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The Lords' Witnesses The Lord said: " Keep on asking, and it will be given you; keep on seeking, and you will find; keep on knocking, and it will be opened to you." (Matthew 7:7)
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The Impalement (Crucifixion) Scene
39 But one of the
hung evildoers began to say abusively to him: You are the Christ, are you not?
Save yourself and us. What really is this stage managed impalement (crucifixion) scene as worded in Luke saying to mankind? And what are these two bit part actors doing at the climax of our salvation? Why did God permit them into his son's big scene? How did they manage to get almost equal billing with the Christ in the poster campaign for all Christianity? Well they are declaring that the evildoer/sinner with faith will be with Jesus in paradise but the evildoer/sinner without faith will not. Furthermore 50% of those who go into the first death as Jesus did will put faith in the kingdom and be saved, and 50% who go into the first death as Jesus did will be abusive to the kingdom and not be with him in paradise but be in Gehenna. Because God could have easily had 23 people crucified on his son's left and 47 on his right, but he chose one on each side, declaring through this choice that as many will be with Jesus in paradise, in the kingdom on earth as will not. So the impalement (crucifixion) scene represents all of mankind together with their Saviour split into the sheep on the one hand and the goats on the other. But interestingly for the more technically minded reader, there is no stated handedness here. We do not know which evildoer was on which side of the Christ. In the parable of the sheep and the goats, it does not say those on the right go into indefinite life and those on the left go into indefinite reproach. It says the righteous ones go into indefinite life and the others into indefinite cutting off. Note that at no time did Jesus ask either of the condemned sinners: What capital sin did you commit my dear fellow? The sin, however large, and in both cases judged to be a capital sin by the Roman state, was irrelevant to salvation. The two men did not differ at all in sin, they differed only in faith. But there is much more here. For instance, no man goes into everlasting cutting off because even the abusive evildoer dies at the side of Jesus which is telling us that he is also saved by Jesus' blood eventually. (The Greek word is aiwnion in the parable of the sheep sand the goats in Matthew 25 means indefinitely lasting or everlasting). So the impalement (crucifixion) scene is telling us Jesus' sacrifice saves all of mankind even the abusive sinners. But not all of us will be with him in paradise. The crucial realization here is that the abusive sinner who represents those who go to hell was no farther away from Jesus' blood than the faithful sinner who represents those who go into the paradise. So the eventual salvation of the faithless sinner is just as secure as it is for the faithful sinner. Furthermore since Jesus, the faithful sinner and the abusive sinner are all in the same judgment (verse 40). So they are all resurrected, they all get everlasting life, and they all become Gods eventually. And all of this is through the blood of Jesus (actually of his everlasting angelic body). This is because God loves the abusive sinner as much as he loves his firstborn son Jesus Christ. And he will not give up on any of us just as most human fathers will not give up on any of their sons. Now we cannot resist the observation that those with faith see the purpose and value of Jesus' death as crucifact, whereas those without see it as crucifiction! The abusive evildoer knew Jesus was going to die but attached no significance to it. The faithful evildoer realized that a kingdom would result from it. Many LWs in the early days wondered why does this church have such a motley crew as its congregation? The answer is that God is teaching us to love all of our brothers, not just the regular variety. So yes dear reader, however bad your sin and however abusive your behavior and however small your faith, God and Jesus love you unbreakably and will save you eventually. Now if you want a lesson in what love is - you have just had it! With this understanding we can finally see the power of the story of the resurrection of the widow of Nain's son... 11 Closely following
this he traveled to a city called Nain, and his disciples and a great crowd were
traveling with him. The widow had lost her husband and her only begotten son. She therefore had no means of financial support - she was destitute. Jesus looked at her situation, and resurrected her son on the spot. No questions about faith, no covenants, no eligibility test. This widow was in the worst possible of predicaments and Jesus had one look and took her straight out of that predicament. She demonstrated no faith at all. The crowd who recognized that a prophet had been raised up among them were acting out of the fear which seized them in verse 15, not out of faith. So this woman who had lost all of her physical security stands for those who
have no spiritual security, no faith. She stands for those who fail every test,
who miss every salvation covenant. Those who are not the children of Abraham. It
is telling us that God's love is so great that he will save even these. They
will have to spend a bit of time in Hell first however! The impalement (crucifixion) scene in JohnIn this account the two crucified either side of Jesus are not called robbers or evil doers, but just other men. They stand for the two other men involved in the big salvation plan of God, namely Gabriel and Melchizedek. For Michael is the master mediator of the angelic salvation covenant, Gabriel is the master mediator of the church salvation covenant and Melchizedek is the master mediator of the faith salvation covenant - see U9. The impalement (crucifixion) scenes in Matthew and MarkIn these two gospels Jesus two fellow impalees are referred to as robbers who begin to reproach him. The two in Matthew and the two in Mark together make 4 robbers who pick up their torture stakes as Jesus did. In fact they began as houses of prayer but became caves of robbers. They are the 4 true churches. FDS1 and FDS3 steal the saints from FDS2 and FDS4. FDS4 has a sect in Laodicea which has stolen most of its congregation and presumably a similar thing happened to FDS2. What a terrible job we make of serving God. Even when we are staring the glory of God in the face, all we want is money, status, power the glory of men and the glory of women. So great is our desire for glory and so small is our gratitude for salvation. |
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