One if by Land, Two if by Sea - Endnotes - November 20, 2011

November 20, 2011 ©Homer Kizer

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Endnote —

One if by Land, Two if by Sea

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He said to his friend, "If the British march
By land or sea from the town to-night,
Hang a lantern aloft in the belfry arch
Of the North Church tower as a signal light,--
One if by land, and two if by sea;
And I on the opposite shore will be,
Ready to ride and spread the alarm
Through every Middlesex village and farm,
For the country folk to be up and to arm."

(from “Paul Revere’s Ride” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow,

first published in 1863 in “Tales of a Wayside Inn”)

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Longfellow’s historical knowledge leaves a little to be desired, for the lanterns that were hung in Old North Church were not signals to Paul Revere but from Revere to other riders across the Charles River in case Revere was taken prisoner.

But the one/two signifier (sign) is of particular importance to Christians; for what is physical is one and is by land (is of Moses), and what is spiritual is two and is by sea (is of the Father and the Son).

Christianity is the seed or offspring of Israel, and is Israel as I am Homer Kizer, the offspring of Homer Kizer. In the vernacular of rural America, my old man bore the same name as I do, was the same height, had the same stature and short legs, and died when I was still a youth, died when I was eleven years old. My old self bore/bears the same name as my new self bears, dwelt/dwells in the same physical body, and died/dies when my new self was/is a spiritual adolescent. And therein lies the primary mystery of God; for the Israel that was a slave nation in Egypt was also the firstborn son of the Lord (Ex 4:22), but this nation of Israel never entered into God’s rest but perished in the wilderness because of its unbelief. It was the circumcised and uncircumcised children of Israel that followed Joshua [in Greek, [0F@Ø — Jesus] into the Promised Land, crossing the Jordan on dry land on the 10^th day of the first month, with these children of Israel then circumcised before Passover. And the children of Israel were Israel. Thus Israel, the slave nation that died in the wilderness of Sin/Zin, can be likened to my old man, whereas the children of Israel—sons of Israel born in slavery who were too young to be numbered in the census of the second year (Num 1:1–3) and sons born in the wilderness—can be likened to my old self. And Christendom, also Israel, can be likened to my new self, born of spirit.

The preceding is technically correct, for the children of Israel—the nation of Israel born in the wilderness—were not born of spirit but humanly born. The nation of Israel that was born of spirit in the 1^st-Century CE is Christianity, with this second birth of Israel permitting death of the inner self to cast as its reality the enslavement [loss of freedom] of the physical nation, for with the death of the inner self the outer self continues to live but lives as a bondservant of the Adversary … without receiving a second birth via receipt of a second breath of life, Christians remain children of disobedience, separated from other children of disobedience through professing that Jesus is Lord, but with the signifying phrase Jesus is Lord representing a different set of signifieds from those that the phrase represented for the Apostle Paul mid 1^st-Century CE.

When the Lord separated the sounds of words from the things that the words represent at the Tower of Babel—separated the bricks used to build the tower from what the people previously called the bricks—thereby making literal readings of texts problematic, the Lord divided humankind into reading communities based on particular meanings assigned to words: e.g., the Sabbath. For disciples of Menno Simon and for disciples of Joseph Smith and for disciples of John Knox, John Calvin, and many others, the linguistic icon phrase <the Sabbath> represents J± :4” Jä< F"$$VJT< — the first [day after] the Sabbath; whereas for disciples of Andreas Fischer and for disciples of Ellen G. White and for disciples of Herbert W. Armstrong, the icon phrase <the Sabbath> represents the seventh day of the week, the day when there was no manna for Israel in the wilderness to gather.

For my aunts and uncles, the naming phrase <Homer Kizer> represented my old man, my father … I was to them, Sonny.

The shifting of signifieds for a particular signifier within a text is equivocation, something Hellenistic Greeks thought was clever but something Romans hated; for with equivocation, nothing is as it seems; nothing can be pinned down. There are no absolute truths, but rather, truth becomes the negation of what has been concealed—and when truth is the negation of what has been concealed, how is a person to know if the negation is not also a further concealment? How many layers of the onion must be peeled away before the core of the bulb is reached? Or is there a core?

Every writer must trust that his or her reader can assign meaning to the writers words to a sufficient degree that the text makes sense. But because meaning must to assigned to words, a writer can hide a text within a text: the author of a text can conceal a message in a text through the author using signifiers that would have the text say something other than what the author intended, with the classic example of this being the visions of Daniel and the angel bringing to Daniel what was “‘inscribed in the book of truth’” (Dan 10:21). Breaking into the long prophecy, the angel tells Daniel, “‘Forces from him shall appear and profane the temple and fortress, and shall take away the regular burnt offering. And they shall set up the abomination that makes desolate’” (Dan 11:31). Almost without exception Christians and Jews have said that these forces came from Antiochus Epiphanes IV when his officers set up a statue of Zeus in the empty Holy of Holies and sacrificed hogs on the altar two centuries before Jesus said, “‘So when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by the prophet Daniel, standing in the holy place (let the reader understand)’” (Matt 24:15) … if profaning the temple was an event that had not yet happened when Jesus the Nazarene lived, then Antiochus Epiphanes IV could only be a shadow and type of one who was still to come, with the author of the Book of Truth using the Seleucid emperor to seal and keep secret the vision that Daniel received. It is for this reason that every teacher of Israel who finds Rome, the Roman Empire, the Holy Roman Empire, or the Roman See in the visions of Daniel is false; for the division of Babylon that matters to endtime Israel didn’t occur after Alexander the Great died, but occurs when the Second Passover liberation of Israel occurs—the Second Passover liberation of Israel will have all uncovered legal and biological firstborns being suddenly slain. This includes the first horn, first king of the demonic bronze-colored King of Greece.

Because meaning must be assigned to words, literary texts use as few words as possible, thereby incorporating ambiguity into the texts, with ambiguity permitting readers to assign a greater number of meanings to the words used, which in turns allows the reader to own the text by the reader having to do work in resolving ambiguities. Pedagogical texts use many words to minimize ambiguity, which in turn prevents readers from really ever owning the texts; hence students keep novels but sell textbooks as soon as possible. Thus, the dilemma faced by every apology [inscribed argument] is arriving at a compromise between ambiguity and boring the readers by using so many words that the reader is pushed away from the text.

The reader who knows Scripture will soon realize that for each passage I use in making an argument, I have neglected to cite a similar passage or even a passage that better serves to illustrate the point. The reader, by bringing these other passages to mind, takes ownership of my argument and becomes figuratively better able to make my argument than I have made it … when I was a midlife graduate student at University of Alaska Fairbanks, I was assigned to write a paper on early Renaissance English pamphleteering. Rather than write a critical piece, I wrote a pamphlet in the language and after the manner of surviving pamphlets, with the pamphlet contextualizing surviving pamphlets. And writing late at night, I needed a physical separation between Lollards and Catholics so I had my fictional disciple run down one side of a hedgerow and the Red Knight charge down the other. Initially, I made the hedgerow Osage orange for the thorns and the color, but within a few minutes I realized that Osage orange was an American tree and would not have been found in England; so the hour being late, I turned the hedge into roses for no reason other than I still needed the mental image of thorns to make a point. The instructor, in reading the paper that bridged time, identified the rose hedge as the War of the Roses—and indeed, the hedge functioned nicely in the pamphlet as a signifier for the War of the Roses, but I was receiving credit for an allusion I hadn’t made. The instructor assigned more meaning to my words than I had, and was thoroughly impressed.

I am able to assign more meaning to Daniel’s words than 1^st-Century disciples could simply because I live at the end of the age. When this is then coupled to having been called to reread prophecy in a less dramatic but similar calling to Paul’s calling, Daniel’s sealed and secret visions are easily read, with the key to rereading them found in my father’s name, Homer Kizer, that is also my name: I am of my father, but I am not my father. Israel is of Israel, but is not Israel. The kings of Persia are not the Kings of Persia; the first king of the Greece is not Alexander the Great, but the first rebel to join with the anointed guardian cherub when iniquity was found in this cherub … common bronze (90% copper, 10% tin) is the color of 14 carat gold (75% Au, 25% Cu), with color representing mindset, not hardness nor monetary worth, linking the belly and loins to the head of the humanoid image Nebuchadnezzar saw in vision, with visions that are of God being twice seen, not once; e.g., both Nebuchadnezzar and Daniel saw the vision of the humanoid image (Dan chap 2) so the king’s request that the image be interpreted without him revealing it was not really unreasonable if his wise men had been of God.

The calling of Paul to know the will of the Lord didn’t make Paul the true twelfth apostle, but made Paul a predecessor of the two witnesses. Paul’s words, John’s words, Peter’s words, James’ and Jude’s words become their works through the inscription of my words and the words of other endtime disciples called as they were--and the reader should immediately realize that James and Jude were not called as Paul was, nor called as John and Peter were, with this realization functioning as the resolution of ambiguity in a literary text functions to permit the reader to take ownership of the text; i.e., of this argument as the reader explores the differences between those who wrote canonical epistles.

The New Testament is written in Greek, not Hebrew, for a reason, that of equivocation—so that Homer Kizer is of Homer Kizer, but is not Homer Kizer … and Homer would write a strong antiwar epic as a poem celebrating a military victory in the Iliad, such is Greek ideological equivocation that is seen in words in individual sentences within the language.

In Greek, faith is enacted belief as well as the hope for things not yet seen. In Greek, truth is the revealing of what has been concealed. Jesus told Pilate, “‘You say that I am a king. For this purpose I was born and for this purpose I have come into the world—to bear witness to the truth [J •802,\‘]. Everyone who is of the truth [JH •802,\"H] listens to my voice’” (John 18:37). According to Jesus, a king is to reveal what has been concealed: it was for this reason that He came into this world.

When Pharisees and Herodians sought to trap Jesus, they asked Him if it was lawful to pay taxes to the emperor. Jesus asked them to show Him the coin used for the tax, and they brought him a denarius. Jesus asked whose image was on the coin. They answered, 5"\F"D@H — Kaisaros (Matt 22:21).

Jesus went on in the same context to ask Pharisees in Greek [He had spoken Greek to the Herodians and to the Sadducees] whose son was J@Ø OD4FJ@Ø. They answered the son of David. And Jesus cited the first verse of Psalm 110 to them, a verse that cannot be understood when heard orally in Hebrew, for the Tetragrammaton YHWH was never pronounced but was orally represented as Adonai with the signifier Adoni representing a human lord or ruler; hence both the Tetragrammaton YHWH and the signifier for a human lord sounded similar; so when Jesus began, +ÉB,< 6bD4@H Jè 6LD\è :@L — Said lord the lord of me (Matt 22:44), Jesus used Greek equivocation to pose an unanswerable question regardless of whether Jesus cited the Psalm in Hebrew or in Greek, for the direct English rendering of what Jesus said would have the second lord [6LD\è] being a modifier that identifies the first lord [6bD4@H] as in a person talking to him or herself, the person telling him or herself to set to the right of the person [5V2@L ¦6 *,>4ä< :@L — Sit on right of me].

As Jesus cited Psalm 110 (He correctly cited the psalm), the psalm could not be comprehended for the visual signifier [the inscribed image] of the Tetragrammaton YHWH needs to be seen for the signifier to make sense. And the man Jesus the Nazarene was the visual image of J@Ø OD4FJ@Ø, the Christ. If the Pharisees were as perceptive as they should have been, they would have had to admit that Jesus was the Christ, something they were not about to do. But if the Pharisees were as perceptive as all of Christendom has been, they would have been stymied by Greek equivocation—and a name like Homer Kizer.

As shadows and types, Israel in Egypt represents today’s greater Christendom, whereas Israel in the wilderness represents the post Second Passover Church and the children of Israel represents the third part of humankind that will be born of spirit when the kingdom of this world is given to the Son of Man halfway through the seven endtime years of tribulation.

The Apostle Paul claimed that Christians individually and collectively were the Body of Christ (1 Cor 12:27); thus, Paul’s individual struggle to do those things that were pleasing to God (Rom 7:7–25) reflected/reflects the struggle of all Christians, the struggle of the Body of Christ, with the Body doing those things that the Head [Christ Jesus] hates. And in a similar way, the similarity between my old man and myself illustrates in an individual what cannot be otherwise seen with eyes; i.e., the shadow and copy of human birth, spiritual birth and glorification:

My old man had one indwelling breath of life, the breath that came from the first Adam, the breath my old man received when he was humanly born on a farm in northern Indiana. I was humanly born with one breath of life: my old self was humanly born on a farm in northern Indiana, but was born spiritually dead; i.e., without any indwelling life except for that which my old man had. However, in 1972, I received a second breath of life, the breath of God [B<,Ø:" 1,@Ø], and my previously dead old self was born from above as a son of God—and I, like the children of Israel in the wilderness, began to follow Moses and Joshua/Jesus toward the Promised Land, a euphemistic expression for entering into God’s presence.

A shadow exists in one dimension less than the reality that casts the shadow; therefore, putting my old man and myself together as one entity, my old man becomes my old self, and my human birth becomes my spiritual birth, and my spiritual birth becomes my spiritual birth a second time, with the first spiritual birth coming from the Father raising the dead and with the second spiritual birth coming when the Son gives life to whom He will when judgments are revealed upon His coming. The first spiritual birth gave life to the dead inner self, and the second spiritual birth will see the perishable flesh put on immortality; for both the Father and the Son must give life (see John 5:21) to a human person before he or she can cross dimensions and enter heaven.

One breath of life is enough to give life to the fleshly body of the person, with the body of the person and its inner self being one physically living entity, consigned to disobedience (Rom 11:32) as a slave of the Adversary as Israel in Egypt was the slave of Pharaoh.

The Apostle Paul wrote,

And you [Ephesians] were dead in the trespasses and sins in which you once walked, following the course of this world, following the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that is now at work in the sons of disobedience—among whom we all once lived in the passions of our flesh, carrying out the desires of the body and the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, like the rest of mankind. (Eph 2:1–3)

When the inner self of the person carries out the desires of the mind and the body (these desires originating as appetites of the belly and the loins), and the person lives in the passions of the flesh regardless of whether these passions are lawful and good or sinful and evil, the person remains a son of disobedience, a slave of the Adversary, a child of wrath upon whom judgment will come after the Thousand Years (i.e., in the great White Throne Judgment). But as Israel was called out from Egypt to follow Moses into freedom, foreknown and predestined slaves of the Adversary in this present era are drawn by the Father from this world (John 6:44) and chosen by Christ Jesus (John 15:16) to be disciples, and they are inwardly and individually liberated from sin. And about this liberation, Paul wrote,

But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which he loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ--by grace you have been saved—and raised us up with him and seated us with him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, so that in the coming ages he might show the immeasurable riches of his grace in kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. (Eph 2:4–7)

When a person has but one breath of life—but one birth—the person is as Israel was in Egypt, regardless of whether the person professes with his or her mouth that Jesus is Lord: if the person begins to follow Moses, keeping the commandments by faith, the person rebels against the Adversary and is as Moses was when the man Moses fled from Pharaoh and dwelt in the land of Midian. He or she lives as a free person, but as a fugitive from the Adversary; for no Passover liberation of Israel has yet occurred.

In the physical model—shadow or type—of the liberation of Israel/Israel, the Passover is the signifier of importance. Moses was not liberated from bondage to Pharaoh by the Passover, but by, when an infant, being placed in an ark of reeds and set adrift in the Nile, the river of Egypt. He was set adrift with life or death before him, but with death being an unlikely possibility for his sister watched over the ark. He was set adrift where he would be found by Pharaoh’s daughter, who, in turn, would have Moses’ own mother suckle him until he was old enough to enter into Pharaoh’s household as a weaned child—and this is the analogy that pertains to Christians truly born of God in this present era. These Christians must engage in commerce as members of the Adversary’s household, with buying and selling [making transactions] equating to the day-by-day activities of Pharaoh’s household in which Moses was engaged.

The problem with analogies is that one thing is not another thing; so analogies, metaphors, symbols breakdown and have to be explained in terms of their reality at some point … the Christian who is foreknown and predestined can be likened to Moses, who, though born a Hebrew and circumcised by his parents [the reason why Pharaoh’s daughter recognized him as a Hebrew baby — Ex 2:6], never lived as a slave of the Pharaoh but lived as a member of Pharaoh’s house. Only when Moses was older did Moses identify himself with his people, slaying the Egyptian who was beating the Hebrew (v. 12).

In Moses identifying himself with his people, Israel, Moses can be likened to the predestined Christian who, as a physical adult, leaves the freedom that this present world offers and identifies him or herself with Israel through keeping the commandments by faith, an act that leaves the person alienated from friends and family. This predestined Christian will now live as a foreigner in his or her land as Moses lived as a foreigner in Midian. When this predestined Christian is born of spirit through receiving a second breath of life varies from person to person, but in every case that moment can be likened to when Moses “looked this way and that, and seeing no one” (again, v. 12) Moses aligned himself with Israel. This is the moment when the predestined Christian finally identifies him or herself as a Christian through beginning to keep the commandments by faith, an act that murders disobedience.

But Moses was only one man and Israel was a nation of several million … foreknown and predestined Christians in this era are few in number, but they are the nation that the Lord intended to build from Moses from the beginning: it was not an accident of birth that Moses was born of the house of Levi, nor that the tribe of Levi was appointed to serve the Lord and to have no inheritance in Israel. A foreknown and predestined Christian has no inheritance in this world, nor does the foreknown Christian have any biological seed or offspring that is also foreknown and predestined. Rather, the predestined Christian is called through being foreknown to do a work for the Lord; i.e., to serve in the temple of God in heavenly Jerusalem.

The first covenant had at Mount Sinai was made with Israel and was ratified with blood (Ex 24:5–8) as an earthly covenant, a temporary [as the creation is temporary] covenant. However, the eternal second Sinai covenant is made with Moses and with Israel, two covenantees:

And the LORD said to Moses, "Write these words, for in accordance with these words I have made a covenant with you and with Israel." So he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights. He neither ate bread nor drank water. And he wrote on the tablets the words of the covenant, the Ten Commandments. (Ex 34:27–28 emphasis added)

The first Sinai covenant (Ex chap 20–24) is comparable to my old man whereas the second Sinai covenant made with Moses and with Israel is comparable to me, old self [Israel] and inner new self [Moses, because Moses entered into God’s presence hence the glory that shown from his face].

The work given to foreknown and predestined Christians is to lead Israel, following the Second Passover liberation of the nation, to the figurative plains of Moab where the Moses set before the children of Israel life and death:

See, I have set before you today life and good, death and evil. If you obey the commandments of the LORD your God that I command you today, by loving the LORD your God, by walking in his ways, and by keeping his commandments and his statutes and his rules, then you shall live and multiply, and the LORD your God will bless you in the land that you are entering to take possession of it. But if your heart turns away, and you will not hear, but are drawn away to worship other gods and serve them, I declare to you today, that you shall surely perish. You shall not live long in the land that you are going over the Jordan to enter and possess. I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your offspring may live, loving the LORD your God, obeying his voice and holding fast to him, for he is your life and length of days, that you may dwell in the land that the LORD swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them. (Deut 30:15–20)

Moses didn’t offer Israel in Egypt life or death, but meddled in Israel’s affairs to such an extent that after the Passover, “the people of Israel … said to Moses, ‘Is it because there are no graves in Egypt that you have taken us away to die in the wilderness? What have you done to us in bringing us out of Egypt? Is not this what we said to you in Egypt: “Leave us alone that we may serve the Egyptians”? For it would have been better for us to serve the Egyptians than to die in the wilderness’” (Ex 14:10–12). Foreknown and predestined Christians as a reality represented by Moses will be cursed by greater Christendom, hunted down and martyred, betrayed and abandoned following the Second Passover liberation of Israel. It will be the third part of humankind (from Zech 13:9) in the Endurance of Jesus that will believe the words of foreknown and predestined Christians.

It will be this third part of humankind, born of spirit when the world is baptized in spirit (from Joel 2:28), that will equate to the children of Israel that followed Joshua/Jesus into God’s presence. It is this third part of humankind that also symbolizes the living inner new self, born of spirit when the foreknown and predestined, called, justified, and glorified Christian receives a second breath of life, the breath of the Father [B<,Ø:" 1,@Ø], with glorification certain to occur.

Again, the Passover as a signifier divides Christian from Christians, with being born of God being an unseen marker as being set adrift in an ark of reeds separated Moses from Israel, the nation that followed Moses on dry land across the Sea of Reeds, with Egyptians producing their writing paper from these reeds. Therefore, following the death of the Body of Christ late in the 1^st-Century (analogous to Pharaoh enslaving the people of Israel through dealing shrewdly with them — Ex 1:10) and until the Second Passover liberation of Israel early in the 21^st-Century, every truly born of spirit Christian can be likened to Moses and is of Moses, a man predestined to lead Israel out from bondage to Pharaoh.

But Moses did not enter the Promised Land that allegorically represented entering into God’s rest, God’s presence. Rather, Moses directly entered into the presence of the Lord, seeing the backside of the Lord. And the difference between Moses and Israel is that the Lord called Moses, commanding Moses to come to Him atop Mount Sinai, whereas the children of Israel entered into a type of God’s presence, a shadow and copy of God’s presence, actually two shadows and copies of God’s presence, the Promised Land itself and Sabbath observance. As foreknown and predestined Christians are called, justified, and glorified, Moses was foreknown and predestined to lead Israel out from bondage to Pharaoh; thus he was called by the Lord, justified (e.g., in the matter of the Ethiopian woman), and glorified, with the glory that shown from Moses’ face representing the glorification of those Christians who are of Moses.

One shadow; one example; two realities, the first pertaining to Moses and the second pertaining to Israel [circumcised of heart Christendom], with Moses being separate from Israel yet of Israel from infancy. Foreknown and predestined Christians—all of whom will be Sabbatarians when they identify themselves with Israel and are thus born of God as sons—represent one Christianity; whereas those Christians who today make a practice of sinning but who will be liberated from indwelling sin and death at the Second Passover represent a second Christianity, with these two forms of Christendom conjoined to function as one as Moses was one with Israel in the wilderness but was separated from Israel by geography before the Passover and separated by the veil that covered his face after Sinai, the veil concealing the glory that shone on his face from having entered into the presence of the Lord. Only for the short period between the Passover liberation of Israel and Sinai was Moses truly one with Israel; only for the short while, 220 days, between the Second Passover liberation of Israel and when the lawless one will be revealed (from 2 Thess 2:3) are foreknown and predestined Christians one with their Christian brothers who are born of God and born filled-with and empowered by spirit at the Second Passover.

The glory that comes via predestination is concealed from other Christians so that they “might not gaze at the outcome of what [is] being brought to an end” (2 Cor 3:13); for their minds are hardened so that whenever they heard Christ preached, they seek the lawless traditions of their ancestors so as not to antagonize the Adversary, who remains their Lord as Pharaoh continued to rule over Israel until the day that his firstborn son and every firstborn of man and beast in Egypt was suddenly slain. Yes, greater Christendom remains as a bondservant of sin, evidenced by its practice of worshiping on the day after the Sabbath [J± :4” Jä< F"$$VJT<] instead of on the Sabbath—and no one born of God makes a practice of sinning, of transgressing the commandments, of transgressing the Sabbath commandment (see 1 John 3:9). Therefore, the Christian that does his or her business on the Sabbath and who then seeks to enter into God’s rest on the following day is not today born of God, but will be so-born when the Second Passover liberation of Israel occurs.

Where most Sabbatarian Christians err is in not recognizing the Eighth-Day Christian Church as being analogous to Israel in Egypt; where most Sabbatarians err is in believing that they alone hold the keys to heaven when most Sabbatarians are as spiritually lifeless as are Christians within the Eighth-Day Church. Only foreknown and predestined Christians will be born of God as sons prior to the Second Passover liberation of Israel; for there were not many Hebrews reared in Pharaoh’s household, or who escaped into the land of Midian—there was only one, Moses, a man alone in his generation.

After being rejected by Israel as its prince, Moses was not inclined to help Israel escape from Pharaoh: he had to be convinced, with the Lord sending Aaron to be Moses’ spokesman to do that convincing … foreknown and predestined Christians—again, all Sabbatarians—have to have love for their brothers enslaved by the Adversary but believing that they are free. And it is not easy to have love for brothers that mock disciples as Jesus’ brothers mocked Him when they said to Him, “‘Leave here and go to Judea, that your disciples also may see the works you are doing. For no one works in secret if he seeks to be known openly. If you do these things, show yourself to the world’” (John 7:3–4).

Can a foreknown and predestined Christian be lost? Could Moses have been swallowed by the Nile? The answer to both questions is, yes, but not really. For Christ Jesus is in charge of every foreknown and predestined Christian’s salvation as Moses’ sister “stood at a distance to know what would be done to him” (Ex 2:4).

Because of the inherent exclusiveness of predestination, the subject has become taboo within cultural Christianity … the Apostle Paul writes,

For Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes. For Moses writes about the righteousness that is based on the law, that the person who does the commandments shall live by them. But the righteousness based on faith says, "Do not say in your heart, 'Who will ascend into heaven?'" (that is, to bring Christ down) or "'Who will descend into the abyss?'" (that is, to bring Christ up from the dead). But what does it say? "The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart" (that is, the word of faith that we proclaim); because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved. For the Scripture says, "Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame." For there is no distinction between Jew and Greek; for the same Lord is Lord of all, bestowing his riches on all who call on him. For "everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved." (Rom 10:4–13 emphasis)

If there is no distinction between Jew and Greek for the same Christ Jesus is Lord of all, then whom does Paul reference when he quotes from Moses concerning the righteous? For Moses wrote,

And when all these things come upon you [the children of Israel], the blessing and the curse, which I have set before you, and you call them to mind among all the nations where the LORD your God has driven you, and return to the LORD your God, you and your children, and obey his voice in all that I command you today, with all your heart and with all your soul, then the LORD your God will restore your fortunes and have compassion on you, and he will gather you again from all the peoples where the LORD your God has scattered you. … And the LORD your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your offspring, so that you will love the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul, that you may live. … And you shall again obey the voice of the LORD and keep all his commandments that I command you today. … For the LORD will again take delight in prospering you, as he took delight in your fathers, when you obey the voice of the LORD your God, to keep his commandments and his statutes that are written in this Book of the Law, when you turn to the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul. For this commandment that I command you today is not too hard for you, neither is it far off. It is not in heaven, that you should say, “Who will ascend to heaven for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?” Neither is it beyond the sea, that you should say, “Who will go over the sea for us and bring it to us, that we may hear it and do it?” But the word is very near you. It is in your mouth and in your heart, so that you can do it. (Deut 30:1–14 emphasis added)

Are the righteous not those children of Israel who, when in a far land, turn by faith to the Lord and begin to keep his commandments and do all that Moses commands in the Book of Deuteronomy [the Book of the Second Law], with this Moab covenant (see Deut 29:1) neither being too difficult to keep nor far from the children of Israel, but in the mouth and in the heart of the Israelite who has been circumcised of heart. Therefore, Gentiles who by definition are of the nations and are far from the Lord—therefore when Gentiles, by faith, turn to the Lord and begin to keep the commandments and do all that Moses commands the mixed circumcised and uncircumcised children of Israel to do on the plains of Moab, will not these Gentiles be called Jews, Israel? For Paul also writes,

For circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision. So, if a man who is uncircumcised keeps the precepts of the law, will not his uncircumcision be regarded as circumcision? Then he who is physically uncircumcised but keeps the law will condemn you who have the written code and circumcision but break the law. For no one is a Jew who is merely one outwardly, nor is circumcision outward and physical. But a Jew is one inwardly, and circumcision is a matter of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the letter. His praise is not from man but from God. (Rom 2:25–29 emphasis added)

The Observant Jew who professes that Jesus is Lord and believes that the Father raised Jesus from death, and the Gentile who believing that Jesus is Lord begins to keep the commandments by faith and do all that Moses wrote in the Book of Deuteronomy stand on the same theological constructs although they arrived from opposing directions. Both will be considered righteous according to the eternal Moab covenant—eternal because the Moab covenant was ratified by a song, a better sacrifice than blood (see Heb 9:23).

If Christ Jesus is the end of the Law, then with Christ Jesus came the end of outwardly circumcised Israel being the firstborn son of God … Christ is not the end of righteousness—to even suggest such nonsense is heresy—which is outwardly manifested through keeping the commandments by Jew and Greek.

Every Christian pundit that looks to the modern State of Israel and to earthly Jerusalem for fulfillment of endtime prophecies about Israel looks amiss … Israel is today two nations, a small nation built from Moses through foreknown and predestined disciples of Christ Jesus, and a much larger nation built from enslaved Israel through Christians that make a practice of sinning, of transgressing the commandments, of profaning the Sabbaths of God, their daily disobedience serving as neck yokes and leg shackles that prevent these Christians from escaping sin—

Are we to sin because we are not under law but under grace? By no means! Do you not know that if you present yourselves to anyone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one whom you obey, either of sin, which leads to death, or of obedience, which leads to righteousness? But thanks be to God, that you who were once slaves of sin have become obedient from the heart to the standard of teaching to which you were committed, and, having been set free from sin, have become slaves of righteousness. I am speaking in human terms, because of your natural limitations. For just as you once presented your members as slaves to impurity and to lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves to righteousness leading to sanctification. (Rom 6:15–19 emphasis added)

In using human terms, greater Christendom has not presented its members to righteousness, but instead relies upon the righteousness of Christ Jesus to cover [clothe] Christendom’s ongoing impurity and lawlessness, thereby soiling the garment of grace from the inside out to such an extent that the Body of the Son of Man will be disrobed, revealed, made naked, and condemned for its lawlessness. But this stripping away of grace doesn’t seem to be of any real concern to Christians, who blissfully continue to mock Christ Jesus by attempting to enter into the presence of God on the day after the Sabbath.

Jesus used the parable of the Wedding Supper to address the mocking of Israel:

The kingdom of heaven may be compared to a king who gave a wedding feast for his son, and sent his servants to call those who were invited to the wedding feast, but they would not come. Again he sent other servants, saying, “Tell those who are invited, See, I have prepared my dinner, my oxen and my fat calves have been slaughtered, and everything is ready. Come to the wedding feast.” But they paid no attention and went off, one to his farm, another to his business, while the rest seized his servants, treated them shamefully, and killed them. The king was angry, and he sent his troops and destroyed those murderers and burned their city. Then he said to his servants, “The wedding feast is ready, but those invited were not worthy. Go therefore to the main roads and invite to the wedding feast as many as you find.” And those servants went out into the roads and gathered all whom they found, both bad and good. So the wedding hall was filled with guests. But when the king came in to look at the guests, he saw there a man who had no wedding garment. And he said to him, “Friend, how did you get in here without a wedding garment?” And he was speechless. Then the king said to the attendants, “Bind him hand and foot and cast him into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” For many are called, but few are chosen. (Matt 22:2–14 emphasis added)

Those gathered from wherever they could be found, bad and good, can be liked to the third part of humankind, born of spirit when the single kingdom of this world is given to the Son of Man on day 1260 of the Affliction. They can be likened to the children of Israel, circumcised and uncircumcised, that followed Joshua/Jesus across the Jordan and into God’s rest. They are made righteous through being filled-with and empowered by the divine breath of God.

Christianity is exclusive; for many are called but few are chosen. Few will, by faith and out of love for God, clothe themselves with righteousness. The many are quick to wear the garment of Christ Jesus’ righteousness, grace, but they refuse to redeem the time they have been given to practice walking uprightly before God, what they will need to do when the Son of Man is revealed (Luke 17:30). They will then need to clothe themselves in their own righteousness, with righteousness not being a garment that can be spun from threads of dishonesty and deceitfulness, nor quickly fabricated from untested obedience. Therefore, they will be found without a wedding garment; they will be found wearing filthy garb; and they will be condemned to the lake of fire.

The words that Jesus spoke were the works of the Father (John 14:10), and the testimonies of Jesus’ first disciples—the words that these disciples wrote—constitute the works of Jesus. Likewise, the words that I write now constitute the works of the Apostles, and the words that the third part of humanity will speak when they say, “‘The LORD is my God’” (Zech 13:9), will be my works.

Works before God is not keeping the commandments, or even sacrificing the good things of this world. Rather, works are the manifested words of God delivered by a succeeding generation. Thus, for the first disciples to do greater works than Jesus did (John 1412) isn’t for these disciples to heal more lame or blind individuals, or to raise more individuals from death, but to have endtime disciples deliver the words of God with greater power and to more people than the first disciples reached with their testimonies about what Jesus did and said. So the words of the first disciples in the 1^st-Century become the works of these first disciples in the 21^st-Century—and the words of endtime disciples in the 21^st-Century prior to the Second Passover liberation of Israel become the works of these endtime disciples when the third part of humankind in the Endurance of Jesus confesses that Jesus is Lord, and believes that the Father raised Jesus from death.

The works of the churches in Ephesus, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, Laodicea began as the words each of these churches delivered, words that cause greater Christendom in the Affliction to profess that Jesus is Lord, words that will be uttered by faithful disciples as they are martyred by their brothers in Christ. The works of the Nicolaitans are the words, the teachings of heavy-handed, authority-loving Sabbatarians, teachings that appear and reappear in the words of Christians in the Affliction.

Now, to address a hanging question: I was called to reread prophecy as Paul was called to know the will of God; thus, his many epistles (14 epistles) form the shadow and copy of my many written words and become his works with my writings. The epistles of John and of Peter form the shadow and copy of the spoken words of the two witnesses, called from the beginning to do a work for Christ Jesus. And the epistles of James and Jude form the shadow and copy of the words uttered by saints in the Affliction and Endurance … what shall now be said of the gospels and of Acts?

Paul wrote,

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. For those whom he foreknew he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, in order that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. And those whom he predestined he also called, and those whom he called he also justified, and those whom he justified he also glorified. What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? (Rom 8:28–31 emphasis added)

How does Paul writing that those whom He predestined He also called square with Jesus saying that many are called but few are chosen when it would seem that those whom He called He also justified, and those whom He justified He also glorified? Is there not an inherent conflict between these many are called but few are chosen and those whom God called He glorified?

The apparent conflict lays in believing that every Christian is foreknown and predestined to be called, justified, and glorified when this is simply not so … whereas there was one Israel that was not born of spirit, with this one Israel worshiping one deity—for Israel considered Moses to be part of the nation of Israel and did not realize that Moses was a separate covenantee with the Lord—there are two nations of Israel that will be circumcised of heart, neither of which is today’s outwardly circumcised nation of Israel.

Although Paul wrote,

For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit. For the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot should say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear should say, "Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body," that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, "I have no need of you," nor again the head to the feet, "I have no need of you." On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together. Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. (1 Cor 12:12–27 emphasis added)

God chose who would be in the Body of Christ, and where the person would fit into the Body, according to Paul … is a Latter Day Saint one with a Roman Catholic, or is a Jehovah Witness one with a Lutheran? They are not one with each other. Although all four denominations believe that Jesus is the Christ, the four denominations baptize into differing bodies and drink of differing spirits; so is one denomination genuine while the others are not? If so, which is genuine? Certainly the genuine denomination does not make a practice of lawlessness; for the saints are those who keep the commandments and their faith in Jesus (Rev 14:12). And which of the four denominations doesn’t make a practice of transgressing the Sabbath commandment?

What Paul didn’t realize is that the Body had to die and be buried in the heart of the earth—in the dust of this world—and then be resurrected from death on the third day (Luke 24:46) of the “P” creation account. What Paul wrote about the Body being one pertained to the 1^st-Century Church; i.e., to the Body of Christ before it died from want of the Holy Spirit at the end of the 1^st-Century CE. What Paul wrote about the Body being one also pertains to the 21^st-Century Church after the Second Passover liberation of Israel. And what Paul wrote about the Body being one additionally pertains to foreknown and predestined Christians during the seventy weeks/years between the 16^th-Century and the 21^st-Century, but what Paul wrote about the Body being one doesn’t pertain to the ghost of Christendom that haunted this world for 1900 years [between 102 CE and 2002 CE].

When the one Christianity that consists of predestined disciples is joined to the one Christianity that is resurrected from death at the Second Passover, these two circumcised-of-heart nations of Israel will become one nation of Israel as the House of Israel and the House Judah—together—become Israel under the New Covenant (cf. Jer 31:31, 33):

The word of the LORD came to me [Ezekiel]: "Son of man, take a stick and write on it, 'For Judah, and the people of Israel associated with him'; then take another stick and write on it, 'For Joseph (the stick of Ephraim) and all the house of Israel associated with him.' And join them one to another into one stick, that they may become one in your hand. And when your people say to you, 'Will you not tell us what you mean by these?' say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I am about to take the stick of Joseph (that is in the hand of Ephraim) and the tribes of Israel associated with him. And I will join with it the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, that they may be one in my hand.

“When the sticks on which you write are in your hand before their eyes, then say to them, Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I will take the people of Israel from the nations among which they have gone, and will gather them from all around, and bring them to their own land. And I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel. And one king shall be king over them all, and they shall be no longer two nations, and no longer divided into two kingdoms. They shall not defile themselves anymore with their idols and their detestable things, or with any of their transgressions. But I will save them from all the backslidings in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them; and they shall be my people, and I will be their God.

“My servant David shall be king over them, and they shall all have one shepherd. They shall walk in my rules and be careful to obey my statutes. They shall dwell in the land that I gave to my servant Jacob, where your fathers lived. They and their children and their children's children shall dwell there forever, and David my servant shall be their prince forever. I will make a covenant of peace with them. It shall be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will set them in their land and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in their midst forevermore. My dwelling place shall be with them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. Then the nations will know that I am the LORD who sanctifies Israel, when my sanctuary is in their midst forevermore.” (Ezek 37:15–28)

When the house of Israel is again joined to the house of Judah to become one nation of Israel and David is that nation’s king, there will be one Israel here on earth, and one Israel that is glorified and with God in a manner foreshadowed today by greater Christendom not now being born of God whereas foreknown and predestined Christians are born of God.

As Jesus walked on the sea and as Moses walked on dry land, the things of God have no substance [mass/weight] in this world whereas the things of this world are anchored here and cannot enter heaven. The nation of Israel in the Millennium will be both circumcised of heart and circumcised in the flesh and thus be of God and of this world as the shadow and copy the two nations of Israel that will then be, the one here on earth and the one in heaven. The nation of Israel in the Millennium will be as I will be after the Second Passover liberation of Israel; i.e., born of God and filled-with and empowered by the breath of God while being circumcised in the flesh.

I have been reluctant to write this piece for it seems self-serving—I know that—but in not writing this piece, I may have delayed what should have happened earlier this year, thereby causing a year or more to be added into a schedule of events sure to happen. Paul warns disciples, “For by the grace given to me I say to everyone among you not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think with sober judgment, each according to the measure of faith that God has assigned” (Rom 12:3 emphasis added). Therefore, I have strived to avoid writing things that exalt myself, making the argument that I write [the apology] the thing that is of importance, not the one delivering the argument. So I have not exploited a tool given by either an accident of birth or by design of Christ Jesus, that tool being my name, first and last. … “It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out” (Prov 25:2). Jesus was born as a king to search out, to reveal those things that God had concealed from humankind. He will come again as the Messiah, as the King of kings, each of whom has searched out and revealed what had been concealed in a manner seen by me, a Kizer [Gr: 5"\F"D-], seeking out the things of God.

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