Conscience – A Defiled Conscience, Part 3

[Study Aired October 28, 2023]

“If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do?”

Thomas Baird (mentioned in Part 2), in his “Conscience” dissertation, highlighted one of the contemporary world’s outstanding classics of Christian literature: the “Holy War” by John Bunyan.

Baird’s expressive introduction to Bunyan’s ‘immortal’ essay is worth repeating; he says:

“In John Bunyan’s imperishable allegory of the “Holy War”, we have one of the most masterly portrayals of Conscience in all this vast world’s remarkable accumulation of literature. There is nothing like it outside the realm of [Biblical] inspiration.[end]
He conceives the soul of man to be a corporate town called “Mansoul,” situated in the Continent of Universe. Diabolus, who had just been deposed from his exalted position for sin, is depicted as ranging through space, searching for an opportunity to be avenged upon God for his punishment. He espies the corporation of “Manscoul” and determines to make an assault thereon. He formulates his plan of attacking in conjunction with other vengeful demons, and they approach the town and demand an audience. The inhabitants dispute their five responsible elders to interview the besiegers. Their names are as follows: Captain Resistance, Lord Innocence, Lord Will-Be-Will [Bunyan could have gone one step further and called him IWWB Will], Lord Understanding and Mr. Recorder. The latter is Bunyan’s inimitable name for Conscience.” [end]

I love the poetic names Bunyan chose for the cast and locations in his essay. When quite young, I remember having the “Holy War” read to our class in Sunday School, and those creative names inspired my imagination ~ and inward torment to avoid a Dante-depicted type of death.

Indeed, John Bunyan’s “Holy War” would have inspired millions upon millions of Christians to vacate some distance from Babylon with no whit that they never left since they were not given sufficiency spirit to endure. Sure, many put their hand to the plough and, through the heat of the day, have remained diligent their entire lives, unwittingly serving ‘another Jesus’.

2Co 11:13  For such are false apostles [… and is NOT their fault!], deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the apostles of Christ.
2Co 11:14  And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. 
2Co 11:15  Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers [we all once in Babylon] also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.

2Co 11:3  But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ [prompting a good conscience].
2Co 11:4  For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him [… the dichotomy of weighing a good or evil conscience]. 

Luk 9:62  And Jesus said unto him, No man, having put his hand to the plough, and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God.

Luke 9:62 embeds three primary forms of conscience. First, we have our conscience pricked to choose life or death. Like ALL humanity, and particularly Orthodox Christianity, shuffling out of Babylon, the New Jerusalem is too far a trudge to rebuild the walls with elegant buttresses and towers of her breasts defending her heart (Psa 48:11-14, Son 8:10). With a disturbed conscience we return to Babylon excusing our conscience with lies that the task is too great; accusing life as too difficult to worship Christ more than our physical spouses and children, let alone support them. We thus hide in Babylon in plain sight with our broad-is-the-way friends eating and drinking from the Lord’s stolen golden cup (Joe 3:5). Life is good; fight for our esteemed democracy, capitalism, socialism, Hagar’s ‘isms and, most fiercely, Zionism. We are now rooted in a “Defiled Conscience”, having murdered the Lord’s commands with imagined, more exciting and liberating ideologies.

Just as one could be infected with legions of evil spirits, the nuances of evil consciences are many, yet there is only one type of a good conscience, just as Christ and his Father are one in perfect conscience to which the Bride aspires. Paul and all the Apostles and Body of Christ, keep and instruct their brethren concerning the principles of a good conscience that opposes a defiled conscience. As such, this study on a “Defiled Conscience” is centered around its source of inspiration in Titus 1:4-16, Paul instructing Titus for consistency in sound governance within the Church and, particularly the individuals, the pillars. There are many nuances of a defiled conscience, however, and for brevity’s sake, we will largely confine attention to the evil of a ‘defiled conscience’ represented in the following scriptures mostly for one’s personal study and introspection.

Tit 1:4  To Titus, mine own son after the common faith: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour. 
Tit 1:5  For this cause left I [Paul] thee [Titus] in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed thee: 
Tit 1:6  If any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having faithful children not accused of riot or unruly. 
Tit 1:7  For a bishop must be blameless, as the steward of God; not selfwilled, not soon angry, not given to wine, no striker, not given to filthy lucre; 
Tit 1:8  But a lover of hospitality, a lover of good men, sober, just, holy, temperate;
Tit 1:9  Holding fast the faithful word as he hath been taught, that he may be able by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers. 
Tit 1:10  For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers, specially they of the circumcision: 
Tit 1:11  Whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre’s sake. 
Tit 1:12  One of themselves, even a prophet of their own, said, The Cretians are alway liars, evil beasts, slow bellies [an accusing conscience?].
Tit 1:13  This witness is true. Wherefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith;
Tit 1:14  Not giving heed to Jewish fables, and commandments of men, that turn from the truth [by what kind of conscience?]. 
Tit 1:15  Unto the pure all things are pure: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled. 
Tit 1:16  They profess that they know God; but in works they deny him, being abominable, and disobedient, and unto every good work reprobate [G96 – 1. ‘not standing the test, not approved’ – by a good conscience]. 

Returning to:

Tit 1:4  To Titus, mine own son after the common faith: Grace, mercy, and peace, from God the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour.

Right out of the gate is imbedded Paul’s undefiled conscience’s urgency to caution Titus to be an Elder of the highest demands. Paul refers to Titus as “mine own son after the common faith.” Since Paul and Titus are two of the Christs, they are in unity of mind with ‘the’ Christ. Paul’s practised good conscience joyfully obligates him to instruct Titus in the same “commandment”, indeed, the whole Church to be ‘common in faith.’

Tit 1:3  But hath in due times manifested his word through preaching, which is committed unto me according to the commandment of God our Saviour;

Grace, mercy and peace are taken in our stride to be elements of a good conscience; however, what are their enemies causing the turbulence of a defiled (H3392) conscience?

Here defined is the term “defiled”.

Defile/Defiled H3392
– Transliteration: Miaino
– Phonetic: me-ah’-ee-no
– Definition: 

1. to dye with another colour, to stain 
2. to defile, pollute, sully, contaminate, soil 
3. to defile with sins

As seen in this study’s heading…

Tit 1:15  Unto the pure all things are pure [because a good conscience rules]: but unto them that are defiled and unbelieving is nothing pure; but even their mind and conscience is defiled.

Spiritually, we see that a defiled conscience is one stained, polluted or contaminated by a different color compared to Christ’s White horse misrepresented by Satan’s colors. Namely, Satan’s spiritual deceptions of White followed by Red (color of man), Black (death) and Yellow (pale = disease) horses, depicting the progression from a foundationally unsound mind’s inability to choose a pure course of action resulting in a defiled conscience. Hence, this study’s heading scripture notes the unbelieving mind, being polluted by lies, is incapable of enacting a pure conscience since, and by the lying foundations of his own will, such a one insists on being ruled by idols of the heart. 

Psa 11:3  If the foundations be destroyed, what can the righteous do? 

As we know, if the foundation of the Temple we are is built on the sand of a defiled mind, our conscience is already conditioned for defilement, which is colored with many confusing Satanic shades from which to choose.  The only symbolic choice should be pure white, representing the Lord’s flawlessness. Yet, like Jacob separating the straked from the purebred stock, we all in Babylon are straked with some good mixed with a lot of evil, confusing our minds to inconsistently choose an undefiled conscience.

Gen 30:35  And he removed that day the he goats that were ringstraked and spotted, and all the she goats that were speckled and spotted, and every one that had some white in it, and all the brown among the sheep, and gave them into the hand of his sons.

Gen 31:7  And your father hath deceived me, and changed my wages ten times; but God suffered him not to hurt me.
Gen 31:8  If he said thus, The speckled shall be thy wages; then all the cattle bare speckled: and if he said thus, The ringstraked shall be thy hire; then bare all the cattle ringstraked.
Gen 31:9  Thus God hath taken away the cattle of your father, and given them to me.

Understanding Jacob’s segregation of straked and speckled stock:

“Hybrid vigour is the increase in certain characteristics like growth rate, size, fertility, yield, etc., of a particular hybrid organism over its parents. Hybrid vigour is also known by some other names, including heterosis and inbreeding enhancement. Hybrid vigour occurs because the hybrid offspring’s traits are enhanced due to the mixing of genetic contributions of its parents.” – (Science ABC)

Jas 1:27  Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted [spotless; free from vice, unsullied G4695 – Spiloo– Phonetic: spee-lo’-o– Definition: 1. to defile, spot – Origin: from G4696] from the world.

Jacob kept the speckled and spotted stock of sheep, goats and cattle for his hire of fourteen years under Laban, his father-in-law, with the deception that he was going to further remain and serve Laban (Gen 30:31; the entire story 30:25-43). Selecting the seeming weak of Laban’s flock for himself depicts the mixed nature of his family by the ten tribes from Leah’s and Rachel’s handmaid’s loins. These people make up the greater portion of the ten-tribe nations of Israel and represent the eventual saving of the entirety of mankind and Jacob’s prosperity. In the meantime, they symbolise distant Israel coming out of Egypt and into the wilderness to learn about their God and the Lord’s seeming weak, motley ringstraked Elect coming out of Babylon to become pure white, the nemeses of Laban’s seeming purity of Orthodox Christianity.

1Co 1:27  But God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things which are mighty;
1Co 1:28  And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are:
1Co 1:29  That no flesh should glory in his presence.

Laban got to keep the outward uniformity of one color in all of his stock and the appearance and glory of wealth when, in fact, and by the absence of hybrid vigour, the livestock were unwittingly becoming inferior through inbreeding. Sadly, today the same physical condition is seen in much of Britain and Europe’s royalty and even society’s choosing of spouses who are spiritually impoverished yet rich in academia and positions of prominence, particularly the ‘inbreeding’ of harlot Christianity and the world.

Mat 23:27  Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness.

Laban, the father-in-law representing the elder as do much later Joseph’s brothers, always mistreats the younger, not knowing that they will serve the younger all the way to the world serving Christ’s Wife. 

The Bride of Christ being unspotted from the world juxtaposed with Jacob’s keeping of spotted and ringstraked stock maintains the world’s blindness to the Lord’s plan for her and her rulership in Christ over mankind. The world only sees its unwitting whitewashed righteousness being superior to the rag-tag seeming inferior ringstraked nature of the ones the Lord calls his Elect.

Jacob, whose name means “heel holder or supplanter H3290 and H6117 – 1. to supplant, circumvent, take by the heel, follow at the heel, assail insidiously, overreach”, with his God-given shifty conscience is meant for good and the future event depicting Christ’s Wife of an undefiled conscience having come out of Babylon.

Mat 25:29  For unto every one that hath shall be given, and he shall have abundance: but from him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath.

Luk 19:26  For I say unto you, That unto every one which hath [Christ and His doctrines] shall be given; and from him that hath not, even that he hath shall be taken away from him.

The seeming condition of Jacob’s defiled spotted and ringstraked conscience is meant for good. His God-given vengeance against Laban and taking into his own hands to make right his hire ultimately pointed to Jacob’s son, Joseph’s rulership over all his brothers, inclusive of Laban’s family, representing all of humanity serving the younger, Joseph.

(The natural points to the spiritual ~ with poetic flare: In the deep, the depths of the Sea where the Beast resides with Leviathan, is a metaphorical boiling putrid mass of aquatic maggots, mankind (Job 25:6), feeding on each other’s dross and Saint’s ‘marine snow’, crumbs from the Lord’s table above providing enough spiritual enlightenment to wildly excite them. The Bride of Christ, on her journey coming out of the defilement of the Sea and Babylon, is given to righteously discern the nuances of Jacob and all other personalities in scripture to see the hidden parables and subtlety of a defiled conscience.

What is “marine snow”?: https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/marinesnow.html 

The Sea is home to many allegorically unclean creatures, such as white, blind shrimps, feeding on this marine snow and algae from hydrothermal mineral-rich vents: https://www.livescience.com/31034-embargoed-eyeless-shrimp-discovered-deepest-volcanic-vents.html

Fearsome-looking Anglerfish carry their own ‘lantern light’ of spiritual enlightenment to attract the blind laity who live in a warm zone next to a Dante-like boiling vent and devour anything dead or alive that will barely fit into their exaggerated yawning jaws).

Apart from the spiritual indication of defilement inducted by Adam and Eve’s defilement of their minds, the very first time the term “defiled” is used is covertly in Genesis 34:2. As such, Mr Baird’s study on “Conscience” soundly and unwittingly submits to 1 Corinthians 2:14 in that “the natural man does not receive the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him; neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned.”

We shall review the first scriptural noting of the term “defiled”, which is in Genesis 34:2.

Gen 34:1  And Dinah the daughter of Leah, which she bare unto Jacob, went out to see the daughters of the land. 
Gen 34:2  And when Shechem the son of Hamor the Hivite, prince of the country, saw her, he took her, and lay with her, and defiled her.

We know that the many spiritual connections of the term defiled are allegorically hidden in the nuances of other ensamples all the way back to Adam and Eve’s defilement of their land of physical and spiritual Eden (within) ~ they were subsequently spewed out of Eden. Adam and Eve set the path for the entirety of mankind being defiled while in Eden by eating the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. It is synonymous with Satan staining God’s word a different color, contaminating Adam and Eve’s minds with confusion (Babylon) with the following words ~ And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die (Gen 3:4).

Lev 18:27  (For all these abominations have the men of the land done, which were before you, and the land is defiled 
Lev 18:28  That the land spue not you out also, when ye defile it, as it spued out the nations that were before you.

Notice in verse 27 that the people were already defiled by their forefathers’ (foundation of) bias for sexual idols of their hearts, so unwittingly, they would, by default, inherit defiled consciences.

Exo 20:3  Thou shalt have no other gods before me.
Exo 20:4  Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above [of the mind!], or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water [the word] under the earth [our bodies]:
Exo 20:5  Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; 
Exo 20:6  And shewing mercy unto thousands of them that love me, and keep my commandments. 

By the Lord’s design, it is only the Elect of God who are able to draw near to the Lord and have Him touch our lips and minds to create within an undefiled conscience.

Exo 20:21  And the people [the world] stood afar off, and Moses [the Elect] drew near unto the thick darkness where God was.

It all is part of Adam’s curse for us all to initially be defiled and full of abominations that spew out of our spiritual nostrils to learn a good conscience from an evil conscience.

Though Dinah’s defilement by Shechem was one of man’s many ‘endless’ staining sins of the land with different colors, it was Cain’s shedding of righteous Abel’s blood that was the most distinguished sin after Adam ate of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.

Num 35:33  So ye shall not pollute the land wherein ye are: for blood it defileth the land: and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it.
Num 35:34  Defile not therefore the land which ye shall inhabit, wherein I dwell: for I the LORD dwell among the children of Israel.

Cain and we all defile our land within by the shedding of our Lord’s innocent blood in the slaughterhouse of false doctrines. A false doctrine begins with a law for the mind to consider to obey or defy, subsequent to a dividing path of a good or defiled conscience.

As with the sins of Adam and Eve, Cain and Shechem are foundational in that they are first in their genre; all sin begins with a breach of God’s Commands. The sequential flow is a broken law, followed by the acknowledgment of the sin and its hopeful forever dismissal. If one’s mind excuses the sin, then it remains embedded to possibly sear one’s conscience and defile our Temple within. Typically, we go into hiding. However, the seared conscience is likely to further defile our land by blatantly continuing to perform fornication before the Body.

1Co 5:1  It is reported commonly that there is fornication among you, and such fornication as is not so much as named among the Gentiles, that one should have his father’s wife. 
1Co 5:2  And ye are puffed up [a seared conscience defiling one’s conscience] and have not rather mourned, that he that hath done this deed might be taken away from among you.

Once the “ensamples” (1Co 10:11) of all categories of sin are installed in the chronicles of scripture, that above-mentioned ‘sequential flow of broken laws’ should instantly stop by its filtration through our conscience. We either learn to joyfully comply with the Lord’s commands or suffer the torture of defiance until we do comply. Consistently failing to comply and for a rejected elect will land him in the Thousand-Year Reign to suffer without the holy spirit, continued dichotic suffering and bewilderment in failure for a guaranteed change in the Resurrection to Judgment. Conversely, consistent or random failure for a genuine Elect will cause him to be mindful of his Lord’s light yoke of no personal sweat for his prodigally tortured conscience to return to his Father and Lord. (Luke 15:11-32).

All forms of a defiled conscience result in a purged conscience by the shedding of blood, led by Christ the First Fruit, followed by the Elect in this age spiritually, and the world spiritually in the Lake of Fire.

Heb 9:22  And almost all things [all sins unto death] are by the Law purged with blood; and without shedding of blood is no remission. [Therein is the mindfulness, the pricking of our conscience that our Lord died as our ‘ensample’ to follow]
Heb 9:23  It was therefore necessary that the patterns [ensamples] of things in the heavens should be purified with these; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.

Once we are immutably established in Christ at the First Resurrection, we don’t need further sacrifices of spiritually dying (blood) daily, since any kind of evil conscience is abolished. A good conscience is the nature of God, with evil being utterly foreign.

Heb 9:24  For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us: 
Heb 9:25  Nor yet that he should offer himself often, as the high priest entereth into the holy place every year with blood of others; 
Heb 9:26  For then must he often have suffered since the foundation of the world: but now once in the end of the world hath he appeared to put away sin by the sacrifice of himself [forever!].
Heb 9:27  And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment: 
Heb 9:28  So Christ was once offered to bear the sins of many; and unto them that look for him shall he appear the second time without sin unto salvation.

1Co 15:30  And why stand we in jeopardy every hour? [In jeopardy of death is our constant search to retain a good conscience by dying hour by hour to our sins]
1Co 15:31  I protest by your rejoicing which I have in Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily. 

Our hour-by-hour consciousness causes the Christ-centric to be highly aware of maintaining a good conscience by the shedding of allegorical spiritual blood to our sins. Such spillage is undefiled blood of a good conscience. Any other emission of blood, bodily fluids and waste symbolically defiles the building of the Temple we are.

All sixteen references in the Bible to the different nuances of our conscience are strongly interconnected; it is thus hard not to encroach on those individual studies and make a mishmash of cross-references and possible confusion. A “convicted conscience” is one such case in point since all the remaining fifteen instances (most yet to be studied) righteously or unrighteously convict or acquit one’s conscience for our actions. The following example is one instance speaking of the woman taken in adultery and her accuser’s consciences being stabbed, slinking off one by one,

Joh 8:9  And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. 

Note that the young and brash were last to skulk off since life’s experiences hadn’t humiliated them sufficiently to draw experience for a timely decamp. It is a subtle case of the older old covenant school of Moses serving the younger Christ and His New Covenant Bride. 

The murderous Pharisees were in a dichotic state of having the Laws of Moses challenging their peace by this strange new conscience, convicting them of something utterly foreign to what they, since Moses, emphatically knew to be ‘right’, namely, and spiritually speaking… “A man’s foes shall be of his own household” (within – Mat 10:34-39). They now have a defiled conscience where once their conscience, as was Saul’s (Paul) and Job’s, pure by keeping the Law. The blood of this poor woman which would have satiated their consciences written in a good stoning was sharply polarised by a new conscience hidden in the meaning of this newborn chastisement to all parties of the affair, namely the sword of the word tumultuously dividing the bone and marrow of their consciences. (Saul kicking against the pricks of his conscience – Act 9:4-5).

Heb 4:11  Let us labour [Seeking a good conscience] therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief. 
Heb 4:12  For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. [Convicting or excusing our consciences’]
Heb 4:13  Neither is there any creature that is not manifest in his sight: but all things [of our good or evil consciences’] are naked and opened unto the eyes of him [Christ] with whom we have to do. [to give an account of an evil or good conscience]

Synopsis

A “defiled conscience” opposes the word of God and is thus a polluted conscience, stained a different color to our Lord’s pure white vesture. Those who keep Christ’s commandments have no accusation from within or without challenging their conscience.

Those who have an accusing conscience excuse themselves with academic pseudo-spirituality that can bamboozle the spiritually weak conscience to believe a lie. Any of the scripturally mentioned aspects of an evil conscience cascaded from any one instance to create a legion of demonic confusion (Babylon) and imagined hiding from the light of the Word.

Joh 3:19  And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness [hiding] rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
Joh 3:20  For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved. 

Such a person assuredly has his evil conscience pricked, but his pride has the greater power to evade the truth, and he thus remains in darkness with a tortured conscience. He often angrily defends his defiled conscience, gnashing his teeth upon any who challenge him since force now is his only way to sustain his imagined integrity, subconsciously knowing that he is condemned by his conscience.

Joh 3:21  But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God.

The person who swiftly acknowledges his error has shed his chains of darkness and lives in the peace and tranquillity of a good conscience under Christ’s light yoke.

The Bride of Christ who goes before her sisters in Old Jerusalem has received a double portion of all forms of evil consciences. She is mightily strengthened and joyful by the sordid affair, having struggled out of the sea with putrefying sores and fallen seven times. 

Joh 8:10  When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman [wow, eh? The KJV uses a capital “W”], where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee?
Joh 8:11  She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.

The Bride of Christ thus doesn’t hide from her sins but delights in their exposure and, more so, in her Lord’s forgiveness and her upward growth. She has an undefiled conscience cleansed by her Lord.

So you may ask, ‘What happened to the exposition of Tit 1:4-16?!’ The answer is that you are now skilled, as many already are, in identifying a defiled conscience, and the fun part is identifying ‘who done it’, knowing that every aspect of those verses is a reflection of ourselves. For the maturing spiritual mind being released from defilement, your understanding will be elementary; in the vernacular, it will be the confidence of “no sweat” ~ since fear produces sweat from a pricked conscience. 

Eze 44:16  They [the budding Kings and Priests, the Bride of Christ] shall enter into my sanctuary, and they shall come near to my table, to minister unto me, and they shall keep my charge. 
Eze 44:17  And it shall come to pass, that when they enter in at the gates of the inner court, they shall be clothed with linen garments; and no wool [keeping warm by our own works] shall come upon them, whiles they minister in the gates of the inner court, and within. 
Eze 44:18  They shall have linen bonnets [Turbans; a wife’s glory symbolised by her hair, Christ, and not one strand hurt] upon their heads, and shall have linen breeches upon their loins; they shall not gird themselves with any thing that causeth sweat.

Such a person is confident by their Lord’s word to come near to Christ and touch Him without a defiled conscience, knowing that she is her Lord’s workmanship, His Wife.

In the next study, always Lord willing, we will review our endemic nature of an “Evil Conscience”.

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Rev 4:6-7 – Part 6 – Sixteen Characteristics Which Chapters 1 and 10 of Ezekiel Have in Common.

Updated March 1, 2024

Introduction

Let’s begin by again remembering that all these glorious descriptions we are being given of the throne of God in the realm of the heavens are really just “patterns of the things of the heavens… figures of the true… heaven itself.”

Heb 9:23  It was therefore necessary that the patterns of things in the heavens should be purified with these [“the blood of bulls and goats” vs 13 and 19]; but the heavenly things themselves with better sacrifices than these.
Heb 9:24  For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself, now to appear in the presence of God for us:

As we are studying these “figures of the true” we must remember that Ezekiel is not ministering to himself, because he had no idea that these were “patterns of things in the heavens” or that they were but “figures of the true.” It was given to Peter to reveal that to us in these verses.

1Pe 1:9  Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.
1Pe 1:10  Of which salvation the prophets have enquired and searched diligently, who prophesied of the grace that should come unto you:
1Pe 1:11  Searching what, or what manner of time the Spirit of Christ which was in them did signify, when it testified beforehand the sufferings of Christ, and the glory that should follow.
1Pe 1:12  Unto whom it was revealed, that not unto themselves, but unto us they did minister the things, which are now reported unto you by them that have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven; which things the angels desire to look into.
1Pe 1:13  Wherefore gird up the loins of your mind, be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ;

Heb 11:39  And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise:
Heb 11:40  God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.

Understand that “the True” is “the revelation of Jesus Christ.” It is knowing this revelation that “brings grace to us.” You and I now know that “the True” heavens are not just one of us, but all who are in Christ and all in whom Christ dwells. We now are given to know that all the things in the temple were merely “patterns of the true” things within the true temple, “figures of the True.”

So now we can understand where Christ went when “a cloud received Him out of their sight.” Now we know where the true heavens into which He ascended are. Now we know what is the true house and tabernacle into which He has entered and in which He now dwells.

1Co 3:16  Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?
1Co 3:17  If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are.

2Co 5:1  For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

The “Ye are the temple of God” must be understood as being both corporately and individually all the patterns of all the things in that one temple ‘which temple we all are.’ “Ye are the body of  Christ” must be understood as being both corporately and individually a ‘many-membered body’ with “each member in particular” carrying out its own predestined function in that “one body.” So also is “the temple of God” and “so also is the Christ.” “The one temple has “many mansions” within it, and every great man’s house has within that one house many “vessels.”

Joh 14:2  In my Father’s house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.

1Co 12:12  For as the body is one, and hath many members, and all the members of that one body, being many, are one body: so also is [the] Christ.

2Ti 2:19  Nevertheless the foundation of God standeth sure, having this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his. And, Let every one that nameth the name of Christ depart from iniquity.
2Ti 2:20  But in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and some to honour, and some to dishonour.
2Ti 2:21  If a man therefore purge himself from these, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for the master’s use, and prepared unto every good work.

“The Lord knows them that are His.” His house has “not only vessels…” yet “a man” becomes “a vessel unto honor” if he is purged of  the “wood and earth” which are in the “great house.”

So these patterns are figures of the true ‘you’ and the true ‘me’ into which Christ has ascended and in which He now dwells. This is the revelation of Jesus Christ. It is the secret which has been hidden from the ages.

Col 1:24  Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of [the] Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church:
Col 1:25  Whereof I am made a minister, according to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you, to fulfil the word of God;
Col 1:26  Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations, but now is made manifest to his saints:
Col 1:27 To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:
Col 1:28  Whom we preach, warning every man, and teaching every man in all wisdom; that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus:

The Riches of The Glory of This Mystery

It is “the riches of the glory of this mystery” that we have taken time to examine and which we now continue to examine. We have eight more characteristics of these patterns of the things of the heavens which we will now examine.

9) The four wheels were “as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel.” This is common to both chapters.

Eze 1:15  Now as I beheld the living creatures, behold one wheel upon the earth by the living creatures, with his four faces.
Eze 1:16  The appearance of the wheels and their work was like unto the colour of a beryl: and they four had one likeness: and their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel.

Eze 10:10  And as for their appearances, they four had one likeness, as if a wheel had been in the midst of a wheel.

This is a figure and a pattern of what we will understand “in that day.” Just as the Father is in the Son, and the Son is in the Father, so, too, we are in Christ, and Christ is in us:

Joh 14:20  At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.

The spirit of the living creature is in the wheels and they have “one likeness” because it is the “one spirit” of Christ in both:

Rom 8:9  But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

1Co 12:13 For by one Spirit are we all baptized into one body, whether we be Jews or Gentiles, whether we be bond or free; and have been all made to drink into one Spirit.

Col 1:27  To whom God would make known what is the riches of the glory of this mystery among the Gentiles; which is Christ in you, the hope of glory:

It is the wheels which we are told are “upon the earth”, and we are plainly told that “Christ in you” is our “hope of glory.” Both He and we have experienced what it is to be “upon the earth.”

10)  The color of the four wheels is beryl. These beryl-colored wheels are common to both chapters.

Eze 1:16  The appearance of the wheels and their work was like unto the colour of a beryl: and they four had one likeness: and their appearance and their work was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel.

Eze 10:9  And when I looked, behold the four wheels by the cherubims, one wheel by one cherub, and another wheel by another cherub: and the appearance of the wheels was as the colour of a beryl stone.

I could find nothing that told me the color of beryl, but I did find this verse of scripture describing Christ himself:

Dan 10:6 His body also was like the beryl, and his face as the appearance of lightning, and his eyes as lamps of fire, and his arms and his feet like in colour to polished brass, and the voice of his words like the voice of a multitude.

The Hebrew word for ‘beryl’ is:

H8658
תַּרְשִׁישׁ
tarshı̂ysh
tar-sheesh’

Probably of foreign derivation (compare H8659); a gem, perhaps the topaz: – beryl.

When we look up H8659 we find that it is basically the exact same word:

H8659
תַּרְשִׁישׁ
tarshı̂ysh
tar-sheesh’

Probably the same as H8658 (as the region of the stone, or the reverse); Tarshish, a place on the Mediterranean, hence the epithet of a merchant vessel (as if for or from that port); also the name of a Persian and of an Israelite: – Tarshish, Tharshish.

The scholars all agree that “the color of beryl” is the color of the sea, that being either blue or a blue green.

Since we have already been told that His body is “the appearance of fire” it should be plain that these four wheels all being “the color of a beryl stone” is just another way of telling us that this particular pattern of the things of the heavens is also like Christ.

Eze 1:27  And I saw as the colour of amber, as the appearance of fire round about within it, from the appearance of his loins even upward, and from the appearance of his loins even downward, I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and it had brightness round about.

As always, anything associated with Christ is also associated with fire;

Luk 3:16  John answered, saying unto them all, I indeed baptize you with water; but one mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose: he shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire:

Luk 12:49  I am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I, if it be already kindled?

11) The wheels being full of eyes round about” is common to both chapters:

Eze 1:18  As for their rings, they were so high that they were dreadful; and their rings were full of eyes round about them four.

Eze 10:12  And their whole body, and their backs, and their hands, and their wings, and the wheels, were full of eyes round about, even the wheels that they four had.

We have already seen in the things that were peculiar to chapter 10, where we saw that these eyes are not just in the wheels but also all over the cherubims, that these eyes are eyes to see the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, which understand that all things are ours, past, present and future.

Mat 13:16  But blessed are your eyes, for they see: and your ears, for they hear.
Mat 13:17  For verily I say unto you, That many prophets and righteous men desired to see those things which ye see, and have not seen them; and to hear those things which ye hear, and have not heard them.

1Co 3:21  Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours;
1Co 3:22  Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours;

So our whole body, our backs and our hands and our wings “and the wheels, were full of eyes round about, even the wheels that they four had.”

This is what these eyes signify and if we have the spirit then we, too, can see the things of the spirit:

Rev 5:6 And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.

Here is the New Testament interpretation of this Old Testament figure:

1Co 3:21  Therefore let no man glory in men. For all things are yours;
1Co 3:22  Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours;
1Co 3:23  And ye are Christ’s; and Christ [is] God’s.

If we are “full of eyes round about,” then we see what is, what was and what will be. We understand that “all things are ours, things present, or things to come.” We see it all, and we see it in our own bodies, our backs and our hands and wings. We ‘see’ or understand that it is all ours, because we are “full of eyes round about.”

12) The firmament above the living creatures is common to both chapters 1 and 10.

In both chapters this firmament above the living creatures is the color of a sapphire. The phrase describing the color “as the color of the terrible crystal” or like the color of fearful or dreadful ice is only found in chapter 1, but the color itself is common to both chapters.

Eze 1:22  And the likeness of the firmament upon the heads of the living creature [was] as the colour of the terrible crystal, stretched forth over their heads above.

The first thing we need to realize is the spiritual significance of the word ‘firmament.’ Here is what Strong’s tells us about the meaning of this word:

H7549
ra^ qi^ ya?
raw- kee’- ah
From H7554; properly an expanse, that is, the firmament or (apparently) visible arch of the sky: – firmament.”

“Raqiya, from 7554, properly an expanse.” What does H7554 have to reveal to us about how this expanse is achieved? Here is the meaning of the root of this word translated ‘firmament.’

H7554
ra^ qa?
raw- kah’
A primitive root; to pound the earth (as a sign of passion); by analogy to expand (by hammering); by implication to overlay (with thin sheets of metal): – beat, make broad, spread abroad (forth, over, out, into plates), stamp, stretch.

Is not this exactly what God does with us? Does He not expand our moral and spiritual understanding by hammering us until we are conformed to the image of His Son?

Jer 23:29 Is not my word like as a fire? saith the LORD; and like a hammer that breaketh the rock in pieces?

The root of this word ‘raqa‘ is also found in this verse of scripture:

Exo 27:20  And thou shalt command the children of Israel, that they bring thee pure oil olive beaten for the light, to cause the lamp to burn always.

Here is Strong’s definition of the Hebrew word translated ‘beaten’ in this verse:

H3795
ka^ thi^ yth
kaw- theeth’
From H3807; beaten, that is, pure (oil): – beaten.

Christ was beaten for us, and we, too, are beaten for His body’s sake:

Mar 13:9  But take heed to yourselves: for they shall deliver you up to councils; and in the synagogues ye shall be beaten: and ye shall be brought before rulers and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them.

Col 1:24  Who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for his body’s sake, which is the church:

That is the root meaning of the Hebrew word translated ‘firmament.’ It is there in the ‘firmament’ of our lives that Christ is working with us all and where we are being “beaten for the light to burn always.”

The firmament is said to be “as the color of the terrible crystal.” What is “the color of the terrible crystal?”

Chapter 10 and 1 both explain.

Eze 10:1  Then I looked, and, behold, in the firmament that was above the head of the cherubims there appeared over them as it were a sapphire stone, as the appearance of the likeness of a throne.

Eze 1:22 And the likeness of the firmament upon the heads of the living creature was as the colour of the terrible crystal, stretched forth over their heads above.

While sapphires may come in other colors, they are generally blue. The firmament is said to be ice blue, and if you will read our study on colors, you will see that the color blue is associated with the things of the heavens themselves, especially as it pertains to these patterns we are now studying.

Colors – The Color Blue, Part 1

There is a reason why both the sea and the heavens are blue, and why the earth appears as a blue planet in all the photos taken from outside our atmosphere.

Here is Strong’s Definition for ‘crystal.’

H7140
qerach  qo^ rach
keh’- rakh, ko’- rakh
From H7139; ice (as if bald, that is, smooth); hence, hail; by resemblance, rock crystal: – crystal, frost, ice.

King James Corncordance entries for the Hebrew word translated ‘crystal.’

H7140
qerach  /  qo^ rach
Total KJV Occurrences: 7
frost, 3
Gen_31:40, Job_37:10, Jer_36:30
ice, 3
Job_6:16, Job_38:29, Psa_147:17
crystal, 1
Eze_1:22

Since the word ‘crystal’ is apparently better translated as ‘ice’, and its color is “as it were a sapphire stone”, the “terrible crystal” is apparently blue. It is the color of the heavens, the color upon which all the holy things sat and in which all these patterns and figures of the things of the heavens were to be wrapped before they could be moved by the Levites who were not priests.

Num 4:5  And when the camp setteth forward, Aaron shall come, and his sons, and they shall take down the covering vail, and cover the ark of testimony with it:
Num 4:6  And shall put thereon the covering of badgers’ skins, and shall spread over it a cloth wholly of blue, and shall put in the staves thereof.
Num 4:7  And upon the table of shewbread they shall spread a cloth of blue, and put thereon the dishes, and the spoons, and the bowls, and covers to cover withal: and the continual bread shall be thereon:

Num 4:9  And they shall take a cloth of blue, and cover the candlestick of the light, and his lamps, and his tongs, and his snuffdishes, and all the oil vessels thereof, wherewith they minister unto it:

Num 4:11  And upon the golden altar they shall spread a cloth of blue, and cover it with a covering of badgers’ skins, and shall put to the staves thereof:
Num 4:12  And they shall take all the instruments of ministry, wherewith they minister in the sanctuary, and put them in a cloth of blue, and cover them with a covering of badgers’ skins, and shall put [them] on a bar:

13)  The description of the sound of the wings of the living creatures, is common to both chapters.

The sound of the wings of the four living creatures is like the sound of Niagara Falls. It is “as the voice of the Almighty”, the noise of great waters, the noise of a host. It is as the voice of all of His people. When they stood they “let down their wings.”

Eze 1:24  And when they went, I heard the noise of their wings, like the noise of great waters, as the voice of the Almighty, the voice of speech, as the noise of an host: when they stood, they let down their wings.
Eze 10:5  And the sound of the cherubims’ wings was heard even to the outer court, as the voice of the Almighty God when he speaketh.

Christ is our wings and our protection. His wings are our armor. When we stand, we stand in His armor and in “the shadow of His wings.”

Psa 36:7  How excellent is thy lovingkindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings.

Psa 91:4  He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.

We will pause here for now and do the last three characteristics which are common to Ezekiel chapter 1 and chapter 10 in our next study.