PHOTOGRAPHED IN DIVINE LIGHT

 The word, “photograph,” was coined in 1839 when the photographic process was developed. It literally means “photo- graph,” or “light’ and “something written” (Online Etymology Dictionary). Light reveals a hidden object and photography records a momentous event, and essentially writes down that moment for posterity.

  Objects are unseen. When anyone looks at objects, they do not see the actual object, but the light reflected from that object. For instance, you have never seen the actual moon; what you see is the light of the sun reflected from the surface of the moon. That light objectifies the moon. Without the sun the moon would have never been objectified. Likewise, you have never seen your spouse or children, but only the light reflected from their flesh. In other words, you see the sun or artificial light reflected from them, and hence the light reveals your loved ones to your eyes.

  Light, if seen orthogonally (at a right angle), cannot be seen. What is seen is reflection of the sun’s rays off objects in space. The beautiful sky, for instance, is nothing more than light rays reflected off gases and particles in the heavens. The Greek word, “photo” means “light” and that is origin of the word “photo.”

  The Hebrew Christians were told to, “Call to remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions” (Heb 10:32). Focus on “illuminated” in that passage… to what does it refer? Perhaps you have never been “illuminated.” The Greek for “illuminated” is “photizo,” meaning “enlightened” or “brought into the light.” You see things that you have never seen before — things that the world obscures!

  If anyone looks directly at the sun, they see unobscured light. Any particle in the sky is obliterated by the intensity of the light. The moon may obscure part of the sun, but never all of it. When there is an eclipse, the rays of the sun remain so intense that if someone looked thereon, they would be blinded.

  When people are illuminated, they see the light. “Light” in Holy Scripture is revealing the truth (Psalm 43:3). The Hebrews who had once known the truth were illuminated. At some time before, the Light had revealed the truth to them. “Illumination” is understanding the truth; to wit: “Jesus again unto them, saying, ‘I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life’”. (John 8:12).

  Jesus also said, “Ye must be born again” (John 3:7) and revealed how that new person would be reborn. “Birth” is exposure to the light. When someone is born naturally, the moment of birth is when they leave the darkness of the womb and are exposed to the light in the world.

  Birth is the moment that light is reflected off the flesh of the newborn creature and he or she is revealed to the world. “Born again” is when the human soul is manifested from darkness and is exposed to the Light and truth of God.

  Pilate asked, “What is truth?” (John 18:38). Pilate seemed to have been enlightened, “I find in Him no fault at all” (John 18:38). To what claim was Pilate enlightened? Jesus had just said, “I should bear witness unto the truth. Every one that is of the truth heareth my voice” (John 18:37). Truth is hearing the Word of God. Everyone hears, but only a few are “enlightened.” Pilate heard Jesus, beleived the truth, but was he illuminated? No one knows, but that day, Herod and Pilate became friends. Why? Because they had a common enemy — those who were called “Christians.”

  “The Word” would be the recording process in photography. The mind of people is the medium for the recording. God flashes His light on everyone, “Son of man, thou dwellest in the midst of a rebellious house, which have eyes to see, and see not; they have ears to hear, and hear not: for they are a rebellious house” (Ezek 12:2).

  Pilate heard the Voice of God and truth was revealed. He knew t he truth but did nothing with it. Truth was fleeting for him; the “Light flashed” but his mind was not captured. The mind is the storage device for the truth exposed by light. It is much like the film in a camera.

  What is enough exposure of the truth? During the exodus, most Hebrews knew the truth — that poisonous vipers would make them die. That was merely half the truth. Moses held up his old-fashioned projector. He captured the moment. His “projector” did not display the obvious thing — that the Serpent still kills, but that Jesus killed the Serpent!

  The brass serpent appeared blood red in the light of day. It was lifeless. The Hebrews who were enlightened focused on the dead serpent. Rather than seeing a dead viper, they saw that as trust in Jesus would overcome the Serpent of old! The very purpose, although, they would not see Jesus, was illuminated to their eyes. Our own illumination is when we see the light that the crucifixion of Jesus would diminish the serpent as much as Kryptonite would weaken Superman.

  Pilate recorded ultimate truth — that an innocent man would die. Unknown to him were two things: (1) That Jesus was even dying for Pilate’s own failure to record the event as truth, and (2) that the brazen Serpent, Judas with Satan in him, was dying nearby.

  He saw the actual crucifixion but did not see the negative image of the Antichrist also dying in his tree nearby in an anti-calvary — in the valley where Gehenna was. He failed to see that Satan was sent where he would never be seen again until the end of time when he would be destroyed forever.

  Many “Christians” to this day have been exposed to the light, but the “picture” never developed. They fail to see that Jesus did not die, but his crucifixion was the demise of Satan. Rebirth is seeing that picture and keeping it faithfully for Divine Preservation. Those who value that picture are preserved until it is fully developed.

  In photography, light exposes the existence of objects. It manifests objects to the eyes of people. When Christians understand that Satan is as dead, and that Jesus remains alive, their illuminated mind retains that picture because it has great value. For some, the negative was never processed, and they fail to ever see that picture. They should examine the Word more openly to see that Jesus is the very “picture” of God in that Jesus is God manifested. That is the Light revealed to mankind to make God believable and trustworthy. The Hebrew people needed objects (signs) for objectivity (1 Cor 1:22).

  The “picture” for the righteous Hebrews was the negative “photograph” of Jesus. The writer of Hebrews endeavored to process and develop that negative image of Jesus into a positive, or objective, evidence that Jesus is the image that they had seen in the negative all those centuries. Those who believed in Jesus saw that their God with a negative image when “developed” was the positive image of God, or Jesus.

  Jesus, when he was baptized by John, something changed, to wit: “The Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a dove upon Him, and a Voice came from heaven, which said, ‘Thou art my beloved Son; in thee I am well pleased’” (Luke 3:22). (There we know of the three Images of God in One). God did not change, and Jesus did not change. The picture was developed and the “film” processed in a “solution.” When Jesus came out of the water, the plainly seen picture of a mere carpenter was developed into the image of God. Jews had seen the “negative” image of Jesus, but when it was processed, many Jews saw the photographic process in action.

  “Like a dove” was the process but what developed was the invisible image of Jesus was seen by many of them, and that negative image was revealed as the very visible image of God Himself. To many of the Hebrews, finally, the image of their Personal God was no longer seen as a cloud or a fire, but as a Person.

  The Ghost of Jesus was exposed to them in the body shape of Christ. His “Ghost” even looked like Jesus. Nebuchadnezzar had seen that light centuries before in the fiery furnace. God had revealed the Light (Truth) to him, and he went from exalted to humbled! When Christians see the Light and are persuaded, they too are humbled when they see the Holy Ghost as the concealed Ghost of Jesus whose very image is the bodily shape of the Messiah. Can you not see that picture?

  The Holy Ghost as a “negative image” has two meanings. Of course, it has much ado with light. Whenever a negative is held up to the light the darkness is obscured, and the object is objectified. The Light reveals the truth. On the other hand, most of the Hebrews, excepting the patriarchs and prophets, when they saw the image of God, saw Jesus. God illuminated the negative image and they saw the positive image of the Savior.  

  Christians are to do the same. When we see the image of the Holy Ghost, we understand that the invisible image we see in our mind’s “eye” represents the real objective Jesus. Rather than seeing the Holy Ghost as a dove descending on the Person of Jesus, we see the Holy Ghost moving as a dove as the objective image of God. When the Holy Ghost is manifested through the Word, true Christians see that as much as Jesus as Adam did with the Voice of God in the Garden! Do you see Jesus now when the Holy Ghost presents Himself to you? Do you have eyes to see but are you blind to Jesus?

  The Law was a picture (shadow) of Jesus. It was the negative “photo” that only those with strong Light could see. For a while, the people saw the fully developed photo. Now that photo has been put in God’s picture album, but we still have the negative imaged Holy Ghost to remind us each day.

  The photographic process is after the film has been exposed to light. First, a protective gelatin is removed, then the film is converted with a developer. After that, the film is thoroughly washed. Compare that to Jesus.

  His photizo was much the same. He is the Image of His Father on whom light shined. The birth process was His protective barrier removed (the uterus), and at his birth, he was exposed to the harsh elements of the Earth. After that, Jesus was washed clean at His baptism. On that occasion, something unique happened to Him alone — after his Image was “fixed” with water from the Jordan, “Living Water” cleansed Him when the Holy Ghost came down as a dove would in flight. His fixing Agent was not a dove, but His Holy Ghost in bodily shape (i.e., His Ghost looked like Jesus).

  Like the Father at the transfiguration, that transformation was not for Jesus, but so that people could see and understand that the Holy Spirit and Jesus is one, much like the transfiguration that the Father and Jesus are One!

  Photizo must have three conditions: (1) a purpose for the “picture,” (2) the picture itself, and (3) the negative image to begin the process. “Negative” in this context is not negativity, but the undeveloped Image of God. The Image that only those can see who behold it through Light. God is the source of that Light, and His purpose for shining it is to reveal His images: first the Holy Spirit, then the angels, then mankind, and finally Jesus and the Holy Ghost of Jesus. Not that His photizo was not focused, but that the Image was so bright that His Ghost appeared.

  Adam, Enoch, Abraham, Moses, and King David saw the invisible image of God by the Light of God. There was a special “filter” that only the righteous could see beyond. John called that “filter” the “Sea of Glass” (Rev 15:2) which was crystalline with particles within that appeared as fire. Those were akin to the “chromogenic” material used to provide God in living color to their eyes.

  Unlike photographic processes, there was no need for reversal of the image. Angels and humans had reversed images with sin that required reversal, but Jesus was born without sin with no reversal process required. Jesus was never “born again” as he was not born in the first place. His Holy Spirit always existed even without the image made of flesh.

  For us humans, who were exposed to sin early on, there is an extra step in our process: We must be illuminated with special Light so that we know that we have been overexposed to the world and require correction; hence, photizo in scripture.

  That process allows us to see the unfiltered Light of God through the fog and contamination of the world. It is called “conviction.” Them, the photizo can either come to completion in the process or the film can be ruined for good. Some languish in the developing waters too long and remain there until the image is gone. They shall never be in the image of God and will perish with further exposure to the world.

  Those who are illuminated are changed. They become in the image of God just as Adam was created. That image does not develop immediately. It must remain in the protective bath of Living Waters until its image is clear, focused, and toned; the latter which is covered with a protective layer for permanence. Scripture calls that last process “sealed” with the Holy Spirit in our hearts (2 Cor 1:22).

No one can break the seal, but overexposure to the world can gradually erode it until the image begins to fade. Only by neglect of the new image can it be like the old again. The raw materials for the old image are there, just converted to a new image. Care must be taken to not revert photizo and return to the “dark room” of the Earth.

  How long for a photo to develop? Perhaps minutes. How long for our image to fully develop? Paul said it well, “To live is Christ; to die is gain” (Phil 1:21). Remaining in Christ with the protection of the Living Waters of the Holy Spirit fully develops the negative image. When the body perishes, the image remains unscathed in Heaven awaiting regeneration in the image of the Second Adam. Full development is at the rapture when the negative image of the “ghost” enters in bodily shape to the new bodily image, and the faithful Christian is in Paradise where Adam and Jesus will rejoice with our entirely good image (Gen 1:31).

  Photography is slow and great care must be taken, not only in creating the environment for a great picture (a picture made as if in Paradise), but to position the image for the best shot, and finally for photizo. The set must be illuminated so well that the image is bright, sharp, and clear. Sacred literature refers to those so illuminated as having “bright natures” and “bright eyes” (1 Adam and Eve). Satan’s role is to expose the developing images to his own destructive rays (darts; Ephes 6:16) to destroy the image before it is fully developed, and the earlier the better for him!

  Photizo reveals the Father, Son, and the Holy Ghost. The sinner is exposed to the Light of truth. Theologians say that the Holy Trinity, the entire image of God, is three Persons in one Image. Better said is that God is three Images in different modes to illuminate different peoples in different times. For instance, the Holy Spirit of the Old Testament is the Person Jesus, and the Person Jesus is the image of the Holy Ghost that protects Christians from gradually perishing during their exposure in this dark world wherein contaminating light shines through the clouds.

  The writer of Hebrews was concerned that the Jewish images of Christ would revert to the image of their previous father, the Devil. He gave fair warning to not overexpose themselves to the world and that their new image could indeed perish. 

(picture credit: 123rf.com)