(Inside front cover)

Lift up your eyes on high,

And see Who hath created these

That bringeth out their host by number:

He calleth them all by NAME; --

Isa. 50:26 (R.V.)

He telleth the NUMBER of the stars;

He giveth them all NAMES

Psa. 147:4 (R.V.)

Scripture Research, Inc., P.O. Box 51716 Riverside, CA 92517

Ewalt Memorial Bible School, Atascadero, California

CONTENTS

 

THE SHINING WATERS ............... . 1-40

by Russell H.Schaefer

 

GOD'S FOREKNOWLEDGE ,etc .....41-50

by Russell H. Schaefer

 

THE HIGH-BALLING EFFECT

OF THE MYSTERY.. .......................... 50-52

by Damon J. White

 

THE SERPENT OF GENESIS

THREE ……………………………… 52-59

by Dr. E .W . Bullinger

 

VARIED PEOPLES OF THE

BOOK OF ACTS MINISTRIES …… 60-68

by Dr. A.J. Roddy

 

EXCERPTS FROM A LETTER

REGARDING THE CANOPY …….. 69-73

Doug Falk

 

IS THE DEITY OF CHRIST

A THEOLOGICAL ERROR? ……. 74-86

by Dr. Harold P. Morgan

 

STUDY ON Phil. 3:11. Inside Back Cover

by Russell H. Schaefer

 

TOCOMPLETE THE WORD OF GOD …… Outside Back Cover

by Russell H. Schaefer

 

I hope anyone following after me will go further than I have gone in the search for truth, will see more in the Word of God than I have seen, and will explore where I never dreamt treasures were to be found.

Russ

THE SHINING WATERS

The Earth's Canopy

By

Russell H. Schaefer

Genesis 2:4

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THE SHINING WATERS

The Earth’s Canopy

In conjunction with recent space probes photo-image enhancement .has produced thousands of spectatular pictures of Jupiter's thick cloud belts as well as the Cassini Division of Saturn's canopy rings. Saturn's canopy rings are thought to be composed of space debris and ice crystals. Saturn's rings and the belts of Jupiter are illustrative of what transpired around the earth in its earliest ages. Earth's vast canopy formed from oceans of water and planet debris and hoisted aloft a thousand or so miles above the earth is the concept this study seeks to explore in the Word of God. The multitude of texts found in the Scriptures that give testimony to this concept may draw aside for a moment the curtain hiding the picture of how the earth looked before the breaking up of a large portion of the canopy at the time of the flood, and being the cause of the glaciation and the higher present shoreline levels all over the earth.

The first mention of the canopy is found in Genesis 1:6-8. The whole needs to be read, but to quote a fragment:

Let there be an EXPANSE

IN THE MIDST OF THE WATERS . . .

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This would have resulted in a huge ring belt canopy formed of the earth's liquid mass being thrust far above the earth. The earth's energy force-fields would carry these constantly moving belts toward the polar regions, and each ring as it reached the end of its cycle would fall to earth in almost literally a golden stream. It is likely that the movement of these rings poleward was the earth's first clock, marking off ages with the moving rings being the sweep-hand of the clock. It is likely that the present axis tilt did not exist and that the rotation of the earth in relationship to the sun was at a single point and without its present variation. Also, a canopied earth would rotate much more rapidly than at the present in order to produce an Eden hot-house effect with its prolific growth of vegetation and all other forms of life. ^:The seemingly "swift-moving sun" would cause a constant temperature that would preclude the storms now experienced all over the earth. Rain, as we know it, was unknown then, according to Gen. 2:5b, 6a:

… for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, . . . but there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the earth.

There is no "sun" or "moon" mentioned in Scripture until after the flood since the sun and moon would be seen only as a greater and lesser light, as mentioned in Gen. 1:16:

... and God made two great lights.

Above and beyond the canopy they would appear as luminaries and not distinct bodies. Looking up from the earth's surface, these moving, belted, rotating ice formations would look like backlighted "lattices" as the Hebrew text of Gen. 7:11 states:

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. . . the windows [i.e., the lattices ('arubboth, windows, chimneys, lattices)]of heaven were opened.

These revolving gigantic ice crystals would appear to an observer as a bejewelled sky, or a floating revolving ocean of shining waters. "Lattices" could also be translated as "slue-gates," the word being built on a root meaning to "swing around," to "rotate," or to "pivot." The context of Gen. 7:11 speaks of this lattice's being broken up, at least in part:

. . . the windows [lattices] of heaven were opened.

"Opened" represents a root meaning divide, cleave, break up, gape. What physical means were used to cause these canopy rings to be broken up is not stated in Scripture. The "breaking up" was stopped short of a complete break-up of the whole canopy system according to Gen. 8:2:

. the windows of heaven were stopped.

Canopy effects or features were seen above the earth far into historical times. The movement of the canopy belts or rings and their constant collapsing at the north polar regions may be the basis for much of the mythology found in the world's histories.

While it may seem that a consideration of Genesis 1:1, 2 is far afield from this subject, it is essential, however, to the whole subject since it forms its foundation.

GENESIS 1:1, 2

The Primal Earth

(Following the format of the Hebrew text)

In the beginning:

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IN. This preposition is translated as in, with, by, on , for, for the sake of, before, within, against (in various contexts).

BEGINNING. No article, just "in beginning" (Heb. bere'shith, pron. b'raisheeth). This means at first." Within varied contexts re’shith denotes head, top, first, foremost, high, supreme, a leader, beginning. The Jerusalem Targum translates bere'shith with the Aramaic begadin, before, in the east. The en archei of the Greek text is found also in John 1:1:

In (the) Beginning was The Word . . .

Later in the Genesis account The WORD is the communicating medium of God's power. In Col. 1:18 and Rev. 22:13 Christ is entitled, "The Beginning." In Rev. 3:14 He is called:

The Beginning of the Creation of God.

This takes the title back to the Genesis account where Christ is The Beginning of Everything. Both the Hebrew word bere'shith and the Greek arche mean "chief," "head," fore-most," "supreme," and "leader." The text is not saying that Christ was first created and then successively all else was created, rather, He is The CREATIVE ORIGINAL whence all else is patterned and through Whom all proceeds from God, and to Whom all moves toward its ultimate purpose and goal.

(He had) CREATED, 3rd person, masc. sing., bara'. This usually indicates an action of an astounding nature such as is found here in Gen. 1:1 and in the 21st verse:

… and the long-necked creatures (A.V.)

whales, and every living soul that moveth.

… and God created man …male and

female created He them …

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The triliteral room b-r-‘ (beth-resh-aleph) translated "created" means to cut, carve, take out, separate from, bring forth profusely from either the minuteness of matter, or from the mind into a perceptible existence. Other terms used in this connection are 'asah (ayin-samech-he), to do, to make, to develop; yatsar (yodh-tsadhe-resh), to form, fashion, purpose (fig.) (Example; Kachomer beyadh hayyotser, "as the clay in the hand of the one who forms); and yaladh (yodh-lamedh-daleth), to generate, to bear (children). Hence, bara’ is creating and 'asah the completing or developing. Genesis 2:3 uses both terms. Adam is said to have been created and made. (Literally, the Hebrew text states here, "created for making," "created for developing.") In none of the texts dealing with creation is there any suggestion that creation is "out of nothing." Col. 1:16 states clearly that all creation was IN (A.V., by) Him (Christ), and was THROUGH (A.V., by) Him and UNTO Him. The context is speaking of The One called Christ Jesus, The Lord. So all creation is IN Him, THROUGH Him, and UNTO Him. Creation originated IN Christ, came into existence THROUGH Christ, and in its fulfillment is UNTO Christ.

GOD. Substantive, masc., with a plural ending, 'elohim (pron. eloheem). If this were translated literally and God were used as the translation of Elohim, then "Gods" would be the translation. Ecclesiastes 12:1 reads,

Remember thy Creators* ...

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* Names of God may be plural, but as subjects they take sg. verbs; modifying adjectives are also sg. So, Gen. 1:1, "In beginning, God(s) HE created," and in all the verbs in Gen. 1 the subject is HE: "he said," "he saw," "he divided," "he collected," "he formed," etc. (but, "let us.").

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Job 35:10 reads/

None saith, Where is God my Makers . . .

Psalm 149:2,

Let Israel rejoice in His Makers . . .

To literalize Deuteronomy 6:4,

Hear, O Israel: Jehovah is our Gods (‘elohim),

Jehovah alone.

Another possibility is,

Hear, O Israel: Jehovah our Elohim

(Gods) is One Jehovah.

Whether this uniplural noun can be pressed to express a unity within the Godhood is a matter bf strict evaluation of all the evidence. Is it a plural of majesty? Is God speaking of Himself in the following, or is He speaking to other created beings?

(God, He said) Let US make man in

our image, after our likeness (Gen. 1:26).

The man is become like one of US (Gen. 3:22).

Go to, let US go down (Gen. 11:7) … Who will go for US (Isa. 6:6)?

The meaning of the title ‘elohim having been a matter of debate, its root has been differently interpreted. To cite a few suggested meanings: wander about, go in circles, go hither and thither, strength, be strong. Lagrade and Ewald suggest "to stretch out, to stretch a line so as to reach a certain point in

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this case, to stretch out so as to reach a Refuge, i.e., God." This suggests that God is the HUB of the Wheel of Life, the Center of the Circle toward which all things move.

It is He that sitteth upon the circle of the earth

(Isa. 40:22).

This text has no reference to a "circular earth" but rather to the north polar opening in the canopy. Job 26:7 refers to this:

He stretcheth out the north over the empty place ...

or

The North He stretches o'er empty space.

This portion of "empty space," as the Companion Bible translates it, is an opening in the canopy in the north polar regions. It is where the "rings" and "belts" finally plunged to earth as they completed their cycle of pole-ward movement. From Gr. arche, The Beginning, these cycling ring belts would be the dawn of time to a primeval culture. It would be "The Beginning" of each new day — and seemingly of creation itself; hence, "arctic." The rings of ice would be seen only as arches or domes by an observer looking northward toward the polar opening. The polar opening would be the only place where actual sunlight would come through to bathe the earth below. It would also be the only place from which the true outside universe would be seen. The view was limited, and the world of the ancients knew only five stars, those seen through the polar opening.

The handwriting of the heavens, God's story in the stars, was unknown because unseen by man until after the flood. More of this element later, but lest it be overlooked it

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should not be thought strange that the name of God be likened to a mathematical equation, as this title Elohim could well be compared to the pi of the Greeks, i.e., the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter. It is no more unusual than the tetragrammaton YHWH related to the title "I AM" ('ehyeh) of Exodus 3:14, both of which are grammatical forms of the verb hayah (he-yodh-he), to be. YHWH may be Qal or Hiph'il imperfects (he ever is, he ever causes to be), while I AM THAT I AM may be interpreted as "I will ever be that which I have ever been." The corresponding Greek verb eimi is applied to Christ in a union of the present and past tenses, along with the verb erchomai, "come," in Revelation 1:4

Him WHO IS, WHO WAS, and WHO IS COMING: (lit., The One Being, The One [Who] Was, and The One Coming).

In Revelation 11:17 and 16:5 the participle "Who is coming" is omitted, as He is looked upon as having come. These epithets, as well as the Name I WILL EVER BE WHAT I HAVE EVER BEEN, imply that He will be whatever He needs to be to meet the needs of His people. The Alpha and Omega of the Greek alphabet are applied to Christ as well as His being called The First and The Last. Whoever is The Beginning and Ending of everything must be God, albeit in creation, communication, and manifestation. Any all-encompassing God must be beyond human comprehension since only another like Himself could comprehend such a Being, and human (or any other creature) ignorance must remain complete unless such a being seeks ways to communicate Himself. God's title Elohim might well express an object to be feared, as some authors feel, and might imply "The Circumference of His Holiness," if the circle concept has any merit; but God's very movement into creation might imply

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that out of His eternal "aloneness" creation was a reaching forth of His love.

THE HEAVENS. The English word is the perfect participle of "heave" from its being "heaved" or "heaven" up as it was raised aloft from the earth's surface. Compare Anglo-Saxon hus-heofon, house-heaven, ceiling, so in the sense of a canopy. The Hebrew word shamayim may be derived from the root shamah (shin-mem-he), to be high. A popular etymology is seen in the ancient rabbis' interpretation of the word as being composed of 'esh (pron. aysh), fire, and mayim, water: *('e)shamayim, firewaters, THE SHINING WATERS"! The word shamayim is always dual in Hebrew, literally "two heavens." It is doubtful that the outer universe is meant, rather this earth's heaven with canopy characteristics. No other heaven could be heaved aloft, in keeping with the English meaning, and in accord with the Hebrew duality, i.e., the ice canopy heaven and the atmospheric. This corresponds with Genesis 1:8:

And God called the firmament HEAVEN. . .

This does not imply a limited creation, but it does stress here a geophysical relationship, not an extra-spatial one. John 1:3 is sufficient to show the extent of creation:

ALL THINGS were made (came into being) by Him. . .

The imprint of His power is upon the whole, the universes are His parchment scroll, the stars His written words. Psalm 19:1 expresses it so well:

The Heavens declare (from saphar,

write) the glory of God;

And the FIRMAMENT (the Ice Canopy)

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sheweth His handiwork.

If the "all things" spoken of in John 1:3 are as extensive and inclusive as Ephesians 1:10 (i.e., to sum up all things in Christ), then as the one displays His power, the other will display His love in making all Christlike by summing up the whole in Him.

As to this Heaven, Job 37:18 describes its physical characteristics:

Wast thou with Him (when) He spread out the sky

And made it like a molten mirror (firm)?

Or Job 37:29,

Can any man explain the rain cloud's -

balancings,

The rumbling thunders of His CANOPY?

Companion Bible translation.

This last reminds one of the "heavens" that pass away with a great noise (2 Pet. 3:10), are dissolved, rolled together as a scroll, fall down as a leaf from the vine (Isa. 34:4 and Rev. 6:14); these must be the Canopy heavens, not the heavens of space. The ice canopy disappeared in historical times; remnants of it may well have reached into New Testament times. Within these prophetic statements of Isaiah, of Peter and of John in Revelation are figures of speech using natural events to denote the fall of nations, e.g., stars falling, etc., since the varied texts touching upon this subject have in mind nations then existing. But the planetary heavens could not be dissolved as could the canopy without all life everywhere also being dissolved. A canopy heaven could collapse in part or in its entirety and the earth and its life survive albeit with great climatic changes as those experienced after the flood, also in

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those regions of the earth where descending streams of ice instantly froze vast herds of animal life and changed the whole climate of the earth. The "Molten Mirror" heaven of the Book of Job was an ice-canopy heaven then existing overhead or one within historical memory or tradition. The "Treasures of the Hail" (Job. 38:22) were the heavy minerals, gold for instance, once thrust aloft, later to be swept downward as canopy portions collapsed. These collapsing canopy streams would carry the debris into patterned paths upon the earth below to form the dreamed of "Rivers of Gold" that have haunted the fantasies of prospectors all over the earth.

THE EARTH, ha'arets. The Rabbis ascribe the term to the "running" of this globe, from a supposedly related root ruts (resh-waw-tsa-dhe), run. Correspondingly, some Greek scholars see in the Greek ge, earth, the meaning of "a going." The Chald. and Syr. = "that which is below." Might it not be that this earth was a stranger wandering in space until finally placed in a certain location in the solar system in view of what was to become the stage of all that was to follow? Even in its unformed state, the guiding hand of God thereupon was a promise of what it could and would yet be. This Genesis 1:1 was the beginning, an introduction of masterful proportions, and a summary of what was to follow.*

AND THE EARTH HAS.

WAS, 3rd person fern. sing. pret. Qal of hayah, to be: WAS, not BECAME (which would be vattehi) or the earth HAD BEEN (when created, as stated in verse one). That this should read WAS instead of BECAME is shown in the

__________

*Compare Gen. 2:3, melachto 'asher bara' 'elohim la'asoth, lit., "all His work which Elohim He created for making (developing).

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the connection with the words that follow:

. . . without form and void . . .

No criticism is implied if God chose to use an unformed mass and out of it to bring order and beauty. At one time Adam was but a piece of red mud unshaped and unformed by the Divine Sculptor's hand (remember, 'adham means "red earth"; "ground" in Hebrew is 'adhamah). Then God caused a lifeless form to breathe and Adam became a living soul, a living being ("soul" is attributed to all living things in the Scriptures, including plants). Ellicott's commentary points out that WAS in Gen. 1:2 is not the copula, but rather the substantive verb "existed."** He states that after creation the earth existed as a "shapeless and empty waste." This is how the earth WAS at the time of which the narrative speaks. A very few authors seek to force this WAS into meaning BECAME, thinking thereby to force vast geological ages between Gen. 1:1 and Gen. 1:2 (the "gap" theory). Also/ between these two verses some suppose the reign and consequent fall of Satan, his fall supposedly bringing on the desolation of Gen. 1:2. The geological ages with their vast upheavals are not in keeping with a supposed perfect paradisal earth over which Satan was supposed to have ruled. It cannot be both ways. Rather, the Genesis record is in correct sequence just as it stands written; more and more the geological ages are reaching into historical times, and historical times are reaching into the geological ages.

WITHOUT FORM, a wasteness, Heb. tohu. Rashi uses "stupefying," and Gesenius tahav (taw-he-waw). A root tahah

__________

**What is called the copula in Indoeuropean languages is expressed in Semitic languages by the simple pronouns, e.g., The Lord He God = The Lord is God; flesh they = they are flesh, etc.

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to astound, may describe a viewer's reaction to beholding this earth, unformed as yet in the Master's hand.

AND VOID, or, AND A VOIDNESS, va-bhohu (pron. va-vo-hoo). Tohu vabhohu sounds scary and well might it have been. The comment of 2 Pet. 3:7 does not apply to Gen. 1:2 since the earth of Gen. 1:2 was covered with water and not the world stated by Peter to be standing in and out of the water, so Peter must be speaking of the destruction of that civilization by Noah's flood. The Isa. 45:18 passage is self-explanatory, in that God did not create the earth to remain empty; rather, He formed it to be inhabited. There was as yet in the Genesis account no life to form the fossilization now everywhere found.

AND DARKNESS, vechoshekh, darkness covered this embryonic mass.

UPON, 'al (ayin-lamedh), on, over, against.

THE FACE, penei (faces-of) from the root panah (pe-nun-he), to turn in various directions. The exterior. Face » presence, representing the whole. 'Al penei is a prepositional phrase meaning "upon," "upon the surface of."

THE DEEP, thehom. From the root hum (he-waw-mem), agitate, set in motion, be noisy, or hamah (he-mem-he), to be noisy, rage, roar. The raging, roaring, tumultuous, and mountainous seas covering the whole earth. Shallow seas have this tendency. Kimchi sees it as an irregular conflux of many waters. Psalm 36:6 compares God's judgments to a great deep.

AND THE SPIRIT OF, veruach. The invisible commotion of air; hence, wind; the active principle of life: breath, and in its higher sense, spirit. Here, The SPIRIT OF GOD proper, not a mighty wind, since it is connected with BROODING so as to bring forth life. This is not applicable to wind.

GOD, same as earlier, _Ve_lohim.

BROODING, merachepheth (moving): to move and be

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moved, to quiver or shake, to cherish and vivify. Compare Deuteronomy 32:11:

As an eagle stirreth up her nest,

Fluttereth over her young,

Spreadeth abroad her wings,

Taketh them, beareth them on her wings. . .

The thought is of The Spirit of God brooding over the waters so as to bring forth life.

UPON THE PACE, ‘al penei, as above.

THE WATERS, hammayim, dual, the waters (lit., two waters).

HE SAID, 3rd sing. Qal imperf. of 'amar (aleph-mem-resh) with waw-consecutive, and then He said (note that the subject is the plural noun [as to form] Elohim.)

GOD, ‘elohim, as before.

LET THERE BE, Qal. jussive of hayah, expressing a wish or command; compare yiheheh, there shall be.

LIGHT, ‘or, substantive masc., light. The verbal root-form, "to become light." LXX phos, "a luminous emanation, probably of force, from certain bodies which enables the eye to discern form and color." Vine. (Cf. Ger. Feuer, Eng. fire.) The Hebrew ‘ur, related, may mean fire although usually 'esh is used. The concept is of light caused by" an explosive force out from the earth itself, not as light from an external luminous body. This was necessary to produce the canopy, the explosive force of the inner earth-core bursting forth to vaporize the shallow seas and send them skyward to form the CANOPY. This text has been a puzzle to those seeking to reconcile this supposed "light" with the greater and lesser lights of Gen. 1:14. In verse 14, the fourth day-period, lights (Heb. me’o-roth, lightholders or luminaries) are firsT mentioned. There is no conflict unless one seeks to change the internal fires bursting

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forth from the earth into a luminary-light source. At this point in the record the "greater" and "lesser" lights of the sun and moon outside of the canopy have not been spoken of. Nor has the relationship of the earth to the solar system been initiated, nor the rotation of its moon-satellite to the earth, since that awaited the fourth record-day.

HE DIVIDED, 3rd pers. masc. sing, imperf. vayyabhdel. Distinction and separation.

BETWEEN, the root suggesting discerning between.

THE LIGHT , ha'or (cf. ha'ur, fire).

AND BETWEEN

THE DARKNESS. Instead of the darkness alone covering the earth, now distinguishing features could be seen in the towering flames of fire as over against the blackness.

HE CALLED, vayyiqera', from the root meaning invite, summon, appoint.

THE LIGHT DAY. Day, yom, from chamam, to be hot, chom, heat (Gesenius); Targ., sh'chum, dark red, to make glow. Yom, as a time period, within this context must be of an indefinite period, since it is not linked with the solar time schedule as now known, nor with the fourth record-day. Nor can the Sabbath of God's "cessation" (Gen. 2:2) be offered as a proof text since Hebrews 4:1-11 sees God's REST as being neither broken nor ever interrupted. Within these DAY-PERIODS was a foreshadowing of all that God was seeking to accomplish:

… the works were finished from

the foundation of the world (Heb. 4:3)

In Genesis 2:4 the whole six periods were collectively spoken of as a day within the Generations of the Heavens and Earth. Generations certainly seems to imply more than a mere twenty-four hour, six-day period.

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... in the DAY that The LORD God made the earth and the heavens. . .

Later in history a commemorative day was appointed with a certain people within a certain climate and place. This "sabbath" was never given to other people, and since the calendar of that long-gone and far-away event was never kept, the two events cannot now be linked.

AND THE DARKNESS HE CALLED

NIGHT, layelahh. Root lul, hence, layil, yalal, to yell or from la'ah (lamedh-aleph-he), to be languid, exhausted, faint, weary; or from lalah, to become senseless with fatigue or thirst. The picture drawn is of an earth alternating between pulsating bursts of fire and periods of darkness. The darkness of night was but a pause in the birth-pangs of the earth.

AND IT (or, there) WAS, vayyehi.

EVENING, 'erebh (ayin-resh-beth), from the verb 'arabh (ayin-resh-beth), to be mixed, spiced, pleasant, i.e., a mixing of the fire from within the earth and the darkness upon the face of the deep. The English evening, to even out or cancel out the contrasts of brilliant flames and total darkness.

AND IT (or, there) WAS, as before.

MORNING, bhoger, from the verb bagger (beth-goph-resh, Pi'el stem), to look closely, to distinguish; clearness. Greek aurion, tomorrow. This is darkness, fire, an intermingling of light and shadow, and a "tomorrow."

DAY ONE, yom 'echadh. This term does not signify the first of many, or of more important days to follow; it is a unit complete in itself. Not a first-day period, rather a complete unit, yom 'echadh, ONE DAY, not the FIRST DAY, but a unit embodying all that is needed in the following yamim (pron. yameem), days.

LET THERE BE AN EXPANSE, yehi raqui'a.

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Reqam (pron. ray-kahm), adv./ empty, not tangible, from rig (pron. reek), want of substance; hence raqa' (resh-qoph-ayin), to spread out thin by beating, to make thin, to stretch out, to expand. The A.V. firmament. The A.V. presents the result for the cause instead of setting forth the formation of the canopy.

IH THE MIDST OF, bethokh, from a root meaning to cut through, the middle of anything, midst. Here, in the cutting through the waters.

THE WATER

AND GOD CALLED THE EXPANSE, HEAVENS.

Thus God separated waters from the shallow seas, raised them up to form an icy canopy. As the lowered seas washed on new-found shores, the drying land formed the ancient shorelines evidenced throughout the earth. The continental shelves and the vast ocean rifts on the ocean floors all testify to the inner explosive forces that sent these primal waters upward to form the encircling, rings or belts of the bejewelled canopy.

__________

CANOPY FEATURES

The canopy, with a constant equatorial rotation in relationship to the "greater light" of the fourth-day period (Gen. 1:14) would cause a tropical and richly productive earth.

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The cosmic rays which might cause mutations would be mitigated. The constant temperature would preclude the storms and violent weather now known. Rain?

… for The LORD God had not caused it to rain upon the earth … but there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground (Gen. 2:5b, 6).

The "greater light" of Gen. 1:14 would seem to have been a swift sun speeding across the outer heavens as only a "light."

... and the firmament sheweth His handiwork (Psalm 19:lb).

In them hath He set a tabernacle (tent) for the sun (Psalm 19:4b).

The true sun was seen only as from within a "tent" or enclosure. More of this later.

WHICH IS AS A BRIDEGROOM COMING OUT OF HIS CHAMBER (Heb. chuppah, canopy, Psalm 19:5a; "closet* in Joel 2:16).

The true sun was seen as coming out of a CANOPY. More of this later.

AND REJOICETH as a strong man to run a race (Psalm 19:5b).

The swiftly moving sun raced across the canopy and was seen as a "greater light" but not as the true sun except at one place at the end of the canopy:

His going forth is from the end of the heaven.

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and his circuit unto the ends of it. and there is nothing hid from the heat thereof (Psalm 19:6).

The outer realm of space has no knowable end or ends, but the canopy heavens had a definite terminal point. The swift-moving sun, or to be more exact, a more swiftly revolving earth, was necessary to equalize the heat and not have "cold and heat" or "summer and winter" (Gen. 8:22)as after the flood when large portions of the canopy had collapsed. Before the flood no variation of seasons is mentioned. The Companion Bible, Appendix 12,. has a long note on Gen. 1:14-16 wherein the author points out that the "stars, etc.: were for signs, and seasons, days, and years, not of seasonal plantings and harvest, but "OF THINGS TO COME," in the future. Compare Genesis 8:22, cold and heat, summer and winter. These are NOT mentioned in the earlier text. These were the writings on the tablets of the stars, hidden as yet from view in the account until the time of their revelation. The tree of knowledge, to know good and evil, all were written there as well as the course of human destiny and Divine redemption. At the time of earth's dawnings the scroll was as yet silent. Satan showed Christ the kingdoms of the cosmos, and the kingdoms of the habitable earth, the outer and lesser worlds. Did this also enter into the temptation of Adam and Eve? See Gen. 2:-17; cf. 3:22. They had learned something hitherto known only to the Nachash, the Shining Serpent (not a snake), but the Dragon of the Skies constellation, embodied, and personified, but a superior being to the first parents). A knowledge of events in the future has no bearing upon bringing them to pass; knowledge is not causative, but a knowledge of events in the future can be used for good, or it can be used for evil, for obedience and faithfulness in spite of the coming events.

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In process of time Adam without a stained record would have been redeemed from the man of the soil to the moral and spiritual image of the MAN FROM HEAVEN, but, sadly, he could not wait out the learning-period until such time as would be told all he needed to know of God's plans.

CANOPY FEATURES

THE POLAR OPENING

The book of Job is an unusual book. There are several sections within the book that treat of God's movement in this world: one section is addressed to deduction by observation, another section can be known only by Divine Revelation, or by the instrumentation and technology now available to science. The following text may perhaps be applied to the so-called "black holes" of outer space, they being, rather, polar openings in the canopy:

He it is Who stretches out the north over empty spaces — Who suspends the earth from nothing . … Who taketh possession of the front of His throne and over it spreadeth His cloud. His decree had drawn a circle on the face of the water, at the confines of light and darkness. The pillars of heaven flutter and are struck with consternation at His rebuke (Charles Thomson, Job 26:7, 9, 10, 11).

"Tsaphon bent over Tohu," a polar picture of the northern opening not now existing. From other Scriptures it will be seen that the polar opening was looked upon as the entrance to the throne of God.

… He closeth fast the entrance to His throne (Job 26:9).

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The "pillars" of Job 26:11 may have canopy features, the descending avalanche of the "end of the line" canopy rings of ice would appear as "pillars" or "thighs" known in the ancient world as the "Thighs of Typhon" (cf. Hebrew Tsaphon). The "entrance" to His throne could be closed, whereupon the polar heavens could not then be seen. The "Polar" stars have changed over the eons, Dr. E.W. Bullinger suggesting the pole star at the time of the Genesis account to have been Alpha in the constellation of Draco, not the Alpha now found in Ursa Minor. This would place the center of the Tree of Knowledge, as viewed through the Polar opening, in Draco, the Dragon, the Coiled Serpent. This figure and the One crushing the Serpent's head in the constellation picture-drawing (Gen. 3:15) refer to this celestial serpent, the one crushing his head being thereby injured. Depending upon where the opening was viewed from the earth's surface, the imagery changed, the descending ice from one point on earth taking the form of an inverted "tree," and it truly, a TREE OF KNOWLEDGE, as the Canopy opening was a pathway to know all things. The Tower of Babel (Gen. 11:1-9) was an effort to record this knowledge for all time by the building of a Temple to the Sun, a place of worship within the structure and on top a representation of the constellations and, in all likelihood, an observatory of the heavens so that the knowledge then gained would not be lost should another flood sweep the earth. The Zodiac, the "path" of the sun (The Ecliptic) in relationship to the varied constellations by which their Divine Names were meant to tell a story, has been lost, and in its place a bastard astrology has been substituted. This original porthole into the true heavens must have been the wonder of the whole earth, all old civilizations bearing record of it in one form or another.

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OUT OF THE NORTH A GOLDEN LIGHT

COMETH,

UPON GOD IS FEARFUL SPLENDOR.

(Rotherham, Job 37:22)

What a beautiful symbol of the might and majesty of God! Just as Christ was the true light Which lighteth every man that cometh into the world (John 1:9), even so this stream of golden solar light betokened the splendor of God's being. Is it any wonder that this opening seemed to the ancients the very eye of heaven, the gateway, the place of secrets and of knowledge? Perhaps Isaiah 25:6, 7 bears upon a time when the canopy covering existed:

And HE WILL DESTROY IN THIS MOUNTAIN THE FACE OF THE COVERING CAST OVER ALL PEOPLE, AND THE VEIL THAT IS SPREAD OVER ALL NATIONS.

Was this veil removed for the nations so that they, too, could read the story of the heavens? Are these the "invisible things" of Romans 1:20 that became visible so that they might be clearly seen? Would they see, too, that the Tree of Life had been guarded faithfully for all mankind in Christ, the Crucified?

As earlier mentioned, the concentric circles or rings of the canopy would move along the path of the energy fields of the earth, this being pole-ward. As viewed from without, the descending spirals of ice and debris would form a circle or wheel. As viewed from within, the observer would behold a circle of color midst the cascading ice. The farther away one was from the opening, the greater would be the distortion of form. The top part of the rings would appear as arches, as when a ship passes out of sight below the horizon, the last part to be seen is the top-mast or sails, due to the curvature of the earth; so, too, with the arches at the polar opening through

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which the arctic stars could be seen. Diogenes Laertius wrote of the Arctic Stars revolving in a tholos, a vaulted chamber with an arched roof or dome. From certain other places on earth the observer would see different images formed in the polar opening, one of these being the inverted tree, looking like a spear point thrust into the earth. The golden glow bathing the tree would appear as an angel guarding the Tree of Life and the Tree of Knowledge. A mind bereft of God's great truths would see in these figures a battle of mighty giants and cosmic forces, giving rise to myths of struggling demons and men. The spear figures largely in Japanese mythology, especially as it relates to the former practice of Emperor worship. Another figure is seen, as related by the prophet Isaiah in 14:12-14:

How hast thou fallen O Lucifer, Son of the

from heaven Morning, how art

O Shining One—Son of thou fallen from

the Dawn! Heaven!

Hewn down to earth, Art cut down to the

Earth, thou who

O crusher of nations! didst crush nations!

Yet thou didst say in Yet thou hast said in

thy heart— thine heart; I will

The heavens will I ascend up into the

ascend, heavens

Above the stars of God From above the Stars

will I lift up my of God will I erect

throne,— my throne;

That I may sit in the There will I sit upon

Mount of Assembly. the mount of the

Divine Presence

In the Recesses of the On the Sides of the

North: North.

I will mount on the I will ascend beyond

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hills of the clouds, the heights of the clouds

I will match The Most I will be equivalent

High. to The Most High.

(Rotherham) (Helen Spurrell)

In the prophet's denouncement of the ruler of Babylon an earlier prototype was brought into the account, the Shining One for whom the Serpent constellation was named, in whose fall would be seen the fall of the Babylonian tyrant. Among the Babylonians a legend prevailed of a "MOUNT" or "MOUND" in the far north, where the gods of the nations assembled. The prophet goes beyond the local application and reaches far back into the earth's history to draw a vivid application. It is to this same issue that Psalm 82:1 applies:

God standeth in the Congregation of

the Mighty

He judgeth among the gods.

There is an association between Lucifer, Son of the Morning (Lucifer = Light-bearer) and the defeat of the nations in some past battle of the Titans and his desire to sit in the Mount of the Divine Presence in the "sides" (Heb. yarkal, thighs, pillars) of the North, the *sides" being the arched mounds, or recesses, or domes of the polar opening. The gods of the nations originating in Nimrod are to be judged by God. The reference to Lucifer's ascending up into the heavens, and from above the stars of God erecting his throne, and finally being enthroned on the Mount or Mound of Assembly, there to become the ruler and judge of the whole earth — all this echoes and parallels the ascension, the seating, and the ruling of Christ. This parallel gives meaning to Satan’s desire to have 

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Christ worship him, in return for which he, Satan, proffered Christ the kingdoms of the Cosmos (Matt. 4:8, world = kosmos; Luke 4:5, world = oikoumene, inhabited earth) and of this earth. Satan's claim to being the possessor of the kingdoms was not disputed, but there is a vast difference between one's being in a position of "trusteeship" and being in a position of "ownership." If the trustee or steward has been unfaithful to his trust, then he is removed, the deputized officer is removed, his title is restored to the original conferor, the title redeemed, cleared, and all properties returned to the rightful owner. This was the appointed role of Christ, to nullify the works of Satan and to extend His redemption and restoration unto whatever realms necessary.

Along these lines exists the essential conflict between Christ and Satan. For this reason Satan is called a "murderer from the beginning," i.e., the Slayer of the Man; there was ONE whom he sought to slay, in accord with the depiction of the writing in the stars and in The Scriptures. Satan was also the father of THE LIE, one LIE, a Lie of vast importance, i.e., that Christ WAS NOT, repeat, that Christ WAS NOT THE ANOINTED, the Savior of the world, the Promised SEED of the Woman, the Unique CHRIST OF GOD. John boldly writes:

WHO IS THE LIAR (not as in the A.V., a liar) except the one denying the Jesus is THE CHRIST? This is THE Antichrist (1 John 2:22, fr. the Greek text).

Unfortunately, the A.V. weakens the text by translating "a liar" rather than "THE LIAR," and "antichrist," instead of "He is THE Antichrist." To continue, if Christ were to assume a subservient role to that of Satan, then Satan would be equated with the Most High, but this position belongs only to

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the One Who identified Himself with humanity through the crucible of Calvary, taking upon Himself, as the legal and rightful Heir and Firstborn of all creation, the responsibility of redemption, thereby securing the inheritance and sharing the blessing outflowing there from. He assumed the death-state allotted to those missing the mark of divine excellence and provided a full and free return to the Father's favor for those who, whether meaningfully or ignorantly, had strayed from the holy standards of The Divine Presence.

Within Isaiah's account of Satan as "Son of the Dawn," the "Angel of Light" spoken of in 2 Corinthians 11:14 — for thus he comes to those who harken to his voice — the stars mentioned are those seen through the polar opening. There is no way to tell how large this opening was or whether its size varied from time to time, but during the period when the decline of the ice-belts was less, the visible stars must have appeared as a jeweled crown gracing the opening and betokening the very throne of God. These stars were generally five in number, corresponding to the five "golden Bees" of ancient lore. The seven stars of Revelation 2:1 in the right hand of the Holder correspond to the Pleiades constellation group. Falling stars, as mentioned earlier, depicted the fall of nations. The Arctic stars of antiquity should give an idea of what star group was polar. Seen as they were by the ancient world, they must have seemed a part of the solar wheel, beyond which was the true universe of space. It was from thence, the local world, that Satan sought to erect his throne. The heavens were looked upon as God's throne and the earth as His footstool. To combine both of these realms within his domain, not as the "Covering Anointed Cherub," i.e., the one anointed to overshadow and extend the Mercy-seated Throne of God (cf.

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Eze. 28:14; Ex. 25:17-22; Heb. 9:5) but to be seated there as a usurper, seizing and holding the inheritance for himself, was the ambition of Satan.

In the Ezekiel account (Eze. 28:12-19) other canopy features are seen. The Prince of Tyrus is to be distinguished from the "King" of Tyrus. The Prince is a purely human figure. The things spoken of the "King" of Tyrus place Him in another category. In comparing Ezekiel 28:12-19 with Daniel 10:13-21; 12:1 (cf. Rev. 12:7), it may be readily seen that the supernatural beings stood behind earthly rulers or represented certain nations. This "King" of Tyrus therefore represents the power behind the throne. The writer reaches far back into the dawn of time, just as Isaiah does (Isa. 14) to recapture ancient history for a moment in order to rebuke the current rulers by its recitation. Isaiah rebukes the Babylonian rulers and Ezekiel rebukes the Prince of Tyrus. In citing the Ezekiel passages only those bearing upon the canopy will be given, but the whole should be read.

In Eden, the Garden of God, thou

wast,

Of every precious stone was thy covering —

Thou wast THE ANOINTED CHERUB that covered —

When I appointed thee,

In the Holy Mount thou wast.

So I cast thee as profane out of the

Mountain of God,

And destroyed thee, O COVERING

CHERUB,

From amid the stones of fire .

Excerpts from Ezekiel 28:12-19.

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This being is said to have been in Eden, the Garden of God, thus placing him as the Shining One who conversed with Adam and Eve. He is the ANOINTED CHERUB, a title rightly belonging only to Christ (Anointed-Messiah), and a title redeemed by Him in His perfect person and completed work. CHERUB may possibly mean The Holder, The GUARDIAN. A commentary on this is found in one of the most beautiful types in the Old Testament, that of the golden throne where God was "Mercy-Seated"; out of the seat and an extension of it were the two golden Cherubim (Cherubim, pl. of Cherub) with their huge towering wings, overspreading, overshadowing the seat, and looking down upon it. They were depicted as the Guardians and Pro-claimers of The Divine Mercy there enthroned. Exodus 25:17-22, etc., gives an account of this. Of this order or class of beings was the Covering Cherub of Ezekiel's account. This being was appointed to his task in the Mountain of God, the Mount of the Congregation in the sides of the north, as Isaiah expresses it. Out of that same mountain he was cast as a profane person would be cast out. His original investiture was of delegated authority only and this being abused, his office was invalidated; later, the two golden figures were typically used to convey the concept of God being "Mercy-Seated," not only to Israel, but to all since the figure reaches back before the times of peoples and nations. There is a plaintive cry in the words, "O Covering Cherub," just as there is in the first recorded question, "Where art thou?" Herein is expressed the awful dilemma: whether to "go it alone" or "to go on with God." Was God merely a footfall in Eden? And the Shining Cherub, "perfect in beauty" (Eze. 28:17), the real world? Was it to be faith in The Invisible One or in the world of sight, touch, and feeling? Trust in God against appearances? Trust that even seeming withholding is still His love expressed?

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The Anointed Cherub appearing in Eden, the Nachash of Genesis 3:1, is not a snake but a being of glorious appointments, his garments of every precious stone, the "stones of fire" cast forth from the fiery innards of the earth being his adornments. So majestic was this being that Michael, the Archangel of God (The Chief Angel), dared not rebuke him (Jude 9). The Nachash is allied with the Seraphim in Numbers 21:8 in having a shining appearance. The comparison to a "beast" in Genesis 3:1, A.V. is misleading. The Hebrew word for "beast" is chay, a living creature. That is the only comparison. As to eating dust, snakes do not eat dust; rather the figure of speech denotes abject humiliation, and it is so used elsewhere in Scripture. The Greek drake, "the dragan," means "trodden on. The Hebrew darakh means "to tread." So Job 26:13 comments:

By His Spirit He hath garnished the heavens; His hand hath formed the Crooked (fleeing) Serpent.

The C.B. translates: The Serpent (constellation) He hath formed. This has reference to the constellation in the heavens in which is depicted the crushing of the Serpent's head.

Before these cycles of ice-laden bands moved into their final helix before plunging to earth, the sunlight seen would be as when a round mirror casts its reflected light upon another surface. The dawn and sunset would seem to arise and set on the opposite sides of the polar opening. Maybe this would account for old world literature stating that the sun set in the east and rose in the west. The Hebrew word bo’, is used a dozen or so times of the sun's "going down" but more than a hundred times for the sun's "going in." The Hebrew word

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yaradh means "to go down," but was never used of the sun. The "tent" made for the sun, the sun coming out of his chamber (chamber -canopy) and the ,sun "circuiting" the end of the heavens (Psalm 19:4, 5) would apply only to a canopied sky with a polar opening. In regard to this polar opening Ezekiel 8:7, 14 assumes a general knowledge then current as to what was -involved in the worship of the sun-god Tammuz. The natural movement of the sun and moon outside the canopy cover-rings was not understood until more recent historical times, so it was thought that Tammuz died when the sunlight seen through the polar opening was hidden by an elipsis, and when later it reappeared, he was thought to have been resurrected.

And He brought me to the door of the

Court (of the Temple),

And when I looked, behold, a HOLE in

the wall (representing the Polar

Opening, Eze. 8:7).

Then He brought me to the door of

the Gate of The LORD'S House

which was toward the north,

And behold, there sat women weeping

for Tammuz (Eze. 8:14).

Tammuz was known as the Image of Jealousy associated with the hole in the wall, the worship of Ba'al Pe'or, the lord of the Opening. For the return of this "god of the light," the women wept. It was an annual ritual. That this and other pagan rituals should take place in the Temple foreseen by Ezekiel was the abomination to which his attention was called. Tammuz was looked upon as the guardian of the gate of heaven, the door-keeper, the gatekeeper. It is interesting that the Hebrew word for "sun" is shemesh, a "ministrant"

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(Young's Concordance), not the real sun seen now, but the hidden sun, the diffused "greater light" of the Genesis account. The Greek word for sun is helios, whom the Greeks deified, from helix, a spiral. The belts of the canopy would assume the helix or spiral shape as the back lighted belts of ice revolved in their orbits. Sun-worshipers through the centuries had served ministrant-suns, regent-suns, substitute-suns, since the real sun was hidden behind the shining canopy. During the reign of Amen-Ophis IV, 18th Dynasty ruler of Egypt, remarkable events took place. The ruler changed his name of Amen-Ophis (meaning "The Concealing Serpent") to Kuen-Aten, "The Light of the Solar Disk," or "The Light of the True Sun." His former name, along with the Typhenic images, was defaced and removed from all the monuments. The "Concealing Serpent Canopy" named after its coiled bands moving across the skies had been opened; a rift had been made, and the concealing serpent of the canopy sky had received a setback. A beautiful analogy of this exists in John's Gospel concerning Christ as the true light:

… in Him was Life,

And The Life was the LIGHT of men,

And The Light in the darkness

shineth;

And the darkness could not put it

out.

that enlighteneth every man coming

into the world (John l:4b, 5, 9).

The Logos, the Living Word (Christ), the creating-communicating medium of God, was the REAL LIGHT as over against all substitutes. This is the meaning of this text. He is the reality behind the types, the substance behind the shadow. He is Eden's TREE of LIFE, The One in Whom life

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from and in and with God is found, rather than in man himself. The TREE of LIFE was always Christ. IT was therefore fitting that Emblematic Cherubimic Swords of Flame should be seen as preserving the way to God for Adam and all others. The Genesis 3:24 texts should convey the sense of the Hebrew:

He caused Himself there to dwell

That is, God Shekinah-ed there, caused Himself to be manifest there midst the Cherubimic flames, these having been set to keep, to preserve the TREE of LIFE. The Cherubim were an extension of the Mercy-seated God. This prefigured the timbered Tree of Calvary upon which The Lord was crucified. This Tree, of the Christ, was also a tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The evil enacted there is readily seen by all; beyond the evil, but not so frequently seen, is death through death, conquered; that in His dying the holy character of God is justified, and yet all claims against man that would thrust him apart from God are buried in His entombment; out of His resurrection the essential nature of God as a sentient being is seen to be that of redemption, love, and grace; through Christ God demonstratively proclaims that the true and living way both from and to God is wide open. In the light of the true sun the hiding canopy features flee away — so, too, with Christ, the TRUE LIGHT; all ministrants, regents, vicars," or any other claimant, all must give way to Him. Out of the perfections of His person and the completeness of His work the true light now shineth, all else is an unworthy representation of what God is and what God does.

Other canopy features are seen in Isaiah's vision:

It is He that sitteth upon (above)

the circle (circuit, vaulted chambers)

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of the earth; that stretcheth out the heavens as a curtain, and spreadeth them out as a tent to dwell in (Isa. 40:22).

The circle or vaulted chamber mentioned in the text corresponds with the opening in the canopy with its vaulted domes. Beyond this was the throne of God. The text gives information as to general appearances, not dogmatic scientific facts. The same is done when the sun is said to rise or set. The heavens are viewed as curtains, keeping out the sunlight, streaming around the earth in their mistiness, and the canopy itself is looked upon as a tent beneath which the inhabitants dwell.

In Judges 5:28 several curious canopy features are implied:

They fought from heaven:

The Stars in their courses

Fought against Sisera.

Deborah, of the context here, is the ancient name for the Pole Star. The polar stars, the Golden Bees (Deborah) of the polar opening, fought in turn against Sisera; Sisera, not the local general by that name, but the Semitic-Assyrian sasur, i.e., the Star-Keeper or Guardian-Captor of the Stars. According to the ancient legend the Stars fought against him and sought to defeat him in order that their glory and splendor might be seen by all. This incident is used in Deborah's song to parade her victory over Sisera. In this same chapter the mother of Sisera "cried through the lattice" (Judges 5:28), lamenting the vanquished Sisera's long delay in returning from the battle. The parallel is obvious. Also, the "lattice" mentioned is the same word used in Genesis 7:11 of the "windows of Heaven." Sisera is again mentioned in Psalm 83:9, 10. The names mentioned have strange connotations. Sisera = Star Keeper;

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Midian = World Center; Jabin = Possessor of Knowledge; En-Dor = The Fountain of Dor, or, Fountain of the Opening. The Polar Opening was both a Door of Knowledge and a Concealer of Knowledge. It opened to the outside universe, but its special features also hid it. The Hebrew for "generation" is DOR, meaning CIRCLE. The Witch of En-Dor professed to have special knowledge as being a member of the "CIRCLE" cult, the polar opening of those canopy days. The "generation" association evidently arose from the timing of the canopy rings or circles, as they moved from a certain point in the heavens to another point of reference. The Old Testament assumption was that a generation covered forty years. A swift-moving earth under the conditions of an overhead canopy may have had an influence on how time was registered from circle to circle movement. The canopy belts may have been very regular and precise in reaching a certain point regardless of how swiftly the earth itself may have moved.

Other canopy features are seen in the vision of Daniel:

… and the Ancient of Days did sit, Whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of His head like pure wool: His Throne was like the fiery flame, and His wheels (the wheels thereof — of the throne) as burning fire.

The Ancient of Days sat upon a "wheeled" throne of flame, in this vision. The turning, twisting, spiraling rings of the Canopy moving ever toward the polar goal were a fitting graphic picture of God's throne. As they wheeled into their final vortex and cascaded to earth, it was seen as streams of flame, like flame, as Daniel relates it. It presents a picture of that greater throne of God that no man has seen nor can see

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nor approach unto except he be "hidden" in The Christ (Col. 3:3), in union with whom one is given courage to speak freely with The Father and have complete freedom of access with confidence (Eph. 3:12), to the shining throne midst flames duplicating the "Sword of Flame" of Eden, pointing to and preserving the way to the Tree of Life. In symbol, the Gateway to the Stars had a story to tell for all creation, a story written as large as the universe in scope. Truly, The Ancient of Days, the Depository of ages, wisdom and power did sit enthroned in the "Circumference of His Holiness," for God must be perfect in His morality, pure in His holiness, just as He must be perfect in His love and His grace. Thus, in vision, the prophet sees something of the grandeur and glory of God, God Who is everywhere and yet present in every place, Who promised to dwell with one who is of a humble and contrite spirit (Isa. 57:15)r and Who is enshrined as in the Holiest of All in the hearts of His own (Eph. 2:22. Truly, "promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south" (Psalm 75:-6); so, as the Companion Bible so well states, it must come from the North, symbolically, the place of God's throne. Promotion, i.e., to be "lifted up," is of God alone, and there is no "lifting up" as fitting as that mentioned in Ephesians 2:6:

… jointly rouses us,

and jointly seats us

among the celestials,

in Christ Jesus.

__________

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THE RAINBOW

The massive breaking up of the canopy in the time of the flood from whatever cause God used is recorded in Genesis 7:11, 12, 19:

… all the fountains of the great deep were broken up,

and the windows (lattices) of heaven were opened …

and there was rain upon the earth …

and the water prevailed exceedingly.

Prior to this event it had not rained; a hothouse effect had been caused by the canopy (Gen. 2:5, 6). Land and sea distribution were different from that before this great upheaval, literally, the "falling skies." The canopy rings collapsed, mountains of ice falling, trapping millions upon millions of animals in an instant deep-freeze, the remains of which are still being explored. Climatic changes took place all over the globe; for the first time, it rained. With high and low pressure areas now operative, the first wind is recorded in Genesis 8:1. With a breaking up of the deep, a different world emerged, and for the first time a RAINBOW was seen.

I DO SET MY BOW IN THE CLOUD (Gen. 9:13).

The beautiful spectrum arched across the heavens, caused by sunlight refraction, reflection, and dispersion in raindrops falling through the air opposite to the sun itself, was to be the token that there would not be another world-wide flood. A flood would have to presume upon canopy features of the scale seen before it; and while this does not exist, a flood of that magnitude is impossible. God takes the original special rainbow and makes it a promise of hope for the future, a

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covenant with the earth (Gen. 9:13). Thereafter, the lattices of heaven were stopped (Gen. 8:2); the canopy belts continued but never to their former degree. The changed earth had higher shorelines; the hothouse effect was gone. The last remnants of the canopy having finally disappeared, many of the very old civilizations, attest to their haying existed. Now, the "greater and lesser" lights of Genesis 1:14 would take on a new brilliance, and with the shift in the axis of the earth there would now be cold and heat, summer and winter (Gen. 8:22). The present earth with its varied seasons, its hurricane winds, its cold and warmth, its storms and placid days has its blessings and its cursings. With the sweeping away of the full canopy the heavens were open to sight, and the handwriting there in the original meaning of the stars and constellations could be read by all. Truly, Luke 1:76-78 sees the fulfillment of the message of the stars and all the aspirations of the human hearts

From the height of the heavens

The Dayspring (Branch)

Had visited us.

The brightest star in VIRGO (composed of 110 stars) is called AL ZIMACH in Arabic and TSE-MACH in Hebrew, both meaning THE BRANCH. This name is used of the Messiah or Christ in Jeremiah 23:5, Zechariah 3:8; 6:12; Isaiah 4:2. The Greek ANATOLE of Luke 1:76-78, i.e., DAY-SPRING, was the brightest star of that cluster. He had come, not as a man claiming to be God, but God reaching forth out of His invisible spirit-being to communicate in and through Christ with humanity and His creation. Drawn in the heavens was the cross of redemption, the altar of completeness, the wounded victim and the one rising from the dead, all told in pictographs. The story of the heavens and Scripture blend

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together in Christ as type and antitype meet in the perfect Christ and His complete work,.

There is one Secret God kept to Himself from before the founding of the cosmos. When revealed, it was the greatest love story ever conceived:

As He made choice of us in Him before the casting forth of the cosmos, that we should stand consecrate and spotless in His sight—in love He chose us: He claimed us 'for His own long ago, to give us the charter of Sonship to Himself, through Jesus Christ, so fulfilling the good pleasure of His will, that praise might be rendered to the glorious manifestation of His grace, the grace that He so freely gave us in the person of His Beloved (Eph. 1:4-6).

Before the worlds were sent forth from The Creator's power into space and time, God made a series of choices relating to Himself and to beings that were not yet in existence; He chose them to have and to hold fellowship with Himself, and that on the highest possible plane — as Sons in The Son to a Beloved Father. The sheer scope of this is seen in Ephesians 1:9, 10.

For He revealed to us the secret of His (heart's) desire, according to His determination which He had formed within Himself to carry out the dispensation that awaited but the fullness of the time. For His purpose was to sum up all things under One Head, in Christ, that which is in heaven, and that which is on earth, in HIM.

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All, all were to be made ONE in Him, summed up in Him. All were to be made Christ-like. Seeing Christ, God would see the objects of His love; seeing the objects of His love, God would see Christ. Henceforth the whole would be seen in the ONE, and the ONE in the whole. His beauty and grace had their object, His creative divisings had their purpose and their aims.

In giving of Himself in creation God knew what would come to pass. Foreknowledge does not cause a thing to be, any more than "after-knowledge" does; but knowing, as He did, He provided for every possibility and accepted the full responsibility for erring humanity in providing a full and free redemption and forgiveness where it involved a transgression against His revealed will. God was IN CHRIST reconciling the world to Himself, not apart from Calvary, not apart from pain, not apart from the nails, not apart from the thrust of spear or thirst — it was God's way of saying, "Let this death of Me in Christ be the death of all things that would separate Me from you — for I LOVE YOU."

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Could we with ink the ocean fill,

And were the skies of parchment made;

Were every stalk on earth a quill,

And every man a scribe by trade;

To write the love of God above

Would drain the ocean dry;

Nor could the scroll contain the whole,

Though stretched from sky to sky.

F. M. Lehman

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RANDOM THOUGHTS ON GOD'S FOREKNOWLEDGE AND GOD'S SOVEREIGNTY

by Russell H. Schaefer

This subject has been surrounded by controversy. It is unfortunately equated with a certain concept of God's sovereignty, a sovereignty of inflexible fate. It has been said, "God rules or is ruled." Rather, one should say, "God is totally free in His sovereignty to act as He wills or He is not free at all." The first dictum reflects total ruthlessness and does not allow any freedom to God to act or to rule as He sees fit under varied circumstances. This, of course, makes a mockery of "forgiveness," as in this case He initiates the sin and causes the sinner to sin; for who can resist His will under this type of sovereignty? Since "sin" would be the outworking of His sovereignty, there is no fault, hence nothing to be forgiven. This type of sovereignty, that of inflexible will or fate, is alien to another concept of sovereignty, a sovereignty in which God is free to act in whatever way it pleases Him in accord with varied circumstances, working out His purposes, conditioned only by His moral nature of infinite holiness and His essential nature of unchanging love. It is this last type of sovereignty that makes operative a RULE OF GRACE rather than of continual judgmental acts. The RULE OF GRACE for the peoples of the world is unequivocally set forth in Ephesians 3:1, 2; 8b, 9a:

For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Christ Jesus in behalf of you the NATIONS —

If at least ye have heard of the ADMINISTRATION OF THE FAVOR (GRACE) OF GOD, which hath been given unto me for you (Eph.3:1, 2).

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Unto THE NATIONS to announce the GLAD MESSAGE OF THE UNTRACEABLE RICHES OF THE CHRIST, and to bring to light what is the ADMINISTRATION of The Sacred Secret-— which had been hidden away from the ages in God (Eph. 3:8b, 9a, Rotherham text.).

The word "nations" in this context has a meaning much broader than the "saints and faithful" to whom the letter is addressed (Eph. l:l)_, "nations" not in the sense of corporate separate entities but rather in the sense of the Greek word ethnos, having to do with the varied peoples that make up the world in their racial, cultural, linguistic, political, and geographical distinctions. In a pluralistic world all varieties of people, races, and cultures are found, and it is to these that the administration of grace is addressed. In effect, it knows neither boundaries nor barriers. In its absoluteness it is as sure and as solid as when upon another occasion, for cause, God brought judgmental waters upon the earth.

Christ's historical death in behalf of mankind was a necessary monumental step that had to be enacted before the rule of grace could be announced as being the governing principle of God. Into this historical death all have been identified, thus making it the just and sufficient grounds upon which God extends His sovereignty of grace. Consider that out of that death the following emerges:

JUSTIFICATION

The Dikaiosis

The act of executing the dikaioma, i.e., the validation of the legal norm or standard in defense, punishment, or satisfaction of any requirement before God. All have missed the mark

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of the glory or perfections of God as seen in Christ; all, therefore, require the dikaiosis, the justification.

The following verses set this forth in a beautiful way:

1. The one having died (in and with Christ's death) has been justified from sin (Rom. 6:7, see Greek text).

2. Being justified freely (gift-wise) by the grace of Him … (Rom. 3:24).

3. Who are delivered up on account of our trespasses (we who are delivered up in Christ on account of our sins — in contrast to this —) (Christ) was raised because of His having justified us (Rom. 4:25).

4. God was IN CHRIST reconciling the world unto Himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them, that we might become the justified of God in Him (2 Cor. 5:19a, 21b).

In Christ's death, we died, and death lost its claim upon us. In Christ's death God justifies us freely as a gift. In the perfections of His work's HAVING ALREADY justified us. Christ arose from the dead as an attestation to this accomplished fact. In not having to impute a world's sin to it, God was thereupon free to reconcile the world to Himself and hold it in a state of justification.

Having done this, God, on a more personal basis, extended an unconditioned "grace-forgiveness":

... having forgiven (charisamenos)

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all the trespasses (Col. 2:13b).

The formation of this verb "forgive" upon the substantive charis, "grace," indicates on God's part His delight in bestowing His favor upon the objects of His love, overlooking the trespasses, i.e., the false steps, the blunders, the falling aside from rectitude and truth. This type of forgiveness is pleasing to the Giver and makes happy the receiver. It is not tainted with legalism or reluctance, nor with compulsion or reserve. It is not a response to God's having been begged to forgive, nor is it given as a result of the enumerating of one's sins; it is God's free gift, "grace-forgiveness." This is in keeping with the "complete release" mentioned in Ephesians 1:7:

In Whom we have the redemption (apolutrosin) through the blood of Him … according to the riches of His grace.

The prefix apo- takes the meaning of "redemption" beyond the ordinary one, lutrosis, and into that state of complete guiltlessness, transposing the receiver into a state of liberty with God. This is in accord with the riches of His grace, not out of a poverty of having to redeem because of an inherent obligation to do so, but out of the very richness of His grace which impels Him to do so happily. It was always God's intent to raise man up from the image of Adam, the man of the earth, to The Man of Glory, The Christ, just as Boaz exercised his right of redemption with respect to Ruth, raising her from the status of widowed Moabitess into the lineage of The Saviour of the World. True, there may be claims against us and self-made chains that bind us, but these are not of God's devisings; His redemption is unreserved and unencumbered.

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This type of sovereignty is drawn in bold strokes, framed by God's love and grace. Out-of-hand judgments have not engendered love toward God. He is worthy of love and service because He loves so very much. It is fitting, therefore, that He should have an administration of grace to all people. It would ill become Him not to have such an administration. Is it any wonder that His present kingdom is called by such an endearing title as:

THE KINGDOM OF HIS LOVE (Col. 1:13)?

or: The Kingdom of the Son Of His Love

This could be diagrammed thus:

Christ, The The Reign of His Love                     The Recipients of His Love 

The Son of His Love                                            The Character of His Love

The extent of His "Jointly" Love.                        Seated with Him.

(Eph. 2:6)

Toward mankind God has an unqualified Administration of Grace. This is without conditions or restrictions, such as covenant-agreements on the one side or the other, as, for example, God's former covenants with the nation of Israel wherein Israel was paid in material blessings in direct proportion to her fulfilling her covenanted agreement of setting forth the glory of God in extolling His righteousness as well as being the vehicle of His goodness. How tragic are the words so frequently spoken to Israel, "You have broken My covenants"! With the physical needs supplied, and with the issues of war and peace resolved in the covenant provisions,

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Israel was to have had the time to be an example nation of holy and just laws, of kindliness and rest to the weary, and to have been a portraiture of redemption, holiness, mercy and grace to all via her rituals, types and shadows. With Israel's failure, the whole system of revealing God to the world might well have been closed down, and a universal judgment might easily have ensued; but, in the darkness, as those eras ended, God in His sovereignty brought forth His formerly hidden plan, the dispensation of the grace of God. Judgment was not to be the last word from God, but GRACE. The failure to be alerted to this truth, The Sovereignty of Grace, is the cause of much of the confusion in the realm of so-called "Christianity" today. In those receiving this truth a close family relationship is wrought. Faith is one of the finest synonyms for "fellowship," since one must have faith — trust — in another before fellowship can be experienced.

God's Foreknowledge

If God knows the future, as assuredly He does, is this knowledge causative? Is it the cause of those events' taking place in the future? Is the knowledge of events, whether past, present or future, just that — knowledge? Knowledge that can be used for good or ill?

An excellent illustration of the use of foreknowledge on God's part is found in 1 Samuel 23:10-13, portions of which are quoted:

... and Saul said, "God hath delivered him (David) into my hand" … Then said David, "O LORD God of Israel, Thy servant hath certainly heard that Saul seeketh to come to Keilah, to destroy the city for my sake. Will the men of Keilah deliver me up into his hand? Will Saul

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come down as Thy servant hath heard? O LORD God of Israel, I beseech Thee_, tell Thy servant." And The LORD said, "He will come down. Then said David, "Will the men of Keilah deliver me and my men into the hand of Saul?" And the LORD said, "They will deliver thee up." Then David and His men, which were about six hundred, arose and departed out of Keilah, and went whithersoever they could go. And it was told Saul that David was escaped from Keilah; and he forebare to go {to Keilah).

2. David was suspicious of his allies.

3. David inquired of The LORD (Jehovah) whether Saul would assault Keilah.

4. God told him Saul would do so.

5. David inquired of The LORD whether the men of Keilah would deliver him to Saul.

6. God said they would do so.

7. David withdrew his men from Keilah as a consequence of this "private" information from God.

8. Saul changed his mind when he discovered David had escaped from Keilah.

9. Due to the use by David of God's foreknowledge, the events that were to have taken place, did not take place.

Another instance of this nature was Jonah's message to Nineveh:

Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be over-thrown (Jonah 3:4).

The response of the people to this unconditional message of doom was beautiful:

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Who can tell if God will turn and repent, and turn away from His fierce anger, that we perish not? (Jonah 3:10).

God's response?

And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way; and God repented of the evil He had said He would do unto them; and He did it not.

Jonah's response?

But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was very angry (Jonah 4:1).

What did Jonah know about God that would possibly make Jonah out a liar and discredit him as a prophet?

And he prayed unto The LORD, and said, "I pray Thee, O LORD, was not this my saying when I was yet in my country? Therefore I fled before unto Tarshish; for I KNEW that Thou art a gracious God, and merciful, and repentest Thee of the evil" (Jonah 4:2).

Few prophets were sent to Gentiles. Israel had a host of opportunities to repent as prophet after prophet was sent to them, and she refused. Jonah was, in effect, a test case: would Gentiles repent at even a direct word of impending doom without any offer of mercy and without pleadings or references to the "fathers," or mention of "covenants," or special inducements as Israel had over the long centuries? Jonah knew that any warning or actual pronouncement such as was given to Nineveh implied that God's basic character of graciousness

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could surface and cancel out His prophecied "doom." It happened then — is it wrong to suppose the same principle applies in other areas of The Word of God, for instance, the Book of Revelation? May not the "Dispensation of the Grace of God" for everyone be the paramount revelation of God and a perfect sequence to the redemption effected by Christ's person and work? Also, could not the same grace and mercy be shown to Israel, or would they be too offended at a Jewish prophet's being sent to a Gentile city? Jonah felt so:

Therefore now, O LORD, take, I beseech Thee, my life from me; for it is better for me to die than to live (Jonah 4:3).

What is foreknown by God does not always come to pass; knowledge "looks" and "sees" and takes heed or is warned and takes another path. In fulfilling His purposes God:

1. Could ignore man completely

2. Could force His will upon man

3. Could work with man

a. partially

b. completely

4. Could raise man to the stature of Christ

a. Seeing man, He would "see" Christ in him

b. Seeing Christ, He would "see" man in him

In regard to this last item, it needs to be added that this has always been what God has purposed; this was the apex of all His plans; this is the summation of the great truths found in the Ephesian and Colossian letters. What He has commenced in this, His ministry of grace, and its continuation and duration, is expressed so very well in Ephesians 4:13:

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TILL WE ALL COME

In the Unity of the faith

and

Of the Knowledge of

THE SON OF GOD

unto

THE PERFECT MAN,

unto

THE MEASURE

Of

THE STATURE

Of

THE FULNESS

Of CHRIST.

Unlike man, God knows in His wisdom what is fixed and what is contingent. Unlike Jonah, let us always presume upon the love beyond limits and the grace beyond measure.

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NOTES FROM A LETTER

Re: The Mystery

Dear Russ:

As I sit here in your home there is one thought I wish to express concerning the "highballing" effect of the Ephesian and Colossian truths on the rest of The New Testament Scriptures.

Without a doubt this happened via these two books, and in their truths all the intermittent steps toward the revelation of the Purpose of the Ages are now passe.

I also feel that in the Book of Hebrews we have another example of "highballing" at the close of the Acts

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period.* This book sees Christ as remaining in the heavens until all is subjected to Him, the cleansing of the heavens as having already taken place, and the heavenly ministry of Christ as being the fulfillment of His High Priestly ministry.

The "Mystery" highballing would have a distinct bearing upon the Book of Revelation wherein judgment was the distinct theme then in the process of taking place within that historical time and place. The "Mystery" would by its very nature overleap any ensuing judgments following the fall of Jerusalem in A.D. 70.

It is like a mighty river that was to be crossed by stepping stones. The Ephesian and Colossian truths would represent the far shore toward which all was pointing. The "stones" are those things in Scripture represented by type, symbol, sign, and ritual, given as instruction aids —"stepping stones." Maybe "dispensation" is a better word? Now that we have reached the "distant shore," the stones we jumped over, or rather that God jumped over, are of no vital nature to our security because the plan is not to go back to the shore of immaturity and imperfection. If some of the stones or steps are now hidden, or their order is difficult to figure out, we having been placed upon the other shore, the stones are of no great moment since their initial purpose was to guide us to this very shore. No matter how long we may have stood on the one

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* Your suggestion that these were of the Alexandrian-Jewish Synagogue of Rome, who had only heard of Paul (Acts 28:17-24) and were not opposed to him as were the Judean Jews who constantly sought his life. Hebrews then would be Paul's addresses to these type of Jews, recorded likely by Apollos, and would place Hebrews at the close of the Acts.

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shore looking across to some undefined goal, no matter what one or another stone would be (as the nation of Israel, for instance), the trouble was still the mighty river all about us. God saw that we were running out of stones upon which to place our trust and that the distant shore looked unattainable, so IN CHRIST God picked us up and placed us on the other side so that we no longer would need to trust in man or men but in His Christ alone, and in His grace alone. The "Other Shore" is that total completeness of all things in Christ, the Ultimate REALITY of which all else is but shadow. In Him we no longer need be concerned with the temporary stepping stones. We do need to be concerned in reflecting and living out the life of Christ within us and to give Him His rightful Headship.

Damon White

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THE SERPENT OF GENESIS 3

Companion Bible, Appendix 19

by E.W. Bullinger

In Genesis 3 we have neither allegory, myth, legend, nor fable, but literal historical facts set forth, and emphasized by the use of certain Figures of speech.

All the confusion of thought and conflicting exegesis have arisen from taking literally what is expressed by Figures, or from taking figuratively what is literal. A Figure of speech is never used except for the purpose of calling attention to, emphasizing, and intensifying, the reality of the literal sense, and the truth of the historical facts; so that, while the words employed may not be so strictly true to the letter, they are all

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the more true to the truth conveyed by them, and to the historical events connected with them.

But for the figurative language of verses 14 and 15 no one would have thought of referring the third chapter of Genesis to a snake: no more than he does when reading the third chapter from the end of Revelation (ch. 20.2). Indeed, the explanation added there, that the "old serpent" is the Devil and Satan, would immediately lead one to connect the word "old" with the earlier and former mention of the serpent in Gen. 3:- and the fact that it was Satan himself who tempted "The Second Man," "The Last Adam," would force the conclusion that no other than the personal Satan could have been the tempter of "the first man, Adam."

The Heb. for "serpent" (Gen. 3.1) is nachash from nachash, to hiss, mutter, whisper, as do enchanters. Secon-dary senses are to divine, enchant, whence the frequent use of noun as "serpent." The allied Chald. word means brass, copper, from "an assumed root" meaning to be bright. Various passages tell us that Satan possesses a glorious appearance, and the Heb. term probably includes the sense of fascinate, enchant (see Deut. 18.10 et.al. ). This element of fascination connects with the later use of nachash as "serpent."

The term saraph (PI. seraphim) is derived from saraph, a Homonym meaning (1) to burn, (2) to be elevated. In Num. 21:8 ^"A fiery serpent" = saraph; in the following v. "a serpent" = nachash; while in v. 6 both words are given for "fiery serpents." The same word saraph (seraphim) is used of the heavenly ones of Is. 6:2, 6.

Thus saraph is used of a fiery serpent and of an exalted celestial being; nachash being similarly used to designate a serpent and a glorious spirit-being.

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Indeed, a reference to the structure of Gen. 3 will show that the Cherubim (which are similar celestial or spirit-beings) of the last verse (Gen. 3.24) require a similar spirit-being to correspond with them in the first verse (for the structure of the whole chapter is a great Introversion). The Na-chash, or serpent, who beguiled Eve (2 Cor. 11.3) is spoken of as "an angel of light" in v. 14. Have we not, in this, a clear intimation that it was not a snake, but a being of glorious aspect, apparently an angel, to whom Eve paid such great deference, acknowledging him as one who seemed to possess superior knowledge, and who was evidently a being of a superior (not of an inferior) order? Moreover, in the description of Satan as "the king of Tyre"* it is distinctly implied that the latter being was of a supernatural order when he is called "a cherub" (Ezek. 28.14, 16, read from vv. 11-19). His presence "in Eden, the garden of 'Elohim (v. 13), is also clearly stated, as well as his being "perfect in beauty" (v. 12), his being "perfect in his ways from the day he was created till iniquity was found in him" (v. 15), and as being "lifted up because of his beauty" (v. 17).

These all compel the belief that Satan was the "old serpent" (Nachash) in Gen. 3, and especially because the following words could be addressed to him: — "Thine heart was lifted up because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: I will cast thee to the ground, I will lay thee before kings, that they may behold thee" (v. 17).

Even supposing that these things were spoken to, and of, an exalted human being in later days (in Ezek. 28), still "the king of Tyre" is not compared to a being who was

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* Ezek. 28.11-19, who is quite a different being from "the Prince of Tyre," in vv. 1-10, who is purely human.

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non-existent; and facts and circumstances which never happened are not introduced in the comparison.

There is more about "the king of Tyre" in Ezek. 28.11-19 than was literally true of "the prince of Tyre" (vv. 1-10). The words can be understood only of the mightiest and most exalted supernatural being that God ever created; and this for the purpose of showing how great would be his fall. The history must be true to make the prophecy of any weight.

Again, the word rendered "subtle" in Gen. 3.1 (see note in Companion Bible) means wise, in a good sense as well as in a bad sense. In Ezek. 28.12 we have the good sense, "Thou sealest up the sum, full of wisdom"; and the bad sense in v. 17, ''thou has corrupted thy wisdom" (referring, of course, to his fall). So the word rendered "subtle" is rendered "prudent" in Prov. 1.4; 8.12; 12.23; 14.8; and in a bad sense in Job 15.5. 1 Sam. 23.22. Ps. 83.3.

The word "beast" also in Gen. 3.1, chay, denotes a_ living being, and it is as wrong to translate zoa "beasts" in Rev. 4, as it is to translate chay "beast" in Gen. 3. Both mean living creature. Satan is thus spoken of as being "more wise than any other living creature which Jehovah Elohim had made." Even if the word "beast" be retained, it does not say that either a serpent or Satan was a "beast," but only that he was "more wise" than any other living being.

We cannot conceive Eve as holding converse with a

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* It is remarkable that the verb nachash is genenerally translated to enchant, fascinate, bewitch; or of one having and using occult knowledge. See Gen. 30.27; 44.5, 15. Lev. 19.26. Deut. 18.10. 1 Kings 20.33. 2 Kings 17.17; 21.6. 2 Chron. 33.6. So also is the noun used in Num. 23;23; 24.1.

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snake, but we can understand her being fascinated by one, apparently "an angel of light" (i.e. a glorious angel), possessing superior and supernatural knowledge. When Satan is spoken of as a 'serpent," it is the figure Hypocatastasis or Implication (an implied resemblance or representation); it no more means a snake than it does when Dan is so called in Gen. 49.17; or an animal when Nero is called a "lion" (2 Tim. 4.17), or when Herod is called a "fox" (Luke 13.32); or when Judah is called "a lion's whelp." It is the same figure when "doctrine" is called "leaven" (Matt. 16.6). It shows that something much more real and truer to truth is intended. If a Figure of speech is thus employed, it is for the purpose of expressing the truth more impressively; and is intended to be a figure of something much more real than the letter of the word.

Other Figures of speech are used in vv. 14, 15, but only for the same purpose of emphasizing the truth and the reality of what is said.

When it is said in v. 15, "thou shalt bruise His heel," it cannot mean His literal heel of flesh and blood, but suffering, more temporary in character. When it is said (v. 15), "He shall crush thy head," it means something more than a skull of bone, and brain, and hair. It means that all Satan's plans and plots, policy and purposes, will one day be finally crushed and ended, never more to mar or to hinder the purposes of God. This will be effected when Satan shall be bruised under our feet (Rom. 16.20). This, again, will not be our literal feet, but something much more real.

The bruising of Christ's heel is the most eloquent and impressive way of foretelling the most solemn events; and to point out that the effort made by Satan to evade his doom, then threatened, would become the very means of insuring its accomplishment; for it was through the death of Christ that he who had the power of death would be destroyed; and all

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ultimate humiliation; for prostration was ever the most eloquent sign of subjection. When it is said "our belly cleaveth to the ground" (Ps. 44.25), it denotes such a prolonged prostration and such a depth of submission as could never be conveyed or expressed in literal words.

So with the other prophecy, "Dust shalt thou eat." This is not true to the letter, or to fact, but it is all the more true to truth. It tells of constant, continuous disappointment, failure, and mortification; as when deceitful ways are spoken of as feeding on deceitful food, which is "sweet to a man, but afterward his mouth shall be filled with gravel" (Prov. 20.17). This does not mean literal "gravel," but something far more disagreeable. It means disappointment so great that it would gladly be exchanged for the literal "gravel." So when Christians are rebuked for "biting and devouring one another" (Gal. 5.14, 15), something more heart-breaking is meant than the literal words used in the Figure.

When "His enemies shall lick the dust" (Ps. 72.9) they will not do it on their knees with their literal tongues; but they will be so prostrated and so utterly defeated, that no words could literally depict their overthrow and subjugation.

If a serpent was afterward called a nachash, it was because it exercised fascination over other creatures, and if it became known as "wise," it was not because of its own innate positive knowledge, but of its wisdom in hiding away from all observation; and because of its association with one of the names of Satan (that old serpent) who "beguiled Eve" (2 Cor. 11.3, 14).

It is wonderful how a snake could ever be supposed to speak without the organs of speech, or that Satan should be supposed able to accomplish so great a miracle.** (See footnote on next page.) ——

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It only shows the power of tradition, which has, from the infancy of each one of us, put before our eyes and written on our minds the picture of a "snake: and an "apple": the former based on a wrong interpretation, and the latter being a pure invention, about which there is not one word said in Holy Scripture.

Never was Satan's wisdom so craftily used as when he secured universal acceptance of this traditional belief; for it has succeeded in fixing the attention of mankind on the letter and the means, and thus blinding the eyes to the solemn fact that the Fall of man had to do solely with The Word of God, and is centered in the sin of believing Satan's lie instead of Jehovah's truth.

The temptation of "the first man Adam" began with the question "Hath God said?" The temptation of "the second man, The Lord from heaven" began with the similar question "If Thou be The Son of God," when a voice of The Father had scarcely died away, which said, "This IS My beloved Son."

All turned on the truth of what Jehovah had said.

The Word of God being questioned, led Eve, in her reply, (1) to omit the word "freely" (3.2, cp. 2; 16); then (2) to add the words "neither shalt thou touch it" (3:3, cp. 2.17); and finally (3) to alter a certainty into a contingency by changing "thou SHALT SURELY die" (2.17) into "LEST ye die" (3.3).

It is not without significance that the first Ministerial words of "The Second Man" were "It is written," three times repeated; and that His last Ministerial words contained a similar threefold reference to the written Word of God (John 17.8, 14, 17).

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** Greater than that wrought by God Himself, who opened the mouth of Balaam's ass.

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The former temptation succeeded because The Word of God was three times misrepresented; the latter temptation was successfully defeated because The same Word was faithfully repeated.

The history of Gen. 3 is intended to teach us the fact that Satan's sphere of activities is in the religious sphere, and not the spheres of crime or immorality; that his battlefield is not the sins arising from human depravity, but the unbelief of the human heart. We are not to look for Satan's activities today in the newspaper press, or the police courts; but in the pulpit, and in professors' chairs. Wherever The Word of God is called in question, there we see the trail of "that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan." This is why anything against the true interests of The Word of God (as being such) finds a ready admission into the newspapers of the world, and is treated as "general literature." This is why anything in favour of its inspiration and Divine origin and its spiritual truth is rigidly excluded as being "controversial."

This is why Satan is quite content that the letter of Scripture should be accepted in Gen. 3, as he himself accepted the letter of Ps. 91:11. He himself could say "It is written" (Matt. 4:6) as long as the letter of what is "written" could be put instead of The Truth that is conveyed by it; and so long as It is misquoted or misapplied.

This is his object in perpetuating the tradition of the "snake" and the "apple," because it ministers to the acceptance of this lie, the hiding of God's Truth, the support of tradition, the jeers of the infidel, the opposition of the critics, and the stumbling of the weak in faith.

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HEBREWS, PROSELYTES, GRECIANS, GOD-FEARERS AND GREEKS (PAGANS) IN THE BOOK OF ACTS

by Dr. A.J. Roddy

The purpose of this brief paper is to identify several categories of people involved in the preaching and spread of the Gospel message during the period covered in the Book of Acts. These were Hebrews (Jewish people with an Aramaic and Hebrew orientation), proselytes to Judaism (pagans accepted into the Jewish nation and religion through circumcision, baptism, offerings, and other ritual), Hellenists or Grecians (Greek-speaking Jews), God-fearers (pagans attracted to Judaism and its synagogue for moral and ethical teachings), and Greeks (including all other members of the Roman empire). These groups will be studied as they appear in the representative passages from the narrative of Acts.

Men, Israelites brethren

In Acts 2 Peter directs his message to Jews exclusively: "Men, brethren, Israelites (2:-14, 22, 29)."