The Beginning

of

The End of All Things

Part 2

#179.05

"The end of all things is at hand..." (1 Peter 4:7).

(Continued)

"The end of all things is at hand." Statements such as this could be somewhat disconcerting, especially coming from a man of authority, such as Peter. Most, however, skim over the verse without giving it much thought, while some may picture in their minds a rabble-rousing, loose-cannon type of eccentric religious fanatic racing through the streets like Chicken Little and crying out: "The sky is falling! The sky is falling!" "The end of all things is at hand! Repent you sinners; for the end is at hand!" We know, of course, that is not close to what the apostle was saying, nor was it the spirit in which his words were written. Notwithstanding, this has not prevented him, along with the other apostles from being under close scrutiny and criticism from the day they voiced the new doctrine in which they were called to preach. Quite a number of their claims have been questioned, and "the end is at hand" is one such point of question.

We can see why this has been so; for in one sense, it is clear that the end is still yet to come, and it has been close to two thousand years since Peter penned those words. All flesh has not been consumed. Tyranny continues to abound all over the world. Sin and deprivation of unequaled proportions fester in the earth like noisome plagues in the ravaged garden of paradise. Not all heartache, sorrow, and death have ended. So we can understand why people would question Peter's statement.
But praise God, with only a fragment of understanding, we can say the same, and with no cause to apologize; for the End of all things was at hand and it is still at hand! Jesus, the End, was at hand when Peter wrote those unerring words, He has been at hand throughout the past two thousand years, and He is still at hand. Moreover, He will continue to be at hand as long as there is one soul in all creation that has not found its end in Him. He will never relinquish His mission. It is not in Him to cease His quest. He will gather each and every part and parcel that was fragmented from Him. If He does not do so He would be incomplete, forever lacking, and would never be whole. If He drew up short of His goal, He would never finish what He was sent to do, and that is an impossibility! Don't we remember what He said in John 8:29 in reference to His Father and Himself? Namely, "I always do those things which please Him." What a Son! One who always pleases His Father! And it pleased His Father for Him to be the Savior of the world, and that is exactly what He is! He had to give His life in order for that to happen, and in so doing, the Savior of the world He became.

Ignorance and lack of inspiration have played major roles in the misunderstanding that has caused many to miss completely what Peter was saying. Frankly, everyone overlooks spiritual matters when the spirit of revelation is not in the forefront of any of God's written or spoken word, and without the Spirit the verse seems to say what it says, that the end of all things was at hand! But does it? Since we know that Peter did not misread the sign of the times, and we know that what he wrote was with understanding and inspiration of the Spirit, there is something contained in his words that resides deeper than surface level; even so, we will not discount completely that which is on the surface; for like the outer court of the temple, it is part of the whole and is necessary.

For instance, the surface meaning of "the end of all things being at hand," no doubt, referred to the end of the animal sacrifices, the end of the temple, the end of the Pharisaical rule, and the end of the great city of Jerusalem. It marked the end of everything which pertained to the dispensation of the Law and the glory of that age. The end of everything the old order had relied, lived, and rested upon was literally at hand. Titus and his army, the extended arm of the Lord, was truly at hand.
This is good to understand; but we are not content with historical facts alone, as true as they may be. There is something which is stored much deeper than what the natural mind can perceive. It is the quest for the deeper things that spur us on as we plumb the depths for which we are equipped.

We had noted in our previous study that the word for end in our text verse comes from the Greek telos, which means: to set out for a definite point or goal...the point aimed at as a limit, that is, the conclusion of an act or state, termination, result which could be immediate or ultimately. It carries the thought of the purpose of an act, as well as a levy, or tariff that is paid in full.

The destruction of Jerusalem and the temple was certainly payment in full for their errant, evil ways and deeds; but this payment could never wash away their sin and make them whiter than snow. There had to be an End much greater than that fateful day when Titus destroyed the city. That greater End, of course, was, is, and shall continue to be Jesus until all is consummated in Him. It is He who is the true End of all things. There is no other way it could be; for the End and the Beginning are the same, as He made clear in Revelation 22:13. Therefore, since he is the Beginning of all things, He is also the End of all things. He is the perfection of the law of circularity. Namely, all things that began in Him, which is all, end in Him.

From the very beginning, before there was a bird in the air or a worm in the ground, He had a wonderful plan. That plan began to unfold at the onset of all things being formed; He set out for a specific point, a determined goal, and that goal was the glorious manifested End. He had a definite point at which He aimed: the ultimate limit, the conclusion of that which was in Him in the Beginning. The End is the full expression of Jesus Christ. It is the termination of the Beginning. He is creation's Terminator; but that termination is not death, but Life. The End is the result of what was in Him before it was put in the earth. The End is the manifested purpose. He is the process fulfilled. The End is the bill paid in full, and He is the one who paid the balance owed. That which was levied against Him, the penalty for all sin, death, and hell for creation was paid in full. Please take a moment and calculate this... It is incalculable. But that is the love and grace of our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ!
The death of Jesus was the redeeming conclusion, the ultimate price paid for the salvation of all. With His own blood He signed the document of release which will free every prisoner who came out of Him from the Beginning! Because of His death, the power of His resurrection, and His eternal presence at hand, all things are being drawn, literally dragged, back into Him (John 12:32).

Most who read these words believe them and are free from the bondage of man's religious rule; but some, although they may believe, are still imprisoned by the Nicolaitanes of today who bind them tightly with doctrines that are very contrary to sound teaching. In particular, they say that Jesus wants to save all, but He won't or He can't because of man's "free will" to burn in hell forever if he so chooses. It is openly taught that most of those He died for will burn in "hell" throughout eternity. We do not hesitate to say that such is a manmade inferno exists only in the mind of fragmented man, and makes one wonder how such a diabolical thing could even be born of him. Surely, that man was not standing on our Lord's foundation of love, and had no real understanding of God's purpose for the cross. Such unenlightened doctrines have led many to the banks of the Euphrates. But praise God! Regardless of the bars built round about them, those prisoners in Babylon will be made free, for Jesus did not die in vain. His death and resurrection joined the past and present together. That fateful act made the two one. Heaven and earth kissed and the Beginning became one with the End. And now, it is to be fulfilled first in us and then each one in their particular order.

Jesus is the Beginning of the End of all things; for in Him all were created, in Him all consist, and into Him all return. He paid the ultimate price, and every fragmented thing will end in its defragmented goal, the goal which was firmly set a long time ago in Jesus -- the Beginning and End of all things!

The scriptures abound with this truth. We have compiled 103 scriptures (free upon request) that speak to this End, one of which is found in the twelfth chapter of John. "When they were filled, he said unto his disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost." John 6:12.

The Passover was drawing near when He fed the five thousand from five barley loaves and two fish, signifying His own death and resurrection. From the broken bread of His body, the whole world would be filled.

Five (the number of God's grace) thousand souls had unexpectedly gathered to hear the word of promise. From the perspective of His disciples, there had been no preparations made for the hungry, and they did not have enough money to buy for such a number. The only recourse, as futile as it seemed, was the lad with five (grace) barley loaves and two (witness that it would be so) fish. The insanity of the hour was the solution -- so little for so many, an impossibility! But the grace of God cannot be measured. Five loaves of barley (the grace of God administering resurrection life) for five thousand hungry souls, and the leftovers were twelve baskets full of the same. The multiplication of that grace was enough to establish His government of sustenance (twelve baskets full). The fragments of His body, that which was broken from Him, the Beginning, are gathered back to Him.

In the Beginning all things were a corporate whole, a complete body of life. There was no fragmentation whatsoever. It was a symphony with every string in tune and every voice in perfect harmony. It was the hallowed song of the heavens. And it was contained therein until the time of expression in the earth. A body was given, and if the song was audible in the earth, it was short-lived; for it would certainly have ended when the man and woman left Elohim, their Father and Mother, from which came their image and likeness (male and female). They divested themselves, and by lifting themselves up as God, apart from Him/Them, they fell and left the glorious image in which they were created. Their infamous discord brought darkness to the world, as the body began to fragment the whole of creation.

In the Beginning everything was a vast, incomprehensible corporation, if you please. It was a spiritual body which was flowing in perfect agreement with no divisions or schisms whatsoever. The corporation failed, however, after the man and woman left their Mother and Father, and they were expelled from their haven of God. It crumbled. And the entire world went into a great depression. Fragmentation became creation's futile lot.

Adam was the federal head of a dying corporation that reached to the ends of the earth. His driving pursuit has always been to heal and repair what he had broken, to resurrect and put it back together again, yet it has always been with no success. His first, and best, attempt was the firstfruit, animal sacrifice; but the blood of bulls and goats could not wash away sin's dark stain from his heart. His second attempt to heal the broken kingdom was to gather people into one place and build cities, wherein everyone would be in one mind and one accord, i.e., in his mind and his accord. From there he ventured farther with the construction of a tower that would reach to heaven. By the united works of the flesh, he attempted to ascend back to the place from where he had fallen; but that didn't work either. His every effort failed.

Paradise will never be achieved by works, least any man should boast. God will simply not allow it! Therefore, "...The LORD said, Behold, the people are one, and they have all one language; and this they begin to do: and now nothing will be restrained from them, which they have imagined to do. Go to, let us go down, and there confound their language, that they may not understand one another's speech. So the LORD scattered them abroad from thence upon the face of all the earth: and they left off to build the city. Therefore is the name of it called Babel; because the LORD did there confound the language of all the earth: and from thence did the LORD scatter them abroad upon the face of all the earth." (Gen. 11:6 - 9).

Fragmentation upon fragmentation. As long as man has his soiled hands upon the divested conglomerate, fragmentation will continue to escalate. This will not, however, slow his attempts to go back to his Beginning by his own merits and works. Until the End, he will devise ways to patch up those things he broke; but God will direct his steps. (Prov. 16:9)

We noted in our previous studies some things about the fragmentation. Prior to the fragmentation the man and woman were one, and in this union they were one with their Father and Mother. Man created in the image of Father and Mother, male and female, had all the characteristics of creation. All the creatures were joined together in the Beginning, and after being formed from the dust of the ground, they were all brought together and made one in the man and woman. God brought all the living creatures into (according to the Hebrew) the man (male and female) to see what he would call them, and whatever he called them, that was their name/nature thereof.

We saw how the right and left were severed from one another when the woman was taken out of the man. In the fragmented world the lion, leopard, bear, wolf, and serpent kill and devour that which was taken from them; namely, the lamb, the calf, the kid, and the child. Perhaps this is an innate drawing to be united again with that which was taken from them. In a fragmented way they live by killing and devouring; but their counterparts die. Therefore, death continues.

After the woman was taken from the side of the man, she divested herself from God and her husband. This left her alone with the cunning serpent in the field of her mind, while the life-giving lamb remained with the man. The first act of the lamb, unlike the lying serpent, was when he laid down his life by receiving and eating the deadly fruit from the hand of the woman. We see the antitype when Jesus received from Jerusalem the stroke of death in the same manner as Adam received it from Eve.

There was a great gulf between the man and woman after she ate from the tree of knowledge of good and evil; therefore, of necessity, to be one with her in death, the man sacrificed and ate also. There was also a great gulf between Jesus and the church; therefore, of necessity, for her to be one with Him in life, He sacrificed Himself and died. Jesus received a piercing sword into his heart, while Adam received the piercing strike of the serpent.

Eve first received the lying word of the serpent into her heart, and then the man. Darkness overshadowed her mind, and she fled from the light. She stepped down from the high place of life and died. She listened to and took into the matrix of her heart the word from the father of lies. That was the serpent's seed. It was his subtle word in her mind without the lamb. Nothing more or less.

Therefore, let us be careful and not make something fleshly of a thing that is not there lest we become guilty of receiving also of the lying serpent's seed. In other words, don't buy into the lie that Cain was conceived by Eve when she had a sexual relationship with either a man from another race, an alien, a reptilian-lizard man, or even more absurd, a snake, as some have taught. Anyone who has an ounce of understanding and who believes the scriptures will dispel such carnal thoughts by reading Genesis 4:1, which says, "And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain...." This verse stands as a beacon that there was no sexual act between Eve and anyone or anything other than her husband. It is delusional to think she had a sexual relationship with a tribesman, creature, alien, or beast. Therefore, shake such nonsense from your minds, if it is present, and continue on in reality.

Without the dove, the serpent was a self-serving, murdering liar from the beginning. When it was one with the dove, its nature was still cunning, more than any beast of the field, so that it could have and would have lied and murdered if the dove had not been one with it. And as soon as it was severed from the dove, that is exactly with it did. The serpent, the devil, the adversary, Satan, lied to and murdered the woman, with the man following her lead.

To this day, the great controversy between the beasts of the field continues, as well as with the fowl of the air, and man who started the fray has not been able to end the war of discord. Peace has not been known. The ravening lion has been killing the passive lamb, the leopard has been killing the kid, and the serpent has been devouring the dove and poisoning minds. But, praise God, the levy was paid and everything was redeemed when the Lamb was slain, and the reverse began. All things, in their own order, began to be saved, renewed, reconciled, defragmented, and the shattered pieces were once again becoming one in Him.

The Lamb and the Lion, as it has always been with Jesus, are becoming one in the body of His elect, and shall continue until they prevail over all flesh with love, justice, and equity. The imbalance is fading away with the washing by the blood of the Lamb, and so it goes with all the beasts of the field and the fowl of the air.

Again -- "When they were filled, he said unto his disciples, Gather up the fragments that remain, that nothing be lost." John 6:12 .

You see, the elect are not set apart and called to be served by the people; but rather, the elect are called to serve them. And after the multitudes are fed the living word of the anointing, after the filling of the nations, every fragment of the living word -- every man -- will be gathered together into the End.  Joanne Anstine wrote after reading this article, "...the broken pieces gathered after Jesus fed the 5,000.  The pieces were broken (as all mankind is)... and ALL were picked up.  NOTHING was the be lost, and if Jesus cared about bread 'crumbs' HOW MUCH MORE cares He for people!" 

With the gathering meekness will then abound all over the world: "The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea. And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious." Isa. 11:6-10.

What a wonderful promise penned by the prophet! When all things are brought together again, as it was before the fragmentation of the whole, there shall be no hurt nor destruction in all of God's holy mountain, and the entire earth will be full of the knowledge of Lord. The lion and the lamb will be of one mind and one accord, even as we see the two as one in Jesus as recorded in the book of Revelation. The Lion of the tribe of Judah and the Lamb who was slain from the foundation of the world reign over all. The Lion prevails and opens the Book, and the slain, yet resurrected Lamb brings peace to all. What a glorious hope, revelation, and sure expectation! The coming together again of all the broken pieces will settle all storms, stem every tide, and end all wars. Our Lord Jesus, the Lion and the Lamb, defragments the hard-hearted souls of the world! A perfect Kingdom is set in order, forever! Praise God! The End of all things is at hand!

To be continued...

Elwin R. Roach

Directory