Arkangel

The year is 2017, and countless prophecies are heard within the Christen realm to the effect that a great spiritual revival is imminent in preparation for the expected coming of Christ in our time. One can well understand the sentiment behind such a notion. The strain of the times is being felt – the sense that something needs to happen – and it is rightly deemed that the church is in no condition to manifest Joel 2 or 1 Thessalonians 4, the latter usually referred to as the rapture.

The problem is that there is no scripture to back this assertion – namely in the sense of a worldwide spiritual awakening, of global repentance and conversion, and indeed of socio-political transformation toward godly models. Rather it is spoken of a falling away, of a spiritual famine, and of a world in thrall of the antichrist. As it was in the days of Noah ... and as it was in the days of Lot ... thus – so stated the saviour – shall it be when the Son of man is revealed. And neither of these ages experienced anything remotely like a universal spiritual revival – quite the contrary.

Somewhere – somehow – there seems to be a great disjunction between the prophetic scriptures and the perceived need and expectation of our time. The churches are in a state of desperate crisis, such as yet retain a biblical model, insofar as the pastoral ministry is altogether incommensurate with the spiritual requirements of the age. It is a case of the blind leading the blind, after the scathing denunciation of Laodicea in Revelation 3. One of these days the foolish virgins of Matthew 25 will be caught unawares, and it will be asked, were not all these great things supposed to happen before the coming of the Lord? And the answer will return, it’s already happened and you did not know it.

So it becomes us to ask, what kind of revival – what move of God – can we expect in our time? Is there indeed revival, and what form might it take? And what we actually observe, contrary to much zealous teaching, is that revival fires are everywhere dying down – namely in the conventional sense we have come to understand revival. Specifically we are speaking in this context of the great twentieth century pentecostal revival, which brought restoration of the spiritual gifts. While today there are greater attendance numbers, the quality of experience is not remotely what it was even a mere forty years ago, let alone that of the original outpouring after Azusa Street in 1906.

And here lies the problem, in that the evangelic / charismatic churches are still pursuing a pentecostal message with undue emphasis upon the spiritual gifts, when another age is actually upon us. For this is the age of the calling of the bride, the opening of the seven seals, and the restoration of the Word of God in fullness. While pentecost, in the above sense, is certainly part of our message, we have today progressed beyond that into whole new order of ministry – of which ministry the established denominations are entirely unaware. We ask, how could this have happened, and we note that the said pentecostal revival occurred outside of the established churches, free from religious organisation and denomination. Indeed the fathers of the movement denounced religious denominationalism for the antichrist system which it is. Yet within a very few years, the pentecostal movement went the way of every revival preceding it, in that it organised and enshrined its non-biblical doctrines as binding dogma – and right there it died.

Indeed the same holds for the entire history of revival and biblical restoration. Luther, Wesley or Pentecost – no spiritual revival ever originated from within the religious establishment and, once religious organisation took hold, God removed the candlestick and the life of the Spirit moved on, leaving behind the dead denominational husk. Yet every historic revival also built upon what was already in place, such that we are speaking of cumulative revelation, leading up to grand consummation in the coming of Christ. Accordingly there is a godly awakening among the elect – there is indeed revival – which, in its nature, however, goes entirely unrecognised among the religious denominations and centres of learning.

What then is the message, the ministry of this present age, as characterised by the calling of the spiritual bride? A large number of scriptures may be adduced which broadly reflect the idea of consummation – which is to say, of the spiritual church conforming to the image of Christ. Below are presented three biblical passages which convey the essential idea.

1 Corinthians 13:9-10 For we know in part, and we prophesy in part. But when that which is perfect is come, then that which is in part shall be done away.

1 Corinthians 13:12 For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known.

1 John 3:2 Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.

We shall be like him (the Christ), for we shall see him as he is. Here, as throughout the New Testament, the emphasis is not upon human effort – it is not upon praying and fasting and zealous works – but upon the cognitive and receptive aspect of the gospel. It is upon seeing and cognising, upon knowing and understanding. Indeed we learn in Matthew 16 that revelation – divine revelation of who He is – is the spiritual rock, the foundation of the entire edifice of faith. Which brings us to our concept of the apocalyptic rapture – for the literal meaning of apocalypse is revelation.

Concerning then revival in our time, it is not going to be revival as previously understood. It is not going to be a public affair, manifesting ‘out there’ with a lot of noise, with newspaper coverage and reverberations through the political and spiritual landscape. The only genuine revival we will see is that occurring within our own soul, and the world at large, including the nominal churches, will know nothing about it. Indeed we are speaking of a secret rapture and of Christ coming as a thief in the night (1 Thessalonians 5), which scenario is not to be confused with Revelation 19, where Christ appears openly as conqueror and king for his millennial reign.

Where thus it is spoken of seeing him (the Christ) as he is, the reference is not to some historic or derivative Hollywood Christ of the religious imagination – which is to say, a man in a robe – but to Christ as the revealed Word of God. It is the Word of God which is quickened in the rapture, the Word which is the spiritual seed sown into the individual soul. Moreover it must be Word of God in its fullness – the seed in its maturity – not the dead stalks and husks of the reformed traditions. Specifically it is the opening of the biblical seven seals in our age, whereby the spiritual bride is quickened to the ministry of the age.

As we read in the Revelation, the book of life was sealed with seven seals, such that no mortal was able to look thereon. In other words, through seven ages we were accustomed to seeing through a glass darkly – through religious tradition and theological guesswork – but now face to face, as the lamb of God releases these seals to his faithful. This is vitally important, insofar as it constitutes the true baptism of the Holy Spirit – not manifesting in signs or sensations, but in the revelation of Jesus Christ. It constitutes the oil of the wise virgins, as per Matthew 25, and marks the essential difference between doctrinal abstraction and spiritual experience. As states Job 42, I have heard of you by the hearing of the ear: but now my eye beholds you. And again, Matthew 5, blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.

Coming then to the rapture as a generic spiritual experience, we find that it is not a singular event but occurs in scripture a full seven times – the personages involved being:
– Enoch (Genesis 5:24, Hebrews 11:5)
– Moses (Deuteronomy 34, Jude 1:9)
– Elijah (2 Kings 2:11)
– Jesus, the Christ (Mark 16:9, Luke 24:51, Acts 1:9)
– the Old Testament saints rising with Christ (Mathew 27:52-53)
– the gentile bride (Thessalonians 4:16-17)
– and the two witnesses to Israel (Revelation 11:11-12)

What can we glean from these events? While the narratives are tantalisingly sparse, we observe, notably in the case of Elijah, an intersection of domains or experiential realms, of heaven and earth, with the suggestion of congruence or interpenetration. We find the same in 2 Kings 6, where the angelic host is seen encamped around his disciple, the prophet Elisha. The suggestion is that, in going to heaven, we do not fly off into space; we remain right here, translated into another dimension, existing at a higher rate of vibration. Such indeed we may assert, notwithstanding the biblical metaphor of ascending and descending to and from heaven. As remarked Jesus, speaking with Nicodemus (John 3:13), no man has ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven.

We may speak in this connection of a parting of the spiritual veil, where the temple or tabernacle of Moses furnishes the essential type. The holy of holies, where dwelt the living presence of God, was separated from the sanctuary and outer courts by a veil. As a metaphor of the true or spiritual temple, its three partitions correspond to body, soul and spirit – the three principles comprising the human nature – where the veil of body and soul clothes the spirit. We find the idea expressed in John 12:21-24, where certain Greeks asked to see Jesus. Came the saviour’s answer: Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die, it abides alone: but if it die, it brings forth much fruit. Why could not the Greeks see him? As gentiles, unlike the Jews, they knew nothing of a prophet messiah, and would have merely seen a man in a robe – a man like any other man. Their time would only come when the veil of the flesh was rent, and Christ could be known as the Holy Spirit within.

As Paul states in Hebrews 9:24, For Christ is not entered into the holy places made with hands, which are the figures of the true; but into heaven itself ... Thus from the earthly tabernacle, where dwelt the shekinah light upon the mercy seat between the cherubim of beaten gold, we come to Revelation 4 and the ark of God in heaven. Surrounding the heavenly throne, as recounts the evangelist, John, were ‘living creatures’ – which creatures were full of eyes within, suggestive insight or spiritual vision. We understand concerning these creatures, the said cherubim, that they function as guardians against anything profane that would usurp the powers of the heavenly sanctuary. Only the high priest of Israel entered once a year, bearing the blood sacrifice in prefigure of the atoning death of Christ.

Here we may compare Genesis 3, And the Lord God said, behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever ... he placed at the east of the garden of Eden cherubim, and a flaming sword which turned every way to keep the way of the tree of life. We learned moreover, concerning the tabernacle of Moses, that it meant certain death for anyone to enter unbidden into the Most Holy. The way of the tree of life was barred – in symbol, the way of the sanctuary – until the cherubic sword pierced through the saviour’s heart, and the temple veil was torn from top to bottom (Matthew 27:51).

It is moreover the cherubim of Revelation 4, described as being full of eyes, which bid the prophet, come and see ... as the lamb of God opens the seven seals, revealing the mysteries hidden from the foundation of the world. These entities – having the form of a Lion, a Bull, a Man and a flying Eagle – are not merely guardians, they also facilitate entry for those who are bidden to enter. Specifically they represent the fire of God which conveys the sacrifice into his presence, purging us from sin, as it is written in Psalms 104, he makes his angels spirits, and his ministers a flaming fire. Yet, even as there is set in the material heavens a light too bright for mortal eyes, in symbol of the spiritual sun, so these holy cherubim likewise cover their eyes and avert their gaze from the divine radiance. And they rest not day and night, crying, holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.

Where previously it was thus death to enter, we are now bidden to come and partake of the hidden manna. In a profound reversal of perspective, where previously the tree of life was kept by a flaming sword, that sword is now turned outward, as our vision aligns with that of the saviour to behold the mysteries of God revealed. Demons scatter, and the veil of the physical world dissolves before his gaze whose eyes are like flames of fire, the sword of the Spirit issuing from his mouth. It is the cherubic fire streaming from the eyes whereby we behold the open door and see into the heavenly realm. Our God is a devouring fire, as state the scriptures, which fire issues from the sanctuary to dissolve the material veil, vanquishing doubt and all that would obscure our passage, bringing us face to face with the eternal God.

When one considers, as from the standpoint of modern critical theory, the historic edifice of the Christian church – its monuments, institutions, ways and doctrines – one could be excused for thinking that this indeed represents the legacy of the biblical apostles, that this is the church spoken of by Jesus. Without spiritual understanding or knowledge of the relevant history, and within the modern context, this is the nigh conclusion. Indeed it is the default position, alike of Christians, as of critics of the Christian faith.

However, there are actually two very different kinds of church which may be traced through the historic record, and which are referred to in scripture as two spiritual seeds, branches or lineages. Indeed, of the thousands of Christian confessions, ultimately all reduce to either of these two spiritual types. And although, historically, the two are intermingled, they have nothing in common that is either significant or profound. In every essential respect they are spiritual opposites.

Concerning these spiritual seeds our saviour stated (Matthew 13): He that sows the good seed is the Son of man; the field is the world; the good seed are the children of the kingdom; but the tares are the children of the wicked one; the enemy that sowed them is the devil; the harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels.

As a prophetic statement this indeed holds for the historic Christian church entire. Of the authentic and biblical church, and the good seed of our parable, we may briefly state that it was born in a transformative spiritual experience, called the baptism of the Holy Spirit, around AD 33 in the city of Jerusalem – and that this, along with its spiritual descendants, is indeed the church which Jesus acknowledges as his own. For simplicity we may call it the church of Jerusalem – by etymology, the peaceful reign of God – and we may reflect on the divine promise of Acts 2:38 that such indeed would be the nature of the Christian church throughout the ages. It is born and nurtured of the Spirit of God, with all the blessings and empowerments this entails.

However, as history and biblical prophecy attest, there also exists another and very different kind of church, whose spiritual lineage may be similarly traced throughout the ages of Christendom. This latter – an imposture and the tares of our parable – had its inception some three hundred years later under the Roman emperor Constantine at the ill-fated Council of Nicea of 325 AD. Whereas the true and original church thus came by divine creation in a spiritual birth, the latter and counterfeit arose by organisational birth – essentially in an act of political contrivance to secure the religious unity of the Roman empire.

It was the beginning of the fourth century and Christianity had spread like wildfire throughout the Middle East, North Africa and the Mediterranean. This despite significant persecution, and Constantine reasoned with typical Roman pragmatism, if you can’t beat them, join them. The evil spirit, as predator and opportunist, aligns itself with perceived positions of power, and so also in this example, that it might subvert Christianity from within. Thus it was – amidst fistfights, political scheming and intimidation – that the religious orthodoxy for the Christian world of nigh a thousand years was hammered out. If we reflect that the apostle Paul had already warned of a contrary spirit within the Christian fold, this same spirit had now come to a visible head.

Clearly then, these two seeds or churches are entirely at variance in nature or character, as also born out by their respective fruit. Whereas the spiritual church gives birth to the Christ-child or son of God, the artificial system of organised religion brings forth an organisational child. These two are again at mutual odds, and it is the latter which persecutes the former – always. The first, being born of the Word, produces the Word (the divine logos), in keeping with the primal directive of Genesis that every seed should propagate according to its type. The second, being born of perdition, produces a reductive creed and, along with sundry absurdities and atrocities, the theological guesswork that informs the historic church.

Yet for the greater part of seven church ages the two systems coexisted and intermingled, such that it was humanly impossible to distinguish between them. Indeed Jesus, in declaring his parable, warned against premature separation of the types – lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. In other words, he emphatically opposed the kind of denominational sifting by which our modern churches try to filter them, each according to their doctrinal template. You’re oneness, two-ness, three-ness – or whatever it is – you have no part in our group – that kind of thing. On the contrary, they are intended to grow together in the same field until they are separated, in the end of the ages, by the angels of God.

Confounding the situation, through the ages, was the fact that sound biblical doctrine had largely become obscured, such that even the sincere and godly where confused therein – individuals such as Martin Luther, who was hugely instrumental in restoring biblical verity, yet mistakenly believed that the Jews represent the biblical antichrist. Indeed this is unsurprising if we consider that the entire gospel of grace had been turned on its head and transformed into something entirely other – by the functionaries of the organised church. As a rule we may unequivocally state: God’s Word comes to his prophets; the theologians invariably mess it up. Indeed, it is precisely because the latter are without spiritual understanding – theology taking the place of revelation – that the original apostolic doctrine was lost, and something other, as plucked from a hat, put in its place.

While biblical restoration is necessarily ongoing, it has bypassed the great denominations – denominations which, while superficially reformed, are in essence still oriented toward Babylon. For it was typically centuries ago that they underwent reformation, and with the understanding of that bygone era. As to the new manna which falls afresh in every age, this they cannot receive, given their organisational inertia and constraint. This is especially so in our age. For the glacial pace of institutional transformation can in nowise cope with the quantum leaps of revelation as obtain within the spiritual church – the church of the freeborn, which is after the revealed Word of God.

Thus we need not wonder at the ‘protestants’ who loudly decry the Roman apostasy of bygone centuries, while enthusiastically conjoining with the very same system today. What they fail to see is that religious organisation as such constitutes the biblical antichrist – an hierarchical structure with a global headquarters and universal directives issuing from mere man – in scripture (2 Thessalonians 2), the man of sin. Evidently they never did ‘come out of Babylon’ (as per Revelation 18:4), for they are eager to return to her – these Christian organisations – effectively, to join in a worldwide ecumenical mega-organisation, inclusive of all persuasions – the which, in biblical language, constitutes but the binding of the tares, prior to the burning of Sodom.

That this ‘binding’ can only occur at the cost of language, of dialogue and discourse, this is evidently considered a small price for ostensible unity. Yet is this unity but the contrivance of Babel, which is the original seed of chaos and disorder, for, as we note in Genesis 11, language, as such, became abrogate. Thus the churches are demonstrating who or what, in truth, they recognise as their spiritual Mother and Father. It is not Jerusalem, the peaceful reign of God, but Mystery Babylon, the mother of harlots and abominations. It is not the transcendent Spirit of God, but an intellectual system of speculative theology.

While these two spiritual seeds grow in the same field, their trajectory and ultimate destiny are quite at variance. In the adumbration of the end-times, as both are coming to their respective head, both revert to their original type. The church of Jerusalem conforms to the Word of God by the Spirit of God – by which indeed it came to spiritual birth. Meanwhile the church of Babylon conforms to the organisational head, by which it came to birth, in ecumenical global union. The spiritual bride, in other words, is becoming one with her spiritual groom, the Lord Jesus Christ, while the false worldly church has her union with Satan and the spirit of antichrist.

A separation is occurring as the spiritual life is concentrating in the grain – in the actual seed – while the husk and stalk are spiritually dying. We see this latter in that the churches are fast repudiating the authentic gospel in favour of a speculative mystical humanism. Effectively, they have substituted the biblical rock of divine revelation for the morass of opinion. While thus the godly spiritual temple of the ‘New Jerusalem’ is all but complete, Christ being the head and chief cornerstone, the theological builders of this present world are increasingly saying, um ... it was all a mistake. Let us try again.

Both, in the end, have their respective revival, and around the same time – the spiritual bride in a resurrection and rapture, wherein she meets her Lord in the air; the Church so-called in the aforesaid grand ecumenical union, the supposed precondition of universal peace. But what says the scripture (1 Thessalonians 5:3)? When they shall say, peace and safety, then sudden destruction comes upon them ... and they shall not escape. Or, in the words of John the baptist, in speaking of the Christ, he will gather his wheat into the garner, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.