WHERE IS THE HOUSE THAT YOU BUILD ME? AND WHERE IS THE PLACE OF MY REST?... (Isaiah 66...KJV).

And thou shalt rear up the tabernacle according to the fashion thereof which was shewed thee in the mount...(Exodus 26:30), (Ex.25:9; Hebrews 8:9)

(Two great courts, each a square, shall ye make it), One hundred cubits long, by fifty cubits wide... (Exodus 27:9-12).

THE TABERNACLE OF THE SUN... (Psalm 19: 1-6)

Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes. For thou shalt break forth on the Right hand and on the Left; and thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited...(Isaiah 54:2,3).

"And the feast of the Passover was at hand. And it came to pass that some of the disciples being masons, were sent to repair the chambers of the Temple. Iesus (the Sun) passing by, they said unto him, Master, see'st thou these great buildings and what manner of stones are here, and how beautiful is the work of our ancestors?

And Iesus said, Yeah, it is Beautiful, and well wrought are the stones, but the time cometh when one stone shall not be left upon another, for the enemy shall overthrow both the City and the Temple (See Matthew 24).. And some of the scribes, hearing him, sought to entangle him in his words and said, if thou wouldst put away the sacrifices of sheep and oxen and birds, to what purpose was this temple for God by Solomon, which has been now FORTY and SIX years in restoring?

And Iesus answered and said, It is written in the prophets, My House shall be called a House of Prayer for All nations, for the sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving. But ye have made it a house of slaughter and filled it with abomination. But the true temple is the Body of Man in which God dwelleth by the Spirit, and when this temple is destroyed, IN THREE DAYS God raiseth up a more glorious temple which the eyes of natural man perceiveth not.

Again, it is written, FROM THE RISING OF THE SUN UNTO THE SETTING OF THE SAME my Name shall be great among the Gentiles, and incense with a pure offering shall be offered unto me. But ye have made it a desolation with your offerings of blood and used sweet incense only to cover the ill savor thereof. I am not come to destroy the law but to fulfill it (continued)...

And I saw a Beast rise up out of the Sea...(Revelation 13).

Lift up thy Feet unto the perpetual desolations, even all that the enemy hath done wickedly in the sanctuary.

Thine enemies roar in the midst of thy congregations; they set up their ensigns for signs...(Psalm 74:3, 4)

...They have made it a den of thieves. (Luke 19: 41-46).

...Know you not what is written? Obedience is better than sacrifice, and to hearken better than the fat of rams. I the Lord am weary of your burnt offerings (the sacrificing of your sons and daughters to the flames of war...Ezekiel 20:13-26) and vain oblations. YOUR HANDS ARE FULL OF BLOOD. And is it not written what is the true sacrifice? Wash you and make you clean, and put away the evil from before mine eyes, cease to do evil, learn to do well. Do justice for the fatherless and the widow and all that are oppressed. So doing ye fulfill the law.

The day cometh when all that are in the Outer court, which pertaineth to blood offerings, shall be taken away, and pure worshippers shall worship the Eternal in purity and truth.

And they said, Who are thou that seeketh to do away with the sacrifices, and despiseth the seed of Abraham? From the Greeks and the Egyptians has thou learned this blasphemy? And Iesus said, Before Abraham was, I Am. And they refused to listen and some said he is inspired by a demon, and others said that he is mad; and went their way and told those things to the priests and elders." The Gospel of The Perfect Life, Lection XLIX.

I should have mentioned at the beginning of this Introduction that I have employed the King James Version of the scriptures almost exclusively throughout. But this is a fitting place to say so. The reason has everything to do with the number FORTY and SIX itself (John 2:20), and the relationship this number has to the cosmic dimensions of the True Temple (whose curtains extend all the way across the sea, to the ends of the earth and this fulness of times--to America). And thus it has to do with the relationship these things have with the history of England and evolution of both the English alphabet and the English language--the unknown tongue. (This is not an extension of the Anglo-Israel doctrine which confuses the spiritual Nation--the Israel of God--with the British and American nations. The one is Light, the others are Darkness...Great Darkness). Concerning the English language, however, the oral traditions that found their way into the Torah in the time of Moses, passed out of the ancient Atlantean, Indo-European dialects and into their first written forms using a system of Proto-Hebrew-Phoenician letters and words. (The letters were 22 in number, lending both their number and arrangement to the square-block Hebrew/Chaldean alephbet that was devised centuries later in Judaism's earliest attempts to place a fence (or a hedge) around the Torah, to conceal the sacred Letter of the Law from the world at large. Because the first texts of the Torah were wholly Kabbalistic in their construction, we do not immediately recognize it as originating from an Indo-European, and specifically an ancient priestly Central European, Gaelic dialect)...

Out of the 22 letters of the Atlantean, Proto-Hebrew Phoenician alphabet, the Torah passed into the Greek (the Septuagint) and Latin, and finally to the 26 letters of the English alphabet.

Thus the final act of this divine drama opens in the English language, a language that did not even exist in the time of Moses, nor in the time of Christ (understand Isaiah 28:11), but more specifically, in that form of the language that emerged, not only in the time of Shakespear but through the minds of those who spoke and wrote in the manner of Shakespeare (or perhaps even under the name of Shakespeare). This is the language of the King James Version of the Bible. And it is this version of the scriptures alone (with its singularly-inspired structure, word-form, rhythm, meter, and syntax) that the books of the prophets may be opened in our time.

Opening the text we, first of all, can understand why the fourteen books of the Apocrypha, which are still included in the Vulgate (Latin) version of the scriptures, were translated but then set aside out of the main canon of the King James Version, for in doing so the Psalms of David were set directly in the middle of the Book. The prophetic significance can not be over stated in light of the revelation that the City of David itself (the City Above, the Mother of us all--as we shall discover in the following chapters), was also hidden from the eyes of history, not only in the center of the Oracle but in the center of Europe...

David (Christ) Crucified...(Psalm 22; 34:20; 40:6-9; 50:7-15; 110:1-4).

When the King James Version is opened, from the first chapter in Genesis to the final chapter in the Revelation, the 118th Psalm lies not only between the shortest and the longest chapters in the Bible but is itself the middle chapter of the entire Book, and thus the words:

Open to me the gates of righteousness: I will go into them, and I will praise the Lord:

The gate of the Lord, into which the righteous shall enter.

I will praise thee: for thou hast heard me, and art become my salvation.

The Stone which the builders rejected is become the Head Stone of the corner.

This is the Lord's doing; it is marvellous in our eyes...(Psalm 118:19-23; Isaiah 28:16,17; 1 Peter 2:1-8).

The temple of God was FORTY and SIX years in building (John 2:20). Thus the words: Let us create Man (ADAM) in our image. (Genesis 1:26; Gen.5:1,2). In the English language the word A.D.A.M. equals 46 (1+4+1+40). ADAM, the perfected man (male and female joined together in perfect balance, and in perfect recognition of each other), is the only temple God has ever been, or will ever be, pleased to dwell in. All others have been destroyed...

ADAM (23 chromosomes from the Female, 23 from the Male) = 46.

Every description of the true temple, and of its dimensions in the books of Exodus and Hebrews, speaks of this relationship between the Universal World Tree, the Universal or Archetypal Man who appears upon its cosmic limbs (in whose image our own human bodies are formed), and the Universal Temple. Each is a direct reflection of the other. And in quantum, or spiritual measure, each reveals the nature of God in man, and man in God. The King James version of the bible however...

There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, THE HOLY PLACE OF THE TABERNACLES OF THE MOST HIGH.

God is in the midst of her; she shall not be moved: God shall help her, and that right early... (Psalm 46:4, 5).

...is the only version in which one may go to the Forty-sixth Psalm, and count 46 words from the top to find the word Shake, and 46 words up from the bottom to find the word Spear. "Shake-speare." Someone, or some others in those times were clearly adepts in the higher mysteries, or open channels for them:

"John Dee was instrumental is disseminating Vitruvian principles of architecture and geometry. In 1570, moreover, fifteen years before his journey to Prague, he published a preface to an English translation of Euclid. In this preface, he extolled the 'supremacy of architecture among the mathematical sciences.' He spoke of Christ as 'our Heavenly Archemaster.' He echoed Vitruvius's portrait of the architect as a species of magus.

'And the name of Architecture, is of the principalitie, which this Science hath, above all other Artes. And Plato affirmeth, the Architect to be Master over all, that make any worke...'

During most of Dee's lifetime, 'esoteric' thought in England had, as we have seen, remained underground or had been taken up in certain rarefied circles. In Scotland it had flourished; but because of the House of De Guise and Mary Queen of Scots (Catholics), everything Scottish was suspect in English eyes. In consequence, Dee and other English adherents of 'esoterica' could not yet forge the crucial link with developments in Scotland.

By the beginning of the seventeenth century, however, the situation had dramatically changed. In 1588, Philip II's Armada had been decisively defeated and Spain was seen as less and less of a threat to English security. The possibility of (Catholicism) (re)establishing a foothold in Britain had receded with the execution of Mary Queen of Scots...

Moreover, 'esoteric' thought was no longer associated so exclusively with the houses of Guise and Lorraine, or even, for that matter with Catholic interests. One of its most important new patrons was the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph II, who declared himself neither Catholic nor Protestant, but Christian...By 1600, in fact, 'esoteric' thought had begun to flourish energetically and publicly in Protestant principalities throughout Europe...Thus purged of any taint of the Guise and Lorraine families, it could safely break surface in England.

In 1603...James VI of Scotland--a Stuart monarch with Guise-Lorraine blood--became James I of England. At this point, from the perspective of posterity, one can virtually hear a 'click' as the requisite historical componants at last slip into place. With the union of England and Scotland under a single sovereign, noble Scottish families began to play a role in English affairs...Through such families, something of the old Templar mystique...began to seep into England and Ireland. And the new king, it must be remembered, was a patron and possibly a member of the guilds of 'operative' stonemasons. He brought with him from the north their traditions, as well as the 'esoteric' heritage of his Guise-Lorraine forebears. All of these elements, conjoined with the work of John Dee and his disciples, were to coalesce into a philosophical or, as it is called, 'speculative' Freemasonry. All of them had now become not only respectable and legitimate, but associated with the throne as well. The old Templar sword, and the trowel of the master-builder were to become, in effect, adjuncts of the Stuart arms.

There was to be one further current of influences before Freemasonry crystallised into its modern form. In the Continent...'esoteric' teaching was now being promoted by Protestant princes...and was being used as an instrument of propaganda against the twin bastions of Catholicism, the Papacy and the Holy Roman Empire. It had now begun to call itself 'Rosicrucianism,' and Frances Yates has labled this phase of its dissemination 'the Rosicrucian Enlightenment.' Anonymous pamphlets began to appear, extolling an 'Invisible College' or clandestine confraternity allegedly derived from a mythical founder, Christian Rosenkreuz. These pamphlets militantly attacked the new Holy Roman Emperor and the Pope; they extolled the spectrum of 'esoteric' teaching; they forecast the imminent advent of a new Golden Age...

In England, the chief exponant of 'Rosicrucian' thought was John Dee's disciple, Robert Fludd--who along with Frances Bacon, was among the conclave of scholars commissioned by King James to produce an English translation of the Bible..." Freemasonry: Geometry of the Sacred, by Michael Baigent and Richard Leigh, pp.20-22.

Perhaps these scholars were only channels for the Spirit, but in either case they were highly and strategically placed, both in time and place, because in our study of history, and the universal dimensions of the Temple, we also discover that ancient Britain is the Tyrus, or the Tyre, of the Prophets, and the original home-port of those earliest of Phoenicians who labored under Hiram, the master-builder, who served, we are told in the Hebrew story, the figures of both David and Solomon in the construction of this most famous of all temples--the Temple of History itself. Please see the books of 1 Kings and 2 Chronicles, as well as Ezekiel, chapters 26 to 28, and then understand Paul's words which say:

Know ye not that ye are the Temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you?

If any man defile the Temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the Temple of God is holy, which Temple ye are...(1 Corinthians 3:16,17; 1 Cor.6:19; Ephesians 2:13-22).

The Spirit then goes on to say of the Prince of Tyrus, this King James of Divine Right fame, this vainglorious mortal who allowed his name to be affixed upon the Word of God:

Thus saith the Lord God; Because thine heart is lifted up, and thou hast said, I am a God, I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas; yet thou art a man, and not God, though thou set thine heart as the heart of God...

But of that particular version of Scripture with his name upon it:

Behold, thou art wiser than Daniel; there is no secret they can hide from thee...(Ezekiel 28:1-3).

Of course the whole of it proves in the end to be a Divine indictment against the entire Anglo-American-Masonic-Merchant order, as it is written:

Lay not up for yourselves treasures upon earth, where moth and rust doth corrupt, and where Thieves break through and steal:

But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust doth corrupt, and where Thieves break through and steal:

For where your treasure is, there will your heart be also...

The light off the body is the Eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light.

BUT IF THINE EYE BE EVIL, THY WHOLE BODY SHALL BE FULL OF DARKNESS. IF THEREFORE THE LIGHT IN THEE BE DARKNESS, HOW GREAT IS THAT DARKNESS...(Matthew 6:19-24).

The Temple of Darkness

The City of Darkness

The Root of all evil...

For a full taste of Divine Satire read the entire prologue to the King James version of Scripture:

TO THE MOST HIGH AND MIGHTY PRINCE JAMES...

Great and manifold were the blessings, most Dread Sovereign, which Almighty God, the Father of all mercies, bestowed upon us the people of England, when first he sent Your Majesty's Royal Person to rule and reign over us. For whereas it was the expectation of many, who wished not well unto our Sion, that upon the setting of that bright Occidental Star, Queen Elizabeth (the Virgin Queen, of whom the States of Virginia are named, and through which the James River flows from its source in the Alleghany mountains), of most happy memory, some thick and palpable clouds of darkness would so have overshadowed this Land, that men should have been in doubt which way they were to walk; and that it should hardly be known, who was to direct the unsettled State; the appearance of Your Majesty, as of the Sun in his strength, instantly dispelled those supposed and surmised mists, and gave unto all that were well affected exceeding cause of comfort...

To go forward with the confidence and resolution of a Man in maintaining the truth of Christ, and propagating it far and near, is that which hath bound and so firmly knit the hearts of all Your Majesty's loyal and religious people unto You, that your very name is precious unto them...And this their contentment does not diminish or decay, but every day increaseth and taketh strenght, when they observe, that the zeal of Your Majesty toward the House of God doth not slack or go backward, but is more and more kindled, manifesting itself abroad in the farthest parts of Christendom, by writing in defense of the truth (which hath given such a blow to the Man of Sin, as will not be healed), and every day at home, by religious and learned discourse, by frequenting the House of God, by hearing the Word preached, by cherishing the Teachers thereof, by caring for the Church, as a most tender and loving nursing Father...

God is (indeed) terrible to the kings of the earth. And then for an insight to the essential and exclusive structure of the King James version of Scripture compare such verses as:

Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus, and say unto him,

Thus saith the Lord God, THOU SEALEST UP THE SUM, full of wisdom, and perfect In beauty... (Ezekiel 28:1-3).

and...Now of the things which we have spoken this is THE SUM... (Hebrews 8:1).

No other version of Scripture makes the vital connection between these two verses. And then the import of such other verses as : AND IN THE PROCESS OF TIME IT CAME TO PASS, that Cain brought of the fruit of the ground an offering unto the Lord...(Genesis 4:3), and, And Cain talked with Abel his brother: AND IT CAME TO PASS, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother, and slew him...(Gen.4:8). No other version of scripture projects these texts into the future as the KJV does, merging them at last, not only with the full import of the Book of 1 John but with events that shall unfold right here in America:

Let no man deceive you by any means; for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away (into the West) first, and that Man of Sin (the spirit of Cain) be revealed, the son of perdition;

Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped, so that he as God sitteth in the Temple of God, shewing himself that he is God...(2 Thessalonians 2:1-7).

(These things are fulfilled in those who, in defiance of the precepts of Christ, but in the name of Christ, have risen up in our time to exercise power over the earth and over its peoples in the place of God; and who, in defiance of the precepts of Christ, but in the name of Christ, preside over decisions of life and death, prerogatives that belong to God alone)...

Until I went into the sanctuary O God, then I understood their end…As a dream when one awakeneth; so O Lord, when thou awakest, Thou shalt despise their image... (Psalm 73:17-20).

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One thing have I desired of the Lord, that I will seek after; That I may dwell in the House of the Lord all the days of my life, to behold the Beauty of the Lord, and to enquire in His Temple... (Psalm 27:4), (2 Corinthians 5:1-6).

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But in the Great House there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and earth; and some to honour, and some to dishonour... (2 Timothy 2:20)

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"In the deliberative council of the community there shall be Twelve laymen (Matthew 10:1) and Three priests (Open the Epistles of James, Peter and John...Galatians 2:9) schooled to perfection in all that has been revealed in the entire Law. Their duty shall be to set the standard for the practice of truth, righteousness, and justice, and for the exercise of charity, and humility in human relations; and to show how, by control of impulse and contrition of spirit, faithfulness may be maintained on earth; how by active performance of justice and passive submission to the trials of chastisement, iniquity may be cleared, and how one can walk with all men with the quality of truth and in conduct appropriate to every occasion.

So long as these exist in Israel, the deliberative council of the community will rest securely on the basis of truth. It will become a plant evergreen. Insofar as the laypersons are concerned, it will indeed be a sanctuary; and insofar as the priesthood is concerned, it will constitute the basis for a true 'holy of holies'. The members of the community will be in all justice the witnesses of God's truth and the elect of His favor, effecting atonement for the earth, and ensuring requital of the wicked. They will indeed be a tested bulwark and a 'precious corner stone' (Isa.28:16), which shall never be shaken or moved from their place. (Heb.12:25-27)." The Dead Sea Scriptures, by Theodor Gaster, pp.60-63.

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Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints, and of the household of God.

And are built upon the Foundation of the (twelve) apostles and prophets (The Mystery of Christ) being the Chief Cornerstone,

In whom all the building fitly framed together groweth unto an Holy Temple in the Lord,

In whom ye are also builded together for an inhabitation of God through the Spirit... (1 Peter 2:5-8).

There is a small collaboration of Kabbalists named Bet HaShem Midrash who (using a method of interpreting words and phrases out of the more-ancient proto-Hebrew script, according to the hieroglyphic, thus hidden, conceptual quality of each letter, thereby finding in each letter, word, and phrase of the Torah more information that meets the eye) see in the twelve sons of the twelve fathers--(twenty four elders) of the Twelve tribes of Israel (Numbers, chapters 1, and 2)--twelve primary and interacting organic functions of the human body, and the spiritual concepts that govern them:

"The outer Man (the physical body) illustrates the workings of the inner (spiritual) Man. The Body is the means to express and to demonstrate all concepts of light housed within. Twelve main sets of life principles are the source of the Inner Man operations, from every tribe (branching) of Israel. The attributes of father and son--the abilities to instigate and expand--are present in each life operation. For example, the gift and operation of sight is due to the inward presence of Elitsur, son of Shedaur (Numbers 1:5; 2:10). True vision is the result of an ever-abundant source of light (a meaning which is drawn out of the name 'Shedaur') in conjunction with constructive observation (derived from 'Elitsur').

The twelve sons and twelve fathers in these Torah portions comprise the twenty-four elders…that serve continually around the Throne of HaShem in the Temple. These elders sit in thrones within the inner man, each clothed in white garments, having golden crowns on their heads. As priestly rulers, they direct each man's journey, progress, and use of energy--his sacrifices. Spiritual mindedness is being attentive to their voices of counsel as they administer the affairs of the tabernacle--of the Spirit's place of dwelling...

Among the other functions of the outer (physical) man operations are the endrocine, the digestive, and the reproductions systems, all working together, and all corresponding to some other higher function in the growth and development of the inner (spiritual) man.

As we project this understanding of the Twenty-Four Elders outwards, beyond our own individual existences, we see that the number "twenty-four" also corresponds to the four Sefiroth that mark the four corners of the Mystery of Christ on the limbs of the Cosmic Tree, Love, Power, Endurance, and Majesty (4 + 5 + 7 + 8). Here the Twenty-four Elders represent all the Rishis and seers, prophets and saints, teachers, true pastors and servants, male and female alike, out of every race and religious tradition on earth, who have ever come to perfection in the Wisdom of God and the Love of God. They represent the wise and understanding ancestors, and the elders of every past, present and future generation. (Revelation 4:4).

4 + 5 + 7 + 8 = 24

The figure of the (upright) pentagram (the Two Hands, Two Feet and the Head) also contain the letters Yod (10), He (5), Shin, Vau (6), and He (5 again). These are the letters of the divine name IHVH. When the letter Shin, symbol of the Holy Spirit, is placed between them, the name IHShVH (or YHShWH), the letters in the name Yeheshua, appears. This division of the Christ Mystery into 24 parts also renders the number 8+8+8, or 888. This is the numeration by Greek Gematria of the name Jesus. (Please see the chapters on the Divine Names).

And in the labors of the sons of Levi, the Gershonites who bear the curtains and the hangings of the tabernacle when it moves from place to place, and the sons of Merari who carry the boards, the rods, and the sockets (Numbers 4), Bet HaShem Midrash sees the vails and the garments of the flesh, and outer skin of the human body, and the bones and supporting structure of the human frame. And in the Kohathites, whose task it is to transport the implements of the sanctuary and the holy place from one place to another, after Aaron and his sons have taken them down and covered them, they see the whole human nervous system which transmits and carries forth messages from the higher mind (Aaron) to all the other parts of the body.

THE LOOPS…To fold back; a spiral used in conjunction with the Kabbalistic Discipline (Exodus 26:4,5; 36:12), represents a spiraling of light energies to create Mutually responsive receptors (in the neural system); a means of joining all works into one…

FIREPANS AND SHOVELS…incense bowls, snuff dish…the gathering and raking of coals, stirring the inner fires, elevating the regenerative light within. A priestly function of Kohath (the nervous system) under the administration of Aaron. The nerves transmit the fire energies, gather the release of the energies at the point of ignition, whereby the energies burst forth into performance; every activity of the energies is gathered to comprise a whole offering to YHVH, and, to the end, Kohath carries the utensils of fire amidst the other holy items.

THE ARK/MIND, BOX, DEPOSITORY OF TORAH SCROLLS…The ark is depicted in the Torah with specific measurements to house the word of the Spirit: The Length is the mind of patience, forbearance, and endurance. The Width is the mind of generosity, comfort, and expansion. The Height is the mind of restoration, establishment, elevation, and glorification.

The Length also expresses continuing renewal when mind is positioned as a child (formulation) of Elohim. The Breadth also expresses the foundations of spiritual operations and performances; and the Height also conveys the freedom that comes in serving Elohim. As our minds accept the design of the Spirit, they acquire the capacity to hold the words of the Spirit." (Bet HaShem Midrash).

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THOU SHALT MAKE A LAVER OF BRASS…and his foot also of brass, to wash withal: and thou shalt put it between the tabernacle of the congregation and the altar (of holocaust), and thou shalt put water therein.

For Aaron and his sons shall wash their hands and their feet thereat.

When they go into the tabernacle of the congregation, they shall wash with water, that they die not; or when they come near to the altar to minister, to burn offering made by fire unto the Lord:

So shall they wash their hands and their feet, that they die not: and it shall be a statute for ever to them, even to him and to his seed throughout their generations... (Exodus 30:18-21).

If one can see in the oracles how the Hands of the Mystical Body of Christ symbolize things East, and the Feet symbolize things that are coming to pass here in the West (Romans 10:15); and if one can, likewise, see that the Brass Sea that stands between the altar of holocaust and the holy place is also a symbol of the vast expanse of ocean, the Dark Atlantic itself, through which the people had to pass on their way to the West, then one will be able to interpret the historic import of the words in John:

…He riseth from supper, and laid aside his garments; and took a towel and girded himself.

After that he poureth water into a basin, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded.

Then cometh he to Simon Peter: and Peter said unto him, Lord, dost thou wash my feet?

Jesus answered and said unto him, WHAT I DO THOU KNOWEST NOT; BUT THOU SHALT KNOW HEREAFTER.

Peter saith unto him, Thou shalt never was my feet. Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with me.

Simon Peter saith unto him, Lord not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.

Jesus saith unto him, He that is washed needeth not save to wash his Feet, but is clean every whit: and ye are clean, but not all.

For he knew who should betray him; therefore said he, Ye are not all clean.

So after he had washed their feet, and had taken his garments, and was sat down again, he said unto them, Know ye what I have done unto you?

Ye call me Master, and Lord: and ye say well, for so I am.

If I then, your Lord and Master, have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one another's feet,

For I have given you an example, that ye should do as I have done unto you.

Verily, Verily, I say unto you, The servant is not greater than his lord; neither is he that is sent greater than he that sent him.

If ye know these things, happy are ye if you do them.

I speak not of you all: I know whom I have chosen: but that the scripture might be fulfilled, He that eateth bread with me hath lifted up His Heel against me (here in the West). (see Ps.41:9)... John 13:1-17.

Study the oracles of the temple again, and notice that as one enters into the Tent of the Mysteries (which only the priests may enter as we know…Math.12:1-8), we are immediately presented with a dilemma, one which reveals itself in the words:

And when the tempter came to him, he said, If thou be the son of God, command these stones be made bread. But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God... (Matthew 4:34).

And we see that this dilemma has to do with that Table that is placed on the North side of the sanctuary, upon which the priests must also place the continuous shewbread (Exodus 25:30; 26:35). And then we see that on the South side of this chamber is the Seven Branched Menorah, which, when lit, sheds light upon the whole place (Exodus 25:31-39). It is also the work of Aaron and his seed to light the Menorah (Exodus 27:20,21), thus the words:

Ye are the light of the world. A City that is set on a hill cannot be hid.

Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel (a commercial measure, as in: "The business of America is business") but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house,

Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven... (Matthew 5:14-16).

If thou seest the oppression of the poor, and the violent perverting of judgment and justice in a province, marvel not at the matter: for He that is higher than the highest regardeth; and there be higher than they.

Moreover the profit of the earth is for all: the king himself is served by the field.

He that loveth silver shall not be satisfied with silver, nor he that loveth abundance with increase: this also is vanity…

There is a sore evil which I have seen under the sun, namely riches kept for the owners thereof to their own hurt... (Ecclesiastes 5:8-13).

How is the faithful city become a harlot! (see Ezekiel 16; Revelation 17). It was full of Judgment; righteousness lodged in it; but now murderers.

Thy silver has become dross, thy wine mixed with water. Thy princes are rebellious, and companions of thieves: everyone loveth gifts, and follow after rewards: they judge not (on behalf of) the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come unto them.

Therefore saith the Lord , the Lord of hosts, the Mighty One of Israel, I will ease me of mine adversaries, and avenge me of mine enemies:

And I will turn My Hand upon thee, and purge away thy dross, and take away thy tin. (The meaning here has to do with the personalities of the wealthy, and those who favor them; and of their sinful relationship to the earth, and to the peoples of the earth, and their means of commerce and environmental exploitation). And I will restore thy judges as at the first, and thy counsellors as at the beginning: afterward thou shalt be called, The city of righteousness.

Zion shall be redeemed with judgment, and her converts with righteousness. And the destruction of the transgressors and of the sinners shall be together, and they that forsake the Lord shall be consumed...(Isaiah 1:21-28).

For among my people are found wicked men…They are become great, and waxen rich…They prosper, and the right of the needy do they not judge. (See Proverbs 9:13-18).

Shall I not visit for these things? Saith the Lord: shall not my soul be avenged on such a nation as this?

A wonderful and horrible things is committed in the land;

The prophets prophesy falsely, and the priests bear rule by their means; and my people love to have it so: and what will ye do in the end thereof? (Jeremiah 5:26-31).

Go to now ye rich men, weep and howl for your miseries that shall come upon you,

Your riches are corrupted, and your garments (the cloaks of false righteousness and respectability that you have wrapped yourselves in) are motheaten.

Your gold and silver is cankered, and the rust of them shall be a witness against you, and shall eat your flesh as it were fire. Ye have heaped treasures together for the last days.

Behold, the hire of the labourers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth: and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.

Ye have lived in pleasure on the earth, and been wanton; ye have nourished your hearts as in a day of slaughter.

Ye have condemned and killed the just ; and he doth not resist you.

Be patient, therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain.

Be ye also patient; establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh...(James 5:1-8).

But if that servant say in his heart, My lord delayeth his coming; and shall begin to beat the menservants and maidens, and to eat and drink and to be drunken (exercising authority over others, and with disdain for the plight of the oppressed);

The lord of that servant will come in a day when he looketh not for him, and at an hour when he is not aware, and he will cut him asunder, and will appoint him his portion with the unbelievers...(Luke 12:45,46).

Thus, if one is not involved in these issues, or has little concern for them, if they have not developed a hunger and thirst for righteousness and justice, that soul can proceed no further along the path to spiritual perfection (symbolized by the middle chamber of the Holy Place where the altar of incense is located). The tempter, however, tried to get the Christ-person involved, or absorbed in these issues alone, without regard for what the Spirit of God had to say on the matter. And so, again, to get stuck in a place where he or she could proceed no further. But the mind approaching the Light knows that the solution to these great issues exists with God. And the Menorah represents just that: Every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God...which a great many who are involved in issues of social justice have very little, or, at best, token or selective use for. (They love the intrigue of social activism, but have no mind for the solution). They are as those on the conservative side of the religious spectrum, (and oh how these folks love to quote the word of God), who are also stuck in this chamber. These can move no further either, because, remaining almost childlike in spirit, and unable to comprehend the greater issues of oppression and injustice that surround them, and of which they are a direct and active part, they do not hunger in this way, and remain the fearful companions of capitalists and warmakers, thieves and murderers.

Unless one is driven by a love for both, in equal measure, the poor and oppressed and the Word of God, they can proceed no further. Their thoughts will be out of balance and they will be unable to frame the proper kind of prayer, which is what the Altar of Incense, the next step toward spiritual perfection and toward the revelation of the Mystery, represents. Those who enter here must bring, not only their own thoughts but the prayers and the concerns of the people in there with them. (James 4:1-4; Jeremiah 6:20; 7:1-10). The priest must frame his or her own prayers, and those of the people, properly, and then bequest them to the Most High. Not because the Lord of Heaven cannot make out the intents of every persons own individual prayers; indeed They can and do, and spread a gentle mantle of love and comfort over those who lift their hearts to Them (They are ONE), but because when the people do not pour out their hearts in the right way, and by this we mean, when they do not ask the right questions of God, then God is figuratively unable to respond with the right answers. And without the right answers to the right questions (How? When? Where? What? Why?), we as a people cannot proceed to the final place of initiation, behind the veil, where the Mystery has been hidden all this time in the Holiest Place of All. This place, centered in the heart and mind of every living soul, leads not only to the revelation of the Mystery, but to higher worlds and to the Heavens above. (Please see in the oracles that--just as every soul must descend into human form before it can discover its own way back to its heritage in the world above, or beyond--there is no ascent without descent).

The purely invisible soul descends at birth into human form (to its preordained place on either the Female or the Male side of Life); and then (conforming to the all the dictates of historical time and place, using all of the metaphysical resources at its disposal), develops its way back up the limbs of the Tree of Life--through the Emotional and Intellectual domains--until it stands at the threshold of the higher, spiritual world. If the soul is predestined in its present lifetime to attain to spiritual perfection (as many tens of thousands are in our time) it will find its way to the Center and make the the quantum (mental) leap from the purely Intellectual domain to the Spiritual. A transformation will occur, lines of reasoning will shift and a separation takes place. Another world appears. (1 Corinthians, chapter 1, 2 and 3).

Not only was the ultimate Mystery of Creation being guarded by the Cherubim (the balanced principles of Creation) overshadowing the Mercy Seat, of which the Law says: I will commune with you from BETWEEN the cherubim...(Exodus 25:18-22), but it has everything to do, as we have already begun to see, with the meaning and the nature of the cherubim themselves, as it is written: Male AND Female created He them...(Genesis 5:2). God speaks to us from between the two, that is, from both sides of the Oracle--the Male and the Female--but only when the Two are joined together at the center and are at one with each other in the end.

THE TREE OF LIGHT

"God said, 'Let there be light' And there was light.
God saw how good the light was.
And God separated the light from the darkness.

Rabbi Isaac said,
The light created by God in the act of creation
Flared from one end of the universe to the other
And was hidden away,
Reserved for the righteous in the world that is coming.
As it is written: 'Light is sown for the righteous.'
Then the worlds will be fragrent, and all will be one.
But until the world that is coming arrives,
It is stored and hidden away... The Essential Kabbalah, The   Heart of Jewish Mysticism 
by Daniel C. Matt, p.90.

Oh send out THY LIGHT AND THY TRUTH: let them lead me; let them bring me unto Thy holy hill, and to Thy tabernacles...(Psalm 43:3).

"It is not surprising that the question of the Menorah's origin should have become an object of research only in more recent times…In general it may be said that most scholars now seem to suppose the Menorah originated from a Sacred Tree, more specifically the Tree of Life of mythology--a primal image which can be glimpsed as early as the third millenium B.C. in the epic tale, 'Gilgamesh and the Land of the Living,' which played a decisive role in the tree cult of the ancient world.

Closely akin to this image and at times identical with it was the presumably older myth of the Cosmic Tree or World Tree, usually conceived at the Center of the Earth--sometimes on a Cosmic Mountain of the gods--with its roots in the Underworld (the realm of the Dead…Ezekiel 37), and Crown in heaven (in short, a sort of imaginary 'axis mundi' or World Pillar, whose boughs, as Carlyle said of Yggdrasil, are 'histories of nations', its every leaf 'a biography,' every fiber 'an act, or word.' The Tree of Light. A Study of the Menorah, The Seven Branched Lampstand, by L. Yarden.

Where the Tree of Life contains the history of the nations--and indeed it does as we shall see--thus revealing the Presence of the Lord of All Nations who dwells above them as it were (Revelation 1:12-20), the Menorah, forged out of the structure of this Tree of Life, represents the history of that peculiar people, the Universal Israel, that is passing through the nations, being in turn perfected and redeemed from among the nations themselves. (Rev.5:9,10). The Menorah represents the precepts of the Law and the Prophets as they have been expounded from the time of Moses to our own, and the mystery of the Gospels (as well as the Qur'an) which have accompanied them, and which lead to their fulfillment. And then, as we light the candles again, it represents the manifestation of the Messiahs in our time--a Male and Female, in love, and in perfect balance and reverence toward each other. The two of them shall be revealed in the events of our time, in the name DVD, at the place named Majesty on the Oracle. (Zachariah, chapter 4; Romans 10:14,15).

Blow the Trumpet in Zion, sound the alarm in my Holy Mountain...Joel, chapters 2 and 3; Hebrews, chapter 12.

And then we see that as The Ram symbolizes the Power of the Divine Father, and the Lamb the gentle spirit of the "Son," so the sign of Aries represents all the powers of the East which the invisible Father has reserved for Himself against the day of battle and war, under whose watchful Eye the spirit of the "Son" (the Lamb) has gone forth (Westward). Thus His hairs are the hair of a Ram, White like Wool, (Revelation 1:14). His Eyes as a Flame of Fire, these are the same Seven Spirits that reveal themselves in the Menorah. (Zecharaiah 4:10; Hebrews 2:1-11). The words, His Feet like unto Fine Brass, as if they burned in a Furnace (Revelation 1:15), represent the collective spirit of the People themselves (the alloy of all nations and races of people), who are all being molded together and fired to perfection here in the West, in the great furnace of spiritual affliction that is the collective events of the Twentieth-century itself. (1 Peter 1:7; 5:12,13; Daniel 3:6,25; Acts 2:1-21).

We have already seen in part 2 of this chapter, that by gaining access to the oracles, to the meanings of the Universal Mandala on the Tree of Life, that we have also found the pathway that leads from the dimensions of this world, to the world beyond, as it was said in Christ: I will go before you. Such a realization immediately begins to reconcile all of the various other dimensions of the Oracle to each other--the mysteries of the West to the East, and those of the North to the South. To get to the world beyond we must go through the Door. The Door leads to a state of Universal Christ-Consciousness (Buddha-Consciousness) (Yogi-Consciousness) (Sufi-Consciousness). It is open to all who can, and would come. (Don't be proud, Y'all come).

Before we proceed into the following chapters we want to see something else about the structure of the Ark of the Covenant. It is Two and A Half cubits long, One and A Half cubits wide, and One and A Half cubits high. (Exodus 25:10). We see that it is measured in half-cubits instead of whole-cubits for the simple reason that every measurement of the Ark, thus the thoughts as well as the needs of every individual, must overlap the other, and depend on the other for its own state of wholeness and support. We see that it is made up of 45 cubes of one-half cubit measure apiece. We can see that be taking away every cube that faces the outside of the structure, as we strip away every outer meaning of the World Mystery to get to its inner dimensions, that it contains Three perfect cubes within. These represent the hidden tri-partate structure of both nature and history--The heaven (or the East) above, the earth (or the West) below, and the sky and sea (the Middle Realm) between . It also represents the Three divisions of the Sacred City, as it is written: And the Great City was divided into Three parts...(Revelation 16:19). It gives us a fuller understanding of how to read the Oracle. When we fix the Central Mandala of the Tree at that place in the center of Europe, which is where we shall keep it throughout this work (for reasons that will be apparent in the following chapter), we can set its higher dimensions in the East. And from another point of view we can set its lower dimensions in the West. This work proceeds from this same structural point of view: The East above, the West below, and the place where the Great Dragon, the Leviathan, layed hidden all this time, in between. (Please see Chapter 2).

I offered, not this particular set of commentaries but this method of exegesis to a Jewish acquaintance of mine, seeking his opinion, knowing beforehand that he was not predisposed to much mystical theology, (or not from someone who was as seemingly "non-Jewish" as myself). Perhaps while in his youth his family impressed upon him an aversion to speculative Kabbalah. But it was my secret hope that he would find in it the means to reconcile himself to his parents who he seemed to be convinced were "unsaved." Perhaps it is true but not because they are Jewish; possibly it is because they are worldly or unobservant. And then that he might find in it the means to convince his parents to be reconciled to him, because since his conversion to Christianity they are equally convinced that he is unsaved, or "dead." But I suppose I did not have it said quite well enough, so that he could understand how all Jews and Christians are already reconciled, and both to all others when they discover the dimensions of the Tree of Life. A Christian has merely to move from his position on the Left side of the Oracle, the side of Endurance, (which we shall see was assigned to the tribe of Levi…Leviticus 8; Numbers 18), and a Jew has simply to move from the Right side of the Oracle, the side called Majesty (which we shall discover is assigned to the tribe of Judah)...

And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever... (Revelation 1:6).

To be reconciled they have but to meet at the place named Foundation, beneath the Tree, or at Beauty--in Jerusalem (not referring, of course, to that city-under-seige-again in the Middle East)..

He said, however, that it was all too esoteric, too presumptuous, and too full of notions that are not familiar to anyone, demanding that one already know something about them: Kabbalah for instance, or perhaps even Quantum theory, with which the Kabbalah is intricately connected (for just as one experiences a breakdown in logic as they approach the hidden center of physical reality where the material and spiritual realms touch and shimmer together, so one must also abandon their past-held notions of history as they approach the hidden center of the Tree of Life). And he said there is an uncharitable preoccupation with judgment in all of this, and not enough of love. But the handmaid of love is judgment, or correction, or Power. They are balanced on the Tree of Life. God presents them to us in both hands…choose. Perhaps this story relates to the criticism: One day while reading from the judgment texts in the streets of New York City, during the mid-day rush when thousands of people were passing by, a woman near her 80th year stopped to listen. Everyone else was too busy with the affairs of empire, and had no time for another "crazed tirade about the end of the world." But the end of something signals the beginning of something, of something wonderful and new. So the old saint, who understood this, asked if she could talk to the people. I almost fell at her feet at the thought of her asking my permission, and praised God for allowing me to be standing on the same spot on earth with her. This wise old African sister began to speak, as loud as she could. She spoke of the love of God, and of God's work in creation, of God's plan to bring the age of Darkness to an end in order to give birth to an age of Light. She spoke of grace, of redemption, of love, and no one listened.

We live in an age of gross Darkness. The Word of God has free course, but in its most popular and pervasive forms it has been twisted over the centuries to fit a worldly-American-Protestant-Catholic-Capitalistic-Militaristic-Nationalistic scheme of things, And the vilest of men are truly exalted... (Psalm 12). All others have their voice in the wilderness.

Besides the mind in bondage to the material side of reality, besides intellectual pride, and besides the fact that so many people are just plain burned out from hearing every theory on the matter, at least here in America; and besides the fact that in its purest form the Word of God is more than often committed to those who are, or who seem, least qualified to express it--to people without "credentials" (proving that God is truly no respecter of individuals, or of the conventions of men, and that She is indeed dwelling in the depths of the human condition, listing where She will, raising up who She will)--is the fact, as we said before, that the Word of God has come down to us in two forms, a written and an oral (and a thousand interpretations in between; thus the Darkness is accompanied by massive confusion). This means that what is written is found in some books, like the Bible, while the meanings of what is written, how it has and must be interpreted, is found in other books (many other books)--but in legends also, and in the mythology and popular imagination of those whose predecessors first learned the meanings. One must not imagine, for instance, that the Norse myths, which set the Thunderer, Thor, and the Anglo-Saxon Wodin against each other, have no place in reality, or that they are not now being fulfilled in the great antagonisms that (still) exist between Russia (in the East) and the United States. Or that they did not result from the oral teachings of the Hebrew Prophets:

"They pay no heed to the real hidden meanings of things, but divert themselves instead with all kinds of iniquitous arcane lore…They do not know the hidden meaning of what is actually taking place, nor have they ever understood the lessons of the past. Consequently, they have no knowledge of what is coming upon them, and have done nothing to save their souls from the deeper implications of present events.

This, however, will symbolize things for you. What is going to happen is, as it were, that all iniquity is going to be shut up in the womb and prevented from coming to birth. Wrong is going to depart before Right, as darkness departs before light. As smoke disappears and is no more, so will Wrong disappear forever. But Right will be revealed like the Sun. The world will rest on the sound Foundation. All who cling to rarified arcane lore will cease to exist. The world will be filled with knowledge, and ignorance exist no more.

The thing is certain to come. The prophecy is true, and by this you may know that it will not be revoked:

Do not all peoples hate wrongdoing? Yet, is it not rampant among them all? Are not the praises of truth sung by all nations? Yet is there a single race or tribe that really adheres to it? What nation like to be oppressed by a stronger power? Or who wants his property plundered unjustly? Yet, is there a single nation that has not oppressed its neighbor? Or where in the world will you find a people that has not plundered the property of another?" The Dead Sea Scriptures, by. Theodor Gaster, p.429.

Or the Grail Legends: that they do not anticipate the final manifestation of the Fellowship of the Mystery (Ephesians 3:9), that remnant who shall partake of, and drink down the Cup of Christ's atonement in these last days. For how could these mysteries find their way back to the land we now call America, if they did not first return to those lands, France and Britain, to which the legends and the meanings of the Grail were secretly brought along the way?

And then another precept governing the transmission of the Oral tradition is true. It cannot be passed on by books alone, in the same way as true religion, or true faith, cannot be learned in church or the classroom. It must be passed on from heart to heart, as each soul is prepared for it, and in places and at times in which the soul has need for it.

Perhaps my own need was created when, after 10 years of military service (.......) an automobile we happened to acquire at the time was repossessed. We signed a bank note for a friend, so he could purchase a car. He subsequently fell into straits as so many of us do, and was unable to continue the payment. So my wife and I went to the bank to explain the situation, and to assure them that we would continue the payments, but also to ask them not to act so quickly when we fell behind--that we would catch up--trying as we were to raise a family on a very small salary and attend a local college at the same time. We fell behind often, but the car was getting paid off. When one night the agents of the bank crept into the garage and "stole" it. When I complained to them of what seemed to be their plainly criminal behavior, they assured us that their actions were "perfectly legal." Our eyes were opened. We realized that it was not America's laws that were broken (which allow the rich and powerful to exploit and prey upon the poor and working classes), but God's. We learned that the two sets of laws were not only not equal to each other (which we were somehow led to believe), but that they were diametrically opposed to each other. And we wondered why the Church (which sent me away to defend these wicked laws), was not aware of it. It was no mere expression that caused one to wonder, "What in hell is going on around here?" These were radical times, so I vowed to the bank that I in turn would not repay the several thousand dollars we had borrowed to continue our education. Later, as our thinking about such matters were beginning to waver, when we thought about repaying the loan (just to get it behind us I suppose), God deprived us of the means. We found ourselves instead locked out of the mainstream of American economic life, and at the beginning of this work:

"Nowadays there are schools and colleges and societies and institutions where the ancient wisdom can be studied quite comfortably in easy chairs, with the use of electric light and central heating systems to keep us oblivious to the hardships of the outside world.

In themselves these blessings of modern civilization are quite harmless, but in an indirect manner they do injure us. The pure consciousness is not enriched by study per se, and the increase of knowledge is not the highest aim of man. It is only if knowledge is made subservient to love that it fulfills its mission. Therefore when the acquisition of learning is made possible in the midst of comforts, and even luxury, the danger always exists of hardening the mind and making it miss the beautiful lessons of charity, forgiveness, and forbearance, while those who are trained by hardship and have to learn their lessons on empty or half-filled stomachs are more accessible to the appeals of suffering and want. Consequently the deprivations which the poor students had to undergo in olden times taught them as much, if not more, as their books. Whereas the well-off students of today are ever in peril of losing their souls while enlarging their minds." The Mysteries of the Qabala, p.27.

So one learns that charity must indeed preside over the exchange, not only of material things but also of ideas, and especially here where the Kabbalistic sense of the Mystery of Christ--because it suddenly becomes foreign to our already-formulated beliefs--offends and assaults the perceptions and sensitivities of the uninitiated hearer, and moreso if the hearer is as zealous for (what they do not yet perceive to be) the outer aspects of the Mystery as the student of the esoteric tradition is for the inner).

"There are some people who, having the world in admiration rather than the maker of the World, pronounce it to be without beginning and everlasting, while with impious falsehood they postulate in God a vast inactivity: whereas on the contrary we ought to be astonished at His powers as maker and Father, and not to assign to the world a disproportionate majesty." Philo Judaeus, On The Creation.

"The roots of metaphysical uncertainty lie in human nature: all merely finite striving after God is incomplete. Only when God actively descends to reveal His/Her will can this uncertainty be overcome. But the God of the philosophers dwells above, unmoved. The difference between religion and philosophy are reflected in the attitude toward God assumed by their followers. The philosophers make God a mere object of contemplation, whereas the followers of Abraham strive for passionate communion with God Himself." Virgilius Form, The History of Philosophic System.

And then to be guarded against is any supposition (pride), that the things being revealed to one are actually unheard of, or unthought of by others. Thousands upon thousands are studying Kabbalah in our time. Sojourners magazine, in its analysis of the President's relationship to the American church, September, 1984; in its article entitled, "By the Waters of Babylon", October, l984; and in its, "The Rise of Christian Conscience," January, 1985, nearly touched the entire matter. And what African-American student of the Scriptures does not know that the 400 years spoken of at Genesis 15:13 pertains directly to the children of Israel's sojourn in America in these last times? Even one mainline publication (perhaps it was Christianity Today, or Moody Monthly), asked several years ago: "Are we headed for another Exodus?" The answer, of course is "yes!" The place does not belong to us. It is stolen. And all things must be returned to their rightful owners in the Great Jubilee (Leviticus 25:8-13).

Walter Wink, in the March, 1982 edition of Christian Century, whose front page read: "Nothing Can Save Us That Is Possible. We Who Must Die Demand A Miracle," wrote:

"I recently awoke from a dream with the sentence echoing in my ears: 'Faith is practicing the future.' I had been studying Ezekiel's vision of the dry bones (see Ezekiel 37) with a group, and had been particularly struck by the role of the prophet in the "resurrection" of the people. Israel in captivity, he saw, was like a valley filled with dry bones. When God asks if these bones can live, Ezekiel can scarcely muster an answer. Yet (the Lord) orders him--this prophet who was just as dry as his people--to prophesy to the bones, and to say unto them, 'O dry bones, hear the Word of the Lord. Thus saith the Lord God to these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and you shall live. I will lay sinews upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you, and you shall live; and you shall know that I am the Lord.'"

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