Deeper Background Truths

The final testimonies in the divine court case on August 4, 2015 were the two testimonies of blood. I already wrote an entire weblog on these earlier, so I will not repeat it here.

http://www.gods-kingdom-ministries.net/daily-weblogs/2015/08-2015/the-testimony-of-blood/

Kingdom Work

The original problem in the earth was its formless and void state (Genesis 1:2). Even though God created life forms afterward, culminating with mankind, and even though it was all pronounced “very good” (Genesis 1:31), Adam still had a job to do. There was yet unfinished business. “There was no man to cultivate the ground” (Genesis 2:5).

The word “cultivate” comes from the Hebrew word abad, which means “to labor, work, or serve.” On a deeper level, the word comes from three Hebrew letters: ayin, beth, and daleth. The ayin is an eye, and it means to see, reveal, or manifest. Beth is a house or household. Daleth is a door. Putting these pieces together, the word means “to reveal the door of the house.”

The Hebrew word bad means a separation or division. So the door of a house divides the inside from the outside (or perhaps one room from another). Adam’s job was to bring order out of chaos, to divide and sort things out and categorize creation properly. His job extended far beyond cultivating the ground (adamah) as a farmer. His job was to bring cleansing to the earth, and hence, abad has a numeric value of 76.

Essentially, Adam was God’s agent of cleansing to build the Kingdom of God upon the earth. Adam failed, however, when his sin brought death to all men (Romans 5:12). This meant that another “Adam” would have to come and succeed where the first had failed. The “last Adam” was Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:45). His abad (work) was more difficult than that of the first Adam, because He also had to pay the penalty for the failure of the first Adam in order to reverse the curse on the ground.

Nonetheless, the original calling given to Adam still had to be fulfilled. Work had to be done to bring order out of the chaotic state in creation.

The divine plan is revealed in the law and in the New Testament. The law prophesied two works of Christ, and the New Testament revealed the purpose of each. The first was to overcome the evil effects of Adam’s sin by dying on the cross. The second work of Christ is to build the Kingdom—i.e., Adam’s original calling.

The second could not be done apart from the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ. All that Adam lost by his sin had to be redeemed and restored by Christ’s righteous act.

The Division of Labor

When we contemplate the two doves in Leviticus 14 and the two goats in Leviticus 16, we see the revelation of the two works of Christ. This is the most basic division of labor. The first dove and the first goat represent Christ in His death work. The second dove and second goat represent Christ in His living work, for this bird and goat were released alive.

The first work was done by Christ alone, but the second progressively includes His people as well. Nature itself teaches us this when we observe doves. Doves mate for life, and the female lays two eggs at a time. When hatched, one is male, the other female. These then mate for life, and so Solomon uses this as a metaphor of the king and his beloved bride, calling her “my dove” in Song of Solomon 2:14. Later, he refers to her as “my sister, my bride” (Song of Solomon 4:9).

This adds meaning to the prophetic law in Leviticus 14, because doves were commonly used in sacrifice. The first dove (male) was Christ, the King, who was killed. The second dove (female) was the Bride released into the open field. When the male dove was killed, the female did not find another mate but remained a widow having no more offspring.

But Jesus (the male dove) was raised from the dead in order that the two might be reunited. The feast of Pentecost has begun that process of reunification by means of the Holy Spirit. As individuals, we can be united with Christ at any time, but as a complete Bride, it is a process that takes time. As individuals, being married to Christ, He begets Christ, Jr. in us by the incorruptible seed of the gospel. The Bride, however, is a body of people—not a single individual. The Bride company includes people from each generation, and so the full body is not complete until the end of the age.

The marriage of Christ and His Bride (company) is a future event, but as individuals we may understand this because the microcosm reveals the macrocosm. Because we are already individually “married” to Christ, He has already begotten Christ in us, and His seed abides in us (1 John 3:9). Nonetheless, in the larger picture, the Bride has remained unfruitful, insofar as the manifestation of the sons of God is concerned.

We ought to view the second work of Christ, then, as including the Bride, rather than as a second work that is done only by Jesus Himself. The first work focused exclusively upon Jesus, but the second shifts its focus to the Bride—the female dove. This second work has been done piecemeal over the centuries, as individuals have come to Christ by faith and have been impregnated by the seed of the word. But the day is coming when the full “Sarah” company will bring forth her “Isaac,” the inheritors of the Kingdom, who will rule with Christ during the Age of Tabernacles.

The “Hagars” will then be instructed on how to become “Sarahs,” so that they too may receive their inheritances at the second resurrection at the Great White Throne.

The Blood of the Martyrs

Leviticus 14:6 says that the live bird was to be dipped in the blood of the first bird that had been killed. We may picture this as the female dove (Bride) being dipped in the blood of the male dove (Christ). This has a double meaning. First, it shows how the Bride is baptized (washed) by the blood of her Husband (Christ). This identifies her with Him, as Paul tells us in Romans 6:3, 4, 5.

Secondly, this baptism of blood means that Christ’s rejection and death will have a secondary effect upon her. So Paul quotes Psalm 44:22 in Romans 8:36,

³⁶ Just as it is written, “For Thy sake we are being put to death all day long; we were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.”

Likewise, Jesus told His disciples in John 15:20,

²⁰ Remember the word that I said to you, “A slave is not greater than his master.” If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also.

Some have misunderstood Jesus’ words, thinking that in order to be an overcomer they had to be physically killed. So some sought death and provoked religious authorities into sentencing them to death. Such actions were unnecessary. They misunderstood the meaning of the word martyr. A martyr, as used in Scripture, is not necessary one who has been killed. A martyr is one who bears witness to the truth. The Greek word marturias does not mean one who is killed, but one who bears witness or testimony in a court of law. Whether or not he is killed for that testimony is not really the point, although certainly, many have been killed on account of their testimony.

The real definition of a martyr is found in Revelation 12:11,

¹¹ And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony [marturias], and they did not love their life even to death.

In other words, their prime directive was to bear witness to the truth, not to survive. The survival instinct takes a back seat. This is how “the great dragon” is thrown down (Revelation 12:9). Take note that when Michael cast down this dragon, he did so because the overcomers had borne witness of the truth and had overcome the dragon by the word of their testimony. God initiates things by His Spirit working in the overcomers, and when the overcomers respond with their AMEN, bearing witness to the truth, then the great dragon is overthrown.

Two More Court Cases

When we entered the divine court to bear witness of the truth on August 4, 2015, we first prayed to get the mind of God so that we could bear witness to the truth. Then in court we won our case for God to implement His New Covenant promises, covenants, oaths, and vows so that all men might be saved.

In doing this, we did our part, giving testimony to an important piece of truth. Two days later, on August 6, we were led to present two more cases before the divine court.

The first was to intercede for the Church under Pentecost to hear God’s voice, because the refusal to hear the revelation of the law is the root problem of Pentecost. We see this in Exodus 20:18-21, where the people were afraid to hear any more than the Ten Commandments. So even today, most Christians are familiar with the Ten Commandments but cannot tell you the next law.

This was the root problem in the Church in the wilderness (Acts 7:38) under Moses, and it is the same root problem in the Church today. But we interceded for the Church and won our case. Hence, we expect the curse of blindness to be lifted, so that when the Spirit of God is poured out shortly, the people will be able to hear the testimony of the overcomers as they bear witness to the truth.

The second court case on August 6 presented the case against the Judicial, Economic, and Religious systems of Babylon. In this, we presented two witnesses who had recently been victims of injustice from the earthly courts themselves. We appealed their cases, and the great Judge of Heaven heard us. Perhaps I will be led to share more about this case when we begin to see evidence of God’s answer.