The Oracle.

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The Oracle.

Copyright © 2018, by Rev. Paul Gould, B.S.

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rophecy isn’t about predicting the future. Nobody can forecast things to come. It’s studying the past to see how God works, then applying it to the present. Setting dates and promising dire events is unwise. Even the prophets themselves were at a disadvantage, able to see only vague hints and shadows. “Looking through a glass darkly.”

Hidden in the Bible is a Prophecy Code: It’s not some new theory, but implanted there by Divine Intelligence. Whether you are first learning about the Bible or familiar with the scriptures, this is essential knowledge! The Study of Types. The Bible provides information, even comforting words but without understanding the Type Code it remains one dimensional, without depth and unappreciated as it was meant to be. When at first you begin to see, the scriptures come alive with meaning! Types are prophetic, the Plan of God is revealed in this way: Truths are imparted using symbols which resonate with the imagination. In this lesson you will learn how it all works.

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 St. Paul, Dean of Typology.

“And I saw a light brighter than the sun and I fell to the earth, and heard a voice speaking to me in the Hebrew tongue, saying  Saul, Saul, why do you oppose me? You can’t win- surrender!” cf. Acts 9:1-8; 26:13-18. The brilliant glare burned his retina, leaving him blind for three days. He was a fanatic, a strict rabbi of the law, an inquisitor of Christians. But a leopard can change his spots, and the Lord had other plans for Saul- a man so disreputable, an unlikely candidate to ever be used of God!

“Arise, I will make thee a minister and a witness of things I will show thee…to open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light.” He had never met Jesus in life, but now he was being mentored by the Ascended Lord through direct revelation. cf. Galatians 1:11-18. In his New Testament epistles we find sound interpretations of types, and these set the bar for the science of Typology. In I Corinthians 10:1-11, he summarized his message:

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“Now all these things happened unto them for examples, and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.” I Corinthians 10:11. Who is them? Of what things is he speaking? Paul is rehearsing the history of his kinsmen, the ancient Israelites. The things are the object lessons experienced along their odyssey, recorded for the benefit of his contemporary Jewish hearers as well as for us today. These were foreshadows of the future, a prophetic picture language in which the truths of the New Testament are prefigured in typeA type is a mark, it leaves an impression.

The depth of these sublime truths have yet to be plumbed by preachers and teachers, many have never even heard of types. From the Creation to the New Heavens and Earth, the Bible is fraught with meaningful symbols all linked together by an obvious thread of intelligent planning. It doesn’t require a stretch of the imagination to connect the dots.

Understanding types is not only academic, but beneficial through life-application. There are no accidents with God’s Plan, and that includes all He has in store for you and I. Things appear to us to be chaotic, but that’s only our vantage point. Everything is in His Hands down to the precision timing of events. The Bible Story is the evidence.

The Infinite Plan.

God is because He does. His Plan is already and not yet: Always moving forward, refining and upgrading to better things, leaving behind the old. Sentimental God is not. His thoughts are far ahead of us in ways we cannot comprehend. His works are new each day, surprising us with things unexpected. He broods over the Creation with the temperament of an Artist.

“When will you make an end?” asked the Pontiff. “When I’m finished!” 

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“The Agony and the Ecstasy,” by Irving Stone is the story of Michelangelo painting the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel: The enormous fresco of the Bible, a masterpiece. He was reluctant to take the commission, saying he wasn’t a painter but a sculptor. He lay on his back on scaffolding painting into wet plaster before it set. The work was backbreaking and grueling, with a few apprentices to help. Unsatisfied with the initial results, he kept scraping out what he saw as mediocre. Beginning over again, laboring and driven towards perfection- like the Creator Himself.

Who is God?

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“Know and understand that I am he; before me there was no Godneither shall there be after me.”   – Isaiah 43:10.

No gender has God. Because I AM is a verb, it is motion- positive, or “male.” God is the Light of Intelligence- Eternal Mind: He is Self-Existent and never ceases to Be. He needs nothing, the entire universe is His House. He is the Source of all things manifest. Being unseen and without manifest, the only way to know about Him is through signs and symbols. His desire is to make Himself known to man, created in His Image. The disclosure of the All-Being happened gradually through dispensations and chosen vessels, in time sending a reproduction of His Person: A Son.Paintings of Christ were the most prevalent of subject matter for the artist Georges Roualt. The Bible is basically about one thing: Jesus Christ. Otherwise there is no story to tell, no need for types or the prophets. Types are for our benefit too, as we look back on it all. In Bible times copies of the scriptures were rare and cherished. The law and prophets were studied by learned rabbis and read orally in synagogues. Following the Babylonian captivity, expectations grew of the coming of a messiah, a great deliverer. The prophets, particularly Isaiah contained such veiled predictions, calling Him Governor; Counselor; Mighty God; Prince of Peace, etc.

משיח     

But the wait seemed very long, and many are still waiting for ha-mashiach. 

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Delivered from what exactly? Not from gentile oppression as was expected by the Jews, but from ourselves. Our human nature. To undo our mistakes.

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Sin.

The word “sin” literally means you missed the target! Off-center, no bull’s eye. Christ is the sure Marksman: Able to hit the target and fix what Adam broke. And so Jesus is called the “Second Adam.”

Thesis + Antithesis = Synthesis.

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“The man has become as one of us, he knows.” Why does God allow evil? The question does pertain to our study of types: Without polarity nothing can be created; a thing must have its opposite to define it. God separated light from darkness, but once man discovered the difference the genie could not be put back in the bottle. We are intelligent beings and now given a choice: Knowing right from wrong. It only makes sense that if God dwells in each of us, we are both witness and judge of ourselves. Whether in this life or the next, our works follow us and we must learn from our mistakes.

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Artist: Jack Levine. “Adam and Eve.”

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Elohim. Who is Us? “Let us create man in our image, after our likeness.” The Seven Spirits of the Elohim are like powerful projection lenses of creativity: light, sound and color. They are seen again in the Revelation: The Seven Lamps standing before the Throne of God.  

Numbers are Symbols.

Numbers in the Bible have typical connotations. It’s no accident we are born with ten fingers for counting. The Creation Days are seven, the number of completion. We see the repetition of certain numbers because each represents an idea. For example, forty: 40 days and nights of the flood; 40 years the children of Israel wandered because of unbelief; Jesus was tempted 40 days in the wilderness, and he remained on the earth 40 days following his resurrection; 40 years later was the destruction of Jerusalem and the temple.

 Is Zero a Number?

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Zero was used by Dionysius Exiguus, as a word, nulla, meaning nothing. When division produced 0 as a remainder, nulla, or nihil was used, but not as a symbol. The Ancient Greeks seemed unsure about the status of 0 as a number: They asked themselves, how can nothing be something? This lead to philosophical and religious arguments about the existence and nature of zero. But something did come out of nothing, or ex-nihil:  The universe.

The Bible is a Book, not a Religion.

You could burn all the Bibles, but still many people know its words by heart and can quote it verse by verse. Its power is not in the bound pages but something more, a Living Word- a story that never goes away. Organized religion is flawed, temporal and finite. The Word of God is everlasting. It disrupts our vain objects of worship. cf. Acts 19:24-27. The True Church is not an opulent temple of stone built by the hands of men. Paul calls it “a mystery:” Concealed in type, revealed in the antitype. The latter is an echo of the former, like bookends of a great library of volumes.                   

          verbum dei manet ӕternum. The Word of God remains forever.              

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 Type (sound)                                                                                                                                                                                Antitype (echo) →  

                                                                                                                                              

τυπος Typos(Greek) 1). To strike, stamp, imprint; a mark made by impress; 2). A person, thing or event, serving as an illustration or prophetic similitude, of something else. – Oxford Dictionary.

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The Old Testament scriptures conceal clues, disguised revelations of Christ and hints of things coming but not revealed until the New Testament. They point forward, like sign posts, foreshadows of the already and not yet; like Jungian patterns developing towards a profound, eternal purpose. 

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Denotation and Connotation.

“The secret of wisdom is double that which is.” Job 11:16.

The type denotes; the antitype connotes. Everything formed is a symbol representing some idea. Denotation simply indicates something at its face, and nothing more. But connotation is the subtle meaning  behind the symbol- how it strikes us. The principle of “as above, so below.” 

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The antitype compliments the original type, its mirror image. From the scriptures we have the vantage point of seeing them in all directions, past, present and future. In Bible-speak, when we say something is typical, it doesn’t mean common or average but refers to the application of these prophetic pictures. Types are always tangible: People, places and things; numbers, colors and especially certain events. The antitype can be tangible, but more abstract. An idea or reality.

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Related imageA type passes through replicas of its own kind until it reaches the point when “it is finished.” A familiar example is the Brazen Serpent and the Cross: Jesus said, “As Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, so shall the Son of man be lifted up from the earth.” John 3:14,15. cf. Numbers 21: 8,9. Like the caduceus, the serpent is a universal type, seen from Genesis 3:1,13, to very the end, in Revelation 12:9; 20:2.

Notice the two comparative words, “as” and “so.” The word as is used for the type, and the word so for the antitype: The first is historic, the second is prophetic. For example,

“As the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so shall your minds be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.”  II Cor. 11:3.

 “As  in Adam all die, even so  in Christ shall all be made alive.” I Cor. 15:22.

“As  in the days of Noah were, so  shall also the coming of the Son of Man be.” Matt. 24:37.

“As  Jonah was three days and three nights in the Whale’s belly; so  shall the Son of Man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.” Matt. 12:40.

Are you beginning to see how it works? It’s types and shadows. We are looking for the shadows.

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Written to Jewish Christians, Hebrews is located near the end of the New Testament: It is the decoder of types. The writer says, types are but the shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the thing. (10:1.)  The shadow is cast forward in time concealing a truth yet unseen. A shadow isn’t the same as the thing itself, it is dark, distorted, only a vague outline to be clarified later by illumination: The intuition that comes only from within.

Without boundaries it can all lead to nonsense, not everything is a type. Certain criteria have been established by scholars who agree on what is or is not a type, and what the type actually means in its plain sense without reading more into it than was intended. Some of their opinions:

The only authority for the application of a type is in the scriptures themselves. Expositors have often imagined correspondence where in fact none exists. -Angus Green
The former must not only resemble the latter, but it must have been designed to resemble the latter in its original institution. The type and antitype must have been preordained as constituent parts of the same scheme of Divine Providence-Bishop Marsh
A type is an institution, historical event or person ordained by God, which prefigures some truth in connection with Christianity. It must be meaningful in its own right. Therefore it is not the same as an allegory. -Fritsch

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Interpretation.

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Taken out of context, the Bible can mean anything- and is often misused this way. But proper interpretation must  begin with the context Above are various levels of context.

Choosing a Bible.

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An important decision. The Bible has been revised many times to be made more palatable for the modern reader. But each time an original of anything is copied or changed, something is lost. We now have a choice of many contemporary versions. A Study Bible contains notes, charts and additional helps for the student. I recommend the New Living Translation: It is easiest to read and faithful to the original meaning.

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Word Study. A word study is exactly that, selecting a word from the Bible, be it Hebrew, Greek or Latin in order to find its true, original meaning. This can be done by using a Bible Dictionary and a Bible Concordance. Commentaries are helpful too. It is often surprising to learn the real meaning of a word is different from what has been generally accepted.

Concordance. Let’s find out the meaning of “Church.” έκλεκτος eklektos, (Greek): The elect, ecclesia, or “ones called out.”  An assembly of believers separated from the world. #1588 is the reference code from Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance.In this volume we find the etymology of every word contained in the Bible: Hebrew words from the Old Testament and Greek from the New Testament. Most Bibles contain a limited concordance in the rear of the book, but for word studies Strong’s is among the best because it is codified. You will need a good concordance in your toolbox.

The advantage of using Strong’s is purity and accuracy, it settles any dispute over the original meaning. To do word studies from the Old Testament, we go to the section of Hebrew in the forward portion of the volume. Let’s look at two words whose meanings are often misunderstood:

ישדאל “Israel.” # 3478 in Strong’s. “He will rule as God.”  Right towards God. This was the name Jacob was blessed with, so it is subjective; a standing and status before the God of the Hebrews. There is no suggestion of any racial or national context in the original meaning.  
ציוך “Zion.” # 6725. A monumental or guiding pillar. A sign, a way-mark; a permanent capitol. Both words are typical of higher realities: A true Israelite is right before God. The word “Zion” is also found in the New Testament in The Revelation 14:1, so it does not refer to any earthly capitol of God, but points to a heavenly one.

Commentaries. Pastors usually have huge libraries. Some of the finest minds have spent their lives studying the Bible, and have written commentaries. These are often verse by verse expositions of scripture. From these scholars we can glean wonderful gems of truth and find answers to confusing questions. Having a good set of commentaries is optional, but the serious student is encouraged to begin building a library.

Doctrine. Doctrines are fundamental beliefs held by various denominations. Not all agree on what the Bible says, some areas are confusing. There have been many councils in Church history held to decide on certain tenants of doctrine, questions such as predestination, the divinity of Christ and the Trinity. Dogmatic insistence and disputes over doctrine are of no help. You must discover for yourself what the Bible says to you: That’s the purpose of reading it.

Infallibility of Scripture. This is an example of a doctrine. It means every word taken literally is true and without error. But the scriptures have been touched by the countless hands of editors over time. The canon, (rule) is all we are left with: Only the scrolls approved by early Church councils. Many books and gospels were omitted, considered “uninspired” for whatever reason. These lost writings have resurfaced and available today for the student to consider.

Bible Charts. Charts are generally timelines or other diagrams used for Bible study. These are often fascinating and elaborate, but their accuracy can be questionable depending on the view of the designer.

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↑ Clarence Larkin’s beautiful hand drawn charts are very popular, and are now in the public domain. Larkin was a premillennial dispensationalist and types figure prominently in his illustrations.

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Dispensationalism: A system of theology which interprets Biblical history as divided deliberately by God into defined sections of time, or ages. In each period God has allotted certain administrative principles. Premillennial dispensationalism came from England and Scotland and was popularized in America in the late 19th century by a number of preachers, including John Darby and C.I. Scofield, editor of The Scofield Reference Bible: His annotations make it the definitive work on the subject.

Typology interprets figuratively, whereas dispensationalism interprets many things literally. But dispensations provide a timeline of past and future, for if history happened all at once there would be no story of Jesus coming and types would serve no purpose. Time charts are often artistic and captivating but no substitute for personal study- “To show thyself approved unto God, a worthy workman rightly dividing the word of truth.” – II Timothy 2:15.

The Rapture. A word found nowhere in the Bible with only scant scriptural basis for it. Not wishing to offend my colleagues, most of whom are wedded to this notion, the rapture has become a pop-religion, watching for signs instead of carefully searching the scriptures. In all fairness however, there are two incidences in the Old Testament which suggest a rapture: Enoch and Elijah.

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Apparently, only hip teenagers wearing bell bottoms and miniskirts will be raptured. A good rule of thumb: When the plain sense makes sense, seek no other sense. Reading apocalyptic meaning into world events, especially concerning modern Israel, leads to stereotyping. Jesus rebuked sign-seekers, cf. Mt.12:38, 39.

Types, not Stereotypes. We can miss the point of why the type is there in the first place. A stereotype is when a type is stalled in time, warped by personal opinion, be it academic, political, racial, etc. When the disciples expressed how great were the stones of Herod’s temple they dragged the former type into the new dispensation. The Lord was unimpressed, and even predicted the fall of the imposing shrine. cf. Mt. 24:1, 2. There would be no more stone temples.  cf. I Peter 2: 4-8.  Hebrews 9:11. The idea of building a third Jewish temple is an example of a stereotype. After his resurrection, the disciples recalled that he had said, “destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it again.”  

Archetypes. Think of an arch, or an arc, a curve, an expanding thought. Archetypes are potent themes existing in perpetuity, a die cast; one of a kind, never an imitation. An original pattern or model, the prototype from which copies are made, varieties after its kind.

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The First Temple, or Solomon’s: Sacked by Babylon in 586, B.C.

The Jewish Temple was a mutation of the original Tabernacle (below). Both are long gone, but the pattern and careful arrangement of its elements and furnishings remains in its heavenly version, the temple seen in the Book of Revelation 11:1, 19.

Arkhitekton n. (Greek) ἀρχιτέκτων. The word “architect” comes from ἀρχι- “chief” and τέκτων  “builder.” The God of the universe is thought of as an architect, the Chief Builder. The design of the Tabernacle was given to Moses with exact specifications, as if from the Mind of an Engineer. In fact, the floor plans of Gothic cathedrals were later designed after this same order- another jump from the original archetype. Beginning in Exodus 25:8, we find the elaborate pattern for the tabernacle, “according to the pattern shown thee on the mount.”  cf. Hebrews 8:5.

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Notice the layout of furnishings is a cruciform. This no accident but a type. Each element in some way represents Christ, His ministry as High Priest. Much intrigue surrounds the Lost Ark of the Covenant, a major motion picture was even made: Nazis trying to get their hands on it! It is believed to still exist, hidden somewhere in the world. It is certainly possible. The Tabernacle is considered the Crown Jewel of types, fraught with layers upon layers of prophetic profundity.

“The Oracle.”

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↓ Referred to as “the Oracle,” a beautiful reproduction of the Ark of the Covenant. It rested in the innermost chamber, the most holy place. Its powerful rays were seen only once a year by the high priest, who risked electrocution if the Oracle was displeased! From the point where the two wings barely touch, “God spoke to Moses.” Perhaps some form of radio device or transmitter.

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Hebraic Origins of Types.

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The Torah. (“Instruction, teaching.”) Christian scholars usually refer to the first five books of the Hebrew Bible as the “Pentateuch,” Greek: πεντάτευχος, “five scrolls”, a term first used in the Hellenistic Judaism of Alexandria, meaning five books, or the Law. All the types in the Bible originate somewhere in the Torah: The foundation of the scriptures consisting of the first five books of Moses.

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Tanakh. An acronym of the three sections of the Old Testament: First is the Torah; second is the Prophets or Nevi-m; and the third part are the Writings or Kethuvim, wisdom and poetical literature. The scrolls were translated into Greek for the Hellenistic culture, called the Septuagint (seventy scholars) in 250, B.C.

In the Old Testament, prophets had more power than kings, providing a channel for God’s Voice. But their message was not always heeded by the kings, which led to defeat by their enemies, the departure of God’s Spirit from Solomon’s Temple and the eventual splitting of the kingdom into Judah and Israel. (Judea and Samaria).

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Following the fall of Jerusalem and the destruction of the temple in 70, A.D. the rabbis gathered in Jamnia during the first century and codified the oral laws, myths and legends of Judaism. This became known as the Mishna. These had their own commentaries, called the Gemara. Together they comprise the main body of Jewish literature known as the Talmud. It is held by rabbis to be even more authoritative than the law and prophets. Quite a presumption.

Hebrew is written from right to left. The opening line of Genesis 1:1, contains seven words. It forms a menorah, a template. At the center, occupying the middle position (the servant candle), we see something interesting:

את

Aleph Tav: The first and last letters of the Hebrew alphabet. “I am the Alpha and the Omega.” – Jesus

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In the beginning, את created the heaven and earth.

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תהו ובהו

Tohu wa Bohu.  Formless, emptiness; chaos; disorder, confusion. cf. Genesis 1:2. Isaiah 34:11; 45:18. Jeremiah 4:23. This abyss of formlessness and emptiness in verse two is thought to be the left-over chaos of a previous earth, perhaps eons before cosmic light was created in verse three. God separated the darkness from the light, and called the light day and the darkness night. However, sunlight wasn’t created until day four. This was the initial light of energy.

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Sabbath. To Jews, Sunday has always been considered the first day of the week, a “market day,” when normal business was resumed. It was never the original Lord’s Day, we find nothing said by Christ or the apostles suggesting the seventh day be revised to Sunday: This decree of sun-worship by the pagan Church of Rome is at odds with the commandment, Remember the Sabbath day to keep it holy. cf. Ex.20:8; 31:13. Ezekiel 20:12,20. The Sabbath begins sundown Friday and ends sundown Saturday, according to the original creation account the evening and the morning was a day.” 

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Hag-Jehovah, the Appointed Feasts.

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The Lunar Calendar. A twenty-eight day cycle. In ancient Israel, the first sight of the new moon began a new month, called Rosh Chodesh, “head of the month.” I Chron. 23:31; 31:3. The Appointed Feasts and Sabbath instructions begin in Leviticus Ch.23. The Feasts are not outdated ordinances as some think, but highly prophetic:

 

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Three are past; one is present and three are future. This dual agricultural cycle of festivals, along with the tabernacle and its furnishings are two archetypal institutions- everything pointing to Christ. Types keep building on previous forms.  Scholars agree there are four great events in Genesis which begin the thread of typical continuity: The first is the fall, which began a chain reaction: The flood, Ge.6-; the Nations Ge.9-; and Israel, Ge.12-.  

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The seven feasts and seven stations in the tabernacle correspond with each other. The first stop for the high priest is the altar of sacrifice. The hapless animal is bound by cords to the four horns. Including the titulus, INRI, there were four nails used on the Cross of Christ.

The altar of sacrifice corresponds with the Passover: Every year on the 14th day of Nisan, the Jews commemorate the epic story of their ancestors’ deliverance from bondage in Egypt and the exodus. Each household was told to slay an unblemished lamb and apply its blood to the top and sides of the door lintel. However strange it seemed, the sign would protect that place.

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From a burning bush unconsumed, the All-Being spoke to Moses, flustered by the daunting task given him. Exodus 3:1-16. Moses answered, “Who am I that should go to Pharaoh and lead the Children of Israel out of Egypt? They will say, the God of our fathers, what is his name?”

   This is my name forever, a memorial unto all generations. I AM the Lord thy God

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Image result for membershipפסח Pesach. To skip; to pass-over.  I Corinthians 5:7. Image result for blood

Thursday evening, 24 hours before Passover, Jesus gathered his twelve disciples for a Seder (order), his last supper on earth. Only the Lord knew of the terrible events coming within just a matter of hours. Not even Judas comprehended, but Christ was aware and told him, “Do what thou doest quickly.” Man was created on a Friday, the sixth day. It was midnight, Nisan 14 when the first Passover happened: Death came to take all the first born of Egypt, passing by homes marked with blood. Jesus was arrested at midnight, it was early Friday, Nisan 14. He was crucified for six hours beginning 9 am. At the sixth hour, noon, darkness came over the land until the ninth hour: Death came and saw the Lamb’s Blood on the Cross, and passed-over, taking God’s first-born Son. 3 pm was the time of the evening sacrifice, as lambs were being slain in the temple for Passover. But few if anyone made the obvious connection! That afternoon, countless lambs were being slaughtered in the temple before sundown, when Passover began. But at the time, no one made the obvious connection! 

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“The blood shall be a token upon the houses where you are. And when I see the blood I will pass over you when I smite the land of Egypt. And this day shall be a memorial; and you will keep it as a feast unto all generations, as an ordinance forever.”  – Exodus 12:13,14.

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A new king arose who knew not Joseph.”

The Hebrews suddenly found themselves enslaved for four-hundred years making bricks for Pharaoh. How quickly the tables can be turned in life! They lost all knowledge of the God of their fathers, but He never forgot about them and heard their groans of bitter bondage, “serving with rigor in mortar and brick.” Generations passed, the Hebrews grew in number and the new king felt threatened. During a slaughter of innocents, Moses was placed in a tiny ark made of reeds and set adrift in the Nile: A double type of Noah’s Ark; and hiding the Christ Child in Egypt when Herod sought to kill him. But Moses said a prophet greater than himself would one day come.

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The typical significance is obviously prophetic of the Crucifixion: The blood on the doorway forms the sign of the Cross; the Lamb slain prefigures Jesus Christ. Why the shedding of blood? There was no efficacy in the practice of ritual animal sacrifices, it was only a visceral type, ending with the sacrifice of Christ “once and for all.”  cf. Hebrews 9:20,22; 10:4, 10.

Passover is the beginning of the second feast: Unleavened Bread begins Saturday, because on the day they were thrust out of Egypt there was no time to wait for bread dough to rise. Ex.12:15-39. “And it shall come to pass when your children ask what this means, you will tell them of the Passover.” (12:26). At midnight the Lord smote all the firstborn, beginning with the son of Pharaoh who rose up in the night and called for Moses: Take your people and go- and be quick about it!

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Saturday. The Children of Israel, estimated to be two-million strong, left the following morning or the seventh day. Passing through the Red Sea was a type of baptism. cf. I Corinthians 10:1,2. The name “Red Sea” typifies Christ’s blood. But deliverance from bondage was only the beginning, there was no bus on the opposite shore waiting to take them to the Promise Land. They walked the whole way: A trek which should have taken about two weeks took forty years! True freedom is not freedom from God’s authority or the consequences of our actions: A type of the believer’s walk, and the difficult lessons to be learned before reaching home.

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Matzoh. Yeast is a type of the puffing up of a prideful heart, so unleavened bread or matzoh, is representative of self denial; bland, without taste sensation. Its appearance is pierced and striped: The impress of the Lord’s savage beating and crucifixion. In Jewish homes, by sundown Friday all traces of leavened bread, every crumb must be removed from the house recalling the haste in which the Hebrews fled Egypt.

Like the first Passover, this night would be different from all other nights. No doubt they rehearsed the Passover story, a custom during the Seder. But this was B’rit Hadashah, or the new covenant. The Lamb of God would be slain the next day, Friday. The Seder would be replaced by the Lord’s Supper: A perpetual memorial.

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X The words of Institution.

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St. Paul was given these words for the Church: “For I have received of the Lord that which I deliver unto you, that the same night in which he was betrayed took bread. And when he had given thanks he broke it and said, take and eat, this is my body broken for you. After the same manner he took the cup, saying this cup is the new testament in my blood, shed for you. For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you do remember the Lord’s death till he comes.” cf. I Corinthians 11:23-26.

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Crossing the Red Sea was a Type of Baptism. I Corinthians 10:2.        

Baptism and communion: They mark the beginning and the end of Jesus’ public ministry on earth, events he personally experienced and gave us these rites by his own example.. The New Testament began the moment he was baptized: A Voice was heard as the Father delegated all authority: “This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased.”

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    O.T. Type.                                                                       N.T. Antitype.

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Creation.       Event.         Tabernacle.       Feast Day. → Lord’s Supper.   

Light/Dark. →  The Fall.  →  Altar of Sacrifice.  →  Passover.      ↑  His Crucifixion.                                                                                                                                                                                                     Image result for symbol for cancelled

               Water Baptism.   

The Waters. →  The Flood. →  Brazen Laver. →  Unleavened Bread.   ↑  His Burial.                                                                                                                                                                           
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The Typical Dual Cycles.

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The Liturgical Church Year corresponds perfectly with the Harvest Festivals of ancient Israel: Twin cycles of planting and reaping.

The Lenten season begins a six-week vigil ending with the triduum: Good Friday lines up with Passover. Easter Sunday lines up with First-fruits; another fifty days or seven sabbaths comes Pentecost, late May or June. Then summer, hot and dry is the long Season of Pentecost or Ordinary Time: This period of twenty-six Sundays makes up the bulk of the calendar before Advent: The beginning. Christmas lines up with the Jewish Festival of Lights. The Autumn Feasts are prophetic of the future. Pentecost typifies the current Church Age. It will end at the Return of Christ.

שבעות 

Shavuot. (Pentecost). The second of the three temple pilgrimages (the other two are Passover and the Feast of Tabernacles). According to Jewish tradition, on this date Moses received the tables of the law at Mt. Sinai- fifty days after  Passover and the exodus leaving Egypt.

                                    “The church in the wilderness.” cf. Acts 7:38.

The Book of Ruth is the text traditionally read in synagogues for this occasion of the giving of the law. It is a short but important book: Ruth is in the lineage of Christ. The story is about a young widow on her own, a gentile, an outsider finding a place to call home. Boaz, a type of master, notices the lovely girl gleaning in his fields in the evening after harvest. Ruth typifies gleaning the gospel, the gentiles’ portion left on the ground by the Jews, and their adoption by faith into the eternal covenant of Abraham.

The antitype of Pentecost is another Pentecost: Exactly fifty days following Jesus’ resurrection the disciples were assembled as one and received the promise of power from the Holy Spirit. They witnessed the phenomena of repentance. cf. Acts Ch.2,3. Jerusalem was filled with Jews from all over speaking different dialects. Peter gave the message that day, and everyone heard it in their own language, antitypical of Babel and the scattering of the gentiles.The great assembly in Jerusalem mirrored the scene at the base of Mt. Sinai, when the Children of Israel were assembled as one and witnessed supernatural power from on high. On this first occasion they received the mosaic law. On the second they were freed from its bondage.

Most everyone will say the Christian Church was conceived in Jerusalem on the Day of Pentecost as described in The Book of Acts, Chapter 2. But the Church actually traces its line directly from the solemn assembly at Mt. Sinai.Related image

Christ the King. The last Sunday in Pentecost ending the Church Year, is Christ the King Sunday, which corresponds with Tishri 1, Jewish New Year or the Feast of Trumpets. It typifies the Lord’s Return. When it happens and what form it will take nobody knows for sure, but probably not as one would expect. Whatever the case, everyone will see him and learn to live by the Great Commandment, “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” 

The Golden Rule.

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