ACCOMPLISHED

 

I have written before about two “crucifixions” on Good Friday. The suicide of Judas on his tree below Jesus was a sloppy attempt of self-justification in that Judas hung himself out of guilt but God, by the release of the Holy Ghost from Jesus finished Judas’s works. What was finished on the Cross that day? Among other things works, but predominantly Satan.

Judas had Satan in him. The friend of Jesus had the worst spirit ever, “Then entered Satan into Judas surnamed Iscariot, being of the number of the twelve.” Judas left the “gate” open so to speak out of the love of money. Satan (Lucifer) found the gate open and entered in. When Judas hung himself, it was a futile attempt to fix his broken “vessel” to release the stronghold that Satan had on him.

Jesus asked His Father to pass His vessel on to another. Satan tried that instead. Lucifer chose Judas because he had experienced the resolve of Jesus to resist temptation. Yes, temptation was the “gate” that Judas left open!

Judas did not die on the tree! That would have mocked Jesus even more. When Jesus died, His Ghost was free to finish what needed to be done. Judas fell from his tree somehow and God should get the credit. The Holy Ghost released Satan from Judas, and Satan had no place to go except Hell where the Holy Ghost apparently imprisoned him until he is released during the apocalypse. With that said, the Devil does not make anyone do anything because people have been conditioned to believe the Big Lie.

The Big Lie is that those who still do evil still deserve reprieve in the end. Judas got no reprieve!

Matthew was not in error. He said about Judas, “And he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself” (Mat 27:5). He did so!

On the other hand Luke wrote about Judas, “Now this man purchased a field with the reward of iniquity; and falling headlong, he burst asunder in the midst, and all his bowels gushed out.” (Acts 1:18). Compare that to Jesus who was hanged on a tree (Acts 5:30) and whose bowels gushed out, to wit: “But one of the soldiers with a spear pierced his side, and forthwith came there out blood and water” (John 19:34).

Longinus, that soldier, was cleared by Jesus. He did not know what he was doing. He never understood that he was piercing the side of the Creator and that he was the tool God had selected to supply the blood and water essential for salvation (1 John 5:6). But after Longinus did so, he perhaps saw the Holy Ghost of Jesus leave Him in bodily shape.

Down in the valley, there was a faux redemption. Judas was not able to redeem his own flesh. He tried to resolve his guilt by the work of his own hand — suicide — but God was gracious enough to finish him off. Judas had to die to cut off the flesh of Satan. When Judas fell from the tree, Lucifer became the “worm” that Isaiah saw him as (Isa 14:11).

The timing of the death is ambiguous, but it must be that he hung himself in darkness; when God darkened the earth to prepare for the demise of Satan to his dark world. Then when the Light of God returned, the Holy Ghost broke the limb of snapped the rope and Judas died, thus releasing Satan from habitation. What was finished? Jesus did not die but slept soundly for parts of three days. On the other hand, Satan was just as finished when the death of Jesus defeated sin.

Do you see the two trees on Good Friday. What was so “good” about God suffering death? Because, as Good, Goodness was released unto the world for all that will savor His Goodness. What else was good? Satan was removed from his habitat and it was demonstrated that nobody can save themselves from guiltiness. Jesus finished off works by His own Self-sacrifice. Who killed the Son of the Father? The Father Himself! Jesus sensed that His Father was the One: “And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, ‘Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?’ that is to say, ‘My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?’” (Mat 27:46).

That cry revealed that God had been with Him. The Father was “crucified” as well as the Son that day, and because the Holy Ghost departed from Him, God in all three substances suffered death that day. But contrary to the world, God is not dead! His flesh slept for some time as His Father did the redeeming and His Ghost did the execution of Satan and the saving of Dismus, the thief. It was a busy day the day that God died, and He did all the work. God accomplished it all, and Judas, Longinus, nor even Pilate had anything to do with it.

Thus, there is a strong parallel between the Judas Tree and the Tree of Life, but one was effective and the other not. God did one His Way — by grace — and Satan his way — by works. Whether Judas went to Hell or not is debatable but perhaps God had grace on him for admitting his guilt just as God did with Adam when he was contrite. Satan, however, is at least in the bottomless pit.

Consider the bottomless pit for a moment. It is different from the Lake of Fire: “And the devil that deceived them was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever” (Rev 20:10). The final destruction of Lucifer is for eternity forever. That place is Hell. Not only will Satan finally die to the world there, but so will all that have not been saved (Rev 20:15).

So where is the bottomless pit? It makes sense that Satan has been imprisoned where Adam originated. As the Foundation Stone, Adam would have been founded on that stone. To this day, Jews accept that premise from sacred literature. Since Satan degenerated Adam, it is poetic justice that he would be imprisoned where Adam was generated.

Beneath the Foundation Stone is an unexplored abyss or “bottomless pit.” In the foundation stone is one hole in the shape of a circle. That abyss beneath the Foundation Stone is known as the “Well of Souls.” So, what does that have to do with the bottomless pit? “And the fifth angel sounded, and I (John) saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit.

It makes sense that the Well of Souls is the Bottomless Pit where Satan will be imprisoned for 1000 years. The hole in the Foundation Stone just fits the key of the fifth angel. The second woe of John’s revelation was that “And they (the scorpions) had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon” (Rev 9:11). Satan would be the fifth angel but since he fell from heaven (Rev 9:1), he fell into someone. That someone may be the Antichrist. Abaddon is Lucifer (the Serpent, the Beast, the Devil, and the Serpent).

The bottomless pit may not be bottomless in a physical sense. In Enoch’s vision, he saw Hades and Paradise both in the Third Heaven. There they were separated by an abyss it seems that Enoch wrote, “And paradise is between corruptibility and incorruptibility” (1 Enoch 8:5). After describing Paradise in the Third Heaven, Enoch described the place of torment.

Paul validated the Third Heaven when he confided that he knew a man who had been there (2 Cor 12:2). Luke further verified it when he described the Third Heaven much like Enoch had long before: Between Abraham’s Bosom and Hell, Abraham revealed to Luke, “And beside all this, between us and you there is a great gulf fixed: so that they which would pass from hence to you cannot; neither can they pass to us, that would come from thence” (Luke 16:26).

Apparently, Satan will be imprisoned for 1000 years beneath the Foundation Stone whose key fits the hole in that stone.

For the last parallel, for a time anyway, when Satan left Judas when he lost his body, that the Holy Ghost of Jesus imprisoned Satan beneath the Foundation Stone in the abyss. How he gets out, is unknown, but must when he obtains the right body — the man-beast, Antichrist. John saw that Beast in his vision, “And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beast rise up out of the sea…” (Rev 13:1).

Perhaps Satan was taken to the Well of Souls and will emerge to try Christians from some island in the sea. (I think of Hawaii for some reason.)

Christians are safe (sozos) at the present because Satan is locked up somewhere. The Well of Souls may be the place!

The Well of Souls, if it is a bottomless pit as some claim, is without a real bottom. It would be the gulf between Hades and Paradise. In other words, Satan is imprisoned right now, not in Hell but Hades, which Enoch described as the Second Heaven:

And those men took me and led me up on to the second heaven, and showed me darkness, greater than earthly darkness, and there I saw prisoners hanging, watched, awaiting the great and boundless judgment, and these angels were dark-looking, more than earthly darkness, and incessantly making weeping through all hours. (1 Enoch 7:1)

Therein the apostates are imprisoned, perhaps along with Satan. Regardless Christians are safe from the Wicked One because Jesus finished him off just as Jesus enumerated, “And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up” (John 3:14).

Jesus was lifted-up by Moses, but not by the body of Jesus, but His Purpose. Moses lifted-up Judas with Satan in him in the Judas Tree. Moses showed the Israelites what the Messiah would do much later!

That finishes the parallels between Jesus and Judas, and tomorrow, the parallels between Jesus and Adam will be revealed.

(picture credit: Wikipedia; "Foundation Stone")