Introduction
The God Who created all things has a vast plan for you and me. Since we are only humans we cannot know the full plan of God. But The God has given us a sort of road map of a large portion of his plan for the Universe of his creating. This plan is so important to God that he even took flesh and dwelt among us to further our understanding!
The God chose to intersect our space and time limits as Jesus. But being a man, Jesus was unique even in his manhood. The astonishing thing we learn from the Bible is that there is coming a time when we who believe in who Jesus is will be like Him! [ 1 John 3:2 Beloved, we are God's children now, and what we will be has not yet appeared; but we know that when he appears we shall be like him, because we shall see him as he is. ] We will use this brackets method to point to the passages in the Bible which point to the notion just shared.
The aim of this manuscript is to address the final destination for this phase in the development of humans as God has designed in his continuing development of beings with whom he can commune, to know him and be known by him, our Creator.
In order to understand the final phase – the Rapture and the Tribulation - we must start by revealing who is Jesus, according to his word for us. [ John 10:27-30 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one.” ] Then we will move to what we are, how he has made us to exist in this phase of our development. After that, we will attempt to show three phases under the title of The Rapture, or as translated in the earliest English versions of the Bible from Greek to English as 'the Departure'.
This work is founded upon what we may learn from the Bible. The Bible is a data transfer method which God has given to us. It is supernatural in origin. We have found that it contains data streams which describe events hundreds of years before they occurred in human History. It is our intention to look at the messages found in the Bible using our recent understanding of the Universe and how it is fashioned. We will literally start with a Physics lesson taught by Jesus, found in John's Gospel.
Jesus, God With Us
The Bible gives us the name by which Jesus was to be known, before he was even entered into our limits as humans. Before he was even in Mary's womb we were given his identifying name. [ Isaiah 7:14 Therefore the Lord himself will give you a sign. Behold, the virgin shall conceive and bear a son, and shall call his name Emmanuel. ]
Let us start with how that name was shown to be true. Jesus is God with us. [ Matthew 1:23 ]
The scene we turn to is found in the fourteenth chapter of John's Gospel account. The setting is the Upper Room where Jesus shared the Passover meal with his disciples, particularly the time after Judas left to betray him to the Jewish leadership for arrest. Jesus shifts understanding of the Passover to focus upon him as the Passover sacrifice, by shifting the disciples focus from the kingdom age, which was rejected by the Jewish leaders, to him as source of a new age.
He has appeared as God with us for a purpose God has for we humans. We will see God doing something in our sensing realm as Jesus, God With Us. Before that last Passover meal, Jesus was sent only to the Jews, to offer The Kingdom for them. When the Jewish leaders rejected the offer, Jesus opened a new age of grace for all, not just the Jews. The Age of Grace is God building a Body of Believers where there is no difference between Jew and non-Jew. Think of 'Body of Believers' like we would the collected student body of a school. All in this body are members by faith alone in Christ alone.
Here is the passage from John's Gospel which we will focus upon to catch the Physics lesson:
John 14:1-12 , English Standard Version
“Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.”
Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. 7 If you had known me, you would have known my Father also. From now on you do know him and have seen him.”
Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father, and it is enough for us.”
9 Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and you still do not know me, Philip? Whoever has seen me has seen the Father. How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? 10 Do you not believe that I am in the Father and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works. 11 Believe me that I am in the Father and the Father is in me, or else believe on account of the works themselves.
The Physics lesson is in verses seven, nine, ten, and eleven. What Jesus has told them is 'The only place you can see the Father is where he is in your space and time limits. All you can know of the Father by your bodily senses is where he intersects your space and time limits as Jesus.' Jesus has in so many words told them that their limits of perception are such that the only place they can 'see' the Father is where the Father is intersecting their space and time, as Jesus, The Son of God in flesh and blood, God with us, stepped from a hyper-dimensional Universe into the four variables we now sense; length, width, height of space and present time.
God has come from a greater coordinate system than three variables of space and one variable of time. This greater coordinate system has more variables of space and time and the Bible shows us many scenes where at least one extra space variable is in play. We will look at one in particular, found in the Old Testament Book of Daniel, chapter five..
To illustrate this lesson, there is a little exercise Carl Sagan used during his COSMOS TV series. He didn't use the analogy to support the scriptures; he used the analogy to illustrate dimensional variables and how the variables effect perception.
Paraphrasing, Sagan said that if you are a two variable being, having only length and width variables of space sensing, the only place you could sense a ball, a three spatial variable thing, is where the ball intersects your two variable perception limits. Length and width are your perception limits. You can only see the length and width of the ball, not the height, so you see less than the all of the ball.The sphere shape of the ball will touch the length and width plane of your existence as a point on your plane, then as it passes through your plane it becomes a circle, expanding the circle on the plane of your reality, increasing in size until half of the ball has passed through, then the circle will begin reducing in size until it becomes a point on your plane, then vanishes.
Because The Creator is by definition greater than his creation, wherever he is in the created Universe, he will be greater in variables han the location. Where God is in the Universe he exists as more than the location.
God is Omnipresent, meaning everywhere at once because he has all the variables of location anywhere and everywhere in his creation ... except with Jesus. God chose to limit his variables at the location known as Jesus. Jesus was still God but by choice he completed the mission in the limits of flesh and blood as a man.
[ Philippians 2:5-8 Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied himself, by taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross. ]
Jesus, a man with extraordinary powers but yet a man. And he has promised us that we too will have those powers he showed with miracles, signs, and wonders. The wonders happened because the Life of God, the power of God remained in his human spirit. Once a person is saved from the penalty of sin, God's life abides in the spirit of any man or woman, boy or girl who by faith in Jesus is a member of the Body of Christ. [ John 14:12 “Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. ]
The question may arise -an incorrect question, by the way- 'since God can do anything, why would he be conceived in a womb, grow to birth age and be so vulnerable? Why not just create an adult body for himself to walk in our space and time limits?'
The answer is a huge hint at the grace and love of God. He has chosen to create beings greater than the Angels with whom he can relate, directly. The Angels are called the sons of God in Genesis, so we humans are to be greater than even that created species. Because of our limits the power of our position in spoace and time is built upon faith. Faith is believing a promise from God without seeing what marvelous phase shift is coming. God promised to us that Messiah would be of seed of David, so the human process was promised and fulfilled in Jesus.
[ The Word of God was with God in the beginning and was God and the Word was made flesh and dwelt among us. [ John 1 ]
As a human, what were the characteristics of his humanity? Well, he had a human spirit, a human soul / behavior mechanism of mind, will, and emotions, and a physical body. The difference in Him is / was the reality that his seed of Life, the God-seed of spiritual life, remained in His human spirit! [ 2 Corinthians 5:21 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. ]
A simple analogy would be an electric lamp, remaining plugged into the electrical outlet, always ready to broadcast light by the electrical power. Jesus told his disciples, “The words that I say to you I do not speak on my own authority, but the Father who dwells in me does his works.” God tells us in the Bible that we will live by the same means Jesus lived by, having God-life abiding in us the same way God-life was abiding in Jesus. He was doing miracles because there was no sin to limit the power of God-life in his human spirit. God puts that spirit life in us when we are made righteous by Jesus. When God remakes us physically we will accomplish miraculous things during a coming age where Jesus is reigning upon Earth. The miraculous we will do will be by God's power flowing through our new glorified body and soul, because there will be no sin to reduce the flow of God's energy through us to do the miracles.
What Are We As Humans
Every person descended from Adam has inherited a body, a behavior mechanism ( a soul of mind, will, and emotions ), and a spirit. In God's plan every human descended from Adam's seed has a spirit but now without God-life on it due to the fall from grace when Adam chose to disobey the simple command of 'don't eat from the Tree of the Knowledge of good and evil.' Adam chose to disobey because he did not want to risk losing his relationship with Eve. Satan did not trick Adam as he did Eve. Adam chose the world rather than to obey God. When Adam made that choice, the life upon his human spirit departed and Adam's spirit was immediately in a state of deadness, not gone out of existence just unable to do right with deadness in his spirit. The spiritual change was so astonishing that Adam felt guilty and naked. We might even say that Adam forfeited his hyper-dimensionality … he lost his glow of righteousness.
Every person descended from Adam has inherited that emptiness in the spirit. God has made a way for putting his God-life into the human spirit through faith in whom he sent for our salvation. We each must be redeemed from that state of deadness.
The spirit in each of us exists in a different space and time coordinate system than the body. When one dies and the body returns to atomic dust, the spirit still exists. It is not in the same coordinate system as the physical body. There is a physical body and a spiritual body. [ 1st Corinthians 15:44 It is sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spiritual body. ]
The question sometimes arises at this point as to why didn't Jesus come into the world with a deadness in spirit since he too is descended from Adam. Human flesh is from Adam and Jesus had human flesh. [ When using the term flesh in a Bible sense, we are referring to the physical body with a behavior mechanism called the soul. Taken together the body and soul are 'the flesh'. ] The answer we have been given is that 'the spiritual deadness is passed through every human generation via the seed of the man, and Jesus is the Promised 'seed of the woman', a woman descended from David. So far, every human being has had both a mother and a father, except with Jesus God is his father, not a man descended from Adam.
A deadness occupying the human spirit does not mean 'going out of existence'. It means some influence other than God-life is fueling the human spirit which in turn directs the human behavior mechanism ... and we sin, we all sin. We sin naturally because we are unable to do righteously because we do not have the spirit of righteousness in our human spirit … until we get born again.
But God has provided his way for putting that righteousness into our dead human spirit, and it has nothing to do with behavior changes we might make in the soul. God's righteousness is given by God as his response to an individual's faith alone in whom God provided. By faith alone in Christ alone the righteousness of Christ who knew no sin is imputed or counted to us. Saving faith is created by believing God's promises. [ Romans 4:3 For what does the Scripture say? “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousnes”; James 2:23 and the Scripture was fulfilled that says, “Abraham believed God, and it was counted to him as righteousness”—and he was called a friend of God. ]
With spiritual birth from a state of deadness is forever following that change of will. When you believe God provided Jesus for our salvation, God thereafter abides in the newly alive human spirit, never to depart, joined to our human spirit irrevocably. Why irrevocably? Well, his seed cannot sin! And we have his seed in our spirit. [ b>1 John 3:9 No one born of God makes a practice of sinning, for God's seed abides in him; and he cannot keep on sinning, because he has been born of God. ]
Once born again we possess God-life, by the work only God can do, because only God can give his righteousness to someone. It cannot be worked for, like wages. Once his righteousness is in us, because we cannot manipulate God's Life in us, we are forever in his family by his Life in our human spirit. Your father's life is in you and that cannot be changed, for your physical body. God is Spirit so his life in your spirit makes you his child and that cannot be changed by any failure or mistake you make while still in your flesh.
There is a part to each human descended from Adam which does not die when the flesh dies. Can I prove that? Not directly, but quantum Physics indicates that a data source beyond our four variable realm is influencing our four variable realm. This is the reality of hyperspace, hyper-dimensionality.
The Bible illustrates this hyper-dimensional reality with many many scenes, not the least of which is the scene of a disembodied hand, from Daniel chapter five, with what appeared to the people at palace party central, Babylon. That hand was connected to a being, an alive functioning being who was not visible to the King or his party guests. That being exists in a hyper-dimensional realm we cannot sense as we are presently fashioned. [ Daniel 5 This is a large portion of scripture and we have limited our use of same to no more than ten or twelve sentences. The story is a real doozer, so if you haven't read it it is worth finding a Bible and reading it from the Old Testament. ]
In a book written by Lisa Randall, Physicist,, the growth of certain crystals indicate the growth is being influenced by dimensional variables 'not able to be measured except by the effect on the crystal growth. [ Pages 4 and 5 of Lisa Randall’s Warped Passages ]
The Word of God through Paul tells us that to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord, for those who are alive spiritually in Christ. [ 2 Corinthians 5:8 Yes, we are of good courage, and we would rather be away from the body and at home with the Lord. ]
There is a phenomenon known as 'remote viewing' which makes a strong case for some about human beings which can access data in a hyper-dimensional reality not governed by the same Physics as our four-variable reality. It suggests that the soul of mind, emotion, and will is not completely in this four variable realm. It can sense hyper-dimensionality.
Briefly, let us go deeper on the notion of hyper-dimensionality. For illustration conside a photon. Science says the photon is both a particle and a wave. The particle exists in a coordinate system of just line, or linear space, no widrth or height ( no plane made of length and width or volume made of length, width, and height ). As this particle of light crosses the volume of the Universe it remains in the present of the moment it was emitted from a source such as a star.
That particle has another part to its nature which is hyper-dimensional to the linear coordinate in which the particle travels. The photon has something that is planar, something existing in width not just length, as wave energy. The particle is not sensing the wave energy because the particle is existing in linear or line coordinates only. The wave energy of the light particle exists in a greater coordinate system having length and width. The particle is in linear space only, but the wave energy is in a planar coordinate system, and planar has two variables of space, length and width. For a linear existing particle the wave is hyper-dimensional.
[ A little more technical explanation of hyper-dimensional follows, for any wanting more:
The particle of light energy in motion is always traveling in a line, it is in linear space. The wave function of the particle is in planar space, planar being length and width together. To the linear limits universe, planar is hyper dimensional. To planar limited space, volume space is hyperdimensional. To volume limited space coordinates, any 'next' space coordinates added are hyperdimensional. It is worth noting that each greater coordinate system has all the variables of the lesser coordinate system plus an addition not part of the lesser coordinate system]
Our body is in three variables of space coordinate system ( length, width, and height, or linear, planar, and volume ). Our spirit is in a greater variable system of linear, planar, volume and at least one extra coordinate. Our body does not sense this extra coordiante because the physical body does not have that next or extra coordiante. To the body limited by linear, planar, and volume, the extra variable where the spirit exists is hyper-dimensional.
As a child ( just turned two, summer of 1947 ) I had an experience with the tools an Army Colonel used to wash his big Green car in the parking lot at out apartment complex. He did not have a hose to deliver water from the building to his car so he used canvas buckets to carry water and have soapy water to the job. I squatted down beside one of the rinse buckets and pushed my finger against the wet side of the bucket. Water spilled out over the rim of the bucket and I heard a voice behind me say, 'Remember this, it will be important when you are older.' Well, I am much older now and I use that canvas bucket experience to illustrate the spirit with which we are born.
Our spirit is like the non-functioning canvas bucket when it is empty of fluid. It has not gone out of existence, it is just not functioning as a bucket. The Bible uses water in illustrating the Holy Spirit. Without the 'water' the spirit of a man is not functioning as intended by the creator of that bucket. But when filled with water the bucket takes its intended shape and functions as the maker intended it to be used. Illustrating spiritual aliveness, when the bucket is full of water the canvas sides ooze water out and if filled the water begins to come out all around the rim sharing water with the zone around the bucket.
The spirit part of each of us is not in the same coordinate system as the body. When the body dies and returns to the atom dust of which it was made, the spirit still exists. It is either asleep by the loss of a body for expression, or off to Heaven to be with The Lord, awaiting a return to Earth for a glorified body, a body with hyper-dimensional qualities. But how is it possible to be redeemed and be with the Lord in a hyper-dimensional body and soul? ... Let's take a look!
The Three Phases Of Salvation
The three phases are Justification, Sanctification, and Glorification, Something has been done for one who is 'born again': Justification, a past event. One 'has been' justified in order to have God's seed abiding in their human spirit forever more. I like that term 'justified' because that is the term Paul used to identify what only God can do for a sinner. God removed his spirit from upon Adam's spirit when Adam chose to rebel. Only God can restore his Life to a human spirit which is in a state of deadness. [ Romans 3:24 ; 6:3-6 ]. In this Age of God's Grace counted by faith alone in Christ alone, where Adam had the God-life upon his spirit, we who are in Christ have God-life IN our spirit.
This brings to mind why God made Adam and gave him the ability to rebel. With Adam the God-life was upon Adam but only on his canvas bucket spirit. With Adam's descendants God puts His God-life IN the human spirit of those who have trusted in the One God sent for our salvation. For those in the Body of Christ, the seed of God abides IN their born from above spirit, not upon their 'canvas bucket' spirit. [ 1 John 3:9 ]
The state of deadness is a non-functioning existence. Without the righteousness of God-life in our spirit we cannot do any righteous acts. A righteous act requires something humans do not have on their own efforts, righteousness.
To fix that state of spirit deadness, righteousness must be transferred from the source of righteousness, God, to the one who has no god-level righteousness. When God counts his righteousness to someone, they are forever after that moment in a state of present righteousness. They have the source of righteousness abiding in their come alive spirit. [ Philipians 2:13 for it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure. ]
You might say the righteousness of God has a price so high no human can meet it. The price is the blood of an innocent human. Since we are born with a sin weighed spirit, we are never innocent, never have righteousness that would allow us to come before a Holy God with a box of righteous works. We might have a full box we are dragging along but there is not one righteous deed in it because we have no righteousness to energize a work.
God has the righteousness. It is his nature to be righteous. Only God can transfer or count as ours his righteousness. God has chosen to do that transfer by putting his seed of life in anyone who will glorify who God sent for their salvation, God has made his means of counting his righteousness to our dead account as simple as believing upon the One he sent to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. By the power of his sinless blood, shed on the cross for us, individually, God's righteousness is counted for us, transferred to us, imputed to us through faith / active belief in whom he sent for our salvation!
There are religions and Christianity-look-a-likes which claim a man or woman can strive to achieve acts of righteousness, and in so doing earn the righteousness which God has proclaimed is only given by his grace not as wages. There is no exchange rate between works done by those having no righteousness, and the Grace of God in Christ for our deliverance from a dead state. His righteousness is imputed by him, not us. These look-a-like cults and religions fail to recognize that only the righteous blood of The Redeemer can cleanse the unrighteous state of deadness in the human spirit. Some religions will claim that an incantation or 'convocation' by one of their priestly class can turn a liquid into the righteous blood of The Christ.
The intercession with the blood of Christ can only be done by God, never by man. As Jesus was among us he was fully God and fully a man. His blood carried no taint of Adam's sin because He was The Seed of the woman, not a man. The scriptures tell us the life of the living creature is in the blood. [ Genesis 9:4 and several more places given in Moses, then repeated in the first great Church Council, Acts fifteen, to not eat the blood. ]
The Life in Jesus carried by his precious blood was the Life of God not of man, so no man can manipulate the life of God. To be justified is to be cleansed by God through the Holy Blood of God. Only God can justify a man or woman. And when He does that justifying, the blood is applied to the believer and the seed of God takes up abiding in the newborn spirit. That is the first phase of the redemption for a human being, and it cannot be reversed or removed, according to God's Promise. [ John10:27-30 ]. God justifies someone through His blood, canceling the penalty for sin.
The next phase of salvation requires the work of the justifioed newborn in order to grow in grace and knowledge as a new member of God's family. This phase is identified as sanctification, the present tense, as in a daily walk accessing the life abiding in the newborn spirit of the child of God. Agreeing with the still small voice within our come-alive spirit is the real action of confession when a behavior is sin. Sinful behavior is a glaring error to the righteousness abiding in the newborn spirit.
Too many born agains are lured away from this daily walk. The lusts of the flesh do not disappear just because God cleanses the spirit. The end of the flesh is a life-long sanctification process requiring the full cooperation of the newborn. What needs to be defeated is the habit of sin, the literal power of sin. [ 1 Peter 2:24 ] The sanctification process removes the power of sin in our soul, in our mind, emotions, and will. The power of sin is removed to the degree we are accepting the leadership of the righteousness God put in our human spirit. The flesh is the combined behavior mechanism called soul, made up of will, emotion and mind, directing the physical body which can sense pleasure and can will the body to unrighteous acts which defile the person.
When one is born again, born from above [ John 3:5 ], the will of the soul has turned from the sin habit, to believe Jesus is the cure for the power of habit. God responds to this repentance. That is what a change of the will and change of the mind is, repentance.
God does not erase the habit of sin. That requires the newborn spirit cooperation, toppling the statuary of sin's repetitions, the little idols our emotions erect as hallmarks of pride in self, pleasure for self. This canceling sin's power does not earn justification, for only God can justify a sin-laden spirit and cleanse the hideous ghosts of the spirit that sin imprints upon the deadness dominated spirit.
The Glorification phase is future destiny in hyper-dimensionality for all who are in Christ as Believers. Like the justification phase, this glorification is an event which a person cannot make to happen, cannot do it for their self. The glorified person is promised the ability to do as Jesus did after his resurrection, for instance appearing in a locked and shuttered room without using a door or window, just appearing in the midst of the disciples. [ Luke 24”36 & 39 ; John 20:18 ]
In his resurrected body, Jesus came from and went to a space and time coordinate systems different from what we can now sense. We are fashioned with limits, for our protection, where faith is the substance and evidence of things not seen. Our spirit and or behavior mechanism are not in the same space and time limits of the physical body, so they are unseen but real.
Recall the reference to the Daniel chapter five scene, where a real being was in a completely unsensed coordinate system no further away than the length of a hand. This hyper-dimensional being reached 'down' one variable or 'over to' the coordinate system of the party people, to write a judgment upon the wall for the king to see. [ The way the scriptures portray it the king peed on himself and his knees knocked together in fear. ]
The righteous born agains will be glorified by God, not by any effort they might try. Just as a man or woman cannot justify their self, they cannot glorify their self. These are the work of God. These happen for us in a realm currently unseen unheard unfelt where the spirit is real, where there is a spirit body.
When my Pastor teaches on the three tenses of salvation he uses the three “Ps”: penalty, power, and presence. When God justifies a man, woman, boy or girl God has erased the penalty for sin. The sanctification process, in which the newborn participates is a present tense activity working on the behavior patterns, to bring the individual behavior to fit the character of God. This is being saved from the power of sin, the power of temptations. The final tense of salvation is the glorification of the actual physical body, soul, and spirit by removing the children of God with the righteousness of Christ in their spirits away from the realm where sin is acted out / where sin takes place. All the Believers since the Day of Pentecost preaching by Peter will be saved from the presence of sin crashing upon this four variables coordinate system in a man, a man of sin working all signs and lying wonders under the power of satan. [ 2 Thessalonians 2:1-10 ].
As this is being written, saved from the presence of sin is yet a future event which we will address next. But before we move on, it might help to address again salvation from the penalty of sin.
Each descendant from Adam is born with a sin nature, caused by the absence of Life, the absence of righteousness in the spirit. The behavior of the natural person will always be in rebellion to the character of God. A new born baby human has a featureless 'canvas bucket' spirit. On the day that such a human understands right and wrong and chooses to act on the wrong to please the self, that canvas bucket spirit begins accumulating sin. The penalty for sin is separation from the Presence of God, said in the scriptures as 'the penalty for sin is death'.
Since every one of us is born with a state of deadness in the spirit, to what death is this proclamation referring? Well, the future final penalty of sin is eternal separation from God and all goodness. That is the final destiny for all unrighteousness and unbelief in The Promises of God. Jesus referred to this in his statement, found in Luke 13:27 . Without righteousness there is no degree of greater dimensional life in a person, so the body dies. Later, the spirit must stand before the Great White throne of judgment and be exposed as naked, lacking any righteousness, so there is no 'being / no existing in the presence of the source of all life'.
The Creator made the Universe sort of like an onion or series of increasing in size globes, with layers of space and time coordinate systems. The simplest coordinate system at the start with fewest variables, growing to more variables. The simplest is a point, such as the point of photon, then added is the coordinate of length or linear in which photons exist, then length and width, planar, and so on. There are extra space coordinates, extra space variables beyond length, width, and height. The point of light also remains on a linear pathway, as if it does not recognize the other variables of space such as volume. The point of energy stays on a line coordinate system, but because it is also a wave of energy the pooint of light has an other coordiunate system in which it is exists. Scientists say it is both a particle and a wave of energy. The particle of light in the line coordinate is not 'in' the width as a particle. I have a soul and spirit but these parts of me are in a different coordinate system than my physical body. These parts of me have more variability than my physical body.
We exist physically in a coordinate system where temptations abound and sin abounds, Death in the spirit and body is the rule due to whom it is who now holds title deed to this coordinate system ... or held title deed until Jesus went to the cross to redeem all from the foolish mistake Adam made.
When God created this coordinate system for man's first physical living, mankind was to hold the title deed and tend it all by the spiritual power of God-life upon man's spirit. With Adam's rebellion the ability to be the title holder was removed from man's spirit. This allowed another spiritual power to take over the title deed. Satan became the ruler of coordinate system Earth and his spirit of rebellion and defiance has soiled the entire realm. But God reveals in the Revelation of John the taking back of the title deed. [ Revelations chapters four and five ] The presence of sin is the source of the over-spread state of physical deadness, due to the power of sin in this coordinate system. All living things die because the spiritual power running the place is deadness. All of creation growns under this horrible state of deadness, under a title deed holder who wants no blessing of God to be active.
Yet there are cracks and holes in the working of this evil title holder. The beauty we humans sense in the ongoing life is one of those huge holes. We humans recognize beautiful things, like flowers and puppies, and kittens, and children ... and satan hates that. God did not make this physical Earth coordinate system to be a place of death. By Adam's rebellion and the removal of God-life like a drape or shawl upon (not in) Adam's spirit, all of Adam's descendants exist in an 'other' spiritual presence that has taken hold of the title deed and is fashioning his character upon man and the entire coordinate system. Satan\s character is to lie and murder.
The Word of God shows us that when King Jesus returns to the Earth at the end of the seven years of tribulation to rescue Israel, he will establish a millennial ( one thousand years ) reign during which the proper functioning of the coordinate realm will happen, where war, pestilence, and starvation will be abolished. [Revelation 20: 1-3 Isaiah 11:7; 65:21-25 ]
[ Assurance of Salvation is a most precious gift from God: Col_1:27 For God wanted them to know that the riches and glory of Christ are for you Gentiles, too. And this is the secret: Christ lives in you. This gives you assurance of sharing His glory. ]
If you or I will not believe only God can justify our dead spirit and soul, substituting instead chosen notions which tweak the pride of self, as if you or I can do works of righteousness without righteousness in us, we will die in our sins and go to Hell, eventually. GOD does not want that but he is the only one who justifies those he has determined he will justify. His justification is based in something that glorifies Jesus, not you or me.
God does not recognize our works in the Justification step of Salvation. He does expect our participation in the Sanctification process of Salvation. The amazing preciousness of God justifying our dead spirit is that there is no failure in the sanctification phase that will erase or remove or nullify what GOD did in the Justifying phase to make us members in his family. There is coming a moment when God does something like the justification phase, a moment when only God can do the work.
Three Phases Of The Departure
In the first letter from Paul to the believers in Thessaloniki Paul described the removal of the dead and the living from Earth to meet the Lord in the air. He used the Greek word 'harpazo' to describe the removal as a snatching away event.
An early Church father, Jerome, made a translation of the Greek New Testament into Latin. When he came to 1st Thessalonians four and verse thirteen through seventeen he translated the Greek 'harpazo' into the Latin with a word from which we get out English word 'rapture'.
To get a deeper understanding of the meaning of this Rapture event, it is necessary to convince ourselves that hyper-dimensionality exists, because what the Bible relates to us on this Rapture is hyper-dimensionality at work.
There are for scripture passages which relate the departure event. The first is from Jesus in John's gospel, Jesus taught his disciples that glorification will happen for those whom he has been adding to his Body of Believers. The second is the description Paul gives in 1st Thessalonians, chapter four. A third passage is 1st Corinthians, chapter fifteen and verses fifty through fifty-eight. The fourth passage is found in 2nd Thessaloniansm chapter two and verse three. We will begin with the passage in 1st Thessalonians.
[ 1st Thess 4:13 But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. 14 For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. 15 For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. 16 For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. 18 Therefore encourage one another with these words. ]
The relating to hyper-dimensionality is right there! Jesus is coming from the Third Heaven Throne Room, where Stephen saw Him when Stephen was on trial before the Sanhedrin. [Acts 6 & 7 ] The Sanhedrin members could not see what God was allowing Stephen to see, seeing into hyper-dimensional reality. Jesus is not coming in our four variable coordinate system when he comes to gather his Body of Believers. He is descending from one level of Heaven to the air around this planet, what the ancient Rabbis identified as the first Heaven. Why is this hyper-dimensional reality notion useful for deeper understanding of God's Word? Here's why it is important in our day, the days just before this event related by Paul to the believers in Thessaloniki:
Most Christians believe there is a 'rapturing' departure of the church to take place. [ 'The church' refers to the entire membership in the body of believers growing in number since Peter preached on the Day of Pentecost, ten days after Jesus ascended to the Father.
] Growing in grace and knowledge Christians believe the scriptures are absolutely true. But among Christians the time when this departure with Jesus to the Father's House will happen is debated, hotly. Debate can stop if the reality of the events are understood as they relate to hyper-dimensionality, because the Rapture event does not happen in our coordinate system.
The departure happens in that greater dimensional reality where Jesus is now. The reality where Jesus hyper-dimensional to our four variable Earth scene. The coordinate system to which our spirits are attached is where Jesus is. Death disconnects our spirit from the four variable coordinate system, the system where the body returns to the atomic dust. One of the most heated topics regarding the Rapture event is whether it is the second coming of Jesus or not. The simplest answer requires a belief in hyper-dimensionality because the event is not a four variable event (length, width, height, and time).
The spirits of the dead who are members of the body of Christ are with Jesus in hyper-dimensional third heaven. They will be brought by God with Jesus when he returns in the hyper-dimensional realm to gather all his body of believers, both the dead and the living. He will gather them all in new glorified bodies with hyper-dimensional variables incor[ported in the creation of their real physical bodies and souls.
When Jesus came the first time he came to dwell among us in our limits, our four variable coordinate system. When he returns to rescue Israel, end the Tribulation, and establish his millennial Kingdom it will again be in this four variable coordinate system, not in the hyper-dimensional realm.
Jesus has visited this world via the hyper-dimensional realm on many occasions in his glorified body. These happenings are recorded in the Old Testament and labeled by today's scholars as Christophanies. Jesus also visited Saul on the road to Damascus via the hyper-dimensional coordinate system affecting Saul's limits of perception. Saul saw the Lord but the men with Saul were not given that ability. [ Acts 9:1-9 ]
The Rapture departure is an hyper-dimensional event, whereas the Return of The Christ / Christ's Second Coming is an event to happen within the four variable realm we now sense. Why can we make this claim? Because all the world will see his Second Coming, but the Rapture gathering happens in a coordinate system we cannot now sense with our four variable limits. Only those given the gift to see him in his glorified state saw him after his resurrection, like the men of Galilee who watched his ascension. [ Acts 1:11 ]
After the resurrection, in his glorified body Jesus appeared to groups and Paul says even a group of more than five hundred. [ 1st Corinthians 15:6 ] When Jesus ascended into Heaven, he was visible only to those who believed in him, and all of those present were Jews, not gentiles. When he comes to end the Tribulation, defeat the antichrist, and set up his kingdom, the world will be seeing him as he descends into our coordinate system. I say our coordinates because he will be descending into the zone of sin, visible to those who have refused to believe in him. But there will be a remnant of Israel who are believers at his appearing, out from hyperspace into our space. And we who have been in the Third Heaven with him will be appearing with him.
The Church Age had not been started yet when Jesus ascended. As he told his disciples, 'the comforter' will come when Jesus sends him and it was necessary that Jesus go to the Father so the Holy Spirit Comforter could be sent [ John 16:7 ] That beginning of the Church of Jesus was to happen ten days after the ascension, on the Day of Pentecost when Peter preached to the Israelites gathered in Jerusalem for the feast. Three thousand were added to the believers, the new Body of Christ Believers Church. This is not an organizational denomination. It is the real spiritual church Jesus spoke of when Peter under Holy Spirit direction stated Whom Jesus is:
[ Matthew 16: 13 Now when Jesus came into the district of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, “Who do people say that the Son of Man is?” And they said, “Some say John the Baptist, others say Elijah, and others Jeremiah or one of the prophets.” He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?” Simon Peter replied, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.” And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock (profession) I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. ]
It is a good guess that many if not most of those who witnessed His ascension were among the three thousand born again on the Day of Pentecost.
Let us take a closer look at the scene revealed in 1st Thessalonians four.
The first phase of the gathering is The Lord descending in hyperspace with a loud command. This command is a creative work by the One Who is creator of all. When God spoke, worlds leaped into existence. Jesus called Lazarus from the grave by His spoken word.. He shall suddenly create in hyperspace glorified bodies for those who have died in Christ. The dead in Christ spirits are individually brought with him as he descends from the Third Heaven. The author of creation speaks things into existence. [ Isaiah 55:11 2 Corinthians 4:18 ]
I imagoine that moment of the command to be somewhat like millions of spirits instantly sent to the site on Earth where their spirits got separated from their bodies, to the spot where they died. But these spirits are not in the four dimensional limits. They are in hyperspace, so they do not go down into the Earth, they are just united with a new creation body and soul at the region where they were separated from their natural body. Then they begin to rise up toward the clouds. Paul relates that Jesus gave him a vision of the next phase shift, the transforming of the alive members of the Body of Christ away from the four dimensional realm, into the hyper-dimensional realm, into glorified bodies that then rise up to join the resurrected members of the Body of Christ, to meet the Lord in the air (the third phase of The Departure), then return to the Father's house. The alive in Christ are changed in the twinkling of an eye [ 1st Corinthians fifteen fifty through fifty-eight. ]
Right here might be a good place to introduce the Biblical doctrine of immanency, the truth that Jesus could come to gather his body of believers at any moment. There is no sign which must happen before he would appear to gather those in Christ, at any moment, even before I finish this sentence. ... But he didn't, so we will continue. But he could come now ... but, well, he has not, so we will continue to explain this doctrine.
In the passage we are exploring Paul uses the pronoun “we”, showing us clearly that even he expected that the Lord could come to gather the Believers in Paul's lifetime: 15 For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep.
The concept of how imminence is important is illustrated by my Pastor, Dr Andy Woods, with his relationship to his parents who would tell him when he was a young teen that they were leaving Friday and would be back on Sunday evening. Under such timing he and his younger brother would not be good stewards of the household, perhaps allowing pizza boxes to pile up around the house, the kitchen sink to fill up with food drying dishes, and clothes dropped where they were removed, and the laundry they were told to wash, dry, and fold would languish. When Sunday rolled around they would panic a little and run around trying to get the house in order. ... But, if the parents said they were leaving on Friday and could return any time during the weekend, the treatment of the household went very differently since the return could happen any moment. I was once a teenage boy and can relate to that explanation! Only I was not given the warning that Mom could come back any day. The embarrassment was huge!
The Lord's return for his Body of Christ Believers can happen at any moment. Christians are instructed to expect his return, not the revealing of the antichrist man of sin who comes with all signs and lying wonders from satan. That wicked one cannot be revealed until the Restrainer is removed.
[ 2nd Thessalonians 2: 5 Do you not remember that when I was still with you I told you these things? 6 And you know what is restraining him now so that he may be revealed in his time. 7 For the mystery of lawlessness is already at work. Only he who now restrains it will do so until he is out of the way ]
We believe the Restrainer is the Holy Spirit. He is in the spirit of every living Christian, and of course in the born again spirits of those who have died in Christ. There are many reasons to see the Restrainer as the Holy Spirit because of the supernatural hyper-dimensional reality of the restraining. The Holy Spirit is restraining the great deceiver while He is building the Body of Believers. All of satan's false signs and wonders are restrained. But that is grist for another mill, to be addressed in the accompanying essays.
In 1st Thessalonians 1:9&10 Paul almost as an aside focuses his readers on the sure return for them. [ “For they themselves shew of us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned to God from idols to serve the living and true God; and to wait for his Son from heaven,” ]
James the half brother of Jesus points to the imminent return in James 5:8 : Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh. Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians presumes imminent return; [ 1st Corinthians 1: 7 … so that ye come behind in no gift; waiting for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ ...]
There are many passages in the Epistles, the New Testament letters, which urge the anticipation of the Lord's imminent return to gather his own to himself and return to the Father's House. According to his Promise in John 14 he has been preparing a place for us in the hyper-dimensional realm, heaven. The focus Jesus wanted was upon anticipating our blessed hope, his return for us, to remove us from -as Paul put it in 1st Thessalonians 1:10- the wrath to come. [ Titus 2:13 looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ; ]
So we who are alive at His coming in hyper-dimensional coordinates will be changed. [ 1st Corinthians 15: 51 Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, 52 n a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. 53 For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. 54 So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality. ]
That is the Christian's blessed hope: our Lord and Savior will at any moment gather us into hyper-dimensionality to himself, out of the this four variable coordinate system, instantaneously into the hyper-dimensional coordinate system, into glorified bodies, and return via hyper-dimensional reality to The Father's House and the Throne Room. Even as the Body of Christ Believers Church was so new, the believers were urged to expect his coming for them collectively at any moment.
A friend and fellow Christian was confused by the reference to spirits of those who have died in Christ and the phrase 'rise first'. His understanding was that rise referred to these dead in Christ coming up out of the grave, so they could not have been with Christ in Heaven before the gathering to himself.
That mistaken thought is swept away by the context of the passage. The focus is upon rising up into the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. Returning spirits are sent into newly created, glorified bodies around the world at the locations where they were separated from the natural body. Returning spirits will be receiving new glorified bodies with hyper-dimensional abilities which are not in the Earth but already in the air, in hyperspace, and rising to meet the Lord. We who are alive and transformed in the twinkling of an eye ( 1st Cor 15:51-58 ) join them in the clouds, rising up to meet the Lord in the air.
The 'away from here to there' change is instantaneous. The rising up is not necessarily in an instant because we who are alive have to catch up, join those already rising up. The rising up is not visible as bodies rising up in this four variable coordinate system, for those who have not been changed into hyper-dimensional beings. Those not being gathered from our coordinates now, into the hyper-dimensional coordinates might see the phenomenon as a heavy mist rising from the surface of the earth, or as shimmer of light passing through a heat wave distorting the light. The alive in Christ will suddenly disappear from 'here' to the greater dimesnional Universe 'there', where the being in Daniel chapter five is.
This brings us to a very controversial passage in 2nd Thess chapter two, which can lend understanding if we refer to the original Greek words used to form a compound word, 'apostasia'.
In the Greek, verse three of 2nd Thess 2 contains a word made from the preposition 'apo' and the verb 'stasis'. These two words are sourced in the Greek 'apos' and 'histemi'. The meaning of apos is 'away from'. The meaning of histemi is 'to stand'. Together with the definite article 'the' these two words form the term 'The Apostasia' or basically 'the away from stand'. Isn't that what an instantaneous transformation from a four variable coordinate system to being in a greater coordinate system is all about?
The being to whom the hand was attached in the Daniel chapter five scene was 'away from' the four variable party room, 'standing' in hyperspace. He was invisible to the partiers in palace party central, Babylon.
In the 1st Thessalonians 4:13-17 Paul describes the event with the Greek word 'harpazo', meaning snatched or whisked from in a moment. The same word is used to describe many events in the Old and New Testaments, in the Septuagint.
The Hebrew to Greek Septuagint was a translation of the Old Testament because there was not yet a New Testament. Described in the Old Testament, Elijah was snatched from the four variable realm / harpazoed' several times when dealing with King Ahab. In New Testament. Philip was 'harpazoed' after baptizing the Etheopian new Christian. In the Revelation the two Old Testament style witnesses who are killed in Jerusalem by the antichrist, are 'harpazoed' after God raises them from the dead. There are other examples such as Jesus coming from hyperspace to our four dimensional variables then leaving again back to the hyperspace from whence he came.
Two different words are used by Paul when referring to the event of The Rapture. Could it be that he referred as a summary the event described in 1st Thessalonians 4 giving an over-view of the phases of the event? Then when referring the believers in Thessaloniki to his previous teaching he uses a different word, 'apostasia', to focus their attention to the departure from our current spacetime realm to the hyper-dimensional realm. The entire Body of Christ -both the dead in Christ and the still alive in Christ- are drawn up into the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, in a greeater reality zone, to escape the revealing and evil of the antichrist who rages during the Tribulation seven years.
A careful reading of 2nd Thessalonians appears to indicate just that; that he was referring their memories to one of the phases which he had previously taught in more detail as best he could describe it with the understanding of his times. In Paul's day what we are calling hyperspace was known to them as the first Heaven or second heaven. In the context of current Physics we understand this first or second Heaven as greater dimensional variables realm not sensed by we four dimensional variable creatures.
We want to show how Paul used harpazo and apostasia accurately. First he described the step-wise snatching away Rapture event as a summary of phases, with 'harpazo'. Then he describes more specifically the departure from this four variable realm to the greater dimensional realm with 'The Apostasia / Departure', before being drawn up into the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. The sudden transformation of the living is to protect us from the evil which will be released in this four variable realm when the Restrainer is removed.
John supports this notion, indirectly, when he wrote in the first letter, 1 John 3:2, that when we see Jesus we will see him in his hyper-dimensional glorified state. At that moment we are like him in hyper-dimensional glorified body and soul. When The Christ appears in the air we have been changed into hyper-dimensional bodies and whisked up, seeing / sensing him as he is in his hyper-dimensional body.
Can we understand the Rapture to happen in three phases? First the loud shout of command from the creator Lord, uniting the returning-with-him spirits to newly created hyper-dimensional bodies. Next the transformational departure of the alive and remaining members of the Body of Christ snatched from this dimensional realm, Is it 'the dead in Christ' first united to hyper-dimensional bodies, then The Apostasia for the still alive at his coming, then the final phase of gathering all of us together to him by the trumpet of God, and returning to the Third Heaven?
Is this how we in his spiritual church go with Christ to the Father's House described in John fourteen in the Upper Room Discourse? The Throne Room is not in our body's coordinate system. Our spirit already exists in hyper-dimensional reality. But we will be given flesh and bone bodies to also exist in that realm. When Paul and John were taken to the third heaven, they were in spirit body only.
If that is an accurate, more detailed look at the Rapture, then that event is not The Second Coming to Earth as shown at the end of the Revelation. The Rapture event takes place in a higher dimensional realm where Jesus comes from the Third Heaven to the First Heaven and removes his Body of Believers into Heaven. According to Paul, that snatching up happens before the Restrainer is taken out of the way for the revealing of the antichrist, so the stronger the signs that the antichrist evil rule is being arranged, closer then is the removal of all of the Body of Christ.
When you see the Christmas decorations dis[layed in early November, you know Christmas is approaching ... but Thanksgiving Day is even closer.
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