======================================================================== WRITINGS OF ROBERT D LUGINBILL by Robert D. Luginbill ======================================================================== A collection of theological writings, sermons, and essays by Robert D. Luginbill, compiled for study and devotional reading. Chapters: 41 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ TABLE OF CONTENTS ------------------------------------------------------------------------ 1. 00.00. Luginbill, Robert D. - Library 2. 01.00 - Christology: the Study of Jesus Christ 3. 01.01 - The Person of Jesus Christ 4. 01.01.01 - Jesus Christ is truly Divine 5. 01.01.02 - Jesus Christ is truly Human 6. 01.01.03 - Jesus Christ is truly Unique 7. 01.01.04 - The Names of Jesus Christ Reflect His Perfect Person and His Perfect Work 8. 01.01.05 - The Life of Jesus Christ 9. 01.02 - The Saving Work of Jesus Christ 10. 01.02.01 - Our Need for a Savior 11. 01.02.02 - The Substitutionary Death of Jesus Christ on our behalf 12. 01.02.03 - Unlimited Atonement 13. 01.02.04 - The Blood of Christ 14. 01.02.05 - The Spiritual Death of Christ 15. 01.02.06 - Propitiation 16. 01.02.07 - Redemption 17. 01.02.08 - Justification 18. 01.02.09 - Reconciliation 19. 01.02.10 - Summary of the Work of Christ in Effecting Salvation 20. 01A.00. Eschatology: the Study of Last Things 21. 01A.01. God's Plan for Human History 22. 01A.01A. Judgment, Restoration and Replacement I: Positional Victory 23. 01A.01B. The Focus of God's Plan, Jesus Christ, His Person and His Work 24. 01A.01C. Things to Come: Judgment, Restoration and Replacement Phases 2 & 3 25. 01A.01D. God's Disposition of Satan: A Historical Overview 26. 01A.02. The Tribulation Defined 27. 01A.03. The Seven Churches of Revelation 28. 01A.04. The Tribulation's First Half 29. 01A.05. Antichrist and his Kingdom 30. 01A.06. The Great Tribulation 31. 01A.07. Armageddon and the Second Advent 32. 01A.08. Last Things 33. 02.00 - Theology: the Study of God 34. 02.01 - The Essence of God: Nature and Characteristics 35. 02.01.01 - Infinity 36. 02.01.02 - Perfection 37. 02.02 - The Persons of God: the Trinity 38. 02.02.01 - Definition of the Trinity: One in Essence; Three in Person 39. 02.02.02 - The Trinity in the Bible 40. 02.02.03 - The Trinity in the Old Testament 41. S. Angelogy: the Study of Angels ======================================================================== CHAPTER 1: 00.00. LUGINBILL, ROBERT D. - LIBRARY ======================================================================== Luginbill, Robert D. - Library Luginbill, Robert D. - Christology: the Study of Jesus Christ Luginbill, Robert D. - Eschatology: the Study of Last Things Luginbill, Robert D. - Theology: the Study of God S. Angelogy: The Study of Angels ======================================================================== CHAPTER 2: 01.00 - CHRISTOLOGY: THE STUDY OF JESUS CHRIST ======================================================================== Christology: the Study of Jesus Christ by Dr. Robert D. Luginbill The unique Person and work of the Word of God incarnate, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Everything in the heavens and on the earth was created by Him (Jesus Christ), things invisible as well as those visible – whether thrones, authorities, rulers or powers, everything was created through Him and for Him. And He Himself is before everything, and everything subsists in Him. Col. 1:16-17. I. The Person of Jesus Christ 1. Jesus Christ is truly Divine 2. Jesus Christ is truly Human 3. Jesus Christ is truly Unique 4. The Names of Jesus Christ Reflect His Perfect Person and His Perfect Work 5. The Life of Jesus Christ II. The Saving Work of Jesus Christ 1. Our Need for a Savior 2. The Substitutionary Death of Jesus Christ on our behalf. 3. Unlimited Atonement 4. The Blood of Christ 5. The Spiritual Death of Christ 6. Propitiation 7. Redemption 8. Justification 9. Reconciliation 10. Summary of the Work of Christ in Effecting Salvation Introduction: Any study of this sort must of necessity fall short of absolute completeness, for the written word of God is in its every particular about the Living Word of God, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. The better one understands scripture and the completely integrated tapestry of fundamental truth which runs through its entire warp and woof, the more perspicuous this one essential truth becomes, that Jesus Christ is the reason for the Bible, and the Bible is all about Jesus Christ, the Word of God (John 1:1-14). The purpose of this study therefore must be limited to explicating the major biblical themes contained in scripture regarding our Savior, His unique Person and His work of salvation on our behalf. For Jesus is the truth, the way and the life (John 14:6), and the fundamental essence of the testimony of the entire Bible is the divine revelation of Him, who He is and what He has done for us in giving up His very life for us (Revelation 19:10). All things were made through our Lord Jesus Christ and for Him (Colossians 1:15-18). He is thus the cornerstone of the entire plan of God for all of creature history (Ephesians 3:11). The salvation of all members of the human race who turn to God, as well as the victory over the devil (who had held human beings in his power) have been won through our Lord’s sacrifice of Himself on our behalf and could not have been won in any other way (Colossians 2:14-15). Therefore Jesus is our ultimate hope (Colossians 1:27), our highest love (Php 1:21), and the sole object of our faith (Acts 4:12). Jesus Christ is our life (Colossians 3:4). Only in Him do we have a full share in the resurrection to come and eternal life (1 Peter 1:3-4; cf. Titus 3:6-7), for He is the resurrection and the life (John 11:25). Without Jesus we along with the entire human race would be lost, but in Him we have been delivered from the wrath to come (1 Thessalonians 1:10). Without Jesus all of human history and our lives in particular would be essentially pointless and meaningless, but in Him we anticipate eternal life and great reward (Revelation 22:12). Without Jesus the world is a hard, cold, and bitter place, but in Him we rejoice with boundless joy, for as intimate and everlasting members of His Bride, the Church, we exist for Him (Romans 8:8-39; Ephesians 1:9-10; cf. 1 Corinthians 8:6; 2 Corinthians 5:14-15; Galatians 2:20; Colossians 1:17-20; Hebrews 12:2), and will ever be with Him (John 14:3). Like all corrupt human flesh we are by nature of our physical birth creatures of wrath, condemned to die, but through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ we have been purchased from our sins and eagerly anticipate an eternity with our Master which will be glorious and exquisite beyond all earthly expression or comprehension (Revelation 21:1-27, Revelation 22:1-21; cf. John 14:1-3). Although we were His enemies, with nothing to recommend us and nothing to give Him, He gave His all for us on the cross (Romans 5:8-10). Thanks be to God for His indescribably wonderful gift of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, sacrificed on our behalf (2 Corinthians 9:15)! ======================================================================== CHAPTER 3: 01.01 - THE PERSON OF JESUS CHRIST ======================================================================== I. The Person of Jesus Christ 1. Jesus Christ is truly Divine 2. Jesus Christ is truly Human 3. Jesus Christ is truly Unique 4. The Names of Jesus Christ Reflect His Perfect Person and His Perfect Work 5. The Life of Jesus Christ ======================================================================== CHAPTER 4: 01.01.01 - JESUS CHRIST IS TRULY DIVINE ======================================================================== I. The Person of Jesus Christ 1. Jesus Christ is truly Divine: Because our Lord had to become a true human being in order to die in our place, His genuine and undiminished deity has, as a consequence, sometimes been falsely and heretically denied. But this lack of faith on the part of some does not change the fact that Jesus is indeed God as well as man. The ultimate means of refutation for all heresies and heretics who would deny the divinity of Christ is, as always, the Bible. For any impartial observer is forced to admit that regardless of the opinions of those who think otherwise, scripture loudly proclaims the deity of Christ, so that to deny the deity of Christ is to ipso facto contradict the Bible: a. As God, Jesus is explicitly called God (cf. Isaiah 40:2; Romans 1:4; Matthew 22:41-46; Matthew 28:19; Luke 1:35; Luke 5:20-21; John 1:1-18; John 5:18; 2 Corinthians 13:14; Colossians 1:15-20; Colossians 2:9; Hebrews 1:3): For a child is born to us, and a Son is given to us. Dominion shall rest on his shoulder, and His name will be called “He whose counsel is wondrous”, “Mighty God”, “the Father of Eternity”, “the Prince of Prosperity”. Isaiah 9:6. “Behold, the virgin will conceive and will bear a Son, and they will call His Name ‘Immanuel’, which is translated ‘God is with us’”. Matthew 1:23. For, [if I could save them thereby] I would wish myself to be accursed [and] separated from Christ on behalf my brethren according to the flesh who are Israelites, to whom belongs the adoption and the [shekinah] glory and the covenants and the giving of the Law and the [temple] rite and the promises who are [descendants of] the patriarchs and from whom is the Christ, as far as flesh[ly descent] is concerned, the [very] One who is God over all [things], blessed forever. Amen! Romans 9:3-5. You too should have this attitude which Christ Jesus had. Since He already existed in the very form of God, equality with God was [certainly] not something He thought He had to grasp for. Yet in spite of this [co-equal divinity He already possessed], He deprived Himself of His status and took on the form of a slave, [and was] born in the likeness of men. He humbled Himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even [His] death on [the] cross [for us all]. Php 2:5-8. [W]e who are awaiting the blessed hope, namely the glorious and majestic appearance of our God and Savior, Jesus Christ. Titus 2:13. But to the Son [the Father says], “Your throne, O God, is forever, and the scepter of your Kingdom is the scepter of integrity”. Hebrews 1:8. Simon Peter, a servant and apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who have been allotted a faith of equal value to ours in the righteousness of our God and Savior Jesus Christ. 2 Peter 1:1. And we know that the Son of God has come and has given us a mind-set for coming to know the truth. And we are in [the One who is] the Truth, even in [God’s] Son Jesus Christ. This One is the true God and eternal life. 1 John 5:20. “I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.” Revelation 22:13 (cf. Revelation 22:16) b. As God, Jesus is worshiped as God (cf. Zechariah 14:16-17; Matthew 2:2, Matthew 2:11; Matthew 14:33; Matthew 28:9, Matthew 28:17; John 12:41 compared to Isaiah 6:3; John 20:28; Hebrews 1:6; Revelation 14:7 compared to Colossians 1:13-16): And He led them out as far as Bethany, and He lifted up His hands and blessed them. And it came to pass as He was blessing them that He disappeared from their [sight]. Then, having worshiped Him of their own accord, they returned to Jerusalem with great joy. Luke 24:50-52. And he (i. e., the blind man whose sight had been restored) said, “I believe, Lord”, and he worshiped Him. John 9:38. Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the Name that is above every name that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Php 2:9-11. And I looked and heard, as it were, the voice of many angels around the throne and [around] the [living] creatures and [around] the [twenty-four] elders, and their number was myriads upon myriads and thousands upon thousands, [and they were] saying in a loud voice, “The Lamb who has been slain is worthy to take the power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing and every created thing in heaven and on the earth and in the sea and everything in them.” Then I heard them saying, “To the One who sits upon the throne and to the Lamb [be] the blessing and the honor and the glory and the power for ever and ever!” And the four living creatures were saying, “Amen!”. And the [twenty-four] elders fell [down] and worshiped. Revelation 5:11-14. c. As the Creator, Jesus is God, for God created the world (Hebrews 1:2, Hebrews 1:10; cf. Genesis 1:1-31, Genesis 2:1-25): Everything came into being through Him, (i. e., “The Word”, Jesus Christ), and without Him, nothing has come into being which has in fact come into being. John 1:3. He was in the world, and the world came into being through Him, and [yet] the world did not recognize Him. John 1:10. He (i. e., Jesus Christ; cf. Colossians 1:13) is the exact image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. Everything in the heavens and on the earth was created by Him, things invisible as well as those visible – whether thrones, authorities, rulers or powers, everything was created through Him and for Him. And He Himself is before everything, and everything subsists in Him (cf. Hebrews 1:3). Colossians 1:15-17. But for us there is [but] one God, the Father from whom all things [have come into being] (i. e., the Father as architect of creation), and we [now live] for Him, and there is [but] one Lord, Jesus Christ through whom all things [have come into being] (i. e., the Son as agent of creation), and we [now live] through Him. 1 Corinthians 8:6. d. As One of the Trinity, Jesus is co-equal and co-eternal with the Father and the Spirit (John 5:18; John 17:5): Then Jesus came over and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me, so go and make all nations my followers by baptizing them [with the Spirit] into the Person (i. e., “name”) of the Father and [into the Person] of the Son and [into the Person] of the Holy Spirit, and by teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you.” Matthew 28:18-20 a I and the Father are one. John 10:30. And now, glorify Me, Father, in your presence, with the [same] glory I possessed in your presence before the world existed. John 17:5. There are different gifts, but the same Spirit; and there are different ministries, but the same Lord (i. e., Jesus Christ); and there are different results, but the same God who brings about all results in all cases. 1 Corinthians 12:4-6. May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of (the [Father]) God, and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with you all. 2 Corinthians 13:13. There is one body and One Spirit – just as when you were called it was in one hope that you were called. There is One Lord (i. e., Jesus Christ), one faith, one baptism. There is One God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all. Ephesians 4:4-6. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who, though outcasts dispersed throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, were yet selected in the foreknowledge of God the Father, by means of the Holy Spirit’s consecration, for the obedience in and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. Grace and peace be multiplied unto you! 1 Peter 1:1-2. John, to the seven churches which are in Asia [Minor]: Grace to you and peace from the One who is and was and is coming (i. e., the Father), and from the seven spirits (i. e., the Holy Spirit) which are before His throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the Ruler of the kings of the earth. Revelation 1:4-5 a e. Jesus is the one and only Son of God, a title which as it is used in scripture clearly demonstrates His deity (cf. Luke 9:35; Hebrews 5:5; 1 John 1:3; 1 John 5:20; 2 John 1:3): Now once Jesus had been baptized, He immediately came up out of the water, and, behold, the heavens opened for Him, and He saw the Spirit of God coming down like a dove and lighting upon Him. And, behold, a voice from heaven was saying, “This is My beloved Son, with whom I am well pleased”. Matthew 3:16-17. While [Peter] was still speaking, behold, a cloud suffused with light enveloped them, and, behold, a voice [issued forth] from the cloud, saying, “This is My beloved Son with whom I am well pleased. Listen to Him!” Matthew 17:5 (cf. 2 Peter 1:16-21) No one has ever seen God. God the one and only [Son] – the One who has always been at the Father’s side – He has made Him known. John 1:18. For God loved the world so much that He gave [up] His one and only Son, [with the purpose] that everyone who believes in Him should not be lost [forever], but have eternal life [instead]. For God did not send His Son into the world to judge the world, but so that the world might be saved through Him. The one who believes in Him is not being judged, but the one who does not believe has already been judged on the grounds that he has not put his faith in the Name (i. e., the Person) of God’s one and only Son. John 3:16-18. For the Son of God, Christ Jesus, the One who was proclaimed among you through us, through myself and Silvanus (i. e., Silas) and Timothy, did not become “yes and no”, but He became “yes!”. For as many promises of God as there are, are “yes!” in Him (i. e., Jesus Christ). And through Him the “amen!” [is said] to God for [His] glory through us. 2 Corinthians 1:19-20. But when the fullness of time came, God sent His Son, born of a woman, born under the Law, in order that He might redeem those under the Law, in order that we might receive the adoption. And since you are sons, God sent the Spirit of His Son into your hearts, crying, “Abba, Father!” Galatians 4:4-6. For to which of the angels did He ever say, “You are my Son. Today I have begotten you (Psalms 2:7).” And again, “I will be a Father to Him, and He will be my Son (2 Samuel 7:14).” But when He brings back the Firstborn into the world, He says, “And let all the angels of God worship Him! (Psalms 97:7 b)”. And about the angels He says, “The One who makes His angels spirits, and His servants flames of fire (Psalms 104:4).” But of the Son He says, “Your throne, O God, is from eternity to eternity, and rod of your kingdom is the rod of uprightness. You have loved righteousness and hated lawlessness. For this reason God your God has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions (Psalms 45:6-7)”. And, “From the beginning, Lord, you founded the earth, and the heavens are the works of your hands. They indeed will perish, but you remain. And they will grow old like a garment, and like a cloak you will roll them up, like a cloak, and they will [thus] be changed. But you are the same, and your years will not come to an end (Psalms 102:25-27).” And to which of the angels has He ever said, “Sit down at my right hand until I make your enemies the footstool of your feet (Psalms 110:1)?” Hebrews 1:5-13. In this God’s love has been revealed in us, that He sent His only Son into the world that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atonement for our sins. 1 John 4:9-10. And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write: This is what the Son of God says, the One whose eyes are like a flame of fire and whose feet are like white-hot bronze. Revelation 2:18. f. Jesus is One with God the Father: I and the Father are one. John 10:30. And I do not ask concerning these only [Father], but also concerning all of those who believe in Me through their word, so that all [of them] may be one, as You, Father, are in Me and I also am in You, so that they also themselves may be one in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me. And I have given them the glory You have given Me, so that they may be one as We are one. John 17:20-22. g. As God, Jesus has been “face to face” with the Father since before time began or the world was created, departing from the Father’s presence and entering this world only to save us (John 6:62; John 17:24): The Word [Jesus Christ] existed at the very beginning, and there was reciprocity (i. e., “face to face” co-divinity) between the Word and God [the Father]. And the Word was God. This One both existed and enjoyed reciprocity (i. e., was “face to face”) with God from the very beginning (i. e., from before the beginning of creation). John 1:1-2. And the Word became flesh and tented among us. And we beheld His glory, a glory like that of a one and only Son from [the] Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14. No one has ever seen God. God the one and only [Son] – the One who has always been at the Father’s side (i. e., in heaven from eternity past) – He has made Him known. John 1:18. For the Father Himself loves you, because you have loved Me and have believed that I have come forth from God. I came forth from [being with] the Father and have come into the world. I am leaving the world again and going back to the Father. John 16:27-28. Jesus said these things and having lifted up His eyes to heaven said, “Father, the hour has come. Glorify your Son, so that your Son may glorify you, just as You gave Him power over all flesh, so that everything you have given Him might have eternal life. And this is the eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and [Him] whom you sent, Jesus Christ. I have glorified You on the earth, having completed the work you have given Me to do. And now glorify Me, Father, with your own glory, [that glory] which I had in your presence before the world existed.” John 17:1-5. What we have seen from the beginning, what we have heard and seen with our eyes, what we have observed and touched with our hands – this is about the Word of life[, Jesus Christ]. And this life appeared, and we have seen [it], and we bear witness [to it], and we proclaim to you the eternal life which was in the presence of the Father and [then] appeared to us. 1 John 1:1-2. h. As God, Jesus claims, shares, and demonstrates the divine attributes of God (Matthew 28:18; John 1:48; John 10:31-39): Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life. The one who comes to Me shall not hunger, and the one who believes in Me shall not thirst forever”. John 6:35. And I am giving them eternal life, and they will not perish forevermore, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. John 10:28. Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me will live, even if he dies. And everyone who lives and believes in Me will surely not die forevermore.” John 11:25-26. I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. John 14:6. i. As God, Jesus is described as the “exact image of God” (Colossians 1:15; cf. 2 Corinthians 4:4): [Jesus] is the [very] shining forth of [the Father’s] glory, the precise image of His essence, the One who sustains the universe by His mighty Word . . . Hebrews 1:3 a j. As God, Jesus is eternal: But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, too small to be numbered among the clans of Judah, from you I will bring forth the One who is to rule over Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, even from the days of eternity. Micah 5:2. Jesus Christ, yesterday and today the same, and unto the [end of] the ages. Hebrews 13:8. k. As the very Word of God, the embodiment of the message and truth from the Father, Jesus is God (Deuteronomy 18:18; John 8:55; John 14:10, John 14:24): Grass withers. Flowers fade. But the Word of our God will stand forever. Isaiah 40:8. In the beginning, there was the Word. John 1:1 a For who has known the mind of the Lord, that he might instruct Him? But we possess the very mind of Christ (i. e. the Holy Spirit illuminating the scriptures which are Christ’s very thinking). 1 Corinthians 2:16 (cf. 1 Corinthians 2:12-13) For God who said, “Let light shine forth from the darkness!”, is He who has shone forth [His light] into our hearts to illuminate our knowledge of God’s glory in the Person of Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians 4:6. God, from antiquity having communicated to our fathers in the prophets at many times and in many ways, has in these last days communicated to us in a Son, [the One] whom He has appointed heir of all things, [the One] through whom He created the universe. He is the [very] shining forth of [the Father’s] glory, the precise image of His essence, the One who sustains the universe by His mighty Word . . . Hebrews 1:1-3 a l. In accordance with the prophecies that God will judge the world, as God Jesus is the Judge, since all judgment has been handed over to Him: I kept looking during my vision of that night, and behold – with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming up, and He approached the Ancient of Days (i. e., the Father) and they brought Him before Him.And to Him was given dominion and honor and a kingdom, so that all nations and peoples and tongues should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away, and His kingdom one which will not be destroyed. Daniel 7:13-14. Then Jesus came over and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Me." Matthew 28:18. For neither does the Father judge anyone, but he has given all judgment to the Son, in order that all may honor the Son as they honor the Father. John 5:22-23 a (cf. John 5:27) [This examination of Romans 2:11-15 will take place] on the day when God will judge the secret things of men through Jesus Christ according to my gospel. Romans 2:16. May it never be [that God be considered unrighteous]! Otherwise, how will God judge the world? Romans 3:6. But you, why do you judge your brother? Or why do you also belittle your brother? For we will all stand before God’s tribunal as it is written: “As I live”, says the Lord, “every knee will bow to Me, and every tongue will praise God” [Isaiah 45:23]. So then each of us will give an account to God concerning himself. Romans 14:10-12. For we must all stand before Christ’s tribunal, so that each of us may receive recompense for what he has accomplished through this body, whether it be good or worthless. 2 Corinthians 5:10. Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the Name that is above every name that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Php 2:9-11. In light of all of the above, whatever anyone may say, it is nonetheless dishonest to claim that scripture at least is not altogether clear on this subject. The Bible clearly proclaims the divinity of Jesus Christ regardless of any other false representations. Indeed, it is really not too much to say that the Bible in effect breathes forth the divinity of Jesus Christ at almost every breath, and that it is only by ignoring or diminishing its testimony that one can come to any different conclusion. Thus Jesus Christ is the great divider between those who are being saved and those who are perishing (Matthew 10:32 ff; 1 John 2:22). Unless one confesses “Jesus as Lord”, which necessarily includes acknowledging His divinity and humanity, His whole person and His work on the cross, there can be no salvation (Romans 10:9). He is a true man but He is not only a man; He is also God, for “in Christ all the fullness of Deity lives in bodily form” (Colossians 2:9). Ultimately, no one who believes the Bible can doubt that Jesus is God, for this we even have from our Lord Himself: So the Jews said to Him, “You are not yet fifty years old, and you have seen Abraham?!” And [Jesus] said to them, “Truly, truly I say to you, before Abraham existed, I AM” (cf. Exodus 3:14). John 8:57-58 (cf. Luke 22:70; John 8:24; John 8:28) ======================================================================== CHAPTER 5: 01.01.02 - JESUS CHRIST IS TRULY HUMAN ======================================================================== 2. Jesus Christ is truly Human: Perhaps the most profound wonder in universal history – of surpassing glory from the ages to the ages and rivaled only by His dying for our sins on the cross once He had become God in human form – is Jesus’ taking on of true humanity in the first place, a necessary step in order to accomplish the Father’s plan of redemption. In our present finite and limited condition and until we “know as we are known” (1 Corinthians 13:12), it is impossible even to begin to grasp the wonder and the glory, the graciousness and the mercifulness, the cost and the sacrifice involved in our Lord Jesus becoming a true human being. You too should have this attitude which Christ Jesus had. Since He already existed in the very form of God, equality with God was [certainly] not something He thought He had to grasp for. Yet in spite of this [co-equal divinity He already possessed], He deprived Himself of His status and took on the form of a slave, [and was] born in the likeness of men. He humbled Himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even [His] death on [the] cross [for us all]. Php 2:5-8. Although we cannot this side of heaven truly understand the depths of it or truly appreciate what He gave up for us, yet we should never fail to willingly accept in faith the truth and reality of it, and to stand in thankful awe of all this glorious act of becoming a man as well as God implies. For the fact that God, our Lord Jesus Christ, has become in addition to deity a genuine, living, breathing human being has changed everything in the universe forevermore. For through the incarnation Jesus has in His now absolutely unique Person permanently wed undiminished deity to humanity. The implications of this truth are at once staggering and mind-boggling. When one considers the transcendent magnitude of the divine and contrasts it with the physical universe which is so pathetically puny and transitory by comparison, the news that God has now irreversibly joined Himself to this material universe in the Person of His one and only Son is breathtaking. While all of the implications are at present impossible to digest, at the very least we who have believed in the Son of God for salvation should never fail to appreciate that while God in His good pleasure could well have constructed a trillion times a trillion universes a trillion times larger and more complex than the one we presently inhabit without the slightest effort, He has in fact now through His Son irrevocably committed Himself to us. This is a truth which should never fail to humble and awe each and every one of us, and cause us to fall to our knees in praise and thanksgiving. For now that Jesus has become, in addition to God, one of us in every way only without sin, we can know of a certainty that we are no experiment or afterthought or one of many such developments, but that we instead have always been a part of His unchangeable purpose. We are absolutely unique because He, the unique one and only Son of God, has cast His lot with us and for us in this overwhelming, awe-inspiring and unchangeable way. a. Christ’s taking on of true humanity was necessary in order to provide our salvation: Beyond all argument, everything in the plan of God ultimately comes down to Jesus Christ, and nothing in the plan of God can be disaggregated from Him and His sacrificial work on the cross for our salvation. That is why, for example, the “cross of Christ” can serve as an all encompassing symbol for the gospel (e. g., Matthew 10:38; Matthew 16:24; 1 Corinthians 1:17; Galatians 6:14; Ephesians 2:16; Colossians 2:14), the good news about salvation and our eternal relationship with Jesus through faith on the basis of His gracious sacrifice (Ephesians 2:8-9). Simply put, for us who believe “Jesus is everything”, all that He is for us is intimately and inseparably tied up with His death for us on the cross: [Jesus Christ] is the exact image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. Everything in the heavens and on the earth was created by Him, things invisible as well as those visible – whether thrones, authorities, rulers or powers, everything was created through Him and for Him. And He Himself is before everything, and everything subsists in Him. And He Himself is the Head of the Body[, that is, ] the Church. [Even] He who is [its] Ruler, the Firstborn from the dead, [thus resurrected] to the purpose that He Himself might become the One who occupies the first place in all things. For it was [God’s] good pleasure for the fulfillment [of His plan] to reside entirely in [Christ], and so through Him to reconcile everything to Himself, having made peace through Him, through the blood of His cross, whether things on earth, or things in heaven. Colossians 1:15-20. While the wonder and the glory of Jesus in His eternal capacity as God cannot be underestimated nor with our present limitations more than dimly understood, scripture is very clear about the fact that He had to take on true humanity in order to accomplish eternal salvation for us. God cannot suffer; God cannot die; God cannot become a sacrifice for sin or atone for sin or indeed in His perfect holiness have direct contact with sin. Only a human being, a perfect human being, could possibly fulfill the role of becoming our sin-bearer. As sinful human beings, absent intervention by God on our behalf, we were destined to face the “wrath to come” and the eternal damnation final judgment inevitably entailed. But the indescribably good news of the gospel is that Jesus incurred this judgment for us, bearing all of our sins in His own body on the cross. To accomplish this for us, He had to be a human being, and a perfect one at that, a genuine human spirit in a genuine human body, wherein He would bear the sins of the world on the cross (John 2:21; Romans 7:4; 1 Corinthians 11:27; cf. Matthew 27:50; Luke 23:46; John 19:30-42): And having taken the bread and blessed it, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body which is being given on your behalf. Be doing this to remember Me”. Luke 22:19 (cf. Matthew 26:26; Mark 14:22; John 6:51-59; 1 Corinthians 11:23-25) The cup of blessing which we bless – is it not fellowship in the blood of Christ? And the bread which we break – is it not fellowship in the body of Christ? For one bread, one body we many are, since we all partake of that One Bread. 1 Corinthians 10:16-17. For He Himself is our peace, for He has made both [Jews and gentiles] one, and has broken down the middle wall of partition, that is, the enmity between us, by discharging the Law of the commandments and its requirements in His [own] flesh, so that He might re-create the two into one new Man by making [this] peace, and might reconcile both in one Body to God through His cross, having by means of it abolished the enmity [between God and mankind]. Ephesians 2:14-16. You were once alienated from God – your very thoughts were hostile towards Him and your deeds were evil. Yet God has now made peace with you through the death of Christ in His physical body so that you may stand before Him as holy, without blemish and free from accusation. Colossians 1:21-22. For in Him (i. e., Jesus Christ), dwells all of the fullness of deity in bodily form. Colossians 2:9. Therefore since these children (i. e., of Hebrews 2:13) have a common heritage of flesh and blood, [Christ] too partook of these same [common elements] in a very similar fashion (i. e., not identical only in that He was virgin born and so without sin), in order that through His death He might put an end to the one possessing the power of death, that is, the devil, and might reconcile those who were subject to being slaves their whole lives long by their fear of death. Hebrews 2:14-15 Unlike the [human] high priests, [Jesus] has no need of making sacrifice day by day, first on behalf of His own sins, and then for the sins of the people. For this [latter] He did once and for all when He offered Himself [as a sacrifice]. Hebrews 7:27. Therefore as [Jesus Christ] was coming into the world (i. e., at His birth) He said, “You [Father] did not desire sacrifice or offering, but you have prepared a body for Me. In burnt offerings for sin you have taken no pleasure. At that time (i. e., His birth) He [Jesus Christ in His deity] said, ‘Behold, I have arrived (i. e., been born) – in the scroll of a book it is written of Me – to do your will, O God’”. Above when He speaks of sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings for sins [as things which] “You did not desire nor take pleasure therein”, [these are the things] which are being offered according to the Law. [But] “Then”, He has added, “Behold, I have arrived to do your will”. [God the Father] is [thereby] taking away the first [covenant] in order to establish the second one, [and it is] by [His] will [in this matter] that you have been sanctified, through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all. Hebrews 10:5-10. He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, in order that we might die to sins and live to righteousness. By His wound you are healed. 1 Peter 2:24. b. Christ’s taking on of true humanity was necessary for victory over the devil: The one who is committing sin is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. For this reason the Son of God appeared, that He might put an end to the devil’s deeds. 1 John 3:8. The cross and the crown are integrally related. Jesus had to endure the cross in order to win the Messiah’s crown, and the crown was won on the basis of the cross. [For by means of the cross, God] has stripped [demon] rulers and authorities [of their power] and subjected them to public humiliation, having triumphed over them in [Christ]. Colossians 2:15 (cf. Romans 16:20; Hebrews 2:14; 1 John 3:8 b) Our Lord’s sacrificial death in a genuine human body on Calvary’s hill for us all thus forms the necessary basis for His defeat and coming removal of the devil, and that ultimate victory (along with all the glories it entails for us) is no small part of the purpose of His victory on the cross. Therefore since these children (i. e., of Hebrews 2:13) have a common heritage of flesh and blood, [Christ] too partook of these same [common elements] in a very similar fashion (i. e., not identical only in that He was virgin born and so without sin), in order that through His death He might put an end to the one possessing the power of death, that is, the devil, and might reconcile those who were subject to being slaves their whole lives long by their fear of death. Hebrews 2:14-15. Evil had to be defeated at the cross in order for it to be removed from God’s universe so that the eternity of the New Heavens and New Earth might begin, and only by Jesus’ atoning for our sin could this blessed victory be won and reconciliation effected between God and those willing to turn to His mercy. For it was [God’s] good pleasure for the fulfillment [of His plan] to reside entirely in [Christ], and so through Him to reconcile everything to Himself, having made peace through Him, through the blood of His cross, whether things on earth, or things in heaven. Colossians 1:19-20. Satan’s rebellion had set in motion the string of events that necessitated the creation of mankind, and, with our corporate fall in Adam, the necessity of the Last Adam’s substitutionary death in our place as well. Only as a true human being could Jesus win the victory of the cross, and it is as a true human being that He will rule forever as a result of His ultimate victory over the devil when our Lord Jesus Christ returns in glory at the second advent (Revelation 11:15; cf. Hebrews 10:11-13). These will make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb will conquer them, because He is Lord of Lords and King of Kings, and called, and elect – and faithful are those with Him. Revelation 17:14. It is as a result of His victory and His descent to Hades and subsequent ascension into the presence of the Father in His resurrected and thoroughly genuine human body that we, the Body of Christ, share in that victory and the gifts and rewards that flow from it. And to each of us this grace has been given according to the measure of the gift of Christ. For it says, “When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive (i. e., He brought pre-cross believers to heaven). He gave gifts to men.” Now [as to] this [phrase] “He ascended”, what can it mean except that He had also [previously] descended into the lower reaches of the earth (i. e., Hades, from whence He brought the pre-cross believers to heaven)? The One who descended is also the One who ascended above all the heavens (i. e., into the third heaven, the place of the Father’s residence), in order to fulfill all things (i. e., complete the victory won at the cross; cf. Psalms 110:1). Ephesians 4:7-10. Although it is doubtful if the devil and his angels realized it, from the very moment of the incarnation, salvation was assured and Satan’s defeat a certainty. Satan had corrupted a third of angelic kind through their desire to know the pleasures of having physical bodies, but Jesus took on a human body not for sensual experience but, after having experienced the sorrows of this world beyond measure, to suffer and die for us on the cross in order to save us (Isaiah 52:13-15, Isaiah 53:1-12). This is the great victory upon which our salvation and our adversary’s dethronement depends, one which necessitated our Lord coming to earth in the flesh. The seventy returned and said with joy, “Lord, even the demons obey us in your Name!” And Jesus said to them, “I was watching Satan fall from heaven like a star”. Luke 10:17-18. Now the God of peace will quickly crush Satan under your feet. Romans 16:20. [God the Father], who rescued us from the power of darkness and delivered us into the kingdom of His beloved Son. Colossians 1:13. Now is the judgment of this world. Now will the prince of this world be driven out. And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to Myself. John 12:31-32 (cf. John 16:11) For since death [came] through a man, resurrection of the dead also [had to come] through a man. For just as in Adam, all die, so also in Christ, shall all be made alive. But each [will be resurrected] in his own echelon. Christ [is the] first-fruits (i. e., the initial person and echelon of resurrection). Next [will be] those belonging to Christ at His coming (i. e., all believers at the 2 Advent). Then the end [of human history – the resurrection of millennial believers], when He will hand the Kingdom over to the Father, after He has brought an end to all rule, all power, and all authority (i. e., hostile human and angelic control). For He must rule until He has placed all His enemies under His feet. 1 Corinthians 15:21-25 (cf. Psalms 110:1) c. Christ’s taking on of true humanity was necessary for fulfilling God’s prior promises and prophecies: In respect to the fulfilment of all of God’s promises to us it was also necessary for our Lord to take on true humanity. For indeed, all of God’s promises to us are dependent upon the ultimate promise of salvation in Jesus Christ. For I tell you that Christ became a servant to the circumcision for the sake of God’s truth, that is, to confirm the promises (i. e., covenants) made to their ancestors – and also so that the gentiles might glorify God for His mercy (i. e., in providing salvation through Jesus). Romans 15:8-9 b As many promises of God as there are, in Him, [Jesus Christ, they are] “Yes!” So also through Him the “Amen!” [we say] to God results in [His] glory through us (i. e., our faith in His promises ratified in Christ). 2 Corinthians 1:20. God’s promises are abundant, and they never fail (Joshua 21:45; Romans 9:6; Titus 1:2; Hebrews 13:5-6), because our Lord has empowered them through His death for us as a true human being on the cross. For all of the promises of God are based upon what Jesus did for us: grace of every sort is a result of Christ’s work on the cross (Romans 3:24; Romans 5:15-21; Ephesians 2:5-8; Titus 3:7; cf. John 1:16-17). Time would fail us if we attempted to relate here all of the promises of the Word of God (cf. John 21:25; Hebrews 11:32 ff.), for there is a promise on every page of the Bible. What concerns us here is how those promises, predictions, and prophecies of the Word relate to the incarnation of our Lord. Herein we may focus on three particular areas of promise that require the provision of a person who must of necessity be God as well as man, but true man nonetheless:1) to fulfill the promise of a prophet greater than Moses whose words would be perfect in leading to salvation; 2) to fulfill the promise of a priest greater than any prior high priest, all of whom were all unable to do any more than represent the sacrifice which would cleanse us from our sins; 3) to fulfill the promise of a king who would rule forever, a son of David who would somehow be greater than David and be David’s Lord as well. Only by Jesus Christ, true God come to earth by taking on true humanity, could these promises be fully realized, for each represents one of three critical aspects of God’s plan of salvation, announced through prophecy, effected through priestly sacrifice, and realized in all its blessedness in the coming reign of the Messiah. 1) Jesus fulfills the promise of the Prophet to come, embodying in His Person the entire message of God’s prophetic revelation of salvation (He is the Prophet): “The Lord Your God will raise up from your midst, from among your brothers, a Prophet like me (i. e., the Lord Jesus Christ). You must give heed to Him, just as you requested from the Lord your God at Horeb (i. e., Sinai) on the day of your assembly [there], when you said, ‘May I not hear the voice of the Lord My God any longer, nor see this great fire lest I die!’ Then the Lord said to me, ‘They have done well in what they have said. I will raise up for them from the midst of their brothers a Prophet like you. And I will put My words in His mouth, and He will tell them everything I command Him. And it will come to pass that the person who does not listen to My words which He will speak in My Name, that I will require it of that person’ (i. e., hold him responsible for rejecting salvation).’” Deuteronomy 18:15-19. Philip found Nathaniel and said to him, “We have found the One whom Moses wrote about in the Law and [whom] the prophets [wrote about too], Jesus, the son of Joseph from Nazareth.” John 1:45. If you had believed Moses, you would have believed in Me. For He wrote about Me. John 5:46. So the people who saw the sign He had performed were saying, “This is truly the Prophet who is [prophesied to be] coming into the world.” John 6:14 (cf. Matthew 21:11; John 7:40) So repent and turn back [to God] for the blotting out of your sins, so that times of refreshment may come from the Lord, and so that He may send to you the One acknowledged as the Christ [Messiah], [namely] Jesus, who must remain in heaven until the times of the restoration of all things of which God has spoken through the mouths of His holy prophets from of old. For Moses said, “The Lord God will raise up for you from among your brothers a Prophet like me”. Acts 3:19-22 b (cf. Acts 7:37) The prophets spoke the Word of God, but Jesus is the Word of God and the fulfillment of this and all of the rest of God’s promises prophesied in the scriptures. 2) Jesus fulfills the promise of the High Priest to come, along with all of the prophecies and rituals which taught and proclaimed the need for a “better sacrifice” (He is the High Priest in the order of Melchizedek): When He had accomplished the cleansing of [our] sins, He took His seat (i. e., beyond the veil) at the right hand of the Majesty on high. Hebrews 1:3 b For this reason He had to be like His brothers in every way, in order to become a merciful and faithful High Priest in the things relating to God in order to propitiate the sins of the people (i. e., through the sacrifice of Himself). Hebrews 2:17. Since we have, therefore, a Great High Priest who has passed through the heavens (i. e., as through the veil), [even] Jesus, the Son of God, let us hold fast to our profession [of faith in Him]. Hebrews 4:14. And this hope [truly] is what “anchors” our lives, a secure and solid [anchor of hope] which penetrates [behind] the veil (i. e., the heavens) into the inner place (i. e., the heavenly holy of holies) where our vanguard, Jesus, has entered on our behalf, having become a High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek. Hebrews 6:19-20. Now the others who have become priests are [of necessity] many since they are prevented from remaining [in office] because of their mortality. But He, [Jesus Christ], because He abides forever, possesses the priesthood irrevocably. For this reason He is able to save completely those who come to God through Him, since He lives forever making intercession for them. This is just the sort of High Priest we needed, holy, without fault, without imperfection, completely separated from sinners, and having ascended higher than the heavens [into God’s presence]. Unlike the [human] high priests, [Jesus] has no need of making sacrifice day by day, first on behalf of His own sins, and then for the sins of the people. For this [latter] He did once and for all when He offered Himself [as a sacrifice]. Hebrews 7:23-27. The sum of what we have said is this: we have a High Priest of such [amazing] quality that He has [actually] taken His seat at the right hand of the throne of Majesty in heaven, a Minister of the holy things and of the true tabernacle which the Lord has pitched, not man. For every priest is appointed to present offerings and sacrifices. Wherefore it was necessary for Him also to have something to offer. Now if He were [ministering] on earth, He would not have been a priest, inasmuch as there are already those who present offerings according to the law [of Moses]. These minister in [what is a] copy and a shadow of the [actual] heavenly [tabernacle], just as command was given to Moses as he was about to complete the tabernacle. For He says, “See to it that you make everything according to the pattern shown to you on the mountain (i. e., Sinai).” Hebrews 8:1-5. But Christ has already arrived [in heaven] as [the true High] Priest of the good things to come, [having passed] through the [veil of the] greater and more perfect tabernacle, that is, the one which is not of this creation (i. e., through the heavens and into the third heaven). Nor was it through the blood of goats and bullocks, but through His own blood (i. e., His death) that He entered once and for all into the [heavenly] holy of holies, having wrought eternal redemption. Hebrews 9:11-12. For this reason (i. e., the inability of the blood of animals to cleanse us from sin) it was necessary for the heavenly exemplars of these earthly representations to be cleansed with better sacrifices than these [earthly ones]. For Christ did not enter into a man-made sanctuary that was only a copy of the true one. Rather, He entered into heaven itself, so as to present Himself before God [the Father] on our behalf. Hebrews 9:23-24. A priest ministers to God, but only Jesus in His humanity could present Himself as the ultimate sacrificial offering and so fulfill the promise of the High Priest according to the order of Melchizedek. 3) Jesus fulfills the promise of the King and all of the prophecies of the messianic kingdom (He is the King): And the Lord declares to you that the Lord will produce a house for you. When your days are fulfilled and you sleep with your fathers, I will raise up your Seed after you, [One] who will come from your own loins, and I will establish His kingdom. 2 Samuel 7:11-12. And He said to me, “Thus says the Lord of Hosts: Behold a Man – ‘Branch’ is His name (i. e., the Messiah; cf. Isaiah 4:2; Isaiah 11:1; Isaiah 53:2; Zechariah 3:8). And He will branch out from His place and will build [up] the temple of the Lord. For it is He who will build [up] the temple of the Lord. And He will raise up [its] glory. And He will sit and rule [as King] upon His throne. And He will [also] be Priest upon His [kingly] throne. For there will be a [unity of] consultation between the two [offices].” Zechariah 6:12-13. Now when Jesus was born in Bethlehem of Judea in the days of Herod the king, behold, magi from the east arrived in Jerusalem, saying, “Where is the One who has been born King of the Jews? For in the east [where we live] we saw His star, and we have come to worship Him.” Matthew 2:1-2. And as soon as He was nearing the descent of the Mount of Olives the entire crowd of His disciples began to rejoice and praise God, saying, “Blessed is the One who is coming, the King [who is coming] in the Name of the Lord”. Luke 19:37-38 b (cf. John 12:13) Nathaniel replied to Him, “Rabbi, you are the Son of God, you are the King of Israel!” John 1:49. Then Pilate said to Him, “So you are a king then?” Jesus replied, “You say [rightly] that I am a King. For I have been born for this purpose, and have come into the world in order to bear witness to the truth. Everyone who is of the truth listens to my voice.” John 18:37. These will make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb will conquer them, because He is Lord of Lords and King of Kings, and called, and elect – and faithful are those with Him. Revelation 17:14. And He has a Name on His robe and on His thigh: King of Kings and Lord of Lords. Revelation 19:16. Kings rules in God’s stead, but only God’s very own Son is qualified to be His Regent over the entire world when He returns in glory at the Second Advent. d. Christ’s taking on of true humanity was necessary for Him to become our Mediator: For as God is One, so there is [only] One Mediator between God and Man, Christ Jesus in His humanity, who gave Himself as a ransom for all [mankind] . . . 1 Timothy 2:5-6 a The idea of a third party intervening to mediate a dispute between two estranged parties is one to which we can all relate. Thus the biblical concept of Christ the Mediator is inextricably linked to the doctrine of reconciliation, where by Christ intervenes to dissolve the barrier of enmity that separates God from sinful mankind (Ephesians 2:14-18; cf. Colossians 2:14). But there are three points in which the mediation accomplished by our Lord is vastly different from the resolution of most human conflicts. First, God and Man are nothing like equal parties, with mankind moreover being entirely at fault in this “dispute” so that the satisfaction required for resolution must be directed toward God alone (i. e., we have no basis whatsoever for complaint against God, something Job would have done well to remember: Job 9:33). The role of Mediator between the King and His offending subjects can only be played by someone who is on a par with both the Father-King and His creature-subjects: only a Son (incarnate) can be sent on such a mission of reconciliation (cf. Matthew 21:33-40). Second, since the problem requiring resolution is the universal sinfulness of mankind, and, further, since mankind, flawed because of sin, has absolutely no way of paying off the least part of the debt for sin, the Mediator Himself had to be the one to provide satisfaction to the offended party if reconciliation were to occur. This our Lord did on our behalf when He was judged for all or our sins in the darkness on the cross. Thus, thirdly, in order to accomplish the payment of this “ransom”, Jesus had to become a true human being, since only a true human being, and one sinlessly perfect at that, could pay the price for all of humanity’s sins. It is by His work for us on the cross that Jesus has fulfilled His role of mediation, opening up the offer of reconciliation for every human being, an offer that is accepted through faith in the One who made the offer possible through His blood (Romans 5:10-11; 2 Corinthians 5:18-21; Ephesians 2:16-17; Colossians 1:20-23). For it is by faith in His Son who died for us that we accept and receive God’s “peace offer” (Luke 2:14; John 14:27; Romans 5:10; Ephesians 2:12-14, Ephesians 2:17; Colossians 1:20; cf. Romans 5:1). e. Christ’s taking on of true humanity is proven by scripture: The Bible’s testimony as to this important teaching of Jesus’ advent in true human flesh is unmistakably clear. Despite heresies to the contrary, if we put our faith in scripture, we are left in no doubt as to the genuine humanity of our Lord, possessing a truly human body (Hebrews 10:5-10) and spirit (Matthew 27:50; Mark 2:8; Mark 8:12; Luke 23:46; John 11:33; John 13:21; John 19:30) just as all of us have (though in His case apart from sin). You too should have this attitude which Christ Jesus had. Since He already existed in the very form of God, equality with God was [certainly] not something He thought He had to grasp for. Yet in spite of this [co-equal divinity He already possessed], He deprived Himself of His status and took on the form of a slave, [and was] born in the likeness of men. He humbled Himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even [His] death on [the] cross [for us all]. Php 2:5-8. 1) This is shown by His genuinely physical birth: And all this has happened to fulfill what was said by the Lord through the prophet [Isaiah], saying, “Behold, the virgin will conceive and will give birth to a Son, and you shall call His Name ‘Immanuel’”, which translated means ‘God [is] with us’. Matthew 1:22-23. And the Word became flesh and tented among us, and we saw His glory, a glory like that of a father’s one and only child, full of grace and truth. John 1:14. And the angel said to them, “Don’t be afraid! For behold, I am giving you a message of great joy which will belong to all the people. ‘Today in David’s city a Savior has been born for you, [even Him] who is [the] Messiah (i. e., “Christ”) [the] Lord’”. Luke 2:10-11. [The gospel] which is about [God’s] Son, the One who was born of the seed of David according to His flesh, and marked out as God’s Son by the power of the Spirit of Holiness through resurrection from the dead, Jesus Christ our Lord. Romans 1:3-4. For to which of the angels did He ever say, “You are my Son. Today I have given begotten you.”? Hebrews 1:5 a 2) This is shown by normal human experiences of His life and death: And having fasted for forty days and forty nights later (i. e., since being led into the wilderness by the Spirit), [Jesus] was hungry. Matthew 4:2. And [Jesus] Himself was in the stern [of the boat], sleeping on the cushion. Mark 4:38. "But the Son of Man has come eating and drinking, and you say . . .Luke 7:34. And having taken [Jesus’ body] down [from the cross], [Joseph] wrapped it in linen and placed Him in a tomb [which has been] carved out [of the rock] where no one had [ever] yet been lain. Luke 23:53. And Jacob’s well was in that place. So Jesus, having become fatigued from the journey, accordingly sat down at the well. John 4:6. Jesus wept. John 11:35. And next, [the soldiers] came to Jesus. [But] when they saw that He was already dead, they did not break His legs. But one of the soldiers pierced His side with a lance, and there came forth immediately blood and water (i. e., “serum”). John 19:33-34. 3) This is shown even in His resurrection: “Behold, my hands and my feet, [and see] that it is [really] me. Touch me and see that a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have”. Luke 24:39. Jesus thus not only is truly human, having become a genuine man in order to die for our sins on the cross, but He also knows precisely what we are going through in this world, having endured the worst of it and having drunk its tears by the bucket full (Isaiah 53:3), yet without sin: For we do not have a High Priest who is not able to sympathize with our weaknesses, since He too was put to the test in all things just as [we are], [only] without sin. Hebrews 4:15. [Jesus our High Priest] who in the days of His flesh[ly life] (i. e., while He was on earth prior to the resurrection), having offered up prayers and petitions with powerful shouting and with tears to the One who was able to save Him from death, and having been hearkened to on account of His devoutness, although being [God’s one and only] Son, nevertheless came to understand [firsthand in His humanity] from what He suffered [what] obedience to God [truly is] (i. e., what it takes for a human being to be obedient to God), and, once He was perfected (i. e., perfectly completed His course), became the source of eternal salvation for all who are obedient to Him (i. e., believers). Hebrews 5:7-9. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 6: 01.01.03 - JESUS CHRIST IS TRULY UNIQUE ======================================================================== 3. Jesus Christ is truly Unique: At the end of these times (i. e., of Hebrews 1:1), God spoke to us by a Son, whom He appointed heir of everything, and through whom He [the Father] made the ages. Hebrews 1:2. Here we see the uniqueness of our dear Lord unimpeded. He is God’s one and only Son, a title that at once embraces all of the human and divine facets of His unique Person. And He is in His humanity the heir of all things as a result of His victory at the cross, having won the battle over Satan (Colossians 2:15; Revelation 5:5), having won the hand of His Bride, the Church (Ephesians 5:25), and having won eternal redemption for all mankind, all who are willing to accept it (Hebrews 9:12). And He is in His deity the One through whom the Father brought about the creation of the universe, space and time. In His unique Person, therefore, Jesus Christ, God incarnate, binds all things together, whether they be of this creation or transcend it. For it was [God’s] good pleasure for the fulfillment [of His plan] to reside entirely in [Christ], and so through Him to reconcile everything to Himself, having made peace through Him, through the blood of His cross, whether things on earth, or things in heaven. Colossians 1:19-20. Jesus is the unique “bridge” between all that is material and all that is immaterial, and one can scarcely comprehend or appreciate the graciousness of the Father in offering His own dear Son for this role or our Lord’s incomparable and ineffable sacrifice in accepting it. Suffice it to say that through His becoming truly human forever at the same time that He remains divine in an undiminished way, Jesus has wed Himself and therefore has wed the divinity to saved mankind forever, having poured out His life on the cross to accomplish this merciful deliverance of us all. Thus the fundamental transformation of what was before creation, what creation meant (because of what in the grace of God it was going to entail in terms of Jesus’ sacrifice), and what now will endure to the ages of the ages is completely bound up in the unique Person and work of Jesus Christ, through whom we have become partakers of the divine nature (2 Peter 1:4), and because of Him God will forever, on that blessed day of days when time ends and eternity begins, make His abode with saved humanity forevermore (Revelation 21:3). For in Him (i. e., Jesus Christ), dwells all of the fullness of deity in bodily form. Colossians 2:9. Here we see deity and humanity combined in an absolutely unique way. Jesus Christ is truly a man (since His incarnation: Php 2:6-11). Jesus Christ is also truly God (Colossians 2:2 Greek). Only by having a body could our Lord deliver us from our sins, because only in this way could God die for our sins. This is the mystery of the gospel (Colossians 2:2), the plan and power of God for saving sinful mankind (Romans 1:16). Therefore Jesus is the plan of God, the Cornerstone of all that God has purposed to accomplish (Matthew 21:42; Ephesians 2:20; 1 Peter 2:6-7; cf. Romans 5:6; Romans 8:29-30; 1 Corinthians 8:6; Colossians 1:17-20; Hebrews 9:26). . . . . . in all wisdom and understanding [God] has made known to us the mystery He has willed (according to His own benevolent purpose which He determined in [Christ]) for administering this [present] fulfillment of the epochs: namely the incorporation of all things in Christ, things in heaven, and things on earth – Ephesians 1:8-10. As the ages were designed for our Lord Jesus Christ as well as through Him (Colossians 1:16-17), there is scarcely any respect in which the scriptures do not reflect this distinctive uniqueness of the One who saved us through His death. While it is thus not possible to comprehensively delineate every single way in which our Lord’s uniqueness is essential to the plan of God, the mention here of a sample of some prominent areas in which that uniqueness is critical is appropriate: a. That uniqueness is shown by the fact that only by being God and man could Jesus be the Firstborn, the One who would earn the privileges of rulership, priesthood, and double portion (Romans 8:29; Colossians 1:18; Hebrews 1:6; Revelation 1:5; cf. section I. 5.f. 4.c below): He is the exact image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. Colossians 1:15. Since Jesus is the one and only Son of God (John 1:14; John 1:18; John 3:16, John 3:18; 1 John 4:9), His status of firstborn refers not to any order of birth but rather to the privileges that fall to the lot of the firstborn, namely, rulership (Daniel 7:13-14; Matthew 22:41-45; Matthew 28:18; Colossians 1:18; Hebrews 2:10; Hebrews 3:1-6; Revelation 2:27), priesthood (Hebrews 5:6; Hebrews 7:13-14), and double portion of inheritance (Revelation 19:9; cf. Deuteronomy 21:15-17). As with His priesthood and His Messiahship, Jesus’ status of “firstborn” is a privilege earned through His sacrificing of Himself for us all on the cross, for He is the “firstborn from the dead” (Colossians 1:18; Revelation 1:5), indicating that it is His death for us that forms the basis for His receiving all of the rights and privileges of firstborn status (cf. Genesis 49:4; and Hebrews 12:16; where it is made clear that this privilege is based upon merit). I will also appoint Him my firstborn, the most exalted of the kings of the earth. Psalms 89:27 NIV We have discussed above Jesus’ rulership and priesthood, the first two benefits of firstborn status (and it a wondrous thing to contemplate that we, His Church, share in all of these by virtue of our sharing in His status of “firstborn”: Hebrews 12:23). As to the third, the firstborn’s double-portion of inheritance, in our Lord’s case, this consists of His dearest possessions, the Bride (i. e., the Church consisting of all pre-second advent believers: Revelation 21:9; cf. Ephesians 5:22-33; Revelation 19:7-8; Revelation 21:2; Revelation 22:17), and “the Friends of the Bride (i. e., the equal number of millennial believers: Psalms 45:14-15; Revelation 19:9). Our Lord’s uniqueness is thus pellucidly clear in His unprecedented rulership of the world which only the Messiah can attain (Matthew 22:41-45; Hebrews 3:1-6; Revelation 1:5-7; Revelation 5:4-5; Revelation 11:15), the eternal priesthood “according to the order of Melchizedek” which required the sacrifice which only God’s Son could provide (Hebrews 7:26; cf. Hebrews 2:15-17), and in the fulfillment and possession of the Bride and her Friends, which only the God-Man will achieve (Romans 8:29; Hebrews 2:13). b. That uniqueness is shown by the fact that only by being God and man could Jesus be our Sin-bearer, the One who would pay the penalty for our sins on the cross (Matthew 16:21; Matthew 17:12; Mark 8:31; Mark 9:12; Luke 9:22; Luke 17:25; Luke 22:15; Luke 24:26, Luke 24:46; Acts 1:3; Acts 3:18; Acts 17:3; Acts 26:23; Romans 8:17; 2 Corinthians 1:5; Php 3:10; 1 Peter 4:1): My God, My God, why did You forsake Me? Psalms 22:1. He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with suffering. Like a person people hide their faces from, He was despised, and we did not hold Him of any account. For He bore our sicknesses and He carried our weaknesses. And yet we considered Him as [the One who had been] punished, smitten and afflicted by God. But [in fact] He was made subject to torment on account of our transgressions, and He was crushed because of our collective guilt (lit., “guilts”). The punishment [required] for making peace [with God] on our behalf [fell] upon Him. Because of His wounding, we have been healed. Isaiah 53:3-5. But now we do see Jesus crowned with glory and honor on account of the death He suffered, even Him who became “a little lower than the angels” for a brief span so that by the grace of God He might taste death on behalf of us all. For it was fitting for [the Father] to make complete through sufferings Him on whose account all things exist and through whom all things exist, namely, the Captain of their salvation, even Him who has led many sons to glory, [our Lord Jesus Christ]. Hebrews 2:9-10. For because He has suffered, He is able to help those who are being tested, since He Himself was [also] put to the test. Hebrews 2:18. For we do not have a High Priest who is not able to sympathize with our weaknesses, since He too was put to the test in all things just as [we are], [only] without sin. Hebrews 4:15. [Jesus our High Priest] who in the days of His flesh[ly life] (i. e., while He was on earth prior to the resurrection), having offered up prayers and petitions with powerful shouting and with tears to the One who was able to save Him from death, and having been hearkened to on account of His devoutness, although being [God’s one and only], nevertheless came to understand [firsthand] from what He suffered [what] obedience to God [truly is] (i. e., what it takes for a human being to be obedient to God), and, once He was perfected (i. e., perfectly completed His course), became the source of eternal salvation for all who are obedient to Him (i. e., believers). Hebrews 5:7-9. Therefore Jesus also suffered outside of the gate, in order to sanctify the people through His blood (i. e., His death on the cross). Hebrews 13:12. For it is to this [sharing in the sufferings of Christ] that you have been called, for Christ also died on your behalf, leaving you an example so that you might follow in His footsteps: He committed no sin, nor was any guile found in His mouth. He did not return slander when He was slandered, did not threaten when He suffered, but entrusted Himself to the One who judges righteously. 1 Peter 2:21-23. But to the degree that you are [truly] participating in Christ’s sufferings, be joyful about it, so that at His glorious revelation, you may also rejoice with great gladness. 1 Peter 4:13. c. That uniqueness is shown by the fact that only by being God and man could Jesus be the Messiah, the One who fulfills the duties of the Father’s mission: At that time (i. e., His birth) He [Jesus Christ in His deity] said, ‘Behold, I have arrived (i. e., been born) – in the scroll of a book it is written of Me – to do your will, O God’”. Hebrews 10:7 (Psalms 40:7) Jesus is the One whom the Father sent into the world to save it (Luke 2:25-35; John 3:16; John 3:34; John 7:18, John 7:28-31; John 17:18; Romans 8:3; Hebrews 3:1; 1 John 4:9-10; cf. Genesis 49:10; Isaiah 8:6; Zechariah 2:9, Zechariah 2:11; Zechariah 4:9; Zechariah 6:15), the Messiah (Hebrew: Meshiach, xywm), the One prophesied to come into the world and deliver it from sin by dying in its place (the cross: Isaiah 52:13-15, Isaiah 53:1-12), and to deliver it from evil by reigning over it in perfect righteousness (the crown: Psalms 2:1-12; Psalms 45:1-17; Psalms 72:1-20; Psalms 110:1-7). The Hebrew title Messiah, translated into Greek as “Christ” (Christos, Χριστός), means “Anointed One”, and reflects the Hebrew custom of demonstrating through an anointing with oil that a person had been officially commissioned into an extraordinary office (as in Samuel’s anointing of Saul:1 Samuel 10:1; of David:1 Samuel 16:13; or Moses’ anointing of Aaron: Exodus 28:41). In all such cases, this anointing with oil is symbolic and represents divine empowerment through the anointing of the Holy Spirit (Numbers 11:17-29; 1 Samuel 10:6, 1 Samuel 10:9-10; 1 Samuel 11:6; 1 Samuel 16:13). While never symbolically anointed with oil, Jesus was symbolically “anointed” with our sins (the meaning behind His unique water-baptism: cf. Mark 10:38-39; Luke 12:50), after which He immediately received a special and dramatic symbol (i. e., the Spirit descending upon Him in the form of dove) of the unction of the Holy Spirit He possessed from birth by virtue of His unique status as the Anointed One. His status of anointing is unique both in terms of its exceptional degree (Isaiah 11:2-3; John 3:34; cf. Matthew 3:16; Mark 1:10; Luke 3:22; John 1:32), and also in that it demonstrates the Father’s pleasure with Him in the undertaking of His earthly mission (Matthew 3:17; Mark 1:11; Luke 3:22; cf. Matthew 17:5; Mark 9:7; Luke 9:35; John 12:28). And it was essential for the Messiah, the Anointed One, to be both God and man to fulfill His mission because 1) only the God-man can be the sin-bearer who redeems mankind; 2) only the God-man can be the Father’s regent to rule over redeemed mankind forever; and 3) only the God-man can mediate between the Father and sinful mankind as high-priest. Thus our Lord was Ruler, Redeemer, and Mediator by right of birth as the firstborn, won the right for us to share with Him in these offices by being our sin-bearer, and discharged (redeeming us at the cross), is discharging (mediating for us even now), and will discharge (ruling the world at His return) each of these offices in fulfillment of the Father’s mission in His status as Messiah, with each accomplished in its proper time. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 7: 01.01.04 - THE NAMES OF JESUS CHRIST REFLECT HIS PERFECT PERSON AND HIS PERFECT WORK ======================================================================== 4. The Names of Jesus Christ reflect His perfect Person and His perfect Work: a. The Three Primary Names: “Lord Jesus Christ”: 1) Lord: This primary name is the Greek word kyrios (κύριος) which translates what is often called the “tetragrammaton”, that is, the unpointed four consonant Hebrew name “LORD” (YHVH; i. e., éäåä) as explained at Exodus 3:13-15. Therefore this title is clearly expressive of Jesus’ divinity (Matthew 22:41-46; John 20:28; cf. Psalms 110:1). 2) Jesus: This primary name is a transliteration of the Hebrew name often vocalized “Joshua” (éäåùò), meaning “The LORD saves”, and is the name which Joseph and Mary are instructed to use “because He will save His people from their sins” (Matthew 1:21; Luke 1:31). Therefore this name is clearly expressive of the work which our Lord accomplished on the cross in dying for the sins of the entire world. As such, it represents Him as both human and divine, since only God could remit our sins, and only a perfect human being could die for them (cf. Matthew 9:2-6; Mark 2:9-10; Luke 5:20-24; Luke 7:48-49). 3) Christ: This primary name is the Greek word christos (Χριστός) which translates the Hebrew name “Messiah” or “Anointed One” (meshicah: îùéç), thus referring to our Lord’s special commissioning by the Father as the unique One who will fulfill prophecy and accomplish salvation. Therefore this title is evocative of Jesus’ unique Person, the God-man, the very Son of God, who has been sent into the world to save it (John 3:16; 1 John 4:9-10; cf. Matthew 3:16-17; Acts 4:27; Hebrews 1:8-9). b. Other Names: This list makes no pretense at being complete. To make such an attempt would require a separate study of its own, and a lengthy one at that. For example, since Jesus is God, all of the various and sundry names, appellations and unique descriptions of God occurring in the Old Testament would need to be considered in such a study (e. g., El, Elohiym, Yah, El `Elyon, El Ro`i, El Shaddai, Jehovah-nissi, etc.), not to mention specifically Messianic passages which refer uniquely to Jesus and His coming millennial reign: For a child is born to us, and a Son is given to us. Dominion shall rest on his shoulder, and His name will be called “He whose counsel is wondrous”, “Mighty God”, “the Father of Eternity”, “the Prince of Prosperity”. Isaiah 9:6. In the New Testament as well, since Jesus is the revealed person of the Trinity and the focal point of all scripture, one finds innumerable descriptions of Him which, even if they fall short of being a “name” or “title” in some precise sense of those words, are certainly worthy of inclusion in any comprehensive treatment (as, for example, where He is called in Hebrews 3:1 “the Apostle . . . of our faith”, in Hebrews 2:10 the “Captain of their salvation”, and in Hebrews 12:2 “the originator and completer of our faith”), not to mention the various self-descriptions our Lord uses for Himself in His address to the seven churches of Revelation alone: To the angel of the church in Ephesus, write: “This is what the One who has the mastery over the seven stars (i. e., churches) in His right hand says, the One who walks in the midst of the seven golden lampstands.” Revelation 2:1. And to the angel of the church in Smyrna write: “This is what the One who is the first and last says, He who died and came to life.” Revelation 2:8. And to the angel of the church in Pergamum write: “This is what the One who has the sharp two-edged sword says.” Revelation 2:12. And to the angel of the church in Thyatira write: “This is what the Son of God says, the One whose eyes are like a flame of fire and whose feet are like white-hot bronze.” Revelation 2:18. And to the angel of the church in Sardis write: “This is what the One who has the seven spirits of God and the seven stars says.” Revelation 3:1. And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write: “This is what the One who is holy and true says, the One who has the key of David, the One who opens and no one will lock, who locks and no one opens.” Revelation 3:7. And to the angel of the church in Laodicea write: “This is what the Amen says, the reliable and truthful Witness, the origin of God’s creation. Revelation 3:14. In addition to the fact that a number of these names and titles are covered elsewhere in this study, since many such appellations only occur once or twice, or are largely expressive of doctrinal principles which will be explained elsewhere, and are also in any case deserving of a full-treatment best left to commentary on the specific verses in which they occur, the list which follows will restrict itself to some of the more common names and titles of our Lord. As this standard of exclusion and inclusion is necessarily subjective, the reader’s indulgence is requested for any and all cases of omission that may be deemed inappropriate. 1) Advocate: As the One who bought us by giving up His precious life for us through His death on the cross on our behalf, Jesus has earned the right to advocate on our behalf, interceding with the Father before the throne of grace (Romans 8:34; Hebrews 7:25; cf. John 14:13-14). My children, I am writing these things to you so that you won’t sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an Advocate to [approach] the Father [on our behalf], Jesus Christ the righteous. 1 John 2:1. 2) Alpha and Omega: This title, used of our Lord at Revelation 22:13; is also used for the Father (i. e., at Revelation 1:8 and Revelation 21:6), a fact which constitutes no contradiction since Father and Son are “one” (John 10:30). Being the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet respectively, the name Alpha and Omega stresses the fact that Jesus is “the first and the last” (Revelation 1:17), the One who comprises all things from one end of the universe and from one end of eternity to the other (Colossians 1:16-19; Colossians 2:3, Colossians 2:9). 3) Arm of the Lord: As the second person of the Trinity, Jesus is the One who carries out the plan of God directly and personally (Luke 1:51): He is the One who made the universe (Jeremiah 27:5; Jeremiah 32:17; cf. Psalms 8:3), and He is the One who has saved us from eternal condemnation by personally coming into the world as a human being and dying in our place for our sins (Isaiah 53:1 in the context of Isaiah 53:1-12; cf. John 12:37-38). He will also be the One through whom the Father will retake direct control of the earth at the second advent (Psalms 98:1; Isaiah 30:30; Isaiah 40:10; Isaiah 51:5, Isaiah 51:9; Isaiah 52:10; Isaiah 59:16-20; Isaiah 63:5-6; cf. Isaiah 48:14-15; Ezekiel 20:33-34). As the instrument by which the Father carries out His plan, the title “Arm of the Lord” is very descriptive and appropriate (Psalms 89:13). It shows, moreover, how inextricably linked the purpose and the action of the Trinity are as three Persons sharing a single essence, especially visible in the redemption of the people of Israel from Egypt, an action highly symbolic of our redemption from death (cf. Deuteronomy 7:19; Deuteronomy 9:29; 2 Kings 17:36; Psalms 89:10; Psalms 136:10-15; Jeremiah 32:21; Acts 13:17; cf. Psalms 44:3). Where is He [the Father] who brought them (i. e, the Israelites) up from the [Red] Sea with the leaders of His people? Where is He [the Father] who set among them His Holy Spirit, who [also] made His Glorious Arm of power [Jesus Christ (cf. Hebrews 11:27)] to go [along with them] at Moses’ right hand? Isaiah 63:11-12 4) Branch: This is essentially a Messianic title which identifies our Lord as the promised offspring of David destined to rule the world in righteousness (Isaiah 53:2; Jeremiah 23:5; Jeremiah 33:15; Zechariah 3:8; Zechariah 6:12; cf. Ezekiel 17:22 ff.; Romans 1:3; Revelation 5:5), unappreciated in His first advent (Isaiah 11:1), but glorious in His second coming (Isaiah 4:2). Since the title is primarily Messianic, we should understand it also to be connected to the use of the palm branch as a symbol of the victorious Messiah as implied in the festival of Sukkoth, our Lord’s final first advent entry into Jerusalem (cf. Psalms 118:25-27 with Matthew 21:8-9; Mark 11:8-10; John 12:13; cf. Luke 19:37-38), and the martyrs with palm branches in hand at Revelation 7:9. Finally, it is also important to see this title as tying our Lord to the symbolism of the menorah, the seven branched lampstand which illuminated the Holy Place in the Tabernacle and Temple. Jesus is the light of the world and life itself (John 1:4; John 14:6). Since the menorah connects the coming Messiah with the original tree of life, it is likely that we are meant to see this symbolism of light and life shining through in the title “Branch” as well. 5) Bridegroom: Jesus is the Last Adam, and we, the Church, are, so to speak, His “Eve” (1 Corinthians 15:45; 2 Corinthians 11:2-3; cf. Romans 5:14). Jesus died for us, purchasing us from death with His blood, His sacrificial work in dying for our sins on the cross (1 Corinthians 15:3; 2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 Peter 2:24). Having been purchased in this unique way (1 Peter 1:18-19), we belong to Him forever and will be “wedded” to Him as His Bride forever on His return (Matthew 9:15; Matthew 25:1-13; Mark 2:19; Luke 5:34; John 3:29; 2 Corinthians 11:2-3; Ephesians 1:22-23; Ephesians 5:22-33; Revelation 21:2-4, Revelation 21:9 ff.; Revelation 22:17; cf. 1 Corinthians 15:23). “Let us rejoice and be jubilant, and let us give glory to [God], because the wedding of the Lamb has come, and His Bride has prepared herself. And it has been given her to wear a pure, resplendent [gown] of the finest material (now this fine material represents the righteous acts of His holy ones [believers]).” And [the angel] said to me, “Write this down: Happy are those who have been called to the wedding of the Lamb”. Revelation 19:7-9. 6) Builder: In the Trinity’s assumed roles, the Father is the Architect of creation, and our Lord Jesus Christ is the Creator or Builder through whom all things come to have their being and in whom all things subsist (Colossians 1:16-17; John 1:3 see section I. 1.c above). We find a similar attribution in Hebrews applied to the Church of Jesus Christ, whose building we are: This One [Jesus Christ] is worthy of greater glory than Moses inasmuch as the One who builds the house has greater honor than the house itself. For every house is built by someone, but God is the One who has built all things (i. e., creation). And while Moses was faithful as a servant in all of his house as a witness to the [truths] that would be spoken [in the future], Christ [was faithful] as a Son over His house – whose house we are, if indeed we hold fast to the hope [in which we] boast firm until the end. Hebrews 3:3-6. 7) Firstborn: [see section I. 3.a above] 8) Gift of God: This name needs little explanation. Without God the Father giving us the inestimable gift of His own dear Son to die in our place, instead of the eternal life we anticipate, we would have only judgment in prospect. And Jesus agreed to have Himself given over to be judged in our place (Galatians 1:4; Ephesians 5:2, Ephesians 5:25; 1 Timothy 2:6; Titus 2:14; cf. Romans 3:24; Romans 6:23; Ephesians 4:7). Only because of the glorious gift of Him do we have eternal life. Thanks be to God for His inestimable gift! 2 Corinthians 9:15. But the offense [of the former, Adam] is not at all like the favor [of the Latter, Christ]. For though it is true that the human race is perishing on account of the offense of that one man [Adam], how much more has the grace of God and His gracious Gift of the one Man, Jesus Christ, abounded to this same human race! Indeed, the Gift is not at all like [the universal death that came] through [that] one person who sinned. For [in the former case] the [divine] judgment [that resulted] from one [person led] to [universal] condemnation, but the [divine] favor [based upon the sacrifice of the One has led] to the accomplishment of [universal] justification in response to many offenses. For though it is true that on account of the offense of the one death reigned through that one (i. e., by Adam passing down his sin to his progeny), how much more will those who receive this abundance of grace, even this Gift of righteousness [through justification] rule in [eternal] life through [the sacrifice of] the One, Jesus Christ! Romans 5:15-17. For you have been saved by (God’s) grace through faith (in Christ); and this did not come from you – it is God’s gift. Nor did it come from what you have done, lest anyone should boast. Ephesians 2:8-9. 9) Head of the Body, the Church: The Church is often referred to in the New Testament as “the Body of Christ” (e. g., 1 Corinthians 12:12), of which our Lord Jesus is “the Head” (1 Corinthians 11:3; 1 Corinthians 12:21; Ephesians 4:15-16; Ephesians 5:22-33; Colossians 1:18; Colossians 2:10, Colossians 2:19). This name stresses the intimate connection between Jesus and those He loves, being so close to Him as to be just as indistinguishable from Him as the head is from the body. And [the Father] subordinated all things under [Christ’s] feet and gave Him [as] Head over all things in the Church which is His Body, the fullness of the One who fills up all things in all ways. Ephesians 1:22-23. 10) High Priest after the Order of Melchizedek: [see section I. 2.c. 2 above] 11) The Holy One of God: This title, one used of Christ even by the demons (in Mark 1:24; Luke 4:34), identifies Jesus as the one and only specially sanctified One ordained by the Father (cf. Psalms 16:10; Isaiah 5:19 with Isaiah 6:1 compared to John 12:41), and sent into the world by Him to save the world through faith in Him (cf. Luke 1:35; Acts 4:27; 1 John 4:9-10; Revelation 3:7). Then Jesus said to the twelve, “You don’t wish to leave too, do you?” Simon Peter answered Him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life, and we have believed and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God”. John 6:67-69. 12) Immanuel: This name, meaning “God is with us”, demonstrates that Jesus is the fulfillment of Isaiah’s prophecy of the virgin birth of the Messiah, who is in every way “God with us” (Isaiah 7:14; cf. Isaiah 8:8): And all this has happened to fulfill what was said by the Lord through the prophet [Isaiah], saying, “Behold, the virgin will conceive and will give birth to a Son, and you shall call His Name ‘Immanuel’”, which translated means ‘God [is] with us’. Matthew 1:22-23. 13) Judge: In anticipation of His sacrifice and victory on the cross (Luke 10:22; John 3:35; John 17:2; cf. Matthew 9:6; Mark 2:10; Luke 5:24), and as a result of that sacrifice and victory (Ephesians 1:22-23; Php 2:8-11), all authority has been handed over to Jesus Christ (Matthew 28:18; cf. Daniel 7:13-14; 1 Corinthians 15:27). He is therefore “the Judge”, both of the Church in time and in eternity (Romans 14:10-12; 2 Timothy 4:8; cf. James 4:12; Revelation 2:5-6; Revelation 3:1-3, Revelation 3:19-20), and, at the last judgment, of all mankind, saved or unsaved (Acts 10:42; Romans 2:16; 2 Timothy 4:1; 1 Peter 4:5). Brothers, do not grumble against one another so that you may not be judged [for it]. Behold, the Judge [Jesus Christ] is standing in front of the door (i. e., His return and our final judgment are imminent)! James 5:9. For we must all stand before Christ’s tribunal, so that each of us may receive recompense for what he has accomplished through this body, whether it be good or worthless. 2 Corinthians 5:10. 14) King of Kings and Lord of Lords: As in the case of “Alpha and Omega” this title found at Revelation 19:16 for our Lord is also used of the Father (1 Timothy 6:14-16). Variations on this title occur rather frequently in scripture (e. g., Deuteronomy 10:17; Psalms 136:2-3; Daniel 2:47; Revelation 17:14), a title which emphasizes the totality of our Lord’s authority over all human and angelic authority as He returns to rule the world with a “rod of iron” (Psalms 2:9; Revelation 2:27; Revelation 12:5; Revelation 19:15; cf. Psalms 2:1-12; Psalms 110:1-2; Php 2:9-11). 15) The Lamb of God: The title “Lamb of God” reminds us of the Old Testament sacrifices regarding sin (which all speak of our Lord’s death on the cross), and calls attention to Jesus as the only perfect substitute and sacrifice for our sins, a “lamb without blemish” (1 Peter 1:19; cf. Isaiah 53:7) who took away “the sins of the world” (John 1:29). Jesus, of course, offered up His life, not literally His blood (cf. Hebrews 8:3 : “something to offer”). For “the blood of Christ” is a symbol of Jesus’ sacrifice just as “the Lamb of God” is a title symbolic of His sacrifice in being judged for our sins in the darkness on the cross (2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 Peter 2:24). This title figures prominently in the book of Revelation because it is through His sacrificial death on our behalf that He has won the right to rule the world (Revelation 5:6, Revelation 5:8; Revelation 5:12-13; Revelation 6:16; Revelation 7:9-10, Revelation 7:14; Revelation 12:11; Revelation 13:8; Revelation 14:1, Revelation 14:4, Revelation 14:10; Revelation 15:3; Revelation 17:14; Revelation 19:7, Revelation 19:9; Revelation 21:9, Revelation 21:14; Revelation 21:22-23, Revelation 21:27; Revelation 22:1, Revelation 22:3). 16) The Last Adam: Through the first Adam, sin entered the world, but through the Last Adam, grace for salvation has been made available for all who believe in Him (Romans 5:12-14; 1 Corinthians 15:21-22; cf. Genesis 3:15; Galatians 3:19). For Jesus is “a life-giving spirit” for all who place their trust in Him for eternal life (1 Corinthians 15:45). Thus the name “Last Adam” not only calls attention to our Lord’s true humanity, but also to the fact that through His own sacrificial death on our behalf He has solved the universal problem plaguing humanity ever since Adam’s fall, namely, the problem of sin and resultant death. For only through faith in the Last Adam, will we live forever and avoid the common heritage of our race of eternal death following spiritual and physical death. Jesus Christ, the Last Adam, is the One who has taken away the curse upon the first Adam and upon us his progeny, and made it possible for us to reenter Eden, not a temporary, worldly Eden, but the New Jerusalem where we shall live with Him forever (cf. Revelation 22:1-5). 17) Life: As our Creator and Savior, the giver of life and the only One in whom we have eternal life, Jesus Christ is Life itself, the very source of the life we enjoy now and shall forever enjoy in union with Him (John 5:26; John 6:33-35, John 6:48, John 6:51; Acts 3:15; Romans 5:10; Romans 8:2; 2 Corinthians 4:10-11; 1 John 5:11 cf. Deuteronomy 30:20 b; Psalms 36:9; Jeremiah 10:10; 1 Thessalonians 1:9). Because He gave Himself unto death for our sakes, we have life eternal in Him, having been born again through the Spirit by obedience to the gospel of life in Jesus Christ (Matthew 19:28; John 1:13; John 3:3-8; 1 Corinthians 4:15; Galatians 4:29; Titus 3:5; Hebrews 12:9; James 1:18; 1 Peter 1:3, 1 Peter 1:23; 1 John 2:29; 1 John 3:9; 1 John 4:7; 1 John 5:1, 1 John 5:4; 1 John 5:18). Everything came into being through Him, [Jesus Christ], and without Him, nothing has come into being which has in fact come into being. In Him was life, and this life was the light of men. John 1:3-4. Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me will live, even if he dies. And everyone who lives and believes in Me will surely not die forevermore.” John 11:25-26 a I am the way: the truth and the life. John 14:6. For you are already dead, and your [eternal] life has been hidden away with Christ in God. When Christ – your [eternal] life – is revealed, then you too (i. e., with your new eternal life) will be revealed in glory with Him. Colossians 3:3-4. What we have seen from the beginning, what we have heard and seen with our eyes, what we have observed and touched with our hands – this is about the Word of life[, Jesus Christ]. And the Life appeared, and we have seen and testify to and proclaim to you the Eternal Life who was face to face with the Father and appeared to us. 1 John 1:1-2. And we know that the Son of God has come and has given to us a means of thinking to know the truth. And we are in the Truth, in His Son Jesus Christ. This One (i. e., Jesus Christ) is the true God and Life Eternal. 1 John 5:20. It is I, the First and the Last, even the Living One. And although I died, behold, I am alive forever and ever! Indeed, I possess the keys to death and Hades. Revelation 1:17-18. 18) Light: As God, Jesus is light (1 John 1:5 cf. James 1:17; Revelation 22:5). Light is a very important biblical symbol because it stands for life, for holiness, and for truth, and does so in a way to which we human beings can easily and thoroughly relate (cf. John 3:19-21). When the devil rebelled, darkness, which had previously had no part in God’s creation, came into being. In contrast to darkness which symbolizes death, evil, and the absence of truth, Jesus is the Light (Matthew 4:16; Luke 2:32; Acts 26:13; 1 John 2:8; Revelation 21:23), because He is the holy One (Mark 1:24; Luke 1:35; Luke 4:34; John 6:69; Acts 4:27; Revelation 3:7; compare John 12:40-41 with Isaiah 6:1-10), and He is truth itself and life itself (John 8:12; John 9:5; John 12:46). In Him was life, and this life was the light of men. And this light is shining in the darkness, and the darkness has not quenched it. John 1:4-5. In Jesus, the true Light (John 1:9), as “children of light” (John 12:36; Ephesians 5:8; cf. Luke 16:8; Matthew 5:14), we enter the kingdom of light and exit the kingdom of darkness (Colossians 1:12-13; cf. Acts 26:18), having put our faith in the life-giving truth of the One who came into a world of darkness to bring us safely into the light of eternal life (1 Peter 2:9; cf. Acts 26:23). I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life. John 8:12 b I have come into the world as a light, in order that everyone who believes in Me may not abide in darkness. John 12:46. 19) Lord of Hosts: As with the titles “Alpha and Omega” and “King of Kings and Lord of Lords”, “Lord of Hosts” is also a designation which may be applied to both the Father and the Son. For while at times this title seems clearly to represent the Father (Isaiah 9:7; Zechariah 6:12-13), at other times we see it clearly referring to our Lord Jesus Christ as the Father’s visible representative (Zechariah 2:8-9). At John 12:41; for example, John attributes to Jesus Isaiah’s vision of the Lord surrounded by the Seraphs who cry out “holy, holy, holy” (Isaiah 6:1-13). Along with being Head of the Church (Ephesians 1:22; Ephesians 4:15; Colossians 1:18), the Lord Jesus Christ is also Head (and Creator) of all angelic kind (Ephesians 1:21; Colossians 1:15-20; Colossians 2:10; Hebrews 1:1-4), and this title emphasizes our Lord’s status as Commander in Chief of the angelic armies (“host” being a translation of the Hebrew tsabhah, abj, “army”; cf. Psalms 84:3; Isaiah 6:5; Amos 5:14-16; Zechariah 1:3-17). I saw the Lord sitting on his throne with all the host of heaven standing around him on his right and his left. 1 Kings 22:19 NIV 20) Mediator: [see section I. 2.d above] 21) Messiah: [see section I. 3.c above] 22) Mystery: Jesus Christ is the linchpin of human history on which everything depends, but the full reality of this was concealed before His first advent (cf. 1 Peter 1:10-12), a “mystery” before the cross, but revealed after the cross (Ephesians 1:9-10; Ephesians 3:9-10; Colossians 1:26-27). For although predictions of the coming Messiah are frequent in the Old Testament, the exact nature of the Messiah (i. e., that He would be human and divine), and the exact manner of His coming (i. e., that He would come twice, first as the Servant to expiate sin, second as the King to eradicate evil), were shrouded in mystery until Jesus came in the flesh. The mystery of God’s solution to sin, and all of the other mysteries about which scripture speaks (the mystery of the Church preeminently: Ephesians 3:1-11; Ephesians 5:25-32), are all revealed in the face of Jesus Christ come in the flesh, having died for us on the cross for our redemption, and having been resurrected on the third day for our justification (cf. Romans 4:25). I want you to know what a great struggle I am engaging in on your behalf and on behalf of those in Laodicea and [on behalf of] as many as have not seen my face in the flesh, [struggling] that your hearts may be encouraged, being strengthened by love and [led] into all the [spiritual] wealth which confident understanding [of the truth brings], [led, that is, ] into the full acknowledgment (i. e., epignosis, “knowledge made real through faith”) of the mystery of God the Father, [namely] Christ, in whom all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden. Colossians 2:1-3. 23) The Prophet: [see section I. 2.c. 1 above] 24) Rock: Jesus is the bedrock of all creation, the Founder and Foundation of the universe and of our salvation. The tangible qualities of solidity and dependability inherent in the name “Rock” are obvious, and our Lord is the one and only Rock upon which a secure foundation for eternity can be built (Matthew 7:24-27; Luke 6:47-49). The frequency with which this particular title and metaphor is used in scripture of God in general and of Jesus in particular highlights its importance (cf. Exodus 17:6; Numbers 20:8; Deuteronomy 32:4-37; 1 Samuel 2:2; 2 Samuel 23:3; Psalms 18:2, Psalms 18:46; Psalms 19:14; Psalms 144:1; Isaiah 8:14; Isaiah 17:10; Isaiah 44:8; Isaiah 51:1; Matthew 7:24; Habakkuk 1:12). We must understand that everything depends and rests upon Jesus Christ. He is the Rock upon which the Church is founded (Matthew 16:18), and, individually, He is the Cornerstone of our existence, of our faith, and of all our hopes. The Stone which the builders rejected has become the Cornerstone. Psalms 118:22. And in the days of those kings (i. e., in the end times), the God of Heaven will establish a Kingdom which will not be destroyed forever. Nor will that kingdom be surrendered to another people. It will crush and put an end to all those other kingdoms, but this [Kingdom] will endure forever. And in that you saw that a Stone was cut out without [human] hands from the [living] Rock [of a mountain] and that it crushed the iron and the bronze and the clay and the silver and the gold [of the statue], the Great God has made known to the king what will happen after this [in the future[ (i. e., when Christ crushes the kingdom of antichrist). Daniel 2:44-45 a And I tell you that you are Peter [the little rock] (petr-os), and upon this [mighty] Rock (petr-a, i. e., upon Christ Himself; cf. 1 Corinthians 3:11) I shall build My Church (cf. Daniel 2:44-45), and the gates (i. e., the fortified defenses) of Hades (i. e., the devil’s kingdom) will not [be able to] resist it. Matthew 16:18. Thus it has been written: “Behold, I am placing in Zion a Stone of stumbling and a Rock of tripping up. But he who puts his faith in Him will not be put to shame.” Romans 9:33 (Isaiah 28:16; cf. Isaiah 8:13-15) For no one can lay [any] other foundation (i. e., for salvation, spiritual growth and production) [other] than the One which has [already] been laid, namely, Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 3:11. And all of them (i. e., the Exodus generation) drank the same spiritual drink (i. e., divinely provided water). For all of them drank from the spiritual[ly significant] Rock which followed them – for that Rock was Christ. 1 Corinthians 10:4. [It is Jesus] to whom you have come, a Living Stone, rejected by men, but with God elect and highly honored. 1 Peter 2:4. 25) Savior: In Greek, “Savior” is the word soter (σωτήρ, cf. Soteriology), a word whose root means “safe” and whose Latin adjectival equivalent is salvus (cf. “salvation”). The key idea in the agent noun “Savior” is “He who makes safe/delivers”. This Greek word (found at, e. g., Luke 2:11; John 4:42; Titus 3:6) is thus a nominal equivalent to what we find where the English word “Savior” is used in the Hebrew Old Testament (found at, e. g., Psalms 106:21; Isaiah 60:16; Isaiah 63:8; Hosea 13:4) to translate the word moshia’, (i. e., the hiphil participle of yasha’, éùò). All this is a roundabout way of saying that the name “Jesus” (also transliterated from the hiphil of yasha’, éùò) and the word “Savior”, while completely different in English, are nearly identical in their ultimate derivation. For “Jesus” means “He will save” in Hebrew, while the Hebrew participle translated “Savior” in the English versions of the Old Testament (and represented by the Greek soter, σωτήρ in the Greek New Testament and also translated “Savior”) means “One who saves”. The main difference is that while “Jesus” is a prophetic name, “Savior” attributes the ability to save directly to our Lord. Jesus is the One who has saved us from the lake of fire, from eternal death and condemnation, and who has opened the gate to eternal life for all willing to enter by faith in Him. In Jesus we have been saved from our sins and their eternal consequences, rescued from death by His sacrificial life and atoning death in our place. A greater act of salvation and a greater Savior are truly unimaginable. 26) The Servant of God: This title for our Lord demonstrates the height and the depth and breadth of the love God has for us, for it focuses upon our Lord’s self-accepted humiliation in coming into this world as a genuine human being, without glory, to drink to His fill the tears of this world and to suffer for us in our place, even to His death for us on the cross, that we might not die but live forever with Him (Isaiah 49:3-11; Isaiah 52:13-15, Isaiah 53:1-12; Romans 15:8-9). You too should have this attitude which Christ Jesus had. Since He already existed in the very form of God, equality with God was [certainly] not something He thought He had to grasp for. Yet in spite of this [co-equal divinity He already possessed], He deprived Himself of His status and took on the form of a slave, [and was] born in the likeness of men. He humbled Himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even [His] death on [the] cross [for us all]. Php 2:5-8. Behold my Servant – I will support Him. My chosen One – my soul (i. e., heart) takes pleasure in Him. I have placed my Spirit upon Him. He will bring forth justice for the nations. He will not cry out nor will He lift up His voice in the street. He will not shatter a reed [which is already] crushed (i. e., He will be merciful to the faint of spirit), nor will He extinguish a smouldering wick (i. e., He will encourage the weak of faith). [But] He will bring forth justice in truth. He will not lose His ardor, nor will He proceed too hastily until He establishes justice on the earth. And in His teaching the islands will put their hope. Thus says God the Lord, who creates the skies and stretches them out, who fashions the earth and its produce, who gives breath to the people upon it, even a spirit to those who walk upon it. I, the Lord, have called You in righteousness, and shall take You by the hand, and guard You, and appoint You a covenant for the nations and a light for the gentiles, to open the eyes of the blind, to bring forth the prisoner from the dungeon, and those who dwell in darkness from their place of captivity (i. e., physical and spiritual redemption). Isaiah 42:1-7. 27) The Good Shepherd: We are all like sheep who have gone astray (Psalms 119:176; 1 Peter 2:25), but our God has mercifully gone out of His way to bring us back to Himself through the Good Shepherd He has appointed to care for us and guide us. The powerful image conveyed by the picture of the Shepherd who guards and guides us is ubiquitous in the scriptures, conveying the truth that our Lord is our merciful protector and provider, ever present to comfort and take care of us (Genesis 48:15; Psalms 28:9; Psalms 80:1; Ecclesiastes 12:11; Jeremiah 31:10; Jeremiah 49:19; Jeremiah 50:44; Ezekiel 34:23; Ezekiel 37:24; Zechariah 13:7; Matthew 2:6; Matthew 25:32; Matthew 26:31; Mark 14:27; John 10:2-16; 1 Peter 5:2-4), even to point of laying down His life in our behalf (John 10:11). “[Joseph’s] bow remained steady, his strong arms stayed limber, because of the Shepherd, the Rock of Israel.” Genesis 49:24 NIV The Lord is the One shepherding me. Therefore I will not be lacking [anything I need]. Psalms 23:1. See, the Sovereign Lord comes with power, and his arm rules for him. See, his reward is with him, and his recompense accompanies him. He tends his flocks like a shepherd: He gathers the lambs in his arms and carries them close to his heart; he gently leads those that have young. Isaiah 40:10-11 NIV But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, too small to be numbered among the clans of Judah, from you I will bring forth the One who is to rule over Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, even from the days of eternity. For He will give them over until the time when she who is about to give birth gives birth (i. e., His mother, Mary: the first advent), and the rest of His brothers return to the sons of Israel (i. e., Jewish repentance at the second advent). Then He (i. e., the Messiah) will arise and will shepherd His flock in the strength of the Lord, in the majesty of the Name of the Lord His God. And they will dwell [in peace], for then He will be great to the ends of the earth. And He will be their peace. Micah 5:2-5 a I am the Good Shepherd. The Good Shepherd lays down His life for the sake of the sheep. John 10:11. And the God of peace, the One who led up from the dead the Great Shepherd of the sheep in the blood of the eternal covenant, our Lord Jesus, will fit you out with every good thing in order that you may do His will, [even] as He produces in us what is well-pleasing through Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory forever and ever. Amen! Hebrews 13:20-21. For you were once like sheep going astray, but you have now turned back to the Shepherd and Overseer of your lives. 1 Peter 2:25. “Because the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and will lead them to fountains of living water, and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes.” Revelation 7:17. 28) The Son of David: Jesus is David’s literal “son” as a direct descendant through the mother of His humanity (Luke’s genealogy: Luke 3:23-38), and legal heir as a direct descendant through His step-father Joseph (Matthew’s genealogy: Matthew 1:1-17). Jesus is also the prophetic “greater Son” of David, the Messiah, the promised coming King who would provide the ultimate fulfillment of the promises made to David by the Lord, the “Davidic Covenant” (Psalms 89:13-37). In His capacity of “Son of David”, Jesus is David’s “seed” (Romans 1:3) and the “Lion” of the tribe of Judah, and “the root of David” (Revelation 5:5; cf. “Branch” above #4). “The Lord declares to you that the Lord himself will establish a house for you: When your days are over and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever.” 2 Samuel 7:11-13 NIV 29) The Son of God: This title bespeaks our Lord’s divinity [see section I. 1.2 above, “Jesus is the one and only Son of God”]. The title “Son of God” also expresses Jesus’ unique role in human history of being the Trinity’s visible Person, the One sent into the world to rescue and redeem sinful mankind, and to win the victory of the cross whereby eternal life and the eternal kingdom to come are provided for all who believe. 30) The Son of Man: This title hearkens back to Genesis 3:15 and protoevangelium, the first promise of the gospel in the prophecy of the coming Seed who would crush the devil’s head. Jesus is that Seed (Galatians 3:16-19; cf. Luke 1:55; Acts 3:25; Romans 4:13-18), the “Last Adam” (Romans 5:12-14; 1 Corinthians 15:21-22, 1 Corinthians 15:45; cf. Galatians 3:19), and the title is a clear indication of His perfect and genuine humanity (Mark 8:31), coming into the flesh in Adam’s line. The specific name under consideration here, “The Son of Man”, marks out Christ as the Seed and the unique “Son” (as opposed to all other human beings). As such, the title is clearly prophetic of the Messiah (as was clearly recognized by our Lord’s contemporaries when He used this title for Himself (John 9:35-38). I kept looking during my vision of that night, and behold – with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming up, and He approached the Ancient of Days (i. e., the Father) and they brought Him before Him. And to Him was given dominion and honor and a kingdom, so that all nations and peoples and tongues should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away, and His kingdom one which will not be destroyed. Daniel 7:13-14. And [God the Father] has given Him[, Jesus Christ, ] authority to render judgment [on the world] because He is [the] Son of Man. John 5:27. 31) The Truth: Jesus not only speaks the truth, He is the truth: I am the Way: the truth and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. John 14:6. As this verse makes clear, Jesus is the only real truth worth knowing (cf. Hebrews 13:8), and all that is genuinely true is at its core fundamentally subordinate to Him who is the ultimate and all-encompassing truth. For this reason, Jesus Christ and His words are ubiquitously and regularly described in terms of truth (Matthew 14:33; Matthew 27:54; Mark 15:39; Luke 4:25; Luke 12:44; Luke 21:3; John 1:17; John 4:42; John 6:14, John 6:32, John 6:55; John 7:40; John 8:16, John 8:40; John 8:45; John 15:1; John 16:7; John 18:37; 1 John 2:8; 1 John 5:20; Revelation 3:7, Revelation 3:14; Revelation 19:11): The true Light which illuminates every human being was coming into the world. John 1:9. And the Word became flesh and tented among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of a one and only Son of His Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14. For the Law was given through Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ. John 1:17. 32) The Vine: This highly descriptive image teaches us about our organic connection to our dear Lord Jesus from the point we first put our faith in Him (cf. Psalms 80:8-11). We live in Him and He lives in us so long as we continue to walk in faith. I am the true vine and my Father is the vine-dresser. Every branch [that is] in Me which does not bear fruit He removes, and every branch which does bear fruit He prunes so that it might bear more fruit. You have already been pruned because of the Word I have spoken to you. Stay part of Me, and I will [stay] part of you. Just as the branch cannot bear fruit by itself unless it remains part of the vine, so you too cannot [bear true fruit] unless you stay part of Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. If a man remains in Me and I in Him, he will bear much fruit; apart from Me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain in Me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. John 15:1-6. 33) The Way: Jesus is the only “way” to get to God. In fact, He is the Way: I am the Way: the truth and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. John 14:6. Comparing salvation to physical progress along a route is common in scripture (e. g., Psalms 84:5-7; Psalms 118:9-27; Psalms 119:176; Matthew 7:13-14; Matthew 21:32; Matthew 22:16; Mark 12:14; Luke 13:24-25; John 14:4; Acts 9:2; Acts 19:9. Acts 19:23; Acts 22:4; Acts 24:22). But what all of these travel metaphors have in common is the gospel: only through Jesus Christ can we approach God (Ephesians 2:14-18; Ephesians 4:7-10; Colossians 2:13-15; Hebrews 9:24). He is Gate through which those who are truly His sheep enter (John 10:7-9). He is the only true Door which leads not to death but to eternal life (Revelation 3:21; Revelation 4:1). Only through Him, and in Him, and by following Him where He has gone (Hebrews 6:19-20; cf. Hebrews 2:10 [Greek]; Hebrews 12:2), can we too enter into the heavenly holy of holies for fellowship eternal with the Father, the Son, and the Spirit forevermore (Matthew 27:51; Luke 23:43; Hebrews 10:19-20). 34) Word of God: Jesus Christ is the living Word of God: The Word [Jesus Christ] existed at the very beginning, and there was reciprocity (i. e., co-divinity) between the Word and God [the Father]. And the Word was God. John 1:1. What this means is that there is absolutely no discrepancy or disparity between Jesus and the Father, or between Jesus and any of the “words of God”. For He is the embodiment of the truth, God’s Word, and is the Truth, manifest in God’s written Word. For this reason, the ministry of the Spirit to believers is described by our Lord as one where the Spirit will “take what is mine and will make it known to you” (John 16:15), and by Paul as the very “mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16). To know Jesus is know the Word of God; to know the Word of God is to know Jesus Christ (John 5:39; cf. John 1:1-14; Hebrews 1:1-4; 1 John 1:1-4; Revelation 1:2). Praise God for that blessed day of days to come when we shall “know, even as we are known” (1 Corinthians 13:12). And He was clothed in a cloak splattered with blood, and His Name stands [forever]: “The Word of God”. Revelation 19:13. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 8: 01.01.05 - THE LIFE OF JESUS CHRIST ======================================================================== 5. The Life of Jesus Christ a. Introduction: Jesus is God, a co-equal, co-eternal, con-substantial member of the Trinity. Jesus is also the Word of God, the Mind of Christ, God’s entire revelation meant for us in this life contained in the completed canon of scripture and revealed to us through the ministry of the Holy Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:16). Therefore it is important to point out at the commencement of this section that by “the life of Christ” we are concerned not primarily with the deity of Jesus Christ but with His humanity as it was foreshadowed in the Old Testament and became a reality with His incarnation in the form of a genuine human being in the New Testament. Few subjects in scripture are more important than attention to our Savior’s life, because it is only through Him, through faith and faithful following of Him, that we realize the promise of eternal life. And Jesus’ life is, among many other things, the ultimate exemplar for all Christians (Matthew 8:22; Matthew 9:9; Matthew 10:38; Matthew 11:29; Matthew 16:24; Matthew 19:21; Mark 1:17; Luke 9:23; John 1:43; John 13:15; John 21:19-22; Ephesians 4:15; Php 2:5; Hebrews 6:20; 1 Peter 2:21-25; Revelation 14:4). Jesus is, after all, the archetypical perfect human being who did God’s will to the full without fail, and in this way was qualified to bear our sins on the cross: For just as through the disobedience of the [first] man[, Adam, ] the human race found itself sinful, so through the obedience of the One[, Jesus Christ, ] the human race will find itself [accounted as] righteous (i. e., justified), [through faith in Him]. Romans 5:19. b. Old Testament Appearances of Jesus Christ: Jesus Christ is the revealed member of the Trinity. As such, just as He is the One who is revealed in the flesh from the incarnation onward, He is also the One who manifests the Person and presence of God to believers before the incarnation (cf. Hebrews 1:1-2). Old Testament appearances of God are often termed “Theophanies”, whereas those Old Testament appearances which can clearly be shown to be of Jesus are called “Christophanies”. Much of what we now know about the Trinity was purposely veiled during Old Testament times for a variety of reasons, however, as the following passage shows, many such appearances of God in the Old Testament which one might assume on a casual reading are of the Father were, in fact, of Jesus Christ representing the Father: Even though He had performed so many [miraculous] signs in their presence, they did not believe in Him, in order that the word of Isaiah the prophet might be fulfilled which he spoke: “Lord, who has believed our report? And to whom has the Arm of the Lord been revealed?” For this reason they were not able to believe, because [as] Isaiah also says, “He has blinded their eyes and disabled their heart so that they might not see with their eyes and understand in their heart and turn and I would heal them.” These things Isaiah said because he saw His glory (i. e., “holy, holy, holy” in Isaiah 6:1-3) and spoke about Him (i. e., in Isaiah 6:1-10 since this second quote is from Isaiah 6:10). John 12:37-41. Perhaps the most common Christophany is the appearance of “the angel of the Lord”, where the word “angel” is used to express a manifestation of Christ rather than an angelic creature per se. This can be clearly seen, for example, in passages such as Exodus 14:19 where the angel is called “the angel of God”, or Judges 2:1-5 where the angel speaks of “My covenant”, or Zechariah 1:20 where the angel of the Lord who has been speaking with Zechariah is described as “the Lord”. Without indications to the contrary we should generally understand appearances of God in the Old Testament, as in the case of the “Lord God” speaking with Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden in Genesis 3:1-24, to be Christophanies, that is, appearances of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father’s representative and the revealed member of the Trinity. Jesus has always been the Savior of the world, and His centrality to God’s plan of salvation was just as crucial in the Old as it is in the New Testament economy, despite the fact that before our Lord took on true humanity and was thus revealed in the flesh many of the particulars of salvation were obscured from view (Luke 24:25-27; Acts 2:23; Acts 3:18; Acts 7:52; Acts 17:3; Acts 26:23; Ephesians 3:5, Ephesians 3:9; 1 Peter 1:11, 1 Peter 1:20; cf. Romans 3:25-26). c. Old Testament Typology: In addition to the Old Testament appearances discussed immediately above, the coming of our Lord, His incarnation, and His work for us on the cross were foreshadowed in a variety of ways in Old Testament times. Jesus has, in fact, always been the heart and soul of prophecy (Revelation 19:10), the message of God as the Word of God (John 1:1-3). God, from antiquity having communicated to our fathers in the prophets at many times and in many ways, has in these last days communicated to us in a Son, [the One] whom He has appointed heir of all things, [the One] through whom He created the universe. He is the shining forth of [the Father’s] glory, the precise image of His essence, the One who sustains the universe by His mighty Word . . . Hebrews 1:1-3 a In addition to specific scriptures and prophecies which taught about or foreshadowed the Messiah and His two advents (see section I. 5.d immediately below), the coming of the Messiah and the sufferings of the Christ were also taught via what we call “typology”, that is, symbolic representations of the Person and the work of Jesus, occurring occasionally in the lives of special individuals (e. g, the kingship of David and of Solomon being symbolically applicable to the millennial reign of Christ; cf. Zechariah 3:8-10), and ubiquitous in the symbols behind the paraphernalia and practice of the Mosaic Law, especially where sacrifices are concerned (as these always relate to our Lord’s death on the cross for our sins). One instance in which both of these two sorts of typology come together is the sacrifice of Isaac, where Isaac represents or “is a type of” Christ, being sacrificed for our sins (where Isaac’s impending physical death through the shedding of his physical blood on the altar represents Christ’s spiritual death in dying for our sins in the darkness as He is judged for them in our place on the cross): Then Abraham took the wood for the burnt offering and placed it on [the back of] Isaac his son. And he took in his hand the fire and the knife. And the two of them went [up Mount Moriah (i. e., the future place of Jerusalem)] together. And Isaac said to Abraham his father, “Father.” And Abraham replied, “Yes, my son.” And [Isaac] said, “Look, here is the fire and wood, but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” And Abraham replied, “God will provide for Himself (lit., “see for Himself”) the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And [so] the two of them went [up] together. Genesis 22:6-8. Later in this passage, Abraham is stopped by the angel of the Lord, the pre-incarnate Jesus Christ, from actually sacrificing Isaac. But the dramatic and poignant story in these verses of the father about to sacrifice his one and only son gives us some small idea of the sacrifice the Father actually did make in giving over unto death His one and only beloved Son on our behalf, something at once so terrible and marvelous that it could not even be contemplated were it not absolutely essential to secure the salvation of all of His other children. By Faith Abraham offered up Isaac when he was tested, and was on the point of offering up [in sacrifice] his one and only son, the one who [about whom he] had received the promises, about whom it had been said, “In Isaac shall your seed be called”, [for Abraham was] reckoning that God was able to raise [him] from the dead, whence (i. e., from the dead) he did receive [Isaac] back even metaphorically (i. e., Isaac was as good as dead but God delivered him through the substitute of the ram, a type of Jesus Christ). Hebrews 11:17-19. For in the sequel, as Hebrews recalls, after preventing the sacrifice of Isaac, the Lord provides a ram for Abraham to sacrifice in Isaac’s stead (Genesis 22:13-14), and here we have a very clear picture of Jesus, the Lamb of God, being sacrificed in Isaac’s place (and in the place of all mankind for the sins of all mankind). For this reason it is said “On the mountain of the Lord (i. e., Mt. Moriah, the same exact place as the future Jerusalem where our Lord died for us) [God] will provide” (Genesis 22:14). This same essential symbolism, namely, of an animal shedding its physical blood representing Christ being judged and dying for our sins, is behind all animal sacrifice in the Bible (cf. Judges 13:19-20), from the sacrifice of righteous Abel (Genesis 4:1-26; Hebrews 11:1-40), to the millennial sacrifices which will memorialize Jesus’ work for us on the cross (e. g., Ezekiel 40:1-49, Ezekiel 41:1-26, Ezekiel 42:1-20, Ezekiel 43:1-27, Ezekiel 44:1-31, Ezekiel 45:1-25, Ezekiel 46:1-24, Ezekiel 47:1-23, Ezekiel 48:1-35). The Old Testament is, in fact, replete with types to such a degree that it would require several additional books to exhaust the study. To take but a few prominent examples which are overtly referenced as types in the New Testament, the tree of life in the Garden is a picture of our Lord who died on Calvary’s tree to give us life (cf. Romans 11:11-24); Noah’s ark is a picture of Christ in whom we are saved (cf. 1 Peter 3:18-22); Jonah in the whale presents a picture of our Lord’s resurrection (cf. Matthew 12:39-41); Melchizedek is a type of Christ as we have already seen (Hebrews 7:11-17). And these and similar types are all notwithstanding the voluminous typology of everything related to the Tabernacle, its furniture, its sacrifices, and all of the other aspects of the Law (Romans 15:4; cf. Romans 10:6-7; 1 Corinthians 9:9-10; 1 Timothy 5:18). d. Old Testament Prophecies: It is fair to say that the great majority of Old Testament prophecies about our Lord coming in the flesh are focused on His Messiahship and therefore at the very least include His second advent in their purview. For this reason, the first advent of Jesus Christ as distinct from the second was a matter of some mystery, even to the inspired writers who penned the words given by God which do in fact predict the first advent: The prophets diligently investigated and inquired about this salvation, when they prophesied about this grace [that was to come] to you. For they were eager to discover the precise time the Spirit of Christ within them was signifying as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories that would follow. For it was revealed to them that in prophesying these things, they were not so much serving themselves as they were you – and these same things have now been proclaimed to you through those who gave you the gospel through the Holy Spirit, sent from heaven – even angels want to look into these things. 1 Peter 1:10-12. Not unrelated to this issue of our Lord’s coming to die on the cross before He comes to take up the crown of world rulership is the fact and necessity of His becoming a genuine human being in order to be able to die in our place. The need to take on true humanity might possibly be argued as not theoretically necessary for a glorious appearance of God’s Messiah to rule the world, but our Lord most certainly could not die for our sins without a human body in which to bear them (1 Peter 2:24; 1 Peter 4:1; cf. 2 Corinthians 5:21; Hebrews 9:26-28). This is the “stumbling block” which many Jews and the “folly” which many gentiles have been unable to accept to their eternal harm (1 Corinthians 1:23; Matthew 21:42 cf. Psalms 118:22-23). But of the fact that the Messiah would be a true human being (as emphasized in His first advent) at the same time as He is truly God (seen so clearly in His second advent) our Lord Himself made abundantly clear: As the Pharisees were gathering together, Jesus put a question to them, saying “What do you think about the Messiah? Whose son is he?” They answered Him, “David’s son.” Then He said to them, “Well then, how can David, speaking in the Spirit, call Him Lord? For he says, The Lord said to My Lord, ‘Sit down at my right hand, until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.’ [Psalms 110:1] So if David calls Him Lord, how is He his Son?” And no one was able to answer Him a word, nor did anyone dare to question Him any longer from that day forward. Matthew 22:41-46. Indisputably, if the Messiah is literally a “son” of David, then He must be a human being, while if He is “Lord”, as David calls Him in Psalms 110:1 which Jesus quotes, then He must be God as well. Both elements of our Lord’s unique nature, divine and human, are essential for the accomplishment of God’s plan to redeem humanity and restore eternal peace to the universe. For the rulership of the world on the part of the Messiah depends upon His prior removal of the problem of sin, that is, His victory over death on the cross which opens the way for the devil’s removal and for our redemption and salvation. That the Messiah’s suffering – something which is of course impossible without the fact of His possession of true humanity – is taught in the Old Testament, is put beyond all question by, for example, by Isaiah in Isaiah 52:1-13, Isaiah 53:1-12 (of which this excerpt will suffice here to make the point): For He bore our sicknesses and He carried our weaknesses. And yet we considered Him as [the One who had been] punished, smitten and afflicted by God. But [in fact] He was made subject to torment on account of our transgressions, and He was crushed because of our collective guilt (lit., “guilts”). The punishment [required] for making peace [with God] on our behalf [fell] upon Him. Because of His wounding, we have been healed. We have all gone astray like sheep. Each of us has turned to his own way. And the Lord caused the guilt of us all to strike Him. Though He was oppressed and afflicted, like a lamb led to slaughter He did not open His mouth, and like a ewe before her shearers He did not open His mouth. By repressive judgment He was taken away, and who gave any thought to His posterity? For He was cut off from the land of the living. He was punished for the transgression of my people. And they assigned Him a grave with the wicked (pl.) and with a rich [man] in His deaths (sic). Not for any violence that He had done. Nor was there any deceit in His mouth. For it was the Lord’s good pleasure (i. e., “will”) to crush Him, to subject Him to torment. But though you make His life a guilt offering, He will see His seed, He will lengthen His days, and the good pleasure (i. e., “will”) of the Lord will prosper in His hand. [Released] from the trouble [inflicted] upon His life, He will [again] see [the light of life] and be satisfied (i. e., in resurrection). My righteous Servant will provide righteousness for the great [of heart] (i. e., believers) through the[ir] acknowledgment of Him, and He Himself will carry their guilt (lit., “guilts”). Therefore I will allot to Him [the plunder] among [His] many [brothers], and He will apportion plunder to the mighty [among them]. Because He lay bare His life unto death, and was dealt with as transgressors [are], so that He bore the sin of the many, and substituted [Himself] for the transgressors. Isaiah 53:4-12. Indeed, the entire message of the gospel and the necessity for the Christ to suffer on behalf of the sins of the world was taught in various ways throughout the Old Testament, even if that message was reluctantly received and insufficiently understood before the cross. Our Lord Jesus Himself makes this very point to the disciples on the road to Emmaus (cf. Luke 24:25-27; Acts 2:23; Acts 3:18; Acts 7:52; Acts 10:37; Acts 17:3; Acts 26:23; Ephesians 3:5, Ephesians 3:9; 1 Peter 1:11, 1 Peter 1:20): Then He Himself said to them “O you ignorant men, and slow to believe all the things which the prophets spoke. Wasn’t it necessary for the Christ to suffer these things [first], and [then] come into His glory?” And taking His start with Moses and all of the prophets, He thoroughly explained to them the things [written] about Himself in all the scriptures. Luke 24:25-27. For the sake of illustration, a few more of the more well-known passages prophesying the coming of the Messiah are included below, but an all-inclusive treatment would require its own separate study nearly as voluminous as in the case of Old Testament typology (cf. John 21:25). 1) His incarnation foretold: For a Star will march forth from Jacob, and a [Ruler’s] scepter [will arise] from Israel. Numbers 24:17 b (Matthew 2:1-13; cf. Genesis 49:8-12; Deuteronomy 33:7; Luke 1:78; Revelation 12:5) You have taken no pleasure in sacrifices and offerings, [but instead] You have pierced My ears (i. e., “given Me a body and marked Me as a voluntary Servant”; cf. Exodus 21:5-6; Deuteronomy 15:16-17). You have not asked for burnt offerings or sin offerings. [But] then I said, behold, I have come [into the world (i. e., as the true sacrifice)]. In the scroll of the Book it has been written about Me. It is My good pleasure to do what pleases You, My God. For your Law is in My inmost parts. Psalms 40:6-8 (cf. Hebrews 10:5-10) Therefore the Lord will Himself give you a sign. Behold, the virgin will conceive and will give birth to a Son, and you shall call His Name “Immanuel” (i. e., “God is with us”). Isaiah 7:14 (Matthew 1:23) For a child is born to us, and a Son is given to us. Dominion shall rest on his shoulder, and His name will be called “He whose counsel is wondrous”, “Mighty God”, “the Father of Eternity”, “the Prince of Prosperity”. To His dominion and its prosperity there will be no limit or end. He will establish it and lay its foundation on David’s throne and over his kingdom, in justice and righteousness, now and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will accomplish this. Isaiah 9:6-7. But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, too small to be numbered among the clans of Judah, from you I will bring forth the One who is to rule over Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, even from the days of eternity. Micah 5:2. 2) His suffering foretold: “And I shall place hostility between you and the woman, that is, between your seed and her Seed. He will attack you head-on, but you will attack Him from behind” (lit., “crush His heal”, a reference to the cross). Genesis 3:15. [Like] many bulls they have encircled Me. [Like] strong bulls from Bashan they have surrounded Me. They open their mouths against Me [like] roaring lions about to pounce on their prey. I am poured out like water, and all My bones are being stretched apart. My heart has become like wax. It is melting inside of Me. My strength is evaporating like a broken piece of pottery, and My tongue is sticking to the roof of My mouth [with thirst]. For You (cf. Psalms 22:1-2) have set Me ablaze in the dust of death. For they have surrounded Me [like] dogs. [This] congregation of evil-doers has encompassed Me. They have pierced My hands and My feet. I can count all My bones. [While] they look on and stare at Me, they are dividing up My clothes for themselves, and for My garments they are casting lots. Psalms 22:12-18. For they mixed gall with what they gave Me to eat, and for My thirst they gave Me vinegar to drink. Psalms 69:21 (Matthew 27:34, Matthew 27:48; Mark 15:23, Mark 15:36; Luke 23:36; John 19:29) Thus says to the Lord, “To Him who despised His own life, to Him who became an abomination to His own nation, to the Servant of rulers – kings will rise up when they see You, even high officials will bow down [before You], on account of the Lord who is faithful, even the Holy One of Israel, for He has chosen You. Isaiah 49:7. Marshal your troops, O city of troops, for a siege is laid against us. They will strike Israel’s ruler on the cheek with a rod. Micah 5:1 NIV (Luke 22:63; John 18:22) 3) His resurrection foretold: For You will not abandon My soul (i. e., “life”) to hell (lit., sheol). You will not give your Holy One over to see decay. Psalms 16:10 (cf. Acts 2:31; Acts 13:35) [The Lord] will restore us, [Israel], after two days (i. e., after the Church age), and will raise us up on the third day (i. e., the Millennium), that we may live in His presence (i. e., with the Messiah, who personifies this prophecy in His resurrection on the third day). Hosea 6:2 (cf. Luke 24:46; 1 Corinthians 15:4) 4) His second advent foretold: Why are the nations forming into a mob and the peoples [of the earth] grumbling idly. The kings of the earth are assembling and its princes are gathering together – against the Lord and His Anointed One, [saying] “Let us pull off Their chains, and cast Their cords from us!” Psalms 2:1-3. But as for Me, I have anointed My King upon Zion, My holy mountain. Psalms 2:6. The Lord said to My Lord, “Sit down at my right hand, until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.” Psalms 110:1. And He said, “It is too small a thing for you to be My servant, to establish the tribes of Jacob and to restore the sanctified ones of Israel. Therefore I have appointed you as a Light for the nations, to be My [instrument of] salvation to the ends of the earth. Isaiah 49:6. In those days and at that time, I will make a Branch of righteousness sprout forth for David, and He will accomplish justice and righteousness on the earth. Jeremiah 33:15. Thus says the Lord: I will return to Zion and dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. And Jerusalem will be called “the City of Truth”, and “the Mountain of the Lord, the Mountain of Holiness”. Zechariah 8:3. Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion. Shout [for joy], daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, your King will come to you. Righteous and victorious He is; humble and riding on a donkey, even on a colt, a donkey’s foal. Zechariah 9:9. And the Lord will be king over all the earth. On that day the Lord will be the only One and His Name the only Name. Zechariah 14:9. When we combine the Christophanies or appearances of our Lord in the Old Testament with the ubiquitous typology which teaches about His Person and His work, and with the specific prophecies of His Messiahship, incarnation, suffering, resurrection and second advent, we see clearly that Jesus Christ has been the true message of scripture since the very beginning of the Bible. “We have found the One about whom Moses wrote in the Law and all the prophets as well, Jesus, the son of Joseph, the One from Nazareth!” John 1:45. By faith, Moses, when he grew up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, and chose instead to suffer maltreatment with the people of God rather than to enjoy the transitory pleasures of sin, because he considered the reproach [suffered on behalf] of Christ greater riches than the treasure vaults of Egypt. For he was looking to his reward. Hebrews 11:24-26. e. The Hypostatic Union and Kenosis: Since the point of His birth, Jesus Christ, who has always been true God, has also become a true human being. The proper, orthodox understanding of the fact that Christ now possesses both of these natures, divine and human, without any diminution of the quality or quantity of either, and is yet a single, absolutely unique Person, is often called in theology “the hypostatic union”. The first word in this somewhat unhelpful phrase is taken from Hebrews 1:3 where our Lord’s unique Person composed of two natures, human and divine, is described as “the [very] shining forth of [the Father’s] glory, the precise image of His essence”. In this verse, “essence” is the Greek word hypostasis from which the adjective “hypostatic” is derived. In Hebrews 1:3; since Jesus is the “shining forth of the glory” of God, He is God and possessed of the identical essence which the Father and the Spirit share. As a true human being, however, Jesus is the “precise image” (Greek character, χαρακτήρ) of that essence, and by this is meant that our Lord’s humanity is a perfect mirror or representation of that divine essence (the Greek word character meaning the exact stamp or impression of a minted coin, for example). Thus Hebrews 1:3 teaches that between the divinity of Christ and the humanity of Christ there is complete harmony and integrity with no rift of personality whatsoever in the One undivided Person of Jesus Christ despite the fact that He now possesses two natures, human and divine. While somewhat technical, this description is nevertheless important, since failures to accept various parts of this complex truth have resulted in many deadly heresies, past and present (and no doubt to come in the future as well). However, it does go without saying that this is a somewhat difficult concept for mere human beings to grasp, since in truth we are incapable of fully comprehending God’s divine nature and what it really means (let alone being able to understand except in general terms the wonder of the combination of the two natures in the Person of Christ). What we should at least appreciate at the very outset here, however, is the marvelous truth that by wedding Himself to the human race in such a personal and irrevocable manner, our Lord has given us the clearest and most convincing proof that we are special to Him in ways that we can scarcely begin to fathom. While the fact of Jesus’ divinity, humanity, and uniqueness in combining the two natures since the incarnation may be relatively easier to understand now that He has been glorified (see for example the description of Him as He appeared to John at Revelation 1:12-20), it remains to discuss what scripture has to say about the manner in which these two natures coexisted during His first advent. For while from the resurrection forward there is no limitation, compartmentalization, or separation of His divine and human nature, it is the case that, during His first advent, our Lord had to suffer in the same fashion as we do (and indeed far beyond, not only in every other aspect of His earthly life but especially when He was judged for our sins on the cross). This self-imposed limitation of deity in respect to the support given to His humanity is known in theology as kenosis, another Greek word taken this time from Paul’s discussion in his letter to the Philippians of the subject of our Lord’s sacrificial life: You too should have this attitude which Christ Jesus had. Since He already existed in the very form of God, equality with God was [certainly] not something He thought He had to grasp for. Yet in spite of this [co-equal divinity He already possessed], He deprived Himself of His status and took on the form of a slave, [and was] born in the likeness of men. He humbled Himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even [His] death on [the] cross [for us all]. Php 2:5-8. The word translated “deprived” above is the Greek verb kenoo (κενόω), “to make void”, from which our technical term kenosis is derived. This deprivation, as the next verse makes clear, involved great humiliation for our sakes, even to the point of our Lord’s sacrificial death for us on the cross. Clearly, the suffering and abuse Jesus took for us throughout His life, accelerating through His extensive thirty year preparation, His ministry “against such opposition by sinners against Himself” (Hebrews 12:3; cf. Jude 1:15), the gauntlet He ran for us even to get to the cross, and the death He died to sin for us in the darkness on the cross, would have been incompatible with His deity apart from the self-imposed limitation of its function on behalf His humanity, a condition which, as mentioned above, is traditionally called kenosis. As can be seen from the preliminary discussion above, kenosis is essentially a set of “ground rules” wherein Jesus voluntarily refrained from using His deity to help His humanity during the first advent in accordance with the Father’s will (John 4:34; John 5:30; John 6:38). 1) The reason why Christ’s kenosis was necessary: Being perfectly just, God could not as God forgive the sins of mankind unless they were appropriately paid for. And only a perfect human being would be able to pay the price for sin and have that payment be acceptable to God’s perfect justice. Jesus is that unique, perfect sacrifice, the “Lamb without spot or blemish” (1 Peter 1:19), a reference to the symbolism of the Old Testament sacrifices wherein no animal with a defect was acceptable as an offering to the Lord (e. g., Exodus 29:1; Deuteronomy 17:1; Malachi 1:6-14). In the analogy, the perfect body of the animal represents the fact that Jesus was a perfect and perfectly acceptable substitute for us, qualified in every way to be our sin-bearer. Part of this perfection rested in the fact that, unlike all of the rest of us, He lacked a sin nature, and, unlike all of the rest of us, He never committed a single personal sin (subjects about which we shall have more to say below). But in addition to preserving the perfection of His body, our Lord was also required to demonstrate and preserve the perfection of His human spirit as well, and that required complete integrity in the exercise of His human free will from the moment of physical birth to the moment of physical death. There is a principle of leadership which proclaims that a commander should never require more of his men than he himself would be willing to do in their place. Never has this principle been carried out more completely or more faithfully than in the case of our Lord Jesus, “the Captain” of our salvation (Hebrews 2:10), who not only lived a perfect life of selfless sacrifice far beyond anything we are capable of imagining, but who even more amazingly died on the cross for all of our sinful failures. But without kenosis, it would have been impossible for our Lord’s human free will to be put to the extreme and honestly unimaginable tests He had to endure (all of which He accepted and passed in perfect fashion). That is because with the help of His deity they would not have been tests at all. And without kenosis, it would have been impossible for our Lord to die on the cross at all, because on the one hand He would not have been able to die physically (since deity cannot die), and because He could not have come into contact with our sins in order to die for them on the other (since deity can have no contact with sin). In short, without kenosis, there would have been little point to the incarnation in the first place. In order to be an acceptable substitute for us, our Lord would have to do more than “merely” refrain from sin: He would have to exercise His human free will in this world just as we do, but do so in an absolutely perfect way; then, having done so throughout His life, He would have to go to the cross for us, suffer and die for us, all from that same, genuinely human free will. So while it is common in theological treatments of this sort to concentrate on our Lord’s sinless life, it was His perfect, daily response to the Father in carrying out all the positive actions that were required of Him that was arguably something which required far greater effort than “merely” avoiding the negative ones. This is unquestionably true when it to comes the most difficult exercise of free will any human being has ever dreamed of attempting, namely, our Lord’s obedient willingness to go to His death for us on the cross, a sacrifice which Jesus had to agree to undertake every step of the way, a decision which was challenged every step of the way, and an incomparably blessed wonder that cannot be compared to any other event in the history of the universe. Indeed, our Lord’s free will acceptance of God’s judgment for our sins is history, the cornerstone event upon which everything else depends (whether or not we fully appreciate at present the extent to which this is true). Simply put, our Lord took on true humanity for a purpose, namely, to carry out the Father’s plan of salvation, and since the carrying out of that plan was impossible without Jesus’ humbling of Himself as the Servant of God, kenosis, the temporary state of living in humiliation without the glory He possessed from before the world was created (John 10:30), was necessary for us to be saved (Isaiah 49:7; Isaiah 52:1-13, Isaiah 53:1-12; Luke 22:27; 2 Corinthians 8:9; Php 2:5-11). “Just so the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve, even to give His life as a ransom in behalf [of the lives] of many”. Matthew 20:28. For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that although He was rich (i. e., divine), He made Himself poor (i. e., human and under the restraints of kenosis), in order that you might become rich (i. e., have eternal life) through His impoverishment (i. e., humble life and death on the cross for us all). 2 Corinthians 8:9. For what the Law could not accomplish (i. e., solving the sin problem) because it was weak on account of [its dependence on sinful human] flesh, God [did accomplish]: having sent His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for the purpose of [expiating] sin, [God] rendered summary judgment on [all] sin in [Christ’s] flesh. Romans 8:3. One important result of our Lord’s incarnation and of His walking through this world in the complete humiliation of kenosis is that He has personal experience of what it is like to be a human being, and of what it takes to do the will of God in this world. For it was fitting for [the Father] to make complete through sufferings Him on whose account all things exist and through whom all things exist, namely, the Captain of their salvation, even Him who has led many sons to glory, [our Lord Jesus Christ]. For the One who sanctifies and those who are sanctified belong to One [Father], and for this reason [Christ] is not ashamed to call them His brothers, as He says: I will proclaim Your name to My brothers. In the midst of the assembly I shall praise you and elsewhere, I [too] shall put My confidence in Him (i. e., the Father) and elsewhere, Behold, I and the children whom God has given Me. Therefore since “these children” (i. e., believers given to Christ by God: Hebrews 2:13) have a common heritage of flesh and blood, [Christ] too partook of these same [common elements] in a very similar fashion (i. e., not identical only in that He was virgin born and so without sin), in order that through His death He might put an end to the one possessing the power of death, that is, the devil, and might reconcile those who were subject to being slaves their whole lives long by their fear of death. For it is certainly not angels He is giving aid to, but He is giving aid to the seed of Abraham (i. e., believing humanity). For this reason, it was essential for Him to be like His brothers in every respect, in order for Him to be a merciful and faithful priest (i. e., go-between) in matters concerning God so that He could expiate (i. e., “cover”) the sins of the people. For because He has suffered, He is able to help those who are being tested, since He Himself was [also] put to the test. Hebrews 2:10-18. For we do not have a high-priest who is unable to identify with our weaknesses, but One who was tested in every way in a similar fashion [to us] – [but] without sin. Hebrews 4:15. Now of course Jesus is God in His own right, and in His humanity He perfectly fulfilled the will of the Father for His life in every single respect (e. g., Isaiah 42:19; John 10:30). And it must also never be forgotten that the “testing” He underwent was in every way and on every level far more intense than we can even conceive, right down to the gauntlet of the cross and of His death on our behalf (things the like of which we will never be called upon to endure). But in all that He was called to do, Jesus did it perfectly in perfect response to the Father’s will. Jesus’ earthly life was thus also an example to us of what we ought to do as well: always putting the Father’s will, the Father’s plan, ahead of personal plans, desires, and weaknesses. Naturally, we will never come close to duplicating what our Lord accomplished in exercising perfect Human will from His humanity without the help of His deity (an area of temptation with which we are not even able to identify), but we can and should emulate Him to the best of our ability. 2) The role of Christ’s divine nature during the period of kenosis: In Matthew’s account of Jesus’ arrest, there is a passage which reveals much about the nature of the voluntary restriction by our Lord of the use of His deity. After Peter in his misguided zeal struck with a sword one of those who had come to arrest Jesus, Matthew tells us that our Lord said, “Do you assume that I am not able to entreat my Father, and that He will not immediately bring more than twelve legions of angels to my aid?” (Matthew 26:53). Though God in His own right, even in this extreme situation our Lord demonstrates deference to the Father, maintaining His attitude of humble obedience in the carrying out of the Father’s plan. Jesus did not actually make this hypothetical request (to which He gives voice only for the benefit of Peter and the other disciples), yet we see clearly from the emphatic nature of His words that He was in absolutely no doubt that as God’s Son, co-equal, co-eternal, and consubstantial with the Father, the request would certainly have been granted, had He decided to make it. Given our perfect Lord’s absolute surety about this amazing potential deliverance, we can ascertain that the only thing standing between Jesus’ humanity and the full use of His deity on behalf of that humanity was at all times during the first advent the righteous exercise of His human free will alone responding to the plan and the mission on which He had been sent. We may therefore further discern that the “barrier” between the two natures which we are calling kenosis was not something imposed “from above” by His deity. Rather it was a conscious limitation undertaken by His humanity in consonance with His deity, a fact which makes our Lord’s successful completion of His life without violating the restrictions of kenosis all the more amazing (for which of us if possessed of any remotely similar “power” could realistically be expected to refrain from using it?). Jesus knew full well that He was God, yet He did not “access” His divine nature on behalf of His human nature in violation of the principle discussed above, for to do so would essentially have invalidated the acceptability of His sacrifice on our behalf. Therefore our Lord’s humiliation for our sake involved far more than perfect separation from sin or even perfect use of His human free will in all the ways with which we are familiar: it also involved perfect self-restraint in voluntarily refraining from using His deity day by day, moment by moment, test by test. Seen from the point of view of His divine essence, kenosis means that, until His glorification, by becoming human Jesus took on a material existence and eschewed the use of His omnipotence in that material humanity. By becoming human Jesus subjected Himself to time and eschewed the use of His omniscience in that humanity. And by becoming human Jesus limited Himself to finite space and eschewed His omnipresence in that humanity. The cost to Him and the difficulty of the human life thus undertaken can scarcely be appropriately described, let alone even marginally appreciated. Suffice it so say that Jesus’ love for us knows no bounds. As to what these limitations meant in the playing out of His thirty three years on earth, we shall limit ourselves to two examples which are instructive in demonstrating the boundaries within which this restriction on the exercise of His deity operated. In His temptation in the desert, Satan dared our Lord to turn stones into bread (Matthew 4:3). Now Jesus was extremely hungry, having just fasted for forty days (Matthew 4:2). From the context, it would appear that the fast and ordeal to which He had been led by the Spirit (Matthew 4:1) had ended or was on the point of ending. Furthermore, eating is legitimate in any case, and would certainly be so and be all the more necessary at the conclusion of a lengthy and difficult fast of this sort. And Jesus could indeed have called upon His deity to do what the devil suggested. We know from our Lord’s words and actions here, however, that to do so would have been wrong. For He was clearly not authorized to use His deity to aid His humanity even under these abnormally stressful and trying circumstances. In all such instances, our Lord endured far beyond the point where you or I would no doubt have given in. And He did so because “man does not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God” (Matthew 4:4). In other words, God the Father’s will was paramount to our Lord, and He never violated the restrictions which He was charged to observe. Throughout His earthly life, He suffered in the same way in which we must do – save of course for the fact that what He endured and suffered even before the gauntlet that led up to the cross is beyond our ken, even without figuring in the strain of knowing He was God and yet refraining from making use of His divinity. A second incident illustrative of the boundaries imposed by kenosis is found in Luke 4:16-30, the story of His rejection at the hands of his countrymen in Nazareth. After our Lord upbraided them for their unbelief (Luke 4:23-27), they became enraged and dragged Him off to the cliff upon which the town was built in order to throw Him down to His death (Luke 4:29). But Jesus “passed through the midst of them and went His way” (Luke 4:30). This certainly implies the use of supernatural power, and the distinction between this situation and that of Matthew chapter four could not be more clear. In the first instance, Jesus would have been making His own lot easier when it was not absolutely necessary. But in this case, had our Lord allowed the crowd to throw Him down the cliff, the prophecies of the manner of the Messiah’s death would be negated – as would our eternal salvation. We see then this basic principle at work throughout the first advent, namely, of our Lord using the power and gifts given to Him only in accordance with the Father’s will in order to advance the Father’s plan of salvation (for example, all of His miracles, healing, and raising of the dead in fulfillment of the scriptures), but refraining from the use of His divinity in any way whatsoever when it came to the possibility of relieving His own inconvenience, need, fatigue, toil or suffering – all the way to and through the ultimate suffering of the crucifixion and His death in the darkness on the cross for us all. Thus our Lord is permitted to turn water into wine for the benefit of others and a sign to His disciples, but not to turn stones into bread for His own benefit. He may walk on the water as a sign to others and in the furtherance of the Father’s plan (delayed by necessary work and prayer, and now catching up to the disciples), but He still walks. He can overturn the incredibly heavy tables in the temple with superhuman strength to fulfill the prophecies, but He offers no defense whatsoever to those who come to arrest Him in Gethsemane. He can disappear through crowds to maintain His life to be sacrificed at the proper time, but He does not seek to avoid the cross. 3) Kenosis and the cross: Our Lord Jesus Christ “came into the world to save sinners” (1 Timothy 1:15), and this overarching purpose of saving us by His death for us on the cross constituted the single most important act of His human free will in response to the Father’s divine will. Therefore as [Jesus Christ] was coming into the world (i. e., at His birth) He said, “You [Father] did not desire sacrifice or offering, but you have prepared a body for Me. In burnt offering and sin offerings You took no pleasure”. At that time (i. e., His birth) He [Jesus Christ in His deity] said, “Behold, I have arrived (i. e., been born) – in the scroll of a book it is written of Me – to do your will, O God”. Above when He speaks of, “sacrifices and offerings” and [says] “burnt offering and sin offerings You did not desire” – which are things offered through the Law’s prescription – then He has stated, “Behold, I have arrived to do your will”. He removes the first [covenant] in order to establish the second. It is by this [free] will [act of Jesus in dying for our sins] that we have been sanctified, through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ, once and for all. Hebrews 10:5-10. While every single decision our Lord made from His humanity during His first advent was perfectly responsive to God the Father, without His willingness to go to the cross and die for our sins in our place we would still be lost. The difficulty of this decision and the incredible load it placed upon our Lord may be seen from two sayings of Jesus, both uttered and both recorded for our benefit rather than for His (a fact often poorly understood even in orthodox Christian circles). These are 1) His prayer in the garden of Gethsemane on the night He was betrayed, and 2) His quotation of Psalms 22:1 just before He breathed out His Spirit. In Gethsemane, Jesus prays that the “cup of the cross” might be taken away “if it be Thy will” (Matthew 26:39; Mark 14:35-36; Luke 22:41-42; John 12:27). Now our Lord knew very well what the Father’s will was, that it was in fact “for this very hour and purpose” that He came into to the world at all (John 12:27 cf. John 3:16). Therefore this prayer, far from being an indication of any doubt or second thoughts on our Lord’s part, was prayed and recorded entirely for our benefit, that we might understand on at least some superficial level what an immense thing it was to anticipate and then follow through on the Father’s will to die for the sins of the world on the cross. Secondly, when He had accomplished our eternal redemption through His blood, that is, through the bearing of our sins in the darkness on the cross, our Lord said, “My God, My God, why did your forsake Me?” (Psalms 22:1). This is also most definitely not a statement of confusion or discouragement – far from it! Our Lord quoted Psalms 22:1 just before He gave up His human spirit for our benefit, in order that we might know that He of His own free will in His humanity had voluntarily given Himself over to be forsaken and to be judged in the darkness for our sins in order that we might have eternal life. For our Lord knew very well why it was that He had to be forsaken and judged by His loving Father: in order that we might have eternal life. Therefore these two statements of our Lord immediately before and after His suffering for our sins, though often misunderstood, are in reality clear and deliberate proclamations of the fact that Jesus did what He did entirely of His own genuinely human free will in perfect responsiveness to the will of His Father and ours in order that we might be saved through His righteous act of sacrificing Himself on our behalf. From this we can see that our Lord’s human free will was precisely the same as ours – except that He used it perfectly and in perfect response to His Father’s will. In terms of our subject of kenosishere, then, we may say that in His humanity Jesus’ will was completely consistent with the will of His divine nature and with the Father’s will, but that in His humanity He had to make these perfect decisions at every step along the way throughout His perfect life. This completely correct decision-making on the part of His humanity is often termed “impeccability” (lit., “an inability to sin”). However, that particular terms suffers from two flaws:1) emphasizing the negative (i. e., not sinning) rather the much more important positive (i. e., the necessity to keep doing all that was required, moment by moment, day by day, no matter how difficult – and in light of the difficulty of going to the cross, this makes the avoidance of sin pale by comparison), and 2) the false implication that our Lord was unable to make bad decisions had He chosen to do so: while it is certainly true that our Lord’s success was never in doubt because of who He is, it is nevertheless a mistake to suggest that His human free will was different from ours in any way, or that His perfect record of good decisions from that human free will was not difficult in the extreme. Indeed, it is precisely because His humanity was genuine in every way that His suffering was likewise entirely genuine, and it is precisely because He was tested and tempted just as we are that He can sympathize with us perfectly as someone who has actually gone through the very crucible we are now negotiating (yet without sin, and to a degree beyond what we can even imagine, culminating in the cross): He humbled Himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even [His] death on [the] cross [for us all]. Php 2:8. For in subordinating the world to him, He left nothing that was not subordinate to him. However, we do not now yet see the world in subordination to him. But now we do see Jesus crowned with glory and honor on account of the death He suffered, even Him who became “a little lower than the angels” for a brief span so that by the grace of God He might taste death on behalf of us all. For it was fitting for [the Father] to make complete through sufferings Him on whose account all things exist and through whom all things exist, namely, the Captain of their salvation, even Him who has led many sons to glory, [our Lord Jesus Christ]. Hebrews 2:8-10. For we do not have a high-priest who is unable to identify with our weaknesses, but One who was tested in every way in a similar fashion [to us] – [but] without sin. Hebrews 4:15. f. The Incarnation and Virgin Birth: 1) The nature of the incarnation: Our Lord’s taking upon Himself of true humanity and thus becoming a genuine human being as well as undiminished deity is often called “the incarnation”, a word based upon the Latin caro / carnis meaning “flesh” (because Jesus came into the world “in the flesh”). As we have already pointed out, our Lord’s irreversible wedding of Himself to our kind in this way, God that He is, was in and of itself a stupendous event, especially when one considers what that event necessarily entailed, namely, His fulfilling of His mission and the Father’s will by dying for our sins. From the point of the incarnation onward, Jesus is both God and Man, the unique God-Man, undiminished deity and true humanity in One perfect Person forever. Scripture calls this time the “conjunction of the Ages” (Hebrews 9:26; cf. Romans 5:6; Galatians 4:4; 1 Timothy 2:6; Titus 1:3; Hebrews 1:1-2; 1 Peter 1:20), and so it is, for Jesus’ physical birth marks the postponement of the Jewish Age (cf. Matthew 11:12; Mark 1:15; Luke 12:49 ff.), while His death, resurrection and ascension to heaven signal the imminent commencement of the Church Age (Acts 1:4-5; cf. Matthew 27:51; Mark 7:27; John 2:4; John 7:8; Hebrews 9:10). 2) The conception of Jesus’ physical body and the fact of the virgin birth: Both Jesus’ conception and His birth were absolutely unique in the history of the world. While Adam and Eve were made directly by God, Jesus is the only human being who has or will ever be conceived by the agency of the Holy Spirit and born of a virgin. Both of these facets of our Lord’s incarnation need to be considered in their own right, and it is significant that the first prophecy to address the issue directly mentions both aspects of our Lord’s entrance into the world as a true human being: Therefore the Lord will Himself give you a sign. Behold, the virgin will conceive and will give birth to a Son, and you shall call His Name “Immanuel” (i. e., “God is with us”). Isaiah 7:14. “Behold, the virgin will conceive and will bear a Son, and they will call His Name ‘Immanuel’, which is translated ‘God is with us’”. Matthew 1:23. Without divine agency, virgin conception is, of course, an impossibility. Mary was therefore not rebuked for her questioning of the angel on this point (Luke 1:34), whereas Zechariah was (since in his case, the miracle was not only precedented but also fell within normal human parameters: compare Luke 1:18-20 with Genesis 18:10-14). Unlike any other human being before or since, the engendering of our Lord’s human body came about not through the agency of any created thing, not through any man or any angel, but through the Creator Himself, specifically, the Holy Spirit. Now the birth of Jesus Christ happened in this way. While His mother, Mary, was engaged to Joseph, [and] before the two of them had come together [as man and wife], she was found to be pregnant from the Holy Spirit. Matthew 1:18. “Joseph, son of David, don’t be afraid to take Mary as your wife. For that which has been conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit”. Matthew 1:20 b “The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. For this very reason that which is going to be born [of you] will be called holy, [the] Son of God”. Luke 1:35. As can be adduced from all three of these quotes, while the conception of our Lord’s human body was supernatural, as in the case of all human beings it is His birth rather than His conception which marks the beginning of His human life, the beginning, in His unique case, of the incarnation. And the Word became flesh and tented among us. And we beheld His glory, a glory like that of a one and only Son from [the] Father, full of grace and truth. John 1:14. (6) For a child is born to us, and a Son is given to us. Isaiah 9:6 a For You are the One who cut Me out of the womb. You are the One who made Me trust in You on my mother’s breasts. I was cast upon (i. e., made to rely upon) You from the womb (i. e., immediately after birth). [Since the moment I came] from out of the womb You have been my God. Psalms 22:9-10. Therefore as [Jesus Christ] was coming into the world (i. e., at His birth) He said, “You [Father] did not desire sacrifice or offering, but you have prepared a body for Me”. Hebrews 10:5. At that time (i. e., His birth) He [Jesus Christ in His deity] said, “Behold, I have arrived (i. e., been born) – in the scroll of a book it is written of Me – to do your will, O God”. Hebrews 10:7. You have taken no pleasure in sacrifices and offerings, [but instead] You have pierced My ears (i. e., “given Me a body and marked Me as a voluntary Servant”; cf. Exodus 21:5-6; Deuteronomy 15:16-17). You have not asked for burnt offerings or sin offerings. [But] then I said, behold, I have come [into the world (i. e., as the true sacrifice)]. In the scroll of the Book it has been written about Me. It is My good pleasure to do what pleases You, My God. For your Law is in My inmost parts. Psalms 40:6-8 (cf. Hebrews 10:5-10) 3) The Necessity for the Virgin Birth: In addition to the need for fulfilling the prophecies discussed above, it no doubt goes without saying that the virgin conception described in quotations above (Luke 1:35 in particular) along with the virgin birth that followed was also the only way for God to become man, for our eternal Lord Jesus Christ to take on a genuine human body and share in the flesh and blood we all possess. Since His coming into the world was absolutely necessary for us to be saved, this is certainly the primary reason that necessitated His conception and birth take place in this miraculous way. But there is a secondary reason as well, which, if not as primarily critical, would in and of itself likewise necessitate Jesus being virgin born: only a pure and sinless Jesus Christ would be qualified to bear our sins and so atone for them on the cross (2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 Peter 2:22-24; Hebrews 2:14-18; Hebrews 4:15; Hebrews 7:26; 1 John 3:5 cf. Isaiah 53:9). Without a human father (Hebrews 1:1-14, Hebrews 2:1-18; cf. John 19:34-35; 1 John 5:6-8), the potential problem of the passing down of the sin nature through the line of Adam could be and was thus avoided. Indeed, since the sin nature is universally passed down from Adam through the male line, a virgin birth was the only way in which our Lord could be at the same time truly and completely human, and yet be born without a sin nature. For Jesus’ mother, Mary, an exceptional woman of exceptional spirituality, was nevertheless human and thus possessed a sin nature as we all do. It was Adam who “brought sin into the world” by sinning in cognizance. Even though Eve too had sinned, she did so in ignorance. Since it was Adam who thus caused “death to spread to all mankind”, not Eve, the sin nature is passed down through the male line, not the female line: So just as through one man sin came into the world and, through sin, death, and thus (i. e., Adam physically passing on his sin nature resulting in universal spiritual death) death spread to all mankind – for [obviously] everyone sins, . . .Romans 5:12. Thus, by being Virgin-born, Jesus did not receive the transmission of a sin nature in the manner of the rest of Adam’s progeny. 4) The birth of Christ: a) The birth of Christ Prophesied: We have already seen (in section I. 5.d. 1 above) that the historical birth of Christ was prophesied extensively in the Old Testament. Therefore the Lord will Himself give you a sign. Behold, the virgin will conceive and will give birth to a Son, and you shall call His Name “Immanuel” (i. e., “God is with us”). Isaiah 7:14 (Matthew 1:23) b) The date of the birth of Christ: To begin with, we know from Luke 3:1 that John began baptizing “during the fifteenth imperial year of Tiberius” (i. e., from August 19th of A. D. 28 to August 18th of A. D. 29). Since Luke states that Jesus was “about thirty” at the commencement of His public ministry (Luke 3:23), an event that post-dates the time when John began baptizing, there can be little doubt that the birth of Christ is to be fixed ca. 1-2 B. C. To place Christ’s birthday any earlier would make Him “twenty-something”, not “about thirty”. Moreover, this phrase is best taken (and arguably can only be properly taken, especially given Luke’s penchant for precision: cf. the precise dating of John’s ministry at Luke 3:23) to mean that while Christ had not yet reached His thirtieth birthday, He was very close to doing so, that is, He was 29 and set to turn thirty that same calendar year. If we accept December as Christ’s birth-month, therefore, He will then have been born in 2 B. C. (only one year earlier than supposed by the Christo-centric calendar we now use, established by Dionysius Exiguus ca. 525 A. D. at the behest of Pope John I). It is impossible within the scope of this study to detail all of the chronological details and arguments connected with Christ’s birth, but the 2 B. C. date, in addition to being based on the only two clear chronological references in the gospel (i. e., Luke 3:1 and Luke 3:23), is also recommended by three other important factors. First, it allows for a three year ministry of Christ (as required by the chronological details of John’s gospel). Secondly, it allows for a crucifixion date of 33 A. D., by far the most likely date when independently derived. And, thirdly, it squares most precisely with the universal census mentioned by Luke (Luke 2:1-3). As to the census, the first two points that need to be clarified here are that the universal census described in Luke 2:1-3 is not the census of Quirinius, and, secondly, that Luke does not in fact equate the two. That Quirinius, Roman governor of Syria from ca. AD. 6 to 11, held a census in A. D. 6-7 is well established (cf. Josephus, B. J. 2.118; 2.433; 7.253; A. J. 18.4-10; 18.23-25; 20.102). It is therefore unfortunate that English versions of the Bible inevitably mis-translate Luke’s Greek to make these two separate censuses appear to be one and the same. Properly translated, Luke 2:2 states that “this was a census which occurred prior to Quirinius’ governorship of Syria”. It was important for Luke to point out the distinction between the census that took place at Christ’s birth and the one held later by Quirinius. For, being seven years more recent and also more notable on account of the armed resistance it engendered, Quirinius’ census would have been easily confused by his readers with the earlier one he describes at Luke 2:2 (a confusion which, ironically, modern interpreters have almost universally failed to avoid in any case). The Roman Empire was a triumph of bureaucratic organization as well as military might. Not surprisingly, accurate census data (especially as it related to taxation) was essential for its administrative and financial operation. In his res gestae, the synopsis of his most prestigious accomplishments, Augustus devotes considerable space to his work in census matters (CIL v. 3, in loc., para. 8). Secular historians have been (unreasonably, in my view) skeptical about extrapolating a regular, empire-wide census from Augustus’ remarks cited above. Indeed, Augustus’ census of Roman citizens in 9/8 B. C. is paralleled by evidence for a census taking place in the Roman province of Egypt at the same time. This Egyptian census cycle is known to us primarily from papyrological records, and that fact is significant, for papyrus has generally only survived from antiquity in places with extremely arid climates (i. e., conditions which did not obtain in most of the rest of the Empire). Mundane records such as official census returns are not likely candidates for preservation in climates where heroic efforts were historically necessary to safeguard important literary texts. In other words, there is much we simply will never know, because the documentation has not survived. But when we add to the 9/8 B. C. and 6/7 A. D. censuses the further fact of a 13/14 A. D. census under Augustus and Tiberius, the pattern of a seven year cycle emerges, and 2/1 B. C. is the only gap within this otherwise repetitive cycle. Rather than a slap-dash approach, it seems more in keeping with his penchant for careful organization that Augustus would have begun the systematic application of Roman census procedures (cited in his res gestae above) not just to certain provinces, but to all territories under Roman sway, exactly as the biblical record indicates: And it came about in those days that a decree went out from Augustus Caesar to conduct a census of the entire civilized world (i. e., the whole Roman empire). Luke 2:1. One of the characteristics of Roman provincial census procedures which seems to be indicated by our admittedly incomplete data on the topic is that results are recorded for the year preceding the year of recording. The census process thus covered roughly two calendar years, with the first year being the year of record and the second the year of recording. But unlike in the U. S. today where we file income tax by April the 15th of the year following the year being officially recorded, under the Roman system the census was a “snapshot” of assessable wealth and legal status, taken (and officially registered) during the first year, thus giving the imperial administration a further year to verify, validate, correct if necessary, and record the information submitted by all residents of the province in question. That, at least, is what the surviving evidence strongly suggests. And coupling this last fact with the likelihood that Joseph and Mary journeyed to Bethlehem to fulfill the legal requirements of the universal census of 2/1 B. C., we would come again to the proposition stated above that Christ was born in 2 B. C., the year of registration (as opposed to 1 B. C., the year of official recording). c) The place of the birth of Christ: Our Lord’s nativity in Bethlehem fulfilled the prophecies about the coming Son of David, offering tangible proof of His Messiahship from the instant of His unique birth (cf. Isaiah 9:1-2; Matthew 2:23; Matthew 4:14-16): But you, O Bethlehem Ephrathah, too small to be numbered among the clans of Judah, from you I will bring forth the One who is to rule over Israel. His goings forth are from long ago, even from the days of eternity. Micah 5:2. Being born in Bethlehem also has to do with the important issue of demonstrating and validating our Lord’s inheritance and claim to the throne as the greater Son of David who was prophesied to come and “rule over Israel” (cf. the importance of our sharing in an eternal inheritance through Him: Romans 8:17; Galatians 3:29; Ephesians 1:11-18; Ephesians 3:6; Colossians 1:12; Colossians 3:24; Titus 3:7; Hebrews 6:17; Hebrews 9:15; Hebrews 11:9; 1 Peter 1:4; 1 Peter 3:7; James 5:2; Revelation 21:7). Bethlehem is of course David’s city, and our Lord’s physical line (through Mary) and legal line (through Joseph) both go back to David and were both therefore intimately connected with Bethlehem as the geographic focus of the earthly inheritance of David’s progeny. Being born in Bethlehem was thus a prerequisite for anyone claiming a share in the Davidic line, especially for anyone who claimed to be the Messiah (cf. Matthew 2:5; John 7:42). Additionally, the name Bethlehem means “house of bread”, and this fact is certainly also meant to be prophetically significant since Jesus, the true Messiah, is “the Bread of Life” through the partaking of whom by faith we have eternal life (cf. John 6:32-58). As we have already seen, the genealogies in Matthew 1:1-17 and Luke 3:23-38 serve slightly different purposes, with Matthew’s genealogy giving Jesus’ legal line (through His “step-father”, Joseph), and Luke giving Jesus’ blood line (traced from Mary all the way back to Adam in order to demonstrate beyond any question Jesus’ true humanity). Both lines go back to David through the royal family of Israel, making both Mary (Jesus’ blood line) and Joseph (Jesus’ line of inheritance) regal in every respect. This also means that Mary and Joseph were distantly related, though not nearly so closely as to provide any grounds for objection. This detail was in fact something that recommended the match since it kept any inheritance within the clan (a not uncommon thing in arranged marriages before and since). Moreover, since they were each of the line and lineage of David, both Mary and Joseph would have had their “official inheritance” in Bethlehem and its environs, a fact important both for Jewish genealogical recording (especially in the royal and priestly lines, cf. Ezra 2:62), and also for Roman administrative purposes. As discussed above, Rome carried out a regular sequence of the census in the provinces (every seven years – the one at Jesus’ birth being the first “world-wide” one, though they had been held in some provinces before this), and in each such case there was first a “year of enrollment” wherein each individual had to register his/her property in his/her official place of residence. This, of course, was a much more crucial thing in that day and age than it is today, for citizenship and civil rights were tied to localities for non-Roman citizens (so that this would be analogous today to U. S. citizens having to return to their original home states every so often to maintain their rights and pay their taxes). Although we do not know anything specific about Mary’s immediate family, it is well to note that the Law required women who were heirs to the ancestral inheritance in their own right for want of male siblings to marry within their tribe and within their immediate clan (Numbers 36:6-9). So it may very well be that Mary as well as Joseph were each heirs to their own ancestral inheritances, giving our Lord in this instance (as well as other; cf. section I. 3.a above) a “double portion” symbolic of His unique humanity. Furthermore, if Mary no less than Joseph had reason to register for the census in Bethlehem, it would explain why Joseph felt it necessary to take her along, even though her pregnancy was by that time very far advanced. In any case, all of these events worked together to bring about our Lord’s birth in Bethlehem, the city of David, according to the prophecies. d) The timing of the birth of Christ: Scripture is clear that Christ’s coming into the world occurred at exactly the right time, the precise time, in fact, that God had ordained since before the world began. Indeed, God has constructed history’s true timetable entirely around Jesus Christ who is the pivot of God’s plan and the central Person of history when correctly understood from the divine point of view. [Jesus, whose coming was] foreordained before the creation of the world, but who appeared [in the flesh] at the end of times because of us (i. e., for our salvation). 1 Peter 1:20. God, from antiquity having communicated to our fathers in the prophets at many times and in many ways, has in these last days communicated to us in a Son, [the One] whom He has appointed heir of all things, [the One] through whom He created the universe. Hebrews 1:1-2. 1. Jesus came when “the right time was at hand”: Mark 1:15. 2. Jesus came at the “proper time”: Romans 5:6. 3. Jesus came in the “fullness of time”: Galatians 4:4. 4. Jesus came when “the times had reached their fulfillment”: Ephesians 1:10. 5. Jesus came at the very “conjunction of the ages”: Hebrews 9:26. e) The events surrounding the birth of Christ: The coming of the Messiah did not occur with the fanfare with which His arrival was expected by the religious community of that day. Instead of being announced to the reputed leaders of Judaism, Jesus’ coming was announced to shepherds at night, as light shining out of darkness (Isaiah 9:1-7; Luke 1:78-79), and good news being preached to the lowly (Isaiah 61:1; Luke 1:52). Instead of being revealed to His countrymen, His coming was made known to foreigners, believers who followed God’s word instead of the traditions of mere men (Matthew 15:9; Mark 7:7), and who used the things of this world to worship the Savior rather than worshiping the things of this world (Matthew 23:1-36). And instead of coming in resplendent glory, Jesus came as a true, as yet unglorified human being through physical birth (Hebrews 2:14-17; Hebrews 4:14-16), coming into this world in order to die for us (Hebrews 10:5-10). 1. The proclamation to the shepherds: Now there were shepherds in that area who were camping out and keeping watches through the night to tend their flock. And an angel of the Lord appeared to them and the glory of the Lord shone all around them [so that they] were very frightened. And the angel said to them, “Don’t be afraid. For, behold, I proclaim good news to you [of] a great [occasion for] joy which will belong to your entire people. Today there has been born for you a Savior. [Even He] who is Messiah (i. e., Christ), Lord – in the city of David. And this will be your sign [that the One you find is truly Him]: You will find a [newly] swaddled baby lying in a feeding trough”. And immediately there was with the angel a multitude of [the] heavenly army [of elect angels], [all] praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest [heavens]! And [also] on [the] earth [let there be] peace among men of [His] good pleasure (i. e., “men with whom He is well pleased = believers)”. And it came about as the angels left them for heaven that the shepherds were talking with each other. “Let’s go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened which the Lord has made known to us”. And they hurried and went, and they found Mary and Joseph, and the baby [who was] lying in a feeding trough. And when they saw [these things], they let [everyone] know about what had been told them concerning this child. And everyone who heard was amazed at what was told them by the shepherds. And Mary remembered these words of theirs, [and was] meditating on them in her heart. And the shepherds returned [to their flocks], glorifying and praising God for all the things they had heard and seen [which turned out] exactly like it had been told to them. Luke 2:8-20. In the manner of His famous ancestor king David whom God prepared to lead His people Israel through the experience of faithfulness in shepherding, Jesus is the Good Shepherd of the sheep (John 10:14), and our Lord uses this same analogy to show Peter and all “pastors” after him what is really important in leading the Church of Christ: feeding the flock and caring for their safety through the Word of God (John 21:15-19; cf. Luke 10:38-42). As is obvious from their positive response, these shepherds to whom the angels proclaimed the coming of the Messiah were clearly believers who were awaiting the “hope of Israel” (cf. Acts 28:20). Rather than being heralded in Jerusalem to the assembled multitude and rulers of the people, our Lord is announced instead to a group of men who would never enter the thoughts of the rulers, priests, Sadducees, Pharisees, and other powerful individuals of Judea. But these faithful believers prove obedient to the angelic proclamation, and do not take umbrage at the fact that the Messiah has been born as a lowly human baby in most inglorious circumstances (as the worldly “persons of repute” would most certainly have done, and in fact did throughout our Lord’s first advent). 2. The babe in the manger (Luke 2:4-20): In the place where Joseph and Mary stayed in Bethlehem, there was no crib in which to lay our newly born Lord. For this reason, they used a feed trough instead, that is, a movable wooden tray deep enough to hold animal feed, normally employed in a barn, but used here in place of a normal crib. This was the “sign” to the shepherds that the baby they found in Bethlehem was indeed the Messiah – not the fact that He was “swaddled”, that is, bound up in the wrap normally used to dress newborn infants in that day and age, but the fact that He, the Lord of the world, the One who created everything and who holds everything together by His powerful Word, was to be found lying in something so far from elegant that it was worthy of note and comment. This sign was a clear indication of the kenosisor humbling which coming into this world, becoming a true, unglorified human being, and taking on the form of a servant would entail for the Son of God. It was symbolic and representative of the human life He would lead: not a life of privilege, luxury, and appreciation for who He was and what He was about to do for all mankind, but instead a life characterized by humility, by privation, and by experience of the most outrageous ingratitude. Given the many popular misconceptions about this particular aspect of our Lord’s birth, a few further words of explanation are in order here. The notion that Jesus was born in a barn and that this is where Joseph and Mary had to stay because “there were no rooms at the inn” is, while very popular today, entirely based upon a misunderstanding of what the original text means in Greek as the following translations demonstrate: And [Mary] gave birth to her Son, her first born, and she wrapped Him up, and she lay Him down in a feed-trough (Greek phatne, φάτνη), because they did not have a[other suitable] place [to put Him] at the inn. Luke 2:7. And the [shepherds] hastened to come, and they found Mary and Joseph and the baby [Jesus] who (singular) was lying in the feed trough (i. e., the one explained in Luke 2:7 – this is the sign they were looking for). Luke 2:16. The Greek word translated “place” (topos, τόπος) may be only translated as “room” in the sense of “area” or “space” and does not have the meaning here of a “room” in a house (or inn) as, for example, the King James version seems to imply. Secondly, the word translated feed-trough above (Greek phatne, φάτνη), refers to just that, a relatively small oblong wooden box used for feeding cattle, and it is highly doubtful whether it can ever mean anything else. The KJV actually allows for understanding the passage as translated above (i. e., in English, a “manger” may mean a feed-trough as well as an entire barn), but once extrapolated from a misunderstanding of the KJV’s English, the “barn-manger” story has acquired an unfortunate cultural momentum of its own, unfortunate because the false focus on the “barn” and its putative menagerie of animals takes away from what we are supposed to concentrate on, namely, the fact that the sign of humiliation here belonged to and was meant to be focused upon our Lord alone – it did not extend to His parents or, still less, to the location. The feed-trough crib was a sign of His Messiahship, and a symbol of the life of humility and humiliation that He would endure on our behalf. It was, moreover, a sign and symbol of the momentous nature of the gift our heavenly Father was giving to the world by offering up His one and only Son on our behalf. The Lord of life, Maker and Sustainer of the universe, glorious God forever, was born to die. He came into this world in a dirty wooden box resembling a coffin and left it (before His resurrection) nailed to a rugged wooden cross, having died in our place that we might not die but instead have life eternal with Him. 3. Jesus’ dedication and presentation in the temple (Luke 2:21-38): Our Lord was circumcised on the eighth day after His birth in keeping with the sign of the covenant given to Abraham (Luke 2:21; cf. Genesis 17:1-27; Leviticus 12:3; John 7:22; Acts 7:8; Galatians 3:17), and given the name Jesus in accord with the directions of the angel to Joseph and to Mary individually (cf. Matthew 1:21, Matthew 1:25; Luke 1:31). After the forty days of separation and purification mandated for women upon the birth of a first born son were completed (Luke 2:22, Luke 2:39; cf. Leviticus 12:1-4), the family made the short journey from Bethlehem to Jerusalem in order to present the required sin offering for Mary (Leviticus 12:6-8; cf. Leviticus 5:7, Leviticus 5:11), as well as to present Jesus in the temple in order to consecrate Him to the Lord (Luke 2:23; cf. Exodus 13:2; Numbers 3:13; Numbers 8:17), without doubt also paying the redemption price required of all first born males, “five shekels of silver” (Exodus 13:11-15; Exodus 34:20; Numbers 3:13, Numbers 3:44-48; Numbers 18:14-16). Joseph and Mary fulfilled all of these details carefully, and given this scrupulous approach, we can certainly conclude from the fact that the sin offering they provided for Mary was the inexpensive alternative to a lamb, namely, “a pair of doves or two young pigeons” (Luke 2:23), that 1) they were not of people of great means, and 2) the Magi had not yet come and presented Jesus with their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. As it would turn out, these gifts would be very needful to support the family during their flight to Egypt. Finally, the presentation of our Lord in the temple also provided an opportunity for two further witnesses to His Messiahship in the words of Simeon (Luke 2:29-32, also known as the nunc dimittis), who had been told by the Holy Spirit that he would not die until he had seen the Christ (Luke 2:26; cf. Luke 2:30 : “my eyes have [now] seen Your salvation”), and in the words of the prophetess Anna, which, while not recorded verbatim, were directed to all those who were “looking forward to the redemption of Israel”, a feat that only the Messiah could accomplish (Luke 2:38). 4. The star and the Magi (Matthew 2:1-18): Following our Lord’s presentation in the temple, Joseph and Mary, along with our Lord Jesus, returned to “their city” of Nazareth (Luke 2:39). Then, though we are not told specifically why, the family returned again to Bethlehem shortly thereafter. They may have received divine direction to do so, or they may have concluded on their own that the city of David, the ancestral town of both Mary and Joseph, was the proper place for the Messiah to be raised. In any case, the hypothesis that their brief return to Nazareth after Jesus’ presentation in the temple was for the purpose of closing down their household there and collecting up their possessions for the move has much to recommend it: in Matthew 2:11; the Magi find them in a “house” rather than in an “inn”, and we may glean from this that the family had secured what they may have hoped would be a permanent residence in Bethlehem after traveling south this second time (also implied by Joseph’s first inclination to take up residence in Judea rather than in Nazareth after the return from Egypt, a fact that suggests that he had intended to return to the new household already in place in Bethlehem). It was at this time that the Magi arrived, following the star which portended the birth of the Messiah, the Light of the world. Because of the compassionate mercies of our God, through which the rising [Light] from on high will visit us, to shine upon those in darkness and dwelling in the shadow of death, to make straight [paths for] our feet in the way of peace. Luke 1:78-79 (cf. Isaiah 9:2; Malachi 4:2) Jesus is the Light of the world (see section I. 4.b. 18 above). Throughout the Bible, light is a powerful metaphor, especially when contrasted with darkness. Light is good (Genesis 1:3); light is truth (John 3:21); light is life (John 1:4). Darkness is the absence of all these things, and it was into the darkness of this world that Jesus, the true Light, did come. Thus the star of light that heralds His birth, shining in the darkness, is a fitting symbol for our Lord’s first advent. He alone is life and light, clearly visible in the darkness around us, drawing all who are willing to come to His light. I, the Lord, have called You in righteousness, and shall take You by the hand, and guard You, and appoint You a covenant for the nations and a Light for the gentiles, to open the eyes of the blind, to bring forth the prisoner from the dungeon, and those who dwell in darkness from their place of captivity (i. e., physical and spiritual redemption). Isaiah 42:6-7. In Him was life, and this life was the light of men. And this light is shining in the darkness, and the darkness has not quenched it. John 1:4-5 (cf. John 8:12; John 12:46) For God who said, “Let light shine forth from the darkness!”, is He who has shone forth [His light] into our hearts to illuminate our knowledge of God’s glory in the Person of Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians 4:6. The true Light which illuminates every human being was coming into the world. John 1:9. Sadly, however, though He came to give light to the entire world, only a handful are willing to open their eyes and see the Light of truth. The star of Bethlehem was visible far and wide throughout Judea, yet it was left to a small number of foreigners to recognize it for what it was, the sign of the Messiah. Thus the star shining in the darkness and leading the way to the Messiah, to salvation through faith in the true Light of the world is an apt metaphor for the fact that although Jesus came to His own, His own were, by and large, not willing to receive Him. He came to His own, but His own did not receive Him. John 1:11. This is the [basis for] judgment, that the light came into the world, and that men loved darkness rather than light. John 3:19. The Magi (a Persian word from which our “magic” is derived through Greek) are traditionally known as the “wise men”. That these gentiles were believers who were waiting for the kingdom of God is evident from their actions: They come from a long distance on a difficult trip (Matthew 2:1-2). God guides them on their journey (Matthew 2:1-2, Matthew 2:9-10; Matthew 2:12). They bestow extremely expensive gifts on the Messiah (Matthew 2:11). They “worship” Jesus when they find Him in Bethlehem (Matthew 2:2, Matthew 2:11). They respond obediently to the dream given by God which warned them not to return to Herod (Matthew 2:12). The status of the wise men as believers may also be seen from the means by which they knew to come and had been motivated to come at all, namely, through the diligent searching of the scriptures: [The wise men] were saying, “Where is the One who has been born King of the Jews? For we saw His star in the east and have come to worship Him”. Matthew 2:2. For a Star will march forth from Jacob, and a [Ruler’s] scepter [will arise] from Israel. Numbers 24:17 b (Matthew 2:1-13; cf. Genesis 49:8-12; Deuteronomy 33:7; Luke 1:78; Revelation 12:5) Given that in Matthew 2:1 the wise men are said to have come “from the east”, and given the fact that they know the scriptures and prophecies about the Messiah and respond to them so wholeheartedly and enthusiastically, it seems certain that these Magi are successors to the guild of wise men of whom Daniel was put in charge and over whom he unquestionably exerted considerable influence during his long tenure as their head (Daniel 2:48). At the time of Christ, moreover, Babylon, while no longer an important political capital, was still a center of such “higher learning”. While we would certainly not wish to accord all who claimed the title “Magician” at that time the truly blessed appellation of “believer”, this small group of gentile men, dedicated to the scriptures, were rewarded for their faith in the truth, and were used of God in this extraordinary way, being privileged not only to experience the fulfillment of the prophecy they had long studied even to the extent of seeing the Messiah with their own eyes, but also to be allowed to contribute to God’s plan so significantly in the giving of the expensive gifts of “gold, myrrh, and frankincense”, with the gold representing Jesus’ deity (as is often the case in symbolism of the temple, gold being rare, precious, and glorious), the myrrh (a costly substance used in making incense and in the process of embalming) representing His humanity taken on in order to die for us, and the sweet savor of the frankincense representing the acceptability of His sacrifice (cf. the “sweet savor” of the Levitical offerings representing Christ’s work: Ephesians 5:2; cf. Hebrews 1:3). These valuable treasures almost certainly funded the escape of our Lord and His family to Egypt and supported them while they were there. As to the star itself, it is wrong to think of this object as a “star” in the sense that modern astronomy defines stars, or even as an asteroid or a comet. The description of this luminous object’s behavior in Matthew makes it very clear that it is not to be identified with any such phenomenon and that we will search in vain for any secular evidence of its appearance, ancient or modern. This particular “star” has as its purpose not only the fulfillment of the prophecy in Numbers 24:17 (quoted above) heralding the advent of the Messiah, but also the directing of the Magi to Bethlehem. For this particular “star” actually guides the wise men to the place of Christ’s birth – indeed it directs them to the very house in which He and Mary and Joseph were staying (Matthew 2:9-10). The star appeared at Christ’s birth, fulfilled the prophecy, brought the Magi to Judea, and led them to Jesus – and then apparently disappeared, its purpose having been accomplished. This was entirely a supernatural event, foreordained and meticulously directed by God, not a predictable or otherwise recognizable astronomical event of the sort that can either be explained or rationalized by science. This was a miracle of the highest order. 5. The flight to Egypt and the second return to Nazareth: Divine intervention in the form of another angelic warning (Matthew 2:13-15) prompted the family’s rapid departure from their new home in Bethlehem to seek refuge in a part of the empire not under Herod’s control, namely, Egypt (a Roman province at this time). The fact that Joseph who had received the dream obeyed that very night is ample evidence of his responsiveness to the Lord. Such rapidity of response would be difficult for most if not all of us, having just made several long, overland round trips under what were no doubt very difficult circumstances, with Mary pregnant on the first leg, a very young child in tow on the second, and loaded down with all of the household possessions they could carry on the third. Having just now settled in to a new home after all of that, it would certainly be understandable if Joseph had been tempted to delay a few days, at least to get organized for the trip and to make arrangements for his new home during his absence – but he fled with his family that very night in complete and humble obedience to the Lord. From this and from Joseph’s earlier considerate treatment of Mary we may glean that our Lord Jesus was given two exceptionally God-fearing and spiritually mature individuals to rear Him. Herod’s command to destroy all of the male in Bethlehem who were “two years old and under” (Matthew 2:16) is a further indication that the visit of the Magi did not occur immediately after Jesus’ birth as the visit of the shepherds had. For it was certainly Herod’s understanding after his conversation with them that the initial appearance of the star had occurred at some time in the past, thus necessitating the murder of many young boys who were clearly not newborns. Wherever specifically in the east the Magi had come from, it is virtually certain that their journey and their preparations for it must have taken many months at least. Following Herod’s death, Joseph was once again told in a dream by an angel of the Lord to return to “the land of Israel”. According to his by now familiar pattern of obedience, he did so, intending to take up residence now at last in the family’s new homestead in Bethlehem of Judea (Matthew 2:22). En route, however, he discovered that Herod’s son Archelaus was the new ruler in Judea (not at all a certainty before the fact as the popular expectation may well have been that the Romans would dispense with the Herodian dynasty entirely after Herod’s demise). As a result, Joseph apparently decided on his own that it would be more prudent to head for Nazareth instead, and this spiritually laudable decision was graciously confirmed for him by a third dream (Matthew 2:19-23), thus relieving him of any nagging feelings that abandoning the little they now had out of reach in Bethlehem might have been a mistake. Nazareth thus becomes the place where Jesus grows up (cf. John 2:1). And herein we also see the fulfillment of the prophecy in Isaiah about light coming out of the darkness (i. e., the secular north country: Isaiah 9:1-2 – completed with the beginning and the end of Jesus’ earthly ministry: cf. Matthew 4:14-16; Matthew 28:7), as well as the prophecy of Jesus being a “Nazarene” (Matthew 2:23). The people who were walking in darkness have seen a Great Light. [And for] those dwelling in a land of the shadow of death, a Light has shone upon them. Isaiah 9:2. g. Early Life and Preparation for Ministry: The only gospel that even deals with our Lord’s life before the time when He was on the point of commencing His ministry at about age thirty is the gospel of Luke, and even here we have only the account of His Passover in Jerusalem at the age of twelve, framed with two general statements which characterize His formative years on the one hand and His years of further preparation on the other. This fact alone should impress upon us the burden our Lord took on for us. For though He is both God and man from the point of virgin birth, the Savior of the world, yet for thirty years He walked through this world in complete obscurity and anonymity, preparing for the ministry of ministries which would end in His sacrifice of Himself for the sins of that world. And the child grew up and was being strengthened [by being] filled up with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon Him. And His parents went every year to Jerusalem at the feast of the Passover. And when He was twelve years old, they went up according to the custom of the feast, but when they had completed their days [there] and as they were returning, Jesus, their young son, remained behind in Jerusalem, and His parents did not realize it. But since they assumed that He was in the traveling party, they went a day’s journey before they began to search for Him among their relatives and acquaintances. When they did not find Him, they returned to Jerusalem to look for Him. After three days, they found Him in the temple, sitting in the midst of the teachers both listening to them and asking them questions. And all who heard Him were amazed at His insight and His replies. And when His parents saw Him, they were astounded, and His mother said to Him, “Child, why have you treated us this way? Look, your father and I have been searching for you anxiously!” And He said to them, “Why were you looking for Me? Did you not know that I had to be in My Father’s things?” And they did not understand this statement which He spoke to them. And He went down with them and came to Nazareth and was obedient to them. And His mother was pondering all these things in her heart. And Jesus [continued to] make progress in His wisdom and His stature and in grace with God and with men. Luke 2:40-52. This passage, though rather short considering it contains by far the bulk of our information about our Lord’s life until the commencement of His ministry at about age thirty, is very revealing. For one thing, we see immediately the load and the difficulty that our Lord had to bear just in terms of His normal family life. He was God and the Son of God, and His answer to His parents indicates that without any doubt He was fully aware of these facts. And yet, since in order to be qualified to be our sin-bearer He had to live an absolutely perfect life, free from the slightest tinge of sin (a feat truly beyond our comprehension which He did indeed accomplish), our Lord had to be the perfect son, even as He had to prepare to fulfill the obligations of the Son perfectly. This meant obeying His parents when they were right – and when they were wrong. As Jesus perfectly negotiated the mundane hours, days, weeks, months and years until He came upon the scene to fulfill the ministry of ministries many years later, we can say without question that He never did wrong, either by omission or commission, and thus was never in the wrong. However, people being the imperfect creatures that they are, there must have been countless occasions whereupon He had to endure the faulty conclusions, impressions, and applications of others with whom He necessarily had to interact, and, until His majority, interact with in an obedient and submissive way – even on those numerous occasions where He was in the right and they were in the wrong. This would have been difficult enough for anyone to bear, but considering that He was aware of His status as the Son of God, and that He had to prepare with every spare moment and ounce of energy for what was to come, what for the rest of us would constitute mere “daily” life must have been for Him a gauntlet which intensified with every step forward. We often fail to appreciate the sacrifice that becoming a human being and enduring with perfect patience the years of waiting must have entailed for our Lord, even as He had to take maximum advantage of every opportunity to prepare for what would be the most incomparably difficult three and half year experience any human being would ever know culminating in the passion and the cross, especially since, being God, His existence before the incarnation was blessed to an infinite degree: For you know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, that though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, so that you through his poverty might become rich. 2 Corinthians 8:9 NIV Although our Lord’s parents, Mary His mother and Joseph His stepfather clearly did not entirely “get it” as this story shows, yet our Lord “got it” and yielded to them on this and without a doubt on many other occasions as well, maintaining perfect obedience in spite of ignorance, lack of appreciation, and downright opposition to His necessary course of spiritual growth (Luke 2:40). But before we are too hard on Mary and Joseph it is well to reflect that Jesus had the best possible parents, and we would be most unlikely to do as well. For we all say that we “know” that Jesus is our life, and say that we believe in the resurrection and eternal rewards as far more important than anything this earthly life has to offer, and yet we have a tendency to live life as if such were not the case. Mary and Joseph had seen the demonstrations of Jesus’ Messiahship at His virgin birth and had undoubtedly seen many other amazing things since, but even though on some level they believed (Luke 2:51; cf. Luke 2:19), it is safe to say that, like His future disciples, even daily contact with the One who had come into the world to save it was insufficient to melt through our human preoccupation with the world, given that Jesus’ refulgent deity was shielded from their view (cf. Mark 6:52; Mark 8:17). This too would be part of the daily challenge our Lord would have to face throughout His earthly life (cf. Matthew 17:17; Mark 9:19; Luke 9:41). It is also of great significance that our Lord, whose understanding of the Word was clearly light-years ahead of the most exalted scholars in Jerusalem by the time He was only twelve years old, still had to undergo a further 18 years of preparation before beginning His ministry of ministries. Such was the importance of the task He faced, such the magnitude of the degree of preparation necessary to successfully negotiate the crucible ahead. As discussed above, scripture makes it very clear that in His humanity Jesus was not exempted from any of the normal trials, temptations, or obligations that confront us all (cf. Isaiah 52:13-15, Isaiah 53:1-12; 2 Corinthians 8:9; Php 2:5-8; Hebrews 2:5-18; Hebrews 4:15; Hebrews 5:7-10). Without question this means that in that aspect of human life which is indeed the most important (though the least appreciated as such by humanity in generally), namely, spiritual growth, spiritually maturity and the deep and in His case perfect understanding of all the wisdom and counsel of God revealed to man was not offered up to our Lord on a silver platter. He had to learn truth and grow spiritually just as we do, only He actually did so in a perfect way and to a perfect degree. Spiritual growth is a process of seeking, learning, believing, and applying the truth of God’s Word (in deliberate thinking, speaking, and active behavior), and it is a measure of just what it would take to emulate our Lord’s accomplishment of becoming perfectly spiritually mature, having attained an absolutely complete and flawless understanding of the entire revealed truth of scripture, that it took Him nearly thirty years to do so (including the preparation necessary for His ministry, on which see below). For our Lord never involved Himself in any sinful waste of time. More to the point, He was thoroughly dedicated to the purpose for which He had come, for which He had been sent into the world, and love for the Father ruled His every thought and action. Accomplishment of the essential personal preparation of attaining complete spiritual maturity was thus for Him “job one”, and a task moreover that had to be completed by just the right time. Our Lord Jesus Christ did not have a minute to lose or a moment to spare, and He set Himself to the task of growing up spiritually from His earliest days, having gained a measure of insight few of us could ever hope to achieve by the time He was only twelve years old. That some eighteen additional years of concentrated “graduate study” were required before He would commence the most sublime ministration of God to man only goes to show how difficult in truth those final three and a half years were for Him (whether we fully appreciate that fact or not). So it is a fair and indeed an important question to ask, “just how did Jesus grow?”, especially since it is clear that His level of spiritual maturity at age twelve surpassed that of most if not all believers who have ever lived. The principle of kenosis (see section I. 5.e above) means that He did not have any sort of “unfair advantage” but had to grow up spiritually in precisely the same way as we all do. What advantages He did have as the Son of God, devoid of a sin nature and empowered to an unlimited degree by the Spirit from the moment of His birth, and as a prophet in His own right, were more than balanced by the extraordinary satanic opposition He faced throughout His earthly life, and the incredible difficulty of the mission on which He had been sent for the salvation of us all. For it was His challenge not only to grow up spiritually in a perfect way while living a perfect and sinless life of complete dedication to the Father, but also to conduct the perfect pre-cross ministry, run the most horrific gauntlet of opposition to get to the cross, and then bear the sins of the world while hanging there in the darkness between heaven and earth. It was prophesied about John the baptist, Jesus’ herald, that he would be “filled with the Holy Spirit from out of his mother’s womb” (i. e., from the moment of life at birth; Luke 1:15). And we may be sure that this was the case for the Messiah he heralded as well (Micah 3:8; cf. Matthew 3:11, Matthew 3:16; Matthew 4:1; Matthew 12:28, Matthew 12:31-32; Mark 1:8-12; Mark 3:29; Luke 3:16, Luke 3:22; Luke 4:1, Luke 4:14; Luke 4:18; Luke 11:13; Luke 12:10; John 1:32-33; John 7:39; John 14:26; John 15:26; John 16:15). And the Spirit of the Lord will rest upon Him (i. e., the Messiah), the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord. Isaiah 11:2. This was to fulfill what was spoken through the prophet Isaiah: “Here is my servant whom I have chosen, the one I love, in whom I delight; I will put my Spirit on him, and he will proclaim justice to the nations.” Matthew 12:17-18 NIV For the One God sent speaks the words of God. For the Father does not give [Him] the Spirit in a sparing way. He loves the Son and has given everything into His hand. John 3:34-35 (cf. John 6:63) And I saw in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, a Lamb standing [there, looking] as if He had been slain, with seven horns and seven eyes (which are the seven spirits of God sent out into the entire earth). Revelation 5:6. As we are told at John 7:39; the universal baptism of the Spirit was a gift from the Father to the victorious Son, and was thus not poured out upon all believers until after the cross, beginning on the day of the first post-cross Pentecost. But our Lord possessed the Spirit “without measure” (John 3:34), being filled from the moment of His birth – precisely as we believers all are now as well from the moment of our new birth (for the descent of the Spirit upon our Lord in visibly “bodily” fashion as a demonstration of His Messiahship see section I. 5.h. below). Thus our Lord’s astounding spiritual growth was not due to anything to which He had some unique or secret access. We too have the Spirit given in an unlimited way, for He now dwells in all of us as well (Romans 8:9; 2 Timothy 1:14), and as a result we possess the very “mind of Christ” (1 Corinthians 2:16; i. e., the indwelling of the Spirit illuminating the truth of scripture, all of which is accessible to us if we are willing to pursue it). The difference is that our Lord Jesus made perfect use of this wonderful Helper to learn and to grow and to live in precisely the way the Father desired, doing so perfectly at all times. For in Jesus Christ alone this unlimited portion of the Spirit met with perfect responsiveness. The passages in Luke commenting upon His childhood both make reference to the mechanics of the process of Jesus’ Spirit-empowered spiritual growth. Luke 2:40 tells us that He “grew and was strengthened by being filled upwith wisdom”, demonstrating perspicuously the fundamental principle of spiritual growth: learning, believing, and applying the truth of the Word of God (true wisdom). Luke 2:52 further states that Jesus grew “in wisdom” and (consequently) in “grace/favor with God and men”, showing us the result of this consistent process of spiritual growth: God’s legitimate pleasure in those who respond to Him. For while God’s grace is astounding and truly unlimited, it is clear from this and other passages that it is possible to “grow” in that grace, to experience an increase in grace (James 4:6; 2 Peter 3:18; cf. Acts 6:8; Romans 1:7; 1 Corinthians 1:3; 1 Corinthians 16:23; 2 Corinthians 1:2; 2 Corinthians 9:8, 2 Corinthians 9:14; 2 Corinthians 13:14; Galatians 1:3; Galatians 5:4; Ephesians 1:2; Ephesians 4:7; Ephesians 6:24; Php 1:2; Php 4:23; Colossians 1:2; Colossians 4:18; 1 Thessalonians 1:1; 2 Thessalonians 1:2; 1 Timothy 1:2, 1 Timothy 1:14; 1 Timothy 6:21; 2 Timothy 1:2; 2 Timothy 2:1; 2 Timothy 4:22; Titus 1:4; Titus 3:15; Philemon 1:3; Hebrews 4:16; Hebrews 12:15; Hebrews 13:25; 1 Peter 1:2; 1 Peter 5:5; 2 Peter 1:2; 2 John 1:3; Revelation 1:5; Revelation 22:21). And the means to the increase in God’s favor, God’s pleasure with us, is shown here by example on the part of the One who accomplished just such a “growth in grace” to a degree never to be matched before or since. It is important to note that God’s favor is not manifest in terms of overwhelming material prosperity in this instance (and if not in the case of the perfect response of His own Son, then we too would be wise not to look for God’s favor in purely material terms). But one important result seen here to flow from Jesus prodigious spiritual growth is that He also grew in grace concomitantly with men as well as with God: when we do what God wants us to do, we not only gain favor in His eyes, but He also gives us favor in the eyes of all with whom we have to do, even our enemies (Proverbs 16:7). Who has believed our report? And to whom has the Arm of the Lord (i. e., the Messiah) been revealed? For He grew up before Him like a suckling plant, like a root [springing up] from dry ground. Isaiah 53:1-2 a Every plant sprung from seed must grow in the natural way, from small to large, and without passing any step of growth along on the road to maturation as it pushes up against the resistance of the soil towards the light, drawing strength and size from that light. Our Lord would later repeat this image in the parable of the Sower wherein He told us how to grow, to provide good soil for our seed of faith, to grow apace, to rise above the weeds of this life, ever stretching outward and upward towards the light of the truth of the Word of God. And as the prophecy about Him in Isaiah above makes clear, He had already accomplished this very process Himself when He taught this lesson, and had done so to a perfect degree – in spite of the fact that in His case the earth was dry, an image which is meant to convey in a very vivid way the deprivation and the resistance with which the Messiah would have to cope even as He was accomplishing His historically exceptional course of spiritual growth. The Lord God has given Me a tongue of those who have been [fully] instructed [in the truth], that I may know the right words [of truth] to encourage (lit., “re-string” them like an unstrung bow) the weary. He arouses His Word [within Me]. [And] every morning He awakens Me. He awakens My ear[s] to listen like [the ears of] those who have been [fully] instructed [in the truth]. The Lord God has opened My ear[s], and I have not refused [instruction] (lit., “rebelled” against it). I have not turned away [nor gone] backward. Isaiah 50:4-5. Herein we see the Messiah’s approach of complete dedication to the process of learning the Word of God. Jesus’ spiritual growth was an every day commitment, engaged in the very first thing in the morning every morning precisely because it was His top priority. If this was true of our Lord, should we not adopt a similar approach as best we can? And there is something else of importance to note in these verses as well. When it says that our Lord Jesus “did not refuse” and “did not turn back”, it should remind us that spiritual growth is often not an entirely easy process. Despite the fact that the Word of God is the sweetest thing on earth, it still takes discipline and fortitude to take it in consistently, and that is doubly so whenever our good application of consistency in this regard is challenged, whenever we are under pressures of various sorts that have a tendency to knock us off of our “game”, and especially whenever the Word touches a nerve, perhaps finding fault in an area where we have issues with our present or past behavior (whether of commission or of omission) or for whatever reason find some truth difficult to accept or to face. The Word of God challenges us all, reproves us all, refines us all like the flames of a crucible. Staying with it, continuing to “take the heat” day in and day out, not merely listening, but learning, believing, and applying what we know to be true, takes a deep level of dedication to God. Not only did our Lord never shrink or sink back (as is often the case with us where frequently we find ourselves taking three steps forward and two back), but He pressed forward each and every day regardless of circumstances, pressures, and opposition (often preferring His communion with the Father to His necessary sleep: cf. Matthew 26:36-46; Luke 6:12-13; Hebrews 5:7-9), and in so doing showed us the way toward the high upward calling of drawing closer to God, pleasing Him, and becoming fit to do what it is He has called us to do. When the time came to take up the most difficult ministry in the history of the world, our Lord Jesus was ready. We see in all of Jesus’ words in the gospels the truth of the statement quoted above that He knew “the right words [of truth] to encourage the weary”. And because of His dedicated pattern of growth, when the time came He was ready for the gauntlet that led to the cross and even for what came after: the bearing and expiation of the sins of all humanity, the pivot point of all history and the means of our eternal life. Nor should we imagine that Jesus’ spiritual growth was limited to this important daily regimen, for we know that He spent much additional time in prayer, fasting and scripture reading. And not only that, of all who have ever lived, we may be assured that our Lord perfected the technique of “walking with God” better than anyone else (Enoch, Genesis 5:22-23, included). This day by day, moment by moment “Sabbath” depended upon a deep and in Jesus’ case undoubtedly perfect knowledge of the scriptures as they existed in His day (i. e., the entire Old Testament canon). We know, for example, that when He was tempted by Satan, He replied to all three of the devil’s ploys with precise and precisely appropriate quotes from the book of Deuteronomy (cf. Matthew 4:1-11; Luke 4:1-13). Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked, nor stand in the way of sinners, nor sit in the seat of mockers. But the teaching (Torah) of the Lord is his delight, and in His teaching (Torah) he meditates day and night. Psalms 1:1-2. I have kept the Lord always before me. Because He is at my right hand, I will not be moved. Psalms 16:8. We cannot know all the details but His conduct in the synagogue suggests that He made maximum use of the availability of the scriptures in Nazareth (cf. Luke 4:16-20), and He must have been ever present and ever listening with intent concentration whenever the scriptures were read until He possessed them in His human heart forever. Further, we may expect that in His day to day conduct, Jesus’ mind was never idle but that He kept His heart ever focused on the truths of the Word and the Word itself. Many passages of Old Testament scripture reflect the Messiah’s experiences, and one in particular, Psalms 119:1-176, sets the tone for His course of spiritual growth as a young man (cf. Psalms 119:161 with John 15:25), for example . . . beth How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word. I seek you with all my heart; do not let me stray from your commands. I have hidden your word in my heart that I might not sin against you. Praise be to you, O Lord; teach me your decrees. With my lips I recount all the laws that come from your mouth. I rejoice in following your statutes as one rejoices in great riches. I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways. I delight in your decrees; I will not neglect your word. heth You are my portion, O Lord; I have promised to obey your words. I have sought your face with all my heart; be gracious to me according to your promise. I have considered my ways and have turned my steps to your statutes. I will hasten and not delay to obey your commands. Though the wicked bind me with ropes, I will not forget your law. At midnight I rise to give you thanks for your righteous laws. I am a friend to all who fear you, to all who follow your precepts. The earth is filled with your love, O Lord; teach me your decrees. Psalms 119:9-16 & Psalms 119:57-64 (beth and heth stanzas) NIV As a result of this complete dedication and unswervingly righteous approach, though He had no extensive formal education, Jesus Christ was better versed in the Bible by the time He began His earthly ministry than anyone else who had ever lived, in fact, He was perfectly versed in it. This confounded His adversaries who were at a loss to explain His complete command of scripture which far exceeded their own, even in the case of the “professional” ministers and scholars (John 7:15 cf. Matthew 13:54-56; Mark 6:3). It also explains what it means when we are told that He taught “with authority” (Matthew 7:28-29; Mark 1:22-27; Luke 4:32-36). Possessing a perfect a knowledge and a perfect understanding of the Bible and what it really meant, and being taught by the Spirit, Jesus, a prophet in His own right, the Prophet in fact (Deuteronomy 18:15 with John 1:25; Acts 3:22-23), could say without hesitation or doubt or reflection that everything He taught was truly from God. “My teaching is not My own, but belongs to Him who sent Me.” John 7:16. Although truly God and in full knowledge of that salient fact (John 5:18; John 14:9; John 17:5), our Lord, who had humbled Himself to take on true humanity, also humbled Himself continually during His years of preparation, learning truth as we all must, through observation of the world (cf. John 2:25 for our Lord’s perspicacity regarding human nature), diligent study of the scriptures, humble attention to direct prophetic revelation, and a dedicated approach of applying the truth He had learned and believed in a systematic way. If we wish to draw closer to God, we cannot ask for a better example than our Lord of the best way, indeed, the only way to proceed. You adulterously unfaithful people! Don’t you know that friendship with the world means hostility toward God? Whoever wants to be a friend of the world establishes himself as an enemy of God. Or do you imagine that the scripture says (i. e., paraphrasing Galatians 5:16-21) to no purpose that the Spirit which dwells in us sets its desire against [this sort of selfish] envy (i. e., selfish ambition and jealousy of others through wrongful concentration on the world as the essential sin in context; cf. James 4:1-3). For He gives grace [which is] greater [than these things you desire]. That is why it says, “God opposes the arrogant, but gives grace to the humble”. Therefore subordinate yourselves to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Get closer to God, and He will get closer to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners, and sanctify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and grieve and mourn. Let your laughter turn to grief, and your joy to humiliation. Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will exalt you. James 4:4-10. h. The Formal Inauguration of His Ministry: 1) The Baptism of John: But the angel said to him: “Do not be afraid, Zechariah; your prayer has been heard. Your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you are to give him the name John. He will be a joy and delight to you, and many will rejoice because of his birth, for he will be great in the sight of the Lord. He is never to take wine or other fermented drink, and he will be filled with the Holy Spirit even from birth. Many of the people of Israel will he bring back to the Lord their God. And he will go on before the Lord, in the spirit and power of Elijah, to turn the hearts of the fathers to their children and the disobedient to the wisdom of the righteous—to make ready a people prepared for the Lord.” Luke 1:13-17 NIV The purpose of John’s ministry as seen very clearly from the passage above was to prepare the hearts of His countrymen for the Messiah’s imminent arrival (cf. Malachi 3:1; Luke 1:76-77). John is the King’s herald; Jesus is the King Himself. Without any question, therefore, the purpose for Jesus’ baptism was entirely different from that of the baptism of those in Israel who chose to repent at John’s proclamation of the Kingdom. They were sinners; Jesus is sinless. They were waiting for the King; Jesus is the King. They were helpless without Him; He was their help – and is ours today as well. Thus we can well understand John’s reluctance to baptize Jesus (Matthew 3:14), while our Lord’s response “Allow [this] now. For it is appropriate for us [to act] in this way in order to fulfill all righteousness” calls for some comment. As John correctly discerned, Jesus did not have to be baptized, for there was certainly no need for Him to indicate any repentance, since He was sinless. Jesus’ baptism is unique and demonstrates His acceptance of the cross. For after others had gone down into the water to symbolically wash away their sins, our Lord went down into the same water to symbolically die for those sins, so that His baptism represents His satisfying of the Father’s righteous requirements of salvation = “fulfilling all [God the Father’s] righteousness” (i. e., His righteous requirements that had to be met in order for salvation to be made available to mankind, namely, the propitiation of all of our sins by the blood of Christ, His work on the cross in dying [spiritually] in our place). Jesus’ coming up out of the water (a picture of His resurrection just as going under is a picture of His spiritual death on our behalf) is accompanied by the visible coming of the Holy Spirit as an indication both of the fact that He is the Messiah (and indwelt with the Spirit from birth as we have seen), but also as a picture of the gift of the Spirit which He would be given to give in turn to us after His glorification (John 7:39). 2) The Temptation in the Wilderness: Rather than preparation per se, our Lord’s forty day trial in the wilderness was more to demonstrate that He was in fact completely prepared to take on the ministry of ministries which, after increasingly intense opposition in its own right, would lead through even more intense trials to the cross where Jesus would bear the sins of the world. Of this we can be sure: this was not the first time that Jesus Christ had been led to spend extensive time in fasting and prayer apart from other people. Isolation and fasting, while extremely difficult for most of us to endure except for very limited periods of time, do have the potential of opening a person up to God, His voice and His will – when they are done for the right motives. There are many, and the Pharisees constitute an excellent example (cf. Matthew 6:16-18; Luke 18:12), who engage in this sort of behavior totally apart from God and in order to appear pious rather than to seek God in truth. Our Lord, quite to the contrary, was led into the wilderness by God the Holy Spirit (Matthew 4:1; Mark 1:12; Luke 4:1), and we can be assured that while we know of this event after the fact (through the revelation by the same Spirit), none of His contemporaries had any idea that this particular trial was taking place (just as was the case in all of the no doubt extremely numerous trials He had undergone in His nearly thirty years of preparation), so that His motives were entirely pure: not the seeking of human admiration, but the willingness to respond to the Father even under the most trying and difficult circumstances. The forty days of this trial on our Lord’s part are, moreover, deliberately parallel to the forty days spent by Moses (a biblical type of Christ) on Mt. Sinai during his receiving of the Law. On Moses’ receiving of the second set of tablets (on account of his breaking of the first set in response to the people’s rebelliousness in worshiping the golden calf) he also is said to have fasted for forty days (Exodus 34:28; cf. Exodus 24:18; Deuteronomy 9:9). In Moses case, we are not told that he was hungry (as was the case with our Lord at the conclusion of this time: Matthew 4:2; Luke 4:2; cf. Matthew 4:11; Mark 1:13), and the context strongly suggests that Moses was supernaturally provided for during this special time of communion with the Lord. Thus while Moses does represent a foreshadowing of the Messiah’s experience, the critical point of comparison is not the period of the fast. For Moses’ experience looks forward to the time when we shall have no need of food whatsoever in our eternal fellowship with Jesus, while our Lord’s forty day fast demonstrates the exceptional degree to which He was prepared to suffer in order to carry out the Father’s will. Rather, the true, critical point of comparison is between the commencement of Moses’ ministry and that of Jesus’ ministry, the latter of which would inaugurate a New Covenant through Jesus’ suffering and dying for the sins of the world which would replace the Old Covenant mediated by Moses (which could only foreshadow this wonderful reality which was yet to come just as Moses as a type of Christ could only represent the Messiah, but the Messiah Himself, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, would have to come in the flesh in order for salvation to be provided in fact). These forty days of privation also serve to set the tone for the public ministry and further life of our Savior, for He would know nothing but ever increasing opposition and suffering from this point forward. Just as the “scapegoat” which was released into the wilderness symbolically bore the sins of the people (Leviticus 16:8-26), so our Lord Jesus would “suffer outside the camp”, bearing the sins of the world (Hebrews 13:11-12), and this forty day period of genuine physical affliction (fasting and along with the extreme discomfort of exposure to the elements, insects, wild animals [cf. Mark 1:13], and the like without anything more than the clothes He wore) is symbolic of and indeed looks forward by way of anticipation to His act of supreme sacrifice, the bearing and expiating of the sins of the world in the darkness of those final three hours on the cross (not to mention the ostracism from traditional religious society that His ministry would entail). The three specific temptations attempted on our Lord by the devil have been covered in detail before in respect to Satan’s overall methodology. What concerns us here is the meaning and significance of the devil’s threefold attempt to throw our Lord off stride. What we should notice first of all is that after forty days of such intense privation, our Lord’s responses were beyond all question reflective of His true inner heart. Some of us might put up a bold front in the face of such an intense and diabolical assault if well-rested, well-fed and otherwise under no particular pressure. It is another thing entirely to resist Satan’s appeals when ill, or in danger, or in trouble, or in want (as Job’s experience shows us very well, i. e., the case of a man as perfect and righteous as mortal man could be, yet eventually worn down by pressure of a similarly unique sort). In order to endure trials even approaching this extreme type, the Word of God has to be so deeply ingrained in a person’s heart that instead of being a factor in the inner person it dominates the entire inner life. This was certainly the case for our Savior, who, when refined like gold in the crucible, merely reflected the exquisite quality of what was truly inside. It is also not to be overlooked that the specific form in which this shining forth of the perfection of His inner-self flawlessly developed from His youth came out as direct quotation of the scriptures, a fact which should remind us of the critical importance of the Bible in everything we do or aspire to do as Christians, followers of Jesus Christ: the Word of God is our spiritual life-blood just as it was for Him who is our Model in all things. As we have seen in the past (see the references in the previous note), the three temptations directed at our Lord by the devil, the temptation to put self-will over God’s will (stones to bread), to reverse roles with God substituting our will for His (jump), and to put personal ambition over God’s authority (kingdoms of the world), are all met by our Lord Jesus with Bible verses which expose the subtleties with which Satan has attempted to cloud the issue in each case. In regard to the first temptation, the context of our Lord’s first response, Deuteronomy 8:3, “not by bread alone”, is that of the testing of Israel by the Lord in the desert, who Himself had deliberately and for good reason “made them hungry”, “to humble you and test you so as to know what was in your hearts, whether or not you would obey His commands” (Deuteronomy 8:2). This privation was followed – after they failed the test – by the gracious and supernatural provision of manna. In regard to the second temptation, the context of our Lord’s second response, Deuteronomy 6:16, “don’t put the Lord your God to the test”, is the comparison which completes the verse “like you did at Massah” in the desert, the place where the people tested God by demanding of His spokesman, Moses, that they be provided water, and were on the point of stoning him, asking “Is the Lord among us or not” (Exodus 17:1-7). Thus the demand for water was a “testing of God”, reversing roles with Him. For it is He who tests us, not the other way around (cf. Psalms 91:1-16, quoted by the devil, where the true context is that of our Lord being our dwelling place; only then will “He give His angels charge” to protect us, i. e., when we are trusting Him rather than testing Him). In regard to the third temptation, the context of our Lord’s third response, Deuteronomy 6:13, “Him only shall you serve”, is that of the Lord being the One who brought the people out of slavery into the desert. He is not to be forgotten but remembered as the only One who can truly give us anything of value. He is the One who prospers us if we prosper at all (cf. 1 Samuel 2:7; Psalms 75:7). There is also a level on which all of these temptations were more severe in the case of our Lord than they could ever be for us. For, being God as well as a true man, Jesus really couldturn stones into bread; He really would have been rescued by the angels were He to have jumped; and He really was entitled to the rulership of the entire world. But in all these things, through perfect understanding and flawless application of the truth of the Word of God, He who is the Living Word acquiesced to the Father’s authority, the Father’s will, and the Father’s glory in carrying out His plan for the 1 Advent in all things and in all ways and at all times. Thus these three temptations serve to show as well the categories of humility perfectly adhered to by our Lord throughout His time here on earth prior to the cross and His subsequent glorification. Israel had spent 40 years wandering in the desert, one year for every day their scouts spent reconnoitering the promised land (Numbers 14:34). They failed the test of trusting in God in the wilderness (repeatedly), but our Lord Jesus Christ, though He must have been down to His very last reserves of strength after forty days of fasting in this hostile environment, demonstrated perspicuously what had been and would continue to be His pattern of behavior until the very end, namely, the complete degree to which He relied on the Father in all things, from His necessary needs, to the confidence of His faith, to the plan for His life. In each thing and in everything, He put the truth first, and there was not a sliver of daylight between His perfect understanding of that truth and His flawless execution of it. These forty days and the testing by Satan which followed demonstrated beyond any doubt that our Lord was more than ready to put the Father’s will in place of His own will during His ordeal in the desert of this world with all the forces of evil arrayed against Him, culminating in His death on the cross for all mankind. i. The Course of His Ministry: Short of a complete exegesis of the four gospels, it is impossible in this context to do more than give a short synopsis of the ministry of ministries undertaken and successfully completed by our Lord Jesus. What we can say here is that His teachings preserved in the gospels are consistent with, reflective of, and reflected by all of the truth found elsewhere in scripture whether in the Old Testament or in the New. Further, His miracles demonstrate His status and His authority as the Messiah, the Son of God. Lastly, His deeds over the course of His ministry reveal the love, the sacrifice, and the commitment of the One willing to be sent into this corrupt world in order to do the Father’s will for the good of us all, an incomparable task wherein He died to save us all from our sins. As to the (possibly disappointing) brevity of this section, on the one hand, the contents of the gospels are (or should be) well-known to all Christians, while on the other hand many if not most of the incidents, parables, and discourses of our Lord require detailed exegesis in their own right (so that a brief consideration of them here would be of little value). We shall thus have to content ourselves with an overview of some of the major issues of Jesus’ three and half year ministry before moving on to His “passion” (that is, the gauntlet He had to run to get to the cross), the crucifixion itself, and the events which followed. 1) Obstacles to Jesus’ Ministry: Apart from the thirty years of struggle necessary to prepare for it and the forsaking of any sort of normal life (we should not underestimate, for example, the sacrifice of refraining from marriage and the hope of any physical progeny), our Lord’s pre-cross ministry entailed the constant negotiation of a number of serious hurdles most of which are unique to His experience (certainly in intensity if not altogether in type). The list given here is not meant to be exhaustive – we can only hope to have a dim idea of what Jesus endured by coming into this world for us, living the perfect life, and ministering the perfect ministry (let alone what He went through before and most particularly on the cross as He bore our sins). a) Physical Obstacles: Traveling all over the territories of Galilee and Judea for three and a half years, all the while ministering intensely in the teaching of the Word and the demonstration of its power through healing and the performance of other miracles involved a level of physical effort and exertion, and of mental and emotional fatigue that cannot be easily comprehended merely by reading the gospels in the comfort of one’s easy chair. No matter how much of the burden His disciples and supporters were willing or able to bear, of necessity the lion’s share of that burden fell upon Jesus as the One doing the teaching, the healing, and the managing of the ministry on every important level. The loneliness and the pressure of command, the energy necessary to teach and minister, and the effort required to keep a careful eye on every facet of His ministry had to be wearing and wearying beyond what any other person in the history of the world was capable of enduring, and that is especially true when we add the caveat that Jesus did it all perfectly at every point, on every occasion, day after day, year after year, without the slightest slip or oversight or mistake in planning, teaching or general execution. And at the same time, of course, our Lord had to prepare constantly during ever spare moment for the concentrated teaching that was the hallmark of His ministry. Thus, however difficult His early life of preparation, Jesus’ public ministry involved an exponential increase in the level of difficulty. We catch a glimpse of the stress and strain it entailed both physically and emotionally as Jesus calls those years “My trials” (Luke 22:28), a characterization which does much to explain the tremendous demands made upon Him during that time, especially in terms of the [potentially and ultimately] violent opposition He constantly encountered from the hostile religious establishment (e. g., Matthew 12:14; Mark 3:6; Luke 6:11; John 5:18; John 7:1, John 7:19, John 7:30, John 7:32, John 7:44; John 10:39; John 11:53): Since then we too [like the believers of Hebrews 11:1-40] have such a large audience of witnesses surrounding us [both men and angels], let us put off every hindrance – especially whatever sins habitually affect us – and run with endurance the race set before us, turning our gaze unto Jesus, the originator and completer of our faith, who, for the joy set before Him, endured the shame of the cross, treating it with despite, and took His seat at the right hand of the throne of God. Keep in mind all the terrible opposition He endured against Himself at the hands of sinful men, so as not to grow sick at heart and give up. Hebrews 12:1-3. b) Psychological Pressures: In addition to being divine, our Lord was (and is) a perfect human being – but He was even so a true human being during all of His years here on earth, and that meant He had, in addition to a physical body that experienced fatigue, genuine human emotions that experienced the entire range of what we feel, albeit without sin. Our Lord learned early on how to control His feelings and how to interpret (in terms of the truth of the Word of God) the events which affected them. This does not mean, however, that He did not experience emotional pain, for He certainly did (and at times He expressed it righteously; e. g., Matthew 17:17; Luke 22:48; etc.). Therefore we should not in any way imagine that life was somehow unreal for our Lord, that He didn’t know the pressures of the heart that full often bear down upon us much more heavily than any physical pressure ever could. Indeed, the emotional pressures with which He had to deal were not only more intense than the ones we have to confront; in many instances they were unique to Him. The pressure of dealing with severe disrespect although being the Son of God: Who has believed our report? And to whom has the Arm of the Lord (i. e., the Messiah) been revealed? For He grew up before Him like a suckling plant, like a root [springing up] from dry ground. He had no [particular] handsomeness that we should take note of Him, no [obvious] charisma that we should be taken with Him. [On the contrary, ] He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with suffering. Like a person people hide their faces from, He was despised, and we did not hold Him of any account. Isaiah 53:1-3. The gospels of course are replete with examples of this pressure. Jesus, who might have punished His enemies severely on many occasions, consistently and perfectly bore up under the completely unwarranted disdain with which He constantly had to contend. Indeed, on one occasion when His disciples asked to bring about what they felt to be a just retaliation for an exceptional slight, He roundly rebuked them (Luke 9:51-55). Although fully recognizing His truly exalted status, Jesus walked through this world in complete humility, refusing to react to the opinions or expectations of others, and taking into account only what the Father thought (where we would be almost certain to react; compare Mark 15:5 with Psalms 39:1-3). In this our Lord showed us by example what it really means to “not be conformed to this world but to be transformed by the renewing of your thinking” (Romans 12:2). The pressure of coping with poor response to His ministry: On hearing it, many of his disciples said, “This is a hard teaching. Who can accept it?” Aware that his disciples were grumbling about this, Jesus said to them, “Does this offend you? What if you see the Son of Man ascend to where he was before! The Spirit gives life; the flesh counts for nothing. The words I have spoken to you are spirit and they are life. Yet there are some of you who do not believe.” For Jesus had known from the beginning which of them did not believe and who would betray him. He went on to say, “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled him.” From this time many of his disciples turned back and no longer followed him. John 6:60-66 NIV “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, she who kills the prophets and stones those sent to her. How many times I wanted to gather your children together like a bird [gathers] her own chicks under her wings, but you were not willing!” Luke 13:34. As can be seen from these and many other like passages, while our Lord expresses honest disapproval of all failure to accept the truth, He never allowed Himself to get overly or unreasonable frustrated with negative response (of which there was much; cf. Psalms 118:22; Isaiah 49:4), nor was He ever carried away by the superficial and transient positive responses His ministry often engendered (cf. Luke 11:27-28; John 6:15). For thousands would sing “Hosanna” in His Name, only to turn away very soon thereafter and demand His crucifixion (compare John 12:37 with Acts 1:15). Jesus knew well what was truly in man (John 2:25), and never allowed human responsiveness or lack thereof to affect His following of the course His Father had laid out for Him. The anticipation of the cross: And having taken along Peter and the two sons of Zebedee (i. e., James and John), He began to be distressed and sorely troubled. Then He said to them, “My heart is filled with distress to the point of death.” Matthew 26:37-38 a (cf. Mark 14:33-34) This verse records the crushing anxiety bearing down on our Lord hours before His arrest and crucifixion, but the burden of anticipation of the cross – the bearing of the sins of the world in the darkness more than the trials and crucifixion itself – was one which He had to bear His entire life. And while we may not properly understand the pressure this coming crucible exerted upon Him daily (since after all we can only dimly appreciate what it took and what it entailed to be judged for sins of the world), the fact is that scripture records this aspect of our Lord’s first advent as significant (cf. Mark 10:38; Matthew 16:21; Luke 9:22, Luke 9:44; Luke 13:32-33; Luke 17:25; Luke 18:31-34; John 12:27). I came to cast a fire upon the earth, and how I wish that it were already kindled! But I have a baptism to undergo [first], and how I am pressed until it be completed! Luke 12:49-50 The challenge of self-restraint: Then Jesus replied and said, “O you unbelieving and perverse generation! How long must I be with you? How long must I put up with you?” Matthew 17:17. This passage is exceptional because it is one of the few places where our Lord gives vent to legitimate and righteous indignation. Yet, as in the case of His legitimate, necessary, and mild reproofs to His earthly mother (Luke 2:49; John 2:4 cf. Luke 11:27-28), this correct assessment of the situation is followed by gracious and miraculous intervention, true testimonies to the incredible patience of our Lord, who on innumerable occasions had ample reason to react adversely. Unlike the rest of us, however, our Lord’s testing in this area of self-restraint was indeed unique. For not only would the temptation to angry reaction and summary action in response be understandable in His case (since He was and is perfect, and as a result was always dealing with others being “in the wrong”), but also He was capable of commanding the powers of God to redress any injustice, slight, offense or attack that might come His way. This sort of behavior was not in the Fathers plan for the first advent (cf. Luke 9:51-55; the second will be quite another matter), but since Jesus had the power at His finger-tips, restraining Himself on this score moment by moment day by day throughout His entire earthly life was an accomplishment indeed (for which of us if invested with such power could refrain completely from self-vindication for even a single day?). After the people saw the miraculous sign that Jesus did, they began to say, “Surely this is the Prophet who is to come into the world.” Jesus, knowing that they intended to come and make him king by force, withdrew again to a mountain by himself. John 6:14-15 NIV Akin to the need to show perfect self-restraint in regard to rendering judgment was the similar necessity not to be swept up in the popular enthusiasm which came His way as a result of His miracles. Even Herod desired to see Him because “he hoped to see him perform some miracle” (Luke 23:8). Rather than craving celebrity as the rest of the human race does almost without exception, our Lord eschewed it as the passage above shows, and went to great lengths to avoid it as far as He possibly could (Matthew 8:4; Matthew 9:30-31; Matthew 12:16; Matthew 14:13-14; Mark 1:43-45; Mark 3:20; Mark 8:26; Mark 9:30; Luke 4:42-44; Luke 5:15-16, Luke 5:19). For Jesus knew full well that the approbation of human beings is about as stable as the wind; He was looking not for human approval but to please His heavenly Father (e. g., Matthew 26:42; Luke 11:2; John 4:34; John 5:30; John 6:38). Behold my Servant – I will support Him. My chosen One – my soul (i. e., heart) takes pleasure in Him. I have placed my Spirit upon Him. He will bring forth justice for the nations. He will not cry out nor will He lift up His voice in the street. Isaiah 42:1-2. c) Supernatural Assaults: Though little recorded outside of the temptation in the wilderness (treated above), and the devil’s role in orchestrating Judas’ betrayal (covered below), the intensity of demon opposition in the case of our Lord (and no doubt countervailing action by elect angels), must have been the most intense in world history. In short, our Lord Jesus met with stiff resistance in every good thing He did – and everything He did was good. When the devil had finished all this tempting, he left him until an opportune time. Luke 4:13 NIV 2) The Teaching Ministry of Jesus Christ: The first thing to note about the three and half year public ministry of our Lord is that Jesus was always teaching. His life was a perfect model to all who cared to notice then and still is for all who care to read about Him today. Everything He did and said, whether set in a formal teaching venue or not, was perfectly considered in order to communicate God’s truth in a flawless fashion. a) Organization and Logistics: As hinted at above, our Lord probably prepared for this ministry on the home-front on the one hand by taking steps to ensure Mary’s well-being, and on the other the family business was no doubt set on a stable footing sufficient for the following three and a half years. By way of contrast, our Lord’s “organization for combat” in personal terms is striking. For it would seem that other than the sandals on His feet and the clothes on His back, He had very little if anything to bring to this ministry in a material way. Spiritually, however, He carried more precious possessions in His heart than anyone before or since, for He had put the Word of God first in His life at all times, and was now thoroughly prepared to minister it in the unique and glorious way that scripture records, becoming the Father’s “Light to the world”, and revealing the one true way of salvation. There is certainly a lesson for us in this, for the world assumes that without significant (or even prodigious) logistical support, most efforts of ministry ought not even be attempted. Jesus put the objective first, and let His heavenly Father and ours take care of the details. Of course it should go without saying that, for such an approach to be successful, both an extremely close walk with God (so that there is no doubt about what His will really is), and a high level of personal spiritual maturity are absolutely essential. This approach of traveling extremely light demonstrates a level of reliance upon God reminiscent of the Exodus when the children of Israel were commanded to leave Egypt in haste, an event memorialized in the Passover command to eat that meal “with your cloaktucked into your belt, your sandals on your feet and your staff in your hand. Eat it in haste” (Exodus 12:11 NIV); and this indeed is same the attitude of mind that all followers of Jesus Christ ought to have, prepared to serve and follow Him apart from worldly hindrances “with your feet shod in the readiness [to serve] the gospel of peace” (Ephesians 6:15). It also demonstrates that even with exceptional support from God, we are not meant to ignore earthly realities entirely, as if they didn’t exist (i. e., even the payment of the temple tax required Peter to “work” after a fashion, doing what he knew how to do best in fishing for it: Matthew 17:27). The disciples had a common purse (which Judas kept, John 12:6 and which was used to buy necessities such as the requirements of the Passover: John 13:29), indicating that the ministry was supported by others (most of whom were apparently women: Luke 8:3; Luke 10:38-40; John 11:1-57), who generously gave of their resources. We have suggested above that our Lord “saved up” for this ministry, and we probably see an example of this in the colt provided for His triumphant entry into Jerusalem on “Palm Sunday” (i. e., our Lord had no doubt provided for this necessity ahead of time in order to fulfill the prophecy of Zechariah 9:9; cf. Matthew 21:1-7). Even the 70 who are sent out with deliberately negligible resources (Matthew 10:9; Mark 6:8; Luke 10:4) are told to rely on the provision of those to whom they will minister (a situation which would change rather dramatically during apostolic times: cf. Luke 22:35-36). Thus we see in our Lord’s ministry the proper balance we are to maintain during our own walk through this world: utilizing the means of this world without being subject to them, and in all things putting complete faith in the One who provides them, our heavenly Father. b) Plan and Purposes: The very plan of God for us all, of course, can be summed up in Jesus Christ. We exist for Him and He cast His lot with us, becoming a human being and dying for our sins on the cross. Therefore on the most important level, the purpose for His ministry is as obvious as the plan behind it, namely, the offering of the Savior of the world to the world in order to save the world. But our Lord could have come in glory, and glory so blinding that denying who and what He was and is would have been an impossible feat for any mortal human being to accomplish. Instead, like the parables with which He often taught, our Lord’s personal truth and glory was shielded to a very great degree, so great in fact that although He was and is the Son of God, it was (and still is) possible for human beings to ignore that fact and even to deny it. More than that, the reality of Him, who He really is, is still masked today behind the noise and fury of this present decaying world to such an extent that only those who choose to seek for the truth of Him find it, responding to invitations God has placed at every turning point in our lives, but which are nonetheless very easy to pass by without response if the heart is not willing. For this reason during His earthly ministry, Jesus came not in power but in weakness, not in wealth but in poverty, not in glory but in humility. Clearly, His coming and His teaching were signs, truth whispered in the ears of all like a still, small voice, leading those willing to listen to eternal life, but allowing those who had no wish to do so to disdain Him and His message entirely. It is ever thus. Jesus could have come as the King, but He came as the servant, and the reason, the purpose behind this critical part of the plan of God, was to separate the wheat from the chaff, just as is the case today. Human history, God’s plan and purpose for the human race, is all about choice, all about free will exercised in faith, and, specifically, all about separating those who truly do want God from those who in truth do not. From the standpoint of the things which appeal to the world, our Lord and His ministry had nothing to recommend them. He was not attractive in the way celebrities usually are (Isaiah 53:2). He did not use persuasive arguments to win over the crowd (Luke 11:27-32), but instead told them truths which His listeners often found difficult or impossible to accept (John 6:60). He offered neither economic nor political nor social solutions or relief (Luke 19:11; John 6:26). In short, to hear Jesus Christ and follow Him required, demanded a very definite and definitive choosing of the invisible kingdom of God over all other earthly concerns. That has always been the choice that confronts every human being, and never was it made more clear than during our Lord’s ministry. For on the one hand no one after seeing the prophecies about Him fulfilled so completely, after seeing the miracles He accomplished so dramatically, after hearing the words of truth that poured forth from Him so penetratingly, could seriously doubt that this was the Messiah, God’s own Son. On the other hand, the commitment He demanded, the sinfulness He exposed, and the dismissal of worldly concerns He required ran against the grain of everything the world taught to be true then as now. As no ministry before or since, Jesus’ earthly ministry, like the entire Word of God, which Word He is, was a touchstone which immediately and unswervingly proved the quality of every heart, separating the silver from the dross, and making the choice of choices clear: “Follow Me” (John 10:27; John 12:26; John 21:19, John 21:22; cf. Matthew 4:19; Matthew 8:22; Matthew 9:9; Matthew 10:38; Matthew 16:24; Matthew 19:21; Mark 1:17; Mark 2:13; Mark 8:34; Mark 10:21; Luke 5:27; Luke 9:23, Luke 9:59; Luke 14:27; Luke 18:22; John 1:43; Romans 15:5; 1 Corinthians 11:1; 1 Peter 2:21; Revelation 14:4). Do not think that I have come to hurl peace upon the earth. I have not come to hurl peace upon the earth but a sword (of divisiveness). For I have come to divide . . . ‘a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. A man’s enemies will be the members of his own household’. Whoever loves his father or mother above Me is not worthy of Me, and whoever loves his son or daughter above Me is not worthy of Me. And whoever does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. Whoever has found his life will lose it, and the one who has lost his life for My sake will find it. Matthew 10:34-39. Jesus Christ came to earth at precisely the right time, at the “conjunction of the ages” (Hebrews 9:26; cf. Romans 5:6). His life and death, His person and His work, His ministry and His cross are the very pivot around which human history actually turns, for they are and He is “the plan of God”. In His three and a half year earthly ministry, the Word of truth Himself confronted the entire cosmos, the devil and his world system, along with the worldly power structure of His day, political and religious, head-on. In Jesus Christ, mankind saw the offer of the Messiah, God in the flesh not as imagined in self-serving human fantasy, but as He actually was and is, the power of God, the grace of God, the love of God. The heavenly kingdom of God which Jesus preached was not the worldly kingdom of earthly power and glory most men either expected or desired. Given the chance and the ability to reject Him, most did so in a clear and emphatic way as the willing crucifixion of the Messiah demonstrates so perspicuously. Thus, in the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ, we see the plan and purpose of God fulfilled but also encapsulated. For never was the choice of God’s kingdom or the devil’s more pellucidly presented than in the offer of the Son Himself to the world. With very few exceptions, the world rejected Him decisively, even though He had come into the world to save it entirely, and, at the end of these precious few years, He died on the cross to make that salvation a reality available to all mankind. Jesus’ ministry therefore demonstrates the nature of the choice that faces everyone: face the truth and yield to, gratefully accepting the mercy of God in Jesus Christ through faith, or ignore or reject it, hardening the heart to serve Satan instead. For Jesus Christ is the plan of God; He is the New Covenant which was promised in the Old and replaces the Old by fulfilling it in every way through the true sacrifice, His own death on the cross for all sin. Jesus Christ is God offering Himself to us, providing us with eternal life without cost to us but at the dearest possible cost to Himself, the death of His one and only Son on our behalf. In Jesus Christ’s earthly ministry, therefore, we see most clearly this offer of eternal life being placed before those who ought by rights to have appreciated it the most and understood it the best, and, even so, most chose to harden their hearts against Him and the truth of His words. Yet for those few who did turn to Him and for all those who turn to Him today, the purpose and plan of His ministry is ever being fulfilled, the demonstration of the true power and wealth and glory of God in opening up the life-gate to the invisible kingdom of heaven for all who choose to enter it. He came to what was rightfully His, but those who were His did not receive Him. But as many as accepted Him, to them He gave the power to become children of God, [that is, ] to those who put their faith in His Person, [even those] who were not [born] of blood, or fleshly desire, or human will, but [who] were born of God (i. e., “born again”). John 1:11-13. c) Procedures and Reception: Although the procedures our Lord employed for broadcasting the offer of eternal life through faith in His Person and work were designed to reach the entire nation of Israel, even so as mentioned above the response was far from universally positive, and the faith of most of those who did respond positively at first, like the seed sown on the rocks, withered away at the first sign of trouble. But the one thing that Jesus’ generation could definitely not say is “we never heard the message”. The personal ministry of Jesus Christ served to present the Messiah to the nation and to offer Israel their king – on God’s terms (rather than in terms of human expectations). One of the things the perfect presentation of the perfect ministry of the perfect Son of God makes clear is that the issue of salvation for humanity has nothing to do with God’s provision of the message. He provides for all who seek Him, and perfectly so. The Israelites of Jesus’ day were yearning for a Messiah, and were in fact offered the Messiah, the message of His kingdom being delivered personally and in a dramatic and perfect way. But even so, few were willing to respond to God on God’s terms and accept Him. No other period of history, no other series of events related by scripture, documents so clearly how the hardness of the human heart is a matter of free will choice, pure and simple, and how that God’s provision of salvation and the information about it, the gospel, has therefore been perfect and perfectly designed in the case of every human being who has ever lived. For God knows what everyone truly thinks in their heart, and how everyone will respond to the truth. Even the provision of the Truth Himself in this awesome way did not result in salvation for those determined to reject God and follow their own course instead. “I am not insane, most excellent Festus,” Paul replied. “What I am saying is true and reasonable. The king is familiar with these things, and I can speak freely to him. I am convinced that none of this has escaped his notice, because it was not done in a corner.” Acts 26:25-26 NIV Our Lord Jesus made Himself and the message of the Kingdom available to the Jewish people far and wide. He taught in their synagogues where they gathered on the Sabbath day (Matthew 4:23; Matthew 9:35; Matthew 12:9; Matthew 13:54; Mark 1:21, Mark 1:39; Mark 3:1; Mark 6:2; Luke 4:15, Luke 4:44; Luke 6:6; Luke 13:10; John 6:59), He taught in the temple and made Himself and His message available during the major festivals when Jews from throughout Judea, Galilee, and the entire world came to worship at Jerusalem (Matthew 26:55; Mark 14:49; Luke 19:47; Luke 21:37; Luke 22:53; John 18:20 cf. Matthew 21:14, Matthew 21:23; Mark 12:35; Luke 20:1; John 7:14; John 7:28). He taught in the cities and towns (Matthew 11:21-23; Luke 10:13-15), taught on the lakeshore (Matthew 13:2; Mark 4:1; Luke 5:3) and by the river Jordan (John 10:40-42; cf. Mark 10:1; Luke 3:3; John 3:22-26), taught inside and outside (Mark 6:56; cf. Mark 2:1-4), taught even in the wilderness whenever and wherever the people gathered (Matthew 4:25, Matthew 5:1-2; Mark 6:32-34; Luke 9:10-11; cf. Matthew 14:13-14; Matthew 15:29-32; Mark 8:1-4). He filled up the countryside and the city streets with the words of God’s truth, and through the spectacular nature of His ministry, the unmistakable power of both His words and His miracles, in those few short years He made the truth available to all who were in any way willing to hear it or even to give it a brief consideration, as well as to those who chose to reject it out of hand. For our Lord did not restrict Himself to a single area or a single venue or a single method: He traveled and strove and labored to the end of His strength to make the good news of the Kingdom of God available to all: And when it was day, he departed and went into a desert place: and the people sought him, and came unto him, and stayed him, that he should not depart from them. But he said, “I must preach the good news of the kingdom of God to the other towns also, because that is why I was sent.” And he kept on preaching in the synagogues of Judea. Luke 4:42-44 KJV As the Messiah, the One sent to the nation Israel to fulfill the promise of her coming King (and the prophecy of His rejection at her hands), His ministry was primarily one of offering the Kingdom of God to His fellow countrymen. But in spite of this, wherever worthy gentiles were to be found, that is, those who “thirsted for righteousness” and the truth of eternal life, our Lord made sure through the guidance of the Spirit that they too were not denied, as can be seen from the cases of . . . The man of Gadarene possessed by the legion of demons (Matthew 8:28 ff.; Mark 5:1 ff.; Luke 8:26 ff.), the only one in his area willing to come to Christ (Matthew 8:34; Mark 5:17; Luke 8:37). The Syro-Phoenician woman whose daughter was demon-possessed, to our knowledge the only person in her vicinity who responded to our Lord (Matthew 15:21-28; Mark 7:24-30). The centurion whose faith exceeded that of anyone in Israel (Matthew 8:5-13; Luke 7:1-10). The village of Samaritans whose faith response put Jewish towns to shame (compare John 4:4-42 with Matthew 11:21-23). A few words also need to be said about the specific procedures adopted by our Lord in the conduct of His unique ministry. First, from the early days (though not from the very start; compare Matthew 4:12 with Matthew 4:18-20 and Matthew 9:9), He was attended by disciples. These came in at least three groups:1) the twelve selected by our Lord (Matthew 4:18-22; Mark 1:16-20; Luke 5:2-11; Luke 6:12-16; John 1:35-42); 2) the seventy selected by our Lord (Luke 10:1 ff.); 3) other seriously committed believers who were “called” to follow Him with some degree of consistency and dedication (Matthew 8:18-22; Luke 9:57-62; cf. Matthew 5:1). These last were not members of the official inner circle, but are to be distinguished from the crowds who showed up to hear Him and to benefit from His miracles on any given day. The possession of a cadre of disciples was certainly not an unprecedented thing for a prophet (cf. John: Matthew 9:14; and Elijah: 2 Kings 2:1-25), so that we should not be surprised to see them attending the Prophet. However, while it is certainly true that part of the reason for the selection of the two innermost groups had to do with ministry as in the sending out of the 12 (Matthew 10:1 ff.) and the 70 (Luke 10:1 ff.), our Lord’s choice of all of these individuals was for their benefit and the later benefit of the Church as a whole (rather than to provide administrative or logistical support for Himself). Simply put, Peter, James, John and the rest, named and unnamed, benefitted greatly from their close association with our Lord (although less than they should have but undoubtedly more than we would have), and through their constant attendance upon Him, hearing His every word and observing His every deed, were being prepared for the apostolic ministries they would in a few short years shoulder themselves. For the Church is built upon the Rock, Jesus Christ (Matthew 16:18), and He personally trained the twelve apostles and these other early “pillars” who, in company with the Old Testament prophets, embraced the Cornerstone and provided the rest of the foundation for the Church of Jesus Christ. So then, you are no longer strangers and hangers-on, but you are fellow citizens and fellow members of the household of God, established upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Himself the cornerstone, in whom the entire structure is in the process of being riveted together and is growing into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you too are being built up into a dwelling place of God by the Spirit. Ephesians 2:19-22. As would also be the case with the apostles, the synagogues throughout Judea and Galilee were an important venue for our Lord’s propagation of the good news of the coming kingdom of God and the salvation that was about to be provided to all through faith in Himself (Matthew 4:23; Matthew 9:35; Matthew 12:9; Matthew 13:54; Mark 1:21, Mark 1:39; Mark 3:1; Mark 6:2; Luke 4:15, Luke 4:44; Luke 6:6; Luke 13:10; John 6:59). Since these “places of coming together” (the meaning of the Greek word) were to be found in every major community, with, as is the case with so many churches and denominations in our present day, no distinction made between the people of God (i. e., whether Pharisee, Sadducee, Essene etc., except of course for the distinction still operative at that time between Jew and gentile), it was imperative for the message to be disseminated in these formal local assemblies as much as it was necessary to do so during the major collective assemblies in Jerusalem. For by proclaiming the truth of salvation in local and national gatherings, and in settings formal and informal, all excuse was removed: no one alive and of age during Jesus’ day will be able to say at the judgment “but I didn’t know”. In contrast to present day Jewish practice and in great distinction to that of almost all Christian churches, the synagogues of Jesus’ day offered a prime opportunity for addressing the local body of Israel whose custom it was to gather twice every Sabbath (and often at least once during the week as well), but without the presence of any formal teaching or sermonizing (apart from the regular reading of the Law and the Prophets). As Schürer remarks, “Strangely enough, [in the synagogues of Jesus’ day] no one was nominated to conduct worship proper: the reading of the Scriptures, preaching and public prayer were still performed by the members of the congregation themselves, which accounts for Jesus (and Paul) being able to speak in various synagogues . . .” Thus, unlike today, it was possible for our Lord and later for His apostles to make at least an initial presentation of the truth without prior vetting of their message by the ruler or elders of the congregation. So while later rejection was possible (and typical), no claim could be made of a lack of information. [Jesus] taught in their synagogues, and everyone praised him. He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor.” Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, and he began by saying to them, “Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing.” Luke 4:15-21 NIV Our Lord was of course unique in every way, and one of the ways He gained a hearing outside of the formal assembly of the synagogue for His unique ministry was through His performing of miracles. Jesus’ raising of the dead, His curing of leprosy, His expulsion of all manner of demons, His restoring of sight to the blind, His multiplication of the loaves and the flesh, His turning of the water into wine – the world would not be able to contain the books which could be written about all the wonders He wrought (John 21:25)! Yet the performance of such exceptional miracles was for Him problematic. For Jesus did not seek His own glory but the glory of the One who sent Him (John 7:18; John 8:50, John 8:54). He did not do miracles to call attention to Himself, but only to gain a hearing for Word of God, and in His perfection kept Himself from all arrogance and pride that might attend such marvelous gifts were you or I in possession of them. Thus His only desire in accomplishing these miraculous works of healing and the like was the furtherance of the Father’s plan, giving authority to the message of the Kingdom with which He had been entrusted (Matthew 13:58; Mark 1:39). Therefore the celebrity and enthusiasm which inevitably tended to accompany these dramatic happenings had a great potential downside as well (as when those who had eaten of the miraculously multiplied bread and fish wanted to make Him king by force: John 6:15), so that on more than one occasion our Lord instructed beneficiaries of His miracles not to bruit abroad the wonders He had performed, precisely so that over-ebullient false enthusiasm might not hamper His true purpose (cf. Luke 8:56). Even so, we see clearly enough in the stark contrast between the loud shouts of “Hosanna!” when He entered Jerusalem before that last Passover and the roars of “Crucify him!” a few days later the true value of celebrity-induced enthusiasm. Our Lord understood this only too well (cf. John 2:25), and there is certainly a lesson to be learned from this for all who minister the Word of God: it is the Word received in the heart which is important; all superficial expressions of response no matter how enthusiastic are likely to be as ephemeral as the morning mist. d) Actions Reactions: Because He was unwilling to compromise the truth in any way – indeed, He is the Truth – it was inevitable that our Lord’s ministry was not going to produce a reaction in those who had long ago rejected the truth for the sake of their own positions, whether secular or religious (and often a violent one at that, Psalms 119:161 with John 15:25; Psalms 35:19; Psalms 69:4; cf. Isaiah 52:1-13, Isaiah 53:1-12; John 8:59). For our Lord’s ministry of undiluted truth threatened those comfortable positions by stripping away their patina of false authority and exposing their hypocrisy on every hand. Challenged as to their true motivations, shown up to be false and dissembling, it was little wonder that, like all of the false prophets who had preceded them, these “wicked husbandmen” would soon seek to destroy the source of that challenge (Matthew 21:33-41; Mark 12:1-9; Luke 20:9-16). For our Lord’s authority came from the Father, but the religious establishment of His day had become so completely divorced from the truth that their only authority was a pseudo-authority based entirely upon the positions they held and the legalistic traditions they maintained, traditions which obscured the spiritual realities which the Law was intended to teach (cf. Matthew 23:1-26). Our Lord cut straight to the heart of this particular point when challenged as to His authority by asking His accusers about their position on John the baptist’s ministry, thus forcing them to plead ignorance rather than admit the truth: they were not at all concerned with God, only with their own positions (Matthew 21:25; Mark 11:30; Luke 20:4). In fact, to anyone with a solid understanding of the scriptures based upon the truth, our Lord’s authority was plain to see. The miracles He did substantiated that authority completely (cf. John 10:25-38), and everything He taught is paralleled in and by the Old Testament scriptures (e. g., compare Matthew 5:5 with Zephaniah 3:12). It is worth considering for a moment just how brilliant Our Lord’s perfect teaching was. He was kind while at the same time completely straight-forward and honest. He always found a way to say what was right yet without at the same time casting “pearls before swine” (cf. Proverbs 23:9). He had a perfect way of piercing the heart of every listener without making the issue unnecessarily personal (or having others take it that way). As in the example of the Matthew 21:23-37 passages referenced above, our Lords words always cut right to the quick, and in just a few words, Jesus was ever able to unveil people’s true motivations. This was true because in everything He said, He always kept to the main issue at hand, namely, of the need for turning to God and following Him (through following the One He had sent). In facing the Person of Jesus Christ come in the flesh and in hearing His perfect words supported by undeniable miracles, all of His contemporaries were made to face the issue of life and death with crystal clarity, for He made that choice unmistakably clear in each and every case without any possibility of an honest mistake. This perfect standard of teaching required complete honesty on the part of the Practitioner (and does much to explain why His simple words are so much more powerful and so indescribably different than those of anyone else). To accomplish this perfect presentation of the truth of the Word required a complete rejection of flattery or any personal agenda (Matthew 22:15-22; Luke 11:27; John 6:15); it allowed for no bitterness or for hurt feelings even when these were warranted through foolish rejection of the truth and self-serving invective, slander and mis-characterization of what our Lord was doing for us all and was about to do on the cross. It required a complete rejection of and mastery over the sorts of temptations to which the rest of us would inevitably fall prey, desire for personal honor and glory, desire for positive responses and the avoidance of negative ones, and the urge to retaliate when wronged, slandered and bitterly opposed (especially galling in His case since there was not a trace of legitimacy to support anything but humble appreciation and awe). Jesus had infinitely more claim to a worshipful response from everyone than anyone else before or since, and yet He had to repudiate His natural feelings when this was not forthcoming and persevere in a completely professional way despite such unprecedented “opposition by sinners against Himself” (Hebrews 12:3). Our Lord’s unique ministry required, in the face of the unique reactions it engendered, perfect humility, wisdom, and self-control in order to deliver what He did, the absolute truth about the righteousness of God and how to attain it through faith in Himself. e) Form and Content of Jesus’ Teaching: Jesus is the Logos, the living Word of God in Person (John 1:1-14). Further, the content of God’s truth is called in scripture “the mind of Christ” (ministered by the Holy Spirit: 1 Corinthians 2:16). So while “red-letter” editions of the Bible which highlight Jesus’ “own” words have their place, we should not be misled by them so as to forget th at every word of scripture, every “jot and tittle”, is – as originally penned – the precise message God intended the world to have about Jesus Christ, through Jesus Christ, and for Jesus Christ. For Jesus Christ is the Word, and all the words of scripture are His. As indicated above, there is no teaching of Jesus from the gospels which is not paralleled in the Old Testament (e. g., compare 1 Kings 8:59 with Matthew 6:11 and Luke 11:3) and in the New Testament epistles (e. g., compare John 17:17 with Ephesians 4:24). While all three of these major topical divisions of scripture have their own unique ways of expressing things, the content of the truth they express is completely consistent in every way. There is, it is true, a general trend a general trend in scripture toward progressive revelation, so that, for example, what we know about the end times from Daniel is greatly expanded in our Lord’s “Olivet Discourse” (Matthew 24:1-51, Matthew 25:1-46; Mark 13:1-37; Luke 21:1-38), and then even more so by the book of Revelation (that is, “The Revelation of Jesus Christ”). But this expansion is one of detail only, not one of essential truth: Daniel, our Lord, and John teach precisely the same things in every respect (when these passages are correctly understood); it is only that through God’s plan of expanding revelation over time we are given to know more details in each successive wave of the unveiling that truth. Thus Jesus didn’t “change” anything; rather He fulfilled everything, and everything is fulfilled in Him: Do not assume that I came to abolish the Law or the Prophets: I did not come to abolish but to fulfill. For what I say to you is the truth: Until heaven and earth pass away, not one iota or one serif will pass away from the Law – until everything has come to pass (i. e., the shadows of the Law fulfilled on the cross). Matthew 5:18. For Christ is the fulfillment (lit., “end”) of the Law, resulting in righteousness for everyone who believes [in Him]. Romans 10:4. So whether it be the Law which foreshadowed Christ, the teachings of Jesus, the incarnate Word, or the detailed exposition of the truth ministered through the Spirit in the rest of the New Testament (cf. John 14:26; John 15:26; John 16:13-15), the message is one message, unified, indivisible, unchanging, and complete, the words of God Himself which witness to the Word Himself, the audible proclamation of the truth and the only means by which men can know the truth. The Lord God has given Me a tongue of those who have been [fully] instructed [in the truth], that I may know the right words [of truth] to encourage the weary . He arouses His Word [within Me]. [And] every morning He awakens Me. He awakens My ear[s] to listen like [the ears of] those who have been [fully] instructed [in the truth]. The Lord God has opened My ear[s], and I have not refused [instruction]. I have not turned away [nor gone] backward. Isaiah 50:4-5. “My teaching is not My own, but belongs to Him who sent Me.” John 7:16. “I am telling you what I have seen in My Father’s presence. So you also do what you have heard from the Father!” They answered and said to Him, “Our father is Abraham.” Jesus said to them: “If you were children of Abraham, you would be doing the things Abraham [did]. But as things actually stand, you are seeking to kill Me, a man who has told you the truth which I have heard from God. John 8:38-40 a He who believes in Me does not believe in Me, but in He who sent Me. And he who sees Me, sees the One who sent Me. I have come into the world as a light, in order that everyone who believes in Me may not abide in darkness. But if anyone hears My words and does not hold on to them, I do not condemn him. For I did not come to condemn the world but to save the world. He who rejects Me and does not receive my words has someone who judges him. The Word which I spoke, that [is what] will judge him on the last day. For I did not speak of my own accord, but the One who sent Me, the Father Himself gave Me instruction as to what I should say and what I will [yet] speak. And I know that His instruction is eternal life. Therefore, as to the things which I speak, just as the Father has spoken to Me, that is how I speak. John 12:44-50. “For the words You gave Me, [Father, ] I have given to them, and they received them and have come to know truly that I came from you, and they have believed that You sent Me.” John 17:8. j. The Last Passover: The final year of our Lord’s three and a half year ministry is often referred to as “the year of opposition”, since it was between the penultimate and final Passovers that our Lord experienced a noticeable intensification of hostility from the Judean political and religious ruling classes (i. e., the Sadducees and the Pharisees). It should be noted that John was put to death by Herod just before that penultimate Passover (John 11:55 ff.), and that this event was one important factor in the increased resistance to our Lord. For during his lifetime, even while in prison for its final two years), John’s “celebrity” served to run a sort of “interference” on behalf of our Lord (Matthew 11:10; Mark 1:2-3; Luke 7:27), giving Jesus a freedom of action he would not have had otherwise (since, without the “cover” John provided, He and His ministry would have been the sole focus of the ire of the religious establishment toward the spiritual revival then underway). A second major factor in the intensification of the resistance was the intensified nature of our Lord’s ministry. It is no accident that the bulk of the content of the gospels deals with this final year (i. e., roughly speaking, everything from Matthew 10:1-42, Mark 5:1-43, Luke 9:1-62 and John 6:1-71 forward), and it is in this final year that the most dramatic miracles take place (i. e., the feeding of the five and the four thousand, walking on the water, the transfiguration, the healing of the man born blind, the raising of Lazarus), and that the widest and most obvious evangelism takes place on the part of Jesus’ disciples (i. e., the sending out of the twelve [at its inception]: Matthew 9:35-11; Mark 6:6-13; Luke 9:1-6; and of the seventy: Luke 10:1-20). This period of the most intense and growing resistance in the face of the most dramatic miracles and teaching on the part of our Lord and his disciples serves to demonstrate the implacable hostility of the world (in ultimate service to the present ruler of the world, Satan) towards the truth: the clearer the truth is made, the more threatening the source of truth is seen to be. Moreover, the amazing events of that final year brought home vividly the truth of Jesus’ proclamation that “the Kingdom of God is near!”, a kingdom of light which is destined to sweep away the kingdom of darkness to which our Lord’s opponents had given their allegiance, and whose defeat they fearfully understood meant the loss of their exalted positions (cf. the parable of the tenants: Matthew 21:33-44; Mark 12:1-11; Luke 20:9-18; cf. Matthew 27:18; Mark 15:10; Luke 13:17): The Feeding of the 5000 and the 4000 (Matthew 14:15-21; Mark 6:35-44; Luke 9:12-17; John 6:4-13; and Matthew 15:32-38; Mark 8:1-9 respectively): The King’s power to provide for His subjects demonstrated. Walking on the Water (Matthew 14:24-33; Mark 6:45-52; John 6:16-21): The King’s power over time and space demonstrated. The Transfiguration (Matthew 17:1-8; Mark 9:2-8; Luke 9:28-36): The glory of the King and His Kingdom prefigured. The Sending of the 70 (Luke 10:1-24): The Kingdom Proclaimed as Imminent; the 12 proclaimed and showed its power; this is a “far and wide” proclamation (prefiguring Revelation 14:6) that takes away the argument “we never heard” (cf. Romans 10:18-21). The Healing of the Man Born Blind (John 9:1-41): The King’s revelation of the truth for all willing to see demonstrated. The Raising of Lazarus (John 11:1-16): The King’s power over life and death demonstrated; His power to grant eternal life in place of eternal death prefigured. The scriptural treatment of the final week before the crucifixion begins with Mary’s anointing of Jesus in Bethany (i. e., the “six days” of John 12:1), and nearly everything that transpires serves to demonstrate ahead of time the essential truth of which Jesus has been attempting to forewarn His disciples throughout this final phase of His first advent (e. g., Matthew 16:21-26; Matthew 17:22-23; Matthew 20:17-19; Mark 8:31-37; Mark 9:30-32; Mark 10:32-33; Luke 9:22-25, Luke 9:43-45; Luke 18:31-34), namely, that the Messiah had to come twice, a second time to reign in glory (as all were expecting Jesus to do now in short order), but a first time as well, in order to die for the sins of the world and purchase a “people for Himself” to share His kingly reign forever (Revelation 5:9; cf. Revelation 1:5-6). 1) The anointing at Bethany: The first of these events was Jesus’ anointing by Mary, sister of Martha and Lazarus (similar to but to be distinguished from an earlier occurrence related at Luke 7:36 ff.). As Jesus Himself tells us, this was very significant not only because it prefigured His death and burial (i. e., anointed head and foot as in burial preparations: Matthew 26:6-13; Mark 14:3-9; John 12:1-8; cf. the holy anointing oil: Exodus 30:22-33), but because it demonstrated that while none of His disciples seemed to understand, at least Mary did realize full well that our Lord was about to give His life on our behalf, so that “wherever in the entire world this good news [of the Kingdom] is proclaimed, what this woman has done shall also be mentioned to remind of her [faith]” (Matthew 26:13; cf. Mark 14:9). This incident and the outrage it initially caused among the disciples (because of the “waste” of money involved) we may take to be the “final straw” for Judas who realized great personal monetary loss from the anointing (helping himself to the common purse as he often did: John 12:4-6). For the nard employed was of such high quality that it was actually liquid (and thus would have fetched a princely price). 2) The triumphal entry (Matthew 21:1-17; Mark 11:1-11; Luke 19:29-44; John 12:12-19): On that glorious future day of days, our Lord Jesus Christ, the Messiah, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords, will enter Jerusalem from the east in glory, mounted on a heavenly white charger, spattered with the blood of His enemies just dispatched at the battle of Armageddon (Revelation 19:11-13). On the previous day being considered here, only hours before He would pour out His life’s blood for the sins of the world (the symbol which encapsulates Jesus’ spiritual death in the darkness to atone for the sins of all mankind), our Lord rode into Jerusalem in humility, mounted on a donkey colt with an adult animal in tow, the pair of animals symbolizing both the purpose of this present advent as being different from the expectations of the populace, and also that it would be followed in the future by the advent of glory the people anticipated and yearned for then. In the symbolism here, our Lord’s being mounted on the colt indicates that the cross comes first since a young and untrained animal would be unsuitable for battle (i. e., for Armageddon), but is on the contrary symbolic of purity and innocence recalling our Lord’s sinlessness and suitability for sacrifice on behalf of the sins of the world. The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs and the obedience of the nations is his. He (i. e., Judah, and thus the Messiah) will tether his donkey to a vine, his colt to the choicest branch; he will wash his garments in wine (2 Adv.; cf. Revelation 19:13-15), his robes in the blood of grapes (1 Adv.; cf. Revelation 7:15 with Luke 22:20). Genesis 49:10-11 NIV Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion. Shout [for joy], daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, your King will come to you. Righteous and victorious He is (2 Adv.); humble and riding on a donkey, even on a colt, a donkey’s foal (1 Adv.). Zechariah 9:9. As our Lord made His way down the descent from the Mount of Olives into the Kidron valley and towards Jerusalem, the populace, many of whom would soon be calling for His crucifixion, turned out to see the prophet they hoped might be the conquering Messiah (cf. Matthew 21:11), strewing palm branches in His path (symbolic of the Millennial Kingdom Messiah would bring), and singing a victory Psalm which indeed spoke of Him, but missing entirely the symbolism even therein which spoke of the necessity for the Messiah first to suffer and die for the sins of the world. [Messiah speaks:] “Open for Me the gates of righteousness (i. e., the eastern gate of Jerusalem and the gate of the temple facing east)! I shall enter by them and praise the Lord. This is the Lord’s gate. The righteous will enter by it (i. e., through Christ; cf. John 10:1-9). I shall praise You although You humbled Me (i. e., 1 Advent sufferings), for You have brought me deliverance (i. e., the victories of resurrection and Armageddon).” [The chorus of celebrants responds:] "The Stone which the builders rejected has become the Cornerstone! This has come from the Lord, and it is wondrous to our eyes! This is the Day which the Lord has made (i. e., the 2 Advent)! Let us rejoice and delight ourselves in it! Yes, Lord, deliver us we pray (hoshi’ah na’ = hosanna!) [from the Tribulation]. Yes, Lord, bless us with prosperity (i. e., the blessings of the Millennial Kingdom)! Blessed be the One (i. e., the Messiah) who is coming in the Name of the Lord! We greet you all (i. e., the Messiah and His retinue) from the house of the Lord! The Lord is God! And He has caused His Light to shine upon us! Bind up the Sacrifice with ropes to the horns of the altar (i. e., the inaugural memorial sacrifice of the Millennial Kingdom meant to remind of the cross)." Psalms 118:19-27. Immediately upon entering Jerusalem that first day, our Lord went up to the temple mount and swept the court of the gentiles clean of the commercial enterprises that had turned the worship of God into a human system of monetary transactions, exactly as He had also done at the beginning of His earthly ministry (Matthew 21:12-13; Mark 11:15-18; Luke 19:45-48; cf. John 2:13-22). This is a striking foreshadowing of what will happen in the Millennium (cf. Zechariah 14:21; Daniel 12:10), and therefore another prophetic sign of Jesus’ Messiahship. While they were coming back into the city from Bethany on the second day, our Lord approached a fig tree beside the road in search of fruit, but, finding none, He cursed the tree which withered soon thereafter (Mark 11:13-14, Mark 11:19-25; Matthew 21:18-22). The symbolism of this miracle is most important, for the tree represents Israel and her lack of productivity (cf. Micah 7:1). At the very time she should have been welcoming the Messiah with open arms and putting before His feet the fruits of her spiritual labors, she was in fact bereft of all truly godly works, and was about to crucify the One who had come to deliver her from her sins. This demonstrative sign also has ramifications for every believer’s spiritual life as well, for while production for the Lord is the normal and expected result of spiritual growth, a complete lack of production is usually associated with apostasy (John 15:1-1-17; Hebrews 6:7-8). Another symbolically important event we should note here which took place during those final days in Jerusalem was the request from certain Greeks to meet with Jesus and our Lord’s response, that “unless a grain of wheat falls to the earth and dies, it remains alone by itself; but if it does die, it produces much fruit” (John 12:20-32). Now that His prophetic ministry to the Jewish people was complete, our Lord had His face “set like flint” (Isaiah 50:7; cf. Luke 9:51) to last through the gauntlet of abuse ahead in order to fulfill the critical objective and primary purpose of His time on earth, namely, His bearing the sins of the entire world on the cross. In the manner of the grain of wheat in His illustration, Jesus’ death would produce abundant “fruit” in the streaming into the family of God people of all nations (which these curious Greeks represent). 3) The Olivet Discourse: This is the name by which our Lord’s extensive teachings about “the things to come” to His disciples on the Mount of Olives in response to their question about the timing of the coming of the Kingdom is commonly known (Matthew 24:1-51, Matthew 25:1-46; Mark 13:1-37; Luke 21:5-36). It is important to note that since “the Spirit was not yet given” (John 7:39), many essential details of eschatology would have to wait until after Pentecost (John 16:12-15; and compare the description given at pre-unction Acts 1:7 with the later statements in 1 Thessalonians 5:1 and 1 John 2:20). Nevertheless, on the cusp of His departure, our Lord gave the disciples much critical information about the end times and the need for believers to stay focused on the eternal realities in order to safely negotiate the Tribulation of that future day. These same truths, moreover, would prove to be essential for enduring the days of personal tribulation ahead for all His disciples during the two millennia of the Church Age to come on the other side of His passion and resurrection. Indeed, the disciples themselves would have need of remembering and applying them carefully in only a few short hours. 4) Judas and the Sanhedrin’s Plot to Kill Jesus: Just as thirty three years earlier Herod had attempted to have Jesus killed on account of the threat he perceived to his own dynasty by a genuine “King of the Jews”, so also those in positions of power in Judea’s political and religious establishment had long been concerned by the “threat” posed to their status by our Lord and His ministry (Matthew 21:46; Matthew 26:4; Mark 12:12; Mark 14:1; Luke 20:19; John 7:30; John 7:44; John 10:39). Their thinking is best summed up by the report John gives us of the council held just prior to our Lord’s triumphal entry, where the priests, Pharisees and Sadducees equate themselves with “the nation”: Then the chief priests and the Pharisees called a meeting of the Sanhedrin. “What are we accomplishing?” they asked. “Here is this man performing many miraculous signs. If we let him go on like this, everyone will believe in him, and then the Romans will come and take away both our place and our nation.” Then one of them, named Caiaphas, who was high priest that year, spoke up, “You know nothing at all! You do not realize that it is better for you that one man die for the people than that the whole nation perish.” John 11:47-50 NIV Shortly following this conference, orders were given for informers to be cultivated in order that Jesus might be arrested “on the sly” in order to avoid any confrontation with the crowd (John 11:57: cf. Matthew 26:4; Mark 14:1). This explains why they were so “delighted” when Judas responded to the appeal (Mark 14:11; Luke 22:5). For, once armed with “inside information” about our Lord’s whereabouts and habits when not surrounded by the crowds, they were confident of arresting Him without instigating a possible insurrection. What Judas’ original motivations were we can only speculate. Part of his motivation was certainly financial, seeking to make a profit out of this new phenomenon in the manner of Balaam (John 12:6 cf. 2 Peter 2:15). In part he may also have been attracted to the excitement and the clearly miraculous nature of Jesus’ ministry. But without any question Judas was deep into apostasy and open to all manner of satanic influence – otherwise he would not have betrayed the Lord of life (1 Corinthians 2:8), and otherwise he never would have been open to possession by the devil himself (Luke 22:3; John 13:27). Therefore we may be sure that Satan had his hand on Judas from the beginning, seeking to place a infiltrator into our Lord’s midst (and fulfilling a prophecy in the process: John 13:18). Judas had never believed in Jesus as our Lord knew only too well (cf. John 6:64; John 6:70; John 13:18), but the other disciples apparently suspected him least of all as we can surely discern from the fact that he does not even come under suspicion even after our Lord gives John and Peter such a clear sign in the dipping of the sop (John 13:26-28), and then essentially names him in response to his question “Is it I?”: “You have said [yourself]” (Matthew 26:23-25). We may take from this that Judas put on a much more pious and respectable appearance than any of the other twelve, and it is often the case that those with the most intense corruption within have taken the greatest care to “whitewash” the outside of the tomb (as in the case of the scribes and Pharisees: Matthew 23:27). 5) The Last Supper: The final Passover the night our Lord was betrayed also did much to foreshadow both His impending sacrifice on our behalf and the significant changes His victory on the cross would effect in God’s administration of His grace and His plans for His Church on earth. Passover, of course, is the premier ritual of the Old Covenant, and our Lord’s transformation of it into the one legitimate ritual of the Church Age known to us as “communion” or the “Lord’s supper” demonstrates in a most vivid and concentrated way the change of covenants which the cross was about to produce. Partaking of the Passover lamb is clearly symbolic of belief in the Lamb of God. But while this and all of the other Old Covenant rituals which made use of animal sacrifice foreshadowed the death of the Messiah for the sins of the world, Jesus’ transforming of Passover into communion transforms the shadows of ritual into a partaking of the soon to be completed reality of salvation. For by eating the bread, His body, we express our faith in His Person – who He is, the God-man, undiminished deity and true humanity in one person forever. And by drinking the wine we express our faith in His work – what He has done for us, dying for the sins of the world and washing all our transgressions away by that death on the cross in Calvary’s darkness. Thus by partaking of “communion”, we demonstrate our faith in the “oneness” we have with Jesus Christ on the basis of what He did for us and what only He could have done for us as the perfect Messiah. This new ritual therefore proclaims in a brilliantly simple way the essence of the difference between the two covenants. For while both the old and the new are essentially promises from God made to all who would seek Him, the old made use of shadows which looked forward to a future reality whose exact details of fulfillment were not entirely yet made clear (1 Peter 1:10-12; cf. Job 17:3). But the new is completely open and perspicuous, being founded upon a reality that is already eternally set in place – indeed, the cross is the reality of human history, for it is the ultimate purpose and the power of all that God has ever done or will ever do in this creation (cf. Romans 1:16-17). The cross is “the good news”, because through it we have eternal life, not merely a promise from God of future deliverance (as wonderful as that was), but the proclamation from God of His satisfaction with the Person and work of His Son, through faith in whom we possess that deliverance even now as we wait for our salvation “to be revealed” (1 Peter 1:5; 1 Peter 5:1). By giving the disciples this tangible sign of the salvation He was about to accomplish and the eternal fellowship that was about to be theirs then and is our now through faith in Him – demonstrated to the world each time we “eat of the bread and drink of the cup” – Jesus illuminated all that had gone before, and explained the new and wondrous reality of the “better promises” of the New Covenant (Hebrews 8:6), better because they are based upon the actual sacrifice of Christ rather than its anticipation. It is precisely because Christ has now actually and historically paid the price for sin that Spirit could be “given” (Jn. 7:39), resulting in all the marvelous Church Age gifts, the explosion of the family of God to the gentiles, and the revelation of all the precious new truths of scripture embodied in the New Testament. For [on this matter] I received [directly] from the Lord what I passed on to you, namely that on the night on which He was betrayed He took bread, and having blessed it He broke it and said, “This is my body which is [offered up] on your behalf. Keep on doing this in order to remember Me.” And in the same way [after eating] He took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant [made] by my blood. Keep on doing this as often as you drink [it] in order to remember Me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup (i. e., partake of communion), you are proclaiming the Lord’s death [on our behalf] until He returns. 1 Corinthians 11:23-25 (Matthew 26:26-29; Mark 14:22-25; Luke 22:15-20; cf. John 6:51-59) When they had finished, Jesus and His disciples sang a hymn and went out into the night toward the Mount of Olives and Gethsemane (Matthew 26:30; Mark 14:26). There in the garden our Lord offered up His last prayers of preparation before the ordeal of ordeals He was about to endure. The details of these prayers as recorded in John 17:1-26 show that our Lord was most concerned about His disciples – and about us who would one day be so as well (John 17:6-26). The shorter versions preserved by the synoptic writers are often misunderstood. Jesus’ request for the “cup” of the cross (cf. Matthew 20:22; Mark 10:38) to be taken away “if it be thy will” is made for our benefit, not for His. Peter’s previous protestations (Matthew 16:22-23; Mark 8:32-33) and many heresies since necessitated that our Lord make very clear that this cup could not be taken away – not if we were to be saved. The unmistakable distress our Lord demonstrates is also for our benefit and should be carefully contrasted with the remarkable coolness under pressure He demonstrated throughout the trials and the torture that preceded the crucifixion. For our Lord Jesus was anticipating the death He was about to die for sin (Romans 6:10) in the darkness on the cross, a weight of suffering we cannot even begin to comprehend or imagine, and one which made the sufferings He would endure prior to the redemption about to be achieved by this spiritual death light affliction in comparison. This is the message of the Gethsemane prayers, namely, to show us the necessity of Him going through what He was about to go through if we were to have eternal life, and to emphasize that it was His death for sin that would be the truly impossible task He was about to make possible. k. The Trials of Christ: When He had finished praying for the third time, Jesus came again to Peter, James and John, found them sleeping, and woke them up, for He knew full well that the time had come (John 18:4 cf. Matthew 26:36-47; Mark 14:40-43; Luke 22:46-47). Led by Judas to whom the chief priests and Pharisees had detailed them (John 18:3), a large multitude of Jewish irregular troops (Matthew 26:47; Mark 14:43; Luke 22:47), and an entire cohort of Roman soldiers (a unit whose regular T. O. and E. complement was 600 soldiers), all armed with torches and weapons, came upon our Lord and His small group of disciples, whereupon Judas identified our Lord as the object of this illegal raid by greeting Him as “master” and embracing Him (Matthew 26:49; Mark 14:45; Luke 22:48; and cf. 2 Samuel 20:9). In the middle of the night and in darkness, set upon by overwhelming hostile forces with malicious intent, we can only imagine what fear may have risen in the hearts of our Lord’s companions. But in what then occurred, Jesus demonstrated through His perfect walk with the Father that He was beyond intimidation. He possessed true “four o’clock in the morning courage” founded upon unshakeable faith as can be seen from every aspect of His handling of this crisis, and there can be no surer demonstration that the pressure our Lord felt as demonstrated for our benefit in the Gethsemane prayers had to do with bearing our sins alone. Since as followers of Jesus we truly have nothing to fear from man (Psalms 56:4; Psalms 118:6), beyond all doubt the Son of God did not, and our Lord’s responses to all of the events of that night and indeed to all of the events that preceded His judgment in the darkness of Calvary on our behalf show this most perspicuously. God’s will would be done and no human being or group of human beings were going to be able to thwart Him. Jesus, knowing all that was going to happen to him, went out and asked them, “Who is it you want?” “Jesus of Nazareth,” they replied. “I am He,” Jesus said. (And Judas the traitor was standing there with them.) When Jesus said, “I am He,” they drew back and fell to the ground. John 18:4-6 NIV With that, one of Jesus’ companions reached for his sword, drew it out and struck the servant of the high priest, cutting off his ear. “Put your sword back in its place,” Jesus said to him, “for all who draw the sword will die by the sword. Do you think I cannot call on my Father, and he will at once put at my disposal more than twelve legions of angels? But how then would the Scriptures be fulfilled that say it must happen in this way?” Matthew 26:51-54 (cf. John 18:11) NIV Despite the impending burden of the cross and the death for the sins of the world He was about to endure, our Lord’s actions and comments above reveal His complete confidence in who He was, the Son of God Himself. The mere mention of His deity caused the entire groups of attackers to fall before Him, and but a word from Him was necessary to summon an irresistible angelic force to His aid. But our Lord was determined to die on our behalf, and nothing in this world could dissuade Him from accomplishing the Father’s will to our great and eternal benefit. When our Lord had said these things, the flush of mis-directed bravery exhibited by Peter in taking up the sword ebbed away, and the disciples reacted with predictable and prophesied panic (Matthew 26:31; Mark 14:27; cf. Zechariah 13:7), leaving our Lord to be arrested and dragged away, an eventuality He did not resist (Isaiah 53:7-8). At that time Jesus said to the crowd, “Am I leading a rebellion, that you have come out with swords and clubs to capture me? Every day I sat in the temple courts teaching, and you did not arrest me. But this has all taken place that the writings of the prophets might be fulfilled.” Then all the disciples deserted him and fled. Matthew 26:55-56 NIV (cf. Mark 14:48-52; Luke 22:52-53) "It is written: ’And he was numbered with the transgressors’ (Isaiah 53:12); and I tell you that this must be fulfilled in me. Yes, what is written about me is reaching its fulfillment.” Luke 22:37 NIV The Seven Trials of Christ: In biblical symbolism, while seven is the number of perfection and thus the number of God (e. g., the seventh day, the Millennium, and the seven Edens), six is the number of Man (i. e., created on the sixth day and being incomplete without the addition of the One, Jesus Christ). It is thus no accident that our Lord was made to undergo six trials at the hands of human beings before being judged in the darkness on the cross by the Father in our place. In each of these trials, Jesus was irrefutably innocent but nonetheless condemned, the perfect Lamb of sacrifice without spot or blemish being condemned to death as a substitute for our sins. And in each of the trials conducted by human agency, our Lord was not only condemned but also abused physically and mentally. Nonetheless, though we would be hard-pressed to endure any one such of these six trials, for our Lord they were but a prelude designed to demonstrate His mettle and His perfection before the trial of trials began on the cross itself. This gauntlet of abuse, unprecedented in human history and never to be remotely duplicated, constitutes the final prophesied humiliation of the Messiah. The suffering and humiliation of our Lord Jesus is a recurrent theme in Old Testament prophecy, and an unmistakable one at that (cf. Isaiah 52:1-13, Isaiah 53:1-12), even though, because it was so “uncomfortable”, it was rejected by Jesus’ contemporaries as they rejected Jesus Himself, an outcome which was itself part of His suffering and humiliation (Psalms 22:6; Psalms 118:22; Isaiah 53:3; Mark 9:12; 1 Peter 2:4). Thus the portions of scripture which prophesy this were later occasionally obscured deliberately as in the case of the incorrect traditional vocalization of Psalms 118:21 (covered in fn. #66 above under “Triumphal Entry”). We have already discussed the betrayal of our Lord (prophesied: “my companion, my close friend” Psalms 55:13-14; cf. Psalms 41:9), His abandonment by the disciples (prophesied: “strike the shepherd”: Zechariah 13:7; and see below on Peter’s three denials), and are about to consider the trials our Lord would have to endure which in terms of process and outcome could not have been further removed from any notion of basic justice (prophesied: “they hated Me without cause”: John 15:25 cf. Psalms 35:19; Psalms 69:4; Isaiah 52:13, Isaiah 53:1-12). All of these things contributed greatly to the suffering or “passion” of our Lord to a degree that is easy to miss when merely reading about them in the comfort of our homes. Being betrayed unto death by someone you have cared about and sought to help for years is no small matter, nor is being abandoned and denied by your entire inner circle of closest companions in your hour of greatest need. Finally, before coming to the crucifixion itself, the six trials of Christ were unquestionably a heavy load beyond anything any of us could ever hope to bear – and especially beyond anything we could hope to bear up under with perfectly sanctified behavior in the manner of our Lord. For beyond the physical suffering, the beating and the scourging, and beyond the mental anguish from the slander, blasphemy, spitting and mocking, the very fact of being condemned by a judicial proceeding, being found to be a wicked person, a lawbreaker and someone to be shunned by any decent citizen, to be set upon by an angry crowd maligning you and calling for your death, are terrible things to have to suffer, especially if completely untrue, unfair and unjust. For any of the rest of us, complete innocence in any matter is problematic, sinners that we are, but no one was ever more completely and demonstrably innocent of all wrong doing or of even of the appearance of it than was our Lord Jesus Christ. Yet He was condemned six times, rejected even from the consideration of clemency in favor of a genuine criminal (Barabas) by those He had come to save. We probably will never be able to appreciate fully the emotional suffering of our Lord in all that He endured before the cross, in addition to the physical suffering to which He was subjected throughout those final hours before Golgotha, forced also to bear up under the temptation to indulge in extreme bitterness and anger, rejected, abandoned and abused by everyone as He was. When we add to this His mental anticipation of dying for the sins of the world, a consideration which His prayers in the garden of Gethsemane demonstrate as being out of all proportion to any of these other considerations to the point where they are not even mentioned therein (i. e., His death for sin on the cross is the “cup” to which He refers; see above under “The Last Supper”). Nevertheless, as we consider this part of our Lord’s “passion”, it is absolutely critical for us who call ourselves Christians to understand that all these things which Christ suffered before the cross and which constitute His prophesied humiliation did not expiate our sins. It was the judgment of our Lord Jesus in the darkness on the cross which washed those sins away, and not the unimaginable physical and emotional sufferings that preceded the cross, the event which, from the proper divine point of view, is history. Why, then, did Jesus have to go through this gauntlet of gauntlets even to get to the cross where He bore our sins “in His body on the tree” (1 Peter 2:24)? Without question all of this preliminary suffering fulfilled a whole host of Old Testament prophecies (cf. Acts 13:27-29). And without question the devil did all that he possibly could to prevent Jesus from reaching the cross in a manner acceptable to the Father and as an acceptable Substitute for our sins, for that was where the victory in the unseen conflict raging around us was finally and definitively won with eternal results (John 16:33; Romans 14:9-10; Ephesians 1:19-23; Php 2:9-11; Colossians 2:15; Revelation 5:5-14; cf. Ephesians 4:8-10). What we can also say, moreover, is that our Lord’s resolute and unwavering negotiation of this final gauntlet serves to provide a vivid demonstration of His boundless love for us, and for the entire world. Now before the feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his own which were in the world, he loved them unto the end. John 13:1 KJV For God loved the world so much that He gave [up] His only Son, [with the purpose] that everyone who believes in Him should not be lost [forever], but have eternal life [instead]. John 3:16. But short of Satan’s physical prevention of our Lord (something he was clearly not allowed to do), nothing could stop Him from carrying out the Father’s will to the end, no matter how hard, how painful, how emotionally or physically searing it proved to be, and not even when what lay beyond the gauntlet of pain and humiliation was something so incredibly impossible and horrifying that we are incapable of even dimly understanding it this side of heaven – standing judgment and dying for our sins, and for those of the entire world. In this as in everything important, Jesus is our role model, and just as He did, so we too are to carry our cross and do whatever God puts in front of us. But we can rest assured that whatever this may be it will never approach what Jesus went through, and that on the other side of whatever gauntlet we may face, even if martyrdom be our lot in the midst of the Great Tribulation to come, rather than undergoing anything like the ultimate sacrifice made by our Lord, we instead will be liberated from any further suffering and find ourselves standing before Him there in the third heaven with a “well done” for following Him and His example, “sharing the sufferings of Christ” (1 Peter 4:13; cf. Romans 8:17; 2 Corinthians 1:5; Php 3:10; Colossians 1:24). Behold, My Servant will embrace the truth. He will arise on high, be lifted up, and be greatly exalted, to a proportional degree that many had [previously] been appalled at Him. For His appearance had been marred beyond human [likeness], and His form more than [that of any] other man. As a result, He shall sprinkle [with salvation] many gentile [nation]s. Kings will shut their mouths at [the sight of] Him. For those [gentiles] who had not been told shall see, and those [gentiles] who had not understood shall hear. [But] who has believed our report? And to whom has the Arm of the Lord (i. e., the Messiah) been revealed? For He grew up before Him like a suckling plant, like a root [springing up] from dry ground. He had no [particular] handsomeness that we should take note of Him, no [obvious] charisma that we should be taken with Him. [On the contrary, ] He was despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and acquainted with suffering. Like a person people hide their faces from, He was despised, and we did not hold Him of any account. For He took away our torments, and He shouldered our weaknesses. And yet we considered Him as [the One who had been] punished, smitten and afflicted by God. But [in fact] He was made subject to torment on account of our transgressions, and He was crushed because of our collective guilt (lit., “guilts”). The punishment [required] for making peace [with God] on our behalf [fell] upon Him. Because of His wounding, we have been healed. We have all gone astray like sheep. Each of us has turned to his own way. And the Lord caused the guilt of us all to strike Him. Though He was oppressed and afflicted, like a lamb led to slaughter He did not open His mouth, and like a ewe before her shearers He did not open His mouth. By repressive judgment He was taken away, and who gave any thought to His posterity? For He was cut off from the land of the living. He was punished for the transgression of my people. And they assigned Him a grave with the wicked (pl.) and with a rich [man] in His deaths (sic). Not for any violence that He had done. Nor was there any deceit in His mouth. For it was the Lord’s good pleasure (i. e., “will”) to crush Him, to subject Him to torment. But though you make His life a guilt offering, He will see His seed, He will lengthen His days, and the good pleasure (i. e., “will”) of the Lord will prosper in His hand. [Released] from the trouble [inflicted] upon His life, He will [again] see [the light of life] and be satisfied (i. e., in resurrection). My righteous Servant will provide righteousness for the great [of heart] (i. e., believers) through the[ir] acknowledgment of Him, and He Himself will shoulder their guilt (lit., “guilts”). Therefore I will allot the great [of heart] to Him [as His portion of the plunder], and He will apportion plunder to the[se same] mighty [of heart]. Because He bared His life to death and was numbered with the transgressors, thereby He took away the sin of the great [of heart] and substituted [Himself] for the transgressors. Isaiah 52:13-15, Isaiah 53:1-12. I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair: I hid not my face from shame and spitting. For the Lord God will help me; therefore shall I not be confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be ashamed. Isaiah 50:6-7 KJV My God, My God, why did You forsake Me? [Why were You so] far from saving Me, [so far] from [answering] the words I roared forth? Psalms 22:1. But I am a worm, not a man, the reproach of mankind and One rejected by the people. All who see Me, mock Me. They open wide their mouths. They shake their heads [at Me]. “He relies on God. Let Him rescue Him! Let Him deliver Him, if He takes pleasure in Him” (cf. Matthew 27:39-43; Mark 15:27-32; Luke 23:35-37). For You are the One who cut Me out of the womb. You are the One who made Me trust in You on my mother’s breasts. I was cast upon (i. e., made to rely upon) You from the womb (i. e., immediately after birth). [Since the moment I came] from out of the womb You have been my God. Be not far from Me, for trouble is near, for there is no one [else] to help [Me]. [Like] many bulls they have encircled Me. [Like] strong bulls from Bashan they have surrounded Me. They open their mouths against Me [like] roaring lions about to pounce on their prey. I am poured out like water, and all My bones are being stretched apart. My heart has become like wax. It is melting inside of Me. My strength is evaporating like a broken piece of pottery, and My tongue is sticking to the roof of My mouth [with thirst]. For You (cf. Psalms 22:1-2) have set Me ablaze in the dust of death. For they have surrounded Me [like] dogs. [This] congregation of evil-doers has encompassed Me. They have pierced My hands and My feet. I can count all My bones. [While] they look on and stare at Me, they are dividing up My clothes for themselves, and for My garments they are casting lots. But You, Lord, be not far off! O My God, hurry to My help! Deliver My life from the sword, My precious [life] from the power of [these] dog[s]! Save Me from the mouth of the lion! Answer Me from amid the horns of these wild oxen! Psalms 22:6-21. Even my close friend, whom I trusted, he who shared my bread, has lifted up his heel against me. Psalms 41:9 NIV If an enemy were insulting me, I could endure it; if a foe were raising himself against me, I could hide from him. But it is you, a man like myself, my companion, my close friend, with whom I once enjoyed sweet fellowship as we walked with the throng at the house of God. Psalms 55:12-14 NIV For they mixed gall with what they gave Me to eat, and for My thirst they gave Me vinegar to drink. Psalms 69:21 (cf.Psalms 69:19-21; Matthew 27:34, Matthew 27:48; Mark 15:23, Mark 15:36; Luke 23:36; John 19:29) Remember, Lord, how your servant has been mocked, how I bear in my heart the taunts of all the nations, the taunts with which your enemies have mocked, O Lord, with which they have mocked every step of your anointed one. Psalms 89:50-51 NIV The Stone which the builders rejected has become the Cornerstone. Psalms 118:22. For they have struck on the cheek with a rod the Judge of Israel. Micah 5:1 b In addition to the beating, spitting, mocking, lying, cursing, betrayal, rejection and all of the other things He had to endure, it should be noted as well that besides being a particularly painful form of execution, the fact that our Lord was crucified (as opposed to being stoned to death or beheaded), constituted a part of His humiliation as well. For there was a certain amount of shame involved in this type of death (cf. Hebrews 12:2), since it proclaimed the person in question as being “under a curse” (Deuteronomy 21:23; Galatians 3:13). He made Him who had no [personal] experience of sinning [to be] sin (i. e., a sin offering) for us, so that we might have God’s righteousness in Him. 2 Corinthians 5:21. . . . [Moses] considered the reproach [suffered on behalf] of Christ greater riches than the treasure vaults of Egypt. For he was looking to his reward. Hebrews 11:26. Since then we too [like the believers of Hebrews 11:1-40] have such a large audience of witnesses surrounding us [both men and angels], let us put off every hindrance – especially whatever sins habitually affect us – and run with endurance the race set before us, turning our gaze unto Jesus, the originator and completer of our faith, who, for the joy set before Him, endured the shame of the cross, treating it with despite, and took His seat at the right hand of the throne of God. Keep in mind all the terrible opposition He endured against Himself at the hands of sinful men, so as not to grow sick at heart and give up. Hebrews 12:1-3. So let us go outside the camp to Him, bearing His reproach. Hebrews 13:13. He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, in order that we might die to sins and live to righteousness. By His wound you are healed. 1 Peter 2:24. But before the ultimate trial of the crucifixion itself and the death for sin He would die on our behalf in the darkness while hung on the cross, our Lord, though completely innocent, would be made to undergo six prior trials at the hands of sinful human beings, and be abused, rejected and condemned by mere men for whom He was about to die. 1) The Trial before Annas (John 18:12-24): In our Lord’s day the high-priesthood had become a largely political office. Annas, though no longer holding the office, was Caiaphas’ father-in-law and the apparent power behind the throne, so it was to him that our Lord was first brought after being arrested in the garden of Gethsemane. Under intense interrogation, Jesus refused to answer questions about His disciples and remained unintimidated in spite of physical abuse (cf. John 18:21-23 with Isaiah 50:8-9). 2) The Trial before Caiaphas (Matthew 26:57-68; Mark 14:53-65): From comparing the accounts of John and Matthew, it seems likely that Annas’ residence shared an inner courtyard with the official residence of the high priest. As in the first interrogation, this trial must have taken place on the portico of the residence, for Peter is able to observe its progress, and our Lord is able to see Peter immediately after his third denial (Luke 22:61). While the first trial seems to have been focused upon gathering intelligence in order to round up all of our Lord’s followers, this second trial seems to have served a probouleutic function, having the purpose of concocting an appropriate charge for a death penalty at once acceptable to and persuasive for the Roman governor. None of the witnesses interviewed provided anything convincing, however, and it was only when our Lord affirmed His status as the Messiah under direct questioning that His accusers became satisfied that they had enough evidence to convict Him. In the process of this trial, Jesus was spit upon, slapped, beaten, blindfolded, and mocked. 3) The Trial before the Sanhedrin (Matthew 27:1; Mark 15:1 a; Luke 22:66-71; cf. John 18:28): While the first two trials took place in close geographic proximity, probably just before dawn our Lord was marched to the council house where the Jewish senate or Sanhedrin met. All four of the gospels indicate that this third trial, coming very shortly after the second and, with Peter’s denials sandwiched in between them, that it took place at day break. The purpose of this trial before the most politically powerful individuals in Jerusalem and Judea (outside of the Roman governor and his staff) was merely to place a formal “rubber stamp” on the charge prepared by the high priest. The details of this trial are recorded only in Luke and the only accusation about which our Lord is asked is the same one which caused Caiaphas to rend his garments: And they all said, “Are you the Son of God then?” And He said to them, “Yes I am.” Luke 22:70 NASB The outcome of this apparently very short trial was a rapid sentence of condemnation, after which our Lord was led, bound, to the praetorium or headquarters of the Roman governor (Matthew 27:2). 4) The Trial before Pilate: First Phase (Matthew 27:11-14; Mark 15:1-5; Luke 23:1-5; John 18:28-38): Bringing our Lord before Pilate was necessary inasmuch as that in Judea, being a Roman protectorate, the power of capital punishment was reserved for the Roman governor (John 18:31). That was the sole purpose of the change of venue. For inasmuch as the rulers of Israel had determined that Jesus should die, the only thing left was effecting this decision, and that required persuading the Roman governor to acquiesce in their sentence of death. For this purpose, the priests, elders, scribes and Pharisees were willing to resort to any sort of falsity, and were clearly irritated that they had to provide any sort of rationale for a decision they had already reached (“If this man were not doing wrong, we would not have handed him over to you”; John 18:30). Luke records a threefold indictment in response to Pilate’s demand for a reason to execute Jesus: “We discovered this man [ 1] misleading our people and [ 2] preventing [us from] paying taxes to Caesar and [ 3] saying that he is Messiah, [that is, ] king”. Luke 23:2 b The idea that they had only just now “come upon” our Lord acting in a criminal way is designed to prejudice the entire proceeding (by removing any suspicion of jealousy for one thing). “Misleading the people” is an entirely generic charge and meant to give Pilate a reason to agree in case he might be inclined to give them a blank check without further ado. “Preventing the paying of taxes” is, of course, a complete canard, for the command of our Lord to “render unto Caesar what is Caesar’s and unto God what is God’s” had unquestionably become very well known. Resentment over the paying of tax to gentile occupiers and conspiring to avoid and resist such taxation was actually a crime of which these men were likely to have been guilty themselves. This second charge did, however, furnish Pilate with an appropriate rationale for granting an execution in case he were inclined to do so but not without at least a fig leaf of respectability. Finally, almost as an afterthought, they include the charge upon which the Sanhedrin had actually agreed: Jesus claimed to be the Messiah. This was blasphemy in their unbelieving eyes, and they add the word “king” by way of explanation, no doubt because they knew very well that any claim of kingship as an alternative to Caesar, and especially one which claimed a divine mandate, was likely to be viewed as a traitorous threat by the Roman administration. They did not, however, count on Pilate’s seeing through and dismissing the first two charges out of hand and concentrating on the third. “Are you the king of the Jews?” Matthew 27:11; Mark 15:2; Luke 23:3; John 18:33. “You say [so].” Matthew 27:11; Mark 15:2; Luke 23:3; John 18:37. Only John records Jesus’ more extended explanation. He is indeed a king, but His kingdom is not of this world. He has come to testify to the truth, not to replace any earthly rule (at this time). Pilate’s infamous answer, “What is truth” (John 18:38), indicates that he understood quite clearly that our Lord was not instigating any sort of earthly rebellion. As a result, Pilate’s first and just verdict was an easy one for him to render: “I find no guilt in this man.” Luke 23:4 (cf. John 18:38) But this verdict was met with a vigorous appeal by the accusers against the acquitted. Contrary to every standard of justice, Pilate allowed this verbal onslaught to continue for some time and was “amazed” that our Lord did not respond to any further charges (Matthew 27:14; Mark 15:5): Jesus had cooperated with all the prior legal process to which He had been subjected despite its overwhelming unfairness. But having been officially acquitted, He was not longer bound by any standard of justice no matter how perverse to answer further, thus giving Pilate no further avenue of approach (despite his attempt to elicit one: “Don’t you hear what terrible things they are accusing you of?”; Matthew 27:13; Mark 15:4). This explains why Pilate seized on the fact that Jesus’ ministry had begun in Galilee as soon as he was apprised of that fact (Luke 23:5-7). 5) The Trial before Herod (Luke 23:8-12): Sending our Lord to Herod must have seemed to Pilate a perfect solution. It was a marvelous way of passing the responsibility off. Herod’s father, Herod “the great”, had, after all, ruled Judea as king under a Roman protectorate which had only been dissolved upon his death (following the malfeasance of the eldest son, Herod Archelaus), and we may well imagine that this other son also had some hopes of regaining his father’s position. If anyone was likely to take offense at someone else proclaiming themselves “king”, it was surely Herod. Herod’s father had attempted to kill Jesus, and had killed the male children of Bethlehem (Matthew 2:1-19), while his son, the present Herod (Antipas), had executed our Lord’s herald, John the baptist (Matthew 14:3-12; Mark 6:17-30; Luke 9:9). Thus, sending Jesus to Herod was far from a benign act, and that fact was surely not lost on our Lord. But while Herod was pleased to be provided with this entertainment and questioned our Lord at length (to no effect, since our Lord did not respond to this illegal proceeding), he apparently had no desire and no intention of becoming involved in any legal process. After subjecting Jesus to more abuse, he sent Him back to Pilate. 6) The Trial before Pilate: Second Phase (Matthew 27:15-26; Mark 15:6-15; Luke 23:13-25; John 18:39-40, John 19:1-16): Pilate interpreted Herod’s return of our Lord to him as ratification of his own previous acquittal (Luke 23:15). Upon that return, Pilate made several further attempts to prevent our Lord’s crucifixion. There are no doubt several reasons for this, but we need not attribute any deep respect for justice on his part as one of them (cf. John 18:38 : “What is truth?”). The witness of our Lord and the power of His presence caused the Roman governor some serious foreboding (cf., John 19:7-12), and it is also likely that his wife’s warning to him not to have anything to do with our Lord had been the source of some further unease (Matthew 27:19). But Pilate is also likely to have been motivated to spare Jesus out of 1) his desire not to lose this “contest of wills” between himself and the Jewish authorities, and 2) a further desire to avoid becoming implicated in any way in what he clearly saw as a political murder – not out of a sense of justice but rather out of a desire to stay above the fray of Jewish party politics in order not to alienate any faction unnecessarily (i. e., he recognized that Jesus had been arrested “out of envy”: Matthew 27:18; Mark 15:10; this also explains why he literally “washed his hands” of the matter after being unable to convince the crowd otherwise: Matthew 27:24-25). When his attempt to proclaim Jesus innocent based upon his own and upon Herod’s examination failed to persuade, in order to relieve himself of this situation which was growing increasingly tense Pilate tried to find an acceptable alternative to crucifixion, first by making use of his politically astute custom of releasing some well-known prisoner every Passover. But the crowd, egged on by the chief priests and the elders, shouted for Barabbas instead (Matthew 27:20; Mark 15:11). He also tried humiliation and abuse, having our Lord beaten and whipped further and ridiculed by the soldiers (Matthew 27:27-30; Mark 15:16-19; John 19:2-3), then presenting Him to the crowd dressed in purple but wearing a crown of thorns (symbolic, though unbeknownst to Pilate, of the curse He was about be made for the sake of the whole world: cf. Genesis 3:18), and providing the comic introduction himself: “Look, here’s the man [now]!” (John 19:5). When this overture too was refused, and when a further interview with our Lord provided no insights or help to his dilemma (“Don’t you know that I have the authority to release you and the authority to crucify you?” – “You would have no authority over Me unless it had been given you from above; for this reason he who delivered Me up to you has the greater sin”; John 19:10-11 NASB), Pilate finally delivered Jesus over to crucifixion when the people under the guidance of their Jewish leaders played their ace trump: “If you release this man, you are no friend of Caesar; everyone who makes himself out to be a king opposes Caesar” (John 19:12 NASB). Pilate, the ultimate political pragmatist, knew that he had been beaten at this point. Failing to give our Lord over to the people and their will would now be very costly for him (even though it was certainly within his power), and he was unwilling to suffer any possible disadvantage (whether in terms of an immediate riot, future instability, or a possible charge of malfeasance lodged with Caesar) just for Jesus’ sake. However, wishing to make it crystal clear that he was only acquiescing in a decision of their making, he first washed his hands to demonstrate his “innocence” (cf. Deuteronomy 21:6), and the people responded: “His blood be on us and our children!” (Matthew 27:25 NASB). Then, to leave no doubt, and to gain some political capital from this defeat, Pilate referred to Jesus as their “King”, questioning whether or not they really wanted to crucify their own king, until they responded “We don’t have a king – except Caesar” (John 19:15). Having made the best of a bad situation (from his spiritually blind point of view), Pilate “handed Jesus over to their will” to be crucified (Luke 23:25; cf. Matthew 27:26; Mark 15:15; John 19:16). l. The Crucifixion: 1) The Events of the Crucifixion: Ridiculed, rejected, beaten and scourged, our Lord who by this time was nearing the end of His physical strength (but not of His moral resolve) was made to take up His own cross and carry it to the place of execution, “Golgotha”, a Hebrew name meaning “skull”. John tells us that on the initial leg of the journey Jesus was carrying His cross Himself (John 19:17). Having received enough physical abuse over the course of the preceding night and morning to kill most lesser men, our Lord was apparently unable to move fast enough to suit the Roman soldiers taking Him to the place of death, and so they “drafted” Simon of Cyrene, father of Alexander and Rufus (cf. Romans 16:13) in order to carry the cross for Him the remainder of the way (Matthew 27:32; Mark 15:21; Luke 23:26). As the procession made its way along, with two criminals also slated for crucifixion in the column (Luke 23:32), our Lord at one point turned to the large crowd which was following to address the women who were beating their breasts and lamenting Him: Daughters of Jerusalem, do not weep for me; weep for yourselves and for your children. For the time will come when you will say, “Blessed are the barren women, the wombs that never bore and the breasts that never nursed!” Then “they will say to the mountains, ‘Fall on us!’ and to the hills, ‘Cover us!’” For if men do these things when the tree is green, what will happen when it is dry? Luke 23:28-31. The second quote from Hosea 10:8 is a prophecy of the response of the wicked and unregenerate to the return of Messiah at His second advent. With this quote and with these words our Lord shifts the focus of the mourners from His circumstances to their own spiritual danger. Within a few decades (A. D. 68), Jerusalem would be completely destroyed by the Romans without doubt on account of her overall unwillingness to accept her Messiah. No amount of mourning for Jesus’ crucifixion would be able to save Jerusalem from her fate, nor would this mourning save any of the crowd who were also unwilling to believe in Jesus, accepting Him as the Messiah, the one and only Son of God who was about to die for their sins and for the sins of the entire world. When they arrived at Golgotha, our Lord was offered wine mixed with some sort of additive to deaden the pain. Mark calls it “myrrh” and Matthew calls it “gall”. Both terms are somewhat generic in Greek (i. e., admissive of a wide variety of bitter, aromatic substances). Matthew’s choice of the word “gall” is clearly intended to emphasize the fulfillment of part of the prophecy from Psalms 69:21, “They put gall in my food and gave me vinegar for my thirst” (where the Hebrew word ro’sh [translated here “gall”] actually refers to a specific bitter herb, “wormwood”, but is often used metaphorically for things producing noxious effects). Mark’s use of “myrrh” makes this event more understandable for his Roman audience and also demonstrates for us the reason behind Jesus’ refusal to drink it: certain types of myrrh were considered to have sedative properties, and our Lord, though without question by now terribly thirsty after this horrendous ordeal, was yet unwilling to drink anything that would in any way compromise His free will decision to take on the sins of the world – He had to be fully conscious when He bore our sins for the sacrifice to count. As in all the events of this gauntlet He ran for us even to get to the cross, everything He did, He did for us – that we might have eternal life. When they had crucified him, they divided up his clothes by casting lots. Matthew 27:35 NIV And they crucified him. Dividing up his clothes, they cast lots to see what each would get. Mark 15:24 NIV When they came to the place called the Skull, there they crucified him, along with the criminals – one on his right, the other on his left. Luke 23:33 NIV Here they crucified him, and with him two others – one on each side and Jesus in the middle. John 19:18 NIV What has always struck this author about the actual description of the act of nailing our Lord to the cross is that seems almost to be glossed over by the gospel writers, especially in comparison to the prominence it has been given in Christian art, literature and music over the millennia. I believe that this fact alone should serve to indicate to us that it is not the physical death our Lord which is to be emphasized in considering His sacrifice on our behalf. After all, as we shall see below, Jesus died physically by voluntarily exhaling His spirit, not from exposure or shock or trauma or any loss of blood. He lay down His own physical life once His work on the cross in dying spiritually for us had been accomplished. That “work”, that [spiritual] death, was to be judged in our place, to stand judgment for the sins of the world that the world might be saved through faith in Him. For they have surrounded Me [like] dogs. [This] congregation of evil-doers has encompassed Me. They have pierced My hands and My feet. I can count all My bones. [While] they look on and stare at Me, they are dividing up My clothes for themselves, and for My garments they are casting lots. Psalms 22:16-18. But he was pierced for our transgressions, he was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon him, and by his wounds we are healed. Isaiah 53:5 NIV And I will pour out on the house of David and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem a Spirit of grace and repentance. For they will look upon Me whom they have pierced, and they will grieve for Him like the grieving for an only son, and they will [weep] bitterly for Him like the bitter [weeping] for a firstborn son. Zechariah 12:10. And just as Moses lifted up the snake in the desert, so the Son of Man must be lifted up (i. e., on the cross for all to view as the object of faith for forgiveness of sins; cf. Numbers 21:4-9), in order that everyone who believes in Him may have eternal life. For God loved the world so much that He gave [up] His only Son, [with the purpose] that everyone who believes in Him should not be lost [forever], but have eternal life [instead]. John 3:14-16. Behold! He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even those who pierced Him, and all the peoples of the earth will grieve on account of Him. Revelation 1:7. The usual punishment for Roman citizens found guilty of capital crimes was beheading (cf. the fasces, the bundle of rods bound around an ax, carried by Roman lictors), a far less cruel and less painful form of execution than being crucified, and one which was over with much more quickly as well. But crucifixion was meant to send a message to all who witnessed it of the horrible retribution which awaited those who opposed Roman authority. It was thus no accident that crucifixion by design entailed in most cases a very painful death from shock, exposure, and dehydration in a process which could last several days. This explains both Pilate’s surprise at Jesus’ “rapid” death (Mark 15:44), and also why the Roman soldiers had to break the legs of the two criminals crucified at Jesus’ right and left so that they might be removed before the Sabbath began (John 19:33). Deprived of the ability to adjust their positions on the cross by means of their legs, suffocation would soon result (and shock, of course, would be greatly increased thus hastening the process). But, according to the prophecy, “not one bone” of our Lord’s body was broken in His death on our behalf (Psalms 34:20; John 19:36 cf. Exodus 12:46; Numbers 9:12). The soldiers passed Him by after determining by piercing His side that He was already dead – He had already given up His spirit, His work of atonement already having been completed during the preceding three hours of darkness on the cross. To inhabitants of the Roman world, therefore, the cross was a sign and symbol of disgrace, reproach, and death, and in particular a very painful, public, and shameful death. Moreover this was particularly true for Jews, since hanging a person (on a tree [or cross]) is indicative of that person being “under a curse” (Deuteronomy 21:23; cf. Joshua 8:29; Joshua 10:26; 2 Samuel 4:12; Galatians 3:13). This should remind us, we who embrace the name “Christian”, just what our Lord was saying to us when He told us to “pick up our cross” and follow Him (Matthew 10:38; Matthew 16:24; Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23; Luke 14:27). For as His example makes clear, this is not a command to endure mere minor or temporary “inconvenience”, but rather it is a call to a life that foreswears the world and all that is in it, embracing instead the suffering and the reproach of Christ for the sake of pleasing the One who did for us what we could never do for ourselves: expiate the justice of God by dying for our sins on the cross, thus opening the door for our eternal life with Him. By faith, Moses, when he grew up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, and chose instead to suffer maltreatment with the people of God rather than to enjoy the transitory pleasures of sin, because he considered the reproach [suffered on behalf] of Christ greater riches than the treasure vaults of Egypt. For he was looking to his reward. Hebrews 11:24-26. Since then we too [like the believers of Hebrews 11:1-40] have such a large audience of witnesses surrounding us [both men and angels], let us put off every hindrance – especially whatever sins habitually affect us – and run with endurance the race set before us, turning our gaze unto Jesus, the originator and completer of our faith, who, for the joy set before Him, endured the shame of the cross, treating it with despite, and took His seat at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:1-2. Therefore Jesus too, in order that He might sanctify the people through His own blood (i. e., His death on the cross), suffered outside the gate (i. e., separated from fellowship). So then let us go out to Him outside of the camp (i. e., likewise choosing God over the world), bearing His reproach. Hebrews 13:12-13. Even as He was lifted up on the cross, His hands and feet pierced by the nails that held Him there, for all his disciples who by now should have been capable of seeing through the veil of time to the glories beyond, this vision of suffering and reproach should yet have called to mind that day then soon to come when our Lord now lifted up in worldly shame would be lifted up in resurrection to ascend to heaven and be seated in glory at the Father’s right hand; and it should now call to mind that day now soon to come when our Lord’s sign of the cross will appear in the heavens to the entire world, with Moses and Elijah, only recently martyred themselves, taking their places of honor at our Lord’s right and left hands (Matthew 24:29-30; cf. Revelation 11:7-14). After our Lord was nailed to His cross and lifted up on Golgotha, the gospels record several events which took place before the supernatural darkness descended upon Calvary at about mid-day: 1. The dividing up of His clothing: This was of course another fulfillment of prophecy regarding the suffering of the Messiah (Psalms 22:18; John 19:24), and we should note that it can have been no small part of the psychological torment that was crucifixion for the subject to have to watch while all his earthly possessions were parceled out even while he was yet alive. Yet as our Lord told us we must do (Luke 14:33; cf. Matthew 19:29; Mark 10:29-30; Luke 18:29-30), so He had from the first put no stock in the things of this world, possessing only the bare essentials necessary to function effectively in the ministry to which He had been called (Matthew 8:20; Luke 9:58). This does not mean that we have been called to lives of abject poverty or that we should divest ourselves of all that we have beyond what is necessary to sustain life, but our Lord’s example does provide for us the perfect standard: the things of this world had no power over Him whatsoever, so that this act of cruelty could not dissuade Him from His objective in the slightest. So we also, no matter whether we find ourselves, as Paul says, “in want or in plenty” (Php 4:12), should consider whatever we have to be gifts from God for the purpose of doing His will, being ever ready to part with them if necessary for the sake of Jesus Christ (cf. Php 3:7-8). 2. The Inscription on the cross: Matthew and Mark both describe Pilate’s inscription as the “charge” for which our Lord was crucified, and there is deliberate divine irony in the fact that, officially speaking, Christ was ordered to be crucified for admitting under questioning to be what in fact He most surely was and is: “the King of the Jews” (Matthew 27:37; Mark 15:26; cf. Matthew 27:11; Mark 15:2; Luke 23:2-3). In Christian iconography, the letters INRI are often employed as an acrostic for Pilate’s inscription which was actually written in triplicate, in “Hebrew, Latin and Greek” (John 19:20). These letters represent a probable reconstruction of the Latin inscription based upon John’s Greek version: Iesus Nazoraius Rex Iudaeorum (“Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews”). The lead inscription was in Hebrew as the language spoken in Jerusalem (not “Aramaic” as some versions, notably the NIV, erroneously translate the Greek word Hebraisti), with Latin second, being the official language of state authority. Greek was also used since anyone likely to be in Jerusalem yet not conversant with Hebrew or Latin would almost certainly know enough Greek, the lingua franca of the entire eastern Mediterranean world, to read and understand these words. Thus Pilate’s description of Jesus as “king” was accessible to all who came to witness Jesus’ crucifixion. Further, the placard on which it was written, whose words are similarly described in all four gospels (Matthew 27:37; Mark 15:26; Luke 23:38; John 19:19), was posted on our Lord’s cross plainly visible to all, and on that account occasioned complaint from the chief priests who tried to no avail to have Pilate change the wording, objecting to the statement proclaiming that here was “the king of the Jews”. Pilate refused to do so, replying “what I have written, I have written” (John 19:22), allowing this truth they found so uncomfortable to remain in place. 3. Jesus is mocked from the cross (Matthew 27:39-44; Mark 15:29-32; Luke 23:35-39): The scorn which the crowd in general and the chief priests and scribes in particular heaped upon our Lord as He hung on the cross – about to stand judgment for their sins and ours – was prophesied in scripture both generally (cf. especially Psalms 22:7) and specifically. In the latter category, we see the chief priests and scribes actually quoting Psalms 22:1-31 to chastise Him, using the very prophetic words which foretold of this suffering of the Messiah and now serve to condemn their blind, self-righteous behavior: “Roll (i. e., “commit”) [Yourself ] to the Lord. Let Him rescue Him. Let Him deliver Him, since He delights in Him.” Psalms 22:8. In the same way the chief priests, the teachers of the law and the elders mocked him. “He saved others,” they said, “but he can’t save himself! He’s the King of Israel! Let him come down now from the cross, and we will believe in him. He trusts in God. Let God rescue him now if he wants him, for he said, ‘I am the Son of God.’” Matthew 27:41-43 NIV One final thing to notice about this verbal abuse which our Lord sustained from all sides, the height of ingratitude from those He had come to save and for whom He was about to die, is that Jesus most certainly could have come down from the cross and made them all eat these horrible words. He could have changed His mind. He did not have to die for the sins of the world. He did it for us out a love so deep it can never be plumbed. And it is a mark of His great courage and that great love that though we turned away and though they taunted Him so violently, yet He chose to stay on the cross in order to provide eternal redemption even for those who mocked Him. 4. The two robbers: Along with our Lord, two robbers had likewise been led away to Calvary in our Lord’s execution procession (Luke 23:32-33) and were crucified, one on His right and one and His left (Matthew 27:38; Mark 15:27-28; Luke 23:33). This also fulfilled in part a prophecy to which Jesus Himself had referred, namely, that the Messiah should be “numbered with transgressors” (Luke 22:37). The Greek words employed to describe these men, lestes in Matthew and Mark, and kakourgos in Luke, indicate that far from being petty criminals, these men were professional felons of the most violent sort, highway robbers and/or home invaders guilty of terrible crimes. At first, they joined in with the rest, reproaching Jesus in His innocence, but after a time, no doubt impressed by the fortitude and courage shown by our Lord and stricken in what conscience he still had left, one of these thieves had a change of heart. He ceased his own mockery, rebuked his compatriot, and appealed to our Lord for mercy. One of the criminals who hung there hurled insults at him: “Aren’t you the Christ? Save yourself and us!” But the other criminal rebuked him. “Don’t you fear God,” he said, “since you are under the same sentence? We are punished justly, for we are getting what our deeds deserve. But this man has done nothing wrong.” Then he said, “Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom.” Jesus answered him, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with me in paradise.” Luke 23:39-43 NIV Our Lord’s reply, “I tell you the truth, today you will be with Me in paradise”, crystalizes for all who are willing to hear it the utter vanity of this world on the one hand, and the extreme of importance of the real reason we are in it on the other. For this man had led a life of which anyone would look back and be ashamed – yet he will be in heaven with us all as a brother in Jesus for all eternity simply for repenting of his folly and placing his faith in the Lord who was about to die for him. Whereas the vast majority of those watching, though they were admired in the eyes of the world and had led lives that may have been fairly honorable, will be cast into the lake of fire forever, simply because they refused to accept God’s gracious gift of salvation in the person of His beloved Son. 5. Jesus’ instructions to John about Mary: Near the cross of Jesus stood his mother, his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. When Jesus saw his mother there, and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby, he said to his mother, “Dear woman, here is your son,” and to the disciple, “Here is your mother.” From that time on, this disciple took her into his home. John 19:25-27 NIV These verses clearly demonstrate that even in the midst of such pain and torment, on the point of dying for the sins of the world, our Lord nevertheless carried out every earthly responsibility perfectly as well, making provision here from the cross for the mother of His humanity. As Mary’s sister was standing by, however, and considering that in addition to her extended family (cf. Luke 1:39-45), Mary had a rather large number of other children herself (cf. Matthew 13:56; Matthew 28:10; Mark 3:31; Luke 8:19; John 2:12; John 7:3; Acts 1:14; 1 Corinthians 9:5; Galatians 1:19; Jude 1:1), some explanation of why our Lord made this particular assignment is necessary. As the elder brother, the care of His sole remaining parent was indeed our Lord’s responsibility, and one which He was apparently unwilling to leave to others to decide in His stead. In terms of worldly priorities, it is not unreasonable to say that most of us would have put family first in such situations (on the principle that “blood is thicker than water”). Or we might consider the material aspects and entrust our loved one to whomever could best provide. John was not family. John was poor (and no doubt poorer than Jesus’ brothers, for John had been unemployed in the worldly sense for the past three years, living off donations along with Jesus and the other twelve: cf. Luke 8:3). But our Lord was clearly more concerned with His mother’s spiritual welfare than with either family considerations or economic concerns (for letting His brothers take care of her would have been better on both of these other two counts). Jesus was concerned that His mother continue in an environment of faith, and by this action clearly demonstrates that her eternal life and spiritual growth were of far more importance to Him than her physical circumstances and financial security. As with all of the other events of the cross, this is a serious lesson for us: if we really love someone, we should live by Jesus’ example here and put their spiritual welfare ahead of all other considerations. For even if we see to it that they are happy, healthy, and know no financial want, if they are suffering spiritually as a result of our focus on these other issues – far subordinate in God’s eyes to maintaining healthy faith, growing in the truth, and drawing closer to Him and His Son – then we have made a poor bargain indeed. Since as we have seen none of the disciples really grasped the reality or the gravity of our Lord’s impending death before the fact, it would have been somewhat imprudent of our Lord to entrust this responsibility to John (or anyone else, for that matter) before now. John was, as it says here, “the disciple whom Jesus loved” (cf. also John 13:23; John 20:2; John 21:7, John 21:20). Since our Lord’s judgment was perfect, this means that John’s spiritual priorities were admirable even in comparison to the other disciples, for the qualities which attracted our Lord to John must have been primarily spiritual. As such, John seems to have been the best choice and indeed the perfect choice to look after Mary. 6. The interpolation “Father forgive them” is not a part of scripture: Possibly one of the most famous and most frequently translated passages which repute to be biblical but are not is “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” This half verse, occurring in some manuscripts in the text of Luke in Luke 23:34, is without question not a part of the Bible, but rather is a later addition put there by some scribe to fill out the gospel story (for motives discussed below). Whether the issue is viewed from a linguistic, textual, historical or theological perspective, on all counts the passage is manifestly a forgery. 1) Linguistic evidence: Luke 23:33 ends with “there they crucified Him and the lawbreakers, one on His right and one on His left . . .”, while Luke 23:34, following the interpolation, completes this thought with “and dividing up His clothes they cast lots for them.” Even in most English versions (at least where not too much trouble has been taken to “airbrush” the problems with this awkward insertion) the text as modified does not ring true. In the Greek, the startling change of subject then immediate return to the narrative arouses immediate concerns about the text. This interjection (and in the Greek, the verb is in the imperfect tense meaning that Jesus “kept saying” this throughout) does not accord with Luke’s narrative style where chains of events are seldom interrupted and where statements, especially important statements, are usually given some introduction and followed by some commentary or explanation or description of reaction. Were Luke to have written this at the end of Luke 23:34 instead of at its beginning, the placement would have been less jarring, but it seems clear that the interpolator decided on this point for the insertion since he was wishing to put these words into Jesus’ mouth directly after the act of nailing our Lord to the cross (and we have already discussed the fact that the scriptures do not in fact go into great detail about that actual act – precisely because it was His death for sin in the darkness, not the physical suffering of being nailed to the cross, which is the basis for our salvation). Even so, the words “and the lawbreakers, one on His right and one on His left” split up the act of Jesus’ crucifixion from this statement (a fact that makes the placement of this non-scriptural addition seem even more clumsy). While on their own, these facts might not be decisive, they do serve to raise suspicion about the passage for all who are reading the text closely, and especially for those reading it in Greek. 2) Textual Evidence: Possibly the most decisive evidence against considering this half-verse as part of the Bible is the fact that it does not occur in some of the best and earliest manuscripts of the New Testament. Not only does the contemporaneous corrector of Sinaiticus, the best of the ancient manuscripts, correct the faulty inclusion in that ms. by expunging it, but it does not occur in the first place in some of the other major and most important witnesses (e. g., Vaticanus, D, W, Theta, and finally the Bodmer papyrus, a witness that pre-dates almost all other witnesses, being generally assigned to circa 250-290 A. D.). As a result, all the best critical editions of the Greek New Testament mark the passage as spurious. According to the canons of textual criticism, one of the main issues one should consider in cases of this sort is how likely inclusion or exclusion would be if the passage were original or not. Given how famous this passage is, how pithy, and how eminently quotable (it is perhaps the most quoted “verse” in the NT), no good reason can be suggested for why any copyist should wish to leave it out, nor can any reasonable theory be proffered for how such an otherwise famous passage might have been accidentally overlooked. Thus, the absence of the passage in some of the best and earliest witnesses constitutes overwhelming proof of its lack of authenticity, for the only way for it to have been missing in these early manuscripts is if it was not originally part of the genuine text (but only added after the penning of these early witnesses). 3) Historical Evidence: While a rationale for a scribe to exclude this passage do not come readily to hand, the reasons why someone might want to insert such a passage or defend it once inserted are obvious. For example, as any diligent reader of scripture is fully aware, as he was being stoned Stephen proclaimed “Lord, do not hold this sin against them.” (Acts 7:60 NIV). Putting aside the obvious distinction that Stephen was not the Messiah about to die for the sins of the world, it is yet easy to see how a person with a superficial understanding of the nature of our Lord’s death for sin on our behalf might find the lack of a similar statement of blanket forgiveness troubling, and might wish to rectify the perceived “problem” (which is in reality no problem at all; see the following point) by means of this interpolation. The fact that all of the major modern English versions print this passage even though their policy elsewhere is to include only what is clearly in the original Greek text shows that this is not merely an ancient prejudice (and by now, of course, there is also a great emotional attachment to this verse on behalf of many). Had the interpolater merely reproduced Stephen’s words or some form thereof, the fact of his fraud would have been immediately and glaringly obvious. While he avoided this potential evidence against his crime, happily for us he did not make the passage up out of whole clothe: this half verse is in fact taken from an early Church historian by the name of Hegisippus (whose work now survives only in fragments, existing in Eusebius’ Ecclesiastical History). We find this quotation in Eusebius’ second book, discussing the martyrdom of James: “So they went up and threw down the just man, and said to each other, ‘Let us stone James the Just.’ And they began to stone him, for he was not killed by the fall; but he turned and knelt down and said, ‘I entreat thee, Lord God our Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.” Eusebius 2.23.16. The words in bold above are not merely similar sounding. In the Greek, they are identicalto the text found in Luke. Since nothing in Eusebius’ text suggests any correspondence with any similar statement of our Lord (and given how famous the Luke passage was to become, some sort of acknowledgment of such an exact quotation which this would then be would have been necessary), we can safely say that the interpolater drew his words either from Hegisippus directly or from Eusebius derivatively. Given the flexibility of Greek syntax, accidence, and word order, the odds against this being a coincidence are astronomical. 4) Theological Evidence: While Stephen’s prayer in Acts chapter seven was as appropriate as it was magnanimous, Jesus was offering Himself for the sins of the world (something neither Stephen nor any of the rest of us could ever even contemplate doing). As such, the acceptance of Him and His work, His person and His death on the cross for the forgiveness of those sins, is theissue of human life. Of course the Father and of course our Lord desire the forgiveness and salvation of all: the Father sacrificed His Son and the Son died in our place precisely so that such forgiveness might be made available to all. But to offer such a statement as contained in this interpolation is to send the message that forgiveness requires no repentance; that salvation is possible absent faith on the part of the saved. Nothing could be further from the truth. While Jesus could and did die for the sins of the world, the one thing He could not and did not do was to die for the unbelief of the world. Unbelief is the one “unpardonable sin” for which forgiveness is impossible, and for our Lord Jesus Christ to have exonerated unbelief in any way by such words would have had repercussions throughout the entire plan of God which are unfathomable (and impossible because, ultimately, such blanket forgiveness would in effect compromise the righteousness of God, something that can never be). No follower of Jesus can fail to understand and appreciate God’s boundless mercy and the fact that the forgiveness of our sins is based entirely upon our Lord’s work on the cross in dying for them. Jesus could and did forgive sins – “the Son of man has the authority on earth to forgive sins” (Luke 5:24). But though He was soon to die for the sins of all, He did not forgive everyone’s sins (John 8:24; John 9:41), only the sins of those who turned to Him in faith (Matthew 9:2; Luke 7:48; cf. John 20:23). For Jesus to have granted blanket forgiveness, even to those who firmly rejected Him and always would (like most of those who stood around His cross mocking Him), would have been to eliminate the need for faith in salvation, to compromise the righteousness of God which demands satisfaction for sin through appropriating the work of Christ through faith, and essentially to render the cross pointless. For if a person could be forgiven without accepting what Jesus did for us upon it, then the sacrifice itself would have been unnecessary. This false passage eliminates the issue of free will in time exercised through faith, and the whole rationale for the creation of the human race in the first place. The fact that this insertion is so widely quoted, and very often by those who have little understanding of either the scriptures or of the true nature of the sacrifice of our Lord, is extremely revealing. For our Lord died that we might be saved by accepting His work through faith, not that the world might reject Him and be saved in spite of their decision to renounce God and His gift. The gate to eternal life was about to be opened by Jesus Christ our Lord through His spiritual death expiating the sins of the entire world so that the whole world might be saved by this gracious act through faith in it and in Him. The last thing our Lord was going to do just before the darkness descended upon Golgotha was to send a message which in effect pronounced both His sacrifice and our response unnecessary. 2) The Spiritual Death of Jesus Christ: 1) The Supernatural Darkness: Just as the Passover lamb, that poignant type of Jesus Christ sacrificed for us, was commanded to be slaughtered “between the evenings (pl.)”, (i. e., at a time neither clearly day nor night: Exodus 12:6; Exodus 29:39-41), so our Lord’s death on behalf of all mankind was destined to be accompanied by an analogous, yet supernatural, darkness. Scripture tells us that at “about the sixth hour” (i. e., around mid-day), darkness descended upon Golgotha, and that this darkness lasted “until about the ninth hour” (Matthew 27:45-54; Mark 15:33-39; Luke 23:44-49), with Luke adding the important detail that “the sun gave out” (literally “eclipsed”). It was during this supernatural “blackout” that our Lord bore the sins of the world and stood judgment for them, being spiritually put to death in our place and for our sins (see section II. 5 below, “Spiritual Death”). That the darkness was indeed supernatural (and that therefore no useful purpose is to be served by any attempt to correlate first century natural eclipses to this event) can be seen from the duration of the darkness: three full hours. In this we see a telling parallel between the judgment of the sins of the world in darkness and the other instances of supernatural darkness which attend significant divine judgments, with the extremely important exception of course that Christ bore this judgment on our behalf, and that it is through His being judged in our place that the gate of eternal life has been opened for all who believe in Him and accept His work in dying for our sins. 2) The Blood of Christ: While the subject of the “blood of Christ” and Jesus’ spiritual death for us on the cross is covered respectively in sections II. 4 and II. 5 below, a few things need to pointed out here. As is obvious from the fact that He breathed out His own spirit to end His physical life, our Lord Jesus Christ did not bleed to death (Matthew 27:50; Mark 15:37; Luke 23:46; John 19:30 see below, section I. 5.l. 3). Also apparent from His final statements on the cross after the darkness lifted (covered in detail in the next point below), is the truth that our Lord’s death for sin was completed before He gave up His spirit. Taken together, this unquestionably means that the efficacious and atoning work of our Lord in dying for our sins consists in what He endured in the darkness for us while still physically alive. So while Jesus’ physical sufferings on our account visible to all before the darkness descended on Golgotha were immense and beyond true appreciation, the intensity of the sufferings He endured under that darkness in paying the penalty for the sins of the world, dying spiritually in a way we cannot even adequately conjecture, must exceed those preliminary sufferings to an incalculable degree. For you know that it was not with perishable things [like] silver or gold that you were ransomed from the futile manner of life passed down to you by your ancestors, but [you were redeemed] with precious blood, like that of a lamb without spot or blemish, [that is, by the blood] of Christ. 1 Peter 1:18-19. The “blood of Christ” is the coin with which we are redeemed, but this is a sanctified analogy. Jesus is not literally a lamb, and likewise we are not redeemed by His physical blood. Rather, Jesus is the Father’s sacrifice, represented by the lamb, and the image of physical blood represents something even more precious than our Lord’s physical death – it represents His spiritual death, the death He died in the darkness on the cross, paying the penalty for the sins of the entire world. For what He died, He died to sin, once and for all, and what He lives, He lives to God. Romans 6:10. He made Him who had no [personal] experience of sinning [to be] sin (i. e., a sin offering) for us, so that we might have (lit., “become”) God’s righteousness in Him. 2 Corinthians 5:21. He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, in order that we might die to sins and live to righteousness. By His wound you are healed. 1 Peter 2:24. 3) Our Lord’s Final Statements of Completion: After [all] this (i. e., His physical suffering and His spiritual death for the sins of the world), since Jesus knew that everything had now been accomplished in order for the [prophecy of salvation found in] scripture to be fulfilled, He said, “I am thirsty”. Now a jar of wine-vinegar lay there, so they placed a sponge full of the wine-vinegar on a hyssop [stalk] and brought it to His mouth. So when He had taken the wine-vinegar, Jesus said, “It (i. e., salvation) has [now] been accomplished!”, and having thrown back His head, He gave up His spirit. John 19:28-30. The Greek verb behind the second highlighted portion of text above, teleo (τετέλεσται in the perfect tense as conjugated in context), corresponds to the identical form in John 19:28 (πάντα τετέλεσται) and along with it refers to the completion of the goal of Christ’s first advent. This statement is in fact a paraphrase of the final stanza of the Messianic Psalms 22:31 : “He has done it!”. We have already seen how this Psalm prophetically foreshadows much of our Lord’s suffering on the cross (e. g., the mocking of the crowds in Psalms 22:7-8, His “pierced hands and feet” in Psalms 22:16, the “casting of lots” for His clothes in Psalms 22:18, and the vivid poetic description of His suffering throughout). But not only does our Lord paraphrase the end of this psalm; He also directly quotes its beginning, so that this emphatic proclamation, “It has now been accomplished!”, is the direct answer to the question posed by the previous quote: “My God, my God, why did You forsake Me?” (Psalms 22:1; cf. Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34; see below). For the latter actually explains the former: the Father had to forsake the Son, give Him over to judgment for the sins of the world, in order for salvation to be “accomplished”. The fact that Jesus Himself while still physically alive declares salvation accomplished (and His suffering and forsaking a necessary precondition for it), demonstrates ipso facto that this accomplishment of our redemption had already taken place before our Lord exhaled His spirit to give up His physical life. Thus, Jesus’ victory on the cross consists in the spiritual death He died for our sins in the darkness (for He was still physically alive so as to be able to make this proclamation: “it has now been accomplished”), and not in His subsequent physical death. Far from being some sort of desperate plea of doubt from the cross (as it is sometimes blasphemously portrayed), the words “Why did You forsake Me?” are meant to show precisely the opposite. For the “forsaking” is now in the past (“why did You forsake Me?”), while Jesus’ successful completion of the Father’s mission and victory over sin is now an accomplished reality (τετέλεσται: “It has now been accomplished!”). He was handed over (i. e., forsaken) on account of our transgressions (i. e., to redeem us from sin), and was raised up on account of our justification (i. e., so that we too could be raised, having been justified by His death). Romans 4:25. Jesus’ drinking of the wine-vinegar is also a fulfillment of prophecy which likewise signals the accomplishment of the Messiah’s mission: For they mixed gall with what they gave Me to eat, and for My thirst they gave Me vinegar to drink. Psalms 69:21 (Matthew 27:34, Matthew 27:48; Mark 15:23, Mark 15:36; Luke 23:36; John 19:29) He will drink from a brook beside the way; therefore he will lift up his head. Psalms 110:7 NIV The first quotation, covered above, relates two events; one at the beginning of the ordeal when Jesus refused the gall, and the other at its successful completion where our Lord’s request for and acceptance of the wine-vinegar bespeaks victory, a short refreshment after the accomplishment of the salvation of the world. The second passage likewise comes from a very well-known Messianic Psalm, one which (as is often the case in Old Testament prophecy as we have seen many times in the past) conflates the two advents. Psalms 110:1-7 is primarily a victory Psalm, celebrating the Messiah’s accomplishment of salvation in His first advent and anticipating His return as Ruler of the world in the second. This final verse can be read to refer to the refreshment of Messiah’s troops after the battle of Armageddon, but in our present context applies to Jesus Himself at the completion of His own mission during the first advent. Therefore this act of drinking on our Lord’s part has as its primary goal to call attention through the fulfillment of the prophecy to the fact that the true “battle” was now over, and that He had been victorious in the accomplishment of salvation through His death for sins on our behalf. This is also the significance of our Lord “lifting up His head” preparatory to exhaling His spirit as recorded in John 19:30; that is, here we have the fulfillment of the other prophecy in Psalms 110:7 in the raising up of His head after drinking. Both fulfillments underscore the fact that salvation has already been accomplished at this point. Lastly, our Lord’s final statement from the cross, His quotation of Psalms 31:5, “Father, into your hands I commit My spirit” (Luke 23:46), also demonstrates the successful completion of His mission. For it is the Father who commissioned Him (see section I. 3.c above), and here we see our Lord voluntarily returning to Him as these words portend – something He would never had done had that mission not been perfectly and completely fulfilled. Jesus had the power to lay down His life and to take it up again (John 10:18), not arbitrarily, but after accomplishing the monumental task He had been given to do in dying for the sins of the world. That this quotation likewise speaks to salvation as an already accomplished fact at this point is made clear by the second stanza of this verse, not spoken by our Lord but well-known to all readers of the Psalms: “You have redeemed Me, O Lord, God of truth”. Jesus’ death to redeem us from sin was now an accomplished fact, and our redemption vouchsafed before He gave up His spirit. 3) The Physical Death and Burial of Jesus Christ: Then Jesus shouted out again in a loud voice and sent forth His spirit. Matthew 27:50. Then Jesus gave forth a great shout and exhaled. Mark 15:37. And having shouted loudly, Jesus said, “Father, into your hands I commit My spirit”. And having said this, He exhaled. Luke 23:46. So when He had taken the wine-vinegar, Jesus said, “It (i. e., salvation) has [now] been accomplished!”, and having thrown back His head, He gave up His spirit. John 19:28-30. Our Lord was here on earth to fulfill a particular mission: after teaching us the truth, to die for our sins in our place on the cross. Once that mission had been fulfilled, Jesus deliberately left this life of His own volition. With salvation now an accomplished fact, staying on the cross any longer served no useful purpose. For the rest of us, taking into our own hands the decision to leave this world is a horrendous act of rebellion against the will of God. Human life begins when at birth God imparts the human spirit, and it ends when the spirit returns to the One who gave it (no matter what secular science may believe), and no one has the right to infringe on God’s prerogative in this respect. But our Lord, uniquely in all of human history, had been given the right and the ability to lay down His life once His work was accomplished (John 10:18). Just as the darkness which had covered Golgotha for three long hours while Jesus bore the sins of the world was an exceptional and incontrovertible miracle, so also the very manner in which our Lord died was in itself a miraculous sign which demonstrated that He was indeed who He claimed to be, the very Son of God. This fact is testified to by the Roman centurion, a combat veteran who had seen many men die before (for this rank was only achieved through meritorious service over many years): And when the centurion who was standing opposite Him (i. e., being in charge of the detail) saw the manner in which [Jesus] exhaled [His spirit and so expired], he said, “Truly, this man was God’s son!” Mark 15:39 (cf. Matthew 27:54; Luke 23:47) So remarkable was the way in which our Lord left this life, that even this hardened veteran soldier was so impressed that he came to believe the reports about Jesus at which he had no doubt hitherto scoffed. Other miracles accompanied Jesus’ departure from life as well, all of which were meant to demonstrate His divinity and the fundamental change in all things which our Lord’s victory on the cross entailed (e. g., Psalms 110:1; Ephesians 1:10; Ephesians 4:7-10; Colossians 1:13, Colossians 1:20; Colossians 2:13-15; Hebrews 2:14-15; 1 Peter 3:22; 1 John 3:8 and see section I. 5.o below, “The Session of Christ”). He humbled Himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even [His] death on [the] cross [for us all]. Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the Name that is above every name that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Php 2:9-11. 1) The Earthquake: Earthquakes are the essential divine exclamation point (cf. 1 Kings 19:11-12; Acts 4:31), and very frequently employed by God to demonstrate the beginning of a new period in history (e. g., Isaiah 29:6; Matthew 28:2; Hebrews 12:26-29; Revelation 8:5; Revelation 11:13, Revelation 11:19). An earthquake occurred after Christ released His spirit which “split the rocks asunder” as Matthew tells us (Matthew 27:51), thus dramatically setting the Father’s seal of approval on the work of His Son who is the Word of God. "Is not my word like fire,” declares the Lord, “and like a hammer that breaks a rock in pieces?” Jeremiah 23:29 NIV 2) The Splitting of the Veil of the Temple: As with the earthquake (or perhaps even more so since the divine source is even harder to deny in this case), the supernatural splitting of the veil in the temple which separated the holy place from the inner sanctum of the holy of holies was a sign from God Himself (Matthew 27:51; Mark 15:38; Luke 23:45). This sign, moreover, demonstrated the fundamental change of universal realities in a very graphic way. For the holy of holies represents symbolically the third heaven and the presence of God Himself, so that the splitting of the veil symbolizes the end of the unavoidable enmity between man and God because of sin, and the access mankind now has to God through the blood of Jesus Christ and by body of Jesus Christ (see below, section II. 9, “Reconciliation”). But only the high priest entered the inner room, and that only once a year, and never without blood, which he offered for himself and for the sins the people had committed in ignorance. The Holy Spirit was showing by this that the way into the Most Holy Place had not yet been disclosed as long as the first tabernacle was still standing. This is an illustration for the present time, indicating that the gifts and sacrifices being offered were not able to clear the conscience of the worshiper. They are only a matter of food and drink and various ceremonial washings – external regulations applying until the time of the new order. When Christ came as High Priest of the good things that are already here, he went through the greater and more perfect tabernacle that is not man-made, that is to say, not a part of this creation. He did not enter by means of the blood of goats and calves; but he entered the Most Holy Place once for all by his own blood, having obtained eternal redemption. Hebrews 9:7-12 NIV Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence in this entrance of ours into the [heavenly] holy of holies by the blood of Jesus, an entryway through the [heavenly] veil [of separation] which is new (lit., “newly slain”) and alive and which He has consecrated for us, that is, [through the sacrifice] of His flesh (cf. Hebrews 10:10, Hebrews 10:18) . . .Hebrews 10:19-20. 3) The Resuscitation of the Dead: The tombs broke open and the bodies of many holy people who had died were raised to life. They came out of the tombs, and after Jesus’ resurrection they went into the holy city and appeared to many people. Matthew 27:52-53. In the manner of Lazarus, these individuals were restored to life, but to the life we all now lead. That is to say, they were temporarily resuscitated rather than being eternally resurrected, and Matthew is careful to distinguish in the passage above their status from that of our truly resurrected Lord. Nonetheless, this is an astounding miracle, and one clearly meant to call attention to the life-giving properties of the victory our Lord had just won. For through His death for our sins, we have been given eternal life through faith in Him (John 3:16; 1 John 5:11). The treatment of our Lord’s body after death also fulfilled several Old Testament prophecies demonstrating beyond question His true status as the Messiah. It was pierced by the soldier’s lance with the result that “blood and water” came out (John 19:34 see section II. 4 below, “The Blood of Christ”), a sign according to most medical authorities that He had been physically dead for some time when this action occurred. Indeed, it was because He was clearly and demonstrably physically dead that the Roman soldiers did not break His legs to hasten His death (as they did in the case of the two crucified with Him: John 19:31-37). These things happened so that the scripture would be fulfilled: “Not one of his bones will be broken” (Psalms 34:20; cf. Exodus 12:46; Numbers 9:12), and, as another scripture says, “They will look on the one they have pierced” (Zechariah 12:10; cf. Revelation 1:7). John 19:36-37 NIV Joseph of Arimathea (a rich man: Matthew 27:57) and Nicodemus requested and were granted leave of Pilate to take down Jesus’ body and bury it. This they did, binding it in linen wrappings with approximately sixty pounds of myrrh and aloes (which would have cost an enormous sum), and placing it in the garden near Golgotha in an impressive “new tomb in which no one had ever [previously] been placed” (John 19:38-41; Matthew 27:57-60; Mark 15:43-46; Luke 23:50-53), thus fulfilling Isaiah’s prophecies about the burial of the Suffering Servant, a clear indication of divine approval following the horrendous abuse and judicial murder prophesied to precede Messiah’s death. Though He was oppressed and afflicted, like a lamb led to slaughter He did not open His mouth, and like a ewe before her shearers He did not open His mouth. By repressive judgment He was taken away, and who gave any thought to His posterity? For He was cut off from the land of the living. He was punished for the transgression of my people. And they assigned Him a grave with the wicked (pl.) and with a rich [man] in His deaths (sic). Isaiah 53:7-9. He lay bare His life unto death, and was dealt with as transgressors [are], so that He bore the sin of the many, and substituted [Himself] for the transgressors. Isaiah 53:12 b The rejection of the Messiah was now complete. He had come to His own, but His own refused to accept Him (John 1:11). And yet as the Messiah He was precisely who and what the Law and the Prophets had prophesied (Luke 22:37; Luke 24:44; John 5:39; John 5:46), and He was precisely who and what Israel had asked the Lord for: an intermediary between themselves and the burning holiness of God Almighty: The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among your own brothers. You must listen to him. For this is what you asked of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly when you said, “Let us not hear the voice of the Lord our God nor see this great fire anymore, or we will die.” The Lord said to me: “What they say is good. I will raise up for them a prophet like you from among their brothers; I will put my words in his mouth, and he will tell them everything I command him. If anyone does not listen to my words that the prophet speaks in my name, I myself will call him to account. Deuteronomy 18:15-19 NIV m. The Descent of our Lord into Paradise: As He hung on the cross, our Lord replied to the thief who rebuked his fellow, “Truly I tell you, today you will be with Me in Paradise” (Luke 23:43). This “paradise”, also referred to as “Abraham’s Bosom” in the report of Lazarus and the rich man (Luke 16:19-31), is one of the three “compartments” of the netherworld or Sheol (ùàåì), as it is called in the Old Testament, or Hades (ᾅδης), the name it bears in the New Testament. Paradise, the place of the departed righteous prior to Jesus’ ascension, is to be distinguished from the other two subterranean compartments, “Torments” (the place of the unsaved dead: Luke 16:28, Luke 16:23), and “Tartarus” also known as “the Abyss” (the place of confinement for fallen angels who have violated God’s ground rules for the present conflict: Luke 8:31; 2 Peter 2:4; Jude 1:6; Revelation 9:1-11; Revelation 20:1-3). Any of these three places, while technically distinct and inviolably separated from one another (cf. Luke 16:26), may be referred to in scripture by the more general names of Sheol or Hades. Additionally, these two words are also sometimes rendered “hell” or “the grave” in English versions of the Bible, and this helps to explain the occurrence of the phraseology in the Apostles’ Creed, “He descended into hell”. However, paradise in particular rather than Sheol-Hades in general is meant, that is, the place of all saved believers prior to their transfer to the third heaven in the wake of our Lord’s ascension following His victory at the cross, and it is to this place of blessing that Jesus’ human spirit descended to await His resurrection on the following Sunday. This is the place referred to by our Lord when He said, “today you will be with Me in Paradise”. Our Lord’s brief sojourn wherein He doubtless proclaimed His victory to all of our brothers and sisters awaiting His arrival (and their imminent transfer to the third heaven) is also mentioned by the apostle Peter. It was also by means of the Spirit that [Christ] visited the [angelic] spirits in prison (i. e., in the Abyss), and proclaimed [His victory]. [These are the angels who] were disobedient in the days of Noah at the time when God patiently waited (i. e., delayed judgment) while the ark was being built. 1 Peter 3:19-20 a The word translated “proclaimed” above (and famously rendered “preached” by the KJV) is the Greek word kerusso. This verb is a back-formation of the noun keryx, or “herald”, that sacrosanct Greek official, carrying a special wand identifying his status, who was immune from being killed or imprisoned as he treated with the opposite side in any sort of official negotiation or communication (similar in a way to ambassadors with immunity today, but taken rather more seriously by the ancient Greeks). Rather than “preach” in the sense it is used in contemporary Christianity, this verb really means “giving the King’s message as His royal ambassador” (cf. 2 Corinthians 5:20), and that is precisely what our Lord did vis-à-vis the incarcerated fallen angels in Tartarus (or “the Abyss”). At some point during the three days our Lord spent in paradise He made this proclamation of His victory. As in the case of the physical separation of Torments from Paradise (i. e., the “great chasm fixed” between the two: Luke 16:26), we may safely assume that Tartarus as well is fully isolated from the other two compartments (cf. the descriptions of it elsewhere in scripture: Luke 8:31; 2 Peter 2:4; Jude 1:6; Revelation 9:1-11; Revelation 20:1-3). Thus, our Lord’s communication with these demons had to occur in exactly the manner in which Peter describes it, namely, “by means of the Spirit[‘s power]”. This proclamation of His victory confirmed the success of His mission and the imminency of His reign. It was also an indication of the coming superiority of us His followers over the angels (1 Corinthians 6:3; Hebrews 2:5). While we are given no additional details of either the manner of the journey or the specifics of the message, we can say that this notice of victory was a message of doom for these followers of Satan, since the prevention of the cross was the devil’s one [vain] hope of evading ultimate judgment. And to each of us this grace has been given according to the measure of the gift of Christ. For it says, “When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive (i. e., He brought pre-cross believers from paradise below the earth to heaven). He gave gifts to men.” Now [as to] this [phrase] “He ascended”, what can it mean except that He had also [previously] descended into the lower reaches of the earth (i. e., paradise in Hades, from whence He brought the pre-cross believers to heaven)? The One who descended is also the One who ascended above all the heavens (i. e., into the third heaven, the place of the Father’s residence), in order to fulfill all things (i. e., complete the victory won at the cross; cf. Psalms 110:1). Ephesians 4:7-10. [Jesus Christ], who appeared in the flesh, was vindicated by the [Holy] Spirit, appeared to angels, was preached among the nations, was believed upon in the world, was taken up in glory. 1 Timothy 3:16. n. The Resurrection: For I entrusted to you as of primary importance what I had also received, [namely] that Christ died on behalf of our sins according to the scriptures. And that He was buried and that He rose on the third day according to the scriptures. 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 1) The Three Days: At Luke 24:21; the two disciples on the road to Emmaus report “this [i. e., Sunday, the day of our Lord’s resurrection; cf. Luke 24:13 : these things happen “the same day” as our Lord’s resurrection] is the third day since these things happened”. Greek and Hebrew both use an inclusive system of counting, so that the three days mentioned must without question be Friday [the day of the crucifixion], Saturday, and Sunday [the present day in context]. This is confirmed by our Lord Himself in His first post-resurrection appearance to the assembled disciples when He says “Thus it has been written that the Messiah would suffer and rise from the dead on the third day” (Luke 24:46). The phraseology is important for the question of establishing that the “three days” were in fact the Friday, Saturday, and Sunday of Easter week, and do not include a Thursday (let alone a Wednesday) as some interpretations would have it. For such a circumstance would require something like “after three days”, whereas “on the third day” makes the inclusive count of Friday, Saturday, and Sunday unavoidable. In this author’s opinion, Thursday (and Wednesday) schemes for the chronology preceding the resurrection are largely motivated by a desire to see Christ’s prophecy of “three days and three nights in the grave” (Matthew 12:40) fulfilled in a way they find acceptable. However, this is to impose our present cultural norms on Greek and Hebrew expression – contemporary audiences would have no problem understanding that a part of a day-night combination equals the entire segment for prophetic purposes. On the other hand, proponents of adding another day (or more) to the clear testimony of scripture have also to reckon with the fact that since Christ rose at first light on Sunday but gave up His spirit at mid-afternoon, no approach can yield “precisely” three days and three nights. While from our modern western perspective a longer duration than a precise 3/3 seems acceptable but a shorter one does not, from the ancient perspective things are exactly the reverse, so that had our Lord been crucified on Thursday, the phrases “this is the third day” (in Luke 24:21) and “on the third day” (in Luke 24:46) would be seen as technically incorrect, and violently so. When the two witnesses are killed by antichrist and their bodies left exposed to public view during the Tribulation’s first half, scripture is very careful to say that this condition persisted for “three and a half days” (Revelation 11:9, Revelation 11:11), a turn of phrase that seems a bit odd until one factors in the ancient perspective: more than a full three days must be noted, while a part of each segment may count for the whole. Due to the prevalence of the false Thursday (and Wednesday) view, some additional scriptures need to be added here for consideration: 1) Mark 15:42 calls the day of our Lord’s crucifixion the prosabbaton or “pre-Sabbath”, indicating that it was a normal Friday. 2) Luke 23:54-55 compared with Luke 24:1 gives us the chronological sequence for the crucifixion to the resurrection of, first, paraskeue, (i. e., the “day of preparation” for the Sabbath, namely, Friday’s daylight hours; second, “the Sabbath”, Saturday; and third, “the first day of the week” (Sunday), with no discernible gap given between the three days, and thus with the only reasonable way to read Luke’s sequence for the three days being as “Friday, Saturday, Sunday”. 3) Matthew 27:62-66, Matthew 28:1 has Matthew using the definite article (“the”) with the word paraskeue, indicating that the day of our Lord’s crucifixion was indeed the day of preparation, namely, the normal pre-Sabbath time of preparation or paraskeue, that is, the daylight hours of Friday. The three days in the grave are very important to fulfill our Lord’s prophecies concerning His physical death (e. g., Matthew 12:40; Matthew 16:21; Matthew 17:23; Matthew 20:19; Matthew 26:61; Luke 9:22; Luke 13:22; John 2:19 cf. Genesis 22:4 with Luke 24:46), but also to demonstrate the reality of that death. Along with the blood and water that fell from His body after it was pierced by the Roman soldier’s lance (John 19:34), the details of His body’s preparation for burial and its laying in the tomb, the rolling of the stone in front of the tomb, and the sealing of that tomb with a guard stationed at its mouth (Matthew 27:62-66), this chronology shows emphatically and decisively that our Lord Jesus was physically dead beyond any question or shadow of a doubt, and that therefore His rising from the dead was an irrefutable miracle – indeed, it is the Rock upon which we base all of our future hope. 2) The Meaning of the Resurrection: Besides confirming the prophecies of His coming resurrection (Psalms 16:10; Acts 2:24-31; Acts 13:30-38), and His status as Heir of the Kingdom (Acts 5:30-31; Acts 10:40-43; Acts 17:31; Romans 1:4; 1 Peter 1:21), it is not too much to say that our Lord’s resurrection (in company with the cross which precedes it) is human history, for with our Lord Jesus’ rising from the dead, we have been given God’s unmistakable seal that the life gate for all who follow Him in regeneration has now been opened up. Further, while the cross was necessary to wipe away the impediment of sin which kept us from God and eternal life, the resurrection is equally necessary in order actually to authorize the process of transforming us for that eternal life. He was handed over (i. e., forsaken) on account of our transgressions (i. e., to redeem us from sin), and was raised up on account of our justification (i. e., so that we too could be raised, having been justified by His death). Romans 4:25. Now if we are proclaiming about Christ that He has risen from the dead, [and we are], how is that some of you say that there is no resurrection from the dead? For if there is no resurrection from the dead, then Christ has not risen either. And if Christ has not risen, then our message is pointless and your faith is pointless too. For [in that hypothetical case] we are revealed as false witnesses against God because we have born witness against God that He raised Christ whom He did not raise – if the dead really are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then neither has Christ risen. And if Christ has not risen, then your faith is vain. [For if that were the case] you are still in your sins. 1 Corinthians 15:12-17. As these passages indicate, there had to be a resurrection of Christ in order for there also to be an ascension to the Father and a formal acknowledgment of the efficacy and acceptability of our Lord’s work of propitiation on our behalf (indicated by His session at the Father’s right hand). Resurrection is the Father’s seal set upon our Lord’s work on the cross, and was necessary in order for us to be justified through faith in Him and thus receive all the blessings of salvation (Ephesians 1:19-23; cf. Acts 2:34-36; Romans 1:4; 1 Corinthians 6:14; Php 3:10; Colossians 2:12). Thus, the resurrection both confirms the effectiveness of our Lord’s sacrifice on our behalf (Php 3:10; 1 Peter 1:3; 1 Peter 3:21), and also forms the basis for us to share in that resurrection (Romans 6:5; Romans 8:11, Romans 8:34-35; Romans 10:9; 1 Corinthians 6:14; 1 Corinthians 15:21; 2 Corinthians 4:14; 2 Corinthians 5:15; Colossians 2:12). For since death [came] through a man, resurrection of the dead also [had to come] through a man. For just as in Adam, all die, so also in Christ, shall all be made alive. 1 Corinthians 15:21-22. 3) The Nature of the Resurrection: Just as Jesus is first in all things in this creation (Colossians 1:15-20), so He is our forerunner in resurrection as well (cf. Hebrews 2:10; Hebrews 6:20; Hebrews 12:2). But each [will be resurrected] in his own echelon. Christ [is the] first-fruits. Next [will be] those belonging to Christ at His coming (i. e., the Church at the 2 Advent). 1 Corinthians 15:23. However, prior to being witnesses of the fact, the disciples were not entirely clear about just what it meant to rise from the dead (Mark 9:10, Mark 9:32; cf. John 16:19). That is certainly understandable since no one in human or angelic history had ever seen an example of resurrection before. The miracles which Christ performed in raising the dead during His earthly ministry (e. g., the synagogue ruler’s daughter, the widow of Nain’s son, Lazarus) were not strictly speaking examples of resurrection, for each of these individuals has long since once again died physically and passed from this life. These unique cases we have elsewhere called “resuscitation”, since each individual was restored to life in their original, earthly body. But resurrection is a permanent condition. Now somebody will no doubt say, “In what manner do the dead rise? And with what sort of body do they come back?” Use a little common sense! When you plant a seed, it doesn’t “come back to life” unless the seed itself is first destroyed, does it? And what you put in the ground is not the actual plant which later sprouts, but an “empty shell”, so to speak, of the wheat or of whatever you are planting. God then transforms this seed into a plant in accordance with His creative plan, giving each specific seed its own unique structure. [As it is with seeds and plants, the same is true of animate bodies. ] For in an analogous way, not all bodies are the same. Obviously, the bodies of men are different from the bodies of cattle, the bodies of birds are different from the bodies of fish, and, just as obviously, bodies capable of dwelling in heaven are different from the bodies we occupy here on earth. Moreover the splendor of our heavenly bodies will transcend that of our earthly ones. [Nor should we imagine that all heavenly bodies will possess the same degree of splendor. ] After all, the radiance of the sun and of the moon and of stars is different in each case, and even the stars differ amongst themselves in glory. So it is with the resurrection of the dead. The body sown is corruptible, the one raised incorruptible. The body sown is dishonorable, the one raised glorious. The body sown is weak, the one raised powerful. The body sown is suited to physical life, the one raised to spiritual life. If there is a physical body (and there patently is), then there is also a spiritual one. For as it has been written that “Adam, the first man, became a physical being, possessing life”, so Christ, the last Adam, became a spiritual being, bestowing life. However it is not the spiritual body, but the physical body which comes first, and the spiritual body follows. The first man was earthly, being taken from the ground. The second Man is heavenly. And as was the earthly man, so also are we of the earth. And as is the heavenly Man, so also shall we be when we too take on heavenly form. For just as we have born the image of the earthly man, so also shall we bear the image of the heavenly Man. 1 Corinthians 15:35-49. While this is not the place to discuss our own resurrection in detail, we should at least point that scripture is very clear about the fact that our Lord Jesus is the pattern for our resurrection as described above by Paul, so that we shall have a glorious eternal body exactly like that of our now resurrected Lord. For if we have been joined together with Him in respect to the likeness of His death [– and we have by being spiritually baptized into Him (Romans 6:3) – ], then we certainly will be [joined together with Him in the likeness] of His resurrection also. Romans 6:5. For our [true] citizenship has a heavenly existence, and it is from there that we expectantly await our Savior, Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform this humble body of ours into one that matches His glorious body through His powerful ability to subordinate everything to Himself. Php 3:20-21. For if we believe that Jesus died and rose [from the dead (and we most certainly do)], [then we should also believe that] in the same way also God will lead [forth in resurrection] those who have fallen asleep through [faith in] Jesus with Him [when He returns]. 1 Thessalonians 4:14. Beloved, we are already the children of God, but what we shall be has not yet been revealed. We know that when He is revealed [in glory], we will be like Him, that we shall see Him exactly like He is. 1 John 3:2. And while during His post-resurrection appearances our Lord appeared in a “not yet glorified” state (since the full revelation of His glory had to follow His ascension to heaven and session at the Father’s right hand; compare John 7:39 with Acts 9:1-6; Acts 22:6-11; Acts 26:12-18; Revelation 1:12-18), yet we may glean many things about our own future state in resurrection from the descriptions of our Lord’s resurrection (for we “we shall be like Him”, and since our earthly body will be transformed into “one that matches His glorious body”). 1) The Resurrection Body is no longer Subject to Death: The resurrection is often described in terms of eternal life (John 6:40 cf. Matthew 25:46; Mark 10:30; Luke 18:30; John 3:15-16; John 5:24; John 10:28; Romans 2:7; Romans 6:23; Galatians 6:8; Titus 1:2; 1 John 1:2; 1 John 2:25), and we see this principle of immortality from Jesus’ resurrection: Now if we have died with Christ, [and we have] (i. e., by being “in Him” through the Spirit’s baptism, Romans 6:1-4), we believe that shall live [eternally] together with Him, knowing that Christ, now that He has been raised from the dead, is no longer mortal; death no longer has any power over Him. Romans 6:8-9 (cf. Hebrews 7:16) Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me will live, even if he dies. And everyone who lives and believes in Me will surely not die forevermore.” John 11:25-26. 2) The Resurrection Body is Truly Human, only not Subject to Suffering and Pain: In resurrection we will be truly “who we are” only without sin, and will enjoy all the good and decent things of the body only in freedom from want and from tears forever after (Revelation 7:17; Revelation 21:4; cf. Isaiah 25:8; Isaiah 35:10; Isaiah 65:17; 1 Corinthians 15:54-58; Hebrews 2:14; Revelation 2:7, Revelation 2:11; Revelation 2:17, Revelation 2:26-28; Revelation 3:4-5, Revelation 3:12-13, Revelation 3:21; Revelation 20:5; Revelation 21:27; Revelation 22:3-6, Revelation 22:14). This principle is clear from the case of our Lord’s resurrection wherein Jesus was recognizable as Himself and behaved as Himself with no diminishment of personality in any way (Luke 24:31; John 20:16; John 20:20, John 20:26-28; John 21:12). Christ’s transformed body is solid and tangible (Matthew 28:9; Luke 24:39; John 20:17; John 20:27), and capable of the entire range of normal human activities (Matthew 28:10, Matthew 28:18-20; Luke 24:15, Luke 24:43; John 21:13-15). 3) The Resurrection Body will have New Capabilities: As is clear from our miraculous return with our Lord to earth “in clouds” after the resurrection, we too will enjoy all the additional benefits of the eternal body that is a large part of our hope as the means whereby we shall enjoy our eternal inheritance. As is clear from our Lord’s post-resurrection appearances, the resurrection body possesses super-material capabilities without at the same sacrificing material advantages, being capable of negotiating material space at will (cf. Matthew 28:1-3; Luke 24:31, Luke 24:36; John 20:19; Acts 1:9-10). As Thomas and Gundry point out, the angels removed the stone from the tomb not “to let Jesus out”, but rather to let others see that He was no longer there. In our cases, perhaps the most sublime benefit will be, in addition to the sweet fellowship we shall be able to enjoy with our Lord forever, the blessing of finally “knowing even as we are known”, when we shall be at last “face to face” with Him for all eternity (1 Corinthians 13:12). 4) The Chronology of the Resurrection: “We are witnesses of everything [Jesus] did in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They killed him by hanging him on a tree, but God raised him from the dead on the third day and caused him to be seen. He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had already chosen—by us who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one whom God appointed as judge of the living and the dead. All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.” Acts 10:39-43 NIV Having exhaled His spirit on the cross on the Friday before the Passover, Jesus rose from the dead on the following Sunday, and proceeded to appear over the next forty days – not to everyone – but to worthy witnesses among those who had previously believed. In my former book, Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and to teach until the day he was taken up to heaven, after giving instructions through the Holy Spirit to the apostles he had chosen. After his suffering, he showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. Acts 1:1-3 NIV “But God raised him from the dead, and for many days he was seen by those who had traveled with him from Galilee to Jerusalem. They are now his witnesses to our people.” Acts 13:30-31 NIV For I entrusted to you as of primary importance what I had also received, [namely] that Christ died on behalf of our sins according to (i. e., in fulfillment of) the scriptures, and that He was buried and that rose on the third day according to the scriptures, and that He appeared to Cephas (i. e., Peter), then to the twelve, then He appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, of whom the majority abide [in life] until now, though some have fallen asleep (i. e., have died). Next He appeared to James (i. e., His earthly half-brother), then to all the apostles, and last of all, as if to the [one left out due to having been a] miscarriage (i. e., at the time of Christ’s earthly ministry), He appeared also to me. 1 Corinthians 15:3-8. When that first Easter Sunday dawned, our Lord was resurrected from the dead by the power of God (Romans 1:4; 1 Corinthians 6:14; 2 Corinthians 13:4; Ephesians 1:18-23; Php 3:10; Colossians 2:12; Hebrews 7:16; cf. Revelation 20:6). That is to say, His human body now dead since Friday afternoon was transformed into in a new, eternal body incapable of decay, and His human spirit was placed back within it in a fashion comparable to God’s in-breathing of the spirit into every human body at the point of birth. From this point forward, Christ in His humanity became alive forevermore, so that the Messiah in accordance with the prophecy recorded in Psalms 16:1-11 “never saw decay” (Psalms 16:10; cf. Acts 2:27, Acts 2:31; Acts 13:35). After neatly folding up His grave clothes (John 20:5-6; an indication not only of the resurrection, but also of our Lord’s pattern of careful diligence in all things and proof of the wonderful fact that He is and we will be “the same person” after resurrection), our Lord simply walked out the carefully sealed and guarded tomb (Matthew 27:62-66), apparently without even being visible to the sentries. Jesus’ rising and departure from the tomb were divinely punctuated, as was His death, by a mighty earthquake, as an angel refulgent in appearance rolled away the stone to reveal the place where Jesus’ body had lain (Matthew 28:2). The angel’s appearance terrified the guards (Matthew 28:3-4), and understandably so, to the point where they play no further role in the story (other than reporting these miraculous events later to the Sanhedrin: Matthew 28:11-15). When the women who had attended Jesus during His earthly ministry came to the tomb to anoint His body, though they had been concerned about how to roll back the entry-stone, they found the tomb already opened up and entered. It was then this angel explained to the women who had come that our Lord was not there because He had “risen from the dead” (Matthew 28:6-7; cf. Mark 16:6; Luke 24:5-7). 1) To Mary Magdalene (John 20:11-18): The importance of the women who accompanied Jesus throughout His earthly ministry and who supported Him and His disciples logistically (i. e., through monetary and domestic means, not to mention the encouragement and moral support of their presence) should not be underestimated even if it is not generally appreciated (cf. Luke 8:2-3). We can see something of the key role these women played from their appearance at the empty tomb early that first Easter Sunday. The list of women mentioned as going to the tomb in order to care for Jesus’ body includes Mary Magdalene (Matthew 28:1; Mark 16:1; Luke 24:10), “the other Mary” (Matthew 28:1; cf. Matthew 27:61), who is probably Mary the mother of James (Mark 16:1; Luke 24:20; and apparently also “of Joses”, cf. Mark 15:40, Mark 15:47), Salome (Mark 16:1), Joanna (Luke 24:10), and “the other women” (Luke 24:10). These last may have included the women mentioned by Luke at Luke 23:55 “who had come with Jesus from Galilee” (cf. Luke 23:41), a group which no doubt included the women who had actively supported the ministry (Luke 8:2-3), and who stood by Him at the cross (Matthew 27:55-56; Mark 15:40-41; Luke 23:49; John 19:25). Preeminent within this group, even in respect to those mentioned by name as watching and waiting at the crucifixion, namely, Mary, Jesus’ mother (John 19:25), her sister (John 19:25), Mary the wife of Clopas (who may have been Mary’s sister: John 19:25), Mary the mother of James the lesser and Joseph (Matthew 27:56; or Joses: Mark 15:40), Salome, the mother of the disciples James and John (Matthew 27:56; Mark 15:40; cf. Luke 24:10), is Mary Magdalene. That is so for several important reasons. For Mary Magdalene was the first person to whom our Lord appeared after resurrection, and that is no small honor. Contemporary scholarly opinion discounts the view of earlier times that saw Mary Magdalene and Mary of Bethany (sister of Martha and Lazarus) as the same person, but there in fact good reasons for equating the two. We should begin by reiterating a point made above about Mary of Bethany, namely that she is more than likely also the woman described in Luke chapter seven who poured myrrh on Jesus’ feet after first washing them with her tears (Luke 7:36-50). For Mary is definitely identified as the woman who performs a similar action six days before the crucifixion (and distinguished from the early anointing both by the lack of tears and the anointing of Jesus’ head as well in anticipation of burial), demonstrating in the second instance that there was at least one person who had listened to Jesus’ words to the effect that He was about to be put to death (Matthew 26:6-13; Mark 14:3-9; John 12:1-8). As was said earlier, the uniqueness of these acts, the considerable expense they involved (which of necessity would preclude the vast majority of Jewish women from consideration), and the fact that both take place in the house of Simon (Luke 7:40 compared with Matthew 26:6; Mark 14:3), are good evidence that we are dealing with the same person. Further, the fact that Mary had access to Simon’s house (John 12:2-3) explains how this “sinful women” could enter freely and wash Jesus’ feet without so much as a reproach in Luke’s description. Immediately after reporting this story in chapter seven, Luke in chapter eight gives us an account of the women who followed Jesus and the disciples during their ministry, supporting it through their personal efforts and finances. After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The Twelve were with him, and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary (called Magdalene) from whom seven demons had come out; Joanna the wife of Cuza, the manager of Herod’s household; Susanna; and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means. Luke 8:1-3 NIV The Greek phraseology which introduces this paragraph (Καὶ ἐγένετο ἐν τῷ καθεξῆς) deliberately links the anointing with this description of Jesus’ travels and the women who attended Him, and Luke seems to be signaling thereby that the woman in chapter seven is included in the list in chapter eight (only without being named out of deference to her identification as a “sinful woman”). In this list, Mary Magdalene is the first named, and also the one delivered from the greatest demonic attack. The demon possession described above is only possible in the case of unbelievers, and generally follows a rejection of God and His will (often as a result of extreme sinfulness). As in the case of the Garadene demoniac, however, Mary turned to God and embraced the offer of salvation wholeheartedly, being appropriately more grateful than most others precisely because she had been forgiven so much (Luke 7:40-49). The anointing of Luke chapter seven was Mary’s first public expression of her gratitude following the deliverance from demon control which must have taken place earlier, and as with the Samaritan leper, she returned to give glory to God in this most dramatic and memorable way, indicating the depth of her gratitude and completeness of her conversion. Henceforth she would devote her life and her resources to Jesus’ ministry (compare the support given by the sisters from Bethany and their similarly greater than average resources: Luke 10:38-42; John 11:9; John 12:2-6; Mary’s delight in the Lord and His Word: Luke 10:39-42, and our Lord’s love for the three siblings: John 11:5; John 11:35). The picture we are given of Mary Magdalene’s faith and faithfulness at the crucifixion (standing by the cross), burial (watching to see where He was buried), and resurrection of our Lord (buying spices – resources again – and going first, leaving last), is in complete accord with that of Mary of Bethany. In each case we have to do with a woman who had made serious mistakes in her youth, had eagerly embraced the offer of eternal life Jesus preached, and had become an exceptional believer as a result, demonstrating by deeds of faith and selflessness her love for our Lord and for His mission in dying for us on the cross. I tell you the truth, wherever this gospel is preached throughout the world, what she has done will also be told, in memory of her. Matthew 26:13 NIV (cf. Mark 16:9; John 12:7) Mary’s willingness to believe and so to understand both the necessity of our Lord’s death and the reality of His resurrection (as evidenced by her behavior below) results not only in the kudos above, but the honor of being the first to see Jesus in resurrection, no small distinction as she is in this unique in the entire Church. It is for this reason that we have the name which has in truth been at the root of the reluctance of so many commentators to see this Mary as Martha’s and Lazarus’ sister, for most take it for granted that the name “Magdalene” is a gentilic adjective, referring to a town in Galilee. However, as may be seen from other Greek adjectives, it is certainly possible that the entire ending -ene is a suffix. This would make the Aramaic word magdal (Hebrew migdol), meaning “tower”, the root of this adjective (rather than the hypothetical town names usually proposed). As such, this title for Mary is not a gentilic describing her place of birth or city (she was in fact from Bethany), but rather an honorific (explaining why she was “called” Magdalene: Luke 8:2), bestowed upon her for the stalwartness of her faith displayed before, during, and after the crucifixion when she stood firm “like a tower” when many others gave in to despair. Mary’s conduct and this resulting honor should be both an example and an encouragement to us all, as we remember that the Lord will bestow names upon us all in eternity, based upon our response to Him here in this life (Revelation 2:17; Isaiah 65:15; cf. Isaiah 62:2 b; Revelation 3:12). This resilience of faith was the result of her actually listening to what the Lord had to say and believing it, then as now the “best part” of our life on this earth (Luke 10:42), and the only formula for spiritual growth and success. Anyone who breaks one of the least of these commandments and teaches others to do the same will be called least in the kingdom of heaven, but whoever practices and teaches these commands will be called great in the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5:19 NIV We may now consider the circumstances of precisely how it was that Mary came to see Jesus risen from the dead. The three synoptic gospels report that the inner circle of faithful women had made a point of observing where Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus put the body of our Lord after taking it down from the cross (Matthew 27:61; Mark 15:47; Luke 23:55-56), with Matthew and Mark specifically identifying and giving first mention to Mary Magdalene (along with “the other Mary”, Mary the mother of Joses) in so doing. All four gospels record the coming of the women to the tomb on the Sabbath with the intention of anointing Jesus’ body according to Jewish practice (Matthew 28:1; Mark 16:1-2; Luke 24:1; John 20:1), with Mary again receiving first mention not only in Matthew and Mark, but also in John. John’s description is particularly important in reconstructing the events of that first Easter morning as he gives us details that are only summarized by the other accounts: Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!” John 20:1-2 NIV While the other women also come to the tomb, Mary was unwilling to wait for daybreak. Scripture does not say for certain, but we may infer from her being the first to arrive not only her great love but also some hope that she would find Jesus alive based on a small amount of faith in His words about rising from the dead – small only in relative terms (cf. John 20:9 NASB of the eleven: “For as yet they did not understand the Scripture that He must rise again from the dead”), for she was apparently the only one who clung to the possibility, a mustard-seed modicum of faith even so capable of moving mountains. It is no doubt just for this reason that our Lord honored her with the first resurrection appearance, just as she was honored with the assurance of her act of anointing Him ever being part of the gospel story. For the gospel is only beneficial to those who believe as Mary did. As verse two of John twenty quoted above shows, the specific events of that morning need to be disaggregated to get a clear picture of what took place next. Mary was first to the tomb, leaving for it before day broke, but arriving just after dawn shortly after our Lord had risen when she saw that the stone had been rolled away. The other Mary and then the other women arrived shortly thereafter and entered the tomb (where the angels informed them of Jesus resurrection and instructed them to carry the news to the apostles). But Mary had already gone, having discerned from outside of the opened tomb without entering (cf. John 20:11 where she is still reluctant to enter) that Jesus’ body was no longer there. Just as she was unwilling to await the other women in going to the tomb, she must have departed before their entry and the subsequent appearance of the angels. This explains her report to the apostles “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!” (whereas the other women, arriving later, gave the apostles the angels’ report). As Peter and John raced to the tomb in response to Mary’s words, the other women already at the site ventured to enter the tomb, received the good news of the resurrection from the angels, and immediately sought out the apostles to convey the message as instructed. At some point on their way, they were met by our risen Lord (see the section immediately below) – but not before Jesus appeared to Mary. For she must have returned to the tomb again, arriving after John and Peter had already come and gone, and not encountering them or the other women on the way. When she arrived, through her tears she too saw the angels, sitting at the place where Jesus’ head and feet had been. And they said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him.” When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, and did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” Supposing Him to be the gardener, she said to Him, “Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have laid Him, and I will take Him away.” Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to Him in Hebrew, “Rabboni!” (which means, Teacher). Jesus said to her, “Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brethren and say to them, ‘I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.’” John 20:13-17. While the other women receive directly and are told to give to the apostles indirectly a lesson reminding them of Jesus’ teaching on the resurrection (Matthew 28:6-7; Mark 16:6-7; Luke 24:5-8; because they still as yet failed to understand what our Lord had repeatedly told them: John 20:9), Mary alone does not receive any such reminder, for she had been hoping for this blessed event all along. What she does receive is an explanation of what is about to happen: the joy she feels must be restrained, because our Lord was only going to be with her and His other disciples for a short time before ascending to the Father to await the day of His victorious Second Advent return. But these words of truth are given to her by our Lord Himself to the one person whose faith had put her in the right place and the right frame of mind to receive them. 2) To the Other Women (Matthew 28:9-10): Following His appearance to Mary, our Lord appeared to the other women who had already been instructed by the angels to return and report to the apostles (Matthew 28:9-10; and this appearance seems to have followed their doing so: cf. Luke 24:11 with Matthew 28:8). It is significant that our Lord’s second resurrection appearance is also made exclusively to these women who had also come to the tomb even though Jesus was dead, an indication of their love, hope, and faith. The disciples to whom they report, on the other hand, considered their words “nonsense” (Luke 24:11; with the exception of Peter and John who had already raced to the tomb), even though in this second appearance our Lord had Himself commanded the woman to report to the disciples and to reinforce the instruction to them from the angels to meet Him at the prearranged location in Galilee (Matthew 28:10; cf. Matthew 28:7; Mark 16:7). 3) To Peter (Luke 24:34; 1 Corinthians 15:5): After receiving from the women the angels’ report about Jesus’ resurrection, these things “seemed like madness” to the rest of the disciples, but Peter and John had raced to the empty tomb as soon as they had heard Mary declare that it was empty (John 20:3-10). John outran Peter, but Peter in his boldness to know the truth entered the tomb and saw the Lord’s grave clothes, after which John also entered, and the two of them “went to their own homes” (John 20:10). It was probably at this time or after arriving home that our Lord appeared to Peter (compare 1 Corinthians 15:5 with Luke 24:34). It is significant that Peter, who had most visibly denied the Lord, was the first of the remaining eleven disciples to recover his faith and his hope (seconded by John), and no doubt for this reason rated the first appearance of our Lord to any man (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:4-5). 4) To the Two on the Road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-32): Cleopas, possibly Clopas, about whom we know little in either case (see above), and one other man (probably not one of the eleven: cf. Luke 24:36 ff.) were met by our risen Lord while journeying that same day to the village of Emmaus. However, our Lord deliberately concealed His identity from them, and the point of our being given this information seems in large part to demonstrate the as yet skeptical state of all the male believers in spite of the detailed and emphatic testimony of many of the woman who had been part of the ministry for years (cf. Luke 24:22-24) – without first hand experience of the resurrection, they remained reluctant to believe. Our Lord’s response to their continued doubt is to pronounce it foolishness and slowness of heart (Luke 24:25), and to instruct them from the scriptures – something He had done repeatedly before His crucifixion – about the necessity for the suffering and the resurrection of the Christ (Luke 24:26-27). Later, He does reveal Himself to be Jesus as He breaks bread, then disappears (Luke 24:30-32), and finally they believe once they have seen with their own eyes. 5) To the Ten and Others (Luke 24:36-43; John 20:19-25; 1 Corinthians 15:5 b): Cleopas and his companion immediately returned to the disciples in Jerusalem and found all ten with the exception of Thomas assembled there with certain unnamed others (Luke 24:33), now being ready to accept their testimony because they had by this point already heard and believed Peter report of the Lord’s appearance to him (Luke 24:33-35; cf. John 20:24-26), in addition to Mary Magdalene’s testimony (John 20:18), as well as that of the other women (implied by Matthew 28:10). While the two were in the process of giving the details, Jesus appeared, entering directly into their company even though “the doors had been secured” (John 20:19). While this miraculous appearance demonstrated the power of His newly resurrected body, His eating of the fish (Luke 24:41-43) and the other proofs He gave them that this body was “tangible” (Luke 24:39-40; John 20:20) demonstrated beyond any question or doubt that it was really He Himself, that He was really alive – resurrected from the dead with a body that was now capable of so much more than the first one, and incapable of ever experiencing death again. It was at this time that our Lord, in order to facilitate the important teaching ministry to the eleven (Matthew 28:16-19; Luke 24:44-49; John 20:21-23, John 20:30; John 21:15-23, John 21:25; Acts 1:2-8), which He would fulfill during these forty some days before His ascension (Acts 1:3), bestowed upon them a special unction of the Holy Spirit (John 20:22 cf. Exodus 31:3, Exodus 35:1-35; Numbers 11:17, Numbers 11:25-26; Numbers 27:18; Deuteronomy 34:9; 1 Samuel 10:6; etc.). This was a temporary unction which would soon be replaced by the even better indwelling of the Spirit (Luke 24:49; Acts 1:4-8; i. e., the “baptism” of the Spirit given to all the assembled believers at Pentecost, and since the early days of the apostolic age to all believers at the point of faith in Christ: Romans 8:9; cf. Ephesians 4:5; 2 Timothy 2:1). It is for this very reason that our Lord gave very specific instructions on this occasion (Luke 24:49) to the effect that the evangelizing of the nations was not to begin until the giving of the Holy Spirit. This is the thrust of the command to “remain” in the city in Luke 24:49; and should not be taken to apply to their upcoming trip to Galilee in the meantime. Compare Luke 24:52 where we are told that “they stayed continually at the temple, praising God”; coupled with Acts 1:1-9; one might get the impression that there was no trip to Galilee at all (but the other gospels show clearly that there was). Although in his summary of events Luke has passed over that part of the post-resurrection appearances, he has included the essential teaching our Lord left to the apostles, focusing on the commission to evangelize in Luke 24:45-49, and on Jesus’ final message about the Holy Spirit in Acts 1:1-9. In this respect Luke’s testimony is identical to that of Matthew’s “Great Commission”, when rightly understood (i. e., the command/commission is to evangelize the world, a process which leads through salvation to the baptism of the Spirit; and to teach the truth of the Word, whereby disciples, faithful followers of Christ, are “made”; see point 8 immediately below). 6) To the Eleven in Jerusalem (John 20:26-31): This appearance, similar to the previous one, is “the second time” that Jesus comes to His disciples (as implied by John 21:14). Thomas, who famously would not believe unless he too received the same tangible proof of our Lord’s resurrection, is given just that by our Lord. When Thomas finally does express his belief, our Lord pronounces as blessed “those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29). John tells us that this appearance took place “eight days later” (John 20:26), so that we may safely assume that the disciples as yet had still not obeyed our Lord’s command to meet Him in Galilee. 7) To the Seven at the Sea of Galilee (John 21:1-23): For the eleven to depart Jerusalem for Galilee directly after the crucifixion seems to have been what our Lord had planned all along, with even the specific place of rendezvous having been previously designated: But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee. Matthew 26:32 NIV But after I have risen, I will go ahead of you into Galilee. Mark 14:28 NIV But go, tell his disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you into Galilee. There you will see him, just as he told you.’ Mark 16:7 (cf. Matthew 28:7) NIV Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brothers to go to Galilee; there they will see me.” Matthew 28:10 NIV But the eleven disciples proceeded to Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had designated. Matthew 28:16 NASB Ideally then, assuming perfect responsiveness, we may surmise that the disciples should have and would have listened to everything Jesus said about the necessity of His impending death, and about the reality of His resurrection destined to follow on the third day after His crucifixion; that they should have and would have departed for Galilee immediately to meet with the Lord at the appointed place, the designated mountain in Galilee. Even now, however, after waiting at least the additional eight days described above, though they did eventually go to Galilee, it was apparently to their homes in the area of sea of Galilee that they went first (John 21:1 cf. Matthew 4:18-22). For John tells us that Jesus’ appearance to them here as related in chapter twenty one was “the third time” that Jesus showed Himself to them all (John 21:14), and further, that only seven of them were together in that place: “Simon Peter, Thomas (called Didymus), Nathanael from Cana in Galilee, the sons of Zebedee, and two other disciples” (John 21:2 NIV). In this appearance, in addition to demonstrating yet again the real, physical nature of His new body, our Lord impresses upon Peter as the leader of the eleven the necessity for them all to “feed my sheep” (John 21:15-17), that is, to provide the Body of Christ with nutritious spiritual food on a consistent and regular basis, with “eating” then being a picture of faith in the truth being taught (Matthew 24:45; Luke 12:42; Acts 20:28; 1 Corinthians 3:2; 1 Timothy 4:6; Hebrews 5:12-14; 1 Peter 2:2; 1 Peter 5:2; cf. Matthew 14:16; Mark 6:37; Luke 9:13; Jude 1:12). 8) To the Eleven on the Mountain in Galilee (Matthew 28:16-20): But the eleven disciples proceeded to Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had designated. Matthew 28:16 NASB Matthew’s narrative, after a digression which relates the report of the guards at the tomb to the Jewish authorities (Matthew 28:11-15), jumps directly to the verse above from Jesus’ appearance to the other women and His message for the disciples to “to leave for Galilee, for there they shall see Me” (Matthew 28:10). Following the appearance at the Sea of Galilee in John chapter twenty one, then, alleleven finally gathered together on “the mountain which Jesus had designated” (Matthew 28:16). And when they saw Him, they worshiped [Him], but some [of them still] had doubts. Then Jesus came over and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me, so go and make all nations my followers by baptizing them into the Person (lit., “Name”) of the Father and [into the Person] of the Son and [into the Person] of the Holy Spirit, [and] by teaching them to observe everything I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you all the days until the end of the age.” Matthew 28:17-20. While our Lord taught the disciples something at each appearance, as Galilee, and particularly the prearranged rendezvous on the mountain, had been the place He had purposed for this, it is no surprise that in this passage we see what is perhaps the most detailed example of His post-resurrection teaching (albeit given to us here in very brief synopsis; cf. John 20:30; Acts 20:35; Acts 1:3). It is instructive to note that although by this time all of the disciples had seen our Lord at least twice (i. e., all but Thomas were present at the first appearance, all eleven at the second, and Thomas was among those listed in John 21:1-25 appearance), yet we are told that even so some of them “had doubts”, so difficult was the concept and idea of resurrection for this first group of believers, even though they were blessed to be first-hand witnesses to it. Even today, of course, with the detailed testimony of the Bible and the universal indwelling of the Spirit, it is this author’s observation that the literal, bodily resurrection remains a stumbling block for many Christians – and that is tragic thing. For the resurrection is our hope, the hope of eternal life which cannot be separated from Jesus’ resurrection and our own (1 Corinthians 15:12-17). This is the point of “primary importance” which has been “entrusted to us” as Christians (1 Corinthians 15:1). For if our hope in Christ extends only to this life, then we are indeed “to be pitied above all others” (1 Corinthians 15:19). The hope of the resurrection is found in nearly every chapter in the New Testament (e. g., Romans 5:2; Romans 8:25; 1 Corinthians 13:13; Galatians 5:5; Ephesians 1:18; Colossians 1:23, Colossians 1:27; 1 Thessalonians 1:3; 1 Thessalonians 5:8; 2 Thessalonians 2:16; 1 Timothy 1:1; 1 Timothy 4:10; Titus 1:2; Titus 2:13; Hebrews 3:6; Hebrews 6:18; Hebrews 7:19; Hebrews 11:1; 1 Peter 1:3, 1 Peter 1:13; 1 Peter 3:15; 1 John 3:3), and it is not too much to say that this hope is the proper, primary focus of the Christian life. Therefore we are truly blessed to possess so many proofs our Lord’s rising from the dead in definite, bodily form, with a body no longer subject to death, but fit for eternal life. The doubts expressed by some disciples on this occasion form a counterpoint to the coming of the Holy Spirit after which all of the disciples/apostles would display a zeal, courage and unbending faith that is remarkable to anyone who compares their behavior in the gospels to their deeds in “The Acts of the Apostles”. Therefore it is entirely understandable in this synopsis we are given by Matthew of the content of Jesus’ teaching at this time that the ministry of the Spirit figures large, even if that fact is often misunderstood. Three main points of our Lord’s teaching are recorded here. First, that the message of salvation, the gospel or “good news” about our Lord Jesus’ conquest of death (whereby He has won “all authority”) and the resurrection which is now available to all who put their faith in Him and follow Him, is now to be carried beyond Israel and made available to “all nations”. Secondly, Jesus relates the means by which these “marching orders” (often called “The Great Commission”) are to be accomplished. And thirdly, an important reassurance aimed not only at the doubters among the apostles but given also for the benefit of all who might have similar doubts in the future: we may not be able to see our Lord at present, but if we take Him at His Word given to us here, He is indeed “with us”, and more than that, “in us” to the end, even if we abide until the day of His return, the Second Advent “at the end of the age”, when all believers who remain alive will be “caught up together to meet the Lord in the air” (1 Thessalonians 4:17) in a living resurrection wherein our present bodies will be instantly swallowed up in eternal life. On that day [of the coming of the Holy Spirit (cf. John 14:15-19)] you will know that I am in my Father, and you are in Me, and I am in you. John 14:23 (cf. Romans 8:10; 2 Corinthians 13:5; Ephesians 3:17; Colossians 1:27) The Spirit, of course, had “not yet been given, because Christ had not yet been glorified” by being seated at the right hand of the Father (John 7:39), and the doubts of some of the disciples are a clear indication that the temporary unction given them by our Lord did not alleviate all obstacles to their receiving the truth to the degree that the actual indwelling presence of the Spirit later would (John 20:22 cf. Acts 2:1-44; Acts 4:13). And it is to this gift that our Lord refers in His second instruction, not to water baptism. For John baptized with water but Christ “will baptize you with the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 3:11; Mark 1:8; Luke 3:16; John 1:3 cf. Acts 1:5; Acts 11:16) – this is the “one baptism” of the Church (Ephesians 4:5), and the baptism to which Jesus here refers by instructing the disciples/apostles to “baptize them into the Person” of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit: this entering of the believer into union or “oneness” with the Trinity cannot be accomplished by any ritual; it can only be accomplished supernaturally, by the Spirit of God, and now occurs at the point of faith in Christ (Acts 10:43-44; cf. Romans 8:9; 2 Timothy 2:1). Thus “baptizing” refers to the mediation of the gospel message whereby we are saved and entered into the Christ by Spirit baptism (and the Father and Spirit) to become one with Him (and with Them), and pairs up perfectly with “teaching”, which properly has as its object those who have now become believers. Herein, therefore, we do indeed have the “Great Commission” not only to the disciples/apostles but to the whole Church, the essential task of all believers throughout this present age put forward in synoptic form: to work for the salvation of all, and for the spiritual growth of all who believe. 9) To the Five Hundred (1 Corinthians 15:6): We know of this “mass” appearance only from 1 Corinthians 15:6; and it most likely took place in Jerusalem. That is because after private teaching to the disciples/apostles in Galilee, later we find our Lord appearing to them in Jerusalem and instructing them not to leave until the promise of the Holy Spirit is given (for Jerusalem was where this was set to take place: Acts 1:4-5; Acts 2:1-4). As late as circa A. D. 55, over twenty years later, Paul reports that most of these believers who saw our Lord on this occasion were still alive, and it is clear from this fact and from the use to which Paul puts it in context that this rather large number of witnesses giving their testimony over such a relatively long period of time was an important factor in confirming the reality and the truth of the resurrection for many early believers who had not seen Jesus’ resurrection personally. 10) Other Post-Galilee Appearances: There are two other passages which imply some further appearances by our Lord during the forty days of His time on earth following the resurrection and before the ascension which may not be specifically delineated in the other accounts. As John’s description of the appearance to the seven at the Sea of Galilee is “the third time” (John 21:14), and as the meeting on the mountain and a return to Jerusalem followed shortly thereafter, these other appearances probably took place in the time period after the apostles’ return to await the coming of the Spirit: After his suffering, he showed himself to these men and gave many convincing proofs that he was alive. He appeared to them over a period of forty days and spoke about the kingdom of God. Acts 1:3 NIV “But God raised him from the dead, and for many days he was seen by those who had traveled with him from Galilee to Jerusalem. They are now his witnesses to our people.” Acts 13:30-31 NIV 11) James (1 Corinthians 15:7): Paul tells us that Jesus also appeared His half-brother James, and this appearance also most likely dates to the post-Galilee period (as Paul’s sequence suggests: 1 Corinthians 15:7). While none of our Lord’s siblings believed in Him before the resurrection (John 7:5 cf. Psalms 69:8; Mark 3:21), a major change of heart took place thereafter (cf. also Jude 1:1), with James’ conversion either occasioning (or occasioned by) this appearance from Jesus Himself. As the later leader of the Jerusalem Church (Acts 12:17; Acts 15:13; Acts 21:18; Galatians 1:19; Galatians 2:9; James 1:1), it was also no doubt important for Him to have this special distinction, both for purposes of his own faith, and also as a measure of authority comparable to that of the eleven apostles (all of whom saw our Lord on more than one occasion). 12) The Disciples at the Ascension (Acts 1:1-9): The first account I produced [for you], O Theophilus, dealt with all the things which Jesus did and taught from the beginning, until the day when Jesus was taken up [into heaven], having given instructions to those apostles whom He had selected through the Holy Spirit. To these [apostles] He also presented Himself alive after His suffering by means of much convincing evidence, appearing to them over a period of forty days, and telling them the things of the Kingdom of God. And gathering them together [Jesus] commanded [the disciples] not to depart from Jerusalem, but to await the promise of the Father (i. e., the Holy Spirit) “which you heard about from Me. For John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Spirit not many days from now”. So when they had come together (i. e., for the last time), they were asking Him, “Lord, are you about to restore the kingdom to Israel at this time?” And He said to them, “It is not for you to decide the times and occasions which the Father has ordained on His own authority (i. e., the Second Advent et al. will happen on His time-table, not yours). But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be My witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth”. And having said these things, He was lifted up while they looked on, and a cloud obscured Him from their sight. Acts 1:1-9. This passage written by Luke is not to be confused with the end of the gospel of Luke. There are clearly similarities between the last meeting the apostles had with our Lord after their return from Galilee (quoted here immediately above) and the first collective meeting on the night of the first Easter Sunday (Luke 24:36-53). The portion of the text in Luke 24:51 which says “and He was taken up into heaven” is not a part of the original text but a later addition, added no doubt in an attempt to homogenize the end of Luke with the beginning of Acts (i. e., making Luke end with the ascension just as Acts begins with it). But as we saw above, these are two separate meetings, the former occurring on Easter night before the trip to Galilee, the latter occurring some forty days later on the day of the ascension. The special focus our Lord places on the baptism of the Spirit, and especially His contrasting of Spirit baptism with the water baptism of John, should be noted carefully (particularly as many churches continue to baptize with water as if these verses meant little or nothing). The passage above constitutes the final post-resurrection appearance of our Lord before His “glorification” (cf. John 7:39), for it concludes with His ascension (followed immediately by His session at the right hand of the Father in heaven: Psalms 110:1 ff.; see section 5.o directly below). 13) To Paul (Acts 9:1-19; Acts 22:3-16; Acts 26:9-18; 1 Corinthians 9:1; 1 Corinthians 15:8), and to John (Revelation 1:10-20): Am I not an apostle? Have I not see Jesus our Lord? 1 Corinthians 9:1. Actually “seeing” the Lord in resurrection and thereby being a witness to the resurrection was an essential prerequisite for the office of apostle (Acts 26:16; cf. Acts 22:15), of whom there are and will only ever be twelve (cf. Revelation 21:14). Paul saw the Lord “in glory” (Acts 9:3; Acts 22:6, Acts 22:11; Acts 26:13), as did John on Patmos (Revelation 1:12-17), so that these post-ascension appearances are significantly different from the prior ones, and demonstrate the magnificence and the magnitude of the glorification that took place when our Lord ascended in the presence of the Father. o. The Ascension and Session of Christ: 1) The Ascension: The “ascension” refers to our Lord’s literal journey from earth into the presence of God the Father in the third heaven (where He now resides): And having said these things (i. e., the contents of Acts 1:3-8), He was lifted up while they looked on, and a cloud obscured Him from their sight. And while [the disciples] were [yet] looking on intently as [Jesus] was traveling into heaven, behold, two men took their stand beside them, dressed in white, and they said, “Men of Galilee, why are you standing here looking up into heaven? This [same] Jesus who was [just now] taken up [there] into heaven [and] away from you will return in the very same way in which you saw Him traveling into heaven.” Acts 1:9-11. In addition to this sole description in the Bible of the actual event itself given from the viewpoint of earthly observers, there are many passages of scripture which refer to our Lord’s literal, bodily ascending from earth into the presence of the Father in the third heaven – a thing which would clearly have been impossible without the resurrection body (Acts 2:33-36; Acts 5:31; Ephesians 4:7-10; Php 2:9; 1 Timothy 3:16; cf. John 3:13; John 6:62; Hebrews 6:19-20): Therefore since we have a Great High Priest who has passed through the heavens (i. e., into the presence of the Father), Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast to our conviction. Hebrews 4:14. [Jesus Christ], who, having traveled to heaven, is at the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers having been made subject to Him. 1 Peter 3:22. 2) The Session of Christ: The formal acceptance of our Lord Jesus Christ into the presence of the Father, and God the Father’s offer to our Lord Jesus, immediately accepted, to take His place beside Him at His right hand on the throne is referenced throughout the New Testament (Romans 8:34; Ephesians 1:20; Ephesians 2:6; Ephesians 3:1; Hebrews 1:3, Hebrews 1:13; Hebrews 8:1-2; Hebrews 10:12; Hebrews 12:2). The Lord said to My Lord, “Sit down at my right hand, until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.” Psalms 110:1. Jesus had applied the prophetic anticipation of the session in the verse above to Himself to demonstrate to His unbelieving contemporaries that David, writing under the ministry of the Spirit, understood full well that the Messiah, the son of David, would yet also be his (i. e., David’s) “Lord”, something only possible if the Messiah is also God (Matthew 22:44; Mark 12:36; Luke 20:42). As this verse and the remainder of Psalms 22:1-31 make clear, this is a pronouncement from the Father to the Son at the point of His first formal appearance before the throne of God, an event which took place immediately after Jesus had ascended into the Father’s presence in the third heaven, namely, the invitation “to be seated” at God’s “right hand”, the position of honor (1 Kings 2:19; Matthew 20:21-23; cf. Matthew 25:33-34; Matthew 26:64). [Jesus] is the shining forth of [the Father’s] glory, the precise image of His essence, the One who sustains the universe by His mighty Word. When He had accomplished the cleansing of [our] sins, He took His seat at the right hand of the Majesty on high. Hebrews 1:3. This verse complements Psalms 110:1; describing our Lord as having responded immediately to His Father’s offer by taking His seat beside God in the throne room of heaven (i. e., this depicts the actual session of Christ). And I saw in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, a Lamb standing [there, looking] as if He had been slain, with seven horns and seven eyes (which are the seven spirits of God sent out into the entire earth). And He came and took [the scroll] from the right hand of the One sitting on the throne. Revelation 5:6-7. “They (i. e., the tribulational martyrs) will neither hunger nor thirst again, nor will the sun beat down upon them nor any burning [heat], because the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and will lead them to fountains of living water [lit., “fountains of waters of life”], and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes”. Revelation 7:16-17. The time our Lord Jesus Christ’s session at the Father’s right hand is soon coming to an end. Psalms 110:1 marks the conclusion of the period of session as being “until I [begin to] make your enemies a footstool for your feet”. The expansion of this translation is both permissible and necessary, for we know full well from many other scriptures that our Lord will not await the conquest of Armageddon before returning to earth, but will be the Father’s primary Agent of that future victory. In the verses above our Lord Jesus Christ, is symbolically depicted as the Lamb of God, having arisen from His two thousand year session and on the point of beginning the process and the period of His return whereby all His enemies will indeed be laid prostrate at His feet (i. e., the scroll is the book of Revelation which when opened begins the Tribulation, the final period in world history before our Lord’s return and millennial rule). Until that glorious day, the final “Day of the Lord”, Jesus is literally seated with the Father, at the right hand of the Father, sharing the throne. For the third heaven is only God’s temporary residence (to which He removed from the earth at the commencement of Satan’s rebellion). It is His “battle headquarters” from which He is in the process of suppressing the devil’s revolt. And the throne itself, modeled by the ark of the covenant, is in actuality God’s “battle chariot” (a fact which explains its unique appearance and its unique functions; cf. 1 Chronicles 28:18; Psalms 132:7; Ezekiel 1:4-28; Ezekiel 10:9-22; Daniel 7:9; Habakkuk 3:3-15). The joint presence of the Father and Son in/on this chariot-throne is thus a symbol of imminent victory over God’s enemies soon to be achieved at the Second Advent when Christ returns and establishes His own throne on the earth (cf. the ark’s appearance in Revelation 11:19; a passage which presages the Second Advent). I kept looking until thrones were set down and the Ancient of Days (i. e., the Father) took His seat. His attire was white as snow, as was the hair of His head, [white] like the purest wool. His throne was aflame with fire, and its wheels were a blazing fire. A river of fire was flowing, and it poured forth from before Him. Thousands upon thousands were ministering to Him, and myriads upon myriads were standing before Him. The court was seated and the books were opened. Meanwhile, I kept looking on account of the sound of the arrogant words which the horn (i. e., antichrist) was speaking. I kept looking until he was killed and his body destroyed and given over to the burning fire. As for the remaining beasts, their dominions were taken away, but an extension of life was given to them for an appointed time and season. I kept looking during my vision of that night, and behold – with the clouds of heaven One like a Son of Man was coming up, and He approached the Ancient of Days (i. e., the Father) and they brought Him before Him. And to Him was given dominion and honor and a kingdom, so that all nations and peoples and tongues should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion which will not pass away, and His kingdom one which will not be destroyed. Daniel 7:9-14. The offer of session (i. e., “Sit down”) marks the formal acceptance by the Father of the Son and of His work, something which was in truth never in doubt, but something which in the interest of strict divine justice has been withheld until this point (cf. John 7:39; Romans 3:25-26). I shall relate the Lord’s decree. He said to Me, “You are My Son. Today I have begotten You. Ask of Me and I shall give You the nations as Your inheritance, and the ends of the earth as your possession.” Psalms 2:7-8. This verse likewise describes the official divine stamp of approval placed by the Father on the work of the Son at the time of His presentation before the throne of God for the first time. The phrase translated above “Today I have begotten You”, in the context of the session means, essentially, “Today I have pronounced You My own”, for we are to understand these words, in addition to their prophetic application at Christ’s birth (cf. Hebrews 1:5; Hebrews 5:5), their further application here in thesense of the Father’s formal acknowledgment of the Son and His work (cf. Acts 13:32-33). The possession of the nations and of the entire world refers to our Lord’s millennial kingdom, the inheritance He will claim as soon as the Church age has run its course. For Jesus’ successful completion of the Father’s plan for the first advent is the turning point of all human history, conquering the devil’s rebellion (see below) and delivering mankind from sin, and the session of Christ is His official and formal acceptance and recognition by the Father of this victory and as such opens the way for all the blessings to come. Since then we too [like the believers of chapter 11] have such a large audience of witnesses surrounding us [both men and angels], let us put off every hindrance – especially whatever sins habitually affect us – and run with endurance the race set before us, turning our gaze unto Jesus, the originator and completer of our faith, who, for the joy set before Him, endured the shame of the cross, treating it with despite, and took His seat at the right hand of the throne of God. Hebrews 12:1-2. Moreover, in Acts 2:36 Peter tells us that in recognition of our Lord Jesus’ victory at the cross, the Father has “appointed Him Lord and Christ” (cf. Acts 5:31), that is “the Lord anointed (to rule the world)”, signaling not only Christ’s replacement of Satan as ruler of the world, but His acceptance of the regency of the world as the Father’s representative. The session of Jesus Christ is thus the formal dividing point between the forward-looking pre-cross economy and the current situation which has the cross as its retrospective. With the victory of the cross complete and formally acknowledged, the Messiah receives His glorification, with all the benefits and results of His history-changing accomplishment now either placed into immediate effect or rendered prophetically imminent – for us as well as for Him. 1) Glorification: As God, divine glory is an intimate and irremovable characteristic of our Lord Jesus Christ’s divinity (Isaiah 40:5 compared with John 12:41). He has always possessed infinite divine glory and always will. The Word [Jesus Christ] existed at the very beginning, and there was reciprocity between the Word and God [the Father]. This One both existed and enjoyed reciprocity with God from the very beginning. Everything came into being through Him, and without Him, nothing has come into being which has in fact come into being. John 1:1-3. Therefore the glorification in question here pertains to His humanity. Before the victory of the cross and its formal acknowledgment in the presence of the Father resulting in Christ being seated with Him on His throne, this divine glory had been masked. For on the one hand Jesus had to experience life in a humbled and non-glorified, normal human state in order to save us from our sins by dying for us on the cross (i. e., the principle of kenosis; see section I. 5.e above), and on the other hand glorification for His humanity is described in scripture as the manifestation of the Father’s approval of all our Lord Jesus did, most especially in dying for us on the cross, so that the overt and visible glorification of His humanity had necessarily to follow His earthly mission. Therefore, when [Judas] was gone out, Jesus said, Now is the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him. If God be glorified in him, God shall also glorify him in himself, and shall straightway glorify him. John 13:31-32 KJV “And now glorify Me, Father, with your own glory, [that glory] which I had in your presence before the world existed.” John 17:5 (cf. John 12:28) The first and most visible aspect of this glorification, the unveiling or revealing of the glory in His humanity which Christ possessed in His deity since before creation, is His new appearance. For even after the resurrection when Jesus appeared to the disciples, His appearance was not uniquely glorious. However in all cases after His ascension and session, our Lord manifests His divine glory bodily (Matthew 16:27; Matthew 17:2; Matthew 24:30; Matthew 25:31; Mark 8:38; Mark 9:2-8, Mark 9:29-31; Mark 13:26; Luke 9:26; Luke 21:27; 1 Timothy 3:16; Hebrews 1:3; Hebrews 2:9; 1 Peter 4:13). About noon, O king, as I was on the road, I saw a light from heaven, brighter than the sun, blazing around me and my companions. We all fell to the ground, and I heard a voice saying to me in Hebrew, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads.” Then I asked, “Who are you, Lord?” “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” the Lord replied. Acts 26:13-15 (cf. Acts 9:3-4; Acts 22:6-8) So I turned around to see [the source of] the voice that was speaking to me, and when I had turned around, I saw seven golden lampstands. And in the middle of the lampstands was what looked like a man, dressed in a long robe with a golden belt tied around His waist. And His head and his hair were as white as wool or as snow, and His eyes were like a fiery flame, and His feet were like white-hot bronze when super-heated in a furnace, and His voice was like the sound of many waters. And He held seven stars in His right hand, and out of His mouth came a sharp two-edged sword. And His face shone like the sun in its glory. Revelation 1:12-16. The opposite side of the coin to visible glorification manifest in His personal appearance is His status as Heir to all things, for in Psalms 2:7-8 after the Father formally acknowledges the Son “You are My Son”, He then says “Ask of Me and I shall give You the nations as Your inheritance, and the ends of the earth as your possession”. Jesus’ rulership of the world, already won at the cross and prophetically imminent, carries with it the glory of His Name which represents His person, along with every legitimate title of highest authority. Therefore God exalted Him to the highest place and gave Him the Name that is above every name that at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord to the glory of God the Father. Php 2:9-11. And on His robe and on His thigh He has a name written: “King of Kings and Lord of Lords”. Revelation 19:16. John, to the seven churches which are in Asia [Minor]: Grace to you and peace from the One who is and was and is coming (i. e., the Father), and from the seven spirits (i. e., the Holy Spirit) which are before His throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, and the Ruler of the kings of the earth. Revelation 1:4-5. Which [divine power] He (i. e., the Father) exercised in Christ by having raised Him from the dead and having seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly [places] far above every other rulership or authority or power or lordship and [far above] every other name which may be mentioned not only in this age but also in the age to come. And He (i. e., the Father) subordinated all things under [Christ’s] feet and gave Him [as] Head over all things in the Church which is His Body, the fullness of the One who fills up all things in all ways. Ephesians 1:20-23. As we see from these verses, a key part of the glory and authority which Christ has won and been given extending over everyone and everything in the universe (cf. Hebrews 1:6; Ephesians 3:10-11; 1 Peter 3:22) is His unique status as Head of the Church. For this is His “Body” (1 Corinthians 12:27; cf. Matthew 26:26; Romans 12:5; 1 Corinthians 12:12-13; Ephesians 1:22-23; Ephesians 3:6; Ephesians 4:4; Colossians 1:18; Colossians 3:15), His “Bride” (Ephesians 5:31-32), the “joy that was set before Him” as He anticipated the fiery ordeal of the cross (John 15:13; Ephesians 5:25-27; Hebrews 12:2) – we are the “prize” for which He strove, and an important part of the glorification He now enjoys. This aspect of His glorification could only come to Him in His humanity after He had won us for Himself through His death for us on the cross (Matthew 20:28; Galatians 1:4; Galatians 2:20; Ephesians 5:2). He is the exact image of the unseen God, the First-Born of all creation (i. e., preeminent in the universe). Everything in the heavens and on the earth was created by Him (Jesus Christ), things invisible as well as those visible – whether thrones, authorities, rulers or powers, everything was created through Him and for Him. And He Himself is before everything, and everything subsists in Him. And He Himself is the Head of the Body, the Church. He is the Origin, the First-Born from the dead (i. e., preeminent in the resurrection). For it was [God’s] good pleasure for the fulfillment [of His plan] to reside entirely in [Christ], and so through Him to reconcile everything to Himself, having made peace through Him, through the blood of His cross, whether things on earth, or things in heaven. Colossians 1:15-20. As a result of the baptism of the Spirit with whom every believer is now baptized at the point of faith in Christ (Romans 8:9; 1 Timothy 2:1), we are made “one with Him” (1 Corinthians 1:30; 1 Corinthians 15:22; 2 Corinthians 5:17; Ephesians 1:13; Ephesians 2:6, Ephesians 2:10; Colossians 1:27; Hebrews 3:14), and this unity with Christ will become a visible and exquisitely wonderful experiential reality when He “marries” the Church at the resurrection on His second advent return to earth (Revelation 19:7-9; cf. 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17). 2) Victory: And I began to cry much, because no one was found worthy to open the scroll or to look inside of it. And one of the elders was saying to me, “Don’t cry! Behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah, the Root of David, He has won the victory [so as to be worthy] to open the scroll and to undo its seals.” Revelation 5:4-5. The victory proclaimed here is the victory of the cross, for it is by His successful completion of the Father’s mission to die for our sins that our Lord has defeated the devil and won for all time the Name, the glory, and honor that are His as the First-Born. It is our Lord’s victory at the cross which has established His supreme authority in all things and over all things, that is confirmed in His session at the Father’s right hand (Matthew 28:18; Luke 10:17-18; John 14:2-3; John 16:11; Acts 2:32-36; Acts 5:30-31; Romans 16:20; 1 Corinthians 15:21-25; Ephesians 1:20-23; Ephesians 3:10-11; Ephesians 4:7-10; Php 2:9-11; Colossians 1:13-20; Colossians 2:14-15; Hebrews 2:14-15; 1 Peter 3:22; 1 John 3:8; Revelation 1:18; Revelation 17:14), having rescued us through His death on our behalf. Now is the judgment of this world. Now will the prince of this world be driven out. And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to Myself. John 12:31-32. [For by means of the cross, God] has stripped [demon] rulers and authorities [of their power] and subjected them to public humiliation, having triumphed over them in [Christ]. Colossians 2:15. Therefore since these children have a common heritage of flesh and blood, [Christ] too partook of these same [common elements] in a very similar fashion (i. e., not identical only in that He was virgin born and so without sin), in order that through His death He might put an end to the one possessing the power of death, that is, the devil, and might reconcile [to Himself] those who were subject to being slaves their whole lives long by their fear of death. Hebrews 2:14-15. Thus Christ’s victory over sin is intimately connected with His victory over the devil who first led mankind into sin. Not only does the cross make salvation universally available to all human beings in spite of sin, but it also closes the book on Satan’s rebellion, refuting in the court of human history for all time the devil’s calumnies against the Justice of God (cf. 1 Timothy 3:16; 1 Peter 1:12). God [did this] so that [His] enigmatically intricate wisdom might be made known to the rulers and authorities in the heavenly realms through the agency of the Church, according to His plan for the ages (i. e., history) which He has implemented in [the person of] Christ Jesus our Lord. Ephesians 3:10-11. [And at His session (Hebrews 1:3), Jesus] became [manifestly] superior to the angels to the degree that He received as [a part of] His inheritance a Name so much more glorious than theirs. For to which of the angels did He ever say, “You are my Son. Today I have begotten you (Psalms 2:7).” And again, “I will be a Father to Him, and He will be my Son (2 Samuel 7:14).” But when He brings back the Firstborn into the world, He says, “And let all the angels of God worship Him! (Psalms 97:7 b)”. Hebrews 1:4-6. [Jesus Christ], who, having traveled to heaven, is at the right hand of God, angels and authorities and powers having been made subject to Him. 1 Peter 3:22. 3) The Transfer of Believers from the Subterranean Paradise to the Third Heaven: One ineffably marvelous result of our Lord’s victory on the cross and its results in the unseen conflict that rages beyond our vision was the prophesied “liberation of the captives” (Psalms 146:7; Isaiah 14:17; Isaiah 42:7; Isaiah 49:9; Isaiah 61:1; Matthew 12:29; cf. 1 Peter 3:18-22), the release from Hades (that is, from the “Paradise” to which our Lord also descended in His physical death: Luke 23:43; see section I. 5.m. above) of all departed saints who believed prior to the cross. These could not be admitted into the presence of God in His perfect holiness until their sins had actually been propitiated by Jesus’ sacrifice (Romans 3:25). But by His entrance into the true Holy of Holies and the acceptance of His sacrifice officially recognized by the offer of session, Jesus our High Priest has split the veil of the heavenly temple on high so that believers may now enter into the presence of God (Hebrews 4:14-16; Hebrews 6:19-20; Hebrews 7:26; Hebrews 8:1; Hebrews 9:8, Hebrews 9:11-28; Hebrews 10:19-20; cf. Matthew 27:51), with all those believers who had died prior to the cross having been led to heaven by Him in triumph at the time of His ascension (Psalms 68:18; Ephesians 4:8; cf. Psalms 68:24-27; John 14:2-3; Colossians 2:15; 1 Peter 3:18-22; Revelation 1:18). And to each of us this grace has been given according to the measure of the gift of Christ. For it says, “When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive (i. e., He brought pre-cross believers to heaven). He gave gifts to men.” Now [as to] this [phrase] “He ascended”, what can it mean except that He had also [previously] descended into the lower reaches of the earth (i. e., to Hades, from whence He brought the pre-cross believers to heaven)? The One who descended is also the One who ascended above all the heavens (i. e., into the third heaven, the place of the Father’s residence), in order to fulfill all things (i. e., to complete the victory won at the cross; cf. Psalms 110:1). Ephesians 4:7-10. Although the devil “wouldn’t let the captives go home” (Isaiah 14:17 b), our Lord “took the captives captive”, releasing them from Hades-paradise and leading them as His triumphant victory train directly into the presence of the Father in the third heaven. As a result, all who have died in the Lord from that point forward have gone directly to heaven as well (compare John 14:2-3 with 2 Corinthians 5:8; cf. Revelation 6:9-11; Revelation 7:9-17). 4) The Sending of the Holy Spirit: And gathering them together [Jesus] commanded [the disciples] not to depart from Jerusalem, but to await the promise of the Father (i. e., the Holy Spirit) “which you heard about from Me. For John baptized with water, but you will be baptized with the Spirit not many days from now”. Acts 1:4-5. For the Spirit was not yet [being poured out in Spirit baptism], because Jesus had not yet been glorified. John 7:39 b I will ask the Father, and He will give you another comforter to be with you forever – the Spirit of truth whom the world cannot receive, for it neither sees Him, nor knows Him. But you know Him, for He abides with you, and will be in you. John 14:16-17. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. John 14:26 NIV But I tell you the truth: It is for your good that I am going away. Unless I go away, the Counselor will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you. John 16:7 NIV God has raised this Jesus to life, and we are all witnesses of the fact. Exalted to the right hand of God, he has received from the Father the promised Holy Spirit and has poured out what you now see and hear. Acts 2:32-33 NIV The benefit and blessing of the indwelling ministry of the Holy Spirit is an inestimably sublime blessing and empowerment in its own right, and also the basis of many other additional benefits and blessings which combine to make this age of the Church unique (Ephesians 1:3; cf. Isaiah 48:16). As can be seen from the verses above, the success of our Lord’s earthly mission and His session in heaven on high along with the glorification which it entailed were essential prerequisites for the actual carrying out of the promise to send the Spirit. Not that the Holy Spirit had not always had a critical role in the plan of God – indeed He always has (and that subject will require an entire installment of this presence series to develop: part 5, “Pneumatology”). The Spirit has always been “with” believers, but since the first Pentecost of the Church and the subsequent universal baptism of the Spirit at the point of faith in Christ, all believers of this present age are blessed to have the Spirit literally indwelling them (Romans 8:9; cf. 1 Corinthians 2:16; Ephesians 4:5; 2 Timothy 2:1), and it is through our Spirit baptism that we are rendered “one” with Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 12:13; Ephesians 4:5; cf. Matthew 3:11; Mark 1:8; Luke 3:16; John 1:3; Acts 1:5; Acts 11:15-17). Or do you not realize that as many of us as have been baptized [by the Spirit] into Christ have been baptized into His death? Therefore we have been buried with Him through this baptism [of the Spirit] into His death, so that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the Glory of the Father, so also we might walk in newness of life. For if we have been joined together with Him in respect to the likeness of His death [– and we have by being spiritually baptized into Him – ], then we certainly will be [joined together with Him in the likeness] of His resurrection also. Romans 6:3-5. For you are all sons of God through faith in Jesus Christ. For as many of you as have been baptized [by the Spirit] into Christ, have put on Christ [like a garment]. There is no longer Jew nor Greek, nor slave nor fee, nor male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:26-28. 5) Rewards: “The one who wins the victory, I will grant him to sit with Me on my throne just as I also have won the victory and have taken my seat with My Father on His throne.” Revelation 3:21. As the verse above states so clearly, our Lord’s victory at the cross verified by His session is also the basis for our sharing in that victory through our own “victory of faith” (1 John 5:4). And to the one who wins the victory and gives heed to My works until the end, I will give to him authority over the nations. And he will shepherd them with an iron rod and crush them like vessels of clay, just as I have received [the authority] from My Father. Revelation 2:26-27. Our Lord’s status as Ruler over the entire created world demonstrated by His session in sharing the very throne of God the Father likewise becomes the basis for our sharing in that rule as a part of the reward won in this life through our service to Him. Rewards form an integral part of the Christian hope (Hebrews 11:6, Hebrews 11:24-26; cf. Isaiah 40:10; Isaiah 62:11; Matthew 6:19-21; Matthew 10:40-42; Matthew 25:21-23, Matthew 25:34-36; Luke 19:17; 1 Corinthians 3:8-15; 1 Corinthians 9:24-27; 1 Corinthians 15:58; 2 Corinthians 5:10; Galatians 6:9; Ephesians 2:6-7; Ephesians 6:8; Colossians 3:24; 1 Thessalonians 2:19; 1 Peter 1:7; 2 John 1:8; Revelation 20:4-6; Revelation 22:12), for it is with these rewards that our resurrection bodies will be decorated in a way that glorifies our Lord Jesus forever (1 Corinthians 9:25; cf. 1 Corinthians 15:40-42; Php 4:1; 2 Timothy 4:8; James 1:12; 1 Peter 5:4; Revelation 2:10; Revelation 3:5, Revelation 3:11-12; Revelation 19:8), and it is through our Lord Jesus Christ’s victory confirmed by His session that these rewards are made available as we share in the “plunder” of that victory (cf. Luke 11:22; Ephesians 4:7-8). Therefore I will allot to Him [the plunder] among [His] many [brothers], and He will apportion plunder to the mighty [among them]. Isaiah 53:12 a 6) Access and Intercession: One of the most encouraging and presently active blessings to result from the entrance of our Lord into the third heaven and His session of the Father’s throne is the dual privilege of access we now enjoy for our prayers directly to both the Father and the Son (John 14:13-14) as they preside on the heavenly throne (cf. Romans 5:1-2 a; 1 Peter 3:18) . . . For through Him [Jesus Christ] we both [Jews and gentiles] have access to the Father by one Spirit. Ephesians 2:18. Being in Him [Jesus Christ] and having confidence through our faith in Him we possess this access [to the Father] and freedom to speak [to Him]. Ephesians 3:12. So let us approach with confident free speech to the throne of grace [of the Father] that we might receive [His] mercy and gain [His] favor for timely help. Hebrews 4:16. . . . while at the same time benefitting from the intercessory prayer that our Lord in His capacity as High Priest is constantly offering on our behalf (1 Timothy 2:5; Hebrews 7:24-25; cf. Job 16:20-21; Isaiah 53:12 b; Hebrews 4:14; Hebrews 6:19-20; Hebrews 9:11-12, Hebrews 9:24), augmented by the intercessory prayers of the Spirit: Who will [dare to] bring charges against God’s elect? God is the One who is pronouncing [us] justified. Who is he that condemns [us]? Christ Jesus is the One who died [condemned in our place], and the One, moreover, who was raised from the dead [for us], who is [seated] at the right hand of God, who is also making petitions on our behalf. Romans 8:33-34. My children, I am writing these things to you so that you won’t sin. But if anyone does sin, we have an Advocate to [approach] the Father [on our behalf], Jesus Christ the righteous. 1 John 2:1. In the same way, the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We do not know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit, because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God’s will. Romans 8:26-27 NIV 7) Things to Come: Presently, our Lord is seated with the Father “until the time when I [begin to] make your enemies the footstool for your feet” (Psalms 110:1). That “time”, also known as the end times, will begin with the Tribulation at the end of the two thousand year long Church Age. Jesus’ session has made those events certainly future (Psalms 110:1-7; Hebrews 1:13; cf. 1 Corinthians 1:7-8; 1 Thessalonians 1:10; 2 Thessalonians 1:6-10; Titus 2:13; James 5:8), and thus His eventual assumption of the de facto rulership of the world awaits only the completion of the Church, His Bride. So repent and turn back [to God] for the blotting out of your sins, so that times of revival may come from the Lord, and so that He may send to you the One acknowledged as the Christ [Messiah], [namely] Jesus, who must remain in heaven (lit., “whom heaven must receive”) until the times of the restoration of all things of which God has spoken through the mouths of His holy prophets from of old. Acts 3:19-21. a) The Second Advent and Armageddon: At the conclusion of the Tribulation, just as antichrist stands poised to destroy the Jewish people concentrated in Jerusalem, our Lord Jesus Christ will be “revealed” (Luke 17:30; 1 Corinthians 1:7; 2 Thessalonians 1:7; 1 Peter 1:7, 1 Peter 1:13; 1 Peter 4:13; Revelation 1:1; cf. Romans 8:19; 1 Peter 1:5), returning in glory with all of us, His newly resurrected saints (1 Thessalonians 4:13-17; Revelation 19:11-16). The sign of the Son of Man, the cross, will appear in the sky visible worldwide (Matthew 24:30), and “every eye will see Him” (Revelation 1:7). Unbelieving Israel will repent (Zechariah 12:10-14), so that thus “all Israel will be saved” (Romans 11:25-27; cf. Isaiah 59:20-21). The armies of the beast will be destroyed (Revelation 19:15-21), he and the false prophet will be summarily deposited in the lake of fire (Revelation 19:20; cf. Isaiah 24:21-22), and the devil and his angels will be sequestered in the Abyss (Revelation 20:1-3). b) The Millennial Kingdom: After dispensing divine justice in a series of judgments which will begin His thousand year reign, our Lord will commence His millennial rule seated now in the temple at Jerusalem as the rightful Heir and prophesied Messiah-King (Revelation 11:15). His millennial reign will bring peace, abundance and prosperity the likes of which the world and human kind has not seen since the garden of Eden. The Church, resurrected and rewarded (Romans 2:16; 1 Corinthians 4:5), will share in that glorious rule (Matthew 25:19-23; Luke 22:28; 1 Corinthians 6:3; Romans 8:17; 2 Timothy 2:12; Revelation 1:6; Revelation 2:26-27; Revelation 3:21; Revelation 20:4-6). But despite a thousand years of perfect justice, perfect administration, prosperity and freedom of want, when the devil is released at the end of this period of bliss, the majority of mankind will quickly flock to Satan’s standards and rebel against the Son of God (Revelation 20:7-10), proving once and for all that rejection of God and His truth has nothing whatsoever to do with environmental issues. c) The Last Judgment: At the end of the Millennium, following our Lord’s rapid and final dispatch of the devil and those most recently seduced into opposing Him (the Gog-Magog rebellion), the final phase of the resurrection will occur with all those who put their faith in Christ from the Second Advent forward now resurrected to eternal life (Daniel 12:2-3; Matthew 25:34-40; 1 Corinthians 15:24), and all those from Cain to the end of time who have rejected the Lord resurrected to face the Him at the Last Judgment (Matthew 25:41-46; Revelation 20:11-15). As the One to whom all judgment has been entrusted, it is Jesus Christ who will sit in judgment over all those who have rejected Him. Just as the Father raises the dead and brings them to life, so the Son brings to life whomever He wishes. And neither does the Father judge anyone, but He has given all judgment to the Son, in order that all may honor the Son as they honor the Father. He who does not honor the Son does not honor the Father who sent Him. Truly, truly I say to you, that the one who hears My Word and believes in the One who sent Me has eternal life and does not enter into judgment but has passed from death into life. Truly, truly I say to you that an hour is coming, and is now [imminent] when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God and those who hear it will come to life. For just as the Father has life in Himself, so He has given to the Son to have life in Himself. And He has given authority to Him to render judgment, because He is the Son of Man. Do not be amazed at this [statement], that an hour will come in which all those in their tombs will hear His voice. For they shall come forth – those who have done what is good to a resurrection of life (i. e., those who have faithfully followed Jesus Christ), but those who have done what is worthless to a resurrection of judgment. John 5:21-29. d) New Jerusalem and the Eternal State: Immediately after disposing of all who willfully rejected Him in history (men and angels both; cf. Matthew 25:41), the Lord will create for us the New Heavens and the New Earth (Isaiah 35:1-10; Isaiah 65:17; Isaiah 66:22; 2 Peter 2:10-13; Revelation 21:1, Revelation 21:5), a pristine universe “where righteousness [alone] will dwell” (2 Peter 3:12), and the New Jerusalem will descend from heaven to the earth as the habitation of the Church of Jesus Christ forevermore (Revelation 21:9; cf. John 14:2-3). In this blessed place our Lord will share the throne with our heavenly Father and we shall enjoy glorious and ineffably blissful fellowship with them and with each other for all eternity. For this reason (i. e., of salvation through faith) they (i. e., the saints) are before the throne of God and serve Him day and night in His temple. And the One who sits upon the throne will pitch His tabernacle over them. They will neither hunger nor thirst again, nor will the sun beat down upon them nor any burning [heat], because the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and will lead them to fountains of living water (lit., “fountains of waters of life”), and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes. Revelation 7:15-17. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 9: 01.02 - THE SAVING WORK OF JESUS CHRIST ======================================================================== II. The Saving Work of Jesus Christ 1. Our Need for a Savior 2. The Substitutionary Death of Jesus Christ on our behalf. 3. Unlimited Atonement 4. The Blood of Christ 5. The Spiritual Death of Christ 6. Propitiation 7. Redemption 8. Justification 9. Reconciliation 10. Summary of the Work of Christ in Effecting Salvation ======================================================================== CHAPTER 10: 01.02.01 - OUR NEED FOR A SAVIOR ======================================================================== II. The Saving Work of Jesus Christ 1. Our Need for a Savior: As delineated in part 3B of this series, Hamartiology: the Biblical Study of Sin, section I. 1.1.1, “Spiritual Death”, scripture is crystal clear about the fact that each and every human being since the fall of Adam and Eve has been born into sin with the result that they commit sin, a circumstance which, from the standpoint of eternity, places us all in an absolutely hopeless situation of impending judgment and condemnation apart from God’s help. Now the Lord saw that Man’s evil had spread abundantly on the earth – indeed, the underlying intent of all his innermost thoughts was invariably evil. Genesis 6:5. What is Man that he could be pure (i. e., innocent), or that one born of woman could be righteous? Job 15:14. If You, O Lord, kept a close watch on [our] iniquities, then who, O Lord, could stand? Psalms 130:3. For there is no man on earth who is [so] righteous that he [always] does what is good and [never] sins. Ecclesiastes 7:20. [Jesus] went on: “What comes out of a man is what makes him ‘unclean.’ For from within, out of men’s hearts, come evil thoughts, sexual immorality, theft, murder, adultery, greed, malice, deceit, lewdness, envy, slander, arrogance and folly. All these evils come from inside and make a man ‘unclean.’ “ Mark 7:20-23 NIV God’s wrath is being revealed (i. e., dispensed) from heaven upon all ungodliness and unrighteousness – on men who suppress the truth in their unrighteousness. Romans 1:18. For all sin and fall short of God’s glory. Romans 3:23. So just as through one man (i. e., Adam) sin came into the world and, through sin, death, and thus (i. e., Adam physically passing on his sin nature) death spread to all mankind – for [obviously] everyone sins (i. e., universal sinning proves universal spiritual death), . . .Romans 5:12. But now it is no longer I [who] does it (i. e., commits sin), but the sin dwelling in me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me – that is, in my flesh. For to will what is good lies in my power, but to carry it out does not. For I do not do the good I want to, but the evil I do not want to do, this is what I do. And if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who am doing it but the sin dwelling in me. So in respect to the Law I find that, even as I wish to do good, evil has me in its power. For I delight in the Law of God in my inner person. But I perceive a different law [at work] in my bodily members, waging war against the Law in my mind and taking me prisoner – [a prisoner to] this law of sin that dwells in my body. Wretched man that I am! Who will save me from this body of death? Romans 7:17-24. And you [too were once spiritually] dead in the transgressions and sins in which you then lived your life, after the fashion of this temporal world, after the pattern of the ruler who holds sway in the air [around us (i. e., the devil)], that spirit who is now at work in those who have chosen disobedience. In company with these we too all conducted our lives in the lusts of our flesh (i. e., sin nature), carrying out the will of our flesh and its desires. For we were [all thus] children of wrath by nature just like the rest [of the human race]. Ephesians 2:1-3. So put to death your [bodily] members which are of the earth, [for it is they that produce] sexual sinning, impurity, passion, evil lusting, and greed, which is [effectively the same thing as] idolatry. Because of these things the wrath of God is coming upon those who are [wilfully] disobedient. You too once walked in these ways when your life was defined by them [as unbelievers]. Colossians 3:5-7. And inasmuch as it is ordained for mankind to die once (i. e., the first, “physical” death), and after this [face] judgment (i. e., “the second death”; cf. Revelation 2:11; Revelation 20:6, Revelation 20:14-15) . . .Hebrews 9:27. In short, we are spiritually dead at birth, being “children of wrath” with only the expectation of divine judgment and the execution of condemnation absent some miraculous intervention far beyond our power and ability to effect for ourselves. And that is precisely what God has done for us in Jesus Christ! Because God has not appointed us for wrath, but for [taking] possession of [our] salvation (i. e., for resurrection) through our Lord Jesus Christ, the One who died on our behalf, that, whether we stay awake or sleep (i. e., pass on to heaven), we shall live together with Him. 1 Thessalonians 5:9-10. Salvation, that is, deliverance from eternal condemnation on the one hand and the provision of eternal life instead on the other, has been effected for us in our hopelessness through the most astounding event in world history, so monumental in fact that it is world history from the proper, divine point of view, namely, through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ unto death in our place and on our behalf. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 11: 01.02.02 - THE SUBSTITUTIONARY DEATH OF JESUS CHRIST ON OUR BEHALF ======================================================================== 2. The Substitutionary Death of Jesus Christ on our behalf: In broad terms, since God’s perfect justice demands satisfaction for all sin, and since we human beings are without any means of providing that satisfaction short of suffering eternal condemnation, God Himself in His inexpressibly great mercy and kindness provided us with a substitute, His own dear Son our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. For this reason while salvation has been made available to all mankind through Jesus’ death on our behalf, absent the acceptance of His Person and work by faith, the sure and certain prospect of condemnation remains. For God did not send His Son into the world to judge the world, but so that the world might be saved through Him. The one who believes in Him is not being judged, but the one who does not believe has already been judged on the grounds that he has not put his faith in the Name (i. e., the Person) of God’s only Son. John 3:17-18. He who believes in the Son has life. He who does not have the Son will not see life, but the wrath of God abides on Him. John 3:36. Jesus died in our place, and we most certainly did need Him to do so, for there was absolutely nothing that we could have done to avoid eternal condemnation otherwise. We were faced with a debt we could not pay, a debt moreover that had to be paid because of God’s perfect character. Only the perfect Son of God was qualified to pay this debt, and that is exactly what our Savior did for us, dying on the cross for us, atoning for our sins, that we might not be condemned but instead live forever with Him (Romans 5:19; Romans 6:10; Romans 8:3; 2 Corinthians 5:14-15; Galatians 3:13; Ephesians 2:14-16; Ephesians 5:25; Hebrews 2:10-18). This is My blood of the covenant which is poured out for the forgiveness of sins concerning many people. Matthew 26:28. God made Him a means of atonement [achieved] by His blood [and claimed] through faith, to give proof of His justice in leaving unpunished in divine forbearance [all] previously committed sins, so as to prove His justice in the present, namely, so that He would be [shown to be] just [in this] and [justified] in justifying the one who has faith in Jesus. Romans 3:25-26. For not only did Christ die for us while we were helpless – He even did so at the critical time, [dying] on our behalf, ungodly though we were. For scarcely will someone die on behalf of a righteous person; and perhaps someone might also risk death on behalf of a good person. But God commends His love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:6-8. For I entrusted to you as of primary importance what I had also received, [namely] that Christ died on behalf of our sins according to (i. e., in fulfillment of) the scriptures. 1 Corinthians 15:3. He made Him who had no [personal] experience of sinning [to be] sin (i. e., a sin offering) for us, so that we might have (lit., “become”) God’s righteousness in Him. 2 Corinthians 5:21. [Jesus Christ], who gave Himself on behalf of our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil age according to the will of our God and Father. Galatians 1:4. And I no longer live myself, but Christ lives in me. And that which I now do live in the flesh, I live in faith for the Son of God, the One who loved me and who gave Himself up on my behalf. Galatians 2:20. And walk in love, just as also Christ loved you and gave Himself up as sacrifice and offering for a sweet smell to God. Ephesians 5:2. He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, in order that we might die to sins and live to righteousness. By His wound you are healed. 1 Peter 2:24. [Jesus Christ] who gave Himself on our behalf to redeem us from all lawlessness (i. e., sin; cf. 1 John 3:4) and to cleanse for Himself a people [to be His] own unique possession, zealous for good works. Titus 2:14. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 12: 01.02.03 - UNLIMITED ATONEMENT ======================================================================== 3. Unlimited Atonement: It is God’s desire that all people be saved (Ezekiel 18:23; Matthew 18:14; John 12:47; Acts 17:27; 1 Timothy 2:4; 2 Timothy 2:24-26; 2 Peter 3:9; cf. Lamentations 3:33), and it was precisely to accomplish this mission of salvation that He sent His one and only beloved Son into the world – to savethe world. For God loved the world so much that He gave [up] His only Son, [with the purpose] that everyone who believes in Him should not be lost [forever], but have eternal life [instead]. For God did not send His Son into the world to judge the world, but so that the world might be saved through Him. John 3:16-17. And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be the Savior of the world. 1 John 4:14. It should therefore come as no surprise that our Lord died for all, that all might be saved. And indeed, Jesus died for all people, for every human being who has ever drawn breath. And He Himself is the atonement for our sins, and not just for ours, but also for the entire world. 1 John 2:2. Thus His sacrifice on the cross was entirely effective, expiating the penalty for sin for all mankind. Therefore, because of Christ’s work on the cross, salvation is available to everyone with no exceptions. [God] has erased the charge against us along with its bill of particulars (i. e., the record of our personal sins). This stood against us, but He removed it [as an obstacle] between us by nailing it to the cross. Colossians 2:14. Christ’s sacrifice is the cornerstone of the plan of God (Psalms 118:22; Isaiah 8:13-15; Isaiah 28:16; Daniel 2:34-45; Matthew 16:18; 1 Corinthians 10:4; 1 Peter 2:4-8). All of history as it actually unfolds according to the eternal decrees of God is predicated upon the cross (Ephesians 1:9-11; Colossians 1:17-20; 2 Timothy 1:9-10; cf. Matthew 21:42; Romans 5:6; Romans 8:29-30; 1 Corinthians 8:6; Ephesians 2:20-22; 1 Peter 2:6-8; Hebrews 9:26), and every scripture in the written word is ultimately focused upon the work of Him who is the Living Word of God, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (John 5:39 cf. John 1:1-14; Hebrews 1:1-4; 1 John 1:1-4; Revelation 1:2; Revelation 19:13). In His eternal plan, therefore, decreed before the foundation of the universe before the creation of angels or men, God foreknew creature free will as exercised in faith or in the corresponding rejection of Him on the part of many that this provision of free will would entail. In His incalculable mercy and wisdom, our God provided a solution for the death and loss that such creature rebellion would produce (seen initially in Satan’s rebellion and then in the fall of man), namely, the redemption of fallen mankind through the blood of His very own Son, to be received by all who would accept His Person and His work. The resolution to the problem of our death on account of sin is Jesus’ death for our sin (Romans 6:10), ultimately resulting in the defeat of that last and most terrifying enemy, death itself, which will be swallowed up in life for all who believe (Isaiah 25:7-8; 1 Corinthians 15:26, 1 Corinthians 15:54-57; Hebrews 2:14). The cross of Jesus Christ has eliminated for all mankind the impossible problem of sin, even in the case of all sins committed before our Lord’s death undertaken on behalf of the world: For all sin and fall short of God’s glory, [but we are all] justified without cost by His grace through the redemption (lit., “ransoming” from sin) which is in Christ Jesus. God made Him a means of atonement [achieved] by His blood [and claimed] through faith, to give proof of His justice in leaving unpunished in divine forbearance [all] previously committed sins, so as to prove His justice in the present, namely, so that He would be [shown to be] just [in this] and [justified] in justifying the one who has faith in Jesus. Romans 3:23-26. The passage above very plainly refers to all sins committed before the historical crucifixion of our Lord (Romans 3:25), and corresponds directly to the critical fact with which the passage begins: all sin, therefore all stand in need of atonement. This universality of Christ’s sacrifice, His death for all the sins committed in world history, past, present and future, is taught in a number of scriptures (2 Corinthians 5:19; 1 Timothy 2:4-6; 1 John 2:2): On the next day, [John] saw Jesus coming towards him and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God, the One who takes away the sin of the world”. John 1:29. But if anyone hears My words and does not hold on to them, I do not condemn him. For I did not come to condemn the world but to save the world. John 12:47. For it is the love of Christ that constrains us, having brought us to this conclusion: One died for [us] all; so then we all have died [in Him]. And He died on behalf of all so that those who are [now] alive might no longer live for themselves but for Him who died for them and was raised [from the dead]. 2 Corinthians 5:14-15. But now we do see Jesus crowned with glory and honor on account of the death He suffered, even Him who became “a little lower than the angels” for a brief span so that by the grace of God He might taste death on behalf of us all. Hebrews 2:9. Unlike the [human] high priests, [Jesus] has no need of making sacrifice day by day, first on behalf of His own sins, and then for the sins of the people. For this [latter] He did once and for all when He offered Himself [as a sacrifice]. Hebrews 7:27. And you know that that One appeared to take away our sins, and sin is not in Him. 1 John 3:5. It is because Jesus died for all sins that no further sacrifice for sins is necessary (Hebrews 10:15-18). Universal atonement, however, does not mean universal acceptance of the atonement on the part of the human race. The fact that Christ died for all, does not mean that all accept His sacrifice, putting their faith in Him and His work for eternal life. Universal atonement does mean that Jesus has taken away sin as a barrier to salvation (see below, section II. 9, “Reconciliation”). Universal atonement does not mean that mankind universally accepts the offer of forgiveness of sin and deliverance from sin that is universally available through faith in Jesus Christ. For this is the blood of my covenant which is poured out concerning many for the forgiveness of sins. Matthew 26:28 (Mark 14:24; cf. Luke 22:20) Deliverance from sin and death is available to all, but not all embrace it. The failure of some to accept who Jesus is and what He did in dying for our sins does not invalidate the atonement of the cross either generally or individually, but it does render that atonement of no practical benefit for those who reject it. For by refusing to accept what God has done in taking away our sins through the sacrifice of His one and only Son, a person must necessarily stand before God on his own merits instead. Jesus is the Savior of all mankind, but only those who accept, believe, and follow Him gain the benefits of the salvation God offers to all in Him. For this reason we toil and strive, for we have put our hope in the Living God who is the Savior of all men, especially believers. 1 Timothy 4:10. The one who believes in Him is not being judged, but the one who does not believe has already been judged on the grounds that he has not put his faith in the Name (i. e., the Person) of God’s only Son. John 3:18. When He [the Holy Spirit] comes, He will call the world to account regarding sin, and righteousness, and judgment: – regarding sin, because they do not believe in Me. – regarding righteousness, because I am going to my Father and you are not going to be seeing Me any longer. – regarding judgment, because the ruler of this world has now been judged. John 16:8-11. The last two passages above make it abundantly clear that failure to receive the benefits of the atonement of the cross are a result of personal choice, the choice not to believe in Jesus. This is the one sin for which our Lord could not die, the sin of refusing to accept His sacrifice for our sins. God stands ready to forgive all other sins as impediments to salvation, except the sin of denying the truth of Jesus Christ. Calling God “a liar” when He sacrificed His one and only Son to die on our behalf is the “unforgivable sin”, the “eternal sin” of “blasphemy against the Holy Spirit”, namely, the rejection of the Person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ (Matthew 12:31-32; Mark 3:28-30; Luke 12:10). But for all who do accept the truth, who do trust in Jesus, and who do follow Him faithfully maintaining their faith to the end, His atoning sacrifice has already removed sin as an issue in entering into a relationship with God, and by grace through faith though sinners in practice we are made righteous in principle, justified by the blood of the One who shed His blood in our behalf (Romans 3:24; Romans 4:25; see section II. 8 below, “Justification”). ======================================================================== CHAPTER 13: 01.02.04 - THE BLOOD OF CHRIST ======================================================================== 4. The Blood of Christ: As explained in section I. 5.l. 2.2 above, “The Blood of Christ”, the efficacious and atoning work of our Lord in dying for our sins, consists in what He endured in the darkness for us while still physically alive (that is, His spiritual death in being judged for our sins in our place; see the section immediately following). So while Jesus’ physical sufferings on our account visible to all before the darkness descended on Golgotha were immense and beyond true appreciation, the intensity of the sufferings He endured under that darkness in dying for the sins of the world, dying spiritually in a way we cannot even adequately conjecture, must exceed those preliminary sufferings to an incalculable degree. This work, this death by which He provided redemption for us all, is termed in scripture “the blood of Christ”. Throughout the Bible, blood is a symbol of life for the very simple and understandable reason that when blood is fatally shed, life comes to an end. This is why even the consuming of animal blood is forbidden – because blood represents the life of the creature; and this also explains the principle of “blood guilt”: for shedding blood and taking life are one and the same thing (Genesis 9:4-6; Leviticus 17:11; Deuteronomy 12:23; cf. Genesis 4:10). This principle was developed under the Mosaic Law wherein “nearly all things are cleansed with blood and without the shedding of blood there is no forgiveness” (Hebrews 9:22). The blood of the sacrifice was necessary to procure forgiveness, not because of any magical power resident in animal blood, but because the blood of animals shed in sacrifice provides us with a very potent and graphic symbol of the need for death (i. e., blood representing life lost), of substitutionary death on our behalf, of someone else’s blood atoning for our sins, if we are to be forgiven and saved. Isaac spoke up and said to his father Abraham, “Father?” “Yes, my son?” Abraham replied. “The fire and wood are here,” Isaac said, “but where is the lamb for the burnt offering?” Abraham answered, “God himself will provide the lamb for the burnt offering, my son.” And the two of them went on together. When they reached the place God had told him about, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. He bound his son Isaac and laid him on the altar, on top of the wood. Then he reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son. But the angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, “Abraham! Abraham!” “Here I am,” he replied. “Do not lay a hand on the boy,” he said. “Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear God, because you have not withheld from me your son, your only son.” Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son. So Abraham called that place The Lord Will Provide. And to this day it is said, “On the mountain of the Lord it will be provided.” Genesis 22:7-14 NIV The passage above from Genesis 22:1-24 looks forward perspicuously and unswervingly not only to the rites of animal sacrifice which the Law of Moses would ordain, but much more importantly to the substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus Christ on the cross, dying for our sins. He is the “lamb” which “God will provide for Himself” (Genesis 22:8), “the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” (John 1:29). For you know that it was not with perishable things [like] silver or gold that you were ransomed from the futile manner of life passed down to you by your ancestors, but [you were redeemed] with precious blood, like that of a lamb without spot or blemish, [that is, by the blood] of Christ. 1 Peter 1:18-19. And I saw in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, a Lamb standing [there, looking] as if He had been slain, with seven horns and seven eyes (which are the seven spirits of God sent out into the entire earth). And He came and took [the scroll] from the right hand of the One sitting on the throne. And when He took the scroll, the four living creatures and the twenty-four elders fell [down] before the Lamb, each with a lyre and golden bowls of incense, which [incense] are as prayers of the saints. And they sang a new song, saying, “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain and have purchased with your blood for our God [men] from every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and have made them into a kingdom and priests to our God, and they will rule upon the earth!” And I looked and heard, as it were, the voice of many angels around the throne and [around] the [living] creatures and [around] the [twenty-four] elders, and their number was myriads upon myriads and thousands upon thousands, [and they were] saying in a loud voice, “The Lamb who has been slain is worthy to take the power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing and every created thing in heaven and on the earth and in the sea and everything in them.” Revelation 5:6-12. It is extremely important for all Christians to understand clearly that this is a metaphor. Jesus Christ is nota literal “lamb”; and His “blood”, the “blood” by which we are saved, is not literal blood. Just as from the beginning of the Old Testament blood represented life and its loss represented death, so in the case of our dear Lord Jesus’ sacrifice for us on the cross the “blood” scripture mentions refers to His giving up of His life on our behalf, that is, it refers to His spiritual death in the darkness on the cross whereby He “washed away” all of our sins (see section II. 5 directly following). By the use of this metaphor, the New Testament ineluctably connects the real sacrifice of Christ on the cross with the representative sacrifices of the Law which foreshadowed that true and efficacious sacrifice to come. For it was the Lord’s good pleasure (i. e., “will”) to crush Him, to subject Him to torment. But though you make His life a guilt offering, He will see His seed, He will lengthen His days, and the good pleasure (i. e., “will”) of the Lord will prosper in His hand. Isaiah 53:10. Few metaphors in the Bible have been as badly misunderstood as the “blood of Christ”, often with very disturbing consequences in the form of false doctrine (“transubstantiation” being the most famous but by no means the only one). The “blood of Christ” is, in scripture, always a symbol and never refers to literal blood. It cannot and should not be taken literally any more than the corresponding symbol of the “Lamb of God” (John 1:29; 1 Peter 1:19; Revelation 5:6; Revelation 13:8). This is not to diminish in any way what our Lord did for us on Golgotha – far from it. Rather, a proper understanding of precisely what He did do to win us back from death and hell can only be gained by first appreciated what this metaphor really means. The “blood of Christ” is a symbolic phrase which graphically sums up for us Jesus’ saving work on the cross, His sacrificial death on our behalf which is foreshadowed by the Mosaic Law, and most clearly in the Tabernacle, its furniture, and the animal sacrifices which attend thereto. Just as Old Testament believers offered up animals “without spot or blemish” – pictures of Christ in His perfection – so the blood shed by these animals depicts the precious sacrifice of Christ in giving up His own life. The animals represent Christ (so He is called “the Lamb of God”). The animal blood represents Christ’s giving of His life for us, His spiritual death (so this death is referred to as “the blood of Christ” – because blood shed stands for the loss of life). In his gospel, John makes a very deliberate point of demonstrating that Jesus did not bleed to death on the cross. Not only did Jesus of His own volition “breath out” His spirit once the sacrifice was complete (so that there can be no question of death through loss of blood: Matthew 27:50; Mark 15:36; Luke 23:46; John 19:30), but John very clearly testifies that after His physical death His blood had still been retained in His body (John 19:33-35; cf. 1 John 5:6-8). It is thus critical for Christians to understand that it is not through Jesus’ literal blood but through His genuine suffering in paying the penalty for our sins being judged for them in our place, that is, through His spiritual death wherein He was condemned and punished for all our sins, that we are saved. That is what “the blood of Christ means”, with blood representing the loss of life or death, a spiritual death of a sort so intense and profound that we can scarcely come to anything close to a proper comprehension of it this side of heaven. By understanding “the blood of Christ” in these true, biblical terms, we enhance our appreciation of what Jesus did for us, not diminish it. Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to those who, though outcasts dispersed throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, were yet selected in the foreknowledge of God the Father, by means of the Holy Spirit’s consecration, for the obedience in and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ. Grace and peace be multiplied unto you! 1 Peter 1:1-2. The symbol of sprinkled blood is also taken from the Old Testament sacrifices, specifically from the rituals God instituted among the Israelites to teach them about Himself and the coming sacrifice of His Son. When Moses had finished reading the “book of the covenant” (that is, the Mosaic Law as outlined in summary in Exodus 20:1-26, Exodus 21:1-36, Exodus 22:1-31, Exodus 23:1-33), he had sacrifices of “peace offerings” made, and had all the blood from them collected. Then Moses sprinkled this blood upon all the people, saying “behold, the blood of the covenant”. The blood represented a violent death (as it does in all the Old Testament sacrifices), and the phrase “blood of the covenant” meant that by the death of someone else, the Israelites had entered into a special agreement with God. This fact was visibly and dramatically portrayed to them by Moses when he literally sprinkled blood from the animal sacrifices upon all the people. Although this may seem a somewhat shocking thing to us, it was meant to be just so. Christ’s sacrifice on the cross cost Him more than we can ever know. We did nothing to help Him, we are merely “spattered” with His blood, so to speak. We receive the benefit of His sacrificial death when we believe in Him, accepting His work on our behalf. But it is of extreme importance that we understand that this sacrifice by which our sins were “washed away” entailed far more than “bleeding to death” (which our Lord most emphatically did not do) – it entailed being judged for all our sins and paying the price and penalty for them. That is what the “blood of Christ” means, His spiritual death on our behalf whereby we are delivered from the coming wrath and judgment whose end is the lake of fire. And that is why when we drink the cup of communion we are not drinking blood or anything that represents real blood; rather, we are demonstrating our appropriation by faith of Christ’s saving work on our behalf: This is My blood of the [New] Covenant which is poured out for the forgiveness of sins concerning many people. Matthew 26:28. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 14: 01.02.05 - THE SPIRITUAL DEATH OF CHRIST ======================================================================== 5. The Spiritual Death of Christ: And walk in love, just as also Christ loved you and gave Himself up as sacrifice and offering for a sweet [sacrificial] aroma to God. Ephesians 5:2. The words “sweet [sacrificial] aroma to God” clearly indicate that the Father was well-pleased with Jesus’ sacrifice, that it was effective or “efficacious” in satisfying the righteous demand of His divine justice that the full price be paid for our sins before we could be saved. But if the words used here for our Lord’s death, “sacrifice and offering” and “aroma”, while calling upon the symbolism of the animal sacrifices of the Law, are not actually meant to be understood as referring to His physical death (since His body was not immolated so as to produce a "pleasing aroma" in the manner of the Levitical sacrifices) or literal blood (and since salvation was accomplished before He gave up His spirit, and since He did not bleed to death, clearly they do not), and are instead likewise meant to be understood symbolically (which clearly they are), then the question then becomes, “what precisely do these words represent?” The answer to this question as suggested above is that “the blood of Christ”, the phrase which sums up all the Old Testament symbolism which foreshadowed the cross, refers to the penalty paid by our Lord in the darkness on the cross in bearing and expiating our sins, that is, it refers to His spiritual death. But what precisely do we mean by the term “spiritual death”? In addressing this question, Dr. L. S. Chafer makes the following comment: In respect to spiritual death, there is no clear indication how far Christ entered that realm. He of course did say, “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?” (Matthew 27:46). Where God is silent the devout mind should hesitate to intrude. While agreeing with Dr. Chafer’s circumspection in general terms, and while acknowledging that there is much about our Lord Jesus’ death for sin through which we are saved that cannot be known this side of heaven, it is also fair to say that scripture does provide a good deal of information on this subject (even if of necessity somewhat obliquely). Given that there is no more important event in the history of the universe than Jesus’ death whereby we are delivered from a fate worse than mere physical death, we would be remiss in not investigating this question as fully as possible. It will be our task in this section, therefore, to say as much as can be said without, it is hoped, saying more than should be said. a. Christ Died Spiritually: This is a key point deserving of reiteration (see sections I. 5.l. 2.1-3 above). The physical death of our Lord which took place when He lay down His life by exhaling His human spirit (Matthew 27:50; Mark 15:36; Luke 23:46; John 19:30) occurred after He had been judged for the sins of the world. It is this prior judgment in the darkness wherein Jesus paid the penalty for our sins that we are studying here, namely, His “spiritual death”, otherwise known as the blood of Christ, as a result of which our sins are forgiven. He lay bare His life unto death, and was dealt with as transgressors [are], so that He bore the sin of the many, and substituted [Himself] for the transgressors. Isaiah 53:12 b (8) He humbled Himself, becoming obedient to the point of death, even [His] death on [the] cross [for us all]. Php 2:8. In all such passages as the one above, “death” means spiritual death, not physical death. Our Lord’s spiritual death wherein He underwent the judgment due us for all our sins had already taken place at the point when He gave up His human spirit and expired. Jesus’ emphatic statement from the cross, tetelestai!, “It has now been accomplished!” (John 19:30 Greek: τετέλεσται), is a forceful and powerful proclamation of victory, underscoring the already completed fact of salvation won by His blood – not a physical bleeding to death, but the pouring out of His life unto spiritual death in paying the price and penalty for our sins. After [all] this (i. e., His physical suffering and His spiritual death for the sins of the world), when Jesus knew that everything had now been accomplished in order for the [prophecy of salvation found in] scripture to be fulfilled, He said, “I am thirsty”. Now a jar of wine-vinegar lay there, so they placed a sponge full of the wine-vinegar on a hyssop [stalk] and brought it to His mouth. So when He had taken the wine-vinegar, Jesus said, “It (i. e., salvation) has [now] been accomplished!” , and having thrown back His head, He gave up His spirit. John 19:28-30. Spiritual death has always been the problem for the human race, for physical death is a result of spiritual death, not the other way around (i. e., Adam and Eve lived many years after they ate of the fruit of the tree whose penalty was “dying thou shalt die” – immediate spiritual death followed eventually by the physical death which results, and, absent salvation through the grace of God in Jesus Christ, finally by eternal death). By dying spiritually in our stead, our Lord won the greatest victory in universal history, freeing us from the evil one and from the otherwise sure and certain condemnation which had otherwise awaited us. And though you were [spiritually] dead in your transgressions and in the un-circumcised state of your flesh, [God the Father] made you alive together with [Christ], having forgiven you all your transgressions. [God] has erased the charge against us along with its particulars (i. e., our sinful nature and personal sins) which opposed our [relationship with Him], and He removed it [as an obstacle] between us by nailing it to the cross. [For by means of the cross, God] has stripped [demon] rulers and authorities [of their power] and subjected them to public humiliation, having triumphed over them in [Christ]. Colossians 2:13-15. b. Christ Died Spiritually for us: The great victory of the cross won over the devil and his minions in this invisible conflict in which we are all presently enmeshed was fought and won for our benefit. We are the recipients and beneficiaries of the boundless grace of God poured out upon us as a result of what Jesus did for us on the cross. He died spiritually for us, and it is by His spiritual death that we are saved, for that death removed our sin forever as an impediment between ourselves and the holiness of God. For not only did Christ die for us while we were helpless – He even did so at the critical time, [dying] on our behalf, ungodly though we were. For scarcely will someone die on behalf of a righteous person; and perhaps someone might also risk death on behalf of a good person. But God commends His love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Romans 5:6-8. For it is the love of Christ that constrains us, having brought us to this conclusion: One died for [us] all; so then we all have died [in Him]. And He died on behalf of all so that those who are [now] alive might no longer live for themselves but for Him who died for them and was raised [from the dead]. 2 Corinthians 5:14-15. And I no longer live myself, but Christ lives in me. And that which I now do live in the flesh, I live in faith in/for the Son of God, the One who loved me and who gave Himself up on my behalf. Galatians 2:20. [Jesus Christ] who gave Himself on our behalf to redeem us from all lawlessness (i. e., sin; cf. 1 John 3:4) and to cleanse for Himself a people [to be His] own unique possession, zealous for good works. Titus 2:14. c. Christ Died Spiritually to Expiate Sin: Solving the “sin problem” is the way in which Christ’s spiritual death benefits us. That is the primary image behind the “blood of Christ” which, in the simile, covers our sins. In animal sacrifice, the death of the sacrificial animal is obvious from its spilled blood, while the one making the offering is cleansed symbolically by the sprinkling of that blood (Hebrews 9:13-21; Hebrews 11:28; Hebrews 12:24; cf. Exodus 24:6-8; Exodus 29:16-21; Leviticus 1:5-11; Leviticus 3:2-13; et passim in Lev. and Num.). He made Him who had no [personal] experience of sinning [to be] sin (i. e., a sin offering) for us, so that we might have (lit., “become”) God’s righteousness in Him. 2 Corinthians 5:21. Thus, in the analogy, actual blood represents the spiritual death of Christ which, when sprinkled on the worshiper (a picture of faith: 1 Peter 1:2), cleanses from sin. The spiritual death of Christ was necessary in order to remove sin as an impediment to salvation. As a result, it is sin – all human sin ever committed, past, present or future – which is the object or “target” of Christ’s spiritual death on our behalf. He died spiritually to expiate all sin and remove its penalty, impossible impending obligations for which no other human being could ever hope to atone. For what He died, He died to sin, once and for all, and what He lives, He lives to God. Romans 6:10. For I entrusted to you as of primary importance what I had also received, [namely] that Christ died on behalf of our sins according to the scriptures. 1 Corinthians 15:3. [Jesus Christ], who gave Himself on behalf of our sins, that He might deliver us from this present evil age according to the will of our God and Father. Galatians 1:4. d. Christ Bore our Sins in His Body: Human beings are universally dichotomous, possessing both a body and a human spirit. The body is the place where we are subject to the material world, and it is only through the interaction of body and spirit in our “heart”, “mind”, “soul” (i. e., our inner person where the body and spirit interface) that we are presently capable of experiencing pain. In eternity, both in heaven awaiting the resurrection (where we will possess an interim body), and after the resurrection, where that body will be perfect and eternal, for believers, pain and suffering will be entirely things of the past (cf. Revelation 7:14-17). To expiate our sins, that is, to remove them as an issue or “barrier” between ourselves and Holy God (Ephesians 2:14-18), Jesus had to bear them in His body, that is, He had to suffer the penalty for every sin ever committed by receiving the full pain of punishment for them in His body – literally. That is why His incarnation, His taking on of a true human body as a genuine human being (in addition to His undiminished deity) was absolutely essential for us to be saved. Without a body, Christ could not bear our sins in His body, could not, that is, suffer the punishment due for those sins; and without His suffering on our behalf those sins could never be removed as an impediment to our salvation. Thus our Lord’s taking on of a human body was the fundamentally necessary step for Him to be able to die spiritually in our place, and thus make salvation available for the whole human race. Therefore as [Jesus Christ] was coming into the world (i. e., at His birth) He said, “You [Father] did not desire sacrifice or offering, but you have prepared a body for Me. In burnt offerings for sin you have taken no pleasure. At that time (i. e., His birth) He [Jesus Christ in His deity] said, ‘Behold, I have arrived (i. e., been born) – in the scroll of a book it is written of Me – to do your will, O God’”. Above when He speaks of sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings for sins [as things which] “You did not desire nor take pleasure therein”, [these are the things] which are being offered according to the Law. [But] “Then”, He has added, “Behold, I have arrived to do your will”. [God the Father] is [thereby] taking away the first [covenant] in order to establish the second one, [and it is] by [His] will [in this matter] that you have been sanctified, through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once and for all. Hebrews 10:5-10. This is why scripture emphasizes that Christ “bore our sins in His body”. For it was in His genuine human body that He suffered spiritual death, enduring the entire penalty for all sin: For He bore our sicknesses and He carried our weaknesses. And yet we considered Him as [the One who had been] punished, smitten and afflicted by God. Isaiah 53:4. He Himself will carry their guilt (lit., “guilts”). Therefore I will allot to Him [the plunder] among [His] many [brothers], and He will apportion plunder to the mighty [among them]. Because He lay bare His life unto death, and was dealt with as transgressors [are], so that He bore the sin of the many, and substituted [Himself] for the transgressors. Isaiah 53:11-12. For He Himself is our peace, for He has made both [Jews and gentiles] one, and has broken down the middle wall of partition, that is, the enmity between us, by discharging the Law of the commandments and its requirements in His [own] flesh, so that He might re-create the two into one new Man by making [this] peace, and might reconcile both in one Body to God through His cross, having by means of it abolished the enmity [between God and mankind]. Ephesians 2:14-16. You were once alienated from God – your very thoughts were hostile towards Him and your deeds were evil. Yet God has now made peace with you through the death of Christ in His physical body so that you may stand before Him as holy, without blemish and free from accusation. Colossians 1:21-22. And inasmuch as it is ordained for mankind to die once (i. e., the first, "physical" death), and after this [face] judgment (i. e., “the second death”; cf. Revelation 2:11; Revelation 20:6, Revelation 20:14-15), so Christ having been offered up once to bear the sins of many will appear without [any need to bear] a sin second time unto those who are awaiting salvation. Hebrews 9:27-28. For Christ died once for us on account of our sins, the Righteous for the unrighteous, that He might bring us to God, having been put to death in [His] flesh (i. e., His spiritual death to remove the barrier of sin), but having been made alive by the Spirit. 1 Peter 3:18. He Himself bore our sins in His body on the tree, in order that we might die to sins and live to righteousness. By His wound you are healed. 1 Peter 2:24. As Peter tells us in this last passage above, it by this means that we have died to sin – Jesus bearing our sins and dying spiritually for us in suffering the penalty due us; it is by this means that our wounds have been healed – Jesus being wounded for every sin ever committed by us and by all of human kind, past, present, and future. Therefore since “these children” (i. e., believers given to Christ by God: Hebrews 2:13) have a common heritage of flesh and blood, [Christ] too partook of these same [common elements] in a very similar fashion (i. e., not identical only in that He was virgin born and so without sin), in order that through His death He might put an end to the one possessing the power of death, that is, the devil, and might reconcile those who were subject to being slaves their whole lives long by their fear of death. Hebrews 2:14-15. This is the spiritual death of Jesus Christ on our behalf. This is the “blood of Christ”: our dear Lord Jesus’ bearing the penalty, the punishment, and the pain of all mankind’s sin in His body on the cross that all might be saved. It by this “wounding” of His genuine human body that we have been “healed” (1 Peter 2:24): Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence in this entrance of ours into the [heavenly] holy of holies by the blood of Jesus, an entryway through the [heavenly] veil [of separation] which is new (lit., “newly slain”) and alive and which He has consecrated for us, that is, [through the sacrifice] of His flesh (cf. Hebrews 10:10, Hebrews 10:18), and since we have [this] Great High Priest over the household of God, let us approach [the throne of grace (cf. Hebrews 4:16) to pray] with a truthful heart in complete faith, our hearts sprinkled [clean] of [any] bad conscience and our bodies washed with pure water [of the Word (cf. Ephesians 5:26)]. Hebrews 10:19-22. e. Christ was Forsaken for us in Dying for us: God in His perfect holiness can have no direct contact with sin and sinfulness – without, that is, executing righteous judgment upon it. Creature sin and sinfulness thus explains the voluntary sequestration of the Father in the third heaven following Satan’s revolt (the original paradise being on earth), and the separation from God which everyone experiences at birth as a result of the spiritual death that is our common heritage as human beings born in Adam’s line. It is only because of the promise and the anticipation of the Messiah’s sacrifice on our behalf that punishment for sin before the cross was held in abeyance (Romans 3:25; cf. Acts 14:16-17; Acts 17:30), and only because of Jesus’ historical expiation of sin at Calvary that we are reborn to spiritual life from spiritual death when we accept in faith that gracious sacrifice (Ephesians 2:1-9). Our Lord Jesus, of course, was born without sin and never sinned. Thus He never had any occasion to be separated from the love and fellowship of the Father – until the cross. One very important aspect of Christ’s suffering in the darkness in bearing our sins is the fact that He did so in a state of alienation from God (in His humanity). For “He was made sin for us” (2 Corinthians 5:21), that is, though sinless, He was treated as the one to whom the punishment for sin was due. In such a case, continued fellowship with the Father was impossible, at least as long as Jesus was being judged for all of our sins. My God, My God, why did You forsake Me? Psalms 22:1 (cf. Matthew 27:46-47; Mark 15:34-35) These words spoken were after the sins of the world had been judged in Jesus’ body in the darkness on the cross. Moreover, as observed earlier, they were spoken for our benefit. For Jesus knew very well why the Father had broken fellowship with Him, and He had known it even before the cross. He was judged in our place, and therefore had to be forsaken for our sake in order to undergo that judgment. This cry of dereliction [i. e., “My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?”: Matthew 27:46; Mark 15:34] reflects the heart of Jesus’ purpose in His first advent and death; to bear the penalty for human sin (Hebrews 9:28). Since sin separates from a holy God, He had to endure that separation in the moment of His death. Otherwise, the penalty could not have been paid. Hell in its essence is being without God. All inconsolable pain in this life is part and parcel of estrangement from God; all of our true joy is inseparable from our closeness to Him. It is doubtful that, this side of heaven, anyone can come close to appreciating the magnitude of this particular part of Jesus’ sacrifice, either what this separation cost Him or what it cost the Father. What we can say in this regard is, firstly, that the judgment for our sins was over after the darkness lifted, for in Psalms 22:1 quoted directly above our Lord presents the forsaking as now past (i. e., “why did You forsake me?”). Secondly, His forsaking, far from being in vain, accomplished the mission for which He had been sent, the removal of the sins of the world as an impediment to salvation, for He Himself pronounces that mission successfully accomplished (i. e., tetelestai: “it has been accomplished”; John 19:30 compared with John 19:28 and Psalms 22:31). And, thirdly, the death which delivers us from sin was not His physical death (still future at this point), but the death He died to sin in the darkness, namely, His spiritual death, the blood of Christ, the suffering of our dear Lord Jesus in paying the penalty for all human sin. For it was there in the darkness on the cross that He was “cursed”, made sin, a curse for us, forsaken for us, separated from the love of the Father and made to undergo His wrath in our place so that we might be delivered from that wrath through faith in Him (cf. the stricken rock of “forsaken” Mt. Horeb: Exodus 17:5-7). Christ bought us free (i. e., “redeemed” us) from the Law’s curse, having become a curse on our behalf. For it is written: “Cursed is everyone [who is] hanged upon a tree” (Deuteronomy 21:23). Galatians 3:13. Thus His hanging on a cross, His being made a curse for us (cf. Romans 9:3; Hebrews 6:8), and His exile into the darkness (Matthew 8:12; Matthew 22:13; Matthew 25:30, Matthew 25:41) all speak of the separation or forsaking that Jesus had to endure in order to be made sin for us, in order to bear our sins, in order to be judged and punished in our place for our sins. All of these things speak of the alienation from the Father which His spiritual death necessarily entailed, a horrific price whose true cost we can scarcely begin to understand. f. Christ Paid the Penalty for our Sins: Simply put, our Lord’s expiation of all human sin required that He suffer for them physically and literally – not the sufferings leading up to and including His being nailed to the cross (as horrendous as these were), but the sufferings involved in being punished corporally for our sins in the three hours of darkness on the hill Calvary before He gave up His spirit. The gauntlet He ran to get to the cross is itself a tale of woe and endurance beyond our ability to truly appreciate, but its chief function in this respect is to give us some very small idea of what the true judgment for sins in the darkness immediately thereafter was going to entail: if the sufferings that led to the cross were beyond imagination, what then of the task of bearing and suffering for the sins of the world? The most extensive and explicit passage dealing with this issue is Isaiah 53:1-12. It seems appropriate, therefore, to quote the pertinent parts of that passage in full as our departure point for considering what our salvation cost our Lord Jesus and His heavenly Father. For Isaiah’s prophecy, while explicating many aspects of our Lord’s passion, also vividly describes the suffering of the Messiah in bearing our sins. He “bore our sicknesses and He carried our weaknesses” (Isaiah 53:4); He is One we considered “punished, smitten and afflicted by God” (Isaiah 53:4); He was subjected “to torment on account of our transgressions” (Isaiah 53:5), and He was “crushed because of our collective guilt (lit. “guilts”)” (Isaiah 53:5); the “punishment [required] for making peace [with God] on our behalf [fell] upon Him” (Isaiah 53:5); and we have been healed “because of His wounding” (Isaiah 53:5); the Father “caused the guilt of us all to strike Him” (Isaiah 53:6); He was “oppressed and afflicted”; He was “cut off from the land of the living” (Isaiah 53:8); and He was “punished for the transgression of my people”; He suffered “His deaths (sic – plural)” on our behalf (Isaiah 53:9); for it was the Father’s will “to crush Him” (Isaiah 53:10) and to “subject Him to torment” (Isaiah 53:10); He had “trouble [inflicted] upon His life” (Isaiah 53:11), and He “carried our guilt (lit., “guilts”)” (Isaiah 53:11); He “lay bare His life unto death” (Isaiah 53:12), was “dealt with as transgressors [are]” (Isaiah 53:12); He “bore the sin of the many”; and He “substituted [Himself] for the transgressors”: For He bore our sicknesses and He carried our weaknesses. And yet we considered Him as [the One who had been] punished, smitten and afflicted by God. But [in fact] He was made subject to torment on account of our transgressions, and He was crushed because of our collective guilt (lit., “guilts”). The punishment [required] for making peace [with God] on our behalf [fell] upon Him. Because of His wounding, we have been healed. We have all gone astray like sheep. Each of us has turned to his own way. And the Lord caused the guilt of us all to strike Him. Though He was oppressed and afflicted, like a lamb led to slaughter He did not open His mouth, and like a ewe before her shearers He did not open His mouth. By repressive judgment He was taken away, and who gave any thought to His posterity? For He was cut off from the land of the living. He was punished for the transgression of my people. And they assigned Him a grave with the wicked (pl.) and with a rich [man] in His deaths (sic). Not for any violence that He had done. Nor was there any deceit in His mouth. For it was the Lord’s good pleasure (i. e., “will”) to crush Him, to subject Him to torment. But though you make His life a guilt offering, He will see His seed, He will lengthen His days, and the good pleasure (i. e., “will”) of the Lord will prosper in His hand. [Released] from the trouble [inflicted] upon His life, He will [again] see [the light of life] and be satisfied (i. e., in resurrection). My righteous Servant will provide righteousness for the great [of heart] (i. e., believers) through the[ir] acknowledgment of Him, and He Himself will carry their guilt (lit., “guilts”). Therefore I will allot to Him [the plunder] among [His] many [brothers], and He will apportion plunder to the mighty [among them]. Because He lay bare His life unto death, and was dealt with as transgressors [are], so that He bore the sin of the many, and substituted [Himself] for the transgressors. Isaiah 53:4-12. It would be difficult to imagine scripture being any clearer about the physical toll of pain and torment our Lord’s suffering to pay the penalty for our sins entailed. That penalty required His death (Romans 6:23; cf. Genesis 2:16-17; Romans 5:12), not the ending of His physical life (which He voluntarily gave up after redemption was an accomplished fact), but the “death” of being separated from His previously unbroken and perfect fellowship with the Father, wherein He was made a curse to deliver us from the curse of the second death (Galatians 3:13), that is, His spiritual death in the darkness wherein He paid the penalty charged to our account, a death of suffering in alienation from God so intense that Isaiah, writing under the inspiration of the Spirit, because He had nothing else to call it, called it “deaths” instead of death (Isaiah 53:9), pluralizing the experience to express in some small way just what the Messiah would have to suffer for us to be saved. And, indeed, since the penalty for sin is death, the “deaths” our Lord Jesus suffered were in effect the total collective penalty of deaths for every human being who would ever be born. He died for us all. He died for every sin ever committed. And inasmuch as it is ordained for mankind to die once (i. e., the first, "physical" death), and after this [face] judgment (i. e., “the second death”; cf. Revelation 2:11; Revelation 20:6, Revelation 20:14-15), so Christ, having been offered up once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time – without [any further need to bear] sin – unto those who are awaiting salvation. Hebrews 9:27-28. In the passage above, we see clearly that Christ’s spiritual death in bearing sin on the cross is set in parallel to the second death of unbelievers who refuse to accept His sacrifice for their sins. He was judged in their placed and in ours so that we and they might not have to face the Last Judgment whose end is the lake of fire. We are redeemed and transferred from judgment into life through faith in Jesus Christ (John 5:24; Colossians 1:13; 1 John 3:14), through our acceptance of His work on the cross on our behalf. But the lake of fire is reserved for all unbelievers who could not even be troubled to give the slightest minimal nod of appreciation to Jesus for what He did for them (John 3:36). As sobering as this realization is, for our purposes here the critical thing to observe is that we are delivered from the lake of fire, the second death, the darkness and the fire, because our Lord endured the punishment for our sins in our place, and the final fate of all who willfully fail to avail themselves of the grace provided through the blood of Christ points us in the direction of what has been substituted in our case: we are spared the eternal lake of fire, because what our Lord endured in the darkness for us hanging on Golgotha’s cross is deemed by the Father to be an acceptable equivalent to the eternal torment of all mankind, both for those who refuse release, and especially for those of us who have chosen Jesus and eternal life instead. Before considering our Lord’s bearing of our sins per se, it will be helpful to examine three important analogies scripture gives us to help to explain Christ’s spiritual death on behalf. While all three are of course primarily concerned with the suffering of the Messiah Himself, each of these three examples helps us to understand the role of the members of the Trinity in this regard. 1) Abraham’s Sacrifice of Isaac: The Role of the Father: All Old Testament sacrifice looked forward to the cross, with the sacrificial victim representing Jesus Christ, and the blood shed representing His spiritual death on our behalf, “covering” our sins with the suffering He would endure in paying the price for them on the cross. In Genesis chapter twenty-two, Abraham was told to sacrifice the son of promise for whom he had waited all his life. Faithful to God to a complete degree few of us will ever achieve, and completely confident in God’s faithfulness and ability to retrieve this seemingly impossible situation (Hebrews 11:17-19), Abraham proceeded without hesitation to take Isaac to Mount Moriah (the actual location where Jesus would later sacrifice Himself for our sins; cf. 2 Chronicles 3:1 with Genesis 22:2), and would have sacrificed his one and only beloved son had not God intervened at the last possible moment. From this extraordinary test we not only see displayed the legendary faith of our father in faith, Abraham, but we also are given by way of analogy a human parallel to help us understand the Father’s ineffably great sacrifice in putting His Son to death on our behalf. For even through removed from the event by so much time and space, we can all nonetheless feel Abraham’s excruciating emotional pain as he prepares to sacrifice Isaac. In this we are given some very small idea of what our salvation cost the Father, who for our sake considered His One and only beloved Son to be “sin for us” (2 Corinthians 5:21), and judged the sins of the world in His flesh. Abraham was spared having to follow through with the ordeal, and, in any case, Isaac’s death would have been physical, not spiritual, and over in an instant (with miraculous resuscitation following immediately: such was Abraham’s divinely acknowledged hope: Hebrews 11:19), but the Father inflicted the penalty for all the world’s sins on His willing, obedient Son – so great is His love for us! For what the Law could not accomplish (i. e., solving the sin problem) because it was weak on account of [its dependence on sinful human] flesh, God [did accomplish]: having sent His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for the purpose of [expiating] sin, [the Father] rendered summary judgment on [all] sin in [Christ’s] flesh. Romans 8:3. 2) The Baptism of Christ: The Role of the Holy Spirit: While water baptism is always symbolic of something, some scriptural baptisms are “dry”, that is, literal (as in the case of the baptism of the Spirit wherein we are endued with the Spirit and placed into union with Christ by the Spirit). One such “real” baptism is the baptism of the cross, or, more specifically, our Lord Jesus Christ’s identification with (or immersion in) the sins of the world. I came to cast a fire upon the earth, and how I wish that it were already kindled! But I have a baptism to undergo [first], and how I am pressed until it be completed! Luke 12:49-50 (cf. Mark 10:38) This literal “baptism” wherein Christ was identified with and punished for our sins was foreshadowed and explained by His water baptism which took place at the beginning of His three and a half year ministry. This was a symbolic baptism which was completely unique to Him in its meaning. For John’s water baptism was, for everyone else, “a baptism of repentance for the remission of sins” (Mark 1:4; Luke 3:3), and it is for this very reason that John was so resistant to the sinless Messiah being baptized with water. But Jesus responded to John that it was necessary “to fulfill all righteousness” (Matthew 3:15). In fact, Jesus’ water baptism portrays His death on the cross, His literal baptism, in a very vivid way. The water into which He was immersed had previously been used to “wash away” the sins of all those who were repentant. It was into this water symbolically laced with sin that the Messiah was plunged, not for any need on His part to be cleansed (for He is sinless), but to expiate with His perfect body and through His death to sin all sin which that water symbolically contained. Moreover, when He came up out of the water, a picture of His successful emergence from spiritual death, the Spirit visibly alighted on Him, and herein we are given some indication both of the Spirit’s role and of the relationship of the Trinity in this regard as Jesus’ humanity suffered for the sins of the world. For the Spirit had been given Him “without measure” and “since birth” (Isaiah 11:2; John 3:34 cf. Luke 1:14), but we see in this symbol the Spirit returning “after the suffering of His soul” (Isaiah 53:11). Thus Christ’s humanity was in some sense isolated from the Trinity as His human body bore and was punished for all sin, a necessity as it would seem, since Holy God cannot have direct contact with sin. This is one aspect of the “forsaking” to which Jesus Himself attested after the fact. The question is, how was this even possible? The following verse gives a clue: For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of the heifer sprinkled upon the unclean render a person holy in respect to bodily cleansing, how much more will the blood of Christ, who offered Himself (i. e., His body; cf. 1:Pet. 3:18) without defect to God through the eternal Spirit, cleanse our conscience from dead works so that we may serve the living God? Hebrews 9:14. The Spirit, with Christ before the cross and returning after His spiritual death for sin, would seem to have been the member instrumental in making the sacrifice possible. That is to say, Jesus offered up His human body “through the eternal Spirit”. The Father acted as judge, carrying out the sentence of death on His own beloved Son (as symbolized by Abraham and Isaac), but the Spirit’s mediation was necessary for that judgment to take place – just as the Father is our Lord’s Father, yet the Spirit’s role in Jesus’ conception is key (Matthew 1:18, Matthew 1:20; Luke 1:35; cf. John 1:14). And just as it was only through the Spirit that the our Lord Jesus could become a human being as well as God, being made the human Son of the Father, so also at the cross only through the Spirit was it possible for Christ’s human body to be judged by the Father in spite of Jesus’ divinity (the two natures being in hypostatic union through the Spirit; see section I. 5.e above). Thus the Spirit’s pivotal connection with the human body of Christ – at its conception, sacrifice, and also resurrection (Romans 1:4; 1 Peter 3:18) – is clear. Scripture does not come any closer than this to explaining the mechanics of a process that in many respects is beyond our ken. What we can say is that the Spirit made it possible for the Father to judge sin in Jesus’ body, and for Christ’s human body to be judged in spite of His divinity (Hebrews 9:14). This required facilitation and restraint (both key characteristics of the Spirit’s other known ministries), facilitation in making the sacrifice and the judgment possible, and restraint in preventing the complications of Christ’s deity, perfect humanity and union between the two from making the sacrifice and judgment impossible. To use a rather rough analogy, just as steel cannot be forged without an anvil to support it, so the Spirit was the “anvil” on which our Lord’s human body was hammered to purge way the sins of the world. For Jesus to stay physically alive long enough to be punished for every human sin ever committed required supernatural intervention. . . . . . Christ, who offered Himself . . . . . through the eternal Spirit . . . . .Hebrews 9:14 b 3) The Meaning of the Communion Memorial: The Role of the Son: Communion is the one and only biblically authorized ceremony for the Church, and its essential purpose is very clear: “Be doing this in remembrance of Me” (Luke 22:19; 1 Corinthians 11:24-25). The bread represents Jesus’ body, the wine His blood. We have already seen how that the blood of Christ is a symbol representing His spiritual death rather than any physical bleeding. When we drink of the communion cup we acknowledge His sacrifice in dying for our sins and say by our action that we believe in and accept His death on our behalf. The bread, on the other hand, represents His Person, who He truly is, God become man as well in order to physically bear our sins and save us from eternal condemnation. And it is in this human body represented by the bread that He bore the sins of the world. When we eat the communion bread we acknowledge the wonder of who He is and what He has done for us, the reality of His incarnation and of the giving up of His life unto spiritual death to save us from our sins by taking our punishment in His own human flesh. Thus the blood focuses on the work of redemption; the bread on the One who sacrificed so much to win it. It is important to note that our Lord actually says in this regard that His body was “given” (“broken” is an incorrect translation of 1 Corinthians 11:24; cf. Luke 22:19), “given”, that is, over to judgment to satisfy the penalty of death on “our behalf” (1 Corinthians 11:24). The cup of blessing which we bless – is it not fellowship in the blood of Christ? And the bread which we break – is it not fellowship in the body of Christ? For one bread, one body we many are, since we all partake of that One Bread. 1 Corinthians 10:16-17. Just as Christ in His divinity did not aid His human nature beyond measure during all the prior events of the first advent (i. e., the doctrine of kenosis; see section I. 5.e above), so we may be sure that the same principle applied as He bore our sins in His human body on the tree. But the verse above demonstrates as of prime importance in the thinking and remembering of the Church that He gave up His human nature unto spiritual death, bearing all sin in His body, so that we might become One Body with Him. It is indeed precisely because the sacrifice He made for us was so great that it is described as giving up us His body for us to eat, and pouring out His blood for us to drink. He used up His humanity as the coin with which to redeem us. This cup is the new covenant [ratified] by My blood which is shed on your behalf. Luke 22:20 b For [on this matter] I received [directly] from the Lord what I passed on to you, namely that on the night on which He was betrayed He took bread and having blessed it He broke it and said, “This is my body which is [offered up] on your behalf. Keep on doing this in order to remember Me”. And in the same way [after eating] He took the cup, saying, “This cup is the new covenant [made] by my blood. Keep on doing this as often as you drink [it] in order to remember Me”. 1 Corinthians 11:23-25. And having taken the bread and blessed it, He broke it and gave it to them, saying, “This is my body which is being given on your behalf. Be doing this to remember Me”. Luke 22:19 (cf. Matthew 26:26; Mark 14:22; John 6:51-59; 1 Corinthians 11:23-25) g. The Nature of the Penalty Christ Paid for our Sins: The rendering of terminal ivine judgment is characterized by three essential elements, all of which involve pain and suffering on the part of those upon whom sentence is carried out:1) alienation and separation from God (the very definition of spiritual death: e. g., Genesis 2:17; cf. Genesis 3:24; 2 Kings 17:18); 2) utter, palpable darkness (e. g., Joel 2:30-32; cf. Genesis 1:2); and 3) fire (e. g., Isaiah 66:15-16; Revelation 20:9-10). We see all three of these, for example, in the case of the final end of those who reject Christ’s sacrifice for their sins and choose to stand on their own works instead. For while the ultimate, final “hell” is the lake of fire (Isaiah 66:15-24; Daniel 7:9-11; Matthew 3:11-12; Matthew 5:22; Matthew 18:8-9; Matthew 25:41; Mark 9:43, Mark 9:48; James 3:6; Revelation 19:20; Revelation 20:10-15; Revelation 21:8), we also see it described as “the outer darkness” (Matthew 8:12; Matthew 22:13; Matthew 25:30), a place separated from God (2 Thessalonians 1:9; cf. Revelation 21:8; Revelation 22:15). And I said, “Woe is me, for I am ruined. For I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips. For my eyes have seen the King, the Lord of hosts!” Then one of the seraphs flew over to me, and in his hand was a glowing coal which he had taken with tongs from [the fire of the] altar. He touched [it to] my mouth and said, “Behold, [now that] this has touched your lips, your iniquity has departed from you, and your sins have been atoned for”. Isaiah 6:5-7. How does a live coal charged with the fire of divine judgment in the brazen altar of judgment not burn a man’s lips? Only when someone else has endured the fiery punishment that is rightfully his. Only when someone else has been made sin for him. Only when someone else has been punished for the curse he has merited by becoming a curse in his stead (Galatians 3:13). And that “curse” in the case of the one who has been spared was the lake of fire, the alienation of darkness and eternal burning (cf. Hebrews 6:8): Then He will say to those on His left, “Away from Me, you accursed ones, into the eternal fire [already] prepared for the devil and his angels. Matthew 25:41. In contrast to John’s baptism, our Lord baptizes “with the Spirit and with fire” (Matthew 3:11; Luke 3:16), and His right to do so, the victory whereby He won the authority of the Name above every Name, was His own baptism on the cross, His “immersion” into the sins of the world (Luke 12:49-50; cf. Mark 10:38). Thus the baptism of fiery judgment He will bring down upon the world, culminating in its final fiery end (2 Peter 3:7-13; cf. Isaiah 34:4; Revelation 21:1), is based upon the prior endurance of His own fiery judgment, wherein He was put to death for the sins of that world (as symbolized by His appearance to Moses in a Christophany in the bush that though on fire kept burning without being consumed – the fire of judgment on the cross went on for three full hours: Exodus 3:2-3): And walk in love, just as also Christ loved you and gave Himself up as sacrifice and offering for a sweet smell to God. Ephesians 5:2. The “sweet smell” is produced by the immolation of the sacrifice in the fire of the altar. It is through His spiritual death, the blood of Christ, Jesus’ suffering on our behalf in paying the penalty for our sins, that we are saved. For You (Psalms 22:1-2) have set Me ablaze in the dust of death. Psalms 22:15. [Released] from the trouble (i. e., suffering) [inflicted] upon His life, He will [again] see [the light of life] and be satisfied (i. e., in resurrection). My righteous Servant will provide righteousness for the great [of heart] (i. e., believers) through the[ir] acknowledgment of Him, and He Himself will carry their guilt (lit., “guilts”). Therefore I will allot to Him [the plunder] among [His] many [brothers], and He will apportion plunder to the mighty [among them]. Because He lay bare His life unto death, and was dealt with as transgressors [are], so that He bore the sin of the many, and substituted [Himself] for the transgressors. Isaiah 53:11-12. Therefore Jesus too, in order that He might sanctify the people through His own blood (i. e., His death on the cross), suffered outside the gate (i. e., separated from fellowship). Hebrews 13:12. For it was fitting for [the Father] to make complete through sufferings Him on whose account all things exist and through whom all things exist, namely, the Captain of their salvation, even Him who has led many sons to glory, [our Lord Jesus Christ]. Hebrews 2:10. Therefore since Christ died in His flesh, we also should arm ourselves with the same mind-set, [considering] that the One who suffered in His flesh is finished with sin (lit., “has stopped from” it). 1 Peter 4:1. In the above verse, we see the spiritual death of Christ directly equated with His suffering. And that suffering was clearly intense (Hebrews 2:10-18; Hebrews 13:12-13). For the penalty of sin is death, the second death of the lake of fire. How exactly Christ was put to death for every human sin, punished and made to suffer in our places that we might be saved, is as awe-inspiringly unfathomable as the contemplation of God Himself. But just as we know that there is a God from what He has done and does, so we know that Jesus paid the price for all our sins in His own blood, because we owe our salvation to Him and what He did for us during those three hours of darkness on the cross. He made Him who had no [personal] experience of sinning [to be] sin (i. e., a sin offering) for us, so that we might have (lit., “become”) God’s righteousness in Him. 2 Corinthians 5:21. Thus it is wrong to think of our Lord’s sacrifice merely in terms of the punishment He suffered at human hands, as horrific as that was. It was only after being betrayed, forsaken, denied, abandoned, arrested, falsely accused and condemned, maligned, ridiculed, spit upon, tortured, beaten to the last reserves of His strength, was nailed to a cross, and shown the loss of everything He had, that our Lord entered the darkness to die for our sins. The gauntlet of suffering He went through to reach the time and place of judgment merely gives us some small idea of what our salvation cost Him, for the suffering of the death He endured in darkness exceeded those preliminaries by unknown orders of magnitude. For our Lord, those three hours of darkness must have lasted more than a lifetime. After all, He created the universe in an instant. But in those three hours, the true history of the universe was written. They are the basis of all that ever was or will be good and blessed and glorious for us and for all who have gratefully accepted and delight in the ineffable gift of Jesus Christ. Although there is much we shall never know about the monumental sacrifice our Lord made, suffering the ultimate punishment for us all in order to deliver us from death, we do know that when it was over He proclaimed “tetelestai”, “It has now been accomplished!” (John 19:30). With those words the entire plan of God was complete: Man who had been created to answer creature rebellion had been saved and made one with God forever (for all who choose Him), and the entire universal rift that had been started eons ago by the evil one had been made whole and right in principal – but at a tremendous cost, the blood of Christ. Now we who have gratefully accepted the grace bought for us by Jesus’ death on our behalf need only wait for God’s good timing when all things will be put under Christ’s feet, and then will come the final end when He hands over the kingdom to the Father so that God will finally be “all in all” (1 Corinthians 15:28). He paid the death penalty on the cross for you and every other human being. Every sin ever committed – past, present and future – was judged on the cross. God the Father pronounced the sentence, and Jesus Christ obeyed it. That obedience and death for our sins on the part of our dear Lord Jesus is what has opened the gate of salvation for us all. Moreover, scripture describes the results of the blood of Christ, Jesus’ spiritual death in our behalf, in four separate ways in terms of its efficacy in solving the problem of sin: propitiation (the provision of the fundamental requirement of salvation in the removal based upon the blood of Christ of God’s displeasure towards sin); this foundation has three immediate results for sinful man: redemption (the deliverance of man from sin’s grasp), justification (the judicial pronouncement of forgiveness for all who believe), and reconciliation (the removal of the enmity on account of sin between God and man and the restoration of a relationship of blessing). ======================================================================== CHAPTER 15: 01.02.06 - PROPITIATION ======================================================================== 6. Propitiation: God the Father is completely satisfied with His Son’s work on the cross in dying for all human sin. As a result, sin is no longer an issue as a barrier to salvation in regard to divine justice. For while prior to the cross God in His perfect righteousness could never accept sinful mankind or indeed even abide our presence (a fact that explains His self-imposed temporary “exile” from the earth to the third heaven), after the cross He is pleased to accept anyone and everyone into His family as sons and daughters, anyone, that is, who accepts the work of His Son on their behalf. All divine grace towards human beings after the fall and prior to the cross was given “on credit”, so to speak, in anticipation of what Jesus would do for us on Calvary (cf. Romans 3:26). In effect, while God used to frown on us because of our sins, and so kept His distance, now through the cross of Christ the Father smiles on us, since Jesus has removed those sins forever as an offense as far as salvation is concerned. Indeed, as we shall shortly see, the Greek words which express this biblical teaching put the matter nearly in those precise terms. However, it is traditional for this doctrine to be referred to by the non-Hebrew and Greek derivatives, propitiation, expiation and atonement, each of which call attention to some aspect of this concept of God’s justice being satisfied by the work of Christ towards sin. Propitiation and expiation, are Latin, atonement English in terms of their derivation. Propitiation comes from pro (“on behalf of”) and peto (“to seek”). Thus the word propitiation in its etymology calls to the mind the idea of Christ seeking forgiveness for us from the Father (and we understand that such forgiveness is based on His death to sin for us). Expiation comes from ex (“completely”) and pio (“to do what is right so as to appease” – from pius, the source of our English word “pious”). Thus the word expiation in its etymology calls to mind the idea of Christ effectively changing the Father’s attitude through acceptable conduct or sacrifice (and we understand that the conduct concerned is His death on our behalf which blotted out our sins). Finally, atonement is in its etymology a purely English construct: “at one -ment”. Thus the word in its etymology expresses the idea of our being “made one” with God (and we understand that the means for this reconciliation is the blood of Christ shed on our behalf). Of course, as can be seen perhaps most especially in the case of the last word but also with the first two to some degree, the actual usage of these words in common and even in theological English has become convoluted to the point where they often result more in confusion than elucidation. For one finds them frequently employed in ways that strain and even sometimes break their already somewhat tenuous etymological connection with the teaching being considered here, which is that God the Father is satisfied in His justice with Christ’s work: the Son’s death for sin, the blood of Christ, has effectively put an end to the obstacle of sin when it comes to salvation. For the Father considers, and justly so, all our sins to have been paid in full by Christ. It is true that the Greek and Hebrew vocabularies used to teach this concept (of divine justice pleased to accept Jesus’ sacrifice in payment for our sins) approach the issue in different ways, a fact which may explain the inconsistencies in English terminology. For the predominant Hebrew verb used to express propitiation is caphar (ëôø; cf. “Yom Kippur”, the “Day of Atonement”). The key idea of the root behind this word is that of ransoming. Thus, in the analogy, propitiation, expiation or atonement would be the payment of an acceptable ransom sufficient to satisfy, please or appease the demands of divine righteousness, with our sin being the debt which needs to be paid. In other words, just as literal animal blood is the necessary means of ritual propitiation, so the symbolic blood of Christ is the necessary means of actual propitiation. In the former, the payment of ransom for our lives, expiating our sins, is merely represented (in a very graphic way); in the latter the sin for which God’s justice demands our death is truly put away in exchange for a suitable ransom which placates divine righteousness, Christ’s death in place of ours. Then [the guilty party] shall bring his guilt offering to the Lord; [he shall bring] to the priest a ram without blemish from the flock according to the penalty assessed for his guilt offering. Then the priest will make atonement (ëôø) for him before the Lord, and he will be forgiven once and for all for everything he has done to incur guilt. Leviticus 6:6-7. When our iniquitous deeds overcame us, you made atonement (ëôø) for them. Psalms 65:3. In the passages above and also in the case of the Day of Atonement, the English word “atonement” is meant to convey the idea of satisfying the penalty of sin charged to one’s account. One could likewise translate in each of these cases “make propitiation for” or “make expiation for” or “pay ransom for”, since in all of these uses of caphar the same central idea is present: satisfactory payment for sin and its penalty which results in forgiveness. Once atonement is made for our sins, once they have been expiated and an acceptable ransom price paid to release us from their penalty, we find God the Father no longer hostile towards us on account of our offenses, but now graciously disposed towards us, since He is well satisfied with price paid for our sins by His beloved Son, His death for ours. This is, theologically speaking, propitiation. “When you take a census of the Israelites to count them, each one must pay the Lord a ransom (Heb. ëôø, noun) for his life at the time he is counted. Then no plague will come on them when you number them. Each one who crosses over to those already counted is to give a half shekel, according to the sanctuary shekel, which weighs twenty gerahs. This half shekel is an offering to the Lord. All who cross over, those twenty years old or more, are to give an offering to the Lord. The rich are not to give more than a half shekel and the poor are not to give less when you make the offering to the Lord to atone for your lives (Heb. ëôø, verb).” Exodus 30:12-15 NIV Here we see what is even more clear in the Hebrew, namely, the direct connection between paying the ransom price (copher, a noun form of ëôø) and the atonement/propitiation/expiation it achieves (cipper; the piel form of the verb ëôø). In this last case, the money price, which is emphatically stated to be exactly the same for all, represents the blood of Christ, the “coin” of forgiveness, which suffices to satisfy the demands of God’s perfect justice for the forgiveness of all sin. The Greek root employed for teaching the principle of propitiation is directed more towards the effect Christ’s sacrifice has had in changing the Father’s attitude towards us than it is with the removal of sin producing that change of attitude. That is, the Greek vocabulary is concerned more with the work of Christ in the analogy accomplishing the “appeasement” or “mollification” of God’s justice on our behalf. Nevertheless, we can say with certainty that these two ideas are really one, being merely two sides of the exact same coin. That is because of the direct and deliberate connection which the Greek vocabulary makes with its Hebrew counterparts. The solid gold top of the ark of the covenant, often and somewhat misleadingly translated “the mercy seat”, is called in Hebrew the capporet (also from ëôø), and translated into Greek as the hilasterion (ἱλαστήριον; Romans 3:25; Hebrews 9:5; cf. Exodus 25:17-22; Leviticus 16:13 in the Greek Septuagint version). This is place where the blood of the sacrifice was poured out on the Day of Atonement “to make propitiation for the sins” of the whole people (Leviticus 16:34; Hebrews 9:7). Now the ark was a type of Christ, and the cherubim on the cover represented the Father and His court (cf. Exodus 25:22) looking down at the blood on the cover of the ark (which contained representations of the people’s sins: Hebrews 9:4), and being satisfied with the sacrifice. The word hilasterion is analogous in its formation to the Hebrew word capporet in that both words have noun suffixes which may be considered locative (i. e., “place of __”). However, the Greek root hila- (ἱλα-) has to do not with ransom but with joy, and, when specifically attributed to a person, with being joyful or joyfully disposed (cf. English “hilarity”). In other words, the Greek idea focuses on the result of the payment of the ransom, the good favor we now enjoy from the Father in place of the previous hostility toward our sin, rather than focusing on the sin cancelled out by Christ’s blood payment (as in the case of the Hebrew terminology). In other words, while the Hebrew root for propitiation, (ëôø), looks to the means, “ransom”, the Greek root for propitiation, (ἱλα-), looks to the result, “appeasement” (when the ransom is found acceptable). This meaning is evident in all of the Greek vocabulary occurring in the New Testament relating to this concept: Be graciously (lit., “cheerfully” [hilastheti – ἱλάσθητι]) inclined to me, O God, sinner that I am! Luke 18:13 b God made [Christ] a means of atonement (lit., “appeasement” [hilasterion – ἱλαστήριον]) [achieved] by His blood [and claimed] through faith, to give proof of His justice in leaving unpunished in divine forbearance [all] previously committed sins, so as to prove His justice in the present, namely, so that He would be [shown to be] just [in this] and [justified] in justifying the one who has faith in Jesus. Romans 3:25-26. Each of you should give what you have decided in your heart to give, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful [hilaron – ἱλαρόν] giver. 2 Corinthians 9:7 NIV For this reason [Jesus] had to be like His brothers in every way, in order to become a merciful and faithful High Priest in the things relating to God in order to propitiate (lit., “appease away” [hilaskesthai – ἱλάσκεσθαι]) the sins of the people. Hebrews 2:17. For I shall have mercy upon (lit., “be kindly disposed to” [hileos – ἵλεως]) their unrighteous deeds and shall remember their sins no more. Hebrews 8:12 (quotation and translation of Jeremiah 31:34 b) And He Himself is the appeasement (hilasmos – ἱλασμός) [of God] for our sins, and not just for ours, but also for the entire world. 1 John 2:2. In this God’s love has been revealed in us, that He sent His only Son into the world that we might live through Him. In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as an atonement (lit., “appeasement” [hilasmon – ἱλασμόν]) [of God’s justice] for our sins. 1 John 4:9-10. Sin is the problem which has plagued mankind since the fall. But through propitiation by means of the ransom of Jesus’ blood the Father’s righteous wrath has been forever mollified and appeased. Because of Christ’s atonement, sin no longer holds us in its grasp (we who accept His work have been “redeemed”; see point 7 below); because of our Lord’s act of propitiation, our sins no longer stand in the record against us, implacably demanding a sentence of death (we who believe in Him have been “justified”; see point 8 below); because of Jesus’ work of expiation, the wrath of Holy God towards sin no longer forms an impenetrable barrier separating us from Him in spiritual death (we who have come to Him have been “reconciled” to God; see point 9 below). Who Jesus is and what He did for us on the cross is at the center of everything we believe, of all that we are, and of all that God has ever done and will ever do in the world. The precious blood of Jesus Christ our Savior, His work on the cross in dying spiritually for our sins, has once and for all put an end to the Genesis curse and opened the door to heaven for all who are willing to hear His voice. For while we were helpless and hopeless and doomed (since without the perfect sacrifice for sin having the perfect effect on the One who perfectly judges sin there can be no forgiveness), the Father and His holy justice have now been satisfied by the death of His one and only dear Son, with the aroma of the ransom price paid in His sacrifice on the altar of Calvary’s cross being a sweet savor in His nostrils, well-acceptable to Him and ever able to propitiate Him on our behalf (2 Corinthians 2:14-15; Hebrews 7:27; cf. Genesis 8:21; Exodus 29:18, Exodus 29:25; Leviticus 1:9, Leviticus 1:13, Leviticus 1:17). And walk in love, just as also Christ loved you and gave Himself up as sacrifice and offering for a sweet smell to God. Ephesians 5:2. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 16: 01.02.07 - REDEMPTION ======================================================================== 7. Redemption: Redemption is the doctrine which expresses our current freedom from the bondage of sin as a result of Christ’s work on the cross in paying the price for our lives. As a result of our common birth in Adam’s line all human beings are born spiritually dead, possessing a sin nature with the necessary consequence that we all commit sin as well. From the point of view of the teaching of redemption, mankind is portrayed as held in bondage by this sin, with no way to escape or gain freedom absent the work of Christ on our behalf. Jesus replied, “I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” John 8:34-36 NIV What then? Do we [Israelites] have an advantage? Not at all. For we have already brought forth the charge that both Jews and gentiles, all [of us], are under sin’s control. Romans 3:9. For we know that the Law is spiritual. But I am fleshly, sold [into bondage] under [the power of] sin. Romans 7:14. Redemption is a Latin word meaning, etymologically, to “buy back” (re- emo). In the Old Testament, we find two roots expressing this idea (padhah, ôãä and ga’al, âàì), both of which are used for literal redemption (though it can be argued that the underlying symbolism of redemption from sin is always present: cf. Exodus 6:6; Exodus 13:13; Deuteronomy 7:8; Leviticus 27:13; Psalms 49:7-8), and are also both used for explicit redemption from sin as well. In the latter case, their usage is so synonymous as to be virtually indistinguishable in expressing God’s deliverance of believers from the bondage in which we are held without His deliverance: Let Israel keep waiting on the Lord, for with the Lord is mercy, and with him is abundant redemption (padhah) For He himself will redeem (padhah) Israel from all her iniquities (i. e., sins). Psalms 130:7-8. I have wiped away your transgressions like a cloud and your sins like vapor. Return to Me, for I have redeemed (ga’al) you (i. e., from your sins)! Isaiah 44:22. In the New Testament, there are two very closely conceptually related ways in which Christ’s work as it is directed towards releasing us from sin is described, and these are reflected in the Greek vocabulary:1) [the more common] metaphorical ransoming us from an otherwise implacable force [root: lytr-, λυτρ-] (e. g., Matthew 20:28; Luke 1:68-69; Luke 2:38; John 8:31-38; Romans 3:24; 1 Corinthians 1:30; 1 Timothy 2:6; cf. Acts 7:35), and 2) buying us out of slavery [root: -agoraz-, ἀγοραζ-] (e. g., 2 Peter 2:1; Galatians 4:5). These two ideas are obviously very similar, and it is not uncommon for versions of the Bible to translate all the words involved in this concept the same way regardless of the Greek root actually employed (i. e., with some form of the English words “redeem” or “redemption”). Christ bought us free (i. e., “redeemed” us: exagorazo) from the Law’s curse, having become a curse on our behalf. For it is written: “Cursed is everyone [who is] hanged upon a tree” (Deuteronomy 21:23). Galatians 3:13. In whom (i. e., Christ) we possess our ransoming [from sin] (i. e., “redemption”: apolytrosis), the forgiveness of our sins. Colossians 1:14. In all of these cases, the coin that pays the ransom or redemption price is “the blood of Christ” (cf. Romans 3:24; Galatians 4:5; 1 Corinthians 6:20; 1 Corinthians 7:23; Hebrews 9:15; Revelation 5:9), that is, the spiritual death of Jesus which paid the penalty for our sins, accomplishing propitiation. In whom (i. e., Christ) we possess our ransoming [from sin] (i. e., “redemption”) through His blood, the forgiveness of our transgressions according to the riches of His grace. Ephesians 1:7. Thus the blood of Christ cannot be separated from any detailed discussion of redemption, since it is the blood of Christ which redeems us from sin (cf. Hebrews 9:12). We are “slaves”, headed for death and condemnation, headed for the fires of hell, with no way, no means to prevent either our imminent physical death or the eternal death that will inevitably follow – unless someone intervenes. God is just, and cannot overlook sin. But God is also merciful, and in His great mercy He devised a way for us to be saved, sinners though we are. He sent His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh into the world to be judged for sin in the flesh that we might be saved (Romans 8:1-4). That is how Jesus paid our redemption price – with His own blood. Without this payment we were lost and already condemned in principle, and held in bondage at a price which we had no means to pay ourselves since the Father’s justice could be assuaged by no less than a perfect substitute, a Lamb without spot or blemish, our dear Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. But, blessedly, the Father’s justice is satisfied with the ransom price Jesus paid for us on the cross in regard to sin, so that all who put their faith in Him have been redeemed. For you know that it was not with perishable things [like] silver or gold that you were ransomed from the futile manner of life passed down to you by your ancestors, but [you were redeemed] with precious blood, like that of a lamb without spot or blemish, [that is, by the blood] of Christ. 1 Peter 1:18-19. As the passage above and indeed all redemption passages suggest, while the price has been paid for all mankind (i. e., propitiation and atonement are universal since the Blood of Christ avails for the payment of all human sin), the act of actual redemption is accomplished only for those who seek it. For redemption is directed towards sin, and sin only releases its grasp through faith. That is to say, only believers are redeemed, even though God has made the offer of free redemption through Jesus Christ available to all. This explains not only why redemption passages are addressed to believers, but also why some passages where this doctrine is taught emphasize the special relationship of believers to Jesus Christ that obtains as a result of redemption (cf. 1 Corinthians 1:30; 2 Peter 2:1): Don’t you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you (whom you have from God), and that you don’t belong to yourselves? You were bought at a [precious] price. So glorify God with your body. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 (cf. 1 Corinthians 7:23) And they sang a new song, saying, “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain and have purchased with your blood for our God [men] from every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and have made them into a kingdom and priests to our God, and they will rule upon the earth!” Revelation 5:9-10 (cf. Revelation 14:3-4) It should not be surprising, therefore, that the doctrine of redemption, while usually referring to our present position in Christ and spiritually released from sin, also occasionally looks forward to our ultimate status as part of His Bride, the physical release through resurrection from this body of sin in which we now dwell, and the eternal rewards that accompany it: When these things (i. e., signs and wonders of Luke 21:25-27) begin to happen, stand up and raise up your heads, because your redemption is near (i. e., the resurrection which occurs at Christ’s return). Luke 21:28. And not only the created world, but we too who have received the Holy Spirit as a foretaste [of the good things to come] agonize within ourselves as we eagerly await our adoption, that is, the redemption of our body (i. e. resurrection). This is the hope with which we were saved. Romans 8:23-24 a [The Spirit] who is a guarantee of the inheritance that is ours in the [future] redeeming of what we have been working for (i. e., our resurrection and reward) bringing praise for His glory (in eternity). Ephesians 1:14. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God with whom you were sealed for a [future] day of redemption (i. e., the day of resurrection). Ephesians 4:30. In sum, under the concept of redemption God in Christ purchases us out from under the charges, penalties, and entanglements by which we are held by sin. Redemption is the work of Christ, the suffering Servant, who fulfilled His mission by ransoming us from the bondage of sin and death by giving up His life in exchange for ours, a boon which must be accepted in faith to be effective. For the Son of Man also did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom on behalf of many. Mark 10:45 (cf. Matthew 20:28) To the One who loves us and has released us from our sins by His blood – and He has made us a kingdom, priests of His God and Father – to Him be the glory and the power forever and ever. Amen. Revelation 1:5-6. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 17: 01.02.08 - JUSTIFICATION ======================================================================== 8. Justification: Justification teaches the way God now relates to us, no longer as those who are stained by and steeped in sin, but as those who have been made truly righteous, justified and washed clean from sin through the blood of Christ, having placed our faith in Him for eternal life. He (i. e., our Lord Jesus) was handed over on account of our transgressions (i. e., to redeem us from sin), and was raised up on account of our justification (i. e., so that we too could be raised, having been justified by His death). Romans 4:25. Thus, justification is also for believers, we who have responded to the redemption provided by Jesus’ sacrifice, and who now look forward to sharing in His resurrection, having been justified by faith. In Romans chapter eight, “justification” is the decision-making step in God’s plan of salvation for individual believers wherein our decision to choose to come back to God through the blood of Christ, accepting the redemption He has made available, is validated. And we know that everything works together for good for those who love God, for those who have been called according to His plan. For those whom He foreknew, He also foreordained to share the likeness of His Son, so that He might be the Firstborn over many brothers [and sisters]. And those whom He foreordained, these He also called [to salvation], and those whom He called, He also made righteous (i. e., through faith in Christ; cf. Romans 4:1-5, Romans 4:25; Romans 5:1), and those whom He made righteous, these He also glorified (i. e., our future resurrection and eternal life). Romans 8:28-30. The doctrine of justification expresses the righteousness we now possess positionally, that is, by virtue of our being united to Jesus Christ, not our own maculate pseudo-righteousness, but God’s own perfect righteousness credited to us on account of our being washed free of all taint of sin through acceptance of Jesus’ work of redemption on our behalf. For all sin and fall short of God’s glory, [but we are all] justified without cost by His grace through the redemption (lit., “ransoming” from sin) which is in Christ Jesus. God made Him a means of atonement [achieved] by His blood [and claimed] through faith, to give proof of His justice in leaving unpunished in divine forbearance [all] previously committed sins, so as to prove His justice in the present, namely, so that He would be [shown to be] just [in this] and [justified] in justifying the one who has faith in Jesus. Romans 3:23-26. As these verses show, it is because all sin has been expiated by Christ’s sacrifice that God can justly pronounce us “righteous” when we believe in Jesus and are now one with Him. Instead of residing under God’s condemnation, we who believe have now been “justified”, are made righteous and are considered righteous in God’s eyes through our acceptance of the work of Christ and our union with Him. So now, there [awaits] no judgment of condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus has freed you from the Law of sin and death. For what the Law could not accomplish (i. e., solving the sin problem) because it was weak on account of [its dependence on sinful human] flesh, God [did accomplish]: having sent His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for the purpose of [expiating] sin, [God] rendered summary judgement on [all] sin in [Christ’s] flesh, so that the [perfect] righteousness which the Law demands might be fulfilled in us – we who walk not according to the [sinful] flesh, but according to the Spirit (i. e., believers). Romans 8:1-4. As the final verse of the passage shows, justification also challenges us to live up to the new status of perfection we now possess in principle (i. e., “positionally”, that is, by virtue of being “in Christ”), walking in a godly Christian way (Romans 8:4; cf. Romans 6:4, Romans 6:13-20; Ephesians 5:8; 1 John 2:6), appropriating the experiential forgiveness that attends our “righteous” status by confession of our sins when we do fail (1 John 1:9 cf. Zechariah 3:3-4; 1 John 1:7; Revelation 3:18), and by producing a crop, the “fruit of righteousness” (Php 1:11; cf. Romans 7:4; Ephesians 5:9; Colossians 1:10; James 3:17), in loving response to our Lord. For whereas without justification everything reputedly done “for God” is in fact tainted by sin and therefore completely unacceptable to Him, we have now been cleansed from our sin, justified and made righteous in Jesus Christ through sharing His righteousness, and are thus now free to produce good works of Christian ministry which are acceptable to the Lord (cf. Ephesians 2:10). [Jesus Christ] who gave Himself on our behalf to redeem us from all lawlessness (i. e., sin; cf. 1 John 3:4) and to cleanse for Himself a people [to be His] own unique possession, zealous for good works. Titus 2:14. Justification is thus the judicial pronouncement of forgiveness for all who believe. God examines us, and despite our prior filthiness, He now sees us “dressed in white” (as we ultimately shall always be: Revelation 3:4-5; Revelation 4:4; Revelation 6:11; Revelation 19:14), cleansed by the blood of the Lamb” (Revelation 7:14; in contrast to the unbeliever: Matthew 22:11-14). “Come now, and let us consider your case (i. e., judicially examine you)”, says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they will be white as snow. Though they are red like crimson, they will be like [white] wool.” Isaiah 1:18. “But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes (i. e., was not clothed with the righteousness that comes through faith in Christ). ‘Friend,’ he asked, ‘how did you get in here without wedding clothes?’ The man was speechless. “Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ “For many are invited, but few are chosen.” Matthew 22:11-14 NIV “These people dressed in white robes – who are they and where have they come from?” And I said to him, "My lord, you know.” And he said to me, "These are the ones who are about to come forth from the Great Tribulation. And they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb.” Revelation 7:13-14. Though we were fundamentally unrighteous at birth, condemned to death and alienated from God through sin and with no means of cleansing ourselves, by believing in Jesus Christ who released us from our sin through His death, we have now received God’s righteousness in place of our own intrinsic unrighteousness, and have thus been “justified by faith” (Romans 1:17; Romans 3:22-24, Romans 3:28; Romans 4:1-25; Romans 5:1, Romans 5:9, Romans 5:16-21; Romans 8:30; Romans 9:30; Romans 10:4-6; 1 Corinthians 1:30; 1 Corinthians 6:11; 2 Corinthians 5:21; Galatians 2:16; Galatians 3:24; Titus 3:7). The sentence of death hanging over our heads has been quashed, for the penalty of death has already been carried out against the Person of our Lord, and we have gratefully accepted His death in our place. Since the Father’s justice is completely satisfied with the substitution of His Son’s condemnation on our behalf, He declares us righteous, justified not by any “works of righteousness which we have done” (Titus 3:5), but through faith in the Righteous One who became sin for us. For we were also once mindless, disobedient, wandering [pointlessly] astray, enslaved to all sorts of lusts and pleasures, living our lives in wickedness and envy, loathsome and hating each other. But [in spite of our prior sinfulness], when the goodness and benevolence of God our Savior appeared [in the flesh], not on account of [any] works which we had done in [so-called] righteousness did He save us, but through the washing [away of our sins which leads to our] rebirth and [to our] new beginning from the Holy Spirit whom He poured out upon us bountifully through Jesus Christ our Savior, so that [now] having been justified [in this way] by His grace, we might become heirs in regard to the eternal life for which we hope. Titus 3:3-7. Therefore while propitiation expresses the payment for our sins by Jesus Christ, and while redemption illustrates the breaking by His death of sin’s stranglehold on us, justification consists in our cleansing from sin whereby we are now clean in God’s eyes. For through Christ’s vicarious death on our behalf and our embracing of it, we are now considered righteous in the judgment of the justice of God. Don’t you know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor practitioners of homosexuality nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. And this is [exactly] what some of you were – but you were washed [clean], but you were made holy, but you were made righteous by [faith in] the Person (lit., Name) of the Lord Jesus Christ, and by the Spirit of our God. 1 Corinthians 6:9-11. This “cleansing from sin” aspect of justification whereby all the charges against us are dropped because of Christ’s sacrifice is ubiquitous in scripture (e. g., Isaiah 43:25; 1 Corinthians 6:11; Colossians 2:14; 1 Peter 1:2; Hebrews 9:13-21; Hebrews 12:24). This was the primary message in water baptism, otherwise known as “John’s baptism”, a symbolic washing away of sins following true repentance in turning back to God (Acts 19:4; cf. Acts 1:5; Acts 11:16). After the cross, rather than a solely symbolic cleansing based upon what God would do, we now have genuine cleansing and forgiveness as a result of what God has done in judging our sins in Christ and forgiving us based upon the cleansing power of the blood of Christ. God, from antiquity having communicated to our fathers in the prophets at many times and in many ways, has in these last days communicated to us in a Son, [the One] whom He has appointed heir of all things, [the One] through whom He created the universe. He is the shining forth of [the Father’s] glory, the precise image of His essence, the One who sustains the universe by His mighty Word. When He had accomplished the cleansing of [our] sins, He took His seat at the right hand of the Majesty on high. Hebrews 1:1-3. Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence in this entrance of ours into the [heavenly] holy of holies by the blood of Jesus, an entryway through the [heavenly] veil [of separation] which is new and alive and which He has consecrated for us, that is [through the sacrifice] of His flesh (cf. Hebrews 10:10, Hebrews 10:18), and since we have [this] Great High Priest over the household of God, let us approach [the throne of grace (cf. Hebrews 4:16) to pray] with a truthful heart in complete faith, our hearts sprinkled [clean] of [any] bad conscience and our bodies washed with pure water [of the Word (cf. Ephesians 5:26)]. Hebrews 10:19-22. This is the “new covenant” God has made with us “by sacrifice” (Psalms 50:5), forgiving us and considering us righteous by virtue of what Jesus did in dying for us (when we embrace that work and the forgiveness that attends it). “For I shall have mercy upon their unrighteous deeds and shall remember their sins no more (Jeremiah 31:34).” In mentioning a “New [Covenant]”, He has rendered the Old one obsolete. And that which is obsolete and antiquated is close to disappearing. Hebrews 8:12-13. In short, justification means having God’s righteousness as far as He is concerned, not based upon anything we have done, but upon Christ’s work on our behalf. We are justified, rendered and considered righteous as those who are one with Jesus Christ when we believe in Him. Justification is the first blessed benefit we seek and receive when we set ourselves to come to God through Jesus Christ. For, once we are considered righteous by the justice of God, the door has been opened through Jesus to all the blessings heaven contains. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Matthew 6:33 KJV But whatever I had gained [in my former godless life], compared to Christ I have come to consider these things as losses. Indeed, I consider everything to be a loss compared to the surpassing importance of knowing Jesus Christ my Lord, for whose sake I have suffered the loss of everything, and consider [everything I have lost] as garbage, compared to gaining Christ, and being found in Him – not having a personal righteousness [developed] through [following] the [Mosaic] law – but having that righteousness [that comes] through faith in Christ, that righteousness [that comes] from God based on faith. Php 3:7-9. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 18: 01.02.09 - RECONCILIATION ======================================================================== 9. Reconciliation: The biblical teaching of reconciliation views salvation as the reestablishment of our relationship with God. Since we are all born spiritually dead “in Adam”, that is, since we all possess a sin nature through physical birth, a fact which guarantees that sin will follow our inherent sinfulness, we are all also born alienated from God (Colossians 1:21), the Father of our spirits (Hebrews 12:9). But just as the prodigal son’s father loved him dearly, and was overjoyed when he returned (Luke 15:11-32), so too our heavenly Father loves us beyond our comprehension, and has indeed done the most for us that we might be able to return to Him and reenter the grace and blessing reserved for His true sons and daughters. For in order for us to be reconciled to Him, not only do we have to be willing to turn away from the world and return to Him in humility and repentance and faith, but He first had resolve the issue of sin, that is to say, a means had to be provided for us to be made righteous and acceptable to God before we were fit to be reconciled to Him (i. e., justification must precede reconciliation). [God] has erased the charge against us along with its bill of particulars (i. e., the record of our personal sins). This stood against us, but He removed it [as an obstacle] between us by nailing it to the cross. Colossians 2:14. In this teaching, sin thus forms a barrier, so to speak, which separates us from holy God, a wall of enmity and impending wrath, which can only be removed by the complete and righteous judgment of all of our sins. For [Jesus] Himself is our peace, for He has made both [Jews and gentiles] one, and has broken down the middle wall of partition, that is, the enmity, by discharging the Law of the commandments and its requirements with His [own] body, so that He might re-create the two into one new Man by making [this] peace, and might reconcile both in one Body to God through His cross, having by means of it abolished the enmity [between God and mankind]. For when He had come (i. e., the 1 advent), He proclaimed the gospel of peace to you who were far away [from God], and peace to those who were near. For it is through Him that we both have our access to the Father by means of one Spirit. Ephesians 2:14-18. The prerequisite for reconciliation with the Father has thus in ineffable blessedness been carried out by the full and fully effective judgment of the sins of the world in the body of Jesus Christ. It is our Savior’s blood that has torn down the wall of hostility and impending wrath and opened up the door of grace and peace. But God commends His love towards us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. So how much more is it not true now, after we have been rendered righteous [through faith] in His blood, that we shall be saved from the [coming] wrath through Him? For if when we were His enemies we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, how much more is it not true [now], since we have been reconciled [to Him through Jesus’ death], that we will be saved by His life? And not only that, but we even flaunt [our new relationship] with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have obtained this reconciliation. Romans 5:8-11. In the symbolism of reconciliation, Jesus has made peace for us with God – through His own death which paid our outstanding debts – and in so doing has transformed us from being God’s enemies by nature and by birth into members of God’s own household, sons and daughters fully restored into the good graces of the loving Father who made us. For it was [God’s] good pleasure for the fulfillment [of His plan] to reside entirely in [Christ], and so through Him to reconcile everything to Himself, having made peace through Him, through the blood of His cross, whether things on earth, or things in heaven. You were once alienated from God – your very thoughts were hostile towards Him and your deeds were evil. Yet God has now accomplished reconciliation [for you] through the death of Christ in His physical body so that you may stand before Him as holy, without blemish and free from accusation – [this you will do] if you remain solidly grounded and firmly fixed in the faith, and un-moved from your hope in the gospel which you have heard proclaimed in all creation under heaven, of which [gospel] I, Paul, have become a minister. Colossians 1:19-23. Though as sinners by birth, we were previously God’s enemies, we have now been reconciled to Him by the blood of Jesus Christ through our faith in Him and His sacrifice for us on the cross, so that the wrath we once anticipated has been replaced by confidence in the justification we now possess, for now in place of enmity, we have access to God Himself (Romans 5:1-2; Ephesians 2:18; Ephesians 3:12; Hebrews 4:16; 1 Peter 3:18), and peace with the Father through the intercession of the Son. So now that we have been justified by faith, let us take hold of the peace [we have] with God [the Father] through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom we have also obtained our access into this grace in which we stand, and let us boast in the hope of the glory of God (i. e., in anticipation of our resurrection). Romans 5:1-2. It is the Father Himself who initiated this process of reconciliation, striving to bring all of His lost sheep back to Himself through the greatest sacrifice He could possibly make, and empowering us who have returned to spread the message that, since Christ has removed the barrier of wrath and enmity that once separated us, instead of anger for sins past, God’s attitude towards us is now one of loving acceptance, if only we are willing to accept the gift of Jesus Christ and be reconciled to Him. And all things come from God who reconciled us to Himself through Christ, and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, for that God was [and is] in Christ making overtures of reconciliation between the world and Himself – not taking their transgressions into account – and has entrusted us with this message (lit., “word”) of reconciliation. As ambassadors of Christ, as though God were urging you through us, we beg you on Christ’s behalf: be reconciled to God! 2 Corinthians 5:18-20. The Son is also said to be an agent of reconciliation in the context of His becoming – like us – a genuine human being, with, moreover, that taking on of humanity being implied in the following verses as necessary in order to accomplish reconciliation (since He had to become a man in order to die for our sins). But [in fact] He was made subject to torment on account of our transgressions, and He was crushed because of our collective guilt (lit., “guilts”). The punishment [required] for making peace [with God] on our behalf [fell] upon Him. Because of His wounding, we have been healed. Isaiah 53:5. Therefore since these children have a common heritage of flesh and blood, [Christ] too partook of these same [common elements] in a very similar fashion (i. e., not identical only in that He was virgin born and so without sin), in order that through His death He might put an end to the one possessing the power of death, that is, the devil, and might reconcile [to Himself] those who were subject to being slaves their whole lives long by their fear of death. Hebrews 2:14-15. Jesus is thus the Mediator between God and mankind, for He alone is qualified to be so. He is not only true God and always has been, but is since the incarnation a true human being as well. As such, He is able to represent both parties and effect reconciliation. He offers this reconciliation to us, and we who have accepted it proclaim His offer to the world (2 Corinthians 5:18-20), but the offer is only possible because of the fact that the aggrieved party, God, has been fully and completely conciliated by the ransom Jesus Himself paid to affect our return to the Father, namely, by bearing our sins in His body on the cross, and by paying the full penalty for them in dying in our place. [God] who wants all men to be saved and come to accept the truth. For as God is One, so there is [only] One Mediator between God and Man, Christ Jesus in His humanity, who gave Himself as a ransom for all [mankind] . . .1 Timothy 2:4-6 a This is how we enter into to the new agreement of restored and eternal fellowship with God, the New Covenant “in My blood” (Luke 22:20; 1 Corinthians 11:25), as our Lord said, namely, by being reconciled to the Father through faith on the basis of the death of Jesus in our place. But Christ has already arrived [in heaven] as High Priest of the good things to come, [having passed] through the greater and more perfect tabernacle, that is, the one which is not of this creation. Nor was it through the blood of goats and bullocks, but through His own blood (i. e., His spiritual death) that He entered once and for all into the holy of holies, having wrought eternal redemption. For if the blood of goats and bulls and the ashes of the heifer sprinkled upon the unclean render a person holy in respect to bodily cleansing, how much more will the blood of Christ, who offered Himself without defect to God through the eternal Spirit, cleanse our conscience from dead works so that we may serve the living God? And it is for this reason that He is the Mediator of a New Covenant, so that those who have been called might receive their eternal inheritance on the basis of the death He suffered to redeem us from the transgressions [committed] under the first Covenant. Hebrews 9:11-15 (cf. Hebrews 12:24) ======================================================================== CHAPTER 19: 01.02.10 - SUMMARY OF THE WORK OF CHRIST IN EFFECTING SALVATION ======================================================================== 10. Summary of the Work of Christ in Effecting Salvation: Mankind was helpless and hopeless, and facing eternal condemnation when “the goodness and benevolence of our God our Savior appeared [in the flesh]” (Titus 3:4), namely, Jesus, the “grace of God” personified, who has brought “salvation . . . to all mankind” (Titus 2:11; cf. Hebrews 9:26; 1 John 1:2; 1 John 3:5). But “while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8), for you and me and for everyone, dying on the cross for every sin that has ever been committed or ever will be. The work of Jesus Christ in atoning for sin, is called in scripture the “blood of Christ”, a phrase which refers not to our Lord’s literal blood, for He did not in fact bleed to death but gave up His spirit of His own accord once the work of salvation had been accomplished, proclaiming, “It has now been accomplished!” (John 19:30), but to His work on the cross in dying for our sins, that is to His spiritual death. For Jesus was judged in our place, condemned in our place, paid the penalty for all of our sins in Calvary’s darkness, bearing them all in His body on the tree. This He did not only for us who have in humility and repentance gratefully accepted in faith His substitutionary death on our behalf, we who now call Him “Lord”, but He died also for those who rejected Him, the atonement being universal for all mankind. The blood of Christ, Jesus’ spiritual death on the cross in dying for and in paying the penalty for all of the sins of the world, has been proclaimed fully effective in satisfying the righteous demands of the Father’s justice that sin be atoned for (Ephesians 5:2; cf. Matthew 3:17; Matthew 17:5; Mark 1:11; Luke 3:22; 2 Peter 1:17); we call this aspect of the blood of Christ in salvation propitiation. God made [Christ] a means of atonement (or propitiation; lit., “appeasement”) [achieved] by His blood . . .Romans 3:25 a Having satisfied the demands of divine justice, the blood of Christ, avails to ransom sinful mankind from the bondage of sin, buying us out of our slavery to sin by paying the full price of the penalty for everything we have done; we call this aspect of the blood of Christ in salvation redemption. In whom (i. e., Christ) we possess our ransoming [from sin] (i. e., “redemption”) through His blood, the forgiveness of our transgressions according to the riches of His grace. Ephesians 1:7. For you know that it was not with perishable things [like] silver or gold that you were ransomed from the futile manner of life passed down to you by your ancestors, but [you were redeemed] with precious blood, like that of a lamb without spot or blemish, [that is, by the blood] of Christ. 1 Peter 1:18-19. Having been redeemed from sin’s grasp and bought out from under its control, we who walk out of the prison house in faith are washed clean by the blood of Christ, and receive His righteousness in place of our own, so that we are now considered guiltless by the justice of God; we call this aspect of the blood of Christ in salvation justification. How much more [is it not then clearly the case that] we who have been justified by His blood shall therefore [certainly] be saved through Him from the wrath [of judgment to come]! Romans 5:9. As those who have now been washed clean of sin and justified by faith (Romans 3:28; Romans 4:1; Romans 5:1; Galatians 2:16; Galatians 3:11, Galatians 3:24), we are fit to be presented to God, ushered back into the presence of our loving Father by our Mediator, the One who saved us by His blood, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ; we call this aspect of the blood of Christ in salvation reconciliation. Because He lay bare His life unto death, and was dealt with as transgressors [are], so that He bore the sin of the many, and substituted [Himself] (i. e., made intercession) for the transgressors. Isaiah 53:12 b For it was [God’s] good pleasure for the fulfillment [of His plan] to reside entirely in [Christ], and so through Him to reconcile everything to Himself, having made peace through Him, through the blood of His cross, whether things on earth, or things in heaven. Colossians 1:19-20. For Jesus is our High Priest, God’s propitiation and means of atonement for all mankind through His blood, having died that all might have eternal life. or this reason He had to be like His brothers in every way, in order to become a merciful and faithful High Priest in the things relating to God in order to propitiate the sins of the people (i. e., through the sacrifice of Himself). Hebrews 2:17. Jesus is our Redeemer, having purchased by His blood the release from sin and redemption of all who are willing to receive it. “The Redeemer will come to Zion, to those in Jacob who repent of their sins,” declares the Lord. Isaiah 59:20 NIV And they sang a new song, saying, “You are worthy to take the scroll and to open its seals, because you were slain and have purchased with your blood for our God [men] from every tribe and tongue and people and nation, and have made them into a kingdom and priests to our God, and they will rule upon the earth!” Revelation 5:9-10 (cf. Revelation 14:3-4) Jesus is our Savior, having delivered us from condemnation through the justification which is in His blood. My righteous Servant will provide righteousness for the great [of heart] (i. e., believers) through the[ir] acknowledgment of Him, and He Himself will carry their guilt (lit., “guilts”). Isaiah 53:11 b How much more [is it not then clearly the case that] we who have been justified by His blood shall therefore [certainly] be saved through Him from the wrath [of judgment to come]! Romans 5:9. And Jesus is our Mediator, the One who has reconciled us to God and made all with faith in Him sons and daughters of God most high, in anticipation of the eternal inheritance and resurrection that is our hope. And it is for this reason that He is the Mediator of a New Covenant, so that those who have been called might receive their eternal inheritance on the basis of the death He suffered to redeem us from the transgressions [committed] under the first Covenant. Hebrews 9:11-15 (cf. Hebrews 12:24) Our God is a God of intrinsic goodness which overflows in love. We see this love manifest in His great grace which has effected redemption for us. Our God is a God of intrinsic holiness which overflows in justice. We see this justice manifest in His great mercy which has effected justification for us. Our God is a God of intrinsic truth which overflows in life. We see this life manifest in His great peace which has effected reconciliation for us. For our God has washed away our sins in the blood of Christ, having been propitiated in every aspect of His character by the death of His one and only dear Son on our behalf. Therefore instead of slavery, we have redemption, and are free to follow Him in faith. Instead of condemnation, we have justification, and are washed clean by His blood. And instead of alienation, we have reconciliation, and have become the sons of God. Praise be to Lord Jesus Christ who loved us so much He died to give us this eternal life! Conclusion: Despite the length of this study, there is so much more that could be said, for, indeed, Jesus is Himself the Word of Truth (John 1:1-5, John 1:13; 1 John 1:1-3; Revelation 19:13), and therefore all the truth of the Bible is intricately and inextricably connected to Him. Jesus did many other things as well. If every one of them were written down, I suppose that even the whole world would not have room for the books that would be written. John 21:25 NIV Beyond our “so great salvation” which He, our High Priest, Redeemer, Savior and Mediator has provided (Hebrews 2:3), He is our Maker and our Model, our Guide and our Friend, our Lord and our God. He is our everything. He is the One we love beyond all others. Because He first loved us, and gave Himself up to death on our behalf. For God who said, “Let light shine forth from the darkness!”, is He who has shone forth [His light] into our hearts to illuminate our knowledge of God’s glory in the Person of Jesus Christ. 2 Corinthians 4:6. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 20: 01A.00. ESCHATOLOGY: THE STUDY OF LAST THINGS ======================================================================== Eschatology: the Study of Last Things by Dr. Robert D. Luginbill God’s future history of the world, and the destiny of believers and unbelievers. Now all these things happened unto them for examples, and they are written for our admonition, upon who the ends of the ages are come. 1 Corinthians 10:11 KJV 1. God’s Plan for Human History A. Judgment, Restoration and Replacement I: Positional Victory B. The Focus of God’s Plan, Jesus Christ, His Person and His Work C. Things to Come: Judgment, Restoration and Replacement Phases 2 & 3 D. God’s Disposition of Satan: A Historical Overview 2. The Tribulation Defined 3. The Seven Churches of Revelation 4. The Tribulation’s First Half 5. Antichrist and his Kingdom 6. The Great Tribulation 7. Armageddon and the Second Advent 8. Last Things Introduction: For too long, eschatology, "the study of last things", has been the property of fringe elements. The true significance of this crucial category of Biblical truth has been ignored or de-emphasized by most serious Christians of our day. Even those who pay it lip service do not seem to fully appreciate the critical importance of the doctrines of eschatology not only to spiritual growth, but to spiritual safety as well. They are in fact fundamental. For it is a tenet of our faith that our generation is just as likely to be called upon to put them to practical use as any other generation of Christians has been in the past or may be in the future. The "Lord’s Prayer", the model prayer given by Jesus to His disciple when asked "teach us how to pray as John taught his disciples", is predicated on a future event to which all of us as Christians are instructed to direct our gaze. After addressing our heavenly Father, both New Testament versions continue with the statement "Thy kingdom come!" (Matthew 1:1-13; Luke 11:2-4). The Greek aorist imperative expresses a strong desire which should reflect the attitude of all believers. We should all earnestly hope for and daily express in our prayers our desire for the establishment of the Kingdom of God here on earth. It is only in this way that we shall truly see His "will done on earth as it is in heaven". What we are to look forward to with such intent, however, can only occur after nearly all of the prophecies of future events have first taken place. The great apostasy, the rise of the beast and false prophet, the terrible persecutions and cataclysmic events of the tribulational period must all precede the final establishment of the Kingdom of God, after the reign of our Lord Jesus Christ has finally "put all of his enemies beneath His feet" (1 Corinthians 1:1). As believers, we need to ask ourselves, "are we ready to meet the challenges of the last times?" I. Global Eschatology The Plan of God for history, the world, mankind and angelic kind as a whole, bringing divine judgment, restoration and replacement to all things in a perfect and perfectly righteous way. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 21: 01A.01. GOD'S PLAN FOR HUMAN HISTORY ======================================================================== 1. God’s Plan for Human History God created the material universe (Genesis 1:1). Therefore God controls the universe (Psalms 33:6-9). God created time (Hebrews 1:1-2; cf. Acts 17:26; Psalms 74:16-17). Therefore God controls time (Psalms 75:2). God is omniscient (Psalms 139:11-4). Therefore God knew everything in advance (Isaiah 46:10). God is not reacting to the evil of this world (Psalms 33:10-11). Rather, God has planned every detail of history for our ultimate good (Romans 8:28-30; cf. Isaiah 25:1; Ephesians 1:11). God desires the salvation of all of His creatures (Acts 17:27; John 3:16; Ephesians 3:11; 1 Timothy 2:4; 2 Peter 3:9; John 12:47 b). But God will be justified and vindicated over all who choose evil rather than good (Romans 3:4). "History" is the working out of the plan of God wherein His creatures demonstrate and confirm the fundamental choice they make for or against Jesus Christ (compare 1 Peter 1:2 with Exodus 9:16). Thus in all things, God is "in control" (Ephesians 2:1-10). But the plans of the Lord stand firm forever, the purposes of His heart through all generations. Psalms 33:11 NIV ======================================================================== CHAPTER 22: 01A.01A. JUDGMENT, RESTORATION AND REPLACEMENT I: POSITIONAL VICTORY ======================================================================== A. Judgment, Restoration and Replacement I: Positional Victory (Progeny and Promise) 1. Judgment I: of Satan and the universe a. The devil rebelled against God in eternity past (Isaiah 14:4-20; Ezekiel 28:12-19). b. God responded by devastating the earth and removing light from the universe (cf. the gap and disparity between Genesis 1:1 and Genesis 1:2; Isaiah 45:18). 2. Restoration I: of Earth a. God restored the earth to habitability and limited light to the universe in six literal days (Genesis 1:3-31; Genesis 2:4-5). b. The "fossil record" dates not from the earth’s restoration but from the era of Satan’s rebellion at some indeterminate time in the past (Genesis 1:1 compared with Genesis 2:4-5). 3. Replacement I: Adam and the Last Adam for Satan a. God created Man as a replacement for the devil and his rebellious angels (Genesis 1:26-30; Genesis 2:4-25). b. Without the temptation and fall, the human population of Eden would have rapidly expanded to the necessary replacement level (Genesis 1:28). 4. Satan’s Reaction: The temptation and fall of Adam and Eve a. The devil assumed that by luring Adam and Eve into sin he would destroy God’s plan to replace him (compare Genesis 2:17 with Genesis 3:4). b. But the fall of Man merely opened the way for salvation through the saving work of the Son of Man, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (Genesis 3:21; 1 Corinthians 15:22; 1 Corinthians 15:45). ======================================================================== CHAPTER 23: 01A.01B. THE FOCUS OF GOD'S PLAN, JESUS CHRIST, HIS PERSON AND HIS WORK ======================================================================== B. The Focus of God’s Plan for Human History, Jesus Christ, His Person and His Work 1. The One Central Person of Human History: From the divine point of view, Jesus Christ, His Person and His work, is history, and our lives are defined and evaluated solely by our response to Him in faith or lack thereof (John 14:6; Romans 1:18-23; cf. Psalms 19:1-6; Acts 17:26-27; Hebrews 13:8). 2. The Two Phases of Human History: The Foreshadowing and Fulfillment of Jesus Christ: The Old and New Covenants: The cross divides history into two discrete phases, both referencing history’s central Person, our Lord Jesus Christ. a. The Old Covenant: Looking ahead to the cross through rituals and animal sacrifices, the Old Covenant was characterized by shadows (i.e., belief in and anticipation of the Messiah and His sacrifice: Colossians 2:17; Hebrews 8:5; Hebrews 10:1). b. The New Covenant: Looking back at the cross with the benefit of the entire canon of scripture, the New Covenant is characterized by reality (i.e., belief in and appreciation of the revelation of Jesus Christ and His sacrifice: Luke 2:32). 3. The Three Wilderness-Pilgrimage Eras of Human History: We believers are pilgrims and strangers in this world, walking the highway to Zion in the footsteps of Jesus Christ (Psalms 84:5-7; Hebrews 11:13-16; cf. 1 Chronicles 29:15; Psalms 39:12; Psalms 63:1; Psalms 119:19; Hebrews 11:37-38; Hebrews 13:13-14; 1 Peter 1:1; 1 Peter 2:11), sojourning here in the devil’s world (1 John 5:19; cf. 1 Corinthians 7:29-31), and experiencing God’s grace provision in this desert during one of three pilgrimage eras: a. The Gentile era: The first wilderness-pilgrimage era (Gentile) runs from the expulsion of Adam and Eve from the garden of Eden until the call of Abraham. Its pilgrim-believers are exclusively gentiles. In this era, there is an individual focus to the pilgrimage (i.e., following God as separate persons). b. The Jewish era: The second wilderness-pilgrimage era (Jewish) runs from the call of Abraham until the birth of Christ, when its completion is postponed till the commencement of the Tribulation. Its pilgrim-believers are primarily Jewish (along with gentiles in association with Israel). In this era, there is a national focus to the pilgrimage (i.e., following God as members or associates of a national community established by God and dedicated to Him, namely, Israel). c. The Church era: The third wilderness-pilgrimage era (Church) runs from the day of Pentecost until the onset of the Tribulation. Its pilgrim-believers are both Jews (the original branch) and gentiles (grafted into Israel) combined into the single body of Christ. In this era, there is a corporate focus to the pilgrimage (i.e., following God as intimate members of His family, the body of Christ which is the Church universal). 4. The Four Ages of Human History: The four ages of human history are defined by the nature of the revelation of Jesus Christ in each (represented by the faces of the four cherubs in Ezekiel chapter one and ten, and in Revelation chapter four): a. Gentile Age: Christ promised to all humanity in general as Savior (Genesis 3:15-16). From Adam to Abraham. b. Jewish Age: Christ promised to Israel in particular as Messiah (Jeremiah 23:5-6). From Abraham to Christ. c. Church Age: Christ having been revealed in Person in the (virgin-born) flesh in humility as the suffering Servant (1 John 1:1-3). From the First Advent to the Second Advent. d. Millennial Age: Christ having been revealed in Person in the (resurrected) flesh in glory as the King (Isaiah 2:1-4). From the Second Advent to the New Jerusalem. 5. The Five Dispensational Divisions of Human History: God’s dispensations or "stewardships" are periods of time distinguished by the different grace means He uses in each one to "dispense" through various "stewards" the resources of truth necessary for seeking Him to all those who desire to do so (Ephesians 3:2). a. Gentile Patriarchy: from Adam to Abraham God dispensed his truth and grace primarily through individuals like Enoch (Genesis 5:21-24; Hebrews 11:5), Noah (Genesis 6:9; Genesis 6:13-14; Hebrews 11:7) and Job (Job 1:8). b. Jewish Patriarchy: from Abraham to Moses God dispensed his truth and grace primarily through Jewish patriarchs beginning with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob ( Genesis 15:12-16; Genesis 26:2-5; Genesis 28:13-15). c. The Mosaic Law: from Moses to Christ God dispensed his truth and grace primarily through the nation Israel (Isaiah 42:6; Isaiah 43:21; Isaiah 49:6; Acts 13:47). d. The Church Age: from Christ’s first advent to His Second Advent God is dispensing his truth and grace exclusively through the Church of Jesus Christ (Ephesians 1:9-10; Ephesians 3:8-109; Colossians 1:25-27; 1 Timothy 1:4). God’s dispensation of the truth at the present time is not now fixed or focused on any particular nation but has been handed over to all believers, namely, the Church at large (this shift in approach was signaled by our Lord in the parable of the tenants: Matthew 21:33-46; Mark 12:1-11; Luke 20:6-19). e. The Millennium: from Christ’s return to the end of history God will dispense his truth and grace primarily through our Lord’s direct rule of the world (Jeremiah 31:33-34; Isaiah 11:9, Revelation 21:1-27, Revelation 22:1-21). 6. The Six Chronological Periods of Human History: These six periods divide history from a secular point of view, listing in chronological order the significant divisions of human history rather than categorizing them on the basis of any spiritual significance (which is the basis for the five categories that precede and the one which follows). "Six" is the number of Man, and these six periods present history largely from the point of view of the devil’s attacks on mankind. a. The Antediluvian Period: From the fall to the flood. Primary satanic target: true humanity. b. The Postdiluvian Gentile Period: From the flood to Abraham. Primary satanic target: freedom and law. c. The Jewish Period: From Abraham to Christ. Primary satanic target: the people and the nation of Israel. d. The Church Period: From Christ to the beginning of the Tribulation. Primary satanic target: the truth of the Word of God. e. The Tribulational Period: The seven years preceding the return of Christ. Primary satanic target: all of the above (humanity, freedom and law, Israel, truth) along with a particular emphasis on eradicating believers from the earth, as the devil employs any and all means available to him in the short time he has remaining. f. The Millennial Period: The thousand years following the return of Christ. Primary satanic target: the rule of Christ (attacked after Satan is released at the end of the period). 7. The Seven Days of Human History: Analogous to the seven, literal Genesis days God used for reconstruction of the earth, so also God has organized "human history" into seven millennial "days", that is, seven periods of one thousand years each, with the seventh being, like the seventh Genesis day, a period of rest: Days 1 and 2: The Gentiles: (ca. 4065-2065 B.C.) a. The Antediluvian Civilization: Time Frame: From Adam’s fall to circa Noah. Challenge to believers: To maintain and develop faith in God while transitioning from perfect environment to the hardships of the present world. b. The Division of the Nations: Time Frame: From circa Noah to Abraham. Challenge to believers: To maintain and develop faith in God in the face of unprecedented satanic attacks (i.e., the genetic dilution of Genesis chapter six, and Satan’s post-flood attempt to establish one-world government). Days 3 and 4: Israel: (ca. 2065-2 B.C.) [the 70 years of the Babylonian captivity excepted; the seven years of the Tribulation still future] c. The Nation of Israel: Time Frame: From Abraham to circa David. Challenge to believers: To maintain and develop faith in God as His unique witnesses (and as primary targets of the devil) in the midst of a pagan world. d. The Kingdom of Israel: Time Frame: From circa David to Christ. Challenge to believers: To maintain and develop faith in God as members (or associates) of His unique nation Israel (the central point of satanic opposition) in the midst of a world of devil-worshiping nations. Days 5 and 6: The Church: (ca. 33-2033 A.D.) e. Centralized Christianity: Time Frame: From Christ to circa the schism of the Church. Challenge to believers: To maintain and develop faith in God despite growing opposition to the truth from monolithic, bureaucratic pseudo-Christianity. f. Decentralized Christianity: Time Frame: From circa the schism of the Church to the Second Advent. Challenge to believers: To maintain and develop faith in God in the face of mounting attacks on the truth from all quarters (religious, social, economic and political), culminating in the most intense period of pressure and opposition in human history, the Tribulation. Day 7: The Kingdom of God (the Sabbath Day): (ca. 2033-3033 A.D.) g. The Millennium: Time Frame: From the Second Advent of Christ to the Gog-Magog Rebellion. Challenge to believers: To maintain and develop faith in God while transitioning from the devil’s world to Christ’s perfect rule over mankind (sinful human beings facing the ultimate prosperity test). 8. Evidence for the "Seven Days" Interpretation a. The construction of the ages: The ages of human history have been purposefully constructed by God for judging evil, restoring righteousness, and replacing evil-doers with faithful followers, all through the agency and saving work of His Son (Hebrews 11:3). b. The Millennium: The Millennium, the final period of human history and the only period of human history specifically named in scripture, is most definitely described as a period of one thousand literal years (Revelation 20:1-7), and as a period of rest directly analogous to Genesis day 7 (Isaiah 61:2; Isaiah 63:4). c. Days and Millennia: While from the human perspective the difference between a day and a millennium is immense, to God, the Creator and Master of time, the difference between these two finite chronological periods is insignificant (Psalms 90:4; 2 Peter 3:8). d. Biblical Usage: The Bible often uses relatively short periods of time (hours, days, weeks) to designate much longer chronological periods, reflecting God’s complete sovereignty over time: 1) The "year of redemption" in Isaiah 63:4 refers to the Millennium. 2) The "day of vengeance" in both Isaiah 34:8 and Isaiah 63:4 refers to the Millennium. 3) The "day of salvation" in Isaiah 49:8 refers to the Church’s two thousand years in addition to the Millennium (cf. 2 Corinthians 6:1-2). 4) The "seventy sevens" prophecy of Daniel chapter nine uses each day of the "week" to represent a one year period (Daniel 9:25-27). 5) The "time, times and half a time" of Revelation 12:14 refers to the three and one half years of the Great Tribulation. (as in Daniel 4:16 the seven "times" are seven years). e. Biblical Chronology: The Bible records approximately 2000 years from Christ to Abraham and 2000 years from Abraham to Adam. With the Gentile and Jewish ages both covering ca. 2000 years, and that the Millennium, the final "day" in God’s plan for human history, covering 1000 years, we posit a comparable 2000 years for the Church age. This results in a total of 7000 years wherein each millennium is reckoned as "a day" in God’s system. f. The Analogy of the Week: As the Sabbath age, the Millennium of its own accord invites us to posit six prior thousand year "days". This is especially so when we consider that the original period of time wherein God began the process or restoration and replacement known as human history was the original week of seven days, also ending in a day of rest (Genesis 1:3 ff.). g. The Seven Days of Re-Creation: The seven day week is a reflection of God’s overall design of human history. This can be seen by comparing the original week of re-creation with the millennial week it foreshadows. During the original seven days, God conducted a comprehensive restoration of the world which closely parallels His Plan for replacing Satan and his followers during the seven thousand years of human history. The Seven Genesis Days compared with the Seven Millennial Days: h. The Jewish Ceremonial Calendar: The ceremonial calendar established by the Mosaic Law mirrors the overall progression of God’s plan for human history, likewise evidencing the seven millennial days. This calendar is essentially composed of four "gaps" (periods of no festivals) separated by three, week-long festival clusters (Unleavened Bread, Pentecost, and Tabernacles). The four gaps represent the gentile age, Jewish age, Church age, and Millennium respectively, and occur in the calendar in the same order as their chronological occurrence. The three week long festivals are symbolic of the last three ages of human history, the Jewish Age, Gentile Age and Millennium respectively. The three festivals, complete seven day weeks, each accomplish conceptually the symbolic task of designating one of these four major divisions of history, and as such appear in the exact same proportions as the overall history they represent (i.e., seven days each, a perfect whole, just as the plan of God for human history is likewise contained in seven millennial days). The increasing length of the gaps which follow these festivals represents the proportion of believers called out in the Jewish Age, Gentile Age and Millennium respectively (with the stream of believers entering into the family of God growing ever larger until it reaches flood-tide in the Millennium). i. The Testimony of Irenaeus: The writings of Irenaeus, perhaps our last extra-biblical witness to the original New Testament eschatological teachings (before such views were squelched by the increasingly secular church), clearly show that this was the way in which he understood the critical passages of Psalms 90:4 and 2 Peter 3:8. For, in Adversus Omnes Haereses 5.28.3, the millennial day interpretation is put as fact. j. The Problem of Science and the Bible: Differences between what the Bible teaches and the latest theories put forward by science about the construction of the universe need not cause believers concern, for the world was made by God in a manner and in a fashion which cannot be discerned through human skill (Hebrews 11:3; cf. 2 Peter 3:3-7; 2 Timothy 3:7-9) k. Chronology in the Bible: 1) As the Creator, God invented, created, and controls time and everything that takes place within it (Psalms 56:8; Psalms 139:16; Jeremiah 33:25; Romans 8:28-30; Ephesians 1:11; 1 Peter 1:2). 2) It is not accidental that the Bible contains much chronological data. 3) To be useful to us, biblical chronological data must be correctly matched to the system of reckoning time we now use. 4) This process has a number of systemic problems, such as the A.D./B.C. shift, inclusive counting in biblical times, differences in the exact length of months and years as then reckoned, in the start times of years, and the use of multiple reckoning methods in the Bible. 5) Biblical chronological information, however, is not only absolutely accurate, but also extremely precise (cf. Exodus 12:40-42). 6) We have been given this information in order to know and understand the chronological facts the Bible records (Matthew 16:3; Matthew 24:32-35; 1 Thessalonians 5:1-3). 7) As the ruler of time, it is within God’s authority both to establish any system He desires (such as the seven millennial day system), and to "change the times and the seasons" should He so desire (Daniel 2:21). God is not bound to honor any human system of chronology. 9. Specific Chronology of the Seven Days of Human History a. The Life of Christ: From God’s perspective, time, history is about Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ is the focus of history. Scripture calls the period of our Savior’s earthly life the "conjunction of the Ages" (Hebrews 9:26; cf. Romans 5:6; Galatians 4:4; 1 Timothy 2:6; Titus 1:3; Hebrews 1:1-2; 1 Peter 1:20), and so it is, for His birth marks the postponement of the Jewish Age (cf. Matthew 11:12; Mark 1:15; Luke 12:49 ff.), while His death, resurrection and ascension to heaven signal the imminent commencement of the Church Age (Acts 1:4-5; cf. Matthew 27:51; Mark 7:27; John 2:4; John 7:8; Hebrews 9:10). Therefore all systems of biblical chronology must begin and end with Jesus Christ. 1) The Date of the Birth of Christ: Luke 3:1 states that John began baptizing "during the fifteenth imperial year of Tiberius" (i.e., from August 19th of A.D. 28 to August 18th of A.D. 29). Since Jesus was "about thirty"at the commencement of His public ministry (Luke 3:23), an event that post-dates the time when John began baptizing, the birth of Christ is to be fixed ca. 1-2 B.C. 2) The Date of the Census: The census described in Luke 2:1-3 is not the census of Quirinius. Properly translated, Luke 2:2 states that "this was a census which occurred prior to Quirinius’ governorship of Syria". Luke’s census was part of Augustus’ universalization of the census process occurring empire-wide in seven year cycles. Since each cycle included a year of registration followed by a year of official recording, we conclude that Christ was born in 2 B.C. during the universal census of 2/1 B.C. (as Joseph and Mary journeyed to Bethlehem to fulfill their legal requirements during the year of registration). 3) The Date of the Crucifixion of Christ: Since John the baptist’s ministry began sometime after August 19th of 28 A.D., the time-frame of September-October 28 A.D. has much to recommend it as the true start of John’s ministry. This would fix Jesus’ baptism and therefore the coincident start of Jesus’ earthly ministry precisely at the point indicated by Luke (Luke 3:23), that is, at "approximately" (Greek hosei) the age of 30 years old in September-October of 30 A.D. (only weeks away from His thirtieth birthday assuming a December date). Following this reasoning, Passover of 33 A.D., three and one half years later, will be the correct date for the crucifixion and resurrection of our Lord. Christ’s earthly life is the center-piece of God’s chronological design of human history, "the fullness of times" (Galatians 4:4), and "the conjunction of the ages" (Hebrews 9:26 b; cf. Hebrews 1:2). It is a 33 year interlude in the progression of the seven millennial days, which, aside from the final seven year of the Tribulation (cf. Daniel 9:20-27), marks the termination of the Jewish Age (Mark 1:15), and the commencement of the Church Age (Matthew 21:43; Mark 12:9; Luke 20:16). This thirty-three year interval, the exact period of time that David (a type of His coming Son) reigned in Jerusalem, is a grace period around which the rest of human history pivots, for within it Jesus Christ was offered to the world (though the world rejected Him). Christ’s birth in 2 B.C. is the critical departure point for calculating God’s historical timetable backward, while the date of His death and resurrection, 33 A.D., is the basis from which to reckon the scheme of history that follows. b. Days 4-3, and 2-1: Jewish and Gentile millennial days: Both the Age of the Gentiles and the Jewish Age comprise two millennial days each (as does the Church Age). Working backward from the birth of Christ in 2 B.C., biblical records reflect a four thousand year period from this date back to the fall of Adam when taking into consideration that: 1) The Age of Israel still has seven years to run (i.e., Daniel’s 70th week, otherwise known as the Tribulation: Daniel 9:27), thus reducing Israel’s two millennial days to 1993 years; and 2) The Babylonian captivity (586-516 B.C.), wherein Israel’s functioning as God’s mechanism for the distribution of His divine truth was held in abeyance, does not count against the two thousand years of the Jewish Age (thus adding 70 years to the chronology). 1) The Jewish Age (2165 - 2 B.C.): to 1444 B.C. (the Exodus): retrogressing 1442 years (from 2 B.C.) to the Exodus in 1444 B.C., based upon 1st Kings 6:1 which states that the 4th year of King Solomon’s reign (ca. 964 B.C.) occurred 480 years after the Exodus (i.e., ca. 1444 B.C.). to 1874 B.C. (Jacob in Egypt): retrogressing from 1444 B.C. a further 430 years to the time of Jacob’s arrival in Egypt, based upon Exodus 12:40 (which states that Israel remained in Egypt after Jacob’s arrival exactly 430 years), and thus taking us to 1874 B.C. to 2004 B.C. (Jacob’s birth): retrogressing from 1874 B.C. a further 130 years to Jacob’s birth, based upon Genesis 47:9 where Jacob tells Pharaoh on his arrival in Egypt that he is 130 years old. to 2064 B.C. (Isaac’s birth): retrogressing from 2004 B.C. a further 60 years to the birth of Isaac, based upon Genesis 25:26, where we learn that Isaac was sixty when Jacob was born. to 2065 B.C. (Abraham’s circumcision): retrogressing from 2064 B.C. one year to the circumcision of Abraham, the event which marks the beginning of the Jewish Age (Gen.17-18; cf. Romans 4:9-12). Subtracting from 2065 two years for the birth of Christ in 2 B.C. and seventy years for the Babylonian captivity, we are left with 1993 years, the entire two millennial days of the Jewish age (minus the 7 years of Daniel’s 70th week, the yet future Tribulation). 2) The Age of the Gentiles (4065 - 2165 B.C.): to 2164 B.C. (Abraham’s birth): retrogressing 99 years from 2065 to the birth of Abraham based upon Genesis 17:24. to 2456 B.C. (the flood): retrogressing 292 years from 2164 to the great flood by adding the intervals between generations from Abraham to Shem, based upon Genesis 11:10-26. to 3056 B.C. (Noah’s birth): retrogressing 600 years to the birth of Noah by adding the intervals between generations from Shem to Noah, based upon Genesis 7:6 and 7:11 - 8:14. to 4112 B.C. (Adam’s creation): retrogressing 1056 years to the creation of Adam by adding the intervals between generations from Noah to Adam, based upon Genesis 5:3-29. Allowing exactly 2,000 years for Age of the Gentiles from 2065 to 4065 and subtracting the latter figure from 4112, we posit that Adam sinned and was expelled from the garden at the chronological age of 47 (i.e., he was already mature when created, then fell 47 years after his mature creation). c. Days 5 and 6: the two millennial days of the Church: The Church Age also comprises two millennial days. Working forward two complete thousand year periods from 33 A.D., the year of our Lord’s crucifixion and resurrection, would bring us to the year 2033 A.D. as the date of our Lord’s return and the beginning of His millennial reign. Subtracting seven years from this total, gives us the year 2026 A.D. as the time of the commencement of the seven year tribulational period. Although our Lord’s crucifixion and resurrection occurred in the spring at the time of the Passover, the Tribulation will begin with the cycle of festivals occurring in the fall. The sixth month hiatus (between the spring and fall of 2026 A.D.) constitute the "half hour of silence" (Revelation 8:1), the final grace period before the commencement of that great" hour of testing" begins (Revelation 3:10). d. The Break-points of the Three Pairs of Days: The occurrence of divinely significant events at the junctions of the ages is also a strong argument in favor of the millennial day interpretation advanced above. The Gentile, Jewish and Church Ages, though consisting of two millennial days each, are integral wholes or "pairs of days", with each divided from the other through the occurrence of the following unique events: 1) Gentile Age: Begins with the fall of Adam: The initial promise of the Messiah accompanies this event (Genesis 3:15; Genesis 3:21). 2) Jewish Age: Begins with the circumcision of Abraham: The specific promise of the Seed of Abraham, Jesus Christ, accompanies this event (Genesis 17:1-27). 3) Jewish Age: Ends with the birth of Christ: The Word becomes flesh through this event (John 1:14; see above on the time of Christ’s earthly life as the unique conjunction of the ages). 4) Church Age: Begins with the death and resurrection of Christ: The promise of salvation has now been fulfilled (2 Corinthians 1:19-20), and the expansion of our Lord’s Church begins. 5) Church Age: Ends with the return of Christ: The resurrection occurs and the kingdom commences at this time (Revelation 20:4-6) e. Day 7: The Millennium: The Millennium is in many ways the capstone of the seven days of human history, a time of blessing as close to perfection as yet sinful mankind can experience, with, Satan, the prime instigator of evil, temporarily removed from the world (Revelation 21:1-3), and the Son of God Himself reigning upon the earth (Revelation 11:15). The Millennium will commence almost immediately following Christ’s return (following a short period of purification: Daniel 12:11-12), and last for one thousand years (ca. 2033-3033). Following the elapse of the one thousand years, the devil will be released and a short period of human rebellion and swift divine judgment will ensue (Revelation 21:3; Revelation 21:7-10). Scripture is silent as to the length of this postscript to history (although it is "short": Revelation 21:3), but we do know that at its conclusion, the world as we know it will cease to exist, being subsumed forever by our eternal home, the New Heavens and the New Earth – a place where only righteousness will dwell (2 Peter 3:10-13; Revelation 21:1-4; cf. Isaiah 60:21). This "new day" will have no end, as we who have chosen for God will have the inestimable privilege of living with Him and His Son forever (Revelation 22:3-5). The shifting of the "Lord’s day" from the Saturday Sabbath (the seventh millennial day in history’s seven day structure) to Sunday, is indicative and evocative of this "new day" that will never come to an end (cf. Revelation 1:10). f. The Tribulational Overlap: The Tribulation’s seven years belong both to the Church Age (its final seven years) and to the Jewish Age (its final seven years: Daniel’s seventieth week; cf. Daniel 9:24-27). Both the Jewish and Church Ages are initially divided by the life of Christ (His birth marking the temporary end of the former and the beginning of the latter), but are ultimately joined together in the period preceding His Second Advent. This is fitting, in that both Jews and gentiles together form the true Body of Christ. Other indications that the final seven years of the Church Age run concurrently with the Tribulation include: 1) the fact that the completion of the gentile complement of the Body of Christ is coterminous with Israel’s change of heart at the Second Advent (viz., at the end of the Tribulation: Romans 11:25-26). 2) the fact that this present era, described as "the times of the gentiles (that is to say, a time and a time [period] of 1,000 years each: Luke 21:24), will not come to an end as long as Jerusalem is "trodden under foot" (i.e., not until the return of Christ at the end of the Tribulation). 3) the fact that the current Church Age trend of antichrist-type deceivers will only reach its culmination with the unveiling of the antichrist during the Tribulation (1 John 2:18). 4) the fact that the prophesied (and already observable) trend towards apostasy on the part of the Church will only reach its fulfillment in the Tribulation (compare Revelation 3:14-20 with 2 Thessalonians 2:3). 5) the fact that the Church Age is in a very real and scriptural way part of the "end times" (1 Corinthians 10:11; Hebrews 1:2; 1 Peter 1:20; 1 John 2:18), a principle that makes little sense if it is to be excluded from the conclusive period of the "last days", the Tribulation. 6) the fact that much of our hope as Christians consists in our looking forward eagerly to the return of our Lord, an event that will take place at the end of the Great Tribulation (1 Thessalonians 4:13-18; Titus 2:13). 7) the fact that, in this way, the Church Age will end in the same miraculous fashion in which it was ushered in, with great satanic opposition, and surpassingly great divine provision and manifestation (cf. Joel 2:28-32, a passage equally applicable to Pentecost and the events preceding the Second Advent: compare with Acts 2:16-1; cf. Isaiah 32:15; Isaiah 44:3; Jeremiah 31:33-34; Ezekiel 36:24-27; Ezekiel 37:9; Zechariah 12:10). ======================================================================== CHAPTER 24: 01A.01C. THINGS TO COME: JUDGMENT, RESTORATION AND REPLACEMENT PHASES 2 & 3 ======================================================================== C. Things to Come: Judgment, Restoration and Replacement Phases I, II and III: The plan of God, as set forth here, can be seen as working in three distinct phases. This three phase process, consisting of Judgment, Restoration and Replacement, phases I, II, and III respectively, is God’s plan for total victory in response to the rebellion of Satan, and is given here in overview (for details on Phase I, see above; for details on Phases II and III, see below): 1. Phase I: Constitution: Lays the foundation for the eternal victory (the "much" phase). a. Judgment I: the Genesis Gap: Judgment is passed upon Satan and his angels while the devil’s original headquarters, the pre-historic earth, is devastated and the original universe plunged into darkness. See section A.2 above. b. Restoration I: the Seven Days of Re-creation: Earth is restored to a habitable environment (during the Seven Days of Re-creation). See section A.2 and section B.8.g above. c. Replacement I: the First and the Last Adams: The creation of the first Adam begins the human race (the source of eventual replacement for Satan and his angels). The gift of the Last Adam, Jesus Christ, provides the grace necessary for the salvation of the human race after the fall through the Messiah’s work on the Cross. The Church can then be called out for replacement. See section A.3 above. 2. Phase II: Completion: Realizes eternal objectives with victory in time (the "more" phase) a. Judgment II: the Tribulation: God’s judgment upon the devil’s kingdom and upon his earthly subjects. Satan and his angels are expelled from heaven and later imprisoned b. Restoration II: the Millennium: Earth is restored to an environment of blessing. c. Replacement II: Christ the King and His Church: Christ the King replaces Satan as the de facto ruler of the earth. The Church is resurrected in replacement. 3. Phase III: Consummation: Crowns the victory with surpassing blessing (the "most" phase) a. Judgment III: the Final Judgment: Satan and his angels are removed to the lake of fire along with unbelieving humanity (following the Great White Throne judgment). b. Restoration III: the New Heavens and the New Earth: The New Heavens, New Earth and New Jerusalem provide an unparalleled and eternal environment of perfect blessing. c. Replacement III: the Advent of the Father: Along with Christ, the Father will rule forever from earth. The Church is complemented by the double portion of millennial believers. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 25: 01A.01D. GOD'S DISPOSITION OF SATAN: A HISTORICAL OVERVIEW ======================================================================== D. God’s Disposition of Satan: A Historical Overview 1. God’s initial disposition of Satan: a. God’s First Best Will Rejected: Although created in perfection and inhabiting a perfect universe, Satan and his followers rejected God’s perfect plan for them, choosing rebellion instead of obedience. b. Judgment and Demotion: Having rejected God and mutinied against Him, Satan and his followers were judicially condemned by God for their rebellion and removed from their positions of service to Him (John 16:11; cf. Job 4:18; Job 15:15; Job 21:22; Matthew 25:41; Revelation 20:10). c. Judgment on the Universe: The original heavens and earth, having been contaminated by the sinful actions of the devil and his followers (cf. Job 25:5), were summarily judged by God, and plunged into utter darkness (Genesis 1:1-2). d. The Delay of Execution: Having judged the universe, God nevertheless deferred execution of Satan’s sentence pending the completion of an as yet unforeseen event: human history (cf. Genesis 6:3; Romans 2:4; Romans 3:25-26; Romans 9:22; 2 Peter 3:9; 2 Peter 3:15). This delay, which we call human history, accomplished the following: 1. The glorification of God through the successful completion of His plan (centered upon His Son, Jesus Christ) in all its particulars despite all opposition. 2. The vindication of God by demonstrating the devil’s complete recalcitrance and unwillingness to repent in contrast to God’s faithfulness toward His new creature, Man. God is thereby vindicated in His judgments (Psalms 116:11; Romans 3:4), and justified by keeping all promises of salvation to mankind despite satanic opposition (Isaiah 49:9; John 16:11). 3. The replacement of what was lost through Satan’s rebellion in a manner that has ensured the free will choice of those who replace the devil and his followers. e. First Parole: Satan was allowed the freedom to observe God’s reconstruction of the world and His commencement of the process of replacement through the creation of mankind (Genesis 3:1-7). f. The Last Olive Branch: Rather than drawing the appropriate conclusions from the creation of Man (i.e., that God is invincible and therefore that the carrying out His sentence against the devil was inevitable), Satan rejected this last, tacit overture on God’s part and used his freedom of action instead to recommence his rebellion, this time on the battlefield of human history (Genesis 3:1-7). 2. God’s interim disposition of Satan: a. Imprisonment: With the 2nd Advent of Jesus Christ, the devil and his followers will be imprisoned in the Abyss for the duration of the Millennium so as to remove all satanic influence from the Messiah’s Kingdom (Revelation 20:1-3). b. Second Parole: At the conclusion of the Millennium, Satan and his angels will be temporarily released and will stir up the peaceful world of that time for one final assault upon God (Psalms 2:1 ff.; Revelation 20:7-10). The willingness of so many human beings to reject the perfect reign of Christ and the willingness of the devil to lead them in this last futile attempt to oppose God provides the final incontrovertible proof that evil and the rejection of God is not circumstantial, but flows from the free will choice of creatures. 3. God’s final disposition of Satan: At the conclusion of the Gog-Magog revolution and just prior to the creation of the pristine and holy New Heavens and New Earth, the sentence imposed upon the devil and his angels before human history began will finally be carried out (Isaiah 14:3-23; Isaiah 24:21-23; Isaiah 34:1-5; Ezekiel 28:11-19; Jeremiah 10:11; Daniel 4:35; Luke 10:18-20; 1 Corinthians 6:3; Revelation 20:7-10), and they will be consigned to the lake of fire at that point and forevermore (Revelation 20:10). The lake of fire and his final disposition in it (along with all creatures who chose to follow him instead of God) will stand as an eternal memorial to the folly of rejecting God and His mercy (Revelation 14:10; cf. Isaiah 66:24; Revelation 19:3). For by trying to replace God and His Son instead of serving them, Satan finds himself replaced by the Son who was born into the devil’s world to refute and defeat him through the victory of the cross (Luke 10:18; John 12:31; Romans 16:20; Hebrews 2:14; 1 Peter 3:22; 1 John 3:8). ======================================================================== CHAPTER 26: 01A.02. THE TRIBULATION DEFINED ======================================================================== 2. The Tribulation Defined The Tribulation is the cataclysmic seven year period which precedes the Second Advent of our Lord Jesus Christ. It comprises the final seven years of the Church Age as well as the final seven years of the Jewish Age (Daniel 9:24-27). As its primary name indicates, the Tribulation will be a period of intense judgment and severe trial – judgment from God against the unbelieving world, and persecution for believers at the hands of our adversary the devil and his earthly representative, antichrist (Isaiah 24:1-6; Isaiah 26:20-21; Jeremiah 23:19-20; Jeremiah 30:23-24; Daniel 8:19; Daniel 11:36; 2 Peter 3:10). A. The Tribulation: Derived from the root thlib (θλιβ), meaning "to exert pressure", the Greek word thlipsis (θλῖψις) is used commonly in secular Greek for discomfort, extreme difficulty, and, in general, physical and emotional pressures of every sort. In scripture too, the word is not restricted to being a technical term for the future time of distress we call the Tribulation, but often refers to personal tribulation here and now (cf. John 16:21; John 16:33). However, thlipsis is the most common term employed to designate the final, intense trial of human history which we have come to call the Tribulation (Matthew 24:21; Matthew 24:29; Mark 13:19; Mark 13:24; cf. Daniel 12:1). B. The Great Tribulation: Scripture also distinguishes between the Tribulation as a whole (i.e., the entire seven year period of the apocalypse) and "the Great Tribulation", a term which properly refers to second half of this period (i.e., the final three and a half years before the return of our Lord Jesus Christ). The Great Tribulation will be the time of greatest pressure and intensity of persecution in human history as the Great Apostasy of the first half is replaced by the Great Persecution of the second half (Matthew 24:21; Revelation 7:14). C. The Apocalypse: The book of Revelation is sometimes entitled "the Apocalypse" (Revelation 1:1), since "apocalypse" is an English transliteration of the Greek word which means "revelation" or "unveiling" (i.e., apokalypsis, ἀποκάλυψις). However, the full Greek title of the book is "the Revelation of Jesus Christ", and it is well to note that it is Jesus Christ who is unveiled to the world in all His glory when He returns at the end of the Tribulation (Luke 17:30; 1 Corinthians 1:7; 2 Thessalonians 1:7; 1 Peter 1:7; 1 Peter 1:13; 1 Peter 4:13; Revelation 1:1). At that time, we, His bride, will be unveiled with Him (Romans 8:19; cf. Romans 16:25-26; Galatians 3:23; Ephesians 3:5-6). The term "apocalypse" or "revelation", therefore, is truly focused on the end of the Tribulation and our blessed hope of resurrection and reunion with our Lord (1 Corinthians 1:7-8; 2 Thessalonians 1:7; 1 Peter 1:7; Revelation 1:1). D. The Time of Jacob’s Trouble: This phrase in Jeremiah 30:7 is a clear reference to the Tribulation as the context indicates. It will be a time like no other (Jeremiah 30:7), but one followed by liberation (Jeremiah 30:8), the rule of the Messiah (Jeremiah 30:9), and the regathering of the nation (Jeremiah 30:10). E. Daniel’s 70th Week: The final "seven" in the vision of the seventy sevens (or "weeks" of years) given to Daniel (Daniel 9:20-27) is a clear reference to the Tribulation. In the middle of the final week of years, for example, the "abomination of desolation" is set up in the temple by antichrist ("the prince who is coming", Daniel 9:26; cf. Matthew 24:15; Mark 13:14). F. The Hour of Testing: Because of their faithful service, the Philadelphia generation of the Church would not pass through the Tribulation (Revelation 3:10). G. Other Passages: There are also many other places in scripture where the Tribulation is referenced without the use of specific terminology (e.g., Genesis 49:18; Daniel 8:17-19; Isaiah 2:2; Acts 2:17; 1 Timothy 4:1; 2 Timothy 3:1; James 3:5; 2 Peter 3:3-7; Jude 1:17-18). ======================================================================== CHAPTER 27: 01A.03. THE SEVEN CHURCHES OF REVELATION ======================================================================== 3. The Seven Churches of Revelation The seven churches of Revelation 2:1-29, Revelation 3:1-22, in addition to being seven literal and historical local churches existing in the apostle John’s day, are also prophesies that outline the trends and characteristics of the seven eras of our own Church Age, an interpretation evidenced as follows: John’s apostolic authority (especially as the last apostle) extended to the entire Church, not just these seven (1 Corinthians 9:1-5; 1 Corinthians 12:28; Galatians 2:7-9). This is not a message designed by him to address specific issues in particular churches (as 1-3 John), but a message given by God to the seven "churches" (Revelation 1:10 : the definite article is significant here, because there were clearly more than seven local churches at the time of writing). Our Lord Jesus Christ is and was concerned for His entire Church, not just for these seven local churches. This revelation of His Person is clearly meant to be for His entire bride, whole Church universal, and not merely for a very small portion of it. The book of Revelation is the heritage of the entire Church. It is meant to bless all who read it (Revelation 1:3), and meant to show all who consider it (Revelation 22:6) what will happen in the end times. Revelation, after beginning with the messages to the seven churches in chapters two and three moves immediately to the history of the end times on the far side of the Church Age’s two millennial days. The book is indisputably focused on the conclusion of the Church Age, so that the preceding messages to the seven churches only make structural sense as an overview of the intervening two millennia. The seven lampstands cannot well be understood as only these seven local churches, for they are seen alone in the presence of Christ in chapter one (Revelation 1:12-13), and again alone in the presence of the Father’s throne in chapter four (Revelation 4:5). The lampstands, light-giving bodies which represent the role of the Church universal in reflecting the truth of Christ in this dark world, and doing so as a totality in both instances, must therefore represent more than seven local churches in the first century. The description of Jesus Christ as "in the midst" of the seven lampstands, holding the seven stars, the angels of these churches (Revelation 1:12-16), is symbolism which strongly suggests His authority over the Church, and the entire Church at that, and would be very hard to apply exclusively to seven local churches. The number seven, the number of perfection in the Bible, also argues for these seven "churches" to be a symbolic representation of one complete Church (cf. the seven spirits of Isaiah 11:1-2 and Revelation 4:5 standing symbolically for the one and only Holy Spirit). The text of Revelation 4:1 "what must take place [i.e. the Tribulation and following] after these things [i.e., the "events" of the seven churches]" only makes good sense if the seven churches be taken as the aggregate period of time between John’s penning of these words and the commencement of the Tribulation. Finally, it is appropriate for the last book of the Bible to be addressed to Christ’s entire Church (rather than merely to seven local ones). The composition of the seven eras represented by the seven churches may be summarized as follows: 1. Ephesus: 12 years 70 to 82 A.D. "The Era of Transition" 2. Smyrna: 360 years 82 to 442 A.D. "The Era of Persecution" 3. Pergamum: 360 years 442 to 802 A.D. "The Era of Accommodation" 4. Thyatira: 360 years 802 to 1162 A.D. "The Era of Compromise" 5. Sardis: 360 years 1162 to 1522 A.D. "The Era of Corruption" 6. Philadelphia: 360 years 1522 to 1882 A.D. "The Era of Revival" 7. Laodicea: 144 years 1882 to 2026 A.D. "The Era of Degeneration" The relationship of each Church era to false teaching and the infiltration of unbelieving elements into the Church-visible may be summarized as follows: Ephesus: False apostles rejected; Nicolaitans hated [the false kept out of the Church]. Smyrna: Slandered by the Synagogue of Satan [the false attacking from outside the Church]. Pergamum: You have Balaam and Balak [the false accommodated within the Church]. Thyatira: Jezebel [the false compromised with and in turn compromising the Church from within]. Sardis: No group mentioned [the true excluded by the false from the visible, apparent "church"]. Philadelphia: Acknowledged by the Synagogue of Satan [the true has separated from the false]. Laodicea: No group mentioned [the false has infiltrated and blunted the true Church]. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 28: 01A.04. THE TRIBULATION'S FIRST HALF ======================================================================== 4. The Tribulation’s First Half A. The Restraining Ministry of the Holy Spirit: Before the Tribulation can begin, God’s restraint on the devil in the Person of the Holy Spirit must be removed (2 Thessalonians 2:6-7). Before the removal of the Spirit’s restraining ministry, Satan is unable to set up antichrist’s kingdom (2 Thessalonians 2:8-12). The removal of this restraint is symbolized by the opening up of the seven seals of Revelation (Revelation 6:1-17; cf. 2 Corinthians 1:21-22; Ephesians 1:13-14; Ephesians 4:30), which restrain the Tribulation described in the scroll until the Lamb unseals the scroll. 1. Previous Restraining Ministries of the Holy Spirit: a. Preventing satanic activity on the devastated earth until God’s seven-day reconstruction of it (Genesis 1:1-2). b. Preventing the satanic seed of the Nephilim from completely destroying true humanity until God’s judgment of that seed in the great flood (Genesis 6:3). c. Specific restraint of other satanic activities (Matthew 16:19; Matthew 18:18; John 20:22-23; Acts 5:3; Acts 5:9). d. General restraint of evil (cf. Genesis 11:6; Deuteronomy 32:8; Job 12:23; Psalms 74:17; Jeremiah 18:7-10; Acts 17:26-28). 2. Restraining the "Mystery of Lawlessness": The mystery of lawlessness, that is, the growing satanic influence in the world, is already at work (2 Thessalonians 2:7; cf. 1 John 2:18-22; 1 John 4:3; 2 John 1:7). However, during the Tribulation, an exponential expansion of the present "mystery of lawlessness" constituting an unprecedented unleashing of sin and evil world-wide will occur as a direct result of the removal of the barriers put up by the Spirit, and of the devil’s consequent exploitation of this opportunity (Matthew 24:12; 1 Timothy 4:1-3; 2 Timothy 3:1-5; 2 Peter 3:3-7; 1 John 2:18; Jude 1:17-18). 3. Restraining the "Man of Lawlessness": The rise to power of antichrist, the "man of lawlessness" and his "unveiling" to and acceptance by the unbelieving world as a god will only be allowed to occur once the Tribulation has begun, and only after the deliberate and purposeful removal of Holy Spirit restraint symbolized in these seven seals (2 Thessalonians 2:1-8; cf. 1 John 2:18-22; 1 John 4:3; 2 John 1:7). 4. Protection of Believers to Continue during the Tribulation: Even after the removal of the Spirit’s restraint of lawlessness and of antichrist, believers will still enjoy the presence of the Spirit and all the divine protection which this sealing ensures. Instead of restraining the world and us in it, we will then be protected in the midst of an unrestrained world for as long as we are in it (2 Corinthians 1:21-22; Ephesians 1:13-14; Ephesians 4:30; cf. Ezekiel 9:1-11; John 6:27; 1 Peter 1:1-2). B. The Sealing of the 144,000: Like the 12 and the 70 sent forth as representatives of our Lord to prepare the hearts of His countrymen for the nearness of the Kingdom, the 144,000 are representatives of our Lord sent to prepare the hearts of His countrymen for the coming of the Kingdom in its tangible reality (Revelation 7:1-8; Revelation 14:1-5; cf. Matthew 10:1-42; Mark 6:7-12; Luke 9:1-6; Luke 10:1-20). Thus, as Second Advent messengers, the 144,000 will have a similar role and similar function to that of the 12 and the 70. As the special representatives of Jesus Christ to the Jewish people, it is fitting that the 144,000 will not only adhere to the same mandates set down by our Lord for the 12 and the 70, but will also approximate His life and His walk (in so far as sinful human beings can do). 1. Characteristics of the 144,000 and their Ministry: a. They are Jewish: Just as our Lord, in His humanity, is clearly Jewish (Luke 3:23-38; Romans 9:5), so His 144,000 special emissaries to Israel are very clearly described as belonging to the twelve tribes of Israel (12,000 from each tribe named). Just as clearly, they are also Christians, that is, Jewish believers and followers of Jesus Christ, "servants of our God" (Revelation 7:3). The exclusion of gentiles from their number is a necessity. This will be a unique ministry with a unique purpose and will thus have correspondingly unique requirements, most especially the need to understand the Jewish point-of-view, and to avoid giving offense (Matthew 27:18; Acts 13:43-45; Acts 17:5; Acts 22:21-22; Romans 10:2; cf. Luke 15:25-32). b. They are male: Just as our Lord is male, and so these 144,000 who are chosen to spread the good news of His imminent return to the lost sheep of Israel are also male (viz., they are described in the Greek with masculine modifiers only). This is also a necessity to avoid giving offense in the Jewish tradition (cf. 1 Corinthians 9:19-23). c. They are virgins: Just as our Lord remained a virgin throughout His earthly life, so shall His 144,000 precursors who will begin to turn the hearts of Israel back to Him (Revelation 14:4; cf. 1 Corinthians 7:7-8; 1 Corinthians 9:5-6). d. They are sent to evangelize Israel: Just as our Lord became a "Minister to the circumcision" (Romans 15:8; cf. Acts 3:26), sent "to the lost sheep of Israel" (Matthew 15:24; cf. the twelve: Matthew 10:6), so the mission of the 144,000 will be directed to the Jewish people (Matthew 10:5; Matthew 10:18; Matthew 10:23; Luke 10:1), although it will be a worldwide as opposed to a centralized ministry (cf. Revelation 14:6-7). e. They are given the authority to perform miracles: Just as our Lord performed miracles in part as a badge of His authority that clearly marked Him out as the true Son of God and the Messiah (John 5:36; John 10:25; John 10:38; John 14:11; cf. Matthew 11:1-6; Luke 7:18-23), so miracles will be given to the 144,000 to perform as a witness to the fact that they speak with the authority of God: Healing the sick (Matthew 10:1; Matthew 10:8; Mark 6:7; Luke 9:1-2; Luke 10:9; compare Matthew 4:24 et passim in the gospels; and Acts 5:15-16; Acts 8:5-7; Acts 28:8-9). Driving out demons (Matthew 10:1; Matthew 10:8; Mark 6:7; Mark 6:12; Luke 9:1; Luke 10:17; Luke 10:20; compare Luke 8:26-37 et passim in the gospels; and Acts 5:16; Acts 8:7; Acts 16:16-18; Acts 19:11-13). Raising the dead (Matthew 10:8; compare Mark 5:37-43; Luke 7:11-17; John 11:1-44; and Acts 9:36-42; Acts 20:7-12). Miraculous protection from dangers (Luke 10:19; compare Luke 4:28-30; John 7:30; John 8:59; John 10:39; and Acts 12:1-10; Acts 28:3-6). f. They are subject to a special code of conduct: Just as our Lord adopted a "servant life-style" throughout His earthly life (Php 2:5-10; cf. Isaiah 42:1-25; Isaiah 49:1-26; Isaiah 52:1-15; Isaiah 53:1-12; Matthew 20:28; Luke 22:27; John 1:1 with John 1:14; John 5:18; John 10:30; John 14:9; John 17:5; 2 Corinthians 8:9; Romans 8:3; Romans 9:5; 1 Timothy 2:5-6; 1 Timothy 3:16; Hebrews 2:9-18; Hebrews 10:5-10), so the ministry of the 144,000 will require extreme commitment: The will remain celibate (Revelation 14:4). Their help (healing, etc.) and their message will be offered on a grace basis, without charge (Matthew 10:8). They will be entirely dependent upon God’s day by day provision (Matthew 10:9-10; Luke 19:3; Luke 10:4). Their ministry will be conducted in a serious and purposeful fashion (Luke 10:4). They will maintain an itinerant lifestyle (Luke 9:6; Matthew 10:11; Matthew 10:23). They will maintain an overt and above-board dependence upon the charity of those they minister to (Matthew 10:11-15; Luke 9:4; Luke 10:5-7), but without any opportunity to amass surplus (i.e., only "room and board", trophes in Matthew 10:10). They will maintain an overt and above-board policy of seeking and accepting support, searching diligently for a "worthy" house (a policy which will entail many nights spent in the open in travel and prior to finding a "worthy" house: Matthew 10:11-15; Luke 9:4; Luke 10:5-7). They will maintain an overt and above-board policy of removing themselves from a particular mission field only 1) when the mission is completed (Matthew 10:11; Luke 9:4; Luke 10:7); 2) if the town proves unworthy (Luke 9:5; cf. Luke 10:10-12); 3) if forced to leave by persecution (Matthew 10:23). They will be careful and circumspect in every aspect of their manner of life, thereby not giving offense on their own behalf in any way, but keeping the focus on the gospel message (Matthew 10:16-17). They will make their complete faith in God obvious to all from the total reliance they will display in His protection in times of trouble (Matthew 10:16-20). They will conduct their ministries courageously, openly proclaiming the gospel in spite of any and all consequences (Matthew 10:26-31). They will resolutely demonstrate uncommon perseverance in a variety of threatening circumstances (Matthew 10:32-39). They will courageously continue their ministries despite threats and opposition, departing only at the point when persecution makes further work impossible (Matthew 10:23). g. They will face stiff opposition: The 144,000 will be spoken against vociferously not only by gentile unbelievers, but also by those of their fellow Jews who have determined in their hearts not to accept their witness and return to God through Jesus Christ (Matthew 10:17; Matthew 10:21; cf. Isaiah 6:9-10; Isaiah 53:1; John 1:11; John 12:37-41). They will be betrayed by their own family members (Matthew 10:21; Matthew 10:35-37), hated by all men (Matthew 10:22), slandered (Matthew 10:24-25), imprisoned, tortured and falsely accused (Matthew 10:17-20), persecuted (Matthew 10:23), knowing no peace (Matthew 10:34), running their course as did our Lord, as did his apostles among ravening "wolves" (Matthew 10:16; Luke 10:3), faithful until the appointed end when they will give up their lives in the service of God’s gospel (Matthew 10:39; Revelation 14:1-5). h. They will receive miraculous protection during the days of their ministry: The invisible seal on the foreheads of the 144,000 marks them out as special servants of God (Revelation 7:1-8). The sealing of the 144,000 is an assurance from God to them of His special superintendence of their lives and ministries, invisible to men, but obvious and understood by all angelic creatures, elect and fallen (cf. Ezekiel 9:1-6). Although their ministry will involve incredible risks, they will receive miraculous protection (Luke 10:19; compare Luke 4:28-30; John 7:30; John 8:59; John 10:39; and Acts 12:1-10; Acts 28:3-6). i. They will be martyred at the conclusion of their ministry: The 144,000 will be the first martyrs of Great Persecution of antichrist which takes place during the Tribulation’s second half (Revelation 14:3-4; Revelation 17:6; cf. Matthew 10:23; Luke 21:12-19). 2. The Course of the Ministry of the 144,000 a. Some particulars of their ministry: Just as the twelve, and the 70, and John’s disciples did not operate in a vacuum, but were selected, commissioned, and sent out by Jesus and John respectively (cf. Matthew 10:7; Mark 6:7; Luke 9:1), so the 144,000 will operate under the specific, earthly direction of the "two witnesses", Moses and Elijah, the prophetical counterparts of Jesus and John respectively. And just as the two witnesses are to conduct a ministry that will gain worldwide attention from its central location in Jerusalem (Zechariah 4:11-14; Zechariah 11:1-13), so the ministry of this famous pair will be projected, augmented and paralleled by the ministries of thousands of other pairs of the 144,000 serving around the globe under their supervision. b. The content of their message: The content of the message preached by our Lord Jesus Christ, as well as by John, Moses and Elijah, the 12, the 70, and the 144,000 is all one and the same, namely the gospel of the kingdom, the call to repent and turn back to God through faith in His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. There is also, it must be said, an urgency to the message so given in all these cases, precisely because of the imminence of events (Malachi 4:4-6; Matthew 3:1-2; Matthew 4:17; Matthew 10:7; Mark 1:14; Mark 6:12; Luke 9:2; Luke 10:1; Luke 10:1, Luke 10:11; Acts 13:24; Revelation 11:3; Revelation 11:7; Revelation 14:1-6; Revelation 17:6). c. The results of their ministry: Although in large part the ministry of the 144,000 will not come to fruition until Israel returns en masse to the Lord at the Second Advent (Joel 2:30-32; Zechariah 12:10; Matthew 24:29-30; Romans 11:25-27; Revelation 1:7), there is ample evidence from prophecy to show that a sizeable (though unspecified) number will respond directly to the message of the 144,000. In Revelation chapter twelve (and elsewhere: Matthew 24:15-22; Mark 13:14-23; Luke 21:20-24), we find a large remnant of Jewish believers in Israel who are persecuted by antichrist immediately following the Tribulation’s mid-point and are subsequently forced to flee into the desert for refuge. d. Parallels to the ministry of Christ, and also of John, Moses, Elijah, and the Apostles: The ministry of the 144,000 bears many resemblances to the most impressive divine ministries which have preceded them. These parallels are important to take note of, because they emphasize both the importance and the nature of the ministry of the 144,000, both points which we have been stressing since the beginning of this section. For the 144,000 are all ... Jewish males: As are Christ, John, Moses, Elijah, and the apostles. Unmarried: As are Christ, John, Elijah, and Paul. Miraculously protected: As are Christ (Luke 4:28-30; John 7:30; John 8:59; John 10:39), Moses (Numbers 16:1-50, Numbers 17:1-13), Elijah (2 Kings 1:1-18), and the apostles (Acts 12:1-10; Acts 28:3-6). Evangelists to Israel: As are Christ (Matthew 15:24; Luke 2:34), John (Matthew 3:7-10; Luke 1:67-80), Moses, Elijah, and Peter (Galatians 2:7). Preachers of restoration to God: As are Christ (Luke 4:14-21), John (Luke 1:17 ; John 1:7), Elijah (Matthew 4:4-6), and the apostles (Acts 3:17-21). Performers of exceptional miracles: As are Christ (Mark 5:37-43; Luke 7:11-17; John 11:1-44), Moses (Exodus 4:1-17; Acts 7:36), Elijah (1 Kings 17:17-24), and the apostles (Acts 9:36-42; Acts 20:7-12). Subject to a demanding "code of conduct": As are Christ (Matthew 4:1-11), John (Matthew 3:4; Luke 1:80), Elijah (1 Kings 17:1-16), and Paul (1 Corinthians 4:8-13; 2 Corinthians 4:7-12; 2 Corinthians 6:3-10; 2 Corinthians 11:16-33; Php 3:7-11). Confronted by fierce opposition: As are Christ (Luke 4:29; John 7:1; John 8:40), John (Matthew 14:1-5), Moses (Acts 7:39), Elijah (1 Kings 18:16-17; 1 Kings 19:1-2), and the apostles (Acts 5:17-42). Consistent in flawless behavior (Revelation 14:4-5): As is Christ (John 8:46; Acts 8:32-35; Hebrews 4:15; 1 Peter 1:19). Serving a three and one half year ministry: As did Christ, Elijah (James 5:17), and John. Martyred at the conclusion of their ministry (Revelation 14:3): As was Christ, John (Matthew 14:6-12), and the apostles (cf. John 21:18-19). Standing as an offering of "first-fruits" to God (Revelation 5:9): As does Christ (1 Corinthians 15:23; cf. Leviticus 23:9 ff.). e. The omission of the tribe of Dan: The overarching reason for Dan’s non-inclusion within the ranks of the 144,000 is the fact that antichrist will be descended from this tribe (Genesis 49:16-18; cf. Genesis 3:16). This removal of one the twelve tribes for betrayal and satanic allegiance parallels the removal of Judas from the number of the twelve apostles (replaced by Paul). f. Their reward: The 144,000 will be granted the special status of "first-fruits", a unique and preeminent martyrdom (Revelation 14:1), a special, memorial anthem (Revelation 14:3), and a unique place beside the King of Kings and Lord of Lords forevermore (Revelation 14:4). So important is their ministry that those who support them, even in seemingly trivial ways, will be rewarded as well (Matthew 10:13; Matthew 10:40-42). C. The Lamb, the Scroll, and the Seven Seals: In Revelation 5:1-14 the scroll which represents the Father’s bequest to His Son (i.e., His "revelation" to the world as its Lord and King), and therefore describes the events which lead up to His Kingdom (namely the Tribulation, Armageddon, the Second Advent, and the divine dispositions and judgments which follow) is opened by the Lamb who alone is worthy to do so. Jesus is "the Lamb who takes away the sin of the world" (John 1:29; cf. John 1:36; 1 Peter 1:19; Isaiah 53:7), and by His death for us He has won the right to remove the seals of the scroll and bring in His glorious Kingdom. The seven seals on the scroll which must be opened before this process begins have a dual symbolism, individually representing events which are set in motion by their removal, and collectively representing the power which now restrains these trends, namely, God the Holy Spirit in His ministry as the Restrainer. 1. The first four seals: These represent four major trends related to antichrist and his kingdom which begin during the Tribulation’s first half (Revelation 6:1-8): #1. The White horse: Antichrist’s Conquests: the trend of warfare and aggression. #2. The Red horse: Civil Discord: the trend of lawlessness and political destabilization. #3. The Black horse: Economic Constraint: the trend of economic dislocation & famine. #4. The Pale-green horse: Accelerated Mortality: the trend of plague and rampant death. 2. The fifth and sixth seals: These represent the two major events of the second half or Great Tribulation, namely the Great Persecution of the true Church by the beast, and the extraordinary judgments which precede the return of our Lord (Revelation 6:9-17): #5. The Martyrs: the Great Persecution: martyrdom of believers at the hands of the beast and his religion. #6. Judgments: the Second Advent: both its preliminary and concomitant judgments. 3. The seventh seal: This represents removal of the final impediment to unleashing the Tribulation as well as the inevitable and blessed results on its farther side, namely, the coming Kingdom of our Lord. #7. The Commencement: the Tribulation Begins: following a half hour of silence (six months), the final seven year period begins in the wake of the removal of the Spirit’s restraining ministry. D. The Great Apostasy: Coming about as a direct result of intensified satanic activity administered by antichrist and directed against believers, the Great Apostasy is a massive falling away from the faith by a third of Christians predicted to begin during the Tribulation’s first half and destined to reach its culmination during the Great Persecution of the Tribulation’s second half (Daniel 8:10-12; Daniel 8:23; Daniel 11:29-35; Matthew 24:3-13; 2 Thessalonians 2:1-4; 1 Timothy 4:1; Revelation 12:4; cf. Revelation 6:9-11; Revelation 7:9-17; Revelation 12:12-17; Revelation 13:10; Revelation 13:11-18; Revelation 14:13; Revelation 14:14-16; Revelation 15:1-4; Revelation 16:5-6; Revelation 17:6; Revelation 18:24; Revelation 19:1-2; Revelation 20:4). 1. The Process of Apostasy: Turning away from God and away from the Person of His Son is, in general, not an immediately obvious thing, and, rather than an event, is more often a process wherein the believer progressively violates his conscience, giving himself over to sin to such a degree that he is eventually forced to make a final choice between God and repentance on the one hand, or sin and reprobation on the other. For, at some point, continuing on the wrong road far enough and willfully enough will eventually and inevitably lead to the complete breakdown of the conscience and result in the "shipwreck" of faith (1 Timothy 1:18-19). When the believer stops believing altogether, then he/she is no longer a believer (Matthew 24:10-13). The specific, biblical process involved here is the "hardening of the heart", that is a gradual loss of response and sensitivity to one’s conscience, to the known will of God, and to one’s commitment to following Jesus Christ as a true and faithful disciple (1 Corinthians 10:11-12; Hebrews 3:12-19; James 1:14-15; 1 John 5:16). 2. The Situation of the Church and "church-visible" on the Eve of the Tribulation: Two problems confront the contemporary Church which make it particularly vulnerable to the coming Great Apostasy: 1) the fact that not all who represent themselves as Christians really are believers in and followers of our Lord Jesus Christ, with the majority of the "church-visible likely falling into this camp; and 2) the fact that in our current Church age of Laodicea complacency is the dominant trend. a. The Hardness of Unbelieving Pseudo-Christianity (The Seven Woes): Organized Judaism of our Lord’s day present a close parallel to the situation described above. Controlled largely by the scribes and Pharisees, the religious establishment of that time had become every bit as divorced from the true grace and power of God as will be the case for organized "Christianity" in the Tribulation (cf. Matthew 23:5). Jesus’ characterization of the spiritually dead "church-visible" of His own day with "the seven woes" gives us a very clear picture of what true believers will be up against once the church-visible of that future day makes a similarly clean break from the truth. The Pseudo-Christian establishment hinders salvation for its members: So woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you lock up the kingdom of heaven [right] in front of people. For you yourselves are not going in, nor do you allow those about to do so to [actually] go in. Matthew 23:13 The Pseudo-Christian establishment reaches out to hinder salvation for others seeking God: Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you scour land and sea to make a single convert, and when he becomes [one], you make him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves. Matthew 23:15 The Pseudo-Christian establishment adds forms and rituals which obscure truth: Woe to you, you blind guides who say, "Whoever swears by the temple has no obligation, but whoever swears by the gold of the temple is obliged". You fools and blind men! For what is greater, the gold or the temple which makes the gold holy? And you [also] say, "Whoever swears by the altar has no obligation, but whoever swears by the sacrifice which is on it is obliged". You blind men! For what is greater, the sacrifice or the altar which makes the sacrifice holy? Therefore whoever swears by the altar swears both by it and by everything on it. And whoever sears by the temple swears by it and by the One who dwells in it. And whoever swears by heaven swears by the throne of God and by Him who sits upon it. Matthew 23:16-22 The Pseudo-Christian establishment uses minor, partial obedience to obscure major truths: Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you give a tenth of your mint and of your anise and of your cummin, but you have neglected the weightier parts of the Law, [namely], justice and mercy and faith. You ought to do the former – but not neglect the latter! You blind guides! You [are careful to] filter out the gnat, but [then] you swallow down the camel! Matthew 23:23-24 The Pseudo-Christian establishment gives the appearance of holiness, but is not holy: Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you clean the outside of the cup and of the dish, but inside they teem with robbery and self-indulgence. Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup so that its outside may also be [truly] clean. Matthew 23:25-26 The Pseudo-Christian establishment gives the appearance of spiritual life, but is dead: Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you resemble whitewashed tombs which, while they appear to be beautiful on the outside, on the inside are filled with dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. This is just how you are. On the outside you appear to men to be righteous, but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness. Matthew 23:27-28 The Pseudo-Christian establishment appears to be for God, but is really hostile to Him and His: Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you restore the tombs of the prophets and adorn the monuments of the righteous, and you say, "If we had been [alive] in the days of our fathers, we wouldn’t have participated in [shedding] the blood of the prophets". So then you are your own witnesses against yourselves that you are [indeed the] sons of those who murdered the prophets. Matthew 23:29-31 Dead pseudo-Christian organizations (of which there are plenty in our own day) may seem to pose no threat under present circumstances. However, just as soon as circumstances change (and change they will in the Tribulation, much for the worse), such organizations will be ready-made and willing co-conspirators both for the advancement of the process of the Great Apostasy and also for the implementation of the Great Persecution. The reason for the nature of such groups is not a matter of accident: these spiritually dead organizations reflect the hardened hearts of the individuals who make them up. b. The Vulnerability of Lukewarm Believers (The Problem of Complacency): The overwhelming characteristic of believers in this current Church era of Laodicea is one of apathy when it comes to building faith, growing through the Word of God, drawing closer to Jesus Christ, and preparing for and putting into practice the gifts, ministries and effects that God has ordained for us (cf. 1 Corinthians 12:4-7; Ephesians 2:10). One could go on at great length as to the causes of such indifference toward the Lord Jesus who bought us, but it is sufficient here to point out that in its essence this appalling attitude stems primarily from loving the world more than Jesus. Complacency is a serious problem for the Church at large and for individual Christians in particular precisely because of this "zero sum" opposition between the two alternatives. For either you truly love Jesus Christ more than anything else, or the truth is that you love the world more than Him. And if you do love the world more than the Lord, then your faith is at the very least extremely fragile and vulnerable so that it may well not survive serious testing or tribulation, not to mention the Tribulation (Matthew 13:20-21; Mark 4:16-17; Luke 8:13). And, indeed, this dominant characteristic of our Laodicean era will make the Church as a whole highly vulnerable to the pressures of the Tribulation to come, thus explaining in large measure the Great Apostasy. 3. The Causes of the Great Apostasy: a. The unleashing of the "mystery of lawlessness": In 2 Thessalonians 2:7, we are told that "the mystery of lawlessness", that is, unseen satanic influence which leads to the active rejection of divine truth in all of its forms, is already at work in our day. Following the removal of the Holy Spirit’s restraint at the commencement of the Tribulation, however, lawlessness will explode, embittering human life to an unprecedented degree and leading to increased pressure upon the faith of us all (2 Thessalonians 2:6-7). While this circumstance will result in the refining of the remnant of dedicated believers, in the case of lukewarm believers it will greatly contribute to apostasy (Matthew 24:10-13; 2 Thessalonians 2:11; 1 John 4:3; 1 John 4:6). b. The dearth of Bible teaching: This second major cause of the Great Apostasy is the exclusive concern of believers. While the unleashing of lawlessness and consequent degeneration of the behavior of unbelievers will only affect believers indirectly (by increasing the external pressures on faith), the coming dearth of genuine Bible teaching anticipated during the Tribulation will have a direct negative impact contributing to apostasy. As in the case of the former cause above, so in this case it will be almost exclusively the lukewarm members of the Body of Christ adversely affected by this coming famine of spiritual food. For having been complacent about solid spiritual nutrition in good times, they will find turning to substantive Bible teaching in hard times a difficult transition, both because it will be very hard to find (Amos 8:11; Hosea 4:5-6; cf. 1 Samuel 3:1; 1 Samuel 28:6; Proverbs 29:18; Micah 3:4-7), and because this very condition will have come about in no small part through their negative and complacent attitude in the first place (2 Timothy 4:1-4; cf. 2 Chronicles 15:2-4; Isaiah 6:9-10; Isaiah 28:9-13; Ezekiel 20:34; Ezekiel 20:30-31; Matthew 13:11-17; Mark 4:12; Luke 8:10). c. The rise of false teaching: In addition to the pressure exerted by increased lawlessness and the difficulties created by the dearth of spiritual food, a third major cause for the massive apostasy among believers during the Tribulation will be the prevalence of persuasive false teaching. Our Lord’s teachings in particular are replete with warnings about the danger of deception and the need for alertness during this dark period ahead (Matthew 24:5-6; Matthew 24:17; Matthew 24:24-25; Matthew 25:13; Matthew 25:42; Mark 13:5-9; Mark 13:23; Mark 13:33; Mark 13:35-37; Luke 12:40; Luke 17:23; Luke 21:36; cf. 2 Thessalonians 2:3-12; 1 Timothy 4:1-5; 2 Timothy 3:1-13; 2 Peter 2:1-22; 2 Peter 3:1-17; 1 John 2:22; 1 John 4:1-6; Revelation 12:9; Revelation 13:14; Revelation 19:20; Revelation 20:3). d. The persuasiveness of tribulational false signs: One particular aspect of tribulational false teaching that deserves special mention in regard to its contribution to promoting apostasy is the effective use to which false signs will be put by antichrist and his false prophet. For scripture is very clear that the signs performed by these two in the power of the devil will be unprecedented in human history, and will play no small part in winning over the majority of the world’s population (Matthew 24:24; Mark 13:22; 2 Thessalonians 2:9-10; Revelation 13:3-4; Revelation 16:13-14; Revelation 17:8; Revelation 17:11; Revelation 19:20; Revelation 13:13-15), and any believer who is not absolutely firm in his or her faith will be vulnerable to the extreme persuasiveness of these unprecedented false miracles and portents. e. The persuasiveness of coopted groups: When all the world begins to follow after the beast, even so-called Christian organizations and denominations, it will put serious pressure even on the faith of the elect (Matthew 24:24; Mark 13:22). True believers in Jesus Christ must make up their minds ahead of time to put their entire allegiance in the Son of Man and not compromise their faith for the sake of tradition, sentimentality, herd-mentality, or peer-pressure (Exodus 32:1-6; Deuteronomy 13:2-4; 2 Peter 2:1-2; 2 Peter 2:20-22; 1 Timothy 4:1; 2 Timothy 4:1-4; 1 John 4:1-3). 4. The Refining of the Remnant: If there is a silver lining in this terrible cloud of apostasy, it is to be found in the refining of the faith of all those who are truly God’s people to be produced by the pressures of the Tribulation. It is true that the refining of the hearts of His people, the strengthening of faith and the testing of our commitment to Jesus Christ are givens in every era (Daniel 11:35; Daniel 12:10; cf. Job 23:10; Psalms 66:8-12; Proverbs 10:25; Proverbs 17:3; Isaiah 10:22-23; Isaiah 48:10; Luke 3:16-17; Romans 11:1-6; Ephesians 5:25-27; Hebrews 11:13-16; 1 Peter 1:6-7). E. The Trumpet Judgments: 1. The Purpose of the Seven Trumpet Judgments: The seven trumpet judgments are literal "plagues" in the biblical sense (Revelation 8:12; Revelation 9:20; Revelation 9:18), calamities visited by God upon the earth which are not confined to physical diseases (cf. the plagues of frogs, gnats, and flies in Exodus 8:1-32). As in the case of the ten plagues the Lord inflicted upon Egypt some three and a half millennia ago (Exodus 7:14-25, Exodus 8:1-32, Exodus 9:1-35, Exodus 10:1-29, Exodus 11:1-10, Exodus 12:1-30), and also in the case of the seven bowl judgments (Revelation 16:1-21), the seven trumpet judgments are instances of divine punishment leveled upon exceptional evil (cf. Leviticus 26:14-39; Deuteronomy 28:15-68; 1 Kings 16:29-34, 1 Kings 17:1). The primary purpose of these judgments is one of warning as indicated by the blowing the trumpet (Ezekiel 33:1-20; Joel 2:1; cf. Numbers 10:1-9; Joshua 6:1-5; Joshua 6:20; Jeremiah 4:19-21; Jeremiah 6:1; Hosea 5:8-9; Amos 3:6; Zephaniah 1:15-17; 1 Corinthians 14:8). 2. The Chronology of the Seven Trumpets: Like the plagues upon Egypt prior to the Exodus, each trumpet judgment lasts for a specific length of time and comes to an end before the next one in the sequence commences. The fact that judgment #5 lasts five months invites us likewise to assign a corresponding number of months to each of the first six trumpets (excluding the seventh trumpet which represents the Tribulation’s entire second half, that is, the Great Tribulation). The net result of adding this ascending number of months (i.e., 1 month for trumpet #1, plus 2 months for trumpet #2, plus 3 months for trumpet #3, plus 4 months for trumpet #4, plus 5 months for trumpet #5, plus 6 months for trumpet #6) is a total of 21 months, exactly one half of the 42 month total of the Tribulation’s first half). These six judgments should be understood to occur in immediate sequence directly prior to the commencement of the Great Tribulation: The principle of acceleration and intensification of judgment argues for understanding things in this way. The parallel seven "bowl" judgments are arranged in this way (Revelation 16:1-21). Only with this sequencing would these judgments provide maximum warning effect. The narrative of the seven trumpet judgments does in fact lead directly into the Great Tribulation with no discernible gap or interval (Revelation 10:6-7; Revelation 11:1-14; cf. Revelation 11:15-19 with Revelation 12:1-17, Revelation 13:1-18). 3. The Ascending Intensity of the Seven Trumpet Judgments: Not only do the trumpet judgment expand sequentially in terms of their duration (being 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 42 months long respectively), but they also exhibit a progressive intensification in terms of the painful effect they produce: Trumpet #1: Vegetation Stricken: A third of the earth is scorched and a third of its grass and trees are burned up, but no human fatalities are mentioned. Trumpet #2: The Sea Stricken: A third of the creatures in the sea are killed and a third of all ships destroyed, unquestionably resulting in some human fatalities. Trumpet #3: Fresh Water Stricken: A third of the world’s fresh water is poisoned with the result that many human fatalities. Trumpet #4: The Heavenly Lights Stricken: While no fatalities are mentioned in conjunction with this one third reduction in the delivery of heavenly light, this is the first judgment wherein all human beings and all portions of the world are adversely affected. The suffering caused by this diminution of light should not be underestimated (cf. Revelation 16:10-11). The administrators of these first four trumpet judgments are the four angels of Revelation 7:1-3, "to whom it had been given to harm the earth and the sea". For all four of the above judgments are targeted directly at either "the earth" (i.e., land), or at "the sea" (i.e., the waters of the earth), or, in the case of the fourth judgment, both (i.e., lack of deprivation of light affects all living things). In this they are different from the last three trumpet judgments where human beings are the objects of the judgments, and human suffering and death the main rather than merely ancillary results. Of further significance is the fact that the last three trumpet judgments, while decreed by God, are carried out by demonic forces. This is a further, clear indication of the progressive intensification of these judgments which are so much more severe in nature than the preceding four that they are given the name "the three woes" (compare Revelation 8:13 with Revelation 9:12; Revelation 11:14; Revelation 12:12). Trumpet #5: The First Woe: Demon Harassment: The entire unbelieving population of the earth is affected. Trumpet #6: The Second Woe: Demon Destruction: An entire third of the world’s population is killed. Trumpet #7: The Third Woe: The Great Tribulation: The "third woe" is synonymous with the Great Tribulation (cf. Revelation 12:12). While exact numbers are not provided, this three and one half year period will produce the most staggering loss of life in raw terms that has ever taken place (cf. Isaiah 13:12). The slaughter that will take place at Armageddon alone boggles the mind (Revelation 14:17-20; cf. Ezekiel 39:4-6; Ezekiel 39:11-20), and the bowl judgments of Revelation 16:1-21 which precede it are clearly more dire in their effects than the trumpet judgments (which collectively claim the lives of over a third of the world’s population). Finally, the fact that the Great Tribulation lasts for 42 months, exactly seven times as long as the sixth trumpet judgment which precedes, also does much to signal the incomparably more horrendous nature of this last judgment (cf. Matthew 18:22). For as terrible as the first half of the Tribulation will be, in comparison to the Great Tribulation unleashed by the seventh trumpet it is only the "beginning of woes" (Matthew 24:3-13). 4. The Effects of the Seven Trumpet Judgments on Believers: These judgments are divine punishment upon the world of unbelievers, and are not meant or intended to harm God’s people. All of us who are believers in Jesus Christ are sealed with the Holy Spirit of God (2 Corinthians 1:21-22; Ephesians 1:13-14; Ephesians 4:30). Therefore, just as the 144,000 were sealed by God so as to be spared the plagues soon to be delivered by the four angels of Revelation 7:1-3, so we may have every confidence that not only are these judgments not meant for the people of God, but also that we shall be spared the worst of their effects. F. The Two Witnesses: The ministry of the two witnesses covers the entire first half of the Tribulation, but is terminated by antichrist on the eve of the Great Tribulation (Revelation 11:1-2). Through them, God’s witness to truth proceeds hand in hand with His judgments upon evil (demonstrating His grace and mercy even in the midst of severe judgment). 1. The 1,260 days of Revelation 11:3 : 1,260 days is the length of the ministry of the two witnesses (i.e., the entire first half of the Tribulation). This should not be confused with the forty-two months cited in the preceding verse, Revelation 11:2 (wherein the gentiles will "trample" Jerusalem), which is a reference to the Great Tribulation, commencing with the seventh trumpet directly after the termination of the two-witness ministry (discussed in rest of Revelation chapter eleven). Our Lord makes a similar reference to the trampling of Jerusalem by gentiles in Luke 21:24, and tells us that this situation of gentile intrusion and conquest will continue "until the gentiles’ times have been fulfilled", that is, until His Second Advent brings antichrist’s control of Israel and Jerusalem to a violent and immediate conclusion. Here is a summary of the various scriptural designations for the forty-two month time period covered by the Great Tribulation in contrast to the prior, preceding 1,260 days wherein the witnesses will minister: In Daniel 7:25, the saints of the Most High (i.e., believers) are said to be handed over into the power of the little horn (i.e., antichrist and the Great Persecution) for "a time, times, and half a time", a biblical way of expressing the three and one half years of the Great Tribulation. In Daniel 9:27, "the prince of the people which is to come" (i.e., antichrist as the ruler of revived Rome) will make a treaty for one "seven" and break it in the middle of the "seven", that is, during middle of the seven years at the outset of the Great Tribulation. In Daniel 12:7, the angel speaking with Daniel declares that it will be "a time, times, and half a time" before the persecutions stop and everything comes to an end, that is, the Great Tribulation will last three and one half years. In Revelation 11:2, (discussed above), the gentiles (i.e., the army of antichrist) will control Jerusalem for 42 months, that is, during the entire three and a half year period of the Great Tribulation. In Revelation 12:6, the woman Israel is said to be protected for 1,260 days, that is, during the whole 42 months of the Great Tribulation (expressed in standard 30 day months). In Revelation 12:14, the woman Israel is said to be protected for a time, times, and half a time, that is, during this same period of the Great Tribulation’s three and a half years. In Revelation 13:5, the reign of antichrist is said to last for 42 months, that is, for the duration of the Great Tribulation. 2. The Tribulational Temple rebuilt by Moses and Elijah: While the "forty-two months" of Revelation 11:2 refer to the Great Tribulation, the remainder of chapter eleven (up until the seventh trumpet of verse fifteen) is a description of events which take place during the Tribulation’s first half. We see here for the first time in the book of Revelation that while the unbelieving population of the earth has been undergoing a series of horrific judgments, a significant revival has been taking place in Israel. As part of this revival, the temple has been reconstructed, and John is here invited to take precise measurements of all its dimensions. The temple rite has also been reinstated as we may conclude from the presence of the altar which meets the Mosaic specifications (implied by the command to measure it). And a considerable number of genuine worshipers (large enough that they will have to be counted with some effort) is present paying homage to God, a clear indication that by this point the revival associated with the ministry of the 144,000 witnesses has born significant fruit. The description of the measuring rod given to John is purposely reminiscent of the scene in Ezekiel chapter 40 and following. In that passage, Ezekiel is brought to the millennial Jerusalem and sees a "man whose appearance was like bronze" (i.e., a pre-incarnate appearance of Christ). Our Lord there holds a similar rod in His hands wherewith He likewise measures the millennial temple complex. It is no doubt for this reason that Revelation 11:1 has only the participle "saying" and does not identify the speaker, for, as we learn later in verse three, the speaker is also divine, and is none other than our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, whose servants the two witnesses are (i.e., they are "My servants" in Revelation 11:3; cf. Matthew 16:28, Matthew 17:1-13). From this set of facts we may deduce that the rebuilding of the tribulational temple is divinely ordained and supervised, for it corresponds to divine specifications of measurement. It is given to John by our Lord to see for himself that this is true, for the process and concept of such measurement with rods and plumb lines often involves the idea of employing a divine standard, often one which results in judgment when these standards are violated (cf. Job 38:5; Isaiah 28:17; Isaiah 34:11; Isaiah 44:13; Jeremiah 31:39; Ezekiel 40:3; Ezekiel 47:3; Amos 7:17; Micah 2:5; Zechariah 1:16; Zechariah 2:1; Zechariah 4:10; cf. also 2 Samuel 8:2). The restoration of the temple rite must also therefore have come at God’s behest (cf. the pattern of restoration recorded in Ezra 3:1-13 and following), with the worshipers also legitimate followers of God, namely, those of Israel who have turned to Jesus Christ through the ministry of the 144,000 witnesses. The fact that these true, legitimate, and divinely ordained things (i.e., the temple, its rites, and the mass of worshipers) are here directly juxtaposed to and opposed by anti-God "gentiles" (i.e., antichrist and his followers) who will shortly defile the temple and thus of necessity interrupt its rites and scatter the worshipers is further evidence that the restored temple and worship of God therein has truly been of God, for God, and by God. Inasmuch as the Tribulation is an era of restoration jointly shared by Israel and the Church in which Israel once again claims the leadership role, it should come as no surprise that we find here the reinstitution of the temple rites in a rebuilt temple. Coming as it will after so long a hiatus, and coming as it will as a direct result of two messengers sent from God, there will be no confusion about the meaning of the renewed sacrifices: rather than shadows of things to come, it will be clearly understood that these are memorials to the already accomplished work of Christ (i.e., different in purpose from the Mosaic sacrifices just the millennial sacrifices will be; cf. Ezekiel 45:13-25). This principle of the "restoration of Israel" (that is, a turning of their hearts back to God and a reinstitution of appropriate worship), is, as we have already seen in the case of the ministry of the 144,000, very closely associated with the two witnesses and their ministry: Remember the Law of Moses, My servant, which I commanded him on Horeb (i.e., Sinai) concerning all Israel, [with both its] statutes and judgments – behold, I am about to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the Day of Lord, [that] great and awesome [Day], so that he may restore [to God] the hearts of the fathers along with [their] children and the hearts of the children along with their fathers, lest I come and smite the land with complete devastation. Malachi 4:4-6 And behold, Moses and Elijah appeared and were talking with Him (Malachi 4:3). . . . . . And His disciples questioned Him, saying, "Why then do the scribes say that Elijah must come first (i.e., before the Kingdom)". And He answered, saying, "Elijah is coming, and he will restore all things". Matthew 17:3; Matthew 17:10-13 (cf. Mark 9:11-12) So repent and turn back [to God] for the blotting out of your sins, so that times of refreshment may come from the Lord, and so that He may send to you the One acknowledged as the Christ [Messiah], [namely] Jesus, who must remain in heaven (lit., "whom heaven must receive") until the times of the restoration of all things of which God has spoken through the mouths of His holy prophets from of old. For Moses said, "The Lord God will raise up for you from among your brothers a Prophet like me". Acts 3:19-22 a These passages closely connect the future spiritual restoration of Israel to the two witnesses and their ministry. Given that in Revelation chapter eleven the two witnesses are also placed in close association with the rebuilt temple, the revived rites, and the reinvigorated worship, we may conclude that the rebuilding of the temple and the restoration of the godly worship associated with it is indeed directed by these two heralds of the Kingdom. We would certainly be hard pressed to choose two other Old Testament figures more suited to spiritual revival and the reestablishment of the orthodox worship of the Lord. Moses was sent to a people far removed from the Lord and mediated to them the covenant written by God Himself (Galatians 3:19). Elijah was sent to a people long in the grasp of pagan idolatry, and presided over a great and dramatic spiritual victory on Mount Carmel (1 Kings 18:16-46). Elijah’s rebuilding of the altar of the Lord on Mount Carmel foreshadows his leading role in rebuilding the temple during the Tribulation (1 Kings 18:30-32), and Moses, of course, oversaw the construction of the original tabernacle, its furniture, and the rites ordained by God to serve it (so that there could be no better person to oversee its restoration: Exodus 25:40). The time required for the reconstruction of the (relatively small) temple itself need not be prohibitively time consuming. The massive structure of Herod’s design (which took so long to build: John 2:20) was in fact an elaboration of the original second temple rather than the temple proper. Ezekiel 40:1-49, Ezekiel 41:1-26, Ezekiel 42:1-20, Ezekiel 43:1-27 which describe Ezekiel’s vision of the massive millennial temple complex are also consistent with this interpretation. The temple structure itself (Ezekiel 40:48-49) is relatively modest, and, as in the case of the second temple set in the midst of Herod’s massive complex, constitutes only a small part of the overall design. It is thus entirely consistent with the scriptures which deal with this subject to posit that Moses and Elijah rebuild the temple proper, leaving its elaboration (as described in Ezekiel and elsewhere) for the millennial reign of our Lord as indicated by the following passages: The entire flock of Kedar will be gathered for you. The rams of Nebaioth will serve you. They will be sacrificed as acceptable offerings on My altar. And as for My glorious house (i.e., the temple), I shall glorify it. Isaiah 60:7 The entire glory of Lebanon will come to you, the fir, the pine, and the cedar together, to beautify My holy place (i.e., the temple), the place of My feet. And I shall glorify it. Isaiah 60:13 And He said to me, "Thus says the Lord of Hosts: Behold a Man – ‘Branch’ is His name (i.e., the Messiah; cf. Isaiah 4:2; Isaiah 11:1; Isaiah 53:2; Zechariah 3:8). And He will branch out from His place and will build [up] the temple of the Lord". Zechariah 6:12-13 Behold, I am about to send [forth] My messenger, and he will prepare the way before Me. Then the Lord whom you are seeking will suddenly come to His temple (i.e., it is already built in "preparation" for that great day). Malachi 3:1 Moses and Elijah will possess all the divine authority necessary to complete this third and final temple in the correct, godly and sanctified fashion just as God has ordained it. All problems of time, placement, politics, and logistics will dissolve under the leadership of these two divinely appointed, divinely inspired, and divinely empowered heralds of the Kingdom of our coming Lord Jesus Christ. 3. The two olive trees and the two lampstands: The fact that the two witnesses of Revelation chapter eleven occur in context with the reconstructed (third) temple also leads us to connect them to the detailed description of "the two anointed ones" of Zechariah chapter four (who are likewise prophetically associated with the second temple’s reconstruction). In Zechariah’s vision of a single, solid gold lampstand with seven lamps, there are two olive trees standing by the lampstand on the left and on the right (Zechariah 4:3). When he asks the meaning of this vision, Zechariah is first told "Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit" (Zechariah 4:6). This part of the answer explains not the details of the vision’s symbolism, but rather the overall principle that it will be God’s Spirit which empowers the rebuilding of the temple. Inasmuch as the second temple was not reconstructed without divine help, and given that the two witnesses are a prophecy connected to a future rebuilding (i.e., there is no further mention of them in the rebuilding of the second temple), we may conclude that the rebuilding of the third temple seen in Revelation chapter eleven will also be accomplished by God’s Spirit, and that its reconstruction will be overseen by the two witnesses of Zechariah four (who are mentioned as being present after its construction in Revelation 11:1-19). This is clearly the main reason for the Spirit’s inclusion of the "two anointed" in Zechariah’s vision. The name given to these two in Zechariah, generally translated "anoint-ed ones", is actually "sons of oil". While usually understood passively, the phrase should be taken actively, for it is the translation "anoint-ing ones" which gives the correct sense: like the word "witness" used in Revelation eleven, "anoint-ing ones" indicates that they are conduits of God’s power and God’s light rather than merely being recipients. This is the point behind the symbolism in Zechariah 4:12 where the two olive trees pour out their oil into the lampstand’s golden bowl. The lampstand has seven lamps which are "the seven eyes of the Lord" which range throughout the earth. These "eyes" are often mistaken to have a purely investigative purpose, but, just as the human eye can sparkle and reflect light, so the Hebrew word ‘ayin (]yi) sometimes refers to an object’s appearance as a reflector of light as well (Numbers 11:7; Numbers 22:5; Numbers 22:11; Leviticus 13:5; Leviticus 13:37; Leviticus 13:55; 1 Samuel 6:7; Ezekiel 1:4; Ezekiel 1:7; Ezekiel 1:16; Ezekiel 1:22; Ezekiel 1:27; Ezekiel 8:2; Ezekiel 10:9; Daniel 10:6; cf. Proverbs 23:31). Similarly, these two witnesses will be the primary "reflectors" of the light of God’s truth during the gathering darkness of the Tribulation. Zechariah’s seven lamps which are also seven eyes are identical in symbolism to the seven Spirits of Revelation chapters four (where lamps = spirits) and chapter five (where eyes = spirits). In all three cases, we have to do with the perfect seven-fold witness of the Holy Spirit, shedding forth God’s light to illuminate the darkness of this world, making use of human agencies, but always in behalf of Him who is the true Light, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ ("Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit": Zechariah 4:6). And there [stood] burning before the throne seven lamps of fire, which are the seven spirits of God. Revelation 4:5 (cf. Revelation 1:4; Revelation 3:1) And I saw in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures, and in the midst of the elders, a Lamb standing [there, looking] as if He had been slain, with seven horns and seven eyes which are the seven spirits of God sent out into the entire earth. Revelation 5:6 (cf. Revelation 1:4; Revelation 3:1) In the context of Zechariah chapter four, the lampstand and its lights are clearly speaking of just such a witness of God’s light in the world during the dark time to come (cf. the seven eras of the Church represented as a series of lampstands giving forth God’s witness of light to the world: Revelation 1:20). Empowering this tribulational witness of light, therefore, are the "two anoint-ing ones", the two witnesses, Moses and Elijah. During the dark days of the Tribulation, they and the ministry of the 144,000 directed by them, will constitute the major witness of God’s light (and His Light, Jesus Christ) in the world, just as in our own day that witness is provided by the Church. 4. The two pillars: In the portico or entrance porch of the first temple, Solomon placed two massive bronze pillars, one on the north side, and one on the south. These pillars, flanking the threshold of the temple like two giant guardians, would doubtless have been in the mind of anyone hearing Zechariah’s vision of the olive trees and the lampstands, especially had they lived long enough to have seen that first temple before its destruction (as some of the older people indeed had: Ezra 3:12; Haggai 2:3; cf. Zechariah 4:10). Columns are, in any case, originally architectural representations of trees and the same was true of the lampstand (i.e., with its "flower-like cups, buds, blossoms, and branches"; cf. Exodus 25:31-32). Moreover, when one considers that the lampstand within the holy place was not far removed from these two pillars, the connection between it and the pillars on the one hand and the lampstand in Zechariah’s vision with its two olive trees on the other is hard to ignore. We may add to this picture that the unique and unparalleled verbal phrasing used in both Zechariah 4:14 and Revelation 11:4, "who are standing by/before the Lord of the earth", suggests a permanent and stable positioning, exactly in the manner of pillars. The Hebrew word for pillar, ‘amudth (dvmi; viz., "a standing thing"), is derived and virtually indistinguishable from the verb used in Zechariah 4:14 of the anointing olive trees who are "standing by the Lord", making the connection between these pillars and our two witnesses even more certain. Just as the two witnesses, the anointing ones, the two lampstands, and the two olive trees all "stand [solidly like pillars] by/before the Lord of the earth", so these two pillars stood solidly on either side of the entrance to the first temple (which contained the lampstand). The one on the north side was named Boaz, while the one on the south was called Jachin (1 Kings 7:21). Jachin is to be translated "He (i.e., the Lord) establishes", while Boaz means "strength in Him". Both of these names sum up the careers of the two witnesses Moses and Elijah respectively. Jachin is erected first and Boaz second (just as Moses’ first earthly ministry preceded that of Elijah), and Jachin takes the first place of honor on the south (i.e., the "right hand" as the temple faced east with the ark or chariot throne oriented in that direction), while Boaz stood on the north, the second most honorable place. In a similar way, while Elijah’s ministry was remarkable in every way, Moses’ was superior (compare Paul’s use of Moses’ ministry as the closest parallel to that of the ministry of our Lord in Hebrews chapter three). Their ministries, after all, served somewhat different purposes. Moses was the Lord’s instrument for effectively "establishing" the spiritual groundwork for Israel through his mediation of the Law ("He establishes"), while Elijah presided a significant overture from the Lord for spiritual revival (renewed "strength in Him"). From the divine viewpoint, history has always been supported by these twin pillars of original establishment of the truth and restoration to the truth, with both pillars ever looking to Him who is the truth, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the "Lord of all the earth". At His right and left hand these two witnesses stand as solidly as columns of bronze. To serve directly by the Lord’s side is clearly a preeminent honor. When the mother of James and John requested this privilege for her sons, our Lord’s response was "... to sit at my right or left is not for Me to grant. These places belong to those for whom they have been prepared" (Mark 10:40; cf. Luke 14:8-11). For even though the twelve apostles of our Lord will indeed occupy unique positions ("judging the twelve tribes of Israel", i.e., to be heads of the twelve divisions of the family of God: Matthew 19:28; Luke 22:30), it is to Moses and Elijah that this most prestigious honor will fall. Being so close to our dear Lord for all eternity is indeed an exceptional and sublime reward, earned in the case of these two by exceptional earthly service on not one, but two occasions. But I, [in contrast to the wicked,] will be like an olive tree flourishing in the house of My Lord, for I have trusted in the mercy of God forever and ever. Psalms 52:8 5. Their restoration ministries: During the Tribulation, two main areas of restoration will need to be addressed for the ministry of Moses and Elijah and the 144,000 to be effective: 1) the temple and its rites will need to be restored as a focus for renewed Jewish worship; and 2) the hearts of a large number of their countrymen will need to be won back to their Lord and ours, Jesus Christ the only Messiah. As God’s instrument in founding, constructing and instituting the original tabernacle along with its statutes and ceremonies, no more authoritative person than Moses can be imagined. As God’s instrument in His most dramatic offer of spiritual revival in Israel’s history, one, we might add, which took place in spite of the most severe opposition from a pagan government which had wedded satanic worship to the governance of the state (reminiscent of antichrist and his false prophet), no more highly qualified person than Elijah can be found. The future ministries of both of these great men of God in restoring and multiplying the remnant of Israel during the Tribulation’s first half is documented in scripture: "The Lord Your God will raise up from your midst, from among your brothers, a Prophet like me (i.e., to whom Moses will be analogous in type). You must give heed to Him, just as you requested from the Lord your God at Horeb (i.e., Sinai) on the day of your assembly [there], when you said, ‘May I not hear the voice of the Lord My God any longer, nor see this great fire lest I die!’ Then the Lord said to me, ‘They have done well in what they have said. I will raise up for them from the midst of their brothers a Prophet like you. And I will put My words in His mouth, and He will tell them everything I command Him. And it will come to pass that the person who does not listen to My words which He will speak in My Name, that I will require it of that person’ (i.e., hold him responsible). Deuteronomy 18:15-19 Elijah’s future return is more generally accepted and understood because in Old Testament prophecy the antitype of our Lord is stressed rather than the type (i.e., the Messiah instead of Moses), but in the case of His herald, it is the type who is set in the forefront of prophecy rather than the antitype (i.e., Elijah instead of John the baptist). So while the passage above does have a general application for all of the true prophets of God (cf. the following Deuteronomy 18:20-22), it is also clear from the emphasis it places upon a single prophet that we have to do here with a future coming of a single Person who would proclaim the Word in a way so preeminent that only Moses’ ministry is worthy of comparison (cf. Luke 9:8; John 1:21; John 1:25; John 1:45; John 6:14; John 7:20; Hebrews 3:1-16). The sublime fulfillment of these verses is therefore in the first coming of our Savior (cf. Acts 3:22-26; Acts 7:37). This fact, however, does not preclude a final application of the passage to Moses’ return. For while the salvation of Israel has indeed been accomplished by our Lord’s first advent, present and prophetic circumstances still require just such a preeminent prophet to resurrect the true worship of God, and, other than our Lord whose return must await the Tribulation’s conclusion, no one is more "like Moses" than Moses himself. In John 1:25 we find both sets of types and antitypes linked where, speaking to the Messiah’s herald, John the baptist, the type of Elijah, the Pharisee’s disciples ask, "So why are you baptizing if you are neither the Messiah, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?". It is generally accepted that one half of this pair of types will precede Jesus’ return (i.e., Elijah). Given the consistent linkage of the two in scripture, there is no more likely candidate to be identified as the second witness than Moses. Remember the Law of Moses, My servant, which I commanded him on Horeb (i.e., Sinai) concerning all Israel, [with both its] statutes and judgments – behold, I am about to send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the Day of Lord, [that] great and awesome [Day], so that he may restore [to God] the hearts of the fathers along with [their] children and the hearts of the children along with their fathers, lest I come and smite the land with complete devastation. Malachi 4:4-6 The first thing to note about the passage above, a fact usually overlooked in interpretation, is that Moses also figures prominently in this prophecy. The specific mention of Moses in connection with "remembering" the Law with all its "statutes and judgments" foreshadows the reinstitution of the temple rite in the reconstructed temple. "Remembering the Law", in fact, comes first, and is followed by the heart-restoration said to be mediated by Elijah. As in our other parallels, Moses is first, then Elijah, indicating that the rebuilding of the temple and the reinitiating of the sacrifices will be instrumental in and fundamental to the spiritual revival (Elijah’s area of expertise) and the ministry of the 144,000. Incidentally, in both passages quoted above, Sinai is called by its alternative name, "Horeb", which means "devastation" in Hebrew. This appellation brings to mind the desolate spirituality of Israel which will obtain when the two witnesses begin their ministry, and the concomitant need for complete restoration not only in terms of spiritual response, but also of the main concrete features of the Law (namely, the rebuilding of the temple and the reconstitution of its rites, Moses’ area of expertise; cf. also Ex.32-34). So repent and turn back [to God] for the blotting out of your sins, so that times of revival may come from the Lord, and so that He may send to you the One acknowledged as the Christ [Messiah], [namely] Jesus, who must remain in heaven (lit., "whom heaven must receive") until the times of the restoration of all things of which God has spoken through the mouths of His holy prophets from of old. For Moses said "The Lord Your God will raise up for you a Prophet like me". Acts 3:19-22 In the context above, Peter is referring to our Lord Jesus Christ when he mentions the Prophet who was to come in order to explain to his contemporaries that Jesus was that Prophet in the most direct fulfillment of Moses’ prophecy. But it is significant that in this context of future revival that precedes our Lord’s return (i.e., "so that times of revival may come" and "Jesus, who must remain in heaven until the times of the restoration"), that Moses is mentioned, once again the inseparable type to our Lord’s antitype whenever the issue of the future revival and restoration of Israel comes up. Also present in the passage above is the dual focus of the two witnesses’ ministry, both revival (the spiritual aspect represented by Elijah) and restoration (the visible aspect represented by Moses). That both aspects of preparation for Jesus’ Second Advent should be so mentioned is not surprising, for it is through the persons of both of these two witnesses that God will prepare His people for His return. For all the prophets and the Law prophesied until John [the baptist]. And if you are willing to accept [this], he himself (i.e., John) is [typical of] Elijah who is destined to come [in the future]. Matthew 11:13-14 And He answered and said, "Elijah is coming [in the future] and will [then] restore all things. And I tell you that Elijah has [also] already come [in true type] and they did not acknowledge him, but did to him such [terrible] things as they desired. In the same way the Son of Man is also going to suffer at their hands". Matthew 17:11-13 (cf. Mark 9:11-13) In both of the above passages, our Lord confirms to His contemporaries the still future coming of the actual Elijah. His true type, however, had already come (i.e., John the baptist), just as Moses’ true type was standing there among them (i.e., our Lord Himself, the Prophet about whom Moses spoke). The return of Elijah, the type of John, will be accompanied by the return of Moses, the type of Christ. To help illustrate this point, a few words are in order here concerning some of the similarities between this dual set of types and antitypes . The two witnesses minister for three and one half years (Revelation 11:3), as did John and our Lord Jesus Christ. John ministered "in the spirit and power of Elijah"(Luke 1:17), while Christ spoke of Moses’ testimony about Himself (John 5:45-46; cf. Luke 24:44), and typicality to Himself (John 3:14). Elijah’s extensive exile in the wilderness (1 Kings 17:1-9) provides the type for John’s ministry in the wilderness (Isaiah 40:3-5), while Moses’ forty days on Mount Sinai (Exodus 24:15-18) is a type of Jesus’ forty days in the wilderness of testing and communion with God (Matthew 4:1-11). Elijah’s persecution by Jezebel and Ahab (1 Kings 19:1-21) is typical of John’s persecution by Herod and execution at Herodias’ behest (Matthew 14:1-12), while Moses disappearance and reappearance to His rebellious congregation (Exodus 32:1) is typical of Christ’s death and resurrection appearances to His doubting disciples (John 20:9; John 20:25). Both John and Jesus were martyred (although this word hardly does justice to our Lord’s unique sacrifice of Himself for the sins of the world), just as the two witnesses will be. Both Jesus and Moses are mediators of the New and Old Covenants respectively, wherein they represent man to God and God to man (Galatians 3:19-20; 1 Timothy 2:5; Hebrews 8:6; Hebrews 9:15; Hebrews 12:24), while both John and Elijah called their countrymen to repent and adhere to these covenants (1 Kings 18:21; Matthew 3:1-2). Only Moses spoke with the Lord face to face (Exodus 33:11), and only Christ has seen the Father (John 1:18), while both John and Elijah received special communication from our Lord Himself when they faltered in their faith (1 Kings 19:9-18; Luke 7:18-28). 6. Their miracles: Besides Moses, no other Old Testament believer was responsible for administering more numerous and more impressive miracles than Elijah (e.g., the bottomless jars of oil and flour, the raising of the widow’s son, the heavenly fire which consumed the altar sacrifice, etc.). Only Elisha comes close, and his miracles were performed through the granting of a double portion of Elijah’s special unction of the Spirit, before the receipt of which Elisha did no miracles (2 Kings 2:9-10; cf. Luke 1:17). Apropos of our point here is that supernatural blood was the crucial third "sign" given to Moses by the Lord to validate his authority (Exodus 4:9 with Revelation 11:5-6), the precise supernaturally validating sign of the first two trumpet judgments (Revelation 8:6-9), and that by Elijah’s word and through his prayer, no rain fell for three and one half years, the precise period of the two witnesses’ ministry, that is, the first half of the Tribulation (Luke 4:25; James 5:16-18; cf. Revelation 11:5-6). 7. The Transfiguration: One of the clearest proofs of the identity of the two witnesses is their appearance with our Lord at His transfiguration (Matthew 16:28, Matthew 17:1-13; Mark 9:1-13; Luke 9:27-36). That event is expressly stated to have been a prophetic foretaste of our Lord’s Second Advent and the coming of His kingdom (cf. Matthew 16:28; Mark 9:1; Luke 9:27). Given that the passages dealing with the transfiguration mention both Moses and Elijah, the literal Moses and Elijah, in connection with this preview of Christ’s return, it is natural and necessary to connect them with the two witnesses of Revelation chapter eleven who herald that very return. After the event, Jesus’ disciples asked Him only about Elijah and He responded in kind. But our Lord’s response, that Elijah would come "first" (i.e., before the Second Advent which His recent transfiguration had previewed), gave them (and give us) no reason to suppose that both of His famous interlocutors on the mountain would not precede Him. Moses’ presence on the mountain with Elijah serves to demonstrate that, following our Lord’s death and resurrection (also represented in the transfiguration: cf. respectively Luke 9:31 and Jesus’ glorified, resurrection-like appearance on the mountain), both will precede His return (as the two witnesses to and heralds of that return). 8. The bodies of Moses and Elijah: The return of Moses and Elijah will not be a case of resurrection, but of resuscitation. The ruler’s daughter, the widow’s son, and Lazarus, all brought back by Jesus (Matthew 9:18-26; Luke 7:11-17; John 11:1-44), Tabitha brought back by Peter (Acts 9:36-42), and the boy brought back by Paul (Acts 20:7-12), the young boys brought back by Elijah and Elisha respectively (1 Kings 17:17-24; 2 Kings 4:8-37), the dead who rose following the crucifixion (Matthew 27:52-53), and all of the other examples of this miracle whether recorded in the scriptures or not are without exception examples of what we are calling here "resuscitation" rather than "resurrection", because in all of these cases the individuals later died again physically (in contrast to Christ who has been truly "resurrected" and is no longer subject to death in His humanity for He is "destined to see corruption no longer", Acts 13:34). Since Moses and Elijah reappear physically before the Second Advent, and since they are in fact killed by antichrist at the end of their ministry, we may say of a certainty that what we have here is indeed a case of resuscitation rather than of resurrection (cf. Revelation 11:3-12). In the cases of both Moses and Elijah, their departure from this life the first time was absolutely unique (as indeed it will also be the next time: Revelation 11:11-12). Elijah’s departure in the heavenly chariot needs no great elaboration (2 Kings 2:1-18). Elisha’s extensive search after the fact (at the request of the company of prophets) demonstrates that no physical trace of his body was left behind. In Moses’ case, we are told that he was "buried" in the valley opposite Beth Peor (Deuteronomy 34:5-6). However, we are also told in the same verse that "to this day no one knows where his grave is". Deuteronomy 34:6 actually attributes the burial to God Himself, and Jude clarifies the situation: the "burial" was only temporary (thus explaining why the site could not be known). Jude 1:9 explains that, like Elijah’s physical body, Moses’ body too was uniquely taken to heaven by angelic agency, an operation which was carried out by the archangel Michael and contested by the devil. Thus, the physical bodies of both of these two extraordinary servants of our Lord left earth in an extraordinary way, precisely so that they might later return via resuscitation after so many years in an equally remarkable and unprecedented way. 9. Their unfinished business: It is also significant that the ministries of both of these great believers were cut short. Moses did not enter the promised land and it was left for Joshua to settle the Israelites in Canaan. Elijah did not complete his ministry of revival and miraculous witness, but was succeeded in his work by Elisha. Neither man enjoyed great spiritual response from the congregation to whom each ministered so exceptionally, and both men were, in effect, "replaced" by God on account of momentary lapses in their otherwise magnificent service to the Lord (each of which was motivated in no small part by their reaction to this lack of response). In anger at the abuse heaped upon him by his stubborn charges, Moses violated God’s specific instructions at Kadesh (i.e., Meribah: Numbers 20:2-13; Psalms 95:8). In fear for his life from the pagan government which the people did not overturn after the miracles on Mount Carmel, Elijah temporarily abandoned his ministry and retreated to the desert (1 Kings 19:1-4). In both cases, each was temporarily acting contrary to his own character (Moses, normally the most humble of men [cf. Numbers 12:3], reacting in arrogant anger, and Elijah, normally so courageous [cf. 1 Kings 18:8-16], reacting in self-pity and fear). Both men recovered swiftly from what may seem to us understandable and perhaps even minor transgressions, but the termination of these great ministries as a result of their failings shows us an important biblical principle: to whom much has been given, much is expected (Luke 12:48). Perhaps only a handful of believers in the history of the world have attained anything like the spirituality of these two men, and even fewer have been entrusted with ministries of the magnitude they enjoyed. With such great privilege comes great responsibility. Scripture is very clear about the fact that both men’s ministries were prematurely terminated (Numbers 20:12; Deuteronomy 1:37; Deuteronomy 3:23-26; Deuteronomy 32:48-52; Psalms 106:32-33; 1 Kings 19:15-18; 2 Kings 2:9-10). In the return of Moses and Elijah, therefore, we once again see the awesome grace of God at work. For both men are going to be given a "second chance", so to speak (although, in comparative terms, the rewards they have earned even without this new opportunity will be surpassed by few if any). This observation helps to explain the symbolism of the posture of the two witnesses. Along with the olive trees, lampstands, and columns, they are standing rather than sitting. Just as the Lamb stands up to receive the scroll from the Father’s hand to begin the Tribulation which terminates with His glorious return (Revelation 5:6; cf. Psalms 110:1), so the standing posture of Moses and Elijah in all of the citations and analogies given above indicates that their work is not yet done. They will return to earth once more to set the capstone on two of the most spectacular performances in history of believers in the service of our Lord. The main duties of Moses and Elijah during their forty-two month ministry have in the main been adumbrated above. They will . . . . . 1) bring about the reconstruction of the temple. 2) reconstitute the temple worship. 3) direct the ministry of the 144,000. 4) be involved in the earthly direction of the trumpet judgment plagues, as well many other similar plagues of more limited scope (Revelation 11:5-6). 10. The war against Moses and Elijah: The Greek phraseology of Revelation 11:7 specifically the use of the words "war" (polemos) and "conquer" (nikao), strongly suggest that the beast’s elimination of Moses and Elijah will be far from an easy or instantaneous matter. It will be, as the context intimates, a genuine battle. The God-given ability of the two witnesses to unleash blasts of fire from their mouths proved an effective deterrent during the three and a half years of their ministry (Revelation 11:5), and we may expect that, just as Elijah’s prayers were answered with the result that several large detachments of soldiers were similarly destroyed, so here as well a large number of antichrist’s henchmen will meet their doom. We are not told the precise means used by antichrist to overcome the two prophets, and it is possible that part of antichrist’s approach will be to "fight fire with fire", making maximum use of the satanic power given to him and his key lieutenant, the false prophet (who likewise has a similar ability to bring fire down from the sky: Revelation 13:13). However, we may safely say that no means available to antichrist would have been capable of removing Moses and Elijah from the scene had it not been the will of God for their ministry to conclude in this dramatic fashion (cf. Isaiah 54:15-17). 11. The three and a half days: Days frequently represent longer periods of time in biblical symbolism. Here the three and a half days during which the bodies of Moses and Elijah will lie lifeless in the center of Jerusalem represent the three and a half years of spiritual desolation and persecution which are about to commence (i.e., the Great Tribulation). The two witnesses will be, in effect, precursors of the martyrs of the Great Persecution which is about to break out upon believers all over the world (with the 144,000 being the first to fall in it). The deaths of the two witnesses will serve to alert those faithful to Jesus Christ of that coming storm of unequaled tribulation and persecution (cf. Luke 23:31). The deaths of Moses and Elijah will be met with great joy on the part of the majority of the earth’s inhabitants. Rather than being grateful to God for His gracious warnings and turning to Him, the unbelieving world will be all too pleased to see these two great men of God destroyed. The world is now ripe for dominance by antichrist, and in choosing to support him in his "war" against the two witnesses, and by rejoicing in his victory over the servants of the Lord, the world will not only be openly and unreservedly choosing for the beast, but will also be handing him the ultimate opportunity to establish his own alternative religion, and thus impose a large measure of religious dominance over the entire globe by its establishment (a development which will in turn cement the political, economic, and social control he will gain at the Tribulation’s midpoint with the defeat of the last coalition to oppose him). The reviving of Moses and Elijah, on the other hand, will be a matter of great encouragement for all God’s people, reminding us of His complete power, even over death. For their resuscitation at the end of the three and a half days will symbolizes the resurrection of all believers three and a half years from this point at the end of the Great Tribulation (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:23; 1 Thessalonians 4:16-17). 12. The Third Woe: The termination of the joint ministry of Moses and Elijah and the 144,000 marks the conclusion of the second woe, because at this point the first six trumpet judgments as well as all the localized plagues administered by the two witnesses in support of the 144,000 have come to an end. The third woe, said to be "coming soon" in Revelation 11:14, begins immediately after the ascending of the two witnesses when the seventh angel sounds his trumpet (Revelation 11:15). For the third woe, the seventh trumpet judgment, and the Great Tribulation all refer to the same period of time, the horrific final three and a half years that precede our Lord’s return. That period will be a period of woe, because the earth has never and will never again see darker days (Daniel 12:1; Joel 2:2; Matthew 24:21; Mark 13:19). That period will be a warning period (symbolized by the trumpet), because its terrifying nature warns of the day of judgment soon to come (Matthew 3:10-12; 2 Peter 3:10-13). And that period will be a period of unparalleled tribulation, because within it the greatest persecution in the history of the Church of Jesus Christ will take place, when Satan and his fallen angels are cast down to earth (Revelation 12:7-9), and through his minion antichrist he vents his wrath on the Body of Christ. ======================================================================== CHAPTER 29: 01A.05. ANTICHRIST AND HIS KINGDOM ======================================================================== 5. Antichrist and his Kingdom A. Sources for and Prophetic Types of Antichrist and his Kingdom Scripture assigns several names to the individual who will rise to power and control of the entire earth during the Tribulation: 1. "The beast" (Revelation 11:7; Revelation 13:1-18; Revelation 14:9-11; Revelation 15:2; Revelation 16:2; Revelation 16:10; Revelation 16:13; Revelation 17:7-10; Revelation 19:20; Revelation 20:4; Revelation 20:10) – because he is the devil’s seed (Genesis 3:15). 2. "The man of lawlessness" (2 Thessalonians 2:3) – because he will oppose all divine and human law, destroying the divine framework of nationalism (Acts 17:26-27), and changing "the times and the laws" (Daniel 7:25). 3. "Antichrist" (1 John 2:18; 1 John 2:22; 1 John 4:3; 2 John 1:7). This title is perhaps the most illuminating in regard to the beast’s true character and also to the devil’s strategy in opposing Christ through this his most intense offensive against the people of God. The Greek preposition anti (ἀντί), when used in compounds of this sort, often bears two senses: first, anti means something "opposed to" the thing to which it is prefixed; secondly, it can also mean a "substitute for" that thing. And, truly, the beast, Satan’s "anointed one" or false "Messiah" (Christos, Χριστός, being the Greek equivalent to the Hebrew Meshiach, מָשִׁיחַ), will be both: a pseudo, substitute Christ who will at the same time directly and violently oppose our Lord and His holy people, Israel and the Church. B. The Origin, Character and Rise of Antichrist: 1. The Origin of Antichrist And I shall place hostility between you and the woman, that is, between your seed and her Seed. He (i.e., Christ) will attack you head[-on], but you will attack Him from behind" (lit., "His heel"). Genesis 3:15 (8) And then the lawless one (i.e., antichrist) will be revealed, [that same one] whom the Lord Jesus will slay with the breath of His mouth and destroy when He appears at His [glorious] return – [that same lawless one] (9) whose appearance [will come about] through Satan’s empowerment [and will be] accompanied by every [sort of] false miracle, both signs and portents, (10) and by every [sort of] unrighteous deception [designed] for those who are perishing, [namely those who will believe these lies] because they did not open themselves up to the love for the truth so as to be saved. 2 Thessalonians 2:8-10 These passages demonstrate the satanic paternity of antichrist, sired by the devil (in the manner of the Nephilim). As to the beast’s human origin, scripture indicates that is Jewish, specifically from the tribe of Dan, the only tribe not mentioned in the list of the 144,000 witnesses in Revelation 7:5-8, and prophesied in the book of Genesis as being the tribe of antichrist’s origin (compare Deuteronomy 33:22): (16) Dan [in the person of antichrist] will judge his people as if he were [of] one of the tribes of Israel. (17) [But] Dan (i.e., antichrist) will be a serpent beside the road, a viper beside the path, one who strikes at a horses heels, so that its rider falls [off] backwards. (18) I wait [in hope] for your deliverance, O Lord! Genesis 49:16-18 As to national origin, antichrist will come from Babylon – not the historical, middle eastern Babylon, but rather "mystery Babylon", the powerful nation which, at the outset of the Tribulation, "reigns over the kingdoms of the earth" (Revelation 17:18). 2. The Character of Antichrist (23) And at the end of their kingdom (i.e., during the Tribulation), when rebels are being confirmed [in their apostasy], there will arise a stern-faced king (i.e., antichrist), well-versed in deception. (24) And he will become exceptionally powerful – but not through his own power. And he will be astoundingly successful in his corrupting [activities]. And he will even undertake to corrupt the mighty men (i.e., believers) and [a part of] the holy people (i.e., Israel). (25) And on account of his cunning, [his] conspiracy will prosper under his direction. And he will [greatly] magnify himself in his own thinking, and by his seductive ways he will corrupt many. He will even take his stand against the Prince of princes, and will be shattered apart from human agency. Daniel 8:23-25 The passage above, speaking about antichrist by comparison to Antiochus Epiphanes (as exegetes as long ago as Jerome have generally recognized), says much about the beast’s essential character. He is said to be "stern-faced" (referring to his unequaled brazenness and audacity; cf. Deuteronomy 28:50; Proverbs 7:13; Proverbs 21:29), "well-versed in deception" (the beast will be a consummate actor and a practiced conspirator, with the phrase which literally means "understanding riddles" capturing his satanically empowered evil intelligence and the exceptionally deceptive uses to which he will apply it; cf. Daniel 11:27), "astoundingly successful in his corrupting [activities]" (referring to the beast’s success in deceiving and enlisting both unbelievers and apostate believers to his cause) and "will even undertake to corrupt the mighty men and [a part of] the holy people". These essential attributes and abilities are said to flow directly into antichrist’s other tribulational activities, which are likewise revealing of his character: "on account of his cunning (the beast’s animal-like craftiness), [his] conspiracy will prosper" to the point that "he will [greatly] magnify himself in his own thinking" (the arrogance of antichrist outstripping the bounds of normal human restraint; cf. 2 Thessalonians 2:4), so that "by his seductive ways he will corrupt many" (the beast’s politico-religious movement undermining godly thinking and behavior), and will finally "even take his stand against the Prince of princes" (i.e., in his arrogance, antichrist will even think himself capable of opposing Christ). And the beast which I saw resembled a leopard, and his feet were like those of a bear, and his mouth was like that of lions. Revelation 13:2 a Antichrist is, after all, "the beast", a title which calls attention to the inhuman nature of this halfling, sired by the devil. The comparison to the leopard as the main point of analogy in this passage from Revelation paints antichrist as a terrifying, decisive, dangerous, violent, treacherous, wily individual, restless in a cat-like way in his desire to further his evil schemes (cf. Habakkuk 2:5), while the bear-like feet and lion-like mouth refer to the unprecedented "tearing" and "biting" power of the beast once in control of his empire. In matters of both politics and war, therefore, antichrist will be exceptionally effective, blending guile and force in a potent and irresistible mix – just as Daniel also predicts: And there will arise in his place a [man of] contempt upon whom they will not bestow the honor of the kingship [in a normal fashion]; rather, he will come [to power] through seductive [methods], and will take control of his kingdom by means of duplicity. Daniel 11:21 3. The Rise of Antichrist (21) And there will arise in his place a [man of] contempt upon whom they will not bestow the honor of the kingship (i.e., he will not come to power in a legal, conventional way). Rather, he will come [to power] through seductive [methods], and will take control of his kingdom (i.e., mystery Babylon) by means of duplicity. (22) Now it is from him that the flood waters (i.e., armies: Daniel 9:26; Daniel 11:40; cf. Isaiah 8:7-8; Isaiah 28:15-22; Nahum 1:8; Revelation 12:15) will pour forth and be shattered (i.e., at Armageddon), for he is even "the prince of the covenant" (i.e., the author of the pseudo-Messianic peace treaty with Israel: Daniel 9:27). (23) After men have leagued themselves to him, he will set his conspiracy in motion and will grow [in power] and become [very] strong, even though his faction is small. Daniel 11:21-23 This passage sets forth all the key elements in the beast’s rise to power: a) the leader: antichrist’s plan for gaining power in Babylon will entail "seductive means" (Daniel 11:21), "duplicity" (Daniel 11:21), and "a conspiracy" (Daniel 11:23). b) the movement: through a subtle blend of religion and politics, antichrist will come closer than anyone before him in history to offering all things to all people, combining the deepest desires of each group and faction into one policy designed to "change the world". c) the party: even though antichrist’s "inner party" is small, it will be dedicated and effective in promoting the propaganda the beast will require to exploit upheaval, build a mass movement, and thus come to absolute power. d) the crusade: the key to fulfilling the program of the pseudo-Messiah and his party will be the prophetic and apocalyptic crusade for the destruction of "antichrist" and the enrichment of the true beast’s party, country and allies thereby (though of course the beast is not Christ, nor will the "king of the south" be truly antichrist – albeit this is the way the beast will portray things). e) the seizure of power: while scripture does not present a specific triggering event for antichrist’s taking over of Babylon, our passage above, Daniel 11:21-23, indicates that it will be an illegal move rather than accomplished through constitutional means. C. The Kingdom of the Beast (Babylon and the Revived Roman Empire) (7) After this, I was watching in the vision of the night and, behold, a fourth beast (i.e., Rome/revived Rome), terrible and fearsome and exceedingly powerful. And it had huge iron teeth. It devoured [all the others], crushing [them] to bits and trampling under foot whatever was left. Now this beast was different from those which preceded it, and it had ten horns. (8) I was considering these [ten] horns when, behold, another horn, a little one, came up among them. And three of the previous horns were rooted up from before it. And, behold, this horn had eyes like the eyes of a man, and a mouth speaking presumptuous things (i.e., against God). Daniel 7:7-8 (19) Then I wished to know the details about the fourth beast (i.e., Rome/revived Rome) which was different from all the others. It had iron teeth which were exceedingly terrible, and claws made of bronze. It devoured [all the others], crushing [them] to bits and trampling under foot whatever was left. (20) And [I also desired to know the details] about the ten horns on its head, and the other one (i.e., antichrist) which came up later, and before which three of the former ones fell (i.e., the southern alliance) . . . . . Daniel 7:19-20 a And as to the ten horns, from that kingdom (i.e., Rome, the fourth beast) ten kings will arise, and another one (i.e., antichrist) will arise after them. And he will be different from the former ones, and he will cast down three kingdoms. Daniel 7:24 In the book of Revelation, the term "beast" is used both a person (the son of Satan) and also for the empire he personifies (the revived Roman empire). As the verses above demonstrate, antichrist, who begins his political career by rising to power in Babylon, will soon move from that power base to gain control of the territory which in John’s day belonged to the Roman empire. In our day as well as in that near future day, these states will not yet be part of a powerful whole as in the case of historical Rome. That empire "has died" (Revelation 17:8-10; cf. Daniel 2:39-43; Daniel 9:26-27; and compare Daniel 7:24 with Revelation 17:12). The beast will revive the empire by taking control of the "seven kingdoms" (the seven "horns", a series of alliances or "power-blocs" by the time of the Tribulation) through conspiratorial rather than strictly military means. In this effort the "seven kings" (likely also nephilim as is the case with antichrist) will support him greatly so that the process will be concluded in an amazingly short period of time not long after the commencement of the Tribulation. The bulk of the first half of the seven years will be taken up with antichrist’s reduction of the one other major pan-state empire, the three kingdoms of "the south" (called in this study "the southern alliance"). These three are also likely minions of antichrist in secret (explaining the conspiracy against the king of the south described in Daniel 11:26). Once antichrist consolidates his power worldwide, the seven and three together will constitute the "ten horns" and "ten kings" described in Revelation 17:12 (cf. Daniel 7:24). For our purposes here it is important to understand that revived Rome, described as "the beast" (as is also antichrist, its ruler), is the resuscitated Roman empire, consisting of roughly the same geographical and ethnic extent as the original at the height of its power during John’s day. But this political beast (not to be confused with the personal "beast", antichrist, who rules it) is different from Babylon, the original power base of antichrist. In terms of biblical geography, the seven kingdoms of initially revived Rome constitute the "north", and these will under antichrist’s leadership defeat "the south", the other three areas of the historical Roman empire, in no small part through the power of Babylon, the biblical "west", whence antichrist arises. After this series of campaigns, the biblical "east" will also fall under antichrist’s control, at least nominally (cf. Revelation 13:3-4 and Revelation 16:12-14), leaving the entire world under his dominion. D. The First Campaign against the South [After his conquest of revived Rome, antichrist] will distribute plunder, spoils and riches to his [followers] and will afterwards plot against the [three remaining] powers (i.e., the three sub-coalitions of the southern alliance), but [will wait] for an opportune time. Daniel 11:24 b Having secured his control of revived Rome in the fall of 2028, antichrist will, shortly thereafter, begin military operations against the Mahdi’s three kingdom military alliance of the south (essentially consisting of the entire Muslim world). Any military campaign in the Mideast on the scale and of the scope of this massive invasion would be well advised to have concluded major combat operations before the heat and storms of mid-summer begin. A six month time-frame beginning at this point and ending roughly in the summer of 2029 is thus the most likely scenario for the marshaling of forces, transit to theater, combat operations, consolidation of gains, and return of the military assets necessary for this first campaign – not an implausibly short length of time when we recall that all of the beast’s operations will be characterized by just such exceptional rapidity (cf. the winged leopard of Revelation 13:2). This time-line also has the virtue of allowing a comparable and parallel time period for the second campaign the following year (i.e., commencing fall of 2029), whose termination point (i.e., summer of 2030) would then coincide perfectly with the commencement of the Great Tribulation, exactly as scripture predicts (cf. especially Daniel 11:29-31). And from one of the [four horns] came forth another horn, a small one (i.e., antichrist), but it grew great towards the south and towards the east and towards the Beautiful Land (i.e., Israel). Daniel 8:9 Since antichrist already dominates the north (and arose in the west, Babylon), only the south, east, and Israel are outside of his complete control at this point of the Tribulation (for while he has the secular ruler of Israel in his camp, the ministry of Moses and Elijah will still be in place and flourishing at this point). The expansion towards the south mentioned in Daniel 8:9 refers to the conquest of the southern alliance in the two campaigns of Daniel 11:1-45, while the eastward expansion is a reference to the progressive occupation and domination of the one other remaining quadrant of the world not as yet under the beast’s direct rule. By the time of Armageddon, we see the east also under antichrist’s command (Revelation 16:12-14; cf. the temporary disruption of that control occasioned by the bowl judgments: Daniel 11:44). The final place on earth to succumb to the beast’s direct authority will be the land of Israel, and we can see in the pattern of Daniel 8:9 not only a strategy for world domination, but also the primary purpose behind it, replacement of the worship of the One true God with the worship of the devil and his son antichrist, and the concomitant destruction of God’s holy people, Israel. The southern alliance will therefore represent the last major military impediment to antichrist’s domination of the world. The combination of economic, political, and military power projected by Babylon, revived Rome, and the growing coalition of the world’s nations falling like dominos at the feet of the beast will remove all other major resistance by the Tribulation’s mid-point. The two campaigns against the south, through their scale, rapidity, and success will in particular no doubt also produce a bandwagon effect for joining with rather than opposing the beast until the whole unbelieving world shouts with one accord "Who is like the beast? Who is able to make war with him?" (Revelation 13:4). (3) And when He sat down on the Mount of Olives, His disciples came to Him privately, saying, "Tell us when these things will be, and what the sign is of your return and of the end of the age?" (4) And Jesus answered and said, "See to it that no one deceives you. (5) For many will come in My Name, saying, ’I am the Christ’, and they will deceive many people. (6) And you are going to hear about [actual] wars and impending wars. Make sure you do not become [overly] alarmed [by such things]. For [these things] must happen, but this is not yet the end [of the Tribulation]. (7) For [before that end] a nation will rise against a nation (i.e., in general terms, the Japhetic pan-nation against the Semitic pan-nation), even a kingdom against a kingdom (i.e., Babylon and revived Rome versus the southern alliance; cf. Daniel 11:25-30; Daniel 11:40), and there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. (8) But all these things are [merely] the beginning of the birth pangs (i.e., the first half of the Tribulation). Matthew 24:3-8 We can see in our Lord’s words above the significance of the conflict between north and south that will dominate the secular political events of the Tribulation’s first half (made parallel here to the "famines and earthquakes" which, as we have seen, are shorthand for the divine warning "trumpet judgments" which will also characterize this period). The "wars and impending wars" that will occupy the secular world’s attention at this time are significant enough to rate special mention by our Lord, and so we may glean from this combination of remarks that the scale of the warfare between the beast’s coalition and the Mahdi’s alliance, the two most significant "nations" and "kingdoms" on earth, will be enormous. Then he (i.e., the king of the north, antichrist) will rouse up his power and desire against the king of the south with a great force, but the king of the south will mobilize for war with an equally great force which will also be very powerful. Daniel 11:25 a Rarely in the history of warfare have two coalitions mobilized such exceptional and comparably powerful armies for a particular confrontation. Although August of 1914 may provide a rough parallel, in terms of the numbers deployed, the distances involved, the firepower available, the ideological fervor motivating the conflict, and the overall scale involved here (i.e., with roughly two entire quadrants of the world engaged in this titanic struggle), this campaign is likely only to be eclipsed by the ones which follow (i.e., the second campaign of Daniel 11:29-30; Daniel 11:40-43, and the Armageddon campaign). In addition to all of the other issues involved in these campaigns, both coalitions will also have to contend with the trumpet judgments which, as we have seen, will be taking place during this entire later period of the Tribulation’s first half. On the political front, it is at least conceivable that, for the consumption of the unbelieving world, antichrist in his capacity of pseudo-Messiah will "spin" these trumpet judgments as divine displeasure for the world’s failure to support Israel (though he himself, of course, has in mind her eventual destruction), thus adding emotional impetus and added justification to his "crusade". The people who know their God will not be fooled by this false interpretation, and we can be sure that the truth will be made clear by Moses and Elijah along with the 144,000 – for all who are willing to receive the truth. On the operational front, the events of the trumpet judgments will clearly cause complications for daily life in general, and all the more so for military operations. The chart below which compares the probable time-line for these two campaigns with these judgments of divine warning indicates a coincidence of trumpet judgments three and four with the first campaign, and of trumpet judgment six with the second: As the juxtaposition of events in the chart above makes clear, the initial phase of the first campaign will be conducted in the aftermath of the smiting of the world’s fresh water by the "Wormwood" asteroid (while the world is still suffering under its effects), then, at roughly the campaign’s mid-point, the world’s heavenly lights will be stricken (with these effects lasting throughout the rest of the campaign). Just as king Ahab went to great lengths to preserve his military assets during a comparable water shortage occasioned by divine judgment, and no doubt did so at the expense of his suffering population (1 Kings 18:2-6), so we may expect that whatever difficulties the population of the earth experiences from the third trumpet judgment (which we are told will result in many fatalities: Revelation 8:11), both antichrist and the leader of the southern alliance will ensure that their vast armies are not seriously inconvenienced, no matter how much more difficult this may make things for their subject populations. Aside from the logistical problems of transporting additional fresh water over vast distances into terrain that is inhospitable under the best of circumstances, it is probable that the third trumpet will not otherwise seriously affect the course of this campaign (and, indeed, there is no indication from Daniel chapter 11 that it does). The fourth trumpet judgment, the significant diminution of light which will occur during the four month period that coincides with the middle and the end of this campaign, may actually have an enabling effect, for it will virtually ensure that the heat which might otherwise prove an impediment to the unprecedented marches this expedition will entail on both sides will be significantly less than would otherwise be the case. In any event, we may conclude from the scriptural testimony about the fact of this campaign and its successful conclusion on the part of the beast that at the very worst the negative effects of these two judgments will likely affect both sides equally, and will not, in any case, prevent its successful conclusion by the forces of Babylon and revived Rome. One of the main differences between the two campaigns which antichrist will launch against the triple coalition of the south will be that while the second campaign will be characterized by the decisive intervention of an overwhelmingly superior navy (cf. the Hebrew of Numbers 24:23-24; Daniel 11:30; Daniel 11:40; covered below), this first expedition will apparently consist, as intimated above, entirely of a ground invasion. Several reasons may be adduced for this. First, much of what still remains semi-independent in the world will still be in the process of being consolidated under antichrist’s control at this time. The concentration of the southern hemisphere’s population and power on the litoral of the world’s great oceans will require a significant application of naval power to secure, and it is likely that the combined navies and amphibious forces of Babylon and revived Rome will be too preoccupied in this task to have much of an impact in this first campaign. Secondly, it is also likely, given the essential geography of revived Rome versus the southern alliance, that antichrist will need two campaigns to complete the task, and that this first, primarily ground operation, will have as its strategic objective an initial degradation of the south’s armed forces and the seizure of key terrain for the establishment of bases and staging of resources that will ultimately be necessary to deliver a knock-out blow in the follow-on campaign. Additionally, the conduct of the first campaign as an entirely overland operation proceeding from north to south will also serve to create an opportunity for strategic surprise by making the massive naval operations of the second campaign a less anticipated development. Nevertheless, he (i.e., the king of the south) will not be able to stand [against the king of the north], for they (i.e., the three subordinate southern kings) shall devise plots against [the king of the south]. (26) For those who eat his choice food (i.e., his inner circle) will break him, and [this is why] his force will flood away, and many will fall slain. (27) And though these two kings (i.e., antichrist and the Mahdi) set their hearts on evil and speak lies at the same table (i.e., a peace conference), it will not prosper, for there will yet be an end to the period [of the Great Tribulation]. Daniel 11:25-27 All tactical considerations aside, the verses above clearly indicate that the primary reason for the failure of the south and the victory of the north in this first confrontation will be the treachery against the southern leader or Mahdi on the part of antichrist’s agents (i.e., the three subordinate kings of the south who are themselves part of the ten horns). All this suggests that the south’s forces will actually be significantly stronger than antichrist’s numerically inferior (if perhaps somewhat technologically superior) army, and that, had the battle taken place on a level playing field, the result would have been much different. We are not told the specifics of how this inner circle of the three kings will undermine the Mahdi’s hopes in this first encounter, but it is not difficult to guess. Through a combination of bad advice (i.e., encouraging the decisive action too far north, thus making the logistical situation easier for the beast and more difficult for the south), undermining morale, spreading false rumors, keeping the beast informed of all the Mahdi’s movements and plans, and deliberately failing to carry out necessary operations with appropriate vigor, these three will be in a position to bestow upon the beast a decisive advantage. It should be noted at this point that as a result of his strategic pull-back and the peace treaty with the south, there will therefore probably be no large scale movement of the beast’s troops into the state of Israel at this time (that development will apparently await the conclusion of the second campaign when antichrist will shift his world headquarters to Jerusalem; cf. Daniel 11:41). As the relatively vulnerable casus belli, we may theorize that Israel’s primary role during this first campaign will merely be to defend herself, and possibly also to act as a blocking force against the direct intervention by the forces of the alliances’ southernmost kingdom (i.e., Egypt and its coalition partners). This does not mean, however, that the beast will not take advantage of this opportunity to begin to apply the screws to Israel while he still has significant forces in the vicinity. The political state of affairs within the state of Israel at this time is likely to be extraordinarily tense. On the one hand, the secular Jewish majority will have placed a very strong leader in power (one of the "ten kings" in fact). On the other hand, however, the ministry of Moses and Elijah and the worldwide evangelism of the 144,000 directed by them will be reaching its zenith at this point, producing a sizeable minority of believers. The defeat of the southern alliance will be a turn of events which will leave even many of the most ardent supporters of the "worthless shepherd" (i.e., the Israeli premier) somewhat less enthusiastic about the beast and his empire, while at the same time antichrist will also feel less constrained in regard to his dealings with Israel. For with the south "set up" for defeat, the entire world will be only one step away from falling completely into his hands, and the need for a great cause, that is, the "crusade" to protect Israel, will soon be obsolete. At this point, then, the beast will feel secure enough to take preliminary steps towards Israel which will leave objective observers in little doubt about his ultimate designs for that state and for the Jewish people. For while he had based his worldwide political campaign upon the need to protect Israel, in reality it had always been his father Satan’s plan to destroy her. Now as he (i.e., antichrist) returns to his own land with great booty, his heart will be set against the holy covenant, so that he will take action [against it] and [then] return to his own land. Daniel 11:28 The words "holy covenant" used here refer both to the administration of God’s grace and truth to the Jewish people through the restoration ministry of Moses and Elijah and the 144,000, and to the heart and hand response of those in Israel who accept the message (cf. Daniel 11:30; Daniel 11:32). All of antichrist’s long-distance efforts to hinder the ministry itself will prove unsuccessful at this time (as the Lord will provide the two witnesses with ample ability to ward off any direct threats: Revelation 11:5-6; cf. 2 Kings 1:9-15). But this verse does represent the beginning of the persecution that will break forth with a vengeance after the conclusion of the second campaign. We can only imagine what sort of intimidating measures the beast and the worthless shepherd will impose upon true believers at this time (though they will likely include activities of the sort intimated by Daniel 8:10; Daniel 8:23-25; Daniel 11:32-35), but one can safely assume that particular pressure will be brought to bear upon all those who have not openly accepted the message of salvation. Such a strategy has the advantage of creating a widening rift between "the people who know their God" and those who, while they may have a varying degree of emotional attachment to the restored ritual of the temple, will be unwilling to abandon their worldly security for a genuine relationship with Jesus Christ. Still, the reduction in personal freedoms and alteration/restriction of traditional rituals which the actions of antichrist referred to here in Daniel 11:28 will no doubt entail (especially coming at a time when the threat from the south has now been reduced) will not be well received by many in Israel and will have repercussions as we shall see below. E. The Second Campaign against the South (29) During this period he will return and attack the south [again], but the circumstances of this [second] campaign will not be like those of the first one. (30a) For ships of Kittim (i.e., the western "Babylon") will attack with him [so that he will be victorious]. Daniel 11:29-30 a Now at the time of the end, the king of the south (i.e., the Mahdi) will make a thrust at him (i.e., the beast), with the result that the king of the north will come against him like a whirlwind with chariots, and with cavalry, and with many ships. Daniel 11:40 a In our consideration of this second and final campaign against the south, the reference in Daniel to the naval forces of antichrist in both of these passages is very important to note. In the first passage above, "Kittim", literally the people of the island of Cyprus, is most often used in scripture as a generic term to refer to all of "the islands", that is, the nations of the world’s western quadrant (Isaiah 23:1; Isaiah 23:12; Jeremiah 2:10; Ezekiel 27:6; i.e., as representative of all of the western sons of Japheth from whom "the islands of the gentiles divided", Genesis 10:4-5). What this means is that these "ships of Kittim" are the ships of Babylon and its western allies. What we have here, therefore, is a reference to the beast’s own navy rather than to some extraneous force opposing him (as is often erroneously supposed). Once this point is understood, it is clear to see that in Daniel 11:30 these ships are the reason why "circumstances are different" in this second campaign, for it is just this naval superiority which proves to be the decisive element in the beast’s victory, attacking "with him". In the second passage we see that antichrist’s navy is not only the ultimate element named in the threefold list of his combat arms (stressing its importance), but is also the only one marked out as exceptional in terms of its quantity (i.e., his ships are "many", even in comparison to his certainly numerous "chariots and cavalry"). Together, these two scriptures confirm that the second campaign will be won by antichrist through the decisive use of seapower, and the precise manner in which he will employ that power has also been given to us in prophecy, specifically in the last oracle of Balaam son of Besor: (23) Then [Balaam] pronounced his oracle, and said, "Alas! Who can survive once God unleashes it (i.e., the Great Tribulation)? (24) For ships will come from the direction of Kittim, and they will afflict Ashur, and they will afflict Eber. For this is even the one (i.e., antichrist) . . . until he perishes." Numbers 24:23-24 It is not unexpected that Balaam, who sought to curse Israel, should be given this prophecy about the persecution emanating from the all-time nemesis of Israel, antichrist. However the context of Balaam’s last oracles (Numbers 24:14-24) have the stated purpose of conveying information about "the days to come" (Numbers 24:14). In addition to this statement and to the other eschatological elements in these prophecies (cf. the irrefutably Messianic "star" and "scepter" of Numbers 24:17), the phraseology of the Hebrew words used in verse twenty-four above to identify the "mystery man" who will be responsible for the future "affliction of Eber" (ve-gam hu’i: "for this is even the one") is reminiscent of that used in the key passage in Daniel which likewise identifies antichrist (i.e., Daniel 11:22 b: ve-gam naghidh berith: "for he is even the prince of the covenant", cf. Daniel 9:27). Together, these facts make the connection between these "ships of Kittim" and the "ships of Kittim" in Daniel chapter 11 virtually certain. Balaam’s prophecy also provides us with the crucial information which details the precise place of this invasion, namely, through present-day Lebanon-Syria and Israel. For Ashur, of course, is the original ancestor of Assyria just as Eber is of Israel (cf. respectively Genesis 10:22 and Genesis 11:10-31), making it clear that the entire eastern coastline of the Mediterranean will be the focus of this unprecedented invasion. The purpose for the massive amphibious assault suggested by these scriptures is plain enough when one considers the actions of the king of the south described in Daniel 11:40 a above. In that verse, the king of the south is said to "make a thrust" against the king of the north in what would have to be a south to north direction, a maneuver which would entail the large-scale movement of most if not all of his forces toward the upper reaches of his realm, close to his border with antichrist’s kingdom. We may surmise that this has been antichrist’s expectation and plan from the very start, even from before the opening of the first campaign. By this time the Mahdi has no doubt mobilized an even larger army, confident of victory based upon the previous campaign and the improved ratio of forces that must now be even more heavily in his favor (when only those forces deployed on the ground are considered). After the king of the south thrusts to the north, Daniel 11:40 characterizes the beast’s response as swift and furious (furious as a whirlwind, according to the Hebrew text), and we are again reminded of the leopard-like swiftness which characterizes all of antichrist’s operations (Revelation 13:2). Once the forces of the south have advanced into his trap, the beast will spring it by launching the largest amphibious invasion in history with the objective of cutting off his enemies from the rear, thus surrounding and then annihilating them. In this way, the last major independent military force outside of antichrist’s direct control will be eliminated with a single blow. Since this seaborne invasion will be directed at Syria-Lebanon-Israel, the general location of the final battle of this campaign is thus most likely somewhere in northern Iraq-Syria and southern Turkey-Iran. This too is consistent with what we find elsewhere in scripture. As we have seen above, Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, is a scriptural type of antichrist, the prophetic king of Babylon. Within the prophecies of Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel (esp. Isaiah 19:1-25, Isaiah 20:1-6; Jeremiah 46:1-28; and Ezekiel 29:1-21, Ezekiel 30:1-26, Ezekiel 31:1-18, Ezekiel 32:1-32), we also see the conflict between the historical Nebuchadnezzar and Egypt’s Pharaoh functioning as a prophetical analogy to the end times with its conflict between Babylon’s antichrist and the Mahdi of the southern alliance (whose political center of gravity is also Egypt; cf. Daniel 11:42). Therefore we can say that the conduct of antichrist’s campaigns against the Mahdi and his southern alliance will be similar in general terms to the scriptural representations found in these prophecies. Egypt will rise up like the Nile, and her waters (i.e., the forces of the southern alliance) will surge forth like the [Nile’s] streams. And she will say, "I will rise up. I will inundate the world. I will destroy [its] cities and their inhabitants". Jeremiah 46:8 Jeremiah places the decisive battle which will ensue as a result of the king of the south’s "thrust" and the king of the north’s "whirlwind" response (cf. Daniel 11:40) in the northern reaches of southern alliance territory "by the river Euphrates", making the most likely focal point of the decisive engagement, as mentioned immediately above, somewhere in the vicinity of present-day Syria, Iraq, and southern Turkey (cf. Jeremiah 46:2; Jeremiah 46:10): (3) "Muster [your troops] with buckler and shield, and advance to the battle. (4) Harness your horses and order your cavalry to mount up. Assemble with your helmets. Polish your spears. Put on your armor. (5) But why do I see them [all] terrified and falling back to the rear? [It is because] their picked troops have been smashed and are in headlong flight. They do not even look back, for there is terror all around [them]". (6) The Lord declares, "Let the swift not flee [to safety] nor the strong escape. In the north, by the river Euphrates, they shall stumble and fall". Jeremiah 46:3-6 Following this massive defeat, little will be left for the forces of the beast other than to exploit this victory: (40b) And [the beast] will invade the lands [of the southern alliance], and inundate [them] and sweep through [them], (41) and he will advance into the Beautiful land (i.e., Israel). Now many lands will fall before him, but these will escape from his control: Edom, and Moab, and the first [part of the territory] of the sons of Ammon (i.e., the southern half of historical Ammon contiguous to Edom and Moab). (42) And [antichrist] will extend his control over the lands (of the southern alliance), so that even the land of Egypt will not escape. (43) Thus he will take control of all the repositories of gold and silver, even over all of Egypt’s treasures, with Libya (i.e., representing North Africa) and Cush (i.e., Sudan-Ethiopia) following her [in submission]. Daniel 11:40-43 Egypt is emphasized here because it is the main pillar upon which the southern alliance will be based. We may understand Libya to represent the entirety of North Africa, whereas Cush stands for East Africa. The northern, eastern, and southeastern reaches of the south’s three kingdoms, while not mentioned by name, fall into the category of the "many lands" of verse forty-one, so that here we see the fulfillment of the prophecy of the fall of the "three horns". We should also recall in this respect that the three kings of these sub-kingdoms who were so instrumental in the beast’s victory during the first campaign will certainly be exceptionally useful to him in his consolidation of power over their respective realms. Furthermore, the "bandwagon effect" of the astonishing defeat of this impressive army will not be lost on the rest of the world. It will serve to deflate the hopes of any and all who are even remotely considering opposition on the basis of secular means, especially when one considers the exponential increase in power that antichrist will experience after capturing "Egypt’s treasures", namely, all the natural resources of all of the southern alliance territories. The aftermath of defeat for Egypt and by extension for all of the nations of the triple coalition that threw in with her under the Mahdi’s leadership is voluminously covered in scripture, and the combination of passages which treat this subject paint a picture of abject defeat, a situation which will no doubt be all the more difficult to bear since the hopes of the south will have been thrown down from such a lofty height (see esp. Ezekiel 30:1-26; cf. Isaiah 19:1-25, Isaiah 20:1-6; Jeremiah 46:1-28; Ezekiel 29:1-21, Ezekiel 30:1-26, Ezekiel 31:1-18, Ezekiel 32:1-32): (2) "Son of man, prophesy and say, ’Thus says the Lord, "Wail! Woe for the day! (3) For a day [of judgment] is close, [yes], the day of the Lord is close. It will be a day of clouds and time [of judgment] for the nations. (4) For a sword will come against Egypt, and writhing will come upon Cush. When the slain fall in Egypt, they will take away her treasures and her foundations will be trampled. (5) Cush, and Put, and Lydia, and all Arabia, Lybia and all the peoples in league with the land [of Egypt] (i.e., all the allies of the king of the south) will fall by the sword.’" Ezekiel 30:2-5 (cf. Ezekiel 20:45-48) Egypt’s complete undoing at the hands of the beast will, in the end, be a benefit. For it will cause the Egyptians along with many people of the lands of the south to see the impotence of their modern day "Pharaoh", the Mahdi (cf. Jeremiah 46:17; Ezekiel 32:2-15), and bring them instead to cry to the Lord for help, a prayer to be answered both at and after the return of our glorious Lord (Isaiah 19:4-25). Ultimately, the south’s defeat in this second, decisive campaign will again be largely attributable to the treason of the three horns and the massive infighting that will ensue within her own ranks in the wake of the beast’s springing of his trap (cf. Daniel 11:26): (2) For I will spur on Egyptians against Egyptians, and they will fight one against his brother and another against his friend, a city against a city and a kingdom against a kingdom (i.e., the splintering of the triple coalition). (3) And Egypt’s spirit will be emptied from the midst of her, for I will confound her plans, although they consult their idols and mediums and oracles and familiar spirits. (4) And I will hand Egypt over into the hand of a cruel master (i.e., antichrist), even a stern king (cf. Daniel 8:23) [who] will rule over them, says the Lord God of hosts." Isaiah 19:2-4 As was the case during the first campaign, so here too we may expect some complication of military maneuvers on account of the trumpet judgments, specifically for this second campaign the sixth judgment or "second woe". The havoc wreaked upon the world by the bands of marauding demons is sure to affect this campaign at least to some degree, but, as was the case in the first campaign, we may expect that the worst case analysis for the army of the beast would be an equal share of disruption, and it is fair to ask whether his forces would not be largely exempted from such an assault (for otherwise one would have, in effect, a case of "Satan casting out Satan"; cf. Matthew 12:26). In any case, the result of the second campaign will be an overwhelming victory on the part of antichrist, and the removal of the last major impediment to his worldwide rule (Ezekiel 31:16-18): (3b) And the entire earth was in awe of the beast. And they worshiped the dragon because he had given his authority to the beast. (4)And they worshiped the beast, saying, "Who is like the beast? And who is able to make war with him?". Revelation 13:3-4 F. The Jewish Coup Attempt and the Apparent Assassination and Resuscitation of Antichrist Then he will be stricken [as if dead], but will revive. Therefore he will be enraged at the holy covenant, so that on his return [to Israel from the far south] he will take action [against it] (i.e., eliminating Moses and Elijah and ending the sacrifices). Daniel 11:30 b Immediately upon the heels of his dramatic victory over the south, the beast will be the object of an attempted assassination plot, the event that gives him the "fatal wound" that is nonetheless miraculously "healed" (Revelation 13:3). The wounding and seemingly miraculous recovery of antichrist described in Daniel 11:30 is thus the Old Testament parallel for the similar information given in Revelation chapters 13 and 17. While we will continue our method of covering these verses seriatim in their proper places (in accordance with the generally chronological progression of the book of Revelation we have noted before), it will be of use to consider the four pertinent passages of scripture here: And one of its (i.e., the beast’s) heads [looked] as if it had been stricken unto death, and [yet] its mortal wound had been healed. Revelation 13:3 a And he (i.e., the beast’s false prophet) [will] act with all the authority of the first beast [while] in his presence, and he will make the world and all its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose mortal wound was healed. Revelation 13:12 And he (i.e., the beast’s false prophet) [will] deceive those who dwell upon the earth on account of the miracles (lit., "signs") which have been given to him to perform in the presence of the beast, even commanding the inhabitants of the earth to make an image of the beast, [that is] of him who received the [deadly] stroke of the sword and [yet] came [back] to life. Revelation 13:14 The beast, which you saw, was (i.e., "existed"), and is not (i.e., came "not to exist"), and is going to rise from the Abyss (i.e., the revival of Rome on the one hand and apparent resuscitation of antichrist on the other), and is going to its destruction. And the inhabitants of the earth, [those] whose names have not remained written in the book of life [where they were written] from the beginning of the world, will be in awe when they see the beast, because he was (i.e., "existed"), and is not (i.e., came "not to exist"), and will again be present on the scene (i.e., seem to return to life in the case of antichrist, and be reestablished in respect to the empire). Revelation 17:8 Whatever one makes of these passages, we can say with authority that antichrist is most certainly not being "resurrected" here – only our risen Lord currently possesses an eternal body, and no one else will do so until the resurrection of His Church at His return (at which point the beast will be deposited in the lake of fire: Revelation 19:20). The question of "resuscitation" is a more difficult one. On the one hand, it is impossible that the devil would be able to engineer even the temporary return to life of his son, that is, a true "resuscitation", without divine permission for something so entirely unprecedented (i.e., the revival to life from death of an arch-enemy of God and his people), and of such consent we have no specific indication from scripture. On the other hand, the four passages from Revelation quoted above do suggest at the very least a physical revival which will be extraordinary in the extreme, with the final passage, Revelation 17:8, presenting the most difficult case to explain away. For even though that passage has its primary application to revived Rome, applying to the beast by extension (as opposed to Revelation 13:1-18 where this relationship of primary and secondary application is reversed), what is true of one should also be true of the other, and the words "was (i.e., "existed"), and is not (i.e., came "not to exist"), and will again be present on the scene" are most emphatic, and hard to take in any other way than as a literal return from the dead (that is, the definite departure and return of the spirit). Whether this assassination attempt results in antichrist’s actual death or, alternatively, a near-death experience so dramatic and traumatic that it will be nearly indistinguishable from actual death and resuscitation, it is clear from the reaction of the general public to the beast’s recovery from this "mortal wound" that the genuineness of his death and the miraculous nature of his return to life will be taken as true and factual by the unbelieving world (cf., the amazement and resultant worship of the world: Revelation 13:3-4). It is also relatively easy to see how trauma unquestionably fatal in the case of any other normal human being might not necessarily be so for the beast – for he will not be fully human after all. The angelic paternity of antichrist will doubtless give him the physical resiliency to endure wounds to which any mere man would certainly succumb. We know from our previous study of the nephilim that prodigious physical attributes are the norm for such creatures, and it is probable that their ability to tolerate conditions which would kill normal human beings is at least part of the reason why God caused the great flood to cover the earth to such a depth and for so long a time. So it is certainly possible that while to the world antichrist may appear to have received an unavoidably fatal injury and may seem to have been "stricken unto death", this wound, mortal in every other case, may only be near-fatal in his case. From the following context of the passages in both Daniel and Revelation, there is no evidence that the beast will suffer any chronic after-effects of this wounding (beyond the permanent scar visible upon his head left by the blow from the sword which strikes him). Quite to the contrary, rather than a setback this incident will actually be a boon to the beast, for it will do much to further the idea that he really is "the true Christ", having thus "risen from the dead" in such a seemingly irrefutable way. It is therefore no accident that it will be directly in the wake of this incident that antichrist’s new religion will be transformed into outright devil worship and swiftly come to dominate the world (cf. Revelation 13:3-17). Unbelievers all over the earth will take this "resurrection" to be genuine and to be legitimate proof of the beast’s status as the Messiah. However, believers who know their God and continue to hold firm to the testimony of Jesus will remember our Lord’s warning to beware of all such false signs, no matter how persuasive, waiting instead on their own resurrection at the return of our truly resurrected Lord: (23) At that time if someone says to you "Look [(as they will tell you then)]! Christ is here!", or "Here [He is]!", do not believe [it]. (24) For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will perform great miracles (lit., "signs") and wonders [sufficient] to deceive even the elect, if [that were] possible. (25) Look [(as I am telling you now)]! I have told you ahead of time. (26) So if they say to you all, "Look, He is in the desert!", do not go out [there]. [Or] "Look, He is in the inner-rooms (i.e., in hiding in the city)", do not believe [it]. (27) For as lightning [though it] comes forth from the east is visible all the way to the west, this is just how the return of the Son of Man (i.e., the Second Advent) will be. (28) For wherever the body is (i.e., the Lord), there the eagles will gather (i.e., believers rising in resurrection). Matthew 24:23-28 Beyond the details from Daniel and Revelation provided above, we can say a few a things further about this critical event. Having conquered the king of the south, the beast will be at the height of his power, with no possible alliance of the remaining independent powers on earth capable of resisting the combined might of Babylon, revived Rome, and the now occupied and cooperating territories of the southern kingdom. At this point, with the world, for all practical purposes, lying prostrate at his feet, antichrist’s plan, soon to be successfully carried out, will be to move his headquarters to Jerusalem, intending to rule the world from there as if he were God (cf. 2 Thessalonians 2:4). It should be observed in regard to his treatment of the Jews, moreover, that, in addition to the measures "against the covenant" already taken at the conclusion of the first campaign (Daniel 11:28), the land of Israel will be very roughly handled during the second campaign, with the invading amphibious forces treating her and her population as anything but allies (i.e., "they will afflict Eber": Numbers 24:24; cf. Isaiah 33:1-8, especially Isaiah 33:8, and Lamentations 1:2, Lamentations 1:10, Lamentations 1:19, Lamentations 1:21). The beast’s horrendous plans to completely annul his agreement with the state of Israel and to thoroughly abrogate the revival of temple rite will doubtless not be totally secret, even before the fact (at least not to his inner circle, a group which we may expect will contain representatives from Israel, one of the seven original kingdoms of revived Rome). It is more than likely, therefore, that the agents of this assassination attempt will be Jewish (assuming, that is, that the entire affair is not in actuality an elaborate ruse on antichrist’s part; see below). This would seem to be the best explanation for the close connection given in Daniel 11:30 between the "striking down" of antichrist and the fury released immediately thereafter against the legitimately revived worship of God in Jerusalem and those who are involved therein: (30b) Then he will be stricken [as if dead], but will revive. Therefore he will be enraged at the holy covenant, so that on his return [to Israel from the far south] he will take action [against it] (i.e., eliminating Moses and Elijah and ending the sacrifices). Daniel 11:30 b It should not escape our attention here that this "rage" and retaliation are an indication of antichrist’s core anti-Semitism, for it will be technically misplaced. Those who are truly following Jesus Christ in response to the ministry of Moses and Elijah and the 144,000 will be focused upon divine solutions, and will certainly not be misled into thinking that any act of violence of this sort, no matter how apparently justifiable, will in any way ward off the Great Tribulation immediately to come. At this time in Israel, there will essentially be three major factions into which the body-politic is split: 1) dedicated followers of antichrist; 2) dedicated followers of our Lord; 3) patriots (or "zealots"), most of whom were ardent supporters of the beast when he appeared to be the only worldly hope of help against the Mahdi and his hordes. As the Tribulation progresses, we can expect more and more of the first group to migrate into the third group (cf. Zechariah 12:3-8 with Zechariah 12:10). Those who truly know their God, moreover, will flee into the wilderness in accordance with the commands of our Lord just as soon as antichrist sets up the "abomination of desolation" as a putative part of his reaction to this assault on his person (though his plan all along has been to take this action). In addition to supporting his argument to be the true "Messiah", therefore, this assassination attempt will also supply the beast with a certain measure of justification for the harsh treatment of Israel to follow, and specifically for his war against Moses and Elijah and the subsequent termination of the revived temple worship (an action that will in itself enjoy a measure of worldwide popularity because of their direction of the trumpet judgments: Revelation 11:7-13). For antichrist will opportunistically, though falsely, lay this deed at their feet. Finally, it is likely that the assassination attempt will take place while antichrist is involved in directing the plundering of Egypt, the heartland of the Mahdi’s power (cf. Ezekiel 30:9 with Daniel 11:30 a), for he is said to "return" to Israel after the event in order to vent his anger "against the covenant". G. The "Abomination of Desolation" and the "Session" of Antichrist Upon his return to Israel following his defeat of the south and his subsequent recovery from the attempt on his life, antichrist will act swiftly to annul the treaty made with Israel (cf. Isaiah 33:7-8). Using the assault upon his person as an excuse and the true believers who follow the ministry of Moses and Elijah and the 144,000 as scapegoats, the beast will commence his "war" against the two prophets with the intention of bringing a halt to the newly revived worship of the one true God, and replacing it with the overt worship of the devil and of himself (Revelation 11:7-13). Then he (i.e., antichrist) will confirm an agreement (or "covenant"; Hebrew, ברית, beriyth) with the powerful [in Israel] during [that] one [remaining] week (i.e., the 70th week, the Tribulation), but in the middle of the week (i.e., just prior to the Tribulation’s mid-point) he will put a halt to sacrifice and offering (i.e., eliminating Moses and Elijah and interrupting the temple rites). Daniel 9:27 a Then he will be stricken [as if dead], but will revive. Therefore he will be enraged at the holy covenant, so that on his return [to Israel from the far south] he will take action [against it] (i.e., eliminating Moses and Elijah and ending the sacrifices). And he will give his support to those who abandon the holy covenant. Daniel 11:30 b-c Now that the two prophets with their miraculous powers have been removed, antichrist will waste no time in putting an end to all semblance of the worship of God on the temple mount (as the verses above indicate). Worse to tell, he will now implement his plan for replacing the worship of God with the worship of himself as God in conjunction with the worship of his father the devil. The first irrefutable sign of this will be the setting up in front of the temple of an abominable idol known in scripture as "the abomination of desolation". 1. The Abomination of Desolation The placement of this idol by antichrist is well-documented in scripture, being referred to both by Daniel and by our Lord as one of the critical events whereby the beast may be known (Matthew 24:15-18; Mark 13:14-16): For it is from him (i.e., the coming evil one) that the military forces will issue forth which will pollute the sanctuary (i.e., ending the ministry of Moses and Elijah), remove the daily sacrifice, and set up the abomination of desolation. Daniel 11:31 Daniel’s combining of the pollution of the sanctuary and halting of the offerings to God with the setting up of this idol indicates that the place of its erection will indeed be within the temple court: "But when you see the abomination of desolation standing where it should not – let the reader understand – then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains." Mark 13:14 Matthew goes further and overtly connects this idol with the "abomination" mentioned in Daniel (i.e., Daniel 11:31 and Daniel 12:11), so as to leave no doubt about the identification of these prophecies: from Daniel’s words, to our Lord’s words, to the description of the idol in Revelation 13:1-18, all of these passages are clearly referring to one and the same thing, the idol of antichrist which is set up in the temple court at the Tribulation’s mid-point: (15) "So when you see the abomination of desolation (which is spoken of through Daniel the prophet) standing in a holy place – let the reader understand – (16) then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains." Matthew 24:15-16 It should be noted that in the Greek text of Matthew 24:15 there is no definite article preceding the words "holy place", so that translations which render this phrase "the holy place" are technically incorrect. This is important because, in translation, the words "the holy place" generally refer to the outermost of the temple’s two spaces which contained the table of the bread of presence, the golden altar of incense, and the golden lampstand or menorah (in the LXX: Exodus 26:33; Exodus 28:29; Leviticus 16:2; etc.; cf. Hebrews 9:1-5; in Greek in all these cases, moreover, the word "place" is left out). The omission of the article thus serves as an emphatic sign that the words "holy place" most definitely do not refer to the temple, but rather to the inner court or "priest’s court" (as in Daniel 8:11; Revelation 11:2; cf. Acts 6:13; Acts 21:28). The idol will be visible to all inhabitants of Jerusalem, for it will not be necessary to enter into the temple proper to view it. In fact, during the 42 months of antichrist’s reign in Jerusalem, the world will make pilgrimage to the temple mount to do obeisance before the statue of the beast, thronging into the outer court from where the idol, no doubt of substantial size, will be visible from its place in the inner court before the temple (cf. Ezekiel 8:3-5): (13) And [the beast’s false prophet] [will] perform great miracles (lit., "signs"), even making fire come down from heaven to the earth in front of everyone. (14) And he [will] deceive those who dwell upon the earth on account of the miracles (lit., "signs") which have been given to him to perform in the presence of the beast, even commanding the inhabitants of the earth to make an image of the beast, [that is] of him who received the [deadly] stroke of the sword and [yet] came [back] to life. (15) And it was given to him to provide a spirit for the image of the beast so that the image might speak, and [it was also given to him] to bring it about that as many as refused to worship the image of the beast might be put to death. Revelation 13:13-15 As is clear from this description, this idol will be most impressive to the unbelievers who view it and come to worship it. In our age of skepticism and worldliness, that is saying quite a lot. We may therefore expect this idol to be both mammoth in its proportions, incredibly and persuasively life-like in its functioning, and awe-inspiring in its verbal pronouncements. It will strike fear and reverence into the hardened hearts of the unbelievers who come to Jerusalem to worship the beast, confirming their confidence in him and strengthening their support of him. The impression made by this idol in conjunction with the miracles performed by the false prophet and the prior apparent "resurrection" of the beast in conjunction with his military conquest of the world will be more than enough for all those who have rejected the one true God to convince them of the divinity of the devil’s son. The translation, "the abomination of desolation", while understandable, is a bit misleading, for even in the Greek translation of the original Hebrew phrase, "desolation" is a verbal noun which ought rather to mean something like "process of desolating", a fact even more difficult to ignore in the case of the corresponding participles of Daniel 11:31 and Daniel 12:11. Since these words are all really calling attention to the action produced by the "abominable thing" (i.e., the idol), we would have been better served had this phrase been traditionally translated "the abomination which causes desolation". In applying the exact same terminology to antichrist himself, Daniel 9:27 spells out the precise significance of these words in respect to this capacity of the "abomination" idol to produce "desolation" in a spiritual sense, namely, an appalling isolation and separation from God resulting from horrendous idolatry and in turn resulting in devastation in both spiritual and material terms. And on account of the extreme [nature] of [his] (i.e., antichrist’s) abominations, he [will] be causing desolations (i.e., desertion and estrangement from God), even until the end when what has been determined will be poured out upon the one characterized by [this] desolation (i.e., the beast as archetype and cause of the alienation and rebellion from God which he fosters). Daniel 9:27 b Unfortunately, the setting up of idols even in the very presence of the Lord God is not unprecedented in Israel’s history (2 Kings 23:6; cf. Ezekiel 8:3-5). What makes this particular "abomination" distinctive is that, rather than being a mere symptom of apostasy, this particular idol will be instrumental in producing a spiritual "desolation" within Israel whence it will spread to the entire world (cf. Daniel 8:13, where the apostasy or "rebellion" is said to be instrumental in the "desolation"). For it is the obeisance paid to this idol which will be central to the new religion of beast-and-Satan worship established by antichrist at the Tribulation’s mid-point, and it is the acquiescence and willing participation in this worship that will both energize the Great Persecution which follows and at the same time doom the world in general and Israel in particular to the "desolating horrors" of the Great Tribulation itself, the final intense period of judgment that precedes our Lord’s return. "And when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then know that her desolation is near." Luke 21:20 In Luke’s account of our Lord’s words above, a second sign (i.e., the mustering of the beast’s armies in Israel following the defeat of the south) is given as a warning for believers to flee Jerusalem in addition to the sign of the "abomination". The Greek word used here is precisely the same word for "desolation" as the one used for the idol in Matthew 24:15 and Mark 13:14. Thus in the case of Luke we are also given to see the resulting "desolation" which proceeds from the establishment of the system of worldwide idolatry in the very center of Jerusalem focused on the worship of antichrist and the idol which represents him, "the abomination [which causes] desolation". 2. The Session of Antichrist in the Temple of God The elimination of Moses and Elijah and subsequent desecration of the sanctuary through the establishment of the talking idol are preliminary steps to the purpose most dear to antichrist’s cold, half-human heart, namely, taking his seat in God’s temple and thereby blasphemously proclaiming to the world that he is the true God and the true Messiah (cf. Daniel 8:11-14). (3) For [the Second Advent cannot come] unless the [Great] Apostasy has first occurred and the man of lawlessness, [antichrist,] has [first] been revealed, that "son of destruction" (cf. John 17:12 of Judas), (4) the one who will oppose and exalt himself against every so-called god and object of worship to such a degree that he will [even] take his seat in the temple of God and represent himself as being God. 2 Thessalonians 2:3-4 The scope and duration of this false "session" are also discussed by Daniel: (10) And [the little horn] (i.e., antichrist as a type and representative of the devil) magnified himself against the host of heaven (i.e., the family of God, men and angels both), and he cast down to the earth some of the host (i.e., antichrist seducing believers into apostasy) and some of the stars (i.e., Satan having seduced angels into rebellion) and he trampled them underfoot (i.e., their rebellion or apostasy in association with evil leading to their subsequent destruction; cf. Daniel 7:7; Daniel 7:19; Revelation 11:2). (11) He even magnified himself against the Prince of the host (i.e., Christ). The daily sacrifice was abolished by him, and the holy place (i.e., the inner court) was desecrated. (12) And along with the daily sacrifice, the host (i.e., believers) fell into his power on account of [the] rebellion (i.e., the Great Apostasy). And he threw truth to the ground, and was successful in whatever he did. (13) And I heard one of the holy ones who was speaking, and he said to the other holy one who was speaking, "How long will this vision of the daily sacrifice and of the rebellion which produces desolation and of the handing over of the holy [place] (i.e., the inner court) and of the trampling down of the host be?" (14) And he replied to me, "Until 2,300 evenings and mornings have passed. Then the holy [place] will be purified." Daniel 8:10-14 The beast will thus occupy the temple of God for the better part of the Great Tribulation, removing from Jerusalem only when the events which precede the Second Advent necessitate it (Daniel 11:44-45). Indeed, this prolonged "session" of antichrist is a deliberate attempt to mimic the present heavenly and coming earthly true session of our Lord Jesus Christ, who will also take up residence in the temple during His thousand year millennial reign. Believers who know their God will not be fooled by the false parallels engineered by the beast (i.e., of a false Messiah ensconced in a false New Jerusalem ruling a false "kingdom come"). Just as the ark did not come to rest until Solomon, the "son of David", built a new and glorious home for it (i.e., the first temple), so our Lord Jesus Christ, of whom the ark is a type (1 Chronicles 17:1-6), will be the one to "build up" the third temple in a manner and to a degree which will allow of no misinterpretation as to the true divine glory of its Builder and Inhabitant (cf. Zechariah 6:12-15). On the other hand, just as his father the devil profaned the original mountain of God (Ezekiel 28:18), so antichrist will profane and pollute the sanctuary until the 42 months of the Great Tribulation run their course and the glorious day of our Lord’s return draws nigh. 3. The Revelation of Antichrist With the termination of the warning ministries of the Tribulation’s first half (directed by Moses and Elijah and carried out by the 144,000), the setting up of the abomination of desolation, and the session of antichrist in the very temple of God, blasphemously proclaiming himself to be God, not even the most skeptical nor the most ignorant will be able to doubt the identification of this individual as the beast prophesied in scripture. With these events, antichrist will have been fully "revealed" (2 Thessalonians 2:3-8), and the "number of his name" associated with the ensuing worship of him and his father the devil central to his new religion (Revelation 13:16-18) will be the final and incontrovertible proof that he is not the Son of God but rather the son of Satan. From this point forward, antichrist will be, for all practical purposes, the ruler of the world (Revelation 13:3-10), and from his new headquarters on Jerusalem’s temple mount he will seek to solidify that rule through the institution of his worldwide religion. Then there will begin a time of persecution unprecedented since the beginning of the world, there will begin the Great Tribulation. This is what the Lord Almighty says: "Look! Disaster is spreading from nation to nation; a mighty storm is rising from the ends of the earth." Jeremiah 25:32 NIV ======================================================================== CHAPTER 30: 01A.06. THE GREAT TRIBULATION ======================================================================== 6. The Great Tribulation The establishment of the beast as the effective ruler of this world under the guidance and support of his father the devil and his session in God’s temple in Jerusalem representing himself as God (2 Thessalonians 2:4) marks the end of the Tribulation’s first phase. With this "revelation" of antichrist, we are brought to the threshold of the most terrible time in world history, the Great Tribulation. And it shall be a time of distress such as has never occurred since people first existed on the earth until that time. Daniel 12:1 b For at that time there will be a Great Tribulation such as has never occurred from the beginning of the world until now, and [such as] will never again occur thereafter. Matthew 24:21 (cf. Mark 13:19) The Great Tribulation will unquestionably be a devastating experience for all the inhabitants of the earth, but it will fall especially hard upon believers in Jesus Christ. For the principal and truly eponymous event of that period, that is, the intense tribulation that will characterize those three and a half years, will be the unprecedented persecution of the Church and the martyrdom that accompanies that persecution. Key to the solidification of his world kingdom will be the beast’s pseudo-religion. As was the case to a somewhat lesser degree in historical Rome, adherence to the cult worship of the ruler will be the litmus test of loyalty to the state. But while Roman emperors made use of this admittedly evil device primarily for pragmatic reasons relating to the solidification of their power, antichrist and his father the devil will also be intent upon eradicating faith from the earth through the elimination of the faithful. This has always been a central design of Satan’s plans, for if all to whom the promises of God have been made could be removed (either through death or apostasy), then God’s promises would have to fail. If there is no one left for Christ to return to, then the devil wins. Such, at any rate, runs Satan’s twisted thinking. With the whole world under antichrist’s control, the forcible conversion of all of the inhabitants of the earth to the beast’s devil worshiping religion becomes not only theoretically possible, but is also the perfect satanic final solution: all who refuse to convert will be put to death so that, either way, faith will perish from the earth. And such would be our fate, except for the mercy, the goodness, and the power of our God, who is coming to rescue us through the return of His Son our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. And they will say on that day, "Behold! This is our God! We waited in hope for Him to deliver us. This is our Lord. We waited in hope for Him. Let us rejoice and be glad in His deliverance!" Isaiah 25:9 Strengthen the hands that are weak. Bolster the knees that are giving way. Say to those with anxious hearts, "Be strong! Don’t be afraid! Behold! Your God will come, as an Avenger. [Your] God will come, as a Rewarder. He will come, and He will deliver you". Isaiah 35:3-4 We must ever look forward to that ultimate deliverance. But we must also remember that the Great Tribulation is aptly named, and that just as many fell through apostasy during the Tribulation’s first half, many will fall in martyrdom during those final three and a half years. We must remember, learn well the lessons the Bible has – not without good reason – stored up for us in advance, and make every effort to prepare spiritually for whatever may betide. A. The Seventh Trumpet (15) Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven saying, "The world Kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ has [now] come, and He will rule forever and ever. Amen". (16) And the twenty-four elders were sitting in front of the throne, and they fell on their faces and worshiped God, (17) saying, "We give thanks to you, Lord God Almighty, the One who is and the One who was, even because you have taken up your great power and begun to reign! (18) Although the nations thronged together in their wrath, your wrath has come, even the time for the dead to be judged, for giving to your servants the prophets and to the holy ones, even to those who fear your Name both great and small, the reward [that is due them], and for destroying those who are destroying the earth!". (19) And the temple of God which is in heaven above opened, and the ark of His covenant appeared in His temple. And there occurred flashes of lightning and thunderous voices and an earthquake, and large hail [fell]. Revelation 11:15-19 With the sounding of the seventh trumpet, the Great Tribulation begins. Seven is the number of perfection and completion (cf. Psalms 12:6; Psalms 119:164; Proverbs 6:16; Proverbs 9:1), and while the first six trumpets announce and commence warning judgments of ascending intensity and longevity during the Tribulation’s first half, the seventh trumpet opens the longest and most intensive warning judgment of all, namely, the Great Tribulation itself. For the Great Tribulation is the ultimate admonition to prepare to meet with God, for He is coming at the end of that final three and a half years in the Person of the conquering Messiah who will mete out vengeance to His adversaries even as He brings deliverance to His people (cf. 2 Thessalonians 1:3-12). That is why all of the other events and proclamations in this paragraph, Revelation 11:15-19, directly connect the sounding of the seventh trumpet and the Great Tribulation’s commencement to that glorious future day. For the Tribulation as a whole is the opening twilight of the Great Day of the Lord whose dawn will come in blazing glory with the Second Advent of the Morning Star, the Messiah, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, the true Light of the World (Numbers 24:17; Matthew 2:2-10; 2 Peter 1:19; Revelation 2:28; Revelation 22:16; cf. John 1:4-9; John 3:19-21; John 8:12; John 9:5; John 12:36; John 12:46). B. War in Heaven (7) And war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought with the dragon and the dragon and his angels fought [back], (8) but they did not prevail against him, and they could no longer find any place [of refuge] in heaven. (9) And [so] the great dragon, the ancient serpent, the one called Devil and Satan, was thrown down; even he who deceives the entire world was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. (10) And I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, "Now our God’s deliverance and might and kingdom have come, even the power of His Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, the one who accuses them day and night in front of our God, has been thrown down. (11) But these [believers] have defeated [the devil] through the blood of the Lamb and the Word of their testimony. For they did not love their lives, [even] to the point of death. (12) Because of this, rejoice, O heavens and those residing in them! [But] woe to the earth and the sea, for the devil has come down to you, having [great] anger, because he knows that he has [only] a short time [remaining]." Revelation 12:7-12 The fight described here between Michael and Satan and their respective forces, resulting in the expulsion from heaven of Satan and his angels, is the first event of the Great Tribulation proper. The way in which the outbreak of the "war" is described in this verse indicates that "Michael and his angels" are the initiators of this attack, and we may be certain that they commence these hostilities on divine authority. It may seem strange to some that up until this point in human history God has allowed the devil to present himself in the heavenly assembly and to continue to bring accusations against the elect (1 Kings 22:19-22; 1 Kings 2:1; Job 1:6-19; Job 2:1-7; Job 15:8; Job 38:7; Psalms 29:1 ff.; Psalms 89:5-7; Jeremiah 23:18 & Jeremiah 23:22; Zechariah 3:1; 1 Peter 5:8; Revelation 12:10). Clearly, God has always had the power to cast the devil out of heaven, whether by immediate means or, as here, through the agency of his elect angels. But everything which has yet transpired in heaven and on earth has all been according to the ineluctable plan of God "whose judgments are unsearchable and whose ways are beyond finding out" (Romans 11:33). God’s plan to repair the breach in the moral fabric of the universe rent by creature rebellion has always involved the allowance of true creature free will on the one hand together with an irrefutable demonstration of the justice and rightness of God and His perfectly holy, good and loving character on the other. Satan’s ejection from heaven along with his followers at the commencement of the Tribulation’s second half will be a crucial turning point in the history of his rebellion against God. From that point forward, the dynamics of the conflict will change so radically and fundamentally that no other period in human history will be comparable. That is in no small part why, from the divine point of view, the Great Tribulation is largely inseparable from "the Day of the Lord" which brings it to a close at our Lord’s return. For once Satan has devoted all of his resources to this final furious assault upon the people of God, God’s wrath, God’s judgment, and God’s deliverance cannot be long delayed. Thus the period of Great Tribulation which starts immediately following the sounding of the 7th trumpet and at the same time as Satan’s expulsion from heaven is in essence theologically indistinguishable from the Day of the Lord which follows hard upon its heels. For this is the beginning of the judgment that is answered by restoration and replacement through Christ’s millennial kingdom and reign. In the casting down of Satan and his angels we see the process of judgment beginning, immediately after the concluding sign of warning, the 7th trumpet, has been given. All of the trends of the Great Tribulation which follow are either part of the process of judgment (i.e., the seven bowl judgments of wrath and the remaining sequence of seven major judgments on Babylon, at Armageddon, and etc.) or provocations thereto (i.e., the blasphemous rule of antichrist and the Great Persecution), and are essentially inextricable from the blessed restoration and replacement that is to follow immediately when the powerful and cleansing wind of judgment has swept away all that is fetid and foul and ushered in the crisp and bright new day of righteousness in the Messiah’s kingdom of a thousand years. The last three and a half years of Satan’s reign thus constitute the final darkness before the dawn when the Morning Star rises and bathes the earth in the glorious light of His presence and His truth. What we have here in Revelation 12:7-12 is the first step in this process of judgment, restoration and replacement in the exclusion of Satan and his fallen angels from heaven and their consignment to the earth for this last, terrible period of human testing and suffering. It is surely in no small part the devil’s restriction to planet earth for the remainder of the time allotted to him that makes the Great Tribulation so horrific, a time like no other in the history of the human race (Daniel 12:1; Matthew 24:21-22). No longer will Satan split his time between heaven and earth, accusing our brothers and sisters before the Lord even as his minions assault us on earth. From this point forward, all of the devil’s efforts will be focused upon the earth – if only because this is where he and his followers will have been confined until the Great Day of the Lord sweeps them away. So while a number of factors contribute to the "greatness" of the Great Tribulation such as the removal of Holy Spirit restraint and the subsequent unleashing of lawlessness, and such as the one world rule of antichrist and the subsequent breakdown of all human restraint, the confinement of Satan and his minions to the earth is, nevertheless, not the least of the reasons why the Great Tribulation will be so consummately horrific. But] woe to the earth and the sea, for the devil has come down to you, having [great] anger, because he knows that he has [only] a short time [remaining]!" Revelation 12:12 Michael’s victory and the devil’s expulsion is nonetheless cause for great rejoicing as well (Revelation 12:12 a), for it marks a tangible beginning of the end of the reign of evil and the devil’s reign of terror, made possible through the victory of Jesus Christ on the cross and now entering into the phase of final glorious fulfillment. [For by means of the cross, God] has stripped [demon] rulers and authorities [of their power] and subjected them to public humiliation, having triumphed over them in [Christ]. Colossians 2:15 (cf. Romans 16:20; Hebrews 2:14; 1 John 3:8 b) Satan’s casting out of heaven is a first visible step in the eventual exclusion of all evil from the coming eternal kingdom wherein righteousness dwells, and one which is well documented elsewhere in prophetic scripture at that: (12) How you have fallen from heaven, O morning star, O son of the dawn! You have been cut down to the earth, O you who laid the nations low. (13) For you said in your heart, ’I will ascend heavenward. I will set my throne above the stars of God. And I will take my seat on the mount of assembly on the sides of the north. (14) I will ascend above the heights of the clouds. I will be like the Most High God’. (15) But indeed you will be brought down to Sheol, to the sides of the pit. Isaiah 14:12-15 In all your ways you were perfect from the day of your creation until unrighteousness was found in you. In your extensive conspiring, you were filled with wickedness, and you sinned. So I cast you from the mountain of God as one profaned, and I blotted out [your memory] from among the stones of fire, O covering cherub. Your heart became haughty because of your beauty, [and so] you destroyed your wisdom on account of your splendor. So I cast you to the earth, and I made a spectacle of you before kings. Ezekiel 28:15-17 The seventy returned and said with joy, "Lord, even the demons obey us in your Name!" And Jesus said to them, "I was watching Satan fall from heaven like a star". Luke 10:17-18 A brief aside is perhaps necessary at this point concerning Michael and his angels and the battle fought with Satan and his angels. While scripture does have much to say about the angelic realm, it says less than we may perhaps desire to know and yet everything we need to know. Lacking physically material bodies such as we possess, angels apparently cannot be wounded or killed (though they may be incarcerated). So the exact nature and detail of the combat that will transpire when the 7th trumpet sounds is beyond our ability to know. We are given only the result, that is, the total defeat of the devil and his forces and their complete exclusion from the heavenly realm. We have posited before that the ultimate tally of saved humanity will eventually equal twice that of the fallen angels (the first half constituting the Church, and the second the echelon of millennial believers). Therefore such massive numbers and the completeness of the victory and defeat certainly indicate that the struggle will be a monumental one, especially given the extraordinary power of angelic kind. Furthermore, the significance of the expulsion of the fallen angels from heaven, an "estate" which they have held since before the re-creation of the heavens and the earth and the creation of mankind, is immense. This event will be real, and the mere fact that we are unable to see it and can barely imagine its specifics in no way diminishes that significance. For the world of angels, the change will be profound for both victors and vanquished, and will also of course not be without serious consequence for the earth and for humanity. One thing that we can surmise about this decisive battle between elect and fallen angels is that, while the numbers involved will be immense, not all of angelic kind will participate. Michael, by rank an archangel, is one of a college of seven such "general officers". Positing an equal share of the total elect "host" under the command of each officer would leave Michael in charge of a force less than one third the size of Satan’s entire command (i.e., one seventh of two thirds versus a full third for the devil). This means that instead of the elect angels fighting an easy battle with overwhelming numbers on their side, Michael’s victory will require extraordinary strategy and tactics, and exceptional courage and bravery. Even though this victory has been prophesied for nearly two millennia here at Revelation 12:7-9, the brazenness of the attack with such inferior numbers and the astounding nature of the defeat still seems to come as a surprise to the devil and his cohorts, and this humiliation will be no small contributing factor to the "wrath" Satan will subsequently vent upon the world in the short time remaining to him (Revelation 12:12 b). Although we are not privy to the details, a clear principle does emerge from Michael’s most impressive victory. Armed with this prophecy, Michael and his forces are even now using the time allotted to prepare for the unequal fight to come, and will as a direct result of this diligence be astoundingly successful in conquering a complacent foe who has clearly drawn false confidence from superior numbers. Finally in this regard it is very likely that Michael’s forces are the elite of the elect warrior angels (we may think of them as the "Marines" or the "Rangers" among angelic kind). For as we have seen previously, the number of the elect angelic clans totals six, not seven. It certainly fits the context and everything else we may discern about angelic organization, therefore, to posit that while each clan possesses an archangel (in addition to four elders; see the previous note), Michael holds a special command composed of elite warriors who have distinguished themselves in the fight against the rebellion thus far by their martial valor, courage, integrity, and zeal for the Lord (compare David’s cadre of heroes marked out for special mention: 2 Samuel 23:8-39; 1 Chronicles 11:10-37; cf. 1 Samuel 22:1-2). It certainly behooves us as loyal followers of Jesus Christ to remember that in the spiritual conflict in which we are engaged what we do for the Lord is not only of critical importance – it certainly does not go unnoticed now, nor will it be unrecognized on that great day to come. Let us therefore continue to encourage one another with the truth that, like David’s mighty men and like Michael’s elite, we too have a great opportunity to likewise write our names on the Lord’s scroll of valor for exceptional conduct in the spiritual conflict in which we are engaged. And let us remember as well that, although the darkest of times may lie ahead, the battlefield of the Great Persecution will also offer those who fight upon it unprecedented opportunities for glorifying Jesus Christ and winning in the bargain an undying crown of glory (1 Peter 5:4; cf. Revelation 12:11). C. The Dragon’s Persecution of Believing Israel (15) So when you see the abomination of desolation (which is spoken of through Daniel the prophet) standing in a holy place – let the reader understand – (16) then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains. (17) Let the one on top of his roof not go [back] down to pick up his things out of his house, (18) and let the one in the field not turn back to pick up his cloak. (19) And woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing in those days. (20) And [so] pray that your flight may not take place during a storm or on a Sabbath. (21) For at that time there will be a great tribulation such as has never occurred from the beginning of the world until now, and [such as] will never again occur thereafter. Matthew 24:15-21 (cf. Luke 17:31-32) (14) But when you see the abomination of desolation standing where it should not – let the reader understand – then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, (15) and let the one on top of his roof not go [back] down, neither let him enter [back] into his house to pick up anything out of it, (16) and let the one in the field not turn back to pick up his cloak. (17) And woe to those who are pregnant and to those who are nursing in those days. (18) And [so] pray that it might not take place during a storm. (19) For those days will see a tribulation the like of which has never occurred from the beginning of God’s creation of the world until now, and never will occur again. Mark 13:14-19 Having disposed of Moses and Elijah, one of the first things antichrist will do upon establishing himself as a pseudo-god in Jerusalem will be to attempt to destroy all of their followers within the borders of Israel. The first to die will be the 144,000 Jewish evangelists. Their mission was and will be to the end to bring the gospel to their fellow Jews, and their deaths will serve to give these converts to the true Messiah time to escape the evil designs of the beast and his father the devil. For while believers within Israel are told to escape without so much as returning home for a coat, the 144,000 will stand their ground wherever they may be in fulfillment of this last act of courage which the Lord has ordained for them: martyrdom. (1) And I looked, and behold, the Lamb stood upon Mount Zion, and with Him were the 144,000, having His Name and the Name of His Father written upon their foreheads. (2) And I heard a sound from heaven like a sound of many waters and a sound of thunder, and the sound which I heard was like that of lyre-players playing on their lyres. (3) And they (i.e., the 144,000) are singing a new song before the throne and before the four living creatures and before the elders, and no one was able to learn the song except the 144,000 [singing] in unison, they who had been purchased from the earth. Revelation 14:1-3 The rewards that accompany such wonderful and sacrificial service to the Lord which the 144,000 will achieve, a ministry crowned with martyrdom that not only glorifies the Lord directly but allows the escape of those they have ministered to, will be profound indeed. When the Church in resurrection is reorganized into the twelve tribes whose names are on the gates of New Jerusalem, we will not be surprised to see the 144,000 formed into the otherwise unassigned tribe of Levi, a special tribe whose "portion is the Lord", and whose eternal status will be one of special closeness to Him – there can be no greater reward. (13) And when the dragon saw that he had been cast down to the earth, he gave chase to the woman who had born the male [child]. (14) And to the woman were given two wings of the great eagle so that she might fly into the desert to a place [prepared] for her where she is [going to be] sustained there away from the presence of the serpent for a time and times and half a time. (15) And the serpent spewed [forth] from his mouth after the woman water like a river in order to sweep her away. (16) And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and drank up the river which the dragon had spewed [forth] from his mouth. (17) And the dragon was enraged at the woman, and he went away to make war with the rest of her seed, [even] those who are keeping the commandments of God and maintaining their testimony to Jesus. Revelation 12:13-17 Even with the 144,000 acting as a rearguard at the cost of their lives, those Jewish believers who heed the warning to flee as soon as they see the "abomination" set up in the temple court will nevertheless be pursued by antichrist. As the passage above makes clear, however, they will be granted a successful escape through divine, supernatural means. Moreover, they will be granted a special place of comfort and protection somewhere in the middle of the desert wherein like the Israelites of old they will be protected and provided for by the Lord for the duration of the Tribulation, "for a time and times and half a time". D. The Beast’s Prophet and the Worldwide Anti-Christian Religion (4) And they worshiped the dragon because he gave his authority to the beast. And they [also] worshiped the beast, saying, "Who is like the beast? And who is able to make war with him?" (5) And a mouth was given to [the beast] to speak presumptuous things and blasphemies [against God]. And it was [also] given to him to do what he wished for forty-two months. (6) And he opened his mouth for [the purpose of] blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His Name and His dwelling and those who dwell in heaven (i.e., the family of God). (7) And it was given to [the beast] to make war on the holy ones (e.g., believers) and to conquer them (i.e., the Great Persecution). And authority was given to him over every tribe and people and language and race. (8) And all the inhabitants of the earth will worship [the beast], [that is, all] whose names are not [still] written in the book of life [where they were written] from the beginning of the world, [even the book] which belongs to the Lamb who was slain. (9) "If anyone has an ear, let him hear. (10) If anyone is [destined] for captivity [to captivity he will go]. If it is necessary for anyone to be put to death by the sword, by the sword he must be put to death. Herein lies the perseverance and the faithfulness of the holy ones." Revelation 13:4-10 1. The Anti-Christian Religion and its Worldwide Expansion The amazement the world will manifest at the beast’s pseudo-resurrection (Revelation 13:3) along with his military successes (being now the effective ruler of the world as a result) spills forth at this point not only in the worship of antichrist himself, but also in the worship of his father, the dragon (i.e., the devil). It is to some extent a moot point whether or not these worshipers who will constitute the vast majority of the world’s population really understand that it is Satan and his antichrist they are worshiping and not the one true God and His true Messiah. For the beast will certainly represent himself as the latter so that there will also be no doubt about the representation in this worldwide religion of Satan as "true God" (cf. Ezekiel 31:11; John 12:31; 2 Corinthians 4:4). Clearly, however, the world ought to know, inasmuch as antichrist’s reign in Jerusalem from the temple of God itself will be pursuant to his prior eviction of the two servants of God, Moses and Elijah, who, it will be recalled, mediated the trumpet judgments of warning (Revelation 11:1-13; cf. Zechariah 4:14). Following his consolidation of power worldwide, the first item on antichrist’s agenda, and the most effective, most dramatic, and most abhorrent means that the dragon and his antichrist will employ to consolidate their kingdom, will be the establishment of a mandatory, worldwide religion designed to replace all genuine worship of the one true God with the worship of the beast and his father the devil instead. As Revelation 13:4 demonstrates, the population of the world at large, awed by recent events, will easily and readily put aside whatever scruples and reservations they may have had before and will enthusiastically embrace the worship of Satan and antichrist. Their reasoning and motivation is simple enough and is made crystal clear in our context: the dragon will be considered a legitimate object of worship "because he gave his authority to the beast", and antichrist in turn will be regarded as such 1) because of his extraordinary person (exemplified in particular by his pseudo resurrection: "Who is like the beast?"), and 2) because of his extraordinary deeds (exemplified in particular by his conquest of the world, including his "defeat" of the two witnesses: "And who is able to make war with him?"). The world’s new-found reverence for the devil and their acceptance of him as "God" is a result of their prior conviction that antichrist is God’s divine representative on earth. While this may perhaps seem a somewhat unbelievable development to followers of the true Christ before the fact, we would do well to remember the words of our Lord: (10) And at that time many will fall away and will betray each other and will hate each other, (11) and many false prophets will arise and will deceive many. (12) Now because of the increase of lawlessness [at that time], the love of the many will cool. (13) But he who endures until the end, this [is the one who] will be saved. Matthew 24:10-13 At that time if someone says to you "Look [(as they will tell you then)]! Christ is here!", or "Here [He is]!", do not believe [it]. For false christs and false prophets will arise and will perform great miracles (lit., "signs") and wonders [sufficient] to deceive even the elect, if [that were] possible. Look [(as I am telling you now)]! I have told you ahead of time. Matthew 24:23-25 The parallels between the beast and the true Messiah will be both deliberate and numerous. If, as Jesus tells us in the verse above, even the elect will be tempted to interpret the signs and wonders of antichrist as proof of his Messiahship, it is small wonder that those who have rejected the truth of Jesus Christ will be easily ensnared by the satanic lies of the beast and the dragon. In addition to the signs and wonders mentioned above, antichrist will have now defeated the "unbelieving nations" of the southern alliance in a "holy crusade" to deliver "Christendom and Israel" from Islamic tyranny; he will have defeated the "forces of evil" in the persons of Moses and Elijah who had for many months been "tormenting" the unbelieving population of the world (Revelation 11:10); and he will have (to the eyes of the world) even risen from the dead. Following these unprecedented signs, he will take up residence in the temple of God in Jerusalem proclaiming himself to be God (2 Thessalonians 2:4), and setting about to begin the millennium of blessing prophesied in scripture as he rules from Jerusalem a united world without war. Not only will it be no wonder that unbelievers, attributing his feats to the supernatural authority of his father (which is indeed true enough), will accept him as divine, but it also follows logically for those viewing the circumstances in such a way that the imposition of a mandatory form of worship upon the entire world will seem reasonable and good in every way. Only those who know their God will be able to resist the incredible pressures to take part in the new phase of antichrist’s religion about to be unveiled and proclaimed worldwide. And it is likewise understandable that the satanic propaganda which has been around since pagan days and which seeks to paint the true God as "a bad god" and Satan as "the good god" bent on replacing him will find a ready audience in all those whose names are no longer written in the book of life. Therefore one of the chilling ironies of the Great Persecution about to be unleashed against all who are determined to preserve their faith in Jesus even until death is that believers are going to be charged with "devil worship" by the very people who have in fact sold themselves to Satan. Our Lord’s words on the subject are important to remember in this regard, for they accused Him, the Son of God Himself, of being in league with the devil (John 8:48-59; cf. Mark 3:22-30), and He has assured us of the world’s hatred and persecution, because it hated and persecuted Him first (John 15:18-25). Before the accomplishment of the two primary deceptions of the Tribulation’s first half (i.e., antichrist’s pseudo "resurrection" and pseudo-Armageddon) and the domination of the world which followed, it was neither feasible from the standpoint of persuasion nor possible from the standpoint of political power either to reveal fully the nature of the new religion or to make it mandatory worldwide. The constellation of the events at the Tribulation’s mid-point are what make possible (in company "with the help of [his] foreign god") antichrist’s transformation of his rule from regional to global. That transition will be both horizontal (i.e., geographic expansion until the entire surface of the globe renders him effective allegiance), and vertical (i.e., an increasing measure of loyalty and control within all political entities as well as all other power-nodes), with a corresponding degree of increased intensity in the demands he will make of those controlled. Immediately after his initial consolidation of power we can expect a greater requirement for allegiance to and participation in his cause and in his religion which will manifest itself most significantly in the Great Persecution about to be unleashed upon all who refuse such allegiance and participation. (3) Do not let anyone deceive you in any way. For [the 2nd Advent cannot come] unless the Apostasy [the great falling away of the faithful in the first half of the Tribulation] has already occurred, and the man of lawlessness [antichrist] has been revealed, that "son of destruction" (cf. John 17:12 of Judas), (4) the one who will oppose and exalt himself against every so-called god and object of worship to such a degree that he will take his seat in the temple of God and represent himself as being God. (5) Don’t you remember that I was telling you these things while I was still with you? 2 Thessalonians 2:3-5 Despite the inherent horrors of antichrist’s universal religion of Satanism prophesied to be revealed and expanded at the Tribulation’s mid-point and the terrors it will hold for all who refuse to bow down to it, we should not think that it will be for those reasons a system of worship that most people find oppressive and abhorrent but are only embracing out of necessity. As in the case of many cults, beyond the obvious mind-control and group coercion, there is always also an element that appeals to and even legitimizes the secret desires of many if not most of its members. Just as we would be mistaken to imagine the devil as some horrible looking creature when in fact he was made beautiful (Ezekiel 28:12-13) and even now masquerades as "a messenger of light" (2 Corinthians 11:14), so in the case of this worldwide cult designed to worship him, rather than imaging some repulsive collection of odd and onerous rituals, we would do better to understand this new religion as something that most people will find incredibly appealing (cf. Nahum 3:4 and the harlot analogy generally: Revelation 17:1-5; Revelation 17:15-16; Revelation 19:2). Cults often attract new adherents by promising them a welcoming and friendly society, and by offering them a "deeper" spiritual relationship through initiation into "secret doctrines and mysteries" unavailable elsewhere. And if in the process they also appeal to the hidden desires of the new initiate (be they of either an ascetic or licentious nature), then their appeal can seem irresistible. The unique feature of the beast’s religion will be a syncretism of all such elements, allowing virtually every human being to clothe his or her base desires in the mantle of religion in a friendly and welcoming environment and with the conviction that the "truth" is thus being sought, and the "true God" thus being served, to the end that "true eternal life" may be earned (such as antichrist seems to exhibit in his feigned rise from the dead). The Spirit explicitly says that in the end times certain men will rebel from the faith, giving their allegiance [instead] to deceitful spirits and demonic doctrines. With their own consciences seared away and speaking with the hypocrisy of men [who peddle] lies, they will [instruct their victims] to refrain from marriage, and to keep away from certain foods . . . 1 Timothy 4:1-3 a Perspicuous in the verses above is the perverse reversal of God’s natural order of things as marriage is discouraged – but not sexual practice of all sorts, both natural and unnatural. Inhabitants of urban 21st century America may well wonder what great change this will represent from contemporary practices. Nevertheless, there will be a decided change for the worse as the incipient trends now visible burst into full flood, are blessed by the state and the state religion, and become mandatory for all loyal citizens of antichrist’s world state. And while believers will have as much trouble accepting this degraded and degrading behavior as they do accepting antichrist, the partisans of antichrist will be disposed by the darkness of their minds to embrace his religious strictures even as they have been drawn to embrace him – a phenomenon which cannot be disentangled from the prior rejection of the truth of God: I have come in My Father’s Name, and you do not accept Me; but if someone else comes in his own name, you will accept him. John 5:43 In general terms, the religion of the beast will stress the material and the visible over against invisible spirituality of which, of course, it will be completely bereft. And in all of its worldly manifestations it will attempt to mimic the outward appearance of Christian forms (although this will be more in terms of the "traditional" forms of the church visible as opposed to genuine Christian faith and practice). One thing that will be noticeably missing from antichrist’s "church" will be the Bible. For while false religions often have some doctrinal focal point or other, it behooves any organization that is in truth no part of the truth to maintain "flexibility" about the actual truth. In other words, when an organization or movement is built upon lies, the freedom to continue lying without restraint or fear of contradiction is crucial. For this reason, we may expect that with his "revelation" as the Son of God, antichrist will expect the world to accept his words as fully sufficient and authoritative since they come from "God". What need will the world then have for an outdated, outmoded written Bible when they now have the purported author to worship in person? It is worth noting in this regard that, in effect, this is where we find much of contemporary Christianity in our present Laodicean age of spiritual lukewarmness. For while many so-called Christian churches and organizations pay lip service to the Bible (and we imagine that the beast and his religion will do so as well), in terms of practice and application the scriptures often take a distant second place to entertainment, self-help, motivational speaking, emotional appeals, pop-psychology, and "worship". For many groups, therefore, the adoption of the beast’s religion in both name and practice will sadly mean very little change in either outward appearance or inward effect. Characteristics of the religion of antichrist: a. Its Ultimate Object of Worship: "The dragon and the beast" will be the ultimate objects of worship in this new religion. So while there will be other foci of worship and veneration as well (e.g., the idolatrous cult statue in the temple court and the false prophet), the world will have no excuse – Satan and his antichrist will replace the Lord God Almighty and His true Christ in the active worship in which the unbelieving world will now orgiastically indulge. The prior apostasy of one third of the Church, coupled with the removal of Holy Spirit restraint, and the empowerment of error spoken of in 2 Thessalonians 2:11, will contribute mightily to the rapidity and the totality of the world’s rush to embrace the devil and the beast (Daniel 8:10-12; Daniel 11:36-39). b. Its Ultimate Place of Worship: Just as antichrist proclaims himself to be the true Messiah and makes every attempt to support that claim in ways that would, "if possible", deceive even the elect (Matthew 24:24), so Jerusalem and the temple of God are not accidently chosen as the supreme place of worship. The idea of substitution is clear in everything that the beast and his father Satan will do in this regard, for it has ever been the devil’s desire to replace God, so that the installing of his son on the throne of God with himself enshrined as the ultimate object of creature worship is in many respects the fulfillment of a dream which has been millennia in the making. Indeed, Satan will take pains during this entire period to represent this time as the beginning of "the Millennium". For, after all, the true Millennium begins following the revelation of Jesus Christ, the defeat of His enemies at Armageddon, and His installment in the temple at Jerusalem as the Ruler of the world. To the unbelieving world, antichrist’s pseudo-resurrection, conquest of the southern alliance, and usurpation of the temple and Jerusalem for his own use will fit this bill. Needless to say, the ensuing three and half years, the time of greatest tribulation in world history, will hardly seem "millennial", but the selection of Jerusalem as the supreme place of worship will contribute to the persuasiveness of the beast’s claims and to the acceptance by the unbelieving world of his new universal religion. Not since the tower of Babel will the world be so completely "united" in a political sense, or have a single unifying religious center and motivation as it will have at that time as antichrist begins his rule from Jerusalem with the intent of putting all of his enemies under his feet – if they refuse to worship him. c. Its Ultimate Priest: As with all of the other supreme foci of the beast’s religion, so in the case of the "clergy" we can expect to see a deliberate usurpation of both true and traditional Christianity in antichrist’s system. There is, of course, nothing biblical about Roman Catholicism’s "pope", but the false prophet will indeed be a true "vicar" or substitute for antichrist, serving him in a way that falsely parallels the true Christ but in reality models antichrist and the devil (e.g, the false prophet has "two horns like a lamb", but "speaks like a dragon": Revelation 13:11). We may expect this to be the case with the other lesser "clergy" as well, especially considering that in all probability antichrist will make use of already existing clergy who are co-opted into his new universal religion, so that any distinction as seen by the world between the beast’s church and the "Christian church" will be difficult to draw (since in most cases it will be a question of the same people in the same buildings employing many of the same rituals only now committed to worshiping the beast "as Christ"). In general terms, we can expect antichrist’s new clergy to be extremely persuasive (cf. Matthew 24:23-24; Colossians 2:16-23; 2 Thessalonians 2:3-12; 1 Timothy 4:1-8; 2 Timothy 3:1-13; 2 Peter 2:1-22, 2 Peter 3:1-18; Jude 1:4-16). d. Its Ultimate Sign of Membership: Believers in Jesus Christ have as their sign and as their seal of divine ownership the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit (2 Corinthians 1:21-22; Ephesians 1:13-14; Ephesians 4:30; cf. Romans 8:9-17; Revelation 7:1-3). Antichrist’s substitute for this true yet invisible sign is, once again in keeping with the pattern above, a false, visible sign, the "mark of the beast". e. Its Ultimate Promise: Given that the beast has been "restored to life", it is likely that the promise of a similar reward will be given to those who embrace his religion, especially in the context of antichrist’s claim to be the true Messiah. It should be noted in this connection, however, that rather than being a universal good promised to all, as in the case of the true resurrection of the righteous, we may instead expect this false promise of resurrection to be qualified, offered only to the few who distinguish themselves in loyalty, and thus used as a goad to spur the "faithful" on to ever greater degeneracy and fanaticism. Moreover, the type of "eternal life" being offered will be along the same lines of materiality we see in every other aspect of the beast’s religion, namely, the continuation (or revivification) of the sordid and (apart from God) pointless temporal life that is humanity’s lot, rather than any true transformation. That so many around the world will find this offer appealing is almost a cause for pity, especially considering that antichrist will be incapable of making good on this promise in even a single instance. f. Its Ultimate Sacrifice: It is a common-place in literature to portray those who make a "deal with the devil" as having "sold their souls". And it is true that the unbelieving world of that future time, by their embracing of the beast’s religion, will have likewise embraced their own condemnation, willfully rejecting through the worship of antichrist and his father Satan the grace and mercy in Jesus Christ that God was eager to give them freely (cf. Jonah 2:8). However, the true nature of the "bargain" is this: they have forsaken eternal life and spiritual riches beyond calculation for the sake of some trifling and, in many cases, totally disgusting short-lived material benefits. In other words, like Esau, the unbelieving world of that time will sell en masse "their birthright for a mess of pottage" (Hebrews 12:16). To those concerned, the bargain will actually seem reasonable, for it will involve substituting present persecution endured for the sake of intangible advantages (which their hearts blinded by unbelief find incredible) for tangible "benefits" in the here and now (cf. the pattern of Isaiah 57:1 ff.). g. Its Ultimate Service: As in the case of its ultimate sacrifice, the ultimate service for believers in antichrist and his religion will reflect a sick parallelism to genuine Christianity. After the pattern of our Savior (e.g., John 13:1-17), true Christians are committed to service for the sake and the benefit of their fellow believers, seeking their spiritual growth and welfare above all else (Romans 14:19-21). For adherents of the religion of the beast, however, "the ultimate service" will not be edification but destruction, namely, the betrayal of all who refuse to accept antichrist in preference for the true Christ. 2. The False Prophet (11) And I saw another beast (i.e., the false prophet: cf. Revelation 16:13; Revelation 19:20; Revelation 20:10) rising up from the earth, and he had two horns like a lamb, but he spoke like a dragon. (12) And he [will] act with all the authority of the first beast [while] in his presence, and he [will] make the world and all its inhabitants worship the first beast, whose mortal wound was healed. (13) And [the beast’s false prophet] [will] perform great miracles (lit., "signs"), even making fire come down from heaven to the earth in front of everyone. (14) And he [will] deceive those who dwell upon the earth on account of the miracles (lit., "signs") which have been given to him to perform in the presence of the beast, even commanding the inhabitants of the earth to make an image of the beast, [that is] of him who received the [deadly] stroke of the sword and [yet] came [back] to life. (15) And it was given to him to provide a spirit for the image of the beast so that the image might speak, and [it was also given to him] to bring it about that as many as refused to worship the image of the beast might be put to death. Revelation 13:11-15 The fact that this second beast will rise up "from the earth" shows that he will be completely human (as opposed antichrist’s satanic parentage). Antichrist, the first beast, received his power and authority from the devil (Revelation 13:2; Revelation 19:20), and here we see the second beast receiving his power and authority from antichrist as a clear subordinate of the first beast. In this respect we see another deliberate (though false) parallel between the high priest and the head of state in the original Jewish monarchy. As believers in the only true God, we understand very well that Jesus is both the ultimate King and the ultimate High Priest "in the order of Melchizedek", having offered Himself on the cross as the only sacrifice sufficient to cleanse us from our sins (Psalms 110:4; Hebrews 4:14; Hebrews 5:5-10; Hebrews 6:19; Hebrews 7:1-3; Hebrews 8:1-2). Antichrist, however, will ignore the true Savior’s redemptive work and will instead stress the regal aspects of the Messiah who is destined to institute the worldwide "kingdom of heaven". For those who reject Jesus and His work on the cross (i.e., the true functioning of His priesthood) and choose instead to accept antichrist’s claim to be the legitimate ruler of the world, it will seem reasonable that there should be a new high priest to conduct the worship of the first beast and his father (the devil). In possessing "two horns like a lamb" while he speaks "like a dragon" we see the false prophet seeking to establish and support antichrist’s claim of Messiahship (hence the horns of the lamb) furthering Satan’s plan in the process (i.e., speaking like a dragon). The false prophet will take the lead in the administering of antichrist’s religion, both in terms of its expansion and also in the implementation of the compulsory aspects of it, including the Great Persecution which mandatory conversion will occasion in the case of all who refuse. The administrative and cultic center of this new religion will not be Rome, as many have surmised, but Jerusalem. For it is in Jerusalem that the beast will take his seat in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God, and it is in the temple court that the statue of the beast, the "abomination which causes [spiritual] desolation" will be erected (Daniel 11:31; Matthew 24:15; Mark 13:14). Thus the temple and the idol then associated with it will be the new religion’s focal point from the middle of the Tribulation onward. And it will be in front of the temple and its idol that the false prophet will perform his miracles, acting with antichrist’s authority "in his presence" (Revelation 13:12-13). In his implementation of the first beast’s false religion, we see the second beast following the pattern of counterfeiting true forms and practices, and, specifically now that the focus of worship has moved to the temple in Jerusalem, of paralleling the Mosaic Law with a series of practices designed to resemble the truth even as they propagate satanic lies: a. False Pilgrimage: In the law, all males in Israel are commanded to present themselves before the Lord on three occasions every year, i.e., at the Passover, the festival of first fruits, and the feast of Tabernacles (Exodus 23:14-17). We may infer from the testimony given in our context to the effect that the false prophet will "deceive those who dwell upon the earth on account of the miracles which have been given to him to perform in the presence of the beast" that many individuals, especially those of any sort of prominence, will be expected to make what amounts to a similar "pilgrimage" to Jerusalem during those 42 months in order to worship at the feet of the beast, paying homage to him and to his idol under the watchful eye of the false prophet (compare the behavior of Nebuchadnezzar vis- à-vis the idol of gold which he had erected on the plain of Dura in Babylon: Daniel 3:1-12). b. False Worship: It is likely that the false prophet will represent himself as the high priest of Israel (though scripture does not give him that title possibly for the very good reason that he is not so in fact), and that much of the ritual carried on in and around Jerusalem at this time, illegitimate though it is, will closely parallel the historical temple rite (i.e., the appointment of divisions of priests, the reconstruction of all the trappings and paraphernalia of the Aaronic priesthood, and the continuation of various rules and regulations; although apparently not sacrifices per se: cf. Daniel 9:27). It is the case that this show of historicity will in truth have nothing to do with the original temple worship, or the worship re-instituted by Moses and Elijah, or the millennial temple worship soon to be reestablished by the true Messiah. But to those who have been deceived to the point of accepting antichrist as the Christ, restoration of the temple rite at least in some form or other far from being surprising will indeed be expected of this pseudo-Messiah who has now come to Jerusalem to begin his "millennial reign". c. False Dietary Regime: Dietary regulations play a significant role in the Mosaic Law for the purpose of "distinguishing between the holy and the profane" (Leviticus 10:10). That is to say, Israel’s separation from the practices of the world in diet were to be representative of their far more important spiritual separation (Romans 4:13). Reversing this relationship, that is, claiming holiness or righteousness on the basis of "keeping the Law" in any of its aspect is, as any reader of the New Testament should know, diametrically opposed to the true purpose of the Law and the true meaning of grace. Yet a key feature of antichrist’s religion as administered by his high priest, the false prophet, will be to take traditional legalism a step farther, instituting a system of aggressive vegetarianism that will give its practitioners a feeling of "holiness" and "purity" on the basis of diet (i.e., physical, substituting for spiritual, purity), despite whatever truly sinful behavior in which they may be engaged (1 Timothy 4:1-5; cf. Colossians 2:16-23; 2 Timothy 3:5; Hebrews 13:9). d. False Communion: Closely tied to these everyday dietary restraints will be the practice of a false "communion" which will follow closely after the pattern of historical pagan practices (cf. Zechariah 9:7): Those who sanctify and purify themselves for the gardens following the lead of the one [characterized] by violence, eating the flesh of swine, and of whatever is an abomination, and of rats will be swept away together (i.e., at the Second Advent), says the Lord. Isaiah 66:17 The context of this verse (both preceding and following, but see especially Isaiah 66:18-24) shows clearly that while the behavior described is not unprecedented in Israel’s past (cf. Isaiah 65:3-5), the disgusting communal meal described above will be the one in vogue during the Tribulation. Therefore the "one with violence", clearly an individual acting as a sort of priest officiating over the proceedings, is best taken to be the false prophet, antichrist’s own "high priest" and the one responsible for directing his false religion. The fact that meat will be eaten in this "communion" whereas vegetarianism will be the rule otherwise is not contradictory, for this eating of abominations will represent a "sacrifice" and for that reason necessarily includes behavior not otherwise sought out or condoned. e. False Piety: The "sanctified" behavior of antichrist’s religion will go beyond diet including in particular a general prohibition against normal marriage (1 Timothy 4:3). Genuine Christianity does indeed forbid sexual conduct outside of marriage (e.g., 1 Thessalonians 4:3-8), but never forbids legitimate marriage (1 Corinthians 7:8-9). Here once again, therefore, we see the beast’s religion turning the truth on its head. While preaching and encouraging sexual licentiousness (cf. 2 Peter 2:17-22), the false prophet will lead the charge to forbid the only valid forum for sexual behavior. We may expect many such instances of making virtue out of sin and vice versa. One particularly well-documented form of counterfeit piety will be the tattooing of the beast’s name (or number) on the forehead and/or right hand of his worshipers (see below), wherein we see a clear attempt to mimic legitimate biblical practices past and present (Isaiah 44:5; Revelation 3:12; cf. Exodus 13:9-16; Isaiah 62:2; Isaiah 65:15; Revelation 2:17), even while violating the express commands of scripture (Leviticus 19:28; Revelation 14:9-11; cf. Revelation 16:2; Revelation 19:20; Revelation 20:4). f. False Millennial Program: During the Great Tribulation, antichrist will represent himself as the Messiah. Therefore it should not be surprising that his religion will attempt to counterfeit and play off of the prophecies regarding Christ’s true Millennial Kingdom. One of the key thematic characteristics of the genuine Millennium will be justice, divinely defined and directly administered by the Lord worldwide for the first time in human history since the garden (cf. Psalms 2:1-12; Psalms 9:1-20; Psalms 24:1-10; Psalms 45:1-17, Psalms 46:1-11, Psalms 47:1-9, Psalms 48:1-14; Psalms 50:1-23; Psalms 72:1-20; Isaiah 11:1-16; Isaiah 24:1-23, Isaiah 25:1-12, Isaiah 26:1-21, Isaiah 27:1-13; Isaiah 32:1-20; Isaiah 34:1-17, Isaiah 35:1-10; Isaiah 49:1-26, Isaiah 50:1-11, Isaiah 51:1-23, Isaiah 52:1-15; Isaiah 62:1-12, Isaiah 63:1-19, Isaiah 64:1-12, Isaiah 65:1-25; Isaiah 66:1-24). Instead of true justice stemming from divine administration of the world (an under-appreciated blessing that is worth far more than many material blessings with which the Millennium will be replete), the beast’s religion will offer unprecedented "freedom" from innumerable legal and societal restraints (Daniel 7:25; 2 Peter 2:17-22; cf. Isaiah 24:5), but this "freedom" will in fact help to produce the most outrageous violations of the most basic human rights as well as of the most important freedom we as a species possess, namely, the right to choose for Jesus Christ and to follow and serve Him in this life without persecution. From the believer’s perspective, the beast’s false millennium is best understood by its divinely assigned name, "The Great Tribulation". Instead of a time of justice and safety, these final forty-two months will be a time of trampling down of all that is just and right and decent in the name of "freedom". For whatever good one may find in anti-materialistic, new age, vegetarian, libertarian anti-commercialism, in the context of antichrist’s pseudo-millennium all such things will be mere fig leaves employed solely for the purpose of covering a campaign of crime, lawlessness, licentiousness, and the judicial murder of all who find themselves in opposition to the beast for whatever reason, and especially those who have determined to stay faithful to Jesus Christ regardless of the consequences. One category of "freedom-blessings" scripture does spell out for this period is a general redistribution of wealth by antichrist on behalf of his supporters (Daniel 11:24 b; Daniel 11:39). Presented no doubt as a "jubilee" along Old Testament lines (Leviticus 25:1-55; Leviticus 27:1-34), this action will instead be motivated out of the beast’s desire to firm up his own support rather than any desire to help the poor. g. False Service: Finally, the "righteous works" required of the adherents of antichrist’s religion as led by his high priest, the false prophet, will entail first and foremost participation in the satanic attempt at universal conversion to the beast. In addition to all the other depravities required of those who choose to serve the beast, this final "crusade" will involve the active destruction of the free will opportunities of others to choose for Christ, even to the point of betraying those they ought to love the most (Matthew 10:36; Luke 21:16). More persuasive than any of the lies the false prophet will spout will be the exceptional "miracles" he is permitted to perform in the name of the beast and in the power of the devil. Scripture is very clear here and elsewhere that these signs and wonders will be most impressive, "deceiving those who live upon the earth" (Revelation 13:14; cf. 2 Thessalonians 2:9-10), and even capable of deceiving even the elect, "if that were possible" (Matthew 24:24; Mark 13:22). In the production of these miraculous signs once again we see Satan’s familiar pattern of aping the wonders of God in order to appear a god in the eyes of world (2 Corinthians 11:14). Moreover, the specific false miracles given to the second beast to perform are particularly deceptive in that they so directly parallel demonstrations of genuine divine power. Moses and Elijah, both historically and even more importantly during their recent return to earth to direct the missionary activities of the 144,000, performed similar signs and miracles (Revelation 11:5; cf. 1 Kings 18:38; 2 Kings 1:9-14). Just as Pharaoh’s magicians, Jannes and Jambres, were able to produce counterfeit signs and miracles that nevertheless fell short of what God gave Moses to perform (Exodus 7:11; Exodus 7:22; cf. 2 Timothy 3:8-9), and just as the devil was able to manipulate the pre-historic creation and yet fell pitifully short of the power of God, so the false prophet’s signs and miracles will in fact be pathetically lacking compared to true divine power. However, we must not underestimate their persuasive effect upon the unbelieving world. As believers contemplating these events before the fact, we need to realize that these signs and wonders will appear to the human eye as indeed being the "real thing", so that only through our understanding of the truth of scripture will we be able to resist being impressed to the point of misguided belief as the rest of the world will be. Believers in Jesus, therefore, must take pains to remember at all times (and especially at that time) that what we know to be so from the Bible is always of much greater import than anything our eyes may happen to see – it is by faith in God’s truth that we navigate this world, not by how we may feel or by what we may experience or by what our eyes behold (2 Corinthians 4:18; 2 Corinthians 5:7; cf. Hebrews 11:1 ff.). However impressive and persuasive the signs and wonders we may see, the true "test" lies in whether or not those who perform them contradict the truth and seek to lead us astray (Deuteronomy 13:2-4). The fact that the world’s entire unbelieving population is said to be involved in the construction of the idol, the "abomination which brings [spiritual] desolation" (Revelation 13:14), indicates that this statue will be of massive size and probably constructed of extremely valuable materials. Given the close relation between many aspects of this occurrence and Nebuchadnezzar’s similar construction of the huge, ninety foot tall golden idol in the plains of Babylon (Daniel 3:1 ff), we would be justified in assuming that this statue is made of gold as well. We may posit that the false prophet in his role as high priest of the beast’s religion will supervise a worldwide campaign of contributions for the construction, for this is most likely what is to be understood from the phrase "commanding the inhabitants of the earth to make an image of the beast" (cf. Exodus 35:4-35, Exodus 36:1-7). Once the idol is in place, the false prophet will animate it through satanic power (i.e., Revelation 13:15 : "it was given to him to provide a spirit for the image of the beast so that the image might speak"). This ability to animate a statue so large and impressively appointed will play no small role in the deception of the world, and we may anticipate that many who come to Jerusalem unconvinced will be awed into "belief" by this unprecedented sight (cf. Nebuchadnezzar’s attempt to impart a similar sense of awe through ornate and extensive musical accompaniment: Daniel 3:5; Daniel 3:7; Daniel 3:10; Daniel 3:15). It stands to reason that only those in the presence of the image of the beast will be capable of being put to the test as to whether or not they are willing to worship it. Thus Revelation 13:15 indicates that all whose allegiance to antichrist is suspect will be brought to Jerusalem and made to stand before the colossal idol, with those who refuse to give their obeisance in its presence being put immediately to death. The means of execution is not given, but it would certainly continue the parallel with Nebuchadnezzar’s statue if the imminent demise for all who refuse was a horrifying death by fire in a furnace akin to that into which Hananiah, Mishael, and Asariah (Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego) were thrown upon their similar refusal (cf. Daniel 11:33). The terrifying sight of this monstrous, animated colossus, and the prospect of being cast alive into the flames for refusing to worship it, will no doubt prove too much for anyone to bear – except for those who are solidly grounded in their faith in Jesus Christ, and ready to follow Him even unto a fiery death rather than prove unfaithful in this life. 3. The Mark of the Beast (16) And he (i.e., the false prophet) compelled everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave, to allow [his clergy] to place a mark on their right hand or on their forehead, (17) so that no one would be able to buy or sell except those with the mark, [consisting of] either the name of the [first] beast or the number of his name. Revelation 13:16-17 Although the text here is very straightforward, there are all manner of false and misleading theories about the mark in common currency today. As can be seen easily enough from the words above, the mark is a physical one, a visible tattoo placed upon the willing recipient by some official in antichrist’s pseudo-Christian religion. Postulating signs and symbols occurring elsewhere (such as in corporate logos), or invisible alterations to DNA, or anything to do with microchips, or any other such speculative nonsense merely advances the beast’s cause by making the actual mark and its process of reception seem less threatening. But just as we cannot afford to be confused about what the mark actually is, neither can any believer afford to forget that taking the mark is tantamount to denying Christ . . . and forfeiting eternal salvation. (9) And yet a third angel followed them, saying in a loud voice, "If anyone worships the beast and his image and receives [his] mark upon his forehead or upon his hand, (10) he himself will also drink from the wine of God’s wrath which has been mixed undiluted in the cup of His anger. And [that person] will be tormented in fire and sulfur before angels, [and] saints, and before the Lamb. (11) And the smoke of their torment will go up forever and ever, and they have no rest day or night, those who worship the beast and his image and whoever takes the mark of his name." Revelation 14:9-11 Several other important points about the mark itself need to be considered before proceeding to the discussion of the "number of the beast": a. The beast’s universal religion results in universal compulsion to receive the mark: Whatever civil rights and benefits of citizenship obtain under antichrist’s worldwide state, we are right to expect that these will all be closely tied to membership and participation in his universal religion because it is through this religion that his "majesty" will be worshiped and revered. Consequently, it should come as no surprise that at this juncture the false prophet will administer the placement of a visible sign of obeisance upon all of the beast’s followers with the objective of "marking" the entire world. Given the dire consequences the reception of this mark will have, we may posit that, in addition to true believers, there will be an indeterminate number of unbelievers who will avoid it as well. We should not, however, underestimate the short-term negative consequences which resisting this mark will entail. b. The placing of the mark is most likely carried out by the clergy of the beast’s religion: Since antichrist’s religion is a purposefully syncretic mixture of all other religions distinguished mainly by its universal acknowledgment of the beast as God, we do not have to find in this policy of marking its adherents any fundamental reconstruction or reorganization of its parts. More than likely, the same priests, pastors, imams, etc. of all religions and cults previously co-opted into antichrist’s universal religion will be at the forefront of the process of marking all of the world’s "believers" in antichrist, and that this process will be essentially religious rather than civil in nature (though it will have definite civil consequences). c. The pressure to receive the mark: The mark will accomplish a melding together of church and state such as the world has not seen since the tower of Babel. For while the taking of the mark will have a putative religious purpose and be imprinted in a religious setting, its consequences for every other sphere of life can hardly be underestimated. In addition to the economic hardships of a posture of refusal spelled out in Revelation 13:16-17 (i.e., essentially banning the unmarked from commerce of any sort), we may expect all such persons to become what amounts to "unpersons", bereft of any rights, legal recourse, or any consideration of any kind whatsoever under the beast’s system of governance. The beast’s focus upon economic activity as related in verse seventeen is entirely understandable since that is obviously the most effective stimulus to the progress of this universal conscription of humanity into the official ranks of evil. For while legal matters, voting, various registrations and the like might all be of use in the process of coercing the world to enroll, "buying and selling" are weekly if not daily activities in which all but those engaged in the most independent of agricultural operations must necessarily engage. As one of the most important functional and practical spheres of daily life, therefore, commerce, and specifically the exclusion of the unmarked from commerce, will be an ideal vehicle for the universal enrollment of mankind into antichrist’s religion. In addition to the necessities of life, commerce is also the entrepôt into all of the key aspects of the devil’s worldwide system of lust generally: 1. Money: If currency, cash, gold, money and fungible assets of every sort were "important" in the eyes of the world in the past, during the Tribulation, a time of such intense insecurity, we can expect the twin desires for financial security and opportunity based upon a large store of liquid assets to be more intense than ever. Clearly, under the new mandate of the mark, everyone needing or desiring financial assets will feel the pressure to be marked all the more intensely according to the degree of their wants, desires, lusts, and needs for them. For without the mark, not only will they be unable to acquire monetary assets, but they will also be largely unable to make use of what they have previously accumulated. 2. Possessions: A large part of the beast’s system will entail the redistribution of wealth, real estate in particular. We can well imagine that gaining new lands and holdings will be virtually impossible for those who lack the mark, and that without it retaining what substantial possessions one may have will also be difficult in the short run and essentially impossible in the long run. Most large, hard assets, moreover, require various types and degrees of maintenance, a process that also requires engaging in commerce on some level (paying taxes and insurance bills, for example). Therefore it will be very difficult for those who are rich in any sense in which this world defines it to maintain that wealth and those possessions during this period without receiving the mark. 3. Pleasure: Whether large or small, illicit or legitimate, the gratification of non-essential pleasures makes up a large part of the current world economy. Inevitably, in order to gratify most pleasures one must engage in commercial activity. Therefore even those who might for other reasons be willing and able to resist the process of marking – and be stubborn and bold enough to do so – will be sorely tested on this count, for they will find themselves largely shut out of this particular aspect of the devil’s world system if they do. 4. Fame: Glory, celebrity, reputation, fame of every sort, large and small, is an important area of lust in Satan’s world system. For those whose self-image and ultimate desires are bound up in this area, the prospect of becoming an "unperson" and being shut out of all commercial activity and the essential things that often attend that activity will be difficult even to contemplate. However defined or derived, antichrist will have a virtual monopoly on "fame" during the Great Tribulation, so that failure to take the mark will necessarily turn any good reputation to "infamy", a hard road to take for any one who does not value God’s opinion over the opinions of mankind. 5. Power: The ultimate lust in the devil’s world system is that of power (on whatever level), the myth of having some sort of control over others by virtue of position or other means. Generally this also has a base in commercial activity on some level (if only indirectly). But in any case, it is virtually certain that, during the Great Tribulation, the powerful will owe continuation in their positions of power to antichrist, making it a near certainty that they will be among the first to receive the mark. Since everything that human beings lust after and desire apart from God will be put at risk by refusing to accept the mark of the beast, it is a mistaken notion to assume that the taking of the mark will be something easily avoidable by merely refraining from direct "legal" commercial transactions. The end result will thus be that many who would rather not take the mark, even if they would be otherwise willing to go underground or seek to skirt the system not out of any love for God but just on general principles (i.e., the taking on to one’s body of a large tattoo not even of one’s choosing is bound to rub many people the wrong way, not only Christians), will ultimately do so. For, otherwise, they will find themselves entirely deprived of or at least seriously hindered from seeking and enjoying the things that, for a large part of the secular world, "make life worth living". For those who know their God, the loss of the things of this world, culminating for many in the loss of their very lives, will constitute a true blessing, the privilege of persecution and martyrdom for the Lord who died for us (though the world will not realize it as such). But for those who do not believe, the down side of refusing to take the mark will be so horrific without any apparent appreciable benefit that only the most irascibly independent are likely to try. One thing is certain: anyone at this point who "has anything" as defined by the five areas delimited above will certainly think twice before refusing the mark and losing everything, even though accepting it is a guarantee of divine judgment (Revelation 14:9-11; cf. Revelation 16:2; Revelation 19:20; Revelation 20:4). For during the Great Tribulation, at the center of the spider’s web of these five main cross-fertilizing and intersecting lusts of Satan’s world system will be the beast himself and his religion, Satanism, the worship of the devil in preference to the worship of God. And this is the devil’s strategy and objective: to present to God a world inhabited only by those who of their own "free will" have taken upon themselves the mark as a proof of their choice of Satan over God. d. The mark will take the form of a permanent, visible tattoo: The Greek word used here for the "mark" is charagma (χάραγμα), meaning something that has been permanently marked, generally through inscription or carving or other permanent imprinting (cf. our derived word "character"). The context and its logic certainly suggest the same, for there would be little purpose to antichrist’s requiring an easily removable mark. The whole point is to make the world choose for him in a visible and irremediable way, and requiring a permanent, highly visible tattoo certainly accomplishes this purpose. But the beast’s "sealing" of his faithful is so dramatically at odds with our Lord’s sealing of us that it bears comment. We are sealed with the Holy Spirit, an act of God on our behalf with positive and invisible spiritual consequences for good in every way (2 Corinthians 1:21-22; Ephesians 1:13-14; Ephesians 4:30), while those who choose for antichrist and for Satan are physically sealed for short-term material benefit without any positive spiritual consequences whatsoever. Indeed, receiving the mark is guarantee of condemnation (Revelation 14:9-11; cf. Revelation 16:2; Revelation 19:20; Revelation 20:4). e. The significance of the two places for the mark: Why two places for the mark? The answer most likely has to do with a hierarchy of marking, that is, we may assume that the mark received on the forehead will be considered "better" than merely marking the hand. While it is possible that this distinction will be one of choice with each person deciding where to receive it, the more likely scenario is that only the elite will be "allowed" to receive a mark on the forehead, and this will constitute a badge of honor showing that those who have it are not merely responding to universal coercion but are instead enthusiastic communicants of antichrist’s religion. The danger in this two-track system for those under pressure to receive the mark is that they may make the mistake of assuming (in the face of divine warning to the contrary) that only the mark on the forehead is spiritually dangerous (i.e., since the mark on the hand will represent more of an attitude of acquiescence than of enthusiasm). But in fact receiving the mark in either place will be a cause for "drinking of the wrath of God" (Revelation 14:9-11). f. The significance of the two variations of the mark: An additional "choice" is afforded those who respond to the false prophet’s demand that the whole world be marked for antichrist, namely of receiving the "number of his name" in place of the name itself. The fact that the number comes second in the sequence in verse seventeen (just as the forehead marking comes second) suggests that this is the "better" choice signifying a deeper commitment to the beast. The fact that verse eighteen is taken up with explaining the significance of the number of the beast confirms this analysis. Inasmuch as the name or the number can be placed on either the forehead or the hand, we see in this system a hierarchy of four levels of dedication to antichrist as follows: Highest: Number on the forehead Second Highest: Name on the forehead Third Highest: Number on the hand Lowest: Name on the hand As noted above, scripture is quite clear that in God’s eyes there will be no distinction between the highest and lowest in this hierarchy, for by taking the mark in any of its four manifestations the individual in question is willfully throwing his lot in with antichrist and his father the devil, and so by definition and of necessity has in the process deliberately turned his back on God the Father and His Son, our Lord Jesus Christ. One further monitory note here. Since in every way possible he attempts to counterfeit the true Messiah, it is very possible that the beast’s "name" will in some way mimic one of Jesus’ names or titles. We cannot know the precise "name" before the fact, but it is worth noting that several divine names come very close to the requisite "six hundred and sixty six" when computed via the Greek numbering system wherein letters of the alphabet represent numerals (n.b., the system of Arabic numerals which we use today is a much later development). For example, Messiah in Greek, Messias (Μεσσίας), is short by only one letter, an iota, of 666 (a deficit easily made up by any number of initials that would equal ten in the Greek system). If this word or any number of other legitimate divine titles variously calculated should turn out to be antichrist’s name, there is at least the danger that some believers under coercion may rationalize the taking of the mark as really being a name of the Lord, since it may well be, at least in some form. But scripture is adamant about the fact that the mark, however innocuous it may seem and whatever alternative meaning it may be made to bear, will constitute an act of ultimate unfaithfulness so extreme that any and all who may have been believers before the fact will by that act become believers no more – taking of the mark by any brother or sister will put faith to death (Revelation 14:9-11; cf. Revelation 16:2; Revelation 19:20; Revelation 20:4). 4. The Number of the Beast Here is wisdom: let everyone who is alert [at that time] calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man[’s name]. And his (i.e., the beast’s) number is six hundred and sixty six (i.e., 666 "ways"). Revelation 13:18 Since in the verse just prior (Revelation 13:17) we are told specifically that the alternative form of the mark is "the number of his (i.e., the beast’s) name", said number here must be the numerical equivalent of antichrist’s name referenced in that previous verse. That is to say, "six hundred and sixty six" is the number which both constitutes a numerical value for the beast’s name and which also functions as the alternative (and superior) form of the mark. Before considering the number of the beast per se, we need to say a few words about his "name" as it will occur in the other versions of the mark along with its numerical value. The "wisdom" given here is not in any way mysterious. If at that future time one is paying any attention to what scripture says about this issue, the formula provided will easily dispel all doubt about what the true "mark of the beast" is, so that believers will have no trouble whatsoever identifying it (and no excuse for failing to avoid it). As part of the New Testament, this book of the Bible is written in Greek, and for that reason it is the Greek system of numerals which must be employed to calculate the "name" for its numerical value, certainly not Arabic numerals (whose use in the west was not even widespread until the 15th century). In the Greek system, each letter of the alphabet (and some symbols as well) has a numerical value, with alpha, the first letter equaling one, and omega, the last letter equaling eight hundred. For example, the Greek transliteration mentioned above for the Hebrew word Messiah (meaning, "anointed one"), is as follows: Μεσσίας: Μ = 40 + ε = 5 + σ = 200 + σ = 200 + ι = 10 + α = 1 + ς = 200 > = 656 By adding "tha" the Aramaic imperative meaning "come!" (cf. Marana tha!, "O our Lord, come!"), we create a phrase equaling the requisite number of six hundred and sixty six (because the letters theta and alpha equal nine and one respectively so that tha, θα, = +10). Before the reader gets too excited about all this, let me point out what should be readily obvious, namely that in such a system the number of possibilities for constructing names that add up to 666 is incalculably large (if not literally infinite). For this reason, the information given us in Revelation 13:18 cannot possibly be used to figure out antichrist’s name before the fact. Even if a person were fortunate enough to hit upon the precise sequence of letters for his actual name, there would be absolutely no way to determine before his revelation that said sequence was the uniquely correct one. What we are given in Revelation 13:18 is thus not a key to figuring out the identity of antichrist before the fact. On the contrary, it is an analytical tool or "litmus test" for evaluating the putative name of the beast to see if the person in question is indeed antichrist after we have a name to work from. With a simple transliteration of any name into the Greek system, we can with relative ease examine any name and discover fairly easily whether it might have the numerical value of 666. This was a fairly common sort of cipher in antiquity (often called a "gematria"), and one finds, for example, graffiti recovered from Pompeii where the names of lovers were concealed in this manner, as well as riddles on funeral monuments in the Greek speaking areas of the Mediterranean which substitute a sum of letters for the name of the deceased and invite the onlooker to solve the puzzle. Without clues, such riddles are impossible to solve, since, as mentioned above, the number of names that can be made to fit into any large sum is, for all practical purposes, endless. The relatively small number "10", for instance, could be represented by a lone iota, an alpha plus a theta, or a beta plus an eta, etc., etc. And the possibilities grow geometrically the larger the numbers become. One should also note that once the universal marking begins, decoding the precise mark of the beast as it occurs at that time will be a fairly simple matter despite issues of transliteration. Before the precise form of his name as it is to be used for the mark comes to light, however, this test is unlikely to be the best litmus test for uncovering antichrist. For example, will the mark contain only his last name? Will it include his first name or merely his initials, and which ones? More to the point, will antichrist change his name in some way at the point when he takes his seat in the temple of God in Jerusalem and proclaims himself to be God? The point is that until the exact form of the name as it occurs in this alternative version of the mark becomes generally known, there is little point in making the calculation recommended here. And Bible believing Christians should take careful note that scripture only gives us this information at the point when the actual marking begins, indicating very clearly that any attempt to identify antichrist in this way before the process of universal marking is pointless. In any case, by the middle of the Tribulation it is difficult to comprehend how any genuine believer in Jesus Christ who has the least bit of spiritual discernment could not know that the dictator who has come to control the world and has invaded God’s very temple is antichrist. The real danger here is that believers in the early days of the Tribulation will fail to recognize the beast because his name as it occurs at that time may not seem to fit the formula given in verse eighteen. As to the significance of 666, the first thing to emphasize here is that we do not necessarily have to do with three consecutive numeral "sixes", that is, some precise variant of 6-6-6. In our system of Arabic numerals, a system that does not greatly antedate the printing press here in the west, it is true that there is no distinction between the number six hundred and sixty six and its representation by three consecutive sixes: 666. In the Greek system, however, this is not at all the case. In Greek, the language of Revelation and therefore the basis for the system that must be employed to understand this issue correctly, six hundred and sixty six would be represented by two letters and a symbol, namely, chi, xi, and stigma. What this means for our purposes here is that much popular theorizing that makes the "sign of the beast" a series of three sixes may be entirely wrong. And while it is certainly possible that three Arabic numeral sixes will indeed constitute the essential mark that stands for the name of antichrist, there is no convincing reason why this should be so. Just as the Arabic numeral representation 666 would appear different in the Greek system (i.e., as χξϛ), so it is also fair to point out that the contemporaneous Roman system (i.e., "Roman numerals" wherein 666 = DCLXVI) and Hebrew system (an alphabetic system similar to Greek wherein 666 = תרסו) certainly have as much claim to be considered as the much later, non-contemporaneous western version of the Arabic system. Moreover there is no way that we can say before the fact that antichrist might not adopt, say, a base two system (stressing technology), or a base twelve system (stressing Babylonian mysticism), or any other system of mathematical, geometrical, or mystical symbolism to represent the integer 666, perhaps even one of his own devising not yet extant. The point is that discerning Christians cannot afford to assume that any mark that does not have three Arabic numeral sixes (i.e., 666) could not possibly be "the mark of the beast". The significance of the number itself has also long been a matter of as much speculation as its appearance. Like "pi", a repeating system of sixes may have some significance for the mythology that antichrist creates around himself and his system of devil worship. As Christians, we would rather choose to note that whether 666 is seen as single integer, a series of sixes, or a repeating decimal, at all points it falls short of perfection by "one" (i.e., of the perfect number seven), namely, through rejection of the "One" who is the way, the truth and the life, our true Savior Jesus Christ. One thing that is generally not appreciated in such discussions is that, unlike English, Greek numerals are at times declinable, and such is the case in this instance. Specifically, "six hundred and sixty six" in this instance at Revelation 13:18 is feminine, so that what the text here is really saying is "six hundred and sixty six feminine somethings, and it is left to the reader to fill in the blank from the context as to what those "somethings" are. This is a not unfamiliar situation in Greek where one often understands the occurrence or repetition of a particular noun which can be easily guessed (by context and usage) from the information contained in the ending of an adjective (in contrast to English where adjectives are unchangeable). Of course there is no feminine noun in this context, a situation which no doubt explains why various other versions switched the ending to masculine, neuter, or eliminated the problem entirely by using symbolic notation (i.e, the Greek equivalent of 666 mentioned above: χξϛ). But in fact the case of a feminine adjective with no noun expressed is far from unprecedented in Greek, there being a generally understood short list of common nouns to be supplied in such circumstances. By far the most common noun to supply in such situations is the Greek word for "road" or "way", hodos (ὁδός; cf. "odometer" = "road-measurer"), and that is indeed the noun to be supplied here. Since 666 represents an infinitely repeating cipher, the "six hundred and sixty six ways" may be understood as the all inclusive and virtually infinite number of "paths to salvation" in the beast’s religious system. Provided only that one worship antichrist and his father the devil as god, all other religious, traditional, or cultic practices will be pronounced acceptable and deemed effective in "saving" the individual worshiper. But in fact, this cipher leaves out the "one" that would end its pointless repetition and instead produce completion and fulfillment, the "One" who is truly the one and only true "Way" to salvation, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (cf. Acts 9:2; Acts 19:9; Acts 19:23; Acts 22:4; Acts 24:14; Acts 24:22; 2 Peter 2:2): I am the Way: the truth and the life. No one can come to the Father except through me. John 14:6 E. The Great Persecution: 1. Introduction: The Great Persecution is what makes the Tribulation’s second half "Great". This "distress" and "tribulation" which characterize the final seven years of human history before Christ’s return are seen in scripture first and foremost from the standpoint of believers (cf. Daniel 12:1; Matthew 24:21; Matthew 24:29; Mark 13:19; Mark 13:24). It is true that many of the events of that terrible time to come will weigh heavily on the people of God, but believers will be protected to a large extent from much of the worst of it (viz. the judgments of God which are directed toward the reprobate). The Great Persecution is the preeminent exception, for it will be a period of the greatest testing wherein because of widespread martyrdom believers in unprecedented numbers will have to put into practice what we should all understand in principle, namely that our true security consists in our eternal relationship with Jesus Christ rather than in clinging to this temporary physical life (Matthew 16:25; Mark 8:35; Luke 17:33; John 12:25; Revelation 12:11). The uniting of the globe under the banner of antichrist and the one-world "peace" which results will be the worst thing that has yet happened in human history by virtue of its elimination of any countervailing power to check the machinations of the beast and of his father the devil. This will be particularly true for believers in regard to the Great Persecution, an event which will begin not long after antichrist’s consolidation of power. For with the world united in evil, there will be no place to hide, no place to run. Those who in the will of God are destined for martyrdom will be martyred, while those who are destined to survive must endure persecution until the return of our Lord (Revelation 13:10; cf. Jeremiah 43:11). The Great Persecution will begin not long after the beginning of the Tribulation’s second half, the Great Tribulation. Following his total defeat of the southern alliance, antichrist will quickly turn his attention to the establishment of his capital in Jerusalem. The beast will be the target of an assassination attempt at this time, and his remarkable recovery coupled with his victory will do much to swing the great majority of the world’s population in his favor. Using this attempt on his life as a pretext, antichrist will make war on Moses and Elijah, killing them and then occupying the temple of God, even proclaiming himself to be God, erecting the "abomination that causes [spiritual] desolation" in the temple court. Those in Israel who have responded to the ministry of the two witnesses and the 144,000 will flee to the wilderness at this time, evading through divine intervention the beast’s attempts to catch and destroy them. His frustration in this attempt will result in the commencement of the Great Persecution, a reign of terror directed against all true believers in Jesus Christ, the implementation of which will be part and parcel of the establishment of antichrist’s worldwide system of religion: And the dragon was enraged at the woman (i.e., the escaping Jewish believers), and he went away to make war with the rest of her seed, [even] those who are keeping the commandments of God and maintaining their testimony to Jesus. Revelation 12:17 This scapegoating of believers in the matter of the assassination attempt will have the dual effect of provoking a violent reaction both in Israel and worldwide against all believers on the one hand, and on the other hand will also contribute to an environment of great suspicion wherein unbelievers will be eager to show by their acceptance of the mark that they are without blame in the matter, and even more eager and willing to "smoke out the traitors" by way of this litmus test. Thus will the stage be set from the very early days of antichrist’s worldwide reign for the event that more than any other defines and characterizes the coming Tribulation, namely, the Great Persecution. 2. Key Passages: (9) And when He (i.e., the Lamb) opened the fifth seal, I saw below the altar the living persons who had been slain because of the Word of God and because of the testimony which they had maintained. (10) And they cried out with a loud voice, saying "How long, O Master, holy and true, will you [wait and] not render judgment and vindication for our blood upon those who dwell on the earth?" (11) And a white robe was given to each one of them that they might rest yet a little while longer until their brothers who were destined to be killed in the same fashion should also fulfill [their course]. Revelation 6:9-11 Comment: Only two seals, the fifth and sixth, deal with the trends of the last three and a half years of the Tribulation (the seventh serving to "open the book" and begin the seven year period itself), with the sixth seal referring to Armageddon and related events. Therefore the fact that this fifth seal serves as the sole agent of characterization for the bulk of the Tribulation’s second half demonstrates that the Great Persecution is the decisive event of that period. (9) After this I looked and, behold, [there was] a huge multitude which no one was able to number from every nation and tribe and people and tongue standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes and with palm branches in their hands. (10) And they were shouting in a loud voice, saying, "Salvation belongs to our God, the One who sits upon the throne, and to the Lamb!" (11) And all the angels had taken their stand around the throne and the elders and the four living creatures. And they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, (12) saying, "Amen! Blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might belong to our God forever and ever! Amen!" (13) And one of the elders who was speaking with me replied, "These people dressed in white robes – who are they and where have they come from?" (14) And I said to him, "My lord, you know." And he said to me, "These are the ones who are about to come forth from the Great Tribulation. And they have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb. (15) For this reason they are before the throne of God and serve Him day and night in His temple. And the One who sits upon the throne will pitch His tabernacle over them. (16) They will neither hunger nor thirst again, nor will the sun beat down upon them nor any burning [heat], (17) because the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne will shepherd them and will lead them to fountains of living water (lit., "fountains of waters of life"), and God will wipe away every tear from their eyes". Revelation 7:9-17 Comment: There are so many who have been martyred that they cannot be counted, showing clearly the scope of the Great Persecution. Moreover, the fact that these martyrs come "from every nation and tribe and people and tongue" demonstrates the worldwide nature of the persecution. Finally, this passage definitely fixes the time of the Great Persecution, for as the angel says in verse fourteen, these martyrs are "about to come forth from the Great Tribulation", that is, the second half of the seven year period. (7) And war broke out in heaven. Michael and his angels fought with the dragon and the dragon and his angels fought [back], (8) but they did not prevail against him, and they could no longer find any place [of refuge] in heaven. (9) And [so] the great dragon, the ancient serpent, the one called Devil and Satan, was thrown down; even he who deceives the entire world was thrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. (10) And I heard a loud voice in heaven saying, "Now our God’s deliverance and might and kingdom have come, even the power of His Christ. For the accuser of our brothers, the one who accuses them day and night in front of our God, has been thrown down. (11) But these [believers] have defeated [the devil] through the blood of the Lamb and the Word of their testimony. For they did not love their lives, [even] to the point of death. (12) Because of this, rejoice, O heavens and those residing in them! [But] woe to the earth and the sea, for the devil has come down to you, having [great] anger, because he knows that he has [only] a short time [remaining]!" Revelation 12:7-12 Comment: In verse eleven the martyrs are described as virtually synonymous with all believers alive at this time, indicating the breadth of the Great Persecution. The casting down of Satan at the midpoint of the Tribulation (verse nine) and the proclamation that his remaining time is short (verse twelve) further serves to fix the time of the Great Persecution as the final three and a half years. Finally, in this synopsis of the Great Tribulation, we see that from the standpoint of believers the Great Persecution is the event which dominates this period. And the dragon was enraged at the woman (i.e., the escaping Jewish believers), and he went away to make war with the rest of her seed, [even] those who are keeping the commandments of God and maintaining their testimony to Jesus. Revelation 12:17 Comment: Just as the dragon, Satan, attempted to use his newfound mastery of the world’s political systems united under his son, the beast, for the destruction of Jewish believers in Israel, so now, at the Tribulation’s midpoint, he will turn his attention to the destruction of "the rest of her seed", namely, gentile and Jewish believers worldwide. This passage likewise fixes the time of the Great Persecution (i.e., it follows the escape of believing Jews from Israel immediately after the beast’s victory and shift of headquarters to Jerusalem), demonstrates the universal sweep of the persecution (i.e., the target is all the rest of "her seed", that is, all other believers not removed to the special place of protection), and characterizes its horrible nature (i.e., it will be a "war" whose object is the annihilation of the faithful). "If anyone is [destined] for captivity [to captivity he will go]. If it is necessary for anyone to be put to death by the sword, by the sword he must be put to death. Herein lies the perseverance and the faithfulness of the holy ones." Revelation 13:10 Comment: This caveat from our Lord removes all doubt about either the intensity of the Great Persecution to come or the possibility of avoiding it. Only two outcomes are contemplated, death or prison cell. While other outcomes are not necessarily ruled out, this passage suggests that they will be the exception rather than the rule, and thus encourages us to steel ourselves to these grim realities before the fact. And it was given to him (i.e., the false prophet) to provide a spirit for the image of the beast so that the image might speak, and [it was also given to him] to bring it about that as many as refused to worship the image of the beast might be put to death. Revelation 13:15 Comment: Here we see that the Great Persecution is central to the institution of the beast’s worldwide religion, for it will be by means of the litmus test of willingness to worship antichrist that true believers will be winnowed out. This passage also makes it clear that the number of those martyred will be significant, for refusal to worship, once a believer has been "processed" to that point, will apparently result in a sentence of death in every case. And I heard a voice from heaven saying, "Write: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on so that they may rest from their labors", says the Spirit. "For their deeds follow with them." Revelation 14:13 Comment: This verse, coming immediately after the most stringent of warnings to refrain from the beast’s religion in any form (i.e., the third angel’s proclamation of Revelation 14:9-12), encourages believers to face martyrdom with confidence and a sense of peace, since the end will be rest and reward. The need for such comfort is a sure indication that the Great Persecution will be a horrendous experience which is near universal in its scope and impossible to survive apart from a close walk with the Lord. (14) And, behold, a white cloud. And sitting on the white cloud was what looked like a man with a golden crown on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand. (15) And another angel came out of His temple, shouting in a loud voice to the one sitting on the cloud, "Send [forth] your sickle and reap, because the hour of the harvest has come, and the harvest [crop] is ripe" (lit., "dry"). (16) And the one sitting on the cloud set his sickle to the earth, and the earth was harvested. Revelation 14:14-16 Comment: The reaper represents Jesus Christ, and the believers martyred during the Great Persecution are the harvest. This passage shows that, far from being an accident, the Great Persecution is an integral part of the plan of God designed for the glory of God, reflected in the faithfulness of His witnesses, and the ultimate good of the martyred, who, like a ripe crop, are removed at precisely the right time, being spared the time of final judgments of the Great Tribulation while yet receiving all the rewards that accrue to those genuinely martyred for Jesus Christ. The dramatic and worldwide nature of the Great Persecution is also evident from the above. (2) And I saw [something] like a sea of glass, [but this time it was] mixed with fire, and those who were [in the process of] winning the victory over the beast and his image and over the number of his name were standing on the sea of glass holding lyres of the Lord God, (3) and they were singing the song of Moses the servant of God, even the song of the Lamb, saying . . . Revelation 15:2-3 a Comment: While this passage is often taken to represent the victorious martyrs who have come out of the Great Tribulation, the fact that they are seen here actually standing on the glass sea, the "viewing port", so to speak, whereby earthly events are visible from heaven, gives us instead a picture of faithful believers enduring the Great Persecution while still on earth. The glass sea is described as being "mixed with fire", a clear and hardly subtle symbol of the intensity of the trial that the believers of that time will experience (1 Peter 1:7; 1 Peter 4:12; cf. Daniel 11:33; Hebrews 11:34). This continued endurance of the faithful, those "who were [in the process of] winning the victory", demonstrates that they are still in the midst of the fiery trial. The implication is that no one who maintains faith in Jesus Christ at that time will be exempt from the fire or the fight (nor, blessedly, from the exaltation of victorious struggle on behalf of the Lord who bought us). And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given to them (i.e., they sat in judgment), namely the persons who had been executed (lit., "beheaded with an ax") because of their witness for Jesus and because of the Word of God, [that is] whoever did not worship the beast or his image and did not take the mark on their forehead and on their hand. For they came to life and began to rule with Christ for a thousand years. Revelation 20:4 Comment: We know from a number of important and specific New Testament passages (1 Corinthians 15:50-55 and 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17 in particular) that a significant number of believers do survive the Great Persecution and are resurrected while yet alive at Christ’s return. The fact that this verse equates refusal to worship the beast with execution demonstrates unequivocally the widespread (though not total) martyrdom of the Church and the intensity of the Great Persecution. (21) I was watching, and this horn (i.e., antichrist) was waging war with the holy ones (i.e., believers). And he was prevailing over them (i.e., "conquering them"), (22) until the Ancient of Days came (i.e., our Lord’s second advent) and rendered judgment on behalf of the holy ones of the Most High, and the time came when the holy ones took possession of the Kingdom. Daniel 7:21-22 Comment: As in Revelation 12:17, the Great Persecution is here described as a "war", with antichrist continuing to "conquer" (i.e., execute) believers until our Lord’s return. The implication is that no believers will be "neutral", that is, immune from the effects of the Great Persecution. Further, the casualties (i.e., martyrs) will likely be horrific since the beast will continue to "prevail" until the second advent. And he (antichrist) will speak words against the Most High, and he will persecute the saints of the Most High God. And he will plot to change times and law. And they (i.e., believers, "the saints") will be given into his hand for a time and times and half a time (i.e., for the duration of the Great Tribulation). Daniel 7:25 Comment: This passage also fixes the period of time during which antichrist will persecute (lit., "wear down", "consume") believers as lasting throughout the entire Great Tribulation (the "time and times and half a time", or three and a half years). The Great Persecution is here also connected directly to the implementation of the beast’s religion and his not unconnected radical social "reforms", the net effect of which places all believers "into his hand" (i.e., subject to persecution) until our Lord returns. (10) And [the little horn] magnified himself against the host of heaven (i.e., the family of God, men and angels both), and he cast down to the earth some of the host (i.e., antichrist seducing believers into apostasy) and some of the stars (i.e., Satan having seduced angels into rebellion) and he trampled them underfoot. (11) He even magnified himself against the Prince of the host (i.e., Christ). The daily sacrifice was abolished by him, and the holy place (i.e., the inner court) was desecrated. (12) And along with the daily sacrifice, the host (i.e., believers) fell into his power on account of [the] rebellion (i.e., the Great Apostasy). And he threw truth to the ground, and was successful in whatever he did. (13) And I heard one of the holy ones who was speaking, and he said to the other holy one who was speaking, "How long will this vision of the daily sacrifice and of the rebellion which produces desolation and of the handing over of the holy [place] (i.e., the inner court) and of the trampling down of the host be?" (14) And he replied to me, "Until 2,300 evenings and mornings have passed. Then the holy [place] will be purified." Daniel 8:10-14 Comment: This passage and its broader context (cf. Daniel 8:23-35) deal primarily with the Tribulation’s first half when seduction will be the primary means of leading believers away from Jesus Christ. But also clearly foreshadowed in the verses above is the near future time when seduction gives way to compulsion (i.e., in verse 12 "the host fell into his power", and in Daniel 8:13 "the trampling down of the host") which is only terminated by our Lord’s second advent. (32) And with enticements he will seduce [people] to violate the covenant, but the people who know their God will continue to hold fast to it. (33) And those among the people who have insight will teach the people who will be persecuted by sword (i.e., martyrdom), and flame (i.e., torture leading to martyrdom), and captivity (i.e., imprisonment), and plundering (i.e., confiscation of property), for some time. (34) And when they are persecuted, they will receive a little help, yet many will ally themselves to them under false pretenses. (35) And even from among [the ranks of] those who have insight, some will be persecuted, in order to refine, purify, and cleanse them until the final end. For [it is] yet to come at its appointed time. Daniel 11:32-35 Comment: These verses are some of the most explicit in detailing the harrowing time that those who continue to "hold fast" to Jesus Christ will have. Set in the context of antichrist’s establishment of the abomination (Daniel 11:31), and indicating that the ordeal will continue "until the final end", this passage likewise establishes the time period for the Great Persecution as essentially extending over the entire final 42 months of the Great Tribulation, and likewise apportions the suffering, "sword, and flame, and captivity, and plunder", to everyone subject to it. (8) But all these things (of Daniel 11:3-7) are [merely] the beginning of the birth pangs (i.e., the first half of the Tribulation). (9) Then (i.e., the beginning of the Great Tribulation) men will betray you [bringing you] into tribulation (i.e., the Great Persecution), and will put you to death, and you will be hated by all of the nations on account of My Name. Matthew 24:8-9 (cf. Matthew 10:16-33; Mark 13:9-13; Luke 21:12-24) Comment: Our Lord’s words here anchor the previous prophecies of Daniel and later prophecies of Revelation, and demonstrate with certainty the reality of a coming persecution during the second, final phase of the Tribulation of such unprecedented scope and intensity that it can only be described as "great". The above are only the major passages which directly describe the Great Persecution in some detail, but they are sufficient to show that this widely underappreciated teaching is both heavily stressed in scripture and of absolute importance to us all "upon whom the ends of the ages have come" (1 Corinthians 10:11). Nor are these the only passages where one finds reference to the Great Persecution (cf. also Isaiah 24:16; Jeremiah 31:2; Micah 7:1-7; John 16:1-4; 2 Thessalonians 1:6-10; cf. Jeremiah 9:4; Jeremiah 12:5-6; Jeremiah 31:2). For example, the attribution of the divine wrath that will come upon the earth at the end of the Tribulation is consistently characterized by scripture as a direct divine response to the "blood of the saints", that is, divine judgment descending upon antichrist, his kingdom, and his minions as a direct result of the Great Persecution (e.g., Isaiah 26:20-21; 2 Peter 3:10 b; Revelation 16:5-6; Revelation 17:6; Revelation 18:24; Revelation 19:2). In conclusion, it may also be mentioned that there have always been persecutions of believers in every age of world history, so that the many biblical passages which deal with this subject in general will be, if anything, even more important and applicable during the quintessential persecution to come, the Great Persecution (cf. Jeremiah 45:1-4; Micah 7:1-7; Matthew 13:21; John 15:20; John 16:33; Acts 14:22; 1 Thessalonians 1:6-10; 1 Thessalonians 3:3; 2 Timothy 3:12; Hebrews 11:32-40; 1 Peter 4:12-19). 3. The Precedence of the 144,000: Immediately following the description of the false prophet, of his administration of the Great Persecution, and of the mark and number of the beast in Revelation chapter thirteen, chapter fourteen turns directly to the 144,000. The appearance of these unique Jewish witnesses at this point, following the inception of the Great Persecution in the chronological sequence (yet preceding the angelic blessing upon those about to be martyred and the symbolic description of the general course of the Great Persecution in Revelation 14:14-16), is highly significant. This juxtaposition of passages definitively establishes the martyrdom of the 144,000 as the inaugural event of the Great Persecution. Scripture describes them here as being "purchased first from among men for God [the Father] and for the Lamb" (Revelation 14:4), an explicit representation of these witnesses as having been delivered from the crucible of tribulation through martyrdom. We should not let it go unnoticed here that this precedence of the 144,000 in martyrdom is an exceptional honor which in turn teaches us how we should view the prospect of our own potential martyrdom during that most difficult of times to come. Instead of seeing the possibility of literally giving up our lives for Jesus Christ as a terrible tragedy to be endured, we need to learn to see it for what it truly is, namely, a deliverance which is both a great honor and a great blessing, honoring the One we love, while guaranteeing great reward for us through all eternity. This does not mean that we seek martyrdom (the choice is God’s, not ours), nor that the experience is likely to be easy or painless, only that if so wills the will of God we need to be ready to accept the eventuality of martyrdom not with sullen resignation but with confidence, faith, and joy that God is accomplishing His will for our lives in a special way that brings special honor to our dear Savior and ultimate benefit to us (if only we comport ourselves honorably in the process – and this we shall do, God helping us). Demonstrate faithfulness unto death, and I will give you the crown of life. Revelation 2:10 b 4. The Number of the Martyred: (9) After this I looked and, behold, [there was] a huge multitude which no one was able to number from every nation and tribe and people and tongue standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes and with palm branches in their hands. Revelation 7:9 As we have already seen, many of the passages dealing with the Great Persecution present the possibility of martyrdom for those who would remain faithful to Jesus Christ as a near certainty. This passage which describes them as "a huge multitude which no one was able to number from every nation and tribe and people and tongue" removes all doubt about the magnitude of their number, while at the same time emphasizing the worldwide nature of the Great Persecution. The actual number is withheld in Revelation 7:9, a significant fact in and of itself inasmuch as the Book of Revelation does often provide specific numbers, even when they are extremely large (e.g., Revelation 9:16). Nor are we given a ratio, another form of specification found on more than one occasion in the book (e.g., Revelation 8:7-12). Yet we know, even given the unprecedented magnitude of the number of these martyrs, that even so there will apparently be a sizeable host of believers still alive when our Lord returns at the end of the Great Tribulation (1 Corinthians 15:50-54; cf. Matthew 24:36-31; Matthew 25:1-13; 1 Corinthians 15:23; 1 Thessalonians 5:1-11; 2 Thessalonians 1:3-12): (15) For we tell you this by the Lord’s own Word, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord (i.e., the Second Advent which brings the Great Tribulation to a close) will not precede those who have fallen asleep. (16) For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout of command, with the archangel’s blast on the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ shall rise first (in resurrection), (17) then we who are alive and remain will be snatched up together with them in clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and in this way we shall always be with the Lord. 1 Thessalonians 4:15-17 (cf. 1 Corinthians 15:51-52). It is worth noting in this regard therefore that the fact that those martyred will be an innumerable multitude does not necessarily mean that they will constitute the majority of those still faithful to Jesus Christ when the Great Persecution begins (although that may be the case). Based upon the passages covered above all we can say of a certainty is that virtually all believers will be subject to persecution during that time, and that an extremely large number will be martyred while a sizeable number will be spared in order to be resurrected while still alive at our Lord’s return. It is therefore probably best to estimate the ratio at approximately "50/50". This proportion of the martyred to those who survive until the coming of the Lord is supported indirectly by the parable of the ten virgins in Matthew 25:1-13. In that parable the light of the lamp represents faith so that the five virgins whose lamps are extinguished before the bridegroom arrives stand for those who fall away in the Great Apostasy. Thus the five wise virgins whose lamps continue to shine represent those who maintain their faith until the end of the Tribulation (in contrast with those who fall away). Since we do know that those who fall away constitute one third of the Church (see part 3A, section II, "The Great Apostasy"), and since in this parable they are complemented by an equal number of believers who survive until the second advent, the only way that the one third proportion can thus be preserved is by positing an equal number who neither fall away nor abide until the end, namely, the martyrs who will quite possibly be commensurate in number with both of the two groups described in the parable. 5. General Persecution and Imprisonment: The refusal of believers to accept the mark of the beast will, from the very start, bring upon them general persecution including but not limited to social ostracism and economic hardship (Matthew 10:17-20; Matthew 24:9; Mark 13:9; Luke 21:12-15; John 15:20-21; John 16:2). As the Great Persecution gathers momentum, moreover, we may expect the faithful to come under ever greater pressures and more intense forms of persecution, not the least of which will be imprisonment (and possibly torture) as a transitional stage preceding eventual martyrdom. (33) And those among the people who have insight will teach the people who will be persecuted by sword (i.e., martyrdom), and flame (i.e., torture leading to martyrdom), and captivity (i.e., imprisonment), and plunder (i.e., confiscation of property), for some time. Daniel 11:33 In fact so many passages of scripture allude to the widespread incarceration of believers during the Great Persecution either directly or by application that it seems the most prudent course on the basis of Revelation 13:10 for us to assume our imprisonment as a matter of course, even if it should be God’s will for some believers to be spared this particular ordeal (Isaiah 14:16-17; Isaiah 42:7; Isaiah 49:9; Isaiah 51:13; Isaiah 61:1; Daniel 11:33; Habakkuk 1:9; Zechariah 9:11-12; Matthew 10:17-20; Mark 13:9, Luke 4:18-19; cf. Psalms 79:11; Psalms 102:13-20; Isaiah 14:2; Matthew 14:3; Matthew 18:30; Matthew 25:36-44; Acts 5:19, Acts 8:3; Acts 12:4; Acts 16:23; Hebrews 10:34; Hebrews 13:3). But, [what is] even more [grievous] than these things (i.e., the disruptions of the Tribulation’s first half), they will lay hands upon them (i.e., believers during the Great Persecution), betraying them into [the hands of] their [religious] assemblies and prisons, haling them before kings and governors for the sake of my Name. Luke 21:12 Have no fear of what you are about to suffer. Behold, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison to test you, and you will have tribulation for ten days. Revelation 2:10 a 6. Betrayal: Notwithstanding the difficulties for believers in sustaining life, and the dangers involved in collective worship that will attend the Great Persecution, it is still questionable whether such a large number as prophesied would or could ever be rounded up for imprisonment and execution without an efficient method for actively hunting them down. But the Bible leaves us in no doubt about the fact that many of the "candidates" for persecution will be secured in a most disheartening way, namely, by betrayal, often by those most near and dear to them (see also Daniel 11:34; Micah 7:5-7; Mark 13:9-13; Luke 21:12; cf. Jeremiah 9:4; Jeremiah 12:5-6; Matthew 24:23-26). (16) And you will be betrayed even by parents and siblings and friends. And they will put some of you to death, (17) and you will be hated by everyone because of my Name. Luke 21:16-17 (10) And at that time many will fall away and will betray each other and will hate each other, (11) and many false prophets will arise and will deceive many. (12) Now because of the increase of lawlessness [at that time], the love of the many will cool. (13) But he who endures until the end, this [is the one who] will be saved. Matthew 24:10-13 (34) Do not think that I have come to hurl peace upon the earth. I have not come to hurl peace upon the earth but a sword [of divisiveness]. (35) For I have come to divide, [so that] "a man [will be set] against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; (36) [with the result that] a man’s enemies will be the members of his own household" (cf. Micah 7:6). (37) Whoever loves his father or mother above Me is not worthy of Me, and whoever loves his son or daughter above Me is not worthy of Me. (38) And whoever does not take his cross and follow after Me is not worthy of Me. (39) Whoever has found his life will lose it, and the one who has lost his life for My sake will find it. Matthew 10:34-39 In these passages we can also see the close connection between the Great Persecution and the Great Apostasy, as the pressures of persecution serve to intensify the trend of abandoning Christ. For those believers determined to stay loyal to Jesus no matter what, the example of Daniel comes to mind: he was thrown into the lions’ den precisely because he refused to alter his behavior of prayerful worship to God in spite of the fact that his enemies in the Persian government had managed to make it illegal (Daniel 6:1 ff.). Confronted with the suspicious eyes of nearly all of our prior acquaintances who are now hostile towards us no matter how close the prior relationship, it will be nigh on impossible to live and worship as true believers in Jesus Christ without exposing ourselves to similar charges of illegality and without inviting similar persecution. But just as God was able to deliver Daniel contrary to all human expectation, we need to be confident of the same potential deliverance (cf. the "help" promised in Daniel 11:34), even as we accept the very real possibility outlined throughout this section that it may well be God’s will for us to die as witnesses for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ (cf. 2 Timothy 2:11-13. We must be prepared to show the world that we truly do love Him more than our very lives. But these [believers] have defeated [the devil] because of the blood of the Lamb and their word of witness (lit., "martyrdom"). For they did not love their lives, even to the point of death. Revelation 12:11 7. The Mechanics of Martyrdom: In his famous exchange of letters with the Roman emperor Trajan (no. 96-97), Pliny the younger in his capacity as governor of Bithynia was told that the government should not initiate investigations to determine who might or might not be a member of this new "sect", Christianity, but that once someone was denounced as a Christian, failure to sacrifice to the emperor must be considered a capital offense. Harsh as this "don’t ask, don’t tell" policy was, it will appear mild in contrast to the regime of persecution that will obtain during the Great Persecution. For the elimination of faith from the earth has always been an objective near and dear to the devil’s heart, and with the entire world now under the thumb of his son antichrist, the process of actively hunting down Christians in order to extirpate Christianity stock and stem will have no equal in world history. The combination of the economic prohibitions directed at those who lack the mark of the beast, the (seemingly certain) prohibitions upon Christian worship et al. (along with the infiltration of true Christian groups: Daniel 11:34; cf. Matthew 24:23-26; Mark 13:21-23; Luke 21:8), and the pressures placed upon friends and family to betray their kindred who are still faithful to Christ (no doubt out of a persuasive mix of penalties for inaction and rewards for cooperation) will all combine to produce a flood of captive believers into the hands of the beast’s politico-religious apparatus. Those who do not immediately acquiesce by renouncing Christ while proclaiming antichrist’s divinity will become the grist for the mill of the Great Persecution. Although the scale of the Great Persecution will dwarf anything of the like in the past, in individual terms such has often been the lot of those who truly do choose Jesus over this world (cf. Revelation 2:10; Revelation 2:13). Some [of these great believers of the past] were tortured, refusing release, that they might obtain a better resurrection (i.e., worth more to them than their lives; cf. Psalms 63:3). Others endured ridicule and beatings, and even chains and imprisonment. They were stoned, sawed in half, killed by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goat hides. They were deprived, persecuted, abused. The world was not worthy of them. They wandered the deserts and the mountains, making their homes in caves and fissures in the earth. And through their faith, all of them became witnesses [to the world] (lit., "were martyred") . . . Hebrews 11:35-39 a Although individual experiences will no doubt differ somewhat, scripture gives us enough information to establish a basic schematic of the typical stages of the process to be endured by a believer during the Great Persecution once betrayed and arrested upon initial refusal to "repent". It should be noted that the three stages delineated below parallel exactly the sort of ordeal to be faced by a person wrongly accused of some heinous crime for which the penalty is death. a. Imprisonment: We have covered above the Bible’s frequent references to the imprisonment of believers during this period. The wide-scale incarceration of so many believers at this time on the basis of "religious crimes" would no doubt be impossible without the cooperative efforts of clergy and authorities in a world-state where there is effectively now no separation between "church" and state, and it is further likely that only logistical issues will prevent the immediate imprisoning of the entire believing population of the world. Indeed, it is a blessed encouragement to remember that God’s limitation of the devil’s logistical reach, great though it will be at this time, will stymie Satan’s efforts to achieve his goal of removing faith from the earth (cf. Mark 13:20). But, as noted above, a large percentage of believers will indeed be cast into prison, and, given the emphasis that scripture places upon their release at the hands of the returning Messiah, we can expect that once arrested, most of those who are not executed will not see freedom again until the second advent (cf. Isaiah 14:17; Isaiah 42:7; Isaiah 49:9; Isaiah 51:14; Isaiah 61:1; Zechariah 9:11-12; Luke 4:18-19). This prospect will undoubtedly add to the pressure to apostatize on the part of those whose faith is weak. Finally, the atmosphere in which these mass arrests will take place will probably be ugly in the extreme. Just as Nero blamed the Christians for destroying Rome in order to deflect attention from himself, antichrist will in an analogous way blame believers for the assassination attempt on his person, so that we should not underestimate the zeal and vitriol with which the followers of the beast, many of them nominal "Christians", will turn to rounding up these "enemies of the state" who refuse to swear allegiance to antichrist, and, in doing so, will actually feel that they are doing God a favor: But a time will come when everyone who kills you will think that he is making an offering in worship to God. John 16:2 b. Quasi-Judicial Scrutiny: Just as our Lord’s false arrest, imprisonment and trial was carried out on the basis of pretext alone (cf. Isaiah 53:7-9; Matthew 26:55; Mark 14:55-56; Luke 22:37; Luke 22:52-53; Acts 3:13-15; Acts 8:33; 1 Peter 2:22), so those who are called to "walk in His footsteps" (John 13:15; 1 Corinthians 11:1; 1 Peter 2:21-25; 1 John 2:6; cf. Matthew 11:29; Matthew 16:24; Mark 10:38-39; Php 2:5) and "share in His sufferings" (Romans 8:17; 2 Corinthians 1:5; Php 1:29; Php 3:10; Colossians 1:24; 1 Peter 4:13; cf. Galatians 6:17) in this special way will be subjected to a severe process of interrogation, pressure, and abuse, along with judicial and quasi-judicial inquisition. Anyone who has been through any sort of trial will understand immediately how a string of illegal and abusive ordeals will bring enormous emotional pressures to bear on those so accused. When we add to this the concomitant physical abuse, scourging, ostracism, humiliation, and plundering of all that we have (Matthew 10:17; Mark 13:9; cf. Daniel 11:34), it should be obvious that this gauntlet of opposition will constitute an enormous test of faith, and one for which those so tested will be extremely grateful for every bit of prior preparation in the Word and its application. Clearly, what we may have to endure, no matter how stressful or terrible, will be nothing like what our Lord did endure. Yet we must in any case avoid underestimating either the difficulties of this process so as to lose heart, or the great honor it bestows in God’s eyes so as to fail to count it the great joy amid the tears that it can and should be. Many of the greatest believers of all time endured similar extreme tests of their faith (and it is very much worth studying in this regard the examples of Daniel and his friends: Daniel 3:1 ff.; Daniel 6:1 ff.; Stephen: Acts 6:8-15, Acts 7:1-59; Peter: Acts 5:17-42; Acts 12:1-19; and Paul: Acts 21:1-40, Acts 22:1-30, Acts 23:1-35, Acts 24:1-27, Acts 25:1-27, Acts 26:1-32, Acts 27:1-44, Acts 28:1-31). Further, in that time of testing we will receive divine "help" (Daniel 11:34), so that even the words we shall speak will not be ours, but will be graciously given to us through the Holy Spirit with the result that even those among us who are not gifted in public speaking need not worry in the least about this ahead of time: (17) Beware of [all] men. For they will betray you into [the hands of their] tribunals and will scourge you in their assemblies. (18) And you will be haled before governors and kings for my sake as a witness to them (i.e., the pseudo-Christian leaders) and to the gentiles (i.e., generic unbelievers). (19) But when they betray you, do not worry how you will speak or what you will say. For it will be given to you in that [very] hour what you will say. (20) For you will not be the ones speaking, but your Father’s [Holy] Spirit will be the One speaking in you. Matthew 10:17-20 (9) Take care for yourselves. For they will betray you into [the hands of their] tribunals and you will be beaten in their assemblies. And you will stand before governors and kings for my sake as a witness to them. (10) For the gospel must first (i.e., before "the end"; cf. Matthew 24:14) be proclaimed to all the nations. (11) And when they betray and hale you [in before them], do not worry about what you will say, but whatever is given to you in that [very] hour, say that. For you are not the ones speaking but the Holy Spirit. Mark 13:9-11 (11) And when they bring you into their assemblies and rulers and authorities, do not worry how or what defense you shall make or what you shall say. (12) For the Holy Spirit will instruct you in that very hour [as to] the things which must be said. Luke 12:11-12 (12) But, [what is] even more [grievous] than these things (i.e., the events of vv.8-11), they will lay hands upon them, betraying them into [the hands of] their [religious] assemblies and prisons, haling them before kings and governors for the sake of my Name. (13) For this will result for you in an act of witnessing [for Me]. (14) So set it [firmly] in you hearts not to prepare ahead of time to make a defense. (15) For I will give you a mouth and wisdom which none of your enemies will be able to oppose or refute. Luke 21:12-15 c. Trial by Fire: As these martyrs follow in the footsteps of our Lord, if their betrayal by their friends and loved ones and consequent imprisonment is roughly analogous to His betrayal by Judas and arrest in the garden of Gethsemane (Matthew 26:48-49), and if the inquisition they undergo is roughly analogous to His series of trials by Herod, Pilate, and the Jewish religious leaders, then their subsequent trial by fire will be roughly analogous to His condemnation and ordeal in crucifixion (excepting, of course, His death for our sins). Please understand, what our Lord did for us at the cross is not to be compared with any other earthly event. But as we are called to walk in imitation of Him (John 13:15; 1 Corinthians 11:1; 1 Peter 2:21-25; 1 John 2:6; cf. Matthew 11:29; Matthew 16:24; Php 2:5), and to share His sufferings (Romans 8:17; 2 Corinthians 1:5; Php 1:29; Php 3:10; Colossians 1:24; 1 Peter 4:13; cf. Galatians 6:17), the parallels which scripture points out in general terms between His experience and that of these martyrs does need to be considered. Indeed, our Lord Himself drew a clear parallel between His imminent death for us and the high calling of those who choose to follow Him (i.e., we too are to "pick up our cross" and follow Him: Matthew 10:38; Matthew 16:24; Mark 8:34; Luke 9:23). So while we would never wish to make an exact comparison between martyrdom and our Lord’s unique sacrifice (for only His death could suffice to accomplish our salvation), it is nonetheless true that these martyrs for our Lord by their similar experience will be His unique witnesses, calling attention to His unique sacrifice through the absolute faith they will demonstrate in it and in Him, when they give up their lives rather than denouncing the One who bought them with His life’s blood. And when He (i.e., the Lamb) opened the fifth seal, I saw below the altar the living persons who had been slain because of the Word of God and because of the testimony which they had maintained. Revelation 6:9 In the preceding section, the verses in the gospels which detail the process of the inquisition that these believers will undergo mention first "tribunals" and "assemblies" (Matthew 10:17; Mark 13:9; cf. Luke 21:12). The second word is a translation of the Greek word synagoge, often transliterated as synagogue. This is somewhat misleading in that it suggests a solely Jewish setting whereas in truth what we should understand in terms of the true context being studied here is indeed a religious venue but one which is much more likely to be pseudo-Christian than Jewish. For what is being described in respect to the quasi-judicial examination process of believers incarcerated during the Great Persecution is part and parcel of the pressure placed upon them by antichrist’s religious establishment. These believers will be commanded to "repent" of their "misplaced" faith in that "other Messiah" (i.e., our true Lord and Savior Jesus Christ), and to declare instead their acceptance of antichrist as the true Christ by taking the mark of the beast. As in the case of our Lord who was called upon to deny Himself, and who was tried numerous times in the hours before His crucifixion, this process may involve numerous "trials" before various tribunals, but in every case those doing the examination will be adherents of the beast’s political and religious apparatus. In particular, as has been suggested above, it is likely that many main line religious organizations completely co-opted at that time by antichrist to serve and worship him will take the lead, at least initially, in the process of pressuring those who still have true faith to abandon it in order to save their lives. That is what is meant by the "tribunals" (synedria), namely, smaller screening bodies of religious officials analogous to Jesus’ first trial before Annas and the Sanhedrin (derived from synedrion, the singular form of the same word: John 18:12-24), whereas "assemblies" (synagogai) will refer to more public meetings presided over by larger numbers of religious officials with a larger audience, analogous to our Lord’s second trial before Caiaphas (compare John 18:24 with Matthew 26:57-68; Mark 14:53-65). In this regard we should recall that the apostle John identified "many antichrists" at work during the Church age (1 John 2:18-22; cf. 2 John 1:7), and gave as the means for that identification the fact that "they went out from us". Applied to our present discussion, this gives us a clear indication that both antichrist and many of his key followers will be erstwhile "Christian leaders". We have already noted here a consistent parallel between our Lord’s trial by fire prior to the cross and the experience of the martyrs of the Great Persecution. In this respect we may anticipate present-day equivalents among the beast’s co-opted "Christian leaders" which likewise parallel the various religious sects of our Lord’s day, groups which in prior years and centuries had no doubt included genuine believers, but which by the time of Jesus’ multiple trials had similarly been co-opted into doing the devil’s work. For the "scribes" who consistently put tradition over truth, the similarly traditionalist denominations of the Orthodox and Catholic persuasions are the best fit. For the secularist Sadducees, the old line now quite liberal Protestant denominations who have come to prefer "reason" to scripture along with other related groups (e.g., Unitarians and Christian Scientists) are a good match. The legalistic Pharisees who used judgmental applications of the Law to eliminate mercy and faith bring to mind the trends now found in many conservative Protestant denominations such as various Baptists and other spin-off independent denominations (and one may wish to place the Mormons here as well). The other-worldly Essenes are somewhat analogous to the various "charismatic" groups who worship experience over scripture, while we may find in the Zealots a parallel for any of the many fringe groups, left or right, which embrace violence, setting their extreme efforts in place of God and His plan. Apologies ahead of time to any and all who are partial to any of the groups mentioned above, but the reader is asked to remember that we are talking here about future events that will take place only after the removal of the Holy Spirit’s restraining influence in the crucible of the Tribulation. This set of parallels is thus not meant to indict any present group (and indulgence is also asked for any which may have been inadvertently left out), but merely to illustrate how the various tendencies of all the major Christian (not to mention pseudo-Christian) organizations could very well result in their being employed in the service of evil once they no longer contain any true believers, that is, the very situation which obtained in our Lord’s day and the very one which we are contemplating during the Tribulation after antichrist co-opts the church-visible for his own ends. Before final approval is given for the execution of those who refuse to repent despite such pressures, the political authorities will also have to weigh in. These are the "governors and kings" mentioned in the pertinent scriptures above (Matthew 10:17; Mark 13:9; Luke 21:12), and are analogous to our Lord’s trials before Herod and Pilate. Just as religious officials are co-opted in antichrist’s kingdom, so of course will all of the world’s political officials be, for the beast’s rule will be a worldwide one (Revelation 13:1-9). For those being persecuted, it is very important to understand that being alone and having been subjected to extreme physical and verbal abuse, these trials will constitute an inordinate amount of pressure the degree of which is difficult to grasp before the fact, even by those among us who may have been subjected to a lengthy legal process. It is therefore imperative as we study these things to appreciate ahead of time the importance of prior spiritual preparation to the successful endurance of such trials, even as we gain a better appreciation for the gauntlet our Lord ran for us even before He got to the cross and died for our sins. Revelation 6:9 quoted above tells us that those put to death in the Great Persecution will be executed "because of the Word of God and because of the testimony which they had maintained". We have also seen that the false prophet will be given the authority "to bring it about that as many as refused to worship the image of the beast might be put to death." (Revelation 13:15). Further, the resurrected martyrs seen in Revelation 20:1-15 who reign with Christ for a thousand years are said not to have worshiped "the beast or his image and did not take the mark on their forehead and on their hand" (Revelation 20:4). The litmus test then for execution and martyrdom will be the two-sided coin of refusing to reject the true Christ on the one hand and of refusing to worship the pseudo-Christ beast and his image in conjunction with the reception of his mark on the other. This brings up the question of whether or not a person can be said to refuse to worship the image of the beast in any place other than Jerusalem. For clearly the false prophet who forces obeisance and administers capital punishment on all who refuse will be in Jerusalem, as will antichrist and antichrist’s abominable image. Given the vast numbers of those put to death for the Lord and their geographical diversity, "a huge multitude which no one was able to number from every nation and tribe and people and tongue" (Revelation 7:9), it is likely that, when Jesus tells us in Matthew 24:9 "and [they] will put some of you to death", He is talking about the local "governors and kings" mentioned above. Therefore just as the mark of the beast is discussed in a manner that seems to connect it with worshiping the statue in person (i.e., Revelation 14:9-11; Revelation 16:2; Revelation 19:20; Revelation 20:4), and yet it seems improbable that everyone who agrees to take the mark will have to go to Jerusalem to do so, so in this case it seems preferable to understand some sort of satellite process, possibly enhanced through technology, whereby many of the martyrs will be put to death locally. As to the timing, we can expect persecution to go hand in hand with the ceremonial placing of the mark of the beast, with the coercion, compulsion, and execution of some believers beginning from the start. It stands to reason, however, that the process of denouncing, arresting, examining, and executing those who refuse to acknowledge the beast will have to gather speed and momentum over time. Human limitations being what they are, a period of transition into the new, harsh economic reality that accompanies the mark (Revelation 13:7) will thus be unavoidable despite the devil’s best efforts, so that not all believers will be identified immediately (indeed, as we have seen, fully half of those who remain at that time will most likely survive until the coming of the Lord). Nevertheless, we can be sure that the beast will do everything in his power to make that time of transition as short as possible so that we may expect to see a rapid implementation of this policy and subsequent ensnaring of the faithful. Given the desire for speed, sheer logistics would seem to indicate that, while there will be a certain amount of celebrity worship and marking done in Jerusalem itself (and the conspicuous execution of prominent Christians there too, for that matter), this process will take place mainly on the local level. Whether or not the local venues will have smaller replicas of the "abomination that causes [spiritual] desolation" or be fitted out with large viewing screens or some other such substitute, we cannot say for certain. What is certain, however, is that worshiping the beast and his image, in person or remotely, and taking the mark, whether from the second beast himself or one of antichrist’s clergy far from Jerusalem, will just as surely guarantee condemnation. Finally, inasmuch as Revelation 13:15 shows that the false prophet will be engaged in personal direction of some of these inquisitions which result in the execution of those who refuse to worship the beast and his image and take his mark, it is therefore also the case that some of the martyrs will indeed be killed in Jerusalem – and perhaps a large number of them at that. For those so "selected", it will certainly mean the necessity not only of being strong under the initial pressures following imprisonment, but of staying strong in faith for what is likely to be a long and arduous process. Gaining a temporary reprieve on the local level merely for the purpose of being transported to the headquarters of evil for "special treatment" will no doubt be very much like facing a firing-squad twice. As to the manner of execution, scripture does not provide any basis for dogmatically singling out a preferred method (although see Revelation 20:4 where the martyrs are described as having been beheaded). The "sword" in Revelation 13:10 is a common biblical metaphor for capital punishment (cf. Matthew 26:52; Romans 13:4). Crucifixion as well as more traditional modern modes of execution are certainly possible (cf. John 21:19). However, given that fire is closely connected with antichrist and his false prophet (Revelation 13:13), and the close analogy already noted between the refusal by Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego to worship the statue of Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel 3:1-30, it is more than likely that a similar death by fire will be the end result of this "trial by fire" for the tribulational martyrs (cf. the "fiery sea" of Revelation 15:2). Just as those three great men of God were not intimidated into forsaking Him despite the terror before them and were vindicated in a most miraculous way, so we need to commit ourselves to trust and obey God in spite of the commands of the world’s authorities to reject Him, in spite of the confidence of the beast’s followers that they are "doing good" in putting us to death (cf. John 16:2), and in spite of every terrifying eventuality with which we may be threatened. For while it will not be the fate of the tribulational martyrs to walk out of the fiery furnace the way Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego did, it will be their lot to rise first in the ranks of the redeemed (1 Thessalonians 4:16 b), and to reign with Jesus a thousand years: And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given to them (i.e., they sat in judgment), namely the persons who had been executed (lit., "beheaded with an ax") because of their witness for Jesus and because of the Word of God, [that is] whoever did not worship the beast or his image and did not take the mark on their forehead and on their hand. For they came to life and began to rule with Christ for a thousand years. Revelation 20:4 8. The Great Persecution in Israel: The vast majority of believers within Israel will respond to the divine command to flee into the desert and will thus be shielded from the otherwise universal persecution of the faithful. However, Daniel chapter eleven, a passage already covered above in some detail, does seem to indicate that, along with Moses and Elijah and the 144,000, a certain number of believers will remain in the land of Israel at this time (as is also indicated by a number of other passages which suggest continued problems for believers in Israel despite the flight of the faithful: e.g., Jeremiah 30:7; Daniel 8:12; Daniel 12:7; Zechariah 10:11). (30) For ships of Kittim (i.e., the western "Babylon") will attack with him (i.e., antichrist) [so that he will be victorious]. Then he will be stricken [as if dead], but will revive. And he will be enraged at the holy covenant, so that on his return [to Israel from the far south] he will take action [against it] (i.e., ending the sacrifices, setting up the abomination, taking his seat in the temple). And he will give his support to those who abandon the holy covenant. (31) For it is from him that the military forces will issue forth which will pollute the sanctuary (i.e., ending the ministry of Moses and Elijah), remove the daily sacrifice, and set up the abomination of desolation. (32) And with enticements he will seduce [people] to violate the [holy] covenant, but the people who know their God will continue to hold fast to it. (33) And those among the people who have insight will teach the people who will be persecuted by sword (i.e., martyrdom), and flame (i.e., torture leading to martyrdom), and captivity (i.e., imprisonment), and plundering (i.e., confiscation of property), for some time. (34) And when they are persecuted, they will receive a little help, yet many will ally themselves to them under false pretenses. (35) For even from among [the ranks of] those who have insight, some will be persecuted, in order to refine, purify, and cleanse them until the final end. For [it is] yet to come at its appointed time. Daniel 11:30-35 Whether it is the case that those described in the above persecution in Israel following the Tribulation’s mid-point failed to depart at the proper time, or were led by the Spirit to remain, or became believers after the fact, it is certainly true that what is being described here is applicable to the Church as a whole and to the pattern of the Great Persecution as a whole everywhere else in the world as well (and that is undoubtedly an important connection we are meant to make). One thing is certain: all those who remain in the land during this period, believers and unbelievers both, are in for a very difficult time (e.g., Isaiah 8:14-15). 9. The Role of Babylon: The book of Revelation very emphatically makes Babylon responsible for the Great Persecution, both directly (Revelation 17:6; Revelation 18:20; Revelation 18:24; Revelation 19:2; cf. Revelation 16:6), and also in terms of the beast’s religion of "prostitution and witchcraft" which lies behind it and for which she is the primary source (Revelation 17:1-5; Revelation 18:3-4; cf. Revelation 14:8-9; Revelation 16:19). In fact, Babylon the great prostitute is said in Revelation 17:6 to be "drunk with the blood of the holy ones, even from [the blood of] the witnesses for Jesus", providing us with a clear linkage between the Great Persecution and Babylon in her capacity as the original headquarters of antichrist’s religious and political base. Babylon, of course, is also the wealthiest state in the world (cf. the descriptions in Revelation 17:1-6 and in all of chapter 18), so that the commercial restrictions upon those who lack the mark (whereby so many believers will be identified, incarcerated and martyred) are doubtless to be understood as intimately connected with her role in this regard as well. Since the Great Persecution is thus largely indistinguishable from Babylon in scripture, showing that she will thus be the chief agent of that persecution through the amalgamated world-system of religious, economic and political power she represents, we are further correct to conclude that the new pseudo-Christianity developed by antichrist in Babylon will be instrumental in conducting the Great Persecution itself. Just as our Lord was haled before a series of Jewish religious councils which ought to have worshiped Him, the Messiah of the Jews, so believers during the Great Persecution will find themselves being accused, berated, and condemned by erstwhile fellow "Christians", a fact that will make the burden of martyrdom all that much more difficult to bear. 10. A Brief Christian "Code of Conduct" for the Great Persecution: It is hoped that the following list of guiding principles, though not meant to be exhaustive, will prove to be some help to those facing the trying circumstance of that future time (or indeed similar pressures in the present): a. Don’t hide your light of faith under a bushel (Matthew 5:15-16): Be courageous in continuing to carry out the ministries and Christian witness to which Christ has called you (Matthew 10:28). Many contemporary Christians seem to believe that once the Tribulation arrives we are to go into "survivalist mode". This seems to run counter to everything the Bible has to say. When the apostles were told to stop speaking and teaching in the Name of Jesus, they refused on pain of scourging, imprisonment and death (all three of which fates lay in wait for many of them because of their determination to serve Jesus no matter what the cost; cf. Acts 5:29). Certainly, we are told to be wise as well as innocent in the way we conduct ourselves in the world (Matthew 10:16; cf. Romans 16:19; 1 Corinthians 14:20), and no one is suggesting that we volunteer to be executed, that we "dare" the authorities to martyr us, or that we deliberately go out of our way to run afoul of those who are administering the Great Persecution, calling attention to ourselves rather than to Christ (cf. Matthew 6:2). This extreme is clearly not what God would have us to do any more that He expects us to run for cover rather than confess our faith in His Son. Daniel and his three friends give us the perfect examples of how we should behave in this regard. Daniel did not immediately go into the presence of the king and protest the wicked decree forged against him, daring him to make him a martyr for the Lord; but neither did he run and hide as he well might have done for just a day, or even change in any way his normal walk with the Lord, but continued in exactly the same way as he had before the harsh decree was passed. Likewise, Hananiah, Mishael, and Asariah (Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego) did not make a point of identifying themselves to the king, daring him to throw them into the fiery furnace so that they might be martyrs for the Lord; but neither did they run and hide as they well might have done for just that day, or even change their normal manner of faithful service to the king as a reflection of their duty to God, but were present on the plain of Dura at the king’s command. In each case, continuation of faithfulness in normal spiritual and secular behavior led these men to be martyred – but in each case God delivered them in a miraculous way. It is well for us to consider, should it so be that we face such circumstances ourselves, that God is completely capable of delivering us as well, so that if we should be caught in the process of living our lives as God would have us to do and then be martyred as a result, it can only be because this is the will of God for us, and it is only through our response to His will that He is glorified through us (Isaiah 43:7; Ephesians 1:5-14). Everyone will have to make his or her own applications of this principle during that time and it may very well be that some measure of greater circumspection will be appropriate in some things (such as avoiding commercial venues where the lack of the mark will be an issue; cf. Isaiah 26:20; Matthew 10:17; Mark 13:9), while more boldness will be appropriate in others (such as visiting those who have been imprisoned for their faith: Matthew 25:39; Hebrews 13:3; cf. Revelation 2:10). The point is that, just as we should do today, during the Great Persecution we ought to be consulting our Lord and His Word of truth in prayer and in the power of the Spirit in order to know the right thing to do in trying circumstances, rather than consulting the world and our circumstances in it first and foremost, making God merely an afterthought. [But in contrast to those who receive the mark of the beast and worship him], the saints have perseverance, [even] those who in this way (i.e., by refusing to receive the mark or worship the beast) keep God’s commandments and [retain] their faith in Jesus (viz., even though it may cost them their lives). Revelation 14:12 b. Don’t fall asleep spiritually (Mark 13:32-37): Stay alert through continued spiritual growth and ministry. As we mentioned above, one of the most disturbing ironies of the Great Tribulation is that true believers in Christ will be persecuted as at no other time in history for being unwilling to accept this pseudo-Messiah. Therefore we should not underestimate the degree to which antichrist and his pseudo-Christianity will resemble the real thing at least on the surface, nor the degree to which the pressures to conform and join-in arising both from putative fellow "Christians" and also especially from friends and family will be persuasive (as they were in the case of Jewish believers in Israel during the first century: cf. Hebrews 10:23-39). For the comforting aspects of "belonging" to the pseudo-church of that day will be even more deadly to faith in truth than it was in the situation described throughout the book of Hebrews or than it is today (where what we are experiencing is in most cases merely rank superficiality and lukewarmness to the truth of scripture rather than outright worship of the devil). Embracing apostasy out of pressure, even the extreme pressure of persecution, is the one sure way to put faith to death and thereby lose out on all the blessings of eternity so very close at any time, but especially during the waning days of the Tribulation (Hebrews 11:26; Hebrews 11:37; cf. Revelation 14:9-11). c. Don’t let your light of faith go out (Matthew 25:1-13): Keep fighting the good fight of faith in spite of the many difficult challenges to faith that will arise during the Great Persecution. Holding onto faith will require the correct mental perspective informed by scripture regarding the true situation at that time. Even Moses became distraught at Pharaoh’s lack of positive response amid the increased pressures on the children of Israel (Exodus 5:22-23), but we have the advantage of hindsight so that we know from the Bible what the Lord’s plan was all along. We know from scripture how it was that the Lord would work everything out for good in spite of repeated trouble and testing. And we know too, unfortunately, that the people continually failed to trust the Lord in spite of the many extraordinary miracles they witnessed. As believers who may experience the things to come, we need to remember this example (cf. 1 Corinthians 10:1-13). We need to prepare ourselves, not with canned goods in the basement but with Bible truth in the heart, to endure what the Lord has told us about through scripture ahead of time, remembering not to take these terrible times and events personally, but rather to appreciate the inner workings of the overall plan of God upon these final events of history before the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. The believers of that time who do survive with faith intact will be those who were prepared to stand against their country (cf. Revelation 18:4), family (cf. Matthew 10:36; John 16:1-4), church (cf. John 16:2), and economic well-being (Revelation 13:17). For as bad as the Great Persecution will be from the very start, we may expect it to grow progressively worse before our Lord returns. d. Don’t value your life over your faith (Matthew 16:24-27): Love the Lord with all your heart. Don’t put physical things, even those essential for minimal survival, over the truly more important spiritual ones. If it comes to it, it is far better to lose one’s life for His sake than to gain the world without Him at the price of forfeiting the eternal life that is in Him (Matthew 10:37-39). The Tribulation in general and the Great Persecution in particular will be a refining process (Daniel 11:35; cf. Daniel 7:18-27), whereby the Lord will not only demonstrate who are truly His but will also glorify Himself through what those who prove faithful in this trial are willing to suffer for His Name. The entirety of human history is "God’s threshing floor" (Matthew 3:12), used by Him to demonstrate beyond any doubt what we really do choose, and how emphatically we choose it (the basis for rewards on the part of believers). At no time will this be more true than during the Great Persecution. If we really are thinking like God is thinking, instead of becoming disconsolate under the pressures, inconveniences, trials, tribulations, and loss of the Great Persecution, we will see beyond the veil that shrouds this life from the next and realize that the rewards we are earning through patient endurance and joyous acceptance of our Lord’s will for us are not to be compared to any of the troubles we are presently suffering, even if they cost us a few short years of our physical lives, lives which would be completely pointless in any case apart from our faith in and faithfulness to our dear Lord and Savior Jesus Christ who died for us (Romans 8:18; 2 Corinthians 4:17). e. Don’t be afraid (Luke 12:32-34): Let hope and joy rule your heart as you continue to look forward in eager anticipation to the glories of the Kingdom to come rather than focusing upon the miseries of the present. The beast and his father the devil along with all their followers can only kill the body, not the spirit (Matthew 10:26-31), and can only do that if the Lord allows – our deaths are always precious in His sight and we can expect that to be doubly true during this unprecedented period of martyrdom (Psalms 116:15). Given that as we have seen above the likelihood is for fully one half of those whose faith survives the Great Apostasy to perish in glory as martyrs for our Lord during the Great Persecution, our hope of eternal life and joy in our eternal reward ought always to temper any prospect of earthly survival in light of the very real possibility of martyrdom (cf. Zephaniah 2:3; Jeremiah 45:1-5), ever making it our first priority to demonstrate faithfulness to the One who is ever faithful to us. Therefore let all those who are suffering according to the will of God entrust their lives (while doing what is good) to a Creator who is faithful. 1 Peter 4:19 Demonstrate faithfulness unto death, and I will give you the crown of life. Revelation 2:10 b In all of this, then, we need to keep in mind that the Tribulation is an essential part of the Plan of God and could never happen in the first place apart from His specific will (2 Thessalonians 2:6-8; Revelation 5:1-5). That is true both on the worldwide level and in the case every individual believer, no matter what the Lord has in store for us personally. As we have seen in our comparison of the competing tribulational trends, the Tribulation constitutes a key part of God’s demonstration of Satan’s complete evil and ultimate powerlessness on the one hand, and of His own righteousness and faithfulness on the other (with the Millennium which follows providing the ultimate counterpoint to a world ruled by the devil in contrast to a world ruled by God). The Tribulation thus has an important role to play in the overall Plan of God and in His refutation of Satan. For it will be seen more clearly than ever before during those final seven years that the devil is in no way "for" mankind as he seeks to destroy the world, while at the same time we will observe God’s miraculous protection of a holy remnant in the world in spite of otherwise complete satanic control. And not only that, but the Tribulation will also demonstrate that in spite of the greatest pressures of human history, there will indeed be those who continue to remain faithful to the Lord, notwithstanding the incredible enticements of its first half (which is destined to sweep so many away in the Great Apostasy), and the unprecedented pressures of its second half (wherein half of the faithful will be subjected to martyrdom). In short, though we may be forced during those dark days ahead to "make hay without straw" for what seems a never-ending stretch of time, we should recall that in the analogy of the days preceding the Exodus, Pharaoh, a type of antichrist, was really making the Lord the issue in this persecution (cf. Exodus 5:17). Those abused during the Great Persecution will likewise and most assuredly be persecuted because of Jesus Christ, and this is at once the greatest compliment to a believer’s faith and the greatest opportunity to demonstrate that faithfulness, separating for all the world to see the seed in good soil from that which fell upon the rock. Here is a trustworthy saying: If we died with Him, we will also live with Him; if we persevere, we will also reign with Him. If we disown Him, He will also disown us; If we are faithless, He will remain faithful, for He cannot disown Himself. 2 Timothy 2:11-13 ======================================================================== CHAPTER 31: 01A.07. ARMAGEDDON AND THE SECOND ADVENT ======================================================================== 7. Armageddon and the Second Advent A. The Bowl Judgments As to the precise placement of the bowl judgments in the chronology of the Great Tribulation, scripture provides a number of clues which give us the ability to project a plausible time-line for their occurrence. As is made clear throughout chapter sixteen of Revelation, the exact terminus for the bowl judgments is Armageddon and the Second Advent (see esp. Revelation 16:16-17), since both of these events and the build-up to them are part and parcel of bowls six and seven. Further, the start-point for these seven judgments must occur at some point during the Tribulation’s final three and a half years (obviously, in that, along with everything else which follows Revelation 11:15-19 and precedes Christ’s return in chapter 19, they are part of the seventh trumpet which represents the Great Tribulation). So although there is clearly a relationship (and many obvious parallels) between the seven judgments of warning (trumpets – first half of the Tribulation) and the seven judgments of punishment (bowls – second half of the Tribulation), at first glance it may seem impossible for the bowls to parallel the trumpets in terms of raw time since the total number of months of warning comprised by the trumpet judgments is 63 (when the 42 months of the seventh trumpet, the Great Tribulation, are included in the count). On the other hand, the termini provided by the start and stop points of the Great Tribulation can provide us with only 42 months at most. In actuality, of course, the linear total has to be far fewer than 42, since a good deal of time before their commencement must be allowed at the beginning of the Great Tribulation in order for the Great Persecution to first get underway (because it is to this offence that the bowls constitute a divine response; cf. Revelation 16:5-7). The correct solution lies in positing an overlap in the effects of the bowl judgments (i.e., a continuation of the effects of each judgment even as the next in sequence begins, with the effects of all seven continuing until Christ’s return). In this way it is possible to telescope these seven in a manner that will both yield a total of 63 total (partially overlapping) months of judgment parallel to the 63 (sequential) months of warning represented by the Trumpet Judgments, while at the same time allowing the Bowl Judgments to fit into the Great Tribulation’s second half in a reasonable and workable way. The above schema is certainly in keeping with the rising crescendo of punishment designed to be unbearable in contrast to the sequential and (relatively) endurable hardships of the warning judgments (cf. Isaiah 30:32). Bowls six and seven, which comprise the entire Armageddon campaign along with all of the other events which precede the Second Advent, form the anchor for this system. Since, as we have already seen, Armageddon and our Lord’s return occur in the fall (as symbolized by the Day of Atonement), and since the events of bowls six and seven will almost certainly require the bulk of the preceding summer and spring (the summoning and transporting of the beast’s armies to Israel from throughout the world likely being a particularly time-consuming logistical task), the positing of six and seven months for the seventh and six bowl judgments respectively fits the evidence. This schema also has in its favor the fact that the supplying of a further month for each additional bowl judgment working backward (i.e., totals of 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, and, finally, 12 months for each bowl judgment from the seventh to the first respectively) yields the desired total of 63 months reckoned in overlapping total, yet manages to do so in only 12 months of overall, linear chronological time (as can be seen from the diagram above). This modeling of the likely chronology of the bowl judgments also has in its favor: 1) It allows for the fact that just as the seven trumpets constituted a build up to the Great Tribulation, so the seven bowls constitute a rising crescendo of judgment in anticipation of the return of our Lord and His judgment of the beast, the devil, and all their minions at the battle of Armageddon (cf. Isaiah 30:32). 2) It allows for the fact that, inasmuch as these judgments are in no small part the divine response to the Great Persecution (Revelation 14:1-20, Revelation 15:1-8 plus Revelation 16:5-7; cf. Isaiah 35:4; Revelation 19:15), sufficient time must first pass for that persecution to take place before the bowl judgments begin (and, as we have seen, the persecution is allowed to take its course for quite some time). 3) It allows for the bowl judgments to fit into the gap between the Great Persecution and Armageddon (and it is difficult to see how this could extend much past the suggested chronology of the Tribulation’s final year). 4) It allows for the time required for all of the armies of the world to gather for Armageddon, the subject of the fifth and sixth bowl judgments, with this assembly taking place during the spring and summer of the final tribulational year, and with Armageddon itself taking place in the fall (i.e., lining up with the Day of Atonement), as well as allowing for sufficient time for the prophesied war between the beast’s invading forces and Israel. 5) It allows for sufficient time for the other events which are prophesied to take place in this final year or so, including the plunging of the beast’s kingdom into darkness (the event that dislodges him temporarily from Jerusalem), the revolt of Babylon and Israel, the destruction and pillaging of Babylon, and the invasion of Israel preparatory to Armageddon. For the Lord has a day of vengeance, even a year of retribution for Zion’s cause. Isaiah 34:8 (cf. Isaiah 63:4) Although the overall length of time for this punitive period of judgment is only twelve months from beginning to end, we are not to draw from this fact the notion that the bowl judgments will for that reason be less intense. Quite the contrary. Such an idea is easily refuted by the nature and effect of this second set of judgments as should be obvious even from a cursory reading of Revelation chapter sixteen. Moreover it is also the case that, in contrast to the trumpet judgments which are sequential and non-overlapping, the effects of each bowl judgment continue from their inception right down to the end of the Tribulation at the battle of Armageddon and the Second Advent of our Lord Jesus Christ. This build up of "blow upon unrelenting blow" is characteristic of the pattern of divine punishment where the objects of God’s wrath have emphatically and categorically rejected His mercy (cf. Deuteronomy 28:16-68; 2 Thessalonians 1:9). Thus the manner in which these final seven judgments are administered reflects their punitive nature (in contrast to the monitory nature of the trumpet judgments; see Revelation 15:1; Revelation 15:8; Revelation 16:1). Bowls: The Greek phiale (φιάλη), equivalent to the Latin patera (the diminutive of which is patella), is a large, deep saucer (about the size of a medium deep-dish pizza pan). This deep-dish plate was commonly used in antiquity for libations so that it had a general sacrificial use. It was chosen for libations instead of what might seem to us more practical utensils such as true bowls, cups or jars no doubt because of its suitability for dispersing the liquid libation in a way so as to maximize the emission of fragrance, the visibility of the outpouring, and the area moistened. So in our analogy here, the widespread and tangible nature of the judgment produced is the picture we are meant to receive through the use of this particular ceremonial device: the consequences of the bowl judgments will be even more emphatic, wide-ranging and viscerally felt than was the even case with the trumpet judgments. The Seven Angels: The number seven suggests that, as in the case of the trumpet judgments, the archangels are once again in charge of administering this series of judgments. As with the blowing of the trumpets, the pouring out of the bowls constitutes the command to begin. Upon receiving this command, we may understand that the large number of elect angels under each archangel’s command will then be responsible for carrying out the particulars of each judgment. One additional important difference between the trumpet and the bowl judgments is that while in the case of the former each angel received individual, sequential orders to blow his trumpet, here we see all seven archangels commanded at the same time to "pour out upon the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God" (a fact which further argues for the overlapping duration of the bowl judgments as explained above). 1. Sores (1) And I heard a loud voice from the [heavenly] temple saying to the seven angels, "Go and pour out upon the earth the seven bowls of the wrath of God". (2) And the first [angel] went out and poured out his bowl upon the earth, and dreadful and terrible sores arose upon the people who had the mark of the beast and upon those who were worshiping his image. Revelation 16:1-2 Beyond the physical pain involved, afflictions of the skin are particularly psychologically wearing because they are at once difficult to put out of mind and at the same time obvious to others. When given the opportunity to attack Job physically, the devil, a shrewd judge of human nature, chose to smite Job "with painful sores from head to foot" no doubt as much because of the anticipated effect upon his morale as anything else (Job 2:4-8). The sores in question here, recalling the "boils" that afflict the Egyptians during the sixth Exodus plague (Exodus 9:8-12), "arise" upon the followers of the beast immediately after the first bowl is poured out, and we can take heart that the scripture here names these reprobates as the recipients, thereby indicating that believers will be exempt (as in the case of many of the effects of the trumpet judgments as we have seen; cf. Exodus 15:26). The sores themselves are described as "dreadful and terrible". The Greek words here are generic (kakos/κακός and poneros/πονηρός respectively), with the former most likely referring to their ugly appearance and the latter to their unpleasant quality. Suffice it to say that they will serve as a constant reminder to everyone who worships the beast of God’s displeasure, right up until the point of our Lord’s return in glory. 2. Sea Turned to Blood And the second [angel] poured out his bowl into the sea, and it became blood like the blood of a dead [person], and every living thing in contact with the sea died. Revelation 16:3 This second bowl judgment also represents a clear intensification over the similar second trumpet judgment wherein only a third of the creatures in the sea perish as a result of a third of the sea being turned into blood (Revelation 8:8-9). Human fatalities are also to be understood here as well (cf. Revelation 8:9 b), since it is not only "everything in the sea" which perishes but everything (and everyone) "in contact" with the sea at the instant this judgment comes down. As with the sores which appear on all of the beast’s followers, so this plague upon the earth’s seas is deliberately reminiscent of the plagues upon Pharaoh and the Egyptians in response to his persecution of the Israelites (compare Exodus 9:8-12 with Exodus 7:14-24). And just as Pharaoh and his armies were destroyed soon after the end of that cycle of judgment, so it will be with antichrist and his hordes when our Lord annihilates them at the battle of Armageddon. But until that time, this judgment of blood and the deprivation of the sea as a source of food will, like the sores of the first bowl judgment, continue to weigh heavily upon the anti-God population of the world until that blessed end comes to pass. Finally it should be noted that in all three instances the blood in question is literal blood, making the reality of the divine source of this judgment impossible to refute – except by hearts that have been hardened past the point of any return to reality or repentance (the universal state of affairs for antichrist and his followers). Therefore here we clearly see God’s power and righteousness underscored by this judgment: in spite of undeniable proof of its evil, the world nevertheless stubbornly refuses to repent. 3. Waters Turned to Blood (4) And the third [angel] poured out his bowl onto the rivers and the springs of waters, and it (i.e., all fresh water) became blood. (5) Then I heard the angel of the waters (i.e., the third angel) saying, "O You who are and [always] were, the Holy One, You are justified in rendering these [seven bowl] judgments. (6) For [the inhabitants of the earth] have poured out the blood of [Your] saints and prophets, and You have given them blood to drink. The very thing which they deserve." (7) And I heard the altar saying "Yes, [O] Lord, God the Almighty, true and just are your judgments." Revelation 16:4-7 Just as the previous bowl judgment affected all bodies of salt water on the earth, so this third judgment will affect all bodies of fresh water. Just as the Israelites were protected during the simPsalms 42:1-2ilar cursing of the river Nile (cf. Exodus 7:18 and Exodus 7:21 : "the Egyptians will not be/were not able to drink the water"), so we may expect that believers still alive at this time will be provided some respite. For although the method and manner of the relief for those who have not succumbed to the worship of the beast are not specified, it is very clear from the verses above that the punishment involved here is specifically directed at antichrist’s followers (and Revelation 16:5 b applies this principle to all seven of the bowl judgments). Water, lest we forget, is symbolic of the life-giving truth of the Word of God (Isaiah 55:1; John 3:5; John 3:8 [Greek]; John 4:10; John 4:13-14; John 7:37-39; 1 Corinthians 10:4; Ephesians 5:26; Hebrews 10:22; 1 John 5:8; Revelation 7:17; Revelation 21:6; Revelation 22:1; Revelation 22:17; cf. Exodus 17:5-6; Numbers 20:8; Psalms 36:8-9; Psalms 42:1-2; Psalms 63:1; Psalms 84:5-7; Isaiah 8:6; Isaiah 12:3; Isaiah 41:17; Isaiah 44:3; Isaiah 55:10-11; Jeremiah 2:13; Jeremiah 17:13; 1 Corinthians 3:6-7; Hebrews 6:7). The appropriateness of this judgment, therefore, whereby the world’s fresh water is turned into a symbol of judgment not fit to drink should be evident: just as the worshipers of the beast have rejected the sweet water of truth and spilled the blood of those who love it instead, so their access to the fresh water which symbolizes that truth has now been taken away and replaced with undrinkable blood. A word should be said here about the justice of God. Despite what might seem to be terrible and unthinkable judgments falling upon countless people the world around, the third angel is given here to sing a hymn praising God precisely for the justice of what He is doing in holding the world to account for its evil in following and worshiping the beast and thus facilitating the massive persecution of the true Church, believers in Jesus Christ. Indeed, in verse six, it is "the inhabitants of the earth" who are charged with spilling the blood of the "saints and prophets". Even though the moral ambiguity which reigns in our day would no doubt find great fault in the destruction of all sea-life, the pollution of all fresh water, and the severe smiting of so many people with painful sores, God is completely "justified in rendering these judgments". They are pure, and good, and righteous according to the angel’s hymn, and this evaluation is seconded by none other than the Son of Man Himself who died on behalf of all mankind on the altar of the cross (a sacrifice now memorialized by the heavenly altar of incense represented here), our dear Lord and Savior Jesus Christ: "Yes, [O] Lord, God the Almighty, true and just are your judgments." 4. Scorching Heat (8) And the fourth angel poured out his bowl onto the sun. And it was given to it to burn men with [its] fire. (9) And men were burned with a great scorching, and they blasphemed the Name of God, the One who holds the authority over these plagues, but they did not repent [so as] to give Him glory. Revelation 16:8-9 As with the sores of the first judgment, this plague also affects primarily the skin (a place of visible and intensive suffering as we have pointed out above) of those who worship the beast, and with even greater apparent immediacy and intensity than was the case in the plague of the sores. The type of scorching described in these verses and the fact that it affects the entire unbelieving world argues for the effects of this plague being supernaturally present regardless of precautions men may seek to take. Just as the frogs, flies, gnats and locusts of the Exodus plagues made their way into the innermost places of the houses of the Egyptians (and they were incapable of avoiding them), so it seems that these burns will be impossible for the followers of antichrist to escape altogether (cf. Exodus 8:3; Exodus 8:17; Exodus 8:21; Exodus 10:6). On the other hand, here too we anticipate our Lord’s divine protection for those who remain faithful to Jesus (1 Thessalonians 1:10): The Lord is the One who guards you. The Lord is your shade, at your right hand. By day the sun will not strike you down, nor will the moon [do so] by night. Psalms 121:5-6 By the time of this fourth bowl judgment we might expect the cumulative effect and build-up of the cursing – the sores and the oceanic devastation and the undrinkable fresh water and now this scorching heat – to have finally broken the will to resist among the followers of antichrist. For, one would think that all of these events, pressing down with such force and effect at the same time, would leave no doubt as to the insanity of opposing the God who made heaven and earth and who holds our very lives in His hands. But instead of giving in to this truth, instead of crying "uncle!" and acknowledging the obvious fact of His superiority, instead of repenting and giving Him the glory due His Name, those who worship the beast actually have the temerity to blaspheme that holy Name in the face of such inexorable judgments! No stronger evidence can be found in scripture for the blindness brought on by the hardening of the heart through the embrace of evil, except perhaps for the example of Pharaoh. And it is in fact Pharaoh that we are meant to recall, who, in his similar blind arrogance, so inexplicably and defiantly continued to oppose the God of heaven in the face of similarly irresistible plagues (Exodus 9:16). But just as his implacable resistance only served to further the plan of God – both by demonstrating God’s power and also by proving beyond all question the solidity, depth and irreversibility of Pharaoh’s arrogant disposition – so now this curse directed toward God, at once so impotent and so horrific, only serves to show that no amount of mercy or judgment could ever be sufficient to sway the followers of the beast from their evil ways. This incredibly arrogant behavior is in stark contrast to that of a previous world ruler, the "head of gold" himself, Nebuchadnezzar, who when personally confronted with the awe-inspiring power of God, humbled himself in response to the Lord’s discipline (Daniel 4:28-36): Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven, because everything he does is right and all his ways are just. And those who walk in pride he is able to humble. Daniel 4:37 NIV 5. Darkness (10) And the fifth [angel] poured out his bowl onto the throne of the beast, and his kingdom became darkened, and [the inhabitants] were chewing their tongues because of the suffering [this caused them]. (11) And they blasphemed the God of heaven on account of their sufferings, but they did not repent. Revelation 16:10-11 Darkness is one of the most significant of all divine judgments (e.g., Exodus 10:21-23; Exodus 14:20; Isaiah 8:22; Matthew 8:12; Matthew 22:13; Matthew 25:30; 2 Peter 2:4; 2 Peter 2:17; Jude 1:6; Jude 1:13), for God is light, and there is no darkness in Him (1 John 1:5-7; cf. John 1:3-9). Response to the light, God’s truth, is thus the universal litmus test of true creature character. Therefore, as in His turning off of the universal lights in response to Satan’s rebellion (Genesis 1:2), God has always used this judgment of darkness to show in a very graphic and tangible way not only His power but also the true character of those judged: antichrist and his most ardent core of followers are given the darkness they truly love and have unquestionably merited by their entirely blind and light-less conduct (cf. Genesis 19:11; Deuteronomy 28:28-29; 2 Kings 6:18 ff.; Acts 13:11). And this is the [basis for] judgment: the Light (i.e., Jesus Christ) has come into the world, yet men loved the darkness more than the Light because their deeds were evil. For everyone who commits detestable practices hates the Light and does not come to the Light, lest his deeds be exposed [for what they really are]. But everyone who acts in accordance with the truth comes to the Light so that it becomes obvious that his deeds have been done in God (i.e., in accordance with God’s will). John 3:19-21 As was the case with the darkness occasioned by the fourth trumpet judgment (Revelation 8:12), it will be impossible for contemporaries to rationalize away this casting of the beast’s kingdom (comprising roughly a fourth part of the earth) into what is being described here as at the very least near total darkness. But again, although the power of God is unquestionably being made manifest in this judgment, and although the pain and suffering this judgment brings ought to provoke a response of humility and repentance, in the completely hardened hearts of the worshipers of antichrist it will provoke instead only impotent blasphemy against the One who made and sustains the very heavens and earth (cf. Jeremiah 6:27-30; Ezekiel 22:17-19). In this respect too then, this bowl judgment at least foreshadows the supernatural darkness that will occur just prior to the Second Advent, the time when the beast and his followers will finally be destroyed for so enthusiastically serving the darkness rather than the light (Isaiah 13:9-13; Isaiah 34:4; Isaiah 60:1-3; Ezekiel 32:7-10; Joel 2:2; Joel 2:31; Joel 3:15; Zephaniah 1:15-18; Zechariah 14:6-8; Matthew 24:29; Mark 13:24-25; Acts 2:17-21; Revelation 6:12-13). That the darkness mentioned here affects only "the kingdom of the beast" is extremely significant. It will be remembered that the fourth trumpet judgment, while seemingly less intense in that it reduced the emission of light from the sun, moon and stars by a third whereas here the darkness is described in absolute terms, was nevertheless the first judgment wherein the entire earth was adversely affected. By contrast here we see the darkness, while total in the area directly stricken, said to affect only that one particular area, namely the "throne" and "kingdom" of the beast. By this point in the Tribulation, it is true that antichrist will exercise some degree of control over the entire world, enough, for example, to orchestrate the Great Persecution in all quarters of the globe. But in the precise terminology used here, "throne" and "kingdom", something less than the entire world is meant. Specifically, Revelation 16:10 has to be referring to the original seven members of the ten nation confederacy (i.e., the European continent) which, following his seizure of Babylon, came to constitute the power base for the beast’s worldwide dominion. (40b) And [the beast] will invade the lands [of the southern alliance], and inundate [them] and sweep through [them], (41) and he will advance into the Beautiful land (i.e., Israel). Now many lands will fall before him, but these will escape from his control: Edom, and Moab, and the first [part of the territory] of the sons of Ammon. (42) And [antichrist] will extend his control over the lands (of the southern alliance), so that even the land of Egypt will not escape. (43) Thus [antichirst] will take control of all the repositories of gold and silver, even over all of Egypt’s treasures, with Libya (i.e., representing North Africa) and Cush (i.e., Sudan-Ethiopia) following her [in submission]. (44) But reports [coming] from the east and the north will disturb him, with the result that he will depart [from Israel] in a great rage to destroy and to exterminate many. (45) Then [upon his return to Israel] he will pitch the tents of his [royal] pavilion between the seas (i.e., the Mediterranean and the Dead seas) near the mountain of the beauty of holiness (i.e., the temple mount in Jerusalem). But [in spite of this (i.e., his hopes for success in the battle of Armageddon)] he will come to his end, and no one will aid him [then]. Daniel 11:40-45 As we have seen previously, Daniel 11:40-43 above describes the beast’s conquest of the southern confederacy and consolidation of his power during the Tribulation’s second half. Then, in Daniel 11:44, we are given additional critical information about antichrist’s subsequent conduct, specifically, his actions at the time of the fifth bowl judgment which we are presently studying. At that time, the beast will quit Jerusalem because of "reports" which will "disturb him". These "reports", furthermore, are said to emanate from "the east and the north". They will provoke him to "a great rage" and motivate him "to destroy and to exterminate many". The following context in Daniel 11:45, is a clear reference to the battle of Armageddon where the beast will meet his end at the hands of our victorious returning Lord. This means that antichrist’s hasty departure from Jerusalem in Daniel 11:44 has to be sandwiched between the two, and in the description given seems to occur during the time period just prior to the Second Advent (as also in Zechariah 9:8, NASB: "him [i.e., antichrist] who passes by and returns"). There is thus much to recommend understanding the cause of these "reports" which so enrage the beast and cause him to abandon his new world headquarters in Jerusalem’s temple for a wide-ranging and destructive punitive campaign as being the darkness of the fifth bowl judgment. For just as in Daniel 11:40-45 the departure lies between events taking place late in the Great Tribulation and the return of Christ, so in Revelation chapter sixteen the fifth bowl judgment occurs just before the commencement of the Armageddon campaign (the sixth bowl judgment), and is likewise positioned late in the Great Tribulation (e.g., it follows the Great Persecution and the previous four bowl judgments). So in the same way that Babylon will be singled out during the seventh bowl judgment, here we see the earth’s northern quadrant (essentially synonymous with antichrist’s seven nation European confederacy, although for geographical reasons we can omit Israel in this case) being similarly singled out – not destroyed, as Babylon will be, but plunged into darkness. That this blacking out of the entire continent of Europe will be the cause of much political and social disruption should come as no surprise especially given the horrendous nature of antichrist’s social and economic policies in particular (that is to say, there will unquestionably be many who will take advantage of this opportunity to rid themselves of his rule). The mention of the "east" here as also being a source of the disturbing reports is significant as well. The degree of control enjoyed over the world’s eastern hemisphere by antichrist at this time will be, as previously discussed, based upon an overall military, political, and economic dominance, and exercised in that quadrant largely through surrogates (i.e., "the kings of the east"), rather than being underpinned by large-scale military occupation (although the deployment of his substantial naval superiority in this endeavor is not to be ruled out). Therefore, though not suffering the judgment of darkness itself, the global disruption of command and control that this unprecedented event will produce can reasonably be expected to engender at the very least the rumblings of an increased degree of political independence in these eastern regimes. It is certainly in keeping with antichrist’s character to react vigorously and ruthlessly to any perceived threats to his power and position, especially when they are so potentially serious as what we are contemplating here. In such circumstances, a campaign of terror designed to put down any hint of rebellion in the north and by example squelch all potential moves towards political independence in the east may be understood in phraseology of Daniel 11:44 : i.e., antichrist’s method in temporarily relinquishing Jerusalem "in a great rage" will be "to destroy and to exterminate many" in order to repair the breaches in his worldwide empire. In Daniel 11:45 we see antichrist returned to Israel, and taking up positions with ominous intent against rather than in Jerusalem. As with verse 44, this description is again in complete harmony with what we find in Revelation chapter sixteen where, shortly after the darkening of the north during the fifth bowl judgment, we find that the "kings of the east", rather than entertaining rebellion, are now full-fledged participants in the anti-God Armageddon campaign (Revelation 16:12). This development, and the mustering of the armies of the world to do battle with the soon to return Lord Jesus Christ, is sufficient to show that antichrist’s efforts to reestablish his authority in the north and east following the disruption of his control occasioned by the darkness will be entirely effective. The Jewish Rebellion: As we have seen, following antichrist’s second campaign against the south, the campaign following which he takes up residence in the temple in Jerusalem, Israel was said to be subject to "harsh treatment" at that time according to Balaam’s prophecy (Numbers 24:23-24). Much of this "harsh treatment" is almost certainly a proleptic reference to the "rage" with which antichrist will return to Israel from Egypt following the failed attempt upon his person (Daniel 11:30). Thus the bulk of the maltreatment suffered in Israel at that time will be intimately connected with the beast’s war upon Moses and Elijah and the 144,000, the scapegoats chosen by antichrist to atone for the unsuccessful attempt to assassinate him (Revelation 11:7-13). We can also expect as a result of these developments, especially in light of the fact that the beast from this point forward takes up residence in Jerusalem, that personal freedom in Israel during this period will be even more limited than is the case in the rest of antichrist’s empire. Conservative unbelievers and zealots, who resisted the message of Moses and Elijah but fell short of wholeheartedly embracing antichrist as God, will be extremely resentful of the beast’s representation of himself as the Holy One of Israel. Indeed, the source of the previous assassination attempt will most likely derive from these circles, and this "breaking of the [pseudo-Messianic] treaty" between himself and Israel during the middle of the Tribulation will be a major grounds for continuing unrest (Daniel 9:27). But although political liberties may be nonexistent in Israel during the Great Tribulation, relative to much of the rest of the world she will be experiencing at least some measure of material prosperity thanks in no small part we may assume to the fact that Jerusalem has now become the capital of the world. Thus the resulting pilgrimages to the temple and the embassies connected with the Great Persecution on the one hand, and the likely desire of the beast to make "the place of his feet glorious" (as part of the pseudo-fulfillment of the messianic promises to which he lays claim: Isaiah 60:13) will to some degree enrich Israel in material terms (cf. Ezekiel 38:7-16 where Israel appears as relatively prosperous before Armageddon), even though she will never know a time of greater spiritual abasement. Nevertheless, scripture does also indicate that even in the case of this relative material prosperity, the bulk of the population will be subject to extreme exploitation and maltreatment at the hands of the beast’s ruling class, notable among them being the "false shepherd", one of the "ten kings" and Israel’s ruler during this period (Ezekiel 28:1-5). We can therefore easily understand how many elements within Jewish society at this time would find the supernatural darkening of antichrist’s home kingdom and his departure from Israel with the greater portion of his military forces an ideal opportunity to throw off the beast’s yoke once and for all, little understanding or appreciating that this very action will soon set in motion the Armageddon campaign as the beast summons all of the worlds military forces to Israel in hopes of destroying her forever in retaliation for her unfaithfulness. This rebellion and the response it provokes thus fulfills the prophecies of wars and desolations destined to continue for her until our Lord returns (Daniel 9:26; cf. Luke 21:9). A word needs to be said here as well about the role in this rebellion of prophetic Babylon (i.e., the U.S., antichrist’s original home country). Although it will be recalled that antichrist is Babylon’s "king", scripture also indicates that she will have a regent as well, no doubt managing her government while the beast is occupied overseas (as he will be for the bulk of the Tribulation). This would be the "regent" of Babylon as opposed to her true "king", antichrist (contrast Ezekiel 28:2-10 referring to the former, with Ezekiel 28:12-19, which applies to the latter). We can well imagine that with the beast and the majority of his imperial guard disappearing into the darkness that enshrouds Europe at this time, it will not only be Israel and the eastern marches of the beast’s empire who are entertaining thoughts of independence. Therefore a revolt centered upon antichrist’s new capital is likely to bring a receptive response from all such quarters, and none will be more naturally sympathetic toward such a development than Babylon and her regent. The emotional tie between Babylon and Israel did much to bring about the two campaigns that led to antichrist’s world dominion in the first place. And as to the deputy ruler of Babylon, scripture indicates that in his arrogance he is very likely to see himself as the beast’s natural successor, with the present crisis providing an opportunity to move that succession forward in time beyond anything previously anticipated. But of course this thinking represents a miscalculation in the extreme. (1) Then the word of the Lord came to me, saying, (2) Son of man, say to the prince[-regent] of Tyre (i.e., as opposed to the "king" in v.12), "Thus says the Lord. Because your heart is lifted high [with pride], and because you say ’I am a god [and] I occupy a position like God’s in the heart of the seas’, but because you are a man and not a god, though you have indulged your heart [with divine prerogatives] as if it were God’s heart . . . (3) behold, you are wiser than Daniel! No hidden thing is concealed from you! (4) It is by your own wisdom and understanding that you have enriched yourself and piled up gold and silver in your storehouses! (5) It is by your own abundant wisdom, by your own trafficking, that you have multiplied your wealth! But [in fact] your heart has been lifted high [with pride] because of [that very] wealth of yours.’ Ezekiel 28:1-5 We see the regent of antichrist’s home country Babylon described above as the "prince-regent of Tyre", with Tyre being an alternative representation for the same prophetic future state stressing economic as opposed to military power (cf. Ezekiel 28:12 ff. where the king of Tyre is a type of both antichrist and Satan). The unfaithfulness demonstrated by the beast’s sub-ruler at this time will have much to do with motivating the destruction of Babylon soon hereafter. (46) And lest your heart grow faint and you become afraid at the report heard against the land (i.e., antichrist’s decree against Israel in his call to Armageddon: Revelation 16:12-16), in the year this report comes, after it will come another report in the same year; the one [will be] of violence against the land [of Israel], the other of a ruler (i.e., antichrist) against a ruler (i.e., the prince of Babylon). (47) For behold, in days to come I will render judgment on the idols of Babylon. Her entire land will be ashamed, and all of her slain will fall in her midst. Jeremiah 51:46-47 Another representation for this deputy ruler is "Pharaoh" in those cases where Egypt and Pharaoh are being contrasted with Assyria and her king in prophetical contexts. In such situations, Assyria and her king represent revived Rome and her ruler antichrist, while Egypt and Pharaoh represent prophetic Babylon and antichrist’s disobedient deputy respectively. Israel’s reliance at this time upon prophetic Babylon, a pagan nation which only recently contributed mightily to her troubles, is eerily parallel to her reliance in the past upon literal Egypt. In both cases not only does such confidence prove to be entirely misplaced, but it also demonstrates the folly of Israel looking anywhere for help apart from the Lord who created her (Isaiah 30:1-6; Isaiah 31:1-3; Lamentations 4:17). (6b) [I shall destroy you in this way, O Pharaoh], because you have been a staff [made only] of reed for the house of Israel. (7) When they took hold of you, you splintered in their hands, and [so] you broke everyone’s back [who leaned on you. Ezekiel 29:6-7 At this juncture, therefore, though there will be a renewed dialogue between antichrist’s home country and insurrectionist forces within Israel for reasons of political expediency on both sides, and though this will serve to greatly encourage the rebel camp within Israel, whatever material support Babylon may give to this rebellion will all be for naught. For Babylon will be destroyed soon thereafter, while the rebellion itself will only furnish motivation and pretext for that destruction, as well as for the Armageddon campaign which follows in its wake. (13) And I heard one of the holy ones who was speaking, and he said to the other holy one who was speaking, "How long will this vision of the daily sacrifice and of the [spiritual] rebellion (i.e., apostasy) which produces desolation and of the handing over of the holy [place] (i.e., the inner court) and of the trampling down of the host be?" (14) And he replied to me, "Until 2,300 evenings and mornings have passed. Then the holy [place] will be purified." Daniel 8:13-14 This passage in Daniel allows us to reconstruct the timing of the rebellion with great specificity. It will be recalled from the chart of the bowl judgments above, that the supernatural darkness which strikes the beast’s kingdom of revived Rome will occur at the beginning of the eighth month preceding our Lord’s return at the end of the Great Tribulation. That is to say, the fifth bowl judgment occurs 1,120 days into the Great Tribulation and 240 days from its termination. The information in Daniel’s prophecy above further assures us that the beast’s pollution of the temple, begun it will be recalled at the Great Tribulation’s outset, will last for 1,150 days (i.e., 1,150 evenings plus 1,150 mornings). This means that it will take just over four months (130 days) after the fifth bowl judgment begins for the Jewish rebels to re-occupy the Temple Mount and complete the requisite ritual purification of the holy place (a process which took the priests under Hezekiah half a month to complete: 2 Chronicles 29:17). Thus the beast’s departure from Israel, the formation (or coming out into the open) of an armed resistance, the capturing of the Temple Mount, its ritual purification, and antichrist’s reaction in mounting the Armageddon campaign will all happen in rapid-fire succession as the pace of events accelerates toward the Tribulation’s end. The re-conquest of the Temple mount will certainly not mean the end of armed struggle within the borders of Israel. Part of antichrist’s modus operandi of rulership worldwide will be to cement his control through the use of "fortresses" (Daniel 11:38-39), strong points manned by his loyalists as a hedge against just such attempts on his regime, and scripture indicates that the same will be true in Israel (Isaiah 2:15; Isaiah 25:12; Isaiah 30:25; Zechariah 1:16; Zephaniah 3:6Zephaniah 3:15 [Hebrew only]). Once the rebellion begins, these strong-points will no doubt be occupied not only by the beast’s residual garrison, but also by those Jews whose allegiance to antichrist has passed the point of no return (as, for example, the "king" of Israel: Zechariah 14:15-17). Given the progression of the Armageddon campaign (covered below), we can expect a number of these outposts to hold out until antichrist returns for the battle of Armageddon, and thus for the struggle to continue right up until our Lord’s return (Daniel 9:26), for it will be His Second Advent which destroys the beast and delivers Israel rather than this rash attempt at self-deliverance. (6) Then [one of the two other angels] said to the man (i.e., the angel) clothed in linen who was [suspended] above the waters of the river, "How long [will it be] until the end of [these] astounding things?" (7) And I heard the man (i.e., the angel) clothed in linen who was [suspended] above the waters of the river. He raised his right hand and his left hand to heaven and he swore by Him who lives forever and ever that it would be a period [of time and] two periods [of time] and half [a period of time] (i.e., the three and one half years of the Great Tribulation), and that [just] when the power of the holy people was being completely crushed, [all] these things would come to their completion. Daniel 12:6-7 And after the sixty two weeks, Messiah will be cut off and have nothing (cf. Isaiah 53:8), and the people of the prince who is coming (i.e., antichrist) will destroy both the city and the holy place. And his end will come with a flood (i.e., the "flooding away" of his armies at Armageddon), and until that end there will be wars – [appalling] devastation has been decreed. Daniel 9:26 6. Preparation for Armageddon (12) And the sixth [angel] poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and its water dried up in order that the way of the kings of the orient (lit., "sun’s rising") might be prepared. (13) And I saw [coming] out of the mouth of the false prophet three unclean spirits like [unto] frogs. (14) Now these are spirits of demons which produce "signs": they will go forth to the kings of the entire earth to gather them together for the war of the great day of God the Almighty. (15) – Behold, He (i.e., our Lord Jesus) is coming like a thief. Happy is he who both stays awake and guards his clothing, in order that he may not walk about naked and [people] see his shame. – (16) And they (i.e., the demons) gathered them (i.e., the kings of the earth and their armies) together to a place called in Hebrew, "Armageddon". Revelation 16:12-16 The Kings of the East: It will be remembered that reports coming from both east and north had compelled antichrist to abandon temporarily his new world headquarters in Jerusalem in order to re-secure his base of power. Only the north, the "kingdom of the beast", had been plunged into supernatural darkness, but the disruptions caused in that quadrant of the world produced rumblings of insurrection in the eastern quarter of the globe as well. Now, scarcely a month later, we see the situation entirely reversed. In characteristically "leopard-like" fashion (Revelation 13:2), the beast’s fierce and lightning-swift reaction to incipient rebellion in his own kingdom has not only restored complete control to the north, his current location, but has apparently so over-awed the "kings of the east" that they are now more than willing to offer him the use of their own massive if inferior military forces as a sign of their loyalty and obeisance (and no doubt with the intention of warding off a similar punitive strike aimed in their direction). And the entire earth was in awe of the beast. And they worshiped the dragon because he had given his authority to the beast. And they worshiped the beast, saying, "Who is like the beast? And who is able to make war with him?". Revelation 13:3-4 Thus, the other rumblings of rebellion are rapidly and mercilessly squelched by antichrist and die out without so much as a whimper. Instead of their actions being cloaked by a worldwide insurrection to throw off the beast’s yoke, the rebels within Israel now find themselves not only bereft of erstwhile allies (Babylon temporarily excepted), but have also become the primary target of the remaining military might of the entire world. For antichrist is now mustering every available battalion from the four corners of the earth. Previously in control of the south, and having regained control of the north, here we see even the forces of the east available to him. As this process begins to unfold, we now find ourselves some six or seven months away from the climax of the Armageddon campaign which culminates with our Lord’s return at the Second Advent. Judging from the description of massive troop movements from the east, it appears that the beast, with time now on his side, will opt for a somewhat different strategy to crush Israel. Rather than striking immediately with limited forces as was his method in the past, he will choose instead to gather all of the world’s military forces in and around Israel for a final massive assault on Jerusalem with the intention of annihilating Israel stock and stem (and we can expect him to use every aspect of his considerable political and social control to bring this campaign to pass in a spectacular way). Thus, even as the Jewish rebellion proceeds and consolidates around the newly reclaimed temple, antichrist’s juggernaut will be gathering momentum even as it grows ever greater in size, assembling on the borders of Israel from every corner of the globe. Finally, as to Babylon, as suggested in the parallels to Egypt and Pharaoh and the historical disappointments they consistently dealt to Israel whenever she relied on them for support against northern invaders, the west, still under Babylon’s nominal leadership, will provide no tangible help (for reasons covered below), so that her previous encouragement will only have served to have emboldened secular Israel to take up this hopeless fight, hopeless, that is, without extreme divine intervention, a contingency upon which these rebels never planned. The Sixth Bowl: The meaning of the drying up of the Euphrates is symbolic (cf. Isaiah 11:15). As a purely geographical barrier, it presents no great obstacle to the passage of a massive modern army, whether dry or at flood stage. However it did once mark the traditional boundary between east and west, one which was rarely crossed in antiquity with any sort of effect. By "drying it up" we are meant to understand that all of the factors which have so far prevented or restrained involvement of "the east" from the seat of conflict in the Middle East have now been removed by divine intervention. It may seem somewhat odd that this sixth bowl judgment seemingly plays into antichrist’s hands, removing all restraint on the previous reluctance of the kings of the east to participate in Middle-Eastern conflict. But just as the removal of Holy Spirit restraint worldwide was a necessary measure in order to allow "the book to be opened" and the Tribulation to begin, so the removal of the barrier to involvement by the kings of the east is a necessary measure to allow all of the earthly forces of evil to assemble for the Great Day of Lord, the battle of Armageddon. This, then, is truly a judgment as well, because now the east too, the last quadrant of the world so far not directly involved in the military affairs of the Tribulation, will be drawn into the destruction about to rained down by our returning Lord Jesus Christ. Armageddon: Armageddon is the scene of the last battle of the Tribulation, the place where our Lord will destroy the massive armies of antichrist on the "great day of God the Almighty" just as they are on the point of destroying Israel and all who have recently sought shelter within her borders. Contrary to popular belief, Armageddon has nothing to do with "Megiddo", an ancient city located in the north of what today is the state of Israel. Armageddon is, rather, a prophetical name for Jerusalem, the place where the unbelieving rebels and the saints recently escaped from Babylon make what appears to be their "last stand". The popular (and misinformed) association of Armageddon with Megiddo rests entirely upon the similarity in spelling between these two proper names. This is not an unreasonable place to begin a consideration of what scripture means by the name "Armageddon" (a word that occurs only here in Revelation 16:16), but further investigation will show that, while the perceived etymological connection is illusory, scripture leaves us in no doubt whatsoever about the fact that, just as we ought to have expected, it is at Jerusalem that the final battle of the Tribulation will occur (while, on the other hand, the Bible is entirely silent about Megiddo on this score; cf. Psalms 2:1-6; Isaiah 4:3; Isaiah 22:1-14; Isaiah 25:6-7; Isaiah 31:9; Isaiah 33:3-5; Psalms 33:10-22; Isaiah 40:1-2; Isaiah 40:9-10; Isaiah 52:1-8; Isaiah 60:1-3; Isaiah 62:11; Joel 3:1-2; Zephaniah 3:14-17; Romans 11:26): (1) Woe to you, Ariel, Ariel, the city where David encamped (i.e., Jerusalem)! Add year to year, let your festivals run their course, (2) but I will besiege Ariel so that there will be mourning and lamentation, and she will become to Me like an "Ariel" (lit., "God’s [sacrificial] altar"). (3) For I will beleaguer you round about with palisades, and surround you with siege works. (4) You will be brought low and speak from the ground, and from the dust your speech will be humbled. Your voice will come ghost-like from the earth, and your speech will come muttering from the dust. (5) But the multitude of your enemies will become like pulverized powder, even like chaff swept away [on the wind], that multitude of ruthless [enemies]. And it will come to pass in an instant that (6) you will experience visitation from the Lord of Hosts [Himself], with thunder and quaking [of the earth] and a loud voice, with tempest and whirlwind and devouring flames of fire. (7) And the hordes of the nations mustering against Ariel will become like [just] a dream in the visions of the night, even all those who camp against her and her fortress and besiege her. (8) And it will be as when a hungry man dreams he is eating, but when he awakes his appetite remains unfulfilled, or as when a thirsty man dreams he is drinking, but when he awakes his thirst remains. This is how it will be for the multitude of all the nations who are going to marshal themselves against Mount Zion. Isaiah 29:1-8 (9) Break forth [in song] and rejoice altogether, O ruins of Jerusalem! For the Lord has had compassion on His people. He has redeemed Jerusalem. (10) The Lord has uncovered His holy arm in the eyes of all the nations, and all the ends of the earth will see the salvation of our God! Isaiah 52:9-10 (18) As they have done, so He will repay them, wrath to His adversaries and recompense to His enemies. Even unto the islands (i.e., the remotest lands of the west) He will repay the recompense [due them], (19) so that they will fear the Name of the Lord in the west, and His glory from the rising of the sun (i.e., the east). For although the enemy (i.e., antichrist) will attack like the River (i.e., the great Nile or Euphrates; cf. Daniel 11:22; Daniel 11:26), the Spirit of the Lord will put him to flight. (20) For the Redeemer will come to Zion, even to those in Jacob who turn away from their transgression. Isaiah 59:18-20 (30) For I will display wonders in the heavens and on the earth, blood and fire and columns of smoke. (31) The sun will be turned to darkness and the moon to blood, before the Day of the Lord, that great and terrible [day]. (32) And it will come to pass that everyone who calls upon the name of the Lord will be saved. For on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be deliverance as the Lord has said, even among the survivors whom the Lord calls. Joel 2:30-32 (12) Let the nations be roused [from their places], and let them come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat (i.e., the valley of "the Lord will judge"). For there I will sit in judgment over all the nations on every side. (13) Send forth the sickle for the harvest is ripe! Come down into the winepress for it is full and the vats overflow. For great is their wickedness. (14) Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of doom! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of doom. (15) The sun and moon will darken, and the stars will gather up their light. (16) Then the Lord will roar from Zion, and from Jerusalem He will let sound His voice, and the heavens and the earth will quake. Joel 3:12-16 (15) For the day of the Lord is near against all the nations. Just as you have done, it will be done to you, and your recompense will return on your own head. (16) For just as you have drunk on My holy mountain, so all the nations will drink continually. They will drink and swallow down [the Lord’s cup of wrath] and will be as if they never were. (17) But on Mount Zion there will be deliverance. Obadiah 1:15-17 a (2) For behold, I am going to make Jerusalem a cup of reeling for all the nations round about. And Judah also and Jerusalem will be besieged. (3) And it will come to pass on that day that I will make Jerusalem a burdensome rock for all the nations. Everyone who tries to lift it will surely be injured. For against her (i.e., Jerusalem) will be gathered all the nations of the earth. Zechariah 12:2-3 And it will come to pass on that day that I will make it My purpose to destroy all the nations which are attacking Jerusalem. Zechariah 12:9 And this is the plague with which the Lord will smite all the peoples who marshal themselves against Jerusalem: Their flesh will rot even as they stand on their feet, and their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongues will rot in their mouths. Zechariah 14:12 Thus the precise place where our Lord was crucified and resurrected, and to which He is prophesied to return, is where this final battle of the Tribulation will take place (cf. Acts 1:11): (1) The Lord said to My Lord, "Sit down at my right hand, until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet." (2) From Zion the Lord will send forth your mighty scepter. Rule in the midst of your enemies! (3) Your people will volunteer on the day of your valor[ous victory] (i.e., the armies of Israel). In the holy chambers, from the womb of the dawn, your young [troops] will [come] to you like the dew (i.e., the armies of the newly resurrected). (4) The Lord has sworn and He will not recant, "You are a priest forever in the manner of Melchizedek." (5) The Lord is at your right hand. He will shatter [those] kings on the day of His wrath. (6) He will render judgment on the nations. He will shatter [their] head (cf. Genesis 3:15) broadly throughout the land filled with corpses [as a result]. (7) [But as to His troops], they will drink from a brook beside the way. Therefore He will lift up their head. Psalms 110:1-7 Thus says the Lord: I will return to Zion and dwell in the midst of Jerusalem. And Jerusalem will be called "the City of Truth", and "the Mountain of the Lord, the Mountain of Holiness". Zechariah 8:3 Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion. Shout [for joy], daughter of Jerusalem. Behold, your King will come to you. Righteous and victorious He is; humble and riding on a donkey, even on a colt, a donkey’s foal. Zechariah 9:9 (2) For I shall gather all the nations to Jerusalem to fight against her. The city will be captured, its houses will be sacked, and its women will be ravished. (3) Half of the city will be taken away captive, but the rest of the people will not be cut off from the city. Then the Lord will go forth, and He will fight against those nations as when He fights on a day of battle. (4) For His feet will stand on that day on the Mount of Olives which lies before Jerusalem on the east. Zechariah 14:2-4 a And the winepress [of the slaughter of Armageddon] was trodden down outside of the city [of Jerusalem]. And blood from the winepress went forth up to the horses’ bridles for a distance of twelve hundred stadia. Revelation 14:20 Given the overwhelming testimony of scripture to the fact that Jerusalem will be the focal point of the final battle of the Tribulation, it is indeed strange that the misunderstanding of the name "Armageddon", a hapax legomenon occurring only at Revelation 16:16, has had such a profound (and negative) influence on the true interpretation of these events. Most interpreters agree that the Har- of Armageddon (the "h" sound present in the Greek being commonly if unfortunately left out in the traditional transliteration of this name) is the Hebrew word for "mountain" (and it should be noted in passing that the most common geographical feature that has recommended Megiddo to exegetes has been its extensive plain rather than any "mountain"). This leaves us to explore the second part of this compound place name, -Mageddon. First in this respect, it is best to take the Ma- as a pre-formative mem used here in the locative sense, i.e, "Mountain-which-is-a-place of _________". The use of the letter "m" as a prefix indicating "place of" to whatever root it is attached is a well-attested phenomenon in Semitic languages. This leaves us to derive -geddon from either the "double ayin" root gdd (גדד), or the hollow root gud (גוד). The distinction is largely academic here, as both roots have the same essential meaning in Biblical Hebrew: "attack, cut, go in troops or throngs". Given that the most commonly attested substantive from either root, ghedhudh (גדוד), generally refers to military formations, the most likely meaning of Armageddon is "Mountain of Troops" or "Mountain of [mustering] Troops". So what we have in this name is a very clear reference to the assembly from the world over of all the forces of antichrist to Jerusalem. Here they will assemble, at Jerusalem called here prophetically and appropriately "the Mountain of [Assembly of] Troops", for here all of the beast’s worldly armies will be annihilated by our Lord. Indeed, it is for this very purpose that they will be so assembled: And it will be as when a hungry man dreams he is eating, but when he awakes his appetite remains unfulfilled, or as when a thirsty man dreams he is drinking, but when he awakes his thirst remains. This is how it will be for the multitude of all the nations who are going to marshal themselves against Mount Zion. Isaiah 29:8 (2) For behold, I am going to make Jerusalem a cup of reeling for all the nations round about. And Judah also and Jerusalem will be besieged. (3) And it will come to pass on that day that I will make Jerusalem a burdensome rock for all the nations. Everyone who tries to lift it will surely be injured. For against her will be gathered all the nations of the earth. Zechariah 12:2-3 And this is the plague with which the Lord will smite all the peoples who marshal themselves against Jerusalem: Their flesh will rot even as they stand on their feet, and their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongues will rot in their mouths. Zechariah 14:12 Understood in this way, we can then see in Micah 5:1-5 a the locus classicus, for "Armageddon", that is, the passage which John under the guidance of the Spirit had in mind when coining this prophetic name. In Micah 5:1-5 a, we see that this predominantly Second Advent passage also brings in testimony about our Lord’s first advent, weaving the two events together in a wonderful, poetic way, a common phenomenon in Hebrew prophecy: (1) But now marshal your [own] troops (