MAX KLEIN BIBLE MINISTRIES
The Seven Baptisms
Written by: Max Klein
Baptism means identification or association:
Introduction:
1. This meaning began in Homer's time. Homer wrote of the one-eyed giant, Cyclops who had trapped Ulysses and his men in a cave and was eating them one at a time. The ingenious Ulysses devised a plan. He had his men sharpen a large log and together they rammed this log into the eye of the one-eyed Cyclops rendering him blind. They identified (baptized) the sharpened log with Cyclops’ eye which changed Cyclops from a seeing giant to a blind giant. Having blinded the Cyclops, they were able to maneuver their way out of the cave. Another example by Homer: Homer's Odyssey, book 9, used baptism for hot metal identified (baptized) with water when a smith dipped a piece of hot iron into water. This is how a blacksmith would temper swords in the ancient world. After this identification, the sword was made stronger and so less likely to bend.
2. Xenophon said that the Spartan military recruits after finishing infantry training would identify (baptize) their spears with pig’s blood. They would run by a barrel of pig’s blood and thrust their spears into this blood. This ritual, identified their spears with killing and the soldier’s readiness for combat with the enemy.
3. Euripides used the word for a ship identified with the bottom of the sea when it sank. Before sinking, the ship was valuable; after sinking it had no value at all.
4. So "baptize" in the classical Greek meant to identify one thing with another so that the characteristics of the original thing were altered. Therefore, the interpretation of the word "baptism" is identification with something that brings about a change.
5. There are a number of cognates related to this Greek word such as bapto, baptizo, baptisma, baptismos, baptistes, and embapto. A few examples follow:
6. John 13:26, “Jesus then answered, ‘That is the one for whom, I shall dip [the future of the Greek word bapto] the morsel and give it to him. So, when he had dipped [the aorist participle of bapto; the sop now takes on a new meaning that of honor] the sop [the morsel], He took and gave it to Judas, the son of Simon Iscariot.”
To give someone a sop [a special bit of food usually a piece of bread or meat with a tasty sauce] was the highest honor of a banquet. At a banquet a special piece of bread or meat was prepared along with a special sauce for the guest of honor who would then honor someone by giving it to that person. Jesus as the guest of honor took this sop and dipped it into a special sauce and gave it to Judas. In this way, the Lord Jesus Christ honored Judas as a member of the family of God, and for his ministry as an apostle to the Lost Sheep of Israel. This honor should have given Judas second thoughts regarding his plan to betray Jesus to the Sanhedrin.
7. Matthew 3:7, “but when he [John the Baptizer] saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming for baptism [identification: the Greek word baptisma], he said to them, “You brood of vipers [poisonous snakes], who warned you to flee from the wrath to come [Baptism of Fire: identification with the fire of Torments and then the Lake of Fire]?”
8. Hebrews 6:1-2, “Therefore, leaving behind the elementary teaching about Christ, let us advance to maturity, not laying again the foundation [of the basics such as]: a change of thinking about dead works [just as an unbeliever must have a change of mind about Christ to obtain salvation, so the believer must have a change of mind about legalism (dead works) in order to obtain the spiritual life], and of faith toward God [Faith-Rest Drill], (2) doctrine of baptisms [the Greek word baptismos; a reference to the seven types of baptism as found in Scripture] as well as the laying on of hands [ritual rebound in the age of Israel], and of resurrection from the dead, and of eternal judgment [the Great White Throne Judgment].
9. Matthew 3:1, “In those days John the Baptizer [the Greek word baptistes; when John baptized someone into the Jordan River, the converts were identified with the plan of God and his kingdom.] came proclaiming [as a herald] in the desert of Judea.”
There are two categories of identification in Scripture namely an actual identification or a real baptism and a representative identification or a ritual baptism which uses water.
The four real or actual identifications with something that has significance.
1. The Baptism of Moses: 1 Corinthians 10:1-2 presents the baptism of Moses, "For I do not want you to be unaware, brethren, that our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea; (2) and all were baptized [the Greek word baptizo] into Moses in the cloud [the Lord] and in the sea." This was a real identification in which Moses was identified with the Lord and the open path through the Red Sea and the Jews were identified with Moses. By the way, none of the Jews got wet, only Egyptian unbelievers who were immersed in the water as a means of death.
2. The Baptism of the Cross is found in Matthew 20:22, “But Jesus answered [Salome by addressing her sons] and said, “You [plural: a reference to James and John] do not know what you [James and John] ask. Are you [James and John] able to drink of the cup [bear the punishment of all the sins of the world] that I am about to drink of, and to be baptized with the baptism [the sins of the world identified with Christ followed by the Father judging them] that I am baptized with [identified with]?” They [James and John] said to Him, “We are able. [the dumbest statement that James and John ever made]” [I selected the longer text as did Jerome.]
3. The Baptism of the Holy Spirit (Retroactive Positional Truth and Current Positional Truth) occurs at salvation for Church Age believers only.
Colossians 2:12. Having been buried [aorist participle] with Him [Jesus Christ] by means of the baptism [God the Holy Spirit identified us with the burial of Jesus Christ as part of our salvation] by means of which [Baptism] you have been raised up [main verb] with Him [in union with Jesus Christ seated at the right hand of the Father] through faith [at the point of salvation] in the operational power from the source of God who has raised Him [the humanity of Christ was given a resurrection body] out from the dead [physical death].
Romans 6:3-9:
Romans 6:3: Or do you not know that all of us who [a correlative] have been baptized into [identified with] Christ Jesus [Current Positional Sanctification: we are in union with Christ in his life in heaven], have been baptized into His death [Retroactive Positional Truth and so identified with his substitutionary spiritual death on the cross]?
Positionally, (in union with Christ) we share His righteousness, heirship, priesthood, destiny, election, eternal life, royalty, sonship etc. All these making us a new spiritual species in Christ Jesus. The plural correlative hosoi (ὅσοι) means that if we were identified with Christ in heaven and we were, then also we have been identified with Christ in his substitutionary spiritual death in which he removed the power of sin nature. Thus, the sin nature should not have power over our lives.
A few more points will be noted:
1. Note that the baptism of the Holy Spirit at salvation enters the believer into union with Christ at the right hand of God the Father which union is called current positional truth.
2. This verse also mentions identification with Christ in His spiritual death on the cross which identification theologians call retroactive positional truth. Retroactive positional truth also includes identification with Christ in His physical death and burial as well.
3. Identification with Christ in His death, then, has a two-fold connotation namely all personal sins were judged at the cross and since that is the case, God the Father is free to provide in grace, the Recovery Procedure. The second connotation is that good and evil were rejected by Jesus on the cross since good and evil are a part of Satan’s policy and plan. On the cross, Jesus relied on the proto-type spiritual life which operated under the two power options namely God’s power system.
4. So, the old sin nature’s ruling power over the Christian has been broken since all sins were judged on the cross and the Recovery Procedure has been provided. So, Retroactive Positional Truth has destroyed the sovereignty of the old sin nature over the life of the Christian.
5. Also, since Jesus rejected the good and evil policy of Satan so should the believer reject Satan’s policy of good and evil as the believer applies Retroactive Positional Truth.
Romans 6:4: Therefore, we have been buried together with Him through the identification [Baptism of the Spirit] into His death [physical], in order that just as Christ has been raised up from the dead [on Resurrection Sunday], through the glory of the Father [through the Father’s power], [So also we, the dead in Christ, will be raised from the dead by the power of the Father, and those alive at the Rapture, by the power of the Holy Spirit.] in this manner we also might walk in newness of life [Experiential sanctification should reflect our future ultimate sanctification.].
Christ had to die physically “and Jesus having shouted clearly with a loud voice said, Father, into your hands I deposit my [human] spirit, and having said this, he exhaled” (Luke 23:46). This last exhale caused His soul and spirit to depart from his mortal body resulting in physical death. Just as Christ had to die physically in order to obtain his resurrection body, so we must depart from our body of corruption, or mortality in order to receive our eternal body called our resurrection body.
The Newness of Life:
1. The newness of life provided through the baptism of the Spirit includes positional freedom from producing good and evil. Not only are we free from the tyranny of good and evil but we are also free from having to produce good and evil.
2. The believer has no obligation to improve the devil’s world through social action, socialism, welfare state, communism, environmentalism, or any social gospel, social action, getting involved, etc.
3. The human race is protected from Satan’s policy of good and evil through the laws of divine establishment which promote freedom instead of improvement at the cost of freedom.
4. In addition to the Laws of Divine Establishment the believer is insulated from good and evil positionally through the baptism of the Spirit.
5. Divorced from the Old Sin Nature positionally and its useless activity of human good and the function of evil, the life of the believer can be devoted to glorifying the Lord Jesus Christ through maximum knowledge and application of Bible doctrine.
Romans 6:5: For if we have become united with Him [Christ, the new husband] in the likeness of His death [the substitutionary spiritual death of Christ on the cross], and we have, and not only this, but also, we shall be [united in the likeness] of His resurrection [Current Positional Truth: in union with the resurrected Christ].
Romans 6:6: Be knowing this [through Retroactive Positional Truth], that our old man [our former husband, the sin nature dates back to the Garden] has been crucified together [with Him], in order that the [human] body, with reference to its sin nature, [the sin nature located in the body] might be rendered powerless [when we use Recovery Procedure and the two power options], that we should no longer be slaves to the sin nature.
“Our old man has been crucified with Him” meaning that the power of the sin nature has been broken on the cross. Since the power of the sin nature was broken by the work of the cross, we as believers have no excuse for not executing the spiritual life. We will not be able to say to Christ at our evaluation that our sin nature was too powerful for us to execute the spiritual life.
A few points for further clarification:
1. Retroactive positional truth is that phase of the baptism of the Holy Spirit at salvation which identifies the believer with Christ in His spiritual death, physical death and his burial.
2. In the substitutionary spiritual death of Christ on the cross all the personal sins in human history were imputed to Christ, but at the same time the other two trends of the old sin nature were not imputed for judgment.
3. Good and evil is the policy of Satan as the ruler of this world and the function of the old sin nature as the sovereign of human life. In fact, the sin nature functions as the agent of Satan.
4. Good and evil were not imputed for judgment on the cross. Hence, in the spiritual death of Christ on the cross they were rejected to remain an issue in the angelic conflict, rejected to be perpetuated in human history as an issue every believer must face, and either overcome through the intake of doctrine or be entrapped by ignorance of doctrine and therefore lose out in glorifying God in time.
5. We are identified with Christ in His spiritual death, which means that we must understand that our sins have been judged and that good and evil has been rejected.
6. It all adds up to the fact that the sovereignty of the old sin nature over human life has been made powerless through retroactive positional truth.
7. The imputation of all personal sins of the human race to Christ on the cross means that the believer through the rebound technique is instantly forgiven sins, cleansed from all wrong doing which includes Satanic good and evil, restored to fellowship and filled with the Spirit.
Romans 6:7: For we who have died [the Christian is identified with the substitutionary spiritual death of Christ: theologically called Retroactive Positional Truth] have been acquitted [positional deliverance] from [the power of] the sin nature.
A few points for further clarification:
1. A dead person is discharged from the obligations of his former sphere of life. This is why the word “death” is used in this context. It is not a literal, physical death we are discussing but identification with Christ in His death.
2. As unbelievers we were under the authority of Satan as the ruler of this world, and under the authority of the old sin nature as the sovereign of human life.
3. Both the power of Satan and the old sin nature have been abrogated through the baptism of the Holy Spirit at salvation.
4. This passage, then, emphasizes the annulling of the power and the authority of the old sin nature as the sovereign of human life.
5. Positionally, the power of the sin nature has been broken. Experientially, the old sin nature controls to the extent that we fail to understand and utilize the provision and support of logistical grace.
Romans 6:8: Now if we have died with Christ, and we have [retroactive positional truth], we also believe that we shall live in association with Him [the instrumental of association; a reference to Current Positional Truth].
In this verse, the 1st Class conditional sentence shows the relationship between Retroactive Positional Truth with Current Positional Truth. The protasis, the ‘if’ clause states the reality of Retroactive Positional Truth and the apodosis, the concluding clause states the doctrinal inference and the reality of Current Positional Truth. While Retroactive Positional Truth presents positional rejection and separation from good and evil as the policy of Satan and the function of the old sin nature, Current Positional Truth relates the believer to the function of the royal family of God. In other words, they have separate functions.
Romans 6:9: Knowing that because Christ has been raised from the dead [He received a resurrection body], no longer can He die; [physical] death is no longer a master over Him.
Analysis:
1. Retroactive positional truth destroys the sovereign authority of the old sin nature over human life. Current positional truth, on the other hand, destroys the limited authority of physical death in human life.
2. Instead of being ruled by the old sin nature located in the cells of the human body and influencing our souls toward sin, good and evil, we now have a new sovereign, the Lord Jesus Christ. We are identified with Him in His deaths, in His burial, resurrection, ascension and session.
3. Before salvation and the baptism of the Holy Spirit our lives were under the absolute rule of Satan who is the ruler of this world and under the rule of the old sin nature which is the ruler of life, and under the limited rule of physical death. All of that, of course, has been changed since salvation.
4. Now both retroactive and current positional truth have abrogated the authority and power of these former rulers. The power of Satan over our lives has been broken through identification with the rejection of good and evil namely Satan’s policy and plan and through our position in union with Christ. The power of the old sin nature is broken through retroactive positional truth and the power of physical death is broken through current positional truth.
5. Therefore, having studied these things by principle and by implication we are now ready for application, verses 12 & 13 specifically.
6. Having been positionally liberated from the sovereignty of the old sin nature as an absolute ruler, and the authority of physical death, we must recognise and apply doctrine for the experiential victory commanded in verses 11-13.
Galatians 3:25-28, “But now that faith has come, we are no longer under the authority of [have need of] a school bus. (26) For you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. (27) For all of you who were baptized into Christ [identified with Christ through union with Him] have clothed yourselves with Christ. (28) There is neither Jew nor Greek [no racial distinction], there is neither slave nor free man [no social or economic distinction], there is neither male nor female [no gender distinction]; for you are all one in Christ Jesus. [All Christians have the same privileges and opportunities to execute the spiritual life.]”
Current Positional Truth, Elaborated:
In the Church Age, Current Positional Truth establishes our relationship with Christ as opposed to religion. It refers to the Church Age believer in union with Christ and is the key to understanding the Church Age and how the royal family came into being. Therefore, it is the basis for distinguishing between Christianity and religion. Christianity is a relationship with God without merit whereas religion is a system of works to gain the approbation of God. Never shall the twain meet!
The mechanics of Current Positional Truth is the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, whereby the Spirit enters us into union with Christ. 1 Corinthians 12:13, “For also by agency of the one Spirit we are all baptized [identification resulting in becoming a new spiritual species] into one body [in union with Christ], whether Jews or Greeks [racial distinctions are removed], whether slave or free [class and economic distinctions are removed], even all were made to drink [the aorist passive, the voice of grace] the one Spirit [The Holy Spirit did not ask us whether we wanted to be put into union with Christ or not.].” Ephesians 4:5, “One Lord [becomes our Lord positionally at Salvation]), one faith [faith alone in Christ alone; Acts 16:31], one baptism [Baptism of the Holy Spirit takes place at salvation].”
Current Positional truth guarantees that there will be no judgment for believers in eternity, Romans 8:1, “Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.” Thus, the condemnation which occurred at the first birth was removed at the 2nd birth. As a result of being born with the sin nature and the imputation of Adam’s Original Sin, we were condemned to the Lake of Fire for all eternity, but now that has been removed. Romans 5:12, “For this reason just as through one man [Adam] the sin [nature] entered into the world [procreation], and so spiritual death through the sin [the imputation of Adam’s Original Sin to the sin nature], and so spiritual death spread to all mankind, because all sinned when Adam sinned [since we were all genetically in Adam when he sinned, we will receive Adam’s Original Sin].” However, at our spiritual birth, the 2nd birth, our pre-salvation sins were all forgiven including Adam’s Original Sin. After which, the Spirit entered us into union with Christ where there is now no condemnation (Romans 8:1).
Current Positional truth qualifies the believer to live with God forever. To live with God forever, the believer must have eternal life and God’s perfect righteousness, 1 John 5:11-12, “And this is the deposition [testimony] that the God [the Father] has given to us, eternal life, and this life is in his son [Since we are in union with Christ, we share this life.]. (12) and he who has the son [a relationship with the Son] has the life [eternal life] and the one who does not have the son of God [relationship with the Son] does not have the life [eternal life].” 2 Corinthians 5:21, “And He [the Father] made Him who knew no sin [perfection] to be a sin offering [imputation of sins on the cross] as a substitute for us so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him [current positional truth].” To live with God forever means you must have His life, and you must be as righteous as He is.
Positional truth guarantees the believer’s eternal security, Romans 8:38-39, “For I am persuaded that neither death [nothing in death] nor life [nothing in life] nor angels nor principalities [ruling angels] nor powers [human organizations] nor things present nor things to come (39) nor height [nothing in heaven] nor depth [nothing in Hades] nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Eternal life in Christ is for all eternity!
Positional truth belongs to all categories of believers whether they be apostate, mature, immature, spiritually adult, or carnal. Since Current Positional Truth occurs at the point of salvation before experience in the Christian life begins, it doesn’t depend on that experience. 1 Corinthians 1:2, “to the church of God which is in Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus [at salvation], called saints together with all who call upon the person of Our Lord Jesus Christ, their [Lord] and ours.” So, even though you may be carnal or in reversionism, you still have positional truth. Being in union with Christ has nothing to do with what you do [experiential righteousness], or don’t do [failure to execute God’s plan]. Current Positional sanctification is completely the work of God the Holy Spirit and so is not based upon our volition, but on the sovereign decision of God. We make the decision to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, but we don’t make the decision to enter into union with Christ “all were made to drink the one Spirit” as per 1 Corinthians 12:13. God the Holy Spirit graciously did that for us and so it cannot be undone.
Current Positional truth creates a new spiritual species in Christ as per 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ and he is, he is a new spiritual species. The old things have lost their power; behold, new things have come to pass.” You become a new spiritual species at salvation by being put into union with Christ. It is what God does for you, and therefore it is grace. It is not what you do after salvation, such as the self-righteous works of legalism. The “old things” have to do with spiritual death and those things related to that death; the “new things” refer to things you receive at salvation such as the 40 assets and the unique spiritual life.
Positional truth should motivate the production of divine good and a pattern of life compatible with royalty as per Ephesians 2:10, “For we are his creation, having been created in Christ Jesus [a new spiritual species with many assets] for the purpose of divine good production [via experiential sanctification] which the God [the Father] has prepared in advance [in eternity past, God the Father provided election and predestination as part of our Portfolio of Invisible Assets], that we in the sphere of them [election and predestination] may pattern our lives.”
Even though a Christian may die the Sin on to Death, he will not lose his position in union with Christ (1 John 5:18-20), and so cannot lose his salvation. In order for a believer to lose his position in Christ, he would have to sin in that status, but since the believer cannot sin in union with Christ, he cannot lose his position in Christ and so cannot lose his salvation. Thus, it is comforting and reassuring to a believer to know that even though a loved one may have died the ‘sin on to death’, he has not lost his salvation.
Because we are in union with Christ, we share His:
1. Eternal life, 1 John 5:11, “And this is the deposition [testimony] that the God [the Father] has given to us, eternal life [At salvation, God the Father imputes this life to the human spirit], and this life is in his son [The Christian also shares the life of Christ through union with Him]. (12) and he who has the son [a relationship with the Son] has the life [eternal life] and the one who does not have the son of God [relationship with the Son] does not have the life [eternal life].”
John 14:6, “Jesus said to him [Thomas], ‘I am the way, the truth and the life [eternal life]; no person [in human history] comes face to face with the Father [having an eternal relationship with the Father] except through Me.’”
2. Perfect righteousness, 2 Corinthians 5:21, “And he (God the Father) made him [Jesus] who knew no sin (perfection) to be a sin offering as a substitute for us so that we might become the righteousness of God in him [positional truth]. Sharing the righteousness of Christ, we become the objects of God the Father’s love as per Romans 8:39.
3. Election, Ephesians 1:4, “just as He [the Father] has elected us for Himself in Him [Jesus Christ] before the creation of the world [in eternity past], that we may be set apart [experiential sanctification] and blameless [ultimate sanctification] in the presence of Him [Father].”
4. Destiny, Ephesians 1:5, “By means of love, He has predestined us for the purpose of adoption as adult sons to Himself through Christ Jesus our Lord according to the grace purpose of His will.”
5. Sonship, Galatians 3:26, “For you are all sons of God through faith in Christ Jesus.”
6. Heirship, Romans 8:16-17, “The Spirit Himself testifies together [bears witness] with our [human] spirit, that we are the children of God. (17) Now, if we are children and we are, also heirs, on the one hand heirs of God [the Father], and joint heirs with Christ. If indeed [if it is true that], we suffer with Him [pass all three stages of undeserved suffering], that also we might be glorified with Christ.”
7. Sanctification, 1 Corinthians 1:2, “to the church of God which is in Corinth, to those who have been sanctified in Christ Jesus, called saints together with all who call upon the person of Our Lord Jesus Christ, their [Lord] and ours.”
8. Priesthood, Hebrews 7:12-19, “For when the priesthood is changed, of necessity there takes place a change in the Law also. (13) For the One [the Lord Jesus Christ] concerning whom these things are spoken belongs to another tribe [the tribe of Judah] from which no one has officiated at the altar. (14) For it is evident that our Lord has descended from Judah, a tribe with reference to which Moses spoke nothing concerning priests, (15) and this is clearer still, if another priest arises similar to Melchizedek, and there has, (16) who has become a priest not on the basis of physical requirement [a reference to the Levitical Priesthood] but on the basis of indestructible life [the Lord’s priesthood is forever]. (17) For this reason, it is witnessed, ‘You are a priest forever similar to the order of Melchizedek.’” [We are in union with Christ. Therefore, we are royalty and priests forever. We represent ourselves before God as royal priests.] (18) For, on the one hand, there is a rescinding of the former commandment [the Mosaic Law that authorized the Levitical priesthood] because of its weakness and uselessness (19) (for the Law brought nothing to completion), but on the other hand, there is the bringing in of a better hope [the second door of hope for the Church Age believer—a personal sense of destiny—by which we enter the adult spiritual life] through which we draw near to God.”
Hebrews 7:26-28, “For it is fitting that we should have such a high priest, impeccable integrity, the One who cannot do evil, undefiled, separated from sinners and exalted above the heavens; (27) Who does not need daily, like those Levitical priests, to offer up sacrifices, first for their own sins, and then for the sins of the people, because this He did once for all when He [Jesus] offered up Himself. (28) For the Law appoints men as high priests who are weak, but the word of His [God the Father’s] oath, which came after the Law, appoints a Son, who has become perfect forever [Jesus Christ is a perfect high priest].”
9. Royalty, 1 Peter 2:9, “ But you and only you are an elect [elect by God the Father] race [as a new spiritual species], a royal priesthood [since Jesus is a king-priest], a holy nation [God’s entity: a nation of priests: every Christian is a priest], a people for God’s own possession [a protected people], so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him [Christ] who has called [in eternity past] you out of darkness [spiritual death and the Cosmic Systems] into His amazing light [his plan];”
10. New Spiritual Species, 2 Corinthians 5:17, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ and he is, he is a new spiritual species. The old things have lost their power [Old Covenant]; behold, new things have come to pass [This would include the New Covenant to the Church.].”
Current Positional Truth changes our relationship with Angels.
1. Through current positional truth the believer is higher than angels positionally.
2. Christ is seated at the right hand of the Father, and so superior to all angels. By virtue of being in union with Christ, every believer is now positionally superior to angels.
3. Positional truth has fulfilled the believer’s triumph with Christ in the angelic conflict. We are victorious with Him already.
4. Furthermore, positional truth demands compatibility with experiential righteousness. Therefore, the believer’s walk on this earth must be compatible with positional truth since we have perfect security in Christ, we have the freedom to choose for Jesus Christ, to love Jesus Christ, to respond to His love, and to fulfill our purpose on this earth.
What positional truth is not?
1. It is not an experience, emotions or ecstasies.
2. It is not progressive; it cannot be improved in time or eternity.
3. It is not related to human merit or ability.
4. It cannot be changed by God, man or angels. It is eternal in nature.
5. It is not obtained gradually as you grow in grace, but in toto at salvation.
6. It is not known apart from the metabolization of doctrine.
7. From understanding the doctrine of positional truth, we progress in our spiritual life, but we cannot improve it since it is perfect at salvation.
8. We are not in Christ because of what we do (execution of the spiritual life) or fail to do (fail to execute the spiritual life), but because of what God has done.
A few points of explanation:
1. The conclusion from positional truth, whether retroactive or current, is that the Christian must apply these doctrines to his spiritual life.
2. In Romans 7:1-4 where we have an illustration of a woman whose first husband has died freeing her to marry another. This is what actually happens to us as believers at salvation. The old sin nature is the husband up to the point of salvation, but at the moment we believe in Jesus Christ positionally the sin nature is dead, as it were, the first husband has died and we have a new husband through union with Christ. Retroactive Positional Truth removes our first husband, the sin nature whereas Current Positional Truth enters us into union with Christ, our new husband.
3. The old sin nature-husband is still around, still seeking to regain his control over his former wife, the believer. But union with the second husband, the Lord Jesus Christ, has broken the first husband’s authority over the former wife.
4. The Baptism of Fire:
Matthew 3:11, “On the one hand I [John the Baptizer] baptize you [believers] by means of water because of a change of thinking [about Christ], but the one coming after me is mightier than I whose sandals I am not worthy to lace [loosen, remove]. He himself will baptize by means of the Holy Spirit [a reference to the Baptism of the Holy Spirit in the Church Age] and by means of fire [a reference to the Baptism of Fire at the 2nd Advent].”
Baptism of Fire: The baptism of fire (identification with fire) is defined as the judgment of unbelievers both Jew and gentile at the Second Advent. They will be removed from the earth and placed in fire for 1000 years until the Last Judgment, Luke 3:16-17; Mathew 25:31, 33. The analogy to the Baptism of Fire is found in Matthew 24:36-41. The one left in the field is the mature believer; the one taken is the unbeliever.
Parables of the Baptism of Fire:
1. The wheat and the tares (the unbelievers), Matthew 13:24-30, 36-40.
2. The good and bad fish (unbelievers), Matthew 13:47-50.
3. The ten virgins: five wise, five foolish (the unbelievers), Matthew 25:1-13.
4. The sheep and the goats (the unbelievers), Mathew 25:31-46.
5. The talent test, Matthew 25:14-30. The one talent man represents the unbeliever.
If Jesus Christ had not been rejected by the Jewish people, then the age of Israel would have continued until its completion (the Tribulation completes the age of Israel). (However, they did reject Jesus Christ as Savior and Messiah and so the client nation was destroyed, and the Church age was intercalated that is inserted before the age of Israel was complete.) After the completion of the age of Israel at the end of the Tribulation, comes the wrath of God namely the Baptism of Fire when the Lord removes both Jewish and gentile unbelievers from the earth and identifies them with fire forever. After which, the Millennial reign begins.
The Three Ritual Baptisms. None are extant at the present time. They are representative identifications in which water is used as a training aid to represent some principle of doctrine.
1. The Baptism of John is found in Matthew 3:2-6, “Saying, ‘Change your thinking [regarding Christ] for the kingdom of heaven is near.’ [The future king was already on the earth] (3) For this is what was communicated through Isaiah, the prophet saying, ‘The voice of one [John the Baptizer] proclaiming loudly in the desert [of Judea]. Prepare [the aorist tense is a one time-decision] the way of the Lord [an idiomatic expression for salvation]. Keep on making upright [the use of the Recovery Procedure followed by the development of experiential righteousness] His paths!’ (Isaiah 40:3) (4) Now, John himself kept on having a garment of camel’s hair [very uncomfortable] and a leather belt around his waist, and his food was locusts and wild honey. (5) Then [after John went where God wanted him to be] Jerusalem kept on going out to him [face to face] and all Judea and all the districts around the Jordan. (6) and they were being baptized [identified with the kingdom] by him [under John’s authority] in the Jordan River [where Israel crossed when they entered the land], and they kept on confessing their sins [post-salvation confession of sins].”
MAX KLEIN BIBLE MINISTRIES
The Book of Revelation: Chapter Eleven
A verse-by-verse commentary by Max Klein
Let us bow our heads; If we need to use the Recovery Procedure as found in 1 John 1:9, let us do so at this time that we might be in fellowship. (pause) Father, we thank you for the privilege and opportunity to study your word and for the freedom that you have provided for us here in Corpus Christi, Texas, U.S.A.; furthermore, we express our appreciation to God the Holy Spirit who will enlighten us regarding the message this evening. We as priests pray this through the person of our Lord Christ Jesus, our High Priest, Amen.
Revelation 11:1
Then, a surveying instrument like a pole was given to me [John], and someone [probably the angelic King of Arms] said, "Go up and measure the temple of God [A temple in Jerusalem during the Tribulation] and also the altar and those who worship in it [pseudo worship by mostly unbelievers]."
Καὶ ἐδόθη µοι κάλαµος ὅµοιος ῥάβδῳ, λέγων, Ἔγειρε καὶ µέτρησον τὸν ναὸν τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ τὸ θυσιαστήριον καὶ τοὺς προσκυνοῦντας ἐν αὐτῷ.
The temple in the middle of the Tribulation will have been reconstructed by unbelieving Jews who will have ignored or rejected the doctrine found in the Torah, the Old Testament Scriptures. They also will have the book of Hebrews which the unbeliever will also reject. Temple worship for them will be ritual without reality which temple worship in the Tribulation will be revived under the dictator of Israel posing as Messiah and carrying the title “the false prophet.”
The altar is mentioned specifically and refers to the altar of burnt offerings in the forecourt of the temple at Jerusalem. The brass of the altar is a reminder that God the Father judged the humanity of Christ for our sins. Even though this altar clearly presents the salvation work of Christ, most who will be worshipping at this altar will be unbelievers including the priests conducting animal sacrifices. Furthermore, the temple will be jammed with unbeliever-worshippers for ‘measuring the worshippers’ is another way of saying that thousands upon thousands flock to the temple from all over the world to enter into a beautiful, but meaningless ritual. (Only the two heralds, Moses and Elijah will properly relate the temple with its furniture to the Lord Jesus Christ.)
Revelation 11:2
And exclude the outer court of the temple and do not measure it, because it [the outer court] has been given to the Gentiles [and therefore, is not pertinent to the ministries of Moses and Elijah]; and they [the Gentiles] will trample down the holy city for forty-two months [the last 3 1/2 years of the Tribulation].
καὶ τὴν αὐλὴν τὴν ἔξωθεν τοῦ ναοῦ ἔκβαλε ἔξωθεν καὶ µὴ αὐτὴν µετρήσῃς, ὅτι ἐδόθη τοῖς ἔθνεσιν, καὶ τὴν πόλιν τὴν ἁγίαν πατήσουσιν µῆνας τεσσαράκοντα δύο.
There is one part of the temple that John is not to measure namely the outer court. The outer court has been set aside for the Gentiles, and since Moses and Elijah’s ministry is primarily toward the Jews, the outer court will not be a part of the ministry of Moses and Elijah.
The Gentiles will trample down the holy city for the King of the West will have control over Jerusalem during the last half of the Tribulation. Although the Jewish nation will be autonomous and enjoy great prosperity during the first half of the Tribulation, the rise of power spheres will change all of that. These power spheres will include the King of the North, the Kings of the East, the King of the South and the King of the West. Israel finds itself excluded and so makes a deal with the King of the West. Sells its national freedom for a mess of pottage.
The King of the West will rule over the revived Roman empire. There will be a king of the north which today would be comparable to the Russian communist bloc, but if the Rapture doesn’t occur for, say, 500 years that could be someone else from the same area. Then, there is the king of the south, the pan-Arabic bloc. There are the kings of the east which today would be comparable to the Chinese communist bloc. All of these are going to put the squeeze on the middle east, and because of the proximity of the Arab nations, the dictator in Palestine looks for help from the King of the West, the center of ecumenical religion in the Tribulation.
Since verses 3-12 will deal with the Lord’s two human heralds, we need to provide some information on this subject.
Heralds of Christ:
A king always had his heralds. These heralds would precede a king and announce his coming in order that proper preparations were made and that homage would be rendered to a king as he came through. Jesus Christ has two advents, one is historical (1st Advent) the other is prophetical (2nd Advent). He came the first time to provide salvation; he will come the second time in order to establish his personal reign on the earth, to consummate the angelic conflict and human history. On both occasions prior to his coming, he is announced by heralds.
Since the ministry of Jesus Christ is both related to the angelic conflict and human history, he has both angelic and human heralds. In the 1st Advent of Christ his angelic herald made his proclamation before the shepherds. (This was most likely Gabriel since he also delivered messages to both Zacharias and to Mary as found in Luke 1:19, 26.) The human herald is John the Baptist (Luke 1:17) and in the first part of Matthew chapter 3. In the Second Advent, His angelic herald is the Mighty Angel of Revelation 10:1-3. The two human heralds, Moses and Elijah are called the two witnesses as per our passage.
The human heralds for Christ at His 2nd Advent: Revelation 11:3-12:
Revelation 11:3
And I will give to My two witnesses [human heralds: Moses & Elijah] power [from the Holy Spirit], and they will prophesy [evangelize and teach Bible Doctrine] for one thousand two hundred and sixty days [a little shy of 3 1/2 years], wearing sackcloth [a mesh, a course texture of cloth made from goat's hair and finely woven: not something sloppy; Moses and Elijah will be well dressed and groomed].
καὶ δώσω τοῖς δυσὶν µάρτυσίν µου, καὶ προφητεύσουσιν ἡµέρας χιλίας διακοσίας ἑξήκοντα περιβεβληµένοι σάκκους.
Enoch is often identified as one of the two witnesses because he departed from the earth without dying. However, it should be remembered that the Tribulation is the last seven years of the Age of Israel, the seventieth week of Daniel, and the two witnesses have to be Jews under that concept. Enoch was a Gentile and as a Gentile he was not qualified.
The Jews are responsible for the dissemination of the gospel in the Jewish Age and so are responsible for the dissemination of the gospel in the Tribulation at the end of the Jewish Age. That is why we have 144,000 Jews being used as evangelists in the first part of the Tribulation, and these two great Jewish believers in the second half. Not only will these two be the greatest human evangelists and teachers of the last half of the Tribulation, but will also function as the Lord’s human heralds for his 2nd Advent. Since Both witnesses are human heralds of a future Jewish King, they must be Jews following the pattern of the 1st Advent where John the Baptist was a Jew as the herald.
We must identify these two Jewish witnesses. Matthew 17:2-3, “And He was transfigured [appeared before them in his glorified resurrection body as it would be at the 2nd Advent] before them [Peter, James and John], and His face shone like the sun, and His garments became as white as snow. And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared to them, talking with Him.” Malachi 4:5, “Behold I am going to send to you [in the middle of the Tribulation] Elijah, the prophet before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord [the last 3.5 years of the Tribulation].” Luke 1:17, “It is he [John the Baptizer] who will go as a herald before him [Christ] in the spirit [in the Filling of the Spirit] and in the power of Elijah . . .” Thus, Elijah will also in the Tribulation have the power of the Holy Spirit. John 1:19-21, “This is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent him the priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” (20) And he confessed and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ [Messiah]. (21) They asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah [since they all understood that Elijah would function as a herald at the 2nd Advent]? And he said, “I am not.” ‘Are you the prophet [The Lord Jesus Christ: Deuteronomy 18:15, 18]?’ And he answered, “No.”
Unbelieving Jews who have rejected Christ have always looked for the 2nd Advent; never the 1st Advent. John 12:12, 13, “On the next day the large crowd who had come to the Feast [of the Passover], when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, (13) took the branches of the palm trees and went out to meet Him, and began to shout, “Hosanna [‘deliver us’ from the Romans]! Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord [God the Father], even the King of Israel.” They wanted the crown without the cross.
If the Jews had accepted Christ as their savior and Messiah, there would have been no need for John the Baptizer, Matthew 11:14, “And if you were willing to accept it [the gospel], John himself is Elijah who was to come.” There would have been only one advent and no Church Age and Elijah would have been the herald along with Moses (Matthew 17:1-3; 17:10-13).
Both of these human heralds of the 2nd Advent had a very mysterious death in the Old Testament. God told Moses to go up to the top of a mountain, disappear and die. That is exactly what he did. Elijah also had a very strange death. He was seen to get into a chariot and disappeared from the earth. They both went to heaven; they were transferred and given their interim bodies where they have had thousands of years of great happiness and blessing, but both of them are coming back for a special mission. These two will come back not only to evangelize and teach, but to prepare the Jews for the greatest period of anti-Semitism and the greatest holocaust of all time.
When Moses and Elijah arrive in Jerusalem, there are no believers since all the believers will have fled to the caves of the high desert country of Amon, Moab and Edom as per Matthew 24:15-20. Only these two human heralds will have the power and the authority to relate the sacred furniture in the temple to our Lord Jesus Christ. As a result of this teaching, believers will emerge which will form a citizen-army to resist the king of the north at the siege of Jerusalem, according to Zechariah 14 and other passages.
The situation:
1. When the two witnesses, Moses and Elijah, begin their ministry in the middle of the Tribulation, the believers converted in the first half of the Tribulation will have fled from Jerusalem and the country of Israel in general. We have noted this in Matthew 24:15-20.
2. The Gentile apostate religion of the revived Roman empire, the ecumenical religion of the world at that time, will have been generally accepted by the Jews as a part of a treaty between the dictator of western Europe and the dictator of Palestine.
3. In addition, the Jewish religion will be a system of ritual without reality.
4. The two heralds, Moses and Elijah, will both evangelize and teach Bible doctrine. They will announce the approach of the 2nd Advent, and they will challenge the apostasy of ecumenical religion.
5. As a result, we only have unbelievers when they arrive, but there will be a tremendous harvest of believers. Thousands will respond to their ministry, not only in the middle east but throughout the world. And, as a result, there will be a second group of Jewish believers in Palestine, and they are the ones who are going to fight in the siege of Jerusalem which is the last of the four battles of the Armageddon campaign. Furthermore, they will be delivered at the 2nd Advent, the story of Zechariah 14:1-2, “Behold, a day is coming for the Lord [the second Advent] and your spoil will be distributed among you. (2) For I will assemble all nations against Jerusalem for battle, and the city will be captured, the houses plundered, the women raped and half of the city will depart into slavery, but a remnant of the people will not be cut off from the city.”
Revelation 11:4
These are the two olive trees [representing leadership and the power of the Holy Spirit in their lives: Moses and Elijah analogous to Joshua the High Priest and Zerubbabel in Zechariah 4:3], and the two lampstands [Moses and Elijah providing spiritual light from their teaching of Bible Doctrine regarding the Temple and its furniture] who are standing [as heralds to represent Christ and to meet the crisis] before the Lord of the earth [Jesus Christ as ruler of the world at the 2nd Advent].
οὗτοί εἰσιν αἱ δύο ἐλαῖαι καὶ αἱ δύο λυχνίαι αἱ ἐνώπιον τοῦ κυρίου τῆς γῆς ἑστῶτες.
Zechariah 4:3-5, 14, “also two olive trees [representing Joshua the High Priest and Zerubbabel] by it, one on the right side of the bowl [which feeds oil to the seven lamps] and the other on its left side [one representing the spiritual leadership and the other civil leadership]. (4) Then I [Zechariah] said to the angel who was speaking with me saying, ‘What are these, my lord? (5) So, the angel who was speaking with me answered and said to me, ‘Do you not know what these are?’ And I said, ‘No, my lord. (14) Then he said, ‘These are the two anointed ones [representing Joshua the High Priest and Zerubbabel] who are standing by the Lord of the whole earth.’” [After the Babylonian captivity, Joshua the High Priest was the spiritual leader, and Zerubbabel was the political leader. These are analogous to Elijah and Moses who are the human heralds of the 2nd Advent and who will be the great teachers during the last three and half years of the Great Tribulation.]
Background information: The Jews had received the administration of the fifth cycle of discipline from the Chaldeans in BC 586 when Nebuchadnezzar took client nation Israel out for seventy years until BC 516. (There is a reason why it was to last for seventy years. It had to do with the Jews having missed seventy Sabbatical years in the first four hundred and ninety years of their history. So, the Lord gave them 70 years of rest all at once) The year 516 BC was the year that Zerubbabel finished rebuilding the temple. He was from the tribe of Judah, the family of David, and he led the first wave of Jews back into the land in the first year of Cyrus the Great in 536 BC. Accompanying Zerubbabel was Joshua the high priest who was from the tribe of Levi. On the second month of the second year of their return to the land, the foundations of the temple were laid. At which time, some cheered and others were dissatisfied and cried. The crying Jews were those who had remembered the old temple and said that it wasn’t as large and magnificent as the former temple, but the cheering Jews were the younger crowd who were happy to have a temple again and didn’t care whether it matched the same splendor as Solomon’s Temple.
Before the temple could be rebuilt, the Samaritans infiltrated and wanted a part in the reconstruction, but Zerubbabel refused since they were not Jews. So, they went and complained to Cyrus the Great and stopped the construction of the temple for about sixteen years. During that time the people forgot all about the temple and began to build lovely homes on the hillside for themselves. Then, God raised up two prophets to encourage the construction of this Temple namely Haggai and Zechariah who reprimanded the people for building lovely homes for themselves while neglecting the Lord’s house. So, these two men encouraged the Jews to continue working on the temple and so the work was resumed under the leadership of Zerubbabel and Joshua the high priest. This was in the second year of the reign of Darius Hystaspes (520 B.C.), who commanded Tattenai and Shetharbozenai to assist the Jews at the king’s expense with whatever they needed. Ezra 6:6-14, “Now therefore, Tattenai, governor of the province beyond the River, Shethar-bozenai and your colleagues, the officials of the provinces beyond the River [Euphrates], keep away from there [from Jerusalem]. (7) Leave this work on the house of God alone; let the governor of the Jews and the elders of the Jews rebuild this house of God on its site. (8) Moreover, I issue a decree concerning what you are to do for these elders of Judah in the rebuilding of this house of God: the full cost is to be paid to these people from the royal treasury out of the taxes of the provinces beyond the River [Euphrates], and that without delay. (9) Whatever is needed, both young bulls, rams, and lambs for a burnt offering to the God of heaven, and wheat, salt, wine and anointing oil, as the priests in Jerusalem request, it is to be given to them daily without fail, (10) that they may offer acceptable sacrifices to the God of heaven and pray for the life of the king [of Persia] and his sons. (11) And I issued a decree that any man who violates this edict, a timber shall be drawn from his house and he shall be impaled on it and his house shall be made a refuse heap on account of this. (12) May the God who has caused His name to dwell there overthrow any king or people who attempts to change it, so as to destroy this house of God in Jerusalem. I, Darius, have issued this decree, let it be carried out with all diligence! (13) Then Tattenai, the governor of the province beyond the River, Shethar-bozenai and their colleagues carried out the decree with all diligence, just as King Darius had sent. (14) And the elders of the Jews were successful in building through the prophesying of Haggai the prophet and Zechariah the son of Iddo. And they finished building [in 516 B.C.] according to the command of the God of Israel and the decree of Cyrus, Darius, and Artaxerxes King of Persia.”
One of the big encouraging factors to get Zerubbabel and Joshua motivated was the vision of the two olive trees in Zechariah chapter four. It illustrated the leadership necessary to rebuild the temple: civil leadership and authority, and spiritual leadership. Joshua the high priest was the spiritual leader, Zerubbabel was the civil leader, and you will note that they separated the civil from the spiritual. You cannot have freedom by combining the civil and the spiritual.
Now let’s return to our passage. Moses and Elijah had a crisis personality and during their first tour of duty on earth both were the key men in historical adversity. They were designed for a crisis and provided the necessary leadership for the historical crisis of their day. Moses was a crisis personality for both Egypt as well as for the beginning of Client Nation Israel. Elijah was a crisis leader during the apostasy of the northern kingdom. The two greatest crisis type personalities will return to serve the Lord at this stage of the Tribulation, the time we are calling the Eschatology of Satan’s Desperation. Application: It is impossible for anyone who is a believer to face a crisis of any kind and be a crisis personality without Bible doctrine. The key to a crisis is doctrine and these two men have that key and will teach it courageously in the midst of the greatest opposition to Bible teaching, the world has ever known.
Illustration of a crisis personality as found in Ecclesiastes 9:14-15, “There was a small city, with a few men in it; and a great king came to it, and surrounded it, and constructed huge siege works against it [that is the crisis]: and there was found in it [the besieged city] a humble but very wise man [crisis personality], who delivered the city by his wisdom; yet, afterward no one remembered that humble yet wise man.”
The crisis personality in particular:
1. The believer with momentum inside of the divine power system is designed to be a crisis personality. He is prepared to be a crisis personality by continued momentum and his development of a Personal Sense of Destiny.
2. The believer as a crisis personality must have control of his life in normal times so that he will have control of his life under pressure. No one can be a crisis-personality unless he has control of his life in normal times. If you do not have control of your life in normal circumstances there is no way that you will have control of your life under great historical pressure.
3. The believer as a crisis personality must make good decisions from a position of strength (consistently functioning under the Two Power Options) in preparation for disaster. If he does it under normal circumstances, he will make good decisions from a position of strength in time of pressure and disaster.
4. The believer as a crisis personality must possess right priorities. These right priorities must come from his perception of Bible doctrine: the function of honor, integrity, virtue under pressure, and at all times, of course, orientation to the Plan of God. Right priorities are not developed in a crisis, right priorities must be developed before the crisis. Right priorities developed before the crisis mean persistence and consistency in perception of Bible doctrine.
5. Therefore, the believer as a crisis personality is spiritually prepared for abnormal times and for historical disaster.
6. Sometimes the pattern of the crisis personality is low profile during normal times, but emerging from obscurity to stand in the gap during the crisis as we have seen in the wise man mentioned in Ecclesiastes.
7. The crisis results from a maximum number of bad decisions on the part of those in power and in the general public. God uses that crisis to introduce His man for the hour of crisis. The crisis personality then combines the use of divine power with acquired spiritual resources. God uses prepared men. God’s prepared men emerge in time of crisis like Moses in the Exodus, David in the Goliath crisis, Elijah in the Ahab crisis, Isaiah in the Assyrian crisis, Paul in the Nero crisis, and in the time of the Eschatology of the devil’s Desperation, Moses and Elijah, facing the greatest historical crisis of history.
Revelation 11:5
Furthermore, if anyone [of the demonized population of the Tribulation: unbelievers and believers in reversionism] desires [introducing a 1st Class Conditional Sentence] to harm them [Moses and Elijah], and someone will, fire shoots out of [pictorial present] their mouths and destroys [basic meaning: chew-up, masticate and completely digest and came to mean to destroy] their enemies; also, if anyone would desire [introducing a 1st Class Conditional Sentence] to harm them, and someone will, in this manner [the use of the flame thrower] he must be killed.
καὶ εἴ τις αὐτοὺς θέλει ἀδικῆσαι, πῦρ ἐκπορεύεται ἐκ τοῦ στόµατος αὐτῶν καὶ κατεσθίει τοὺς ἐχθροὺς αὐτῶν· καὶ εἴ τις θελήσει [future active indicative] αὐτοὺς ἀδικῆσαι, οὕτως δεῖ αὐτὸν ἀποκτανθῆναι.
In the last half of the Tribulation, Moses and Elijah will have many enemies who will desire to kill them. This is why the Lord will provide them with a weapon for their defense. These two teachers will never abuse their weapon, but will kill only in self-defense. They will definitely have to kill. If they would not have killed, they would have been killed and would have failed in their mission. Whether this fire comes literally out of their mouths or not is inconsequential. They do have effective weapons for defense. They need weapons since the police system in Jerusalem will not protect them. No one will offer them protection; they are on their own. Those who have integrity have a right to possess weapons, and so God gave them a weapon to kill.
This weapon, the flame thrower in the context, was designed to keep them alive, not to kill others unnecessarily. You might say why didn’t God himself protect them? Along those same lines, you could ask why doesn’t God feed us. Just as God gave them a weapon in order that they might use their volitions to protect themselves, so God would expect you as a homeowner to have weapons available in order for you to protect wife, family and yourself.
Moses and Elijah are given one weapon by which they can kill those who try to kill them. A defensive weapon is designed to match their wisdom, integrity and common sense. By application, until the Lord calls you home, you have a right to stay alive and to use a defensive weapon to defend your right to stay alive. You have a right to live until the Lord calls you home. You have a right to live to fulfil God’s plan for your life. You have a right not only to live but also to obtain property. Your life and your property are both sacred. The two heralds were permitted to use weapons in defense of their lives. God had a purpose for their lives and that purpose did not agree, of course, with Satan who in the time of his desperation will seek to destroy every effective communicator of Bible doctrine.
Violent people only understand violence. They do not understand reason; they are irrational; they are antiestablishment; and they want to settle everything in the manner of degeneracy by the use of violence. When you are faced with that kind of person then you must have a greater system of violence than they possess. Moses and Elijah will possess a greater system of violence and they will use it. These assassins who reside in the Cosmic System must be executed quickly by the two heralds. There isn’t time even to take them to court, and even if there were, the courts will be totally corrupt and so ineffective. These assassins must be executed quickly in order that the mission assigned to Moses and Elijah might be completed.
In effect, this weapons system which came from the hand of God becomes a system of law. That is what law is all about; it is to restrain evil instincts, to restrain violence, to bring civilization into society. If people do not have enough norms and standards to restrain them, they must be restrained by fear. This weapon in the hands of Moses and Elijah is so effective it produces that fear of restraint.
Revelation 11:6
These [Moses and Elijah] have the power to shut up the sky [economic disaster to bring people back to reality] so that rain may not fall [related to Elijah’s ministry] during the days of their prophetic ministry [teaching of God’s word]; furthermore, they have power over the waters to turn them into blood [related to Moses’s ministry], in fact, to strike the land with every plague [a reference to the plagues that the Lord performed in the time of Moses] as often as they desire.
οὗτοι ἔχουσιν τὴν ἐξουσίαν κλεῖσαι τὸν οὐρανόν, ἵνα µὴ ὑετὸς βρέχῃ τὰς ἡµέρας τῆς προφητείας αὐτῶν, καὶ ἐξουσίαν ἔχουσιν ἐπὶ τῶν ὑδάτων στρέφειν αὐτὰ εἰς αἷµα καὶ πατάξαι τὴν γῆν ἐν πάσῃ πληγῇ ὁσάκις ἐὰν θελήσωσιν.
When Moses and Elijah appear on the scene in the last half of the Tribulation, the Jewish people will be in a state of total confusion, mixed up in every possible way. Believers will be mixed up because they will have ignored doctrine; unbelievers will be mixed up because of the usual problems of involvement in the Cosmic System, and so, two men will be sent from heaven by God in the middle of the Tribulation to face the most mixed-up population the world will have ever known, a population filled with confusion and false ideas about almost every subject.
Their prophetic ministry: First, they will teach the true meaning of the sacred articles of furniture in the Temple in Jerusalem while at the same time exposing the false implications of the statue of the dictator of the revived Roman empire which will be set up in the holy of holies. Secondly, they will prophesy in the sense of teaching the eschatology of Satan’s desperation and the historical trends of the last three and a half years of the Tribulation. Furthermore, they will teach what is found in chapter twelve, the great holocaust of the last part of the Tribulation. In chapter thirteen they will expose the dictators found there, the dictator of the revived Roman empire, the beast out of the sea; and the dictator of Israel, the beast out of the land. In chapter fourteen they will lay the groundwork for greater evangelism from angelic creatures. They will teach in chapters fifteen and sixteen, before it occurs, the seven last plagues of history which are comparable to the vial judgements which should be translated goblet judgements. They will also warn of Satan’s last trump in history, the greatest attack he will ever make on the human race, the attack of ecumenical religion. They will also teach the doom of Satan. Satan will hear from them time after time, messages on how he will be incarcerated and destroyed. They will also exegete and interpret certain passages from prophecy in Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Joel, Zechariah, and of course the passages noted in the book of Revelation.
Both Moses and Elijah will function in the Tribulation as they had in their past ministries. For one thing is obvious: neither Moses nor Elijah ever abused the authority and power given him to call upon extra-natural phenomena and supernatural miracles. No man can ever be great in history, in any area, if he abuses power and authority. All true greatness in any field of life depends upon the proper use of authority without its abuse. Moses and Elijah demonstrated that no matter how much authority, how much power, how much of supernatural activities were assigned to them, they would never abuse them.
Most will reject this teaching:
Moses and Elijah will bring about economic disaster in order to bring people back to reality. Once people face economic disaster they face the realities of life. They can see where they have failed or succeeded, but also economic disaster brings a maximum number of people to a point of hopelessness and helplessness. These two states of mental attitude can go in either one of two directions. A helpless person or a helpless population can either become a hopeless population or they can rise to the occasion and be a crisis population. It is the difference between being a winner or a loser. A helpless population always gives up and when it does, it will willingly enter some form of slavery. To the contrary, the helpless Assyrians in a crisis responded to Jonah’s gospel message and later to his doctrinal teaching a became great for another 150 years.
Hopelessness and helplessness combine often to open up the volition of the individual. People who have rejected the gospel, people who have rejected Bible doctrine as believers, people who have become discouraged through a series of events, come to realize that only God can intervene on their behalf. Unbelievers believe in Christ and believers return to learning the Word of God. In this way, Moses and Elijah will pull brands from the burning. That is, they will evangelize and many people will be saved in this time of great historical crisis. Also, many believers who will have been living in the Cosmic System, will leave that system and begin to grow spiritually under the ministry of these two great communicators of God’s Word.
Revelation 11:7
Now when they [Moses and Elijah] had finished their testimony [ministry], the beast-monster [Abaddon of Revelation 9:11: an evil and powerful fallen angel] who comes up from the abyss [It is obvious from this statement that this powerful demon and his army had to return to the Abyss after their torturing of the cosmic individuals for five months] will make battle [fight] against them [Moses and Elijah] and will both overpower and kill them [the Permissive Will of God permits these murders].
καὶ ὅταν τελέσωσιν τὴν µαρτυρίαν αὐτῶν, τὸ θηρίον τὸ ἀναβαῖνον ἐκ τῆς ἀβύσσου ποιήσει µετ’ αὐτῶν πόλεµον καὶ νικήσει αὐτοὺς καὶ ἀποκτενεῖ αὐτούς.
Moses and Elijah came from the court room of heaven to testify regarding God’s plan for the people of the Tribulation. Due to their failure in the Old Testament, their ministries were cut short at that time. In failure, Moses obscured the Lord’s logistical grace provision of water when he struck the rock twice as per Numbers 20:11; for Elijah it was the arrogance of self-pity “I only am left [there were 5,000 who did not bow a knee to Baal] and they seek my life to take it away.” The Lord graciously will allow them to return to the Land of Israel to finish their ministries and what a finish it will be. Their messages in the latter half of the Tribulation will be broadcast throughout the world and will bring about hundreds of thousands of converts who will grow spiritually from these messages. After the ministry of these great men, the Lord will permit their murders.
No one is indispensable but the Lord:
1. When a ministry even a great one is completed, the Lord usually recalls His servant to heaven.
2. No matter how great the ministry there is a time in human history when that ministry is completed and another must take its place.
3. God uses many different people in many historical situations, different people for different situations.
4. For example, the men God used in the Reformation would be very ineffective today, and vice versa.
5. No one is indispensable in the Lord’s service. God has a right time for the right man: when he should begin and when he should terminate.
6. However, no matter how great the communicator, no matter how great the man, there comes a time when his work is finished. When his work is finished God removes that man by physical death, although in some cases he may be permitted to remain on earth to enjoy some of the results of a faithful ministry, but not too often.
7. So it boils down to the fact that no matter how great the servant of the Lord has been and no matter how he has been used of the Lord, he is not indispensable. Only the Lord who provides and sustains His servants is indispensable, and in His great wisdom the Lord provides the minister to meet the needs and the volitional status of a specific generation.
8. Moses and Elijah are those two great servants of the Lord who did not complete their ministry in the Old Testament during their lifetime on this earth, and both were hindered from the completion of their ministry through their own failure during their first tour of duty, but Moses and Elijah will be permitted to finish their ministry in the last three and a half years of the Tribulation. The completion of their ministry results in a very dramatic death and resuscitation, but until their ministry of communicating doctrine and of announcing the Second Advent as heralds will have been completed Moses and Elijah will have a world-wide testimony.
The Lord permitted Moses and Elijah to be murdered. Thus, the function of Divine Sovereignty in Human History must be understood.
1. There are three categories of divine sovereignty that function in human history namely the Directive Will of God, the Permissive Will of God, and the Overruling will of God. The Directive Will of God comprises divine mandates to believers and unbelievers. The Permissive Will is the function of the Sovereignty of God in which God permits the function of free will in opposition to His divine mandates. The Overruling Will of God means the sovereignty of God will block the actions of sinful and evil people if and when necessary.
2. The function of the three categories of the will of God is important to understand. Under the Directive Will of God, God has a plan for the spiritual life of believers. Also, under the Directive Will of God, He has a system of order for all humanity, called the Laws of Divine Establishment.
Under the Permissive Will of God, negative volition is permitted to violate His directive will, but divine justice provides awesome and painful punishment. Under the Overruling Will of God, He overrides the bad and evil decisions of unbelievers and believers.
3. Human volition can override the Directive Will of God, resulting in the Permissive Will of God becoming operational. The minute you disobey any mandate of God or sin, you have overruled the Directive Will of God. Therefore, when one sins, he comes under the Permissive Will of God.
4. Under the Permissive Will of God, there is divine discipline and self-induced misery for the individual involved and if too many individual believers are involved, it leads to national discipline in the form of the Cycles of National Discipline.
5. The Permissive Will of God is necessary in resolving the angelic conflict. In other words, the individual must have the free use of his volition in order to resolve the angelic conflict. When the believer or unbeliever rejects the authority of God's Word and its mandates, he has placed himself under the Cosmic System and the authority of Satan.
From the booklet, ‘Divine Guidance’ by R.B. Thieme Jr. pages 16-18, we have some illustrations of the will of God from the life of Balaam.
Directive Will of God: The Directive Will of God is the same as the desire of God. His directives are commands and prohibitions: “Do this! Don’t do this!”
And God said to Balaam, “Do not go with them; you shall not curse the people; for they are blessed.” (Num. 22:12)
Balak, King of Moab, wanted to hire Balaam to curse the Jews so the Moabites could defeat them. God’s will for Balaam was to refuse to go with the messengers from Balak: “Do not go with them; you shall not curse the people.” Hence, God’s directive prohibited Balaam from accompanying them.
Permissive Will of God: The Permissive Will of God means that God allows man to make decisions and allows certain things to happen even though they are not His desire. God does not coerce human volition. Balaam had decided to go contrary to God’s directive will. Balaam was operating on materialism lust from his sin nature; since Balaam was determined to become rich, he desperately wanted the fee from Balak for cursing the Jews. Wealth was more important to Balaam than submitting to the will of God. Therefore, he used his negative volition to disobey the will of God.
And God came to Balaam at night and said to him, “If the men have come to call you, rise up and go with them; but only the word which I speak to you shall you do.” (Num. 22:20)
The fact that God permitted Balaam to go indicates divine recognition of free will. If God had violated the free will of Balaam, then God would not be glorified by such coercion. In grace, God sought to deter Balaam’s obstinance. But once Balaam went on negative signals, God stood aside and permitted him to go. However, God will be glorified and His plan for human history is always accomplished in spite of the hostile decisions of man (Ps. 76:10). God disciplines for disobedience, but He does not force obedience. While the righteousness of God did not violate Balaam’s human volition, the justice of God disciplined Balaam. God’s discipline was a demonstration of His love for Balaam to motivate him to get back into God’s will (Prov. 3:12; Heb. 12:6).
Overruling Will of God: The Overruling Will of God means that Jesus Christ controls history.
But God was angry because he [Balaam] was going, and the angel of the LORD took his stand in the way as an adversary against him. . . . Then the LORD put a word in Balaam’s mouth and said, “Return to Balak, and you shall speak thus.” . . . Then Balak said to Balaam, “What have you done to me? I took you to curse my enemies, but behold, you have actually blessed them! [the Overruling Will of God]” And he [Balaam] answered and said, “Must I not be careful to speak what the LORD puts in my mouth?” . . . Then Balak said to Balaam, “Do not curse them at all nor bless them at all!” But Balaam answered and said to Balak, “Did I not tell you, ‘Whatever the LORD speaks, that I must do’?” (Num. 22:22a; 23:5, 11–12, 25–26)
Balaam was not permitted to curse the Jews for several reasons. First of all, the discipline and judgment of Israel is always a divine prerogative. Second, Balaam’s curse would have been tantamount to anti-Semitism (Gen. 12:1–3), which involves Satan and demons as well as negative human volition. Under God’s overruling will, in keeping with His promise of Genesis 12:2, He exercises His divine sovereignty to protect His people from satanic action. Consequently, Balaam was hindered from cursing the Jews. The Directive Will of God is the exercise of His sovereignty, which would not allow Israel to be cursed. The Permissive Will of God involves the negative volition of a human being, in this case, Balaam. The Overruling Will of God involves divine frustration of satanic will. Satan desired to curse Israel, but God would not permit it.”
The Principle of Improvement:
1. For centuries people have tried to solve their problems through the key word “improvement.” People go on great crusades to improve environment, improve the circumstances of life etc. That word “improvement” becomes a distraction to the real solution to the problems of life which begins with regeneration. So, improvement of life and environment has never been the answer, and never will be the answer. All of this demonstrates once again that improvement of society in an environment is never the answer. Improvement emphasizes better environment as the solution and rejects the need for the regeneration of mankind.
2. It was demonstrated at the very beginning of history that perfect environment is not the answer, but the function of man’s volition either to fail or to succeed. Man is free to reject truth or to accept it, and the only way man can maintain a system of blessing and happiness in this life is through the perception and application of truth. Our first parents demonstrated that perfect environment was not the answer to man’s problems and the last dispensation in history will again demonstrate that same fact when at the end of the Millennium, millions will revolt against perfect environment and the perfect government of the Lord Jesus Christ.
3. Moses and Elijah will teach truth and allow truth to have its impact; they will not try to change the environment through crusading. Moses and Elijah will understand that the key to the angelic conflict is human volition and that people with human volition are either interested in learning the truth or they are not. For those who are interested in learning the truth, will be taught by these two great men and teachers of the Word. They will understand that people are changed by truth, and if enough people respond to truth, their environment will improve for the better.
4. Most are looking for some way to improve the environment, to improve themselves apart from the intake of truth. People are working vigorously trying to change things, not realizing that what is changed today (perhaps for the better, perhaps not) can be changed for the worse tomorrow. Better environment only comes about through truth in the soul. When you have truth in the soul you provide better environment in the soul which manifests itself in better environment around you.
5. The perfect environment of the Garden and the perfect environment of the Millennium will demonstrate that improved even perfect environment is not the answer to man’s problems. This will be God’s last lesson to the human race: the historical lesson of the Millennium with its perfect environment.
6. The masses believe in the improvement of the world rather than the regeneration of mankind. Even in the last half of the Tribulation people will be trying to improve the world. However, without regeneration and subsequent learning of truth, improvement in environment is meaningless because man without truth does not have the capacity to deal with better or even perfect environment.
Frustrated arrogance gravitates to violence:
1. This explains the reason for so much violence in the human race. The content of violence simply measures the content of arrogance in the human race. Arrogance and violence go together.
2. It also explains Satan’s use of violence to seek victory in the angelic conflict. Neither Satan nor the human race has ever learned the great lesson that violence does not solve problems. In fact, conversely, violence intensifies problems and creates new problems. Furthermore, violence is the manifestation of frustrated arrogance.
3. When people or any creature [angelic or human] murders to remove a problem, they suffer from that malady of arrogance which tries to solve one’s problems through the ultimate in violence, the murder of someone who seems to be the problem, or people who seem to be the problem.
4. Only God has the right to remove life or permit the removal of life from this world. In the case of Moses and Elijah, He authorizes and permits them to kill in defense when necessary. Though there will be many Satanic motivated attacks against them, they will be absolutely invulnerable to all these attacks until their ministries will have been completed.
5. Only God’s law specifies under what conditions man will kill man legitimately. Under the Laws of Divine Establishment human life is sacred, not to be tampered with except under two conditions: law enforcement and capital punishment and secondly the killing of one’s country’s enemies as a representative of one’s nation in the military establishment.
6. The murder of Moses and Elijah will not solve Satan’s problems and will not provide for his victory in the angelic conflict. In fact, it will intensify his problems as is always the case with murder.
7. Violence does not solve the problem of frustration. Violence and even murder is the sign of an inner sin before it becomes and overt sin. The inner sin is arrogance. People murder because they are preoccupied with self, and they see some person standing in the way of their desires or objectives. Frustrated arrogance is intensified when the violent one becomes disoriented to life, and psychopathic. Arrogance gravitating to violence is going to be manifested in a very unusual way in the next chapter, the great Jewish holocaust at the end of the Tribulation.
Restraint requires humility:
1. The key to freedom in all of human society is restraint, a basic virtue of humility. In a civilized society, freedom is guaranteed by the virtue of the people in that society, and the basic virtue is humility. Humility imposes self-restraint. Authority is a restrainer when the authority of the law is feared, but that is not the same as self-restraint from virtue.
2. Under the Laws of Divine Establishment, freedom demands privacy and the sacredness of both property and life. Man must use his freedom to practice restraint and to respect other people’s privacy, property and life.
3. Differences of opinion often lead to quarrels and when arrogance is involved, quarrels lead to violence.
4. Arrogance removes restraint and self-control because arrogance is the antithesis of humility. Humility is a virtue; arrogance is the most basic of all sins, and not only is it a sin but it is a sin complex, as per Cosmic One.
5. Authority in life is designed to restrain the function of arrogance in man so that all members of the human race can use their freedom to fail or to succeed.
6. This is why we have governments, law-enforcement agencies, and a judicial system. These systems may not be working too well at times, but they are better than no system at all.
7. Restraint occurs either from fear and respect for the law or from virtue and integrity. Respect for the law restrains the arrogant while virtue and integrity restrains the humble. In other words, the best restraint requires humility and the only way a society can ever properly express its freedom is to have a maximum number of people with virtue in that society. Virtue restrains in a magnificent society; law restrains in a sick society. When a sick society no longer fears the law then it becomes a degenerate society.
8. When you have, as we have today, an arrogant society, often disguising itself under self-effacement then you have a hypocritical society, leading to a sick society, and finally to a degenerate society.
9. If people are arrogant, they can only be restrained by the law, and they must fear the law, they must fear for their life. The arrogant is restrained because in his arrogance, his life is more important to him than anything else in the world. Arrogance can only be restrained by capital punishment, and when there is no capital punishment, arrogant people have no fear of the law, and if they have no fear of the law, it is easy under the right conditions to step over the law and enter into some form of lawlessness.
10. Neither Satan nor his hit man, Abaddon, are humble. They are saturated with arrogance. Thus, they will enter into a future conspiracy which will lead to the murder of Moses and Elijah.
Murder:
Definition and Description
1. Murder is the unlawful killing of another person with malice aforethought (premeditated murder or 1st degree murder), expressed or implied by the motivation of arrogance inside the Cosmic System. The motivation comes from mental attitude sins, such as self-righteous arrogance, conspiracy arrogance, criminal arrogance, crusader arrogance, political arrogance, the arrogance of unhappiness, or iconoclastic arrogance.
2. Hence, murder is both a sin and a crime related to cosmic involvement, and is often manifested in religion. For example, all religions of the ancient world used human sacrifice.
3. Murder is the major attack on freedom and self-determination as a human issue in the angelic conflict. Murder is the invention of Satan, and he is the motivator of murder via his Cosmic System. Murder is Satan’s genius to invent a system to attack freedom and self-determination in order to tip the scales in his favor.
4. Not all killing is classified as murder. Certain criminals need to be executed via capital punishment. This is lawful killing and not murder as taught in Romans 13:4, “For he [the governmental authority] is a minister of God to you for the purpose of good [that you may use your freedom to advance to maturity under the plan of God], but if you do evil [the criminal] keep on being afraid for he [the one who executes criminals under government authority] does not wear the sword for nothing [the sword was used in the ancient world for the capital punishment of crime]; for you see he [a government official functioning under the Divine Laws of Establishment] is a minister of God for the purpose of divine wrath to him who practices evil.”
If an animal kills a human, it should be removed under capital punishment. Genesis 9:5-6, “Surely, I will require your lifeblood; from every beast I will require it. And from every man, from every man's brother I will require the life of man. (6) Whoever sheds man's blood [human or animal], by man his blood shall be shed, for in the image of God [a reference to the soul: I am, I ought, I will] He made man.”
(1) Animals that kill people as well as humans that kill people are to be executed. We are responsible for any decision we make to murder someone else. “Whoever sheds man’s blood [human or animal], by man his blood shall be shed [capital punishment].”
(2) Man has the right to slaughter and prepare animals for food, Genesis 9:3-4, “Every moving thing that is alive shall be food for you; I give all to you [this authorization and right was given after the flood], as I gave the green plant [at the beginning of the pre-diluvian period and continuing throughout history]. (4) Only you shall not eat flesh with its life, that is, its blood [The believer was not allowed to eat or drink the blood of an animal since the animal’s life is in his blood. Since animal blood was used to depict the work on the cross prior to the cross, the believer was forbidden to drink or eat that blood for it would have interfered with the analogy to the work of the cross. Now that the cross has occurred and we no longer offer animal sacrifices, this command is no longer in effect.].”
(3) Capital punishment must be the result of due process of law, Numbers 35:30, “If anyone kills a person, the murderer shall be put to death at the evidence of witnesses, but no person shall be put to death on the testimony of one witness.” There must be two witnesses. Premeditated murder must be punished by death, Numbers 35:15-18, “These six cities shall be for refuge for the sons of Israel, and for the alien and for the sojourner among them; that anyone who kills a person unintentionally may flee there [third degree murder], (16) but if he struck him down with an iron object, so that he died, he is a murderer; the murderer shall surely be put to death. (17) If he struck him down with a stone in the hand, by which he will die, and as a result he died, he is a murderer; the murderer shall surely be put to death. (18) Or if he struck him with a wooden object in the hand, by which he might die, and as a result he died, he is a murderer; the murderer shall surely be put to death [premeditated and intentional murders via iron, stone or a wood weapon].” Leviticus 24:17, “If a man [intentionally] takes the life of any human being, he shall surely be put to death.”
(4) Another area of legitimate killing is in battle. The soldier represents his country while functioning impersonally and professionally. It makes no difference who the object is (Christian or otherwise), you do your job and kill impersonally, not emotionally. A soldier functions impersonally and professionally to preserve the freedom of his nation, Joshua 6:21, “They utterly destroyed everything in the city [of Jericho], both man and woman, young and old, and ox and sheep and donkey, with the edge of the sword. [Today, we only kill the soldier who is trying to kill us; we do not kill civilians and animals if we can help it. These people in Jericho were so evil that the Lord commanded their extermination. The only ones not contaminated with this evil were the very small children who had not yet reached God-consciousness. Upon their death, they were taken immediately to heaven to live with the Lord forever.]”
5. Israel, as the first client nation, was commanded to be prepared for war. Much of the establishment truth found in the Bible is first mentioned in relation to Israel. The bona fide modus operandi of warfare is declared in Ecclesiastes 3:8b, “There is a time for war and a time for peace.” If you don’t make time for war by being prepared, then there will never be peace.
6. Our Lord’s rebuke to Peter in the garden was a warning regarding capital punishment because of criminal action (Peter’s), not a warning against military killing. Matthew 26:52, “Then Jesus said to him, ‘Return your sword to its scabbard, for all who draw the sword [in crime], shall die by the sword [in capital punishment].’”
7. Killing in battle is not murder. Psalm 144:1, “Blessed be the Lord who trains my hands [a reference to David] for war and my fingers for battle.” 2 Samuel 22:35, “He [the Lord] trains my hands for battle.”
8. Jesus Christ Himself holds the record for killing in battle in Isaiah 37:36, when He killed 185,000 Assyrian soldiers. But our Lord will break His own record at the Second Advent when He returns to terminate the Armageddon campaign. Revelation 19:11, “Then [the first day of the second Advent of Christ] I saw heaven opened; and behold, a white horse, and He who is mounted upon it is called, ‘Faithful and True’; and with justice He will judge and He will make war.” Revelation 19:15, “And a sharp broadsword proceeds from His mouth, in order that with it He might destroy the nations [attacking Israel], then He will rule them with an iron scepter; prior to this He treads the wine press of the wine of wrath [found in Revelation 14:20], even the anger of God, the Omnipotent One.”
9. God is the source of some wars. 1 Chronicles 5:18-22, “The sons of Reuben and the Gadites and the half-tribe of Manasseh, consisting of valiant men, men who bore shield and sword and shot with bow and were skillful in battle, were 44,760, who went to war. (19) They made war against the Hagrites, Jetur, Naphish and Nodab. (20) They were helped [by the Lord] against them, and the Hagrites and all who were with them were given into their hand; for they cried out to God in the battle, and He answered their prayers because they trusted in Him. (21) They took away their cattle: their 50,000 camels, 250,000 sheep, 2,000 donkeys; and 100,000 men. (22) For many fell-slain, because the war was of God and they settled in their place until the exile.”
The Origin of Murder
1. John 8:43-44, “Why do you not understand what I am teaching you? It is because you cannot hear My word. [They were in the Cosmic System and refused to listen to what He said because it condemned them.] (44) You are from your father the devil, and the policies of your father the devil you wish to accomplish. He was a murderer from the beginning; furthermore, he [Satan] does not stand in the truth, because there is no doctrine in him. Whenever he communicates the lie, he speaks from his own person, for he is a liar and the father of it [the lie].” Those who reject truth are easily motivated to murder.
2. 1 John 3:12, “Not as Cain who was motivated from that evil one [Satan] and consequently, he murdered his brother [Abel] with a sacrificial knife. And why did he murder him? Because his deeds [based on moral self-righteousness] were evil, but the deeds of his brother were honorable [based on his fellowship with the Lord].”
Genesis 4:1-8 gives the historical account of the first murderer. “Now Adam had intercourse with his wife, Eve, and she conceived and gave birth to Cain, and she said, "I have acquired a man from the Lord. (2) Again, she gave birth to his brother Abel. And Abel was a keeper of flocks [a shepherd], but Cain was a tiller of the ground [a farmer]. (3) In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord a bloodless sacrifice [an offering] of the produce of the ground [he was working for salvation], (4) and Abel [meaning: nothingness, vapor, vanity] brought of the firstlings of his sheep and of their best [fat] portions [representing Christ and his future work on the cross]. Therefore, the Lord approved of Abel and his offering [because it represented the worship of a believer which worship most likely took place east of the Garden of Eden where the two cherubs were stationed, one representing righteousness and the other justice as a similar concept to the cherubs over the Ark], (5) but of Cain and his offering, he did not approve [because it represented the religious work of an unbeliever; most farmers have some livestock and Cain could have had a small flock of sheep]. So, Cain was extremely angry [at God for not accepting his human work], and his face [fell] became contorted [an idiom for the outer expression of anger]. (6) The Lord said [the following question from the Lord is designed to awaken Cain to his situation] to Cain, "Why are you angry [a manifestation of his arrogance and jealousy], and why has your face become contorted [the face undergoes a tremendous change when anger is expressed overtly; it contorts in anger]? (7) If you do what is right [to respond to grace: believe in Christ and grow spiritually], will it not be to you a source of contentment [uplifting of the face, the antithesis of the face falling, contorting]? However, if you do not do what is right [by continuous rejection of Christ as savior], the sin bearer [the Lord Jesus Christ as the sin offering] is crouching [or lying] at the door. Therefore, to you [Cain] is His desire [the Lord desires to save Cain just as He saved Abel]. Therefore, you [Cain] will rule [as the eldest son] over him [Abel his brother; if Cain should become a believer, he would have had the rulership over Abel and the rest of the family; However, if he should not become a believer, he will not receive the rulership for the rulership would be passed-on to Abel; another reason why Cain decided to murder Abel.]. (8) Cain said to Abel his brother, ‘Let us go out to the field.’ While they were in the field, Cain rose up and attacked his brother Abel, and killed him.’” [The lust of the sin nature is stronger than the family bond.]
Murder, violence, and terror always occurs when man becomes involved in the Cosmic System.
1. “The way of Cain” is the pattern for murder, violence, and terrorism. Jude 10-11, “But these men [these apostates of Jude 8 are contrasted with the humility of Michael] malign the things which they do not understand [everything connected with the truth]; and the things which they know by instinct [like animals], like unreasoning creatures [subjective and controlled by their emotions], by these things [subjectivity] they are corrupted [receive depravity from the destruction of the stream of consciousness]. (11) Woe [interjection of denunciation] to them [the apostates] for they have gone the way of Cain [self-righteousness, legalism, approbation lust, jealousy and murder] and for money they have rushed headlong [with reckless abandonment] into the deceit of Balaam [lust for money deceives] and perished in the rebellion of Korah [because of power and approbation-lust, they, the apostates rejected bona fide authority and suffered the consequences].”
2. The rise of crime and violence indicates national degeneration and the approach of historical catastrophe in the form of the fifth cycle of discipline for the Southern Kingdom as per Jeremiah 4:31, “For I heard a cry as of a woman in labor, The anguish as of one giving birth to her first child, The cry of the daughter of Zion gasping for breath, stretching out her hands, saying, ‘Ah, woe is me, for I faint before murderers.’”
3. Murder is always preceded by the mental attitude sin of arrogance. Romans 1:29a, “Having been filled with all unrighteousness [lack of integrity] evil, greed, malice, full of jealousy, murder, strife, conspiracy, deceit, slanderers...”
4. When a client-nation is in a decline, crime along with murder increases dramatically. Hosea 4:1-2, “Hear the Word of the Lord, you citizens of Israel, for the Lord has a case against the inhabitants of the land [the Northern Kingdom] because there is no truth [no doctrine is being taught and learned], and there is no grace being applied [there was no appreciation and response to the love of God], and there is no knowledge of God in the land. (2) Instead, there is lying, deception, murder, stealing, and they break in to commit rape. Therefore, blood touches blood [crime was out of control].”
Murder is the only overt sin listed in the classification of the seven worst sins, Proverbs 6:16-19, “There are six things which the Lord hates; in fact, seven are an abomination to His soul. (17) A proud look [the arrogance-complex: bitterness, jealousy, vindictiveness, implacability, hatred, self-pity, etc.], a lying tongue [a malicious gossip and slanderer], hands that shed innocent blood [murderer], (18) a right lobe that devises evil conspiracies, feet that run rapidly to evil [refers to criminality, destruction of property and life in the name of some crusade.], (19) A false witness who utters lies [a perjurer], he who sows discord [strife] between the brethren.”
Murder is therefore, prohibited, Exodus 20:13, “You will not murder.” This mandate is again stated in Deuteronomy 5:17, also in Matthew 5:21, “You have heard that it was said by men of old [writers and communicators of the Old Testament], ‘you shall not commit murder’ and ‘whoever commits murder shall be liable for punishment [from the government, and if the government should fail in this regard, punishment would be administered from the Supreme Court in heaven].’”
Arrogant believers out of fellowship are capable of murder
1. David, a mature believer out of fellowship and having become quite arrogant, murdered Uriah the Hittite in 2 Samuel 12:9, “Why have you [David] despised the word of the Lord by doing evil in His sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword, have taken his wife to be your wife, and have murdered him with the sword of the sons of Ammon.”
2. 1 Peter 4:15, “By no means let any of you [Christians] suffer as a murderer, or a thief, or a doer of evil, or one who sticks his nose in the affairs of others.”
3. 1 John 3:15, “Everyone who hates his brother is a murderer, and you know that not every murderer has eternal life in him [but most mental murderers are Christians].” Believers commit the majority of mental murders and mental murders are the vast majority of the murders.
Where guilt is established, the penalty for murder is death, Genesis 9:6, “Whoever sheds man's blood, by man his blood shall be shed for in the image of God He made man [made man’s soul].” Numbers 35:30-31, “If anyone murders a person, the murderer shall be put to death at the evidence of witnesses, but no person shall be put to death on the testimony of one witness. (31) 'Moreover, you shall not take ransom for the life of a murderer who is guilty of death, but he shall surely be put to death.” Matthew 26:52, “Then Jesus said to him, “Put up your sword again into its place; for all who take up the sword [to murder from the function of criminality] shall perish with a sword [capital punishment].” Romans 13:3-4, “For governing authorities [of an establishment type nation] are not a cause of fear for good function [those who follow the Laws of Establishment] but for evil function [criminality]. Really, do you desire not to fear the authority? Keep on doing the good [be lawful and obey the mandates of the Laws of Establishment] and you will have recognition from it [from the authority of an establishment-type of government]; (4) For he [the governmental authority] is a minister of God to you for the purpose of good [use your freedom to advance to maturity under the plan of God], but if you do evil [the criminal] keep on being afraid for he does not wear the sword for nothing [the sword was used in the ancient world for capital punishment of crime]; for you see he is a minister of God for the purpose of divine wrath to him who practices evil.”
Revelation 11:8
And their corpses will be exhibited in the street of the great city [Jerusalem is called great because of David, Bible doctrine and the cross] which is figuratively designated Sodom [for its moral and social degeneration] and Egypt [for its demonization and religion], even where their [Moses’ and Elijah’s] Lord was crucified.
καὶ τὸ πτῶµα αὐτῶν ἐπὶ τῆς πλατείας τῆς πόλεως τῆς µεγάλης, ἥτις καλεῖται πνευµατικῶς Σόδοµα καὶ Αἴγυπτος, ὅπου καὶ ὁ κύριος αὐτῶν ἐσταυρώθη.
Regardless of how a person dies, a corpse is an empty house. Once death has taken place as will be the case of Moses and Elijah in the future Tribulation, the soul and the spirit will have vacated the body. Thus, what happens to the body after death is absolutely inconsequential. Taking this physical body and leaving it in the streets for all to see indicates the deadness of the souls of those arrogant persons in the latter part of the Great Tribulation.
By displaying their corpses, they were saying in effect we have won: self-deception. However, these future murders will not cancel the messages of Moses and Elijah. Worldwide news coverage of the event: a worldwide gloating because of the antagonism of the 4th estate (the news media). Furthermore, no sympathy or outrage will be reported by the press. While this is going on, Moses and Elijah will be celebrating in heaven which means that these demonized people really will not win this spiritual battle.
Arrogance related to a corpse:
1. It is arrogance or ignorance or both to display in a hideous manner the corpses of those who have died, and in this case the corpses of two men who have been murdered because they taught Bible doctrine. It is arrogance on the part of the murderers and those in charge of the city to allow these corpses to remain on public display. They’re not lying in state, they’re lying in the gutter, and thousands of people are going by laughing and ridiculing.
2. The death of those who teach doctrine does not stop doctrinal teaching. Doctrinal teachers may die, but the Lord always raises up others. Killing someone who teaches doctrine such as Moses and Elijah will not make Satan a victor, he will still be a loser.
3. Doctrine is the power of God and God’s power does not stop because the teacher of doctrine is assassinated.
4. The death of the prophet does not cancel the prophecy; the death of the preacher does not stop the teaching of the Word of God.
5. The display of the two dead bodies does not imply any victory over truth for neither Moses nor Elijah will be occupying those dead bodies. They will be in heaven enjoying their interim bodies after a job well done. They will be in a place of great happiness and blessing and the desecration of their dead bodies will be meaningless.
6. The vulgar display of a corpse is not a sign of victory but of defeat on the part of the displayers.
7. Because of this future ministry of Moses and Elijah, lives will have been changed forever in one of the most desperate periods of all of history, the last half of the Tribulation. Vincet Omnia Veritas: truth conquers all.
In the Tribulation, Israel will take on the characteristics of Sodom and ancient Egypt as it did during the 1st Advent. Moral, social and spiritual degeneration is always associated with religion. All religions are authored by the degenerate Satan, and so can only produce degeneration. The figurative can be understood and determined from context. In this verse, Jerusalem is figuratively called Sodom and Egypt because of social degeneration demonism.
Revelation 11:9
And they from the masses [the Jews in Jerusalem] and tribes [Jews throughout the Middle East and the world], and many foreign languages [broadcast in all the languages of the world] and gentile nations [possibly via satellite] will view their corpses for three and one-half days, furthermore they [the political authority] will not permit their corpses to be placed in a tomb [the viciousness of liberal politicians].
καὶ βλέπουσιν ἐκ τῶν λαῶν καὶ φυλῶν καὶ γλωσσῶν καὶ ἐθνῶν τὸ πτῶµα αὐτῶν ἡµέρας τρεῖς καὶ ἥµισυ, καὶ τὰ πτώµατα αὐτῶν οὐκ ἀφίουσιν τεθῆναι εἰς µνῆµα.
Revelation 11:10
And the inhabitant of the earth [believers and unbelievers] will gloat over them [their dead bodies]; they will both celebrate and exchange gifts [to commemorate their deaths], because these two prophets had tormented the inhabitants of the earth [through their teaching of truth].
καὶ οἱ κατοικοῦντες ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς χαίρουσιν ἐπí αὐτοῖς καὶ εὐφραίνονται, καὶ δῶρα πέµψουσιν ἀλλήλοις, ὅτι οὗτοι οἱ δύο προφῆται ἐβασάνισαν τοὺς κατοικοῦντας ἐπὶ τῆς γῆς.
The gospel, establishment truth and Bible doctrine taught by Moses and Elijah tormented the souls of these unbelievers and believers who had rejected the truth. When a person, believer or unbeliever reacts to truth as communicated by someone, he is tormented in his soul. After the murder of Moses and Elijah, they, the ones who do not have truth will no longer have any fear of God for they will reason that since God’s two messengers are dead in the street, then God is not to be feared. So, their negative volition toward truth and hatred of it, will be intensified which will motivate a call for gloating and much celebration. Not only did the evil people of Jerusalem walk-by these bodies and gloat over those corpses, but also millions worldwide via world-wide media coverage of the event also gloat and celebrate. We have a saturated world-wide gloating and celebration for three and a half days.
The warning of the Second Advent, the warning of eternal judgment for those who reject Christ, the warning of the Baptism of Fire which will follow the Second Advent, produced a tremendous amount of fear in the souls of the unbeliever. Furthermore, it did something else. People who are negative toward truth, inevitably do not want to think about death. They build up in their minds a mental block where death is completely removed from their thinking. They live their life in the reality of living but never in the reality of the inevitability of death. Therefore, when a message or a messenger comes along and intrudes into their thinking with the reality of death and eternal judgment for those who reject Christ, it is more than they can stand, because in effect truth rips away this tremendous mental block by which people live in the present and never think of what is going to happen in the eternal future.
The two people who have ripped away the facade and destroyed the mental blocks about the future are now dead, and the population assumes that with the death of these people that they can recover the mental blocks and start living in the present again, and they will live in the present by celebrating and exchanging gifts. They have the devil’s Christmas. Furthermore, the death of Moses and Elijah will appear to these people to have nullified their message. They no longer fear the wrath of God because the messengers of God are dead, and their corpses are in the street and every day they will want to see more and more media coverage on those two corpses. They will say to each other, you see, they’re dead; they have no power; their message was not true; we can now go back and live in the present; we can forget about death and eternal judgment. They again recover, partly, their mental blocks about the future. Arrogance reasserts itself.
The power of the press is seen in the reaction to the ministry of the two heralds, whose ministry has caused fear and anxiety both in the press and among the people of the world. This is obviously the fourth estate at their worst. The purpose of the fourth estate is to report news but in time of arrogance and degeneracy this is distorted into what is called “slanting” the news, tampering with the facts and using the freedom of the press to propagandize one’s personal viewpoint. Hence, the news media at the end of the Tribulation are just as demonized as the population whom they serve, and since the forces of evil obviously control the press at the end of the Tribulation, there is neither sympathy nor outrage at the desecration of the corpses of the two witnesses. This is gloating. No sympathy, no outrage is reported by the press.
Note the principle that the fourth estate, the news media, can be a factor either for good or evil. Whether good or evil, the freedom of the press is essential to human freedom, and the repercussions in any given generation merely reflect the general trend of human volition at that point of history. What are we to assume from this? Regardless of how poor the news reporting may be at any given time, one thing you should always be clear about: you should always be for the freedom of the press. No matter how much the press may abuse that freedom at any given time, it doesn’t change the principle: freedom of the press is an essential part of free speech which is absolutely essential for the modus operandi of freedom.
This desecration was the arrogant reaction of those who assumed that an unburied body exposed to ridicule is the maximum insult of life. Actually, they are not insulting them at all, they are just showing how stupid they are. Death means that the body is no longer occupied, therefore the insult boomerangs. Those who desecrate their bodies will be miserable while Moses and Elijah will be celebrating in heaven and very much alive. The ones guilty of desecration are miserable, not the ones who are the recipients of their gloating. Moses and Elijah are very happy in heaven enjoying the marvelous environment of heaven.
There is no happiness in gloating. Gloating is the sign of a very disoriented and unhappy person. You cannot build your happiness on someone else’s unhappiness. Gloating is the sum total of arrogance expressing itself in malignant satisfaction. The malignant satisfaction is temporary and this type of arrogance signifies permanent unhappiness. Furthermore, gloaters have no humility, no virtue, and no capacity for life which only intensifies unhappiness.
Furthermore, the fact that the majority of the earth’s population will join in the celebration does not provide any basis for security. The principle is generally true, almost always true, when applied to a situation like this, the majority is never right. The majority is usually the non-thinking part of the population; those who are easily duped; that part of the population of the world that is conned easily. There is no security in majority decision based on demonization, based on arrogance in the Cosmic System.
Whenever you are antagonistic toward someone and you resent them because they represent an attitude not like your own, and they die, you have a chance to check your own virtue. Every time you gloat over the death of someone whom you despise; someone who has aroused your ire or antagonism, you have demonstrated a lack of virtue.
Revelation 11:11
And after three and a half days, the breath of life from God entered into them [their original soul and spirit entered into their interim bodies]; then they [Moses and Elijah] stood on their feet; and great fear [but did not change their attitude toward Christ] fell on those who were viewing them. [These people were either viewing them as they walked by or via some media.]
καὶ µετὰ τὰς τρεῖς ἡµέρας καὶ ἥµισυ πνεῦµα ζωῆς ἐκ τοῦ θεοῦ εἰσῆλθεν ἐν αὐτοῖς, καὶ ἔστησαν ἐπὶ τοὺς πόδας αὐτῶν, καὶ φόβος µέγας ἐπέπεσεν ἐπὶ τοὺς θεωροῦντας αὐτούς.
“The breath of life from God” There is no human life in the womb, never has been and never will be. The view that there is human life in the womb is one of the greatest arrogances of all history. Man does not create life and, of course, copulation does not produce human life, but merely unites the sperm and egg which are biologically alive. Pregnancy is not a mother carrying a human being for there is no human life in the three embryonic stages in the womb. Rather, God selects and provides the ‘breath of life’ to a fetus after mother-dependency has been severed.
Thieme’s Bible Doctrine Dictionary, pages 187, 188 by R. B. Thieme Jr.
“Origin of human life (a) The process by which human biological life becomes a living person; (b) the point in time when human biological life receives soul life. Only God has the power to create human life, and only when God imputes soul life to biological life is human life created. Adam, whose biological life was formed from dust of the ground, “became a living soul” when God “breathed into his nostrils the breath of life [neshamah chayyim, soul life]” (Gen. 2:7, kjv). “Living soul” is translated from the Hebrew nephesh chay and refers in this verse to human life. Since Adam’s fall, every person is conceived as biological life through human procreation (Gen. 4:1–2). The mother-dependent fetus, inside the womb, is strictly biological life, a potential human life that does not come into being until God unites it with soul life. The translation of the Hebrew prepositional phrase mibeten, “out from the womb,” defines the precise stage in the life-forming process at which God creates and imputes this soul life (Job 1:21a; Ps. 22:9–10; Isa. 44:2, 24). God forms man separated from the womb, outside the womb, after leaving the womb. When the fetus enters into the world, God breathes into the nostrils the “breath of life” (Gen. 2:7), and with that soul life the newborn is now a living being. The exhale, as demonstrated by the baby’s first cry, confirms the beginning of human life.”
Resurrection must not be confused with resuscitation:
Resuscitation defines a person who has died and then is brought to life in the body in which he died. For example, Lazarus was resuscitated by Jesus [brought back to life in his mortal body and subsequently died]; Paul resuscitated a boy [returned life to his mortal body] who fell out of a window; two boys in the Old Testament were resuscitated [life was returned to their mortal bodies], and Elijah and Moses residing in their interim bodies in heaven will return to the earth in the last half of the Tribulation. After their ministries on the earth will have been completed, they will be murdered by Abaddon. However, they will be resuscitated and ascend into heaven with their interim bodies. Then, at the 2nd Advent, these interim bodies will be transformed into eternal resurrected bodies: corruption will become incorruption]. On the other hand, resurrection means to be given an eternal body which does not corrupt or die.
“Great fear fell on those who were viewing them”
Fear is characteristic of demonization. People in the cosmic system, both believers and unbelievers, are subject to fear. A believer can be courageous one day and if he starts living in the cosmic system, he has a personality change and becomes frightened. So, fear is characteristic of residence and function in the cosmic system.
Cowardice is the function of that fear under pressure. Mankind in the cosmic system fears the truth of Bible doctrine in all three categories and, of course, man in the cosmic system fears the circumstances of life, whether it be death, disease, or some other form of disaster, the three “D’s.” Fear in contemplation of these things is often called worry. Worry is the anticipation; fear is the actuality.
Principles related to fear: (also has application to the unbeliever)
1. It is possible to learn a lot of doctrine and yet fall apart in a sudden pressure situation.
2. Sudden disaster often places the believer in a panic situation resulting in a failure to apply doctrine to that situation.
3. The courageous person is able to think under great pressure, whereas the person with fear is not able to think rationally under great pressure. The difference is the ability to concentrate under pressure. Now, if you have a problem concentrating in normal situations, you will surely have a problem concentrating under pressure in an abnormal situation.
4. Concentration is not only required in learning Bible doctrine, but even to a much greater extent in applying Bible doctrine. This is especially true when historical disaster occurs, because in historical disaster, a person may have several categories of pressure to deal with, namely personal, national, and sometimes even international.
5. Adversity and great pressure can easily lead to stress in the soul when truth is not applied to the situation. When a believer is under stress, he is not able to think objectively.
The Jews expressed all the above principles of fear through their rebellion against Moses: “They said to Moses, ‘Was it because there were no graves in Egypt that you brought us to the desert to die?’” (Exodus 14:11a) Now, keep in mind that these Jews did not have to leave Egypt. Moses did not force them to leave. We learn from this that arrogant people never take responsibility for their decisions. Furthermore, Moses was only God's agent. It wasn't his idea to bring the Jews out of Egypt; it was the command of God. God was going to remove the Jews from Egyptian slavery in order to make them a special nation (client nation) in history.
A coward dies many times, but a brave man dies only once. Under fear, emotion took control of these believer’s souls, and they became irrational. In their state of irrationality, they possessed a false view of their situation. Their false viewpoint was that they were already dead. The true view was that God would deliver them. “Is this not the word which we spoke to you in Egypt? Let us alone that we may be slaves to the Egyptians because it is good for us to be slaves to the Egyptians rather than to die in the desert.” (Exodus 14:12)
Initially, when the Jews heard that God was going to remove them from slavery, they welcomed the idea: Exodus 4:31, “And when they heard that the Lord was concerned about them and had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped.” However, once the Egyptians started to give them a hard time, they changed their minds about going: Exodus 5:21, “And they said, may the Lord look upon you and judge you [Moses and Aaron]! You have made us a stench to Pharaoh and his officials and have put a sword in their hand to kill us.”
Even with the continued assurance of the Lord, the Israelites refused to humble themselves to God’s purpose. Exodus 6:8-9, “And I will bring you to the land I swore with uplifted hand to give to Abraham, to Isaac and to Jacob. I will give it to you as a possession. I am the Lord.’ Moses reported this to the Israelites, but they did not listen to him because of their discouragement and cruel bondage.”
Fear destroys the Spiritual Life of the believer:
1. Fear is the enemy of thought. Cowardice is the inability to apply knowledge to a situation. Thus, fear and cowardice can only occur when the believer is out of fellowship with God.
2. Honor, and virtue are secondary components of true love, and so cannot co-exist with worry, fear, and anxiety since these are not virtues.
3. Virtue produces courage which drives out fear.
4. Virtue eliminates all arrogance which includes fear, jealousy, bitterness, hatred, vindictiveness, implacability, and self-pity.
5. Confidence, a secondary component of love toward God motivates courage toward mankind.
6. Fear indicates that the believer is involved in the cosmic system, and therefore, cannot use any of the Problem-Solving Devices of the spiritual life.
7. Fear, like all mental attitude sins is self-punishing and self-destructive. The presence of fear in the soul overflows into the body as well—psychosomatics.
8. If you are afraid, you are out of fellowship for fear and the function of your spiritual life are mutually exclusive.
9. Fear eliminates a personal sense of destiny and the double column advance to occupation with Christ.
10. Fear sees the problem and falls apart, while faith sees the solution and keeps marching to glory. There are three great illustrations of faith: Abraham in sexual death, Moses at the Red Sea, and David against Goliath. Through the Faith-Rest Drill, each of these believers namely Abraham, Moses, and David emphasized the solution rather than the problem and so avoided the distraction of fear.
Other principles of fear:
1. Fear is a sign of arrogance and self-centeredness. Therefore, fear results in the function of three arrogance skills: self-justification, self-deception, and self-absorption.
2. The temptation to have fear calls for the function of the faith-rest drill, Isaiah 41:10, “Fear not for I am with you; be not dismayed for I am your God. I will strengthen you; I will help you; yes, I will hold you up with the right hand of My Righteousness.” 2 Timothy 1:7, “For God has not given us a lifestyle of fear, but of power and love and sound-judgment.”
3. Fear related to death will not prevent dying, but it will prevent the fulfillment of our very own spiritual life.
4. The more things you surrender to fear, the more things you fear. Today, you may be worried about only one thing; tomorrow about two things, etc. Soon you become so emotionally involved in fear that you have no identity. Irrationality means loss of identity, which means the accumulation of fear until you are afraid of life. Fear is something that, if not controlled, continues to develop in your life until you have no capacity, and as a believer you become a loser.
5. The extent to which you surrender to fear, the greater your capacity for fear and to that extent fear controls more and more of your life. Increasing fear means increasing insecurity, which destroys your capacity for love, life, happiness, and blessing. Under fear, no set of circumstances in life will ever make you happy. There is no way you can have true love or true happiness apart from a healthy mental attitude.
6. The greater your capacity for fear, the more you increase the power of fear in your life. The more you increase the power of fear in your life, the greater your failure to execute the unique spiritual life of the Church Age.
Revelation 11:12
And they [Moses and Elijah] heard a loud voice from heaven saying to them, "Come up here." And so, they went up to heaven in a cloud, while their enemies [both believer and unbeliever] observed them [Moses and Elijah ascending in their interim bodies].
καὶ ἤκουσαν φωνῆς µεγάλης ἐκ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ λεγούσης αὐτοῖς, Ἀνάβατε ὧδε· καὶ ἀνέβησαν εἰς τὸν οὐρανὸν ἐν τῇ νεφέλῃ, καὶ ἐθεώρησαν αὐτοὺς οἱ ἐχθροὶ αὐτῶν.
The principle: Those who reject the teaching of truth or doctrine in any dispensation are the enemies. Rejection of doctrine always produces antagonism. Negative volition makes the person an enemy of the truth, and therefore an enemy of the communicator of the truth, Moses and Elijah in this case. Hence, those who have rejected their doctrine, believer and unbeliever, are said to be enemies.
There is no record of any of these millions of viewers changing their minds, and that is a point of great significance. They had been gloating over the death of Moses and Elijah for three and a half days. Now, they see a phenomenal miracle, resuscitation. They were negative at the point of doctrinal teaching and they will remain negative at the point of this miracle.
Negative volition is consistent and it also demonstrates that miracles do not change people’s attitudes. Only truth changes people. People who reject divine truth are not brought back to truth by seeing a miracle from God. Miracles in themselves are meaningless, they change nothing. The persistent rejection of truth results in scar tissue of the soul. Miracles never change scar tissue, only truth can remove scar tissue. People develop scar tissue through negative volition toward the truth; people lose scar tissue by positive volition toward the truth, truth in all categories.
Revelation 11:13
And in that hour, there was a great earthquake, and one tenth of the city fell, also 7000 people were killed in the earthquake [the ones with the strongest negative volition and greatest scar tissue; thus, they were beyond the possibility of ever believing], and the survivors became terrified [temporary enforced humility which led to their salvation] and so they gave glory to the God of heaven [unbelievers under enforced humility were able to link the gospel messages of the two heralds and believed in Christ.].
Καὶ ἐν ἐκείνῃ τῇ ὥρᾳ ἐγένετο σεισµὸς µέγας, καὶ τὸ δέκατον τῆς πόλεως ἔπεσεν, καὶ ἀπεκτάνθησαν ἐν τῷ σεισµῷ ὀνόµατα ἀνθρώπων χιλιάδες ἑπτά, καὶ οἱ λοιποὶ ἔµφοβοι ἐγένοντο καὶ ἔδωκαν δόξαν τῷ θεῷ τοῦ οὐρανοῦ.
These people were absolutely indifferent to the ministry of Moses and Elijah and to the miracles related to their ministry, but natural disaster will get their attention. Disaster slows down negative volition temporarily and provides the option of switching from negative to positive. Truth combined with miracles produces nothing but more negative volition in a degenerate society, but natural disaster causes this negative volition to pause and to reconsider.
Whenever we face a disaster, God is giving us an opportunity to recognize a mistake that we have ignored via normal channels. Disaster is designed to benefit people. People can actually be frightened into facing reality, the worst motivation, but better than nothing. The disaster temporarily placed the people in a position of enforced humility, and from this comes teachability. (Later the great Jewish believers will use this rubble to defend Jerusalem against the King of the North.)
Revelation 11:14
The second woe [the 6th trumpet of Revelation 9:13-21] has past, behold [something worse is coming], the third woe follows soon.
Ἡ οὐαὶ ἡ δευτέρα ἀπῆλθεν· ἰδοὺ ἡ οὐαὶ ἡ τρίτη ἔρχεται ταχύ.
Revelation 11:15
When [the temporal ‘kai’ as in Plato’s Symposium] the seventh angel sounded his trumpet [the beginning of the 3rd woe], there were also loud voices [Revelation 5:11: angels] which were saying, "The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord [elect angels are addressing the Father] and His [God the Father] Christ [Messiah]; in fact, He will reign forever and ever.
Καὶ ὁ ἕβδοµος ἄγγελος ἐσάλπισεν· καὶ ἐγένοντο φωναὶ µεγάλαι ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ λέγοντες, Ἐγένετο ἡ βασιλεία τοῦ κόσµου τοῦ κυρίου ἡµῶν καὶ τοῦ Χριστοῦ αὐτοῦ, καὶ βασιλεύσει εἰς τοὺς αἰῶνας τῶν αἰώνων.
The Eschatology of the devil’s Desperation
By definition the devil’s desperation begins at the moment when he is expelled from heaven in the middle of the Tribulation. Once Satan is confined to earth, he is desperate to avoid certain judgements. He realizes that even though he has lost the heavenly battle, he still has one major chance at victory. He must destroy all Jews on the earth. In his desperation, Satan attacks Israel in the greatest of all holocausts which is the seventh trumpet and the beginning of the Third Woe. The Third Woe is actually the entire course of the devil’s desperation. It is broken down into six parts:
Part 1, the beginning of Satan’s desperation, the great holocaust of Israel, the seventh trumpet which is the beginning of the third woe, Revelation 12:12-17.
Part 2, we meet the devil’s two witnesses, the two great dictators of the last half of the Tribulation. One is a Gentile dictator of the Revived Roman empire; the other is a Jewish dictator of the state of Israel in the Tribulation. We meet them in Revelation 13.
Part 3, evangelism continues on the earth in spite of all the demons on the earth, both those who are disembodied spirits and those who have bodies as per Revelation 14.
Part 4, Revelation 15 & 16: While Satan will still be the ruler of the world in the last half of the Tribulation, he will be confined to the world, his kingdom has become his temporary jail. During this period, divine judgment will be administered through the seven last plagues or the seven goblet judgements.
Part 5, Satan’s last attack on the human race, his ace trump just before the Second Advent. Religion has always been the devil’s ace trump and in the last half of the Tribulation, he will organize the greatest system of ecumenical religion the world has ever known as per Revelation chapters 17 & 18.
Part 6, The second advent of Christ where Satan and his whole system, both angelic and human, is defeated and destroyed. Satan is imprisoned for 1000 years.
“There were also loud voices”
Revelation 5:11, “I both saw and heard the voice of many angels around the throne, plus the voice of the angelic heralds and the angelic general staff, and their number was beyond counting;” So, the loud voices include the 4 angelic heralds, the 24 staff officers and billions of other angels. The Kingdom of the world becomes the Kingdom of the Father who will transfers it to Christ whose rulership will be the fulfillment of the Davidic Covenant.
Revelation 11:16
Then, the twenty-four angelic staff officers who were sitting on their thrones in the presence of God fell on their faces [the posture of humility, but not necessary] and worshipped God [with thought expressed in the following two verses].
καὶ οἱ εἴκοσι τέσσαρες πρεσβύτεροι οἳ ἐνώπιον τοῦ θεοῦ κάθηνται ἐπὶ τοὺς θρόνους αὐτῶν ἔπεσαν ἐπὶ τὰ πρόσωπα αὐτῶν καὶ προσεκύνησαν τῷ θεῷ
A few points regarding worship:
1. All worship must be rational, and this is only possible by relating it to Bible doctrine.
2. All worship must be spiritual, therefore related to the Filling of the Spirit and metabolized doctrine which is summarized in John 4:24.
3. Spiritual worship is rational worship. Therefore, the emotionalism of tongues and other forms of emotional revolt are excluded.
4. Basically, worship includes certain functions: singing, praying, giving, the intake of doctrine, and the communion service. Each facet of worship demands two things: the Filling of the Holy Spirit and the residence of Bible doctrine in the soul. Always, it is doctrine and the Spirit.
5. Therefore, singing as worship must be related to doctrine and executed under the Filling of the Spirit.
6. Therefore, prayer as worship must conform to doctrine and be executed in the Filling of the Spirit.
7. Therefore, giving as worship must be motivated from doctrine resident in the soul and fulfilled in the Filling of the Spirit.
8. Therefore, perception of doctrine, the most important and basic facet of worship, demands the Filling of the Spirit for inculcation.
9. Therefore, the communion service is a ritual which has no meaning apart from doctrine resident in the soul. Hence, a worship function which is impossible apart from the Filling of the Spirit.
Revelation 11:17
Saying, "We are thankful to you, O Lord, the omnipotent God [they emphasize the giver, not their blessings; they are thanking him for his power and the way he will use it shortly] who is [the Omega glory of Christ in hypostatic union] and who was [always existed as Alpha glory, God the Son], because you have taken Your great power [the omnipotence of God the Son at the 2nd Advent] and You have begun to rule [anticipating the Millennial reign of Christ]."
λέγοντες, Εὐχαριστοῦµέν σοι, κύριε ὁ θεὸς ὁ παντοκράτωρ, ὁ ὢν καὶ ὁ ἦν, ὅτι εἴληφας τὴν δύναµίν σου τὴν µεγάλην καὶ ἐβασίλευσας·
The Angels in this passage are thankful for the Omnipotence of the Lord used to remove his enemies and establish His rule.
Thanksgiving:
Thanksgiving toward God and his plan is based upon receiving something from God without having to earn it. Even the Greek verb for thanksgiving Εὐχαριστέω takes its root from the Greek word for grace χαρις, the basic root for all the Greek words for thanksgiving. The more you understand grace, the greater is your appreciation of God’s plan. Thanksgiving, then, is simply grace orientation expressing itself toward God.
1 Thessalonians 5:18, “In everything give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.” Be thankful for the blessings of life; be thankful for the adversities of life for both blessings and adversities can be used in God’s plan to advance you spiritually. Environment should not weaken you, enslave you or destroy you. When the Christian has the ability to apply and does apply the Ten Problems Solving Devices successfully to any type of environment, he will be consistently thankful. Ephesians 5:20, “Always be thankful [gnomic present: gratitude is a permanent status of the soul where there is spiritual advance] with reference to all things [testing, blessing, discipline, disaster etc.] to God even the Father through the person our Lord Jesus Christ.” (Colossians 1:12, 2:7)
Thanksgiving requires power and is that form of worship in which the Church Age believer acknowledges the gracious benefits received from the three members of the Trinity. The power for worship is found in John 4:24, “God is a spirit, and those who worship Him, must worship by means of the Spirit [the Filling of the Spirit] and by means of truth [doctrine metabolized in the soul].” The enabling power of the Holy Spirit with the power of metabolized doctrine, these two applying the Problem-Solving Devices equals true thanksgiving. Thanksgiving has no meaning, even for the believer, until he is consistently functioning under God’s empowered plan.
Thanksgiving is a part of the daily function of the Ten Problem-Solving Devices deployed on the FLOT line (forward line of troops in a defensive position) of the soul. Thanksgiving is not some shallow, fleeting system of gratitude for something. Thanksgiving is a moment-by-moment mental attitude produced by metabolized doctrine in the stream of consciousness. Thanksgiving is the mental attitude forged from cognition and inculcation of Bible doctrine plus subsequent capacity for life, love and happiness. Colossians 2:7, “Having been rooted and having been edified in Him, and being stabilized by means of doctrine as you have been taught, overflowing with thanksgiving.” There is a relationship between your consistent perception of Bible doctrine and your attitude of thanksgiving toward God. Thanksgiving is an index of the spiritual status of the believer. The greater the content of metabolized doctrine in the believer’s right lobe, the greater the capacity for mental attitude thanksgiving in the life.
Capacity for blessing means thanksgiving potential. Thanksgiving potential depends on the amount of Bible doctrine in the soul of the believer, so that the believer who is blessed is occupied with the Giver as well as the gift. True happiness is loving the Giver more than the gift. True thanksgiving is to be occupied with the Giver more than the gift. Capacity for life is to enjoy the Giver more than the gift.
Thanksgiving is that form of worship in which the Church Age believer acknowledges the benefits related to the divine initiative of antecedent grace in eternity past and in time. The divine initiative of antecedent grace in eternity past is the provision of our very own Portfolio of Invisible Assets (Volitional, Invisible impact, Production, and Undeserved Suffering assets). The divine initiative of antecedent grace in time is the function of the four spiritual skills.
All true worship in the Church Age is based on the two power options: the Filling of the Holy Spirit and the metabolization of doctrine. There is a relationship between your consistent perception of Bible doctrine and your attitude of thanksgiving toward God. Bible doctrine gives capacity for gratitude. Colossians 1:12, "Giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us for a share in the endowment of the saints in the light." Thanksgiving is an act of giving thanks, grateful acknowledgement of the benefits of the grace of God. Hence, it is an expression of gratitude toward God based on your doctrinal capacity to appreciate who and what He is. Only winner-believers have capacity for true thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is more than an expression of gratitude, more than appreciation in a human sense. It is appreciation for God. Thanksgiving is first of all directed toward God, and as an overflow it is capacity and appreciation for life.
Thanksgiving is related to all the Problem-Solving Devices. Once you begin to understand rebound by grace, inevitably it becomes an expression of gratitude to God for the forgiveness of sins and restoration to fellowship with God. Thanksgiving is related to the Filling of the Holy Spirit as the means of expressing our appreciation to the Spirit for His enabling power. Without the Filling of the Spirit, we cannot even possess true thanksgiving to God. The Faith-Rest Drill results in capacity and expression of thanksgiving. Grace orientation is a continual source of thanksgiving to God. Doctrinal Orientation provides greater and greater capacity for thanksgiving until the capacity is so great that God shares his happiness with the believer. A Personal Sense of Destiny is a source of thanksgiving for the believer oriented to the objectives, purpose, and understanding of God's will, plan, and purpose. Personal love for God the Father adds motivational virtue to our thanksgiving. Impersonal love for all mankind relates interpersonal relationships to mental attitude thanksgiving toward God. You are thankful regardless of unjust treatment. So, sharing the happiness of God provides tremendous contentment in life, and therefore, thanksgiving and tranquility in every circumstance in life. The ultimate in mental attitude thanksgiving and the overt expression of gratitude toward God comes from occupation with Christ. The ultimate in mental attitude thanksgiving and the overt expression of gratitude comes from love for God the Father and Lord Jesus Christ.
Thanksgiving then reaches its peak in personal love for God the Father and occupation with the person of Christ. 2 Corinthians 9:15, “Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift [of salvation].” Revelation 7:12, “Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and ability belong to God forever and ever. Amen.” Psalm 100:4, “Enter into His gates with thanksgiving and into His courts with praise. Give thanks to Him, honor His person.”
Other areas of thanksgiving:
(1) Thanksgiving is often a public acknowledgment or celebration of worship. When the Ark of the Covenant was brought into the City of David, King David put the Ark into a tent and offered burnt offerings and reconciliation offerings before God (1 Chronicles 16:1) and assigned Asaph [a Levite and an eminent musician] and his relatives to give thanks to the Lord as per 1 Chronicles 16:7-36.
(2) Thanksgiving is a priestly sacrifice, Hebrews 13:15, “through Him let us be continually offering up a sacrifice of praise to the God, that is a fruit of our lips that gives thanks to His person [acknowledging His fame].”
(3) Thanksgiving is the mental attitude of the spiritually adult believer and a demonstration of his capacity. 2 Corinthians 4:15, “For all things are for your benefit [Paul’s teaching regarding the Church age] so that the grace which is spreading to more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God.”
(4) Personal testimonies of mature believers are found in the following passages: Daniel 2:20, 23, “Daniel said, ‘Let the person of God be blessed forever and ever for wisdom and power belong to Him. (23) To You, O God of my fathers, I give thanks and praise for you have given me wisdom and power.” Romans 1:8, “First of all I thank my God through Jesus Christ concerning all of you because your faith is celebrated in the entire world.” 1 Corinthians 1:4, “I always thank my God on your behalf for the grace of God which has been given to you in Christ Jesus [current positional truth].” Philippians 1:3-5, “I thank my God in all my remembrances of you. (4) Always in my every prayer for all of you when offering prayer with inner happiness, (5) because of your contribution [monetary] from the first day until now, for the purpose of spreading the gospel.” 2 Timothy 1:3, “I thank my God whom I serve with a pure conscience, the way my fathers did [Paul and his fathers were a blessing to those in their periphery and to their nations] as I constantly remember you in my prayers, night and day.” Jesus Christ, the God-Man offered thanksgiving from his humanity to the Father regarding the resuscitation of Lazarus. John 11:41, “So, they removed the stone. Then, Jesus raised his eyes and said, ‘Father, I thank you that you have heard Me.”
(5) Believers who are positive to doctrine are motivated to give thanksgiving regarding others, 1 Thessalonians 3:9, “For what thanks can we render to God in return for all the joy with which we rejoice before our God on your account.”
In summary, thanksgiving is an index of the spiritual status of the believer. The greater the content of metabolized doctrine in the believer's right lobe, the greater the capacity for mental attitude thanksgiving in the life. The increased usage of the Problem Solving-Devices of the Protocol Plan of God results in increased capacity for thanksgiving toward God.
Omnipotent Power: “O Lord, the omnipotent God”
The Latin term omnipotence is taken from the Greek word pantokrator, and means all-powerful or almighty. It has the connotation of “ruler of all things;” therefore, the eternal supreme power. Omnipotence is the theological term to describe the unlimited, infinite and eternal power of the three persons of the Trinity. God is infinite and eternal; His power is therefore infinite and eternal. His power has no beginning and no end. God exists eternally in three persons who are coequal and co-infinite. So, each person of the Godhead has exactly the same identical power or omnipotence. God’s infinite and limitless power functions under the control of His divine volition or sovereignty, and it is accompanied by divine virtue or holiness. The sovereignty and holiness of God must always be related to the omnipotence of God. In other words, the omnipotence of God can never be divorced from divine virtue or holiness.
God is able, in His omnipotence, to do anything compatible with His divine essence, but He will never use His power to compromise with sin, human good, or evil. God’s power is unlimited, except through self-imposed limitation related to acting foolishly, doing silly things, or becoming irrational.
Scriptural documentation of God’s power. Isaiah 43:13, “Even from eternity past, I am He, and there is no one who can deliver out of My hand. I act, and who can reverse it?” Matthew 19:26, “Jesus said to them [his disciples], ‘With men this is impossible [talking about a rich man entering heaven], but with God all things are possible.’” Man has definite limitations. God has no limitations except those, which are self-imposed, for He will not use His power to compromise with sin, human good, or evil. In Luke 1:37, the Greek says, “For no word from God will be void of power.” Luke 18:27, “But He said, ‘The things impossible with men are possible with God.’”
God’s power was a definite spiritual issue to Abraham when both Abraham and Sarah were sexually dead. In Romans, we have the story of Abraham’s fantastic faith resulting in the use of omnipotence. Romans 4:20-21, “Abraham staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief, but was strong in faith, giving glory to God, being fully persuaded that what He had promised He was also able to perform.” Abraham understood the omnipotence of God, and claimed it in connection with the promise that God had given regarding Abraham’s seed.
“You have taken Your great power and You have begun to rule” In this passage, the omnipotent God refers to the deity of Christ though addressed to Christ in hypostatic union. In His alpha glory, Jesus Christ has always existed as eternal God; in His omega glory, Jesus Christ is in hypostatic union. We have the alpha and omega glory combined to bring about the strategic victory of Jesus Christ on the cross.
Characteristics of the Millennium:
1. The millennium starts out with Jewish and Gentile believers only, yet many of their children turn out to be unbelievers. Israel is regathered and restored as a client nation, Isaiah 10:20-21, “Now in that day [the 2nd Advent] the remnant of Israel, and those of the house of Jacob who have escaped, will never again rely on the one [Assyria] who struck them, but will truly rely on the Lord, the Holy One of Israel. (21) A remnant will return, the remnant of Jacob, to the mighty God.” Isaiah 11:11-12, “Then it will happen on that day [the 2nd Advent] that the Lord will again recover the second time with His hand the remnant of His people, who will remain, from Assyria, Egypt, Pathros, Cush, Elam, Shinar, Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. (12) And He will lift up a standard for the nations and assemble the banished ones of Israel, and will gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.”
2. Jesus Christ will rule the World as the King over kings and the Lord over lords.
3. There is a giant population explosion since the environment will be perfect and death will take a holiday so that by the end of the Millennium millions of unbelievers will exist on the earth who have rejected the gospel and who will have joined the Gog-Magog revolution of Satan against the rule of Jesus Christ even though there will be perfect objectivity in the administration of justice.
4. Spirituality in the millennium will function under two powers namely metabolized doctrine and the Filling of the Spirit which will be characterized by ecstasy. Joel 2:28-29, "It will come about after this That I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind [the believers]; And your sons and daughters will prophesy; your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. (29) Even on the male and female servants [believers] I will pour out My Spirit in those days.”
5. The ferocity of animals will be removed. Isaiah 65:25, "The wolf and the lamb will graze together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox; and dust will be the serpent's food. They will do no evil or harm in all My holy mountain," says the Lord.”
6. During the Millennium, Satan is bound and demons are removed. For that reason, there will be no religion in the Millennium. Revelation 20:1-3, “Then I saw [a vision] an angel descending from Heaven, having the key of the abyss [the fourth compartment of Hades] and a great chain [giant handcuffs] in his hand. (2) And he [the Officer of Arms] seized [with violence] the dragon [a term for beauty; a large snake in Classical Greek], that ancient serpent [so named because he indwelt the serpent to tempt the woman] who is the Devil [slanderer, accuser, defense attorney] even Satan [the Hebrew for devil], and bound him [with the chain] for a thousand years. (3) And he cast him into the abyss and shut and sealed it over him so that he would not deceive the nations any more until the thousand years have been completed. After these things [the closing statement of Jesus Christ and other events of the Millennium], he [Satan] must be released for a short time [for his closing statement].”
7. There is universal peace, Psalm 46:9, “He makes wars to cease to the end of the earth; He breaks the bow and cuts the spear in two; He burns the chariots with fire.” Isaiah 2:4, “And He will judge between the nations, and will render decisions for many peoples; And they will hammer their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation will not lift up sword against nation, and never again will they learn war.” Also, universal peace is confirmed in Hosea 2:18 and Micah 4:3.
8. There will be universal knowledge of God, Isaiah 11:9, “They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain, for the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord As the waters cover the sea.”
9. There will be longevity in the human race, Isaiah 65:20, “Never again will there be in it an infant who lives but a few days, or an old man who does not live out his years; he who dies at a hundred will be thought a mere youth; he who fails to reach a hundred will be considered accursed.” There will be perfect health, so that people will have capacity for perfect environment (but this is not the same as capacity for life). The only reason people will die is capital punishment.
10. There will be a perfect world government under the leadership of Christ and the delegation of authority to invisible heroes of the Church Age to rule Gentile nations, Zechariah 14:9, “And the Lord will be king over all the earth; in that day the Lord will be the only one, and His name the only one.” Revelation 2:26-27, “He who is victorious [in the spiritual life] and keeps My assignments until the end [of his life], To him I will give authority over the Gentile nations, [as a blessing in the Millennium]; (27) And he shall rule them with a rod of iron, as the vessels of the potter are broken to pieces [swift and just punishment of criminals], as I also have received authority from My Father;”
11. There will be perfect environment in nature. Creation is released from the bondage of man’s sinfulness, Romans 8:19-22, “For the confident expectation of creation [the material universe] waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God [the royal family and the Old Testament believers at the Second Advent]. (20) For the creation [nature] was subordinated [at the Fall] to futility [void of purpose] against its own will, but because of Him [God the Father] who has subordinated it [nature’s curse will not be removed] until the time of hope [Jesus Christ at the 2nd Advent]. (21) Therefore, the material universe itself also shall be set free from the slavery to corruption [at the fall of man, nature shared in man’s corruption] into the freedom of the glory [nature will share in the glory which will occur during the Millennium] with reference to the children of God [nature along with the great believers will be blessed]. (22) For [explanatory] we know [perception of Bible doctrine in the past with the result that we know] that [delineates the content] the entire material universe groans [from great suffering] along with us [adult and mature believers in undeserved suffering] and suffers the pains of childbirth together with us until now.” Isaiah 35:1, 2, “The desert and the wilderness will be ecstatic [to dance around in a circle] in great happiness; and the desert will rejoice and blossom like a crocus. (2) It will blossom profusely, it will both rejoice with rejoicing and sing with happiness; the glory of Lebanon [majestic vistas, abundant rainfall, green hills, stately cedars and unceasing cold water from snowcapped mountains] will be given to it, the majesty of Mount Carmel [gardenlike loveliness and excellency of wood] and the plain of Sharon [rich grain growing plain]; they will see the glory of the Lord, the majestic royalty of our God.” Isaiah 11:6-8, “The wolf will live with the lamb, the leopard will lie down with the goat, the calf and the lion and the yearling together; and a little child will lead them. (7) The cow will feed with the bear, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox. (8) The infant will play near the hole of the cobra, and the young child will put his hand into the viper's nest.”
The Rule of the Iron Scepter:
1. The Millennium is a time of perfect environment; therefore, the Millennium is a time of prosperity. Consequently, there must be the iron scepter of law enforcement and capital punishment to pass the prosperity test during the dispensation of perfect environment.
2. For freedom to be perpetuated there must be authority. Authority cannot exist without the sword of capital punishment: it puts teeth in the law.
3. Therefore, a principle of history: you cannot have freedom without authority and you cannot have bona fide authority without freedom. Freedom and authority, therefore, must coexist.
4. Freedom without authority is anarchy; authority without freedom is tyranny.
5. The same principle holds true in the spiritual realm. Freedom without the authority of doctrine is antinomianism; authority without freedom is legalism.
6. In the Millennium, freedom plus authority will provide the basis for legitimate self-determination in the perfect environment of our Lord’s rule. If there was no capital punishment in the Millennium there would not be perfect environment very long. In other words, you cannot have good environment today and perfect environment in the future Millennium without authority.
7. Therefore, the volitional issue of the angelic conflict will continue in the Millennium, and people will be evangelized because of freedom and they will have freedom because of the Lord’s authority. Furthermore, people will be saved through the use of their own volition in the environment of freedom and salvation will be the same as it has always been since the beginning of history: “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shalt be saved.”
8. That same freedom of the Millennium will permit the rejection of Christ as savior without any form of spiritual or temporal bullying.
9. Freedom in the Millennium means exemption from arbitrary control of the volition. Freedom in the Millennium is maintained by our Lord’s iron scepter; hence the iron scepter of Christ will guarantee privacy, the sacredness of property and human life in the Millennium. Freedom is the policy of God in the creation of the human race and the perpetuation of human history to resolve the prehistoric angelic conflict. Freedom, therefore, will exist under the authority of our Lord Jesus Christ in the Millennium. Hence the principle: You cannot rule perfect environment without the iron scepter of authority and integrity. Law enforcement, honorable jurisprudence, strict punishment, are necessary for restraining the principle of trying to solve problems by violence.
10. Psalm 2:7-9, “I will proclaim the decree of the Lord [God the Father]: he said to me [God the Son], ‘You are my Son, today [1st Advent] I have begotten you [virgin birth]. Ask from me, and I will give you the nations [in the Millennium] as your inheritance [coronation at the second advent], plus the very ends of the earth as your possession [the Millennial reign of Christ]. Therefore, you will rule them [the nations of the Millennium] with an iron scepter, and you will shatter them like pieces of pottery [capital punishment in the Millennium].’”
Revelation 11:18
And so the nations were angry [Psalm 2:1-3], then Your [God the Father portrayed in Psalm 2:4-6] anger came [the closing events of the Tribulation and 2nd Advent], also the time with reference to the dead [resurrection of Old Testament believers and martyrs of the Tribulation] to be evaluated [the Evaluation-platform of Christ for these believers], that is, to present their rewards to Your servants namely to the prophets [Old Testament types] and to the saints [Old Testament believers] and to those who respect His person [martyrs of the Tribulation], both the lower and upper classes [class distinction doesn’t hinder spiritual advancement], also to destroy [this is the Lord’s tactical victory complementing his strategic victory of the cross] those who destroy the earth [The removal of Satan and his demons who had destroyed the earth from the fall of man to the 2nd Advent].
καὶ τὰ ἔθνη ὠργίσθησαν, καὶ ἦλθεν ἡ ὀργή σου καὶ ὁ καιρὸς τῶν νεκρῶν κριθῆναι καὶ δοῦναι τὸν µισθὸν τοῖς δούλοις σου τοῖς προφήταις καὶ τοῖς ἁγίοις καὶ τοῖς φοβουµένοις τὸ ὄνοµά σου, τοὺς µικροὺς καὶ τοὺς µεγάλους, καὶ διαφθεῖραι τοὺς διαφθείροντας τὴν γῆν.
Definition: Anger is a sin which expresses antagonism, hatred, exasperation, resentment, and irrationality. It can be based on thinking, or emotion, or both. The Greek word ὀργη (orge) is anger based on thought as in this passage; the word θυµος (thumos) is anger based on emotion. Both types of anger are reactions to someone or something causing a bitter reaction and resulting in irrational thought, speech or action. Anger motivates gossip, judging, maligning, hatred, revenge, cruelty, violence and murder.
Principles and scriptural verses related to anger:
1. Anger and cruelty are sometimes related to jealousy: Proverbs 27:4, “Wrath is fierce [cruel] and anger is a flood [affects all in its periphery], but who can stand against jealousy [a powerfully evil motivation].” These sins are mentioned in the same verse since they are related to one another. A jealous person easily becomes angry when crossed, and that anger can become extreme anger (wrath) which can develop into a desire for vengeance, and vengeance can be mercilessly cruel. In this relationship, the power base is jealousy.
2. Anger is related to stupidity, Ecclesiastes 7:9, “Do not be hasty to be angry in your heart [soul] for anger resides in the bosom of fools.” A person is never able to think rationally when angry, which is why many stupid and embarrassing things are said and done in anger. If you become angry easily under pressure, you are a stupid fool. You are a fool because you have not learned to think under pressure. A fool becomes emotional under pressure; a wise person thinks under pressure.
3. While an individual’s volition is the source of anger, the sin nature provides the temptation to become angry, Galatians 5:19, 20, “Now, the works [actions] of the flesh [sin nature] are plainly seen [perceptible; can be understood] which are … antagonisms [hostile feelings and actions toward others related to pettiness], strife (discord), jealousy, outburst of anger. . .”
4. An angry and hot-tempered person is a trouble maker, Proverbs 29:22, “An angry person stirs up strife, and a hot-tempered person abounds in transgression.”
5. Anger destroys a nation as per Amos 1:11, “So decrees the Lord, ‘For three sins of [the nation of] Edom, even four, I will not revoke its punishment because he pursued his brother [the descendants of Jacob] with a sword, stifling all compassion, because his anger raged continually, and he maintained his anger forever.’”
Psalm 2:1-6, “Why do the nations rage, and why do the people plot [or form conspiracies] in vain? (2) The kings of the earth take their stand [against our Lord], [in the last half of the Tribulation, we find that nations are raging against God namely the king of the north, the pan-Arabic bloc, the oriental bloc, and the revived Roman empire.] and the rulers conspire together against the Lord [God the Father], and against his anointed [God the Son], saying, (3) let us destroy their restraint, let us throw off their chains. [The restraint here refers to God’s restraint in history under the principle that Jesus Christ controls history. Were it not for divine restraint, we would not be alive, nor would there be any people left on the face of the earth; they would have self-destructed.] Throw off their chains. [means that God the Father and God the Son so function in the Tribulation to preserve a large population for entry into the Millennium.] (4) And he [God the Father] who is enthroned in heaven laughs: the Lord scoffs at them, [so the divine anger toward these nations is described as laughter, as if the creature could ever challenge the creator.] (5) He [God] will speak to them in his anger, he will terrify them in his wrath, saying [a reference to the closing events of the Tribulation such as the Armageddon Campaign and the 2nd Advent such as the Baptism of Fire] (6) but for me [God the Father], I have installed my King [Jesus Christ, the son of David] on Zion, my holy mountain.”
Revelation 11:19
Then, the temple of God which was in the [third] heaven was opened, and the ark of His covenant [a symbol of the Lord’s faithfulness to Israel] was seen in His temple, and there followed flashes of lightning and noises and thunders, both an earthquake and a great hailstorm [judgments against anti-Semitism and warnings that time is running out].
καὶ ἠνοίγη ὁ ναὸς τοῦ θεοῦ [ὁ] ἐν τῷ οὐρανῷ, καὶ ὤφθη ἡ κιβωτὸς τῆς διαθήκης αὐτοῦ ἐν τῷ ναῷ αὐτοῦ· καὶ ἐγένοντο ἀστραπαὶ καὶ φωναὶ καὶ βρονταὶ καὶ σεισµὸς καὶ χάλαζα µεγάλη.
The temple that was in existence at the time of the Exodus (in the form of the tabernacle), and the temple which was built in the days of Solomon and later Herod’s Temple were simply counterparts to the great temple in heaven. The counterpart came about as per the instructions given in the Word of God for the building of the temple. This temple in heaven is a Jewish temple which portrays the person and the work of the Lord Jesus Christ. Every bit of it is to demonstrate to Israel that in heaven there is this temple making it quite clear that the Jews will always exist in spite of Satan’s attempts to destroy them.
Explaining Propitiation in the Age of Israel:
Definition: Propitiation is the Godward side (God must be propitiated) of the work of Christ in salvation. God the Father was satisfied by Jesus as a High Priest offering himself on the cross as a sacrifice for the sins of the world. Hence, in propitiation the justice of God judged our sins (the sins of mankind including Adam’s Original Sin) and the righteousness of God was satisfied with that judgment. Thus, Propitiation frees the justice of God to immediately impute to anyone who believes in Jesus Christ, His righteousness.
The Ark of the Covenant: Inside the ark were three items namely the tables of the Law which speaks of sin as rebellion against God, the manna, which speaks of sin as rebellion against the provision of God and Aaron's rod that budded, which speaks of sin as rebellion against God’s delegated authority.
On the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur), on the 10th day of the 7th month of the Jewish calendar (Leviticus 26:29) equivalent to autumn, the high priest would enter the Holy of Holies twice, once for himself and for his family (Leviticus 16:6) and sprinkle the blood of a bull over the Propitiation Seat (Mercy Seat) as per Leviticus 16:14, and entered a second time for the sins of Israel (Leviticus 16:9) and sprinkle the blood of a goat as per Leviticus 16:15. The animal blood which was sprinkled over the Propitiation Seat (Hebrew: kapporet; Greek: Hilasterion) represented the saving work of Our Lord Jesus Christ on the cross.
The Ark which taught propitiation was a wooden box 45" by 27" by 27" made of Acacia wood overlaid with gold. The wood represents the humanity of Christ; the gold represents the deity of Christ. Together, they represent the Hypostatic Union. Over the top of the Ark was a covering which was called the Mercy Seat (propitiation throne). There were two golden cherubim over-shadowing this Mercy Seat called the cherubim of glory (Hebrews 9:5). These cherubs of glory represented God the Father’s divine glory specifically his righteousness and justice. One angel represented His righteousness and the other His justice. After the high priest had sprinkled the blood on the Mercy Seat, the angel representing the Father’s righteousness upon looking at the sins of Israel depicted by the Tables of the Law, Aaron’s rod which budded and the pot of Manna demanded that these sins be punished. The justice of God then punished the humanity of Christ on the cross for all the sins of the world depicted by the blood on top of the Mercy Seat. After which, the cherub representing the righteousness of the Father was propitiated (satisfied). Romans 3:25 says that Jesus Christ was publicly displayed as the mercy seat, the place of the propitiation, “whom God [the Father] publicly displayed as a mercy seat [propitiatory throne] by His blood [representing the work on the cross with emphasis on propitiation] through faith in Christ to demonstrate His [Father's] righteousness, because of the passing over of previously committed sins by the delay in judgment from God. [All sins of the Old Testament were not judged until Christ went to the cross).”
Ark: Taken from Thieme’s Bible Doctrine Dictionary pages 13, 14.
“Ark of the covenant [Heb. aron, chest or coffer]. A rectangular chest of acacia wood overlaid with gold and placed in the Holy of Holies of the Tabernacle, later the Temple. Above this most sacred piece of furniture dwelt the presence of the Lord with Israel.
Depiction of the Savior. The construction of the ark spoke of the future God-man: acacia wood represented Christ’s humanity; gold, His deity (Ex. 25:10–14; 37:1–5). Inside the ark were three items testifying to man’s sinfulness and rebellion against God (Heb. 9:4): tablets of the Ten Commandments depicted rejection of God’s law (Ex. 25:16); the pot of manna depicted rejection of God’s logistical grace provision (Ex. 16:32–33); and Aaron’s rod that budded depicted rejection of God’s delegated authority (Num. 17:8–10). Just as these emblems of sin were carried in the ark, Christ would carry all of man’s sins “in His body on the cross” (1 Pet. 2:24). Fitted as a lid atop the chest was the solid gold “mercy seat,” adorned on each end by a golden cherub (Ex. 25:17–21; 37:6–9; Heb. 9:5a). The figures of the cherubs—wings outspread, faces gazing down upon the mercy seat—represented the righteousness and justice of God. On the Day of Atonement, a high holy day for Israel, the high priest would enter the Holy of Holies and sprinkle the blood of a sacrificial animal on top of the mercy seat. The righteousness and justice of God, depicted by the two cherubs, saw not the sinfulness of man represented by the contents of the ark but the covering blood of the animal sacrifice. This yearly ritual taught and foreshadowed how the righteousness and justice of God would be satisfied by Christ’s substitutionary atonement on the cross (Eph. 1:7; Heb. 10:8–14).
Seat of dwelling presence. The ark of the covenant was a sacred symbol of God’s presence with Israel. Thus, Scripture also refers to it as the “ark of the Lord” (Joshua 6:7, 12), “ark of God” (1 Sam. 3:3; 4:11), and “ark of Your strength” (Ps. 132:8). During the Exodus, the ark was carried out in front of the advancing caravan as a sign of divine presence and protection (Num. 10:33). At the Jordan River, the ark guided the way and parted the waters for the Israelites to cross the river into Jericho (Joshua 3:3–17; 4:7, 11, 18); the ark then served as part of the offensive against the city’s walls and inhabitants (Joshua 6:4–12). When the ark was placed inside the Holy of Holies in the Tabernacle or Temple, the dwelling presence of the Lord resided “above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubim” (Ex. 25:22; Lev. 16:1–2; 1 Sam. 4:4; Ps. 99:1; Isa. 37:15–16).
Ark removed. In 586 B.C., the invading armies of Nebuchadnezzar destroyed Solomon’s Temple— and the ark inside it—when they “laid Jerusalem in ruins” (Ps. 79:1; cf. 2 Chron. 36:18–19; Ezra 5:12). Although a new Temple was built after the Jews returned from captivity, the Holy of Holies remained empty of sacred furniture. Following the crucifixion, the absence of the ark would signify that Jesus Christ—resurrected and seated at the Father’s right hand—had entered into the true Holy of Holies, the heavenly throne room of God (Heb. 6:19–20; 8:1; 9:24). Even the restored temple in the Millennium will have no ark, for Christ will personally rule the earth and “they will call Jerusalem ‘The Throne of the Lord’” (Jer. 3:16–17).”
“There followed flashes of lightning and noises and thunders, both an earthquake and a great hailstorm” What follows are the earthly signs of judgment against anti-Semitism. These are merely weather signs and it is bad weather for anyone who seeks to persecute the Jew. It is a warning that God never allows anyone to get away with anti-Semitism.
