I make these observations knowing full well that many respected leaders in the Christian community hold views that are contrary to Messianic teaching. I venture to share the observations because the risk is too great if I didn’t. To a man, the globally renown evangelists, popular and respected apologists, telepreachers and seminary professors, confidently proclaim that the dead are not dead. They are either competent charlatans or (like the apostle Peter) believers whose interests do not include divine things (Matthew 16:21-23).
The eternal state of being is uniquely God’s. Man has both nonexistence and being. Just as it was an affront to speak of the Son of God as having a beginning at one point so now it is egregious to talk about man having absolute being. Absolute perfection gives life to the dead. It is highly irregular for life and death to have the same face. The primary characteristics of being are defined as location, time, and essence. The difference between God and man in these aspects of being settles every notion of anthropology. A Christ-centred theology best explains what life and death are under all circumstances.
We have discovered a perfect explanation of religious proclamation that makes shipwreck of the apostolic traditions. Instead of holding the New Testament’s precision as the anchor the practice of Messianic interpretation has been subjected to speculation and outright denial of Christ’s lordship.
The vast majority of Evangelical heavyweights will with total conviction tell us the following:

• The departed saints are in heaven.
• The dead are in hell facing eternal torments

The Saviour himself tells us that:

• All who are in their graves will come forth when he utters his voice

We learn from this Messianic saying that:

• graves house both the lost and the saved
• They come forth and face respectively to the resurrection of life and the resurrection of damnation.

The immediate union with Christ is part of triumphal Christianity, equal to the obsession with miracles and power manifestations. While it is true that the Cross brings on unspeakable victories and triumph to the life of the believer there is no warrant for claiming that the dead are not dead.
The die and immediately go to heaven doctrine is pernicious and Satanic and it bears the stamp of many quasi-luminaries among whom we find Jonathan Edwards, Charles Hodge and 99% of the writers of our times who call themselves Evangelicals. ‎
Let the reader beware! Tin and brass can be made to look like gold. The belief that people die and immediately go to heaven or hell is cardinal among believers worldwide. We do well to steer clear of this kind of absent-mindedness and the waste of our hard-earned cash.
He that has an ear must listen to what the Holy Spirit says to the churches. Who knows the resurrection better than Christ? Let us believe him when he says, Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all that are in the graves shall hear his voice, (28) And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation. (29) John 5‎

The Prince of Peace gives peace that is not defined by circumstances. If one is invited to walk on water one needs eyes on the destination and inviter, not on the waves.
We often find ourselves in doubt about our status: concerned about work, play, health, finances, and relationships. If anxiety accompanies our reflections then we are missing an important part of our heritage.
Whatever is on your front burner ought to be under God’s care. Peter encourages us to cast all our cares on Yeshua and as we do we will find that He is caring for us.
Since the heavenly Father has given us peace we need not concentrate on the appearance of chaos. Like the anointing we have from God our peace does not come and go. On a dark day the sun is still present, so is divine peace ‎when turmoil and chaos surrounds us.
The peace that God gives is permanent and irrevocable, surpasses our observation ‎and is royal. Embrace it and treasure it without doubting.

Canada is no paragon, but it is my home and land. I hope that Canadians will change their naive course of celebrating multicilturalism without defining the core values. It seems that given the ready embrace of newcomers in the Canadian Charter we will have either a healthy integration of people or an unhealthy competition to dominate. All the cultures and religions that have surfaced in the Canadian fabric seem willing to assert their tenets as superior and worthy of a place of equal value. I, for one, do not find any reason to hope for moral excellence to emerge from the multicultural template on which we are currently focused, due to xenophobic, racist, and political strains in the many traditions.
First consideration is that is any group of people should have a value system to which we can all aspire.  Secondly, the parts of the mosaic tend to be sanitized to the extent of being hypocritical, and therefore dangerous. Believe it or not, the fabric of every society is the victim of shallowness and extremism.

Here we are, 149 years into the nation building enterprise, and we have barely scratched the surface of that monumental challenge to do justice, be reconciled, and to choose our allies with due caution.  We are protesting a la Quixote, acquiring concubines and mates like a foolish Solomon, erecting idols like Aaron’s magic golden calf, revelling in Internet without embrace our intranet: building bridges to nowhere.

No Cross

The absence of the cross from the range of declarations made by possibility preachers is diagnostic. The Cross is comprised of sacrifice: body and blood offered for sin remission. Cross also distinguishes Christian life from unregenerate life with its glory in suffering. A possibility preacher will tell you unabashedly that he/she rejects adversity and infirmity. The possibility preacher wants only to wear a crown and identify only with the Risen Christ. However, Christ is in glory because He suffered and learned obedience to the Heavenly Father’s will, even in mundane expectations, comparable to the wonders worked for Israel’s benefit. However, things such as the care of widows and the cleansing of lepers were never met, yet the life of the disciple is spoken of as a place of unfettered access to everything. Our inheritance in light does not include the temporary world. The world is not ours to buy or sell, damage or fix. We serve the earth, just as Adam did and are often at its mercy. Does not God strengthen us for all these things?

It has become popular among evangelicals (broadly speaking) to claim that a victorious Christian life must have at its core invincibility and, frankly, omnipotence. When these claims are made against the background of the Gospel their blasphemous character must be clear, since the believer’s daily needs and experiences are no different from the rest of humanity. Christ taught us to ask for bread daily. One possessed of omnipotence does not need anything and therefore has no need to ask. It ought to be clear that the absence of the Cross and the need for a prayer-life of the believer is contradictory to possibility-preaching and deliverance ministry’s main claim.

The Extremes of Human Existence

Man is either inside or outside of Eden. The flaming sword on the eastern side of Eden is perhaps the best explanation of the axis of human impossibilities. The way back to the tree of life is the same for the man.

So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life. Genesis 3:24

With this decree man is put at at risk and his bandwidth reduced. He does not have power over everything as he did inside the garden. The curse, as this new regime is called, has a dramatic effect on man, the serpent and the ecosystem. There are conditions that persist to this day, and there is no natural condition against which man is inoculated.

Condition #1. The Serpent is declared cursed to travel on his belly, and eat the dust.

And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: Genesis 3:14

Condition #2. The woman is subjected to pain in conception, and her longing for her man.

Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. Genesis 3:16

Condition #3, The man is destined to eat of the ground in sorrow. The ground itself is cursed.

And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; Genesis 3:17

The signs of these conditions are all around us. The cross is not a reversal of these conditions. It brings relief from the human-wide rebellion (all have sinned) and the sentence of death. The reversal of the Edenic curses is co-ordinate and simultaneous with the renewal of the earth itself. The wonder of spiritual regeneration could not be in clearer contrast. The cross brings an open door to spiritual renewal. Not even the resurrection of the dead as it occurs (and this was rare even in New Testament times) before the parousia, being the most dramatic reversal of the curse and death decree – you shall surely die – is a manifestation of the decisive and final reversal of the curse. Man remains subject to adversity and exposed to risk until the redemption of the body in the great end-time transformation when we shall all be changed.

There is little biblical support for faith as capable of bringing the reversal of man’s corruption or of demonstrating kingdom power as primarily effective in healings and other temporary fixes.

We have seen already that “all things” may need interpretation as less than absolute, yet there is still a popular appeal to sayings that refer to “all things” and human capacity or competence. Philippians 4:13 is a well-used example.

(to be continued)

Melchizedeq King of Salem – Messianic Revelation to the Front Page

No-one would have guessed that this encounter between the King of Salem (MKS) and Abram was a door-opener much less a door that opens two critical roads to appreciating Messiah’s priesthood and reign. I dare say that no-one has imagined that these two avenues of divine intervention have anything to do with the current shameful turmoil over Jerusalem. Jews may wish to paper over the facts about the holy cities and the Gentiles world may want to sympathize with either Jews or Gentiles but what’s to be will be.

Facts about Canaan’s Holy Cities.

There are two holy cities. Thy holy cities are a wilderness, Zion is a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation. Isaiah 64:10 (KJS)

God’s ruler will be both priest and king;Neither Moses nor Aaron have a future as authorities; The LORD hath sworn, and will not repent, Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek. (Ps 110:4) If therefore perfection were by the Levitical priesthood, (for under it the people received the law,) what further need was there that another priest should rise after the order of Melchisedec, and not be called after the order of Aaron? (Heb 7:11)

Salem, MKS’s city is not Jerusalem; Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel, and all the heads of the tribes, the chief of the fathers of the children of Israel, unto king Solomon in Jerusalem, that they might bring up the ark of the covenant of the LORD out of the city of David, which is Zion. (1Kgs 8:1)

There is no Abrahamic greatness without Gentiles. And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be. (Gen 15:5)And thou saidst, I will surely do thee good, and make thy seed as the sand of the sea, which cannot be numbered for multitude. (Gen 32:12),

Misguided Passions

If ever there was a prophet in New Testament times it was John. However, when John the Baptist was murdered did any Jews rise in protest? There was only one act left to fill up the cup of Israel’s rebellion, deliver Messiah to the Gentiles (Mat 23:31-32). Like the plot against the patriarch Joseph, the execution of Messiah paved the way, despite human malice, for Abraham to get descendants like the stars of the sky and sands of the sea. Jews cannot have enough children to make this happen, so let us not waste any more time with temple mount and the land promise.

It is no surprise that followers of Moses and descendants of Ishmael are shedding blood like pouring water in the name of their most cherished traditions. Modern Zionist expectations have taken over the Biblical idea and resulted in all kinds of contradictions. We hear a great deal about the land promise but we see no embrace of the purpose for the Abrahamic promises in their widest application, namely the blessing of all of earth’s families.

Solomon’s Temple

The temple was built on land bought from a Jebusite (Salemite, Zionite)

And Araunah said, Wherefore is my lord the king come to his servant? And David said, To buy the threshingfloor of thee, to build an altar unto the LORD, that the plague may be stayed from the people. (2Sam 24:21)

And Araunah said unto David, Let my lord the king take and offer up what seemeth good unto him: behold, here be oxen for burnt sacrifice, and threshing instruments and other instruments of the oxen for wood. (2Sam 24:22)

All this, O king, Araunah gives to the king.” And Araunah said to the king, “May the LORD your God accept you.” (2Sam 24:23)

And the king said unto Araunah, Nay; but I will surely buy it of thee at a price: neither will I offer burnt offerings unto the LORD my God of that which doth cost me nothing. So David bought the threshingfloor and the oxen for fifty shekels of silver. (2Sam 24:24)

And David built there an altar unto the LORD, and offered burnt offerings and peace offerings. So the LORD was intreated for the land, and the plague was stayed from Israel. (2Sam 24:25)

The temple’s location; not Zion, the city of David.

Let us follow David with his primary innovation: housing the ark

It really begins with David’s capture of Jebus-Salem-Zion, his building of homes for his growing family

Nevertheless David took the strong hold of Zion : the same is the city of David. 2 Sam 5:7

And David made him houses in the city of David, and prepared a place for the ark of God, and pitched for it a tent. (1Chr 15:1)

Then he immediately turns his attention to the ark.

Then David said, None ought to carry the ark of God but the Levites: for them hath the LORD chosen to carry the ark of God, and to minister unto him for ever. (1Chr 15:2)

And David gathered all Israel together to Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the LORD unto his place, which he had prepared for it. (1Chr 15:3)

DAVID TALKS TO THE PROPHET NATHAN ABOUT HOUSING THE ARK

Now it came to pass, as David sat in his house, that David said to Nathan the prophet, Lo, I dwell in an house of cedars, but the ark of the covenant of the LORD remaineth under curtains. (1Chr 17:1)

David wants to see the ark housed in a residence suitably ornate and more so than his own residences.

And David said, Solomon my son is young and tender, and the house that is to be builded for the LORD must be exceeding magnifical, of fame and of glory throughout all countries: I will therefore now make preparation for it. So David prepared abundantly before his death. (1Chr 22:5)

David’s primary preoccupation.

Remember, O LORD, in David’s favor, all the hardships he endured, (Ps 132:1)

how he swore to the LORD and vowed to the Mighty One of Jacob, (Ps 132:2)

“I will not enter my house or get into my bed, (Ps 132:3)

I will not give sleep to my eyes or slumber to my eyelids, (Ps 132:4)

until I find a place for the LORD, a dwelling place for the Mighty One of Jacob.” (Ps 132:5)

Behold, we heard of it in Ephrathah; we found it in the fields of Jaar. (Ps 132:6)

“Let us go to his dwelling place; let us worship at his footstool!” (Ps 132:7)

What place was this?

For the LORD has chosen Zion; he has desired it for his dwelling place: (Ps 132:13)

“This is my resting place forever; here I will dwell, for I have desired it. (Ps 132:14)

I will abundantly bless her provisions; I will satisfy her poor with bread. (Ps 132:15)

Her priests I will clothe with salvation, and her saints will shout for joy. (Ps 132:16)

There I will make a horn to sprout for David; I have prepared a lamp for my anointed. (Ps 132:17)

His enemies I will clothe with shame, but on him his crown will shine.” (Ps 132:18)

The chosen place was the place from which David’s house would reign

It was to this place that our Lord rode on a donkey (Zech 9:9)

Zion receives the King, but Jerusalem puts up all kinds of resistance.

And the crowds that went before him and that followed him were shouting, “Hosanna to the Son of David! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord! Hosanna in the highest!” (Matt 21:9)

And when he was come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved, saying, Who is this? (Matt 21:10)

And the multitude said, This is Jesus the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee. (Matt 21:11)

David attempts to bring the ark to Zion-Salem

David again gathered all the chosen men of Israel, thirty thousand. (2Sam 6:1)

And David arose and went with all the people who were with him from Baale-judah to bring up from there the ark of God, which is called by the name of the LORD of hosts who sits enthroned on the cherubim. (2Sam 6:2) And they carried the ark of God on a new cart and brought it out of the house of Abinadab, which was on the hill. And Uzzah and Ahio, the sons of Abinadab, were driving the new cart, (2Sam 6:3)

So David was not willing to take the ark of the LORD into the city of David. But David took it aside to the house of Obed-edom the Gittite. (2Sam 6:10)

And it was told king David, saying, The LORD hath blessed the house of Obededom, and all that pertaineth unto him, because of the ark of God. So David went and brought up the ark of God from the house of Obededom into the city of David with gladness. (2Sam 6:12)

Here begins the Tent of David Tradition (Amos, not so much in competition with, but in primacy over the temple.

In that day will I raise up the tabernacle of David that is fallen, and close up the breaches thereof; and I will raise up his ruins, and I will build it as in the days of old: (Amos 9:11)

After this I will return, and will build again the tabernacle of David, which is fallen down; and I will build again the ruins thereof, and I will set it up: (Acts 15:16)

From this citation of Amos in the Book of Acts we see that David’s tabernacle is central to God’s inclusion of Gentiles in the royal city. They cannot reasonably be included in the Levitical institutions, hence Jewish temple mount interests and priorities are an anachronism and an affront to the reconstituted kingdom.

DAVID’S PLANS AND GOD’S DIRECTION

Then David said, This is the house of the LORD God, and this is the altar of the burnt offering for Israel. (1Chr 22:1)

And David commanded to gather together the strangers that were in the land of Israel; and he set masons to hew wrought stones to build the house of God. (1Chr 22:2) And David prepared iron in abundance for the nails for the doors of the gates, and for the joinings; and brass in abundance without weight; (1Chr 22:3) Also cedar trees in abundance: for the Zidonians and they of Tyre brought much cedar wood to David. (1Chr 22:4) And David said, Solomon my son is young and tender, and the house that is to be builded for the LORD must be exceeding magnifical, of fame and of glory throughout all countries: I will therefore now make preparation for it. So David prepared abundantly before his death. (1Chr 22:5) Then he called for Solomon his son, and charged him to build an house for the LORD God of Israel. (1Chr 22:6) And David said to Solomon, My son, as for me, it was in my mind to build an house unto the name of the LORD my God: (1Chr 22:7) But the word of the LORD came to me, saying, Thou hast shed blood abundantly, and hast made great wars: thou shalt not build an house unto my name, because thou hast shed much blood upon the earth in my sight. (1Chr 22:8)

We learn here that God rejected David as temple-builder because of his many homicides, however they may be justified, which leaves a great many of our 21st century leaders out of the short list as nation-builders.

THE TEMPLE AND THE ARK

Then Solomon assembled the elders of Israel and all the heads of the tribes, the leaders of the fathers’ houses of the people of Israel, before King Solomon in Jerusalem, to bring up the ark of the covenant of the LORD out of the city of David, which is Zion. (1Kgs 8:1)

The geography is quite clear here: “out of the City of David, which is Zion”, and the destination, temple mount, where David had purchased the property from the Jebusite, Ornan (Araunah).

The inclusion of Gentiles was authorized but never fulfilled due to strict Jewish adherence to Levitical conventions. Here is a portion of Solomon’s dedicatory prayer.

“Likewise, when a foreigner, who is not of your people Israel, comes from a far country for your name’s sake (1Kgs 8:41)

(for they shall hear of your great name and your mighty hand, and of your outstretched arm), when he comes and prays toward this house, (1Kgs 8:42)

hear in heaven your dwelling place and do according to all for which the foreigner calls to you, in order that all the peoples of the earth may know your name and fear you, as do your people Israel, and that they may know that this house that I have built is called by your name. (1Kgs 8:43)

A House of sacrifice confirmed by the Lord

Then the LORD appeared to Solomon in the night and said to him: “I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place for myself as a house of sacrifice. (2Chr 7:12)

A House of prayer confirmed by the prophet Isaiah

“And the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD, to minister to him, to love the name of the LORD, and to be his servants, everyone who keeps the Sabbath and does not profane it, and holds fast my covenant— (Isa 56:6)

​these I will bring to my holy mountain, and make them joyful in my house of prayer; their burnt offerings and their sacrifices will be accepted on my altar; for my house shall be called a house of prayer for all peoples.” (Isa 56:7)

The Lord GOD, who gathers the outcasts of Israel, declares, “I will gather yet others to him besides those already gathered.” (Isa 56:8)

Even after the Persian exile Jews are stuck in kinderarten with their shocking exclusion of Gentiles and the priority of the temple in the conflicts between Judaism’s leaders and Yeshua’s disciples indicates no change.

The diagnostic exchange between Yeshua and the temple authorities shows that the temple had become…

John the Baptist set this conflict off with his announcement of Yeshua as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world (John 1:29). John’s contemporaries had to read between the lines. If a man from Nazareth was the sin-bearer, then the countless animals whose blood was shed in the temple were irrelevant and symptomatic of the deep sleep into which succeeding generations of Jews were plunged. The temple was far from being what God intended. Matt 21:12-17

The Leaders were on the wrong side of history when Yeshua spoke about the demise of the temple and its services.

And when the chief priests and Pharisees had heard his parables, they perceived that he spake of them. (Matt 21:45)

But when they sought to lay hands on him, they feared the multitude, because they took him for a prophet. (Matt 21:46)

Zion’s destiny

It is the king’s city. In Salem also is his tabernacle, and his dwelling place in Zion. (Ps 76:2)

See also Ps 2:6, Ps 48:2, Ps 132:13

The seat of perfection; Out of Zion, the perfection of beauty, God hath shined. (Ps 50:2)

The divine rod comes from Zion-Salem

The LORD shall send the rod of thy strength out of Zion: rule thou in the midst of thine enemies. (Ps 110:2)

Eternal life comes from Zion-Salem

As the dew of Hermon, and as the dew that descended upon the mountains of Zion: for there the LORD commanded the blessing, even life for evermore. (Ps 133:3)

SUMMARY

The pertinent intrigue is about the fate of East Jerusalem, with its typical and appointed population of Rahab[ites] (Egyptians), Babylonians, Philistines, Tyrians, and Ethiopians (Psalm 87). Temple mount is an irreversible embarrassment to Moses and Abraham. While today’s Zionist state claims descent from Abraham descendants they have over the centuries have rejected the prophetic focus on David and Messiah, and hence the MKS tradition. They want a holy city cleansed of Gentiles thereby opposing the inclusion of Abraham’s larger family.

For Christians the furor about Jewish and Palestinian rights miss the point of God’s plan for the most treasured piece of real estate on the planet. To reduce its importance to who has a building there is sheer blindness. The matter will be be decided when Messiah touches down.

And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south. (Zech 14:4)

And the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one LORD, and his name one. (Zech 14:9)

The Melchizedeqite priesthood of Christ must be the hub for the disposition of the sacred sites. In the absence of an informed basis for discussion we will have to endure the revolving door of xenophobic rhetoric and violence. In the absence of a Christian witness the world stands aghast at the interminable malice between Ishmaelites and Israelites. Any resolution of the Palestinian problem and the legitimate expectations of the Jewish people by civic intervention will be temporary and inadequate. Let us therefore stand with our great High priest, eagerly expecting the king and his ideals in the style of MKS, bringing forth bread and wine and blessing all.