Re: The Key Of Time = Commentary
OvrLrd,
The following is a small piece of the study on Ezekiel. It is taken somewhat out of context but the general gist of the study is there. Remember, this was written very hastily by me more than 35 years ago so it does not contain things understood since then. I was primarily trying to show the physical side of the Bible:
A little known woman writing in the middle 1840's wrote that the heavenly sanctuary 'was vast and glorious in comparison with the earthly sanctuary which was but a 'faint reflection'.' It's vastness can only be dimly viewed. This sanctuary held—at least—millions upon millions of angel who did the bidding of Christ and the Father. According to the Bible, the earthly sanctuary was built upon a 'pattern' which was given to Moses. It was also seen by others in vision. The question here arises, can mortal man behold the glorious heavenly sanctuary with all of it's inner workings and be able to adequately describe it? In fact—which I will prove later--mortal men could not describe it adequately, so they had to be shown a pattern which described, at least symbolically, the workings therein. In other words, the earthly sanctuary was made after a pattern which was not the true sanctuary but a symbolic pattern which could only be understood in simultudes such as: 'like the appearance of brass, like the Son of Man', etc Our understanding thus far about the sanctuary service is predicated on our belief that there were two apartments in an actual building located in some heavenly sphere. Although we can glean a great deal of knowledge from this 'pattern', it is obvious that it is just a prelude to greater knowledge and truth that can be gleaned from a new view of old truth.
There are many other 'proofs' and if the reader will be patient, you will see the chain of truth. First, let us discuss the furniture. Without getting into all of the explanations of their value—which must be reexamined in view of the new truth—let me just summarize by saying that each piece had a symbolic meaning that had it's counterpart in reality. For example, Christ is seen as walking among the golden candlesticks. The seven candlesticks are said to be the seven churches or the seven angels to the seven churches or the seven spirits. Without going into a lot of detail, this brings up a lot of questions. If, as we believe, that the seven churches of Revelation refer to the churches throughout time(ending with Laodicea), then these golden candlesticks cover the entire history of the church in all it's forms. If these churches represent all of history, then Christ is seen as walking among them throughout time. Now this is not an unusual concept for us to understand, because we see Christ as 'the Beginning and the End' or the 'Alpha and the Omega' and ministering to us until the end of the world. However, when you view this in a physical way, you must make the conclusion that the heavenly sanctuary existed not only in a linear time-sense , but in the same sense that Christ and the Father exist—that is, 'Before Abraham WAS, I AM.' What I am saying here is that the heavenly sanctuary contains many of the same attributes of Divine Being. The sanctuary may not be a 'place' so much as it is a living process. In fact, this is exactly what it is and there is ample proof in the Bible that God's holy mountain, Mount Zion, and the heavenly sanctuary are one and the same, and do not exist apart from God but are intricately intertwined with the ministry of Christ, the workings of the known universe, and is a sanctuary for God. Even further than this, I can state with absolute certainty that the three great laws are unified in the sanctuary; i.e., the Ten Commandment Law, the law of nature (gravity, physics, etc) and the law of Moses or the moral law of ordinances representing righteousness by faith
Thus far we have seen two aspects of the sanctuary that we must take into consideration when trying to understand what God would have us know concerning these last times. It is written that the Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached to all the world, then the end will come. Up to this point in time, the Gospel has not been preached to the extent that it must. We only know that there is a heaven with all kinds of wonderful things in it and that all we have to do is accept Christ by faith and step forth in that faith and we will inherit this wonderful heaven of which we know so little. This faith has been absolutely necessary to prepare the individual to face evil in all it's forms and come through triumphant—not in ourselves lest we should boast—but in Christ Jesus. But more faith is needed for what is to come upon the world as an overwhelming surprise—not only to the unbelieving world but to God-fearing Christians as well. The woman I mentioned earlier also wrote, 'to this day, there are still aspects of truth which are dimly seen—connections that are not understood and far-reaching depths in the Law of God that are uncomprehended. There is immeasurable breadth, dignity, and glory in the Law of God, and the religious world has set aside this law in favor of traditions and the commandments of men.'
As I mentioned early on, the one aspect of the sanctuary which has received little attention is the subject of the Holy Shekinah. Since learning of it's qualities, the entire Bible has revolved around the truths involved. In short, the Bible is an entirely new book. An entirely different light is placed on all of the books and a new purpose is revealed. Before I get into an actual study of the Holy Shekinah, I would like to state what we are looking for and put forth what I have come to understand about it and it's implications. The things uncovered are vast and complex and cannot be stated in a sentence or a paragraph unless we are satisfied with terms we already understand to some extent such as righteousness by faith, imputed and imparted righteousness, etc. My intent is to reveal the reality and not the theory; to place additional light upon our pathway; and—above all—to raise the standard and repair the breach. We need to unify in the three angel's messages of Daniel 8 and this is a unifying message when it is understood in it's entirely. It gives us an understanding of God's nature, His Government and our purpose in it's workings.
We all know that our Heavenly Father—through Christ—desires us to have peace, love abundant life, and eternal life. He places all things at our disposal and even the universe itself is to become ours to govern if we remain faithful and overcome to the end. While the entire Christian world is preaching impending doom, a little know verse forecasts hope. Jesus tells us in Chapter 24 of Matthew that there shall be wars and rumors of wars. It is a primary concern of many concerning nuclear war and the ever increasing scale of conventional war around the world. But the next verse says, 'be not troubled for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.' The very angels of God are holding back the four winds in order that the Kingdom of God be preached to all the world. Then and only then will the end come. The Kingdom of God has been a secret until now. The psalmist states in Psalms 27:5, 'in the time of trouble He shall hide me in his pavilion: in the secret of His Tabernacle shall he hide me.' Matthew 24:15 states 'when ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place.' The secret of His Pavilion and the Holy Place are one and the same. The question arises—is this simply a faith procedure or does it have physical applications as well? The answer to this question contains far more than we can imagine! We have to go to the visions of the prophets to find out about this secret place. However, the key to the visions can only be found in one prophet alone. That prophet is Ezekiel. In the book of Ezekiel is revealed all the mysteries.
It is not coincidence that Ezekiel was shown things in a time that closely parallels our time. He was shown the abominations that were occurring in the very temple of God and among the leaders. Some were crying for Tammuz, secretly worshiping idols, worshipping animals, and worshipping the sun. The basest of iniquity was being practiced behind religious doors. But prior to showing Ezekiel these things, he was taken into vision and shown things of a most startling nature. Let us now take up this most amazing study.
The first thing that Ezekiel saw was a whirlwind come out of the North. This was no normal whirlwind. As a matter of fact, the word used here for whirlwind is the same word used when God breathed life into Adam and Eve. It also has connotations about spirit and the quickening of understanding. This tempest was seen as coming from the North. Strong's Concordance defines this as a hidden or secret place which is covered. What this tells us at the outset is that Ezekiel is seeing the agency through which God gives life and maintains it. But more importantly, it is coming from the secret place of God—namely the Holy of Holies. This is the REAL sanctuary in Heaven. What follows is probably the most important aspect of our study because a principle is involved that has it's counterpart in nature and is the only yardstick we can use to identify the nature of the principle involved. First, I will discuss the laws of nature involved. These laws have only within the last few years even begun to be understood. The theories involved have been around for many years but have not been proven to any extent until now. Even now, the proof has raised more questions than it has resolved. What I'm talking about is the nature and laws involving the motions of the heavenly bodies, their effect on one another, the atomic structure and the amazing forces that keep things together, and all the other forces involved—namely the functions of light and matter, gravity, and all the other forms of energy. The entire vision of Ezekiel discusses these things—not in the framework of nature, but in the framework of the workings of the Government of God!! Each agency employed in the government of God has it's counterpart or 'image' in the world of nature. Truly, 'the heavens declare the glory of God and the firmament sheweth His handiwork.'
One of the most amazing discoveries of science is the so call 'black hole phenomenon.' This occurs when a normal star runs our of nuclear fuel(hydrogen). The star, which is comprised primarily of gasses and are highly unstable when the nuclear forces cease to operate because of lack of fuel. The remaining gasses and other materials begin to collapse upon one another and rush towards the center at speeds approaching that of light (186,282 miles per second). This creates such friction and heat that the by-product of hydrogen fission(helium), starts a thermonuclear furnace(fusion) and produces a star that is vastly smaller. This is called a neutron star. It has fuel enough to burn for perhaps several billion years, but when it's fuel is finally exhausted, the imploding process begins again. This time, however, there is nothing to stop it's collapse. The nuclear forces which prevented it's collapse now do not exist because the fuel is spent. What now happens is the 'black hold phenomenon.' The mass that was once a sun perhaps millions of miles across is now compressed into an area probably thousands, if not hundreds of miles across. This sun is now so dense and the gravity so powerful, that light itself cannot escape. It that was all there was to it, nothing important occurs. But that is not all that happens. Some very strange things occur. Firstly, the space around the 'black hole' becomes 'twisted' in a strange kind of way. It is said that the gravity is so powerful, that the sun ceases to exist in space as we know it. Some kind of 'wormhole' effect occurs and the sun exists in another 'dimension' of which we cannot measure. Even time itself is warped and twisted so that it ceases to exist in a linear fashion. Some postulate that these may be 'gates' to other dimensions or worlds. It is no coincidence that the Bible asks us to enter within the gates. Scientists tell us that this phenomenon is occurring on the microscopic level as well as the macroscopic. In fact, they mention the possibility that the blackness that we see at night surrounding the stars may indeed be a giant black hole in which we are traveling towards a destination we know nothing of. What we are talking about here is the possibility that this is the medium through which the Godhead ministers to the universe. The Bible tells us of the timelessness and the vastness of Heaven This medium reveals to us the nature of the Godhead as revealed in nature. Does the inspired word indicate anything that describes this process? The next few verses of Ezekiel has a surprisingly similar description!
After seeing the whirlwind come out of the north, Ezekiel saw a great cloud. The word 'great' not only means very large, but there is also a twisting which has something to do with why it is great. The word 'cloud' is the same word used for the covering cloud which covers the glory of the Holy Shekinah or the angels which cover the glory overshadowing the mercy seat. In other words, the entire structure of clouds which cover the majesty of God within is 'twisted' so that it may exist outside of the framework of time and space. The next verse confirms this somewhat. What he saw next was a fire infolding itself. The fire is easy enough to explain. God has manifested Himself in the burning bush, the pillar of fire, the cloudy pillar, etc. The infolding of this fire signifies that the fire is folding in upon itself. The concordance also states that it has the qualities that sieze, grab, or win. This is also a phenomenon of the black hole.
The next word of interest is also found just in Ezekiel. The prophet saw in the 'midst' of the infolding fire 'as the color of amber.' The word midst means that a bisection was made for the benefit of the prophet so that he could 'see' into the infolding fire to see it's qualities. Otherwise, it would have been invisible to him because amber is a polished spectrum metal that has some very interesting qualities indeed.. First, amber is transluscent. In other words it diffuses light so that what is behind it is hidden. Second, it is a spectrum metal which means light or the components of an emission or wave is separated and arranged much like the rainbow is displayed after being separated by a prism. It also does the same with the electromagnetic forces as well as radio sources. It is no wonder that the rainbow surrounds the throne of God!
The next verse gets into the four living creatures that are in the midst of the fire. The prophet uses the word 'likeness' to describe the creatures which were the 'likeness of man'. The concordance describes this likeness as a model or shape. The word for man is Adam. Therefore this means the model of Adam. Each of these creatures had four faces and no matter which direction you faced these creatures, you always faced the same side. It would seem that no matter which direction these creatures traveled, they always had the same face forward and they have the peculiar quality of traveling in a straight line which is a characteristic of radiation. The word for face is also the same word used for shewbread which is part of the sanctuary service. Each also had four wings which may not be wings in the normal sense but rather edges or extremities of not just a bird but probably an army. These may be the extremities of the army of Heaven which is part of the Government of God, but more likely (according the the verses following), they have a great deal to do with the creation of life and are actual elements of life itself. Further study bears this out in a remarkable way. However, since chemistry is not a very strong point of mine, I will have to stick to the facts and leave it to a further study. The implication of the next few verses would warrant a strong investigation. The word used for feet also has a strong connection to sexual organs or 'pudenda' as the concordance puts it. The fact that they sparkled like burnished brass places additional light on the subject. Burnished means that light was placed on the brass which is largely copper with some zinc. Copper has some important qualities. It is chiefly univalent and bivalent. What this means is that when univalent, it has a valence of one or the capacity to combine with another to form a different element. Being bivalent, which is the next step in the chain, means it has a valence of two and is associated in pairs in snyapsis concerning synaptic chromosomes. Synapsis concerns the association of homologous chromosomes or chromosomes ehich have the same relative value or structure with chiasma formation(fusion and exchange of segments of chromatids between members of a bivalent during meiosis), characteristic of the first meiotic prophase(the complex sequence of nuclear changes resulting tn the production of cells like gametes), and the mechanism for crossing over. This sounds very complicated and gets much more complicated. These are but the first steps in creating life.
In verse eight, it talks of hands of a man under their wings. The hands denote power, means and direction of the human species. Now if we suppose as mentioned before that the wings denote the extremeties of armies, then here we may have some significance as to whether these creatures have something to do with controlling the four winds which in turn denote the armies of the world. Their wings were joined meaning that the four acted as one unit. The concordance implies a closeness bordering on coupling. When they traveled, they did not revolve but went straight forward in the sense of crossing a gulf. This sounds exactly like the effects of radiation in that it only travels in one direction. In reference to crossing over a gulf, this may be the means by which an object travels from one point of the universe to another without having to circumnavigate the gulf in between. This implies instantaneous interstellar travel! Further study makes this much more plausible.
Now as for the resemblance of their faces. One was the face of mankind. Another was of a violently pierced lion. Obviously, this has some reference to the Lion of Judah who was pierced for our sakes. The ox has something to do with traveling (around a wall) and there is some joy involved because the traveler is singing. The eagle, of course has a great deal of meaning. Speed is one of it's attributes, but it also has something to do with tenderness, love and compassion.
Verse 11 speaks of their wings being stretched upward. The word stretched means to break through or spread or separate oneself. Upward means to ascend up at once or to shoot up. Thus, when the wings were stretched upward, they surprisingly describe the effect a black hole would have on an object—namely stretching to infinity and occupying one or more spaces simultaneously. Verse 12 says they went straight forward; whither the spirit was to go they went. The word whither has reference both to time and place or space as well as to whom, to what, how when and where. The spirit again refers to the whirlwind or the breath of life. So these creatures were under the direct control of the whirlwind and went where, when, how, to whomever and to whatever the spirit dictated and they did not deviate al all or 'turned not' when they went. Verse 13 gets into the appearance of the creatures as opposed to their substance. The word appearance denotes a view, whether real, a shape, a vision or a pattern of the thing seen. By implication, what the prophet was seeing was 'looking through a glass darkly' at something he couldn't possibly understand, but the mental vision of the pattern gave him the words to use in describing it.
Their appearance was 'like burning coals of fire'. The word like denoted manner, time and relation to the burning coal of fire. The burning coal of fire represents the consuming fire of which God is described and travels all around and up and down among the living creatures. The fire was bright meaning that it not only caused the creatures to shine like Moses did when coming down from the mount, but it also illuminated them with knowledge, spirit and power. Out of this fire went forth lightning which was the means by which the creatures could run and return as the flash of lightning. The lightning cast the creatures back and forth doing the bidding of the spirit. This means that these creatures traveled at the speed of light and therefore traveled instantaneously to whatever point of space and time the spirit desired. The book of John 1:51 states, hereafter ye shall see heaven open, and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man. Here then is the means by which the angels ascend and descend! It is also the ladder that Jacob saw in vision!
Verse 15 says that as he beheld the creatures, he saw a wheel upon the earth by the living creatures. Now this perhaps one of the most difficult subjects; because of such varying interpretations. Some feel that this represents each of the aspects of life on our world. In other words, the smallest wheel interacts with the the next larger wheel which is the individual having an effect on others around him while they interact upon others and eventually affecting the entire world. I feel that these wheels represent the workings of atomic particles representing matter and their structure. There is some evidence to show that this is so. Verse 15 shows the prophet seeing one wheel upon the earth. The one wheel signifies a united one. In other wheels, while there were wheels besides each creature, they were joined together much like the wings of the creatures were joined. We have all see the symbol of nuclear particles and they appear as a wheel within a wheel. Now, in Verse 16, 'the appearance of the wheels and their workings was like unto the colour of beryl.' The element beryl or beryllium has some very interesting qualities. If you were to represent beryl as a nuclear symbol, it would have four wheels because it consists of four particles. We already discussed elements #1 & 2—namely hydrogen and helium—in the workings of the black hole. Element #3(lithium) is also part of the nuclear fission and fusion process. Beryl consists of a silicate of beryllium and aluminum. Here again we have some basic building blocks of life and an increased ability in the elements involved to combine or react with similar or homologous substances. The biggest difference with these elements is that they have the ability to interact with antigens which are usually proteins or carbohydrate substances such as toxins or enzymes. They are also amorphous, meaning there is no shape and they are malleable and ductile meaning that they can be shaped. Even with the most limited chemistry background, we know that life cannot be produced without proteins, amino acids, enzymes and the like. Here again we are being shown the steps involved in the creation of life. Verse 18 states that the rings were so high that they were dreadful and the rings were full of eyes. Here we have the first inkling of the power which keeps the particles as represented by the rings for it is only the speed of the particle around a center that gives the appearance of a ring. The rings were 'high' meaning that they reached into the heavens themselves—right to the throne of God. Being dreadful is the same as fear—not in the sense of fright but of reverence. The eyes are nothing more than the very presence of God within the rings, or more appropriately, the ministry of Christ and the Father. Some may say that this is pantheistic, but it is not. God's presence exists at angles to the space of the rings and is the power that keeps it from collapsing. The particles are created by God. He upholds all things by the power of His Arm.
Verses 19 through 21 tell of the fact that without the power of the wheels, the creatures went nowhere for 'the spirit of the creatures was in the wheels. When the creatures 'stood' meaning ascended, the power of the wheels 'stood' also; and when the creatures 'went' meaning vanishing for the, again the wheels 'vanished forth'. Verse 22 shows the order in which these creatures appear in the government of God for above their heads was the Terrible Crystal. The word terrible means the same as reverence or fear of God and the crystal is the same Sea of Glass seen by John the Revelator. This Sea of Glass is mingled with fire which, of course, represents the consuming fire of God. Verse 24 speaks of noise 'like the noise of great waters'. The great waters represent the same 'rain' that fell on the disciples at Pentecost accompanied by rushing noise and the 'tongues of fire' that descended upon each of the followers and quickened their understanding by the very same spirit that attended the creatures and upheld the power of the wheels. Verse 26 shows that God's throne was above the sea of glass or terrible crystal. The appearance of the throne was like a sapphire stone. This sapphire seems to be the final process in the creation of life and is somehow connected to the terrible crystal beneath it. Sapphire is consisted of aluminum oxide which is made of a binary compound of oxygen with an element or radical(a root part, basic principle or foundation). In the process of oxidizing, the oxygen dehydrogenates. That is, the enzyme dehydrogenase accelerates the removal of hydrogen from metabolites. Metabolites are the product of metabolism which is the sum of the processes in the building up and destruction of protoplasm incidental to life; specifically the chemical changes in living cells by which energy is provided for vital processes and activities. END OF STUDY OF FIRST CHAPTER OF EZEKIEL