ISAIAH’S END-TIME TIMELINE

Isaiah’s End-time Timeline Chapter 28

Unraveling the Lies of Satan By Rightly Dividing the Word

[Read Isaiah 28 and briefly highlight verses and their meanings.] Verses: 1 Corinthians 2:8, 3:2, 15:23-24, 2 Corinthians 3:6, Acts 3:21, Ephesians 3:2

IN THE FIRST APPLICATION…

…of the prophetic words…. They are descriptive of the lack of understanding that the leaders of the nation of Ephraim have when it comes to God and His Word. And instead of being enlightened, are darkened in their willful stubbornness. Progressively seen with the rejection of precept upon precept, here a little, there a little, then finally, even unto the strong delusion of 2 Thessalonians 2:8-12, 5:2,3. Seen specifically in the rejection of Christ, in the prediction of Judas’ woe, their hireling, whose glorious beauty was a fading flower [Isaiah 28:4]. And finally the Anti-Christ, gloriously crowned in quick fading beauty, drunk in the lies of bestowed power, risen from death and Hades. [Revelation 11:7, with chapter 13] Him being with whom Israel makes the end-time Covenant. [Daniel 9:27 with chapter 11] Both with the resulting demises predicted here for themselves and for future Israel. First, that which followed Judas’ “covenant” betrayal, his suicide as he was immediately swallowed up, and then Israel’s destruction wrought by Rome. The 2^nd being the Covenant betrayal of the Anti-Christ who brings vast destruction and persecution on Israel, in spite of their covenant with him. THIS IS INDICATIVE OF GOD’S SALVATION PLAN OF ISRAEL. WHICH MUST INCLUDE THE “DEATH” OF ISRAEL, THE FIRST BORN, THAT A NEW LIFE MAY COME IN RESURRECTION. (To be spoken of more in a moment).

A FURTHER APPLICATION…

…discloses the Lord Jesus Christ, as God’s tried and precious corner stone, a sure foundation. Upon Whom God will build the heavenly and earthly Kingdom and through Whom He shall do His wondrous and mysterious future determined Salvation work, the Restoration of all things. [Acts 3:21, Luke 2:42] Here in Isaiah 28, we see Him both as the Suffering Servant of God and Victorious King sweeping away the lies in administrating the End of the Age Judgment. Who then, with appointed Bride and the redeemed remnant of Israel, sets up His Millennial Rest Kingdom and the outpouring of the Holy Spirit. So there is the end time allusion to Ephraim/Israel, who has drank in the wine of lies, and will be in the last days trodden over in spite of the covenant they make with the Destroyer. Yet, there shall be a residue of the people of Ephraim/Israel.

THIS IS INDICATIVE OF THE LIES OF THE SERPENT FIRST BELIEVED BY MAN IN THE GARDEN. AND GOD’S WORDS OF SURE JUDGMENT UPON THE SERPENT WHO THEN BROUGHT “DEATH” UPON MAN, BUT DECLARED A “MAN” BORN OF A WOMAN, EVENTUALLY WOULD COME AND DO A WORK THAT WOULD DESTROY WHAT HE WROUGHT.

RIGHTLY DIVIDING THE WORD….. UNRAVELING THE LIES OF SATAN

It is only through judgment that a way may be made to restore man.

Whereas the lie of unrighteousness brought death, the truth of righteousness, following death, now comes and is established in resurrection. Truth may and must vary in its applicable form as time goes on. Although the golden string of Jesus the Christ was ever in the mind of God, and woven in the fabric of the Old Covenant, it could not be lawfully revealed until its time.

For an example: The present Truth, preached to pre-Christ Israel – that there is no difference between Jew and Gentile “neither circumcision availeth any thing…” – would of then been unlawful, being out of the appointed time.

Now in this time, the Age of Grace and Mercy, the application of these prophetic Scriptures are found in Jesus Christ and in His testimony with the view of: First, His 2^nd Coming and the Age just following, (the Age of Justice) to be administered over a 1000 years. And then secondly, the application for the Ages following, in the (yet future) restitution of all things.

To apply these Scriptures before the manifestation of Jesus Christ, as prophetic and historical words that had to do with Israel solely, would of then been lawful, and was the designed application in that “time”, that “present Truth” (2 Peter 1:12) As God had not revealed the deeper “….things hard to be understood…” as they were then, “the secret things of God.”

What would be well is if we would acknowledge the letter of the law in its Truth in that time and then let God lead us from the letter to the spirit of the law found in Jesus Christ. In that Truth has taken on flesh, and is now Resurrected and Glorified. What has been among us, that is to say personified in Christ, is both flesh and spirit, law and gospel. One being once filled with its purpose and meaning, to be done away with, and one to abide forever. Then, the letter of the law, having done its work in time, He came incarnate in His time. And as a suffering Servant, died in the flesh, went into Hades located in the center of the earth, and from there He was the First to be Resurrected from the Curse of death. And received again His fleshly body, then Glorified, a new “Creature”. And now in this time He is the High Priest sitting at the Father’s right hand, that He might call out a like people for His Name. There, then awaits other Salvation Events in other times or ages, some revealed in Christ, some being revealed, and some yet hidden, to be revealed in the ages yet to come. All are revelations of Jesus Christ about the restoration of all things unto God.

We would not been able to comprehend him if He had solely come in the law, nor would we been able to comprehend Him if He had come solely in the Spirit. But He has revealed Himself to us through the flesh (in perfect harmony with the law). Suffering the curse of God in having His body die upon the Cross, was soon resurrected, being now glorified, that we might follow Him into His type of death with promise of resurrected life/glory, through the revealed Word (Old Covenant & New Covenant) in the Spirit/spirit.

THE SUMMARY PROTOTYPE FOR US THEN:

He came not to be served in His own pleasure, but to serve, and suffer unto death and to rescue man. Let this be apprehended in the spirit of the Word and we may follow Him into the fullness of God’s intended salvation in this time/age.

Is it not through His flesh; in the spirit of the letter, that God has chosen to further reveal Himself to us? But is not the Word (“precept upon precept, …here a little there a little…”) of His flesh that both reveals and veils itself (“…that they might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken.”)? Listen to the Spirit here through Isaiah: “Whom shall he teach knowledge? And whom shall he make to understand doctrine? Them that are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts. For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; here a little and there a little….… But the word of the Lord was unto them precept upon precept, precept upon precept; line upon line, line upon line; hare a little, and thee a little’ that hey might go, and fall backward, and be broken, and snared, and taken. Wherefore hear the word of the Lord, ye scornful men, that rule this people which is in Jerusalem.’ [Isaiah 28:9-10, 13-14]

Is it not in the law (as it relates to milk) that men always hear God first speaking; before the Gospel broke in on them? First, in the letter (the milk), revealing a man to himself in the light of the condemning Word. And having received this understanding, in order that he might know God more intimately, he must first be steadily weaned from milk by steadily partaking of the meat. That is to say, of the spirit of the law, wherein is the further revealing, the deeper things of Himself/himself.

And so, in addition to the written law, He has revealed Himself in like manner through man, and the Son of Man. First Adam, and then the Last Adam. Are we not but following the revealed way of God, over time, to first show the letter then the spirit to make Him known. If God had shown Himself to man, as He IS, He would not be showing Himself at all, being then incomprehensible. But to be comprehended, He must show Himself in the light of a Man made in His express image. Whom we may comprehend in His appointed light by the Spirit/spirit in His Word and life in God. Knowing and reconciling that He has many things to say that we are unable to bear at first. [John 16:12] And if taken but partially, or in the letter, out of its time, it may appear to teach what is directly opposed to Christ’s mind and true meaning. So it is, that we approach every text, not taking it by itself or in the letter, or what it seems to say at first, but endeavoring rather to find what is the Mind/Heart of God.

To the self-righteous Jews, the Gospel of Jesus Christ is a stumbling block. For they had trusted that this is he that should have redeemed Israel, and thus are blinded by His flesh to the spirit of the law. Reason being, for in that Man, it needs be that one must perceive he/himself must be stripped and mocked and deny himself. Experience a willing death in his carnal soul, of which he now has control of, being born again. As opposed to the body, cursed to die, of which he has no control. As this is the only means by which he may have hope. That, in the applied power of His death upon that flesh (body and soul), in the loving self-sacrificing service of God (that which all the Old Covenant sacrifices speak); that he, (like Jesus Christ the Son of Man) through His victory over the flesh, might also be found worthy. Through Him; having experienced the gift of that new life, thereby being saved in the re-birth of that internal “organ”, his spirit. And that which he experienced in the milk of the Word. Then now being weaned, partaking in the meat of the Spirit/spirit -applied Word, the hope of the receipt of the prize. The promise to be a part of the selective resurrected out from among the dead; in the Harvest of Christ. Then forever free from the curse of fallen man, the death of his human covering, that is to say his body, in that now death has been swallowed up in the being glorified. Now to be like the Angels of God, to never die again, to live in “…the endless life…” assured in that irrevocable fact that He also bears it as the Son of God/the Son of Man.

Jesus is the first of the first fruits (1 Corinthians 15:23). He is the first born from among the dead, He is the Head, and as in all proper births, the head comes first and then the rest of the members. As all who were born of Adam, die (Romans 5:12), but not at the same time, but at different times according to the will and plan of God. So then, in Christ all be made alive (Romans 6:15, Ephesians 2:8), but not all at once. 1 Corinthians 15:23-24:   “But every man in his own order; Christ the first-fruits (the first fruits of Passover, that is to say Christ, and then first-fruits of Pentecost, representing the man-child of Revelation 12 first fruits) ….afterward they that are Christ’s at his coming.(the harvest the Revelation 14) Then cometh the end, when he shall have delivered up the kingdom to God, even the Father; when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power..” [the feast of ingathering, at the 2^nd resurrection, those made then alive. See Revelation 20:11-15] 

In the law are found all the keys to Truth in the spirit. “No jot or tittle shall pass till all be fulfilled;” That is to say, all the events shadowed, and the appointed times that are types and figures of these last times before His triumphant Return and Reign as King in His Kingdom. For there is nothing in the New Covenant that the type or figure cannot be found in the law. Nor is there anything in the law that the substance of cannot be found in the New Covenant Gospel.

Israel here in the letter of the law is that first-born, of God, with the double portion, through whom the Gentiles will be redeemed. It was not to be in the time/age past of the “law” as most supposed from the letter; but in the time/Age of Justice. In the law’s first application, then the Jews shall surely be used to redeem the Gentile Nations…and so it must be. The New Covenant Gospel’s New Man will not redeem the nations in this Age/time, for the promise is unto Abraham’s seed. And when they “die” unto themselves, and receive again the calling of the first born of God, they will receive the double portion of the Spirit. And they will lead the Gentile Nations unto God in the Millennial Kingdom of Jesus Christ. It is in the additional application revealed in the spirit of the Word; that Jesus Christ is THE First Born of God, with Spirit without measure, through Whom His entire Creation will be redeemed and restored.

AS WE ATTEMPT TO RIGHTLY DIVIDE THE WORD AND UNRAVEL THE LIES OF SATAN, can we stop and ponder what we discover in the Word as it relates to God’s loving mercy in condemnation and judgment? It is the natural state of things ordained by God that for a creature to live in a sphere or place he must have the nature of that place. And in that Adam, alive, was living in the sphere of God’s renewed earth, in the renewed God-like life of that place, and in that the nature of that place changed in that later Adam followed after the two-fold lie of satan:

• That God was not forthcoming; but was hiding the “truth” from them.
• That if they were to disobey God, they would then be like unto Him.

In the acting upon the lies of satan, they immediately lost the life of God in their spirits and their bodies then were subject to physical death. Therefore, being in authority over the renewed Creation, then God subjected all the re-Creation to death for man’s sake. Now they were “dead”, dead in the sense that they could not live in a place with God in that fallen state, without that life nature of God. Neither in their spirits, nor in that fallen state, could they rule over an un-fallen creation. They, being dead in spirit and cursed to die in body, relegated that the place they lived must now be in that same state of death.

God addressed the first part of the lie, in that although they could not be like God with the knowledge of good and evil, disobedient and therefore separate and apart from God, that mystically joined with Him, as a Woman would bring forth the antidote. Then He could not be more forthcoming, Him being Love sent His only Begotten Son to die unjustly in the death of cursed man. (The wisdom of which if satan had known, he would not have killed the Lord of Glory 1 Corinthians 2:8 and maybe in that matter “killed” Adam.) And present unto dead men a new life in resurrection; in that receiving that life, man may now again receive the lost life of God. That he might then again be restored and present with God (if but now in the spirit only, but holding the further promise of seeing God) in that he would now be in nature, like the nature of His place.

As it relates to the 2^nd part of the lie believed, He sent the law, in that the law always condemns man in the flesh of the World. Man discovers he cannot be like God, in himself. In that the law, bringing judgment upon the disobedient, causes the head and heart of man to search out and repent to God of their sin, bringing life to their spirit. This is represented in water baptism. Upon rebirth of spirit, wherein God promises to abide, man will yet, to his shock, discover he still is subject to the devil more or less in that he yet has the burden of that old nature yet upon him, to which God calls him to contend with. To that end, he is to additionally discover that he is dead to the letter of the law, that is to say the condemning of it, the law of sin and death. In that he is a participant in the life of the kingdom and calling of a heavenly place, and the law of being in Christ and following the Spirit/spirt in His Law, he is now subject to. Although he lives here, he is not of here. (Having been, in his spirit, translated out of the kingdom of darkness.) And although he is enrolled there as a citizen in Christ, he cannot inherit that place in the Lawless flesh which he now discovers himself yet to be in.

So it is in the discovery that being in Christ means he is now to receive the Holy Spirit, the Baptism of Fire. [Matthew 3:11, Luke 12:49] That is to say instead of the condemnation of the law unto death, without any aid to help in the weak flesh, I am unable to fulfill its laws unto its righteousness. But its condemnation, no longer applicable as you have been married unto Jesus Christ. And His righteous decrees can now be fulfilled as we walk in the Spirit/spirit of purging Fire in the newness of the resurrection life [Romans 6:4] of the spirit/Spirit by minding it. It is in that minding the Spirit/spirit [Romans 8] that we may, no we must, overcome the death of the carnal flesh. The resisting the lie, by willingly drawing power from the Spirit/spirit on the one hand and offering up the carnal nature of the soul on the other.(The like lie of satan to Eve, adapted to born again Christian: “…hath God really said?” That lie of being able now to be like God, received into His Presence, without overcoming/dying to the carnal soul).

The Truth is God has made the way back into His presence through Jesus Christ only. In living in this World, in this Age or Dispensation, we may choose Him, and choose to follow His Spirit. And in spite of many failures along the way, if we stay in the race and pursue the prize legally, that is by the correct or Lawful use of the Blood in the obtaining of Mercy and Grace, we may obtain it. This means a willing participation in purging by the power of the Fire. The Holy Spirit brought to bear upon how we live while here on the earth in the World (where we could not live if we had not the nature of this place.) Just as the fires of chemistry within us take in the substance of this earth and through the blood we are developed over time into a mature human being. So also we, in the Spirit/spirit, may partake of the substance of Christ by eating of His flesh and drinking of His Blood. That through the Agency of the law of the Spirit/spirit of life in Christ Jesus, that is to say judging our selves, we will not be judged lacking by Him. We will escape the further after-life judgments, and will in due season/time afford us the putting on of the incorruptibleness of the first resurrection. Wherein there is the power of endless life, we will be no longer subject to death, that is to say the Second Death.

It was the goal of Paul, the prize he pursued, in the welcoming of tests, temptation, trials, persecutions, and afflictions. In that he understood that overcoming these in the power of Christ’s Resurrection was the key to the inheritance of the glorifying life of God bestowed unto the first born of the First Resurrection. In these the first fruits ripened/purged early are assured to be Bride and to rule and reign with Christ.

So it is, we may see the in the design of God the necessary death of our nature in the very real experience of Historical and Modern-day Israel. That God must first reveal them to them, that they cannot have a righteousness attained unto in the law, but only in Him. That they, as we, only learn righteousness while God’s Judgments are in the earth. That God must carry us into death in order that we might receive life. That is, His judgments are Mercy in action. And that in life they rejected Him. But in judgment unto death they will receive Him Him. And from death to life, to receive their inheritance of the earth, and be the promised blessing to the Gentiles. For it is they who shall lead the Gentiles unto God, through Jesus Christ the King.

And so there is a God-ordained death of body that separates us out of this World. And puts us in the intermediate state and place of the dead, in Hades/Sheol the place of the dead. IT SHOULD BE CALLED THE FIRST DEATH. Scripture relates to us a SECOND DEATH [Revelation 20:14,15] to which all who are excluded from the first resurrection CAN be subject to. [Revelation 2:11]

The SECOND DEATH then would not be the assignment ONLY, but be (AFTER THE GREAT WHITE THRONE RESURRECTION OF US IN OUR BODIES) the necessary literal 2^nd death experience and exponential suffering for the redemptive purging, also wrought only in the Atonement of man in Christ. In order to get out of the World or sphere of the Lake of Fire, where the soul burns but is not consumed. Seems to be in just response to a soul who refuses the merciful purging of the Holy Spirit whenever it was offered. [Matthew 5:22,7:19,18:8, Mark 9:42-50, Luke 3:16,17, read Luke 12:45-47, 1 Corinthians 3:13, Hebrews 1:7,12:29, 1 Peter 1:7, 2 Peter 3:7, Jude 7 and read Revelation 14:10,11.]

Those who have experienced walk upon the molten sea without effect [Revelation 15:2] being now of the nature of that fire.

Frighteningly in considering the suffering corruption normally preceding this our first death, what greater forms of suffering must await him who would escape that place. Truly the words, “they will seek death and find it not” are most applicable to humans who spurned the mercies of God in the Ages before.

But nevertheless, although the prize is lost, that is to say the inheritance of being the first-born Bride of Christ, that does not stop the Atonement power of Jesus Christ, the Redeemer in the restoration of all things, to save through the grace, that is in the virtue of His Death, not only in the Great White Throne resurrection of the dead but also from the 2^nd death, in the Age or Ages to come. [Isaiah 66:24]

But doesn’t this cry against Christian orthodoxy, that none but those who accept Christ in this Dispensation may be saved? Yes, just as the Jews cried in the past dispensation of the law, that none could be saved but by the law. So then, Christians that live in this Dispensation of Mercy and Grace cry none be saved but by accepting Christ in this Dispensation without a view to the Ages yet to come which are revealed in Scripture. (Such as the millennial Age of Justice, for one.) For Christ’s atonement is Age-lasting, atoning for those living in the past, present and future.

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