THE DAY OF THE LORD: THE DAY OF SALVATION

God showed Isaiah some future event. Someday they would be ashamed of themselves. They had been God’s chosen and peculiar people (Deut 14:2) because they were the seed of Abraham. They were people of the Covenant and as such were blessed. Because Abraham was willing to sacrifice His only son, God blessed him and his progeny: 

Because thou hast done this thing, and hast not withheld thy son, thine only son: that in blessing I will bless thee, and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and thy seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; And in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because thou hast obeyed my voice. (Gen 22:16-18)

 Isaac was Abraham’s only remaining son as God had emancipated Ishmael. The Ishmaelites would not be blessed but only the Israelites. Ishmael was fathered by Abraham in the fertile womb of the Egyptian woman, Haggar. He was of impure genes. On the other hand, perhaps Isaac was the son of God and the barren wife, Sarah.

Going hardly noticed is that both Abram and Sarai, in the Hebrew, had a “heh” added to their names. Heh means “here is.” In this case, “here is the seed.” God planted His Seed in both Abram and Sarai to ostensibly make them a new, peculiar kind. Since “heh” was planted in them both, that points toward God fathering Isaac. Isaac would have been a divine human in the manner of Jesus but came short of the glory of Jesus.

Sarai was barren and surely Abram was impotent; that is assumed because Sarai most certainly laughed at the thought of the old man becoming alive again more so than that she was barren… or perhaps she laughed at both situations.

Isaac was a subsequent “Abel” to Abraham’s “Adam.” Yahweh extended grace to them in the form of genetics.

Why are Jews so hated? Because they are a very different kind. They were a new creation that has gone bad in the manner of Adam’s progeny.

So, along comes Isaiah and God showed him their future: 

The lofty looks of man shall be humbled, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and the Lord alone shall be exalted in that day. For the day of the Lord of hosts shall be upon every one that is proud and lofty, and upon every one that is lifted up; and he shall be brought low. (Isa 2:11-12)

 God showed Isaiah that Abraham’s, Isaac’s, and Jacobs, kind — those with blessed seed (genetics) would be humbled. The pride they had of being of the seed of Abraham that made them estimate themselves so highly, God would humble.

That time would come on the Day of the Lord of Hosts. That implies a warring army when Jesus would come again. It is the time when every knee shall bow as Paul wrote, “That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth, and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father” (Phil 2:10-11).

Has that happened yet? Paul said to the Phillipians the same thing he said to the Romans. That warning came from God through the words of Isaiah, “I have sworn by Myself, the Word is gone out of my mouth in righteousness and shall not return; that unto Me every knee shall bow, every tongue shall swear” (Isa 45:23). Father God spoke of the “Word’” that is Jesus. Everyone would bow to Jesus, and that day would be thousands of years later, likely when the armies of Jesus shall win the war to end all wars at the battle of Armageddon.

That time is coming, revealed in Psalm 91; it is when Jesus shall save the righteous that remain on Earth. In the battle of all battles for those Christians who remain, no harm will come to them as they will be under the safety of Jesus and His heavenly armies, to wit: 

On my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of My Spirit; and they shall prophesy: And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke: The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and notable day of the Lord come: And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. (Acts 2:18-21)

 Like the prophet Isaiah, John saw that same vision, “I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood” (Rev 6:12).  That would occur when Jesus comes on a white horse conquering. That is the “Day of the Lord of Hosts” for those still around to be saved.

God revealed to Isaiah that everyone would bow to Jesus and be saved. That would be the day of salvation for the Jews as well as the Gentiles who are alive when Jesus comes to rule. That battle precedes the millennial reign of Jesus when everyone living recognizes Jesus as King of kings and Lord of lords.

In the end, the battle is won by our Savior: “These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for He is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are with Him are called, and chosen, and faithful” (Rev 17:14). Everyone — Jew and Gentile — all the seed of Abraham shall be saved. As Jesus said it: 

Because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold, but he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come. (Mat 24:12-14)

 That was God’s vision of His chosen and peculiar people — the Jews first, then the Gentiles. That blessing would be extended from just the Jews to everyone! Speaking about Christians, Paul wrote to Peter: 

Ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light; which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy. (1 Pet 2:9-10)

 Some (Calvinists) would argue that salvation therein was for the Jews alone since Jesus had said it to an audience of Jews. However, He said it to both His apostles and disciples as well. Indeed, those who endure to the end, whether Jew or Gentiles, shall be saved. Salvation is a future event. For some, salvation will come at their demise and for others when Jesus overcomes the world to be King of kings and Lord of lords.

That Christians are Jews inwardly (Rom 2:29), then what goes for the Hebrew pertains to the Christian. The exception is the 144,000 Jews from the tribes of Israel that get their reward by demonstrating the faith of Abraham and the faith of Christians before the Battle of Armageddon.

The Hebrews would need to wait for salvation until the end is endured. God revealed that to Abraham, but Christians are of the seed of Abraham as well, not by genetics but by faith. Any who have faith in the atoning blood of Jesus, just like Abraham, are the seed of Abraham.

It is written, “Avoid foolish questions, and genealogies, and contentions, and strivings about the law; for they are unprofitable and vain” (Tit:3-9). That anyone is from the seed of Abraham is now vanity, just as Isaiah foresaw way back then. That Jewish genes are from Abraham is non-consequential because the Jews have been as haughty as the Gentiles. That the blood of Abraham runs in your veins and that his genes are yours, is insignificant; you must have the faith of Abraham, both Jew or Gentile, to be saved.

God is no longer a respecter of persons (Acts 10:34). Regardless the source of your blood, unless it is the blood of Jesus that you trust; you are damned.

At another time, I will write a commentary on the false assumption that salvation is at the time of first belief, or not. Think on the dangers of that! It is a satisfying feeling, but is it true? Or is it that Satan wants you to believe it is true? What doctrine would you propagate to lessen the sobriety and vigilance if you thought like Satan?

 

 

 

ANCIENT BRILLIANCE: FOUR CORNERS OF A ROUND EARTH

 Know you didn’t because neither did I!

Because of inventions, scientists think of themselves as brilliant. They have indeed evolved cognitively by learning from others. In ancient days, that was not so. I believe that the ancients learned from God, not from experimentation nor even sharing their knowledge in journals.

Yesterday, a good friend laughed when he said, “We know that there are not four corners of the Earth.” That does seem laughable because now, except for the flat-earthers, it is well established that the Earth is nearly spherical.

That was known long before Christopher Columbus, but he believed it anyhow and risked his life, reputation, and the royal treasury of Spain that it was true. God may have spoken to Columbus in a “journal” of sorts. I mean by that, that the Bible is a journal about the journey that we call “life.” That the Earth is flat is now absurd, but that it is round was once absurd, although it is now the science.

Isaiah was shown the universe and the Earth within. He was shown the entirety of the world:  “It is He that sits upon the circle of the Earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers; that stretches out the heavens as a curtain and spreads them out as a tent to dwell in” (Isa 40:22).

Therein, a “circle” is obvious to modern people. For instance, to us, the moon is a near perfect circle. Isaiah wrote that the Earth was a “hug” in the Hebrew, meaning that it was a “circle” from where God showed him the Earth from a distance. Circles, when rotated, generate a sphere.

If Isaiah had been orthogonal (at right angles) to the Earth from, let’s say, the throne of God, the Earth would still be a circle. In fact, regardless of where the Earth is viewed, it is a circle in shape. Changing positions while seeing a circle generates a sphere. Isaiah looked at the Earth from all positions and saw a circle each time. His different viewpoints generated a sphere, and Isaiah from wherever he viewed the Earth, his mind was looking, not at a flat Earth, but a spherical one.

The picture that follows is what Isaiah would have seen from any direction above:

 

 

                                                            Figure 1: BUJUS: "The Sphere."

Isaiah saw inside a sphere. A sphere was generated in his mind as he viewed the Earth from different perspectives in the heavens. Wherever Isaiah stood, he saw a “corner” of the earth; in this case, only one “corner” of the Earth is shown.

Isaiah was not stupid. He was wise because God showed him both the external and internal structure of the Earth; that the Earth indeed has four corners if looked at from different perspectives. The four corners of the Earth are a true observation. Isaiah was shown the innermost parts of the Earth from his vantage points;  Isaiah saw the axis of the Earth.

It was written in the beginning that the Garden was eastward (qedem) in Eden (Gen 2:8). That Hebrew word has two possible meanings: (1) Before time since the Sun comes up in the East or (2) that the Garden was in the eastern hemisphere.

The sun was known early to both rise and go down, to wit: “When the sun was going down, a deep sleep fell upon Abram” (Gen 15:12), and “The sun was risen upon the Earth when Lot entered into Zoar” (Gen 19:23).

Contrary to flat Earthers, the Sun does not traverse in a horizontal straight-line movement. In respect to the horizon, the Earth does move circumferential to something. The Sun seems to move up and down because the Earth travels in a circle in respect to the spherical Sun’s center. The thing in the “something” is the center of the round Sun. The Sun is round from whatever viewpoint it is observed. As the Earth rotates about the Sun, the Sun is always a circle, proving that the Sun is also a giant sphere.

Distance blurs time. Our time is Sun based. Although mankind always looked at the Sun from different perspectives, whatever the position of the Sun, the Sun still appeared flat, although the Sun has no edges or corners. Ancient people always thought that the Sun was round, and as a child, so did I. That it was also a sphere was not even considered by us children! We were limited by the distance in what we saw. Perspective can only be seen from short distances. Anything beyond the horizontal perspective is beyond understanding.

Isaiah never described what anyone can see; that things like the Moon disappear over a horizon. They would have known that the surface of the Earth is round whichever way they looked. Wise men would have known it was a sphere but were limited by perspective.

Isaiah saw more than the naked eye can see. We do not know from the what location God showed him things, but the earliest people, before sin, had bright eyes because they were glorious.

Glorious Adam and the woman had bright eyes before they sinned. They could see into the heavens, or even from the heavens to the Earth. They saw that the Earth had “four corners” because they would see the Earth from afar. They surely saw that it was spherical, and like Isaiah, saw it both outwardly and inwardly.

After original sin, “Then God the Lord said unto Adam, ‘When thou wast under subjection to Me, thou hadst a bright nature within thee, and for that reason couldst thou see things afar off. But after thy transgression thy bright nature was withdrawn from thee; and it was not left to thee to see things afar off, but only near at hand; after the ability of the flesh; for it is brutish.’" (1 A & E 8:2).

Adam and Eve, in their glory, could see things that we cannot see. They could see things from a distance and even hidden things. Adam and Eve could have seen the four corners of the Earth; the axis of each quarter of the Earth.

Now for the Greek version: John was revealed the same vision as Isaiah, to wit: “I saw four angels standing on the four corners of the Earth” (Rev 7:1). Corners in the Greek is “gonia,” meaning “an angle:—corner, quarter” (Strong 2006).

John, from his distant perspective, saw the Earth as four quarters. He saw within the Earth to see its axes and saw that the Earth does have four corners but they are inward at the center of the Earth, making four quadrants. God showed John the science!

According to science, what is a “sphere”?

“A solid geometric figure generated by the revolution of a semicircle about its diameter; a round body whose surface is at all points equidistant from the center. Equation: x ² + y ² + z ² = r ² ” (Dictionary.com).

A sphere is a semicircle that rotates around an axis to form a solid object. There are two semicircles in a circle. A semi-circle is further divided into two halves. There are four “corners” in a sphere; hence, there are four corners of the Earth! The evidence of that is that the Earth consists of four parts of spheres: north, south, east, and west. Put them together, that is the whole. Those quarters of spheres resemble a dissected ball from the outside, but on the inside, they have four corners, one for each quarter body of the Earth.

Isaiah saw, not only the Earth from the outside surface, but from the imaginary axis within. He indeed was a scientist in that he observed it from afar, be it in his mind or from the heavens; God revealed to him the truth.

Enoch saw the four corners of the Earth from the vantage point of time soon after the creation. From his vantage point in the realm of heaven, “I surveyed the stone which supports the corners of the Earth” (Enoch 18:2). He saw the center point of the Earth; the exact location of the axes of the four quadrants. He saw the “stone” on which the Earth was founded, stone in the sense of the beginning of matter. That finite point where the four corners meet are the foundation point from which the Earth radiated outward in rays all pointing to the heavens.

Enoch saw into the depths of the Earth because for his tour of heavens, he wrote a journal of what he saw. It was a journal of his journey into the world and beyond.

That Jesus is the ‘light of the world” (John 8:12) means more than this earthly world. In the Greek, it is “kosmos.” Jesus is the light of the cosmos — the light of all things. As such, he lights hidden things, even the four corners of the Earth. He lit those for Enoch, Isaiah, John, and the rest of the prophets. He gave them bright eyes to see things that us blind “brutes” like us acannot see.

I failed to see the four corners of the Earth and so did my fine Christian friend, Larry Barbour. I can now see the four corners of the Earth as real because it is the science.

Paul was a seer as well; he saw that “The invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made” (Rom 1:20)

. The four corners of the Earth are invisible things, but the Earth is visible. This round shape is the evidence that there are four quadrants that make the whole Earth. Now, I understand; there are four corners to the Earth if we look inwardly at hidden things. Because the Earth is spherical means that there are four corners within, emanating outwardly in rays from the origin stone at its center.

I am satisfied. I hope my friend is as well.