Grace is God's policy in dealing with mankind. Grace is God's non-meritorious favor toward human descendants of Adam, who are in total depravity. The shortened form of the definition of grace is God's non-meritorious favor on us undeserving sinners. The main point is that in grace, God does the work. Mankind is free to respond to the grace of God and receive its benefits; but man's works are unacceptable to God. All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags in His sight. Through grace, God provides a way to bless mankind without compromising His holy, eternal, and divine essence.
The Godhead refers to the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit. All members of the Godhead have the same essence, though they are different personalities. God the Father is the author of the Plan of God. God the Son is the Creator of all things, the Chief Executor of the Plan, the Redeemer of mankind, and the High Priest of the Royal Family of God. God the Holy Spirit is the dynamic working force who performs all work in the Plan of God. He draws the unbeliever who is positive at God consciousness to salvation. He makes the faith of a spiritually dead person effective for salvation. He regenerates the believer at the point of salvation. He baptizes the believer with the Holy Spirit by entering him into union with Christ. He seals the believer with the stamp of Royal Family of God. He provides every believer with a spiritual gift. He indwells the body of the believer and provides a temple in the body for the indwelling of Christ and the Father. He fills the soul, empowers, and controls it to enable the Church Age believer to execute the Christian life in the power of God.
Spirituality refers to the believer who is filled with the Holy Spirit. The soul is either filled with the Holy Spirit or is not. The two possible states are spiritual or carnal. Spirituality and carnality are opposites. The believer who is spiritual is filled with the Holy Spirit. The person who is carnal is not filled with the Holy Spirit. The carnal person is operating in the energy of the Old Sin Nature. A person is either spiritual or carnal.
Within spirituality there are degrees of capacity or success. A believer in Spiritual Maturity has more capacity for life and love than the beginner believer. But both are 100% spiritual when they confess their sins and are filled with the Spirit. Within carnality there are degrees of reversionism. Some sins are worse than others and some types of reversionism are worse than others. However, there is no good in carnality.
Sanctification means to be set apart to God. Only God's work counts. Only when the believer is separated from the world, can God provide blessing. There are two types of sanctification: (1) Positional, which was completed at salvation, and (2) experiential, which requires daily faith perception and faith application to separate from the world and fulfill the Plan of God.
The Grace Support System is the system that God has provided to sustain the believer in this life. It includes full grace support for every phase, every part, every test, every trial and every exigency of the Christian Life. It provides a Plan for the life of each believer. It provides moment by moment support for the believer so that he can execute the Plan of God and grow to maturity. Communication within the Grace Support System enables the believer to have a personal and intimate relationship with all three members of the Godhead. The Grace Support System includes a divine dynasphere to sustain the believer daily, a stage of life for fulfilling the Plan of God every day in history, batteries of angels for security and special support, a Supreme Court in Heaven with the Lord Jesus Christ as the advocate for the believer, and the ministry of the Holy Spirit in the soul of the believer to serve as his own personal tutor and counselor.
The Cosmic System is Satan's alternative to the Grace Support System. Satan as the ruler of the world operates from two thrones, god of war and goddess of love. From these he has organized a hierarchy of demon authorities and special forces to administer his policy of evil to counterattack the Plan of God.
The Problem Solving Devices are spiritual solutions to life's problems. When applied through faith, these devices will solve any problem in the life of the believer. The ten Problem Solving Devices represent one of the major advances in theology. Although our numbering system differs slightly in order to line up with the Tabernacle, the Problem Solving Devices are identical.
Marriage Intimacy Love is a special virtue-love that God gives Right Man and Right Woman for each other.
The Bible is the only source of truth in this life. It teaches that man was created to resolve the Prehistoric Angelic Conflict. Satan was condemned to the Lake of Fire. He appealed the decision, and man was created to resolve the issue. Through man, God would demonstrate His perfect Justice in condemning Satan to the Lake of Fire as well as His absolute Righteousness in the solution of salvation that He offered to solve the problem of sin. So God created a man and a woman in the Garden of Eden to take the volition test and choose for God or for Satan. God knew full well that eventually they would listen to Satan's lies just as did one-third of the angels. He knew that the man and the woman would eventually sin. He permitted it. Then He offered them a solution, salvation. They accepted that solution just like many of the angels had done.
As a part of the judgment of the Adamic Covenant, the woman would bear children. Each child would have an opportunity to marry and take the volition test to choose for God or for Satan and thus demonstrate the efficacy of God's solution in every ramification until all of Satan's arguments were exhausted. Every day men and women go through their daily lives. They are on a stage just as Adam and 'Ishah were on a stage, and the angels all gather round to witness man's daily decisions in the Appeal Trial of Satan. Shakespeare's words ring true, "All the world's a stage."1 Every man and woman is an actor or actress with a role to play. They were created specifically to play their part. And they will play it whether from ignorance or knowledge.
For those who wish to understand what is happening in this life. God, in His infinite, matchless Grace, has provided a source of enlightenment. The Word of God is the source of all truth for this life. It is the instruction manual to bring us to a full knowledge of God and His Plan for mankind in resolving the Prehistoric Angelic Conflict. So, it should be a simple matter of reading the Bible and understanding all. Unfortunately, there are some complications. The Bible is written in ancient languages that are no longer extant, and the truths in it are spiritual. It cannot even be understood apart from spiritual help. So, although the solution is available, there is only one way to understand it, and that is God's way.
God, in His Plan, has provided an opportunity for every member of the human race to receive salvation based upon the completed work of Christ on the cross. After Jesus Christ finished paying for the sins of the world on the cross, mankind was reconciled to God. That means that nothing separates man from God except his own volition. The door of salvation is wide open. Mankind can come to God; know God; have fellowship with God; receive gifts of grace from God; receive God's blessings in this life. But the decision is up to each individual. Everyone has privacy and is free to decide for God or to reject God. To choose for God is accomplished by expressing faith in Jesus Christ, the mediator between God and man on the cross. A simple act of faith in Christ in the privacy of one's soul brings to the individual God's gift of salvation. The person who decides to believe in Christ will receive the gift of Eternal Life. The scripture says, "Believe on the Lord Jesus and you will be saved" (Acts 16:31). "Neither is there salvation in any other; for there is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved" (Acts 16:12). "He who believes in the Son has everlasting life, but he who does not believe the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him" (John 3:36). Everyone must decide to accept or reject God's gift of salvation which is available by faith alone in Christ alone.
At the moment of faith in Christ, a person is spiritually regenerated. He becomes a new spiritual creation. Where he was previously spiritually dead and incapable of fellowship with God, he becomes spiritually alive. He is accepted into the Royal Family of God. God sees the new believer as "in Christ." The new believer shares the destiny of Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords. The new believer becomes a child of God, member of the Royal Family, bride of Christ. The blessings that God bestows upon every new believer are beyond the imagination. The new believer has just become a prince or princess - i.e. royalty. One day the new believer will be able to receive the blessings commensurate with this royal status. But this is another part of the volitional test from the Garden. The new believer can sit down and never advance another step spiritually, or he can use his volition to receive all that God has set aside for him in His Plan.
The blessings of God available to the believer in this life are beyond any time in history. They include: Sharing the Happiness of God, love beyond belief, escrow blessing in this life, rewards for eternity, promotion, and success. They include living life to its fullest, surviving suffering and prosperity, and enjoying the blessings of God in the daily life. They include going back to the Garden in marriage with love for Right Man - Right Woman that is divine and beyond description. God wants to bless mankind to the maximum extent that the human soul can handle. This is what God has for every believer in Jesus Christ: Blessing beyond the wildest imagination.
From the time of birth, everyone has a walk, a journey, through life. It begins at birth and ends at death. The daily decisions determine the life we live. At the point of salvation, life is transformed from spiritual death to spiritual life. After salvation, the believer in Christ has an opportunity for a fantastic journey. The question is: How do I navigate in the spiritual realm to reach the destiny that God designed for me? How do I walk? Where do I go? How do I know the spiritual issues that are the volitional test? How do I understand the spiritual issues and how do I choose the right answer? How do I receive the gifts that God has promised to those who believe? Spiritual Dynamics is the field of Bible teaching that has the answers.
The Lord Jesus in His first advent demonstrated the spiritual way of life. Every day He executed the spiritual life in the filling of the Holy Spirit and used only God's Grace Support System. He veiled the independent use of His deity in order to live like a human being and demonstrate the efficacy of the Plan of God in the life of the believer. He tested every aspect of the Grace Support System under far more pressure than any believer will ever experience. He went to the cross with it. And even under suffering that is beyond anything the believer will ever experience, He proved it and tested it out. No problem, trial, or exigency is too great for the Plan of God. The Grace Support System will not fail. It worked for the Lord Jesus Christ, and it will work for the Church Age believer who is willing to use it.
The basic plan of the walk in the spiritual life was laid out in the Old Covenant to Israel in the pattern of the Tabernacle. The path into the Tabernacle beginning with the Gate and ending in the Holy of Holies at the Ark of the Covenant is a model of the spiritual way of life. Every article of furniture is a type of Christ and His work of salvation. At the Gate with its four pillars and four colors (blue, purple, scarlet, and white linen) is the model of Jesus Christ, the way of salvation.
The pattern of the Tabernacle was designed to teach the spiritual way of life to Israel. The spiritual life begins at salvation and progresses to spiritual maturity. It advances from baby believer to mature adult. The love for God progresses from that of a child to that of the adult with personal love for the Father and Occupation with Christ. Unlike even the priests in Israel, the believer-priest in the Church Age has access to the Holy of Holies and the Throne of Grace (Hebrews 4:16; 6:17-20). The outline of the spiritual way of life according to the pattern of the Tabernacle is as follows:
The spiritual life begins at salvation. At the moment of salvation God does at least forty things for the new believer. The new believer is spiritually regenerated, given a life with a plan from God, given a calling, a spiritual gift, an inheritance, a badge of royalty, as well as the indwelling of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. The Plan of God for the new believer includes a file in the Plan of God server. In this file is a calling, a destiny, along with escrow blessing to be delivered in this life as well as blessings for eternity. The blessings available to the new believer are clearly identified with his name on them. They are set aside for him in an escrow account to be delivered by the Lord Jesus Christ, the escrow officer, at maturity.
At the moment of birth, a person is allocated a human life file in the Plan of God server. God grants human life to enable the person to use his volition to choose for or against the Plan of God. Within the human life file is a designation of Right Man - Right Woman. Everyone (apart from the rare gift of celibacy) has a Right Man - Right Woman counterpart for this life after the pattern of the Garden. An index is kept of all who have been allocated human life. If an individual dies without accepting the gift of Everlasting Life, that person's name is blotted out of the file. If the person accepts Christ as Savior and receives everlasting life, his or her name is never blotted out. The person lives forever.
At the final judgment, Great White Throne (Revelation 20:11), a printout of the human life file, called the "Book of Life" (Revelation 20:12), will be produced. Every person will be brought up from Hades and given final judgment (Revelation 20:13). Believers will never appear at this judgment because they will have already been accepted into Heaven. The unbeliever will be given a trial. All of his good works (Revelation 20:13) will be entered as evidence on his behalf, though none will be good enough. Records of good deeds are kept in the Book of Works (Revelation 20:12). Human good always falls short of the Righteousness of God. The unbeliever will not be condemned on the basis of his sins because all sins were paid for on the cross. He will be condemned by his own good deeds because none of them are the Righteousness from God. The Book of life will be opened (Revelation 20:15) and the unbeliever will not be there because he died without accepting Christ. He is, therefore, without Eternal Life. He is dead without Eternal Life. His name will not be in the Book of Life, and if it is not there, he will have no life. Instead, he will be sentenced to the Lake of Fire (Revelation 20:14-15), which was prepared for the devil and the fallen angels.
LAVER
At the moment of salvation the new believer has his soul filled, which means empowered and controlled, by the Holy Spirit. The filling of the Spirit lasts until he uses his volition to sin. Sin does not cost him his salvation. He was given salvation at the moment of faith in Christ, and God can never revoke what He has given. He can never lose his salvation, no matter what sin he commits in this life. His sins were paid for on the cross, and will never be a basis for condemnation of the believer or even the unbeliever. Such would be double jeopardy.
Whereas, sin does not cause the believer to lose his salvation, it does cause him to lose his fellowship with God. When he sins, he loses the filling of the Holy Spirit. Fellowship with God is only possible in the filling of the Spirit. Fortunately, there is a recovery procedure to restore the believer to full fellowship with God. The recovery procedure is called Rebound. It is symbolized by the Laver, which is where the priest washed their hands and feet for priestly service in the Tabernacle. The washing of the dirt from the body is analogous to the purification of the soul that must take place after contamination from the Old Sin Nature.
The spiritual life can only be executed in the Filling of the Spirit. The prayer life is nullified if there is unconfessed sin.
THE DOOR
The entrance into the door of the Holy Place represents Grace Orientation, one of the Problem Solving Devices. There were five pillars in the door (which was a curtain). The number five is the number for grace. Entrance into the Holy Place through the door was tantamount to entering the Plan of God. The Holy Place was the symbol of the operation of Grace Support System in this life. Inside the believer-priest could feast upon the Word from the Table of Shewbread, walk in the light of the Golden Lampstand, and express faith through the prayer life at the Altar of Incense.
The believer must decide to avail himself of the grace of God. There is no way apart from grace to execute the spiritual life. Only what God does is efficacious for the spiritual life. The believer was not put here to solve his own problems; he was put here to demonstrate the grace of God. It is God's work that counts. "All our righteousnesses are as filthy rags" (Isaiah 64:6a) in His sight. It is the decision to respond to the grace of God that is the beginning of the believer's advance in the spiritual life. God's policy toward man is grace, and those who violate the principles of grace become spiritual casualties in the Angelic Conflict.
Directly in front of the door of the Holy Place on the back side in front of the Veil which separated the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies was the Altar of Incense. This was the tallest article of furniture in the Holy Place. It represented the prayer life. The priest could represent himself before God and could, therefore, offer prayers. Incense from the Altar of Incense rose toward Heaven to symbolize the prayer life of the believer-priest. The Altar of Incense, thus, symbolized the priesthood of the believer. The priest is one who is qualified to represent himself before God. In order for Jesus Christ to represent mankind before God as a priest, He first had to become a man.
The relationship of man to God is only possible through the work of reconciliation accomplished by the Lord Jesus Christ, the mediator between God and man. The spiritual life of the believer in Israel was built around the principle of Faith-Rest. The Altar of Incense, which was outside the Veil, also represented the Faith-Rest Problem Solving Device - i.e. putting the problem in the hands of God and resting (letting Him solve it). Great believers in the past like Abraham, Moses, David, and Daniel demonstrated the power of their spiritual way of life through Faith-Rest, which is a grace-oriented problem solving device. The walk of faith for these believers involved Faith-Rest.
TABLE OF SHEWBREAD
The Table of Shewbread represented the daily intake of Bible Doctrine. The believer's food for the spiritual life is the Word of God. The Lord Jesus Christ is the Word of God (John 1:1). He is the revelation of God, and God reveals Himself to mankind through His Word. There is no way to advance in the spiritual life apart from the daily perception of Bible Doctrine. The believer is not expected to read the Bible for himself. God's Plan is for the Word to be explained by Pastor-Teachers who have a special spiritual gift of communication. When the Word is made clear to the individual believer under the ministry of the Holy Spirit, he may choose to believe it. The act of believing is a non-meritorious system of perception (faith) whereby the believer accepts what is taught. This requires no special intelligence or talent on the believer's part. The act of believing the Word effects a faith transfer in the soul so that what began as receptive comprehension becomes knowledge understood. In other words knowledge in the Left Lobe of the soul becomes spiritual understanding in the Right Lobe. Spiritual understanding (metabolized Bible Doctrine) in the Right Lobe (heart) circulating in the stream of consciousness will be available for faith application.
The Golden Lampstand represented Christ our light. There were seven olive oil lamps on the Lampstand. The oil was a symbol of the Holy Spirit and the wick was a symbol of the believer. The wicks were trimmed daily to signify that the burnings of yesterday are no good for today. The Golden Lampstand was the only source of light in the Holy Place. The priests who ministered in the Holy Place walked in the light in fellowship with God.
The burning lamps symbolized spiritual production in the life of the believer. Spiritual production in the soul of the believer occurs when the Holy Spirit fills the soul and energizes Bible Doctrine in the stream of consciousness (the fuel). This production in the soul of the believer gives off light. Light is the visible evidence of spiritual production just as an atom gives off light when electrons fall from an outer to an inner shell. The light from spiritual production is not part of the visible light spectrum. It is spiritual light. Can a person see this light? The answer is yes, if God permits. For example, Moses saw the burning bush which glowed with spiritual light.
One other important point. The Golden Lampstand was a symbol. There is no power in gold or olive oil or the light from an olive oil lamp. Furthermore, the Lampstand was not a candlestick as some erroneous translations would state. The olive oil symbolized the Holy Spirit. Beeswax is blasphemy. No Jew in Israel would ever have been dumb enough to fall for that nonsense. Burning a candle to God is the height of blasphemy.
VEIL
The Veil was the curtain that separated the Holy Place from the Holy of Holies. It was designed to keep the priests away from the presence of God. To walk into the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ who dwelt in the Holy of Holies in the form of the Shekinah Glory would have meant instant death. When the Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross the Veil in the Temple was rent in twain from top to bottom (Matthew 27:51) to symbolize Jesus Christ, the mediator between God and man.
19 Since therefore, brethren, we have confidence to enter the holy place by the blood of Jesus, 20 by a new and living way which He inaugurated for us through the veil, that is, His flesh, (Hebrews 10:19-20, NAS).
The Ark was a box that housed the tables of the Mosaic Law also called the Decalogue, or Ten Commandments. Along with the Tables of the Law in the Ark were the Pot of Manna and Aaron's Rod that budded. The Ark symbolized Christ, our all and in all. The Ark was covered with a lid called the Mercy Seat, which represented Christ our propitiation. God the Father was satisfied (propitiated) with the work of Christ on the cross on behalf of mankind.
The Ark of the Covenant and the Mercy Seat symbolized the relationship with God the Father and the Son. Although the symbolism was designed to relate to Israel, all the symbols bear a resemblance to the corresponding relationships in the Church Age and to the Problem Solving Devices.
Architecture is more than just physical or spatial layout. It includes both structure and function. God warned Moses:
The
salient features of the architecture of the Tabernacle were:
The architecture of the human body is similar to the architecture of the Ark of the Covenant. The body has bilateral symmetry, a front, back, top and bottom just as the Ark. The Ark was always positioned toward the East, the rising sun, for a reason. "God is not a God of confusion" (1 Corinthians 14:33). The direction a thing pointed had spiritual significance. That is why He gave specific instructions punishable by death that the Tabernacle would always be pitched toward the East, the rising sun. So East and West have significance with God. That's why the Solar System is an East-West plane with the axis of the earth pointing upward toward the northern sky.
Principle: The head represents authority.
Here
are the three dimensions of a coordinate system. All three axes are
at right angles to each other. There are three axes:
The
two-dimensional Integrity Envelope can now be revised to conform to the
three dimensions of the Space-Time Coordinate System. The cube represents
the Integrity Envelope in three dimensions. It corresponds to the
three dimensional symmetry of the human body and the Ark of the Covenant.
There is also a fourth dimension, which is Time. The Time Axis is
shown separately. It represents where a person is each day of his
life. The Life axis is symbolic in the sense that the units are only
understood by God. The movement in this axis represents a person's
journey through life - where he is each day of his life. Of course,
only God knows where the person is supposed to be every day. The
believer must examine himself every day in all four dimensions to determine
if is he is correctly aligned with Christ.
Summary of the Spiritual Space-Time Axes:
