#62
THE VOICE OF
THE SON OF GOD
(Part 7)
Contents:
THE WHITE THRONE JUDGMENT
THE FOUR HORSEMEN
FOUR HORSEMEN -- FOUR DAYS
SEVEN JUDGMENTS
THE WHITE THRONE JUDGMENT
"And I saw A GREAT WHITE THRONE, and HIM THAT SAT ON IT...." Creation groans for that glorious day, the redeeming day when Christ Jesus sits upon that GREAT THRONE and judges all things in justice. Imprisoned in every man is a seed that cries for the release of its life. It is the seed which knows there is a time of change and liberty from the bondage of corruption with which they were all afflicted -- a mortal affliction that came not willingly on their part, but by reason of God who subjected them to this stroke of death in hope. We are most fortunate that the expectant hope was much greater than the wound. Life of the ages is that hope, which comes by being BORN into the family of God. This is the liberty they long for, the liberty of release from the passions of the flesh and its bitter fruit of death (Rom. 8:19-21). From the depth of their yearning souls they echo the words of Paul: "Because He hath appointed a day, in the which He will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom He hath ordained; whereof He hath given ASSURANCE unto all men, in that He hath raised Him from the dead (Acts 17:31).
The day that Jesus sits upon the Great White Throne is not a day of gloom and eternal torment for the teeming billions of unlucky sinners, but a blessed day of ASSURANCE to all men, for the resurrected one sits therein.
Jesus uttered these wonderful words of promise, "FOR GOD SO LOVED THE WORLD, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (Jn. 3:16). And did not Paul assert in I Corinthians 13:8 that LOVE NEVER FAILS? To put it briefly, whatever the passion of God's Love sets its mind to do -- it will succeed. Love coming in the form of Jesus Christ placed all that was lost in the scope of its sight; and the virtue of this heavenly substance constrained Jesus to take upon Himself the sin of the world. His death testified that the whole of humanity was forgiven, and in His resurrection He sealed every man's destiny -- that they would also live. In the death of the first Adam ALL DIED; even so, in the life of the last ALL SHALL BE MADE ALIVE! (Rom. 5:7-20). The first man lived and then died, taking the world with him. The last Man died and then Lived, and He is taking the world with Him. His eternal love will not fail.
During the three hours prior to His death the darkness of the world's sin hovered over the cross and the land. The glory of the Lord as the first Adam was engulfed by the gross darkness of men's evil hearts. There was a great earthquake, terrible but wonderful, that day. Humanity's veil was torn from top to bottom. Man's heaven and earth were judged, and no place was ever found again for them in the presence of Christ. But praise God! The world was not forgotten. Three days later the dawn of Life came when He rose from the dead. The memory of the darkness and earthquake at the time of His death waned at His rising from the tomb -- the SON brought a NEW DAY. ASSURANCE CAME TO ALL MEN! In this assurance some are raised into the Life of the ages and live, while others live due to the painful, yet merciful Resurrection of "DAMNATION." Otherwise, they would have no hope at all. Upon the White Throne of Justice Jesus SITS, making sure not one of His sheep or any other of His creatures are forever lost, even if severe purgings of "damnation" must be used.
THE FOUR HORSEMEN
Before Jesus SITS RESTING IN JUDGMENT upon His throne, He judges in a different manner. Like the kings of the past, He goes in the forefront of the battle leading His army into victory over every enemy. We see Him as this Conqueror in Revelation 19:11-16, coming as the King of kings upon His white horse with His mighty army upon theirs. This is the same King as in Revelation six, but the one of Revelation nineteen comes sweeping through the heavens of humanity astride His horse and with the host of His mighty army, and establishing His Kingdom upon the earth -- while the King of Revelation six rides alone, persevering within, and conquering every person.
The symbol of horse and rider in scripture is associated with WAR. In the days of old, the strength of armies was reckoned by the number and greatness of their horses. In scripture, horses were never mentioned as being used for agricultural purposes, but for riding, drawing chariots, and for war.
The four horsemen of Revelation six portray the calamities of conflict, war, and destruction. These four horses are war horses, and are sent into our earth to destroy. They destroy the usurper: the carnal mind, the will of the flesh, the lusts of the flesh, the emotions of the flesh, and the works of the flesh. Simply speaking, these horses are hell on the flesh.
Most teach that the rider of the white horse is the anti-Christ, while others believe he is Christ. Regardless of which, he is usually portrayed as a passive individual who brings peace to the world for a season. The reasoning behind this is due to the verse saying nothing about arrows, only a bow. This may sound like good carnal logic, but only ten minutes of research in a concordance of any kind will reveal a lot. Even to the casual observer a simple truth about the bow (and arrows) can be seen. Every place in the Bible where the BOW is referred to as a weapon, ARROWS are explicitly implied as well. One is never used without the other. They are always JOINED. Like Christ and the Church, or a man and his wife, they are inseparable. The fact is, more often than not the word arrows is omitted when the bow is mentioned. The Hebrew word, qesheta, is used seventy-four times, and only thirteen times do the writers bother to supply the word ARROW/S with it. It stands alone the other sixty-one occurrences when it speaks of the mighty men of war and their bows. The bow as a weapon is used only once in the New Testament (Rev. 6:2), and there is nothing in this verse to remotely suggest that this solitary occurrence should be different than all the rest.
In a brief overview of the four horsemen, we will draw the next two or three pages from the anointed studies of our dear friend and able writer, J. Preston Eby. I would like to quote verbatim all he has written on the subject, but to keep this study short and to merge some things I see, I won't.
Let us first notice this bow-wielding rider of the WHITE HORSE. He is going forth CONQUERING and to CONQUER. The word CONQUERING and to CONQUER in the Greek is NIKAO, which means TO PREVAIL, TO OVERCOME, TO BE VICTORIOUS. In every case it is used in the New Testament, the context is of VICTORY, whether it is Christ's victory over the enemy in one form or another, or it is the victory of His saints over the enemy. The way it is used here, conquering and to conquer, prevailing and to prevail, overcoming and to overcome, grammatically denotes an unending series of conquests and uninterrupted by any defeats.
If this is not Christ riding forth out of the inner realm the of Spirit invading the carnal dimensions of soul and body -- the Church and the world is in serious trouble. If it is truly the anti-Christ, as some are wont to teach, the enemy of God would then conquer, and continue conquering, until he is eventually the absolute victor, which we know shall never be.
This rider can only be Christ. It is the Lord riding alone upon the white horse of purity, of light, of illumination; and is not this holy invasion within the corridors of our own souls? Do we not hear the hoof-beats of this mighty steed thundering out righteousness in every dark valley of our being? Don't we hear the pounding hoofs of the gallant charger as he bounds through that world which we are, carrying its Rider to grand battlefields and glorious victories within? Its mount has His bow, it is fully bent, and the arrows of divine conviction are piercing every targeted heart. Every enemy within -- spirit, soul, and body -- falls down before Him. The radiant brilliance of His glory flashes its dazzling light upon the eyes of our understanding, effectively piercing every cherished tradition, human interpretation, and carnal concept.
Christ is conquering the human heart and leading captive that which by right is His. In so doing, He gives each conquered soul a mount of his own. Not one person, however, will ever ride nor conquer until he himself is conquered; but once this battle is won in the Sons, they will then sit astride their white stallions of conquest and go forth conquering with Him. They will ride into battle across the heavens and the earth, riding as victors in the heavenly host of His great army.
The next in line is the RED HORSE. From the Greek we can see it is not suggesting that it is merely an animal with a red colored coat. The word for RED in this verse is PURRHOS, meaning FIRE-LIKE or FLAME-COLORED. It actually denotes no color at all, but an appearance, a condition, a manifestation of fire and flame. PURRHOS is a derivative of PUR, which is the Greek word for FIRE. PUR is the root of our English words: PURe, PURge, PURity, PURify, PURification, PURitan, etc. Hebrews 12:29 uses this word to describe this same refining character of God: "For our God is a consuming FIRE (PUR). Malachi prophetically penned this of Christ -- the rider of the RED HORSE: "...The Lord, whom ye seek, shall suddenly come to His temple...But who may abide the day of His coming? and who shall stand when He appeareth? for He is like A REFINER'S FIRE...And He shall sit as A REFINER and PURIFIER OF SILVER: and HE SHALL PURIFY THE SONS OF LEVI, and PURGE THEM AS GOLD AND SILVER, that they may offer unto the LORD an offering in righteousness" (Mal. 3:1-3).
This, dear saints of God, we can count on -- the RED HORSE RIDER will break us. He will bring each of us to the foot of the cross no matter how hot He has to build the fire, and it will work a righteous work of change. It may take long ages of fiery judgment and tormenting darkness for some, but it will come to an end. The great fire of God will only last until it has melted all arrogance into humility, and all that is of self has died in the bloody sweat and all-conquering cross of Jesus Christ. Never believe the fire cannot bring every soul to the cross, nor think it will last forever. Once the fire is kindled, the passion of His love will never withdraw His redeeming power of fire short of all sin and sinners having no more a name nor place among His creatures. But for sure, once the unquenchable fire has consumed every thing flammable, and has worked its marvelous work, and the cross has drained the blood of all wanton flesh -- BEAUTY SHALL RISE FROM THE ASHES AND LIFE SHALL BLOOM FROM THE EARTHEN TOMB OF DEATH.
He first began His conquering on the WHITE HORSE OF LIFE AND REVELATION, PIERCING AND CONVICTING US OF SIN, followed by the FIERY RED HORSE OF REFINEMENT, and thirdly we see Him riding the BLACK HORSE OF DARKNESS. When this horse invades our land, great darkness falls upon our earth, upon the natural man, the carnal mind, the fleshly nature.
Black is the absence of light and color. It denotes a condition of no light, no understanding, no expression, nor substance. The anointing of the black horse is a revelation of darkness -- the knowledge of exactly what is in the first Adam. It brings the clear and perfect understanding of what he is, how he works, what his utter futility and worthlessness is in the light of Reality and Truth that the Spirit brings. It reveals one's black nature as it did to the Shulamite maiden in the Song of Solomon. With pride then being foreign to our humbled esteem, we resound her plea. We cry out, "I am black but comely, draw me O Lord, and I shall run after Thee." With the black horse thundering through our land, our carnal wit ceases to be a factor in our lives. We recognize our dark souls of the ground for what they are and know they have no value, but we also see our comeliness in Christ, which is of great value.
The rider of the black horse also carries a balance in his hand, measuring the wheat and barley and setting the same price on each. Once the blackness of the carnal nature of Adam is revealed, and his glory darkened -- wheat and barley are measured. The WHEAT represents Christ in His coming down into His incarnate, natural state as the Son of God in the form of the first Adam -- as ONE GRAIN which had to fall to the ground and die, lest it abide alone. The BARLEY typifies Him in His going up in resurrection life. Wheat is the Valley of Death, while barley is the Mountain of Resurrection. Christ as one grain of wheat is limited. He can influence our thinking and improve our natural life, but as wheat He can't change our nature. So long as He is the man from Galilee, even though He walks on water and raises the dead, He is limited. Before His resurrection, not one act, not one miracle, not one sign nor wonder was on the higher plane of incorruption. But when He comes to you on that higher plane, as barley, as the indwelling Spirit, as your resurrected Lord from heaven, He is unlimited. You can eat your fill of the multiplied barley loaves of His transfiguring Life, and you have more leftovers than what you started with. What an inexhaustible source of Life!
Thank God that He sends the rider of the black horse who balances the death of Christ in you with His resurrection life, that there is more barley than wheat for the same price. After the hooves of this horse pound out the death and life of Christ in our land, a voice is heard coming from the midst of the living creatures saying, "...And see thou HURT NOT THE OIL AND THE WINE (Rev. 6:6). Once the wheat of death is exchanged for the barley of resurrection life, an injunction is given. Hurt not, waste not, the oil and the wine! Do not misuse, prostitute, or exploit the anointing of my spirit nor my word of revelation.
In this place of life we are entrusted with the holy oil and wine of Christ. There are those among us today who are uncircumcised in mind and heart. The spirit of Babylon is alive in the soil of their earth. They tread the courts of the holy temple of God and usurp His holy things with overflowing sin and pride, with self-seeking, self-indulgence, and self-promotion. With self, they are hurting, misusing, prostituting, and exploiting the spirit and the word of God. It is not a pleasant sight, but the truth is, the black horse and its rider is unveiling this exploitation today as He passes through the lives of self-aggrandizing souls.
"And I looked, and behold THE PALE HORSE: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth" (Rev. 6:8). This "fourth part of the earth" is that portion of earthiness not already dealt with by the three preceding horses. It speaks of the conclusion, the consummation, the termination of the process of conquering individuals upon the battlefields of their souls. It speaks of the final subjugation and destruction of everything within that is contrary to His Life and Kingdom.
The Pale Horse first kills with the sword as His Word pierces and divides asunder of soul and spirit (Heb. 4:12). He then withholds it and kills with death as He sends "a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the LORD" (Amos 8:11). He comes as the beasts of the field, in many facets of destruction in the form of the Lion of the tribe of Judah. He is ravenous, devouring every particle of flesh that remains. These are ways the pale horse kills with death -- by piercing with the sword of His Word, by the famine of hearing His Word, and devouring the carnality of Adam. But there is still one more way -- by DEATH.
How does He kill with death? Let us note that Jesus came to abolish death (II Tim. 1:10); He came to destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil (Heb. 2:14); and He holds the keys of hell and death (Rev. 1:18). The consummation of this is noted in Revelation 20:14: "And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. THIS IS THE SECOND DEATH" (Rev. 20:14). The Spirit has made it plain -- The second death is the death of the first death. "And the last enemy that shall be destroyed is DEATH" (I Cor. 15:26). This is what the pale war-horse of death is about -- the Second Death putting to death the first death in the midst of our very being.
FOUR HORSEMEN -- FOUR DAYS
In Revelation six the mighty Lord comes conquering everything in our fallen kingdom of corruptible man. He comes upon His four horses waging war, as it were, against our first four days of creation -- our days that are under the shadow of the first Adam. He rides upon the WHITE HORSE and dispels the dividing of the LIGHT and DARKNESS of the FIRST DAY. There is a distinct division between the dimmed light of man's illumined spirit in the image of God (his supremacy, dominion, intelligence, knowledge, and wisdom), and his gross darkness of carnal ignorance, arrogance, perversion, and pride. Both, fallen Adam's light and darkness, flee in the face of the radiance of the White Horse. Man's first day ends as Christ's begins.
His FIERY RED HORSE of war burns up the firmament of our minds that traduce and divide the waters in the SECOND DAY. In the presence of this horse it passes away with a great crashing noise, and the elements melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the carnal works that are therein are burned up. The heavens are dissolved, along with everything in them and under them (II Ptr. 3:10-13). There is no longer the waters above, but a pure river of life, crystal clear, proceeding out of the throne of God (Rev. 22:1); and there is no more the churning sea below, but a sea of glass, crystal clear, and mingled with fire (Rev. 4:6 & 15:2).
The BLACK HORSE wars against the darkened THIRD DAY of fallen man. When this rider comes, balancing the measures of wheat and barley, there is no more a need for the fruit of man's earth. His glory as the grass withers and dies. His herb bearing seed no longer heals, for the leaves of the Tree of Life are for the healing of the nations; and no other tree yielding fruit of the earth will flourish in the presence of this horse. The Word and Spirit of the Tree of Life is the fruit from which all shall live. The black horse wars against our third day of earth's produce that Resurrection life in Christ becomes our portion.
The FOURTH DAY of the two great lights that rule the day and the night, meet their end when the rider of the PALE HORSE comes thundering through our heavens. The glory of our own shining that rules our days, and the lesser light of our nights find no place when He comes, for He becomes the eternal light in our City, the City where there is no need of the sun nor the moon, for the Lamb is the light thereof (Rev. 21:23).
In the sixth chapter of Revelation he comes in four manifestations. He comes to us individually as a warrior; but in Revelation twenty WE SEE HIM SITTING UPON A THRONE. He is seated with all power and authority. HE IS NO LONG WARRING, for the war has been won. The last horse whose rider's name is Death has gone out and finished the individual battles in the overcomers. The last enemy, death, has finally been captivated and dealt with accordingly, and the rest of the dead live not again for a thousand years.
Precious brethren, please hear this. When the King SITS upon the GREAT WHITE THRONE OF GLORY something happens to both the ADAMIC FOOTSTOOL OF THE EARTH and THE THRONE OF MAN'S HEAVENLY RULE. They cannot remain. No place of consideration or right can be found. All authority comes out of the height of a greater throne than Adam's time-worn Mount Hermon. The Lord sits upon the WHITE, GLISTENING, TRANSFIGURED THRONE and judges men from what is written upon the tablets of their hearts. At this point the war is over. Every battle has been won. The weary warriors have come home. The wounded are healed. The casualties are raised up. Ever man's fate is judged. It is chosen. Their destiny is determined. The presence of Christ's glistening light opens their books. The nature of their spirits, the character of their souls, and the deeds done in their bodies become clear. In such sober splendor nothing is hidden. Whatever is revealed from the depth of their own being determines what judgment is necessary to transform them into submissive creatures of Life. If there still remains even a splinter of wood, hay, or stubble (the nature of man, the scheming works of man, or the worthless vanity of man -- 666), that individual will be subjected to the Lake of Fire. This is the Second Resurrection, the Second Death, "THE RESURRECTION OF DAMNATION," so called.
Please note that the throne is WHITE from which all who are in the second resurrection are judged. In type the first Adam and God's kingdom under his fallen rule are judged, and what comes out of it is a complete change. We see this in the transfiguration and the glistening WHITE light of Jesus on mount hermon. This event typified not only the resurrection of the one man Jesus, the Last Adam, but the entire body of the last Adam as well. Every member of the last Adam are the same members as the first Adam, only transfigured in resurrection, yet every man in His own order (I Cor. 15:22-24).
Before Jesus judged any man born of the first Adam, He began with Himself; HE ALSO BECAME THE FIRST ADAM. He was not raised up, however, from the earth, from that which could not reach the heavens of God nor resist the tempting elements of the dust, but was lowered from heaven. Even though He was the Lord from heaven, He humbled Himself, being clothed upon with those same garments of dust. In those rags He felt their mystifying lure.
John, the beloved, heard a great voice while in exile on the isle of Patmos, saying, "...I am Alpha and Omega, THE FIRST and THE LAST..." (Rev. 1:11). He was not the first Adam in the Garden who lived and then fell, but He became the first when he descended into the lower parts of the earth of Mary and died. There was no other way to lead her captive and give her life. He had to become the first Adam in order to save and transfigure/resurrect those with the stroke of death -- ALL. Paul said that the woman (every soul) shall be saved in childbearing. Mary could not be saved until she bore the Son of God, and neither can any other. Like her, they must hear the Word of God, believe and conceive, and then birth the Son from their own impregnated souls.
Jesus became everything the first Adam was before the fall, but He was not a living soul like the first. He was a quickening spirit. He was not formed and then the breath of life breathed into His nostrils -- He was Life. Clay was formed around that Life, the Word of God. This is how He was conceived, which is the same way every new creature in Christ comes forth -- BY THE WORD OF GOD (I Ptr. 1:23).
Mary, perhaps she can be called the Last Woman, heard Gabriel speaking with the Voice of God. Upon hearing she said, "Let it be according to Thy Word" -- and she conceived Life. This Life eventually became her own salvation (I Tim. 2:15). On the other hand, the First Woman, Eve, heard the voice of the serpent, and by her actions she also said, "Let it be according to thy word." She was tempted by a seducing spirit. She believed and gave herself to it, and by that conception -- in dying, she died. The word she gave herself to utterly destroyed her, while Mary was saved by the Word to which she gave herself. One woman died due to her faith, while the other's faith saver her from that death.
Clearly, Jesus came in like fashion of the first Adam, and within the confines of that body of carnal passions, He ruled over it. In doing so, He struck the deathblow to all death. At humanity's dawn the first Adam was raised from the earth and lived, then in dying, he died, taking all to the grave with him. At the beginning of a New Day, the last Adam was lowered from heaven and died, He then Lived, and in Living He shall take all out of the grave in resurrection with Him. Life overcomes all death as easily as Light dispels darkness.
The first Adam was the negative deathblow to creation, while the last Adam was its positive Seed of Life to the same. Where the first Adam from beneath failed, the last Adam from above is victorious. Whatever the first Adam did the Last Adam, while in the form of the first Adam, came and triumphed over it forever.
The first Adam was raised from the dust of the ground, he lived, and then died upon eating bad fruit. The last Adam was lowered from the heavens, he died in the womb of Mary, and then Lived by every Word that came forth from the mouth of God. He was lowered from the glory of Life He had with the Father in the highest heavens. He was placed in the dark confines of Adam's death, deep into the lower parts of the earth. He was conceived in a tomb of clay. His journey began in the belly of humanity, in the womb of Mary, the last woman.
From Eve's belly, the first woman, all death proceeded; while from Mary's womb came all Life. Jesus came as the FIRST from Mary's womb and then was sealed as the LAST when He died without sin upon the cross. He then rose from earth's tomb, marking His achievement once for all (Heb. 10:10). The first woman compassed a seed as she took the word of the serpent into the womb of her soul, and death to all was her perpetual fruit. The last woman also compassed a Seed, but that quickening Word was the fruit of Life to all. What a contrast between the first and the last.
SEVEN JUDGMENTS
This Last Adam, the Lord Jesus Christ, is seen sitting upon Mount Hermon (figuratively speaking), sitting upon His transfigured, Great WHITE Throne. From there He judges all who hear the Voice of the Son of God. Some come forth in what is called the Resurrection of Life, while to others it is the Resurrection of "Damnation." Which ever it happens to be, it is "WHITE," and it is good.
White, of course, speaks of the righteousness of Christ. Let us therefore notice very briefly what some of the various aspects of this righteousness are. White light consists of all the colors: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo, and violet. The three primary colors are Red, yellow, and blue, which the others are made by combining them.
I John 1:5 says that GOD IS LIGHT. The fullness of His judgment, therefore, has seven colors, or manifestations of character radiating from the throne. Every wavelength of His person coming together and forming WHITE LIGHT embodies the one thing called RIGHTEOUSNESS, which is God. Daniel 9:14 says, "...The LORD our God is righteous...." Other places speak of His righteous judgments: "Which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer" (II Thes. 1:5). "But unto the Son he saith, Thy throne, O God, is for ever and ever: a scepter of righteousness is the scepter of Thy kingdom" (Heb. 1:8). "And I heard another out of the altar say, Even so, Lord God Almighty, true and righteous are Thy judgments' (Rev. 16:7). And we would be remiss if we did not include Isaiah 26:9: "...For when Thy judgments are in the earth, the inhabitants of the world will learn righteousness."
This sevenfold Light of the GREAT WHITE THRONE opens all books to be read. When the Light of Christ shines in the dark recesses, even to the last pages of our formerly closed books, our lives are laid bare. Nothing remains hidden. Both, our lack and our worth, are uncovered. In the TRANSFIGURED, GLISTENING, WHITE THRONE OF PURE LIGHT His revealing judgment comes.
He first judges in the RED light, THE LOVE OF HIS CRIMSON BLOOD. The love He went to the cross with, the love that constrained Him to pour out His life for an undeserving world, is the same love with which He judges at the second resurrection.
The character of His YELLOW tone of judgment does not suggest cowardice, as the term is often used in our modern English -- but of VALOR. A KING OF VALOR is one who SITS upon a throne after VICTORIOUSLY proving Himself upon the battlefields of war. Such a King can judge righteously. He knows the ravaging conflicts of battle that those He presides over have endured.
His judgment consists of BLUE. It emanates from the expanse of the endless heavens. It speaks of the ascended One, the Eternal One, He who has no beginning nor ending of days. It speaks of the One who knows the end from the beginning. It speaks of He who holds the world in the vastness of Himself, of He who knows the makeup and frame of every creature. The BLUE JUDGMENT of Christ is not from the corruption beneath with the earthy brown hue of the first Adam's dust. It is pure. It is endless. It is from above.
When Christ's RED LOVE of sacrifice merges with the YELLOW VALOR of His all conquering power, forming the ORANGE light of judgment, CHRIST'S BLAZING PASSION and UNWAVERING STRENGTH burns with unquenchable fervor from the throne of His sovereignty. The most common word used by the King James Bible that relates to such passion is "WRATH." Wrath, however, does not convey the best thought for the Greek word, which is "ORGE." It is from this word that "ORANGE comes, first from the French, orange, which is derived from the Greek, orge. (By deleting the two center letters we have the word -- ORGE.) Strong's Exhaustive Concordance tells us that ORGE means: "desire, (as a reaching forth or excitement of the mind), i.e. (by analogy) violent passion...." If we follow the word to its derivatives we see it is akin to "airo." This word implies a deliverance from sin, and is comparable to "ornis," which means "a bird (as rising in the air)."
ORANGE denotes PASSION, but like the Greek word "ORGE," it is more than a passion held within a person, perhaps never being fulfilled. It is active. It reaches out and accomplishes the burning desire of the soul, whatever it may be. The passion (orge/wrath) we see in the scriptures is usually in the context of heated determination. For example:
The wrath of the Whore speaks of her relentless determination to lay in religious fornication with every soul. Those who love the earth more than the heavens and have given themselves to the wrath of the whore must then one day face the wrath (determined passion) of the Lamb as He sits upon the throne (Rev. 6:16); and none shall be able to stand in their sin in the great day of His wrath (determined passion) (Rev. 6:17), for His will shall prevail, not theirs. In that great day of judgment His sickle will be trust into the earth and gather the earth's vine, and cast it into the great winepress of the wrath (determined passion) of God" (Rev. 14:19). The fruit of the earth's vine, Adam in His ripened glory, recoils at the heavenly calling; but even his chiseled will shall fail when God gathers it all to the throne and treads out the winepress in the fierceness of His wrath (determined passion) (Rev. 19:15). His blazing passion of judgment unto deliverance will not be abated, halted, nor slowed. It is forthcoming, relentless, and determined to accomplish its passion of life in every soul.
Wrath in the Biblical sense is not a condition of rage, as the word implies in the English, but is generally associated with adamant punishment toward those in rebellion; yet it does not end with punishment alone. We see that it ends in deliverance, especially at the judgment of the Last Death, the Lake of Fire.
The passion of Christ, the wrath of the Lamb, is no doubt grievous to the carnal man, for it means the end of his lustful, self-indulging life. It is similar to a father's wrath when he punishes his rebellious son. It is not enjoyable to either of the two, yet it is done with understanding and in love, knowing the pain is but for a season and very necessary for the spirit of rebellion to be broken. This is in all of God's judgments toward His fallen creation.
From the White Throne His judgments QUICKEN, as they bring forth the GREEN growth to the dead tree. BLUE and YELLOW produce GREEN (LIFE). This judgment gives Life from the heavens as it incorporates the heavenly BLUE of the ETERNAL ONE with His GOLDEN VALOR in the splendor of His nature. Truly, when this judgment comes, "...there is hope of a tree, if it be cut down, that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof will not cease. Though the root thereof wax old in the earth, and the stock thereof die in the ground; Yet through the scent of water it will bud, and bring forth boughs like a plant" (Job 14:7-9). God's judgments are never for the sake of punishment alone, but they are to correct the wrong and eventually bring the offender to life.
INDIGO is another characteristic of this righteous judgment. Being a DEEP BLUE, we see it as referring to THE UNFATHOMABLE DEPTHS OF THE SEAS. It is able to descend into the deepest regions of men's souls. It goes to the bottom of the sea of humanity's death. At Christ's command everything relinquishes its hold -- the sea, death, and hell give up their dead. Every realm that holds the dead surrenders and releases their captives. His judgment of INDIGO plumbs the depths to where men thought unreachable, and He says, "ARISE ye fallen of the earth. Come forth from the DEEP, and take your place in the Lake of Fire."
And lastly, we see Him judging with the ROYALTY of VIOLET. This awe-inspiring color is comprised of RED and BLUE -- the FIRST and the LAST colors of the spectrum. In the sacrificial love of His shed blood of the FIRST Adam, together with the LAST, the ascended One of the heavens, He judges. He poured out the red blood of the first for our sake. This ended the first, making Him the Last Adam, the last of a kind. But it is the perfected man from the BLUE heavens, the END result, the CONCLUSION, the FINALE, that LAST, which we see in the VIOLET light of His judgment as it is joined together with the RED sacrifice of the FIRST. In this, the RED and BLUE, the FIRST and the LAST, He judges and brings an end to the life/death of the first Adam. He does not judge as the man who seeks to save his life and shows redness in the face (ADAM)but from His poured-out RED love and His all-knowing BLUE heavens of understanding. Those awakened in the second resurrection, of Life or of "Damnation," will see it -- the regal judgment of VIOLET.
He is the KING of kings, the LORD of lords, the SUPREME HEAD of all creation; and His shining character of ROYAL MAJESTY joined together with all the other characteristics of His nature make up THE GREAT WHITE THRONE JUDGMENT. It is this throne, the WHITE ONE, the RIGHTEOUS ONE, the GODLY ONE, that shines with judgment into every heart that hears the Voice of the Son of God. It is this judgment with which every soul is salted at one time or another. It is the judgment of LIGHT/LIFE/FIRE/CRISIS/DAMNATION. Those who overcome are the first partakers of Fire and Life and will not be hurt by the Second Death, which is the Lake of Fire; but the rest of the members of the first Adam shall have their glorious day in court. They may suffer great loss; but even so, IT IS THEIR ASSURANCE!
Elwin R. Roach
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