What is this Christ?

 Jesus is the Christ, but what is this Christ? He is the Father’s solution to leaders rebelling against the authority of the Father, the answer to leaders undermining the ultimate divine authority of the Father, the answer to leaders rejecting the authority of those appointed and sent by the Father with authority over them. The Father first set the very famous ancient Israelite King David up as His own appointed, anointed king in the holy hill of the Father, Zion. (See Psalm 2.) David was as a son to the Father in living and ruling righteously. He pleased the Father and did not rebel, and was the Father’s answer to the constant rebelling by other rulers. However, this ancient King David died. David was not the eternal solution. The Christ is the eternal equivalent of this king David. The Christ had to die to be raised up eternal by the Father. Then the Father will eventually, and actually quite soon now, put everything under the feet of the Christ, causing all to submit to him, and when all are no longer rebelling, no longer undermining the authority of this Christ sent by the Father, no longer rejecting his authority, then the Christ will subject himself to the Father eternally. This will complete the solution to the rebellion. Then the Father will forever be God all in all, with the Christ ruling at His right hand, forever with the Father on His eternal throne. This Christ, who is anointed because he is worthy as the true Son of the Father, died for you. His death was not only a prerequisite for resurrection and immortality of that resurrection; it was a sacrifice turning aside the wrath of the Father over our sins, and providing for the spiritual purification of our lives, so we can be purified by the heavenly Holy Spirit the Father sends, that as purified people we can live lives which are no longer damnable, and be holy for the unity we gain with the Son, made right in the Father’s eyes, justified. It is for those who believe and hold to this gospel. We thus become workers together with the Father and the Son built up into a living temple for the Father and Son’s glory. We thus come into fulness of knowledge of the Father and the Son, in ongoing fellowship while we hold to their teachings and these truths about them, leading to eternal life.

God’s command versus Satan’s control

 We are born into a world where God is in command but Satan is in control. 

The commands of God are centred on love. He commands love towards Himself, which establishes His people as those who let Him be their Commander. Then His command to these His people is that they show each other the same kind of love that they would wish each other bestow upon them. This command is preserved both in Islamic teachings and Christian teachings. It comes to all God’s people through the Lord Jesus Christ, who God has sent. God commands us all to trust His Christ, to believe in the great virtue and saving power of Jesus, who brought us the teachings God gave him, and gave his life for our purification and eternal life, then raised from the dead by God. 

Satan, however, is in control in this world. His way is centred on hate. Murder is common among those who follow his way. Murder and lying. 

So we each need to be made less like Satan, and more like God. That is what is promised as the outcome of believing in Jesus and following his teachings and the commands given through him. The outcome is a loving people, looking out for each other, centred on providing food, clothing, shelter, emotional support, in how each prioritises visiting each other in times of need. The fellowship between these comes not from merely spreading inspired teachings and spiritual gifts, but in meeting the needs of one another in practical ways, and focussing on this as the way taught by Jesus. This is what we come to in the world into which we are born, if God favours us in letting us find this way of Jesus. It prepares us for a truly divine eternal future, together with each other, and together with the Father and His Son. The resurrection is ahead of us all as the doorway into blessed eternity.

Maybe

 I remember the first year of lockdown fondly. The roads were empty of all traffic except a few food delivery scooters. You could walk in peace down the once busiest main road of the city, completely resting from the normal stress of cars, lorries, and buses. The weather was balmy and there was no barrier to enjoying it. Our government in UK allowed us one walk a day for shopping and one for exercise. Many of us were laid off work on paid furlough. It was like the jubilee year of the Bible. A whole year of peaceful rest. March 2020 into 2021. It seems quite God-ordained. Then it dawned on me. Maybe it was indeed like the jubilee year of the Law of Moses. If so, maybe it is no coincidence that my calculations of the time of the beginning of the millennium of Christ’s peace is around 2070. (The Enoch prophecy in his vision of beasts suggests seventy forty year periods, i.e. 2800 years, after the conquests by Assyrians in the northern Israelite tribe territories is followed by the Lord’s wrath and then his coming. That points to Christ coming around late 2060s or 2070, since Revelation indicates Christ returning after 3.5 to 7 years of wrath.) Maybe it was the forty-ninth/fiftieth year before the return of Christ when that lockdown year occurred. Maybe it points to Christ returning around 2069/2070. A year of restful peace as a foretaste, then forty nine/fifty years and a thousand years of peaceful rest under the Christ. Maybe.

A word

 ‘Why do the nations conspire 

and the peoples plot in vain?

The kings of the earth rise up

and the rulers band together

against the Lord and against his anointed, saying,

“Let us break their chains

and throw off their shackles.”

The One enthroned in heaven laughs;

the Lord scoffs at them.

He rebukes them in his anger

and terrifies them in his wrath, saying,

“I have installed my king

on Zion, my holy mountain.”…’

So begins Psalm 2. 

The Lord, the One enthroned in heaven, spoken of in this Psalm is the Father. His anointed, the king He has appointed and thus anointed, is the Son, Jesus. These antagonistic rulers even include the modern equivalent of synagogue rulers, called pastors or vicars or priests or ministers of religion. These have a problem accepting the higher rule of the Father and Son in authority over them. Jesus is God’s answer to that vain antagonism. Jesus commands all, high and low, to love the Father, and in so doing, to love the Son, Jesus himself. “We already do!” those rulers protest. Yet the commands of the Father, given through the Son and Holy Spirit, are flouted and ignored, and interpreted away. Come, let us return to the Father our Maker. Let Him teach us His ways. The Father says, “I am God!” Love God openly with whatever voice He gives you, to tell His commands to the next generation, and without hypocrisy, to keep them yourselves. Then the Father and Son will come and make their home with you, so you may live this way forever. 

Beastly Empires

 If you know ancient history, you will know the Babylonian (Chaldean) Empire under kings like Nebuchadnezzar was aggressively hegemonic, like a superpower, and it was followed by a successfully diplomatic, stable Persian Empire under kings like Cyrus, then followed by the extremely fast conquering Empire of the Macedonians, especially Alexander. If you know prophecy, you may know that the prophet Daniel prophesied about these empires, as three beasts, first the lion, then the bear, then the leopard. Forward two thousand five hundred years. We have had a second world war affecting a quarter of the world, with war, famine, and disease, and since then a hegemonic aggressive superpower has eventually dominated. Then another superpower has shown greater stability through diplomacy, uniting many cultures in its vast national territory. Then a third superpower is arising, showing how it can grown at unimaginable speed, and come from behind to be a leading player with global sway. Three superpowers mirroring those three empires of ancient times. Lion, bear, and leopard. If you know the Book of Revelation it predicted such events happening in end times. It calls this beast a combination of lion mouth, bear feet, and body of a leopard, combining the characteristics of Daniel’s beasts into one. This follows a time of war, famine, and disease affecting a quarter of the world. What does it mean, if this is indeed the pattern emerging? It means that we are not far from seeing these three superpowers merging their forces into one big beast of a global system. Then we will eventually get the six six six monstrous testing time. The only thing to stop it will be the coming of the Christ, again to rule over all.