Kingdom Come

Abraham 1980 AM – 2155 AM, contemporaneous with Noah, Shem, Nimrod, Eber, Jacob

Key precept: Abraham is the father / spiritual leader for both Israelite and Gentile believers in the Promised Seed.

Isn’t it interesting that Abraham’s journeys covered the entire Cradle of Civilization during the renaissance of the gods’ pre-flood civilization.

This is like Paul’s missionary journeys through the apogee of that same pagan civilization some 2000 years later.

Is it incredible to think that Paul was following in the footsteps of Abraham when he became a missionary? Or is your embedded impression from Sunday School that Abraham just hung out raising sheep and cattle all his life with an occasional adventure? To get a good sense of what both missionaries were doing, parallel their lives with how missionaries operated 2,000 years after Paul.

Continue reading “18) Father Abraham”

~1300 BC – 1,000 BC Joshua and a series of judges / leaders to King David

Key Precept: God granted a plot of land as an embassy from which his appointed ambassadors could minister the Kingdom of Heaven on earth to the nations scattered at Babel. 

“Jerusalem, the city which I have chosen me to put my name there…for all the earth is mine.“ (I Kings 11:36, Exodus 19:5)

In a previous post we reviewed how the noun identifying a person, place, or thing is the conversion of the verb describing the actions associated with that entity. An analysis of the name ‘Jerusalem’ (where the English J is a Y in Hebrew), enlightens our understanding of the function of this city.

Continue reading “19) The Promised Land”

~1452 BC – 1322 BC: Moses, Jacob’s great-great-grandson, contemporary with Joseph 

Key Precept: Melchizedek Moses of the Hebrew nation led the multi-ethnic nation of Hebrews out of Egypt.

‘God called unto him out of the midst of the bush, and said, Moses, Moses…I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob…I have surely seen the affliction of my people which are in Egypt, and have heard their cry by reason of their taskmasters; for I know their sorrows; And I am come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land…Now therefore, behold, the cry of the children of Israel is come unto me…I will send thee unto Pharaoh, that thou mayest bring forth my people the children of Israel out of Egypt…Go, and gather the elders of Israel together, and say unto them, The Lord God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, appeared unto me, saying, I have surely visited you, and seen that which is done to you in Egypt…and thou shalt come, thou and the elders of Israel, unto the king of Egypt, and ye shall say unto him, The LORD God of the Hebrews hath met with us: and now let us go…that we may sacrifice to the LORD our God. (Exodus 3)

The Exodus has reverberated through world history”, and is such a significant biblical event, perhaps second only to creation, that it is as vehemently denied by Bible critics as creation itself.

Many theories have been advanced to explain the composition of the first five books of the Bible, but two have been especially influential. The first of these, Persian Imperial authorisation, advanced by Peter Frei in 1985, holds that the Persian authorities required the Jews of Jerusalem to present a single body of law as the price of local autonomy. Frei’s theory was demolished at an interdisciplinary symposium held in 2000, but the relationship between the Persian authorities and Jerusalem remains a crucial question. The second theory, associated with Joel P. Weinberg and called the “Citizen-Temple Community”, proposes that the Exodus story was composed to serve the needs of a post-exilic Jewish community organised around the Temple, which acted in effect as a bank for those who belonged to it. The books containing the Exodus story served as an “identity card” defining who belonged to this community (i.e., to Israel), thus reinforcing Israel’s unity through its new institutions.

Wow. And what reinforced Israel’s unity in the thousand years or so before this “myth” was invented?

Continue reading “20) The Exodus”

~1500: Moses onward

Precept: The law of Moses is for all followers of YHVH’s Savior Melchizedek

“they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden…And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?” (Genesis 3:8-9)

“And there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the LORD knew face to face.” (Deuteronomy 34:10)

Moses is repeatedly called the man of God, where “man” is translated from the Hebrew word “ish“. As was analyzed in the post Kings Dominion, the word “Ish” is used to express the identical nature of Woman as a clone from Adam. When Moses is defined by the same word, it must be that he also is identified with the first Adam, the first son of God who walked and talked with God. In other words, he is Adam’s heir to the royal priesthood of Melchizedek.

Genesis wraps up the Melchizedekian lineage with Melchizedek Joseph’s death, and the next book in the series opens with the extraordinary, some say literally incredible, account of Moses’ role as YHVH’s Chosen Deliverer.

“And Joseph died, and all his brethren, and all that generation.” (Genesis 50:24)

“God called…Moses, Moses…I am the God of thy father…Abraham…The LORD God of the Hebrews.” (Exodus 1:1,3) 

The main character in Exodus continues to be, as he was in Genesis, Melchizedek over God’s Hebrew nation, as detailed in the post The Order of Melchizedek. When we check out Moses’ activities to verify this expectation, we find that Moses was absolutely God’s representative / vicar / priest, not only to the nation of Israel, but to the nations of the world covered by Egypt’s empire.

Continue reading “21) The Law of Moses”

Precept: Recognizing the conflict that exists between the main characters from the beginning of the story to the end is essential to understanding the actions of the rest of the characters in the middle of the story.

“Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword.” (Matthew 10:34)

Knowing the parts of a story are essential for getting your book right…five main elements: characters, setting, plot, and conflict along with theme.

Characters What do your characters want? Their desire can be simple or complex, tangible or concept…If your character doesn’t want something, they won’t be compelled to act.

Setting – when and where your story takes place.

Plot – the actual story–what happens, when, how, why, and what’s the result?

Conflict – a good practice is to look at each scene and ask if there is conflict within it.

• Does the scene add to the overall plot?
• Does the scene advance internal or inter-character relationships?
• Does the scene add to a subplot?
• Does the scene answer or bring about any plot-crucial questions?

The conflict could lend to the overall plot, a subplot, conflict between characters, or even a smaller conflict that is resolved within that scene. For a story to be interesting, there needs to be conflict. Scenes that don’t add to that are fluff.

Resolution – By the end of your story, all of your conflicts should have a resolution.

Theme – your story’s main takeaway. Your story can one theme or several. The theme(s) of your story helps to focus the narrative and answers the question: What’s the point? What have your characters learned? How are they changed, and what will they affect now that they are different? Some examples of themes include:

• Forgiveness
• Death – overcoming it, processing it, fearing it
• Love
• Empowerment
• Good versus bad

As detailed in the post Redemption and Restoration, the plot of of the Bible is mankind retaking dominion over creation, resulting in war between the Seed of the Woman and his hosts and the Seed of the Serpent and his hosts.

“If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept. For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead…Then cometh the end…when he shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. For he must reign [in a state of war, king against king], till he hath put all enemies under his feet. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death. And when all things shall be subdued unto him…God may be all in all.” (I Corinthians 15:21-28)

Continue reading “22) War Is Declared”

Key precept: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned…” George Santayana

“Remember ye the law of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments…lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.” (Malachi 4)

While Christianity has severed itself from the law of Moses and the Old Testament through various systematic theologies, the elite have never stopped identifying themselves with the “glorious” ancient civilizations whose politico-religious beliefs attributing their splendor to the greater power of their gods resulted in endless wars, death, pillage and enslavement of other nations. 

Where are the accounts of victory of the gods revered in ancient times? On clay tablets and stelae, inaccessible to none but a rare antiquarian, whose interpretation can’t be trusted to remain consistent with future archeological discoveries.

Modern lists of pharaohs are based on historical records and [sic], including Ancient Egyptian king lists and later histories, such as Manetho‘s Aegyptiaca, as well as archaeological evidence. Concerning ancient sources, Egyptologists and historians alike call for caution in regard to the credibility, exactitude and completeness of these sources, many of which were written long after the reigns they report. An additional problem is that ancient king lists are often damaged, inconsistent with one another and/or selective.

Continue reading “25) Everything New Is Old Again”

Key precept: Choose your leader wisely, because this battle ends in utter annihilation for the losing side.

^“If it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve.” (Joshua 24:14)

Is the God of the Old Testament different from the God described in the New Testament? At first glance, it certainly seems possible. On one hand, God is depicted as a harsh—even wrathful—judge. On the other, Jesus tells his followers that God is love…

In the second century CE the Christian writer and thinker Marcion of Sinope (c. 85–160 CE) refused to accept Yahweh, the deity described in the Old Testament, as the “Heavenly Father” proclaimed by Jesus.

Marcion concluded that the Old Testament god was…a mere tribal god of the Jewish people, while Jesus preached of a God marked by compassion, love, and mercy. Marcion wrote his Antitheses, in which he contrasts these two beings…

Continue reading “26) Pick a Side”

Key Precept: As in any good book, the Bible stays true to its theme from its introduction, clarification through the middle, to the climax at the end:

He died doing the right thing.

Beginning: Genesis 3: “of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it…lest ye die…And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die…ye shall be as gods. And…she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat…And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said…Hast thou eaten of the tree…? And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree [which she had eaten and I couldn’t abandon her]…Adam was not…in the transgression…Marriage is honourable…for he hath said, I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear.” (Genesis 3:3-12, I Timothy 2:14, Hebrews 13:4-6)

If this perspective of the first Adam’s choice to die is startlingly at odds with what you were always taught, see the post Lust Kills, Love Dies for additional biblical proof that Adam was a hero.

Continue reading “27) Signs of the Times”