Redemption Revealed - VI
I Peter 3:17-20, "It is better to suffer unjustly for doing right, if that should be God's will, than to suffer justly for doing evil. For Christ also once suffered for the sins of all we guilty sinners, although He Himself was innocent of any sin at any time, that He might restore us to God, being put to death in the flesh, but quickened in His soul: [re-united with His theophany or angel] in which form He went and preached unto the souls in prison; which sometime were disobedient [and repented not], when God's patience waited during the building of the ark in which few, that is, eight souls were saved by water".
Those departed souls heard and consciously rejected Noah's Message of deliverance. They are now lost! In every Age the souls of the non-elect, having heard and rejected the Message of the hour are removed from the Book of Life. Jesus said, "He who believes not is condemned already, because he has not believed in the Name of the only begotten Son of God" (John 3:18).
We should treat the Words of God's messengers with reverence because their Words are God in a form we can receive by faith. The only way God can fill us with His Spirit is as we receive His Word by the clear understanding of faith and obey what it says do.
That's why we are to "receive the word with all readiness of mind, then search the Scriptures to confirm the preaching" (Acts 17:11). Jesus said, "He who receives a vindicated prophet shall receive a prophet's reward; and he who receives a righteous man for righteousness' sake will receive a righteous man's reward" (Matthew 10:41).
Let's look at Adam's race. Jesus was the last Adam, He was not the last Cain whose race has no kinsman redeemer, and not being in the first Adam they are not in the Book of Life. Within Adam's race there are the elect of God, the un-believers who are lost, the make-believers, and different groups who are "saved." Their names remain in the Book of Life and they will be granted into eternal Life at the White Throne Judgment, but they are not elect of God which is why they cannot be born-again.
God foreknew many of these "saved" who would never encounter the Word for their day but live moral lives according to all that God's nature and their society could reveal to them. Such are those who are good and kind to the Bride [or elect of God]�Buddhists, Baptists, stick-worshipers and so-on (Matthew 25:31-46; Romans 1:17-20). The Fifth Seal Israelites are in this category, not having encountered the Word for their day since that nation has been blinded until the last member of Christ's end-time Bride completes the invisible marriage union; all the Israelites possess is the testimony of Moses' Law under the Old Covenant. Yet those of them who, from the time God turned from Israel at Calvary to the close of the Gentile Dispensation, lay down their lives for their testimony, are "saved," and will be granted in to eternal Life at the White Throne Judgment (Revelation 6:9-11).
A third group among the "saved" will be those who refuse to worship or serve the Beast or its image during the tribulation; these will be martyred by the apostate world church system and the military powers that will enforce Rome's edicts. Included in this group will be nominal Christians who realize that the Gentile denominations have become anti-Christ as Israel's denominations became anti-Christ (Revelation 13:8-18). Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini was very close to the truth when he said America is "the great Satan" (Revelation 13:11-18).
The fourth group of non-elect "saved" are the foolish virgin. These are justified and sanctified but not born-again because they never encountered the Word of God's Bible for their day, or if they did, they failed to "prove all things" and receive the true measure of faith that would baptize them into the part of the Body God was fulfilling in their day. In this day in which we live all of the foolish virgin heard the "Shout" of I Thessalonians 4:16, which is the Message of God's prophet restoring the apostolic faith, finishing the mystery of God and calling both wise and foolish virgin out from Rome and her (once) Protestant daughter churches into the unity of the faith for the manifestation of the Sons of God, and the great translation (Malachi 4:5-6; Revelation 10:7; 18:4; Matthew 25:1-13; Ephesians 4:13; Romans 8:19; I Corinthians 13:10).
Today's foolish virgins are sitting under the ministry of the end-time Message but lack the Oil of the Holy Spirit. Perhaps because their pastor has the "letter" without the "Spirit," and not being in the faith himself, lacks the revelation of the Message to share with his flock. I believe many pastors fit this description, being themselves foolish virgin. Alternatively, foolish virgins lack the Oil for new birth because they are lackadaisical or dilatory in confirming all things, being content to receive the religion of their pastor on trust second-hand. Now the pastor may be 100% correct and what I am preaching tonight might be 100% correct, but unless you personally take our ministry back to God's unchanging Word, how can you be sure that you are not relying upon the words of a man? My words will fail, and so will the words of your pastor. Do yourself a favour, and honour God, by proving what we say with His Bible.
Had many of the "saved" been more diligent in making their calling and election sure, they would be foreknown as receiving new birth and among God's elect. Ministers are just God's messengers, His angels of Light. Their Message is the Holy Spirit in a form you can receive by faith, but it must be received by faith. "A pardon is not a pardon unless it is received as a pardon." This Message is our ticket out of here. It is God's way of escape for His elect. It's so precious it is Life if we can apprehend it by understanding and allow it to live through us.
Anyone who rejects the Message for their day after two admonitions proves they have no "representation of predestination." And in His mind, God does not see their glorified Form or theophany "seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus" (Romans 8:26-30; Ephesians 2:6). They are not in the Lamb's Book of Life: not an attribute of God; and their salvation is in dispute until Judgment Day. But so long as their name remains on the Book of Life, they are "saved" and will be granted in to eternal Life at the White Throne Judgment.
Everyone in Adam's race has an angel, but the moment they reject their last opportunity for grace, their name comes off the Book of Life, and becomes a "fallen angel." This happened to Israel when they crucified their Messiah (Revelation 12:4).
Lost souls are imprisoned and their angel becomes a demon. When a man dies unconverted, he cannot enter his rest in the Presence of God in the sixth dimension, neither can he return to earth as all the decisions that determine his destiny have already been made. His time is up and he is in a nightmare condition�like someone awake in his subconscious mind but whose body is asleep so he is physically unable to escape or avoid the horrors of his nightmare. While the dreamer may have presence of mind to wake up and come out of the terrifying dream situation by returning to consciousness, the dead sinner remains in that state until the judgment: his soul is trapped and imprisoned in the terrible fifth dimension.
Jesus described this state in His story of the beggar and the rich man (Luke 16:17-31). Poor Lazarus went to Paradise where he was in company with Abraham and the Old Testament saints awaiting Messiah to pay the wages of sin and redeem them. The rich man in the prison house of lost souls begged Abraham to send Lazarus with a little water to moisten his tongue. But the rich man was separated from his angel or as Paul would say "unclothed" and without a covering there was an impassable gulf between them like "the breach" between the Church Ages and the Seals.
As the natural types the Spiritual the soul of man is the feminine of God'; the New Testament Church was accounted in Jesus on Calvary which is why we are without sin and cannot come into condemnation, having paid for our sins in Christ. We died in Him and were taken out of His body in the Form of the Holy Spirit after He died, as Eve was taken from the side of the first Adam when God put him to sleep (II Corinthians 5; Genesis 5:2; 2:21-22). And as Eve was made up from Adam's rib and the feminine nature of his mortal spirit, the New Testament Church is made up of the Holy Ghost. By the grace of God, He is coming into you right now by faith through a clear understanding of this sermon, bringing you more fully into the image of God, the Word.
As the Head of Christ is God and the Head of the Church is Christ, a woman serves God as she obeys her husband (Genesis 3:16; Ephesians 5:22-24; I Peter 3:6). When we are regenerated or born-again the Head or Husband of our soul is Christ the Word and we are to obey every One, for the Logos came out of God and manifest bodily as the virgin-born Jesus Christ to pay the price of our sins on Calvary's Cross (I Corinthians 11:3; Matthew 4:4).
We were accounted in Christ when He was crucified in the foreknowledge of God before the foundation of the world. We were in His thinking then. He fore knew the decisions we would make by our own free choice, and saw us redeemed and already glorified in His thinking. That's the image of God He intends us to fulfil and we're going through that process now by faith, laying aside the world and all its transitory charms for the gold of God: character tried in the fiery furnace of afflictions.
Now if we were in God's mind way back then, we are a part of the Logos. Oh, get this! Not our soul, because there is no such thing as pre-existence of souls. That's Mormon theology and nonsense. It is our angel, the glorified appearance of our fully redeemed and eternal being that God foresaw; it is our theophany.
A "theophany" is a visible manifestation of God. What is the true and living Church if it's not God manifest? We are the Body of Christ aren't we? And Christ is God isn't He? As a man and woman joined together in holy wedlock are one flesh, the Church is Word of His Word and Spirit of His Spirit. Our new birth is a Spiritual marriage union between our soul and Christ the anointed Word.
When the New Testament Church was inaugurated in the upper room on the Day of Pentecost the Logos manifest as a Pillar of Fire: not in the form of a dove as when God anointed the temple of Jesus' mortal body, for it was divided and anointed each and every one of the saints. This was the symbol of God taking residence in His new Temple (I Corinthians 6:19).
When we are born-again our soul is redeemed and re-united with our lick of the Pillar of Fire or Logos�our part of the Word or theophany of God. This is our angel, our theophany, the image of our glorified condition that God sees now.
We are not creatures of time: when we're born-again God does not see us in a pair of greasy overalls sweating in the plant, or on the farm! He sees us already glorified. So when we really make contact with God our soul is married to the Word by the cement of the Spirit. By recognizing our day and its Message we are one with our theophany, we have made contact with God's grace and foreknowledge of our glorious destiny. Oh, that's the glory Christ shared with us before the foundation of the world.
When we can see this, we know that we're the purchased possession of God. We are a part of eternity and can no more be lost than God can be lost. "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear: because fear has torment. [This is what the souls in prison are suffering]. He that fears is not made perfect [or mature] in love" (I John 4:18). "Let us go on to perfection".
Makes you laugh at the crass young god-forsaking fools who drive around with "no fear" written on their cars. But Christians need have no fear of their destiny. All the Father has by foreknowledge given to Christ will come to Him. Not one will be lost.
So if we are born-again, our soul is married to the anointed Word or Logos of God. Our husband-part is our theophany. Our theophany is a part of the Logos, our covering or protection that seals us back into the Logos to the day of our physical redemption and glorification, because what God has joined together cannot be separated; we are One.
The non-elect soul cannot unite with its angel until the final decision is announced at the Great White Throne. You'll recall our teaching on "The Ordeal of Jealousy." If a spirit of jealousy caused a man to be suspicious of his wife's fidelity, he could bring her before the Israelite priest: if she did not confess he would submit her to a test whose outcome would determine her guilt or innocence. If she was found to be guilty she would be stoned; if innocent she would be reunited with her husband and they would bring forth life.
The antitype of the ordeal of jealousy (Numbers 5) is the plagues God has poured out upon the non-elect Church over six Church Ages�thus far (Revelation 16). Many people believe these plagues are yet future, but they already have been fulfilled. Brother Branham called them a "temporary judgment." He said the Fifth Plague was the Influenza Epidemic that was killing so many in the trenches during WWI they almost had to stop fighting; by 1920 over 20 million souls had perished by influenza.
The Sixth Plague is Judaeo-Communism. The Seventh Plague upon the false church will be a stoning with great hail out of heaven, and after her final judgment, cast into the Lake of Fire (Revelation 16:21; 19:20; 20:10). Now let's return to our discussion on the souls of the non-elect. Like the unfaithful wife in the Old Testament, they experienced the trial of jealousy in the plagues. They will miss the "rapture" and the glorious millennium, but raise at the general resurrection in the bodies in which they sinned to stand before the White Throne Judgment. Those who are found to be righteous will be re-united with their angel and thereby granted into eternal Life. This unfolds a further dimension of the Words of Paul where he says, "The unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband" (I Corinthians 7:14).
"The man is not of the woman; but the woman of the man. [All souls were foreknown but there is no pre-existence of souls; lost souls cannot be redeemed. God's foreknowledge is our husband part, our angel, whose destiny is dependent upon the decisions we will make]. Neither was the man created for the woman; but the woman for the man. [We, our soul, must be under submission to our ministering spirit or angel to ensure that we conform to the image of God which is His Character, the Word]. For this cause ought the woman to have power on her head [or under authority] because of the angels".
[Some angels are elect; some are "saved," while others will fall: we determine their destiny. But that angel is our ministering Spirit, our husband, spiritually speaking. It is to bring us into submission by love]. Nevertheless neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord" (I Corinthians 11:9-11; Ezekiel 18:4). It is either both soul and angel, or it is neither. It's negative and positive, husband and wife. The natural types the Spiritual.
The token of the Old Covenant was circumcision. But as one cannot circumcise a woman, she came under the blood through marriage, or if she were single, by obedience to her father. You'll remember that the Old Covenant was a natural shadow and type of the New and Spiritual. As Israel was separated from the fleshly uncleanness of the heathen, the evidence of being born-again in the New Covenant is not circumcision in the flesh, but Spiritual circumcision in heart and ears. The marriage of our soul with our theophany, the Word, means separation from all unbelief, and fulfils God's foreknowledge of our glorified condition. It is the fulfilment of His Word for us.
Our angel or theophany is Spirit. It is our Word form Body that covers or clothes us. It's the full armour of God (Ephesians 6:13-17) finally made manifest. The true Church is the blood of Christ by the baptism of the Holy Ghost because the Life is in the blood (Galatians 3:27-29).
God's foreknowledge may be likened to a snapshot of the finished product. It's in his thinking, so it is spirit. In due season and at the instant the spirit of mortal life enters the new-born body, a soul is created to take that spirit. It begins life's journey and as it grows up and passes the age of accountability it starts to make the decisions that will determine its destiny. Put another way, this soul is the negative exposed to the world and placed in the developing solution of God's Word. And according to the decisions it makes, it will be united with its angel which has the appearance of its form glorified in perfection, or it will be lost, and its fallen angel will be without form, or take on some hideous appearance.
The life you live here is reflecting what your celestial body is in another dimension.
Oh, this is such a big subject, and I'm trying to be brief. Demons are without form, but they can take form. Totem poles and idols prove this. They have such a gruesome appearance because they are carved in the likeness of the demons that inspired the craftsman. When the lost die, their "angel" becomes a demon. That's why the world cannot become "a better place" so long as there are sinners on earth.
In his little big Book, Jude likens the natural and the spiritual Serpent's seed when he speaks of Cain the serpent, and Korah the false teacher, saying their destiny is destruction. "These are spots in your feasts of charity [or worship] when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water [regenerated make-believers without the Holy Spirit], carried about by winds [of doctrines]; trees whose fruit withers [you can tell a tree by its fruit], without fruit, twice dead, [natural and spiritual Serpent seed] plucked up by the roots".
["Trees" symbolize spiritual principles. John the Baptist "laid the axe to the root of all trees"�Pharisees, Sadducees, Zealots, Essenes and Herodians, as by Revelation 18:4, Brother Branham indicted the Baptist, Methodist, Catholic, Presbyterian, Church of England, Adventist, Pentecostal and all denominations]. "Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, [stars are people, angels, souls. Cain was called a wanderer or vagabond because he had no inheritance in the earth, not being a son of Adam. And spiritual Serpent's seed to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever" (Jude 12-13) have no inheritance in heaven, not being in the Word].
Like a wayward husband, the fallen spirit or angel becomes a demon upon the death of the lost. And not having a body in which to clothe himself and manifest, he becomes a free agent of mischief and evil, a parasite on others. "God's Word is Spirit, and It is Life" but these fallen angels are a perverted life and are helpless until they can find someone who will allow them to live in their bodies.
They enter people and manifest in the spiritual realm as insanity, pride, lust, emulations, strife, envy, etc., People invite them into their soul through unbelief in God's Word. They invite demons into their soul by rejecting God's Word, which is their angel, their part of the Pillar of Fire, their protection and covering, which is eternal Life. Jesus cast seven of them out of Mary Magdalene (Luke 8:2).
I hope I'm making myself understood. In the spiritual realm they enter the soul and manifest by tormenting that soul, reacting through the body in the physical world to the distress of everyone�from family and friends to police�who come in contact with its anger, dishonesty, deceit, laziness, covetousness, argumentative nature, epilepsy, etc., as the case may be. Like idolatry or false worship, it's really spiritual fornication with the foreign nature of a spirit or demon husband-part. That's why idolatry or false worship by those calling themselves Christians [or indeed anyone], is spiritual fornication, because it is an illegal union with a fallen angel that is not your Head.
In the physical realm, they enter people�even genuine Christians�because their body is not yet redeemed; only their soul. They no longer have a body of their own so they have no certain form. But they are a life and they must have a body in order to express that life. In the physical realm this fallen angel or perverted life enters your body as a disease, gaining entry as in the spiritual realm, through something that is undefended, like a bruise, cut or fracture. This foreign life then begins to manifest as a parasite in your body, feeding from your blood and deforming your cells as tumours or scales, or living from the mucus of your eye and growing cataracts. Once the demon establishes itself in your body, it begins to grow, multiplying cells and building a body just as the foetus grows in a woman who is to become mother�cell, upon cell, upon cell, but without form.
But that demon must submit to the Authority of God's Word. When it's enforced by faith in the believer he will recognize it. It's not how loud you shout at him or how excited you become. In Acts 19 we read of certain make-believers impersonating Paul's ministry. But the demons weren't fooled, and made the possessed man overpower and strip them naked.
Some churches in which I minister overseas are frequently visited by demon-possessed people seeking deliverance from evil spirits. And I don't understand why, but the ministers shout at the spirits and become rather melodramatic. That doesn't work. What works is a consecrated life and the Authority of God's Word (Matthew 17:21).
Because medical science has generally abandoned faith, they don't realize that in order to heal a patient with a cancer or growth, they must first cast out or exorcise the life in the growth. Then its body [or deformed cells] will die and the human body will discard and pass the dead cells, replacing them with healthy new flesh.
But no, they apply radiation, chemistry and the scalpel to destroy the body or cut out the sick part. If they are lucky, the demon leaves because it can no longer live in those dead cells, or he's taken out with the incised cells.
The patient now has a permanent deformity through the removal of a breast, muscle or limb�all because few doctors have faith nowadays. They operate upon what they can see or feel, ignoring the supernatural realm. Faith would have cast out those demons of TB, cancer, or whatever they were, then applied some naturopathic treatment of herbs, etc., and correct diet to aid the patient's physical recovery.
Whatever the situation, God has the answer in His Word, if only we endure until we can find and apply It by faith in our lives. The atonement brought deliverance and forgiveness of sins or Spiritual healing, but also physical healing.
God bless you all. We'll continue this subject next time as we continue studying Redemption Revealed.e-mail: ags@