A Commentary on Immanuel
&
The Gospel of Truth
by Mel West
Chapter 19
(continued)
The Word That I Have Spoken Shall Judge You
John 12.46 I am come a light into the world, that whosoever believeth on me should not abide in darkness.
12.47 And if any man hear my words and believe not, I judge him not, for I came not to judge the world but to save the world.
12.48 He that rejecteth me, and receiveth not my words, hath one that judgeth him: the word that I have spoken, the same shall judge him in the last day.
12.12.49 For I have not spoken of myself; but the Father which sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak.
12.50 And I know that his commandment is life everlasting:
Compare how John's gospel has Jesus saying the Judgment in the Last Day shall be according to Jesus's Gospel, whereas Paul claims:
Romans 2.5 But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God?
2.6 Who will render unto every man according to his deeds.
2.16 in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ according to My Gospel.
And:
Colossians 1.12 giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:
1.13 Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the Kingdom of his dear Son:
1.14 in whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins.
1.15 who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature.
Hebrews 8.13 In that he saith, A New Covenant, he hath made the first Old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.
8.15 And for this cause he is the mediator of the New Testament, that by means of death for the redemption of the transgressions that were under the first testament, they which are called might receive the promise of eternal inheritance.
10.9 Then said he, Lo, I come to do thy will, O God. He taketh away the first [The Old Testament] that he may establish the second [The New Testament].
II Corinthians 11.4 For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might bear with him.
Titus: 1.10 For there are many unruly and vain talkers and deceivers specially they of the circumcision:
1.11 Whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole houses, teaching things which they ought not, for filthy lucre's sake.
3.9 But avoid foolish questions, and genealogies, and contentions, and strivings about the law; for they are unprofitable and vain.
All the gospels agree that in the end Jesus addressed Himself as Salvation, the Promise of eternal life, that through His blood all men would receive Salvation. John has Him arguing that even if one did not believe this Jesus judges Him not. Clearly, the Gospels show Jesus deferring Judgment to a later time and, as John's Gospel claims, the Judgment would be according to Jesus's Gospel. Paul modified this claim saying judgment shall be according to Paul's Gospel! And Paul's Gospel, as we have seen above, assumes that Jesus's Blood Sacrifice is a Promise of Eternal Life and a New Covenant, justifying the passing away of the Old Covenant, or Old Testament (Torah). Paul's Gospel, then, takes issue with any part of the Old Testament which does not agree with Paul. This puts to the test Moses's Curse, the Promise of the Psalms, etc. Furthermore, it condemns those who listen to the Circumcised Church (Peter and the Apostles) and doing so places His Gospel as an obstacle before those Faithful and True to the Torah of Moses and God. Jesus, we have seen, endorsed the Torah and, in fact, as reported in the Gospel of John, celebrated many of the Jewish feasts in Jerusalem, teaching in the temple, etc. Because of Paul the Deliverer Messiah (or the Second Coming) must now decide who was right:
Paul, as the Uncircumcised Church, who condemned the Jews and the Old Testament (Torah) or
Though Paul presented Jesus as opposition to the Law (or justification to abandon the Law and the Promises of the Old Testament), Peter argued to the contrary and certainly saw Jesus as a Product of the Old Testament and not the conclusion of it, causing it to pass away. Peter reminds us in his epistles that we shall be judged according to the Law (our works must conform to the Law) and the day shall come when, as Promised in the Old Testament in Isaiah, a New Heaven and a New Earth shall be formed. Revelation arrives at the same conclusion and in fact shows the final scene of Judgment with Jerusalem and Jesus descending and a New Heaven and a New Earth being formed. This takes place, according to Revelation, a Thousand Years after the First Resurrection and the appearance of The Word and which is also a thousand years before Gog and Magog descend upon Israel in the final and last battle of Armageddon.
We have seen in Paul's Gospel that Jesus will come again and Judge according to Paul's Gospel. To agree with Paul the Deliverer Messiah (or Second Coming of Jesus) will have to agree that the Circumcised Church was teaching falsely and the Old Testament truly was no longer valid and died with Jesus on the cross. If we extend this thesis to Martin Luther and the ministry of our modern times, even those of Hitler's Germany, we suddenly and chillingly realize that the Judgment would presumably endorse these comments:
(From a letter of Martin Luther): What, then, shall we Christians do with this damned, rejected race of the Jews? Since they live among us and we know about their lying and blasphemy and cursing, we cannot tolerate them if we do not wish to share in their lies, curses, and blasphemy....Let me give you my honest advice:
First, to set fire to their synagogues or schools and to bury and cover with dirt whatever will not burn, so that no man will ever again see a stone or cinder of them. This is to be done in honor of our Lord and of Christendom...
Second, I advise that their houses also be razed and destroyed...
Third, I advise that all their prayer books and Talmudic writings, in which such idolatry, lies, cursing, and blasphemy are taught, be taken from them.
Fourth, I advise that their rabbis be forbidden to teach henceforth on pain of loss of life and limb...
Fifth, I advise that safe-conduct on the highways be abolished completely for the Jews. For they have no business in the country-side, since they are not lords, officials, tradesmen, or the like...
Sixth, I advise that usury be prohibited to them, and that all cash and treasure of silver and gold be taken from them...
Seventh, I recommend putting a flail, an ax, an hoe, a spade, a distaff, or a spindle into the hand of young strong Jews and Jewesses and letting them earn their bread in the sweat of their brow.
These excerpts from Martin Luther's letter — from Hal Lindsey's Road to the Holocaust, Bantam Books, 1990 — illustrate the magnitude of the conflict between those (The Circumcised Church) who taught obedience to the Old Testament (including its first five books, The Torah) and those (the Uncircumcised Church of Paul, which produced Luther) who believed that Jesus negated the Old Testament.
The modern ministry have concluded by some strange perception, that these most bigoted points of view coming out of Luther's hand had their origin in one of the early leaders of the Christian Church whose name was Origen. The fact is, all the condemnation of the Jews and their religion came out of the hand of Paul. Origen and Luther merely reflected conclusions already well justified by Paul. We must recall that Paul had originally made his living by arresting and condemning Christians. After his conversion to Christianity, perhaps through the influence of Barnabas, He became a teacher against the Jews. And in His Gospel, in His Teaching, He attempted to prove that all the things in the Old Testament, even the Promises in the Torah upon which all the Prophets are based, are no longer true. The mere Promise of the scattering and restoration and redemption of Israel, which Moses initially made and was continued in all the prophets, now became a Promise with no merit according to Paul's thesis.
The Final Judgment, in fact, to be in accord with Paul's Gospel, would involve a Rapture, where all the faithful to Paul's Gospel would be raised up into the clouds to meet Jesus in His Second Coming and taken to Heaven, avoiding the wrath to come. The earth would be burned in judgment. But the correlating Promise of the Restoration of Israel and the condemnation of those who were against My People Israel, in establishing the Kingdom of God out of Jerusalem in the days of the Judgment, is a thing which is abolished in Paul's Gospel. It is abolished because it acknowledges in the end that the Jews will be glorified for their faithfulness to God and the Gentile shall be punished. Luke's Gospel, as we have seen, understands this thesis, how Israel shall be scattered and then redeemed, when the time of the Gentile is fulfilled. Revelation understands this core of Redemption, showing how 144,000 Jews suddenly are seen in support of The Word. And The Word, to be Faithful and True, would hardly be recognizable as such if He did not at least defend the Torah, which thing Paul condemned!
Most people–we are speaking of the Gentile do not understand what the Torah is and how its prophesy produced the concept of a Messiah King who would eventually come to Judge the earth; nor do they understand, because of Paul's misinformation, what would take place at the time of that judgment. Most of these people have no appreciation for the role of prophesy in producing such a Messiah and confirming Him through the fulfillment of not only prophesy involving the Messiah but prophesies clearly confirming His Day on earth. Jesus's moment on earth was just before the great scattering and exile of the Children of Israel. And the only thing that justifies His Moment on earth as the Messiah is the prophesy of the sign of the Virgin and her son Immanuel, which signs occur precisely at the time Israel is scattered! The gospels, being written before this event, and the destruction of the temple (even Luke, writing of the scattering to come has the apostles going faithfully into the temple in regular worship of God), passed right over this point of issue, how Jesus, as the Messiah, is justified only through the existence of the Virgin!
While the Church certainly concluded His Relationship to the Virgin prophesy, it did not pick up on the fact that His Existence precedes the Scattering and therefore He could not be the Deliverer Messiah. Even Jesus, before His Transfiguration, as argued above, had not gotten this fact clear in His Mind. Among those arguments offered, as concerning the Syrophonician Woman, we have those of Elijah, how in Matthew Jesus is trying to suggest that John the Baptist is Elijah; whereas in the Gospel of John John the Baptist denies he is Elijah. Between these two contrasting points of view comes the truth. The Gospel of John was written by one quite familiar with Latter Day Eschatology and probably had much in common with those who taught the Dead Sea Scrolls, since he reflected attitudes and sayings common to their doctrine: i.e., The Word as Light, the King of Truth, the war of the children of darkness against the children of light, etc., which sayings seemed, by the Dead Sea Scrolls commentary, to have their origin in the Land of Damascus. We have commented earlier how that Land may very well have included Galilee and that even John the Baptist may have taught some of the Essene doctrine, believing that the Kingdom of God was at hand.
Paul in all probability had either been influenced by John (or influenced John) or gotten exposure to the doctrine of the Dead Sea Scrolls independently. Many words and sayings of his reflect this somewhat unique expectation in the war of the children of light against the children of darkness. We have no doubts Jesus would have been thrown out of the Essene community by the Dead Sea, since their monastic way of life was far too strict for His way of life, as concerning the violations of the Sabbath and drinking, for instance; and we cannot, therefore, easily link Him to being a devout student of the Dead Sea Scrolls; nor can we say that He impacted the Leaders and scribes who made entries into the Dead Sea Scrolls. Otherwise they would have mentioned Him by name.
In the Dead Sea Scrolls Judgment comes through the King of Righteousness, which is Melkizedek Redivivus and judgment comes through the Sons of Zadok's Gospel! Of all those who made this claim on Judgment only The Sons of Zadok, who authored the Dead Sea Scrolls and occupied the Essene monastery of the Dead Sea, have really a legitimate claim! For they used a Scriptural Claim: As quoted in Ezekiel the prophet, the Sons of Zadok shall be the ministry which shall receive the Messiah! And the Sons of Zadok are known for their allegiance to The Torah! Ezekiel's prophesy, then, confirms what all the other prophets had alleged from the days of Moses, and what the rabbis in their Oral Torah have always asserted, that the Messiah will judge according to the Torah and, as Isaiah puts it, argue line upon line, precept upon precept, until all the opposition fall and are taken. Who is this who is upon them line upon line and precept upon precept? It is one like Moses, who speaks with stammering lips and in a foreign tongue! Paul very truly is misguided if He thinks that the Latter Day Messiah, by whatever name you may call Him, will not review and confirm the tenentes of the Torah. He would look completely stupid suggesting that God had not really, as Paul claimed, intended to confirm His Word. As the book of Adam and Eve and Enoch said, When My Word come which is My Word...
One thing that God cannot do, all teachers — except Paul — seem to agree, is to lie. Paul, being faced with this comment, argued that the Old Testament was not a lie, just intended, by virtue of the Promise of a New Covenant, to be Old and obsolete and passed away at the time Jesus died.
The Gospel of John, being a bit more erudite than the others and certainly not making ignorant mistakes, such as Matthew's, involving the subject of a Nazarite, introduces a new thesis of Judgment involving a character or characterization of God who is called the Comforter:
John 16.7 Nevertheless, I tell you the truth; it is expedient for you: for if I go not away, The Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you.
16.8 And when he is come, he will reprove the world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment:
16.9 Of sin, because they believe not on me;
16.10 Of righteousness, because I go to my Father, and ye see me no more;
16.11 Of judgment, because the prince of this world is judged.
16.12 I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.
16.13 Howbeit when He, the Spirit of Truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will show you things to come.
16.14 He shall glorify me: for he shall receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you.
14.26 But the Comforter, which is the Holy Ghost, whom the Father will send in my name, He shall teach you all things, and bring all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you.
It is here apparent that if the Comforter is to fulfill Jesus's prophesy, of bringing all things to your remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you, He must at least recall the things we have mentioned: namely, the confusion over Elijah and the deception involving Jesus causing his voice to be heard in the streets; yet claiming the prophesy of one who does not cause His voice to be heard in the streets. These things the Comforter must call into remembrance. Obviously, as pertainint to the last two thousand years, He has not yet come, for the church has managed to keep these things hidden from the people, which thing the Comforter would not allow.
John 14.15 If ye love me, keep my commandments.
14.16 And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you forever;
14.19 ...because I live, ye shall live also.
14.20 At that day ye shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in me, and I in you.
15.12 This is my commandment, that ye love one another as I have loved you.
And this brings us to another perception of the Messiah, as The Comforter, which is mentioned in JohnÕs Gospel. The Comforter, is one whom Jesus described as Another.
Now the Second Coming, we have shown, must involve one who is like unto the Son of Man. Namely, He is another [comforter]. This brings forth Two Messiahs. The modern Ministry would look horrified at one suggesting that there are Two Messiahs, since historians have long been led to believe that the Messiah Jesus is the only begotten son of God. But the Dead Sea Scrolls, the rabbis of JesusÕs day, and the rabbis even to this day have always believed in Two Messiahs which are clearly indicated in prophesy. Of The names of the Messiah(s) we have also clearly seen agreement among the rabbis that in addition to carrying the name of Peace, He will also be known as the Comforter. The Comforter is as much a Messianic Name as Immanuel! Another Messianic Name is Elijah, commonly held by the rabbis and implied by Jesus Himself when He said Elijah shall restore all things! Jesus claimed to be the Word of God. Taking Him for His Word leaves us with the expectation that He knew that Elijah was a Messianic name; He also ought to have known what we know, that the comforter was a Messianic Name. We conclude that Jesus knew there was another Messiah but did not know how to present Him. He resolved the problem into His Resurrection and Second Coming in terms once again catching Him in a state of confusion, or confusing those hearing him. For on His return as the son of Man he would come in the clouds of glory, as the One like the Son of Man in the prophesy of Daniel. To properly describe His Resurrection, since He had locked Himself into the epitaph, Son of Man, He ought to have described it as Another like Him.
In the Gospel of John the function of the Comforter is Judgment. Along with Judgment is the epitaph that He will bring all things into Remembrance. Before we see the appearance of [resurrected] Elijah, at the Time of Judgment, in the prophesy of Malachi, what do we see? We see a Book of Remembrance! Hence, it is no wonder that the writer of the Gospel of John had John the Baptist denying that He was Elijah, for it did not agree with its other precepts yet to be mentioned concerning the bringing forth of Judgment and, of course, as in the perception in Revelation, the bringing forth of one like unto the Son of Man! Remember, Judgment is performed in Daniel and Revelation by One like unto the Son of Man. Since Jesus refers to His Future Judgment as coming forth as the Son of Man, we must then ask, like the rabbis of Jesus's day, Who is the Son of Man?
There are only four men who claimed the title, Son of Man, who seemed to have been recorded in the Scriptures. The first was Ezekiel the prophet. secondly there was Daniel; the third was Jesus. And the fourth is no less the man who wrote Revelation, John! So following this observation, One like the Son of Man would presumably resemble (or confirm) Ezekiel, Daniel, Jesus, and John! Ezekiel, Daniel, and John provide details on the Judge and the Day of Judgment. Jesus offers Himself as the Gospel by which Judgment occurs. Adding confusion to this Paul alters Jesus's statement by claiming that it is Paul's Gospel by which Judgment occurs; and that gospel claims that Jesus is against the Law! Since there is a definite conflict between Paul's Gospel and Ezekiel, Daniel, the Psalms, and Revelation, and even Jesus, the Comforter, as judge, must resolve this conflict, according to Jesus's Gospel.
Another, who is the Comforter, shall Judge
The description of the Comforter in the Gospel of John is not in a spiritual sense but in the sense of a man bringing forth truth unto Judgment. Any such judgment must consider the fact that Revelation says The Word, as Judge, carries a name known only to himself; the Judge must say that He is One like the Son of Man, implying another like Ezekiel, Daniel, Jesus, or even John. He must further be as the Messiah Comforter bringing forth all things into Remembrance and, as the Messiah in Isaiah, argue precept upon precept, line upon line, until all of you fall and are taken. These things, among others, as concerning the Messiah who cannot go into the streets, nor does he cause His voice to be heard in the streets, create a substantial dilemma for the Deliverer Messiah. For He ought to be the same person as the Suffering Messiah (so He could stand in Jerusalem on the Last Day to show those who wounded Him that it is He whom they pierced before them); but of a truth the restrictions upon His Name, His ability to present Himself in public, and the fact that He must appear as another must cause Him considerable conflict in His Judgment Role. We hope you can appreciate this dilemma concerning the Second Coming and the presentation of Truth as the Prophets have written it!
While the gospels of Mark and Matthew end their argument of the Kingdom of God as if it began on earth with Jesus's crucifixion (following Paul's thesis); in contrast the Kingdom is yet to be manifested, reserved unto the Last Days, in John's Gospel and is probably a valid anticipation in Luke. And these, in particular Revelation, remind us that the end purpose of the prophesies claims that God will rule over all men in a material kingdom of earth. All men will bow down to Him and worship Him reigning in Jerusalem in the Last Days. The perception of this King is as another King David who will rule over the world. The description we reviewed in Daniel of one like the Son of Man answers to this world ruler. (We have also seen a prototype of this as the son of Man in the Psalms). Josephus records (confirming the Dead Sea Scrolls' anticipations) that the common view of the people at that time of the Scattering of Israel, right after Jesus's death, was in anticipation of such a ruler. In fact, Josephus suggested before the walls of surrounded Jerusalem in 70 A.D. that Vespasian was that Promised World King Messiah!
The Jewish Wars, vi: Anyone who ponders these things will find that God cares for mankind and in all possible ways foreshows to His people the means of salvation, and that it is through folly and evils of their own choosing that they come to destruction. Thus the Jews after pulling down Antonia made the Temple square, in spite of the warning in their prophetic books that when the Temple became a square the City and Sanctuary would fall. But their chief inducement to go to war was an equivocal oracle also found in their sacred writings, announcing that at that time a man from their country would become monarch of the whole world. This they took to mean the triumph of their own race, and many of their scholars were wildly out in their interpretation. In fact the oracle pointed to the accession of Vespasian; for it was in Judaea he was proclaimed emperor. But it is not possible for men to escape from fate even if they see it coming. The Jews interpreted some of the prophesies to suit themselves and laughed the others off, till by the fall of their city and their own destruction their folly stood revealed.
We do not know the sources of whom Josephus quotes concerning the squaring of the temple as a sign of the destruction of Jerusalem. Antonia was apparently an addition to the Temple of Herod which caused its appearance to become a square when it was torn down. The basic layout of the Temple of Herod was 60 cubits wide by 60 cubits long and 60 cubits high. This was a cube and very unlike the original Temple which was 20 cubits wide by 60 cubits long and 30 cubits high, (double the size of the original Tabernacle).
One Who Shall Think To Change Times and Laws
At the time one like unto the Son of Man, who is the World Ruler — Prince of Princes — appears in Daniel, another, a representative of Satan called the Anti-messiah, also appears. Let us review their relationship for a moment:
Daniel 7.25 And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.
This individual who thinks to change times and laws mimics the responsibility of the Messiah Deliverer who has the ability to change the Law or, in other words, deliver a New Covenant between God and man. The False Messiah or Anti-messiah (called Antichrist in Revelation) follows this character who thinks to change times and laws over a certain and substantial amount of time: until a time and times and the dividing of time.
Daniel 7.26 But the judgment shall sit, and they shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end.
Judgment shall be according to the Law.
Daniel 7.27 And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him. (this refers to the Messiah, one like the Son of Man).
Before this the Anti-Messiah magnified Himself:
Daniel 8.11 Yea, he magnified himself even to the Prince of the Host, and by him the daily sacrifice was taken away, and the place of his sanctuary was cast down.
8.12 And an host was given him against the daily sacrifice by reason of transgression, and it cast down the truth to the ground; and it practised, and prospered.
These verses set up the framework of the coming forth of the Antimessiah. Josephus mentions that at the time the temple is made square the world ruler will come forth. Daniel mentions that both the daily sacrifice will be taken away and the place of God's Sanctuary will be torn down. Jesus, after having thrown over the tables of the money changers in the temple, we recall, prophesied that not one stone of the temple will be found standing. The destruction of the temple, though clearly mentioned in Daniel, need not be mentioned specifically, since one of the duties of the Deliverer Messiah is to restore the temple! But until that could be done, according to Daniel, there must come forth one who will take away the daily sacrifice and destroy the temple. It recalls another like unto Nebuchadnezzar, for instance, who, after sacking the temple, carried the Jews into captivity for seventy years. While in captivity, one Jewish official in the court of Nebuchadnezzar's successor, King Belshazzar, wrote a vision. That vision was written by Daniel.
Along with the destruction of the temple and the taking away of the daily sacrifice, was the casting down of truth. This agency which caused the truth to be cast down (who even thinks to change time and the Law), prospered, says DanielÕs vision.
When we put this into the perspective of the Latter Day Messiah, it is clear that He can look back and describe how these things occurred and by whose hands they occurred. It is He, in fact, who cuts them off. It would be hard for Him, for instance, to avoid the comparison that it was through the world emperor Vespasian that the temple was destroyed. Vespasian in fact left the work of the conquest of Jerusalem to his son Titus. He left for Rome to become appointed Emperor of the Roman Empire months before the sacking of the temple. But he was chosen as emperor while in Judaea. As Josephus says, he was called out of Judaea to Rome to receive the crown of world emperor.
Looking back in history, concerning the time a world emperor destroyed the temple and stopped the daily sacrifice, another thing happened. Paul, the self-proclaimed apostle of Jesus, began distorting the prophesies and the Law to reflect his own perception of Jesus as the Messiah. Here, in fact we have three personages reported with Messianic tendencies: Jesus, the Suffering Messiah, Vespasian, (the AntiMessiah) world emperor who destroyed the Sanctuary and caused the Daily Sacrifice to be taken away; and Paul, the one who thought to change time and the Law. Changing time would involve, we suspect, the distortion of a prophesy to make it appear as being fulfilled in one time which is quite different than the actual intended time of its appearance. A prophesy fulfilled which appears out of sync with its time cannot be a prophesy fulfilled. Yet Paul asked us to believe that many prophesies were fulfilled through Jesus which really could not have been fulfilled at the time Jesus walked the earth. Prophesies relating to the deliverance of Israel, for instance, have little bearing if someone counts them as having been done before Israel is scattered. Of course, when the Ancient of Days comes at the end of days, one can be expected to have the correct presentation of prophesy fulfilled sorted out. This sorting out of Truth, since Prophesy claims to become Truth when fulfilled, would, keeping the Messianic legacy in mind, involve calling all things into remembrance. And that process must involve reviewing those things precept by precept, line upon line, here a little and there a little.
So to understand Daniel we must keep in mind that before the Deliverer Messiah comes the Truth, The Word of God, had to have already been trampled to the ground. Keeping in mind that the Deliverer Messiah can only appear at the time Israel is restored to the Holy Land, it follows that the Deliverer Messiah must look back from that time into the past and point out, in his review, precept upon precept, line upon line, how someone came and trampled down the truth. This presumes a character preceding the Deliverer Messiah who exists as the source of the trampling down of truth.
We know that it was not Vespasian who trampled down the Truth. While he (really his son Titus) certainly is responsible for taking away the daily sacrifice and destroying the temple, he had nothing to do with trampling upon the Truth. Now we must ask, as Pilate asked Jesus, who responded that He was a King who had been anointed to bear witness to the Truth, what is the Truth? Jesus said that the comforter, who is the Spirit of Truth, will bring it forth.
Calling into Remembrance the Truth
Long ago we reviewed how God separated Himself, by means of prophesy, from all others who claimed to be God or hold the powers of gods. He claimed, as stated in Isaiah, that no wooden or stone idol when fallen down can get itself back up. Neither can they foretell the future and be seen in the end to have been the one who caused the prophesy to be fulfilled. As concerning this differentiation between God and any of His opponents, including man, the means by which God reveals His Prophesy is through a Prophet of God. How do we know that a Prophet of God is truly a Prophet of God? If His prophesy comes True, then He is a True Prophet of God! This, then, becomes the criteria for the presentation of Truth, that it comes from God through the mouth of His Prophets and His Truth will one day be seen to come True. Again, every prophesy is keyed to a specific time. And time is divided between Two Events:
To illustrate how effective these events are in measuring all prophetic time, we can now easily say — with respect to most of the prophesy — It is done!
In the Latter Days, God says, you shall understand Him Perfectly. All men will call unto Him with one language and one consent; all men on earth will bow down before Him.
To achieve these goals we must have one who comes forth to remind you that what God said He would do He hath done. Thus, in Revelation we have the Seventh Angel, the One who has one foot on the sea and the other on land, carrying a book, saying: it is done. He makes the official proclamation that all things said by God before-time had come true and that the end is come, after which a New Heavens and a New Earth appear.
Among the duties of the Deliverer Messiah are, in terms of the Book of Remembrance, or as in the case of the Comforter calling all things into remembrance, (we must be redundant) the calling forth of all things into Remembrance per Deuteronomy 30.1. This must begin with the Torah, the five books of Moses, and proceed through all the Prophets of God. The Oral Torah extends this responsibility of calling forth into remembrance to the review of the Oral Torah. The Dead Sea Scrolls ask the Messiah to review their precepts, calling forth Truth unto judgment based upon them, as high-priest sons of Zadok; and Jesus causes Him to call forth His Word in remembrance as well. Jesus, as the Suffering Messiah, makes a legitimate claim, since the Suffering Messiah is an important foundation in Bible Prophesy and being in prophesy requires someone to come forth to Witness of Him, that He who presented Himself to fulfill those prophesies was the True Messiah of those prophesies, that any other contenders of the Suffering Messiah would be false.
Fortunately for the Deliverer Messiah the calling forth of the Suffering Messiah prophesies, relating them only to Jesus, becomes an easy exercise. Since it is a Truth that there has been no one ever who attempted to claim the Suffering Messiah epitaphs; and only Jesus claimed them in the proper time in which they had to be claimed: at the time the Virgin and her son Immanuel appear. And that time is the moment before or when the land of Israel becomes nothing but briars and thorns and the nation scattered. So for the Deliverer Messiah to point out Jesus as the Suffering Messiah and the character called Immanuel the job is easy. As to his being born of a Virgin the matter becomes even more clear: For only Jesus has survived in history as one who claims to be born of a Virgin at the moment of that Virgin, when Israel is turned into briars and thorns and the nation scattered. So prophesy leading to the scattering of the Children of Israel, being fulfilled in Jesus, is an easy thing for the Deliverer Messiah to judge.
To appreciate how easy it is, apart from the argument above, all one need do is consider when the Judge appears: for He appears at the time Israel is delivered or restored to the Holy Land. We would be expecting Him to be an idiot to believe, now that Israel is restored, that He would desire to fulfill the Suffering Messiah prophesies of Isaiah 53 and Psalms 69 and 22. That mission had to have already occurred before Him. He, in fact, must address that mission as already having been fulfilled and offer Proof why it has been fulfilled! And to make his mission real tough He can't go into the streets to magnify himself; nor can He say He is the Son of Man, Jesus, but at most one like the son of Man. Here, then, becomes the dilemma of the presentation of Truth and it become even more difficult when we investigate DanielÕs thesis of one who tramples on the Truth versus one following him who is One like the Son of Man who establishes Truth.
The first thing in Truth which is affected when it is trampled upon is the Truth of prophesy. All peoples and all nations since the days of Jesus have thought themselves to be the favored of God and claim favorable credits to themselves. Thus, as it relates to the Bible, they will claim a favorable prophesy to apply to them, as the Chosen of God, and discount prophesies which might be unfavorable. Thus, Paul was caught in the trap of claiming for the Gentile the title of the New Chosen of God while denying the Old Chosen of God the rights of their inheritance and the eventual glorification of them as the Saints of God. The transfer of this inheritance from the Jews to the Gentile, under Paul, though fulfilling the prophesy of God calling His Chosen by another name or turning His Face from Israel to another, neglected the conditions of the transfer: that it was temporary and in the end Israel, God's Chosen, would be Redeemed. Paul's transfer went beyond these terms and attacked the Law and the prophets, appropriating title and inheritance for himself and his disciples. When he attempted to explain away the Torah, or the Law, as being Old and waxed away, he crossed over the line of truth — certainly from the Psalms' point of view — and left himself exposed in the Latter Days to the Deliver Messiah's critical eye of Truth: seeing that the Law, and its basis of Truth, was in fact trampled upon. There is no doubt. It was, in fact, trampled upon by Paul.
We can further argue the extent of this trampling upon the Truth (which includes the Torah) to be an attack on the very essence and foundation of the Proof of God, which is offered in the Last Days. For it is of a truth that Paul's teachings, or Gospel, has so distorted the Truth, as it relates to expectations of the Last Days, that a considerable effort has been imposed upon us just to attempt to call into remembrance what was really prophesied and how it has come to be True. Paul's attack on the Inheritance is so profound that the Deliverer Messiah must, in calling forth the Truth into Remembrance, write as much — if not more — as we in calling forth God's Word into remembrance. The significance of this effort can surely be seen in our review of the gospels. The gospels alone create a burden of Truth so manifoldly rich in discussion that one could dig in that garden for the Truth for years, write a book for each day of the year, and still have much to talk about! All this is due to the fact that they show considerable confusion; and we must first admit that the Deliverer Messiah, in bringing forth the Truth, will first see this confusion and must address it. From a Matrix like the enclosed He can easily see where the gospel accounts disagree in major areas of eschatology or remembrance of Prophesy fulfilled. Questions pointing to confusion as noted below are easy for Him to recall:
l. Was John the Baptist Elijah or not?
2. Must Elijah first come before the Deliverer Messiah?
3. Can the act of Jesus missioning through Sumeria and Galilee fulfill the prophesy that He was a light unto the Gentile?
4. Can the Messiah claim a prophesy being fulfilled through Him by deception? Can he ask his followers not to mention that He had been in the streets, so that prophesy could be fulfilled in Him?
5. Would an act of dishonesty discredit the Messiah?
6. Can the Messiah abrogate the Law and still be faithful to the Psalms in whose verses his members were created?
7. Can the report of a Resurrection be taken as Truth when there are no witnesses between the stories of that resurrection which agree on what they saw, when they saw it, etc.?
8. Can gospels, which controvert each other, be the Word of God? Can God write something which is confusing or which is a lie?
9. Were the Gospel accounts written by God or man?
For the Fulfillment of Prophesy to have any meaning as Truth, we recall that it must be clearly seen as having been fulfilled. The Gospel of Types and Shadows, used as a means of distorting the time and way in which prophesies were fulfilled brings us to the real root of our Deliverer Messiah's problem: He must face a doctrine commonly practiced by the Christian Ministry today which has translated Latter Day prophesy into Jesus's Day and denied even Jesus, as His Second Coming, the benefit of receiving His Own Inheritance, sitting on the Throne of David, in Jerusalem, at the time the Children of Israel are restored. As part of this inheritance, they, by saying that the temple is no longer required, that all prophesy was fulfilled in Jesus, deny the Deliverer Messiah the ability to prove to them the fulfillment of prophesy by building the temple or restoring the Tabernacle.
In prophesy it is the Gentile who treads down the Holy Place. And He treads it down for a specific period of time. Luke, remembering this, has Jesus prophesying His Second Coming after the time of the Gentile is fulfilled. This compares with Daniel:
Daniel 8.13...How long shall be the vision concerning the daily sacrifice, and the transgression of desolation, to give both the sanctuary and the host to be trodden under foot?
8.14 And he said unto me, Unto two thousand and three hundred days; then shall the sanctuary be cleansed.
The promise is the eventual cleansing of the Sanctuary of God, which thing resided in the temple and originally came from the Tabernacle. The Sanctuary of the Tabernacle was essentially moved into the Temple by Solomon, David's son. In any event, we could read this cleansing activity to occur about 2300 years after 70. A.D., when the sanctuary was destroyed. Nearly two thousand years have passed since the Sanctuary was trodden under foot and it still awaits to be restored and cleansed. Speaking to Daniel the Angel of the vision expands upon this:
Daniel 8.17 So he came near where I stood: and when he came, I was afraid, and fell upon my face: but he said unto me, Understand, O son of man: for at the time of the end shall be the vision.
8.23 And in the latter time of their kingdom, when the transgressors are come to the full, a king of fierce countenance, and understanding dark sentences, shall stand up.
8.24 And his power shall be mighty, but not by his own power: and he shall destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper, and practise, and shall destroy the mighty and the holy people.
Coupled with the time of the Gentile, trampling on the Holy Place until their time be fulfilled, is one who rises up and destroys the mighty and the holy people.
Jesus, in his prophesies in the gospels, translates this common perception of the tribulation of the Holy People until the time of the end to the followers of Himself. Only Luke's gospel, of the synoptic gospels, expands this perception, mentioned by Jesus, to the feature of the Scattering and Tribulation of the Jews and the trampling on their sanctuary...until the time of the Gentile is fulfilled. Paul, of course, would tend to argue against any end to the time of the Gentile and the transfer of power back to the Children of Israel. We conclude this because he took such great pain to argue the transfer of the inheritance from the Jews to the Gentile, and concluded all this in the Sanctification of His own Gospel.
In the prophesies one of the criteria of the End is when the power of My People are destroyed. Where are they destroyed? In the land of the dragon. And it is the Dragon, Satan, that evil beast who destroys them. Ezekiel tells us some rather illustrative details on how God's People are destroyed: like silver and gold refined in a furnace, they are melted down to remove the dross. We have reviewed this and other comparative illustrations of cleansing the people by the Spirit of Burning in considerable detail earlier and there should be absolutely no confusion on this Curse of God and how and when He intended to fulfill it; nor should there be any confusion concerning the promise in the Torah that in the Last Days God would take out His Wrath, through the Spirit of Burning (raining fire and brimstone down upon them) against those who had been against My People, Israel: the Gentile.
Daniel 8.25 And through his policy also shall cause craft to prosper in his hand; and he shall magnify himself in his heart, and by peace shall destroy many: He shall also stand up against the Prince of Princes; and he shall be broken without hand.
One thing is clear concerning this character who appears in the Last Days. He shall stand up against the Prince of Princes, but shall be broken without hand. In Ezra 4 the character called The Word of God does, in fact, destroy without lifting a hand or through force of arms. One description of Him in Ezra 4 is one who carries no sword at his side, but out of his mouth cometh a fiery breath which destroys the multitude before Him. In Revelation The Word destroys the multitude by the Sword in His Mouth, which thing is Faithful and True and is the Word of God. The character, The Word, in Revelation is called King of Kings and Lord of Lords (re: Prince of Princes); yet, His Name is known only unto Himself! So, as Daniel says, there is one who comes against the Messiah, Prince of Princes (or King of Kings) who is destroyed, as the rabbis say, by The Law. For the Messiah will link together verses of the Torah to destroy him.
Daniel, our Son of Man in this commentary, laments how no one understands His Vision and how it repeats what has already taken place with the people: how they had been taken into captivity because they:
Daniel 9.11 Yea, all Israel have transgressed thy law, even by departing that they might not obey thy voice; therefore the curse is poured upon us, and the oath that is written in the Law of Moses the servant of God, because we have sinned against him.
Paul undoubtedly was influenced by this remark and used of it, the phrase, The Curse of the Law, to justify his release of man from the Curse of the Law or the Torah of Moses.
Daniel 9.12 And he hath confirmed his words, which he spake against us, and against our judges that judged us, by bringing upon us a great evil: for under the whole heaven hath not been done as hath been done upon Jerusalem.
9.13 As it is written in the Law of Moses, all this evil is come upon us: yet made we not our prayer before the Lord our God, that we might turn from our iniquities, and understand thy truth.
Confusion over Zerubbabel and Michael: One Like Unto The Son of Man
As noted earlier Daniel is a man of the captivity who is writing of a future captivity to come. The cause of the future captivity shall be for the same cause in the Babylonian Captivity of which Daniel was a part. In measuring the Messiah of the Latter Days, the Deliverer Messiah, as one like unto Daniel, we can conclude that he must appear among those of the future captivity. We have seen Zechariah refer to the Deliverer Messiah in such terms, as another Zerubbabel: born in Babylon. Daniel, like Zerubbabel, was born in Babylon. In the context, as another Zerubbabel the Deliverer Messiah, being one like unto the Son of Man would, like Daniel, be born in Babylon. Thus we can easily call the Deliverer Messiah one like unto Daniel or Zerubbabel. Now Zerubbabel was charged by Cyrus the Great to restore the city and temple of Jerusalem. This occurred after Zerubbabel himself brought into remembrance, to Cyrus, the prophesy of the Restoration of Israel after seventy years. Cyrus's name had been mentioned in the context of the restoration by Isaiah nearly two hundred years earlier. All Zerubbabel had to do was open the books of the Scriptures and show where in Isaiah Cyrus is mentioned by name in the restoration and even called by God as God's Shepherd. Now if you were Cyrus the Great and had a man open a book unto you, showing your name mentioned in prophesy in the connection with the restoration of Jerusalem, would you deny the prophesy to be fulfilled?
Understanding these comparisons, we must recall that Daniel has just described to us a man who would destroy the power of the people and by peace shall destroy many!
Daniel 9.25 Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be Seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times.
To understand this time line we have to determine when the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince was made. The commandment was mentioned in Daniel circa. 538 B.C. but Daniel merely confirms a previous prophesy of the restoration of the city and temple after its destruction and scattering.
Daniel 9.26 And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary; and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined.
Remember, from the standpoint of the Deliverer Messiah, these things would already have happened. The Messiah shall have already been cut off. In Isaiah 53 we have a confirmation of this, where the Messiah is cut off. But in Isaiah it was not for Himself that He was cut off: it was for the Atonement of sin, the Salvation of mankind that He was cut off. God said He Himself cut off his life and it pleased God to bruise Him....
Why was He cut off? For the wickedness of the Children of Israel. Who cut Him off? God.
Daniel confirms what Isaiah had said concerning the appearance of the Virgin and her son, Immanuel: the land shall be nothing but briars and thorns...for men shall come thither with fire and swords...and later...for this shall be with burning and fuel of fire...So the Prince of Peace mentioned in Isaiah is born at the time Israel is purified through scattering its power. And at that time the Messiah shall be cut off. Counting time from the going forth of the commandment to the cutting off of the Messiah is 62 weeks. On the surface it would appear we can apply this Cutting off of the Messiah to either Immanuel or the Deliverer Messiah, whom we can call One like the Son of Man or Zerubbabel. We note that previous appellations were The Comforter, The Word, etc. Applying the cutting off of the Messiah to Zerubbabel, however, does not make sense. For we are told that The Branch, another term of the Deliverer Messiah, shall build the Temple. The building of the temple only occurs at the time Israel is restored, after it has long before been scattered.
The Branch, as Zechariah even describes Him, is like another Zerubbabel! Zerubbabel would not be the one who is cut off. The one who is cut off must be Immanuel, the son of the Virgin, who appears before the people are scattered and the Sanctuary trod under foot. And the time when the Messiah is cut off, from the perspective of Zerubbabel, or the Deliverer Messiah, was 62 weeks after the command to restore the city and sanctuary went forth. The Prince that shall come, who destroys the city and the sanctuary:
Daniel 9.27 ..shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.
Daniel has told us that from the going forth of the commandment to restore the city and its Sanctuary will be 69 weeks. After 62 weeks shall Messiah be cut off. In Revelation, by comparison, after six thousand years The Word appears; and He reigns on that day, of The First Resurrection, for a thousand years. The period of His reign of Peace is called The Seventh Day. The restoration of the City and its Sanctuary comes, in fact, at the end of the Seventh day and the eighth day is the beginning of a New Heavens and a New Earth which Peter looked forward unto in His epistle previously cited.
Daniel 10.16 And behold, one like the similitude of the sons of men touched my lips: then I opened my mouth, and spake, and said unto him that stood before me, O my lord, by the vision my sorrows are turned upon me, and I have retained no strength.
10.17 For how can the servant of this my lord talk with this my lord? for as for me, straightway there remained no strength in me, neither is there breath left in me.
Who is the Son of Man? We answered that it is one like several men: Ezekiel, Daniel, Jesus, and finally John, who all spoke of the End Days. One like them could be called One like unto the similitude of the Sons of Men. To be such a thing we can introduce another feature: To be like one of the Sons of Men, Ezekiel, He must say in answer to those who address Him: I am not a prophet, for I was brought up to raise cattle in my youth. Ezekiel was not a prophet and answered, he was not a prophet, having been raised himself, we presume, as a shepherd, like David the Shepherd King. At the time of Ezekiel one usually became a recognized prophet by attending Prophet's School. Having gone to Prophet's School one would be, at least, prepared as a Prophet. What would one study in Prophet's School? The prophets, what they prophesied and how they prophesied, and finding one's source: i.e., how prophesy comes to one's mouth, etc. Ezekiel had not gone to Prophet's School and was probably more on the order of Elijah, of simple bearing and background. This, in turn, becomes an example of the Messiah.
We recall that the rabbis have stated in the Oral Torah that because the Messiah will have the name of God in His Name He will be like Elijah, which means: God is God. Jesus denied Himself being Elijah, and pointed out John the Baptist as Elijah resurrected. Yet, in comparison to Elijah, only Jesus really meets the similitude of Elijah. How so? He raised the dead, as mentioned in the Gospel of John concerning Lazarus; and that act was so profound it caused the priests to go after Lazarus, accusing him of blasphemy, as well as Jesus. The other thing Jesus did in the similitude of Elijah was to perform a miracle involving food. Before he was transfigured he had just fed and taught five thousand people on the mount in Galilee with just five loaves of bread and a few fish. Elijah had been remembered for a similar miracle, where he caused a starving woman's few grains of seed and small portion of oil to feed both him and her family for many months. Another comparison of Jesus to Elijah is as a prophet and one, like John the Baptist, teaching and baptizing in the wilderness. After the miracle of the loaves and others like it, the people had every right to think that Jesus was Elijah resurrected. But Jesus could not claim that right since it would then deny Him the right of being the Messiah. For Elijah preceded the Messiah, says Malachi. Jesus had the dilemma of reconciling Elijah to another, not Himself, so that He could claim the Messiahship. The gospel writers were obviously confused over this, as Jesus certainly had not made Himself Clear as to just who Elijah is, ought to be, ought to do, or when he ought to appear. John, trying to make sense out of the entire affair, had John the Baptist deny that he was Elijah.
Let's get back to Daniel and the Last Days, the Prince Michael (another name for the Deliverer Messiah) and His opponent, the Anti-messiah:
Daniel 11.20 Then shall stand up in his estate a raiser of taxes in the glory of the kingdom: but within few days he shall be destroyed, neither in anger, nor in battle.
Through the Gospel of the Kingdom, or Glory of the Kingdom, one stands up and raises taxes. Then:
Daniel 11.21 And in his estate shall stand up a vile person, to whom they shall not give the honor of the kingdom: but he shall come in peaceable, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries.
11.22 And with arms of a flood shall they be overflown from before him, and shall be broken; yea, also the prince of the Covenant.
The Prince of the Covenant is the Deliverer Messiah who appears at the time Israel is restored to the Holy Land. Although we are tempted to read this as to applying to Jesus, who as Immanuel was broken, the title Prince of the Covenant applies directly to the time period of the Deliverance of Israel and the restoration of their Temple and Tabernacle. We know that this king who comes against the Prince of the Covenant is in the Latter Days because:
Daniel 11.28 Then shall he return into his land with great riches; and his heart shall be against the holy Covenant; and he shall do exploits, and return to his own land.
11.36 And the king shall do according to his will; and he shall exalt himself, and magnify himself above every god, and shall speak marvellous things against the God of gods and shall prosper till the indignation be accomplished: for that that is determined shall be done.
11.37 Neither shall he regard the God of his fathers, nor the desire of women, nor regard any god: for he shall magnify himself above all.
11.38 But in his estate shall he honor the god of forces: and a god whom his fathers knew not shall he honor with gold, and silver, and with precious things.
11.40 And at the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him: and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships; and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over.
11.41 He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom, and Moab, and the chief of the children of Ammon.
11.42 He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape.
11.43 But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and of silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt; and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps.
11.44 But tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him: therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many.
11.45 And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace between the seas in the glorious holy mountain; yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him.
12.1 And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation, even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book.
12.2 And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt.
Here again we must pause to clear a problem in the gospels. Jesus believed that he had the power to raise the dead. He initially believed he was the Light unto the Gentile and, therefore, the Deliverer Messiah, going forth to gather the lost sheep of Israel. He called himself the Son of Man and referred to his Resurrection as coming in the clouds of Glory, as described by Daniel. Having picked that epitaph next brought him to the conclusion that when he does his work the dead will raise, as per the prophesy. The Gospels continued with this belief and reported after his resurrection how many of the dead raised up from the earth and went into Jerusalem, thus fulfilling prophesy. But unlike Jesus's and the gospels' perception of this event, the Deliverer Messiah is the actual one who is engaged with the simultaneous resurrection of the dead!
Daniel 12.7 And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand unto heaven, and sware by him that liveth forever that it shall be for a time, times, and an half; and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished.
12.11 And from the time that the daily sacrifice shall be taken away and the abomination that maketh desolate set up, there shall be a thousand two hundred and ninety days.
While the time lines of the other prophets are all geared to the Scattering of Israel and the Gathering of Israel, the prophesy of Daniel tries to break this time down in terms of time itself. But the real truth of the matter is derived in the actual points of departure: the time the daily sacrifice is taken away, which is accomplished through the destruction of the Holy Sanctuary - the temple; and, at the close of the time of the Gentile, when the time the abomination of desolation occurs. We recall that the temple is trodden underfoot by the Gentile and the final Redemption of Israel occurs when the time of the Gentile comes to an end. This moment of the end of the time of the Gentile occurs when the abomination that maketh desolate sets up his palace between the two seas, in Jerusalem. This occurs when Israel is restored! Another measure of this Last Day in Daniel is by the comment, when He shall have accomplished scattering the power of the Holy people.. We know that this event is accomplished when we see Israel restored to the map again! Behold how easy it is to measure time!
The prophesy of which we have reviewed follows Ezekiel's perspective of the final conflict between God and Satan. Satan's agent, a King, is brought to battle with Ethiopia and Libya with Him. In Ezekiel's and Revelation's rendition, this battle includes Gog and Magog with his allies, Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya. In Daniel the scenario is not with Gog among allies, but with an unnamed nation whose King leads them in battle engaging the King of the North and the King of the South. But tidings out of the East and the North shall trouble him. Therefore shall he go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many.
In Ezekiel the final conflict is between Gog, in whom God will be sanctified by bringing him and his friends into Armageddon, against presumably Himself or His Deliverer Messiah. Revelation inserts another conflict before the event of Armageddon involving the Antichrist and his troops. That conflict is the Tribulation against which The Word is involved, after which the Antichrist and his false prophet are thrown into the pit and chained for a thousand years.
At the time of the great battle against the Abomination of desolation who places his palaces between the two seas, the following is important to consider:
The Gospel of Matthew, 27.52, suggests that at the time Jesus died many that were in the earth rose up and went into Jerusalem. The commentary tries to make us believe that Jesus is that Michael without directly mentioning it. But tying the raising of the dead, which is a Sign of Latter Day prophesy, to Jesus presents substantial difficulties in credibility of the author of Matthew. For Jesus had earlier been reported, in his prophesy of the Last Days and the coming of the Son of Man in the Clouds of Heaven:
Matthew 24.15 When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)
24.16 Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains:
24.17 For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be.
24.30 And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.
24.31 And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
In the scenario of Ezekiel and Daniel one would presume that the event of the Last Days involving Michael is in the Last Days and involves the time God takes out His Wrath against the nations and restores the Children of Israel. While Matthew and Mark have Jesus commenting upon the scene of the abomination of desolation, hinting that the scattering of Judaea is the sign of that moment of the coming of the Son of Man, Luke (line 1418) prudently stays away from it. Rather, he maintains more Scriptural verses, easier to understand, which reflect signs of the coming of the Son of Man in the Clouds of Heaven. Luke adds to the comment about those fleeing from Judaea, and Jerusalem encompassed with armies (Luke 21.20), the point that the Children of Israel will be led away captive to all the nations and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until the time of the Gentiles be fulfilled. What appears to be a prophesy on the Last Days, involving the days of Jesus, in Matthew and Mark, suddenly becomes clarified in Luke. Luke knows that the Scattering and Captivity of Israel is required before the Son of Man can come again in the clouds.
Following these comparisons leads us to the observation that Jesus had identified the Abomination of Desolation as a sign of His Second Coming. This means that he had familiarity with Daniel sufficiently to know that Michael is that Great Prince whom He would become. For the angel, who carried the similitude of the Sons of Men, speaking to Daniel said:
Daniel 10.21 But I will shew thee that which is noted in the scripture of truth: and there is none that holdeth with me in these things, but Michael your prince.
Jesus's commentary in Matthew revealed that He knew of Michael, the great Prince (of Truth) to come. Having known this and the terms Daniel used to describe those days of the Abomination of Desolation, Jesus also ought to have known the proper terminology for the Deliverer Messiah: One like the Son of Man. Where He ought to have used that term, He continued using the term, Son of Man, coming in the clouds of Heaven.
As concerning Jesus's perception of that moment of time, which is the Judgment, there is an indication he understood Ezekiel's perception of the way God's wrath would come upon mankind, as fire and brimstone against the nations:
Matthew 25.31 When the Son of Man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:
25.32 And before him shall be gathered all nations; and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:
25.34 then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world.
Mark is not clear on this issue, showing that Matthew had given the eschatological view in Ezekiel, for instance, sufficient thought to recognize that Jesus had to be the Deliverer Messiah which presides over the judgment of the nations at the time they are brought into conflict. Jesus is so much aware of that occasion, when God will pour His wrath out on the nations, that He comments:
Matthew 24.22 And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened.
This argument, mentioned both by Mark and Matthew, was used by Paul in demonstrating why the Old Testament is now passed away with the rise of Jesus. For many would be prone to ask about all the promises made to the Jews, that they would be restored after being scattered. Such questioners were, to Paul and later Paulists, Judaizers. The Gospel of Barnabas reflects this attitude and justification:
Barnabas III.4 For the consummation of sin is come, as it is written, as the prophet Daniel says. And for this end the Lord hath shortened the times and the days, that his beloved might hasten his coming to his inheritance.
III.7 We ought therefore to understand this also: and I beseech you as one of your own brethren, loving you all beyond my own life, that you look well to yourselves, and be not like to those who add sin to sin and say: That their covenant is ours also. Nay, but it is ours only: for they [the Jews] have forever lost that which Moses received.
III.16 Consider this also: although you have seen so great signs and wonders done among the people of the Jews, yet this notwithstanding the Lord hath forsaken them.
This compares with Paul's comment:
Romans 11.21 For if God spared not the natural branches [the Jews], take heed lest he also spare not thee.
11.25 For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.
In these comparisons Barnabas has argued that the Jews lost their favor with God forever, since he hath forsaken them. Paul pretty much argues the same case, but in Romans, arguing with the metaphor of ingrafting branches, admits that though God may have forsaken the Jews He could still one day, if they confess to Jesus (through Paul's Gospel) ingraft them back in. But then, from this point of view, rather than the Jews partaking of the inheritance promised to them, they would be casting away the Torah (Law) to share the inheritance of the Gentile. Still, Paul confuses us, because He quotes Luke's condition upon the time of the Gentile and yet says things suggesting that the Jews can only partake of their inheritance through the mercy of the Gentile (Paul's Uncircumcised Church):
Romans 11.30 For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:
11.31 Even so have these also now not believed, that through your mercy they also may obtain mercy.
Galatians 3.28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.
3.29 And if ye be Christ's then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.
Quoting Matthew again, Paul then speaks about the end days, how Jesus will come to His Inheritance which, as we have seen, is a kingdom of people, Greeks, Jews, nonJews, etc., prepared as One Body in Jesus Christ without spot for their King. Those who stand to receive this inheritance to come are those who follow Paul's Gospel. In fact Paul admonishes those who do not follow His Gospel, saying:
Romans 16.17 Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them.
I Corinthians 4.16 Wherefore I beseech you, be ye followers of
me.
In being a follower of Paul, Paul asked you to believe:
I Thessalonians: 1.10 And to wait for his Son from Heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.
4.16 For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:
4.14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with Him.
4.17 Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord.
4.18 Wherefore comfort one another with these words.
II Thessalonians 1.7 And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels.
1.8 In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel [re: Paul's Gospel] of our Lord Jesus Christ:
1.9 Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power.
1.10 When he shall come to be glorified in his saints, and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed) in that day.
2.1 Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto Him.
2.2 That ye be not soon shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that the day of Christ is at hand.
2.3 Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition;
2.4 who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.
2.8 And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming:
2.13 But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth:
2.14 Whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Here is the promise of Paul: if you believe His Gospel of Jesus you will be removed from the Tribulation and wrath to come when Jesus comes to judge the earth. At that time, following the gospel of Matthew and Daniel, Paul says the man of perdition will be raised up, causing men to worship him above God. This thesis is followed by the logic that in the worship service the man of perdition would naturally go into the Temple and try to take the place of God. Therefore the Temple becomes an abominable sign of the Man of Perdition to the Paulists. Since those of the Circumcision were still worshipping in the Temple, this prophesy of Paul was a direct affront against Peter and the Apostles. Furthermore, this puts the believer at odds with prophesy, because The Branch is Promised to build the Temple of the Lord.
If the people believe the prophets, that the Branch builds the Temple of the Lord, then they must also have the expectation that The Branch is also one whom all men must admit is King of Kings and Lord of Lords. But Paul cannot follow this thesis because He had already taught that your body is the substitute temple of the lord and that the temple was only a shadow of Jesus, the thing which is now the Temple of God. Since Jesus is taught to reside in your heart, if you invite Him in, then it follows that you are now the temple of the Lord and therefore greater than any other temple which could be built. While this thesis has some scriptural basis, since God had promised that He would put his Covenant in our hearts through the Deliverer Messiah, at the time the children of Israel are restored to their land, Paul's prophesy is out of sync in terms of time. And because it is out of sync because of time it has distorted the world view of the end of time, featuring Michael, The Deliverer Messiah, overcoming the Abomination of Desolation and ruling, as one like unto the Son of Man, over all mankind.
Because Paul quoted the applicable verses of Daniel concerning the coming of this Messiah, and since he quoted it in the context that Jesus also mentioned, as the Son of Man coming in the clouds of Heaven to judge the secrets of men, then it follows that he ought to have accepted the other consequences of that event: namely the Promises of the Restoration of the Children of Israel, their temple, and most particularly their Tabernacle. But Paul, in his prophesy — and it is a prophesy yet to be proved — claims that only those who live in Jesus will be saved from the wrath to come; and they will, in an instant — according to Paul's Gospel - be raised up into the clouds away from the wrath to reside with Jesus forever and ever. The problem here is that Paul's quotations of the Messiah destroying the wicked by His Mouth presume knowledge and familiarity with Isaiah's promise of The Word and also Ezra 4. The confusion of the Rapture, catching the faithful up to Jesus in the clouds, makes little sense when viewed in the perspective that Jesus, in His Second Coming, must apply the sword of His Mouth to overcome the wicked of this world. Paul's theology admits the application of the fire of God's Wrath at the visitation of the Deliverer Messiah; and he follows the Gospel and Scriptural thesis that that Wrath will be taken out against the Wicked.
The Wicked One, or the Anti-messiah, is accompanied by the nations, upon whom the wrath of God is poured. After all, we have seen plainly that the wrath of God will be poured out on all those who were against God's People Israel. Paul, in his thesis, had concluded that the Children of Israel had been refused and no longer have a claim to the promised inheritance and can only participate in that inheritance through the Mercy of the Gentile (Uncircumcised) church. Peter's Circumcised church has no promise of Salvation in this context. Except they believe in Jesus, according to Paul's Gospel, the Jew (including Peter and the Apostles) can have no inheritance and will be burned in the fire. By the time of Martin Luther the Christian Ministry, in following Paul's Gospel, had concluded that the Jews, because of their idolatries and blasphemy (unbelief in Jesus), deserve to have their property taken from them and, furthermore, their culture and people destroyed. Hitler followed this teaching to a tee. Hitler, it turns out, did His Christian Duty as preached by Paul. For Paul justified the destruction of all those who did not believe in His Gospel.
We began here, in our commentary of Paul in relation to Daniel, with the thesis that Paul said, Judgment shall be according to My Gospel. And, says Paul, all those not following Jesus's [Paul's] Gospel shall see everlasting destruction. While Jesus may have had a legitimate claim in this regard, that Judgment would be according to His (the Suffering Messiah's) Gospel, Paul seemed to have stretched credibility a bit by thinking that the Judgment would now be according to his private interpretation, his Gospel. For the fact is there were several gospel accounts written when Paul was ministering his Faith of Uncircumcision. He quoted both Matthew and Luke sufficiently for us to suspect that some version(s) or a prototype of those gospels existed. His language concerning the Word and the war of the children of light over darkness leads us to believe that he had some familiarity with the Gospel of John. Revelation seems to be at odds with Paul on several accounts, however. It is written at a time when there are several churches, all of which were spawned out of Paul's Gentile church. Those Seven Churches became a cause for chastisement by the writer, John, of Revelation. Only the church of Philadelphia was laudable in performance. In the thesis of Revelation the Seven Churches become instruments both of the Messiah to come but also a point of condemnation: for they are seen as the Great Red Whore who consorted with the princes of this world and brought through her whoredom the conflict between The Word and the Wicked. In the process we see the Saints, of whom Paul counted on being a part, allied with the Messiah in the destruction of The great Red Whore's consort, the dragon, which is Satan and His Anti-Messiah and false prophet. Along with this battle group are 144,000 Jews who suddenly come to the Messiah, The Word.
From the standpoint of Peter one might suggest that the 144,000 Jews would have followed the Messiah because He came to enforce the Law. After all, as seen in the Psalms and the prophets, the Messiah is expected to be Faithful and True to the Torah. This means that He must support the Promises made to the Children of Israel by Moses. To do that He will automatically find Jews favoring Him, even though He is also required to Witness for the Suffering Messiah, as described previously. This Witness of the Suffering Messiah, we have seen earlier, is a major thesis of the Gospel of John, where John brings in the Comforter, a name commonly believed by rabbis to be the name of the Messiah, as Jesus's Witness. Paul has taken a different route in His eschatology, maintaining that only those who believe in Paul's gospel, which he claims is of Jesus, will survive.
Because we have no doubts that Paul knew the terminology of Ezra 4, we have no doubts that he also saw the mission of the Messiah as one who shall determine the survivors. And indeed we saw how he describes the Survivors as was described in the gospels, where Jesus separates the goats from the sheep in judgment. In the prophesy of Ezekiel we have seen that the Deliverer Messiah shall judge between cattle and cattle:
Ezekiel 34.22 Therefore will I save my flock, and they shall no more be a prey; and I will judge between cattle and cattle.
36.24 For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your land.
36.25 Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you.
36.26 A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh and I will give you an heart of flesh.
37.28 And the Heathen shall know that I the Lord do sanctify Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them forevermore.
Herein lies the problem Paul had in manipulating scripture. Following the supposition from Jesus, that Jesus was that Deliverer Messiah in whom God had placed a New Covenant, Paul concluded that Jesus was the vehicle by which God will give mankind a heart of flesh. The problem here, however, is that the time in which God promised that He would do this is after He had gathered the Children of Israel from among the heathen, wheresoever they had been scattered. The Deliverer Messiah, even the Spirit of Truth, would be able to see this obvious miscalculation on the part of Paul.
Before the Transfiguration of Jesus, Jesus apparently believed that He was the Light unto the Gentile which would function in the gathering and redemption of the Scattered Children of Israel. He must have also believed that His Day was the Cloudy and Dark Day:
Ezekiel 34.12 As a Shepherd seeketh out his flock in the day that He is among His sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the Cloudy and Dark Day.
Isaiah 4.2 In that day shall the Branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel.
In Jesus's prophesy, noted in the Synoptic Gospels, the persuasion is that all those in Judaea ought to be prepared to flee. Then Luke clarifies a seemingly confusing rendition of the Latter Days to show that before the Son of Man can be seen coming in the Clouds of heaven the Children of Israel must be first scattered to all the nations, and this shall occur until the time of the Gentile be fulfilled, which comment Paul also seemed to reflect. So Paul ought to have focused upon the scattering of Israel and then acknowledged that upon their Redemption or Restoration to the Holy Land the Messiah would fulfill those things written of Him, namely including the observation:
Ezekiel 37.28 And the heathen shall know that I the Lord do sanctify Israel, when my Sanctuary shall be in the midst of them forevermore.
and:
Isaiah 4.6 And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from storm and from rain.
and:
Ezekiel 37.25 And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they, and their children, and their children's children forever: and my servant David shall be their prince for ever.
37.26 Moreover I will make a covenant of Peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them forever more.
37.27 My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
To Peter and the Jews who believed that God is a God who cannot lie, such promises were understood to be soon fulfilled. The fact that Paul not only preached that the Jews had forfeited their inheritance, but also tied the work of the Man of Perdition, in Daniel, to taking a role in the Temple, fully sets the stage for the Gentile, or believers in Paul's Gospel, to fear any confirmation of the Restoration of the Children of Israel. Furthermore, the Covenant which was Promised to have been made, when the Children of Israel are sought out where they are scattered and Restored to their Promised Land, was appropriated by Paul as applying to Jesus's Day! But we can see that Jesus's Day was a day when the Children were Scattered, not Delivered. Such distinctions Paul and his followers could not perceive. While it is obvious to us that the Sacrificed Messiah mentioned in prophesy had to have some significance in the Redemption of Israel (at least confronting Israel at some point of time for the shame they brought on themselves because of their wickedness), it is more important to recognize that the Deliverer Messiah would be the one charged with clearing up this utterly ridiculous confusion Paul propagated over prophesy. What was clearly stated in prophesy as concerning the restoration and redemption of Israel, as briefly noted above, came to be totally obliterated with PaulÕs thesis of disinheritance.
Where Paul misread the Promises of God is that though God turned His face from Israel it would not be forever but only momentary and that He would redeem them and restore them as in the days of the Solemn Feast, when He led them by Moses out of Egypt. The Promises of the Redemption of Israel — which promises carry no precondition, such as believing on Jesus, etc. - were as important to prophesy as the very basis of the Suffering Messiah upon which Jesus based His Mission and upon which Paul created His Gospel. The thesis Paul arrived at, concerning the negation of all other prophesy now that Jesus is here, is totally a sign of ignorance and testing the sanctity and solemnities of the prophets which prepared them.
Furthermore, Paul's thesis of the Kingdom of God — being restricted to only those who followed Paul's Gospel — ignores the fact that God placed no restriction whatsoever upon the Redemption and gathering of the children of Israel from the nations from whence they were scattered. Any restriction, we might add, can be counted to be against the Heathen. When My Sanctuary is midst My People, then the Heathen round about shall believe, says God. And if this is not enough of a message of warning, Paul ought to have listened more closely to Moses in the Torah, where God states that His Day of Wrath will be against all those who were against His People Israel. Paul and his followers have certainly put all of the prophets (and God) to the Test; and Paul and His Followers of His Gospel, though claiming to be righteous in intent, are indolent in deed and thought and may find themselves as among those standing upon the field of battle, fighting not on the side of God, which now must be on the side of Israel, but on the side of those pledged to be destroyed.
Taking Jesus at His Word
If we have seen anything in Paul's Gospel it is the fact that Paul took Jesus, as His Word was passed down to him, for His Word. While the process of Taking Jesus for His Word was expected by Jesus, the fact remains that it is difficult sorting out just exactly what Jesus did say! It is certain that He saw Himself as the Suffering Messiah whose blood would be an atonement for sin. Because He made many comments tying into the books of Adam and Eve and Enoch, we are tempted to believe that Jesus knew them and used them as a guide to His own behavior and teachings. We suspect this is the case because the Books of Adam and Eve and Enoch take up the story of Adam and Eve after they are thrown out of the Garden, which is not reported in Genesis, and proceed to tell a unique story of Salvation which can only be meaningful when read in the light of Isaiah and David's Psalms. The details of the story and the philosophy of the conflict behind it, including the resolution of Satan's fate, all rest not upon the theme of justifying Jesus as the Messiah, or Word of God, but rather upon their own merit. The fact that God's House has many mansions is insignificant in Jesus's explanation of the Kingdom of God. He simply said He was going there to prepare a place for you, his followers. But in the books of Adam and Eve and Enoch we are told why God's House has many mansions, and how those mansions relate to the story of Adam and Eve and the redemption of them to the Garden of Eden or Paradise after 5,500 or 6,000 years.
The story of the sacrifice of Jesus on the hill of Golgotha has no significance except we compare it to the story of Adam and Eve, how God pledged that His Blood sacrificed in the Land of Golgotha would be Salvation to Adam and His Seed.
Jesus's laying inside a rock for three days and then being resurrected has no significance unless we understand the underlying background in Adam's rescue from underneath a rock by God. At that time Adam had only been out of the Garden two days. Satan, being jealous of Adam, caused a rock to fall upon him and bury him for three days. After three days God came to Adam and raised him up from beneath the rock, saying that this shall be a sign unto you and your seed when I come to save you. For just as you laid under the rock for three days, dead, so will I also lay inside a rock three days dead; and then I will be resurrected. In the thesis of the resurrection of God's Word from the tomb in the books of Adam and Eve we learn of the significance of Jesus's resurrection from the tomb after three days. Jesus being laid in a tomb for three days and then resurrected from the dead is meaningless without the context of the Adam and Eve story. After all, Jesus is reported, like Elijah, to have raised the dead. Like Elijah, the gospels have us believe that Jesus will be himself raised from the dead. Only Elijah and, guess who? Enoch were reported to have never died. They were instantly transported to heaven without suffering death. Because Moses's tomb has never been found he also is sometimes believed to have robbed death of its quarry. Another, even more ancient example of a man who never saw death is Melkizedek, in whom the Dead Sea Scrolls and other scriptures, such as the Psalms, admit the Deliverer Messiah is a reincarnated form.
The fact that Jesus quoted after the transfiguration the scriptures of having to suffer and die at the hands of the priests or Gentile, and be raised up from the tomb after three days, indicates a coincidence of his thoughts with previously written precepts of the Messiah. And after all, if one thing is clear in the gospels, despite the other obfuscations, Jesus did believe He was the Messiah. So His Teachings in the Role of the Messiah related to Himself fulfilling Messianic expectations. There are no Messianic expectations in Scripture concerning Him being put in a tomb for three days and then resurrected or going to His Father's Many Mansions to prepare a place for you except in the books of Adam and Eve and Enoch. The fact that the Gospel writers began to identify Jesus as the Son of Man appearing in the clouds of Heaven in His Second Coming is another indication that the Books of Adam and Eve and Enoch played a still greater role in Jesus's eschatology than the ministry would like to believe. For The Second Coming is a concept in the Book of Enoch and, in fact, a precept strange to the other scriptures.
In the prophets we have such things as the Second Hand of God, or the Second Rain, indicating those days in which, as in the days of Noah, He would take out His wrath against the world. But this time, differentiating the days of Noah from the Days of the Redemption of Israel, God says he will not take out his wrath against the earth and its plants and animals but only upon the cities and high towers of man (re: the book of Enoch). Thus, in the gospels we have Jesus explaining His return in His Second Coming as in the days of Noah (Line 1447). Luke adds that it will really be like the days of Sodom...which is more scriptural. For God has declared quite clearly — and this ought to have been clear to the gospel writers — that this time, when He reaches down to the earth with His Second Hand, it will be with the Spirit of burning and fuel of fire. Peter without a doubt understood this message and noted in his Second Epistle that he knows that the world will be put to the fire but nevertheless he looks forward to the expectation of a New Heaven and a New Earth. This expectation is, as mentioned earlier, well examined in Revelation, known to the writer John, in which the conclusion of the book is after The Word and the First Resurrection Jerusalem descends with Christ and a New Heavens and a New Earth are seen.
When we really examine Jesus's word we see many scriptural difficulties which really may not be owing to his confusion but rather his inability to make it clear to all those in his hearing just exactly how He relates to prophesy and How His Second Coming (which became a necessity to avoid a total disparity with prophesy) would fulfill all things not fulfilled by Him in His First Coming. We know this is a mouthful but are persuaded to leave this long sentence to emphasize that the Messiah(s) represented Two different things which in no way can be confused in one event. Nor can the events surrounding them, as related in prophesy, be separated from them. The attempt to show Jesus claiming the Messiahship of the one who does not go into the streets, who is the Light of the Gentile, illustrates our point, how an attempt to blend that epithet from a time in the Last Days to JesusÕs Day, and the attempt to deceive people into thinking He is that Messiah, only serve to produce confusion and reason to be sceptical of the prophets.
What the prophets had written clearly, out of an unreasoned attempt to apply out of season to Jesus, became a discredit to The Word of God. For the Word of God is based upon the synchronization of events with His Messiah to clearly show that the Messiah thus chosen is the One He Chose. We may apply this criteria quite easily to Immanuel and Jesus. Jesus did appear when Immanuel was supposed to appear. So He can claim this Messiahship; and, based upon other things he is reported to have done and said, ought to have made that claim of being Immanuel. We say this because we hardly think it prudent for the Jews to look forward to seeing the Sign of the Virgin and Her son, Immanuel, again. Whereas Jesus may not have appreciated this distinction during His time, it is clear that the Deliverer Messiah would. He would look a fool, wouldn't He, to claim that He is born of a Virgin and fulfills the Sign of the Virgin mentioned by Isaiah? To do so would be His own condemnation of Himself to suffer the pains of death (for the atonement of sins) and, likewise, the scattering of the Children of Israel off their Promised Land which - we are not hesitant to note - conflicts with the momentous restoration of our century, where the Children of Israel have reoccupied their Promised Land forty some years ago after two thousand years of exile! Thus, from the point of view of the era of the Deliverance, there are prophesies which are best left in the past and not to be resurrected again.
Growing an arm for an arm
The Old Testament Prophets — we are speaking of all of them; even the Koran — base their thesis upon the Resurrection in the Last Days. We have seen that Jesus's entire argument hangs upon the thesis of eternal life. The Gospel of the Kingdom of God is based upon the promise of the restoration of Paradise and the re-admission of Adam [Adam's seed] back into the Garden. This is a day of long days, where people have long lives and fear nothing; it is a day of peace and abundance for all. ( See Isaiah). As the Gospel of Thomas says, quoting Jesus (which Clement incidentally quotes):
when you learn to replace a hand for a hand and a foot for a foot, etc., then know that the Kingdom is at hand.
The precept follows all of the conclusions we have reached from the prophets. People will live longer in those days, the Latter Days, and wonderful technology will be about, where, as the Gospel of Thomas said, we can replace a hand for a hand, etc.; which thing is nearly achievable today. After all, we are just short of being able to demonstrate how the Chameleon grows a new tale or the starfish a new arm or a starfish a new body even from a piece of arm! And this brings us to the Garden of Gethsemane again:
Line 1728—One [Peter] with Jesus drew a sword and struck off the high priest's servant's ear. Then Jesus said unto him [Peter] Put up again thy sword into his place: for all they that take the sword shall perish by the sword. And Jesus answered and said, suffer ye thus far. And he touched his ear and healed him.
Here we have done an unusual thing. Whereas we might have expected Matthew to have reported the incident of the healing of the servant's ear — after all it was cut clean off! — it was Luke who reported it! It was our conservative, prudent Luke who reported this remarkable incident of the healing of the servant's ear! And it was not just one of his ears. Luke corrects Matthew to show that it was his Right Ear! Luke had done the same thing here that he did with the man with the Withered Arm. He had seen the experience and knew exactly what happened. Whereas others spoke of the incident in general terms, he could speak of it in very specific terms! Luke is our man of the hour. Matthew we loved and admired, because he very carefully corrected the Gospel of Mark without making a big fuss over it; but Luke, our prudent and conservative Luke, made a fuss where it counted! He seems to have made many changes in the gospels where they involve significant representations, from His Point of view, of the Truth. We thank him.
While the actual antiquity of the Gospel of Thomas is up in the air and cannot be used as evidence that Jesus believed that the Kingdom of heaven was well into the future, the incident of the servant's ear suggests an acknowledgment of a miracle which would be commonplace in the day when the Kingdom of God is set in earth.
The next comment Jesus made was:
1739 — Are ye come out as against a thief? I sat daily with you in the temple and ye laid no hold on me..
This is true! Jesus was reported to have been teaching in the temple before the passover and he certainly did it for several days (John has him coming to Jerusalem six days before passover). In the beginning of the Gospel of John we have a scene of Jesus being with Nicodemus, a high priest in the Sandhedrim, being a secret disciple of Jesus. Other reports of Jesus being in Jerusalem during other feasts than the Passover tell us that Jesus was in and out of Jerusalem and when He came into Jerusalem on the Last Passover of His life he ought to have been fairly well known to many people in Jerusalem. He ought to have been well known, that is, unless he carried on a secret ministry, by night, in that place. Nevertheless, though Jesus had frequented that city enough to gain Nicodemus as a disciple, his teaching in the temple certainly had to bring him to the attention of the priests. He may have stood in the courtyard teaching, but even this may have been viewed by the priests with some jaundice. Perhaps it was normal activity for prophets, even lay prophets, such as was Jesus — he apparently did not go to Prophet School! - to stand in the courts of the temple and teach. But there is one problem here. What he taught caused the priests to desire to kill him!
In discussing similar events with Stephen and later Paul we realize that it would not be hard to cause the Jews to rise up against you. All you need do is profane the sanctuary of God. Stephen profaned it with his teaching, supposing that Gentiles had an equal access to the temple. Paul really confirmed our proposition of profaning the sanctuary of God, as Daniel commented, by taking a Gentile into the temple where he ought not to have gone! Stephen was stoned for his infractions of the law; Paul ought to have been stoned but escaped under the Roman guard for even worse offenses, or insults, against the temple. For Paul took a Greek, who is uncircumcised (look at their statues and you can see their tradition) into the place of the Circumcised Court of the Temple.
The Temple, we regret to admit, was a highly segregated place. In theory, those who are circumcised can get closer to God than those who are not. Paul taught the uncircumcised that they had a right to go into those places as well as the circumcised, and, by demonstration, took an uncircumcised Greek into one of the forbidden precincts of the temple! It was not an accident. It was intentional, and Paul was almost stoned over it. So we can see how easy it was to offend against the temple and Law of Moses.
Jesus was doing something in the temple which was, in his time, about as offensive. We have reviewed it from various angles to this point; now we can talk about it directly: He was attacking the priesthood, and this was taken as blasphemy from the point of view of the ministry.
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