Eagles Over America
September Edition 2023
The Holy Leper
Divine Division
By Pamela Gudgeon
Everything is as it's supposed to be. The clean, righteous people and the unclean, unrighteous people live together here on the earth just like the wheat and the tares grow together in our gardens. There is a perfect time to divide both. In Greek, the perfect time for the angels to come and sever the wicked from among the just is called sunteleia, which carries the timely "end" to a thing.
Matthew 13: 47-50 KJV reads, "47. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like unto a net, that was cast into the sea, and gathered of every kind: 48. Which, when it was full, they drew to shore, and sat down, and gathered the good into vessels, but cast the bad away. 49. So shall it be at the end of the world: the angels shall come forth, and sever the wicked from among the just, 50. And shall cast them into the furnace of fire: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth."
When is the "end" and who are the "angels"?
The "end" refers back to verse 48 as in 'when it was full.' Simply, the end of a thing is when God says the fullness, completeness, or consummation of a prophetic promise has occurred. For instance, when the Lord Jesus said, "It is Finished," He was speaking of the consummation of the prophetic promise, throughout the Word of God, that He fulfilled.
The "angels" are messengers according to the Greek word aggelos, and is derived from ago, which is a primitive verb referring to the action of leading others.
Furthermore, the Greek word ago, also requires openness of the leader that gives the message. You may check this reference in Strong's Exhaustive Concordance, Greek word 71.
In Revelation 22:11-12 KJV, it reads, 11. "He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he which is filthy, let him be filthy still; and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still." 12. And, behold, I come quickly; and my reward is with me, to give every man according as his work shall be."
Matthew 13: 24-30 KJV, is paraphrased like this: the kingdom of heaven is similar to a person that has sown good seed. The enemy comes in and sews bad seed with the good while this person was sleeping. The fruit came up from the good plant and also the bad plant. The servants spoke to the person and asked how did this happen? He said an enemy did it. The servants said do you want us to gather up the bad plants and their fruit? The person said, "no, because if you do you could gather up some of the good too. So, let both the good and bad stay together until it's time for harvest. Then I will ask the reapers to gather up the bad and bundle them for the fire and the good I will have them place in my barn".
Old and New Treasure
Our Church of the living God here on earth has an intriguing history. When we study this history, we can understand how we came to be where we are today. There are certain decision points in the past that formed the future, like the Athanasius and Arian debate, Constantinople, the placement of a Church building, and the Protestant Reformation.
We could argue all day long about the past and continuing mistakes made by the Catholic Church and her daughter, the Protestant Church. However, the infinite fact remains true that our true, remnant Christian Church was, is, and will forever be a morphing of the ancient Jewish religion; everything changed because the Promise of Christ manifested and nothing changed because the Word of God is always constant, carrying us through antiquity as well as guiding us to the future.
Why then does it seem that our Father in Heaven, working within the OT, is so different than our Jesus, the Christ, in the NT? The simple answer is that the OT depends on God's people and their human decisions; the NT depends on God's people and their heavenly decisions. Think about it: God's whole system changed because of His own promise being fulfilled in Christ Jesus. In both situations, we as His people, had and still have today the responsibility to make right decisions. How do we do that? We learn and study how to do it as we are led by the Holy Spirit, which is a gift from the Cross and the Resurrection of Christ combined. The OT did not allow the nation and/or nations, by our collective faith, the fullness of heaven on earth as we have today in the Resurrection of Christ.
In a perfect Christian world, we are to make perfect decisions using the tools of wisdom, understanding, and revelation. Look at the unmasked, destructive and totally disgusting evil moving to take over our world. Is evil any different now than when it was in the past? Could we have stopped all this devastation? Some say yes, some say no and there are arguments for both these answers. Is it impossible for us to be perfect in righteousness, faithfulness, and truth? One answer is that our perfection in Christ Jesus is always a movement toward perfection, a learning life.
Have we done well? I think not. However, remember that we, the true Church, would not be in this severe battle for goodness and righteousness if God's saving grace was not going to come from this mess. In other words, I believe we all are suffering over this evil takeover for the sake of many people that will come into the kingdom of God. We are feeling the brunt of enemy attacks on a daily basis, just like Jesus did for us when He was on earth. It is a disheartening sacrifice of watching our children being molded by perverse thoughts and the visuals that go with it; it is a disheartening sacrifice as we stand by and watch innocent people being jailed and the true criminals receiving passes; also we are experiencing financial degradation as the powers take our banks and money over to give to other communist countries.
The good news is that the season of crucifixion will come to an end and a period of resurrection will take over yet again. I am of high hopes that we Christians will get back to the ancient truths in the Word of God and act like the strong, righteous, and stable people that we have always been meant to be.
I believe we can and should remedy our mistakes. The Book of Revelation says that we will win this battle, but we don't know the degree of cost we will have to endure. Study and wise prayer would be a great start for increased favor and wisdom from God.
As perpetual students of the Word of God, we bypass manmade doctrines. If we can't prove it adequately, we place it on the back burner. We try to keep at the forefront of our minds, as Christians, that the ancient, old testament Hebraic mind-set is our mother Church. The teachings of Jesus are based on the balance of Old Testament Hebrew and New Testament Greek thinking. The manner in which He taught should be our pattern. Out of His treasure teaching flowed a balance of 2 rivers of living water, both Spirit as in the many waters of the Holy Spirit and Truth as in the many waters of the Word of God. As we worship, we should worship in Spirit and in Truth, both require seeking.
This writing will reflect the truth in parallels, patterns, and structures of study that brings abundant life. The title "The Holy Leper" stands out as a teaching pattern that Jesus used many times: OT said leaven equals sin, Jesus said leaven equals teaching, OT said leprosy on human skin is a sign that they have been stricken and afflicted by God because of their spiritual uncleanliness resulting in casting them out from society, Jesus, on the other hand, said He is willing to touch and heal the leprous outcast; He didn't abide by the Purity Laws of clean vs. unclean. If you understand Jesus, you know He would say to you the reason He did not abide by those Purity Laws is because He was and still is the fulfillment of the Purity Laws.
Holy and Unholy Garments
In Leviticus 8:1-4 Moses consecrated Aaron and his sons. The ESV Study Bible states that the Lord said in verse 2 that Aaron and his sons and their garments were to be consecrated by the offerings of oil and unleavened bread.
Teachings and laws concerning garments in the OT and NT are prolific.
There are Holy, Pontifical Garments for the Priests in OT to wear in presence of people.
There are Humble Garments for the Priests in the OT to enter into the Holy of Holies, in the presence of God.
There are Holy anointings from God (Aaron's beard continuing down to his clothing)
Isaiah 6:1, the edge of the Holy Garment of God filled the Temple.
There are cloth scrolls in the Bible. There are healing cloths spoken of in the NT.
There is the Shroud of Turin, the one and only Garment of The fulfilled Promise of Christ Jesus. Let's call it the Shroud of Christ for evidence of who Christ is in the Gospels, what He did for all people, and why He did it.
Think this comparison through with God's discernment and balance:
Even as OT leprosy connotated and denotated sin in a person's heart and progressed to the revealed lesions on his/her outward skin and thus traveled to their garments, respectively,
so too, did the NT Shroud of Christ connotated and denotated sin in all people's hearts and progressed to the revealed bloody beatings of Jesus on His outward skin and thus traveled to His Garment, respectively.
- Connotated, unseen, figurative Sin
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