John’s Head
for God’s:
John the Baptist was the most
unpretentious man in the Bible, and most modest. He wore clothing of camel
hair, that loose bushy straw-like hair extending like dirty rags from the
animal’s coat. Theologians believe that he was from the sect of the Essenes who
were known for their asceticism. This monastic group had a library now called
the Dead Sea Scrolls at Qumran. These early manuscripts validate Scripture and
add much information to what was known. These Essenes were “peculiar people”
indeed as the righteous are called to be! 432 433 Specifically,
John Baptista may have been a Nazarite since he was forbidden to drink wine,
and possibly adhere to long hair, and touch no unclean thing. The Nazarite was
the separate himself from uncleanness for holy days. 434 Of course,
Samson was the only fully identified Nazarite but John fit the qualifications.
Christians are called to be
Nazarites themselves – doing no impure thing and being peculiar. Scripture
refers to that as sanctification. As with Samson, who failed, Christians can
never be perfect but are to strive for perfection – Christlikeness. 435
John was one of those peculiar set-apart people. A man who dedicated his life
for righteousness sake, John was the ideal person to annunciate the coming
Messiah. With minimal sin himself, it seems, he was the ideal person to baptize
for the forgiveness of sins. 436
John, although unworthy to,
baptized Jesus Christ in the Jordan – the Man who Herod feared. John was in
league with Jesus, and Jesus would be King. In Herod’s mind, John had to go!
When John baptized Jesus, scripture
says that the Spirit remained on him. 437
Implying that it did not on others because it was not time for the Holy Ghost.
Daily immersion for cleansing was a ritual of the Essenes, and that represented
righteousness. John preached against sin. John criticized Herod for adultery as
he had married his brother Philip’s wife, Herodias, as well as the other evils
he had done. 438 The other evils were the infanticide of innocent
children, and Herod’s attempt to kill God.
It seems that Herodias was
angrier at John than Herod was; she asked for John’s head on a platter. 439
Herodias’s desire to have John’s head was driven more by his criticalness of
her lifestyle than it was that he was a follower of Jesus. Herod didn’t like
the idea but bowed to her wishes. After all, if killing John would rid Judea of
that crazy Galilean, so be it! As far as Herod was concerned, John was in
league with Jesus for his thrown. By killing John, he could stop Jesus. John’s
death annunciated the oncoming death of God. It was never a plot by Herod,
Salome, nor Herodias; they were just doing their own will. Satan smiled. His
plan seemed to be working. John’s death was just another killing of the innocents
– collateral damage in modern terms.
John was part of God’s Plan. His
part was to serve a purpose. Every human being has a purpose. Years ago, John’s
fate was decided! When Joshua crossed the Jordan River as the Israelites
entered the Promised Land, God told Joshua to stand still in the deep waters,
and twelve stone pillars were set there to mark the place. 440 That
had great significance!
The River Jordan in Hebrew is Nahar ha Yarden 441 and means
“the garden of the Lord”. 442 A rudimentary check of locations
indicates that John could have baptized Jesus where Joshua crossed the Jordan. It
makes sense that the Jordan could be the missing river flowing out of the Garden
of Eden. It seems logical that God would select his own paradise to die! The premise of the author’s book Skull of Adam is that Adam’s bones, specifically
his skull was taken back into the Garden and buried on Mount Mariah. Even
today, Adam’s tomb is believed to the cleft still existing on the rock at Cavalry.
God planned that he would die
where sin first occurred because he died to redeem all mankind from all sin!
The theme of the previously mentioned book is this verse:
And I (God) will put enmity between thee (the serpent) and
the woman (Eve), and between thy (serpent’s) seed and her (Eve’s) seed (Jesus);
it (her seed; Jesus) shall bruise thy (the serpent’s) head, and thou (serpent) shalt
bruise his (Jesus’s) heel. 443
Back in the Garden the Word –
Jesus – spoke of his own death. The serpent’s “seed” is mankind, specifically those
unsaved. The serpent represents Satan and Eve’s seed Jesus. It’s obvious from
that passage that there would be a spiritual battle to be won on Golgotha – the
place of Adam’s skull. Adam, who sinned without deception, is representative of
the serpent. He was surely buried on Calvary so that this prophecy would be fulfilled!
God picked his own place to die, and He loved to walk in the Garden in the cool
of the evening. Perchance when God hung on the tree, he pondered on his own
Voice speaking to two lonely people way back in the beginning. Perhaps God
thought, “the time has come… for me to crush the head of the serpent as he
promised just an instant ago in Divine time!
It Is
Finished:
God presented His face to
mankind to fulfill that prophecy. Eve’s seed was surely Mary, mother of God,
making “Yeshua Saves” her firstborn son and referred to as “Son of Man”. Identifying
the Garden of Eden as the chosen place for God to die is not far-stretched! “Sacred
cubits” were mentioned earlier. By my own calculations, the elevation of the
Garden from the sacred writings is 3750 feet. The Old City of Jerusalem today
has as its highest point and elevation of 3800 feet. 444
God planned it well: the victim
(Himself), the killer (Satan), the time (5500 years after the Adamic Covenant),
445 the accomplice (Judas Iscariot), the location (the Place of Adam’s
Skull), and the reason (grace). Of course, as any autocrat ever, cowardly Satan
had others attempt the murder for him. He is their master; even those who may
claim another, those who sin are enslaved in the Devils’ brigade! Unbeknownst
to Satan, he was merely a puppet if God’s hand. He can only do what God allows.
God willed His own death! That
willingness to die for mankind is called grace.
For by grace you have been saved through faith. And this is
not your own doing; it is the gift of God… 446
But if it is by grace, it is no longer on the basis of works;
otherwise grace would no longer be grace. 447
For the grace of God has appeared, bringing salvation for all
people… 448
Grace is why God had to die. He felt it is His duty to redeem the people
who He had created. There’s that much doubted word again – created. The
creation is mankind’s most prevalent doubt. The Garden is so important because
Heaven is extremely important. Outside the Garden in the wilderness is
important because Hell is so important. If Eden and the Garden were mythology,
then so is Heaven. Heaven is paramount because it is refuge from Hell!
Salvation is the time after death when those born-again are saved from
perishing in Hell. Without Hell there is no salvation!
Of course, many believe in the prize of Heaven. Heaven is indeed for
real. God prepared for mankind a place there. If it were not true, he would
have told mankind. 449 Those are the reasons God felt he must die!
He was murdered; he sacrificed Himself on the altar of the cross. Those wooden
planks were of the same substance and efficacy as the wood with which Abraham
was willing to sacrfice his only
son. One of the most damning words in
the Bible is “obey”. The most liberating word is “willing”. Obedience against one’s will is damning. The Law
is not to measure obedience but willingness.
In the beginning, mankind was made in God’s image. Scripture is full of “God’s
will” which is the Law of God. His Law is not coercive but voluntary: God’s
will is that our will and His be in harmony. His death would make those wills
harmonious. He died for mankind, and mankind was to trust His death for
salvation. After all, if God could die and live again, so can humans! God’s
death was not only to demonstrate mercy but also increase hope. Mankind’s hope is that they not perish. Paul
referred to that as “the hope of salvation” 450 Men have hope because
God died yet lives on. He Is and always
will be!
Satan’s motive for God’s death was that men would perish. God’s motive was that men should not perish. If men die, Satan’s motive is successful. If God’s
motive is trusted, there is a prize – eternal life. God died that mankind might
live! 451
God didn’t die on the cross. On that “Tree” is where His death was
finished:
When Jesus (God) therefore had received the vinegar, he said,
“It is finished”: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost. 452
If His death was the finish, when
did the killing of God commence? In the beginning with the original sin. Satan’s
intent when he spoke through the serpent was that God must die to men. Since
God is invulnerable, and man not, Satan pursued mankind. His pursuit brought
death on many, injured God, but did not kill him. For those who have agonized because
of their children’s endangerment. Know the deathly feeling: they might die. God
has that type of feeling. In the world, that is storge-type love. With God, it is agape-type love. However, storge
pales to agape. When men hurt, God
agonizes!
God knew at the last supper who
was to betray Him. It was Judas. However, Peter betrayed God as well by denying
His Name. In life, the apostles thought of Jesus as the Son of Man because of his flesh. In death, they thought of him as
the Son of God because of his Ghost!
As God transformed Himself from Flesh to Spirit, the apostles were transformed
from doubt to trust. At the last supper, the trust was lacking. Jesus agonized
over mankind. Would they accept his “cup”? God’s agony was for us: as he prayed he
sweated blood as he tried to pass the “cup”. 453 Theologically
speaking, Jesus’s cup was God’s purpose for
dying. Symbolically, it seems to be His
Flesh.
Just as mankind fears the sting of death, Jesus dreaded it too! He
agonized over leaving mankind; most to die a hideous and infinitely prolonged
death. Just as people, when they die, feel so isolated with the loss of
communion with their children, God felt that same way. Whereas people have hope
that their children will be alright, Jesus knew they would not be! Because of
Jesus’s agony for mankind, the Comforter was to come! 454 Just as
Abraham agonized over the loss of Jacob, even though Jacob never died, Jesus
agonized over his own death knowing that he would die and leave mankind to fend
with Satan. Of course, because weak people are not given more than they can
bear, God would return to the world again in Spirit and Truth. 455
Jesus physically died on the cross but his agony
is when his Spirit hurt for mankind. Most often, fear for our children is a
greater burden than fear for our own lives. Jesus was no different! When Judas set
the stage, even knowing why and who< Jesus agonized.
432 Wikipedia; “Essenes”; “Dead Sea
Scrolls.
433 Holy Bible; 1 Pet 3:9
434 ibid; Numbers 6
435 ibid; 1 Pet 2:2
436 ibid; Mat 3:11
437 ibid; John 1:33
438
ibid; Luke 3:19
439
ibid; Mark 6:28
440
ibid; Joshua 3:8
442
Holy Bible; Gen 13:10.
443
ibid; Gen 3:15 (parentheses the authors).
445
First Book of Adam and Eve 38:2.
446
Holy Bible; Ephes 2:8
447
ibid; Rom 11:6
448
ibid; Tit 2:11.
449
ibid; John 14:1-3.
450
ibid; 1 Thes 5:8
451
ibid; 2 Cor 5:15.
452
ibid; John 19:30 (parenthesis the
author’s).
453
ibid; Luke 22.
454
ibid; John 14:16.
455 ibid; John 16:13.
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