Wednesday, September 20, 2023

THE IMAGE OF ELIJAH

Yesterday, in my commentary, I short-changed John the Baptist. I stole the very identity of John. Just as we come short of the glory of God, I made John come short of the glory of Elijah. I did not take the Word of Jesus literally, at least in the Greek.

There is a thin line between reincarnation and resurrection. The former is “rebirth in new bodies or forms of life” (Merriam-Webster 2023).

Incarnate means literally, “made flesh,” and thusly, Jesus is God incarnate. Reincarnation would mean “made back in the flesh,” implying that the putting on of the flesh repeats itself. In some religions, thousands of repetitions result in karma when the person gets it right. Good karma must replace bad karma for the being to be perfected. Hence, reincarnation is mostly considered to be by the works of a person.

On the other hand, resurrection is the raising from the dead (ibid) and what was once alive but died is regenerated back to life in the same gens, or “kind” of flesh.  

Whereas eastern religions believe that souls come back in different kinds of flesh (reincarnation), Judeo-Christianity believes that the original genned flesh is regenned again, or ‘regenerated.’ Most importantly is that in reincarnation it is the person who makes the improvement with karma, and in Christianity, it is God who shares His ‘Virtue’ dynamically, as it means, to even change the nature, or genetics, of the person. Hence, ‘resurrection’ is a change in the innermost man — the soul — performed by God, then the flesh changed to complement the soul… overlaid it its image.

In Judeo-Christianity, mankind is helpless to change who he is because it is genetic. The ‘lost’ (brutish sinners) can only depend on God to find themselves worthy of transformation. Except for Jesus whose Soul is the Spirit of God, everyone else must be vitalized; not revitalized, because the lost never had divine mortality.

That Jesus was innocent of any fault ever makes His Resurrection the prototypical one. Just like Adam, God put Divine Flesh on Jesus. “The first man Adam was made a living soul; the last Adam was made a quickening spirit” (1 Cor 15:45). ‘Living soul’ could have been translated vital breath… God providing the vitality.

Jesus as the “quickening Spirit” points toward Him as the One who provided the Vital Breath to make the first Adam alive.

Living souls were created by God, or as it is written, Jesus Himself (John 1:1-14). Man’s kind were created in the Image of God. That ‘Image’ comes from the Hebrew ‘Selem,’ meaning a ‘shadow’ or ‘phantom’ (Strong 2006). It seems that the soul of man was created before the foundation, or material things, of the world.

Speaking of Jesus, Paul wrote, “He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.” (Ephes 1:4).

The ‘chosen’ are not just some human beings, but all our kind. God could have chosen any of the other kinds of creatures, but man (Adam’s kind) were the ones blessed with life.

How is that known? God had said in the beginning, “Let us make man in our Image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth” (Gen 1:26).

The Image in the first stage of generation was a ‘shadow’ or ‘fragment’ of the material person, just as in Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, only this ‘shadow’ was the Shadow of God whose Presence would not be seen for thousands of years. God chose only man to be His Image, not other kinds!

The second phase of ‘Project Mankind’ was adding to the shadow fragment another substance — Adam’s soul was covered with flesh made from the ground (adam), and not by coincidence mankind — Adam’s kind — have the same components in the same proportions as the substances of the Earth.

Mankind is the ‘ground,’ or ‘Adam.” The ground is who we are on the surface, but within the core of that surface lies a vital and dynamic force that originally contained the Spirit of God, but has now been mutated with the non-vital force of the ‘image’ of Lucifer (nahas in the Hebrew.) That ‘Nahas’ is a different nature, rather than goodness it is cunning (subtility).

Regeneration is of two parts: (1) Regen the soul in rebirth; be ‘born again’ (John 3:7), or engendered from above, and (2) resurrected; restoration of the flesh when Jesus comes again (1 Thes 4:16).

There are at least four ‘resurrections,’ remembering that the grand finale of each was raising a still alive soul from death with its vitality intact. In other words, the soul never dies.  It is always there to either always perish (wither) or to always be alive in a physical sense.

Lazarus was resurrected during the ministry of Jesus, Jesus was Resurrected soon after He suffered death, noting that His Spirit never died. Those saints of days past were resurrected along with Jesus, and the ‘General Resuurection’ is when both the remainder of the Saints and the living are changed from corruptible to incorruptible flesh. So as the Sun, Moon, and stars, “So also is the resurrection of the dead. It is sown in corruption; it is raised in incorruption…” (1 Cor 15:42).

That background was necessary to understand just who John was! Translated that he was a ‘messenger’ is perhaps an understatement.

In the Greek, John the Baptist was an ‘angelos’ in the actual words of Jesus, and “more than a prophet” (Mat 11:9).

A prophet merely brings the message and in general is an ‘angel.’ Jesus said that John was more than a prophet… more than just a conductor of the message; he was an ‘angel of Elijah’ like an ‘angel of God’ in the Old Testament.

Jesus finally said it out loud for all to understand: 

13 For all the prophets and the Law prophesied until John. 14 And if you will receive it, this is Elias (Elijah), which was for to come. (Mat 11:13-14)

 I did not receive the understanding of it yesterday! Neither did you, and almost nobody received it! Jesus literally said, “Autos esti Elias.”

Autos, ‘this baffling wind’ or spirit, ‘esti’ (exists) Elias (Elijah). John was more than a man who was a prophet; John was the spirit of Elijah.

Elijah was not reincarnated as John, but Elias finally experienced death because he never had before, being caught up (raptured) to heaven in a whirlwind (2 Kings 2:1). It seems that Elijah (Elias) was returned in a whirlwind as well; that ‘baffling wind.’

Some time passes, and John is beheaded because of his righteousness. He withstood the final test as laid out in the Book of Revelation. John was beheaded rather than to deny Christ… “beheaded for the witness of Jesus,” as it says (Rev 20:4).

Moses and Elias were at the transfiguration of Jesus. God brought Moses to this world to finally see the Face of God — Jesus. Perhaps Moses came only in Spirit or perhaps he was resurrected for the occasion. If John was the spirit of Elijah, then Elijah would have been resurrected as well.

The spirit of Elijah would have been transported to this world in the womb of Elizabeth. In her womb was an intelligent being, to wit:

41 And it came to pass, that, when Elisabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the babe (John) leaped in her womb; and Elisabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost: 42 And she spake out with a loud voice, and said, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb. 43 And whence is this to me, that the mother of my Lord should come to me?” 44 For, lo, as soon as the voice of thy salutation sounded in mine ears, the babe leaped in my womb for joy.” (Luke 1:41-44)

John knew Jesus even in his ‘vehicle’ from another world. Elijah was taken to the heavens in a ‘chariot of fire’ (2 Kings 2:11), now he was returning as a Spirit, as with a “rushing mighty wind,” appearing unto them as “cloven tongues as of fire.” (Acts 2:2-3).

Elijah was taken to Heaven by the Holy Ghost and surely returned in the same manner. The womb of Elizabeth was no more than a ‘chariot’ or other vehicle that God provided to transport Elijah back to continue the Law and the prophecy as Jesus said (Mat 11:14 above).

Elijah (Eliya) consists of two Hebrew words, ‘El’ and ‘Ya.’ — ‘God-like Lord,’ not God, but like God.

John, if not Elijah, was God-like, or innocent of all wrong. John never sinned because he was not human; he was angelic.

Scripture is specific about Elijah the Tishbite. His origin means ‘recourse,’ implying that once there was a ‘course’ and someday there would be another course.

The birthplace of John is believed to be Ein Kerem, meaning the ‘spring of the vineyard’ (Wikipedia 2023). It is believed that the word Tishbite means ‘temporary dweller’ (ibid), pointing toward Elijah who would live somewhere else permanently. He dwells in Paradise and Ein Karem is in the bounds of what Jews consider ‘Paradise’ — Zion in Jerusalem, the location of Ein Kerem.

Names mean things in scripture; look at about any name and there is a purpose, method, or place in the name, as Elijah means ‘As the Lord God,’ so was John the Baptist.

Both the preponderance of the evidence and the Word of Jesus point toward John as the resurrected Elijah. They first killed one angel of God, then ‘THE ANGEL OF GOD’ — Jesus.

That is not to be said that either Elijah, nor John, were angels, but were of the same spirit, made a little lower than the angels in heaven, like Jesus.

Yes, all of Adam’s kind were elected, neither the other kinds, nor even angels: 

4 What is man, that you are mindful of him? and the Son of Man, that You visit Him? 5 For you have made him a little lower than the angels, and have crowned him with glory and honour. 6 You made him to have dominion over the works of your hands; you have put all things under his feet… (Psalm 8:4-6)

 God could have chosen one of the other animals to provide for them souls. He chose man. He could have chosen angels to have glorious flesh, but He chose Adam’s kind!

Just as Jesus was the ‘Son of God’ and the ‘son of David’ John was the ‘son of Elijah’ genetically speaking.

 Jesus was of the Image of God (Selem) and the image of David (Nahas), and both were in His Genome because He became sin for us. The Spirit, or Ghost, of Jesus was like God, and His flesh like David’s through the mitochondrial DNA of Mary that would have been delivered only through her genes.

John was of much the same substance, if my thoughts ring true; he was of the spirit of Elijah and the flesh of Elizabeth who carried the genes of Elijah from heaven to this world.

Note that just as Elijah was only God-like, he was certainly not God; and that John, although Elijah-like, he was still John, the son of Elizaeth who was only genetically like Elijah.

Just as Jesus was the genetic image of Yahweh and Mary, John would have been the genetic image of both Elijah and Elizabeth.

(Picture credit; Bible Stories for the Young; 'Elijah Rides to Heaven in a Chariot of Fire')

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

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