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Understanding the Hidden Spiritual Family Structure of God’s Household! Beginning to See the Identities of the Women in God’s Family! Part 6

Jun 14

Posted by agapegeek

(Ver 1.3) This is now Part 6 in a series of extremely advanced Bible studies about the Hidden Spiritual Structure of the Family of God. I have covered a tremendous amount of fresh information and several radically new concepts that I cannot take the time to go back and repeat them all. So if you have not read this series from the beginning I would strongly suggest that you go back and start reading with “Part 1”. Then as you go through the lessons, I would also recommend that you take notes on all of the key points. The ultimate goal of today’s lesson is to introduce you to the first woman in the family of God. I guess technically speaking she is my first woman, but she is the last woman in the family of God. But, God says the last shall be first and the first shall be last (Mat 19:30) so I think I am being scriptural to teach them in the reverse order. That was a joke! Today’s lesson will be focused primarily on the identity of just the woman who is titled the “daughter-in-law” in the family of God. You may recall that in the family of 5, we have 2 men and 3 women. While we are not given the ages of the family members, there are younger and older family members implied by the titles given. The son must be younger than his mother and his father and the daughter is also logically younger than her mother and her father. Therefore the most recent female in the family of God is the one that is called the “daughter” who subsequently becomes the “daughter-in-law” and both of these titles you will eventually discover apply to us, the Church of Jesus Christ. That is where we are going today in this lesson.

I have taught on this subject before, but not in the specific context to the family of God prophecy found in Micah 7:6 so I will repeat some things while I also explore some new subjects that I probably have never taught on before. As we continue through this lesson series you should begin to observe the fact that God uses repetitious patterns throughout the Bible. I will try to point out as many of these as I run across in today’s lesson. Learning to recognize patterns found in the Bible will assist you greatly in your knowledge and understanding of God’s Word. We will soon discover that this family of 5 was a hidden pattern found in many other parts of the Bible. For example, in an earlier lesson, I showed you that it was found in one place in Genesis 20:12 where God describes Abraham and Sarah’s relationship as a typical match for the family of 5 pattern revealed in Micah 7:6:

Gen 20:12 And yet indeed she is my sister; she is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife.

God tells us that Sarah was Abraham’s half-sister and that they shared a common father, but that they each had different mothers. Abram and Sarai were therefore half brother and sister and they later married and became husband and wife. Because Abram’s father Terah is the head of this house, it technically does not matter how many wives that Terah had, they were all still in one family. This is precisely the 5 family members in one family with the exact titles given to us in Micah 7:6. There is a father, a son, a daughter, a mother of a daughter and finally the mother of the son who becomes the mother-in-law when the daughter Sari marries Abram. Do you think this was a coincidence that this occurs in the Bible like that or can you see that it is just a hidden typology like I believe it is? I am personally convinced that it was an Old Testament hidden pattern of God’s family. However, this type even goes further than that to fulfill the Micah 7:6 patterns. God also told Abraham to leave his parents and go to a land that He would show him.

Gen 12:1 Now the LORD had said unto Abram, Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred, and from thy father’s house, unto a land that I will shew thee:

This is again a hidden typology of the precise division found within the family of 5 with the 3 parents being divided against the 2 younger children. Again if you think this is coincidence it would be a mistake to think that way. In this typology Abram is the son and is a type of Jesus who left His Father’s house in heaven to come to the earth, the land that God would show Him. Terah (Abram’s father) is of course a type of God the Father who ruled the Kingdom of Heaven. Sarai would be a type of the Church, the wife of the Lamb of God and we will get into this in much more depth soon. As in every O.T. type and shadow everything in the story is not a perfect match. Abraham took his father with him until he finally died. The fact that Lot was also taken in disobedience was another fact that eventually did occur when Abraham and Lot finally separated. A shadow will always be a recognizable pattern with some details omitted. That is just how it works. Later, I will show you some other 5 things split 3 against 2 as a repeated pattern in some very strange and unusual places in the Bible. I will try to show you one of these in the next lesson and another one in a future lesson. Just remember that nothing in the Bible occurs by chance or accident and everything has meaning and significance. God says the thing that has been is the thing that shall be again and I believe this law is based upon the reality of repeated patterns that have occurred and that will occur again. We are just now beginning to understand many of them, but that is the nature of how God works.

You may recall that I taught you the male members of the family were based upon the Trinity of God reality and that the Trinity contained the implied existence of females. But, let me briefly give you a synopsis of some other reasons that I believe that the male members in the Family of God are God the Father and Jesus, God the Son. One of the key rules that I always use to interpret the Bible, is to always allow the Bible to interpret itself. Because God is smarter than I am, I look for His meanings and definitions to help me understand what He is attempting to reveal. In other words I search to see if the Bible backs up what God says in other places. I always interpret the Bible using only the Bible and I do not search any other books, Bible lessons or commentaries for what some man thinks it says to justify my beliefs. If God does not confirm my beliefs with only His Word, then I change my beliefs to fit what He says. Otherwise I would just be teaching you my opinion and that would be worthless.

Mat 10:35 For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.

From reading in Matthew 10:35 we should know that the Father and the Son are divided against each other. The Greek word translated as “father” in this verse in Matthew is G3962 and it literally means “the male parent”. Is this same word ever used to describe God in the N.T.? If it is not, my interpretation fails immediately. However, if you do a search using your computer, you should easily find that God is called by this exact Greek word title over 200 times in the N.T. In order to find these I did a case-sensitive search for the word “Father” and the Greek word G3962 to occur in the same verse. You can do the exact same thing if you do not believe me. Therefore, I have concluded that Jesus could have been literally talking about His Father God being the “Father” in Matthew 10:35, by direct and overwhelming scriptural word association. At the very least you cannot deny that it is not entirely possible based upon this overwhelming evidence. In Matthew 10:35 the son is called specifically a “man”. Therefore, we need to determine if Jesus is ever called a “man” in the Bible to confirm if this is also a possible interpretation. If we cannot find where Jesus is ever called a man, this would shoot down my interpretation categorically. The Greek word translated as “man” in Matthew 10:35 is G444 and it literally means “manfaced” or “male human being”. Was Jesus a male human being?

Luk 12:53 The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother in law against her daughter in law, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.

As you can see in Luke 12:53, Jesus used a different word for this individual male and it says the father (G3962) will be divided against the “son” (G5207). Was Jesus ever called a “son” G5207? If you again search your Bible you will find over 80 Bible verses where Jesus is directly called both a “Son” and a “Man” (G5207 and G444) in the same verse. Again you do this by searching for both Greek words G444 and G5207 as well as the case sensitive “Son” all in the same verse, your results should match my results. Finally if you search the N.T. to see how many total times Jesus was ever called a “Son”, you can find over 200 times in the New Testament where Jesus is directly called a “Son” (G5207). Jesus is either called the “Son of God” or the “Son of Man” in more verses than I could try to name in this lesson. This is just more confirming overwhelming evidence for the identities of both of the male members of the Family of God. We can find scriptures that say God is a “Father” and we can find scriptures that say Jesus is both a “Son” and a “Man”. Again using this evidence it does not conclusively confirm that God the Father and God the Son are the two male members in the family of 5 that Jesus was describing to us, but it also does not rule them out to fit the interpretation either. Try to search the Bible and find another father and son combination mentioned over 400 times that fits with the exact same 5 family relationship titles. None that I searched for even came close. Father Abraham is only mentioned together in a total of 30 verses in the entire Bible. No other father and son dominate the Bible like God and His Son Jesus. The evidence is overpowering to me, but I’m sure we will come across some skeptics out there who can come up with reasons why they are not God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ. If is funny that God will always allow you to make the choice to be wrong. God will never prove anything in the Bible beyond a reasonable doubt. If God did that He would leave no one any freewill choice to believe or not to believe and God is not going to do that.

I guess I need to review another aspect that is important to know for our Bible study today. I want to give you a couple of verses that God reveals some very relevant information about His family. I taught on these verses before, but I will reemphasize them for your further benefit in today’s lesson to make sure you understand what is being stated:

Eph 3:14 For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ,

Eph 3:15 Of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named,

You should be able to see that these verses clearly inform us that God the Father has or at the very least had a spiritual family. This verse further implies that God the Father is the Head of this family. In this verse we are told the specific location of this family and it is explicitly stated to be in two separate realms of reality. One is a spiritual dimension called heaven and the other is a physical dimension found here on the earth. Wow, that is very clear to me. God is also clearly stated to be the named and titled Father (G3962) in this family and Jesus is clearly implied to be the Son in this family. The implication is given that the family is very large in order to reside in the fullness of these two separate dimensions. I also want to point out that we are told that this family has God’s name. This is clearly self-evident that God the Father was the spiritual head of the household and that He is also the husband in a relationship with a wife in order to have a Son and to give them all, His name. Taking the husband’s name during marriage is a standard practice and tradition originated from God, but it is often times ignored in the modern world. The modern wife sometimes does not always desire to take the name of her husband when they are married, but this is clearly not how God intended it to be.

If you search the O.T. closely you will get some more confirmation in serveral verses that say people on the earth have been given God’s name like in a marriage. We can find some of these verses in 2 Chronicles 7:14, Isaiah 43:7, Jeremiah 7:10, 11, 14, 30, 25:29, 32:34, 34:15 and Daniel 9:18-19. If the family of God has been given His name, what is this name? That is a very tough question to try to answer in a concise manner, since God is revealed by many names in the Bible. I think I will not even try to answer that question today, because it will take too long to get you to see it. For now, just try to see the fact that God’s family is called by His name and this implies that a marriage has taken place. What I want you to do right now, is to dig a little deeper and see what else these verses in Ephesians are saying? Often to see the deep things of God, you need to look up the word definitions to see what they say in the original languages or learn what God’s definition of the words are in other parts of the Bible. I want you to focus in on the Greek word translated as “family” and see what is revealed in it:

G3965

As if feminine of a derivative of G3962; paternal descent, that is, (concretely) a group of families or a whole race (nation): – family, kindred, lineage.

Many times in the Greek language one word is derived from another word which is the case in this definition. Often times the gender of either a male or a female is also assigned within the definition and this is exactly the case for both the word GG3965 and G3962 that it is derived from. This Greek word has some awesome detailed information within it according to the Strong’s definition. The general definition is concerning children that have descended from their parents. But, also notice that the usage of the word is not limited to a single generation and that it can apply to all of the generational descendants. This Greek word is very much like a family tree diagram containing all of the family’s relatives in the lineage that originated from the specific set of parents. But, it actually goes way beyond that as you can see. This word G3965 can refer to the entire nation of people that have descended for example from a specific named man like a Jacob. This is another common pattern found throughout the Bible. You will see many men stated in Genesis that originated nations that were spread out over the globe. Almost any nation of people mentioned in the Bible can be traced back to the originator who was the father of them all. As you should know Jacob was the originator of the natural nation of Israel here on the earth. But, God changed his name from Jacob to Israel. Where did this name come from? Can this be the answer to my question earlier of what God’s name is that was given to his family on the earth? I believe that it is but I still can’t explain that fully right now. I will tell you that I am convinced that Israel is God’s name and we will learn more about why I believe that as we continue. I will tell you that the definition in Strong’s dictionary for the name “Israel” means “He will rule as God”. Now knowing the definition of the name “Israel” does that help you to determine who the name actually belongs to? Who will rule as God except for God?

Please notice that this Greek word translated as “family” is said to be a feminine derivative of the Greek word G3962. This Greek word G3962 is the counter masculine reference to the male parent, so the “family” word G2965 is referring to a female family member only. Is this not the pictured pattern of creation and Adam and Eve? Doesn’t the Bible say that Adam came first and then Eve was formed (1 Tim 2:13) and that she was taken from Adam? Uh oh? It seems that God does have women in His spiritual family after all and that these women can be found both in heaven and on the earth. I also believe that God is giving you a repeated clue to where women come from in both the natural as well as the spiritual realms. They are always taken from the male. I firmly believe that the origination of all these things is from God who is concretely called a male throughout the Bible. But we also understand from reading 1 Corinthians 11 that there is a circular pattern within God’s creation. From the man came the first woman, and after that every new man came through a woman. Wow this is really deep. Nothing self-exists or created itself, except for God the Father. So if God describes a spiritual woman she must have originated from God the Father. But, we also understand that a woman can conceive and produce others like her, either natural or spiritual. I hope you are beginning to see that repeated patterns is a dominate theme found within the Bible. God uses these types of patterns because they work first, but also because we can learn about one and can easily apply what we learned to the others. When Eve was taken from the side of Adam, I am convinced that this was a spiritual pattern that existed before in heaven and that it is a further prophetical pattern to what will occur again. I know all of these assertions are very complex statements and I do not have time to fully explain them all in the level of detail that I need to today. If you are struggling with any of my statements, please be patient and continue to learn as much as you can and hopefully I will cover everything that I need to share as I continue.

Here is where I will start to deviate a little bit from many natural dominated thinking people. I do not believe that a spiritual woman is exactly like what we think of when we think of natural women on the earth. However, I believe that they both certainly do possess very similar characteristics and features. Consider this Greek word G3965 again. It seems to at least imply the existence of a female which can be defined as an entire nation of people (including males and females). This will become increasingly more apparent as I continue today as I attempt to describe to you a spiritual woman in the family of God. I think now is the time to introduce you to the last woman in the family of God. I want to identify her by examining her title as she is called in Matthew 10:35 and Luke 12:53 to be the “daughter-in-law” and then I will search the Bible for God’s usage and definition of this word to find out how the subject is developed in the other key parts of the Bible. Let’s first examine the Greek definition of the word G3565, translated as “daughter-in-law” in Matthew 10:35 and Luke 12:53:

G3565

From a primary but obsolete verb νύπτωnuptō (to veil as a bride; compare the Latin “nupto”, to marry); a young married woman (as veiled), including a betrothed girl; by implication, a son’s wife: – bride, daughter in law.

Here is the Strong’s definition of the Greek word translated as “daughter-in-law” from Matthew 10:35 and Luke 12:53. This definition is also very revealing in what it contains. A daughter-in-law is clearly defined to be a “son’s wife”. Uh Oh, again? Fortunately for us we have a Son in the family of God that is qualified by title to be her husband. She is also synonymously called the “bride” in the sense of a marriage ceremony being performed to someone’s son. Of course Jesus is this Son, but does He also have a wife? I have heard many preachers say that the church is not the Bride of Christ, yet these men speak out and teach in error and prove their ignorance of God and the rest of the subjects under discussion in this lesson. If you have read my other Bible lessons you already know that a covenant is a marriage in the eyes of God (Malachi 2:14, Jeremiah 31:32). If you do not understand this you should go read the lesson series about “Understanding Bible Covenants”. So if Jesus is the Son of God in this family we should be able to recognize that the church is the woman that is now in covenant marriage to Him. Are you in the New Covenant with Jesus? If you answer that question yes, then you are the Bride of Christ. This direct knowledge would make the church the “daughter-in-law” in the family as well as the “daughter”. But, we will need to confirm this information using the Bible rather than to speculate or assume its existence. It is very interesting that this Greek word translated as “daughter-in-law” in Matthew 10:35 and Luke 12:53 is only used a total of 6 other times in the entire N.T. In the majority of every other reference in the Bible when it is used, it is always being associated to Jesus as the Groom with this word being His bride. Do you think that is a clue for us? Let’s go find out. The first time you can find this word (G3565) after Matthew and Luke, it is used in the book of John:

Joh 3:29 He that hath the bride is the bridegroom: but the friend of the bridegroom, which standeth and heareth him, rejoiceth greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice: this my joy therefore is fulfilled.

Here is some very strong evidence for the identities of these two family members in the family of 5 and they are indirectly called the “son” and the “daughter-in-law”. In this verse, John the Baptist is speaking about Jesus and he is describing Jesus to be the “Bridegroom” with the “bride”. The term “bride” here is the exact same Greek word used as “daughter-in-law” from our riddle. John could have actually said, “He that has the daughter-in-law is the bridegroom”. I do not know how it can be any clearer than that. Jesus actually calls Himself the “Bridegroom” in several places like Matthew 9:15, 25:5, Mark 2:19-20 and Luke 5:34-35. I believe this is God’s way of giving us very specific clues about a hidden family structure. God uses very specific words in limited capacity to show us related verses spread out in random patterns. God is definitely revealing the identities of two of the family members directly and others are implied by logical association. For example, you never have a bride without a mother of the bride also existing previously. You never have a son without a mother-in-law of the bride also existing. You will also never have a son without a father and that is everyone in the entire family that Jesus named. It is now time to show you the direct named identity of the bride (daughter-in-law) in the Bible. This is the woman that has married the son in the family of God. Here is another scripture that you need to look at very closely:

Rev 21:2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

Here in this verse we have a bride and her husband directly named. Knowing the definition of the Greek word G3565 (bride), we can easily substitute the word translated here as “bride” for the synonym “daughter-in-law” and make the verse say this legally:

Rev 21:2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a daughter-in-law (bride) adorned for her husband.

Because God has used the exact same word from Matthew 10:35 and Luke 12:53, I believe that God is making a direct confirmation and a connection to who the identity of the bride is, in the family of 5. We can clearly see the connection based upon this titled commonality. Please recall that a commonality is a shared characteristic or feature of two separate entities. But, it also helps us in logical discussions to identify the same entity being spoken of in two different places in the Bible. If we can find enough shared attributes it makes it very easy to conclude that the one is the same as the other. When you are interpreting the Bible, these are the types of clues that you are looking for. You want to find shared connections that help you to establish the truth. God is a highly intelligent being and He never chooses His words randomly. Every word of God has a designed purpose and it is an intentional carrier of the knowledge, understanding and wisdom of God. However, God did not write the Bible in a simple text book style of writing with easily laid out facts and bullet lists of every displayed subject. God intentionally wrote the Bible more in a designed shotgun shell approach that spreads the information out in seemingly random patterns. God did this so that He could conceal the information until the time that it could be revealed.

Let me briefly tell you about two laws of Bible interpretation that will hopefully help you in understanding the Bible. There is the Law of First mention that is used by God to help define a subject under discussion. You can go back and find the first time the subject is mentioned and you should be able to learn something that will help you to understand the entire subject. I use this law frequently in my Bible interpretations and it has never failed me. Conversely by the law of opposition or opposites, if there exists a law of first mention, there must also exist a law of last mention. It is exactly like if you are told about north you must logically assume there exists a south. If the law of first mention introduces you to a subject, then by the law of last mention, the subject must be concluded in those verses. So when I looked up the Greek word translated as “daughter-in-law” I immediately found the last woman with this title in the book of Revelation. Reading in Revelation 21 and 22 she is called this title of “Bride” 3 times and this is conclusive proof that this is the last woman that will be in covenant with the living God. Ok, I just taught you a bunch of stuff in one paragraph that is very important. I pray that you did not let it blow right by you.

What I want you to see is that the bride or the daughter-in-law revealed in this verse in Revelation has a name and this is exactly what we are looking for to solve the riddle. We are intentionally trying to find the names of all of the women in the Family of God and here is the first name that is very important to learn about. I have taught on this subject multiple times in other lessons, so I will not repeat everything all over again, but I will try to hit the important points. The name of the woman is directly called “New Jerusalem”. That is a very revealing and important name. First off the word “new” is an adjective qualifier that separates this Jerusalem from every other Jerusalem. If I say “I have a new car” you immediately know that this car is not the same as my “old car”. I would have to omit the “new” adjective from the statement and say “I just fixed my car” or “look at my car” for you to understand that it could possibly be the same car that I already had. This is a fact that you need to understand completely. To qualify something means you have modified the meaning of the noun and limited the scope of it’s definition or you have restricted the definition by giving everyone a specific case exception. Do you understand this concept? If it was not important, I would not be asking you this question. If you do not understand this concept, please go and look up the word “qualify’ in an online dictionary and find the definition that I have given you and then look for examples of its usage and application. You can also explore the subject of adjectives and see how they are utilized within the English language. What I am trying to say is that the “New Jerusalem” is not the same Jerusalem found throughout the Bible. I do not know why this concept causes many Christians to get confused, but it does do that.

The word “Jerusalem” occurs well over 700 times in the Bible and that is a lot of verses to analyze all of them. It is widely taught by many Christians and theologians that every verse that names Jerusalem is God speaking about the same natural city found in the middle-east today. However, I have discovered a greater truth found in the Bible and we must consider this new information in order to interpret these other 700 verses correctly. The first time “Jerusalem” occurs directly it appears to be in the book of Joshua chapter 10. It would appear reading down the chapter that Jerusalem existed prior to the nation of Israel possessing it. Interesting isn’t it? It would also appear that this city was inhabited by “Jebusites” prior to Israel taking it. It further says in the Bible that before Jerusalem was called by this name it was originally called “Jebus”. The word translated as Jebus means “trodden”. I could very easily get off the main subject and probably write you a book about the subject of Jerusalem, but I will not do that today. What I want you to embrace is a fact that the New Jerusalem in Revelation 21:2 is NOT the same city as most other places that Jerusalem is mentioned in the Bible. The natural city of Jerusalem in the Middle East today is not the city that is described to be coming down from heaven in this verse in Revelation 21:2. There are many reasons that I say that, but I do not have time to explain them all today.

Another aspect that is essential to grasp from Revelation 21:2, is the fact that God says a spiritual woman is a “city”. This concept is very close to the definition of the Greek word G3965 where we discovered a woman could be viewed as a nation of related people. God uses a city as a symbolic representation for a far greater spiritual truth. The book of Revelation is covered with symbolic language and this helps us to understand the unseen spiritual things that are written there. This is also God’s way of giving you a definition without saying this is a definition. Since the city is coming down from heaven we must logically conclude that she is a spiritual representation and not an actual physical city. If you examine the Bible very closely you will observe this is another repeatable pattern found in some very unusual places. A city in the Bible is often referred to as a female, a mother, a daughter, a sister or a bride. For example, a city is again called a woman in Revelation 17:18. However, this woman is named “Mystery Babylon the Great” and she is called the mother of whores. I could give you many more Bible examples of a city being described to be a woman, but I believe I have made my point.

This city in Revelation 21:2 is also called a “Holy” city and that again disqualifies all the other cities with the same name that do not possess the “holy” attribute. These are not hard concepts to grasp; but they are difficult for many religious people to accept because they have been taught wrong. It is many times very difficult to overcome the false doctrines of men because most of them were never taught to intentionally deceive people. Most preachers who teach in error do so out of ignorance and not for intentional evil deception. Many very good Christians have taught erroneous doctrines and totally believed they were true. I guess I need to get back to my main subject.

Let me briefly try to explain exclusion using qualifier words to separate things. If I have 5 cars parked in my driveway and I hand you some car keys and say go drive the “blue” car to the store and buy us some food. With this verbal statement, I have excluded every other car that is not blue. You immediately know that the keys that I just gave you do not fit or start the red car, or the green car, or the yellow car or even the white car. This is what God is doing with the adjectives of “New” and “Holy” and He is describing to you a “city” that never existed before and the keys that He has given to you only fits this “new holy” city. God has linked a “bride” and a “daughter-in-law” directly to a city named Jerusalem and God separates her using two evocative adjectives of holy and new. By the law of opposition or opposites, we understand that this means this bride is not the unholy Jerusalem and neither is she the old or the previous Jerusalem and that is some very powerful hidden information to who the other two women are in the family of God. But we will not get to them until later as we continue to learn. Remember the prophecy of Micah 7:6? It says the daughter will be opposed to her mother and the daughter-in-law will be opposed to her mother-in-law. These are exclusionary acts of God being stated. Since the New Jerusalem is both the daughter and the daughter-in-law we must logically associate that a division is occurring between that which was unholy and that which was old from this newly revealed bride. A separation is occurring of one woman from two other women. God is separating one new city from two other cities. God is separating one new covenant from two previous covenants. Wow, I’m not sure if I should have told you that yet. Hang in there and I’ll prove it all later. Let’s define the word Holy to see what God is saying to us.

H6944

From H6942; a sacred place or thing; rarely abstractly sanctity: – consecrated (thing), dedicated (thing), hallowed (thing), holiness, (X most) holy (X day, portion, thing), saint, sanctuary.

G40

From ἅγοςhagos (an awful thing) compare G53, [H2282]; sacred (physically pure, morally blameless or religious, ceremonially consecrated): – (most) holy (one, thing), saint.

Here are definitions for both the Greek and the Hebrew words translated as “holy”. There are many words here that are relevant to see. To sanctify or to consecrate are both concepts that means to set apart. Again we have the concept of division occurring. It is funny how God repeats patterns in the Bible over and over. The word sanctify comes from another word that means “to make clean”. I cannot personally read any of these definitions and not think of myself and the rest of the church of Jesus Christ. In the Word of God it is the church that are called to be as saints, we have been sanctified and set apart, bought with a price and we were cleansed by the blood of the Lamb. The only “holiness” that humans possess is that which has been freely given to us by the grace of God. However, this free gift of righteousness qualifies us for being holy. I feel very confident that the Church is scripturally qualified to be this Holy City called the New Jerusalem, but we will get more confirming witnesses to help you see it.

1Pe 2:9 But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:

Why does God call the church a “Holy Nation of people”? These are all spiritual names, titles and descriptions of us His new Bride. This bride is however a spiritual woman in covenant with Jesus now. We therefore as a holy nation of people qualify to be the city that is named Holy Jerusalem. I sure hope you are getting what I am teaching today. If you do it is going to help you more than I can say. Once you understand what I am teaching you will know who you are in Christ and what your position of responsibility is in His family. You may continue to read down in Revelation 21 and see two more references to the Bride of Christ that I do not have time to go into today. They basically say the same things that we have already said, but they give us a second witness to the name of the new “daughter’-in-law”. In Revelation 21:9 we are specifically told the husband is the Lamb of God and this connects Jesus to be both the groom and the son in the family. As I continue through this series you will soon begin to see a pattern of cities, women, and covenants that are repeated. The transition will be from spiritual to natural and then back to spiritual and I wish you knew what I knew to understand that statement. Just keep it in mind as you continue to learn.

I want to make an interesting point here for the sake of argument. Is Jesus Christ married to a city of buildings and architectural structures or is He married to the people in the city. Does the city represent people or buildings? What is a city in your definition? Wow, these are tough ones! I have heard several preachers try to claim that the buildings in the city is what makes up the bride for Jesus and since the church is the Body of Christ, they try to tell us that this city is also our bride. But, does God care for building structures or for people structures? Did Jesus die for to save a city or for the people in the city? Perhaps you think that John 3:16 says “God so loved the city of Jerusalem that He gave His only begotten son…”. You should begin to see that Jesus is not in covenant with architectural building structures, He is in covenant with the people that make up this spiritual structure. But it is much more complex than that statement. The Bible tells us that God is building a new city, but it also says that we (the church) are that city:

1Pe 2:5 Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

Hopefully you can see what God is saying in this verse. God is not building a natural building, the city location in Revelation 21:2 was purely a symbolic reference for a greater spiritual truth. We are the living building blocks for God’s new dwelling place. The word translated as “house” is a Greek word G3624 that means “a family”. There are many implied meanings to these words. God is building a New Family structure to replace the old family structure. You could also say based upon what we have learned God is building a Holy family structure to replace the unholy family structure. God qualifies this family to be a Spiritual House and a new Family and that means it is not a natural one or even one that ever existed before. The spiritual dimension is an unseen realm of existence to us presently here in the natural realm. I also want to point out that this New Family being built is associated with Jesus Christ, the Bridegroom, the Lamb of God, the Son of God who is our covenant husband.

Let’s shift our focus on another reference of Christ and His Bride found in the Bible. If you read the fifth chapter of Ephesians very closely you will discover that God is speaking about a dominant subject of marriage in relationship to husbands and wives. Now remember that a wife is always a daughter-in-law so this chapter applies to our study. God talks about this natural subject and says many words of instruction for our benefit. However in this chapter God has intertwined a spiritual reality that also applies to us the church. God then ends the entire discussion with a bomb shell unveiling of a great mystery. Since we are studying about the bride, the daughter-in-law and the marriage to the son we must conclude that this chapter is specifically related to information that we need to understand about our subject. If you read down the entire chapter you will see many things being intermixed between natural things and spiritual things. The natural husband is instructed how to treat his natural wife and the natural wife is instructed how to treat he natural husband. But, during this discussion, God is also speaking about Jesus and the church using the exact same terms. Finally when you get down to verses 30 through 32 God reveals that this is a great mystery and that He is telling us that Jesus is married to His wife the church. If you do not understand this I have many other lessons that go into this in more detail. We have basically seen enough witnesses to confirm the identities of at least 3 of the main family members in the family of 5. So I’ll give you most of this information in a synopsis picture format so that you can see it more clearly or at least visually.

You may not still know who the mother is or who the mother-in-law is, but we will discover those two women in the next lesson hopefully. I know I did not give you every scripture that I could have in order to limit the size of the lesson. So if you would like to understand more of the details about the Bride of Christ being the church you can go read my lesson series called “Understanding the Bride of Christ”. Also read my series called “Understanding the Book Ruth”. You see in the book of Ruth, she is specifically called a “daughter-in-law” and since there are not that many women with this title given to us in the Bible, she must apply to the church as an Old Testament typology and her husband must also be a type of Jesus. Hopefully you know that her husband was Boaz and that he is called the Kinsman redeemer. All of this information fits with us the Gentile church (Ruth) and Jesus Christ (Boaz) our redeemer with amazing accuracy. I think I have gone long enough for today and we will continue in the next lesson to identify the other women called the “mother” and the “mother-in-law”. I hope and pray that you are learning with an open mind. I know it is totally new to you and I know it is complex beyond our imagination. I have been attempting to teach it in concise chunks that are manageable while attempting to simplify the subjects as much as I can. Hopefully after I finish the next two lessons in this series you will have sufficient knowledge and understanding to be able to share it with others. Thanks for taking the time to study the Bible with me and may the God of creation continue to bless you tremendously in your inner man to give you the spiritual eyes to perceive what He wants you to know. Until next time continue to fight the good fight of faith.

If you would like to continue reading in this series, you may go to “Part 7” now!

Posted in Bible Study, God's Spiritual Family, Understanding

Tags: Bible, Christianity, Church, Covenants, Family, God, Jesus, Knowledge, marriage, Prophecy, Religion, Revelation, Truth, understanding, woman

Are there Any Rules in Life to Follow? A Rules Based System To Life!

Sep 19

Posted by agapegeek

(Ver 1.3) This Part 1 in a series of lessons on modern computer concepts that are found in the Bible. If I learned anything from being a computer programmer for over 20 years, I learned that everything in this life has very strict rules or it is useless. In this life you do not get to do everything that you can do just because you can do them. You do not get to drive on any side of the street that you want to. You do not get to drive through any intersection as fast as you want to when you want to. You do not get to do many things because rules exist to keep you from hurting yourself and others. This is the basis of the majority of the problems in this world today. The problems of the world are caused by people who do stuff to other people just because they have the ability or power to do them. It comes from a self-centered ME mentality! The world is all about ME! What I need, what I want, what feels good to ME! People then use their attitudes of Me to take what they need or want from others without thinking about what they are doing to the ones that they are hurting. If everyone takes this attitude, then only the strongest survive to live. This attitude of ME is a self-centered absence of the feelings of the God kind of “LOVE” for anyone else. As long as people care more about themselves than they do about others, they will remain apart from the life of God. Today I want to talk about a computer programming concept called “Rules Based Systems” in relationship to what God and the Bible say about the concepts of them or the absence from them. Why are rules important to live by? Why do rules exist? The Bible is a highly complex book of spiritual information and it cannot be interpreted correctly without knowing God’s rules for interpretation. I’ll start by giving you a definition of this term from the internet:

rule-based systems are used as a way to store and manipulate knowledge to interpret information in a useful way.

I believe that God taught me about rules based systems as I learned computer programming. A rules based system is one that adheres to a strict set of laws in order to work correctly. When I first started learning computer programming in High School, I started with the Basic programming language. I also played with another early computer language called FORTRAN. Then I started working for a company and going to night school to learn mainframe programming. I learned Mainframe Assembler and COBOL and became an expert in both of these languages. This was of course way before there were any PC’s in the world. What I learned from programming languages, is that they have very strict rules that must be followed, or guess what they do not work. You create your program and then compile your program and get nothing but a long list of errors back. This is not fun, when this happens, but it happened a lot until I learned to follow the rules more closely. As I became more detailed oriented, I learned to pay attention to the little things that use to be where I made most of my mistakes. I would just automatically learn to look for them and try not to repeat them. I do not think that I ever got so good that I wrote a new program that complied cleanly the first time, but I did get much better. So why am I describing my work experience to you? Because it helps me more with Bible interpretation and understanding the Bible that you can imagine.

Did you notice two key words in the definition of what a rules based system was? The two key words are “knowledge” and the “interpretation” of the knowledge. A rules based system helps us to process vast amounts of information and then come up with the correct interpretations of that information. So what is the Bible? The Bible is the Spiritual knowledge of God written down in a book for us to read. However, the Bible is widely interpreted in many different ways resulting in contrasting and conflicting points of view. That is probably the major problem in the church today. Everybody has their own opinion to what the Bible means. Why is that? It is because of a complete disregard to the rules of Bible interpretation. Some people know one rule and they sometimes follow it and then sometimes they do not. They are very inconsistent. Other people know of no rules and they are all over the board with their interpretations. Only a few know more than one rule to Bible Interpretation and try to adhere to them consistently.

While I read and studied the Bible, I started to recognize patterns of a rules based system. Since God does not give us a list of the rules in any one place in the Bible, the correct understanding of the Bible must start with figuring out what are the rules that God has established for us to follow. You see I know that every computer language has their own individual set of rules to follow. However, I also learned that many of these rules cross languages and apply to other languages. Even though each language was uniquely defined, the application of the rules applied across the board. So in order to even begin to understand the Bible, you must first establish God’s rules for interpretation and not your rules. This is the first step of understanding God and the Bible.

Do you realize that God follows the rules that He has established? That is the beauties of God; He is a highly intelligent being. His ability is so far beyond our most powerful computer. I see the world around us and I recognize an intelligently designed world full of natural laws, systems and sub-systems. This is the basis of any large complex computer programming system also. Anything with an intelligent design has organization and rules. So why do people not recognize that the Bible is also an intelligently designed rules based system? Obviously they do not understand the importance of rules and following them. If you are a Christian you should be following rules in everything that you do. Following rules does not save you; it just helps you live the life that God intended for you on this earth. Christians who do not follow rules are no different than unsaved people who rob banks because they want money or rape women because it feels good to them. I know that is an extreme examples of bad Bible interpretations, but yet I feel that strongly about the subject. I do not mean to reduce rape and robbery to minor offenses, I hope you understand the point and forgive the analogy.

So what ire my main points today?

Start by Recognizing that the Bible is a Rules Based System.
Then find out what the rules are!
Next follow the rules with all diligence!

When I was computer operator, on the top of our mainframe CPU, there was a big sign that said “THINK”. Wow, if more people would do that one word! To think before you act or speak is a widely ignored talent of many people in the world today. I have many blogs on the subject of Bible Interpretation, I hope you that you will go and read them and then learn to follow them. Life is a rules based system of existence. This is the intelligent design of God. If you learn the rules and follow them there will be great benefits to being a doer of the word of God and not just a hearer only. By learning the rules and following rules I believe that the Body of Christ will finally come into agreement to what the Bible says. So I challenge you today to apply what you’ve read today. By learning rules and living within their guidelines you make the Bible useful as God had intended it to be. You take the words of an intelligent God and you can finally begin to understand them. There is no greater benefit than knowing the real God.

If you would like to continue reading in this series you may go to “Part 2” now.

Posted in Bible Interpretation, Rules

Tags: Bible, Christianity, Church, God, Holy Spirit, Interpretation, Jesus, Prophecy, Religion, Revelation, Truth, woman

Must Women Keep Silent in the Church?

Sep 12

Posted by agapegeek

(Ver 1.6) Some may have noticed that this website does not avoid controversy. I believe we need to learn everything possible about every subject and take on even the difficult or controversial Bible subjects that many like to ignore or abuse. The Bible has some very difficult things written in it and on the surface the subject of a woman teaching and preaching in the church, is certainly viewed as one example of those. Vast numbers of people with limited knowledge of the Bible, have long proclaimed their dominant doctrine over allowing women preachers and teachers, in the church. This is a very legalistic Old Covenant approach to understanding the rest of the Bible and the New Covenant age of Grace. Hopefully everyone understands the Bible is divided into two major divisions of covenant relationship. The Old Covenant is dominated by laws, commandments, rules, and words that were to be followed to the letter. But Jesus came to fulfill this law and He has accomplished this, and in implementing the New Covenant relationship with mankind, He has brought about a brand-new creation that never existed before. Please keep this truth in your mind as a foundation when studying this subject of women’s roles in the church, to avoid extreme legalism.

The Old Covenant legalism viewpoint and attitude is placing all women in only subservient roles that appear to be based upon prejudiced or biased legal opinions. What causes alleged Christian people to think this way? The answer to wrong extreme legal thinking and believing, is not knowing who we all are, “In Christ”.

We should all know and understand that in the Kingdom of God there is always order. God is not a God of chaos, disorder or rebellion. What we will find with diligent Bible study, is that many people that believe women must always be silent in the church forever, only read a very few select, and limited number of scriptures that they whole hardly embrace, proclaiming them as the final basis of all their beliefs on this important subject. This of course forces people to ignore vast numbers of other scriptures that do not align with their desired doctrinal outcome or definition of their beliefs. We must understand that the Bible is a book of more than one scripture, and one truth. One of the greatest errors in understanding the correct interpretation of any subject, is to not take a single truth and make it the only truth higher than all others.

In studying the Bible on any subject, it is very wise to pray and ask the Holy Spirit to guide us into the fuller knowledge of His truth on any subject before we begin to read and study it. Then we must also ask the Holy Spirit to help us balance every verse on the subject, that He leads us to study. Finally ask the Holy Spirit to show us things that we have never seen before on this subject to grow our understanding of His truth.

If in our deep study of any Bible subject, if there is ever one scripture that He leads us to that we have never seen before, and this verse disagrees with our current beliefs, or one verse that we do not completely understand enough about the subject of women, then we must pray and ask again for the Holy Spirit to help us better understand what He wants us to know about that verse. It is only the Holy Spirit that can reveal something as truth, and He can resolve any and every conflict or controversy that we can encounter with other church members. God is the author of the book, and only He knows every verse, and every word and how they apply to the subject of women’s roles in the church.

Let us begin today by asking the Lord, have we ever studied the Bible on every scripture reference on the subject of women in the Bible? Then ask yourself and the Lord, “Do I totally understand every scripture in the Bible on the subject of women?” We should all believe and say that there is no way that any of us have studied and know everything about this complete subject enough to call our self an expert on the subject. The Bible is way too complex for anyone to say they know it all, except for God.

So how is it that there are some people in the church that can get up to teach and claim that women are not permitted to preach or teach in the church based upon their very limited knowledge on the subject? Please ask the question, who died and made these people higher than God to judge anyone else? Is not God the only person living that completely knows and understand the entire Bible to judge anyone? Be as wise as the man in Acts 5:39 “If this be of God, we cannot overthrow it, lest haply you be found to even fight against God”.

It would also be wise for these types of judging people to learn a lesson from the book of Job. God asked Job, “Who is this that darkens my counsel with words with no knowledge?” When people teach that a woman is incapable of teaching or preaching the Word of God, I believe that this implies that they believe women do not have the brains or mental capacity to know or understand the truth of the Word of God. It would also imply that they believe women cannot ever hear from God and therefore should not even be praying to God. In other words, it comes across that women are not able to go directly to God to listen for His leading because they should only go directly through their husbands or the other men in the church first to hear God’s voice. Is this how God operates?

What a potential arrogant, and superior attitude of pride that attitude could possibly represent! It should remind us of the church in the dark ages, when only a trained priest was believed to be capable of understanding the Bible. In these days no one else was even allowed to read the Bible. What controlling spirit in that time of the church age, were they dominated by? Do you remember what Jesus said to the Pharisees? In Luke 11:52, Jesus said “Woe unto you lawyers, for you have taken away the key of knowledge. You have not entered in yourself, and you have hindered those that were entering in”. Perhaps we need to also read Jeremiah 31:34 that is quoted in Hebrews 8:11. In this verse, God writes to the church, that “everyone” will know Him, from the least to the greatest”. This would certainly include women. Therefore, we all know that women hear from God as well as any man.

People can be too dogmatic when it comes to a deep Bible study discussion like this. Please do not be so engrained into a deep trench of traditional human beliefs, that you are dug in too deep to get yourself out of it. What we are going to do is go through some key Bible verses that are often ignored or purposefully overlooked to examine what else God says in regard to references of His usages of women in the Bible and His selected roles for them.

Have you ever had a Godly woman influence you? I can only personally speak a testimony about women that have influenced me. I will tell you that if it were not for good Christian women in the church, I would probably not be here today teaching the Word of God. I believe that it was only because of their direct prayers, help, involvement and their leadings from God in ministry that I am even here today to write this lesson. So, I appreciate whoever God uses and I refuse to put limitations on what God can do through anyone. Let’s focus upon the root scriptures of controversy first:

1Ti 2:11 Let the woman learn in silence with all subjection.

So here we go with the first doctrinal classic verse, about shut up and just learn silently in the church, speech. However, perhaps we need to know some basic facts. The Greek word G1135, translated as “women” is predominately speaking to married wives in relationship to their husbands sitting under the teaching of the Lord’s Word together. This verse must be applied to this application first. With futher study we will discover that Paul is addressing a very specific cultural issue in this verse for the time of the early church. In that culture women sat on one side of the church and men on the other side of the church. This would cause a great number of issues during the church service causing disordered distraction to everyone present. Therefore, Paul wanted everyone to be silent while the Word was going forth.

If anyone is distracted, talking to others while the Word of God is being taught, is anyone learning anything? No, of course not! This was the situation in this letter. Paul was addressing a very specific problem of distraction in a very specific Church, and he was not establishing a broader New Covenant law that women can’t ever talk. If the problem was that it was the males were talking in church, then I believe Paul would have said, you talking and distracting men keep quiet and learn. Humans both male and female were designed by God with a mouth, a mind, and the ability to talk and communicate intelligently, so to say a woman can’t ever talk in church, is very ignorant and domineering.

So now this verse ends in the word “subjection” and this is not a bad word. It means you are “not in control” and you are “not the head”. Everyone on this planet is in subjection to someone or something. This word applies to men equally and as strong as to women. If you have ever been in the military, you understand “subjection”. You follow orders from the day you join to the day you leave. You are not there to do anything but to follow orders. The corporate business world is very similar, but some people do get paid to be creative and come up with new ideas. However, this does not mean they can do whatever they want, whenever they want and to whoever they want. They still have to be submissive to those that they are working for. To be submissive is a normal way of life; it promotes order and a chain of command for authority, and this further designates who has responsibility as well as accountability.

Even the CEO of a large public company is accountable to the stockholders. There is really no one on the earth that is in complete control of anything. Submission is not a negative thing, and it should never be used to force anyone to do anything that they do not want to do or keep them from doing what God calls and desires them to do. Learn from God’s example, the utmost highest Spiritual Being who came to the earth in the flesh and while He was here, He washed the feet of His disciples. Please don’t make yourself better than God. If you are not serving someone else, you have become deceived.

1Ti 2:12 But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.

So here we go with another “Thus saith the Lord”! Oh yea, it doesn’t say God said this, it says Paul said this using the personal pronoun “I’ and that knowledge could make these words mean something very different. Did you know that it is possible, that Paul could have a personal opinion or belief, that could be his own and potentially biased or even wrong? Was Paul God? Did Paul know everything? Remember in 1 Corinthians 13:12 that Paul wrote that he and all of the rest of us are currently only seeing things through a glass darkly, and he personally said, that we only know the truth in “part”. Wow, that is an amazing revelation to apply to each of us personally. We need not think too highly of our self, and we believe that we know and understand everything about any Bible subject.

I would like to give you something new to consider. Did Paul when He was writing his letters, know that his personal words written in letters to his believing friends in churches, that God usee him to establish, were going to be taught in the future as God’s Holy Word and even combined and compiled together into a new greater “New Testament” with other 7 other writers? I personally do not believe that Paul had any knowledge that his personal letters, that were written to his friends in a few churches would be compiled and bound into a new book called the New Testament. If Paul considered these letters to be the official Bible, why would he not have written this in these letters? Also, why are there so many personal references to names of his special friends? Why in 2 Timothy 4:13, does Paul write and ask for someone to bring him his Coat that he left in Troas. He also asks for some special books and parchments to be brought to him. I find these types of personal references, to show us that Paul did not understand that what he was writing was God’s inspired Word. That does not mean it is NOT God’s inspired word, it only means, it is possible that Paul did not know that it was.

If God would have told Paul directly that this was happening, Paul would not have been living by faith, or walking by faith. Paul very clearly said, “the just shall live by faith”, quoting an Old Testament verse. In Acts 17:11 when Paul was preaching, he called the church at Berea more noble because they showed the diligence to verify what he was saying by finding it in the Old Covenant Hebrew writings. This tells us, that Paul believed those written Hebrew words were to be considered God’s inspired scripture containing God’s Word. But it should also tell us that even Paul needed the Old Covenant writings to confirm what he was teaching to the churches. DO NOT misunderstand what is being said, Paul’s words are certainly inspired words, but not all of them are to be considered, “Thus saith the LORD”.

Let us look at some other translations of 1 Timothy 2:12. The Modern King James Version says, “I forbid a woman to teach”. Again this represents a personal opinionated choice of Paul. The New American Standard Bible says, “I do not allow a woman to teach”. No mention of God’s command here either. The American Standard Versions says, “I permit not a woman to teach”. These are all common translations that harmonize together. There is no contradiction between any of the translations that it was only Paul’s opinion being given to the church for that specific day and that specific culture.

Were Paul’s personal views and words shaped by his life’s experiences and the culture of the surrounding world influences? I believe they were just as our views have a basis of our own cultural surroundings and influences. Please do not misunderstand me. I have no doubt that these words were inspired by God to be written down, but I believe that does not mean God said them. If we believe that every word in the Bible is a commandment from God, then we need to understand the Bible a lot more. There are quotations given by Satan who we know is a liar. Therefore, these are not instructions to follow or obey. Then there are a lot of quotes from men like Job, that we should know that he was rebuked by God for saying.

There are literally too many examples to teach them all that are found in the Bible. But I will mention a great example to learn from found in 1 Corinthians 7:6-12. In these verses Paul was very clear to teach us how he literally flipped into writing about his own personal opinion on the subject of marriage and divorce. Uh oh, this is speaking of husbands and wives again like we were reading about in Timothy. Please go and read these verses carefully and observe how Paul said, “I say, not the LORD” and other times “not I, but the Lord says“. This is just one great example that we need to learn from, to show how we must rightly divide the Word of Truth, and how easy it could be to wrongly divide the Word of truth.

Before we continue any further, please go and read the surrounding contextual verses to see what they say and how they fit with women being silent. Notice in verse 9 of 1 Timothy 2, Paul writes that women should dress moderately. So far so good for a lot of church women, but for others even this Pauline suggestion is not followed. But then Paul writes that women should not be wearing gold or pearls. Uh, oh? What just happened, how many women are following these as commandments. All of the sudden we have a Burger King religion of have it our way, or only eat selective doctrines we like from a larger buffet containing some choices that we don’t like. We eat from the words we like and the words we don’t like we leave alone. But to give notice, there are no quotations of “Thus Saith the LORD” in these words either. But we can still learn things to apply to us from them all.

Let’s talk about the Bible cultural influences that could have been used to contribute to the meanings of the Words written on the pages. In ancient days, were women ever in charge of anything when Paul wrote this? You can find a few instances of women like Esther, Jezebel, and Cleopatra who were in the world realm of royal power to have some very significant influence, power and authority for God and the devil. But for the most part, it was a total male-controlled world. There are many religions in the world that still hold to this domineering male philosophy, and I like to watch what the devil does to people in the world to learn from how he wants to pervert things to oppose God’s ways. Satan’s ways are usually the opposite of God’s ways. Satan seems to either want to keep women totally ignorant in a slave type of relationship or exalt them to the top of the food chain and make them run everything independently of male partnership. It is either total submission like in countries of Afghanistan or Iran, or total women’s liberation and independence like in Europe and parts of America. I believe both are perverted wrongs of extremism and the truth of God must be somewhere balanced in the middle. What I would like to say is if Satan uses women for his perversion, who says it is not possible for God to use women for His glory, righteousness and Holy purposes? If God is doing anything that resembles what the devil is trying to do in the world to women, that should raise a concern in our spirit, for us to ask when did God and Satan begin to agree on anything?

Only a few Christian churches seem to have the correct perspective of a balanced approach of the truth being somewhere in the middle. So here is another problem, I have heard from many extreme preachers and teachers that these verses written to Timothy should be interpreted that all women must not teach but rather to sit and keep silent in the church. According to correct Bible interpretation rules I need another witness that says this is the law of truth and so far I have not found it. The Bible says in the mouth of 2 or 3 witnesses let every word be established and here we read one passage and people want to make it the rule of their doctrine and force everyone to adhere to it.

I searched through every N.T. verse that had any form of the word “teach” and this is the only verse that I found with the word woman used in this regard. I find that to be a major problem with some people’s interpretation. If anyone is trying to take one verse out of context and make it a rule of law, that does not work for me. So let’s look at some other verses in the Bible and see what God says about women and see if we can come up with a balanced approach to this subject. Let us turn to the book of Acts and see how the early church is described.

Act 2:17 And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God, I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:

In this verse in Acts, Peter is quoting the Word of God from the Prophet Joel. Right there we learn that this means we will possess two direct witnesses to what this verse says. So we are clearly on a much safer and firmer ground for our interpretation. Do you understand that concept? It is so very important. According to this verse, God will in the last days pour out His Spirit upon “ALL FLESH”! This verse would certainly include both women as well as men as you can clearly see. This verse continues to say that both your sons and your daughters would “prophesy”. So, let’s stop right there and ask the question what does it mean to “prophesy”? Can you or I prophesy in silence? No clearly this verse involves women opening their mouth and making audible sounds that can be heard by anyone present.

What is the difference between teaching people with the spoken words from the Bible which were given by the Spirit of God and prophesying with the words potentially inspired by the Spirit of God in a church? Can you think of any differences? Isn’t prophesying the act of speaking words out loud to someone else so that they can hear them? Then what is the definition of teaching? Isn’t teaching speaking out loud words for other people to hear? It would be useless for a woman to prophesy without someone present to hear her. Uh oh? You can automatically and quickly see that this verse directly conflicts with Paul’s declared command to keep silent. You also have to remember that Paul did not really tell women to keep silent, he said to “learn in silence” and that is something completely different than to never say anything. Let us see another example in the book of Acts that brings further confirmation:

Act 21:9 And the same man had four daughters, virgins, which did prophesy.

These 4 daughters were the children of Phillip the evangelist. We are clearly told that they were able to prophesy to others. This clearly means speaking out loud in an audible voice that can be heard and even directed at the men that were there in the house. Did you know that the early church met in houses? They did not have any synagogues, temples or church buildings to meet at, so they met in houses. If the daughters of Phillip prophesied in the house they were probably doing it during a church service. So we have a huge issue with should a woman always keep silent in the church. Please allow me to ask again, what is the technical difference between teaching and prophesying? Is there a difference? Are not both spoken words directed at listeners? I will also say this, if you do not have women prophesying in your church services, you do not have a complete New Testament church. You have deviated from God’s original plan observed in the book of Acts in favor of your ideas of order. Let us now approach this subject from a new direction and see how God teaches us something new to consider.

Gal 3:26 For ye are all the children of God by faith in Christ Jesus.

According to the Bible, God says that we are all His children. So, does God play favorites? Are the male children preferred above the female children? If you think that they are you are clearly in need of learning the truth. Let us keep reading:

Gal 3:27 For as many of you as have been baptized into Christ have put on Christ.

We can continue down this chapter and see that every Christian has been baptized into Christ and that makes us ALL one with Him equally. This is an all-inclusive statement that includes both males and females. Then notice what God says about us all:

Gal 3:28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus.

So here we go with another paradox and puzzle being presented. God says to us, that In Christ males and females are not different. But in the world, we can all clearly see that males and females are quite different, and even treated as such. This teaches us a new foundational difference, between Christians who are natural thinkers versus Christians who are carnal thinkers. We know in the world there are both males and females, but God claims in the spiritual dimension in Christ, we are all just members of one body. There is no difference within the Spirit realm from each other. I personally believe that men who teach male dominance usually are just very carnally minded individuals who look at external things and do not try to see things spiritually as God sees things.

If ignorant Bible teachers would just please read and study their Bible’s to see things within the Spirit and not in the flesh and how God sees them, they would discover that the church is called the “Bride of the Lamb”. Jesus is plainly revealed to be the Bridegroom of the church in the Spirit realm New Covenant (Luk 5:34-35). If you are a male preacher, does that bother you, to be called a spiritual woman bride of Christ? I think it does to many carnal naturally thinking people. But this means we (the church) are all collectively called one woman in the eyes of God. This is not something new. God did the exact same thing with the natural nation of Israel, calling Himself their husband, implying they were all His wife. So we are all in covenant and in subjection to our Head who is the Lord Jesus Christ (Eph 5:24).

So how can Paul write that women should not teach in one place in the Bible and then write there is no difference between men and women in Christ in another place? If you do not understand the major conflict between these two contrasting and opposing statements, then you do not realize that we have a significant problem that God can only resolve.

Here is my opinion and I usually do not give you my opinion so you do not have to take anything to heart that I say next in this paragraph. I think from a natural perspective that men counseling women or women counseling men privately should never be done under any circumstance. There are just too many potential problems that could occur. I have seen the best married pastors get into physical affairs with women because of this natural physical and emotional attraction that God created within us. Women should counsel women, and men should counsel men. This just makes the most logical and common sense approach to me. So, I believe firmly that counseling between opposite sexed individuals in the privacy of an office type setting should never be done under any circumstances. By avoiding the appearance of evil, men and women will not fall into these types of traps that Satan can use against them. However, what people do in a public church service is not limited by these natural types of rules. That was my opinion and there is no extra charge for that. So let us see what else the Bible says about women:

Tit 2:3 The aged women likewise, that they be in behaviour as becometh holiness, not false accusers, not given to much wine, teachers of good things;

This verse is directed at mature women, but I was shocked at how it ended. To be a teacher of “good” things implies strongly that women have the ability and can teach. In fact, it clearly implies these women should be teachers. It further implies that these women have gained some wisdom that is worthy to be taught to others. Obviously, we have another verse that goes against the broad concept of a “keep silent” verse that some like to focus upon. So, we have another potential conflict of whether women should teach or women should never teach.

Tit 2:4 That they may teach the young women to be sober, to love their husbands, to love their children,

Here we have the follow up to the previous verse and it clearly says that it is OK for women to teach other women. Now it is interesting that this verse directly contradicts again that a woman should keep silent that some try to teach as the only gospel truth. If a woman has the ability to teach another woman, then she must also have the ability to teach anyone (PERIOD)! Any teaching ability is a gifting from the Holy Spirit, and it represents a special anointing given to her from and by God.

I would like you to go back and read chapter 1 of Titus, because in this chapter it is talking about Bishops in the church. God and Paul are clearly talking about women teaching in a church setting and not in a private setting. So instead of denying women who are called of God the right to preach and teach, we should be smart enough to recognize when God is doing something and we should not fight against God. If God is not behind it, it will not matter who it is that is teaching or preaching because there will be no anointing from the Spirit of God and it will eventually fail. My Bible says that unless the Lord builds the house, those that build it labor in vain (Ps 127:1). So if God wants to use a woman, we better bow to the wisdom of God and keep our mouth closed while we learn. Please learn the lesson that people try to only apply to women, learn in silence and we might be amazed at what God says through a woman.

We could go through the Bible from the beginning to the end to find that women play an essential part of the design of God’s purpose for humans. God promises the first woman that it will be a woman and her seed that will bruise the head of Satan with her heel. Wow, that sounds significant. Then at the end of the Bible we find a “Wonder Woman” standing on the moon which is a symbolic representation for Satan with her heels on top. Wow, again! We are seeing that God chose to use a woman to do this job!

Then read through the rest of Bible in between Genesis and Revelation and you will find other women used by God for very significant purposes. To name a couple notice Esther. Without her fulfilling her purpose to become a Gentile king’s wife, there would probably be no nation of Israel. A woman was the center character used by God to accomplish this. Then without Ruth a Gentile Moabite who decided to have faith to leave her nation to join in covenant with her mother-in-law to move to Bethlehem, there may have not been a Grandmother to King David. Read the account about Deborah who was one of the Judges (rulers) during the book of Judges. These are just a few of the women that are noteworthy to from. But there are other noteworthy women of faith like Sarah. Sarah was directly mentioned in Hebrews chapter 11, the Hall of Faith of noteworthy examples of Old Covenant people.

CONCLUSION

Let us review our key verse again that causes many to stumble in the light of what we have just read from other parts of the Bible:

1Ti 2:12 But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in silence.

Let me ask you again, how can a woman keep silent and still prophesy? She can’t! How can a woman teach other women in the church and still keep silent? She can’t! Did you know the word translated as “usurp authority over” is only in the entire Bible this one time in this verse and no other places? According to Strong’s it means “a worker” who acts of themselves. Do you know this is wrong for anyone to do regardless of gender? To act of yourself means to be self-appointed and self-sufficient. This means to promote yourself and raise your own ability to a level above where you should be. Men are guilty of this more than women are guilty of it. So I do not know of any verse in the Bible that says that a woman cannot be called by God, appointed by God, promoted by God and made to be a blessing to others in the church? Today, God has already raised up and promoted several women in the church with large ministries that are way beyond many of the ministries of men on the earth. So please, let us become wise and recognize God’s perspective of truth and please LORD, help me not to judge the message given by the gender of the person delivering the message. Help me LORD, to study what is taught and just see if what is said was what You said in your Word! Help me to learn to see people as You see people and I believe You will be able to cause Your servants to stand or fall.

I’ll end this Bible lesson with an important instruction that God gave to one man and you see if it is something that applies to you also today:

1Sa 16:7 But the LORD said unto Samuel, Look not on his countenance, or on the height of his stature; because I have refused him: for the LORD seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh on the outward appearance, but the LORD looketh on the heart.

Please do not become legalistic and bound by laws of limitations that put God in a box that claims a woman is unable to be used by the Almighty. Thank you for reading, studying and leaving me a comment if you care to. I love you all and I pray for all my readers that He will give unto you the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation in the knowledge of Christ Jesus. Amen.

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Names, Titles, Descriptions and Symbols of the Church in the Bible

Sep 6

Posted by agapegeek

(Ver 2.2) This is my list of the Names, Titles, Descriptions, Types and Symbols for the Church of Jesus Christ. If you are a Christian, this document helps to describe who you are and your place in the Kingdom of God. This is a living document of references to God. It will change and be updated as I find additional scriptures. A Name is a direct reference to the Church. A Title is a given direct identifying appellation signifying status or function. A Description is something that represents something in words. A Type is a real named person, place or thing that can be viewed to apply to a spiritual individual not named. A Symbol is a natural object that describes characteristics or features of a spiritual being you cannot see.

If you have found others that I may have not included yet, please share them in a comment. Thank you and God bless you in advance.

words. A Type is a real named person, place or thing that can be viewed to apply to a pattern of the spiritual individual not directly named. A Symbol is a natural object that describes the characteristics or features of a spiritual being that you cannot see or understand without first understanding the symbol. If you know of other references not named, please share them with me in a comment. Thank you.

Name, Title, Symbol, Type for the Church	Description	Scripture Reference
12 Tribes	New Covenant People in Jesus originating in His 12 Apostles, the fulfilment of Jacob’s 12 sons.	James 1:1;
Abraham’s Seed	Those with Abraham’s type of Faith	Gal 3:29;
Babes	Newborn (born again) Children of God	Mat 11:25; Luke 10:21;
Beloved	The Bride of Christ	Rom 9:25; 2 Ths 2:13;
Blessed of My Father	The Sheep of God’s Pasture	Mat 25:34;
Body, His	Those married in Covenant to Christ	Eph 1:23; Col 1:24;
Body, the	Those who are in Christ	Eph 5:23;
Body of Christ	She Who is Joined and one with Christ	Rom 7:4; 1 Cor 10:16, 12:27; Eph 4:12; Col 2:17
Born Again	Those who are new Children of the Spirit	John 3:3-6; 1 Pet 1:23;
Born of God	Children of the Spirit	1 John 3:9, 4:7, 5:1, 4, 18;
Born of Him	Born Again of the Spirit	1 John 2:29;
Bride	Married to Jesus	John 3:29; Rev 21:2, 9;
Bridechamber, Children of the	Those married in covenant to the bridegroom (Jesus)	Mat 9:15;
Brother	Sibling of eldest brother Jesus Christ	Mat 10:50; Rom 8:29; Heb 2:11, 17;
Called, the	Those chosen by God	Rom 1:6, 8:30, 9:24; 1 Cor 1:24;
Candlestick	Lights in the dark World	Rev 1:20;
Chosen	Those people that have embraced the Calling of God to follow Jesus	Jam 2:5;
Chosen Generation	Highly Favored People	1 Pet 2:9;
Children	Sons and daughters of God	Rom 8:17;
Children, Dear	Those dearly Loved by God	Eph 5:1;
Children of Abraham	A Spiritual family type of Israel	Gal 3:7;
Children of God	Born of the Spirit	Mat 5:9; Rom 8:16, 21; Gal 3:26; 1 Jn 3:10;
Children of Israel	Spiritual Nation of God’s people	Exo 19:6; Hos 2:23;
Children of Light	God is Light, those who are His children	Luk 16:8; John 12:36; Eph 5:8; 1 Th 5:5;
Children of the Day	Those walking in the Light of God	1 Th 5:5;
Children of the Free Woman	A type of the promised child born to Sarah, those who are reborn from the spiritual woman Jerusalem Above	Gal 4:31;
Children of the Living God	Those Born of the Spirit	Rom 9:26;
Children of the Kingdom	Those Who Belong to God’s Kingdom	Mat 13:38;
Children of the Promise	Children of God’s Spoken Word	Rom 9:8, Gal 4:28;
Chosen	Those Favored by God	Eph 1:4; 2 Ths 2:13;
Christ	Those with God’s Anointing and Jesus in their Hearts	2 Cor 6:15;
Christian	A Believer in Christ	Acts 26:28; 1 Pet 4:16;
Christians	Followers of Christ	Act 11:26;
Church, Glorious	Noble and Honorable	Eph 5:27;
Church, My	Those Who Belong to God	Mat 16:18;
Church of Christ	Those who Belong to Jesus	Rom 16:16;
Church of God	Called Out by God	Act 20:28; 1 Cor 1:2, 10:32; 2 Cor 1:1;
Church of the Firstborn	Those gathered in and with Christ Jesus the Firstborn from the dead	Heb 12:23;
Circumcised Heart	God’s children that have been circumcised by the hand of the Spirit	Rom 2:29; Php 3:3; Col 2:11;
City	The home of God within His people	Mat 5:14; Rev 21:23;
City, Faithful	She who will be a faithful wife to God’s Covenant	Isa 1:26;
City of My God	Where God Resides;	Rev 3:12;
City of Righteousness	Those abiding with God who is their righteousness	Isa 1:26;
City of the Lord	Those of the New Jerusalem	Isa 60:14
City Not Forsaken, A	Those pursued by God	Isa 62:12;
Daughter of Jerusalem	The Church who is reborn by the Spirit of God, His Word and the woman Heavenly Jerusalem	Mic 4:8; Zep 3:14; Zec 9:9; Gal 4:26; Heb 12:22;
Daughter of Zion	She who is Born of God	Isa 52:2, 62:11; Mat 21:5; Heb 12:22;
Disciple	The Student of God	Mat 10:24-25;
Ekklesia (Church)	A Calling Out	Mat 18:17; Act 2:47; Rev 22:16;
Elect, The	Those Chosen of God	Mat 24:31;
Faithful Brethren in Christ	Those married to Christ	Col 1:2;
Fellow Citizens	Residents of the City of God	Eph 2:10;
Fellow Heirs	Joint heirs together of God’s Kingdom	Eph 3:6;
Fellow Servant	Working Together in Unison	Rev 22:9;
Field, His	God’s Garden	Mat 13:24;
Flock of God	Those in God’s Pasture	1 Pet 5:2;
Followers	Those that that imitate the Godly examples of others	1 Cor 11:1;
Followers of God	Led By the Spirit	Eph 5:1;
Friends	Jesus Laid Down His Life for Us	Jn 15:13-14;
General Assembly	Universal Congregation	Heb12:23;
Glory and Honor of the Nations	Where God Resides	Rev 21:26
Good Soldier of Jesus Christ	Those in God’s Army	2 Tim 2 :3;
Great City	She Who is Mighty and Strong	Rev 21:10;
Ground, Good	The Good Soil of the Kingdom of God	Mat 13:23;
Habitation of God	The New Jerusalem God’s City of Living Stones	Eph 2:22;
Heir(s)	He Who Inherits	Rom 8:17; Gal 3:29; Gal 4:1; Tit 3:7; 1 Pet 3:7;
Heirs according to the Promise	Those who inherit	Gal 3:29
Heirs of God	Those Who Inherit	Rom 8:17; Gal 4:7;
Heirs of Promise	Those who inherit by an oath	Heb 6:17;
Heirs of Salvation	Those that inherit the Kingdom of God	Heb 1:14;
Heirs of the Kingdom	Those that inherit the Kingdom of God	Jam 2:5;
Holy City	He has made her clean and ready	Isa 52:1; Rev 21”2;
Holy Jerusalem	Blameless City of Jehovah	Revn 21:10;
Holy Nation	Blameless People	Exo 19:6; 1 Pet 2:9;
House, Christ’s	The Dwelling of Christ Jesus	Heb 3:6;
Household of Faith	Those in the Family of God by Faith	Gal 6:10;
Household of God	Those in the Family of God	Eph 2:19;
Household, His	Those in the Family of God	Mat 10:25;
House of God	Where the Spirit of God Lives	1 Tim 3:15;
House of Israel	The Spiritual Israel in Covenant with Jesus	Eze 34:30; Heb 8:8
House of Judah	The Spiritual Jews in Covenant with Jesus	Heb 8:8
In Christ	Those abiding in Jesus Christ	Rom 12:5; 1 Cor 1:2, 3:1 15:22; 2 Cor 1:21, 2:14, 3:14, 5:17; Gal 3:28; Eph 2:6, 2:10, 2:13, 3:6; 2 Tim 3:15;
Isaac	The church called a type of the son of promise being in Christ	Gal 4:28;
Israel	God’s people saved by Grace	Rom 11:26;
Jerusalem	City Redeemed of the Lord	Isa 52:2, 9; Dan 9:25;
Jew	Spiritual type of natural Israel; Circumcised of the Heart	Rom 2:29;
Joined Unto the Lord	The Bride of Christ	1 Cor 6:17;
Joint-Heirs with Christ	Those who Inherit	Rom 8:17;
Just, the	Those Who are Blameless	Mat 13:49;
Kingdom of Priests	Spiritual People	Exo 19:6;
Kings	God’s Royalty	Rev 1:6;
Kings of the Earth	Rulers of the Earth	Rev 1:5, 21:24
Lamb’s Wife, the	Married to Jesus	Rev 21:2, 9;
Light	Those of the Day	2 Cor 6:14; Eph 5:8; Php 2:15;
Light of the World	Those that Teach the Truth and demonstrate the Love of God	Mat 5:14;
Living Stone	The New Jerusalem of God	1 Peter 2:5
Members of Christ	The Body of Christ	1 Cor 6:1;
More than Conquerors	The church in Christ Jesus	Rom 8:37;
Mother	Spiritual Mother of God	Mat 12:50; Gal 4:19; Rev 12:1;
Nation, A	Those of Spiritual Israel	Isa 55:5;
Nations of Them Which are Saved	The Redeemed of the Lord from every nation	Rev 21:24;
New Creature	Those Born of the Spirit	2 Cor 5:17;
New Jerusalem	The Lamb’s Wife	Rev 3:12, 21:2;
One	One consisting of many in Christ	Gal 3:28; Eph 1:10;
One Body	One With Christ by Marriage Covenant;	1 Cor 10:17, 12:12;
One Bread	One With Christ by Covenant	1 Cor 10:17;
Partakers of His Promise	Participants of the union with the Holy Spirit.	Eph 3:6;
Peculiar People	Purchased Possession	Tit 2:15; 1 Pet 2:9;
People, A	God’s Spiritual People	Heb 8:10
People, Holy	Those made blameless	Isa 62:12;
People, My	Spiritual Nation of Israel	Hos 2:23; Rom 9:25;
People Israel, My	Children Born of the Sprit	Mat 2:6;
Pillar in the Temple of My God	Living Stone	Rev 3:12;
Precious Fruit of the Earth	That Which is to Be Harvested	Jam 5:7;
Priests	Those who bring the sacrifice of Praise to God	Rev 1:6;
Priesthood, Holy	Those who bring the sacrifice of Praise to God	1 Pet 2:5;
Purchased (Possession)	Those Bought with the Blood	Act 20:28;
Rachael	The type of the Bride of God’s Week of Work	Gen 29:18
Ransomed of the Lord	Those Bought with the Blood of Jesus	Isaiah 35:10;
Redeemed of the Lord	Those Purchased from the World of Darkness	Psa 107:2; Isa 51:11; 62:12;
Righteous, the	Those Justified by God	Mat 13:43; 1 Pet 3:12;
Righteousness	Those Justified by God	2 Cor 6:14;
Righteousness, Servants of	Those who Serve God’s Purpose	Rom 6:18;
Royal Priesthood	New Covenant Kings and Priests that praise and worship God	1 Pet 2:9;
Ruth	A Type of the Bride of Christ	Ruth
Saints	Sacred, Pure, Blameless	Rom 1:7, 15:25, 16:15; 1 Cor 1:2, 16:1, 15; 2 Cor 1:1, 13:13; Eph 1:1, 2:19, 3:18, 4:12, 6:18; Php 4:22; Col 1:2; 1 Th 3:13;
Saints In Christ Jesus	Those blameless in Christ	Php 1:1;
Saints in Light	Those blameless in God	Col 1:12;
Salt of the Earth	Those who flavor and preserve	Mat 5:12;
Same Body, the	Joined members of the same body	Eph 3:6;
Saved	Those redeemed from Satan’s kingdom	Rom 8:24; 1 Cor 15:2; 2 Cor 2:15;
Seed, Abraham’s	Those of spiritual Father Abraham	Gal 3:29;
Seed, Good	Those planted by God	Mat 13:38;
Seed, the	Those of the Promise of Abraham	Rom 9:8;
Servant	Those in service to God	Mat 10:24;
Sheep	Those in God’s Flock sorted at the right Hand of God	Mat 25:33; Heb 13:20; 1 Pet 2:25;
Sheep, My	Those people dedicated to follow the Good Shepherd	Jn 10:14; Jn 21:16
Sister	The Sibling of Christ	Mat 12:50;
Sister Spouse	Sister Married to Christ	Song 4:9-10, 12; 5:1
Sons of God	Those Born of the Spirit	Jn 1:12, Rom 8:14, 8:19; Gal 4:6; Php 2:15; 1 John 3:1-2;
Sons of the Living God	Born of the Spirit	Hos 1:10;
Sought Out	Those pursued by God	Isa 62:12
Spiritual House	The New Jerusalem God’s dwelling place	1 Pet 2:5;
Spouse	The Bride of the Son of God Jesus	Song 4:8, 11;
Sweet Savor	Pleasant aroma of Praise to God	2 Cor 2:15;
Tabernacle, the	God’s Eternal Temple	Rev 21:3;
Temple of God, the	God’s Dwelling Place	1 Cor 3:16;
Temple of the Holy Ghost, the	God’s Holy Living City	1 Cor 3:19;
They which are written in the Lambs Book of Life	The Church	Rev 21:27;
Tree, Good	Those who produce Fruit of the Spirit	Mat 7:17-18;
Tree of the Field	Those that bear fruit for God	Eze 34:27;
True Worshipper	Those people in the Spirit	Jn 4:23;
Twelve Tribes, the	The Spiritual Israel of God	Jam 1:1;
Vessels	Those of the House in Honor	2 Tim 2:20;
Vessels of Mercy	A saved human	Rom 9:23;
Way, the	Believers walking and following the Good Shepherd in the narrow path of eternal life	Gen 3:24; Mat 3:3; Mat 7:14; Act 9:2, Act 16:17;
Wheat, the	That which is planted by God for Harvest	Mat 13:30;
Wife	The Church aka the Bride of Jesus	Eph 5:25, 5:31-32;
Woman, A	The Bride of Christ	Rev 12:1
Workman, A	God’s faithful servants	2 Tim 2:15;
Zion, the	Those of the New Jerusalem	Isa 60:14;

If you would like to read other reference documents about Names, Titles, Descriptions and Symbols here are some others that are available:

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Tags: Bible, Bride, Christianity, Church, God, Holy Spirit, Interpretation, Jesus, Prophecy, Religion, Revelation, Symbolism, understanding, woman

Names, Titles, Descriptions and Symbols of Jerusalem in the Bible

Sep 3

Posted by agapegeek

(ver 2.0) This is Part 4 in a series of reference documents revealing the multiple Names, Titles, Descriptions and Symbols of Spiritual Individuals in the Bible. This lesson will focus only on the subject verses describing Jerusalem found in the Bible. This is a living document of references to Jerusalem and it will change and be updated as I am led to additional scriptures. A Name is a direct reference to the individual. A Title is a given direct identifying appellation signifying status or function. A Description is something that represents the individual in expressive words. A Type is a real named person, place or thing that can be viewed to apply to a pattern of the spiritual individual not directly named. A Symbol is a natural object that describes the characteristics or features of a spiritual being that you cannot see or understand without first understanding the symbol.

Jerusalem is a central subject of the Bible and the capital of Israel located in the Middle East today. Jerusalem is also a major city revealed in end time prophecy. This city has captured the attention of the entire world. Jerusalem is mentioned in the Bible directly around 767 times and indirectly many other times. However, it is very important for you to know that there is more than one city named Jerusalem in the Bible. In fact there are 3 separate and distinct cities all with this exact name. Knowing this information complicates correct Bible interpretation significantly. You must be wise enough to know which Jerusalem God is talking about when you see the name “Jerusalem” by itself. You may be asking yourself what are these three cities named Jerusalem and I will give you a quick lesson on them:

The Jerusalem that now is as revealed in Galatians 4:25 and in multiple other verses and the primary subject of this document.
The Jerusalem Above revealed in Galatians 4:26 and is called the Heavenly Jerusalem in Hebrews 12:22.
The New Jerusalem revealed as the Lamb’s wife in Revelation 3:12 and 21:2.

From these references you should be able to recognize the existence of three cities named Jerusalem. This document will primarily focus on the one reference of the Jerusalem on the earth that now is. If you have seen other verses that I have not found yet for Jerusalem, please share them with me in a comment. Thank you.

Name, Title, Symbol, Type for Jerusalem	Description	Scripture Reference
Abomination	Disgusting Idol Worshipper	Ezekiel 9:4; Ezekiel 16:2, 36, 51, 58; Ezekiel 22:2, 23:36; 33:29; Malachi 2:11; Revelation 17:4-5
Adulteress	Unfaithful Wife	Jeremiah 3:1; Jeremiah 5:7; Ezekiel 16:32; Ezekiel 23:45; Hosea 3:1
Afflicted	Depressed Woman	Isaiah 51:21
Aholibah	My Tent is In Her; Whore	Ezekiel 23:4
Ariel	The Symbolic Name of Jerusalem	Isaiah 29:1-7
Babylon	The Whore	1 Peter 5:13
Bad City	Wicked City	Ezra 4:12
Birthed in Land of Canaan	Where She was born	Eze 16:3;
Bloody City	Those that Kill the Prophets	Ezekiel 22:2, 24:6,9; Nahum 3:1
Bond Woman	Spiritual Hagar Egyptian Slave	Galatian 4:24-25, 30-31
Burdensome Stone	Load Carrier	Zec 12:3;
Castle of Zion	The Net or Snare of Zion	1 Chron 11:5;
City	Inhabited by the Children of Israel	Judges 1:8; 2 Kings 23:27; Psalm 122:3; Zec 14:2; Jeremiah 26:9
City, Chosen	Highly Favored of Jehovah	1 Kings 11:36; 1 Kings 14:21; 2 Kings 23:27; 2 Chron 12:13
City of a Stranger	Home of the Jebusites	Judges 19:12
City of David	David the Great King’s City	1 Kings 8:1; 2 Kings 9:28; 2 Kings 14:20’ 2 Kings 23:27; 1 Chron 11:5; 2 Chron 5:2; 2 Chron 21:20; Isaiah 22:9;
City, Faithful	She who is faithful to God	Isaiah 1:26;
City of Righteousness	The inhabitants have God’s righteousness	Isaiah 1:26;
City of the Great King	City of David	Matthew 5:35;
City of the Jebusites	Inhabited by the trodden	Judges 19:11; 1 Chron 11:4;
City Where David Dwelt	The City of David the King	Isaiah 29:1;
City Which Is Called By Thy Name	Married to Jehovah	Daniel 9:18;
City Which Killed Jesus our Lord	Those Who the shed Blood of God is On their Hands	Mat 16:21; Rev 11:8;
Covent Breakers	Those Who Broke Covent with God	Eze 16:59; Romans 1:31;
Curse, A	City which is cursed	Jeremiah 26:6;
Daughter	Female born of a woman	Ezekiel 23:2;
Daughter of an Amortie	Her Father was a Canaanitish Mountain Tribe;	Ezekiel 16:3, 45;
Daughter of a Hittite	Her Mother was a terrorist; Fear and Terror	Ezekiel 16:3, 45;
Desolate	Waste Land	Jeremiah 26:8
Desolate City	Jerusalem laid waste	Eze 26:19
Desolation	Waste Land	Zep 2:15;
Divorced Woman	She that was Put Away	Isaiah 50:1; Jeremiah 3:8; Hosea 2:2
Dross	Backsliders; Those who draw back; Refuse of the furnace	Ezekiel 22:18-19;
Drunken	She Who is Drunk	Isaiah 51:21: Jeremiah 13:13; Ezekiel 23:33;
Egypt	Spiritual Name for Jerusalem; Where she played the Whore in Her youth	Hosea 11:1; Revelation 11:8
Evil	Moral Wickedness	Jeremiah 25:5
Evil Figs	The Spoiled Fruit	Jeremiah 24:8;
Family Know of God	She who was married to Jehovah	Amos 3:2;
Faithful City	She who was faithful in Marriage	Isaiah 1:21;
Filthiness	Not Gold; uncleanness	Ezekiel 16:36; Ezekiel 22:15; Zephan 3:1; Revelation 17:4
Filthy	Disobedient and Rebellious	Zep 3:1;
Fornicator	Lover of Idols	2 Chronicles 21:11; Ezekiel 16:15;
Fuel to the Fire	She which is consumed by the Lord	Ezekiel 21:32;
Gomorrah	Spiritual name of Jerusalem;	Isaiah 1:9-10; Jeremiah 23:14;
Great City	She which was Great	Jeremiah 22:8; Revelation 11:8; Revelation 17:18;
Hagar	The Egyptian Bond Woman; slave girl	Galatian 4:24-25
Harlot	The unfaithful woman	Isaiah 1:21; Jeremiah 3:1: Ezekiel 16:15; Ezekiel 16:35, 41; Ezekiel 23:19;Ezekiel 23:44; Hosea 2:5; Hosea 4:15;
Harlot, Well-favored	Beautiful Adulteress	Nahum 3:4;
Heifer	Female Cow	Hosea 10:11
Her with My Name	The Name of Jehovah shall be on her	1 Kings 11:36; 1 Kings 14:21; 2 Kings 23:27; 2 Chron 12:13; Jeremiah 25:29
Holy City	Sacred	Neh 11:1
Imperious Whorish Woman	Vixen Adulteress	Ezekiel 16:30
Israel After the Flesh	Natural Nation of Israel	1 Cor 6:18;
Jebus	Aboriginal Name of Jerusalem; Trodden	Judges 19:10; 1 Chr 11:4;
Jebusi	Trodden inhabitants of Jerusalem	Joshua 18:28
Jebusite	Trodden Amorites	Joshua 15:8;
Jerusalem Which Now Is	Earthly Jerusalem	Galatians 4:25
Jeshurun	Symbolic Name of Israel	Deu 32:15, 33:5, 33:26; Isa 44:2;
Jews	Those of Judah	Romans 2:17;
Jezebel	A type of the False Religion of Adultery and Idols	Revelation 2:20;
Killer of the Prophets	Murderer of Those Who Are Sent To You	Matthew 23:37; Luke 13:34
Lewd Woman	The Adulteress Wife	Ezekiel 23:44;
Married Wife	She who has a husband	Isaiah 54:1
Mistress of Witchcrafts	She who is deceived by Magic	Nahum 3:4
Mocking to All Nations	She who is ridiculed;	Ezekiel 22:4;
Mother	She who has born Children	Isaiah 50:1; Hosea 2:5; Matthew 23:37; Luke 13:34; Galatian 4:25
Mother of Harlots	Her Children are like her	Revelation 17:5
Mother’s Daughter	The female child; like mother like daughter	Ezekiel 16:45;
Mt Sinai	Where the Law Given to Moses	Galatians 4:24-25;
Mystery Babylon the Great	The Whore	Revelation 17:5
Oppressing City	The City who is proud and violent	Zep 3:1;
Oppression, Wholly	She who has unjust gain; deceitfully obtained	Jeremiah 6:6;
Polluted	Trodden Down	Ezekiel 16:6; Zep 3:1
Rahab	The Harlot, spiritual type of Jerusalem	Psalm 89:10; Isaiah 51:9
Rebellious House	She who is disobedient and has become an enemy	Ezekiel 17:1, 24:3;
Rejoicing City	Joyous City	Zep 2:15;
Reproach to the Heathen	Disgrace to the Gentiles;	Ezekiel 22:4;
Salem	Peaceful the pattern and roots of Jerusalem	Genesis 14:18;
Seed of Evildoers	Fruit of Ungodliness	Isaiah 1:4;
Shalem	Early Name of Jerusalem	Gen 33:18;
Sinful Kingdom	A people to be destroyed	Amos 9:8;
Sinful Nation	A people led astray	Isaiah 1:4;
Sister	Woman with Siblings	Ezekiel 16:46;
Sister of Judah	The sister	Jeremiah 3:1;
Sister of thy Sisters	Sin runs in the family	Ezekiel 16:45;
Slayer of Innocent Blood	The City that Killed Jesus	Jeremiah 26:15;
Smitten	To Strike Down	Ezekiel 33:21;
Sodom	Spiritual Name for Jerusalem;	Isaiah 1:9-10; Jeremiah 23:14; Ezekiel 16:46-49; Revelation 11:8
Thy Mother’s Daughter	Daughter of a Hittite (terror)	Eze 16:45
Uncleanness	Religious filth	Ezekiel 36:17;
Where Our Lord Was Crucified	Jesus was hung on the cross there	Rev 11:8
Whore	Adulteress Idol Worshipper	Ezekiel 16:33-34
Whore, Great	Adulteress Idol Worshipper	Revelation 17:1;
Wife	She who is married to Jehovah	Jeremiah 3:20, 31:32; Ezekiel 16:8; Ezekiel 16:32;
Woman	The Great City	Ezekiel 23:44; Revelation 17:18
Woman, Removed	Unclean Woman	Ezekiel 36:17;
Woman Who Breaks Wedlock	The Unfaithful wife of Jehovah	Ezekiel 16:38;

If you would like to read other reference documents about Names, Titles, Descriptions and Symbols here are some others that are available:

Posted in Bible Study, Jerusalem, Understanding

Tags: Bible, Christianity, Church, Covenants, God, Holy Spirit, Israel, Jerusalem, Jesus, Prophecy, Religion, Revelation, Symbolism, understanding, woman

Understanding Seeds in the Bible! How are Spiritual Babies Conceived? Part 9

Aug 22

Posted by agapegeek

(Ver 1.4) I have been doing a series of Bible lessons on the significance of understanding how Seeds work. Only by understanding how natural seeds work, can we really ever focus on how spiritual things operate. God gave us the natural things in our world to teach us about the unseen spiritual things using the wisdom of His intelligent design. Using many Bible verses and the Seed laws from Genesis 1 I have explored several subjects applying the knowledge of seeds to other scriptures in the New Testament. We have discovered that the Bible says there are multiple things that are all referred to by the title of a “seed”. This is just one of God’s techniques of concealing the truth in plain sight. God calls many things by the same name, title or description. This makes it more difficult for the reader to determine what type of seed He is talking about. From our study we have seen that there are natural seeds, like fruit seeds or grass seeds mentioned in the Bible. We have seen children called seeds all over the Bible. We have seen the male sperm called his seed. We have seen spiritual spiritual things like God’s Word being labeled as the seeds that are spread by teachers in the spiritual soil of man’s heart. We have discovered that there exists two types of seeds in the Bible; one is the Good Seed and other is called the Bad or Evil Seed. By pattern association we can conlude these can be representative of the good words from God versus evil words from Satan. The Good seed was always sown by God exclusively and the evil seed was always sown by his enemy Satan. These are such important concepts to fully grasp. If you have not been reading this series from the beginning you should stop and go back to start reading with “Part 1” first. If you haven’t read from the beginning you have just missed more than I can possibly teach you in my simple introduction.

Today I want to discuss the previous seed concepts and seed laws in more detail to apply them to how a person becomes a Christian. I have alluded to this subject before in other lessons, but I will address it more completely today filling in some gaps. We have already seen that Jesus told us that the most important parable to fully understand is the Parable of the Sower. From this parable we should now know that God’s Word was the seed that the sower was spreading. We also learned that the soil in this parable was always the hearts or spirits of the men and women in the world. There were 6 revealed types of soil presented to us in this parable; 3 types of soil did not produce spiritual fruit and 3 types of soil did produce spiritual fruit in varying degrees of multiplication. This parable demonstrates Salvation to us very clearly and fully describes how you became a Christian. Those that hear the Word of God and allow other factors (spirits, natural attartions, etc) over rule their decision to be a Christian are those that were not saved. Those that hear the Word of God, understand it and choose to believe it, they are the ones that are saved and born again. All of this is really not that complex to me but I guess many people have not understood it and therefore do not apply it to the subject of how people become Christians.

So based upon the intimate knowledge of this parable of the sower, it would appear to me that the more Word of God we know the more fruitful we will become. Conversely the less you know about God’s Word seals your fate to hell. You do understand this don’t you? Jesus teaching the parable of the sower was Jesus spreading the Word of God to the entire world. Every man, woman and child born from Adam represents the symbolic soil that is responsible to allow or permit God’s seed to be planted. It is much more the human rejection of the Word of God (the Seed) from the soil (the spirit) that causes people to go to hell than anything else that they will ever do. People like to think that sin is the key factor for going to hell, but this is simly not the case based upon the Word of God. The Bible says that everyone has sinned and come short of the glory of God (Rom 3:22). If everyone is a sinner there must be another factor for who is saved and who is not and it basically boils down to what type of soil we each choose to be. Do you realize that only you make the choices in your own life and for your life? I can’t do it for you, your wife can’t do it for you, your mother can’t do it for you and even God can’t and will not do it for you either. Do you also know that you have a spiritual enemy that is helping you to make the wrong choices? Only by studying the Bible can we better recognize the devices, plans and traps of this spiritual enemy. Only by continuing to study in the Bible are you able to grow and mature to being the overcomer that God has designed you to be. God is expecting to come back for a victorious church and not a defeated church.

So the Parable of the Sower gives us the basic overview for the whole plan of God for our Salvation. Jesus told us to “Go into all of the world and Preach the Gospel AKA the Word of God” (Mk 16:15). By preaching the Word of God you are sowing the Seed of the Word of God into the hearts of more people who can choose to let it grow. This is salvation or damnation in action. The soil decides its outcome and what kind of fruit that it produces. Let’s look at this in action in the Bible:

1Co 3:6 I have planted , Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.

The Apostle Paul is writing to the church at Corinth and to you and I. Paul says that He has planted. So what does it mean to plant something? What was planted? As you can clearly see these are seed concepts that are repeated for us. Maybe you do not understand these concepts fully because you have never planted a natural garden in your back yard, but I have. You always start the process by putting seeds in the soil and you then conintue the process by watering the soil and they grow over time into something that you desired to have. If you look back at the previous verse you will see that Paul and Apollos were “ministers”. A minister is anyone that sows God’s Word by God’s design. If you hear someone speak in church that is not teaching from the Bible they are not a minister of God. If you go to a church and the speaker is teaching from a Reader’s Digest you need to find another church that works like God said it should. Paul sowed only from the Word of God to the people in Corinth and they believed it. Then there came along another preacher named Apollos and he watered the seed that was in the hearts/spirits of the people with more of the Word of God and this helped the seed to continue to grow. But, it says that it was God that gave the increase. In other words God caused His Word to Grow! Therefore only God gets any glory in the salvation of any man. Do you understand that no farmer can take credit for what is grown in his field? Does the farmer understand how corn is produced from seed? Did the farmer create the seed that produces the corn crop? I think you can see that he did not. Neither a farmer or a minister created the seed they are sowing or invented the growth process that takes place, only God did this. They just plant the seeds, water them and watch them grow like it was magic. However, this is just the designed seed process from God using His created Seed. This is a really amazing concept of how the spiritual New Birth process works. It is a partnership effort with God working through men and women who preach to spread the Seed of the Word of God. So the man that is planting the seed is not that important, it is only the word of God being planted that is the critically important part of the process. It is really a paradox and a puzzle, without men and women sowing the word of God no one would ever be saved. However, without the Word of God no one is saved either. If you are sowing seeds of Buddhism no one will be saved no matter how much you teach on it. If you are sowing the seeds of Islam you are sowing words that never produce salvation. If you are sowing the words of Judaism you are also not going to be saved. It is not very good news for any world religion out there; God made only One Way into the Kingdom of Heaven and that was through His Son Jesus Christ. So do not throw stones at me, I’m just a farm messenger. I did not write the Bible!

1Pe 1:23 Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever.

So I think I have given this verse before in another lesson on seeds, but it bears repeating for our current discussion on how people are born again. The fact that we have been “Born Again” is attributable to us receiving the incorruptible Seed of the Word of God into our spirits. There are two terms given to us by God in this verse that are critical to understand. These are “Corruptible” vs. “Incorruptible”. The term corruptible means able to “decay” and you can state this to be equivalent to a man’s mortal body. The natural realm is a temporary realm of decaying particles. The laws of thermodynamics dictate that everything around us is decaying and not reorganizing like evolutionists like to believe. If you build a new car today and never drive it; it will become a pile of rusted metal in the course of time. The opposite of mortal is immortal. We have been born again from an immortal seed. You may recall that Jesus said “heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away” (Mat 24:35). So the Word of God is immortal, and not capable of being eliminated. The Word of God is the incorruptible SEED that causes us to be born again spiritually.

Corruptible seed can be viewed as either a physical or a spiritual type of seed. The sperm of a man is a corruptible natural seed. But also the spiritual words (seeds) of Satan are also considered to be corruptible towards the human spirit. Jesus never says that the words of your enemy Satan will stand forever. So every false teaching and false religion will be eliminated someday. So we now have a dilemma of sorts of how to discuss natural things so that we do not offend anyone by comparing them to spiritual things. You see if being Born Again is s comparable pattern to being born in the natural the first time, then how are natural babies conceived? You can begin to see my difficulty, can’t you? God created sex for a reason and it wasn’t just to make you feel good. Sex is a part of the reproductive pattern of new life on our planet. So sex must be related to new spiritual life also. So how does natural sex relate to the spiritual New Birth? That is where we are today in this discussion. Get ready for a new concept that you may have never though of:

Gen 4:1 And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD.

We are informed that Adam “knew” his wife Eve and she conceived his physical seed. This is God’s definition of natural sex in the Bible. By the law of first mention, God again gives us the definition of what it means to conceive revealed in terms of spiritual information and descriptions. God could have described this act differently, but He specifically chose this Hebew word translated as “knew”. The definition of this word is therefore very critical for us to understand in order to see how it applies to spiritual things like being born again. The Hebrew Word translated as “knew” means “to ascertain by seeing”. This is truly complex because men are visual types of people, they like to see. Women are not visual people and they do not want to see anything generally speaking. There is a widely used term for natural sex that is called “carnal knowledge” and this phrase is more in the line with the spiritual realm information that we need to apply correctly instead of thinking of the human term “intercourse”. We need to correctly transfer God’s definition of sex as “knowling” into the spiritual New Birth process. We should be able to see using our knowledge of the Parable of the Sower that in order for any human to be born again, they must have “spiritual knowledge” with the Lord God’s Word (Seed). This is not sex as you are thinking right now is it? However it is still spiritual sex according God’s definition of the act. The human ability to “see spiritually” God’s Words causes them to conceive it. However don’t forget there still exists an enemy to that salvation process trying to steal the seed from being sown. The success or failure of the salvation seed process is completely dependent upon the fact that some people understand the Word of God and some people do not. This enemy’s method of causing some people not to understand is revealed more clearly in the New Testament scripture that says “the god of this world has blinded the minds of them that believe not” (2 Cor 4:4). You see spiritual blindness is the inability to see or literally understand spiritual things. If you recall in the parable of the sower, Satan came immediately to steal the Word of God that was sown in their heart and he was able to do this only because they did not understand it (Mat 13:19). Therefore, spiritual eyesight is the key to having spiritual knowledge and understanding. I could talk a lot more about that part of the subject, but I’m running long in this lesson. I do pray that you are following me on these points and beginning to understand how people are born again. Let me end this lesson with one more verse from Paul:

Gal 4:19 My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you,

So here we have another very difficult complex deep scripture to try to swim through. The apostle Paul is not a natural female yet he speaks in the terms of being a spiritual female. Can you see this? Only females give birth, yes? According to what I have seen in the Bible God created only females to give birth. So what exactly is Paul talking about? Paul is saying I have spread God’s seed into your hearts by teaching God’s Word to you and I am now waiting for Christ to be formed in you as a result. What is the key to this spiritual birth happening? It was the spiritual ability to see or the “spiritual knowledge” of the person who heard the word of God that will determine whether they will conceive Christ and be born again. Paul can sow all of the seed he wants to, but none of it will grow unless the soil of the hearer allows it to stay by understanding what was said. You can easily see how that you can read verses in the Bible and totally miss what is said, can’t you? You can also see that there is an implied reality that Paul is a part of a spiritual woman, called the Bride of Christ. So the complexity of the Bible is so great that it causes many people to stumble. People will never see the spiritual truth of God’s Word trying to figure it out using only their natural minds. What we can see is that Paul’s conversion on the road to Damascus was not the be all and end all for his Christian experience. He was now responsible for getting more people born again by sowing the incorruptible seed of the Word of God. Getting more people Born Again of the Incorruptible Seed, that is the goal of every Christian. This is the expansion of the new spiritual family of God and the multiplication of the Spiritual Seed of God by sowing the Incorruptible Seed into new soil. Today’s lesson has been some of the basic Bible ideas of how people are born again using the laws and concepts surrounding Seeds in the Bible. I know I did not cover everything that I could have, I know I left out many verses that could have been included, but I did the best that I could in a limited time and space forum. God Bless you to see and to understand His Word! Thank you for your time in studying the Bible.

If you would like to continue reading this series of lessons on seeds you can go to “Part 10“.

Posted in Bible Study, Seeds, Understanding

6 Comments

Tags: Bible, Bride, Christianity, Church, God, Holy Spirit, Interpretation, Jesus, Prophecy, Religion, Revelation, Salvation, Satan, Truth, understanding, woman

Understanding the Virgin Birth of Jesus Christ! Part 2

Jul 14

Posted by agapegeek

(Ver 1.1) This is now Part 2 of a series of Bible lessons on the importance of believing in the virgin birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Many people who call themselves Christians like to try to convince you that they are believers, however they have been deceived into believing a lie from Satan. These are those that pretend that it is not important to believe in the Virgin Birth and they like to make you think that it doesn’t matter to your salvation either. I believe I showed using the Bible how wrong they are in the first part of this lesson. If you have no virgin birth, you have no basis for your salvation, you have no confidence in your savior then you are standing on very shaky ground. These types of people are called the spirit of “Anti-Christ”, those who are controlled by spiritual beings that are not from God and who do not represent God. They teach that God has not come into the world in the flesh and thus they nullify the salvation that was freely given to them. If you have not read the first part of this series you should go back now and start with “Part 1“. Today I want to talk about some other aspects of the virgin birth and give you some new perspectives to think about. So let’s go back to Matthew and look at what God says to us about the virgin birth:

Mat 1:20 But while he thought on these things, behold, the angel of the Lord appeared unto him in a dream, saying, Joseph, thou son of David, fear not to take unto thee Mary thy wife: for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost.

Joseph the future husband of Mary is said to have had a dream where an angel from God appears to him. In this dream the angel informs him that is OK to take this woman as his wife, because the child that is inside of her is from the Holy Ghost. This is the key reason for why it is important to believe in the virgin birth. The son that will be born of this natural woman, Mary will be the Son of God. So the child was a result of a union between God’s seed and Mary’s human egg. The resulting DNA would be unlike any man, except for Adam. You have to think and ask questions when you study the Bible. Where did Adam get his DNA? Where did Adam get his blood? Where did Adam get his spirit? All of these had to originate from God. So was Adam a son of God? Was Adam an older brother of Jesus? I believe according to the genealogy of Jesus in Luke, both of these are true. The DNA of Jesus Christ had to be a combination of His natural father and mother, Adam and Eve and his heavenly Father God. Jesus Christ was uniquely God and man in perfect unison. The Blood of Jesus was a result of the union between God and Mary. This is why God could promise David that one of his son’s would sit on his throne forever. Jesus Christ was the Son of Adam, the Son of Abraham, the Son of David, and the Son of God all at the same time. We know from scripture that being born of a virgin is God’s legal entrance into the world in a physical form. God could not legally come into the world and pay for our sins any other way according to the Bible. This is what Jesus taught us:

Joh 10:1 Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that entereth not by the door into the sheepfold, but climbeth up some other way, the same is a thief and a robber.

In this verse in John, Jesus is discussing the world and the legal entrances into the world. The world is described as a symbolic sheepfold. According to Jesus the only legal way into the world is to enter through the door/gate. If you have never studied the Bible on the subject of gates, you should. You see this word for door also means a gate. You see if you build a fence around your house to keep stuff in or to keep stuff out of your yard, you always build into the fence gates that allows you to come and go easily. That is a basic concept that God created and man just uses. The subject of gates is a complex subject and one that covers many aspects that appear to be related, but yet are very different. Jesus said “I am the door”, meaning He was the way to God, but this is not the same door that he is talking about in John 10:1. The legal entrance into this world is being born here of a woman. You see a physical woman’s body has a legal portal entry point into the world that we live in. This natural gate is a two way gate, both an entrance and exit. People’s mouths are also called gates in the Bible. The mouth can allow food in and also speak words out, so it is also a two way gate of the human body. Other orifices of the body are only one way gates. Only expelling things or only taking things in. If you never studied about gates, you should you might be surprised at what you learn from God. Being born in the world gives you rights to salvation. Jesus told us that “You must be born again”. Meaning you must be born first naturally, and then born again spiritually if you want salvation. Jesus being born of a woman gave God certain rights to provide salvation to all of humanity.

Let’s go back to the dream of Joseph and the first chapter of Matthew where it tells us about the birth of Jesus Christ. In this dream the angel tells Joseph that the words of God must be fulfilled. These words were spoken through the prophet Isaiah and we looked at these words in the first lesson on this subject. So Joseph took hold of the words spoken to him by the angel in the dream and decided to take Mary to be his wife. Then it tells us this about their relationship:

Mat 1:25 And knew her not till she had brought forth her firstborn son: and he called his name JESUS.

I do not know any husbands who do not have sex with their wives. But, clearly this is what this verse is saying. However, it does not say he never had sex with Mary, it only says not until after Jesus was born. Why is that important? I asked myself that question and had a difficult time coming up with an answer. Once you are pregnant, you cannot get pregnant again, no matter how many times you have sex. This is just a basic fact on human biology that you might already know. You see when God includes something in the Bible it is important, even though it is not mentioned again directly. I really do not want to get graphic here, but I believe it is important to understand. A woman as a virgin has a piece of skin that at least partially covers the opening to her vagina. There is no medical purpose for this piece of skin, but yet it is mentioned in the Bible a few times as evidence that a woman was a virgin when she was on her honeymoon. You can see that the bed sheets are presented as proof to her virginity. This small covering piece of skin is designed by God to produce blood when broken or torn during intercourse. Why did God do this? Everything that God does, has a purpose and a reason for existing. I believe that this is a natural pattern for a spiritual reality. The breaking of the female skin and the shedding of blood is representative of a covenant act between a husband and a wife. This is the foundation of a blood covenant relationship between two individuals. But, what would happen to this small piece of skin during the birth of a child if it was present? I believe that the same thing would have happened as if her husband would have had sex with her the first time, it would be torn and bled. Let us see what the Bible says about the birth of Jesus and see if this is in fact what happened:

1Jn 5:5 Who is he that overcometh the world, but he that believeth that Jesus is the Son of God?

As you can see God is talking about the virgin birth. God then says that those who overcome the world are those who believe that Jesus is the Son of God. So did God think it was not important to believe in the virgin birth? Obviously not! You can clearly see that those who do not overcome the world are stated as being those who do not believe in the virgin birth. Uh Oh? I think some people have a real problem to think about.

1Jn 5:6 This is he that came by water and blood, even Jesus Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood. And it is the Spirit that beareth witness, because the Spirit is truth.

So what does the Bible say about the virgin birth? Again you have to use your brain, just a little bit to see what God is saying. When a woman has a baby, and it comes time to deliver, she experiences something that is popularly called “her water breaking”. This results in a mess and this is a normal part of every child born on this planet. The water breaking is just another natural thing that God has designed to teach us something that we should see. Did you notice what God said in this verse? God says that Jesus did not come with just a water breaking mess, but Jesus came with the evidence of a virgin birth and that was the shedding of her blood. Notice NOT Jesus’ blood, I said her blood. Jesus when being birthed naturally would have broken the hymen of Mary and thus caused her blood to flow. Why is this important to include in the Bible? Obviously many people think that it is not important, however there it is.

1Jn 5:7 For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.

Now why does God always change the subject? Or did He? God tells us that there exists three in heaven, the Father, the Word and the Holy Ghost and these three are all One! What we have is the trinity being described to us in very specific terms. We can conclude that since the context of this verse is preceded with verses about the virgin birth of Christ that we are going to learn some new information about this. Then we see this statement being made:

1Jn 5:8 And there are three that bear witness in earth, the Spirit, and the water, and the blood: and these three agree in one.

So we have a new mystery being presented to us, one that is certainly difficult to relate to. Humans are described as being triune beings also but really we are just talking about Jesus and the virgin birth in a new light. The Spirit in this verse is the Holy Spirit which impregnated the natural woman Mary. The water is the natural birth process every human experiences in entering into this world. But the blood is only present for Jesus, the son of God born of a virgin. So we have God, the father, God the Word, and God the Holy Ghost coming into the world in the body of a man named Jesus, born of a virgin woman named Mary.

These 3 Bear Witness in Heaven

God the Father = God the Word = God the Holy Ghost

These 3 Bear Witness in the Earth

Spirit = Water = Blood

So what is God telling us about the virgin birth? God is saying we have 3 witnesses in heaven and 3 witnesses in the earth that the virgin birth happened just like He said it did. A witness is someone who testifies in a court of law to what they have seen. Because Jesus was born of a virgin, He came into the world with witnesses that prove His works. However, you still have an opportunity to not believe it and remain a spiritually blind man. . In my next blog we will review verses about how God used Paul to write about the virgin birth of Jesus Christ in indirect terminology.

If you would like to continue reading in this series you may go to “Part 3“.

Posted in Bible Study, Understanding, Virgin Birth

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Tags: Bible, Christianity, Church, God, Holy Spirit, Interpretation, Jesus, Prophecy, Religion, Revelation, woman

The Hidden Jesus in Genesis! Jesus Revealed in the Hidden Patterns of Genesis!

Jun 21

Posted by agapegeek

(Ver 1.5) Jesus makes a very profound and awesome statement in the Gospels while He was speaking to the people of the natural nation of Israel. These are such tremendously important words that we (Christians) need to grasp and fully understand what they say and what they mean. Please read with me this statement spoken by the Almighty God personally to humans:

Joh 5:39 Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of me.

A witness is someone who testifies in court of law. A witness in a court of law is someone who comes in and testifies about what they know, what they have seen or for something as an expert that is relevant and pertains to the case in question. An expert witness in a court case is someone who can speak with a certain level of authority on the specific related subject about the case. So God’s claim in this verse appears to indicate that the Bible is an expert witness for God’s case that He is presenting to us about the existence of Jesus Christ and His true identity. We should be able to clearly see what God is saying about the purpose of the Bible. God claims that the Old Testament contained hidden information about who Jesus was and what He is going to accomplish before He was done. Jesus also clearly informed us that we needed to search the scriptures to find this information. If we are required to become a “Sherlock Holmes” type of Christian doing a search of the written word in order to find these facts, that would mean that this information is not always clearly presented on the initial surface reading. This would also indicate that the information about Jesus was purposely hidden either from someone or for someone like us to find. For example, why do parents hide Easter eggs for their young children? Is it to protect the candy from being discovered? No actually it is more for the fun of seeing their children search for them with eager expectations of finding them. The purpose of hiding eggs is not to keep the children from ever finding the candy but it does simply create a challenge for them that provides the parents the pleasure of seeing the excitement derived from their discovery. This is a key concept that is needed to fully grasp about the words found in the Old Testament. The Bible contains literally many hidden secrets about Jesus and these concealed clues were placed there by our Heavenly Father for us (His children) to search and discover.

The Law of Moses was given to Israel on Mt Sinai and they carried these words for many hundreds of years. The Jewish people preserved them and cared for them and then when the author of the book appeared before them in the flesh they killed him. Why is this, I asked myself? I can see Jesus in the Old Testament, why couldn’t they see Jesus in the same way? That of course is a really good question to consider. I would guess that it is extremely more difficult to see what you do not know personally exists. For Christians who know Jesus personally, they have a much greater advantage over the people in Jesus’ days on the earth. They did not know Him like we can know Him so it is much easier for us to discover Jesus in the hidden verses in O.T. books like Genesis. The rest of this lesson will be about something that I have blogged on before, but maybe not in this direct context and under this specific title. This lesson will focus on the hidden Jesus in Genesis and I will give you at least three really good examples of Him that maybe you have not seen before. I will focus only on the first two chapters of Genesis and you will certainly be amazed if you can see it. Before, we start, I pray that the eyes of your understanding be opened and enlightened to see God’s truth.

Genesis 1:1

Let’s start with Genesis 1:1, where it says “In the beginning God created, the heaven and the earth”. Did you know Jesus was Hidden in this verse in Genesis by the Author? However, unless you read and study it in the original Hebrew language you probably did not specifically know this. The 4th word of the original Hebrew text is a word that has been completely omitted from the English translation and this one word reveals Jesus in this verse in a very profound way. The Hebrew word omitted in this verse is actually not a real word at all and thus the reason for the omission of a translation to the English language. The translators simply did not understand what to do with it, so they omitted it. This omitted word consists of only two Hebrew letters. These two letters are the “alef” and the “tav”. These two Hebrew letters just so happen to be the very first and very last letters of the Hebrew alphabet. Does that help you to see Jesus better now? What I am saying is that Genesis 1:1 should have read “In the beginning the A-Z God created the heavens and the earth”. The translators did not understand the significance and they ignored the word being connected to the name of God.

Rev 1:8 I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come, the Almighty.

This new information should start to illuminate many spiritual light bulbs inside your heart and mind. You see , here in the book of Revelation chapter 1 and verse 8 Jesus calls Himself the “Alpha and the Omega”. It just so happens that these are also the very first and very last letters of an alphabet, but here it is of the Greek Alphabet. If the translators would have converted these two Greek letters to English properly Jesus would have said “I am the A and the Z”. Now do you see the connection more clearly? Also consider the fact that Jesus was a Hebrew. He spoke predominately Hebrew to the Jewish people. Therefore, when spoken this verse in Revelation could have been written in Hebrew and said “I am the Alef and the Tav”. Since it was written in Greek the Apostle John did the inspired thing to convert into Greek letters from the original spoken Hebrew. The English translators could have followed His example and legally translated it as the A and the Z.

What God is doing is revealing who created the world that we live in. Jesus Christ was the Word of God and He created ALL things that we can see and observe. Without Him was nothing that was made, made (John 1:1-3). So Jesus is clearly identified as the creator God, the “A-Z God” who created everything that was created. This is a very profound and priceless conformation of the identity of the Messiah to be the man Jesus Christ. In the Beginning the A-Z God created the heavens and the earth. That is how this verse should have read, now let’s go find Jesus in some other verses in Genesis.

Genesis 1:15-19 Day 4 of Creation

Gen 1:14 And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years:
Gen 1:15 And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so.
Gen 1:16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also.
Gen 1:17 And God set them in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth,
Gen 1:18 And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was good.
Gen 1:19 And the evening and the morning were the fourth day.

I want to skip down in chapter 1 of Genesis to the described Day 4 of creation. This day is one of the most important hidden references to Jesus in all of Genesis. I do not profess to know every hidden reference to Jesus in Genesis, but I feel this one is one of the most important to see based upon my current understanding of the Bible. You see on Day 4 of the creation account, God tells us of two opposing lights. What God is doing is speaking symbolically and prophetically in these verses about Jesus Christ and what will be accomplished by His appearance on the earth.

In studying the days of creation I learned that every day of creation represented a prophetic day of man’s future on the earth. Since the beginning of Adam’s creation it has been approximately 6000 years. 6000 years can be divided evenly by 1000 giving us an answer of 6. These 6 equal periods of 1000 years represent a prophetic day in the definition of God’s timetable for man. We learn in 2 Peter 3:8 where God gives us a definition of a prophetic day that is a direct quote of a verse found in Psalm 90:4. God defines that a day to Him is exactly like 1000 years to humans. So the 6 days of creation plus the 7th day of God’s rest turn out to be prophetic days of all of man’s history on the earth. So what happens on the 4th day of creation? God assigns a greater light to rule the day and a lesser light to rule the night. The greater light is of course a synonymous title for the Sun and the lesser light is certainly the moon. But, God is not talking about only natural things, God is prophesying about two spiritual kingdoms to come. Jesus was born on the earth some 4000 years after Adam and this can be easily translated as during the time of the 4th day of creation. God is prophesying that Jesus will rule the kingdom of day and be the Sun light of our world. God is further stating that Satan (the symbolic moon) will rule the kingdom of the night and all those people that live in this darkness. There are so many scriptures that can be found in the Bible that speak of this profound revelation. I will not attempt to give you them all, but I will go through a few to get you started. You can read other blogs that I have written to find more information on this subject. Or just search your Bible on your phone or computer and look for words like night, day, darkness and light.

Mal 4:2 But unto you that fear my name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in his wings; and ye shall go forth, and grow up as calves of the stall.

In Malachi 4:2 Jesus Christ is prophesied as coming again in a very similar way that was being described in Genesis 1. Here Jesus is called the “Sun of Righteousness” that will “arise”. In this verse He is not spoken of as the “Son of God”, but here He is in direct connection to being the “Sun of God”. You can understand that God is speaking symbolically again about far greater spiritual truths. These are clues to knowing the truth but we are required to search and put them together correctly with the Lord’s help of course.

Joh 1:7 The same came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all men through him might believe.
Joh 1:8 He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.
Joh 1:9 That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.

In John 1:7-9, the Bible talks about John the Baptist and Jesus and calls Jesus the “True Light” in verse 9. You see if you think about this logically you can see that our sun in the sky is our physical natural true light that rules over the day and the moon represents the opposite realm that rules over the night. This is a direct comparison of the two great lights in the sky mentioned in Genesis 1. In John 8:12 Jesus is speaking and He calls himself the “Light of the World”. He then says that those who follow Him will not walk in darkness (night) where the unstated moon (Satan) rules. You can again see a spiritual reference to a truth that is revealed in Genesis on the 4th day of creation. These opposing truths are called Day vs. night, the Sun vs. the moon, and the Light vs. the darkness. These are all symbolic representations of the hearts and spirits of men and women in the world today. Two spiritual dimensions and conditions that are directly opposed to each other and ruled by opposite spirits. Again in John 12:46 Jesus says, “I am come as a light to the world, that those who believe in me should not abide in darkness”. Jesus says those who do not follow Christ and His ways are those that are walking and living in the darkness and who are ruled by the night and Satan. This CANNOT be speaking of Christians. There is absolutely no logical way this can come close to the truth for those that believe the moon represents Christians. I have heard this belief from several people before, but it just does not balance with scriptures. A Christian is either ruled by Jesus in the Day or governed and ruled by Satan in the darkness..

2Pe 1:19 We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts:

Here we have another great verse that declares Jesus to be the Sun that arises and shines in human hearts to light our spirits so that we can see and understand His truth. Notice the keyword connection “arise” given here that matches what Malachi prophesied about the “Sun of Righteousness”. That is NOT a coincidence. These are all profound confirmations to the 4th day of creation. Notice that this verse in 2 Peter is speaking about previously written prophetic words concerning a light arising in a previously named dark place. We have to search and look for these words and find them, could this be those that we found mentioned in Genesis and Malachi? All you have to do is read it and see what it says about these two lights to see how much is related to what we have observed.

That is part of the difficulty in correct Bible interpretation. The Sun is called by many different names, titles and descriptions in the Bible so we have to be wise enough to see the connections and find them all using God’s help. In Genesis the Sun is called the “Greater Light”. In John the Spiritual Sun was called the “True Light”. Here in 2 Peter the Sun is called the “Day Star”. You do understand that our sun is our closest star to our planet and normally this start is the only one we can see during daylight hours? These are just some of the ways that God uses to hide information in the Bible for us to find. In Revelation 22:16 you can see Jesus being called the “Bright and Morning Star”. This again is a new symbolic reference to the Sun in Genesis 1 and Malachi 4 that arises in the hearts of men. These are all extremely important things to learn and to understand. I hope and pray that was sufficient to at least motivate you to go learn more.

Genesis 2 Adam and Eve

Another way God uses stories in the Old Testament to hide spiritual information concerning Jesus is through the use of typology. These are true natural stories of real natural people, places and things that have greater spiritual meanings attached to them to reveal to us hidden things that we cannot see. Sometimes types and shadows can be hard to recognize and difficult to discover or understand. However, God has given to us some clues in the Bible to help us and to point us to what to look for. Always trust the Holy Spirit to help you in your Bible study. He is the only one that truly knows what it means. In the 2nd chapter of Genesis God gives us the detailed account of the creation of man and of the woman, the law of marriage and the story of the beginning of the first human family on the planet. This entire chapter is a more detailed view of Day 6 of creation described in Genesis 1. Why is this detail information important and how does this relate to the claim of Jesus to be hidden in Genesis? That is a really good question. So here is the beginning of the primary reason why this is so important to know:

1Co 15:45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.

Here is a direct clue from God showing us a direct connection between two different men both called Adam. This verse compares the first created man Adam to the man Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ here is being called the “Last Adam”. Why is that? What you discover when you study Genesis 2, is that the first natural man Adam was a natural pattern for the last spiritual man Adam that was to come. So whatever God did to and for the first man Adam, is what will happen to the Last Man Adam in the spiritual realm. That of course is some totally new information to many Christians and it may be hard to accept at first, but just keep studying and you will see that it is true.

God created Adam’s wife and took her body from his body. You will recall God put Adam asleep and took from his side the bone to create a woman. As a result of what God did, Adam says “She is now bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh”. In other words, Eve was called the “body of Adam”. According to the law of marriage given to us in Genesis 2, it says “The man shall leave his father and mother and cleave to his wife and the two shall become one flesh”. One flesh is just another way of saying “One Body”. Many people know that the Church is called the Body of Christ in the N.T. and yet they do not know how we became the Body of Christ. We can answer this mystery very easily if we see that by the law of marriage and the pattern of the first man Adam Genesis 2, the church has now become the Body of Jesus by a new covenant of marriage. You can see this very clearly by reading verses in Ephesians 5 about husbands and wives and then God reveals that this is a mystery that concerns Christ and the church.

Remember when Jesus was hanging on the cross? He died on that cross and in the N.T. this is often referred to as being asleep (1 Cor 11:30, 1 Cor 15:51). Jesus Christ being dead (asleep) on the cross was pierced in His side by a Roman soldier’s spear. Does this sound familiar to what we read in Genesis 2? Out of His side flowed Blood and Water. These are two powerful elements of our salvation to become His bride. Jesus Christ is the spiritual Last Adam who marries a wife who becomes His Body born out of His side. Because Eve is a woman that births every natural and physical being on this planet she represents a natural type of another spiritual woman who will birth spiritual realities in God’s new covenant family. I have many other blogs that talk about this in much more depth if you are interested.

Gal 4:19 My little children, of whom I travail in birth again until Christ be formed in you,

Conclusion

These were just 3 of the examples of the hidden Jesus in Genesis chapters 1 and 2. I hope that you learned something and can now begin to see how to learn to search out other hidden references to Jesus in Genesis trusting in God’s guidance. Many times these hidden references are not obvious at all, so we have to search for scriptures and find references, definitions, types and patterns revealed in other parts of the Bible. Jesus told us to search the scriptures, for these are they that testify of Him! The evidence for God can be found in His Word. God Bless!

Posted in Jesus

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Tags: Bible, Bride, Christianity, Church, Covenants, creation, Genesis, God, Holy Spirit, Interpretation, Jesus, marriage, Prophecy, Revelation, Satan, Symbolism, understanding, woman

Understanding God’s Spiritual Family Structure!

Mar 30

Posted by agapegeek

(Ver 2.0) This is “Part 1” in a series of very important advanced spiritual Bible lessons that will change your life and outlook on God and His Holy Word if you permit Him to do so. Do you know what a family is? How do we define a family in the modern world? Satan is diligently attempting to pervert the family definition and corrupt God’s original design but these lies still do not take away from God’s truth. Reading the Bible we can very clearly see that God created a specific family unit system and a very specific designed family structure here on the earth. Was this family design something brand new or was it patterned after something in heaven that already existed? Please let me give you a verse of great importance as a foundation to this entire series. It is found in the Book of Luke and is understood to have been spoken directly by Jesus quoting from an obscure minor prophet name Micah:

Luk 12:53 The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother in law against her daughter in law, and the daughter in law against her mother in law.

Ok, this is the mystery verse that initiated this Bible study series. I have given it to you first to help you anticipate where God is taking us. When I read this verse a tremendous curiosity to what God was speaking of filled my heart. I just had a great desire to go and search the Bible to find out the answer to the mystery being spoken of by the Lord Jesus was. I prayed and asked God to help me to understand and step by step over several years He taught me so very much about His Spiritual Family. After this study. a lot more of the Bible came into focus and was so much more understandable than before.

God created the first family of our current world system and this event is described to us in Genesis chapters 1 and 2. Take a moment and read these verses again. You should be able to observe that this created first family unit only consisted of one man called the husband and one woman called his wife. It is also important to note where the woman came from. The woman came from the body of her husband and was not created or formed separately or independently from her husband. This truth will become more important as you learn what this represents in the family of God. This earthly created family grew and expanded into numerous children and eventually became very large in numbers. In the terms of the current estimated human population on the earth today, the family of Adam has now grown to and exceeded nearly 7 billion people. We must therefore conclude from this very solid scriptural information that a real family by God’s definition and design is comprised of a single man, a solitary woman and at least some children. Does God have a spiritual family like this? Did God ever have a spiritual family that was the pattern for this created family of Adam? Here is a new question to also consider, what will the family of God look like at the end? Will the ending spiritual family of God in Revelation 22 be the same pattern of what has already come before? If you did not know it yet, God had a family exactly like this in heaven prior to creation and this is exactly how it will end up in the final chapter of Revelation. Therefore the original design of God’s family in the spiritual realm will be how the final family of God will also be patterned in the eternal spiritual realm after this world that we live within is completed.

God in the Bible is defined to be an eternal Spirit being but, the natural universe that we are now a part of, it had a created starting origination point also called a beginning (Genesis 1:1, John 1:1). Therefore, I believe that whatever God created here in the natural realm must have originated from the pre-existing spiritual realm. I believe from years of Bible study that whatever was made manifest here in the natural realm had to be patterned from that which already existed in the eternal spiritual world. I know that you may not yet understand patterns and I will give you a good introduction to pattern concepts before I continue this lesson on the spiritual family of God. Can we at least begin by agreeing that the spiritual realm existed prior to the physical/natural realm? Surely we can understand the concept of patterns by reading Genesis 1. Lets talk about light in Genesis 1 and where it came from! God is defined to us in the Bible as “light” where no darkness exists (1 Jn 1:5). Using this information we can go and look at Genesis 1:2 and see that there was no light found to be present on the earth and darkness covered the face of the deep. However, remember that the Creator God was called a spiritual light and He definitely pre-existed in heaven before creation took place. In Genesis 1:3 God said “Light Be” and light then came into existence within the natural realm. What was this natural light patterned from? If God was the spiritual light found in heaven, then it must have been patterned after God. How do I know that? Well if you read the end of the book you will see in Revelation 22:5 that we will have no need for the sun, moon or stars or even candles because God will be our source for eternal light again. What I have tried to demonstrate is how light had to exist in the spiritual realm first, and was then made manifest in the natural realm from a pattern of the spiritual dimension and then will again finally be transferred back into the completed spiritual realm of light in the end with no need for the natural anymore. Did you understand that? It is so important that you fully grasp these cycles of repeated pattern concepts.

What we are trying to do in this introduction of the subject is to establish that patterns were created by God for us to learn about hidden new spiritual things from the Heavenly. Spiritual Light had to eternally exist in heaven originating from God prior to the creation of the natural light here in this dimension. God in heaven had to be their only source for light because that is how it will end up in the end. Do remember what Jesus said? Jesus said “I am the alpha and the omega, the beginning and the end” (Rev 1:8). Jesus was saying that how it was in the beginning is how it will end up at the end because the Lord changes not (Mal 3:6). We also learn from reading in Ecclesiastes 1:9 that God says “the thing that has been is that which will be again…” In this verse God claims there are repeated patterns. Therefore what pre-existed in heaven has now come into existence on the temporary earth in natural terms and after this age is completed the spiritual light of God will again be our only source for light.

I pray that we all understand these essential concepts. We have just learned based upon the verse in Revelation 1:8, Malachi 3:6 and Ecclesiastes 1:9 that how it was in heaven before the earth’s existence is at the least potentially how it is designed by God to be in the end and if not, then God has changed and must have lied to us in His word. So let me ask you this “Which came first, the spiritual or the natural”? If you answered the spiritual you would be correct. Then let me ask you “How will it end up”? Do you understand what I am trying to teach here today in this introduction? It is very much like the old human question which came first the chicken or the egg? In this classic human debate, people ask how can a chicken arrive on the earth without coming through an egg? Then the argument goes into a circular debate, how then did the egg get here without a chicken to lay it? What people fail to understand is that there was a more intelligent God than they are that was also involved in the entire process. That is a key point to remember in reading the rest of this lesson series. This more intelligent Creator God has some pretty amazing things hidden in the Bible that reveal many of the answers to the questions that we have all had at one time about things in the Bible and in the world around us.

I hope that you are beginning to see some new patterns revealed in the Bible how God teaches us that certain specific things existed in heaven before they ever existed here on the earth. Perhaps I should regress and speak briefly about what humans use patterns for in our natural world. A seamstress will use patterns to create new dresses, shirts, pants, or other pieces of clothing. Each usage of the pattern replicates the original design using whatever fabric or customizations that are desired to produce the final product. To the untrained eye it is often difficult to recognize several products that come from the same pattern. However to the expert it is usually obvious. This is exactly how the Bible is also, what I see as an obvious pattern will often be overlooked by a novice Bible student. Where do you think man learned the use of design patterned concepts in what they create in the natural? Since man was made in the image and likeness of God (Gen 1:26) it is clear to me that what man does that is successful and beneficial here in the natural must have originated from what God has previously done in the spiritual. People use patterns in almost every manufacturing and building process. It is a dominant business working model and best practice for success. Therefore, learn the lesson of patterns because I will be talking about them a lot in this lesson series.

I could give you many other verses to help establish the pattern truth in the Bible, but I am going to skip most of these verses to keep this lesson manageable and give you a couple of examples that are directly related to what I am trying to teach about this subject on the spiritual family of God. Begin today in this lesson by understanding that God created the natural things found in this world to give us insight into the unseen pre-existing spiritual things. What God created and how God created it reveal things that have been hidden since the foundation of the world. Another way to say this is that God created natural things as a vision, or view or a window into the unseen spiritual dimension. Here is a verse that might help you to better follow what I am saying:

Rom 1:20 For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse:

This is an amazing verse of truth being presented to us from God. It speaks clearly and directly about the things that God created in the beginning. God said that the hidden qualities of God can be clearly observed within the views of our current natural creation. This would include the design, the components, the systems, the laws, the organization and the structure of our planet, the world and the universe around us. That is some highly informative information. God says that you can look around you and find the hidden characteristics of God in the things that surround you everywhere. This of course does not mean that we worship creation and ignore the Creator and that is what many in the government, Hollywood and TV do. What God is telling us in this verse is that the most isolated men in the darkest, deepest parts of the world who have never heard the Gospel preached are without excuse. Meaning they could easily find God, if they only looked closely around them and saw Him. This is technically only possible if the natural realm contains patterns from the spiritual realm. In the book of Hebrews chapter 11, God speaks to us about Enoch who walked with God and was taken because of his extreme close relationship with God. Let’s read this verse and then consider what it teaches us:

Heb 11:5 By faith Enoch was translated that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.

Did you ever think and consider that there were no preachers, no churches, no Bibles, no witnesses to the truth and nobody to talk with to confirm that there was a God when Enoch was alive? If you do the calculations from the dates and times of birth you will find that even Adam had died when Enoch was taken up to be with God. Thereofre, even Adam who talked with God in the garden was no longer avaliable to consult on the existence of God. In fact in John 6:46 Jesus teaches us that no man including Adam and Enoch had ever seen God directly. How then did Enoch find this God and know Him so very well? I think that is a really good question to consider. Is this type of relationship with God still possible today for men to know God in this level of intimacy that God still takes us up? If you did not know it, it will happen very soon again and you could be possibly left behind like those in Enoch’s day. I believe it is possible for you to know God exactly like Enoch knew God and even greater! So let’s get back on the subject of God’s Spiritual Family Structure and prove this concept using the Bible that God had one of these in heaven.

Mat 10:25 It is enough for the disciple that he be as his master, and the servant as his lord. If they have called the master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his household?

Here in this verse in Matthew, Jesus is speaking to the disciples. This verse has great information within it, as long as you do not overlook what it says. Jesus is calling himself the Master and the Lord. He then tells the disciples that if the Jews said that the Master of the House is “Satan”, how much more will the servants and the members of the household be also called “Satan”. There are two very important key words found in this verse of scripture. First, is the word “master of the house” and this Greek word means the “Head of the Family”. Jesus is the Head of a New Family of God. The next key word is “household”. This Greek word means “relatives” and those that live in the same “house”. It implies a close relationship between the “Head of the House” and those who are part of His family.

So apparently God does have a spiritual family, with family members, relatives if you please that live in the same house. These relatives are us, the church now and here is another important verse that confirms this statement of truth:

Eph 2:19 Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God;

We can clearly see two contrasting groups of people being spoken of in this verse. One group of people are called “strangers” and “foreigners”. Have you ever been to a family reunion and not known some of the people there? Usually you know everyone that is present at the family reunion. However, if you come from a really big family you might sometimes not know every new child that is born since the last time you have gotten together. Then other family members marry new spouses and the family continues to grows and it can be challenging to keep track of everyone all the time. Nevertheless, what would you call someone who just shows up at your family party that no one there knows? They would be called a stranger to everyone. This was the exact way of God’s spiritual family when we were not saved, we were once foreign strangers to God’s spiritual family. Until we were saved, we were not members of that spiritual family, so something must have occured for us to be known by God’s family. This verse in Ephesians ends with a statement that we (the church) are now in the “household” of God. Again this Greek word, means that we are now a member of the family and even a close relative of the same family or household. Something changed or happened to put you into this family of God. Do you remember what that was? If you do not you are in trouble. If you have not been saved, you are not a member of this spiritual family. These verses imply that not everyone will be saved, so those that teach Universal Salvation have a major theological problem that they must just ignore.

Now I am going to introduce you to a verse in the Bible that I have already alluded to. Maybe you did not realize it, but Jesus has establish a New family of God. Why do I say that? Because the Bible seems to imply that the Old family of God had some significant problems with it.

Heb 3:6 But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.

Here we have another important verse that has great revelation if we choose to see it. Jesus Christ the risen Son of God is said to be the head or master of a new spiritual house (family). Did you know the Hebrew word for Son (H1121) is “ben” and it literally means a builder of the family name? Therefore, Jesus being a Hebrew walked the face of the planet and called Himself both the Son of God and the Son of Man. What we discover from this new information is that Jesus is a unique product combination and the manifestation of a son from two separate and distinct dimensions. One dimension was spiritual (Son of God) and the other dimension was physical (Son of Man) and Jesus embodies both of these realms simultaneously as a qualified Family Builder and name extender. Wow, I do not really know if you heard what I said but it was important. Therefore, only Jesus was capable of rebuilding a new family and restoring the natural family of Adam after he sinned and the spiritual family of God to create a brand new family that consists of chosen select members of each of these previous dimensions, while omitting and leaving out those that God does not desire in. That is very tricky and extremely intelligent, if you ask me.

Did God have a pre-existing spiritual family before the creation of Adam and Eve? Did this family have a wife? Was God her husband? Who were the spiritual children in the previous Family of God before the creation of Adam? What we must do is look at Revelation 20, 21, and 22 and see that if God has a bride and children there then He must have had those also before our world began or God has changed and we know that is not possible. There are so many questions to consider and answer. The Bible reveals a lot of information on this subject and I will continue it in another future lesson. Thanks for taking the time to read and study the Bible with me and I pray that I helped you to see a new spiritual perspective of an old familiar subject. God Bless!

If you would like to continue reading this series, please click here “Part 2“.

Posted in Bible Study, God's Spiritual Family, Understanding

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Tags: Bible, Christianity, Church, Family, God, Holy Spirit, Interpretation, Jesus, man, marriage, Prophecy, Religion, Revelation, Truth, understanding, woman

The Bride of Christ Revealed – Part 11 The New Jerusalem

Feb 22

Posted by agapegeek

(Ver 1.2) This is now Part 11 in the series of advanced Bible lessons on the subject of the Bride of Christ Revealed. In my last lesson in this series we came full circle back to the New Jerusalem and today I want to address this bride city in more depth. This will probably be the last lesson in this series on this subject for now. Today’s lesson will cover the city of New Jerusalem mentioned in Revelation 21 as the Bride of the Lamb and how she is representative of the church. This city has long been a point of controversy since she is described symblically and these symbols can potentally be interpreted to mean many things. However if we use the Bible to interpret the Bible we will only come up with one true identity that she can be. We have really covered a tremendous amount of new information found in the Bible in this series. If you have not read the first 10 parts of this series I would strongly recommend that you go back and start reading with Part 1.

I have already given you a lot of scriptures and references that the woman in Revelation 21 appears to represent the church. But we have certainly not exhausted the scriptures on this subject and probably would not be able to if we tried. The Bible is much more complex than what people see on the surface of the text. So let’s go through some more of the scriptures in this blog and see if we can find other confirming verses of the identity of the New Jerusalem.

Let’s look at some other scripture that I’ve heard does reflect the identity of the bride. In fact it is almost impossible to ignore since it directly reflects this title.

Rev 21:1 And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea.

It is very interesting to note that God finds it necessary to create a new heaven and a new earth. There is an implied problem with the old heaven and the old earth. Why buy a new car if your old car is still in great shape and useful. Why create a new family or a new covenant if the old is in such good relations. There lies the problem that God had and the solution that He has implemented with the establishment of a new heaven and new earth. If is also noteworthy that this verse says the “first” and not just the “old”. That actually tells us there were none others before this first heaven and earth. But yet it does tells us that there will be a second.

Rev 21:2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

Rev 21:9 And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife.

I can’t emphasis enough the reality that this city is called the wife of the Lamb. We already have a good understanding of who the Lamb is, but many may still be struggling to figure out the identity of the city called New Jerusalem. So let’s look at some other verses in this chapter that describe this city:

Rev 21:12 And had a wall great and high, and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels, and names written thereon, which are the names of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel:

Rev 21:13 On the east three gates; on the north three gates; on the south three gates; and on the west three gates.

Rev 21:14 And the wall of the city had twelve foundations, and in them the names of the twelve apostles of the Lamb.

Revelation gives us significant additional information that I think we should take a look at now in some depth. If the church is the bride and Jesus is the bridegroom, then God is also calling the church the “new Jerusalem” the new covenant city of God. I’ve heard some say that here in these scriptures it proves that the “new Jerusalem” is the bride and not the church. If this is true this doesn’t make a lot of sense to me. I’ll put it to you this way why couldn’t the church be both? In fact if you look at scriptures accurately I believe you will find out that the church is both. Someone said that we are the body of Christ and therefore, if Christ has a bride we have a bride. You know based upon scripture that I’ve shown you that this is not true. We have been called the body of Christ, but we are never called the Lamb. I don’t know of any scripture that says we are the Lamb of God and here in Revelation Jesus is referred to as the Lamb more than once. I’ve given several scriptures that demonstrate how the church became the body of Christ and that was clearly by a marriage covenant. So we have already established that the church is the bride of Christ, but now we need to further confirm that the church is also the New Jerusalem.

In Biblical days a city was usually a walled dwelling place where all the human people of a common nation lived. The reason for building a wall was for safety to keep enemies from stealing from them and killing them. This city is said to have 4 walls as if a square or a rectangular structure. Each of the 4 walls has 3 gates. Each Gate has an angel. It still appears that God is guarding the way in an out of this city. But all of these can also be taken symbolically. If we are talking about a symbolic city with symbolic gates, symbolic walls and symbolic foundations we really have a lot more to learn. I believe we make a mistake if we think of this spiritual city in terms that it is a physical place.

We have already discussed that a city represents a covenant and is referred to as a woman. The covenant is not with the city however, it is with the inhabitants or residents of the city. I could give you several good scriptures, but I’ll choose one that I liked and one that stood out to me. Let’s review the Word of God in Isaiah:

Isa 54:11 O thou afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, behold, I will lay thy stones with fair colours, and lay thy foundations with sapphires.

Isa 54:12 And I will make thy windows of agates, and thy gates of carbuncles, and all thy borders of pleasant stones.

Isa 54:13 And all thy children shall be taught of the LORD; and great shall be the peace of thy children.

These scriptures are an amazing parallel to the description of the city found in Revelation 21 called the New Jerusalem. We see the mention of many of the key qualities of a large city with stones, foundations, windows, gates and borders. We also see the mention of key stone types meaning they are valuable, precious and rare. These key elements describe a city for sure in verses 11 and 12 of Isaiah 54. However, did you notice the reference found in verse 13? It speaks of this city as a woman with children. Isn’t that an interesting commentary. I tell you when you see what the Bible is describing as a woman you begin to see a lot more clearly the things that are symbolized in the Word of God. We again see in Isaiah that a city represents a woman and not just any woman in our case it is called the bride of the Lamb in Revelation 21:9. A woman has children and that is one of the primary reasons for marriage.

There are so many good things within these scriptures in Revelations, but I saw a definite significance of the number 12 mentioned, did you notice that too? It is not an accident that there were 12 tribes in the nation of Israel for this was a type and a shadow of the spiritual Israel to come. It is no accident that Jesus choose 12 Apostles and the book of Revelations informs us that their names are written on the 12 foundations of this new city Jerusalem. If the names of the 12 apostles are written on the foundation doesn’t that describe the church? Who started the church if it wasn’t Jesus breathing on the apostles (John 20:22) I don’t know who it was. We also see the reference of 12 angels and of the 12 tribes of Israel so the new Jerusalem is comprised I believe of, at the least a part of all three of these groups. So if we get right down to it, I don’t think that the Gentile Church is the entire city, only a big part of it. Hopefully you will understand this more as the Word of God is revealed further. Let’s look at just one part of this new city and see the part that the church plays. Once you finally realize that this woman represents a covenant marriage relationship, then you can easily associate the role of the church to this woman.

Here is a good time to remind you of what we read earlier when God said my wife “Jerusalem” committed adultery (Ezekiel 16:32). Who did God call his female wife? The earthly city Jerusalem was referred to as “her”. This physical city is in no doubt a foreshadowing of the new Jerusalem the spiritual city that we just read about. The reference to a city is the a reference to the people within the city who were in covenant with God, Yes? The people living in the earthly city Jerusalem were in covenant and married to God. God calls all of these people by a name of Jerusalem and says she is my wife. This was the Old Covenant people or the earthly nation of Israel. So, who is in the New Covenant with Jesus Christ? It is those people in covenant or marriage with Jesus that are the residents of this new Jerusalem. The distinct parallels between these two cities are very numerous and cannot be ignored, unless you just want to remain ignorant.

Do you remember in the Old Testament the life of David the king of natural Israel? In the book of Acts David is called a type of God. If you understand the significance of Biblical Typology these Old Testament stories have meaning for us in the church today. The Bible in Acts 13:22 says that David was a man after God’s own heart. David had it in his heart to build a temple in Jerusalem, but God said it was not for him to do, but for his son Solomon (1 Kings 8:17-19). Solomon represents a type of Christ as I said before and he was the builder of the physical Temple of God in Jerusalem. But Christ Jesus was the builder of a spiritual house for God. Natural types are only God’s patterns or foreshadows of that which was to come. Jesus today is the builder of a new spiritual temple and we can prove this by reading the New Testament:

2Co 6:16 And what agreement hath the temple of God with idols? for ye are the temple of the living God; as God hath said, I will dwell in them, and walk in them; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.

Here is a most significant scripture with great revelation. The implied reference is that of a building. But buildings are many times built within cities. It says God will live in them and walk in them. That sounds like a really big house or a city to me. If you live in Dallas Texas, and wanted to go for a walk, where would you be walking? But this is not a physical building or temple, for God in the same context speaks of this temple in the terms of people. In other words the temple is built with people. People are the spiritual building blocks that make up this structure. Do you understand that concept?

1Co 3:16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?

Here is another scripture that says we are the dwelling place of the living God right here and right now. There is a clear implication of a building or a house or even a city within both of these verses. After all what does it mean to “dwell”? When it says God dwells in us what does that mean to you? If I said I dwell in Dallas Texas what does that mean? It specifies the location of my home. If I said I dwell in a big white house on Jones Rd. What does that tell you? It describes a building or house that I live in and helps give you the location of that house. I don’t know how we can be the bride and the temple and the city and the body of Christ and all of these things at the same time, but I believe we are.

What is a temple? A temple is a building or a structure that is created to be inhabited or occupied by someone. Modern temples are called places of worship many times. However, the original temple was put together by Moses according to God’s instructions and made out of tents. A tent represents a temporary dwelling place. It was not until Solomon, that the permanent dwelling place was built in the earthly Jerusalem. Both of these are representative of what the church is experiencing now and foretells that which is to come. Look at these scriptures:

2Pe 1:13 Yea, I think it meet, as long as I am in this tabernacle, to stir you up by putting you in remembrance;

2Pe 1:14 Knowing that shortly I must put off this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ hath shewed me.

This is a very interesting pair of scriptures and I believe they give us some light on the subject of the temple of God. These scriptures say that Peter was dwelling in a tabernacle. This is not talking about a physical house or a building made by the hands of man. In fact he is not talking about any kind of physical building at all with walls, doors and windows. No, it is speaking of his body that he and God dwells in. God has showed him that he was soon to die and leave his body and go and be with the Lord. The tabernacle represents a temporary dwelling place. The Greek word translated “tabernacle” comes from another root word that contains the meaning of a “tent”. A tent represents a temporary dwelling place and we know that if Jesus doesn’t come we will all die. However, when we are raised from the dead and given a new glorified body then we will have a permanent dwelling place for God.

2Co 5:1 For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens.

2Co 5:2 For in this we groan, earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from heaven:

2Co 5:3 If so be that being clothed we shall not be found naked.

2Co 5:4 For we that are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened: not for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, that mortality might be swallowed up of life.

2Co 5:5 Now he that hath wrought us for the selfsame thing is God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the Spirit.

2Co 5:6 Therefore we are always confident, knowing that, whilst we are at home in the body, we are absent from the Lord:

2Co 5:7 (For we walk by faith, not by sight:)

2Co 5:8 We are confident, I say, and willing rather to be absent from the body, and to be present with the Lord.

These are very powerful scriptures and teach us many of the things that I’ve been attempting to convey. They speak of our current mortal bodies as a temporary home and even calls them an earthly tabernacle or tent. What is an earthly tabernacle? It has to be a tabernacle made of earth or dust as it says in Genesis that God formed the body of man from the dust of the ground. But it also gives us the hope of a new house that was not built with man’s hands, but it will come from God and will be immortal. So we see a pattern from the Old Testament where Moses established a temporary tabernacle for God made of tents. Then came Solomon and he built the permanent tabernacle. These are types and shadows of what Jesus has done and is doing.

Eph 2:19 Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God;

Eph 2:20 And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;

Eph 2:21 In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord:

Eph 2:22 In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.

These are some of the most interesting scripture references comparing the church to a symbolic building and they say that we (the church) are ALLL the habitation of God. Notice first in chapter 2 verse 19 God is referring to the church as being fellow citizens with the rest of the saints. A citizen is a resident of a city. Which city are we now citizens of? Isn’t that very relevant to what we are talking about in Revelation? God then implies that this city is where we were once on the outside of the walls being called strangers and foreigners but, we have now become a residential part of this implied city of God. Then notice all of the symbolic architectural terms and references in these verses. There is a clear reference to the act of constructing a building. Also notice in verse 20 the reference to the symbolic foundation of the 12 Apostles and prophets. Doesn’t that sound familiar? What about the description of the city in Revelations coming down from Heaven? It also had a foundation of the 12 Apostles of the Lamb. This is no accident, but demonstrates a confirmation of the relationship of the church to the city New Jerusalem. Going back to verse 19 you see the connection to the household of God and the spiritual building that God is putting together. These verses also further imply the members of the church are symbolic building blocks in this construction being joined together laid upon the foundation. These are amazing verses to remember for our study of the New Jerusalem. Let’s review an earlier concept and remember what God said in 1 Corinthians using new light:

1Co 3:16 Know ye not that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?

Don’t you know that you are the temple of God? What does that now mean to you? That means to me that each and every one that is born again represents a living stone in a new temple dwelling place for the True Living God. I know the natural earthly Jerusalem contained the temple of God as one of its key components. So at the minimum the temple of God is within the new Jerusalem and to say it is not the entire city would be difficult in my perspective. So if we are this new temple then we are at minimum a major or significant part of the new Jerusalem referred to in Revelation.

1Co 3:10 According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.

1Co 3:11 For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.

I included these scriptures as a contrast to what I was talking about previously. For they contain more building and architectural terms, but the reference is given in much different context. We see a foundation which is clearly Jesus Christ. Then there are references to other builders that continue to reveal the word of God. So does these scriptures contradict the others or complement them to give a different perspective or view. I say they only complement. I’ve spent a lot of time and effort showing multiple scriptures that at the minimum shows the church is a significant part of the new Jerusalem, if not the entire city. I don’t feel like I’ve exhausted the subject but I feel I’ve given enough scriptural evidence to justify the claim. So now I want to stir up a different point of view and look at some other scripture that seems to indicate to me that the church is this woman mentioned in Revelation 21.

Eph 5:26 That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,

Eph 5:27 That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.

Verse 26 in Ephesians 5 specifically mentions the church as the bride and says she has been made clean by Christ. In verse 27 we see another inference of marriage in direct relationship to the church with the word “present” her. Present in the Greek means to stand beside. So if the church was only the body of Christ then there would be a direct contradiction, because how can a man stand beside himself? In a marriage ceremony usually the bride is standing beside the groom when taking the vows. Finally in verse 27 there is a reference to the church not having spot or wrinkle, holy and without blemish. I know that is speaking of God’s righteousness that was bestowed or given to the church and not something that we earned or achieved on our own. But did you notice a distinct parallel to another verse in Revelation 19 where it speaks about the bride in this regard:

Rev 19:7 Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready.

Rev 19:8 And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.

This is a most interesting choice of words. It speaks of a cleansing process that has taken place. You might could infer a washing. Fine linen infers a garment that is spotless without stains, imperfections, rips or holes. Isn’t this what Ephesians was saying also? Also notice that it says in the last part of verse 8, the righteousness of the saints, not the righteousness of God. I fully understand it is God’s righteousness I’m just making a point. The word “saints” is used in other places in direct reference to the church. Look how God addresses His people in Rome:

Rom 1:7 To all that be in Rome, beloved of God, called to be saints: Grace to you and peace from God our Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ.

I think the similarities and parallels between the scriptures in Revelation describing the bride as a city to other scriptures that are written directly to the church in the epistles are so amazingly related that they complement each other. They simply give a different perspective of the same thing. God simply uses symbolism that we can grasp hold of and shows us some natural things to help us to understand these spiritual realities. In this verse in Romans 1:7 that is written to the church, we are called saints of God. I’m not sure if I’ve ever heard anyone besides the church ever referred to as saints. Have you? Then I noticed something very interesting in this verse, God calls the church “His beloved”. I don’t know if you noticed this or not, but this is a term used some 27 times in the Song of Solomon. The beloved is often times used in conjunction with a direct reference to his bride. Is this a coincidence or a clue to God’s purpose and plan? I believe it is a valuable clue to see. The church is this beloved, God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son…”. To love someone that much to give yourself for them is an incredibly unselfish act.

Before I end the discussion in this blog, let me show a verse of scripture that has tremendous significance to the identity of the “Lamb’s Wife”. As you read this verse notice that Jesus is speaking and who Jesus is speaking to. I believe you will see Jesus is talking to the church:

Rev 3:12 Him that overcometh will I make a pillar in the temple of my God, and he shall go no more out: and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, which is new Jerusalem, which cometh down out of heaven from my God: and I will write upon him my new name.

I don’t know how you can read this verse and not see clearly that Jesus is speaking to the church. Jesus is telling the church some very specific things. These specific details confirm in other words what we read in Revelation 19 and 21 about the New Jerusalem. Again the city is referred to as the city of God and it comes from above. But the name of this city will be written on or given to them that have overcome. Who is it that has overcome? What city name was it that was to be written on them? Of course Jesus says that to those who overcome, He will write the name of the New Jerusalem upon them. Jesus also said these same people will be living stones or pillars in the temple of God. This confirms that the spiritual temple of God and the spiritual city New Jerusalem are one in the same thing. These are totally complementary views of the exact same spiritual structure. If you can see it you will understand some very powerful spiritual truths. Then there is the whole name changing operation that takes place at a marriage between a husband and the wife. The wife traditionally always takes the name of the husband and isn’t this what this verse is saying? The church is taking the name “New Jerusalem” and becoming the wife of the Lamb. This is all New Covenant language and spiritual truths that have been overlooked by many. I hope you have enjoyed this lesson the identity of bride of Christ. I know I did not cover everything that I could have, but hopefully I gave you some new things to think about and study.

Posted in The Church

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Tags: Bible, Bride, Christianity, Church, Covenants, God, marriage, Prophecy, Religion, Revelation, Truth, understanding, woman

Night and Day Defined! Understanding the Spiritual Heart of Man! Part 2

Feb 19

Posted by agapegeek

(Ver 1.2) This is a series of lessons on a basic spiritual truth that reveals the hidden conditions of the hearts of men and women in the world. God reveals this spiritual truth using the things created and found in the natural universe. These natural things are clearly symbolic and represent a far greater spiritual truth. I am convinced that this is an essential basic truth that every Christian should become intimately familiar with. This is now part 2 of the series and I would suggest that if you have not read from the start that you go back and start with Part 1.

There is a real man or a real woman inside of the physical bodies of every person on the earth. These real people are spirit beings that will live forever somewhere after their body dies. However, most people in the world today don’t know about this fact and are oblivious to this stated reality found in the Bible. The Bible often times speaks of these spiritual individuals in the hidden terms of the “heart”. The “heart” of a man is the spirit of the man. God is not talking about the physical blood pumping organ, God is talking about the center of your being, as in the heart of an apple or the heart of a tree. The “heart” term used by God is a figurative Bible term and describes the center of a human. This center of your being is the real you that you can not see. When a physical body dies, the person’s spirit is immediately transported to one of two possible places. One place is very good location called heaven and the other one is a very bad location called hell. The spiritual things are the real eternal things, the natural things are the temporary things (2 Cor 4:18). God has designed a system in the world that limits humans to a three dimensional realm with specific time constraints. All of these constraints represents natural boundaries and laws. When your body dies, you leave the natural realm you enter into the spiritual realm and you normally never come back (2 Cor 5:8). I have heard of a few people dying and going into the spiritual realm and then they are revived or come back to life in their physical bodies, but I would not put all my eggs in this basket hoping that is what will happen to you. Many times these people can see in both realms simultaneously. These people can see the hospital room, the doctors, the nurses, their family and their body but usually they are above all of this looking down on it all. These people are either sent back by God or God has allowed them to see and experience this in order to tell others that there is more to life than these few years we have on the earth. So this was a brief explanation of the spiritual realm.

In my last blog I introduced you to a number of scriptures that reveal the hearts of people to be either in darkness or in the light of the knowledge of Jesus Christ. Darkness and Light are symbolic references and are synonymous terms for Night and Day. Today we will explore more scriptures found in the New Testament that further enlighten us to these truths.

Isa 9:2 The people that walked in darkness have seen a great light: they that dwell in the land of the shadow of death, upon them hath the light shined.

I’ll start with this prophecy from the Old Testament. This verse is speaking about Jesus coming to the earth personally walking among us. This verse calls Jesus Christ the “great light” and that is of course a very significant statement. In my last blog we read verses that showed Jesus to be the spiritual Sun, the spiritual light of the world. Just as the physical sun is the source for all natural light on our planet, Jesus is the only source for all spiritual light on our planet. In this verse in Isaiah the people are described as being in the darkness. The darkness is caused by something that is blocking the light and causing a shadow. You do understand the concept of shadows? A shadow is an area where the direct light is not shinning. The direct light has been blocked by another object that casts a shadow on the ground. We were the people in this shadow and this shadow was caused by “death” and Satan. If you read the New Testament you will find verses that describe Satan as holding the power of death. So that is why I related the two together. The Bible says Jesus was made manifest in order to destroy him that had the power over death (Heb 2:14). So we can clearly see who is causing the darkness in the spiritual realm, it is Satan. So the term “great light” let’s explore that term to learn more about the spiritual hearts of men.

Gen 1:16 And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser lightto rule the night: he made the stars also.

You see in the fourth day of creation God makes a prophetic and symbolic reference to spiritual things that were to come. God makes the “greater light” AKA “great light” to rule the “day”. God then makes a “lesser light” to rule the “night”. These lights are very significant to see and understand for other Bible interpretations. The “greater light” is the Sun and represents Jesus Christ. The “lesser light” is the moon and represents Satan. These two spiritual rulers are over their own separate domains or kingdoms. The Sun rules the Day (Ps 136:8), the moon rules the night (Ps 136:9). These separate 12 hour periods represent two different spiritual realms and conditions of the hearts of people. So the planet earth is a type and pattern of the human heart. The sun shines on the earth in a constant and consistent manner and the earth revolves and is either in the shadow or darkness or in the light depending on how it is positioned at any given time. The earth represents the hearts of men that have the opportunity to change and allow the light to shine or to turn away and stay in the darkness. When Jesus was walking the face of the planet some 2000 years ago he told us this:

Joh 8:12 Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.

Jesus made a bold and direct statement that He was the Spiritual Sun, the Greater Light that shined in the world. Jesus said by following Him we would never again walk in the darkness but always have the “light of life”. So light represents Life and darkness represents death. Life and death are very strong analogies and very important to understand.

Act 26:18 To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me.

We can certainly see what I told you about the hearts of men having to be turned from darkness to light. It is clearly the responsibility of the men and women to do the turning, God will not force you to turn, but He will help you if you ask. Then there is another stark contrast given between these two realms. Satan has the power to rule in the darkness. To say Satan is powerless would be an error. But what is important to note is that his power is limited to the realm of “darkness” and the “night”. If you are in the light you are outside of the realm of his influence and power, or at least you should be. Satan will still attempt to deceive you and influence power over you until you learn not to let him.

Col 1:12 Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light:

Col 1:13 Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son:

You see these two spiritual realms being starkly contrasted again. The power of darkness is where, we the church use to be, but we are now called “saints in light”. These two spiritual domains are also called different kingdoms. The Kingdom of Light and the kingdom of darkness. Again day and night are symbolic references to two separate and distinct spiritual states or places to be. Even though we walk the same planet with those who are still in darkness we are not of the darkness and darkness is no longer ruling our hearts and minds. To be in the world but not of the world as the Bible says.

Eph 6:12 For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.

So Satan and his demons are spiritual forces that rule the darkness of the world around us. This verse clearly confirms that Satan is the moon, the lesser light, the ruler of the darkness that we referred to from Genesis 1. A ruler clearly implies a kingdom, a kingdom of darkness. Satan has been trying to establish his own dominion and kingdom outside of God since the beginning when sin was found in him.

1Jn 2:8 Again, a new commandment I write unto you, which thing is true in him and in you: because the darkness is past, and the true light now shineth.

In this verse in 1st John we are told for those who are in the light that the darkness has passed. It is interesting to note that when the lights are on you don’t have any darkness. But this verse also tells us that Jesus is the “true light”. The Sun of Righteousness has arisen in our hearts and He is shinning a true light that we might see the truth. It is interesting that the characteristics of the moon is used to describe Satan symbolically. The moon has no life or produces any light of itself. The only reason we can see the moon at night is because it reflects or masquerades as an object of light. The moon is a pretender and shadow caster and a false light. It is so different than the sun that is the key to the source of our life on this planet. But as the Bible says, men who love the darkness are deceived by it and succumb to the trickery of the ruler of the darkness. But here is some good news and hope for those that are in the darkness:

Eph 5:14 Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.

You see God says that those who are in the darkness are simply asleep and capable of waking up and seeing the light. This is a very strong typology and the spiritual information is significant. Pray for those in the darkness to wake up and see the light of day. To turn and allow Christ to arise in their hearts. Again if people do this they are translated into the light and the life of God. If they refuse to turn they are already dead. That is a very sad state of many people in the world today.

There are many other verses in the Bible that speak to us on this subject of Day and Night and I would suggest that you get your Bible search program and look for the key words, like day, night, darkness, light, sleep and any other word that you can think of that are associated with these spiritual realms. By studying the subject you will better understand why people don’t see Christ like you see Christ. Why they have been turned off when the light shines in on them. Jesus told us that “now ye are the lights of the world” so it is our responsibility to be a light to others. But this should be done in a Godly manner using the same ways that God worked through Jesus. Learn to be like Jesus and walk like Jesus and you will get others attention by just being so radically different than they are. Here is a quick chart of some of the lessons we have learned about the spiritual realms of Day and Night:

Day And Night Characteristics

DAY	NIGHT
Light	Darkness
Sun Rules the Day	Moon Rules the Night
See	Blind
Awake	Sleep
Sober	Drunk
Life	Death
Good	Evil
Love	Hate
True Light	False Light
Greater Light	Lesser Light
Righteousness	Unrighteousness
Power of God	Power of Satan

If you would like to continue reading in this series of lessons, you can continue with “Part 3“.

Posted in Bible Basics, Bible Study, Understanding

Tags: Bible, Christianity, Church, creation, Genesis, God, Holy Spirit, Interpretation, Jesus, man, Satan, Truth, understanding, woman

The True Identity of the Woman in Revelation 12! Pt 4

Feb 17

Posted by agapegeek

Creation-and-New-Creation
(Ver 2.4) This is Part 4 in a very advanced Bible study series on the Book of Revelation concerning chapter 12 and the True Identity of the Woman. This woman was described by God with a crown of 12 stars, clothed in the Sun and standing with her feet on the moon. We have covered so very much important information on this subject already. There is absolutely no way that I can teach it again today. Therefore I would strongly recommend, if you have not read from the beginning that you stop and begin your study with “Part 1“.

INTRODUCTION AND QUICK REVIEW

I knew this subject would take a lot of effort to get people to begin to understand it and accept it. The main reason for this resistance is that I have never heard anyone else teach the chapter this way. We have been using very important new Bible revelations that are focused upon 6 key symbolic elements that surrounded the woman. These were the crown on her heard, the sun as clothing on her body and the moon that was found under her feet.

This is now the fourth lesson on the subject in the search for the true identity of the woman in Revelation 12. There are so many diverse opinions to who this symbolic woman in Revelation 12 represents and all of these can produce a presupposition that can become a mental stronghold. These prejudices can be used by Satan to block any new information from entering our human mind. Any previous knowledge on a subject can potentially produce a state of human “bias”. “Prejudice and bias is a human condition that occurs when someone is prejudging someone or somethings before all of the facts are given, known and understood.

For example, many people today hate the Jewish people and most of these haters have never really even met a Jewish person and talked with them. That is usually one form of racial prejudice, injustice and bias that is easily utilized by Satan due to our ignorance of not knowing the full truth. This type of hatred must have been passed down from someone’s parents, or from teachers, or from other groups of influence that we associate with. This type of prejudice does not come from birth or from God. Almost every little child if raised in a good family without prejudice, will like everyone regardless of their gender, race, education or whatever. But, this open early attitude of like and trust can change when someone does or says something evil to us personally. Then there can come a new problem of thinking that everyone that is similar to them, is the exact same type of evil. This is called lumping everyone of the same type of category to be all equally good or evil with knowing any of them very well. What a complex world we live in.

There is really so much more to explore on this subject of the woman in Revelation 12. We have only touched on a few of the subjects and there are so many more questions to ask and answer. Why is the woman pregnant? Who is the child? Why does she appear in heaven first in verse 1 before any other description? I try to write and teach using progressive revelation, where truth builds upon truth. This means if you missed the beginning lessons you missed the foundation to all the other building blocks. I don’t claim to have all of the answers, but I’ll tell you what I do know and we will trust the Spirit of God to answer the questions that have not yet been answered.

In Part 1 we focused on the answering the question of when these events occur and found God said they are in the future. We continued to study and discovered the identity of the “Sun” clothing to be Jesus Christ the ruler of the Kingdom of Light. We have also found why this woman is clothed with the Sun. Then in Parts 2 and 3 we talked about the moon being the ruler of the darkness, a kingdom that is directly opposed to God’s kingdom of light. Then we looked at the specific meaning of how the moon is found in relation to the woman as being under her feet. I believe this is so very important to understand what this means.

I have shown scriptures that spoke about the church bruising the head of the serpent (Satan). I talked about Jesus delegating His authority to the church to tread on (walk on or over) the serpent (Luke 10:19) who we know is Satan (Rev 12:9). I then showed how Jesus today is seated at the right hand of Majesty in heaven, still waiting for all of His enemies to be made His footstool (Acts 2:35, Heb 1:13). All of these are scriptural references, patterns and pointers that God uses to help us identify the woman in Revelation 12. Today we are going to go into more detail concerning how the books of Genesis and Revelation are divinely designed to be connected bookends. We were introduced to this concept previously. But since this is a potentially new concept, I believe we need more information and that requires a deeper study. Let us get started.

GOD’S GENESIS AND REVELATION CONNECTIONS

I want to readdress some things that were potentially new to some people. Previously, I talked about the “seed of the woman” found in Genesis 3:15 as possibly being a spiritual seed and the woman being a prophesied picture of the church. Today in this lesson, I want to teach some things that I believe the Lord has taught me on this subject that could potentially help us to see some things from a new and fresh spiritual perspective. These are absolutely fascinating and completely related to our subject of the identity of the woman as being related to the Genesis 3-woman prophecy. This is why I called this section “God’s Genesis and Revelation Connections”.

In Revelation 12, the very first verse is focused upon our suspect mystery woman in question. But we can also see and know that the very last verse 17 is about the same woman. In fact, it is very important to see that at least 10 of the 17 verses of Revelation 12 mention the woman directly. She and the dragon are the two primary subjects.

Also, note that there is a new truth that I did teach you before. The Greek word that occurs in 10 verses in Revelation 12 for “woman” is G1135 and yes, it is correctly translated as woman. But it is normally associated to be a married woman called a “wife”. Ok, you may think that this does not really help us that much because after all, the woman is pregnant. And all of our suspect women candidates were all married wives. But I still feel like this is important to study.

From this information we learn that this woman in Revelation 12 is not an unmarried woman or more specifically not a virgin. Or we could say more positively that she is a woman in covenant with a man. Finally, notice that this Greek word G1135 translated as woman in Revelation 12 is again used in Revelation 19 to describe the Lamb’s wife. But this time the word was chosen by translators to say “wife”. Just keep that in your mind as we continue. I believe this could be a significant connection to apply to our study.

I have mentioned previously the direct connection of Revelation 12 to Genesis 3 by God’s designed purpose. God designed the Bible with concealment of related subjects, by spreading out much of the connected information for us to discover by searching the Bible. We are so very blessed to live in the last days when computers, phones and tablets are available to help us in this task. Remember, Daniel 12:4 informs us that in the last days knowledge will increase. God knew computers would exist and He prophesied it accordingly. Praise the LORD!

We understand truth connections do exist simply because the book of Genesis was written by Moses nearly 1600 years earlier than the book of Revelation which was written by John. These two men did not know each other personally, yet their books go together with exact precision. I’m going to repeat something that I have said several other times. But it is important to know and understand. In the book of Genesis, God usually introduces us to every major Biblical subject. Then in the book of Revelation God concludes the discussion on these subjects to conform to how He desired them to be and remain from the beginning. That is why I like to call them bookends. It is like a modern fiction author writing the introduction to the characters and subject in chapter 1 and then concluding with the last chapter and all of the surprises, twists and turns.

The information from the chapters, books and authors that come in between the book of beginnings and the book of the revealing can also provide us additional clues to the subject in question and they usually do. This introduction and conclusion of divine subject information is popularly known as the “Laws of First and Last Mention”.

We need to notice in Genesis 3 the direct connections found in our woman suspect subject study. In Genesis 3:15, we can see that God is introducing us to 1) a woman (other than Eve), 2) her seed, 3) Satan called a serpent, and 4) Satan’s seed. Then in addition to these main characters there is a described 5) great prophesied enmity (hatred) between them. It would probably be good to go back and reread the entire chapters of Genesis 3 and Revelation 12 to see the common subjects, noun and verb connections. Make a list of nouns, verbs and adjectives and then compare the two lists. Sometimes subjects are implied and not directly mentioned so it is good to note the implications. For example, in Revelation the woman is said to be a pregnant wife, and this would imply a husband, even though he was never mentioned directly in the chapter. Let’s examine some of the direct important connections that I found next when reading.

In reading Genesis 3:1 we should easily learn of God’s introduction of “the serpent”. We are never told who this creature is, or if he is literal, or symbolic in this chapter. There are several other Bible studies on this subject that contain additional information, on the subject of the serpent. But we can conclude and believe that this serpent in Genesis 3, was only a symbol for Satan and he was not physically manifested in the garden through a body of a physically created beast of the field. I would highly recommend you go read the Bible lesson “Genesis 3 – Was there a Literal Talking Snake in the Garden”.

We learn from the introduction of the serpent in Genesis that there is a connection to Revelation 12 because this unknown serpent is finally defined and identified to be the dragon in Revelation 12:9. Because God chooses to give us the true definition and identity of the “old serpent” as being the dragon and Satan we should automatically begin to examine what else could also be connected here in these two chapters. This is how God gives us clues to discovering truth, and it is amazingly wise.

This direct connection teaches us clearly, that this “old serpent” in Genesis 3 had to be a symbolic representation for the now implied much larger symbolic “red dragon” in Revelation 12. Both the serpent and the dragon are symbolic names and descriptions of the same evil being named Satan. Also note that there are two verses in Revelation that define the serpent’s identity. Ask yourself, could both of these be a connection? These verse definitions are Revelation 12:9 and Revelation 20:2. These are the only two verses (currently know) in the Bible where God chose to define the true identity of the “serpent” introduced in Genesis 3. This is a very common method that God uses to hide truth in the Bible for us to find. God will talk about a subject in one place and then will suddenly define the subject in a completely new and different place later in the scriptures. This can even occur in a completely different book using a new inspired author like we find in the book of Revelation.

serpent_bookends It is just interesting to note that these two referenced definitions of Satan occur in the vicinity of two described women. Revelation 12 is where the woman is mentioned first and then the dragon is introduced with the connection of the serpent definition. Both occur together within one verse in the same chapter. Notice in Genesis 3:1, the serpent occurs first and then immediately followed with him speaking to a woman. This is typical bookend patterns. I pray you know what bookends look like. I placed a sample picture in this paragraph to help. Bookends exhibit a pictured image, but in the reverse order. Wow, that is very similar to what we see in these two chapters. I do not believe that is a coincidence.

Then in Revelation 20 we find the dragon and the serpent definition being preceded again in Chapter 19 by another woman. But this woman in Revelation 19 is called the “Lamb’s Wife”. The word “wife” was the same Greek word translated as “woman” in Revelation 12. Isn’t that interesting? I do not believe that these are accidents either. These are the signs of highly intelligent design connecting related subjects and patterns together.

But, in Revelation 19 and 20 there is a new person that comes between the woman and the dragon. He is the LORD Jesus coming back to the earth with His saints riding on a white horse. Since chapters and verses were numbered and added by imperfect humans long after the writings of the scripture, we can understand that Revelation 19 and 20 are still connected together by verse association and context.

I am not making a fixed declaration of doctrine or a statement of “I’m right and you are wrong” type of conclusion. But I believe that both women mentioned near the dragon and serpent definitions are the exact same woman/wife. I hope you find it very interesting where and how God put them close together for us to discover and learn from.

While it would be nice to go through all of the 10, Revelation 12 verse references today of the woman, we will not because of the increase of the size of the lesson. However, let’s change our focus in Revelation 12, to the woman found again in verse 17 for what God reveals to us to be more directly connected words and subjects found in Genesis 3. This is the last verse in the chapter, and it would appear the subject changes in Revelation chapter 13 to something new.

Revelation 12:17 And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.

I personally see so many similar subject subjects, characters, descriptions, nouns, adjective and verbs as what we found in Genesis 3:15. This might not be an exact quotation, but the synonymous comparisons are amazingly parallel. We should all be able to see how there are enough overlaps for us to confirm that they are speaking of the same subjects. Can we notice what it says?

Verse 17 starts with a statement that declares Satan to be very angry with this woman. The statement or word in the KJV is actually “wroth” (G3710) and it means to be enraged and angry. That really sounds analogous and synonymous to God’s phrasing of “enmity” and “hatred” (H342) we found in Genesis 3:15. I know that these are slightly different words, but they synonymously connect us with a similar meaning of hatred toward two enemies. Next, we then see within the context of this verse that Satan is said to be at “war” with the remnant of this woman’s seed. Again, this signifies an adversary relationship with the seed of a woman. We learn from this that Satan and the woman are direct enemies in conflict against each other.

That statement is absolutely essential to see and understand, “….and went to make war with the remnant of her seed”. Did you notice that we have been talking about the “seed of the woman”? In Genesis 3 we clearly observe scripture where God prophesies that Satan, and his seed will be at odds with a woman and her seed. Isn’t that what Genesis 3:15 said? God said, “I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between her seed and your seed”. Fascinating, isn’t it? Clearly this is not a chance occurrence.

Here in Revelation 12:17 we have God’s very specific mention of 1) a woman, 2) her “seed”, and 3) Satan (the serpent). But this time it is in clear context and relationship to a new symbolic woman revealed in Revelation 12. Or is it a new woman? I have concluded from this information God is connecting the Revelation 12:17 woman with the Genesis 3:15 woman and that they are the exact same woman being spoken of by God. Therefore, whoever the Genesis 3:15 woman represents, the Revelation 12:1 woman must also represent. I believe that God was first introducing us to her in Genesis 3:15 and is now confirming the fulfillment of the prophesied pattern here in Revelation 12. This must be the same woman that God was talking about in Genesis 3:15. We should be able to see that there are too many connections being given to us in these two chapters by divine design and purpose to deny it.

Now how does this verse Revelation 12:17 end? The ending words of the chapter provides us a clear window to the view of the identity of the woman. Who does this verse claim that the Revelation 12 woman is? God in this verse gives us two very specific dependent qualifications for the identity of the Revelation 12:1 woman. These are two distinguishing characteristics of determined truths that must be applied correctly in order to understand (interpret correctly) the identity of the woman in Revelation 12 and here they are:

She keeps the commandments of God
She has the Testimony of Jesus Christ

How can we read these statements and not know who God is talking about? Does this describe the Old Covenant natural nation of Israel who practices Judaism? Perhaps you see that it does. If so, please explain why you see it this way to us. Where can you find verses that back this belief? Have you seen any that describe this natural nation of Israel, have succeeded in following all of the laws and the commands of God? It is interesting that only Jesus Christ succeeded 100%. Praise the LORD!

Of course, we might say the same thing about the church also. Has the New Covenant Bride of Jesus Christ completely followed every command? I don’t know of any Christian that is yet perfect and never makes a mistake or sinned. Do you know one? I believe Jesus was the only one and we all should be rising to His living example. But Christians do have an advantage over the Old Covenant. True Christians should be following Jesus Christ their Great Shepherd and listening to His voice on a daily basis (John 10:27). Christians should have the Spirit of Christ living on the inside of them guiding them and this is the help that we need to become more like Him. Also, there are many natural Jewish people that have become Christians by believing in Jesus. The church began with 120 Jewish people in an upper room in Jerusalem (Acts 2) and then they began to spread to Gentiles later with God’s help. So, no one is being anti-Semitic at all. We love all people especially the Jewish people and we want everyone to come to the saving knowledge of Jesus.

Every human has the opportunity to repent and believe in Jesus Christ to be saved. This begins the walk with Him. When we start down this narrow path, we should be led by the Holy Spirit to become like Him and that means to become holy. Now that is when we change to begin to possess the “testimony of Jesus Christ” as God reveals to us in Revelation 12:17. Ask yourself this question; “Does Natural Israel have the testimony of Jesus Christ?” Maybe some teach and believe that this will come to fruition in the tribulation because Revelation mentions the 144,000 from every tribe to prove that will occur. We can’t dispute that. But we should believe that this woman mentioned in Revelation 12 will have Jew and Gentile, bond and free, male and female (1 Cor 12:13, Gal 3:28) and we will all jointly be called the “Bride of Christ”.

I’ll briefly discuss another factor of Grace that is important to know. We are not made righteous because we are perfect. We are made righteous by Grace. It was a gift. 2 Corinthians 5:21 informs us that “He was made sin who knew no sin, so that we might be made the righteousness of God in Him”. Wow, that is amazing. I do not have time to teach this subject fully. Just understand righteousness was a gift, but it was given so that we could change to become dead to sin aka holy, like Him (1 Peter 2:24).

Then there is another verse in the middle of chapter 12 of Revelation that is also related to the identity of the woman with her enemy relationship to the serpent and the dragon:

Revelation 12:11 – And they overcame him (Satan) by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death.

When I read this verse, I see the corporate church described as an overcoming, victorious body of believers. This can only be describing those that have received the Lamb of God as their personal savior and Lord (Jew, Greek, male, female, bond or free). This must be speaking of people that have applied and appropriated the shed blood of the Lamb of God to the doorposts of their spiritual hearts. When someone is described as having overcome something, that denotes a clear sign of victory at someone else’s ominous defeat. Here we have another confirming picture of the woman in Revelation 12: 1 standing with her feet upon the moon (Satan). Currently there is still just one woman in the Bible suspect list that qualifies to be this woman and it still is only the church the Lamb’s wife!

I would also like to make another quick point about Revelation 12:11. The blood of the Lamb, was just one enemy overcoming factor. The second part of that verse says “… and the word of their testimony”. Do you realize what that says or at least implies very heavily? The Greek word translated as “word” in this is G3056 and it is transliterated as “logos”. The definition literally means “something spoken” but it is used in reference to the Word of God numerous times. It is specifically used by Jesus in Mark 4:20 to describe the “seed” that was sown on good ground to produce fruit. This means real Christians.

We have just discovered a new connection to the woman in Revelation 12. I believe that Satan is in an all-out battle with anyone that professes the Word (seed) of God. Therefore, when we get to Revelation 12:17 I believe this is who Satan is fighting against on the earth. There will be people that were not truly saved after the rapture takes place that will understand what a mistake they have made and attempt to come back to the LORD. These people will have a very difficult time on the earth, but God will help them.

Notice in Revelation 12:15 when God is trying to help these people left on the earth that we are told that Satan the serpent spews water like a flood out from his mouth to try to overcome the woman. Wow, please realize this flood represents “spoken words”. The words could be lies, they could accusations, they could be threats, tricks and deceptions. There are a lot of tactics that could be used to try to get people to turn from their beliefs. However, again God helps the woman by opening the earth to swallow his words. Again, we see a prophecy that they overcame Satan by applying the blood and speaking the Word.

We have just learned of two weapons that can be turned against our enemy Satan. This applies today as well as during the tribulation. These weapons can be transferred back into us wearing the Armor of God. We are told to wear this armor in Ephesians 6. I believe all of the armor of God is based upon the Word of God. So, we have just confirmed how this chapter 12 of Revelation is in parallel to the Genesis 3:15 prophecy. We definitely have a woman versus a serpent and her seed (words) against his seed (words). But let’s go into some verses about the blood next. How many scriptures in the New Testament can you recall that speak of the blood of the Lamb, Jesus Christ?

Romans 5:9 – Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.

1Co 10:16 The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of Christ? The bread which we break, is it not the communion of the body of Christ?

Eph 1:7 In whom we have redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of his grace;

Eph 2:13 But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ.

Col 1:14 In whom we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins:

Hebrews 9:12 – Neither by the blood of goats and calves, but by his own blood he entered in once into the holy place, having obtained eternal redemption for us.

These are just a representative sampling of verses in the Bible that speak of the work of the blood of Jesus for His church. Understanding the power of the blood of Jesus is an essential part of a successful and victorious walk with Christ on the earth. Knowing what the blood of the Lamb purchased is critical to knowing who you are in Christ. Understanding the purpose of the blood of Christ is essential to a successful earthly Christian life. After understanding these verses, I hope that you can see the direct relationship to the descriptive qualities of the woman especially being clothed with the Sun of Righteousness in Revelation 12:11.

I am not going to go through every verse, but I would like to make a quick point on the first verse from Romans 5:9. Did you notice the connection from the church appropriating the shed blood of Jesus to be justified and to us missing the tribulation? I know it does not say tribulation but please understand this is when the wrath of God will be poured out on the ungodly upon the earth. This 7-year time period is divided into two 42-month periods. The greater tribulation occurs at the last 3.5 years. But yet I believe the church will not be here for any of it if we overcame Satan already using the blood of Jesus and God’s Word. It is a mystery of sorts when people believe the tribulation will occur with some even thinking that God will send His beloved bride through His time of wrath and judgement. But what loving husband would do that to His bride/wife?

If God did this He would violate His own written word. Remember in Ephesians 5 God instructs husbands to love their wives like Christ loves the church. So, if Christ sends His bride through brutal judgment to be murdered then we should do the same! I am being very sarcastic with that last comment. No, we should not do that at any time. Therefore, is the church the bride of Christ? I believe she is! Is the church going to encounter God’s fierce wrath? Not according to the Bible. Wow let’s please wake up and see the true heart of God.

Finally, here is what the Bible says in relation to the qualifications of the identity of the woman described in Rev 12:17. In these verses we will see instructions for the church to obey God’s commandments. God told Israel the basic same things, but this time in the New Covenant He came inside the hearts of people removing their hard hearts of stone to place tender hearts of flesh. This is where He writes His laws on them for us to follow. I just quoted a lot of Old Testament prophetical statements written about the church. But let’s read the instruction in the New Testament:

1Jn 5:2 By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God, and keep his commandments.

1Jn 5:3 For this is the love of God, that we keep his commandments: and his commandments are not grievous.

Joh 15:10 If ye keep my commandments, ye shall abide in my love; even as I have kept my Father’s commandments, and abide in his love.

Joh 14:15 If ye love me, keep my commandments.

Joh 14:21 He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.

We can see from these sample verses that the Church has been directed (commanded) to keep God’s commandments. They all say something like, if you love me, you will keep my commandments. This is how we know we love God, because we keep His commandments. We know of course that this does not mean that the Church is supposed to keep the law of Moses, but rather the new law of Jesus Christ. Jesus taught us that all the law is summarized in two statements. Love the Lord your God with all of your heart and then love your neighbor as yourself. Jesus gave the church a new commandment to love one another. This new commandment fulfills all of the Old Testament law. If you love your neighbor, you are not going to steal from them, you are not going to cheat them, you are not going to commit adultery with their spouse, you are not going to do anything that will harm them or cause them pain, emotionally, physically, mentally or spiritually. This is the law of LOVE! So let’s look at scriptures concerning those who have the testimony of Jesus Christ, who could this describe?

1Co 1:6 Even as the testimony of Christ was confirmed in you:

2Ti 1:8 Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God;

Rev 1:9 I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ.

Rev 19:10 And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said unto me, See thou do it not: I am thy fellow servant, and of thy brethren that have the testimony of Jesus: worship God: for the testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy.

Here are just a few of the scriptures related to those who have the testimony of Jesus Christ. We can see that the testimony of Jesus Christ was confirmed in the church members of Corinth. We can see Paul’s instruction to Timothy for him not to be ashamed of the testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ. Then in Revelation 1:9 we can see that John was imprisoned on Patmos for having the testimony of Jesus Christ. Finally in Revelation 19:10 in context with the description of the New Jerusalem, the bride of the Lamb, the angel of the Lord tells John not to worship him, but worship God with his brothers that also have the Testimony of Jesus Christ.

So, we have seen numerous scriptures that indicate directly and indirectly that the church are the people that are supposes to keep God’s commandments and keep the testimony of Jesus Christ. They were also confirmed to be people that must overcome the serpent (Satan) using the blood of Jesus and the Word (Seed) of God. So, we can see from all of these descriptive elements that this certainly narrows the potential identities of the woman in Revelation 12 to only one woman. Using the Word of God to explain the Word of God is the key to understanding the Bible. Perhaps you will join me in my next lesson. Thank you for reading and commenting and may God Bless you tremendously with the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in knowing Christ Jesus. Amen.

If you would like to continue reading this series, you can go to Part 5.

Posted in Bible Study, Chapter 12, Revelation

Tags: Bible, Bride, Christianity, Church, God, Jesus, Prophecy, Religion, Revelation, Satan, Truth, understanding, woman

The Bride of Christ Revealed – Part 10 The Bride in the Old Testament 2

Feb 15

Posted by agapegeek

(Ver 1.1) This is now Part 10 in the series of advanced Bible lossons on the subject of The Bride of Christ Revealed. Today will be a lesson on more Old Testament references to the Bride of Christ. I have already covered a lot of infromation in this series. For example, if we are talking about someone being a bride then there are implied subjects that we needed to be covered. For example, an implied bridegroom and an implied wedding or marriage. I went over the subjest that Jesus was the Bridegroom of the bride providing you with many scriptures. I then defined what a spiritual woman or a spiritual bride was in the eyes of God using the Bible to help us to understand her. I further have defined the reality that a marriage in the eyes of God is a covenant between God and his bride using several verses. If you have not been following this blog series from the beginning I would strongly suggest that you go back and read it from the beginning Part 1 The Introduction.

As we have seen, we know from the Old Testament prophets that God was married to the natural nation of Israel and the people of the earthly city of Jerusalem. Maybe you didn’t realize that, but it is there. What we see is a natural example of a marriage covenant between Israel and God the Father. This is a pattern and a foreshadowing of the New Covenant that was to come. When Jesus was crucified He implemented a new covenant, which represents a spiritual marriage to a spiritual woman called the new Jerusalem. The parallels between these two women are numerous and I really think they are obvious if you look for them. Here are just some of the parallels I found from studying these two women:

Old Covenant	New Covenant
Physical People	Spiritual People
Natural Nation of Israel	Spiritual Nation of Israel
12 Sons of Jacob	12 Disciples of the Lamb
Earthly Jerusalem	New Jerusalem
Unholy Jerusalem	Holy Jerusalem
Solomon Builds God a Natural Temple	Jesus Builds God a Spiritual Temple
Priests unto God	Jesus our High Priest
Blood of the Lamb on the Doorposts	Blood of the Lamb of God covers our Sins
Offers Yearly Sacrifices for Sin	Jesus the Lamb of God once for all Sin
Described as a Natural Woman	Described as a Spiritual Woman
Married to God the Father	Married to Jesus the Son of God
Abraham The Natural Father	Abraham the Spiritual Father
Called the Natural Seed of Abraham	Called the Spiritual Seed of Abraham
Circumcised in the Flesh	Circumcised in the Heart
Covenant of Mt Sinai in Arabia	Covenant of Mt Zion in Heaven

So who is this new covenant with? It has to be the church, those who have accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. The parallels and patterns between these two women are very significant and intentional by God’s design. God implemented an Old Covenant to give us patterns into the New Covenant. Let’s go through some verses in the Old Testament now and look for the bride of Christ. Here is an Old Testament scripture that I believe is very relevant to the subject of the identity of the bride:

Isa 54:5 For thy Maker is thine husband; the LORD of hosts is his name; and thy Redeemer the Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called.

We see a clear reference that God our maker is called the husband. I know this verse could be taken as directed at Israel and God, but I believe by the law of double reference it is referring to Jesus and the church. This is a prophetic verse of scripture for it speaks of God being “our” husband. How did I get to “our”? Because it says “thy Husband” is also called “thy Redeemer”. So who has redeemed us? Did you know we were redeemed from something, maybe that ought to be my first question. Here is a familiar scripture to some and others might not have seen it:

Tit 2:14 Who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify unto himself a peculiar people, zealous of good works.

You see in this verse that Jesus is called our Redeemer. God writes to the church and tells them that Jesus gave himself for them. Jesus did this to free them from their captive state and from the consequences of their sin. Here is another verse that speaks along these lines:

Gal 3:13 Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a curse for us: for it is written, Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree:

So we see from Galatians 3:13 and Titus 2:14 that Christ has redeemed “US” the church. So who did Isaiah say our husband would be? He said our Redeemer would be our husband. These kind of scriptures are all over the Bible if you look for them. I know it can be like putting a big jig saw puzzle together, but the pieces of the puzzle only fit together correctly one way so keep trying them to figure out what is right and what works. God didn’t give you a puzzle that couldn’t be solved. I hope you can see why I included this scripture right here and how it also fits with the story of Ruth in the Old Testament. I talked about the story of Ruth in the last blog. Christ is our redeemer and he is now also our husband. We can see that this verse is one of those that I referred to as applicable to the church by the law of double of reference. It was historical and prophetical at the same time. You can learn so much if you can accept these simple truths. I think I should briefly talk about what “redeem” means. If you look this word up and see the definition, it informs us that God buys us out of an impending doom or disastrous state. The word states that the item being bought is on the verge of being lost and the buyer paid the price to save it. We were that item on the verge of being eternally lost and Jesus Christ with His blood bought us out of our impending disaster.

So many times people do not think when they read the Bible. If God had to buy us out of our sin and pay the price for our freedom, who did this payment go to? If you have never been in a pawn shop perhaps you do not know how they work. Someone takes in an item into the pawn shop that has some value to it. This item is pawned for a specific time period. The shop owner gives the owner of the item some amount of money, usually pennies on the dollar for the item and keeps the item in their vault until either the owner comes back and buys the item back or the time period elapses. If the time period elapses the pawn shop owner is then free to take the item and sell it for more than he paid for it and that is one way that they make their money. If the original owner of the item comes back for his item he usually has to pay what he was loaned plus interest to get the item back. So what does this have to do with God redeeming us? We were that item of value that was pawned and held for ransom. God in His infinite mercy paid the price for our redemption. Perhaps I’ll do a blog on this showing you the Bible verses in the future.

Let’s get back to the bride in the Old Testament. The book of Isaiah has several scriptures that can be taken to heart by the church and here is another example of one of these:

Isa 62:5 For as a young man marrieth a virgin, so shall thy sons marry thee: and as the bridegroom rejoiceth over the bride, so shall thy God rejoice over thee.

This verse gives us a scriptural comparison of a natural and a spiritual truth. We can clearly see a reference given to a marriage between a natural man and a natural woman. We can then see that compared to a covenant marriage between God and his wife. By the law of double reference we can easily make the leap and see that this is Jesus and the church. Jesus as you recall was called the bridegroom with a bride in book of John. So as this verse says it says the bridegroom will rejoice over you. Who do you think “you” is? Of course it is the church. Who do you think the bridegroom is, who rejoices? Of course that is Jesus. Verses like this are so easily overlooked and ignored and people do it every day. But, when you see the truth it makes it easier to see other related truths in the Word of God.

We have seen two very significant verses in Isaiah that are relevant to the church, but there are also other verses and other prophets which can be viewed in more than one way by “the law of double reference”. What does this law of double reference mean to us? It simply means that it can be taken in a natural and a historical way according to the natural nation of Israel and then it can be taken in a spiritual or prophetic way that relates to the new Jerusalem and the new Covenant people of God. Here are a couple of verses that I think further reflect what I am telling you.

Jer 50:4 In those days, and in that time, saith the LORD, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together, going and weeping: they shall go, and seek the LORD their God.

Jer 50:5 They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward, saying, Come, and let us join ourselves to the LORD in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten.

We know reading this scripture in verse 4 that this appears to be addressed to the natural people of Israel and Judah. During this time period the prophet Jeremiah had seen the natural nation of Israel split into two opposing factions. This involved the 10 tribes of Israel to the north and then the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin to the south. Israel experienced a split and we won’t get into any of that because even though it is important, it is not relevant to the identity of the bride of Christ at least as far as we know right now. For you see there is a verse in the New Testament that gives us some clues into this statement:

Heb 8:8 For finding fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah:

We can see from this verse written to the church that God is speaking of the New Covenant. God states that this new covenant is with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. But, since this is written to the church we can very easily say that we are them, the spiritual Israel and the spiritual Judah.

Look back at Jeremiah 50. We can see a stark change in context in Jeremiah 50:5 with these natural people being previously mentioned. Did you notice what they said? Probably you don’t fully grasp what was said without studying and finding out the significance of the words. It starts by them asking the way to Zion. They end with a statement that says let us join ourselves to the Lord in a perpetual covenant. A perpetual covenant means an eternal, everlasting, never ending covenant. We know from study that to join with another is a part of a marriage covenant. The wife is joined to her husband they become one flesh by the law of marriage in Genesis 2. So we are definitely talking about a bride and a her husband in this verse. But, do you understand what Zion is? It has far reaching implications that are very significant. I do not feel I can fully explain everything in this blog, but I will try to give you enough information to help you see what I am talking about. I’ll start by saying that Mt Zion has an earthly reference to a mountain in Palestine called Mt Hermon. This is not the mountain in this verse that the people are asking for directions to. If you think it is you are probably just confused. Let’s look at some key verses in the New Testament that will help us unlock the meaning. Here are two verses that are quotes from the Old Testament:

Mat 21:5 Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass.

Joh 12:15 Fear not, daughter of Sion: behold, thy King cometh, sitting on an ass’s colt.

Both of these verses say basically the same thing. But, it give us a key phrase or wording that maybe you don’t understand fully yet. These words are addressed to the daughter of Zion. Do you know who the daughter of Zion is? This may be news to many of you, but the daughter of Zion is the church. I think several readers just choked on their drink. Jesus is prophesied to be riding on a donkey into the city of Jerusalem. But, it says look daughter of Zion here is your King. Who is the King of kings and the Lord of lords? If you don’t know the answer to that you may need to do more Bible study. Who are the kings and lords that Jesus is King and Lord of? This is not a trick question. Let’s look at some more verses and this will become clearer as we do further study. Let’s first establish the location of Mt Zion. Where is Mt Zion, this mountain is not in Palestine or the natural nation of Israel. Here is a clue and a verse that might help you see it.

Rom 9:33 As it is written, Behold, I lay in Sion a stumblingstone and rock of offence: and whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.

Isa 8:14 And he shall be for a sanctuary; but for a stone of stumbling and for a rock of offence to both the houses of Israel, for a gin and for a snare to the inhabitants of Jerusalem.

The Bible is so much more complex than we give it credit for many times. When we read the Bible most of the time we see Israel and Jerusalem and only think in natural terms of the physical country and city on the earth. However, there are more than one of both of these in the Bible. From what I have seen in the Bible there are three cities in the Bible all called by the same name Jerusalem. One is physical and two are spiritual. I really don’t have time to teach you this in this lesson. I have included more information on this in other blogs so go read and study. So who or what are these verses speaking of? Who is the stumbling stone? Who is this rock of offence? Here is another scripture from Isaiah that also speaks of this stone:

Isa 28:16 Therefore thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious corner stone, a sure foundation: he that believeth shall not make haste.

You can see that God has laid a stone in Zion to start a foundation for a building project. This stone was tried, which has all kind of implications on it. Jesus was tried by Pilot and sentenced to death. Then it refers to this stone as a corner stone. A corner stone in terms of building is the stone that all the other stones are aligned from. It is the first stone laid in a building project. God is talking about a building project, yes? Sure He is! However, God is building a spiritual building, a spiritual city which is to be His eternal dwelling place. This dwelling place is the church and it is called the New Jerusalem. Let’s read some very important verses in Ephesians 2:

Eph 2:20 And are built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone;

Eph 2:21 In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an holy temple in the Lord:

Eph 2:22 In whom ye also are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit.

You can clearly see a reference to a very, very large building project in these verses. This is a large building project because we have a really big God. God is building an eternal city, a holy city to dwell in. This city is of course the New Jerusalem. This city will be His eternal dwelling place and will be a glorious place to be forever. As you recall this city is described in great detail in Revelation and is called the Holy Jerusalem, the New Jerusalem. It is New because the Old is going away and being replaced totally and completely.

Heb 8:13 In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.

So God tells us that the New replaces the Old. The New is not an augmentation or a modification of the Old or even an upgrade from the Old. The New is a better covenant, built upon better promises. God tells us that the Old will soon vanish away completely. We can see this repeated in the New Testament if you look for it. God tells us there will be a new Heaven and new Earth. So obviously both of these will also be completely replaced. It would appear to me that God is preparing a new spiritual world that replaces the old spiritual world.

So we are still talking about Mt. Zion and where it is. Who was this “Stumbling Stone” that Isaiah 8:14 is referring to? Of course it is Jesus Christ? Where is Jesus Christ today? He is in heaven sitting at the right hand of the Father. Do you agree? So apparently Mt Zion is in heaven. Here is a verse that will clear things up better for you since it tells us exactly where this Mt Zion is located:

Heb 12:22 But ye are come unto mount Sion, and unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels,

Heb 12:23 To the general assembly and church of the firstborn, which are written in heaven, and to God the Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect,

This verse is so clear and so informative that I wonder why we haven’t seen it before. Of course this verse is written to the church and it declares us, the church as having come to this Mt Zion. Then it reveals the location of this Mt Zion as being the city of the living God. This time it names the city directly as the Heavenly Jerusalem. As I hope you recall we have already seen this city named in Galatians 4, where it was called the Jerusalem that is Above. Who was this city according to Galatians? Wasn’t it the “Jerusalem from Above” that was the mother of the Church? Uh Oh? We are beginning to put together pieces of the puzzle that have huge implications to challenge our current understanding of God’s word. If you use your brain a little bit you realize that every covenant of God has a corresponding mountain associated with it. From reading in Galatians 4 the Earthly Jerusalem is tied to Mt Sinai where Moses received the law from God. This heavenly Jerusalem also has a mountain associated with it inferring there was another covenant that most of us don’t know about. If the heavenly Jerusalem contains the mountain named Zion and this city is said to be the mother of the church, could the daughter of Zion also be the church? If you keep studying longer you will come to the conclusion that it is, as I have.

Son 3:11 Go forth, O ye daughters of Zion, and behold king Solomon with the crown wherewith his mother crowned him in the day of his espousals, and in the day of the gladness of his heart.

The daughter of Zion is mentioned in the Song of Solomon when speaking of his wife that he loves. Solomon is an O.T. type of Christ and a pattern for Jesus’ marriage to the church. The “daughter of Zion” again is a reference to the church a spiritual name for a spiritual woman.

I have in a roundabout way gone in a complete circle in this teaching about the bride of Christ. As you may remember, we started out very early with a definition of a woman coming from a description of the woman in Revelation called the New Jerusalem. This woman has suddenly reappeared from Old Testament references thus completing the circle. If you have been following this you will soon begin to understand the connection and the process of how we got to where we did. God does things like this on purpose to teach us. This woman called the New Jerusalem is the Holy City of God. The eternal dwelling place for the Spirit of God. The eternal covenant wife of Jesus Christ the Son of God. This city is a new spiritual habitation for God because the Old spiritual city in heaven will soon pass away. Why was it necessary for God to create a new spiritual city? Why was is necessary to create a new heaven and a new Earth? Why did God have to marry a new wife through His Son Jesus Christ? Why was the Church a necessary part of God’s plan as a woman and a wife? There are just so many questions to answer and research. Before I close out this incredibly long lesson, I’ll leave you with one more set of scriptures about this city called “New Jerusalem”:

Isa 52:1 Awake, awake; put on thy strength, O Zion; put on thy beautiful garments, O Jerusalem, the holy city: for henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean.

Isa 52:2 Shake thyself from the dust; arise, and sit down, O Jerusalem: loose thyself from the bands of thy neck, O captive daughter of Zion.

Isa 52:3 For thus saith the LORD, Ye have sold yourselves for nought; and ye shall be redeemed without money.

Here God is speaking to the New Jerusalem. If you noticed He again called it the “Holy Jerusalem” like He did in Revelation. There is a parallel given to us of a spiritual truth. We know the uncircumcised refers to those not in covenant. But, in the New Testament God informs us that we who have been circumcised in our hearts are the true Jews (Rom 2:29). So God is speaking prophetically as well as naturally. Then in verse 2 it says to free ourselves from the captivity of sin. Where we were bound in darkness to Satan we have been purchased and redeemed by God. As you can see in verse 3 it says we sold ourselves for nothing to Satan, but God has bought us back without paying any money for us. It didn’t cost God any money to redeem us, but it was not free either. God shed His blood, which was more valuable than anything else that He could have given and paid the price to buy us out of our dilemma.

So we have gone full circle and ended where we started. Funny how God does that. The City of New Jerusalem is the New Covenant wife of the Lamb of God and this spiritual woman is the church. There are certainly many other scriptures that I did not cover, but I know I have run very long in today’s lesson, so I will stop here.

If you would like to continue reading this series, you can go to “Part 11“.

Posted in The Church

Tags: Bible, Bride, Christianity, Church, Covenants, God, Interpretation, Jesus, marriage, Prophecy, Religion, Revelation, understanding, woman

The Bride of Christ Revealed – Part 7 The Bride in the New Testament

Feb 7

Posted by agapegeek

(Ver 1.1) This is now Part 7 in this series on the subject of the Bride of Christ Revealed and I have covered a lot of information on the subject. In my last blog on this subject I introduced you to some very strong New Testament verses that confirm the identity of the Bride of Christ directly as being the church. Ephesians chapter 5 is predominately about the subject of marriage and the relationships between husbands and wives. We went verse by verse through key verses in this chapter and counted the references to see how many times natural husbands and wives were mentioned and then we looked at how these natural marriages fit a pattern for a greater spiritual truth. Jesus is clearly given to be the head, the husband and the bridegroom in these verses. The church is clearly given to be his bride, his wife and his body by marriage. If you have not been following this series from the beginning I would strongly recommend that you go back and start reading from Part 1, The Introduction. This series is designed to step you through the subjects in a way that you can more easily see and understand this very deep and complex topic. So read each part of the series in order and hopefully you will grasp all of the spiritual concepts.

I heard more than one preacher say “search the Bible and you won’t find one scripture that says the church is the bride”. I sometimes wonder what Bible they are looking at, for I found a bunch of verses that tell me the church is the bride of Christ. These were well known ministers and men who have been teaching and studying the Bible for 50 years. The main problem they are experiencing is one that Jesus said you will always find what you are seeking. Jesus actually said seek and you shall find. But the problem is when people seek wrong things you find wrong things. If you are looking for no verses that say the church is the bride you will find no verses that say this. You always get what you seek and not necessarily what is the truth. That is how God designed the Bible to give you a choice to believe whatever you want to believe. That is a law of Bible research and study. Here is another law of Bible interpretation, it tells us that in the mouth of two or three witnesses let every word be established. I already showed you Ephesians 5 about Christ and His bride. So what other scriptures can we find in the New Testament that reveal the church to be the bride of Christ? Read these next scriptures very carefully, for they too are written directly to the church in Rome and they reveal very clearly the identity of the church as being the bride of Christ.

Rom 7:1 Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?

This is an incredibly critical verse to understand fully. It speaks about the law. Here is the important thing to grasp, it says as long as a man is alive the law has dominion over him. Do you understand that statement? The implication is that when a man dies, the law is no longer in effect over his life. But did you notice who Paul and God wrote this verse to? It says “brethren” and that would be the church, except then it qualifies it further and says to only my brothers who know the law. Do you understand that statement? I bet you don’t fully get it. You see to “know” is a covenant term between a husband and a wife. Adam “knew” his wife and she had a son. To “know” is a sexual type reference, but God is not talking about a physical intimacy but a spiritual intimacy. What God is saying in this verse is, these next verses are written to members in the church who were previously under the law of Moses and the Old Covenant wife of God.

Rom 7:2 For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.

So we see some more important information concerning marriage and the law. If you recall in an earlier blog I discussed the law of marriage using Genesis 2. This verse confirms that there are laws in the Old Testament that govern marriage relationships. This verse says that a woman is bound by the law to her husband as long as her husband is alive. Why is that? The law of marriage said that they are one flesh. You can’t cut off a piece of your own body and get rid of it and still be whole. In most marriage ceremonies there is usually a phrase “until death do us part”. God informs us that death is a legal separation of a marriage covenant. There is really a tremendous number of applications of this scripture to the women in the Bible. If you recall Israel was called a woman married to God. That is exactly why God is using Paul to write these verses to Messianic Jewish believers. He is informing them of something that is very profound and relevant so let’s keep reading:

Rom 7:3 So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.

I really don’t want to get off of the subject and go into a lot of detail right here concerning Israel, but I guess I will mention it so that you can do further research and see that it does apply. If you read Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Hosea to name a few good examples you will see God called Israel a whore because of her unfaithful interaction with foreign gods and idolatry. God considered these acts as adulteress conduct of sexual perversion. God also considered these acts as covenant acts of marriage to these foreign gods and idols. So I gave you a lot to research, but let’s get back to this verse and what it says. It is speaking to those under the law and it tells them that as long as their husband is alive if they are in covenant with another then they are committing adultery. But then it says if a woman’s husband is dead, then she is free to marry or enter into covenant with another man. Remember these verses are written to brothers, males and these men are referred to as a woman. I think sometimes people don’t see this and miss out what God is saying.

Rom 7:4 Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.

I hope you are getting what these scriptures are saying for they end in a very clear statement in Romans 7:4 that says you are now married to another, the Lord Jesus Christ! Try to explain that away! I’m sure you’ll come up with something if you don’t want to see the truth. I could say a lot more about these scriptures because they reveal so much more that we haven’t seen, but since that is not my primary purpose in this lesson, I will not weigh you down with any unnecessary things to think about. The main thing to take away from these verses is the reference to a man married to woman and how she is bound to that husband until he is dead. If she marries another while he is alive she is called an adulteress. However, Paul clarifies the problem because he says the first husband died by the body of Jesus Christ. So now they are free to be married to another and that is to him that was raised from the dead. This is an incredibly detailed discussion about the law and the law in specific relation to marriage covenants. Only people under the law would have been concerned to this level of detail. Gentiles were never married to the law or God, so they are free to marry Jesus the same as a natural Jew is now free to marry the Lord. The primary point to see is that the New Covenant is a marriage. But instead of a covenant with the Father God, it is with the Son of God, Jesus Christ and that is a very important concept to note and pay attention to. There is always a reason for everything that God says and does and this is no exception.

So is the church the bride of Christ? Some sure have gone through great extents to try to prove that we are not. I don’t know how they don’t see it, it sure seems to be there to me. Are you seeing it? Let’s start going through some more scriptures and continue by looking at this important verse:

2Co 11:2 For I am jealous over you with godly jealousy: for I have espoused you to one husband, that I may present you as a chaste virgin to Christ.

This verse is another that some Bible teachers are determined to explain away not letting people know what it really says. All the ingredients of marriage are mentioned in this verse. The identity of the bridegroom is clearly given as Jesus Christ. The mention of being married or “espoused” to Christ is a very clear reference. So who is the verse directed to? The verse is written to the bride. Bible teachers who don’t believe this verse say it is just making a comparison with the word “As”. You of course know if you can read that the word “as” is added by the translators and is not in the original Greek language so that argument is shot down pretty easily. We can clearly see that it is not making a comparison but it is identifying the church to be the chaste virgin. The Greek word translated as “virgin” has the following definition in the Strong’s:

G3933

Of unknown origin; a maiden; by implication an unmarried daughter: – virgin.

The description of an unmarried woman is clear from this definition. The reference is specifically to an unmarried daughter being presented to Christ. The word “present” in this verse is the same word we looked at in Ephesians and it means to stand beside. So we again see the reference to a marriage ceremony. Then there is the Greek word translated as “chaste” in the King James Bible and here is what Strong’s says about it:

G53

From the same as G40; properly clean, that is, (figuratively) innocent, modest, perfect: – chaste, clean, pure.

Wow does that describe the church you know, it’s not a whole lot of the church I know. So you can read this verse in 2 Corinthians and do what you want to with it. But it clearly has all the necessary ingredients and parties of a wedding ceremony and a marriage covenant. The clear inference is this bride is unmarried and a virgin that has not been touched by another man. The reference is basically the same as a woman dressed in clean and white fine linen that has made herself ready for her husband. But I guess that is just me speaking isn’t it? I can’t prove it to you, either you see it or you don’t. It is so funny how that you can’t make anyone see the truth if they don’t want to see it.

I tell you if you look for scriptures that identify the church as the bride you will find them, the trouble is so many are just not looking for them. I know sometimes that verse can say things indirectly and sometimes not be totally obvious when you read it. Look closely at this scripture because you will find another reference to the church being the bride of Christ:

1Co 6:15 Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid.

1Co 6:16 What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh.

1Co 6:17 But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.

Verse 15 starts with confirming the church is the body of Christ. God tells us that our bodies are like individual cells in the bigger body of Christ. We make up the pieces that His body is comprised of. It is a spiritual truth using a natural pattern of the human body. The natural human body consists of many different organs, tissues, bones, cells and other components that when working with each other make up a healthy living body. But as we have already seen we know how we got to be the body of Christ was by the law of marriage found in Genesis 2. That law states that two shall become one body after they are married. This marriage covenant between Adam and Eve was a pattern for the Jesus and the church. Finally, in this verse the subject of harlots come into play in direct relation to the body of Christ. The implication is given that the church now that they are married in covenant with God can still have spiritual sexual relationships with other gods and other spiritual entities. I will agree that these verse seems to go both for natural relations with whores as well as spiritual relations with whores. I believe there is a clear application to the law of double reference. Where a verse of scripture can be taken naturally and spiritually and both points of view are true.

Within the context of these scriptures here we see another direct reference to a physical relationship between a man and a woman. The reference is purely sexual in nature and contains an inference of a woman being joined to her husband by covenant. In 1 Corinthians 6:17, the husband is clearly the Lord Jesus so who is Paul writing to that has been joined to Him? What does it mean to be joined together in Holy Matrimony? Doesn’t this verse have the same contextual relevance to our subject of marriage between a man and a woman? God contrasts the union of Christ and the church to that of a man to a harlot. This is certainly a significant comparison and gives us a lot of information that we should be aware of. For example, having a sexual relation with a whore is called a marriage in the eye’s of God. The sexual act is a covenant act. So if the man has a one night stand with a whore, it declares that in the eyes of God they are joined together as husband and wife. I was watching TV and to my surprise there was a group of individuals sitting around a table and discussing how many sexual partners some of them had. Of course in the unsaved world to men it is a matter of conquest to say they have had a lot of female partners. Who knows who was lying and who was telling the truth, but a couple of them had estimated they had 40 to 60 different women in their lives. According to scripture God sees each of these relations as a marriage covenant act. Obviously men and women don’t see it the same way or they wouldn’t be so casual about who they married. If the courts viewed sex as God views sex, there would be a lot more alimony going out of some of their pockets.

Going back to the verse in 1 Corinthians 6:17 we see the same sexual act reference given but this time to the Church with Jesus Christ. If you don’t see this it is because you don’t want to see it. The difference or contrast is given that we the church have become one spirit with Jesus and the man with the harlot has become one flesh with her. Both have become one by a marriage covenant act. There is a very clear statement of the church being joined to the Lord Jesus. To be joined is of course a marriage. A marriage is always where God takes one male and one female and makes one body out of them. This is so critical to understand.

I have given you at the minimum three great witnesses found in the New Testament that all deal with the church being called the bride of Christ by a marriage covenant act of God. The law of marriage is applicable and helps to explain a great number of other Bible verses, like how the church became the body of Christ? So we have explored more than enough witnesses to confirm this truth, but I might give you some more unique points of view in my next blog on this subject. I think I have said enough today so I hope you have a great day.

If you would like to continue reading this series, you can go to “Part 8“.

Posted in The Church

Tags: Bible, Bride, Christianity, Church, Covenants, God, Interpretation, Jesus, marriage, Prophecy, Religion, Revelation, Truth, understanding, woman

The Bride of Christ Revealed – Part 6 Presenting the Bride

Feb 5

Posted by agapegeek

(Ver 1.2) Today I want to begin to explore the New Testament references for the identity of the bride of Christ. I want to “present” you to the identity of the bride of Christ. You will see later why I said that so look for it. There are certinly many scriptures that identify the Bride to us, but I want to start with the strongest verses first. If you have not been following this series from the beginning I would strongly recommend that you go back and start reading from Part 1, The Introduction.

Here it is, one of the strongest scriptural evidence that I’ve seen concerning the identity of the Bride of Christ and it’s found in the New Testament in the book of Ephesians and chapter 5. These are words written directly to the church and specifically about the church so read them very, very carefully. Understanding Ephesians 5 is critical for you understanding your identity in the spiritual world. Pay close attention to the subject being discussed and then see how they fit together: I will go verse by verse starting with verse 22. I will keep a running total of references that I find on the primary noun subjects being discussed. So help me count as we go. Let’s start reading in Ephesians chapter 5 and verse 22:

Eph 5:22 Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as unto the Lord.

We can clearly see that the primary subject of this verse is marriage because it is talking to wives and husbands. But did you notice who this verse is written to? It is written to the church, the wife of Christ. If you notice in this verse, it ends with “as unto the Lord”. The implied reference is that the church is the bride and Christ is the husband. There are clearly two patterns given to us; one is a natural pattern and the other is a spiritual pattern. The church is clearly commanded to submit to their husband, the Lord Jesus Christ. So while “wives” are mentioned only once, the implication is given that we the church are also a wife to Christ. If we count the references to noun subjects we have the following totals:

	Direct	Implied
Husbands	1
Wives	1
Church/Body		1
Christ	1

You will notice the primary nouns given in this verse is concerning wives, husbands and Christ. There is one implied or indirect reference to the church as being a wife. I hope you can see what this verse is talking about and who it is talking to. So let’s go to the next verse and see what it says:

Eph 5:23 For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.

So we have a continuation of the primary subject of marriage still in the context of husbands and wives being given to us. Again we see a direct relationship being established between the natural and the spiritual. The husband is said to be the head of the wife in the natural world and I refuse to comment on that statement. However, Christ is the implied husband of the church given the clear context of being the head of the body. The church is clearly given to be the body of Christ which is a direct parallel that we learned about when we studied about Eve being the body of Adam. We know that these are patterns for spiritual truths that God is communicating to us from natural truths. So let’s update our total number of noun reference counts.

	Direct	Implied
Husbands	2
Wives	2
Church/Body	2	1
Christ	3

So we are up to 2 direct references to husbands and wives and 3 direct and indirect references to Christ and his bride. Let’s continue with verse 24:

Eph 5:24 Therefore as the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything.

Again in this verse we have two parallels given to us. Both of these patterns are implied covenant marriages given from the context of the subject being spoken of. The church is said to be subject to Christ and that is just another way to say we are to submit. We can clearly see that this implies Christ is the husband and the church is the wife, given the ending statement of the verse being directed to natural wives to be submitted to their natural husbands. These are God’s words and not mine so don’t shoot the messenger. Just read them and accept them. Let’s update our total reference count from this verse:

	Direct	Implied
Husbands	3
Wives	3
Church/Body	3	1
Christ	4

I do not know how ministers have read these verses and refuse to see what they clearly say, but that is the way the Bible is written, men see what they want to see. Let’s continue with the next verse in the chapter:

Eph 5:25 Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself for it (her, the Church);

This verse repeats the pattern and speaks to husbands and wives again. It clearly implies that Christ is the husband that loves his bride, the church. It clearly says that He proves his love for her by giving Himself as a sacrifice for her. This verse should have used the personal pronoun “her” instead of “it”. The church is not an “it”. God did not send Jesus to die for an “it”. Let’s update our total noun reference count:

	Direct	Implied
Husbands	4
Wives	4
Church/Body	5	1
Christ	6

Let’s take a brief look at verse 26 even though this is a bit off the main subject of marriage. Take a look at what this verse is saying:

Eph 5:26 That he might sanctify and cleanse it with the washing of water by the word,

According to this verse “it” is again mistranslated as being a reference to “her”, the church. This verse is saying that Christ is sanctifying and cleaning the church by a washing process that involves the Word of God. This implies that the Word of God is a liquid like pure water with a power to clean dirty spots out. Isn’t that an interesting statement? Aren’t we talking about the church? I mean I can clearly understand it, but can you? If the church is the body of Christ, why would Christ need to give himself a bath to make himself clean? You see the problem with that logic, don’t you? That is why people who teach that the church is the body of Christ and only the body of Christ are severely mistaken. This is just further proof to me of how preachers have taught some incredibly stupid things. If the church was just the body of Christ we wouldn’t need cleaning or washing. Jesus is already clean and righteous. We are the ones with the faults and blemishes, the dirty spots that need cleaning off. But since we have become His body by a marriage covenant and we are a separate individual that still needs cleaning, we can more clearly see how we fit into all of these verses and not just some of them. As we continue with verse 27 we see more marriage terminology given to us about Christ and the church:

Eph 5:27 That he might present it to himself a glorious church, not having spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish.

In reading this verse I think of many weddings that I have been to. The bride comes walking down the center aisle and is presented to the husband usually by the father of the bride. Ephesians 5 is primarily about marriage so we can know that Christ is talking about His bride in this verse. What we have seen in the last three verses are a extraordinary effort being put forth by Jesus to give himself completely for His wife. This is a process that involved Him suffering and experiencing tremendous pain and death on a cross. He shed His blood for us, because He loved us that much. Verse 27 informs us why He was willing to go to this extraordinary effort. Verse 27 declares so that He might present “it” to himself. We of course lose a lot by not studying the Greek to determine what this actually means. From the English translation in the KJV it sure sounds like a term for marriage. In many marriage ceremonies I have heard it said by the minister after the final vows, “may I present to you Mr. and Mrs. fill in the name. However, the Greek word translated as “present” actually has a literal meaning “to stand beside“. That is actually a fascinating contradiction of terms. How can the body of Christ stand beside Himself? You see it just doesn’t really make sense unless you put it into the context of a woman standing besides her husband in a marriage ceremony and the two becoming one flesh that way. Several times in these verses the church is referred to as “it” and this again is a mistranslation and the same word should say and mean “her” and it is translated that way in the New Testament many times. In fact it is translated as “her” in Revelation 19:8 when referring to the woman called the “New Jerusalem”. Isn’t that a coincidence? Let’s look at this verse just for grins:

Rev 19:8 And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints.

I hope that you see why I included this verse, because it is so very similar to the one we just looked at in Ephesians 5:27. The first thing I wanted to point out is the term “G846” is translated correctly this time as “her” and not “it”. So how can translators make such obvious mistakes in one verse the word is “it” and another one it is “her”. That is a question that I suppose we all need to understand and see that translators are just men capable of making mistakes. Then the next thing I wanted to point out is what are the terms “clean and white” saying, is this describing what we read in Ephesians 5? Obviously they are references to what she is wearing a type of extraordinary piece of clothing or fabric. So how does that compare with what the woman in Ephesians 5 is wearing, it says “without spot or wrinkle” and this implies fine nice clothing also that does not have any dirty spots. I think we can clearly see that these two verse are speaking of the exact same woman. So again, what did Paul tell us that Christ was presenting to himself, a church without spot or wrinkle, clean by the washing of the water of the Word. It’s amazing how the Bible fits together, isn’t it? Both of these are describing the same wedding apparel if you ask me. What we see is that both of these women are described as being in perfect condition, wearing the finest clean garments. This is a clear picture of the church and this truth is reflected to us in the book of Revelation 19 when it speaks of the bride being adorned for her husband and how she has made herself ready. These are all pictures and patterns into a spiritual truth that I hope you are seeing and understanding. So let us update our running count of references that we have observed in these verses and see the new totals:

	Direct	Implied
Husbands	4
Wives	4
Church/Body	6	2
Christ	7

Let us continue with the next verse in Ephesians for it is really getting good now. In this verse we start to again see the law of marriage being restated in context with the husband and the wife in marriage:

Eph 5:28 So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself.

Are you understanding these concepts? God is reaffirming the law of marriage from Genesis 2 in this simple verse of truth. This verse speaks to men and instructs them to love their wives because they are his body. Since Eve came from Adam’s body, so a wife is joined to her husband and the two are now said to be one flesh. If a husband physically abuses his wife it is like him hitting himself in the head, and that is idiotic and crazy behavior. In this verse we have several direct and indirect references to husbands and wives and this now is reflected in our total reference count in the following:

	Direct	Implied
Husbands	7
Wives	6
Church/Body	6	2
Christ	7

The next verse continues with more about the law of marriage from Genesis 2, but now concludes with the revelation that this also applies to Christ and the church:

Eph 5:29 For no man ever yet hated his own flesh; but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the church:

You see from this verse further confirmation that the woman and the husband are said to be one flesh or one in the same body. Whatever happens to one affects the other directly. However one treats the other is how they treat themselves. God is really saying to them to treat the other like he or she is you, because you two are one body. God then concludes this verse with the revelation that this applies to Christ and the church. Christ the husband and the church is the wife. Christ cherishes His bride, the church with great love and affection. The church is the Body of Christ. Christ dwells in us right here and right now if you are born again. Christ therefore loves the church because she is His body and His wife.

	Direct	Implied
Husbands	8
Wives	6	3
Church/Body	7	2
Christ	8

I hope you are following my count and seeing the references, both direct and indirect implications being given to us. These scriptures are very important to understand. We are finally getting to some great scriptures that we have been working up to and the anticipation has been building with great excitement:

Eph 5:30 For we (the church) are members of his (Jesus Christ) body, of his flesh, and of his bones.

You finally begin to see what God is speaking of about Christ and the church. This verse informs us in very clear language that we are the body of Christ and indirectly tells us how we became His body. But then did you notice that it also calls us his flesh and his bones. Isn’t this what Adam said about Eve? Adam said she is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh. Do you understand the context? I put the description of who this verse was talking about in parenthesis so that you could better understand it. What we clearly see is a reference to the natural law of marriage given to us by God in Genesis 2. To reaffirm the connection to Adam, God repeats the law from Genesis in the next verse:

Eph 5:31 For this cause shall a man (Jesus Christ) leave his father (God) and mother (Israel), and shall be joined unto his wife (the church), and they two shall be one flesh (body).

God is directly saying that what happened with Adam and Eve was a pattern for Christ and the church. I included the participants in this verse and named names. I put these in parenthesis so that you would not confuse them with the original verse. I did not add to the verse I only clarified the subjects and references so that you could more easily see them. Did you see them? Did you understand them? That is the main part we are going for, if you can understand them, then Satan can’t steal them away from you. One of the key words in this verse is given to us and it is that the two will be “joined” together to be one flesh (body). The Greek word for “joined” literally means “to glue”. That is God’s definition of marriage, creating one body, taking two separate pieces and gluing them together to be one piece or one body. This is again basic math God’s way. With Adam he took one and made two, however God still called them one. You can see this from a multiplication perspective. One man times one wife equals 1 body. I’ve done wood working before, and I have taken two pieces of wood and using dowels and glue I’ve put them together or “joined” them and clamped them and let them dry. After sanding and staining it is incredible the strength and beauty of the one new piece of wood. There are in fact some glues that are so strong that if you would try to pull them apart the wood would usually break in a new spot. This is what God is trying to communicate to us. To join together is a process of marriage. Taking two separate individual pieces and creating one new piece. Here is a revised count of direct and indirect scripture references to the subjects in marriage:

	Direct	Implied
Husbands	8
Wives	6	3
Church/Body	9	2
Christ	13

We can see that from this total sheet that we have an overwhelming number of witness to the subject matter of marriage in context with all of these participants. God declares that just as husbands and wives are in covenant and become one flesh so it is with Jesus and the church. The next verse in Ephesians actually declares to us some very valuable information. This verse is the overwhelming climax to the subject of marriage in this chapter of Ephesians:

Eph 5:32 This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.

You see in this verse Ephesians 5:32 God lets us in on a secret that has been kept hidden since the foundation of the world. God had a plan and He patterned this plan after things that He created for us to see. God created a man and a woman and established the law of marriage. God declares that just as one wife becomes one flesh or body with her husband, so all wives become one flesh with their husbands. God declares this to be a Great Mystery. The Greek word for mystery here means “to shut the mouth” as in “keep a secret” from someone. Did you know God had secrets? God must have not wanted someone to see his plan and I believe this was Satan. God says that all of this chapter is about marriage covenant relationships and that this is or was a great secret, but He lets the proverbial cat out of the bag so to speak by telling us that this all has to do with Christ and the church. Jesus Christ is the bridegroom and the church, the bride. The New Covenant is a marriage and the result is the establishment of new family unit. Why did God have to establish a new family? Apparently He had a major problem with his old family. If you can see this and understand it you will be far beyond a lot of other Christians who do not yet know who they are. Satan has tried to confuse the identity of the Bride for many reasons. Even preachers have helped Satan to confuse us. God is doing a new thing in these last days, He is getting the truth out for us to see and to understand. I hope and pray that you can see it. We will continue in the next blog on the mystery of the identity of the Bride using more New Testament verses that confirm our true identity.

If you would like to continue with this series, you can go to “Part 7“.

Posted in The Church

Tags: Bible, Christianity, Church, Covenants, Genesis, God, Jesus, marriage, Religion, Truth, understanding, woman

The Bride of Christ Revealed – Part 5 The Law of Marriage

Feb 4

Posted by agapegeek

(Ver 1.3) In the last blog on this subject we talked about a covenant being a marriage. Before that, I talked about a woman being a nation of people and a city. We have been building our scriptural knowledge base to understand the identity of the bride of Christ and today I want to talk about the Law of Marriage. I hope you realize that the Old Testament holds the law of God written down by Moses. In these books God has established principles, concepts, definitions, and laws concerning every subject you can think of. So today I want to establish what happens when God enters into a marriage blood covenant with a group of people. If you have not been following this series from the beginning I would strongly recommend that you go back and start reading from Part 1, The Introduction.

I know this is a very new advanced study of a complex subject. I know that it will be difficult for some to see and understand. Based upon your current spiritual level of maturity, that alone will determine if you are able to fully grasp what is in this lesson series. Many times I know people read my stuff and think it is not true. It is funny how Jesus would go around and tell people “let him who has ears, hear”. Jesus was not talking about just hearing sounds with their ears, he was talking about them understanding with their hearts and that is something completely different. Too many people know how to read, but do not know how to see what was written. Getting understanding is the key to growing in spiritual maturity. Just as you cannot hand a first grader a college calculus book and say learn this, if you are struggling with the things that I have been saying you are probably not ready for this lesson. I would recommend that you either go back and study the basics some more until you fully grasp the foundational truths before you attempt to tackle any of the advanced subjects found in the Bible.

Let’s get into the second chapter of Genesis and see the account of the creation of woman and the first recorded marriage covenant and what happened to all of the participants. After all, we are talking about the identity of a woman called the bride of Christ, so where did the woman come from?

Gen 2:21 And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;

Gen 2:22 And the rib, which the LORD God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.

We can clearly see from these famous well known verses where God says woman came from? You’ve read this before I’m sure, but I doubt if you really fully understood what you read. You see these verses declare that woman was taken out of a man. That is representative of a mathematical operation of division or subtraction. You could say God took one and made two. One divided by 2 gives the same answer as one subtracting one half. Using either division or subtraction the result could still be two halves. But here is another perspective of division and mathematics. If you divide one by one you get one. Isn’t that an interesting concept. The reverse multiplicative principle would be to multiply one by one and you would still get a result of one. One male times one female equals one flesh and here is why I say that. Look at the next verses in Genesis in what Adam has to say about his wife:

Gen 2:23 And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.

Gen 2:24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.

Since the woman was taken from his body, Adam then declares that she was his body. Did you see that? What is flesh and bones? His flesh and bones is the same as his body. Adam’s body consisted of flesh and bones. God took a portion of his body and made her body. Flesh and bones are the primary parts or pieces that make up his body. I hope all kind of light bulbs are going off in your mind based upon this revelation. Flesh and bone and the body are different terminology for the same thing. There are so many ways to describe, label or name the same things that we have to be smart enough to know when they are the same and when they are not. When Adam looked at his wife he called her the body of Adam. This is a pattern for another New Testament marriage we will see later. If God took a part of man out and created a woman who became the mother to all the natural living descendants on the planet earth, then you might say it would be legal for God to put back a woman into his son Jesus Christ. I’m sure you are wondering how I came to that reasoning and conclusion. It starts with this fact, did you know that Jesus is called the “last Adam” in the New Testament? Read this verse:

1Co 15:45 And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit.

Not only is Jesus called a quickening spirit in contrast to a living soul, but Jesus is specifically called the “last Adam”. Meaning there is a direct and specific relationship and connection to the “first Adam”. The distinct parallels and patterns between the two Adam’s are quite profound. I hope you are grasping this concept. 2 different Adams, one natural and one spiritual. If it was legal for God to take one man or as we have seen one Adam and create one male and one female, then the reverse logic would be to take one male and one female and multiply them together giving you one flesh again. Multiplication and division of 1 and 1 always results in 1. It is the only set of numbers that I know of that you can do this with. 2 times 2 doesn’t equal 2. 2 divided by 2 doesn’t equal 2. This is of course, very basic math truths, but it is amazing how God does things. Sometimes it is the really simple things that God uses to confound the wise.

When Jesus is called “Adam” in the New Testament, this of course is the same Hebrew word that we looked at earlier. This Hebrew word can be translated either as “man” or it can be translated as “Adam”. Both translations originate from the exact same word and this makes understanding the Bible much more complex. It is a puzzle of sorts, but that is the way God works. God is much smarter than we are and he could have chosen any words that fit, but he specifically selected these words to describe a man/Adam.

So, what other relationship do these two Adams share? I’ll probably lose some of you right here, but here goes. Both Adam’s were sons of God and therefore they are natural brothers. Both Adam and Jesus had the same Father. If you don’t understand that, don’t throw it away because it does have significance. There are things in the Bible that are difficult to grasp and understand at first because they are so different. The more religious you are the harder it will be for you to grasp certain things in the Bible and this is probably one of them and there are many others. I did not say Adam was God, but I will say Jesus was. Jesus the Last Adam was also the son of Adam. Jesus walked the face of the planet and constantly called himself the “son of man”. You lose the meaning and significance of that statement by reading an English translation. Jesus being a Hebrew and of the house and lineage of David was saying I am a son of Adam. The Hebrew word for “Adam” can and is translated as “man” several times. It’s the same word “H120” and “H121”. Sometimes translated as “Adam” and other times as “man”. How can the Son of God also be the Son of Adam? The Son of Adam and the brother of Adam? It’s pretty tough to grasp, but nevertheless this is what the Bible says. Nobody ever told you that the Bible was easy to understand. If they did they lied to you. If you look at the family lineage of Jesus given to us in Luke you will see that it goes all the way back to Adam and then to God. There is a clear implication that Adam was also called a “son of God”. Not God, not “The Son of God” either just a “son of God”.

Luk 3:38 Which was the son of Enos, which was the son of Seth, which was the son of Adam, which was the son of God.

Reading this verse is very informative, even if the words “son of” are added by the translators. Some say since these words are not in the original Greek we can explain away what actually is being conveyed. However, I believe the words “son of” do assist us in correctly interpreting the meaning. The clear implication is that Adam is called a son of God. You don’t go through a long list of names in a genealogy and every named pair represents a father and a son relationship except the last one. That would be idiotic to attempt such reasoning. I’ll say it again, be consistent a list is a list and every entry in the list should be treated the exact same. I know I got off of the subject for a side trip, but I believe it was important. Let’s get back to the original husband and wife.

We can sometimes ask questions that help us in our discussion. When God formed Adam’s body from the dust of the ground as it says he did, why didn’t God also make the female’s body from the dust of the ground? He wasn’t out of dirt or dust? It is of course an interesting puzzle? Why take out a part of something you already made to make another complementary piece of work? That of course is a hard question. Obviously God had a good reason, or He wouldn’t have done it. Let’s figure out why he did it?

Believe it or not the verses that we read in Genesis 2, gives us an established foundation of how we the church became the body of Christ. If the first Adam has a wife, God is saying it is Ok, for the “last Adam” to have a wife. The first Adam’s wife was a physical woman, the last Adam’s wife is a spiritual woman. Let’s go back and reread verses 23 and 24 in Genesis 2, because these are absolutely critical to understand.

Gen 2:23 And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.

Gen 2:24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.

We see again in verse 23 that Adam declares his wife’s body to be his body and obviously that is where it originated from. God purposely selected this way to create the woman. This was a prophetic event of Biblical proportions. Again I will reemphasize that “flesh and bone” is the same terminology for the “body”. In other words a human body consists of both flesh and bones. Jesus actually confirms this with words in the New Testament when he used this terminology in the Gospels, he told his disciples, “handle me, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones”.(Luke 24:39). So Jesus confirms that he has flesh and bones and the clear implication is that is also called his body. If Jesus says “touch me” where would a man put his hand on Jesus to see if he was real? It seems obvious to me that Jesus is referring to his body as being flesh and bones. This is not rocket science, and you should be seeing something new by now.

Moving on to verse 24 in Genesis 2 we see God’s law of marriage being established. This is the first reference in the Bible of the marriage covenant relationship between a man and a woman. This again sets the “type” or “pattern” for every marriage relationship between a man and a woman in both the natural and the spirit worlds. I call this God’s “Law of Marriage”. God gives us a rule or a law for a blood covenant marriage. God said that a man in this case Adam would leave his father (God) and his mother (the earth) and would cleave unto his wife (the woman). I probably lost some of you again by including explanations in that preceding statement. I’ve already dealt with who Adam’s father was so you should already understand that. Since Adam did not have a birth mother and God formed his body from the dust of the ground I consider “the earth” to be his mother. That of course is my opinion, since I don’t have a Bible verse for that statement. You’ve heard the common term “mother earth” before haven’t you? Then the verse finishes up with the most critical thing that you should learn on the subject of marriage with a woman and that is it says the two (the male and the female) would become one flesh (body). This reveals how the church became the body of Christ, it was by marriage. You can obviously still reject everything I’ve said up to this point and say I don’t believe it. However, I’m not through though and I have many more scriptures that confirm what I just said. Is this what God really meant? Did Jesus believe this? Well guess what, I think so, because here is what Jesus said to us on the subject. If you notice these words are in Red, meaning Jesus in person spoke them directly.

Mat 19:5 And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?

Mat 19:6 Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.

Again we see a clear reference to the exact same words spoken by God in Genesis 2. Within the context of these scriptures you will find that the subject being discussed is divorce and is it lawful? Jesus’ attitude toward divorce is the same as it is today, he says “can’t you read?”, “didn’t God create them male and female in the beginning?” “Aren’t the two joined together and are they not one flesh.” How can a man cut off a part of his own body and get rid of it, isn’t that what he is really saying? Are they not the same body? Jesus said there should be no divorce if it was done right. Jesus is saying that the man and the woman were two, but after they are married God considers them to be one body. This is the Biblical law of covenant marriage. Two people have become one body. This is why Jesus when he married the church with the New Covenant has become one body with her. We can now begin to see how the church became the body of Christ. Just as Eve was the body of Adam, so the church is the body of Christ. These are very important truths to learn and remember. We will continue this study of the identity of the bride of Christ in my next blog. I hope you are beginning to see and understand these important spiritual concepts. We have now laid a foundation for getting into the subject of the identity of the bride of Christ using scriptures we can search for in the New Testament. We have discovered that a covenant is a marriage. God when in covenant is always the male in the relationship. The people that God is in covenant with is always the female. A female in covenant with God is a nation of people consisting of males and females and is always associated with a city named Jerusalem. Then we discovered the law of marriage that states when they are joined together, they become one body. I have another lesson that might be good to go read now that might help clarify some things or give you more information on the subject. This lesson is called “How did the Church become the Body of Christ“. Within this lesson I actually answer many questions that I have presented in this series. I hope that you are learning and we should be able to move into the identity of the bride in the next lesson in the series.

If you would like to continue reading this series, please go to “Part 6“.

Posted in The Church

Tags: Bible, Christianity, Church, Covenants, creation, Genesis, God, Interpretation, Jesus, marriage, Prophecy, Religion, Revelation, Truth, woman

The Bride of Christ Revealed – Part 4 God’s Definition of Marriage

Feb 1

Posted by agapegeek

(Ver 1.2) This is now Part 4 in the series on this subject concerning the identity of the Bride of Christ. We are building a foundational scriptural knowledge for the identity of this woman and we will continue to learn more in this blog. Today, I have more new revelation from the Word of God on the subject of both what a woman is in the eyes of God and what a marriage is when in a relationship with God. In my last blog I introduced you to God’s definition of a spiritual woman using some verses you probably would have never used before, from Revelation 17 about Mystery Babylon and in chapter 21 that spoke about the New Jerusalem, a city, a woman who is called the bride of the Lamb. This was a New Testament definition so today I want to go back to the Old Testament and see what God says about marriage, expanding and confirming the definition of a woman that I gave you from Revelation. What we will be doing is looking for Old Testament patterns that confirm these New Testament truths that we have already discovered. I hope that you are beginning to understand how important it is to get God’s definition on the scriptures and subjects that we study. If you have not been following this series from the beginning I would strongly recommend that you go back and start reading from Part 1, The Introduction.

Did you know that God the Father was already married to a woman in the Old Testament? Probably you have read it before or maybe heard it taught, God was married to the nation of Israel in the Old Testament? So did God have a wife? Was God married to a woman in the Old Testament? Who was this woman? Does she fit the pattern that I showed you of the woman in Revelation 21? I wonder if you’ve ever seen this in the Old Testament, where God says to Israel I was your husband. It’s certainly there if you look!

Jer 31:32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:

Here we have a very powerful verse of truth given to us by the prophet Jeremiah. These are the words of God spoken through the prophet and they call the natural nation of Israel a woman and the wife of God. I wonder what Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Moses, Joshua and the rest of the males in the nation of Israel thought about being called the female bride and wife of God? Do you think they had a problem being called the female wife of God? Do you think they even knew they were called a woman? Do you think they really cared? They were the physical bride of the Jehovah God? The nation of Israel, a woman married to God, could this really be? God said in this verse that He made a covenant with their fathers, the males in the family. He then said He “took them by the hand” and led them out of Egypt. When you take a woman by the hand that is a marriage terminology or statement for a wedding proposal. God then made it very clear what this covenant represented, He says I was their “husband“. The Hebrew word H1166 here translated as husband comes from a root word that means “to marry”.

H1166

A primitive root; to be master; hence (as denominative from H1167) to marry: – Beulah have dominion (over), be husband, marry (-ried, X wife).

God married to a physical nation which consisted of both males and females. If you don’t see the significance in this scripture and the relationship implied to the New Covenant, I pray you will get it as we continue going forward. I will tell you right here and now that if the Old Covenant was a marriage to God, then the New Covenant is also marriage, but to Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Are you in the New Covenant with Christ? According to this verse a covenant is a marriage in the eyes of God. I’m going to say that one more time so that you will get it, when God enters into a covenant, He enters into a marriage. God is the Groom, the people in covenant are the bride. We can see a confirming witness to this revelation by reading a verse found in the book of Malachi:

Mal 2:14 Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because the LORD hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously: yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant.

God is speaking to a husband in a clear reference to how he treated his wife. He informs him that she is the wife of his youth. You could apply this to many marriages today in the world and for that matter in the church. I think that I read that the divorce rate within the church is close to 50%. Meaning half of every marriage in the church is ending in divorce. This certainly should not be. Did you notice how Malachi 2:14 ended. God said this is the wife of your covenant. That is a powerful revelation which applies across the board to every marriage on the planet. In the eyes of God a marriage is a covenant. By the laws found in mathematics and algebra, we can also say that a covenant is a marriage. Maybe you didn’t take Algebra, but the principle is, if A = B, then B = A also. Some might think I’m making this stuff up, but we just read it in the Bible. The implications to this verse are far reaching. If the Old Covenant was a marriage to a people, the New Covenant would also be a marriage to a people. I did say people, and not a city, even though we will learn more about this as we explore more scriptures. We can clearly see that God said I was their husband in Jeremiah 31:32. God the Father would therefore be the Old Covenant Bridegroom. What is a husband except the one that was formerly known as the bridegroom. We could further call Israel the wife the former Old Covenant bride. We can also see in that verse that God has made a covenant with Israel and that He considered this covenant to be a marriage. So what is a covenant? The Strong’s definition of this word is as follows:

H1285

From H1262 (in the sense of cutting (like H1254)); a compact (because made by passing between pieces of flesh): – confederacy, [con-]feder[-ate], covenant, league.

We can see from this definition that it is describing the blood covenant event that occurred in Genesis 15, when God makes a covenant with Abraham. During this chapter, Abraham took 3 animals and split them into two pieces and then laid the pieces on the ground. We later read that the smoking furnace and the burning lamp pass through the pieces implementing the covenant. This is a blood covenant and it is also a representative type and shadow of the New Testament blood covenant, implemented by Jesus Christ. We know that the children of Israel while in captivity in Egypt, took a lamb and killed it and spread the blood on the doors of their houses and then they ate the lamb as a Passover meal. All of those are key types and shadows of the New Covenant implemented by the blood of the Lamb of God. I would certainly hope that all of this is not new to you and that you are intimately familiar with the subjects of blood covenants. There are good teachers that have done good jobs of covering the subject and I would strongly suggest that you take time and the necessary effort to gain knowledge on this subject.

So the Bible as you are aware is divided into two Testaments or Covenants. The first being the Old and the last being the New. Could it be that both of these represent marriages to God in the eyes of God? The first marriage was to a natural people, the last to a spiritual people. The first to a natural Nation and the last to a spiritual Nation. Could it possibly be? I think as you go on you will have to say it is more than possible, it surely is. Here is another scripture from the Old Testament prophets that we should be aware of:

Jer 3:20 Surely as a wife treacherously departeth from her husband, so have ye dealt treacherously with me, O house of Israel, saith the LORD.

This scripture is another witness to the relationship of God and what is referred to as the house of Israel. It speaks of a wife that is leaving her husband. You can see that the word “as” was added by the translators thinking they were making a comparison, but the true identity of Israel as being the wife to God is there. I heard one minister say don’t confuse identity with relationship. He was attempting to explain away a valuable Bible truth by claiming that I guess the church’s relationship to Christ was suppose to be that of a wife to a husband, but that didn’t mean we were a bride or a woman. But you know I always heard that if it looks like a duck, it walks like duck, it flies like a duck and quakes like a duck, then it in most likely hood, it is a duck. I’ll tell you who is confused and that is someone who reads the Bible and then attempts to explain away what it says. Heaven help that man for he is in danger of being held responsible for deceiving everyone that he has taught this to. Here is the dilemma, Bible teachers have encountered what appears to them as a major conflict on the surface. How can the church be the body of Christ and still be the bride of Christ. Rather, than looking for the Bible answer to the conflict they simply write off one position in favor of the other position and that is a wrong approach. Let’s look at another witness to the identity of Israel as being a woman and the wife of God:

Eze 16:2 Son of man, cause Jerusalem to know her abominations,

Eze 16:8 Now when I passed by thee, and looked upon thee, behold, thy time was the time of love; and I spread my skirt over thee, and covered thy nakedness: yea, I sware unto thee, and entered into a covenant with thee, saith the Lord GOD, and thou becamest mine.

Eze 16:22 And in all thine abominations and thy whoredoms thou hast not remembered the days of thy youth, when thou wast naked and bare, and wast polluted in thy blood.

These scriptures are very revealing and again we see the clear reference to a husband and a wife relationship. The wife this time is called “Jerusalem”. Isn’t that interesting? Could this be the “Old Jerusalem” that we saw from the last blog? Doesn’t that sound familiar? Didn’t we read about another wife, a woman in Revelation called the New Jerusalem? We just read verses in Ezekiel that says God was married to a woman and a city named Jerusalem in the Old Covenant. The earthly city Jerusalem was related to the identity of a woman and within the marriage context of the Old Covenant. So was the covenant with the city or with the people in the city? Does God care about cities and building architecture or does God care about people? Did Jesus shed his blood for a city or for the people that make up the city? Would God marry a city and not the people in the city? I tell you there are so many questions that arise and I wonder if people have given any of these any thought?

There are really too many scriptures to give you all of them. If you study the subject for yourself and search your Bible you will see what I mean. Look for terms of marriage, look for the name of the women, Jerusalem. Look for terms like husband and wife, bride and bridegroom. Think of other terms that refer to covenants and marriages indirectly. Look for Israel and Jerusalem being spoken of in female terms of “she” and “her”. These scriptures will give you an expanded knowledge of what a woman and a marriage is to God. If you have the time read Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah and Hosea and see all of the references to the nation of Israel as being a woman married to God. Look for how many times she is called by adulteress names like, whore. The Hebrew definition of a whore is a woman who commits adultery. Did you know that you cannot be an adulteress unless you are married according to the Bible? You will soon discover that a marriage is a covenant and a covenant is a marriage. God is always the man and the husband and those in covenant with God are always the female, the bride and the wife. That is the way it is, whether you like or not and whether you want to accept it or not. I pray that you are learning these new radical concepts found in the Bible about God, the covenants of God and these women married to God named Jerusalem that are cities of people.

If you would like to continue reading this series, please go to “Part 5“.

Posted in The Church

Tags: Bible, Bride, Christianity, Church, Covenants, God, Interpretation, Jesus, marriage, Religion, Revelation, Truth, understanding, woman

The Bride of Christ Revealed – Part 3 God’s Definition of a Woman

Jan 29

Posted by agapegeek

(Ver 1.2) This is now Part 3 in the series of lessons on “The Bride of Christ Revealed”. In my last lesson, I spoke about the identity of the Bridegroom and established several great scripture verses that taught us that Jesus Christ is the Groom that is getting married. We have learned that Jesus Christ was God in the flesh and that He is marrying a wife. We understand that a wife is always a woman. These are just some of the basics and today I want to explore the subject of what is a woman in the eyes of God in more depth. This will involve getting God’s definition of the subject which will change how we think about it. Most of the time in my Bible studies, I have found that God’s definitions do not normally match what we think the definition of the subject is. This is mainly because God is a Spirit and His ways are higher than our ways and we know the natural realm more than the spiritual realm normally. If you have not been reading this series from the beginning I would strongly suggest that you go back and start with Part 1, The Introduction.

Today’s subject ought to be fun. What does the Bible say a woman is? Most people have studied the book of Genesis and found out where the first woman came from. But, this woman Eve, was Adam’s natural wife and while she fits a pattern for God’s point of view, she is just a small example of what God considers to be a woman. Since this series of blogs is about the identity of the Bride of Christ we must figure out if the church qualifies as being a candidate. So, now we are ready to get past the basic introduction of the bride and the bridegroom and get into a brief explanation of what God says a woman is. One of the greatest errors that people make is coming up with human definitions for spiritual realities. Too many times a preacher will teach the Bible and not consult God, or even attempt to get God’s definition on the subject they are teaching. Hopefully you can understand how foolish this is. God has designed the Bible in a way that it interprets itself. As a part of this process, God also gives us spiritual definitions and descriptions on every conceivable subject. If the church is a woman and the bride of Christ this certainly will be relevant information and very important to know. I think sometimes people look at a subject and think they already have it all figured out before they hear anything that is about to be said. I’m sure this will be no different today. I will warn you again that I do not follow traditional teaching, I simply go into the Bible and find out what it says and teach what God shows me and most of the time this does not match what you learn in any seminary. I certainly realize that everything that I am about to say will probably be different than anything that you currently expect me to say. But that does not mean what I am about to say is not in the Bible, it just means you haven’t seen it before. Keep your eyes open and look for yourself.

Today I want to start with the second reason why ministers say the church is not the bride of Christ and go to the book of Revelation and see what we can learn on the subject of what God thinks a woman is, in the Bible? So let’s turn to the book of Revelation in the 21st chapter and start to read with verse 2:

Rev 21:2 And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.

Reading this verse is very informative and it is very important to understand for many reasons. Some Bible teachers have read this chapter and concluded that here is the bride of Christ. They are usually thinking in natural terms and not spiritual terms when they see it. Of course with their natural reasoning, if the church is the body of Christ, they also conclude here is the church’s bride. They have raised the church in their mind to be the groom. But because they do not yet understand the scriptures they have jumped to an incorrect conclusion. What does this verse actually say and reveal to us? Let’s look at the verse and just simply see what it says. Verse 2 says that John saw a holy city coming down out of heaven from God and it calls her by name the “New Jerusalem”. That is a very interesting revelation right there and I could say several things about those words. The first thing we should realize is these are all symbolic references in this verse. If you do not understand what symbolism is you should go study how God uses symbolism from cover to cover and understand that the book of Revelation is almost all symbolic references to spiritual truths. Otherwise, for now let’s just at least try to agree on this, there is a symbolic woman coming down out of heaven, she is called a holy city, she came from God and her name is the “New Jerusalem”. Finally, it also says she is adorned or dressed for her husband. Of course this is still all symbolism and purely figurative language since we have already discovered that this woman is said to be a symbolic city and not a natural physical woman at all. The implication is given that this woman is dressed as a bride adorned for her husband. Here is where many preachers get the wedding gown picture fixed in their minds, but that is not what it says. I hope you can agree with those few statements that I just made about this first verse that describes this bride. Let’s look at the next verse to see what God says immediately following these descriptive terms about this woman:

Rev 21:3 And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them, and they shall be his people, and God himself shall be with them, and be their God.

Wow, did God change the subject or did someone just misunderstand what He just said? You see clearly within the context of a woman, the bride, a city being spoken of, God immediately starts talking about a group of people being the temple of God. He calls this city the “tabernacle of God” within the context that this tabernacle is a group of people. You can clearly see the implied meaning of the symbolic city as being a group of people who God indwells spiritually. This is so significant that I cannot even begin tell you. We will certainly explore what we have just learned later in much more depth. But, let us skip down a few verses and go on to the next direct mention of the bride in this chapter in verses 9 and 10:

Rev 21:9 And there came unto me one of the seven angels which had the seven vials full of the seven last plagues, and talked with me, saying, Come hither, I will shew thee the bride, the Lamb’s wife.

Rev 21:10 And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God,

We will not go word for word through these 2 verses, because they basically say the same things that we just read in verse 2. In verse 9, we do see the clear reference to the “Lamb of God” as being the Bridegroom. You should remember that the Lamb refers to Jesus Christ (John 1:29, John 1:36). Therefore, we have just identified again who the husband is. I’m going to stop right there and ask you this question again and maybe you can answer it because I haven’t been able to yet, “have you ever heard or read any scripture that says the church is the Lamb”? I haven’t seen any scriptures that say the church is the sacrificial lamb that takes away the sin of the world? So are we “The” Lamb? This city is called the bride of the Lamb, not the bride of Christ? You can see that there are significant differences between those two contrasting statements, can’t you? If it said it was the Bride of Christ, we know that the church is certainly the body of Christ, so we could conclude as others have, that this city must be the church’s bride also. But, no, it says the Lamb’s wife and nowhere in the Bible that I have found is the church called the Lamb of God. That is really a most interesting fact to put in your mind going forward. Sometimes I think I can ask good questions. I do know God asks really good questions and I’m trying to learn from the best. Ok, so here we find the same basic confirming information we read in verse 2. We have a woman, she is called a bride, she is called the wife of the Lamb, she is called a great city and her name is the “Holy Jerusalem”. I also found it interesting in verse 10, when it says John was carried away in the spirit in order to see this city. The implication is that we are looking at a spiritual reality and not a physical one. Chapter 21 of Revelation says a lot more and describes other characteristics that we may get into later in this blog series. But for now I just want you to agree with what I’ve said so far about what the Bible says about this woman. Until you learn some more I can’t go into the other parts of the description of this woman. Here is a quick synopsis of what we have just learned, see if you can agree with this:

This woman is a city, this city is a woman
This woman/city is to be married to her husband, who is the Lamb
Her name is “New Jerusalem” or “Holy Jerusalem”
This woman came down from God and Heaven
This woman/city is a symbolic reference for a spiritual reality

Regardless of what else is in this chapter, can we agree with these basic facts from the scripture? If you have problem with any of these statements you are not going to do well going forward. If you can see what these verses are telling us then you will have a much easier time seeing the other verses that I will soon give you. Truth many times builds upon truth. So instead of attempting to figure out everything a verse or a chapter says all by itself, I try to write down the things that I learn from that verse and then go and look at other verses in the Bible that help to explain it. The Bible, like I said before interprets itself. That is why I reject men’s opinion so fast, if they can’t give me verses I really don’t want to hear what they thinks it says.

Where we are right now, if you did not realize it, we have just discovered the basic Bible definition for what a spiritual woman is in the eyes of God. There are many other things still left to learn and we will continue to build upon this definition with other witnesses from the scripture, but hang on to this basic definition for what God thinks a woman is. A woman is a city and a city represents a group of people who live there. We can fruther undersand that based upon the identity of the groom being Jesus the Lamb, that the bride city has a marriage covenant relationship with God. That is a spiritual definition of a woman to God and knowing this much changes our perspectives of many things found in the Bible and we will confirm what i have just talked about using many more scriptures.

Before I continue, I want to make a point and show what else these truths reveal to us from the verses that we just read. Many times you can read verses and never see what they indirectly are teaching us so I want to show you an example of this. Did you notice that the woman has been given a name? She has a name and she is called “New Jerusalem” and “Holy Jerusalem”. What does that tell you? If you understand the Bible and especially the Old Testament you know there is more than one city called “Jerusalem” in the Bible. Why would God call this city by the same name, but with qualifiers and prefixed descriptive adjectives? An adjective is a word class that qualifies a noun. So God uses adjectives of course to differentiate one city from any other city with the same name. It is unnecessary to call something “New” if there is not an “Old”. It is unnecessary to call it “Holy” if there is not an “Unholy” city with the same name. Did you understand what I just said? We have a city name being given to us with the clear implied truth that there is another city that is an opposite picture or a negative image of these positive adjective qualifiers. Wow, that is very strong language and I wonder who God is talking about? Or do you already know? This Old Jerusalem and Unholy Jerusalem must be something or someone else, a different woman in the Bible. I really hope you are understanding these very simple truths that you can read so plainly. I think I will give you another reference in Revelation to an unholy city for you to think about and to further confirm what we have just learned. This verse is found in Revelation 17 and verse 18 says:

Rev 17:18 And the woman which thou sawest is that great city, which reigneth over the kings of the earth.

Chapter 17 of Revelation is about a much different woman, but yet this woman still fits the pattern for our definition of a woman that we have just developed. This last verse in Revelation chapter 17 reveals to us that the woman God has been talking about in this chapter is a “great city”. This city is said to rule over the kings of the earth and I will not attempt to identify this woman at this time in this blog. If you read the first part of the chapter you see her name is a symbolic reference to “Mystery Babylon”. I just want you to see the pattern and the revelation that a city is a woman and a woman is a city. A city is made up of people, normally a nation of people consisting of males and females. A city can be the capitol of a nation. This nation and group of individuals live together in a named city and this city is called a woman in the eyes of God.

I understand that these concepts and definitions are not that complex, but since what I am saying in this blog is so radically new and different than anything you have heard before, it will probably be hard to understand. We have just seen two completely different cities described, these are two witnesses from the book of Revelation and both are called women. In my next blog we will expand our definition of a woman and research God’s idea and definition of marriage.

If you would like to continue reading this series, you can go to “Part 4“.

Posted in The Church

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Tags: Bible, Bride, Christianity, Church, Covenants, God, Jesus, marriage, Religion, Revelation, understanding, woman

The Bride of Christ Revealed – Part 1 The Introduction

Jan 25

Posted by agapegeek

(Ver 1.3) This is Part 1 in the Bible Study series revealing the identity of the spiritual woman called the Bride of Christ. I have actually heard several preachers stand up behind the pulpit and say “There is nothing in the Bible that says the church is the Bride of Christ”. However, after I studied this subject I could not disagree more. It is funny how one preacher will say something totally opposite to what another will teach. All it does is prove that someone is wrong and possibly that both are wrong and only God is right. It creates confusion, division and an atmosphere for deception. Satan is all too ready to pounce on error and use it to cause a split or an offense against other Christians in the church. I am going to start a new series today of lessons on why the Church is the Bride of Christ. I will give you scriptural evidence and a bunch of it so that it is clearly understood. This will probably be the most in depth and comprehensive Bible lesson that you have ever read on the subject of the Bride of Christ and it will probably take a long time and a lot of lessons to complete.

I want to start this lesson by confirming one thing, the term “Bride of Christ” is not found in the Bible anywhere. That might shock some people to learn that truth. But, neither are the terms abortion, homosexuality, rapture, demons or the trinity found in the Bible either. Does that mean none of these exist either? Do you think that God cares nothing about any of these subjects to discuss them directly? Many times basic theological principles are not directly named or labeled with a clear title that can be found in the Bible. Many times these theological terms come as a result of man naming them with titles that have stuck. All this does is to make it easier to talk about them, teach them and for others to understand them. So instead of looking for the term “Bride of Christ” in the Bible and saying it doesn’t exist and therefore the church is not the bride, be smart enough to learn the lesson of how God wrote the Bible and do a search for other information that is given to us. The Bible contains an almost infinite number of mysteries, puzzles, riddles and hidden information. God used this technique for two primary reasons. First to hide this information from His enemies who were led by Satan and then second to conceal the truth for us (the Church) to find at the right time. If you can understand this it will help you a whole bunch in trying to figure out what the Bible really means.

The “Bride of Christ” is of course a very deep subject with a lot of complex interwoven truths and it will be extremely challenging for me to get it across concisely in a blog format. I guess I’ll do the best that I can and hope that you can understand it. I think I will start this introduction to this subject by giving you the two main reasons why some preachers think that the church is not the Bride. In this way I will be upfront with you and you can see this popular illogical reasoning as being an error. I will not name any names so if you want to listen to any of these teachers who teach this error you are on your own in finding them. The first reason that I have heard of directly, that predominately comes up to why the church is not the bride, is because they say the church is the Body of Christ. You of course know, if you have ever studied the New Testament there are an overwhelming number of scriptures that confirm this basic truth. Yes I believe them and I will also say that I firmly believe that the Church is the Body of Christ. Their illogical thinking has stated that if we are the Body of Christ and if Christ has a Bride, then we also have a Bride. That logic would make us the bridegroom with Christ. Their illogical thinking places us on equal ground with Jesus Christ and they make us equivalent to God in every aspect and feature. That logic should set off all kind of red flags in your mind, if you are smart at all. We are not God and we never will be God. What they have done is a classic error of Bible Interpretation that many have fallen into without knowing it. They have taken “A” truth and exalted it and have made it “The” truth. Do you understand what I just said? You see there are many truths in the Bible and if you take just one of them and exclude the rest of them you are now in error. That might be the most important thing that you learn today from this blog so don’t throw it away.

Now for the second reason why preachers think the church is not the bride of Christ. They turn to the last chapters in Revelation and read about a city coming out of heaven from God. This city is called the “New Jerusalem” and she is referred to as a woman. She is also called specifically the “Lamb’s Wife”. In their illogical reasoning they have determined that since we are the “Body of Christ”, this is our wife also. In other words God came to the earth in the flesh, suffered and died on a cross, went to hell and arose back to heaven all so that he could marry a city with buildings and houses that we can all live in happily ever after. What a fairy tale? That logic is crazy to me and I don’t know how they even came up with that kind of teaching? I guess I have seen worse, but nonetheless I hope you can at least question their thought process and logic. You see based upon their logic and the verses in Revelation, if this city New Jerusalem is the bride of the church then we are the Lamb. However, I have never seen any verses of scripture that says the church is the “Lamb of God”, have you? I know I didn’t give you every scripture reference and I didn’t give you every reason they teach, but I really do not want to dilute the truth by telling more lies. I’m sorry if I come across very blunt sometimes, I do not do it to offend anyone, it is just an attempt to wake some sleeping giants up to the truth. Learn the lesson of the Secret Service. You know they do not spend a lot of time studying how to make counterfeit money. Instead they concentrate on studying the real money, its features, characteristics and qualities. If you become intimately familiar with the real you can automatically recognize the counterfeit. That principle works with the Bible in the same way. The more you study the truth, the false teaching becomes laughable and easily recognizable. What you have to do is to make sure that what you believe is firmly based upon 2 or 3 witnesses of scripture found in the Bible. If you do this, then you are on good ground to recognize the false teaching of the enemy.

Mat 22:2 The kingdom of heaven is like unto a certain king, which made a marriage for his son,

As you can clearly see, Jesus is describing a spiritual reality using a descriptive story found in the form of a parable. This marriage being described to us is what we will begin to study in this series of lessons. Jesus is telling us of the “Kingdom of Heaven” so He must be speaking about spiritual truths using natural descriptive terms that we are all familiar with. In this parable a certain King has arranged a marriage for His son. So if you are the least bit intelligent you know that the King is representative of God the Father. The Son in this parable is clearly Jesus Christ. The marriage is to a bride. The bride can be referred to as a future “daughter-in-law” or the “sons” wife. So now we need to determine what is a spiritual woman, who is this spiritual woman and what is a spiritual marriage in the eyes of God.

Before we can accurately understand the identity of the bride of Christ we really need to step back and come to understand some spiritual basic concepts; like what does the Bible say a spiritual woman is and how does a woman relate to a spiritual family unit. Obviously if we are talking about women and brides we are also talking about a marriage. How is a marriage related to this subject in the eyes of God. We also need to figure out scripturally who the bridegroom is. What is a Blood Covenant? I believe that Biblical blood covenants are also a key subject to study and understand in order to build a basic knowledge of the subject of the identity of the bride of Christ. I cannot fully expound in this blog on all of the Bible basics that you should be aware of in order to fully understand this subject. I will just warn you upfront that this is not an introductory lesson on the subject and it assumes that you already have some firm foundational understanding of the Bible and the subjects that I just mentioned. Most advanced studies of any subject must assume some basic knowledge of the subject, so mine is no different. When you go to college and take Calculus, they don’t start the class with 1 + 1 = 2, you should have already learned that in elementary school. So it is in this blog, this is a college level Bible course and I won’t spend a lot of time on any elementary school basics. The bottom line is that if I say something that you don’t agree with, I would hope that before you reject it or write it off, that you do some basic study to see how I arrived at that statement since I will not always attempt to teach you everything that I know in one blog series. I just don’t have the time or enough space to cover everything.

So back to one of my key first points, taking a truth and trying to make it the truth, is a critical mistake because you close your mind and your spirit to any new knowledge that God wants to teach you on the subject. You see here is God’s challenge to us, there is more than one truth in the Bible. The truth in the Bible is much like a finely woven fabric or tapestry. It consists of many different threads that fit together closely and that are overlapped with other threads that all reveal God to us. In fact the Bible is so complex that it is difficult for us to fully comprehend everything that the Bible says. Saying the church is only the body of Christ and that’s it, simply closes your mind to anything else that the Lord wants to teach you about the subject.

You see, in the Bible God describes the church using many, many different names, titles and descriptions with each revealing several different new characteristics, qualities and features. We are described as “kings” and “priests” (Rev 1:6). In 2 Corinthians 5:12 the church is called “ambassadors” for Christ. In other places in the Bible we are described as “saints” (Romans 1:7). The church is described as an “army” with armour and weapons (Eph 6:13). We are described as “children” and even “sons” of God in the New Testament. We are called “joint heirs” with Christ in Romans 8:17. In Romans 2:29 the church is called the spiritual “Jews”. In other places in the New Testament like 1 Corinthians 3:16 the church is called the “temple of God”. I could go on and on with other scripture references, but I think you are getting the point. You can’t take any one of those truths alone and attempt to make it and it alone the entire truth of God’s word. If you do this you are in BIG trouble with trying to understand the Bible. I would ask those who teach that the church is only the body of Christ a good question, how can we be “joint heirs” with Christ if we are “Christ”. Uh oh? I think that’s a problem maybe you haven’t thought about before. A “joint heir” clearly implies a different heir and not the exact same one. So how can the church be joint heirs at the same time they are the Body of Christ? I tell you it is a very significant puzzle and a mystery and we will get into and solve. Hopefully you are learning a few things from this short introduction, I have designed this series to introduce you to things in a specific order and sequence to hopefully help you to fully understand it. If you desire to now more of the Names, Titles, Descriptions and Symols for the Church you can go to that lesson and research them in your Bible.

I guess I will stop right here and address another issue that I heard one minister say. According to him he was struggling in thinking of himself as a spiritual woman or the bride of Christ, because he was a man and a normal natural man has a problem with identifying themselves as a spiritual female. I can understand that thought process, because I am a man also. There are so many natural people in the world that are so confused with their sexual identity, am I a man or am I a woman. Am I a man in a woman’s body or vice versa. It seems this identity crisis has crept into the church. Is the church a man or is it a woman in the eyes of God? That is certainly the great debate that seems to be raging. You can so easily see why Satan wants to keep the church in confusion so that they don’t understand who they are and why they are here. If the church doesn’t understand the truth then he is able to steal it away from their hearts and they will never be able to know it according to what Jesus taught us. As you read the rest of this blog series you will soon discover why Satan wants to convince the Body of Christ that they are not the bride. If he can convince them they are not the bride then they will not be able to fulfill the Biblical prophecy spoken by the words of God himself.

So normal men don’t like being thought of as a spiritual female. However, what I like or don’t like and what you like or don’t like doesn’t really mean anything. That also goes for how you and I feel about being called a woman. I’ve heard that it brings out an image of a woman with combat boots on and wearing a wedding gown. This one minister just couldn’t identify with such a thought being a male. What an incredibly arrogant philosophy that is. You are assuming that a woman wouldn’t have a problem if she is called a spiritual male (the body of Christ), but a male would have a problem if he was called a spiritual female (the bride). That is about as natural thinking or carnally minded as you can possibly get and still attempt to call yourself a Christian. What a male chauvinist attitude. Did you know that the Bible says in Galatians 3:28 that there is neither “male” nor “female” in Christ? If you are in Christ and you are worried about being a male or a female you are thinking carnally and naturally. If you are a male and have a problem identifying yourself as a spiritual woman and I did say spiritual then you need to repent and figure out what God thinks about it and not worry about your appearance or feelings on the subject.

What we should ask ourselves, is there precedence in the Bible for the Church to be the bride of Christ? Ok, that was a legal term and what I really meant to say was there a valid pattern, a type and shadow given to us in the Old Testament that would mirror and confirm to us this New Testament truth? In Legal terms, precedence is when a judge gives a ruling, he is obligated to explain why he ruled that way. Many times a judge will give established case histories where similar rulings were given and then explain why he ruled the way that he did. Why does the Judge feel obligated to include similar case rulings in his decision process? That is an interesting concept if you think about it. When a judge provides supporting evidences for his decision, he is saying this is not just my lone opinion. Precedence can also mean the order of priority or sequence of importance. This is exactly how the Bible is written if you didn’t realize it. God is the ultimate Supreme Judge and Jesus is our Lawyer or Advocate. God does everything in an orderly legal fashion. He explains His rulings giving us His precedence on the subject in His Word. The Old Testament parallels the New Testament, as well as the Old Testament precedes the New. The Old Testament helps us explain the New Testament and vice versa. The Old Testament gives us natural pictures of actual living people that point us to spiritual truths. There are many natural examples in the Old Testament that point us to spiritual New Testament truths. In fact there is an Old Testament scripture that says “The thing that has been, that is the thing that shall be” (Ecc 1:9) and God said there is nothing new under the sun. In this lesson series we will definitely explore some new foundational truths from both the Old and the New Testaments that confirm the true identity of the church, so get ready to learn.

If you would like to continue reading this series of lessons, you can continue with “Part 2“.

Posted in The Church

Tags: Bible, Bride, Christianity, Church, Covenants, God, Jesus, marriage, Religion, Truth, understanding, woman

Gen 3:22-24 Guarding The Way To The Tree of Life!

Jan 15

Posted by agapegeek

(Ver 1.5) This is Part 6 of the Bible lesson series on Understanding Genesis 3. I am going to take this subject out of sequence and teach a 2 part Bible Study series on the Tree of Life first mentioned in Genesis 2. From reaching in this 3rd chapter of Genesis we discover the story of how Eve was deceived by the serpent into eating from the spiritual tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil. Adam then listened to his wife’s voice and he also ate from the same tree. The Bible says Adam was not deceived (1 Tim 2:14) so whatever he did was an intentional rebellious act of disobedience to commit sin. If you have ever studied the Bible, you know that God shows up on the scene and places curses on each party involved in Genesis 3 and I have not taught on these subjects yet. However, we know from scripture (1 Jn 4:12) that no man has ever seen God. This fact would include Adam or 1 John 4:12 is not a true statement from God. So how did God curse everyone without making himself visible to them? That is an interesting point to consider, but since it is not my subject today, I’ll leave it alone for your consideration. Now after Adam’s sin, we have the man and woman in covenant with Satan, the symbolic serpent of old. We can now get to today’s subject from Genesis, guarding the way to the tree of life. Who was God trying to keep from eating from the tree of life? You can make the logical conclusion that if God wanted to guard the way to the tree of life, there must have been someone who was greatly interested in it. You don’t place guards on your garbage piles so it must have been something of great value to someone. So, who was after this tree of life? What exactly is this tree of life? Why is it important to keep it safely out of the hands of someone? So many questions to consider? Let’ start with the 22nd verse of Genesis 3 and see what God says to us:

Gen 3:22 And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:

I’ve already addressed the 1st part of this verse in another blog so I will not rehash that part of the verse. It is just important to note that God says the man has become like Him, in covenant with good and evil. That is some very powerful information, and it helps give us some foundational information for why God came in the flesh. If you need more information, please go back and read the Blog on “Gen 3:5 You Shall Be As God Knowing Good and Evil!“. Now pay attention to how God ends that verse. God says “because the man might also eat from the tree of life and live forever…”. Then God abruptly stops talking. This is one of the only places in the Bible that I know of where God doesn’t finish His sentence or His thought. God stops talking and leaves us wondering what was He going to say? Based upon the creation account in Genesis 1, we can see that whatever God says happens, so I would venture to guess that God did not want what He was thinking to come to pass so He shut His mouth and stopped talking about it. But that is just my opinion on the verse. But, I do think that is a powerful lesson for us all to learn from.

Let’s briefly address whether this is a physical tree or a spiritual tree. If it was just a physical tree why couldn’t God have just cursed the tree like Jesus did with the fig tree in Mark and bam the tree would not be a problem anymore. You see I do not believe it is a physical tree, with physical fruit. In this verse God says that the man could have “put forth his hand” and taken from the tree. What does that reference invoke in your mind? Most would think that it is speaking of Adam’s physical hand reaching out and picking a natural apple from a natural fruit tree. But I do not believe this is what God is saying. The term “hand” is a reference to power and ability. Adam had the power and ability to eat from the tree even after they had eaten from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The word hand is a very popular word in the Old Testament. It occurs over 1400 times. Many times it is used in reference to a individual’s power and ability. Here is just one example of this found in the book of Job. Satan is in conversation with God about Job and he makes this statement to God:

Job 1:11 But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face.

You can see the reference here to God putting forth his hand. This is clearly the same terminology used in Genesis 3. Satan was telling God if he used his power to “touch” all that Job had, Satan thought that Job would curse God. Without getting into the story of Job, I will tell you that God did not take anything from Job. God did not hearken to the voice of his wife and do the wrong thing, like Adam did. What I want you to see is the reference that God has a hand that can be stretched forth. If the Spirit of God has a hand it must be spiritual. Just understand the difference between a spiritual hand and a physical hand and both are called a hand. This is one of the trickiest ways God has used to conceal information in the Bible. Speak of spiritual things in natural terms and then challenge your reader to figure it out.

Apparently, Adam had power and ability and was still capable of eating from the tree of life and living forever even after God said he would surely die. Obviously Adam did not understand what had happened, much less how to eat from the tree of life. We know from Genesis 2, that God had commanded the man not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But God never said anything about not eating from the tree of life. There appears to be an assumption that eating from the tree of life is good. But now that Adam was in covenant with Satan, what does God do? Who is God attempting to keep from the tree of life?

Gen 3:23 Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.

We can see from this verse that the man and his wife are sent out of the garden of Eden. They are returned to the ground from where he was originally created. Exactly where was that? Where was Adam created in relation to the Garden of Eden? The Bible tells us if you look for it and pay close attention. Let’s go back to Genesis 2 and read:

Gen 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

You can clearly see that this is the creation account of the body of Adam. Adam’s body was formed from the dust of the ground. So where was Adam when this occurred? All you have to do is read the next verse and pay attention to the compass directions given.

Gen 2:8 And the LORD God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.

If the garden of Eden is located to the East of where Adam’s physical body was formed, what direction was Adam and Eve returned to after they had sinned? If you guessed back to the West, you would be correct. Why is east and west and these direction so significant? We can begin to ascertain the importance only after reading the last verse in Genesis 3.

Gen 3:24 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.

So God drives the man out of the Garden and then it says God places a Cherubim at the east of the garden holding a flaming sword to keep the way of the tree of life. Are you beginning to see the paradox? Where did God drive Adam? God put the man and his wife back to the ground where they were created and this was West of the Garden of Eden. So where was the guarding Cherubim placed? They were placed to the East of the Garden. It is so fascinating when you see things correctly, isn’t it? God is obviously not attempting to keep the man away from the tree of life, if he was he would have placed the Cherubim on the West side where the man was.

(North)

(West) Adam ——-> Garden of Eden ——> Cherubim (East)

(South)

I wrote an earlier blog about the differences between the east and the west. I will not rehash all of that, but if you study the earth from the context that Israel is the middle of the world, then east of Israel towards Asia you would see that the religions of the world become increasingly darker and in some countries non-existent. Generally speaking if you move west from Israel you see the majority of the Christian nations in the world being to the West of Israel. Knowing this fact alone should help you see who God is guarding from the way to the tree of life. It is not from the Christians, but it is from the enemy of the church, the devil that God is keeping from the way to the tree of life. If you didn’t realize it, Satan is still looking for a way out of judgment. Eating from the tree of life would by association mean the establishment of a new covenant relationship with those for who it is intended. If you have followed what I showed you earlier you know that by Adam eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil, it established a covenant between Adam and Satan. So whoever is intended to eat from the tree of life, Satan is looking to get into covenant with to save his rear end. The tree of life is mentioned again in the last chapter of Revelation and this chapter starts with this statement:

Rev 22:1 And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.

We can see that this verse describes the throne of God and the Lamb. It declares that there is a river of water of life flowing from the throne. That of course is an interesting concept since Jesus told us in John 7:38, that out of our bellies will flow rivers of living water. Our bellies is referring to our spirits, the true inner man. This reference is about the words that we speak and them being a river of life to others in the world. So the river of life flowing from the throne of God must also be the Words of God.

Rev 22:2 In the midst of the street of it, and on either side of the river, was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations.

Revelation 22:2 now directly mentions the tree of life. But did you notice where or what this tree is? It says this tree grows in the middle of the streets around the throne of God. Who walks the streets of heaven? I personally believe this is a reference to Christians. It further says that there are more than one of these trees of life. In fact if you look closely it implies there are many, many trees of life everywhere surrounding the throne of God. If you use your brain a little bit you might be able to see that the implication is given to us, that we are the trees of life. But that might be hard for some to see. Let’s approach it from a different perspective? It says this tree is suppose to produce 12 fruits monthly. Exactly what is fruit? To the natural mid it is just apples, oranges, grapefruits, etc. But to the spiritual mind it is much different. God being a spiritual being is speaking of spiritual trees that produce spiritual fruit. So what are the fruits of the spirit? Oh, that changes everything doesn’t it?

I guess I’ll end this blog here and just leave you hanging. Maybe I have given you some new things to consider and challenged you to think on a higher dimension. God had to guard “the way” to the tree of life from Satan. Satan is still after this tree, but I don’t believe he has a shot at it. You see Jesus said “I am the Way”, so nobody can come to God except Jesus allows him access. Jesus Christ is the only legal way to this tree of life and if you belong to Him, you now have access to this tree of life to produce the fruit of the spirit. I’ll try to continue this in another blog to help expand our understanding of this deep subject.

If you would like to continue reading this series on Understanding Genesis 3 you can go to “Part 7“.

Posted in Bible Study, Chapter 3, Genesis

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Tags: Bible, Christianity, Church, Covenants, creation, Genesis, God, Jesus, Prophecy, Religion, Revelation, Truth, woman

Understanding Bible Covenants! Part 3 Divorce and the Law

Jan 1

Posted by agapegeek

(Ver 2.1) This is Part 3 in the series on the very important subject of Understanding Bible Covenants. If you have not read this series from the beginning I would strongly recommend that you go back and start reading with “Part 1“. We have covered the Bible subject of covenants in a new spiritual light. In the first lesson we saw scriptures that defines a Bible God kind of covenant is a marriage relationship normally between a male and a female. In God’s covenants He is always the husband and we His people are always the female. In the second lesson there was featured a modern unfamiliar quality called “faithfulness”. This quality of “faithfulness” is where trust is placed in each covenant participant to remain faithful to their covenant partner. When unfaithfulness occurs the resulting infidelity normally causes the intended everlasting relationship to become strained, ineffective and even fail. Which brings us to today’s specific topic called “divorce”. Using this new perspective of “unfaithfulness” we will be exploring the Bible using God’s created concepts found around the essential subject of “faithfulness” in marriage covenants. Because it is so radically different than anything we have probably heard before it may be difficult for many to accept. It is interesting that this is the same response that Paul got in many places that he went into to teach the Word of God. Here is a scripture that describes Paul’s experiences:

Act 17:11 These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.

This scripture describes two different groups and types of people. It speaks of one group being more noble than the other. The term noble is a symbol of royalty, those of nobility. These people were more noble than those in Thessalonica because of two qualities that they did. Or actually to be more precise it was one featured quality or attitude that they possessed and one action they performed. The first difference of these more noble people was they received the Word of God with an “open mind”. Meaning they were willing to listen and hear something totally new and radically different without prejudice. But instead of accepting everything that was taught them by faith and blindly following Paul, they did something else to prove what was being taught to them was actually what God said in the Word. It says they searched the scriptures daily to see if what Paul was saying was really in the books they called God’s Word. In those days they only had the Old Testament books and scrolls so that is the only verification that they had to search from. Today we can see that this also includes the New Testament writings. You can learn so much by following the example of the more noble group of people. You see there is nothing new under the sun, what was, is that, which shall be again. What you have seen before, is that which will occur again. God does things the same way today as He did in the days of the early church. History has always run in cycles that repeat specific divine patterns in human experiences and events. So when someone like me comes along and teaches something so radically new, what should you do? You should start by keeping an open mind to what is being said and then you must search your Bible to see if it is actually true. That is all I’m asking you to do.

In the last lesson we were talking about sex and infidelity in the context of a covenant marriage relationship. We saw that physical things gives us patterns into spiritual things. People who follow physical faithfulness probably have an easier acceptance with spiritual faithfulness. There has been an increased awareness of natural unfaithfulness due to a well know unnamed sports figure that has recently been caught up with the seeds that he had been sowing. Then before that we had a President that was caught up in an embarrassing White House sexual scandal. But, these were just popularly reported news examples that occur often in many natural human experiences. No human is perfect and all have sinned in some way.

Without God no one really has a chance to be perfect, we have all been there and all share in mistakes that we have made. Also, in the last lesson we referred to the fact that divorce was not legally permissible from God’s law unless a spouse had been unfaithful. I guess these two famous wives certainly had grounds for a divorce. I’m sure neither was happy or content with their covenant relationship. As far as the President’s wife, I believe she endured and stuck around the marriage for some future benefits. A wife will always have the right to choose. But, one thing that we can count on is the faithfulness of God. God will always be faithful to us. Therefore, the only opportunity for covenant failure in a relationship with God, will be on us. This does pertain to the subject today.

GOD’S OLD TESTAMENT COVENANT DIVORCE

So we have been looking at the natural nation of Israel as being called the unfaithful wife in the Old Covenant. She was accused of spiritual adultery and literal whoredom by following after and pursuing other gods by worshiping idols (Isa 1:2, Eze 6:8). There is really a very sincere lesson to learn from this, if we think about it. Recently on the news I saw a story that spoke of many so called Christian churches starting to introduce other foreign practices into their congregations. I don’t know if they were attempting to draw more people in or what. But the net result will be disastrous. These churches wanted to bring in yoga and far eastern mind altering religions. Things like far east meditation and mind relaxation and control techniques that just open people up for satanic interaction. By introducing these foreign religions into their churches they are succumbing to the same result that the natural nation of Israel fell into. This spiritual infidelity will result in spiritual sexual covenant relations with other gods just like Israel. I hope you are hearing me and understand what was just said.

So today I want to open a new can of worms that I know will not go over big with a lot of people, but I really have no choice. I believe I need to teach what God has taught me from the Bible. In the last lesson I gave scriptures about God’s wife Israel being unfaithful to her husband and God said I divorced her (Jer 3:8). If a covenant is a marriage, then a divorce is the termination of that covenant! This is absolutely critical that w see this and understand it. According to O.T. verses God is NOT in covenant with the natural nation of Israel anymore or ever will be again. I know that is a shocking statement, but we look it up in the Bible and verify what God says. Natural Israel now has the same opportunity to marry into the new covenant with Jesus, but the old covenant is over. Here is another witness to this fact:

Isa 50:1 Thus saith the LORD, Where is the bill (H5612) of your mother’s divorcement (H3758), whom I have put away (H7971)? or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away.

We have seen that the prophets Jeremiah and Isaiah, both have declared the termination of the marriage covenant relationship between God and the natural nation of Israel. Notice that this verse in Isaiah also implies a selling of Israel to another buyer or owner. This sounds like Israel has entered into a new covenant relationship with someone besides Jehovah God, to me. I will tell you up front it was not to be in the new covenant with Jesus the Son of God. The Lord God says “I have Put Away your mother”. Those are terms for divorce based upon Israel’s foolish acts of infidelity. So we can conclude that the divorce is now final in the eyes of God.

Today I want to show you what God’s law says about marriage and divorce. It is so relevant to our discussion that I hope you can see it. The law concerning divorce is found in the book of Deuteronomy in chapter 24:

Deu 24:1 When a man hath taken a wife, and married her, and it come to pass that she find no favour in his eyes, because he hath found some uncleanness in her: then let him write her a bill (H5612) of divorcement (H3748), and give it in her hand, and send (H7971) her out of his house.

Here is exactly what we read in Isaiah and Jeremiah that God did to Israel. It is an exact representation of what happened to the natural nation of Israel. This verse says a man shall take a wife and marry her. We know that God took Israel by the hand and led her out of Egypt and married her (Jer 31:32). Then it says if the man finds “uncleanness” in her and we know that God found His wife natural Israel unfaithful following after other gods and worshipping idols repeatedly. So we know that according to the law, the man (God) then can write his wife (Israel) a bill of divorcement and give it to her to end the covenant. God did this using His prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah. These were His two witnesses for Israel’s whoredom. You then see that this verse says that the woman is now not a part of this husband’s household anymore. She has been kicked out of the relationship due to her unclean acts of wickedness. This is precisely what happened to the nation of Israel. Let’s look at the next verse in the law:

Deu 24:2 And when she is departed out of his house, she may go and be another man’s wife.

I read these words and see how God foretold what was about to transpire with His wife. This verse says this divorced wife can become the wife of another man. We saw scriptures that implied strongly that Israel was another man’s wife now. I could give you many other scriptures that would also confirm this but I just don’t have the time right here to include these. I’ll skip over verse 3 because it is about her new husband divorcing her. What I want you to see is the next verse and what God says:

Deu 24:4 Her former husband (Jehovah God), which sent her away, may not take her (natural Israel) again to be his wife, after that she is defiled; for that is abomination before the LORD (JEHOVAH): and thou shalt not cause the land to sin, which the LORD thy God giveth thee for an inheritance.

You see according to the law, it would be illegal for God to marry the natural nation of Israel again. God said it would be an abomination for Him to take back a wife that has defiled herself with another man. It is therefore illegal, according to the law for God to enter into covenant with the nation of Israel again. I am glad I didn’t write the Bible, I just read it and see what it says. But, I don’t see how He could take her back and not make himself out to be a liar.

I know these are very strong words and the implications are very far reaching. Nevertheless I didn’t write the Bible so please don’t throw stones at the messenger. You have the opportunity to embrace what the Bible says or you now have an opportunity to reject it and ignore what God said. I suspect I’ll have both reactions. The Bible was written in an encoded fashion that forces us to correctly divide the words to come up with the truth. That means some will see it and some will not. That also means everything in the Bible is not always self evident or self revealing and since I don’t know everything maybe there is something that I don’t know yet that could change the outcome of Israel. I will humbly admit that truth that I’m not God and I don’t know everything. If God wants to keep something hidden it will remain hidden, if God wants to reveal the truth to someone or through someone then nothing will stop Him from doing that either.

A NEW TESTAMENT CONFIRMATION

I would like to briefly teach a New Testament confirmation for what we are reading in the Old Testament. I believe God will always confirm whatever is important in the Old Testament in the New either directly or indirectly. This reference that we will be going over is fairly direct but often easily misunderstood. We will be reading from the book of Galatians and chapter 4.

Gal 4:22 For it is written (prophesied), that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman.
Gal 4:23 But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh (natural); but he of the freewoman was by promise (Spirit).
Gal 4:24 Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai (natural Israel), which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar.
Gal 4:25 For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem (natural Israel) which now is, and is in bondage with her children.
Gal 4:26 But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all (Jesus and the Church).
Gal 4:27 For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband.
Gal 4:28 Now we (the Church), brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise (Free Woman).
Gal 4:29 But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit (the Church), even so it is now.
Gal 4:30 Nevertheless what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman (Natural Israel) and her son: for the son of the bondwoman (Natural Israel) shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.
Gal 4:31 So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free.

This is an amazing passage of scripture filled with untold revelation. There are two women being compared as mothers with sons. The LORD just keeps uncovering new information from these verses the more we study it. Has anyone missed what the LORD said after reading these verses, I will tell you that one woman is Hagar a young Egyptian slave woman and the other woman was Sarah the older barren wife and God says these two represent allegorical types of spiritual realities. Hagar represents natural Israel that came out of captivity in Egypt. Sarah is spoken of as a spiritual type of free woman that gives birth to the church. Abraham the covenant making husband to both women is also a type in this O.T. story. Abraham represents God the Father also known as Jehovah LORD. That was a very quick overview, so let us explore some of the important details for out subject of covenants and divorce.

Notice how God uses a real literal Old Testament story of Abraham as a spiritual allegory to reveal a greater unseen truth. If we read closely, we will discover that God is likening natural Israel to be called a model, type, pattern, or a shadow of a natural Egyptian “bonds woman” named Hagar. God equates her position of natural bondage to Israel’s servitude to the Old Covenant Law. It is remarkably interesting, to note that this Galatians 4 passage is speaking of this Hagar woman as a typology of natural Israel being in covenant with God. It is important to note that the natural people of Israel were taken from Egypt by God through Moses. Then God also gave them the law through Moses on Mount Sinai and later they possessed the land where Jerusalem eventually becomes their capital city.

I will not teach the entire set of verses. There are other Bible lessons on this website that have more detail if you are interested. But I do want us to focus on verse 30. This is a quotation from Genesis 21:10. What does this verse say so clearly? God tells us it is written “Cast out the bond woman (natural Israel) Hagar for her son will not be an heir with the son of the freewoman”. When we go back and study the original verse God uses the Hebrew word H1644 which is translated as “cast out”. Strong defines this Hebrew word as “to drive out from a possession”. But this Hebrew word also carries the meaning of “divorce” and a “divorced woman”. Wow, that is amazing confirmation to the verses we have read from Jerimiah 3:8 and Isaiah 50:1.

Galatians 4 is a New Covenant confirmation for what has happened to the Old Covenant people. Natural Israel is now no longer in covenant with God Jehovah even while still being in bondage to His written Law. There is a further confirmation found within Galatians 4. Remember when I showed implied O.T. references for divorced natural Israel now being in covenant marriage with someone other than God Jehovah? Did you notice Galatians 4:27? What is God saying in this verse?

Gal 4:27 For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren (Sarah a type of the Heavenly Jersualem) that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou (Sarah a type of the Heavenly Jersualem) that travailest not: for the desolate (free woman Sarah a type of the Heavenly Jerusalem) hath many more children than she which hath an husband (bond woman: Hagar a type of natural Israel).

This verse is another O.T quotation from Isaiah 54:1. I placed in quotations the unstated allegorical references revealed to us by God in Galatians 4 to help us understand who He is speaking of. I pray that everyone observed that this verse says the bond slave woman (Hagar the type of natural Israel) was cast out of God’s marriage covenant but is now being referred to as a “married” wife. But if her husband is not Jehovah God, then who is it? Go and read Isiah 54:1 and we will find God Jehovah is the one speaking about these two women. Notice that He does not claim in Isaiah 54:1 to be her husband. In fact, it was only 4 chapters before this prophecy that Jehovah gave natural Israel her bill of divorce.

Galatians chapter 4 is very profound. God has just confirmed that natural Israel is no longer in a covenant with Him. It further implies by indirect reference that she has no possibility to return to the covenant that she was in with Him. If we study the entire Bible for direct references to Hagar, we will find only 14 times her name is given by God. The last time she is mentioned in the O.T. is Genesis 25 where God gives the genealogy of Ishmael to have 12 sons. Before this mention is Genesis 21 where Abraham “sends her away with her son Ismael in verse 14. The Hebrew word “send away” is H7971 that was translated as “put away” in the law of divorcement we read in Deuteronomy 24 and the divorce decrees we read in Isaiah 50:1 and Jeremiah 3:8. These connecting words and subjects are not a coincidence. God is teaching us that natural Israel will have the same end as the natural Egyptian slave woman named Hagar.

CONLUSION

We have seen scripture that declares natural Israel’s covenant relationship with God has been terminated because of her continued unfaithfulness. We then saw the law of God that declares this relationship is over for good. We cannot blame God for ending the covenant. It was natural Israel’s repeated bad choices to commit whoredom with other gods that finally caused the consequences. Remember what God says in Galatians 6:7 “Be not deceived, God is not mocked whatever a man sows that will he reap”. Israel finally reaped what they had sown for hundreds and hundreds of years. A crop of failure will eventually come to anyone that does the same. God was extremely patient, forgiving and kind to the natural nation of Israel. He is the same today to us. Thank you Jesus!

I’ll end this lesson with this last statement, there is more in the Bible that we don’t know than what we do know. I don’t care how long we have studied the Bible or how much we have memorized and we can quote. Quoting scripture does not mean we know it and understand it. The term to “Know” means understand and I guarantee that we (me and you) don’t understand very much of the Bible. God’s intelligence level is so far beyond ours. Every word in the Bible has significance and meaning and most of the time we just read them like they don’t mean anything. The one reality that I am faced with every time I study the Bible is this: “The more I learn, the more I find out I don’t know”. If you are not there yet, then you don’t realize yet that you have a lot more to learn. In the next lesson, I’ll attempt to explore natural Israel’s new covenant relationship.

If you would like to continue reading in this series you may now go to “Part 4“.

Posted in Bible Study, Covenants, Understanding

Tags: Bible, Christianity, Church, Covenants, God, Jesus, marriage, sex, Truth, understanding, woman

Understanding Bible Covenants! Part 2 Sex, Infidelity and Divorce

Dec 30

Posted by agapegeek

(Ver 2.2) This is now Part 2 in the series of Understanding Bible Covenants. The Word of God is so awesome, I just love studying the Bible more than anything. I hope you are as excited about learning about God as I am. Please understand that I don’t say this because the main subject is about sex. I think I may know where some people’s mind is going. This is a very serious subject and I will warn you that it could be offensive to some. If you do not consider yourself a mature Christian maybe it would be best if you do not read the rest of this lesson. Just take that into consideration. In today’s lesson we want to continue talking about understanding Bible covenants. I want to provide several new established scriptures to expand our foundation for a sound understanding of what a Bible God type of covenant is. Today’s subject as you can tell by the title will certainly be different than most anything that you have probably heard before and represents an advanced study on the subject of covenants intended for mature Christians. If you are not a mature Christian then please just go read someone else’s Bible lesson for today. That was warning number two. Also if you have not read from the beginning of this series, I would strongly suggest that you go back and start with Part 1 dealing with Covenants and Marriage.

INTRODUCTION & REVIEW

In the first lesson in this series, we were introduced to some of the basic concepts and parts of what a Bible covenant is and some of what a Bible covenant is not. we learned that a Bible covenant is like a binding legal contract relationship between two separate individuals but yet it is certainly much more than this. We then described this legal contract to be equivalent to a natural marriage between a husband and a wife. We were also introduced to the fact that a Bible covenant relationship can be between any two of the following:

A spiritual being (God the Father, Jesus, Lucifer, etc.)
A physical being (Abraham)
A group of natural beings (natural Israel)
A group of spiritual beings (church, angels, etc.)

A covenant will always be between at least two of these categories of individuals of any combination. I should also point out that a covenant can be between two individuals of the same type. For example, a spirit being to a spirit being or a physical being to a physical being, or even a nation of people with another nation of people. It is of course difficult to think of a group of people as being a single united entity, but that is what the Bible declares so I’ll stick with that. In the last lesson, we saw examples of the natural nation of Israel being in covenant with the creator God. In these verses, we found scriptures that God called this covenant a marriage relationship. We can see that in a covenant with God, God is always the Husband representative and the nation, group or individual in covenant with God is always the female wife representative. This pattern established in the Old Covenant was continued in the New Covenant with Jesus being the husband (bridegroom) and the church being His bride and wife.

In the last lesson we were also introduced to the concept that when two people or individuals are married, that they become one flesh and/or one spirit. We found and read scriptures that describes God’s law of marriage that was first given to us in Genesis chapter 2. I will warn you the third and final time that today’s subject matter is of a very mature nature. If you didn’t realize it before now, God created physical things like sex as a pattern for us to understand hidden spiritual truths. If God created natural sex, it must be good and have a very good purpose more than just making us feel good and making babies.

NATURAL SEX – A COVENANT PATTERN

We will begin by saying that sex was of course designed to be limited within the boundary of a covenant marriage between a husband and his wife. Since we have been talking about covenants as a marriage, it doesn’t take long to realize that sex is a integral part of God’s designed marriage covenant relationship. This is exactly why Satan wants to pervert sex and make it a casual normal indulgence for anyone and everyone at any time, even younger youth dating. We can’t watch TV or movies without seeing sex glorified and promoted in a very prevalent and a dominate fashion. If Satan wants to pervert the subject, it must have a legitimate purpose and reason for existence for God’s glory. What we need to begin to realize is that the physical union of sexual intercourse and intimacy should point us to a greater spiritual covenant relationship within a much higher spiritual dimension.

So, what does sex have to do with Bible covenants? I want to talk first about the human sexual organs. As most know these are called the male penis and the female vagina. Remember I warned you. What does a male penis have to do with a covenant? For many mature Christians that study the Bible they already know the answer. The answer is circumcision. God introduced circumcision to Abraham in Genesis 17:

Gen 17:9 And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee in their generations.
Gen 17:10 This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised.
Gen 17:11 And ye shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a token of the covenant betwixt me and you.

This is the first mention of circumcision in the Bible that I know of. It is also the first direct mention of the male penis that I have found so far. The male and female sexual union act is first mentioned in Genesis 4:1 and we will talk more about this soon. Notice in verses 9, 10 and 11 of Genesis 17 God calls this His covenant that Abraham and every generation of male seed that they will keep. Now, remember what circumcision is and what we discovered in the first lesson. What is a key component of covenants with God? There is a verbal agreement made and there is a direct cutting of flesh followed by an immediate flow of blood. Wow, that makes circumcision to match the pattern of divine covenants, doesn’t it?

Now we need to move to the female sexual organ called the vagina. God designed the male sexual organ to fill with blood (uh oh, that sounds important) to become erect, and then to enter into female’s vagina to have carnal knowledge with her and this was designed by God to produce offspring (seed from seed). Now, we need to get into more detail. The first time a female vagina has carnal knowledge of the male sexual organ, something happens that does not normally occur ever again. As you probably remember this is the flow of blood and we are not speaking of the female monthly menses cycle. Although this monthly cycle applies because of the involvement of blood, as a type of cleansing, this is not the blood flow that represents the covenant between a male and female. Humans do not normally have sex when a woman is in her monthly cycle.

Ok, let’s get to the main point. There is a small piece of skin Called the hymen that exists for no apparent reason or purpose within the opening of the vagina of every normal female. When the male inserts his blood filled sexual organ inside his wife’s vagina for the first time, this medically unknown purposed skin tears and bleeds. This causes an immediate temporary flow of blood that humans have lowered in importance by labeling it as “popping her cherry”. This is a major conquest for the ungodly male that doesn’t understand what really just happened in the eyes of God.

This piece of unnecessary female skin that was ripped and torn to bleed is called the hymen. I believe we can easily begin to see that it was placed in the female vagina by God for the creation of an eternal covenant bond between that human male and his wife. One reason why this first sexual act is legally binding forever is because the woman does not grow back a new hymen ever again. It is a one and done covenant. At least that is what God intended when He created Adam and Eve. Adam only had one wife with one hymen and that covenant bond lasted them their entire existence on the earth over 900 years. Wow, we should learn that this was God’s design for every human covenant marriage. But, this truth soon became perverted shortly afterward in their following generations.

I pray that was not too graphic and that we all received something new to think about when considering who to have sex with. Just take note of the presence of blood and how many times it was just mentioned. We have the male covenant with God revealed to be a token by the visible cutting and removing of the unnecessary male foreskin. We have a female that when she becomes able to bare children begin a monthly flow of blood exactly where the male organ full of blood enters. Then we had the hymen another unnecessary piece of skin that is torn and bleeds whenever the husband’s first penetration occurs and this act by God’s design produces a husband and wife blood covenant bond that remains in effect until one of them dies physically.

Can we begin to see the power of the blood of God in all of these covenant making connections and parallels? Can we also begin to see the reasons oof Satan’s attempt to make sexual unions a trivial and meaningless temporary pleasure? We are going to talk more about this later but we should begin to know that in the eyes of God everyone that we have had sex with who is still alive physically we are in a marriage covenant with that person. But thank God for the blood of Jesus. I know what many of you may be thinking. How do I undo all of the mistake covenants that I have entered into before I knew all of this? We can simply bring these up to God’s Court in heaven and repent for them, ask Him to apply the blood of Jesus to cleanse us from these unrighteous acts and God’s word in 1 John 1:9 says that “He is faithful and just to forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness”. Thank you Jesus!

NATURAL SEX PATTERNS FOUND IN THE
NEW COVENANT SPIRIT REALM

Let us continue by understanding that a spirit does not have physical sex. Yet this natural sexual act is still found as a pattern for a greater spiritual truth. Let us go to the Bible and use the law of first mention and see what God reveals to us on the subject of sex. I already mentioned this verse in the last section, but the first mention of physical sex that I have found in the Bible was Genesis 4:1:

Gen 4:1 And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain, and said, I have gotten a man from the LORD.

This verse in Genesis represents God’s higher way of describing physical sex experienced in the covenant relationship between Adam and his wife Eve. Recall that since this was the first mention of Adam having sex with Eve her hymen had to be torn and this produced a lasting covenant as well as their “firstborn son” named Cain.

Believe it or not, here we have a pattern of Christ and the church. Adam, the first man was a created pattern (figure) of Jesus Christ (Rom 5:14) who was to come into the world to die and forgive our sins and then be raised from the dead to marry in covenant His bride, the church. Jesus implements this covenant by having His flesh pierced, torn and ripped to shed His blood for us. That is just a quick introduction to the New Covenant. Let’s get back to our study of the first directly mentioned human sexual act in the Bible.

There is a fascinating concept given to us in this verse in Genesis. To “know” something or someone, what does that mean? I’ve often heard the term for sex to be described as having “carnal knowledge of” them. Carnal knowledge is just another synonymous term for natural covenant making sex. The actual Hebrew word YADA (H3045) that was translated as “knew” is defined as follows: “to ascertain by seeing”. It seems to be a form of gaining knowledge, but going further than just a casual surface knowledge of something or someone. Because to YADA someone means to understand them intimately and personally. It would be like someone saying “I know of the President” but to really “YADA” the President we would need to spend a lot of personal time with them to really understand them.

There are many varieties of knowledge in the world. To know a friend is not the same as for you to know your wife, or at least it shouldn’t be. Let’s think about a different form of knowledge other than physical sex for a moment. You see, we can also go to school to learn some specific subjects. For example, we can sit in class to know algebra, to know geometry or to know trigonometry and these are all representative types of having sex within the confines of a physical marriage according to God’s selection and usage of the word. However, people can memorize facts and still not “KNOW” what they mean or how to apply them. For example many people know Einstein’s theory of relativity is E=MC2. But to understand what it means and how to make it useful is not to YADA it.

This word to know (YADA) can apply to either type of interaction by God’s design. You can know a subject intimately so that it becomes a part of you and you understand it and this is representative of a covenant relationship, to know and to understand husband or a wife subject intimately. Do you remember what Jesus said to us in Matthew 5:27 and 28? The subject is about extramarital sex which is inline perfectly with our Bible study subject today. Jesus said “You have heard (in the law) you shall not commit adultery”. “But, I say to you that a man that looks at a woman to lust after her has committed adultery already in his heart”. Wow, this sounds like it is time for many of us to repent and ask for forgiveness. What Jesus is doing is comparing spiritual adultery with natural adultery. One is the physical realization of the fantasy that we had in our heart and the other is simply the fantasy in our heart that Jesus said makes us guilty already of the sin before we act on it. Wow, this is amazing and should be an eye opening encounter for us all. Uh oh! I can hear minds clicking away to say “well if I already thought about her this way, I should go ahead and just do it since I am already guilty in the eyes of God. Please don’t be stupid and foolish to fall into that trap of Satan. Hebrews 11:25 teaches us that Moses chose to suffer affliction with the people of God rather than enjoy the pleasures of in sin for a season. I guess we will move on.

What we have to see and understand are the concepts given to us by God in His Word. Understand that there are parallels to knowing a subject (or even fantasizing about someone) and how that is related to the act of participating in physical sexual knowledge of someone. God when He was in covenant with the natural nation of Israel, wanted them to know Him so He gave them the law and the words of the prophets. Jesus wants the church to know Him so He gave us the Gospels and the Epistles. By us studying and having intimate knowledge of Jesus and embracing His Holy Word is the spiritual form of the natural wife having a physical relationship with her natural husband. In our covenant marriage case we are His wife and He is our husband. We are intimate with Jesus when we pray and when we read His Word to Know and spend time with Him.

Some might be struggling with the concept of what is being taught today so we are going to read over some key scriptures to help us come closer to a better understanding of the subject of physical sex in relationship with spiritual knowledge more clearly. We’ll turn to a verse that we may have never studied to learn what God desires for us to understand:

1Co 6:15 Know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ? shall I then take the members of Christ, and make them the members of an harlot? God forbid.

This verse represents the very complex subject of covenant relationships utilizing different phrases, words and terms. Hopefully we can all see that this verse is comparing two opposing types of spiritual covenant relationships. The first spiritual covenant is between the church and Jesus Christ. We can see that there is an inferred meaning that the church is now married to Jesus Christ in this statement because of the reference to being members of His body. Remember when Adam saw his wife he said “she is bone of my bone and flesh of my flesh” in Genesis 2:23. That made Eve the woman the body of Adam the man. This is what the Law of God says in marriages.

We can see that since we have become the body of Christ (by God’s law of covenant marriage), that we can still go and commit spiritual adultery to make the member of Christ the members of a spiritual harlot simultaneously. We learn that this is a sexual but spiritual type of knowledge encounter with this woman called a “harlot”. We can see that it is still possible to be joined spiritually with another besides Jesus.

Again we understand that this is a direct application of God’s law of natural marriage from Genesis 2 being restated and applied using different words in a spiritual application. According to God, the author of the Bible, to become members of a harlot is to be spiritually connected through having knowledge of) her. This statement is actually a parallel to some Old Testament realities that transpired many years before Paul wrote these words. What we can observe and understand from this is an implication that if one wife can commit adultery, then any wife in any covenant relationship (including with Jesus) can commit adultery. Let’s look at the next verse to learn more confirmation to what is being taught by God:

1Co 6:16 What? know ye not that he which is joined to an harlot is one body? for two, saith he, shall be one flesh.

In this next verse we can see some more outstanding spiritual implications and parallels being given to us by God. We can very clearly learn that sexual relations with a harlot in the eyes of God is the exact same thing as a covenant marriage. That means that having casual sex or a one night stand with any woman whether she is a whore (paid money) or not will cause the two people to be in covenant relationship with each other. This is not really that complicated. Everyone that has been alive on the earth for a period of several years understands that people do not pay a prostitute to get married. No, the transaction and the exchange of money is for a brief pleasure of having sex. So what people do not realize is that this is not how God views the acts. God says in verse 16 that the two having this relationship have been joined in a marriage covenant. The literal Greek word G2853 translated as “joined” literally means to “glue” together two separate pieces. I do not believe people see it this way since it looks like it is just a temporary pleasure.

In the eyes of God having sex is a marriage and a marriage means there should have been sexual intimacy between a covenant husband and his wife. That is some very strong words I know, but you can read it for yourself. Study it out and see if this is not what God is saying. According to God, even a casual one night stand causes the participants to be in a covenant binding relationship.

We know recently in the news that a prominent sports figure was accused by several women to be in relationship with all of them. These fourteen or more women all accused this married man of having had sex with them. I also heard a rock star brag that he had sexual encounters with over a 1000 women and girls while touring with the rock band. He literally boasted that he had photos to prove it. But, according to these scripture verses that we just read these men now have a bunch of wives. These physical realities are parallel to the spiritual realities that God is attempting to get us to see and to understand. We can verify all of this in the next verse:

1Co 6:17 But he that is joined unto the Lord is one spirit.

You see in verse 17 we see another implied reference to Christ being married to the church. The verse speaks directly that the church is “JOINED” to the LORD. That is a marriage term and is the same word that is translated in other places as “cleave” to his wife. This verse then declares that the church is One Spirit with our husband Jesus Christ. Again more marriage terminology. We can understand that this new covenant marriage is suppose to be a spiritual type of sexual relationship just based upon the context of the surrounding verses speaking about people who have sex with harlots at the same time as being in covenant with Jesus Christ. In fact these verses are a warning written to the spiritual bride of Jesus telling her not to be involved with joining herself with other gods, idols, the worldly desires and lusts or whoever or whatever.

There are certainly many things to consider about these statements and we can apply them to both natural and spiritual covenant relationships. These constitute concepts of physical faithfulness and they should apply to us in our spiritual relationship with Christ as well. The bottom line of these verses in 1 Corinthians 6 point us to being faithful to Christ Jesus our husband and not to wander off with a deception or trick of Satan.

SPIRITUTAL SEXUAL INFIDELITY AND ADULTERY

These are all very stout and strong words and concepts given to us in the Bible concerning being in binding covenant relationship with the right and wrong individuals. What we thought was only a temporary pleasurable encounter has been raised to a very serious level of critical importance. I pray that everyone is learning the significance. These concepts and words appear to have not been clearly understood before now by very many Christians . But, before we go to the Old Testament let me show the law of marriage again restated differently for us in the New Testament which introduces us to a new concept called adultery which we should see and know as the act of being married to multiple covenant sexual partners at the same time:

Rom 7:1 Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?

We can see new meaning in these words when we apply what we have just learned about the term “know”. To know something or someone is a sexual term that denotes a covenant act in a covenant relationship. So this verse is written to those that were in covenant with Jehovah God and His law and this could only be the natural nation of Israel. We know this because the Law was given to them by Moses on Mt Sinai after coming out of Egypt. Let’s see what God is saying to them that “know” the law:

Rom 7:2 For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.

These are some interesting words given to us from God. These words declare that a woman that knows the law is legally bound to the covenant law of her husband as long as he is alive. We know from previous study that Israel is called the wife of God in the Old Covenant (Jer 31:32). So we are told by God that this group or nation of natural people were bound (in bondage) by the law of God as long as He lives. God says very clearly that only when the husband is dead is she free to marry (enter covenant) again.

Rom 7:3 So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.

Here we have God’s definition of an adulteress. I do not understand how people have not put these things together, but I guess they are just hard to accept so they refuse to see them. Any way verse 3 of chapter 7 says if her husband is alive and she marries another man, then she shall be called an adulteress. An adulteress is a noun title for a woman who has committed a sexual act of adultery. Adultery is defined as “an extramarital sexual affair” and this “infidelity” is known as unfaithfulness. This is what is called the state of being unfaithful to your covenant spouse. Are we following these concepts?

How do we apply these physical things to spiritual things? We know that the natural nation of Israel did not have physical sex with other gods, idols or religions, but God said numerous times in the Old Testament that they were very unfaithful to Him. So apparently spiritual sex follows after a pattern of natural sex and is treated no differently by God. In fact in the eyes of God it is exactly the same. Spiritual sex would involve worshipping false gods, idols and other such unfaithful acts. These spiritual acts of the knowledge of foreign gods are covenant acts of infidelity in the eyes of God. This was Israel, His wife making herself in covenant relationship and being joined with other gods as we have just learned from the New Testament. Let us start looking at some Key Old Testament verses that speak about this subject:

Jer 3:1 They say, If a man put away his wife, and she go from him, and become another man’s, shall he return unto her again? shall not that land be greatly polluted? but thou hast played the harlot with many lovers; yet return again to me, saith the LORD.

Yet more difficult words to swallow from God. It is a struggle to understand how Israel the natural nation of people are said to have committed adultery with many lovers. In fact this verse actually says that Israel has become the wife of another man by being unfaithful even while being married to the living covenant God. Remember what we read in 1 Corinthians, that the sexual act itself causes you to become married in covenant with the harlot. This verse in Jeremiah calls Israel the harlot and the wife of someone else and this husband is not God. The implications to these statements are huge and very powerful. The ramifications and consequences to Israel’s acts of unfaithfulness are enormous. Who is this one that Israel is accused of having spiritual intercourse with, and is in covenant with, if it is not with God? It will certainly be a new thing to research and consider using the Word of God.

Studying the Bible on this subject is incredibly difficult, because it implies so many heavy and deep things for us to consider. Many ministers in the church teach and preach such favorable things about the nation of Israel and I guess that they gloss over and ignore statements in the Bible about her infidelity and unfaithfulness. As we continue with this lesson it will not get any easier for me to teach or for you to accept. Let’s continue with this verse also in Jeremiah 3:

Jer 3:8 And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah feared not, but went and played the harlot also.

In Malachi 2:16 God makes the statement that he hates divorce, however in Jeremiah 3:8 we see a direct statement that God has just divorced Israel, because of her repeated adulteries. If you recall from the definition of an adulteress in 1 Corinthians, an adulteress is any woman who has sexual knowledge outside of her covenant marriage while her husband still lives. God says backsliding Israel has committed adultery while I yet lived as their husband. What are the consequences of those transgressions? Here is a statement by God that directly breaks and terminates the old covenant marriage with the natural nation of Israel and completely ends the relationship. When God gave these words to His Prophet Jeremiah, the nation of Israel was divorced by law and no longer could be called the covenant wife of God but she is called the wife of another man in this book and others because of her sexual relationships with those gods. Because of Israel’s infidelity she has become the wife of another by the simple act of spiritual adultery. I told you that this wasn’t going to get any easier to accept. We are now heavy duty into the subject of divorce as it relates to the subject of marriage covenants. What gives God the right to divorce His unfaithful wife Israel? Let us confirm the divorce for the naysayers so there is no confusion: Please read another witness from the prophet Isaiah:

Isa 50:1 Thus saith the LORD, Where is the bill of your mother’s divorcement, whom I have put away? or which of my creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away.

Here we can clearly see God speaking about His covenant wife Israel. This verse was written to the Lord Jesus speaking to Him to ask His mother about her divorce. What I want you to see that God very clearly says “I have put her away”. This Hebrew word translated as put away means to cast out. Also in this verse God uses the Hebrew word H3748 that is only used 4 times in the O.T. This word is translated as “divorcement” here and it literally means a cutting of the marital bonds. The only other time this word is used is found in Jeremiah 3:8 that we just looked at and in the Law of Moses written in Deuteronomy 24:1-3 where God permits divorce because of the hardness of the hearts of the people of Israel according to Jesus in Matthew. Let’s look at that verse quickly:

Mat 19:8 He saith unto them, Moses because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so.

Notice what Jesus teaches about covenant relationships. Jesus said there was a time when this was permitted but it was only because they were hard hearted. Then Jesus says very clearly that this was not the intended design of God from the beginning. This would help confirm to us why God wrote in Malachi 2:6 that it is written that God hates divorce. God does not want to divorce anyone. God also does not want anyone in the world to divorce each other either. Divorce is far from the perfect will of God. God only permitted divorce under the law because of Israel’s repeated unfaithfulness while committing whoredom over and over and over. Let’s look at another verse that Jesus directly speaks concerning divorce in Matthew:

Mat 5:32 But I say unto you, That whosoever shall put away his wife, saving for the cause of fornication, causeth her to commit adultery: and whosoever shall marry her that is divorced committeth adultery.

Jesus enforces God’s right to divorce His unfaithful wife Israel here in this verse in Matthew. Here we have Jesus speaking of divorce as not being a legitimate alternative to end any covenant relationship except for the reason of “fornication”. The Greek word G4202 that was translated as “fornication” here actually means “Harlotry” or “whoredon”. I have not heard many or any Christian leaders, preachers and teachers teaching these concepts. I wonder why? Do they exist in the Bible? It is also interesting that harlotry is the physical or natural meaning of this Greek word, but it also conveys the spiritual meaning of “idolatry” in the case of natural Israel. In the case of God’s relationship with natural Israel His wife, the sole legal reason for His divorce to her is based upon Israel’s constant interaction with other gods, religions and their idols. They worshipped false gods and idols instead of the true and living God. They became those that worshiped the creation more than the creator. Wow does that sound familiar?

Jer 3:20 Surely as a wife treacherously departeth from her husband, so have ye dealt treacherously with me, O house of Israel, saith the LORD.

Here we have another incredible scripture that relates Israel to be the wife of God. The word “as” is added to the verse by the translator thinking that they were making a comparison, but Israel was the covenant wife by God’s own admission that God was speaking to in this verse. It goes on to describe her as a woman that has “departed” and “left” her husband. God does not like that one bit. A wife should not depart from her loving husband ever. In this verse it is implies that she (Israel) has left her husband for another man. I wonder why these scriptures are not taught and have been overlooked and ignored in the Bible? Are these verses written in the Holy Book? Did Israel commit adultery and fall into a covenant with another spiritual being? How could this be and who is this spiritual being that is now in covenant with natural Israel? If you don’t know the answers to these questions, you should. They are truly important to your understanding of the Word of God.

I have to limit the number of verses that I could include on this subject due to lesson length. But please understand that just because I gave you a few verses, it doesn’t mean that there are not many, many others that say the same thing. You are welcome to search and find them out for yourself. You can find many verses of the whoredom of Israel in Jeremiah 3, 16, Ezekiel 16, 20, 23 and 43 and the book of Hosea to name the major references. Go read them and study them all for your self and learn what spiritual adultery represents. This was a woman that has left her husband to go and commit an act of sexual knowledge with another god besides her husband.

What I did was attempt to give you a foundational overview of a very complex subject, showing you how natural things are directly related to spiritual things. Marriage, sex, infidelity and divorce are all subjects that you should be familiar with in the natural. But, knowing how to apply them to God’s designed spiritual things is the challenge we are all faced with. I have shown you that God’s Old Covenant wife was unfaithful to Him and as a result, God has divorced her. That at least implies that this old covenant is over and done with for God the Father but not for natural Israel because of the law. Let’s go back to Romans and see a verse that I did not give you yet about this subject of covenant marriage:

Rom 7:4 Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.

Here is a complex verse that does not make any sense if you do not see that it was only written to those that “knew” the law. God says you that knew the law have been freed from that bondage of covenant relationship because your husband God died on the cross in the flesh. Then God says directly to these people that were bound to that covenant that they could be married in covenant with another man named the risen from the dead the Lord Jesus Christ. You see this verse does not make any sense for a Gentile that was never in covenant marriage with God. It can only apply to the natural nation of Israel. Any way we look at it, the natural nation of Israel must enter into the marriage covenant with Jesus Christ or they will not enter into everlasting life. Jesus declared quite literally that He was the only way to the Father and that no one could enter in by any other way and that means covenant also.

There are multiple implied verses given to us in the Bible that the woman natural Israel is now married to another spiritual being and this could be the reason why Satan wants to wipe Israel off of the face of the planet. If you didn’t already know that you must have been living in a vacuum or a bubble. Satan is trying diligently to wipe Israel off the map and probably will attempt something dramatic very soon. As soon as countries like Iran develop nuclear weapons, Israel is in deep trouble. These weapons are not for defense, they are for the sole purpose of eliminating Israel. Many Christians view natural Israel and call them God’s chosen people and assume that is why Satan wants to kill them. I would suggest that Satan may want to kill them for a different reason. Perhaps in my next bible lesson we will get into more verses concerning this unfaithful woman that was in covenant with God but, appears to be married to another now.

If you would like to continue reading this series on Bible covenants, you can go to “Part 3“.

Posted in Bible Study, Covenants, Understanding

Tags: Bible, Christianity, Church, Covenants, divorce, God, Jesus, marriage, Religion, sex, Truth, understanding, woman

Understanding Bible Covenants! Part 1 Covenants and Marriage!

Dec 18

Posted by agapegeek

(Ver 2.3) This is Part 1 in the Bible study series about “Understanding Bible Covenants”. We will be learning many of the basics concepts about this subject as well as exploring many new topics that may have never been heard. This lesson series is an essential part of us knowing who God is and how He operates. Our first priority should be to learn that God is a Covenant Maker. We should also learn that God is a faithful Covenant Keeper. We should learn that God’s type of covenants are established with two key characteristics the first being the shedding of blood and and the second being spoken words. These are two essential elements found in God’s divine design of covenants. Today’s lesson is focused on another important concept from God’s design of covenants that teaches us a Covenant represents a marriage and a true God kind of marriage is represented by a God Covenant. Finally, we will also learn that there can be more than one blood covenant implemented by God in the Bible. For example, the Old Covenant was implemented approximately 430 years after Abraham with the natural nation of Israel being led out of the nation of Egypt. The New Covenant was implemented approximately 4030 years after Adam when Jesus Christ was raised from the dead to lead us out of the kingdom of Satan. Both, covenants were implemented with the shedding of blood and spoken God words. Let us begin our Bible study on the subject of God Covenants beginning with a few of the basic facts.

FACT #1 – THERE IS BLOOD IN GOD/BIBLE COVENANTS

We will not be able to go over every detail of this subject of blood covenants. There are a are just too many verses containing the words blood and covenant in the Bible that could be studied for days. In fact there are at least 375 verses in the Bible that directly contain the word “blood”. We will however limit ourselves to a much smaller selection for this introduction. But, I do wish to mention a verse where “blood” and “covenant” occurs first. This is Exodus 24:8 where Moses takes the blood of sacrificed oxen offered to the LORD and sprinkles it over all the people, telling them this is the blood of the covenant. It is important to note that before this occurred Moses read the book of the covenant (Word of God)to the people and all of the people confirmed the covenant by saying “we will do as the LORD as said”. Wow, this is a significant pattern for what a covenant represents. There were words spoken that could be called “promises” or “vows” and then there was blood sprinkled. Remember this pattern as we continue, But let’s now read two verses found in the Book of Matthew:

Mat 26:27 And he took the cup, and gave thanks, and gave it to them, saying, Drink ye all of it;
Mat 26:28 For this is my blood of the new testament, which is shed for many for the remission of sins.

We will continue this section of the lesson with a basic Bible truth. While Jesus was reclining at the table with His 12 disciples, they were all observing the Jewish feast of Passover. Then Jesus picks up “the cup” and asks them to drink. He claimed that this cup represented His blood of the New Covenant which would be shed for the sins of many. Wow, this teaches us a lot. First understand that Passover had been celebrated for literally hundreds and hundreds of years before Jesus was born on the earth. But it was at this time that Jesus makes the claim that this old ceremony was being implemented (or fulfilled) by Him shedding His blood on the cross. What we learn from this, is the pattern of blood shed in the Old Covenant was being repeated and promoted in the New Covenant.

Hopefully, we all recall what happened in Exodus that was being celebrated at Passover. If not, it is probably a good time to go and read Exodus chapter 12 to take note about what God instructed them do. We should have found that the people of Israel were directed by God to take a spotless lamb into their home, kill it and eat it completely in haste, being fully clothed with shoes on and a staff in their hands ready to go. They also were told to apply the blood of the lamb to the doorposts of their houses. Remember that they were required to eat the body of the entire lamb one per family. That night a death angel would pass by every house and everyone that had the blood applied to the door, the firstborn child lived. But every house that did not have the blood applied, the firstborn child died. This shedding of the innocent blood of a spotless lamb represented Jesus hanging on a cross and shedding His blood for us all so we would not die spiritually. However, we learn from reading Jeremiah 31:32 that this was God’s marriage proposal for those that believed and obeyed God’s word and shed the blood of the lamb. Whey they performed these instructions, they entered into a covenant with God and were led by the hand of GOD out of Egypt. We will talk more about this in this later.

Jesus of course confirms that this was all given and enacted as a type and pattern to teach us and them about His coming work on the earth. When John the Baptist saw Jesus, he proclaimed “Behold the Lamb of God, that takes away the sin of the world” (Jn 1:29). John obviously knew something that almost everyone else that saw Jesus did not. Jesus knew this truth also and that is why He told His disciples “Eat my flesh and drink my blood or else you have no eternal life” (Jn 6:53). Can we see the parallels in these two covenants and the importance of blood in both cases? Natural Israel was saved a physical death in their homes because of the blood of lamb was placed upon thee doorways. Because of their freewill choice of obedience this produced a union with God to be saved our their bondage in Egypt to Pharaoh. The church is now spared eternal death and separation from God due to our union with Jesus Christ. An we are saved out from our bondage of sin, the world and Satan. Wow, this is so vital to understanding God kind of covenants. We will talk more about the contributing factor of blood in Bible covenants later.

FACT #2 – THERE IS MORE THAN ONE GOD/BIBLE COVENANT

Most people who have read and studied the Bible, know that the Bible is divided into 2 major divisions called Covenants or Testaments. The first part was called the Old Testament and the final part of the book is called the New Testament. The Word Testament is really just a synonymous term for the word “covenant”. However, in the modern world we may use “testament” a little differently. For example, a “last will and testament” is what many people write to control what happens to their assets after they die. This is an amazing parallel realization to Bible Covenants to some extent. We might get into this part of the subject later, if anyone is interested.

It is essential to know that these two covenants (Old and New) are completely different and separate from each other. In fact each of these covenants involve 2 completely different pairs of name individuals. The two named individuals of the Old Covenant are not the same two named individuals of the New Covenant. I know that statement will cause many to think. What we are doing is being very specific and detailed oriented when we attempt to see the Bible this way. A lot of people may not think this way when they read the Bible. But there are some new facts presented to us in the Bible that need to be understood. Fact #1: the Old Covenant was between God Jehovah and the natural nation of Israel (Jer 31:32). Fact #2: the New Covenant has been established between the risen from the dead Son of God Jesus and His bride the church (Rom 7:4). The old covenant was made with God the Father (Jehovah) and the new covenant was made with the risen from the dead, God the Son (Yeshua). I know it sounds like we are nit picking because there is only one God that is made up of three revealed personalities. But this is a very important designated difference to understand. God implemented His covenants in this way for specific reasons to gain an advantage over His adversary the devil.

There are major differences between these two revealed covenants. You may have heard that many Christians think that the New Covenant with the spiritual church was grafted into the Old Covenant and natural Israel. Therefore some believe that God has produced a combined and integrated single nation using old natural nation (1 Chr 17:21) added with a new spiritual nation (1 Pet 2:9). But this is not true and does not conform to balancing all of the scriptures. Remember the contrasting truth, that natural Israel was looking for a Messiah to physically manifest His Kingdom upon the earth at the first appearance. But, Jesus told Pilate in John 18:36 “My Kingdom is not of this world…”. Jesus was claiming that His Kingdom is a spiritual one that is not yet able to be observed with natural eyes. Jesus said this in Luke 17:20-21 “The kingdom of God is not coming with signs that can be observed”. He continued by saying “People will not say her is the kingdom or there is the kingdom, because the kingdom of God is within you”. Wow!

Let’s understand basic logic and apply it to God’s Word. We never say that something is new without first understanding that it is different and NOT the same as what was called the old. If I said that I bought a new car, we should automatically and logically know and understand that the new car is not the same old car that I use to drive and own. I might still have an old car, but the new car that I have now is newer to me and probably much different than the car that I previously had. When God said I will make a New Covenant in His Word, we must automatically conclude, know and understand that it is not the same as the old covenant.

Heb 8:13 In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away.

Even in the New Testament God reveals there are differences between an old and a new covenant. God is very direct in this verse to reveal that the Old Covenant will even vanish away. How can something that is on the verge of vanishing be something that can be joined to something new that cannot end (the New Covenant)? These are basic rules based upon basic logic and grammatical syntax for the usage of the descriptive qualification of nouns. What is a covenant? A covenant is a noun! What is the word “new” in front of this noun? It is an adjective that describes, modifies or more specifically qualifies the noun “covenant”. One never needs to place the adjective “new” qualifier before the noun covenant if there are no other covenants to distinguish it from. But yet we have people teaching a wide variety of things that go against these truths.

God reveals to us in the Bible that the body of Christ (the new covenant saved people) are made up of a widely diverse conglomeration of individual and separate members from every named religion that can be found on this planet. This is like a “Universal Salvation” type of belief that teaches there are many religious pathways that all lead to the same end God. But that is a lie from Satan. Jesus told us very clearly in John 14:6 “No man comes to the Father except through me”. There is only one way to be saved and this is by entering into covenant with Jesus. Therefore we have just learned that God has not included the old covenant of Judaism, Buddhism, Hinduism and others to be combined with the New Covenant for everyone to be destined for heaven.

The New Covenant is not the Old Covenant. In fact Hebrew 8:6 teaches that the church is now in a far better covenant than the old containing far better promises. This is another example of an adjective qualifier that distinguishes our new covenant with Jesus Christ to different than the one God Jehovah made with the natural nation of Israel. Like we said earlier if I have a new car that makes it different than the old car. Likewise if I have a better car, that also makes it different than the one that I had before also.

However, we can still say that our New Covenant of Christianity remains founded within and upon the established morals and principles established within the natural Israel Old Covenant laws and commandments. Jesus taught us in Matthew 24:35 that “Heaven and earth would pass away but His words would never pass away”. Jesus taught us that He gave the church a new commandment. Jesus was able to say this because He also said in Matthew 5:17 “Think not that came to destroy the law or the prophets, I have not come to destroy, but to fulfill it.” Then Jesus gave the church a new commandment law. He said in John 13:34 “I give you a new commandment”. This commandment was the new covenant law of love and Jesus taught us in Matthew 22:40 that the entire law of Moses hangs on the commands of love. This new covenant commandment came from the pattern of O.T. law.

We can read about types, shadow and patterns found in the Old Covenant that will help us to understand what Jesus has accomplished and given to us in the New Covenant. But while being similar patterns, God has implemented a New and better Covenant that is so unique and fresh that it is completely different while being practically the same simultaneously. Again it is like having a new car. Every old car may have the same features of four tires, a hood, a trunk, car doors, windows, an engine, a steering wheel, a brake, etc. But a new car usually has new benefits and features that make it better. That is the way with Jesus’s New Covenant. One great example of this is in the Old Covenant the Spirit of God only came upon the Prophets, Priests and Kings. But, in the New Covenant the Spirit of God indwells everyone in the the covenant.

Always remember this establish truth, the Old Covenant was a covenant with a natural people in the physical world and the New Covenant is Jesus with a spiritual people in the spiritual realm. If we do not know the difference between those two, that can be our homework to ask God to reveal this to us all.

Now read this verse in Jeremiah with a different and new perspective:

Jer 31:31 Behold, the days come, saith the LORD, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah:

We should obviously see that God is making a new covenant with someone. It says in this verse that this is with the “house of Israel and the house of Judah”. Everyone that reads this verse almost always automatically assumes that God is talking about the natural nation of Israel here. However, this of course is a problem based upon what we have just learned. If God makes another New Covenant with the same exact people what happened to the Old? That sounds like the Old and New are in effect at them same time. How can this be? This sounds like a major conflict. Does God take his old car named Israel and restore it to new and better condition? Or does God create a brand new and better car and also named it Israel? I believe the answer is the second choice. Maybe this concept new to you. If I owned a car and called it Bertha, could I not buy a brand new car that was better and call it by the same name? What if Bertha was my last name and I gave that to my car as a token of my affection for her?

We have a widespread problem within the body of Christ of people taking only one narrow viewpoint of a truth and attempting to make it the entire truth. I really don’t know if we all understand this fully, or not? For example, there are natural things and then there are spiritual things. There are also multiple different things, items, places and people that are called by the exact same name in the Bible. Sometimes one of them is a natural people, item or location that reflects an image or a pattern of a greater identically named spiritual reality. God uses a wide variety of methods of concealing information and truths in the Bible. He does this in order for us to correctly search to find what we are reading, we must understand that we are required to seek Him diligently with our spirit, mind and body for Him to teach us what the Bible means. This is called walking by faith and by the Spirit and not by sight. Too many Christians are trying to understand the Bible by their natural sight alone and ignoring their faith to receive His truth in their spirit. This was just a small introduction to the subject of Old and New Covenants and the reality that they are not the same covenants.

FACT #3 – A GOD/BIBLE COVENANT IS A MARRIAGE

Let’s get into today’s main subject of “what is a GOD/BIBLE covenant?” If we look in the dictionary we can learn several definitions for the word covenant. The basic definition of the word covenant is a formal sealed agreement or legal contract. In many commercial loans from banks, the legal document produced between the bank and the commercial customer making the loan, often times contains a list of covenants. These are usually legal stipulations, restrictions and requirements concerning the terms and usages of the money that is loaned. However, this type of covenant does not fully represent a Bible covenant. Then if you’ve ever bought a piece of property in an established organized neighborhood or development, most of the time the property comes with a set of covenants. These are usually restrictions and rules of property usage. These often time will tell you what kind of fences you can build, what kind of buildings you can add, even what colors you can paint your house. This also does not represent a real Bible covenant.

The Hebrew word translated as covenant occurs approximately 284 times in the Old Testament. This Hebrew word is H1295 and according to the Strong’s Concordance it has the following definition:

From H1262 (in the sense of cutting (like H1254)); a compact (because made by passing between pieces of flesh): – confederacy, [con-]feder[-ate], covenant, league.

We can see that this word means a legal contract by the word “compact”. A compact represents an agreement, treaty or contract usually between two different nations. This would be like the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) where several different nations joined together to defend each other against an attack from Russia or anyone else. Notice how this Hebrew word H1295 also has a basic foundation on “division” as in the cutting of flesh which normally produces “blood”. We can see in the Strong’s definition that the word implies the presence of a knife that must be used to cut flesh and produce this blood. This definition would also imply that there is the necessity for the flow of blood if someone was cutting flesh. This is a representative type of a true divinely created covenant. We often times call God’s Covenants “blood covenants” because of this presence of a cutting of flesh that must take place.

We can find this concept example of a blood covenant given to us as a pattern in the Old Testament. For example, the Abrahamic covenant in Genesis 15 involved the killing and splitting down the back bone of 3 different three-year old animals, a male ram, a female heifer and a female goat. All of this is typology and means something far greater than many know. As we can imagine this Abrahamic Covenant would have been an extremely bloody mess after this cutting took place. Abraham cut the animals into two pieces and they were then laid on the ground into separated pieces. Then the covenant was made by the two individuals making the covenant walking between all of the bloody pieces. The participants that walked through the bloody pieces were saying, “this be done unto me if I break this covenant”.

So a foundational principal of blood covenants involves cutting flesh. This is the concept of dividing one complete piece of meat into two. This is very significant whether we realize it or not right now. There is a principle being established within a Biblical covenant. It involves the creation of a covenant relationship between two separate and distinct individuals or nations. But it also involves a separation of those who are entering into the covenant from all those who are not in that covenant. Did we understand that statement? It is very important that we do. Go back to our NATO example of a covenant between a number of nations. The existence of this agreement excludes over 200 other nations in the world. They are not in the agreement and any NATO nation is not obligated to defend or help them unless they have a separate agreement.

So why is this so significant? In the Old Covenant, God made a covenant with the natural nation of Israel and they became God’s people (Exo 3:10). Also according to 2 Chronicles 7:14 this nation of people were given God’s name Israel. These are characteristics of a Bible/God types of covenant. Remember that these qualities are important to know. The establishment of this Old Covenant made the natural nation of Israel, God’s people on the earth. Therefore, everyone else on the earth were not in this covenant and they were excluded from being called God’s covenant people with the name Israel. In other words God was obligated to help and defend His people from the attack of these other people that were not in this covenant agreement and long as they obeyed the contract (written word of God). In this covenant relationship we can clearly observe the establishment of a natural division, or a partition of distinct difference between the covenant people of God that were supposed to know God’s Word and the non-covenant people that did not know God’s Word. What a powerful concept that God has implemented using His superior divine wisdom.

The closest thing that we have to a real Bible blood covenant in this world is a marriage between a man and a woman. Most of these wedding ceremonies patterned after Bible covenants include the speaking of word covenant promises and vows. The exchanging of rings. The taking of the husband’s name. All of this is followed by the participation of blood that we will talk more about in the next lesson on sex. There are other factors involved in marriages that we will get into deeper as we continue to learn this definition of “covenant” to be a marriage. But, let’s briefly talk about what in modern marriages do not fit with God’s definition of covenants.

Many modern marriages today have shifted away from the traditional Bible covenant to become perversions of truth. For example, modern marriages can come with pre-nuptial and other legal pre-marital restrictions that disqualify them from being an example of a true Bible covenant. In an example of a Bible covenant, the one party making the covenant with the other says, “what I have is yours and what you have is mine”. “If you have need of anything that I have it is yours unconditionally and vice versa”. There are no exclusions, exemptions, or exceptions and it is an all or nothing proposition. The reason why people believe they need pre-marital legal agreements is because of the next reason that we are going to learn about.

A true Bible covenant is the 100% solemn commitment from both participants in the covenant forever to be faithful to each other. Each participant in the covenant can fully count on the resources of the other participant if they have need of them. This was how Bible covenants worked by God’s design and this is how human marriages should work today. It is also interesting to understand that if either party broke the covenant the penalty was death. The pieces on the ground that were a bloody division indicates a warning of what would happen if one participant violated or attempted to annul the covenant. Wow!

We can also see by studying this subject that there are different strengths of covenants in the Bible. One of the greatest and strongest covenant types was the “blood covenant”. The blood covenant is the strongest covenant that can be made between any two individuals, nations or parties. A covenant without the cutting of blood is not as strong as a blood covenant but it is still was absolutely binding. For example, David made a covenant with Jonathan in the Old Testament (1 Sam 8:3). Even though Jonathan’s father Saul tried to kill David, David never retaliated against that family because of the covenant that was in effect. Even after Saul and Jonathan were killed, David tried to establish the blessings of the covenant with the descendants of Jonathan. You can read these accounts of David in 2 Samuel and it has a story of how David wanted to honor the covenant that he made with Jonathan. David sends out his people to find a crippled boy named Mephibosheth to confirm and establish his covenant with Jonathan. Mephibosheth was in hiding because he thought that David the king was going to kill him, but David just wanted to bless him. These are types and patterns of Jesus and the world. Jesus came and died to save the world and they are all afraid of Him because they think that He just wants to kill them also. So we have a stand-off, the world is in hiding and those who are sent out to tell them that, Jesus loves them and wants to bless them because of the covenant. Mephibosheth was eventually brought to the king’s palace and given the best of the best. That was done only because of the covenant that David made with Jonathan, Mephibosheth enjoyed everything that David enjoyed. This is an example of a Bible covenant that identifies with Jesus and the church.

I guess this should establish the fact that true Bible covenants have blessings attached to them. If the one party of the covenant has any need of something that the other party in the covenant has, it is available for them to freely use and partake of. This is one of the key ingredients to a Bible covenant. I think in most people’s minds today, a marriage means you also take the bad or the curses along with the good and the blessings. But with covenants with God, He is always good and only provides us with blessings. God does not intend to do any harm or anything bad or evil for or to any of us. He wants to bless us with only the good. This is what a true Bible covenant is all about.

Bible, covenants are always between two parties exactly like a marriage is only between a husband and a wife. It is important to note that covenants can be between a diverse type of individuals. You will understand this better as we go on in the series. God many times considers a group of people such as the natural nation of Israel or the church to be identified corporately as a single entity, personality and named individual. Everyone in the nation is treated the same and given the same benefits and blessings.

Covenants can be between any of the following four groups or classifications of individuals:

1. spiritual being to another spiritual being or a spiritual group of beings

God & Lucifer
Jehovah God & Angels
Jesus & the Church

2. spiritual being to a physical being or a physical group of people

God and Abraham
Satan and Adam
God and Israel
Satan and Israel

3. physical being to another physical being

Natural human husband (male) and natural human wife (female)
Adam and Eve
Abraham and Sarah
Abraham and Hagar
David and Jonathan

4. physical group/nation to another physical group/nation

Natural nation of Israel and the Gibeonites

I tried to give you some examples of a few of the possibilities of each covenant relationship type. I know some have probably never heard of all of these covenants that were mentioned. But yet that doesn’t mean they don’t exist, it just means we never researched them and studied them to see if they exist. I would strongly suggest that we do the search and see if we can find them mentioned directly or indirectly. I have done the research and I am convinced that every example that I gave you is a valid covenant relationship that can be found in the Bible.

There is of course one noteworthy difference in some of these covenants. Covenants with God are a blessing of life and covenants with Satan are a curse of death. God wants to bless us and Satan wants to kill, steal and destroy us and everything we have (Jn 10:10). There are major consequences, distinctions and differences between the party we are in covenant with. I don’t know you personally and only you and God know where you are right now and who you are in covenant with. But I can guarantee you that you are in covenant with someone right here and right now, either Satan or God. These are the only two Kingdom possibilities to choose from. By default we were all born into the kingdom of darkness ruled by Satan and by our freewill choice we can submit to the Kingdom of Light and follow a new way of life.

Some have tried to differentiate between covenants that involve God and covenants that don’t involve God. But the principles and practices of Bible covenants apply across the board to whoever is in covenant with another. So there really is no difference in the basic concepts of Bible covenants, they apply equally across the board to all participants and all types of covenants mentioned in the Bible. What we will do now, is to go through some scriptural backing for what we have learned about covenant types. Hopefully this will help us better understand them more completely.

NATURAL HUSBAND AND WIFE MARRIAGE COVENANTS

Let’s start with a physical or natural husband and wife type of covenant. We call these types of covenants, marriages in modern times. But we must understand in the eyes of God a marriage is a covenant relationship and a covenant relationship is a marriage. But can we prove this using the Bible? I believe we must. Let’s look at a verse found in the book of Malachi to begin this part of the study. This verse is a scripture that is certainly very relevant to our subject:

Mal 2:14 Yet ye say, Wherefore? Because the LORD hath been witness between thee and the wife of thy youth, against whom thou hast dealt treacherously: yet is she thy companion, and the wife of thy covenant.

We can clearly see a relationship being described between a husband and his wife. God chastises the man for being unfaithful to his wife. But God ends the verse with a statement that declares this man’s wife and him are in a direct covenant relationship. The Hebrew word found in this verse about a human husband and wife marriage is H1285. It is the exact Hebrew word used by God to describe His covenant relationships in the O.T.

A husband and wife are one natural example of a Godly Bible blood covenant, or at least they should be. It is sad how perverted Satan as made marriages become in our modern society. So who were the first husband and wife? Of course they were Adam and Eve found in Genesis 1 through 4. God created this natural covenant relationship, as the physical pattern for humans to understand the definition of true covenant relationship is always between one man and one woman. This pattern also will be used by God so that humans can see into the unseen spiritual covenant realm. Let us go back to Genesis 2 briefly and discover what God says about the law of marriage.

Gen 2:23 And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.

We can learn from this verse in Genesis that the woman was taken from a man and that her body was his body. This is a natural pattern for a spiritual reality of Jesus and the church. The church is called the body of Christ and most accept that reality without asking how the church got to be His body. But if you want to learn more about this I would recommend that you read the Bible lesson on the subject. How the church became the body of Christ. Let’s read verse 24:

Gen 2:24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.

In this verse in Genesis 2 a spiritual law is established by God that governs every true marriage/covenant relationship, both in the physical realm and the spiritual realm. God establishes a precedence that two will “become one”. Either “one flesh” or “one spirit”, depending on the two parties in covenant. If they are both physical, then they are one flesh. If they are both spiritual then they are one spirit. If one is a spirit being and one is a natural people, then they are the least common denominator, or one flesh but that is my opinion and I haven’t found that in the Bible yet. I do know that the people in the church are called the body of Christ (1 Cor 12:27). We are also said to be one spirit with Christ (1 Cor 6:17). We can learn from these two stated dimensions that Christ has been joined with the people in the church both physically and spiritually.

So a marriage covenant represents a union as well as a division. The taking of two separate individuals and making one out of them, creating the exclusion of all the rest. That is the basis of all Bible covenants. Now what one has the other has. What one has need of the and the other has, it is automatically made available without conditions or cost. This is the foundation of a Bible covenant. We should all ask “How well does this description fit our marriage?” So let’s shift our focus to a spirit being in covenant to a natural physical people example and determine if it fits the pattern that has been described so far.

SPIRIT MARRIAGE COVENANT WITH NATURAL PEOPLE

Jer 31:32 Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith the LORD:

Wow, this verse really blew me away! The creator God of the entire universe was married to an entire nation of natural people. The verse speaks directly about a time when God led the natural people of Israel out of the country of Egypt and He says He took them by the hand. That is what a natural man should do to a woman when he proposes marriage. We can clearly see that God intended it that way, but did Israel? Obviously not. Israel didn’t understand what they were getting into, even though it was the best offer they ever had, at least until Jesus came along. God called Himself their husband to the nation of Israel. God directly links marriage to be a covenant and His covenant with Israel to be a marriage to Him. God establishes this with the association of selected words; from H1285 translated as covenant and H1166 translated as husband. An omnipotent God married to a physical natural nation of people, both males and females. That would make the entire nation of Israel the female wife (bride) to the LORD GOD.

I truly hope you are grasping the concepts of this lesson because they are so very important. Could it really be possible that a spirit being could be in covenant marriage to a natural nation of people. Obviously it was true. However, this was the Old Covenant, which was only a natural pattern for the coming New Covenant.

Now I will briefly show you the New Covenant so we can see if it also fits the pattern that was described as being a husband to a wife. There are many scriptures that we could go into, but one of the best is found in Ephesians 5:

Eph 5:30 For we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones.

The context of this verse in Ephesians 5 starts around verse 22 and they are specifically directed to natural husband and wife relationships. But, intermixed into this context of natural marriage verses is also the spiritual covenant relationship between Christ and the church. So we can clearly see that God believes that the church is the bride of Jesus Christ our husband and that His relationship wit the church is a covenant marriage. Here in verse 30 we can read that we are members of His body. Then it declares the words of the law of marriage that we read earlier in Genesis 2 that, we are bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. These are marriage terms and direct conformation to how the church became the body of Christ. Then in verse 31:

Eph 5:31 For this cause shall a man (Jesus) leave his father (God the Father) and mother (Israel), and shall be joined (married in covenant) unto his wife (the church), and they two shall be one flesh.

We again see the law of marriage being restated and applied for us in the church. I filled in the blanks and put in parentheses who God is talking about in this statement to help us see it. I have had people question me about Jesus leaving His father and mother and being joined to His wife, but I just simply believe and go by what the verse says. . For we then see the confirmation to this truth in verse 32:

Eph 5:32 This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church.

God declares this covenant marriage relationship was a great mystery. A mystery means it was a secret that has hidden until time to be revealed. Obviously this mystery has been greatly misunderstood even today. There are many who refuse to believe the church is the bride/wife in covenant with Jesus, yet God tells us directly in verse 32 that He is speaking of Christ and the church as being a husband and a wife. I’ve noticed that you can’t make people see the truth, you can only tell it like it is and pray that they see it eventually.

We were given three really great examples that describe covenants to be marriages and marriages to be covenants. These included 1) physical to physical marriages, 2) spiritual to a physical nation marriage and 3) spiritual to spiritual marriages. These are all examples of Bible covenants that fit the truth of the pattern given to us in the Word of God.

CONCLUSION

It is important to note who originates Bible covenants. True Bible covenants are always initiated by the man and God the Father is always the male in every covenant relationship. However we have been introduced to the concept that there was an exception when we see the new covenant that was initiated between the risen from the dead male Son of God and His female bride the church. Both are still the same God only in different manifested instances. Just always remember that Jesus represents the male son within the Triune Godhead. The Triune Godhead is actually made up of three male personalities and all of them are One God.

In a normal human marriages the male asks the female to be his wife. The female then has the choice to become one with this man or to walk away. This is a picture and a direct pattern of the New Covenant relationship with the bridegroom Jesus Christ. He has invited everyone on the planet to come be His wife in this New Covenant, He has proposed marriage and everyone on the earth has a choice to make, either to believe and accept or reject. A non-decisions is of course the same as a rejection and a grave mistake with eternal consequences.

I hope and pray that you are all grasping these concepts, because they are truly great spiritual truths. God created and implemented natural things, systems, types and patterns to help us to see and understand spiritual unseen things. I think I will end this lesson today on that note for now and hopefully, God willing I can continue the lesson of how a Bible Covenant operates in my next lesson in this series. Thank you for reading and studying the Bible with me and I pray that you will continue to grow in all of the knowledge of Christ Jesus.

If you would like to continue reading this series, please go to “Part 2“.

Posted in Bible Study, Covenants, Understanding

Tags: Bible, Christianity, Church, God, Jesus, marriage, Religion, Revelation, Truth, understanding, woman

The True Identity of the Woman in Revelation 12! Pt 7 The Book of Ruth

Dec 11

Posted by agapegeek

Ruth1 (Ver 1.3) This is now Part 7 in the series of advanced Bible study on the subject of the True Identity of the Woman in Revelation 12. I hope and pray that you have been following it from the beginning. If not please go to the beginning and start with Part 1, before you try to read this part of the series. The message should make much more sense, if you take them in the order provided. In the last lesson we scripturally pursued evidence for if the Bible says anywhere that Jesus could be a spiritual father and have a spiritual family with spiritual children. You see if it says in the Bible anywhere that Jesus doesn’t have children or simply does not say that He can, then we would have no real foundational basis for the woman in Revelation 12 being the church covenant wife. I believe we found a few good scriptures that Jesus can and does have a spiritual family and that this spiritual family can or is implied to have spiritual children. One of these scriptures was a popular Christmas card verse about Jesus, with Him being called the “Everlasting Father” in Isaiah 9:6. This verse brought up a new good question. Why would God need to qualify the noun “father” with the type of father adjective “everlasting”? Here we have a noun (father) being limited in scope, modified or qualified using an adjective called “everlasting”. Didn’t most of us always think that God the Father, was the Everlasting Father? Everlasting means eternal or the one that lasts forever. The only logical implication from that qualification is that God the Father is not the Eternal Father, Jesus is. Is this true, or are we missing something?

This is what we will be addressing in today’s Bible lesson. Please remember that no one knows everything, except God. It is best, that we just read and study, the Bible the best that we know how. Then trust the Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth as He said He would do in John 16:13. Please stay open to the Spirit of God, and if He wants to teach us something about the Bible, we do our best to listen. Therefore, try to stay open and pay close attention to every word that is written.

In the last lesson we were also focused on the existence of patterns found in the Bible. As you should recall a pattern is nothing but a model from which repeated occurrence can originate. This is truly a very significant topic used by God in the entire Bible. God writes about real historical facts that did occur in human history but then He uses them to teach us about Jesus. Remember what Jesus said to us in John 5:39, “Search the scriptures for in them you believe you have eternal life, but these are they that testify of me”. Jesus just taught us everything in the Bible is focused upon Him directly or indirectly. Jesus just claimed the Words on every page had something that would be a witness about His Life. Wow, that is an awesome concept.

INTRODUCTION

I want to take a turn and explore this subject of a woman in Revelation from a completely different and fresh angle of perspective. So many times, God when He answers prayer, He does so in a way that we were not expecting. God gives us the answer to the prayer, but usually in a new way that was different than what we would have done, or the way that we would have like it to be done. This is a lot of the time, the trouble with our Bible study techniques. Instead of studying a subject from God’s perspective we want the Bible to fit our idea of the way we think it should be. But we soon discover that God if He wanted us to know everything clearly could have written the Bible that way. However, since God wrote the Bible in a concealed manner with a hidden O.T. Jesus we must learn to work with what He has given to us. In doing this we soon learn that we need to change how we think. God is not like us, His ways are not our ways, His thoughts are not our thoughts (Isa 55:8). But that does not mean that we cannot change to learn His ways and think His thoughts. It just takes a transforming and renewing of our mind to know and understand the spiritual things of God (Romans 12:2).

I will start this lesson by saying that the child in Revelation 12 is God as we learned in Part 5 of the series. Every male child in the spiritual family of God is always God. Every female in the spiritual family of God is always the people in covenant with God. So, if a spiritual woman has a spiritual male child it can only be God. I just gave you some very basic concepts of spiritual things that are very important. If you do not understand these, that does not mean they are not true, it only means you may need to learn something that you do not yet know. If you keep reading the lessons, we will eventually all get to a united knowledge of the truth, but it will take time and commitment for us all.

PATTERNS OF JESUS FROM THE BOOK OF RUTH

In this lesson we need to explore the Book of Ruth. There is a Bible series on this subject that has more detail, but we will go through an overview to see how it applies to the woman in Revelation 12. The book of Ruth in the Old Testament has some absolutely fascinating information given to us in it. If you have never read this book perhaps you should do that now, before you continue with my blog. It is a short book, only 4 chapters so it will not take long to read through it and to gain a quick overview of it. To those who have read it and think they know what it is about, let me briefly recap. The primary subject of the book is a woman named Ruth. This woman is a gentile woman, not in covenant with God, not born into or of the nation of Israel. Ruth was a gentile woman not in covenant relationship with God or the Law. This is very important to understand.

The book of Ruth starts with the story of one family that came from Bethlehem. Already we can see some parallels being developed. Where was physical Jesus born? Jesus was of course born in Bethlehem. The story of Ruth starts with this family from Bethlehem leaving their home because of a famine. Famine is a state of or the absence of natural food to eat. Natural food parallels spiritual food and gives us insight into a greater spiritual problem, but I won’t go there right now. Any way this family consisted of the following family members:

Elimelech, the father
Naomi, the mother
Mahlon, a son
Chilon, a son

This family of four members, rises up and moves to a place called Moab to live because of a severe famine in Israel. There in that land the father Elimelech dies, and the two sons marry gentile women, but they also die. Now we have a family that consists of nothing but three women who were left as widows. These three women were one Jewish mother-in-law with two daughters-in-law. One of the daughters-in-laws leaves and goes back to her gentile family, but the other daughter-in-law made a much wiser choice. This woman was named Ruth, and she said to her Jewish mother-in-law, where you go, I will go, where you live, I will live, and your people shall be my people and your God will be my God. Ruth made a great choice and God honored her decision tremendously, by allowing her to become a great-great-grandmother of King David. Please notice that there are only 4 women directly mentioned by name in the genealogy of Jesus in Matthew 1 and Ruth is one of them. God bestowed a great honor upon this gentile woman named Ruth for her faith in trusting in Him and His Word.

We can see a great story unfolding of a gentile woman not in covenant with God, speaking covenant words to be joined into the family of God. These words spoken are a pattern of another future spiritual woman that was to come. In fact, all of these characters in this story I believe represent an allegory of a much higher spiritual reality. God is giving us a look into the spiritual realm by analyzing this story. This story is primarily about a gentile woman named Ruth and this woman is a model, type or pattern of the church.

Her mother-in-law Naomi is a type or pattern of the Nation of Israel. Her Father-in-law is a type or pattern of God. Earlier I told you that males in a covenant family normally always represent God, and the females represent women in covenant with God. In this story of Ruth, we see that the father as well as the sons all die. When Jesus died on the cross who really knew what this meant? Obviously, Satan didn’t know (1 Cor 2:8). I believe that when Ruth’s first husband died that this was a type of physical Jesus’ death on the cross. Now as we read in Romans 7 her husband’s death allows us to legally be remarried without being called an adulteress. But we have been introduced to this topic previously.

Now let me go into what the Book of Ruth is primarily about. You see everything that God said up until this point is just the introduction to the main subject found in the book of Ruth. The primary story line concerns God’s law of the “kinsman redeemer”. If you read chapter one of Ruth, you saw Naomi make a statement to Ruth that she was too old to have children for Ruth to wait around and marry. You see in Jewish families if a son married a wife and died without children it was the responsibility of the nearest relative, a brother to marry the widow to raise up heirs for his dead brother. This is the foundational basis of the story of Ruth.

What hope does Ruth have by hanging around her mother-in-law? Where does Ruth place her trust in for her destiny and future? Ruth is placing all of her trust in the law of God. God’s Word declared that a near relative was responsible to come into the picture and marry the widow to have children. Notice what God just said? The reason for the marriage was to have children for their dead relative. This is so significant that we cannot even begin to imagine what it all means. Ruth the widowed wife is a type of the church. Boaz is the kinsman redeemer, and he is a type or pattern of Jesus Christ, our near kinsman redeemer. This of course is the risen firstborn from the dead Son of God. It is very interesting typology to see how and where Ruth meets her Redeemer. If you read the story, you know she meets him in a harvest field. Jesus taught a lot about grains and harvests in the Gospels. Jesus even teaches us to pray the Lord of the Harvest to send out laborers into the harvest field. Wow, that is not a coincidence.

Boaz takes Ruth the gentile woman to be his wife with a covenant of marriage for the purpose of having children, and they become the great-great-grand-parents to King David. This is amazing stuff if you are understanding the implications. All of these pattern concepts are found in the law, in the book of Numbers and if you read through them closely you should begin to understand some of the spiritual implications to these words:

Num 27:6 And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,

Num 27:7 The daughters of Zelophehad speak right: thou shalt surely give them a possession of an inheritance among their father’s brethren; and thou shalt cause the inheritance of their father to pass unto them.

Num 27:8 And thou shalt speak unto the children of Israel, saying, If a man die, and have no son, then ye shall cause his inheritance to pass unto his daughter.

Num 27:9 And if he have no daughter, then ye shall give his inheritance unto his brethren.

Num 27:10 And if he have no brethren, then ye shall give his inheritance unto his father’s brethren.

Num 27:11 And if his father have no brethren, then ye shall give his inheritance unto his kinsman that is next to him of his family, and he shall possess it: and it shall be unto the children of Israel a statute of judgment, as the LORD commanded Moses.

You can see how God goes through a long discourse of how to distribute the inheritance of a family when the father dies. Who is our spiritual Father? Oh well I am sure I will have some say God the Father cannot die and I will not argue with you. You either see it or reject it, you choose. Any way in the law, if the father dies the inheritance begins to go to the children starting with the firstborn. Then if there are no children it is interesting to note that we start with the nearest relatives, uncles and then cousins. We can see a hierarchical order of inheritance being established. God is establishing a law of precedence in the natural realm to demonstrate how He will do something later in the spirit realm. I would like to ask those skeptics out there this question. Did you ever notice in the New Testament that we, in the church are called the joint heirs with Christ? What is an heir? An heir is someone who inherits after someone else died. Get it? Uh oh? Who died to leave us an inheritance? What was it, that we inherited? How did this inheritance follow the law in Numbers that we just read? There are just so many questions to think about, isn’t there?

So, the story of Ruth is a natural pattern to a much greater spiritual truth. We can see Ruth, who is the pattern of the church, marries the redeemer named Boaz a pattern of Messiah. She does this in order to raise up children for her dead husband and his father’s name should not vanish from the face of the earth. Let me briefly give you some scriptures in Ruth that may help you to understand this story better:

Rth 4:3 And he said unto the kinsman, Naomi, that is come again out of the country of Moab, selleth a parcel of land, which was our brother Elimelech’s:

Rth 4:4 And I thought to advertise thee, saying, Buy it before the inhabitants, and before the elders of my people. If thou wilt redeem it, redeem it: but if thou wilt not redeem it, then tell me, that I may know: for there is none to redeem it beside thee; and I am after thee. And he said, I will redeem it.

It was the responsibility of the nearest relative to buy back the land that belonged to and in their family name. In this verse, Boaz approaches a nearer relative first to ask him to buy the land of their brother Elimelech. But as you read down you find this nearer relative refuses, because it would mean that it would ruin his inheritance. You can see in verse 4 that Boaz tells this other relative that if he didn’t buy the land that he would do it, because there are no other relatives that can legally do it. But did you notice the term “redeem”. “Redemption” is a New Testament term and one of the key works of Jesus Christ.

Rth 4:5 Then said Boaz, What day thou buyest the field of the hand of Naomi, thou must buy it also of Ruth the Moabitess, the wife of the dead, to raise up the name of the dead upon his inheritance.

You can see in this verse of Ruth the problem that the other relative is faced with. In order to redeem the land of Naomi, he must marry the gentile woman widow named Ruth and have an heir for his dead relative. This is the law of God given to the nation of Israel and it is very significant to the story of Jesus and the church.

So how does all of this relate to other scriptures in the Bible? I’ll end this lesson with this related reference found in the New Testament:

Rom 7:1 Know ye not, brethren, (for I speak to them that know the law,) how that the law hath dominion over a man as long as he liveth?

Rom 7:2 For the woman which hath an husband is bound by the law to her husband so long as he liveth; but if the husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her husband.

Rom 7:3 So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another man.

Rom 7:4 Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.

Here we have a passage related to God’s law of marriage. These verses have widespread spiritual implications written all over them. Did you notice who they were written to? Paul writes these verses to those under the law. He actually says those that “know” the law (Rom 7:1). To “know” something is a statement related to a covenant relationship. I’ll try to do a lesson in the future explaining that statement in more depth. We can see that Paul is writing these verses to his natural brothers of the nation of Israel. So, while the book of Romans was written to the church, these verses pertain only to the natural Jews. It is very important to see this.

The law stated that a woman who was married could not be married to another man as long as the first husband was alive, or she would be called an adulteress. But the woman whose husband is dead is free to marry another (Rom 7:3). So what does God say to those who were under and in covenant with the law? God told them that they are now free to marry another, and this one that they should marry is the one that God raised from the dead, Jesus Christ. Are you following the reasoning and logic of these statements? Because Jesus Christ was crucified, these verses claim that their former husband was killed or died. That is what Romans 7:4 is telling them.

The crucifixion of Jesus has now freed them from the law to be in covenant with the risen from the dead man Jesus Christ, the Son of God. A marriage to the Son, and not the Father. We can clearly see that these verses do not apply to gentile believers because they were never under the law, or in covenant with God. The gentiles were never in or under the law and therefore were free to be married to whomever they choose. However, the natural nation of Israel was given the law on Mt Sinai through Moses and this law established many boundaries that they are forced to abide with as long as they refuse to accept their Messiah. Let me briefly go back to the book of Ruth and tell you about a statement that Ruth makes that reveals to us the principal of these statements in Romans 7:

Rth 1:17 Where thou diest, will I die, and there will I be buried: the LORD do so to me, and more also, if ought but death part thee and me.

Ruth makes a statement of truth that has widespread implications. You can see from the statement that death represents a dividing line. Death causes a separation of one connected person from another person. Only death can separate us, Ruth said. This is an incredible revelation if you apply it correctly and understand it fully. Ruth gives us a secret to how God will separate himself from Satan. Only by Husband’s death will the wife be freed from the law of her husband. Death represents a division between two connected in covenant individuals. Through death a legal and permanent separation occurs between two people who were in an eternal marriage covenant. It is important to know that God does all things in a legal, orderly and just manner.

There is so much more that we could discuss about these verses, but I wanted to show you another set of verses that speak about God experiencing death for us. The death of Jesus has so much more meaning than we have ever imagined. That means we have an inheritance that must be distributed according to the law. Ruth is a story that has so many great truths in it, that I did not get to them all in this lesson. Hopefully you will continue to study the book and see the other details that God reveals to us. For example, Boaz must go to a closer relative and ask him if he wants to marry the gentile woman. The closer relative refuses to marry Ruth because it will mess up his inheritance, so he thinks. Who is this closer relative representative in the spiritual realm? How does this pattern fit into the redemptive work of Christ? Then there is this fact found again in the genealogy of Jesus. I told you earlier this list only contains the names of 3 or 4 women, and they all have significance and meaning to Jesus. Boaz was a type of Jesus. Who is Boaz’s mother? Boaz is the son of Rahab the harlot. That is also very significant in the typology analysis. Who was Jesus born of? Jesus was born of the natural seed named Mary, that came from the tribe of Judah of Israel. The nation of Israel is also called a harlot in Old Testament books like Hosea. There are so many more things to consider. If you dig really deep you can find so many valuable truths.

CONCLUSION

So, I have attempted to give you scriptures that show why the woman in Revelation 12 is pregnant, and who this child is and why He must be delivered. The child in Revelation 12 has widely been taught to be Jesus Christ, but the typology and symbolism found in the Old Testament, and in the rest of the chapter 12 does not fit the natural birth of the Messiah. So, we have to look for spiritual truths and spiritual reasons to identify the male child and hopefully I have pointed you in the right direction. We have discovered is that the reason for every covenant marriage between a husband and wife is for the purpose to have an heir. This heir is the person that will continue the family’s named. God commanded this in Genesis 1 when He told them to be “fruitful and multiply”. This too was a divinely designed pattern of creation.

I know I did not cover everything in its entirety, and I know there is absolutely no way that I could do that even if I wanted to. Only God knows everything, and we only see things through a glass darkly and only truly understand what God wants us to understand, when He wants us to understand it. I believe that we have so much more to learn. Thank you for reading this series of lessons and studying the Bible with us. I appreciate your prayers and your diligent Bible study faithfulness. God Bless you.

If you would like to continue in this study series, please go to PART 8 now.

Posted in Bible Study, Chapter 12, Revelation

7 Comments

Tags: Bible, Christianity, Church, God, Interpretation, Jesus, Prophecy, Religion, Revelation, Ruth, Truth, woman

The True Identity of the Woman in Revelation 12! Pt 6

Dec 9

Posted by agapegeek

family_tree_God (Ver 2.8) This is now Part 6 in a series of very advanced study in the Bible, exploring the True Identity of the Woman in Revelation 12. In the last lesson, we learned a tremendous amount of new Bible facts and concepts to think about and study. I know there are good people yet to be convinced of the identity of the Woman described in Revelation 12. It is very difficult and challenging to teach a complex subject. Especially, one that can be totally new to everyone. When teaching a new subject, I feel led to give enough Bible reasons (scriptures) for everything that is taught to eliminate doubts. Every teacher should feel the same way. But, we only can do this in a limited time and space format on the internet. It is very similar to many church services. The attention span of some people seems to have limits. So we should try to balance not taking up too much of your Bible study time, with providing enough detail in the lesson to confirm everything that is taught. I often leave out a lot of scriptures that could have been included. If you are a pastor, you may know the challenge I am talking about. If you have not been following this series from the beginning, I would strongly recommend that you go back and start reading with Part 1.

SPIRITUAL PATTERNS REVIEW

I do not wish to rehash every previous lesson in the series. But, please allow me to approach this subject of the identity of our child suspect, in a different way than you might expect. I believe we are beginning to learn from the Biblical evidence that only the church matches the patterns of the Revelation 12 woman’s complete description. The facts presented so far should at least cause us to favor the woman’s identity to represent the church. As we should have realized by analyzing God’s Word and His covenant wives, there are a limited number of women in the Bible that the woman in Revelation 12 could be. Therefore, I want to go into a quick review of the already seen Biblical patterns.

What is a pattern? A pattern represents an intelligent design. It can also represent a model or an example. One model can be a view of a much larger more significant reality that is not seen. But, by studying the model we can gain great insight into what the real is like. We can observe patterns, examples and models throughout the Bible. I believe that it is worth your time in changing how you study the Bible to include looking for these hidden patterns.

If you recall there are only three covenant wives mentioned in relationship to God in the Bible. We were introduced to these women in previous lessons. We also went through an overview of these women in these past lessons. We should now understand, how God the Father married a woman that represented a type (pattern) of Hagar. This allegorical Hagar represented the natural nation of Israel (called the earthly Jerusalem) in the Old Covenant (Jer 31:32). Therefore since we are analyzing the a woman producing a child, we should ask “can God the Father have a Son through these natural people?” Obviously, He did and He called His name Jesus, because He would save His people from their sins (Mat 1:21). Therefore, Israel in general appears to qualify to be a wife and could possibly be stretched to be viewed as a pregnant woman. But, to be more specific, it was literally the single individual woman named Mary, that was chosen by God to gave birth to the only naturally born Son of God. So Mary appears to be a closer match and best qualified to be the pregnant wife in Revelation 12.

Then we learned of the free woman and a covenant wife of God the Father, that was a type of Sarah (Gal 4:26). This woman represented the more mature original barren wife of God the Father. She is allegorically identified to be the “Jerusalem Above”. We also discovered that this spiritual woman gave birth to the the risen from the dead Lord Jesus and the church (Gal 4:28). Therefore, this heavenly woman qualifies to be the pregnant wife mentioned in Revelation 12 also. We are not really narrowing our suspect list directly, by focusing only on this single quality of being pregnant and in a covenant. That is exactly why, I was teaching this series subject using other important truths first. This initial focus was to reveal the meanings of the Sun, moon and stars.

But, we haven’t reviewed the fourth suspect. She is the church. We learned that she is married and in a brand new covenant with the risen from the dead Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ. Next, we already asked and answered the question, can the Church’s covenant Husband (the risen Jesus Christ) have any spiritual children? I think you may have been surprised to find, according to the Bible, He can. Jesus was called the “Everlasting Father” in the Isaiah 9:6 prophecy. In fact God wrote that Jesus would be a child, a son and then become the Everlasting Father all in the same verse. Wow, that sounds important. These are repeated patterns found over and over in the Bible.

We have confirmed in the scripture that Jesus was a designed and designated pattern to be or become a Father as well as the Son of God. This verse will at least leave open the door to learning how this future male child that will rule nations with a rod of iron in Revelation 12, can be called a potential Son of Jesus (God the Son). Wow, I probably just rocked your theological religious boat. But please hang-in there with me, until we have read all of the lesson. We are about to potentially discover some Bible verses that we may have never seen, understood or applied.

PATTERN FUNDAMENTALS

Let us first start with some fundamental basics that we should already know and understand about the Bible and the Godhead. Matthew 1:18 clearly informs us that the virgin Mary was espoused to Joseph. But, before they “came together” (had sexual intercourse), she was found to already be pregnant by the Holy Ghost. I pray that we can all agree that the Holy Ghost is the same as God the Father, but in the form of the third person of the Triune Godhead. It is very important from this information that we conclude, that it is possible for the Holy Spirit to impregnate a physical natural woman through His spoken Word (seed). I believe that this fact of truth will become a natural pattern on a higher level, for the pregnant spiritual woman found in Revelation 12.

Do you recall how patterns were defined why they are important for Bible study? I try to emphasize this reality because of what we learn in Ecclesiastes 1:9. In this verse is where God states “The thing that has been is that which shall be; and that which has been done is that which shall be done; there is NOTHING NEW under the sun”. Now remember who we have previously discovered the symbolic Sun represents and keep that in your mind. A light bulb should have just popped on inside of you that this verse is related to Jesus very specifically. God does not select words by random accident or choice. God could have said “there is nothing new under heaven” or he could have said, “there is nothing new under the moon”. I hope you didn’t miss the significance of God’s choice for using the “sun”. God just prophesied something so profound that it is amazing to me. I believe God just taught us that what was to come in Jesus, previously happened in patterns that were already done in the past by Him and others. And I believe these could be natural patterns or spiritual patterns and maybe even both dimensions.

shirt-Pattern A pattern is nothing but a repeated recognizable form. When tailors make a dress, pants, or a shirt, they design and create a repeatable pattern. The fabric material is then selected and cut out from the designed pattern. Then the individual parts/pieces are sown together to create the final dress. Every dress that comes from the same pattern can be recognized as being from the original pattern by a trained observant eye. What we learn from natural patterns, is “good things by design are repeated”. It is a common sense approach that teaches us, what worked before will work again even if it is changed slightly. According to God’s Word, He uses good working established models and patterns. Also these divine patterns can be transferred from the spiritual realm into the natural realm and then even return back to the spiritual (Heb 8:5, Heb 9:23). We should all begin to recognize God’s repetition of patterns in the Bible. Every time we read the Bible we should do it using a trained eye looking for patterns of repetition. Redefine how you view and define prophecy. See prophecy as an a occurrence of a repeated pattern and not just the fulfillment of a prediction. Now let’s get into a few more basic fundamental patterns found in the Bible.

We already know that Jesus is the Son of God (Mat 16:16), the second person of the triune Godhead. The Trinity of God being comprised of the Father (Jn 14:11), the Son (1 Jn 5:20) also known as the Word (Rev 19:13) and the Holy Spirit (Gal 4:6, 1 John 5:7). These three unique personalities make up the One True Living God (1 John 5:7). These are all three personalities of the same Spiritual Being; they in union represent One God. I pray that you agree with these truths. They are actually very, very important and Satan fights us from believing in One God in Multiple Viewed Manifestations.

We must view the Trinity as being three different manifestations of the One God for His unique purposes at varying times. We just learned in Matthew 1:18 and Luke 1:35 that the Holy Spirit caused the virgin Mary to become pregnant. These were two verses that declare the work of the Father, the Word & the Holy Spirit’s together in producing the male child inside of the virgin woman named Mary. Some might ask how Jesus contributed to this pregnancy? Remember Jesus was the Word of God. The Word of God is the Seed of God (Luke 8:11). The same Hebrew and Greek Words for “seed” is also used to describe the male sperm that impregnates a woman. When Mary believe the angel, she said to the messenger “be unto me according to your word”. The message was from God, not the angel and Mary believe it and became pregnant. We also know from reading John 1:1 “In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God and the Word was God” then we find in verse 14 that the Word (God the Father) became flesh (God the Son) and dwelt among us”. Therefore we learn how God the Father just manifested in the form of His Son by sending the Word of God to a natural woman. Then after she accepts the Word of God though faith the work of the Holy Spirit manifests the baby in her womb.

Therefore the manifested Son of God must be the same God as the Father and the Holy Spirit God must be the same God as the Father God and the Word of God. Wow, I pray we haven’t lost any readers. So let’s continue our study by confirming some basic information that God (who is the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit) can be called a Father in the Bible corporately or in each of His separate manifested states of existence:

Heb 12:6 For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.
Heb 12:7 If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not?
Heb 12:8 But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.
Heb 12:9 Furthermore we have had fathers of our flesh which corrected us, and we gave them reverence: shall we not much rather be in subjection unto the Father of spirits, and live?

We can clearly read that God is called the “Father of spirits” in verse 9 of Hebrews 12. These words inspired by the Holy Spirit are very appropriate to our subject study of God being called a male Father. Two names of God are given in this context the first is “Lord” (G2962) and the second is “God” (G2316).

We should immediately try to determine who are these spirits that God is said to be the Father of. Perhaps you noticed that these verses are comparing 1) natural birthed sons and fathers to the much greater spiritual birthed sons and Father. We have just discovered a new relationship, that these two different realms are made from the similar pattern. We need to realize that every natural human being is a simultaneous spirit being. Humans are a spirit that reside temporarily in a natural body possessing an internal soul (mind, will and emotions) (1 Thes 5:23).

By logical reasoning, we deduce that this verse in Hebrews 12:9, at the least implies that every spirit could have their origin from God. We can say this includes every spirit of every human man, woman and child on the planet. But, I would also say that this includes every angelic or demonic spirit that exists also. All of these are spirit beings, and had to originate from God, the Father of spirits since they did not create themselves. That to me is just basic logic. However, it is much more complex than this and we just can’t go into this deeper in this lesson.

We have already examined the Biblical fact that Jesus the Son of God was born of a natural woman. Therefore we can clearly see that God the Father can also have natural physical children, if He desires. In Luke 1:37 God says “With Him nothing shall be impossible”. But, remember what we learned in the last lesson. God says in John 3:16 that Jesus was the “Only begotten Son”. We learned from the Greek word (G3439) definition that “begotten” means the only physically born son. This Greek word G3439 is used in 9 verses in the New Testament and they all mean “the only natural born child”. It is used this way to describe a man in Luke 7:12 that Jesus raised from the dead. It is also used this way for an only daughter that was raised from the dead by Jesus in Luke 8:42.

Feel free to go and study this Greek word usage for yourself. Believing Jesus was the only physically born Son of God is very important. This teaches us that God is not going to have any more physically born natural mortal children that can die, ever again! Mary was the only virgin birth that God the Father will ever participate in by His admission.

GOD TO ADAM PATTERNS

God the Father is said to be the Father of spirits. Can God the Son also be a Father of spirits? We know that Jesus was a 100% natural male and was the 100% supernatural God. We all should know that Genesis 1:26 says “let us make man in our image and after our likeness”. This is an amazing statement. Who is “our” referring to in this verse? I believe it is a plural pronoun referring to God the Father, God the Son/Word and God the Holy Spirit. This would at least imply that we should be able to observe limited patterns of God (Father, Son & Spirit) in Adam and potentially vice versa. Adam is called a son of God in the Luke 3:38 genealogy of Jesus. This genealogy is very profound to our study. God teaches us from Jesus’ human lineage that He was a 100% Son of Adam (man) simultaneously being the 100% Son of God. This confirms how Jesus can be 100% human of the flesh and 100% God in His Spirit.

But, notice what we find in the geneaology of Adam given in Genesis 5. In this description we see how Adam passed his likeness given to him from God (a spiritual pattern) down to his natral children (a natural pattern). Since the pattern of Adam is implied to be passed down from generation to generation, this means it is still in effect when Jesus was born from one of Adam’s descendants named “Mary”. The Luke 3 genealogy is that of Mary. This is important because it makes what Adam did or could have done to remain in the realm of possibility for Jesus.

Therefore, as a 100% male human, Jesus must have been physically capable of having natural children in the normal way with a natural woman. But, just because some deceived people have tried to claim that Jesus had sex with a natural woman on the earth and fathered a child, please do not be so easily deceived by them. I am not going to dignify these false claims by naming anyone that claims this falsity. Jesus never had any natural children on the earth. If He had done this, we would be in serious trouble because this would cause scripture that we depend upon as being truthful to become a lie.

For example, Jesus was called the “ONLY begotten Son of God” as we have read. Then if He had physically produced natural children that would violate John 3:16. This is because He is still God (Emmanuel=God with us). If God in the flesh has another natural born/begotten mortal child then the “ONLY” begotten fails the test of truth. I pray you understand what was stated. The Bible does not contradict itself nor does the words of a man or a prophet contradict the Bible. If words spoken to be truth do not agree with scriptures, throw them in the garbage. Let’s get back on subject.

But, let us revisit the other spiritual possibilities. Can Jesus now in heaven, the second member of the Trinity, now have a spiritual child and become a new Spiritual Father? I think that is an interesting concept to consider especially in light of reading Isaiah 6:9. The only way Jesus could be an Eternal Father is for Him to produce an eternal son. This would only be possible in the spirit realm since that is where He is physically seated. Just ask yourself, when did Jesus become the Everlasting Father? Was it before He died on the cross, after He dies on the cross but before He ascends into heaven, or was it something that would occur after He ascended? We are touching on some very deep thought subjects. What I believe is that the “Eternal Father” title comes into manifestation come much later after ascension. In fact I personally believe that this eternal Fatherhood designation is awaiting complete fulfilment until Revelation 12 is consummated. You probably are scratching your head and asking yourself a lot of new questions. That is good if that is true. However, if you have already written this off as not being true, then leave me a comment and tell me, when Jesus the Son of God became “An Everlasting Father God”.

Think of what we are studying this way, God created natural physical things as a view or pattern into the originating spiritual pattern dimension (Rom 1:20). According to God everything in the natural originated from the spiritual dimension and will return to the spiritual dimension in the end. These naturally created things that we can see around us are shadows, types or patterns of spiritual things that we cannot see or fully comprehend. However, these natural things point us to and give us glimpses into, a realm of unseen spiritual possibilities.

These hidden spiritual possibilities are difficult to fully grasp with our physical eyes and senses unless we understand natural things better. Jesus said in John 3:12 “If I have told you earthly things and you believe not, how then will you believe if I tell you of heavenly things?” Can we understand that Jesus through teaching natural truths, He believed that He was giving us understanding of greater more significant heavenly spiritual truths? These are all just repeatable patterns of God’s design. I pray that you are receiving what I believe is being said by the Holy Spirit in this lesson.

ADAM TO JESUS PATTERNS

I alluded to this subject in the last section of the lesson. So what patterns did God create in this natural world? We obviously cannot address them all in one lesson, but we can narrow our focus into the main topic/subject of the woman and her child in Revelation 12. How will these created patterns help us understand this concept of spiritual pregnancy, birth pains, birth and children? I am still unable to cover the entire single subject matter in this lesson. But we will go into some of the important points, the best that we can.

We will start with God’s created pattern of Adam and Eve in the beginning of Genesis 1 and 2. They represent the initiating father and mother natural pattern of the entire human race. I believe we must remember what we learned in the last lessons about Sarah being a patterned allegorical figure of a pre-existing heavenly woman (Gal 4). It was this heavenly woman that is given to be the church’s spiritual mother. All of this information is a repeated patterns hidden in Adam and Eve. Therefore, the natural Adam and Eve family pattern was done before, but previously it was done in the spirit realm. However, using the Sarah analogy we find that this Sarah type of Heavenly Jerusalem represented a barren wife that had no children. But, that does not diminish the desire of God the Father to have children like Abraham did in Genesis 15:2. Remember, “there is nothing new under the sun” whether it is the natural physical sun or the symbolic spiritual Sun of God. What God said happened to Abraham was a pattern of what was happening in heaven. Wow, this is some incredible information.

Through Adam and Eve’s procreation, they no doubt produced a lot of male and female children (Gen 5:4). Certainly, we know from reading Genesis 4, Cain and Abel came from Adam and Eve, followed by Seth. Keep in mind that these two natural first parents were patterns of hidden spiritual than came before them as well as the things to come after them. For example, if we read Romans 5:14 carefully, we will learn that Adam was also a pattern of Jesus that would be born from his body. The Greek word G5179 was translated as “figure”. But this Greek word literally means a “die”, “model”, or “pattern”. This G5179 is very similar to H1823 that was translated as “likeness” in Genesis 1:26. H1823 means a “model” a parallel to the G5179 definition. Wow, I hope you see what the Lord is teaching us.

What we can see is that God created the first Adam as a “model” or “pattern” of “Himself the Spiritual Father” and this same “model” or “pattern” is being passed down to the future “Jesus”. Therefore we should be able to understand that the recorded Bible events occurring with Adam can all potentially apply to what God might have done before Adam as well as what could reoccur with the Last Adam, Jesus (1 Cor 15:45). There is truly nothing new under the Sun.

You might ask “What events in Genesis might relate to what could reoccur with Jesus?” That is a great question. First, Adam’s bride was taken out of his side in Genesis 2. Isn’t it amazing that Jesus was thrust through on His side hanging on the cross (John 19:34) and blood and water poured out of Him? I do not believe that was a coincidence. I believe the outpouring of the blood and water from Jesus on the cross represented the church bride coming out of His side. Do you recall what Paul wrote in Galatians 2:20? Paul said “I have been crucified with Christ and it is no longer I that lives but Christ that lives in me…”. If you do not understand what is being spoken of here, you are missing out on understanding a huge spiritual mystery being revealed to us in Ephesians 5 and other parts of the Bible.

In Ephesians 5:22-33 God goes over the law of marriage covenant relationships between husbands and wives. In Ephesians 5 verses 31-32, God actually quotes from Genesis 2:24 from the discussion of taking Eve out of Adam side. This description is,an expression of the first human marriage to be a pattern. “For this reason shall a man leaven his father and mother and shall be joined to his wife and the two shall become one flesh”. Then God through the Apostle Paul breaks the great revelation wide open in Ephesians 5:32 about God taking Eve out from Adam becoming one flesh as being a great mystery concerning Christ and the Church. God is teaching us the fact that all of this in chapter 2 of Genesis pertaining to Adam was a pattern or a model for Christ and the Church. Let’s move on to the specific topic of children now.

If Adam knew Eve and she conceived a son as Genesis 4:1 teaches us, can it be possible that this is also a pattern for Jesus and His bride? I believe with all of my heart that it is. However, this Last Adam marriage covenant relationship is spiritual and not physical like the first Adam. The pattern of “knowing” is still repeated by God’s design between Jesus and the church. Remember what Jesus says in Matthew to those that thought they knew Jesus?

Mat 7:22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
Mat 7:23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

This is very important for us all to understand! Jesus said many will think they knew me and they have even called me LORD. But I will say to them, I never KNEW you, depart! Just as Adam desired to KNOW and have intimate physical relationship with his wife the same appears to reoccur with Jesus. It not only appears to be a reoccurring pattern but has increased to be a requirement for Jesus KNOWING His bride in the New Covenant. There are a lot of people that believe they are Christians and do great things in His name. But according to Jesus they will not enter into the kingdom of God because they are not KNOWN by Him! This teaches us that Jesus must have an intimate spiritual relationship with us personally His bride. If this type of natural intimacy produces natural children, could it be possible that this occurs in the greater spiritual realm? I believe it does because, we read in past lessons about Paul travailing in birth until Christ was formed in other church members (Gal 4:19). Paul was attempting to get other people to come to the saving KNOWELDGE that he KNEW and this would result in their spiritual birth. This birth produced a new spiritual child called Christ in another human. Isn’t God amazing?

We learned previously that whatever is spiritual must produce or birth spiritual offspring. I’m praying that you are following all of this deep information. But, I’m not through yet. I want us to think of something else that is important and probably new to you.

GOD’S NEW NATURAL & SPIRITUAL FAMILY PATTERN

Do you remember what God said to the church in 2 Corinthians? We were introduced to this concept previously when I gave you Galatians 2:20. Paul said He was crucified with Christ…”. Paul claims to have experienced what Jesus experienced on the cross. Then in Ephesians 2:6 Paul claims us to be raised together and sit with Christ while still being physically here on the earth. What is this concept being taught? Let’s read to refresh our memory:

2Co 5:17 Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new.

This is an amazing verse that I cannot fully teach today. Notice that I underlined only the words that are found in the Greek and not the italicized words that were added by the translators. Now, please read the underlined words only. It would say “if any man in Christ a new creation: old things are passed away; behold all things are become new.” That is an amazing truth displaying Jesus to be the “new creation” and not us. Many times Christians make things in the Bible to be totally about them when really it is totally about Jesus Christ.

We the church do become a part of Jesus the new creation but only, if we are IN HIM. Therefore, Jesus was made by God, a new creation that never existed before. Why was it necessary for God to create something brand new? Think about that question. But, realize first that this teaches us that if we personally remain in (know) Him and He in (known) us, we are included in this new creation work. Have you thought of why all of this would be important? I have taught this truth in other lessons, but I will give you a quick overview of why this was essential for the plan of God.

Jesus being raised from the dead and becoming the “first born” from the dead, causes things in the spiritual realm to occur that not many have seen. For example His death and resurrection birth caused Him to legally separate Himself from every previous covenant that He had ever made with anyone. Remember “death” is a legal separation from a covenant marriage according to the Word of God and His Law (Ruth 1:17). We learn this by reading Romans 7:1-4. Paul, writing to Jewish believers, claimed they were bound under the law to their first (Old) Covenant marriage with God by law. In other words Paul writes that if they entered into a new covenant with anyone else they would be committing adultery. But, then Paul teaches them in verse 4, because Jesus died, they have been released from that old covenant, in order to be legally married in covenant to another, the risen Lord Jesus. Wow, this is so important to understand.

What we learn from this teaching is that when Jesus died, He not only separated God from the Old Covenant, He must have also separated Himself from the Angelic covenant with Lucifer. Now legally speaking God is not bound to keep His covenant with either Jerusalem. This means the earthly and the heavenly Jerusalem were both freed from previous covenants with Jehovah God. Natural Israel is free to now be saved from hell by believing in Jesus. Also they are now not legally bound to keep all the commandments of the Law that were impossible to keep. Finally, Satan/Lucifer is NOT open to entering any New Covenant with the risen Jesus. Therefore, Satan and his angels are headed to hell (Mat 25:41) at the end of man’s 7000-year history and the book of Revelation fulfillment (Rev 20:10).

We are learning more about how God uses repeated patterns. But we must never forget that He can also do something brand new if He so desires. Jesus becoming a new creation was a total shock to Satan. God becoming flesh (John 1:1-14) to die on a cross and save humans literally blew the minds of the devil and all his followers. They never imagined that there would come a time when they could not enter into heaven. This is exactly why Paul wrote 1 Corinthians 2:8 “which none of the princes of this world knew, for if they had known they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory”. The Bible should be making more sense when you learn these previously hidden truths. I believe the death and the shedding of the blood of Jesus on the cross paid the price for all of our sins. But, I believe that it was the resurrection of Jesus from the dead that transferred saved people (those that wanted to believe and confess Him as Lord) out of Satan’s kingdom. Never forget that according to Romans 10:9 “If we confess Jesus as Lord and believe in our heart that God raised Him from the dead, we will be saved”. Therefore, believing in the resurrection is essential. Let’s move on to a new part of our discussion.

In recent paragraphs we spoke about the topic of intimacy between a covenant husband and wife. The word “in” is a major part of both physical and spiritual intimacy. I’m not going to explain that, I believe you know what that physical intimacy means. However, what it means to be “in” Christ and for Him to be “in” us can be challenging because of the spiritual nature of the subject. I believe this being “IN” Christ is significantly grounded to us being in and remaining in the Word of God. There are a lot of people that walk down the church aisle to give their lives to Jesus, but then never open their Bible to learn who He is. I hope and pray that is not you.

Just understand there are a lot of verses in the N.T. that claim we should be “in” Christ and Christ should be “in” us. This principle represents spiritual intimacy. What does it mean to be “in” Christ? It includes a lot, but it must include us studying the Bible more than occasionally. It should also include us praying and seeking to hear His voice. Remember in John 10:4 Jesus said “My sheep KNOW my voice”. But, that is getting us off the main subject. The main part of the 2 Corinthians should be that we are in Jesus who is a New Creation. That implies a lot of new things for us to consider.

God created the family of Adam and Eve as a separate and independent new family unit from heaven. I believe that this new family unit was modeled after God’s pre-established family unit already established in Heaven. As we know now Adam was created as a natural pattern who represented a new natural family father. Adam had every natural living human being on this planet on the inside of him. Adam should be called the natural father of the entire human race because we were all “in” Adam. We learn a principle in the Bible that whatever happened to Adam, happens to everyone that comes out from Adam in 1 Cor 15:22. We were all “in” Adam when he sinned therefore, death passed to every human (Rom 5:12). This natural pattern is further confirmation to what was taught about us being in Christ. We were crucified with Christ because we were “in” Christ and sprang forth out of Him.

We all know that Adam had a child through Eve. This I believe is future pattern of the Last Adam Jesus that was to come. There is a spiritual truth being given to us here that anything that happens to your father is passed down and has happened to every descendant of their father. We can learn this by us inheriting the law of sin and death from our original father Adam. We can confirm this as us now being “in” Christ to be crucified with Him. Wow, this concept is amazing. This knowledge literally shook me to the core of my inner being when God revealed it to me. We can find a great confirming witness in Hebrews 7:9-10. In these verses God’ reveals to us that Levi paid tithes “in” his great-grandfather Abraham three generations before him. This occurred because Levi was contained within one sperm cell inside of Abraham that created the descendant Levi. Wow, wow, wow!

That was a major clue to why Satan should not have killed Jesus Christ, if you didn’t understand it. Our current subject is really focused upon spiritual fathers and their sons and how they can have children because they were made in the likeness of their father. Just as God was the Father of Adam and Adam took a wife and had a son, so I believe God the Father impregnated Mary to give birth to Jesus. And this Son named the Last Adam has the same potential to have His own Son like the first Adam. Can you see what I am proposing for your evaluation, consideration and study? I do hope you are following this logic and that you understand the concepts of patterns. But, let us take a look at what the Bible says, here are some interesting verses that pertain to our current subject:

Eph 2:18 For through him we both have access by one Spirit unto the Father.
Eph 2:19 Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellowcitizens with the saints, and of the household of God;

These verses in Ephesians give us two valuable further conformations. First that God is a Father and that He also has a family. Previously at creation in Genesis 1 God’s household was comprised of only a family of spiritual beings in heaven. I believe that these heavenly patterns were representative of the patterns that He implemented and passed down to be followed by Adam and Eve’s household and family structure here on the earth. I believe that Adam’s family was a natural family with natural parents giving birth to natural children. I then believe this pattern was passed further down the line into the life of Jesus to be repeated again concerning a new spiritual family. I’ll talk about this from the Bible next and give you scriptures to confirm it.

Now let’s explore this logic scripturally and see if it holds water and passes God’s litmus test of truth. We need to see if there are any scriptures that speak about Jesus beginning a family. Let’s start this analysis with this scripture in Hebrews:

Heb 3:6 But Christ as a son over his own house; whose house are we, if we hold fast the confidence and the rejoicing of the hope firm unto the end.

When I first read this verse, I almost missed what God was saying. It is so interesting that I studied it for a long time until God showed me what it was really teaching us. You see this verse is speaking of Jesus our Lord as the Son of God. This verse declares that this new Son Jesus has established a new house. This is a new house that did not exist before just like the New Covenant had never existed before either. This was also just like Him being the new creation that never existed before. But what does God mean when He says house? A new house implies a new family. In fact if you look up the Greek word (G3624) translated as “house” it is defined in the Strong’s that it figuratively means “a family”. How does God define a family? We can learn this through His creation. Jesus implies in Matthew 19:4 God made His type of family as beginning with one male and one female. These two then have children and that is the normal basis of a family.

Why did the Father God have the need to establish a new spiritual family through Jesus Christ? Apparently there was some major flaws and problems with the old spiritual family of God. We have already discussed this answer previously. We should not understand that everything in heaven was great and even called perfect until sin was found in Lucifer. You can read about the rise of evil in Isaiah 14 and Ezekiel 28. God gives us a windowed spiritual view of His problem in these chapters. Lucifer was filled with pride and God needed to find a legal solution to remove this evil from His presence.

As we learned Satan would not have crucified Jesus on a cross if he had known the consequences for killing Jesus (1 Cor 2:8). You can learn from that scripture that something happened through His death on the cross to cause Satan to be very unhappy with the outcome. Something major happened that affected him directly and personally. We have already seen how this was the loss of God’s covenant with him and the angels. Therefore, Satan lost his right to his home in heaven and his place in the previous family of Jehovah. This is separation and loss of heavenly rights are finally put into full effect in Revelation 12 the exact chapter that we are studying. Can you see the connections being made and how the Bible all fits together to tell one story using dispersed clues? I wish I could go into all of this in more depth but I just don’t have the time. I did give you major clues on this subject so I hope you can put the pieces together and seek the answers for yourself.

So we can see from Hebrews 3:6 that Jesus has established a completely new family unit for a new God family. We have already seen that God calls Jesus Christ the last Adam in the New Testament (1 Cor 15:45). God connects Jesus to the pattern of Adam directly. We can definitely see that Adam was a natural pattern of the spiritual Jesus. Adam had one wife who was the body of Adam, Jesus now has one wife who is the body of Christ. Let’s review this verse to confirm:

Rom 5:14 Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam‘s transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.

What is the subject of this verse? It is directly related to Adam, and God says Adam is a pattern of Jesus to come. There are many other parallels and patterns that we could explore, but let’s continue with our subject and study, can Jesus have his own family.

We know from Hollywood and a non-Christian author that Satan has attempted to say that Jesus who was a physical man for 33 and 1/2 years, had a sexual relationship with a woman on the earth and had children. I often times wondered why it was important for Satan to try to plant these misdirected false seeds in the minds of people on the earth. Satan rarely does anything that does not have a purpose. I believe it is an attempt to distract us from the truth. True Christians will always reject that Jesus had a sexual relationship with a natural woman, but what else does the words of author do to us? They automatically cause us to potentially reject any other new Bible assertion that Jesus could be a spiritual father of a spiritual child. The automatic conclusion would be, if we accept the physical child birth we are more likely to reject a spiritual child birth. But here is the main reason why we should reject the physical child birth, because it is not in the Bible. So we should determine if the spiritual child birth is found in the Bible.

We can see so many verses that give us widespread implications of the establishment of a new family of God if we look for them. Here is a verse that speaks to us along these lines:

Gal 6:10 As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.

Using basic logic and common sense again we can see this verse speaks of two divisions of people. Those who believe and those who believe not. Those who believe are a people in a new family or a new household called faith. This word “household” literally means people who are close relatives. This is like those who are living in the same family dwelling. But this is not just any family this is His family, the family unit of Jesus Christ. Those that have believed in Him.

So we have seen scriptures that indicate Jesus has established a new family of God and that this family is a new spiritual household with new family members of faith. So does Jesus Christ have children? Here is another scripture that I found absolutely fascinating. We have seen this before but we will review it again:

Isa 9:6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

This verse is absolutely more proof and evidence that people read things and don’t see exactly what God says. I’ve had this Bible verse printed in a bunch of my Christmas cards and I didn’t see it for a long time. Did you see it? What are we researching? Are we not attempting to find verses that declare Jesus the second figure in the Godhead to be a new father? Is not this verse about Jesus Christ? Sure it is! Jesus is the child that was born, and the son that was given. We can clearly see that Jesus, the Son of God is also being called a father. But, notice this verse in Isaiah 9:6 calls Jesus Christ the “Everlasting Father“. Do you understand the implications behind that short statement? I doubt very seriously that many do. Why does God need to put an adjective “everlasting” in front of the noun “father”? The reason anyone does this is to differentiate one father from another father using a finite descriptive quality of one that is not found in any other. You see I thought God the Father was the Everlasting Father? This is truly mind blowing information that is much deeper than I can fully cover in this lesson. But, I will give you one verse to consider in the discussion of why Jesus can be called the Everlasting Father and why the Father God the 1st in trinity did not use this title to describe Himself. I mentioned this verse earlier but it is worth emphasizing again:

Rom 7:4 Wherefore, my brethren, ye also are become dead to the law by the body of Christ; that ye should be married to another, even to him who is raised from the dead, that we should bring forth fruit unto God.

We know from reading the context that this verse was written directly to only “Those that KNOW the LAW”. That is just God’s way of saying the Jewish people that were under the LAW of Moses and legally married to Him according Jeremiah 31:32. Because natural Israel was in a legally binding covenant with Him, they would not be able to be joined into the new covenant with Jesus Christ without being called an adulterer. Wow, notice the fact that God is informing us the old covenant is not the new covenant and being in both simultaneously is spiritual adultery.

But, since Jesus who was God made flesh died on a cross physically we learn from this verse that the naturally born Jewish people can now legally be “Married” (in a New Covenant) with the risen from the dead Jesus without being called an adulterer. Wow, this is so important to understanding so much of the Bible that it would take a book to write everything that is being taught here. The main point for this discussion is simply this is the reason why the risen Lord Jesus will be given the title “Everlasting Father”.

Did you know that you or I can not be legitimately called a father or a mother, unless we have children. That is just a basic Bible fact. So if we read in Isaiah 9:6 that God calls Jesus the “Everlasting Father” we can conclude that he must have at least one child. However as we have been discussing there are two kinds of fathers in the Bible, one is a natural father and the other is a spiritual father. A natural father is only someone that has sown natural sperm into a natural woman and she has conceived and has given birth to a natural child. Then and only then is he is called a father.

Spiritually speaking a pastor, a priest or a bishop could be a spiritual father. All of the apostles in the New Testament were considered spiritual fathers. Paul was considered a spiritual father (1 Tim 1:2, 2 Tim 1:2). In fact any Christian can sow spiritual seed (God’s Word) into the heart of a non-Christian and if they believe and Christ is conceived in them, then they also become a spiritual parent. You see there are spiritual families in different designs and patterns in the Bible as well as natural families that are similar. That means there are spiritual seeds that were sown into the hearts of men and women and they have believed and accepted Jesus as Lord to now be in Him. The spiritual process follows a pattern of the natural process so that we can understand it.

CONCLUSION

So I have given you a lot of new information to think about. I have given you direct and indirect scriptures that teach us Jesus Christ is a Son who has established a new family for God. This family consists of Jesus the bridegroom, the Church his wife and some potential spiritual children. You have to study the pattern of Adam and Eve and you have to put some pieces of the puzzle together. I know there are still some that don’t see what I’m saying. Before I comclude let me quickly give you one more revelation from the Word of God. Jesus called Himself the Son of God and the Son of Man. The Hebrew word “Son” (and Jesus was a Jew) means “the builder of the family name”. In other words Jesus said I am born a Son to build a new family for God and for Adam. Everytime Jesus said He was a Son, He implies that He will have children. This basically leaves Satan and the other demons out of the new family established by Jesus and His bride. I guess I’ll stop there in order not to overwhelm you with too much new information all at once.

I hope you realize how difficult it is to give you just a little bit and not cover a subject with all the possible scriptural backing. If what I write is just my opinion it is not worth a penny, but if it is God’s Word, then you cannot dismiss it or write it off, unless you are foolish. All we have seen so far is the possibility that this child in Revelation 12 is a child of the church and Jesus. , We have learned the basic foundation for why it was necessary for a new divine spiritual family. We have not yet fully learned all of the reasons why God did this. I personally am not sure anyone but God knows all of the reasons. But, we will continue with the subject of the identity of the woman in Revelation 12 and her child in my next lesson. I pray that you are thinking with your spiritual eyes open and that you understand the Bible lessons being presented. I would recommend that you reread them over and over. Thank You for taking the time to study the Word of God with us. God Bless you and keep you until next time.

If you would like to continue reading this series, you can continue with Part 7.

Posted in Bible Study, Chapter 12, Revelation