Typology, Consistent Eschatology & Predestination
Eschatology is the teaching of last things, and "consistent eschatology" holds that all of Jesus’ eschatological teachings in the Gospels refer to what will happen at the end of the age. Typology argues that all of Israel’s history, including that presented in the Gospels and in the book of Acts, forms a double shadow of spiritual Israel’s endtime history in the supra-dimensional realm usually identified as heaven, that double shadow of first physical Israel, then of born-anew Israel. This typology was described by Paul when he wrote that the first Adam became as a living being; the last Adam became a life-giving spirit (1 Cor 15:45). Jesus’ earthly ministry is wedged between Jesus being born as a living being and Him becoming a life-giving spirit. Jesus as a life-giving spirit is, thus, the spiritual reality of (1) Adam as a breathing creature, and (2) the man Jesus of Nazareth prior to His crucifixion. Israel is, then, the Congregation, the Church, and finally the glorified sons of God, of whom Christ is the firstborn Son among many brothers (Rom 8:29). So, typology magnifies consistent eschatology in the manner that Jesus magnified the Law. Typology reveals that in the spiritual realm a mental act has the same consequences as a physical act has in the earthly realm. Human thoughts as well as physical deeds represent the double shadows of the Church and of the Congregation in the Wilderness. Both thoughts and deeds must be liberated from bondage to sin, represented by spiritual Babylon and physical Egypt; both must be brought into captivity to be ruled by Christ.
Before proceeding further, the subject of liberation from captivity needs pursued. Physical Israel became enslaved in Egypt even though when Jacob went down seventy in number (Gen 46:27), God spoke to him in vision, saying, ‘" Do not be afraid to go down to Egypt, for there I will make you into a great nation. I myself will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also bring you up again’" (vv. 3-4). Indeed, Israel became great in numbers, accounting for more than half of the population in Egypt (Exod 1:7 & 5:5). But Israel also became a slave nation, with Pharaoh directing that newly born sons of the Hebrews be killed. Finally, true to His promise to Jacob, God brought Israel up from Egypt after liberating the nation Passover night--after killing the firstborn of men and beasts.
At the end of the age, Israel shall again be recovered from bondage, with the Lord bringing Israel out of the north country and out all of the countries where He had driven the nation (Jer 16:14-15). But this Israel isn’t the circumcised nation. Israel goes from being the woman who "gave birth to a male child, one who is to rule all nations with a rod of iron" (Rev 12:5 – the male child being Christ) to the woman whose offspring "keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus" (v. 17). Thus, Israel goes from being physical to being spiritual. The covenant that had made physical Israel the holy nation of God (Exod 19:5-6) is abolished (Eph 2:15) following the death of the Covenantor, born as the man Jesus of Nazareth (John 1:14). Disciples who keep the commandments of God and hold to the testimony of Jesus are now the holy nation of God (1 Pet 2:9). So Israel continues, just as the laws of God continue, going from pertaining to deeds to pertaining to thoughts (Matt 5:17-48, especially vv. 22, 28, 44-45). The righteousness of disciples must exceed the physical-only righteousness of Pharisees.
Israel today is the Christian Church, and endtime Israel will be liberated from mental bondage in the north country (i.e., Babylon) just as physical Israel was liberated from physical slavery in the south country, Egypt. This means, simply, that the greater Church is today in mental bondage to the king of Babylon (Isa 14:4-21).
The Church has become a great nation, divided against itself, constantly fighting civil wars, and ruled by the kings of the North and of the South, who are subservient to the king of Babylon. But as circumcised Israel was liberated from bondage in Egypt, spiritual Israel will be liberated from bondage in Babylon as the second shadow of the great endtime liberation of humanity when the Holy Spirit is poured out upon all of humanity (Joel 2:28). Just as Adam became a breathing creature, physical Israel was liberated from bondage in Egypt following the first Passover. So, just as the man Jesus prior to Calvary became the beloved Son of the Father when the Breath of the Father descended upon Him as a dove (Matt 3:16-17), spiritual Israel comprised of born again disciples will be liberated from mental bondage in Babylon following the second Passover. There are two Passovers, one taken at even before the full moon in the first month of the year, with a second Passover for those who were spiritually unclean at even before the full moon in the second month of the year. These two Passovers represent the two liberations of Israel, one from physical bondage, one from mental bondage. And at the first Passover, all firstborns of men and beasts not covered by the blood of a paschal lamb were slain. At the second Passover, all spiritual and physical firstborns not covered by the blood of the Lamb of God will be slain.
The second Passover liberation of Israel precedes the seven years of tribulation during which Israel lives sin-free as represented by the feast of Unleavened Bread, with the first high Sabbath of the festival representing crossing the Red Sea (baptism – from 1 Cor 10:2), and the second high Sabbath representing crossing the Jordan (glorification, or baptism by fire – from Matt 3:11-12). To be a spiritual Israelite, a person will have already received baptism by the Holy Spirit. A person wouldn’t leave the world if the person had not received a puff of the Breath of the Father when drawn (John 6:44, 65), for the person without the Holy Spirit is actually hostile to God (Rom 8:7). So all three baptisms of the world are present when foreknown disciples are glorified upon Christ’s return as the Messiah even though the world will not experience baptism by fire until the conclusion of the Lord’s day…the Flood of Noah was the baptism of the world for sin. The pouring out of the Holy Spirit upon all humanity when the kingdom of the world becomes the kingdom of the Most High and of His Christ (Rev 11:15 & Dan 7:9-14) 1260 days prior to Christ’s return as the Messiah is the baptism of the world by Spirit. And the arrival of the new heaven and new earth following the great White Throne Judgment is the baptism of the world by fire. Therefore, water and Spirit becomes the shadows of baptism by fire. This agrees with what Jesus told Nicodemus (John 3:5). Birth by water, though, isn’t baptism, but physical birth, which gives rise to death for sin. Baptism by water is unto the death of the old man/creature so that the creature can put on the new man through a second birth. All of humanity resurrected in the great White Throne Judgment will not have been baptized by water, but will have experienced actual death without receiving the Holy Spirit prior to death.
The greater Christian Church will not be raptured to heaven prior to its liberation from mental bondage to the king of Babylon. In fact, believing that disciples go to heaven is a central element in its mental enslavement. The first Eve believed the serpent’s lie that she would not die (Gen 3:4). Likewise, the second Eve--the Church--believed the old serpent’s lie that she would not die, but had immortal souls. Scripture, however, clearly asserts that everlasting life is the gift of God, that the wages of sin is death (Rom 6:23). Birth by water is as flesh and breath [soma and psuche]. Only after a born again disciple has been drawn from the world through receipt of the Holy Spirit [Pneuma "Agion] does a disciple become psuche, pneuma, and soma (1 Thess 5:23).
The doctrine of a pre-Tribulation Rapture will vaporize with Israel’s liberation from mental slavery in spiritual Babylon. This second liberation from bondage will be such a greater liberation than Israel’s escape from Egypt that the first liberation will not even be remembered in the future (again, Jer 16:14-15). And this second liberation merely foreshadows the great endtime harvest of humanity after Satan is cast from heaven. Therefore, the entirety of Scripture describes valid history while disclosing what cannot be directly observed in the spiritual realm. The entirety of the Gospels forms the shadow of the glorified Jesus’ endtime ministry to mentally enslaved, spiritual Israel prior to the second Passover. This ministry occurs in the heavenly realm where He opens doors that cannot be shut by human beings. The book of Acts, then, forms the post-second-Passover shadow of liberated spiritual Israel’s conversion in the spiritual realm during the Tribulation, with Cornelius’ baptism by the Holy Spirit representing when the Holy Spirit is poured out upon all humanity (Joel 2:28). The Gospels and Acts together, therefore, are foreshadowed by the writings of Moses and Joshua in the same relationship as the Church has to the Congregation. Both sets of writings reveal as shadows what occurs but cannot be directly observed in the spiritual realm at the end of the age.
To claim that the Church needs liberated and converted seems an oxymoron. In every generation and in every denomination, there have been saints who have lived by faith, who have shunned hypocrisy, and who will be resurrected to glory. But overall, how much of humanity has been killed in the name of the Church? How many individuals have used their religion to kill their enemies in the name of Christ? How spiritually converted is the greater Church, really? How many "Christians" keep the laws of God that have been written on their hearts and minds? How many "Christians" profane the Sabbaths of God, of which Christ is the reality? How many "Christians" truly practice love? How many shun hypocrisy? How many believe that everlasting life is the gift of God, versus how many believe they received everlasting life at conception in the form of an immortal soul? How many truly hear the words of Christ and believe the Father, versus how many hold the traditions of men, continued through historical exegesis? Do Christians, then, substantially differ today from the Pharisees and Sadducees who had the law but didn’t keep it (John 7:19)?
Pharisees in the 1st Century kept the portion of the Law of God that was physical. They lacked spiritual understanding, and lacked keeping the intent of the law. The greater Church in the 21st Century keeps, somewhat, the portion of the laws of God that is spiritual. Many Christians truly practice love towards neighbor. Their desire is Christ, but they won’t be ruled by Him. Thus, by their actions, they reveal their mental bondage to the king of spiritual Babylon, just as the Pharisees revealed theirs by their lack of love. Too many born again disciples today attempt to crucify Christ in the spiritual realm by giving Him their lawlessness in that realm, but He won’t be crucified a second time. As the reality of the Azazel goat, He bears their sins until He returns as the Messiah. He will then give those sins either to Satan, or back to the disciple if the disciple has left the covenant by which Christ agreed in love to bear the sins of Israel. This is why disciples should not be surprised when those who have done evil are resurrected to condemnation (John 5:29). Christ bore their sins, then returned them to those whose end came with the disciple being out of covenant.
Returning to the brew of obscure theological concepts introduced in the first paragraph that has by now partially jelled: when predestination is inserted into a mix of typology and consistent eschatology, a philosophy that perceives time as a fluid thickens enough to be spread on bread. Today becomes a location, just as a cove or a bay is a location. "Today" exists in the portion of time where we are presently located, but outside of this sea of time are all those individuals whom the Father foreknew, predestined, justified, and glorified (Rom 8:29-30). They are unaffected by "today," or tomorrow (the next bay over). And the relationship between the Congregation, the Church, and glorified saints--between deeds, thoughts, and being deified--reflects this inside time and outside time paradox that allows me to exist as a glorified saint while still working out my salvation.
Let me into introduce a cautionary parameter: unless I work out my salvation, I will never be a glorified saint. Being drawn by the Father and called by Christ (foreknown and predestined), receiving grace (justified) and being resurrected to life (glorified) requires the disciple to hear the words of Christ and believe the Father in addition to what the Father and Christ do for the person. The disciple can negate being foreknown, predestined and justified by leaving the covenant that only asks the disciple to believe the Father. Belief, though, entails obedience. A person driving 80 miles an hour on a freeway that has a speed limit of 70 miles an hour doesn’t really believe signs stating the speed limit. The person has become a law unto him or herself, and is usually supported by many other drivers whizzing along at 80. And so it is with the laws of God. The Sabbath is the seventh day. It never has been the eighth day. Christ's resurrection and Ascension on the first day of the week already have a commemorative service: the Wave Sheaf Offering. So to use Christ’s Ascension as justification for breaking the commanded weekly Sabbath is ludicrous. But because other disciples are breaking the Sabbath (along with speeding), the vast majority of Christians believe it is perfectly acceptable to rewrite the laws of God that have been written on their hearts and minds just as they rewrite the speed limit by their widespread breaking of the law. But as anyone who has received a speeding ticket knows, the judge doesn’t acknowledge and excuse rewriting of the traffic code. Nor will Christ as the judge of disciples acknowledge and excuse breaking the laws of God.
Therefore, being foreknown, predestined, justified and glorified contains no caveats that work as Get Out of Jail Free cards. The righteous will continue to do what is right, and the holy will continue being holy. But as a glorified saint, I can, from outside of time, watch me work out my salvation (and wince at my mistakes). I can also not be there if I leave the covenant. So from the perspective of being inside time, we can temporarily ignore the fact that we have or haven’t been already glorified. But this knowledge should cause disciples to resist unto death leaving the covenant, or accepting the mark of the beast in the future. If a disciple has the absolute assurance of already being glorified for remaining in covenant, then what can possibly separate this disciple from God? Certainly not Satan who is still alive in our reality, but already destroyed by fire coming out from his belly.
The creation account of Genesis becomes the descriptive beginning of the plan of God, the abstract of the plan of God, and the summation of the plan. The creation account (Gen 1:1-chpt 2:3) corresponds to the Congregation in the Wilderness when it is used as descriptive text. The universe is brought into existence, the earth formed and humankind created in six days, as unlikely as that seems to many scientists. But sufficient hard evidence of a sudden creation has been compiled that "biblical creation" is as viable an explanation of how humanity came into existence as punctuated equilibrium, or any other theory presently in vogue.
When used as an abstract for the plan of God, each day of creation week represents a thousand years. And the use of heavy mass particle decay to date the universe rather than the use of light mass particles [photons], which take all possible paths between two points, gives a date that approximates the assignment of a millennium to each day of the creation account. The universe is not a sphere, so the reciprocal the present assigned date is an inappropriate assignment. Rather, the universe contains a starting point, which forms the bottom of a parabolic bowl, or the stem of a rose bud that opens into a blossom. The math to compute the age is now beyond me, so the actual calculations will have to be done by another generation of theologians; I am presently limited to approximations.
But a problem exists in the creation account: the vegetation of day three (1:11-13) precedes the creation of the sun on day four (1:16). The "days," therefore, cannot be marked by the rotation of the earth around the sun prior to day four, but become another quantity of time, figuratively descriptive in nature. Likewise, a problem existed with the Congregation in the Wilderness: Israel came into existence prior to receiving spiritual birth. If the creation account is perceived as the summation of the plan of God, circumcised Israel’s creation is analogous to the creation of plants before the sun is created, thereby denying plants the energy necessary for photosynthesis. And if that is the case, the creation of animals, a level of life above plants, is analogous to the creation of the Church (as previously introduced, human beings go from being bi-part [soma and psuche] as born of water creatures to being tri-part [psuche, pneuma, and soma] as spiritually born Israelites). And the creation of humankind on the last portion of the sixth day becomes analogous to the glorification of saints prior to Christ’s Millennium reign as Lord of lords and King of kings.
When typology is linked with predestination, the creation account as summation supports Christ being the reality of festivals, new moons, and weekly Sabbaths (Col 2:16-17), for after bringing many heirs to glory, He rested on the seventh day. Preterists lack spiritual understanding. Prophecies have been fulfilled by both physical Israel and spiritual Israel outside of time, but remain to be fulfilled in the narrative of history where humanity is presently located inside of time. Christ is the reality of all Sabbaths outside of time, but inside time, all of the festivals and Sabbaths remain to occur to the world. The Passover liberation of Israelites from physical bondage to Pharaoh is but the shadow of the second Passover liberation of Israelites from mental bondage to Satan and lawlessness, which in turns foreshadows the liberation of the world from bondage to Satan when the kingdom of the world becomes the kingdom of the Most High and of His Messiah (Rev 11:15 & Dan 7:9-14) halfway through seven years of tribulation. Time hasn’t fully flowered in our narrative of history, even though it can be observed in full bloom from the supernal realm. Where we presently are in the creation account as summation is Genesis 1:26. The mysteries of God are being revealed so that the foreknown sons of God can be glorified. God will do nothing without first revealing His intentions through the prophets, or today, through the called teachers of Israel. No additional prophecies need to be given. They just need to be unsealed by those who were foreknown.
Preterists take note: what occurred to physical Israel will occur to spiritual Israel, and will occur to the world. Prior to Christ’s return, all of the world will be Israel. There will not be anyone who hasn’t received the Holy Spirit. There will only be false and genuine Christians, as Satan as the antiChrist requires humanity to accept the tattoo of the Cross (the mark of the beast – Chi xi stigma) to buy or sell. Satan will claim to be Christ, will look like the pictures of Jesus, and will deceive many, probably fourteen of every fifteen human beings who entered the Tribulation. So while prophecies have been fulfilled, these same prophecies remain to be fulfilled. And the second Passover slaughter of all firstborns not covered by the blood of the Lamb of God will cause the world and most "Christians" to hate genuine disciples for Christ’s name’s sake. Christians haven’t seen persecution as they will see it. What occurred in the 1st through 4th Centuries was merely the shadow of endtime persecution. Pharaoh coming after Moses was the shadow of endtime persecution. So the person who thinks that all has been fulfilled is greatly mistaken. Only when time is viewed from the supernal realm has everything occurred, except the great White Throne Judgment on the eighth day of the feast of Tabernacles – the creation account doesn’t include an eighth day.
The truly sad aspect of what will occur and is occurring is that today new born spiritual Israelites are being slain in the heavenly realm as the reality of Pharaoh slaying Hebrew male infants at the time of Moses’ birth, and Herod slaying Israelite males under two years old following Jesus’ birth. They are slain through a gospel of iniquity or lawlessness/sin (from 1 John 3:4), and this murdering of spiritual infants will not be completed until physical and spiritual firstborns not covered by the blood of Christ are physically and spiritually slain at the second Passover. If a spiritual Israelite dies out of covenant -- being slain because a spiritual Israelite chooses not to cover him or herself with the blood of Christ by taking the Passover as directed by Jesus and Paul is prima facie evidence of dying out of covenant – this spiritual Israelite will bear his or her own sins, and will be resurrected to condemnation, a harsh statement. And I would rather overstate in importance the necessity of a spiritual Israelite covering him or herself with the blood of Christ than not stress the importance of taking the Passover. All judgment will be by Christ. He will actually determine, based upon what is in a person’s mind, whether the person is resurrected to life or condemnation. So while stating that an Israelite will experience the second death if slain as a firstborn out of covenant on the second Passover might be considered assigning a person’s fate prior to when the person’s judgment is revealed upon Christ’s return, in actuality the statement is factual.
If you as a born again Israelite choose not to cover yourself by the blood of Christ by taking the Passover as Jesus instructed and as Paul taught, then you either never read the Word of God, never heard Jesus’ words, or never believed the Father. Which is it today? Do you think you can mock Christ with leavened white bread and water every week and think you are covering yourself with Christ’s blood as instructed? Surely not. So you must be a hypocrite. And all hypocrites will be resurrected to condemnation. Then why would me stating that you, as an out-of-covenant firstborn, will die spiritually be revealing your judgment ahead of time? You have already, in your own mind, determined that you will be counted among the hypocrites. You have determined your judgment by choosing not to cover your sins in the spiritual realm. You won’t actually be cast into the lake of fire until Christ’s return, but by numbering yourself with the hypocrites, you can rest assured that you will go into the lake of fire.
Realized eschatology provided the logic and justification for the Roman Church’s reign over Western Europe in the latter centuries of the 1st millennium C.E. It is bad theology that has been used to extort land and moneys from too many for far too long. It needs to be hit in the head as a pig farmer does a sow that eats her young, which isn’t an endorsement of pig farming but of eliminating mothers that prey on their children.
Inaugurated eschatology argues that Jesus coming as a man brought about the beginning of the kingdom of God that won’t fully arrive until the very end of the age. While some Scriptural passages support the arrival of the kingdom with Jesus’ earthly ministry (Matt 12:28 & Luke 17:21, for example), the better reading of those supporting passages is typological, with Jesus being the reality of all of the Law and the Prophets, and of the kingdom of God. If the kingdom of God began with Jesus’ earthly ministry, then there would be no need to liberate Israel from bondage to sin. The Church as the second Eve would have simply perished after she believed the same lie that the first Eve swallowed, that she surely would not die. To this day, the greater Church continues to believe this lie that human beings have everlasting life apart from receiving it as the gift of God. And once the Church took it upon itself to eat of the spiritual tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thereby determining which laws of God it would obey and which it wouldn’t, it ceased being able to hear Jesus’ words, and it quit believing the Father. Instead of living like Judeans, how both Peter and Paul taught Gentile disciples to live, the greater Church taught disciples to live as spiritual Gentiles. Therefore, if Jesus’ coming as a man brought about the kingdom of God, the kingdom was taken captive by the 4th-Century, and has remained captive ever since.
The kingdom of God wasn’t taken captive, the Church was. The Church divided into the spiritual house of Israel (Arian Christianity) and the spiritual house of Judah (trinitarian Christianity), and both houses were sent into spiritual or mental captivity because of their lawlessness and profaning of the Sabbaths of God. Both remain in captivity, and won’t be released until the second Passover, when both Arians and Trinitarians are freed to worship the Father in truth on His Sabbaths, teaching all disciples that they must live within the laws of God that have been written on their hearts and minds.
The shadow of the Church being sent into mental captivity is the history of physical Israel splitting and being sent, by YHWH, into physical captivity, with the house of Judah being carried off to Babylon. The history of the Church actually forms the second level of shadowing. The reality is the great endtime harvest of humanity that begins with all of humanity receiving the Holy Spirit, and being mentally liberated from bondage to Satan halfway through seven years of Tribulation. This will be, in effect, the third Passover liberation, with this third slaughter of firstborns upon Christ’s return as the Messiah.
Israel was first the circumcised descendants of the patriarch Jacob. After the glorified Jesus breathed on ten of His disciples, Israel became the Church. Then after Satan is cast to earth and the kingdom of the world becomes the kingdom of the Most High and of His Christ, all of humanity becomes the descendants of Abraham, becomes Israel. But even though liberated from mental bondage to sin, the majority of humanity again believes the old dragon’s lie that human beings won’t die, but have immortal souls. The majority of liberated humanity repeats the history of the Congregation in the wilderness, and of the Church by accepting the mark of the beast (Chi xi stigma, or the tattoo of the Cross), and returning to bondage. The Lord’s day begins with this spiritual liberation of humanity. Bondage will again be physical, becoming spiritual when living by faith becomes too difficult. So the mark of the beast is on both hand and forehead.
Typology argues that all of Jesus’ eschatological teachings pertain to the great endtime harvest of humanity at the beginning of the Lord’s day, that last day of creation week when Christ rests from His labor of bringing many heirs of God to glory. Typology also argues that Christ is the actual reality of the shadows that are the festivals, new moons and Sabbaths of God (Col 2:16-17). Christ is not merely the future reality of festivals that haven’t yet happened, but He is presently sitting at the right hand of the Father as the fulfilled reality--but not in our portion of the historical narrative inscribed in the book of truth (Dan 10:21).
One more time: let us try to make sense of a mystery of God that could not possibly be well understood prior to when knowledge had increased (Dan 12:4). When Paul writes, "If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God" (Col 3:1). In addition, the author of Hebrews writes, "But when Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting for the time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet" (Heb 10:12-13). The question now is has Christ been doing nothing for two millennia, but waiting? Sitting and waiting? Waiting and sitting? Sitting and waiting?
The high priest of physical Israel might not have still been doing the hard work of butchering sacrificed animals, but he had work to do. The patriarch Jacob wasn’t out with his sheep after his twelve sons were grown, but he still had work to do. The man Jesus of Nazareth first sent twelve disciples out to the cities of the lost house of Israel, then sent seventy disciples out to all the places where He was to go. And He still had work to do even after He was glorified. Luke writes, "In the first book, O Theophilus, I have dealt with all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day when he was taken up, after he had given commands through the Holy Spirit to the apostles whom he had chosen. To them he presented himself alive after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during forty days and speaking about the kingdom of God" (Acts 1:1-3). So Jesus didn’t immediately stay seated at the right hand of the Father after He had offered Himself as the sacrifice for sins. He returned the evening of His Ascension as the reality of the Wave Sheaf Offering (Lev 23:9-14 – notice, more text is here devoted to the Wave Sheaf than to Unleavened Bread). And He appeared to ten of His disciples, showed them His hands and side, breathed on them, and said, ‘"Receive the Holy Spirit [the Breath of God]’" (John 20:22). Thus, according to Scripture the glorified Son of God didn’t remain sitting for long, but returned immediately to the work of bringing many heirs of the Father to glory.
In an orderly presentation of Christ as the reality of the festivals of God as listed in Leviticus chapter 23, we need to see Jesus as the reality of the paschal lamb of Israel (v. 5). The man Jesus of Nazareth was penned in Jerusalem on the 10th of Abib (compare John 19:14 & 31 with John 12:1 & 12-16) and sacrificed on the 14th, toward even, being removed from the Cross at even when the paschal lamb was roasted whole with fire. John the Baptist said to Pharisees and Sadducees, ‘" I baptize you with water for repentance, but he who is coming after me is mightier than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor and gather his wheat into the barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire’" (Matt 3:11-12). And again notice that there are three baptisms: (1) water for sin; (2) with the Holy Spirit [Pneumati ’Alio or Breath Holy]; and (3) with fire as either wheat or chaff. These three baptisms occur to the world as the Flood (Gen 6:11-13, 17), the pouring of the Holy Spirit upon all flesh (Joel 2:28), and the coming of the great White Throne Judgment and of the new heaven and new earth (Rev 20:11-chpt 21:8). They occurred to the man Jesus of Nazareth as water baptism (Matt 3:16) and baptism by the Breath of the Father descending as a dove (same verse), and glorification as God the Father’s firstborn Son among many brothers (Rom 8:29).
So Christ as the glorified paschal Lamb of God became the reality of human history through being sacrificed for sin when He had committed no sin. John did not want to baptize Jesus, for John’s baptism was for repentance; Jesus had nothing for which He must repent. But Jesus commanded, ‘"Let it be so now, for thus it is fitting for us to fulfill all righteousness’" (Matt 3:15). All righteousness required that Jesus fulfill the reality of the course of human history, so that His sacrifice as the paschal Lamb of God was adequate for all of humanity. His life, then, represents the spiritual reality of all human life, beginning with Adam as a corpse before Adam received the breath of life (Gen 2:7). The man Jesus was born as a flesh and breath [soma and psuche] child without spiritual life (to say otherwise is to make oneself into an antichrist – 1 John 4:2-3). He received spiritual life [pneuma – from 1 Thess 5:23] when the Breath of the Father descended upon Him as a dove (Matt 3:16). He was literally born anew or born again (1 Pet 1:23), which isn’t reentering a womb, but receiving the Breath of the Father just as the first Adam received the breath of life from Elohim [singular in usage]. And He received an incorruptible body when He was resurrected from the dead and accepted by the Father.
Disciples are those individuals whom the Father foreknew and predestined, and justified, and glorified before the great White Throne judgment; they are not the majority of humanity. They are "the many sons" Paul mentions is his epistle to the gentile converts at Rome (Rom 8:29-30). They are now glorified, but not in our time-restricted reality. And here is where the conjoined concepts of predestination, consistent eschatology and typology require Daniel’s increase in knowledge to be understood: time is a low-viscosity fluid in which humanity lives physically, just as fish live in water. Space-time is created through the decay of heavy mass particles, and it is created at the rate of decay. The passage of time equates to the expansion of space, and is, therefore, also at the rate of heavy mass particle decay. The presentation of the creation account in Genesis 1:1 through 2:3 is the abstract and summation of the entirety of human history as well as being an account of its beginning. At the conclusion of the seventh day, the Lord’s day, the earth will be baptized by fire, in that it will be changed just as a corruptible human body puts on incorruptibility. Physical matter will return to being pure energy. The mass of humanity who will have been resurrected in physical bodies of flesh and breath [soma and psuche] – from Ezekiel 37:1-13 – will receive the Holy Spirit (Ezek 37:14) and the opportunity to accept Christ as their Lord. This will not be a second chance for salvation, for they never previously had received spiritual life [pneuma]. They will be made spiritual Israelites through receiving the Holy Spirit, just as disciples now foreshadow their calling and conversion. So Christ’s resurrection and glorification is the reality of disciples’ resurrection and glorification at His return, and of the mass of humanity’s resurrection and glorification in the great White Throne Judgment.
Before further developing the concept of predestination, an observation needs made: events in the spiritual realm cast physical shadows in the created universe, with the shadows preceding the occurrence of the spiritual phenomenon until the physical and spiritual creations merge. Understanding the last week of Daniel’s seventy weeks prophecy requires comprehending this merging of creations, and actually reveals when this merging occurs. Thus, the reality of the two shadows of the enormous spiritual phenomenon that is the great White Throne Judgment is the glorification of the man Jesus of Nazareth three and a half days following His death as the reality of Israel’s paschal lamb. His physical ministry was three and a half years long. He was cut off mid-week, and glorified on the eighth day as the reality of the Wave Sheaf Offering. The great White Throne Judgment occurs on what would be the eighth day of creation week. And an end to sin-offerings would occur mid-week when Christ as Israel’s paschal lamb is sacrificed. So Christ is the reality of Israel’s daily sin-offerings. He is the reality of the Passover. And He is the reality of the resurrection of humanity in the great White Throne Judgment. Thus, the Wave Sheaf Offering foreshadows the great White Throne Judgment in exactly the same proportional representation as Christ’s glorification foreshadows the glorification of humanity. So while physical shadows precede spiritual phenomenon, the spiritual reality precedes physical phenomenon.
The above concept actually lies at the heart of predestination, but is difficult enough to accept that spiritual maturing will be required before its can be fully digested. This shadow/reality relationship might best be seen, though, in the "born again" relationship of physical birth to spiritual birth: The man Jesus of Nazareth as the Logos of the Father and the Creator of everything physical is Theos, who was with Theon (John 1:1-3, 14) from the beginning. He is the "I AM" Moses knew, the Eloah of Elohim that spoke with Adam, and the YH of the tetragrammaton YHWH that ate with Abraham. And He came as His son, His only, when He was born as the man Jesus of Nazareth (John 3:16-17). Yes, Theos came as His only son. He entered His creation as a physical human being. He couldn’t do this a second time; He could do this only once. And He entered as a flesh and breath human being. And what His relationship with the Father was prior is only addressed as Him being Theos--He is not a created brother of Lucifer or Michael. He was God just as Theon as the Father is God. If Theon could have directly created another Eloah, then there would be no need for using the two-step creation process of creating heirs from human beings who have created the habit of always choosing to do that which is right. The creation of heirs of the Father doesn’t begin prior to Theos coming as the Son a Man; it doesn’t begin with angels becoming the immortal souls of human beings. Nor are heirs of the Father unlike the Son in substance and inherent life, temptations and trials. The Logos, born as the man Jesus of Nazareth, was born exactly like every human baby born since Eve conceived the first time although He was not conceived by the same process. He was His own father until He was born a second time. His father’s house was the physical temple (Luke 2:49). His Father’s house became the spiritual temples of God that are disciples after He was glorified. Once born again, He said that His Father’s house had many rooms [positions], that He was going to prepare a place, a spot, an adoption for each of His disciples so that when He returned to earth, His disciples would be with Him where He was (John 14:2-3). They would no longer be in the grave as He, Himself, would be, and since, had been.
Following His baptism in water, the man Jesus of Nazareth received the Breath of the Father as a dove descending upon Him. He becomes the reality of the Feast of Weeks: ‘"And you shall offer one male goat for a sin offering…. And the priest shall wave them with the bread of the firstfruits as a wave offering before the Lord’" (Lev 23:19-20). Israel was made, on this day, a holy nation (Exod 19:5-6) as the physical shadow of the spiritual reality. Likewise, the 120 disciples assembled in the upper room being baptized with, or immersed in the Holy Spirit on that day of Pentecost following Jesus’ crucifixion becomes the spiritual shadow when of all of humanity being baptized with the Holy Spirit. They are represented by the two loaves baked with leaven.
The concepts of typology, consistent eschatology and predestination are complex enough that all of the preceding needs to be spiritually digested before continuing with reality-shadow relationships. Thus, the above is part one of a two or more part piece, the later portions remaining to be written. So this abrupt conclusion is not really a conclusion, but an interlude. The next part will insert prophets and additional prophecies into the discussion.
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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."