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After Their Likeness

1.

As Alice wondered what was on the other side of a mirror, Christians have wondered about heaven: what will it be like on the other side of those pearly gates? Any number of songs and countless sermons have idolized this destination of the saved just as hell has been demonized as the destination of the damned. Today, a person does not have to attend a Church or take the sacraments or even have lived a particularly good life to be “preached into heaven” upon death. All that’s required is that the person is an American, and not an unrepentant mass murderer. Little else seems important as pastors comfort the bereaved by promising that their departed loved ones have gone to a better place, or to a better life. Yet, half of all the moneys spent by a person on his or her medical care will be spent in the last six months of the person’s life to prolong life as long as possible—it is as if those who will be preached into heaven are hesitant about going.

The Apostle Paul wrote that “the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Rom 6:23) … if the wages of sin is death, two questions must be asked: (1) what is sin, and (2) what constitutes death? In addition, if the free gift of God is eternal life the question must be asked, what constitutes eternal life?

Or is Paul to be believed? Augustine of Hippo wrote, “This faith maintains, and it must be believed: neither the soul nor the human body may suffer complete annihilation, but the impious shall rise again into everlasting punishment, and the just into life everlasting” (On Christian Doctrine. Bk 1, XXI. Trans. D.W. Robertson, Jr.) … if the impious do not suffer complete annihilation, then for Augustine, “death” does not mean that a person returns to the dust of the earth as a beast does, what Solomon in his wisdom stated (Eccl 3:18–20), but a person has an immortal soul not received as the free gift of God but received by a man having his way with a woman. And indeed this is Augustine’s position for he also wrote, “A great thing is man, made in the image and likeness of God, not in that he is encased in a mortal body, but in that he excels the beasts in the dignity of a rational soul” (Bk. 1, XXII).

Augustine presumed that man was already made in the image and likeness of God. He presumed that the sixth day of the Genesis chapter one creation account (the so-called “P” account) saw the creation of Adam and Eve. But if the “P” account is about the visible physical creation of all that is, then it is contradicted by the account of Adam’s creation which begins:

These are the generations

of the heavens and the earth when they were created,

in the day that the Lord God [YHWH Elohim] made the earth and the heavens. (Gen 2:4)

In this so-called “J” or “E” creation account, Adam is created on the same day God created the heavens [plural] and the earth—and the “P” account begins, “In the beginning, God created [filled] the heavens and the earth” (Gen 1:1). What part of the plural heavens is not created in the beginning, before light comes on day one? What portion of the earth is not created in verse one? Are dry lands formed on which Elohim [singular in usage] can make the man Adam from red mud? Yes, they are; for Adam is created from mud so there is dry land. Adam is created before there is bush or shrub, or any other living creature. He is first, as Jesus of Nazareth, the second Adam, is the First of the firstfruits of God.

If the presumption that Adam and Eve are the man [lower case adam] and the women of the sixth day is abandoned—this presumption cannot be supported from Scripture and is actually contrary to Scripture—then what becomes apparent is that the first Adam and the first Eve, created from the flesh and bone of the man, are not yet in the image and likeness of God, a life-giving Spirit who is not composed of flesh and bone. Adam is created on the dark portion of day one, not on the sixth day, with Christ Jesus being the light of this day one (2 Cor 4:6). Augustine’s assumption that man had a rational soul is premature, for the first man was composed of the base elements of this earth. And this first man was driven from the Garden of God before he ate of the tree of Life (Gen 3:22–24). He had no “life” within him when he was driven from the Garden but what came from physical breath that was like the breath of other breathing creatures [nephesh]. So man would not receive “life” like that which God has until he is born of Spirit, receiving a second life through receipt of the divine Breath of God [B<,Ø:" 2,@Ø]. And human beings are first born of Spirit when the waters of humanity are divided, with some being above the firmament that is heaven, and some remaining below on the second day, the dark portion of which is the three days and three nights that Jesus is in the heart of the earth, and the light portion being the forty days that the glorified Jesus is with His disciples. When Jesus returns to heaven, the dark portion of the third day begins. And as the dark portion of day one was long, the dark portion of the third day is long[1].

There is much “creating” or filling of the earth that occurs between day one and the sixth day when adam [humankind] is resurrected from death to be like Elohim in image and in kind.

In the days of “filling” between day one and the sixth day, a hierarchy of life is created, but created after the divine Breath of God is visibly seen in verse two—and this divine Breath of God was not seen even on that day of Pentecost following Calvary; it was only heard[2]. The “P” creation accounts moves from describing a physical creation to describing an invisible spiritual creation in Genesis 1:2. But this spiritual creation can only be described metaphorically in words that are commonly used for the things of this world. Human languages have few words that pertain only to the invisible things of God. And where these few words are used, they have been misused for so long that a regular plural like Elohim [the plural of Eloah] has been given linguistic singleness[3].

Man can only be a spiritually lifeless shadow of God, appearing as a similitude of God, until man receives life like that of God, with this life coming from the divine Breath of God through Christ Jesus as human life comes from the breath of the first Adam through the person’s immediate father. Man cannot be in the likeness of God until humankind has life in the heavenly realm. And every person who has assumed that Genesis chapter two is a chronological continuation of chapter one has assumed incorrectly. But this subject will be taken up more fully in later sections. Likewise, the initial questions asked will be answered after stepping through the open door.

2.

The focus of God, of both the Father and the Son, has been the creation of humankind in their image and after their likeness (Gen 1:26), with this creation being an on-going work that will be completed with the coming of the new heavens and new earth. The Logos, as Theos (from John 1:1–3), created the earth to be spiritually harvested; He didn’t create the earth for it to be decorated with frosting as was taught by one former radio ministry; and He didn’t create all that physically exists to last forever. Rather, as if a rift opened in the supra-dimensional heavenly realm—a tear in the fabric of heaven itself—a bottomless pit appeared, a “space” in which shimmering strings of energy collided to create not one singularity as posited by the Big Bang Theory, but series of singularities from which “mass” emerges as matter in the unfurling of the four known dimensions. And with the formation of mass comes time, its passage becoming a property of the decay of unseen matter that can be literally written as a mathematical function of mass. Thus, time is a unique property of this physical creation. The supra-dimensional heavenly realm is “timeless”: the existing moment remains forever and does not change to the next movement, a condition requiring all that is in heaven to coexist with all that will be in a dance of oneness that cannot be reproduced or even well considered within the unfurled dimensions. For human beings, time or rather space-time is as water is to fish. Our apparent solidity requires that one moment becomes the next moment to allow mass to be relocated to another position in space-time in a manner analogous to the buoyancy of water which allows fish to change suspended positions in their world.

Because time and its passage is a property of all that has been made, heaven is a timeless dimension where, before the foundations of the earth were laid, the Father foreknew many heirs according to a plan mirrored by the agricultural cycle of Judea. The early harvest of the earth occurs midweek (on the fourth day) of a seven-day creation week, with the great or main crop harvest of the earth to occur in the afternoon of the sixth day. The great light of the fourth day is the glorified Bride of Christ. But this is not what has previously been taught to spiritually circumcised Israel: what was taught and what possesses an inherent logic is that the firstfruits are resurrected at the end of the sixth day of the creation that has each day a thousand years long, but the first problem with this scenario is that within the historical narrative formed by Hebraic Scripture, humankind is already in a seventh one thousand year period (day) without having entered God’s rest.

The great White Throne Judgment—the main crop wheat harvest—is represented in the plan of God by the creation of adam, male and female, on the sixth day. Speculation will exist as to whom the “helpmate” is, but Jesus told His disciples that there would be least and great in the kingdom of heaven (Matt 5:19), with least also being descriptive of a commandment. But there is no commandment of lessor importance: the Ten Commandments form one law. So least does not adequately convey the sense of how those who relaxed a commandment will be called in the kingdom, or of how the helpmate will be perceived for the least might become the helpmates for the great.

The harvest of firstfruits, with Christ Jesus being the First of the firstfruits, is analogous to ancient Israel’s barley harvest, which began with the Wave Sheaf Offering and continued until the Feast of Weeks … in order to take “meaning” from any form of communication, a person must employ a strategy that gives significance to the signs used by another person. During a baseball game, coaches give hitters and base runners many signs, but only one or two of the many signs given are significant at any given moment. Most of the signs are intended to confuse the other team so that its players and coaches are unable to “read” the message communicated to the hitter or base runner. And of the many tugs on the bills of caps and pulls on ear lobs and finger play across the lettering of uniforms used by baseball coaches, only the sign following a “key” has significance. The other signs form a poetry of motion that signifies nothing.

The strategy used by the first disciples—and the strategy that should be used by endtime disciples—for taking meaning from Scripture is no more difficult to comprehend than is the strategy used for taking meaning from baseball signs: the significant sign[s] follow the key sign. With Scripture, the “key” is the one employed by King David as poet and psalmist. It is the sign the Apostle Paul gave to the saints at Rome and at Corinth:

For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world, in the things that have been made. (Rom 1:18–20)

So it is with the resurrection of the dead. What is sown is perishable; what is raised is imperishable. It is sown in dishonor; it is raised in glory. It is sown in weakness; it is raised in power. It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. … But it is not the spiritual that is first but the natural, and then the spiritual. (1 Cor 15:42–44, 46)

The visible reveals the invisible, and the physical precedes the spiritual. This is the structure of Hebraic poetry, organized in repetitive couplets that feature the first presentation of a thought representing the physical or natural world, and the second presentation of the same thought moving inward to represent the invisible mental or spiritual application of the same thought. The key of David unlocks typological exegesis, which uses intertextuality and hypertextuality to transform the historical narrative into prophecy about events that occurred to Jesus and to His first disciples, and about that will occur to His endtime disciples. Jesus said He was the first and the last, the beginning and the end, the alpha and the omega (Rev 22:13). The apparent eternity of the physical creation concealed Jesus from natural Israel (Eccl 3:11) so that only David, a man after God’s heart, knew that Yah was the visible, natural world manifestation of the conjoined deity YHWH, Israel’s Elohim (see Ps 146:1, 148:1; 149:1). And this Yah was Theos, the Logos, who entered this world as His Son, His only (John 1:14; 3:16).

Whereas ancient Israel’s barley harvest forms the type and shadow of God’s harvest of firstfruits, the later wheat harvest represents in type the great White Throne Judgment of humanity. The early harvest foreshadows this later harvest about which little Scripture is devoted, or is necessary for disciples with spiritual understanding; for the early harvest is the antetype of the main harvest.

The reason for God’s relationship with humanity has been a mystery for most of human history. Noah neighbors had no understanding of why the rain began. But what could have been known about God was plain to them, because God had shown it to them through the visible things made—and in this relationship between invisible and visible, with the invisible revealed through the visible, is the wisdom necessary for endtime disciples to walk through the spiritually opened door placed before them. Noah’s neighbors were not offered this key that unlocks the mysteries of God, especially prophecies about the conclusion of this age.

The man Jesus of Nazareth revealed what was hidden since the foundation of the world (Matt 13:35), but He disclosed the mysteries of God in a manner that only His disciples could understand them (v. 11). However, His disciples did not understand His speech or the mysteries of God when they thought they could understand these mysteries. Jesus spoke in parables, a special kind of metaphor, not to unseal these hidden mysteries but to keep the mysteries secret. On the night He was betrayed, He told His disciples that He had only spoken to them in figures of speech (John 16:25). Everything He had told them from the beginning could not be taken literally, but was said in figurative speech. Why? Because during His ministry He spoke only the words of the Father, words which did not originate in this world but in heaven and words about the things of heaven which human words do not directly address and words “too big” to be conveyed by modulations of air; for the miracles that Jesus performed were part of the words of the Father; were modulations of His divine Breath. The Psalmist wrote, “When you [YHWH] send forth your Spirit [breath], they are created, / and you renew the face of the ground” (104:30). So when Jesus heals seven times on a Sabbath day, endtime disciples need to understand that seven times the Father, through Jesus, delivered a sermon to Israel, with these sermons confirming the importance to the Father of the Sabbaths as well as establishing the difference in how the Father perceived the Sabbaths as opposed to how the Sadducees and Pharisees perceived the Sabbaths.

The person who says that he or she takes the Bible literally first doesn’t, but more importantly, cannot, for knowledge delivered in figurative speech cannot be received literally but only through giving to common words [linguistic icons] uncommon or unusual meanings. If a disciple reading the Genesis “P” creation account assigns to “trees” created on the third day that same meaning [linguistic object] as an arborist assigns to trees, then the passage cannot be understood and when this disciple argues for trees being created before the sun is created the disciple argues as an ignorant beast—and he or she does Christendom more harm than good.

However, the mysteries of God were not to remain sealed forever. Jesus’ earthly ministry was the shadow of His heavenly ministry: it was the visible ministry that reveals an invisible ministry. Borrowing a phrase from Jonathon Edwards, Jesus’ earthly ministry was the lively representation of His pre-second-Passover ministry to spiritual Israel. In analogy, Moses’ ministry to Pharaoh and to Israel is a type of Jesus’ ministry here on earth, and together, Moses’ ministry in Egypt and Jesus’ ministry in Judea form the lively representation of Jesus’ endtime ministry: the ministry of the visible two witnesses during the first 1260 days of the Tribulation functions in relationship to Jesus’ endtime ministry as Aaron functioned as the spokesman for Moses after Israel left Egypt. Therefore, there are two before the Tribulation begins who serve as the shadow and copy of the two witnesses, and who function as Aaron did when Moses met with Pharaoh.

The typology of 1^st-Century disciples and of 17^th-Century Puritans was that of intertextuality, with Old Testament types or figures “preaching” Christ and the heavenly things of the Gospels to disciples removed by time from the apparent “fulfillment” of these types or figures in Jesus Christ. To use an earthly example of this, the holy nation of Israel (Ex 19:5–6) rebelled against God ten times (Num 14:22), with these rebellions being foreshadowed by the ten plagues that came upon Egypt.

Pause and consider the previous sentence: God used the plagues to separate, or to make a distinction between Israelite and Egyptian, with this distinction becoming more visible with each plague. God used the plagues to show who His firstborn son (Ex 4:22) was to both Israel and Egypt. Now move to the ten times when Israel tested or contended with God in the wilderness: these “testings” were not of God, for Israel was rebelling against God on each of the ten occasions. Rather, these testings caused a separation to occur between who believed God and who did not believe even after seeing physical evidence of His involvement with Israel. So after the tenth testing, God makes a pronouncement about Caleb having about him a different spirit (Num 14:24). Only Joshua and Caleb of all the Israelite males numbered in the census of the second year will cross the Jordan and enter into the Promised Land or God’s Rest (from Ps 95:10–11). The remainder of Israel is killed as if the nation were a man because of its unbelief (Heb 3:19), with Israel’s unbelief forming the spiritual equivalent to natural Egyptians not covering themselves with the blood of a Passover lamb—

· Within the Old Testament, the following correspondence was established:

1. Firstborns of Egypt, man and beast, were slain in the tenth plague because of their unbelief; i.e., not believing (or knowing to believe) Moses about putting the blood of the Passover lamb on doorposts and lintels.

2. Natural Israel was the firstborn son of God (Ex 4:22).

3. In the wilderness at Paran, where Ishmael dwelt, natural Israel refused to enter into God’s rest because of its unbelief, and over forty years was slain as if a man.

4. The unbelief of Egypt corresponds to the unbelief of natural Israel in the same way that Egypt not sacrificing Passover lambs corresponds to Israel not entering into God’s rest.

5. Keeping the Passover, now, becomes the physical type of spiritually entering into God’s rest.

This analogy is extended farther by the writer of Hebrews, who said, “Therefore, while the promise of entering [God’s] rest still stands, let us fear lest any of you should seem to have failed to reach it. For the good news came to us just as to them, but the message they heard did not benefit them, because they were not united by faith with those who listened” (4:1–2).

· The Gospel was “preached” to naturally circumcised Israel just as it is preached to the spiritually circumcised nation of Israel, now the holy nation of God (1 Pet 2:9).

1. Natural Israel forms the lively representation of the Church.

2. As the shadow of a person is a dark or “lifeless” copy of the person in one less dimension than the person, natural Israel is the shadow of the Church.

3. And as the preaching of the Gospel to natural Israel did not benefit this holy nation of God, for a man knows the things of a man by the breath [pneuma—B<,Ø:"] that is in him (1 Cor 2:11) but requires having the Spirit of God [B<,Ø:" 2,@Ø] to know the things of God, disciples are cautioned to fear not entering into God’s rest.

4. As the Gospel did not benefit natural Israel, it has not benefited Christians, who will not enter into God’s rest because they are not united in faith with those who deliver[ed] the Gospel.

5. To be united in faith with Jesus and with Paul, disciples will take the Passover sacraments on the night that Jesus was betrayed (1 Cor 11:23–26).

But here is the kicker: a shadow does only what that which makes the shadow does.

· Natural Israel’s unbelief prevented this holy nation from entering into God’s rest as Egypt’s unbelief resulted in its firstborn being slain.

· As the firstborn son of God, Israel did not cover itself in faith and belief in the wilderness and was slain in the wilderness as the firstborn of Egypt was slain.

· The Church’s unbelief manifests itself through disciples not being united by faith with those who preach that disciples are to take the sacraments on the night Jesus was betrayed.

1. Because the Church’s unbelief that has it taking the sacraments on every day and/or night other than on the 14^th of Abib, disciples, who individually and collectively form the spiritual firstborn son of God, will be slain as the firstborns of Egypt not covered by the blood of a Passover lamb were slain.

2. As the Gospel did not benefit natural Israel, the Gospel has not benefited spiritually circumcised Israel, for this nation has refused to enter into God’s rest: the writer of Hebrews makes the weekly Sabbath the lively representation of God’s rest (4:3–11).

3. Therefore, because of its unbelief the greater Christian Church has not entered into God’s rest while the promise of entering stands, God will doubly repay Israel for its iniquity and its sin (Jer 16:18).

4. The wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23); so for God to doubly repay Israel for its iniquity and sin, Israel must die twice, with the second death being cast into the lake of fire.

A shadow of what is invisible is also invisible, except as it is manifest in actions such as ungodliness and unrighteousness, both of which come from the absence of “spiritual light,” as in the absence of God. So as a physical shadow is cast onto a physical landscape, a shadow of what is invisible is cast onto an invisible spiritual or mental landscape, which, in our example, is the mental topography of living creatures. Thus, the absence of “spiritual light” resulting from, say, fallen angelic beings standing between God and human beings causes darkness to lay over the mental mindsets of these human beings, with this “darkness” manifested in this world as unrighteousness in these human beings. And because this darkness is created in the timeless heavenly realm, the shadow of a spiritual event or entity is not time-linked to phenomena in this world though these shadows occur sequentially.

The Church would seem to be a visible entity in this world, but the sons of God are neither male nor female, Jew nor Greek, free nor bond, so these sons of God are not their tents of flesh with which they are clothed. They are not visible; rather, the tents of flesh are visible and remain male or female, but the inner new selves or new natures that transform these tents of flesh from being sons of disobedience into being disciples of Christ are invisible. And if the Church—the assembly [ekklesia—¦6680F\"<] of God—is composed of these inner new selves, the Church is not a denomination or any assembly visible to human eyes. Rather, the Church dwells “inside” congregations that meet together in this world, with those who are the Church known by their manifestation of the fruit of the Spirit.

The Church consists of human beings who have been born a second time, or born anew, or born again through receipt of the divine Breath of God [pneuma hagion—B<,Ø::" –(4@<] … the visible things of this world reveal the invisible things of God; thus, human birth and maturation reveal invisible spiritual birth and spiritual maturation, which cannot occur in the timeless heavenly realm because of the necessity for what is to coexist with what will be. The type of “growth” seen in this world that occurs between when an infant draws his or her first breath of life to when this person reaches his or her majority reveals the type of unseen “spiritual growth” in Grace and knowledge that occurs between when a disciple is first born of Spirit and when the disciple is glorified when judgments are revealed. And this type of growth can also only occur in this physical realm where change is mandated. It is always wrong to say that human beings will be glorified as “baby gods,” for disciples, when glorified, will have bodies like Jesus’ though they will forever be younger or junior siblings (Rom 8:29). They will not be babies that need to grow to maturity. They will, instead, have done their growing in this physical world while dwelling in texts of flesh.

In the timeless heavenly realm, all that has life has everlasting life for the moment is everlasting. The presence of life and the absence of life cannot coexist in the same entity at the same moment—and since in heaven the moment doesn’t change to a next moment, and since the wages of lawlessness is death, rebelling angels had to be cast from the heavenly realm first, because lawlessness would produce gridlock that prevented even movement within the realm, and second, because only within the creation could these rebelling angels die for their lawlessness.

A born again disciple has life that has come from heaven in a manner foreshadowed by the Logos coming into this world as His only Son, the man Jesus of Nazareth. The spiritual life that the disciple has originates within the person through receiving the Holy Spirit, the divine Breath of God, which gives to a person drawn from this world a second (or an additional) life apart from the life that comes to the person from his or her first father, the first Adam. The Father of the son of God domiciled in a tent of flesh is the Most High, the God and Father of the glorified Jesus Christ (John 20:17). Same Father, same parentage. Hence, disciples have, when born of the water of the womb, received life from the breath given to the first Adam, and have, when born of Spirit, received life from the divine Breath of God the Father. And because a disciple have spiritual life that cannot be seen in this world but only in the heavenly realm where it comes and goes as it wills (John 3:8), disciples individually and collectively (as spiritually circumcised Israel) cast shadows onto the mental topography of physically circumcised Israel. Therefore, the unbelief that prevented those who left Egypt, with the exception of Joshua and Caleb (types of the two witnesses), from entering into God’s rest is the visible manifestation of the invisible unbelief of the Church which prevents the Church from entering into God’s rest, heaven, with the lively representation of this rest being Sabbath observance. This unbelief is seen in the Church’s refusal to take the Passover sacraments on the night that Jesus was betrayed; thus, the Church, except for the portion represented by Joshua and Caleb, will be like Israel was in the wilderness of Paran, and will die as if it were a single person during the Tribulation.

When Christ returns, the slain of the Lord shall be many (Isa 66:16). As the firstfruits of God, the Church has absolutely no excuse for not covering its sins by taking the sacraments on the night that Jesus was betrayed, and has no covering from death angels except taking the sacraments as Jesus commanded.

The unbelief of today’s Christian Church is seen in parking lots every Sunday morning, but the extent of this unbelief can only be fully appreciated by looking at ancient Israel’s history: Scripture does not record the rebellion of the spiritually-circumcised nation of Israel, but rather, Scripture records the shadow of this rebellion in ancient Israel’s rebellion against God. As a result, the typology of intertextuality that Puritan theologians addressed stopped in the 1^st-Century although these Puritan theologians knew that since the Gospel preached to Israel under the Old Testament had not profited that nation (Heb 4:2), it was possible and likely that the Gospel preached to Israel under the New Testament would not profit this spiritual nation. They had only to look at the Roman Church to know that the Gospel had not profited many for a very long time. What they did not appreciate, however, is that all of Scripture is a visible thing that reveals the invisible Book of Life, in which the lives of disciples form epistles written not with ink but with spirit on the hearts of saints (2 Cor 3:3). This typological movement is from intertextuality to hypertextuality (where one text is linked to a text outside of itself), and is today what opens the door to understanding Scripture.

The question of whether Scripture forms a Homeric simile or a true metaphor with the Book of Life cannot be answered until judgments are revealed. It is enough to say that sons of God “grow” in Grace and knowledge by putting obedience, as if flesh or muscle, onto a skeleton of faith, with these “bones” of faith occasionally breaking as a child might break an arm or a leg. However, when heavily muscled with obedience, bones don’t break although obedience can be badly bruised in mishaps.

It is not natural to think in terms of obedience stemming from an invisible mindset being like muscles developed from hard work in this physical world. But by looking into the mirror that is the law of liberty, a person can see the growth of a son of God dwelling in a tent of flesh: is there faith? How much faith? How tall has this son of God grown? And is there obedience fleshing out the skeleton, or is this son of God anorexic and near death, a walking bag of stunted bones from its lack of obedience?

In the eighth chapter of Romans, Paul writes about being spiritually minded, saying that the natural or carnal mind cannot understand spiritual subjects or concepts, cannot keep the commandments, and is actually hostile to God. To change metaphors, the natural mind lacks the base constructs necessary to build a spiritual superstructure. Only when a person receives the Spirit of God are spiritual footers poured for the temple of God. Thus, many disciples live as an over-wintering foundation awaiting springtime construction. They know God and are known of God. Everyone who sees the foundation knows that a building project has been undertaken that will eventually produce a dwelling upon the cold footers. But no construction is daily occurring, or if there is construction, little progress is being made. However, when the weather breaks, there will be a flurry of activity and almost overnight a building will be framed, sided, roofed, with windows installed. Then the work of finishing the building occurs again without much progress being observed from outside.

Being spiritually minded allows comprehending the relationship between murder and anger, adultery and lust (Matt 5:21-30), with murder, committed by the hand, being the lively representation of invisible anger and hate, products of the heart, in the same way that adultery, committed by the body, is the lively representation of lust, the fruit of the mind. Murder in the physical realm equates to anger and hate in the spiritual realm. Jesus doesn’t magnify the law. Rather, He moved the law from the hand to the heart; He took the law from the physical realm to the spiritual realm, an understanding necessary before any construction can begin on the foundation laid with spiritual birth and the indwelling of Christ.

As the plagues in Egypt made a separation between Israelite and Egyptian, the testings in the wilderness made a separation within Israel of who believed God and who did not. And as the firstborns of Egypt, man and beast, were slain in Egypt, the firstborn son of God was slain in the wilderness of Sin/Zin. It was not enough to be an Israelite. Rather, the one who entered God’s rest in this intertextual example is the one who also believed God—and of the six hundred thousand adult males who left Egypt, only two crossed into God’s rest.

Moving now to hypertextuality, Israel is a spiritually circumcised nation, the Church, and the Church fellowship becomes the equivalent of the land of Egypt, with the “Christians” who do not take the Passover sacraments on the night that Jesus was betrayed being like Egyptians, and with those of the world being like the beasts of Egypt. Only those disciples who take the sacraments on the 14^th of Abib are the equivalent of the nation of Israel in Egypt … here is where the hypertextual example should frighten spiritually circumcised Israelites: it is not enough to take the Passover sacraments on the night that Jesus was betrayed if the disciple doesn’t also believe God. The seven endtime years of tribulation will begin with the second Passover liberation of Israel. The lives of men will again be given for the ransom of Israel (Isa 43:3–4). And those disciples who take the sacraments on the night that Jesus was betrayed will be analogous to the nation that left Egypt after the firstborns of Egypt were given as ransom for Israel’s liberation.

But of the approximately 600,000 adult male Israelites who left Egypt, only two entered into God’s rest. The remainder died because of their unbelief. Thus, of the however-many who take the sacraments on the 14^th of Abib, only those who truly have a different spirit about them will enter heaven: a ratio of 2/600,000 puts an exclamation point on Jesus saying that many are called but few will be chosen (Matt 22:14)[4].

A physically circumcised Israelite kept the commandments by not murdering his neighbor, by not touching his neighbor’s wife, by not uttering a falsehood, by not pocketing what didn’t belong to him, by not working on the Sabbath, but he (or she) could think about work on the Sabbath, could think about killing a neighbor, could transgress the commandments in hearts and minds without technically breaking the Law. But when Israel ceased being a nation circumcised in the flesh by hands according to the Law and became a nation circumcised of heart by Spirit (Rom 2:28–29; Col 2:11), Israel was no longer under the old written code, but under the laws of God written on hearts and placed in minds—the same commandments, not a different set of laws, but commandments now written on the inside surface of the cup. Thus, thoughts about work or the mundane activities necessary to live on the Sabbath transgress this inner 4^th Commandment; for it is on this day when the disciple spends all day communing with God. It’s not that the disciple’s thoughts are not on God the other six days of the week, but work must be done to provide for those of the person’s household. It is on days one through six when this work is done. The Sabbath is a day of entering into God’s rest, not a person’s own rest.

· The laws of God written on the heart and mind of every spiritually circumcised Israelite by the Breath of God [B<,Ø:" 2,@Ø] has anger and hate written everywhere the finger of YHWH wrote murder on the stone tablets Moses lugged down the mountain.

· These internalized laws have lust written in flesh where adultery was incised in stone.

· These internalized laws are the legal code by which disciples live their lives: a Christian isn’t even to hate his or her enemies.

· A Christian isn’t to mock Christ, into whose seventh-day Sabbath rest they will enter when glorified, by profaning the Sabbaths of God.

A spiritually circumcised Israelite satisfies keeping the commandments written on his or her heart and mind, a euphemistic expression for the equally euphemistic expression of receiving a circumcised heart and mind (Deut 30:6), by not hating or lusting, by having inward love for all of humanity, love that will be outwardly manifested in many ways. As a son of God a spiritual Israelite ceases to inwardly identify oneself as Jew or Greek, male or female, free or slave. Outwardly or physically, a person remains male or female. Inwardly or spiritually, a baptized disciple is a son of God. Outwardly, a son of God will keep the Sabbaths of God, will not murder, will not steal, will not commit adultery just as this son of God retains penis or vulva. The new man is inside the existing body of flesh, and hopefully governs the flesh.

The Apostle Paul did not understand why he wasn’t better able to rule himself from the inside out.

The essential factor in understanding what Paul wrote in his many epistles is grasping this relationship of the outer physical man being ruled by the inner new man. Disciples are no longer under the law, for the laws of God have been written on their hearts and minds. The bodies of disciples, whether plumbed male or female, are to be ruled by the inner new man who operates under the legal code of love. There is no love in hate, so the inner new man doesn’t hate which causes the flesh never to commit murder. Likewise, adultery is a specific type of coveting run amuck. There is no love in coveting sexual gratification outside of marriage, or in coveting revenge through a sexual liaison, or in coveting power or wealth through the giving or withholding of sexual favors. And in a similar manner, there is no love toward God in not outwardly keeping His Sabbaths, of which Christ is the reality.

But saying that Christ is the reality of the Sabbaths of God produces Protestant linguistics problems: if the Sabbaths of God are the lively representation of Christ, then disciples who do not keep these Sabbaths have no relationship with Christ. Natural Israel is the lively representation of the Church, which is a physically invisible assembly. The Sabbaths of God form the lively representation of Christ, a life-giving spirit. Thus, it is through the Sabbaths that a person enters into “life.” An Egyptian did not become an Israelite by tagging along behind Israel, but by circumcision and baptism—by participating in the reality of what defines Israel. Likewise, a “Christian” does not become a spiritually circumcised Israelite by going to church every Sunday, but by participating in the reality of what it means to be of Israel with Sabbath observance being an integral part of what it means to be of Israel. If a person says that he or she knows God, the person will keep the commandments and will walk as Jesus walked (1 John 2:4–6): Jesus kept the commandments. If the person will not walk as Jesus walked, will not imitate Paul as he imitated Christ (1 Cor 11:1), then the person has not entered into the reality of Christ, which is to live as a Judean. Since the disciple is not the flesh, physical circumcision is counterproductive, but no disciple can enter the reality of Christ and not keep the Sabbaths for Christ is their reality. The person who does not keep the Sabbaths has not entered into the reality of Christ, but is a spiritual bastard.

The teachers of Israel in the latter portions of the 1st Century through the 3rd Century confused foundations for superstructures. They were spiritually so extremely near-sighted that they couldn’t read Paul’s epistles even though they could see the words on the page; they couldn’t read spiritually. Why? Because for one, two, or however many generations they had made no journey of faith that cleansed hearts so that they could be circumcised. Even though born of Spirit, unless a person makes a journey of faith equivalent to the patriarch Abraham’s physical journey of faith, hearts are not cleansed; hearts are not spiritually circumcised; and the person in not a part of the invisible Church … the person can outwardly receive the honor accorded a bishop, but inwardly be an inverted bastard, conceived as a son of God but having as an infant adopted the prince of this world as the person’s spiritual father.

Because many “bishops” adopted the prince of this world as their spiritual father—not one of the three hundred or so bishops that attended the Council of Nicea (ca 325 CE) was brave enough to tell the Roman Emperor Constantine that he was an agent of the prince of this world—God delivered the Church into the hand of the spiritual king of Babylon, Satan the devil. Yes, Paul wrote to the saints at Rome, “For there is no authority except from God, and those that exist have been instituted by God. Therefore whoever resists the authorities resists what God has appointed” (13:1–2). But there would be no need to deliver the kingdom of this world into the hand of the Son of Man as will be done halfway through seven endtime years of tribulation (Rev 11:15–18; Dan 7:9–14) if the rulers in place today were agents of God. Rather, God consigned all of humankind to disobedience (Rom 11:32). Because of the transgression of the first Adam, God delivered human beings into the hand of the Adversary, into the hand of the prince of this world, thereby subjecting all of humankind to Satan’s broadcast of disobedience that caused/causes all whose father is the first Adam to be sons of disobedience (Eph 2:2–3) until God has mercy upon the person by drawing the person from this world (John 6:44) by giving the person a second birth.

Those authorities who have been appointed by God are of the Adversary until the kingdom of this world is delivered into the hand of the Son of Man, who has qualified to receive it but who will not receive it until Satan is cast from heaven and the Holy Spirit is poured out on all flesh. Therefore, disciples are today spiritual insurgents in the kingdom of this world, causing Satan the problems that physical insurgents cause authorities anywhere in this world. Only these problems are in the heavenly realm where “obedience” annihilates “disobedience” as an IED made from a 155mm artillery shell destroys a Hummer in this world.

The many bishops who adopted Satan as their father caused the spiritually holy nation of God [as the rulers of natural Israel caused that holy nation of God] to wander away from the ways of God and to profane His Sabbaths. They did exactly to the invisible inner new man what false prophets did to ancient Israelites outwardly. What the prophet Ezekiel records in his chapter 20 is the lively representation of what the early Church did spiritually. YHWH sent both houses of physical Israel into physical captivity for not walking in His ways and for profaning His Sabbaths. The Father and the Son sent both the school of Ephesus and the school of Alexandria, the two houses of Christianity, into mental captivity for not spiritually walking in His way and for spiritually profaning His Sabbaths. These two houses are today Arian Christianity and Trinitarian Christianity. And as Israel made war on Judah, Arians have made war on Trinitarians, and will do so again. Biblical prophesies are ultimately about war in that portion of the heavenly realm within the bottomless pit, a rift in the fabric of heaven analogous to the fissure in the earth’s crust that swallowed Korah and his friends.

The demonic kings who presently makeup Satan’s ruling coalition are all rebels, and as Satan rebelled against God, he will reap rebellion within his coalition.

All sons of God are born free to keep the commandments of God; they are not born consigned to disobedience as the tents of flesh in which they are domiciled were. But Paul warned the saints at Rome: “Do you not know that if you present yourself to anyone as obedient slaves [bondservants], you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness” (6:16).

Although born of Spirit with sin having no dominion over sons of God, most disciples have voluntarily made themselves slaves to sin by neglecting the Law and ignoring Moses, the accuser of every Israelite, natural and spiritual (John 5:45–47; Deut 31:25–27) … as Alice went Through the Looking Glass to find an alternative world, disciples go through the Open Door to find that Christianity is not the “religion” taught by Catholic or Orthodox or Reform theologians, most of whom are sincere men and women that have made no journey of faith, nor even know that such a journey must be made before the person can understand the things of God. Thus, the release of spiritually circumcised Israel from mental bondage to sin, foreshadowed by the release of physically circumcised Israel from physical bondage in Egypt, has been concealed from them.

Jesus is the paschal Lamb of God, sacrificed at Calvary when Temple leaders were then reckoning when Passover lambs were to be slain. He came as the light of this world, the light of Day One (Gen 1:3; 2 Cor 4:6), the light that would be taken away by His death (John 12:35–36; 1:4–5 et al). John wrote, “But whoever hates his brother is in the darkness and walks in darkness, and does not know where he is going, because the darkness has blinded his eyes” (1 John 2:11). Whoever breaks the Law walks in darkness. The son of God who breaks the Law has returned to darkness by presenting himself as the servant to sin. He is blinded because of the darkness, not because his eyes cannot see as was [and remains] the case with natural Israel. Lawlessness blinds eyes that can see if the son of God would turn to God, hear the words of the Son and believe the Father. Obedience opens eyes as it opens the door to understanding the thoughts of God.

Unrighteousness and ungodliness represent spiritual darkness—and the story of darkness’s tussle to overcome the light provides the context for the Bible, a narrative told by the Logos to His friends. Because meaning must to be assigned to words, the Bible speaks as a double-lipped sword to those individuals who hear the words of Jesus of Nazareth and who then believe the One that sent Jesus. It is spiritually silent to those individuals whose minds are set on the physical creation and all that is in the creation; Scripture is meaningless to the beasts of this world and to those human beings who have not yet been born of Spirit. If it equally meaningless to those who have been born anew as sons of God but who have returned to lawlessness; who have blinded themselves by presenting themselves as willing servants to sin.

Although many disciples have been called, have been born of Spirit, few will be chosen (Matt 22:14). Few will hear the words of Jesus and believe the Father and pass from death to life without coming under condemnation (John 5:24). These individuals are the ones foreknown, predestined, justified, and glorified as the brothers of Christ. And the vast majority of these individuals are not today “Christians,” but come from the third part of humankind (Zech 13:9) that will be born of Spirit when the Holy Spirit is poured out on all flesh halfway though the seven endtime years of tribulation. They represent the great endtime harvest of the earth (Rev 14:15) that begins 1260 days before Christ returns as the Messiah. They will make up most of the harvest of firstfruits, and to the shame of every disciple today, they will believe God unto obedience.

A disciple who keeps the commandments of God and holds the testimony of Jesus (Rev 12:17) is as a match struck in a cave. The disciple’s pinprick of light seems exceedingly bright in the darkness of the bottomless pit.

3.

The Open Door permits entrance into an invisible spiritual world through the things that have been made, with the things recorded in Scripture forming the lively representation of what is written in the Book of Life. The things of a man, his thoughts and desires of his heart, are known to the man by the breath [pneuma] of the man that gives to him life in this physical realm. The things of God, His thoughts and His plans, are made known darkly to a son of God by the divine Breath of God [B<,Ø:" 2,@Ø] that gives this son spiritual life in the heavenly realm, life that cannot be seen in this world but goes as wind blows (again, John 3:8) … where wind goes and from where wind comes is now known. Satellites photograph clouds and Doppler radar “peers” into these clouds as the movement of winds around low and high pressure cells make visible what was felt but not seen in the 1^st-Century. Even solar winds are now observable: Themis (an acronym for “Time History of Events and Macroscale Interactions during Substorms”) satellites, in tandem with ground instruments, have photographed three dimensional images of the “magnetic ropes” that connect the earth’s upper atmosphere to the sun. A magnetic rope is a twisted bundle of magnetic fields along which solar winds flow, providing energy for magnetic storms and auroras. So what couldn’t possibly be seen or known by earlier generations has become common knowledge. And since the visible, physical things of this world precede and reveal the invisible things of God, more can be said and understood about spiritual birth than ever before.

In an Alaska Daily News story dated December 26, 2007, David Sibeck of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center said the first magnetic rope was detected by Themis satellites on May 20, “‘It was very large, about as wide as Earth, and located approximately 40,000 miles above the Earth’s surface in a region called the magnetpause,’ which is where solar winds and the planet’s magnet field ‘meet and push against one another like sumo wrestlers locked in combat.’”

No one in the 20^th-Century had seen a magnetic rope. Few even knew of these magnetic fields twisted together like hemp rope. Yet today more people have seen a photo of a magnetic rope tying the earth to the sun than know what it means to be born of Spirit.

What is known about wind today by a farmer planting spring fields, military planners trying to anticipate the weather for the D-Day invasion of Europe did not and could not know.

The invisible portions of this physical world are rapidly becoming visible as knowledge continues to increase. And in a real world analogy, those who attempted to explain the workings of the Spirit of God and what it means to be born of Spirit in the era when weather forecasting was mostly limited to observing the horizon were spiritually more “blind” than were Allied military meteorologists in 1944. Yet forty, fifty, sixty years later, most disciples in the church of God still look to the knowledge of that WWII era for their explanations of what it means to be born of Spirit. This is like telephoning one’s neighbor to find out what tomorrow’s weather will be instead of turning on the evening news: it is a denial of knowledge. It is the ostrich syndrome bringing forth its fruit of ignorance.

One major denomination (The Latter Day Saints) teaches that “spirit” is a form of matter requiring “purer” eyes to see, making spirit not analogous to wind, but a solar-like wind that requires eyes even better than those of the four orbiting Themis satellites, or of the Hubbard Telescope to see. This teaching does not separate heaven from this physical creation by a wall of fire, but makes heaven part of a continuum which includes the four unfurled dimensions in which humankind has life. This teaching does not make the burning bush Moses saw a portal between dimensions, a portal like that of Jacob’s ladder, but makes the physical creation the portion of a sand beach that protrudes above the water … through intertextuality and hypertextuality, endtime disciples can “see” that the shadows of heavenly phenomena are cast not directly onto the surface of the earth but into thoughts and desires of living creatures. A barrier divides or separates heaven from earth, a barrier that causes the conscious mind not to perceive the actions of its subconscious mind. A barrier separates consciousness from the unconscious. Not an impenetrable barrier, but one disclosing that no continuum exists. So “spirit” is not a form of matter needing purer eyes to see. Rather, heaven is on one side of a barrier of fire, and all of the other dimensions, furled and unfurled, are on the other side.

A point on a two-dimensional plane would perceive a cylinder as a circle, for this point would not be able to perceive any of the cylinder’s height. But, because a point on a two-dimensional plane perceives a cylinder as a circle doesn’t make the cylinder any less tall: calling a cylinder a circle merely illuminates the limitations that have been placed upon the point by its inability to grasp the existence of another dimension. So it would be fruitless for two points on a plane to argue about the nature of the cylinder that they sincerely believe to be a circle, but that will not stop them from going to war with one another when consigned to disobedience.

When encountering a cylinder, our two dimensional point would be unable to directly perceive any of the cylinder’s height unless the point observed the shadow of the cylinder’s height cast onto the two dimensional plane—and this determination would be made by observing where the light was and where the light was absent (or where it was dark). If our point did not know to attach significance to the presence and absence of “light,” then the cylinder’s shadow that reveals the height of the cylinder would have no meaning to this point. Our point needs a translator to convert the presence and absence of light into usable code to which meaning can be assigned. And in a manner similar to that of a computer’s language translator, which attaches significance to the presence and absence of electrical resistance in a silicon chip, if a disciple does not have the spirit of knowledge Jesus promised to send every disciple [the parakletos—B"DV680J@H], the disciple cannot understand the things of God that the interplay of spiritual shadowing reveals. The parakletos serves a disciple in a manner analogous to how a language translator functions in a computer.

If a person could be reduced to a point on a two-dimensional plane, receiving the Holy Spirit adds to the point vertical height as if this additional “life” were a line vertically intersecting the plane. Since the world cannot receive the parakletos (John 14:17), life in the heavenly ream must be given to the person before the person can receive this spirit of knowledge that permits significance to be assigned to the presence and absence of light. The parakletos gives to the disciple knowledge, which adds “thickness” to the line that now casts its shadow of the previously unseen (to points on the two-dimensional plane) line. Without the parakletos, a disciple is no more than a spiritual line that has neither width nor depth. With the parakletos the disciple acquires presence in the invisible dimension that is heaven, for a line is as a point.

Before leaving our two dimensional point, if the passage of time were perceived as a horizontal line [the “x” axis], then phenomena in the heavenly realm would occur along a vertical line [the “y” axis]. Everything that happens in the timeless heavenly realm occurs along the vertical line, regardless of the distance between these phenomena: distance alone the vertical line does not equate to the passage of time, for this vertical line does not move in its relationship to the horizontal line. The shadow now of the phenomena that have occurred along the vertical line will appear as sequential events on the horizontal line, with each event separated by the passage of time. But along the vertical line, no time passes.

As Protestants stumble over their rhetoric when they have Jesus being the reality of the Sabbaths of God, the church of God has stumbled over the parakletos being the Holy Spirit: