On 9-13 I wrote out some thoughts I had after reading through the book of Revelation. Two verses of scripture stood out to me from the Good News Translation. The verses both contained the phrase “the secret thing foretold by the prophets but revealed by Jesus.” The problem is when I went back to find the scripture references, I couldn’t find the scriptures. They had disappeared. I was already reeling from the subject matter of that last study and when I couldn’t find the verses I had based the last study on, my whole world began to crumble. As I engaged the Lord, in an attempt to shore up my crumbling house, He reminded me of Romans 9:33 and Acts 1:4.
Romans 9:33 informs us God placed a stumbling stone in Mt Zion. Mt. Zion is generally understood to be the Church and in Acts 1:4, Jesus informs us the baptism with the Holy Spirit is the Father’s gift to the Church. The baptism with the Holy Spirit is a stumbling stone and the Church universal stumbles over it. These are undisputed and indisputable facts. Just ask anyone if Christians are responsible for keeping Jesus’ commandment to His disciples found in Acts 1:4-5, and they will tell you, no, yet Jesus is King of Kings and Lord of Lords when He issues this commandment. He was not Lord of All when He issued any previous commandment.
The question is: Why? Why would God place a stumbling stone in Jesus’ Church? Why would God give a gift to Jesus’ Church He knew the Church would stumble over? There can be only one reason: in order to shut up all mankind unto judgment.
Mankind chose not to follow God during the first 1,000 years of mankind’s history and God destroyed all but Noah and his family with a worldwide flood. Afterward God promised to never again destroy all mankind with a flood but mankind continued to fail to follow God. Then God called Abraham, who followed God perfectly. He called Abraham’s children to follow Him in a different way but for the most part they failed.
Then Jesus came along and perfectly followed God and God gave to Jesus the authority to establish a whole new definition of following God but mankind failed to follow God and made up its own path to follow. The Father suspected this would happen, having four thousand years of experience to base His suspicions on, and placed a trip wire in mankind’s path to expedite mankind’s failure to follow God. What does it mean to follow God?
For Adam it meant not to eat of one tree of the garden. For Abraham it meant to seek out and find a city whose builder and maker was God. Abraham spent His whole life looking for that city and I believe he actually did find it in the city of Salem. The point is though that He followed God. For Abraham’s descendants, it meant keeping a moral code of Ten Commandments and a sacrificial system. For Christians the definition of following God changed.
For Christians the definition of following God meant the keeping of three commandments Jesus left His Church. God made a hard left turn after Jesus’ resurrection but Christians continued straight and for two thousand years, Christians have failed to follow God. They have followed a perceived God of their own making.
To follow God is to follow in His footsteps but more than that it is to hold to the precepts and examples He puts forth. When Jesus was raised from the dead with all power in heaven and earth, it should be understood the power and authority of God changed hands. Jesus said,” I have kept my Father’s commandments and do abide in my Father’s love. If you keep my commandments you will abide in my love.” Anybody paying any attention at all should see and recognize a change is coming. Anybody paying attention should be looking for Jesus to issue commandments, commandments that would determine what it meant to follow God in the coming age. Alas, that never happened.
The scriptures tell us those things that can be known about God are plainly revealed. It is plainly stated that Adam only had to refrain from eating the fruit of one tree to follow God. Likewise it is plainly known that Abraham did not have the same requirement for following God as Adam. Similarly, the Ten Commandments of the old covenant law are clearly unlike the commandments of Abraham or Adam, and Jesus issued a set of commandments unlike His Father’s. Yet Christians failed to know or appreciate that which was plainly known of God. Therefore God gave them over to their own brand of evil. For two thousand years mankind has been held captive by its own devices, reserved in judgment till the end when God will judge all things together. We are at that point.
Romans 1:28 states, “Even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind to do those things that were not convenient.” This verse states that mankind did not like to retain God in its knowledge, in other words, it created a graven image that was more to its liking and called it God. Though the knowledge of God was plainly revealed, mankind chose a different path. The word, reprobate, means, an unprincipled person.
A follower of God must be principled. God is both exacting and merciful. If mankind attempts to follow God, it is acceptable to God, but if mankind chooses a path that deviates from God’s path and follows that path with principal, God gives them over to the chosen path. During the first 1,000 years, God observed mankind to see what it would do. When mankind became all together evil, God destroyed all mankind except one family that dutifully followed Him. During the second one thousand years God dealt with one man personally and his children. These people followed Him.
Then God dealt with the descendants of this one man, making covenant with them, and certain individuals followed God perfectly but the vast majority made an idol of their own choosing and followed it. Jesus called the rulers of God’s people a brood of vipers because they exchanged the God of the universe for a god of their own choosing. They created an idol but not an idol of stone, they created an idol of philosophy, an idol of faith. Instead of teaching the people of God to follow God, they taught them to follow the idol. The great failing of mankind is that it follows its leaders. If the leaders exchange the truth for a lie, all the people dutifully follow the lie.
All throughout history God has chastised His people, Jesus is no different; but to chastise and to judge are two different things. The word, chastise, means to limit. All sickness and disease is limiting, as well as all financial difficulties. The word, judgment, means to call to account. Jacob’s trouble is a period of time when God calls to account the human race for disobedience of Jesus’ commandments. This is why the dead in Christ are raised first.
The dead in Christ are represented by the seven golden lamp stands in Jesus’ hand in Revelation 1. These are those who followed the Christ during their lives on earth. They are the ones who should have known the power and authority of God changed hands at Jesus’ resurrection; they should have known to follow God meant to follow Jesus. So when Jesus issued His commandments, they should have known to follow Jesus was to keep Jesus’ commandments. Judgment, therefore, must start at the house of God. Those who should have known better must be judged first.
The dead in Christ are raised to account for their actions. This will play out on a world stage, for all the world to see. The thing they are being judged for will be revealed. “The secret thing foretold by the prophets but revealed by Jesus,” will be revealed once more. The dead in Christ will begin to see their mistake and understand what they must do, even as the Lord calls them into account for their failure to do so during their lives. The dead in Christ will be the first converts, then they will go out preaching this truth to the masses that are alive. That is how they will earn their citizenship in heaven.
We all know Ephesians 2:8, “For by grace you are saved through faith, and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works lest any man should boast,” yet it seems no one understands this is salvation from the curse of the law, the curse of death. Therefore no one understands verse 10: “For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God has foreordained that we should walk in them.” Do you remember God’s gift to the Church, foretold by Jesus in Acts 1? The good works Christians are ordained by the Father to walk in is the baptism with the Holy Spirit, which should not be a one time or sporadic event, but a daily act of saturation with the Holy Spirit. To follow God is to follow Jesus, which is to keep Jesus’ commandments.
Jesus had to redeem mankind from the law before He could offer mankind eternal life. To follow the Jesus of the four gospels is to follow the Father. Jesus had to perfectly keep the Father’s law to redeem mankind from the law. Belief in Jesus’ death on the cross cannot deliver eternal life because Jesus followed the law and the law didn’t promise eternal life. In order to be a citizen of the kingdom of heaven, mankind must keep the laws (commandments) of that kingdom. The kingdom of heaven is ruled over by Jesus; it is Jesus’ commandments that must be kept. Those commandments come after Jesus fulfills His Father’s covenant.
The dead in Christ will be raised first, judged first, converted first, preach this gospel first, and will rise to meet Jesus in the air first, after the precious fruit of the earth has been reaped, then, we which remain will be caught up together with them in the air and forever we will be with the Lord. Then, the rest of the world will be judged.
The phrase, time, times, and a half time, is found several places in the scripture. The first word, time, indicates a specific period of time, in this case the time of Jacob’s trouble. The last two words, half time, indicates the time is divided in two. If the tribulation period is seven years, it is divided in half, making two three and one half year periods of time. The second word, times, indicates the time is dealt with incrementally. This is also indicated through the events depicted by the book of Revelation.
When Abraham built that altar and laid his only son Isaac across it and Isaac looked up at His father and asked, “Where is the sacrifice,” this event foretold an event that was to occur in heaven. It is in Genesis where God tells us “everything produces after its own kind.” So Jesus, who was with God in the beginning and was God, comes to earth to be born a man. Was He begotten by God at this event? Apple trees begat Apple trees, dogs begat dogs, and God begets God.
Moses told the Israelis to take a lamb from their flocks and keep it in their houses for four days. They were not then told to beat the lamb, pull out its hair, mock it, and crucify it. They were told to hold it gently and lovingly and pull a knife across its throat and collect its blood in a bowl. The prophets of old foretold a secret, a secret Jesus revealed. It was after Jesus had died on the cross to redeem mankind from the curse of death proclaimed on all mankind by the old covenant law that Mary met Him at the tomb. Jesus, however, said, “Don’t touch me, I have not yet ascended to my Father.”
Jesus revealed a secret. The secret was His death on the cross was not sufficient to wash away mankind’s sin. Something more was required. Jesus said, “Think not that I have come to do away with the law. I came not to destroy the law but to fulfill it.” Years before it was revealed God would make a new covenant with mankind. In order for there to be a new covenant, there must first be a dissolving of the current covenant. The dissolving of the current covenant required a violent death. Somebody who was perfect, without sin, innocent, had to take on Himself the curse of the law and die under its condemnation/judgment.
Having fulfilled the old covenant, Jesus was then free to establish a new covenant but in order for mankind to live forever in heaven, the inherit sin of mankind had to be dealt with. Jesus offered His own blood to cleanse mankind of its sin. Thus the Father laid Jesus across an altar in heaven, collected His blood, the blood of perfect innocence, to spread across the tabernacle of heaven. All who enter that tabernacle by faith are cleansed of sin.
There is a prescribed method of entering that tabernacle. Moses wrote down the service of the old covenant tabernacle, which is a mere picture of the true tabernacle in heaven, so the priests could perform their duties for the people. The service of the new covenant tabernacle is much simpler. There are only three commandments to keep. The old covenant tabernacle, with its service, serves as a picture of the service of the new covenant tabernacle, so those who wish to make heaven their eternal home, will know how to perform the service.
There is a secret thing foretold by the prophets but revealed by Jesus even though that phrase is not found in the Good News translation of the book of Revelation. Christians have never been taught this secret and don’t believe it. It is beyond their ability to conceive of. Christians have been taught Jesus’ death on the cross cleanses their sin if faith is exercised. The idea that Jesus offered Himself as a perfect sacrifice after he took the curse of the law on Himself is completely lost on Christianity. Christianity attempts to keep the Ten Commandments and completely disregards the commandments of Jesus. The whole of the new covenant is hidden; it’s a secret held by God, because the early church stumbled over Jesus’ commandments and God gave them over to a reprobate mind that they could be happy doing that which was not convenient.
This is what is told us in Hebrews 9:14, “How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered Himself without spot to God, purge your conscious from dead works to serve the living God.” Jesus actually became the Christ when He died on the cross, the word, Christ, means Savior. This puts the event this verse speaks of occurring after Jesus’ resurrection. According to 1Corinthians 5:21, Jesus became sin who know no sin on the cross so Jesus did not present Himself before God sinless at the cross. Jesus was raised from the death of hell by the Holy Spirit, who pointed out to Satan that Jesus was without sin. He took our sin on Himself on the cross; He had no sin of His own. Satan had to release Jesus from hell because He was without sin. Jesus raised His body from the grave and ascended into heaven to present Himself before God.
Our conscious was designed by God to convict us of discretions against the old covenant law, aka, the Ten Commandments, which Jesus perfectly kept for us and gave us that perfect keeping. To attempt to keep the Ten Commandments is dead works because the old covenant law is no longer in force. It was fulfilled, made null and void by Jesus. Belief in the blood Jesus shed in heaven, as our perfect sacrifice, will cleanse your conscious from performing dead works and cause you to follow the living God, which is Jesus, who was God in the beginning but became a man and died for mankind’s sin but has been raised from the dead as God to live forevermore.
You see, Jesus was begotten of God. Jesus was a resurrected man when He presented Himself before the Father in heaven. Jesus was respectfully and lovingly held and His throat was cut, His blood poured out into a bowl and Jesus died. It was at this point that God infused His life into Jesus. Then God said, “You are my beloved Son, this day I have begotten you.” The world-wide Church believes in the blood Jesus shed at the cross and believes it receives eternal life thereby. That blood delivers mankind from the old covenant law but does not give mankind eternal life. It is the wrong blood.