Community, Demons, and Zion

I wrote a comment last night on someone's blog who was asking for a definition and discussion of community. This is what I wrote, which I would like to take the time to expand a bit more in this post:

Community is solely based upon the bearing of the image of God in our faces, and beholding that glory to be moved from glory to glory. It is found when the saints gather, whether for prayer, for Bible study, for worship, or for fun ;)
Community is the stepping out from this world and into the eternal together with other believers. It is the dividing of oneself away from the systems of the world, and the principalities behind those systems, in order to be taken by something much more organic and beautiful: Zion. Zion is the City of God. Zion is the Mount upon which the Temple sits. Zion is twofold – a heavenly dwelling with an earthly counterpart. Zion is the place of freedom. Zion is the beauty of holiness, it is the unadulterated splendor of where God’s people are in unity with Him, and it is where we shine with the radiance of Christ. This is community. It is where we love one another with the love of Christ Himself, and from that love, we pursue absolute perfection in that love together. Community, to put it plainly, is heaven manifest upon earth through the children of God. Though we know that when two or three gather in His name that He is in our midst, we also know there is a time for this literal manifestation, when Zion will come down from heaven, when the earthly Zion and the heavenly Zion will be one. That is community. It is born out of the travail for that reality in our midst, whatever means it might take through the Spirit of God to get there.
Grace and peace, dear brother. May Christ’s love overflow in you to be brought unto that eternal radiant glory.

First, lets start with that first statement. It comes directly from 2 Corinthians 3:17-18. For a little bit of context, know that Paul is expressing the immense glory of the New Covenant in comparison to the Old Covenant. He references Moses' veil when he hid his shining face from the Israelites, and he says that this veil is still over the hearts of all they who are not in Christ whenever Moses is read. This needs a bit of explaining. Isaiah 25:7 speaks of a "veil" that covers the nations. This veil is the principalities and powers of the air. It is the demonic strongholds that rule and influence all nations and peoples. That veil was upon the hearts of the Israelites when the came out of Egypt, for it takes more than just receiving the Law to be saved. There is an inward heart conversion that must take place - that did take place for some, hopefully even many, in that first generation. This veil is the Law, which is the power of sin. Now, Law in Paul's mouth is not the same as what we think. Law does not merely mean the words on the page, but the idea that we can have righteousness apart from faith. If we simply uphold "the law", then we are obedient and righteous. That is a false righteousness, one based upon our ability and pride rather than our humility and brokenness. It utilizes the wisdom of those principalities and powers in order to consider ourselves right before God, simply because we have a form of godliness.

Yet, when the heart turns, that veil is taken away. When the individual will come to Christ, and be regenerated, the veil is broken off. This is why Paul says, "Now the Lord is the Spirit; and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty. But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord." 

Because we are beholding God's glory in one another's face, instead of that veil upon the heart, we are brought into a place of ever increasing glory.

You can see with this how we go from my first statement directly into the next. We step out from the influence of the principalities and power through living a life of reflecting the glory of God in our face unto all others. Freedom from the principalities and powers can only be attained when we come out and be separate unto the Lord. We no longer have our identity within the systems of the world - not even our father's house, our kindred (Irish, German, African, etc), or our national identity. That kind of separation is painful if it is only for the sake of separating. That is the beauty, though. It is not only for the sake of separation. There is a process unto which we must be taken, and sometimes that process is long and difficult, but we are indeed coming unto Zion, and you have indeed come unto Zion if you are in Christ.

Because we are no longer under the oppression of the devil, we are now at liberty to conduct our lives through the freedom of the Spirit. To live out of that Spirit is to wage war against the enemy. Our lives, everything we do, is a battle.

Ephesians 3:8-12 reads, "To me, who am less than the least of all the saints, this grace was given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ, and to make all see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the ages has been hidden in God who created all things through Jesus Christ; to the intent that now the manifold wisdom of God might be made known by the church to the principalities and powers in the heavenly places, according to the eternal purpose which He accomplished in Christ Jesus our Lord, in whom we have boldness and access with confidence through faith in Him."

This is the purpose of the church. We are to display the wisdom of God to the principalities and powers. What does that even mean? How do we do that?

The wisdom of God is displayed through the cross. It is that through sacrifice, and not selfishness, that we obtain exultation. It is through submission unto death, even the laying down of our lives for our brothers and sisters, that we obtain life. This is utterly paradoxical in our rational world. The reason this seems to be completely opposite of what we would think is because we are influenced all too much by the wisdom of Satan. It is his wisdom that tells us "It is a dog-eat-dog world out there! You have to look out for number one! If you don't, then who will? You have to take care of yourself before you can care for others, right?" It is the wisdom of God that says, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell all your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven." There is an utter contrast.

What is community? It is the place where the saints have come together utterly separated from the world, untarnished by the principalities and their wisdom, in order to serve the Lord their God in whatever way He might command. It is when we do not rely upon the wisdom of the kingdom of darkness - pride, self, manipulation, intimidation, greed, lust, etc - but rely solely upon God that we have entered into community. Our daily life is to go from house to house breaking bread. If we don't meet with all of the saints, and we don't receive from them the impartation of life, then how shall we survive the day? The enemy of my soul is too strong for me alone.

This is community, and this is what we are to display unto even the cosmic realities. May the Lord make you incredibly hungry for such expression of His kingdom in your midst, and may you be unwilling to settle for anything less. Blessings in Jesus' name!

Satan Destroys Nations

A man from Uganda had given a message that changed my life in regard to the way I perceive spiritual warfare. It has to do with fighting for our nation. Right off the bat, I almost feel the need to stress that this is not about patriotism, but about entering into the ultimate intention of God for our nation. We've prayed for revival for so long, and we've been pouring out our tears, and we've been hearing for so long that persecution is coming to America. So many seem to speak messages of revival, restoration, enduring hardships and suffering, and the coming persecution upon Christians.

Ignore all of it. They know almost nothing of God's purposes.

What people are sensing is from the enemy, and not from God. They are hearing the taunts of Satan, and are then crying because of his jeers. Let me explain this as clearly and concisely as I possibly can.

There are two ways that the enemy destroys nations. The first is only temporary to lead into the second. The principalities and powers will lull to sleep the strong, so that the net comes around them, and when they finally wake up, they have no strength, no authority, no voice, and no hope. Though they know their strength and have desire to fight (and will fight), they simply have handed over all strength to the enemy - like Samson gave his strength over to Delilah.

The second way that Satan destroys nations is to use violence and terror. He will come in like a flood to oppress anyone who stands in his way. Women are oppressed. Men live in fear. Children are taken from their homes and forced to serve in the military. Anyone who opposes the powers that be is annihilated. Absolute oppression is poured out upon all - even they who are being used as puppets at the top. For an example of this, look in the Middle East. See the work of ISIS for what it really is: the tactic of the enemy to destroy entire nations. (Another example in modern times would be Nazi Germany.)

Here is the problem: When we pray about issues regarding the Middle East, or regarding homosexual activism, or regarding abortion, or regarding the political agendas and the government that rules over us, we often are praying in regard to the issues that we see. There are deeper issues than that.

When we examine America's history, what is one of the issues that comes up over and over again? Racism. I saw somewhere that 150,000 people were killed in the trail of tears - the utter destruction of the Native Americans. Slavery has been something that has left a tarnish upon this nation, not just from 1700's, but even from the Civil War through the Civil Right's movement of the 1960's. When we see the racism issue being displayed every day on the media, it is not because we still struggle with racism. Whether that is true or not is a non-issue.

There is a principality over our nation that is driving the racism thing. It is an Assyrian spirit, one that would claim itself to be the "master race" (it was the Assyrians who coined this term), and their leaders were called “Khatti-sars”. From this we have words like Caesar, Tzar, Czar, Kaiser, etc. The Assyrians used symbols like the double-headed eagle, the iron cross, and the swastika as their representations. Yes, the eagle on the dollar bill comes from the Assyrian symbol. They are recorded by Philo and Josephus as being people with blonde hair and blue eyes, and white skin. The Indians (country) called them "white demons". This is what has infiltrated Germany, thus the rise of Nazism, and what has come across the sea into America, thus the racism and elitism.

The roots need to be noted and understood. We are fighting principalities and powers, not racism and abortion. The problem stems unto a spirit that presides over our nation, that until it be cast down by the Church that has come out from all influence of the principalities and powers, we will continue to find these problems. They won't stop here. The goal is to oppress the people of God, to numb them and to deceive them, until  eventually they have no power at all. To use their wisdom at all is to surrender your authority to them (see here and here for more information on their wisdom). To harness patriotism, which I do love what American is supposed to stand for (freedom), is to play directly into their power.

God has called us out of father, kindred, and nation - just as He called Abraham out - so that we might come into a different Kingdom entirely. It is from that heavenly kingdom, with the authority invested in us through freedom from demonic influence and manipulation, and freedom from sin, that we are able to war against those powers over our nation.

Ultimately, the casting down of principalities from a national level requires the command over even the elements of nature (see my blog here on the two witnesses). The replacement of government is not anarchy, but theocracy. The establishment of theocracy would require that we seek the heart of God, to understand what His purposes are for our nation, and to live from the reality of what He has called us to be. As Americans, God has called us to be that nation of freedom. But, what exactly does that mean? What precisely does God demand that we as a nation would do? This is something that we need to prayerfully wrestle with in community, for without the intuition and discernment of the saints in corporeity we cannot possibly come to solid conclusions of what God has called our great nation to be in this time. Whatever it is that He would call us to be and to do, it will relate to the Jew in our midst, and to Israel in the last days. What exactly that means is more than I can express at this moment, but for those interested, I would suggest reading this to start.

A Word on the Two Witnesses

In Revelation 11, we find these “two witnesses” that have both puzzled and fascinated many scholars and Bible students through the centuries. Some want to know who they are, and others want to symbolize them away. What is most fascinating about them is that they “have the power to shut up the sky so that it will not rain during the time they are prophesying; and they have power to turn the waters into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they want.”

Before we get to this, lets do a small amount of background. We read in Revelation 11:4 that these “two witnesses” are the “two olive trees and the two lampstands that stand before the Lord of the earth”. Now, this is important for two reasons. First, it is important to know that the lampstands in the book of Revelation are symbolic of the churches (Rev 1:20). Second it is a direct link to call us back to Zechariah 4. In Zechariah 4, we find these “two olive trees” next to a solid gold lampstand with a bowl at the top and seven lights on it, with seven channels to the lights. No doubt the book of Revelation is looking back to this in Revelation 1:20 with the lamps and the “stars”.

Who are these two olive trees? The context of the vision here begins in Zechariah 2, however, we find that the answer is given when combining chapters 3 and 4 of Zechariah. One of the olive trees is Joshua the High Priest. The other is Zerubbabel, son of Shealtiel. These two men are key in the restoration of the Temple of the Lord in Jerusalem when Israel came back after the exile. Yet, they are also symbolic of something beyond them. Zerubbabel is the descendant of Jehoiachin – the same king of Israel that Jeremiah claimed was cursed and wouldn’t ever have someone to sit upon his throne (Jer 22:24-30). Now, this Zerubbabel is symbolic of the Messiah, because according to the word of Haggai, he is the one who is the signet ring of God, the chosen one (Hag 2:23). Christ Jesus comes from the lineage of Zerubbabel (Mat 1:12). Joshuah is the High Priest, and is symbolic “symbolic of men to come” (Zech 3:8). It is Joshua who is called “the branch”, which is once again a messianic title in the prophetic Scriptures. Thus, we have both Joshua and Zerubbabel as symbols of the Messiah – one as High Priest, and the other as King of Israel.

Now, for John to be referencing these two men, the “olive trees”, and for him to put them in the future as two literal men that are to be coming into Jerusalem to prophesy for 1,260 days is significant. What exactly is John getting at that these two messianic figures are supposed to be two literal people that are not the Messiah? The answer is found in Zechariah 4, where we see that though Joshua and Zerubbabel are considered messianic figures, the two olive trees are specifically considered “the two who are anointed to serve the Lord of all the earth” (Zech 4:14). Though they are symbolically messianic, they are still two real people.

Now, when we see in Revelation 11 that these two men have the power to turn the waters into blood and to strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they want, we instantly should think of Moses. Likewise, when we read that they have the power to shut off the heavens so that it doesn’t rain during the time of their prophesying, we should think of Elijah. John is being purposeful here, because these men are symbolic as much as they are literal people. There is something about Moses and Elijah that we find in no one else through all of Scripture: they were given authority over even the elements of nature. But the question isn’t what, the question is why?

Every plague that Moses sent upon Egypt was against a god of Egypt. Khnum was the god of the Nile River, the guardian if you will, and thus the first plague was to turn the Nile to blood. Osiris was the god of the underworld, and the Nile was the “bloodstream” to the underworld. The Egyptians would have wondered where the goddess Tauret was, the goddess of the river, or where Nu, the god of life in the Nile, was trapped to allow such a thing to occur. The frogs were considered the theophany of the goddess Heqt, the wife of the creator of the world. Heqt was depicted as with the head and body of a frog. The “lice”, or “fleas” that came from the dust of the earth would have been an insult against the god “Geb”, the great god of the earth. The “swarms of flies” is actually missing the word “of flies” in the Hebrew, and thus we see the plague of “swarms”. It is most likely that it was swarms of scarab beetles, the god Amon-Ra being depicted with the head of a scarab beetle.

All of the plagues were directed against the gods of Egypt. But still, the question can be asked, “Why?” The gods are representatives of the principalities and powers. The principalities are demonic forces that influence government, society, culture, and every kind of system – whether educational, religious, governmental or otherwise. They rule and influence through the worship of these “powers” that they manipulate and claim to represent. The powers are these forces of nature that are beyond the control of humanity, but the principalities are somehow manipulating humanity into worshiping them as if they have the absolute control and authority over the rain, harvest, sun, and other aspects of worship through the millennia.

So what about Elijah? Elijah claimed there would not be rain nor dew except by his word. Elijah was speaking this to the king, but speaking past the king into the heavenly realms. The god Baal was the god of prosperity, but he was considered the god over the rain and harvest. So for Elijah to stop up the heavens, he is challenging the authority of Baal, and also showing that it is not by worshiping Baal that we will receive prosperity. Through the drought, Elijah would have bankrupted the whole country, not only of money, but also of faith in a false Baal system.

These plagues, though being manifest upon the earth in physical form, are actually somehow going past the physical and plaguing the kingdom of darkness. So, when we get to Revelation 11, we find that these two witnesses are men that somehow are able to see past the physical and into the spiritual. They see the worship of these false gods – even if we claim that we aren’t worshiping any gods. To follow the Antichrist is to worship him as god. We might call science our god (or emphatically say that it isn’t, yet still give it our every waking moment and devotion). We might claim sports as our god. We might claim education as god. Or maybe our society would worship sex and fertility. Yet, even though our society would say that these aren’t gods, we are serving the same old false gods of the Old Testament. In that, we find that the principalities and powers are still very much in control.

Elijah and Moses are referenced in Revelation 11:6 because these two prophets alone have stories of plaguing the earth, and yet somehow they weren’t merely “plaguing the earth”. The point being made with the two witnesses is that these men will have the authority to challenge the whole Antichrist system to its core – which is to say, to blow the whistle on the lie and unmask the principalities and powers. These men are still a curiosity to me, but I find that in this understanding, a lot more makes sense as to what is happening around this passage. The whole point of the two witnesses, their primary purposes and call in God, is to be a Moses and Elijah in their generation to unveiling the kingdom of darkness, and to make full exposure of their bankruptcy.

The reason this applies to all of us today is that we are supposed to be a prophetic people of that caliber. As the Body of Christ, we are to have the discernment and authority to plague the kingdom of darkness, and therefore expose the lie that many – even Christians – continue to live in support of day after day. The answer to many of the cultural agendas that are anti-religion and anti-god is not some sort of political movement, but instead to recognize the principalities that are at play behind those agendas, and to then uproot them through the use of the authority of God given to the saints. This is not a delegation to “call down fire”, but rather to take up the task of seeing the heavenly realities over our localities and nations, and to therefore war against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

The Cross as Life

It has been difficult for me to comprehend the doctrine of the cross for a long time. What I mean by this needs a little introduction. I understand perfectly well the notion of dying to self. I understand perfectly well the crucified life. I understand perfectly well that we are new creatures. Yet, in that last statement I find my exact point: we are resurrected. The point of the cross, as I understand, is not simply to die, but that we would be raised up with Christ by the same glory that raised Him up. So, I've been confused about this for a while. How is it that Christ Jesus would say, "I came to give you life, and life abundantly", but then we want to say that we have to continue to die to self?

I've heard many times about the notion of dying to self. We take up our crosses so that God might raise us up. Yet, if you've been raised, then you've been raised. If your life is hid with Christ in God, then your life is hid with Christ in God. If you are crucified with Christ, it is no longer you that live but Christ that lives in you, then you are crucified with Christ. If you are a new creation, then you are no longer the old creation; you are now a new creation. Do you see my dilemma? In one sense, I understand full well that I need to die to the sinful passions of my old lifestyle, and thus be raised by the glory of God unto newness of life. I understand full well what it means to taste death and now be alive in Christ. But, once I'm alive in Christ, I can no longer die.

In Romans 6, Paul makes an interesting statement: "If we have been united with [Christ] like this in his death, we will certainly also be united with him in his resurrection... that we should no longer be slaves to sin - because anyone who has died has been freed from sin. Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. For we know that since Christ was raised from the dead, he cannot die again; death no longer has mastery over him. The death he died, he died once and for all; but the life he lives, he lives to God. In the same way, count yourselves dead to sin but alive in God in Christ Jesus."

Did you catch it? If you have died, and have been raised unto newness of life, then you cannot die again. This has an implication with the second death - the lake of fire. We know that because we have already died, we cannot die again. That old man has received its judgment, if you will allow me to say such things. Now, here is my confusion. If we have died and been raised unto life, then we can no longer die. Yet, it is told to us that we are to die daily, and that we are to continuously be giving our lives and dying to self. Just because you quote Paul's words that he dies daily doesn't necessitate the validity of the statement. This has perplexed me for quite sometime... until a couple days ago.

My wife and I have been looking through the seven churches mentioned in Revelation 2-3. While discussing the words of Jesus to these churches, it dawned on me what is going on with the cross here. Jesus said, "No one takes my life." He actually believed that. His life was taken by no one. Instead, He laid it down willingly. Now, when we talk about His life being laid down, what exactly are we talking about? I would like to suggest something rather profound. The "my" being used here might not refer to Christ in totality. Who Christ is, His essence, is found in His relationship with God the Father. Likewise, the true you, the true me, is not found in my body, but instead is something more than my body. The true Jesus could not die, because it was already alive to God. Though His body went into the grave, and though Jesus descended into the depths of the earth, the statement that Jesus is making is not about death like we think it is.

Let me try to explain a different way. Because Jesus was alive to God, He could not die. So, because He willingly gave His life, it was His to take it up again. The point of the cross in this sense is not about death, but about life. It isn't that Jesus is going to die, but that He will continue to live. Though He gives His own life, it is His to take up again. Why? Because Jesus had already passed from death to life. The reality of the cross was already at work in Him. The epochal moment of death on the cross was an ultimate climax of a succession of events that were all crosses before it. He had already died, and therefore He was already raised unto resurrection. Yet, the literal and bodily death and resurrection had not yet taken place.

Are you starting to see where I'm going here?

When we talk about dying and taking up our own crosses, what exactly are we talking about? There is a time and place to die to self and live unto God. There is a legitimacy to our phraseology of dying and being raised again. Yet, once you have passed from death to life, you no longer have to die again. You have already passed through unto eternity. You are already alive unto God. This is why Paul gets into Romans 7 and deals with our struggle with sin.

"Do you not know brothers... that the law has authority over a man only as long as he lives?"

Did you catch it? What is the point of Romans 6? WE ARE NO LONGER ALIVE TO SIN, BUT INSTEAD DEAD TO SIN. The whole point of Romans 7 is, then, to be understood as those who have not yet passed through death unto life. We might technically be saved, but we have not yet come unto the place of resurrection. One man said it this way: Many saved, few converted. Paul continues:

"So, my brothers, you also died to the law through the body of Christ, that you might believe to another, to him who was raised from the dead, in order that we might bear fruit to God."

Our life is hid with Christ in God. For they who have been raised unto this glory no longer face the death to self that is required of those who have not yet died. This is why later in Romans 7 Paul says, "As it is, it is no longer I myself who [sins], but it is sin living in me." And again, "Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it." Why does Paul say this? Because the "me" being spoken of is not the same "me" that was put to death. The "me" that Paul is speaking of is the relation that I have with Christ. It is the new life. I am now alive to God, and that "me" cannot sin.

So, when we come back to our theology of the cross, we ask the question of what it means to die daily. The cross of Jesus was not about death, but instead about sacrifice. It was not about death, but instead servanthood. It was not about death, but instead selflessness. That which needed to die - the sinful man - had already died. Likewise, the cross that I bear daily is not a cross unto death that I might be resurrected. That has already happened. It is about me giving my life as a ransom for many. It is about me giving my life for my friends. Even if I descend into the deepest depths of the earth on their behalf, it is still my life to take back up. I am both priest and sacrifice, pouring myself out like a drink offering on behalf of my friends.

That is the cross as life. It doesn't diminish my life. It doesn't take away from who I am in God. It isn't about dying to self. It isn't even about dying to selfishness, because that selfishness has already died. It is about giving my life as a ransom for many. It is love covering a multitude of sins. It is me being merciful, so that through my mercy, they may obtain mercy. It is me being a living sacrifice. This theme is taken up through the whole of the book of Romans, and yet I've never heard anyone else proclaim it. I've heard others come close, but I can't say I've ever heard anyone who would speak this. I no longer live, but Christ in me. Therefore, when I lay down my life as a living sacrifice, it is not me dying - it is me obtaining even greater life. Because I lay down my life willingly, it is mine to take back up again - not because I am somehow on par with Christ, but because that kind of sacrifice is what attains unto eternal reward. It is the wisdom of the Kingdom: he who loses His life shall obtain life. How much greater life do we obtain when we willingly lay down our lives in apostolic priestliness for the benefit and glory of another?

Maybe this helps us to understand why Paul tells the Philippians, "...in order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor for nothing." Again, he tells the Thessalonians, "For this reason, when I could stand it no longer, I sent to find out about your faith. I was afraid that in some way the tempter might have tempted you and our efforts might have been in vain." Paul has been a living sacrifice to these churches. Has this sacrifice been a waste? But, alas! In neither instance does it seem as though Paul concludes that it has. It is a labor of love - even my own death - because I know that God has already raised me up unto life. To die is to be with Christ. My cross that I bear is no longer one of death; it is now a cross of liberty. I am not forced to die upon this cross any longer, because I have already died upon it. I now walk according to the Sprit. But, that Spirit bids me back to the cross so that I might express the same love that Christ expressed on Calvary.

The cross is life for the believer, not because we constantly die to self, but because in the laying down of our life, others find life. This challenges me, but also excites me. I hope it has the same affect on you. May the Lord work this deeply in both of us that we might obtain life and meet in Zion.

Invisible Cloud

            Without the understanding of how Paul could reference an entire city, which very possibly had thousands of converts within it, and not write to specific local gatherings, we can’t understand our unity with the invisible cloud of witnesses. We think it is about the here and now, that which is seen and heard. We consider those whom we know and whom we’ve come in contact with. Most days, it doesn’t even pass through our minds to pray for those in India. How, then, can we grasp that in God there is an unbroken continuum and an unbroken link between those who are on this earth and those who are asleep?
            The invisible cloud of witnesses are with us. They are here, along side, next to us. They battle with us. They are unseen, yet still present. And, in fact, they are possibly able to do battle and to aid the saints to an even greater degree now that they are past. They have left the realm of the physical an entered into the spiritual realm. Here they do battle with Satan along side of us. It is almost as if while we’re here on this earth, our characters is what does battle by revealing the glory of God to all of creation, but when we’ve passed, it is not only our characters, but our legacy.
            In this, all I can seem to do is assume. What is safe is that the legacy of those who have passed is continuing to sharpen and fine-tune the characters of those who live on. Can the number of people be counted to get great benefit from reading Spurgeon or Wesley or Augustine or Saint John of the cross? These are people who have long passed on, yet their stories and their lives and their teaching remains and continues to persuade and lead people into deeper relations with God.
            As one Greek philosopher had said, “You can’t enter the same river twice.” The river might have the same name, but it is always flowing. There is new water every second. The Body of Christ is, in the same way, a river with a continual flow. When a righteous person passes, they aren’t gone. They don’t disappear for a while, and then they are resurrected at the end of the age. Their soul must go somewhere. (We must assume.)
            Jesus references the soul in Matthew 10:28: “Do not be afraid of those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather, be afraid of the One who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” Now, my question is about the soul. When we pass on, where does our soul go? Obviously our body is in the ground. Yet, our soul isn’t buried there with us.
            Watchman Nee had given most of his life to the understanding of the body, soul, and spirit. Though I disagree with much of what he stated, one thing I do agree with is that the soul is a non-physical part of our bodies that has it’s own characteristics. This is obvious, however, Nee takes it to another level. I highly recommend his book, The Latent Power of the Soul. In this he expresses that the soul has a power, and that power can be released. Other religions have learned how to release this soul power by fastings, meditations, and other forms of self-exhaustion. The point is to try and destroy the flesh so that your body is only a shell. You don’t give yourself to your carnal habits. This produces in you a breach in your flesh so that your soul can be released.
            Though this is highly philosophical, and I’m very skeptical of the way it is worded, I like the idea of the soul having a power in it. There seems to be something that sits right within me when considering that mediums can contact “the dead” (whether those dead are truly those who have passed on or only demons) through their souls. Through soul power, people in India can read minds, levetate, calm animals, and even make objects move without touching them.
            These are real phemonema. There are actual events and people have been recorded as having these abilities. Though we think them of fantasy and nonsense here in America, and most of Europe, they are common realities in some parts of Asia. How does this relate to the invisible cloud of witnesses? It is only to say that the soul might not actually get buried in the ground with our bodies, and that there might indeed be some sort of a power in our souls that can either aid or rebel against the purposes of God.
             I don’t know that there is a way to explain this, nor do I know if there are too many Biblical references. Certainly, I can take verses and stories and apply them, but there aren’t any concrete Scriptures to validate these opinions. I’m willing to admit that.
            Yet, one of the problems that needs to be considered is the problem of eternity and time. What most believe is that when we die, we go out of time and into the eternal realm, where we stand before God in judgment, and He then declares us to be blessed or cursed. This comes from Scriptures such as Revelation 21:11 and Hebrews 9:27.
            Even if we believe that there is some sort of a waiting time for the consummation of all things, we hold to the idea that eternity (whether in Heaven or Hell) is timeless. I must beg the question: what if it isn’t? What if time and eternity are as much one as the fabric of space and time? What if eternity is actually just another age with days, years, decades, and millennia? Lets go even further. What if these days, years, decades, and millennia are actually corespondant to our days, months, years, and decades? What if time for us is time for them?
            We can see that in Daniel 10, the angel comes to Daniel and tells him, “The prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days.” Wait… an angel was resisted, and that somehow caused for him to be post-poned in delievering his message? It was an actual 21 days? Or was it just the angel’s way of speaking in terms that we know? But if it was only a figure of speech, then what did the angel really mean?
            What about Saul and Samuel? Saul contacts a medium, and the medium goes to contact the man in whom Saul wishes to speak… Then Samuel comes and speaks with Saul. There’s only one problem: Samuel is dead. Did God allow Samuel to come back in a specific moment of time, seeing as Samuel was in eternity and timelessness? Or was time still active and Samuel’s appearing was granted by God? The same question can be asked about when Jesus met with Elijah and Moses on the mount of transfiguation? Was Samuel still here and present on this earth, though invisible? And then when Saul needed his counsel, God allowed for this dead man to be made visible again? Can that really be a valid answer? Can we really put our faith in the idea that God would send us back to a specific time in space-time? It might be what is most simple, but it isn’t what is most logical. There are great depths that seem to be revealed in simply asking these questions.
            What about Elisha and the chariots of fire? Obviously, there is indeed an invisible realm that is parallel to this one. There is a spiritual world that fights along side of us. Elisha was able to see an army of chariots of fire. He was able to understand that the Lord’s army stood along side of His people. So, then, when the servant of Elisha was afraid, God openned his eyes, and the servant saw. Was this possibly a revealing of something greater than we know? Was God revealing to this servant, and to us who read the story, of an invisible realm that is always here and now and with us? Was God showing that eternity is not bound by our physical cosmos, but is still within time?
            The invisible cloud is always here and with us. It reminds us of our past. It wars with us for righteousness to prevail. It helps us in our times of need. It speaks words of counsel, and it beckons us to be greater than we are. They who have passed on call us forward to be the end-time people of God. They, together with us, help us to hasten the day of the Lord (2 Peter 3:12). What if those of history continue to war even after life?
            The Greek word describing “the age to come” is aion. It is literally translated as an age or era or period of time. When Jesus refers to the age to come, which is most commonly believed to be Heaven, He is speaking of a new era. It is the dawn of a new time. It isn’t going into timelessness, but instead of timelessness and eternity and heaven crashing into this time based cosmos. I speak only speculatively, for I only know that the invisible cloud fights along side of us in their legacy. The rest is assumption and playing with thoughts and ideas. Yet, what if…
            The Hebrew word is Olam. It speaks of something to respect of “to the distance of the horizon, and then some.” So, basically, olam is as far back in time, or as far forward in time as the eye can see, and then beyond. It is usually translated as eternal, or eternity. In the New Testament, the word for eternal, when speaking of “eternal life,” is aionios. This is different than aion. Aion is simply another time. It is sometimes translated as forever, but it doesn’t mean that, and it certainly doesn’t mean outside of time. The word aionios means without time; from the beginning to the end; forever; never ending; eternity as we know it.
            If you start to study this out, you start to see that Jesus speaks of both an eternity that has no beginning or end, just as God has no beginning or end, and an eternity that is within time, has a specific beginning and end. He speaks of them synonymously. They are happening at the same time, in the same place, and we are a part of both. The idea of olam is only given to God, because He is the only one who is everlasting. Yet, the New Testament seems to blow the Old Testament idea out of the water and say, “Not only are you going to be God’s Bride, but in being God’s Bride, the two really do become one flesh, and now you are granted certain Godlike qualities.”
            Excuse me while I venture into heresy (joke). That which has always been attributed to God only, now we have. Eternity… Timelessness… Beyond this physical cosmos… These are not things that we would consider to be for people, but only for God. Yet, Christ seems to invite us into that realm, here and now, and in being a part of that here and now, we also get to see and slight understanding of what He might also be speaking of when He talks of an age to come (aion). Timelessness in the bounds of time. Eternity within the bounds of that which is chthonic. Can you imagine the immensity of such a statement? Is there anyone who could possibly imagine what God really is trying to say? It is beyond the grasp of the human mind, and that is why we’re left to speculation here. That is why we can’t give definitive answers.
            We are in a continuum of time. That which had happened in times past, which we most likely don’t even know of, is at war with that that is happening now. We are in touch with the saints that have gone on before us, and they are pushing and speaking to us to continue their work for the glory of God. At the same time, there is a demonic continuum of the glory of man (which is a glory of Satan). Both are at war with each other, and we are the generation to choose which river to stand in. When we aren’t willing to stand with those who were martyred and opposed within our own localities and nations, we cannot truly apprehend the apostolic perception and authority that is rightfully ours. In tapping into this kind of awareness and this kind of reality, we open ourselves to those who are around us to hate us with the same ferocity that they hated the saints of the past. It most likely isn’t that the people who oppose Christ are going to war against us in the heavenly realms, but that as this present age continues, Satan wars. It makes more sense theologically to expect Satan to war alone with his unholy angels than for those who die in opposition to Christ to continue in their opposition to Christ in the heavenly realms. That which they have decided here and now they will continue to decide in eternity, therefore love wins by giving them exactly what they have always asked for: hellfire.
            Now, without the understanding of this Church militant and Church triumphant (Karl Barth’s wording), we miss out on our purposes in God, and our place within the Body of Christ. It is for the lack of this understanding of being One Body (both between present, past, and future, and between Israel and Gentile) that both Jews and Christians alike suffer an anemic religion that provides nothing but successions of Sundays and programs and events. They both provide morale, but neither provides the glory of God (John 17:21). The failure to see the Lord in His own people will lead to Him saying, “Depart from me, you cursed ones, unto everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels,” Matthew 25:41. And the men and women will reply, “Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you,” Matthew 25:44, because they could not see the interconnection between the Lord and His people Israel, nor could they see the connection between the Lord and His people past and present.
            For, our being One Body is both past and present, but also Church and Israel. We are interconnected. We are both one, because we both have the same Head. Failing to see this is failing to see everything with right perspective. We can play our games, clap our hands and sing our songs, and enjoy our fellowships and gatherings, but without the weight and significance of the total interconnection of all of the Body of Christ, we fall short of the glory of God. We are left bankrupt, because it leaves us to ourselves.
            I’ve already gone through this, but it needs to be restated for the idea of One Body, One Spirit. We are indeed one Body. It is the idea of agape love that would view people as already forgiven that compels us to view Israel through the eyes of they have already been forgiven. Though they are not, we love them and accept them as though they are. It’s not easy, but neither is anything in the Christian faith. It is the power of Christ in us, the hope of glory, that strengthens and enables us to succeed in all things that God has given us to subdue.
            The Christianity of God is based upon all these things. All that has been written, all that has been said, is summed up in this last chapter. We are one. We are beautiful. We are perfect. Together with the saints of old, we are the Bride of Christ. This is how we act. This is how we display ourselves. These chapters are only an introduction to authenticity. So, then, go and find the deeper things of God. Learn all that you can learn, and have no fear, for if God be for us, then who can be against us? In the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, may God bless us all, and especially those who are truly searching, amen.
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Cosmic and Eternal Perspective

I find it quite strange that when I communicate this perspective, there are very few who are acceptant of it. As if saying that we won’t be raptured is bad enough, when you then compound upon that the belief that Israel will be the priesthood to the nations and that Jesus will return and set up His Kingdom from Israel, ruling and reigning from Zion, it is the final straw. For some reason, people are unwilling to come to terms with that. The most common response is not Scriptural rebuttal, but instead are questions like, “Why can’t God do it differently? How do you know that God wants to do it that way? How can you tell (which is the same as how do you know) that God wouldn’t do something else? He does work in mysterious ways, right? His thoughts are not our thoughts, right? So how would you know that this is what He has in mind?”

These are fair questions at face value. I’ve answered them, but haven’t fully answered them. It goes back to the God that chooses. Why would He choose Jerusalem? Why would He choose Zion? Why would He choose Israel? Why did God choose Gideon? Why did God choose Samson? Was there something intrinsic in Gideon or Samson that God saw? Or was it quite the opposite?

If we think that Samson was some muscular man that was 7 feet tall and 250 pounds of pure muscle, then we have a wrong basis from which we perceive. God chooses that which is foolish and that which weak to confound the wise and strong. It is not so much about the person of God’s choosing that make the man spectacular. It is the God that chooses that makes the man spectacular. This needs to register deep within us. If we think that God would choose us as the mostly Gentile Church to be that end time people to intercede for Israel because of our merit or qualifications, then we have left the faith. It is not in our strength that God is calling us, but in our weakness.

The whole view comes from a much larger view. So in order to answer the rebuttals that claim I don’t know whether God would or would not act and react in this or that manner, we need to step back and view things from a cosmic level. We find such a cosmic level in Genesis. Of all places in Scripture, the book of Ephesians and the Garden of Eden are the 2 that most specifically address the cosmic and eternal perspective.

⁸ And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.

⁹ And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

¹⁵ And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it.

¹⁶ And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:

¹⁷ But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
Genesis 2:8-9, 15-17

Something that is a good study is to look up the Hebrew. What did God command that Adam not do? What would be the result? Then you cross reference with the next chapter and read what Eve says, it is completely different. Though the sentence in English looks the same, the Hebrew is very distinct. Then the serpent repeats what God really did say. Satan deceived the woman by telling her the truth.

But here in our study, I want to examine this text closely. Nowhere in the text does God say that Adam was to not eat of the tree of life. He was only told not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. What is it about knowledge of good and evil that God would forbid Adam to eat of this tree? What is it about the tree of life that Adam would choose to not eat of it?

Do you understand my questions? Out of all of the things that God could have set up in the garden and said not to partake of, why was it a tree that would reveal to Adam good and evil? Does God intend for humanity to be undiscerning? And what was so repelling of the tree of life that Adam would have possibly been in the garden for 100 years and not once taken from that tree of life? Did it look displeasing, whereas the tree of the knowledge of good and evil looked pleasing?

There are zero Scriptures anywhere in the Bible that will tell you what the trees looked like. There are also zero Scriptures that will tell you what these trees represent. This is something that needs to be discerned collectively and by the Holy Spirit. So lets start with the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Why would God forbid Adam to take of that fruit? Is there something about knowing good and evil that God does not desire for us?

I think that this is easiest to answer. Obviously, God wants us to know the difference between good and evil. He tells us to discern right from wrong. He tells us to discern the spirits. He tells us to separate the precious from the vile. He tells us to walk in the light instead of in the darkness. He tells us to be holy as He is holy. He tells us to choose life over death. How can God require this of us if we aren’t to be discerning?

This is a different kind of discernment. What the tree of the knowledge of good and evil represents is human efficiency. This is what we are able to accomplish outside of God. We can establish morale. We can use our rationale and our intellect to determine that it is wrong to rape, kill, and steal. We don’t want someone to come up to us and stab us, so that is obviously “wrong.” But by what basis do we judge others if atheism is true? To what degree is there a moral standard that is universal? At best, we can determine according to communities, societies, nations, and maybe even internationally what is good and bad. But can we truly decide whether Hitler was a good or bad person?

By what means, outside of God, do we gain our morality? This is key. Is morality simply a list of do’s and don’ts? Is there something else to morality? I think so. Morality is a necessity. But it goes beyond what is right and wrong. We think that morality is living life in a way that we dodge the “big sins.” Yet, we lack the understanding that morality doesn’t stem from what we do. It stems from who we are.

The grotesque sins that we can commit aren’t always connected to something obviously vile. I’ll give you an example. I know a family that has two kids. Both of them have grown up to be hellions while still being involved in their church. She is quite sexually active, and he is always doped up on drugs. What caused this? When you take a look at the family as a whole, the parents are very lenient. They have the attitude that you can’t decide for yourself until you try it. So they allow their kids to be demons and hooked on drugs and sexuality with full expectation that they’ll grow out of it. But then it doesn’t stop with the sex and drugs. Now they disrespect their parents. Why?

The question doesn’t start with the disrespect. That is what the parents are so offended about. It doesn’t start with their lack of obedience. The place to start looking is the parent’s lack of love. It was their lack of being parents that led their children to find some other fill. It was that drive to find another fill that led to the bigger problem: a hatred of their own parents. The hatred isn’t the problem. That is a side effect of the problem.

I’ll give another example. I know someone who is divorced. They had a child out of wedlock. Their relationship to their ex-spouse is rocky. What came first: the rocky relationship or the divorce? Well, common sense would say the rocky relationship. That isn’t the case though. They had both divorced one another before even having trouble in the relationship. I don’t mean that they left one another. I mean that they were still allowing their interests in other men or women dictate. They were still flirtatious. They were still willing to show their love to another at their spouse’s expense. This was from both sides. The sin wasn’t the divorce. It wasn’t the child out of wedlock. The child out of wedlock and the wedding were both attempts to try to keep the relationship going. The downfall was that neither one of them were devoted.

What am I getting at with this? We need to be people who are willing to plumb the depths of our sins. We need to be willing to see it for what it really is. Morality doesn’t start with a question of right and wrong. Morality starts with devotion and determination that nothing will go unchecked and unnoticed. Everything that we do in life will be observed carefully to see if there is anything behind it that is evil in disguise.

It is a nice thing to pick up the check for someone else at the dinner table. What is the motive? Are you trying to be nice? Are you trying to show off? Are you trying to hold it over their head so that next time you can say they owe you? The righteous does righteous acts and doesn’t even realize they have done it. You can bring it up to them that the way they conduct themselves is very righteous. They wouldn’t have noticed.

For example: it says in Deuteronomy 15 that we are to take care of the orphans, widows, foreigners, traveler, family, and that we should not knowingly try to oppress anyone. This isn’t hard for the righteous. They just live in that kind of lifestyle. They are generous. When someone is seen without a coat, they give him or her their coat. They don’t even have to think about it. That is just who we’re taught to be by God. You see someone in need, so you supply the need.

This is where morality starts. It starts with motives and core actions. If you are an introvert, there are certain things that you need to be careful of. You need to be careful of not keeping quiet when it is necessary to speak. If you are an extrovert, you need to be careful not to speak when you need to be quiet. It isn’t about whether it is right or wrong. The issue is over a love of truth.

There are certain situations where it is more loving to keep quiet and allow someone to suffer and ask, “Why would God allow this?” There are times where if you keep quiet, you are now doing disservice. It takes discernment. It also takes a lot of agony. God will form you. I won’t say that I have arrived because this is the biggest struggle I have. Trying to find the absolute root of things is tough.

But this is what morality is. Morality is searching to the root. It is digging up everything until you find that first initial problem. This doesn’t always involve your own life (although that is most frequent). Would it have been the moral thing to do if Dietrich Bonhoeffer would have succeeded in killing Hitler? Hitler was a monster, but the Bible says to submit under the governmental authority. It says that vengeance is the Lord’s.

Probing the depths of morality takes effort. It takes more than effort. It takes a certain kind of moral stamina. It is easy to raise questions of whether it is “right or wrong.” It is much more painstaking to not be content with right or wrong but digging to the root to see where the issue really lies. Is it okay to kiss before marriage? Is it okay to display any kind of physical affection outside of marriage?

When we have a moral deficiency in any area, that deficiency will expose itself somewhere. This is certain: your sin will find you out. Moral deficiency isn’t about addictions to cigarettes or pornography. Moral deficiency is about a lack in even believing that there is a right or wrong in certain matters. Where were those parent’s morals when they allowed their children to grow up watching sex and drug filled movies? Where were those parent’s morals when they allowed their kids to go out partying all night? Now suddenly when they don’t have respect from their kids they want to play the morality card. You forfeited your morality when you allowed blatant sin and corruption to be displayed before their eyes daily in your own home.

I see a lot of people who have pictures of their whole family in a certain sport jersey. Then they want to talk about how their lives are devoted only to Jesus. You can’t have them both. If you have that severe of a pride for your favorite football team that your kids are forced to wear the jerseys before they even understand the sport, then you aren’t devoted to God. You can take your pick.

Morality must issue from God. He is the only fully moral being. Anything that will block us or keep us from seeing Him clearly and expressing Him clearly to others through our actions is not moral. Any kind of deception, whether inward or outward, is amoral. To be amoral is to reject morals. It is to say that morality doesn’t exist. There are no morals; there are only my own desires and lusts.

Lets take this back to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If man is the one deciding what is good and what is evil, then can there be true morality? Do we have that desire to probe the depths? Do we have that ability to discern the root of sin? It takes God’s speaking and discernment from His Holy Spirit to reveal to us the depths. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil is a cheapie. It is a cop-out, an evasion.

This is the struggle. We have two systems that have been established: the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and the tree of life. The one says that we can decide what is good and evil, the other claims there is none good but God. To which do you prescribe? Does the basis of all morality come from God? Do you search the inner depths of self to see if there is anything that comes from something outside of God? Jesus got to the root when He said that to look upon another woman with lust is adultery.

This is the definition of the two trees. One is morale; the other is life. To one we grant access that we are all supposed to be “good people” and that we ought not to be unkind and this is how civilized people ought to live and move and speak and treat one another. There are certain standards that have been made by society. It is improper to go around yelling the n-word. But why? Is it wrong because it is offensive, or is it wrong because the root comes from ungodliness?

If morality is merely doing and performing the things that cause the least amount of offense or human pain, then we have a cheap morality. And this is only setting the stage. The true depths come when we add in Ephesians. This is only describing the two sides. This is only defining terms. We have the wisdom of God versus the knowledge of men. But where does that knowledge come from? Who is it that gave the knowledge to man?

Here is where the plot thickens. Satan deceived Eve, and in that has given us our morality. The devil doesn’t care how moral we are. We can be good people. He will still destroy us in our morals. There are good atheists. They aren’t all evil. Some are. But by what definition do we prescribe someone as good or evil? If Jesus Himself questioned the rich young ruler for calling Him good, then why would any of us take the title of good? Even Jesus said that God alone is good; we ought all the more to recognize our failure.

⁸ Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ;

⁹ And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:
Ephesians 3:8-9

I did not put the full statement here on purpose. I don’t want to rush into this. Let it sink in. Paul was given the ability to see this mystery because he really believed that he was the least of all saints. It is from this that he goes into the depths of this mystery mentioned in verse 9. But let me prelude. This is a mystery, but Paul calls it, “the fellowship of the mystery.” Why would he call it that? It is because it is from fellowship that this mystery is obtained. I haven’t told you what the mystery is yet. But view carefully what is being said. Outside of fellowship with God and with each other, this mystery has no place.

We find in chapter 2 the kind of fellowship that Paul is talking about. He mentions that there is no distinction between the Jew and the Gentile. When we read Paul, we have to take him at all the words that he has spoken. We can’t just read the epistle to the Ephesians and suspect we know what he is talking about. The Romans are the only Church he wrote to that he did not also visit before he wrote.

It is within the Book of Romans (chapter 11) that we find Paul explained that we as Gentiles have been grafted into the House of Israel. So when we see Paul expound that there is neither Jew nor Gentile, he is saying that we are both grafted in.

This is extremely important. The better we can view and believe that, the better we can prepare and believe the rest of the eschatological Scriptures. Do you truly believe that you have been grafted in and are now a part of Israel? You, though you might be Gentile, are now the Israel of God. But that does not diminish Israel at all. It paradoxically fulfills Israel even more. Because we are grafted in, God now has an Israel (both Jew and Gentile alike – whether saved or unsaved (Romans 11:26)) that is a fuller representation of who He is in the Earth.

¹⁰ To the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God,
Ephesians 3:10

It is from this Israel that is the fullness of Him who fills all things that God is going to display to the principalities and powers (demons) the manifest wisdom of God. What is the manifest wisdom of God? It is the value system. It is everything we have been discussing about morality up to this point. There is an entire system that has been made where people follow and believe they are doing rightly, and yet are completely duped. God’s wisdom is to give strength to the weak. God’s wisdom is to use the fool to confound the wise. God’s wisdom is to take a sinner and be able to show the world through that wretch the righteousness of God.

How is it that we can display God’s wisdom? It is through being that Israel. It is from accepting the Jew, whether saved or unsaved, as part of the Kingdom because they are under the same Head – whether they know it or not. We are brothers and sisters with them. We are incomplete without them. They are incomplete without us. It is in unity that we are able to display the character of God. What kind of characteristic are we displaying? Drum roll, please.

God is a trinity. Jesus did nothing of Himself. In all things, He did only what He saw the Father do. He spoke only the words of the Holy Spirit. The Father only did that which would glorify the Son. He used the Holy Spirit to give strength and edification to Jesus. The Holy Spirit only desired to reveal the Father through Jesus. They were all interwoven together where you cannot see the one without seeing the other two. This is the basis of community. When you see me, you see my wife. You see those saints that God has put us in community with.

This is the fellowship of the mystery. When we can live sacrificial lives where our only desire is to promote and glorify our brothers and sisters (yes, that even means Israel), then we have come of age and are now qualified to rule and reign with Christ. It is by losing your life that you gain it. In living solely to glorify God and to promote those around you and to deny your own life so that Israel might live, you have now performed the priestly function of intercession. This is how God intends to display the manifest wisdom of God to the principalities and powers. This is how He intends to defeat Satan. By our deaths, and by the Antichrist overcoming us, we gain the victory. It is the same wisdom of the devil that put Jesus upon the cross. It is the same wisdom of God that raised Jesus from the dead and defeated Satan and death.

But there will be an ultimate triumph over both Satan and death. It awaits the consummation of the ages. It takes our death and sacrifice for Israel to defeat the powers that blind them. It takes Israel’s death and Calvary experience through the nations that defeats the demonic forces blinding the nations. It is in the death and resurrection of the saints that life is given to Israel. It is in the death and resurrection of Israel that life comes to the nations. As it is written:

¹² Now if the fall of them be the riches of the world, and the diminishing of them the riches of the Gentiles; how much more their fullness?

¹³ For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office:

¹⁴ If by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh, and might save some of them.

¹⁵ For if the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be, but life from the dead?
Romans 11:12-15 (emphasis mine)

It is with this perspective that we can rightly appreciate and perceive the eschatological framework. Therefore, I will give an overview of the end times for those who are going to need this repeated several times. In this overview, we will not be examining too many of the details. That will come in with Daniel and Revelation.

Pre-Eschatology Theology

I want to give a very basic overview of the necessary mindsets to have while reading the prophetic text. In discussing the theological framework of understanding the End Times, we can better be one more step forward in understanding before we even start. The topics I’ll look at are covenant, Israel’s destiny, theocracy, principalities and powers, our in-grafting (Romans 11), and hopefully be able to touch on the character of God.

The best place to start would be with the Kingdom of God. First and foremost, we must understand that this concept is a Jewish concept. There is nothing about it that is Gentile. The entire faith itself came out from Judaism. All of the disciples were Jewish. Though they were scattered and though some held positions that were contrary to respectable Judaism (like a tax collector), that does not relinquish them from being Jewish. Most scholars would agree that their names were Hebrew names like Mattityahu (Matthew in English), Jochanan (John in English), Jakov (James in our English versions), or Bar-Talmai (Bartholomew).

It is from this understanding that the faith is Jewish that we can move on. Have you ever noticed that some Jewish authors, scholars, or rabbis will not say or write “God?” They will write G-d. It is from a practice that stems back millennia. If you cannot see the face of God and live, then we ought to have the utmost respect for all aspects of God – including His name. Many people won’t say His name, and when it comes to saying or writing God, they find another way of addressing Him. In the 1^st century, one of the ways they would address God is by addressing His habitation: heaven. Thus, when we read in the Gospel of Matthew (which was written to the Jews), we find that Jesus refers to the Kingdom of Heaven. This is not different than the Kingdom of God. They are the same thing – the one respecting God’s name, and the other unafraid to pronounce God’s name.

So what was the Hebrew thought when speaking of the Kingdom of God? They didn’t have the New Testament to tell them it was “within you.” Jesus’ statement here is typically taken out of context to make a point that the Kingdom is invisible. But is it really? We find the Kingdom of God stems back to the first book of the Bible:

² And I will make of thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great; and thou shalt be a blessing:

³ And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed.
Genesis 12:2-3

This is the first time that God promises a blessing of all the nations – or “families of the Earth.” It is going to be through a people/nation that come from Abram. When we trace this story, we find that these people were known as the people Israel. In this passage everything hangs.

Certain aspects of doctrine that we claim in Christianity come from this passage. It even bears weight on the question of circumcision asked in the New Testament. Paul makes the argument that the promise was given to Abram before the covenant of circumcision. Therefore, if you have not been circumcised of body, but have been circumcised of heart, then you are under this Abrahamic Covenant.

The importance of this passage that God will have a people for Himself stretches through to the very end of the Bible. But lets for now take it bit-by-bit and piece-by-piece. When you reach Exodus, God brings His people Israel out of Egypt. They are called to be His people. Lets examine a couple of Scriptures and glean from them the importance.

And ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and an holy nation. These are the words which thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel.
Exodus 19:6

⁸When the Most High divided to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the bounds of the people according to the number of the children of Israel.

⁹ For the Lord's portion is his people; Jacob is the lot of his inheritance.
Deuteronomy 32:8-9

²⁹ For the gifts and calling of God are without repentance.
Romans 11:29

I suggest looking into that last passage a bit more. Read Romans 11 for the whole context. You’ll see that I’m not pulling it out of context, but actually bringing it into a more precise context. The point is more upon the first 2 Scriptures. Israel was called to be a nation of priests. In Deuteronomy 32 it claims that the boundaries of the other nations were actually set up according to the number of Israel.

Why would God select this people? What is it that they have to offer that is so different than the rest of the world? The answer, strangely, is exactly the same reason why God chooses anything. Why does God choose to take John Wesley from the rich and send him out to preach to the poor? Why does God choose the Land of Israel over any other land in the world? What is it that God sees in David that he didn’t see in his brothers? What did God see in the cross that we have missed? Why would God choose the cross as the execution of His Son instead of some other form of suffering? Why would God choose suffering anyway? Isn’t this unbecoming?

And here lies the intrinsic characteristic of God. God suffers. He doesn’t suffer because He has to suffer. He suffers because He chooses to suffer. Notice I did not say He wants to suffer. No one wants to suffer. Suffering isn’t what God desires; it is, however, what He has chosen. Why? In the foolishness of suffering, we see clearly the wisdom of God. God is not afraid of suffering. He is willing to suffer in order to attain the greater good. What is the greater good? The best and highest good is the glory of God. There is nothing loftier than for God to be glorified, for in it is the creations greatest good.

Here we have a problem of semantics. The question could be posed, “Why?” Why is it that God’s glory is the greatest earthly good? Have you ever heard the statement, “Don’t be too heavenly minded, or else you will be no earthly good?” It is quite the contrary. Unless you are heavenly minded, you are no earthly good. How else do you explain Jesus? Was he too heavenly minded? Nothing was spoken out of the mouth of Christ that did not have its inception within heaven.

So why would God choose Israel? Here is where the Biblical scholar must understand. You sacrosanct saints that want a cheapie and a nice lackadaisical understanding and grasp of the faith cannot comprehend the beauty of the eternal purposes of God. Who else have you ever heard speak this way? What is Israel? What are the Jews? Is it the people? Is it the Land? Is the nation? Is it a religion? What is it for heaven’s sake?

When we desire to define terms, know that I will only refer to Israel as the people in this writing. However, there is a much larger usage of this word. Israel, from the perception of God, is the people, within that Land, as a kingdom of priests to all nations. This requires something. It requires that they be in the Land. It requires that they are God’s people, and God is their God. It requires that they know their God as He in fact is. It requires that they do not break the Laws given; otherwise they will be exiled from that Land, and therefore no longer the people (Deuteronomy 28). It requires that they are priests. The Israel that is God’s inheritance is the people, Land, Torah (teachings), God within the people, and the covenants between God and that people.

Unless all of these things are fulfilled, God has gone against Himself in revoking (or repenting) His gifts and callings. This is crucial to understanding. There must be a time when Israel is saved and they know their Messiah Jesus. There must be a time when they are the priesthood to all nations. There must be a time when they possess the Land and will never be uprooted again (Amos 9). If these things do not happen, then God is not God. He chose these things because they are despised. They are foolish.

We see the character of God revealed within His choosing of this people and that land and their calling and their purposes. The Kingdom of God is not complete without them. We, as the Church, are in need of them and they are in need of us. We are for now a different people, but will be one under the same Head in the end. I would even argue that we are not a different entity from Israel, but that they are the separate entity from Israel. Israel can only be Israel when all of these things are met. Anyone who rejects the Messiah cannot be Israel. But we know from Romans 11:26 that “All Israel shall be saved, as it is written.” Is this mere homiletic mysticism and rhetoric?

What is the ultimate form of the Kingdom of God? What is it that we should be striving toward and looking toward? The Kingdom of God is and always will be a theocracy. Theo- means God and -cratic is rule or government. It is the government of God. He will forever be the supreme ruler. We find later in the Old Testament how God intends to be this:

¹² And when thy days be fulfilled, and thou shalt sleep with thy fathers, I will set up thy seed after thee, which shall proceed out of thy bowels, and I will establish his kingdom.

¹³ He shall build an house for my name, and I will stablish the throne of his kingdom for ever.

¹⁴ I will be his father, and he shall be my son.
2 Samuel 7:12-14

God is speaking to the Israeli King David. The Messiah must be a descendant from David. But He can’t just be a descendant of David. He has to surpass David. He has to be greater than David. It says in Jonah 2:9, “Salvation is of the Lord.”

The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou at my right hand, until I make thine enemies thy footstool.
Psalm 110:1

Here we see a Psalm of David where David actually calls the Messiah “Lord.” How can the Messiah be both the Lord and also a descendant of David? We find answer in that Jesus was born of a virgin. He was without human father. He only had God as His father. This is important. The rule of God depends upon one who will be able to rule the nations with an iron scepter (Psalm 2), but at the same time be a human descendant of David, and at the same time be God. But it isn’t enough that He is King. He must be a priest, for Psalm 110 continues:

⁴ The Lord hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek.
Psalm 110:4

In the Book of Hebrews, there is an excellent exposition on this very thing. The Kingdom of God is best summed up as follows: The government of God ruled by the Davidic King and Melchizedek Priest out of Israel and upon Zion. How about them apples?

Now, when we’re talking about the theocratic kingdom, we’re discussing something that we have a piece of today. The full expression is yet future. But we do experience a taste (or foretaste if you read King James) of what is ahead. Our very salvation and sealing of the Holy Spirit attest to the future glory that is to come. Words cannot express the depths. I would be willing to bet that words are unlawful to speak about what glories are to come (2 Corinthians 12:2-4).

What is it that we need to apprehend in order to get there? This is going to be a bit of eschatology, but it won’t necessarily be commentary on Revelation. Ultimately, this view that I have is a view of covenant – covenant failure, covenant obligation, covenant blessing, and covenant curse. This idea comes from Deuteronomy. It plainly states (especially within Deuteronomy 28) that if the people Israel follow and obey the covenant, then they will keep the Land, and all these blessings will come upon them. However, if they disobey this covenant, then they will be uprooted from the Land, and they will suffer curse and judgment from God as chastisement.

It is to this that I speak. There will be a final judgment or chastisement that the Israel of God must undergo. It is for the lack of understanding of both the future calamity and the ultimate glory of Israel – and thus the glory of God – that people misinterpret Scripture after Scripture and hope that the Jewish state will change its tune and come to God and find Jesus and everything will be groovy.

If we think that priesthood comes from some sort of calling or some sort of ordination without appropriation of character, then we have lost the biblical mindset. Priesthood requires something ultimate. The priest must identify with those to whom he is ministering, taking upon self their guilt and sin. It takes a very certain kind of person – one that states, “I am the chief of all sinners” – that can minister in a priestly way. It requires the deepest breaking over sin and understanding that we in our humanity are only too easily deceived and ready to snatch up any sin. Nothing is too off limits. There is nothing too risqué. There is nothing too provocative. We are all capable of the same grotesque sins, and we are all guilty before God.

In order for the people Israel to be priestly, that kind of mindset and character must come upon them. I believe that Paul’s apostolate to the Gentiles was a foretaste of Israel’s ultimate call to be an apostolic entity to the nations. The Gentiles hung upon the neck of Paul and wept when they heard the news that he would be bound in chains at Jerusalem. Imagine a nation of Pauls going out into the world and the Gentile nations having the same kind of love and adoration of them.

When we browse Isaiah 35 we find an End Time stratagem for that people:

The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.
Isaiah 35:1

⁴ Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompence; he will come and save you.

⁵ Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.
Isaiah 35:4-5

⁷ And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: in the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes.

⁸ And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein.
Isaiah 35:7-8

¹⁰ And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
Isaiah 35:10

Their return shall be with “everlasting joy.” Why everlasting? Because, they will never sorrow again. God will wipe away every tear. But how do they come to such a place? It is in the judgment of God upon their sin. They will be cast out into the wilderness places, and God will meet with them face-to-face. How does God meet with them face-to-face? He does it through a servant Body that is already upon this Earth, though it is not a part of the Israel that is being judged…

Do you see how the pieces fit together yet? Our role and function as the Church is to be that priestly nation to them. Paul even says, “…to the Jew first, and then to the Greek,” Romans 1:16. Our call and chief role is not to be the priesthood to the nations like we have thought. That does not come until the Millennium with them. Until that time, our calling and role is to drive them to jealousy (Romans 11). We are to be priestly in identifying with them in their sin and possibly going to our death in that identification.

When this end time calamity is upon us, I don’t doubt that there will be persecution of Christians. It says this blatantly in both Old and New Testament. Daniel says the Antichrist will overcome the saints, and again will wear out the saints. Revelation 13 says that the Antichrist will war against the saints and overpower them. It says in Revelation 12, though, that the dragon makes war with the woman first, and goes after the believers in Jesus after (Revelation 12:17). The woman is undoubtedly Israel. A woman almost always (I can’t think of any exceptions off the top of my head) means Israel in the prophetic writings.

If the persecution comes upon Israel first, then why do we not expect them to receive any kind of persecution? Why do leading speakers seems to indicate quite the opposite? So many believe that Israel won’t be uprooted again and that they are indestructible. From what biblical bases does this come? Their history has only shown the opposite. They rejected God and were carried away to Babylon. They rejected the Messiah and were scattered through the nations. Why would this be different?

¹⁰Hear the word of the LORD, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock.

¹¹For the LORD hath redeemed Jacob, and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than he.

¹²Therefore they shall come and sing in the height of Zion, and shall flow together to the goodness of the LORD, for wheat, and for wine, and for oil, and for the young of the flock and of the herd: and their soul shall be as a watered garden; and they shall not sorrow any more at all.

¹³Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, both young men and old together: for I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow.

Jeremiah 31:10-13

Virtually every time that this Millennial blessedness of Israel’s is mentioned, it makes mention that they will sorrow no more, they will be comforted, they will have peace, they will suffer no more terror and violence, etc. It eventually starts to make sense that this time of blessedness happens immediately after a time of persecution.

²Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes;

³For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited.

Isaiah 54:2-3

Here is another statement of millennial promise: “Your descendants will possess the nations,” and before the sentence is concluded, God adds, “And will resettle the desolate cities.” In the whole redemptive program of God, His intention is to bless the nations. He is the God of the nations. They shall come to know God through a redeemed Israel, and they will come to the brightness of that nations rising:

¹Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the LORD is risen upon thee.

²For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.

³And the Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising.

⁴Lift up thine eyes round about, and see: all they gather themselves together, they come to thee: thy sons shall come from far, and thy daughters shall be nursed at thy side.

⁵Then thou shalt see, and flow together, and thine heart shall fear, and be enlarged; because the abundance of the sea shall be converted unto thee, the forces of the Gentiles shall come unto thee.

Isaiah 60:1-5

¹⁰And the sons of strangers shall build up thy walls, and their kings shall minister unto thee: for in my wrath I smote thee, but in my favour have I had mercy on thee.

¹¹Therefore thy gates shall be open continually; they shall not be shut day nor night; that men may bring unto thee the forces of the Gentiles, and that their kings may be brought.

¹²For the nation and kingdom that will not serve thee shall perish; yea, those nations shall be utterly wasted.

Isaiah 60:10-12

²³Thus saith the LORD of hosts; In those days it shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold out of all languages of the nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, We will go with you: for we have heard that God is with you.

Zechariah 8:23

¹⁸Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders; but thou shalt call thy walls Salvation, and thy gates Praise.

Isaiah 60:18

²¹Thy people also shall be all righteous: they shall inherit the land for ever, the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified.

Isaiah 60:21

Notice here what I have been saying all along. There will come a time when Israel will inherit the Land forever. But that cannot happen if the covenant will continue to get broken. If they continue to reject God, then they will never be His people in that Land. This qualifies for a definition of terms. There is an immense difference between appropriation and inheritance. An inheritance is only given to those in right relation with God. Appropriation can be given to whomever. The redeemed nation is given an everlasting covenant that cannot be broken, and in that condition, the Land can be inherited as “the branch of My planting, the work of My hands, that I may be glorified.” There is something about the Lord planting that gives the mind an image of peace. It is not exacerbating to the neighbors of Israel (unlike what we see today), but instead brings them peace and blessedness.

In that day, there shall be one King, one kingdom, and one Lord over all. But that cannot come unless Israel suffers her own road to Calvary experience. There must be a putting to death all that would trust in the arm of the flesh. She must go down out of the Land and into the wilderness places. It is in that wilderness that she will meet her God. But if we’re raptured out of this world, then I suppose that means that Israel will need some other way of coming to know her God.

This is where I’ve heard ridiculous theories. Some say that the rabbi’s will have a revelation and start teaching about Jesus (because that worked the first time?). Others say that Israel has no part. Still others say that they will come to Christ by our witnessing to them before the Tribulation, and then they will preach the Gospel during the Tribulation. For reasons that I think we’ve already been through, I have immense problems with these. I think the one thing I hate more than any other is the idea that we’re beyond chastisement or undergoing suffering. If God did not even spare His own Son, then why would He spare you? By what means of reasoning do you honestly believe that God will rapture His Church out at all?

It is in this end time scenario that we are met face-to-face with our own inadequacy. It haunts us. We aren’t mature enough to struggle this. We aren’t ready. We’re complacent and lazy. We’re too lukewarm and pampered to endure to the end. It will take a certain kind of person to be able to handle the grit and trauma of this extreme. It is one thing for me to give Scripture evidence and speak of this calamity, but how will I react when it actually happens? Will I be able to handle it? Will I collapse under the weight of hearing stories and meeting people and watching gruesome tales play out before my eyes?

It is to this that I wish to speak in the next segment.