LOGOS

or

In What Our Faith Consists

"In him was life; and the life was the light of men."

By

C. AND J. LEE

XV. Bethlehem Ephratah

In the prefiguring work, when "the Word was made flesh" and the King of the Jews as a result was born in Bethlehem, in Judea, there was a great surprise and consternation within the royal family reigning over the Jews, and in this consternation all of Jerusalem partook. King Herod gathered about him all the high-priests and scribes and inquired of them where Christ (God's Anointed) was to be born. They answered him by quoting part of the prophet Micah's prediction, saying:

"In Bethlehem of Judaea: for thus it is written by the prophet, And thou Bethlehem, in the land of Juda, art not the least among the princes of Juda: for out of thee shall come a Governor, that shall rule my people Israel." (Mat. 2: 5, 6.)

The priests, when quoting this passage of Scripture, left out the word "Ephratah," for it says: "But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah," etc.

Why did the priests leave this out from its context? Simply because they failed to see any sense in it. It belongs to the completion of the prophecy. Then, at the arrival of the second act of birth, i. e., when the perfect form of prophecy appears on the scene, and the Son of man in reality is elevated on the universal throne, this word, as well as the others, will have its full meaning and distinction.

We have already shown that all prophecy contains a double element of germination, this because God's plan in all of its expressions develops in pairs -- prefigurative and completing. Even the birth of the Son of man is prophetically presented in two acts. The first development or evolution of the Logos-power brought forth the Nazarene in the literal Bethlehem and Judea. His birth, life, activity and death are represented in the first act, all of which constitutes a prefigure of the second act.

The unfulfilled prophecy constitutes an element of germination to the kernel which was formed in and through the first act. For example: The Logos-transformation into flesh in the body of the Virgin gave form to a divine and human being, born into this world. This Son of man, with respect to the new creation, constitutes the kernel of wheat by means of which this creation is brought forth. The yet unfulfilled prophecy constitutes the new element of germination, which in and through this kernel of wheat produces a new body. This new body is the Son of man, in the second act, when both the prefiguratively fulfilled and the as yet entirely unfulfilled Logos is completed, elevating, as a result, the Son of man on the throne ruling over all and everything.

The second act, when the complete work will appear, is described by the prophet in the following words:

"Therefore will he give them up, until the time that she which travaileth hath brought forth: then the remnant of his brethren shall return unto the children of Israel. And he shall stand and feed in the strength of the LORD, in the majesty of the name of the LORD his God; and they shall abide: for now shall he be great unto the ends of the earth." (Micah 5: 3, 4.)

"She which travaileth" is not Mary, but "Daughter Zion," as she is called in chapter 4: 10. This birth is the same as that alluded to in Rev. 12: 1-6. By means of this act prophecy is completed, and the reality of the kingdom of heaven is made to appear.

Although the completion of Logos comprises a gradual victory over opposition, suffering and death, nevertheless, all the steps of transformation connected with the Logos-development in the first act, as that of the birth, the activity of life, death and the resurrection, are also wholly connected with the second. Why? one asks.

1. Because the new element of germination is inseparable from the following and related prophecies: "And she (the woman who is an object to the persecutions of the dragon) brought forth a man child, who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God, and to his throne." (Rev. 12: 5.) This could not be fulfilled in and through the birth of Christ, for then the prophecy did not exist. It was received by John about a hundred years after the birth of Christ, namely, 96 A. D.

2. Because the whole plan of God, from beginning to end, develops in two related works of a similar nature -- the preceding prefigures the one that succeeds and completes the whole.

Bethlehem Ephratah, and the birth there of a newborn king, will once more surprise the world and bring consternation to the kingly power. But in the second act the literal names will receive a deeper signification, this because of the supplement of the unfulfilled prophecy.

As an example: By "Judea" is not now literally meant the land of Judah or the Jewish nation, but it signifies the more exalted meaning originally represented by this name, namely, "The power of the Lord."

When Paul is reasoning concerning the difference between the literal and the completing work, he says that a Jew in a literal sense is of no consequence in the latter, unless the word Jew is linked with the work of the Spirit, indicating an inner or higher life, foreshadowed by the letter.

We now ask ourselves the question: Where is the man child, spoken of in Rev. 12: 5, to be born? The Scriptures answer: "In Bethlehem Ephratah." But it is now required that we grasp the signification of these words according to the meaning of the higher development.

1. Bethlehem. Bethle-, God's house, hem, bread: God's bread house, is the higher signification of Bethlehem. In a house where the bread of God (see Mat. 24: 45, 46) is distributed direct to His people, there the Logos-power in the shape of the visible kingly child, belonging to the completion of the prophecy, is to be born. Circumstances will arise which will make God's own people (the host controlled by the Logos-power) directly dependent on God's help, this also with respect to getting their natural bread. Wars, general famine and severe persecutions will bring them there.

There the Word will take complete form in them, the result being that Christ in the shape of a kingly might will manifest Himself in and through them, conquering their enemies.

2. Ephratah. This name is related to Ephraim (the fruitful) and indicates the people of which will come the new

prophetic movement, or the second act in the development of the work of the Son of man. In other words: The bread house, where the Logos-power develops the kingly might, which is to conquer the world, will be opened in the tribe of Ephraim. There will be born the man child who, according to the unfulfilled Logos, is to be born and to rapidly grow into an invincible governing power.

In comparing the prophecies uttered by the patriarch Jacob over the heads of both Judah and Joseph, we can readily see that out of both these tribes there are to develop prophetic works that will assume a leading position among the people of Elohim.

1. "The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be." (Gen. 49: 10.)

2. "Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches (or daughters) run over the wall.. . . From thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel." (Gen. 49: 22-24.)

Both prophecies are equally important. The first one is fulfilled except for the gathering of the people unto the hero of Judah. But he has come. The second is still unfulfilled, for "the shepherd, the stone of Israel," of the tribe of Joseph, has not yet appeared on the scene according to the real meaning of the word. When this prophetic saying takes form, then is born in a descending line from Ephraim the man child. The Son of man will then, through His representatives manifestly assume form as ruler.

The mystery in this dual, prophetic development consists in the fact that Christ, as the prophetic and perfect element of germination takes form in visible leaders, manifest to all, and that through them He unfolds and fulfills, from power to power, the yet unfulfilled prophecy.

These leaders will come from the tribe of Ephraim in a descending line from Joseph, it is therefore the Lord, with respect to the completing movements, or the second act of the Son of man's development, calls Ephraim "my firstborn." (Jer. 31: 9.) And He further says of him, Zech. 10: 7: "And they of Ephraim shall be like a mighty man." Again He says of this mighty man: "The breaker is come up before them (before the children of Israel during their time of ingathering and restoration) : they (those that follow him) have broken up, and (in spite of the opposition of the power of the whole world) have passed through the gate, and are gone out by it: and their king shall pass before them, and the LORD on the head of them." (Micah 2: 13.)

When with the passages quoted above we compare the expression of Peter in Acts 3: 19-24, we there find a confirmation of our conception. He shows there that the second coming of Christ will be manifest in a work similar to that represented by Moses, and he calls it "the restitution of all things," which is the same as what we call the completion of prophecy. He says that, "Every soul, which will not hear that prophet, shall be destroyed from among the people." What prophet? The incorruptible Christ will surely not appear and speak, so that one has a chance to accept or reject Him. Certainly not! Paul says, 2 Cor. 5: 16: "Yea, though we have known Christ after the flesh, yet now henceforth know we him no more."

What then do we have t anticipate? We look for visible representatives and leaders, who will be as visible as was Moses, through whom Christ will speak and set in motion the fulfillment of prophecy, and this will shape itself into a work resembling that represented by Moses, only that now it will be more perfect.

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