Aspects of Slavery by S. Jones

Aspects of Slavery

FROM CHAOS TO COSMOS, PART 5

By Dr. Stephen Jones - Original Date: 03/01/2019:  Issue No. 368

Posted Date:  6-12-2019

Freedom can lead either to chaos or cosmos (order). It depends on whether freedom springs from God or man, that is, from the laws of God or the traditions of men.

Men have always promised freedom to the people in order to garner their support and loyalty, but such freedom has inevitably been short-lived or downright non-existent. Only God’s plan of freedom brings genuine freedom, and this is set forth in the divine law. Hence, the psalmist tells us in that great law-chapter, Psalm 119:44, 45,

⁴⁴ So I will keep Thy law continually, forever and ever, ⁴⁵ and I will walk at liberty, for I seek Thy precepts.

The ultimate law of liberty is the law of Jubilee, for we read in Lev. 25:10 KJV,

¹⁰ And ye shall hallow the fiftieth year and proclaim liberty throughout all the land unto all the inhabitants thereof….

This liberty was not limited to biological Israelites but included “all the inhabitants thereof.” The law of Jubilee limited slavery by canceling debts every 49 years, or 7 Sabbath years.

Jesus’ Anti-Slavery Movement

Jesus’ main mission, as He Himself proclaimed at the start of His earthly ministry, was to fulfill Isaiah 61:1, 2, “to proclaim liberty to the captives.”

Hence, it is no surprise that slavery began to be abhorred when the Bible was opened to the common people and when it was explained by the Protestant Reformers. By the time the American Republic was declared in 1776, those who were most influenced by the Bible were at the forefront of the anti-slavery movements.

While Roman Catholics and their Anglican cousins continued to justify slavery, those who read the Scriptures for themselves saw how God’s stated goal was to release the people from all forms of slavery. This was possible only through “the law of liberty” (James 2:12). This was not a law separate from the Mosaic law. It was a proper under-standing of the Mosaic law, the prophets, and all of the inspired Scriptures.

True Freedom Revealed in the Law

True freedom is not the freedom to steal other men’s labor or property but to agree with God’s commandment, “You shall not steal.”

True freedom is not the freedom to commit sexual immorality but to agree with God’s commandment, “You shall not commit adultery” and again, “You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife.”

True freedom is not the freedom to worship false gods whose laws and practices bring men into bondage but to agree with God’s commandment, “You shall have no other gods before Me.”

True freedom is not the freedom to lie, which some reserve for themselves but not to others, but to agree with God’s commandment, “You shall not bear false witness.”

True freedom is not found in a judicial system that allows government officials to lie to the public while condemning commoners for lying to government officials, for Mal. 2:9 condemns priests for “showing partiality in the instruction.” James 2:9 confirms this by saying,

⁹ But if you show partiality, you are committing sin and are convicted by the law as transgressors.

The law of impartiality resolves the problem of unjust class distinctions that Karl Marx failed to correct through Socialism. Whereas Marx set forth a graduated income tax as the Socialist solution to the problem of poverty, all he really did was to legalize theft in proportion to the value of one’s labor and income.

God’s law demanding love for foreigners or aliens, if implemented properly, should resolve the problem of racial privilege and slavery. Men usually have misunderstood and misinterpreted the law to mean that Israelites or Jews were a privileged class of “chosen people.” However, the law, the prophets, and the New Testament all make it clear that being chosen is based on one’s relationship with Jesus Christ and not one’s genealogical relationship to Abraham.

By understanding the difference between the Old and New Covenants, the problem of gender inequality is resolved. The Old Covenant (Hagar) was not an end in itself but was designed to show us its ultimate failure to achieve its stated goal. Only a New Covenant (Sarah) relationship governing male and female, husband and wife, can bring us into our full potential in the liberty of the gospel.

What the world has attempted to do by unlawful means, God has done by the counsel of His own will. Where the world has failed, God succeeds.

There are countless ways in which men have justified their partiality, elevating one man above another, granting governments the right to lie, kill, enslave, and to bestow privileges upon certain individuals or classes of people. Such partiality is based on carnal self-interest, not upon the principles of equality and liberty found in Scripture.

Voluntary Slavery

There is a vast difference between biblical slavery and the type of slavery normally practiced throughout history. The world practiced perpetual slavery for as long as a master desired. God allowed only temporary slavery, and its underlying purpose was to teach sinners how to work rather than to steal.

The only biblical justification for slavery is to enforce payment of debt, either on account of an unpaid loan or for a debt acquired by some sin or destruction of property. Yet such debts were limited by the law of Jubilee, in order that perpetual debt and slavery might be abolished.

The exception to this is when a man voluntarily devotes himself to be a slave on account of his great love for his master. Exodus 21:5, 6 says,

⁵ But if the slave plainly says, “I love my master, my wife and my children; I will not go out as a free man,” ⁶ then his master shall bring him to God [i.e., to the judges who represent God], then he shall bring him to the door or the doorpost. And his master shall pierce his ear with an awl; and he shall serve him permanently.

This law shows that the master of a slave ought not to mistreat his slave but to be like Christ to him—to win his loyalty and affection by love, not by fear. When we serve one who loves us, the slave master actually serves the slave, for he is responsible before God to bring that slave into his or her full potential and calling.

For this reason, Jesus taught that authority was to be used to serve others, rather than to be served by them (Matt. 20:25-28). Biblical slavery, then, gives the slave a useful education and purpose in life, for it prepares the slave to serve God as a productive citizen of the Kingdom.

Ultimately, this law applies to our own devotion to God, for when we learn to love our Master, we too will want to remain in His house and “serve him permanently.”

So also David presented Himself to God in this manner, which prophesied also of Jesus Christ. Psalm 40:6-8 says,

⁶ Sacrifice and meal offering Thou hast not desired; My ears Thou hast opened [with an awl, so to speak]; burnt offering and sin offering Thou hast not required. ⁷ Then I said, “Behold, I come; in the scroll of the book it is written of men; ⁸ I delight to do Thy will, O my God; Thy Law is written in my heart.”

It is the picture of a slave set free who returns to his master, saying, “Behold, I come.” Such a slave has truly heard the voice of the God of love and is in agreement with His will and His laws. Such a slave no longer desires to follow the dictates of the flesh, which only enslave him to his own passions and desires (Rom. 7:23). He returns to His master because he delights to do His will. Such a delight is characteristic of those hearts in which the divine law is written according to the provisions of the New Covenant (Heb. 8:10),

¹⁰ For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will put My laws into their minds, and I will write them upon their hearts. And I will be their God, and they shall be My people.

When we come to know God through the example of Jesus Christ, it becomes a pleasure to become His slave and a delight to follow His laws. It is only when men do not know him or understand His laws that they rebel against Him and consider His laws to be oppressive or unspiritual.

Israel’s Captivity Ends 1776-1800

When we study timing and prophecy, a foundational truth is that long-term judgment upon Israel was set in terms of “seven times” (Lev. 26:18, 21, 24, 28). Centuries later, the prophet Daniel interpreted a “time” to mean a specific (though unspecified) period of time, giving the “little horn” 3½ “times” to rule (Daniel 7:25).

In Revelation 13:5, John quotes Daniel’s prophecies, interpreting these 3½ “times” more specifically as a period of “forty two months,” or 1,260 days. Since this described a period of long-term prophecy, this could only refer to 1,260 YEARS, that is, a day for a year.

The Hebrew word yom is translated “day” in the KJV a total of 2008 times, but it is also translated “year” 14 times. The word can mean either, and this supports the prophetic principle of a day for a year, as mentioned in Num. 14:34 and again in Ezekiel 4:4-6.

The point is that a “time” could be as short as a single day, or it could refer to a 360-day prophetic year. In long-term prophecy, it could refer to a 360-year cycle. Hence, a cycle of 7 times in long-term prophecy is 2,520 years, or 360 x 7 years.

This is how it is applied when we study the long-term judgment of God upon Israel and Judah. The tribes of Israel began to be captured and deported to Assyria in 745 B.C. This captivity was completed in 721 B.C., when Samaria, Israel’s capital, was destroyed.

Israel’s “seven times” of divine judgment, dating from 745 B.C., came to an end 2,520 years later in 1776, the year of America’s founding. If we date this cycle from the fall of Israel’s capital in 721 B.C., we come to the year 1800, the year that America’s capital was built.

It is clear, then, that there is a prophetic correlation between Israel and America. This is not to exclude other nations from the Commonwealth of Israel, but yet there is no doubt that America’s founding occurred at the end of a long cycle of captivity. In other words, America (not the Israeli state) fulfills the prophecies of Israel’s regathering.

The Importance of 1900

If we factor in the hundred years in which Jerusalem was independent from 163-63 B.C., depriving the Grecian Empire of its final century of beast rule, we must add that century to the year 1800 and arrive at the year 1900. Recall that we had to do this in the 2,520-year cycle of beast rule in connection to Judah and the Dominion Mandate. It makes sense, then, that the same must be done with the Birthright (or Fruitfulness Mandate) of Joseph-Ephraim-Israel.

This brings us to the Pentecostal outpouring on New Year’s Eve of 1900 in Topeka, Kansas, which occurred at Charles Parham’s Bible School.

What does this all mean? What correlation does the fall of Samaria have with the coming of Pentecost in 1900?

First of all, since we are dealing with the Birthright, we see that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit is perhaps the main feature of the Birthright, making it possible to bring forth the sons of God. Pentecost in Acts 2 was the launching of the Birthright provision, and this continued throughout every genuine Holy Spirit revival in later years.

However, for a long time the majority of Christians believed that Pentecost had virtually ended in the first century and that the gifts of the Spirit had ceased to operate in the Church after the death of the last Apostle. For this reason, a re-establishment of Pentecost was necessary to give us again the revelation of the feast days.

In fact, the Passover revelation was re-established in the Church through Martin Luther and other Reformers in the 1500’s, when they taught justification by faith in the blood of the Lamb. Pentecost was reintroduced in 1900, and we expect to see soon the renewal of the feast of Tabernacles.

In the progression of revelation toward the Kingdom, Pentecost was very important. In Moses’ day it was the feast where the law was given at Mount Horeb, showing us that its main purpose was to write the law on our hearts by hearing the word. In Acts 2 we see again how God spoke to the people in their own language to accomplish this.

However, Pentecost is a leavened feast (Lev. 23:17) apart from the baptism of fire. Historically, Pentecost has never been adequate to establish more than the Kingdom of Saul, who was also crowned on Pentecost (2 Sam. 12:17).

So although Pentecost was part of the divine revelation in the year 1900, we again see leaven in that feast, and the two loaves of Pentecostal bread has again become fully leavened in our day. If this were not so, there would be no need or hunger among Christians (including Pentecostals) for the final great outpouring of the Spirit.

The Leaven in the early 1900’s

The Pentecostal outpouring was timed to occur toward the end of the Philadelphia Church era (1776-1914), which covered most of the time of America’s Christian Republic. The Philadelphia Church established unprecedented liberty, but unfortunately, it failed to extend that liberty impartially to all races. Thus, it failed to fulfill the Abrahamic covenant to be a blessing to all families of the earth.

Even Charles Parham’s classes on Pentecost excluded black people. So William Seymour, the black minister under whose later ministry came the Azusa Street outpouring in Los Angeles, was forced to sit outside the door of the classroom to learn about the Holy Spirit.

Nonetheless, God honored his ministry, and Azusa Street saw a great move of the Holy Spirit in 1906. That revival was also leavened in some ways, but God moved in many miraculous ways, and Pentecost was established.

In my view, one of the main purposes of Pentecost in 1900 was to write some forgotten laws on the hearts of the believers. The law of Jubilee failed to gain recognition. So while many Black Pentecostal denominations were formed in those days, they failed to reach beyond the lessons that Peter was forced to learn in Acts 11.

Peter’s revelation in Acts 11:15-18 was that the Holy Spirit had been given to non-Jews (and non-Israelites). If he and the other disciples had understood the law properly, they would have seen that it was mandatory for aliens to keep the feast of Pentecost (Deut. 16:9-11).

The same, in fact, was true about Passover (Exodus 12:19) and Tabernacles (Deut. 16:14), showing clearly that the promises given to “the fathers” was not to be hoarded by their biological descendants.

The same principle holds true with the Jubilee and its anti-slavery provisions. The law demands equality for all and specifically forbids a two-tiered system of law, where Israelites might be favored above others (Num. 15:15, 16).

Yet just as this principle of equality had been forgotten by the first century, so also was it forgotten during the Roman Church’s domination during the Middle Ages, and even some Protestants rejected it in recent centuries.

This was the cause of many disputes in America, and in the end, the Christian view that prevailed overall was the one which justified slavery and entrenched a class system that was comparable to the first-century Jewish mindset.

The bottom line is that the Pentecostal outpouring of the early 1900’s did little to correct the problem, for most were unwilling to live by every word proceeding out of the mouth of God (Deut. 8:3; Matt. 4:4). Hence, as a whole, the full law could not be written on their hearts.

Under that limitation in understanding the laws of God, the Pentecostal movement followed the example of King Saul and built denominational walls, preferring the rule of men rather than the direct rule of God (1 Sam. 8:7). Thus, the blessings of Pentecost became limited, and the leaven grew until the “bread” was fully leavened.

If we ask ourselves what might have been, had the Pentecostal movement fulfilled its calling, I believe that America had the opportunity to avoid the final captivity to Mystery Babylon that was to begin in 1913 with the passage of the Federal Reserve Act. But this was not to be, for although this was God’s will, it was not His plan.

Judged Time for Israel in America

Judged Time is fairly rare, but it is one of the judgment time cycles seen by observation in Scripture. While Cursed Time is a cycle of 414 years, and Blessed Time is a cycle of 490 years, Judged Time is 434 years. While Cursed Time is generally for being cursed or for being in a calling that is not yours, Judged Time is for late obedience.

See chapter 6 of my book, Secrets of Time.

Israel’s judgment really began in 745 B.C., when the tribes east of the Jordan River were deported to Assyria. This started the long-term divine judgment on Israel. By doing the calculations, we find that the year 1860 was the end of 6 x 434 years from 745 B.C.

It was the year when America began to be split apart, leading to the great Civil War (1861-1865). While many argue that the root causes of this war were economic in nature, it is clear to me that God viewed it in terms of late obedience. Were they late in some economic way? Hardly. They were late in abolishing slavery in accordance with the Abrahamic mandate.

They had attempted to prohibit slavery in 1776 and again in 1789, but each time they failed. The problem festered until this issue reached a climax during the Civil War.

The great issue at the time of the early American colonies was whether or not certain men were privileged to rule over the “common” people. The long-held view of monarchs and popes had insisted upon their right to rule the commoners in a two-tiered class system. The Reformation had disavowed this, but the camp was divided by the two opinions.

Many Protestants saw slavery as another form of unequal justice. They saw the slave trade, not only as theft of labor but as the presumed right to kidnap men, a sin that carried the death penalty (Exodus 21:16).

The other side claimed that other races were not “men,” and therefore the law did not apply to them. Their reasoning was similar to that of Talmudic Judaism, which teaches that gentiles are comparable to cattle and that Jews may own gentiles as they would own cattle. In other words, Talmudic Judaism does not consider gentiles to be “men.”

Those “traditions of men” destroy the law and negate the Abrahamic covenant itself. Those who have such a mindset are not genuine children of Abraham, at least not by Paul’s definition in Gal. 3:28, 29. While we might excuse Jews for not learning Peter’s lesson in Acts 11, or not having Paul’s revelation about equality, how can Christians justify their adherence to slavery?

From Chaos to Cosmos by S.Jones

FROM CHAOS TO COSMOS, FINAL

By Dr. Stephen Jones

Date: 04/01/2019   Issue No. 369

Post Date:  6-6-2019

When God created man in His own image, it is evident that He intended for man to be free and to enjoy an abundant life (John 10:10). Such a life is not merely immortal but also one that reaches its full potential and enjoys the satisfaction of fulfilling one’s calling in the fullest sense.

The world’s pursuit of freedom has proven to be elusive to most people, because men’s definition of freedom has differed from God’s definition. If men do not know what true freedom is, it is hardly possible for them to know the path by which to attain freedom. Every path they follow seems in the end to lead to a different form of bondage.

There is only one path to true freedom, and this path is a paradox. True freedom is in becoming a bond-servant of Jesus Christ. This is true only because Jesus loves us so unselfishly that He was willing to die to bring us freedom.

True Love

His love stands in stark contrast to that which is found in the world, offered by men who claim to love their fellow man. Such leaders put men into bondage to themselves or to their governmental and social systems. They have all fallen short of the love of God and have based their paths to Utopia on counterfeit love.

Socialism is a prime example of that today, for its variety of “love” is based on theft. Leaders appeal to constituents by promising to give them other people’s money (property). They do this by assuming the right to tax people at whatever rate they wish, reaping where they did not sow.

Biblical love respects the rights of all men to own and use what they have labored to possess, as long as they use it within the parameters of the law. Confiscation of property is permissible only when it is obtained in an unlawful manner or if a lawful debt must be paid.

The right to own property also extends to one’s own body as well. Slavery involves the loss of that right, and it must therefore be imposed only as a judgment for sin in payment of debt. Hence, Exodus 22:3 says that if a man cannot pay his court-imposed debt (in this case, for theft), “he shall be sold for his theft.”

Yet all of God’s judgments proceed from His heart of love and are designed to restore lost property to the victims and to restore freedom and forgiveness to the sinner. Any interpretation of the law that runs counter to this basic principle of love—i.e., God’s nature—is a tradition of men, for it puts away the law and blasphemes God’s character.

Sin Brings Chaos; Judgment Brings Cosmos

The righteous order is disrupted by sin and brings a measure of chaos. Relationships are broken when men violate the rights of others. The law defines those rights in terms of the divine nature and then proceeds to issue the judgments of the law by which the lawful order is to be restored. When full restoration is accomplished, Kingdom Cosmos is re-established in the earth.

Restoration may be accomplished in a number of ways, once the Kingdom judge has passed his sentence outlining the path to Cosmos. The thief must repay double or perhaps four or five times that which he stole. Or the victim may exercise his right to forgive all or any portion of that which the thief owes him.

The point is that only the victim has the right to forgive sin. The judge is restricted by duty to define the rights of victims and sinners as the divine law prescribes. The law therefore has no right to enslave a man unjustly, yet any man has the right to sell himself to another as a bond-slave.

Normally, no man would sell himself, because most people know that men are fallible and are not endowed with perfect love. It would be foolish to sell one’s self into bondage to one who does not love him. Yet the law gives men the right to become slaves, based on love (Ex. 21:5, 6).

Hence, the New Testament apostles freely claim to be bond-servants of Jesus (Rom. 1:1; James 1:1; Jude 1). They understood that true freedom comes only by exercising their right to give themselves (property) to the One who loves them and gave Himself to die in order to set them free.

If both the master and slave are willing to die for each other, love becomes the bond between them. By contrast, the world’s form of slavery is based on the bond of fear, which forces slaves to remain against their will.

Sinners may sell themselves as slaves to sin or even sell their souls to the devil (as some do), but their authority to do this is limited. Since man is made of the dust of the ground, all of which was created by God and owned by Him, no man has the right to sell his “land” in perpetuity. So we read in Lev. 25:23,

²³ The land, moreover, shall not be sold permanently, for the land is Mine; for you are but aliens and sojourners with Me.

Man lacks the authority to sell himself permanently, because he did not create Himself. Therefore, he does not own himself. Therefore, God claims him in the end by right of creation, wholly apart from the will of man or the devil.

God’s law forbids perpetual slavery, for the law of Jubilee ends all debt and returns every man to his original inheritance. Man’s original inheritance is the bodily condition that Adam enjoyed prior to his sin before God sentenced him to death (mortality). The Jubilee, then, sets the outer limit of debt and judgment, after which time all men are to return to the inheritance that God gave mankind in the beginning.

As for overcomers, the law of voluntary slavery applies. We do not want to be set free from our Master, and so we return as bond-servants of Jesus Christ. We know that this is the only true liberty, for it is only when we love Him and are in full agreement with Him that we reach our God-given potential. His commands are no longer commands that require obedience, because our nature is aligned with His, and we do His will by nature, not by compulsion.

How to Build the Kingdom of Heaven

World empires have come and gone for thousands of years. The lust for empire is the lust to obtain slaves and to confiscate their labor and property. All empires became successful through power and then maintained dominion by fear. This is evident in that their subjects always sought a way to regain their freedom. If their rulers had loved them, and if the people had been fully aware of that love, revolts would have been unnecessary and undesirable.

The Kingdom of heaven is built upon very different principles, because God is love. Most people do not fully comprehend the significance of this fact. Even believers in Christ have often advocated establishing the Kingdom of heaven through violence and force, as if Jesus is much like other world conquerors. But He is not.

I once saw a bumper sticker that read: “Jesus is coming soon—and boy is He mad!” The implication was that when He comes, He will kill His enemies and angrily throw them all into hell. Nothing can be farther from the truth. Though He will indeed judge the earth, the nations will rejoice. This is clearly stated in Psalm 67:4,

⁴ Let the nations be glad and sing for joy; for Thou wilt judge the peoples with uprightness and guide the nations on the earth.

Again, he writes in Psalm 66:4,

⁴ All the earth will worship Thee and will sing praises to Thee; they will sing praises to Thy name.

Christ’s coming will result in the people being set free from the oppression of their governments as well as their slavery to sin on a personal level. Currently, the nations live in a state of perpetual chaos, but the Kingdom of heaven will bring them into the ordered Cosmos that God intended for the earth in the beginning.

So the earth has a stake in the manifestation of the sons of God, which will occur at the time of Christ’s coming. This manifestation will benefit the nations and creation as a whole, because the sons of God will be the first fruits of creation (James 1:18).

First fruits are given to God to sanctify the harvest as a whole. The manifestation of the sons of God is thus a promise of the harvest yet to come.

This was known to the apostle Paul as well, who wrote in Romans 8:19-21,

¹⁹ For the anxious longing of the creation waits eagerly for the revealing of the sons of God. ²⁰ For the creation was subjected to futility, not of its own will, but because of Him who subjected it in hope ²¹ that the creation itself also will be set free from its slavery to corruption into the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

Christ is not coming to punish the captives but to set them free, as it is written in Isaiah 60:2, “to proclaim liberty to the captives and freedom to prisoners.” Jesus is not coming to kill the captives but to set them free and to show them what true freedom is. Most are ignorant of the path to true freedom, for they have believed the words of men.

We today have already been building the Kingdom of heaven, for this is a project that began at creation. Though sin has caused this project to take longer than it otherwise would have taken, it will be completed in the end.

We start by dealing with the roots of sin and captivity. Our faith in Jesus’ payment for our sin-debt through Passover is a good start on our journey. We then learn obedience through Pentecost and finally come into agreement through Tabernacles.

This is the personal level, for that is where it must begin. Our own personal “land” must be redeemed and subjected to the rule of Jesus Christ before we can reach out to other parts of creation. The Kingdom starts within each of us, but it does not end until all of creation has been reconciled.

To establish the Kingdom of heaven, we cannot use the same tactics that the world uses. Machiavelli and Sun Tzu lay out how to retain power or win wars apart from any moral rules. Those tactics certainly work, but they are unacceptable to us as sons of God.

The world uses fear, guilt, deception, and raw power to establish its kingdoms. We use love, forgiveness, truth, and demonstration of the Spirit to establish Christ’s kingdom.

Our faith is in Jesus Christ and His word. We recognize Jesus’ right to rule the world as the King of kings. We advocate His law and reject any lower-court tradition of men that contradicts it. We believe that we are on the winning side, because we have faith in the promises of God. We believe that He has the power to implement His oaths, especially because Jesus sealed those vows with His own blood to guarantee the success of the New Covenant.

The Word of Prophecy is Steadfast

2 Peter 1:16-19 says,

¹⁶ For we did not follow cleverly devised tales when we made known to you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but we were eyewitnesses of His majesty. ¹⁷ For when He received honor and glory from God the Father, such an utterance as this was made to Him by the Majestic Glory, “This is My beloved Son with whom I am well-pleased,” ¹⁸ and we ourselves heard this utterance made from heaven when we were with Him on the mount. ¹⁹ And so we have the prophetic word made more sure [bebaios, “firm, steadfast”], to which you do well to pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star arises in your hearts.

Peter, James, and John were eyewitnesses of Christ’s glorious transfiguration on Mount Hermon (Matt. 17:1, 2). The triple witness establishes all things according to God’s law (Deut. 19:15). These three men were called to be the eyewitnesses of Christ’s glory on the mount. They heard the voice of God confirm Jesus as the “Son” with authority to rule all the nations.

Yet every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God is certain, because true prophecy is not given as “an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit” (2 Pet. 1:21). We have, therefore, many steadfast prophecies, and when we understand what has been prophesied, we may believe the word and apply it with understanding.

Many have misunderstood the word, and so they have inadvertently believed things that are not true. But if our eyes are opened to the truth, and if the Old Covenant veil has been removed from our eyes, we can be effective agents of Christ’s Kingdom in the earth.

A large part of this is understanding timing. Much of the prophecy in Scripture includes timing in some form. Some of it is straightforward and easy to understand, such as the 70-year captivity of Judah prophesied in Jer. 25:11. At other times the prophecies are more obscure, usually because it is not yet time for the foretold events to be fulfilled. The full revelation of timing is not given until the time draws near.

Simeon had a revelation “that he would not see death before he had seen the Lord’s Christ” (Luke 2:26). I believe he also knew the timing of Christ’s birth on the feast of Trumpets, and so he knew that His parents would bring Him to the temple on the 8^th day.

I believe that he also knew that Christ’s name would be Yeshua, “Salvation,” for this is found everywhere in Scripture. He was thus waiting at the right time, and when Joseph and Mary brought Jesus to the temple for circumcision and to name Him Yeshua, Simeon knew that this was the Christ, saying in Luke 2:29, 30,

²⁹ Now, Lord, Thou dost let Thy bond-servant depart in peace, according to Thy word; ³⁰ for my eyes have seen Thy salvation” [Yeshua].

Prophecy is believed by some, understood by a few, but few are privileged to see its actual fulfillment. Fortunately, prophecy is not dependent upon men’s understanding but upon the word of God alone. Caiaphas was ignorant of the fact that he was fulfilling the greatest prophecy of all time by sentencing Jesus to death while men were preparing their Passover lambs. Men’s ignorance only proves that God is sovereign and that men’s understanding is not a factor.

Sometimes events themselves reveal hidden prophecies. The disciples did not realize until after the fact that the Passover celebration actually prophesied of Christ’s death on the cross as the Passover Lamb. Jesus had to explain it to them after His resurrection (Luke 24:25-27).

What I find most fascinating is what the apostle Paul revealed in Rom. 11 in regard to the remnant of grace. This remnant is a small minority—just 7,000 out of more than a million Israelites in the days of Elijah. Rom. 11:7 says,

⁷ What then? That which Israel is seeking for, it has not obtained, but those who were chosen obtained it, and the rest were hardened [or blinded], ⁸ just as it is written, “God gave them a spirit of stupor, eyes to see not and ears to hear not, down to this very day.”

In other words, the evidence of being “chosen” (kletos, “chosen, elect”) is that a person has eyes to see and ears to hear and has not been given the spirit of stupor. Being an ethnic or national Israelite did not make anyone “chosen.” To be “chosen” one must have eyes to see.

This ability to see is rooted in the New Covenant, for it is only when the Old Covenant veil is removed that we can see clearly (2 Cor. 3:14-16). In other words, we must place our faith in the Mediator of the New Covenant, rather than in the mediator of the Old Covenant. We must believe in the promise of God and no longer in man’s vows to God.

The Emerging Kingdom of Light

The world is currently in a state of chaos, as the nations peer into the darkness to try to find their way. They are at a great disadvantage, because the Old Covenant veil yet lies over their eyes, keeping them in darkness. But we who have eyes to see have this treasure of light in earthen vessels, for we read in 2 Cor. 4:6, 7,

⁶ For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ. ⁷ But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the surpassing greatness of the power may be of God and not from ourselves.

The transfiguration of Christ showed the light in the face of Jesus Christ, while our own light remains hidden within us. This was pictured in the battle of Gideon, where his army of 300 put torches in earthen vessels. The light was hidden until the appointed time when the trumpet sounded (feast of Trumpets), and the vessels were broken (Atonement), revealing the light of Christ to all (Tabernacles).

We are called to be the light of the world (Matt. 5:14), because Jesus Himself is the light of the world (John 8:12). Jesus was the light of the world as long as He was in the world (John 9:5), and when He ascended, He began to work through us to give light in the dark world. Light is both life and truth. If we are not dispensing life and truth, it is because there is no real light within us.

There is chaos in darkness. The Cosmos of God is a condition of light. Sin and death define the duration of chaos, but chaos is finite and limited in its power. Though we are not yet at the time of the Creation Jubilee, we are indeed drawing near to the time of the manifestation of the sons of God. When creation sees this event, it will rejoice along with the nations, for this will flood them with the light of revelation that will give them hope. It will create in their hearts a sure expectation of the coming deliverance.

We are now coming into the first great Creation Sabbath, that is, the 7^th millennium. God is about to keep His law and give the earth its first great rest from the slavery of the beast systems which have ruled the nations ruthlessly.

While many Christians lack the understanding to see beyond the second coming of Christ, we know that this event is only a rest according to Exodus 21:2,

² If you buy a Hebrew slave, he shall serve for six years; but on the seventh he shall go out as a free man without payment.

God raised up the nations and likened them to various beasts in Daniel 7, giving them authority to rule until the time came that the “saints of the Most High” were ready to receive the Dominion Mandate. The manifestation of the sons of God coincides with the end of beast domination.

By understanding the timing of prophecy, we know that this time is now upon us, because 2017 marked the end of the 2,520-year contract that God had made with these beast empires. On the eighth day of Tabernacles, Oct. 12, 2017, a new day was decreed in the divine court, and the transfer of authority was completed.

The beasts did not comply, of course, something we anticipated on account of the prophecy in Jer. 50:33, which says, “They have refused to let them go.” But we believe also the next verse, which says,

³⁴ Their Redeemer is strong, Yahweh of hosts is His name; He will vigorously plead their [court] case, so that He may bring rest to the earth.

This great Sabbath millennium will give this “rest to the earth,” for we know that our Kinsman Redeemer is strong and He will win His case in heaven and in earth.