Wednesday, December 28, 2005

Merry Christmas?

Christ: Prophet, Priest, King. What is Christ All About?

As the Christmas season comes upon us, many are concerned we are losing Christ in Christmas. The signs all say X-mas, as if Christ has been cut out of Christmas. Most understand the basics, Christ was born (supposedly) during this season. Wise men came bearing gifts and therefore we give. Or more specifically we give because he gave to us Salvation.

The object of this discussion today is to elevate the vision, to set the sights on the real calling of Christmas.

I have been over the past year studying the Messiah. Handel’s Messiah that is. What an outstanding work! I would Highly recommend listening to every song in details. What a marvel of scripture and music! Words cannot describe in adequate applause the outstanding work done by George Frederick Handel.

The Messiah starts out in the Old Testament hailing the prophets proclaiming the coming of the Messiah. The rest of the work flows through Christs birth, his work, his death, his resurrection and finally his Kingly reign.

Most of us do not realize that the Halleujah Chorus, is not directly related to Christmas, or is it? (We shall discuss this later…) The Hallelujah Chorus is about Christ reigning. It is the finale' of the Psalm 2 oratoria. Examine Psalm 2:

Psa 2:7 I will declare the decree: the LORD hath said unto me, Thou art my Son; this day have I begotten thee.
Psa 2:8 Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the
uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.
Psa 2:9 Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel.
Psa 2:10 Be wise now therefore, O ye kings: be instructed, ye judges of the earth.
Psa 2:11 Serve the LORD with fear, and rejoice with trembling.
Psa 2:12 Kiss the Son, lest he be angry, and ye perish from the way, when his wrath is kindled but a little. Blessed are all they that put their trust in him.

The confusion today in Christendom is:
  • What did Christ exactly do?
  • What is he exactly doing?

The response would be: Christ saved us from our sins. He prays for us in heaven so that we will safely get there.

The question I ask myself is:

If Christ is a King, how does saving us from our sins fit in the picture?
How does praying that we safely get to heaven exactly glorify Christ?


In the Old Testament, there are a lot of pictures that many acknowledge point to Christ.

  • Sacrifices point to the lamb, Christ.
  • The Temple points to Christ.
  • Christ even says the temple is himself.

    What does pointing to Christ mean?

We often take for granted the name of something, especially in the Bible. When Adam named the animals, they were not just names, they were reflections of Character. The same goes for Christ.

  • Jesus means “The Lord Saves.”
  • Messiah means “The Anointed One.”
  • Christ (Christos) means “The Anointed one”

    What I see at first glance is Jesus Christ is a King and Priest.

    When we look in the scriptures (Isaiah 9:6-7) we see Christ is more than just that he is the:
  • Wonderful Counselor
  • The Prince of Peace
  • The Mighty God
  • The Everlasting Father
  • Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end
  • Upon the Thrown of David
  • Upon His Kingdom
  • To order it
  • Establish it with judgment and with justice
  • Forevermore
  • The Zeal of the Lord of Hosts will perform this

    What most of us get out of Christ is:
  • That he came,
  • He died
  • He rose
  • Went to heaven
  • Prays for us so that we get into heaven
  • Prays that we will not get consumed by the Devil.


History to me tells a different story.

History is something, that most of us grew up with a groan. 1066 Battle of Hastings, so what! 1215 Magna Carta, big deal. 1776 Declaration of Independence, yeah yeah…!

That is a sad commentary when looking at these dates. It may surprise you that Christ is in these dates. Yes, Christ has a hand in these dates.

Christ’s hidden hand facilitated these dates. Not just the date, the details of the dates.

How?

Lets back up the truck into the Old Testament and see what the Messiah was intended to be.

We have already said that the temple pointed to Christ.

What I vaguely said is that “Pointed to Christ” means: it pointed to Christ’s Works or Labors.

The Temple is a picture of Christ’s Final Work. Just as Creation was made in six days by Christ’s words, so the Temple is the picture of what was to occur in History (the rest of the six days). When all is fulfilled, then it will be the final Sabaath: rest in the earth.

The particulars of the Temple in minute details include the following:

  • Bronze Sea
  • Two Pillars
    Yachin
    Boaz
  • Ark of the Covenant
  • Gold Shields
  • Pomegranets
  • Lampstands


This is just a partial list that I chose to make some points as to a “World View” that the Temple was picturing.

The Bronze Sea is a peculiar vessel. Being quite large, it had four sets of oxen pointing in the four directions of the compass, North, South, East and West. The sea itself because of its nature was like a big calm pool. It was still, not full of waves.

The picture of the Sea is the world. In the Psalms it speaks of the wicked nations as being like the troubled sea that kicks up mire and dirt. The sea is calm, much like Christ’s picture in the New Testament of “Peace, be still.” The oxen represent investment or intensive capital investment. Instead of having Horses and Chariots and Warriors underneath the sea, the sea is being supported by intensive capital enterprise.

The two pillars that supported nothing but stood in front of the Temple, prior to your entrance to the temple had names that meant something:

  • Boaz: Strength
  • Yachin: It is established


As in the Isaiah 9 passage, the Zeal of the Lord is represented in these Pillars. The Lord is from everlasting to everlasting, He has no beginning and no end. He has established the foundations of the world with wisdom (Job). The coarse of events being portrayed in the Temple were to the mind of the viewer were Established, like a pillar not to be moved, with strength by the hidden hand of the Lord.

I could go into more details about the rest but it is sufficient to say that the Shield represent the kingdoms being converted in Golden splendor to obey in their Sanctioning capacity Christ. All nations will love and obey Christ in their law systems. The Ark of the Covenant represents the means, God’s Law. The pomegrantes represent the abundant blessing attended to the Peace being brought to the Kingdom.

Christ is the King, the Annointed one. In His Priestly office, he has cleaned us up and presents us as living sacrifices to perform the work being represented in the Temple. Namely, cleaning up the world.

The key to cleaning up the world is wrapped up in all three offices, the prophet, the priest and the king.
The Prophet, through the church, reveals the hidden hand of the Lord in All creation and that violation of His Law begets death from God as a Divine sanction. Obedience and application of his Laws with cheerful hearts begets blessing or as Christ states “abundance.”

The priestly office of Christ is peformed by his Church as individuals in the Church clean up the world in economic enterprise. Namely free Market Economics solves peoples problems on magnitude hardly imaginable. (How many solutions to problems exists today which did not exist 100 years ago?) The solutions to problems is the cleaning effect.

The Peace to the world is one that is lost today. What is Peace?

Peace is the abatement of the Curse. The Curse, being a comprehensive judgment from God for the abdication of righteous dominion, by the first Adam. When the angels spoke of “Glory to God in the Highest and on Earth peace good will toward men.”, the peace and good will is the abatement of the Curse and the abundance that come with it.

Peace, however, is only attained by Righteous Dominion. And Righteous Dominion comes only through the comprehensive cleaning of the Culture Carriers. The Prime culture carrier being Christ’s Body, his Church. Out of the Church come precedence or Law Systems that rule society in the rest of the Culture Carriers (to list just a few):

  • Government
  • Education
  • Technology
  • Media
  • Arts
  • Entertainment


The Kingly Rule of Christ comes first in the submission of the shields, the Governments of ALL nations, to the Law of the Lord.

History has been a self fulfilling prophecy of Psalm 149

  • “To execute vengeance upon the heathen, and punishments upon the people
  • To bind their kings with chains, and their nobles with fetters of iron;
  • To execute upon them the judgment written:
  • this honor have all his saints. Praise ye the LORD. “

What is 1066 “The Battle of Hastings” have to do with Christ? Everything. Because of the Church’s rejection of Christ’s Law word from Alfred the Great 200 years prior, God sent the foreign tonque written of if Duet 28 to chastise the nation. (Be wise or ye Kings, kiss the Son lest he be angry and ye perish from the way. Psm 2)

It was not until 1215 in Magna Carta that the princes and nobles got together and made a covenant (a binding: covenant means binding in Hebrew) to hold down King John from ravaging the people.

1776 was nothing more than a Covenant of rejection from a King who was Tyranical. A King had a kingdom called America and Lost it to Christ! Be wise or ye Kings!

In the year 2005 we sit in the wrestles sea of turmoil.

  • War in Iraq
  • Communist North Koreans threatening the world at large
  • Muslims threatening the peace of the world
  • Christ is X- out of Christmas and replaced with an idol called Santa, or as many today are trying, a Happy Holiday.

Again, another day off, a blessing to ride on and enjoy it seems.

What is God doing? Where is Christ in all this?

Psalm 2 Why do the heathen rage? Why do the people imagine a vain
thing? He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh. The Lord shall
have them in derision. He shall dash them in peaces like a potters
vessel.


The answer: Our inheritance is being given to another. China looms on the horizon. A foreign tongue whom thou knowest not shall rule over thee. (Duet 28) Thou shalt be the tail and not the head (Duet 28).

Christ is ruling over us. We just will not advance His kingdom. We reject His Law in many churches as being Old Testament. We go to Church to be saved. Saved for What?! Our neighbor lies in the gutter (abortion) and we hang onto Holidays as precious jewels of family life. God will dash these things to pieces if we will not stand up and build something in the earth. If all we are building for ourselves, a nice family, a nice church, a nice business, a nice community, we are lost as a nation. Christ will wipe the slate clean and start with another.

Christmas should be a time of reflection. Why did Christ die? He died that we may have life, and make the world have life through our comprehensive cleansing of the world through Culture Carriers and Economic endeavor.

Are we guiding our Families, our Churches, our Governments, our Nation towards God’s Righteous Civilization or are we riding along for the ride, and hope to stop in the end in heaven?

Beware of Christ’s words in the end

“Well done thou good and faithful servant, enter into eternal rest.”

Will we be doing, or sitting?

If we repent as a nation, all is not lost. We should be up and doing. Not up and sitting!

2Ch 7:14 If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

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