“For as the body is one and has many members,but all the members of that one body, being many,
are one body, so also is Christ.”(1 Cor. 12:12, NKJV)
In the previous teaching we dealt with the mystery of the two witnesses in Revelation 11 in very simple terms – they are not two specific individuals, but a symbol of the power that lays in the Anointed, Christ, when two or three witnesses agree on a matter. Before we spend a bit more time looking at this issue, we need to quickly deal with a specific problematic aspect around the two witnesses.
In the course of history there have been many believers who positioned themselves as Biblical characters, especially those who appear as leaders, in the form of symbolic guises or apocalyptic figures in Scripture. I have personally come across people that firmly believe that they have been appointed by God as Joshua and Zerubbabel (Zech. 3 & 4), or David, or Cyrus, or Paul, or a few others who present themselves as the witnesses of Rev. 11, or the “seventh angel” of Rev. 10, 11 & 16; another confused soul even stated that he was given the personal mandate of the Antichrist! But by far the most Biblical guises that would apparently be fulfilled, is that of “Elijah who is to come” (Matt. 11:14).
People who suffer from mental illness like obsessive religious thoughts, delusions or other syndromes, psychoses or megalomania is not what is discussed here – the people at issue are normal, rational believers who firmly believe that they have been chosen by God to play a particular role, and that this role has been determined by a historical Biblical figure that is now making his/her appearance to fulfil God’s (often apocalyptic) agenda. For the most part they see their calling as prophetic, often based on the prototypical Old Testament figure of the prophet.
A believer who for instance saw himself as a contemporary Elijah (around 1901), was John Alexander Dowie, who based his ministry largely on healing miracles. According to Burgess, McGee & Alexander’s (eds.) Dictionary of Pentecostal and Charismatic Movements: “he revealed that he had been divinely commissioned as the first apostle of a renewed end-times church” (p. 249).
In the same year Frank Sandford also presented himself as the new Elijah. At the time of his death in 1948 (which was alas not an ascent to heaven), the other great modern proponent of Elijah’s ministry started operating – William Branham. He considered himself as the end-time angel of the covenant (Mal. 3:1), in the guise of Elijah (despite the fact that are two distinct “personas”). Branham had a very large following, and today there are still ministries under his name. [For a discerning take on his interesting and complex ministry I recommend Andrew Strom’s The Enigma Of William Branham.] Branham died in a car accident in 1965.
Another Elijah figure that enjoyed great attention in the spiritual world, largely on account of a sustained propaganda campaign in the media, through radio, television, magazines and other print materials, was Herbert W. Armstrong (1892 – 1986), founder of the Worldwide Church of God. They believed that “God only works through ‘one man at a time’ and that he was God’s selected representative on earth for his time”. [See Joseph Tkach’s book Transformed by Truth, especially chapter 12, and Wade Cox’s book Elijah?] Armstrong’s most well known product, the free magazine The Plain Truth, propagated British Iraelism, the origin of the deceptive thought around the Israel vision movement in South Africa. [See the teachings of Day 176, 623-625 and 1058-1060.]
There are various other people who have made the same claim, for instance Bernard Jordan, who later changed his name to Bishop Elijah Barnard Jordan (called the prophet of profit by the media), and even Benny Hinn (on the TBN-television show Praise-a-Thon, in the spring of April 1999, he presented himself as Elijah, being sent by God).
Similar histories of other prototypical Biblical figures are found far and wide, and obviously this is a grave deception. What am I basing such a blanket statement on?
The answer to this problem lies in Armstrong’s dictum “God only works through ‘one man at a time’ and I am God’s selected representative on earth for this time”. It is very seductive to think that one is rubbing shoulders with a great historical figure and receiving his/her so-called anointing. Added to this is the way in which, within Charismatic and Pentecostal circles, a big deal is often made out of this or that one’s amazing anointing.
The word anointing, as it is often used, is only found four times in the Bible, in only three Scriptures. Take note that every time it is used, this happens in the collective sense:
- “You shall anoint them, as you anointed their father, that they may minister to Me as priests; for their anointing shall surely be an everlasting priesthood throughout their generations.” (Ex. 40:15)
- “But you have an anointing from the Holy One, and you know all things.” (1 John 2:20)
- “But the anointing which you have received from Him abides in you, and you do not need that anyone teach you; but as the same anointing teaches you concerning all things, and is true, and is not a lie, and just as it has taught you, you will abide in Him.” (1 John 2:27).
This matter of corporate or collective anointing needs to be understood correctly. Let us make it very clear: all anointing comes from the Anointed, Jesus Christ. The entire history of Israel was centred on establishing this anointing, as Dan. 9:25 suggests, “To restore and build Jerusalem until Messiah the Prince.” Before this Anointed (Jesus the Anointed) came to change the scenario of Old Testament anointing, it was such that some individuals were indeed called anointed, especially because they had been physically anointed [within the context of their office, as in the case of priests (Ex. 40:15), and kings (1 Sam. 15:17) and prophets (1 Chr. 16:22)], or as Old Testament shadow images of the Messiah (for instance Cyrus – Isa. 45.1). Here the anointing was exemplary and individual, but it all led to the One about which Isa. 61:1-3 prophesied: “The Spirit of the Lord God is upon Me, because the Lord has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor; He has sent Me to heal the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound; to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all who mourn, to console those who mourn in Zion, to give them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they may be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He may be glorified.”
When this prophecy was fulfilled in the ears of the chosen people, the Jews (Luke 4:18-21), it is explicitly stated that “This Jesus whom I preach to you is the Christ” (Acts 17:3). Jesus is the Source of all anointing. But please note: if one carefully reads Isa. 61:1-3, the anointing is not for its own sake, but needs to spread to the Body like the anointing oil of Zerubbabel, which drip from the olive trees. All anointing that resides in the Anointed is intended for those who will receive the anointing!
The anointing is given so that the good news can be proclaimed; the anointing is given so that the hearts of the broken can be healed; the anointing is given to console those who mourn; the anointing is given to bring about a planting of the Lord, “that He may be glorified” (ACV). The CEV-translation translates this as “to honor His name” (CEV). A name points to an identity (Song of Songs 1:3 – “thy name (is) ointment poured forth” – KJV). In other words – the anointing of the Anointed is to have His identity become manifest in the multitude!
Everything originates in Jesus (John 1:3), and this includes all anointing. The fact that the anointing flows from the Head (Ps. 133:2), over the entire Body, brings about that the anointed believer is merely sharing in the anointing of the Head. Therefore all anointing is collective in nature and belongs to Jesus the Christ.
In his outstanding book published more than 75 years ago, The Anointing of the Holy Spirit, T. Austin-Sparks encapsulates it beautifully: “Let me say the simplest thing about this, that the New Testament knows nothing of merely separate, individualistic anointings. I did not say individual anointing, I said individualistic anointings. Of course, you will have to understand the usage of words to appreciate that distinction. The anointing does come upon us individually as members. We are not all one member, but many, and every member is anointed, but there is a difference between an individual anointing and an individualistic anointing. That which is individualistic would mean that the member is a separate thing, something apart, detached. That is what we mean by individualism, which is one of the isms that is not recognised by the Lord. It goes into the category of false teaching; individualism. That is, that which makes any man or woman something in themselves apart, a law unto themselves, a separate entity; one by themselves doing their own work, thinking their own thoughts, even religiously and spiritually. There is no such thing in the eyes of the New Testament as individualistic anointing.”
But this then also does not mean that every believer is part, point blank, of such a collective. The entire Scripture emphasises that each of us have been “fearfully and wonderfully made” (Ps. 139:13-16). As with Jeremiah, God has his own blueprint for those who are chosen: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations.” (Jer. 1:5). In Isa. 49:1 this knowledge of God is clearly factored into one’s calling: “The Lord has called Me from the womb; from the matrix of My mother He has made mention of My name.” Therefore Paul declares that his calling has a specific goal: “But when it pleased God, who separated me from my mother’s womb and called me through His grace, to reveal His Son in me …” (Gal. 1:15-16). That specific part of who Jesus the Christ is IN me, my rhema-identity, is brought into being by the corporate anointing, the baptism in Christ, to something specifically individual. Selah.
The corporate anointing carries the special individual calling. Therefore God can say about Saul: “Go, for he is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles, kings, and the children of Israel.” (Acts 9:15). Therefore Jesus can say to his disciples: “You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should remain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He may give you.” (John 15:16); therefore Paul refers to himself in Rom. 1:1 as “called to be an apostle, separated to the gospel of God”; therefore Barnabas and Saul are kept apart for the work of God, for which He has called them (Acts 13:2).
It is indeed as 1 Cor. 12:12 makes clear: “For even as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of the body, being many, are one body, so also [is] the Christ.” (Darby). Thus: God does not only work through ‘one man at a time’.
- Selah: Have you received the corporate anointing? What does this mean?
- Read: Job 19-27.
- Memorise: Job 19:23-24 (what a beautiful prophetic Scripture about the core of this teaching).
