Goal Statement
The goal stated in two different ways. First, a narrative or descriptive goal statement and a brief explanation of each statement. Second, (below) the TWO top end-of-the-age objectives. These two concepts are the summary products of man's 6 day (6000 years) work week. This work must be done before the 'Sabbath' can begin.
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Goal Statement |
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| True Biblical Christianity, in it's final form, while yet in this world, will represent God to it's world, as clearly and powerfully as Jesus of Nazareth did to Israel. | The 'Ark' of Testimony
A Repeat Performance Beauty - conforms to model, repeated pattern
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| It will knowingly and deliberately participate in the fulfillment of all aspects and events prophetically declared by God and revealed in his Word, just as Jesus did, regarding itself, the nation of Israel, and the nations and people of the world. | Perfects Itself - First
Stewardship - Provides, Protects, & Tests Israel Divides & 'Buys' back the World's people & Land Beauty - repeated pattern
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| That then, and only then, will Christianity have fulfilled it's call on earth, and be a fitting mate, a bride without spot or wrinkle, for the Son of Almighty God. | Demands Excellence - Of Ourselves (no excuses)
State & relational model - a virgin, spotless bride Beauty - conform to the ultimate model
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| However, with this as the goal, it is clearly recognized that Christianity, in it's present form, cannot succeed. | But now the sobering reality - its impossible
A final reminder - dependency upon God. Beauty - "If a seed falls into the ground...
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| While recognizing that Messiah's work on the cross is wholly sufficient and complete, that work has not been wholly appropriated or realized. | His work, our way - done
A door has been opened - into the holy place (ark) Beauty - common models - 'holy water' (red heifer)
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| This final appropriation will be bestowed, in the fullness of time, upon a bride that has prepared herself for it. | The missing appropriation - the latter rain, the third experience - only at the end, only for the prepared
Beauty - a wise virgin
To those that have (knowledge) more will be given (power) - to do what? To finish Messiah's ministry |
| Clothed in this new garment, perfect and obedient, the Body of Messiah will complete the second half of Messiah's ministry, sent this time to the world as the perfect representative of God. | Beauty - become the 'image' of God (Ark) - finally |
| And the kingdoms of this world will become the kingdoms of our God. |
The kingdom has come - people first
A 'nation' of rulers, and an eternal supply of 'citizens'. Beauty - Eden, Davidic Kingdom |
Framework Statement (Preliminary)
The Goal - Rightly Divided
Why should we study prophecy? Prophecy is many things. For one, you can't be wrong about prophecy and right about truth. Fundamentally, prophecy is that part of reality that lays beyond our human senses. Prophecy is the reality-check of all spiritual philosophies. Spirituality is by definition very abstract. It is easy to formulate a wide range of explanations that seem to explain reality, but its through the predictive aspect of prophecy those ideas are brought to account. Prophecy is the visible manifestation of invisible realities. Prophecy is a truth ministry. Having knowledge of the design is a powerful testimony of intimacy with the designer. As Jesus said it:
I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.(John 15:15 NIV)
How can one say he is a friend of God and NOT know his masters business plan (prophecy). There is a (prophesied) explosion of knowledge in our day. We must assume that mixed throughout all those voices and ideas are morsels of truth. The great secret of understanding prophecy is to be a discriminating listener. To draw upon an inner 'truth detecting' faculty quickened by the Spirit of God. To do that properly one must work very hard to inhibit bias' created by wrong motivations. Our motivations will draw us to right information or wrong information. There are many roads we could travel down, but because becoming is the purpose of prophecy, only the becoming road will lead to the correct conclusions. Only the "who than" will explain the what.
There are two all-encompassing themes of Biblical prophecy in this age. They can be related to two corresponding concepts that believers have erroneously failed to see. They are:
1. To become the image of God (like Yeshua) (Two are one)
2. To divide humanity (One is Two)
These two themes are closely related - they are part of a single strategy. Taken together, God's 'bottom-line' purpose can be summarized with the following Scripture from (Gen 41:33):
"let Pharaoh look for a discerning and wise man and put him in charge of the land of Egypt...
Translation:
God is looking for rulers to put them in charge of the world
In Jesus' words:
Who then is the faithful and wise servant, whom the master has put in charge of the servants in his household.. (Matt 24:45)
We see the framework of division from the first verse of the Bible, in the covenant with Abraham, and plainly stated in Jesus' words:
Ø In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. (Gen 1:1)
Ø I will surely bless you and make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sand on the seashore. (Gen 22: 17
Ø "I have come to bring fire on the earth, and how I wish it were already kindled! But I have a baptism to undergo, and how distressed I am until it is completed! Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division. (Luke 12:49)
We can summarize the two major errors of Christianity like this: It fails to see that...
Two are One
And
One is Two
To be like Yeshua (in this age)
What does that mean?
1. To become sinless (perfect) - learn/do the rules
(Heb 2:10 NIV) In bringing many sons to glory, it was fitting that God, for whom and through whom everything exists, should make the author of their salvation perfect through suffering [a Torah restricted life].
2. To be given all power - rulership
(John 13:3 NIV) Jesus knew that the Father had put all things under his power, ...
3. To do the fathers will - the Messiah job (divide humanity)
(Luke 12:51 NIV) Do you think I came to bring peace on earth? No, I tell you, but division.
Common arguments against perfection:
1. It is theoretically impossible because of our flesh nature. (we'll become perfect the moment we are separated from this body)
2. De jury (legal) perfection is equivalent to de facto (actual) perfection. (rendering de facto perfection unnecessary) (see Scripture below)
3. Experience (common sense) tells us it can't be done
4. The Scriptures don't support the idea of perfection
(1 John 3:7 NIV) Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous.
(Heb 12:2 NIV) Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author [justification] and perfecter [sanctification] of our faith, ...
These errors can all be summed up in Yeshua's words:
(Mat 22:29 NIV) Jesus replied, "You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God.
The alternative to true Biblical (in this age) perfection is 'instant perfection'. (Does that feel right to you?)
There is a very dubious doctrine of 'instant perfection'. It teaches directly or indirectly that perfection happens at the moment we cross into the after life. This is usually done at death, or for those living, at the end of the age it will be at the Rapture. This doctrine, while almost universally assumed, can not be supported by Scripture. It actually contributes to the low priority holiness has in this life. Even the heroes of our faith were not (are not even today) perfected by death
These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect. (Hebrews 11:39,40)
A quick review of Sinless Perfection:
Read with a PROPHETIC (corporate, 6000 year old body, harvest time, end-of-the-age) mind, NOT with a PASTORAL (individualistic, next year) mind.
Don't read Justification (legal, instant, imputed) perfection into Scriptures that clearly mean Sanctification (good works, a deliberate process, exercised).
98% (??) Of all Scripture relates to the Sanctification process.
True (realized) salvation is corporate rather than individualistic
Realized salvation (perfection) should be characterized as a SCHOLARSHIP rather than a DIPLOMA (as Christianity wrongly teaches). Justification entitles you to a full scholarship. Life and breath, strength and light, ways and means, everything required to get a diploma is guaranteed as part of the scholarship. In addition, there is even a very nice life insurance policy included. It stipulates that if you are unable (vs. unwilling) to finish the program in full (because of death, etc.) you are entitled to a full diploma just as if you had finished the program. As of today, no one has finished the program, everyone has been credited a diploma via the insurance provision. However, we must not be lulled into complacency, or worse, rewrite our doctrine based upon our observation. While each generation should strive to reach perfection, the plan indicates only the last one will.
(Psa 24:3-6 NIV) Who may ascend the hill of the LORD? [transfiguration] Who may stand in his holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, ... Such is the generation of those who seek him, who seek your face, O God of Jacob. Selah
First the bookends - the central issue of the Bible - mastering sin
| (Gen 4:7 NIV) If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it." | (Rev 21:7 NIV) He who overcomes will inherit all this, and I will be his God and he will be my son. |
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I am the God who ---- makes you holy (can he do it??)
(Exo 19:5-6 NIV) Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine, {6} you will be for me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.' These are the words you are to speak to the Israelites."
(Exo 28:36 NIV) "Make a plate of pure gold and engrave on it as on a seal: HOLY TO THE LORD.
(Exo 31:13 NIV) "Say to the Israelites, 'You must observe my Sabbaths. This will be a sign between me and you for the generations to come, so you may know that I am the LORD, who makes you holy.
(Lev 11:45 NIV) I am the LORD who brought you up out of Egypt to be your God; therefore be holy, because I am holy.
(Lev 19:2 NIV) "Speak to the entire assembly of Israel and say to them: 'Be holy because I, the LORD your God, am holy.
(Lev 20:8 NIV) Keep my decrees and follow them. I am the LORD, who makes you holy.
(Lev 22:9 NIV) "'The priests are to keep my requirements so that they do not become guilty and die for treating them with contempt. I am the LORD, who makes them holy.
(Lev 22:16 NIV) by allowing them to eat the sacred offerings and so bring upon them guilt requiring payment. I am the LORD, who makes them holy.'"
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Lest you think it's impossible:
(Deu 30:11-14 NIV) Now what I am commanding you today is not too difficult for you or beyond your reach. {12} It is not up in heaven, so that you have to ask, "Who will ascend into heaven to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?" {13} Nor is it beyond the sea, so that you have to ask, "Who will cross the sea to get it and proclaim it to us so we may obey it?" {14} No, the word is very near you; it is in your mouth [if you speak it, I will do it - God] and in your heart so you may obey it.
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(Mat 5:48 NIV) Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
(Eph 4:11-14 NIV) It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until
--- we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and
--- become mature [perfect],
--- attaining to the whole measure
--- of the fullness of Christ.
Then we will no longer be infants...
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(1 John 3:1-9 NIV) How great is the love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! The reason the world does not know us is that it did not know him.
Dear friends, now we are children of God, and what we will be has not yet been made known. But we know that when [by the time he] he appears,
--- we shall be like him,
for we shall see him as he is. [note Eph 4 above - knowledge of the Son of God]
Everyone who has this hope in him purifies himself, just as he is pure.
(continuing)
Everyone who sins breaks the law; in fact, sin is lawlessness. But you know that he appeared so that he might take away our sins. And in him is no sin.
No one who lives in him keeps on sinning.
No one who continues to sin has either seen him or known him.
Dear children, do not let anyone lead you astray. He who does what is right is righteous, just as he is righteous.
He who does what is sinful is of the devil, because the devil has been sinning from the beginning. The reason the Son of God appeared was to destroy the devil's work.
No one who is born of God will continue to sin, because God's seed remains in him;
he cannot go on sinning, because he has been born of God.
(James 1:3-4 NIV) because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. {4} Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature [perfect] and complete, not lacking anything.
(Eph 5:25-27 NIV) Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word, and to present her to himself as a radiant church, without stain or wrinkle or any other blemish, but holy and blameless.
(Phil 3:10-12 NIV) I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, {11} and so, somehow, to attain to the resurrection from the dead. {12} Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me.
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The 'Upper Room Discourse' - the picture of perfection (John 14 - 17)
(John 14:12 NIV) I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.
(John 14:27 NIV) Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.
(John 14:14 NIV) You may ask me for anything in my name, and I will do it.
(John 15:7 NIV) If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you.
(John 15:11 NIV) I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete.
(John 15:15 NIV) I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you.
(John 15:26-27 NIV) "When the Counselor comes, whom I will send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who goes out from the Father, he will testify about me. {27} And you also must testify, for you have been with me from the beginning.
(John 16:8-11 NIV) When he comes, he will convict the world of guilt in regard to sin and righteousness and judgment: {9} in regard to sin, because men do not believe in me; {10} in regard to righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; {11} and in regard to judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.
(John 16:13 NIV) But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come.
(John 16:15 NIV) All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will take from what is mine and make it known to you.
(John 16:23-24 NIV) In that day you will no longer ask me anything. I tell you the truth, my Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. {24} Until now you have not asked for anything in my name. Ask and you will receive, and your joy will be complete.
(John 17:14-23 NIV) I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. {15} My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. {16} They are not of the world, even as I am not of it. {17} Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. {18} As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world. {19} For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified. {20} "My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, {21} that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you. May they also be in us so that the world may believe that you have sent me. {22} I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one: {23} I in them and you in me. May they be brought to complete unity to let the world know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me.
(John 17:26 NIV) I have made you known to them, and will continue to make you known in order that the love you have for me may be in them and that I myself may be in them."
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After perfection - now what? (a perfect ministry?)
(Isa 61:1-3 NIV) The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom for the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners, {2} to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor [end of part I, see Luke 4 below]
[begin part II, Messiah ben Joseph?] and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn, and provide for those who grieve in Zion-- to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning, and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair. They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the LORD for the display of his splendor.
(Luke 4:17-21 NIV) The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written: {18} "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." [end of Messiah ben David's ministry]
Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down.
(John 14:12 NIV) I tell you the truth, anyone who has faith in me will do what I have been doing. He will do even greater things than these, because I am going to the Father.
(Isa 11:1 NIV) A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse; from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.
(John 15:5 NIV) "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.
The ironic first step to perfection - admit you are not.
(1 John 1:10 NIV) If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.
(1 John 2:1 NIV) My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have one who speaks to the Father in our defense--Jesus Christ, the Righteous One.
(John 8:32-36 NIV) Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free." {33} They answered him, "We are Abraham's descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?" {34} Jesus replied, "I tell you the truth, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. {35} Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. {36} So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.
Scripture from the book of perfection - Hebrews
(Heb 7:11 NIV) If perfection could have been attained through the Levitical priesthood (for on the basis of it the law was given to the people), why was there still need for another priest to come--one in the order of Melchizedek, not in the order of Aaron?
(Heb 7:18-19 NIV) The former regulation is set aside because it was weak and useless {19} (for the law made nothing perfect), and a better hope is introduced, by which we draw near to God.
(Heb 4:9 NIV) There remains, then, a Sabbath-rest for the people of God;
(Heb 5:8-10 NIV) Although he was a son, he learned obedience from what he suffered {9} and, once made perfect, he became the source of eternal salvation for all who obey him {10} and was designated by God to be high priest in the order of Melchizedek.
(Heb 9:26 NIV) Then Christ would have had to suffer many times since the creation of the world. But now he has appeared once for all at the end of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself.
(Heb 10:1 NIV) The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming--not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship.
(Heb 10:14 NIV) because by one sacrifice he has made perfect forever those who are being made holy.
(Heb 10:19 NIV) Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus,
(Heb 10:26 NIV) If we deliberately keep on sinning after we have received the knowledge of the truth, no sacrifice for sins is left,
(Heb 11:1 NIV) Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.
(Heb 11:39-40 NIV) These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. {40} God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.
(Heb 12:1 NIV) Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.
(Heb 12:4 NIV) In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.
(Heb 12:10-11 NIV) Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. {11} No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.
(Heb 12:14 NIV) Make every effort to live in peace with all men and to be holy; without holiness no one will see the Lord.
(Heb 12:22-23 NIV) But you have come to Mount Zion, to the heavenly Jerusalem, the city of the living God. You have come to thousands upon thousands of angels in joyful assembly, {23} to the church of the firstborn, whose names are written in heaven. You have come to God, the judge of all men, to the spirits of righteous men made perfect,