Rereading Prophecy Revisited - Chapter 5

January 22, 2014 ©Homer Kizer
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Rereading Prophecy Revisited

Chapter Five

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Then I looked, and behold, on Mount Zion stood the Lamb, and with Him 144,000 who had His name and His Father's name written on their foreheads. And I heard a voice from heaven like the roar of many waters and like the sound of loud thunder. The voice I heard was like the sound of harpists playing on their harps, and they were singing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders. No one could learn that song except the 144,000 who had been redeemed from the earth. It is these who have not defiled themselves with women, for they are virgins. It is these who follow the Lamb wherever He goes. These have been redeemed from mankind as firstfruits for God and the Lamb, and in their mouth no lie was found, for they are blameless. (Rev 14:1–5)

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In a chiral narrative, the left hand or natural portion of the narrative forms the non-symmetrical mirror image of the right hand or spiritual portion of the narrative. What occurs in the natural portion is repeated in the spiritual portion, with the ultimate expression of chirality being a man, created in the image and likeness of God, looking up at God who in turns looks downward at the man. Therefore, by knowing what happens in either half, the reader knows what happens in the other half, albeit at a higher or lower level as God is higher than man, and man is lower than God. And with man created a little lower than the angels, readers can additionally know what happens at a transitional level, a physical/spiritual hybrid level, with the two witnesses filling this transitional level between Moses & Aaron and the Lamb & the Remnant (from Rev 12:17). Hence it can be stated with certainty that as Moses and Aaron were natural brothers, neither of whom were born of spirit but with Moses entering into God’s rest, the two witnesses will be natural brothers, one of whom will be truly born of spirit and the other will be his spokesman. And the Lamb and the Remnant will be spiritual brothers, with the Lamb being the glorified Christ Jesus and with the Remnant being truly born-of-spirit sons of God, filled with spirit. What Moses and Aaron did at a natural level in leading Israel out from physical slavery to a physical king in a physical land, the Lamb and the Remnant will do at the spiritual level, with the Lamb leading the 144,000 and the Remnant leading the third part of humanity (again from Zech 13:9) into the Promised Land of God’s Rest, this Promised Land being heaven itself.

The Remnant (again from Rev 12:17) will be what remains of the Elect from this present era, with this era represented by the First Unleavened (from Matt 26:17 — read the passage in Greek without adding the extra words translators have added). And the Elect are those disciples foreknown by the Father, predestined, called, justified through Christ being crucified for them while they remained sinners (Rom 5:8), and glorified through their inner selves having received indwelling eternal life via receipt of a second breath of life, the breath of God [pneuma Theou] in the breath of Christ [pneuma Christou].The Elect will have glorified inner selves housed in fleshly bodies, and as such stand in the middle (are in the transitional position) between the natural and the spiritual.

The 144,000 are all natural Jews … as Peter went to the Jews and by extension to Jewish converts and as Paul went to the Gentiles and to Gentile converts, the Lamb leads righteous, natural Jews into the Kingdom whereas the Remnant leads peoples from the nations [Gentiles] into the Kingdom. Thus, the physical portion of a Hebrew style narrative leaps over the two witnesses and land squarely on the Lamb and the Remnant. The two witnesses do not lead spiritual Israel into God’s rest—like Moses and Aaron who did not lead the children of Israel into the Promised Land but died before Israel crossed the Jordan behind Joshua [in Greek, ’Iesou — Jesus], the two witnesses die physically before they cross from the Affliction into the Endurance in Jesus. Then after three days, they are publicly resurrected whereas Jesus was privately resurrected. Their public resurrection (and being called forth into heaven) will be their testimony that Death has been defeated; that Death has lost its sting. And their testimony will be true.

Again, Hebrew style narratives are chiral narratives. The Book of Revelation is a chiral vision, with chapters four through eleven verse fourteen [the Affliction] forming left hand of chapters thirteen through nineteen [the Endurance in Jesus]: what happens when the seals are removed is repeated in the Endurance.

There is in the Holy Day calendar the essence of the transitional physical/spiritual model: in the harvest year of ancient Judea, there was a spring barley harvest and a main crop wheat harvest, which together represented the grain harvest of Judea and as such were the focus for the seven annual High Sabbaths, three in the spring and four in the fall. However, in the spring are also two assemblies that do not rise to the status of High Sabbaths: the Passover and the Wave Sheaf Offering. These two assemblies give to the three spring High Sabbaths theological equality with the four fall High Sabbaths, with the seven days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread equating to the seven days of the Feast of Tabernacles, and with First Unleavened that precedes the Feast of Unleavened Bread making for a spring eight-day assembly that forms the mirror image of the seven days of Tabernacles and the Last Great Day, making for a fall eight-day assembly.

The First Unleavened precedes the seven days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread as the Last Great Day follows the seven days of the Feast of Tabernacles, making each long feast the mirror image of the other; hence, we find in Ezekiel’s visions concerning the Millennium the following:

Thus says the Lord [YHWH]: In the first month, on the first day of the month, you shall take a bull from the herd without blemish, and purify the sanctuary. The priest shall take some of the blood of the sin offering and put it on the doorposts of the temple, the four corners of the ledge of the altar, and the posts of the gate of the inner court. You shall do the same on the seventh day of the month for anyone who has sinned through error or ignorance; so you shall make atonement for the temple. In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, you shall celebrate the Feast of the Passover, and for seven days unleavened bread shall be eaten. On that day the prince shall provide for himself and all the people of the land a young bull for a sin offering. And on the seven days of the festival he shall provide as a burnt offering to [YHWH] seven young bulls and seven rams without blemish, on each of the seven days; and a male goat daily for a sin offering. And he shall provide as a grain offering an ephah for each bull, an ephah for each ram, and a hin of oil to each ephah. In the seventh month, on the fifteenth day of the month and for the seven days of the feast, he shall make the same provision for sin offerings, burnt offerings, and grain offerings, and for the oil. (Ezek 45:18–45)

Today in the spring, there is no celebration of the new year; in the fall, the 1^st day of the 7^th month is a High Sabbath, why? Because in this era the spring calendar is representative of the period when the Adversary still reigns over the kingdom of this world. The reality of Passover—Calvary—occurs while the Adversary still reigns. The reality of the Wave Sheaf Offering—the Ascension—occurs while the Adversary still reigns. Israel’s exodus from Egypt was the physical fulfillment for the first High Day (the great Sabbath of the Sabbath — John 19:31), with the spiritual reality of this High Sabbath being the Second Passover liberation of Israel from indwelling sin and death. The seven days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread now represents the seven endtime years when Israel will live without sin. The last High Sabbath of Unleavened Bread will now represent when the Messiah returns. And the seven weeks between the Wave Sheaf Offering and the Feast of Weeks, the third annual High Sabbath, also represents the seven endtime years when Israel—two nations, the two loaves of bread baked with leaven that are waved on the High Sabbath—lives without sin and is therefore accepted by God … during the First Unleavened, the Preparation Day for the great Sabbath, the Elect live without sin through having their transgressions covered by grace, the righteousness of Christ; the garment of Christ. During the Feast of Unleavened Bread Israel will live without sin through Israel’s own obedience of God, made possible by the nation being filled-with and empowered by spirit.

For firstfruits, the Feast of Weeks completes their harvest; for the seven weeks represents the same spiritual reality as the seven days of Unleavened Bread but these weeks can be read differently. The counting of the seven weeks followed by the annual High Sabbath (Feast of Weeks) can be read as the Millennium that will be represented on the fall calendar by the seven days of Tabernacles, with the third High Sabbath representing the Last Great Day. Therefore, the entire harvest calendar is completely accounted-for by the spring Holy Day calendar. Likewise, the entire harvest calendar is completely represented by the fall Holy Day calendar, with Yom Kipporim, the Day of Coverings on which all Israelites afflict their souls by fasting, representing the First Unleavened and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the eight days on which the bread of affliction (unleavened bread) is eaten. The first High Sabbath of Tabernacles will now represent the beginning of the Millennium, the Second Advent. The seven days when Israel dwells in temporary shelters will represent the Thousand Years that doesn’t end with a High Sabbath for the Adversary will be loosed from his chains and will deceive far too many as the Adversary deceived the whole world (Rev 12:9) prior to dominion over living creatures being taken from him … as the 1^st of the sacred year is not now celebrated, the end of the Millennium is not celebrated, both for the same reason, that of the Adversary deceiving the people. The Last Great Day will now represent the great White Throne Judgment (Rev 20:11–15), when humanity represented by the main crop wheat harvest in ancient Judea appear before God.

For Christians, the Feast of Trumpets—Rosh Hashanah—the fourth High Sabbath, reaches into the seven days of Unleavened Bread and stands on the fourth day, the day of Christ’s Resurrection and Ascension, the day that began the reality of the First Unleavened on the 18^th day of Aviv in year 31 of the Common Era, the day when Jesus breathed His breath on ten of His disciples and said, Receive spirit holy (John 20:22).

Jesus was crucified mid-week, on Wednesday, the fourth day of the natural week. Jesus was resurrected and ascended to the Father mid-spiritual-week, the fourth day of Unleavened Bread. As such, Jesus bridged the natural/spiritual paradigm, with Jesus’ earthly ministry representing the transition between physical [before He received heavenly life in the form of the breath of God] and spiritual.

The entirety of the twin harvests of God are fully represented by the spring Holy Day calendar, and fully represented by the fall Holy Day calendar. They are also represented in an umbrella-like manner by all seven annual High Sabbaths …

For nearly a century, Sabbatarians Christians have understood that the seven annual High Sabbaths represented the plan of God. What they haven’t understood is that the spring high Sabbaths and the fall High Sabbaths are enantiomorphs. Thus, details omitted in either the spring or the fall calendar can be “understood” by closely reading the calendar for the other season; i.e., for the other harvest of God. And this principle applies to Moses & Aaron, the two witnesses, and the Lamb & the Remnant.

The 144,000 that follow the Lamb wherever He goes are spiritual virgins, meaning that since their spiritual birth, they have never sinned. They had no spiritual life prior to their spiritual birth, and since their birth, they have remained without sin for they believe the Lamb and follow Him, walking in this world as He walked. They constitute the remnant of natural Israel that will be saved. They were chosen in the Affliction, where they separated themselves from their peers by professing with their mouths that Jesus was Lord and believing in their hearts that the Father raised Jesus from death. Therefore, when dominion is taken from the Adversary and given to the Son of Man, who in turned baptized the world in holy spirit so that even the animal natures of the great predators were changed, they were filled-with and empowered by spirit. But unlike the third part of humanity, they were also born of spirit as sons of God, their spiritual birth making them younger siblings to Christ Jesus. Thus, they will be to Christ Jesus as David’s mighty men were to him.

Because of what happened at Mount Sinai when Aaron was left in charge—the gold calf rebellion against God—natural Israel cannot collectively enter into God’s rest; cannot receive spiritual life in the presence of God, the meaning of the prohibition against kindling a fire on the Sabbath (Ex 35:3). But the dynamics of timelessness would preclude natural Israel from receiving life [kindling or starting a fire, with fire representing life] in the presence of God, with the Sabbath representing entering into the presence of God (from Heb 4:1–10, in which the Sabbath [spiritual] is linked to the Promised Land in the Hebraic physical/spiritual paradigm).

As stated previously, the dark fire of cellular oxidation sustains physical life and forms the shadow and type of the bright fire that is the glory of God sustaining spiritual life. In a similar manner, the physical Promised Land that becomes Judea is the shadow and copy of spiritual Promised Land, heaven, with the Sabbath and Sabbath observance forming the physical/spiritual transitional level.

Sabbath observance is for Christians what receiving a second breath of life in a physical body is—both are transitional states between being fully physical [carnal] and being fully spiritual, head and body. Thus, Sabbath observance should, if not corrupted by the Adversary, disclose which Christians are truly born of spirit as sons of God and which Christians are still wannabe sons of God. But because Sabbath observance as a sign (Ex 31:13) was corrupted, God permits Christians to sort themselves out, with Sabbath-observing disciples not born of spirit declaring that they are, indeed, not born of spirit, and with Sunday-observing Christians denying that they will become, when glorified, younger siblings of Christ Jesus and therefore God (used as species classifier), “one” with the Father and the Son (John 17:11, 21–23). In fact, to Trinitarian Christendom, it is blasphemy to say what Jesus says in John’s Gospel; for Trinitarians know that despite claiming spiritual birth through regeneration of an immortal soul [that they do not have], they are not really born of God as sons, as a biological son is of the same human species as his father and mother. They know they are not God—and their belief in a closed triune deity prevents them from even imagining that they are sons of God. But knowing that they are not of God doesn’t prevent them from arrogantly condemning what they don’t know and don’t understand.

The Father, in sending His spirit/breath in the bodily form of a dove (from Mark 1:10) to penetrate the man Jesus, His Beloved, became one with the man Jesus. And in a single long night of procreation that began at Calvary, the Son as a life-giving spirit, an Eve spirit, brings forth sons of God that are “real” sons of the Most High God.

In moving Moses and the children of Israel from physical to spiritual, the physical man Moses entering into the presence of the Lord atop Mount Sinai becomes analogous to the resurrected Jesus entering into the presence of the Ancient of Days as the First of the harvest of firstfruits, the accepted Wave Sheaf Offering. The 144,000 are analogous to the children of Israel born in the wilderness, not the nation of Israel that left Egypt, with the children of Israel crossing the Jordan behind Joshua/Jesus and entering into the Promised Land, God’s rest.

In moving from physical to spiritual, Joshua/Jesus and Caleb, in whom was a different spirit from the remainder of Israel (Num 14:24), initiate the transition from Moses and Aaron to the Lamb and the Remnant; therefore the two witnesses in the Affliction are to greater Christendom as Moses and Aaron were to the nation of Israel numbered in the census of the second year (Num chap 1). The Lamb and the Remnant are to the 144,000 and the third part of humanity as Moses & Aaron and Joshua & Caleb were to the children of Israel numbered in the census of the 40^th year (Num chap 26).

There is a difference between the Commandments given at Sinai and the Commandments given on the plains of Moab, with this difference most easily seen in the Sabbath Commandment and the reason for keeping the Sabbath:

Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy. Six days you shall labor, and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to [YHWH] your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. For in six days [YHWH] made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, and rested on the seventh day. Therefore [YHWH] blessed the Sabbath day and made it holy. (Ex 20:8–11 emphasis added)

Observe the Sabbath day, to keep it holy, as [YHWH] your God commanded you. Six days you shall labor and do all your work, but the seventh day is a Sabbath to [YHWH] your God. On it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant, or your ox or your donkey or any of your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. You shall remember that you were a slave in the land of Egypt, and [YHWH] your God brought you out from there with a mighty hand and an outstretched arm. Therefore [YHWH]your God commanded you to keep the Sabbath day. (Deut 5:12–15 emphasis added)

The children of Israel did not receive the same reason for keeping the Sabbath as was given to the people of Israel that left Egypt, with this difference reflected in the movement from Moses and Aaron as types of the two witnesses to Moses and Aaron, Joshua and Caleb being types of the Lamb and the Remnant …

Remember, a sign takes its meaning from its context—the context in which it is received—not from an unknown context. The cross is a sign: in this era, the cross or tattoo of the cross doesn’t mean the same thing as the cross and tattoo of the cross will mean in the Endurance. The Sabbath is a sign (again Ex 31:13) that didn’t mean the same thing at Mount Sinai as it meant on the Moab Plain. The Sabbath is today a sign of less Christian significance than it will have in the Affliction and Endurance. And Matthew’s Jesus makes this point when He says,

And the Pharisees and Sadducees came, and to test Him they asked Him to show them a sign from heaven. He answered them, "When it is evening, you say, 'It will be fair weather, for the sky is red.' And in the morning, 'It will be stormy today, for the sky is red and threatening.' You know how to interpret the appearance of the sky, but you cannot interpret the signs of the times. An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of Jonah." So he left them and departed. (Matt 16:1–4)

One sign—that of a red sky—has two opposing meanings, with the meaning to be given to the sign determined by the context in which it is received: dusk or dawn. The meaning of the sign of Jonah, the only sign Jesus gives that He is of heaven, is also context specific: dusk (going into the one long spiritual night that began at Calvary) or dawn, going into the Light when dominion over the single kingdom of this world is given to the Son of Man.

In Matthew’s Gospel, written in Hebrew style prose according to Bishop Papias, Jesus twice gives the sign of Jonah as evidence He is of heaven. Besides the above citation, Jesus said,

Then some of the scribes and Pharisees answered him, saying, "Teacher, we wish to see a sign from you." But He answered them, "An evil and adulterous generation seeks for a sign, but no sign will be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah. For just as Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” (Matt 12:38–40)

The context for Jesus saying, As Jonah was three days and three nights in the belly of the great fish, so will the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth, is the physical portion of Matthew’s Hebrew styled narration; whereas the context for Jesus giving the red-sky sign is the spiritual portion of the narrative, with the division between physical and spiritual coming in the following antidote:

And behold, a Canaanite woman from that region came out and was crying, "Have mercy on me, O Lord, Son of David; my daughter is severely oppressed by a demon." But He did not answer her a word. And His disciples came and begged Him, saying, "Send her away, for she is crying out after us." He answered, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." But she came and knelt before Him, saying, "Lord, help me." And He answered, "It is not right to take the children's bread and throw it to the dogs." She said, "Yes, Lord, yet even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their masters' table." Then Jesus answered her, "O woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire." And her daughter was healed instantly. (Matt 15:22–28)

The lost sheep of Israel became, with this Canaanite woman, all who have faith … everything preceding the Canaanite woman coming to Jesus is physical regardless of how spiritual it might seem to be; everything after is spiritual, regardless of how physical the thing might seem. Thus, the feeding of the five thousand is physical whereas the feeding of the four thousand is spiritual—but what is the difference, two fish morphing into a few small fish as two nations of Israel prior to the Second Passover become the seven named churches and the single unit of every other Christian denomination or ideology? Is that the difference: leavening as the representation of sin [transgression of the Law — 1 John 3:4] becoming the teachings of Pharisees and Sadducees, their teachings being spiritual sin [explication of their unbelief or disbelief]?

Physically, the sign of Jonah represents Jonah’s three days and three nights when he was in the belly of the whale [great fish] (Jonah 1:17 in English translations), but spiritually, the sign of Jonah represents the movement of life-giving breath from the nose, the front of the face, to inside the person and to where the dove entered Jesus—to where the blowhole of a whale is located.

The physical/spiritual transition state of a son of God is seen in the sign of Jonah:

Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, He asked His disciples, "Who do people say that the Son of Man is?" And they said, "Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets." He said to them, "But who do you say that I am?" Simon Peter replied, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." And Jesus answered him, "Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter [Petros], and on this rock [petra] I will build my church, and the gates of [Hades] shall not prevail against it. I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." Then He strictly charged the disciples to tell no one that he was the Christ. From that time Jesus began to show his disciples that he must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised. (Matt 16:13–21)

Peter was not the son of Jonah [’Iova], but the son of John [’Ioavvou] (John 1:42; 21:15–17) — and Jesus knew that Peter was the son of John, but Jesus didn’t misspeak for in Peter knowing that Jesus was the Christ, Jesus identified Peter as a son of God through having a second breath of life, one that enters Peter not through his nose, represented by the nasal consonant /n/ (in Greek, /v/) but behind the nose, behind the nasal consonant, with this “breath” represented by the linguistic radical <ah>, usually written as an /h/…

· The name <John> [’Ioann] has aspiration preceding the nasal consonant;

· The name <Jonah> [’Iona] has aspiration following the nasal consonant.

In Matthew’s Gospel Jesus confirmed the movement of the breath of life that is of importance by telling pronouncing Peter’s name: <Petros>, with the singular masculine case ending, the /os/ ending, requiring the speaker to exhale breath through puckered lips. Jesus then tells Peter that upon this rock <petra> He would build the ecclesia of Him—with this rock not being a stone in a physical sense, but being the movement of breath from nose to inside the person; for to utter the word petra the speaker must open the mouth, producing the aspirated vowel sound, /a/, in the middle of the mouth.

The Church that Jesus will build will be built on the movement of the breath of record from the air that lungs inhale to the spirit/breath of God received through the indwelling of Christ Jesus. Simple? It should be when the reader realizes that a Hebrew style narrative is a chiral narrative with the physical portion and the spiritual portion being enantiomorphic.

The 144,000 natural Israelites (from Rev 7:4–8) have received a second breath of life: they are those who follow Jesus through the split granite monolith, the Mount of Olives, when pursued by the Adversary’s human armies. Again, this 144,000 are all spiritual virgins. They are sons of light, and they essentially disappear from the text; for they cast no shadow of themselves. And while they are all seen at the beginning of the Endurance, they are not seen again until shortly before the Second Advent.

Jesus said in the spiritual portion of Matthew’s Gospel,

Then the kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins who took their lamps and went to meet the bridegroom. Five of them were foolish, and five were wise. For when the foolish took their lamps, they took no oil with them, but the wise took flasks of oil with their lamps. As the bridegroom was delayed, they all became drowsy and slept. But at midnight there was a cry, “Here is the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.” Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps. And the foolish said to the wise, “Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.” But the wise answered, saying, “Since there will not be enough for us and for you, go rather to the dealers and buy for yourselves.” And while they were going to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage feast, and the door was shut. Afterward the other virgins came also, saying, “Lord, lord, open to us.” But he answered, “Truly, I say to you, I do not know you.” (Matt 25:1–12)

All ten are virgins, spiritually without sin. All ten are there to meet the Bridegroom, but half were not prepared for a long delay in the coming of the Bridegroom … why?

As in the case with every metaphor [parables are a special form of metaphors], there are more than one possible reading. But in understanding that Christ Jesus, the Lamb, doesn’t come again from heaven unless He first leaves the 144,000 that came to Him when He stood on the Mount of Olives as on a day [indefinite article] of battle (Zech 14:4) … the resurrected two witnesses will not precede the remainder of glorified saints to the throne of God to be accepted by God, but these two shall be throughout the Endurance as Jesus was for the missing fifteen hours between when He was resurrected from death and when He ascended to the Father as the reality of the Wave Sheaf Offering. These two will be with Christ Jesus for as long as the glorified Jesus remains with the 144,000, but at some point—roughly a year before the end of the Endurance—Christ Jesus will return to heaven from which He will come as King of kings and Lord of lords at the end of the seven endtime years. Therefore, it seems the two witnesses will remain with 144,000 that represent the ten virgins. And as the two witnesses will be two brothers, one born of spirit and analogous to Moses and one filled with spirit but not born of spirit prior to the Second Passover (this one being analogous to Aaron), half of the ten virgins (again, all without sin) will enter heaven as the Bride of Christ but the other half shall physically go into the Millennium. This second half (also without sin) shall be like the second witness, the one like Aaron.

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