Second Part of a Three-Part Commentary on the Cross
Written by Elinor Montgomery – em*********@****co.ca
August 26-28, 2003
Revised March 19, 2006
How foolish we are that we cannot see the cross for the kingdom promise it is of God’s offer in grace of kingship with our Lord at the right hand of the Father, the Creator, the Ruler and the Power of the Universe! O that the would-be kings of this world and the Christians and all of the other religions, might know just Who He is, the Jesus Whom they are condemning again today! The religious were inside the walls of the city enjoying their Passover, while the Passover Lamb hung outside the walls, mocked, beaten and rejected, fulfilling the prophecy of the Passover. Religious blindness was in the way of their understanding. As they carried out their Passover rituals, the fulfillment was right in front of them, but they did not recognize their Messiah in their midst, as the true Passover Lamb.
Such a picture of our Christian churches today, celebrating behind their walls of religion, but far from understanding the prophetic Word of truth. Prophecy is being fulfilled right before their eyes, but their minds are too seared by religious traditions to understand. Most of Christianity wince, today, at the mention of the word ‘fundamentalism’. The name of the Savior, Jesus, is kept quiet, lest it should offend the religious strangers, who come to this land to enjoy the benefits of liberty under God’s Law. In most cases, these immigrants have never experienced liberty and the peace that comes with it, under the religious laws of their homelands.
God’s name is being put outside the walls of the nation, and now machinery has physically removed a multi-ton marble slab, displaying the Ten Commandments from an American courthouse, because of its religious connotation. Where are our believing lawyers? The Ten Commandments are not religion; they are part of the truth of the Word of God, and the foundation for our judicial system in North America. Have we failed to recognize that we, in the West, are not like Muslim or Buddhist countries?
Still, we have opened the doors to such foreigners and, in the name of religious rights, have allowed them to take away the Bible from our children in the classrooms. We have bowed to the word ‘tolerance’, applying it to all religions, while rejecting the truth of this nation, the Bible, declaring it to be an offense in the classroom. How is it, swords worn by children in the classroom in the name of religion, are not deemed an offense? Are parents willing to permit these children, raised on a religion, which preaches violence and death to others, to make our classrooms more dangerous than they already are? How is it this extremely offensive religious symbol is allowed, while a cross and Bible are not allowed? Are we willing to allow the courts to get away with this injustice?
How is it Christians are complacent about filling our schools with homosexual propaganda, while not being troubled by the removal of the truth of the Bible from our children? It would appear that the walls of Christianity kept the churches in silence as Satan did his evil thing one more time with the lies of religion. His work is complete, if he can keep the religious/state bondage alive and well in the West, in order to destroy its liberty in God. Best of all, he thrives on the Christian liberalist priesthood, which is totally in his pocket. They endorse tolerance for the eastern religions, which, in turn, are on mission to ultimately destroy Christianity and the Jews, and to wipe them from the face of the earth. Are they the fools, or are we not the real fools?
The “Saul” syndrome of her people, has allowed Satan to perpetuate the lie in America. We’ve had victory in God as King, but we now would prefer to have a man-king or ruler. Israel had liberty in God as her Leader Who took her out of captivity, as long as she remained under His ruler-ship. America, the home of the purified church, set liberty in place, when she made the Law of God and the truth of the Word the center of government and the judicial system, with God being the one and only Supreme Ruler in the land. Now, we are fulfilling the prophecy of the cross. We are doing the Pilate and the Pharisee thing. We are placing Him on the cross again outside the walls of the nation.
As a nation we mock His Kingship and His name, because of our lack of understanding. Our modern-day Peter has failed to love only Jesus and to feed and tend the flock. Like Peter, the church cowers and runs when the heat is on. It bows to the kings and ruler-ship of man, but fails to bow before the King of the Jews, the Ruler of the Universe. We mock His position as the Ruler of our lives, and Giver of life over death. Yes, it is a disastrous time for pregnant women, or a woman having given birth. Where is the milk for her child to drink? Where is the feeding her children will so badly need as the Word disappears?
There is but one solution, and it is found in the Spirit, dwelling in us, which will always lead us to Jesus and the Word, and not to the religious institutions of our times. This is the budding of the fig tree, the time when the bride comes forth in truth. This is the true Israel putting forth healing leaves for a church that has nearly been consumed by the dead bones found in the religion of Christianity. All nations are about to come under judgment, and the nation of Israel is no exception. It has been put back into place, being prophetic of the true church of believers coming forth at a time when the fullness of the gentiles has come upon us. It is a sign of the kingdom of believers getting purified in readiness for the kingdom, while Israel, both nation and the spiritual nation within the institutional churches, is left behind to face the coming judgment.
The Lord is about to do a new thing with His church, just as He did when He came to earth the first time and upset the religious apple cart of Judaism. History is about to repeat itself, as the bride upsets the religious apple cart of Christianity. She will be rejected every bit as much today, as Jesus was rejected yesterday. The religious will try to put the bride outside the walls of their institutions where they feel she belongs. There, they will attempt to nail her to the cross, along with her Beloved.
The hour of darkness came as Jesus took the sin of man to the cross with Him. If you reject His gift of life, then you will join the world that has chosen to face the coming darkness. As God vents His wrath, His judgment will fall on sinning mankind, which has refused the gift of life, offered a second time by His Son. The door is about to be closed by God, just as He closed the door on the ark of Noah. Jesus is placing His own in a seated position upon the mercy seat of the Ark of the Covenant. To refuse the last covenant move will spell disaster for the Jew, be he formerly of the nation or presently of the spiritual nation. He shall surely go down with the harlot riding the beast to the bottom of the sea.
The choice of the people for Barabbas gives us the perfect picture of man’s heart, or his depraved nature in choosing the thief of mankind when he could choose the Savior of men. Given the opportunity, he will do it every time. Did the nation not choose a robber and a murderer who led an insurrection, as opposed to the King of the Jews, Who was about to give His life so that even the thief, Barabbas might live? It was the robber and murderer, Satan, who led an insurrection in the Garden, for which Adam and Eve chose him over God. It will be the Antichrist, a robber and a murderer and a leader of an insurrection, for which we, the religious of today, will choose him over Christ. Satan’s name will be raised up again, as the name of Jesus is mocked and rejected. The religious body will gather together in unity to shout “Crucify Him!” for the second time. Satan and his empire building government will do its dirty work of displacing liberty in the world with a One World Order of liberalism in rebellion to God’s Law and to His truth.
“Worship me,” he will say as he sits in the temple, with Israel bowing before her idol, while, at the same time, the temple worship will be completely defiled by religion. It is at this point that Jesus, the true Temple (not built of hewn stones), is getting ready to return to reclaim His rightful throne of ruler-ship in Jerusalem, from where He will rule over all the nations of the world. This will be the moment of decision for spiritual Israel steeped in her religion within the institutional church.
Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus finally made the break from religion in the nick of time, to come out of the darkness that had enveloped them while being part of the body of Pharisees, which put Jesus to death. The tribulation will open the door for the Josephs and Nicodemuses to come out of the religious priesthood and into the priesthood of heaven, as they lay claim to the true body of Jesus. Unless the nation and church of Israel declare Jesus as Lord and Savior, they will lose their doorway of opportunity for salvation.
Jesus eclipsed the message of the resurrection with His famous walk to Emmaus. Notice, it took place near Jerusalem, seven miles away to be exact, pointing to a spiritual walk with His bride, seven millennia in duration from the time of creation, to her final destination of the New Jerusalem. The eyes of the institutional church have been restrained. She is the bride of Israel, who does not know her Lord until she walks with Him in the Spirit. Jesus said to the two, in similar words to these, “Why is it you discuss sadness when, in fact, it is a time of joy?” They replied with blinded eyes, seeing only the small picture of the Lord’s death, as opposed to the big picture of salvation, which had just taken place on the cross.
What was it that caused them to be slow of heart to believe? They had not understood the words of the Book of Prophecy, nor were they able to assimilate His resurrection with the prophetic Word. They had not understood how all of prophecy pointed to the victory of Jesus over the cross. They failed to understand that He would give life to the faithful and obedient, seated in the mercy of the mercy seat, over the Ark of the Covenant. The true Jew became believing Israel at the cross. This is the one who will enter into the kingdom, prepared for him from the foundation of the world.
As Jesus spoke of prophecy on the road to Emmaus, it burned into the hearts of the two, and understanding was given to them, as they were taught by the Holy Spirit that day. They asked Jesus to dwell with them and He gave them bread, but no wine, for the joy of sharing the best wine with His bride at the wedding feast was yet to come. Jesus promised this wine, not just to the apostles, but also to all who would follow Him into the kingdom, as part of His true apostolic church. The bride’s time with Jesus will be a time of feeding, a special time for gaining understanding of the prophetic Word of God. Then she must go forth as these two men did, as torch carriers of the light, which they had received from Jesus, to share with the others.
The bride will have her own walk with Jesus, as He alone opens the prophecy of the Scriptures to her, so that she can witness to the others. Her job will be to make the call with the Spirit to those who have ears to hear. She will be on the narrow road, the path of righteousness, with the prophetic Word of truth burning in her heart. This is the narrow, seven millennial way to the kingdom, a narrow path on which very few will walk. For many will choose, instead, the broad road of religion that leads to destruction.
The nation was warned to not think themselves Jews because they were born to be sons of Abraham. John the Baptist told them the truth, for he was on that narrow way. He understood the prophetic, and knew that it would be stones, the stones of the apostolic church, which, in fact, would become the true Jew, the true sons of Abraham. It would be a believing nation that would inherit the kingdom through baptism of the Holy Spirit, to produce new creations and adopted sons for God.
Again, Jesus appeared, this time to the apostles so that they too might believe, for they had to lay the foundation of the apostolic church, which would become His bride. He showed the importance of the feeding, while requiring of them that they feed the multitudes. Of course they had no understanding that it would be the bride of the church who would also be required to multiply the loaves with the opening of the prophecy sealed to Daniel. The church would fish one more time, but as fishers of men to supply the harvest for Jesus. Their voices would make them voices for the Kingfisher of men. He again said to the apostles that they were the words of the prophecy of the Bible, which He had spoken to them, while, at the same time, opening their understanding through prophecy. He was preparing them to be witnesses to these things. They were commanded to rest within the confines of Jerusalem until given power from above.
The bride is as a woman in waiting to give birth when empowered by the Spirit at the right time, the timing of the Lord, and not by that of any man-made agenda. Then, she shall come forth as a new creation in the Spirit and as the voice and messenger, who speaks for God. She will be a voice for truth and righteousness found only in the prophetic Word of God, and free of the confines of the walls of religion. She shall burst forth in truth to come out of it, pure and spotless, as the Shulamite, in readiness for her Beloved. She was called by Him to be a voice to the daughters of Jerusalem, the religious, who were waiting to hear from her. The bride, in the same way, will be the messenger to Judaism and Christianity calling the believers to come out of her lest they should go down with her, the mother of harlots, Babylon the great, mother of false religion and idols.
As we look on the cross, we are also looking at a message for the future. The title “King of the Jews” and the question, “What is truth?” resound down through the centuries. Did the King of the Jews mean only a king for the nation, Israel? Was Pilate the only gentile, who did not understand the difference between truth and religion? He asked the question, “Am I a Jew? Your own nation and chief priests have delivered You to me.” Here we have a sad picture of nation and church today. Our government and judicial system are exactly what we deserve, for they are the believing Jews, who have delivered Jesus over to the state to be crucified again, here in America.
The three key statements of Jesus before Pilate are as the keys to the kingdom, given by Jesus to His fledgling church, and now the keys to which the bride must take hold. Jesus was born to be King of a kingdom. Jesus came into the world to witness to truth as opposed to witnessing to religion. Only those who are of the truth will ever hear the voice of the Good Shepherd. The last call of the Spirit and the bride will be missed by those who choose religion over truth. The spiritual battle for ruler-ship of the world is, and always has been, between Satan with his lies of the belief systems of religion and Jesus bearing witness to the truth of the Word.
Along with the rest of the world, America is about to experience the darkness of God’s wrath that came down upon Jesus for our sins, which He took upon the cross. If we do not accept this gift of life from Him, which only He could give to us as He hung in our place on the cross, then we will take our own place before the same wrath of God as we become accountable for our own sins. The difference is that there will be no escape from the judgment this time, which Jesus and His followers will experience in the resurrected life.
It is now the time of the fullness of the gentiles, the time just before He returns for His own that marks the six millennia sum total of those who have rejected the gift of life from God. They have blasphemed the Spirit by saying, “No thank you” for the breath of life, which the Spirit of God so freely breathed into them. But, it is also the time of the bride. The separation around the cross of right from left, of the sheep from the goats, is at the very door. Will you have ears to hear the Spirit and the bride’s call? It is the last Covenant call before God closes the door on salvation. She will come as His messenger, just as John the Baptist came the first time, a voice crying in the wilderness for repentance and the purification of the changing of the waters in our lives.
Repent and be baptized in the Spirit, for unless one is born of the water and the Spirit, he/she cannot be part of the Israel, which will inherit the kingdom. It is the message that speaks of the Levitical priesthood crossing over into the apostolic priesthood under the High Priest, Jesus, in fulfillment of God’s prophetic plan. It is the message that makes the true church sister and spouse to Him and sons and priests to God, as we worship for evermore in Spirit and in truth only.