Straight Talk from Tom (#2)

This series is for the purpose of calling each to a superior method of discovering God’s Truth and that is from knowing that the Holy Spirit is the source of all truth. As pastors, teachers, or lay-witnesses, we want to teach as we have learned or have been taught and that is with good intention, however, most of what we know has come from someone else and IT’S NOT ALL THE SAME. Absolute truth must be our only goal.

If you were to visually scan the skyline or mountains of Haiti (as I have) and study the structures built there, you would witness many—many versions of plum and level, because (as they say) “In Haiti there are mountains and beyond that, more mountains. “Therefore, each builder sets his stones or posts according to what he feels in level or plum—and that is determined by the lay of the land. As a pilot I have learned that there are several methods of navigation: Fly by roads, IFR, Dead Reckoning, and GPS. When disoriented by reduced visibility or spatial disorientation the pilot must remember to trust his instruments—they don’t lie, no matter how you feel. In the same way we must trust and seek to understand God’s Word, it is the Rock. God’s Word is the Plum Line and He will judge accordingly. Isaiah 28:16,17..

For many years I have traveled to Haiti to continue a work my father started. It’s a dangerous place to be and my wife was quick to copy my itinerary to put her copy on the refrigerator so she could anticipate my return. As soon as I landed in Miami I would call and assure her that I was back in the states. My darling is time-zone impaired so knowing the exact hour to expect my call was her challenge. I always knew that she would shriek with joy hearing my voice. I often wondered how I might react should she be surprised at my call—or worse, fail to recognize my voice. Should our desire to understand His Return be upgraded to that of my bride?

In our journey of understanding His Return we can use the tool mentioned earlier; Type and Anti-type. Even understanding this term takes some study, but simply, it is; ‘a similar event that foreshadows another’.

The earliest event I can think of that exercises foreshadowing is when God prepared the earth by creating a suitable state for the testing of our soul. Taking six days for work, then the seventh designated as the Sabbath, the Lord implemented a pattern that will set our framework for understanding. In his second letter, Peter speaks about the coming of the Lord and the large framework of God’s times, then he adds balance, “But do not forget this one thing, dear friends: With the Lord a day is like a thousand years, and a thousand years are like a day.” (3:8). I can’t believe that God is oblivious to time as we understand, but rather that He is very organized and methodical in design. The thousand-year reign of Christ (Rev. 20:1-6) can be seen as His Sabbath, a time of holy rest, while the six-thousand years previous are that of labor and testing. Furthermore, the Sabbatical Reign of Christ is a time for the lovers of God, the Bride of Christ—the Blessed.

Many teachers and faiths teach that the Millennium is like a second chance for those who missed Christ at His Second Coming. They come up with that because they do not understand: The First Resurrection, Gog and Magog and the term; Blessed. Jimmy Swaggart and the World Wide Church of God are just a couple of groups who have adopted this heresy. Like a set of book-ends Daniel 12:12 and Revelation 20:6 tell of the Blessed who come and have part in the First Resurrection which lives in the Millennium. When we define the terms of Gog and Magog and The First Resurrection later, you will see how wonderfully God has planned these days.