A TRUE PROPHET HAD TO HAVE SEEN CHRIST
We’ve discussed Christ Coming as NOT just 1st and 2nd as commonly taught because that verbage is not found even once in scripture. That is because Christ has appeared numerous times throughout the ages, and continues to do so even now. Doesn’t scripture say that “Today is the day of Salvation, Today if you can hear His voice harden not your heart”? Hebrews 3.15 Not Today if you can get His signature or shake His hand or make an appointment, because of the billions who live now and the billions who have died, how could it also be true to them all that “Lo, I am with you always even to the ends of the age” without Him being of a ubiquitous nature?
In 2 Timothy Paul said it was God; 9 who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our (carnal) works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began, 10 but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior Jesus Christ, who has (already) abolished death and (already) brought life and immortality to light (recognizing, understanding and adopting) through the gospel.” This is how we see Christ now. This kind of appearing is different than when “He became flesh and dwelled among us”. (John 1) Just like for you to become rich, poor, powerful or kind means that’s not what you were to start with.
We agree fully that “God was manifest in the flesh, preached among the gentiles and recieved (ascended) up into glory”. But for those of us who see Him now, we did NOT know Christ in the flesh, we did NOT even experience Him in a human fashion because for us that old Covenant, Will and Testament is history (His-Story). However we DID receive the same bright light that Saul/Paul saw on the road to Damascus and multiple times after that. And we have seen Him that way countless times ever since. Even as He wrote to those in Galatia that “the gospel I preach to you did not come by a man nor was I taught it by a man, but by revelation of Christ” showing us the change in composition to the Son of God associated with His ascension. This is how Paul knew Christ.This is what qualifies us too as “having seen the Lord”, if we experienced Him like Paul.
And to reiterate that Paul did not know or see Christ in a carnal way like the rest of the 12, and he hadn’t seen Christ prior to his Damascus road experience, he only heard accounts of Christ because Paul was in Rome.
So Paul did NOT meet the man who went to the cross by a first hand encounter with Him as a human or at that Grand event. And as Paul “having seen the Lord” and not having seen the man, is because the human appearance does not matter, that’s not what qualifies one as having seen Christ. For Christ had said “I will never leave you or forsake you”. So seeing Him now is another recognition or realization and a new revelation of Him. And hopefully we get this affirmation and an Amen from you that, you can see Him as well in this new light because He is light. He is “the light that has cometh into the world”. He is the one who came forth first in Creation when God said “let their be light”. This was the Sons first sacrifice of Himself before “He became flesh and dwelled among us”, because He didn’t have to leave the Father for their sake but ours. This is how we see Him because “it is with the heart that one must see and hear to understand the things of God”.
That is the reason there are no descriptions of what Christ looked like in the flesh because “we once (for a short time) knew Christ in the flesh, but henceforth know we Him that way no more!” (1 Corinthians 5) Meaning, do NOT expect Him in the flesh because that is going backwards down the steps of revelation back to His first carnal appearance.
If you can remember, we are the ones to transition (our transfiguration) like Him, not the other way around. He already did that as a way to follow Him back to where He came and He “cut His work short (here) in righteousness” because that’s the way He does things. And a carnal appearance does not matter because Christ was with the Father before “He became flesh and dwelled among us, so flesh is not His natural composition”. We also know Christ went back to the Father and told us to “follow Me that where I am ye may be also”. So His height, hair color, skin color and such was not recorded because any such carnal observations and expectations are irrelevant for us. And when that is important to someone, that becomes idolitrous as misplaced affections and circumvented faith for another other than Him who is invisible and who is “where two or more are gathered together in His name”.
Besides, God is the Creator over all of humanity and gives no preference to such carnal distinctions. As Paul said in Galatia “26 For you are all born of God through faith (and not in a physical way) in Christ Jesus. 27 For as many of you as were baptized into Christ have put on Christ.
Now is that something you observed with your human eyes like looking into a mirror? And confirmed that “we all with unvieled faces as beholding in a mirror the Glory of the Lord, are being transfigured into His self same image from the Glory to the Glory as by the spirit”. With zero carnal involvement or composition. So Paul continues by saying: where
28 There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all (equal without those distinctions and) one in Christ Jesus. 29 And if you are in Christ, then you are (proverbially) Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”
This is what matters, that you know the Son of God in His original construct that He was before He became human like us. Which is a persona defined by some as “the bright light” like Paul.
So then knowing that for the disciples to graduate to apostles, they had to have seen Christ after the resurrection of what He was before He became flesh and dwelled among us, as Hebrews 13.8 confirms “Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, today and throughout eternity” of never changing. So that even when He put on the flesh, His light still shone where He directed it.
And the truth be told, even the other eleven apostles had to see Christ as preceding and superceding the flesh, as him who is eternally the same through consecutive personal visitations of Christ after His death and resurrection in the same light as Paul saw. Only then could the disciples be called Apostles. And they ALL did as seen here from 1 Corinthians
15.1 Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures, 4 and then He was buried, and then He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures, 5 and then (after that) He was seen by [a]Cephas, then by (the rest of) the twelve. 6 After that He was also seen by over five hundred brethren at once (Mathew 27.52), of whom the greater part remain to the present, but some have [b]fallen asleep. 7 After that He was seen by James, then by all the would be apostles.(as THE qualifier) 8 Then last of all He was seen by me (Paul) also, as by one (of the 12) born in due time.” And that word “due” comes from the Greek word “idios” and more appropriately translated “self” or “own” and not so much “due“. So this passage clearly teaches each in their own time showing us the individualized and progressive purpose of the gospel. And if you think about it. It has to be like that, because everyone is born in their own time throughout time . For even as carnal births happens in their own (idiosyncratic) time and individually in their own time, because that’s what birthdays signify. They are all personal.
So, in the same way. If you have seen Christ, not in the flesh but by way of revelation or a bright light, same type of thing, then you have seen what the disciples saw of Christ after His resurrection. Paul also said that “the gospel I preach did not come by man, nor was I taught by man, but by revelation of Jesus Christ” to curtail your expectations of a reappearance of Christ in the flesh. He expired that notion withe the old Covenant. Even as Christ told the disciples in John “from now on (meaning from this point forward) you have known Me and you have seen Me!” Meaning before that, whatever they saw was an incomplete portait.
So if you have recieved the testimonies left about Him as the one who is “the same yesterday, today and forever” and the one “who stands at the door and knocks” (Rev 3) then you too may qualify for many things, among such are being an Apostle.
Like all such giftings, they come by way of a new understanding by way of revelations in order as you are able to receive them, until you reach the full measure and stature of Christ. (Ephesians 4.13)
Now looking back at those who knew Christ before His formal resurrection and subsequent ascension, it made it difficult for those who knew Jesus as a man in human form, to see Him in His Natural element of Spirit and Truth, because flesh is what they believe Him to be then, and now they want Him to come back that way again even again like today. But that’s part of “the delusion with all lying signs and wonders if possible to decieve the elect” because “flesh and blood does NOT inherit the Kingdom”, another physical appearance is of zero value (1 Cor 15). We are not buying into that. What does He need to come back and do that He hasn’t done and doesn’t do today by His Word and Spirit as spelled out in scripture and broken down into consumable sound bites as you see here today, “today if you will hear His voice”.
Think of it from this perspective, it is humanly impossible for a flesh abiding person to talk to every human ever born throughout their lives all at the same time. For that reason Christ performs this task in His original composition of being “The Word of God” before the man He “was and is and is to come”! That way the gospel can be preached “throughout the ages unto the ends of the world” as scripture commands.
“The Kingdom of God is at hand”. This message only expires with the conclusion of this age. And a good way to understand when the conclusion of this age is, is when “The Kingdom of God at hand” no longer bears fruit of gaining new residents. That the true gospel as we espouse from scripture no longer makes sense.
Warning! Anyone adhering to another coming of Christ to “save the world” especially if you claim to be a Christian, you are in insubordination and probable judgment like the Jews of old because God would have to apologize to them for letting you do what they did in expecting a man King on earth because Christ had told them “you have correctly said I am King for as such I was born. For that they were removed. Remember them chiding Christ about being King and He replied “you have correctly said that I am King however My Kingdom is not from here” meaning of Earth’s weak composition and inferior design. However even at that point The Kingdom of God was at hand, meaning within reach as the alternative for them too.
It is in truth, by the truth and for the truth, that anyone who questions reality and seeks the Truth, not just a truth, who do NOT adhere to a modern view of another coming Jesus, is closer to “The Kingdom of God at hand” than those who claim to know Christ and expect the Kingdom to appear in a way to appease their carnal senses. Because in them the words are true that “they are neither entering the Kingdom, nor are they allowing those who are trying to do so” because they admittedly are looking for something that is right here, right now–and they don’t even know it. And further more and more importantly, anyone claiming to be or allowing others to call them prophets or prophetesses who hold not this testimony of seeing Christ as we espouse, are false prophets and do not know the truth because seeing Christ as He is, is a prerequisite to be an Apostle and represent God and His ubiquitum called The Kingdom of God at hand.
In the end of The Revelation where John had seen an angel supposing him to be Christ. This should not be too surprising for even Paul said this to those in Galatians, that “my flesh you did not despise or reject, but you received me as an [e]angel of God, even as Christ Jesus.” This is Christ appearing through His many members of His body, dispersing and dispensing Him with the tools He had given us. This is the Gospel of Gods Kingdom. As Christ told the disciples “from now on you have known Me and you have seen Me” and those “who have seen me have seen The Father”. (John 14-16) Are you getting this?
Yes, even still, The Kingdom of God is at hand, and within reach in this way. Amen!