Voice of the Kingfisher speaks out …from a different perspective
By Elinor Montgomery
The Big Picture is a Spiritual Picture
June 23, 2008
The Bible can be viewed as a big spiritual prophetic picture. And in all your getting, get understanding (Proverbs 4:7). The best minds of this world do not generally pass on understanding to men. Would Albert Einstein not be considered one of them? Where did his Theory of Relativity lead, if not to the development of the atomic bomb, which provided the most direct route to destruction that this world has ever known? Did man gain understanding from his theory or did he merely gain knowledge about how to apply it?
On the contrary, the Bible is the Word of God, more simply known as ‘The Word’. No one needs to be a super-bright Einstein in order to gain a high degree of understanding from God’s Word. It is set before us and self-validated by prophecy, giving us a pattern for our lives and for the nation, with a message leading us out of death and into salvation. This is understanding leading to life, as opposed to knowledge, which leads in the other direction.
The mind is like a funnel, with Satan having access to it on one side, and God on the other. Whatever is funneled through it will come out as action on the other side. You and I must choose which one we will allow to feed messages into our minds and into those of our children, with results, which can be either devastating or a blessing for them and for us.
It was by ‘The Word’ of God’s mouth that the world was created, and Jesus was declared by John, the apostle, guided by the Holy Spirit, to be the Word made flesh. He is the Lord of lords and King of kings. Proverbs 8 declares Him to have stood by God at Creation as His Master Craftsman. Is He not the Designer and Builder of the tabernacle, and is the tabernacle not found in heaven as the heavens are opened in the book of Revelation to this same John?
The Bible is man’s manual for life, leading along the way to the ultimate destination of the tabernacle of heaven. There is no other way for man to be reunited with God. He was separated from Him by sin, almost as soon as he was created, He created him; male and female He created them (Genesis 1:27). God stood in ruler-ship over His world and over man to whom He gave free will to make the choice between passionately loving Him and hating Him; God has no tolerance for luke-warmness or anything in between.
He is the God of truth and love, but His world, which was created in the beginning, had become the domain of the fallen angel, Lucifer, who had been cast out of heaven, along with a third of the angels who fell with him. He was of the highest spiritual creation, created to worship God, but his worship had turned inward toward self; he wanted to be like God and be worshiped like Him rather than worship Him.
Pride was the name of the problem, which turned him into the devil or Satan. He and his demon spirits ruled over the world at the time of Creation. In judgment, they were driven to the depths of the deep, just as wicked men were judged in Noah’s day. Hence, they were covered over but not destroyed or burned into an ash as dust that can do nothing. God was going to allow him to self-destruct because God creates and gives life, while Satan takes away and destroys it.
Satan became the author of his own destruction. If God is the God of truth and life, Satan is the god of the lie and death. He creates belief systems based on the lies that oppose truth. His number one message is that God does not mean what He says about life and death. He muddles man’s thinking processes by turning things around, declaring God to be the creator of myths and himself to be the truth, combating truth with a tightly-controlled religious belief system. He is, in fact, the author of confusion, using religion as his tool. His aim is to take down with him as much of the population of the world as possible.
At Creation, God separated the sea waters from the dry land in order to protect His beloved creation from the evil one having access to the minds of men. The dust of the earth became pure and the water from above watered it so that the herbs of the field and the trees could grow from pure water. Man was at liberty to function freely within limits such as those given to a growing child. There was one forbidden tree, the fruit of which he could not eat, for it would lead him onto the broad road to death and separation from God forever.
Now it was not as if man had so few options that the command made him feel restricted. God allowed him to eat from any other tree but the one. This causes the focus of the will to light on and desire that which is forbidden, even though there are so many good options. Do we not experience this same desire, when tempting food and drinks are put in front of us? Suddenly, the forbidden becomes an obsession, which Satan will not allow us to ignore, once we open our minds to it.
The option from the beginning was between truth and religion. Satan wanted man to worship anything but God. God said that His creation would worship only Him and it would be in truth and obedience that he would retain life. Unaccepting of the truth of God, while accepting the lies of Satan, man moved directly into the camp of rebellion, choosing to reject God’s gift of life for the open arms of religion. He would now feel the pain of the sword and the control it wields over him with the iron rod of liberalism. Satan became the ruler over man and God relinquished him to his heart’s desire. As easily as that, Satan lured man into deception and the captivity of death.
But God was not done with man, for He had created him with an eye to relationship with Him, as one might experience in the love bed of a marriage. Fallen man would definitely require a redeemer if this were to happen. His bride must come out of this religious mayhem, loving only Him and having a passion for the truth. This would be a bride destined for eternity as part of the ruling family of God over the entire universe. This would require the purity and holiness of Jesus, which only He could impart to her. At this point the woman will be able to bring forth the good fruit of the marriage bed, which God had been seeking, first, with Adam and Eve and secondly, from an obedient nation, Israel.
He established a way back to Himself, the minute man sinned. Man was cast out of the Garden for embracing religion in rebellion to the word of God and then the east side was closed to the way back to the tree of life. It was guarded by the same cherubim, which rested over the mercy seat of the ark of the covenant. From that moment on, a Way would run from the Garden to the kingdom, which would become a direct route back to the tree of life (Jesus), forbidding entry to the religious likes of Satan or anyone worshiping him.
The Bible describes the process of the Way for man to be returned to God, putting the pattern in place with the nation, Israel. It would require His Son to become the Redeemer by paying the price to the Judge, His Father, for the criminal act of man in his sin of rebellion. God would give the bride of the redeemed as a gift to His Son Who came in the flesh to save her, whom He loved. By His death, He would take her place, giving His blood in place of hers, which was required by a Holy God. Both the Redeemer and His bride would have to overcome the lures of Satan, in the wilderness experience of this world – the same test, which Adam and Eve failed.
The world has become a seven-millennium battleground in which the Israel of God will struggle with man and with God, with religion and with truth. Satan’s governments are the empires of this world ruled by man and his sword. God’s government is one in which He alone rules in truth with Israel, first, followed by America, becoming the nations blessed by Him. In turn, they would be required to be the light of His liberty and superior plan for peace, which only His government can give. America, in becoming one with her Lady Liberty, was the envy of the entire world.
God will allow the religious empires of Satan to fill the world in order to bring forth a separated, overcoming people who will find the narrow path and choose to walk the way with Jesus, reflecting His light to the world. He came to establish and guide our way, which led to His ministry being called the Way. Religion will buffet it from all sides, until the last hour, when the true church crosses over dryshod (see the prophecy of Isaiah 11:15-16). She will pass through a divided sea of dead water on her way to the kingdom, leaving the world full of religious spirits behind her.
At that point Satan will have his empire and his One World Order of religion, being the last of the seven great empires and the feet of the Babylonian system of religious satanic rule. But, this is not the end, for Jesus is going to return in judgment, shaking the dust of its burning from His feet. He is going to come with His own to rule and reign for a thousand years of peace, with proper teaching and with a perfect judicial system in a reign of righteousness, as sin is eradicated.
After the thousand year reign, the old will be destroyed and there will be a new heaven and a new earth, with the New Jerusalem descending as the bride, which He had always wanted from Israel. The house of spiritual Israel shall live on forever and ever, and Satan will be sent to the lake of fire for eternal burning.
Choose now, my friends, for the hour is at hand. Pick up your Bibles and come to know the truth, the light of which will destroy all religion. The Bible is the Way to life.
It is all about the marriage bed of love in which there is only room for the Bridegroom and the bride, male and female, without a third party. Jesus is that Bridegroom of love Who wants a loyal, true and spotless bride who has no time for the harlotry of religion. She has only eyes for the truth made flesh, the way and the life, for she loves life, the gift of her Father, and she loves her Father for having given to her the gift of His Son, Jesus Christ.
She hates the religion of Satan with a passion, for she knows it is intent on destroying her marriage bed and her life. Because of this, she has spiritual eyes to see and understand, but the lovers of religion are blinded to spiritual understanding. One needs to remember the condition in which Saul was taken from the world in religious blindness and transformed into Paul, the apostle, who spent the rest of his lifetime fighting religion to establish the truth in men’s lives. He desired only to light the way to salvation so as many as would hear could be saved.
Of such is your Bible, the incredible gift of God to man as His trustworthy, spiritual guide to truth, love and a life spent in an eternity in His presence. No book of philosophy or of religion can give you this incredible offer.