Knowing the Intercessor

“This is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent.” (John 17:3).

How well do we know the Intercessor? Do we need to know Him? Yes, according to Jesus it is a matter of eternal life or death. So, what details can we bring to mind that prove to our heart and mind that our personal Intercessor is holy and just before God and good to us? Who is your Intercessor? Who is mine? Is it Jesus, a tangible, personal Saviour, the only-begotten Son of the Highest?  Or, is it an invisible, intangible, impersonal entity, third member of a Trinity of Gods?

Who can we know best? Can we know a human? Or, can we know a spirit? Who can we really know, remembering that eternal life and eternal death teeter on knowing God and His Son? Does our knowing come by studying a doctrine or by witnessing, and being drawn to, a wonderful human life? Who is our wonderful counselor, our wonderful comforter, advocate, mediator, intercessor? Scripture declares for us who this is.

“For there is one God, and one Mediator^G3316 between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.” (1Tim. 2:5). G3316 mesitēs From G3319; a go between, that is, (simply) an internunciator, or (by implication) a reconciler (intercessor): - mediator.

An Internunciator stands between two alienated parties. The intercessor is a middle man. And when it comes to exceeding sinfulness and shame and guilt, we need a middle man of gigantic proportions. This exceeding Intercessor must speak for man and for God. And He can. He speaks for us and for the Father because our Intercessor is both God and man, divine and human. He can speak both languages and for both authorities, both of which have sovereign wills because God makes it so. He speaks from both dispositions of infinite perfection and infinite sin, infinite power and infinite weakness. Our Internunciator Intercessor thinks like God and He thinks like a human; He thinks like both a divinely begotten Creator and a humanly birthed creature. He was and has been the Propitiation for us; He assumed all the wrath of God upon sin. Therefore, God recognizes the mind of our Internunciator to be 100% loyal to the righteous Law of God’s kingdom. Therefore, all of His counsels to God are acceptable to Him and to His angelic hosts. And so God leaves us under the charge of His Internunciator.

“My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an Advocate^G3875 with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” (1Jn. 2:1). Our one Internunciator, Intercessor is our Advocate and our “another” Comforter, both English “Advocate” and “Comforter” translated from the same Greek word.

“And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter^G3875, that He may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: but ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.” (John 14:16-18). G3875 paraklētos An intercessor, consoler: - advocate, comforter.

“He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me: and he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself to him…. If a man love Me, he will keep My words: and My Father will love him, and We will come unto him, and make Our abode with him.” (John 14:21,23).

So, how well do you know your Comforter? Do you see Him? Do you know Him like the disciples did who walked with theirs? Do you see Him, as He required for eternal life?

“And this is the will of Him that sent Me, that every one which seeth the Son, and believeth on Him, may have everlasting life.” (John 6:40).

We must see in order to know our Comforter. Where there is no vision the people perish. And there is nothing recognizable to the human in the wispy, vaporous, vague third being of the erroneous Trinity doctrine.

“Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: but ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.” (John 14:17).

But, how can we see our Comforter? In the same way that the disciples saw Him—through the things that appeal to God-forsaken humans—His righteousness and His love. “In Him was life; and the life was the light of men. And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not…. That was the true Light, which lighteth every man that cometh into the world.” (John 1:4,5,9). We must see Him through faith. It is by beholding our Comforter that we become changed into His same image. The disciples, likewise, were learning to see Him through faith. They were seeing more than His enemies were seeing, and even more than the multitudes were seeing.

“Then shall ye begin to say, We have eaten and drunk in Thy presence, and Thou hast taught in our streets. But He shall say, I tell you, I know you not whence ye are; depart from Me, all ye workers of iniquity.” (Luke 13:26,27).

By needing a friend in Jesus and looking for evidence of His friendship, through faith we can see Jesus in the New and Old Testament scriptures.

“God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God.… Which things also we speak, not in the words which man’s wisdom teacheth, but which the Holy Ghost teacheth; comparing spiritual things with spiritual.” (1Cor. 2:10,13).

The scriptures are brightened by the presence of Jesus by the view of Him in the precepts and exemplary experiences of sacred history.

“Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path…. The entrance of Thy words giveth light; it giveth understanding unto the simple.” (Ps. 119:105, 130).

“Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound: they shall walk, O LORD, in the light of Thy countenance. In Thy name shall they rejoice all the day: and in Thy righteousness shall they be exalted.” (Ps. 89:15,16).

“How excellent is Thy lovingkindness, O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of Thy wings.

They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of Thy house; and Thou shalt make them drink of the river of Thy pleasures.

For with Thee is the fountain of life: in Thy light shall we see light.

O continue Thy lovingkindness unto them that know Thee; and Thy righteousness to the upright in heart.” (Ps. 36:7-10).

“Hearken unto Me, My people; and give ear unto Me, O My nation: for a law shall proceed from Me, and I will make My judgment to rest for a light of the people. My righteousness is near; My salvation is gone forth, and Mine arms shall judge the people; the isles shall wait upon Me, and on Mine arm shall they trust.” (Isa. 51:4,5).

“The LORD make His face shine upon thee, and be gracious unto thee: the LORD lift up His countenance upon thee, and give thee peace.” (Num. 6:25,26). His countenance means His very presence, as in the scripture, “My presence shall go with thee, and I will give thee rest.” (Ex. 33:14).

“For they got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them: but Thy right hand, and Thine arm, and the light of Thy countenance, because Thou hadst a favour unto them.” (Ps. 44:3).

In the faithful, redeemed people of His sacred history, and of today, we see Jesus.

“When the Philistine looked about, and saw David, he disdained him: for he was but a youth, and ruddy, and of a fair countenance.” (1Sam. 17:42). [When the Pharisees looked about, and saw Jesus, they disdained Him: for He was youthful, and ruddy, and of a fair countenance.]

“Abigail: …a woman of good understanding, and of a beautiful countenance.” (1Sam. 25:3). [Again, Jesus was a Son of good understanding and beautiful countenance.]

“And it came to pass, before he had done speaking, that, behold, Rebekah came out, who was born to Bethuel, son of Milcah, the wife of Nahor, Abraham’s brother, with her pitcher upon her shoulder.

And the damsel was very fair to look upon, a virgin, neither had any man known her: and she went down  to the well, and filled her pitcher, and came up.

And the servant ran to meet her, and said, Let me, I pray thee, drink a little water of thy pitcher.

And she said, Drink, my lord: and she hasted, and let down her pitcher upon her hand, and gave him drink.

And when she had done giving him drink, she said, I will draw water for thy camels also, until they have done drinking.

And she hasted, and emptied her pitcher into the trough, and ran again unto the well to draw water, and drew for all his camels.” (Gen. 24:15). [Jesus is fair and pure, and full of service to everyone He ever met, family members, friends, acquaintances, and strangers alike!]

“And [Potiphar] left all that he had in Joseph’s hand; and he knew not ought he had, save the bread which he did eat. And Joseph was a goodly person, and well favoured…. And the keeper of the prison committed to Joseph’s hand all the prisoners that were in the prison; and whatsoever they did there, he was the doer of it. The keeper of the prison looked not to any thing that was under his hand; because the LORD was with him, and that which he did, the LORD made it to prosper.” (Gen. 39:6,22,23).

[Jesus is faithful, trustworthy, intensely righteous, efficient, intelligent, and a good manager of people. Doesn’t the picture of Him through Joseph start our wheels turning to see more details of Jesus? Don’t we begin to look around us at good managers, efficient employees, intelligent, trustworthy, faithful people, and look for the perfection of Jesus in every respect of human capabilities. And doesn’t that make this life interesting and adventurous and hopeful, and filled with the presence of Jesus in our hearts everywhere we go?]

“God spake unto Israel in the visions of the night, and said, Jacob, Jacob. And he said, Here am I. And he said, I am God, the God of thy father: fear not to go down into Egypt; for I will there make of thee a great nation: I will go down with thee into Egypt; and I will also surely bring thee up again: and Joseph shall put his hand upon thine eyes.” (Gen. 46:2-4).

[Didn’t Jacob’s beloved son Joseph put his hand ever so loving on the eyes of his long lost loving father? Do we see Jesus testified of here? Wouldn’t Jesus be as gentle and loving when He lays His hand on us?]

“Thou hast also given me the shield of Thy salvation: and Thy right hand hath holden me up, and Thy gentleness hath made me great.” (Ps. 18:35).

“I have set the LORD always before me: because He is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.

Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope.

For Thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt Thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.

Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in Thy presence is fulness of joy; at Thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.” (Ps. 16:8-11).

“Into Thine hand I commit my spirit: Thou hast redeemed me, O LORD God of truth.” (Ps. 31:5).

[When Jesus’ presence is tangible to our faith and sight, can’t we surrender our spirit to Him and commit  our souls to His keeping? “Those who take Christ at His word, and surrender their souls to His keeping, their lives to His ordering, will find peace and quietude. Nothing of the world can make them sad when Jesus makes them glad by His presence.” Desire of Ages, p. 331.]

“Though [the justified person] fall, he shall not be utterly cast down: for the LORD upholdeth him with His hand.

I have been young, and now am old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken, nor his seed begging bread.

He is ever merciful, and lendeth; and his seed is blessed.” (Ps. 37:24-26).

“O God, Thou art my God; early will I seek Thee: my soul thirsteth for Thee, my flesh longeth for Thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is;

To see Thy power and Thy glory, so as I have seen Thee in the sanctuary.

Because Thy lovingkindness is better than life, my lips shall praise Thee.

Thus will I bless Thee while I live: I will lift up my hands in Thy name.

My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness; and my mouth shall praise Thee with joyful lips:

When I remember Thee upon my bed, and meditate on Thee in the night watches.

Because Thou hast been my help, therefore in the shadow of Thy wings will I rejoice.

My soul followeth hard after Thee: Thy right hand upholdeth me.” (Ps. 63:1-8).

“Thou leddest Thy people like a flock by the hand of Moses and Aaron.” (Ps. 77:20).

“The LORD is my rock, and my fortress, and my deliverer; the God of my rock; in Him will I trust: He is my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my high tower, and my refuge, my Saviour; Thou savest me from violence.” (2Sam. 22:2,3).

[How about the Son of God’s earthly father, David? Didn’t David reveal Jesus more than anyone in sacred history?]

“When he had made an end of speaking unto Saul, that the soul of Jonathan was knit with the soul of David, and Jonathan loved him as his own soul. And Saul took him that day, and would let him go no more home to his father’s house. Then Jonathan and David made a covenant, because he loved him as his own soul.” (1Sam. 18:1-3).

In life and in death for our second birth, we see the only true Intercessor. The third person of the trinity dogma never died. Only the eternal Father died with us when He died with His only begotten Son.

“And … Phinehas’ wife, was with child, near to be delivered: and when she heard the tidings that the ark of God was taken, and that her father in law and her husband were dead, she bowed herself and travailed; for her pains came upon her. And about the time of her death the women that stood by her said unto her, Fear not; for thou hast born a son. But she answered not, neither did she regard it.” (1Sam. 4:19,20).

“And they journeyed from Bethel; and there was but a little way to come to Ephrath: and Rachel travailed, and she had hard labour. And it came to pass, when she was in hard labour, that the midwife said unto her, Fear not; thou shalt have this son also. And it came to pass, as her soul was in departing, (for she died) that she called his name Benoni: but his father called him Benjamin.” (Gen. 35:16-18).

“The scriptures … testify of Me.” (John 5:39). “My words... they are spirit, and they are life.” (John 6:63).

Do you see your Comforter in people who He redeemed from sin and selfishness, who offered their lives in order to give life to others? Do you see Jesus in Rachel and Phinehas’ wife, dying to bring a new life into the world? Don’t you see Jesus through them, when He was caught in the storm of saving us, and finally died to bring new life to a world of sinners? Do you here see Jesus, the Master Teacher and wonderful Counselor, the mighty Healer and Great Physician, the meek and lowly Lamb of God? Are you getting to know your Intercessor through the redeemed children of the scriptures? Can you see “the Man Christ Jesus” (1Tim. 2:5) through His workmanship in those men and women?

“[Aaron] ran into the midst of the congregation; and, behold, the plague was begun among the people: and he put on incense, and made an atonement for the people. And he stood between the dead and the living; and the plague was stayed.” (Num. 16:47,48).

“Search the scriptures; for in them ye think ye have eternal life: and they are they which testify of Me. And ye will not come to Me, that ye might have life.” (John 5:39,40).

Will we come to Jesus for comfort? Do you have on your eye salve? Are you seeing and getting to know the only true God and Jesus Christ who He sent? Don’t wait for the mysterious, invisible third person of the Trinity doctrine to ever show up to get acquainted with you. Don’t wait for that post-apostolic, Babylonian construct to move your deepest yearnings for righteousness and liberty like Jesus can, by using His written word as the medium for the transmission of Himself. The love for righteousness and liberty comes from “the Lord” (2 Cor. 3:17) Jesus Christ who gives us a new heart that is freed in obedience. “The Lord is that Spirit” (2 Cor. 3:17). The Spirit is Jesus. Only Jesus has come to us in the flesh, to enable us to see God as He really is. Therefore, it is Jesus who has been working overtime since the beginning to reveal Himself to us and to spiritually bring us home again to His Father. The sole biblical Mediator/Advocate/Intercessor is Jesus, the beloved only begotten Son of God. The greatest news ever was the promise that a precious Child born to us would be called, “Wonderful, Counselor” (Isa. 9:6).

All that Jesus did in the flesh on earth is not what the third person of a Trinity does for us. Rather, all that Jesus did in the past He is doing now. The whole reason for His incarnation into human experience and the details of that 33 year life written from four perspectives is for humanity to know exactly what He would continue to do for them until He returned. His visible, tangible life was written out in order for us to know exactly how He would be toward us until He would return. Jesus was to be the Comforter who was supposed to get all the attention, “and not another” (Job 19:27, cf John 14:16). That was the plan for our salvation. 

“I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me.” (John 12:32).

“Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner Stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on Him shall not be confounded.” (1Pet. 2:6).

Jesus, the only Spirit, the only Comforter

“A little while, and ye shall not see Me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see Me, because I go to the Father.” (John 16:16).

“A certain man lame from his mother's womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms of them that entered into the temple;…

 And [all the people] knew that it was he which sat for alms at the Beautiful gate of the temple: and they were filled with wonder and amazement at that which had happened unto him.

And as the lame man which was healed held Peter and John, all the people ran together unto them in the porch that is called Solomon's, greatly wondering.

And when Peter saw it, he answered unto the people, Ye men of Israel, why marvel ye at this? or why look ye so earnestly on us, as though by our own power or holiness we had made this man to walk?

The God of Abraham, and of Isaac, and of Jacob, the God of our fathers, hath glorified His Son Jesus; whom ye delivered up, and denied Him in the presence of Pilate, when he was determined to let Him go.

But ye denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto you;

And killed the Prince of life, whom God hath raised from the dead; whereof we are witnesses.

And His name through faith in His name hath made this man strong, whom ye see and know: yea, the faith which is by Him hath given him this perfect soundness in the presence of you all.

And now, brethren, I wot that through ignorance ye did it, as did also your rulers.

But those things, which God before had shewed by the mouth of all His prophets, that Christ should suffer, He hath so fulfilled.” (Acts 3:2,10-18).

The people who saw the miracle were in shock and trembling. They were convinced that the healing the lame man was real and must have come from heaven. They were primed for conviction and repentance. And they knew that the despised followers of Jesus were involved. Their first thought was to give the glory to the disciples.

But, other than first denying the men’s applause, Peter’s most important mission was to save the hearts of his Jewish people. He desired above all things to lead them into repentance and salvation. This he did after speaking the unvarnished truth to them with unvarnished mercy. Now Peter could make the appeal.

“Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;

And He shall send Jesus Christ, which before was preached unto you:

Whom the heaven must receive until the times of restitution of all things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began.…

Ye are the children of the prophets, and of the covenant which God made with our fathers, saying unto Abraham, And in thy seed shall all the kindreds of the earth be blessed.

Unto you first God, having raised up His Son Jesus, sent Him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.” (Acts 3:19-21,25,26). And many believed and repented, as the next verses inform us—about 5,000 men.

“As they spake unto the people, the priests, and the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees, came upon them, being grieved that they taught the people, and preached through Jesus the resurrection from the dead.

And they laid hands on them, and put them in hold unto the next day: for it was now eventide. Howbeit many of them which heard the word believed; and the number of the men was about five thousand.” (Acts 4:1-4).

But, how did the multitude come to believe? Was it by Peter’s expert evangelistic talent? No. As Jesus had come down in Spirit during the building of Babel, (see Genesis 11:5), the 5,000 conversions happened by Him spiritually coming down from heaven to give the Israelite men repentance and refreshing from His presence in their heart, “Christ in you, the hope of glory.” (Col. 1:27). “God, having raised up [glorified (vs. 13)] His Son Jesus, sent Him to bless you.” (Acts 3:26).

The Father’s sending Jesus to bless them was not speaking of God sending Jesus during His 3½ year ministry. Neither was it about a third person of the Godhead interceding for us. It was about the Man Christ Jesus our only Intercessor and Comforter. “For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus” (1Tim. 2:5), who “ever liveth to make intercession for them.” (Heb. 7:25). This event of healing was God sending Jesus after “having raised up His Son Jesus” (Acts 3:26). This was the Father sending Jesus weeks after His resurrection and ascension and glorification. Jesus, the crucified and risen Son, having ascended to sit with His Father on His Father’s throne, was sent to His people to bless them with conviction, repentance, forgiveness and reconciliation with His Father, their Father.

“Unto you first” (Acts 3:26). For the first 3½ years after His crucifixion, Jesus would continue to intercede for the beloved children of His beloved Abraham. The prophecy of Daniel 9 showed this in the last seven years (one week of prophetic time) of its prophetic period.

“Seventy weeks [490 literal years] are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy.” (Dan. 9:24). “He shall confirm the covenant with many for one week [seven literal years]: and in the midst of the week [after the first 3½ years] He shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease.” (Dan. 9:27).

The full 490 literal year, or 70 symbolic week prophecy, would not leave the Jews to their due punishment immediately after they had “killed the Prince of life” (Acts 3:15), but would offer mercy on top of mercy by giving another 3½ years of probation. The miracle upon the lame man took place within that 3½ year probation, shortly after Israel had “denied the Holy One and the Just, and desired a murderer to be granted unto [them].” (vs. 14).

“Unto you first.” The Jews were the first to be offered the privilege of the promised “blessing of Abraham … that we might receive the promise of the Spirit through faith.” (Gal. 3:14). “In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise” (Eph. 1:13). The Jews had first dibs at being “justified by the faith of Christ” (Gal. 2:16) through the “Spirit of Christ” (Rom. 8:9), “in turning away every one of [them] from his iniquities.” (Acts 3:26).

Jesus was sent to heal the lame man by His Spirit, “through faith in His name” (Acts 3:16). Jesus was there in person, but in the personality of His Spirit. Jesus by His Spirit was the third person of the heavenly trio; yet, it was truly Jesus, nonetheless. It was Jesus as the Spirit; that is, as the Spirit of His Father.

“Cumbered with humanity, Christ could not be in every place personally; therefore it was altogether for their advantage that He should leave them, go to His Father, and send the Holy Spirit to be His successor on earth. The Holy Spirit is Himself divested of the personality of humanity and independent thereof. He would represent Himself as present in all places by His Holy Spirit, as the Omnipresent.” Manuscript Release, vol. 14, p. 23.3.

“But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.” (Rom. 8:9). The Spirit of God is the Spirit of Christ, without which no man shall see God.

“Unto you first God, having raised up His Son Jesus, sent Him to bless you, in turning away every one of you from his iniquities.” (Acts 3:26). Jesus came to the lame man as Peter and John spoke His name to the disabled beggar.

His spiritual coming was what Jesus had tried to explain to His disciples in the upper room. “A little while, and ye shall not see Me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see Me, because I go to the Father.” (John 16:16). This statement was not speaking of His disciples losing sight of Jesus during His crucifixion and burial, which did test them to the core of their faith. Rather, the context speaks of what would happen after Christ’s ascension. John 16:16 referred to them seeing Him again after their baptism of the Spirit, as is plainly seen in its post-ascension context.

“I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.

Howbeit when He, the Spirit of truth, is come, He will guide you into all truth: for He shall not speak of Himself; but whatsoever He shall hear, that shall He speak: and He will shew you things to come.

He shall glorify Me: for He shall receive of Mine, and shall shew it unto you.

All things that the Father hath are Mine: therefore said I, that He shall take of Mine, and shall shew it unto you.

A little while, and ye shall not see Me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see Me, because I go to the Father.” (John 16:12-16).

“Now Jesus knew that they were desirous to ask Him, and said unto them, Do ye enquire among yourselves of that I said, A little while, and ye shall not see Me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see Me?

Verily, verily, I say unto you, That ye shall weep and lament, but the world shall rejoice: and ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall be turned into joy.

And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you.

And in that day ye shall ask Me nothing. Verily, verily, I say unto you, Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My name, He will give it you.

Hitherto have ye asked nothing in My name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.

These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs: but the time cometh, when I shall no more speak unto you in proverbs, but I shall shew you plainly of the Father.

At that day ye shall ask in My name: and I say not unto you, that I will pray the Father for you:

For the Father Himself loveth you, because ye have loved Me, and have believed that I came out from God.

I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father.” (John 16:19-28).

His disciples would see Him again as their Comforter. And would they ever be glad when they could again see Him that way! Perfectly trustworthy, He was the same Friend who could only be good to them, the same Helper, the same Teacher sent from God. Everything that they had needed before from Him was increased. And now they were more surrendered, and thus more open to their Master’s holy influence. This explains Judas’ earlier question.

“Judas saith unto Him, not Iscariot, Lord, how is it that Thou wilt manifest Thyself unto us, and not unto the world?” (John 14:22). His question came on the tail end of Christ’s first introduction of the new subject of “the Spirit” to fishermen. “Even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: but ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you.” (John 14:17). Jesus was with them, but unable to fully be in them because of their shallow, yet untried attachment to Him. But, after their big test and humbling, they would receive Him fully and then He could dwell in them forever.

The whole nation could not see Jesus as the Comforter because they never received Him into their heart. If they had surrendered to John the Baptist’s Law of God and to the cross of God’s Son, their self-will and heart broken, Jesus would have manifested Himself to the whole nation in the power. However Satan kept that from happening.

“But as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name: which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God.” (John 1:12,13). The nation, almost wholly, had rejected Him. But to the part who loved the holy, just, and good Law which He exemplified in love, the same experience of second birth that happened to Jesus in His incarnation, would happen to them spiritually.

“The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy Thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God.” (Luke 1:35). The power of the Most High God would come upon them, and therefore they would be enabled to see “the Son of the Highest” (Luke 1:32). And through looking to the precious Son, and imitating Him, His Father’s Holy Ghost would live in them. His Father’s Spirit, would come to them through His beloved Son. The revelation of truth and wisdom would come through Christ’s intercession for His Father’s Holy Spirit, “the Spirit of your Father” (Matt. 10:20), a revelation from “My Father which is in heaven.” (Matt. 16:17). Jesus ever lived to make intercession for them and us. He could rightly claim His Father’s Spirit as His own, being the only one qualified and worthy to mediate it to all His children who fear and love His Father. Jesus could call the Holy Spirit Himself because it came from His Father in heaven, and He was 100% tuned in to His Father’s influence. His Father’s truth was Jesus’ own truth, to such an extent that He was the truth.

“Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: …because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us.” (Rom. 5:1-5).

The disciples could not see or know the Spirit of truth until Jesus would be sent to them after His ascension. Through His personal presence He would baptize His disciples in His Father’s Spirit and turn them into unstoppable apostles and overcomers of the world. It would be Jesus speaking to them with the voice of authority, and with everything divinely powerful.

“Now when they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia, and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia, after they were come to Mysia, they assayed to go into Bithynia: but the Spirit suffered them not.” (Acts 16:6,7).

“And as he journeyed, he came near Damascus: and suddenly there shined round about him a light from heaven:

And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice saying unto him, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?

And he said, Who art Thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks.

And he trembling and astonished said, Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do? And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the city, and it shall be told thee what thou must do.” (Acts 9:3-6).

No longer weakened and limited by His human frame, “divested of the personality of humanity and independent thereof” Manuscript Release, vol. 14, p. 23.3, Jesus would speak for Himself through His own powerful, trumpet-like, spiritual medium without losing any of His familiar intent and purposes. His loving authority would still be recognizable, which is why His disciples loved to be in communion with Him.

“I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet.” (Rev. 1:10). They were in communion with their same Master from earlier days of personal ministry. He had not changed; His promise had not changed, “Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the [age].” (Matt. 28:20). And neither had His demands changed for them to save the world. “Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you.” (Matt. 28:19,20).

“As they met together after the ascension they were eager to present their requests to the Father in the name of Jesus. In solemn awe they bowed in prayer, repeating the assurance, ‘Whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in My name, He will give it you. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in My name: ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be full.’ John 16:23, 24. They extended the hand of faith higher and higher with the mighty argument, ‘It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us.’ Romans 8:34. And Pentecost brought them the presence of the Comforter, of whom Christ had said, He ‘shall be in you.’ And He had further said, ‘It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you.’ John 14:17; 16:7. Henceforth through the Spirit, Christ was to abide continually in the hearts of His children. Their union with Him was closer than when He was personally with them. The light, and love, and power of the indwelling Christ shone out through them, so that men, beholding, ‘marveled; and they took knowledge of them, that they had been with Jesus.’ Acts 4:13.

     All that Christ was to the disciples, He desires to be to His children today; for in that last prayer, with the little band of disciples gathered about Him, He said, ‘Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through their word.’ John 17:20.  

     Jesus prayed for us, and He asked that we might be one with Him, even as He is one with the Father. What a union is this! The Saviour has said of Himself, ‘The Son can do nothing of Himself;’ ‘the Father that dwelleth in Me, He doeth the works.’ John 5:19; 14:10. Then if Christ is dwelling in our hearts, He will work in us ‘both to will and to do of His good pleasure.’ Philippians 2:13. We shall work as He worked; we shall manifest the same spirit. And thus, loving Him and abiding in Him, we shall ‘grow up into Him in all things, which is the head, even Christ.’ Ephesians 4:15.” Steps to Christ, p. 74,75.

“A little while, and ye shall not see Me: and again, a little while, and ye shall see Me, because I go to the Father.” (John 16:16).

They saw their Lord in His written word, they could visualize Him in their improved mind’s eye, they saw Him in the humbled people around them, they saw Him as their hands and words did the work that He had done. “For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.” (2Pet. 1:8). Their crisis of separation from their beloved Master behind them in the past, they could never again lose sight of Him.

Because He was at the apostles’ right hand, they could not be moved. As disciples, He had led them into the waters of surrender, and now they were sealed in susceptibility to His Spirit and to His righteousness. They would forever hear His voice and see His so much loved mannerisms—His warmth and kindness, His staunch loyalty to His Father’s commandments, His ever enduring patience toward disciples and enemies alike. They continually saw that He had never met a soul who He didn’t love and seek to win back to eternal life with Him and His Father.

“Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord, according as His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to glory and virtue.” (2Pet. 1:2,3).

An overview of my new book

I wrote a post on Monday, December 08, 2014. The title was, The Seven Trumpets and The Investigative Judgment. It was a brief overview of my recent book. I had hoped the book would come out soon after that blog post. I submitted the manuscript a couple days before Christmas 2014, but it took another two years before the book was truly ready for publishing. Each time I looked at it after submission I could not publish it like it was. So, after much editing and moving whole paragraphs and sections of chapters around (and continued extra costs), the book came out a couple of weeks ago.

So I want to give another brief overview in case anyone out there might want to read the book. It is in print now, and soon will come out in e-book form.

So, without further adieu…

Introduction

Revelation chapter 4 through 11 form the core storyline of the book of Revelation. The chapters that follow chapter 11 are brought in to expand and to add more details. The seals and trumpets are not optional to understand Revelation, they form the vital center of the last book of the Bible.

Chapter 1: Revelation chapter 4

The throne of God before sin began. The praises to God concern His creation only, and no mention is made of a Redeemer.

Chapter 2: Revelation chapter 5

Sudden change in the angelic atmosphere of heaven. It’s the same picture of the throne of God, except God has a book (scroll) sealed up so tightly that only the crucifixion of Christ could open it. This book is the great controversy, the accusations against God and the issues over God’s Law. God is on trial. Has He been the proper leader? Has His government offered the best for the greatest happiness of the kingdom. Once Christ opened the book happiness was restored in heaven and then all they could sing again, but this time their song was only about was the Father’s and Son’s redemption.

Chapter 3: Revelation chapter 6

The Lamb takes the seals off of the book, one at a time. Before the 7th seal is removed we see a scene of Christ’s second coming. This was not the actual return of Christ—it was the global Advent movement of the 1830s and early ‘40s. But, the people were not ready for His coming. Before He can return, His people must be sealed. The sealing will be the necessary preparation for the day of His visitation of judgments.

Chapter 4: Revelation chapter 7

This chapter introduces the sealing. That is such a major issue that it puts unsealing the sealed book pageant on pause to explain who will stand when the Lamb comes and who will run in abject fear. The answer is: Whoever gets the seal in the conscience will go with Jesus and leave this doomed world. And this chapter gives the first picture of how happily the great controversy will end.

Chapter 5: Revelation chapter 8

After the chapter 7 intermission, we need to come back to where we were when the 6th seal closed. So, the Lamb removes the 7th seal. The sanctuary scene that follows is connected with the 7th seal. Since the 6th seal ended and the seal of God is shown ascending from the east in 1844, then, chapter 8 picks up after chapter 7’s  foretaste of all the happy celebration throughout eternity. Silence divides the chapter 7 intermission from the sanctuary scene; it separates the previous rejoicing at the end of the controversy from the solemn events to follow in order to set up a new mindset in the reader. It is a reminder that all of our full celebration is promised, but not yet ours to have. We are the church militant that must first endure the rigors of the trumpet dangers yet to come. Through a special dispensation of faith by an abundant gift of His Spirit, Jesus gives us a way of escape in the Latter Rain, so that we are able to endure the great time of trouble.

The Angel High Priest is in the Holy Place, ready to enter the Most Holy. But, first He casts His censer to the earth and the 1st trumpet blows. We can say that the 1st trumpet is connected with the previous sanctuary scene because the contents of the censer and His blood are what fall from the sky onto the earth during the 1st trumpet. The contents damage “the third part” of the trees and all the fields of grain. This signified God’s overthrow of the denominations and the worst of the Protestants, which rejected the plain truth of the blessed hope of Jesus’ return. The Bible often compares people to trees and grain.

The 2nd trumpet blew and Mt. Sinai is quenched showing the churches’ abrogating the Law of God. Now most of the Protestants had no protection from Satan’s spells.

So, the 3rd trumpet blew and Satan is seen poisoning their hearts and minds, their whole way of viewing this world and the providences of God. Faith, true, genuine faith is gone from every American who remained in the new lawless Protestantism. Now that God is fictionalized by their rejection of His Law, this world is all that most of them can live for.

The 4th trumpet blew and the Sunday churches went totally dark spiritually, as institutions. But, the door of heaven was still open to them individually. Scriptures show that the darkened spheres of heaven symbolize that “the Father of lights” (Jas. 1:17), and the Bible are no longer understood by Protestantism, and its central importance is lost. Now that Protestant America has lost its only resource for a spiritual compass in God’s word, an angel flies alarming the world of the three woes that come with the last three trumpets.

Chapter 6: Revelation chapter 9

The 5th trumpet blew. God looses Satan to ransack Protestantism and bring it and the world it that has blessed into subjection to the powers of hell. Every Protestant not being sealed, especially in Protestant America, is tormented with the same vexation of spirit that Solomon and King Saul experienced when they apostatized from the Lord. Moses forewarned of this for the whole nation in his curses of Leviticus 26 and Deuteronomy 28, 29. Specifically, Deuteronomy 29:18-22 speaks to this 5th trumpet, as does Revelation 14:9-11. In fact, the 3rd angel’s message is all about the 5th and 6th trumpet plagues; the components of those two trumpets make up the message of the 3rd angel of Revelation 14—the torment and desolation of soul that comes from not getting to know Jesus and not taking God seriously, preparing for His judgment and final return.

The ancient false religion that caused such havoc to Israel was Baal worship. But, Baal worship was simply one face of thousands of false religions around the ancient and modern world, all spawned from Babylon. It is a religion that dares to approach God with the worshipers’ own contrived repentance and holiness. The modern counterpart of this is Spiritual Formation. In Spiritual Formation the reproofs of the Law, which bring us to need a Savior from sin, are set aside. Before Christ can be a Savior, He must be a Prince who wields His glittering sword. God will have it no other way. But, Satan, stepping in between God and His people, offers a more comfortable redemption, without the messy humbling which God requires. By peace and flattery he has destroyed many from the days of Cain, and now he is doing the same in the Advent movement. We are repeating the history of Israel at Baal-peor, and many Adventists are falling for it, including many of our leaders. This is the message of the 3rd angel and it speaks of the 5th and 6th trumpet plagues.

The language of the 3rd angel’s message comes from the 5th and 6th trumpets—another reason to believe that the trumpets happen during the heaven-ordained Advent movement and investigative judgment that precede the antitypical Day of atonement.

It only makes sense that all the trumpets should blow during the Advent movement, since the typical feast of trumpets was connected with the cleansing of the earthly sanctuary. There is a time period with the 5th trumpet—5 prophetic months, 150 years. I realize Ellen White made it seem to say that there would be no more time prophecies after 1844. I believe she only communicated what Jesus wanted her to give us at the time. If we had known we would be here for 150 years we would have apostatized into pagan celebration a long time ago.

One thing is very clear, Revelation 9:4 (the 5th trumpet) and 7:3 (1844) are unarguably speaking of the same thing—the seal of God in the forehead. So, my conclusion is that Revelation 7:3 introduces the sealing, and 9:4 explains how it is received. Sr. White wrote volumes on every other subject, while she wrote almost nothing about the trumpets, because Jesus gave her no light on the trumpets. The time must wait until the prophecy was over before its meaning would come to light. That time has arrived. I believe that the 5th trumpet began as we were hammering out our fundamental beliefs in the Sabbath conferences. In 1849, the California Gold Rush altered the face of Protestant America. In 1999, 150 years later, another gold rush occurred—the stock market gold rush of the late 90’s. These two events are the bookends for the 5th trumpet.

In between those years technology exponentially developed and drew the world-loving Protestant multitudes permanently away from God and His Law. And that separation has tormented them like Jesus was on the cross because His Father had left Him. During those 5 prophetic months, the Spirit of God had been leaving Protestant America and Satan had been moving in to fill the void. Largely through the earthly agencies of Rome and her Jesuit masters of deception temptations have stolen all the freedom and happiness that the original Reformers gave Protestant Americans. The Jesuits and the Vatican are the locusts of the 5th trumpet (they are called “the beast” in Revelation 11). Satan, propelling them across the land, is the black smoke.

The 6th trumpet blew. Now that Americans have departed from God and lived on His promised land of refuge without a single thought of Him, He allows for their complete possession by the god they love so much. As the 10 tribes of Israel lived for Baal for 200 years until the Lord vomited them out of His land, so is He doing to Protestantism today. Soon, and very soon, Protestantism’s old enemy of the Dark Ages will have conquered this nation by filling the leading offices of their CIA, FBI, NSA, FDA, FEMA, AMA, Jesuit controlled media, Federal Reserve banking system, and three branches of the U.S. Government. I won’t be surprised if the Vatican initiates the official desolation of free America as Protestantism is ended. By a united, official declaration and documentation, the union of church and state will happens at Protestantism’s 500 anniversary— Halloween 2017.

In the 6th trumpet, the locusts can do what they were forbidden to do during the 5th trumpet, that is, “kill” the soul. All of their torment until 1999 came from the work of separating the people from the one true God of their Reformation fathers. Now that the denominations are fully separated from the God of the Bible, they commit the unpardonable sin and become a persecuting nation. This explains the unjust destruction of Muslims based on the phony premise that Islamists caused the black flag operation of 9/11. All the evidence of 9/11 points to specially placed and protected individuals within American government agencies, who choreographed 9/11 under the purview of Rome. (Dan. 8:12).

9/11 has set the stage for the coming tribulation of all nations. We are in the very end of time. God has just about finished His scattering of the power of the holy people (Dan. 12:7).

When the 7th trumpet will blow, the 3rd woe will mean total world domination by Satan and his filling every heart with his mean anger. Then, the few who took God and His Law and His redemption seriously will stand out from the demon-controlled crowds. Everyone who played off the Spirit of Prophecy as unneeded during the 5th and 6th trumpets God will require it of them in the 7th trumpet.

Chapter 7: Revelation chapter 10

This chapter begins to show glory at the end of the long, dark, distressing tunnel. It opens during the unconscionable desolations by the conscienceless world of the 6th trumpet. Christ is seen clothed with a cloud of incense and glory. The little sealed book (scroll) which He took from His Father in Revelation chapter 5 is now opened after the trumpets have done their work of scattering the power of faith in His Protestant people (which includes the SDAs, as seen in Revelation 11). Christ roars like a lion because His forbearing work as Lamb is finished and it’s time to judge the world, and to end the controversy. With infinite thunder, God agrees with His Son.

So, He swears by His Father that the delay of the 6th seal is completed—the sealing is almost finished—and He can finally come in power and glory. But, first He will give humanity one last opportunity to be saved, as He gave the antediluvian world. He commands John to eat the book of the great controversy and to “prophesy again.” But, if we use scripture to interpret scripture, then this is not speaking of the Millerite Great Disappointment of 1844; it is speaking of an event within the final chapter of the seal/trumpet chronology.

When do we see any prophesying taking place since Revelation chapter 4? We don’t see any up to Revelation chapter 10. But, we do see it in the next chapter, almost immediately following the command in chapter 10 to prophesy again. We see it in Revelation chapter 11.

Chapter 8: Revelation chapter 11

This chapter ends the seal/trumpet story that is the core of Revelation. The chapter introduces its intent to judge the church by John being given a measuring rod. The church is found guilty of apostasy, except for a very small remnant that defends the truth “in the days of their prophecy” (Rev. 11:6). That very small remnant sweeps through 2,000 years to include the apostles, the church in the wilderness, and the Reformation. The fire of truth shoots out of the mouths of God’s champions and devours the enemies of His gospel. This campaign against Satan continues successfully until 1849 when the hosts of darkness fly out of an opened bottomless pit. Then, the Lord’s witnesses are warred against, later overcome, and eventually cease their prophesying. This point in the lengthy prophecy is where the Revelation 10 scene occurs. Thus, it is time to prophesy again.

Satan cannot immediately kill the Advent movement while Ellen White lives. But, he first makes war (also seen in Rev. 12:17), then he overcomes, and finally he kills the Advent movement. We lay dead in the aisles of the church for a period of time that figuratively expresses judgment on God’s people (Luke 4:25; Jas. 5:17). Then, when God has accomplished our total humbling and all of our self-sufficiency is gone, then He resurrects His two witnesses (a leaner Advent movement), gives them the Latter Rain, and the earth is reaped. This ends the 2nd woe, and the 7th trumpet blows. Total chaos rules the world and the last we see is an empty Most Holy Place in heaven because Christ has left there to come and get His people. The mystery of God’s character of love and fairness, as written in the little book, is finished. His judgment is finished, and He is exonerated by His character perfectly reflected in His children.

This ends the core of Revelation. I hope it wasn’t too hard to follow. The rest of the book of Revelation expands upon the main storyline of chapters 4 through 11.

I’ve heard much about chiasms. That subject all began with the book of Revelation. I’ve looked at charts that show the chiasms of Revelation, and it all seems good. I have yet to analyze the way they stand up next to my view of Revelation. But, as I began with in this blog post, I see Revelation 4 to the end of the book simply as basically two halves of one book. First, we have the 8 chapter core that give a bird’s eye view of the book, such as my overview does for my book. Then, the next 11 chapters give details that must be brought in at the correct places of the core storyline.

This method of writing the Revelation visions seems very simple and wise. Chiasms are a little too complicated for me. But, a simple storyline is what I can handle. Even children can understand the simple core storyline. Of course, the symbology is a deeper subject, and that makes the Bible a challenge for adults. But, I’m thankful that Revelation is much more understandable than most people think because of the way it was laid out by the Spirit of God as a simple story.

I hope you get and read the book.

Thank you for your interest.

My first book completed

I finally finished my first book. It is on Bible prophecy, Revelation in particular. I use Revelation chapters 4 through 11 to explain the whole of Revelation and how current events have been working perfectly to fulfill the trumpet prophecy. Chapters 4 through 11 make up the core of the whole Revelation that John saw. Then the second half of The Revelation add details to the first half’s satellite overview.

I have brought into Bible prophecy much of what I have learned of the good news of the gospel. If you appreciate my way of expressing the Bible’s good news (and bad news) then you will find them woven into the Revelation message of blessing and curses,  its necessary plagues, as well as its healing and sealing. Even though God is Judge, Revelation shows Him accused as unworthy and being judged for His worthiness to lead His eternal kingdom.

I see a different way of viewing the trumpets, with different placements compared to most interpretations, and having different purposes. You will see that I place the seven trumpets beginning on October 22, 1844. They do not begin with the fall of Jerusalem or of the Roman Empire. They are not military campaigns that say nothing about Jesus. Thus, I see that the seven trumpets of Revelation are the anti-type of the Feast of Trumpets that signaled the approaching typical Mosaic Day of Atonement. Therefore, I see the trumpets as Advent Movement-related events that warn us of the coming of Judgment Day, when the Lamb returns sitting on the right hand of Power. The fifth trumpet’s 5 prophetic month time period concludes close to our day, at the end of 1999. Then the sixth trumpet begins in the first quarter of 2000, largely kicked off by 9/11, and soon to come into full swing. I believe that the signing of peace treaties this Halloween between the Church of Rome and the Lutheran Church, thus marking the legal end of the Reformation’s gift of peace to the world, will shift the sixth trumpet fulfillment into third gear of a five-speed eschatological transmission. Then, the last two gears “cometh quickly” (Rev. 11:14), the seventh trumpet and the Day of Judgment/Second Advent of Jesus in unearthly, divine power.

Let me add that my book seeks to reassure everyone that they still have time to make their calling and election sure. But, we must be in earnest now. It’s not all scary; in fact Revelation holds great promises for the people not swept up by all the deceptions on the right hand and the left. I have done my best in the book to lay out the path to have that assurance. I have sought to weave Jesus into everything I have written. To give you a taste, the website for Aspect Books (published by Teach Services, Inc.) lets you read the first 27 pages of the book. The Lord bless you and keep you, and make His face to shine upon you and give you peace. See you the second Sabbath at the Tree of Life on the far side of the River of Life!

https://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=Burdick+Seven+Trumpets

http://aspectbooks.com/main/details/id/79

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-seven-trumpets-and-the-investigative-judgement-david-d-burdick/1125844018;jsessionid=1AB5806D66EE7242B6BD8DBDD17EED53.prodny_store01-atgap06?ean=9781479605026

Email to a brother in Christ

http://www.hebrew-streams.org/works/spirit/spirit-to-ghost.html

http://www.hebrew-streams.org/frontstuff/mechaber.html

http://www.hebrew-streams.org/works/hayom/spiritanity.html

Hi Paul,

  I feel a strong kinship with you and your study into the whole Bible, and in your not handling the word of God dishonestly. I am a Seventh-day Adventist Christian who loves the whole Bible. I am up-front with you about my religious affiliation not to try to convert you to my religion or to cause a prejudice against me, but to let you know where I’m coming from in my ideas. I believe also that praying and worshiping a third being of a trinity is blasphemy, and I am finding great resistance from my brothers and sisters in the faith. Ellen White made these two statements concerning the holy spirit of God, the first from Manuscript Releases, vol. 14, pg 23, and the second from Desire of Ages, p. 669:

Cumbered with humanity, Christ could not be in every place personally; therefore it was altogether for their advantage that He should leave them, go to His father, and send the Holy Spirit to be His successor on earth. The Holy Spirit is Himself divested of the personality of humanity and independent thereof. He would represent Himself as present in all places by His Holy Spirit, as the Omnipresent.

The Holy Spirit is Christ’s representative, but divested of the personality of humanity, and independent thereof. Cumbered with humanity, Christ could not be in every place personally. Therefore it was for their interest that He should go to the Father, and send the Spirit to be His successor on earth. No one could then have any advantage because of his location or his personal contact with Christ. By the Spirit the Saviour would be accessible to all. In this sense He would be nearer to them than if He had not ascended on high.

  Ellen White was a leading writer and voice in the Advent Movement which was anti-trinitarian until shortly after the passing of the earliest leaders, including Ellen White. But, even though my church is diving deeply into trinitarianism, we have a growing interest in anti-trinitarianism moving in and I am so happy to see it. Christ and God His Father surely are eclipsed by the trespasser into the Godhead called the Holy Spirit. Ellen White never called the church to pray, adore, worship this spiritual power that comes from the Father and Son. But, she warned in her book, The Great Controversy, page 464,

Notwithstanding the widespread declension of faith and piety, there are true followers of Christ in these churches. Before the final visitation of God’s judgments upon the earth there will be among the people of the Lord such a revival of primitive godliness as has not been witnessed since apostolic times. The Spirit and power of God will be poured out upon His children. At that time many will separate themselves from those churches in which the love of this world has supplanted love for God and His word. Many, both of ministers and people, will gladly accept those great truths which God has caused to be proclaimed at this time to prepare a people for the Lord’s second coming. The enemy of souls desires to hinder this work; and before the time for such a movement shall come, he will endeavor to prevent it by introducing a counterfeit. In those churches which he can bring under his deceptive power he will make it appear that God’s special blessing is poured out; there will be manifest what is thought to be great religious interest. Multitudes will exult that God is working marvelously for them, when the work is that of another spirit. Under a religious guise, Satan will seek to extend his influence over the Christian world. 

    

In many of the revivals which have occurred during the last half century, the same influences have been at work, to a greater or less degree, that will be manifest in the more extensive movements of the future. There is an emotional excitement, a mingling of the true with the false, that is well adapted to mislead. Yet none need be deceived. In the light of God’s word it is not difficult to determine the nature of these movements. Wherever men neglect the testimony of the Bible, turning away from those plain, soul-testing truths which require self-denial and renunciation of the world, there we may be sure that God’s blessing is not bestowed. And by the rule which Christ Himself has given, “Ye shall know them by their fruits” (Matthew 7:16), it is evident that these movements are not the work of the Spirit of God.

   But, now the Adventist church is moving in that direction by the infiltration of ideas that sound like they come from Vatican II. They can’t accept the first quotation above concerning the Spirit being Christ, but they interpret it by the second statement, which is less pointed and clear. She could have been clearer, and I’m still trying to know why she overused the pronouns instead of using Christ’s name more. But, possibly she was writing to a non-trinitarian believer and saw no need to be as specific as needs to happen today, as Paul also used a lot of indefinite male pronouns.

  Thank you for your documentation on the history of this third person infiltrator/trespasser/eclipser from Daniel 8:10,11. I needed it badly.

Happy Sabbath,

David Burdick

The Lord and His Spirit

“Seek ye out of the book of the LORD, and read: no one of these shall fail, none shall want her mate: for My mouth it hath commanded, and His Spirit it hath gathered them.” (Isa. 34:16).

“Come ye near unto Me, hear ye this; I have not spoken in secret from the beginning; from the time that it was, there am I: and now the Lord GOD, and His Spirit, hath sent Me.” (Isa. 48:16).

I have wrestled over these texts, because it appears to say that the Spirit of God is separate from God, as in the Spirit being a separate person from God. And these verses have been used as solid proof that such is the case. But, when we lay precept upon precept and line upon line we see that  the Lord and His Spirit represented by two separate persons was not the understanding of the Bible writers.

Listen to David express his praise to Jesus.

“O LORD, Thou hast searched me, and known me.

Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, Thou understandest my thought afar off.

Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways.

For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, Thou knowest it altogether.

Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid Thine hand upon me.

Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it.

Whither shall I go from Thy Spirit? or whither shall I flee from Thy presence?...” (Ps. 139:1-7).

David’s praise sounds like Nebuchadnezzar’s.

“And at the end of the days I Nebuchadnezzar lifted up mine eyes unto heaven, and mine understanding returned unto me, and I blessed the most High, and I praised and honoured Him that liveth for ever, whose dominion is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom is from generation to generation: and all the inhabitants of the earth are reputed as nothing: and He doeth according to His will in the army of heaven, and among the inhabitants of the earth: and none can stay His hand, or say unto Him, What doest Thou?... Now I Nebuchadnezzar praise and extol and honour the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and His ways judgment: and those that walk in pride He is able to abase.” (Dan. 4:34,35,37).

Both testimonies declare that there is the bodily King of heaven; and yet the King of heaven is felt everywhere. Likewise, in Psalm 110 David had seen Jesus Adonai on His throne next to His Father, and Jesus was even seen as travelling around the heavenly kingdom in Psalm 45. David saw Jehovah Jesus as a being, having a tangible, defined form. David saw Jehovah Jesus, the fullness of the Godhead bodily. To both David and Nebuchadnezzar Jehovah not only oversaw, but also personally worked His will. Paul penned their ideas of the work of God: “Him who worketh all things after the counsel of His own will.” (Eph. 1:11); and, “To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them.” (2Cor. 5:19). At Golgotha, Jehovah was personally in His crucified Son through Their eternal Spirit, as He was personally present in the cloud on the holy mount for Christ’s transfiguration (see Matthew 17:5; Hebrews 9:14). David knew that Moses had described Christ’s bodily pre-incarnate form as “the body of heaven in His clearness.” (Ex. 24:10). Notwithstanding that, David also knew that Christ’s personal presence far exceeded His throne in heaven, as David’s Psalm 139 indicated. The difference between David’s and Nebuchadnezzar’s testimonies of the bodily persons of Jehovah and Adonai was that David added a revelation of Jehovah’s Spirit, or Jehovah’s omnipresence, that can see and intervene everywhere. Thus, David could testify of Jehovah and His omnipresent Spirit, or of Adonai and His omnipresent Spirit. Hence, Isaiah’s account of “the Lord GOD, and His Spirit” (Isa. 48:16).

God’s pervasive kingdom results from His pervasive Spirit. “And when He [Jesus] was demanded of the Pharisees, when the kingdom of God should come, He answered them and said, The kingdom of God cometh not with observation: neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.” (Luke 17:20,21). “The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith.” (Rom. 10:8).

Nebuchadnezzar learned about the kingdom of God when he saw the goodness of God toward him. Only by the Spirit of God in the soul can a sinful mortal extol and honor the one true God. Only through the Spirit from God can we appreciate the things of God and give Him thanks. “Now we have received … the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.” (1Cor. 2:12).

The Spirit of God in us is God the Father manifesting Himself through His only begotten Son. The Spirit is not God in the sense that God is the Godhead and the Spirit is a third member of the Godhead council. The Spirit of God is the life and soul of God through His Son that pervades all of Their created works, bringing life to all. This is what we see from Revelation 4 and 5.

“And out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices: and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God.” (Rev. 4:5). The Son of God embodied the seven Spirits of God, His holy person enjoying the infinitely blazing and brilliant purity of God His Father.

“One of the elders saith unto me, Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Juda, the Root of David, hath prevailed to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof. And I beheld, and, lo, in the midst of the throne and of the four beasts, and in the midst of the elders, stood a Lamb as it had been slain, having seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven Spirits of God sent forth into all the earth.” (Rev. 5:5,6). The Son of God still embodies the measureless, eternal Spirit of Him who sits on the throne. His is the Spirit that we hear, the Good Shepherd’s voice that we follow.

“And unto the angel of the church in Sardis write; These things saith He that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars; I know thy works, that thou hast a name that thou livest, and art dead…. He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the churches.” (Rev. 3:1,6).

Revelation shows Jesus prior to His incarnation as seven lamps of fire, burning in response to the infinitely austere holiness of Him who sat on the throne. And His eternal pre-incarnate body, glorified by His Father, Jesus yearned to have again after His resurrection and ascension.

“And now, O Father, glorify Thou Me with Thine own self with the glory which I had with Thee before the world was.” (John 17:5). That very glory and infinite Spirit without measure that clothed Jesus at His transfiguration in His Father’s invisible presence.

“And after six days Jesus taketh with Him Peter, and James, and John, and leadeth them up into an high mountain apart by themselves: and He was transfigured before them. And His raiment became shining, exceeding white as snow; so as no fuller on earth can white them.” (Mark 9:2,3).

“And there was a cloud that overshadowed them: and a voice came out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son: hear him.” (Mark 9:7).

Oh, what a relief to have His fallen human nature completely put down by His invisible Father present, before whom no unholiness can exist! God, His Father only showed His Spirit in the sparkly, shimmering cloud of glory that night in order to stop the mouth of Peter before his arrogance spread to James and John.

“God … the Father of glory” (Eph. 1:17), “the Father of lights” (Jas. 1:17), was the source of Christ’s Spirit without measure, and His pre-incarnate glory.

“The Sovereign of the universe was not alone in His work of beneficence. He had an associate—a co-worker who could appreciate His purposes, and could share His joy in giving happiness to created beings. ‘In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.’ John 1:1, 2. Christ, the Word, the only begotten of God, was one with the eternal Father―one in nature, in character, in purpose―the only being that could enter into all the counsels and purposes of God. ‘His name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.’ Isaiah 9:6. His ‘goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting.’ Micah 5:2. And the Son of God declares concerning Himself: ‘The Lord possessed Me in the beginning of His way, before His works of old. I was set up from everlasting…. When He appointed the foundations of the earth: then I was by Him, as one brought up with Him: and I was daily His delight, rejoicing always before Him.’ Proverbs 8:22-30.

     The Father wrought by His Son in the creation of all heavenly beings. ‘By Him were all things created,… whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by Him, and for Him.’ Colossians 1:16.” Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 34.2.

Since the very beginning, there has been no other being in the Godhead except the Two: “the Sovereign of the universe” and His “Associate”, His “Co-worker”, “Christ, the Word, the only begotten of God”, “the only being that could enter into all the counsels and purposes of God” [emphasis mine].

But, They have Their Spirit. Even as we were made in Their image and as we have a spirit, so do They each have Their own Spirit that is infinitely greater than ours.

“But God hath revealed them unto us by His Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God. For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God.” (1Cor. 2:10,11).

But, there is another spirit beside the Spirit of Father and Son. That is the spirit of Satan manifested in mankind, the “spirit of the world” (1Cor. 2:12), the “god of this world” (Gal. 4:6), “the prince of this world” (John 14:30). That spirit is what Paul called, “principalities, … powers, … the rulers of the darkness of this world, … spiritual wickedness in high places.” (Eph. 6:12). Satan is a person, and he has his spirit. Likewise, God is a person, Christ is a person, and They have their individual Spirits that are one Spirit. “Ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His.” (Rom. 8:9).

“Get thee behind Me, Satan: thou art an offence unto Me: for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.” (Matt. 16:23). The spirit of the world has no place in the kingdom that Jesus came to set up. It is the “spirit of antichrist”, “the spirit of error.” (1Jn. 4:3,6).

Through the false doctrines of men, the spirit of Satan influences and vehemently controls this world to be violent toward each other, and especially toward God. “Then he said unto me, Hast thou seen this, O son of man? Is it a light thing to the house of Judah that they commit the abominations which they commit here? for they have filled the land with violence, and have returned to provoke Me to anger: and, lo, they put the branch to their nose.” (Eze. 8:17). “And I have seen folly in the prophets of Samaria; they prophesied in Baal, and caused My people Israel to err. I have seen also in the prophets of Jerusalem an horrible thing: they commit adultery, and walk in lies: they strengthen also the hands of evildoers, that none doth return from his wickedness: they are all of them unto Me as Sodom, and the inhabitants thereof as Gomorrah.” (Jer. 23:13,14). Satan’s spirit whispers into the world’s minds from the devices he inspired men to create. He controls the kingdoms of this world through his idolatrous religion and lifestyles that he has pushed upon the human race. But, God is stronger than Satan, and His Spirit wages constant warfare against the spirit of Satan. “So shall they fear the name of the LORD from the west, and His glory from the rising of the sun. When the enemy shall come in like a flood, the Spirit of the LORD shall lift up a standard against him.” (Isa. 59:19).

“Now we have received, not the spirit of the world, but the spirit which is of God; that we might know the things that are freely given to us of God.” (1Cor. 2:12). The phrase, “Spirit of God” is simply what the words from Paul more explicitly denoted as he tried to state its terminology in more grammatical clarity—“the Spirit which is of God”. It has become the assumption that the words, “Spirit of God” was the “Spirit’s” name. Rather, the phrase was a description of the work of God Himself in the human spirit. “God is a Spirit.” (John 4:24).

But, the Spirit of God is God the Father meeting His children in their spirit. “The Spirit of Him that raised up Jesus from the dead” (Rom. 8:11) is the “God the Father, who raised Him from the dead” (Gal. 1:1). Again, the Spirit of Him that resurrected Jesus is “God” who “raised Him from the dead” (Rom. 10:9); it is “the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory” who “wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places” (Eph. 1:17, 20); the Spirit is “God, who hath raised Him [Christ] from the dead” (Col. 2:12), “the living and true God;… to wait for His Son from heaven, whom He raised from the dead, even Jesus, which delivered us from the wrath to come.” (1Thess. 1:9,10).

The Spirit is not “the Spirit of the Godhead”, as in an individual, a person separate from the Father, His Spirit, His mind. “The Spirit” is “the Spirit of your Father” (Matt. 10:20), who has a Spirit like the spirit which He gave every human to have, but which Spirit in the children of God is a special gift of God in all whose spirit has cried out in desperation, “O, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death?”, and have surrendered to God. The Spirit of God is God’s Spirit, His person, His mind, His creative and redemptive influence upon His creation, animate and inanimate, His intelligent creation and otherwise. It is because we are made in His image that our spirit taps into the things of man (our thoughts and intents and memories), and fills our homes and our spheres of influence.

The “spirit which is of^G1537 God” is the Spirit of God, or the Spirit from God. G1537 ek, ex. A primary preposition denoting origin (the point whence motion or action proceeds), from, out (of place, time or cause; literally or figuratively; direct or remote): - after, among, X are, at betwixt (- yond), by (the means of), exceedingly, (+ abundantly above), for (- th), from (among, forth, up), + grudgingly, + heartily, X heavenly, X hereby, +very highly, in, …ly, (because, by reason) of, off (from), on, out among (from, of), over since, X thenceforth, through, X unto, X vehemently, with )-out). Often used in composition, with the same general import; often of completion.

Only the Son can reveal His Father. The Son of God is the recipient of His Father’s glory and Spirit.  “Nevertheless I tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send Him unto you.” (John 16:7).

“And I will pray the Father, and He shall give you another Comforter, that He may abide with you for ever; even the Spirit of truth; whom the world cannot receive, because it seeth Him not, neither knoweth Him: but ye know Him; for He dwelleth with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you comfortless: I will come to you.” (John 14:16-18, cf John 17:25).

“But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me.” (John 15:26).

“Cumbered with humanity, Christ could not be in every place personally; therefore it was altogether for their advantage that He should leave them, go to His father, and send the Holy Spirit to be His successor on earth. The Holy Spirit is Himself divested of the personality of humanity and independent thereof. He would represent Himself as present in all places by His Holy Spirit, as the Omnipresent.” Manuscript Releases, p. 23.3.

    

Some have misinterpreted this statement to say that a third person of a trinity is spoken of here. But, is it correct to say that “the Holy Spirit is [the Holy Spirit]”? Why would Ellen White write that the Holy Spirit is the Holy Spirit? Does it make sense? Not at all. It is a waste of words and intelligible nonsense. Or, how about, “[The Holy Spirit] would represent Himself as present in all places by His Holy Spirit”?  Does the Holy Spirit have a Holy Spirit? Does saying that make sense? Not at all. The Holy Spirit is Jesus Himself, divested of His human person and independent of it. He represents Himself by His Holy Spirit. Thus, the Holy Spirit is Christ’s own Spirit, His representative. And let us not forget the definition of  “divest”. To divest means that one was formerly vested, or invested. therefore, to be divested of the personality of humanity is to have have previously been vested with human personality. Jesus is the only being of the Godhead who is disemcumbered from His human form and divested of human personality.

“The Holy Spirit is Christ’s representative, but divested of the personality of humanity, and independent thereof. Cumbered with humanity, Christ could not be in every place personally. Therefore it was for their interest that He should go to the Father, and send the Spirit to be His successor on earth. No one could then have any advantage because of his location or his personal contact with Christ. By the Spirit the Saviour would be accessible to all. In this sense He would be nearer to them than if He had not ascended on high.” Desire of Ages, p. 669.2.

“He that hath My commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me: and he that loveth Me shall be loved of My Father, and I will love him, and will manifest Myself to him.” (John 14:21). John was most certainly keeping Jesus’ commandments and His word. He had spent many years preaching the word of God and the testimony of Jesus. And, true to His promise, Jesus manifested Himself to John.

“I John, who also am your brother, and companion in tribulation, and in the kingdom and patience of Jesus Christ, was in the isle that is called Patmos, for the word of God, and for the testimony of Jesus Christ. I was in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet.” (Rev. 1:9,10).

It was this Spirit voice of Jesus, divested of the personality of His humanity, speaking with the volume of a trumpet, that spoke to the apostles during the Early Rain. And it was the same voice all the apostles heard command them as He led them in victory after victory, “the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following.” (Mark 16:20).

“While Peter thought on the vision, the Spirit said unto him, Behold, three men seek thee.” (Acts 10:19).

“And the Spirit bade me go with them, nothing doubting. Moreover these six brethren accompanied me, and we entered into the man’s house.” (Acts 11:12).

“After they were come to Mysia, they assayed to go into Bithynia: but the Spirit suffered them not.” (Acts 16:7).

“And finding disciples, we tarried there seven days: who said to Paul through the Spirit, that he should not go up to Jerusalem.” (Acts 21:4).

“Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot.” (Acts 8:29).

The voice was Jesus. “And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.” (Rev. 6:2).