Preterism and Futurism are false spirits

 The New Testament letters not only give the teachings of Christ but they give examples of how the spostles were addressing false spirits that  were strongholds resisting the very Kingdom of God.

Thoughts and snippets in the past month

The wild patch

I have not posted a blog since April 7, but I have written daily pretty well on Facebook.So  here like the patch I am allowing to grow wild around our apple tree is a series of thoughts through the month.

On the Book of Revelation....
Revelation is not the revelation of John.
Of all 66 books it is the most incredible.
Verse 1 States it is the revelation given to Jesus Christ by God the Father and then transmitted by His servant John.
All books are inspired by the Holy Spirit, but no book or gospel claims to be a book of revelation given to Jesus Christ Himself in the heavenlies.
It’s on another level again and if we need the Holy Spirit to unseal the book of Daniel at the end, then we really need the Spirit to almost do twice the job for this last book.
It’s like Christ in us the hope of glory.
The first thing was to unencrypt that sentence from the Greek.
The next task is for the Holy Spirit to unencrypt the full meaning of that sentence to our lives.
The whole of Revelation is like this and as we read it we see snippets and more is revealed.

What  is Preterism for? Perhaps this is the real reason...

I wonder if the greatest function of Preterism is as JOHN Noe has said, to get people at least for now, on the leftbrain idea that He comes and comes and comes.
Young Christians seem only to be able to handle one thing at once , which is why 40,000 denominations, and getting people unhooked from a passive rapture idea, and pro actively expecting Jesus to come and come and come, is only good as far as I can see.
Then when He has fully come in individuals and churches you can frighten the now mature Preterists by saying
“ Revelation 22 and psalm 24 say
Speak to things and Welcome Him back”.
I guess in the Spirit we have to be devious like this.....
A bit like Joseph with his brothers when they came to Egypt.
But not as devious as Jesuits who secretly run everything but tell nobody.

On Automatic Gears in Cars ....
Brits don’t really like automatic gears, having probably a fixation about control. But the automatic system is a great way of explaining the vanity that creation has been subjected to.

Just as when a car meets a hill and the gear finds itself according to torque or whatever.....
So we currently function in a lower gear, but we can change things as Christians by rising higher.
If we are lazy our outer world chafes us into finding answers, if we press into God, Romans 8 says our environment changes anyway.
It’s very clever.

and continuing on the subject of disunity

There isn’t really such a thing as disunity.
That’s just a local problem in our own personal mind and heart.
DAvid prayed unite my heart to fear your name.
It’s useless trying to get CHRISTIAN harmony if half of us are walking around divided in our hearts.... we’ll make that more like 100% of us.

The church is a great antidote when they are moving in the Spirit. If people walk in Light all the little wrinkly bits start showing up.

It’s nearly impossible to get a body of Preterists to line up with things , because their unity is around leftbrain ideas and not the Living Presence of Jesus Christ.

I used to be stacked out with doctrines until Jesus largely ruined all of the



No Checks and Balances

In Formula 1 there are rules to stop the richest teams forever installing fresh car parts and engine parts. So for example Hamilton changed his gearbox too near the season start and had to start today’s race in 9th place under the penalising rule.

This “ evening up of the playing field “ was meant to be happening in business .
The question emerges how only 8 big corporations run all the worlds media, and how vital it is that media is free

In the OT, every 50 years there was a Jubilee year, which was like a reset button on Israelite society.

It is frightening that there is no regulation whatsoever on the thirteen ruling world dynasties. Game of Thrones ain’t no TV series.

Becoming Professional
It takes 10,000 hours generally speaking to become professional.
That’s 5 years of 40 hour weeks.
Be it concert pianist.
Be it virtually anything.
It doesn’t apply to doctors. Their training is longer, but partly because it is warped.
If a doctor spent as long rigorously learning medicine as an advanced naturopath but with an evidence base, rather than relying on synthetic drugs albeit with an evidence base,
we would start to have a breed of doctors that were really getting to grips with the food we eat, and the vitamins and minerals we need, with which our bodies can virtually repair most things, including cancer and diabetes.

Levitical Class
12 April 2018 08:37
Funny how we don’t take little moves seriously.
In Genesis 3 it was quite a small arm movement to the mouth followed by a crunch.
That is all it was and here we are still dying in our billions
===========

If you so much as go one inch towards tithing you create a Levitical class.
If you go one inch towards infant baptism you create an Old Covenant distant relationship with God and destroy John 3 and being born again.
Look around you brother.
What Move of God has lasted more than 40 years?
The Galatians always enter and rob the people of God who buy into the false spirit.
The Moravians did a 100 year prayer meeting and evangelised the world. Many apostolic groups have kept on the boil, but most of them use the tithe and it is gradually killing them.
Our covenant is with God and not through any man, but we are allowed to give gifts freely.

The Remote, Detached Believing behind Preterism and Futurism

The issue to me about Preterism and Futurism is this.
Neither engage with the I AM.
The one Moses argued with.....If you don't go up with us then we will not go up.
Like Abraham arguing in real time with God about Sodom.
When we are kids in Christ 1 John 2, like in the natural, we are just thankful to "make " it....to accept the salvation of God.
By the young man stage God is getting us to engage with our own salvation. To start confessing. Reckoning ourselves dead Romans 6.
Ephesians 1 and 2 are about our child "establishment" "rooting" in Christ. Far from being a series of exercises to work out in the flesh Ephesians 2,3,4 and 5, or family, church, and work arenas, these are areas where God "makes our paths straight for us" as we acknowledge Him in real time and real living faith in these areas. We don't work things out in the flesh, but God engages our believing in real time in real immediate issues which surround us.
By now we have experienced locally what it is to move things around a bit by faith in the Overcoming life of Christ.
IN THAT faith. Real time faith. Having practised this new Life in God, where Jesus is our Saviour and our Saviour in real time, we now can have faith for engagement in Ephesians 6, over towns cities and regions. Pioneering new areas where they have not got the gospel.
In the gospels the disciples were in ministry with Jesus continually, while all the other things we read in Ephesians 3 4 and 5 were correcting themselves. if any of you know what it's like to fall into the ground as a seed and die....well imagine doing that in continuous ministry to others. Surely the disciples were experiencing life "full on" in the second mile with Jesus.
But hey....they were apostles in 3 and a half years.
3 1/2 years !!!!!
Look at how Preterists and Futurists handle scripture and see how remote and "out there " it is
"But once more I will shake the heavens and the earth as of things that can be shaken"
John Hagee whisks the church away in the clouds and prophesies doom and gloom for all the nations of the earth. Shake shake shake.
Preterists say all the shaking has been done. 70 AD everything sorted.
Let's see what Jesus says
I will lay the axe to the root
The son of God is come to destroy all the works of the evil one
The gates of hell will not prevail against my congregation/my church
Moses congregation HAD HAD the gates of hell prevail.
Jesus congregation, he says, would make it.
How could He be so sure?
Because He was living that life Himself....and this same Life He gave to us.
Not the halfbuilt Tower kind of life of the current church.
The current church sdoesn't know that the thirdlevel in 1 John 2 even exists. All it's got are pastors who themselves are only children stage in Christ or young man stage in Christ.
People who live and move in Ephesians 6, shaking towns cities and nations....first storming them in the Spirit then in the natural....well they are nowhere to be seen.
A case could be made out for Rheinhard Bonnke and Morris Cerullo....but even them, their gospel is really no more then the "young man " gospel of victory and faith.
NO NO NO NO
Like a computer game, but lived in real time....
once we complete "this level"......the one that began when Jesus died resurrected and ascended to be at the right hand of God the Father......
and ends when the fulness of the Gentiles has come in, and when the Jews "turn" when at last they see the One who they crucified......
Once everybody has experienced the shaking that shakes all the last traces of Genesis 3 separation living right outof entire system.....
then we will all be saying like Jesus.....the devil has nothing in me
and not having anything in us....he literally can't rule this planet any more....he has got nobody to "rule through"
This is what Paul meant by discipling nations.
Preterism doesn't even believe in this type of Christianity
Nor does Futurism. It frightens both of them, because it makes Christianity something too close to home.....where you actually have to believe things into being.
In that way Preterism and Futurism are both exactly the same.
Little more than idle fantasies, intellectual belief systems.
Jesus looked straight into Peter's soul on the shore of Galilee and said "Follow me. I will make you a fisher of men"
Word.
The Word of God
Direct.
Personal.
Would cost everything.
----------------------------------

What Jesus Actually Said Concerning things to come by  Santo Calarco

Did Jesus say that the apostles would see his "second coming"?
Let's consider what Jesus said that the apostles would see and NOT see!
In Mark 13 Jesus speaks about the destruction of Jerusalem in 70AD.
He speaks to his apostles and tells THEM that THEY WOULD SEE ...
NOTE THE "YOU" STATEMENTS!
YOU - the apostles would PERSONALLY SEE OR HEAR ABOUT ...
-1- WARS
Mark 13:7
When YOU hear of wars and rumors of wars, do not be frightened; those things must take place; but that is not yet the end. 8 For nation will rise up against nation, and kingdom against kingdom; there will be earthquakes in various places; there will also be famines. These things are merely the beginning of birth pangs.
-2- YOU - the apostles - would be PERSONALLY PERSECUTED AND HATED
Mark 13:9,13
9 “But be on YOUR guard; for they will deliver YOU to the courts, and YOU will be flogged in the synagogues, and YOU will stand before governors and kings for My sake, as a testimony to them. 13 YOU will be hated by all because of My name, but the one who endures to the end, he will be saved.
-3- YOU - the apostles - WOULD SEE SOMETHING BAD - and this was the SIGN TO LEAVE JERUSALEM - because it was about to be destroyed!
Mark 13:14
14 “But when YOU see the abomination of desolation standing where it should not be (let the reader understand), then those who are in Judea must flee to the mountains.
SO FAR THE APOSTLES WOULD GO THROUGH ALL THE EVENTS LEADING UP TO THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM
MARK has earmarked this by saying "YOU ... YOU"!
BUT NOW WE SEE A TRANSITION IN THE TEXT!
JESUS THEN MENTIONS THE TRIBULATION IN CONNECTION TO THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM
-4- YOU - the apostles would go through the tribulation DURING the DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM
Mark 13:19
19 For THOSE DAYS [the destruction of Jerusalem] will be a time of tribulation such as has not occurred since the beginning of the creation which God created until now, and never will. 21 And THEN [DURING the tribulation during the destruction of Jerusalem] IF ANYONE SAYS TO YOU then if anyone says to you, ‘Behold, here is the Christ’; or, ‘Behold, He is there’; do not believe him;
-5- YOU - the apostles have at this stage in the prophecy been WARNED ABOUT "EVERYTHING" IN CONNECTION WITH THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM!
MARK 13:23
23 But take heed; behold, I have told YOU EVERYTHING in advance.
NOTE: THEY KNOW EVERYTHING IN ADVANCE ABOUT EVENTS CONNECTED WITH THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM!
SO THEY WERE PREPARED TO SEE THE SIGN SO THAT THEY COULD ESCAPE GETTING KILLED WITH EVERYONE ELSE IN JERUSALEM!
But .. But ... But ...
[now the part that will upset the 70AD folk!]
NOW JESUS TALKS ABOUT EVENTS
AFTER
AFTER
AFTER
The destruction of Jerusalem!!
JESUS MOVES AWAY FROM "YOU" TO "THEY"!
Mark 13:24
24 “But in those days, AFTER THAT TRIBULATION, the sun will be darkened and the moon will not give its light,
JESUS CLEARLY SPEAKS NOW ABOUT EVENTS AFTER THE TRIBULATION
AFTER JERUSALEM HAS BEEN DESTROYED IN 70AD!
And he speaks of cosmic signs - NOT IN JUDEA BUT IN THE HEAVENS
AFTER 70AD!!
And he no longer refers to YOU - THE APOSTLES ANYMORE BUT ....
"THEY"!!!!!
Mark 13:26
26 THEN [when?!!! Then after the destruction of Jerusalem!] THEY WILL SEE THE Son of Man coming in clouds with great power and glory.
SO THERE YOU GO!!!
Jesus said that the apostles would personally go through the time of tribulation in connection with the destruction of Jerusalem
BUT HE MAKES IT CRYSTAL CLEAR THAT AFTER THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM
THAT - THEY NOT YOU
Would see Jesus come in the clouds!
JESUS NEVER SAID THAT THE APOSTLES WOULD SEE HIM RETURN ON THE CLOUDS!
HE SAID THAT "THEY" - the people AFTER THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM would see him come on the clouds!
BOTTOM LINE:
JESUS MOVES FROM "YOU" TO "THEY" AFTER THE TRIBULATION AND DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM
And says that the apostles would never see his return!
Jesus was spot on!
I'm ducking for cover ...
The 70 AD folks are gonna come to get me!
PS...
The apostles would not see Jesus come because they would be coming with him when he comes. See 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18.

Preterism is not accurate because.... by Santo Calarco

Saint Iranaeus of Lyons

First appeared on Facebook  https://www.facebook.com/santo.calarco.5/posts/10155292262644533
70AD Preterism view of the book of Revelation was NOT the view of the church fathers.
The Preterists view on the book of Revelation is that its primary focus is on events surrounding the destruction of Jerusalem. Preterists insist on an early date for the book of Revelation to tie it into the 70 A.D. destruction of Jerusalem.
This is not supported by the church fathers who lived at that time.
Revelation was written by John. Smyrna was one of the seven churches this book was written for AND THIS CHURCH DID NOT EXIST TILL AFTER THE DESTRUCTION OF JERUSALEM! Since Smyrna was one of the recipients of this book then it had to be written many years AFTER 70AD.
Polycarp was a disciple of the apostle John, and the bishop of the church of Smyrna in Asia. According to Polycarp the Book of Revelation was written AFTER the destruction of Jerusalem. In his letter called "To the Philippians" he writes that his church, did not exist before the destruction of Jerusalem.
Preterism insists that the "great tribulation" was the destruction of Jerusalem in 70AD but one early Church Fathers, The Shepherd of Hermas, written in the early 2nd Century placed the great tribulation as future of his day - years after 70AD.
The Didache was used as a church manual and written about 100 A.D.. It quote some of the events of Matthew 24-25 and Revelation and placed them future of 100 AD:
"Watch for your life's sake. Let not your lamps be quenched, nor your loins unloosed; but be ye ready, for ye know not the hour in which our Lord cometh. …. For in the last days false prophets and corrupters shall be multiplied, and the sheep shall be turned into wolves, and love shall be turned into hate; for when lawlessness increaseth, they shall hate and persecute and betray one another, and then shall appear the world-deceiver as Son of God, and shall do signs and wonders, and the earth shall be delivered into his hands, and he shall do iniquitous things which have never yet come to pass since the beginning. … And then shall appear the signs of the truth; first, the sign of an out-spreading in heaven; then the sign of the sound of the trumpet; and the third, the resurrection of the dead; yet not of all, but as it is said: The Lord shall come and all His saints with Him. Then shall the world see the Lord coming upon the clouds of heaven.” [Didache, XVI]
Irenaeus
Irenaeus (A.D. 180), a student of Polycarp (who was a disciple of the apostle John), wrote that the apocalyptic vision “was seen not very long ago, almost in our own generation, at the close of the reign of Domitian” (Against Heresies 30). He places the book near the end of Domitian’s reign, and that ruler died in A.D. 96. Irenaeus seems to be unaware of any other view for the date of the book of Revelation.
Irenaeus (100 years after 70AD) had this to say about future events:
“It is therefore more certain, and less hazardous, to await the fulfillment of the prophecy, than to be making surmises, and casting about for any names that may present themselves, inasmuch as many names can be found possessing the number mentioned; and the same question will, after all, remain unsolved. ... But he indicates the number of the name now, that when this man comes we may avoid him, being aware who he is: ... But when this Antichrist shall have devastated all things in this world, he will reign for three years and six months, and sit in the temple at Jerusalem; and then the Lord will come from heaven in the clouds, in the glory of the Father, sending this man and those who follow him into the lake of fire; but bringing in for the righteous the times of the kingdom, that is, the rest, the hallowed seventh day; and restoring to Abraham the promised inheritance, in which kingdom the Lord declared, that many coming from the east and from the west should sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob”[Irenaeus: Against Heresies, Book V, XXX].
These events did not take place at 70AD but were still future of 180AD for Irenaeus!
Clement of Alexandria
Clement of Alexandria (A.D. 155-215) says that John returned from the isle of Patmos “after the tyrant Domitian was dead” (Who Is the Rich Man? 42).
Victorinus
Victorinus (late third century), author of the earliest commentary on the book of Revelation, wrote:
"When John said these things, he was in the island of Patmos, condemned to the mines by Caesar Domitian. There he saw the Apocalypse; and when at length grown old, he thought that he should receive his release by suffering; but Domitian being killed, he was liberated" (Commentary on Revelation 10:11).
Jerome
Jerome (A.D. 340-420) said,
"In the fourteenth then after Nero, Domitian having raised up a second persecution, he [John] was banished to the island of Patmos, and wrote the Apocalypse" (Lives of Illustrious Men 9).
To all of this may be added the comment of Eusebius, who contends that the historical tradition of his time (A.D. 324) placed the writing of the Apocalypse at the close of Domitian’s reign (III.18).
Drs McClintock and Strong, who reject the 70AD declare that “there is no mention in any writer of the first three centuries of any other time or place” (1969, 1064).

--------------------
23/4/17 Facebook Santo Calarco continues
Now this one is a clanger!!
Preterism insists that the beast of revelation 13 is Rome.
It also says that the picture of Jesus coming on the clouds in Revelation 1 and Revelation 19 is a symbol of Jesus coming in judgment against Israel in 70AD THROUGH ROME!
Now get this!
The beast is Rome
Jesus coming on the clouds is ROME destroying Jerusalem in 70AD
Here we go ...
Revelation 19:19
And I saw the BEAST (supposedly Rome) and the kings of the earth with their armies gathered to make war against him who was sitting on the horse and against his army (supposedly Jesus coming THROUGH ROME to destroy Jerusalem)
WHOAAH!
So you have Rome the beast making war against ITSELF = Jesus (Rome) coming on the clouds to supposedly destroy Jerusalem in 70AD!
It's just all nonsense.
Rome attacks Rome when it attacks Jerusalem?!!
None of this is what Revelation is talking about.
One day I will tell you exactly why I am hammering the 70AD theory.
I have a specific agenda.

TEF9 - Authority Revealed by Daniel Yordy

 from Eyes of Fire Series

© Daniel Yordy 2013
The original of this post with all relevant audio formats and downloadable PDF are to be found here.

My goal is to explore the prophetic word of Christ revealed now through us as shown by the vision John saw on Patmos. Yet I continue to find the need to lay a series of foundations before we can discover the full scope and meaning of that prophetic word.

The most essential reality that fills and surrounds, undergirds and uplifts our speaking this Word of Christ IS the Lamb in one hand and the Lamb in the other. Never is any speaking of Christ found anywhere else. We do not speak Christ “in order to.” We speak Christ only “because of” and “inside of” and “out from.” It is that word of Christ which we speak, then, that accomplishes all the will of God. That Word is able to Prove God's will because we speak it. It's called faith; it's called faithful and true.

Yet our speaking of Christ inside the Lamb is bold. It is very bold, as bold as Christ Himself.

Therefore, in order for us to see the truth as it is, I will speak boldly.

The end of the age is in our hands, in the hands of the sons of God, that is, this transition between two ages during which the birthing of the age to come upon this planet causes all the folly, the insanity of man to gasp one last time and then to cease.

Everything, from here on out, is coming through us.

That's why those who begin to speak Christ hit a wall of accusation greater than they have ever known, a wall that they discover has much less power than the condemnation under which they once lived. That's why the dragon stands before the woman to devour her child. It's his greatest mistake in a lifetime of oh-so-great mistakes.

If he were not so arrogant, he would not be so quickly defeated.

Now, those who knew Norman Grubb and who teach union with Christ, also say that there is no more battle. What they say is true, inside the arena of which they are speaking. The problem is simply this; they should say there is NO civil war. We are at peace with God; there is no battle inside of us.

But God has built the universe around the verb, “to conquer.” That is, “to overcome.”

We know Christ as the meek and lowly One; we know Christ as the victorious Warrior. Christ is fully both in us; not half and half, but all and all.

I am not so much a fighter as an explorer. The explorer is part of the victorious Warrior, His gift inside of me. Give me a map and a path or road ahead, and I am in heaven. I am obsessed with the joy of seeing what's in that next valley, drawing peace from that next little waterfall in the stream, gazing in reflection from the next ridge top, leaping down the mountainside like a deer. The next bend in the road is always brand-new to me.

Here now, let's not get side-tracked.

The Apocalypse of Jesus Christ.

The primary word in Revelation is apocalupsis. The purpose for everything is Christ, the Word God is always speaking, revealed in weakness through many, revealed in fullness in His body. The second word of Revelation is martureo, witness or testimony, the same word of Christ spoken by many. Martureo means the prophetic word of Christ which we speak.

Now, Paul defines that word in this way: “calling those things that “be not” as though they are.” That word does have a counterpart, also from Paul, “calling those things that “be” as though they are not.” The vision of John shows us both sides of that testimony. The Kingdom is, though no one sees it. The world system of this present age is not, though everyone thinks it's a big deal.

The Revelation (apokalupsis) of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him to show His servants—things which must shortly take place. And He sent and signified it by His angel to His servant John, who bore witness (a form of martureo) to the word of God, and to the testimony (another form of martureo) of Jesus Christ, to all things that he saw. Revelation 1:1-2

One unveiling; two witnesses.

Behold, He is coming with clouds, and every eye will see Him, even they who pierced Him. And all the tribes of the earth will mourn because of Him. Even so, Amen. Revelation 1:7

Let me deal briefly with the question of Jesus' body.

Most Christians are convinced that the term “the body of Christ” is a metaphor only, a figure of speech, that we are not really His body. Now, consider the short-circuiting their image of Christ causes. They want two things: they want a Jesus whom they can see face to face, and they want Him to appear to all in that way. So if Jesus appears to me in His own physical body, the body that ascended with Him into the sky, and if He appears to my brother in China, in Australia, in Sweden at the same time, then what did He do? Does He produce for Himself many physical bodies, clones of that original one?

Some might say that His resurrected body is of Spirit substance and can thus duplicate itself in that strange way. That idea falls apart on two accounts. One is, there is no purpose in God giving Jesus or us a second spiritual body, we already have a first, our spirit, (as well as the Spirit of Christ) and our spirit is not our physical body (anymore than Jesus' Spirit is His body). Our spirit already walks in heaven; we need an earthly body to inherit the earth. When God swallows up our present body with life it will continue as a physical body, though on a higher plane. Second, angels have spirit bodies, and they cannot clone themselves; they cannot appear in many places at once.

But that argument beggars the point. Why would Jesus appear in a cloned multiplication of the body He walked in after His resurrection? Why would we, whom He died to win for Himself, whom He has become, why would our bodies be unacceptable to Him? Why would He prefer clones?

The concept of Jesus appearing in one physical body only requires that He can be seen face to face by only one person at a time. Get in line, brother, your fifteen-minute appointment is in 200 years.

So, if He is coming in the same physical body in which He ascended up into the sky, then every eye cannot see Him in a literal sense, unless He clones that particular body. But it seems so strange to me that He would so give Himself to win a body for God, the Cup turning to Joy inside of Him, and then completely bypass that body for this occasion, preferring the odd practice of divine, but sterile cloning, seed that did not bring forth life.

On the other hand, there are those who believe that Jesus will never appear in the physical body that ascended with Him before the eyes of His disciples, they are convinced that body is gone forever, and that we are the only body in which He will ever appear. I don't know if that is true, either.

Let me give the definitive answer to this question. It is, in fact, the only answer. “I don't know.”

But much of this is intellectual curiosity only and not the truth of the revelation of Christ. Look again at Revelation 1:7. Notice the reaction of everyone to what they see: “will mourn.” Here is the meaning of the Greek word. It is the same as in Matthew 24.

kóptō – properly, to cut; be incised (struck), resulting in severance ("being cut off"); (figuratively) to mourn (lament) with a cutting sense of personal, tragic loss, i.e. "cut to the heart." http://biblesuite.com/greek/2875.htm

Most believe that this response is because all the multitudes of those who see Him know that He is about to kill them first and torture them after. They believe that Jesus is a partisan and tribal military commander, and that His war is against all those funny-looking pagans who don't take a bath.

Jesus is Savior and Salvation; He is filled with grace and truth. He has already reconciled all to God; He has already propitiated all sin, that is, brought all human sin into the Mercy Seat inside the heart of God where He caused it all to cease. Sin is not the issue; Christ, the Word God speaks is.

Christ in you, the hope of glory. Him we preach, warning every man and teaching every man in all wisdom, that we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus. Colossians 1:27-28

Those who see themselves on the outside of Jesus, looking at Him, will mourn. Those who see themselves on the inside of Jesus looking out will sing with all joy. This is not an us-versus-them; it is for the sakes of those who mourn that we rejoice. God will send us to them, each in his time until all creation is singing once again, as Paul said in 1 Corinthians 15 and in Philippians 2.

But those who will not put their sin into Jesus must bear sin themselves in the light of a Holy God. And those who will not put their self into Jesus must bear self themselves in the light of a Holy God. It is a place of judgment. It is a time of mourning.

Yes, judgment produces a measure of outward pain. But that pain does not come from God, rather, it comes from the will of the creature who prefers bearing his own self in this horrific mixture of self-love and self-loathing, rather than losing himself inside another, inside of the One who loves him and gave Himself for him.

Holding tightly to self-love/self-loathing when the lights turn on is the source of all mournful pain. All anyone needs to do is simply say, “Here I am, God. Here!” And all difficulty is forever gone.

In complete contrast, we give thanks for all things. We get excited when everything goes wrong. We count it all joy when we are hit with all kinds of strange adversity. Not because we are weird, but because we are so enmeshed in the God who fills us full that all we can see or know is His heart of grief and tender compassion reaching out to all.

Do you see how important it is for us never to say or write things about ourselves that are contrary to Christ Himself, our only life, expressing Himself through our humanity? Whenever our words place ourselves as anywhere but utterly part of the Lord Jesus Himself, then we are not where we must be.

So let me share the true reality of Jesus' body. Let's say that Jesus does show up in a solitary, individual body, the one that came out of the grave. I have no problem with that; I will never get in any line to see Him. Oh no. I am there, all of me, entirely, inside of Him looking out of that same body with Him. You will never find me anywhere else.

This is why I love to write. This question has been vague to me for all the 36 years I have pondered it. Now my eye is single. I know where I am, and that's the only thing that matters to me. And I also know that in His incredible favor to me, God has granted me all whom I love. He has given me you in that same place.

Now, it is not my purpose to provide a verse by verse explanation of my present understanding of Revelation. Such an exercise has no profit in itself. I will not say anything about any verse unless I have a present word of Christ to share with you, a word that enables you to find yourself utterly in Him. Thus I do draw much life from John's vision, while ignoring many things in it. When God wants us to know those things, we will know them. Yet I am always surprised when a word that our fellow believers apply carnally opens itself to us as a key understanding inside the revelation of Jesus Christ. The problem has always been our wrong seeing, “at” instead of “ out from.”

But look at verse 12: Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands. . . John turned to the voice and saw the church. Then, he says clearly that the One who was “like” the Son of Man was IN that very church. The next few lines are a description of Christ's body, the church, filled full with Him.

Then verse 19 is important to us. Write the things which you have seen, and the things which are, and the things which will take place after this.

First, I was presented with a curious teaching, years ago, in a Pentecostal church, that John “made up” all the things in his vision because that was the only way he could smuggle his thoughts to the churches of Asia past the guards on Patmos. Therefore, he used a “code language” that would be known only by them. That teaching bothered me, so I wrote out every verse in Revelation in which John mentions himself. “I saw. I heard. I saw. The angel said to me.” So if this teaching were true, then John lied all the way through.

John saw a vision, a seeing of spirit. The seeing in any vision is both symbolic and real. Let me explain.

When I married my wife, I placed a ring upon her finger. That ring is real gold and a real diamond. It is a real ring. Yet, of truth, I never really cared much for rings on fingers. I do like some jewelry, yes, but rings never did anything for me. In complete contrast, that ring is also a symbol, and as a symbol it is far more important to me than as a ring. The ring, of course, symbolizes our marriage and our love.

Thus, to say that something John saw is a symbol of something else is not to negate what he saw. Yet, some things that he saw are clearly symbolic only, with no literal substance. There will be no seven-headed leopard crawling up out of the ocean and taking control of the world, as some actually teach.

There are many things heavenly that are of literal spirit-substance, just as earthly things have physical substance.

John was instructed to write down exactly what he saw and heard. That seeing was of two things: things that are and things that will be. In reality, the things that are and the things that will be are the same. Every truth of Christ is fulfilled in every believer's life in every generation of the church. Yet God requires that all things come to their fullness in the fullness of times. Thus all things that are, will also be, if that doesn't sound too philosophical.

One more thing before we come back to the authority of Christ now released through the sons of God.

There are quite a number of fee-fie-fo-fum “millenial” dispensations of the revelatory osmotic interpretations of the book of Revelation. I am so uninterested in every single one of them. My God, does Jesus not say, “The Revelation of Jesus Christ” which He sent (apostled) to us? This vision is Christ, and Christ is all that I am.

Actually, it is clear to me that those who write such arguments have not been immersed into the Holy Spirit. Thus their spirits are not released to know heavenly realities; they cannot comprehend a Spirit-Word; they cannot “see” that Christ is their life.

I have read carefully the argument that claims John wrote in the AD 60's, and that the Beast was Nero, that everything in this vision happened in AD 70 with the destruction of Jerusalem and that the entire book has absolutely nothing to do with us or this planet or anything Christ would be now in us in our day. I require evidence of some sort; I saw none in that argument, nor any reasonable or cogent explanation. These people are convinced that the vision John saw is utterly divorced from his gospel. I am convinced that Christ is revealed in the flesh, in the dirt and physicality of this world. And Nero was a tin-pot nobody; the only reason we know anything about him is that he just happened to be Caesar when Peter and Paul were executed. The real persecution of the church happened in the AD 90's under Domitian.

Why do people not want to know the living Christ who fills them full with all of His glory? Actually, it is clear to me that those who write such arguments have not been immersed into the Holy Spirit. Thus their spirits are not released to know heavenly realities; they cannot comprehend a Spirit-Word; they cannot “see” that Christ is their life. All they are able to do is hash over intellectual thoughts in the light of limited earthly thinking. And every intellectual argument not recognizing our very limited knowledge and not seeking a clear view of rigorous evidence is just fantasy. I much prefer Tolkein.

Now, the authority of Christ moving through the sons of God is unveiled in large measure through the letters to the seven churches and the seven words of overcoming found in chapters 2 and 3. But that subject is its own letter. Here, I will set the larger context of that authority.

First, consider Revelation 4:1: After these things I looked, and behold, a door standing open in heaven. And the first voice which I heard was like a trumpet speaking with me, saying, “Come up here, and I will show you things which must take place after this.”

The operative word is “after,” or the Greek word, meta, found twice in this verse. Strong's Concordance says that meta is not strictly a chronology term, that is, referring to the future. Rather it is a cause-effect term. “After these things” or “after this” has this specific meaning, “this is the result, the outcome, the necessary effect of that.” The authority of Christ in His church, an authority pictured for us from Revelation 1:1 to 3:22, has direct and specific results as that authority impacts the realms of confused and separated humanity caught in the web of deceit called the world. Thus everything that follows speaks of the results coming out of the authority of Christ released in all fullness through the sons of God.

Wow! This is really cool. I've never had the key to understand the book of Revelation before, not in this way – as a whole. That key is our union with Christ, the Word God is always speaking, that we are now the testimony of that very word in the earth, revealed personally as us. Part of that key is the full marriage between John's gospel, his epistles, and his vision, along with the gospel according to Paul. Now it seems that every phrase just lays itself open to Christ made personal in us.

Which means we go back to Chapter 1 and to the authority of Christ. But first!

In that day you shall know

that I am in the Father

 and you in Me and I in you. John 14:20

This Word is absolute; it stands above all. Any word in the Bible that we do not draw into and draw out from this WORD serves only as a ministry of death. This Word in John 14:20 is the be-all and the end-all. It is the sum of all other things and yet greater than the whole. Those who live absolutely and only inside all the reality of this Word know God and His revelation, no one else. Never, not in a trillion years, will we not be ever-expanding our knowledge in present experience of the reality of this Word in all that it means. The discoveries will never end. The expansion is ceaseless. The depths are unreachable.

Yet He is real and personal and true, our Friend and our life. The Lord Jesus Christ reveals all that He is as us.

There is nothing of Jesus that is not in the Father. There is nothing of me that is not in the Lord Jesus, and there is nothing of the Lord Jesus Christ that is not in me, as me, and revealed in all glory through me.

It is impossible for anyone to know the first thing about John's vision without John 14:20 being ALL that they know. If John 14:20 is not ALL that you know, the sum total of your present life, then you have one job to do, and it is not studying John's vision. Your entire concern is to plant yourself upon the floor on your face before God, holding John 14:20 ever before His face until He makes it your very and only life. It's okay to include Luke 1:38 as well. “Look at me God! I belong to you!!! Let every Word You speak be fulfilled in all fulness in me.”

John 14:20 is the tree of life. You ain't going nowhere without its fruit being you.

Now we can return to John's vision, a vision that comes only out from John 14:20.

Authority. Let's bring in one of the central words of authority – Revelation 12:10. Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down.

This is NKJV and not translated correctly. It is “Now salvation, and power (dunamos) and the kingdom of our God, and the authority (exousia) of His Christ have come. . .”

The power is God, the authority is Christ. Jesus speaks; God does. The authority of Jesus' words commands the power inherent inside of God.

We speak Christ; God transforms the universe.

God is sovereign and absolute. The fact that He is also meek and lowly of heart does not mean that any iota of anything ever escapes His purposing. The first thing we must know about this God who fills us full is that He is entirely out of control, that we are seized in the unbreakable grip of a Mighty and uncontrollable God. Yet this terrible Being never violates our person, but wins our hearts by kindness and by love.

Now we are ready to look at Christ in His Body.

Then I turned to see the voice that spoke with me. And having turned I saw seven golden lampstands, and in the midst of the seven lampstands One like the Son of Man, clothed with a garment down to the feet and girded about the chest with a golden band. His head and hair were white like wool, as white as snow, and His eyes like a flame of fire; His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters; He had in His right hand seven stars, out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword, and His countenance was like the sun shining in its strength. And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. But He laid His right hand on me, saying to me, “Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last. I am He who lives, and was dead, and behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And I have the keys of Hades and of Death. Revelation 1:12-18

Now, we could “interpret the symbols,” that gold is the nature of God, that white as snow means pure and holy, that brass symbolizes judgment, that the word is a two-edged sword, and so on, and I have heard such layout presented in the past. The problem is those are all mental ideas, they are not Spirit-life that opens our hearts to the Glorious One who fills us full.

“I wear a garment down to the feet; a golden band encircles my chest. My head and hair are white like wool, white as the snow. My eyes are a flame of fire; my feet like fine brass, refined in a furnace. My voice is the sound of many waters. In my right hand are seven stars; out of my mouth goes a sharp two-edged sword. My face is like the sun shining in its strength. I am the design and the fulfillment. I am he who lives, and was dead, and behold I am alive forevermore. I possess the keys of Hades; I possess the keys of Death.”

Only Christ filling your heart can make these words alive and personal as you. Hold them before Him in His Spirit filling you full. His reality will flow through your mind and heart as tears and rivers of joy.

He is alive, you know; He lives in you.

Here's how it works, holding words like these as a Spirit Word inside your heart. You're tootling along, minding your own business, thinking about this or that, when all of a sudden one phrase from something like this fits into your thoughts in the light of the Holy Ghost and suddenly you see and know, and you either laugh with all joy or you fall on your face and worship God – or both at the same time.

~~~

Okay, I did that, I had a good night's sleep after writing these pages. This next morning, I have read again what I wrote yesterday. As I read, I understood what I wrote, that the operative word from Revelation 1:1 to Revelation 3:22 is “authority” – notice that the throne of God is the destination. Inside this explanation of the authority of Christ lies the action verb of the whole Bible and of the great story of God – overcome, repeated seven times.

What I did not see at all yesterday, is now life in me today.

First, leaf through any book analyzing the book of Revelation and see where they place this word “overcome.” Do they place it above all, as the action of God through us? Do they see it fulfilled in all fulness BEFORE they expand on anything else in the vision? Do they see everything else as the direct result, meta, caused by the fulfillment of this word “overcome,” seated in the throne of God?

You see, most teachings I have heard or read on Revelation abandon the overcomer in the throne at the end of Chapter 3 and see a sterile throne in Chapter 4, filled only with an Augustinian God. How can we write about God unless we know Him as the One who fills us full with all of His fullness? We certainly don't know a lot about Him, but this is the only place we must start.

Next, I have never before seen the seven places of overcoming in the churches of Christ as coming out from the authority of Christ in His church shown to us in Chapter 1. The reason I have never seen nor heard such a thing is that we never knew our full union with Christ. I saw in the past that John was describing “the body of Christ” in Chapter 1, but I saw both that glorified body and the “overcomers” as something far away, far ahead, far above, something I, in my weakness and gross inability, could only wish for, but never really produce. And so all I have ever seen or known is to chop these chapters apart. Chapter 1 is considered by itself. Chapters 2 & 3 by themselves, and Chapters 4-6, completely separate and unrelated.

Let's pull it all together into one story, Christ, revealed personally as us.

One word (among many) in Revelation 1:8 establishes authority as the theme, and that is the Greek word, pantokrator, translated, “Almighty.” Here is Strong's definition: pantokrátōr (from 3956 /pás, "all" and 2902 /kratéō, "prevail") – properly, almighty; unrestricted power exercising absolute dominion.

Unrestricted power exercising absolute dominion.

Here is where we place our forehead upon the ground in utter silence before Him. Yet He Himself puts His hand upon us and lifts us up to walk side by side as His equal, carried utterly inside of Him.

Now, the full unveiling of “to overcome” is an exercise, a process, the conflict and tension of the entire story and of all the history of heaven/earth. Yet the Spirit of God shows us clearly the picture of Christ revealed in His church and we in Him as the seeing we must have to walk through these seven realities of overcome.

Let's look out, again and always, from those eyes of fire.

“I wear a garment down to the feet; a golden band encircles my chest. My head and hair are white like wool, white as the snow. My eyes are a flame of fire; my feet like fine brass, refined in a furnace. My voice is the sound of many waters. In my right hand are seven stars; out of my mouth goes a sharp two-edged sword. My face is like the sun shining in its strength. I am the design and the fulfillment. I am he who lives, and was dead, and behold I am alive forevermore. I possess the keys of Hades; I possess the keys of Death.”

The garment of authority is the garment of the High Priest, after the order of Melchizedek. The golden band refers directly to “unrestricted power exercising absolute dominion.” That band of God encircles the chest, that is, the heart, our shared heart with Christ, the very throne of the Almighty.

Head and hair speak of wisdom anointed by the wisdom of God; that wisdom is pure and pure. Jesus said, “As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is righteous, because I do not seek My own will but the will of the Father who sent Me.” I will not develop it here, but it is so clear that this vision of the authority of Christ revealed in His church can be understood only in light of Jesus' soliloquies in John Chapters 5 & 12 and elsewhere. One also needs to bring in Hebrews 7. I will not do that at this time.

Our eyes are a flame of fire means we see God alone, out from the eyes of Love, which is that consuming fire. Our feet like fine brass, purified in a furnace, means we walk as Jesus walked, holy and pure, tried and tested, faithful and true. Our voice of many waters is the words of authority, of Christ our life, coming through many in weakness. Seven stars in our right hand also speaks of authority, and the two-edged sword we speak is that two-sided prophetic word of Christ, calling those things that be not (the victory of Christ revealed in human flesh) as they are, and calling those things that be (the delusions of the world and human self-will) as they are not.

And our face, shining like the sun in its strength is found for us in 2 Corinthians 3:18-4:6

But we all, with unveiled face, beholding as in a mirror the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from glory to glory, just as by the Spirit of the Lord. . . But even if our gospel is veiled, it is veiled to those who. . . do not believe, lest the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God, should shine on them. . . For it is the God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, who has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us.

We are His face; we are the light of His glory shining out from earthen vessels.

“I am the design and the fulfillment. I am he who lives, and was dead, and behold I am alive forevermore. I possess the keys of Hades; I possess the keys of Death.”

When Jesus is called “the first and the last,” it doesn't mean that He is still hanging around, all alone, after everyone else has departed the scene. Rather the two Greek words used denote the pattern, the blueprint from which all things come, and the fulfillment, the completed House into which the Father Himself comes to reside. Whatever He is, He is all of that in all of us. “I am he who lives and was dead, and behold I am alive forevermore,” is Galatians 2:20, the only entrance to the tree of life.

I have the keys of Hades and of Death. Revelation 1:18

In these words are expressed terrible and glorious things beyond all measure or comprehension. I can begin to speak of them ONLY by making it very clear that I have no idea what I am talking about. But I want to know Him in all that He is revealed now upon this earth through me. Thus I would stand firmly in Him through all that is terrible and holy and entirely beyond us.

First, let's bring in the close companion verses from Paul.

So when this corruptible has put on incorruption, and this mortal has put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written: “Death is swallowed up in victory.” “O Death, where is your sting? O Hades, where is your victory?” The sting of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. 1 Corinthians 15:54-57

But second, let's pull back into our story. We must know where this fits. Here is the line from my last letter.

(God's story) begins as a Word and then the accuser. Then comes the Word in weakness, then comes the accuser again. Then comes the Lamb in sorrow, then the Word in many, the accuser's last gasp, and the Lamb again, in Glory.

There is a terrible factor that comes into the story with the accuser. The accuser does not “cause” this factor, it is the result entirely of the decision of Adam.

That factor is CONSEQUENCE.

Death and Hades are two sides of the same thing; they are the horrific consequence of human folly.

Death is the divorce of heaven and earth, the ripping apart of spirit and body. Death is more awful than we can comprehend. Death is a horrific, unnatural, and evil tearing apart, the end result of the horror of any creature pulling its mind and will away from, separated from, God.

Hades is not a geographical location, but a state of being. It is both those humans who have neither spirits nor bodies, but are whispering souls lost in the darkness, along with the angels who left their place in God, who are also wandering and bound by darkness.

Hades is the wounded of death.

Here I must stop. I am not about to dance up and down proclaiming that I know even the first thing about the reality of these words: “I possess the keys of Hades; I possess the keys of Death.” Yet I desire to know, for I desire to know Him revealed through me.

But we cannot know the terror of His victory unless we first place it entirely inside the drama and pathos of His story.

Thus, before we can continue on exploring the seven realities of overcoming, I must take the layout I wrote in the last letter, of a Word to a Lamb, and make the best attempt yet to present before both you and me, in one chapter, the great story of God.

It is in His Story alone that all things find their place.