The Second Passover

May 5, 2009 ©Homer Kizer
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I, John, your brother and partner in the tribulation and the kingdom and the patient endurance that are in Jesus (Rev 1:9).

 

1.

John makes a narrative assertion that he is the brother and partner of Christian disciples in (1) the Tribulation or Affliction; in (2) the Kingdom; and in (3) the patient endurance, or the Endurance, thereby giving to endurance qualities suggestive of a specific period of time … if the Tribulation or Affliction is for a specific length of time, and if the never-ending Kingdom has a thousand year run here on earth before Satan is released from the bottomless pit, then it is reasonable to assume that the Endurance or patient endurance is for a length of time like that of the Tribulation. And while more can be asserted about the Kingdom from John’s narrative claim, it is the chirality of the Tribulation and the Endurance that is the foremost thrust of this essay.

In the letter to the angel of the church at Philadelphia, the Holy One [Christ Jesus] wrote, “Because you kept the word [ho logos] of the endurance [mou hupomonē] of me, I also you will keep from the hour of the trial” (Rev 3:10). … “The word of the endurance” is probably better rendered, The message of (about) the Endurance, making a quid pro quo relationship that has Philadelphia keeping or proclaiming the message about the Endurance corresponding to the Lord keeping Philadelphia from the hour (short while) of trail that will come upon all the inhabitants of this world. Although this verse has been used to support an alleged Philadelphia church going to a place of physical safety to bodily escape the trials that will come upon the earth during the seven endtime years, that application of the verse is false, especially considering that this alleged Philadelphia doesn’t proclaim a message about, nor even understands the Endurance.

The passage in Revelation 1:9 that has John stating he is a partner with endtime saints in the Tribulation, in the Kingdom, and in the Endurance is thin evidence to establish the existence of a previously unidentified period of time within the vision he receives while on Patmos, but when the passage is coupled with what has been taught by Philadelphia (the genuine assembly) since 2002, the period that has previously been identified as “the second half of the tribulation” assumes the identifying icon [signifier] of the Endurance, the name that Christ Jesus and that John use for this three and a half year period.

The structure or organizational pattern for the book of Revelation, beginning with chapter four, is as follows:

1.      The Tribulation, a time period of 1260 days that begins immediately after the second Passover and begins with the two witnesses’ ministry and extends to the end of the second woe, completed with the sixth Trumpet Plague.

2.     The Kingdom, a never-ending time period that overlaps the end of the Tribulation and the beginning of the Endurance, then appears again in John’s vision at the end of the Endurance. In the vision’s narrative structure, the Kingdom includes the woes and the transition of power from Babylon to the Son of Man, then reappears at the end of the Endurance to reach forward through the coming of a new heavens and new earth.

3.     The Endurance, the period following the world being baptized in spirit, thereby giving a second breath of life to all of humankind: the kingdom of this world will have been given to Christ, but the glorified Jesus will not return as the all powerful Messiah for another 1260 days. Thus, all of humankind that endures to the end shall be saved (Matt 24:13), for it will take endurance to bodily live in this world, knowing that it belongs to Christ but also knowing it is the Adversary that runs around proclaiming himself the christos, thereby making mischief for the saints.

Although the Adversary is an archangel and is far more powerful than any human being, when this spiritual king of Babylon is cast into time (Rev 12:9–10), he will be given the mind of a man as the human king of Babylon was given the mind of a beast for seven years (Dan chap 4) … the Adversary’s seven years will be the Endurance and the short while after the thousand years.

The saints will, when the spirit of God is poured out on all flesh (Joel 2:28; Matt 3:11), have the mind of Christ Jesus throughout the same period that the Adversary has the mind of a man; thus, the saints as mortal human beings cannot physically prevail against the Adversary, the fallen archangel, but they can mentally prevail by patiently enduring to the end. Hence the forty-two months seen in Revelation 13:5 which is also seen as the “time, times, and half a time” of Revelation 12:14 are called in John’s vision the Endurance.

In length, the Tribulation and the Endurance are both 1260 days long, but where the Tribulation ends, the Endurance begins so they are not the same period … the mystery of God was given to the prophets for them to announce it to the world (Rev 10:7). The prophet Amos records, “‘For the Lord God does nothing / without revealing his secret / to his servants the prophets’” (3:7). The angel tells John not to seal his vision (Rev 22:10); yet the mysterious symbolism of the vision has not been understood—and this symbolism could not be understood until Daniel’s visions, which were sealed and kept secret until the time of the end (Dan 12:4, 9; 8:17, 26), were unsealed by the chiral image of a prophet of God.

What, pray tell, is the chiral image of a prophet … the left hand of a person forms the non-symmetrical mirror image of the person’s right hand, and chirality or “handedness” (from the Greek cheiro for hand) is the description of asymmetry that prevents an object or a system from being superimposed on its mirror image. A chiral object and its mirror image are enantiomorphs (Greek for “opposite forms”). A non-chiral object (i.e., an object that can be superimposed on its mirror image) is said to be amphichiral or achiral.

A shadow and the object casting the shadow are usually achiral, for the object can be superimposed on its shadow. But here is where Scripture presents a problem that took a long time to resolve: a living object that blocks the light that is God will cast a cross-dimensional shadow that is also living, but physically living as opposed to spiritually living. When meaning is taken from Scripture through employing typological exegesis, the earthly shadow or type of a heavenly object or entity cannot be superimposed one on the other. A dimensional barrier prevents such imposition. Thus, of necessity the earthly shadow of a heavenly object is chiral, seen in the visualization of man looking up to God and God looking down at man whom He has created in His image.

The Tribulation is the last 1260 days of the Adversary’s reign over the kingdom of this world; whereas the Endurance is the first 1260 days of the Son of Man’s reign over the kingdom of this world. These two 1260 day periods are mirror images, but the reign of the Son of Man cannot be superimposed over the reign of the Adversary even though each reigns over the same kingdom of this world. Thus, the Tribulation and the Endurance are enantiomorphs.

Returning now to what is the chiral image of a prophet: words do not have inherent meaning, but must have meaning assigned to them. A prophet receives the words of God and delivers these words to Israel or to another nation or people, but these words are without any meaning but that which the reader (or reading community) assigns to them. Therefore, the words of a prophecy exist as inscribed icons in search of assigned objects (meanings). Not until God reveals the meanings He intends to be assigned to His words is the prophecy complete; therefore, the delivery of a prophecy requires the initial presentation of the words of God (the signifiers or linguistic icons) in advance of the event about which the prophecy pertains, then requires that those receiving these words hear His voice so that His meanings can be assigned to the words. Again, a prophecy is not complete when the prophet delivers the words of God. These words must also be received by someone who will then assign His meanings to them.

In the case of the visions of Daniel, God delivered the visions to Daniel who described these visions in words that were sealed and kept secret until the time of the end, meaning simply that God refused to deliver His meanings for the words of Daniel’s prophecies until the end of the age. Therefore, every assignment of meaning to Daniel’s visions between when Daniel records his visions and the time of the end is of human origin and is not of God.

In order for God to unseal Daniel’s visions at the time of the end, He must call the chiral image of a prophet and give to this person the meanings He has concealed for Daniel’s words. He doesn’t give to this person additional words, but the meanings He intends for the words that have already been recorded by the prophet Daniel … to unseal Daniel’s visions, God will call a person to reread or to read again the words that Daniel recorded two and a half millennia ago, and assign to these words the meanings He has intended these words to have from the beginning. Thus, the prophet and the one who reread prophecy are enantiomorphs, or opposite forms, with Paul recording that the visible things of this world reveal the invisible things of God (Rom 1:20) and that the physical things of this world precede the spiritual things of God (1 Cor 15:46) as in there was a first Adam, a man of mud, and there is a last Adam, a life-giving spirit. The prophet corresponds to the visible physical things of this world, and the one who rereads prophecy corresponds to the invisible spiritual things of God, thereby creating the situation that unless a person hears the voice of Jesus, the person will not hear the one who rereads prophecy.

Again, Daniel’s visions were given but not revealed; they were as utterances of a man speaking in the tongues Paul references (1 Cor chap 14) in that they did not build up the Church; they did not edify the Elect; they were unintelligible inscription until the time of the end—and the time of the end did not begin in the 2^nd-Century BCE, or in 1^st-Century CE, or in the 20^th-Century. Rather, the time of the end began when the silver-colored king Persia stirred up the bronze-colored king of Greece (Dan 11:2; 8:7), with the visible colors of the metals disclosing demonic mindsets. And this stirring up occurred in this world in the first days and months of the 21^st-Century.

Common bronze (90% copper, 10% tin) is the color of 14 carat gold-copper alloy, and polished iron is the color of silver; so the little horn on the head of Death will cause this King of the North to appear as a scale model of Babylon itself, the presently reigning hierarchy of the Adversary and the name of the humanoid image that Nebuchadnezzar saw in vision, the name taken from its head.

The Book of Revelation has not been understood even though John received the vision a little more than 1,900 years ago … as the visions of Daniel were sealed and not understandable until the time of the end, John’s vision has not been understandable until the time of the end; for comprehending John’s vision has required the unsealing of Daniel’s visions. Thus, explication of Revelation will seem needlessly technical when in reality, it is needfully technical. Understanding Revelation is difficult, though, only because the vision has not been previously understood, for the vision is fairly straightforward: it is the narrative account of the 1260 day long Tribulation, the beginning of the unending Kingdom, the 1260 day long Endurance, followed by when lawlessness again appears in the Kingdom and when the reality of the Kingdom comes to earth. So the narrative structure of Revelation is the Tribulation and Kingdom forming the chiral image of the Endurance and Kingdom.

Because the Tribulation and the Endurance are mirror images of each other, certain claims can be asserted even when there is not much Scripture to support the claims; e.g., the wrath of the Lamb, seen when the sixth seal is removed (Rev 6:12–17), is the shadow and copy of the wrath of God when the earth is harvested (Rev 14:17–20). The ministry of the two witnesses to Israel in the Tribulation will form the shadow and copy of the ministry of the Lamb to the 144,000 (Rev 14:1–5) and of the ministry of the Remnant (Rev 12:17) to the third part of humankind (Zech 13:9) in the Endurance. But taking chirality farther, the 144,000 that follow the Lamb wherever He goes in the Endurance forms the shadow and copy of human beings, when few in number (from Isa chap 24), entering into the millennial reign of Christ Jesus in the Kingdom. Thus, the resurrection of saints when judgments are revealed at the end of the Endurance forms the shadow and copy of the Kingdom’s great White Throne Judgment that occurs after the thousand years and after Satan is loosed for a short while.

If the disciple can comprehend the chiral relationship between the Tribulation/Kingdom and the Endurance/Kingdom, then only one of the reflected images needs to appear in Scripture for both to be known; e.g., what happens on day 1260 of the Endurance is reflective of what happens on day 1260 of the Tribulation, but whereas the Tribulation begins with its day 1, the Endurance ends with its day 1, meaning that day 1260 of the Tribulation butts against day 1260 of the Endurance to form a doubled day 1260 that will see dominion taken from the four kings (Dan 7:11–12) when Michael and his angels make war in heaven on Satan and his angels (Rev 12:7); will see the armies of the man of perdition swallowed by the closing of the split Mount of Olives (Zech 14:3–4; Rev 12:16; Ex 15:12; Dan 9:26); will see Satan as the present prince of the power of the air (Eph 2:2–3) cast from heaven (Rev 12:9–10) and come to earth as the Antichrist (Rev 13:11), claiming to be the Messiah; will see the world baptized in spirit (Joel 2:28; Matt 3:11) as the “vacuum” formed when Satan no longer broadcasts his nature to living creatures is filled by Christ Jesus giving to living creatures His mind and nature, thereby changing even the animal natures of the great predators (Isa 11:6–9); will see the kingdom of this world given to the Son of Man (Rev 12:15–18; Dan 7:9–14, 26–27; 2:44–45; 8:25); will see the three beasts whose lives were extended for a season and a time, plus the fourth beast who was dealt a mortal wound, appear on earth as the first beast of Revelation chapter 13.

Much happens on day 1260: the taking of the kingdom of this world from Satan and his angels at the end of the Tribulation and the giving of this single kingdom to the Son of Man at the beginning of the Endurance form one doubled day 1260, this day analogous to Joshua’s doubled day.

Therefore, those things that immediately precede the beginning of the Tribulation form the shadow and copy of those things that immediately precede the beginning of the Endurance, but because these things are outside of the Tribulation, they reflect an image outside of the Endurance—and what is specifically being addressed is the second Passover liberation of Israel, when a third of humankind, all firstborns who should have been redeemed, will be slain by death angels forming the shadow and copy of the sixth Trumpet Plague when a third of humankind, all designated firstborns of God, will be slain by the four death angels now bound at the river Euphrates.

The second Passover liberation of Israel occurs before the Tribulation begins; thus, this slaying of uncovered firstborns does not appear in John’s vision even though it is seen throughout Scripture. What is seen in John’s vision is the reflected image (the sixth Trumpet Plague) of this slaying of firstborns at a time when all of humankind will soon be the liberated firstborn son of God (Rev 18:4). But—and it here where typology functions as prophecy—because the Tribulation and the Endurance are enantiomorphs, the second Passover slaying of a firstborns at the beginning of the Tribulation does not have to be seen to be seen. The right hand enantiomer discloses the shape and structure of its left hand enantiomer, so it can be said with certainty that a third part of humankind will perish when death angels again pass over all the land at the second Passover as the death angel passed over Egypt at the first Passover.

Although the second Passover is not seen in John’s vision, its importance in the fulfillment of endtime prophecies cannot be overstated … the disciple who has been truly born of spirit and who does not cover the inner firstborn son of God that dwells within the disciple’s tent of flesh by drinking from the cup [taking the Passover sacraments of bread and wine] on the night that Jesus was betrayed need not worry about the trumpet plagues or about anything else. The inner new self that is a firstborn son of God will be condemned to irrevocable death on the night of the second Passover if this son of God is not covered by the disciple drinking from the cup. Bread and wine on every other night of the year are Cain’s offering, the fruit of the ground. On one night only is blessed unleavened bread and blessed wine the symbolical body and blood of the Lamb of God, and that night is the night Jesus was betrayed, the dark portion of the 14^th of Abib, with the month of Abib beginning with the first sighted new moon crescent following the spring equinox.

If a disciple will not drink from the cup on the night that Jesus was betrayed, the disciple will rebel against God and cannot keep from becoming part of the great falling away (2 Thess 2:3) because the disciple did not believe the truth. There is nothing more simple or more black & white in Scripture than eating the Passover on the night that Jesus was betrayed. If a disciple will not do this, then truly the disciple does not believe the truth and hence, will be destroyed because of unbelief as the nation that left Egypt perished in the wilderness because of unbelief—and as Israel in the wilderness did not die in a day but over forty years, those disciples who are of the Rebellion will not necessarily die in a day but will perish over seven years, for none of them will enter into God’s rest.

For decades the Sabbatarian Churches of God believed that they would never be a part of the Rebellion, but that no longer seems the case … if Sabbatarian disciples do not cover (by drinking from the cup on the night that Jesus was betrayed) the inner firstborn son of God on the year of the second Passover liberation of Israel, the inner new self that is a son of God will be condemned to death, and because it is condemned, it will join in the Rebellion or great falling away that occurs 220 days after the second Passover liberation of Israel; for this “falling away” is more than simple unbelief that is seen within Christendom every Sunday morning. As a linguistic icon, “great” can be assigned the meaning of “many” as in a large number, but “great” can also be assigned the meaning of “elevated” as in the disciple who keeps the commandments and teaches them to others will be called “great” in the kingdom of the heavens (Matt 5:19). Therefore, when Paul speaks of “the rebellion—apostasia” (2 Thess 2:3), he speaks of an elevated or spiritual rebellion, a “great” falling away. This rebellion is of inner new creatures that are sons of God rejecting the words of God and believing the Adversary as fallen angels had.

Again, to have an elevated or great rebellion, the rebellion is of the inner sons of God condemned to death because of these sons’ of God unbelief. The usual assignment of “many” as the meaning for the signifier “great” is based upon traditional understandings, but this assignment doesn’t adequately address either loveless Sabbatarian disciples (who do not drink from the cup on the night that Jesus was betrayed) or post second Passover’s spirit-filled Christians who return to sin after the Tribulation begins. In both cases, it is the inner new self or creature that is condemned to death while the flesh still lives; thus these Christians will not seem to have fallen away from the truth when in reality they are spiritually condemned. Of course they will deny that they are condemned; they will insist that they possess the “truth.” They will say things reminiscent of what Korah said about Moses taking too much upon himself (Num chap 16). But Paul writes, “Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false, in order that all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness” (2 Thess 2:11–12) … if Israel’s repentance in the wilderness of Paran was not accepted (Num 14:40–41), and if Israel (circumcised of heart) believing what is false will condemn the nation with a condemnation from which there is no repentance, then yes, loveless or lawless disciples can repent but that repentance will not be accepted for these disciples will still believe what is false, such is the delusion that will be sent over them.

Believing the truth is simple: the disciple only has to believe the words of Jesus, especially Matthew 5:17–20 and John 5:19–29.

 

2.

The question of what happens to the saints during the Tribulation and during the Endurance is not easily resolved in Scripture; for Scripture forms the shadow and type (is the left hand enantiomer) of what is written in the heavenly Book of Life, in which the lives of disciples are epistles (2 Cor 3:3). And because disciples in whom there is no lawlessness are “light,” and because light casts no shadow (it is those things that block the light that cast shadows) what disciples who keep the commandments do during the Tribulation is not recorded in Scripture. It is, rather, what those who are of the Rebellion do that is recorded. Therefore, it is through two sources that endtime saints are seen: (1) by how others respond to the saints, and (2) by what is written to the angels of the seven churches.

There is a third source but not a source that reveals anything about genuine pre second Passover disciples or about those who were filled with the spirit immediately following the second Passover—and this third source is Revelation chapter 7.

Because so little is truly understood about Scripture—despite nearly two millennia of commentary and explication, less is known about Christ Jesus today than the Apostle John knew in the 1^st-Century CE—matters outside of John’s vision must be addressed before his vision can be discussed. The Christian Church that today broadcasts worldwide on satellite television 24/7 is a spiritually dead organization, and is actually not of God at all, but is a 2^nd-Century heresy that has grown large through its partnering with the prince of this world … Paul identifies the Church as the Body of Christ, with disciples individually and collectively making up this Body (1 Cor 12:27). As such, again applying the principle of chirality, Jesus’ physical body forms the shadow and type of His spiritual Body. Paul supports this principle when he writes to the Romans: “We know that our old self [man] was crucified with him [Jesus] in order that the body of sin might be brought to nothing, so that we would no longer be enslaved to sin. For one who has died has been set free from sin” (6:6–7).

Earlier, Paul writes, “Do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus were baptized into his death? We were buried therefore with him by baptism into death, in order that, just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glory of the Father, we too might walk in newness of life. For if we have been united with him in a death like his, we shall certainly be united with him in a resurrection like his” (vv. 3–5).

What happened to Jesus’ body in His crucifixion, death, burial, and resurrection will happen to His spiritual Body, the Christian Church, both individually and collectively—and it is the application of the collective Body being crucified, dying, being buried, and then resurrected from death that has eluded disciples, for historically disciples have interpreted what Jesus said about the gates of Hades not prevailing against the Church He would build (Matt 16:18) as meaning that the Church would not die. Yet if the Church is the collective Body of Christ, then the Church has to die, has to be buried, and has to be resurrected or returned to life.

Even though Jesus’ physical body died and was buried and lay in the heart of the earth for three days and three nights, the gates of Hades did not prevail over His physical body for the Father raised Him from the dead after the third day—and so will it be for the collective Body of Christ, with the “third day” being the third day of the Genesis “P” creation account.

The Church of Christ Jesus was built on the receipt of the divine breath of God [pneuma Theon]: it was made alive (or brought into existence) when the glorified Jesus breathed on ten of His disciples and said, “‘Receive the Holy Spirit’” (John 20:22), and it would live for as long as disciples possessed a second breath of life received from the Father through Christ Jesus. But it would also die when a generation of disciples were not born of spirit—and how would this generation know that it wasn’t born of spirit? The generation would never have had a second breath of life, so it would lose nothing and would not know what it was missing.

As it turned out, the Apostle John lived as long as the Church Jesus built lived; the Church lived 70 years … since Justin Martyr (dob 100 CE) claims John as a contemporary, it is believed that John lived to the end of the 1^st-Century CE, or for approximately 70 years after Calvary (ca 31 CE). So since John’s death, the Christian Church as been a spiritually lifeless corpse that would be returned to life after the third day—and when returned to life, it would experience no corruption, meaning that the Church would walk as Jesus walked, and not walk as the bastard child of Greek paganism.

The Christian Church will be returned to life following the second Passover liberation of Israel, and this resurrected Church will hold the doctrines of the first apostles, meaning that it will be a recognizable sect of Judaism, the sect of the Nazarenes.

What does John say about those disciples who today identify themselves as Christians?

Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness. You know that he [Jesus] appeared to take away sins, and in him there is no sin. No one who abides in him keeps on sinning; no one who keeps on sinning has either seen him or known him. Little children, let no one deceive you. Whoever practices righteousness is righteous, as he is righteous. Whoever makes a practice of sinning is of the devil, for the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the works of the devil. No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him, and he cannot keep on sinning because he has been born of God. By this it is evident who are the children of God, and who are the children of the devil: whoever does not practice righteousness is not of God, nor is the one who does not love his brother. (1 John 3:4–10)

The Christian who practices lawlessness or makes a practice of sinning (Rom 6:16) has not been born of spirit, regardless of protestations to the contrary—and this means, simply, that the Christian Church today, because it transgresses the Sabbath commandment, is composed of disciples not born of spirit … the Christian Church today is as Israel was in Egypt: Jesus is the prophet who was like Moses (Deut 18:15–16), a prophet who speaks directly with God. And as Israel in Egypt was in physical bondage [slavery] to a human king, the Christian Church is today in bondage to sin and to the prince of this world; for if the Christian Church were not in bondage to sin, it would not present itself as the obedient slave to sin every Sunday morning.

Paul writes,

For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God's law; indeed, it cannot. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. (Rom 8:5–7)

Is it possible for the Christian Church to submit to God’s law? It is not possible, is it? For the Christian Church reads the first four verses of Romans chapter 8 then skips to verse 9:

There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of sin and death. For God has done what the law, weakened by the flesh, could not do. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in us, who walk not according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. … You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if in fact the Spirit of God dwells in you.

Assuring itself that it is a spirit-filled assembly, the Christian Church conceals its hostility to God from itself, but its hostility prevents it from walking as Jesus walked (1 John 2:6) or imitating Paul as he imitated Jesus (1 Cor 4:16; 11:1; Phil 3:17; 1 Thess 1:6) or imitating the churches of God that were in Judea (1 Thess 2:14) or keeping the precepts of the law so that its uncircumcision will be counted as circumcision (Rom 2:26).

Today’s Christian Church, in all of its many denominations, is a spiritually dead corpse that awaits resurrection after the second Passover liberation of Israel; for when resurrected to life while still dwelling in mortal bodies, the Church will be truly filled with the spirit and will have no indwelling sin or death.

Before leaving the subject, let’s look at what else John writes,

My little children, I [John] am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous. He is the propitiation for our sins, and not for ours only but also for the sins of the whole world. And by this we know that we have come to know him, if we keep his commandments. Whoever says “I know him” but does not keep his commandments is a liar, and the truth is not in him, but whoever keeps his word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in him: whoever says he abides in him ought to walk in the same way in which he walked. (1 John 2:1–6)

So we may not sin … again, when did transgressing the Sabbath quit being sin?

Coupling what John writes with what Paul writes, the Christian who does not submit to God’s law, who does not keep the commandments is a child of the devil, is now spiritually dead, and fills pews every Sunday morning around the world. Because these Christians are not now born of spirit, they have no conception of what it means to be so born. They cannot, today, imagine the change that will occur in their willingness to keep the law when they have been born of God, but willingness to keep the law and actually keeping the law by faith are different things. Whereas lawless Christians now want to label born-of-God disciples as Judaizers and heretics, they will feel great shame (as Paul felt shame for consenting to the stoning of Stephen) the morning after the second Passover. They will want to get right with God, but when the “horns” on the head of Death, the fourth king of Daniel chapter 7—each of these horns a “Christian” leader—finally recover from the second Passover enough to regain control of their means of deception, that willingness by newly born of God disciples to keep the commandments will become a desire to return the Christianity of the interregnum[1], with Christmas observance the lever used to move disciples into rebellion.

The above sentences mean what they seem to say: Zion will give birth to a “son” when disciples are liberated from indwelling sin and death. The son, a righteous Abel, does not “breathe” on his own prior to the second Passover; this son has no indwelling spiritual breath of life until the Son of Man is revealed. Rather, this son has been, and is presently being sustained by the “breath” of the last Eve—and it is not Eve that raises the dead, but the Father (John 5:21). So Eve has never been able to give a second breath of life to Christians—and the Christian Church, consisting today primarily of disciples not drawn by the Father from this world, will therefore be made alive (i.e., given a second breath of life — pneuma Theon) when liberated from sin by being filled with spirit at the second Passover.

Because these Christians are not today spiritually alive and don’t know that they are not alive, which is the heinousness of teaching that human beings are born with immortal souls, there are no (said with acknowledged exceptions) indwelling sons of God within visible Christendom that must be covered by drinking from the cup on the night that Jesus was betrayed … the irony of what will happen is that today’s lawless Christians will be born fully empowered by spirit at the second Passover so that they are well able to keep the commandments; whereas most disciples who are now drawn from this world to do work for the Father and the Son will not cover the inner firstborn son of God by drinking from the cup on the night that Jesus was betrayed if the second Passover occurs on a year like 2010. Thus, the “saved” shall be condemned and the “condemned” shall be saved, but that is not how it has to be: both those who are now born of spirit and those who will be born of spirit can join together as witnesses to testify that all who practice righteousness are righteous and will be saved. Unfortunately, the testimony of Scripture is that most Christians will rebel against the Father and the Son when the man of perdition (i.e., the lawless one — 2 Thess 2:3) is revealed—and the “saved” that rebel will be condemned because they did not love the Truth.

The testimony of Scripture is that the Father will not accept the mishmash of customs concerning taking the sacraments of bread and wine that have developed over the past two millennia … if a person has truly been born of spirit, the person had better drink from the cup on the dark portion of the 14^th of Abib. But for the person who professes Christ but who has not been drawn from this world—this person having no indwelling firstborn son of God within the person’s fleshly body—whenever and however the person takes or does not take the Lord’s supper doesn’t matter. The person is spiritually lifeless, and will not receive a second breath of life until after death angels again pass over all the land, slaying uncovered firstborns as the firstborns of Egypt were slain so long ago. Therefore, taking the Passover sacraments on the night that Jesus was betrayed is only of concern for those disciples who have truly been born of spirit in this era of spiritual darkness.

What, now, is the benefit of having been drawn from this world prior to the second Passover liberation of Israel? The benefits are many, for we have practiced walking uprightly before God under the cover (mantle or garment) of grace so that when the Son of Man is revealed and disciples are filled with spirit, we can easily walk in righteousness before the Father and the Son. We have had opportunity to store up treasure in heaven, and we stand as pillars on the foundation that Paul laid in heavenly Jerusalem. The mysteries of God have been committed to us; so in many ways we benefit from having been drawn from this world prior to life being returned to the Christian Church.

We are to bear fruit in the darkness of this world so that when the glorified Christ Jesus looks for fruit He will find that which He seeks … fruit borne in darkness lacks sweetness, and so it is with those of us who explicate the mysteries of God. We don’t deliver a message that is sweet in the stomach, but a message that is bitter; for the message is that as the fathers of Israel that left Egypt perished in the wilderness because of their unbelief, today’s Christian Church will perish in the Tribulation because of unbelief. And as, in a virtual man for man replacement, the children of Israel replaced their fathers and entered into God’s rest behind Joshua [in Greek, Iēsous — from Acts 7:45], the third part of humanity (Zech 13:9) will replace the Christian Church and enter into salvation as they follow Jesus [in Greek, Iēsous — from Acts 4:10] across dimensions.

Is it not bitterness to look across the greater Christian Church, steeped in lawlessness but also manifesting a certain goodness in an utterly corrupt world, and know in advance that with very few exceptions (a Joshua and a Caleb), all of the Church will perish in the lake of fire? Doesn’t looking at friends and family members who will this coming Sunday be in the services of a Christian Church and knowing that they will, most likely, rebel against God when truly born of spirit produce great bitterness in the stomach? Eating this message about salvation coming to us is sweet in the mouth, but in the stomach, there is bitterness when we realize just how many seemingly good people will be condemned to the lake of fire because of their unwillingness to believe the truth.

Those Sabbatarians disciples who are today overly concerned about what happens to the saints during the trumpet plagues, all of which occur after the seventh seal is removed, really need not worry about what happens if they do not have the spirit of prophecy; for they will be bodily dead, resting in their graves, waiting for the resurrection when judgments are revealed. Thus, those disciples who do not today take the Passover sacraments at all, or who (as Latter Day Saints do) substitute taking white bread and water weekly for the annual taking of unleavened bread and wine on the night Jesus was betrayed, or who quarterly take crackers and grape juice in a celebration of the Lord’s Supper will form the core of the great falling away—not because they did not cover a non-existent inner new self, but because they have not practiced walking uprightly before God and will quickly take sin back inside themselves, thereby committing blasphemy against the spirit. These disciples do not presently believe the truth; they will not believe next year; and most of them will not believe even after they have been filled with spirit. Hence they will eagerly rebel even when they know they should keep the commandments. For them, keeping the commandments will not seem important.

To repeat the above, for Sabbatarian disciples who are today truly born of spirit, covering the inner firstborn son of God by drinking from the cup on the night that Jesus was betrayed is absolutely essential; for if these scattered disciples do not drink from the cup on one particular day of the year (the dark portion of the 14^th of Abib) of the year of the second Passover, those inner firstborn sons of God will be condemned and will perish. But Sabbatarian disciples are only a minute fraction of those disciples who will be filled with spirit following death angels again passing over all the land—and since few if any of these disciples will be previously born of God, the failure of these disciples to drink from the cup on the night that Jesus was betrayed doesn’t cost them their salvation as it will for Sabbatarian disciples, for these lawless disciples are today the children of Satan and they have their lawlessness “covered” by being consigned to disobedience.

How far afield the Father and Son will go when filling disciples with spirit is not now known, and might not be knowable until after the fact; for love has few boundaries. Thus, the question remains, will every person who claims to be a Christian be filled with spirit? Or will only those who take some form of the sacraments be filled? Assuming the smaller number is accurate (i.e., only those who eat the Lord’s Supper will be filled with spirit), approximately a billion Christians will suddenly be liberated from bondage to sin … now what? Two-plus billion firstborns will be dead. Governmental leaders will be dead. The nation of China will be devastated; Europe will be devastated. Only the local church will have any credibility, and local fellowships will be divided, Arians against Trinitarians, with these fellowships making war against one another until the end of the Tribulation (i.e., the first 1260 days of the seven endtime years) … it will not take long for rebellion against God to occur.

The world is not prepared for mass death … caskets markers and crematoriums have very limited capacity in industrialized nations. Following the second Passover, burying the dead will overwhelm individual consciousnesses and governing agencies, leaving survivors stunned and without organized guidance except for that of the Church.

The “birth” of a spiritual Cain occurs when the lawless one is revealed (2 Thess 2:3), with the birth of Cain occurring 220 days after the second Passover. At that time or immediately following the birth of Cain, the fifth seal of the Scroll is removed (Rev 6:9–11), which will have Cain slaying his righteous brother.

Of those approximately one billion newly born Christians, almost all of them will rebel and will seek to kill those Sabbatarian disciples who had extended the hand of fellowship to them only weeks earlier. But some (a fellowship or two from each denomination) will join with those Sabbatarians who have been, for decades, keeping the precepts of the law and having their uncircumcision counted as circumcision (Rom 2:26). And again, because none of the disciples who remain unstained by this world will casts shadows, they are not seen in Scripture so exactly what happens to them is only suggested by what the lawless do and by what Christ Jesus does—and following removal of the fifth seal the sixth seal is removed from the Scroll, and the world, great and small, perceives the sixth seal to be the wrath of the Lord (Rev 6:15–17) … why would His wrath suddenly be poured out with fury if newly born sons of God are not being slain wholesale by Christians who have rebelled against God?

Is the above plain enough? In the lacunae between the opening of the sixth and seventh seals, pre-Tribulation saints as well as faithful newly born saints, except for the remnant, disappear from Scripture for they are sealed in death. And what sets the remnant apart from other saints is that they hold the testimony of Jesus, which is the spirit of prophecy. They know what will happen during the remainder of the Tribulation and throughout the Endurance; thus, they will be witnesses to the third part of humankind during the Endurance as the two witnesses are witnesses to Israel during the Tribulation.

The lacunae between the opening of the sixth and seventh seals denotes a new beginning, with the grafting of natural Israel to the Root of Righteousness and the sealing of the 144,000 occurring on the far side of the gap.

 

3.

The nineteen centuries between when the Apostle John died and when prophecy was reread according to the calling of God—a period that constitutes a spiritual interregnum—has significance for the few remaining Sabbatarian disciples left from the last Elijah’s[2] second attempt to “breathe” life into the Church as the first Elijah breathed life into the son of the widow of Zarephath (1 Kings 17:17–24). These disciples assigned significance to the 1900 years between Calvary (ca 31 CE) and when Herbert W. Armstrong’s ministry began in 1931, without realizing that Armstrong’s ministry would end this second attempt to return the Church to life; that a third and successful attempt would begin 40 years after Armstrong who, through his son, rejected revelation.

The 1900 years between 100–102 CE (Hebrew years 3861–3862), the time frame for the Apostle John’s death, and January 2002 (Hebrew year 5762), when the call came to reread prophecy is 100 lunar 19 year time-cycles, with the moon having the reflected glory of the sun as the Church reflects the glory of the Son — and there is no glory in lawlessness. This imagery of “glory” is seen in the great sign that appeared in heaven in John’s vision: “a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars” (Rev 12:1). John’s vision has the Woman being Israel, who gives birth to a male child, “one who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron,” but who “was caught up to God and to his throne” (v. 5). Reading the sign will have the congregation in the wilderness functioning as the moon, and Christ’s Jesus’ righteousness as the garment of grace functioning as the sun. The appearance of this “sign” in John’s vision in the narrative portion John identified as the Kingdom causes the Kingdom to predate the Tribulation as the Kingdom postdates the Endurance.

Israel, now, is the Church or Assembly or Congregation that predates the birth of Christ Jesus, thereby giving to Israel the continuity that Paul addresses when he writes,

But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast in God and know his will and approve what is excellent, because you are instructed from the law; and if you are sure that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth—you then who teach others, do you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law. For, as it is written, “The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you.”

For circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision. So, if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the precepts of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? Then he who is physically uncircumcised but keeps the law will condemn you who have the written code and circumcision but break the law. For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God. (Rom 2:17–29 emphasis added)

Elsewhere, Paul writes,

I ask, then, has God rejected his people? By no means! For I myself am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, a member of the tribe of Benjamin. God has not rejected his people whom he foreknew. Do you not know what the Scripture says of Elijah, how he appeals to God against Israel? “Lord, they have killed your prophets, they have demolished your altars, and I alone am left, and they seek my life.” But what is God's reply to him? “I have kept for myself seven thousand men who have not bowed the knee to Baal.” So too at the present time there is a remnant, chosen by grace. But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works; otherwise grace would no longer be grace. / What then? Israel failed to obtain what it was seeking. The elect obtained it, but the rest were hardened …

So I ask, did they stumble in order that they might fall? By no means! Rather through their trespass salvation has come to the Gentiles, so as to make Israel jealous. Now if their trespass means riches for the world, and if their failure means riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their full inclusion mean! / Now I am speaking to you Gentiles. Inasmuch then as I am an apostle to the Gentiles, I magnify my ministry in order somehow to make my fellow Jews jealous, and thus save some of them. For if their rejection means the reconciliation of the world, what will their acceptance mean but life from the dead? If the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, so is the whole lump, and if the root is holy, so are the branches. / But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, although a wild olive shoot, were grafted in among the others and now share in the nourishing root of the olive tree, do not be arrogant toward the branches. If you are, remember it is not you who support the root, but the root that supports you. Then you will say, “Branches were broken off so that I might be grafted in.” That is true. They were broken off because of their unbelief, but you stand fast through faith. So do not become proud, but fear. For if God did not spare the natural branches, neither will he spare you. Note then the kindness and the severity of God: severity toward those who have fallen, but God's kindness to you, provided you continue in his kindness. Otherwise you too will be cut off. And even they, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God has the power to graft them in again. For if you were cut from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and grafted, contrary to nature, into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these, the natural branches, be grafted back into their own olive tree.

Lest you be wise in your own sight, I want you to understand this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And in this way all Israel will be saved, as it is written,

“The Deliverer will come from Zion,

he will banish ungodliness from Jacob”;

“and this will be my covenant with them

when I take away their sins.”

As regards the gospel, they are enemies of God for your sake. But as regards election, they are beloved for the sake of their forefathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable. For just as you were at one time disobedient to God but now have received mercy because of their disobedience, so they too have now been disobedient in order that by the mercy shown to you they also may now receive mercy. For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all. (Rom 11:1–7, 11–32)

The above citation from Paul’s treatise to the Romans is lengthy but is incorporated into this text to illustrate that the 1^st-Century Christian Church understood that Israel would be brought to Christ, not through the cross, the mark of death, but through the disobedience of Gentile converts … just as the disobedience of natural Israelites caused them to be branches broken off from the Root of Righteousness so that Gentiles as wild olive scions could be grafted to Christ, the lawless wild branches would be in turn broken off so that natural Israelites could be returned to righteousness; for it is not the Jew who is disobedient or the Gentile who is disobedient that is circumcised of heart, but it is the one who keeps the precepts of the law by faith that has his or her heart cleansed so that this person can be circumcised with a circumcision not of hands (Col 2:11).

Centuries before Paul wrote the prophet Jeremiah recorded the words of the Lord:

Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will punish all those who are circumcised merely in the flesh—Egypt, Judah, Edom, the sons of Ammon, Moab, and all who dwell in the desert who cut the corners of their hair, for all these nations are uncircumcised, and all the house of Israel are uncircumcised in heart. (9:25–26)

And before Jeremiah, Moses records the Lord commanding the children of Israel to, “‘Circumcise therefore the foreskin of your heart, and be no longer stubborn’” (Deut 10:16), and “‘when all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the Lord your God has driven you, and return to the Lord your God, you and your children, and obey his voice in all that I command you today, with all your heart and with all your soul, then the Lord your God will … circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live’” (Deut 30:1–3, 6).

It will take faith for Israel, in a far land, to turn to the Lord and return to the covenant, which rabbinical Judaism believes it never left, but which prophets from Moses to Jeremiah to Jesus to Paul say Israel never entered—and nothing has changed in the interregnum. But everything will change once the second Passover occurs; for the resurrected Christian Church as the Body of Christ will be delivered into the hand of the man of perdition for the destruction of the flesh as Jesus was betrayed and taken so that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled … once the Son of Man is revealed (Luke 17:30), disciples will no longer be cloaked by the garment of Christ Jesus’ righteousness. As the Body of Christ disciples are also the Body of the Son of Man: they will be disrobed or unclothed when filled with spirit for they will no longer need the garment of grace. And whereas Gentiles were called to make natural Israel jealous (Rom 11:11, 14 — no Gentile living as a Gentile will make a Jew jealous; only an uncircumcised Gentile living as a Jew will make a Jew jealous), these Gentile disciples that were formerly committed to lawlessness will return to lawlessness in the Rebellion of day 220, thereby giving to Israel the chirality that will have natural Israelites grafted to Christ in the 21^st-Century as Gentiles were grafted to this Root of Righteousness because of Israel’s lawlessness in the 1^st-Century.

Rabbinical Judaism’s claims for its own righteousness echo the claims of 1^st-Centuy Pharisees. Thus only when rabbinical Judaism abandons these claims can the nation come to Christ. And the death of its firstborns at the second Passover will cause Judaism to reexamine what it has previously taught about a Greek storyteller … reexamination is not, however, acceptance; for the grafting of the natural branches onto the Root is seen in John’s vision, beginning with the intercalary chapter 7. The “144,000 sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel” (Rev 7:4) is the same 144,000 that “follow the Lamb wherever he goes” (Rev 14:4), and though this 144,000 is a symbolic number, it is also all of natural Israel that will enter alive into the Endurance, meaning simply that of today’s perhaps forty million natural Jews, their numbers greatly reduced by the Holocaust, very few will follow Christ. How many will actually be grafted unto righteousness cannot be determined, but this grafting will cost all but the 144,000 their lives.

Reviewing for a moment: the number of truly born of spirit disciples alive today might be as low as 7,000, the number the Lord gave Elijah of those who had not bowed their knee to Baal. Certainly there are not many. But when the second Passover occurs, approximately a billion now-lawless disciples will be born of spirit, and born filled with or empowered by the spirit. These billion “Christians” will not have practiced walking uprightly before God, and will not long walk uprightly. Yet when they are born of spirit, they are without indwelling sin or death; they will be righteous as Abel was righteous.

But as the first Eve gave birth to two sons, 220 days into the Tribulation the lawless one (i.e., the man of perdition) will be revealed, and the Rebellion occurs (2 Thess 2:3), with this rebellion against God giving birth to a spiritual Cain that will kill his righteous brother. The removal of the fifth seal from the Scroll (Rev 6:9–11) addresses the spiritual Cain killing righteous Abel.

The removal of the sixth seal is humanly described as the wrath of the Lamb, and with the Rebellion and with Cain killing Abel the wrath of the Lamb should be expected.

Because spirit-filled saints are light, they cast no shadow and as such they are not seen in Scripture; so exactly how many saints do not rebel against God cannot be determined. What is known is that only a remnant will enter into the Endurance; so most saints will either rebel against God or physically perish during the first ten months or so of the Tribulation. And we have arrived at the lacunae between the removal of the sixth and seventh seals.

 

4.

Anchored in the lacunae between removal of the sixth and seventh seals is that intercalary chapter 7, the new beginning for the Church of Jesus Christ: the “great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages” (Rev 7:9), the great multitude that the angel identifies as “‘the ones coming out of the great tribulation’” (v. 14), is the third part of humankind that calls upon the name of God and the name of the Lamb, the people about whom the Lord will say, “They are my people” (Zech 13:9).

This third part of humankind is not today “Christian,” doesn’t not identify itself as “Christian,” and will not claim any association with Christianity prior to the second Passover liberation of Israel. This third part will not be born of spirit until the world is baptized in spirit when the kingdom is given to the Son of Man; thus this great multitude comes out of the Endurance. They will be those human beings who, by having endured to the end, will be saved (Matt 24:13).

John dates the intercalary chapter 7 to after the sixth seal was opened (Rev 7:1); so the first six seals are opened before the 144,000 are “sealed.” And only after the 144,000 are sealed does the great multitude come into existence. As such, the 144,000 are sealed during the Tribulation and before the Endurance; they are sealed during the first 1260 days of the seven endtime years … in the construction of a timeline for the Tribulation, the Kingdom, and the Endurance, the 144,000 stand on Mount Zion with the Lamb, who comes to fight on a day of battle when nations have gathered against Jerusalem (Zech 14:2–4), both a physical city and after the thousand years, the heavenly city constructed of glorified disciples (Rev 21:2, 9–10) that constitute the Bride of Christ.

The 144,000 will flee through the split Mount of Olives to escape the flood that is sent against them (Rev 12:16), with this flood being an army similar to Pharaoh’s army that was swallowed by the Sea of Reeds. Only instead of water taking the lives of men as the Sea of Reeds took the lives of Pharaoh and his army and as the Flood in the days of Noah took the lives of men, it will be the split granite monolith known as the Mount of Olives, a stone not cut by human hands (Dan 2:45), that swallows (by closing upon the armies of the man of perdition) the lives of men (Ex 15:12), thereby bringing to his end the prince who had come to destroy the city of Jerusalem and the sanctuary (Dan 9:26).

In the days of Noah, the world was baptized into death because of its disobedience. The world was given into the hand of the spiritual king of Babylon, the old serpent, Satan the devil. Thus, when the Lord “liberated” Israel from the hand of Pharaoh, who had to have his heart supernaturally hardened so that he could serve as a type of the prince of this world, the Lord delivered Israel from death by crossing the Sea of Reeds on dry land … this is what’s meant by Paul writing that “death reigned from Adam to Moses” (Rom 5:14), for on the other side of the water Israel received the commandments of God. Elsewhere Paul writes “that the person who does [keeps] the commandments shall live by them” (Rom 10:5); i.e., the person has passed from death into life without coming under judgment if the person hears the words of the Lord and believes these words (John 5:24) by faith (the negative connotation translators have given to Paul’s allusion to Leviticus 18:5 is not in what Moses told Israel about keeping the commandments being the cause for life).

But crossing the Sea of Reeds on dry land as symbolism of being liberated from death was only the beginning of a journey that would see Israel at Sinai given the living words of the Lord, given these commandments with the expectation that they would be kept; for the journey begun would see, with the exception of Joshua and Caleb, the entirety of the nation numbered in the census of the second year perish in the wildernesses of Sin/Zin because of unbelief. It was the children of the nation that left Egypt that entered into God’s rest.

Following Moses by faith will liberate an Israelite from death by extending to the Israelite the promise of inheriting eternal life, but following Moses does not give to the person eternal life. Only the Father through Christ Jesus can give eternal life to the person.

The juxtaposition that hasn’t been well explored is that of the 144,000 passing through the split Mount of Olives being analogous to Christ Jesus rising from the rock tomb, with passing through the cut stone symbolizing resurrection from death … unlike the remnant of the Woman’s offspring (Rev 12:17), with the Woman’s offspring being the Sabbatarian Church, that enters the Endurance as physically living human beings, the 144,000 were not born of spirit when the Tribulation began. Prior to being “sealed” by God after the sixth seal was opened, the 144,000 were observant Jews that by faith kept the commandments in a world delivered into the hand of the man of perdition.

Paul, referencing the Moab covenant (Deut chap 29–32), writes that the observant Jew who has by faith returned to the Lord when in a far land has only to profess with the mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in the heart that the Father raised Jesus from the dead to be saved (Rom 10:6–9). The 144,000 will have so professed or they wouldn’t follow the Lamb; thus passing through the split Mount of Olives serves for the 144,000 as the visible “sign” of entering into a new life in Christ Jesus, with passing through the rock serving as baptism served for the Woman’s offspring. Instead of being baptized into water and into the death of the old self, the 144,000 will be baptized into life and into a resurrection like Christ Jesus’.

The 144,000 function for the natural descendants of the patriarch as the children of Israel functioned in the wilderness as a replacement for the nation that, because of unbelief, did not enter into God’s rest—and a person needs to hold this declaration in tension with the realization that the great multitude that “‘have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb’” (Rev 7:14), this great multitude being approximately half of the third part of humanity, functions for Christianity as the nearly man-for-man replacement of Israel that is seen between Numbers 1:46 and Numbers 26:51 … Israel was formerly a physically circumcised nation but is now a circumcised of heart (or spiritually circumcised) nation. Approximately a third part of the world professes to be “Christian,” or professes to be circumcised of heart, but this third part is as lawless as the nation of Israel was that left Egypt. Thus, Christianity will perish during the seven endtime years as the nation that left Egypt perished during the forty years Israel wandered in the Wildernesses of Sin/Zin, and Christianity will be replaced by its children, which will be the third part of humankind, born of spirit when the world is baptized in spirit (Joel 2:28; Matt 3:11). So the 144,000 is not a replacement number of Israelites for either natural Israel or for the Christian Church, but is rather, the chiral image of those Israelites who will begin the Millennium as human beings filled with inherent “life.” For all of the world will, in the Millennium, follow the Lamb of God wherever He leads, and will learn the song of redemption, and will keep themselves undefiled by sin and the ideologies of this present world … it will be the ideologies of this present world that, like the many foreign women Solomon married, eventually enter into Millennium and cause or allow the saints to be deceived by the Adversary when he is loosed from the bottomless pit after the thousand years.

For pedagogical clarity let it be said that the 144,000 function as the shadow of those few human beings that will bodily begin the Millennium.

A person’s left hand is the non-symmetrical mirror or chiral image of the person’s right hand, but this does not mean that the person’s left hand is the same size as the person’s right hand; thus, it would be inappropriate to state that 144,000 human beings will begin the Millennium even though the prophet Isaiah records the Lord saying that He will empty the earth and men will be few in number (Isa chap 24). What can be stated is that after the earth has been harvested at the end of this era, with most human beings alive when the Endurance begins either glorified or condemned to the lake of fire, it will be only those human beings who have not sinned and who would have not taken judgment upon themselves that will enter into the Millennium—and this will not be a large number.

As the 144,000 will be “virgins” (i.e., not defiled by sin — the logic for this juxtaposition will be explored elsewhere), the third part of humanity, born of spirit when the world is baptized in spirit, will also be virgins … they are the virgins about whom Jesus said that five were foolish and five were wise (Matt 25:1–12), and when coupled with numerous references to one being taken and one being left, the logic for stating that of the 2+ billion human beings that compose the third part of humankind only half will enter into the kingdom has solid footing. Hence, the great multitude that is separated by John’s narrative from those saints that must be killed as earlier saints were killed (Rev 6:9–11) is not today Christian and will not be “Christian” at any time prior to the beginning of the seven endtime years. This great multitude is not included in the two parts of the little ones against which the Lord of Hosts turns His hand (Zech 13:7–8). And this great multitude will number more than a billion people.

The number of human beings that will be physically alive to begin Christ’s millennial reign will be few and may be no more than 144,000 … whereas the 144,000 referenced in Revelation chapter 14 will be glorified, they form the time-linked shadow of those human beings that will start civilization over again here on earth.

The remnant of the offspring of the Woman (Rev 12:17) that the Adversary pursues into the Endurance is all that remains of the “Christian” Church liberated from indwelling sin and death at the second Passover—this remnant includes both the seven named churches and the single fellowship of every other church that will cross from death to life as the seven pairs of clean animals and single pair of every unclean animal entered the Ark with Noah and crossed from one world into the next world.

As the seven named churches coexisted in the 1^st-Century, they will coexist in the 21^st-Century when the Body of Christ is resurrected from death and revealed or disrobed (again, Luke 17:30) by the garment of grace being stripped away from Christians once they are liberated from indwelling sin and death by being filled with spirit. But the letters are not then delivered to these seven churches; the letters are not delivered until the beginning of the Endurance.

Liberation from indwelling sin and death comes at the second Passover, and comes through filling every disciple (as if the disciple were a vessel) with spirit [pneuma Theon] so that there is no room within the disciple for lawlessness. And because the disciple will be filled with spirit, the Torah/Law will written on hearts and placed in the minds of disciples: the first covenant, or Passover covenant made on the night that Israel left Egypt will finally have ended, and disciples will be under the New Covenant.

However, before the New Covenant can be implemented, death angels will again pass over all the land as the death angel passed over all of Egypt so long ago. Thus disciples will not be liberated from indwelling sin and death until the second Passover of the year so that those disciples who were spiritually defiled or who were on a long journey (i.e., not physically able to take the Passover) can cover themselves by drinking from the cup … the second Passover occurs on the second Passover because it is the second Passover, a declarative statement sure to trip those disciples who remain carnally minded.

The filling of disciples with the spirit of God and the stripping away of grace to reveal these disciples will function as the last Eve [Zion] giving birth to a nation in a day (Isa 66:7–8), and will therefore produce a separation of disciples from the Father and the Son (although not a separation from Christ’s love); for a man doesn’t marry his body but marries his bride. A separation has to occur. And the liberation of Israel from indwelling sin means Israel will enter the Tribulation without indwelling sin, but also without the covering of grace, without being one with Christ Jesus. Disciples will enter the Tribulation being able to keep the commandments if that is what they desire, or able to return to sin if that is their desire. And if they return to sin, they will commit blasphemy against the spirit that fills them; for in a visualization of what occurs, they will have to reject or expel some of the spirit that fills them in order to take sin within themselves, with this rejection of the spirit being the blasphemy committed.

The second Passover recovery of Israel from sin and death during the seven years of the Tribulation and the Endurance is of such importance that Israel will forget about the exodus from Egypt (Jer 16:14–15; 23:7–8). Yet, today, Christendom either feigns ignorance of the second Passover, or is ignorant by neglect of what is about to happen. As such, great will be the inescapable rebellion that follows the condemnation of indwelling firstborn sons of God. And it is the realization that rebellion against God is inescapable by those disciples who, because they were unwilling to believe the truth, do not cover their sins by taking the Passover sacraments on the night that Jesus was betrayed that changes much of what has been previously taught about Sabbatarian disciples being able to enter the kingdom if they were willing to die for what they believe during the Tribulation.

The above is a long convoluted sentence … reduced to its essential element, the sentence says that Sabbatarian disciples who are today absolutely confident in their righteousness cannot escape rebelling against God if they do not drink from the cup on the night that Jesus was betrayed. They will join the rebellion because the inner firstborn son of God was not covered when death angels passed over the land, and this inner firstborn son will be condemned to the second death.

Failure to take the sacraments on the night that Jesus was betrayed will cause Sabbatarian disciples to be part of the rebellion, not victims of the rebellion. It will be these Sabbatarian disciples that will betray other Sabbatarians and will hate other Sabbatarians (Matt 24:10). They are presently without love, and between now and the beginning of the Tribulation it is unlikely that they will develop love for brethren or neighbors. So through something as minor as the calendar issue these loveless disciples will trip themselves and not take the Passover sacraments on the night Jesus was betrayed, thereby leaving the indwelling sons of God uncovered when the death angels again pass over all the land.

The two witnesses are clothed in sackcloth (mourning garb) because they know, from the moment their ministry begins, that disciples who outwardly profess to love the Lord will rebel against the Father and the Son, and cannot avoid rebelling because they do not, did not believe the truth. In many cases, the two witnesses will personally know the rebels, who will include close relatives.

The two witnesses will also know that genuine disciples will be martyred and unbelieving disciples will be condemned to the lake of fire without repentance being possible. Their mourning will be real, and will be ongoing as the dead continue to die … those genuine disciples will be Sabbatarians who drank from the cup on the night that Jesus was betrayed and who enter the Tribulation liberated from indwelling sin; they will enter as acceptable sacrifices to the Lord. Sin will not be able to harm them (Rev 6:5–6), but they are also numbered among those disciples who will be killed as the saints sleeping under the altar were killed. And it is this martyring or sacrificing that these Sabbatarians are not today prepared to accept, for most of them still believe that they will be physically spared from death even though Jesus tells them that will not be the case … if these Sabbatarians seek to save their physical lives, they will end up losing both physical life and spiritual life.

The above is, from a human perspective, extremely fatalistic … what is the benefit to keeping the commandments, especially the Sabbath, if the act of keeping them will get the person killed?

(Frankly, I would write none of this if I were not called to do so. I have seen enough death to hate death, and that is the point: the Tribulation is about the great multitude seeing enough death that these human beings will do whatever it takes to end death, even if that “whatever” is keeping the commandments of God when faced with the loss of their own physical life. The Endurance is about the great multitude believing that God will deliver them, whether in simply supplying their daily needs when they cannot buy or sell, or when facing the Adversary who will claim to be the messiah. … I’m certain Jeremiah wasn’t excited about telling Judah and Jerusalem that the Lord was bringing the king of Babylon against them to destroy the land and to take the people captive; Jeremiah understood what the destruction of Jerusalem entailed. But he was given a job to do, and he was told by the Lord, “‘They will fight against you, but they shall not prevail against you’” (Jer 1:19). And so it will be during the Tribulation for all who are of Philadelphia.)

Once the Tribulation begins the saints will be killed, sacrificed as Jesus was sacrificed; for the disciple is not above his teacher (Matt 10:24–25).

This is definitely not what the splintered Churches of God want to hear. They want to be told what Herbert Armstrong told them about going to Petra where the saints would live somewhat comfortably while the world suffers, or what Ellen G. White told them about going to heaven for a thousand years. They do not want to be told the truth, and they will not believe the truth when told.

It is only Philadelphia that will be kept from the hour of trial, and Philadelphia will be kept because it has done a work that other Sabbatarian disciples were unwilling to do, a work that placed this fellowship into the same grouping of madman prophets as Shamaiah of Nehelam would have placed Jeremiah of Anathoth (Jer 29:26–27). But it was Jeremiah whom the Lord vindicated.

The sacrifice or mass martyrdom of spirit-filled Sabbatarian disciples does not occur long into the Tribulation, but will begin about Christmas time of the year of the second Passover … for 220 days, the length of time that it takes for Babylon to regain its equilibrium after the second Passover slaying of uncovered firstborns, Sabbatarians (especially Philadelphians) have essentially free reins for they “called” what happened (the death of a third of humanity) before it happened. But false prophets will arise before the dead are cold, and these false prophets will emphatically state that what happened was the sixth Trumpet Plague, that they “know” where humanity is in the Tribulation, and that they are to be trusted when they should not be believed about any prophecy.

The world will be eager to believe a lie, for all peoples not filled with spirit will still belong to the present prince of this world.

Sabbatarian disciples are today a divided group, with every disciple doing what is right in his or her own eyes. There is no unity of message, nor even unified acceptance of a calendar. But the cure for disharmony is death: the Father and the Son will not permit disciples who do not keep the commandments and hold the testimony of Jesus to bear witness to the great multitude, but will, rather, send these disciples to the grave.

The above cannot be overly emphasized: “the testimony of Jesus” is the spirit of prophecy (Rev 19:10). Therefore, if Sabbatarian disciples (who keep the commandments) do not also possess the spirit or breath of prophecy, these disciples will die during the Tribulation and will not enter into the Endurance. They will not be allowed to confuse or mislead the great multitude.

The Lord used many signs and wonders to show that He was working through Moses, but Israel was not impressed by signs even though they feared hearing the voice of the Lord. Thus, endtime Israel enters into “life” in the middle of the on-going tenth plague, with the Passover Lamb of God already sacrificed and with Israel roasting the lamb with its fiery sins. Regardless of when the disciple is born of spirit (1^st-Century through 21^st-Century), the disciple is “born” after the Lamb is slain and before the death angels pass over all the land; thus the disciple finds himself (or herself) living during the first six hours of the long spiritual night that began at Calvary. The last six hours of this long night contain the opening of the seven seals of the Scroll, with the hour of trial that is to come being the sixth Trumpet Plague. The seventh Trumpet Plague of the seventh seal will see the dawn of the new day, with the Light returning to fight on a (note the indefinite article) day of battle (Zech 14:3–4).

The visible separation of Israel from Egypt that came with the first nine plagues (Ex chaps 5–11) will again be seen in the Tribulation, when the Lord makes a distinction between the three parts of the little ones (Zech 13:7–9), but no additional outward separation is presently being made. Outward separation has already been made, and is made through drinking from the cup on the night that Jesus was betrayed. Israel drinks and those who are of the world, including biological Israel, do not drink from the cup on the night that Jesus was betrayed—and if Sabbatarian disciples, after of decades of covering themselves by drinking from the cup, choose not to drink on the night that Jesus was betrayed in 2010 or in any other year, then their covering in previous years will be of no value to them. They will be as uncovered Egyptians were when the death angel passed over all the land. If they are physical firstborns, they will perish physically. And the firstborn son of God dwelling within the uncovered tent of flesh will be condemned to the second death.

The burden that God places upon the two witnesses will be to mourn for the living as well as the dead.

 

5.

John dates his vision: “I was in spirit in the Lord’s day” (Rev 1:10). As John uses the identifying phrase, the Lord’s day isn’t a day of the week, but the day of the Lord; i.e., when the kingdom of this world is given to the Son of Man. And the kingdom is not given to the Lamb on many different days, but given only one time on one day.

About this one day, John records,

Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven, saying, “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.” And the twenty-four elders who sit on their thrones before God fell on their faces and worshiped God, saying,

“We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty,

who is and who was,

for you have taken your great power

and begun to reign.

The nations raged,

but your wrath came,

and the time for the dead to be judged,

and for rewarding your servants, the prophets and saints,

and those who fear your name,

both small and great,

and for destroying the destroyers of the earth.”

Then God's temple in heaven was opened, and the ark of his covenant was seen within his temple. There were flashes of lightning, rumblings, peals of thunder, an earthquake, and heavy hail. (Rev 11:15–19)

Although the Kingdom begins with the Woman (Rev 12:1), the Kingdom’s effective beginning is when the two witnesses are raised from death (Rev 11:11); for this scene was also witnessed by the Prophet Daniel and described by him from the Lord’s perspective:

As I [Daniel] looked,

thrones were placed,

and the Ancient of Days took his seat;

his clothing was white as snow,

and the hair of his head like pure wool;

his throne was fiery flames;

its wheels were burning fire.

A stream of fire issued

and came out from before him;

a thousand thousands served him,

and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him;

the court sat in judgment,

and the books were opened.

I looked then because of the sound of the great words that the horn was speaking. And as I looked, the beast was killed, and its body destroyed and given over to be burned with fire. As for the rest of the beasts, their dominion was taken away, but their lives were prolonged for a season and a time.

I saw in the night visions,

and behold, with the clouds of heaven

there came one like a son of man,

and he came to the Ancient of Days

and was presented before him.

And to him was given dominion

and glory and a kingdom,

that all peoples, nations, and languages

should serve him;

his dominion is an everlasting dominion,

which shall not pass away,

and his kingdom one

that shall not be destroyed. (Dan 7:9–14)

The fourth beast is dealt a death wound when the two witnesses are raised from the dead; the timing for when the fourth king is dealt a death wound in Daniel’s vision and for when the two witnesses are resurrected is identical. Thus, the public resurrection of the two witnesses is the testimony needed to establish that Death and Hades shall not prevail over the Body of Christ as Death and Hades did not prevail over the Head of the Body two millennia ago.

A matter is established on the testimony of two or three witnesses; thus, the public resurrection of two or three witnesses establishes that Death no longer has dominion over human beings. And if Death no longer has dominion over the fleshly bodies of men and women, then Death has lost its sting and has been dealt a mortal wound from which it cannot recover; for resurrection from death can again occur at any time thereby negating the very existence of Death … in order for a person to be dead, the person must necessarily have lost his or her breath of life. If that breath can be returned to the person, then the person is not really “dead” but merely asleep. The contention of human beings has been that the breath of life cannot be returned once it is lost; whereas the essence of Christianity has been that death is no more final than is sleep.

Fleshing out the narrative account of the one-time transfer of dominion over the kingdom of this world from the presently reigning prince of this world to the soon to be reigning Son of Man requires that the characters involved be identified—and identification will take many paragraphs.

The beast that is dealt a mortal wound and has its body destroyed by fire is the fourth beast of Daniel chapter 7. The three other beasts or kings (Dan 7:17) that, along with the fourth king, previously had dominion over the kingdom of this world—the same kingdom that is given to the Son of Man—remain alive after having been taken, their lives spared for a season and a time, with a “season” representing a fruiting season that is two years or most of two years long (a flower bud is set on a fruiting spur in the first year, then blooms and bears fruit in the second year). Therefore, because all four kings/beasts are present when dominion is taken from them and this dominion given to the Son of Man, the kings cannot represent sequential kingdoms. Only the copy or shadow of these concurrently reigning kings can be represented by sequential reigns.

The four kings or beasts of Daniel chapter 7 are not the metal kingdoms of chapter 2; i.e., the gold, silver, bronze, and iron that are simultaneously present when broken by a stone cut from a mountain by no human hands. Even though the time-setting is the same [“‘And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people’” — Dan 2:44], the context is not the same. The metal kings, along with the miry clay, form one human-appearing image that reigns from (or before) Nebuchadnezzar’s day until the end of the age; whereas the four beasts that jointly reign do so for a time, times, and half a time (Dan 7:25) before dominion is taken from them. They do not reign sequentially, for dominion is not given to the first or second or fourth beast, but to the third beast (v. 6) … although the argument can be made that the dominion given to the third beast is the same authority to rule over the earth that is given to the bronze kingdom (2:39), the first beast (7:4) is not given the authority the head of gold is given to rule over men wherever they dwell (2:37–38). Plus, the four beasts collectively share the dominion that is given to the third beast (7:12).

The Apostle Paul wrote, “For God has consigned all to disobedience, that he may have mercy on all” (Rom 11:32), and “Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to life” (Rom 6:16). Thus, dominion over all has been given by God to Sin (and by extension, to Death) so that He could have mercy on all, with this dominion given when Adam was driven from the Garden of God before he, Adam, could eat of the Tree of Life (Gen 3:22–24). Fire in the form of the flaming sword prevented Adam from returning to the Garden where Life hung as fruit to be picked and eaten.

Because God has given Sin dominion over humankind—that is what Paul writes—sin is not counted as sin where there is no law (Rom 5:13); therefore, before the Law comes, human beings are under “natural grace,” or the covering of being bondservants to the Adversary. Paul writes, “And you were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind” (Eph 2:1–3). Paul does not exclude himself from the category of being a son of disobedience even though he was a Jew, brought up in Jerusalem, and “‘educated at the feet of Gameliel according to the strict manner of the law of [Israel’s] fathers, being zealous for God’” (Acts 22:3).

Being zealous for God wasn’t enough, and is not now enough to prevent a person from being a son of disobedience, consigned to sin, and the faithful bondservant to sin. Only receiving a second breath of life (i.e., being truly born of spirit) frees a person so that sin no longer has dominion over the person (Rom 6:14); frees the person so “that the righteous requirement of the law might be fulfilled in [disciples], who walk not according to the flesh but according” to spirit (Rom 8:4) … walking according to the righteous requirements of the law is obeying the law, or the obedience that leads to life of which Paul speaks in Romans 6:16.

Because all human beings are consigned to disobedience or to sin, dominion over human beings has been given to Sin, with sin personified in the king that appears as the four-headed leopard to whom dominion over the kingdom of this world has been given. And the wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23), with Death personified in the fourth horseman of the Apocalypse. So Death follows Sin to break, trample, and devour all who sin, for death is exceeding strong and not easily escaped. Until the resurrection of firstfruits at the Second Advent, with Christ Jesus being the First of the firstfruits, only Jesus Himself and the two witnesses will have escaped death … these three are the three ribs in the mouth and between the teeth of the second beast (Dan 7:5) that this king of the bottomless pit (Rev 11:7) is unable to kill and keep dead. And it is by the resurrection of the two witnesses that Death is dealt a mortal wound, with his body being given over to be burned being a declaration about the fate of the two witnesses once resurrected, an oblique means of saying that the two witnesses will be resurrected to life that can cross fire.

From the head of the fourth king emerges the little horn that comes before the throne of the Ancient of Days and speaks blasphemy …

No human being will come before the throne of the Ancient of days, for flesh and blood cannot enter the kingdom of God; i.e., cannot cross into the supra-dimensional heavenly realm where time does not exist, thereby prohibiting movement of matter due to its apparent solidity. Therefore, the little horn that emerges from the head of the King of the North after the first king or great king of the King of Greece is broken suddenly is not a man, is not the Pope, is not the Prophet in Salt Lake City, is not a Muslim holy man or a European statesman or an American president. The little horn is a powerful demon, and the claim will here be made that the little horn is Satan himself; for in the this earthly realm, the little horn will manifest itself in the man of perdition, who comes by the working or activity of Satan (2 Thess 2:9).

So there is no misunderstandings, Nebuchadnezzar, the human king of Babylon, sees in vision a humanoid image that has a head of gold, arms and chest of silver, belly and loins or thighs of bronze, legs of iron and toes of mixed iron and miry or soft (unfired) clay (Dan chap 2). Daniel tells the king that he is the head of gold, and that the God of heaven has given into his hand the children of men wherever they dwell, as well as the beasts of the field and the birds of the air … how is a human king to rule over vultures and eagles? He cannot. And certainly Nebuchadnezzar never ruled over men in China or Chile; so either Daniel spoke hyperbole, or Nebuchadnezzar was merely a type of the spiritual king of Babylon (Isa 14:4), the fallen day star, Satan the devil. And it is this latter that’s true, for when the kingdom of this world is given to the Son of Man, even the predatory natures of lions, leopards, wolves, and bears will be changed (Isa 11:6–9) for today the spiritual king of Babylon rules over all living creatures here on earth—and rules through being the prince of the power of the air (i.e., rules the mental typography of living creatures).

The visions of Daniel were sealed and kept secret until the time of the end: they were sealed by human beings serving as the copy and shadow of heavenly or spiritual beings, with Nebuchadnezzar serving as a type of the spiritual king of Babylon. What Daniel told King Nebuchadnezzar wasn’t really true of the human king of Babylon, but is true of the spiritual king that has reigned continuously from before Daniel’s day to this present era. And what Daniel tells the king about each of the other metal kingdoms primarily pertains to spiritual beings (demons) that reign with the Adversary as part of his ruling hierarchy. Therefore, what Daniel tells the king about the silver kingdom arising after him (Dan 2:39) pertains to the shadow just as what Daniel told Nebuchadnezzar about himself being the head pertained to the shadow: the image that Nebuchadnezzar actually sees is not that of four consecutive kingdoms, but that of one human-like being that when toppled would have broken gold, silver, bronze, and iron pieces coexisting in one debris pile, this chaff-like debris pile then being blown away by the breath of God.

Is the above a reliable reading of Nebuchadnezzar’s vision?

Daniel records that the very night when he “read” the handwriting on the wall, “Belshazzar the Chaldean king was killed. And Darius the Mede received the kingdom” (5:30–31) … Daniel reads the last character of the handwriting as “PERES,” meaning that the Chaldean “kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians” (v. 28). Thus, with Darius the Mede taking the kingdom, the Medes preceded the Persians to power.

In Daniel’s vision in the third year of the reign of King Belshazzar (obviously occurring before the handwriting on the wall), Daniel sees a ram standing on the bank of the Ulai canal, and this ram had two horns, with both horns high, but the one was higher than the other and the higher horn came up second (Dan 8:1–3), so the higher horn was the Persians. The angel Gabriel tells Daniel “‘that the vision is for the time of the end’” (v. 17), not for the 4^th or 5^th Centuries BCE, and “‘As for the ram that you saw with the two horns, these are the kings of Media and Persia’” (v. 20). But—and here is where understanding emerges—in the third year of Cyrus, king of Persia, Daniel receives another vision. And about this vision in which the angel brings Daniel knowledge of what was written in the Book of Truth Daniel records,

Then I heard the sound of his words, and as I heard the sound of his words, I fell on my face in deep sleep with my face to the ground.

And behold, a hand touched me and set me trembling on my hands and knees. And he said to me, “O Daniel, man greatly loved, understand the words that I speak to you, and stand upright, for now I have been sent to you.” And when he had spoken this word to me, I stood up trembling. Then he said to me, “Fear not, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand and humbled yourself before your God, your words have been heard, and I have come because of your words. The prince of the kingdom of Persia withstood me twenty-one days, but Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, for I was left there with the kings of Persia, and came to make you understand what is to happen to your people in the latter days. For the vision is for days yet to come.” (Dan 10:9–14 emphasis added)

In this passage, the prince [sar] of Persia and the kings of Persia are not human beings, but powerful demonic beings that require the intervention of the archangel Michael … no human king could stand before the angel any more than Daniel could stand; none could have withstood the angel for even a moment, let alone for 21 days. Thus, what’s recorded in the Book of Truth isn’t a story about human beings, but an accounting of what happens between angels that affects the course of human history.

Daniel’s vision of what would happen to the people of God in the latter days (10:14) was sealed and made secret (12:4, 9) until the time of the end, when understanding was given that the course of prophesied history seen in chapter 11, history that stretches from Alexander’s defeat of Darius to the defiling of the temple by the forces of Antiochus Epiphanes IV, forms the seal that has kept secret an ongoing war in the heavenly realm [i.e., in the inter-dimensional portion of the heavenly realm, the portion identified in Scripture as the bottomless pit], a war that occurs at the end of the age, a war that begins when the demonic king [sar] of Greece (10:20; 8:21) flies out of the west without touching the ground (8:5 — he doesn’t touch the ground for he is not in their world) to trample the demonic kings of Persia.

The demonic king of Greece is not one king, but a federation of kings. And it is this demonic king of Greece that forms the bronze belly and loins of the humanoid image Nebuchadnezzar; it is this demonic king of Greece that would rule over all the earth (Dan 2:39). And the answer to why he rules lies in where this king is placed in the humanoid image that represents the reigning hierarchy of the Adversary.

About the king of Greece, Daniel records, “And the goat had a conspicuous horn between his eyes. … Then the goat became exceedingly great, but when he was strong, the great horn was broken, and instead of it there came up four conspicuous horns toward the four winds of heaven” (8:5, 8). Now, take this image of the king of Greece having one conspicuous horn coming from between his eyes back to the belly and loins of the humanoid image Nebuchadnezzar saw and what do you see: the single horn appears as an erect penis!

The king of Greece rules by controlling the appetites of the belly and loins; he rules through the passions of the flesh (Eph 2:3). And really, how is this world presently being ruled, especially considering that sex is used to sell hamburgers? Is this world not today being ruled by the appetites, the passions of the flesh? It is, isn’t it?

The single great horn is the first king of Greece (Dan 8:21). He is a demonic king, not Alexander, and as the first king, he is a spiritual firstborn of the king of Greece, and he will not and cannot cover himself by drinking from the cup on the night that Jesus was betrayed. Thus, he will be suddenly broken at the second Passover.

Babylon, the reigning hierarchy of Satan, falls when the kingdom of this world is given to the Son of Man; dominion is taken from the four kings of Daniel chapter 7 when the kingdom of this world is given to the Son of Man. Dominion is taken from Sin through the world being baptized in spirit (Joel 2:28; Matt 3:11) and given the mind of Christ after Satan is cast into time. Thus, Babylon falls when dominion is taken from the four kings or beasts—but it wasn’t the head of gold that ruled over the earth, but the bronze belly and loins … and the question sure to be asked by Christian traditionalists: how can the head of gold rule over men wherever they dwell and the bronze belly and loins rule over the world if their rule is not sequential rather than simultaneous? The answer to traditionalists is that though Christians have assigned sequential reigns to these metal kingdoms, these kings/kingdoms are all together and are all broken to pieces, with their shards commingled, when God sets up His kingdom; hence, they really cannot be sequential kingdoms.

The head of gold rules as the Head of Christ rules His Body, with His mind being placed in His disciples; and the head of gold—the color, not the metal, as reflected light indicating a mind set—rules over the bronze belly and loins, but doesn’t well rule over the silver arms and chest … Satan created his rebellion through an argument for democracy, an argument that is inherently “Greek” in substance; thus Satan as the spiritual king of Babylon (Isa 14:4) and head of gold shares a similar color of reflected light as the bronze king of Greece, whereas the kings of Persia reflect a different light spectrum as indication of a different mindset, the mindset that has empowered Christianity throughout the interregnum. Hence, “traditional” Christianity has been severely weakened as war is fought between the ram and the he-goat. This weakening of Christianity is beneficial to the Body of Christ that will be collectively resurrected at the second Passover, for the devout adherent to Christendom’s bastardized pagan theology would not, even when filled with spirit, entertain the idea of keeping the commandments of God by faith and thereby “covering” him or herself with the garment of obedience.

Remember there are now hard time markers in play:

1.      The single great horn that appears as an erect penis is broken at the second Passover liberation of Israel; he is broken because he is first, and because his lawlessness or sin is not covered or coverable by the blood of the Lamb of God. He is broken at the beginning of the Tribulation.

2.     The four kings or beasts have their dominion taken from them and given to the Son of Man 1260 days later when the kingdom of this world is given to the Son of Man. They have their dominion taken from them when Babylon falls and humankind is no longer consigned to disobedience.

In the 1260 day period between the beginning of the Tribulation and when the kingdom is given to the Son of Man, the four horns sprout from around the base of the broken great horn (Dan 8:8). In their shadow, Alexander is the type of the first horn, and his four generals are types of the hour horns that arise from the four compass points. Out of the north horn or said otherwise, out of king of the North comes the little horn that threw some of the host and some of the stars to the ground. And it is to this little horn after he has become great that “a host will be given over to it together with the regular burnt offering because of transgression” (v. 12).

There are not many little horns in Scripture: there is only one other (that is the same one) in Daniel chapter 7, and this little horn comes up on the fourth king, the king that is dealt a death wound; thus the following can be asserted:

·       The fourth king of Daniel chapter 7 is the King of the North of Daniel chapter 11 and is the fourth horseman of Revelation chapter 6;

·       The little horn is the power behind the lawless one (2 Thess 2:3–10), with the lawless one being the man of perdition. This power is Satan himself, and the lawless one is a human being possessed by Satan;

·       The third king of chapter 7 is the King of the South of chapter 11 and is the third horseman of Revelation chapter 6. This horseman, Sin, makes merchandize of both the firstfruits of God (the early barley harvest) and the later main crop wheat harvest, but cannot harm the oil and the wine, the processed fruits of the Promised Land.

·       Throughout the Tribulation, Sin will be separated from Death because of the second Passover liberation of Israel from indwelling sin while the flesh remains mortal; hence the separation of the King of the North from the King of the South seen in Daniel 11:5.

·       Because the first king of Greece is broken at the second Passover, and because disciples are liberated from Sin but remain mortal, with the first Passover forming the shadow and type of the second Passover, the short while between when the death angel passed over Egypt and when Pharaoh summoned Moses and Aaron (Ex 12:29–31) represents in type the period between when firstborns are again slain and when Sin is separated from Death (the period described in Dan 11:4–5).

·       The lawless one is revealed 220 days (2520 days minus 2300 days) after the second Passover liberation of Israel; for with liberation Israel covers itself with its obedience in lieu of the daily sacrifice, and when Israel’s obedience ends in its rebellion against God, the daily sacrifice ends.

·       Therefore the four kings of Greece emerge from around the stump of the first king before 220 days of the Tribulation pass and by the 17^th day of Lyyar, the day when the foundations of the deep erupted (Gen 7:11), and two/three days after the second Passover.

Again, in John’s vision the four horsemen of the first four seals (Rev chap 6) emerge before the saints are martyred as their brothers were in the 1^st-Century. These four horsemen are the four kings that emerge from around the stump, and the fourth horseman or king, named Death, is the King of the North—and is seen in prophecy as Assyria. The King of the South represents sin and is represented in prophecy by Egypt. The wages for sin is death (Rom 6:23), thereby Sin and Death are today linked as if they are one entity, and they are until the first horn of the king of Greece is broken.

More of Revelation’s timeline can now be declared:

1.      The Tribulation begins at the second Passover, with the sacraments taken on the 14^th of Lyyar according to the model for the Passover taken on the 14^th of Abib.

2.     The death angels pass over all the earth at the midnight hour (when humankind can get no farther from God) of the 14^th of Lyyar, slaying firstborns not covered by the blood of the Lamb of God. The great horn of the king of Greece will be one of these uncovered firstborns.

3.     Following the slaying of uncovered firstborns, the saints are filled with spirit and thus liberated from bondage to previously indwelling sin and death and as such, the saints are “born” as righteous Abel was born and as Jacob was born … the model for the Passover in Abib suggests that this liberation of the saints occurs on the 15^th of Lyyar.

4.     Four demonic kings come to power from around the stump of the first king of the king of Greece, and from the north king comes a little horn that will go after the saints as Pharaoh went after Israel when the nation crossed the Sea of Reeds.

5.     The lawless one or man of perdition, an Arian Christian, will be revealed 220 days after the second Passover, and about Christmas of the calendar year in which the second Passover occurs.

6.     The coming of the lawless one marks Israel’s (Christendom’s) rebellion against God [i.e., the great falling away] and the birth of a spiritual Cain, with the reversed birth order subject to the first shall be last and the last first as the physical birth of Cain forms the chiral image of the birth of spiritual Abel.

7.     Because Cain will “kill” righteous Abel, except for the remnant (Rev 12:17) the saints will be early-on sealed in death; thus, the saints are not seen when the sixth seal is removed from the Scroll and humankind hides itself in the caves and among the rocks from the heavenly signs of God (Rev 6:12–17) as the wrath of the Lamb is unleashed against those who would bodily kill His Bride.

The removal of the sixth seal begins what the kings of the earth on down to servants identify as the great day of “the wrath of the Lamb” (Rev 6:16–17) … why would great and small seek to hide from the face of God if they were not knowingly guilty of slaying the servants of God? Great and small know they have done wrong, but they will not repent. Rather, they will be as Cain was when he asked the Lord if he was his brother’s keeper (Gen 4:9), and as Cain was cursed from the ground that received his brother’s blood (v. 10), great and small will be cursed as they seek to hide themselves from God, by using the rocks of this earth as their cover. They are the living dead, entombed in caves and among the rocks of the mountains.

After the second Passover, the saints are not seen in Scripture for without indwelling sin, they are “light” and light casts no shadow. Thus, when they are slain is not seen with precision and how many remaining saints constitute the remnant cannot be known. What can be asserted is that the majority of the saints are slain early into the Tribulation, beginning on day 220. It is unlikely that many are left alive to take the Passover that will begin the second of the seven endtime years, with this Passover taken on the night portion of the 15^th day of Abib instead of the 14^th day.

Beginning on day 220, 1290 days are counted before the effectiveness of the Adversary’s deception runs its course. This will be approximately ten months after Satan and his angels are cast from heaven, and will occur in late July of the fifth year of the seven endtime years. Thus, when the Fall Feast occurs at the end of the first full year of the Endurance, those disciples who have not taken the mark of the beast (i.e., Chi xi stigma or the tattoo of the cross) will be blessed. Although they must still endure for another two and a half years, they will by the end of the first year know that they can trust the Father and the Son to supply their needs. They only have to hang on to be individually saved as one of the firstfruits.

Therefore, more can now be said about the narrative period John identifies as the Kingdom, and the foremost thing that can be said is that the first year of the Endurance is the second year of the Kingdom, with the events seen in Revelation chapter 13 occurring when dominion is taken from the four kings (Dan 7:11–12) and when they, as Satan’s angels (Rev 12:7), are cast to the earth. The four kings or beasts, collectively identified by the angel Gabriel as the king of Greece (Dan 8:21–22), constitute the first beast of Revelation chapter 13. Their dominion has been taken from them; the fourth king has been dealt a mortal wound when the two witnesses were resurrected from death and his cross-shaped body has been burned; but the lives of the first three have been spared for a season and a time.

The second beast of Revelation chapter 13 is Satan himself, and his great (elevated) authority when cast from heaven lies entirely in him coming claiming to be the messiah … the dragon’s power and throne and great authority that he gives to the first beast is usurped power and authority. The dragon comes as the true Antichrist, of whom the man of perdition in the Tribulation was a copy and shadow.

The man of perdition as the left hand enantiomer of the Antichrist is a human being, an Arian Christian, possessed by Satan the devil. He will know that he is possessed, but he will sincerely believe the spirit being within him is Christ Jesus; thus he will feel no guilt in declaring himself God. But, whereas the left hand enantiomer is a human being possesses by the devil, the right hand enantiomer is the true Antichrist, Satan the devil having been given the mind of a man when he is cast into time.

Without here connecting all of the dots, it will be asserted that the Endurance forms the chiral image of the Tribulation. As saints are marked with the sign of God (Sabbath observance — from Ex 31:13) in the Tribulation for they are aliens in the wobbling and soon to fall kingdom of Babylon, in the Endurance the seed of Satan are marked for death with the tattoo (in the mind and on the hand) of the cross for they are aliens in the kingdom of the Son of Man. As the sons of God are sealed so that they do not suffer the fifth Trumpet Plague (Rev 9:4) which occurs in the Tribulation, the seed of Satan (Rev 16:2) is sealed in destruction (i.e., they cannot escape) so that they suffer the wrath of God (Rev chap 16) that occurs in the Endurance. Thus, as the first year of the Endurance is also part of the narrative division of Revelation known as the Kingdom, the last year of the Tribulation will also be part of the Kingdom, thereby having the three woes occur during the first year of the Kingdom and the messages of the three angels delivered in the second year of the Kingdom (again, this second year also being the first year of the Endurance).

Approximately a third of humankind will be uncovered firstborns when the death angels pass over all the land at the midnight hour of the second Passover, with the death of these firstborns plunging the world into chaos and immediate concern to “get right” with God. And the death of these uncovered firstborns immediately precedes the liberation of Israel from indwelling sin through disciples being filled with spirit … the mirror image of the death of a third of humankind at the second Passover is the death of a third of humankind in the sixth Trumpet Plague, for all of remaining humanity will be firstborn sons of God when the world is baptized in spirit. Therefore, the sixth Trumpet Plague does not occur a long while before the kingdom of this world is given to the Son of Man, but within a period analogous to the days between the 14^th of Lyyar and the 17^th of Lyyar, with these three days typologically representing the three week period between the 1^st of the seventh month and the 21^st-day of the seventh month of the fourth year of the seven endtime years. In the pattern of the high Sabbaths of God, the kingdom of this world is given to the Son of Man on the 15^th-day of the seventh month (the high Sabbath of Sukkoth), but Christ Jesus will not return for another three and a half years, these years forming the Endurance. This high day (the first day of Sukkoth) would fall midweek as the seven endtime years are represented by the seven days of Unleavened Bread; the high day symbolically occurs at the time and on the day when Jesus ascended to the Father to be accepted as Israel’s Wave Sheaf Offering.

The chirality between the Tribulation and the Endurance is now more evident than before:

1.      As the reality of the Wave Sheaf Offering (the first ripe sheaf of barley in the Promised Land, the sheaf waved by the priest on the morrow after the weekly Sabbath in Unleavened Bread — see Lev 23:9–11; 15–16), Christ Jesus ascended to the Father on the mid-week day of Unleavened Bread. The harvest of the firstfruits of God could not begin until He was waved and accepted.

2.     The harvest of firstfruits began when Jesus breathed on 10 of His disciples on the same day that He had ascended to the Father (John 20:19–24), and directly transfer to them a second breath of life.

3.     The Church as the Body of Christ was crucified with Christ and died as Jesus’ physical body died, and was resurrected from death after the example of Christ in the form of the two witnesses. In between Jesus and the two witnesses are the deaths of many disciples born of spirit and slain by the prince of this world. It is only the remnant of these “many disciples” that bodily enter into the Endurance.

4.     But the giving of the kingdom of this world to the Son of Man mid-week in the seven endtime years is analogous to Jesus ascending to the Father mid-week of Unleavened Bread in the Hebrew year 3791.

5.     Thus, the harvest of firstfruits could not truly begin until the kingdom of this world is given to the Son of Man … the Christianity of the Adversary (that has been a curse to this world) has seen some but few saints harvested in the past two millennia—the saints harvested are the harvesters for the harvest of firstfruits.

As many have been called but few chosen (Matt 22:14) over the past two millennia, many will be chosen from the third part of humanity that is born of spirit when the world is baptized into spirit after Babylon falls; for all who endure to the end shall be saved (Matt 24:13).

 

6.

Some redundancy or pedagogical repetition seems appropriate: by the opening of the sixth seal, most of the genuine saints are dead, martyred as their 1^st-Century brothers were martyred so at the beginning of the intercalary chapter 7, disciples find that the “144,000 sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel” (Rev 7:4) are the same 144,000 that “follow the Lamb wherever he goes” (Rev 14:4)—and the “great multitude that no one could number, from every nation, from all tribes and peoples and languages” (Rev 7:9), the great multitude that the angel identifies as “‘the ones coming out of the great tribulation’” (v. 14), is the third part of humankind that calls upon the name of God and the name of the Lamb, the people about whom the Lord will say, “They are my people” (Zech 13:9). And none of either listing were Christians before the Tribulation began.

The above is correct: Zechariah’s third part of humankind is not today “Christian,” does not identify itself as “Christian,” and will not claim any association with Christianity prior to the second Passover liberation of Israel. This third part will not be born of spirit until the world is baptized in spirit when the kingdom is given to the Son of Man; thus this great multitude comes out of the Endurance. They will be those human beings who, by having endured to the end, will be saved (Matt 24:13).

John dates the intercalary chapter 7 to after the sixth seal was opened (Rev 7:1); so the first six seals are opened before the 144,000 are “sealed.” And only after the 144,000 are sealed does the great multitude come into existence. As such, the 144,000 are sealed during the Tribulation and before the Endurance; they are sealed during the first 1260 days of the seven endtime years. And the 144,000 will flee through the split Mount of Olives to escape the flood that is sent against them (Rev 12:16), with this flood being an army similar to Pharaoh’s army that was swallowed by the Sea of Reeds. Only instead of water taking the lives of men as the Sea of Reeds took the lives of Pharaoh and his army and as the Flood in the days of Noah took the lives of men, it will be the split granite monolith known as the Mount of Olives, a stone not cut by human hands (Dan 2:45), that swallows (by closing upon the armies of the man of perdition) the lives of men (Ex 15:12), thereby bringing to his end the prince who had come to destroy the city of Jerusalem and the sanctuary (Dan 9:26).

Israel’s rebellion against God—referenced by Paul in his second epistle to the Thessalonians—is seen in John’s vision from God’s perspective in the opening of the fifth seal, and this rebellion is the shadow and copy of the rebellion that will occur when Satan, claiming to be the Messiah, requires all of humanity to take the mark of the cross (as proof of their fidelity to him). Thus, because disciples can precisely date Israel’s rebellion to day 220 of the Tribulation, disciples can likewise date when Satan makes the image of the cross-shaped beast speak so that it “might cause those who would not worship the image of the beast to be slain” (Rev 13:15). And because Daniel reveals how long Satan’s deception lasts before he is no longer believed (the 1290 days from the Rebellion of day 220), and when the saints who have endured will be blessed (1335 days after day 220), what happens in Revelation chapter 14, verses 9 through 13 can be dated as to when they occur in the Endurance, which makes the three angels’ messages the chiral image of the four horsemen, with the second horseman (the king of the bottomless pit) absent from this world as Christ Jesus is absent [present but absent], thereby establishing the relationship that the second horseman with his sword, used to slay the two witnesses, is analogous to Christ Jesus coming with sword to make war on those bearing the mark of death (Rev 19:11–15).

After the Rebellion occurs in the Tribulation on day 220 and Cain kills his righteous brother and the world experiences the wrath of the Lamb for the martyrdom of firstborn sons of God who were to be killed in the 21^st-Century as their 1^st-Century brothers were killed, there is (in the Tribulation) a starting over again period that sees the trumpet plagues used to separate who is or will be of God from who is of Babylon and its fractal image, Assyria, the ancient representation of Death. Although not the same in number, the shadow of the trumpet plagues were the plagues in Egypt. Both sets of plagues made a distinction between the firstborn son of God and the world: the outpouring of heavenly signs and wrath of the first four trumpet plagues makes the removal of the sixth seal barely distinguishable from these plagues—if a person hides in holes in the ground to escape the wrath of the Lamb (Rev 6:15–17), the person has willingly “buried” him or herself as the person willingly martyred righteous disciples and buried them. The dead shall indeed bury the dead; for the dead shall make war against the dead until the end.

Today, the world doesn’t care about war occurring in high places; its concerns are about why the Pharaoh spends so much money, about monetizing national debt, about a shrinking global market, about Iran developing nuclear weapons and the Taliban capturing Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal. But these earthly happenings have at their ideological core the war presently being fought between the demonic kings of Persia and Greece, a war that the king of Greece will win, with his victory setting the stage for the second Passover liberation of Israel, now a nation circumcised of heart … it took Alexander a decade to defeat Darius and the Persians. It is unlikely that it will take the demonic king of Greece longer to win his war against the king of Persia.

Jesus told His disciples, “‘And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not alarmed, for this must take place, but the end is not yet’” (Matt 24:6) … the wars and rumors of wars that occur in this endtime period must take place, but Jesus’ disciples are not alarmed by them for His disciples know that the war of consequence is occurring in the heavenly realm, where the king of Greece as the he-goat that flies out of the west is presently trampling the king of Persia, the silver colored ram that has given to the world the Christianity of the cross.

Today, most Christians are Trinitarians, who label non-Trinitarians as heretics when it is they who are heretics, believing a 5^th-Century CE lie about the mystery of God. They are the active bondservants of Sin, the King of the South, the four-headed leopard to whom dominion has been given. And when mortal disciples are liberated from indwelling sin, Sin and Death separate, with both claiming to be “Christian,” but with each labeling the other as heretics. And so that there is no mistaking the players:

1.      Sin, the third beast and third horseman, is the King of the South who today reigns over Trinitarian Christendom.

2.     Death, the fourth beast and fourth horseman, is the King of the North who today reigns over Arian Christendom.

3.     Trinitarians and Arians are presently connected through the cross, but following the second Passover, they will separate with Arians eventually controlling the image of the cross as the Seleucid Empire eventually defeated the Ptolemaic Empire and exercised temporary control of Jerusalem.

4.     Endtime sons of light (John 12:36) will defeat [not by military means] the King of the North in a different manner than how the Maccabees defeated Antiochus Epiphanes IV, which is why the Books of the Maccabees are not canonical Scripture.

5.     The endtime sons of light that defeat the King of the North at the close of the Tribulation form the shadow and type of the third part of humankind that endures to the end in faith and is thus saved (Matt 24:13) in the Endurance.

6.     Therefore, based on chirality, it can be asserted that endtime sons of light defeat the King of the North by enduring whatever he sends against them.

Today, the largest Arian denomination is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints [the Mormons], with this denomination holding that Jesus was a created being like Michael and Lucifer before He came into this world. The largest Trinitarian denomination is the Roman Catholic Church. And there is little good will displayed one to the other; there will be even less good will displayed once the second Passover occurs, for the Mormons have been preparing to leverage food into discipleship for three-quarters of a century. So when the false prophet (the first horseman of Revelation chapter 6 and the first beast of Daniel chapter 7) comes into this world immediately after the death angels have passed over all the land, the false prophet will come to the office of “Prophet” that has been reserved for him … if the false prophet were to come to Latter Day Saints with the claim that he is the “angel Joseph Smith” (analogous to the ancient prophet-warrior Moroni, the last to write in the golden plates, being the same person as the angel Moroni who brought the golden plates to Joseph Smith’s attention), not one Latter Day Saint, on the day after the second Passover, would doubt the demon’s claim. And as Steve Young said that Muslims would be comfortable in the Mormon Church, Muslims will not have a difficult time accepting the testimony of the false prophet that the man of perdition is the 12^th Imam, the Hidden Imam, who will supernaturally appear just before the Day of Judgment. Thus, as heavenly endtime signs manifest themselves, and as the false prophet points to the man of perdition, the now largest and best prepared Arian denomination will have its ranks swollen with converts throughout the Tribulation whereas Trinitarian denominations that recognize the man of perdition as a false messiah (false because he is an Arian) will fight but will not prevail against the lawless one as the Ptolemaic Empire did not prevail against the Seleucid Empire. Yet for most of the historic period that forms the concealing shadow in Daniel’s long vision, the Ptolemaic Empire reigned over Jerusalem.

From Daniel’s long prophecy’s historical shadow, disciples have a good idea about what will happen here on earth when the heavenly signs manifest themselves … the angel tells Daniel, concerning the lawless one, “‘He shall pay no attention to the gods of his fathers, or to the one beloved by women. He shall not pay attention to any other god, for he shall magnify himself above all’” (11:37), and Paul writes about the lawless one, “For that day [the day of the Lord] will not come, unless the rebellion comes first, and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the son of destruction, who opposes and exalts himself against every so-called god or object of worship, so that he takes his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God” (2 Thess 2:3–4). These two are the same man of perdition, and it is about this one whom Jesus warned: “‘So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand), then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains’” (Matt 24:15).

Those who are in Judea are to flee when armies begin to surround Jerusalem; so when the lawless one proclaims himself God can be dated to the time of the woes, and more specifically to the time of the sixth Trumpet Plague when Babylon is dealt a second blow like the blow dealt at the second Passover. Once again, a third of the world’s population will be slain, but because the third part of humanity is now the firstborn son of God as Israel in Egypt was called the firstborn son of God (Ex 4:22), no distinction between man and man will be made. A random third part of the half of humanity left alive will be slain, with only Philadelphia protected from this hour of trial that comes upon the whole world.

John is told to seal up what the seven thunders said (Rev 10:4) as Daniel was told that his visions were sealed and secret until the end—and as Daniel’s visions were unsealed prior to the beginning of the Tribulation, what the seven thunders said will be unsealed prior to the beginning of the Endurance, for in prophesying again about many peoples (v. 11), the Tribulation and the Endurance’s chirality permits the disciple who hears the voice of Jesus to also hear what the seven thunders said.

So there is no doubt, the man of perdition doesn’t declare himself God early in the Tribulation, but makes this declaration as Babylon is falling. It is his last ditch effort to save Babylon and hinder God. But this Arian Christian leader cannot save a doomed hierarchy.

The king of the bottomless pit, in killing the two witnesses in retaliation for the second-time death of a third of humanity, ensures the defeat of the four kings (horsemen or beasts); for after three days, the two witnesses are resurrected from death. The world sees or knows of their resurrection, and knows that these two were truly of God. The King of the North is dealt a mortal wound. Whereas this Arian king had defeated the Trinitarian King of the South, he cannot defeat God, who liberates disciples from Sin and resurrects them from Death. And thus concludes the mysteries of God. There is no more to be said.

But alas, the Endurance now lays before the third part of humanity as the Tribulation had earlier lain before the two witnesses … the great Whore that rides the Beast is not Trinitarian; is not the Roman Church in any form; but is the sun-worshiping desert city dedicated to Death.

 

7.

If John’s vision would have been understood by an earlier generation of saints, less repetition would be employed, but because there has been a shortage of understanding additional review will be undertaken: John divides the narrative account of his vision into three parts, the Tribulation or Affliction, the Kingdom, and the Endurance (1:9). During the Tribulation, after the sixth seal has been removed from the Scroll, the 144,000 of Israel will be sealed (7:2, 4), with this 144,000 then passing through the split Mount of Olives (Zech 14:3–4) as ancient Israel passed through the Sea of Reeds (baptism by water — 1 Cor 10:1–2) and as Jesus passed from His tomb (resurrected to life — Rom 6:9); for once the 144,000 have been liberated from bondage to sin and begin to the follow the Lamb wherever He goes (Rev 14:4), the 144,000 will never die but will be changed in the twinkling of an eye from mortal to immortal.

The 144,000 will function as the chiral image of those saints, few in number (Isa chap 24), that enter physically into the Millennium.

After the 144,000 are sealed, a great multitude will be gathered as the harvest of the firstfruits of the earth: this great multitude is the third part (Zech 13:9) of the little ones (i.e., of humanity) that are born of spirit, and born filled with spirit when the world is baptized in spirit (Joel 2:28; Matt 3:11). They come out of the Endurance as spiritual virgins, and none of this great multitude was “Christian” before the Tribulation began.

Today’s Christian Church, composed of all who have been born of spirit and thus have an indwelling firstborn son of God residing in their tent of flesh, will divide itself into those disciples who cover themselves by drinking from the cup on the night that Jesus was betrayed, and those disciples who do not cover themselves but are as Egyptians were when the death angel passed over all the land. Sin, the third horseman, will not be able to harm those disciples who covered themselves by drinking from the cup on the night that Jesus was betrayed, with these disciples now being acceptable sacrifices to the Lord and hence killed as the 1^st-Century brothers were killed (Rev 6:9–11). Only a remnant of those saints that covered themselves will cross from the Tribulation into the Endurance, where they will be to the great multitude as the two witnesses were to Israel during the Tribulation.

Today’s Christians who did not cover themselves by drinking from the cup on the night that Jesus was betrayed will, following the second Passover liberation of Israel, have the indwelling firstborn son of God condemned to the second death; these Christians will rebel against God 220 days into the Tribulation by taking sin inside themselves when the man of perdition (the lawless one) is revealed. Their condemnation is inescapable. And many Sabbatarian disciples will be numbered among the rebels, but no Sabbatarian should be counted as a rebel, for all really know better than to rely upon rabbinical Judaism for their salvation.

Thus, except for the remnant that has the spirit of prophecy, none of those Sabbatarian disciples who cover themselves by drinking from the cup on the night that Jesus was betrayed will live physically beyond the end of the Tribulation (the first 1260 days of the seven endtime years). Sometime well into the Tribulation, the 144,000 will be sealed in Jerusalem and will escape through the split Mount of Olives when Babylon falls. And from the third part of humankind, all spiritual virgins, the great multitude will “‘have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb’” (Rev 7:14). This great multitude will account for the numerical majority of the harvest of firstfruits to Christendom’s shame.

John dates his vision to the Lord’s day, or the day of the Lord, a specific period in the generic time of the end, the day when the kingdom of this world is given to the Son of Man. Thus, of the narrative divisions of his vision—the Tribulation or Affliction, the Kingdom, and the Endurance—it is from the perspective of being in the Kingdom that John relates his vision (both in the third heaven as well as in the narrative Kingdom). Unlike Paul who didn’t know if he was in the spirit or still in the body when he entered the third heaven (2 Cor 12:3), John asserts that he was in the spirit when he entered into the third heaven on the Lord’s day (Rev 1:10).

Dominion is taken from the four kings of Daniel chapter 7 only once, and their dominion over the kingdom of this world is only once given to the Son of Man; thus what’s seen when the angel blows the seventh trumpet (the third woe) and the kingdom of this world becomes the kingdom of the Most High and of His Christ is the same scene that Daniel sees when the Ancient of Days sits in judgment (7:9–14).

The four kings of Daniel chapter 7 are not the four metal kings or kingdoms of chapter 2, but are the four horns that sprout from around the base of the broken first horn of the king of Greece—and the first horn is broken because he is an uncovered firstborn at the second Passover; thus he is broken on the 14^th day of Lyyar when the angels of the Lord pass over heaven (i.e., the inter-dimensional portion of the heavenly realm) and earth to slay uncovered firstborns. Disciples are empowered by or filled with spirit on the 15^th day of Lyyar, according to the pattern seen in Israel leaving Egypt on the night of the 15^th of Abib three and a half millennia ago. The four kings receive the dominion of the first horn, and the little horn emerges from the head of the north horn on or before the 17^th day of Lyyar, the day when the foundations of the deep opened to baptized the world into death (Gen 7:11).

The four kings of Daniel chapter 7 are the four horsemen of the Apocalypse, with the first king or horseman being the false prophet; the second king or horseman being the king of the bottomless pit (i.e., of the inter-dimension portion of the heavenly realm), the demon named Abaddon in Hebrew; the third king or horseman being Sin, into whose hand all of humanity has been consigned; the fourth king or horsemen being Death, the former companion of Sin … Sin and Death are separated when still-mortal disciples are liberated from indwelling sin by being filled with spirit. Sin and Death are the reality of Daniel’s kings of the South and of the North, with the separation of Death from Sin seen in Daniel 11:5; thus removal of the first four seals from the Scroll (Rev 6:1–8) occurs in the third heaven at a narrative perspective equating to the daylight portion of the 14^th day of Lyyar.

The second Passover liberation of Israel begins the 1260 day ministry of the two witnesses, with these 1260 days being the length of the Tribulation—and with the Tribulation ending when the kingdom of this world is given to the Son of Man on or about the 15^th day of the seventh month of the fourth year of the seven endtime years. It is on this “day” when Satan and his angels are cast from heaven and the world is baptized in spirit, thereby causing all of humankind to be born of spirit and born filled with spirit.

The empowerment of disciples by filling these disciples with spirit is seen in Scripture as Zion giving birth to a nation in a moment (Isa 66:7–8), with birth preceding the coming of her hard labor pains … the last Eve gives birth to a “son” like righteous Abel at the second Passover, then 220 days later when the rebellion occurs, those disciples of the great falling away are born as a spiritual Cain that slays his righteous brother, with the slaying of Abel by Cain being seen in the opening of the fifth seal (Rev 6:9–11), and God’s wrath on this world for the slaying of Abel is seen in the opening of the sixth seal (vv. 12–17). Therefore the “after some years” of Daniel 11:6 will have these some years equating to the 220 days between the second Passover and when the Rebellion occurs. The prophesied warring between the kings of the South and of the North—the warring that was manifested in this world by the military campaigns, victories and defeats of the Ptolemaic and Seleucid Empires—reveals what will happen in the heavenly realm during the Tribulation, with the abomination of desolation that Jesus references (Matt 24:15) appearing in Daniel’s long vision (11:31) near the end of the vision and at the time of the woes of John’s vision (Rev 8:13).

Because genuine disciples are filled with spirit and are without indwelling sin, they are “light” and as such they do not cast shadows and are invisible in Scripture. How many genuine disciples remain bodily alive after Cain seeks to kill Abel cannot be ascertained, but a remnant of the Woman’s offspring (Rev 12:17) will remain bodily alive—and a “remnant” is the cloth left on a fabric bolt that is too small to be used for a garment. A remnant of Sabbatarian disciples that have the spirit of prophecy (Rev 12:17 coupled with 19:10) will not be able to “cover” the third part of humankind (from Zech 13:7–9), but will be witnesses to this third part in the Endurance as the two witnesses were witnesses to Israel in the Tribulation.

Thus concludes the most recent (May 4, 2009) installment of an ongoing work … it is in the color of the reflected light that a disciple, a son of light, can see how far the mindset of the world is away from God. The distance doesn’t seem all that far, but any color of reflected light is not “light” and as such is not of God. Hence the silver color of light reflected from the kings of Persia, the kings who have brought to humanity the Christianity of the interregnum, looks like “light,” dazzles and blinds, but is a reflection off an object/entity that blocks the light of God from reaching this world. Therefore, Christianity stands as an obstacle that hinders saints from coming to God; yet few disciples can casually distinguish light from glaze, and the Christianity of the interregnum is glare that blinds willingly blind Israel.

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"Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, copyright ©2001 by Crossway Bibles, a division of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved."

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