Friday Morning Manna April 12, 2019
Nathaniel Fajardo email: [email protected]
God’s Prophets Demystify His Mysteries at their Appointed Time but Especially Today
“Surely the Lord God does nothing, unless He reveals His secret to His servants the prophets.” Amos 3: 7, N.K.J.V.
“The secret things belong to the Lord our God, but the things which are revealed belong to us and our children forever, that we may do all the words of this law.” Deut. 29: 29. “Where there is no vision, the people perish.” Prov. 29: 18, K.J.V. The NKJV reads: “Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint.”
Apostle Paul, who himself, was “taken in vision to the third heavens, even paradise itself” (2 Cor. 12: 1-13), confirmed and reiterated this guiding truth: “Prophets are subject to prophets.” 1 Cor. 14: 32. True prophets and messengers refer to the works and writings of the prophets preceding them; they do not manufacture their own doctrines and pass them of as gospel truth. Genuine new light does not undo or destroy old truth; rather, since it comes from the same omniscient Source, it builds and expands on it following the Bible study principle written down by the gospel-prophet: “Whom shall Heteach knowledge? And whom will He make to understand the message? Here a little there a little, precept upon precept? Those just weaned from the milk? Those just drawn from the breasts? For precept must be upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, here a little.” Isa. 28: 9, 10.
For example, we find Daniel, while exiled in Babylon’s courts of luxury and dissipation, prayerfully studying Jeremiah’s prophecy regarding the 70-year captivity of his people when angel Gabriel came to give him the 70 weeks or 490 literal year prophecy which starts off the reckoning of the larger time prophecy of 2300 days or 2,300 literal years of Daniel 8: 14.
Sadly, many in the Christian world still remain ignorant at this very time of the correct interpretation of the 70-week prophecy of Daniel 9: 24-27 that exclusively deals with “Daniel’s people,” the Jews, reveals when and how long the desolated city of Jerusalem would be rebuilt, the exact year Christ would be baptized by John the Baptist, 27 A.D., His crucifixion three and a half years later, 31 A.D., and the stoning to death of Stephen, the first New Testament Christian martyr for Christ, 34 A.D. by the Jewish Sanhedrim. That last seven years, 27 A.D. to 34 A.D., was the prophetic covenant week, the first three and half years by Jesus, the last three and a half by the disciples.
Because of their corporate actions during this covenant week of seven years, the gospel commission, in fulfilling the everlasting covenant made with Abraham, then Isaac and renewed with Jacob, as Jesus Himself declared, “to the Jew first then to the Gentiles,” transferred from the Jew to the Gentiles. The latter and individual Jews alike who accepted Christ, Paul described as “the spiritual Jew whose circumcision is not of the flesh but of the heart.” Rom. 2: 23-29. “Seventy weeks have been “determined upon thy people and thy holy city.” Determined, the Hebrew chalak, meaning cut-off, as prophesied in Daniel 9 was fully fulfilled at the end of the covenant week of the seventy years.
The “Gap theory” so widely embraced by mainstream Christianity, contained within the larger Rapture doctrine has many serious gaps in itself and cannot withstand the closest scrutiny of the Bible. Many, however, are already seeing and accepting the sound chronology of the prophecies as presented in the comprehensive third angel’s message of the Advent message which dispels the mist of confusion and restores faith in the Bible and the true gospel versus the “other gospels.”
It was through God-given visions or dream-visions that patriarchs and chosen prophets-messengers received the revelations and explanations of divine mysteries, secrets and deep things of God, all regarding the plan of redemption and the nature of the great controversy. The latter exposes Satan’s work to counterfeit the former through his own false Christs, counterfeit prophets, apostles, and self-anointed messengers with their babel of confusion, poured out in intoxicating spiritual wine of conflicting doctrines mingling truth and error and based on mysticism, esoteric wisdom, superstition, fables, and the traditions and teachings of men. The Bible is downplayed or downright eliminated.
But what will remain strange and mystifying indeed is the seemingly insatiable desire and unabating infatuation of the carnal mind with what is false, not true. Just look around you.
Jacob and the Mystic Ladder
Let’s go back in Bible time and consider the defining moment of the patriarch Jacob’s life. It was only when was no longer the sheltered object of the fawning attention of his mother but as a fugitive fleeing for his life in the darkness of despair and fear from the deadly wrath of his own brother Esau, whom he stiffed in cahoots with his mother, of the inheritance legally and spiritually belonging to him as the firstborn—was shown in a dream-vision a ladder whose feet rested on the earth and its topmost rung reached right into heaven. Angels were constantly ascending and descending on that glorious yet mystic or mysterious ladder.
Jacob was shown the gospel in ladder-form. Christ, then addressed as Jehovah-Creator, was the Ladder. Heaven’s mighty angelic host could commune and minister to fallen man only through Him and His bidding, Him being the Archangel, meaning, not another angel but the Commander-in-Chief of the heavenly host, and by the bridge He built to cross the gulf separating earth from heaven by the transgression in Eden.
God’s last-day messenger, E.G. White, referencing the writings of Moses and the prophets wrote in her Patriarchs and Prophets, pp 183, 184 (in quotes):
“But God did not forsake Jacob. His mercy was still extended to His erring, distrustful servant. The Lord compassionately revealed jus what Jacob needed,—a Savior. He had sinned; but his heart was filled with gratitude as he saw revealed a way by which he could be restored to the favor of God.
“Wearied with his journey, the wanderer lay down upon the ground, with a stone for his pillow. As he slept, he beheld a ladder bright and shining, whose base rested upon the earth, while the top reached to heaven. Upon this ladder, angels were ascending and descending; above it was the Lord of glory, and from the heavens His voice was heard: I Am the Lord God of Abraham your father and the God Isaac.” The land whereon he lay as an exile and fugitive was promised to him and to his posterity, with the assurance, ‘In you and in your seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed.’ This promise had been given to Abraham and Isaac, and now it was renewed to Jacob. Then in special regard to his present loneliness and distress, the words of comfort and encouragement were spoken: ‘Behold, I AM with you, and will keep you wherever you go, and will bring you back to this land; for I will not leave you, until I have done that which I have spoken to you.’ Gen. 28: 13-15, N.K.J.V.”
“In this [dream]-vision the plan of redemption was presented to Jacob, not fully, but in such parts as were essential to him at that time. The mystic ladder revealed to him in his dream was the same to which Christ referred to in His conversation with Nathanael.”
I can now look back and thank whoever gave me almost the same name. I have embraced it as powerful incentive to live up to the progressive light of truth first revealed to Jacob centuries earlier and then to Nathanael about two thousand years ago—now, in the context of the finishing up of the mystery of God under the blowing of the seventh trumpet in the third angel’s message. To me, this is what “present truth” means.
“Said Jesus to Nathanael, ‘Ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of man.’ John 1: 51. Up to this time of man’s rebellion against the government of God, there had been free communion with God and man. But the sin of Adam and Even separated earth from heaven, so that man could not have communion with his Maker. Ye the world was not left in solitary hopelessness. The ladder represents Jesus, the appointed medium of communication. Had He not with His own merits bridged the gulf that sin had made, the ministering angels could have had not communion with fallen man. Christ connects man in his weakness and helplessness with the source of infinite power.” PP 183, 184.
“All this was revealed to Jacob in his dream. Although his mind at once grasped a part of the revelation, its great and mysterious truths were a study of his life-time, and unfolded to his understanding more and more.”
“Jacob awoke from his sleep in the deep stillness of the night. The shining forms of his vision had disappeared. Only the dim outline of the lonely hills, and above them the heavens bright with stars, now met his gaze.
While Hollywood has its gilded stars, and the entertainment, sports, technology and financial worlds have their jaded superstars, megastars and wizards—all who sadly fade away in a very short time, Almighty God has His own stars—the faithful-unto-death messengers and ministers of the seven periods of the church (Rev. 1: 20; 2, 3), and the eternally twinkling stars (suns, planets, galaxies, constellations, worlds) of His own creation that stud the “the heavens and declare the glory of God; and the firmament shows His handiwork.” Ps. 19: 1, 2, N.K.J.V.
“But Jacob had a solemn sense that God was with him. An unseen presence filled the solitude.”
Have you ever experienced this solemn sense also? I have, but it was never during easy and trouble-free times but in times of duress, pain, feelings of failure, inadequacy and anxiety yet mingled with a glimmer of hope and trust that my God is greater than all these combined and will bring me through, in the end. He did it for our spiritual forefathers, He’ll do it for me, too.
“’Surely the Lord is in this place,’ Jacob said, ‘and I knew it not . . . This is none other than the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven.’ Gen. 28: 16-22.
A rock-pillow becomes a pillar-altar. “And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillow, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil on top of it.’ [Oil is one of the four symbols of the Holy Spirit]. In accordance with the custom of commemorating important events, Jacob set a memorial of God’s mercy, that whenever he should pass that way, he might tarry at this sacred spot to worship the Lord. And he called the place Bethel, ‘or the house of God.’
This earliest of Biblical customs practiced by the godly patriarchs, prophets and kings was, as to be expected, corrupted and counterfeited very early in the history of man in the setting up shrines of all kinds where supposedly miraculous things, and apparitions—manifestations of actual spiritualism or sleight of hand or outright deceptions devised by those who stand to gain financially and/or as a means of control over mind and heart of their votaries.
The SDA Bible Dictionary says: “Shrine is found in the KJV only as a rendering of the Greek naos in Acts 19: 24, where the reference is to a small silver object, probably a replica in the temple of Artemis at Ephesus, sold to visiting worshippers of the goddess. In the RSV, “shrine” is also the rendering of (1) The Hebrew beth elohim (Judges 17: 5), referring to the place set up by Micah for the worship of his images. The term is translated literally ‘house of gods’ in the KJV. (2) The Hebrew beth habbamoth (2 Kings 17: 29, 32; 23: 19), literally ‘the houses of the high places’ (2) The Hebrew bamah (Eze. 16: 16), literally ‘high place’ (4) The Greek esoteron (Heb. 6: 19), literally the ‘innermost,’ or ‘the (place) more within.’”
This much is clear: no matter how magnificent and imposing the church building is or how ear-and-eye dazzling the religious ceremonies are, or how effusive the praise worship is, or how “soul-moving” and rich the voices and organ music renditions are—unless the real, though invisible presence of God in Christ through the Holy Spirit is in that place, it is not God’s house, much less the gate of heaven, regardless of what anyone claims it to be. On the other hand, Jesus said, “For where two or three are gathered together in My name, I am there in the midst of them.” Matt. 18: 20. Then, let us earnestly pray this prayer, lest we be deceived also:
Lord, help us to know what “not to take Thy name in vain” means! (Continued next week)