“But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the Glory of the Lord, are changed into the same Image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” (II Corinthians 3:18)
Continuing with the concept of the looking-glass, the Perfect Law of Liberty—God’s Word and Law—which is not “license to sin” but is the liberating Power of God’s Holy Spirit in us to not sin, here we see that true believers, transformed by the Power of the Holy Spirit, the Renovator of their lives, when we walk in the Spirit, when we look at ourselves in the mirror, we should begin to see ourselves daily transformed into the Image of Christ (as we should be); if not, we are not plugged into Christ and something is seriously wrong. We were created in that Divine Image. That Image was seriously effaced at the Fall. Our duty is to surrender to God’s Holy Spirit free reign to restore that Image in us once again... daily... until finally we are freed from these mortal tombs and once again we are fully restored to the Image in which we were created.
“1I beseech you therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable unto God, which is your reasonable service. 2And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, Will of God.” (Romans 12)
“41There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the moon, and another glory of the stars: for one star differeth from another star in glory. 42So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption: 43It is sown in dishonour; it is raised in glory: it is sown in weakness; it is raised in power: 44It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body.” (I Corinthians 15)
“2Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is. 3And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself, even as He is pure.” (I John 3)
[Every man that hath this hope in him is purified, even as He is pure. This parallels, “Be holy, for I the Lord your God am Holy” which we shall discuss later.]
Actually, in the first passage above in II Corinthians 3, the translation with “open” face obscures the impact of the truth. The Greek word translated here as open, means “unveiled.” The import of this strikes home when one realizes that Moses could not look at God directly, but God had to veil His Face and Glory from Moses and even the Ark of the Covenant on top of which was the Mercy Seat where God manifested Himself, was veiled thickly and not even the High Priest could enter therein, but once a year to sprinkle the blood of the sacrifice for the whole congregation. Despite God veiling Himself before Moses, merely from being in God’s veiled Presence, Moses’ own countenance shown so brightly, that Moses had to veil his own face when he talked to the people, because the people were afraid to look upon Moses—such was the Power and Glory that Moses absorbed from being in God’s Holy Presence.
[I daily pray for such closeness to God, that it would be so reflected in me.]
Similarly, The cherbim and seraphim are the highest classes of arch-angels that serve in closest proximity to the Throne of God—and they shine and radiate like burning brass because of their closeness to God Himself. We once had such clothing of Light. Scripture calls us “children of light” of the “Father of lights” even though that light in us now is but a smoldering candlewick compared to what it once was. That Glory and Light in us was all but snuffed out when Adam and Eve sinned. They lost their clothing of light, part of that Image of God in which they were created, and thus they realized, in the shame of their sin, that they were naked. That Glory will be restored to those who are truly of God, who enter the Kingdom, after God separates the chaff from the wheat and after He thoroughly purges His House, as He is preparing to do, in the shaking of Heaven and earth as the Judgment of Tribulation soon descends upon us (after which God will then separate the tares from the wheat).
It is amazing, if you consider it, that when the Tabernacle was first crafted and set up and dedicated, the Glory of the Lord came down in a Pillar of Cloud (by day) and the cloud was so dense that Moses could not even see to enter the Tabernacle. Centuries later, when the Temple was built, when Solomon dedicated it, again, the Glory came down and the “smoke” (or cloud) so filled the Temple that the Priests could not see to minister. Further throughout the wilderness wanderings, when God Tabernacled among His people, the Shekinah Glory (or Manifest Presence) that hovered over the Tabernacle (over the Holy of Holies, over the spot where the Mercy Seat sat on top of the Ark of the Covenant) also appeared continually as a Pillar of Fire.
What amazes me, is that in time, due to the spiritual defection of God’s People, God withdrew His Presence—and His people were so dead hearted that they did not even realize that He was gone (sort of like sinful judge-deliverer Samson, in that he did not realize God’s Spirit had left him until his enemies were upon him and it was at that very moment that he realized that he had no strength—and it is this very predicament in which all of Christendom is soon to have a rude awakening). This is truly dumbfounding unless one understands God’s Sovereignty and Predestination. How could they have not noticed God’s Presence was gone...?
God’s supernatural Manifest Presence in the Pillar of Cloud was something that certainly had to have struck fear in the hearts of all their neighboring enemies (even as it did the Egyptians when they pursued after Israel when they exodused). Imagine a huge cloud, a phenomena possibly in a column the diameter of the Washington Monument coming down far out of the heavens and hovering over the exact spot where the Holy House of Israel’s God was situated... wherever they went, it led them. How could the Israelites have not noticed this supernatural wonder, their Divine “Invader repellant”, was gone...? How many times has something in your house or yard been removed, be it a mere tree, or piece of furniture, or small rug on the floor, a painting on the wall, vase on the mantle...? something with which you were long accustomed to seeing... and for whatever reason it is no longer there... it seems almost like a limb that was amputated... its silence is deafening, its not being there is surreal. How could God’s people then not have noticed that this supernatural manifestation, this Pillar of Cloud, was gone...? It is unfathomable.
Even more mind-numbing is, how could they have not noticed that the “Divine Bonfire” at night that reached into the heavenlies, that lit up the entire region, how could they not have noticed that it was gone...? How could they not realize that when they now walked at night, that they could no longer see where they were going? How could they have not been afraid in the darkness, whereas, in the past they could easily see any threat...? That when the looked out their tent door to see what a noise was, that they could no longer see...? Even more than the Cloud, the Pillar of Fire was a Divine Sentry, Guarding them at night, which is the most natural time that an enemy might attack.... how could they have not realized this was gone and how could they not have felt abandoned in the dark in the wilderness, alone and vulnerable...?
Here is an illustration I drew/threw together, it is possible that the pillar took the form of a fiery whirlwind, not a passive column. While it may not look much like a pillar in my illustration, when it reached all the way to the sky, it certainly would have.
This next illustration, by a real artist (and I have the below available in both post card and poster size, inquire) better shows the magnificence in a wider angle, reaching toward the clouds.
Scripture tells us after Adam and Eve’s sin:
“So He [God] 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)
As I reveal in my book, What Was the Mark that God Placed on Cain...? I believe the notions of well-meaning, but confused artists have tainted the understanding of many Biblical events in the minds of most Christians. I do not not believe this was “an angel holding a flaming sword”. Scripture says that there were cherubims (actually, the rendering into English is redundant, cherub is singular, cherubim itself is plural, cherubims is then a double plural and senseless; it is like saying, "angelses" instead of angels) —there was more than one angel, most likely 2 and there was one “sword.” Further, it was one flaming “sword”. However, I believe this was not a sword, but the very same Pillar of Fire that millennia later hovered over the Tabernacle.
These Cherubim and the flaming “sword” which turned every which way, I believe, was an ancient form of the Mercy Seat. The Mercy Seat, on top of the Ark of the Covenant, was guarded by two angels who faced inward and it was above that Mercy Seat that the Pillar of Fire / Cloud hovered.
As I explain in my Sacred Truth Expository Commentary on John 18-21, it was on this Mercy Seat that the High Priest, but once a year, sprinkled blood for the sins of the God’s People as a collective body; this yearly sacrifice the blood of which was sprinkled on the Mercy Seat, was the sacrifice of the Scapegoat. Two young kids of the he-goats were selected. On the head of the one, the priest with his hand symbolically laid all the sins of the people, and then freed that goat into the wilderness, then the other was slain and the blood sprinkled on the Mercy Seat. Then the remains of the carcase of the goat that was offered were taken without the camp.
It then is no surprise that Barabbas was released (the scapegoat) and Christ was sacrificed, and when Christ died, His Divine Spirit leaving His Body may have been what caused the earthquake and the earth was rent in two, upon the rock face of Golgotha’s Hill (sort of a Divine Sonic Boom; which earthquake also occurred when Christ resurrected, possibly due to His “slipping back into” His Body). Underneath Golgotha is a hollow cavern (Jeremiah’s Grotto) in which the original Ark of the Covenant was hidden millennia earlier, which Ron Wyatt and Richard Rives discovered... and when the earth was split asunder, the blood of the precious Lamb of God dripped down from Christ’s bloodied sacrifice and fell upon the Mercy Seat of the Ark of the Covenant, fully satisfying the Divine Wrath for the sins of His people who come under covenant through Christ’s sacrifice, by confessing their sins, crying out for forgiveness and salvation, and then walking in newness of life, showing that their conversion was real, not a one-time emotional experience. Christ’s Body was then taken outside the camp, and placed in a virgin tomb belonging to Joseph of Arimathea (even as Christ had been born from a virgin womb belonging to a different Joseph,* to whom Mary* was espoused, even though they had not consummated the union).
[* Joseph means, “He shall add” and Mary is the English form of Maria/Mariam, which is the Greek form of the Hebrew Miriam/Mirjam, which means, “bitterness or rebellion”. The corellation between the two is expressed in: “Looking diligently lest any man fail of the Grace of God; lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled” (Hebrews 12:15); but also due to that fact that Christ experienced the bitterness of Judgment because of our rebellion.]
After the Resurrection, it was discovered by Mary Magdelene that 2 angels sat in the tomb, one at the head and the other at the foot of the stone altar on which Christ’s Body had lain, though now all that remained there was the burial shroud that He had Divinely stepped out of, leaving it behind untouched. When Peter and John and others had rushed to the tomb, they did not notice these angels, because their presence was not revealed to them, but I believe that they were there from the very moment that Christ’s Body was laid in the tomb. The cherubim on the Mercy Seat and the curtains of the Tabernacle represent the cherubim and seraphim who guard the Throne of Heaven. It certainly is not that the Omnipotent God of the universe “needs” any of His puny creation to guard Him from other of His puny creation; the thought itself is ludicrous. However, He has chosen such things for His own worship and glory, and to represent His Holiness. Likewise, the cherbim at the entrance to Eden with the Pillar of Fire guarded the way to the Tree of Life (which tree is Christ). In considering this entire picture, we should be left with awe and wonder.
How then could God’s people not have noticed when His Divine Presence withdrew from them, to appear no more?
There is only one explanation: God blinded their eyes, hardened their hearts, dulled their minds, and stopped their ears—even as God in His Word said that He did. As I explained in earlier articles, God blinded all and then reveals the truth only to those whom He chose before the foundation of the world. This is evident throughout Scripture... even Lydia, a merchant woman, seller of purple fabric Scripture reveals, “whose heart the Lord opened” (Acts 16:14). “But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should show forth the praises of Him who hath called you out of darkness into His Marvellous Light” (I Peter 2:9) God calls His own; they don’t call themselves (that is spiritual evolution); even as they did not create themselves; even as they did not give God permission to create them. Blind men cannot see the light or anything else, their eyes are dead; like a lamp that is not plugged into the power source, which has a broken light bulb. Man is blind. Unless God opens someone’s eyes, they will ever remain blind. As I explained in a previous article, man is dead; as the vision of the valley of dried bones showed, only God can bring life back to them, have them align in their proper position, have sinew come upon them to hold them together, then flesh and blood and breathe into them once again the breath of life. Dead people don’t choose to come back to life. Dead bodies are dead. Lazarus came back to life only because Christ called him forth.
We are once again in the same condition of the glory having departed, even as God’s Spirit departed from Samson. We are the Ichabod Church. Ichabod means, “The Glory has departed.” Ironically, in the short story by Washington Irving, The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, one main character, is named Ichabod Crane. The other main character, the antagonist, is a headless horseman. How apropos. When the Glory has departed, we are reduced to a headless horsemen; and this is no surprise, for Christ told us that when the blind follow the blind, both will fall in to the ditch and “My people hath been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray, they have turned them away on the mountains [great nations]: they have gone from mountain [great nation] to hill [small nation], they have forgotten their restingplace [the Lord of hosts]” (Jeremiah 50:6). That’s where we are heading, but the ditch is the abyss and the wolves are waiting over the next hill. However, the headless horseman was not leading, but attacking.
What is the solution? Psalm 91:1 tells us:
“He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the Shadow of the Almighty.”
This is the only Divine Insurance Policy. Scripture says that God knows who are His. Of course there are many ways that He knows (and being Omniscient, He does not need reasons or ways, but those “ways” are for our enlightenment)... however, the most simple way is that we reflect His Image. How does a father know his own son in a photo with many other children? The son reflects his own image.
Why are we to look into the Perfect Law of Liberty, the Word of God, the Law of God, which is a reflection of the very Divine Character, the Very Attributes of God, being holy and just and good...? because God commanded:
“Be ye holy; for I am Holy.” (I Peter 1:16)
“...holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord” (Hebrews 12:14)
I believe this “seeing” is not merely talking about vision by itself. I believe it is seeing because one has been admitted into His Presence. Christ revealed:
“13Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. 14And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive: 15For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.” (Matthew 13)
Moses could only see God, to a very limited degree, because God allowed Moses to see Him. Only those who bear God’s Image, His Holiness—and only those whose eyes God opens, whose heart He purifies—will be admitted into His Presence, to then see Him. Psalm 24 tells us:
“3Who shall ascend into the hill of the LORD? or who shall stand in His Holy Place? 4He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart; who hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn deceitfully. 5He shall receive the blessing from the LORD, and righteousness from the God of his salvation. 6This is the generation [race] of them that seek Him, that seek thy face, O Jacob.”
[Of course, it needs to be understood, that only those whom God draws to seek after Him, will seek after Him, because apart from His Grace, God tells us: There is none that doeth good, no not one, they have all gone astray, their own way, they are altogether unprofitable/worthess, there is none that seeketh after God, and none that even incline toward Him. Further, the only way to have clean hands and a pure heart is if they have been cleansed and made holy by Christ.]
As I explained in the previous article, Psalm 19 and Psalm 119 extol the Perfection of God’s Law (and God’s Law was not abolished, God’s Law and God’s Word are extensions of God Himself, and God is Immutable and Perfect)... it is by reading God’s Word and then the Holy Spirit imparting the truth of what we read, mixing it into our lives in every thing we do, that will transform us, day by day, into the Image of God.
“9Wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his way? by taking heed thereto according to Thy Word. 10With my whole heart have I sought Thee: O let me not wander from Thy Commandments. 11Thy Word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against Thee.” (Psalm 119)
God is calling His own to Him once again; even as after the perversion of the Golden Calf, even as during the event of Korah’s rebellion, even as Joshua declared before they entered the Promised Land: “Choose you this day whom you will serve...” —the Lord, or other gods. Serving God is not “lip-service”: God is no fool. God is calling His elect once again to the ark, the doors are yet open. Who will be called to enter in...? before God Himself shuts the door, even as He will shut the door to the Kingdom / Wedding Chamber, and the foolish virgins will be shut out, in perpetual outer darkness.
Nero fiddled while Rome burned around him. On the Titanic as it sunk, “the band played on” (rather than calling people to prepare to meet their Maker). Today, corrupt, renegade, treasonous politicians who have hijacked our nations are fiddling... laughing, as they live in excess in luxury enjoying the spoils of their rape and pillage... all the while, the average citizen himself in delusion parties, drunk on the wine of Babylon, fornication, adultery, and eats and drinks and makes merry, engrossed with the Superbowl and other mindless hedonism, while the world burns around him; but not to worry, the tsunami that is coming will put out the flames.
Nero fiddled while Rome burned around him. On the Titanic as it sunk, “the band played on” (rather than calling people to prepare to meet their Maker). Today, corrupt, renegade, treasonous politicians who have hijacked our nations are fiddling... laughing, as they live in excess in luxury enjoying the spoils of their rape and pillage... all the while, the average citizen himself in delusion parties, drunk on the wine of Babylon, fornication, adultery, and eats and drinks and makes merry, engrossed with the Superbowl and other mindless hedonism, while the world burns around him; but not to worry, the tsunami that is coming will put out the flames.
So many times, in Scripture, God was in the process of judging His people—and they truly repented and humbled themselves and cried out for mercy... and God had mercy and delivered them and withdrew the judgment (to save it for another time)... why do God’s people not cry out for mercy and deliverance? Why do God’s people not repent? Why does God not deliver us? As I have written in numerous books, “Why should God deliver us from what we are willing to tolerate?” God commanded us to hate evil... instead, we ignore it, smile at it, or even hold hands with it. You reap what you sow. God is culling His House. He is cutting the cancer from the body of His true Church. It is a painful process. However, He promised to preserve a remnant and that remnant will only be those who have the testimony / faith of Christ Jesus and who keep the Commandments of God (not for salvation, which is solely of Christ, but because God commanded us to obey—and honorable children obey their father’s commands, and God said Be holy for I am Holy. It is His Law that separates us from the rest of the world. It is the Holy Spirit in those who are truly converted Who enables them, and gives them the desire to obey from the heart out of love from within; not out of cold, dead, mechanical compulsion from without. It is this obedience to the Law of God (enabled by the Holy Spirit) that brings us into conformity with the Image of Christ and causes us to reflect the Image of God the Father in Whose Image we were created and Whose Law itself reflects that Image. It is walking in His Ways as He commanded that will cause that Image, His Mark, to be upon us. It was obedience to the command given to Rahab, to hang the scarlet cord out her window, and not not venture outside her residence, that preserved her life and the life of her family. As we abide in Christ and separate ourselves from the wickedness around us, being sealed with the Blood of Christ, we will manifest the proof of the Spirit within us by not fulfilling the lusts of the flesh, the violation of God’s Law. God will preserve us and part of that which will preserve us will be our reflecting His Image, our bearing the fruit is the natural outflow of being branches on the True Vine: Christ. Christ does not produce wax fruit or “still life” portraits or “virtual fruit” or a nice “spiritual idea” of fruit—but real and lasting fruit within those who are truly His.
God is Immutable. He cannot change. His Standard of Morality does not change. “I am Yahweh and I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.” “Not one jot or tittle”. What is so hard about those two verses that people don’t understand. God cannot compromise. Christ took our Judgment upon Himself for us for that very reason—because God is Immutable: He cannot change; His Word cannot change; He cannot compromise. But those who have truly come under that sacrifice, will demonstrate the presence of the Holy Spirit within them to “go and sin no more” and by being about their Father’s Business; not “their own” If they continually pursue their own business, then they consider themselves their own moral “free agents” and they are not of God. If they consider themselves their own moral “free agents” then they are friends with the world (humanists) and the enemies of God.
May many take these sobering thoughts to heart, if anyone has read this far. Years of being a lone voice in the wilderness, calling out, “Make straight [level] the paths, prepare ye the way of the Lord, repent, the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand”... yet out of 100+ on my email list, maybe 2-5 ever respond... even though the majority on the list are those who profess to care about the truth and the things of God. May the redeemed of the Lord say so. Christ said that if two of you shall agree on earth as touching anything it shall be done of My Father which is in Heaven. Scripture says, “How can two walk together except they be in agreement?” How can two know they are in agreement unless the other party says so...? Apathy is our greatest enemy. Why is it that over 95% of the people on my email list, most of whom claim to know the truth, can’t even take 30 seconds to type a reply, “Yes, I agree with you in prayer, God please save your people, bring us all to repentance; remove our delusion and rebellion; deliver us and destroy Your enemies”...? Will anyone reading this book email me or write to me in agreement? How badly do you want that prayer to be answered, if you won’t do it? Do you even believe Christ’s Promise if you won’t do it? The enemy is not our problem. Our own apathy, laziness, faithlessness, hardness of heart, is the problem.
May God wake His people up before it is too late.
If I am the one in delusion, then may God silence me. If I am not in delusion, then may God shake everyone else free from theirs, to join with me in prayer and fasting that God pours out His Holy Spirit upon all His people to turn us once again to Him, so He will once again turn to us at a time in which we need Him more than any other time in the history of Creation. May others join in support of this ministry and help proclaim this truth, to be fishers and hunters to seek out our lost and blind brethren while there is yet time before God closes the door to the ark and Judgment rains down upon this wicked world.
For those who think the world is wonderful place to live and that there are just a few minor problems that need to be corrected and that they are on the road to being corrected... we now return you to your regularly scheduled program...
The lone voice of one crying in the wilderness... Robert
The lone voice of one crying in the wilderness... Robert