THE SPIRIT LETTERS

Message Seven - Book Five - SOMEWHERE BEYOND BELIEF

ATTRIBUTING THE PRECIPITOUS CIRCUMSTANCES AND CONDITIONS MAN NOW SUFFERS, TO GOD’S PROMISED TRIBULATION AGAINST THOSE WHO CHOOSE TO REBEL AGAINST HIM – TO PRIDEFULLY GO THEIR OWN WAY AND DO THEIR OWN THING, EVEN AGAINST HIS WILL.

After Apostle Paul’s spiritual rebirth and enlightenment on the Damascus Road, he disclosed to the Corinthians:

“I keep under my body, and bring it into subjection, lest by any means when I have preached to others, I myself should be a castaway.” (1 Cor. 9:27).

Paul admonished the Colosssians: “If ye be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ is seated on the right hand of GOD. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For you are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in GOD. When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall you also appear with Him in glory. Mortify therefore your members which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, and covetousness, which is idolatry: for which things’ sake the wrath of GOD comes upon the children of disobedience; in which you also walked when you lived in them” (Colossians 3:1-7).

Paul conceded that previous to his spiritual rebirth on the Damascus Road (Acts Chapters 9, 22, and 26), he had been “A blasphemer and a persecutor, and injurious, but that he had obtained mercy because he had done it ignorantly and in unbelief – that the grace of our Lord GOD was exceedingly abundant with the faith and love which is in Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying, worthy of all acceptation: that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief. Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting” (1 Tim. 1:13-16).

In view of these above-quoted biblical writings, it is clear that Apostle Paul’s teachings serve as an admonishment to man that if he is to be saved into eternity by the Spirit Energy of GOD – which is above us all, through us all and in us all (Eph. 4:6) – and which “is exceedingly abundant with the faith and love which is in Christ Jesus,” as Apostle Paul noted, supra, then the burden is upon men to live spiritually focused lives while incarnated in flesh on the earth. But the enlightened Apostle foresaw that this was not to be the case: that many would not find and follow Jesus Christ the incarnate Son of GOD in belief and faith in Him as their Savior:

“This know also, that in the last days perilous time shall come. For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unoly. Without natural affection, truce-breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce despisers of those that are good. Traitors, heady, high-minded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of GOD; having a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away. For of this sort are they which creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, led away with divers lusts, ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.” (2 Tim. 3:1-7).

The “natural men” of whom Paul wrote in 1 Cor. 2:9-14, being unspiritual, “are able to understand the words that man’s wisdom teaches, but are unable to comprehend what the Holy Ghost teaches, such things “being foolishness to them” because they are spiritually discerned. They cannot be received in a form they can be understood except by souls that have been “quickened” by GOD’s Holy Spirit Energy, which flows from and through the risen Christ. It was for this reason that Jesus spoke to His Disciples and Apostles in parables, because only those who were His – who had received His Holy Spirit – were prepared to understand and appropriately utilize His all-important teachings.

For example, the New Testament subtly divulges that Apostle Peter – one of Jesus’ “Three” – understood that a pattern of reincarnation is at work in man’s lineages: which is the subject of the next message in this series.

Message 8 - Book Five - SOMEWHERE BEYOND BELIEF

Message Six - Book Five - SOMEWHERE BEYOND BELIEF

BIBLICAL PREDICTIONS STRIKINGLY FORETELLING FUTURE EVENTS

Biblical writings laid down through the centuries tie together the ground-breaking Hebraic Age with the contemporary Age of the Gentiles that followed on its heels. For example: certain New Testament events cut through the veiling shroud of time separating two independent parts of an enigmatic far-seeing mystical Old Testament prophecy given by the Lord through HIS prophet Isaiah during Old Testament days; the first part of which stated:

“The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me; because the Lord has appointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; HE has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound” (Isaiah 61:1).

This of course referred to all souls at that time trapped in, and bound-to, the earth dimension, unable to return to their heavenly “first estates.”The true meaning of this verse was of course unknown to mankind when Isaiah prophesied it: the events upon which it was premised lay yet far ahead in time. And Isaiah’s next verse surprisingly reached even farther ahead in time;– specifically to the period of the great Tribulation which GOD is to bring upon the earth, meticulously described in Mt. 24:3-38 and in other biblical writings. The Lord’s next prophetic disclosure through HIS prophet Isaiah declared that He was:

“To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our GOD: to comfort all who mourn” (Isa. 61:2)

The Lord Himself had foretold that this great punishment of the negative portion of mankind – the Tribulation – was in fact ultimately to take place, as had been biblically inscribed:

“Thus saith the Lord, In an acceptable time have I heard thee, and in a day of salvation have I helped thee: and I will preserve thee, and give thee for a covenant of the people, to establish the earth, to cause to inherit the desolate heritages; That thou mayest say to the prisoners, Go forth to them that are in darkness. Show yourselves. They shall feed in the ways, and their pastures shall be in all high places” (Isa. 49:8-9).

The New Testament discloses that soon after Jesus’ wilderness spiritual rebirth – from which He emerged knowing what His mission was to be (Lk. 4:18-19) – He first reiterated the thrust of Isaiah’s prophecy given long before, because He knew that it applied to Him as the Son of GOD. But the thrust of Isaiah 61:1 only applied to that particular incarnation; whereas Isa. 61:2 directly and solely applied to the Son of GOD’s predestined subsequent appearance at the time of the great Tribulation yet to come upon the earth. His subsequent incarnation as Jesus of Nazareth was actually in fulfillment of that which had before been dramatically foretold by Moses; as noted in the Book of Deuteronomy at 18:17-19:

“And the Lord [GOD] the Father said: “They have well spoken what they have spoken. I will raise them up a prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee [Moses], and will put my words in His mouth; and He shall speak unto them all that I shall command Him. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will not hearken unto my words which He shall speak in my name, I will require it of Him” (Deut. 18:18:19).

Jesus understood what was to take place in the future, so He knowingly and intentionally left out the last phrases of his declaration quoted in the Bible at Isa. 61:1-2. He knew that Isaiah’s verses had been uttered long before He, the Son of GOD, would be taken up into heaven and empowered at GOD’s right hand, over heaven and the earth (Mt. 28:18). During His ministry, He had declared that not He nor the angels would know the day or the hour of His return: but that may have changed after GOD granted HIS Son power over heaven and the earth. In quoting Isaiah’s prophecy, Jesus had gone only so far as to reiterate the portion of Isaiah’s prophecy: “To proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord,” leaving off the part that applied to Christ’s return as Messiah, but including, “The day of vengeance of our GOD: to comfort all that mourn.”

Thus when Isaiah uttered his prophetic disclosure – which was afterward purposefully reiterated in Isa. 61:1-2 – many years would pass before it was fulfilled by the risen Christ, the Son of GOD. This was because it did not apply to the Son of GOD during His earth incarnation as Jesus of Nazareth; but rather to the time of the great Tribulation, which is still yet to come. Albert Schweitzer noted, long after Isaiah’s time, that Jesus had announced the kingdom of GOD as something purely in the future: that Jesus understood that He, the Son of GOD, was not at that time the Messiah, but He knew that He was to return in a cloud at some later time to take dominion: when those who were His had securely attached themselves to Him in belief and faith. He knew that He was one day to reappear in a cloud to Redeem all who had pledged themselves to Him (Mt. 21:27). This was the substance of that which was foretold by Apostle John in Jn. 14:1-4.

The Tribulation is the “day of vengeance” – the day of the separation of the “goats from the sheep” to which Jesus referred in Mt. 25:31-34. Prophet Daniel called it “The most terrible time ever seen on the earth, or that ever will be” (Dan. 12:1-4). And Prophet Zechariah foresaw that two-thirds of the population will be removed from the earth, and the remaining one-third will be “hard tested” – as if by fire! – which John the Baptist foretold would be fulfilled by Jesus Christ (Mt. 3:11-12).

It is clear to all who will see and receive it, that we are indeed now living in the latter days, and it behooves spiritually-wise souls incarnated on earth to invest their belief, trust and faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of GOD, as well as in GOD the Father of all, who is above all, in all, and through us all (Eph. 4:4-7).

This series to be Continued in Message 7 - Book Five - SOMEWHERE BEYOND BELIEF.