both Jew and Gentile are alerted to the fact that "works" is fornication, just as much as the grosser kind. Works always pretends to be holy, and that's why it fornicates. A harlot demands payment for what services she renders, and the works person is expecting God to pay him for his works. So the person treats God like a 'customer', as if not married to Him. If married to Him, then a slave, and the payment is what God chooses, if any. And we know all this even in translation from Hosea, Malachi, Zechariah, Zephaniah (great summary book of the whole changeover, to which Revelation 17 ties wholly). So there is no excuse. Ascetism Is A Form Of Harlotry, pretending to be a virgin.
Then there's SUNTELEW, famously in Daniel 9:24: Gen. 2:1f; 6:16; 17:22; 18:21; 24:15, 45; 29:27; 43:2; 44:5; 49:5; Exod. 5:13f; 36:2; 40:33; Lev. 16:20; 19:9; 23:22, 39; Num. 4:15; 7:1; Deut. 26:12; 31:1, 24; 32:23, 45; 34:8; Jos. 3:17; 4:1, 10f; 21:42; Jdg. 3:18; Ruth 2:23; 3:3; 1 Sam. 10:13; 13:10; 15:18; 20:7, 9, 33f; 24:17; 25:17; 2 Sam. 6:18; 11:19; 13:36; 21:5; 22:38; 1 Ki. 1:41; 2:35; 5:14; 6:1, 3, 9; 7:26, 50; 8:1, 53f; 9:1; 22:11; 2 Ki. 10:25; 1 Chr. 16:2; 27:24; 28:20; 2 Chr. 4:11; 5:1; 7:1, 11; 18:10; 20:23; 24:14; 29:17, 28f, 34; 30:22; 31:1, 7; Est. 3:13; 4:1; 8:12; Ps. 7:10; 118:87; Prov. 1:19; 8:31; 22:8; Job 1:5; 14:14; 15:4; 19:26f; 21:13; 33:27; 35:14; 36:11; Hos. 13:2; Amos 7:2; Mic. 2:1; Joel 2:8; Nah. 2:1; Zech. 5:4; Mal. 3:9; Isa. 1:28; 8:8; 10:12, 22; 18:5; 28:22; 32:6; 44:24; 46:10; 55:11; Jer. 5:3; 6:11, 13; 13:19; 14:12, 15; 15:16; 16:4; 41:8, 15; Lam. 2:17; 4:11; Ezek. 4:6, 8; 5:12f; 6:12; 7:5, 15; 11:15; 13:14f; 16:14; 20:8, 21; 22:12f, 31; 23:32; 42:15; 43:23; Dan. 5:26; 9:24; 10:3; 11:36; 12:7; Mk. 13:4; Lk. 4:2, 13; Acts 21:27; Rom. 9:28; Heb. 8:8. As you can see, there is a lot to track from the OT, and the NT uses the same terms, to demonstrate continuity, and Precedence Change due to Fulfillment of Contract by Christ.
In the NT, Greek verb hagiazw (or cognate) is never used apart from the context of Marital Intimacy. Idea of the Husband bonding and thus sanctifying the wife. Trace how the writer of Hebrews uses this word. He uses hagiazw to prove what changed, especially in Hebrews 10. If you search the verb (or cognate) in the OT you discover a remarkable fact: the OT people did not get but a temporary and ceremonial hagiazw. That's a major stress in his letter. Christ Entered Behind The Veil, thus Sanctifying us for All Time. Point is, if now we are sanctified for ALL TIME (theme beginning in Hebrews 1), then the old covenant which offered only temporary sanctification in the first place, is replaced by a BETTER COVENANT (kreittwn). The old one has been obsoleted. That fact is used to setup Hebrews 11, which related this hagiazw 'delay', to the terms of the Angelic Trial in history (which you cannot see in translation, because Hebrews 11:1 is totally screwed up, as noted earlier). That theme began back in Hebrews 2, as you'll see even in translation. So due to the Trial, and due to Israel's rejection, the OT people have not yet inherited, because We Rescue Israel (Heb11:39-40, the point of the chapter). Do you see? Church Is Used Like A Mother. Christ was impregnated with our sins, and the intended wife refused Him. Instead of abandoning her, He 'builds' (banah, like Isha) a wife and then makes Her pregnant with His Thinking, thus sanctifying Her -- and the pregnancy's Fruit (completion of Body) thus 'delivers' IsraEL. What a princely thing to do. What a wifely honor to have. Wow.
Pistis/pisteuw is the operator, the Divine Actor, the Holy Spirit putting Holy Word He Wrote in Christ -- in you. So, you BELIEVE it; as a result, It Works For You, In You, On You: the same five infinitives as we saw in the cream subtable of the amalgamated translation of Isa53:10-12, above. Just as those same five infinitives Did For Christ. So Pistis is what's plerow'd into you; when you are plerow'd enough, you become teleiow'd, completed. You'll need to understand this mechanic especially when reading Hebrews, Ephesians and Romans, though all NT writers spend time on it. Gnostic teaching on "Pistis Sophia" is also thus burlesqued by the NT writers, by explaining this Real Mechanic of the Real Spiritual Life (the readers were familiar with gnosticism). Hence, all the body-typology words are meant to tie thesauretically to both hagiazw and pistis, to show you the big picture, What God Is Making. Especially, keywords like "surpassing" (huperballo, references what's ON TOP of the Body, the Head, Christ to be IN your head). Then there are the bizillion metaphors for what His Head is, like "Love", "riches", "glory", "truth": the Word Incarnate, see. So His Word we are to get, see. Thus the Jews are alerted to the OT terminology being flawlessly used in the NT, so they can securely know that GOD wrote the NT. For all these ideas -- especially, pistis -- were key to the OT spiritual lifestyle. BELIEVE IN GOD -- that's how Abraham became Righteous (saved), Genesis 15:6. Every Jew knows that: trust in the Lord, be of good courage, and He will give you the desires of your heart (i.e., Ps27:14, 37:4). So now it's just a question of proving that "God" is Christ Jesus, the Adonai Elohenu, of the shemah. Jews wrote the LXX. The post-Malachi books which are not Canon, are nonetheless in Greek. So Jews do know both languages, if they want to know them. The Greek terms are Hebraistically used, so again the fact that the words are in Greek, is no hindrance. It's easy to know what Hebrew words, the Greek represents. It's solely a Jewish book, at every turn.
So, the Copybook Race Remains: for a Groom is completed, but not a Bride. Vashti refused, so a no-racial-distinctions Esther (ref'ing Gal3:28, oh, what a sense of humor!) is to be sought among the highways and byways, Matt22. Church. Us. So Israel can still be delivered. So the prophecy sequence can Start Up Again, Once the Bride is Completed. Again, as Part II explained in detail, Because He First Fulfilled His Contract, The Precedence For Our Contract Changes To His Post-Fulfillment Status. That's the essential reason for the Contract Change. UPGRADE. Not, His Pre-fulfillment status during the First Advent. For His Status, Changed. Again, the Consistency is that an Actual Offer had to be made. Again, it had to be made while He was alive. Again, it had to be paid for while He was alive (inter alia, John 17 shows He Agrees to Pay for as Many as Father Chooses to Make). Now you know why Paul talks about "mystery" in Eph5:32. Now you know why the Lord uses the future, not present tense, in Matt16:18. Parallelisms must be carefully discerned, when evaluating Precedence. Bible is the most careful discerner of them all.
Hence our New Nature, 2Cor5:17: new-in-species, in HIM. Not, in the Law. New Precedence Means New Contract: that's the central and advancing theme in the Book of Hebrews which you should be able to trace, even in translation. It's also dramatically illustrated in Eph1, Col1, 2Cor5, all of 1Cor (which is about Body and Head, even Chapter 11's wordplay on hair). Keywords "the second", "promise" are most prominent in the Book of Hebrews. [1Cor is too narrowly viewed. Look very carefully at the keywords Paul uses, and note that, even when he's truly writing about marriage or hair (not hats) -- which is hysterical, since during this time he began to get goofy about a Nazirite vow -- he's still drawing analogy to Head and Body; so that's how all those do's should be interpreted, in light of the whole doctrine of Head-and-Body; not shallowly, like whether you should wear a hat to church! For example, the point of Chap11, is about respect for authority. Hair is used in a culture to show such respect, viz some Muslim women (like the Corinthian women in Paul's day), veil themselves or have longer hair than their husbands. By way of extrapolation, respect is to be shown in all things. This, because the Christian isn't to flout societal rules, just because he's no longer OF the world, get it? It's an ambassadorial rule, essentially. The other do's in Scripture are also for that purpose. We are not to be troublemakers, politically involved, etc. -- for Our God is not like the other 'gods' people think they know.]
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Ok, but what is the status of the Jews during this phase of History? Well, think: in the first place, the Jewish Race Was Founded On Faith, not genes: Gen15:6, Rom4, 9, Book of Hebrews, all explain. And that, because the Promise Is Forever -- eternal -- so you gotta have God's life, to live with God, forever.
So, the genetic distinction is not the basis of the Promise being inherited, but the FAITH is (theme of Romans 9). So, two distinctions. First, genetically, Bible uses the term "Gentiles" ("ta ethne", lit., "the nations") to mean anyone not a racial Jew; so, if you have a drop of Jacob's blood in you, you are Jewish. [Well, sometimes "Gentile" is used figuratively. Jewish term is "goyim" and it's not exactly complimentary. So sometimes God calls the Jews "goyim", to show they aren't any better than those they demean. That's why the tongues warning in Isa28 is used, for it mimics a Gentile pagan practice of ecstatic-gibberish-drunken-mass-orgy.]
So, second distinction: FAITH is what made you Jewish, too. In fact, even if you were Jewish, if you didn't do what Abram did (Gen15:6), you weren't his kid even if you were his kid. Like Father, like Son. Like Father's Thinking, else no son is really a Son. The Jews knew that very well, and made a lot of wordplay out of it, like Isa63:16 (can't see the wordplay in translation). The verse flips the fact of faith-fathering to render the conclusion, even if Israel repudiated us as its sons, YOU are our Father, Father. Really cool verse.
So the covenants to Abraham bifurcate based on these distinctions. If you parse out Genesis 12, 15, 17, you'll find a whole bunch of clauses which are not dependent on faith, but on bloodline. However, All Of The Eternal Promises Are Solely Based On Faith. Paul explains this in Romans using the "promise" concept, since the Promise Basis Is Eternal: a forever-life with El-Elyon, via a future Son who would pay for all the sins of the human race. Book of Hebrews does the same thing, since Only The Eternal Promise Was Conditional. The bloodline promises were unilateral and UNconditional (read those Genesis Chapters, see for yourself).
Hence, the racial distinction never meant that a Gentile couldn't become a Jew by faith; and most "Jews" today are in fact of mixed race (i.e., the Exodus was maybe 2/3rds "mixed multitude"). Gen15:6, Rom4, Rom9 explain that it's the Promise Believed Which Causes The Eternal Inheritance. (If you read the Exodus account you'll realize that many nations, racially, were in the group of folks who left with Moses, and they are all called "Israelites", anyway. If you'll look at the Matthew and Luke geneologies in any detail, you'll realize that every race is included in the Lord's bloodlines. So no basis for anti-semitism. So no basis for racial prejudice! See also Galatians 3-5.) Meanwhile, the other Gen12 protection covenants operate for ALL sons of Abraham, as those clauses explain. Believer, or unbeliever. [Elaborating on Genesis 12's (and 17:5's) promise to Abram, Deuteronomy begins with a very careful delineation of what the Arab cousins, get to keep, in Deut 1-4. That will be helpful to know for those who think the Arabs ought to be wiped out. No can do: they are sons of Abraham, too. They also refuse to be the sons of the promise (assuming they remain unbelievers), but God Still Honors His Promise to their progenitor, Abraham. The Bible's promises to the Arabs are so superior to Koran's, it's not funny. Koran mocks its own believers, and is a deliberate parody of the Mosaic Law, point by derisive, satirical, fun-house-mirror point -- how cruel. Satan&Co. hate all Abraham's kids. Amazing, how they don't catch on.]
So, it should be easy to understand that just because now the Bride is to be called out from among the Gentiles, Jews are also included in that Call, Romans 11. That is, just as in the OT, any Gentile (i.e., Rahab) who believed in Adonai Elohenu, Adonai Echad was by FAITH a Jew; so also, any racial Jew who believes in Christ is part of "Church".
The woman is delivered by delivery (see also Rev12): just as God used the Jews to call the Gentiles, so Now also God uses the Gentiles, to call the Jews. (This prophecy is all over the Bible, actually. Pretty much every reference to Gentiles is referencing this prophecy. Isa7 and 28 are bald examples: trace 'em in the NT. Paul's epistles will probably prove quite helpful, if you've a study Bible, in reducing your research time.) Precedence. Consistency. Fairness. Justice. Truth. GOD. For, the Ultimate Precedence God Uses, is the Cross, and Christ Paid For Everyone! [see "Atonement, Unlimited" in VERindex.htm for a list of some easy-to-understand verses.]
Again, note the Grafting Origin/Precedence of our So-Great Covenant: only only only Because Israel rejected its conditional Brideship Covenant -- well, a sufficient number of Jewish believers refused to 'sign' it, so to speak -- we get "grafted in" (theme of Rom11): we get Brideship. As we saw at the beginning of Part III, we are to be wifely to Israel, since Our Lord is Her King. Hence, we will rule Gentile nations in the Millennium (subject of Part V), complementing His Rule. Thus is Israel rescued, redeemed, saved. God keeps His Promises. Note that well: this is about GOD Keeping HIS Promises. We get to be the grateful conduits, and as usual are also just dufuses weltering in our blood, Eze16:6, being nonetheless carried by the Holy Spirit despite the fact we stink (Isa64:6). Israel got a big head over being chosen by God, and we will too: so we need to remember what Moses warned them in Deuteronomy about big-headedness (i.e., 4:38, 5:15, 6:1-15, 7:1,6-8, 8:1-4, 11-20, 9:1-6). Christians who are anti-semitic will suffer the most, since we are given a Protector role, not merely a live-and-let-live role. God blesses those who bless Her, and curses those who curse Her, Gen12 (inter alia): so how much more will He curse one who is to protect, but curses? So many wanna-be-replacements of Israel out there, now. Guarantee of mental illness, to be anti-semitic. Don't those rioting Arabs and other anti-Israel Moslems look positively wacko on TV? That's why anti-semitic 'scholarship' is so demonstrably batty -- people who in 2005 'saw' La Virgen in a salt stain below a Chicago underpass, are much saner. Good thing the 'scholarship' is so bad: thus others can better avoid infection!
Our role vis á vis Israel, which God Alone Makes Happen (hence the need to live in God's System): Each of these roles is technical, and requires a great deal of Scriptural knowledge, to properly execute, as we saw in the first "Idou!" table. WE NEED TO KNOW BIBLE WELL IN ORDER TO SHOW HOW THE OT IS FULFILLED. Christians don't learn Bible and instead insult Jews, so Jews are alienated, and thus remain outside. They are negative, too, which means it's not all our fault. But it doesn't matter whose fault it is: it matters that we get filled up with His Word, or the Promise will not be rescued. They deserve to know the truth, not be preached to, not have it shoved down their throat, and not be catered to, either. We should neither fawn over nor fault Israel. Very careful study and usage of Word is required. Israel's problem is its blindness. Paul uses the cool analogy of a "fishnet" in Romans 11's Greek to explain that God is out to Catch her in our Net. Which after all, is a Better Offer than she had, Pre-Cross. So she wins, not loses, by believing in Christ. Problem is, she's insulted by a goyim "call" to her (Isa28, fabulous Hebrew). She treated her favored status haughtily, and still does. So it's a delicate thing to do any of the activities above. You need all the skill of a diplomat, which is our role anyway ("diakonos" means diplomat, search on that term in RightPT.htm). Which means, a Mastery of Thinking and Words. (For more on our diplomacy role in general, of which the role to Israel is a part, see DueDisclosure.htm). You'll notice from that same Chapter 11 that the troublesome Roman Gentiles were kinda uppity about being grafted in. Since that's the same disease as afflicted the Jews (it's hard to be humble when you really ARE superior, k), Paul really lets 'em have it in that Chapter. The sarcasm which culminates in Rom12:1-3 is awesome. Paul's sarcasm is full-spectrum, from finessed to outright derisive, and being chewed out by him, hoo-boy: you know where you stand! So we are to Understand that this uppity-ness is a problem we will have, vis á vis the Jews, so need to keep our own arrogances in more monitored-by-1Jn1:9-check, than normally. Frankly, any witness situation is more a waiting for someone to ask you something, not you volunteering something. People always think that when information is volunteered, the one volunteering is pushy. We're all too bombarded with salesmanship, anyway. God will put people in your path. You don't need to seek people to witness to. So just PREPARE, learning the Word and living on it, daily. The most important thing you can do to protect people is just that. God blesses the world due to people growing up in His Son. No amount of human works can buy time. But God GRANTS Time and other blessings to the world, due to the spiritual maturation of individuals. Invisible. Part IVb's Diamond Doctrine Facets will cover this in more detail. What not to do: DON'T crusade politically on Israel's behalf. Isaiah has many verses about how Israel got punished because she went to Egypt or other nations for help, instead of praying to God, i.e., 2Chron 7:14. Same is true for Christians. So the worst thing you can do, is to form coalitions of Christians who petition or march on Washington demanding more favorable treatment of Israel, etc. Go To God In Prayer. Else you are just begging Him to clobber you and Israel, for not reading what Isaiah said. Peace, peace, there will be no peace. Forget it. The politicians will not learn this lesson, but you as a believer MUST. You are Royal Family of God. You have clout. If you asked for all the terrorists to be rounded up and shot within a year -- maybe God would do that. So you can pray for Israel to be defended. You don't need Caesar, you need your own spiritual life. Most importantly, Israel needs to recognize that The Contract Changed. The OT is chock full of How the Change Works, so she doesn't have to even believe in the NT, to see the proof in the OT; that's the proper procedure, anyway (you always validate what's 'new' by what's old in Bible, principle of consistency of Divine Writ). Of course, then she needs to see how the NT displays that Same Omniscience as the OT, despite being written in Greek. But of course, if YOU don't know how, then you can't help. You also can't grow up spiritually, since it really IS the Same God Who Wrote Both Testaments. For we all need to see the Faithfulness of God, and no translation can portray Him. As will be covered in more detail within the next division, the SECOND part of "Education" for the Jews which God provides, is REAL HISTORY. Baldly: for the visible evidence of the Contract Change faces both Israel and non-Jews, daily: the Dumb Dome and Wailing Wall, as covered earlier. She doesn't see that, so she's not gonna look at us, either. As a result, there are the unavoidable holocausts and other evil persecutions: when that stuff happens, some Jews realize 'something's wrong' and hence Look Up, because it's our happy job to rescue them from their many enemies. At other times, Jews doubt their own faith, just like anyone else, so we need to be pre-informed of the CHANGE so we can answer any questions asked of us ("in season and out of season" verse). What we never should do, is impose. And of course if we persecute or have bad attitudes toward Israel, we will reap the punishments due her enemies, Genesis 12. See? This is complex. Can't do it right if you aren't really Filled UP with Word. This is a diplomatic post, 2Cor5:20. So if you're feelng a bit overwhelmed and want to help her but can't -- and even once you can -- Pray. God alone has authority. So, Go to The Authority: Him. See GodSystem.htm and/or PrayProc.htm to be sure you are following Royal Protocol. For you are a Royal Priest, not like the OT priesthood -- but Higher. So you have a higher (and simpler, more awesome) role. So the Protocol is higher (and hence simpler, so you can do it All The Time). Phrase your prayer in your own words, don't do something canned which you recite. Canned prayers never go higher than the ceiling -- see the parable of the Pharisee and the publican, and the other Gospel verses where the Lord talks about prayer. The "Lord's Prayer" is a guideline, not some chanting thing. God never regards it: the way people use that prayer spits in His Son's Face (use 1Jn1:9, ask Father to have Spirit guide you on this topic, if you're disturbed). God gave you the Holy Spirit's Brains -- so use them.
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So let's next examine How The Prophecies For Israel Are Not For Church. More about this distinction will be in Part IVb; but here we're focusing on the educational role of Rescue; and for Israel, the prophecies were how she was to tell Messiah Came, and Will Come Back; so we need to know them as well. If you don't know Israel-versus-Church-roles; if you don't understand the underlying nature of prophecy itself, then you can't very well answer any questions you might get, or do your other Wifely-Fulfilling Roles in the above "Idou" table's purple text.
Basically, We Are 'Hidden' Inside Their Prophecies, But They Are Not Inside Ours. Because, we have NO prophecies. Our Job Is To Determine History, not prophecies. The we-determine-history role was explained in Part III, and is the central focus of Part IVb and c. Here, just get the overview, so the rest of this webpage will be easier to comprehend:
Church Cannot Be In The Official Tribulation, Since There Is No One Eligible For 'Bride' During That Time, And Since That Time 'Belongs' To A Different Covenant. The very term "times" tells you Two Different Covenants (one per 'time') are subsumed: one Church ("Now", Bible keyword) and one Jewish. They are NOT the same. Israel never replaces Church, nor vice versa. Hence, Luke 21:24's "times", not 'time'. If you are still having trouble with the timeline, read Hebrews carefully (two dozen times or more, use 1Jn1:9 constantly); note how the writer distinguishes between the two covenants. [The Brideship offer was TO a client nation, Israel. Not enough of them accepted, during 1st Advent. No other client nation ever gets the offer. Church is not a client nation, but a group of individuals; when a sufficient number of those individuals reside in a nation, that nation is given a 'client' status, analogous to the Moses-Caleb-Joshua story sketched in Part II, but it's technically not the same. Israel was the only client NATION in history. So to call 'client nation', nations of sufficient-remnant Church believers, is an apt functional description; but not a legal status, permanently tied to a particular landmass and a particular people, as is Israel's. In the Trib, Israel is not a client nation either, but a people. Whatever its superficial political configuration has been since 70AD, it is not yet regathered, because only CHRIST does that -- at the 2nd Advent, not before. Isa53-61ff, passim in Zechariah, Ezekiel 30ff, and Chaps 40 onward, explain. People who claim that the 1948 establishment of Israel is the fulfillment of Ezekiel 37 cannot read Bible. For at the 2nd Advent, ALL THE OT PEOPLE ARE RESURRECTED. That's what the "dry bones" means in Ezekiel 37:4ff. PEOPLE from the OT. Amazing, how blind one becomes when he won't properly interpret Scripture.]
Daniel 9 and Book of Esther historically repeat, Right Now. History repeats itself, since God Orchestrates even Time itself, as a Corroborrating Witness to the Word. Clearly only God can Orchestrate Time. If you spend time (heh) on Mirroring.htm ("Timeline" link at pagetop) you will see just how Precisely God Orchestrates Time. Revelation's many horrors are also orchestrated REPEATS of the Exodus plagues. So indeed prophecy is playing right Now, but as a reminder, not something "new":
But the NT explains all this. Because Israel Rejected Messiah, There Is No Replacing Covenant. So, "times of the Gentiles" meant that Israel was not God's covenanted nation during that time, nor was anyone else. Church is hidden, "mystery", and even that, only due to the 'leftovers' Israel spurned; and even that, on an individual basis. The "Body" we become is future; now, we're only forming. It's analogous to pregnancy, as Paul explains in Romans 8:11ff, Gal4:19, and other pregnancy passages. Corporate Body is not 'alive' as a unit until Completed. For as noted earlier, Satan's desperately trying to abort Christianity, so he can get a Mistrial. (Part IVc and d will cover that goal in much more detail.)
Time hung in the balance, back in 586BC. Mirroring.htm covers the Time Accounting in huge detail. Here, just note the parallel: Israel was in Diaspora then. So too, Now. Israel was ejected from the Land then, the Temple razed. So too, Now. Temple is not there. So Israel should NOT be there. This message, she heeded up until about 100 years ago. More about that will be said in the next division. Here, just grasp the idea that a Very Big Parallel is Demonstrably Played ONLY by God, since none of us can roll back or cause, Parallel Time.
Could God make Himself more obvious, than to take the most famous Freedom-from-Oppression Festivals, Chanukah and Purim -- and then Tie them Together to the Messiah's First Advent? And make all that, the MAP of History Playing Now? Look: there are two Jewish Festivals which are not part of the Law, but are rather custom, based on Freedom Received: Chanukah and Purim. Chanukah commemorates the Abomination of Desolation of Antiochus IV Ephiphanes; the "Two Stone Witnesses" link at pagetop, covered something of the Dome's being a Repeat Reminder, showing Daniel 9:26 being fulfilled (more on that, next division, below). But Purim commemorates the other Freedom, freedom from anti-semitism during the time the 1st Temple was destroyed. What the Book of Esther doesn't cover, is the aftermath, that Jerusalem was rebuilt: Book of Nehemiah covers that. So every year, both festivals are celebrated blindly, no one noticing that the very same Characteristics are Historically True Now, all due to Christ stating Matt16:18, and Daniel 9:26 (via Matt24). So because the FIRST Advent is ignored, these other Bald Historical Repeats go unheeded. All Confluenced Together. So it's not some Christian hallucination. It's GOD.
And why is God replaying Daniel 9 and Book of Esther? Precedence. Temple. Again, remember that the best known doctrines in Judaism, are about Messiah's COMING, which the Temple represents. Messiah was predicted to be born on the anniversary of the Temple's Foundation, in Haggai 2. That turned out to be 25 Chislev at sundown, which later in history became Chanukah. As for Purim, there would have been no Chanukah, had Purim not been put down -- due to the discovery of Haman's conspiracy, via Esther. So both holidays relate to the Temple=Messiah, and there'd have been no Messiah, else. Can't divorce Messiah from Temple: but that's precisely what Jews are doing, today. So, they need 'advertising' from the Only One Who can use Bible+Real History, to do it: GOD.
So the Temple got its own 490-year lifespan, thus the world could continue for 490 years. But prematurely, apostacy was so bad, the Temple had to 'die' 126 years early: 950BC-586BC is 364 years, not 490. So that's the first instance where Time Ran Out. Time is based on the Jews. So if Time runs out, then it runs out for the whole world: for the rest of the world, rejects God. Here, Israel did too. But remember the vocabulary about "promise" ="rest"="remnant" in the first "Idou" table of this division? So, a "remnant" was in Babylon. And one guy in that remnant -- Daniel -- prayed. Prayer is always VOTING. Voting is Volition, so Precedence Grants It Value. So, based on one guy's vote -- Daniel's -- Time continued. Just one guy. One guy, Abram. Precedence. One guy, David. One guy, Daniel. So one Guy, the Christ Himself, was Contingent Upon Votes which had no 'prophecy' connected with them. The prophecy came as a result of their making HISTORY. So it's the history-making which generates the prophecy-making. For you have to get time, to have time to FORECAST something, right?
So, Precedence: one guy's vote bought time. So bought prophecy, since prophecy depends on TIME continuing. Borrowed Time, essentially. Financed, in advance, pending Completion of Messiah, Who By That Time Being Granted, would have to arrive and finish and pay by what we call, 30AD. [Mirroring.htm has all the calculations, but you can see a summary back in the "Legatee" table (link at pagetop), near the end of that table.] So notice the Precedence: first a Vote Makes History, in order for there to even BE prophecy.
That being the case, then to communicate that yes, Messiah has Come and Left! the relevant, preceding, Precedental History Should Be Replayed, as a 'Stamp': to Communicate Where In Time, we are. So to know we aren't hallucinating Who "God" is. For only a Real God can really Orchestrate Time, replaying it as a video, to Exactly Match What Bible Says.
God knows how hopelessly pathetic we humans are. Yet, it's not right to manipulate us by doing doggie tricks. Yet, it's also not right to leave us stuck in our self-created insanities. So, God runs the weather directly, using it to communicate -- and often, in an uncomfortable way. So, He leaves all kinds of historical evidence for us to find, since we won't consult Bible. After all, the Bible's definition and timing criteria for the Rapture are plain, but we Christians still 'debate' it. So, as introduced at the end of the "Rescue" section,
This section will cover that problem in more detail; additionally, God not only uses these Two Witnesses for the sake of Israel, but as part of an overall structure Making All History A 'Witness' To The Bible. Idea is, we are to consult the Bible to see that fact. Which no one does. So God has to make it obvious apart from Scripture; and we won't 'read' those signs, either. Which signs, must be Tribulational, since we aren't reading them.
Repeating: No Temple Means No Covenant To The Nation Israel Is Operating. Dome of the Rock being there makes this no-covenant status, even derisive. But, here we all are, blind, falling into Satan's trap, even though Satan&Co. kindly obliged us by raising up a Surrender (=Islam), so to surrender Israel's Holy of Holies, over to a Dumb Dome. Idols can't talk, y'know, yet this one 'speaks' volumes! Yet who among the living ears, hears it?
The meaning of this Temple is almost completely overlooked by Christendom, even though many chapters in the OT and New, are devoted to it; every NT epistle uses LXX Temple words, to explain how the Living Cornerstone, Christ, is the Foundation for a New Temple made without hands and made of Living Stones. So, let's take a refresher course as to why the Temple is so important. Then we can understand why God uses its history, to Stamp All History.
We saw the Legatee table near the beginning of this Part IVa, which summarized the story. But now let's go over the information again, focusing this time on just the role of the Temple. From there, we'll branch into more explanation on why the Church is not Israel, the role of Church. In short, all the previous themes of this webpage will be threaded through together, here. For that's what Father is doing, Threading Everything Through Church In Order To Finish Weaving All History. As a Gift to His Son Forever.
See, from the very beginning of Israel's march out of slavery, God started telling Moses to make a House For Him. One of the many reasons why the Bible is unique among holy books, is this one: A Personal God. You can't find any holy book of any kind which depicts God the way the Bible does; and no greater "sign" of His Personal Nature is depicted, but that of this House. To become, a Living House: Gen3:15, Exo Chapters 24-31 (the initial Temple Contract), 2Sam7 (the Messiah contract tied to David and to Temple, cutting out Israel and grafting her into David); Jer3:16, John 1, John 14-17, Heb3, Eph2, 1Pet2, Rev 21ff, etc. Every other holy book depicts "god" as aloof, far away, capricious and unfathomable, more a collection of powers than a person. Not here. Every other holy book depicts sacrifices people make TO the "god". Not here. Here, This One Will Sacrifice Himself. That's Why There Needed To Be A House, Because It Was A Promise He'd Come. The House represented, that Promise. Always, l'moed! Hence the line of Seth, lit., the Appointed, became the line of Abraham, lit., Father of Many Nations. And therefore the Christ, lit., the Anointed One (term is used in Dan9:25). The appointments lead to the Anointment. All this, is depicted by that House! Isra-El gets Beth-El, because Immanu-EL!
For this God, is the Real One. So He Wants A House! First, as a Tent of Testimony, sign of the National Contract (aka covenant) between Adonai and His Chosen People. So, He laid out elaborate instructions. Because, This Was To Be His House, God's School for Israel, where He would live and thus have Fellowship with them. Everything Associated With This House, Including All Its Rituals And Dress, Depicted Something In The Nature Of That Covenanted National Fellowship, that Covenant of Association. Principle: You Can't Divorce God Yet Keep The House.
The Goal, Ps111: Israel as a Nation had to 'grow up' under God's Tutelage (Paul talks about this in Gal4; Heb3-4 is parallel); After Which, She Would Become His Bride, His Priest Nation, Forever -- the priesthood would UPGRADE to the kata Melchizedek level (Ps111, in context of Psalms 109-110, David claiming that promise to get through his suffering). So If She Didn't Grow Up, The Betrothal Was Abrogated. See, you could be married off when you were five years old, and if anything happened between that time and the time you officially married (usu. age 30, sometimes younger), the entire contract was abrogated. So it is, here. (Sidenote: in Jewish law, the contract had pre-official-marriage conditions, which if broken annulled the marriage. That is what faced Joseph when he found out his betrothed Mary was pregnant.)
So the Promise of Jeremiah 31:34 is in Abrogated Status. NASB (1995) in BibleWorks5, translates that verse as follows (italics are my corrections to the translation): "They will not exhort each other, each man to his neighbor and each man to his brother, saying, 'Know the LORD', for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them," declares the LORD, "for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more." And Hebrews 10:15-17 explains that CHURCH got that promise, because Israel refused: see Heb101517.htm for the corrected translation: verse 16 is badly translated in all Bibles.
Now that verse in Hebrews, is a requote from the LXX of Jeremiah 31:33 (LXX=38:33); but v.33 of the Hebrew (Masoretic, aka "BHS") text, has the most awesome wordplay, which the LXX neatly subsumed under the Greek double-entendre, "tayn dianoian autwn". The Hebrew text goes like this: "be qirebam wallibbam' ekttabenah". Now Bible always plays on nuances in the original-language text, so you have to look at literal meanings and etymology. Here, "beqirebam", usually translated "in their minds", is really, "in their inner parts/midst", because the noun is qereb, and means both the INNER LIFE (the thinking of the soul), but also IN THE MIDST of a group; so, "in their midst". But also qrb is a root for the Sacrificial Animal, from which comes "qorban", meaning dedicated-to-Temple. Idea of the inner parts of the animal being sacrificed and burnt, whether whole burnt offering (holocaust, for the sins of the people in general), or taken out and burned separately. Depicting, how man cannot save himself, so the THINKING (inner parts) of the Savior-to-Come will PAY for them.
Since this Jeremiah passage is directly about writing ON us, and every Jew knows the Torah is supposed to be in and on the head, 'written' in one's thoughts, well -- do you see the double entendre of "be qirebam wallibbam' ekttabenah" in the very midst of the words of that clause? Only God is this smart.
So, King David wanted to Build A Permanent House For His Beloved Adonai, especially since He gave David the Unilateral Promise that Messiah would be born from David's loins. God even picked out the Holy of Holies -- the very site where Isaac was almost sacrificed, a huge hunk of BEDROCK which at the time David surveyed it, was a threshing floor. Atop Mt. Moriah, soon to be renamed Mt. Zion (Gen22:2, 2Chron3:1). That Rock is famously known as PETRA, in Greek, depicting the Rock of their Salvation; even as Abraham almost-sacrificed his adult son Isaac (who was 25+ years old, then) at God's command, to emulate Father's sacrificing His Only Son-to-Come. The rest of the Temple, was to be built around it.
But, David was not to build the Temple, because he was a warring king. Temples mean PEACE, see. So what must NO Temple mean? WARRING. Specifically, Daniel 9:26c +the Book of Esther. Reconciliation. Shalom. Shalom first means prosperity, which of course presumes peace. Reconciliation is its deeper meaning, Prosperity/Saved/Peace with God Himself. So Temple means Shalom, For God Is With Us. No Temple means no shalom, For God Is Against Us. Us, then meaning the Nation Israel. For the promise to David, was the promise TO a king, of a Future King from his own bloodline, One Who Would Rule Forever. Kings rule nations, see. So this Promise of a Temple is all at once a promise that All The Covenants Will Be Fulfilled In This King-To-Come, And That There Will Be A Nation Israel Which He Will Rule. Forever.
So, the job of building God's House, was given instead to his son Solomon -- his name is a variation of "Peace", actually. A Greater and more elaborate building, had not been made, apparently, for people came from all over to see it. It was the pride of Israel, their comfort, their joy, because GOD really mattered, then. Above all, the Temple symbolized God With Us -- downpayment on the Incarnation of Messiah-to-Come. "Messiah" means Anointed One, meaning KING. King-Priest, actually, Ps110:1ff. So, notice how this King-Priest is NOT Levitical (big theme in Book of Hebrews). So someday Israel was to become a Priest Nation, no longer a nation under God with only sons of Aaron, as priests. It was THE BIG PROMISE, Total Intimacy with Adonai Elohenu, Adonai, Echad. Well, so long as Israel listened to Him.
But, how do we also miss the real meaning of "Trinity"? How can we even imagine that Godness is anything but Three Independent, Co-Equal Gods? We have the same 'Torah' as the Jews. How can there even be a Jehovah's Witness or Apostolic "oneness" insistence by anyone, when the Sacrificial Law in Israel is so plainly Three Gods? Satan's blinding, that's how we don't see this blatant fact. That's how we don't see Father was the Person Who got the sacrifice, Son was the Sacrifice (depicted by the animal being blemishless), and Spirit was the One Who Empowered all that ritual, to become spiritual information (hundreds of verses on this in OT, usually ruach-YHWH as His Title). So shame on Israel, shame on us: Romans 11 isn't only about the blindness of Israel, but of those who emulate her.
So imagine how much worse the grief was on Paul (see Romans 9, makes you cry just to read it). So imagine how much totally worst it was on the Lord when He was down here, seeing the blindness in His Own Brothers, in the Pharisees -- well, Mark 3:5 says it all. Pity Satan is so jealous of the Lord's Love, he had some translator make out the "anger" there, as if it were the Lord's. [Classic example of how to tell a verse is mistranslated: the translation always maligns God, and glorifies man. Pitiful. There are at least a dozen other verses in the NT using meta+ a noun object, which prep phrase refers back to its CLOSEST antecedent noun, acting as an adjectival phrase, FOR that antecedent noun; these other verses recognize the CLOSEST rule, so are rightly translated. So how could the translators suddenly misconstrue Mark 3:5 as the LORD being angry? The nearest antecedent noun is the Jews, not Him. Oh well.] The people were angry at Him, and He felt sorry for them in response, so healed that guy's withered hand, to show what SABBATH really means: Rest in Him. Come home to SCRIPTURE, Israel, and I'll come back to you! This Come back to Me! is the most common type of verse in the OT. Read every Sabbath, blindly. Kill me now.
Solomon's Temple was destroyed in 586BC. Going into the Babylonian captivity with Nebuchanezzar were some of the Royal Family, one of whom was a very devout young man named Daniel. There were no sacrifices, because no Temple. They observed the dietary laws, which weren't spiritual, but were reminders of Him. They thought about Him all the time, as evidenced by Daniel and Ps119. So, even though the national covenant was abrogated, God prospered His People. Still, no Temple meant no nation Israel, so the covenantal promise, was in abrogated status. So the question was, WHEN would their punishment end, and fellowship on a National level, resume? Daniel, in Chapter 9, is heartsick over it. The chapter opens with a long introductory explanation of why the Temple was destroyed, via Daniel's Naming The Cause (=Ps32:5, Ps66:18, 1Jn1:9). By this we are to understand the explanation is Paradigmal Of Any Temple Destruction. All the other prophets repeated this explanation in many ways, long beforehand.
God of course not only answers Daniel's immediate petition, but gives him the entire TEMPLE History, in Dan9:25-26. Note: the Temple's History is the Nation Israel's History, because both depend on MESSIAH'S History. Text is kinda problemmatic in the Greek MSS. we have: some of the words mightn't be Scripture (scribes make mistakes, etc). So translations prefer using the Masoretic text. The closest 'canned' translation I can find is (oddly enough) in the New Living Translation (in BibleWorks 5). It goes like this (brackets, underlining and bolding are my additions):
So, the Second Temple was built. Then, just as God had foretold, and Right On Time, the Second Temple was destroyed, in August of 70AD. Even history corroborates the dates, now.
Note how in Dan9:26, the Temple is not to be rebuilt again, after Messiah is killed. So because Messiah Came And Left, NO TEMPLE. No more Mosaic Law. It Got Fulfilled By Him. So the next rebuilding is at the 2nd Advent, and not before (see Ezekiel Chaps39-end book, very detailed). Galatians 3, Romans 9, and Book of Hebrews spend a lot of time on the significance of this, while the Temple is still standing, so that the people will be reminded of the Daniel timeline and its meaning. Of course, Jeremiah started his book forecasting the eventual razing of the Temple, and how they wouldn't miss it (3:16), because the Word would be Incarnated then; in His Heart, and therefore could be in their hearts (Chap31), so the 'heart' of the Temple, became a Person. Book of Hebrews picks up on the Jeremiah meaning and threads it through the epistle.
So We Have A Gap In Time Between The Temple Destruction After Messiah Is Killed, And The 70th Week, aka the "Tribulation", in popular lingo. So Dan9:26c (the underlined (dark green) part of verse 26) Is The Stamp Of History Until And Including v.27. But! Notice how 9:26c is not a 'seven', and not time-defined. Of course, many other verses IN Scripture elaborate on the meaning, here. To say 'seven', by the way, is first to mean a Promised Time Period, because Hebrew "to seven" refers to God's Promise(s), i.e., prophecy. It's also interpreted to mean a 'week' of years, but that's an additional layer of meaning. What's most important, is the PROMISE of it. In short, the very usage of "seven" is chock-full of wordplay, as in REST day, end, finish, Promise, etc. going all the way back to when God 'RESTED' on the 7th Day, the Sabbath (meaning 7th). 'Seven' is God's shorthand and witty way to state COMPLETION: of the Christ, of the promises to Israel, of History. NT threads through this 'seven' meaning in a number of ways. For example, Book of Hebrews, written circa 68AD given Heb13:23, is structured around this 'seven' usage, to Warn Of The Temple's Upcoming Destruction, and to Warn that the Covenant Had Changed. So the readers could Escape The Destruction (Heb10:36-39).
So to a Jewish guy IN Diaspora, God sent a comprehensive Wrap Up Of History, showing how Gentile domination follows the Successful Completion of Messiah; and thus the subsequent Temple Destruction is Evidence That Messiah Finished (Dan9:25-26). No Temple Will Again Be Built (Dan9:26) Until He RETURNS (Eze39-end of book). Only wars and rumors of wars, until He Himself RETURNS (Matt24, Dan9:26). Really, it's impossible to miss!
Remember, people entertained themselves by talking; their jobs were largely physical, so the brain was relatively free to think and talk; they didn't have some radio or TV blaring in the background all the time to drown out thought. So, they played with Scripture, all the time. They did it while weaving, bathing, eating, just like Moses said they should, in Deuteronomy 6,9, etc. When you get up, while you are up, when you go to bed, teach your children, wear strips of leather to remind you to think Torah. Which was a delightful thing to do, much as your favorite music or books: Bible's words are downright witty, delicious, in the original-language texts. So everyone knew well the prophecies.
So the Lord responds in kind, v.18, translated directly from the Greek: "Thus I call you, petros=LittleRock; in fact upon This petra=BigRock [pointing to Himself], I will build my Church..." What wit, playing on Isa 61:4, and in context of that whole long prophecy! No wonder a yet-to-be-saved Paul, would weave the Isa prophecy with Matt16:18, then wrap the whole thing in a brilliant tweak of the Greek play "Ion", to write Ephesians, especially 3:21! For in its Own Time, just as Isa60:22 explained, He will hasten (word has birthing overtones) 'her'. Time. Heh.
What love! See the 'Seven' of History, the Promised One, Messiah/Petra/Rock of their salvation, "Petra" being an OT LXX keyword (See PopeMyth.htm's embedded videos, for all the Petra occurrences in Bible). Christ had surnamed Simon when He first met him, "Kephas", John 1:42. That's Aramaic for Little Rock (like the city), LittleStone, Stone. (Think of "Stone Phillips", formerly of NBC's Dateline.) Greek petros means the same thing as Kephas, a chip off the Bedrock, part of Petra. Renaming is a form of ADOPTION, and hence a form of Announcing A Change In Covenant. So here, note the switch to GREEK, the language of the Gentiles, "petros". Note also that "ekklesia" ("Church") is likewise in Greek, a clear REPLACEMENT of the Mosaic Law's "synagogue"; so a New Priesthood is being inaugurated (the later focus of Book of Hebrews). New covenant, therefore, because Groom is rejected.
So the replacement Bride Will be Built ON Christ (not Peter, lol), at this point. The woman in the Garden was built after Adam and FROM Adam. So, this new Woman will be also built FROM the Groom Who is the Last Adam. For He is The Cornerstone, the Foundation which the Master Builders (Israel) Rejected, the Stone of Stumbling, the Rock of Offense. (See Ps118:22, Matt21:42, Mk12:10, Luk20:17, Acts 4:11, 1Pet2:7; Isa8:14, Rom9:33, 1Pet2:8. See also the end of Eph2.) Thus He's telling Israel that they play Vashti, and Announces Abrogation of the Bridal contract is imminent, via parables. If you keep reading in Matthew, you'll see He's explaining all this to the Jews, so they can 1) change their minds about Christ, 2) Get in the New Covenant, and be Part of the New Esther (remembering what He said after He dies); or 3) Get Trampled Down In The Upcoming Temple Destruction, Matt24 (see also Luke 19:44 in context). Very dense confluence of all OT prophecy, here in this one verse, Matt16:18! As in all prophecy, it warns, punishes, and reassures. Awesome mastery of Scripture. Awesome Responsibility Accepted by Him: see John 17.
Most awesomely, Christ COMMITS to PAY for Untold Billions Of Future SINS of People Not Yet Born. And He does this, to Rescue Time in order to Rescue Israel despite herself. It is impossible to overstate His Commitment. He Raises the Cost of the Cross! It's Passover 29AD, when the Lord makes this Commitment. As we saw in "M" of the "Bible remains a Mystery" section (link in red box at pagetop), Satan claims God should have issued a Mistrial Verdict when Israel rejected Him; Satan should have won, right then and there. But His Commitment being so impossibly high, Satan consented. So He INVENTS Church upon Himself, so her Contract is as difficult as His. No precedent for that, except Him. And He invents and invokes Church, based on His King-Priest kata Melchizedek contract with Father, from eternity past (i.e., Psalm 110, explained in Book of Hebrews). But the COST! on the Cross, who can even imagine it? That's what He's doing here, committing to pay for billions of people IN ADVANCE. He ratifies this commitment in John 17:20-21. Takes your breath away.
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God never welshes on His Gifts and Promises, and THAT's what's really on Trial. In fact, this is how He Completes His Promise, why Rev4:1 twice notes the Door opening into Heaven: that's us Church, going UP. For at the Ascension, He split the veil/door of the Holy of Holies, and thus becomes the "Way" to God, Heb6-10. So we go through that door in our 'Ascension', Rev4:1. We got mapped in, grafted in, and then leave, because Christ is RISEN, and we are going UP to Him Who Preceded us. All this, without altering the promised trends on earth during the 'end times' as Daniel (and other prophets), explained. For prophecy is Jewish, not Church. For The Seed is Jewish, not Church. So prophecy heralds Christ (Rev19:10, multiple-entendre), not Church. We aren't heralds, we are Body.
So the "Rapture", really "exit resurrection" (exzanastasis in Phili 3:11), is Parallel to the 1) 'imminency' of the First Advent and the 2) invisibility, of the Ascension. So, add these up: you get an Extension of the First Advent (1Jn4:17) but with the characteristics of IMMINENCY and INVISIBILITY, the "sign of Jonah". Just as the Lord promised, in Mat12:49, 16:4, Luk11:29-30. Note the irony: while it is true that Israel was required to predict His Coming ever since David died, as we saw just before the "Syncopated.. Tribulation" table (link in red box at pagetop), during the time He's down here, it's up to Him How Long He Lives: "I lay down My Life" clause, John 10:15-17. So in that sense, His Life is imminently ending, can happen any second -- even though, He had a deadline for dying which Israel was also required to know, the 1000th anniversary of David's own death: that's when Time was (initially) to End, if He didn't finish successfully. So Time would end whenever He did die, if unsuccessful. See the parallel?
Next Parallel, Invisibility: as covered extensively in Part III's four Reasons for Invisibility, thought is invisible, playing before Heaven and known to you, but not to anyone else unless you choose to express what you are thinking. So in the Trial, it's all visible and predictable -- but not to people on earth. So too here: like Him, we are down here Now, and while our departure date is known to God -- no one down here is given that date.
Ergo HIS PRECEDENCE is the reason for the Imminency and Invisibility parallels to His First Advent, which we Church, represent. The Jews didn't accept Him. So it's as if the First Advent, ISN'T over. Yet, Christ did complete, so He LEFT. So if you add up the Legal Facts that a) THEY Rejected, but b) HE Accepted, you get what's still Open: the Message He gave While Still Down Here, mainly for Israel's sake (see Hebrews 3-4, which uses this legal a) & b) rhetorical structure); and, the Result Of His Ascension, the BRIDE PRICE of His Spiritual life, from which (get this wit) Father makes a Bridal Dowry prior to marrying us off to Him at the Rapture, theme of Eph1. So the Divine Benefit Plan Re-Routed Blessing, So The World Could Continue To Hear The Call To The Wedding -- to be the Bride at that Wedding! Now, Israel is to understand that it will be but friends of the Groom, once the Millennium begins. But if Jews Now believe, they will still be part of 'Bride' -- so the OT Promise is not only Still 'on', so to speak -- but is Now Upgraded. They get "better things" (keyword to explain this in Book of Hebrews, Attick kreittwn). Because the Trial, is about who's better: God, or Satan (see how Hebrews 11 explains that). The rest of the world, the ta ethne, the goyim, get to be in that Same Bride, Now. Again, owing to Israel's prior refusal. However, this Message is Now Carried through this Bride-in-Training (think of Esther, before she was presented to Ahasuerus). Quietly.
Let's focus on the First Advent Parallel to Jonah. The Lord invokes this as Precedent for His Own First Advent, Matt16:4, just before creating Church in Matt16:18. After God used some big marine animal as a taxicab, Jonah ran around Ninevah hollering that their destruction was IMMINENT, so they better believe in Adonai for their salvation. All they had to go on was his telling them, so it was an INVISIBLE warning. So, Jonah was in his first advent in Ninevah: he had such success, he ended up staying there the rest of his life, and is buried there. That whole generation turned around, due to his Warning. So, Their History Was Prolonged. Sadly, 120 years later, the fourth generation's continued apostacy resulted in Assyria's complete destruction as a nation (612BC). [Assyrians are still alive as a people (i.e., about half a million reside in Chicago), even as Hittites are still alive as a people (I don't know that number). But only as leftovers. Few in number, blessed to keep living because some in their history, grew up spiritually.]
Christ's First Advent thus functions like the ministry of Jonah. First, His Birth was fulfillment of Isa7, an Ending Of Time Prophecy. Messiah was supposed to come at the End of Time, To Complete the Time, to usher IN the Millennium. So it's appropriate, that the time of His Stay on earth be a Warning, like Jonah's was. Imminent ending, Beware Of Not Believing in Me, (i.e., John 16:9)! It's also imminent, since for the first 30 years everyone knew He was born, but didn't know when the Groom would show UP. It's also "imminent", in the sense that the duration of His Time on earth was deadlined, but not predicted. Not predicted, because it was Up To Christ To Grow Up In His Own Destiny As King-Priest And Finish The Cross. How long that would take, no one knew. After He died, you realized He Fulfilled the Deadline: oh, He died on the 1000th anniversary of David's retirement from Kingship; so yes, THIS ONE is Messiah. Can't be anyone else at any other time in history: the dates alone, never fit. Couldn't be bar Kochba, couldn't be any of the other pretenders before or after Christ. So either Jesus the Christ is the Messiah, or there will never BE one. See how Precise God is? See how easy it is to know Who Messiah is, at ANY time in history? So see how easy it is to validate Who He is, even Now?
Christ's Ministry was also invisible: most of His Life, He was isolated; His Death on the Cross, was in supernatural darkness; His Payment on the Cross, no one saw; whenever He'd perform a miracle, He later sushed the person He gave it to, or deprecated it as inferior (i.e., John 6:13-41, 59-61); of course, He didn't show off His Godness, either. [Matt 8:4, John 1:50, Jn7:19-25; Matt7:22-24, 11:21 compared to 11:29, 13:58; Mark 6:2-9, 6:59, are other good samples.] All this, to prevent manipulation. Satan absolutely couldn't "get it" that God wouldn't do the flashy thing, Matt4. We humans don't get it, either. But look: If We Don't See What God Does Show -- like obvious weather, the Dome and the Wailing Wall, His Orchestration of TIME which you can conclusively prove from that best and most flashy of all miracles, BIBLE -- what point is there in showing lesser flash? The Bigger Miracles Are In Front Of Anyone's Eyes, but we don't like those Far More Valid, Miracles. So might as well be invisible, then: an evil generation clamors for a sign, Matt16, 1Jn4:17. Every generation.
"Visible" to us really means titillating. what entertains us. The greatest miracle of all is to get God's Own Thinking into our measly heads -- but oh, no one cares about That Miracle. Biggest promise in the OT, fulfilled in Christ and now in writing in the NT -- which sits in every hotel room, abysmally translated or not -- unread. Ho Hum. So What can God Do to Top The Biggest Miracle? Be silent, that's it.
So we Church likewise get a 'first advent' of no predicted length, because we are the Extension of Him Who Left (1Jn4:12-17). This, because Israel rejected His First Advent; so our 'job' is like Jonah's, and the 'prophecy' applying to us is only Dan9:26c (underlined, dark green clause above); we are in THAT SLOT of time. We aren't in the 70th week, but in the Gap Between Messiah's Cut Off And The 70th Week. Thus ADVERTISING that Messiah has Left the Building. Messiah, not Elvis. Messiah has left the BUILDING, so there's no Temple. Messiah has LEFT, so is not yet-to-come. Messiah HAS left, so not still on earth. So there are NO other 'messiahs' to look for ON earth, since WE are on earth, Representing Him.
So our Job is to Explain all this Change. Which, sadly 99% of Christians don't even know; most Christians are as stupid as the Jerusalem church was, busily trying to adapt the LAW post-crucifixion. Yeah, and that's why God made Paul the writer of most of the NT, using the others only for Gospels or to round off what Paul didn't write. So the 1% who do know, are used to explain to the (probably 1%) of Jews who want to know that answer. So what changed, and why? Book of Hebrews (how apt), answers. We come into being only due to Israel's rejection. Further, it answers what is the Objective Of Our Lives: To Reach The Rest Israel Rejected (Heb4), Resting In The Promised One, Whose Thinking is in Writing, Christ (denoted as Word, to show continuity to OT and fulfillment of its Promise). Because He Is Now Seated, Behind The Veil, And Thus a New Priesthood And A New Covenant, And Their "New Covenant" (Jeremiah) Will Be IMPLEMENTED Via Us. Writer of Hebrews very carefully explains all this. Can't miss it, especially since he's explaining it while the Temple is Yet Standing, but everyone knows it will soon be Destroyed, precisely because Messias Has Finished His Task And "Cut" A New Covenant. So he writes In Haste, for they are to have Another Going-out: Heb10:36-39. They had their first going-out, from Egypt; all other going-outs, were Diaspora. For, the only place for the Temple, was in the Land. No Temple means Diaspora, since No Nation if No Temple. Again, you can't divorce God and keep the property. However, you can 'marry' the Lord by believing in Christ (John 3:16), which makes you in Church, which after all is pro-Israel -- a Promotion. Even Moses longed to see our day (Matt13:17? my pastor quotes it often).
So again, we are invisible, too. Christ didn't promote Himself, ever. The "Great Commission" did not include trickery or Madison Avenue techniques. Does no one remember Christ telling the disciples to take nothing with them? Did no one remember His Conversation with the Samaritan woman? He didn't give any dog-and-pony shows. God led the hearers TO Him, not the other way around. So we are invisible, and aren't to advertise ourselves. Thus the hearer knows God Is Advertising, not us -- the Superior Witness, not us. So, the First Advent Matt22 Wedding Invitation is Being Extended through us, 2Cor5:20. Ambassadors are never flashy (the worst thing an ambassador can do, is call attention to himself).
Book of Hebrews was written in 68AD, to warn everyone that the Temple was about to be destroyed (Paul had just died, and Titus had just stepped up the siege of Jerusalem). It painstakingly explains the TWO Kingships of Christ, and how Church derives from the eternity-past contract between Father and Son, the Battlefield Kingship Patent Award for defeating Satan in the Trial, recorded in the OT for example, in Ps110. So Book of Hebrews walks the reader through how Israel, the first intended Bride for that contract, abrogated it; so Church is inserted. Two Kingships, Two Covenants, Two Priesthoods. And the legal precedenting link used, is the "new covenant" promise to Israel, which was supposed to result from her fulfilling the Bride contract (aka the Mosaic Law). See Hebrews 7:12-28, 8:7, 8:8-12, 9:14-15, 10:1-8, 9-14, 10:15-17, 18-39.
His Kingship as Son of David, is separate from all this and unconditional, housed in David, not Israel. That's why David's 1000-year time grants were the END OF TIME -- for to make good on the contract for David's (and hence Israel's) sake, Messiah would have to be born and die within those bracketing deadlines (4BC, 30AD, and 37AD). Which He did: so He redeemed time, but Israel rejected Him, so Israel doesn't get the benefit of His Victory. Unless, she "today" believes in Him, theme of Hebrews Chapters 3 and 4 (i.e., do not harden your hearts, while it is yet today clause).
So, our parallel representation (Gk:diakonia, one of its meanings) has the Same Essential Characteristics as His First Advent, prophetically speaking, to act as an Ongoing Warning Of The End; to explain that there are Two Advents, not One, so that Jews can see God really DOES keep His Promises. Again: Isa7 prophecy of the Virgin Birth was a Warning Prophecy of the End Times: beginning with, Messiah Himself. Why else do you think Daniel's timeline ends with the tandem Messiah cut off AND the destruction of the Temple (Dan9:25ff)? Just after which, follows a description of the 70th 'week', CUT OFF from the rest of the text? Wars and rumors of wars. Imminent, from the day of the Temple's Destruction, onward. Can't miss it, given all the huge volume of prophecy on the topic in OT.
Ask almost any Jew, and you'll find he believes in Messias, alright, but coming once, not twice. (No excuse for that, but it's the normal Judaic belief.) They don't buy Isa7 as a virgin birth (and go through all manner of convoluted refutation); they don't buy that their diaspora is due to Messiah having been rejected (so can't interpret Daniel properly); they don't buy that Messiah Had To Come To Pay For Sin First (so can't read Isaiah at all, esp. Chaps 53-55, nor any of Leviticus, nor Deuteronomy, nor even Gen15:6). What they call the "Law" today, isn't even the dikaiomata, the spiritual code -- but instead, secular stuff like the dietary laws (which they consider now 'holy', and have morphed them into innumerable additions). Torah study is reduced to rote chanting, kissing the scroll... Aposiopesis, like Paul's, in Rom9:22.
So, there's this gigantic blindness problem, as bad as Pharaoh's (Rom9). Of course, unbelievers who are not Jewish, have the same problem. Of course, most Christians screw up the interpretation, too! LOL, we are all in this blindness problem, together!
so Rapture Occurs Unpredictably due to Church Voting. |
His First Advent's Termination was alike Imminent, Date-Unpredictable, pending Israel's Vote. So Our Exit Is Alike Unpredictable -- and for the same reason, pending Our Votes. And as in the case of Christ, until we EXIT, the Jews have a chance to catch onto the fact that there are Two Advents, not merely one; to catch onto the nature of the Daniel 9:26c time-gap, and thus BE in Church. After we Leave, it's the Tribulation, time's up! This is a deliberate Mirroring Reversal of the role Israel should have played. It was supposed to be Israel who warned the Gentiles. But instead she played Vashti, so God creates an Esther to warn the Gentiles, and Rescue the Jews. God is never unfaithful.
This is a major sea change, for Israel was always required to predict the Time of Messiah. Passover, for example, was an exact chronology of Passion Week. But you didn't know in what year it would happen, but rather only the deadline, until He announced Matt16:18 near Passover 29AD, giving everyone a year's warning notice. You also didn't know if Israel would Vote For or Against Him, as a whole. You only knew from Isaiah, that the leaders would be responsible for His Death (Isa53:2-8, esp. v.8's me otser umi mishpat luqqah clause on the kangaroo trials). Now, Daniel 9:26c is "on", so everything is UNpredictable. Notice the ironic parallel: you only needed three pieces of information to predict His Birthdate, which Every Jew Knew: the Haggai 2 month and day, 25 Chislev; the 1000th anniversary of David's death, 37AD (year 4143 from Adam's fall is how they dated it); and the 1000th anniversary of the year David became king over all Israel, which was late 4BC (year 4103 from Adam's Fall). For Messiah would have an allotted lifespan equal to the number of years David ruled, in order to meet all the 1000th anniversary deadlines so to again RENEW Time, on time. Would take you three seconds to compute His Birthdate. As we saw in the Legatee table (link in red box at pagetop), you had at least a dozen other ways you could calculate that date, and you'd get the same answer, even if you screwed up the math. Atop that math proof were a bizillion other confirmations of Messiah, like being born of a virgin, where born, events in His Life, the chronology of His Passion week exactly matching Passover's timing, etc etc etc. So the only way you could MISS knowing, was if you were negative to the Word; we Christians are negative to His Word, and that's the only reason why we don't know when He was born, when He died, etc. Bible spells it all out, plainly. But we are sloppy in reading it. For centuries. So too were and are, the Jews. Ta'anach: Bible is sandy soil to them, so no understanding grows from it.
Conclusive Rapture Precedence: In God's Time-Accounting System for the human race, all time is based on Messiah, Who is from the midst, the loins, of Jacob, and hence is from Israel (another name for Jacob). This time is granted in 490-year segments ever since Adam (the first grantee). A 490 is granted, but it can be lost before it finishes, as Mirroring.htm explains. To be granted, someone during the previous 490 had to be 'completed' in spiritual achievement. David thus received three 490-year time grants, as well as three 1000-year grants, all based on dates in his life. The Temple was a promise to David, not Israel, 2Sam7. Israel thus shares through David. So the first Temple's existence was truncated due to apostacy; but due to David's spiritual growth, God could reinstate credit for Time to the Temple; that's what He does, in Daniel 9. His Proviso is that Israel Rebuild the Temple and Jerusalem On Time. Which, it did.
But due to 2Sam7, only Messiah SON Of David, Can Redeem Time. So, He literally came at the End of Time, Dan9:25-26, which is based on the Davidic deadlines. Note that carefully: there is No Time Left, when He comes. If He doesn't make it, then everything ends. So you could know the Birthdate and end-date based on the ending of Time itself. But that still didn't tell you if He would Succeed, and when. So it was imminent, when He'd FINISH. That is our Precedence, and that is why you can't predict the Rapture. For we are still AT the End Of Time, Daniel 9:26c. |
So, He's Our Precedence, Our Archegos, main theme of Hebrews: hence our 'birthdate' was also predicted, from Matt16:18, forward, and Peter even announced it in Acts 2. Remember the shepards and Herod's massacre of babies, and the other Visible Manifestations of Christ's Brith? So too, ours. Birthdate -- but NOT, the End-Date. You'll only know that, WHEN IT HAPPENS. Daniel 9 didn't reveal the ending-date of Messias, but only the Deadline. And why? Because it was a Contract, Depending on what He Chose to Do. He had the free will to do differently, and the God-man nature meant He could do anything He wanted.
Same deal for Church: Our contract is a NUMBER OF BODIES, not a set amount of time. Part IVb has more verses on this Body provision, and NT lists many more (very strident theme); but the actual testamentary contract clause, is in John 17:20-21. Look at the parallel to His God-Man Nature, and how all creation depended on how He'd use it: we get the Holy Spirit's Power without measure; when we don't use it, worldwide disaster ensues. God forbid that the Body should be more important than Her Husband! So anyone into date-setting the Rapture blasphemes Him. Especially, in light of His bald statements in Matt24 and Acts 1, Don't seek the date.
Of course, back during His First Advent, the world did not see His First Arrival for what it was, since only the GROUP for whom Messiah came, were the audience. Hence, they, but not we, needed the prophecies to discern the Real Messiah. The Parallel: they but NOT we still get the same prophecies. We don't need prophecies, Because We ARE The Prophecies Being Fulfilled By God For Them. That is another reason why Israel's historical trends stamp Church. So, as during His First Advent, Our Leaving Is Imminent, Date-Unpredictable, to -- again -- Clue Them In on HE'S The Messiah.
We are Being Fulfilled, because we represent Christ Who Makes all History, He Who Is the Subject and Object of All Prophecy (Heb 1:2, Acts 17:28, Rev19:10). And, because He contracturally created us to be an Esther, Matt16:18. So we are here to save Israel, not replace her; the "new covenant" prophecy will get fulfilled to her THROUGH us (main theme of Hebrews 8:8-10:17). Christ created us as Esther in Matt16:18, by Contract with Father, John 17:20-21. So we are future from that date. Being realized, Now. Book of Esther is the promise of deliverance of the Jews, and it takes place during the time Jerusalem still needs rebuilding. It will be due to Esther that Jerusalem will be rebuilt, a generation later. So do you understand Matt16:18-Matt24, now? The Lord is referring to Esther being found and thus the Jews being in Diaspora, being delivered. Warned, before they even GO into Diaspora; so that's a prophecy, echoed all over the OT. Because, they WILL reject Him, and He's Warning them of their attitudes. So this is as blatant a statement as can be made on how the Gentiles will be used to save the Jews. Hopefully the imminency analogy is obvious from Matt25's lamp oil parable.
Like all prophecy and Bible verses, Book of Esther is multilayered in meaning. So sad that people interpret the Book of Esther so narrowly. It's The Key To How The Jews Get Saved By The Gentiles, Using Actual History The Jews Celebrate Every Purim. We are thus "Esther", Fulfilled for them. Couldn't be plainer. [If you are under my pastor's son, know that I've not heard how he has recently covered the Book of Esther.] Look at the obvious parallels: Joining Of Jew And Gentile (Esther and the goy who's the King). That was Israel's job, see. They weren't doing that job, so the story is set in the Diaspora (post-586BC). Notice how it's still open for them to do that job. Notice also how God has to cause both that job, and the protection of the people, Himself. ("Esther" is Persian for "myrtle", an astonishingly-versatile plant which can become a whole tree! in Israel.) So Israel gets Grafted In Via Marriage To The Gentile (Esther being symbolic), during the Diaspora. Which Diaspora, is of course going on Now, so -- see? Long before there was a Church, God left a book behind so Jews could understand that He provided them a solution. Pity that so many people for centuries were so stupid about this Book's import, many argued that the Book of Esther shouldn't even be in the Bible! LOL.
God Is Omniscient, so one of the Biggest Miracles, the BIBLE, will evidence His Authorship by being structured like Omniscience, layer upon layer of Perfect Fit. So, another layer of meaning to Esther, is a veiled warning not to play Vashti (Zech7), or He will spit them out of His mouth: repeated to Church by the way, in Rev3 on Laodicea. So We are Bride, also for the purpose of delivering Israel. All the rest of history hinges on our completion, as Hebrews repeatedly warns. So we are caused to become the Fulfillment Of The Delivery Of All Covenants, because Son is to have a Bride before He fulfills anything. That's why Revelation 4 commences with the opening of a title-deed-to-earth ceremony after we are raptured up. Church Makes History, Not Prophecies; Church Is History, Not Prophecies, Because Church Is Being Used To Fulfill Prophecies, Not Get Them. Much more on this topic will be covered in LvS4b and LvS4c.htm.
Happily, there is a rather large group of Jews today who also believe in Christ (Yeshua HaMashiach); some of them don't yet buy the NT, some buy only the NT Gospels, as Canon. Some, buy the whole NT. You won't hear much about these people, but they are there. Low-key, most of them. Put down by their fellow Jews, most of them (very big effort in modern Jewry to stop these Jewish believers in Christ from proving from Scripture He's Messiah, going on now). So never let it be said that God doesn't know how to Graft In His Chosen People!
Warning: dingdongs who think Church replaces Israel prove they don't know their Bible, at all. Worse, they malign God by claiming they replace Israel. Like the Arabs who all pretend to want Israel to be an independent state -- never mind, that the first Article of the PLO Charter is "Israel has no right to exist", an article PLO has never rescinded -- these people who claim to replace Israel are completely anti-God. Avoid them like the plague they are. [Hosni Mubarek recently (2005) did an interview with Charlie Rose. I can't believe Rose fell for it when he asked if the Arab world was ready to accept Israel as an independent state. Mubarek cagily replied that at the recent summit (in 2004, March, I believe) Saudi Arabia had stated categorically that Israel should be a state. What disingenuousness. As I recall, Saudi Arabia's proposal had something like 20 conditions which had to be satisfied for that recognition, all of them totally unacceptable -- including, the full use of "shub" -- that the Palestinians could return (get back for free) their alleged pre-1948 land. The proposal was in the newspapers at the time of the summit to unveil the proposal (they're keen on that kind of advertising). When you read it you will really know how disingenuous is any Arab proposal. Read From Time Immemorial by Joan Peters, check out the facts for yourself. President Bush is no fool. He conditioned the existence of the Palestinian state on the revocation of Article One of the PLO Charter (I heard him say that in a news conference on CSPAN, when he first surprised everyone by offering to help broker an independent Palestinian state. No one ever said anything about what Article One meant -- sigh.) I learned of the PLO Charter back 30 years ago, when doing a "Model UN" thing in high school (playing Saudi Arabia, ironically). So this isn't classified information. See? We don't care about Bible, so we don't care who's really right in this Arab-Israeli conflict, either. We'll be sweet-talked over to the Arab side, because We Don't Do Our Homework! The day that happens, the US will cease to be a nation. God help us!]
Now, Since Messiah Has Come And Gone, They Can Tell. The Daniel timeline is Now operating post-"Messiah..cut off", in a bubble: a prophetical parenthesis of no prophetical content, itself. The big bang ending, was the Destruction Of The Temple. So the next prophecy to occur, is the Tribulation. Thus they know it's TIME to become part of Church by believing in Christ, John 3:16, Hebrews Chaps 3-4; since there's NO Messiah during the 'dead spot' between Daniel 9:26c, and Dan9:27. See, it's hard for Israel to accept that Messiah would be Christ. So they need Scripture, not goyim pushing them, to show it's GOD who says He is the Christ. They won't listen to us, for all goyim are inferior. Yes, it's a prejudice; all humans have prejudices, and this one against the goyim, is ingrained within Israel. When it comes to FAITH, Israel is queen and everyone else is a peasant. That was true: but when Israel played Vashti, she became the peasant and another Queen was found. That's the message, and it's rather hard to accept. Paul explains all this in Romans 11.
In the "now Israel's Days were Numbered" section of the Legatee Table (link in red box at pagetop), you'll find bullets listing the various ways you can calculate Daniel 9 and determine Messiah's birth and death dates. So also, in the "David" and "To Be or Not to Be" table links of Mirroring.htm. Point is, without any outside human interference, any Jew can prove mathematically that Christ is the Only Possible Messiah. If not Him, there is no one else at any time in history or the future, based on dates, alone. Prophecy can be interpreted variantly. But math cannot. It either balances or does not, and whether you like it or not. So whether pre-Cross or post-Cross, you can tell Who Messiah is, all from Bible. God gives you the entire timeline of history from Adam forward (which Judaism mangles in its calendar). So IF YOU USE BIBLE you know exactly what time it is.
So We Too Are Made The Cause Of Time: History Has Elongated Beyond Its Originally-Planned Boundaries. So we are still in one of, not both of, the "times", of the Gentiles (Luke 21:24); for the other "time", is the Tribulation itself. Just as Assyria 'lived' longer due to hearing Jonah, so the world lives longer, due to us listening to the Word so we can train for our Lord's Father, as king-priests under Him. For, that is How He Vested as King-Priest: see Heb5.
Israel thus should have caught on immediately when Titus invested Jerusalem; even, if they didn't listen to the Lord's Own Warnings about it (Matt24, Mk13), due to Daniel's forecasting of Temple destruction following the cutting-off of Messiah. But they didn't. So it was 'invisible' to them, because they were so willfully blind, not because there was no proof. After 70AD, no Jew could misconstrue the identity of Messiah, period. So it has to be rejection, not mere ignorance. Daniel is too plain. They don't even read the Two Stone Witnesses staring them in the face every day. So they won't hear us, either. Word is better proof, anyway. And it's always available.
World's Weal Depended on the Jews since Messiah was Coming. World's Weal Now depends on Church since He's Left, Risen, and is Coming BACK. |
Just as the Well-Being of the World depended on the Jews because He was Coming, Now that He's Left and is Coming BACK, the well-being of the world depends on Church. Once that Coming occurs, Disaster! The Jews understood that when Messiah would come, the world would end. With that ending was disaster, war, tribulation. It's still true -- but Now in a different way. The world was turned upside down that first century, due to the Coming-Back nature of the Rapture, since it still meant the end of the world would occur. It still does. So the Jews and the world have yet another Parallel Advertisement as to Who is the Real God.
God has always and only blessed or cursed the world, owing to believers in it. If you've seen Mirroring.htm ("Timeline" link at pagetop) and its tandem worksheet GeneYrs.xls and TenWaysThisTimelineDiffers.doc, you understand how that rule has been demonstrated in Bible since Adam. The blessing rule gradually narrowed as time passed, to David. The world only continued post-963 BC, because God made a promise to David to give Him a Ruling Son forever, the downpayment of which was the Temple, which depicted Him. That's why in Daniel 9, the Temple is destroyed when Messiah leaves: to signify that He left. But in the wake of Temple destruction, comes world destruction. That's why Daniel 9:26c reads as it does, and that's why world history has been exactly in that Dan9:26c pattern, ever since. The Jews vaguely understand all this, even today. What they refuse to accept, is that the verse Applies To Jesus Christ. It's impossible for the verse to mathematically apply to anyone else. So, since they won't listen, one more Advertising Thing God can Do, is demonstrate the Blessing-of-the-World-Role the Jews once had, but via Church. As my pastor likes to say, "as goes the believer, so goes the client nation to God, so goes history." And frankly, you can prove that true in history, as GeneYrs.xls tries to demonstrate, post-Cross (see also MirrorNOW.htm).
In TenWaysThisTimelineDiffers.doc, its item #9 demonstrates how Israel was mathematically taught the Jubilee depended on the observance of the sabbatical years. The latter were used as a kind of 'time tax' to 'buy' the 50-year voting periods for the Gentiles every 1000 years. The math is exquisite. Many verses in the OT also testify to this function of Israel being the source of blessing for the world, and even today every Jew knows it. But that fact has gotten Israel in a lot of trouble over the centuries, so over time its truth became a hidden thing. Jews know about it, and in fact are both puzzled and proud of it -- never saying much about it to the goyim, of course. So if they can see the pattern of God blessing the world through those goyim who believe in His Son Who is the Messiah, then they have a nice advertisement as to Who Messiah is. So too, the rest of the world. This advertisement hasn't exactly gone unnoticed. Millions of words have been spent by Gibbon and others on how the rise and fall of Christianity has been the blessing or cursing to the world. And it's like clockwork: anywhere in the world you find a trend of increasing interest in the Christian Bible, at any time in history post-Cross, you find a trend of rising material prosperity. Conversely, anywhere in the world you find a trend of declining interest in that same Bible (i.e., Dark Ages, when the RCC reigned supreme), you find diaster, adversity, sickness, etc. Doesn't matter what country, region, people. Does matter that it's Bible. Again, GeneYrs.xls seeks to trace this phenomenon, which seems to run in 200-year cycles. But you can see it all very quickly, in Lev26 and Deut28, which is God's 'contract' on the topic. He applied it to Israel: you can prove historically He applies it to Church. Thus you can know WHO Messiah is.
Christ's Time On Earth Depended On His Volition. The Quality of Life on Earth and indeed the universe itself, likewise depended on His Volition, since He holds it all together -- even when He was here (a point my pastor never tired of stressing, invoking Hebrews 1:3 when he reminded us). Same is true for us. We Are Here. The wellbeing of the world depends on our spiritual growth, not prophecy. So either read the Book or be unpleasantly surprised, Heb10:35-39, 11:39-40!
Since we don't know how each the other is growing spiritually, there's an imminency to our situation, as well. Same structure, as for Him. And now, the NT being completed, there is a God-written set of books which TESTIFIES to our being the extension of Him in the world. So in a way, we are prophesied, kinda like He was. There's this book, the NT: it essentially and continually says, the Fulfillment of the Prophecy of Bride, is "On" Right Now, euthus! So Straight Away! Immediately! Tachú! Now! Without Delay! Believe IN Him! For, who knows how long "Now" will last -- parable of the 10 virgins, not knowing when the Bridegroom will arrive.
Meanwhile if we are growing, what an effect! See the paradigm of the meaning of Church's role in Rescuing Israel. Paul's 'fall' (going to Jerusalem) well illustrates the whole story. Her son of sons, Paul (Phil3:8 in context) is rejected, beaten nearly to death at the external altar, circa 58AD -- but oh, a Gentile (Roman) delivers the Jew who was supposed to be Christian, but instead rejected his Royal Priesthood to return to a Nazirite vow! So, Gentile delivers the wayward forgot-he-was-sewn-up Jew. [Isa53:5, Heb verb raphah, really means to Heal By Surgery, hence you are sewn up, and as a result, you heal. Cool word. Paul seems to be playing on it by his use of sugkleiw in Rom11:32.] Heh. So, now because this same guy is executed by a Gentile (Nero), the Jews are delivered over TO the Gentiles, but also delivered BY the Gentiles (90,000 went into captivity), just like (Precedence!) it was back in Jeremiah's day. See? You don't need a date for the Rapture, you need a reason why. Here it is: we gotta complete so we can rescue Israel, hence We Determine History, Not Prophecies. What happened to Paul there in Acts 22, changed the history of the world forever. Which role do you think more befits a Wife-in-Training under the Limitless Power of the Holy Spirit? Didn't Christ Change History forever?
But if we are retrogressing, what an effect! My pastor stressed that "all hell breaks loose when a Pleroma believer dies." Well, we know just how much "hell" is. Book of Hebrews flatly says that if believers don't grow up, the Temple will be destroyed. Now watch the dates, so you can see how Paul's merely being alive preserved the nation. For, the Jerusalem siege went into its final phase just after Paul was executed by Nero. For, we know from Josephus that the siege had two basic phases, because Titus really didn't want to overrun it. He wanted a negotiated settlement. If I remember rightly, historians place the first phase of the seige beginning in 64 or 66AD. Paul was in his final imprisonment, sometime near then. Paul was executed sometime in 68AD, which is approximately when the final siege began, because Titus' adopted father, Vespasian, became emperor in 69, Nero having died a few months after Paul. Thus Titus couldn't wait for a settlement, and wanted a triumph to take to his father. That was the "Year of the Four Emperors". We know Jerusalem finally fell in August, 70AD. Right on time, and Paul's being executed as well -- and all in Jerusalem who were negative to Paul, likely were negative to leaving despite the siege, too.
We are Evidence of Him. We are pointed out by God. We don't promote Him, ourselves. Again, copy Christ. He wasn't flashy. So you also, are not to be flashy. So: if you are growing in God's System, be certain that both the Holy Spirit and Satan&Co. are busy advertising you to your periphery. So your focus must be dioko (Phili3:14, again), not me-promoto. If anything, you need to be low key. Don't wear Christ on your sleeve, thinking that oh, you don't honor Him if you don't talk about Him to everyone all day. Kings don't do that. Less talk, less action. More thinking, more restraint. Keep regarding everything in your life as Training from the Holy Spirit. [Hence the need to be in God's System, to "rightly divide the Word of Truth." See the "God's System" link at pagetop for a brief on what "God's System" is.] So keep looking at His Thinking, at what HE is saying via That Thinking, to rule your own life. That's how people can see Christ is REST, not arrest (John 7:19ff).
So, here's the final Advertising Parallel of Church to Christ's First-Advent Ministry: the world won't see our 'Ascension' (1Thess4), either. Rapture is not necessarily visible to the world. For example, our much-vaunted Disappearance depends on how many Christians actually exist at the time of the Rapture (which no one thinks about); but in any event they will not see us going up in the air, any more than the world saw the Ascension. The Tribulation is plenty full of warnings, so there is no need to have havoc due to disappearing bodies. That we straitjacket Scriptural interpretation with this idea, betrays how we want titillation, not God. Why we are leaving behind, common sense!
Think: God could take each person at some precise moment over the same day, such that no one got hurt. Everyone has to pee at some time, for example. Pretty safe, there. Or, you're sleeping in bed. World is divided into time zones. Or, you've just stopped for a second to get a cup of coffee, and zap! Get the point? It might not be disruptive, at all. The Rapture means that people from DIFFERENT locations assemble at ONE location; implicit in that idea is that not all folks arrive at the same moment. Maybe they do -- but what if they don't? All in a twinkling of an eye doesn't mean all at the same moment, maybe. Then again, maybe it does. In which case, it still could be that one moment when all the Christians aren't driving, doing hazardous work, etc. God would know. God works in us to will and to do, so we might all know not to go doing something problemmatic, maybe a split second before we disappear.
More importantly: who knows how many have really believed in Christ, since no one in public Christian TV can even state the Gospel correctly? Bet that most 'Christians' are not saved! The True Gospel is Believe Only In Christ Only, John 3:16, Acts 16:31, similar passages. If you add other verbs, you are not saved, Eph4:8-9. Look: if you believe you needed to both believe in Christ and get baptised, then it's not ONLY Christ you believe in, so you do not believe HE is enough. That blasphemes Him. If you believe that you need to feel sorry for your sins and believe in Christ to be saved, then you do not believe that Christ is enough, you instead believe in something YOU do as MAKING it enough -- same blasphemy as believing in baptism. If you believe that you can lose your salvation by some sin you commit, you likewise believe that Christ is not enough -- here, a negative thing you do is allegedly so powerful, it can undo His Perfect Work on the Cross. How utterly blasphemous are most 'Christians', then. RCC blasphemy, Odox blasphemy, the many denominations who claim you must be baptised or repent of your sins -- these are 99% of so-called "Christians"! How many of these people are actually saved? These are "Lord, Lord" people. They will not go to heaven, unless at some point in their lives they jettison all that crap and simply believe in Christ. They will likely not jettison those other acts they do or try to avoid, because those acts make them feel holy. Satanic, all of them. Yet you can count on God to use all that exposure to the fact Christ paid for their sins and they do believe He did, to at some moment isolate that recognition, to get rid of the crappy other stuff, such that Believe Only in Christ Only, occurs. So they likely end up being saved. The meanwhile, Satan uses them to sell a 'gospel' which saves no one.
Fake gospels have predominated for centuries, and got their impetus from the 'Church Fathers'. Just read their writings (with Pepto-Bismol nearby), to see that. So who knows how many among them were even saved? During the Reformation there was a brief respite, for one thing Luther and Calvin seemed to understand, was Believe Only in Christ Only; for about a century or two afterwards, it became relatively common for people to know Gospel is John 3:16, not some other verb. Then, there was another dip in awareness, as the reformers apostatized into state churches. But during the Civil War in the US, an awakening to the Real Gospel began again to be widespread. But since 1930 or so, yikes! The most blasphemous false gospels have surfaced, especially in the US! For several generations in the US, therefore, the so-called "independents" have screwed up the Gospel -- joining the "denominations", who have long screwed up the Gospel -- so are they saved?
Watch Christian TV yourself, try to find even one evangelist or speaker who states that John 3:16 fact, Faith Alone In Christ Alone -- the Calvinists didn't invent that, it's the Bible, stupid. That "Lord, Lord" verse in Matt7 looks like it encompasses a bigger group of folks, everyday. Have you ever thought about it? Why would people be calling Him Lord, if they never believed? Well, look at the fake gospels pandered today, their substitute verbs, saving no one who 'does' those verbs (capitalized here): Make Christ Lord? Believe AND repent? Believe AND be baptised? And the all-time favorite, accept/invite Christ into your heart or life? My pastor has a field day with that last one, constantly reminding everyone of Jeremiah's "the heart is deceitful and desperately wicked -- who can know it", saying "so you are inviting Christ into a garbage dump!" And then for "life", he likes to quip -- "oh, since we are spiritually dead -- you are inviting Christ into a tomb!" Sheesh. People will believe anything but the truth. No wonder the Cross was a Joy to Him.
Where are any of those fake gospel lies, in Bible? Nowhere. (Left blue boxes on Home Page deal with that question, showing the misused-verses' origin of the fake gospels.) No faith-plus Gospel: so no one gets saved that way. So, then: how many who claim themselves 'Christian', ever really believed in Christ? It's the scariest of thoughts, and every Sunday for 50 years, my pastor has always stressed that Believe-only is the Real Gospel -- so if he's scared, I am too. I used to be irritated that he'd repeat the warning so much. Not any more! So if you're not sure if you've ever Believed Only In Christ Only, for heaven's sake, Do It Now!
So notice the parallel to His Ascension: when He rose, only believers saw Him. Well, the Rapture is the exit of all believers, so there is no one to watch. The media idea of public havoc is likely false, therefore. And since Satan&Co. have control of all things public -- we poor saps of course don't know they manipulate us, lol -- this promoted-havoc idea is likely untrue; rather, Rapture is likely to be a quiet thing. Whatever is popular, assume the opposite is the truth, and you'll save a lot of time. Clever, to promote it as a public-havoc idea: so if the Rapture is quiet, folks won't realize it happened, even if large numbers of folks suddenly 'disappear'. You can just paint the scenario: individuals seeking missing family members go to the police. Then nothing happens, as there are a bizillion other reasons why people go missing, the "Rapture" being the most goofy idea of all, not worth believing.
So if quiet, that explains why the Two Witnesses next appear in Jerusalem in Rev11; in part to explain that the Rapture occurred, and to keep everyone away from the Fake Temple which by then will exist. Thus the Jews will be warned to flee from Israel.
Ok, so let's look at Book of Hebrews, to see if it recognizes the Daniel timeline:
No pastor can make an interpretation, without basing it on how he thinks those words are Biblically-defined. Same, for any lawyer making arguments in a civil trial ('bible' is the applicable civil law): competence in definition is the heart of all law. Competences in spotting definitional changes are the heart of all commercial lawsuits. Since Bible is the commerce of Life, our very Thoughts, it's way more important to spend time on Bible's definitions!
So, to see the parenthesis, you look for a Change In Vocabulary. It's not hard to spot.
So the actual Revelation we really have in writing from the Real Holy Spirit, shows that every generation of Church will experience paradigmally, Rev6, 11, 12, 13 and 17 as trends, so we can't predict the Rapture, either. As summarized earlier in the "Patmos" section of LvS4a.htm, Revelation is a Greek drama; so Real History 'plays' in specific formats which divide the times for you. So you knew to interpret Revelation trends for Church by the tableaus and paused explanations, as distinct from the blowing of the trumpets, or the pouring-out of the vials. Additionally, Revelation marks out the time boundaries using a clever time-barrier idiom, "meta tauta" (usu. fuzzily translated, "after these things"). You can find the idiom all over the LXX; so it's not hard to prove that the phrase divides the "times" for you. So you know what are flash-forwards versus flashbacks. This, because in Greek drama you have all these prologues which tell you the themes, followed by the actual events. I tracked the use of "meta tauta" throughout the Book of Revelation in RevPlay.htm. So you might want to read that. Page is very succinct, so you'll need Revelation in the Greek text, as you read the webpage.
So note how past is prologue, the historical parallel: each generation of Israel might have been the one to get Messiah's arrival; until David died, there no predictability because Messiah really could have come sooner. It was only after Israel had so prolonged its apostacy against God as King, that the timeline was imposed; not until David died, did the timeline turn "on". Because, the whole point was a Continuous Line Of Kings culminating in that King-Priest, Messiah. Again, because Israel's Conditonal contract of "schul" (Modern Judaic name for Temple, with emphasis on Torah learning), had to get them to Graduated staus. But Israel flunked out, by rejecting Messiah when He came. Paul seems to be making that very point, in Acts 13.
So here with Church, we are in the same 'schul' status: each generation will have the 'stamp' of the final Raptured one, because (again) volition is determinative. And, since past is prologue, the past proves we want the flash, not the Food: we reject Matt4:4, preferring Matt4:3. Hence we become Satanfodder, in every generation since the Crucifixion. Dying mostly the "sin face-to-face with death", capital punishment, 1Jn5:16 -- dying, from the rocks in our bellies, fancying we turned them into bread.
Here in Church, we thus prove any generation can be the Rapture generation, since we demonstrate the same wackiness over the Rapture, as every generation since Pentecost -- rather than, going to God's School. So, years ago, people near my hometown probably sat up high on Mulholland Drive (near Los Angeles), just like necking teenagers used to do; but, maybe having sold all they had! looking over the valley at the lights and expecting the coming of "Jesus" because some guy had said there were 88 reasons why the Rapture would come in 1988. Hmmm. They must be hungry, by now: I only remember a few squirrels, beer cans, and rocks up there. Yet the shellgame continues: who among us doesn't know some family whose spouse or kids went wacko because 'Jesus' is coming back on such-and-such a date? Did we never read Matt24's warnings about that? How anyone with a straight face can write a book, or get on television, and claim what even Christ wouldn't, in Acts 1! Gee, when did these self-styled prophets get more authority, than Him? I don't know who among us is dumber: the folks who peedle that nonsense (pee+peddle), or the folks who believe it despite clear passages like Matt24.
For there's another Trend for every generation alive at any "time": a prophecy with a Dated Period (here, Israel's Tribulation) is always kicked off by one having an Undateable ("imminency") Period; for the Dated Period only occurs due to some Failure in the Undated Period. So the Historical Characteristics of the Dated Period are irrelevant, and instead those of the Undated Period, CONTROL. Here, that "undated period", is Daniel 9:26c. Precedence, again: this time going all the way back to Adam. Adam's days weren't numbered until after the Fall. So no one else's are, either. If you check carefully, Messiah's arrival was Undated until Israel rejected God as King; so then her days were numbered: but it was up to Him to complete His Task in time. No guarantee He'd do that, but rather only a provision. For God promises time in 490-segments, but as happened in 586BC, apostacy can abrogate the time. So Messiah could Redeem the Time, but He'd have to do it ON time -- which, since it was up to His Free Will, didn't guarantee what time that would be. Same is true for us.
The characteristics of the Dated Period are not the same as that of the Undateable Period; since the Dated Period is due to Failure, its characteristics are bad; but the Undated Period is milder, á la the pattern of Lev26. Hence anything 'hidden' in the Undated Period, shares in its characteristics. So, although Church is inserted, the new 'wife' doesn't change Israel's prophecy map; rather, the new offer to Church rescues Israel, too. So again, no new 'prophecy' is needed. We are "in" the "prophecy" of Daniel 9:26c. It's really clear. This essential structure of Prophecy being divided into dated versus undated periods and their characteristics, will be covered at length in Part IVb's "Oh, Objection!" table.
Most importantly, Revelation tells us what is happening Now with respect to Satan's schemes. But in every generation, we don't listen. That's why Revelation 1-3 is only 'prophetical' in that the churches named are typical of Christian degeneracy (we are only too human); that's why Rev4:1 is the Rapture. You don't see "Church" mentioned after that: John goes up to heaven through the door in Rev4:1, and "meta tauta" occurs two times in that verse. Can't miss it. That's why you know the Rev17 harlot is Satan's game to pretend Church, because 'mystery' is a Church moniker, but the 'Church' depicted, is the antithesis of Paul's description in Eph2 or 4:11-16 (Greek; English is horrible).
By now, of course, we've a really long history proving how Satan pulls off this Fake Church, so he can better pogromize the Jews; Part IVc, d, and Part V will go through the thickly-threaded! details. So, for the moment, reflect: Christianity has split into a bizillion sects over this Rapture doctrine. So, if (say) the Rapture were to occur 300 years from now, a whole lot of paperwork among those who think Rapture is not true, or mid-Trib, or end-Trib, will exist. You know how we humans are, about 'respectable' paperwork. Especially, old (venerable!) paperwork. Heck, we actually still believe that the news we hear on television, is accurate! So what do you think believers then will believe, when they see all these (then-old) lies and mistakes about Scripture's "Rapture" meaning? They will believe the lies, and be destroyed! Satan's not stupid, but we sure are. The Lord took pity on us, and warned John to write Rev17, way back in 96AD when it was but a gleam in Satan's eye.
Revelation 1-3 tells us how every generation will be, and bluntly. Only one apostle is still alive, John. The guy had to be nearly 100 years old. There would be no one else left TO write if John died. Domitian had just exiled him to Patmos. It really looked grim, for although fantastic growth had occurred spiritually, you can tell from Rev1-3 that Christians were getting -- um, tired. Which is why it's the last book of Canon. No one else left to write, because people are not growing spiritually, anymore, so there's no reason to write anymore. Apostacy has set in: exact same pattern as in the later OT books; Malachi, the last OT book, is pretty brusque; just repeats what people should know; Malachi tersely sums up as a final argument, God's case against and promise to Israel. Then, stops abruptly. Then? Silence. [The so-called inter-testamental books all portray in spades that God Did Not write them. Still, they are valuable in gaining insight as to how low believers had sunk between Malachi and Matthew.]
Hence Revelation displays the same brusqueness, with respect to the world: in fact, no one talks to them; the 'signs' do all the talking. At the end of Rev, you see the typical Greek-drama epilogue, Rev22:6-21: don't add to this book! That's an OT affadavit catchphrase for Book Completion and Warning to Interpret it properly (used in Deuteronomy, the prophets, etc). [More about Revelation's Greek-drama structure is in RevPlay.htm and PartIVc.]
The Message? All Has Been Said. God has nothing more to reveal, until the Rapture.
Satan's Fake Church has been wildly successful. Brother-Foot Churchinanity? We can't get enough of it. If you were to gather all the pious tomes written since 96AD into one place, and then inspect them all for whether they assign ANY role to thinking before Father -- you might not even have one book left, afterwards. So there's no joy in Mudville.. the caseys have struck OUT.
God used to orchestrate time around the Jews, then around David and the Temple; but post-Cross, He does it benchmarked to the 30AD Crucifixion. Satan does, too, but Satan benchmarks to the Temple's Destruction date of 70AD whenever possible. To see all this, you'll probably need to load GeneYrs.xls to review the history in what follows. Gold 'stripes' in that worksheet are the 490-year deadlines (qualifying and historical); 1000-year deadlines are in green 'stripes'. Cell A2 of the worksheet summarizes the role of these grants of Time (you may have to Unfreeze Panes to read it). In Excel's "View" menu, you can select "Custom Views", and a popup dialogue box appears of handy spreadsheet section 'snapshots'. Pick the period you want. Makes spreadsheet viewing and navigation much easier.
Because Satan doesn't know when the Rapture will happen either, he always uses a Fake Church: it's designed to prevent Gospel from being learned, to prevent spiritual maturation; but most of all, the purpose of the Fake Church is to pogromize Jews, especially when the official Tribulation begins. To that end, Satan also historically sponsors "shub", a yearning to return to Israel and rebuild the Temple. So he'll use the Fake Church, to 'help'. Help HERD Jews back there, against God's Warnings (i.e., Matt24, Luke 21, Rev12).
First, the overall satanic strategy historically played, and continuing Right Now: If Satan can convince us that Church is in the Tribulation, he can gather us for slaughter, both Now and in the Tribulation. You gotta gather your enemy, to kill 'em. So Satan wants a Fake Church and a Fake Temple trap to gather Christians and Jews and thus kill them, too. For, there is no client nation Israel, and no 'Shekinah Glory' (extra-Biblical term) to fill that Temple, until the 2nd Advent. Scan Ezekiel Chapter 40ff., and note how that rebuilding doesn't occur before Messiah returns, but is due to His Return. So Satan can fake everyone out by claiming Christ HAS returned: hence, the two anti-christs. Hence, the statue in the Temple. That's why those Two Witnesses in Revelation are so important during the first half of the Trib -- Israel's FLEE period -- to Warn People To Stay AWAY. It's a life-or-death matter, to rightly divide the Word of Truth: especially, in the Tribulation.
We were introduced to this strategy back in the "Two Stone Witnesses" section (link in red box at pagetop). Now let's look at the underlying histo-psychological reaction to the prophecy about the Temple, which gave rise to Satan's strategy. For Satan's perennial strategy is to Distort Bible; so to Herd People to a Fake Bible, and thus demand The Supreme Court Of Heaven Order Our Mass Discipline. That's the only way he can get permission to kill so many (i.e., in Rev9). For the Rapture is first, a type of Mass Discipline On Both Church And Those 'Left Behind' who are yet too evil to see what was before their eyes -- the long-standing Two Stone Witnesses. Who of us isn't that evil, considering how long the Two Stone Witnesses have been in front of our own eyes?
See? Satan doesn't miss a trick. Satan&Co. know prophecy better than we drooling Christians. They know fully that there is no covenant operating during the Tribulation. Only the 'leavings' of OT promises of deliverance, plus the NT updates: Flee, Fight. The folks who believe then will hopefully heed those promises, but -- people are the same in every generation. We love to aggregate. We love the grand show, the pomposity, the majesty of it all. So all Satan has to do is make sure a Paper Trail is Left Behind when the Church goes up, so he can spin the lie that covenants are operating: one to the believers who are Gentiles, and one to the Jews. Because, no covenants are operating to anyone, except the leftover promises precedented since Genesis 12, plus the remaining prophetical promises people are then to claim. Cute ploy, huh?
We learn that we learn nothing from history. As summarized briefly in the "Two Stone Witnesses" section, Satan has sought to get the Jews back to the Land many times in history. Whenever we stop looking at the Middle East, Satan&Co. do something to make us look there. You can set your watch. About 100 years before each one of God's promised 490 periods ends, Satan&Co. pull some stunt to make the Middle East a religious hotbed. When that doesn't work (and it didn't work until the Balfour Declaration), then Satan has the less-efficient task of making pogroms in many smaller pockets, wherever Jews congregate. He fosters anti-semitism (see "Macro Tactics" link in Appendix) in order to make the pogroms work, and to herd Jews. So they are not scattered as God intends them to be for their safety. Because, they reverse the Will of God yet again, and trust in man's ideas of protection. But any general can tell you his first desire is to congregate his enemy, versus fighting a guerrilla war: "economy of force" doctrine. Satan is the best of generals, other than the Lord Himself.
In short, the same herd-then-slaughter pattern has occurred so often -- you'd think someone would wake up and notice it's happened again. And now in 2006, over 50% of worldwide Jewry, lives in Israel! Makes one want to tear his clothes, smear the face with dust and wail forever. [Details on the 490's are in Mirroring.htm and MirrorNOW.htm.]
See, you can't get to Pleroma if you don't breathe Bible, and the translations cannot get you there. That's why Scripture was kidnapped for the better part of 18 centuries, and the translations are soo bad. Easy to believe in Christ; but impossible, to reach Pleroma Maturity level, Eph4:13. So those who did reach Pleroma during the last 20 centuries, had access to the original-language texts. A duke, a monk, a charwoman -- who knows. It's God's Power, His "IQ", so the only logistical problem was getting a Full Bible, and Time to Learn it. Very few wanted to do that, but clearly some did, or we'd not be here: one person per 490 years must mature in Bible enough for God to allow the world to go on living. We've now had four such 490s since the Crucifixion: on a contiguous (qualifying-to-renew-time) basis, these deadlines fell in 520AD (Paul probably got that one, followed by someone else post-Canon we can't know who); 1010AD, then 1500 AD, and finally in 1990. So Time after 1990 (the 5th since the Cross) continues because someone got awarded it during the 490 ending in 1990. Five people. Just five. That's entirely possible, no matter how kidnapped Scripture has been.
God will give anyone who wants His Word, their fill. Full. Pleroma. But now -- must be a whole lot of folks who want That Real Bible. So, they are getting it. Few in percentage, but as we will see in Part IVb -- Very Few are Needed. So the more available the Word in the original-language texts, the more likely the Church will be completed. Tachú. Again, MirrorNOW.htm shows this Rollout of Scripture Real Historical Trend, from 30AD forward. You can check it yourself, with as much or little research as you desire. I can't but sketch out the broad outlines, in MirrorNOW.htm.
Since we don't know our Bible, we can't read history, either. It's not coincidental that the sudden shubbing of Jews to the Land in the late 1800's -- suddenly getting very nice deals from the Muslim Porte (Turkey, to you) to Buy The Land Back, were occurring in record numbers. By 1905, it had become a whole movement, Jews everywhere getting excited. Just in time, the pogroms in Russia were at an all-time high, too: and just in time, Japan declared war on Russia, which Russia disastrously lost -- which made the pogroms, all the more virulent -- and the need for a 'safe haven', all the more urgent. You had the Dreyfus affair in France, and anti-semitism in America was in one of its uglier periods (we've not really recovered from either racism against blacks, nor against Jews). Go to B'nai Brith or other Jewish organization to get the history. It will open your eyes. God warned the Jews He would chase them with the sword wherever they went, and history proves that Warning. It's all over the Bible, stated in just about every way it can be said (i.e., Lev26:33 and Deut 28:22, with "sword" being a keyword for each whole chapter). It's all over history, too: if you look, that is.
Think Real Hard: all these books and programs extolling the end times, brother: "feel the reality", one of them says, advertising the movie version. Sheesh. This Is Bad News, and we turn it into a thrill seeking? Is this honoring to the Lord? To Totally Misrepresent The Bible's Explanation of The Events (vomitable, those books and movies) -- and to make the Tribulation into a thrill, besides? Look at the stupidity: Israel is regathered so the Lord must be coming back soon, goody goody. Can we be dumber? That's not at all a good sign, but a Very Very Very Bad Sign the Jews are there! Sitting ducks! They don't even read their own Two Stone Witnesses -- one left behind by Satan, 99+586 years AD!
Don't you know, Jews believe in Messiah, too? But a Coming One. So they think we are mistaken as to Who He is, but Right about the Fact He's Coming. For Messiah's coming is The Hope of Judaism; so anytime anyone anywhere says He's here He's coming, He's coming soon -- they salivate. Why else do you think the Lord warned them in Matt24 to FLEE? To Not Believe Anyone Who Said He Had Come Back???? You don't offer a drug addict drugs; you don't offer an alcholic a drink; you don't offer the Jews a suddenly-returning Messiah. Instead, educate yourself. Then, educate them! He doesn't Return until the very last minute, when WAR in Jerusalem is soo lost, it's the end of the world -- which happens only because Jews foolishly gathered there, in Anticipation of His Coming! It's bleeping Kadesh-Barnea, all over again, Deut1:44 (see context)!
We Should Be Warning Israel To Get Out Of There, not panting over the similarity to the Tribulation because an 'Israel' is there! And because it is similar, what must happen if they go live there, huh? Don't we know for centuries, that the Tribulation is a time of unprecedented pogrom? So why would we want them to be there?? We Christians really are insane! Sure, so long as they are there, We Should Defend Them With Every Breath -- meanwhile, helping them to see that hello -- see that stupid Dome which is an Abomination like Daniel explained, like you remember every Chanukah, for crying out loud? No Temple Until Messiah Returns. Which, as Zechariah explains, is an event happening on a day which is night, so He comes at night making 'day' out of the whole SKY? So you don't need someone to tell you He's Back, you'll see Him in the sky yourself? And the whole world will likewise see Him at the same time?! [Laws of optics: if the object in outer space is in just the right place, the entire world can see it at the same moment.]
If you are sane at all, defend Israel with your life, don't side with the burgeoning 'Christian' trend of anti-semitism. At the same time, analyze yourself how exactly history proves Messiah has Come and Gone which means Israel should not be there: so to save as many Jews as you know, by at least informing them to Do Their Homework. This is a flee period. Satan will keep on using Islam to herd the Jews, and he'll withdraw his sponsorship of Islam in order to herd Jews the more, thinking now they've gotten "peace, peace!" when there never will be peace, until Messiah Returns. It's just an atom bomb, waiting to happen.
Don't crusade, don't join the hundreds of pastors who march on Washington=Egypt to make it 'save' Israel, don't publicize, just quietly Do Your Homework, Grow up in God's System. Pray for the peace of Jerusalem, as always. But Your Own Spiritual Growth will do more to protect Israel, so emphasize that. Not someone else's growth, yours. God saved Israel due to Moses. One person. So maybe you or me is the one person needed. Maybe someone else, but one is enough. Grow. God doesn't need Caesar's help: that's how we got into this regathering mess, in the first place, by going to 'Egypt', aka 'Caesar' aka 'the United Nations' (notions!) aka any human government. It's the devil's world, capisce?! You have a Higher Government to Whom you can Appeal. Prayer is a Vote for GOD to be involved, and only the believer has that privilege. So PRAY!
We Christians caused this problem. 2000 years Satan has been trying to get the Jews to shub, and we are responsible for that Trap! But God Will Deliver them. Best thing you or I can do, is Get in and Stay In and Grow Up In God's System! Pray your heart out, the meanwhile! For no one ever delivers the Jews but the God Whose Everlasting Arms, Always Embrace Jacob.
So the Righteous exist for even the Wicked, to Prosper TIME. There's always been a whole lot of nonsense against the Jews, against this-or-that sect or group. But think: We are only here due to their rejection of Him. But we only remain here due to our own rejection of Him. It's the wicked, who prolong history. Wicked Christians, since the Session. For Messiah's First Advent was to trigger the Ending of History. He came at the end of history, aka "the fullness of times". 1000th anniversary of David's becoming King, THE King is born, to usher in the next 1000 years. 1000th anniversary of David's Retirement from Kingship, THE King Himself 'retires' on the Cross, John 19:30's "tetelestai!" For He is Resurrected (the "no decay" clause in Psalms), so we will, too. Nexus Birth, Nexus 'Retirement', Nexus Resurrection. Fully. So now He, the Purpose of Time, is Completed: tetelestai. So Now that the Purpose is Completed, the Play Out is Being Completed, Ps110:1. In military terms, His Success at the Cross is called a "strategic" victory. All effort after that mops up the campaign or war, which the Bible calls "Footstool", Psalm 110. That's our time slot in history right now, too. So it's the number of enemies (negative believers), who help prolong time as well. Idea is, the achievement of certain key goals so conclusively finishes the fight, that the remaining time is spent "mopping up". Okay, but it's still a matter of life or death, for those involved in the mopping up. For us. We are Wheat and Tares. Tares are vile weeds which look like wheat (religious unbelievers, in the parable). They infest a wheat harvest so well, to get rid of them you end up harming the wheat. So instead of harming them, the tares must be allowed to grow, too. Then when the sickle is put to the standing grain, the tares are separated and burned. That's what should have happened about 2000 years ago in 94AD, the originally-scheduled beginning of the Millennium. But Israel rejected Christ, so Time continued instead with Church inserted, Matt16:18, John 17:20-21. So another 'burning' awaits: at the Bema. Either we believers will be torched yet saved (1Cor3:15, Rev16:15, NIV), akin to the Roman custom of torching the hem of your garment if you're found sleeping while on guard. Or, we will have gold, silver and precious stones. The Rapture would have occurred long ago, had there been enough believers in the latter category. Obviously, there weren't. Our many so-called spiritual giants in church history books were therefore pygmies. They are set up as examples, made popular, so we too will be pygmies, mistaking the spiritual life for works, ritual, holy 'amen brother' noises and all manner of hypocrisy. Else, the Rapture would have happened long ago. So the 'popular' ideas of what's 'spiritual' are all satanic. Again, were that not true, the Rapture would have long been over, because it only takes one generation, to complete Church. Obviously that one-generation criterion has never been met. Yet how many 'Christians' have there been? Billions! Of course, if they believed in Christ and some OTHER verb for their salvation, they are roasting in hell now, since they were Tares. But anyone who Believes Only in Christ Only, and did that at least once in his lifetime -- will only suffer the burning of the 'tares' he did while down here. But he himself is and remains in heaven from the minute he died. Notice that only tare-persons or tare-deeds get burned. Notice further that there must be a lot of them, for the Rapture hasn't occurred till yet. So notice how You And I Would Not Be Alive Today If The Lord Didn't Choose, 2000 Years Ago, To Pay For Us On The Cross. Which He couldn't justify doing, if there was to be no Church. Which He couldn't justify doing, if Israel didn't reject Him. Salvation truly has come from the Jews, and Christ Himself wants to return the favor. For, had there been no Jews, there'd have been no Christ. Could the Lord make it plainer, than in John 4:22? "Salvation is come through the Jews". Justice must be Just. Consistent. Precedence. We'd have had no precedence for Existence, if the foregoing history had not occurred. So we'd not exist, if Daniel 9:26c had not occurred. There'd be no room for us. So we've had nearly 1000 more years, post- what should have been the end of the world in 1094AD+50 (for the Rev20:7 voting) =1144AD. Yet what have we learned from the past? All those past prophecies and 'signs' (semeion, means Warning more than "sign") did us no good at all. We learned nothing, pas de tout, nada, niente, zip, bupkis, Greek drama word outhen. Those 'spiritual gifts' people keep on drooling over today, were Warnings (i.e., tongues were to warn Israel, Isa28:1-10 -- 1Cor14 quotes it). Not good. Moreover, back when those gifts really were extant, people did not advance spiritually, despite all the temporary spiritual gifts which forecast the completion of Canon (healing, tongues, etc -- see 1Cor13). It was a Test, all those signs. Which we all flunked, and still flunk, today. Tongues, ended 70AD (see 1Cor14:21ff for purpose). The others, went on until 96AD (or soon thereafter), but what did we learn from them? They only learned to invent the silliest stories of miracles and fake gospels, rituals and endless petty observances: just read some of the 'Church Fathers'! These are the people we ape? No wonder the Rapture still hasn't happened! We today crave 'signs'. But they had them! Do we learn nothing from their provable experience of learning nothing? I guess not: Paul wrote back in 56AD that apart from Love (Canon, His Thinking), we are nothing (1Cor13:2-3, outhen and ouden). So, NOTHING resulted!
Because nothing, zip, nada, zero, flunk has been the continuing trend, we Church Wheat Making Tares, keep on salivating like that first generation, thus Elongating Time. Sure, a few get to Pleroma each generation -- that's the only reason we are still here. But when the number of Pleroma finish, as you'll see in Part IVb, coming up -- Time Ends for Church! And there's no way to gauge when that will be, to read any other soul but one's own. Meanwhile, you and I should not exist. All for the want of a nail, as Benjamin Franklin once quipped. But we do exist, and The Four Horsemen are still riding (historical trends, see also Zech 1) -- only because Christ PAID, since Israel Rejected, since David Existed, since Israel Existed, since Moses Existed, since Abraham Existed, since Noah Existed, since Adam Existed. God Organizes Time around Messiah, and hence around Israel (Heb1:2, 11:3). Because He wanted All The Nails Of Our Sins. So no more nails are wanting, Now. |
Because, the Trib is the Last "Week" of the Jewish Age; at the end of which, comes the Second Advent. Then the Millennium, "Footstool", the fulfillment of all ISRAEL's covenants. All of them, contingent on, the Lord's Announcement, being FIRST fulfilled. Like it says in Hebrews 11:39-40, apart from us being completed, THEY don't get completed. All written in a scroll of a book...
Of course, the reality that history only continues due to Israel's rejection of Messiah, thus Church continues only until enough Pleroma are BUILT for Messiah, sets a shocking and glorious, beyond-imagination precedent in our contract about Our Role: it's a Numbers Criterion, HOW MANY of us Father Wants to Build for His Son. So He really wants Many Sons, Heb2:10 ("perfect" properly means "completed", teleiow); So Paul isn't kidding around when he writes in Eph3:15-21! God can do anything!
CLICK HERE to go on to IVb, the Macro Role of BODY. |