THE ENCRYPTED MESSAGES

THE ENCRYPTED MESSAGES

                We often wonder why Bible prophecy is so difficult to understand. Why didn’t God just spell it out for us in a plain and succinct manor so that all could understand it clearly? Wouldn’t that do away with the many divisions in the church? Wouldn’t we then live in agreement and thus consolidate our efforts in winning the lost to the Savior?

                The truth is however, that Bible prophecy is largely encrypted, with pieces of its puzzle scattered here and there like gems in the ground. We must dig them up and polish them and set them in gold… and yet we must admit that not all of the gems are in place and they seem be added only in the process of time.

                But why would God do it that way? To find the answer to that question we must open our eyes and our hearts wide to embrace not only our human view of things, but to a more cosmic scale, the view of principalities and powers of wickedness in high places. The truth of the matter is that God has written Bible Prophecy in such a way as to hide it from them. Let’s say that in the great contest between Christ and Satan, God doesn’t let Satan see His cards.

                You may ask me on what authority I might say such a thing, but it is clearly stated in the Bible. For instance, the Bible has a surface meaning. There is an intellectual level over which scholars and students wrestle and pontificate. But the Bible is also laced with mysteries that angels and men long to look into. These mysteries are revealed by the Holy Spirit and not by the flesh as we will soon see.

                Paul pulls back the curtain for us a little in 1 Cor. 2:4-8 when he said: “And my message and my preaching were not in persuasive words of wisdom, but in demonstration of the Spirit and of power; that your faith should not rest on the wisdom of men, but on the power of God. Yet we do speak wisdom among those who are mature; a wisdom, however, not of this age, nor of the rulers of this age who are passing away; but we speak God’s wisdom in a MYSTERY, the hidden wisdom which God predestined before the ages to our glory; the wisdom which none of the rulers of this age understood; FOR IF THEY HAD UNDERSTOOD IT, THEY WOULD NOT HAVE CRUCIFIED THE LORD OF GLORY.”

                Here Paul reveals to us that if Satan and his hierarchy had understood the mystery of God’s salvation plan, they would not have crucified Jesus. The message was encrypted throughout the old testament in such a way that Satan genuinely thought that he was foiling God’s plan of salvation by putting Jesus to death. And he did so in the most ignominious way possible.

                To the people living in Jesus time there in Jerusalem, as they looked upon Jesus hanging on the cross, they did not see God’s means of salvation… they merely saw a hideous execution and the shame of a good life reduced to the bloody end of a criminal. There on Calvary the Son of God gets ground into the dirt by the heel of Satan and mankind now belongs to him… the contest over… the promises of God wiped out because God dared to come to earth in the form of a weak human being. (Or so he thought.)

                We are much too hard on the Jews. For in truth, just like today, the prophecies were encrypted in such a way that they could be interpreted in multiple ways. So you had Pharisees and Sadducees and Scribes and Essenes and people of every stripe, each with a different version over which to argue. And their theories were all so messed up by the time their Messiah came, that they didn’t recognize Him. (Is it really any different today?)

                Even Jesus’ disciples, even after His death and resurrection, still did not understand the plan. They had slunk back to their fishing boats to take up their old trades again when Jesus called them from the shore and asked them; “Do you love me? Then feed My sheep. But in truth they did not have a clue as to what to say or to do until the Holy Spirit was poured out on the day of Pentecost.

                That is why Jesus told them to stay in Jerusalem and not to do anything but pray until the Holy Spirit would be poured out upon them. And what resulted in the Holy Spirit’s outpouring? Well, we read it in Acts chapter 2 as Peter, under the anointing of the Holy Spirit explains it all in living detail and then throughout the rest of the book of Acts they demonstrate the power and the truth of God’s plan. 3000 people came to Christ with that one sermon, even as 3000 died at the foot of Sinai on the first Pentecost. (This too holds a message)

                There are very important lessons that we need to learn from Christ’s first coming. In retrospect we can see how perfectly Jesus fulfilled all of the prophecies in the Old Testament. We can see how He perfectly fulfilled the Spring Feasts, being the Passover Lamb, the sinless unleavened bread as He lay in the tomb, the First Fruits of the resurrection as He presented Himself to the Father as our wave sheaf offering and then the sending of His Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost. Oh yes, it is clear to us now, but just how He will yet fulfill the Fall Feasts at His second coming is not so clear is it?

                Look at how many Christians completely ignore the Fall Feasts. Look at how many today ignore Bible Prophecy altogether. Then look at those who think they have it all figured out to the extent that they are willing to argue and destroy each other’s lives over their differences.

                Growing up as an Adventist I was convinced that I had the entire truth on the subject of Christ’s second coming. After all, we had the prophet. We had it all spelled out in “The Great Controversy.” There was nothing else to learn. And yet, Ellen White herself said that in the last days holy men of God would study the books of Daniel and Revelation and the Minor Prophets and I can’t remember the exact quote, but in essence she said that the rest of the puzzle would be put together.

                In other words, she knew that there were still pieces of the puzzle missing and I don’t mean any of this as a criticism. Even a prophet cannot put forth that which God has not yet revealed and we know, for instance that the book of Daniel was sealed up until the last days and I’m sure that there are still mysteries to be unmasked in the book of Daniel as we near the end.

                But I have to ask this question: What would cause holy men of God to go back to the Word in a desperate search for additional information that was not previously understood? I submit to you that one of those events would be the return of Israel to its own land as promised in so many places in the Old Testament and verified in the New Testament in places like Romans chapter eleven.

                Because of replacement theology that was first introduced by Constantine and carried on by the profligate church of the Dark Ages and then continued by the Protestants, the Jews were written off, God’s promises all deemed conditional and made null and void by the crucifixion. But Romans 11 says that this was not so. It emphatically states that God’s gifts and calling to Israel are irrevocable. Not only that but he states that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. What does that mean? It means there is a point in time when all the Gentiles that are going to come in will have come in and then God will once again turn back to the Jews in what we understand to be the time of Jacob’s trouble and the end result will be that Israel will look upon Him whom they have pierced and they will mourn for Him as one mourns for an only son…” Zechariah 12:10.

                If Christians today better understood these Jewish connections to the last days, they would not be nearly so complacent about the time in which we now live. With the rising up of the Messianic Jewish movement, the awakened church is now being reminded of its Judeo/Christian roots and the unbelieving Jews are being reintroduced to their Jewish Messiah Yeshua. FLASH!!!! We have entered a transition point between the times of the Gentiles and the time of Jacob’s Trouble!

                In Israel hundreds of small Messianic congregations are springing up and in surrounding Muslim nations as well. Thousands of both Jews and Arabs are coming to Christ. But what does that tell us? It tells us that the Fullness of the Gentiles is approaching when God is turning His attention to His people the Jews, or more properly Israel, so that those who turn to Yeshua might be saved.

                I am not sure that even Messianics fully understand their prophetic role at this specific time. But God understands and He is doing through His people, that which must be done whether they fully understand it or not. On this note it is interesting that there is a rather large Baptist church in Tennessee where Bonnie and I are moving that has dedicated itself to financing and sending supplies to these little Messianic congregations that are springing up everywhere in the Holy Land. Someone in that congregation understands Bible prophecy and so they are living by divine appointment to do something outside the box.

                Rather than entering into a petty argument over various points of eschatology I would just say this: All of us must humble ourselves and search the scriptures diligently and to pray without ceasing. We must ask God to forgive us of our pride and complacency and that through His Holy Spirit we might walk in union with Him.

                There needs to be a new humility between those who are of the Law and those who are of Grace. There needs to be a new humility between those of one eschatological view and those of another. We need to stop fighting amongst ourselves and turn and face the enemy together. Right now he is wreaking havoc on the church and on our nation, largely because we are asleep, or otherwise caught up in inconsequential arguments even while much of the church is losing the battle and falling away into the clutches of the coming antichrist system.

                In Galatians 2 Paul reveals to us one of the mysteries of the cross that settles many a dispute saying: “…nevertheless knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the Law, but through faith in Christ Jesus, even we have believed in Christ Jesus, that we may be justified by faith in Christ and not by the works of the Law; since by the works of the Law shall no flesh be justified. But if, while seeking to be justified in Christ, we ourselves have also been found sinners, is Christ then a minister of sin? May it never be! For if I rebuild what I have once destroyed (Namely my life of sin, or law breaking) I prove myself to be a transgressor. For through the Law I died to the Law that I might live to God. I have been crucified with Christ; and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me; and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and delivered Himself up for me. I do not nullify the grace of God; for if righteousness comes through Law then Christ died needlessly.”

                The bottom line is if we will live in the spirit and not in the flesh, the Law will be fulfilled in us, but we will also stop being legalistic for we will be living by the Spirit of the Law and not the letter of the Law.

                But what does this have to do with understanding the encrypted messages of prophecy? Everything! For spiritual things are spiritually understood. So Paul, after He told us in 1 Cor. 2:4-8 that the rulers of this age would not have crucified the Son of Glory if they had understood the mysteries of salvation, he goes on to say in 1 Cor. 2: 10.

                “For to us God revealed them (The mysteries) through the Spirit; for the Spirit searches all things, even the depths of God. And who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the spirit of the man which is in him? Even so, the thoughts of God no one knows except the Spirit of God. Now we have received not the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God that we might know the things freely given to us by God, which things we also speak, not in words taught by human wisdom, but those taught by the Spirit combining spiritual thoughts with spiritual words.”

                Then Paul concludes by saying: “For who has known the mind of the Lord that he should instruct Him? But we have the mind of Christ.”

                In seeking to understand where we are in time, should we not then humble ourselves and ask for the mind of Christ? Should we not pray to live by the Spirit and not by the flesh? Should we not then prefer to be known as followers of Christ and His Word rather than certain church members? Should we not cry out to God to be able to fulfill our own destiny that was laid out for us before the world began, rather than to judge our brothers and sisters in their walk?

                Regardless of our superficial divisions, God knows His sheep and His sheep hear His voice… so hearing His voice might also be a top priority for us… and hearing His voice is not like getting our fortunes read at a carnival. It requires a deep and humble walk with God and a childlike faith that He is indeed holding our hand and walking with us. He hears and He answers.

                That which we cannot understand with our minds, we can know in our hearts if indeed we have the mind of Christ and we live by the Spirit of Christ rather than in the flesh, for it is those who are led by the Spirit of God that are the sons of God. Romans 8:14 His encrypted messages are revealed to the hearts of those who walk by the Spirit and not by the flesh. Even as the Holy Spirit brought understanding to the disciples on the day of Pentecost, so He will do it for us today.