CAN YOU DIG IT?

I don’t know how many of you have ever dug a deep hole in the ground, but I’ve dug a lot of them and it seems to be that there should be a lesson in there somewhere.  Because digging a hole and digging through Scripture has many similarities.  So today I’d like to compare studying Scripture to digging a hole in the ground.

Now, the first consideration to digging a hole in the ground is the surface through which you have to dig.  A lot depends on that.  In fact, everything about digging that hole depends on what’s at the surface, because that’s where you have to start.  Everything below that is just another layer in the hole, but the hole is in the earth, so all the layers in the hole pertain to the earth itself.

No one has ever heard of starting to dig a hole from the bottom up, or from part way down.  You start digging a hole from the surface, and then you can dig as deep as you want from there.

Once you know what that surface says about what kind of tool you can use to break through, you begin to find the layers below.  Some will be soft soil, some will be rocky, sandy, root filled and boulder blocked.  But, each layer you uncover teaches you a new lesson on what to expect when digging a deep hole in the earth.

Now Scripture is exactly the same way.  At the surface is the softest layer of all.  God made it the easiest of all the layers, but the most important one of all, because it’s what’s at the surface that dictates the relationship between it and all of the meanings in every layer down to it’s deepest recesses.  Because what lies at the surface of Scripture is the “story-line”.  And, everything beneath modifies the “story-line” because it’s all part of the same whole.

The “story-line” of Scripture follows a single thread tracing God’s creation of an Adam species and their descendants through time all the way to its completion.

The story is in two parts necessitated by the rejection of the acceptable sacrifice He sent to the chosen people, and then in part 2, the creation of yet another species called upon by faith to become the substitutes who receive a modified version of the promises made to the original chosen.

The story ends with a reward for the substitutes for their trusting participation at the end of their allotted time, followed by a time of trouble for the reconstituted Nation Israel, who is forced, in their last days to recognize their Messiah as He returns to complete their salvation and rule, with His Body, the Kingdom of God on earth.

Now, we have already come to the time in the story-line where we are in the close approach to the final days.  Now, if you wish to remain and study all of the layers of the gospels, dig to the depths of every meaning of every word that Christ ever uttered, you can.  But, if you are a Christian, and you already know Jesus, it’s time to move on, out of the “milk” of your understanding of God and into the “meat” of Him.  It’s in the meat that He explains in detail the outcome.  Everything except the time, because he sealed that knowledge up with the prophet Daniel.

Reading the gospels over and over will bring you closer to God because of the wonder of His word, and discovering the personal meaning of God’s every word is inspiring, but it should also inspire you to want to know more and more about what He already wrote into that scripture about the end of our covenant and how He will deliver the promised reward.

And alas, to go to that place, the place where the meat is, requires study.  You can’t get it by osmosis.  Just reading it is confusing.  But, we know that God is not the author of confusion, so it really isn’t confusing, it just takes a little study.

And, it’s interesting to note that since God put it in the story-line, right at the surface, where it would be most easily seen, how many people pass up the opportunity to study the meat in favor of just accepting what is traditionally taught as fact.

But God taught that tradition makes void the word of God, and when one studies and sees the vast difference between what is traditionally accepted as fact, and what history has recorded as actual fact, one often rediscovers God, and that difference is often exposed as the wedge that has been driven in between their intellect and their faith.

The problem is the same as in life.  You can’t live on milk alone.  Milk is great as a babe, but as soon as you grow those teeth, you want some meat!  But if your mother kept you on milk, after a while you would begin to hate it and your mother, no matter how much love she has for you.  The growth and satisfaction comes from a mixture of both, which evokes love and understanding in you.

So, you grow up.  But, growing up was not easy.  You didn’t do it by osmosis!  You had to learn, and that took study.  You don’t learn life reading it out of a book, you have live it.

Christianity is the same way.  Christianity is not an organized religion, it’s a way of life based upon a personal, individual relationship with God made possible by the redemptive act of Jesus.

Paul did not teach a denomination.  He taught the real thing!  The only thing!

The story-line breaks at the redemptive act.  That redemptive act is not completed until the redeemer returns back to His divinity, having fulfilled the prophecies of His coming.

That coming was spelled out in the first part to those chosen people who agreed to live the life that exposed His coming.

Within their ritualistic lifestyle was lived the coming of the Messiah, and hidden, in the mind of God, within it was also the roadmap of Christianity if it were ever needed.

The plan was there at the beginning, so it has to be there at the end.  In fact, after Christianity became necessary, Paul taught all about it; from the beginning to the end.

Because it was all meant to end with the Jews sometime in the first century it was not necessary to reveal the timing of the end, only that they watch so those who were awake would see it, and thus warn the others to be alert and watch with you.

But the end had to be pushed ahead into the future because the chosen ones rejected the sacrifice, and didn’t recognize that as being the coming of the Messiah.

Now, part 2 is thrust onto the scene.  The word that God spoke in the covenant with the Jews was void in them.  Theirs was a national covenant.  The new covenant was an individual covenant, based upon becoming a new creature.  And, in each new creature was the whole word of God on salvation fulfilled.

Now, to the new creatures, the timing became a concern.  But not to worry, because God had seen to it that the timing was locked up in the prophecy of Daniel.  And, because it was once fulfilled, in A.D. 70, it should be over!

Why is it not?  Simply because when it’s over, God will establish, what is called the “stone kingdom” in Daniel, which lasts forever.  As of this writing, we are not yet living in the “stone kingdom”; therefore it is yet to come.

When that time comes again, a time that resembles the circumstances of the A.D. 70 time period concerning the chosen people, those events will be visible on the stage of history, and thereby give the signal that God planted within the prophecy by sealing it until it’s time.

Now it could have ended in A.D. 70, but the Jews rejected the Messiah, so the course of history saw the Jews evicted from the land, stripped of their temple, destined to become what they became, until the day they would be called back to the land and begin the process down the final trail to the end.

In the meantime, the new creatures in Christ have been promised that everything that the Jews received via their feasts, or set times, become the promises to the new creatures in Christ, at the appointed time, set in the feasts.  The bridge between part 1 and part 2 is the Messiah.

The new creatures in Christ will receive, as a reward for their trust, citizenship in Heaven, and rulership in God’s kingdom on earth.

The reward will come in a day when the prophecy of Daniel is clearly seen on the stage of history.  That reward, and its timing is revealed in it’s time within the teaching of Paul to the first converts.  New creatures in Christ could expect that because Paul taught that we should watch for it at that time.

And Paul said that those of us who are of the day and not of the night, would not be caught by a thief in the night, so when we see it coming, warn those who are in the dark and asleep, and then rejoice together that we know.

Watch for what? Know about what?  Whatever you are watching for cannot be imminent, because if it was, you could not see it coming, so there would be no use to watch.  So, there must be a set event with a set time to watch for it.

What event?  The entire chapter is about the catching away, so I don’t suppose it’s reaching too far to say that it’s about the catching away.

So there is a specific time designated for the catching away, and a time we are supposed to watch for it.  That’s right out of Scripture, thus truth you can’t deny.

Where in Paul’s teaching does he teach about Jesus being the bridge between part 1 and part 2 of the story-line of scripture?

He told the Colossians that the feasts of the Jews are but shadows of things to come for the Church, but the substance was of Christ.  So, the answer lies in the feasts of the Jews.  And when that trail of Scripture is followed to its conclusion, the evidence is overwhelming that the event to watch for is the dead rising and appearing in Jerusalem on First Fruits.

Christians must recognize that as the start of the forty day warning period before the Rapture on Ascension Day that is required by the sign of Jonah, and make everyone you know aware of it, so we can all rejoice together in haven with the Lord on that day.

I hope this simplified overview of the story-line of Scripture helps you to better understand God’s Modus Operendi used in Scripture.  For the detailed understanding, study the complete end time awareness Bible Study.

Part 1: “The Truth You Can’t Deny About End Time Prophecy”

Part 2: “The Apostle Paul on the Rapture of the Church”

Part 3: “The Prophecy of Daniel, The Book of Revelation, The Rapture and the Mideast Today.

These studies are all available on the Internet and on CHN’s unique audio/CD-ROM Disks.  The teaching can be studied on the computer’s browser from the disk, or listened to on any cd player.

Part 3 is in CD-ROM only and contains over 20 hours of honest to goodness, roll up your sleeves and get out your Bible, Bible study.  Hailed as the best end time teaching in the past 45 years by Eschatologist and Academic Dean, Dr. Dorothy Terry of the Evangel Bible College.

These CD’s are given as our thank you gift for your offerings of support for this Ministry’s mission of bringing this word to all of our sleeping brothers and sisters.  Remember us at offering time!

Thank you and God bless.

Humbly,
Your brother in Christ
Brother Sal