Hi Mike,

Are you a futurist or a preterist?

J____

Hi J____,

Thank you for your question, “Are you a futurist or a preterist?”  The answer is that I am neither “a futurist nor a preterist”. I have said many times, anyone who is a dispensationalist (futurist) knows only 1/3 of the True Christ of scripture.

Anyone who is a preterist (the prophecies were fulfilled in the past) knows only 1/3 of the Christ of the scriptures. Anyone who is a ‘presentist’ (is that even a word?) knows only 1/3 of the True Christ.

This is the True Christ:

Mat 24:32  Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh:
Mat 24:33  So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.
Mat 24:34  Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled. 
Mat 24:35  Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.

Matthew 24 was fulfilled in “[that] generation”, and the next generation and so forth down to “this generation [which shall also] not pass till all these things be fulfilled”, because this is who Jesus is, and this is what I am:

Rev 1:4  JOHN to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne;

What I am is what the website says I am. In Christ we all are aware that His “words do not pass away” but are applicable in every generation.

That is why Christ said:

Mat 24:15  When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)

Understand what? Understand that “My words do not pass away” and the man of sin who stands in the holy place is my own old man who places himself above and over Christ in His temple which we are in Christ (1Co 3:15-16).

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.

Christ goes on to say, as I cut and pasted above, “This generation will not pass away until all these things [including the abomination of desolation] be fulfilled.” He said “Let him that reads understand” because He knew His words would be being read down through every generation because He is as He tells us twelve times in various ways in the book of Revelation:

Rev 1:4  JOHN to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne;

That is the Christ I know, and that is who and what I am. Read the article How To Rightly Divide The Word to understand how to handle the scriptures as the apostles handled them and as I handle them.

I hope this answers your question. Your brother in the Christ who is, was, and will be, hence the name of my website.

Mike

The Prophecy of Isaiah - Part 36 Discussion

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Isa 7:21-25 For The Abundance of Milk... He Shall Eat Butter

[Updated February 26, 2017]

Isa 7:21  And it shall come to pass in that day, that a man shall nourish a young cow, and two sheep;
Isa 7:22  And it shall come to pass, for the abundance of milk that they shall give he shall eat butter: for butter and honey shall every one eat that is left in the land.
Isa 7:23  And it shall come to pass in that day, that every place shall be, where there were a thousand vines at a thousand silverlings, it shall even be for briers and thorns.
Isa 7:24  With arrows and with bows shall men come thither; because all the land shall become briers and thorns.
Isa 7:25  And on all hills that shall be digged with the mattock, there shall not come thither the fear of briers and thorns: but it shall be for the sending forth of oxen, and for the treading of lesser cattle.

The detail that is in these prophesies is truly amazing. When we read, as we did last week...

Amo 3:7  Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.

...We tend to think that verse refers only to great spiritual earthquakes and the sounding of spiritual trumpets, which propel our spiritual growth. We fail to notice that word "nothing", and we fail to realize that in saying: " Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets", that would include the long drawn-​out period of our lives when, unbeknownst to us, we spiritually are "carnal babes in Christ" (1Co 3:1-4).

Like all of us,​ Saul of Tarsus started out as a carnal babe in Christ. For three days after the Lord blinded him, he was so spiritually and physically immature that he could neither physically nor spiritually see his own hand in front of his physical face. The physical blindness of Saul of Tarsus typified his spiritual condition at that moment. But in the Lord's time, Saul of Tarsus became a spiritually mature son of God whose name was changed to Paul the apostle.

As such he again had to deal with whole churches which were spiritually immature "carnal babes in Christ":

1Co 2:1  And I, brethren, when I came to you, came not with excellency of speech or of wisdom, declaring unto you the testimony of God.
1Co 2:2  For I determined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified.

Is that not how we all first see Christ? All we can first see or accept is that Christ loved us, and He loved us so much He gave His life for us. But in the very next chapter Paul is admonishing these spiritually immature Corinthians to go beyond the milk of the word, and get past being "carnal... babes in Christ":

1Co 3:1  And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ. 
1Co 3:2  I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.
1Co 3:3  For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?
1Co 3:4  For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal? 

It is that stage of our own experience with which the verses of our study this week concern themselves:

Isa 7:21  And it shall come to pass in that day, that a man shall nourish a young cow, and two sheep;
Isa 7:22  And it shall come to pass, for the abundance of milk that they shall give he shall eat butter: for butter and honey shall every one eat that is left in the land.

As we have already demonstrated, whenever and wherever we see the phrase "that day" in the prophets, it is understood as being the day of the Lord's wrath, the day of His judgment, that is under discussion.

This phrase, "in that day", appears 43 times in Isaiah alone and literally dozens more times in the other prophets, where it refers almost exclusively to the day of the Lord's wrath, His day of judgment upon His own rebellious, apostate people.

Here are but the first four entries of this phrase here in Isaiah:

Isa 2:11  The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day.

Isa 2:17  And the loftiness of man shall be bowed down, and the haughtiness of men shall be made low: and the LORD alone shall be exalted in that day. 

Isa 2:20  In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats;

Isa 3:7  In that day shall he swear, saying, I will not be an healer; for in my house is neither bread nor clothing: make me not a ruler of the people.

What is so little understood is that "the lofty looks of man... his idols of silver and his idols of gold, [as well as him saying] I will not be a healer", is all done while we are in Babylon where we are completely unaware, at first, that we are living under the wrath of God.

Here is what we are told:

Joh 3:36  He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God abideth on him.

What that verse tells us is that we are born under the wrath of God, simply because we are born 'brute beasts... made to be taken and destroyed".

Ecc 3:18  I said in mine heart concerning the estate of the sons of men, that God might manifest them, and that they might see that they themselves are beasts.
Ecc 3:19  For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts; even one thing befalleth them: as the one dieth, so dieth the other; yea, they have all one breath; so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast: for all is vanity.
Ecc 3:20  All go unto one place; all are of the dust, and all turn to dust again.

2Pe 2:12  But these, as natural brute beasts, made to be taken and destroyed, speak evil of the things that they understand not; and shall utterly perish in their own corruption;

Jud 1:10  But these speak evil of those things which they know not: but what they know naturally, as brute beasts, in those things they corrupt themselves.

We all, "naturally, as brute beasts... corrupt [our]selves" simply because we are all "marred in the hand of the Potter". We are "marred in the Potter's hand" for the express purpose of being "made to be taken and destroyed". That is the predestined fate of our first man and his body of flesh and blood. That is why we are told explicitly:

1Co 15:50  Now this I say, brethren, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God; neither doth corruption inherit incorruption.

So how do we get from our hopeless, "marred", sinful condition into a purified spiritual body? We get there only through a long process of being spiritually conformed to the image of our Lord, who is "by little and by little... for a long time" becoming more alive within us. He alone is making us spiritually mature while yet in these dying clay vessels which we call bodies of flesh and blood:

Exo 23:30 By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land.

1Co 15:44  It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.
1Co 15:45  And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.
1Co 15:46  Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual.
1Co 15:47  The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven.
1Co 15:48 As is the earthy, such are they also that are earthy: and as is the heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly.
1Co 15:49  And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.

The time we spend going from "the first man Adam... made a living soul [to] the last Adam... made a life-giving spirit" is the time the scriptures call "the day of judgment".

This is what Peter tells us about that day:

2Pe 2:9 The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:

2Pe 3:7 But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.

In his first epistle, Peter has already informed us:

1Pe 4:17 For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

Who knew "the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God"? The reason for that is that judgment is "for a long time" while the Lord has gone "into a far country" and seems to have left us here to our own destructive ways. This time accounts for a good part of our lives as "carnal babes in Christ" who can only be "fed... with milk and not with meat" (1Co 3:1-4), and it is described for us with the words of our study today:

Isa 7:21  And it shall come to pass in that day, that a man shall nourish a young cow, and two sheep;
Isa 7:22  And it shall come to pass, for the abundance of milk that they shall give he shall eat butter: for butter and honey shall every one eat that is left in the land.

"Everyone...that is left in the land" refers to those who were left behind instead of being taken away into Babylonian captivity. Some of us have thought that we have never been in Babylon only to discover that Babylon is somehow still within us.

The literal fulfillment of this prophecy is found in Jeremiah:

Jer 40:1  The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, after that Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had let him go from Ramah, when he had taken him being bound in chains among all that were carried away captive of Jerusalem and Judah, which were carried away captive unto Babylon.
Jer 40:2  And the captain of the guard took Jeremiah, and said unto him, The LORD thy God hath pronounced this evil upon this place. 
Jer 40:3  Now the LORD hath brought it, and done according as he hath said: because ye have sinned against the LORD, and have not obeyed his voice, therefore this thing is come upon you. 
Jer 40:4  And now, behold, I loose thee this day from the chains which were upon thine hand. If it seem good unto thee to come with me into Babylon, come; and I will look well unto thee: but if it seem ill unto thee to come with me into Babylon, forbear: behold, all the land is before thee: whither it seemeth good and convenient for thee to go, thither go.
Jer 40:5  Now while he was not yet gone back, he said, Go back also to Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan, whom the king of Babylon hath made governor over the cities of Judah, and dwell with him among the people: or go wheresoever it seemeth convenient unto thee to go. So the captain of the guard gave him victuals and a reward, and let him go.
Jer 40:6  Then went Jeremiah unto Gedaliah the son of Ahikam to Mizpah; and dwelt with him among the people that were left in the land.

It is a very sad and spiritually immature position we are in when pagan leaders are used by the Lord to correct us and rebuke us. Yet that is exactly what happens to the kingdom of God within us at this stage of our "one experience" judgment.

As God's witnesses, we dwell with those whom the Lord has placed as rulers over His people who are left in the land, and in that position our counsel is sought and rejected by the people who are left in the land, just as we ourselves rejected the counsel of the Lord's elect in our own time.

Jer 42:5  Then they said to Jeremiah, The LORD be a true and faithful witness between us, if we do not even according to all things for the which the LORD thy God shall send thee to us.
Jer 42:6  Whether it be good, or whether it be evil, we will obey the voice of the LORD our God, to whom we send thee; that it may be well with us, when we obey the voice of the LORD our God.
Jer 42:7  And it came to pass after ten days, that the word of the LORD came unto Jeremiah.
Jer 42:8  Then called he Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces which were with him, and all the people from the least even to the greatest,
Jer 42:9  And said unto them, Thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel, unto whom ye sent me to present your supplication before him;
Jer 42:10  If ye will still abide in this land, then will I build you, and not pull you down, and I will plant you, and not pluck you up: for I repent me of the evil that I have done unto you.
Jer 42:11  Be not afraid of the king of Babylon, of whom ye are afraid; be not afraid of him, saith the LORD: for I am with you to save you, and to deliver you from his hand.
Jer 42:12  And I will shew mercies unto you, that he may have mercy upon you, and cause you to return to your own land.
Jer 42:13  But if ye say, We will not dwell in this land, neither obey the voice of the LORD your God,
Jer 42:14  Saying, No; but we will go into the land of Egypt, where we shall see no war, nor hear the sound of the trumpet, nor have hunger of bread; and there will we dwell:
Jer 42:15  And now therefore hear the word of the LORD, ye remnant of Judah; Thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; If ye wholly set your faces to enter into Egypt, and go to sojourn there;
Jer 42:16  Then it shall come to pass, that the sword, which ye feared, shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt, and the famine, whereof ye were afraid, shall follow close after you there in Egypt; and there ye shall die.
Jer 42:17  So shall it be with all the men that set their faces to go into Egypt to sojourn there; they shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence: and none of them shall remain or escape from the evil that I will bring upon them.
Jer 42:18  For thus saith the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; As mine anger and my fury hath been poured forth upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem; so shall my fury be poured forth upon you, when ye shall enter into Egypt: and ye shall be an execration, and an astonishment, and a curse, and a reproach; and ye shall see this place no more.
Jer 42:19  The LORD hath said concerning you, O ye remnant of Judah; Go ye not into Egypt: know certainly that I have admonished you this day.
Jer 42:20  For ye dissembled in your hearts, when ye sent me unto the LORD your God, saying, Pray for us unto the LORD our God; and according unto all that the LORD our God shall say, so declare unto us, and we will do it.
Jer 42:21  And now I have this day declared it to you; but ye have not obeyed the voice of the LORD your God, nor any thing for the which he hath sent me unto you.
Jer 42:22  Now therefore know certainly that ye shall die by the sword, by the famine, and by the pestilence, in the place whither ye desire to go and to sojourn.

This is all of us when we seek to know the mind of the Lord through His Christ and their multitude of counselors. We cannot stand against the fear of being rejected by the powers that be, and we lean unto our own understanding and flee back into Egypt, back into the world.

These are the words used by Isaiah to describe what we do when we are those who are left in the land:

Isa 7:23  And it shall come to pass in that day, that every place shall be, where there were a thousand vines at a thousand silverlings, it shall even be for briers and thorns.
Isa 7:24  With arrows and with bows shall men come thither; because all the land shall become briers and thorns.
Isa 7:25  And on all hills that shall be digged with the mattock, there shall not come thither the fear of briers and thorns: but it shall be for the sending forth of oxen, and for the treading of lesser cattle.

Just as Adam and Eve and Noah and Abraham, one and all, denied the Lord in their own way, so did ancient Israel, and so do each of us. When we deny the Lord and return back to this world the kingdom of God within us "shall be for briers and thorns and the bows and arrows of the adversary come and replace the truths we once had with the lies and false doctrines until "all the land... become[s spiritual] briers and thorns".

Verse 25 has quite a different meaning than the King James reads.

Isa 7:25  And on all^H3605 hills^H2022 that^H834 shall be digged^H5737 with the mattock,^H4576 there shall not^H3808 come^H935 thither^H8033 the fear^H3374 of briers^H8068 and thorns:^H7898 but it shall be^H1961 for the sending forth^H4916 of oxen,^H7794 and for the treading^H4823 of lesser cattle.^H7716

All the underlined words, while not in italics they are still added by the King James translators, and serve only to confuse the reader. When the underlined, added words are left out, the text tells us 'all hills digged mattock not, [and instead] comes to be the fear of briers and thorns...' The English word 'thither' is translated from the Hebrew word 'hayah',^H8033 meaning 'to be', or 'to exist'. This all makes this verse read quite the opposite of what the King James reads, but it now agrees with the previous two verses:

Isa 7:23  And it shall come to pass in that day, that every place shall be, where there were a thousand vines at a thousand silverlings, it shall even be for briers and thorns. 
Isa 7:24  With arrows and with bows shall men come thither; because all the land shall become briers and thorns.

Now verse 25 agrees with "every place shall be... for briers and thorns, [and three times we are told] all the land shall become briers and thorns". Look at this verse 25 in other versions. These clear up the understanding of this verse.

Isa 7:25  [LITV] And all the hills which were hoed with the hoe, you shall not come there for fear of briers and thorns; but it shall be for the sending out of the ox, and for trampling of sheep.

Isa 7:25 [ESV] And as for all the hills that used to be hoed with a hoe, you will not come there for fear of briers and thorns, but they will become a place where cattle are let loose and where sheep tread.

Isa 7:25 [RV] And all the hills that were digged with the mattock; thou shalt not come thither for fear of briers and thorns, but it shall be for the sending forth of oxen, and for the treading of sheep.

It also agrees with Isa 5:6 which also tells us the hill of the Lord's vineyard "will not be digged..."

Isa 5:6  And I will lay it waste: it shall not be pruned, nor digged; but there shall come up briers and thorns: I will also command the clouds that they rain no rain upon it.

We all have the same "one event", and this part of that "one event" is said to take place in "that day", the day when we are being nourished only with milk and milk products:

Isa 7:22  And it shall come to pass, for the abundance of milk that they shall give he shall eat butter: for butter and honey shall every one eat that is left in the land.

Once again this is all an essential part of "the everlasting gospel" of the necessary long drawn out process of judgment. That judgment is the patience of the saints and is also a part of the faith of Jesus proclaimed by the three angels of Revelation 14:

Rev 14:6  And I saw another angel fly in the midst of heaven, having the everlasting gospel to preach unto them that dwell on the earth, and to every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people,
Rev 14:7  Saying with a loud voice, Fear God, and give glory to him; for the hour of his judgment is come: and worship him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters.
Rev 14:8  And there followed another angel, saying, Babylon is fallen, is fallen, that great city, because she made all nations drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.
Rev 14:9  And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand,
Rev 14:10  The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb:
Rev 14:11  And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.
Rev 14:12  Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.

The Prophecy of Isaiah - Part 31 Discussion

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Isa 7:10-13 I Will Not Ask, Neither Will I Tempt The Lord

Isa 7:10 Moreover the LORD spake again unto Ahaz, saying,
Isa 7:11 Ask thee a sign of the LORD thy God; ask it either in the depth, or in the height above.
Isa 7:12 But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the LORD.
Isa 7:13 And he said, Hear ye now, O house of David; Is it a small thing for you to weary men, but will ye weary my God also?

Isaiah is now being obedient to the commission he was given:

Isa 6:8 Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.
Isa 6:9 And he said, Go, and tell this people, Hear ye indeed, but understand not; and see ye indeed, but perceive not.
Isa 6:10 Make the heart of this people fat, and make their ears heavy, and shut their eyes; lest they see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and understand with their heart, and convert, and be healed.

Our last study saw that the Lord sent Isaiah to assure Ahaz and Judah that the invasion of Israel, allied with Syria, would not be successful. Now we read "the Lord spake again to Ahaz" offering to give King Ahaz a sign which would assure Ahaz of the reliability of His promise to preserve Judah. Ahaz rejects Isaiah's offer to receive from God reassurances of His sovereignty over the powers coming against Ahaz.

But Ahaz in this story, is the type and shadow of the king of our religious, self-righteous old man. What we are being told, and what is being demonstrated here, is that God truly is working all things after the counsel of His own will (Eph 1:11), even our self-righteous old man's rebellions are His sovereign work to fulfill what He has already written in His book of our lives.

Ahaz is offered by God, through His established and acknowledged prophet, to be given a sign from God that the conspiracy against him would not succeed. God is demonstrating to Ahaz, a type of us, that the kings of this world are ruled by Him, and we, while being the adulterous, self-righteous wife of Christ, do not like Christ demonstrating to us His sovereign power over the kingdom of this world. That would mean that He is also sovereign over us, and we do not want to even hear such a thing, much less have it demonstrated to us. So we say to the Lord who has made us this offer:

Isa 7:12 But Ahaz said, I will not ask, neither will I tempt the LORD.

There we are! From our rebellious, self-righteous perspective, just like Job, we have now demonstrated (to ourselves) that we are more righteous than God Himself, who we know has already specifically instructed us:

Deu 6:16 Ye shall not tempt the LORD your God, as ye tempted him in Massah.

If indeed Ahaz were seeking and demanding a sign from God, he would indeed be demonstrating a lack of faith in the sovereign rule of God over the kingdoms of this world:

Dan 4:17 This matter is by the decree of the watchers, and the demand by the word of the holy ones: to the intent that the living may know that the most High ruleth in the kingdom of men, and giveth it to whomsoever he will, and setteth up over it the basest of men.

But in this case it is God who has commanded King Ahaz, who typifies and foreshadows who we are as self-righteous, adulterous Babylonians, to ask of Him a sign, and Ahaz refuses to acknowledge that Isaiah is speaking for God.

The reason Ahaz acts in this manner is that He is the type of who we are as the Lord's adulterous wife. As such this is what we all do:

Pro 30:20 Such is the way of an adulterous woman; she eateth, and wipeth her mouth, and saith, I have done no wickedness.

Ahaz was not a righteous king. He rejected Isaiah's place as God's messenger, and He was intent upon putting himself above the priesthood as well as the Lord's prophets, as we are told of his history.

This is actually what we are being told about ourselves at this point in our "one event" (Ecc 9:2):

2Ki 16:2 Twenty years old was Ahaz when he began to reign, and reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem, and did not that which was right in the sight of the LORD his God, like David his father.
2Ki 16:5 Then Rezin king of Syria and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel came up to Jerusalem to war: and they besieged Ahaz, but could not overcome him.
2Ki 16:7 So Ahaz sent messengers to Tiglathpileser king of Assyria, saying, I am thy servant and thy son: come up, and save me out of the hand of the king of Syria, and out of the hand of the king of Israel, which rise up against me.
2Ki 16:8 And Ahaz took the silver and gold that was found in the house of the LORD, and in the treasures of the king's house, and sent it for a present to the king of Assyria.

2Ki 16:10 And king Ahaz went to Damascus to meet Tiglathpileser king of Assyria, and saw an altar that was at Damascus: and king Ahaz sent to Urijah the priest the fashion of the altar, and the pattern of it, according to all the workmanship thereof.
2Ki 16:11 And Urijah the priest built an altar according to all that king Ahaz had sent from Damascus: so Urijah the priest made it against king Ahaz came from Damascus.

2Ki 16:15 And king Ahaz commanded Urijah the priest, saying, Upon the great altar burn the morning burnt offering, and the evening meat offering, and the king's burnt sacrifice, and his meat offering, with the burnt offering of all the people of the land, and their meat offering, and their drink offerings; and sprinkle upon it all the blood of the burnt offering, and all the blood of the sacrifice: and the brasen altar shall be for me to enquire by.
2Ki 16:16 Thus did Urijah the priest, according to all that king Ahaz commanded.
2Ki 16:17 And king Ahaz cut off the borders of the bases, and removed the laver from off them; and took down the sea from off the brasen oxen that were under it, and put it upon a pavement of stones.

"Ahaz took the silver and gold that was found in the house of the LORD, and in the treasures of the king's house, and sent it for a present to the king of Assyria." He had Urijah the priest to build an altar to replace the Lord's altar, but in his self-righteousness, he kept the Lord's altar in another location by which "to enquire [of the Lord]". King Ahaz is us as these "seven women":

Isa 4:1 And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, We will eat our own bread, and wear our own apparel: only let us be called by thy name, to take away our reproach.

King Ahaz had not respect for the God of his fathers, yet when the Lord commands him to "Ask of me", Ahaz self-righteously condemns God by insinuating that God is contradicting His own commandment for us not to tempt him. That is what we do when we live the life of a hypocrite wanting the name of Christ, while rebelling against His doctrines. We want His name, but we do not want to eat his bread or wear his apparel.

It requires faith to depend on God when things appear to be hopeless. But as 'Ahaz' we have not yet been granted any faith in the power of God.

Typical of us, he gives all of God's treasures to the king of Assyria, and 'Assyria' is just and earlier type and shadow of Babylon. Ahaz therefore typifies our lives while we are in Babylon the great, the mother of harlots and abominations of the earth.

Rev 17:3 So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.
Rev 17:4 And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication:
Rev 17:5 And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.
Rev 17:6 And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.

Ahaz hated both the priesthood and the Lord's prophets, and the priests under Ahaz are not as strong as the priests who withstood Ahaz's grandfather, Uzziah. Even the priesthood is now corrupted at this part of our walk.

Nevertheless, just as the Lord showed mercy to King Ahab when Ahab fasted before the Lord, so too, the Lord is willing to show mercy to Ahaz and Judah when their hearts show any fear of the Lord.

Because this really is a part of our experience, I will take the time to demonstrate how the Lord works with us to drag us to Himself "while we [are] yet in [our] sins":

Rom 5:8 But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.

Eph 2:4 But God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us,
Eph 2:5 Even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, (by grace ye are saved;)

Notice that God also showed mercy upon Ahab right at the time when Ahab, via his wife, Jezebel, had killed Naboth and had taken Naboth's vineyard:

1Ki 21:17 And the word of the LORD came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying,
1Ki 21:18 Arise, go down to meet Ahab king of Israel, which is in Samaria: behold, he is in the vineyard of Naboth, whither he is gone down to possess it.
1Ki 21:19 And thou shalt speak unto him, saying, Thus saith the LORD, Hast thou killed, and also taken possession? And thou shalt speak unto him, saying, Thus saith the LORD, In the place where dogs licked the blood of Naboth shall dogs lick thy blood, even thine.
1Ki 21:20 And Ahab said to Elijah, Hast thou found me, O mine enemy? And he answered, I have found thee: because thou hast sold thyself to work evil in the sight of the LORD.
1Ki 21:21 Behold, I will bring evil upon thee, and will take away thy posterity, and will cut off from Ahab him that pisseth against the wall, and him that is shut up and left in Israel,
1Ki 21:22 And will make thine house like the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, and like the house of Baasha the son of Ahijah, for the provocation wherewith thou hast provoked me to anger, and made Israel to sin.
1Ki 21:23 And of Jezebel also spake the LORD, saying, The dogs shall eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel.
1Ki 21:24 Him that dieth of Ahab in the city the dogs shall eat; and him that dieth in the field shall the fowls of the air eat.
1Ki 21:25 But there was none like unto Ahab, which did sell himself to work wickedness in the sight of the LORD, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up.
1Ki 21:26 And he did very abominably in following idols, according to all things as did the Amorites, whom the LORD cast out before the children of Israel.
1Ki 21:27 And it came to pass, when Ahab heard those words, that he rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his flesh, and fasted, and lay in sackcloth, and went softly.
1Ki 21:28 And the word of the LORD came to Elijah the Tishbite, saying,
1Ki 21:29 Seest thou how Ahab humbleth himself before me? because he humbleth himself before me, I will not bring the evil in his days: but in his son's days will I bring the evil upon his house.

That is somewhat similar to the state of mind of Ahaz and Judah when Isaiah is sent with this prophecy concerning the demise of the two kings seeking to destroy Ahaz and Judah:

Isa 7:2 And it was told the house of David, saying, Syria is confederate with Ephraim. And his heart was moved, and the heart of his people, as the trees of the wood are moved with the wind.

Neither Ahab nor Ahaz, as types of our old man, are reformed at this time, in spite of the Lord's mercy. The old man was made to be taken and destroyed, but that time is not yet come. Our old man's death is a slow, torturous, fiery and painful experience. Yet it is at this perilous time that the Lord gives us the prophecy of a savior who will deliver us out of our helpless and hopeless condition and situation.

Isa 7:14 Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
Isa 7:15 Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good.
Isa 7:16 For before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings.

We do not have the time this week to discuss the spiritual significance of these three verses, but I do want to discuss the timing of this prophecy this week. Lord willing, we will get to the spiritual application of these verses within us next week.

It is most interesting that this promise is given to us at our lowest moment, as is demonstrated elsewhere in scripture by the stories of Adam and Eve, their son Cain, King David, and here in the case of wicked King Ahaz.

Notice at what point the Lord reassures us of our ultimate salvation:

Gen 3:16 Unto the woman [Eve is us, as the bride of Christ] he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception [I will judge you]; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to [Hebrew:  'el - against] thy husband, and he [Christ] shall rule over thee. [Christ will rule us all at the appointed time.]

In the next chapter we have the story of Cain killing his brother, Abel, but notice what the Lord tells Cain concerning the sin that dominates us as typified by Cain, murdering his brother, Abel:

Gen 4:7 If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted? and if thou doest not well, sin lieth at the door. And unto [Hebrew: 'el - H413 against] thee shall be his desire, and thou shalt rule over him [over sin].
Gen 4:8 And Cain talked with Abel his brother: and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against^H413 Abel his brother, and slew him. [The Hebrew word translated as 'against' in this verse is the word 'el, H413, and it is the same Hebrew word translated as 'to', as in "Thy desire shall be to thy husband..." in Gen 3:16. The same word is translated as 'unto' in Gen 4:7. They should all be translated as 'against'].

For those with eyes to see it is at King David's lowest point that God's prophet assures him of a good end:

2Sa 12:9 Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the LORD, to do evil in his sight? thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon.
2Sa 12:10 Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house; because thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife.

This is indeed the judgment of God upon the horrendous sin King David had committed against the Lord and against King David's own faithful captain, Uriah. But this is what the spirit reveals to us through King David:

Psa 107:25 For he commandeth, and raiseth the stormy wind, which lifteth up the waves thereof.
Psa 107:26 They mount up to the heaven, they go down again to the depths: their soul is melted because of trouble.
Psa 107:27 They reel to and fro, and stagger like a drunken man, and are at their wits' end.
Psa 107:28 Then they cry unto the LORD in their trouble, and he bringeth them out of their distresses.
Psa 107:29 He maketh the storm a calm, so that the waves thereof are still.
Psa 107:30 Then are they glad because they be quiet; so he bringeth them unto their desired haven.

That is the work of the judgments of God in our lives, and Isaiah himself longed for the Lord's judgments "in the earth":

Isa 26:9 With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.

Oh, that the "sword [of the Lord will] never depart from [our own spiritual] houses", and that each of us will be "brought to [our] wits' end" and are "judged" in this age, as was King David in type and shadow!

Now let's consider another very important point. Did this prophecy which Christ gave to Isaiah to give to Ahaz have any "for the time then present" application (Heb 9:9)? Yes, of course it did.

In the very next chapter we are told:

Isa 8:3 And I went unto the prophetess; and she conceived, and bare a son. Then said the LORD to me, Call his name Mahershalalhashbaz.
Isa 8:4 For before the child shall have knowledge to cry, My father, and my mother, the riches of Damascus and the spoil of Samaria shall be taken away before the king of Assyria.

Mahershalalhashbaz means to 'hasten to the plunder', and it refers to what Assyria will do to Israel and to Syria. It is also a prophecy of what Babylon would later do to Judah and Jerusalem. In this chapter, chapter 7, Isaiah is sent to meet Ahaz with his son Shearjashub. The name 'Shearjashub' means 'the remnant shall return', an obvious prophecy of Judah and Israel being carried away into captivity with only a remnant returning to Jerusalem to rebuild the Lord's house:

Isa 7:3 Then said the LORD unto Isaiah, Go forth now to meet Ahaz, thou, and Shearjashub thy son, at the end of the conduit of the upper pool in the highway of the fuller's field;
Isa 7:4 And say unto him, Take heed, and be quiet; fear not, neither be fainthearted for the two tails of these smoking firebrands, for the fierce anger of Rezin with Syria, and of the son of Remaliah.

So while this prophecy had a "for the time then present" application, involving the prophetic significance of the birth of Isaiah's children, and the prophetic meaning of the names of Isaiah's sons, we are given faith to believe that as the New Testament tells us, this prophecy also refers to the virgin birth of Christ, who is our ultimate deliverer, as those who are the ultimate 'remnant' of Judah and Jerusalem who also must physically return from Babylonian captivity and "come out of her", as that remnant who were indeed plundered and carried away by the thieving merchants of Babylon.

Here is the spiritual fulfillment of this prophecy:

Rev 18:8 Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning, and famine; and she shall be utterly burned with fire: for strong is the Lord God who judgeth her.
Rev 18:9 And the kings of the earth, who have committed fornication and lived deliciously with her, shall bewail her, and lament for her, when they shall see the smoke of her burning,
Rev 18:10 Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas, alas, that great city Babylon, that mighty city! for in one hour is thy judgment come.
Rev 18:11 And the merchants of the earth shall weep and mourn over her; for no man buyeth their merchandise any more:
Rev 18:12 The merchandise of gold, and silver, and precious stones, and of pearls, and fine linen, and purple, and silk, and scarlet, and all thyine wood, and all manner vessels of ivory, and all manner vessels of most precious wood, and of brass, and iron, and marble,
Rev 18:13 And cinnamon, and odours, and ointments, and frankincense, and wine, and oil, and fine flour, and wheat, and beasts, and sheep, and horses, and chariots, and slaves, and souls of men.

Knowing that Christ and His Words have an is, was and will be character gives us the faith to believe and to accept the words of these verses as the holy spirit in the New Testament tells us we are to take them:

Mat 1:22 Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet, saying,
Mat 1:23 Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call his name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.

This entire story 'happened to Judah, and it was written for our sakes upon whom the ends of the ages have come' (1Co 10:11). There was an outward application which assured Ahaz that the present conspiracy would not succeed, but the spiritual significance of these events is that these things all happened for our admonition (1Co 10:11), and they are all types and shadows of us as "the church, which is His body" (Col 1:24).

This entire story, containing the prophesy of the coming of Christ, is also a prophecy of the coming "time of reformation":

Heb 9:8 The Holy Ghost this signifying, that the way into the holiest of all was not yet made manifest, while as the first tabernacle was yet standing:
Heb 9:9 Which was a figure for the time then present, in which were offered both gifts and sacrifices, that could not make him that did the service perfect, as pertaining to the conscience;
Heb 9:10 Which stood only in meats and drinks, and divers washings, and carnal ordinances, imposed on them until the time of reformation.

Judah is already established in this prophecy as "a figure for the time then present" of the great harlot who has committed fornication with all the kings of the earth:

Isa 1:1 The vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah.

Isa 1:21 How is the faithful city become an harlot! it was full of judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers.

And this is what "the faithful city [which became] an harlot... for the time then present" prefigured:

Rev 17:1 And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:
Rev 17:2 With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication.
Rev 17:3 So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit upon a scarlet coloured beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.

Rev 17:6 And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered with great admiration.

Judah and her king Ahaz are so corrupt that she has no faith in the God who destroyed Egypt for their sakes, brought them through the Red Sea and gave them the promised land. Instead King Ahaz, as a type of you and me, is making alliances with the King of Assyria. Like any harlot, Ahaz thinks his adulterous lovers will protect and care for him, but the reality is that it is just a matter of time before the beast on which she is sitting will turn on her and burn her with fire and devour her flesh:

Rev 17:15 And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues.
Rev 17:16 And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire.
Rev 17:17 For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled.
Rev 17:18 And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.

Ahaz rejected God's words through His prophet Isaiah. He had the illusion of dominating Israel and Syria because of his willingness to get in bed with the king of Assyria, but the spiritual significance of this entire story is nothing more than "the pleasures of sin for a season", and at the certain and appointed time the king of Assyria will turn on Judah and besiege her and her king. Her judgment will again be delayed, but the King of Babylon, a new king of the same Chaldean people, will hate the whore Judah is, and will "make her desolate and naked, and [will] eat her flesh and burn her with fire". That is exactly what the Babylonians did to Judah, just as the Assyrians had earlier done to the northern kingdom of Israel and to Syria.

2Ki 17:23 Until the LORD removed Israel out of his sight, as he had said by all his servants the prophets. So was Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria unto this day.

2Ki 24:14 And he carried away all Jerusalem, and all the princes, and all the mighty men of valour, even ten thousand captives, and all the craftsmen and smiths: none remained, save the poorest sort of the people of the land.
2Ki 24:15 And he carried away Jehoiachin to Babylon, and the king's mother, and the king's wives, and his officers, and the mighty of the land, those carried he into captivity from Jerusalem to Babylon.

But Judah's judgment has already begun. This conspiracy of Rezin of Syria and Pekah, King of Israel against Judah, had begun in the days of Ahaz's father Jotham.

2Ki 15:36 Now the rest of the acts of Jotham, and all that he did, are they not written in the book of the chronicles of the kings of Judah?
2Ki 15:37 In those days [the days of Jotham] the LORD began to send against Judah Rezin the king of Syria, and Pekah the son of Remaliah.

So "the Lord" had been chastening Judah as a nation from before the time Ahaz became king, yet there is no sign of any sense of national repentance. This is exactly what happens to all of us with whom the Lord is working to bring upon us His judgments in this age. The seven plagues of the seven angels will be fulfilled before any of us will enter into the temple of God in heaven (Rev 15:7-8), but the seven plagues are preceded by the seven trumpets and the seven seals which must also be fulfilled and kept. So the threat of invasion by Syria and Israel is just the beginning of sorrows for Judah as a type of our own judgment.

It is in this state of fear and confusion that the Lord's words come to us "while [we are] yet sinners" (Rom 5:8 and Eph 2:5), and offer us hope, and remind us that our enemies are all in His hand and that they have no power but what is given them from above:

Joh 19:10 Then saith Pilate unto him, Speakest thou not unto me? knowest thou not that I have power to crucify thee, and have power to release thee?
Joh 19:11 Jesus answered, Thou couldest have no power at all against me, except it were given thee from above: therefore he that delivered me unto thee hath the greater sin.

This is not a principle which did not exist before Christ spoke those words to Pilate. These words have always been true, and they were true when Rezin and the son of Remaliah were threatening Judah. Those men had no power except what was given them from above, and Christ has sent Isaiah to tell Ahaz that this is not yet the time to suffer the judgments of God upon Judah. At the same time the Lord informs us that though judgment is coming so too salvation is coming to God's people through that judgment, and the Savior, who is to bring that salvation will also come to His people at the appointed time.

Rom 5:6 For when we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died for the ungodly.

The story of the prophecy being given to Ahaz happened to him and is written for our spiritual admonition.

1Co 10:11 Now all these things happened unto them [including King Ahaz and Jerusalem and Judah] for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.

In spiritual terms this story and the prophecy within this story was not even ministering to Ahaz or Isaiah or to any of the people of their day as Peter makes so very clear:

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.

Being given faith to believe the words of 1Co 10:11 and the words of the holy spirit in 1Pe 1:9-12, next week, Lord willing, we will receive instruction concerning what the admonition of this prophecy for us is:

When Isaiah prophesied about the virgin conceiving Immanuel, we are told that before the child will know how to refuse the evil, and choose the good, he shall eat butter and honey, and the land shall be forsaken of both her kings.

Here again are our verses for next week's study:

Isa 7:14 Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.
Isa 7:15 Butter and honey shall he eat, that he may know to refuse the evil, and choose the good.
Isa 7:16 For before the child shall know to refuse the evil, and choose the good, the land that thou abhorrest shall be forsaken of both her kings.

Learning how to refuse what is evil, and choose what is good is a process that involves [first] eating butter and honey, and having the two kings in the land, the beast and the dragon, to be forsaken. It's of no coincidence that during His initial conversation with Moses, the Lord, speaking from the burning bush, told Moses that He will bring his people out of Egypt and into a land flowing with milk and honey.

Exo 3:8 KJV And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land unto a good land and a large, unto a land flowing with milk and honey; unto the place of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

We will stop here for now, and next week, Lord willing, we will discover just how important it is that we begin our knowledge of Christ and His kingdom within us by consuming only 'milk and honey' to begin with.

Hello,

Could you please give me a reply in regard to a question about your faith\teachings. I would like to know what you state\believe the devil is.

I would also like to know if you believe God motivates people to do evil? Such as the following verse would\could seem to suggest.

2Sa 7:14 I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men:

As to is, was, will be – do you mean that you always were or that you can and will “become” one with who always was and always is (that which is born of God does not sin).

I, too, read and have been given an understanding of the scriptures according to the Spirit that “gives” life.

If you find my questions odd or bothersome please forgive me. I just would like to know these things first. There is much to read on the web site, and much of it is meant to show that there is another understanding than the literal, but it does not really speak out to what is exactly what. I am sure it does some where in your messages but searching them all for just these questions to be clearly answered is very time consuming. I read some things on the web page but they do not really address my questions. At least the one’s I read did not reveal to me the answers to these questions.

Thank you very much,

K____

Hi K____,

Thank you for your questions. They were three:

1) “Could you please give me a reply in regard to a question about your faith\teachings. I would like to know what you state\believe the devil is.

2) I would also like to know if you believe God motivates people to do evil? Such as the verse below would\could seem to suggest.

2Sa 7:14 I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men:

3) As to is, was will be, do you mean that you always were or that you can and will “become” one with who always was and always is (that which is born of God does not sin).

Your first question is:

I would like to know what you state\believe the devil is.

You say at the end of your questions:

If you find my questions odd or bothersome please forgive me.

I never consider any honest truth-seeking question to be either odd or bothersome. God sent you to us, and I want only to minister to your questions and to help you to better see the mind of Christ on any issue of which you are led to sincerely inquire. Having said that, I must add that what “[I] believe/state”, is of no more value than what anyone else believes or states. What is of great value is “That which is written”:

1Co 4:6 And these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and to Apollos for your sakes; that ye might learn in us not to think[…] above that which is written, that no one of you be puffed up for one against another.

So”that which is written” concerning the devil is that God created him to be the, devil, the tempter, the adversary and the destroyer as these verses demonstrate:

Isa 54:16 Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy.

Mat 4:3 And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread.

1Ti 5:14 I will therefore that the younger women marry, bear children, guide the house, give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully.

Here in Isaiah 54:16 we are told that the “waster [was] created… to destroy”. He was not created perfected to ‘fall’ and become a “waster”. He was “created [as] the waster to destroy”.

We see Satan doing what he is sent by God to do in 1Sa 16:14, and in Job 1 and 2:

Job 1:12 And the LORD said unto Satan, Behold, all that he hath is in thy power; only upon himself put not forth thine hand. So Satan went forth from the presence of the LORD [and did exactly what he was sent by the Lord to do. Nothing more and nothing less].

1Sa 16:14 But the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD troubled him.

A most revealing event takes place in the New Testament where Satan enters into Judas only “after the sop”:

Joh 13:27 And after the sop Satan entered into him. Then said Jesus unto him, That thou doest, do quickly.

This verse demonstrates the fallacy of the doctrine which teaches that Satan is nothing more than our flesh. The teaching of scripture is the exact opposite:

Eph 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

It was God’s own hand which “formed the crooked serpent:

Job 26:13 By his spirit he hath garnished the heavens; his hand hath formed the crooked serpent.

So God created the waster to destroy, as he destroyed all Job possessed, and did not touch Job himself until he was sent by God to touch Job’s body and afflict Job with boils.

Your second question is:

I would also like to know if you believe God motivates people to do evil? Such as…2Sa 7:14 I will be his father, and he shall be my son. If he commit iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men, and with the stripes of the children of men:

The answer to this question is easily demonstrated throughout scriptures every time we read of how the Lord sent an evil spirit to do His bidding such as:

1Sa 16:14 But the Spirit of the LORD departed from Saul, and an evil spirit from the LORD troubled him.

This verse demonstrates that no evil spirits are free from the will of God, but that God really is “working all things after the counsel of His own will”, even when we seem to be making decisions which are our own and which are contrary to His commandments.

Eph 1:11 In whom also we have obtained an inheritance, being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after the counsel of his own will:

The story of Joseph and his brothers is a very good example of how God is working all things after the counsel of His own will, while at the same time leading us to believe we have free will. Notice how Joseph twice acknowledges that his brothers chose to sell him into Egypt, but in the very same breath he tells them this:

Gen 45:4 And Joseph said unto his brethren, Come near to me, I pray you. And they came near. And he said, I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt.
Gen 45:5 Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither: for God did send me before you to preserve life.
Gen 45:6 For these two years hath the famine been in the land: and yet there are five years, in the which there shall neither be earing nor harvest.
Gen 45:7 And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.
Gen 45:8 So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.

So, did Joseph’s brothers have a will? Absolutely, they did have a will and they exercised their will, and Joseph twice acknowledges that they did so:

Gen 45: 4 (b) …I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt.
Gen 45:5 Now therefore be not grieved, nor angry with yourselves, that ye sold me hither:

Those words “you sold me hither (here)” certainly make it sound as if Joseph’s brothers chose of their own free will to sell him into Egypt. They certainly felt they had made that choice of their own free will, and that is the way we all feel as we go about our lives making what appear to be thousands of decisions every day based upon what appears to the natural man to be his own free will. But what do the scriptures reveal to be the truth of our every decision? Here are but a few of the scriptural answers to that question, beginning with what Joseph reveals to us about what appeared to be the free will decision of his brothers selling him into Egypt:

Gen 45:7 And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.
Gen 45:8 So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt.

That is but one of many Biblical verses which tell us that our sins, which appear to be of our own choosing, are not really our own sins at all. Rather the scriptures teach that our every sin “is not [we] that do it but sin which dwells in our members”, and therefore even our sins are all a work of God, via a law that is always working in the flesh of every man and via spirits which the Lord has given to rule over us by means of this law which God Himself gave us and which He Himself sustains within us.

Here is that Biblical doctrine for all to read and believe if God has given them eyes that see and ears that hear:

Rom 7:17 Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:18 For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.
Rom 7:19 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do.
Rom 7:20 Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me.
Rom 7:21 I find then a law, that, when I would do good, evil is present with me.
Rom 7:22 For I delight in the law of God after the inward man:
Rom 7:23 But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members,.

There is something called “the law of sin” which works “in our members”. Who gave and sustains “the law of sin”? Here is the Biblical answer to that question:

Isa 33:22 For the LORD is our judge, the LORD is our lawgiver, the LORD is our king; he will save us.

Jas 4:12 There is one lawgiver, who is able to save and to destroy: who art thou that judgest another?

These verses explain why we are told that God “makes all things for Himself, Yes even the wicked” man with each of us “for the day of evil” within each of us as per Romans seven:

Pro 16:4 The LORD hath made all things for himself: yea, even the wicked for the day of evil.

Your question is, “Does God motivate people to do evil”. The scriptural answer is that He does not do so Himself.

Jas 1:13 Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted by God, for God is without temptation of evils, and he himself tempts no man.

God Himself tempts no man, but He sends evil spirits to do so as He did with Joseph’s brothers (Gen 45:4-8), with King Saul (1Sa 16:14-15), and with Job in Job 1 and 2.

Here is the direct scriptural answer to your question:

Isa 63:17 O LORD, why hast thou made us to err from thy ways, and hardened our heart from thy fear? Return for thy servants’ sake, the tribes of thine inheritance.

Your third question was:

3) As to is, was, will be, do you mean that you always were or that you can and will “become” one with who always was and always is (that which is born of God does not sin).

The phrase “is, was, and is to come” is found 12 times in the book of the revelation of Jesus Christ, and it refers to Christ Himself, as “the beginning of the creation of God” (Rev 3:14). All things were created by Him, and for Him, and in Him all things consist simply because “it pleased the Father” for it to be so:

Col 1:15 Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:
Col 1:16 For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
Col 1:17 And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.
Col 1:18 And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence.
Col 1:19 For it pleased the Father that in him should all fulness dwell;

Christ is, was and will be:

Rev 1:4 John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne;

Rev 1:8 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.

Rev 1:18 I am he that liveth, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen; and have the keys of hell and of death.

In John 1:1 we read:

Joh 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

That being True, Christ’s Words are, were and will be, and He told us:

Mat 24:35 Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.

That is what ‘is, was, and will be”, means. Christ and His Word are, were, and will be.

If you are asking if I believe in the false doctrine of circularity or if I believe that I or anyone other than Christ and His Father preexisted, the answer is an emphatic, no, I do not!!!

That is the very purpose for Christ asking Job:

Job 38:4 Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? declare, if thou hast understanding.

If “the sons of God” of verse 7 referred to mankind, then Job could well have said, ‘I was right there shouting for joy’, instead Job said “I am vile… I will place my hand on my mouth”, as well he should.

Job 38:7 When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?

The fact that Satan came to Adam and Eve in the form of the serpent proves the spirit world was “the sons of God”, for God is said to be “the father of spirits”, good and evil, and it was they who were there, for the fowls of the air, which Christ tells us typify the evil one, were created on the fifth day, the day before God created mankind along with all the other beasts of the earth:

Mat 13:4 And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up:

Mat 13:19 When any one heareth the word of the kingdom, and understandeth it not, then cometh the wicked one, and catcheth away that which was sown in his heart. This is he which received seed by the way side.

“The wicked one… the fowls” were created on the fifth day to fly in the heavens of the earth, and we are the “earth” with its heavens:

Gen 1:21 And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that it was good.
Gen 1:22 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.
Gen 1:23 And the evening and the morning were the fifth day.

Jer 22:1 Thus saith the LORD; Go down to the house of the king of Judah, and speak there this word,
Jer 22:2 And say, Hear the word of the LORD, O king of Judah, that sittest upon the throne of David, thou, and thy servants, and thy people that enter in by these gates:

These words are addressed to God’s own people. Now notice what we are called in verse 29:

Jer 22:29 O earth, earth, earth, hear the word of the LORD.

So ‘is, was, and will be’ refers to Christ and His Words by which all mankind will live in their own order (Mat 4:4 and 1Co 15:23)

I hope these verses serve to answer your questions.

Your brother in Christ’s service,

Mike

The Keys To The Kingdom of Heaven – Part 5

The “Is, Was And Will Be” Nature of Christ and His Words

Mat 24:35 Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.

Rev 1:4 John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne;

Introduction

This particular key to the kingdom of heaven has had such a huge impact on my own entry into the kingdom of God that I took it for the name of the website – iswasandwillbe.com.

Including the phrases “Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, the first and the last”, and acknowledging that these phrases include the present, we find that this is, was and will be characteristic of Christ and His Words are mentioned in the book of Revelation 14 times

Rev 1:4 John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which [1] is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne;

Rev 1:8 I am [2] Alpha and Omega, [3] the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, [4] which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.

Rev 2:8 And unto the angel of the church in Smyrna write; These things saith [5] the first and the last, which was dead, and is alive;

Rev 4:8 And the four beasts had each of them six wings about him; and they were full of eyes within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, [6] which was, and is, and is to come.

Rev 1:11 Saying, I am [7] Alpha and Omega, [8] the first and the last: and, What thou seest, write in a book, and send it unto the seven churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and unto Pergamos, and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea.

Rev 11:17 Saying, We give thee thanks, O Lord God Almighty, [9] which art, and wast, and art to come; because thou hast taken to thee thy great power, and hast reigned.

Rev 21:6 And he said unto me, It is done. [10] I am Alpha and Omega, [11]the beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely.

Rev 22:13 [12] I am Alpha and Omega, [13] the beginning and the end, [14] the first and the last.

Why is this statement repeated so many times?

I once thought this ‘is, was and will be’ statement was merely a redundant Biblical statement, repeated over and over in the book of Revelation. That was before I realized that the holy spirit has a reason for repeating anything. That was before I realized that anything that is repeated is being purposely emphasized, and there is nothing emphasized more in the book of “the revelation of Jesus Christ” than this is, was and will be character of the words of this book.

This is why this statement is repeated 14 times in the 22 chapters of this book:

Mat 24:32 Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh:
Mat 24:33 So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.
Mat 24:34 Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.
Mat 24:35 Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.

In these verses of Matthew 24, we are given one of the most important keys to the kingdom of heaven, which kingdom is within all in whom the Word of God lives. What does it mean to have the Christ, who is the Word of God living His life within us? This is what that means:

1Co 3:16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?

2Co 6:16 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols [False doctrines: Eze 14:1-9]? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

“God is spirit… and the spirit of God dwells in you”. So what does that mean? Here is what that means:

Joh 6:63 It is the spirit [of God] that giveth life; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I have spoken unto you are spirit, are are life. (ASV)

It is the spirit of God that gives life, and the words of Christ are that spirit of God which gives life. Therefore, when we are told “the spirit of God dwells in you”, what we are being told is that the words Christ has spoken are within us. Having the words Christ has spoken within us is the same as having the life of the kingdom of God within us.

What are we told about those words? Here it is again:

Mat 24:35 Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.

Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, along with all the apostles of Christ, are “asleep in Christ” (1Co 15:18) awaiting the resurrection from the dead. The words of Christ were within them as well as those who heard the apostles speak His words:

Joh 17:18 As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world.
Joh 17:19 And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth.
Joh 17:20 Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word;

The words of Christ did not die with the apostles because they passed on His words to us “through their word” in their writings.

2Pe 1:14  Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me.
2Pe 1:15  Moreover I will endeavour that ye may be able after my decease to have these things always in remembrance.

It was the apostles themselves who canonized the scriptures. The council of Nicaea in 325 A.D. simply acknowledged what the apostles has already accomplished.

There are those who teach that one need not be able to read to know Christ, and that could possibly be true. I know for certain that you do not have to be an A student to be part of the body of Christ or I would not be here. The extent of one’s education is not a big issue in scripture, but if you cannot read, then you had better know someone who can read to you because we are specifically told by our Lord Himself:

Mar 12:24  And Jesus answering said unto them, Do ye not therefore err, because ye know not the scriptures, neither the power of God?

Mat 22:29  Jesus answered and said unto them, Ye do err, not knowing the scriptures, nor the power of God.

Luk 6:3  And Jesus answering them said, Have ye not read so much as this, what David did, when himself was an hungred, and they which were with him;

For those who teach that scripture is “just ink on paper”, Christ sure seems to think otherwise, and He asks the question, “Have ye not read?”

The apostle Paul gives us this stern warning:

1Co 4:6 Now these things, brothers, I applied to myself and Apollos for your sakes, so that in us ye might learn not to think above that which is written, so that ye may not be puffed up, one over the one against the other. (ACV)

The book of Revelation opens with these vitally important words of life:

Rev 1:3 Blessed is he that readeth, and they that hear the words of this prophecy, and keep those things which are written therein: for the time is at hand.

Another oft repeated phrase in the words of Christ is this statement – “the time is at hand”. As Christ told us, His words “shall not pass away”. That being true “the time is [always] at hand [to] keep those things which are written therein.” That is the key to the kingdom of heaven within us which has been “taken away” by those who should be opening the doors of the kingdom of heaven to us.

Mat 24:32  Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh:
Mat 24:33  So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.
Mat 24:34  Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.
Mat 24:35  Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.

Rev 22:10  And he saith unto me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this book: for the time is at hand.

The book of “the revelation of Jesus Christ” opens with the statement: “the time is at hand” (Rev 1:3), and it ends with the same words: “the time is at hand” (Rev 22:10). Fourteen times in this book we are told that Jesus, and therefore His words, are ‘the beginning and the end… are, were, and will be’. “Who readeth [is told to] keep the things which are written therein, for the time is at hand” to do so.

It is only with this ‘is, was, and will be’ key to the kingdom of heaven within us that we are able to understand such words and to rightly divide and apply those words of our Lord. Only with this knowledge of the mind of Christ and the mind of His Father, are we able to understand how “the summer in near… even at the door… [and how] this generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled” in the lives of all who have been given eyes that see and ears that hear in every generation of those who read and keep these words.

Christ made this key to understanding His words so clear when speaking of how “the abomination of desolation” takes place in the lives of “whosoever reads” His Words:

Mat 24:15  When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)

In this same chapter we read of the end of this age. It was the disciples’ question about “the end of the age” which provoked everything Christ says in this 24th chapter of Matthew:

Mat 24:3  And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world [Greek: aion, age]?

The very first words out of the mouth of our Lord in answer to this question about the sign of His coming and the end of the age were these:

Mat 24:4 And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.
Mat 24:5 For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.

Was that a ‘will be’ prophecy only? There are many people who teach that these words have only an end-time application, but nothing could be further from the Truth of the ‘is, was, and will be’ Words of God. That generation did not pass until those words were fulfilled, just as Christ had prophecied:

Mat 24:34  Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.
Mat 24:35  Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.

This is what happened while the apostles were yet alive in these vessels of clay :

2Ti 1:15  This thou knowest, that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me; of whom are Phygellus and Hermogenes.

The apostasy of the church was a completed accomplishment of the adversary well before the death of the apostles. It had been advancing for quite some time before this second epistle to Timothy. Paul mentions the names of those who were opposing him in his first epistle to Timothy:

1Ti 1:19  Holding faith, and a good conscience; which some having put away concerning faith have made shipwreck:
1Ti 1:20  Of whom is Hymenaeus and Alexander; whom I have delivered unto Satan, that they may learn not to blaspheme.

The prophecy that “many shall come in My name, saying [Christ is the Christ] and shall deceive many” is, was, and will continue to be fulfilled in every generation since Christ uttered that prophecy. The apostles themselves had that prophecy fulfilled in their own lives, having been called out of the religion of the law of Moses, which claimed the Messiah as theirs even as they rejected Him. The doctrine of Christ was new. It had never before been heard except as it was alluded to in the Old Testament:

Deu 18:18  I will raise them up a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall command him.

Nevertheless, until this very day, the old covenant is still preferred by many over the doctrines of Christ, even as they come in His name saying He is Christ:

Luk 5:36  And he spake also a parable unto them; No man putteth a piece of a new garment upon an old; if otherwise, then both the new maketh a rent, and the piece that was taken out of the new agreeth not with the old.
Luk 5:37  And no man putteth new wine into old bottles; else the new wine will burst the bottles, and be spilled, and the bottles shall perish.
Luk 5:38  But new wine must be put into new bottles; and both are preserved.
Luk 5:39  No man also having drunk old wine straightway desireth new: for he saith, The old [covenant] is better.

The very next is, was and will be words of our Lord in answer to the sign of the end of this age are:

Mat 24:6  And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.
Mat 24:7  For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
Mat 24:8  All these are the beginning of sorrows.

“All these things are the beginning of sorrows” is true today, it was true yesterday, and it will be true tomorrow. These words, too, are, were and will be true in every generation since Christ, and they will continue to be true until His return to rule the kingdoms of this world with a rod of iron. At that time they will still apply because God’s elect are commissioned to rule with a rod of iron over the rebellious nations of mankind. Even in the “aionian judgment [of] the lake of fire” Christ’s is, was, and will be words “shall never pass away”.

Because they do have an application in every generation, many have been led by the adversary to believe that there is no end to the ages/aions, and they teach that since “the kingdom of God is within you”, it therefore has already come, and all things will always continue as they are. This school of thought would have you to believe that, as a brother once said on one of our studies, “Anyone who is expecting a physical resurrection, followed by a physical thousand-year kingdom will be sadly disappointed.”

That is a lying false doctrine of which we have all been specifically warned against in these words from the pen of the apostle Peter:

2Pe 3:1  This second epistle, beloved, I now write unto you; in both which I stir up your pure minds by way of remembrance:
2Pe 3:2  That ye may be mindful of the words which were spoken before by the holy prophets, and of the commandment of us the apostles of the Lord and Saviour:
2Pe 3:3  Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts,
2Pe 3:4  And saying, Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.
2Pe 3:5  For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water:
2Pe 3:6  Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished:
2Pe 3:7  But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men.

There is our warning. It is “by the same [is, was and will be] word” which informs us of the undeniable universal flood that we are also warned of another judgment, this one “reserved unto fire”. Yes, these words of Matthew 24 have been applicable in every generation since Christ, and yes, many men have made many false prophecies concerning the end of this age, but never make the mistake of saying “Where is the promise of his coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation.” There is a consummation of this particular age of grace, there is a literal first resurrection of God’s elect into spiritual bodies, which, like Christ’s own spiritual body, will be capable of appearing in a body of flesh and bones. That first resurrection will be followed by a thousand year reign of this earth by Christ and His Christ.

During that period Satan will be placed under house arrest and will not be permitted to entice mankind to withstand their elect rulers in any united way as he is given to do at this time. That thousand-year reign will be followed by the release of Satan from his prison to go forth and entice all men of all time to foolishly attempt to cast off the power of Christ and His Christ. That “little season” of rebellion will be followed by the destruction of all the nations in the four quarters of the earth (Rev 20). We are fools indeed to be unaware that “judgment is now on the house of God” (1Pe 4:17), and that the end of mankind’s rule upon this earth “is near, even at the door”. We are not living at the time of the beginning of the New Testament church. Rather, we are living at the time of the end of that era in which those “blessed and holy… few” who will rule with Christ during the thousand year reign are being called.

Rev 20:6  Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

The next is, was and will be words of Christ in answer to the sign of the end of this age was:

Mat 24:9  Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake.
Mat 24:10  And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another.
Mat 24:11  And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many.
Mat 24:12  And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold.

Persecution is, was and will be the expected experience of anyone who teaches that those who follow Christ must love their enemies. Yet it has always been false Christs who have led the charge into many of the wars that have taken place since Christ. Those same false Christs have often murdered those who have refused to become involved in the affairs of this age, as we are instructed.

2Ti 2:3  Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of Jesus Christ.
2Ti 2:4  No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a soldier.

Christians have sponsored crusades against the Muslims, another harlot daughter of the great harlot. Both religions claim to honor Christ even as they both dishonor Him by disobeying His commandment to “love thine enemies”. Both are, were and will be the very fulfillment of Christ’s always truthful words:

Mat 24:4  And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.
Mat 24:5  For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.

Those who obey Christ’s words commanding us to love our enemies will be hated of those who believe in the defense of family and country. Those who follow Christ’s example of refusing to keep the holy days of His time will be “hated of all men”:

Joh 5:16  And therefore did the Jews persecute Jesus, and sought to slay him, because he had done these things on the sabbath day.
Joh 5:17  But Jesus answered them, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.
Joh 5:18  Therefore the Jews sought the more to kill him, because he not only had broken the sabbath, but said also that God was his Father, making himself equal with God.

It was not immediate, but in time the apostles followed in their Lord’s steps and refused to follow the tradition of men:

Gal 4:9  But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?
Gal 4:10  Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.
Gal 4:11  I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.

Col 2:8  Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ.

John 5:16-18 reveals to us what was “the tradition of… Christ” as opposed to “the tradition of men”.  Job and Peter admonish us to follow Christ instead of men:

Job 23:11  My foot hath held his steps, his way have I kept, and not declined.

1Pe 2:21  For even hereunto were ye called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps:

It is, it was, and it always will be those of a man’s own house who will turn on him when he follows in the steps of Christ:

Mat 10:21  And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: and the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death.
Mat 10:22  And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.

“He that endures to the end [of the age] shall be saved”. Those are the very next is, was and will be words of our Lord which will never pass away.

Mat 24:13  But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.
Mat 24:14  And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.

If these words were not words which transcend the generations since Christ, if these words are not words which are meant to be understood as having a immediate, present application, as well as a past and a future application, then Christ and all of His apostles were fraudulent liars because they had all died long before the Americas and many other countries had even been discovered.  Christ is not a fraudulent liar, however, and neither are any of His apostles or any of the writers of the New Testament. Christ has made it clear that His words “shall never pass away”, and that means that the words of Christ are relevant in every generation of mankind.

How was the gospel preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations so the end could come in Christ’s day? Remember Christ said:

Mat 24:34  Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.

“All these things” certainly includes the things concerning the gospel being preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations so “then shall the end come”. If we take “the world” to mean the entire planet, then we are missing what the scriptures mean by that statement. Of course the phrase includes that meaning, just as “the kingdom of heaven” and “the kingdom of God” include “the kingdoms of this world” when we are told:

Rev 11:15  And the seventh angel sounded; and there were great voices in heaven, saying, The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.

What this verse tells us is that the spiritual kingdom of our Lord and His Christ will rule the physical kingdoms of this world. Both phrases “the world” and the phrase “the kingdom of heaven” have a spiritual meaning which must be understood if we are to understand how these words were understood by Christ when He said, “This generation will not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.”

There is another meaning to the phrase “the world” which is just as inward and spiritual as “the kingdom of God is within you”. Here are the verses which demonstrate this inward spiritual application of both these phrases:

Luk 17:20  And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:
Luk 17:21  Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

Rev 16:10  And the fifth angel poured out his vial upon the seat [Greek: thonos, throne] of the beast; and his kingdom was full of darkness; and they gnawed their tongues for pain,

The kingdom of the beast is this world and all that is in it:

1Jn 2:16  For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world.

We are told plainly that the “ends of the world are come upon [us]” (1Co 10:11). “All nations… in all the world” who must hear the gospel of the kingdom before the end can come are those nations and principalities and the thrones within us. They are one and all “all that is in the world”, included in the three categories of 1) the lust of the flesh, 2) the lust of the eyes, and 3) the pride of life. That gives us a much clearer meaning of what our Lord meant when he told us:

Mat 24:13  But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved.
Mat 24:14  And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.

The very next verse makes it clear that this is how Christ meant for these words to be taken at this time. Notice the connecting phrase “When ye therefore” with which verse 15 begins:

Mat 24:15  When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)

We have earlier demonstrated that “the abomination of desolation” is the throne of the beast within us all by Adamic birth. Christ is telling us here in verse 15, “Let him… who reads… understand” how we are to comprehend the meaning of “the abomination of desolation” as well as this phrase “the end”, both in their is, was and will be sense. These verses will help us to better understand those two phrases as well as many other verses of scripture:

1Co 10:11  Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.

“The ends of the ages” means the outcome or the product of the ages. The outcome and product of the ages is our salvation. Very few in this age are given to know the salvation that is in Christ. Of those who are given to know Him in this age it is said that “the ends of the ages have come” upon them.

Likewise “the abomination that makes desolate” must also come upon each and every person “in [their] own order”, and we must all come to recognize that abomination within us before the ends of the ages will come upon us. Failing to recognize that abominable condition is which we live is what restrains :

2Th 2:3  Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day [“the day of the Lord” – vs 2] shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin [the abomination of desolatieon, Mat 24:15] be revealed, the son of perdition;
2Th 2:4  Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God [“which temple ye are”, 1Co 3:16], shewing himself that he is God.
2Th 2:5  Remember ye not, that, when I was yet with you, I told you these things?
2Th 2:6  And now ye know what withholdeth [“the day of the Lord” – vs 2] that he [“the man of sin”] might be revealed in his time.
2Th 2:7  For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth [Greek: restrains the day of the Lord] will let [restrain the day of the Lord], until he be taken out of the way.
2Th 2:8  And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:

“Let him that reads understand” that it is the beast within us all who demands that we give him what he wants when he wants it. It is that beast within us all which is sitting in the temple of God demanding our worship and our total dedication to the things of this world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life.

When we read:

Mat 24:33  So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.
Mat 24:34  Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.

Luk 21:31  So likewise ye, when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand.
Luk 21:32  Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass away, till all be fulfilled.

We should now see the ‘is’, the ‘was’ and the ‘will be’ properties of those words which will never pass away. It is the understanding of these words of Christ which reveal both Christ and His Father to us, and it is that understanding of how their mind works that makes up all the keys to the kingdom of heaven.

Here is what this series of studies is all about:

Rev 4:1  After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter.

Rev 11:19  And the temple of God was opened in heaven, and there was seen in his temple the ark of his testament: and there were lightnings, and voices, and thunderings, and an earthquake, and great hail.

Rev 15:5  And after that I looked, and, behold, the temple of the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven was opened:

What opens the door of heaven? What opens the temple of God in heaven, and the tabernacle of the testimony in heaven?

Mat 16:19  And I will give to you the keys of the kingdom of Heaven. And whatever you bind on earth shall occur, having been bound in Heaven. And whatever you may loose on the earth shall be, having been loosed in Heaven. (LITV)

Christ has given us those “keys to the kingdom of heaven” if indeed He and His words live in and dominate our lives. It is His Words within us which is “a door… opened in heaven”, and it is His voice, His words, which says to us “come up here and I will show you things which must be hereafter”.  We are specifically instructed to be diligent in the knowledge of His words:

2Ti 2:15  Study [Greek: be diligent] to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

Truly “the words I have spoken unto you, they are spirit and they are life” (Joh 6:63). It is through knowledge of the is, was and will be character of the words of God and His Son that we are given life eternal:

Joh 17:3 And this is life eternal, that they might know thee the only true [is, was, and will be] God, and Jesus Christ, whom thou hast sent.

[Part six can be found here.]

Dear Brother,

I just had to write to say thanks for a measure of resurrection TODAY for me, from you.

I actually had gone to a letter by Steve Crook about Easter, looking for factual info regarding this
“idol worshipping holiday”. After being satisfied with that, I happened upon your 2005 article about the Fullness of Christ. If I ever needed to read something, it was this article. Amazing! Suddenly, the lights have come on. You know it has been a couple years since I was exposed to your teachings, and apparently the time wasn’t right (like being stuck in traffic) for my eyes to be opened.

I was brought up a dispensationalist (father was a Nazarene pastor) and in the late 70’s; became an adherent of sonship/kingdom theology (which is essentially “presentist”) after coming to despise the dispensational “theories” and then turned to “preterism”. That was mainly due to the “shortly” statements in the book of Revelation. None satisfied !

Meantime, I could not see the “IS, WAS AND WILL BE” statements. I needed to, for sure, and especially since I was in total agreement with your other doctrinal issues such as reconciliation and sovereignty (which, by the way, have recently gotten me kicked out of a small home group and of course, actually was God’s doing).

Then today, I suddenly see the truth in all its Glory. I absolutely believe that, as you said, seeing “IS, WAS AND WILL BE” is the key to all spiritual things in Christ. I can breathe again!

And then reading your paragraph about your father and “timing” was wonderful, for I have even recently, said to myself that I have wasted all my life looking for the truth. But, God knows!

Thank you, sir!

J____

Hi J____,

I am so happy to hear that you have been given to understand how God works in this age, and that you now see He is, was and will be working in the very same way until the ages have run their course and have accomplished their purpose of placing God within all of His creation, via the channel of His church:

Eph 1:18 The eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints,
Eph 1:19 And what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power,
Eph 1:20 Which he wrought in Christ, when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places,
Eph 1:21 Far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come:
Eph 1:22 And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the church,
Eph 1:23 Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.

Just as Christ fills His Father, we fill Christ, and God has ordained that He and His body will be “the fulness of Him that fills all in all”.

Being kicked out of a home church is the same as being kicked out of a church building if the doctrine is not the doctrine of Jesus Christ. I do pray you are hearing the voice of the True Shepherd in our studies, and that you will appreciate that those who know Christ want to know and nourish the rest of His body:

Eph 4:15 But speaking the truth in love, may grow up into him in all things, which is the head, even Christ:
Eph 4:16 From whom the whole body fitly joined together and compacted by that which every joint supplieth, according to the effectual working in the measure of every part, maketh increase of the body unto the edifying of itself in love.

We all have something to contribute to the nourishment of the body of Christ, and I pray you will be given to be an contributing part of His symbiotic body. Christ is not an organization, but He is a person who is a living spiritual ‘organism’.

Your story in this e-mail is the very same story of all who finally come to know who Christ is. The details always differ, but it is always the same “one event” for all men. It is the experience of being judged in this age, and through that judgment coming to know God and Jesus Christ whom God has sent:

Ecc 9:2 All things come alike to all: there is one event to the righteous, and to the wicked; to the good and to the clean, and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not: as is the good, so is the sinner; and he that sweareth, as he that feareth an oath.

Isa 26:9 With my soul have I desired thee in the night; yea, with my spirit within me will I seek thee early: for when thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness.

1Pe 4:12 Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you:

1Pe 4:17 For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God: and if it first begin at us, what shall the end be of them that obey not the gospel of God?

Your brother who is merely one cell in that body which is being judged in this age,

Mike

Dear Mike,

I am searching for the true gospel, and your site has been very helpful. But I am still puzzled over two issues, raised elsewhere:

• Did Paul supplant the gospel given to the twelve apostles when he preached the ‘mystery’ to the gentiles?
• Is election equal to sanctification and justification (and constitutes predestination)?

I would be very grateful if you clear my mind on these issues.

Best,

P____

Hi P____,

Thank you for your questions.

I was personally acquainted with Doctor Ernest Martin. It was through Dr. Martin that I first heard of the doctrine of the eventual universal salvation for all in Adam. Dr. Martin told me himself that he had learned of this truth through A. E. Knoch. I fear that A. E. Knoch’s false doctrine of two administrations has affected Dr. Martin’s teachings. Allow me to demonstrate how he contradicts himself as he tries to prove that Paul’s doctrine of the mystery has “supplanted the partial gospel” first given to the apostles: Here is a cut and paste from the web page you sent me:

“Paul told the “Ephesians” (actually, Laodiceans) that a revelation containing this new teaching had just been given to him and he wondered whether they had yet heard it,

“For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, If you have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you- ward: How that by revelation he made known unto me the mystery; ( as I wrote afore in few words, Whereby, when you read, you may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ) Which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto his holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit.” Eph 3:1-5”

Though Paul had not met them face- to- face, these people had long been Christians because some of Paul’s professional companions were from their area (Col 4:9, 12). Paul’s querying them IF they had yet heard “the Mystery” shows its revelation had come to Paul only recently and he was not sure IF his readers yet knew of it. Though they had long ago heard the original Christian message (the partial Gospel), Paul told them that this revelation of “the Mystery” had not been disclosed to previous ages or generations as it was NOW made known to him and others (Eph 3:5 above; see also Col 1:26, “but now is made manifest to his saints”).

This was written in his last paragraph:

This [ revelation of the mystery, right here in the book of Ephesians] was mature teaching that most of the Christian world had not yet heard.

Yet later, Dr. Martin makes this claim:

Contrast Number Two

2. Earlier Gospel. In the first Gospel, the tribes of the commonwealth of Israel were the only people on earth who had the covenants of promise and all Gentiles were reckoned as aliens to Israel. All people except Israelites were cut off from the promises of salvation “having no hope and without God in the world” (Eph 2:12). To be saved from 30 C. E. to 62/63 C. E., the Gentiles (though they did not have to be circumcised) were required to accept Christ and be grafted into Israel (Rom 11:11–25). All people had to become “Israelites” by their attachment to Christ who was the perfect Israelite. If people were not reckoned as “Israelites” (or children of Abraham), they could not be saved. But being “in Christ” made them “Israelites” and inheritors of the promises given to Abraham.

2. Mystery. With “the Mystery,” however, being an Israelite ceased to be important. Now both Israelites and Gentiles are joined together to form “one new man” [ a new type of human] who is neither Jew, Greek, or whatever (Col 3:10–11) and both together as a new man have become joint heirs, joint bodied, and joint partakers of the promise IN CHRIST (Eph 3:6). But now, being “in Christ” does not make one an Israelite or an heir of Abraham. One is now an heir of Christ solely, and will receive all that Christ (as the divine Son of God) is entitled to, and not simply what Abraham is entitled to. Now, all people in Christ have become the “new man” and they now have a heavenly citizenship (not a citizenship in the commonwealth of Israel). Now we are all sitting in Christ on the very throne of God at the Father’s right hand (Eph 2:6; Col 3:1).

Dr. Martin is, in these two paragraphs, claiming that Col 3:10-11 changes and negates the Truths revealed in Eph 2:11-22. Nothing could be further from the Truth. Here are those scriptures for our consideration:

Eph 2:11 Wherefore remember, that ye [ being] in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands;
Eph 2:12 That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world:
Eph 2:13 But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.
Eph 2:14 For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition [ between us];
Eph 2:15 Having abolished in his flesh the enmity, even the law of commandments contained in ordinances; for to make in himself of twain one new man, so making peace;
Eph 2:16 And that he might reconcile both unto God in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby:
Eph 2:17 And came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh.
Eph 2:18 For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.
Eph 2:19 Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God;
Eph 2:20 And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;
Eph 2:21 In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord:
Eph 2:22 In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.

Here is Paul, in the very epistle that Dr. Martin is using to show that the mystery supplanted the “partial gospel,” stating that being part of that “One Body” is equivalent to being “made near unto the commonwealth of Israel and no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens [ of that commonwealth of Israel] with the saints, and of the household of God.” Now I ask you, where in these verses from Colossians does Paul in any way deny what he has just said here in Ephesians:

Col 3:10 And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:
Col 3:11 Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.

Does “put on the new man” mean that one who does so is no longer a part of the commonwealth of Israel? Does “Christ is all in all” mean in any way that “He is a Jew which is one inwardly” is no longer true?

Notice again how Dr. Martin uses the very epistles which tell us that we are “of the commonwealth of Israel” Ephesians2; “are the circumcision,” Phillipians 3:3 to, at the same time prove that these truths are no longer relevant:

Contrast Number Three

3. Earlier Gospel. Being “in Christ” in the partial Gospel provided several blessings to the recipients. Israelites by being “in Christ” were made “pure Israelites” and Gentiles were made to be “spiritual (and also pure) Israelites.” All were also made to be true children of Abraham. Through baptism, all were accounted “dead” in Christ and as having come out of the water of death to be reckoned as “resurrected” in Christ. They were then reckoned to be in a legally resurrected state and awaiting the Judgment Seat of Christ to be judged for their sins on earth (Rom 14:10–11; 2Co 5:10–11).

After this future Judgment (to determine what positions people would have in the Kingdom of God), all were finally promised to be a part of the New Covenant marriage to be given to Israel just after the Second Advent. Their positions in that Kingdom were to be decided in accord with their deeds on earth that the future Judgment would determine (1Co 3:11-15). The reason that all early Christians partook of the Lord’s Supper was in anticipation of the future marriage to Christ after they passed the Judgment Seat of Christ.

During this life, however, all Christians were to remain in an espousal state with Christ (2Co 11:2) until after the Judgment by Christ and then the great marriage supper would occur. Being “in Christ” during the period when the first Gospel was taught (though that partial Gospel was glorious and wonderful), the guarantees of the Gospel WENT NO FURTHER THAN THESE PROMISES. In the partial Gospel taught in the first 33 years of proclaiming Christian doctrine, all the assurances of salvation and rewards in the Kingdom were solidly anchored only to those promises given to Abraham and to Israel. At that time, being “in Christ” gave one the right to be reckoned a “pure and virgin Israelite” and to inherit the promises given to lsrael (Eph 2:12-18).

3. Mystery. But with “the Mystery,” one being “in Christ” made both an Israelite and a Gentile to be a “new man” [ a new humanity] — not simply a pure and virgin Israelite. In the Mystery one’s citizenship is in heaven, not simply to be an Israelite on earth (Php 3:20). With “the Mystery,” Christians are reckoned as now married (not espoused) to Christ (Eph 5:32) and members of the household of God (Eph 2:19-22). All in “the Mystery” who are “in Christ” are not only regarded as going back to Abraham as their father, but they go back farther — to being in Christ before the world’s foundation, long before Abraham was born (Eph 1:3-13; 2Ti 1:9). And since all people who die are to be judged for their lives on earth (Rom 14:10-11; 2Co 5:10-11), this also included Christ (Heb 9:26).

But the Father found nothing wrong with Christ in His Judgment. God sat Christ on his right hand in glory and places us in the same position (Eph 2:6; 1:3; Col 3:1–4). We passed the Judgment with Christ and we by- passed all the lesser Kingdom promises of ruling over a few cities (Luk 19:17–19), or maybe a nation (Mat 19:28), or even ruling over all nations on earth (Rev 5:10). We go to the highest position of all, on the Father’s right hand ruling the entire universe with Christ (Eph 2:6).

Our rule occurs within the heavenlies (Eph 1:3). Paul firmly believed at the conclusion of his ministry that his exaltation in Christ would be to inherit “the heavenly kingdom” (2Ti 4:18), not alone the one on earth during the Millennium. Indeed, we are even now regarded as joint bodied with Christ (Eph 3:6) and this places us right now in a legal sense within the Godhead bodily:

“For in him [ Christ] dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily, AND YOU ARE COMPLETE IN HIM.” Col 2:9–10

In other words, we are accounted by the Father as having passed the Judgment (that all people have to endure) and we are already sitting in Christ as a deified person on the right hand of the Father. Of course, we do not yet possess the power of the Godhead, but when we are resurrected from the dead, we will pass through the Judgment without a word being said because we already went through that ordained Judgment with Christ and we are now assured the same grace and position that

Dr. Martin does not understand the one thing that Christ emphasized more than most any other point. And that is that He, and therefore His Word “IS, was and will be.”

Mat 24:35 Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.
Joh 6:63 It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.

Words “that are spirit” do not become untrue tomorrow. If we are plainly told that certain words are only “until the times of reformation,” then we should believe that is true. On the other hand, if we are plainly told “My words will never pass away,” and we are told that all scripture is given by inspiration of God, then we need to also believe that.

Dr. Martin’s writings reveal that he does not understand the scriptural use of the word heaven. His writings reveal that he believes that heaven has to do with the physical universe. Nothing could be farther from the Truth. Read How To Rightly Divide The Word Using A Principle Only The Apostles Understood. Then also read a paper I have just this week posted entitled Where and What is Heaven?

Read these papers. Then if you still have questions about the gospels let me know.

Contrast Number Four

4. Earlier Gospel. In the partial Gospel it was possible to miss out on inheriting the promises of the New Covenant. If Israelites or Gentiles persisted in unbelief and sinful ways in a deliberate and premeditated way in order to spite the Father and Christ, they were told that they would not inherit the Kingdom of God, though they would finally experience salvation (1Co 3:10-15; 5:5; Heb 10:16-31) – the sanctification of a person in Christ has perfected all people forever (Heb 10:14). But one can miss out on the reward of experiencing the Kingdom of God which will start with the first resurrection at Christ’s Second Advent if one persists in unrepentant and premeditated sins designed to spite God and his ways.

4. Mystery. Those who understand the teaching of “the Mystery” can also miss experiencing the first resurrection and being in the Kingdom of God (earthly or heavenly) if one persists in unrepentant and premeditated sins that are designed to spite God and his ways. Though all people will eventually receive salvation in Christ, a person even though he or she understands “the Mystery” can still miss out by not receiving their salvation at the resurrection associated with the Second Advent.

Paul said that his desire was to have a part in “the out- resurrection out of the dead” (Php 3:11, see the Greek). Paul was talking about the “earlier” resurrection (i. e. the first resurrection) which takes place at Christ’s Second Advent. Paul also warned the Ephesians (to whom he taught “the Mystery”) that a proper and reasonable conduct was necessary on their part in order to inherit the Kingdom phase of God and Christ along with salvation (Eph 5:3–5). So even in the mature Gospel of “the Mystery,” Christians are warned to live with a reasonable conduct if they hope to achieve the “out- resurrection” (the first resurrection) at Christ’s Second Advent.

This is labeled ‘Contrast Number Four,’ but I fail to see where the contrast is between what Dr. Martin calls the ‘Earlier Gospel’ and the ‘Mystery.’ Let me know if you see some ‘contrast.’

Contrast Number Five

5. Earlier Gospel. In the partial teaching of the Gospel in the first 33 years of Christian doctrinal development, the physical Israelites continued to circumcise their sons, people were baptized on their conversion to Christ, and they kept the Sabbaths and the Lord’s Supper on the eve of Passover. The apostles were also recognized as mediators involving doctrines associated with conduct and eating (or not eating) certain things (Act 15). The apostles as mediators were even able to forgive sins (Mat 16:19; 18:18; Joh 20:22).

During the partial Gospel, the apostles reckoned that Gentiles did not have to be circumcised if they were in Christ because Abraham received the promise in an uncircumcised state. But Gentiles were still required to be baptized, refrain from certain foods, and keep the Lord’s Supper as a token of their espousal to Christ so they could inherit the promises given to Israel.

5. Mystery. All that changed with “the Mystery.” No longer are human mediators needed — including human apostles or hierarchical ministers (1Ti 2:4–6). Being “in Christ” in the COMPLETE and FULL doctrine of God makes both Israelites and Gentiles reckoned together as a “new man” who is no longer an Israelite or a Gentile (Col 3:10–11). We are now viewed as having been “in Christ” from before the world’s foundation (Eph 1:3–13).

When Christ entered the world, we entered with him. When Christ was circumcised at eight days of life, we are recognized by the Father as having been circumcised at the same time (Col 2:11). When Christ was baptized by John the Baptist, the Father reckons us as also being baptized by John (Col 2:12), and this is the “one baptism” that the Father accepts — not our own physical baptisms (Eph 4:5).

When Christ was crucified, we were regarded as crucified with him (Col 3:3). When Christ was resurrected we were deemed as resurrected with him (Col 2:13; 3:1). When Christ passed the Judgment Seat of God, we victoriously passed that Judgment Seat with him and are now accounted worthy (with Christ) to sit on the Father’s right hand (Eph 2:6).

In truth, Christ became a SUBSTITUTE for us in all requirements that God has ever made for mankind. Being “in Christ” in the FULL and COMPLETE teaching of “the Mystery” means we have met all the requirements of the Father in a perfect way. This is the Good News (the Gospel) that Christ told Paul (and Christ tells us) to teach to all the world.

This fifth and final ‘contrast’ is Dr. Martin’s worst effort of these five. It is of course based upon his false premise that there are two gospels. While he is correct in pointing out the fact that the earlier preaching of the gospel was not as full as the later revelations, it is totally erroneous to use this time of transition to justify a nullification of earlier understanding. The law of Moses itself is “established” for the purpose of “bringing us all to Christ” and to “shut every mouth and declare the whole world as guilty before God.” It always has and always will perform this function very well so long as we are not “in faith.” Of course “after faith is come, we are no longer under that schoolmaster.”

All of this being true of the law of Moses, it follows that what Dr. Martin calls ‘The Partial Gospel’ is also “established” simply as a period of transition, not only in the experience of all of the New Testament apostles, Paul himself included, but also in the lives of every convert to Christ in every succeeding generation. This is the unknown character of the Word of God. This is the “Is, Was and Will Be” character of the Word of God so amply demonstrated in the way all of the New Testament writers handled God’s Word. They themselves demonstrate for us how we are to “rightly divide the Word of Truth.” Surely we ought to follow their example. Surely they would not ‘rightly divide’ it in one manner and expect us to do so in some other way.

Dr. Martin points out that Christ told his original apostles:

Joh 16:12 I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.

This again, is not something that was true just for Christ’s apostles while He was in the flesh, but is no longer true for us today. No, not at all. It is still true for us today. This again demonstrates that unknown character of the Word of God, the Is, Was and [ always] Will Be application that is demonstrated by all the writers of the New Testament. I am becoming redundant here on this point, but I will not delete what I have written. It cannot be over emphasized.

Look once more at what Dr. Martin calls the “earlier gospel:”

Contrast Number Five

5. Earlier Gospel. In the partial teaching of the Gospel in the first 33 years of Christian doctrinal development, the physical Israelites continued to circumcise their sons, people were baptized on their conversion to Christ, and they kept the Sabbaths and the Lord’s Supper on the eve of Passover. The apostles were also recognized as mediators involving doctrines associated with conduct and eating (or not eating) certain things (Act 15). The apostles as mediators were even able to forgive sins (Mat 16:19; 18:18; Joh 20:22).

During the partial Gospel, the apostles reckoned that Gentiles did not have to be circumcised if they were in Christ because Abraham received the promise in an uncircumcised state. But Gentiles were still required to be baptized, refrain from certain foods, and keep the Lord’s Supper as a token of their espousal to Christ so they could inherit the promises given to Israel.

Show me one thing in this supposed ‘contrast’ that I and Dr. Martin himself have not struggled with in our own ‘Transition Period.’ We must all spend long years wandering around in the wilderness. We must all cross the Jordan and fight the giants in the land. But the end or the goal of our pilgrimage, we are one and all predestined to go into and to come out of Babylon. The Truth of God’s Word, however, is that while virtually everyone wants to leave Egypt, very few indeed want to leave the luxurious life that they have established as merchants in Babylon. “All these things happened to them and they are written for [ one reason]; They happened to them and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come.”

1Co 10:11 Now all these things happened unto them for ensamples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.

That word ‘ensamples’ is the Greek word ‘tupos’ and is usually translated ‘example,’ ‘figure,’ ‘pattern’ or ‘form.’ In other words, these things that happened to Israel are examples of us. We will not avoid the transition period that brings all of God’s elect “out of Babylon.”

If indeed there were two separate gospels, Paul would have been hard pressed to call Peter and Barnabas “dissimulators” or hypocrites as he does in Gal 2. But what is so interesting is the reason Paul gives for calling them hypocrites:

Gal 2:14 But when I saw that they walked not uprightly according to the truth of the gospel, I said unto Peter before [ them] all, If thou, being a Jew, livest after the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the Gentiles to live as do the Jews?

Did you catch that? It was “the” singular, not plural gospel, that both Peter and Barnabas were unfaithful to.

Dr Martin draws a supposed ‘contrast’ as if a change was made that had not been understood before. He then intimates that since that change, the pre- existing conditions are no longer extant. The worst part is that he thinks that physical rituals substitute for our experience in Christ. Look at what he is teaching:

When Christ entered the world, we entered with him. When Christ was circumcised at eight days of life, we are recognized by the Father as having been circumcised at the same time (Col 2:11). When Christ was baptized by John the Baptist, the Father reckons us as also being baptized by John (Col 2:12), and this is the “one baptism” that the Father accepts — not our own physical baptisms (Eph 4:5).

So according to this doctrine we do not need to be ‘circumcised’, and we do not need to be baptized. But what does Paul himself teach us about baptism, right here in this Ephesian epistle?

Eph 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it;
Eph 5:26 That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,

Our baptism is not by Christ’s physical baptism, it is by the cleansing power of God’s fiery Word, working it purifying work in us.

Dr. Martin actually states earlier that Christ is our “substitute” in all these things. Nothing could be further from the Truth! Christ did not die to the flesh so we could live in it. He died to the flesh so He could “fill up in our bodies that which is behind of His sufferings.” He died to the flesh so that He could die to the flesh in us. “We are His workmanship.”

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:
Eph 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

Despite what Dr. Martin taught, the way to salvation is still the same as it was when Christ made this statement:

Mat 10:22 And ye shall be hated of all [ men] for my name’s sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved.

It is still the same as when Paul made this statement:

Rom 2:6 Who [ God in Christ] will render to every man according to his deeds:
Rom 2:7 To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality, eternal life:

I hope this has answered your first question about the teachings of Dr. Martin’s page. I simply do not at this time have the time to do the same for the other page you sent me. But rest assured of the Truth of these last two verses of scripture. No one is “saved until they have “endured to the end.”

I hope this is all of some help to you.

Mike

Hi, Mike,

I wonder if you would take a moment to say what you understand the first resurrection to be. Is it past or future? Please be brief.

A____

Hi A____,
Thank you for your question.
You ask:

I wonder if you would take a moment to say what you understand the first resurrection to be. Is it past or future?

The first resurrection is both present in “the earnest of the spirit” and it is future in “the redemption of the purchased possession.

Eph 1:13 In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, [ of resurrection]
Eph 1:14 Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession the actual resurrection], unto the praise of his glory.

This is, was and will be nature of the Word is a character of the word of God which has served very well to keep the mysteries of the kingdom of God from being understood by the masses who come to Christ. God’s Word never passes away. Hence the name of the website, iswasandwillbe. com.

Mat 24:33 So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.
Mat 24:34 Verily I say unto you, This generation shall not pass, till all these things be fulfilled.
Mat 24:35 Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away.

So there is a present application of God’s Words in every generation of “he that reads”.

Mat 24:15 When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)

So Paul tells us we are already dead and raised up with Christ in “the earnest of our inheritance”.

Rom 6:1 What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound?
Rom 6:2 God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?
Rom 6:3 Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death?
Rom 6:4 Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life.
Rom 6:5 For if we have been planted together in the likeness of his death, we shall be also in the likeness of his resurrection:

When are we to be “in the likeness of His resurrection”?

Eph 2:6 And hath raised [ us] up together, and made [ us] sit together in heavenly [ places] in Christ Jesus:

It is spoken of in spirit, as an accomplished fact. But this is only in the “sealed with the holy spirit of promise” form at this time, “until the redemption of the purchased possession.”

Eph 1:14 Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession the actual resurrection], unto the praise of his glory.

So we must be very careful never to claim that” the resurrection is past”, even though “we are resurrected with Him in newness of life”.

2Ti 2:18 Who concerning the truth have erred, saying that the resurrection is past already; and overthrow the faith of some.

I hope this helps you to see how we are both dead and buried and resurrected with Christ, in “earnest”, while we still have “the redemption of the purchased possession, to anticipate.
Your brother in Christ,
Mike

My dear brother Mike,

First, I pray that all is well with you and your family. I look forward to the next time our Lord will bring us together again.

Secondly, thank you for your faithfulness in … feeding His sheep… you are God’s blessing to so many of us, more than you know.

The Revelation study in all candor brings out in me more questions than answers, nevertheless I … must live by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God…

Jas 1:4 But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.

Jas 1:5 If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

My question regards the understanding I hold for:

Ecc 9:3 This is an evil among all things that are done under the sun, that there is one event unto all: yea, also the heart of the sons of men is full of evil, and madness is in their heart while they live, and after that they go to the dead.

The study on Rev 16:4-9 there were “2 mysteries”:

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:

And…

2Th 2:6 And now ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his time.

2Th 2:7 For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way.

2Th 2:8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:

So the process of God revealing “the mystery, Christ in you, the hope of glory” are we not also at the same time having the “mystery of iniquity (which is defined in Strong’s as illegality, (2 Th 2:4 sits in the temple of God) revealed in us?

I believe this is the process the Lord when through with Israel and Pharaoh.

To Israel:

Exo 6:6 Wherefore say unto the children of Israel, I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with a stretched out arm, and with great judgments:

Exo 6:7 And I will take you to me for a people, and I will be to you a God: and ye shall know that I am the LORD your God, which bringeth you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians.

To Pharaoh:

Exo 7:3 And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart, and multiply my signs and my wonders in the land of Egypt.

Exo 7:4 But Pharaoh shall not hearken unto you, that I may lay my hand upon Egypt, and bring forth mine armies, and my people the children of Israel, out of the land of Egypt by great judgments.

Exo 7:5 And the Egyptians shall know that I am the LORD, when I stretch forth mine hand upon Egypt, and bring out the children of Israel from among them.

While His Son is being revealed to us and eventually in us, we too, (the beast) is being exposed to us and eventually out of us. This is the one event, the way I understand it.

I know you are short of time but when you have a minute, I sure would like to get clarity.

God Bless you brother,

A____

Hi A____,

Thank you for your encouraging words and for sharing your thoughts with me. I too, look forward to the next time the Lord brings us together!

I really am the most blessed man in the world, to have so many sharing the revelations which the Lord gives them with me.

You are seeing this “One event”, this “revelation of the mystery”, very clearly. Yes, there are “two mysteries” just as there are ‘two Adams’. I feel sure you have heard me say the entire Bible concerns itself with only two men, and those two men are “the man of sin” and “the Son of God”.

But for those who are given to receive it, that first man is nothing more than a figure of the last man, and but a necessary evil stepping stone to the last man.

Rom 5:14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression, who is the figure [ Greek – tupos, type] of him that was to come.

Speaking to that first man, in the form of Pagan Athenians, the apostle Paul made this statement:

Act 17:28 For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring.

It is Christ, by the Father’s design, in whom we “consist… live, and move, and have our being”.

Col 1:16 For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether [ they be] thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him:
Col 1:17 And he is before all things, and by him all things consist.

So “the mystery of iniquity” along with all the seals, trumpets and plagues which are used by God to reveal that mystery and destroy that first Adam, are in Truth, but an essential first part of the revelation of Jesus Christ, which we all must “read, hear and keep”.

I hope those few verses help answer your question. If it does not help to clarify this subject for you, please let me know. Your question indicates that the Lord actually is revealing to you what “He declared to His servants the prophets… which is the mystery of Christ in you the hope of glory” (Col 1:26-27, and Rev 10:7), as well as the revelation of the man of sin, which must necessarily precede the revelation of Christ in you.

Your brother in Christ,

Mike

Hello Mike,

Thank you all for truly revealing the things of God. My question is: Does Scripture reveal anything concerning the future… after God will be all in all?
Such a wonderful feeling comes over me, every time I think about that “day” I just want to arrive at that point in time. Thank you for your time, thoughts and comments.
God’s will be done and share the love and blessings,

E____

Hi E____,
Thank you for your question.
You ask if God reveals to us what lies in the future after God is all in all?
You go on to say:

Such a wonderful feeling comes over me, every time I think about that “day” I just want to arrive at that point in time.

It is indeed very comforting to know that in the end, God will have redeemed every man woman and child who has ever lived. What a wonderful contrast to the monster who is portrayed to us by the Adversary and his messengers.
Now to answer your question directly, the short answer is no, there is no Biblical revelation beyond “… and God will be all in all”. That is the limit of our Lord’s revelation to us in scripture, and we dare not even “think above what is written”.

1Co 4:6 And these things, brethren, I have in a figure transferred to myself and [ to] Apollos for your sakes; that ye might learn in us not to think [ of men] above that which is written, that no one of you be puffed up for one against another.

While the words ‘of men’ may be implied, they are in brackets to let us know they were not in the Greek. We are plainly admonished “not to think above what is written” whether we are thinking of men or of the future, or of any subject, as we will see clearly stated below.
This phrase “all in all”, which is “pas en pas” in the Greek, appears three times in scripture. Here they all are.

1Co 12:6 And there are diversities of operations, but it is the same God which worketh all in all.
1Co 15:28 And when all things shall be subdued unto him, then shall the Son also himself be subject unto him that put all things under him, that God may be all in all.
Eph 1:22 And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him [ to be] the head over all [ things] to the church,
Eph 1:23 Which is his body, the fulness of him that filleth all in all.

“God works all in all… that God may be all in all… the fulness of Him that fills all in all”. That is where revelation stops and in light of the following verses, that is where we need to stop inquiring for now.

Deu 4:2 Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of the LORD your God which I command you.

This commandment is repeated in the New Testament.

Rev 22:18 For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book:
Rev 22:19 And if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and [ from] the things which are written in this book.

In light of those two verses, it behooves us to be satisfied with the incredible wealth of revelation we have been given, and to have the mind which Christ here tells us to have concerning the future.

Mat 6:34 Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.

The Greek here tells us to “take no anxious thought for tomorrow”, but the point being made is the same: “For the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof”.
Where then, should our thoughts be? What should be our concern? The answer to that question is in the preceding verse:

Mat 6:33 But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you.

What does that mean? Where is that kingdom whose righteousness we are admonished to be seeking instead of concerning ourselves with “the things of tomorrow”? Here is the answer to both of those questions:

Luk 17:20 And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, he answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation:
Luk 17:21 Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

That is the answer to your question. Seek the righteousness of “the kingdom of God… within you,” and “the things of the morrow will take thought for the things of itself”. There are a couple more verses which help us to realize that even if we were told what is beyond God being all in all, then we would still not be satisfied, and we would want to know what was beyond that revelation, and there would be no end to our curiosity. Here are those verses:

Deu 29:29 The secret things belong unto the LORD our God: but those things which are revealed belong unto us and to our children for ever, that we may do all the words of this law.
Ecc 1:8 All things are full of labour; man cannot utter it: the eye is not satisfied with seeing, nor the ear filled with hearing.

I hope all these verses of scripture have helped you to see that God’s emphasis in this life is on the ‘is’ part of His Word, which we are many times told in this order “ is, was and will be”.

Rev 1:8 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.

If we seek the righteousness of the kingdom of God within us today, then we will have no problem when tomorrow gets here, because when tomorrow gets here, it will then be ‘is’, and there ‘is’ much work to be done to “seek the righteousness of the kingdom of God” within each of us right this moment.

Your brother in Christ,
Mike