The Resurrection of Christ
“Verily, verily, I say unto you, THE HOUR IS COMING, and now is, WHEN THE DEAD SHALL HEAR THE VOICE OF THE SON OF GOD: and THEY THAT HEAR SHALL LIVE. For as the Father hath life in himself; so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself; And hath given him authority to execute judgment also, because he is the Son of man. Marvel not at this: FOR THE HOUR IS COMING, IN THE WHICH ALL THAT ARE IN THE GRAVES SHALL HEAR HIS VOICE, And shall come forth; they that have done good, unto the resurrection of life; and they that have done evil, unto the resurrection of damnation.” (John 5:25-29)
Why should the death of one Man; with a few followers in Palestine almost two thousand years ago, mean so much to the world. It was not alone His death, but HIS RESURRECTION THAT WAS SIGNIFICANT. Throughout the ages, unnumbered millions have passed from life unto death; during the history of mankind, hundreds of thousands have been crucified. Many have suffered other violent deaths for the principles for which they stood. This week the whole world celebrates the anniversary of the death and resurrection of Christ, who stood four-square for eternal truth.
The Resurrection Was Important: While Christ’s death was tremendously significant because He was more than man, it is His resurrection that makes His death so important to all. Previous to this time there were prophecies that advanced the rising of the dead from the grave.
“For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth: And though after my skin worms destroy this body, YET IN MY FLESH SHALL I SEE GOD.” (Job 19:25-26)
In the days of Elijah and Elisha there have been those who had fallen asleep in death, and who had been restored; finally, however, to go to the grave. But in the resurrection of Yahshua we have an event in which One comes forth from the grave, never again to die. In that resurrected state He came form the grave with a glorified body, free form all physical limitations of this life. That body could never affected by death, for He arose immortal, offering to all, through belief in Himself, eternal life and incorruption.
Need we wonder that the world celebrates such an even? Regardless of what men believe, there is inherent in each one a desire for everlasting life; for immortality. There is only one way to secure that blessing; through Yahshua.
Tradition and philosophy often are more convincing and captivating than the plan and simple truth. This was forcefully demonstrated at a recent funeral where two pastors spoke eloquently concerning the dead man who lay in the casket before them.
However, they refused to acknowledge his death, and sought to convince everyone present that he was more alive than ever and, in fact, was looking down on the funeral scene while he frolicked with the angels. Of course, not one word was said about the resurrection, THE ONLY HOPE THE BIBLE GIVES FOR BELIEVERS WHO HAVE DIED! Their idea that one begins life in heaven or hell at the moment of death makes the resurrection superfluous. WHAT IS A SOUL?
In spite of frequent assertions from evangelists that you "have an immortal soul" and most choose where it will spend eternity. This doctrine is not found in Scripture.
"A doctrine of the immortality of the soul is not stated in the Bible and is not clearly defined in early rabbinical literature." (Encyclopedia of Jewish Religion, Holt, Rinehart & Winston 1966)
The idea originated in paganism, was popularized by the Jewish Plato, and eventually permeated the entire Roman Empire by the time of Christ.
"The Platonic and Neo-Plantonic assumption of a spiritual and pre-existent soul-substance also underlies the doctrine of the Transmigration of souls which was taken up by the medieval kabbalists."
In other words it is a product of Jewish fables and false teachings which we were warned of by Christ.
Consider the record of creation:
"And Jehovah God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." (Genesis 2:7)
There is nothing here, or elsewhere, about the Creator putting a "soul" in man. Rather, man - the entire persons: is a soul.
The Hebrew word translated soul here and elsewhere in the Old Testament is nephesh.
"And God said, Let the waters swarm with swarms of living creatures (nephesh)...And God created great whales and every living creature (nephesh) that moves...let the earth bring forth living creatures (nephesh) after their kind, cattle, and creeping things, and beasts of the earth." (Genesis 1:20-21, 24)
The first four times this Hebrew word is used it has reference to fish, fowl or animal, and the fifth time, Genesis 2:7 (quoted above), it refers to man. Why wasn't it rendered "soul" in all cases? It appears that the translators, already committed to the nation that man has an immortal soul, were unwilling to reveal the fact that animals are also should.
This word, nephesh, occurs 754 times in the Hebrew Old Testament, and is used for life, person, self, heart, mind, body, dead body, man, and in 24 other different ways, but never does it indicate something immortal.
In the New Testament, originally written in Greek, the word, psuche, occurs 105 times. Usually it is translated as soul, but is also translated in six other words. Like nephesh, the word psuche is also used for lower animals, as in Revelation 8:9 which reads: "The third part of the creatures which were in the sea, and had life (psuche), died." (Revelation 16:3)
These two words occur 859 times in the original scriptures, but are never used in the sense of "immortal soul" or "ghost," as a conscious entity which leaves the body at death. it may seem so in some English versions, but that is not its meaning in the Hebrew or Greek texts.
In fact, the Scriptures relates the following concerning the dead:
"So man lieth down, and riseth not: till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor be raised out of their sleep...If a man die, shall he live again? ALL THE DAYS OF MY APPOINTED TIME WILL I WAIT, TILL MY CHANGE COME. Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee: thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine hands." (Job 14:12-15)
"If I wait, the grave is mine house: I have made my bed in the darkness. I have said to corruption, Thou art my father: to the worm, Thou art my mother, and my sister. And where is now my hope? as for my hope, who shall see it? They shall go down to the bars of the pit, when our rest together is in the dust." (Job 17:13-16)
"For in death there is no remembrance of thee..." (Psalm 6:5)
"(For the redemption of their soul is precious, and it ceaseth for ever:) That he should still live for ever, and not see corruption. For he seeth that wise men die, likewise the fool and the brutish person...he is like the beasts that perish...This their way is their folly: yet their posterity approve their sayings. Selah. Like sheep they are laid in the grave; death shall feed on them; and the upright shall have dominion over them in the morning; and their beauty shall consume in the grave from their dwelling. But God will redeem my soul from the power of the grave: for he shall receive me...For when he dieth he shall carry nothing away...He shall go to the generation of his fathers; they shall never see light. Man that is in honour, and understandeth not, is like the beasts that perish." (Psalm 49:8-20)
"Wilt thou shew wonders to the dead? shall the dead arise and praise thee? Selah." (Psalm 88:10)
"The dead praise not the Lord, neither any that go down into silence." (Psalm 115:17)
"Our bones are scattered at the grave's mouth, as when one cutteth and cleaveth wood upon the earth." (Psalm 141:7)
"His breath goeth forth, he returneth to his earth; in that very day his thoughts perish." (Psalm 146:4)
"For the living know that they shall die: but the dead know not any thing, neither have they any more a reward; for the memory of them is forgotten...for God now accepteth thy works...for there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in the grave, whither thou goest." (Ecclesiastes 9:5-10)
"I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death: O death, I will be thy plagues; O grave, I will be thy destruction: repentance shall be hid from mine eyes." (Hosea 13:14)
"And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven." (John 3:13)
"For David is not ascended into the heavens: but he saith himself, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand." (Acts 2:34)
"O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory?" (1 Corinthians 15:55)
"These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth." (Hebrews 11:13)
The point is that neither man nor animals are bipartite creatures consisting of a body plus a soul that can be separated and continue to live. Thus Leviticus 17:11 states that "the life (nephesh = soul) of the flesh is in the blood." The Biblical soul is the whole person, either a living or dead person.
Souls Are Not Immortal! The first lie focused on this issue. God said that Adam and Eve would surely die if they ate of the forbidden tree. Satan said,
"You will Not surely die" (Genesis 3:4)
Man was then excluded from the Garden,
"lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever" (Genesis 3:22)
Clearly, there was nothing about Adam that was immortal.
While scripture warns that
"the soul that sinneth it shall die" (Exodus 18:4, 20), and that "the wages of sin is death" (Romans 6:23),
some hold that this death is "spiritual separation" and not death of the person. But the penalty for sin which was met by Jesus was a blood-letting death. He "partook of flesh and blood" in order to defeat the power of death (Hebrews 2:14) If the penalty for sin were "spiritual separation" the death of Jesus would be meaningless.
As the Lamb of God, Jesus was slain on the cross and for three days was in Hades, the grave. Peter cites this fact in declaring the resurrection of Jesus, by quoting the prophecy,
"you will not leave my soul unto Hades, nor give your Holy One to see corruption" (Psalm 16:10)
"My soul" is the Hebraism for "myself." The Hebrew parallelism (saying the same thing twice in different words, for emphasis) confirms the equation of "my soul" with "Holy One."
The message is that Jesus was not left in the grave. David, in the Psalms, had foretold the resurrection of Messiah, and stated that He (soul, Himself) was not abandoned to Hades, the place of the dead, but was resurrected to life. (Acts 2)
In the same sermon Peter stated that David died, and had Not ascended to heaven. It required a resurrection from death for Jesus to ascend to the Father.
Immortality To Be Given: While the scripture states that Jesus has "passed into the heavens" to sit at the Father's right hand, this is never said of the dead saints. Rather the figure of "sleep" is used to portray their condition until their resurrection at the future return of Jesus.
As already shown, there is nothing in Scripture about an immortal soul. Job looked for a resurrection, saying,
"And though after my skin worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God" (Job 19:26)
Abraham believed in a resurrection, as did David. (Psalm 17:15; Hebrews 11:19; Acts 2:34)
Paul wrote that immortality is to be granted in the day of resurrection:
"Behold, I show you a mystery: We all shall not sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. But when...this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall come to pass the saying that is written. Death is swallowed up in victory" (1 Corinthians 15:51-54)
While this passage says nothing of the "soul" it certainly indicates that we do not yet possess immortality.
At death the body returns to dust and the spirit, or "breath of life," returns to the Creator, until Jesus returns at the "last day" to give life to the dead through a resurrection.
Some reject this truth because it is espoused by so-called unorthodox groups. But it is the teaching of Scripture and was championed by first and second century Christians such as Clement of Rome, a companion of Paul; Ignatius, a friend of Polycarp who was John's disciple; Theophilus; Justin Martyr; plus a host of Protestant scholars since the 16th century until today.
John Wycliffe and William Tyndall, celebrated Bible translators, both strongly denied soul-immortality. Tyndall wrote,
"And ye, in putting departed souls in heaven, hell, and purgatory, destroy the arguments wherewith Christ and Paul prove the resurrection, which we are warned to look for every hour...If the should be in heaven, tell me why they be not in as good case as the angels be? And then what cause is there of the resurrection?" (In answer to Sir Thomas Moore's "Dialogue," Book 4, Ch. 2)
Martin Luther wrote:
"All that is said concerning the immortality of the soul...is nothing else but an invention of anti-Christ to make his pot boil." He held that our hope is resurrection, and said, "I shall arise again and shall speak with you." ("Positive Theology," by Miles Grant)
In 1513 Pope Leo X issued a decree which condemned
"all those who assert that the soul is mortal..."
It was aimed at Luther and his friends who preached that no part of man is immortal, but that immortality is God's gift through Christ, to be conferred upon believers in the day of resurrection. The Pope's decree turned many from hope in a resurrection to belief in an immortal soul.
For religions without Christ an "immortal soul" is essential for any future life, but to the Christian eternal life is assured through Christ when He returns and raises the dead. (John 5:21-29)
Recently, an Identity Pastor say long hours with an European acquaintance while he expounded a politico-economic doctrine which seemed sound as a nut and in which we could find no defect. At the end, he said with great earnestness:
"I have a mission to the masses. I feel that I am called to get the ear of the people. I shall devote the rest of my life to spreading my doctrine far and wide among the populace. What do you think?"
An embarrassing question, and doubly so under the circumstances, because his acquaintance is a very learned man, one of the three of four really first-class minds that Europe produced in his generation; and naturally, as one of the unlearned, was included to regarded his lightest word with reverence amounting to awe.
The Identity Pastor referred him to the story of the prophet Isaiah. Which we shall paraphrase the story in our common speech since it has to be pieced out from various sources.
The Prophet's career began at the end of King Uzziah's reign, say about 740 B.C. This reign was uncommonly long, almost half a century, and apparently prosperous. It was one of those prosperous reigns, however-like the reign of Marcus Aurelius at Rome, or the administration of Eubulus at Athens, or of Mr. Coolidge at Washington, where at the end of the prosperity suddenly peters out and things go by the board with a resounding crash.
In the year of Uzziah's death, the Lord commissioned the prophet to go out and warn the people of the wrath to come.
"Tell them what a worthless lot they are,"
He said.
"Tell them what is wrong, and why, and what is going to happen unless they have a change of heart and straighten up. Don't mince matters. Make it clear that they are positively down to their last chance. Give it to them and strong and keep on giving it to them. I suppose perhaps I ought to tell you,"
He added,
"that it won't do any good. The official class and their intelligentsia will turn up their noses at you, and the masses will not even listen. They will all keep on in their own ways until they carry everything down to destruction, and you will probably be lucky if you get out with your life."
Isaiah had been very willing to take on the job; in fact, he had asked for it, but the prospect put a new face on the situation. It raised the obvious question: Why, if all that were so - if the enterprise were to be a failure from the start - was there any sense in starting it?
"Ah," The Lord said,
"you do not get the point. There is a Remnant there that you know nothing about. They are obscure, unorganized, inarticulate, each one rubbing along as best he can. They need to be encouraged and braced up because when everything has gone completely to the dogs, they are the ones who will come back and build up a new society; and meanwhile, your preaching will reassure them and keep them hanging on. Your job is to take care of the Remnant, so be off now and set about it."
What do we mean by the masses, and what by the Remnant? As the word masses is commonly used, it suggests agglomerations of poor and underprivileged people, laboring people, proletarians. But it means nothing like that' it means simply the majority.
The mass-man is one who has neither the force of intellect to apprehend the principles issuing in what we know as the humane life, nor the force of character to adhere to those principles steadily and strictly as laws of conduct; and because such people make up the great, the overwhelming majority of mankind, they are called collectively the masses.
The line of differentiation between the masses and the remnant is set invariably by quality, not by circumstance. The Remnant are those who by force of intellect are able to apprehend these principles, and by force of character are able, at least measurably, to cleave to them. The masses are those who are unable to do either.
The picture which Isaiah presents of the Judean masses is most unfavorable. In his view, the mass-man; be high or be he lowly, rich or poor, prince or pauper, gets off very badly. He appears as not only weak-minded and very weak-willed, but as by consequence knavish, arrogant, grasping, dissipated, unprincipled, unscrupulous...
As things now stand, Isaiah's job seems rather to go begging. Everyone with a message nowadays is, like the European, eager to take it to the masses. His first, last, and only thought is of mass-acceptance and mass-approval. His great care is to put his doctrine in such shape as will capture the masses' attention and interest.
The main trouble with the (mass-man approach) is its reaction upon the mission itself. It necessitates an opportunist sophistication of one's doctrine, which profoundly alters its character and reduces it to a mere placebo. If say, you are a preacher, you wish to attract as large a congregation as you can, which means adapting the terms of your message to the order of intellect and character that the masses exhibit.
If you are an educator, say with a college on your hands, you wish to get as many students as possible, and you whittle down your requirements accordingly. If a writer, you aim at getting many readers; if a publisher, many purchasers if a philosopher, many disciples; if a reformer, many converts; if a musician, many auditors; and so on.
But as we see on all sides, in the realization of these several desires the prophetic message is so heavily adulterated with trivialities, in every instance, that its effect on the masses is merely to harden them in their sins. Meanwhile, the Remnant, aware of this adulteration and of the desires that prompt it, turn their backs on the prophet and will have nothing to do with him or his message.
Isaiah, on the other hand, worked under no such disabilities. He preached to the masses only in the sense that he preached publicly. Anyone who like might listen; anyone who like might pass by. He knew that the Remnant would listen...The Remnant want only the best you have, whatever that may be. Give them that, and they are satisfied; you have nothing more to worry about...
In a sense, nevertheless, it is not a rewarding job... A prophet of the Remnant will not grow purse-proud on the financial returns from his work, nor is it likely that he will get any great renown out of it. Isaiah's case was exceptional to this second rule, and there are others - but not many.
It may be thought, then, that while taking care of the Remnant is no doubt a good job, it is not an especially interesting job because it is as a rule so poorly paid. At least in material goods, but rich in the rewards of Almighty God and the Lord Jesus Christ.
There are other compensations to be got out of a job besides money and notoriety, and some of them seem substantial enough to be attractive. Many jobs which do not pay well are yet profoundly interesting, as, for instance, the job of a research student in the sciences is said to be; and the job of looking after the Remnant seems to me, as I have surveyed it for many years form my seat in the grandstand, to be as interesting as any that can be found in the world.
What chiefly makes it so, is that in any given society the Remnant are always so largely an unknown quality. You do not know and will never know, more than two things about them.
You can be sure of those; dead sure, as our phrase is, but you will never be able to make even a respectable guess at anything else. You do not know, and will never know, who the Remnant are, nor where they are, nor how many of them there are, nor what they are doing or will do.
Two things you know, and no more: first, that they exist; second, that they will find you. Except for these two certainties, working for the Remnant means working in impenetrable darkness; and this, is just the condition calculated most effectively to pique the interest of any prophet who is properly gifted with the imagination, insight and intellectual curiosity necessary to a successful pursuit of his trade.
The fascination; as well as the despair, of the historian, as he looks back upon Isaiah's "Jews," upon Plato's Athens, or upon Rome of the Antonines, is the hope of discovering and laying bare the "substratum of right-thinking and well-doing" which he knows must have existed somewhere in those societies because no kind of collective life can possibly go on without it.
He finds tantalizing intimations of it here and there in many places, as the Greek Anthology, in the scrapbook of Aulus Gellius, in the poems of Ausonius, and in the brief and touching tribute, Bene Merenti, bestowed upon the unknown occupants of Roman tombs.
But these are vague and fragmentary; they lead him nowhere in his search for some kind of measure of this substratum, but merely testify to what he already knew in priori - that the substratum did somewhere exist. Where it was, how substantial it was, of all this they tell him nothing.
Similarly, when the historian of two thousand years hence, or two hundred years, looks over the available testimony to the quality of our civilization and tries to get any kind of clear, competent evidence concerning the substratum of right-thinking and well-dong which he knows must have been here, he will have a devil of a time finding it.
When he has assembled all he can get and has made even a minimum allowance for speciousness, vagueness, and confusion of motive, he will sadly acknowledge that his net result is simply nothing. A Remnant were here, building a substratum like coral insects; so much he knows, but he will find nothing to put him on the track of who and where and how many they were and what their work was like.
Concerning all this, too, the prophet of the present knows precisely as much and as a little as the historian of the future; and that, is what makes his job seem so profoundly interesting.
One of the most suggestive episodes recounted in the Bible is that of a prophet's attempt, the only attempt of the kind on record, to count up the Remnant.
Elijah had fled from persecution into the desert, where the Lord presently overhauled him and asked what he was doing so far away from his job. He said that he was running away, not because he was a coward, but because all the Remnant had been killed off except himself.
He had got away only by the skin of his teeth, and, he being now all the Remnant there was, if he were killed the true Faith would go flat, disappear. The Lord replied that he need not worry about that, for even without him the True Faith could probably manage to squeeze along somehow if it had to;
"and as for your figures on the Remnant,"
He said,
"I don't mind telling you that there are seven thousand of them back there in Israel whom it seems you have not heard of, but you may take My word for it that there they are."
At that time, probably the population of Israel could not have run to much more than a million or so; and a Remnant of seven thousand out a million is a highly encouraging percentage for any prophet.
With seven thousand of the boys on his side, there was no great reason for Elijah to feel lonesome; and incidentally, that would be something for the modern prophet of the Remnant to think of when he has a touch of the blues. But the main point is that if Elijah the Prophet could not make a closer guess on the number of the Remnant than he made when he missed it by seven thousand, anyone else who tackled the problem would only waste his time.
The other certainty which the prophet of the Remnant may always have is that the Remnant may always have is that the Remnant will find him. He may rely on that with absolute assurance. They will find him without his doing anything about it; in fact, if he tries to do anything about it, he is pretty sure to put them off.
He does not need to advertise for them nor resort to any schemes of publicity to get their attention. If he is a preacher or a public speaker, for example, he may be quite indifferent to going on show at receptions, getting his picture printed in the newspapers, or furnishing autobiographical materials for publication on the side of "human interest." If a writer, he need not make a point of attending any pink teas, autographing books at wholesale, nor entering into any specious free masonry with reviewers.
All this and much more of the same order lies in the regular and necessary routine laid down for the prophet of the masses. It is, and must be, part of the great general technique of getting the mass-man's ear, or as our vigorous and excellent publicist, Mr. H.I. Mencken, puts it, the technique of boob-bumping.
The prophet of the Remnant is not bound to this technique. He may be quite sure that the Remnant will make their own way to him without any adventitious aids and not only so, but if they find him employing such aids, as I said, it is ten to one that they will smell a rat in them and will sheer off.
The certainty that the Remnant will find him, however, leaves the prophet as much in the dark as ever, as helpless as ever in the matter of putting any estimate of any kind upon the Remnant; for, as appears in the case of Elijah, he remains ignorant of who they are that have found him or where they are or how many.
They do not write in and tell him about it, after the manner of those who admire the vendettas of Hollywood, nor yet do they seek him out and attach themselves to his person. They are not that kind. They take his message much as drivers take the directions on a roadside signboard, that is, with very little thought about the signboard, beyond being gratefully glad that it happened to be there, but with very serious thought about the directions.
This impersonal attitude of the Remnant wonderfully enhances the interest of the imaginative prophet's job. Once in a while, just about often enough to keep this intellectual curiosity in good working order, he will quite accidentally come upon some distinct reflection of his own message in an unsuspected quarter.
This enables him to entertain himself in his leisure moments with agreeable speculations about the course his message may have taken in reaching that particular quarter, and about what came of it after it got there. Most interesting of all are those instances, if one could only run them down (but one may always speculate about them), where the recipient himself no longer knows where nor when nor from whom he got the message, or even where, as sometimes happens, he has forgotten that he got it anywhere and imagines that it is all a self-spring idea of his own.
Such instances as these are probably not infrequent, for, without presuming to enroll ourselves among the Remnant, we can all no doubt remember having found ourselves suddenly under the influence of an idea, the source of which we cannot possible identify.
"It came to us afterward," as we say; that is, we are aware of it only after it has shot up full-grown in our minds, leaving us quite ignorant of how and when and by what agency it was planted there and left to germinate. It seems highly probable that the prophet's message often takes some such cause with the Remnant.
If, for example, you are a writer or a speaker or a preacher, you put forth an idea which lodges in the Unbewusstsein of a casual remember of the Remnant and sticks fast there.
For some time it is inert; then it begins to fret and fester until presently it invades the man's conscious mind and, as one might say, corrupts it. Meanwhile, he has quite forgotten how he came by the idea in the first instance and even perhaps thinks he has invented it; and in those circumstances, the most interesting thing of all is that you never know what the pressure of that idea will make him do. (The Author was Albert Jay Nock (1870-1945) was Editor of the "Freeman" (1920-1924) and author of "Jefferson, Our Enemy The State," and many other books and articles on the philosophy of government and human freedom. Isaiah's Job is extracted from Chapter 13 of his book, "Free Speech and Plain Language," copyright 1937 by Albert Jay Nock. This book, now out of print, was published by William Morrow and Company, New York).
The Gift of God; Immortality Through Yahshua:
The story of the Bible centers on the resurrection of Yahshua. Was it necessary that He should die in order that others might have life? Let us briefly review the story, beginning with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden.
Yahweh placed them there; He declared that they should do and not do certain things, lest they die. They were told to eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden and so to live. They must eat in order to live. That was the positive law of life.
But they were forbidden to eat of the tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil; for Yahweh declared that in the day when they did eat of that tree, they would surely die. Then came the temptation and fall. Through that fall death came to them, and through them, to the entire human race. From Adam to Yahshua death reigned supreme.
Man has always desired to escape death; he has always been in quest of the fountain of youth and life. Science has hoped and endeavored to find a way out, but there is no human way to escape the grim reaper. Yahshua declared that He came to vive what man cannot find without Him; Eternal Life and Incorruptibility. It is no wonder the Christian (the Israelite Nations) celebrates His resurrection, for it prove He conquered death.
The Passover In Egypt: The people of Israel were under bondage in Egypt. They suffered an economic slavery such as no nation up to that time had ever suffered. Then Yahweh called Moses to lead them out of that bondage. The Bible records the history of the plagues that came upon Egypt because Pharaoh refused to let Israel go. The tenth plague resulted in the death of all the first-born. (The bondage that the Jews have over Israel today, will result in not just the first-born being killed, but every single Jew on earth will be destroyed by Yahweh on that terrible day of His wrath) Let us read the account, for it has much to do with the event which we are writing about in this study. The record is found in the twelfth chapter of Exodus. Yahweh said:
“This month shall be unto you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year to you.” (Exodus 12:2)
Yahweh here changed the calendar. The sacred year, as far as Israel was concerned, was to begin with the time of the Exodus from Egypt. Thus caused the first month of this New Year to correspond generally with our present Easter Season. Yahweh instructed Moses and Aaron to speak to all the Congregation of Israel, saying:
“In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according tot he house of their fathers, a lamb for a house.” (Exodus 12:3)
This is important; the lamb was selected and was to be set aside on the tenth day of the month.
“Your lamb shall be without a blemish, a male of the first year: ye shall take it out from the sheep, or from the goats: and ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day (four days later) of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening (Marginal rendering, ‘between the evenings’).” (Exodus 12:5-6)
Do you know the meaning of the two evenings to these Israelites? The time changed at noon; from sunrise to noon were six hours; and from noon to sunset were six hours. Each evening closed a six hour period; the two evenings are, therefore, noon and the sunset. Between these evenings the lamb was to be slain. This would be in the middle of the afternoon; at three o’clock. Bear this fact in mind as we discuss the day and the time of the crucifixion.
The lamb was to be roasted and eaten; nothing was to remain until the morning, but that which remained after the meal was to be burned with fire.
“And thus shall ye eat it; with your loins girded, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and ye shall eat it in haste: it is the LORD's Passover. For I will pass through the land of Egypt this night, and will smite all the firstborn in the land of Egypt, both man and beast; and against all the gods of Egypt I will execute judgment: I am the LORD. And the blood shall be to you for a token upon the houses where ye are: and when I see the blood, I will pass over you, and the plague shall not be upon you to destroy you, when I smite the land of Egypt. And this day shall be unto you for a memorial; and ye shall keep it a feast to the LORD throughout your generations; ye shall keep it a feast by an ordinance for ever.” (Exodus 12:11‑14)
Then follow the seven days that were to be numbered as the days of the Passover.
“And in the first day there shall be an holy convocation, and in the seventh day there shall be an holy convocation to you; no manner of work shall be done in them, save that which every man must eat, that only may be done of you. And ye shall observe the feast of unleavened bread; for in this selfsame day have I brought your armies out of the land of Egypt: therefore shall ye observe this day in your generations by an ordinance for ever. In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month at even, ye shall eat unleavened bread, until the one and twentieth day of the month at even. Seven days shall there be no leaven found in your houses: for whosoever eateth that which is leavened, even that soul shall be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether he be a stranger, or born in the land.” (Exodus 12:16‑19)
This is a statement regarding the observance of the Passover.
The types as portrayed by the Bible are absolutely true; the fulfillment of those types mus cover every requirement. When Yahshua came, of necessity He did fulfil the Passover type or else the Bible is not true. True Israelites, Christians people, believers and students of the Bible, should not accept any teaching or doctrine that does not conform with Scripture. They should always reject any statement that is Scripturally untrue.
If we approach the Bible from that point of view, the Holy Spirit will reveal wonderful things that have not yet been seen. Yahweh requires an open heart and mind so that every individual may be instructed in the truth of the Gospel Let us not be afraid of upsetting some preconceived ideas. Rather let us be afraid of teaching against the Scriptures. Let us check all teachings by the Scriptures; then let us accept as true what the Bible teaches, rejecting man’s opinions when they are against that teaching.
Let us state here that we believe the Bible; that we accept its teachings from Genesis to The Revelation. It is true! It not only contains the Word of Yahweh, but it is the Word of Yahweh. There is quite a distinction between these two statements. There are many who will say, “The Bible ‘contains’ the Word of God,” but we say, “The Bible ‘is’ the Word of God.”
The Rejection of Yahshua by the Jews: When Yahshua presented Himself at the temple and was rejected by the Jews who turned against Him, He said,
“The Kingdom of God shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.” (Matthew 21:43)
You will find some very significant facts set forth. Our Lord had declared to His disciples that He must go up to Jerusalem, to suffer an die. He had said to them:
“Behold, we go up to Jerusalem; and the “Son of man shall be betrayed unto the chief priest and unto the scribes, and they shall condemn Him to death, and shall deliver Him to the gentiles to mock, and scourge, and to crucify Him: and THE THIRD DAY HE SHALL RISE AGAIN.” (Matthew 20:18-19)
Note carefully in connection with that statement that Yahshua declared who brought about His crucifixion. True, He was delivered to the romans. True, our Lord declared He would be delivered to the genitals. But those who delivered Him were responsible. They were those who bore testimony against Him.
Palm Sunday: On Palm Sunday we celebrate Yahshua’s so-called “Triumphal Entry” into Jerusalem. However, that was not a triumphal entry; Yahshua rode into the city sitting upon an ass.
“Tell ye the daughter of Sion, Behold, thy King cometh unto thee, meek, and sitting upon an ass, and a colt the foal of an ass.” (Matthew 21:5)
THIS IS NOT A DESCRIPTION OF A TRIUMPHAL ENTRY; the ass is a beast of burden and of peace. The only place where we have a description of a triumphal procession headed by Yahshua is given in these words in the nineteenth chapter of Revelation:
“And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written, that no man knew, but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and his name is called The Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.” (Revelation 19:11‑16)
This description of Yahshua’s coming triumphal return; the white horse, as here mentioned, is an emblem of triumph, as Yahshua returns to take over the throne and rule over His kingdom for ever.
The description of the entry into Jerusalem on that first Palm Sunday, the tenth day of the month, the first day of the week, according to the Jewish calendar, WAS NOT A TRIUMPHAL ENTRY. It was the presentation of the Lamb to the temple. Yahshua Himself was the sacrifice; the Lamb to be slain. It was not a day of triumph, but the day on which Yahshua was to accomplish that which He had steadfastly set His face to do; to go up to Jerusalem that He might offer Himself as the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. (Revelation 13:8) When the Judeo-Christian clergy call this “The Triumphal entry” they are making an inaccurate statement. However, in the not far distant future we are to celebrate that triumphal entry which is described in Revelation, for we are now very near that day.
“They brought the ass, and the colt, and put on them their clothes, and they set Him thereon. And a very great multitude spread their garments in the way; others cut down branches from the trees, and strewed them in the way. And the multitude that went before, and that followed, cried, saying, Hosanna to the Son of
David: blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest.” (Matthew 21:9)
In the deep meaning of their statement, “Blessed is He that cometh in the name of the Lord,” Yahshua was entering Jerusalem to be slain for the remission of sins. He was the Lamb that was slain from the foundation of the world, presenting Himself before the High Priest as the Lamb without blemish, to be selected by him for the sacrifice.
Yahshua Selected as the Lamb: On the tenth day of the month the Lamb was selected. On this particular occasion when Yahshua came into Jerusalem, what did He do? He drove the money changers (the Jews) out of the temple (John 2:15-16), with the result that the High Priest selected Him for death, determined that He should die. Yahshua came as the Lamb and He was selected as the Lamb. Although the lamb for the Passover was selected on the tenth day, it was held until the fourteenth day before it was slain. The High Priest selected Yahshua on the tenth day and He was held until the fourteenth day before they could accomplish their purpose upon Him.
The day after the selection Yahshua returned to the city and again cleansed the temple. This infuriated the leaders beyond all reason, and so they became steadfast in their purpose to bring about His death.
Preparation Day: When the preparation day arrived, in order to fulfil the Scripture; for Yahshua kept that Word in every particular, He must of necessity die between the evenings, or, at three o’clock in the afternoon. He must also be dead before the Passover could be eaten, for the Passover could not be eaten while the lamb was still alive.
This is contrary to the Judeo-Christian teachings, but it is not contrary to the Scripture. It conforms to the teachings of Scripture. Remember this: On the fourteenth day the lamb was slain. It was on the fourteenth day that Yahshua died. Now, the supper with His disciples in that upper room where they were to prepare the Passover was not the Passover; it was Yahshua’s Supper.
Preparation for the Passover was to be made in that upper chamber; but the eating of the Passover was to be in haste. In partaking of the Passover the people were to stand, fully clothed, each with his staff in his hand, ready for flight, and they ate it during the night. The Lord’s Supper was eaten reclining at the table, and their sandals had been removed. Read the full statement in the thirteenth chapter of John. This is not the scene of the Passover Supper.
During that particular night of the Lord’s Supper, and after that supper, Yahshua and His disciples went out into the garden. The next day, in the ninth hour of the day (the third hour of the Jewish day), which would be three o’clock in the afternoon, present time, Yahshua died.
“When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, He said, It is finished: and He bowed His head, and gave up the ghost.” (Mark 15:39; Luke 23:46; John 19:30)
The particular day Yahshua gave up the ghost is stated. John tells us (John 19:31) that because it was the preparation day for the Passover (the Passover having not yet been eaten), the Jews wanted the body of Yahshua taken from the stake. The next day, starting at sunset, was the Sabbath, for that Sabbath was a High Day. The fifteenth of that particular month was a High Day, that is, the Passover.
We read:
“The first day of the week cometh Mary Magdalene early, when it was yet dark, unto the sepulcher, and seeth the stone taken away from the sepulcher.” (John 20:1)
A High Day: The rendering as set forth in the Greek is very interesting. “On the first day following the Sabbaths (note the plural) while it was early,” in fact, still dark. Thus we have the statement; “after the Sabbaths.” One Sabbath was not the regular Sabbath; it was the day following the preparation day which preceded the High Day. The Jews wanted the body of Yahshua taken from the stake before sundown. The soldiers broke the legs of the two thieves, thus hastening their death, but finding that Yahshua was already dead, they thrust a spear into His side and blood and water flowed from the wound; a sign of death by a broken heart. It was prophesied that no bones of His body should be broken:
He keepeth all His bones: not one of them is broken.” (Psalm 34:20)
This also was in fulfilment of the type, for no bone of the Passover lamb was to be broken:
“In one house shall it be eaten; thou shalt not carry forth aught of the flesh abroad out of the house; neither shall ye break a bone thereof.” (Exodus 12:46)
He who knew no sin, became sin and died of a broken heart. His death occurred on the reparation day for the Passover. The followed a Sabbath; not the regular Jewish Sabbath, but a “High Day,” a day regarded as a special Sabbath by the Jews. This “High Day” was the Passover Day. It was the first of the seven days of the Passover season. The next day was the regular Sabbath, followed by the first day of the week, when very early in the morning on that first day of the week Mary came to the tomb and found it empty.
The Significance of the Resurrection: What is the significance of the resurrection? Much. If Yahshua did not rise from the dead, there is no hope for us. Paul clearly sets forth that when he says:
“Now if Christ be preached that He rose from the dead, how say some among you that there is no resurrection of the dead? But if there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: and if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain, and your faith is also vain.” (1 Corinthians 15:14)
Paul was condemning those who declared in his day that there was no resurrection of the dead. They who contend for only a spiritual resurrection, also deny the resurrection of Yahshua. But, if there be no physical resurrection from the dead, then all our labors and the labors of those who have accepted the Word of God are in vain. Paul said:
“If there be no resurrection of the dead, then is Christ not risen: and if Christ be not risen, then is our preaching vain and your faith is also vain.”
It is useless to preach if Yahshua be dead, for without the resurrection there is no hope. Often the Judeo-Christian world makes much of the crucifixion, but too little on the resurrection, or almost forgets the crucifixion in emphasizing the resurrection. The crucifixion was the perfect means to the perfect end, that Christ might overcome the power of death and come forth from the grave triumphant over death.
Continuing, Paul said:
“Yea, and we are found false witnesses of God; because we have testified of God that He raised up Christ: whom He raised not up, if so be that the dead rise not. For if the dead rise not, then is not Christ risen: and if Christ be not raised, your faith is vain; ye are yet in your sins.” (1 Corinthians 15:15-17)
This is a very significant statement for, remember, Yahshua was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world for the remission of sin. Only in His real, physical resurrection could come to us the knowledge of the remission of sin. If Yahshua remained in the grave then there could be no remission of sin for He was then a sinner. If Yahshua was a sinner, He certainly could not bear our sins and be a substitute for us. The resurrection of Yahshua, therefore, is the witness that He was without sin, for death could not hold Him. He, being perfect, became a substitute for us, for only a perfect man could bear our transgressions. The resurrection is the evidence of the completion of His work.
Paul continues:
“If there be no resurrection of the dead...then they also which are fallen asleep in Christ are perished.” (1 Corinthians 15:18)
Let us carefully consider this statement. It clearly declares that death is not a gateway to life, for if it is, those that fall asleep in Yahshua could not perish, even if Yahshua had not been raised from the dead.
Paul is declaring that the hope of the Christian is not in death, but in the resurrection, and if there is no resurrection then those who die have perished.
Paul further said:
“If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable. But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.” (1 Corinthians 15:19-20)
This is a wonderful statement; The resurrection is the important fact. Without the resurrection there is no hope.
The Trial of Yahshua Was Illegal: The illegality of the trial leading to Yahshua’s death is clearly set forth in the record of that trial.
Why were the Jews so anxious that Yahshua be destroyed? Read the history of the Jewish nation at that time and remember that the traditional teaching of men governed by their policies. The Jews were opposed to the spiritual teachings of Scripture. They had turned from the Laws of Moses. Yahshua drove the money changers from the temple. He was acting contrary to all the then established customs of the Jewish nation. This resulted in the leaders, who profited financially through the business that was going on, being very much incensed over what He had done. So they did what so often is done by those in power; they set aside all the rules and regulations in order to condemn Him who opposed them.
The same would be true today. If Yahshua were to appear on one of the television evangelists shows and tell the people the truth, that television evangelist would cry out for Him to be put in jail for breaking up their show. The same would be true for almost every church in America, especially the Judeo-Christian churches led by the Catholic Church, and then the Protestant churches. They would scream for His death because they would fear that even in jail His message would get out and would destroy their financial empire that they have built up with lies, deceptions and murder.
Let us briefly review a few facts in connection with the trial of Yahshua: The court deciding the matter must have jurisdiction; there must be identity of subject matter of the action; there must be a final settlement of the issue on its merits. These are axioms of law. When a court has jurisdiction, it has the right to act in all matters presented before it. Whether or not its decision be correct, its judgment; unless and until reversed, is recorded as binding.
1). If a court acts without authority, its judgments are not binding. If there is no jurisdiction whatever, it has no more authority to speak than you or I.
2). On the question of jurisdiction, under Jewish law, all proceedings at night were prohibited. There could be no trials at night.
3). The testimony of an accomplice and all secret or private hearings were forbidden.
4). The law limited the trial of the accused person to certain days of the week and year, as well as hours of the day.
5). No trial of this nature could be concluded in one day. The law required that judgment should not be rendered until the day after the trial.
6). There must be ambiguity in the charge made in the indictment.
7). The place of the trial was fixed by law and the Sanhedrin could not function at any other place than the place selected.
8). The members of the court were prohibited from sitting where the question of personal prejudices would be involved.
9). The conviction of the defendant had to rest upon the testimony of two or more competent witnesses who agreed upon the facts as charged.
10). Every case must be tried upon its merits.
a). These were the requirements of the law when Yahshua was brought to trial. EVERY ONE OF THESE REQUIREMENTS WAS VIOLATED IN THE PROCEDURE AT THE TRIAL OF YAHSHUA.
b). Yahshua was arrested and tried at night.
c). The trial was conducted privately, against the law.
d). He was tried by His personal enemies, which was against the law.
e). They had three times sat without giving Him a hearing, and determined upon His death.
f). He was convicted before the charges had been completely formulated against Him.
g). False witnesses were subpoenaed and used against Him.
h). He was convicted upon His own confession and not upon the evidence of others. This was against the law of the Sanhedrin.
i). The proceedings were concluded within a period of twenty-four hours.
j). The trial was irregular. The High Priest personally conducted the examination and declared his decision in advance of the others. Under the law it was required that they should begin at the lowest and end with the High Priest.
k). The charges against Yahshua were so vague and general that it was impossible to identify the subject matter of the action.
l). The case was not heard upon its merits, nor upon the issue.
These findings are interesting. This is especially true in view of the fact that there has lately been talk of the Sanhedrin reviewing the evidence in the trial of Yahshua in order to determine whether there had been a mistrial. We have only to read the New Testament and the setting to know that according to their own law it was a mistrial.
Yahshua Before Pilate: Let us now turn to Yahshua’s hearing before Pilate. Pilate said,
I find no fault in this man,” (Luke 23:4)
and acquitted Him. Then he allowed Him to be led out and executed.
Yahshua was charged with the commission of five different crimes or offences: Driving the Money Changers from the Temple; Blasphemy; Perverting the Nation; Forbidding to Give Tribute to Caesar; and Claiming to be a King.
The Lamb of God: Always, in the plan of Yahweh, Yahshua was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world; chosen on the tenth day, and killed on the fourteenth day. If it had ended there, there could have been no hope for us.
Although Yahshua was unjustly accused, He was a just man, and righteous, and he was without sin; in complete fulfilment of the type, a Lamb without blemish. Because the type must be like the antitype, a lamb without blemish had to be chosen for the Passover.
The Atonement: Yahshua arose physically on the third day. The whole of your belief depends upon whether or not you accept this fact pertaining to Yahshua. Did He arise physically from the dead? A mere mental acceptance of the resurrection is not enough. We must accept what the resurrection means. It means for you and for me, personally, full atonement for our sin through His blood that was shed. Just as surely as that at the time of the Exodus, when the sprinkling of the blood on the door posts of the house protected the first-born, so surely the Blood of Yahshua brings salvation to those who accept His atonement.
The Word of Yahshua: In its thought the Christian world has limited Yahweh in His activities. It has also, in thought, limited Yahshua in His sacrifice. Yahshua did more than bring salvation to you and me. Thank Yahweh that He brought that! But in His death and in His resurrection He also redeemed a people: He redeemed Israel from the curse of the law. Nowhere in the Bible will you find a statement to the effect that He redeemed Judah, for Judah was not a people under a curse of the law. Yahweh had divorced Israel and sent her away; it therefore became necessary that Israel be redeemed form the law of divorcement, for Israel could not again become Yahweh’s people until that redemption had been wrought. Under the law, Yahweh divorced Israel; this fact is stated in Jeremiah. He did not divorce Judah. Israel could never again become Yahweh’s people, according to the law of divorcement, until she was redeemed from the curse of that law. But how could she be redeemed from that curse? There was only one way that a divorced woman could be redeemed from the curse of the law of divorce. This could be accomplished only by the death of the husband.
In the fiftieth chapter of Isaiah, Yahweh speaks to the daughters of Israel, saying:
“Where is the bill of your mother’s divorcement, whom I have put away? Or which of My creditors is it to whom I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities have ye sold yourselves, and for your transgressions is your mother put away. Wherefore, when I came, was there no man? When I called, was there none to answer? Is My hand shortened at all, that it cannot redeem? Or have I no power to deliver?”
Then follows the fifty-third chapter, the wonderful chapter of redemption. A nation is redeemed and salvation is promised to all who will accept it.
The Sign of An Accomplished Task: The national phase of Yahshua’s activity was the redemption of Israel. Through the death of Yahshua, atonement was made for His people Israel. His death forever blotted out the bill of divorcement. Thus in Yahshua’s death and resurrection came the redemption of Israel as a nation, as well as the salvation of the individual. The resurrection was the sign or witness of the task accomplished.
As Christian Identity we believe all that the True Church teaches regarding Yahshua’s death and resurrection. We accept all that it means to the individual, and teach it. Then we go farther, and say, that not only did Yahshua die to bring salvation to the individual through His atonement, but through that atonement He also opened the way for His Israel people, His nation, to again become His people. He blotted out the bill of divorcement, the curse that had been placed upon them.
There is, also, another thing which Yahshua accomplished. He not only redeemed Israel and brought salvation to individuals, but also He signed, sealed and witnessed the terms of the New Covenant.
The New Covenant: Yahweh declared the New Covenant was to be made with the House of Israel and the House of Judah. He said:
“Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers, in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which My covenant they brake, although I was a husband unto them, saith the Lord. But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the House of Israel after those days, saith the Lord; I will put My law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be My people.” (Jeremiah 32:32-33)
This is very important. The world will never come out of its troubles and difficulties until the complete establishment of the New Covenant has become an accomplished fact. You cannot put men in office who will establish righteousness in government until that law has been written in the hearts of the rulers of Yahweh’s people. It is useless to think that we as a people will come out of our difficulties until the terms of that New Covenant are written into the hearts of all Yahweh’s people.
Isaiah declares a day is coming when all the people shall be righteous. In the Sermon on the Mount, Yahshua showed how the law was to be taken from the tables of stone and transferred to the fleshly tables of the heart. Remember, He was setting forth the terms of the New Covenant. He changed no law, but He made that law a thousand times more effective.
The mere setting forth of the terms of the New Covenant are not enough. That New Covenant must become operative, and it will not become operative until it is written into the heart of all Yahweh’s people.
“Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh. And I will put My Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes, and ye shall keep My judgments and do them.” (Ezekiel 36:25-27)
You may discuss the terms of an agreement with your business associates, but until that agreement is signed, sealed and witnessed it means nothing. It is neither binding upon you or your associate. Yahshua set forth the terms of the New Covenant in the Sermon on the Mount. That covenant had to be signed, sealed and witnessed before it became binding. Yahweh declared, through Jeremiah, that the day was coming when He was going to make that New Covenant. Yahshua gave the terms. It was signed in the name of Yahshua. When Yahshua set His face steadfastly to go to Jerusalem to redeem Israel and bring salvation to individuals, He knew that He was to seal the terms of that New Covenant through the shedding of His blood. A blood covenant is the strongest covenant that can ever be made.
The Covenant With Abraham: The Covenant Yahweh made with Abraham was a blood covenant. It was signed, sealed and witnessed. This is set forth in the fifteenth chapter of Genesis. There we find Abraham standing before the parted pieces of the sacrificial animals. The cutting was called “The Brith.”“Brith” means “Covenant.” Passing through that covenant, Abraham saw the lighted lamp; the Spirit of Yahweh. Yahweh was here sealing the covenant He made with Abraham. The fact that a blood covenant could never be broken, keeps the Abrahamic Covenant always in force.
If that covenant with Abraham, signed, sealed and witnessed, has ever been set aside, you have no assurance that the blood covenant signed, sealed and witnessed by Yahshua will continue for ever. Than Yahweh a covenant once made by Him, signed, sealed and witnessed, CAN NEVER BE SET ASIDE! The New Covenant was signed by Yahshua, sealed in the blood of the atonement, and witnessed in the resurrection. Israel was redeemed and salvation was provided for all. Yahshua lives tho was dead and He is now alive for evermore.
The resurrection means everything to the individual who accepts it. You must accept it in order to become a party to its blessings. If you refuse to accept the terms of a contract you are no party to that contract. If you receive a letter and return it unopened, you have not received its message. If you will not open your heart to what Yahshua has done for you, you have no part of lace in the blessings of the New Covenant. You must open the letter to accept its contents. You must believe, and act upon that belief regarding the New Covenant, in order to have apart in that covenant. There is no other way.
Nationally, the same facts hold true for Israel. In order the nation to have a part and place in that redemption it must act upon it. The nation as a nation has not acted upon this fact, but it is going to.
Circumcision Under the New Covenant: The terms of the New Covenant are now in effect. Every individual in Israel must be circumcised, not with the circumcision of the flesh, but with the circumcision of the heart; for heart circumcision is the new birth. Then the law will be written in our inward parts and put into our hearts and we will become Yahweh’s people and He will be our God. The rulers in the restored kingdom will be men and women in whose hearts is the Law of Yahweh.
The Defeat of Evil: Yahshua was killed because of His opposition to the activity of the subversive forces of His day. He opposed the commercial activity in the temple. The result was that the rulers in the nation were determined to destroy Him. His teachings, if accepted, would have destroyed the system upon which they (the Jews) depended. Satan himself, the father of the world system of unrighteousness, realized that if Yahshua succeeded, his own kingdom would pass. So he worked through Judas and through the scribes, the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Yahshua said to the leaders of His day,
“Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth...because I tell you the truth, ye believe me not...if I say the truth, why do ye not believe me? He that is of God heareth God's words: ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God.” (John 8:45‑47)
The crucifixion was the hour of triumph for the forces of evil. The Son of God died upon the Stake. Even the very heavens were darkened when he died. But the hour of triumph for evil became the hour of its defeat because of the resurrection.
Even some of the dead were raised again, in as a symbol of His resurrection and of the coming resurrection of all who die in Him.
Yahshua came forth from the grave, to be for ever beyond the power of evil forces to again interfere with Him. Previously He had a body which could suffer as any human body could suffer. After His resurrection, physical suffering could never again affect Him. Satan did not foresee this triumph. Thus the hour of darkness for the forces of righteousness turned out to be the hour of Satan’s defeat through the triumphant resurrection of our Lord.
The Resurrection of the Kingdom: Just as surely as Satan undertook to crucify the King of the Kingdom, and to bring about His death and destruction two thousand years ago, so today, Satan is still spending every energy and every effort to crucify the kingdom. Through evil, he is bringing Israel to the place where he can let loose his forces to destroy her people. Thank Yahweh! The hour of Satan’s apparent triumph is again going to be the hour of his defeat. There is no reason to doubt that Satan will succeed in bringing about the complete collapse of the system for which men have worked. Then will come the restoration, when Israel shall return to Yahweh’s Laws.
In the restoration of the laws of the kingdom, Yahweh’s people will be above the power of all subversive activities. The things that made possible the destruction of the people will have passed away because the King Himself will have returned triumphant and established the power and authority of His Kingdom.
Palm Sunday was not a memorial of the triumphal return. That return has not yet occurred, but Yahshua is soon to return in triumph, and reign over the House of Jacob for ever.
The Rulers of the Kingdom: Those who will reign and rule with Yahshua in that restored kingdom are the true Spirit-filled men and women. These are they who will enter into “The Marriage Supper of the Lamb.” The summons to that supper is very near. Those who reign with Yahshua will be above all temptation and physical infirmities. They will be altogether righteous, because in their hearts will be written the Law of Yahweh. The prophets declare that the restoration of all things in now very near.
The Power of the Resurrection: The message of the resurrection of Yahshua our Savior is a glorious message to the individual; it is a wonderful message of hope and redemption for Israel; it gives assurance of the establishment of the terms of the New Covenant. The climax will be witnessed in the triumphal return of Yahshua as King. When He come to take over the reigns of government, the graves will open and the dead will come forth. Remember, death is not the doorway to life; instead, death is an enemy that is to be destroyed. The resurrection is our hope. From the grave the chosen ones will come forth to reign and rule with Christ in that restored kingdom.