Unleavened Bread study series, pt. 6/7: the short-lived glimpse of vindication
Ibid.
(yes, I am aware of the ongoing outlandishly genocidal escalation transpiring currently—that is not a subject to write about here in my publication space today, but I may assess my thoughts on those matters in a separate Substack Note sometime before the upcoming high sabbath of the seventh day of Unleavened Bread—don’t expect me to stay actively informed on the news of this planet until after the high sabbath)
The seventh and final post of this series tomorrow will likely be a lengthily semi-comprehensive one—this one, like yesterday’s, is a simple and short encapsulation of a time period whose defined features do not fit necessarily into a 1-to-1 recapitulation framework as the first four gospel dispensation periods, and so the “emphasis” here is rather to try and provide a basic gist of the historical continuity from one providentially affixed defining era of God’s covenant people to the next. While potentially there is relevant typology from Daniel and Zechariah with regards to the sixth church era of the antitypical New Covenant study, there remains much (far too much) that this author—myself, E.G.—have fallen short of in spiritually discerned understanding and breathed communion with Jehovah God, perhaps notwithstanding that there is a good reason for the sake of the longer journey of edification for everyone predestined unto redemption (I determine not).
And so, this is likely the pericopal chiasm of the sixth out of the seven epistles to the seven angels of the seven assemblies:1
a: ‘And to the angel of the assembly in Philadelphia, write:
b: These things says He who is holy, He who is true, He who is having the key of David, He who is opening and no one does shut, and He shuts and no one does open! I have known your works. Behold! I have set before you a door opened, and no one is able to shut it, because you have a little power, and did keep my word, and did not deny my name.
c: Behold! I make of the synagogue of the Adversary—those saying themselves to be Jews, and are not, but do lie—behold! I will make them that they may come and bow before your feet, and may know that I loved you.
d: Because you did keep the word of My endurance, I also will keep you from the hour of the trial that is about to come upon all the world to try those dwelling upon the earth.
c’: Behold! I come quickly. Be holding fast that which you have, that no one may receive your crown.
b’: He who is overcoming, I will make him a pillar in the sanctuary of my God, and without he may not go any more, and I will write upon him the name of my God, and the name of the city of my God, the New Jerusalem, that does come down out of the heaven from my God, also my new name.
a’: He who is having an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the assemblies!’
Prophetic symbolism meanings:
“key of David”: the image of the invisible God2 was referred to during the ministry of His fleshly incarnation as the “son of David,” an indication that Jesus’s adherents acknowledged Him as the seed from the Davidic lineage to fulfill the messianic criteria3—only the one holding the key of King David possesses authority over the inheritance of the New Jerusalem
“door opened”: the door is none other than Jesus4—the way, the truth, and the life5—who told His adherents to walk through the narrow gate;6 the fact that Jesus declares the door open after affirming His power to open and shut (the door) highlights the significance of this era as a moment when spiritual communion with Jehovah in truth and spirit was transparently accessible in some way shape or form
“synagogue of the Adversary”: obviously the “synagogue of Satan” here cannot be referring to any form of literal ethnically defined Jewishness, because the New Covenantal context of the seven letters are in antitype and therefore reference those who call themselves Christians and are not—that said, determining the exact object/identity of the fulfillment in this time period is one I shall not, for lack of robust understanding of this specific matter at the time being
“hour of the trial”: likely referential to the final, actual end-times separation between the gold/silver and dross when the tares will be separated from the wheat at the harvest, the culminating period when God’s covenant people must not only understand in spiritual milk but remain grounded in a solid-food understanding of restored doctrinal truth upon the chief cornerstone of salvation—such a trial is spared from this particular sixth church/assembly period by reason that the latter evidently is serving some form of “supplementary” purpose and is not expected to undertake a full restoration of clarified doctrinal issues
“your crown”: Jesus’s faithful adherents are made kings and priests unto Jehovah7—notice thereby what is stated in the Proverbs: “Not for kings, to drink wine, and for princes a desire of strong drink!”;8 because “wine” simply means the extracted juice of the fruit, it can mean either fermented or unfermented fruit juice depending on context, and here in Proverbs there is a commandment that kings—within the biblical-covenantal context—are forbidden to drink alcoholic beverages; since Jesus’s adherents are declared kings and priests unto Jehovah, the obvious corollary here is that God’s faithful followers in truth and spirit are defined for one by their conscientious abstinence from alcoholic indulgence and universal preference towards sobriety in the intoxication rather of the sweet wine emanating from the joy of communion with God granted by Jehovah’s Spirit,9 the Comforter who Jehovah sends in His manifested image Jesus’s name10
“pillar in the sanctuary of my God”: the Revelation narrative later states that the prophet and apocalypatic witness John saw no sanctuary, “for the Lord God, the Almighty, is its sanctuary, and the Lamb”11—the pillar therefore is within God Himself in some sense, from the standpoint that Jesus and his bride—His covenant people as His body12—are restored in a spiritual marital communion to such a marvelously beautiful extent that is wholly indescribable and impossible to knowledgeably convey to the mortal mind conformed to this world13
“New Jerusalem”: because it descends from heaven unto the earth, it could only have originated from heaven according to the pure will of Jehovah God, affirming that the heaven is higher than the earth14 and that God’s kingdom is not of this sinful world15
As for the fulfillment of this time period: it was likely—again, I cannot determine to assert with 100% resolute confidence—the time period from the 1798 captivity of Pope Pius VI up until Aug. 11, 1840, when the Ottoman Empire acquiesced its empirical powers as predicted to the letter by Protestant minister Josiah Litch.
Why this specific time span? Firstly, the start date could almost certainly have only been 1798, because that was when the 1,260 years of papal supremacy ended—the reformatory phase as the fifth assembly era defined the latter portion of the 1,260 years as a failed interlude where opportunities to reform the apostate church came to pass as unsuccessful. And as for the defined end-date of this sixth church era as 1840, this is exposited in light of the sixth trumpet, whose 391 years and 15 days concluded on Aug. 11, 1840, after which the rest of men who were not hurt in the plagues of Ottoman empirical brutality failed to repent.16 This theme of a universal failure would entail both those within and without God’s covenant, which includes those within the “church” itself—because no exhortation to repentance is found in the addressing letter to the angel of the assembly of the Philadelphian era and instead shows up in the subsequent and final Laodicean counterpart,17 the Philadelphian assembly age must have met out to fulfillment and concluded on Aug. 11, 1840.
The fact that a 1798-1840 window of time would be incredibly short-lived for a gospel dispensation period fits perfectly with this descriptor in the sixth epistle: “you have a little power.” This was the time period when Bible societies rapidly printed, published, and disseminated the King James Bible as the standard-bearing translation from the restored Masoretic Text + Textus Receptus manuscripts of respectively the Old and New Testaments, and when gospel missionaries rapidly preached a baseline-restorationist-oriented gospel of reformatory devotion across the whole world in loving truth and spirit. The purpose of this era was not to restore the doctrinal truth in solid meat itself, but rather to equip the inhabitants of the world with the accessible opportunity to drink from the spiritual milk that directs them on the path to solid meat if they continue in bearing spiritual children through the preaching of the gospel to make disciples and pass on the faith18 from one generation to the next.19
Did the subsequent gospel dispensation era after Aug. 11, 1840, live up to the light they were given? Unfortunately, the answer is a resolutely resounding “no.” But in spite of this longstanding degeneration into Laodicean complacency in miserable hypocrisy and hardhearted apostasy, there shall indeed come to pass a final restoration once and for all, as I will try to explain for tomorrow’s concluding seventh post of this Unleavened Bread series.
Rev 3:7-13.
Col. 1:15.
Isa. 9:6-7, 11:1-12:6; Jer. 23:5-6; Matt. 1:1; Lk. 2:10-18.
Jn. 10:1-18.
Jn. 14:6.
Matt. 7:13-14.
Rev. 1:5b-6.
Prov. 31:4.
Cf. Eph. 5:18-21.
Jn. 14:16-17, 25-26, 15:26-27, 16:7.
Rev. 21:22.
Rom. 12:4-5; I Cor. 12:12; Eph. 1:22-23, 4:1-16.
Cf. Rom. 12:2.
Isa. 55:8-9.
Jn. 18:36.
Rev. 9:20-21.
Rev. 3:19.
Jl. 1:1-3, 2:26-27; Rom. 1:17.
Cf. I Tim. 2:15.