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MANIPULATION
OF TIME & SPACE: GOAL OF THE ANTI-CHRIST?
A Discussion On Time & Space, Creation, Eden, Angelic
Visitations, Miracles, UFO's And The Anti-Christ
One common theme currently found
in modern sci-fi movies and
television programs is that of time travel. Just looking
back over the past decades,
titles that come to mind are
'The Time Tunnel,' 'Lost In
Time,' 'Planet Of The Apes,'
'The Time Machine,' 'Time Bandits,'
'Time Cop,' 'Back To The
Future,' 'Early Edition,'
'Somewhere In Time,' 'The
Philadelphia Experiment,'
'Quantum Leap' and a host of
others. Anyone who is even a little bit familiar with the
workings of the cinemagraphic and television industries,
knows that the great special
effects we see are a result of
manipulating time, space,
distance, size, color and light
through a camera lense in just the
right way. To someone who
lived a thousand years ago, it
might seem like magic, or
even the power of a god! One common special effect used in
horror flicks is to 'contract'
time through a sequence of
frames so that we can watch as
our favorite actor or
actresss
is transformed into some kind of hideous monster.
Of course, as adults, we know
that it is all a process of
applying make-up and combining
different frames to create
the final effect. When you are a child though, the effect
can be quite impressive. Movies which contain a space or
alien invasion theme are also a
good example of how these
different elements are combined
to convert an obvious
illusion into what appears as reality
for the protagonists
of the film. The 'Star Wars' & 'Star Trek' series are
prime
examples of this.
Clearly, we humans are intrigued
by the challenge of
manipulating time, and not only
manipulating it, but also
overcoming its barriers within which we have been confined.
The greatest minds of our
century and past centuries have
given great thought to this subject. Wthin
the circles of
scholars, scientists, and
science fiction writers, theories
abound concerning the very
nature and properties of time, as
well as its relationship to space and our physical world. In
the fringe area of UFOlogy, the element of time also appears
to play an important role. During their encounters, many
people relate a peculiar
phenomenon which is referred to as
'missing time,' a period during
their encounter which they
cannot account for. According to many reports I have read,
there is no memory of what has
happened during the time
lapse. Some resort to the dangerous practice of hypnotherapy
to try to draw out hidden supressed memories of their UFO
experience. As a Christian, I would advise everyone against
submitting to such techniques. In my view, by opening up
your mind to another person, you
are not only giving them
control of your very life, but
you may even be opening
yourself up to spiritual attack,
just like those who
practice different forms of yoga and meditation.
Personally, I have never
experienced time loss per se, but I
know there are times when
I have become so involved in my work
that I have lost all perception of the passage of time. It is
at times
like these that we often hear the phrase, 'How time
flies!' Of course, we
know that time hasn't really flown
anywhere; it is just that we
have lost track of it due to
whatever we happened to be involved in at the time. There have
also been a few times
where I have become confused when waking
up in the middle of the night and have done some crazy
things.
I recall one time waking up
thinking I was late for work. As I
frantically prepared myself,
getting dressed etc., someone
reminded me what time it really
was. Of course, I felt like a
real fool, but it just goes to show how much we have become
creatures of time in our modern
world and what can happen when
we become disoriented by it. If it weren't for physical
objects in our material world
which help us to keep track of
time, such as the sun, moon and
stars, alarm clocks, watches,
etc., we would not even be aware
of time, or the passage of
time.
Think of how odd it would be if
we had no concept of time
whatsoever except to see our
bodies growing and changing and
aging over the years, or maybe
the seasons changing
throughout the year. But you see, even that is dependent
upon our observation of, and/or
the effects upon or caused
by material objects: the
physical appearance of our bodies,
the changing of the color of the
leaves, rain or snow
falling from the sky, shadows being cast by the trees, etc.
I wonder how much it would
affect our sanity if we had
nothing with which to observe
the passage of time
whatsoever. Could this very fear be the reason some of us
are so obsessed with keeping an
accurate track of time in
our daily lives? Does the fact that we are able to track
time give us the comfort of knowing
that we are still in
control of things? Or could it be that it is all a ploy by
our Earthly masters to have us
become so imprisoned by time
and the things of this temporal
world that we ignore or
forget about those things which are true and eternal? What
if we could somehow step out of
this physical universe and
dwell in a place where time did not exist? Taking it a step
further, what if we could not
only dwell in such a place,
but we could somehow move
ourselves between these two planes
of existence through some kind
of vortex or corridor which
unites them? Now there is an interesting thought to
consider!
While modern man has sought to
understand the relationship
between time and space and the
physical world, thousands of
years ago, a certain wise man
once described how history
repeats itself, and that there
is nothing new under the sun:
"The thing that hath been,
it is that which shall be; and that
which is done is that which
shall be done: and there is no new
thing under the sun."
(Ecclesiastes 1:9)
Not only does the Bible tell us
that history repeats itself,
but it also tells us that there
is indeed a sphere of existence
outside of our physical
environment where the past, present
and future are all rolled up into one. In essence, time is
non-existent there. Like a circle or a mobius
strip, there is
no beginning, and there is no end. Some of us have referred
to
this as the Eternal Now. The Bible refers to it as the
Kingdom of Heaven, and it is
there that the Eternal One dwells
in the company of His many
ministering angelic agents,
directing and manipulating the
course of history according to
His perfect will and pleasure:
"Remember the former things
of old: for I am God, and there is
none else; I am God, and there
is none like me, Declaring the
end from the beginning, and from
ancient times the things that
are not yet done, saying, My
counsel shall stand, and I will
do all my pleasure:" (Isaiah 46:9-10)
The account of creation in the
book of Genesis is a prime
example of how God is able to
manipulate time, space and
energy to produce the matter
which forms our physical
universe. And what is energy? In essence, it is a modern word
for Spirit, an unseen force
which creates and gives life, just
like the electricity which flows
through our homes giving us
light, warmth, comfort, and all
of the other modern
conveniences which we have become accustomed to. Taking it a
step further, Jesus said that
the words He spoke were Spirit
and life. Think of the word 'energy' instead of 'spirit' as
you read the following verse:
"It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth
nothing: the words that I speak
unto you, they are spirit, and
they are life." (John 6:63)
Exactly what did Jesus mean by
this? Did He just mean that by
believing in His words, in His
claim to be the Son of God,
that we could obtain Everlasting Life? Or is there more here
than what at first meets the eye? This is indeed a much
heavier concept than some may realize.
I also touched upon
this in the 'Holy Ghost' article. We are told that it is by
His spoken Word that the
physical universe came into being.
God's spoken Word is Spirit.
God's spoken Word is creative
energy. It is for this reason that Jesus is called the Word
of God. Said in another way, He is God's Creator Son
so-to-speak, the One whom God
chose to create the physical
universe. He is the Word, the Creator, the One who energized
and created the physical
universe through the Word or Spirit
of His mouth:
"By the word of the LORD
were the heavens made; and all the
host of them by the breath of his mouth." (Psalms 33:6)
"Through faith we
understand that the worlds were framed by
the word of God, so that things
which are seen were not made
of things which do appear." (Hebrews 11:3)
"In the beginning was the
Word, and the Word was with God, and
the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God.
All
things were made by him; and
without him was not any thing
made that was made."
(John 1:1-3)
"And the Word was made
flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we
beheld his glory, the glory as
of the only begotten of the
Father,) full of grace and
truth." (John 1:14)
"And he was clothed with a
vesture dipped in blood: and his
name is called The Word of God." (Revelation 19:13)
Seeing then that Jesus, the Word
of God, is able to create
these things out of nothing,
(for in a technical sense,
energy, atoms, are nothing; we
can't see them without a
powerful electron microscope),
it is only natural to assume
that He can also manipulate them as well. Furthermore, it
should also come as no surprise
that He would refer to Himself
as the Alpha and the Omega, the
Beginning and the End of all
things:
"I am Alpha and Omega, the
beginning and the ending, saith the
Lord, which is, and which was,
and which is to come, the
Almighty." (Revelation 1:8)
"Saying, I am Alpha and
Omega, the first and the last: and,
What thou seest,
write in a book, and send it unto the seven
churches which are in Asia; unto Ephesus, and unto Smyrna, and
unto Pergamos,
and unto Thyatira, and unto Sardis, and unto
Philadelphia, and unto Laodicea."
(Revelation 1:11)
"And he said unto me, It is
done. I am Alpha and Omega, the
beginning and the end. I will give unto him that is athirst of
the fountain of the water of life freely." (Revelation 21:6)
"I am Alpha and Omega, the
beginning and the end, the first
and the last."
(Revelation 22:13)
Thus far I have shown how God,
through His Creator Son
Jesus, brought the physical
universe into existence by
merely speaking the Word, i.e.,
by sending forth His Spirit,
or energy, which resulted in the
creation of physical
matter. Exactly how this was accomplished, we really
can't
begin to understand. We know that matter can be converted
into energy. There are many examples of this throughout the
world. What we don't know how to do is to take energy and
convert it back into matter. If we could, then I suppose we
would be gods. Of course, man has tried to play God anyway.
Consider, for example, the
creation of the destructive
atomic bomb, or man's attempt to alter the genetic code.
Through modern science and
technology, man has engaged
himself in tampering with the
very forces and processes
which bind this world and our very lives together. Without
the wisdom of God on his side,
can we expect him to lead us
anywhere but down the path to destruction?
Continuing then, by some means
beyond our current level of
understanding, Jesus, the
Creator Son, sent forth His Word,
or Spirit/Energy from the
spiritual realm, the Eternal Now,
into the plane where time and space exist. If we use the
example of the mobius strip again, perhaps there is some
point, or maybe even many points
in the twist of the strip,
which represent corridors or vortexes
between the spiritual
plane, and the physical plane. Scientists now claim that at
the center of galaxies, as well
as wandering throughout the
cosmos, there are what they
refer to as Black Holes, objects
of unimaginable density with
tremendous gravitational force
which suck in everything around
them, including visible
light. Assuming that they are correct, what are these
things? And where does all of this light and matter go? Is
it just annihilated? The Disney movie 'Black Hole' offered
some interesting perspectives. Is it possible that they are
in fact corridors to other realms
of existence? If the
nature of these objects as
described by scientists is
correct, then one would think
that if they lead anywhere, it
would be to places of terrible darkness and destruction.
Another hint can be found in the
Bible:
"Raging waves of the sea,
foaming out their own shame;
wandering stars, to whom is
reserved the blackness of
darkness for ever."
(Jude 1:13)
The book of Enoch goes into
great detail about these places.
Likewise, the book of Revelation
expounds on this thought
and suggests that such places
might be spiritual prisons for
those beings which have rebelled against God. There they are
kept in chains and darkness until the Final Day of Judgment.
This whole concept should really
not seem that foreign to
us. After all, if man sets up prisons on a local or
national
scale, why shouldn't God do the same thing? Perhaps He has
planetary prisons, galactic prisons, etc. The books
referenced previously certainly
seem to support this
possibility. This is discussed more fully in other of my
articles concerning judgment and angels.
As is exemplified by nature, and
discussed in other
articles, everything God made seems
to come in pairs, thus
creating a perfect balance in creation. There is black and
white, hot and cold, night and
day, sadness and joy, north
pole and south pole, positive
and negative, light and
darkness, etc. If Black Holes really
do exist and behave as
scientists claim, surely they
should be considered a
negative side of Creation. If so, what would be their
positive counterpart? Could there be similar vortices or
corridors which act in a postive manner?
In other words,
instead of absorbing light and destroying
matter, they would
create matter and produce light. Perhaps this is the
mechanism the Lord used to create our physical universe.
Maybe He sent forth some of His
Spirit, a spark of energy,
through one of these positive
points of entry into our realm
of time and space. Could it have been this creative action
by the Lord which resulted in a
colossal explosion which has
become known as the Big Bang?
While I don't agree with some of
the theories espoused by
modern-day scientists, or with
all of the times, ages and
dates that they apply to them,
we cannot just ignore the
fact that the Lord must have
used some kind of physical
mechanism to bring this universe into being. After all, it
is physical in nature, as are we. If it is indeed true that
the Universe is expanding, then
this would indicate a point
of origin, and that point just
may have been one such
connecting link between the realm
of the Spirit, the Eternal
Now, and the realm
of the physical of time and space, as
exemplified by the mobius strip. As stated
previously,
perhaps there are many points of entry and exit. Perhaps our
galaxy is one such point,
perhaps the Earth is one such
point, or maybe there are even
many such points all over the
Earth. In fact, there are
indications throughout the Bible
that these points of entry can
be opened up anywhere at any
time by those beings who have the power to do so.
Considering the unquestionable
importance and sensitive
nature of these vortices or corridors,
it only seems logical
that some kind of security
system would be implemented to
protect these doorways from
unauthorized tampering,
particularly from the physical
end, the Earth end in this
case. If such a system exists, it would serve to keep the
two realms
separated, yet still allow those who know how
to, and who are authorized to,
to cross back and forth
between the two. While this may seem like wild speculation
or good material for a sci-fi
novel to some, consider the
interesting example we find in
the book of Genesis:
"So he drove out the man;
and he placed at the east of the
garden of Eden
Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned
every way, to keep the way of the tree of life."
(Genesis 3:24)
Could the Garden of Eden
represent something much more than
what we are currently aware of? Could this guarded entrance
in fact be one of these passageways as described
previously?
An examination of the physical
Garden of Eden and the
heavenly New Jerusalem in the
final chapters of the book of
Revelation, reveal some striking
similarities. Primary among
them is the fact that in both
places we have growing the
Tree of Life. It was this tree
which the Lord sought to
protect following the downfall of humankind. For had Adam
and Eve partaken of it, they
would have lived forever, even
after their fall. This is the primary reason they were
banned from the Garden:
"And the LORD God said,
Behold, the man is become as one of
us, to know good and evil: and
now, lest he put forth his
hand, and take also of the tree
of life, and eat, and live for
ever:" (Genesis 3:22)
The verses which follow this one
then go on to explain how
Adam and Eve were driven from
the Garden as described above.
Likewise, in the Garden of Eden
we find a river which waters
the Garden, just as the River
of Life runs through the
Heavenly City, New Jerusalem.
Along this river we find the
very same Tree of Life found in Eden:
"And he shewed
me a pure river of water of life, clear as
crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.
In the midst of the street of
it, and on either side of the
river, was there the Tree of
Life, which bare twelve manner of
fruits, and yielded her fruit
every month: and the leaves of
the tree were for the healing of the nations."
(Revelation 22:1-2)
The evidence is awe inspiring.
While the Garden of Eden was
apparently located at some physical point on the Earth
where the first human pair
abode, what is now referred to as
Mesopotamia, these similarities do seem to suggest that it
may have been a link to the
other side as I have proposed
previously. It may have been the physical manifestation of a
spiritual reality. We just cannot ignore the close parallel
between Eden, from which flowed a great river, and the very
Throne of God, from which also
flowed the River of Life.
Could they in fact be
synonymous? Genesis 3 is clearly the
story of Paradise
lost, while Revelation 21-22 is the story
of Paradise regained. Could the placing of the cherubims
have been the means to close or
at least protect the portal,
(Eden), so that Paradise, the spiritual realm,
could not be
re-entered until the appropriate time?
The question which has always
remained in my mind is, what
happened to Eden following the fall of man? If it was a
physical place, was it just destroyed by Noah's Flood? We
need to remember that the
description of the Garden of Eden
with the main river dividing
into four rivers was written
after-the-fact by Moses. In other words, it could be, and I
am only speculating, that Moses
was describing the location
of the Garden of Eden as the
Earth appeared AFTER the Flood
once the waters had receded. Considering the magnitude of
the Flood, it would seem likely
that the physical appearance
of the Garden of Eden was
greatly altered by the mighty
forces released during the actual Flood. In other words, in
the book of Genesis, perhaps
Moses is saying, 'Look, if you
go to the area where you find
the point of origin of these
four rivers, that is where the
Garden of Eden used to be
located. Obviously, the Garden of Eden could no longer be in
existence in Moses' day, or at least so it seems to me. But
that still leaves us with a few
questions: What happened to
the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil? What happened to
the Tree of Life? At what time did the cherubims
stop
guarding the area? The only answer I have been able to come
up with is that sometime after
the Fall, possibly before the
Great Flood of Noah's day, the
Lord once again transported
them back through the portal at Eden into the realm of the
Spirit, and thus we find them in
the Heavenly City of New
Jerusalem.
As should now be evident, God is
the Master when it comes to
manipulating time, space and matter. He created it, He can
manipulate it. Not only that, there is sufficient evidence
to show that He is not the only
One Who has the ability to
do this. Leaving aside the actual creation of the world,
the
following pages will be
dedicated to taking a look at some
examples of how He and certain
other spiritual beings have
transcended time and space and entered our physical plane.
These will not be what can be
classified as obvious dreams
and visions as experienced by some of the Prophets. They
will be real
down-to-earth encounters with angelic agents,
or even the Lord Himself in physical, or semi-physical
form.
The very first example can be
found in Genesis shortly after
the Fall:
"And they heard the voice
of the LORD God walking in the
garden in the cool of the day:
and Adam and his wife hid
themselves from the presence of
the LORD God amongst the
trees of the garden. And the LORD God called unto Adam, and
said unto him, Where art thou? And he said, I heard thy
voice in the garden, and I was
afraid, because I was naked;
and I hid myself."
(Genesis 3:8-10)
It does not seem to me that this
is a voice coming down from
the sky as we read in later accounts such as in the Gospels.
The Lord appears to be there,
walking in the Garden, looking
for Adam and Eve. They hear Him calling out to them, so they
hide. Why would they attempt to hide if He wasn't there
physically in the Garden? This is not a dream in the night
or a vision. In those early days of Creation, I speculate
that the Lord crossed over that
gulf which separates His
realm from ours and communed directly on the Earth with His
creations. From another perspective, we know that the Lord
created all things for His own
good pleasure as demonstrated
by previous verses. Here is another one which also points
this out:
"Thou art worthy, O Lord,
to receive glory and honour and
power: for thou hast created all
things, and for thy
pleasure they are and were created." (Revelation 4:11)
What better way for the Lord to enjoy His
creation than to
be right there in the midst of it. Sure, He could enjoy it
from afar, from His Heavenly
abode, but the above verses
from Genesis seems to indicate the contrary. Why then should
it seem so odd to us that the
Lord, Jesus the Creator Son,
should decide to walk in the
midst the Garden enjoying the
world and people He had created? This whole idea leads up to
another interesting question: At
what point did the Lord
stop walking amongst men? At what point did He return to His
Heavenly abode on the other side
of the gulf which separates
our two worlds? Well, in thinking about this, and looking
through my Bible, it became
apparent to me that it might not
have been since the time of Eden. In fact, if you read some
of the early stories of the Patriarchs,
it sounds like the
Lord was still making cameo
appearances and talking with
them directly for quite some time after Eden.
As an example, take the story of
Noah. In countless verses
we find phrases like 'And the
Lord said unto Noah...,' or,
'And God said unto Noah.'
Exactly how did this come about?
Did the Lord just speak to
Noah's mind or heart? Did Noah
hear a voice in his head? Did a voice come down from the
sky? Consider the complexity involved in building the Ark.
Did the Lord just transmit this
information to Noah's
brain?...Or was He there instructing him in person? If you
read some of the stories of the
other early Patriarchs, you
find the same thing. The wording seems to suggest that the
Lord was communing with them
directly. The Lord said this to
so-and-so, and the Lord said that to so-and-so. In the later
prophetic books, it seems that
we find more dreams and
visions, or phrases like 'The
word of the Lord came unto
me.' It doesn't seem quite as direct as what we find with
these early Patriarchs. It could just be a difference of
literary style, but from what I
have seen, I am not
convinced of this just yet.
In the case of Noah, I found a
small clue which might
indicate that I am right. After the Flood waters had
receded, Noah built an altar and sacrificed to the Lord.
Now, while these sacrifices were
very holy solemn occasions,
we can't overlook the fact that
they were also occasions of
joy and thanksgiving. In a sense, they were like large
outdoor barbecues. I mean, think of all of that fresh meat
cooking, folks! Now, if the Lord was just up in Heaven
observing things, without any
kind of a fleshly body, do you
think He would have reacted in the following manner?:
"And Noah builded an altar unto the LORD; and took of every
clean beast, and of every clean
fowl, and offered burnt
offerings on the altar. And the LORD smelled a sweet savour;
and the LORD said in his heart,
I will not again curse the
ground any more for man's sake;
for the imagination of man's
heart is evil from his youth;
neither will I again smite any
more every thing living, as I have done." (Genesis 8:20-21)
Here is a clear picture of the
Lord smelling the nice
mouth-watering aroma of
barbecued meat and being affected by
it. If He was in a spirit body up in Heaven, would this
have
affected Him? The smell of the sacrifice is obviously
pleasing to Him, and it is right
after this that He decides
to never again curse the ground
and destroy all life as He
did with the Flood. I don't know, I could be wrong, but it
seems like the Lord might have
been pretty close by in my
view. This term 'sweet savour' is
used throughout the Old
Testament in describing the
sacrifices to the Lord. As such,
I think it is significant.
If we move on to the story of
Abraham, we find similar
encounters with agents of the Lord. In Genesis chapter
fourteen we find a series of
verses which have puzzled Bible
scholars for ages. It is the story of Abraham's encounter
with Melchizedek. Abraham, along with those in league with
him, has just liberated
his son-in-law, Lot, from evil King
Chedorlaomer and his allies. Right after this, we find the
following interesting verses:
"And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine:
and he was the priest of the most high God. And he blessed
him, and said, Blessed be Abram
of the most high God,
possessor of heaven and earth:
And blessed be the most high
God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And
he gave him tithes of all." (Genesis 14:18-20)
There can be no doubt that this
was an actual physical
incident which occurred to Abraham following this battle.
Yet, if we refer to the writings
of Paul, we find out that
this High Priest who offered
bread and wine to Abraham and
blessed him, was Someone very
special indeed:
"For this Melchisedec, king of Salem, priest of the most
high God, who met Abraham
returning from the slaughter of
the kings, and blessed him; To
whom also Abraham gave a
tenth part of all; first being
by interpretation King of
righteousness, and after that
also King of Salem, which is,
King of peace; Without father,
without mother, without
descent, having neither
beginning of days, nor end of life;
but made like unto the Son of
God; abideth a priest
continually. Now consider how great this man was, unto whom
even the patriarch Abraham gave the tenth of the
spoils."
(Hebrews 7:1-4)
Here we have Abraham, God's
chosen patriarch, probably the
greatest man living during his
time in God's eyes, tithing
to this mysterious Melchizedek. Paul makes it very clear
who
He was: the King of righeousness with a capital 'K', the
King of peace with a capital
'K', with no father or mother
or beginning or end of days. In other places we likewise
read that Jesus is our High Priest. And just as Jesus used
bread and wine as a symbol in
the New Testament, likewise He
presented Abraham with the same. Note also that He is King
of Salem. Salem is also a reference to Jerusalem. Could this
be referring to the King of New
Jerusalem, the Heavenly City
of God which comes down to the
New Earth after the
Millenium?
This wasn't Abraham's only
direct encounter with the Lord.
Only four chapters later we find
the story of Sodom and
Gomorrah. In that incident, the Lord again takes on human or
semi-human form along with two of His angelic messengers.
They are so physical in fact,
that Abraham offers to wash
their feet and has his wife
Sarah prepare them a fine meal
as was the custom in those days. During the course of all
of
this, the Lord informs Abraham
that Sarah will have a son in
her old age. Sarah laughs within herself and is thus brought
into the conversation when she denies having laughed. So
here we have an occasion of more
than one person communing
with the Lord in physical form and
indulging in
conversation, and probably eating with them as well. To show
how physical this incident was,
consider this one verse:
"And the men rose up from
thence, and looked toward Sodom:
and Abraham went with them to bring them on the way."
(Genesis 18:16)
Before leaving however, the
Lord, (with a capital 'L'),
explains to Abraham that He is
going to destroy Sodom and
Gomorrah. It is then that Abraham begins to plead with the
Lord since Lot, his
son-in-law, lives in Sodom, and Abraham
has somewhat of a friendship
with the Kings of Sodom and
Gomorrah. While Abraham and the Lord continue discussing the
matter, the other two angelic
beings go to carry out the
Lord's command. At the end of
the chapter, we finally read:
"And the LORD went his way,
as soon as he had left communing
with Abraham: and Abraham returned unto his place."
(Genesis 18:33)
There are other incidents in the
Old Testament which clearly
point to physical contact
between the Lord or His angelic
representatives, and humanity. In Genesis chapter
thirty-two, the Patriarch Jacob
has some very interesting
encounters with some messengers
of the Lord who meet him
after his encounter with Laban:
"And Jacob went on his way,
and the angels of God met him.
And when Jacob saw them, he said,
This is God's host: and he
called the name of that place Mahanaim." (Genesis 32:1-2)
Later on in the same chapter,
just prior to encountering his
brother Esau, whom he hasn't
seen for many years, Jacob
physically wrestles with someone
in the dark:
"And Jacob was left alone;
and there wrestled a man with him
until the breaking of the day. And when he saw that he
prevailed not against him, he
touched the hollow of his
thigh; and the hollow of Jacob's
thigh was out of joint, as
he wrestled with him. And he said, Let me go, for the day
breaketh.
And he said, I will not let thee go, except thou
bless me. And he said unto him, What is thy name? And he
said, Jacob. And he said, Thy name shall be called no more
Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God
and with men, and hast prevailed. And Jacob asked him, and
said, Tell me, I pray thee, thy name. And he said, Wherefore
is it that thou dost ask after my name? And he blessed him
there. And Jacob called the name of the place Peniel: for I
have seen God face to face, and my life is preserved."
(Genesis 32:24-30)
The story of Moses and the
burning bush is familiar to many.
Without going into great detail,
as mentioned in a previous
article, Moses was physically
affected by his encounters
with the Lord, so much so that
his faced glowed and he had
to cover it with a cloth. As in Jacob's exclamation, we are
also told that Moses spoke face
to face with the Lord:
"And the LORD spake unto Moses face to face, as a man
speaketh
unto his friend. And he turned again into the camp:
but his servant Joshua, the son
of Nun, a young man,
departed not out of the tabernacle." (Exodus 33:11)
Joshua, Moses' successor,
likewise had an unusual physical
encounter with someone who
crossed over from the heavenly
realm.
This encounter occurred right after the Lord had
stopped up the Jordan river and Joshua and his men were
about to attack the fortress of Jericho. In Joshua chapter
five we read this most inspiring
account:
"And it came to pass, when
Joshua was by Jericho, that he
lifted up his eyes and looked,
and, behold, there stood a
man over against him with his
sword drawn in his hand: and
Joshua went unto him, and said
unto him, Art thou for us, or
for our adversaries? And he said, Nay; but as captain of the
host of the LORD am I now come. And Joshua fell on his face
to the earth, and did worship,
and said unto him, What saith
my lord unto his servant? And the captain of the LORD'S
host
said unto Joshua, Loose thy shoe
from off thy foot; for the
place whereon thou standest is holy.
And Joshua did so."
(Joshua 5:13-15)
If you have any doubt about Who
this mysterious warrior
might have been who entered into
battle with Joshua, compare
the above verses to Moses'
previous encounter years before:
"And he said, Draw not nigh
hither: put off thy shoes from
off thy feet, for the place
whereon thou standest is holy
ground." (Exodus
3:5)
By now it should be quite
evident that the Lord and His
angelic agents have had numerous physical encounters with
humanity throughout the Old Testament. For them to
manipulate time and space so
that they can enter human
history at any given point is an easy task. They can act
like normal humans and blend in
so well with humanity, that
we might not even be able to
recognize them unless we are
really in tune to God's Spirit. The Apostle Paul made this
very clear when he said:
"Be not forgetful to
entertain strangers: for thereby some
have entertained angels unawares." (Hebrews 13:2)
The Lord, His angels, and even
His human agents can also
manipulate matter by the power of God. Consider the plagues
sent upon Egypt (Exodus 7-12). Consider the stories of the
cloudy pillar and the column of
fire which led Moses and the
children of Israel:
"And the LORD went before
them by day in a pillar of a
cloud, to lead them the way; and
by night in a pillar of
fire, to give them light; to go
by day and night:"
(Exodus 13:21)
I have offered some interesting
speculations concerning
these events which you can read
in my article, 'Under The
Cloud: UFO's And The Bible.'
Consider how the Lord parted
the Red Sea by
the hand of Moses (Exodus 14) plus the many
other miracles the Lord
performed at the hand of His prophet
Moses. Years later, the Lord
also stopped up the Jordan
River by the hand of Joshua
(Joshua 3-4). Consider how
Elijah prayed and it ceased to
rain, how he multiplied the
meal and oil for the widow of Zarephath, and then raised her
son from the dead by the power of the Almighty. (1 Kings 17)
Are you aware of the fact that
modern scientist have
confirmed that there is a
missing day in the celestial clock
which they cannot account for? This is a provable scientific
fact and not fiction. If they would look to the Bible, they
would find that this is the
result of the Lord holding back
time on two different occasions. The first can be found in
Joshua chapter ten where Joshua
and the children of Israel
were fighting against the Amorites. On that occasion,
consider the powerful miracle
the Lord wrought at the hand
of Joshua, the son of Nun:
"Then spake
Joshua to the LORD in the day when the LORD
delivered up the Amorites before
the children of Israel, and
he said in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand thou still upon
Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley
of Ajalon. And the sun
stood still, and the moon
stayed, until the people had
avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written
in the book of Jasher? So the sun
stood still in the midst
of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day. And
there was no day like that
before it or after it, that the
LORD hearkened unto the voice of
a man: for the LORD fought
for Israel." (Joshua
10:12-14)
Notice that is says 'about a
whole day.' It wasn't quite a
whole day. But there is no problem here as the rest of the
missing day can be accounted for
by referring to Isaiah
chapter thirty-eight. In this chapter, the Lord promises to
give Hezekiah an additional
fifteen years of life and to
deliver him from the hand of the King of Assyria. As a sign
to King Hezekiah, the Lord,
through His prophet Isaiah,
turns back the sun by ten
degrees:
"And I will deliver thee
and this city out of the hand of
the king of Assyria: and I will defend this city. And this
shall be a sign unto thee from
the LORD, that the LORD will
do this thing that he hath
spoken; Behold, I will bring
again the shadow of the degrees,
which is gone down in the
sun dial of Ahaz, ten degrees
backward. So the sun returned
ten degrees, by which degrees it was gone down.' (Isaiah
38:6-8)
This same story is repeated in
more detail in 2 Kings
20:8-11:
"And Hezekiah said unto
Isaiah, What shall be the sign that
the LORD will heal me, and that
I shall go up into the house
of the LORD the third day? And Isaiah said, This sign shalt
thou have of the LORD, that the
LORD will do the thing that
he hath spoken: shall the shadow
go forward ten degrees, or
go back ten degrees? And Hezekiah answered, It is a light
thing for the shadow to go down
ten degrees: nay, but let
the shadow return backward ten degrees. And Isaiah the
prophet cried unto the LORD: and
he brought the shadow ten
degrees backward, by which it
had gone down in the dial of
Ahaz." (2 Kings
20:8-11)
These are but some of the cameo
appearances and miracles
which were performed during the
days of the Old Testament
Patriarchs and Prophets. In them
we see the ability to
manipulate both time and matter at will. Moving into the New
Testament, we discover that
Jesus performed many of the very
same miracles as His Old Testament counterparts. This only
serves to confirm Who and what
was the true Source behind
the miracles they performed. We must remember too, that when
we see the name Jehovah in the
Old Testament, this is a
reference to Jesus, and NOT to God the Father. Consider that
Jesus also had the power to
manipulate matter and the
elements: He calmed the sea, He
walked on water, He
multiplied the fishes and the
loaves, He converted the water
into wine. In the realm
of bodily miracles: He raised
Lazarus from the dead, he healed
many sick of various
diseases, He gave sight to the
blind, He cast out many
demons. These miracles are found throughout the four Gospels
and are too numerous to list in this article. I encourage
you to read the Gospels to
increase your own faith in the
power of the Lord.
One interesting miracle Jesus
did occurs right after He
performed the miracle of the loaves and the fishes. Most
folks pass this one right over
not realizing that it is even
there. In the following miracle, Jesus manifested His
ability to manipulate both time
and matter at will:
"When Jesus therefore
perceived that they would come and
take him by force, to make him a
king, he departed again
into a mountain himself alone. And when even was now come,
his disciples went down unto the
sea, And entered into a
ship, and went over the sea toward Capernaum. And it was now
dark, and Jesus was not come to them. And the sea arose by
reason of a great wind that blew. So when they had rowed
about five and twenty or thirty
furlongs, they see Jesus
walking on the sea, and drawing
nigh unto the ship: and they
were afraid. But he saith unto
them, It is I; be not afraid.
Then they willingly received him
into the ship: and
immediately the ship was at the land whither they went. The
day following, when the people
which stood on the other side
of the sea saw that there was
none other boat there, save
that one whereinto
his disciples were entered, and that
Jesus went not with his
disciples into the boat, but that
his disciples were gone away
alone; (Howbeit there came
other boats from Tiberias nigh unto the place where they did
eat bread, after that the Lord had given thanks:) When the
people therefore saw that Jesus
was not there, neither his
disciples, they also took
shipping, and came to Capernaum,
seeking for Jesus. And when they had found him on the other
side of the sea, they said unto
him, Rabbi, when camest thou
hither?" (John
6:15-25)
These people were totally
mystified as to how Jesus had
arrived at the other side when
His disciples had already
left and there was only one boat. Do you really
see what
occurred here? Not only was Jesus able to walk on water in
the midst of a great storm, but
once he entered the ship, it
says that it was IMMEDIATELY at land. Some folks try to
twist the meaning of this verse
to make it conform to their
narrow-minded view. They say that after Jesus entered the
ship, His disciples then rowed the boat to the shore. But
that isn't what the verse is saying. If you do as I do and
compare scripture with
scripture, there can be no denying
that this verse means exactly
what is says, i.e., the word
'immediately' means 'at that
very moment, at that very
instant.' To prove this point, read the following verses and
see if you don't concur with my
view:
"And they immediately left
the ship and their father, and
followed him."
(Matthew 4:22)
"And Jesus put forth his
hand, and touched him, saying, I
will; be thou clean. And immediately his leprosy was
cleansed." (Matthew
8:3)
"And immediately Jesus
stretched forth his hand, and caught
him, and said unto him, O thou
of little faith, wherefore
didst thou doubt?"
(Matthew 14:31)
"Simon Peter saith unto them, I go a fishing.
They say unto
him, We also go with thee. They went forth, and entered into
a
ship immediately; and that night they caught nothing."
(John 21:3)
Taking a look closer at the
incident, it says they had rowed
out twenty-five or thirty furlongs into the sea of Galilee.
A furlong is about two hundred
and twenty yards. In other
words, they had gone out some
five and a half or six and a
half miles into the sea. Now the verses say that a great
storm had developed on the sea. Considering that, it would
have been impossible for them to
immediately arrive at the
shore, especially if they were
five or six miles out
floundering in rough waters. It seems obvious to me then,
that once Jesus had gotten into
that ship, He transported
the entire boat and everyone in
it through time and space to
the shoreline. And why not? He was the Son of God!
Perhaps the culminating point in
Jesus' earthly ministry was
NOT just when He died on the
cross for the sins of the
world, but also when He revealed
His power over death and
the physical world when He rose
from the dead, proving once
and for all that He is indeed the Lord of the Resurrection.
This is truly the hope of all Christians
everywhere. Even
after His resurrection, Jesus
continued to manifest His
ability to totally control the laws of physics. According to
the Gospel of Luke, after the
two Mary's and the other women
encountered the two angels at
the empty tomb, they reported
their experiences to the eleven
disciples who listened in
total disbelief. Later that same day, two of the disciples
were travelling
on their way to the village of Emmaus when
the Lord appeared to them and
accompanied them on their
journey. It was about a fifteen mile journey, so Jesus had
plenty of time to talk with them. We are told that for some
reason they were not able to recognize Him. The Scriptures
merely say that 'their eyes were
holden that they should not
know Him.' (Luke 24:16) Even after He had explained all of
the Old Testament prophecies to
them, they still didn't
realize it was Him. It was only when they sat down and broke
bread to eat that their eyes
were finally opened...and at
that very moment, Jesus vanished!:
"And their eyes were
opened, and they knew him; and he
vanished out of their sight." (Luke 24:31)
You talk about real
ghost stories, well there is one for
you! But you see, that's just it...He wasn't a ghost! He
looked just like you or me! He was there in a very real
physical sense, just like the
stories I related from the Old
Testament. He was walking and
talking and even sat down to
eat with them!
If we put together the rest of
the accounts in Luke and
John, we come up with the
following which occurred after the
trip to Emmaus, probably late
that same night after the two
disciples had hurried back to
tell the original eleven
disciples of their wonderful
experience:
"Then the same day at
evening, being the first day of the
week, when the doors were shut
where the disciples were
assembled for fear of the Jews,
came Jesus and stood in the
midst, and saith unto them, Peace be
unto you."
(John 20:19)
Having physically destroyed
Jesus' body, Satan must have
been quite bold at this time,
encouraging his human slaves,
the Jewish religious elders, to
go after the rest of His
disciples as well. Remember, it was even forbidden to talk
about what had occurred following Golgotha.
In our world
today, we are likewise slowly
experiencing this very same
thing as the forces of darkness
seek to extinguish our
lights...and it will only get worse. At any rate, here we
find the disciples huddled
together in secret waiting for
the Lord's promise of the Holy Ghost. Notice, it says the
doors were shut. Zappo! Jesus just
materialized out of
nowhere. We know He wasn't a spirit. He was there in
physical form just as He had
been on the road to Emmaus
earlier in the day. If we turn back to the Gospel of Luke
and read the same account, we
find additional information
regarding Jesus' appearance to
the eleven and those that
were with them:
"And they told what things
were done in the way, and how he
was known of them in breaking of bread. And as they thus
spake, Jesus himself stood in the midst of them, and saith
unto them, Peace be unto you. But they were terrified and
affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit. And he
said unto them, Why are ye troubled? and why do thoughts
arise in your hearts? Behold my hands and my feet, that it
is I myself: handle me, and see;
for a spirit hath not flesh
and bones, as ye see me have. And when he had thus spoken,
he shewed them his hands and his
feet. And while they yet
believed not for joy, and
wondered, he said unto them, Have
ye here any meat? And they gave him a piece of a broiled
fish, and of an honeycomb. And he took it, and did eat
before them."
(Luke 24:35-43)
Notice, here is Jesus risen from
the dead and still eating
food! We should not forget that everything that Jesus did
was for a reason. If the Gospels reveal all of these
physical attributes of Jesus'
resurrected body, it must be
for a reason. The only conclusion we can come to is that
perhaps He is trying to show us
what our bodies will be like
after OUR resurrection. Of course, it is also important to
remember that He was not
manifesting Himself in His
glorified body as is described
by Daniel, John, Ezekiel and
others. Perhaps like Jesus, we will be able to change our
bodies according to what element
we happen to be in at the
time, i.e., spiritual or physical.
Thomas wasn't present during
this first appearance, but
eight days later, the Lord
appeared to them again at which
time He said to Thomas:
"...Reach hither thy
finger, and behold my hands; and reach
hither thy hand, and thrust it
into my side: and be not
faithless, but believing."
(John 20:27)
Here again is another example of
Jesus manifesting His
physical body after His resurrection. But, as we have
already seen, while it was
indeed physical, it also
possessed properties that for now, we can only dream of.
The Lord made one final third
appearance to His disciples.
It seems that in spite of the
fact that Jesus had already
revealed Himself to them on two
previous occasions, they
were still slow to believe. While He was yet with them in
the flesh, Jesus had designated
Peter as the head of the
band of twelve, now eleven since Judas' suicide. So, when
Simon Peter decides to go out
and do a little night fishing
on the Sea of Galilee, some of the others decide to go out
with him. As a result, we are told that they don't catch
any fish that night. The next morning, Jesus calls out to
them from shore asking if they have caught anything. At first
they don't realize
that it is Him until He tells them to
cast out their nets one more
time, just as He had done when
He first called Simon Peter to
be His disciple. Of course,
they catch a multitude of fish,
and that is when John
informs Peter that it is the Lord.
The whole purpose of this final
appearance seems to have
been to encourage and strengthen
Peter, for after they have
all dined on bread and fish,
(which the Lord had already
provided for them even before
they came ashore), the Lord
proceeds to test Peter by asking
him three times if he loves
Him. It is interesting to note
that Jesus tested Peter three
times just as Peter had denied Him three times.
The Gospel
of John ends with Jesus telling
Peter to follow Him, just as
He had called him some three
years before. He also
prophesies how Peter will die
and leaves us with some very
mysterious verses regarding the
fate of the young Apostle
John. To this day they puzzle me
and leave room for some
very interesting speculation.
From here we move into the book
of Acts, a continuation of
the Gospel of Luke. The events in this book occur after
Jesus has ascended to Heaven
leaving His disciples to carry
out their mission of taking the
Gospel into the whole
world as they had been commanded
in Mark 16:15:
"And he said unto them, Go
ye into all the world, and preach
the gospel to every creature."
Luke reiterated this when he
quoted the Lord as saying:
"But ye shall receive
power, after that the Holy Ghost is
come upon you: and ye shall be
witnesses unto me both in
Jerusalem, and in all Judaea,
and in Samaria, and unto the
uttermost part of the earth." (Acts 1:8)
The fact that Jesus has indeed
returned to His heavenly
abode to dwell with His Father
is confirmed in the account
of the death of Stephen. As Stephen was being bitten upon
by
the enraged Jewish leaders after
his spirit-filled expose of
their hypocrisy, just prior to
being stoned by the same, he
exclaims:
"...Behold, I see the
heavens opened, and the Son of man
standing on the right hand of God." (Acts 7:56)
It is interesting to note that,
unlike other descriptions we
have read in the Bible, in this
instance, Jesus is not
sitting on His throne, He is
standing up, almost like He is
in eager anticipation of receiving
Stephen into the Heavenly
Kingdom.
One of the final incidents where
we see the Lord breaking
through the veil which divides
the physical world from the
spiritual, is in the account of
the Apostle Paul's
conversion:
"And as he journeyed, he
came near Damascus: and suddenly
there shined round about him a
light from heaven: And he fell
to the earth, and heard a voice
saying unto him, Saul, Saul,
why persecutest thou me? And he
said, Who art thou, Lord? And
the Lord said, I am Jesus whom
thou persecutest: it is hard
for thee to kick against the pricks. And he trembling and
astonished said, Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? And the
Lord said unto him, Arise, and
go into the city, and it shall
be told thee what thou must do. And the men which journeyed
with him stood speechless, hearing a voice, but seeing no
man.
And Saul arose from the earth;
and when his eyes were opened,
he saw no man: but they led him
by the hand, and brought him
into Damascus. And he was three days without sight, and
neither did eat nor drink." (Acts 9:3-9)
One common trait of these
celestial events is the direction of
the source of the phenomenon. Notice that it is described as
a
light which shone from heaven,
in other words, from above,
from the sky. This reminds me of all of the other things I
said in my article 'Under The
Cloud: Clouds, UFO's & The
Bible.' If you haven't read it
yet, you might want to do so.
In the story of John the
Baptist, we have a similar account.
Consider these verses from the
Gospel of Mark:
"And it came to pass in
those days, that Jesus came from
Nazareth of Galilee, and was
baptized of John in Jordan. And
straightway coming up out of the
water, he saw the heavens
opened, and the Spirit like a
dove descending upon him: And
there came a voice from heaven,
saying, Thou art my beloved
Son, in whom I am well
pleased." (Mark 1:9-11)
Again, notice the source of
origin of the phenomenon. They
come from above. They originate from something happening in
the sky overhead. In this case, it is God the Father who is
announcing the arrival of His beloved Son on Earth. We have
repeated accounts of this over
and over again, of voices,
bright clouds, etc. originating from somewhere in the sky.
Again, I suggest you read my
articles concerning UFO's.
Paul's encounter with Jesus on
the rode to Damascus is not
the only miraculous event we find in the book of Acts. In
Acts chapter two, when the
disciples received the gift of
the Holy Ghost, we read the
following:
"And when the day of
Pentecost was fully come, they were all
with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a
sound from heaven as of a
rushing mighty wind, and it filled
all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared
unto them cloven tongues like as
of fire, and it sat upon
each of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost,
and began to speak with other
tongues, as the Spirit gave
them utterance."
(Acts 2:1-4)
Notice that it doesn't actually
say there was a mighty wind
as is commonly believed today. It says there was a SOUND
like a rushing mighty wind. This sound was so great that it
filled the entire house. If it was an actual wind, as in a
tornado or hurricane, it would have obliterated the house.
This was just some kind of great
celestial sound which
originated from somewhere overhead. As to the cloven tongues
which were like fire, not
actually fire, I haven't a clue as
to what they were. Could it have been some kind of
sparkling
energy, similar to the 'dove'
described during Jesus'
baptism? In a later account in chapter four where the Holy
Ghost is again poured out, we
are told that the place
acutally shakes:
"And when they had prayed,
the place was shaken where they
were assembled together; and
they were all filled with the
Holy Ghost, and they spake the word of God with boldness."
(Acts 4:31)
As a result of these miraculous
events, we read the
following:
"And fear came upon every
soul: and many wonders and signs
were done by the apostles." (Acts 2:43)
Because of these many signs,
miracles and inspired preaching
by the disciples, thousands | 
