🎺GoDsTruecHURCH JESUS CHRIST Take Me In (Holy Of Holies) ENTRY INTO GODS NEW HOME HERE ON EARTH
Yahweh, the name for the God of the Israelites, represents the biblical pronunciation of “YHWH,” the Hebrew name revealed to Moses in the book of Exodus. The name YHWH, consisting of the sequence of consonants Yod, Heh, Waw, and Heh, is known as the tetragrammaton.
After the Babylonian Exile (6th century BCE), and especially from the 3rd century BCE on, Jews ceased to use the name Yahweh for two reasons. As Judaism became a universal which means (catholic NOT tHE papacy) rather than merely a local religion, the more common Hebrew noun Elohim (plural in form but understood in the singular), meaning “God,” tended to replace Yahweh to demonstrate the universal sovereignty of Israel’s God over all others. At the same time, the divine name was increasingly regarded as too sacred to be uttered; it was thus replaced vocally in the synagogue ritual by the Hebrew word Adonai ~ “My LORD”, which was translated as Kyrios (“LORD”) in the Septuagint, the Greek version of the Hebrew Scriptures. Whilst El is a generic word for god that could be used for any god, including Hadad, Moloch, or Yahweh. In the Tanakh, 'elōhîm is the normal word for a god or the great God (or gods, given that the 'im' suffix makes a word plural in Hebrew). In addition (yehōshu'a My Lord)
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ADAM FORETELLS THE COMING OF CHRIST.
Now, therefore, know thou all this, and hearken unto my word, and understand that the Word of God, the Most High, shall come down upon the earth, even as He told me at the moment when He thrust me out from the Garden (Paradise). For He told me that His Word in later days should become man from a woman who was a virgin whose name was Mary, and should hide in her, and put on flesh, and be born like a man with great power, and operative skill and knowledge. No one shall know Him except Himself and him to whom He manifested [Himself]. And God said that He should go about with people on the earth, and grow in days and years, and should perform signs and wonders openly, and should walk upon the sea as upon dry land, and should rebuke the sea and the winds openly, and they should be subject unto Him and that He should cry out to the waves of the sea and they should make answer to Him speedily. And that He should make the blind to see, and the lepers to be cleansed, and the deaf to hear, and the dumb to talk, and should raise up the paralytics, and make the lame to walk, and should turn many from error to the knowledge of God, and should drive out the devils from men.
And besides [these things] God spake unto me, saying, "Be not sorrowful, O Adam, for thou didst wish to become a god and didst transgress my command. Behold, I will establish thee, not at this present, but after a few days." And again He spake unto me, saying, "I am God Who made thee to go forth from the Garden of Joy into the earth, which shall shoot forth thorns and brambles, and thou shalt dwell therein. Bend thy back, and make thy knees to totter in old age, and I will make thy flesh food for the worms. And after five days and half a day, I will have compassion upon thee, and shew thee mercy in the abundance of my compassion and my mercy. And I will come down into thy house, and I will dwell in thy flesh, and for thy sake, I will be pleased to be born like a [ordinary] child. And for thy sake, I will be pleased to walk in the marketplace. And for thy sake, I will be pleased to fast forty days. And for thy sake, I will be pleased to accept baptism. And for thy sake, I will be pleased to endure suffering. And for thy sake, I will be pleased to hang on the wood of the Cross. All these things [will I do] for thy sake, O Adam."
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An Ancient Witness to the Messiah Many people wonder what the ancient Hebrews thought about the coming of the Messiah. Some see the New Testament as fabricated Messianic prophecy and believe nothing in the Old Testament was actually predictive. Those who teach this view say Jesus taught His disciples to interpret figurative patterns in Scripture that could be compared to His life and ministry but that those patterns were not discernable to others, especially the ancient Jews. Consequently, many wonder what the early Hebrews could have even known about the coming of the Messiah. Fortunately, we have ancient Jewish documents that tell us the Jewish people did have an understanding of the Messiah prior to the time of Christ. Many such documents are part of the collection of ancient texts and commentaries known as the Dead Sea Scrolls. One, in particular, stands out. Known as Testimonia (4Q175), this document was discovered with many others in Cave 4 at Qumran, an ancient Jewish settlement near the Dead Sea that existed from 150 BC to AD 68. The almost complete text, written in ink on parchment (animal skin), is dated to 90 BC, almost a century before Jesus’ birth. It contains a list of Messianic expectations written in a chain-text style (cf. Hebrews 1:5–13) that links biblical passages together in a continuous stream. Some of the passages, such as Numbers 24:15–17 and Deuteronomy 18:18–19, are familiar proof texts for the Messiah. Others, such as Deuteronomy 5:28–29; 33:8–11; and Joshua 6:26 are unfamiliar as Messianic texts. However, this document confirms the ancient Jewish community believed in the Messiah’s coming, and Jewish people felt they could discern prophetic texts in their Scriptures that made this case. Testimonia begins with Moses’ hope from Deuteronomy 5:28–29 that if the Israelites would fear the Lord and keep His Word, God would raise up a Prophet like him from among them, place His Word in the Prophet’s mouth, and require it of the nation. Then it cites Numbers 24:15–17, explaining that this is the one of whom Balaam prophesied: a Star from Jacob and a Scepter from Israel to defeat Israel’s enemies. Then, using Moses’ words to Levi in Deuteronomy 33:8–11, it says this one will bless those in Israel who keep the covenant and destroy its foes, explaining that the foremost foe will be Belial (Satan or the Antichrist) who will be a deceptive trap and instrument of violence in Israel and who will commit blasphemy in Jerusalem and shed blood. These ancient Jews obviously understood that the King-Messiah will come to defeat Israel’s enemies, especially the Antichrist, who will bring about the abomination of desolation (Mt. 24:15) and the Tribulation’s persecution of the Jewish people (vv. 16–21). That is a lot of Messianic information from a people without Jesus’ interpretive guidance or a New Testament! The writer of Testimonia also wrote another important Qumran document: Rule of the Community(1QS). This text also contains a prophetic expectation of the Messiah’s coming (based on Isaiah 25:6–9) and a future Messianic banquet that will climax Messiah’s victory and His installment as King in Jerusalem (Ps. 2:1-6; Zech. 14:1–9). There, the Messiah is explicitly referred to as “the Messiah of Israel,” and instructions are given as to how the Jewish community is to receive Him at that time. Archaeology has revealed the ancient Jewish people not only knew about their Messiah, but they also encouraged the Jewish community to believe God’s Word and look for Him who will redeem Israel.
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Eric Ludy - HE is (tHE Names oF God) Amen https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NscHCa395-M...
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A MUST-READ ANTIQUITY AND FIRST PERSECUTIONS OF THE WALDENSES.> To continue to read including missing chapters> https://www.adamandevegodsfirstchurch.org/
Their Unique Position in Christendom–Their Twofold Testimony–They Witness against Rome and for Protestantism–Hated by Rome–The Cottian Alps–Albigenses and Waldenses–The Waldensian Territory Proper–Papal Testimony to the Flourishing State of their Church in the Fourteenth Century–Early Bulls against them–Tragedy of Christmas, 1400–Constancy of the Waldenses–Crusade of Pope Innocent VIII– His Bull of 1487 – The Army Assembles–Two Frightful Tempests approach the Valleys. THE Waldenes stand apart and alone in the Christian world. Their place on the surface of Europe is unique; their position in history is not less unique; and the end. appointed them to fulfil is one which has been assigned to them alone, no other people being permitted to share it with them. The Waldenses bear a twofold testimony. Like the snow-clad peaks amid which their dwelling is placed, which look down upon the plains of Italy on the one side, and the provinces of France on the other, this people stand equally related to primitive ages and modern times, and give by no means equivocal testimony respecting both Rome and the Reformation. If they are old, then Rome is new; if they are pure, then Rome is corrupt; and if they have retained the faith of the apostles, it follows incontestably that Rome has departed from it. That the Waldensian faith and worship existed many centuries before Protestantism arose is undeniable; the proofs and monuments of this fact lie scattered over all the histories and all the lands of mediaeval Europe; but the antiquity of the Waldenses is the antiquity of Protestantism. The Church of the Reformation was in the loins of the Waldensian Church ages before the birth of Luther; her first cradle was placed amid those terrors and sublimities, those ice-clad peaks and great bulwarks of rock. In their dispersions over so many lands–over France, the Low Countries, Germany, Poland, Bohemia, Moravia, England, Calabria, Naples– the Waldenses sowed the seeds of that great spiritual revival which, beginning in the days of Wicliffe, and advancing in the times of Luther and Calvin, awaits its full consummation in the ages to come. In the place which the Church of the Alps has held, and the office she has discharged, we see the reason of that peculiar and bitter hostility which Rome has ever borne this holy and venerable community. It was natural that Rome should wish to efface so conclusive a proof of her apostaey, and silence a witness whose testimony so emphatically corroborates the position of Protestantism. The great bulwark of the Reformed Church is the Word of God; but next to this is the pre-existence of a community spread throughout Western Christendom, with doctrines and worship substantially one with those of the Reformation. The Persecutions of this remarkable people form one of the most heroic pages of the Church's history. These persecutions, protracted through many centuries, were endured with patience, a constancy, bravery honourable to the Gospel, as well as to those simple people, whom the Gospel converted into heroes and martyrs. Their resplendent virtues illumined the darkness of their age; and we turn with no little relief from a Christendom sunk in barbarism and superstition to this remnant of an ancient people, who here in their mountain-engirdled territory practiced the simplicity, the piety, and the heroism of a better age. It is mainly those persecutions of the Waldenses which connect themselves with the Reformation, and which were, in fact, part of the mighty effort made by Rome to extinguish Protestantism, on which we shall dwell. But we must introduce ourselves to the great tragedy by a brief notice of the attacks which led up to it. That part of the great Alpine chain that extends between Turin on the east and Grenoble on the west is known as the Cottian Alps. This is the dwelling-place of the Waldenses, the land of ancient Protestantism. On the west the mountains slopc towards the plains of France, and on the east they run down to those of Piedmont. That line of glittering summits, conspicuous among which is the lofty snow-clad peak of Monte Viso on the west, and the craggy escarpments of Genevre on the east, forms the boundary between the Albigenses and the Waldenses, the two bodies of these early witnesses. On the western slope were the dwellings of the former people, and on the eastern those of the latter. Not entirely so, however, for the Waldenses, crossing the summits, had taken possession of the more elevated portion of the western declivities, and scarcely was there a valley in which their villages and sanctuaries were not to be found. But in the lower valleys, and more particularly in the vast and fertile plains of Dauphine and Provence, spread out at the foot of the Alps, the inhabitants were mainly of cis-Alpine or Gallic extraction, and are known in history as the Albigenses. How flourishing they were, how numerous and opulent their towns, how rich their corn-fields and vineyards, and how polished the manners and cultured the genius of the people, we have already said. We have also described the terrible expiation Innocent III exacted of them for their attachment to a purer Christianity than that of Rome. He launched his bull; he sent forth his inquisitors; and soon the fertility and beauty of the region were swept away; city and sanctuary sank in ruins; and the plains so recently covered with smiling fields were converted into a desert. The work of destruction had been done with tolerable completeness on the west of the Alps; and after a short pause it was commenced on the east, it being resolved to pursue these confessors of a pure faith across the mountains, and attack them in those grand valleys which open into Italy, where they lay entrenched, as in a fastness formed of massy chestnut forests and mighty pinnacles of rock. We place ourselves at the foot of the eastern declivity, about thirty miles to the west of Turin. Behind us is the vast sweep of the plain of Piedmont. Above us in front tower the Alps, here forming a crescent of grand mountains, extending from the escarped summit that leans over Pinerolo on the right, to the pyramidal peak of Monte Viso, which cleaves the ebon like a horn of silver, and marks the furthest limit of the Waldensian territory on the left. In the bosom of that mountain crescent, shaded by its chestnut forests, and encircled by its glittering peaks, are hung the famous valleys of that people whose martyrdoms we are now to narrate. In the center of the picture, right before us, rises the pillar-like Castelluzzo; behind it is the towering mass of the Vandalin; and in front, as if to bar the way against the entrance of any hostile force into this sacred territory, is drawn the long, low hill of Bricherasio, feathery with woods, bristling with great rocks, and leaving open, between its rugged mass and the spurs of Monte Friolante on the west, only a narrow avenue, shaded by walnut and acacia trees, which leads up to the point where the valleys, spreading out fan-like, bury themselves in the mountains that open their stony arms to receive them. Historians have enumerated some thirty persecutions enacted on this little spot. One of the earliest dates in the martyr-history of this people is 1332, or thereabouts, for the time is not dictinctly marked. The reigning Pope was John XXII. Desirous of resuming the work of Innocent III, he ordered the inquisitors to repair to the Valleys of Lucerne and Perosa, and execute the laws of the Vatican against the heretics that peopled them. What success attended the expedition is not known, and we instance it chiefly on this account, that the bull commanding it bears undesigned testimony to the then flourishing condition of the Waldensian Church, inasmuch as it complains that synods, which the Pope calls chapters, were used to assemble in the Valley of Angrogna, attended by 500 delegates.[1] This was before Wicliffe had begun his career in England. After this date scarcely was there a Pope who did not bear unintentional testimony to their great numbers and wide diffusion. In 1352 we find Pope Clement VI charging the Bishop of Embrun, with whom he associates a Franciscan friar and inquisitor, to essay the purification of those parts adjoining his diocese which were known to be infected with heresy. The territorial lords and city. After this date scarcely was there a Pope who did not bear unintentional testimony to their great numbers and wide diffusion. In 1352 we find Pope Clement VI charging the Bishop of Embrun, with whom he associates a Franciscan friar and inquisitor, to essay the purification of those parts adjoining his diocese which were known to be infected with heresy. The territorial lords and city syndics were invited to aid him. While providing for the heretics of the Valleys, the Pope did not overlook those farther off. He urged the Dauphin, Charles of France, and Louis, King of Naples, to seek out and punish those of their subjects who had strayed from the faith. Clement referred doubtless to the Vaudois colonies, which are known to have existed in that age at Naples. The fact that the heresy of the Waldensian mountains extended to the plains at their feet, is attested by the letter of the Pope to Joanna, wife of the King of Naples, who owned lands in the Marquisate [2] of Saluzzo, near the Valleys, urging her to purge her territory of the heretics that lived in it. The zeal of the Pope, however, was but indifferently seconded by that of the secular lords. The men they were enjoined to exterminate were the most industrious and peaceable of their subjects; and willing as they no doubt were to oblige the Pope, they were naturally averse to incur so great a loss as would be caused by the destruction of the flower of their populations. Besides, the princes of that age were often at war among themselves, and had not much leisure or inclination to make war on the Pope's behalf. Therefore the Papal thunder sometimes rolled harmlessly over the Valleys, and the mountain-home of these confessors was wonderfully shielded till very nearly the era of the Reformation, We find Gregory XI, in 1373, writing to Charles V of France, to complain that his officers thwarted his inquisitors in Dauphine; that the Papal judges were not permitted to institute proceedings against the suspected without the consent of the civil judge; and that the disrespect to the spiritual tribunal was sometimes carried so far as to release condemned heretics from prison.[3] Notwithstanding this leniency–so culpable in the eyes of Rome– on the part of princes and magistrates, the inquisitors were able to make not a few victims. These acts of violence provoked reprisals at times on the part of the Waldenses. On one occasion (1375) the Popish city of Susa was attacked, the Dominican convent forced, and the inquisitor put to death. Other Dominicans were called to expiate their rigor against the Vaudois with the penalty of their lives. An obnoxious inquisitor of Turin is said to have been slain on the highway near Bricherasio.[4] There came evil days to the Popes themselves. First, they were chased to Avignon; next, the yet greater cals;mity of the "schism" befell them; but their own afflictions had not the effect of softening their hearts towards the confessors of the Alps. During the clouded era of their "captivity," and the tempestuous days of the schism, they pursued with the same inflexible rigor their policy of extermination. They were ever and anon fulminating their persecuting edicts, and their inquisitors were scouring the Valleys in pursuit of victims. An inquisitor of the name of Borelli had 150 Vaudois men, besides a great number of women, girls, and even young children, brought to Grenoble and burned alive.[5] The closing days of the year 1400 witnessed a terrible tragedy, the memory of which has not been obliterated by the many greater which have followed it. The scene of this catastrophe was the Valley of Pragelas, one of the higher reaches of Perosa, which opens near Pinerolo, and is watered by the Clusone. It was the Christmas of 1400, and the inhabitants dreaded no attack, believing themselves sufficiently protected by the snows which then lay deep on their mountains. They were destined to experience the bitter fact that the rigors of the season had not quenched the fire of their persecutor's malice. The man named above, Borelli, at the head of an armed troop, broke suddenly into Pragelas, meditating the entire extinction of its population. The miserable inhabitants fled in haste to the mountains, carrying on their shoulders their old men, their sick, and their infants, knowing what fate awaited them should they leave them behind. In their flight a great many were overtaken and slain. Nightfall brought them deliverance from the pursuit, but no deliverance from horrors not less dreadful. The main body of the fugitives wandered in the direction of Macel, in the storm-swept and now ice-clad valley of San Martino, where they encamped on a summit which has ever since, in memory of the event, borne the name of the Alberge or Refuge. Without shelter, without food, the frozen snow around them, the winter's sky overhead, their sufferings were inexpressibly great. When morning broke what a heart-rending spectacle did day disclose! Of the miserable group the hands and feet of many were frozen; while others were stretched out on the snow, stiffened corpses. Fifty young children, some say eighty, were found dead with cold, some lying on the bare ice, others locked in the frozen arms of their mothers, who had perished on that dreadful night along with their babes.[6] In the Valley of Pragelas, to this day, sire recites to son the tale of that Christmas tragedy. The century, the opening of which had been so fearfully marked, passed on amid continuous executions of the Waldenses. In the absence of such catastrophes as that of Christmas, 1400, individual Vaudois were kidnapped by the inquisitors, ever on the track for them, or waylaid, whenever they ventured down into the plain of Piedmont, were carried to Turin and other towns, and burned alive. But Rome saw that she was making no progress in the extermination of a heresy which had found a seat amid these hills, as firm as it was ancient. The numbers of the Waldenses were not thinned; their constancy was not shaken, they still refused to enter the Roman Church, and they met all the edicts and inquisitors, all the torturings and burnings of their great persecutor with a resistance as unyielding as that which their rocks offer to the tempests of hail and snow, which the whirlwinds of winter hurl against them. It was the year 1487. A great blow was meditated. The process of purging the Valleys languished. Pope Innocent VIII, who then filled the Papal chair, remembered how his renowned namesake, Innocent III, by an act of summary vengeance, had swept the Albigensian heresy from the south of France. Imitating the rigor of his predecessor, he would purge the Valleys as effectually and as speedily as Innocent III had done the plains of Dauphine and Provence. The first step of the Pope was to issue a bull, denouncing as heretical those whom he delivered over to slaughter. This bull, after the manner of all such documents, was expressed in terms as sanctimonious as its spirit was inexorably cruel. It brings no charge against these men, as lawless, idle, dishonest, or disorderly; their fault was that they did not worship as Innocent worshipped, and that they practiced a "simulated sanctity," which had the effect of seducing the sheep of the true fold, therefore he orders "that malicious and abominable sect of malignants," if they "refuse to abjure, to be crushed like venomous snakes."[7] To carry out his bull, Innocent VIII appointed Albert Cataneo, Archdeacon of Cremona, his legate, devolving upon him the chief conduct of the enterprise. He fortified him, moreover, with Papal missives to all princes, dukes, and powers within whose dominions any Vaudois were to be found. The Pope especially accredited him to Charles VIII of France, and Charles II of Savoy, commanding them to support him with the whole power of their arms. The bull invited all Catholics to take up the cross against the heretics; and to stimulate them in this pious work, it "absolved from all ecclesiastical pains and penalties, general and particular; it released all who joined the crusade from any oaths they might have taken; it legitimatized their title to any property they might have illegally acquired, and promised remission of all their sins to such as should kill any heretic. It annulled all contracts made in favor of Vaudois, ordered their domestics to abandon them, forbade all persons to give them any aid whatever, and empowered all persons to take possession of their property." These were powerful incentives, plenary pardon and unrestrained licence. They were hardly needed to awaken the zeal of the neighboring populations, always too ready to show their devotion to Rome by spilling the blood and harrying the lands and goods of the Waldenses. The King of France and the Duke of Savoy lent a willing ear to the summons from the Vatican. They made haste to unfurl their banners, and enlist soldiers in this holy cause, and soon a numerous army was on its march to sweep from the mountains where they had dwelt from immemorial time, these confessors of the Gospel faith pure and undefiled. In the train of this armed host came a motley crowd of volunteers, "vagabond adventurers," says Muston, "ambitious fanatics, reckless pillagers, merciless assassins, assembled from all parts of Italy,"[8] a horde of brigands in short, the worthy tools of the man whose bloody work they were assembled to do. Before all these arrangements were finished, it was the June of 1488. The Pope's bull was talked of in all countries; and the din of preparation rung far and near, for it was not only on the Waldensian mountains, but on the Waldensian race, wherever dispersed, in Germany, in Calabria, and in other cottatries, that this terrible blow was to fall.[9] All kings were invited to gird on the sword, and come to the help of the Church in the execution of so total and complete an extermination of her enemies as should never need to be repeated. Wherever a Vaudois foot trod, the soil was polluted, and had to be cleansed; wherever a Vaudois breathed, the air was tainted, and must be purified; wherever Vaudois psalm or prayer ascended, there was the infection of heresy; and around the spot a cordon must be drawn to protect the spiritual health of the district. The Pope's bull was thus very universal in its application, and almost the only people left ignorant of the commotion it had excited, and the bustle of preparation it had called forth, were those poor men on whom this terrible tempest was about to burst. The joint army numbered about 18,000 regular soldiers. This force was swelled by the thousands of ruffians, already mentioned, drawn together by the spiritual and temporal rewards to be earned in this work of combined piety and pillage. The Piedmontese division of this host directed their course towards the "Valleys" proper, on the Italian side of the Alps. The French division, marching from the north, advanced to attack the inhabitants of the Dauphinese Alps, where the Albigensian heresy, recovering somewhat its terrible excision by Innocent III, had begun again to take root. Two storms, from opposite points, or rather from all points, were approaching those mighty mountains, the sanctuary and citadel of the primitive faith. That lamp is about to be extinguished at last, which has burned here during so many ages, and survived so many tempests. The mailed band of the Pope is uplifted, and we wait to see the blow fall.
2. CATANEO'S EXPEDITION (1488) AGAINST THE DAUPHINESE AND PIEDMONTESE CONFESSORS. The Confessors of the Dauphinese Alps–Attacked–Flee to Mont Pelvoux–Retreat into a Cave–Are Suffocated – French Crusaders Cross the Alps–Enter the Valley of Pragelas–Piedmontese Army Advance against La Torre–Deputation of Waldenstart Patriarchs – The Valley of Lucerna–Villaro-Bobbio–Cataneo's Plan of Campaign– His Soldiers Cross the Col Julten–Grandeurs of the Pass– Valley of Prali– Defeat of Cataneo's Expedition. WE see at this moment two armies on the march to attack the Christians inhabiting the Cottian and Dauphinese Alps. The sword now unsheathed is to be returned to its scabbard only when there breathes no longer in these mountains a single confessor of the faith condemned in the bull of Innocent VIII. The plan of the campaign was to attack at the same time on two opposite points of the great mountain-chain; and advancing, the one army from the south-east, and the other from the north-west, to meet in the Valley of Angrogna, the center of the territory, and there strike the final blow. Let us attend first to the French division of this host, that which is advancing from the north against the Alps of Dauphine. This portion of the crusaders was led by a daring and cruel man, skilled in such adventures, the Lord of La Palu. He ascended the mountains with his fanatics, and entered the Vale of Loyse, a deep gorge overhung by towering mountains. The inhabitants, seeing an armed force, twenty times their own number, enter their valley, despaired of being able to resist them, and prepared for flight. They placed their old people and children in rustic carts, together with their domestic utensils, and such store of victuals as the urgency of the occasion permitted them to collect, and driving their herds before them, they began to climb the rugged slopes of Mount Pelvoux, which rises some six thousand feet over the level of the valley. They sang canticles as they climbed the steeps, which served at once to smooth their rugged path, and to dispel their terrors. Not a few were overtaken and slaughtered, and theirs was perhaps the happier lot. About halfway up there is an immense cavern, called Aigue-Froid, from the cold springs that gush out from its rocky walls. In front of the cavern is a platform of rock, where the spectator sees beneath him only fearful precipices, which must be clambered over before one can reach the entrance of the grotto. The roof of the cave forms a magnificent arch, which gradually subsides and contracts into a narrow passage, or throat, and then widens once more, and forms a roomy hall of irregular form. Into this grotto, as into an impregnable castle, did the Vaudois enter. Their women, infants, and old men they placed in the inner hall; their cattle and sheep they distributed along the lateral cavities of the grotto. The able-bodied men posted themselves at the entrance. Having barricaded with huge stones both the doorway of the cave and the path that led to it, they deemed themselves secure. They had provisions to last, Cataneo says in his Memoirs, "two years;" and it would cost them little effort to hurl headlong down the precipices, any one who should attempt to scale them in order to reach the entrance of the cavern. But a device of their pursuer rendered all these precautions and defences vain. La Palu ascended the mountain on the other side, and approaching the cave from above, let down his soldiers by ropes from the precipice that overhangs the entrance of the grotto. The platform in front was thus secured by his soldiers. The Vaudois might have cut the ropes, and dispatched their foes as they were being lowered one by one, but the boldness of the maneuver would seem to have paralyzed them. They retreated into the cavern to find in it their grave. La Palu saw the danger of permitting his men to follow them into the depths of their hiding-place. He adopted the easier and safer method of piling up at its entrance all the wood he could collect and setting fire to it. A huge volume of black smoke began to roll into the cave, leaving to the unhappy inmates the miserable alternative of rushing out and falling by the sword that waited for them, or of remaining in the interior to be stifled by the murky vapor.[1] Some rushed out, and were massacred; but the greater part remained till death slowly approached them by suffocation. "When the cavern was afterwards examined," says Muston, "there were found in it 400 infants, suffocated in their cradles, or in the arms of their dead mothers. Altogether there perished in this cavern more than 3,000 Vaudois, including the entire population of Val Loyse. Cataneo distributed the property of these unfortunates among the vagabonds who accompanied him, and never again did the Vaudois Church raise its head in these bloodstained valleys."
PERSECUTIONS AND MARTYRDOMS.
A Peace of Twenty-eight Years-Flourishing State–Bersour–A Martyr– Martyrdom of Pastor Gonin– Martyrdoms of a Student and a Monk– Trial and Burning of a Colporteur–A List of Horrible Deaths–The Valleys under the Sway of France–Restored to Savoy–Emmanuel Philibert–Persecution Renewed– Carignano–Persecution Approaches the Mountains–Deputation to the Duke–The Old Paths– Remonstrance to the Duke–to the Duchess–to the Council. THE Church of the Alps had peace for twenty-eight years. This was a time of great spiritual prosperity. Sanctuaries arose in all her Valleys; her pastors and teachers were found too few, and men of learning and zeal, some of them from foreign lands, pressed into her service. Individuals and families in the cities on the plain of Piedmont embraced her faith; and the crowds that attended her worship were continually growing.[1] In short, this venerable Church had a second youth. Her lamp, retrimmed, burned with a brightness that justified her time-honored motto, "A light shining in darkness." The darkness was not now so deep as it had been; the hours of night were drawing to a close. Nor was the Vaudois community the only light that now shone in Christendom. It was one of a constellation of lights, whose brilliance was beginning to irradiate the skies of the Church with an effulgence which no former age had known. The exemption from persecution, which the Waldenses enjoyed during this period, was not absolute, but comparative. The lukewarm are seldom molested; and the quickened zeal of the Vaudois brought with it a revival of the persecutor's malignity, though it did not find vent in violences so dreadful as the tempests that had lately smitten them. Only two years after the synod–that is, in 1534–wholesale destruction fell upon the Vaudois Churches of Provence; but the sad story of their extinction will more appropriately be told elsewhere. In the valleys of Piedmont events were from time to time occurring that showed that the inquisitor's vengeance had been scotched, not killed. While the Vaudois as a race were prosperous, their churches mutliplying, and their faith extending it geographical area from one area to another, individual Vaudois were being at times seized, and put to death, at the stake, on the rack, or by the cord. Three years after, the persecution broke out anew, and raged for a short time. Charles III. of Savoy, a prince of mild manners, but under the rule of the priests, being solicited by the Archbishop of Turin and the inquisitor of the same city, gave his consent to "hunting down" the heretics of the Valleys [2]. The commission was given to a nobleman of the name of Bersour, whose residence was at Pinerolo, near the entrance of the Valley of Perosa. Bersour, a man of savage disposition, collected a troop of 500 horse and foot, and attacked the Valley of Angrogna. He was repulsed, but the storm which had rolled away from the mountains fell upon the plains. Turning to the Vaudois who resided around his own residence, he seized a great number of persons, whom he threw into prisons and convents of Pinerolo and the Inquisition of Turin. Many of them suffered in the flames. One of these martyrs, Catalan Girard, quaintly taught the spectators a parabolic lesson, standing at the pile. From amid the flames he asked for two stones, which were instantly brough him. The crowd looked on in silence, curious to know what he meant to do with them. Rubbing them against each other, he said, "You think to extinguish our poor Churches by your persecutions. You can no more do so than I with my feeble hands can crush these stones."[3] Heavier tempests seemed about to descend, when suddenly the sky cleared above the confessors of the Alps. It was a change in the politics of Europe in this instance, as in many others, that stayed the arm of persecution. Francis I of France demanded of Charles, Duke of Savoy, permission to march an army through his dominions. The object of the French king was the recovery of the Duchy of Milan, a longcontested prize between himself and Charles V. The Duke of Savoy refused the request of his brother monarch; but reflecting that the passes of the Alps were in the hands of the men whom he was persecuting, and that should he continue his oppressions, the Vaudois might open the gates of his kingdom to the enemy, he sent orders to Bersour to stop the persecution in the Valleys.
In 1536, the Waldensian Church had to mourn the loss of one of the more distinguished of her pastors. Martin Gonin, of Angrogna – a man of public spirit and rare gifts–who had gone to Geneva on ecclesiastical affairs, was returning through Dauphine, when he was apprehended on suspicion of being a spy. He cleared himself on that charge, but the gaoler searching his person, and discovering certain papers upon him, he was convicted of what the Parliament of Grenoble accounted a much greater crime–heresy. Condemned to die, he was led forth at night, and drowned in the river Isere. He would have suffered at the stake had not his persecutors feared the effect of his dying words upon the spectators.[4] There were others, also called to ascend the martyr-pile, whose names we must not pass over in silence. Two pastors returning from Geneva to their flocks in the Valleys, in the company of three French Protestants, were seized at the Col de Tamiers, in Savoy, and carried to Chambery. There all five were tried, condemned, and burned. The fate of Nicolas Sartoire is yet more touching. He was a student of theology at Geneva and held one of those bursaries which the Lords of Bern had allotted for the training of young men as pastors in the Churches of the Valleys. He set out to spend his holiday with his family in Piedmont. We know how Vaudois heart yearns for its native mountains; nor would the conting of the youth awaken less lively anticipations on the part of his friends. The paternal threshold, alas! he was never to cross; his native Valleys he was to tread no more. Travelling by the pass of St. Bernard, and the grand Valley of Aosta, he had just passed the Italian frontier, when he was apprehended on the suspicion of heresy. It was the month of May, when all was life and beauty in the vales and mountains around him; he himself was in the springtime of existence; it was hard to lay down life at such a moment; but the great captain from whose feet he had just come, had taught him that the first duty of a soldier of Christ is obedience. He confessed his Lord, nor could promises or threats–and both were tried–make him waver. He continued steadfast unto the end, and on the 4th of May, 1557, he was brought forth from his dungeon at Aosta, and burned alive.[5] The martyr who died thus heroically at Aosta was a youth, the one we are now to contemplate was a man of fifty. Geofroi Varaile was a native of the town of Busco, in Piedmont. His father had been a captain in that army of murderers who, in 1488, ravaged the Valleys of Lucerna and Angrogna. The son in 1520 became a monk, and possessing the gift of rare eloquence, he was sent on a preaching tour, in company with another cowled ecclesiastic, yet more famous, Bernardo Ochino of Sienna, the founder of the order of the Capuchins. The arguments of the men he was sent to convert staggered Varaile. He fled to Geneva, and in the city of the Reformers he was taught more fully the "way of life." Ordained as a pastor, he returned to the Valleys, where "like another Paul," says Leger, "he preached the faith he once destroyed." After a ministry of some months, he set out to pay a visit of a few days to his native town of Busco. He was apprehended by the monks who were lying in wait for him. He was condemned to death by the Inquisition of Turin. His execution took place in the castle piazza of the same city, on March 29th, 1558. He walked to the place where he was to die with a firm step and a serene countenance; he addressed the vast multitude around his pile in a way that drew tears from many eyes; after this, he began to sing with a loud voice, and so continued till he sank amid the flames of.[6] Two years before this, the same piazza, the castle-yard at Turin, had witnessed a similar spectacle. Barthelemy Hector was a bookseller in Poictiers. A man of warm but well-tempered zeal, he travelled as far as the Valleys, diffusing that knowledge that maketh wise, unto salvation. In the assemblage oI white peaks that look down on the Pra del Tor is one named La Vechera, so-called because the cows love the rich grass that clothes its sides in summer-time. Barthelemy Hector would take his seat on the slopes of the mountain, and gathering the herdsmen and agriculturists of the Pra round him, would induce them to buy his books, by reading passages to them. Portions of the Scriptures also would he recite to the grandames and maidens as they watched their goats, or plied the distaff. His steps were tracked by the inquisitor, even amid these wild solitudes. He was dragged to Turin, to answer for the crime of selling Genevese books. His defence before his judges discovered an act of admirable courage and wisdom. "You have been caught in the act," said his judge, "of selling books that contain heresy. What say you?" "If the Bible is heresy to you, it is truth to me," replied the prisoner "But you use the Bible to deter men from going to mass," urged the judge. "If the Bible deters men from going to mass," responded Barthelemy, "it is a proof that God disapproves of it, and that the mass is idolatry." The judge, deeming it expedient to make short shrift with such a heretic, exclaimed, "Retract." "I have spoken only truth," said the bookseller, "can I change truth as I would a garment?" His judges kept him some months in prison, in the hope that his recantation would save them the necessity of burning him. This unwillingness to have resort to the last penalty was owing to no feeling of pity for the prisoner, but entirely to the conviction that these repeated executions were endangering the cause of their Church. "The smoke of these martyr-piles," as was said with reference to the death of Patrick Hamilton, "was infecting those on whom it blew." But the constancy of Barthelemy compelled his persecutors to disregard these prudential considerations. At last, despairing of his abjuration, they brought him forth and consigned him to the flames. His behavior at the stake "drew rivers of tears," says Leger, "from the eyes of many in the Popish crowd around his stake, while others vented reproaches and invectives against the cruelty of the monks and the inquisitors."[7] These are only a few of the many martyrs by whom, even during this period of comparative peace and prosperity, the Church of the Valleys was called to testify against Rome. Some of these martyrs perished by cruel, barbarous, and most horrible methods. To recite all these cases would be beyond our purpose, and to depict the revolting and infamous details would be to narrate what no reader could peruse. We shall only quote part of the brief summary of Muston. "There is no town in Piedmont," says he, "under a Vandois pastor, where some of our brethren have not been put to death..Hugo Chiamps of Finestrelle had his entrails torn from his living body, at Turin. Peter Geymarali of Bobbio, in like manner, had his entrails taken out at Luzerna, and a fierce cat thrust in their place to torture him further; Maria Romano was buried alive at Rocco-patia; Magdalen Foulano underwent the same fate at San Giovanni; Susan Michelini was bound hand and foot, and left to perish of cold and hunger at Saracena. Bartholomew Fache, gashed with sabres, had the wounds filled up with quicklime, and perished thus in agony at Fenile; Daniel Michelini had his tongue torn out at Bobbio for having praised God. James Baridari perished covered with sulphurous matches, which had been forced into his flesh under the nails, between the fingers, in the nostrils, in the lips, and over all his body, and then lighted. Daniel Revelli had his mouth filled with gunpowder, which, being lighted, blew his head to pieces. Maria Monnen, taken at Liousa, had the flesh cut from her cheek and chin bones so that her jaw was left bare, and she was thus left to perish. Paul Garnier was slowly sliced to pieces at Rora. Thomas Margueti was mutilated in an indescribable manner at Miraboco, and Susan Jaquin cut in bits at La Torre. Sara Rostagnol was slit open from the legs to the bosom, and so left to perish on the road between Eyral and Luzerne. Anne Charbonnier was impaled and carried thus on a pike, as a standard, from San Giovanni to La Torre. Daniel Rambaud, at Paesano, had his nails torn off, then his fingers chopped off, then his feet and his hands, then his arms and his legs, with each successive refusal on his part to abjure the Gospel."[8] Thus the role of martyrs runs on, and with each new sufferer comes a new, more excruciating and more horrible mode of torture and death. We have already mentioned the demand that the King of France made upon the Duke of Savoy, Charles III, that he would permit him to march an army through his territories. The reply was a refusal, but Francis I must need to have a road into Italy. Accordingly, he seized upon Piedmont, and held possession of it, together with the Waldensian Valleys, for twenty-three years. The Waldenses had found the sway of Francis I more tolerant than that of their own princes; for though Francis hated Lutheranism, the necessities of his policy often compelled him to court the Lutherans, and so it came to pass that while he was burning heretics at Paris he spared them in the Valleys. But the general peace of Chateau Cambresis, April 3rd, 1559, restored Piedmont, with the exception of Turin, to its former rulers of the House of Savoy.[9] Charles III had been succeeded in 1553 by Emmanuel Philibert. Philibert was a prince of superior talents and humane disposition, and the Vaudois cherished the hope that under him they would be permitted to live in peace and to worship as their fathers had done. What strengthened these just expectations was the fact that Philibert had married a sister of the King of France, Henry II, who had been carefully instructed in the Protestant faith by her illustrious relations, Margaret, Queen of Navarre, and Renee of France, daughter of Louis XII. But, alas! the treaty that restored Emmanuel Philibert to the throne of his ancestors, contained a clause binding the contracting parties to extinguish heresy. This was to send him back to his subjects with a dagger in his hand. Whatever the king might incline–and we dare say, strengthened by the counsels of his Protestant queen, he intended to deal humanely by his faithful subjects the Vaudois–his intentions were overborne by men of stronger wills and more determined resolves. The inquisitors of his kingdom, the nuncio of the Pope, and the ambassadors of Spain and France, united in urging upon him the purgation of his dominions, in terms of the agreement in the treaty of peace. The unhappy monarch, unable to resist these powerful solicitations, issued on the 15th February 1560, an edict forbidding his subjects to hear the Protestant preachers in the Valley of Lucerna, or anywhere else, under pain of a fine of 100 dollars of gold for the first offence, and of the galleys for life for the second. This edict had reference mainly to the Protestants on the plain of Piedmont, who resorted in crowds to hear sermons in the Valleys. There followed, however, in a short time a yet severer edict, commanding attendance at mass under pain of death. To carry out this cruel decree a commission was given to a prince of the blood, Philip of Savoy, Count de Raconis, and with him was associated George Costa, Count de la Trinita, and Thomas Jacomel, the Inquisitor-General, a man as cruel in disposition as he was licentious in manners. To these was added a certain Councillor Corbis, but he was not of the stuff which the business required, and so, after witnessing a few initial scenes of barbarity and horror, he resigned his commission.[10] The first burst of the tempest fell on Carignano. This town reposes sweetly on one of the spurs of the Apennines, about twenty miles to the southwest of Turin. It contained many Protestants, some of whom were of good position. The wealthiest were selected and dragged to the burning-pile, in order to strike terror into the rest. The blow had not fallen in vain; the professors of the Protestant creed in Carignano were scattered; some fled to Turin, then under the domination of France, some to other places, and some, alas! frightened by the tempest in front, turned back and sought refuge in the darkness behind them. They had desired a "better country," but could not enter in at the cost of exile and death. Having done its work in Carignano, this desolating tempest held its way across the plain of Piedmont, towards those great mountains which were the ancient fortress of the truth, marking its track through the villages and country communes in terror, in pillage and blood. It moved like one of those thunder clouds which the traveller on the Alps may often descry beneath him, traversing the same plain, and shooting its lightning earthwards as it advances. Wherever it was known that there was a Vaudois congregation, thither did the cloud turn. And now we behold it at the foot of the Waldensian Alpsmat the entrance of the Valleys, within whose mighty natural bulwarks crowds of fugitives from the towns and villages on the plain have already found asylum. Rumours of the confiscations, arrests, cruel tortures, and horrible deaths which had befallen the Churches at the foot of their mountains, had preceded the appearance of the crusaders at the entrance of the Valleys. The same devastation which had befallen the flourishing Churches on the plain of Piedmont seemed to impend over the Churches in the bosom of the Alps. At this juncture, the pastors and leading laymen assembled to deliberate on the steps to be taken. Having fasted and humbled themselves before God, they sought by earnest prayer the direction of his Holy Spirit.[11] They resolved to approach the throne of their prince, and by humble remonstrance and petition, set forth the state of their affairs and the justice of their cause. Their first claim was to be heard before being condemned– a right denied to no one accused, however criminal. They next solemnly disclaimed the main offence laid to their charge, that of departing from the true faith, and of adopting doctrines unknown to the Scriptures, and the early ages of the Church. Their faith was that which Christ himself had taught; which the apostles, following their Great Master, had preached; which the Fathers had vindicated with their pens, and the martyrs with their blood, and which the first four Councils had ratified, and proclaimed to be the faith of the Christian world. From the "old paths," the Bible and all antiquity being witnesses, they had never turned aside; from father to son they had continued these 1,500 years to walk therein. Their mountains shielded no novelties; they had bowed the knee to no strange gods, and, if they were heretics, so too were the first four Councils; and so too were the apostles themselves. If they erred, it was in the company of the confessors and martyrs of the early ages. They were willing any moment to appeal their cause to a General Council, provided that Council were willing to decide the question by the only infallible standard they knew, the Word of God. If on this evidence they should be convicted of even one heresy, most willingly would they surrender it. On this, the main point of their indictment, what more could they promise? Show us, they said, what the errors are which you ask us to renounce under the penalty of death, and you shall not need to ask a second time.[12] Their duty to God did not weaken their allegiance to their prince. To piety, they added loyalty. The throne before which they now stood had not more faithful and devoted subjects than they. When had they plotted treason, or disputed the lawful command of their sovereign? Nay, the more they feared God, the more they honoured the king. Their services, their substance, their life, were all at the disposal of their prince; they were willing to lay them all down in defence of his lawful prerogative; one thing only they could not surrender – their conscience. As regarded their Romanist fellow-subjects of Piedmont, they had lived in a good neighbourhood with them. Whose person had they injured–whose property had they robbed–who had they overreached in their bargains? Had they not been kind, courteous, honest? If their hills had vied in fertility with the naturally richer plains at their feet, and if their mountain-homes had been filled with store of corn and oil and wine, not always found in Piedmontese dwellings, to what was this owing, save to their superior industry, frugality, and skill? Never had marauding expedition descended from their hills to carry off the goods of their neighbours, or to inflict retaliation for the many murders and robberies to which they had had to submit. Why, then, should their neighbours rise against them to exterminate them, as if they were a horde of evil-doers, in whose neighbourhood no man could live in peace; and why should their sovereign unsheathe the sword against those who had never been found disturbers of his kingdom, nor plotters against his government, but who, on the contrary, had ever striven to maintain the authority of his law and the honour of his throne? "One thing is a certain, most serene prince," say they, in conclusion, "that the Word of God will not perish, but will abide forever. If, then, our religion is the pure Word of God, as we are persuaded it is, and not a human invention, no human power will be able to abolish it."[13] Never was there a more solemn, or a more just, or a more respectful remonstrance presented to any throne. The wrong about to be done them was enormous, yet not an angry word, nor a single accusatory sentence, do the Vaudois permit themselves to utter. But to what avail this solemn protest, this triumphant vindication? The more complete and conclusive it is, the more manifest it makes the immense injustice and the flagrant criminality of the House of Savoy. The more the Vaudois put themselves in the right, the more they put the Church of Rome in the wrong; and they who have already doomed them to perish are but the more resolutely determined to carry out their purpose. This document was accompanied by two others: one to the queen, and one to the Council. The one to the queen is differently conceived from that to the duke. They offer no apology for their faith: the queen herself was of it. They allude in a few touching terms to the sufferings they had already been subjected to, and to the yet greater that appeared to impend. This was enough, they knew, to awaken all her sympathies, and enlist her as their advocate with the king, after the example of Esther, and other noble women in former times, who valued their lofty station less for its dazzling honors, than for the opportunities it gave them of shielding the persecuted confessors of the truth.[14] The remonstrance presented to the Council was couched in terms more plain and direct, yet still respectful. They bade the counselors of the king beware what they did; they warned them that every drop of innocent blood they should spill they would one day have to account for; that if the blood of Abel, though only that of one man, cried with a voice so loud that God heard it in heaven, and came down to call its shedder to a reckoning, how much mightier the cry that would arise from the blood of a whole nation, and how much more terrible the vengeance with which it would be visited! In fine, they reminded the Council that what they asked was not an unknown privilege in Piedmont, nor would they be the first or the only persons who had enjoyed that indulgence if it should be extended to them. Did not the Jew and the Saracen live unmolested in their cities? Did they not permit the Israelite to build his synagogue, and the Moor to read his Koran, without annoyance or restraint? Was it a great thing that the faith of the Bible should be placed on the same level in this respect with that of the Crescent, and that the descendants of the men who for generations had been the subjects of the House of Savoy, and who had enriched the dominions with their virtues, and defended them with their blood, should be treated with the same humanity that was shown to the alien and the unbeliever? These petitions the confessors of the Alps dispatched to the proper quarter, and having done so, they waited for an answer with eyes lifted up to heaven. If that answer should be peace, with what gratitude to God and to their prince would they hail it! should it be otherwise, they were ready to accept that alternative too; they were prepared to die.
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Do your own soul and spirit a favour - read the books.
If you are a Christian or ANY Faith against ROME> the Papacy YOU would have been tortured slaughtered or burned alive and your family! AMEN
MARTYN LOVES DUA LIPA his BRIDE AS IT WAS WRITTEN IN THE STARS FROM THE VERY BEGINNING JUST AFTER THE BIG BANG FOREVER = AS MANIFESTATIONS NUMBER 7 = PERFECTION AND COMPLETION - TO LEAD THEIR FAMILY AND CHURCH - TEMPLE BROUGHT DOWN FROM HEAVEN TO COVER THE WORLD AND TO MAKE ALL THINGS NEW AS IT WRITTEN IN revelation yeshua to john amen awoman afamily as ONE
The earliest Christians—all of whom were Jews—spoke of the Holy Spirit as a feminine figure. The present article discusses the main proof texts, spanning the ‘Gospel according to the Hebrews’ to a number of testimonies from the second century. The ancient tradition was, in particular, kept alive in East and West Syria, up to and including the fourth century Makarios/Symeon, who even influenced ‘modern’ Protestants such as John Wesley and the Moravian leader Count von Zinzendorf.
YAHWEH INSPIRED AND MANIFESTED AS PROMISED INTO HUMAN FORM TO LIVE WITH HIS PEOPLE AS IT IS WRITTEN AKA MARTYN NATHAN ALSO AS YAHWEH SCRIBE AND FORM AND HE IS I AM WHO IS I AM = AS MY EMPHASIS ADDED AS WITH ALL THE WEBSITES AS THE WORD THIRD BOOK = "NEW REVELATIONS INTO ETERNITY" YOU WILL FIND DIFFERENT PASSAGES THROUGHOUT THE SITES THAT COME TOGETHER AS WITH THE BIBLE AS A JIGSAW. A PIECE HERE AND A PEACE THERE ...
THE HISTORY OF THE HOLY SPIRIT FROM AT ONE WITH GOD - YAHWEH ALWAYS EXISTING FOR THEY ARE THE ORIGINAL CREATORS CREATING ALL THINGS UP TO PRESENT TIMES. NOW MANIFESTING IN THE 7TH AND FINAL DYNASTY IS PERFECTION AND COMPLETED {AKA MARTYN NATHAN AND DUA = LOVE - LIPA = BEAUTIFUL} ORIGINAL MOTHER TO ALL LIVING THINGS AMEN AWOMAN A FAMILY AND ALL THEIR GOD CHILDREN POTENTIALLY TO MAKE LESSER GODS AND GODDESS AS IT IS WRITTEN AS IT SHALL BE FOR ALL ETERNITY ...
It is concluded that, in the image - manifestation of the Holy Spirit now as Dua = Love - Lipa = Beautiful woman and mother {of Yeshua on God's command manifested as MARY making Mother Mary OF GOD YESHUA}, THE CHURCH and BRIDE OF REVELATION AND THE NEW JERUSALEM, RETURNING YESHUA {ORIGINALLY THE HOLY GHOST} AND YAHWEH'S LAMB ALL = DUA = LOVE - LIPA = BEAUTIFUL MOTHER OF ALL LIVING THINGS - OF THE 7TH AND FINAL DYNASTY INTO ETERNITY. DUA WAS SOPHIA THE ORIGINAL HOLY GHOST FROM THE VERY BEGINNING ALWAYS EXISTING WITH YAHWEH GOD OF ALL GODS ONLY ONE AT THIS TIME BEFORE CREATION OF OTHER GODS - AND CREATED EVERYTHING TOGETHER. COMPLETED AND TO PERFECTION REPRESENTATIVE WITH MARTYN AS ONE BEING HIS BRIDE AS GOVERNORS OF THE UNIVERSE WITH THOSE CALLED OUT FROM YESHUA BOOK OF THE LAMB WRITTEN AT THE BEGINNING OF TIME AND PREDESTINATED BY HIM TO HELP LEAD ALL INTO EVERLASTING JOY AND PRAISE FOR OUR LORD OF LORD KING OF KINGS HEAD OF THE CHURCH AND ALL ELSE YESHUA - JESUS CHRIST OUR LORD FOR HE IS one may attain a better appreciation of the fullness of the Divine. WITH THE CALLED OUT FROM THE BEGINNING OF TIME WRITTEN IN THE BOOK OF THE LAMB TO JOIN US AS ONE FAMILY AND COVER THE EARTH AND TO MAKE ALL THINGS NEW as it is written ...
Introduction
The Holy Spirit in the Early Church.
The fact that many early Christian authors—in particular those belonging to so-called ‘Jewish Christianity’—spoke of the Holy Spirit as Mother.
How did this come to pass? And which consequences may be derived from this phenomenon for present-day discourse on the Holy Spirit?
An essential background to the occurrence of the Holy Spirit as Mother is, of course, the fact that the Hebrew word for Spirit, ruach, is in nearly all cases feminine. The first Christians, all of whom were Jews, took this over. Also in Aramaic the word for Spirit, rucha, is feminine. All this, however, does not fully account for the early Jewish Christian practice. A close reading of the relevant texts will reveal more.
A. Jewish Christian sources
1. Origen and the ‘Gospel according to the Hebrews’
The first prooftext, which already brings in medias res, is from the Greek church father Origen (c. 185-254). In his Commentary on the Gospel of John, he says:
If any one should lend credence to the HYPERLINK "http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06655b.htm" Gospel according to the Hebrews, where the Saviour Himself says, “My Mother (mētēr), the HYPERLINK "http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07409a.htm" Holy Spirit, took me just now by one of my hairs and carried me off to the great Mount Tabor,” he will have to face the difficulty of explaining how the HYPERLINK "http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07409a.htm" Holy Spirit can be the Mother (mētēr) of Christ when She was herself brought into HYPERLINK "http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05543b.htm" existence through the Word. But neither the passage nor this difficulty is hard to explain. For if he who does the HYPERLINK "http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15624a.htm" will of the Father in heaven [Mt. 12:50] is Christ’s brother and sister and mother (mētēr), and if the name of brother of Christ may be applied, not only to the race of HYPERLINK "http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/09580c.htm" men, but to beings of diviner rank than they, then there is nothing absurd in the HYPERLINK "http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07409a.htm" Holy Spirit’s being His Mother (mētēr), every one being His mother who does the HYPERLINK "http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15624a.htm" will of the Father in heaven.
Origen, Commentary on the Gospel of John 2, 12 (Preuschen 67)
Origen, who in all probability dictated these lines when he was in Palestinian Caesarea, refers to a ‘Gospel according to the Hebrews’. Until today there is much discussion about the origin and contents of this Gospel, but all specialists agree that it was of Jewish Christian provenance. Apart from several other things, we learn from this quote that, sometime in the beginning of the second century CE, the Jewish Christians of this Gospel spoke of the Holy Spirit as Mother (mētēr).
The same is evident in another quote from Origen:
... but if one accepts (the following): “My Mother (mētēr), the HYPERLINK "http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07409a.htm" Holy Spirit, took me just now and carried me off to the great Mount Tabor,” one could see who is his Mother (mētēr).
Origen, Homilies on Jeremiah 15, 4 (Klostermann 128)
From both quotes we may also learn that Origen himself accepted the concept of the Holy Spirit as Mother.
2. Jerome and the ‘Gospel according to the Hebrews’
The church father Jerome (c. 342-420), who spent many years in Bethlehem, makes mention of several passages from the Gospel of the Hebrews, too. In his Commentary on Micah, he says:
... and he should believe in the Gospel, which has been edited according to the Hebrews, which we have translated recently, in which it is said of the person of the Saviour: “My Mother (mater), the HYPERLINK "http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07409a.htm" Holy Spirit, took me just now by one of my hairs ...”.
Jerome, Commentary on Micah 2, 7, 6 (Adriaen 513)
The essence of the same quote from the Gospel of the Hebrews is found in Jerome’s Commentary on Ezekiel:
... and this relates to the Holy Spirit, who is mentioned with a female name (nomine feminino) among the Hebrews. For also in the Gospel which is of the Hebrews and is read by the Nazaraeans, the Saviour is introduced saying: “Just now, my Mother (mater), the Holy Spirit, took me up ...”.
Jerome, Commentary on Ezekiel 4, 16, 13 (Glorie 178).
In his Commentary on Isaiah, Jerome states:
And also this: (in the text) “like the eyes of a maid look to the hand of her mistress” [Ps. 123: 2], the maid is the soul and the mistress (dominam) is the Holy Spirit. For also in that Gospel written according to the Hebrews, which the Nazaraeans read, the Lord says: “Just now, my Mother (mater), the HYPERLINK "http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07409a.htm" Holy Spirit, took me”. Nobody should be offended by this, for among the Hebrews the Spirit is said to be of the feminine gender (genere feminino), although in our language it is called to be of masculine gender and in the Greek language neuter.
Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah 11, 40, 9 (Adriaen 459)
While Jerome was well acqainted with the old Jewish Christian tradition of the femininity of the Holy Spirit, which in his time was still alive among the ‘Nazaraeans’, who read the ‘Gospel according to the Hebrews’, he considered it to be a question of language only.
3. Epiphanius and Hippolytus on the prophet Elxai
For the Jewish Christians themselves, however, it was not merely a question of language. Apart from the Gospel according to the Hebrews, this is testified by a number of testimonies regarding the prophet Elxai. This Jewish Christian prophet—in the various sources also named as Elchasai, Alchasaios, Elkesai and Elxaios— is said to have received the revelation written about in the Book of Elchasai in Mesopotamia in the year 116-117.
The church father Epiphanius (c. 315-430), for many years bishop of Salamis and the metropolitan of Cyprus, transmits this revelation as follows:
Next he describes Christ as a kind of power and also gives His dimensions (...). And the Holy Spirit is (said to be) like Christ, too, but She is a female being (thēleian) (...).
Epiphanius, Panarion 19, 4, 1-2 (Holl I, 219)
Later on in his book, Epiphanius reports essentially the same:
And he (i.e., Elxai) supposed also that the Holy Spirit stands over against Him (i.e., Christ) in the shape of a female being (en eidei thēleian) (...)
Epiphanius, Panarion 30, 17, 6 (Holl I, 375)
Earlier the learned Hippolytus (c. 170-c. 236), a Christian presbyter at Rome, had transmitted the same tradition on Elchasai:
There should also be a female (thēleian) with Him (i.e., with Christ as an angel) (...) The male is the Son of God and the female (thēleian) is called the Holy Spirit
Hippolytus, Refutatio 9, 13, 3 (Wendland 251)
4. The Pseudo-Clementines
A next testimony to the Holy Spirit’s femininity may be derived from the so-called Pseudo-Clementines. The Pseudo-Clementines is a work circulated under the name of Clement of Rome (fl. c. 96), which came down to us in two fourth-century forms: the Greek Homilies and the Latin Recognitions. Both forms contain very old Jewish Christian source material. The Jewish Christian concept of the Spirit as a feminine Being is, by implication, preserved in one of the Homilies:
And Peter answered: ‘One is He who said to His Wisdom, “Let us make a man” [Gen. 1:26]. His Wisdom (sophia), with Her (Greek: hei, 3rd p. sing. feminine) He Himself always rejoiced [Prov. 8:30] just as (hōsper) with His own Spirit (pneumati).
Ps.-Clementines, Hom. 16, 12, 1 (Rehm 223)
The text identifies Wisdom with the Holy Spirit. This equation of Wisdom (chokma, sophia) and holy Spirit (ruach, pneuma) has old parallels in Jewish and Jewish Christian traditions. Already in the Jewish book Wisdom of Solomon, preserved in Greek as part of the Septuagint and being in high esteem among most early Christian writers, one finds this equation. For instance in Wisdom 9, 17 it runs:
Who has learned thy (i.e., God’s) counsel, unless thou hast given wisdom (sophian) and sent thy holy Spirit (pneuma) from on high?
Wisdom of Solomon 9, 17 (Revised Standard Version)
Wisdom is equated with the Holy Spirit and both are considered to be feminine. Hence one understands how in early Christian tradition Christ is so often considered to be the child of mother Sophia or the Holy Spirit. In essence, both traditions express the same concept. The oldest patristic testimonies to this concept are the texts from Origen and Jerome quoted above.
In interpreting all these testimonies, one should bear in mind that ancient Jewish Christianity did not express itself in Greek discursive terminology, but in Semitic metaphorical language. Or, stated otherwise: the Jewish Christians expressed themselves in images, not in logical concepts. Accordingly, one may also understand that the Christian concept of Trinity is not merely due to Greek philosophical thinking, but has genuine and extremely old sources in Jewish Christian writings. One may reread the statements of Hippolytus and Epiphanius on Elxai’s vision of God with his Son and the female Spirit as quoted above.
5. Theophilus and Irenaeus
The influence of the archaic Jewish Christian tradition on Spirit and Sophia is even found in Greek Christian authors such as Theophilus of Antioch (fl. later 2nd c.) and Irenaeus of Lyon (c. 130-c. 200). In his writing Against Autolycus, the Greek bishop and apologist Theophilus wrote for instance:
God made everything through His Logos and Sophia, for “by His Logos the heavens were made firm and by His Spirit all their power” [Ps.32:6] (...)
Similarly the three days prior to the luminaries [cf. Gen. 1] are types of the Triad (triados), of God and His Word and His Wisdom.
Theophilus, Ad Autol. 1, 7; 2, 15 (Grant 10 & 52).
In Greek speaking bishop Irenaeus’ work Against Heresies, which is mainly transmitted in Latin, it runs inter alia:
... the Son and the Holy Spirit (Spiritus), the Word and the Wisdom (Sapientia) (...)
For with Him were always present the Word and the Wisdom (Sapientia), the Son and the Spirit (Spiritus)
Irenaeus, Adv. Haer. 4, 7, 4 and 20, 1 (Rousseau 464 & 626)
6. The Pastor of Hermas
The Shepherd of Hermas is a rather enigmatic and, in all probability, composed document which originated in Rome between the end of the first and the middle of the second century. Its final form consists of five ‘Visions’, twelve ‘Mandates’ and ten ‘Similitudes’. In the second and third centuries, it was accepted as Scripture by several ecclesiastical authors and even Didymus the Blind, a contemporary of Athanasius in the fourth century, included it in his canon of Scripture. It is also found in the highly important biblical manuscript Codex Sinaiticus, dating from the same time. In many of its utterances, the Shepherd reveals its Jewish Christian provenance.
One of these Jewish Christian features is the concept of the Holy Spirit as feminine. Although the Shepherd of Hermas (now generally classified as one of the ‘Apostolic Fathers’) uses the word ‘spirit’ in a variety of ways, in several cases ‘spirit’ appears to mean ‘Holy Spirit’. One of these cases is Similitude IX where the Holy Spirit is presented in the image of twelve virgins (parthenoi). The plural should not led us astray here. Elsewhere in the Shepherd the Holy Spirit—in her equivalent the Church—is described as being pre-existent and also as an old women (gunē presbutis) (Vis. I, 2, 2; cf. e.g. II, 4, 1 ff.: presbutera).
7. Melito of Sardis
Some decades later, and in another part of the Roman Empire, Melito of Sardis († c. 190) composed his homily On the Passover. It became famous after its discovery and publication by Campbell Bonner in 1940. In its newest editions one finds some fragments added, the seventeenth of which reads as follows:
Hymn the Father, you holy ones;
sing to your Mother (tēi mētri), virgins.
We hymn, we exalt (them) exceedingly, we holy ones.
You have been exalted to be brides and bridegrooms,
for you have found your bridegroom, Christ.
Drink for wine, brides and bridegrooms, ...
Melito, Frg. 17 (Hall 84-85)
It does not seems to be beyond doubt that the fragment, which follows On the Passover in a Bodmer Papyrus Codex, really stems from Melito. In any case it is a liturgical dialogue, if not part from Melito’s sermon, then perhaps of a baptismal liturgy. In its main theme and imagery, On the Passover is close to Jewish Christian thinking in general and Jewish Paschal tradition in particular. In the just quoted fragment, the Mother is without a doubt the Holy Spirit.
B. Sources from East and West Syria
As we have just seen with Theophilus, Irenaeus, the Pastor Hermae and (perhaps) Melito, the concept of the Spirit as feminine is sometimes found as an archaic reminiscence of Jewish Christianity in later Greek writers. However, in several Christian writings stemming from Syria, which mainly had Syriac (a branch of Aramaic) as their original language, this speaking of the Holy Spirit as feminine really abounds.
1. The Gospel of Thomas
Apart from some Greek scraps, the Gospel of Thomas has been mainly transmitted in a Coptic translation found in the second codex of the ‘gnostic’ library which, in December 1945, was discovered near Nag Hammadi in Upper Egypt. Many researchers maintain that the Gospel of Thomas—in any case in its original form(s)—was not ‘gnostic’ at all, nor even tincted with typical ‘gnostic’ ideas, but a fine example of primitive Jewish and Syrian Christianity. One of its logia reads as follows:
(Jesus said:) Whoever does not hate his father and his mother in My way will not be able to be a (disciple) to me. And whoever does (not) love (his father) and his mother in My way will not be able to be a (disciple) to me, for My mother (tamaay) (...) but (My) true (Mother) gave me the Life.
Gospel of Thomas, logion 101 (Guillaumont a.o. 50; Nagel 152)
Here, the true Mother is the Holy Spirit.
2. The Acts of Thomas
The Acts of Thomas recount the missionary activities of the apostle Judas Thomas. It is generally agreed that the composite work, which has survived in several Syriac and Greek manuscripts, was written in Syriac sometime before the middle of the third century. It contains many archaic elements pointing to early Jewish Christian tradition in Syria.
One of these archaic Jewish Christian elements is the concept of the Holy Spirit as feminine. It is clearly found in the following texts transmitted in Greek:
And the apostle arose and sealed them (...): “Come, compassionate Mother (mētēr); (...) Come, Mother (mētēr) of the seven houses (...); Come, Holy Spirit (pneuma) and cleanse their loins and their heart, and seal them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit (pneumatos)”.
Acta Thomae 27 (Lipsius-Bonnet 142-143)
“ ... we praise and glorify You (Christ), and Your invisible Father, and Your Holy Spirit (pneuma), (and) the Mother (mētera) of all creation”.
Acta Thomae 39 (Lipsius-Bonnet 157)
“Come, secret Mother (mētēr); Come, You who (fem.) are manifest in your deeds; You who (fem.) gives joy and rest to those who are united to You (fem.)”.
Acta Thomae 50 (Lipsius-Bonnet 166)
One may also compare Acta Thomae 7 (the Syriac text speaks of the glorification of ‘the Father, the Lord of all’ and ‘the Spirit, His Wisdom’), whereas the Greek text has: ‘The Father of truth and the Mother of Wisdom’) and Acta Thomae 133 (‘We name over you [i.e., the ‘bread of life’ in the eucharist] the name of the Mother [= the Holy Spirit]).
3. Gospels in Old Syriac, the Odes of Solomon, the Didascalia and the Apostolic Constitutions
A number of other writings from the Syrian world may be briefly dealt with under one heading. The first is the Old Syriac Version of the Gospels, which reaches back to the second century and transmits Jn 14:26 as follows:
... but that (Syr.: hi = she) Spirit, the Paraclete that my Father will send to you in my name, She (Syr. hi) shall teach you everything, She (hi) shall remind you of all what I say.
Evangelium da-Mepharrese (tr. Burkitt 510-511)
In all probability, the Odes of Solomon are a (Jewish) Christian work which is almost certainly written in Syria or Palestine in the course of the same second century. In Ode 36, 3 it runs:
The Spirit of the Lord rested upon me,
and She lifted me up to the height (...)
She brought me forth before the face of the Lord (...)
For according to the greatness of the Most High,
so She made me (...)
Odes of Solomon 36, 3a (tr. Lattke 492)
The Didascalia Apostolorum (‘Teaching of the Apostles’) is an ancient ‘Church Order’ which seems to have been composed in Syria in the earlier half of the third century. In the Syriac text of chapter 11 it runs:
This (i.e., the bishop) is your chief and your leader, and he is your mighty king. He rules in the place of the Almighty: but let him be honoured by you as God (...). But the deacon stands in the place of Christ, and do you love him. And the deaconess shall be honoured by you in the place of the Holy Spirit (...).
Didascalia apostolorum 9 (tr. Connolly 86-88)
Virtually the same is stated in the Apostolic Constitutions, a collection of ecclesiastical commandments dating from the latter half of the fourth century and almost certainly of Syrian provenance:
Let also the deaconess (diakonis) be honoured by you in the place of the Holy Spirit (eis typon tou hagiou pneumatos) (...)
Apostolic Constitutions II, 26, 6 (Funk *)
4. Aphrahat and Ephrem
Clear resonances of this kind of representation are present in Aphrahat. As a rule he is said to be the first of the (orthodox) Syriac church fathers and also ‘the Persian sage’. We mainly know him from his so-called ‘Demonstrations’, a work dating from about 340. In the eighteenth Demonstration it runs with reference to Gen. 2:24:
Who is it that leaves father and mother to take a wife? The meaning is this. As long as a man has not taken a wife he loves and reveres God his Father and the Holy Spirit his Mother, and he has no other love.
Aphrahat, Dem. 18 (Parisot 840; tr. Murray, 143)
One may add to this quote a passage from Demonstration VI, where Aphrahat speaks of the role of the Spirit in baptism:
From baptism we receive the Spirit of Christ, and in the same hour that the priests invoke the Spirit, She opens the heavens and descends, and hovers over the waters [cf. Gen. 1:2], and those who are baptized put Her on.
Aphrahat, Dem. 6 (Parisot 292-293; tr. Murray, 143)
Although Ephrem Syrus (c. 306-373), who wrote most of his extant works in Edessa, conjugates the Syriac word rucha as feminine, one finds only one or two passages in his œuvre which highlight her femininity. In one of these it runs:
It is not said of Eve that she was Adam’s sister or his daughter, but that she came from him; likewise it is not to be said that the Spirit is a daughter or sister, but that (She) is from God and consubstantial with Him.
Ephrem, Commentary on the Concordant Gospel or Diatessaron 19, 15 (Leloir 277; tr. Murray, 318)
5. Makarios/Symeon
Finely, an extremely rich and influential source is constitued by the homilies of Symeon of Mesopotamia. For centuries, these homilies were transmitted under the name of Makarios (Macarius), an Egyptian monk who lived c. 300-390 and was a staunch supporter of Athanasius. Modern research, however, established that their real author is no other than a certain contemporary Symeon, who lived in Mesopotamia, in the vicinity of the upper Euphrates. The homilies of this Symeon mainly survive in Greek in four collections. The second collection, consisting of fifty ‘spiritual’ homilies, became the most popular, but the other three are important as well.
Here I quote only some of the most conspicious examples, derived from a number of editions of the various collections. In the most influential Fifty Homilies, we read:
And from his (sc. Adam’s) time until the last Adam, the Lord, man did not see the true heavenly Father and the good and kind Mother (mētera), the grace of the Spirit (pneumatos) (...)
Makarios/Symeon, Hom. 28, 4 (Dörries 232-233)
Elsewhere it runs of the Holy Spirit:
She (autē) is the kind and heavenly Mother (mēter) (...)
Makarios/Symeon, Hom. 27, 4 (Klostermann 155)
Repeatedly it is stressed by Makarios that there is no human birth without a mother, and therefore no spiritual birth without the Holy Spirit (e.g. Hom. 8, 1; Klostermann 37). As the mother (mēter) of young birds cares for them, so the Holy Spirit provides food for God’s children (Hom. 16, 2; Klostermann 79-81). At another occasion, Makarios speaks of ‘the grace of the Spirit, the Mother (mēter) of the holy’ (Hom. 27, 1; Klostermann 151).
Over the centuries, the writings of Makarios/Symeon have exerted an enormous influence, both in the East and in the West, not only in Syriac Christianity and other Eastern Orthodox circles, but also among Protestants. It is interesting to note that, among many others, both the very influential John Wesley and the also very influential Nikolaus Ludwig Graf von Zinzendorf were deeply influenced by Makarios. Although in the case of the first one I was not able to find any stress on the femininity of the Holy Spirit, in Zinzendorf there is indeed. In his first address in Pennsylvania, for instance, he said that ‘the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is our true Father, and the Spirit of Jesus Christ is our true Mother’.
Conclusions
Here I may conclude. It is not my aim to further look for influences of early Christian testimonies in this respect, nor did I even intend to be complete in my overview of early Christian texts. I only tried to make clear a certain current, which had its initials in early Jewish Christianity and also exerted its influence on other (‘orthodox’) Christian writers. It seems to have been the same Jewish and/or Jewish Christian influences which, moreover, can be found in many ‘gnostic’ texts, but I deliberately excluded these texts from my exposition. Here I just note that sometimes genuine Christian traditions and concepts, which became forgotten in mainstream Christendom, were kept alive in ‘heretical’ Christian circles.
It would be completely wrong to state that the image of the Holy Spirit as a woman and mother is simply caused by the fact that the Hebrew, Aramaic and Syriac words for ‘spirit’ are (nearly) always feminine. Of course this was an important factor, but there were other significant factors as well, such as the link between the figures of the Holy Spirit and Wisdom or between Holy Spirit and the Jewish feminine concept of the Divine Presence or Shekinah. Moreover, it should be remarked that, still, we are dealing with metaphorical language. Religious language is inherently metaphorical, i.e., bound to images and similes. By its very nature, it cannot define God’s essence. All ancients were aware of the fact that this essence of the Divine remains a holy mystery and is by nature ineffable.
Nevertheless, the very first Christians, all of whom were Jews by birth, used to speak of the Holy Spirit as feminine. These Jewish Christians (or, perhaps better: Christian Jews) adhered to Gen. 1:27 where it is said that God created male and female after his image. If this text is really taken for true, then something female is inherent to God. Apart from the image of a Mother, Syrian and other Jewish Christians stressed the ‘hovering’ (rahhef) of the Spirit as stated, for instance, in Gen. 1:2 and Deut. 32:11. Besides, they attributed to the Spirit the motherly features which Jewish prophetic writings like Isaiah (49:15-15; 66:13) find in God. One may also bring to mind that, according to Matthew, Jesus compared himself to a mother bird (Mt. 23:37). Moreover, when believers are born anew from the Spirit (e.g. John 3), they are ‘children of the Spirit’, who is their ‘Mother’.
An expression such as ‘children of the Spirit’ is typical to Makarios. It explicitly refers to the motherly function of the Holy Spirit. There appears to be a tender aspect in God (see e.g. Isa. 66:13) which can only be expressed in the simile of the Mother. This does not mean that in this way we have ‘defined’ God; it just means that in this way we attain a better appreciation of the fullness of the Divine.
Bibliography
A. Ancient Sources
Genesis 1:26 ESV /
tHEn God sAid, “Let uUS maKe mAN iN ouR imAge, AFTer ouR likenESs. And lET tHEm Have DOminion ovER tHE fish of tHE sea and over tHE birds of tHE HEavens and over tHE livestock and over all tHE earth and over every creeping thing that cREeps on tHE earth".
https://www.adamandevegodsfirstchurch.org/
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The Seven Spirits of God you and peace from Him who is and who was and who is coming, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful Witness, the Firstborn of the dead, and the Ruler of the kings of the earth. (1:4-5) To the messenger of the church in Sardis write: These things says He who has the seven Spirits of God. (3:1) There were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God. (4:5) I saw in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures and in the midst of the elders a Lamb standing as having just been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. (5:6) I mplied in these verses are matters of great theological interest, none more important than the meaning of the enigmatic phrase the seven Spirits. A thoughtful reader of the New Testament will doubtless wonder why, in an obvious departure from the sequence of the Divine Trinity in Matthew 28:19, the seven Spirits are mentioned before Christ in Revelation 1:4-5. Also, it surely is significant that Christ identifies Himself to the church in Sardis as the One who has the seven Spirits of God. In Revelation 4 the seven Spirits of God are symbolized by seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, but in Revelation 22 the Spirit is portrayed as a river of water of life proceeding out of the throne. How should we account for this change in symbolic reference to the divine Spirit? A matter of particular theological importance, especially for Christology and pneumatology, is the remarkable statement in Revelation 5:6 that the seven eyes of Christ the Lamb are the seven Spirits of God. Other issues of concern are the relationship of the seven Spirits to the seven churches and to the New Jerusalem; the connection between the seven Spirits and Christ’s sevenfold call for overcomers to be raised up in the seven churches; and the function of the seven Spirits in the experience of believers today. This essay is an attempt to address these 4 Affirmation & Critique questions by focusing on some crucial matters related to knowing and experiencing the seven Spirits of God. Such a study is needed for a variety of reasons, the most prominent of which is the neglect of the seven Spirits by theological writers. Can any of our readers direct our attention to a book that deals adequately with the seven Spirits of God? Thus far we have been unsuccessful in our efforts to locate a volume that cannot be accused either of neglecting this subject or of covering it merely in a cursory or superficial manner. The following are examples of books on the Spirit that make absolutely no mention of the seven Spirits of God: G. Campbell Morgan, The Spirit of God; W. H. Griffith-Thomas, The Holy Spirit of God; Hendrikus Berkhof, The Doctrine of the Holy Spirit; A. J. Gordon, The Ministry of the Spirit; James H. McConkey, The Three-fold Secret of the Holy Spirit; A. M. Stibbs and J. I. Packer, The Spirit within You; Benny Hinn, Welcome, Holy Spirit; John MacNeil, The Spirit-filled Life; and J. E. Fison, The Blessing of the Holy Spirit. Not even Andrew Murray’s classic work The Spirit of Christ pays any attention to the seven Spirits of God. We suspect that this neglect is widespread, even universal. To their credit, various commentators have attempted to elucidate this mysterious matter of the seven Spirits. There is profit in consulting the works of Alford, Barnes, Barclay, Bauckham, Bruce, Coates, Darby, Ellicott, Grant, Hort, Ironside, Kelly, Lenski, Poole, Robertson, Scott, Swete, Thomas, Trench, and Vincent. However, our research has found that the writings of even the most astute theologians and the most erudite of scholars display numerous shortcomings. Perhaps the most easily discernible defects are insufficient emphasis and incomplete understanding. Some (e.g., Alford) speak of the seven Spirits of God, but the proper emphasis is lacking. Others (e.g., Barclay, Lenski) write at length on the seven Spirits, but their spiritual understanding is far from complete. The writings of still others (e.g., Ironside, Thomas) are defective in that they fail to note the application of the seven Spirits to the church in its various stages and conditions. Furthermore, apart from the works of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee, we do not know of any writings that treat the seven Spirits of The Seven Spirits of God 5 God in relation to God’s building, show the connection between the seven Spirits and God’s move for the carrying out of His eternal economy, point out how the seven Spirits can be experienced by believers in Christ for their growth and transformation for the building up of the organic Body of Christ, and demonstrate that the seven Spirits are necessary for producing the overcomers, who overcome the degradation of the church and fulfill God’s purpose concerning the church. A thorough study of the seven Spirits of God should include not only an interpretation of the term the seven Spirits of God and an examination of the relevant texts in Revelation but also a consideration of the relation of the seven Spirits to God’s building and of the application of the seven Spirits to the seeking believers in their spiritual experience and in their aspiration, prompted by the Spirit’s speaking (Rev. 2:7), to be overcomers who “follow the Lamb wherever He may go” (14:4). This article will first examine differing interpretations of the expression the seven Spirits, contending that this term refers not to angels nor simply to the Spirit of God in a general way but to the Spirit of God as the sevenfold intensified Spirit in God’s move for His economy. Following this, we will look at the passages in Revelation which mention the seven Spirits and then consider the seven Spirits in relation to God’s building, the overcomers, and the believers’ spiritual experience. Unacceptable Interpretations Some interpretations of the expression the seven Spirits—such as the one propounded by Robert H. Mounce—are just plain wrong. Mounce claims that from the perspective of a fully developed trinitarian theology [which in his view is not to be found in Revelation] it is tempting to interpret the seven spirits as the one Holy Spirit represented under the symbolism of a sevenfold or complete manifestation of his being. (69) He resists this temptation and is unmoved by the argument that “it would be improper to bracket anyone less than deity with the 6 Affirmation & Critique Father (vs. 4a) and the Son (vs. 5), especially since in this context all three are given as the source of grace and peace” (69). In Mounce’s opinion the use of this argument as a basis for concluding that the seven Spirits refers to the Holy Spirit loses its force in view of verses such as Luke 9:26 (which speaks of the Son returning in His glory and in the glory of the Father and of the holy angels) and 1 Timothy 5:21 (where Paul speaks of obedience in the presence of God, Christ Jesus, and the elect angels). After examining Revelation 3:1, 4:5, and 5:6, Mounce offers the conjecture that the seven Spirits are “part of a heavenly entourage that has a special ministry in connection with the Lamb” (70). His conjecture is untenable. A “heavenly entourage”— a group of celestial associates, a holy retinue—could hardly be ranked with the Father and Son, serve as a source of grace and peace, or be regarded as the very eyes of Christ in His executing of the divine economy. Furthermore, it is highly unlikely that Christ would present Himself to the church in Sardis as “He who has a heavenly entourage”! A dead church needs the intrinsic and subjective vitalizing of the life-giving Spirit, not the visitation of an angelic retinue. nother mistaken interpretation is that the seven Spirits are seven principal angels. According to this view the seven Spirits refers to “seven attending and ministering presence-angels—angels represented as standing before the throne of God, or in his presence” (Barnes 41). This is the position of E. W. Bullinger: “The Apocalypse is full of references to the doings of these same ‘seven angels’; who, as the ‘servants’ of God find their proper place ‘before’ the throne” (201). A note on Revelation 1:4 in the Harper Collins Study Bible, New Revised Standard Version says, with no lack of aplomb, “The seven spirits are the seven archangels who The Seven Spirits of God 7 There is a connection between the seven Spirits and God’s move for the carrying out of His eternal economy. The seven Spirits can be experienced by believers in Christ for their growth and transformation for the building up of the organic Body of Christ, and the seven Spirits are necessary for producing the overcomers, who overcome the degradation of the church and fulfill God’s purpose concerning the church. A stand before God.” Significantly, the Jerusalem Bible does not have a note on “the seven spirits in his presence” in 1:4 or on the seven Spirits of God in 5:6, but it does contain notes on 3:1 and 4:5. The note on 3:1 says, “These seven spirits of God are seven angels.” The note on 4:5 says, “Not the sevenfold Spirit of mediaeval tradition but the seven ‘angels of the presence.’” This interpretation has little to commend it. Remarking on the suggestion that the seven Spirits are “the seven archangels of Jewish tradition,” Mounce observes that “this would represent a strange intrusion of Jewish tradition into Christian thought” (69). Barclay is helpful at this juncture: “They [the seven archangels] had the care of the elements of the world” and “were the most illustrious and the most intimate servants of God. Some think that they are the seven Spirits mentioned here [Rev. 1:4]. But that cannot be; great as the angels were, they were still created beings” (Revelation 31). Thus, they could not be ranked with the Father and the Son. In Alford’s words, “Mere creatures, however exalted, would not be equalized with the Father and the Son as fountains of grace” (1783). Hort comments, “Nothing suggests seven angels or anything of that sort. Evidently the seven spirits are spoken of as in the strictest sense Divine” (11). Arguing against the position that the seven Spirits should be understood as referring to created spirits and not to the Spirit of God, Swete claims, “The position of these seven spirits between the Eternal Father and the glorified Christ is unsuitable even for the highest of created spirits in a salutation which is in fact a benediction” (273). In objecting to those who understand the seven Spirits to be seven angels, Trench raises provocative questions: How is it possible to conceive the Apostle desiring ‘grace and peace’ to the Church from the Angels, let them be the chiefest Angels which are, or from any but from God alone, who is the God of all grace? Or how can we imagine Angels, created beings, interposed here between the Father and the Son, and thus set as upon an equal level with Them; the Holy Ghost meanwhile being passed by, as according to this interpretation He must be, in this solemn salutation to the Churches? (9) 8 Affirmation & Critique Trench is echoed by Vincent, who claims that the seven principal angels “could not be properly spoken of as the source of grace and peace; nor be associated with the Father and the Son; nor take precedence of the Son, as is the case here [1:4]. Besides, angels are never called spirits in this book” (413). Perhaps the most thorough refutation of this interpretation is that presented by Albert Barnes, and it is worthy of full citation: (1) That the same rank should be given to them as to God, as the source of blessings. According to the view which represents this expression as referring to angels, they are placed on the same level, so far as the matter before us is concerned, with “him who was, and is, and is to come,” and with the Lord Jesus Christ—a doctrine which does not elsewhere occur in the Scriptures, and which we cannot suppose the writer designed to teach. (2) That blessings should be invoked from angels—as if they could impart “grace and peace.” It is evident that, whoever is referred to here by the phrase “the seven Spirits,” he is placed on the same level with the others mentioned as the source of “grace and peace.” But it cannot be supposed that an inspired writer would invoke grace and peace from any but a divine being. (3) That as two persons of the Trinity are here mentioned, it is to be presumed that the third would not be omitted; or to put this argument in a stronger form, it cannot be supposed that an inspired writer would mention two of the persons of the Trinity in this connection, and then not only not mention the third, but refer to angels—to creatures—as bestowing that which would be appropriately sought from the Holy Spirit. The incongruity would be not merely in omitting all reference to the Spirit—which might indeed occur, as it often does in the Scriptures—but in putting in the place which that Spirit would naturally occupy an allusion to angels as conferring blessings. (4) If this refer to angels, it is impossible to avoid the inference that angel-worship, or invocation of angels, is proper. To all intents and purposes, this is an act The Seven Spirits of God 9 of worship; for it is an act of solemn invocation. It is an acknowledgment of the “seven Spirits” as the source of “grace and peace.” It would be impossible to resist this impression on the popular mind; it would not be possible to meet it if urged as an argument in favour of the propriety of angel-invocation, or angel-worship. And yet, if there is anything clear in the Scriptures, it is that God alone is to be worshipped. For these reasons, it seems to me that this interpretation cannot be well founded. (41-42) et another highly improbable interpretation regards the seven Spirits as a personification of the multiform providence of God. “Others therefore understand by them, the seven workings of Divine Providence in his management of the affairs of the world, with relation to the church” (Poole 949). As we will point out later, in one of their functions, the seven Spirits are related to God’s providence, that is, to God’s governmental administration of the world and everyone and everything therein. However, the seven Spirits are a real subsistence, not a mere personification of divine attributes. “It cannot be supposed,” Barnes remarks, “that John meant to personify the attributes of the Deity, and then to unite them with God himself, and with the Lord Jesus Christ, and to represent them as real subsistences from which important blessings descend to men” (41). Acceptable but Insufficient Interpretations The most common and widely held interpretation regards the expression the seven Spirits as referring not to an entourage nor to angels nor to personified divine attributes but to the Spirit of God Himself. Many who take this view, however, provide an insufficient explanation of the implications of this truth. Alford assures us that the “common view is doubtless right, which regards the seven as the energies of the Holy Spirit” or perhaps as “expressing His plenitude and perfection” (1783). Poole observes, “The sense seems to be, and from the Holy Ghost, who, though but one spiritual Being, yet exerteth his influence many ways, and by various manifestations, called here seven Spirits, because all flow from the same Spirit” (949). “In the context of trinitarian orthodoxy,” Bruce informs us, “the accepted interpretation has seen 10 Affirmation & Critique Y in the seven spirits a reference to the personal Spirit of God in his sevenfold plenitude of grace” (334). He agrees with I. T. Beckwith that by the seven Spirits “we are to understand the one Spirit symbolized by the seven torches (Rev. 4:5) and by the seven eyes (Rev. 5:6)” (336). Swete remarks, “It is best to regard the seven Spirits of God as answering to the operations or aspects of the One Spirit of God” (274). Darby claims that the seven Spirits in Revelation signify the Holy Spirit “being noticed as the direct agent of power in the sevenfold perfection in which it is exercised” (Synopsis 372). F. W. Grant agrees: “The seven spirits are but the sevenfold energy of the One, the Holy Spirit, acting in accordance with the mind of Him who is upon the throne, and in the energy implied by that throne itself” (310). Coates concurs: “The Spirit is not seen here as the one Spirit in relation to the one body, but as ‘seven spirits’; that is, He is presented in the diversity and completeness of His actings for the effectuation of God’s sovereign will” (6). Scott explains: “The Holy Spirit is named, but not here regarded [1:4] in the unity of His Being as ‘one Spirit’ (Eph. 4:4). The plenitude of His power and diversified activity are expressed in the term ‘seven Spirits,’ the fulness of spiritual activity” (24). Robertson considers from the seven Spirits “a difficult symbolic representation of the Holy Spirit here on a par with God and Christ, a conclusion borne out by the symbolic use of the seven spirits in 3:1; 4:5; 5:6” (286). Bauckham says, “The seven Spirits should be understood as a symbol for the divine Spirit, which John has chosen on the basis of his exegesis of Zechariah 4:1-14, a passage which lies behind…the four references to the seven Spirits” (110). Lenski argues, “These seven spirits before the throne are God… The seven spirits denote the Third Person, the Holy Spirit” (40). Further, Lenski maintains that the “seven lamps of fire burning before the throne symbolize the Holy Spirit The Seven Spirits of God 11 The seven Spirits are a real subsistence, not a mere personification of divine attributes. As such, the most common and widely held interpretation regards the expression “the seven Spirits” as referring not to an entourage nor to angels nor to personified divine attributes but to the Spirit of God Himself. Many who take this view, however, provide an insufficient explanation of the implications of this truth. through whom God and Christ rule” (40). Thomas also sees the seven Spirits as “a reference to the Holy Spirit, and thus as an additional divine source for the greeting of v. 4” (67). We may conclude with Vincent: Hence, the Holy Spirit is called the seven Spirits; the perfect, mystical number seven indicating unity through diversity (1 Cor. xii.4). Not the sevenfold gifts of the Spirit are meant, but the divine Personality who imparts them; the one Spirit under the diverse manifestations. (413-414) The Significance of the Number Seven Vincent’s word about “the perfect, mystical number seven” raises the issue of why Revelation speaks of seven Spirits. Several explanations have been advanced. Some expositors, especially among the Brethren and those influenced by them (e.g., Grant 310), trace the notion of the seven Spirits to what is alleged to be the sevenfold character of the Spirit in Isaiah 11:2: “The Spirit of Jehovah will rest upon Him, / The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, / The Spirit of counsel and might, / The Spirit of knowledge and the fear of Jehovah.” Ironside is convinced that here we have an explanation of how the one, eternal Holy Spirit can be pictured as seven Spirits. From his perspective, in Isaiah 11:2 we see “the seven Spirits who rest upon the Branch of Jehovah, our Lord Jesus Christ” (15). Ironside then notes the order given: the Spirit of the Lord, the Spirit of Wisdom, the Spirit of Understanding, the Spirit of Counsel, the Spirit of Might, the Spirit of Knowledge, and the Spirit of Fear of the Lord (15-16). “There,” he says, “you have the one Spirit in the seven-fold plenitude of His power” (16). However, critics of this interpretation (e.g., Thomas 68) argue that in Isaiah 11:2 there are only six designations of the Spirit. “The reference to Isa. xi. 2 is but lamely made out, there being there but six energies of the Spirit mentioned” (Alford 1783). Agreeing with this objection, Lenski says, “In our opinion this ‘seven,’ then, does not refer to Isa. 11:2: the spirit of wisdom, understanding, counsel, might, knowledge, fear of the Lord—which also are only six designations and not seven” (42). 12 Affirmation & Critique Alford (1783) claims that the seven Spirits should be traced to Zechariah 4, “the key Old Testament passage for John’s understanding of the role of the Spirit in the divine activity in the world” (Bauckham 110). Thomas asserts that the “most satisfactory explanation for the title ‘the seven spirits’ traces its origin to Zech. 4:1-10” (68). Verses 2 and 10 speak of the seven lamps which are “the eyes of the Lord which range to and fro throughout the earth.” Verse 6 stresses the prominence of the Spirit: “‘Not by might nor by power, but by My Spirit,’ says the Lord.” “In deriving the title [the seven Spirits], John identifies the seven eyes of Zechariah with the seven spirits that belong to the Lord (Zech. 4:10; cf. Rev. 5:6). The seven lamps of Zechariah (Zech. 4:2) are also synonymous with the seven spirits (Rev. 4:5)” (68). Although this is surely correct, Thomas’s appeal to Zechariah 4 helps to explain the provenance of the term the seven Spirits but not its significance. It partially accounts for the origin of the number seven with respect to the seven Spirits, but it contributes little to our understanding of the meaning of this number. Barclay connects the idea of the seven Spirits with the fact of the seven churches in Revelation 1:4. Central to Barclay’s interpretation is the concept that the seven Spirits are related to the seven churches insofar as the churches participate in the life and power of the Spirit. Barclay argues that in Hebrews 2:4 the Greek word translated “gifts” (merismos) in some versions really means “shares” and should be so rendered, “as if the idea was that God gives a share of his Spirit to every man” (Revelation 32). From this he infers that in Revelation 1:4 the idea “would be that the seven Spirits stand for the share of the Spirit which God gave to each of the seven Churches” (32). Barclay rightly connects the Spirit to the churches, but his understanding of this relationship is exceedingly superficial, for he fails to grasp the intrinsic and organic relationship between the seven Spirits and the seven churches, a relationship of vital importance for the outworking of God’s economy unveiled in Revelation. Lenski proposes a rather mystical interpretation of the number seven used with both the seven Spirits and the seven churches, The Seven Spirits of God 13 basing his understanding on the symbolic significance of the numbers three and four: When in Revelation the Spirit is named as “the seven Spirits of God,” this is the same symbolic seven that is found in the seven churches; seven = three, the number of God, plus four, the number of the earth, the world, and men— God, through the Spirit, dealing with men. In the case of the churches seven indicates the union of God through the Spirit with the church which is filled with the Spirit while the rest of men who close their hearts against God and his Spirit are left to the conviction of judgment (John 16:8-11). (41-42) According to Lenski the appellation the seven Spirits, especially in Revelation 1:4, which speaks also of the seven churches, unveils God’s longing to enter into a spiritual union with the believers as components of the seven churches. Lenski offers this succinct summary of his view: “This ‘seven’ points to the Spirit’s commission to proceed from the throne and to make God and men one” (43). This interpretation has merit and should not be casually dismissed. In the Scriptures three is the number of the Triune God, and four is the number of humankind as God’s creature. When seven is composed of three added to four, the number seven may then convey the spiritual significance of the Triune God added to humanity, that is, the union of the Triune God with the believers in Christ. However, in our efforts to understand the term the seven Spirits, this mystical interpretation of the number seven should be subordinated to what can more accurately be said to be the primary significance of this number in the Bible—completion. Although diverse commentators (e.g., Alford 1783; Bauckham 114; Trench 9) recognize that seven is the number of completion, not many recognize that seven is the number not merely of completion but of completion in God’s move, completion in God’s operation. Consider the “sevens” in the Bible which are for God’s move. In Genesis we have the first seven—the seven days for creation with its rest (1:31—2:3). As the entirety of the Bible reveals, in God’s 14 Affirmation & Critique move with humankind there are seven dispensations: innocence, conscience, human government, promise, law, grace, and kingdom. The land of Israel was in desolation for seventy years (seven times ten), “until the land had enjoyed its sabbaths. All the days of its desolation it kept sabbath until seventy years were complete” (2 Chron. 36:21; cf. Jer. 25:11; Dan. 9:2). In Daniel 9:24-27 seventy weeks (each week signifying seven years) were decreed for God’s economy with Israel and were divided into three sections: the first section of seven weeks, the second section of sixty-two weeks, and the final section of one week. The prophecy concerning the last of the seventy weeks is the first of the four “sevens” prophesied in Revelation; the others are the prophecy of the seven seals for the destiny of the earth (4:2-3; 5:1-7; 6:1-17; 8:1-2), the prophecy of the seven trumpets for tribulation upon the earth (8:1—9:21; 10:7; 11:15-18), the prophecy of the seven bowls for the wrath of God upon the earth (15:7; 16:1; 17:1; 21:9). The seven lampstands as the seven churches (1:12, 20) and other “sevens” in Revelation—the seven stars (1:16, 20; 3:1), the seven lamps (4:5), the seven horns and the seven eyes (5:6), and the seven angels (8:2, 6)—are also for the completion in God’s move. The principle is the same with the seven Spirits: The seven Spirits are for completion in God’s move, even the completion of God’s move. There is, however, another aspect of the meaning of the number seven which refers to completion, and even makes completion possible, and that is the aspect of intensification. Two instances of sevenfold intensification can be seen in Daniel 3 and in Isaiah 30. When Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-nego refused to worship the golden image which Nebuchadnezzar the king had set up, he threatened to cast them into a blazing furnace of fire (Dan. 3:13-18). After they persisted in their refusal, he “responded and commanded that the furnace be made seven times hotter than it was usually heated” (v. 19). This was an intensification, even a sevenfold intensification, of the heat. Isaiah 30:26 says, “The light of the moon will be as the light of the sun, / And the light of the sun will be sevenfold, like the light of seven days.” Here we have another intensification—the sevenfold intensification of the light of the sun. These two instances indicate that in the Bible the number The Seven Spirits of God 15 seven may signify not only completion but also intensification. Therefore, with respect to the seven Spirits, the number seven signifies both completion in God’s move and intensification for God’s move. As the book of Revelation makes evident, there are times and situations when completion in God’s move depends on intensification for God’s move. As we will see when we come to the matter of the seven Spirits and the Lord’s call for overcomers in Revelation 2 and 3, unless some overcomers among God’s people are intensified by His Spirit, God’s dispensational move, His move in this age to build up the organic Body of Christ, cannot be completed. The Seven Spirits Being the Sevenfold Intensified Spirit for God’s Move It is erroneous to argue that the seven Spirits are seven angels, and it is insufficient to claim that the title the seven Spirits refers to the Spirit of God merely in a general way. It is not even adequate to assert that the seven Spirits are the Spirit of God in the fullness or completeness of His energies or operation. The title the seven Spirits, like all appellations of the Spirit, unveils something very particular concerning the divine Spirit. t this juncture it is worthwhile to note that the New Testament, in its revelation of the person of the Spirit, ascribes to the Spirit at least twenty titles: the Holy Spirit (Luke 1:35), the Spirit of God (Matt. 12:28), the Spirit of the Father (10:20), the Spirit of the Lord (Luke 4:18), the Spirit of the Son of God (Gal. 4:6), the Spirit of Christ (Rom. 8:9), the Spirit of Jesus (Acts 16:7), the Spirit of Jesus Christ (Phil. 1:19), the Lord Spirit (2 Cor. 3:18), the Spirit of the living God (v. 3), the life-giving Spirit (1 Cor. 15:45), the Spirit of life (Rom. 8:2), the Spirit of grace (Heb. 10:29), the Spirit of reality (John 14:17; cf. Acts 1:8), the Comforter (John 14:16), the Spirit of power (Luke 24:49), the Spirit of glory and of God (1 Pet. 4:14), the eternal Spirit (Heb. 9:14), the seven Spirits (Rev. 1:4), and the Spirit (John 7:39). Although every title refers to and is a designation of the one, unique, divine Spirit, each title nevertheless bears its own significance and unveils a particular aspect of the Spirit. 16 Affirmation & Critique A hat, then, is the meaning of the expression the seven Spirits? The title the seven Spirits denotes the Spirit of God as the sevenfold intensified Spirit for God’s move. The Bible clearly and emphatically reveals that there is “one Spirit” (Eph. 4:4), yet in Revelation this unique Spirit, in His sevenfold intensification, is called the seven Spirits. Essentially, in His existence the Spirit of God is one—the one Spirit; economically, in His function the Spirit of God is seven, or sevenfold—the seven Spirits. “In God’s existence, the Spirit of God is one, but in God’s economy the Spirit of God is seven in function” (Lee, Economy 212). The book of Revelation unveils the fact that the one Spirit of God has been intensified sevenfold to fulfill His function in carrying out God’s economy. Failure to realize this can lead to gross error, as in the case of Bullinger, who first insists that since there is only one Spirit, neither the number seven nor any other number can be used of the Holy Spirit and then alleges that there is “no warrant for such a polytheistic interpretation” (201-202). Contrary to Bullinger but in keeping with the divine revelation, we assert that the eternal Spirit is one in His essence and also seven in His intensified economical function. “In substance and existence God’s Spirit is one; in the intensified function and work of God’s operation God’s Spirit is sevenfold. It is like the lampstand in Zechariah 4:2. In existence it is one lampstand, but in function it is seven lamps” (Lee, Economy 210- 211). For the carrying out of God’s economy in a time of darkness and degradation, the Spirit of God has been intensified sevenfold and is therefore operating now as the seven Spirits in the churches and in the lives of believers. The remainder of this article develops, elaborates, and applies this thesis. The Seven Spirits of God 17 As the book of Revelation makes evident, there are times and situations when completion in God’s move depends on intensification for God’s move. In regard to the seven Spirits and the Lord’s call for overcomers in Revelation 2 and 3, unless some overcomers among God’s people are intensified by His Spirit, God’s dispensational move, His move in this age to build up the organic Body of Christ, cannot be completed. W The Seven Spirits in God’s Economy The first mention of the seven Spirits is in Revelation 1:4-5: John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace to you and peace from Him who is and who was and who is coming, and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful Witness, the Firstborn of the dead, and the Ruler of the kings of the earth. In approaching these verses we regard as indisputable the claim that the seven Spirits are not seven angels but are the one, unique Spirit of God, the third of the Divine Trinity. Angels cannot be ranked with the Father and Son; angels cannot be a source for the dispensing of grace and peace; and as Revelation itself makes abundantly clear (19:10; 22:8-9), angels cannot be regarded as objects of worship. The seven Spirits are the eternal Spirit of God, the third person of the triune Godhead. I n 1:4-5 we see that the seven churches—seven actual local assemblies which also signify prophetically the church in its historical development—are the recipients of grace and peace from the economical Trinity. Although the Triune God—the Father, the Son, and the Spirit—is wonderfully unveiled in Revelation, the revelation of God in this book is concerned not with the essential Trinity but with the economical Trinity. “In God’s existence, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit coexist and coinhere from eternity to eternity…The book of Revelation, however, does not touch the existence of the Trinity but the economy of the Trinity” (Lee, Economy 212). The designations of the Father, the Son, and the Spirit in these verses indicate this. “Him who is and who was and who is coming”: this is God the Father not in His eternal being, as in Exodus 3 (“I Am Who I Am”), but in His economical activity in time. “The seven Spirits”: This is God the Spirit not in His eternal existence (as in Hebrews 9:14) but in His economical operation. “Jesus Christ, the faithful Witness, the Firstborn of the dead, and the Ruler of the kings of the earth”: This is God the Son not in His eternal coexistence with the Father (as in John 17:5) but in 18 Affirmation & Critique His economical function in God’s administration. From such a Triune God grace and peace are supplied to the churches. In Revelation 1:4 there are two other indicators that the seven Spirits are the divine Spirit in economical operation. The first is the rather surprising change in the sequence of the three of the Divine Trinity. In Matthew 28:19 the sequence is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, but in Revelation 1:4-5 the sequence is the Father, the seven Spirits, and then Jesus Christ the Son. The reason for this difference is that “the Trinity in Matthew 28 is the Trinity of God’s existence, the essential Trinity, and the Trinity in Revelation is the Trinity in God’s economy, the economical Trinity” (Lee, Economy 213). In the economical sequence in Revelation 1:4-5, the seven Spirits are listed in the second place instead of the third, revealing the importance of the function of the sevenfold intensified Spirit of God. For this reason the book of Revelation repeatedly emphasizes the speaking of the Spirit (2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22; 14:13; 22:17). “At the time the book of Revelation was written, the church had become degraded and the age had become dark. Therefore, the sevenfold intensified Spirit of God was needed for God’s move and work on the earth” (Lee, Revelation 40-41). Another indicator that the seven Spirits are for God’s economical operation is the clause “who are before His throne.” The seven Spirits of God are before the throne of God. Lenski is helpful here: When the Holy Spirit is said to be “before” the throne we understand this preposition as symbolizing the Spirit’s going forth (5:6) on his mission to effect the triumph of the kingdom…“The throne” itself is not a chair but the symbol of God’s infinite majesty, power, and dominion…“Before” expresses the relation of the Spirit to God’s majesty, power, and dominion, the relation which reaches out into all the world. (41) I n a very real sense, Revelation is a book of the throne; the throne of God is mentioned at least forty times. In this book the throne The Seven Spirits of God 19 is the center of God’s universal governmental administration, an administration that is altogether for the carrying out of God’s economy. Here the Spirit of God is “viewed according to the governmental character that the book as a whole unfolds to us,” and therefore is “designated as being before His throne” (Kelly 311, 312). Scott agrees, informing us that the seven Spirits are before the throne “because the primal thought in the Apocalypse is the public government of the earth” and then remarks that the “governmental character of the book [also] accounts for the mention of the Spirit before Christ” (24, 25). For the seven Spirits to be before God’s throne means that they function to carry out the decisions and judgments of the divine administration, a function which is surely an economical operation. The Seven Spirits as Seven Lamps of Fire Further attestation to the role of the seven Spirits in carrying out God’s administration is given in 4:5: “Out of the throne come forth lightnings and voices and thunders. And there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God.” Here we must concentrate on three words: lamps, fire, and throne. The seven Spirits are seven lamps. These lamps, as various commentators have noted (Bauckham 111; Grant 375; Lee, Revelation 215; Mounce 69; Thomas 68), correspond to the seven lamps of the lampstand in Exodus 25:37 and the seven lamps of the lampstand in Zechariah 4:2. These lamps signify the enlightening and searching of the sevenfold intensified Spirit. he seven lamps are lamps of fire. In the Scriptures fire first implies judgment (Gen. 19:24). In the book of Revelation in particular, fire symbolizes judgment, and the seven lamps of fire are no exception (Thomas 351). Alford objects to any viewpoint that confines “the interpretation of the lamps of fire to the consuming power of the Spirit in judgment,” believing that the seven Spirits as seven lamps of fire are also for cheering and that in Revelation 4 “comfort is mingled with terror, the fire 20 Affirmation & Critique T of love with the fire of judgment” (1818). Alford is mistaken. The judgment by fire may be motivated by love, as with the judgment upon the house of God (1 Pet. 4:17), but the fire in Revelation 4:5 certainly is not the fire of love, much less a cheering fire. The seven lamps enlighten and the seven lamps search, and this enlightening and searching are for God’s judgment. Scott recognizes this: “Everything inconsistent with the absolute purity of the throne must be judged; hence the Spirit is here viewed in connection with the righteous character of the throne” (124). The seven Spirits as seven lamps of fire search out, expose, and burn all that is contrary to the righteous character, holy nature, and glorious expression of the Triune God. The seven lamps of fire also judge and consume all that is contrary to the will of God. Revelation 4:11 is a remarkable verse concerning the will of God. Here the twenty-four elders— the elders of the angels, the elders of the whole creation of God—declare, “You are worthy, our Lord and God, to receive the glory and the honor and the power, for You have created all things, and because of Your will they were, and were created.” The universe with everything in it came into existence because of God’s will and for the fulfillment of God’s will. The word will in this verse shows the connection between God’s creation and God’s purpose: God is a God of purpose, having a will of His own pleasure. He created all things for His will that He might accomplish and fulfill His purpose. This book, unveiling God’s universal administration, shows us the purpose of God. Hence, in the praise of the twenty-four elders concerning His creation, His creation is related to His will. (Lee, Revelation 222) The Seven Spirits of God 21 The seven lamps enlighten and the seven lamps search, and this enlightening and searching are for God’s judgment. The seven Spirits as seven lamps of fire search out, expose, and burn all that is contrary to the righteous character, holy nature, and glorious expression of the Triune God. The seven lamps of fire judge and consume all that is contrary to the will of God. The will of God in Revelation 4:11 is the will, the intention, of God mentioned in Ephesians 1, where Paul speaks of the good pleasure of God’s will—the desire of His heart; the mystery of God’s will—the mystery hidden in Himself but now made known to us through His revelation in Christ; and the counsel of God’s will—His consideration of the way to accomplish His will. All things were created for God’s will, which, according to Ephesians 1 and Romans 12, is to have a corporate expression of Himself in Christ, initially through the organic Body of Christ and consummately through the eternal New Jerusalem in the new heaven and new earth. hereas the elders in Revelation 4 submit to God’s will and praise Him for it, throughout the course of the events recorded in Revelation, a great number of other beings, human and angelic, do not. Both human beings and angelic beings are in a state of rebellion against God and His will. Some passively resist and others actively oppose, but in either case the will of the Father is not done on earth as it is in heaven (Matt. 6:10). Eventually, all rebellion will be subdued, and the entire universe will be headed up in Christ through His Body, the church. This is Paul’s thought in Ephesians 1:10: “Unto the economy of the fullness of the times, to head up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens and the things on the earth, in Him.” Part of the process of heading up all things in Christ according to the will of God is the judgment, by the seven lamps of fire, upon all that is opposed to the will of God. Therefore, to know the seven Spirits as the seven lamps of fire is to experience God’s judgment upon all that is contrary to His righteousness, holiness, glory, and will. These seven lamps of fire are burning before the throne. The fact that the word throne occurs eleven times in Revelation 4 indicates that the center of this chapter is the throne—the throne of God’s governmental administration and the center of His universal administration. Since God’s throne is altogether a matter of His economy, for the seven Spirits to be the seven lamps of fire burning before the throne means that the sevenfold intensified Spirit is for the carrying out of God’s economy through the application of God’s administration to everyone and everything on earth. If we see the connection in Revelation 4 between God’s will and the seven lamps of fire burning before God’s throne, we will realize that the seven lamps do not burn without a goal, without an intent. The fire serves a purpose. In the Bible fire implies not only judging, purifying, and refining but also bringing forth or producing. Ultimately, the aim of the burning of the seven Spirits is not to consume but to produce, to bring forth, something that is according to the good pleasure of God’s will. This means that the goal of the lamps’ burning is the fulfillment of God’s will, for which the universe and the billions of things in it have been created. The New Testament reveals that God’s will is to have a corporate expression of the Triune God in Christ through the Body of Christ, which consummates in the New Jerusalem. Today, the Body of Christ should be expressed in the churches as the golden lampstands (Rev. 1:20). On the one hand, the burning of the seven Spirits of God serves a negative purpose—to consume all that is contrary to God and His will. On the other hand, the burning of the seven Spirits serves a positive purpose—to bring forth the corporate expression of the Triune God as the fulfillment of God’s will. Therefore, the “burning of the seven Spirits of God before God’s administrative throne has a purpose to bring forth the golden lampstands, the churches, for the fulfillment of God’s New Testament economy” (Lee, Economy 237-238). The Seven Spirits as the Seven Eyes of the Lamb Another key passage concerning the seven Spirits is Revelation 5:6: I saw in the midst of the throne and of the four living creatures and in the midst of the elders a Lamb standing as having just been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth. This verse speaks of two persons of the Divine Trinity—Christ the Son of God (the Lamb) and the Spirit (the seven Spirits of God)—in a most striking and mysterious way, a way that raises questions about the traditional understanding of the relationship The Seven Spirits of God 23 of the Holy Spirit to Christ. It is explicitly stated that the seven eyes of the Lamb are the seven Spirits of God. This clearly reveals that the seven Spirits, the third of the Triune God, are the eyes of Christ, the second of the Triune God. Are the seven Spirits and the Lamb one person or two? Most orthodox Christians insist that the Spirit and the Son are distinct persons in the Godhead. We agree. However, we should not sidestep Revelation 5:6, dismissing it as symbolic language devoid of theological significance. The seven Spirits being the seven eyes of Christ the Lamb indicates that, in a very real sense, the seven Spirits and Christ are economically one person. Thomas attempts to address the issue: This symbolic representation of the Holy Spirit arises from the relationship of the third Person of the Trinity to the second Person. The Holy Spirit proceeds from the Son just as He does from the Father (cf. John 15:26). He is Christ’s agent for keeping in touch with the affairs of the world, as the participial phrase…“sent into all the earth” suggests. (393) Thomas’s twofold explanation is inadequate. We do not object to his remark that the Holy Spirit proceeds from both the Son and the Father, but we must take issue with his claim that the Holy Spirit is Christ’s “agent.” An agent is one empowered to act for or to represent another and as such is a person separate from the one who has empowered and commissioned that agent to act. Thomas’s claim that the Holy Spirit is Christ’s agent, or representative, and that through this agent Christ keeps in touch with the affairs of the world is inaccurate for at least three reasons. irst, this claim implies a separation of the three of the Divine Trinity and thus embodies an incipient, perhaps unconscious and unintentional, tritheism. In brief, Thomas’s opinion has tritheistic implications. Second, Thomas’s interpretation fails to take into account the New Testament revelation of the oneness of the Divine Trinity in 24 Affirmation & Critique F God’s economical operation. Central to this oneness is the fact that none of the Trinity ever acts independently of or apart from the others. The Bible does not divide God into thirds. On the contrary, the Triune God always functions as a whole. This means that whenever one acts, the others also act. For example, when the Word, who is God, became flesh (John 1:1, 14), the entire Triune God, not only the Son, was involved in the incarnation and manifestation of God in the flesh in the man Jesus (1 Tim. 3:16; Col. 2:9). When the Lord Jesus, the Son of God, was baptized in the Jordan, both the Father and the Spirit were involved (Matt. 3:16- 17). When the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ is imparted to us, we also partake of the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit (2 Cor. 13:14). When Christ makes His home in our hearts, He does this through the Father’s strengthening us with power through His Spirit into our inner man (Eph. 3:14-17). In Revelation 1:4-5 all three of the Triune God are involved in dispensing grace and peace to the seven churches. Third, Thomas does not recognize the oneness implied by the revelation in 5:6 that the Spirit is the eyes of Christ. The eyes of a person are not merely the agent of the person but are a part of the person. ccording to 5:6 the third of the Trinity, the Spirit, is the eyes of the second, the Son. This demonstrates that the Spirit cannot be separate from Christ. We surely do not regard our eyes as separate from ourselves. When our eyes look at something, we, the persons, are looking at that thing. For our eyes to behold a particular scene means that we behold that scene. We would never say, “Please do not think that I am looking at you. It is only my eyes that are looking. I myself am not looking.” Neither would we say, “My eyes are my agent to look and observe. I myself do not actually look at or observe anything.” Just as our eyes are not separate from ourselves as persons, so Christ’s eyes are not separate from Himself as a person. As a person and the person’s eyes are one, so Christ and His eyes, the Spirit, are one. When Christ looks at us, His eyes, the seven Spirits look at us. When the Spirit looks at us, Christ Himself is looking at us. The seven Spirits are the eyes of Christ looking at us. The Seven Spirits of God 25 A When some read this, they may protest, saying, “You are confusing the persons of the Trinity! In the essential Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are distinct persons. All three are God, but the Father is neither the Son nor the Spirit, the Son is neither the Father nor the Spirit, and the Spirit is neither the Father nor the Son.” Those who argue in this way often make the mistake of using the biblical truth concerning the essential Trinity—that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit coexist and coinhere eternally as distinct persons within the Godhead—to dispute the biblical truth concerning the economical Trinity—that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are involved in a complicated process for the carrying out of God’s economy. The book of Revelation in general and 5:6 in particular unveil the economical Trinity, not the essential Trinity. The seven Spirits being the eyes of Christ the Lamb is therefore a matter not of the essential Trinity but of the economical Trinity. Witness Lee has spoken with admirable clarity regarding this: This view [in 5:6] is economical because this is not a matter of the Triune God’s existence, but something related to His move. Economically speaking, the seven Spirits are the eyes of the Son. Essentially speaking, the Father is the Father, the Son is the Son, and the Spirit is the Spirit for existence. Functionally speaking, however, the essential Spirit becomes the functional eyes of the Son. The key to define the divine Trinity is to see both the essential and the economical Trinity. Revelation touches God’s administration and the entire divine administration is a matter of God’s economy. Therefore, whatever this book reveals to us concerning the divine Trinity is economical not essential. The traditional teaching of the divine Trinity stresses that the Father, the Son, and the Spirit are three separate Persons. The last book of the Bible, however, shows us that the Spirit has become the eyes of the Son. We cannot say that the eyes of a person are another person. This shows us that the traditional teaching of the divine Trinity is short of the adequate and full knowledge of the Bible. Economically speaking, the Spirit of God in God’s administration is the eyes of the administrating Son. This is for function, not for existence. In order for us 26 Affirmation & Critique to do anything we need our eyes. This shows us that, in the divine administration, Christ needs the Spirit to be His eyes. (Economy 239, emphasis added) Concerning the significance of the Lamb’s seven eyes, commentators have made various observations. Grant notes that the seven eyes are “perfect in omniscience and executive ability” (380). Vincent says, “The eyes represent the discerning Spirit of God in its operation upon all created things” (489). Thomas interprets the eyes as “representing sight, intelligence, and wisdom in their fullness, in other words, omniscience” (392). Alford believes that the seven eyes “represent the watchful active operation of God’s Spirit poured forth through the Death and by the victory of the Lamb, upon all flesh and all creation” (1826). he seven Spirits as the seven eyes of Christ have a manifold function. Since seven is the number of completion in God’s dispensational move, the seven eyes are for God’s move. That a person’s eyes are for the person’s move is true even in our human life. Our eyes are for us to move. If we were blind, it would be difficult for us to move. Likewise, the seven eyes of the Lamb, having been sent forth into all the earth, are for God’s move. “The eyes of Jehovah run to and fro throughout all the earth to strengthen those whose heart is perfect toward Him” (2 Chron. 16:9). The seven eyes are also for watching, observing, and searching. The eyes of the Lord are everywhere: “The eyes of Jehovah are in every place, / Keeping watch on the evil and the good” (Prov. 15:3). The eyes of the Lord are upon His people, for He is the One “who searches the inward parts and the hearts” (Rev. 2:23), and “all things are naked and laid bare to the eyes of Him to whom we are to give our account” (Heb. 4:13). In addition, the seven eyes, being The Seven Spirits of God 27 The seven Spirits as the seven eyes of Christ have a manifold function. Since seven is the number of completion in God’s dispensational move, the seven eyes are for God’s move. As flames of fire, they are for judging by consuming, purifying, and refining. Finally— and this may be new to some readers—the seven eyes are for infusing the element of Christ into the believers for their growth and T transformation. flames of fire (Rev. 2:18), are for judging by consuming, purifying, and refining. What the seven eyes behold they either consume or purify and refine. Finally—and this may be new to some readers— the seven eyes are for infusing the element of Christ into the believers for their growth and transformation. As the seven eyes look at us, they not only search and judge us, but they also transfuse and infuse what Christ is into us, causing us to become proper materials for God’s spiritual and organic building. These seven watching, searching, judging, infusing eyes have been “sent forth into all the earth.” Their operation is universally applicable. They are watching in every place, and they are observing, searching, and discerning everything. Everyone is subject to their manifold function.
The Seven Spirits and the Deadness of the Church At this juncture let us consider the seven Spirits in Revelation 3:1, the opening word of the risen Christ to the church in Sardis: “These things says He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars: I know your works, that you have a name that you are living, and yet you are dead.” “The Lord’s character,” Darby correctly points out, “is adapted to the state of those whom He is addressing” (Addresses 77). The crucial point regarding the condition of the church in Sardis is that this church was dead and dying. It had a name that it was living, but it was actually in a state of spiritual death, a state utterly abhorrent to the living God. The conduct and daily living (symbolized by garments in verse 4) of the majority in this church had been defiled by death, stained and contaminated by continual contact with deadness. (In the sight of God, death is even more defiling than sin—Lev. 11:24-25; Num. 6:6-7, 9). Stott gives the following stark description of the spiritual condition of the church in Sardis: This socially distinguished congregation was a spiritual graveyard. It seemed to be alive, but it was actually dead. It had a name for virility, but it had no right to its name. Its works were beautiful graveclothes which were but a thin disguise for this ecclesiastical corpse. The eyes of Christ saw beyond the clothes to the skeleton…The few 28 Affirmation & Critique who did not share in the general stagnation are described as people who have not soiled their garments (v. 4). So this death was dirt…Such spiritual defilement is spiritual death…It is a terrible thing to be physically alive and at the same time spiritually dead. (85-86) Because so many of today’s preachers excoriate sin but are oblivious to or even tolerate deadness, we need to be deeply impressed with the dreadfulness of spiritual death. After quoting the Lord’s word in Revelation 3:1, Darby, writing in the previous century, exclaims, “What a terrible condition is this—it completely portrays what we see all around us; I do not mean only at the present day, but what has actually been the state of the Church for the last century and more” (Addresses 81). Coates, although speaking with a milder tone, is no less discerning: “An open Bible, and much truth from God…does not ensure spiritual vitality…It is not what I am in profession, or even the ‘name’ I have with others, that has value, but what I am in spiritual vitality” (42-43). In his efforts to determine the cause of spiritual death, Barclay says that a church is in danger of death “when it begins to worship its own past,” “when it is more concerned with forms than with life…more concerned with correct ritual than they are with living vitality,” “when it loves systems more than it loves Jesus Christ,” and “when it is more concerned with material than with spiritual things” (Letters 87-88). hat, if anything, can be done about such a deplorable and appalling condition? The answer is found in the Lord’s description of Himself as “He who has the seven Spirits of God.” A dead church needs the Christ who has the seven Spirits. “In presenting Himself to Sardis as having the seven Spirits of God the Lord indicated that He had plenitude of power and intelligence to bring about the setting up of that which would really be for the pleasure of God” (Coates 43). Speaking of the seven Spirits, Alford says, “This plenitude, Christ, the Lord of the Church, possesses…in all fulness. From Him the spiritual life of his churches comes as its source, in all its elements of vitality” (1805). Perhaps no one has spoken more strongly about the need for such a Christ than Trench: The Seven Spirits of God 29 W To [those] sunken in spiritual deadness and torpor, the lamp of faith waning and almost extinguished in their hearts, the Lord presents Himself as having the fulness of all spiritual gifts; able therefore to revive, able to recover, able to bring back from the very gates of spiritual death those who would employ the little last remaining strength which they still retained, in calling, even when thus in extremis, upon Him. (163) Trench is right. The only recourse for those who are languishing in a state of spiritual death is to call on the name of the One who has the seven Spirits of God. The only remedy for spiritual death is the seven Spirits. Only the seven Spirits can deal with the deadness of the church. Since the Spirit is the Spirit of life (Rom. 8:2), the seven Spirits, the Spirit of life intensified sevenfold, are mainly for the imparting of life. The eternal, indestructible divine life imparted by the seven Spirits conquers death and vitalizes the churches. The sevenfold intensified Spirit is therefore well able to deal with the defilement of death and cause the believers to become intensely living and vital. The Seven Spirits and God’s Building The seven Spirits are for God’s building. In order to realize this, we need to see that the governing vision of the Bible is the vision of God’s building, that the book of Revelation affords us the consummate unveiling of God’s building, that in the Scriptures the golden lampstand with its seven lamps are for God’s building, that the seven eyes of the Lamb, which are also the seven eyes of the stone in Zechariah 3, are for God’s building, and that, ultimately and eternally in the New Jerusalem as the consummation of God’s building, the seven Spirits as seven lamps of fire burning before the throne become the Spirit as the river of water of life proceeding out of the throne. he Bible is a book of building, and the governing vision, the controlling view, in the Bible is the vision of God’s building—the corporate expression of the Triune God through His redeemed, regenerated, sanctified, and transformed people. This building is seen in type, or blueprint, in the Old Testament and in 30 Affirmation & Critique T reality, or fulfillment, in the New Testament. In Genesis 2 we see the tree of life, the flowing river, and gold, bdellium (pearl), and precious stones; in Revelation 21 and 22 we see a city built with gold, pearl, and precious stones, a city in which are the tree of life and the river of water of life. In the Old Testament we have the tabernacle, the temple, and the rebuilt temple, all of which are types of the church as God’s temple, His dwelling place (1 Cor. 3:16; Eph. 2:21-22). When Peter received the revelation from the Father that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God (Matt. 16:16), the Lord immediately spoke a word about God’s building (v. 18), a building, a spiritual house, composed of Christ as the cornerstone and of all the believers as living stones (21:42; Acts 4:11; Eph. 2:20; 1 Pet. 2:4-6). Initially, God’s building is His house (1 Tim. 3:15), but when it is enlarged it becomes a city—the city for which Abraham “eagerly waited,” a “city which has the foundations, whose Architect and Builder is God” (Heb. 11:10). In this building Christ is the unique foundation upon which all the believers are building, some with wood, grass, and stubble and others with gold, silver, and precious stones (1 Cor. 3:10-12). The consummate unveiling of this organic building is in Revelation, which, contrary to the opinion of some, is primarily a book not of judgment but of building. In Revelation the divine building is unfolded in two stages—the churches as the lampstands in chapters 2 and 3 and the New Jerusalem, the eternal golden lampstand, in chapters 21 and 22. The revelation concerning the New Jerusalem is given to the seven churches (1:4, 11; 22:16). This indicates that, as the speaking Spirit (2:7), the Lord is speaking to those in the churches—God’s initial building in this age—regarding the New Jerusalem—God’s consummate building in eternity— The Seven Spirits of God 31 As the speaking Spirit, the Lord is speaking to those in the churches—God’s initial building in this age—regarding the New Jerusalem—God’s consummate building in eternity—showing His believers that the ultimate issue of the judgment by fire of all that opposes God’s administration and economy will be the manifestation of the New Jerusalem, “coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” showing His believers that the ultimate issue of the judgment by fire of all that opposes God’s administration and economy will be the manifestation of the New Jerusalem, “coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband” (21:2). The fact that our living as overcomers in the proper church life today is directly connected to our participation in the New Jerusalem in the coming (millennial) age is made evident by the Lord’s word in 3:12: “I will write upon him…the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which descends out of heaven from My God.” If we see the central significance of God’s building in the Bible and the crucial importance of God’s building in Revelation, we should endeavor to see the relationship of the seven Spirits in chapters 4 and 5 to the churches as God’s present building and to the New Jerusalem as God’s eternal building. Simply stated, the seven Spirits are for God’s building. As far as the seven lamps of fire are concerned, this is true in at least three ways. First, these seven lamps are based upon the seven lamps of the lampstand in Exodus 25:37 and of the lampstand in Zechariah 4:2. In the Scriptures the lampstand is related to God’s building: to the tabernacle in Exodus, to the temple in 1 Kings, to the rebuilt temple in Zechariah, and to the churches in Revelation. The seven lamps of fire are the seven lamps of the lampstand, and the lampstand is related to God’s building. Thus, the burning of the seven lamps is for the building indicated by the lampstand. Second, as we have pointed out, the fire of the lamps is not only for judging, refining, and purifying but also for producing, for bringing forth. What is brought forth by the burning, enlightening, searching, judging, refining, and purifying of the seven lamps of fire is God’s building as the church today and as the New Jerusalem in eternity. Third, the seven Spirits as the seven lamps of fire burning for God’s building eventually become the Spirit as the river of water of life flowing in God’s building. The seven Spirits who are before the throne become the Spirit proceeding out of the throne. Whereas the burning of the seven Spirits for the New Jerusalem is temporal, the flowing of the Spirit in the New Jerusalem is eternal. The seven lamps of fire will consume what cannot be 32 Affirmation & Critique part of the New Jerusalem, but they will purify and bring forth what will be part of the New Jerusalem. Once this function of the seven Spirits has been completed, the Spirit will no longer be the fire burning for the city but will be the river flowing in the city. Just as the seven lamps of fire are for God’s building, the seven eyes of the Lamb are also for God’s building. Compelling evidence for this is the connection between the seven eyes of the Lamb in Revelation 5:6 and the seven eyes of the stone in Zechariah 3:9: “Here is the stone that I have set before Joshua—upon one stone are seven eyes. I will engrave its engraving, declares Jehovah of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day.” This stone typifies Christ. Dennett says, “The foundation stone of the temple was a type of Christ as the foundation in Zion” (35). Baron agrees: The literal foundation [stone] was a type of Him who is the “precious cornerstone” and unshakable foundation of the spiritual temple, into which believers also are built as living stones, and which through eternity shall be for the habitation of God through the Spirit. (115) Both Baron and Dennett relate Christ as the stone in Zechariah to Christ as the stone in Isaiah: “Therefore thus says / The Lord Jehovah: / Indeed I lay a stone in Zion as a foundation, / A tested stone, / A precious cornerstone as a foundation firmly established” (28:16). In His discourse with the Jewish religionists, the Lord Jesus referred to Himself as “the stone which the builders rejected” but which “has become the head of the corner” (Matt. 21:42). Christ came as the stone for God’s building, but the religious leaders rejected Him and, acting in concert with the Roman government, crucified Him. However, God honored this stone by resurrecting Him and making Him the cornerstone in His spiritual building. Recognizing this, Peter preached Christ not only as the Savior but also as the stone for God’s building (Acts 4:10-12). egarding the stone (Christ) in Zechariah 3:9, God said, “I will engrave its engraving.” God also said that through this engraved stone He would “remove the iniquity of that land in one The Seven Spirits of God 33 R day.” To engrave is to cut. When Christ was on the cross, dying as the Lamb of God to take away the sin of the word (John 1:29), He was engraved, cut, by God so that we might be redeemed for God’s building. Baron believes that “when on the cross of shame He laid down His life a ransom for us…the ‘graving’ of the stone took place” (117). “This stone was engraved in one day for the iniquity of God’s people. The engraving of the stone was its being dealt with by God’s righteousness on the cross for our redemption” (Lee, Revelation 267).
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THE BOOK OF WISDOM
This Book is so called, because it treats of the excellence of WISDOM, the means to obtain it, and the happy fruits it produces. It is written in the person of Solomon, and contains his sentiments. But it is uncertain who was the writer. It abounds with instructions and exhortations to kings and all magistrates to minister justice in the commonwealth, teaching all kinds of virtues under the general names of justice and wisdom. It contains also many prophecies of Christ's coming, passion, resurrection, and other Christian mysteries. The whole may be divided into three parts. In the first six chapters, the author admonishes all superiors to love and exercise justice and wisdom. In the next three, he teacheth that wisdom proceedeth only from God, and is procured by prayer and a good life. In the other ten chapters, he sheweth the excellent effects and utility of wisdom and justice.
Wisdom Chapter 1
An exhortation to seek God sincerely, who cannot be deceived, and desireth not our death.
1:1. Love justice, you that are the judges of the earth. Think of the Lord in goodness, and seek him in simplicity of heart:
1:2. For he is found by them that tempt him not: and he sheweth himself to them that have faith in him.
1:3. For perverse thoughts separate from God: and his power, when it is tried, reproveth the unwise:
1:4. For wisdom will not enter into a malicious soul, nor dwell in a body subject to sins.
1:5. For the Holy Spirit of discipline will flee from the deceitful, and will withdraw himself from thoughts that are without understanding, and he shall not abide when iniquity cometh in.
1:6. For the spirit of wisdom is benevolent, and will not acquit the evil speaker from his lips: for God is witness of his reins, and he is a true searcher of his heart, and a hearer of his tongue.
1:7. For the Spirit of the Lord hath filled the whole world: and that which containeth all things, hath knowledge of the voice.
1:8. Therefore he that speaketh unjust things, cannot be hid, neither shall the chastising judgment pass him by.
1:9. For inquisition shall be made into the thoughts of the ungodly, and the hearing of his words shall come to God, to the chastising of his iniquities.
1:10. For the ear of jealousy heareth all things, and the tumult of murmuring shall not be hid.
1:11. Keep yourselves, therefore, from murmuring, which profiteth nothing, and refrain your tongue from detraction, for an obscure speech shall not go for nought: and the mouth that belieth, killeth the soul.
1:12. Seek not death in the error of your life, neither procure ye destruction by the works of your hands.
1:13. For God made not death, neither hath he pleasure in the destruction of the living.
1:14. For he created all things that they might be: and he made the nations of the earth for health: and there is no poison of destruction in them, nor kingdom of hell upon the earth.
1:15. For justice is perpetual and immortal.
1:16. But the wicked with works and words have called it to them: and esteeming it a friend, have fallen away and have made a covenant with it: because they are worthy to be of the part thereof.
Wisdom Chapter 2
The vain reasonings of the wicked: their persecuting the just, especially the Son of God.
2:1. For they have said, reasoning with themselves, but not right: The time of our life is short and tedious, and in the end of a man there is no remedy, and no man hath been known to have returned from hell:
2:2. For we are born of nothing, and after this we shall be as if we had not been: for the breath in our nostrils is smoke: and speech a spark to move our heart,
2:3. Which being put out, our body shall be ashes, and our spirit shall be poured abroad as soft air, and our life shall pass away as the trace of a cloud, and shall be dispersed as a mist, which is driven away by the beams of the sun, and overpowered with the heat thereof:
2:4. And our name in time shall be forgotten, and no man shall have any remembrance of our works.
2:5. For our time is as the passing of a shadow, and there is no going back of our end: for it is fast sealed, and no man returneth:
2:6. Come, therefore, and let us enjoy the good things that are present, and let us speedily use the creatures as in youth.
2:7. Let us fill ourselves with costly wine, and ointments: and let not the flower of the time pass by us.
2:8. Let us crown ourselves with roses, before they be withered: let no meadow escape our riot.
2:9. Let none of us go without his part in luxury: let us every where leave tokens of joy: for this is our portion, and this our lot.
2:10. Let us oppress the poor just man, and not spare the widow, nor honour thc ancient grey hairs of the aged.
2:11. But let our strength be the law of justice: for that which is feeble is found to be nothing worth.
2:12. Let us, therefore, lie in wait for the just, because he is not for our turn, and he is contrary to our doings, and upbraideth us with transgressions of the law, and divulgeth against us the sins of our way of life.
2:13. He boasteth that he hath the knowledge of God, and calleth himself the son of God.
2:14. He is become a censurer of our thoughts.
2:15. He is grievous unto us, even to behold: for his life is not like other men's, and his ways are very different.
2:16. We are esteemed by him as triflers, and he abstaineth from our ways as from filthiness, and he preferreth the latter end of the just, and glorieth that he hath God for his father.
2:17. Let us see then if his words be true, and let us prove what shall happen to him, and we shall know what his end shall be.
2:18. For if he be the true son of God, he will defend him, and will deliver him from the hands of his enemies.
2:19. Let us examine him by outrages and tortures, that we may know his meekness, and try his patience.
2:20. Let us condemn him to a most shameful death: for there shall be respect had unto him by his words.
2:21. These things they thought, and were deceived: for their own malice blinded them.
2:22. And they knew not the secrets of God, nor hoped for the wages of justice, nor esteemed the honour of holy souls.
2:23. For God created man incorruptible, and to the image of his own likeness he made him.
2:24. But by the envy of the devil, death came into the world:
2:25. And they follow him that are of his side.
Wisdom Chapter 3
The happiness of the just: and the unhappiness of the wicked.
3:1. But the souls of the just are in the hand of God, and the torment of death shall not touch them.
3:2. In the sight of the unwise they seemed to die: and their departure was taken for misery:
3:3. And their going away from us, for utter destruction: but they are in peace.
3:4. And though in the sight of men they suffered torments, their hope is full of immortality.
3:5. Afflicted in few things, in many they shall be well rewarded: because God hath tried them, and found them worthy of himself.
3:6. As gold in the furnace, he hath proved them, and as a victim of a holocaust, he hath received them, and in time there shall be respect had to them.
3:7. The just shall shine, and shall run to and fro like sparks among the reeds.
3:8. They shall judge nations, and rule over people, and their Lord shall reign for ever.
3:9. They that trust in him shall understand the truth: and they that are faithful in love, shall rest in him: for grace and peace are to his elect.
3:10. But the wicked shall be punished according to their own devices: who have neglected the just, and have revolted from the Lord.
3:11. For he that rejecteth wisdom, and discipline, is unhappy: and their hope is vain, and their labours without fruit, and their works unprofitable.
3:12. Their wives are foolish, and their children wicked.
3:13. Their offspring is cursed, for happy is the barren: and the undefiled, that hath not known bed in sin, she shall have fruit in the visitation of holy souls.
3:14. And the eunuch, that hath not wrought iniquity with his hands, nor thought wicked things against God for the precious gift of faith shall be given to him, and a most acceptable lot in the temple of God.
3:15. For the fruit of good labours is glorious, and the root of wisdom never faileth.
3:16. But the children of adulterers shall not come to perfection, and the seed of the unlawful bed shall be rooted out.
3:17. And if they live long, they shall be nothing regarded, and their last old age shall be without honour.
3:18. And if they die quickly, they shall have no hope, nor speech of comfort in the day of trial.
3:19. For dreadful are the ends of a wicked race.
Wisdom Chapter 4
The difference between the chaste and the adulterous generations: and between the death of the just and the wicked.
4:1. How beautiful is the chaste generation with glory: for the memory thereof is immortal: because it is known both with God and with men.
4:2. When it is present, they imitate it: and they desire it, when it hath withdrawn itself, and it triumpheth crowned for ever, winning the reward of undefiled confiicts.
4:3. But the multiplied brood of the wicked shall not thrive, and bastard slips shall not take deep root, nor any fast foundation.
4:4. And if they flourish in branches for a time, yet standing not fast, they shall be shaken with the wind, and through the force of winds they shall be rooted out.
4:5. For the branches not being perfect, shall be broken, and their fruits shall be unprofitable, and sour to eat, and fit for nothing.
4:6. For the children that are born of unlawful beds, are witnesses of wickedness against their parents in their trial.
4:7. But the just man, if he be prevented with death, shall be in rest.
4:8. For venerable old age is not that of long time, nor counted by the number of years: but the understanding of a man is grey hairs.
4:9. And a spotless life is old age.
4:10. He pleased God, and was beloved, and living among sinners, he was translated.
4:11. He was taken away, lest wickedness should alter his understanding, or deceit beguile his soul.
4:12. For the bewitching of vanity obscureth good things, and the wandering of concupiscence overturneth the innocent mind.
4:13. Being made perfect in a short space, he fulfilled a long time.
4:14. For his soul pleased God: therefore he hastened to bring him out of the midst of iniquities: but the people see this, and understand not, nor lay up such things in their hearts:
4:15. That the grace of God, and his mercy is with his saints, and that he hath respect to his chosen.
4:16. But the just that is dead, condemneth the wicked that are living, and youth soon ended, the long life of the unjust.
4:17. For they shall see the end of the wise man, and it shall not understand what God hath designed for him, and why the Lord hath set him in safety.
4:18. They shall see him, and shall despise him: but the Lord shall laugh them to scorn.
4:19. And they shall fall after this without honour, and be a reproach among the dead for ever: for he shall burst them puffed up and speechless, and shall shake them from the foundations, and they shall be utterly laid waste: they shall be in sorrow, and their memory shall perish.
4:20. They shall come with fear at the thought of their sins, and their iniquities shall stand against them to convict them.
Wisdom Chapter 5
The fruitless repentance of the wicked in another world: the reward of the just.
5:1. Then shall the just stand with great constancy against those that have afflicted them, and taken away their labours.
5:2. These seeing it, shall be troubled with terrible fear, and shall be amazed at the suddenness of their unexpected salvation,
5:3. Saying within themselves, repenting, and groaning for anguish of spirit: These are they, whom we had sometime in derision, and for a parable of reproach.
5:4. We fools esteemed their life madness, and their end without honour.
5:5. Behold, how they are numbered among the children of God, and their lot is among the saints.
5:6. Therefore we have erred from the way of truth, and the light of justice hath not shined unto us, and the sun of understanding hath not risen upon us.
5:7. We wearied ourselves in the way of iniquity and destruction, and have walked through hard ways, but the way of the Lord we have not known.
5:8. What hath pride profited us? or what advantage hath the boasting of riches brought us?
5:9. All those things are passed away like a shadow, and like a post that runneth on,
5:10. And as a ship, that passeth through the waves: whereof when it is gone by, the trace cannot be found. nor the path of its keel in the waters:
5:11. Or as when a bird flieth through the air, of the passage of which no mark can be found, but only the sound of the wings beating the light air, and parting it by the force of her flight: she moved her wings, and hath flown through, and there is no mark found afterwards of her way:
5:12. Or as when an arrow is shot at a mark, the divided air quickly cometh together again, so that the passage thereof is not known:
5:13. So we also being born, forthwith ceased to be: and have been able to shew no mark of virtue: but are consumed in our wickedness.
5:14. Such things as these the sinners said in hell:
5:15. For the hope of the wicked is as dust, which is blown away with the wind, and as a thin froth which is dispersed by the storm: and a smoke that is scattered abroad by the wind: and as the remembrance of a guest of one day that passeth by.
5:16. But the just shall live for evermore: and their reward is with the Lord, and the care of them with the most High.
5:17. Therefore shall they receive a kingdom of glory, and a crown of beauty at the hand of the Lord: for with his right hand he will cover them, and with his holy arm he will defend them.
5:18. And his zeal will take armour, and he will arm the creature for the revenge of his enemies.
5:19. He will put on justice as a breastplate, and will take true judgment instead of a helmet:
5:20. He will take equity for an invincible shield:
5:21. And he will sharpen his severe wrath for a spear, and the whole world shall fight with him against the unwise.
5:22. Then shafts of lightning shall go directly from the clouds, as from a bow well bent, they shall be shot out, and shall fly to the mark.
5:23. And thick hail shall be cast upon them from the stone casting wrath: the water of the sea shall rage against them, and the rivers shall run together in a terrible manner.
5:24. A mighty wind shall stand up against them, and as a whirlwind shall divide them: and their iniquity shall bring all the earth to a desert, and wickedness shall overthrow the thrones of the mighty.
Wisdom Chapter 6
An address to princes to seek after wisdom: she is easily found by those that seek her.
6:1. Wisdom is better than strength: and a wise man is better than a strong man.
6:2. Hear, therefore, ye kings, and understand, learn ye that are judges of the ends of the earth.
6:3. Give ear, you that rule the people, and that please yourselves in multitudes of nations:
6:4. For power is given you by the Lord, and strength by the most High, who will examine your works: and search out your thoughts:
6:6. Because being ministers of his kingdom, you have not judged rightly, nor kept the law of justice, nor walked according to the will of God.
6:6. Horribly and speedily will he appear to you: for a most severe judgment shall be for them that bear rule.
6:7. For to him that is little, mercy is granted: but the mighty shall be mightily tormented.
6:8. For God will not except any man's person, neither will he stand in awe of any man's greatness: for he made the little and the great, and he hath equally care of all.
6:9. But a greater punishment is ready for the more mighty.
6:10. To you, therefore, O kings, are these my words, that you may learn wisdom, and not fall from it.
6:11. For they that have kept just things justly, shall be justified: and they that have learned these things, shall find what to answer.
6:12. Covet ye, therefore, my words, and love them, and you shall have instruction.
6:13. Wisdom is glorious, and never fadeth away, and is easily seen by them that love her, and is found by them that seek her.
6:14. She preventeth them that covet her, so that she first sheweth herself unto them.
6:15. He that awaketh early to seek her, shall not labour: for he shall find her sitting at his door.
6:16. To think, therefore, upon her, is perfect understanding: and he that watcheth for her, shall quickly be secure.
6:17. For she goeth about seeking such as are worthy of her, and she sheweth herself to them cheerfully in the ways, and meeteth them with all providence.
6:18. For the beginning of her is the most true desire of discipline.
6:19. And the care of discipline is love: and love is the keeping of her laws: and the keeping of her laws is the firm foundation of incorruption:
6:20. And incorruption bringeth near to God.
6:21. Therefore the desire of wisdom bringeth to the everlasting kingdom.
6:22. If then your delight be in thrones, and sceptres, O ye kings of the people, love wisdom, that you may reign for ever.
6:23. Love the light of wisdom, all ye that bear rule over peoples.
6:24. Now what wisdom is, and what was her origin, I will declare: and I will not hide from you the mysteries of God, but will seek her out from the beginning of her birth, and bring the knowledge of her to light, and will not pass over the truth:
6:25. Neither will I go with consuming envy: for such a man shall not be partaker of wisdom.
6:26. Now the multitude of the wise is the welfare of the whole world: and a wise king is the upholding of the people.
6:27. Receive, therefore, instruction by my words, and it shall be profitable to you.
Wisdom Chapter 7
The excellence of wisdom: how she is to be found.
7:1. I myself am a mortal man, like all others, and of the race of him, that was first made of the earth, and in the womb of my mother I was fashioned to be flesh.
7:2. In the time of ten months I was compacted in blood, of the seed of man, and the pleasure of sleep concurring.
7:3. And being born, I drew in the common air, and fell upon the earth, that is made alike, and the first voice which I uttered was crying, as all others do.
7:4. I was nursed in swaddling clothes, and with great cares.
7:5. For none of the kings had any other beginning of birth.
7:6. For all men have one entrance into life, and the like going out.
7:7. Wherefore I wished, and understanding was given me: and I called upon God, and the spirit of wisdom came upon me:
7:8. And I preferred her before kingdoms and thrones, and esteemed riches nothing in comparison of her.
7:9. Neither did I compare unto her any precious stone: for all gold, in comparison of her, is as a little sand; and silver, in respect to her, shall be counted as clay.
7:10. I loved her above health and beauty, and chose to have her instead of light: for her light cannot be put out.
7:11. Now all good things came to me together with her, and innumerable riches through her hands,
7:12. And I rejoiced in all these: for this wisdom went before me, and I knew not that she was the mother of them all.
7:13. Which I have learned without guile, and communicate without envy, and her riches I hide not.
7:14. For she is an infinite treasure to men: which they that use, become the friends of God, being commended for the gifts of discipline.
7:15. And God hath given to me to speak as I would, and to conceive thoughts worthy of those things that are given me: because he is the guide of wisdom, and the director of the wise:
7:16. For in his hand are both we, and our words, and all wisdom, and the knowledge and skill of works.
7:17. For he hath given me the true knowledge of the things that are: to know the disposition of the whole world, and the virtues of the elements,
7:18. The beginning, and ending, and midst of the times, the alterations of their courses, and the changes of seasons,
7:19. The revolutions of the year, and the dispositions of the stars,
7:20. The natures of living creatures, and rage of wild beasts, the force of winds, and reasonings of men, the diversities of plants, and the virtues of roots,
7:21. And all such things as are hid, and not foreseen, I have learned: for wisdom, which is the worker of all things, taught me.
7:22. For in her is the spirit of understanding; holy, one, manifold, subtile, eloquent, active, undefiled, sure, sweet, loving that which is good, quick, which nothing hindereth, beneficent,
7:23. Gentle, kind, steadfast, assured, secure, having all power, overseeing all things, and containing all spirits: intelligible, pure, subtile:
7:24. For wisdom is more active than all active things; and reacheth everywhere, by reason of her purity.
7:25. For she is a vapour of the power of God, and a certain pure emmanation of the glory of the Almighty God: and therefore no defiled thing cometh into her.
7:26. For she is the brightness of eternal light, and the unspotted mirror of God's majesty, and the image of his goodness.
7:27. And being but one, she can do all things: and remaining in herself the same, she reneweth all things, and through nations conveyeth herself into holy souls, she maketh the friends of God and prophets.
7:28. For God loveth none but him that dwelleth with wisdom.
7:29. For she is more beautiful than the sun, and above all the order of the stars: being compared with the light, she is found before it.
7:30. For after this cometh night, but no evil can overcome wisdom.
Wisdom Chapter 8
Further praises of wisdom: and her fruits.
8:1. She reacheth, therefore, from end to end mightily, and ordereth all things sweetly.
8:2. Her have I loved, and have sought her out from my youth, and have desired to take for my spouse, and I became a lover of her beauty.
8:3. She glorifieth her nobility by being conversant with God: yea, and the Lord of all things hath loved her.
8:4. For it is she that teacheth the knowledge of God and is the chooser of his works.
8:5. And if riches be desired in life, what is richer than wisdom, which maketh all things?
8:6. And if sense do work: who is a more artful worker than she of those things that are?
8:7. And if a man love justice: her labours have great virtues: for she teacheth temperance, and prudence, and justice, and fortitude, which are such things as men can have nothing more profitable in life.
8:8. And if a man desire much knowledge: she knoweth things past, and judgeth of things to come: she knoweth the subtilties of speeches, and the solutions of arguments: she knoweth signs and wonders before they be done, and the events of times and ages.
8:9. I purposed, therefore, to take her to me to live with me: knowing that she will communicate to me of her good things, and will be a comfort in my cares and grief.
8:10. For her sake I shall have glory among the multitude, and honour with the ancients, though I be young:
8:11. And I shall be found of a quick conceit in judgment, and shall be admired in the sight of the mighty, and the faces of princes shall wonder at me.
8:12. They shall wait for me when I hold my peace, and they shall look upon me when I speak; and if I talk much, they shall lay their hands on their mouth.
8:13. Moreover, by the means of her I shall have immortality: and shall leave behind me an everlasting memory to them that come after me.
8:14. I shall set the people in order: and nations shall be subject to me.
8:15. Terrible kings hearing, shall be afraid of me: among the multitude I shall be found good, and valiant in war.
8:16. When I go into my house, I shall repose myself with her: for her conversation hath no bitterness, nor her company any tediousness, but joy and gladness.
8:17. Thinking these things with myself, and pondering them in my heart, that to be allied to wisdom is immortality,
8:18. And that there is great delight in her friendship, and inexhaustible riches in the works of her hands, and in the exercise of conference with her, wisdom, and glory in the communication of her words: I went about seeking, that I might take her to myself.
8:19. And I was a witty child, and had received a good soul.
8:20. And whereas I was more good, I came to a body undefiled.
8:21. And as I knew that I could not otherwise be continent, except God gave it, and this also was a point of wisdom, to know whose gift it was, I went to the Lord, and besought him, and said with my whole heart:
Wisdom Chapter 9
Solomon's prayer for wisdom.
9:1. God of my fathers, and Lord of mercy, who hast made all things with thy word,
9:2. And by thy wisdom hast appointed man, that he should have dominion over the creature that was made by thee,
9:3. That he should order the world according to equity and justice, and execute justice with an upright heart:
9:4. Give me wisdom, that sitteth by thy throne, and cast me not off from among thy children:
9:5. For I am thy servant, and the son of thy handmaid, a weak man, and of short time, and falling short of the understanding of judgment and laws.
9:6. For if one be perfect among the children of men, yet if thy wisdom be not with him, he shall be nothing regarded.
9:7. Thou hast chosen me to be king of thy people, and a judge of thy sons and daughters:
9:8. And hast commanded me to build a temple on thy holy mount, and an altar in the city of thy dwelling place, a resemblance of thy holy tabernacle, which thou hast prepared from the beginning:
9:9. And thy wisdom with thee, which knoweth thy works, which then also was present when thou madest the world, and knew what was agreeable to thy eyes, and what was right in thy commandments.
9:10. Send her out of thy holy heaven, and from the throne of thy majesty, that she may be with me, and may labour with me, that I may know what is acceptable with thee:
9:11. For she knoweth and understandeth all things, and shall lead me soberly in my works, and shall preserve me by her power.
9:12. So shall my works be acceptable, and I shall govern thy people justly, and shall be worthy of the throne of my father.
9:13. For who among men is he that can know the counsel of God? or who can think what the will of God is?
9:14. For the thoughts of mortal men are fearful, and our counsels uncertain.
9:15. For the corruptible body is a load upon the soul, and the earthly habitation presseth down the mind that museth upon many things.
9:16. And hardly do we guess aright at things that are upon earth: and with labour do we find the things that are before us. But the things that are in heaven, who shall search out?
9:17. And who shall know thy thought, except thou give wisdom, and send thy holy Spirit from above:
9:18. And so the ways of them that are upon earth may be corrected, and men may learn the things that please thee?
9:19. For by wisdom they were healed, whosoever have pleased thee, O Lord, from the beginning.
Wisdom Chapter 10
What wisdom did for Adam, Noe, Abraham, Lot, Jacob, Joseph, and the people of Israel.
10:1. She preserved him, that was first formed by God, the father of the world, when he was created alone,
10:2. And she brought him out of his sin, and gave him power to govern all things.
10:3. But when the unjust went away from her in his anger, he perished by the fury wherewith he murdered his brother.
The unjust... Cain.
10:4. For whose cause, when water destroyed the earth, wisdom healed it again, directing the course of the just by contemptible wood.
For whose cause... Viz., for the wickedness of the race of Cain.-Ibid. The just... Noe.
10:5. Moreover, when the nations had conspired together to consent to wickedness, she knew the just, and preserved him without blame to God, and kept him strong against the compassion for his son.
She knew the just... She found out and approved Abraham. Ibid. And kept him strong, etc... Gave him strength to stand firm against the efforts of his natural tenderness, when he was ordered to sacrifice his son.
10:6. She delivered the just man, who fled from the wicked that were perishing, when the fire came down upon Pentapolis:
The just man... Lot.-Ibid. Pentapolis... The land of the five cities, Sodom, Gomorrha, etc.
10:7. Whose land, for a testimony of their wickedness, is desolate, and smoketh to this day, and the trees bear fruits that ripen not, and a standing pillar of salt is a monument of an incredulous soul.
10:8. For regarding not wisdom, they did not only slip in this, that they were ignorant of good things; but they left also unto men a memorial of their folly, so that in the things in which they sinned, they could not so much as lie hid.
10:9. But wisdom hath delivered from sorrow them that attend upon her.
10:10. She conducted the just, when he fled from his brother's wrath, through the right ways, and shewed him the kingdom of God, and gave him the knowledge of the holy things, made him honourable in his labours, and accomplished his labours.
The just... Jacob.
10:11. In the deceit of them that overreached him, she stood by him, and made him honourable.
10:12. She kept him safe from his enemies, and she defended him from seducers, and gave him a strong conflict, that he might overcome, and know that wisdom is mightier than all.
Conflict... Viz., with the angel.
10:13. She forsook not the just when he was sold, but delivered him from sinners: she went down with him into the pit.
The just when he was sold... Viz., Joseph.
10:14. And in bands she left him not, till she brought him the sceptre of the kingdom, and power against those that oppressed him: and shewed them to be liars that had accused him, and gave him everlasting glory.
10:15. She delivered the just people, and blameless seed, from the nations that oppressed them.
10:16. She entered into the soul of the servant of God and stood against dreadful kings in wonders and signs.
The servant of God... Viz., Moses.
10:17. And she rendered to the just the wages of their labours, and conducted them in a wonderful way: and she was to them for a covert by day, and for the light of stars by night:
10:18. And she brought them through the Red Sea, and carried them over through a great water.
10:19. But their enemies she drowned in the sea, and from the depth of hell she brought them out. Therefore the just took the spoils of the wicked.
10:20. And they sung to thy holy name, O Lord, and they praised with one accord thy victorious hand.
10:21. For wisdom opened the mouth of the dumb, and made the tongues of infants eloquent.
Wisdom Chapter 11
Other benefits of wisdom to the people of God.
11:1. She prospered their works in the hands of the holy prophet.
The holy prophet... Moses.
11:2. They went through wildernesses that were not inhabited, and in desert places they pitched their tents.
11:3. They stood against their enemies, and revenged themselves of their adversaries.
Their enemies... The Amalecites.
11:4. They were thirsty, and they called upon thee, and water was given them out of the high rock, and a refreshment of their thirst out of the hard stone.
11:5. For by what things their enemies were punished, when their drink failed them, while the children of Israel abounded therewith, and rejoiced:
By what things, etc... The meaning is, that God, who wrought a miracle to punish the Egyptians by thirst, when he turned all their waters into blood, (at which time the Israelites, who were exempt from those plagues, had plenty of water,) wrought another miracle in favour of his own people in their thirst, by giving them water out of the rock.
11:6. By the same things they in their need were benefited.
11:7. For instead of a fountain of an ever running river, thou gavest human blood to the unjust.
11:8. And whilst they were diminished for a manifest reproof of their murdering the infants, thou gavest to thine abundant water unlooked for:
11:9. Shewing by the thirst that was then, how thou didst exalt thine, and didst kill their adversaries.
11:10. For when they were tried, and chastised with mercy, they knew how the wicked were judged with wrath, and tormented.
11:11. For thou didst admonish and try them as a father: but the others, as a severe king, thou didst examine and condemn.
11:12. For whether absent or present, they were tormented alike.
11:13. For a double affliction came upon them, and a groaning for the remembrance of things past.
11:14. For when they heard that by their punishments the others were benefited, they remembered the Lord, wondering at the end of what was come to pass.
By their punishments, etc... That is, that the Israelites had been benefited and miraculously favoured in the same kind, in which they had been punished.
11:15. For whom they scorned before, when he was thrown out at the time of his being wickedly exposed to perish, him they admired in the end, when they saw the event: their thirsting being unlike to that of the just.
11:16. But for the foolish devices of their iniqnity, because some being deceived worshipped dumb serpents and worthless beasts, thou didst send upon them a multitude of dumb beasts for vengeance:
Dumb beasts... Viz., frogs, sciniphs, flies, and locusts.
11:17. That they might know that by what things a man sinneth, by the same also he is tormented.
11:18. For thy almighty hand, which made the world of matter without form, was not unable to send upon them a multitude of bears, or fierce lions,
11:19. Or unknown beasts of a new kind, full of rage; either breathing out a fiery vapour, or sending forth a stinking smoke, or shooting horrible sparks out of their eyes:
11:20. Whereof not only the hurt might be able to destroy them, but also the very sight might kill them through fear.
11:21. Yea, and without these, they might have been slain with one blast, persecuted by their own deeds, and scattered by the breath of thy power: but thou hast ordered all things in measure, and number, and weight.
11:22. For great power always belonged to thee alone: and who shall resist the strength of thy arm?
11:23. For the whole world before thee is as the least grain of the balance, and as a drop of the morning dew, that falleth down upon tho earth.
11:24. But thou hast mercy upon all, because thou canst do all things, and overlookest the sins of men for the sake of repentance.
11:25. For thou lovest all things that are, and hatest none of the things which thou hast made: for thou didst not appoint, or make any thing hating it.
11:26. And how could any thing endure, if thou wouldst not? or be preserved, if not called by thee?
11:27. But thou sparest all: because they are thine, O Lord, who lovest souls.
Wisdom Chapter 12
God's wisdom and mercy in his proceedings with the Chanaanites.
12:1. O how good and sweet is thy Spirit, O Lord, in all things!
12:2. And therefore thou chastisest them that err, by little and little: and admonishest them, and speakest to them, concerning the things wherein they offend: that leaving their wickedness, they may believe in thee, O Lord.
12:3. For those ancient inhabitants of thy holy land, whom thou didst abhor,
12:4. Because they did works hateful to thee by their sorceries, and wicked sacrifices,
12:5. And those merciless murderers of their own children, and eaters of men's bowels, and devourers of blood from the midst of thy consecration,
From the midst of thy consecration... Literally, sacrament. That is, the land sacred to thee, in which thy temple was to be established, and man's redemption to be wrought.
12:6. And those parents sacrificing with their own hands helpless souls, it was thy will to destroy by the hands of our parents,
12:7. That the land which of all is most dear to thee, might receive a worthy colony of the children of God.
12:8. Yet even those thou sparedst as men, and didst send wasps forerunners of thy host, to destroy them by little and little.
12:9. Not that thou wast unable to bring the wicked under the just by war, or by cruel beasts, or with one rough word to destroy them at once:
12:10. But executing thy judgments by degrees, thou gavest them place of repentance, not being ignorant that they were a wicked generation, and their malice natural, and that their thought could never be changed.
12:11. For it was a cursed seed from the beginning: neither didst thou for fear of any one give pardon to their sins.
12:12. For who shall say to thee: What hast thou done? or who shall withstand thy judgment? or who shall come before thee to be a revenger of wicked men? or who shall accuse thee, if the nations perish, which thou hast made ?
12:13. For there is no other God but thou, who hast care of all, that thou shouldst shew that thou dost not give judgment unjustly.
12:14. Neither shall king, nor tyrant, in thy sight inquire about them whom thou hast destroyed.
12:15. For so much then, as thou art just, thou orderest all things justly: thinking it not agreeable to the power, to condemn him who deserveth not to be punished.
12:16. For thy power is the beginning of justice: and because thou art Lord of all, thou makest thyself gracious to all.
12:17. For thou shewest thy power, when men will not believe thee to be absolute in power, and thou convincest the boldness of them that know thee not.
12:18. But thou being master of power, judgest with tranquillity, and with great favour disposest of us: for thy power is at hand when thou wilt.
12:19. But thou hast taught thy people by such works, that they must be just and humane, and hast made thy children to be of a good hope: because in judging, thou givest place for repentance for sins.
12:20. For if thou didst punish the enemies of thy servants, and that deserved to die, with so great deliberation, giving them time and place whereby they might be changed from their wickedness:
12:21. With what circumspection hast thou judged thy own children, to whose parents thou hast sworn, and made covenants of good promises?
12:22. Therefore whereas thou chastisest us, thou scourgest our enemies very many ways, to the end that when we judge we may think on thy goodness: and when we are judged, we may hope for thy mercy.
12:23. Wherefore thou hast also greatly tormented them, who, in their life, have lived foolishly and unjustly, by the same things which they worshipped.
12:24. For they went astray for a long time in the ways of error, holding those things for gods which are the most worthless among beasts, living after the manner of children without understanding.
12:25. Therefore thou hast sent a judgment upon them, as senseless children, to mock them.
12:26. But they that were not amended by mockeries and reprehensions, experienced the worthy judgment of God.
12:27. For seeing, with indignation, that they suffered by those very things which they took for gods, when they were destroyed by the same, they acknowledged him the true God, whom in time past they denied that they knew: for which cause the end also of their condemnation came upon them.
Wisdom Chapter 13
Idolaters are inexcusable: and those most of all that worship for gods the works of the hands of men.
13:1. But all men are vain, in whom there is not the knowledge of God: and who by these good things that are seen, could not understand him that is, neither by attending to the works have acknowledged who was the workman:
13:2. But have imagined either the fire, or the wind, or the swift air, or the circle of the stars, or the great water, or the sun and moon, to be the gods that rule the world.
13:3. With whose beauty, if they, being delighted, took them to be gods: let them know how much the Lord of them is more beautiful than they: for the first author of beauty made all those things.
13:4. Or if they admired their power, and their effects, let them understand by them, that he that made them, is mightier than they:
13:5. For by the greatness of the beauty, and of the creature, the creator of them may be seen, so as to be known thereby.
13:6. But yet as to these they are less to be blamed. For they perhaps err, seeking God, and desirous to find him.
13:7. For being conversant among his works, they search: and they are persuaded that the things are good which are seen.
13:8. But then again they are not to be pardoned.
13:9. For if they were able to know so much as to make a judgment of the world: how did they not more easily find out the Lord thereof?
13:1O. But unhappy are they, and their hope is among the dead, who have called gods the works of the hand of men, gold and silver, the inventions of art, and the resemblances of beasts, or an unprofitable stone the work of an ancient hand.
13:11. Or if an artist, a carpenter, hath cut down a tree proper for his use in the wood, and skilfully taken off all the bark thereof, and with his art, diligently formeth a vessel profitable for the common uses of life,
13:12. And useth the chips of his work to dress his meat:
13:13. And taking what was left thereof, which is good for nothing, being a crooked piece of wood, and full of knots, carveth it diligently when he hath nothing else to do, and by the skill of his art fashioneth it, and maketh it like the image of a man:
13:14. Or the resemblance of some beast, laying it over with vermilion, and painting it red, and covering every spot that is in it:
13:15. And maketh a convenient dwelling place for it, and setting it in a wall, and fastening it with iron,
13:16. Providing for it, lest it should fall, knowing that it is unable to help itself: for it is an image, and hath need of help.
13:17. And then maketh prayer to it, enquiring concerning his substance, and his children, or his marriage. And he is not ashamed to speak to that which hath no life:
13:18. And for health he maketh supplication to the weak, and for life prayeth to that which is dead, and for help calleth upon that which is unprofitable:
13:19. And for a good journey he petitioneth him that cannot walk: and for getting, and for working, and for the event of all things he asketh him that is unable to do any thing.
Wisdom Chapter 14
The beginning of worshipping idols: and the effects thereof.
14:1. Again, another designing to sail, and beginning to make his voyage through the raging waves, calleth upon a piece of wood more frail than the wood that carrieth him.
14:2. For this the desire of gain devised, and the workman built it by his skill.
14:3. But thy providence, O Father, governeth it: for thou hast made a way even in the sea, and a most sure path among the waves,
14:4. Shewing that thou art able to save out of all things, yea, though a man went to sea without art.
14:5. But that the works of thy wisdom might not be idle: therefore men also trust their lives even to a little wood, and passing over the sea by ship, are saved.
14:6. And from the beginning also, when the proud giants perished, the hope of the world fleeing to a vessel, which was governed by thy hand, left to the world seed of generation.
14:7. For blessed is the wood, by which justice cometh
14:8. But the idol that is made by hands, is cursed, as well it, as he that made it: he because he made it; and it because being frail it is called a god.
14:9. But to God the wicked and his wickedness are hateful alike.
14:10. For that which is made, together with him that made it, shall suffer torments.
14:11. Therefore there shall be no respect had even to the idols of the Gentiles: because the creatures of God are turned to an abomination, and a temptation to the souls of men, and a snare to the feet of the unwise.
14:12. For the beginning of fornication is the devising of idols: and the invention of them is the corruption of life.
14:13. For neither were they from the beginning, neither shall they be for ever.
14:14. For by the vanity of men they came into the world: and therefore they shall be found to come shortly to an end.
14:15. For a father being afflicted with bitter grief, made to himself the image of his son, who was quickly taken away: and him who then had died as a man, he began now to worship as a god, and appointed him rites and sacrifices among his servants.
14:16. Then, in process of time, wicked custom prevailing, this error was kept as a law, and statues were worshipped by the commandment of tyrants.
14:17. And those whom men could not honour in presence, because they dwelt far off, they brought their resemblance from afar, and made an express image of the king, whom they had a mind to honour: that by this their diligence, they might honour as present, him that was absent.
14:18. And to the worshipping of these, the singular diligence also of the artificer helped to set forward the ignorant.
14:19. For he being willing to please him that employed him, laboured with all his art to make the resemblance in the best manner.
14:20. And the multitude of men, carried away by the beauty of the work, took him now for a god, that little before was but honoured as a man.
14:21. And this was the occasion of deceiving human life: for men serving either their affection, or their kings, gave the incommunicable name to stones and wood.
14:22. And it was not enough for them to err about the knowledge of God, but whereas they lived in a great war of ignorance, they call so many and so great evils peace.
14:23. For either they sacrifice their own children, or use hidden sacrifices, or keep watches full of madness,
14:24. So that now they neither keep life, nor marriage undefiled, but one killeth another through envy, or grieveth him by adultery:
14:25. And all things are mingled together, blood, murder, theft, and dissimulation, corruption and unfaithfulness, tumults and perjury, disquieting of the good,
14:26. Forgetfulness of God, defiling of souls, changing of nature, disorder in marriage, and the irregularity of adultery and uncleanness.
14:27. For the worship of abominable idols is the cause, and the beginning and end of all evil.
14:28. For either they are mad when they are merry: or they prophesy lies, or they live unjustly, or easily forswear themselves.
14:29. For whilst they trust in idols, which are without life, though they swear amiss, they look not to be hurt.
14:30. But for both these things they shall be justly punished, because they have thought not well of God, giving heed to idols, and have sworn unjustly, in guile despising justice.
14:31. For it is not the power of them, by whom they swear, but the just vengeance of sinners always punisheth the transgression of the unjust.
Wisdom Chapter 15
The servants of God praise him who hath delivered them from idolatry; condemning both the makers and the worshippers of idols.
15:1. But thou, our God, art gracious and true, patient, and ordering all things in mercy.
15:2. For if we sin, we are thine, knowing thy greatness: and if we sin not, we know that we are counted with thee.
15:3. For to know thee is perfect justice: and to know thy justice, and thy power, is the root of immortality.
15:4. For the invention of mischievous men hath not deceived us, nor the shadow of a picture, a fruitless labour, a graven figure with divers colours,
15:5. The sight whereof enticeth the fool to lust after it, and he loveth the lifeless figure of a dead image.
15:6. The lovers of evil things deserve to have no better things to trust in, both they that make them, and they that love them, and they that worship them.
15:7. The potter also tempering soft earth, with labour fashioneth every vessel for our service, and of the same clay he maketh both vessels that are for clean uses, and likewise such as serve to the contrary: but what is the use of these vessels, the potter is the judge.
15:8. And of the same clay by a vain labour he maketh a god: he who a little before was made of earth himself, and a little after returneth to the same out of which he was taken, when his life, which was lent him, shall be called for again.
15:9. But his care is, not that he shall labour, nor that his life is short, but he striveth with the goldsmiths and silversmiths: and he endeavoureth to do like the workers in brass, and counteth it a glory to make vain things.
15:10. For his heart is ashes, and his hope vain earth and his life more base than clay:
15:11. Forasmuch as he knew not his maker, and him that inspired into him the soul that worketh, and that breathed into him a living spirit.
15:12. Yea, and they have counted our life a pastime and the business of life to be gain, and that we must be getting every way, even out of evil.
15:13. For that man knoweth that he offendeth above all others, who of earthly matter maketh brittle vessels, and graven gods.
15:14. But all the enemies of thy people that hold them in subjection, are foolish, and unhappy, and proud beyond measure:
15:15. For they have esteemed all the idols of the heathens for gods, which neither have the use of eyes to see, nor noses to draw breath, nor ears to hear, nor fingers of hands to handle, and as for their feet, they are slow to walk.
15:16. For man made them: and he that borroweth his own breath, fashioned them. For no man can make a god like to himself.
15:17. For being mortal himself, he formeth a dead thing with his wicked hands. For he is better than they whom he worshippeth, because he indeed hath lived, though he were mortal, but they never.
15:18. Moreover, they worship also the vilest creatures: but things without sense, compared to these, are worse than they.
15:19. Yea, neither by sight can any man see good of these beasts. But they have fled from the praise of God, and from his blessing.
Wisdom Chapter 16
God's different dealings with the Egyptians and with his own people.
16:1. For these things, and by the like things to these, they were worthily punished, and were destroyed by a multitude of beasts.
16:2. Instead of which punishment, dealiug well with thy people, thou gavest them their desire of delicious food, of a new taste, preparing for them quails for their meat:
16:3. To the end, that they indeed desiring food, by means of those things that were shewn and sent among them, might loath even that which was necessary to satisfy their desire. But these, after suffering want for a short time, tasted a new meat.
They indeed desiring food, etc... He means the Egyptians; who were restrained even from that food which was necessary, by the frogs and the flies that were sent amongst them, and spoiled all their meats.-Ibid. But these... Viz., the Israelites.
16:4. For it was requisite that inevitable destruction should come upon them that exercised tyranny: but to these it should only be shewn how their enemies were destroyed.
16:5. For when the fierce rage of beasts came upon these, they were destroyed by the bitings of crooked serpents.
16:6. But thy wrath endured not for ever, but they were troubled for a short time for their correction, having a sign of salvation, to put them in remembrance of the commandment of thy law.
Sign of salvation... The brazen serpent, an emblem of Christ our Saviour.
16:7. For he that turned to it, was not healed by that which he saw, but by thee, the Saviour of all.
16:8. And in this thou didst shew to our enemies, that thou art he who deliverest from all evil.
16:9. For the bitings of locusts, and of flies, killed them, and there was found no remedy for their life: because they were worthy to be destroyed by such things.
16:10. But not even the teeth of venomous serpents overcame thy children: for thy mercy came and healed them.
16:11. For they were examined for the remembrance of thy words, and were quickly healed, lest falling into deep forgetfulness, they might not be able to use thy help.
16:12. For it was neither herb, nor mollifying plaster, that healed them, but thy word, O Lord, which healeth all things.
16:13. For it is thou, O Lord, that hast power of life and death, and leadest down to the gates of death, and bringest back again:
16:14. A man indeed killeth through malice, and when the spirit is gone forth, it shall not return, neither shall he call back the soul that is received:
16:15. But it is impossible to escape thy hand:
16:16. For the wicked that denied to know thee, were scourged by the strength of thy arm, being persecuted by strange waters, and hail, and rain, and consumed by fire.
16:17. And which was wonderful, in water, which extinguisheth all things, the fire had more force: for the world fighteth for the just.
The fire had more force... Viz., when the fire and hail mingled together laid waste the land of Egypt. Ex. 9.
16:18. For at one time the fire was mitigated, that the beasts which were sent against the wicked might not be burnt, but that they might see, and perceive that they were persecuted by the judgment of God.
16:19. And at another time the fire, above its own power, burnt in the midst of water, to destroy the fruits of a wicked land.
16:20. Instead of which things, thou didst feed thy people with the food of angels, and gavest them bread from heaven, prepared without labour; having in it all that is delicious, and the sweetness of every taste.
16:21. For thy sustenance shewed thy sweetness to thy children, and serving every man's will, it was turned to what every man liked.
16:22. But snow and ice endured the force of fire, and melted not: that they might know that the fire, burning in the hail, and flashing in the rain, destroyed the fruits of the enemies.
16:23. But this same again, that the just might be nourished, did even forget its own strength.
16:24. For the creature serving thee, the Creator, is made fierce against the unjust for their punishment: and abateth its strength for the benefit of them that trust in thee.
16:25. Therefore even then it was transformed into all things, and was obedient to thy grace, that nourisheth all, according to the will of them that desired it of thee:
16:26. That thy children, O Lord, whom thou lovedst, might know that it is not the growing of fruits that nourisheth men, but thy word preserveth them that believe in thee.
16:27. For that which could not be destroyed by fire, being warmed with a little sunbeam, presently melted away:
16:28. That it might be known to all, that we ought to prevent the sun to bless thee, and adore thee at the dawning of the light.
16:29. For the hope of the unthankful shall melt away as the winter's ice, and shall run off as unprofitable water.
Wisdom Chapter 17
The Egyptian darkness.
17:1. For thy judgments, O Lord, are great, and thy words cannot be expressed: therefore undisciplined souls have erred.
17:2. For while the wicked thought to be able to have dominion over the holy nation, they themselves being fettered with the bonds of darkness, and a long night, shut up in their houses, lay there exiled from the eternal providence.
17:3. And while they thought to lie hid in their obscure sins, they were scattered under a dark veil of forgetfullness, being horribly afraid, and troubled with exceeding great astonishment.
17:4. For neither did the den that held them, keep them from fear: for noises coming down troubled them, and sad visions appearing to them, affrighted them.
17:5. And no power of fire could give them light, neither could the bright flames of the stars enlighten that horrible night.
17:6. But there appeared to them a sudden fire, very dreadful: and being struck with the fear of that face, which was not seen, they thought the things which they saw to be worse:
17:7. And the delusions of their magic art were put down, and their boasting of wisdom was reproachfully rebuked.
17:8. For they who promised to drive away fears and troubles from a sick soul, were sick themselves of a fear worthy to be laughed at.
17:9. For though no terrible thing disturbed them: yet being scared with the passing by of beasts, and hissing of serpents, they died for fear and denying that they saw the air, which could by no means be avoided.
17:10. For whereas wickedness is fearful, it beareth witness of its condemnation: for a troubled conscience always forecasteth grievous things.
17:11. For fear is nothing else but a yielding up of the succours from thought.
17:12. And while there is less expectation from within, the greater doth it count the ignorance of that cause which bringeth the torment.
17:13. But they that during that night, in which nothing could be done, and which came upon them from the lowest and deepest hell, slept the same sleep,
17:14. Were sometimes molested with the fear of monsters, sometimes fainted away, their soul failing them: for a sudden and unlooked for fear was come upon them.
17:15. Moreover, if any of them had fallen down, he was kept shut up in prison without irons.
17:16. For if any one were a husbandman, or a shepherd, or a labourer in the field, and was suddenly overtaken, he endured a necessity from which he could not fly.
17:17. For they were all bound together with one chain of darkness. Whether it were a whistling wind, or the melodious voice of birds, among the spreading branches of trees, or a fall of water running down with violence,
17:18. Or the mighty noise of stones tumbling down, or the running that could not be seen of beasts playing together, or the roaring voice of wild beasts, or a rebounding echo from the highest mountains: these things made them to swoon for fear.
17:19. For the whole world was enlightened, with a clear light, and none were hindered in their labours.
17:20. But over them only was spread a heavy night, an image of that darkness which was to come upon them. But they were to themselves more grievous than the darkness.
Wisdom Chapter 18
The slaughter of the firstborn in Egypt: the efficacy of Aaron's intercession, in the sedition on occasion of Core.
18:1. But thy saints had a very great light, and they heard their voice indeed, but did not see their shape. And because they also did not suffer the same things, they glorified thee:
18:2. And they that before had been wronged, gave thanks, because they were not hurt now: and asked this gift, that there might be a difference.
18:3. Therefore they received a burning pillar of fire for a guide of the way which they knew not, and thou gavest them a harmless sun of a good entertainment.
A harmless sun... A light that should not hurt or molest them; but that should be an agreeable guest to them.
18:4. The others indeed were worthy to be deprived of light, and imprisoned in darkness, who kept thy children shut up, by whom the pure light of the law was to be given to the world.
18:5. And whereas they thought to kill the babes of the just: one child being cast forth, and saved to reprove them, thou tookest away a multitude of their children, and destroyedst them altogether in a mighty water.
One child... Viz., Moses.
18:6. For that night was known before by our fathers, that assuredly knowing what oaths they had trusted to, they might be of better courage.
18:7. So thy people received the salvation of the just, and destruction of the unjust.
18:8. For as thou didst punish the adversaries so thou didst also encourage and glorify us.
18:9. For the just children of good men were offering sacrifice secretly, and they unanimously ordered a law of justice: that the just should receive both good and evil alike, singing now the praises of the fathers.
Of good men... Viz., of the patriarchs. Their children, the Israelites, offered in private the sacrifice of the paschal lamb; and were regulating what they were to do in their journey, when that last and most dreadful plague was coming upon their enemies.
18:10. But on the other side there sounded an ill according cry of the enemies, and a lamentable mourning was heard for the children that were bewailed.
18:11. And the servant suffered the same punishment as the master, and a common man suffered in like manner as the king.
18:12. So all alike had innumerable dead, with one kind of death. Neither were the living sufficient to bury them: for in one moment the noblest offspring of them was destroyed.
The noblest offspring... That is, the firstborn.
18:13. For whereas they would not believe any thing before by reason of the enchantments, then first upon the destruction of the firstborn, they acknowledged the people to be of God.
18:14. For while all things were in quiet silence, and the night was in the midst of her course,
18:15. Thy Almighty word leaped down from heaven from thy royal throne, as a fierce conqueror into the midst of the land of destruction,
18:16. With a sharp sword carrying thy unfeigned commandment, and he stood and filled all things with death, and standing on the earth, reached even to heaven.
18:17. Then suddenly visions of evil dreams troubled them, and fears unlooked for came upon them.
18:18. And one thrown here, another there, half dead, shewed the cause of his death.
18:19. For the visions that troubled them foreshewed these things, lest they should perish, and not know why they suffered these evils.
18:20. But the just also were afterwards touched by an assault of death, and there was a disturbance of the multitude in the wilderness: but thy wrath did not long continue;
18:21. For a blameless man made haste to pry for the people, bringing forth the shield of his ministry, prayer, and by incense making supplication, withstood the wrath, and put an end to the calamity, shewing that he was thy servant.
18:22. And he overcame the disturbance, not by strength of body nor with force of arms, but with a word he subdued him that punished them, alleging the oath and covenant made with the fathers.
18:23. For when they were now fallen down dead by heaps one upon another, he stood between and stayed the assault, and cut off the way to the living.
18:24. For in the priestly robe which he wore, was the whole world: and in the four rows of the stones, the glory of the fathers was graven, and thy majesty was written upon the diadem of his head.
18:26. And to these the destroyer gave place, and was afraid of them: for the proof only of wrath was enough.
Wisdom Chapter 19
Why God shewed no mercy to the Egyptians. His favour to the Israelites. All creatures obey God's orders for the service of the good, and the punishment of the wicked.
19:1. But as to the wicked, even to the end there came upon them wrath without mercy. For he knew before also what they would do:
19:2. For when they had given them leave to depart and had sent them away with great care, they repented and pursued after them.
19:3. For whilst they were yet mourning, and lamenting at the graves of the dead, they took up another foolish device: and pursued them as fugitives whom they had pressed to be gone:
19:4. For a necessity, of which they were worthy, brought them to this end: and they lost the remembrance of those things which had happened, that their punishment might fill up what was wanting to their torments:
19:5. And that thy people might wonderfully pass through, but they might find a new death.
19:6. For every creature, according to its kind was fashioned again as from the beginning, obeying thy commandments, that thy children might be kept without hurt.
19:7. For a cloud overshadowed their camps and where water was before, dry land appeared, and in the Red Sea a way without hindrance, and out of the great deep a springing field:
19:8. Through which all the nation passed which was protected with thy hand, seeing thy miracles and wonders.
19:9. For they fed on their food like horses, and they skipped like lambs, praising thee, O Lord, who hadst delivered them.
19:10. For they were yet mindful of those things which had been done in the time of their sojourning, how the ground brought forth flies instead of cattle, and how the river cast up a multitude of frogs instead of fishes.
19:11. And at length they saw a new generation of birds, when being led by their appetite, they asked for delicate meats.
19:12. For to satisfy their desire, the quail came up to them from the sea: and punishments came upon the sinners, not without foregoing signs by the force of thunders: for they suffered justly according to their own wickedness.
19:13. For they exercised a more detestable inhospitality than any: others indeed received not strangers unknown to them, but these brought their guests into bondage that had deserved well of them.
19:14. And not only so, but in another respect also they were worse: for the others against their will received the strangers.
19:15. But these grievously afflicted them whom they had received with joy, and who lived under the same laws.
19:16. But they were struck with blindness: as those others were at the doors of the just man, when they were covered with sudden darkness, and every one sought the passage of his own door.
19:17. For while the elements are changed in themselves, as in an instrument the sound of the quality is changed, yet all keep their sound: which may clearly be perceived by the very sight.
Elements are changed, etc... The meaning is, that whatever changes God wrought in the elements by miracles in favour of his people, they still kept their harmony by obeying his will.
19:18. For the things of the land were turned into things of the water: and the things that before swam in the water passed upon the land.
19:19. The fire had power in water above its own virtue, and the water forgot its quenching nature.
19:20. On the other side, the flames wasted not the flesh of corruptible animals walking therein, neither did they melt that good food, which was apt to melt as ice. For in all things thou didst magnify thy people, O Lord, and didst honour them, and didst not despise them, but didst assist them at all times, and in every place.
That good food... The manna.
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The Seven Spirits and the Deadness of the Church At this juncture let us consider the seven Spirits in Revelation 3:1, the opening word of the risen Christ to the church in Sardis: “These things says He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars: I know your works, that you have a name that you are living, and yet you are dead.” “The Lord’s character,” Darby correctly points out, “is adapted to the state of those whom He is addressing” (Addresses 77). The crucial point regarding the condition of the church in Sardis is that this church was dead and dying. It had a name that it was living, but it was actually in a state of spiritual death, a state utterly abhorrent to the living God. The conduct and daily living (symbolized by garments in verse 4) of the majority in this church had been defiled by death, stained and contaminated by continual contact with deadness. (In the sight of God, death is even more defiling than sin—Lev. 11:24-25; Num. 6:6-7, 9). Stott gives the following stark description of the spiritual condition of the church in Sardis: This socially distinguished congregation was a spiritual graveyard. It seemed to be alive, but it was actually dead. It had a name for virility, but it had no right to its name. Its works were beautiful graveclothes which were but a thin disguise for this ecclesiastical corpse. The eyes of Christ saw beyond the clothes to the skeleton…The few 28 Affirmation & Critique who did not share in the general stagnation are described as people who have not soiled their garments (v. 4). So this death was dirt…Such spiritual defilement is spiritual death…It is a terrible thing to be physically alive and at the same time spiritually dead. (85-86) Because so many of today’s preachers excoriate sin but are oblivious to or even tolerate deadness, we need to be deeply impressed with the dreadfulness of spiritual death. After quoting the Lord’s word in Revelation 3:1, Darby, writing in the previous century, exclaims, “What a terrible condition is this—it completely portrays what we see all around us; I do not mean only at the present day, but what has actually been the state of the Church for the last century and more” (Addresses 81). Coates, although speaking with a milder tone, is no less discerning: “An open Bible, and much truth from God…does not ensure spiritual vitality…It is not what I am in profession, or even the ‘name’ I have with others, that has value, but what I am in spiritual vitality” (42-43). In his efforts to determine the cause of spiritual death, Barclay says that a church is in danger of death “when it begins to worship its own past,” “when it is more concerned with forms than with life…more concerned with correct ritual than they are with living vitality,” “when it loves systems more than it loves Jesus Christ,” and “when it is more concerned with material than with spiritual things” (Letters 87-88). hat, if anything, can be done about such a deplorable and appalling condition? The answer is found in the Lord’s description of Himself as “He who has the seven Spirits of God.” A dead church needs the Christ who has the seven Spirits. “In presenting Himself to Sardis as having the seven Spirits of God the Lord indicated that He had plenitude of power and intelligence to bring about the setting up of that which would really be for the pleasure of God” (Coates 43). Speaking of the seven Spirits, Alford says, “This plenitude, Christ, the Lord of the Church, possesses…in all fulness. From Him the spiritual life of his churches comes as its source, in all its elements of vitality” (1805). Perhaps no one has spoken more strongly about the need for such a Christ than Trench: The Seven Spirits of God 29 W To [those] sunken in spiritual deadness and torpor, the lamp of faith waning and almost extinguished in their hearts, the Lord presents Himself as having the fulness of all spiritual gifts; able therefore to revive, able to recover, able to bring back from the very gates of spiritual death those who would employ the little last remaining strength which they still retained, in calling, even when thus in extremis, upon Him. (163) Trench is right. The only recourse for those who are languishing in a state of spiritual death is to call on the name of the One who has the seven Spirits of God. The only remedy for spiritual death is the seven Spirits. Only the seven Spirits can deal with the deadness of the church. Since the Spirit is the Spirit of life (Rom. 8:2), the seven Spirits, the Spirit of life intensified sevenfold, are mainly for the imparting of life. The eternal, indestructible divine life imparted by the seven Spirits conquers death and vitalizes the churches. The sevenfold intensified Spirit is therefore well able to deal with the defilement of death and cause the believers to become intensely living and vital. The Seven Spirits and God’s Building The seven Spirits are for God’s building. In order to realize this, we need to see that the governing vision of the Bible is the vision of God’s building, that the book of Revelation affords us the consummate unveiling of God’s building, that in the Scriptures the golden lampstand with its seven lamps are for God’s building, that the seven eyes of the Lamb, which are also the seven eyes of the stone in Zechariah 3, are for God’s building, and that, ultimately and eternally in the New Jerusalem as the consummation of God’s building, the seven Spirits as seven lamps of fire burning before the throne become the Spirit as the river of water of life proceeding out of the throne. he Bible is a book of building, and the governing vision, the controlling view, in the Bible is the vision of God’s building—the corporate expression of the Triune God through His redeemed, regenerated, sanctified, and transformed people. This building is seen in type, or blueprint, in the Old Testament and in 30 Affirmation & Critique T reality, or fulfillment, in the New Testament. In Genesis 2 we see the tree of life, the flowing river, and gold, bdellium (pearl), and precious stones; in Revelation 21 and 22 we see a city built with gold, pearl, and precious stones, a city in which are the tree of life and the river of water of life. In the Old Testament we have the tabernacle, the temple, and the rebuilt temple, all of which are types of the church as God’s temple, His dwelling place (1 Cor. 3:16; Eph. 2:21-22). When Peter received the revelation from the Father that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God (Matt. 16:16), the Lord immediately spoke a word about God’s building (v. 18), a building, a spiritual house, composed of Christ as the cornerstone and of all the believers as living stones (21:42; Acts 4:11; Eph. 2:20; 1 Pet. 2:4-6). Initially, God’s building is His house (1 Tim. 3:15), but when it is enlarged it becomes a city—the city for which Abraham “eagerly waited,” a “city which has the foundations, whose Architect and Builder is God” (Heb. 11:10). In this building Christ is the unique foundation upon which all the believers are building, some with wood, grass, and stubble and others with gold, silver, and precious stones (1 Cor. 3:10-12). The consummate unveiling of this organic building is in Revelation, which, contrary to the opinion of some, is primarily a book not of judgment but of building. In Revelation the divine building is unfolded in two stages—the churches as the lampstands in chapters 2 and 3 and the New Jerusalem, the eternal golden lampstand, in chapters 21 and 22. The revelation concerning the New Jerusalem is given to the seven churches (1:4, 11; 22:16). This indicates that, as the speaking Spirit (2:7), the Lord is speaking to those in the churches—God’s initial building in this age—regarding the New Jerusalem—God’s consummate building in eternity— The Seven Spirits of God 31 As the speaking Spirit, the Lord is speaking to those in the churches—God’s initial building in this age—regarding the New Jerusalem—God’s consummate building in eternity—showing His believers that the ultimate issue of the judgment by fire of all that opposes God’s administration and economy will be the manifestation of the New Jerusalem, “coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.” showing His believers that the ultimate issue of the judgment by fire of all that opposes God’s administration and economy will be the manifestation of the New Jerusalem, “coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband” (21:2). The fact that our living as overcomers in the proper church life today is directly connected to our participation in the New Jerusalem in the coming (millennial) age is made evident by the Lord’s word in 3:12: “I will write upon him…the name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem, which descends out of heaven from My God.” If we see the central significance of God’s building in the Bible and the crucial importance of God’s building in Revelation, we should endeavor to see the relationship of the seven Spirits in chapters 4 and 5 to the churches as God’s present building and to the New Jerusalem as God’s eternal building. Simply stated, the seven Spirits are for God’s building. As far as the seven lamps of fire are concerned, this is true in at least three ways. First, these seven lamps are based upon the seven lamps of the lampstand in Exodus 25:37 and of the lampstand in Zechariah 4:2. In the Scriptures the lampstand is related to God’s building: to the tabernacle in Exodus, to the temple in 1 Kings, to the rebuilt temple in Zechariah, and to the churches in Revelation. The seven lamps of fire are the seven lamps of the lampstand, and the lampstand is related to God’s building. Thus, the burning of the seven lamps is for the building indicated by the lampstand. Second, as we have pointed out, the fire of the lamps is not only for judging, refining, and purifying but also for producing, for bringing forth. What is brought forth by the burning, enlightening, searching, judging, refining, and purifying of the seven lamps of fire is God’s building as the church today and as the New Jerusalem in eternity. Third, the seven Spirits as the seven lamps of fire burning for God’s building eventually become the Spirit as the river of water of life flowing in God’s building. The seven Spirits who are before the throne become the Spirit proceeding out of the throne. Whereas the burning of the seven Spirits for the New Jerusalem is temporal, the flowing of the Spirit in the New Jerusalem is eternal. The seven lamps of fire will consume what cannot be 32 Affirmation & Critique part of the New Jerusalem, but they will purify and bring forth what will be part of the New Jerusalem. Once this function of the seven Spirits has been completed, the Spirit will no longer be the fire burning for the city but will be the river flowing in the city. Just as the seven lamps of fire are for God’s building, the seven eyes of the Lamb are also for God’s building. Compelling evidence for this is the connection between the seven eyes of the Lamb in Revelation 5:6 and the seven eyes of the stone in Zechariah 3:9: “Here is the stone that I have set before Joshua—upon one stone are seven eyes. I will engrave its engraving, declares Jehovah of hosts, and I will remove the iniquity of that land in one day.” This stone typifies Christ. Dennett says, “The foundation stone of the temple was a type of Christ as the foundation in Zion” (35). Baron agrees: The literal foundation [stone] was a type of Him who is the “precious cornerstone” and unshakable foundation of the spiritual temple, into which believers also are built as living stones, and which through eternity shall be for the habitation of God through the Spirit. (115) Both Baron and Dennett relate Christ as the stone in Zechariah to Christ as the stone in Isaiah: “Therefore thus says / The Lord Jehovah: / Indeed I lay a stone in Zion as a foundation, / A tested stone, / A precious cornerstone as a foundation firmly established” (28:16). In His discourse with the Jewish religionists, the Lord Jesus referred to Himself as “the stone which the builders rejected” but which “has become the head of the corner” (Matt. 21:42). Christ came as the stone for God’s building, but the religious leaders rejected Him and, acting in concert with the Roman government, crucified Him. However, God honored this stone by resurrecting Him and making Him the cornerstone in His spiritual building. Recognizing this, Peter preached Christ not only as the Savior but also as the stone for God’s building (Acts 4:10-12). egarding the stone (Christ) in Zechariah 3:9, God said, “I will engrave its engraving.” God also said that through this engraved stone He would “remove the iniquity of that land in one The Seven Spirits of God 33 R day.” To engrave is to cut. When Christ was on the cross, dying as the Lamb of God to take away the sin of the word (John 1:29), He was engraved, cut, by God so that we might be redeemed for God’s building. Baron believes that “when on the cross of shame He laid down His life a ransom for us…the ‘graving’ of the stone took place” (117). “This stone was engraved in one day for the iniquity of God’s people. The engraving of the stone was its being dealt with by God’s righteousness on the cross for our redemption” (Lee, Revelation 267).
Christ as the engraved stone has seven eyes, and these are “the eyes of Jehovah running to and fro on the whole earth” (Zech. 4:10). This is a crucial point, for it demonstrates, we are convinced, that the seven Spirits of God, which are the seven eyes of the Lamb, are for God’s building. Christ is both the Lamb for redemption and the stone for building. Therefore, He is the Lambstone, the redeeming and building Christ. As the Lamb Christ has seven eyes, and as the stone He also has seven eyes. These seven eyes are not only for the application of Christ’s redemption but also for the accomplishment of God’s building. In Revelation 5:6 the Lamb-stone, with His redemption as the basis, is unveiled as the One who is carrying out, through the seven Spirits as His seven eyes, God’s administration for God’s building. God’s building is the goal of His redemption. To see this is to realize that redemption, as marvelous as it is, is not an end in itself. Redemption is for building. The seven Spirits as the seven eyes of Christ the Lambstone always have God’s building in view. All that these seven eyes are doing in us and with us—observing, searching, discerning, infusing—is for God’s building. From this we see that as the seven lamps of fire and as the seven eyes of the Lamb, the seven Spirits are for God’s building. The Seven Spirits and the Overcomers The church, God’s building today, owes its existence to the pneumatic Christ, Christ as the life-giving Spirit. However, not long after the church came into being, it began to degrade, and the degradation gradually worsened until, in the sight of the Lord, it became intolerable. Then as the book of Revelation makes 34 Affirmation & Critique emphatically clear, He who has the seven Spirits of God intervened to deal with the church’s degradation and to sound out a call for overcomers. For the producing of the church the life-giving Spirit was sufficient, but for dealing with the degradation of the church it was necessary for the Spirit to become the seven Spirits, the sevenfold intensified Spirit. The seven Spirits, the seven lamps of fire, the seven eyes of the Lamb—all are needed to overcome the church’s degradation. In dealing with the degradation of the church, the sevenfold intensified Spirit has a singular objective—to produce overcomers. To appreciate the function of the seven Spirits in producing the overcomers, we need to acknowledge the fact of the church’s degradation and to understand the nature of overcoming in this book. A full picture of the church’s degradation in its various aspects is presented in Revelation 2 and 3. Here we can comment only briefly on four principal aspects. To the church in Ephesus the Lord Jesus said, “I have one thing against you, that you have left your first love” (2:4). Here we have the source of degradation—leaving the first, or best, love toward the Lord. The church in Ephesus had good works and had labored for the Lord, had endured suffering, and had tried the false apostles; however, she had fallen from her first love, paying more attention to work than to the Lord Himself. The Lord rebuked the church in Pergamos for holding “the teaching of the Nicolaitans” (v. 15). The most common interpretation of the word Nicolaitans is that it denotes “a sect which advocated license in matters of Christian conduct” (Ryrie 1789). A note in the New Scofield Reference Bible explains, “The name ‘Nicolaitans,’ according to early church fathers…refers to those who, while professing themselves to be Christians, lived licentiously” (1353). It is instructive to compare this note with that in the original Scofield Reference Bible: From nikao, “to conquer,” and laos, “the people,” or “laity.” There is no ancient authority for a sect of the Nicolaitanes. If the word is symbolic it refers to the earliest form of the notion of a priestly order, or “clergy,” The Seven Spirits of God 35 which later divided an equal brotherhood (Mt. 23:8) into “priests” and “laity.” (1332) We take this latter view to be the correct one. The Nicolaitans, viewing themselves as superior to the common believers, lifted themselves above them and thus “conquered” them, annulling the universal priesthood of the believers in Christ and destroying the organic function of the members of the Body of Christ. Commenting on “the works of the Nicolaitans” in Revelation 2:6, Watchman Nee says: Nikao means “conquer” or “above others.” Laos means “common people,” “secular people,” or “laity.” So nicolait means “conquering the common people,” “climbing above the laity.” Nicolaitans, then, refers to a group of people who esteem themselves higher than the common believers…The Lord hates the behavior of the Nicolaitans. The conduct of climbing over and above the common believers as a mediatorial class is what the Lord detests; it is something to be hated…In the same way the Lord disapproves of the teaching of the Nicolaitans…The church in Ephesus only has the behavior of the Nicolaitans, while the church in Pergamos has the teaching of the Nicolaitans…If a certain behavior is manifested and then a doctrine is preached, this involves not only the ability to behave, but also the ability to produce a theory based on that behavior…I believe this matter is what the Lord hates the most. (17, 35-38) Another sign of degradation in the church is spiritual death. As we have seen, the Lord rebuked the church in Sardis for its deadness, telling the church in that city to establish “the things which remain, which were about to die” (3:2). he church in Laodicea had become degraded in a very different way. The Lord rebuked this church for its lukewarmness, saying, “I know your works, that you are neither cold nor hot; I wish that you were cold or hot. So, because you are lukewarm and neither hot nor cold, I am about to spew you out of My mouth” 36 Affirmation & Critique T (vv. 15-16). In verse 20 the Lord indicated that Laodicea had become degraded in an even more serious way: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock.” This door is the door not of the hearts of individual believers but the door of the church. Christ is the Head of the church, yet He was standing outside the church seeking to get in. This is not only the degradation of lukewarmness but the degradation of Christlessness. I t cannot reasonably be denied that a church which has lost its first love for the Lord, which practices and teaches a system of clergy-laity hierarchy, which is in a state of spiritual death, and which is lukewarm and Christless is a degraded church. In addressing such degradation, Christ repeatedly calls for overcomers (2:7, 11, 17, 26-28; 3:5, 12, 21). An overcomer is a conqueror, a victor. “The verb [for “overcomes” in Greek] nikao… literally means to “be a victor” (Earle 459). In 1 John 5:4 overcoming is a matter of victory over the satanic world system, whereas in Revelation overcoming is a matter of victory over the degradation of the church. Because not many Christians realize this, it requires emphasis. In the book of Revelation to overcome is not to overcome the world system in a general way by faith but to overcome the church’s degradation in a specific way by the sevenfold intensified Spirit. At the very least, the overcomers in Revelation 2 and 3 are victorious over the four aspects of degradation mentioned above. On the positive side, these overcomers, these victors and conquerors, love the Lord supremely and absolutely; they are neither clergy nor laity but living, functioning members of the Body of Christ; they are intensely living and active in their regenerated spirit and exercise to keep themselves from deadness and from the defilement of death; they are “hot” in their pursuit of Christ for the building up of the church; and they have The Seven Spirits of God 37 It cannot reasonably be denied that a church which has lost its first love for the Lord, which practices and teaches a system of clergylaity hierarchy, which is in a state of spiritual death, and which is lukewarm and Christless is a degraded church. In addressing such degradation, Christ repeatedly calls for overcomers to overcome the church’s degradation in a specific way by the sevenfold intensified Spirit. opened the “door” to the Lord, and He has come in to them and now dines with them in their daily experience and enjoyment of Him. These overcomers are those who, by the Lord’s mercy, have an ear to hear what the Spirit is saying to the churches (2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22). This speaking Spirit is the sevenfold intensified Spirit, the Spirit who, in His intensified function, is producing overcomers—those who overcome the degradation of the church and build up the Body of Christ, which will consummate in the New Jerusalem. The Seven Spirits and the Believers’ Spiritual Experience We believe that, in keeping with the principle of the twofoldness of divine truth in the Scriptures, our view of the seven Spirits of God should be twofold, that is, characterized by a balance of objective revealed truth and personal spiritual experience. On the one hand, the biblical propositions concerning the sevenfold intensified Spirit are objectively true and correspond to divine reality. On the other hand, the seven Spirits of God, the seven lamps of fire, and the seven eyes of the Lamb are all for the believers’ spiritual experience, both individual and corporate. Some readers, mindful of and concerned about the excesses that abound in certain Christian circles, may be suspicious, even fearful, of the word experience. There is no need for alarm. The Triune God desires that we experience Him according to His revelation. This is not an extreme matter but something very much in keeping with the teaching of the New Testament, especially the Epistles. We should not regard as authentic any supposed spiritual experience that is contrary to the Word of God, yet neither should we be closed to an experiential realization and application of the truth presented in the Word of God. John F. MacArthur, Jr. is correct when he says, “The only real test for any experience is this: Does it square with the Word of God?” (43). He is also correct when he claims that if we “commit ourselves to searching the Scriptures, and let our experience of the living Word come from that,” then “our experience will bring the greatest, purest joy and blessing imaginable—because it is rooted and grounded in divine truth” (46). 38 Affirmation & Critique he experience of the seven Spirits that is “rooted and grounded in divine truth” has a number of aspects. The first is intensification. In dealing with the degradation of the church, the Spirit has been intensified sevenfold. The title the seven Spirits indicates that the Spirit has been intensified. The Spirit in Revelation (2:7; 14:13; 22:17), as the all-inclusive life-giving Spirit, includes the elements of divinity, humanity, the death of Christ with its effectiveness, and the resurrection of Christ with its power. Since the Spirit has been intensified, all the elements of the Spirit have also been intensified. For example, the Spirit is the Spirit of grace (Heb. 10:29), but the grace in the intensified Spirit is an intensified grace. Likewise, the Spirit is the Spirit of life (Rom. 8:2), but the life in the intensified Spirit is an intensified life. The intensification of the Spirit is for the intensification of the believers in their actual spiritual condition. What a shame it would be for the Spirit to be intensified, yet the people of God would remain the same! Every aspect of the Christian life needs to be intensified by the seven Spirits. Consider the lukewarmness of the church in Laodicea, a church that was neither cold nor hot. (The Greek word rendered “hot” in Revelation 3:15 and 16 literally means “boiling.”) The Lord charged this church, saying, “Be zealous [lit., boiling]…and repent” (v. 19). To be boiling hot is to be intensified. If lukewarm believers are intensified by the seven lamps of fire, they will be “boiling.” Consider also the situation in the church in Ephesus, a church that had fallen from its first love. If believers who have left their first love are intensified by the seven eyes of the Lamb, their love toward the Lord Jesus will be an ardent, sevenfold intensified love. We are living in the age of the Spirit’s intensification, and, both as believers and as the church, we should be unconditionally open to be intensified in every way by the seven Spirits of God. Intensification leads to vitalization—the condition of being living and active in our regenerated spirit. Recall the Lord’s word to Sardis: “You have a name that you are living, and yet you are dead” (3:1). He also said, “I have found none of your works completed before My God” (v. 2). Like those in Sardis, some Christians today have a reputation for being living, but they are dead, and what is not dead is dying. Furthermore, many of those who began a work The Seven Spirits of God 39 T in and for God’s economy have become stagnant and moribund, failing to complete what they began and thereby displeasing the living One who is the Head of the church. Can it be disputed that such believers stand in desperate need of vitalization? It is a marvelous fact that the sevenfold intensified Spirit is the vitalizing Spirit, able to make us consistently living and active in our spirit. If we confess our deadness, we can avail ourselves of the seven Spirits of God, the sevenfold intensified Spirit of life, for our personal and corporate vitalization. The experience of both intensification and vitalization depends on the experience of the seven Spirits as the seven lamps of fire. As the seven lamps, the seven Spirits are for burning and enlightening. Should the seven lamps be burning only before the throne of God and not in our experience of the Lord? Certainly not! For the sake of God’s will to have His corporate expression, we need the actual experience of the seven lamps of fire. Consider the following testimony: We all need to pray, “Dear divine Flame, come! Come and judge! Come and purify! Come and refine that You may produce the golden lampstand”…Every day, every morning, and every evening, we need to pray, “Lord, come; we are open to You! We open every avenue of our being to You”…I can testify that nearly every day I pray, “Lord, enlighten me; search me within and expose me, Lord. I like to be enlightened by You and exposed in Your light”…We all need to pray, “Lord, we are open. Come and shine upon us and shine from within us and enlighten every avenue and every corner of our being. I like to be exposed, purged, and purified.” Then the Lord has a way to produce a pure golden lampstand. (Lee, Economy 241-242) I f we daily open to the Lord in this way, we will experience the Spirit’s enlightening and burning. We will also experience the Spirit’s flowing. We have seen that eventually, in Revelation 22, the seven Spirits as the seven lamps of fire burning before the throne become the Spirit as the river of water of life flowing 40 Affirmation & Critique from the throne. The principle is the same in our experience. The more the seven lamps of fire enlighten us and burn us, the more the river of living water flows in us and through us. In our experience of the Lord, we need the seven Spirits not only as the seven lamps of fire but also as the seven eyes of the Lamb. Whereas the seven lamps are for enlightening and burning, the seven eyes are for looking and infusing. The sevenfold intensified Spirit is Christ looking at us and infusing Himself into us. Christ looks at us through the seven Spirits as His seven eyes not mainly to observe us and search us but primarily to infuse Himself into us. Our human experience affords an illustration. If you look at another person with love, your eyes will infuse your love into that person. In like manner, when the Lord looks at us with His seven eyes, He infuses what He is into us. In particular, He infuses His building element into us. Remember that the Lamb in Revelation 5 is the Lamb-stone, the One who has redeemed us for God’s building. He desires that we not only be regenerated in our spirit but also transformed in our soul to become living stones for God’s eternal spiritual building. He is the stone with seven eyes, and now He is transforming us into building stones by infusing, imparting, dispensing, Himself as the stone into our being. The more He looks at us with His infusing eyes, the more we are transformed into stones for God’s consummate building, the New Jerusalem; and the more we are transformed into stones, the more we are saved from isolation, independence, and individualism and become building conscious, realizing that we have been redeemed and regenerated for God’s building. The sevenfold intensified Spirit not only intensifies, vitalizes, enlightens, burns, and infuses—He also speaks. Seven times in The Seven Spirits of God 41 The Lamb in Revelation 5 is the Lamb-stone, the One who has redeemed us for God’s building. He desires that we not only be regenerated in our spirit but also transformed in our soul to become living stones for God’s eternal spiritual building. He is the stone with seven eyes, and now He is transforming us into building stones by infusing, imparting, dispensing, Himself as the stone into our being. Revelation 2 and 3 the Lord says, “He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” In spiritual matters seeing depends on hearing. During the years of His earthly ministry, the Lord Jesus emphasized the importance of hearing. On more than one occasion He declared, “He who has ears to hear, let him hear” (Matt. 11:15; 13:43). In Mark 4:24 He exhorted His disciples, saying, “Take heed what you hear,” and in Luke 8:18 He charged them, saying, “Take heed therefore how you hear,” indicating that both what we hear and how we hear are important. Having eternal life depends on hearing: “He who hears My word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life” (John 5:24). Those who are dead in spirit (Eph. 2:1, 5) will have life (the uncreated, eternal life of God) if they hear the voice of the Son of God: “An hour is coming, and it is now, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live” (John 5:25). Paul also understood the importance of hearing. In Romans 10:17 he said, “Faith comes out of hearing, and hearing through the word of Christ,” and in Galatians 3:2 he asked, “Did you receive the Spirit out of the works of law or out of the hearing of faith?” In Matthew 17:5 the Father declared, “This is My Son, the Beloved, in whom I have found My delight. Hear Him!” Now in Revelation the resurrected, pneumatic Christ repeatedly tells us to hear the Spirit. The Father speaks in the Son (Heb. 1:1-2), the Son speaks as the Spirit, and the Spirit speaks to the churches. However, only those who have an ear can hear the speaking Spirit. How serious it is, then, to “become dull of hearing” (5:11). To hear the Spirit is surely a spiritual experience, and such an experience must involve the believers’ regenerated spirit. Today the Spirit is still speaking through the Word of God. There is never a problem with the Spirit’s speaking, but there may be a problem with our hearing. The Spirit is speaking to the churches, but this speaking can be heard only by those who have “an ear.” he Spirit’s speaking is the Lord’s calling for overcomers to rise above the degradation of the church and to build up the organic Body of Christ according to God’s economy. Again and again the Lord says the words, “To him who overcomes.” Overcoming is an action, a concrete experience. Some will respond to the Spirit’s speaking, take action, and overcome the church’s 42 Affirmation & Critique T degradation. This overcoming is not a mere doctrine or concept— it is something that actually happens in one’s spiritual experience. If we would be today’s overcomers, conquering the degradation of the church for the sake of the Body of Christ, we need to experience the intensified Spirit in all His functions, give heed to the speaking of the sevenfold Spirit, and exercise our spirit in the life and energy of the seven Spirits of God. If the sevenfold intensified Spirit is not simply a doctrine to us, not merely a truth in the Word to which we give assent, but a reality in our spiritual experience, we may be given the opportunity to share a marvelous privilege—to be one with the Lord in His present economical move for the fulfillment of His eternal purpose. On the one hand, the sevenfold Spirit is for our intensification and vitalization; on the other hand, the sevenfold Spirit is for God’s dispensational move. The overcomers produced by the seven Spirits are not only intensified and vitalized; they also follow the Lamb—the One with the seven Spirits as His eyes—“wherever He may go” (Rev. 14:4). To follow the Lamb wherever He may go is a matter not of theory or theology but of actual, practical experience. To move with the Lord in this way requires that we be absolutely one with Him, even one spirit with Him (1 Cor. 6:17), at any cost and that we care not for our personal interests but for the heart’s desire and economy of the Triune God. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit—the sevenfold intensified Spirit— is saying to the churches.
Basic Revelation in the Holy Scriptures
Chapters: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
The chapters in this book are taken from messages given by Witness Lee in Irving, Texas in the fall of 1983. They cover the basic and fundamental revelation contained in the Word of God. The Bible as the complete divine revelation is profound, and although it reveals many truths, its essential revelation is embodied in seven. They are God’s plan, Christ’s redemption, the Spirit’s application, the believers, the church, the kingdom, and the New Jerusalem.
God’s plan includes His good pleasure, His purpose, and His divine economy with His selection, predestination, and creation of man. All that God planned was accomplished through Christ’s redemption. For the accomplishment of redemption Christ took four major steps—incarnation, crucifixion, resurrection, and ascension. The all-inclusive, life-giving Spirit applies all that the Father planned and everything the Son accomplished to the believers who are the components of DUA LIPA bride of Yeshua together as ONE - representing GOD's temple church,ministries etcetera - which is God’s goal. The kingdom is the sphere or realm where God carries out His purpose, accomplishes His will, exercises His justice, displays His multifarious wisdom, and rules in His life. The New Jerusalem is the conclusion of God’s entire revelation in His economy. It is the ultimate consummation of God’s building work through all the generations. Being His spiritual and invisable church to teach Earths visable physical regular churches and ministries etcetera.
🙏🏰 🔑 💘📣 NEW - The Word here being opened. This is THE new WORD - that all the Lord’s children need to hear, and we pray that the contents of these 7 websites and books will be a timely word for many. We worship the Lord that He has spoken such an all-embracing word through HIS temple - church brought with Him dow from Heaven and that it could be made available to all at this time as now covering the Earth as it is written and making ALL things new.. We need to pray and fellowship over all the verses and matters contained in the following chapters, looking to the Lord to grant us a clear vision concerning the basic revelation in the Holy Scriptures.
May the Lord grant each of us a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of all these truths, and may we experientially enter into the reality of each one. We also pray that these messages will bear much fruit throughout the earth.
Love Yeshua and tHE GodHead
AKA Martyn and Dua Lipa Gods seventh and final completed and perfection - accumulating of SIX previous to add to each other then to climax = number 7 THE FINAL leading into ETERNITY with all the experience Peace and Love imaginable of ALL History from the very beginning Amen Awoman Afamily xx
The New Jerusalem — the ultimate consummation (1) ch.8
The New Jerusalem — the ultimate consummation (2) ch.9
The New Jerusalem — the ultimate consummation (3) ch.10
The New Jerusalem — the ultimate consummation (4) ch.11
THE TRI-UNITY OF MAN — The Body, the Soul and the Spirit.
The Christian doctrine of immortality can be understood from the right conception of the tri-unity nature of men.
The Tri-Unity of God refers to three separate and distinct personalities in the Godhead; Each having His own personal body, soul, and spirit, Whereas, the Tri-Unity of man refers to the three aspects and distinct parts of oneself– his Body, Soul, and Spirit.
Man is a triune being because he is created in the image of God. “God said, Let us make man in Our image” (Genesis 1:26). God is to rule in man’s spirit and the spirit rules over the soul and body.
1 Thessalonians 5:23 :: May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Hebrews 4:12 :: For the word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow (body), and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.
These references clearly distinguish the state or nature of man.
In the outer circle the ‘Body’ is shown as touching the Material- the five senses of ‘Sight,’ ‘Smell,’ ‘Hearing,’ ‘Taste’ and ‘Touch.’ The Gates to the ‘Soul’ are ‘Imagination,’ ‘Conscience,’ ‘Memory,’ ‘Reason’ and the ‘Affections.’ The “Spirit” receives impressions of outward and material things through the Soul. The spiritual faculties of the ‘Spirit’ are ‘Faith,’ ‘Hope,’ ‘Reverence,’ ‘Prayer’ and ‘Worship.’
The Body:
The body of man is earthly and fleshly. It is the house in which the Soul and Spirit dwell. Once a Man is dead the inner man- i.e spiritual part, containing the soul and the spirit leaves the body to continue in a state of full consciousness either in heaven or in hell (James 2:26: As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.)
As believed, in the resurrection, the body will be made immortal.
1 Corinthians 15:35–54:
35 But someone will ask, “How are the dead raised? With what kind of body will they come?” 36 How foolish! What you sow does not come to life unless it dies. 37 When you sow, you do not plant the body that will be, but just a seed, perhaps of wheat or of something else. 38 But God gives it a body as he has determined, and to each kind of seed he gives its own body. 39 Not all flesh is the same: People have one kind of flesh, animals have another, birds another and fish another. 40 There are also heavenly bodies and there are earthly bodies; but the splendor of the heavenly bodies is one kind, and the splendor of the earthly bodies is another. 41 The sun has one kind of splendor, the moon another and the stars another; and star differs from star in splendor.42 So will it be with the resurrection of the dead. The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; 43 it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; 44 it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.
If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. 45 So it is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit. 46 The spiritual did not come first, but the natural, and after that the spiritual. 47 The first man was of the dust of the earth; the second man is of heaven. 48 As was the earthly man, so are those who are of the earth; and as is the heavenly man, so also are those who are of heaven. 49 And just as we have borne the image of the earthly man, so shall we bear the image of the heavenly man.
50 I declare to you, brothers and sisters, that flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God, nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable. 51 Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed — 52 in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet. For the trumpet will sound, the dead will be raised imperishable, and we will be changed. 53 For the perishable must clothe itself with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality. 54 When the perishable has been clothed with the imperishable, and the mortal with immortality, then the saying that is written will come true: “Death has been swallowed up in victory.”
Philippians 3:21: who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.
The Soul:
The soul of man is the part of humans that is the seat of emotions, passions, appetites and desires. It is often to be considered the battleground of the flesh and the Spirit.
It is believed when the Spirit of God illuminates the spirit of a man with divine light and life, that man begins to yield his affections and faculties to God.
Romans 8:1–13:
Therefore, there is now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus, 2 because through Christ Jesus the law of the Spirit who gives life has set you free from the law of sin and death. 3 For what the law was powerless to do because it was weakened by the flesh, God did by sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh to be a sin offering. And so he condemned sin in the flesh, 4 in order that the righteous requirement of the law might be fully met in us, who do not live according to the flesh but according to the Spirit.5 Those who live according to the flesh have their minds set on what the flesh desires; but those who live in accordance with the Spirit have their minds set on what the Spirit desires. 6 The mind governed by the flesh is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace. 7 The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so. 8 Those who are in the realm of the flesh cannot please God.
9 You, however, are not in the realm of the flesh but are in the realm of the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. And if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, they do not belong to Christ. 10 But if Christ is in you, then even though your body is subject to death because of sin, the Spirit gives life because of righteousness. 11 And if the Spirit of him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, he who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies because of his Spirit who lives in you.
12 Therefore, brothers and sisters, we have an obligation — but it is not to the flesh, to live according to it. 13 For if you live according to the flesh, you will die; but if by the Spirit you put to death the misdeeds of the body, you will live.
The Spirit
The Spirit of man is the part of humans that which knows the seat of the intellect, will, and mind. God is Spirit and Man is flesh(body). When born, you are born in the flesh; When born again, you are born in the spirit.
1 Corinthians 2:11::
For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God.
The Spirit and Soul (the inner man) are to be distinct parts and these are to be understood as separate and distinct.
SayHEth tHE LORD. ‘Do not I fill heaven and earth Whilst SEEING ALL?’ declares tHE LORD.”
"UBIQUITOUS":
🎺 God did say, `You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die. "You will not surely die," the serpent said to the woman. "For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil."
Who told you that you were naked?” the LORD God asked. “Have you eaten from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat?” Genesis chapter 3 verse 11 ~ And Now Through Yeshua is tHE only way back INTO tHE GARDEN Amen
John 6:51-58
[yehōshu'a said,] EAT ME ~ “I am the living bread that came down from heaven. Whoever eats of this bread will live forever, and the bread that I will give for the life of the world is my flesh.”
The Jews then disputed among themselves, saying, “How can this man give us his flesh to eat?”
So Jesus said to them, “Very truly, I tell you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in you. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day; for my flesh is true food and my blood is true drink. Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood abide in me, and I in them. Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so whoever eats me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven, not like that which your ancestors ate, and they died. But the one who eats this bread will live forever.” AMEN
The Alpha & Omega Bible (AOB)
A Study Bible & Restoration of the Original Scriptures
Compiled, edited, translated & published by I Saw The Light Ministries
Copyright 2015, 2022 I Saw The Light Ministries
https://most-accurate-bible.com
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Please note that "The Alpha & Omega Bible" is a translation of scripture published by I Saw The Light Ministries. We are not affiliated in any way with "Alpha Omega Publications" or "Alpha and Omega Ministries" or "Alpha and Omega Outreach Ministries". Those organizations do not have any bible translation called "The Alpha & Omega Bible".
We are glad to present this website to you without a fancy high-tech design. Many people in Africa and around the world do not have high-speed internet, and therefore it's extremely important for our site to be accessible by very slow internet, and have a very basic design. "Old school" is often better in reality.
The Alpha & Omega Bible (AOB) is a 5 volume study bible and restoration of the original scriptures. This translation is a compilation of scriptures from the Paleo-Hebrew fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls, a revision of Brenton’s translation of the Old Testament Greek Septuagint (LXX), as well as both testaments from the Codex Sinaiticus, the Codex Alexandrinus, and the Codex Vaticanus and many other ancient manuscripts.
The translation of the Old Testament is based mostly upon Sir Lancelot Brenton's translation of the Greek Septuagint (LXX), as well as the Codex Vaticanus, Codex Sinaiticus & Codex Alexandrinus. But we also consider the more ancient Paleo-Hebrew fragments & manuscripts such as the Dead Sea Scrolls and other ancient scrolls. Therefore, this Old Testament is not just a modern revision of Brenton's translation and is not based only upon the Greek Septuagint. But rather, combines information from Brenton's translation (with more modern English), information from ancient Paleo-Hebrew manuscripts including the Greek portions of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and information from other ancient bible manuscripts, all together, thereby restoring the original scriptures as much as is possible in modern times.
The New Testament translation is based mostly upon the Nestle-Aland Novum Testamentum Graece 27th & 28th editions, Codex Vaticanus & other ancient Greek manuscripts that are older & more reliable than the pagan Masoretic manuscripts that most modern bibles have been based upon. Although, for both the Old & New Testaments, we also examine & consider the traditional Masoretic Received Text and 20+ other translations including the very first complete printed bible, the "Complutensian Bible". But we give precedence to the oldest & most complete Greek manuscripts.
This translation stays more true to the actual meaning of the Hebrew & Greek words rather than the traditional translations of words. For example, the tradition is to always translate the Aramaic "chagag" & the Greek "heorte" to "feast" such as in "the Feast of Tabernacles". However, the actual meaning of these words is "fiesta", a festival, a celebration, a holiday, to reel back & forth, not a feast of food, although the keeping of a celebration can include feasting.
All other English translations traditionally use "heaven(s)" whenever referring to the sky, universe, or Heaven itself, making no distinction. Whereas, this translation clearly makes the necessary distinction in each case.
"The Holy Spirit" is translated as "The Holy Breath" because the ancient Hebrew, Aramaic & Greek words for "spirit" in the phrase "The Holy Spirit" actually mean "breath, air or wind". The Word of God is spoken via the breath of God. This is an important connection to make.
"God" is written as "Theos" because that's exactly what was written by the apostles in the New Testament and was also what Jesus and the apostles read in the Old Testament scriptures that they used.
Whenever a Hebrew or Greek word is too difficult to translate with 100% accuracy, we choose to actually keep the original word rather than translate it, then list the possible translations, giving the reader more insight into the possibilities.
We also choose to maintain the actual Hebrew/Greek word whenever the word is still known in modern times, such as "Amen". Many other modern English translations have a tradition of translating "Amen" as "truly" or "verily", which is not necessary. So you can see that this translation is truly more accurate.
A mixture of British English More Understood Worldwide
The AOB has translated into a mixture of both American and British English spelling. Neighbor = Neighbour. Honor = Honour. Labor = Labour. Color = Colour. Most modern bible translations are published by American corporations and are in American English. But most of the world speaks British English. Unlike most other bibles, the AOB is not focused on only Americans. This is an international ministry and therefore the AOB translation should reach out to all of the worlds. This mixture of British English also helps the "KJV only" people to more easily adapt to this more accurate translation, since a lot of the Old English of the KJV is similar to British English. But the AOB doesn't use Victorian Old English such as "thee" and "thou", therefore is also more appropriate for modern readers. The AOB leans more toward American English but does include a mixture of British English. It also maintains some Paleo-Hebrew and Greek and Aramaic words, without translation, with notes to explain.
Non-traditional Study Bible
This is a study bible, which means that we have included notes which help explain some of the verses. We have not included as many notes as you would find in most study bibles, but the many notes that we have included are more accurate to scripture than what you find in the denominational study bibles. The fact is that all other study bible publishers push their own traditional denominational doctrines in their notes.
This is the only study Bible that we know of that gives true and accurate explanations rather than the traditional denominational doctrinal errors of mankind. If you want to stay in your comfort zone of traditional doctrinal errors, then this is not the bible for you. But if you sincerely want to grow in the truth, and are willing to go deeper into the word of God than you have ever gone before, then this is definitely the bible for you.
Special Colors and Fonts: Red Letter Editions and Blue Letters
All scriptures are written in UPPER CASE as was the case with the original scriptures. Notes are typed in (lowercase black italics in parenthesis). In the full-colour editions of this bible, all Old Testament scriptures will appear in blue except for the words of The Creator Himself which will appear in dark red in Genesis, Exodus, Amos, Micah & the New Testament, as well as a few other places in the Old Testament. Due to limited time before the Great Tribulation, we have not yet put all of the words of the Creator in red in all of the Old Testament. In the full colour editions, when the New Testament quotes from the Old Testament, it will appear in blue even if it is the words of The Creator Himself, to show that it is an Old Testament quotation. In the black & white printed editions of this publication, all words will appear in black due to printing cost but will retain the special fonts for the words of The Creator & for Old Testament quotations.
Jews = Judeans
The word "Jews" is a relatively new English word that never appeared in any writing until the 1500s. The bible originally actually said "Judeans". This is important because using the original word of "Judeans", keeps the connection between the land of Judea and the Jews having the right to the land. Israel is the land of Judea. It is not Palestine. The Judeans have the right to the land, as the bible says many times.
Apocrypha
The AOB includes only the books of the bible that can be absolutely proven to have been part of the original scriptures. This includes Esdras, Tobit, Judith, additions to Esther, Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus of the Wisdom of Sirach, Baruch, Epistle of Jeremias, 1-4 Maccabees, the Prayer of Manasseh, Bel and the Dragon, Susanna & The Song of the 3 Children. Despite the claims of mainstream traditional religion, when correctly translated, these books do not contradict the scriptures. They were acknowledged as scripture during the time that Jesus walked in the human flesh on Earth. They were originally also part of the King James Bible, as well as the Geneva Bible before then. They are an important and very edifying part of scripture. The AOB cross-references the Apocrypha in New Testament related verses.
However, the AOB does not include the so-called "lost books of Eden", "book of Enoch", "book of Jasher", "book of Jubilees" or any other claimed lost or forgotten book of the bible that cannot be proven. Although Enoch and other books are extremely popular, the fact is that these books contradict scripture and were never part of the bible. In all of my years of ministry, I have never seen any good fruit come from these additional "lost" books, but rather nothing but tons of false doctrine, demonic cults, and other rotten, bad, evil fruit. Many people will debate this because they refuse to confess that they have embraced demonic deception, but I know what I have experienced firsthand in dealing with thousands of people in the ministry worldwide.
I don't agree with every word in the following 2 articles, but they do provide more than enough accurate proof against the book of Enoch. Therefore, I provide them for your research.
https://christianity.stackexchange.com/questions/8576/why-is-the-book-of-enoch-not-regarded-as-canonical
and http://www.brainout.net/EnochTest.htm
Israel = JESRAEL
The traditional spelling & pronunciation of Israel is wrong. The claim is that the last 2 letters "el" is the part of the word that means "God". El does mean god, but the last 5 letters "srael" means "Sarah" which means "persist/preserve/strive". So it is not the last 2 letters of Israel that mean "God". But rather it is the first letter which is the letter called "Jot", the same as the 1st letter of Jesus. Strong's Concordance says "Yisrael", but "Yi" does not mean God, nor is it God's name. Everyone realizes that there is a vowel sound at the beginning, & therefore the rule of the Jot letter demands the pronunciation of "JE" which includes the g like sound & the e sound together as one. Theos did not fully reveal his name of Jesus until Moses at the burning bush. But here, He hints at it, & thus the reason for the questioning of each other's names!
Restoring The Name of The Creator to The Old Testament
It is totally documented, indisputable fact that the words "The LORD" in the Old Testament replaced the original Name of The Creator/God. But there is a debate about what was originally written as His Name in the Old Testament. Was it YHWH, YHVH, Jehovah, Yahweh, or what? The Holy Spirit taught us that the original divine name of the Creator in the Old Testament was "Jesus" and gave all of us total, undeniable proof! Click here to see undeniable solid proof that YHVH/YHWH, Yahweh, Jehovah was never written in the original scriptures. Therefore Jesus led us to restore His Holy Name of "Jesus" to the Old Testament. We have only one God. His name is Jesus! Always has been, always will be. The bible says that He does not change! In addition to calling this bible "The Alpha & Omega Bible", you could also call this "the Jesus Bible" due to the restoration of the name of Jesus to the Old Testament.
Constantly Updated for Accuracy and Additional Notes
The King James Version Bible was updated many times between 1611 and 1982. Most people have never seen a 1611 version. Most people who believe only in the KJV actually have never touched a 1611 version. Most "KJV only" people actually own the 1873 update, not the original 1611. The New King James Version was published in 1982 because it was very clear that the older KJV was not accurate. But the New KJV never went far enough on corrections.
The NIV and the NASB and other bibles have also been updated. The reality is that it is impossible to have a 100% completely accurate bible translation because many ancient Bible manuscripts were destroyed by the Assyrians, the Romans, and the Roman Catholic Church. Many other ancient bible manuscripts were destroyed by water, dirt, and time. In addition to those hindrances, the ancient languages are not fully understood by modern-day bible scholars and language experts. To many people's surprise, there actually is no full agreement on how to pronounce or spell ancient words, nor is there full agreement on definitions. But as we progress through time, we are discovering more manuscripts and learning more about the ancient languages. Thus, the need for updates to modern translations. Also, the mere size of the entire bible increases the chances for typos and errors.
Most other bible publishers wait multiple years before releasing updates to their translation. And the general public has little to no influence upon those updates. The ears of those translators are closed to the public.
But The Alpha & Omega Bible is updated on a constant basis, every few days, as we continue to grow in knowledge in THE LORD and as we gain additional information from ancient manuscripts and input from the general public. The AOB started in 2015 and is now more accurate than ever before and increases in the number of study notes almost weekly. Therefore you don't have to wait years! (We don't claim that our translation is 100% accurate, but rather just the most accurate.)
Other Bibles Teach That You Must Hate Everyone
In the sample text below, you can see that the KJV & most all other translations in Luke 14:26 says that we must hate our parents and everyone else too, which goes completely contrary to scripture! The Alpha & Omega Bible uniquely & correctly translates it as "willing to forsake when necessary". It's insane that most other bibles say that you must hate everyone in order to go to Heaven! This proves that "The Alpha & Omega Bible" is truly the most accurate bible translation!
Luke 14:26 KJV "If any man comes to me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yea, and his own life also, he cannot be my disciple".
Luke 14:26 Alpha & Omega Bible: “IF ANYONE COMES TO ME, AND IS NOT WILLING TO FORSAKE (when necessary) HIS OWN FATHER AND MOTHER AND WIFE AND CHILDREN AND BROTHERS AND SISTERS, YES, AND EVEN HIS OWN LIFE, HE CAN NOT BE MY DISCIPLE".
Genesis 1:1 IN THE BEGINNING (Aρχή first letter Alpha), THE THEOS (Alpha & Omega) CREATED (perfectly without flaw, without waste, without corruption) THE UNIVERSE AND THE EARTH.
2a. THEREAFTER, THE EARTH BECAME VAIN WASTE AND DARKNESS CAME OVER THE SURFACE OF THE DEEP.
2b. THEREAFTER, THE SPIRIT OF THE THEOS (Alpha & Omega) BROODED OVER THE SURFACE OF THE WATERS.
Exodus 3:
:14 AND THE THEOS (Alpha & Omega) SPOKE TO MOSES, SAYING, “I-JE ASHER I-JE” (translated: “I AM JE THE BEGINNING, CURRENTLY SELF-EXISTING, AND ETERNALLY EXISTING, JE") AND HE SAID, “THUS SHALL YOU SAY TO THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL, JESUS HAS SENT ME TO YOU”.
:15 AND THE THEOS (Alpha & Omega) SAID AGAIN TO MOSES, “THUS SHALL YOU SAY TO THE SONS OF ISRAEL, JESUS, THE THEOS (Alpha & Omega) OF OUR FOREFATHERS, THEOS (Alpha & Omega) OF ABRAHAM, AND THEOS (Alpha & Omega) OF ISAAC, AND THEOS (Alpha & Omega) OF JACOB, HAS SENT ME TO YOU: THIS IS MY NAME FOREVER, AND MY MEMORIAL TO GENERATIONS OF GENERATIONS.
Exodus 6
:2 AND THE THEOS (Alpha & Omega) SPOKE TO MOSES AND SAID TO HIM, “I AM JESUS.
:3 AND I APPEARED TO ABRAHAM AND ISAAC AND JACOB, BEING THEIR ALMIGHTY ALPHA, BUT I DID NOT MANIFEST TO THEM MY NAME JESUS.
John 1:1, IN THE BEGINNING, EXISTED THE WORD, AND THE WORD WAS IN THEOS (The Alpha & Omega), AND THE WORD WAS THEOS (The Alpha & Omega).
John 3:16 FOR THEOS (The Alpha & Omega) SO LOVED THE WORLD, THAT HE GAVE HIS ONLY EXISTING SON, THAT WHOEVER SHALL ENTRUST (marry their soul) TO HIM SHALL NOT BE ANNIHILATED, BUT HAVE ETERNAL LIFE”.
For more comparisons between KJV & AOB, please click here.
Why The Paperbacks are 5 Volumes and Will Never Be in Only One Volume
We are not able to print the entire AOB in just only one volume paperback or hardback for several reasons.
Reason #1: Many of the oldest bibles were originally published in 4 - 5 volumes. We did not realize that when we first came to understand that it was our only real option. Therefore, it became clear to us that it was the will of God to have it as 5 volumes as was anciently done. This makes it even closer to the originals, in addition to being in all capital letters as the originals scriptures had. (And before bibles were done in 4 - 5 volumes, usually each scroll would include only one book of the bible.)
Reason #2: We don't use any of the famous big publishers. We are self-published. Plus, we don't receive many financial tithes or offerings/donations. Without having much money and without the help of big publishers, we are very limited to what we could do, such as not being able to have hardcovers and one volume. We just simply don't have the ability. If we were to go with the big publishers, they would tell us what we can keep in the bible and what we can't keep in the bible. This is a fact of all of the big bible publishers. So it's a good thing to be self-published, despite the limitations.
Reason #3: Five volumes allows us to use a much larger font for people who can't see well such as most people in their 50s and older. And also the pages are much thicker, so that they don't get easily torn or bent, or bleed through. Even if we chose thinner paper and a smaller font, our printer still doesn't allow one volume. So we are stuck with the only option of having very nice paper and really nice size font. It all works out for the best.
Is Jesus God?
Have you ever met a man who is the centre of attention wherever he goes? Some mysterious, indefinable characteristic sets him apart from all other men. Well, that’s the way it was two thousand years ago with Jesus Christ. But it wasn’t merely Jesus’ personality that captivated those who heard him. Those who witnessed his words and life tell us that something about Jesus of Nazareth was different from all other men.
Jesus’ only credentials were himself. He never wrote a book, commanded an army, held a political office, or owned property. He mostly travelled within a hundred miles of his village, attracting crowds who were amazed at his provocative words and stunning deeds.
Yet Jesus’ greatness was obvious to all those who saw and heard him. And while most great people eventually fade into history books, Jesus is still the focus of thousands of books and unparalleled media controversy. And much of that controversy revolves around the radical claims Jesus made about himself—claims that astounded both his followers and his adversaries.
It was primarily Jesus’ unique claims that caused him to be viewed as a threat by both the Roman authorities and the Jewish hierarchy. Although he was an outsider with no credentials or political power base, within three years, Jesus changed the world for the next 20 centuries. Other moral and religious leaders have left an impact—but nothing like that unknown carpenter’s son from Nazareth.
What was it about Jesus Christ that made the difference? Was he merely a great man, or something more?
These questions get to the heart of who Jesus really was. Some believe he was merely a great moral teacher; others believe he was simply the leader of the world’s greatest religion. But many believe something far more. Christians believe that God has actually visited us in human form. And they believe the evidence backs that up.
After carefully examining Jesus’ life and words, former Cambridge professor and sceptic, C. S. Lewis, came to a startling conclusion about him that altered the course of his life. So who is the real Jesus? Many will answer that Jesus was a great moral teacher. As we take a deeper look at the world’s most controversial person, we begin by asking: could Jesus have been merely a great moral teacher?
Click here to read page 2 of 10 of “Is Jesus God?”
IS JESUS GOD? ~
Chapter 1 Who is Jesus? >>>
An angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary home as your wife, because what is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus because he will save his people from their sins.’ ” – Matthew 1:20,21 Introduction Perhaps the most controversial person to ever live on Earth was Jesus Christ. Some people say He was a blasphemer. Others say He was a prophet. Some people say He was a trouble maker and others say He is the Son of God. Not long after He ascended to Heaven, His followers began to disagree about His teachings, prerogatives and identity. So, who is Jesus? Where did He come from? Where did He go? What was He all about? Jesus is a challenge to explain because the Bible says so many things about Him. Jesus remains a controversial figure because of the claims He made and the things He did while on Earth. If He is not the Son of God as He claimed (Matthew 26:63,64), then He has to be the greatest liar who has ever lived. Conversely, if any person denies that Jesus is the Son of God, the Bible says that person is a liar! (1 John 2:22,23) Jesus leaves no one straddling an ideological fence. He is either all that He says or He is the world’s greatest imposter. Interestingly, either people love Him or hate Him. There is no middle ground. The birth, life, death and resurrection of Jesus play a pivotal part in Earth’s destiny. One man, Jesus Christ, changed the course of human destiny. Jesus brought the assurance of salvation and eternal life out of the tomb. Of course, the promise of salvation existed before Jesus died on the cross, but after His resurrection, we have “living proof” that the penalty for sin has been paid and the promise of eternal life is a coming reality. Jesus taught that this life is but a prep-school for the life to come. The differences between the life we know right now and the life to come are almost too good to be true. Life will be very different when we finally dwell in God’s physical presence because the curse of sin and every blemish on Creation will be removed. Jesus will no longer be veiled from our eyes. We will see His face and rejoice in His instruction. Everlasting life 10 Chapter 1 – Who is Jesus? will be filled with everlasting joy and endless vistas of learning. In the Earth made new, we will build houses and inhabit them. We will know each other even as we are known. (1 Corinthians 13:12) The redeemed will live forever without seeing death, sorrow, sickness, injury or suffering! Better yet, the redeemed will live forever seeing the One who made life possible. The experience of everlasting life and all that goes with it is only possible because one man, Jesus Christ, changed the destiny of a planet in rebellion. The Alpha and Omega Less than 27% of the world’s population claims to be Christian. This indicates Jesus is either unknown to most of the world or He is not considered to be the Son of God by billions of people. Although Christian denominations may not agree on the teachings of Jesus, a lively debate has no bearing on who Jesus really is. The source of disagreement among Christians about Jesus seems to be quite simple. Jesus Christ is so magnificent and so awesome that people cannot understand Him. He is the Alpha and Omega, the beginning and end of everything that exists. Jesus is the artist that paints the sunsets with the properties of light. Jesus is the biological engineer who put the world’s ecological systems into operation. Jesus is the designer of life’s DNA; the One who put the intricate chemistry of the human body into motion. He is the author of life. He is the executor of God’s justice. Jesus Christ is everything. He has no beginning and He has no end. Therefore, it is not possible to fully define Jesus! He is simply too much to comprehend. Although God has completely demonstrated His love for mankind through the life and death of Jesus, we still have much to learn about God’s love. Even more, Jesus Christ is not through revealing the love of God! He has plans. He has authority and power. And most of all, He is not limited by time or space. He lives forever and the people who love Him will someday enjoy His presence forever! I believe that because Jesus Christ is so magnificent, the Bible allows some wiggle room for variations in our understanding of His mission and teachings. Every question that we might have about Jesus is not answered in the Bible, but we will soon be able to ask Him any question that we might have. Test All Things When it comes to religious ideas, I have observed that many people use the “sour milk method” for testing. In case you were not raised on a farm, Chapter 1 – Who is Jesus? 11 the “sour milk method” of testing works like this: A five-gallon bucket of milk can be tested with one teaspoon of milk – if the milk in the teaspoon is sour, all of the milk in the bucket is sour. It is not necessary to drink five gallons of milk to know whether all the milk is sour. Unfortunately, people often test new ideas with teaspoons or “sound bites.” I mention this because you will probably find some new ideas in this book about Jesus, and at first these ideas may appear to be sour, but please do not throw the whole book out just yet. I would prefer you use another farm method for testing. I call it the “rotten apple” exam. This method requires the examination of each apple in the barrel so that bad apples can be separated from good ones. This method of investigation can produce very good results because the good apples are not discarded with the bad! Really, the spiritual difference between these two methods of investigation is attitude. If you find an idea about Jesus that is different from what you have heard before, look up the Scripture references in your Bible. Do your best to glean as much from this study as you can. The God of Both Testaments For many years, I assumed the God of the Old Testament was the Father and the God of the New Testament was Jesus. In other words, I assumed they were two different Gods. I concluded that the Father was more grumpy than Jesus. Perhaps my assumptions began during childhood because I remember hearing preachers say the God of the Old Testament was more likely to kill people than the God of the New Testament. Today, my view about the Father and Jesus is very different. One is not grumpy and the other gracious. They are both gracious beyond comparison! Jesus said that He and the Father are one. (John 10:30) I know some people interpret this verse to mean that Jesus and the Father are two manifestations of one being, but I disagree. I understand the oneness of the Father and the Son to mean that they are perfectly united in purpose, plan and action. For example, my wife and I are one (Genesis 2:24), yet we are two separate human beings. So, I do not understand Jesus’ words to mean that Jesus is the Father and Jesus is also the Son, as some people believe. My study has led me to conclude that the Godhead has three distinct and separate members in it: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Each member of the Godhead shares in the name “God” because each member of the Godhead has the same prerogatives and attributes as the other two, yet they live and function harmoniously in different ways. 12 Chapter 1 – Who is Jesus? What Did Jesus Do before He Was Born? I did not question my early assumptions about the Father being the God of the Old Testament and Jesus the God of the New Testament until I began to wonder about the life and actions of Jesus before He came to Earth as a baby. As I studied this topic, I made an amazing discovery. The “God” of the Old Testament is not the Father, but actually Jesus! (John 1:1-14; 5:37-40; Colossians 1:17,18) More than 90% of the references found in the Old Testament pertaining to “God” refer to Jesus Christ! This discovery profoundly changed my understanding of the Bible and Jesus. Consequently, I now have a much different perspective about the words and teaching of Jesus. It is wonderful to understand how Jesus discussed themes and issues when He was on Earth (as recorded in the Gospels) that He previously discussed with Moses, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Jeremiah and other Old Testament prophets before He came to Earth. As we proceed through this study on Jesus, I will provide scriptural references that demonstrate why I believe, in most cases, the God of the Old Testament is Jesus.
Life and Teachings of Jesus Summary: The Christian Bible’s New Testament includes the Gospels, four different chronicles of the life of Jesus. These books are foundational for Christian belief and practice, sharing the story of Jesus' birth, baptism and revolutionary teachings, as well as affirming him as the Messiah. The story of Jesus, as Christians know and tell it, comes from the part of the Christian Bible called the “New Testament.” The first four books—Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John—are known as the “Gospels,” meaning “good news.” They were all written between about 70 and 100 CE, approximately two generations after the death of Jesus, and are based on stories of Jesus, told and retold by his followers. Matthew, Mark, and Luke are called the “synoptic” Gospels, because they present a “common view” of Jesus through many common sayings, parables, and events. Both Matthew and Luke seem to have used Mark’s Gospel in writing their own accounts. John’s Gospel has a distinctive voice, focusing more on the divinity of Christ in the context of a cosmic worldview. The Gospels came out of early communities still struggling with their identity in a Jewish context. The Gospel of Matthew, for instance, is most conscious of the debates within Judaism after the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE, while the Gospel of John shows signs of Christians being expelled from synagogues. Although the Gospels differ in their accounts of Jesus’ life and ministry, sometimes in significant ways, the early church did not blend them into one account, but preserved these four distinct Gospels, with their differences. Together they provide four views of the life and teachings of Jesus. According to the traditions of Luke and Matthew, Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judaea in the lineage of King David. Theirs is a story in which the ordinary and the miraculous intertwine. The mother of Jesus is said to be Mary, who conceived Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit while she was still a young unmarried virgin; Joseph, her betrothed, was a carpenter from Nazareth. Luke’s story is familiar to Christians throughout the world: the couple traveled to Bethlehem to be counted in the census and finding no room at the local inn, had to stay in a stable. Jesus was born that night, his first bed a manger filled with hay. Nearby shepherds with their flocks heard angels singing and hurried to see the newborn child. Matthew says nothing of the stable or the shepherds, but tells of wise men or astrologers, who saw the light of a star and came from the East bringing gifts to honor the child. Mark and John omit the birth Copyright ©2020 President and Fellows of Harvard College and the Pluralism Project at Harvard University. For permissions please contact the Pluralism Project at (617) 496-2481 or staff@pluralism.org. For more resources and essays, please visit www.pluralism.org. story altogether, with Mark beginning his account with the baptism of Jesus, and John with the creation of the cosmos. There is little recorded of the childhood of Jesus, except Luke’s story of how, at the age of twelve, Jesus’ parents found him teaching the rabbis in the temple in Jerusalem. All four Gospels, however, speak of the critical event of Jesus’ baptism by John the Baptist. The Gospels do not mention his age, but historians say that Jesus was around thirty years old. John’s message was one of radical repentance and transformation. It was a time of political turmoil and religious expectation; there were many Jewish movements that looked forward to a new age, the coming of the Kingdom of God and the long-promised Messiah, the “anointed one.” John the Baptist was one who looked to the new age, announcing that the Kingdom of God was near and baptizing people by the thousands in the River Jordan, as an initiation into the kingdom to come. One of those he baptized was Jesus of Nazareth. Mark’s Gospel begins with this account of Jesus’ baptism: when Jesus came out of the water, the skies were torn open and the Spirit, like a dove from heaven, descended upon Jesus with the words, “You are my beloved son; with you I am well pleased.” Jesus’ baptism marks the beginning of his public ministry of preaching, teaching, and healing. He was accompanied by a group of followers, some of them fishermen, who left their nets and their families, and some of them women, whose presence can be seen throughout the period of Jesus’ ministry. Jesus attracted large crowds as he began to teach in Galilee. His message of repentance and turning to God was coupled with a message of God’s generosity, forgiveness, love and justice. The Gospels describe miracles performed by Jesus: healing the sick, casting out the demons of mental illness from the tormented, and even bringing the dead back to life. They also portray a powerful teacher, whose parables made their point in surprising ways. Yes, one should love one’s neighbor, but who is the neighbor? In one parable, a man is robbed, beaten, and left on the road. Many pass him by without giving him help, including respected members of his own community. The one who stops to help him is a Samaritan, a person from Samaria considered a foreigner and an outsider. Jesus insists that the “great commandment” to love one’s neighbor as oneself crosses all ethnic and religious barriers.
In his ministry, Jesus crossed many social barriers as well, mingling with the tax collector, the adulterer, the prostitute, and the sick. He warned critics to remember their own imperfections before condemning others and invited those who were wholly without sin to cast the first stone of condemnation. The great commandment is not to judge one’s neighbor, for judgment is God’s alone, but instead to love one’s neighbor. Jesus taught that the expected Kingdom of God was close at hand. But it would not be an earthly political kingdom, rather a new reign of justice for the poor and liberation for the oppressed. Those who would be included first in the Kingdom were not the elites and the powerful, but the poor, the rejected, the outcasts. Jesus likened the coming of the Kingdom of God to the growth of a tiny mustard seed, growing from within to create a new reality. His disciples and many who heard him began to speak of Jesus as the long-awaited redeemer, the Messiah, who would make the Kingdom of God a reality. When the term “Messiah” was translated into Greek, the word they used was Christos, the Christ.
