"YOU HAVE NOT PASSED THIS WAY BEFORE"

                                                                           

New territory up ahead.

After many years of wilderness wanderings, the nation of Israel was on the move into new territory. Their instructions were to watch the Ark carried by priests as it approached the Jordan River; “Yet there shall be a space between you and it, about two thousand cubits by measure. Do not come near it that you may know the way by which you must go, for you have not passed this way before.” Joshua 3:3,4. This is a word from the Lord, intended, not just for Israel centuries ago, but also, and more especially, for the people of God today. Just why, I hope to make clear in these few pages.

The basis of my books is Typology, i.e. understanding the purposes of God by studying the redemptive types [maps, patterns] of the Old Testament. Israel is the pattern nation. Every redemptive act, event or object in the Old Testament finds its spiritual counterpart in the New Testament and in the ongoing journey of the Church. Jesus said that the Spirit would lead and guide us into all truth. Revelation by the Spirit is ongoing. By the Word and the Spirit God unlocks the truths which will bring us into maturity. “The Lord has yet more light and truth to break forth from His Word.”  AHB 335

The principle of Typology is: ‘First the natural, then the spiritual.’ Before the coming of the Spirit, people couldn’t understand spiritual truth. Such truth can only be ‘spiritually discerned’ [1 Corinthians 2:14].  God gave them physical things which represented the spiritual truths which would then be revealed in the New Testament after the coming of the Spirit. The spiritual descendants of Abraham are the nation of Israel; the spiritual descendants are all true believers, i.e. the Church. [Galatians 3:16,29]The redemptive events in Israel are paralleled in the Church. They are physical in Israel and spiritual in the Church. God’s purposes are: Demonstrated in Israel; Activated by the Cross; Manifested through the Church. 

 Jesus said, “You search the Scriptures, for in them you think you have eternal life; and these are they which testify of Me.” The Scriptures He was referring to were the Old Testament Scriptures.  Since the Cross is God’s only answer, everything God did in Israel pointed to it and everything since the Cross issues out of it. Most Christians know that Jesus is the fulfilment of the Passover Lamb; however not many follow the Type through to its conclusion; therefore we have not yet come into the ultimate outcome of the sacrifice of the Lamb. We have understood the truths of Passover; but not yet entered into the truths of the Feast of Tabernacles. Likewise with the Type of the Tabernacle we have been to the Altar in the Outer Court but have yet to enter into the Glory in the Holy of Holies beyond the Vail.

 At a Lay Preacher’s Retreat, I commented on the many Old Testament Scriptures which don’t make it into the Lectionary. Someone asked me “Well would you want to preach on the furniture of the Tabernacle?” She was obviously unaware that the Tabernacle with its furniture is a pattern of spiritual truth of great significance. When God gave the pattern of the Tabernacle to Moses He said, “See that you make all things according to the pattern shown you on the mountain.” [Hebrews 8:5] It was “the copy and shadow of the heavenly [or spiritual] things.”

The Tabernacle with its furniture is a map showing the spiritual progression of the people of God into the completion of God’s purpose. If we study it alongside the Journey to the Promised Land and the Feasts of Israel we will understand the way God is taking us and the spiritual truths whereby we arrive at our destination. God chartered this map by the Cloud of the Spirit as He led His people into the Promised Land. Jesus did all things ‘according to the pattern,’ and in bringing the Church into its destiny in the Earth, God is doing all things ‘according to this same pattern. ’

Jesus often said “My time is not yet” E.g. John 7:6.  Because He was working according to the pattern of Redemption laid down in the Old Testament Scriptures.  We will not come into the fullness of truth unless we study the whole Bible. This is the pattern or the map of the journey the Church is on:-

ESCAPE FROM BONDAGE -PASSOVER: Egypt with its tyrant ruler is a Type of the Kingdom of Darkness ruled by Satan where Man is in bondage to sin and death. We escape through faith in the shed blood of the Passover Lamb. The truths of Passover are; Justification by faith,[Passover] Sanctification [Feast of Unleavened Bread], and Baptism into Christ [Feast of Firstfruits]. God had his infant Son brought out of Egypt to fulfil the Type. [Check out Hosea 11:1]

COMMISSIONED: Israel, Jesus, and the Church have all been commissioned. The Church has an assignment to complete in the Earth before the Coming of the Lord. Our deliverance was accomplished at Passover ; the rest of the Journey is about coming into the fullness of our deliverance [the ‘manifestation of the sons of God’] and completing our assignment.

 EMPOWERED TO FULFILL THE COMMISSION – PENTECOST: Pentecost is about equipping the people of God to fulfil their commission.

Israel’s Commission. God called Israel to possess their inheritance, [Canaan] and be a ‘kingdom of priests, a holy nation.’ They were to dispossess the inhabitants of the Land and establish the rule of the Kingdom. They were equipped for their assignment at Mt Sinai with the Law and the Tabernacle.                                                  

 Jesus’ Commission was to ‘destroy the works of the devil.’ [I John 3:8] By the Cross, He stripped the devil of his authority and gave it to His Church. He stated ‘I will build My Church and the gates of hell will not stand against It.’ Which brings us to our commission.

The Commission of the Church.  Our commission is to make all the nations Jesus’ disciples. In essence it is the same as Israel’s commission – dispossess the enemy and establish the

 . Kingdom. The Earth is our inheritance. [Romans 4:13]At this present time ‘the whole world lies under the sway of the evil one.’ [1 John 5:19] Looking at our world it can be clearly seen that this is so.  It is gross error to pass off all the terrible things that happen in our world as the will of God.  That's why the priority prayer is that God’s name be honoured; His will be done; His Kingdom come ‘on Earth as it is in Heaven.’ Our Promised Land is the Kingdom of God on Earth. The Holy Spirit is given to us to bring down the ‘gates of hell,’ free the nations to receive the gospel, and thus establish the rule of the Kingdom, before the return of the King. The Types show us how this is to be accomplished. For Israel it was a physical journey; for the Church it is a spiritual journey.

WILDERNESS WANDERINGS.  Israel wandered in the wilderness for 40 years because they had an identity problem. God said “Israel is My son, My firstborn.” [Exodus 4:22] Israel’s faith confession when they saw the giants in the Land was, “We are as grasshoppers.” [Numbers 13:33].  They didn’t know who they really were or believe that they could do what God had commissioned them to do. They still operated in the slave mentality they acquired in Egypt.  It was right here that God made the vow that one day His glory would fill the earth. [Numbers 14:21]Taken in context; this is dependent on the people of God possessing their inheritance.

 Jesus was also tested in the wilderness and the temptation He faced was also an attack on His identity. He came from His powerful encounter at the River Jordan with the Father’s affirmation, “This is My beloved Son in whom I am well pleased,” to face the insinuations of the Tempter “IF You are the Son of God…..” He came out of the wilderness after 40 days, ‘in the power of the Spirit,’ ready to begin the attack on the strongholds of the enemy.

This is where the Church is at right now. Like Israel, we don’t know who we really are or what it is we are to do. Some are preparing to get away from it all in a space flight called the ‘Rapture.’ Some are opting to go with the flow and be ‘progressive.’ For others it’s just business as usual.  What we need to do is to get back to the Word of God and wait on the Spirit for revelation. There is a cache of revelation that is reserved for the end time, as Daniel was told. [Daniel 12:4-13]At a time when ‘many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase’ God will bring the revelation that is needed. He sees the way ahead and will show us if we earnestly ‘ask, seek and knock.’

We have come to a way which we ‘have not passed before’. The Early Church set out on this Journey and became a powerful Church of whom it was said ‘they turned the world upside down;’ but like the first generation of Israel from Egypt, they didn’t complete the Commission. Error entered the Church and it went through the ‘Dark Ages,’ sometimes called ‘the devil’s millennium.’ For many years the Church wandered in the wilderness of spiritual blindness. God again began the process of restoration with the foundational

 4. truth of Justification by Faith and brought us to this place where we now stand. The final generation of the Church Age will come into the ‘all truth’ that Jesus promised and complete the Commission.

COMPLETING THE COMMISSION – THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES  The final Feast is the Feast of fullness and completion. It is the Feast of the final harvest.  Israel came out of the wilderness under the leadership of Joshua. They crossed Jordan and began the attack on the strongholds of the enemy by bringing down the walls of Jericho. Eventually they conquered the Land and Solomon, son of David, came to the throne. For a short time the nation became a faint earthly Type of the Kingdom of God. The Land was at the height of prosperity, the rule of the Kingdom was established and its king [a Type of Jesus, the greater Son of David] was famed throughout the world for his wisdom and understanding.  On the Feast of Tabernacles, Solomon dedicated the great golden Temple which was filled with the Glory of God, a picture of the ‘Glorious Church without spot or wrinkle.’ [Ephesians 5:27].  This glorious Church will draw the nations in. As Isaiah said,(Isaiah 61:1-3) -

‘Arise, shine, for thy light has come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.

For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and deep darkness the people;

But the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.

And Gentiles shall come to thy light, and kings to the brightness of thy rising…..”

The truth which is encoded in the Day of Atonement will be revealed. It is a deeper understanding of all that the Cross accomplished; the truth of the finished work of Christ.    Jesus is now seated at God’s right hand waiting till his enemies are made his footstool. [Hebrews10:12-14]. That’s our job! And it will involve spiritual warfare. The truths of the completed work of the Cross will cause the Church to rise up in power and glory and bring the nations in. A short paragraph like this cannot do justice to this. I have written about it in my books and it needs the revelation of the Holy Spirit.

In the Scripture at the beginning of this paper, Israel was coming out of the wilderness. They were told to ‘Watch the Ark’ so that they would "Watch the Ark" now which way to go, because they were about to traverse new territory. The Ark is the highest Type of Christ in the Tabernacle. It was to precede Israel by ‘about 2,000 cubits.’ Every detail that God gives is important when interpreting the Types. Nothing is whimsical. This mostly overlooked detail shows that about 2,000 years after Jesus came out of the wilderness ‘in the power of the Spirit’ to begin bringing down the strongholds of the enemy; the rest of the Army of the Church will follow. That is soon! Much more could be said and is said in my books. The truths that God is unlocking are the truths we need in these difficult days.

The times are difficult but they are also very exciting. It is my firm belief that in spite of all the trouble and persecution we encounter; this generation will see the rise of the Church in power and glory.  “CHRIST IN YOU, THE HOPE OF GLORY! “ [Colossians 1:27]

WHY I DON'T BELIEVE IN A 2-STAGE COMING

WHY  I DON’T BELIEVE IN A TWO-STAGE COMING  [Sometimes called the Dispensational Interpretation]

* It is not supported by Scripture.   Let’s look at the Scriptures the two-stagers quote:-

1 Thessalonians 4:14-18.  Paul is reminding the Thessalonians that their loved ones who have died are with the Lord and He will bring them with Him when He returns. [v14] He then goes on to speak about the Second Coming.  The bodies of those who have died in Christ [those who are coming with Him] will be resurrected first, then Christians who are alive will rise to meet Him. When Christ comes into this Earth’s atmosphere in all His resurrected glory, the whole Earth will be renewed including the dead bodies of the saints.  This is the time of “the restoration of all things”[Acts 3:21]Nowhere does it say we will all then go back to Heaven.  It simply says that we will always be with the Lord.  Where is He going to be?  Right here on the Earth. Why would those who have all this time been with the Lord in Heaven, suddenly need their resurrected bodies if they’re going back there?   We will need our bodies, resurrected and glorified, to live in this earthly realm.

The prophetic picture of this event is seen in Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem on that last Passover:- He descended from the Mt of Olives with His retinue of disciples plus others from the surrounding villages.  The crowds in Jerusalem went out to meet Him because that’s the way a king was welcomed into a city.  Then together they all escorted Him back into Jerusalem.

The story doesn’t end in Heaven; it ends right here on the Earth.  It will be an Earth restored to its original state or better – an extension of Heaven.  Jesus will be here, Heaven will be here, the city of God will be here; why would you want to be anywhere else?

Matthew 24:29-31   A Second Coming Scripture “all of the tribes of the earth’ will see Him.

1 Corinthians 15:51-58  Another 2^nd Coming Scripture.  This is clearly describing the same event as in the Thessalonians Scripture. Note “the last trumpet” and compare with previous two Scriptures.  These Scriptures are all speaking of the one event, the Second Coming, yet it is claimed that these portray two different events.

Revelation 4:1,2  This is a clear instance of making the Scriptures fit an already arrived at position.  Those who hold the popular end time scenario state that when it comes to the Book of Revelation, you take literally what can be taken literally and what cannot be taken literally, you take to be symbolic.  Yet they do not apply that principle to this Scripture.  John is caught up [whether in or out of the body we do not know]. He records what he sees. He comes back.  There is absolutely no warrant to say that this is the Rapture of the Church.  The two-stagers do so because they have to get the Church out of the way before all the scary things happen, in order to fit in with their theory.  John is having an experience similar to Paul in 2 Corinthians 12, where he was lifted up to the third Heaven where he saw things “unlawful for a man to utter” No  one would suggest that, Paul’s experience was the Rapture of the Church and neither was John’s experience.

Dispensationalists have a very literal interpretation of Revelation which makes for some very strange scenarios.  For instance, Revelation speaks of a Beast which has seven heads one of which receives a deadly wound, and ten horns, clearly symbolic.  Yet this is interpreted to be a man - the Antichrist, who gets shot or wounded in the head and is resurrected.

 Revelation is a highly symbolic book. A literal interpretation doesn’t do it justice.  It is much bigger than that. There are other ways of interpreting Revelation which seem more likely.  Revelation 13:18 speaks of the number of the Beast [666] and says “it is the number of a man;” other translations say “it is the number of man.” In Bible numerics, 6 is the number of man. I tend to think that 666 is the number of Humanism, the “Beast” which has been around since Eden.  It has infiltrated into every area of our society. It is the Antichrist spirit which is in the world and growing stronger daily.  It may well be that a man could come to power who personifies all that Humanism stands for – the “little horn” of Daniel 7:8,20 but I don’t think he will have seven heads and ten horns.

When it comes to end-times, there is a lot of talk or debate about whether there will be a “pre-trib” and “post-trib” Rapture, the main concern for some seems to be whether they will go through the anticipated Tribulation or not.  But I wonder if that is supposed to be the focus for the Christian.  Should it not be rather “Have we finished the job Jesus gave us to do?”

“....make disciples of all the nations....teaching them to observe all things I have commanded you:”

There are at least 50 nations in the world which are less than 5% Christian.  The Chinese “Back to Jerusalem” movement is dedicated to doing all they can to finish the job, pledging their lives to it. Of them it could be said “....they loved not their lives to the death” They believe that Jesus won’t come back until the Great Commission is completed. If all the Church was like minded, and if all the energy and resources that go on preaching an imminent Rapture, went into prayer for the nations and working together to evangelize them, we would be a lot further advanced. 

It is asserted that Jesus will rapture the Church out before the tribulation, because we are “not appointed to wrath” and it is true that those in Jesus do not come under the judgement of God on sin, but when God sent judgement upon Egypt, where were His people?  They were still in the land and God looked after them.  He didn’t have to evacuate them first in order to judge Egypt .  In the judgement of Noah’s day, the people of God were kept safe in the Ark which is a type of Christ.  It was the others who were “taken away” in judgement.  Noah and his family came through the Flood and inherited the Earth – a very different Earth, cleansed by the Flood.

It matters a great deal what we believe about end-times.  God’s will is accomplished through His people.  If we don’t have a vision for taking the Earth for God, then it won’t happen. Christians who believe in an imminent rapture tend to opt out of involvement in the world.  In the meanwhile satan is having a heyday.  Abortion, same sex marriage, euthanasia drugs lawlessness, all kinds of godlessness is on the increase with very little opposition from the Church.  Preachers should be inspiring their congregations to stand up and be counted and make a difference.  This is God’s world and Jesus said “Occupy till I come.” We are assured of victory if only we will fight.  Rapture-at-any-moment makes for popular exciting teaching, but is it right?  I don’t think so. Rather it tends to immobilize the Church.  We are supposed to be the Army of God. We are supposed to wage spiritual warfare for the nations and also to stand up for the principles of the kingdom here in the Earth.

* I do not believe in the Dispensationalist Interpretation because:-

It short changes the Cross. 

“For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell, and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.” Colossians 1:19,20

The Cross paid for the reconciliation of all things.  Dispensationalists have the Army of God retreating from the battle for the Earth, leaving it to the ravages of the enemy and the majority of its population headed for hell.

There is no expanding revelation of the Cross in Dispensational teaching.

The Reformation and the Wesleyan revivals restored the truths of Justification and Sanctification which are the truths of Passover.  The Feasts of Israel were harvest festivals which coincided with great events in their history.  Restoration of the Passover truths brought in a great harvest for the Kingdom.

The Pentecostal and Charismatic renewals restored the truths of Pentecost and another great harvest was reaped.  The Pentecostal revival settled into a new denomination and a Bible School was started.  Not having text books of their own, they adopted a text book of another former movement and simply added the teaching of the Baptism of the Holy Spirit.  Along with the text book they adopted its eschatological teaching which is also found in the notes of the Schofield Bible. Thus this interpretation of end times was passed on without question. This same text book stated that speaking in tongues was of the devil.  The Holy Spirit is given to lead and guide us into all truth and show us things to come. Spirit filled people should be looking for the revelation of the Spirit on the Word, yet they have accepted the teachings of people who, although good solid Christians, don’t believe in or seek the infilling of the Spirit and teach that it is not for today. Acceptance of dispensational teaching is preventing Christians from receiving further revelation.

Yet to be restored are the truths of the Feast of Tabernacles, the feast of the final great harvest.  The Day of Atonement brings us into a revelation of the finished work of Christ.  Jesus is seated at the right hand of God, His work finished, waiting for His enemies to be made His footstool. Everything necessary has been done to bring in the Kingdom of God on Earth as it is in Heaven.  The Blood has brought the reconciliation of all things, the devil has been defeated and His people have been made heirs of the Kingdom and empowered to possess it.  It remains for them to rise up and possess the Earth for the Kingdom.

This is not the time for the Bride to be getting ready for the wedding. This is the time of the Warrior Church. “And the time came for the saints to possess the Kingdom.”  Daniel 7:22

I appreciate the Body of Christ in all of its various forms, but the time has come for us to be united in purpose and to get focused on knowing and doing God’s will.

The question for pastors, preachers, and teachers is:-  What are you building into the psyche of your congregation?  A vision for flight from the Earth, or a vision for fight for the Earth? 

Jesus said “You will not see Me again till you say,  ‘Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.’’

Jesus won’t come again until all the nations are made His disciples and the earth cries out for His return.
Some things have yet to happen:-
The Church has yet to rise "unto the measure of the stature of Christ." [Ephesians 4:13] It will be "a glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle"[Ephesians 5:27] The Great Commission has yet to be completed[Matthew 28:19,20] and the gates of hell brought down [Matthew 16:18].
Looks impossible? God knew we'd think that so He has it all done before in the Journey to and possession of, the Promised Land, just to show us how it's done.  Read all about it in "the Other Bible code."