Light vs Darkness🌞 Order & Logic of Prophecy Fulfilment
- JN
- Jun 26, 2021
- 6 min read
Updated: Jun 27, 2021
Ps: 我用英文学习圣经，所以有关圣经的分享，我都会用英文分享。
Sons of Light 🌞 vs Sons of Darkness🌑
Romans 13:11-13
And do this, understanding the present time: The hour has already come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in carousing and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy.
What does day & night, deeds of darkness & armour of light refer to?
🌞 Light = the Word / person with the Word🌑 Darkness = no Word / person without the WordLampstand + Betrayal, Destruction & Salvation ("BDS')
Order & Logic of Prophecy Fulfilment
2 Thessalonians 2:3
Don't let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction.
That day --> Salvation, day of the Lord
Rebellion occurs --> God's people betray
Man of lawlessness / man doomed to destruction is revealed --> People opposing God are destroyed
Fulfilment of God's prophecy:
Betrayal (B) --> Destruction (D) --> Salvation (S)Betrayal = Trap for satan
Jeremiah 50:24
I set a trap for you, Babylon, and you were caught before you knew it; you were found and captured because you opposed the Lord.
*Revelation 1:20 --> 7 stars = 7 angels, 7 golden lampstands = 7 churches
*Revelation 2:5 --> lampstand removed from their place i.e. churches will be removed from the Kingdom of Heaven if they do not repent; churches need to repent because they have betrayed and have forgotten their first love.
Life of John the Baptist ("JTB")
John the Baptist's role was to pave the way for the light.
(Fulfilment) John 1:6-8
There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.
(Prophecy) Malachi 3:1
“I will send my messenger, who will prepare the way before me. Then suddenly the Lord you are seeking will come to his temple; the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, will come,” says the Lord Almighty.
John the Baptist started out well
JTB was able to recognise satan's spirit with the PSTs [Matthew 3:7] But when he (JTB) saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? *vipers = snakes/serpent; in Matthew 23:33, Jesus also called PSTs vipers to show that satan's spirit is with the PSTs
JTB was able to recognise God's spirit with Jesus [John 1:29-34] The next day John saw Jesus coming toward him and said, “Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! This is the one I meant when I said, ‘A man who comes after me has surpassed me because he was before me.’ I myself did not know him, but the reason I came baptizing with water was that he might be revealed to Israel.” Then John gave this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. And I myself did not know him, but the one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the one who will baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ I have seen and I testify that this is God’s Chosen One.”
Initially, JTB and Jesus were united against the PSTs.
John the Baptist ended off badly
JTB's disciples did what the PSTs did and questioned Jesus' disciples practices [Matthew 9:14] Then John’s disciples came and asked him, “How is it that we and the Pharisees fast often, but your disciples do not fast?”
JTB's faith wavered and doubted if Jesus was Christ [Matthew 11:2-3] When John, who was in prison, heard about the deeds of the Messiah, he sent his disciples to ask him, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?”
Jesus declared that JTB was no longer part of God's kingdom [Matthew 11:11] Truly I tell you, among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet whoever is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he. *The least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than JTB
JTB died not for doing God's work, but for meddling with the king's affairs [Matthew 14:3-4, 6-11] Now Herod had arrested John and bound him and put him in prison because of Herodias, his brother Philip’s wife, for John had been saying to him: “It is not lawful for you to have her.” ... ... On Herod’s birthday the daughter of Herodias danced for the guests and pleased Herod so much that he promised with an oath to give her whatever she asked. Prompted by her mother, she said, “Give me here on a platter the head of John the Baptist.” The king was distressed, but because of his oaths and his dinner guests, he ordered that her request be granted and had John beheaded in the prison. His head was brought in on a platter and given to the girl, who carried it to her mother.
In the end, JTB and PSTs were united against Jesus. JTB was no longer part of the kingdom of heaven and he died not for doing God's work, but for meddling with man's affairs.
What went wrong for John the Baptist?
Role of Lampstand
Where is the Lampstand?
Sequence of events:
Night / Darkness --> Lampstand comes to prepare the way --> Light comes / Daytime
From outside the temple --> Enter into God's temple / Holy Place --> Enter into the Most Holy Place / Where God is
Holy Place: contains the (1) lampstand / 7 lamps, (2) table with its consecrated bread
Most Holy Place: contains the (1) mercy seat, ark of tabernacle, (2) altar of incense, (3) manna, (4) Aaron's staff that budded, (5) tablets of covenant
*manna: Jesus is the living bread
*staff that budded: Jesus rose from death to life
*tablets of covenant: Jesus is our cornerstone
All these are copies of heavenly things (Hebrews 9:23)
Reference: Hebrews 9:1-5 , Exodus 25-26, 30
The lampstand is found in the Holy Place, bridging the gap from darkness to light (without God's presence to where God's presence is).
Role of Lampstand in Old Testament
Leviticus 24:1-3
The Lord said to Moses, “Command the Israelites to bring you clear oil of pressed olives for the light so that the lamps may be kept burning continually. Outside the curtain that shields the ark of the covenant law in the tent of meeting, Aaron is to tend the lamps before the Lord from evening till morning, continually. This is to be a lasting ordinance for the generations to come.
Exodus 27:20-21
“Command the Israelites to bring you clear oil of pressed olives for the light so that the lamps may be kept burning. In the tent of meeting, outside the curtain that shields the ark of the covenant law, Aaron and his sons are to keep the lamps burning before the Lord from evening till morning. This is to be a lasting ordinance among the Israelites for the generations to come.
The lampstand is supposed to be lit up only when it is dark (evening to morning).
JTB's role was to point people to Jesus and prepare the way of the Lord when God's word is not present in this world.
However, once Jesus began His ministry, JTB should have ceased all activity and directed people to Jesus. Instead, JTB clung on to his ministry.
[John 3:22-23] After this, Jesus and his disciples went out into the Judean countryside, where he spent some time with them, and baptized. Now John also was baptizing at Aenon near Salim, because there was plenty of water, and people were coming and being baptized.
JTB & Jesus were baptizing people separately, lampstand competing with the light.
Let's not be like JTB. Regardless of how we started, let's end the race well.
Hebrews 10:36-39
You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what he has promised. For, “In just a little while, he who is coming will come and will not delay.”
And,
“But my righteous one will live by faith. And I take no pleasure
in the one who shrinks back.”
But we do not belong to those who shrink back and are destroyed, but to those who have faith and are saved.^Image Source: Wix Image Gallery
*Image Source: http://www.newmanconnection.com/faith/saint/nativity-of-saint-john-the-baptist
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