5 January 2020
Dear Phyllis,
As we say in Japan, “Akemashite, omedeto gozaimasu” (It has opened. Congratulations). I don't know what it means, but it sounds significant. What has opened? Yes, I know, it is a new. year,
but why the congratulations?
To say that today is historic is an understatement. When 1960 came, 60
years ago, to think of the year 2020 was like trying to think about an
unimaginable number. We speculated that it would all be over by 1980 and
there was no
question, when the year 2000 came we would be well into the millennial
reign of Christ. And the year 2020, well, that was just something that
belonged to a different world. But here we are, and the earth is still
spinning. As we begin this new year, I would
like to share somethings with you, but that is as far out of reach as
five year old child to try to explain Einstein's theory of relativity. I
feel like a stone age savage that has been transported from the jungles
of Irian Jaya to Los Angles and try to write
home to tell the folks what it is like in the western world. I see
things all around me that I know are real, but I have no idea what they
are or how they work.
Oh,
the Bible! Oh, my goodness, what a Book! What it says! It is an
inexplicable treasure given to us by our Father to tell us about Himself
and His Kingdom, but man howdy, it is hard to get
hold of. I have just opened the cover, and what it says blows my mind.
To begin with, there is a
Covenant. In English we call it a Testament. In Nihongo
(Japanese) it is the same word. The Book is divided into two sections
called the Old Testament (Covenant), and the New Testament. I challenge
anyone to tell me what the Covenant is. It is one thing
– MY PEOPLE. The Old Covenant was, I will be your God and you will be My people. But what is the
New Covenant? I will be your God and you will be My people.
It is the same thing. The only difference is how to keep the terms of the contract. The only problem was there was an
IF in the contract. The terms of Old Covenant were “IF you keep My Covenant”,
but that proved impossible. So our Father modified the New Covenant to
provide a means where by the IF was provided for, making the terms
possible. The way He did this
was by making sure that He Himself would guarantee both sides were
kept. He did this by sending His Son to keep the Covenant on our side of
the equation. Jesus is the Mediator of the New Covenant (Heb. 7:22;
8:6; 9:15) This needs a little more explanation
but let me to go on to the next point.
The
only stipulation to the we-belong-to-each-other covenant is that there
were some simple house rules. When we were in Ikaoma there was a 22 year
old girl that wanted to live with us to
learn some English. I said, “Fine. Please come. But we have some simple
house rules”. Obviously, no smoking, drinking, drugs, or sleeping with
boys, but I also have a ban on rock music. One day Mari chan was playing
some rock music and I waved my finger. That
was it. She exploded and moved out. In God's Kingdom the entire house
rule could be summed up in one word – LOVE. It was focused in two
direction, up and horizontal; love God, and love your fellow neighbor. I
don't need to spell them out, but to summarize
them, the first four were - God was to be number one; and the second
was to respect your neighbor's person and property; don't hurt him,
defile him (her) morally, don't steal his property, and be satisfied
with what you have. Certainly there is nothing wrong
with those house rules. But that was against human nature. In order to
make man compatible with God, the Lord had to do some thing radical for
him. That is why Jesus came; to make that all possible.
The
older I get the more I am dumbfounded by what is presented as the
Gospel. Ninety nine percent of the present day, evangelical, gospel
message is basically a get-out-of-jail card. The whole
sum of our gospel message is that Jesus died so we wouldn't have to go
to hell. If you simply believe in Jesus then you won't have to go to
hell. My goodness, that misses the whole point. The point is God wants
people to live with Himself, and that is impossible
if man isn't changed. Hell is simply the end of the road. The entrance
of the road was the Fall. The road is sin, and hell is the end of the
road. Nobody wants to wind up at the end of the road, but neither do
they want to get off the road. People love sin
so much they will do anything to protect it. In this they have a lot of
help from the devil who is the master of the road. So he has endless
scripts to help people stay on the road. One of which is secularism,
another is religions, and another is prosperity
gospel. All of these ignore the basic issue of sin. Get off the road,
man!
How
did we ever get in this mess of presenting the Gospel as a stay-
out-of-hell ticket? The only reason I can think of is that this is the
lowest level we can set the bar to encourage people
to come to Jesus. To set the bar any higher would be almost
incomprehensible for most people. And I am no better than anyone else.
In personal work, my message is; “Do you want eternal life? Jesus came
to give us eternal life. Accept Jesus and you can be saved.”
But very few people get past substitutionary propitiation (Jesus died
in my place).
Getting
back to my original thesis of feeling like a stone age savage in Los
Angeles, I see wonders in the Bible that clearly are there but I don't
understand them or know how they work. I
am beginning to understand a little bit of Revelation. I can close my
eyes and tell you in fairly close detail what is in every chapter. And
it sure looks a lot different than it did 20 years ago. As I have told
you, by throwing out human reasoning I can accept
a lot of things in the Bible as being factual without trying to connect
the dots. I have accepted Joel Richardson's view on a lot of
eschatology. That puts Islam and Turkey in the spot light. I think I
have a pretty clear view of Ezekiel 38, 39.
But recently I have been challenged by the
three feats in the Bible. As never before I have seen how clearly
they are presented in scripture. In four of the five Books of Moses
they are mentioned in detail – Exodus 34:18-23, Leviticus 23:, Numbers
29, and Deuteronomy 16. They are very clear.
Obviously the first is the Passover. You can't miss that one.
That was when it all started when Israel came out of Egypt. The Lord
told Moses this is to be January 1 for you (Ex. 12:2). This is the first
day of the year. This is obviously the most easily
explained. It was 1,500 years later that the Lamb of God was slain on
the Passover. That is where everything starts. That is when Jesus shed
His Blood to bring us to God. And for a Christian that is the day we are
born-again. That is when our spiritual life
starts. The next two feasts are tied to the harvest. The second feast was 50 days later. That doesn't need any explanation. That is
Pentecost.. Jesus was here 40 days after the resurrection and
then they had a 10 day prayer meeting. Right on time the Holy Spirit
came. This Jewish festival is called
the Feast of the Weeks and it is at the beginning of the harvest. The
third feast is the 15th day of the 7th month, and this is the
Feast of the Tabernacle. This is the end of the harvest.
The period between the second and the third feast is the period of the
harvest. Pentecost is the start of the harvest and the Feast of the
Tabernacle is the end of the harvest. This starts
with the blowing of trumpets of the 1st day of the 7th
month. Ironically this is the end of the Jewish year. A Bible year has
seven months, not twelve. Obviously an earthly year has twelve months.
Where are the last five months? There
is nothing in the Bible about them. Maybe I am wrong but the Feast of
the Tabernacles sounds very much like Rev. 21:3;
“Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He shall dwell with
them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them,
and be their God.” This sounds very much like the central message of
the Bible. This is the whole point of the
Covenant. God wants people to live with Himself. And the Feast of the
Tabernacle is that time. It starts at the end of the harvest and begins
with the blowing of trumpets. I believe we are going to hear a Trumpet
very soon. Maybe this year. Oh I wish I had
another 15 or 20 pages. I haven't said ten percent of what needs to be
said, but I must quit now.
Have a super new year walking with Jesus and waiting for His appearance. bill
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