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The Apocalypse Part 21 Publication #223.10
Keys To The Kingdom Of Heaven (Continued)
Who Shall Dwell With Everlasting Burnings? We had been noting a few things in our past couple of studies about the fission of the first man who broke everything apart and the fusion of the last man who brings it all back into Himself from where it all originated. Fission, of course, came before fusion and Paul said it this way: "Howbeit that was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural; and afterward that which is spiritual. The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is the Lord from heaven." 1 Corinthians 15:46-47. The sin of man’s human reactor was shot like a bolt of lightning into the nucleolus of Adam’s heart, as mentioned in our previous study, and by the splitting of that first Adam, the power of death was born. Nuclear fission in the world began its awesome work of death, and the reaction of that Adam bomb brought death to those who where in him, which were ALL. "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." 1 Corinthians 15:22. The man immediately left God/Elohim (plural) which was his Father and his Mother (they were the plural Elohim), and by cleaving to the flesh, he caused that unprecedented fissure. It formed a great gulf betwixt that no man could cross. It was an earthquake that destroyed the world like a swelling tsunami sweeping over all the islands of the sea. The ‘adamic’ reaction was irrespective of persons, people, tribes, nations, or any living thing. Everything in its path died as the power of death was released upon the sea of humanity. The act of the first man and the ‘adamic’ reaction was a catastrophic wreck for creation. The ship of humanity ran aground upon the rocky shoals of sin. It was like a fragile egg being cast upon a rock. Everything broke apart. One would question if such a complete shattering could ever be put back together again. And the answer, of course, is yes, it can be put back together, and it will be by the fusing power of Jesus Christ. On one hand, that of fission, the chain reaction of death came upon every man. On the other hand, that of fusion, the chain reaction of Life came upon every man. The power of life will continue to overcome the power of death—forever! Both men, the first and the Last, started unprecedented chain reactions; but praise God, the Last reaction was that of life and will overpower and supercede the first! That which the first Adam did, the last Adam not only reversed, but made it better than it was in Eden. When He conquered death, He started the gathering of mankind back into Himself in such a way that they could never sin again. All was out of him, through Him, and back to Him. Since He was lifted up from the earth in death, he will draw/drag all back from where they came. —Nothing lost! (rf. Romans 11:36 & John 12:32). Humanity was scattered to the four winds due to Adam eating the fruit from the tree of knowledge of good and evil that was given to him. The man and the woman were put out of the garden with cherubim keeping the way to the Tree of Life. However, to the overcomers of death, that Tree is no longer protected by those vigilant sentinels which will eventually be the same for all others. Every man is being drawn back into Him and fused together as one body, but each in his own order. We have seen what the power of man’s dark day of fission has done; but this is the bright dawn of the Lord’s Day, and we will see what His fusion will do as His glorious Apocalypse is detonated and sweeps the earth as an everlasting, nuclear explosion of life! Considering the present state of affairs in which the world abides, it would appear that there is no hope rising from any quarter of the earth. The most ‘brilliant’ minds of man appear so ignorant, insipid, often stupid, uninformed, while making covert, earthshaking decisions that it is mind-boggling. These men and women in every nation of the world are seated in the highest places of government, finance, military, and religion which is causing the nations to reel to and fro like a drunkard, and they will fall and not rise again, so it says in Isaiah 24:20. But praise God! There is not only hope but a remedy for this deadly cancer; namely, the Christophany, the Revelation, the Unveiling; that is, the Apocalypse of Jesus Christ as the many membered body is fused together as one in the secret chambers of our Lord’s Nuclear Reactor. That secret place, of course, is the inmost place of each one of us, and the Nuclear Reactor is comprised partly of the intense pressures and fiery trials we all endure. At times we may think that the pressures are too great, that we cannot bear the heat of that fire; yet as with fusion, these things must be, and serve to weaken the repelling forces of our carnal man. The power that this fusion releases in glory is incomprehensible. For when fusion takes place, unfathomable amount of energy is released, much more than the energy that it took to cause the fusion. Therefore, with love, patience, peace, knowledge, and understanding, we continue our pace with our Lord Jesus in the midst of it all. The marks of His pierced feet are already being seen in our own walk. They are seen in our works with pierced hands, in our thinking crowned with thorns, and in our pierced sides of our hearts' desires. As we take up our cross and follow Him, every vesture of the old man is pierced and rendered idle. We are becoming one with His walk, His works, His mind and heart. At the end of our crosses it will be finished and then the mighty Apocalypse of Jesus Christ! Until this unveiling, we must know that the powers upon the earthen footstool are ordained of God. Since the powers upon the footstool of the earth come from Him, if a nation, or nations, are to lose their powers, it is from the throne that this takes place as well. When nations are stripped, it is due to the elect of God who have the keys of the Kingdom of heaven. It is not by the means of human efforts. Nations rise and fall as those who are fused with He who sits upon the throne speak and make it so. All powers are ordained of God (Romans 13:1). It has always been this way, and although He can do it without us, that’s not been His choice; for it says that He does nothing unless he reveals it to His prophets, and when it is revealed, they prophesy what they see and hear (Amos 3:7). Even while under the rule of Rome, Israel had been granted power and authority in the earth. But when the time came, Jesus spoke from His heavenly throne the key words that would destroy the city and nation forty years later, and it came to pass when Titus’ army struck the blow that brought an end to their reign. And likewise with those who have been fused into His body; they will speak that which they see and hear proceeding from the throne. Their voices will be heard at times as lightnings and thunderings. The keys of the Kingdom of heaven trumpeting from that high place will bring forth a great earthquake and hail of judgment upon the nations, first within us and then to the nations of the world. The keys of His authority will be given to those who are called from the ends of the earth and from one end of heaven to the other. Notwithstanding, this does not come by wishful thinking, embracing the right doctrines, or by knowing the right people—but by fire. Who Shall Dwell With Everlasting Burnings? I am sure the answer to this question would seem very obvious to many, and the theology of some cause them to most likely say that this fire is for sinners: the unsaved, evil people, the incorrigible, and especially the hypocrites. Some even believe unbaptized babies and children would be among the hordes of evil human devils burning in hellfire forever. For instance, a quote from a 19th Century English Roman Catholic priest whose primary ministry was to children: "Little child, if you go to hell there will be a devil at your side to strike you. He will go on striking you every minute for ever and ever without stopping. The first stroke will make your body as bad as the body of Job, covered, from head to foot, with sores and ulcers. The second stroke will make your body twice as bad as the body of Job. The third stroke will make your body three times as bad as the body of Job. The fourth stroke will make your body four times as bad as the body of Job. How, then, will your body be after the devil has been striking it every moment for a hundred million of years without stopping? Perhaps at this moment, seven o'clock in he evening, a child is just going into hell. Tomorrow evening, at seven o'clock, go and knock at the gates of hell and ask what the child is doing. The devils will go and look. They will come back again and say, the child is burning. Go in a week and ask what the child is doing; you will get the same answer, it is burning; Go in a year and asks the same answer comes it is burning. Go in a million of years and ask the same question, the answer is just the same--it is burning. So, if you go for ever and ever, you will always get the same answer--it is burning in the fire. "The fifth dungeon is the red hot oven. The little child is in the red hot oven. Hear how it screams to come out; see how it turns and twists itself about in the fire. It beats its head against the roof of the oven. It stamps its little feet on the floor." — The Sight of Hell, a 19th-century Catholic book for children by Fr. J. Furniss C.S.S.R. (1809-1865) as quoted from Christ Triumphant by Thomas Allin). Jonathan Edwards (1703–1758) in his sermon Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God said that "The road to hell is paved with the skulls of unbaptized babies." And, "It is everlasting wrath. It would be dreadful to suffer this fierceness and wrath of Almighty God one moment; but you must suffer it throughout all eternity. There will be no end to this exquisite horrible misery. When you look forward, you shall see a long for ever, a boundless duration before you, which will swallow up your thoughts, and amaze your soul; and you will absolutely despair of ever having any deliverance, any end, any mitigation, any rest at all. You will know certainly that you must wear out long ages, millions of millions of ages, in wrestling and conflicting with this almighty merciless vengeance; and then when you have so done, when so many ages have actually been spent by you in this manner, you will know that all is but a point to what remains. So that your punishment will indeed be infinite. Oh, who can express what the state of a soul in such circumstances is! All that we can possibly say about it, gives but a very feeble, faint representation of it; it is inexpressible and inconceivable: For ‘who knows the power of God's anger?’" He also said in his sermon, The Eternity of Hell Torments (April 1739): "The view of the misery of the damned will double the ardour of the love and gratitude of the saints of heaven. "The sight of hell torments will exalt the happiness of the saints forever. . .Can the believing father in Heaven be happy with his unbelieving children in Hell. . . I tell you, yea! Such will be his sense of justice that it will increase rather than diminish his bliss." Just one more demented view of God’s love and everlasting burnings: "If my own mother were being carried to the mouth of hell, I would stand and applaud." This was said by a professor in a mainline denominational seminary, and he explained, "...hell will be ‘understandable,’ and the saved will rejoice in the misery of the unsaved, once the saved see the glory of Christ and the justice of God." From the book Four Views on Hell Zondervan, 1996, p. 48. Surely, these men, and countless others before and after them, created a nefarious god after their own image and likeness. It was certainly not in any manner the image and likeness of which the scriptures speak, especially when they are translated properly. Now that we have noticed what some believe to be the inhabitants of the devouring fire and everlasting burnings, we will see what the prophet said about it in Isaiah 33:14-15. "The sinners in Zion are afraid; fearfulness hath surprised the hypocrites..." Verse 14. This almost seems to set the stage for what follows that the sinners in Zion and the hypocrites are the inhabitants and confirm the stories of the historical "authorities" we just quoted. However, let us not be so quick and jump to unfounded conclusions. Please notice the next couple of verses and who is the subject matter: "Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings? 15He that walketh righteously...."Hey! What’s going on here? How come the ones who walk righteously are in hell? Why would they be in the everlasting burnings of devouring fire? Isn’t that the place where the sinners go, and forever and ever to never escape? At least, that’s what I’ve been told, and I think I read it in the Bible. Surely, it is not a place for the righteous. Tell me it ain’t so, preacher; for I walk righteously as the best I can, and I don’t think I should burn in those devouring fires. No siree, Bob! I just want to hang in there until I fly or die, whichever comes first, and then go to heaven...as some might be apt to say. Well, so much for the tongue in cheek humor; yet, when we look directly into its deceptive eyes, we can see that this is no laughing matter. The idea of eternal hellfire torment in literal flames has traumatized countless millions, even billions over the ages. People have been committed to mental institutions due to the terror imposed upon them; they’ve taken their own lives so they wouldn’t mount up more sins and have to suffer more. Some have taken the lives of their children before the age of "accountability" with hopes of sparing them a one-way ticket to the last day’s Bar-B-Que as our dear friend, Stacy Wood used to say. God’s people have been brutalized by terrifying scenarios of everlasting torment that are claimed to be His word. The fact is, the perpetrators of eternal damnation and everlasting burnings of sinners was, and still is, derived out of the heart of man that is desperately wicked. These blind who lead the blind into destruction know nothing about hell, everlasting burnings, or anything else that has to do with God’s wonderful, remedial judgment that brings mankind back to its origin in Christ Jesus. Back to He who is the beginning and the end of all things. There have been volumes written by greater authorities than those we have mentioned, and they were not ignorant nor willingly ignorant of the truth. They did not dangle the majority of God’s precious creation over the diabolic flames of evil imaginations. They were men and women of revelation. They were honest translators of the ancient scriptures who knew the character and nature of the unchangeable God. You see, He cannot change. "For I am the LORD, I change not.... Mal. 3:6. The I am that I am, He who is the same yesterday, today and forever will always be constant. You can count on Him. Since He loved all yesterday, He loves all today, and He will love all in the ages to come. If He changes to any degree, He would not be a God that could be trusted; for if he could change His mind, you and I might be in deep trouble. Moreover, if He could change, He would cease to be the eternal God. So, the questions is this: How can people portray God as one who does change? This is what they are doing by saying that He loves every human being unconditionally while they breath air; but He forever forsakes and hates them after they die if they haven’t confessed Jesus as their Lord, haven’t been baptized, or didn’t belong to the right church, etc.. By believing such is saying that God will change. Think about that for a thousand years, or at least until you come to your senses of who He is if you don’t already know. What, then, are the true meanings of mistranslated Biblical terms like everlasting, eternal, forever, and without end? The Hebrew word "olam" is usually translated as "eternity" or "forever" in the KJV of the Bible. This word literally means "that which is beyond the horizon" or "hidden." Although God is eternal, the Hebrews’ statement, "God is olam," is not in reference to Him being eternal. They are saying that He is "unknown" or "hidden." In their relationship to time, and according to the usage of the words olam and its Greek equivalent, aion, they mean that which is hidden or unknown, and a period of time of unknown length. Our good friend of many years, Scott Paris, has done an excellent job of explaining this in his article, "How Long Is Forever?" We will, therefore, borrow from his enlightenment: "Believers know how wrong it is to add or take away from the Word, but here the translators changed one Hebrew word, "olam," into as many as four English words! Did the translators have any right to add to or take away from the Word than we as believers do? We don't, and they certainly did not! When they did, they violated a sacred trust, complicating Bible study, making the Bible contradict itself, and resulting in contradictory doctrines being considered scriptural opposing groups! "Strong's Exhaustive Concordance lists "olam’ as #5769. We counted 19 different ways that ‘olam’ was translated into English! The non-permanent, temporary ways ‘olam’ was translated were: ‘ancient’ 5 times, ‘Old’ 25 times, ‘Long’ 3 times, ‘In old time’ 1 time, ‘World’ 2 times, ‘In the world’ 1 time. "Then they translated it 12 other ways, as permanent sounding words: ‘Everlasting’ 57 times, ‘For ever more’ 13 times, ‘Lasting’ 1 time, ‘Perpetual’ 22 times,’ World without end’ 1 time, ‘Alway’ 1 time, ‘Always’ 3 times. ‘Continuance’ 1 time,’ Eternal’ 1 time,’ For ever’ 232 times, ‘Ever’ 8 times, and ‘Never’ or ‘never any more’ altogether 12 times. "Is this consistent translation? It is not. Here, we are referring just to the Old Testament. When we get to the New, we realize the translators bogged down! The Greek word ‘eon’ or ‘aionios’ is roughly the same as our English word ‘age.’ We get our word ‘eon’ from this transliterated Greek word, and it means ‘age.’ "Again the translators thought ‘eon’ meant ‘for ever’ and they translated it that way 51 times, but there were 40 other texts where ‘for ever’ could not possibly have fit in, so they translated it ‘world’ 40 times! We list a few of these texts, so that you can see for yourself how ridiculous ‘for ever’ would have sounded: Rom. 16: 25, 11 Tim. 1: 9, Titus 1: 2, Rom. 12: 2, Mark 4: 19." — End quote. Regardless whether everlasting burnings in Isaiah 33:14 is for an age, a duration of time or without end, which it is not without end—the ones who dwell therein are those "...who walk righteously and speak uprightly, he who despises the gain of oppressions, Who gestures with his hands, refusing bribes, who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed, And shuts his eyes from seeing evil." Verses 15-16, NKJV. With this apocalypse of truth settling in our minds, it is clear that the elect of God are the ones who inhabit the devouring fire and everlasting burnings. So, can this be a good thing? Most people would not choose to live in a burning house. And frankly, I know of no one who has chosen it; but I know a lot who have willingly remained therein until the refiner’s fire has finished its processing unto a perfect work in each son of God. As long as there is any wood, hay, or stubble in their being, the unquenchable, everlasting fire will burn, and it will burn until it has devoured it all. Once it has accomplished its mission the everlasting fire, that is, the age of fire, will end. For in the same manner that fire is not applied to gold throughout eternity, this fire ceases when the elect are fused into the body of Christ; for there would be no purpose in keeping the fire kindled. However, after the fiery everlasting/age of burning comes to its end, they who walk righteously dwell elsewhere. They move to new living quarters, namely, "He shall dwell on high..." Verse 16. Where is this high place? A mountain somewhere in Israel? Mount Zion? Mount Hermon, perhaps? Or none of above? None of the above, of course; for this dwelling on high is the throne of God. It has no physical location except within each son that has been caught up to that spiritual abode of authority. Thrones, especially the throne of God, are always considered up and higher than everything else in their domains, but not in elevation. It is higher in authority and power. For example: "In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord sitting on a throne, high and lifted up, and the train of His robe filled the temple. Isaiah 6:1, "And she brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and his throne. Revelation 12:5. Since it is understood that the throne of God is not about location but spiritual dominion, we can see how this corporate body of Jesus Christ that is caught up to God and His throne can win the war against the dragon and his angels. We see as a sign these sons of God ruling all nations with a rod of iron when the dragon and his angels lose their authority, that is, they are cast down to the earth. The cadre of sons are given the keys of power and authority of heaven’s kingdom. Therefore, that which they bind in heaven is bound on earth, and that which they loose in heaven is loosed in the earth. These heaven binders and looseners not only dwell on high, but their "...eyes shall see the king in his beauty: they shall behold the land that is very far off." Verses 17. Praise God! After the everlasting burnings of devouring fire our eyes will see the King in His glorious, manifested beauty. And "Beloved, now we are children of God; and it has not yet been revealed what we shall be, but we know that when He is revealed, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is." 1 John 3:2. After the fire of fusion comes—the Apocalypse of Jesus Christ! After the fire also comes the unveiling of the Kingdom of God; for we will behold the land that had been very far off, that is, very far off from the natural man. And after the fire comes the reign as we dwell on high. It is from that high place that the tried and purified dwellers are given the keys of the kingdom of heaven. They unlock doors to mysteries. They release those things in waiting, they dispose of kingdoms, and establish new ones. They bless and they rebuke. They give and they take away. They impose and dispose. All that which they speak and do are from the authority and power of the King of kings whose throne is set in heaven, Jesus Christ! And finally, "...the inhabitant shall not say, I am sick: the people that dwell therein shall be forgiven their iniquity." Verse 24. Dwelling on high, seeing the beauty of the King, beholding the Kingdom of God, the sick healed and forgiven their iniquity is the fruit of the devouring fire and everlasting burnings. Thus, the Apocalypse of Jesus Christ! Elwin R. Roach |
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