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CHURCH LETTER
Grace and peace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ
` Is there anything of which it may be said, `I see this new'?
The words of our title come from the Book of Ecclesiastes, wherein we hear the words of the Koheleth calling together his close advisers to hear the `wisdom' of Solomon concerning what appears to be a paradox - that is, seemingly contradictory, even absurd words, which when quietly accepted did eventually prove to be true. This is particularly true when we seek the Lord's purpose today and are surrounded by the opinions of the many! Most certainly Solomon was given wisdom by the LORD, for we read of it in 1 Kings 3 where it is recorded: `In Gibeon the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream by night, and God said, Ask, and I will give you'. Solomon asked for wisdom and an understanding heart, for he knew that, `I am but a little child; I know not how to go out or come in. And Your servant is in the midst of Your people'. Following on from his father David, a man after God's own heart, Solomon faced the daunting task of walking in his father's footsteps, and so he asked for wisdom concerning:
" Your great people whom You have chosen, a great people . . . . For who is able to judge Your great people? His words pleased the LORD, that he had asked this thing. And God said to him, . . . . `Behold, I have done according to your words. Lo, I have given you a wise and understanding heart'."
The paradox arose through Solomon's knowledge that the kingdom of his father David was a Covenanted Promise of the LORD, and therefore inviolate. We read of this in 1 Chronicles 17 (and elsewhere) where Nathan, the mouthpiece of the LORD, spoke to David: (v 11-14)
" And it shall come to pass when your days are ended . . . that I will raise up your seed after you, who will be of your sons, and I will establish his kingdom . . . . And I will establish him in My House and in My Kingdom forever; and his throne shall be established forever."
Solomon also knew that he had displeased the LORD, for we read in 1 Kings 11 (v7-13):
" Then Solomon built a high place for Chemosh, the abomination of Moab . . . . So the LORD was angry with Solomon because his heart was turned away from the LORD God of Israel . . . . Therefore the LORD said to Solomon: `Because you have done this . . . I will surely rend the kingdom from you and and give it to your servant . . . . However I will not rend away all the kingdom but will give one tribe to your son for the sake of My servant David, and for the sake of Jerusalem, which I have chosen'. "
The whole of Scripture is `inspired by God', and neither Solomon nor those who have followed on from him doubt that although there were, and still are, many who favour a `pick and mix' form of Scripture which fits neatly in with their own opinions. However we now see that although the LORD gave Solomon a great gift of wisdom he did not always use that wisdom - a salutary word for today for those who claim infallible wisdom through the Holy Spirit Who dwells within every believer! Solomon's great position and great wisdom did not stop him from being enticed by pride, for God's wisdom is often hidden behind man's `wisdom', and only with time can it be seen when quietly thought about and proven to be true. And so in Ecclesiastes we find Solomon, older now but still trusting the words of the LORD in what could be said to be `seemingly contradictory or even absurd words'. We see this in verse 10 of the first chapter: `Is there anything of which it may be said, `I see, this is new? It has already been in ancient times, which were before us'. Solomon had at last expressed the gift of wisdom he had asked for, and he believed in the apparant paradox that the LORD was outworking both His inspired words in and through the events of time which we call history. As the Apostle Paul wrote later, `It is required that those who have been given a trust, as stewards be found faithful'.
This has been a lengthy background to this Letter, but it is required to emphasise the obvious, that behind history, behind man's works, lays the outworking of God's purpose of His Everlasting Kingdom. `Change' seems to pervade the very air we breathe these days, together with dire warnings of things to come - indeed change is to be expected in the modern world in which we live. At times these changes can lead into a paradigm shift, which means permenantly changing what has gone before, such as was seen in the Reformation of Martin Luther's time. However in this Letter we are looking at events within a Parabola context (a Latin word which comes from the Greek with the meaning of `side by side from a throw'. Its origins, or rather its computing lays with Archimedes, a Greek mathematician of the 3rd century BC. A Parabola is used today in mathematics and science for working out formulae, as used in the civil engineering of great architectural buildings with soaring arches. It takes the form of an arching curve with one fixed line cutting through the highest point of the curve with (for our Parabola) two fixed straight lines of equal length drawn out of the one fixed line and touching the curve of the Parabola.
Our Parabola - `the one fixed line cutting through the highest point of the curve' - is dated 1967, with the other two dated 1917 and 2017, and you will have noticed that all three dates are Scriptural Jubilee Years. Using a football to illustrate our Parabola, we know that when kicked from the ground it soars into the air, reaching up in an invisible curving line to a high point before falling to the ground from whence it came, albeit in a different place. As the ball is thrust up against gravity it draws behind it some of the energy that propelled it upwards, and on reaching that highest point the ball is then pulled downwards by gravity, bringing in its train a `remembrance' (we can think of no better word) of the high point in which there was no stressful force, together with a sense of the original propelling force. Thereafter the ball falls to the ground to complete its arching curve, its Parabola. In this Letter we are looking at three Parabolas with the titles of:`Historio-Political'; `the Mystery Kingdom (of Christianty)'; and `the Messianic Kingdom', each one hidden behind the other so as to be indistinguishable one from the other, and only discerned with spiritual eyes which are firmly fixed on Scripture. We will see that in this `three in one Parabola', each one with the same curve of history and the same historical date lines touching the curve, the LORD God of Israel is bringing to fulness His Covenanted Promise to Israel, which is the Davidic Messianic Kingdom of God on earth!
And so to our first Parabola, the Historio-Political `curve'. Remember that we are using a `football' example, so clearly the `kick off' did not start at the first fixed line of 1917. We need to begin at an earlier time, for it was the culture of that earlier time that was behind the upward move of the Historio-Political line, now carried in the politics of 1917 before it continued its upward move to a `higher point'. Late 19th century through to the early 20th century found English politics centred on two great political parties, at that time known as the Whigs and the Tories, with the Whigs (known today as the Liberal Party) dominating Parliament. The titles `Whigs and Tories' were abusive names used by either side, the meaning of which came from Irish or Scottish words for `outlaws' and `cattle rustlers'. (Such is the nature of the English Parliament, which even today is confrontational and combative!) The Whigs were a radical party which supported full Free Trade policies and a `controlled' Constitutional Monarchy and had originated out of the turmoil of the English Civil War. The Tories were a collection of Royalists which upheld the supreme power of absolute Monarchy, supported by the great Land Owners of Aristocracy with an acute awareness of tradition and the security of the nation. In the late 1900's the Liberals, secure in their dominant governing position in Parliament, were losing their radical ideology and were concerned at the emergence of a new Radical Party. The newcomers were eventually known as the Labour Party, and took on the `radical mantle' of the earlier Whigs.
This new Labour Party, as the representative of the emerging Trade Union Movement, was the voice of the lower-working class agitating for representation in Parliament. But so as to divide this new radicalism the Liberals entered into a secret pact with them by agreeing to thirty uncontested seats in the 1906 General Election. The result was to give the Liberals a huge majority of 401 seats and 29 seats in Parliament to the new Labour Party, giving them a foothold from which to work. By the General Election of 1918 `the Franchise Act' had been passed, tripling the electorate and giving the vote to working-class men and women who supported the new radical Labour Party. In droves they abandoned the Liberal Party, which by then was dominated by the upper-class Gentry and aspiring working-class men. The 1918 General Election was a turning point in English politics, for the Liberal Party, beset with internal politics and scandals, degenerated into a rump Liberal party of little or no consequence in Parliament - which still found itself with just two confronational Parties, the Conservatives and the new radical Labour Party. 1917 was also a time of national distress and collective anxiety as the `Great War' was drawing towards an exhausted Armistice, after which the armies would be released back into national life, leaving hundreds of thousands of men determined to gain a better life for themselves. The new radical Labour Party was there ready to greet them!
The roots of the Labour Party had a strong Christian-Socialist ethos, coming from the Trade Union Movement which drew heavily upon the ideals of the French and American Revolutions that all men are created equal - and with their all-embracing cry of `Liberty, Equality, Fraternity'. This swept throughout Western Europe as the mass of people sensed that freedom from the past had come! Both English political Parties understood this mass movement, and they responded in fear of their very survival. The Labour Movement curtailed their dreams of revolutionary brotherhood of all peoples, and the Conservatives constrained their ideas of a `God-ordained' elite aristocracy called to rule over the people of their nation as representatives of an absolute Monarchy, albeit now `controlled'. Both political Parties now emerged with a social agenda embracing the whole of the people's aspirations and traditions. But yet behind this new face there still lay the conflicting ideologies of Free Universal Trade and Internationalism of the people, and the deep-seated Paternalism of an elite called to rule. During this time came the realisation that a dramatic social and economic change had occurred from the 1917 `point of history'. This gradually evolved as the 1918 Armistice gave way to the second part of the Great War - which finally ended in 1945.
An unspoken, but real, compromise was reached between the rich elite - whose wealth had been directed towards what we would now call Capitalism, with its commercial interests lying in the emerging American-style mass production, which needed a world market - and the new social interest of the working class people. Both interests would be channelled into a manufacturing-consumer economic cycle, releasing untold wealth, and, therefore, power to the elite and a contented prosperity for the mass of the people. This newly developing universal economic power-base was held in check at this point by the developing sense of National Identity - a coming to maturity of democratic rule `by the people for the people! Emerging from the historical date of 1917 came the full authority of Democracy, which alone held back the full flood of Capitalism for its commercial interests were largely subordinate to State authority. However consumerism, `the opiate of the people', began to take its toll as disilusioned people saw, after that initial surge, a return to the old class war, with a new elite made wealthy through full-blown Capitalism using their wealth to manage and manipulate the democratic system and ever looking for the means to satisfy an indolent, dependent people who were enjoying the Social Welfare State and a consumer life-style. Various economic crises began to rear up, destroying the illusion of untold and unearned wealth. New economies developed which needed ever less manual labour, for mass consumerism as an economic model moves towards wealth accumulation through the Stock Exchange, in buying and selling businesses to create wealth for the already-wealthy at the expense of democratic equality. Political Parties, for their very existence, had to change! Democracy was being tamed, brought under the control of International Business interests which began to change the whole of democratic culture. As we have briefly set out, the upward movement of our historical Parabola must, by the very nature of its upward thrust, lead to a change into something new, and yet `dragging' with it an element of its past.
1967 reaches the high point of the upward thrust of our `historical ball', and beyond that it then begins its downward movement to complete the curve. 1967 saw the `despairing peak' of Democracy, not only in Great Britain but throughout the world. Its peak was seen in the Hippie Movement, Flower Power and `Cool Britannia', but beyond this colourful, rebellious facade lay revolutionary forces, and within those revolutionary forces lay a host of smaller groups embracing `causes' from Social Concern through to larger issues. This could be said to be an extension of positive enlargement by colourful people, but it can also be said that politicians of all Parties are increasingly being forced to govern through very aggressive `single issue' groups which lobby to secure legislation for change for the interest of minorities, ranging from the whole gambit of sexual and social change through to including a `Rainbow Coalition' dedicated to revolutionary change. Even smaller groups have increasingly grown in number, ranging from numerous self-help groups to `vigilante policing', their activities funded largely by various `free' Lotteries. It could be said that this is all to the good and is an expression of democratic participation, but it is also an indicator of political withdrawal from a social democratic system which is governed by elected representatives of the majority with responsibility for the minority!
As democratic rule withdraws it turns to other sources of wealth, outsourcing the many Agencies to commercial interests who have their own agenda for wealth creation. This outsourcing ranges from Health and Education to Prisons and semi-Judicial activities such as Probation and After-Care Services, through to quasi-military involvement. As these commercial business activities increase and develop so too the democratic check on Capitalism retreats as vast amounts of National infrastructure and wealth move into faceless International commercial conglomerates, which can, and do determine International and Democratic Interests! A form of democratic rule is still evident (in modern words this is often called `hollowed-out' democratic rule), although it is no longer driven by popular needs but manipulated by publicity campaigns by political Parties - either in power or in opposition - seeking to persuade people what they need. In this way they become `shop keepers to the nation' rather than rulers, their ever-changing shop front displays (called policies) needed to increase `footfall and growth' (to use commercial language). Focus Groups and Independent Polls begin to increasingly form policies, together with the rise of the `Fourth Estate', that is, the mass media which began with the intention of reporting news but has ended up creating news so as to increase its own `footfall and growth'.
As our historical Parabola begins its downward fall it brings with it nostalgic remembrances of the peak of the curve, but increasingly an erosion of democratic rule occurs thereby allowing what was seen in the upward curve to reappear. As we have said before, this is seen when commercial interests are brought in to continue a form of democratic rule of government, but are now empty of social respnsibility. In radical terms this is called `a roll-back of State' for it allows Free Trade Capitalism to regain its foothold. Such is the nature of a Parabola, a movement upwards through a high point of the curve and then movement downwards at the same speed so as to keep in tension its stress point. This is different to a Paradigm Shift which has no fixed time limit and is only seen after tremendous change. The downwards movement of the Historio-Political Parabola began to be seen in 1986 through the deregulation of the London Stock Exchange - the so-called `Big Bang', which saw the London Stock Exchange become a private Limited Company. This led directly to the final crash of 2007, which began with the collapse of the Beares Stearns Bank and the bursting of the Housing Mortgage bubble. Earlier in America the downwards movement began when in 1980 it de-regulated its Stock Exchange. Banks were bailed out by Governments and economical rule was regained by Free Trade Institutions who were `too big to fail'.
The downwards curve also saw the European community begin to reveal its real intentions of a world-wide economic institution with developing political and military authority to bring in a Global Free Trade Customs Union under the control of a faceless unelected elite with untold wealth determining national politics. The high point of this Parabola in 1967 saw democratic rule `by the people for the people' holding in check unbridled Capitalism, whereas the year 2017 saw the demise of democratic rule and control. In 1917 we saw that this historical Parabola which was moving on its upward thrust was also under the control of the Free Trade elite of the Liberals (the old Whig Party) yet the nation was in great distress through war disrupting its economic life. The corresponding downward movement finds this country in the same situation, with economic and political life firmly under the control of Global Free Trade. We are also at a time of impending national economic distress as the European Union is reforming (but not changing) its vision as it comes `centre stage'. The surrounding nations add to this increasing world turmoil as this Historio-Political Parabola returns to the `ground' and waits for the Paradigm Shift which will take it to its end through the Great Tribulation yet to come . . . and beyond. It is now time to look at the next Parabola which is hidden directly behind the more clearly seen Historio-Political one - and again we use the same `point of entry' onto the Parabola, that of 1917, and curving up to the high point of 1967 before its downward move to 2017.
All these three dates mark Scriptural Jubilee Years `returning all things to their original Owner'. As with the first Parabola, clearly its upwards move started before 1917 and it too will complete its course beyond 2017. And so we will begin with an earlier time when, to use our `football' example once again, the ball was about to begin its movement into the Curve of History. We need to name this second Parabola `The Mystery Kingdom on an Apostolic curve proclaimimg the Kingdom of God, and this needs a short explanation. For the first mention of the Mystery Kingdom Parabola we need to turn to the Gospels, where we find Jesus in His great ministry of announcing that the Kingdom of God had come to God's chosen people. Freed from captivity and brought back into the Land, God's appointed time had come for them. The Promise of the Messianic Kingdom of the House of David in the Person of David's Greater Son, the Messiah Jesus, was theirs to accept. This begins our upward movement of The Mystery Kingdom of God! This is what Jesus offered to the Jewish nation! This was the long-awaited Messianic Kingdom! This was the cry of John the Baptist when he cried out: `Repent, for the Kingdom of Heaven is near. For this is He Who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah'.
That acceptance was not forthcoming, and so the Messianic Kingdom was carried over to another Parabola to be brought forth in God's appointed time. With the rejection of Jesus and the signs revealing whom He was, He began to speak of His Kingdom in parables. `Why', asked His disciples? `Because it is given to you, who do believe, to know the mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven'. Hence the title for our second Parabola, the `Mystery Kingdom' - which, hidden in the heart of God was now brought forth. We now move on to the time of `the Acts of the Apostles'. Jesus, crucified but now raised from the dead, just before His ascension into Heaven spoke to His assembled disciples in answer to their question: `Lord, will You at this time restore the Kingdom to Israel?' But they heard only: `It is not for you to know the times or seasons . . . But you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you shall be My witnesses in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth' This, then, gives us our `Mystery Kingdom on its Apostolic curve upwards into history. Its journey began when, `The day of Pentecost had fully come, and they were all with one accord in one place . . . And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit'.
A further rejection of the Messianic Kingdom came fourty years later, which led to the Great Diaspora of unrepentent, unredeemed Israel. The Mystery Kingdom now began its upwards curve! Not only was unredeemed Israel taken out of the Land, but also scattered with them throughout the known world, `even to the ends of the earth', were those who had responded to the Holy Spirit through Peter's proclamation in the Temple Court in Jerusalem. Redeemed Israel was now entrusted with the work that unredeemed Israel had rejected at that time. This was to proclaim that the Kingdom of God had come and entrance into that Kingdom was through acceptance of the Messiah Jesus alone. Indeed, the words which Jesus spoke to His disciples now came about: `Destroy this Temple, and in three days I will raise it up'. This was indeed fulfilled in His Resurrection, and further fulfilled in the Temple of God made of Living Stones who would now carry the Good News to the uttermost ends of the earth. The `Vicarious Presence of Christ Jesus' would be manifest throughout the world in His scattered `Temples'! In spiritual and Scriptural terms the Presence of God was always manifest in His Temple - and will be again in the Messianic Kingdom. But first let us return to our `Mystery Kingdom Parabola' and see the reality of this.
By 1917 the Apostolic Movement had become `the Church', and in the West Protestantism had become the dominant religious force, having overcome the once-powerful Roman Catholic tradition with its Pope as `the Vicar of Christ' ruling over the affairs of kings and princes. Regardless of various times of dominance, the Western Church was by 1917 in the strong grip of clericalism undergirded by classical academic thought and practice, with both tied into a `Throne and Altar' mindset. However 1917 was a Jubilee Year, one in which the Lord of His people was returning His work to Himself as its Owner. At that time the Lord's work was firmly in the grip of Institutional Religion, cut off from its `Jewish Roots' and concerned only with a Monolithic Secularised Institution upholding earthly kingdoms and receiving protection from them. The Church, both Eastern and Western factions, would now be broken open to allow the Apostolic curve to continue its work of proclaiming the full Gospel of God. On its upward curve many had arisen to point the way back to its `calling', only to be either persecuted or assimilated into the religious system in the many and varied Church sects. And so by 1917 the Church in one country would find itself blessing guns and weapons and upholding its king or princes and thereby bringing destruction to the `professing Church' of another country! Spiritually broken and exhausted, the Church had lost its way, and now in that Jubilee Year it would experience a break-up of its Institutional life as the unseen Hand of God began to restore His people to Himself and to their Apostolic calling.
In 1917 General Allenby took control of Jerusalem following the collapse of the Ottoman Empire, and he walked into Jerusalem beside his horse - with the words attributed to him that he would not ride into Jerusalem where once His Saviour had walked. Such were the thoughts of the many Godly people of those times as they waited for a move of God! This was also the time of the Feast of Hanukkah, which celebrated the time of the Maccabees' victory over the Seleucid Empire. They put candles on the rebuilt Temple altar believing the LORD was restoring the Kingdom at that time. But this 1917 Jubilee Year was to be only an encouragement, pointing forward to a full restoration to come - for Jerusalem was still under the control of Gentiles. However many saw and understood what had happened, which released the many Ministries concerning the restoration of unredeemed Israel to their LORD. Small groups of disciples were formed to search the Scriptures; Conventions and Meetings were called and the `Jewish Roots Movement' was birthed. Popular and more impressive works were pursued as the Lord of His people turned their thoughts to Scripture to bring understanding of the promised Messianic Kingdom in Jerusalem, with David's Greater Son, the Messiah Jesus, ruling on `David's Throne' in fulfillment of the Covenanted Promise of God.
The movement of the upward curve of the Mystery Kingdom, as seen in the previous Parabola, brought with it much of the old - for this was only to be a movement towards the fullness of the purpose of the Apostolic Move. And so we reach the `peak of the curve', when in 1967, another Jubilee Year, the Holy Spirit released `a Wind of Restoration' upon the whole of God's scattered Temple of Living Stones - a move of God which even today more than fifty years later causes much controversy as many point to the excesses of `excited children' rather than to the purpose of this evident release of the Holy Spirit. As is well known, this 1967 Israeli war saw East Jerusalem re-taken by the Israeli forces and the whole of Jersualem restored to them by the Legal Proclamation in the Knesset that: `Jerusalem is the complete and unified capital of Israel'. In the Western Church the `Charismatic Movement' was released, with individual Church leaders claiming the restoration or refreshing of their denominational Churches which had long since slidden into a state of inertia, unable or unwilling to change the status quo.
The `baggage' brought behind this 1967 upward curve of the Mystery Kingdom began to stifle and divide, releasing large numbers of disciples out of the historic churches into small Fellowships, and even smaller House Groups, who after that `high point' turned their backs on all forms of institutional religion. They were seeking to return to their roots of a `New Testament Church' with a small static-communal outlook. However nothing would stop the curve of the Parabola of the revealed Mystery Kingdom working through those countless numbers of disciples. They began to see more clearly that the purpose of the 1967 Jubilee Year was not to restore the Church but to cut it free from the `baggage' which it brought with it on the upward curve of the Parabola! The purpose was to refresh and return it to its Apostolic calling of proclaiming the Messianic Kingdom, the First Fruits of the new life in Christ Jesus, Living Stones in the Lord's Temple who was among them.
And so we enter the downward move of the Mystery Kingdom Parabola, which brings in its train a nostalgic remembrance of the high point with still traces of the previous upward move of the restoration in a weakened form of `Throne and Altar' - causing a very complex and confused move in the Body of Christ. We mentioned earlier in the Historio-Political Parabola how mass consumerism has become the ` opium of the people' which has dulled their minds to reality. Now we see it appearing in this downward move of the Mystery Kingdom Parabola. The actual wording of `the opium comment' is:
" Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature, the heart of a heartless world, the soul of a souless condition. It is the opium of the people. "
These words are attributed to Karl Marx, who looked at the institution of religion and in his concern looked away from God to the false hope of political revolution - which would enslave the people even more, bringing misery and death to untold millions. In Karl Marx's thinking religion was no more than a drug which turned their minds away from reality. You may ask, `Why bring such humanist work into a spiritual Parabola'? Here we need to recall that all Parabolas, which are quite distinct from Paradigm Shifts, begin and end at the same point, going through a high point from which lines reach out to break into the curve to keep the overall tension of the curve in place. The first upward move of the Historio-Political Parabola had given the people undreamed of prosperity! The downward move turned this prosperity into a chimera, an illusion!
And so more `opium' was needed - `the heart of a heartless world'! Now within the Mystery Kingdom on its downward move we see a reverse movement from the 1967 high point, returning the `congregation of redeemed Israel' to its earlier `captivity', but in a different guise. This return is not only to be seen in the `Institutional Church' but increasingly so in the newly-formed, but equally institutionalised, free Churches who together have failed to understand the Mystery Kingdom into which individually they have been called for the purpose of proclaiming the coming Messianic Kingdom of the House of David in Jerusalem, with its King Jesus reigning over a righteous Kingdom, offered once again to a now-redemeed Israel who have come through `the Day of Jacob's Trouble'. This new `opium' now offered to the Body of Christ comes in the form of `Replacement Theology' and `Kingdom Now Dominion'. More recently an advanced form of these old Movements has emerged in the form of the `Apostolic and Prophetic Movement with promises of power and authority over the nations of the world, the men girded with divine power, all coated over with the `opium' of blanket entertainment in order to dull minds and quench spirits.
The 2017 Jubilee Year saw the last downward movement of this Mystery Kingdom Parabola. However within it there were some nations following America's lead in recognising Jerusalem as Israel's eternal and undivided capital and officially moving their embassies there to confirm their declaration. The year 2017 also saw the official Legal Assembly of the United Nations openly defying this move with a Resolution (which was vetoed) seeking to remove these nations' moves. The `Times of the Gentiles' are over and the purpose of the Mystery Kingdom is complete, with its `subjects' - that is, Redeemed Israel - waiting for the sound of the Shofar Horn. As the Apostle Paul said: (1 Corinthians 15)
" Listen, I tell you a mystery: We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed - in a flash, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trumpet . . . Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you . . . "
As we wait for that Trumpet Call we are sure that if hearts are right with the Lord all the small offerings we bring to Him, whether they be gold or silver, wood, hay or stubble, will make up the whole of the life of service of the Church and together we will receive our rewards at the Judgement Seat of Christ Jesus. The Mystery Kingdom, and all those brought into it through acceptance of Christ Jesus as Lord and Saviour, come forth from the Heart of God as He brings forth a Bride for His beloved Son. The Mystery Kindom has an end, and as with the first Historio-Political Parabola it waits for its final spiritual Paradigm Shift into `the new Heaven and the new earth . . waiting prepared as a Bride adorned for her husband'.
And so we leave this second Parabola and move to the third and last one, `the Messianic Kingdom', hidden behind the other two and unseen by man but held in the hearts of all Israel from the time they were chosen and called to be His witnesses to the world. This is His Kingdom, soon to be revealed in all its brilliance, the Lamb seated on His Throne! As with the previous two Parabolas the Messianic Kingdom began its ` upward thrust' long before 1917, and for that we turn to the Second Book of Samuel. In chapter 7 we read of the LORD's reply to David's desire to build for his God a Temple worthy of Him. We then read in the seventh chapter of 2 Samuel of the LORD's intention to go far beyond David's desire: (v 12-17)
" When your days are fulfilled and you rest with your father, I will raise up your son after you who will come from your body, and I will establish his Kingdom. He shall build a House for My Name and I will establish the Throne of his Kingdom forever . . . . . And your House and your Kingdom shall be established forever before Me and your Throne shall be established for ever'.
In 2 Samuel 23 we read of David's words in the darkest hour before he would go to rest with his fathers: (v 1 and 5)
" These are the last words of David . . . . Although my House is not right with God, yet He has made with me an Everlasting Covenant, ordered in all things and secure. For this is all my salvation and all my desire. Will He not make it increase? "
However keeping these words within the example of a football thrust upwards into the air, not only does it work against gravity but it brings with it some of the force that propells it upwards. David desired - and the LORD had already `propelled that desire upwards' -
for David was a man after God's own heart. And so we read in the Book of Deuteronomy that the LORD had chosen and called out Israel to be a people who would proclaim and witness to the Everlasting Covenant . . . now revealed to the House of David:
" But the LORD has taken you and brought you out of the iron furnace, out of Egypt to be His people, an inheritance, as you are this day . . . . Has anything so great as this ever happened, or has anything like this ever been heard of? Has any other people heard the voice of God speaking out of fire, as you have, and lived? " (Deuteronomy 4)
And so we can now move upwards in our last Parabola, secure in the knowledge that its beginning and its end is grounded in the LORD's Everlasting Covenant.
This takes us now to 1917, which was the first of our fixed points. We have already written that there are two `lines of history', 1917 and 2017, which are taken from the fixed line of 1967. The first fixed point, 1917, a Jubilee year, saw Jerusalem freed from the Ottoman heel of oppression when it was partially restored to Israel's sovereignty. The second fixed point, 2017, also a Jubilee Year, saw the world's remaining superpower acknowledging Jerusalem as the capital of a sovereign Israel, followed by its embassy being moved to that city - which move was followed by other countries. Both these two points came from the fixed line of 1967, also a Jubilee Year, when the Israeli forces recaptured East Jerusalem. The Israeli Knesset then legally declared Jerusalem to be `the complete and unified capital of Israel'. In 2017 we also saw the United Nations Resolution (which was vetoed) openly defying this work of God. Those actions of man unwittingly announced the imminent return of the King of the Kingdom of God to reign on His Throne in Jerusalem for one thousand years! Yet even this Messianic Kingdom has to return to its original position on `the ground', for the curve of this Parabola began in a Covenanted Promise to David and the House of David and will come to fulfilment in the establishment of God's Kingdom with His King ruling in Jerusalem for one thousand years. As with all else, there will lay behind this the Great White Throne Judgement, but for those who are His people there is a new Heaven and a new earth. But these matters are beyond the purpose of this Letter!
The Koheleth could not see what was to come, but he had the wisdom to finish his discourse with his advisers with these words:
" Let us hear (also) the conclusion of the matter. Fear God and keep His
Commandments, for this is man's all. For God will bring every work
into Judgement, including every secret thing whether good or evil. "
Selah
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