Hebraic Perspectives and the Gospel, part 81. Michael Heiser has brought up the Divine Council, which I am not too sure of his description exactly…being a parallel set of events in heaven developing in tandem with…world events on earth. In his Unseen Realm, a groundbreaking literary work. Instead the Lord’s Prayer, “on earth as it is in heaven” seems to imply a more ideal world and dimension…up there so to speak. Meaning that there are things we just don’t know about. Besides being…this world here is our focus, simply since…we are here and not there, at least yet. But what it brought to mind was…the pentecostal bastion of conceptualization, in Mat 11. 12 And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force. Koine: From yet the days of John, the dip-ist, the kingdom of the heavens (feminine, basilea ton ouranon) is being forced, and forceful ones snatch (harpazo) her (it). Secular Christians will tend to misrepresent this verse, and it is radical by any consideration. THE VIOLENT has to be in the positive sense, so then what could this mean, in a POSITIVE sense? And…why do pentecostals recite it so much? A leader in the unitarian pentecostal faith recently asked me, if tongues were not the “evidence of the pentecostal baptism, then what is?” And in the upper room, tongues SEEMED to be the one thing which stood out supernaturally. But…was this actually MEANT to be incorporated as…THE EVIDENCE of the Spirit Baptism? Paul asks, “Do all speak in tongues?” Rhetorically, but in reality…to believers. Do…all BELIEVERS speak in tongues?” No. Simply, no. Then..so…HOW CAN the the the EVIDENCE of Spirit then be…TONGUES ITSELF? Do ALL believers speak in…ANOINTED TONGUES? No. Simply no. He also said he was thankful he spoke “more than anyone.” Then he gives…the limitations of tongue-speaking. Unless interpreted, of limited productivity. Biblically speaking then, what WAS the main thing about the pentecostal event in the Upper Room, which made men…different? Even its own spokesman, Peter…who was formerly the BETRAYER of his Lord, three times? And the key here is the connection Brad Young makes, in his own authorship: Jesus the Jewish Theologian. Page 62: John the Baptist was depicted as…a culminator of Elijah’s own mission, described in Malachi 4:4-5. Remember the law of my servant, Moses, the statutes and ordinances that I commanded him at Horeb for all Israel. Behold, I will send you Elijah the Prophet before the great and terrible Day of the LORD comes. And he will turn the hearts of fathers to their children, and the hearts of children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the land with a curse. This Young parallels with Micah 2: 12 I will surely assemble, O Jacob, all of thee; I will surely gather the remnant of Israel; I will put them together as the sheep of Bozrah, as the flock in the midst of their fold: they shall make great noise by reason of the multitude of men.
13 The breaker is come up before them: they have broken up, and have passed through the gate, and are gone out by it: and their king shall pass before them, and the Lord on the head of them.
Young then goes ahead and explains what this passage means:
As in Malachi 3:1 two important characters emerge from the reading of Micah 2:13:
“The breaker (harporetz) who opens the breach rises up before them: they will break through (partzu), and pass the gate, going out by it. Their king (malkam) will pass on before them, the LORD at the head of them.”
Jesus the Jewish Theologian, p. 63, Brad Young.
The imagery here is unmistakable, that is…for shepherds. When they open the gate of the sheepfold in the morning…EACH DAY, the same thing happens again and again. The sheep break out, knocking over even parts of the GATE ITSELF in their “baahing” and…exuberance.
This serves to speak of the character of the rushing anointing…in the Upper Room.
What was that boldness, that exuberance of…Spirit? The BOLDNESS of Peter himself, who was previously not a spokesman…at all? To me, that was…the EVIDENCE of Spirit, said by the Text itself, amen. This is the Circumcision of Heart, the Shema IMPETUS called “charity” in the KJV by Paul in Corinthians 13. See how the King James made the EVIDENCE of the Holy Spirit…something mundane and NOT supernatural? CHARITY, really? No…it was the highest and greatest GIFT of Spirit, that love which has no bounds or limitation. The righteousness which then EXCEEDED that…of the Pharisees. Deut 30:
6 And the Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest live.
Was this not the most UNDOABLE law of laws, but that Law of laws which “all other law and the prophets hang (upon)?” Mt 22? And, by and through SPIRIT now DOABLE to the extent God requires? Why did God say to REPEAT it, the Shema, in Deut 6, at least twice per day, in LIEU of any other law? Since it was…the THING Peter could not do before, but COULD after the Upper Room? Was he not AFRAID before, but now BOLD IN GOD?
What this post explains then…is the character and description of…the believer’s attitude in faith. IN SPIRIT, we are bold. Outside of SPIRIT, even if intellectuals, we are…disconnected. Disparity, yes? With…mainstream views? Also…this explains how John the Baptist could say “I am not Elijah,” yet he fulfills Elijah’s own mission as a malak, or messenger of God. As Jesus himself said,
12 But I say unto you, That Elias is come (again) already, and they knew him not, but have done unto him whatsoever they listed. Likewise shall also the Son of man suffer of them. – Mt 17.
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