Out of The Dual Plan

XX. MICHAEL AND THE WAR IN HEAVEN

1. Michael, the Great Prince.

The name Michael means like God and it refers to one of the angels—an angel that leads the heavenly host in times of war. Undoubtedly it was the same angel who followed Israel on their way out of Egypt. God warned Moses to take heed to the angel's voice, "for my name is in him," he said. (Ex. 23: 21.) Joshua met him on the plain outside of Jericho. (Josh. 5: 13.) Now, this same angel will lead the heavenly host in the warfare against the nations when the seed of Jacob is on its way to the promised possession. He seems-to be the guardian angel and the representative of Israel as God's people. The prophet says:

"And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse (the branch of David), which shall stand for an ensign of the people, to it shall the Gentiles seek; and his rest shall be glorious. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people And he shall set up an ensign for the nations and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth." (Is. 11: 10 12.)

The ensign signifies a national standard, similar to the emblems which constitute the flags of the different nations. That ensign will be raised in honour of the heavenly King, and his people will gather around it as the people of a nation gather around the national emblems or colors.

The Remnant Seed

"And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood… And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ." (Rev. 12: 15, 17.)

Many, in their own conceit and because of misunderstanding the prophetic language, believe to-day that they represent the "remnant seed." The acts of the woman bringing forth her seed and the dragonic war against the woman and her seed, have not occurred yet in the sense that the prophecy unfolds them. The remnant means the portion that is left after the main war has been fought. We shall refer to another line of texts that may shed more light on this important point.

"And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. And the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him… And he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears; but with righteousness shall he judge the poor; and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins." (Is. 11: 1-5.)

Here again, we find a prophetic line which leads us to the office-work of the Messiah. The Hebrew word translated "rod" is "Nezer," and signifies a sprouting twig. The name Nazareth, the place where the Lord lived during his childhood, originated from the word "Nezer," and he was called a "Nazarene"—not in the sense that he was the sprouting twig from the stump of David, but in the same sense that the present generation refer to insignificant places with respect to persons they mean to lower in the estimation of others. The word "Jesse" ' signifies independence and refers to the origin of David.

The sprouting twig shall grow out of the independent stump of David's kingdom; it shall grow until it has restored Paradise to its original condition, denoted by the following: "The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid," etc. Look at the beginning of David's kingdom! In reading his history, you will find him in the deserts and among the rocks, gathering men about him that the present generation would call "hoodlums," "tramps," and "vagabonds." Saul controlled the kingdom and raised an army to root out David. Years passed, but at last the little shepherd became king of Israel. There you have the stump from which the twig will grow.

XXIII. THE LIVING ZION

The personal or living Zion develops under the measuring rod which brings forth the temple. The prophet saw the revealing angel meet the man who held a measuring line in his hand who was told that Jerusalem should be inhabited "as towns without walls for the multitude of men and cattle therein." Then he heard a voice, as from the Lord, saying:

"Ho, ho! come forth and flee from the land of the north (Europe) saith the Lord, for I have spread you abroad as the four winds of heaven, saith the Lord, Deliver thyself, O Zion, that dwellest with the daughter of Babylon, for thus saith the Lord of hosts: After the glory hath he sent me unto the nations which spoiled you, for he that toucheth you, toucheth the apple of his eye. For, behold, I will shake mine hand upon them and they shall be a spoil to their servants, and ye shall know that the Lord of hosts (armies) hath sent me (the Lord's ambassador). Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion, for lo, I will come and will dwell in the midst of thee, saith the Lord." (Zech. 2: 6-10.)

Jerusalem and Zion are often referred to as if they were one and the same thing. In the personal development, Jerusalem arises out of Zion through the mensuration or because of the pro­phetic unfoldings. Hence, while Zion continues in its development, Jerusalem is hidden or undeveloped. By the progressive act of measuring the temple, Jerusalem unfolds a glorious power which supersedes that of Zion as the sun's brightness supersedes that of the moon. In Zion gather all kinds of people, the unholy with the holy, but in Jerusalem only the holy ones can come. In the light of the developing process, Zion constitutes a suburb to the holy Jerusalem.

In the prophetic vision that Zechariah saw concerning Zion and Jerusalem, we find an explanation to Is. 11: 10, 11.

a."In that day there shall be a root of Jesse (the stump of David's kingdom shall sprout), which shall stand for an ensign of the people" (a powerful battery against the dragon-power of the nations).

b."And it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people." That implies a movement similar to the general strike and march out of Egypt that the twelve tribes made under the guidance of Moses.

c."And shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah, from the four corners of the earth." That proves that the movement in question constitutes the gathering together of the two houses. "And there shall be a highway for the remnant of his people . . . like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egyp;t." Verse 16 proves that the two houses of God on their way to Zion will, by a revolutionary movement similar to the one then brought about, press their way to the place and position assigned by Elohim.

The expressions, the "daughter of Zion," and the "daughter of Babylon," refer to the fact that both the mystical Babylon (from which the spiritual Zion is delivered) and the spiritual Zion originate from institutions that bear similar names: i. e., the mystical Babylon originates from Nimrod's capital city which was built around the tower of Babel, and the spiritual Zion originates from the kingdom of David.

Zion shall be "as towns without walls"—as towns on a newly settled prairie, where the people flock together in tents; or, like the armies of the nations in their camps on the battlefield. They have no walls of any kind to protect them; but the Lord says, "I will be unto her a wall of fire round about, and will be the glory in the midst of her." When the children of Jacob left Egypt and pitched their tents in the desert, a pillar of fire and smoke surrounded them. That constituted their wall of defense when the armies of Egypt tried to overpower them. In Is. 4: 5, 6, that same wall of defense is promised by the Lord.

"And the Lord will create upon every dwelling-place of Mount Zion, and upon her assemblies (gathered troops), a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night: for upon (about) all the glory shall be a defence. And there shall be a tabernacle for the shadow in the day-time from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from storm and from rain."

OUT OF THE KINGDOM TO COME:

FROM THE OLD PARADISE TO THE NEW

The basic element of the governmental tree of Christ is the Word of God. Do you see the embryonic form of a new Paradise, having for its foreshadow the original pleasure garden in the East? We see an aged couple, who, in expectation of the fulfill­ment of the promises of God, are as though resurrected to life from a seventy-five year winter. All at once these withered old people receive a son, and then. the fruit of their lives gradually expands into a mighty nation, which expels and destroys thirty-one tribal branches of the kingdom of brick and stone. Wonder­ful changes take place, and this lively governmental tree finally grows an ornamental crown on its trunk, before which the imperial branches of the brick kingdom bow to the earth in humiliation. Who would have thought that in this old pair of the wilderness—the centenarian, Abraham, and his ninety year old Sarah—there existed such a mighty spring of life? No one but the Invisible knew the hidden course of this throbbing artery. It was the Word —the Word of life—that united things visible with things in­visible in a life which was a living demonstration of the will of God. And the whole was the accomplishment of the Word of God in the form of a real kingdom.

Do you see the kingdom? No! It is hewn down because it was only the first prefiguring model of the reality; but the stump still remains. It enroots itself more and more, and the producing characteristic of the Abrahamitic race is stamped at its roots. The name of Jesse, the father of David, is on the upper end of the stump, while the name of Abraham is at the nethermost roots.

A rod shoot's forth from the old root. It was expected that a new crown would grow on the large stump, but from the im­perial tree of knowledge came a prohibition forbidding a descend­ant of David to establish the old competitive scepter, and the Son was torn. away. The symbolic tree, Christ, was plundered way down to the roots. But see, spring followed winter—life again broke the chains of death. He was raised to a position still higher, and a more glorious body was resurrected. The true Son of David rose, invisible to unbelief, but visible to faith as the Word portrays him. Unlike the products of the imaginations of men, this por­trait of the Word contained a seed of life which, when the resur­rection of spring came, returned to us the death-torn Hero in immortal form.

Now read Isa. 11:1-16 and you will see a beautiful picture of the devastated governmental tree. When will the spring come that will raise it from the dead? The answer is given in the 11th verse. The kingly scepter of Jesse shall rise out of the dust when the Lord "shall set his hand the second time to recover the rem­nant of his people ... from the islands of the sea" and "shall as­semble the outcasts of Israel and gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth."

Then the Rod, the Son of David, will come, who shall "smite the earth with the breath of his lips ... and slay the wicked." All nations now endeavor to hinder his growth, but "he shall come upon princes as upon morter"—iron bars, copper doors, and forts will melt as frost before the sun when he raises his kingly scepter over the thrones of his enemies.

The Invisible, the Father, is the husbandman of the vineyard, and the Word, personified in the flesh of Christ, is the vine—the everlasting tree of life, accessible to the children of faith who bow themselves under the sharp sword of the Word. In order to be grafted into this tree, a person must subject himself to the flaming sword of the cherubim, inasmuch as this sword separates the con­stituent parts of the two governmental trees from each other, hews off limbs, and unites similar parts.

If you renounce all connection with the bewitching world tree, it is necessary that you not only be severed from its rights of citizenship, but that you disappear, so to speak, and merge into the vine of the Word of life. During the first process you feel the bitterness of death, but as soon as the joining-act is effected, you experience the sweet comfort of life. Your position in the world becomes more and more critical according to the degree your de­velopment is worked upon by the husbandman. You become the subject of double exertions on the part of both god powers. The imperial tree of "good and evil" has a mortgage on your flesh which is great or small according to the degree you have eaten of its fruit; and the enchanter mobilizes all his skill and genius in order to regain his missing customer. If he fails to win by good means, he resorts to evil means. Most people allow themselves to become enticed or intimidated by these equally dangerous and powerful means from assuming a position of complete union with the Word of life—they fear temporal death more than eternal death. But the one who continues to remain as a branch in the tree, eating of the Word of which the tree consists, is constantly subjected to a cleansing process—a painful operation, intended to make the branch small but the good fruit better. The natural cultivation of grapevines may here serve as an illustration.

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Now you can see the stump, upon which the beautiful crown of life fits. It is made up of an industrious people who have been obedient to the Word of God as far as they have understood it. Obedient to the first commandment God gave fallen man, they have honestly fed themselves in the sweat of their brow. With respect to knowledge, some are like the beast of burden which has suf­fered under yoke and harness, hunger and death. The dual devel­oping ability of the Word of God has become, through this painful but instructive process, a means of bringing about perfection in the once fallen but then redeemed people. The tree of death, with its defenders, will be changed to ashes under the soles of the feet of the saints.—Mal. 4 :3.

A great and wonderful change takes place "under the whole heaven." The paradisiacal earth steps forth in a complete, per­fect, and enlarged form. It is written concerning its government, "Righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins."—Isa. 11: 5. By Clicking on the yellow Link(Bible Chapter) a new window will open)

The result of this is best visible in the word-picture which the prophet has written concerning the kingdom of the future. (See Isa. 11.) Wolves and lambs, leopards and kidsy calves and lion cubs, and small children—all play in peace with each other. The old are united through their little ones. Cows and bears, lions and oxen, snakes and little tots, find pleasure in each other's company. Bloodthirsty hunters, with their brick walls, are not to be found there, neither enmity, nor destruction.

THE GATHERING OF ISRAEL

Let us now bear in mind that Christ is "the beginner and fin­isher of our faith." It is therefore necessary that we begin our return journey through the seven great movements with Christ—that is, in his work of faith, or in his work of raising the dead. The "night," of which he said, "the night cometh when no man can work," followed upon his death and extends all the way down to his second coming, or down to "the day of the Lord," which Abraham saw in his vision. The first thing to befall his people was "the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled," also the prophecy, "And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled."—Luke 21:22-24.

Paul. also spoke of the time of the Gentiles, which refers to the night, or to the last nineteen hundred years, and of the gathering of all Israel, saying, "For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own con­ceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: for this is my covenant unto them, when I shall take away their sins."—Rom. 11:25-27.

"All Israel" refers to the whole family of Jacob, the twelve tribes, which are mostly constituted of the working classes of the whole so-called Christian world. "There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer." And Peter says that Christ was the "living stone, disallowed indeed of men [the builders], but chosen of God, and precious," which was laid in Zion; also that it was "a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense" to the two houses of Israel. (Compare Isa. 8:14 with 1 Pet. 2:4-8.) Now add to these clear prophecies the following words of Jehovah concerning "Judah and Israel," and the mind will be led to a clear view of the work of restoration which Christ' is to accomplish. Jehovah says, "And it shall come to pass, that like as I have watched over them, to pluck up, and to break down, and to throw down, and to destroy, and to afflict; so will I watch over them, to build, and to plant, saith the Lord." (Jer. 31:28.) When is this to take place? The answer is given in the following words:

"And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his peo­ple . And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall as­semble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. The envy also of Ephraim shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off: Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim. And there shall be an highway for the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria; like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt."—Isa. 11:11-16. Clicking on this Link will open new window of Bible Chapter

The Shepherd of the people said concerning the same day and the same movement as follows:

"Behold, I, even I, will both search my sheep, and seek them out. As a shepherd- seeketh out his flock in the day that he is among, his sheep that are scattered; so will I seek out my sheep, and will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day. And I will bring them out from the people, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them to their own land, and feed them upon the mountains of Israel by the rivers, and In all the inhabited places of the country. I will feed them in a good pasture, and upon the high mountains of Israel shall their fold be: there shall they lie in a good fold, and in a fat pasture shall they feed upon the mountains of Israel . . .I will seek that which was lost, and bring again that which was driven away, and will bind up that which was broken, and will strengthen that which was sick: but I will destroy the fat and the strong; I will feed them with judg­ment."—Ezek. 34:11-17. Compare Jer. 32:37-42.

THE PRODIGAL SON

The prophetic declarations not only include Ephraim and the other lost tribes which he is the leader of, but they include the whole family of Jacob, the laboring masses, who at this stage are called, "virgin Israel," consisting of the twelve tribes. God said, "It shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people ... and shall assemble: the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth ... Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim.. And there shall be an highway for the remnant of his people which shall be left, from Assyria; like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt." (Isa. 11:11-16.) They must walk the new covenant road.—Jer. 32 :37-42.

At that time the power of Assur will extend to the uttermost North, and mighty war winds will then begin to blow upon the earth. Here it may be necessary to mention that in the exodus movement out of Egypt, the family of Jacob was divided into a sanctuary and a host. The ten tribes, scattered abroad among the nations—"the one that was lost"—constitute the host which King Christ "gathers together to war" on the great day of the Lord. Judah represents the sanctuary. Jehovah says of them, "For the vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah his pleasant plant."—Isa. 5 :7.

Daniel was told that the host and the sanctuary were to be suppressed by the power of desolation for 1,290 and 1,335 days—each day representing a year. (Compare Dan. 12:11,12 and Ezek. 4:6.) 1,290 and 1,335 added together make 2,625 years, which represents the time of the captivity of the host. They entered their captivity amidst the turmoil of war in the year 724 B. C. 724 from 2,625 leaves 1,901. Jehovah commands the servants of prophecy "in the latter days" to prophesy "upon these dry bones," mentioned in Ezek. 37th chapter, including "all the house of Israel," and then things begin to move in the valley of death—the bones come together, and "there was a noise, and behold a shaking." What is this'? It is the movement which has recently caused the mighty of the earth so much alarm, namely, the labor movement which attained to such alarming proportions in the beginning of the present century.

The sons of Ephraim prophesy in the land of Ephraim, and-the daughters also step forth in the ranks. (Gen. 49 :22, margin.) The laboring masses of Jacob are made alive and become of "one heart." When the power of Laban has changed his wages ten times, Jacob will find himself at the end of the route. The property owner finally desires that Jacob should be satisfied with his being permitted to work for domiciliary rights, in that he thus escapes being reckoned among "vagabonds." And then he "serves swine" —people having natures developed like those of swine—without receiving even his food. (Even now many are compelled to pay a fee in order to obtain a position.) In the degree that his pros­pects for food diminish, unity and action are increased and ac­celerated. Lockouts, blockades, and general strikes are the order of the day. Ezekiel saw how the "exceeding great army" became alive by virtue of the war winds. It was a "general strike" that brought Israel out of Egypt. These signs show that a great and magnificent change lies before the slaving people soon.

In the degree that the great labor movement commands the atten­tion of the world, the modern religious people assume an adverse position toward it and label it as the work of Antichrist. Yea, the Swedish organ of the so-called free religious people, "Svenska Mor­gonbladet," says, "For every day that goes, Socialism and Anti­christ prove more and more to be synonymous terms." Were that the case, Antichrist would be sitting in "The People's House," and the So­cialists must then most naturally have gone out from the believers, for Paul says that Antichrist "sitteth in the temple of God," and John says that already in his time there existed "many Antichrists," who "went out from us"—from the apostolic circle. No one will try to claim that a Socialist hall is a temple of God. It is therefore a terrible accusation. Everyone must become sure in his own mind concerning this matter, because it will grow more important for every day that goes.

No one can but notice the great similarity between the labor movement of our time and the first labor movement in Egypt before God sent them their leader, Moses, who, through the power­ful miracles of Jehovah, conquered the then existing cohesion of wealth. The movement of liberation is now gaining a deeper and stronger foothold in the laboring masses. This can best be illustrated by what Prof. Vandervelde said in a lecture at Stock­holm, Sweden, sometime ago:

"Little Belgium is the natural center of the laboring movement of all countries. Twenty-five nations from all parts of the world have joined the International Bureau of that country. The Catholic Church has its limits, but Socialism has no limits on our planet. The sun will never set in the Socialistic kingdom; it is the mightiest movement in the world."

This cannot be denied. The first labor movement was also powerful and formidable. But it remained fettered until Jehovah with his power liberated it from the concentrated power of wealth. The same thing will happen this second time as soon as its God-given leaders come. It is prophesied concerning these leaders in Acts 3 :22, 23 and Rev. 11.

The strong now stand over the weak with threats and force in order to hinder them from lending a thought toward liberation. But when the day of famine and distress, "the Lord's year of re­compenses," begins, the lost son will be compelled to choose between two apparently inevitable kinds of death. Finally he. goes to the mountains and valleys of the wilderness where he meets the Eman­cipator. When the procession begins to move, it is attacked by the disciplined hosts sent out by Pharaoh (the landowner) ; but the lamentation caused by the ravages of death in this so-long-a-time martyred family is quieted by the affectionate reception of the Father, which is best described in Ezek. 37, and in the following words: "But when he was yet a great way off, his father saw him, and had compassion, and ran, and fell on his neck, and kissed him." (Luke 15 :20.) He receives mercy in the house of grace.

THE SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC ASPECT OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD

Imagine when each of 144,000 such beings is put in his place, and the King, also God himself—the Creator of light, who sur­passes these in glory as the sun surpasses the moon and the moon our electric lights—shines on the city with their glory! What a powerful light! The sun will be superfluous in this city; it will be eclipsed by the beams of light from the Lifegiver and the glorious light emanating from his Father.

8. The Social Activity of the Kingdom. The Prince of Peace will ascend his throne. The governmental scepter of peace will extend over the whole earth. "Every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood; but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire." All of this will be exterminated by Truth and his queen Righteousness. The result of their rule will be most noticeable among the animals, which, under the present governmental system, treat each other as man treats both them and his fellow men. The prophet describes the condition in the coming world, saying, "The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. And the suckling child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice's den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea."—Isa. 11:6-9.

The beasts, birds, and fishes living over the great destruction will be brought into the new kingdom together with the new-born human family, where they will be united into a complete whole by the regenerating power of love. The Son of man and his bride will assume their position as determined by God, being in. that position the uniting link between the Creator and the creation below man. This Michael-man will then be like God, and will rule over the earth by means of God's power of life and happiness. Birds, fishes, and animals will obey his voice and seek his favor. They will be wild no longer, because when love and peace prevail among the people who rule over them, they will have nothing to fear. No one will look for their fine coverings nor eat of their flesh any more.

The eternal League of Nations, consisting of twelve nations, will then be visible. As we have before mentioned, the creation of God is dual in every detail. It is only the first part, or the mold—from which the real and everlasting Logos-creation will come—that we now see and are, as yet, a part of. We must notice that the material out of which God organized this world existed before time existed, also that time began with the organization of the different parts, of which everything came forth in pairs, be­ginning with the creating elements, light and life. The Organizer commanded and the words assumed form:

"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters [organizing the different parts]. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters."—Gen. 1:1-6.