Monthly Archives: September 2011

Jewish Menorah Mirrors 7 Feasts: Reflections Made On 2011’s Feast of Trumpets

29 Thursday Sep 2011

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L to R: Passover, Unleavened Bread, Firstfruits, Pentecost, Trumpets, Atonement, Tabernacles

I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s Day, and I heard behind me a great voice as of a trumpet, saying, ‘I am Alpha and Omega, 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.’ And I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And being turned, I saw seven golden candlesticks; and in the midst of the seven candlesticks One like unto the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the breast with a golden girdle. ~ Revelation 1:10-13, KJV21

 

God uses the number 7 in the Holy Bible to denote spiritual perfection—holiness, fullness, completeness, and goodness. This spiritual perfection is achieved through the aid of the Holy Spirit, whose ministry depends on the willingness of the participants to allow Him to do His work in and through them.

Be that as it may, there can be no doubt that the number 7 is the dominant number used throughout the inspired Word of God, beginning in Genesis, with the emphasis on God’s 7-day work of Creation, and going all the way through to Revelation, with the comparison between the 7 churches and the 7 golden candlesticks. Where the Apostle John’s vision of 7 golden candlesticks is concerned, there is no doubt that his imagery paints a spitting image of the ancient 7-branched Menorah. In his vision are 6 candlesticks (branches), which come out of one central stem, and the central stem also is counted as one of the 7 envisioned candlesticks. The apostle’s description of the center stem, thus, points out that the Light Source of the 7 candlesticks is the center Light—the Divine Light of God who is Jesus the Christ, the servant Lamp (Shamash) of the Jewish 7-branched Menorah.

JEWISH 7-BRANCHED MENORAH MIRRORS 7 JEWISH FEASTS:

There can be no doubt that Apostle John’s vision of 7 golden candlesticks, with Jesus the Christ in the middle of them, is similar to the Prophet Zechariah’s vision of the golden lampstand with a bowl of oil on top, 7 lamps around the bowl, and two olive trees on either side of his lampstand (cf. Zechariah 4:1-3). Likewise, there can be no doubt that each of these visions in which the men of God describe either 7 candlesticks or a lampstand having 7 lamps are vivid images of the Jewish 7-branched Menorah that God commanded Moses to hammer out of one piece of gold and then place it across from the Table of Shewbread in the Holy Place (cf. Exodus 25:31-40, 26:35). 

It should be clear from the above-mentioned visions that many of God’s repeated patterns and cycles have the number 7 in them. Just to mention a few of the recurring patterns and cycles, there are 7 days, 7 weeks, 7 Sabbaths, 7-fold sprinkling, and the 7 feasts (7 mo’edim—appointed times of the Lord). Where the 7 feasts are concerned, the number 7 and compounds of 7 are repeated, beginning with the Feast of Passover, which starts on the 14th (7 X 2) of Nisan; to the 7 days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread; to the Counting of the Omer (7 X 7 + 1)—the counting of 50 days from the Feast of Passover to the Feast of Pentecost, which is celebrated the day after the seventh Sabbath. This recurring cycle is a lesser version of the greater repeated pattern of the Year of Jubilee, which happens every fifty years (7 x 7 + 1), beginning on the 10th day of the 7th month’s Day of Atonement (cf. Leviticus 25:8-55); lastly, there are the 3 connected “Holy Convocations” of the 7th month—the Feast of Trumpets, Day of Atonement, and the Feast of Tabernacles, with the last feast being the end to the whole cycle of 7 feasts.

Each of the 7 feasts not only embody the whole range of figurative meanings for the number 7—perfection, holiness, fullness, completeness, and goodness—but also the 7 feasts reveal a prophetic timetable, as it were, which relates to the seasons (Spring and Autumn) and the months when the Lord would fulfill the purposes for His First and Second Comings. He already has fulfilled the four Spring Feasts. The next feast to be fulfilled is the Fall Feast of Trumpets (a.k.a., Rosh Hashanah). 

As already mentioned, the 7 feasts’ prophetic pictures of Jesus the Christ’s First and Second Comings are reflected in the 7-branched Menorah. In fact, the 7-branched Menorah is the personification of Jesus the Christ, the Light of the World. As such, each branch of the Menorah equals each of the 7 feasts, which means that both the feasts and the branches are definitive prophetic signs about the redemptive ministry of Jesus the Christ.

Using the Menorah pictured above, and starting from the reader’s left and moving right (which would be a right-to-left movement for the wilderness Tabernacle and Temple Priests), the first branch of the Menorah is that of the Feast of Passover. Both the branch and the feast signify the Lord’s death (crucifixion), which happens after He is inhumanely beaten, whipped, and pierced. The second branch is the Feast of Unleavened Bread. Both the branch and the feast signify the Lord’s burial. The third branch is the Feast of Firstfruits. Both the branch and the feast signify the Lord’s resurrection—the firstfruits of those raised from the dead never to die again. All three of these feasts point to the prophesied First Coming of Jesus the Christ, which, as already indicated, the Lord has fulfilled.

Next is the fourth branch, the middle or center stem (the Shamash or Servant Lamp), which in this case represents the Feast of Pentecost. Both the branch and the feast signify the flames or tongues of fire, and the pouring out of the oil (power) of the Holy Spirit. The Menorah’s 4th or middle position always refers to either the Lord of Light (Jesus the Christ) or fire. For this reason, Pentecost definitely qualifies to be in this 4th position! More important is the fact that Jesus the Christ also fulfilled this feast, primarily through His BETROTHAL CONTRACT (New Testament or New Covenant), which His young Bride (the CHURCH) accepted. Furthermore, the Holy Spirit seals this marriage contract!

On the above picture of a Menorah, to the reader’s right of the center branch are the three branches that symbolize the three feasts that deal with Jesus the Christ’s Second Coming. The first of these three branches is the branch of the Feast of Trumpets (Rosh Hashanah). Both the branch and the feast signify the Rapture of the Bride of Christ. The next branch is the Feast of Atonement. Both the branch and the feast signify the visible bodily return of Jesus the Christ. The last branch is the Feast of Tabernacles. Both the branch and the feast signify the beginning of the Millennial Kingdom.

As previously indicated, the visions Apostle John and the Prophet Zechariah have both mirror the Mosaic image of the wilderness Tabernacle’s 7-Branched Menorah. What is important about this ancient lampstand is the fact that God commanded Moses to use the purest olive oil, which symbolizes the nature and identity of the Holy Spirit. This oil was to be poured in to the center lamp, and rabbinic traditions teach that this oil miraculously never runs out, even though the center lamp of the Menorah is lit first.

Perhaps the rabbinic traditions are correct; at any rate, the taught custom is that twice every day, morning and evening, Aaron would remove the lamps from the Menorah, clean them out with a sponge, refill them with pure beaten olive oil poured down through the center stem, and insert their wicks. He then put the lamps back into the Menorah (cf. Exodus 30:7).  The exception is the center lamp. Every morning, when Aaron would relight the three lamps on either side of the Menorah’s center stem, he would find the Shamash (the Servant Lamp; the center lamp atop the center branch) still burning, so he just would refill the Shamash with oil and trim its wick. As a result of the oil refill, from the middle or center stem would flow enough oil for the six branches. According to the Talmud (Shabbat 22b), each lamp would receive about 9 ounces of the purest olive oil, and this amount means that there would be enough oil to burn throughout the night into the morning (cf. Exodus 27:20-21; Leviticus 24:1-3).

By extension, the oil in the Menorah represents the Holy Spirit and His work, and the one parable that connects the importance of Menorah’s oil (the Holy Spirit) being present in a believer with the God-given command that the Menorah’s oil always must burn is the Parable of the Ten Virgins (cf. Matthew 25:1-13). What is more, this parable also strongly suggests that the 7-branched Menorah mirrors the seven Jewish Feasts.

The Holy Spirit is THE Oil that ALL of the 10 Virgins should have had—THE Oil that, when human lamps are trimmed and burning, miraculously never runs out. As the parable teaches, only 5 of these 10 Virgins had the right kind and right amount of Oil with them—the infilling of the Holy Spirit—and therefore were prepared and alert when the Bridegroom came like “a thief in the night” (cf. Matthew 24:43; Luke 12:39; Revelation 3:3).

Moreover, this parable depicts several of the Feast of Trumpets or Rosh Hashanah’s idioms, which are found in the New Testament, like the “loud cry (shout)” (cf. 1 Thessalonians 4:16) of the bridegroom who comes like a “thief in the night” (cf. Revelation 3:3) on a day of which “no man knew the day or the hour” (cf. Matthew 24:36; Mark 13:32), after which the Bride and Groom enter the bridal chamber through the “open gate (door)” (cf. John 10:9; Revelation 3:8) that soon shuts and locks out the 5 foolish Virgins who have no Oil. There can be no doubt that each of these Rosh Hashanah idioms not only depict the return of Jesus the Christ to a world that is preoccupied with slumbering, but also each of them suggests that a great reawakening (warning) would precede His Return for His Bride.

While Rosh Hashanah is referred to as Yom Teruah (the Day of the Awakening Blast), and while the theme associated with Rosh Hashanah is “to awake,” the great reawakening (warning) that will precede the Lord’s return happens during the entire 6th month of Elul. This month is a special season known as Teshuvah, which begins a 30-day process of personal examination and repentance that prepares God’s people for the 10 days of Tishri (the Days of Awe) that end on Yom Kippur (Day of Atonement). The sad truth is that even with all of the prophetic warnings and the recurring seasons of Teshuvah, as the 5 unprepared Virgins demonstrate, there will be too many believers who will not have any Oil in their lamps (will not be FULL of the Holy Spirit).

Consequently, their lamps’ flame will not be able to light their path to where the Bridegroom is standing and calling them to Himself so that He can “steal them away” to the prepared Bridal Chamber, all because they did not accept the Oil (the Holy Spirit’s infilling and His illumination of the Word of God; cf. Matthew 25:3). Now, as believers, the 5 foolish Virgins would have had the indwelling Holy Spirit. However, only the Holy Spirit’s infilling (the Baptism of the Holy Spirit) provides THE OIL (power) believers need to keep their inner “light” shining brightly. Thus, even though the Lord’s Mattan (more about this betrothal gift, later) is His free “love” gift of the indwelling AND infilling Holy Spirit, apparently the 5 foolish Virgins didn’t think much about the second part of His gift!

The Scriptures, therefore, leave no doubt about the fact that the 5 foolish Virgins’ spiritual lamps had not been filled, or refilled, with the Holy Spirit’s supernatural Oil. The truth is, if their lamps had been filled, or refilled, then these Virgins would not have been out trying to buy some generic oil to pour into them. The point here is that these Virgins’ spiritual deficiency is why, by the time they returned either with the “oil” they went out to buy or with no “oil” at all, the Bridegroom already had shut and locked the door to Heaven’s Bridal Chamber!  

JEWISH MARRIAGE TRADITIONS AND THE FEAST OF TRUMPETS:

As earlier stated, the 7 Jewish Feasts paint prophetic pictures of Jesus the Christ’s First and Second Comings. While most people will agree that the Lord has fulfilled the first 4 feasts, and that He will soon fulfill the last three feasts, there are many believers who disagree with the Christians who think that the Rapture will happen during the Feast of Pentecost. The problem with the Pentecost-Rapture thinkers is that the Feast of Pentecost does not fit any of the second part of the Jewish marriage traditions.

Traditionally, the Jewish marriage consists of two parts. The first part is the betrothal (marriage), which in the Hebrew language is called the Erusin (engagement, sanctification) or Kiddushin (betrothal, sanctification). This part involves several steps, including but not limited to the bridegroom (or his father) selecting a bride, the bridegroom paying the bride’s price (the Mohar), the bride accepting the betrothal contract (the Ketubah, which is all of the bridegroom’s promises to his bride), the sealing of the betrothal contract, the giving of gifts (in particular, the Mattan), the bride’s water purification ritual (the Mikvah), the bridegroom giving gifts, the bridegroom’s departure, and the bride’s consecration period.

For the next one or two years, the bridegroom is in his father’s house, building his chador (bridal chamber), sometimes called a “chuppah” (honeymoon bed). Once the bridal chamber is finished, the bridegroom then returns for his bride. At this point in time, the second part of the marriage takes place. This part is the Wedding Ceremony, which in the Hebrew language is called the Nesu’in (full fledged marriage), or Huppah, or Chuppah (canopy or tent under which the marriage is consummated; the honeymoon bed). The Wedding Ceremony consists of the bridegroom coming back like “a thief in the night” for the purpose of “stealing” his bride and taking her away with him to their bridal chamber. The next step in the Wedding Ceremony happens after seven days in the bridal chamber. This is the time when the bridegroom and his bride come out and share their wedding bliss with their wedding guests, whom the bridegroom’s father has invited to his son’s wedding feast (symbolic of the Marriage Supper of the Lamb; the King’s Wedding Banquet).

In other words, before the Feast of Pentecost, Jesus the Christ fulfills the Bride’s price (the Mohar, or the value Father God places on the Bride, which the Lord pays to Father God). That price is Jesus the Christ’s atoning sacrifice (cf. John 3:16). Then, after the Lord’s resurrection and ascension come the Day of Pentecost’s pouring out of the Holy Spirit, which seals the marriage contract (the Lord’s New Testament promises) between Jesus the Christ (The Bridegroom) and His CHURCH (The Bride). Also, on this same Day of Pentecost, Jesus the Christ fulfills the Mattan—the gifts that the Bridegroom brings to His Bride.

While the Mohar is a contractual obligation (cf. Genesis 34:11-12; Romans 8:3-4; 1 Corinthians 6:19b-20a; 1 Peter 1:17-18; Revelation 5:9), the Mattan is the expression of the Bridegroom’s love for His Bride—the betrothal gift(s) that will sustain the Bride until the Bridegroom is able to return for Her. These gifts no doubt are Salvation, the measure of Faith, and the Holy Spirit, and it undoubtedly is the work of the Holy Spirit that helps the Lord’s Bride remain pure without getting any spot or blemish on Her, while the Bridegroom is away from Her.

Perhaps the Old Testament verses that best show this understandable distinction between the Mohar and the Mattan are Genesis 34:11-12. These Scriptures deal with Dinah (Leah and Jacob’s daughter) and Shechem, son of Hamor the Hivite. It is written:

And Shechem said unto her father and unto her brethren, ‘Let me find grace in your eyes, and what ye shall say unto me, I will give. Ask me ever so much dowry {Mohar} and gift {Mattan}, and I will give according as ye shall say unto me; but give me the damsel for a wife.’ ~ NKJ21 (the inserted words inside the curly brackets are this blogger’s emphasis)

In these verses, it is obvious that even though Shechem has raped his wife-to-be (Dinah), Shechem is still like the Lord in that he (Shechem) not only is willing to pay what the Law (cf. Exodus 22:16-17) requires must be paid to a woman’s father before a man can receive permission to marry that woman, in this case the dowry (Mohar), but also Shechem, like Jesus the Christ, is willing to pay his wife-to-be (betrothed) his personal gift (Mattan) that shows his betrothed his love for her.

The bottom line then is, according to the previously mentioned second part of the traditional Jewish marriage, the Feast of Pentecost’s commemorative activities clearly do not fit the customary Jewish Wedding Ceremony’s steps. Thus, the feast that best fits the Wedding Ceremony’s steps of the Rapture (snatching away) of the Bride, the wedding consummation, and the 7 days in the Bridal Chamber is the Feast of Trumpets!

Indeed, what’s important about the Fall Feast of Rosh Hashanah (Feast of Trumpets) is this irrefutable picture of the marital union between the true CHURCH (Jesus the Christ’s Bride) and the Messiah (the Bridegroom). For sure, Hebraic roots definitely show through the Messiah’s Wedding Ceremony, which is the Rosh Hashanah Hebrew idiom of Kiddushin/Nesu’in. Likewise, the irrefutable pictures of the resurrection of the righteous dead and the taking up of the living righteous, plus the Bridegroom and His Bride being hidden away in their bridal chamber obviously relate to the Rosh Hashanah Hebrew idioms of Natzal (Rapture) and Yom HaKeseh (Hidden Day, Day of Hiding, Day of Concealment; or Bridal Week). For sure, the ancient Jewish customs responsible for the established 12 or 14 steps to a Jewish Wedding plainly explain why the Bridegroom “steals away” His Bride, like “a thief in the night.” He does so, because He wants the two of them to enjoy their marriage in peace and safety, which is achieved during the Bridal Week, which is symbolic of the 7-year Tribulation Period.

The truth of the matter is that the Feast of Pentecost themes of new revelation, new covenant, betrothal contract, first trump, the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, and the birth of the CHURCH are not the same as the Feast of Trumpets’ themes of preparedness, repentance, vigilance, last trump, resurrection, rapture, wedding, consummation, and kingship. Once again, these Feast of Trumpets’ themes are apparent in the Parable of the Ten Virgins (cf. Matthew 25:1-13), which not only symbolizes many of the Rosh Hashanah idioms but also typifies several of the Jewish Wedding Ceremony’s steps.

Furthermore, when the Gospel writer says that, “…at midnight there was a shout, Behold, the bridegroom! Go out to meet him” (Matthew 25:6, AMP), this imagery definitely points to the Jewish Bridegroom. Ancient Jewish wedding traditions teach that the Bridegroom usually comes for His Bride late at night, near the midnight hour, after the deafening shofar’s blast breaks the silence of the late night, and after the noisy shout gets everyone out of the house and into the streets, dancing. 

Having said all of that, it is important to look again at the 7-branched Menorah, in particular, the center stem. This 4th branch not only represents the Feast of Pentecost’s outpouring of the Holy Spirit but also represents the 4-month break from the Spring and the Fall Feasts. Moreover, this 4-month break also represents the 1 to 2 years of the Bridegroom’s absence, which is the typical time it takes a bridegroom to build an acceptable bridal chamber. Lastly, this 4-month break typifies the much longer nearly 2,000 years of the Age of Grace or the CHURCH Age.

Normally, neither 4 months nor 1 to 2 years would be considered a very LONG time. This truth explains why in His Parable of the Ten Virgins the Lord makes mention of the bridegroom taking longer than expected (tarrying; delaying his return). Indeed, it is the bridegroom’s long absence that causes the 10 Virgins to become so drowsy that they fall asleep (cf. Matthew 25:5-6). This long delay also explains to the Bride of Christ why the 1 to 2 years that it usually takes the Bridegroom to return for his Bride are literally nearing 2,000 years. The Bride really has been waiting for Her Bridegroom (Christ) to return, for a very LONG time!

Once again, the last three Feasts of God (mo’edim) have yet to be fulfilled. However, it should be obvious that just as the Feast of Trumpets, after the 4-month break, follows the Feast of Pentecost, then following the Feast of Pentecost’s outpouring of the Holy Spirit, marriage contract, betrothal, and bride’s sanctification are the next scheduled prophetic events, which Rosh Hashanah’s idiomatic expressions unmistakably describe. This truth is confirmed by Jesus the Christ’s Parable of the Ten Virgins, which typifies the Rosh Hashanah idioms of Yom Teruah (an awakening Shofar blast), Akedah (Abraham’s ram’s left and right horns or the Shofar’s “first trump” and the Shofar’s “last Trump,” respectively), Natzal (the Rapture; the resurrection of the righteous dead, and the taking up of the living righteous; and/or the end of the Age of Grace or CHURCH Age), Kiddushin/Nesu’in (the Messiah’s full fledged Wedding Ceremony), and Yom HaKeseh (hidden day, day of hiding, day of concealment, bridal week, “a thief in the night,” and “the day and hour no man knows”).

The last point on the Rapture of the Bride of Christ is this: Even the Lord, who is the Bridegroom, did not ascend up to Heaven on the Feast of Pentecost! For sure, it should speak volumes that the ONE person who is fulfilling the mo’edim His Father established was not taken up on Pentecost to the place He came from and the place He plans to take His resurrected and raptured Bride!

THREE PHASES TO THE ONE HARVEST OF SOULS:

Just like there are many believers who think the Rapture of the Bride of Christ will happen on the Feast of Pentecost, based on what the Lord says in Matthew 13:39, there also are many believers who think that there is only ONE Harvest of human souls, the WHEAT HARVEST, after which comes the end of the world. The problem with the one-harvest thinkers is that they miss the spiritual applications of the 3 mandated Jewish Feasts, each of which is associated with 3 different harvests: Passover (Barley), Pentecost (Wheat), and Tabernacles (Grapes).

Furthermore, without a doubt, since Matthew 13:39 suggests that there is going to be ONE huge Harvest, then the Barley, Wheat, and Grape harvests must represent 3 separate phases of that ONE enormous Harvest of souls. Indeed, they do, for the Scriptures confirm that these phases not only happen over a span of time but also occur in their own order (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:23; see also Daniel 12:2, 10, 13). Put differently, each of these 3 separate harvest phases culminate in a weeklong pilgrimage to Jerusalem. Thus, the spiritual application of the Feasts of Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles is that they represent the three stages of salvation from justification to sanctification to glorification. For this reason, the Barley, Wheat, and Grape phases of the ONE Harvest of souls prove that not every “saved” believer will be resurrected at the same time, because many will be at different stages of their salvation!

For the record, the 3 harvest phases do not include those resurrected saints who came out of their graves AFTER Jesus the Christ arose (cf. Matthew 27:51-53). In other words, the Word of God purposely describes three unique harvest phases within the Matthew 13:39 ONE HARVEST of souls, over which the Lord is chief Harvester. What’s more, these phases are separated from one another, having a crop that testifies to each harvest’s true nature!

Furthermore, the Scriptures confirm that there will be firstfruits in the first, second, and third harvest phases. Based on this truth, it will become obvious to the reader that it is the rest of second harvest phase that becomes the majority of the Matthew 13:39 final end of the Age (world) Harvest of souls! Be that as it may, where firstfruits are concerned, the Revelation 14:3-4 passage clearly proves that the three literal firstfruits’ harvest phases (the firstfruits of the Barley, Wheat, and Grape Harvests) also are depicted figuratively as God’s 1st resurrection firstfruits—those individuals who will be in Heaven singing a new song, while the Tribulation Period is happening on the Earth. The Apostle John writes:

And they sang, as it were, a new song before the throne, and before the four living beings and the elders; and no man could learn that song, except the hundred and forty and four thousand who were redeemed from the earth. These are they that were not defiled with women, for they are virgins. These are they that follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth. These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb. ~ Revelation 14:3-4, KJV21

In verses 3 and 4 of the above-cited verses, the word “redeemed” is agoradzo, which according to Strong’s Greek Lexicon means “to buy” or “to purchase.” Moreover, agoradzo comes from the Greek word agorah, which means “an assembly of people.” Agorah comes from ageiro, which means “to gather,” and ageiro is probably akin to egiro, which means “to arise.” In essence, the word “redeemed” means the same thing as the resurrected!

Therefore, even though the firstfruit of the Barley Harvest is literally and figuratively the Early Harvest, and even though the firstfruit of the Wheat Harvest is literally and figuratively the later of these two harvests, the Revelation 14:3-4 passage proves that there are three harvests of firstfruits, which means there is going to be firstfruits of the literal and figurative Grape Harvests. Now, agriculturally speaking, the firstfruits of any harvest are that part of a crop that matures first; therefore, firstfruits are always just a small part of the whole harvest—the first portion of any harvest that is dedicated to God, as a guarantee that the whole harvest also belongs to Him (cf. Leviticus 23:10-11; Exodus 34:22a; Nehemiah 10:35-37). For this reason, each of the figurative firstfruits (Barley, Wheat, Grapes) is a part of the ONE GREAT end of the Age Harvest of souls.

What’s more, the Revelation 14:3-4 passage also is saying that there will be more than one firstfruits’ resurrection of those who have fallen asleep (1 Corinthians 15:20-23; Romans 8:29; Romans 11:16). Now, the Apostle Paul makes it crystal clear that Jesus the Christ is the FIRST of the firstfruits of the resurrected, never-to-die again, glorified, and raised upward until a cloud receives Him and takes Him to Heaven [cf. Acts 1:9]). Put differently, the Lord is “…the Beginning, the Firstborn from among the dead” (Colossians 1:18, AMP; cf. Revelation 1:5; Acts 26:23).

Next in line, then, is the Bride of Christ, who is symbolized as the EARLY but ripe firstfruits of the Barley Harvest. These firstfruits of Barley are the resurrected dead in Christ overcomers, AND the rest of the Barley Harvest overcomers who are the alive in Christ—the wise Virgins. They, all of these Barley overcomers, are the individuals who make-up the FIRST PHASE of the ONE Harvest of souls.

Agriculturally speaking, Barley and Wheat are planted at the same time, in the Fall of Israel’s Agricultural and Civil New Year; specifically, they are planted in the latter part of Tishri. However, because Barley matures faster and its chaff is easy to separate (is winnowed and tossed up), literally and figuratively speaking, Barley not only is harvested before the Wheat but also is resurrected and raptured before the Wheat.

The winnowing, separating the chaff with ease, is no doubt a metaphor for the Bride of Christ’s spiritual nature and characteristics that the literal Barley grain has. Perhaps, this truth is why there are many Bride of Christ examples and Bride of Christ characteristics associated with the word “barley,” as seen in the Lord’s feeding of the multitudes. It was at Passover when the Lord fed the multitudes with 5 fishes AND 5 barley loaves (cf. John 6:4-14).

The 5 barley loaves that the Lord feeds to thousands not only signify just how easily and quickly Barley (the CHURCH; the Bride of Christ) multiplies, meaning how quickly these believers respond to the wind of the Holy Spirit, but also these loaves testify about those whom God has given to the Lord that He should not lose one of them. This last truth is seen in the 12 baskets of the remnant pieces of Barley bread, which the Lord tells His disciples to: “Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost” (John 6:12, KJV21). Then later in this same chapter the Lord says that He will not lose any God has given to Him but instead will “…raise [them] up again at the Last Day” (John 6:39, KJV21). Clearly these verses are references to the Bride of Christ AND the 144,000 Jewish brethren, plus those who come to the Lord after going through a time of severe testing. More on this last point, later.

Then too, the Feasts of Unleavened Bread and Firstfruits both are “barley” metaphors for unleavened lives—lives that are NOT flawed, NOT blemished—like those lives of the Bride of Christ! The Scriptures declare that the Lord ONLY is coming back to rapture His Bride, to rapture those believers who are holy and righteous without any spot or wrinkle, whom the Holy Spirit has sanctified wholly (cf. Ephesians 5:27; 1 Thessalonians 5:23; Revelation 21:2). There, thus, can be no doubt that the 5 wise, prepared, alert, full of the Holy Spirit Virgins of the Parable of the Ten Virgins represent the Bride of Christ, the firstfruits of the Barley Harvest—the FIRST PHASE of the Harvest of souls, some who have been resurrected and others who have been raptured.

Once again, the Barley Harvest is literally and figuratively the EARLY or 1st phase of the One Harvest of souls who participate in the 1st resurrection—the collective reaping of all of the centuries of the dead in Christ spiritually mature believers, AND the spiritually mature alive in Christ believers who remain on the Earth after the dead in Christ are resurrected (cf. 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17). The alive in Christ overcomers are best illustrated as the 5 wise Virgins with Oil in their vessels. For sure, because these alive believers are prepared, alert, holy, and righteous, they are the rest of the Barley Harvest and, thus, included in with the Bride of Christ’s resurrected, the 1st of the firstfruits after Jesus the Christ. As such, like Joel 2:16 suggests, they leave this world before the collective firstfruits of Wheat are harvested. That is why the Bride of Christ’s departure (Rapture) happens at the start of the Feast of Trumpets, at the Last Trump, in the twinkling of an eye.

Like the firstfruits of the Barley Harvest, the firstfruits of the Wheat Harvest also are believers (i.e., the 5 foolish Virgins in the Parable of the Ten Virgins). Because these believers are like the foolish 5 Virgins, these firstfruits of Wheat are the beheaded martyrs (cf. Revelation 20:4) who have been purified by the Tribulation—the threshing and final sifting that separate the chaff so that the Lord can put them in His granary (cf. Revelation 7:13-14; Matthew 3:12). Thus, the Feast of Pentecost’s literal Wheat Harvest is the picture of the firstfruits of the figurative Wheat Harvest, the latter of which is the SECOND PHASE of the One Harvest of souls who participate in the 1st resurrection.

Furthermore, unlike the alive Barley (Bride of Christ) who get raptured after the dead in Christ and complete the FIRST PHASE of the ONE Harvest of souls, the rest of the Wheat are those left-behind believers who make-up the complete SECOND PHASE of the ONE Harvest of souls. They  are those believers who survive the entire Tribulation. This fully ripen harvest is of those believers who, by virtue of their faith in Jesus the Christ, received their robe of righteousness, BUT because they were not prepared or watchful, and remained unprepared and careless much longer than the firstfruits did, they not only were not ready when the Bridegroom came to rapture His Bride but also not ready to be the firstfruits of the Wheat. Indeed, unlike the literal Barley, which is easily separated from the chaff—winnowed—and then tossed up, it is much harder to separate these Wheat from their chaff!

For this reason, figuratively speaking, the rest of the Wheat Harvest includes all of the left behind hardhearted and/or carnal believers who must endure the Tribulation Period, and the entire Tribulation Period is for them a judgment that can be compared to the most severe action of threshing Wheat, which is done in order to make the Wheat easier to separate (to winnow) away from the chaff. Only after the threshing of Wheat is complete will this Wheat be soft enough to toss up in the wind. That is to say, in the case of the believers’ whose nature and characteristics are similar to that of literal wheat, these believers will go through a time of testing that will result in them becoming the massive Wheat Harvest that has been thoroughly purged—the surviving Tribulation saints (cf. Revelation 14:14-16; Matthew 13:39). The Apostle John confirms this Divine Truth, for he writes:

And one of the elders answered, saying unto me, ‘Who are these that are arrayed in white robes, and from whence have they come?’ And I said unto him, ‘Sir, thou knowest.’ And he said to me, ‘These are they that came out of great tribulation, and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.’ ~ Revelation 7:13-14, KJV21

Included in this left-behind Harvest of Wheat are many left behind evangelized unbelievers (Jews and Gentiles) who finally accept Jesus the Christ as their personal Savior. They will be those Tribulation converts biblically described as “…a great multitude, which no man could number…” (Revelation 7:9). This multitude no doubt will include those Jewish survivors (the nation of Israel as a whole) who find refuge in Petra during the second half of the Tribulation Period (cf. Revelation 12:6).

Furthermore, those souls from this end of Harvest Wheat who die during the Tribulation, but not as the result of being beheaded, also will be resurrected. The Scripture says that their souls are those that are under the altar in Heaven (cf. Revelation 6:9). These and the above-stated Tribulation Wheat are those who make-up the complete SECOND PHASE of the ONE Harvest of souls.

So then, there are the firstfruits of the Barley and Wheat Harvests, and one more—the firstfruits of the Grape Harvests. These are the three harvest firstfruits’ phases of the Matthew 13:39 ONE Harvest of souls. Concerning the firstfruits of the Grape Harvest, the literal firstfruits of grapes ripen in mid-Av, which is around the time that the full crop of wheat ripens. Thus, the Wheat-threshing season overlaps with the firstfruits of Grape Harvest (cf. Leviticus 26:5; Revelation 14:14).

Now, it is important to note here that the first two harvests are of grains, from which bread is made. However, the picture the Scriptures give of the Lord’s Table during the Marriage Supper of the Lamb is one in which both bread and wine are on His table. The Lord Himself tells His disciples: “Verily I say unto you, I will drink no more of the fruit of the vine, until that day that I drink it new in the Kingdom of God” (Mark 14:25; cf. Matthew 26:29).

For sure, the literal firstfruits of the Grape Harvest are those that will be enjoyed during the Feast of Tabernacles, which typifies the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. However, spiritually speaking, the firstfruits of the Grapes represent the 3rd phase of the One Harvest of souls—the  mature 144,000 Jewish brethren, who received God’s seal and who participate in the 1st resurrection, in the sense that, like the alive Bride in Christ, these 144,000 saints will be raptured—redeemed (resurrected) or raised up alive (cf. Revelation 14:3-5; Revelation 7:3). Now, this writer believes these Jewish brethren actually are unmarried Messianic Jews who accepted Jesus the Christ as their Savior and were filled with the Holy Spirit, all before the end of the CHURCH Age or Age of Grace. That’s why they are sealed (saved) from any of the wrath that is poured out during the Tribulation Period.

Be that as it may, the Scriptures declare that these 144,000 firstfruits of the Grape Harvest have been “redeemed” (purchased, gathered, resurrected) by the blood of Jesus the Christ. As already established, the word “redeemed,” like it is used in Revelation 14:3-4, means the same thing as the resurrected. Thus, together with this sense of resurrection and the Scriptures that use the vivid language of blameless (“without fault”), not defiled (“without blemish”), and following the Lamb wherever He goes, the picture of 144,000 translated firstfruits become very clear. This imagery is not only the vivid language that declares these literal 144,000 Jewish believers are in Heaven with Jesus the Christ, but also the blameless, not defiled, and follower of Jesus the Christ descriptors are those used for ALL firstfruits! Therefore, because these translated (raptured) firstfruits of the Grape Harvest are the THIRD PHASE of One Harvest of souls who participate in the 1st resurrection, these 144,000 are singing the new song with the Bride of Christ (Barely) and martyred saints (Wheat).

The 144,000 can sing the new song because they too have completed their work. Indeed, because of their evangelistic work, during the first half of the Tribulation Period, they convert people out of every nation, but primarily those unbelievers from the nation of Israel, as a  whole. As a result, these 144,000 produce the greatest harvest of souls, that is to say “…a great multitude, which no man could number…” (cf. Revelation 7:9). Thus, by mid-Trib, they are translated (raptured), and after that the angel of Revelation 14:6-7 takes over the 144,000 Jewish brethren’s evangelistic work, which indicates the severity of the circumstances—those who are still unbelievers are about to receive the Mark of the Beast and, thus, the winepress’ most severe judgment, as symbolized through the actions of Jesus the Christ, who is the ONE who “…treadeth the wine press of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God” (Revelation 19:15, KJV21; see Revelation 19:13-15; Isaiah 63:1-3)!

Now, the rest of the literal Grape Harvest or the full gathering of grapes, for making the “new” wine, is in Tishri, around the time for the Feast of Tabernacles (cf. Exodus 22:29a; Leviticus 26:5). However, spiritually speaking, just like the image of the marriage supper of the fowls is a stark contrast of the image of the Marriage Supper of the Lamb (cf. Revelation 19:21; Revelation 19:9; Luke 14:15), the image of the “new” wine (blood) from the unbelievers who are harvested at the end Armageddon, as depicted in Revelation 14:17-20, is a stark contrast of the image of the “new” wine (the fruit of the vine) that will be enjoyed at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. For sure, the Apostle John is describing the full Grape Harvest, the rest of the Grape Harvest as those whom the Lord has trodden in the winepress outside the city (cf. Revelation 14:19-20; Isaiah 63:1-3; Revelation 19:13-15).

Based on the apostle’s description, it is clear that these ripen end of the Harvest Grapes are those unbelieving individuals who heard the Gospel but made a choice to not make the Gospel a part of their lives—to not accept Jesus the Christ as their personal Savior and then receive the Holy Spirit. These Grapes, thus, are the Tribulation’s unbelievers—a harvest that comes by way of the winepress, which thoroughly extracts juice (life) from the “crushed” grapes. Even after the wrath of God’s trumpets and bowls’ judgments, which symbolize severe pressing, these unbelievers still refuse to accept Jesus the Christ as their Savior! Consequently, this rest of the Grape Harvest will be part of the massive crop of unbelievers who are in the 2nd resurrection! Only the firstfruits of the Grape Harvest are the THIRD PHASE of the ONE Harvest of souls!

So then, the 3 separate firstfruits of the 3 separate harvest phases (Barley, Wheat, and Grapes) most definitely prove that there are more harvests than the ONE huge Harvest of souls that comes at the end of the Age. As it is with firstfruits’ harvests, they are much smaller in size, but harvests all the same. 

Lastly, since the Grape Harvest usually is completed right before the Feast of Tabernacles, then this 3rd Harvest testifies to the fact that ALL of these Harvests are directly connected to the three Fall Feasts, instead of the Feast of Pentecost! For sure, the firstfruits of the Barley (Bride of Christ) Harvest are associated with the Feast of Trumpets; the firstfruits of the Wheat (martyred Tribulations saints) Harvest have to do with the Day of Atonement, and the firstfruits of the Grapes (144,000 translated Jewish brethren) Harvest are connected to the Feast of Tabernacles’ “new” wine that is served at the Marriage Supper of the Lamb.

LOVE FOR CHRIST DETERMINES FIRST RESURRECTION PHASES:

There are many believers who think that there is but one Rapture. The problem with their thinking is that the Scriptures confirm that there is more than one First Resurrection and, therefore, more than one Rapture, which is here defined as the snatching away of the ALIVE saints (translating the righteous and holy).

For sure, the Feasts of Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles reveal that the 1st resurrection is determined by the nature and characteristics of the “redeemed” believers’ crop. For example, the firstfruits of Barley represent the 1st phase of the 1st resurrection’s ripened overcomers, who are the Bride of Christ (the dead and alive in Christ; the Jews and Gentiles; the wise Virgins). The firstfruits of Wheat represent the 2nd phase of the 1st resurrection’s ripened believers, who are the Tribulation’s beheaded saints; the initial foolish Virgins who eventually surrender to the Lord during the Tribulation Period and begin to keep His commandments. Lastly, the firstfruits of Grapes represent the 3rd phase of the 1st resurrection’s ripened Jewish brethren, who because of their righteous and holy living have been translated.

Put differently, love, holiness, and righteousness are both the characteristics and nature of the final massive Harvest of souls included in the 1st resurrection. Certainly, ONLY those individuals who love the Lord with everything that is within them will keep His commandments and live a holy and righteous lifestyle, even unto death.

That is why, even though both the “saved” Bride of Christ and the “saved” 144,000 Jewish brethren firstfruits are taken to Heaven, they do not go up at the same time. Their different times of departure are because of the nature and characteristics of their respective Barley and Grape crops. In other words, unlike the Bride of Christ who has for centuries kept the Lord’s commandments and lived a holy and righteous lifestyle (cf. John 13:34-35; see also Matthew 22:37-40; Mark 12:29-31), the last days’ converted Jewish people have come to the Lord because the gift of salvation that was first offered to the Jewish nation as a whole is now the “…salvation [that] has come unto the Gentiles to provoke [Jewish people] to jealousy” (Romans 11:11; inserted bracketed words are this blogger’s emphasis).

Therefore, as previously mentioned, these last days’ unmarried 144,000 Messianic Jews, though “saved” are “redeemed” (the translated resurrected) after God uses them to evangelize the left behind masses by teaching them primarily about the Kingdom of God. Thus, the Tribulation becomes their time of testing that will prove their love for God.  

Likewise, the Tribulation Period is also the “saved” 1st firstfruits of the Wheat’s time of testing and, therefore, the main reason why these firstfruits of the Wheat Harvest—the foolish Virgins—are taken up to Heaven at a different time than the Bride of Christ AND the 144,000 translated Jewish brethren. These firstfruits, thus, are those people who lack the genuine love for Jesus the Christ—the God kind of love that would move them to keep the Lord’s commandments on this side of the Rapture.

For this reason, because these once lukewarm carnal believers ONLY claimed to love the Lord, as well as ONLY called Him Lord with their lips, while their “hearts” were far from Him, they are the left behind Wheat—the 5 foolish Virgins—whose doubtful “love” for the Lord puts them in the Tribulation where they go through a time of testing. This testing causes them to repent and then surrendered to Jesus the Christ’s Lordship. As a result of their renewed minds and their new-found determination to keep the Lord’s commandments and their faith in Jesus the Christ, they become the martyred Tribulation saints who, because they do not take the mark of the beast, are beheaded. These firstfruits are the masses described in Revelation 7:14 Revelation 14:14-15, and Revelation 20:4—those who passed the “love” test of literally laying down their lives for their Friend (cf. John 15:13).

Contrary to popular opinions, there are indeed two major resurrections aptly called the First and the Second resurrections. What is more, the 3 firstfruits’ resurrections clearly prove that the 1st resurrection consists of the “saved” believers who are resurrected in 3 stages during the 3 Fall Feasts, each stage of which is determined by their love for Jesus the Christ and their holy and righteous lifestyles. Furthermore, each of the firstfruits’ resurrection also proves that there are 3 raptures, one each of: the dead and alive in Christ; the martyred Tribulation saints; and the translated 144,000 Jewish brethren. Scriptures confirm that the souls of these resurrected firstfruits will be snatched out of this world (raptured).

Now, in contrast to the 1st resurrection of the saints, the harvest of the trodden in the winepress Grapes—the Tribulation Period’s unbelievers (cf. Revelation 14:17-20)—also are those individuals who become a part of all of the centuries of unbelievers who have never accepted Jesus the Christ as their Lord and Savior, and as such they all will take part in the 2nd resurrection that happens after the Great White Throne judgment. Every one of these unbelievers, therefore, will be judged according to their works (cf. Revelation 20:11-13).

The bottom line is this: Today is 2011’s first day of the Feast of Trumpets. Many have predicted or suggested that this day would be the day of the long-prophesied Rapture. Since a Jewish day begins at sundown and runs from sundown to sundown, meaning this present Feast of Trumpets began at sundown on September 28th, then it is safe to say that this Feast of Trumpets is not that Feast of Trumpets, which starts not only a new Civil, Sabbatical, and Agricultural Year in Israel but also starts the global moment in time after when many will begin reporting the disappearances of their loved ones. Although this Feast of Trumpets is not that Feast of Trumpets, that Feast of Trumpets is still coming.

Therefore, ALL of the information provided here has been given for the purpose of warning, illuminating, and preparing those who want to know what they must do to ensure that they are indeed the Lord’s Bride. Certainly, for this last reason, it is crucial that believers in Jesus the Christ make a spiritual and moral inventory of their lives for the purpose of ascertaining whether they are or are not prepared to be abducted—stolen away, snatched right out of this world. Why? Well, for one thing, the Holy Bible specifically speaks about the First and Second resurrections. Then too, even though there never has been anything like the prophesied large masses of resurrected dead occurring right before numerous disappearances of alive individuals happen, the Scriptures are here to remind the prepared and watchful people about this startling fact: It wasn’t raining when Noah began to build the Ark!   

For additional information, please read my blog entries: The Fall Feast of Trumpets’ Spiritual Realities and The Three Most Important Crops of Israel’s Seven Major Crops

Perfect Storm

22 Thursday Sep 2011

Posted by in Bible Prophecy

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A Post-Apocalyptic Shot…From The Film…The Book Of Eli

Double, double toil and trouble;
Fire burn, and cauldron bubble.

~ William Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Act 4, Scene 1, Lines 10-11; 20-21; and 35-36

 

Much like the evilness the three Macbeth witches intend for their dreadful concoction to achieve, which is the conjuring up of gruesome apparitions that foreshadow Macbeth’s murderous future, the evilness that is boiling in the Devil’s cauldron of global distress and unrest also is achieving Satan’s intended effect, which is the manifestation of deceptive and frightening illusions that ironically foretell the unbelieving and disbelieving masses’ future horrific pain and misery to be experienced during the Tribulation Period. Just like the witches’ brew in Macbeth underscores the central theme of the play, which is EVILNESS, the Devil’s mixed bag of tricks draw attention to the main emphasis of the prophetic last days and end times, which is the “something wicked” that sure enough is coming this way—the Perfect Storm that is about to bring unprecedented global mortal and eternal danger. 

By Perfect Storm, this blogger is referring to a RARE combination of a number of circumstances (negative unpredictable factors) that radically worsen a crucially critical situation (humans nonexistent, or ineffectual, relationship with God). For sure, there currently is boiling in the Devil’s cauldron of global distress and unrest the diabolic and demonic forces’ illusions (Satan and his imps’ smokescreen delusions) that will make it seem as if the Devil and his imps are in control of the global elements of economy, nature, war, politics, cultures, belief systems, and societal relationships that have been fused with the false impressions of an unloving Creator who intentionally designed Hell and the Lake of Fire for His human creations, and the false impressions of a God who also plans to pour out His unfair and dreadful wrath upon end-time humans. This combination of negative unpredictable factors and a drastically worsened critical situation is the climate for a Perfect Storm, which actually ONLY can exist when “the masses” are not responding correctly to God—when the majority of people are rending their garments instead of their hearts.

The Divine Truth is that when humanity understands that the Creator of the universe and every living creature therein prefers that His human creations rend their hearts instead of their garments (cf. Joel 2:13) then they will be on the right track for having a right and intimate relationship with God. Traditionally, in the Jewish culture, the rending (tearing) of their clothes was an outward expression of extraordinary uncontrollable emotions, the primary ones being grief, sorrow, terror, and/or horror. However, God’s spiritual economy is contrary to this traditional rending. God wants people, especially His sinning spiritual sons and daughters, to show contrition of heart and brokenness of spirit (to live the kind of life that displays an inward indisputable repentance, as opposed to living the kind of life that displays an outward hypocritical repentance).

This former acceptable penitent achievement is the result of God’s genuinely sorrowful children ripping out (confessing/exposing) their sins to God, seeking His forgiveness for their sins, and making a 180° turn away from their sins (absolutely repenting of or completely changing their mindset about sinning). For this reason, since the time of Jesus the Christ until this present day, the work of spiritual leaders, such as apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers, continues to be that of warning the world, especially members in institutional churches, as well as the unchurched and the unbelievers, of the fatally eternal consequences of sin. It also is spiritual leaders’ mission to reveal the Divine Truth about the wrath of God that initially was intended to be the appropriate judgment for ONLY the Devil and his demonic angels, but because of the world’s ungodliness and unrighteousness, rebellious men and women, boys and girls also will receive the same judgment. 

The above truth about spiritual leaders not only warning but also revealing to believers the coming wrath of God is apparent in apostle Paul’s epistles. For example, in 1 Corinthians 10, the apostle Paul uses the nation of Israel’s history as a kind of warning to New Testament believers. He is warning today’s Christians about all the last days and end times’ punishments that, in various ways, will come upon the world’s ungodly and unrighteous individuals, and not by chance, but by the Perfect Will of God, which means the unrepentant ungodly and unrighteous will get exactly what their sins deserve. The apostle writes:

Now these things befell them {Israel} by way of a figure [as an example and warning to us]; they were written to admonish and fit us for right action by good instruction, we in whose days the ages have reached their climax (their consummation and concluding period). ~ 1 Corinthians 10:11, AMP; the inserted word in the curly brackets is this blogger’s emphasis; also read 1 Corinthians 10:1-10

In other words, the apostle Paul is saying that when God’s sons and daughters not only are in right relationship with Him but also are having an intimate relationship with God, then EVERYTHING in the natural and spiritual realms will respond correctly. That is to say that even though the Devil’s Perfect Storm is bubbling, awaiting the final ingredients that will cause all Hell to break loose upon this Earth, in spite of the apparent imminent violence and terror that this “storm” will display, this soon coming Perfect Storm will be a “storm” that even the left-behind believers who finally have an intimate relationship with God can sleep through.

That’s right, just like Jesus the Christ slept through the illusory storm on the Sea of Galilee (cf. Mark 4:35-41), believers on this side of the Rapture who have an intimate relationship with God not only can sleep through any “storm,” but also they have the authority to command every “storm” to respond properly to them. Moreover, in the context of 1 Corinthians 10:1-11, the Perfect Storm that is brewing is a last days and end-time storm. Therefore, the surviving left-behind individuals also will have inward joy and peace, as well as the authority to command any “storm.” In particular, the 144,000 who have the seal of God and, consequently, refuse to take the Mark of the Beast, which is the “something wicked” that sure enough is coming, will be able to “be still” (have inward peace and joy) because they know God already has given them authority over Satan’s smokescreen of a Perfect Storm.

In contrast, when godliness and righteousness fail to rule in individuals’ body, soul, and spirit, then, because these individuals are neither in right relationship with God nor in an intimate relationship with Him, NOTHING these left-behind people say or do will bring them peace and joy during the Perfect Storm’s environment, for, once they take the Mark of the Beast, it will become impossible for them to have any authority over the diabolic and demonic forces that, together with the aforesaid negative and unpredictable factors, come in like a catastrophic flood.  In other words, all that they used to count on when they were in a crisis will no longer be reliable sources—neither finances; nor the ability to read the natural signs that point to a coming tsunami, hurricane, earthquake, etcetera; or the ability to circumvent a war; or the ability to conquer political corruption; or cultural superiority; or having dominant religious beliefs; or the ability to network with those who share like-minded interests and activities. These left-behind people will no longer be able to count on any of these once reliable “storm” silencers, because none of them will respond correctly to these individuals’ commands. Consequently, these individuals will not be able to sleep during the coming Perfect Storm for they, like the frightened disciples in the boat with their Savior, will NOT have any inward peace and joy!

A spiritual and natural Perfect Storm is coming—spiritual and natural because humans’ relationship with God is both spiritual and natural. The Good News is that the Lord’s Bride will not have to weather this coming “storm,” for by the time that this “storm” is saturating this Earth the Bride of Christ will have been Raptured (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:51-53; 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17). Therefore, the prophesied Perfect Storm—an unprecedented global calamity—is the evilness, the personification of the Antichrist, which will control this world’s economic systems, governmental and political systems, religious systems, and so forth. For this reason, the left-behind people are being forewarned that, if they do not have the right and intimate relationship with God, during the Tribulation Period, then it is highly probable that they will be caught unaware by an unusually intense “storm” pattern that sure enough will put their eternal lives in GRAVE danger!

Listen to the Sound of Abundant Rain: The Water Pourer Is Flooding This Earth

20 Tuesday Sep 2011

Posted by in Spiritual

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AQUARIUS The Water Pourer

For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring: ~ Isaiah 44:3, KJV

Many people are familiar with this sermonic catchphrase: Get Ready, Get Ready, Get Ready! However, while the well-known pastor and televangelist’s Get Ready, Get Ready, Get Ready trademark slogan only hypes up (emotionally charges) his congregation, the truth of the matter is that it truly is time for believers to GET READY, and not just for hearing men and women’s sermons, or for taking part in an emotive frenzy. Instead, it is time for people to GET READY for the imminent Former and Latter Rains’ outpouring. Put differently, it is time for people to prepare themselves for the completion of the current shift—“the cusp,” which is the transitional process by which the world totally enters into a new Astronomical Age (a.k.a., a new Zodiac Age or a new Great Month).

Yes, this Earth has a longer cycle than the well understood monthly and yearly cycles of 12 months with about 30 days in each month for a fairly accurate total of 365 days. Without doubt, the Earth has a Great Year cycle of 12 Astronomical Ages (12 Great Months) with about 2,000 to 2,166 years in each Age for an approximate total of 26,400 years. This longer cycle, thus, results from the gravitational pull of the Sun and the Moon on the Earth, which causes the Earth’s axis to wobble slowly in a clockwise circle, similar to the motion of a spinning top.

On account of the Earth’s axis not being fixed in space, this axis gradually precesses (rotates like a spinning top) for a period of roughly 24,000 to 26,4000 years. Once again, this period is known as a Great Year. This Great Year is the time it takes the Earth’s rotational axis to complete one clockwise circle or one Great Year cycle of departing from its original starting point and returning back to that point, then repeating the circle/cycle, starting on the successive time(s) from a point a little west of where the ecliptic plane—the plane of the Earth’s orbit around the Sun—intersected the celestial equator the previous Great Year.

In other words, the wobbling of the Earth’s axis causes the precessional cycle (a.k.a., the precession of the equinoxes), which is the slow-backward movement of the Sun’s apparent position in the zodiacal constellations. When observed on the same day of each year, which is the first day of Spring or the Vernal Equinox, to the observers it seems as if the Sun’s apparent position in the zodiacal constellations has moved slightly to the west of the previous year’s position. The Sun seems to move because the Earth is rotating around the Sun. That is to say, while it is evident by the sunspots that the Sun does rotate, it only spins on its own axis, making a full revolution once every 27 days at the Earth’s equator, but revolving at the poles only once in 31 days. As a result, the Sun moves at a much slower pace than the Earth, as it takes 24 hours for the Earth to make a full rotation, but, since the Sun isn’t a solid object like a planet, its rotation is much harder to pinpoint.

Earth’s Axial Precession

For the above reasons, the Sun’s apparent position seems to move slightly to the west of its previous point until, after the Sun travels through the 12 Great Months of one Great Year, the Earth’s wobbly axial precession causes this Vernal-Equinoctial Sun to complete its Great Year cycle.  Once more, the length of time that the Vernal Equinoctial point remains in one particular Zodiac constellation is an Astronomical Age (a Zodiac’s Age or a Great Month), which takes the name of the zodiacal constellation the Vernal-Equinoctial Sun, or the Spring Equinoctial point, is passing through.

As already established, an Astronomical Age (a Zodiac’s Age, or Great Month) lasts approximately 2,000 years plus a transitional period of an additional 100 to 200 years (roughly 1/12th of 26,400 years; 1/12th of a Great Year). In other words, each Astronomical Age (Zodiac’s Age, or Great Month) is the time it takes the Vernal Equinox to retrograde (to move backward; clockwise) through the 30° of any one of the 12 Zodiac’s constellations. It is important to note here that the variations in the Great Month and Great Year’s cycle times are because the zodiacal constellations are unequal in length, and because there are no clear dividing lines (agreed upon distance) between one Zodiac constellation and the next!

Currently, the Vernal-Equinoctial Sun, which is the same Sun that travels through the zodiacal constellations along the ecliptic, is on “the cusp” between the Age of PISCES and the Age of AQUARIUS. “The cusp” also means the Vernal Equinox, 1 of 4 major points on the ecliptic that either intersects the celestial equator or the celestial sphere, is in the process of moving into the Age of AQUARIUS. From the Earth’s perspective, only after the Vernal-Equinoctial Sun rises at the point where the Vernal Equinox precesses—shifts backward from the previous Astronomical Age (the PISCEAN Age) into the next (the AQUARIAN Age)—can the new AQUARIAN Age officially begin.

Earth’s Daily Rotation About Red Axis And Earth’s Axial Precession

For now, when the Earth is viewed from above the North Pole, the observers see the world spinning on its axis from West-to-East (counterclockwise), once every 24 hours. Because of the Earth’s West-to-East rotation, the Sun appears to rise in the East and set in the West, as do the stars on the ecliptic plane. In contrast, the retrograde motion of the Earth’s slow spinning top axial precession is seen moving from East-to-West (clockwise), as the Earth annually orbits around the Sun.

While the Earth slowly wobbles (gradually shifts its orientation in space), as it annually revolves around the Sun, the Earth’s axis traces out an imaginary conical surface in space and an imaginary big circle on the celestial sphere (an imaginary sphere of arbitrarily large radius, concentric with the Earth and rotating upon the same axis; the imaginary background for ALL celestial objects—every planet, Sun, Moon, and fixed stars). Also changing positions, as they move clockwise around the ecliptic, are those 4 major points (vernal and autumnal equinoxes and summer and winter solstices).

The ecliptic and celestial equator intersect at two of these points: the Vernal (Spring) Equinox and Autumnal (Fall) Equinox. In the Northern Hemisphere, the Vernal Equinox is when the Sun, traveling northward, crosses the celestial equator, the imaginary line among the stars, which lies directly below the Earth’s Equator. The Autumnal Equinox is when the Sun, traveling southward, crosses the celestial equator, the imaginary line among the stars, which lies directly above the Earth’s Equator. Concerning the solstices, the celestial sphere and eclipticintersect at these remaining two points: the Summer Solstice and Winter Solstice. For observers in the Northern Hemisphere, the highest northern point above the celestial equator is the Summer solstice (but Winter solstice for the Southern Hemisphere observer), and the lowest southern point below the celestial equator is the Winter solstice (but Summer solstice for the Southern Hemisphere observer). 

Celestial Sphere, Celestial Equator, Ecliptic (The Sun’s Path), And Earth

For the above-mentioned reasons, the Earth’s annual orbit around the Sun defines the ecliptic plane, and the 12 constellations, which lie on the ecliptic plane, define the Zodiac, a concentric belt or band of fixed stars and signs 16° wide, extending 8° above and 8° below the ecliptic. That is to say, from the Earth’s perspective, the ecliptic, the imaginary line or big circle around the celestial sphere, is also the apparent yearly 360° path the Sun travels, as it passes through each of the 12 zodiacal constellations. Thus, the ecliptic coordinate system (the zodiacal constellations’ celestial latitude and the zodiacal signs’ celestial longitude) is responsible for mapping out the latitudinal positions of the 12 constellations’ unequal zones of the Zodiac and the longitudinal positions of the signs’ twelve equal zones of the Zodiac. Put differently, the Zodiac is the master calendar or the face of a clock for every Great Year.

It is important to note here that there is a significant difference between the Zodiac of constellations (a.k.a., Sidereal Zodiac) and the Zodiac of signs (a.k.a., Tropical Zodiac), even though the constellations and signs have the same names (i.e., ARIES, PISCES, AQUARIUS, and so forth). The Zodiac of constellations (or star groups of UNEQUAL lengths) is the backdrop the signs or seasons move through along the ecliptic. Constellations are the actual places of the physical stars, and they are divided into 12 sectors. However, the Zodiac of signs is an abstraction from the physical constellations. The signs describe the seasons or months of the year and are measured from the Solstitial and Equinoctial points. The signs also are divided into 12 sectors, each designed to represent the 12 unequal in length constellations, in 12 equal 30º sections on the ecliptic.

In other words, projected onto the Earth’s sky are two circles 16º apart, equidistant from the ecliptic. These circles form the Zodiac’s borders; the outer circle is the background of the stars, which contains the 12 astronomical epochal constellations (fixed star groups of different lengths), and the inner circle is the divided astrological seasonal signs better known by their descriptions: Ram, Fish, Twins, etc. Currently, because the signs are anchored in the seasonal equinoctial and solstitial points (the 4 cardinal points, one in the:  Ram Sign [ARIES Stars], Crab Sign [CANCER Stars], Scales Sign [LIBRA Stars], and Goat-Fish Sign [Capricorn Stars]), the signs are slowly moving through all the constellations, precessing 1° approximately every 72 years, which causes the zodiacal constellations and zodiacal signs to drift, in opposite directions, out of alignment with each other.

Zodiacal Constellations (Outer Circle) Zodiacal Signs (Inner Circle)

Therefore, the Earth’s wobbly axial precession (precession of the equinoxes) means more than the fact that there are zodiacal constellations in the Earth’s Northern and Southern Skies. As the equinoxes precess, spiritually observant Christians also should recognize the way this precession  relates to the Great Ages of Man. For sure, the Astronomical Ages of PISCES and AQUARIUS mark different periods where significant evolutionary changes occur.

For this reason, when the Sun finishes transitioning into the Age of AQUARIUS, then, as it is with every epochal shift (with every move from one Great Month to another Great Month), there are going to be highlighted points of tension that mark this transition. For example, as the Sun continues to move from the Great Month or the AGE of PISCES (the CHURCH AGE) to the rising Great Month or the AGE of AQUARIUS, this epochal shift will usher in the sorrows to beat all sorrows—the three and a half years of the Tribulation, and the three and a half years of the Great Tribulation, with the latter ending with the Battle of Armageddon. 

Great Month, Zodiac Age, Or Astronomical Age

Furthermore, even though there is no physical line in the heavens that can show observers exactly when the Sun has drifted across the PISCEAN border into the new constellation of AQUARIUS, a good estimate for when the Age of AQUARIUSbegins still can be calculated. The new age actually could begin on March 19, 2012; however, this estimate only works if the beginning of the Age of PISCES is accepted as circa 150 B.C.E., some 145 years before the birth of Jesus the Christ. Now, it must be noted here that not every astrologer, astronomer, historian, Bible scholar, and so forth, agrees with the 2012 year for the beginning of the new Great Month of the Age of AQUARIUS, and not every astrologer, astronomer, historian, Bible scholar, et cetera, agrees with Jesus the Christ’s date of birth.    

Be that as it may, there can be no coincidence that the Age of PISCES (a.k.a., Age of Faith or CHURCH Age) represents charity, mercy, sacrifice, compassion, and pardon, which are the virtues taught and lived by Jesus the Christ. Luck also had nothing to do with the reasons why the early CHURCH believers chose the fish symbol as their way of identifying believing CHRISTIANS. Their fish-sign choice seems to be based on both the Age of PISCES’ two large swimming fish star formations and the popular belief that the Earth is rotating in the PISCES constellation. There also is no coincidence that the powerful and meaningful fish symbol still emphasizes the same Faith, Beliefs, Moral Values, Spiritual Wisdom, and Spiritual Knowledge for 21st-century Christians, as it did for 1st-century Christians. Perhaps the fish sign’s longevity is why the AGE of PISCES is recognized as the Age that birthed Christianity, with its focus on awareness of humility and love.

Star Map Of The Age Of PISCES Showing Vernal Equinoctial Point

Furthermore, there can be no doubt that Jesus the Christ’s knowledge of the sign of the fish’s meaning is the reason why He refers to His disciples as fishers of men. Indeed, biblical Scriptures speak at length of fishermen, of catching 153 fish, an amount that should have broken the nets, of feeding the multitudes with fish, of helping the downtrodden and outcasts of society, of wine, of turning water into wine, of walking on water, and of the washing of feet. That’s why the other enduring symbol of the Age of PISCES is water.

For sure, water played a prominent role in Jesus the Christ’s teachings, so it cannot be a coincidence that PISCES is a water sign. Nor can it be a coincidence that the sign of the fish evolves into yet another enduring symbol—the sign of the cross. Without doubt, the sign of the cross is just a simplification of the sign of the fish in the PISCES constellation. In the sky, the scattered stars in the PISCES constellation trace the images of two large widely separated fish that are joined together by a knotted cord. One fish is swimming eastward across the ecliptic toward the ARIES constellation, and the other fish is swimming westward across the ecliptic toward the AQUARIUS constellation. Their movement, thus, resembles the upright and horizontal lines of a cross.

Now, the Cross of Christ certainly is an indisputable symbol that represents the true PISCEAN characteristics of the highest sense of sacrifice, worship, and profound devotion—characteristics demonstrated the most in the life of Jesus the Christ. Moreover, it is an indisputable fact that all of the these mentioned symbols and characteristics are traditional AGE of PISCES symbols and characteristics, which is why they also are some of the main reasons for considering the Age of PISCES to be the Age of Jesus the Christ, as well as the Age in which He was born.

Just like there can be no coincidence that the birth of Jesus the Christ, the sign of the fish, the sign of the Cross, Christ-like characteristics, and so forth, are connected with the Age of PISCES, there also can be no coincidence that the Sun, because of the Earth’s wobbly axial precession, travels backward among the zodiacal constellations. Clearly, before the Age of AQUARIUS can begin, with its core values of love, unity, quality, freedom, brotherhood, integrity, and enlightenment, 21st-century individuals will have to get BACK TO the PISCEAN qualities that over time have changed to the present-day dominant core values of money, power, and control.

As already mentioned, the Sun is moving backward, leaving the Age of PISCES and entering the Age of AQUARIUS (a.k.a., Age of Reason). For sure, the beginning of the Age of AQUARIUS will be an Age in which humans finally realize that the love they show toward their “brothers” and “sisters” is the love they also feel for their Creator and for themselves. Sadly, though, the AGE of AQUARIUS also is that prophesied time when revolutionary events upset established structures, and when people will emphasize the rational scientific mind. As a result, the AGE of AQUARIUSwill be a time of increased involvement with science and technology, computers, Unidentified Flying Objects (Aliens and Spaceships), alternative medicine, astrology, vegetarianism, the media, the pursuit of societal freedoms, and the pursuit of originality of thought and expression. In this New Age, people also will lean more and more toward peaceful aspects, and more and more toward non-religious types of spiritual awakenings; ultimately, this New Age’s powers-that-be will call attention to each individual’s ability to achieve his or her own peace and spiritual awareness, without needing any intercession from holy and righteous authorities! 

More important, the Age of AQUARIUS continues the water symbolism of the Age of PISCES, for the primary symbol of AQUARIUS is the Water Bearer/Pourer who is pouring the water out of His vase upon the Earth—water that washes away the past, which in turn leaves room for a fresh, new start; life-giving water that brings relief, restoration, revival, and recovery. In Christendom, the kind of water that washes away the past and regenerates, revives, restores, and refreshes, etcetera, is the Holy Spirit’s Living Water. Thus, unlike the literal water of the Noahic Flood, in which unbelievers perished but believers escaped physical death (were saved) via the Ark, the Age of AQUARIUS will be the prophesied time of the double-portion outpouring—the figurative Former and Latter Rains, combined—that will Flood this Earth with the knowledge of the Lord.

This water is poured into people until the water fills them, saturates them, floods them with an abundance of new life, power, might, peace, love, spiritual gifts, blessings, and so forth. In other words, this spiritual water of the AQUARIAN flood is what saves believers from the coming Tribulation Period, but the people who are not full of this water will not be provided a way to escape the coming Tribulation Period. That is to say, for the believers baptized in the Holy Spirit, flooded with His Former and Latter Rains’ double-portion of water, full of the AQUARIAN Flood, their escape corresponds with the Rapture (the AQUARIAN Ark), which saves ONLY genuinely prepared and watchful believers from the end-time wrath of God.

For sure, Jesus the Christ is the Age of AQUARIUS’ Water Bearer/Pourer who not only promisesthe initial Holy Spirit outpouring to His original disciples (cf. Acts 1:4-5 and 8a), but also He indicates in the second half of Acts 1:8, and by virtue of the reiterated Great Commission that He gives His disciples, that the trickle of raindrops, in terms of the number of born again and saved people in His day who experienced the infilling of the Holy Spirit, eventually will become a flood. In other words, Jesus the Christ prophesies that there will be overflowing streams from human Living-Water pitchers that will flow in an unprecedented abundance, saturating the world with the Glory of God and the knowledge of the Lord. Other Scriptures that support this Divine Truth are:

They shall not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain, for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. ~ Isaiah 11:9, AMP

But [the time is coming when] the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord as the waters cover the sea. ~ Habakkuk 2:14, AMP

Spiritually speaking, this flood, which results from the Former and Later Rains’combined outpouring of the Holy Spirit, begins to happen near the end of the CHURCH AGE. Because this second outpouring of the Holy Spirit is a double-portion rain, the Latter and the Former Rains, will be greater than the Day of Pentecost’s Former Rain, because the second outpouring of the Holy Spirit’s baptism will overflow until it falls on countless believers—until the Holy Spirit baptizes (immerses) the masses of people who before this point in time have not been infilled by Him. 

This second outpouring also will be greater than that of the water-pot-carrying priests’ outpouring, because, unlike the Pool of Siloam’s water, which cannot transform anyone, when humans have put their Faith in Jesus and are drinking from “the water of life” that He gives them, out of them will flow “Living Water” (anointings, giftings, power, blessings and authority, and so forth) that make them a life-giving fountain. They then will be able to teach, preach and/or put into practice the Gospel, the Logos Word and Rhema Word, that will bring new “life,” a new start, “rest,” and a time of “refreshing” to the world’s spiritually dead sinners and spiritually thirsty believers.

Not only does Jesus the Christ speak about the Old Testaments’ “rock” from which Moses got water for the wilderness Israelites but also He talks about the Holy Spirit’s double-portion Former and Latter Rains’ Living Water, and He does so at the beginning of His ministry, at the time of His last earthly Feast of Tabernacles, just prior to His last Feast of Passover, and just before He ascends up to Heaven. Concerning the Lord’s last Feast of Passover, the Scriptures teach what Peter and John do in preparation  for this Feast. Having a desire to please their Lord, they ask Jesus the Christ where He would like to celebrate the Passover. The Son of God says to them: 

…Behold, when ye are entered into the city, there shall a man meet you, bearing a pitcher of water; follow him into the house where he entereth in. And ye shall say unto the goodman of the house, The Master saith unto thee, Where is the guestchamber, where I shall eat the passover with my disciples? And he shall shew you a large upper room furnished: there make ready. (Luke 22:10-12, KJV; cf. Mark 14:13-14)

What’s important to note about this Passover Feast incident is that just as it is no coincidence that Jesus the Christ spoke of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the last day of His last Feast of Tabernacles, when the priests are pouring out water from large golden pitchers onto the altar and marching around the altar seven times, praying continuously for the Former Rains to fall abundantly upon the Promised Land, it also is no coincidence that He refers to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit during His last Passover Feast celebration, when He tells His disciples to find a mysterious man “…bearing a pitcher of water….” Now, it should be obvious that Jesus the Christ is contrasting the goings-on at His last Feast of Tabernacles event with the goings-on of His last Passover event.

For one thing, the priests carried pitchers made of pure gold, but the unidentified man carried an earthen pitcher. The priests’ pitchers were sacred Temple items meant for liquid offerings, but the nameless man’s earthen pitcher was an ordinary household item meant for everyday use. Moreover, drawing water from the well of Salvation is an invitation that the Messiah could give out, but not anyone else, not even Temple priests. And another thing, traditionally speaking, in ancient Israel, even though men did carry waterskins for their own drinking, they did not carry water in the pitchers that were meant to be used for household needs, which is why men drawing and carrying water for domestic use is found only in the Mark and Luke passages.

Then too, just like carrying water pitchers was women’s work, and not the work of men, then releasing the Living Water that the spiritually thirsty world would need is the work of the Savior of the world, and not the work of Temple priests, nor the work of male servants! For this last reason, the upshot of Peter and John knowing that the “…man…bearing a pitcher of water…” is that just like these disciples would know for certain that this unidentified man is the man the Lord sent them to find, spiritually discerning men and women living in the last days also would know that the AQUARIUS sign (waterman) is THE sign in the Heavens that unmistakably points to Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit, and the double outpouring of the Living Water of Life.

This truth is why it also is no coincidence that the same Upper Room where the Lord washes the feet of His disciples turns out to be the same place where two major events in the early Christian CHURCH happen: The Last Supper AND the coming of the Holy Spirit. In this higher place of consciousness (Upper Room), on the Day of Pentecost, some seven weeks after the Lord’s Last Supper, the Holy Spirit is poured out on 120 disciples!

Therefore, it definitely is conceivable that Jesus the Christ, in whom all things exists, would compare Himself to Luke’s mysterious man who carries a pitcher of water into the house with the large Upper Room. There can be no doubt that the Lord is supposed to eat His “Last Supper” in this higher place of consciousness and then leave from there to go pour out His blood and water. That’s why the Living Water, or the Water of Eternal Life, that the Lord pours out of Himself onto a world that is thirsting after everlasting life, clearly represents both the Holy Spirit’s Positional Sanctification (Justification) and Practical Sanctification, which first flow out from the Lord’s pierced side, in the form of the two component parts of His blood—water and blood.

Having said that, it also is important to note here that, based on the known Jewish tradition of washing faces, hands, and feet before eating, it is logical to infer that either the guest chamber’s owner or his servant pours literal water out of a pitcher for the physically tired, thirsty, and hungry men of God so that they could at least wash their faces and hands before eating. Furthermore, John writes about the Lord washing His disciples’ feet before they eat, which is why, based on this washing faces, hands, and feet Jewish custom, it also is reasonable to infer that the AQUARIAN Water Bearer/Pourer’s pouring out of water from the sky’s UPPER ROOM (from the God owned heavenly vault) onto a spiritually weary and dry Earth not only symbolizes the owner or his servant’s UPPER ROOM pouring out of water for the Lord’s physically tired, thirsty, and hungry disciples, but also points to the knowledge of Jesus the Christ that is destined to flood this world. For sure, both of these outpouring images also point to the Former and Latter Rains’ double-portion outpouring as being the abundance of God’s Glory that will fill the Earth near the end of the AGE (the end of the world, as humans know it). 

Moreover, the ancient AQUARIAN symbol not only represents a heavenly concealed Divine Truth that finally is revealed just before the Lord’s “Last Supper” takes place in the AGE of PISCES but also the ancient AQUARIAN symbol epitomizes the predicted time when the Lord’s servants will complete their evangelistic work—the time when human microcosmic work of zealously preaching and propagating the world with the Gospel of Christ completely becomes one with God’s Divine macrocosmic plans of salvation. In other words, shortly after the AGE of AQUARIUS officially begins, the Lord’s faithful servants (Body of Christ) will see the fulfillment of their part in the Great Commission. This service fulfillment will be achieved exponentially, because it will be aided by the supernatural power of the final Holy Spirit outpouring, the metaphoric double–portion of rain (the Latter and Former Rains), which, according to biblical prophesies, happens during the nation of Israel’s first month (cf. Joel 2:23, 28-29; Deuteronomy 11:14; James 5:7).

Now, although the Gospel of the Grace of God will end with the Rapture, the evangelistic work of the 144,000 still must be fulfilled. Yes, the Rapture will coincide with the moment when every Jewish and Gentile person who is supposed to be a Body of Christ member is achieved. Put differently, the Rapture will happen right when the Bride of Christ is completed. The Word of God, however, makes it clear that, after the Rapture, the sealed 144,000 will resume the Gospel of the Kingdom, which is the same teaching and preaching that Jesus the Christ taught and preached. These left behind Jewish evangelists, thus, also will complete their service exponentially, but they will be aided by the supernatural power of the Jewish two witnesses and angelic forces (cf. Revelation 7:3-4; 11:3-6; 12:6-7; and 14:6-7). 

The bottom line, therefore, is Jesus the Christ’s reference to the Age of AQUARIUS, which is evident in the Scriptural depiction of the “man” carrying a water pot full of water, shows that He knows that there is coming a time when there will be a shift from the PISCEAN Age (the Fish-CHURCH Age) to the AQUARIAN Age (the Outpouring-Kingdom Age). In other words, the Lord is letting modern-day believers know that He knows the Age of AQUARIUS clearly represents mankind’s shift from focusing on moral reflectivity, supernatural beliefs, and lending service to all humanity (PISCEAN concerns), to focusing on groups, clubs, societies, brotherhoods, and friendships (AQUARIAN concerns). The Son of God also knows that the constellation called AQUARIUS is going to “govern” (control) lives, and, as a result, people will shift their focus from the altruistic lifestyle based on genuine love—that of putting the needs of others above one’s own needs—to a universal egocentrism based on a selfish push for New Age spirituality—the united, global agreement to combine ALL human efforts so as to bring about an improvement in the current societies that the Age of AQUARIUS men and women absolutely believe will foster true world peace.

The Lord also foreknew that the AGE of AQUARIUS’ weak Christians would be seeking peace, happiness, and a longer more fulfilling life, by any means necessary. For this reason, He reveals His knowledge of the Age of AQUARIUS during the time of His last Passover Feast because He wants today’s believers to understand that His end of the Age and last-days predictions are more trustworthy than the ancient Chaldeans, or the highly cited 2012 predictions of Sir Isaac Newton, Nostradamus, and the Mayan civilizations.

Furthermore, since so many ancient societies from the time of Creation have relied upon the stars’ arrangements for predicting the future, it should be evident that, contrary to popular opinions, God did place in the His sky the star formations that point to Jesus the Christ and the Holy Spirit’s roles in God’s Divine Plan of Salvation. In other words, the reason why God’s Son describes a cultural anomaly—the “man” who is carrying a pitcher of water into a Jewish house—is because this anomaly is meant to reveal God’s signet, which not only is His stamp of approval that authenticates His Son as the ONLY Savior of the world but also that stamp of approval that confirms this authentication is in His written Word and in His Gospel in the Stars. For sure, King David very vividly describes the knowledge of the Glory of God—the truth about His Gospel being in the Stars. David writes:

God’s glory is on tour in the skies, God-craft on exhibit across the horizon. Madame Day holds classes every morning,  Professor Night lectures each evening. Their words aren’t heard, their voices aren’t recorded, But their silence fills the earth: unspoken truth is spoken everywhere. ~ Psalm 19:1-4, MSG (cf. Isaiah 11:9b; Habakkuk 2:14; 2 Corinthians 4:6)

David’s words confirm what countless Christian astronomers, astrologers, and Bible scholars agree to be true about the Age of AQUARIUS, which is that the Vernal-Equinoctial Sun rising in the Age of AQUARIUS symbolizes the glorious Gospel (cf. Genesis 1:3; 2 Corinthians 4:4, 6; and Hebrews 1:3).  These countless Christian astronomers, astrologers, and Bible scholars also agree that the sign of AQUARIUS, the waterman carrying a pitcher or pouring water out of a pitcher (the image depends on which star maps people are viewing), obviously symbolizes Jesus the Christ who showers down blessings through streams of Living Water—through the ministry of the Holy Spirit.

Then too, these said scholars agree that inside the House (Sign) of AQUARIUS (the 11th of the 12 zodiacal signs divided into 30° sectors of the ecliptic) are three decans (each House’s subdivision of 10° arcs that are referred to as the first, second, and third decanates or decans). All three of these AQUARIAN decans point to Jesus the Christ’s swift return and to His disciples’ fulfillment of His Great Commission.

Decan 1: The Piscis Australis (The Blessing Bestowed) decan is a brilliant star of the first magnitude that resembles a fish called the Southern Fish, which is inseparable from the constellation AQUARIUS. This Southern Fish is at the Water Bearer/Pourer’s feet, where, on ancient star maps, this fish is merely swimming in the waters, but on more modern star maps, the fish is swallowing up the water poured from this waterman’s vase. This water that the Southern Fish is drinking from is symbolic of the showers of heavenly blessings that the redeemed receive, and symbolic of their Redeemer’s swiftly flowing evangelistic water, which means this Southern Fish also represents the Lord’s followers who not only are rapidly spreading the Good News but also eagerly blessing others with the blessings they have received (cf. Matthew 13:47-48; Mark 1:17; John 21:3-11; 2 Corinthians 9:8-12). Moreover, this Southern Fish is not the southern fish of the PISCEAN constellation that is heading toward the Sign of AQUARIUS, because the AQUARIAN Southern Fish’s constellation lies much further to the South. Lastly, in the Latin language Piscis Australis = southern fish.

Decan 2: The Pegasus (The Blessings Quickly Coming) or winged White Horse decan is a star formation that symbolizes Jesus the Christ as the Good News carrier, and represents the White Horse the Lord is riding at His Second Coming (cf. Revelation 19:11, 19, 21). This constellation is unique in that the names of the dominate stars in  formation explain what the sign means. Three of Pegasus’  brightest stars, plus the Alpheratz star from Andromeda form the Great Square of Pegasus (a recognizable asterism):  1. Markab, the brightest star is white, is located on the horse’s neck, at the junction of the Winged Horse’s wing; its name means: Returning From Afar; 2. Scheat, a deep yellow-orange star, is located on the thigh or leg of the Winged Horse; its name means: Who Goes and Returns; 3. Algenib, a blue-white star, marks the tip of the Winged Horse’s wing; its name means: Who Carries; and 4. Alpheratz and Andromeda, the  brightest star of PISCES’ Andromeda is a white and purplish double star on the Pegasus’s navel and on the Chained Woman Andromeda’s head; its name means: The Broken Down.

There are three additional important stars in this Decan. These stars and their meanings are: Enif, a yellow and blue triple star, located in the Winged Horse’s nose; its name means: The Branch or The Water; Matar, a star, located in the winged Horse’s right knee; its name means: Who Causes to Overflow with Joy; and Homan, a light yellow star, located on the neck of the Winged Horse; its name means: the Waters. Lastly, in the Greek language, pegasus = spring forth or gush forth.

As already mentioned, these Decans point to the swift return of the Lord, and point to His disciples’ fulfillment of the Great Commission. Indeed, Jesus the Christ predicts that His Second Coming will be rapid and in an unexpected manner, like the lightning. He says: “For as the lightning cometh out of the east, and shineth even unto the west; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be” (Matthew 24:27, KJV). According to E. W. Bullinger in The Witness of the Stars, the Lord’s prediction is the lesson that the meaning of Pegasus’ stars teach, which is: “He who procured these blessings for the redeemed by His Atonement, is quickly coming to bring them; and is soon returning to pour them forth upon a groaning creation.”

Decan 3: The Cygnus (The Blesser Surely Returning) is a Swan that symbolizes the angelic Good News carrier  that is flying all over the Earth. This Swan is opposite Crux, the Southern Cross constellation, so this Swan also is called the Northern Cross, because as this Swan flies through mid-Heaven, with its head and legs extended, and with its stretched out wings, it makes the sign of the cross (cf. John 12:32; Romans 1:16; 1 Corinthians 1:18; 1 Corinthians 2:2; Revelation 14:6-7). 

It is clear that Cygnus repeats the theme of Pegasus, which is that of the Lord’s swift return. Moreover, the Divine Truth about the Lord’s Second Coming is that it is similar to the Swan’s activities, in that the Swan is a bird of the air and a bird of both the Earth and the waters. Many Scriptures declare that the Lord is coming back in the air, but He will not remain up there. His feet eventually will touch Earth, on the Mount of  Olives, and spilt the mount in two (cf. Zechariah 14:4; Matthew 24:30).

Also like Pegasus, Cygnus’ brightest stars convey a clear lesson that is to be learned about how this constellation relates to the AQUARIAN sign and to the Redeemer. E. W. Bullinger says:

 By His atoning death…He has purchased and procured unspeakable blessings for His redeemed. This sign (AQUARIUS) tells of those blessings being poured forth, and of the speedy return of Him who is to bring ‘rivers of blessing,’ and to fill this earth with blessing and glory ‘as the waters cover the sea.’ ~ from The Second Book: The Redeemed “The result of the Redeemer’s sufferings”

Cygnus also has notable stars, and they are: Deneb Adige, a brilliant supergiant (very large and bright) white star in the tail of the Swan; its name means: The Judge. This judge flies swiftly through the air, clearly symbolizing Jesus the Christ, the Judge who will descend from Heaven to judge the world (cf. Isaiah 40:10; Revelation 20:11-13; Revelation; 22:12); Albireo or Al Biero, a double star of topaz yellow and sapphire blue, is situated in the beak of the Swan; its name means: Flying Quickly; Sadr, a star in the Swan’s breast; its name means: Who Returns As In A Circle; Azel and Fafage, two stars in the Swan’s tail; their names mean, respectively:  Who Goes and Returns Quick and Gloriously Shining Forth. Azel and Fafage also are called Azelfafage, a star in the Swan’s tail, in some sources. Lastly, in the Latin language cygnus = the swan.

The Age Of AQUARIUS

Without a doubt, of all of the twelve zodiacal constellations and signs, AQUARIUS is the one that best represents mankind, as a whole, and the sign’s message is very clear. AQUARIUS’ Water Bearer or Water Pourer is Jesus the Christ, the Man-God who humbled Himself so that He could sacrifice His life. He paid Salvation’s price, and by doing so He became the ANTITYPE—the manifested perfect image—of the sky’s Water Bearer/Pourer. There can be no doubt that Jesus the Christ is the One who literally pours out the water that makes Zion’s “…wilderness like Eden, and her desert like the garden of the LORD…” (Isaiah 51:3, KJV), and He is the One who supernaturally and abundantly pours out the Holy Spirit so that God’s Spirit becomes a powerful and mighty blessing, rest, refreshing, and comfort to the Lord’s redeemed ones—His purchased and secured believers. Unquestionably, the astronomical constellations and the astrological signs both declare the Glory of the Lord who is the One who floods this world with God’s Peace, God’s Glory, and God’s Blessings, just like “…the waters cover the sea…” (cf. Isaiah 11:9; Habakkuk 2:14).

For these reasons, the mysterious man“…bearing a pitcher of water…” (Luke 22:10b) not only is a manifestation of the AQUARIANsign’s Water Bearer/Pourer but also both the unidentified man and the AQUARIAN Sign are the SIGN of the Son of Mankind, who supernaturally appears in the heaven (sky). That’s why it is no coincidence that AQUARIUS is an air sign, and no coincidence that astronomers and astrologers ascribe the development of air and space travel to the dawning of Age of AQUARIUS.

Furthermore, Christians today are better able to understand that the Lord’s Rapture promise only could happen during the Age of AQUARIUS, for this is the time when humanity could see its daughters and sons of men traveling in the air with the clouds of Heaven, with power, and with great glory. This Rapture fact is a reason why, as the Lord’s crucifixion draws near, Jesus the Christ begins to teach His disciples that, when the Second Coming of Christ is about to happen, there:

…shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory (Matthew 24:30, KJV). 

In the Greek language, Jesus the Christ’s words, “…the sign of the Son of man in heaven…,” literally read as “the Sign of the Son of Mankind.” Thus, in Matthew 24:30, the Lord is letting the individuals know—letting the people who would become believers in the centuries after He goes back to Heaven know—that the Divine Truth in Matthew 24:30 and the preceding verse are no doubt why the sign of AQUARIUS is introduced during His Last Supper.

It is evident that in Matthew 24:29-30 Jesus the Christ is following the prophet’s tradition of speaking of events that will happen in language that makes it seem as though those events were just around the corner, and He does so to express the magnitude of and assurance that these events will happen, but only after the most horrific and darkest time this world will ever know—the Great Tribulation. Thus, in the aforementioned verses, the Lord is confirming that His Second Coming not only is going to happen but also that it is going to be an event to beat all events, one in which His Glory will NOT be hidden.

Now, it has long been understood that Jesus the Christ always takes the form of the “sign” rising at the Vernal Equinox. At His Second Coming, that “sign” is Aquarius (the Water Pourer), which personifies Jesus the Christ. His Second Coming, thus, is going to be unlike the “sign” of His First Coming—the astrological sign of Aries (the Ram), which is symbolic of Abraham’s Ram, the sacrificial ram caught in the bushes, or symbolic of the sacrificial lamb—both of which represent suffering and death. Moreover, the sacrificial ram or lamb is the scapegoat, which is why the “sign” of His First Coming was not admired, because this “sign” hid His true Glory.

The bottom line is this: Jesus the Christ introduces to the world the Sign of the Son of Mankind during His last Feast of Passover celebration because He wants to give Scripture readers another example of His ultramodern radicalness, another example in which He is rebelling against a cultural norm, in this case the “man…bearing a pitcher of water…” (Luke 22:10b). This example points to the Creation’s Truth about each New Age rebelling against the former Age’s beliefs, values, and sacred symbols.

Indeed, it does appear that as a New Age begins the old Age’s sacred symbols get overthrown (either changed or deleted). For example, the Brahman Sacred Cow of the Age of TAURUS is overthrown by the Golden Calf of the Age of ARIES, and this process continues until Jesus the Christ and Savior (in human form) overthrows the Jewish Sacrificial Lamb sacred symbol to become the sacred symbol of the Age of PISCES. In other words, the Lord is the ONLY sacred symbol that is an actual human, which is why the Sign of the Son of Man (the Waterman of the Age of AQUARIUS) is one of three human zodiacal “signs,” and the other two signs are the Virgin of the Age of VIRGO and the Twins of the Age of GEMINI. Thus the Lord, His earthly mother, and His dual natural, as represented by the Twins, are the only completely human primary signs of the 12 zodiacal constellations and 12 zodiacal signs.

As already stated, Jesus the Christ’s demonstrated characteristics of the highest sense of sacrifice, worship, and profound devotion represent the principal reason why the Age of PISCES is considered to be the Age of Jesus the Christ. That is why what is unique about the coming of the Age of AQUARIUS, especially where the sacred symbol of Jesus the Christ is concerned, is that since the Lord is coming back again, which the entire AQUARIAN sign confirms, then the Lord not only will remain a sacred “sign,” in spite of the fact that EVERY Age has its own distinctive influences and messages, but also He will be a “sign” that will be admired and mourned.

Therefore, the reason why “…all the tribes of the earth…” will mourn when they see the Lord coming in all His power and Glory is because most of these mourners represent the countless Age of AQUARIUS rebels who tried to force their AQUARIAN beliefs, values, and sacred symbol of like-minded consciousness—harmonious spiritual brotherhood—on the people who were hanging onto the past Age’s PISCEAN (Christian) beliefs, values, and sacred symbols (fish, cross, water, and Jesus the Christ). These mourners realize that their consensus consciousness anarchy actually was against the true Alpha and Omega—the authentic Redeemer who is the bona fide beginning and end of all of the Ages (from ARIES, or first sign of the Ages, to PISCES, the last sign of the Ages)!

If truth be told, present-day humanity, as a whole, began mourning the moment the Earth’s slow wobbling brought about the first change in the position of the Vernal Equinoctial point, moving it backward, from the zero point in the Sign of ARIES, through the Zodiac until the Sun’s morning rising position in the New Age or Great Month matched the Vernal Equinoctial point. This change in the position of the Vernal Equinoctial point is why, after 2,000 plus years of shifting clockwise, it appeared in the early degrees of the Age of PISCES. Because of this non-stop shifting, humanity will continue to mourn until the cuspal process is complete, until the Sun’s morning rising on the day that the Vernal Equinoctial point appears in the Age of AQUARIUS. For this reason, it is evident that Jesus the Christ’s “…the beginning of sorrows” predictions (Matthew 24:8) are those specifically highlighted points of tension that verify when the Vernal Equinox is in the cuspal position, which in this case means the process of shifting from the PISCEAN Age to the AQUARIAN Age. That’s why Jesus the Christ’s last days’ predictions of wars and rumors of wars are right on point.

Now, if the PISCEAN Age began around 150 BCE, as many astronomers, astrologers and Bible scholars believe, then some of the PISCEAN Age’s highlighted points of cuspal tension that mark the epochal shift, a sift which would have begun around 1850 CE, are the Crimean War, the American Civil War, World Wars I and II, the Jewish Holocaust in Nazi Germany, the Cold War, the Vietnam conflict, the Six-Day War, the Rwandan genocide, Sudanese genocide, and the present War on Terror. These examples of highlighted points of cuspal tension leave no doubt that an epochal shift from the AGE of PISCES (or the CHURCH AGE) to the AGE of AQUARIUS (or the End of the Age—the end of the world as people know it) is happening right now! 

Furthermore, as a result of this epochal shift, the PISCEAN AGE, which ushered in a belief in JESUS as Christians’ Spiritual TEACHER, is in the process of being overthrown or replaced with the AQUARIAN AGE’S belief in EVERY person’s INTERNAL TEACHER, who is other than the Holy Spirit. The New Age AQUARIAN believers’ teacher is SELF, and that is why Jesus the Christ uses the AQUARIAN symbol of a “man…bearing a pitcher of water…” (Luke 22:10b) to represent the servant of God, Christ Himself, who is pouring forth the Living Water of Life onto a dehydrated humanity—upon people who are yearning for spiritual enlightenment’s refreshing waters. The problem, however, is that these yearning people are looking in all the wrong places!

For this reason, the type and shadow of the heavenly AQUARIAN symbol, which is revealed in the “man…bearing a pitcher of water...” (Luke 22:10b), represent a quenching of the inner thirst that only can be accomplished through the Holy Spirit’s outpouring. This inner thirst relates to the human nature Jesus Christ addresses when He speaks to the woman at Jacob’s Well. She and all of mankind, including today’s believers and unbelievers, are really uncomfortable with the desert in their souls, yet they remain thirsty (cf. John 4:13-14), because they don’t know how to quench their thirst. That’s why Jesus the Christ starts with the woman at the well, and teaches a Divine Truth that is evident even today. This Divine Truth is that there always will be people, from His time period to the Tribulation Period, who will be searching for “something,” “anything” other than the Holy Spirit, to fill them up inside, but they never will find what they are looking for in either the spiritual or natural “things” they are seeking. 

This unquenchable thirst (yearning) is why Jesus the Christ predicts, via the AQUARIAN sign of the waterman, who is pouring out evangelistic waters on the Earth, that today’s believers never will thirst again, if they drink from the Living Water that He gives. For this reason, being flooded (filled) with the second outpouring or the combined Former and Latter Rains is the fulfillment of this AQUARIAN “sign.” The bottom line, then, is that the Baptism of the Holy Spirit is the ONLY way Christians will ever find everything they have been longing for, and, as a result, have their thirst forever quenched. 

Therefore, let there be no doubt about it, as the PISCEAN Age (CHURCH AGE) comes to an end and the AQUARIAN Age becomes more prevalent, the Holy Spirit, who is breathing on and in the present-day CHURCH, will be allowed to release the prophesied double-portion rain, the pouring out of a Latter Rain that will be the prophesied combined Latter and Former Rains. In other words, no matter what some people might think or fear about being controlled by the Holy Spirit, when Jesus the Christ, as symbolized by the man in the sky with the vase, gives the Holy Spirit the permission to pour out His double-portion rain all over this world, there will be many people, who are already Holy Spirit Baptized, crying out to the unsaved, unchurched, and carnal believers this Good News: “It sounds like the abundance of rain. The Water Bearer/Pourer, meaning Jesus the Christ, is starting to flood this Earth with knowledge about Himself. Now is the time to accept the Lord as personal Savior and/or surrender to Him by being baptized in God’s Holy Spirit, for the end of the CHURCH AGE is coming incredibly soon.”

Most definitely, the Son of God is returning for His Bride, so believers must ‘Get Ready, Get Ready, Get Ready’ right now so that they won’t miss the Rapture. Because no one can feel the actual shifting (slow axial wobbling that causes the backward precession) of the Vernal Equinox into the Age of AQUARIUS, which is taking place right now, this is the main reason why believers must not let the current influences and messages of New Age philosophy fool them.

There can be no doubt about it; the AQUARIAN sign in sky really is signifying that Jesus the Christ’s prophesied time of sorrows is about to increase in intensity and frequency, culminating in the Tribulation Period.  That’s why, the Lord is saying: “Come in My Bride and be saved; come inside the Ark (the Rapture), for this Ark ONLY holds ME and MY true CHURCH!” Put differently, the Lord is saying: “Get right CHURCH, and let’s go home.”

Sources:

D. James Kennedy, The Real Meaning of the Zodiac (Ft. Lauderdale: CRM, 1989)

The Holy Bible Thomas Nelson Publishers  (1971)

–Tons of online sites on astronomy, astrology, the zodiacal signs, and zodiacal constellations, but primarily:

Age of Aquarius by John Lewis

http://www.aquarian-age.net/Age-of-Aquarius.htm

AGE OF AQUARIUS ã 2000 by Lance Carlyle Carter

http://www.aquarian-age.net/Age-of-Aquarius.htm

Age of Pisces Traits or Values Must Go Before the Transition to Aquarius by Sandra Musser

http://www.2012-spiritual-growth-prophecies.com/age-of-pisces.html

Astrology: The Zodiac, Constellations, Signs & Wonders

http://www.inkamera.ukgo.com/zodiac/index.htm

Constellations of Words

http://www.constellationsofwords.com/

God’s Message in the Stars

http://www.prepare-ye-the-way.com/zodiac1.htm

God’s Word in the Stars Our Series: Part X- Aquarius

http://www.eternalthroneofdavid.com/morfessa/stars10.htm

NASA Earth Observatory: Milutin Milankovitch (1879-1958) Orbital Variations

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/Features/Milankovitch/milankovitch_2.php

Signs in the Stars? By Lambert Dolphin, Malcolm Bowden, Barry Setterfield and Helen Fryman

http://ldolphin.org/zodiac/

The Age of Aquarius Begins in 2012

http://www.december2012endofworld.com/age-of-aquarius-2012

The Mystery of the Ages Solved by George Flory

http://www.aquarian-age.net/flory.html

The Upper Room

http://www.askelm.com/news/n051012.htm

What Does the Bible Say About Stars?

http://www.horizonenergycorp.com/hpo/constellations/bible.htm

The Difference Between Signs and Constellations And Why Both are Important by Cayelin K Castell

http://shamanicastrology.com/articles/the-difference-between-signs-and-constellations

The Witness of the Stars by E. W. Bullinger

http://philologos.org/__eb-tws/default.htm

The Zodiac Testifies of Christ by John P. Pratt

http://www.johnpratt.com/items/docs/lds/meridian/2005/zodiac.html

Why isn’t Ophiuchus a zodiacal constellation?

http://www.astronomycafe.net/qadir/q1640.html

Wandering Stars The Movements and Visibility Cycles of the Naked Eye Planets by Martin J. Powell

http://www.nakedeyeplanets.com/movements.htm

ALL Gave Some, But Some Gave ALL: The 9/11 Ground Zero Cross Story

11 Sunday Sep 2011

Posted by in National Tragedy

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…It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us – that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion – that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain – that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom – and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. ~ President Abraham Lincoln, “The Gettysburg Address”

Love from the center of who you are; don’t fake it. Run for dear life from evil; hold on for dear life to good. Be good friends who love deeply; practice playing second fiddle. Don’t burn out; keep yourselves fueled and aflame. Be alert servants of the Master, cheerfully expectant. Don’t quit in hard times; pray all the harder. Help needy Christians; be inventive in hospitality. Bless your enemies; no cursing under your breath. Laugh with your happy friends when they’re happy; share tears when they’re down. Get along with each other; don’t be stuck-up. Make friends with nobodies; don’t be the great somebody. Don’t hit back; discover beauty in everyone. If you’ve got it in you, get along with everybody. Don’t insist on getting even; that’s not for you to do. ‘I’ll do the judging,’ says God. ‘I’ll take care of it.’ ~ Romans 12:9-19, MSG

 

Just like countless people have their own Damascus Road experience, there also are numerous individuals who have their own Ground Zero experience. Just as one Man gave His life so that many could live, there also are hundreds of firefighters, rescue workers, and police officers that gave their lives so that many other men, women and children might live. For this last reason, the Ground Zero Cross is in honor of those individuals who lost their lives trying to save the lives of others, in honor of those lost lives that could not be saved, and in honor of those individuals whose lives were maimed and injured on September 11, 2001.

It is just astonishing how the Ground Zero Cross miraculously appears on September 13, 2001, standing almost upright in the middle of the mysteriously demolished World Trade Center 6’s rubble. This controversial 17-feet tall steel crossbeam, which excavator/rescue worker Frank Silecchia believes fell there from one of the World Trade Center’s two towers, is now on display in The National September 11  Memorial and Museum. 

However, from the moment Mr. Silecchia spotted this Ground Zero Cross in the middle of the crater beneath WTC6’s rubble, until this present day, this intact crossbeam has been more than pieces of steel coincidentally shaped into an identifiable Christian icon. Ironically, like Jesus the Christ’s Calvary Cross is THE most recognizable SYMBOL in this world of God’s Love, Hope, Faith, Mercy, Grace, Freedom, Salvation, Forgiveness, Healing, New Life, and Peace, which ONLY can be obtained through His Son’s suffering and death on the Cross; this Ground Zero Cross also is a symbol of joyous hope, enduring faith, phenomenal healing, and inalienable freedom.

To be sure, this Ground Zero Cross is a truly familiar symbol that continues to let people know that God indeed was in the middle of this tragedy. This Ground Zero Cross, thus, unambiguously assures the spared first responders, the attack survivors, and the suffering and traumatized families of the 9/11 dearly departed loved ones and the 9/11 cherished alive relatives that what some individuals meant for pure evil through God nothing but good will come from this tragedy, because in ALL things God truly works together with those who love Him to bring about what is good, which to Him is the saving of many lives (cf. Genesis 50:20 and Romans 8:28)!

For this last reason, this blogger prayerfully hopes that the tenth-year anniversary of September 11, 2001 will witness a grand opening dedication ceremony at The National September 11 Memorial and Museum, which is built at Ground Zero—the site of the World Trade Center. This blogger eagerly wants this opening dedication ceremony to cause the world not only to note but also long remember the volumes that the silence on this day speaks, as well as wants the world NEVER to forget the acts of perfect heroism and altruistic sacrifices, which happened on this site, on that most horrific day (September 11, 2001). Why? The main reason is: The National September 11 Memorial and Museum, which is the new name for Ground Zero, definitely is consecrated ground where all gave some, AND some gave ALL!

Lastly, as Americans rejoice with those who rejoice over the completion of this 9/11 Memorial and Museum, and mourn with those who mourn over the nearly three thousand lives, which finally have been put to rest here at the site of the World Trade Center, there can be no doubt what the desires would be of these dead who are dedicated and memorialized, on this tenth-anniversary day (September 11th). For sure, these honored dead would want the living Americans to engage not only in a solemn remembrance but also in a genuine reflection of the terrorist attacks, to the extent that Americans continuously have renewed resilience and faith, and constantly have renewed commitment and hope for life, freedom, peace, and the pursuit of joy.

The Seal of the Holy Spirit IS Speaking in Tongues

06 Tuesday Sep 2011

Posted by in Bible Study

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Because there are so many Christians who trust in their churches’ religious traditions, so many Christians who fear not being in control of what they say or do, and so many Christians who display various other prejudices against the supernatural workings of the Holy Spirit, consequently, there also are countless believers who will disagree with the following statement: God intends for EVERY believer to be “sealed” with the Holy Spirit, which means He wants every believer to experience the Baptism of the Holy Spirit (experience being Holy Spirit filled with the evidence of speaking in tongues)! Regrettably, the majority of today’s believers who do not speak in tongues often heatedly disagree with every born from above and saved (justified) believer who defines “sealed” with the Holy Spirit as the observable, physical, outward sign of speaking in tongues. These naysayers disagree with other believers primarily because these skeptics do not think that the Baptism of the Holy Spirit is a second work—a separate event from the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, who takes up residence in a believer at the moment he or she is saved. Furthermore, these naysayers disagree with other believers concerning whether speaking in tongues is God ordained, and in fact these disbelievers will scoff at those who do speak in their heavenly language.                                                                                          

Be that as it may, the biblical truth is that the English word “sealed” is in several New Testament verses. Biblically speaking, a “seal” could be used for different reasons. For instance, in the holy Scriptures, a “seal” is usually a piece of wax with a distinctive design in it, like that of a signet ring; a “seal” is a stamp, an engraved device used for stamping; or a “seal” is a common visible, physical, external mark that preserves and attests that God’s “seal” authenticates the character and behaviors of an individual.

Thus, in the Holy Bible, a “seal” would guarantee that the “sealed” important documents’ authenticity has been preserved (cf. Esther 3:12), or would be a mark of ownership, or an impression of love (cf. Song of Solomon 8:6); or would provide protection against being tampered with, and would prevent the “seal” from being counterfeited or broken (cf. Matthew 27:66; Revelation 5:1), and/or would guarantee that a person’s character is genuine, that the “seal” is absolute proof, and an unbreakable demonstration (cf. 1 Corinthians 9:2). In the case of documents and letters, a “seal not only keeps a document or letter securely closed, which means the document or letter’s content is protected from being read by people who have no business reading it, but also the “seal” declares to everyone that the document or letter belongs to the sender.

In contrast, when the Apostle Paul speaks of a “seal” or being “sealed,” he is using “seal” and “sealed” as a metaphor for believers’ oral testimonials—those which confirm the fact that God’s “seal” authenticates a person’s character (moral and ethical nature) and behaviors (cf. 1 Corinthians 9:2). In the apostle’s case, the Corinthians’ conversations verify the fact that Paul is God’s apostle. That is why, for the Apostle Paul, the word “sealed” is equivalent to authenticity, authority or power, and ownership, and why, for Apostle Paul, God’s “seal” is the Baptism of the Holy Spirit,  which not only fills believers but also gives believers “new tongues.”

To the apostle, these “new tongues” (new languages) either can be of men (humanity) or of angels (cf. 1 Corinthians 13:1). In either case, it is evident that the Apostle Paul is saying in 2 Corinthians 1:21-22 and Ephesians 1:13-14, that the Holy Spirit’s “seal” manifests as “new tongues” via the supernatural power of the infilling Holy Spirit. For sure, he is saying that speaking in tongues is the outward evidence (seal or mark) that attests to the Baptism of the Holy Spirit (life full of the power of God).

It is important to note here that in none of the verses in which it is implied or directly stated that believers are speaking in tongues is there one apostle (or any writer) who is saying that speaking in tongues is a requirement for salvation. What the apostles and other writers are saying, especially the Apostle Paul, is that the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, with the evidence of speaking in tongues, brings a person into an intimate conversational communion with Father God. The Apostle Paul also is saying, especially in 1 Corinthians 14:21, that God first promises “new tongues” (strange languages) back in the Old Testament. The Apostle Paul writes:

It is written in the Law, By men of strange languages and by the lips of foreigners will I speak to this people, and not even then will they listen to Me, says the Lord. Thus [unknown] tongues are meant for a [supernatural] sign, not for believers but for unbelievers [on the point of believing], while prophecy (inspired preaching and teaching, interpreting the divine will and purpose) is not for unbelievers [on the point of believing] but for believers. ~ 1 Corinthians 14:21-22, AMP (this blogger has italicized and colored “men of,” because these words have been added to the original text, possibly to muddy the original meaning of the text)

The Apostle Paul, in the context of 1 Corinthians 14:21-22, clearly is emphasizing speaking in tongues—speaking in an “unknown tongue,” which he refers to as a heavenly language or the tongues of angels (cf. 1 Corinthians 14:2; and 1 Corinthians 13:1). To prove his point, the Apostle Paul uses the Old Testament Scriptures in which God promises that there are going to be “new tongues”—the kind of “new tongues” that even the Prophet Isaiah, via God, says will be both a “rest” and a “refreshing” that many people “…would not hear” (Isaiah 28:12; cf. Isaiah 44:3).

The apostle’s words in 1 Corinthians 14:21-22 are really a paraphrasing of an Old Testament Law. Once again, the  Apostle Paul is indirectly quoting the Prophet Isaiah. In an Isaiah 28 passage, the prophet is saying that because some of the Old Testament’s prophets did not treat the teaching of God’s Law appropriately, God promises to speak to His soon to be backslidden “religious” leaders, indeed, the whole backslidden nation of Israel, in a “new tongue,” in a “strange language”—this language, tongue is the one God intends to be His chosen people’s true “rest” and “refreshing.” The prophet writes:

For with stammering lips and another tongue will He speak to this people, to whom He said, ‘This is the rest wherewith ye may cause the weary to rest,’ and, ‘This is the refreshing’ – yet they would not hear. ~ Isaiah 28:11-12, KJV21 (underlining is this blogger’s emphasis)

In context, in the above passage, God is speaking about those Jewish prophets who prefer to intellectualize their faith, and about those Jewish prophets who prefer to control their spiritual experience with Him by childishly yet systematically approaching the Law “…precept upon precept, precept upon precept, rule upon rule, rule upon rule; here a little, there a little” (Isaiah 28:10b, AMP). For sure, God is mocking these rebellious Jewish prophets. He tauntingly is saying that they too must be taught by using the same kind of concise and conceited method they use when they are teaching children about a language’s basics. Because these “religious” leaders refuse to listen to and accept God’s messages spoken to them in their native tongue, which He sent to them through authentic prophets, like Isaiah, God promises to punish their rebellion with the same kind of tedious lessons, and this teaching will make the Law to become their stumbling block—the Law will make them “fall backward,” backslide, and to go back into captivity. Isaiah prophesies to them, saying God wants them to know that:

…the word of the Lord will be to them [merely monotonous repeatings of]: precept upon precept, precept upon precept, rule upon rule, rule upon rule; here a little, there a little—that they may go and fall backward, and be broken and snared and taken. ~ Isaiah 28:13, AMP

Once again, in the above verse, God is saying that His Law would be to the rebellious Jewish prophets just what they say it is, which is a tedious never-ending lesson. They will receive this punishment instead of receiving the kind of “rest” and “refreshing” that is powerful, costs them nothing (is a comfort that comes from the gift of God, from the outpouring of the Holy Spirit), and has no harmful effects. This “rest” and “refreshing” are the results of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, with the evidence of speaking in tongues. Indeed, the “…stammering lips and another tongue…” (Isaiah 28:11a) are the very “rest” and “refreshing” that God’s chosen people have rejected—are that which the Old Testament Hebrews refused—and that which many contemporary New Testament believers also are rejecting.

Nevertheless, the Apostle Paul states that this Isaiah 28:11 promise of a “new tongue” is fulfilled through the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. In Ephesians, one of the last epistles yet the most developed epistle by the Apostle Paul, the apostle declares that the Holy Spirit of promise is that down payment, voucher or “earnest,” on believers’ future inheritance. Their entire future inheritance is life full of the power of God, and an eternal life in a glorious body. In other words, proof of God’s faithfulness to His promise to give believers their whole inheritance is the pouring out of the Holy Spirit—the Baptism of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues. This baptism gives believers supernatural power, the kind of supernatural power that comes unequivocally and directly from God.

For this last reason, the indwelling Holy Spirit is ONLY a deposit, a partial payment on the sign or promise of what is to come. The sign or promise of what is to come IS the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, the “seal” that manifests itself AFTER believers are saved. Indeed, Jesus the Christ, Himself, defines the supernatural power and the miraculous signs and wonders that would accompany His disciples, like speaking with “new tongues” (cf. Mark 16:17), as that which His disciples would receive in Jerusalem, AFTER they are filled with the Holy Spirit—AFTER they receive the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. True to His Word, according to the writer of Acts, on the Day of Pentecost, the Lord’s disciples (His closest 11, plus an additional 109) are speaking in tongues!

What’s more, on the Day of Pentecost, the Apostle Peter reaffirms that this gift, the Baptism of the Holy Spirit with the evidence of speaking in tongues, is that genuine “rest” and “refreshing” God promises. On this historic day, Apostle Peter not only makes a reference to the Prophet Joel’s outpouring of the Holy Spirit (cf. Acts 2:16-18; and Joel 2:28), but also he makes a reference to the Prophet Isaiah’s message to God’s “religious” and condescendingly intellectual prophets. For sure, the Jewish people the Apostle Peter preached to not only witnessed the outpouring of the Holy Spirit’s fiery tongues, as they sat upon the 120 disciples, but also they HEARD these 120 disciples speak in the promised “new tongues” (cf. Acts 2:4; Acts 2:33; and Isaiah 28:11).

In the earlier cited Isaiah verses, God is addressing the “religious” leaders in Prophet Isaiah’s day who would be taught God’s Law in the same manner that they were treating it, which was like His Law is an endless series of trivial commands. As a result, this teaching would make the Law to become their stumbling block. Today, it is apparent that the Scriptures on speaking in tongues also have become a stumbling block for many believers—both “religious” leaders and their congregations. Indeed, too many of these Christians think that speaking in tongues is not only NOT for them, but also NOT for the institutional church as a whole, NOT for this world’s countless ministries, and NOT even for the genuine Body of Christ. In essence, according to the believers who scoff at the idea of speaking in tongues (those believers who also mock their brothers and sisters in Christ who speak in tongues), this Holy Spirit experience should be off-limits for ALL believers, whether carnal or spiritual.

Be that as it may, indisputably, what the Apostle Paul is saying, in the several Scriptures that he uses “sealed,” is that ONLY Holy Spirit filled believers will have unlimited access to their entire inheritance, which cannot be exhausted, even though this inheritance can be used in this temporal realm, as well as in the eternal realm. Furthermore, the apostle is saying that their entire inheritance is shut up, “sealed,” inside them as the promised rivers of Living Waters. Clearly, this sealing means their inheritance only can be accessed through the Faith that God gives to Baptized with the Holy Spirit believers.

The above definitions and understanding are apparent in the following quotation. The Apostle Paul writes:

In Him, you also, AFTER listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.  ~ Ephesians 1:13-14, NASB (caps are this blogger’s emphasis)

In verse 13, the Apostle Paul’s Greek New Testament word for the English word “sealed” is sphragizo. This Greek word actually means that a person has a COMMON, visible, physical, external mark, which proves or testifies to other people that he or she is who and what he or she professes. Put differently, a person who has been “sealed” by the “Holy Spirit of promise” has a visible, physical mark, like the “seal” on a letter or on important documents is observable, physical, and external. In believers’ case, God’s mark (seal) on believers proves, confirms, and/or attests to their authenticity, authority or power, and ownership (to whom these believers belong).

God’s mark also confirms, guarantees, promises, preserves, keeps, and/or attests to the fact that not only are believers’ redemption and salvation certain—a once and for all, a forever event, a done deal—but also that Jesus the Christ will release the promised heavenly inheritance (supernatural riches, treasures; the rivers of Living Water), through the Holy Spirit, who is every believer’s “earnest,” down payment, or guarantee. In other words, the Holy Spirit is a partial payment on believers’ inheritance, the whole of which is believers’ eternal life with God, and believers’ immortal glory. This “earnest” of the Holy Spirit—the indwelling of the Holy Spirit—is why God pledges (vows) that He will give believers everything He has promised would be their inheritance.

It is important to note here that the Apostle Paul uses “earnest” and “seal” interchangeably. As such, both terms indicate that the only way God could give the Holy Spirit as an “earnest” is if the Holy Spirit is able to provide definitive evidence of God’s good intentions to give believers their whole inheritance. Put differently, in order for believers to be “sealed” with the Holy Spirit, they would have to have received miraculous powers—powers of revelation and signs. Therefore, as definitive evidence of God’s good intentions and a sign of believers’ authenticity, the Holy Spirit “seals” believers with God’s trademark, which guarantees that believers are indeed the authentic eternal sons and daughters of God, and that the COMMON, visible, physical, outward sign of their authenticity, that which lets the world know their true identity, is believers’ supernatural ability to speak in tongues. Furthermore, by marking, branding, labeling believers with God’s “seal,” this sealing act protects believers from the demonic forces that otherwise would enter into them and possess them. In essence, the Holy Spirit “seals” IN Faith and “seals” OUT unbelief and apostasy.

In another part of this Ephesian epistle, the apostle also writes:

And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God [do not offend or vex or sadden Him], by Whom you were sealed (marked, branded as God’s own, secured) for the day of redemption (of final deliverance through Christ from evil and the consequences of sin). ~ Ephesians 4:30, AMP

The fact that believers can grieve the Holy Spirit with their bitterness, wrath, anger, clamor, or slander indicates that the Holy Spirit is not always in control, and He is not always in control because many believers do not make the Holy Spirit feel welcome, which is the sense of the word “receive” in Acts 1:8. More important, believers who grieve the Holy Spirit are not full of the Holy Spirit, because the Scriptures describe Spirit-driven believers as those individuals who allow the Holy Spirit to direct (control) and guide every one of their decisions, plans, and activities. Therefore, since believers can grieve the Holy Spirit, then this behavior is a clear indication that the Holy Spirit who indwells them did not spontaneously baptize (fill) them, as only the Baptism of the Holy Spirit results in believers being Spirit-driven believers—being full of the Holy Spirit (cf. Acts 2:4).

In other words, if Apostle Paul has to tell believers to be “…filled with the Holy Spirit” (Ephesians 5:18), then not every born from above saved (justified) believer automatically receives the Baptism of the Holy Spirit, or His subsequent initial infilling, at the same time salvation is received. Moreover, the apostle’s use of the Greek present tense of the verb “be filled” also denotes that the filling of the Holy Spirit is not a one-time event, but rather it is a continual experience.

Having said that, it is obvious that, in Ephesians 1:13; Ephesians 4:30, and Ephesians 5:18, the Apostle Paul is speaking of two Holy Spirit events taking place, once a person is born from above and saved (justified). At the time of salvation, everyone has received the gift of the Holy Spirit—that is, the Holy Spirit now lives inside of every believer. However, being indwelt with (or baptized in) and filled with (or baptized with) the Holy Spirit are not the same things. In other words, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit equals believers receiving the “earnest” on their inheritance, and receiving the Baptism of the Holy Spirit (being filled with the Holy Spirit) equals believers being “sealed” (marked, branded, secured) by the Holy Spirit. The latter clearly is a SECOND work—a work that is in addition to the Holy Spirit living in believers.

The New Testament actually does distinguish between receiving the Holy Spirit and baptizing with the Holy Spirit. The former occurs at the moment believers are saved (justified), the latter can occur at the moment of salvation, but more often than not the Baptism of the Holy Spirit happens some time after salvation. Since this baptism is for the purpose of empowering believers for ministry, this is the reason why Jesus the Christ tells His disciples that they will “…receive power after the Holy Ghost…” (Acts 1:8, KJV21) comes upon them, and that this power would make them His witnesses “in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1:8, KJV21).

The Divine Truth is the disciples already believed in Jesus the Christ, and they already had received the Holy Spirit, when Jesus the Christ, after His resurrection, “…breathed on them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit” (John 20:22, AMP)! At that very second, they were born again of the Holy Spirit “…through the resurrection of Jesus from the dead” (1 Peter 1:3), and this event happened some days before the Lord’s Ascension. For sure, this event is why the disciples already had the Holy Spirit dwelling inside them and present in their lives; moreover, no one can authentically confess Jesus as Lord without the Holy Spirit (cf. 1 Corinthians 12:3).

Furthermore, even though the disciples had achieved supernatural results without the actual Baptism of the Holy Spirit, which they were able to do only because the Lord, while still with them, had given them His power and authority, they would need the Baptism of the Holy Spirit before they could achieve any more miracles, signs and wonders, because the Lord was going back to the Father. In other words, between the time of the Lord’s Ascension and Pentecost, the disciples had not yet been empowered for Jesus the Christ’s Commission. This truth is why, some days before Pentecost, the Lord commands them to wait in Jerusalem until God “sealed” them with (baptized them with) the Holy Spirit.

Now, it follows that, in the case of the apostles, receiving the indwelling of the Holy Spirit AND the Baptism of the Spirit were (and for the most part still are) two separate events, because the born again and Holy Spirit indwelt disciples of Christ (see John 20:22) didn’t receive the Baptism of the Holy Spirit until the Day of Pentecost, which was after the Lord’s Ascension! Therefore, the Baptism of the Holy Spirit (being baptized with the Holy Spirit, or being filled with the Holy Spirit) more often than not will be a subsequent occurrence, which happens after salvation.

For the above reasons, believers must realize that the Baptism of the Holy Spirit is not the same thing as salvation (justification). Yes, the Holy Bible does give examples of people who are baptized with the Holy Spirit at the same time as their salvation (justification), but these instances are not the norm—they are not ALWAYS what happens. Moreover, only the Baptism of the Holy Spirit is the fullness of the Holy Spirit, and this fullness brings great blessing and comfort to believers. Certainly, there are many believers who can testify that being filled with the Holy Spirit usually results in a renewed dedication to and an appreciation for God, a strong desire to share the Gospel of Jesus the Christ, an insatiable desire to read the Holy Bible, an insatiable desire to fellowship with other Christians, an insatiable desire to listen to praise and worship music, and a deeper sense of what it means to worship God in Spirit and in Truth.

For additional spiritual wisdom, knowledge, and understanding purposes, it is important to note that in Acts, where the Baptism of the Holy Spirit does happen at the time of believers’ salvation, the Holy Bible is quick to emphasize this point: The apostles KNEW that these believers were baptized in the Holy Spirit, because the apostles “…heard them talking in [unknown] tongues (languages) and extolling and magnifying God” (Acts 10:46, AMP; cf. Acts 11:15-16). Without doubt, a believer who has been born from above and has received salvation (justification) doesn’t need to speak in tongues to verify that the Holy Spirit now lives inside him or her. However, in the Holy Bible, God does use believers’ speaking in tongues, as the ONLY COMMON, visible, physical, outward SIGN (His trademark, seal, brand, mark) that accompanies the Baptism of the Holy Spirit!

Furthermore, while believers are given the authority (exousia) to be children of God, which happens after they have received their new birth and salvation (cf. John 1:12-13), they only can receive power (dunamis) AFTER the Holy Spirit comes upon them and fills them with the Holy Spirit (cf. Acts 1:8; Acts 2:4). Therefore, the purpose of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit is so that men and women will become not only children of God, but children of God who are very much like Jesus the Christ in nature, holiness, and power. The Baptism of the Holy Spirit, thus, gives believers the same Father-child relationship possibilities like God and His only beloved Son have, and gives believers the same power ministry like Jesus the Christ had in His earthly ministry.

Put differently, being “sealed” with the Holy Spirit guarantees that the FULL amount of believers’ inheritance will be paid—that believers not only will receive the fullness of the Holy Spirit (life full of the power of God) but also subsequently will receive the TOTAL sanctifying work by which Jesus the Christ saves them from sin. In particular, they will complete the three stages of Salvation: Justification (saved from the penalty of sin), Sanctification (being saved from the power of sin), and Glorification (to be saved in the future from the presence of sin, which is the promised glorious resurrection).

That’s why it is the Baptism of the Holy Spirit that makes it possible for the Holy Spirit to “seal” believers with a sealing that confirms to the world that God’s child has other-world protection and other-world riches: supernatural power, spiritual gifts, spiritual fruit, new languages, and so forth, which God has poured into them. Indeed, these rivers of Living Water are preserved inside every baptized in the Holy Spirit believer. As earlier mentioned, only Jesus the Christ can open this “seal,” because He is Lord and Savior, and believers’ joint-heir to the promised heavenly inheritance. Through Faith in Him, believers can have access to their inheritance in this temporal world, as well as in the spiritual realm.

Once again, God wants EVERY believer to be “sealed,” baptized in the Holy Spirit, with the evidence of speaking in tongues. This speaking in tongues truth is understood best in the following verse. The Lord says:

And these attesting signs will accompany those who believe: in My name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new languages; ~ Mark 16:17, AMP; (the underlining is this blogger’s emphasis)

Here, the Lord is saying that EVERYONE who is born from above and saved (justified) has received the authority (exousia) to speak in “new tongues” (a heavenly language or prayer language; a praise language; and/or a prophetic language). However, not everyone who receives the Baptism of the Holy Spirit will prophesy or give messages in various human tongues, and those who can, must have their tongues interpreted!

The three “new languages” (new tongues) that are evidence of believers having been “sealed” by the Holy Spirit (baptized with the Holy Spirit), once again, are: 1. Prayer Tongues; 2. Praise Tongues; and 3. Prophetic Tongues. See the chart below:

Three Kinds of Tongues

Prophetic Tongues

(Must Be Interpreted)

Prayer Tongues

(Doesn’t Need To be Interpreted)

Praise Tongues

(Might Need To Be Interpreted)
Mark 16:17

*

*

*
Acts 2:4

*
Acts 2:8

*
Acts 2:11

*

*
Acts 10:46

*
Acts 19:6

*
Romans 8:26

*
1 Cor. 12:10

*

*
1 Cor. 12:30

*
1 Cor. 12:31

*
1 Cor. 13:1

*

*

*
1 Cor. 13:8

*

*

*
1 Cor. 14:2

*

*

*
1 Cor. 14:4

*

*
1 Cor. 14:5

*

*
1 Cor. 14:6

*

*
1 Cor. 14:9

*

*
1 Cor. 14:13

*

*
1 Cor. 14:14

*
1 Cor. 14:15

*

*
1 Cor. 14:17

*
1 Cor. 14:18

*

*
1 Cor. 14:19

*
1 Cor. 14:21

*

*

*
1 Cor. 14:22

*

*

*
1 Cor. 14:23

*

*

*
1 Cor. 14:24

*
1 Cor. 14:26

*

*

*
1 Cor. 14:27

*

*
1 Cor. 14:29

*
1 Cor. 14:30

*
1 Cor. 14:31

*
1 Cor. 14:39

*

*
Eph. 5:19

*
Eph. 5:20
Col. 3:16

*

Prayer tongues are messages in a heavenly language spoken by humans to God. These tongues are for private edification, prayers to, and praise for God. Obviously praying tongues (cf. 1 Corinthians 14:2) do not require any interpretation, since God understands all languages. Moreover, after believers receive the Baptism of the Holy Spirit (1 Timothy 2:8), they can pray in tongues anywhere and at almost any time.

Praise tongues are messages in a heavenly language spoken by humans to God. These tongues are for speaking about the wonderful works of God  (cf. Acts 2:11), magnifying God  (cf. Acts 10:46; Ephesians 5:19; Colossians 3:16), or giving thanks to God (cf. 1 Corinthians 14:17; Ephesians 5:20). Praise tongues, the praying and singing in tongues, are used during worship services, as believers move from thanking God for His works to praising the God of works. Because praise tongues can be either individually spoken or corporately communicated, some praise tongues might need to be interpreted.

Prophetic tongues are messages in languages known to mankind spoken from God to man. These tongues are for the edification of other humans. If there are people in the church service who do not understand the human language used by the person speaking the prophecy, then that person’s prophetic tongues MUST BE INTERPRETED. If not, that person must stop speaking in other tongues. Now, this kind of tongues is a “special” spiritual gift, as the speaker is able to speak in other human languages that he or she NEVER studied! Moreover, this kind of tongues is the kind that could be spoken in church services, but, once again, ONLY if there is an interpreter.

The Scriptures show that believers were speaking in one or all three of these “new tongues,” in the following chapters: Acts 2, Acts 8, Acts 9, Acts 10, Acts 19, Romans 8:26; 1 Corinthians chapters 12-14, Ephesians 5:18-20; and Colossians 3:16. Moreover, even Jesus the Christ, Himself, deals specifically with this issue of believers speaking with “new tongues,” when He discusses the new birth with Nicodemus.

The “new tongues” Jesus the Christ speaks of in Mark 16:17b also is mentioned in John 3:8. Jesus the Christ says to Nicodemus:

The wind blows (breathes) where it wills; and though you hear its sound, yet you neither know where it comes from nor where it is going. So it is with everyone who is born of the Spirit. ~ John 3:8, AMP

In this verse, wind = Pneuma (the Holy Spirit who is the third person of the triune God; moreover, Pneuma comes from Pneo); therefore, blows = Pneo (spirits); wills = Thelo (desires, wishes, purposes); hear = Akouo (to understand, perceive the sense of what is said); and sound = Phone (phonetic—Phonetic Spelling Parts of Speech—as in the sound of language . . . tongue). Thus, John 3:8 can be paraphrased as follows:

The Holy Spirit spirits wherever He desires, and you Nicodemus can perceive the sense of the language (Divine Voice) He speaks, even though you do not know where the language comes from or where the language is going; nevertheless, the Holy Spirit gives every born again believer the ability to speak in new tongues (a new language . . . a heavenly language).

The point of this paraphrasing is that, in Mark 16:17, Jesus the Christ not only is promising “new languages” (“new tongues”) to His disciples, but also, in John 3:8, He is promising that every one of God’s NEW CREATIONS (those who believe in Him and are born again from above, justified, and saved) will be able to speak with “new tongues,” which so happens to be the same language as the Day of Pentecost’s “other tongues.” For the record, the phrases “new tongues” and “other tongues” pertain to a language that is NOT like any of the foreign languages of this world.

Having said that, it is important to note here that, contrary to popular opinions, the Day of Pentecost 120 Upper Room followers of Christ’s “other tongues” mean that they were not speaking in diverse tongues, or KNOWN human languages. The Day of Pentecost set the stage for two miracles to happen: (1) a supernatural speaking miracle, “and” (2) a supernatural hearing miracle. In other words, these 120 followers spoke in ONE heavenly language, and the Holy Spirit is the One who gave them the utterance. Then the Holy Spirit interpreted His own heavenly language into the 14+ different human languages that the Jewish pilgrims normally spoke, but ONLY those men from the 14+ different countries who were receptive to this move of the Holy Spirit HEARD the interpreted heavenly language in their native languages and, thus, were able to understand what the 120 were speaking. 

Lastly, in Acts 2:4; Acts 2:33; Acts 10:46; and Acts 19:6, the Scriptures are clear about the Baptism of the Holy Spirit being followed immediately by some specific supernatural sign. This surefire proof verifies that the Holy Spirit, as an “earnest,” is only the beginning of the inheritance believers have been promised, which means the rest of this inheritance only can be obtained if there is a collaborative effort involving both the Holy Spirit and every believer.

For sure, even Jesus the Christ declares that believers first must come to Him and drink from His Living Water (the Holy Spirit). After that the Living Water (the Holy Spirit) becomes the rivers (of eternal life) within believers, which flow out of them to others (cf. John 7:37-39). Put differently, after the Holy Spirit comes inside of believers, He then springs up like a fountain of Living Water and flows out of believers to others (John 4:14). 

Clearly, Jesus the Christ is saying that believers start with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, and, if they do not quench or grieve the Holy Spirit, then they graduate to the Baptism of the Holy Spirit. This biblical truth is why, believers transitioning from having the Holy Spirit dwelling in them to believers being baptized with Him is what God wants believers to experience. He wants believers to begin with the “earnest” of the Holy Spirit and move on to the fullness of the Holy Spirit (the Baptism in the Holy Spirit), because the fullness of the Holy Spirit is the “seal.” As already stated and biblically proven, this event usually happens after Christians believe on Jesus the Christ for salvation.

There can be no doubt by now that the “earnest” of the Holy Spirit is inward (on the inside of believers; in their “innermost being”) and, therefore, is unobservable. This “earnest” of the Holy Spirit is the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, which happens the moment they are saved—the moment they believe on Jesus the Christ and drink from His Living Water (the Holy Spirit).

According to every biblical definition,  a “seal” is an outward, observable mark—a “seal” is a sign, a mark of ownership, a promise, a confirmation, a verification, the proof, or the  evidence. Where the Holy Spirit is concerned, the “seal” of the Holy Spirit is the fullness of the Holy Spirit (or the Baptism of the Holy Spirit), which is a subsequent work/event that can happen at the time of salvation, but, more often than not, this fullness (this Spirit-driven experience) happens some time AFTER salvation. Finally, the COMMON, physical, observable “seal,” which proves that the Baptism in the Holy Spirit has taken place is the speaking in tongues, which the Holy Spirit prompts and enables (cf. Acts 2:1-4; Acts 10:44-47; and Acts 19:1-7).

Speaking in tongues is for everyone who believes on Jesus the Christ. Though it is possible to live a born again, saved life without ever receiving the Baptism of the Holy Spirit and, thus, without ever speaking in tongues, the Divine Truth is that a Christian life minus the Baptism of the Holy Spirit is a powerless life, and a Christian life without speaking in tongues is a life without “rest” and “refreshing.” Therefore, contrary to popular opinions, the only biblically recorded observable, physical, outward sign that proves a believer has been baptized with the Holy Spirit is the evidence of speaking in tongues. For sure:

The Holy Spirit spirits wherever He desires, and [every believer] can perceive the sense of the language (Divine Voice) He speaks, even though [no believer knows] where the language comes from or where the language is going; nevertheless, the Holy Spirit gives every born again believer the ability to speak in new tongues (a new language . . . a heavenly language).

AMEN!

For more information, please read my “The Day of Pentecost’s Tongues: Evidence of Being Filled with the Holy Spirit”

 

Being Bizarrely Fascinated with Malevolent ALIENS Is The Strong Delusion God Sends

04 Sunday Sep 2011

Posted by in Bible Prophecy

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Ezekiel 1:13-21 Is The Description Of A Futuristic Aircraft

The Anarchist’s coming is all Satan’s work. All his power and signs and miracles are fake, evil sleight of hand that plays to the gallery of those who hate the truth that could save them. And since they’re so obsessed with evil, God rubs their noses in it—gives them what they want. Since they refuse to trust truth, they’re banished to their chosen world of lies and illusions. ~ 2 Thessalonians 2:9-12, MSG

In “Aliens may destroy humanity to protect other civilisations, say scientists,” published online by Ian Sample, a science correspondent for the Guardian, Sample writes:

Shawn Domagal-Goldman of Nasa’s Planetary Science Division and his colleagues compiled a list of plausible outcomes that could unfold in the aftermath of a close encounter, to help humanity ‘prepare for actual contact.’

Sample says that according to Shawn Domagal-Goldman and his NASA colleagues’ PDF 33-page report, “Would Contact with Extraterrestrials Benefit or Harm Humanity? A Scenario Analysis,” aliens are categorized as being either “beneficial,” or “neutral,” or “harmful.” These NASA scientists’ worst possible scenario is the one in which humans interact with harmful or malevolent extraterrestrials. Sample paraphrases these NASA scientists’ harmful scenario as follows:

The most unappealing outcomes would arise if extraterrestrials caused harm to humanity, even if by accident. While aliens may arrive to eat, enslave or attack us, the report adds that people might also suffer from being physically crushed or by contracting diseases carried by the visitors. In especially unfortunate incidents, humanity could be wiped out when a more advanced civilisation accidentally unleashes an unfriendly artificial intelligence, or performs a catastrophic physics experiment that renders a portion of the galaxy uninhabitable.

To bolster humanity’s chances of survival, the researchers call for caution in sending signals into space, and in particular warn against broadcasting information about our biological make-up, which could be used to manufacture weapons that target humans. Instead, any contact with ETs should be limited to mathematical discourse ‘until we have a better idea of the type of ETI we are dealing with.’

Now, no one should doubt that there are indeed unidentified flying objects (UFOs). What people should understand, however, is that these extraterrestrial sightings are neither of bacterial-like organisms nor of outer space (distant galaxies) flying saucer traveling “beings” who are far more advanced than Earth’s humans. Biblically speaking, these UFOs are celestial sightings of either the elect angels  (holy angels, who from ancient time to this very day are helpful to humans, which is why they often are referred to as guardian angels; cf. Ezekiel 28:15a; Colossians 1:16-17; 1 Timothy 5:21; Hebrews 1:14), or the fallen angels (those evil and rebellious angels cast out of Heaven with Lucifer, who currently are free to torment mankind; cf. Isaiah 14:12-14; Daniel 10:13; Matthew 10:1; Matthew 25:41; Luke 9:1; 2 Corinthians 11:14; Ephesians 6:12; Revelation 12:3-4).

According to the Scriptures, both of these angels, elect AND fallen, can manifest themselves in human form of either gender but usually male, can be seen by some people but not by others, and can appear in a dream (Genesis 18:1-8; Genesis 19:1-22; Genesis 22; 2 Kings 6:15-17; Matthew 1:20); and both of these angels, elect AND fallen, also can materialize advanced vehicles. For example, in the Old Testament, there is the angelic wheel within a wheel, which is a depiction of an aircraft that resembles the 20th and 21st centuries’ examples of either a flying saucer or a flying disk (cf. Ezekiel 1:13-21; see also Ezekiel 10:1-19).

Moreover, in the case of the fallen angels, they are either the malevolent aliens of end-time prophesy, which the Lord prophesies about when He says that the “…time of the Son of Man will be just like the time of Noah” (Luke 17:26, MSG; cf. Luke 17:26-27; Matthew 24:37), or these fallen angels are those angels who have been cast out of Heaven with Lucifer, yet they are free to torment mankind. Concerning the former, these evil fallen angels who once were referred to as the “sons of God,” as the spirit beings (angels) who, prior to their Abyss imprisonment, had access to the heavens, are also those fallen angels who desired to become flesh and live with the daughters of men (cf. Genesis 6:1–4). These fallen angels cohabited with the beautiful daughters of men and created the Nephilim (Hebrew word for “the fallen ones” who happened to be giants; Greek equivalent of Nephilim is gigas, which is the word for “earth born”; cf. Genesis 6:4). It is important to note here that the “sons of God” (in Hebrew Bene Ha Elohim) is an expression that is never used when speaking of human beings, but always used when speaking of supernatural beings (both good and bad) who are higher than mankind but lower than God. Thus, it is about these former evil “sons of God” or fallen angels’ wicked behavior that the writer of Jude is speaking, in the following verses:

And you know the story of the angels who didn’t stick to their post, abandoning it for other, darker missions. But they are now chained and jailed in a black hole until the great Judgment Day. Sodom and Gomorrah, which went to sexual rack and ruin along with the surrounding cities that acted just like them, are another example. Burning and burning and never burning up, they serve still as a stock warning. ~ Jude vv. 6-7, MSG

In the above Scriptures, Jude makes it clear that the fallen “sons of God” (angels) were indeed capable of performing human functions, like eating, drinking, walking, talking, and even participating in sexual activity and ultimately fathering children. For sure, the biblical fact about angels not marrying does not, in and of itself, prove that angels are sexless. Even Jude says that the men of Sodom and Gomorrah, who preferred “strange flesh”—flesh of a different kind (in the Greek “heteros”)—were just like the fallen “sons of God” (angels)! That’s right. The men in Sodom and Gomorrah who had a “strange flesh” sin had the same sin as that of the fallen “sons of God” (angels).

Since the mixing of these two beings (the sons of God AND the daughters of men) was contrary to what God had intended, these fallen angels’ actions promptly led to God’s greatest act of judgment that mankind has ever experienced, to date. God designed the Flood so that He could rid this earth of the offspring (Nephilim) created by these evil “sons of God.” Father God destroyed the fallen angels’ abhorrent genetic mixture—the hybrid humans! However, before the Flood came, it is apparent that God threw those evil fallen angels into the Abyss (the bottomless pit, the black hole), chained them there, and is keeping them there until the end times (cf. 1 Peter 3:19-20; 2 Peter 2:4).

Thus, the malevolent UFOs (aliens) that Shawn Domagal-Goldman and his NASA colleagues are describing in their “harmful” scenario, and those malevolent alien scenarios that have been depicted in numerous movies, are none other than the celestial beings who fulfill the Lord’s predicted end-time signs about the “…sun, moon, stars, earth, sea, [being] in an uproar and everyone all over the world in a panic, the wind knocked out of them by the threat of doom, the powers-that-be quaking” (Luke 21:25-26, MSG; see also Genesis 6:2-4; Ephesians 6:11-12; 1 Peter 3:19-20; 2 Peter 2:4; Jude 1:6; Revelation 9:2-11; Revelation 12:3-4). Indeed, these malevolent UFOs are fallen angels, Satan’s demonic spirits who have not been chained in the Abyss, AND the chained in the Abyss but scheduled to be released fallen angels, who are those same evil spirits who fell a second time, because they wanted to marry and have sex with the daughters of men (cf. Genesis 6:1-4).

The former is a real present concern for humanity, especially for believers, because these fallen demonic principalities and powers (evil celestial beings) currently are traveling (flying) in high, but not the highest heavenly, places. They are flying above humans’ heads, waiting for the opportunity to sting mankind with their fiery darts—their wicked schemes, such as lies, deceptions, and maliciousness (cf. Ephesians 6:10-12). The latter will concern the left behind Tribulation masses, because these evil angels are the prophesied demonic locusts who will be used during the Tribulation Period to carry out God’s end-time massive, devastating, rapid judgment meant for the left behind, unrepentant people who have accepted the mark of the Beast (cf. Revelation 9:2-11; Revelation 14:10–11).

Definitely, in this modern age of literary, theatrical, and cinematic creations, there are plenty of humans who are very familiar with many of the countless stories about aliens coming to Earth long enough to gather those selected “earthlings” worthy of taking back with them, which often implies that aliens are going to use these chosen humans as guinea pigs, as test subjects in their study of human life, before these same aliens ultimately return to annihilate mankind and destroy the entire Earth. That is why there can be no doubt that humans’ belief in murderous extraterrestrials (outer space creatures from faraway galaxies traveling in flying saucers and coming to Earth where they snatch up human beings) is a current delusion (a present lie and illusion).

Thus, there can be no doubt that God presently is allowing the demonic principalities and powers who are traveling (flying) in high places to feed the above-mentioned malevolent alien invasion delusion to the last days’ masses so that, when they become the Tribulation’s left-behind individuals, they will use this lie and illusion (humans being snatched up by extraterrestrials) to explain what they think really happened to the Christian believers who actually were RAPTURED—caught up in a twinkling of an eye (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:51-52; 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17).

Giving the current saturation of these destructive alien invasion narratives, there also can be no doubt that God will increase mankind’s fascination with these harmful extraterrestrial illusions (alien invasion untruths) until these present-day illusions become that prophesied strong delusion. The left behinders’ strong delusion, thus, will set the stage for the greatest deception of all times—the Antichrist hoodwinking most of these left behinders into accepting him as their global leader, and bamboozling them to the extent that they totally believe that he is the ONLY one who can protect and save them from any future alien invasions (i.e., the already mentioned release of the demonic locusts from their bottomless pit chained existence).   

Pouring Out Ourselves for Others

02 Friday Sep 2011

Posted by in Faith and Wisdom

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Is not this the fast that I have chosen: to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and that ye break every yoke? ~ Isaiah 58:6, KJ21

and if thou draw out thy soul to the hungry and satisfy the afflicted soul, then shall thy light rise in obscurity and thy darkness be as the noonday. ~ Isaiah 58:10, KJ21                                       

He that believeth on me…out of his [innermost being] shall flow rivers of living water. ~ John 7:38, KJ21 (bracketed words are this blogger’s emphasis)

 

Many of today’s believers fast to lose weight; or they fast to be seen of men and women, to have others check out how spiritual they look while wearing their “sackcloth and ashes”; or they fast simply because it is the “new spiritual” trend. In truth, their kind of fasting only creates religious hypocrites—people who fast just to receive God’s blessings, or just to appear righteous. Put differently, their fasting, ironically, is all about gain—gaining more money and material possessions that satisfy their personal wants; gaining more financial support or partnerships for “their” church or ministry; gaining more acceptance and attention, by becoming a celebrity of sorts; gaining more anointings; gaining more wisdom, understanding, and knowledge; gaining more power (political, economic, social, emotional, physical, and so on); gaining more spiritual gifts; et cetera.

Because our reasons for fasting are not God’s reasons for why we should fast, and because our desires usually aren’t God’s desires, consequently, we definitely need a deeper-experience fast, like the kind of fast God says we are to carry out, for the sake of others. Basically, the fast God has chosen for us is designed to keep us fasting until we develop a profound hatred for the unfair treatment of the poor and needy—until we are convicted (to be made aware of our responsibility) to defend the  right of the oppressed to be emancipated, and to provide whatever basics of life the poor and needy lack; that is, we are to fast until we are influenced by the Holy Spirit to give out of our abundance to the poor and needy so that they might become whole!

Strangely enough, God’s fast does not require that we go without food and drink for any extended period of time. On the contrary, God’s fast allows us to enjoy both temporal and spiritual food and drink, which means God will provide everything we need to sustain us while we are giving away our own spiritual, emotional, physical, and financial provisions. God Himself says that He will “…satisfy [our] soul in drought, and make fat [our] bones; and [we] shalt be like a watered garden, and like a spring of water whose waters fail not” (Isaiah 58:11, KJ21). In other words, unlike our kind of fast, which often is about gaining the fullness of God’s blessings JUST for ourselves, God’s fast is all about us pouring out of ourselves everything we have gained—letting everything we have received from God flow out of us, for others’ sake.

Therefore, we are not to fast so that we selfishly can use what we receive from God for our own current wants, or even our own present needs. Neither are we to fast so that we can hoard, for our own future benefit, what we have received. Instead, we fast so that we can overspend ourselves (pour out of ourselves) to such an extent that our helping others in need empties us, makes us become poor for their sake, just like our Lord “for [our] sakes…became poor, that [we] through His poverty might be rich” (2 Corinthians 8:9, KJ21). For these reasons, God’s fast is one in which we abstain from unjustly and cruelly oppressing and distressing the poor and needy, abstain from physically, sexually, mentally or emotionally abusing anyone, and participate in setting free everyone who already is oppressed, distressed, and abused.

To be obedient to this kind of fast, we first must understand and believe that, with God, it is never about what we gain from Him, but rather it is about what He pours through us that matters. For this reason, God’s kind of fast requires the spiritual discipline of self-sacrifice!

We begin God’s fast by first purposing in our hearts to treat people fairly and humanely, and then by proceeding to tackle, vigorously, every kind of inequality (especially the inequalities that we ourselves might have caused). We fulfill this fast once we FREELY and willingly are giving to the poor and needy from out of our own abundance, such as: feeding the hungry, giving water to the thirsty, clothing the naked, visiting the imprisoned,  housing the homeless, and so forth. These acts of kindness and love are the temporal and the eternal manifestations of the Living Water God has put inside us. This Living Water is God’s Holy Spirit, the fruit of the Spirit, spiritual gifts, supernatural power, kingdom authority, and God’s Grace, Mercy, Comfort, Righteousness, Holiness, et cetera.

In return for letting what God has put in us pour out of us for the good of others, especially those in need, God will bless the recipients of our deeper-experience fast, as well as bless us by answering our prayers. Here, it is important to note that we must understand that God’s answer to our prayers about our needs or wants is not always a repayment in kind for our obedience to and our deliberate following of His fast. To be sure, His answer to our prayers often will not be Him giving us back EXACTLY what we have poured out of ourselves for others. That is to say, our good measure that comes back pressed down, shaken together, overflowing, and poured into our laps (cf. Luke 6:38) very well could be the Light of His Face shining in our dark hours, or the dews of heaven refreshing our souls, or the rivers that never run dry; specifically, He just might bless us with a superabundance of that Living Water into which He first immersed us.

Indeed, we must realize that God only promises that we will be paid back for being a blessing to others. God never says that we will get back the same thing that we gave. Moreover, even though we are told that our measure (our motive and standard of giving . . . whether gladly or grudgingly; liberally or miserly) will be the same measure God will use when He repays us for our obedience, based on God’s economy, what we can count on, especially if we are of a giving spirit, is that He will give us His “amazing goodness.”

Put differently, God’s repayment to us for that which we gave to those who were in need more often than not is a larger amount than the amount we gave to others; therefore, God’s recompense will be of great advantage to us—either in worldly riches or heavenly treasures, or both. This truth is why our spiritual life cannot be measured by the world’s idea of success, because that which God has put inside of us (holiness, righteousness, peace, wholeness, et cetera) cannot be measured by the world’s standards. For this reason, God’s idea of success is defined by how gladly and liberally we allow Him to pour out of us what He has poured into us.

Therefore, let us fast to break every unjust CHAIN of oppression that shamefully binds the less fortunate people all over this world, realizing, first and foremost, that God’s purpose is to make us just like His beloved Son. God’s purpose is to make us people who, by the aid of the Holy Spirit, will overspend ourselves (empty ourselves of everything God has poured into us), by caring for the needs and interests of others—by putting others’ needs first. Since God and Jesus the Christ never hesitated to put our needs first, then we too must stop being people who are more concerned about promoting the New Age ideas of self-satisfaction, self-gratification, self-help, self-love, and self-interest, and become believers who are more concerned about living an altruistic lifestyle. Let us become children of God who promote the biblical ideas of self-discipline and self-sacrifice, which will be demonstrated by our pouring out of our lives for others, everything God has poured into us!

Being Unequally Yoked

01 Thursday Sep 2011

Posted by in Bible Study

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"Do not plow with an ox and a donkey yoked together." ~ Deuteronomy 22:10

Has anyone ever wondered how many people really understand this verse: “Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness” ~ 2 Corinthians 6:14, NIV? Well, the truth is that many people usually cite this verse, when they are speaking about a man and woman uniting in marriage. But is an unsuitable marriage specifically what Apostle Paul is speaking about in the above verse?

Certainly, if marriage, per se, were what the apostle had in mind when he warns the Corinthian believers about not being “unequally yoked,” he would not just mean that a believer should not be married to an unbeliever. Being “unequally yoked” also would have to mean that a believer should not marry anyone who is NOT at the same spiritual level as he or she is. This interpretation of what the apostle’s “unequally yoke” phrase would mean, if he were talking about married Christians, is supported by the Old Testament Scriptures that the apostle is alluding to in 2 Corinthians 6:14. The Apostle Paul’s “unequally yoked” metaphor comes from the Law, in particular, from Deuteronomy 22:10 and Leviticus 19:19.

In Deuteronomy 22:10, God says: “Do not plow with an ox and a donkey yoked together,” and this command is repeated from Leviticus 19:19, in which this command is the first of three similar commands. In both of these mentioned verses, God not only is teaching His chosen people about the difference in kind, but also about inequality. Indeed, it is absolutely unfair, and essentially inhumane, to expect two different kinds of animals, having opposing characters, to work affably and enthusiastically together, while they pull a plow or a wagon. Because, when the donkey, the lighter and shorter beast of burden, is bound (tied; yoked) to the ox, which is the heavier and taller draft animal, the donkey won’t be able to keep up with the ox. 

Since an ox and a donkey are different species with unequal strength, disposition, and ability, God is teaching His chosen children that the plowing of a field would be made far more difficult than would be necessary, all because these dissimilar animals cannot work comfortably or cheerfully together. Thus, yoking them together for the purpose of drawing a plow or a wagon, and so forth, would mean that the ox inevitably would overpower the donkey—the much smaller and shorter animal. This “unequally yoking” also means that the donkey’s pace would be slower, because he would be receiving an inequitable load, as his strength and size in no way match those of the more physically powerful ox.

In Deuteronomy, the command to not yoke a donkey and an ox together comes right after the command to “…not plant two kinds of seed in your vineyard; if you do, not only will the crops you plant but also the fruit of the vineyard will be defiled” (v. 9). In the Leviticus verse, this particular “don’t” is the second of three commands. In both verses, God is teaching about the difference in kind. He’s specifically dealing with how planting the mixture of seeds in a vineyard pertains to committing a sin against nature, and against God.

For sure, God wants His chosen people to know that it is spiritually and agriculturally incorrect to plant two different kinds of seeds in a vineyard (field). For example, if oats and wheat were sown together in a vineyard, the oats and wheat not only would yield a mixed grain but also the PURITY of the oats and wheat plants, and the PURITY of the grapes on the vines would not be preserved. Instead, the mixed grain crop, the vineyard’s product (grapes), and the vineyard would be ruined—the vines would spoil the grain and the mixed grain would spoil the vines, plus the over-cultivated vineyard also would be damaged.  

In other words, God is saying that there would be no chance that the oats and wheat seeds, which have been sown together in a vineyard, would reap both a separate “good” crop of oats and a separate “good” crop of wheat, and no chance that the vineyard grapes would be a “good crop,” either! For sure, breaking God’s laws against the over-cultivation of a circumscribed area (i.e., the separated vineyard) will result in the premature exhaustion of the vineyard’s soil, thereby also damaging the yield from the mixed seed crop and the product (grapes) from the vineyard and forfeiting them (invalidating them; making them all of no value or no use), because they all have been corrupted (made impure).

The bottom line, then, is that the outcome of such a union (combining mix seeds then planting them in a vineyard) would be the same result that yoking two diverse kinds of animals together would achieve—corruption. The truth is that each unalike seed needs to be planted in a different field, and each dissimilar draft animal (an animal used to pull heavy loads) needs to plow alongside of the SAME kind of animal. For these reasons, if the Apostle Paul’s “unequally yoked” metaphor pertains to marriages, then the spiritual application of the apostle’s phrase is that a believer not only should marry another believer, but also that a believer should marry someone who spiritually can keep up with him or her. Put differently, a believer should marry someone who is plowing at the same pace and in the same field!

Getting back to what Apostle Paul principally means in 2 Corinthians 6:14, it is important to note here that the apostle’s focus throughout his letters to the Corinthians has been on the “church,” as a whole, and not on individual believers. That is why it is clear that his “unequally yoked” phrase has a broader implication than just suggesting that believers should not be “mismated.” The wisdom in his “unequally yoked” metaphor strongly recommends that believers should not be in any intimate union that is not effortlessly harmonious or not absolutely godly. Such an unsuitable relationship would be the case when a believer is married to either a believer who is not on the same spiritual level, or married to an unsaved unbeliever.

However, the truth of the matter is that the apostle really is warning the Corinthian Christians about the clear and present dangers that are upon them, because of their mismatched associations or partnerships with Corinthian unbelievers. The Apostle Paul is pointing out the Corinthian believers’ ill-advised inclination, that of trying to mix (blend; combine) the worship of God with the pagan worship activities that were going on in Corinth’s temples. If such a mixture were to succeed, then, as with the unpleasant and disharmonious yoking of a donkey and an ox, God’s sanctified or separated children’s lifestyle also would not be able to work harmoniously with the Corinthian unbelievers’ lifestyle. Likewise, as with the mixture of seeds and the fact that farmers would not be able to preserve the purity of each seed’s species, God’s sanctified or separated children also would not be able to preserve their spiritual purity—their holiness—once they mix their lifestyle with the Corinthian unbelievers’ lifestyle.

Corinthian believers’ attempt to mix their holiness and righteousness Christian lifestyle with Corinthian unbelievers’ polluted and corrupt pagan lifestyle is why the Apostle Paul not only is saying that believers have NOTHING in common with unbelievers and, thus, should not fellowship with each other, but also why he is saying, in 2 Corinthians 6:15, that believers and unbelievers are not “spiritually” in agreement. Corinthian Christians’ are not in harmony with Corinthian unbelievers, because the two of them are “spiritual” opposites. For these reasons, Apostle Paul tells the Corinthian believers to: “Therefore, ‘Come out from them, and be separate, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you” (2 Corinthians 6:17, NIV; cf. Isaiah 52:11; Ezekiel 20:34,41).

If we are being observant 21st-century believers, then we have noticed that a sign of the times is the Holy Spirit SEPARATING the real Body of Christ from the institutional church, in which there are genuine believers in partnerships and fellowships with unbelievers—carnal believers, who have disbelief and unbelief; and unsaved unbelievers. As a result of modern-day believers’ unsuitable relationships, many of today’s true believers are at risk of being fed the doctrine of secular humanism, as well as other false doctrines.

By institutional church, this blogger means those numerous physical, conventional ‘church’ buildings in which believers congregate, take on a name (for example, Missionary Baptists, Pentecostals, Apostolics, Methodists, Catholics, COGICs, and so forth), have a leadership structure, offer services and programs, and support ONLY THEIR members and THEIR members’ communities). By Body of Christ, this blogger means God’s “household of faith” sons and daughters, who are the “called-out” ones (the assembly/congregation … ekklesia) of the living God. This definition means the New Testament’s Body of Christ only can be the real family of God—a SINGLE congregation or assembly comprised of ONLY believers who worship in a house not made by human hands, because they ARE the temple of the living God (cf. 2 Corinthians 6:16b)!

To be honest, Christ NEVER says that He is building His “church”—a physical structure. What Christ says is that He is “building” His ekklesia, which means He is gathering His congregation or assembly of “called-out ones.” To do so, the Lord intentionally separates His congregation or assembly of believers from the unbelievers, primarily for the purposes of worship, edification, and spiritual growth. Because of this separation, it is ONLY Jesus the Christ who adds to His ekklesia, which is why in the first century His ekklesia consisted of ONLY those believers who were born again, saved/justified, and full of the Holy Spirit!

For these reasons, in 2 Corinthians 6:15-17, the Apostle Paul is emphasizing the Lord’s pure motive behind His decision to separate believers from unsaved unbelievers. That chief reason for this separation is because there is no way to justify believers being in partnership with lawlessness—unrighteousness. Put differently, there is no reason for light and darkness to fellowship together.

That’s why the apostle is discouraging Corinthian Christians from allowing themselves to associated with (be in partnership with, . . . to MIX with) unsaved Corinthians, because there always is the clear and present danger of possibly being influenced by Corinthian unbelievers’ strong opposing pagan worship and/or pagan morality and ethics. There, indeed, also is the clear and present danger that if allowed to mix with Corinthian believers, Corinthian unbelievers might end up overpowering Corinthian believers, after influencing these believers to mix pagan Corinthian practices with Corinthian Christians’ worship of God, edification of other believers, and individual and collective spiritual growth. Inevitably, the mixing of these two spiritual “opposites”—Corinthian Christians and Corinthian unbelievers—definitely would cause Corinthian believers to be contaminated by the Corinthian unbelievers’ pagan temple beliefs and activities.

Since the apostle makes it clear in the letters to the Corinthians that it does matter what believers do with their bodies, then 21st-Christians also must never allow any unbeliever, whether saved but carnal, or unsaved, to have any control over us. The Apostle Paul makes this last point clear in his series of contrasts: believers vs. unbelievers, righteousness vs. wickedness; and light vs. darkness (v. 14); Christ vs. Belial (v. 15); faithful vs. infidels (v. 15); and temple of God vs. temple of idols (v. 16). Certainly, we must avoid, or remove ourselves from these “unequally yoked” alliances.

Indeed, as Christians, we are to avoid being in an intimate relationship with unbelievers, wickedness, darkness, Belial (Satan), infidels, and idols. Here we should note that the apostle is not saying that we must avoid ever coming in contact with opposing people or conflicting behaviors, because never having any contact with the aforesaid opposites is impossible. We live in a fallen world; therefore, we are surrounded by “unholiness and unrighteousness.” Now, there can be no doubt that the “evil one” would be influencing many, if not all, unsuitable relationships. Still, our Lord Himself, while knowing that we would inevitably have contact with the evil one, and his unbelieving children, asks God to not take us out of the world, but while we are in this world to keep us safe from the evil one (cf. John 17:15).

Be that as it may, what the Apostle Paul actually means, then, when he says to not be “unequally yoked” (to not mix with; to not form an alliance), is that believers should avoid teaming up with anyone whose goal is to corrupt or to restrain believers from fulfilling their God-given purpose. Put differently, believers must avoid being bound (tied to; yoked) together with anyone who doesn’t make working for the Lord a pleasantly productive spiritual activity. For sure, we are to avoid not only anyone who causes the kind of conflict that impedes evangelistic labor and/or chokes godly direction or purpose, but also we must avoid any person who seeks to entangle us with their impurity and lawlessness (sinfulness)—their lust, greed, idolatry, evil desire(s), and so forth.

In a nutshell, it is very crucial that we avoid the aforementioned kinds of entanglements (compromising relationships). Equally important, we should apply this “unequally yoked” biblical principle to every one of our daily activities: to our church, ministry, and other “religious” organization partnerships, to our business associations, to our personal relationships, to our marital union, and to every other alliance that would involve us being bound to, or us establishing a partnership with, anyone whose primary goal in life does not involve glorifying Father God. AMEN!