No 2: The Intentional Complexity of All Divine Testimony
Our Creator’s communication pattern invariably demonstrates an intentional complexity that effectively filters access to His eternal truths and principles. God intentionally makes correct spiritual understanding quite challenging. The number one tripping point of all Bible students, whether enlightened or unenlightened, is oversimplifying divine communication.
Yahweh’s anger against the ‘Christadelphian’ leaders (Aaron & Miriam) undermining the authority of Moses was based on their foolishness at not recognizing how Moses was the only man to whom God would communicate without that intentional complexity.
Numbers 12:6-9 Hear now my words: If there be a prophet among you, I the Lord will make myself known unto him in a vision, and will speak unto him in a dream. My servant Moses is not so, who is faithful in all mine house. With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches; and the similitude of the Lord shall he behold: wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses? And the anger of the Lord was kindled against them; and he departed.
The entirely unique open communication was based on the observation that Moses was the meekest man in the world during his generation.
Vs 3 Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men which were upon the face of the earth.
It is the natural arrogance of an uncircumcised heart that trips over the intentionally complex divine communication pattern and ends up contradicting the Creator’s right-ness (righteousness). Historically there have always been a very small percentage of the enlightened community to have developed a circumcised heart. This process is why Joseph had to be a slave and prisoner for many years before ascending to glory, wealth and power when he was 30. This is why David the shepherd boy had to be a hunted outlaw before becoming the King of Israel when he was also 30. It is also why the physically flawless male descendants of Aaron had to wait until they matured to the age of 30 before they could qualify as the priests of God.
That filtering effect within the enlightened community is explained by Jesus when his confused disciples asked why he insisted on teaching in parables. It was the policy of Jesus not to explain those parable to anyone except his closest disciples and only privately ( Matt. 13:34-35; Mk. 4:33-34).
Matt; 13:10-15 And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables? He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath. Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive: For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them.
Jesus taught in exactly the same intentionally complex communication pattern as his Father. It should be understood Jesus was not sent to preach the gospel to the unenlightened pagans. He was commissioned to preach to the already enlightened and covenant bound sons of Abraham. That entire Jewish generation during Christ’s ministry is equivalent to the global Christadelphian community today. As noted in the previous commentary, we are both Sister Generations transitioning from one divinely appointed Age into the next.
The default presumption today is to identify the Christadelphian community only with Christ’s disciples and not with the Jewish community as a whole. That self-glorifying presumption is unprecedented and completely illegitimate. As a community we are just not as spiritually wonderful as we presume ourselves to be. This default presumption of divine acceptability has a blinding effect concerning the considerable number of less than complimentary prophecies concerning our specific last generation of the Ecclesial Age. We will get to that long list at some point.
This intentional complexity testimony pattern is quite obvious. Divine prophecies are presented in layers of symbolism with misshapen beasts representing nations, cherubim representing Christ and the saints, architectural designs, clothing requirements, dietary restrictions and divinely imposed rituals that are deadly if not respected meticulously. The divine testimony avenue of creation offers an infinite range of complex testimony concerning the truths and principles of our Creator throughout all scientific disciplines.
An example of an intentionally complex prophecy would be the warning Jesus offered to his disciples concerning how to escape the destruction of Jerusalem that was still 40 years in the future. We don’t have to postulate as to that prophecy’s fulfillment as that is now history.
Luke 21:20-22 And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh. Then let them which are in Judaea flee to the mountains; and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter thereinto. For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.
Hindsight permits our understanding of these odd instructions. One would legitimately wonder why Jesus warned his disciples to leave Jerusalem after it was surrounded by an army intent on its destruction. Wouldn’t it have been so much simpler to just warn them that the Roman army will arrive on the 10th day of Nisan 40 years later and will destroy the city and the temple, resulting in the death and enslavement of over one million of the children of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob? But “simple” is not the divine communication pattern.
History records how General Vespasian led the Roman army to Jerusalem, surrounding it, late in the year 69CE. However, when the news arrived that Emperor Nero was dead, the army insisted Vespasian be appointed the next Emperor. The army pulls away from Jerusalem and Vespasian heads to Rome to indeed become the next Emperor or Rome. Faithful disciples would remember the warning of Jesus… when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies it is time to leave and not return. This was their chance. However, the majority had an entirely different understanding. They presumed God had driven the Romans away and that they had won. At the next Passover there were over 2 million of the enlightened, covenant bound children of Abraham gathered at Jerusalem when General Titus (Vespasian’s son) led the Roman Army back and surrounded the city beginning on the 10th day of Nisan in 70CE. It was 40 years to the day since Jesus rode triumphantly into Jerusalem on the colt to shouts of Hosanna, son of David (meaning save us now, son of David).
Only those who truly respected the warning of Jesus would escape Jerusalem and not return, following the retreat of Vespasian’s army. They would quietly move out of Jerusalem while everyone else was celebrating their supposedly glorious victory. Only those within the enlightened community who truly respected the right-ness of Christ’s testimony would recognize the extreme and impending danger highlighted by that initial but abandoned siege of Jerusalem.
Christ’s prophetic warning was intentionally challenging, just like all of his Father’s intentionally complex testimony. The scriptural and creational validations for this counter-intuitive divine communication policy of intentional complexity are endless. Therefore it seems strange to see the parade of teachers within this last generation of the Ecclesial Age who presume simplicity, are clearly unafraid of making mistakes and frequently trip over so many fairly simple issues.
There is actually a structure to the pattern of the currently maturing challenges to the terms of our Creator’s right-ness within our transitional generation. There are 2 aspects to every divine feature and principle of our Creator’s righteousness. These two aspects of each individual truth are not equal and therefore have to be both individually recognized and also properly balanced. There is frequently one aspect of these individual features of our Creator’s righteousness that is either being completely denied or at the least being imbalanced. An example of this imbalancing attitude is the foolishly defensive phrase: “I would rather err on the side of mercy”. To “err” in the context of understanding and demonstrating our Creator’s righteousness is what is called SIN. Why would anyone be foolish enough to suggest the right thing to do at any time would be to “err” in the context of how we determine and demonstrate the right-ness of God? That ‘erring on the side of mercy’ is an eternally suicidal frame of reference in self-righteously embracing and promoting any form of error.
The primary responsibility of everyone on this planet that ever lived, does or will live is to pursue an understanding of the terms of our Creator’s right-ness, then sacrificially choose that societally despised righteousness and then demonstrate that righteousness in all the things we think, say and do. God tells us his preference is for all people to come to a knowledge of the truth and be saved (2 Tim. 2:4). However the Creator’s default educational emphasis is not quantity, but quality. Therefore very few accept the Creator’s call to enlightenment. Even fewer respond to the call of commitment to those terms of that enlightenment. Even fewer still answer to the call to the personal performance for those terms of enlightenment.
Our next submission for consideration will be to demonstrate the extreme divine pattern of the 2 aspects of all divine truth and principles. This is the platform of the prophesied continuing decay within the last generation of the Ecclesial Age.
Brother Jim Dillingham