“it will be revealed by fire” (1 Cor. 3:13, NKJV)
Before we continue, it is perhaps time for a short recap of the complicated argument that we have been discussing since the teaching of Day 662, concerning the fire of the bronze altar:
- Yahweh makes it clear that the fire on the altar needs to consistently be kept burning. He also actively engages with the process by ‘answering’ the sacrifice with fire.
- We wanted to typologically interpret these two types of fire – fire from human hands, and fire from the hand of God in heaven.
- A few philosophical and theological concepts were employed to aid in the interpretation, of which Theophany (the appearance of God) is the central concept.
- From the beginning of time till the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem in Judea, the invisible God made himself knowable by appearing Theophanically, thus manifesting in things.
- If God can temporarily transmutate, it means that He can manifest through anything for certain periods of time, in other words aspects of his ontology (characteristics of his being) can be displayed without Him losing those characteristics, and without the thing losing its ontology either. For instance, in the Theophanic transmutation, fire gains characteristics which transgresses its transcendance, in other words it stretches beyond our sensory understanding of fire.
- The invisible God in the visible world forces us to make a distinction between that which is visible and that which is invisible, and establishes the principle “the visible is temporary, the invisible is eternal”. There is thus an eternal spiritual realm outside of the our visible realm. All that is visible, is thus temporary and transient, and must thus be filled, saturated and changed so that it can exist forever! It needs to be an eternal
- A key text in this regard is 1 Cor. 15:53 – “For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.”
- It is of utmost importance to understand how this happens. If we can understand how this process happens, the mortality with which all things are consumed according to the law of entropy, will be rendered moot.
- Because God is Spirit, thus invisible and eternal, the spiritual realm is the realm to which we need to be connected if we are to change our world, which is subjected to mortality. True worshippers who can beak through in spirit and truth are the only ones who can recreate as flames of God.
- The history of Elisha and Gehazi explains this mystery. Two realities are at play here – the first is the natural realm, visible and knowable through our senses – this is the temporary realm, which we refer to as unreality. Gehazi saw the visible reality with his natural, carnal eyes, and feared. The other realm, which Elisha saw, was only visible through spiritual eyes. From this event it becomes clear there exists in the spiritual realm things which are transcendent, in other words that are not knowable through physical senses, that thus transgress the borders of our sensory experience. These things resemble the things in the sensory realm. In the spiritual realm these elements and processes do not exist as in the physical realm. While fire in the physical realm consumes, fire in the spiritual realm does not physically consume anything, but consumes SPIRITUALLY.
- From Elisha’s story we also learn that the spiritual realm is organised around the ‘sons of God’ who function in that realm.
- The physical senses cannot function in this realm, but the spiritual senses can, specifically the “enlightened eyes of the mind” (Eph. 1:18)
- Faith is the origin of our spiritual walk. Like Abraham we walk as if we can see the Invisible (Heb. 11:27)! Believing is seeing!
- The fire which the priests ministered, was the element of fire which can physically be described on account of scientific processes, but the fire with which God answered, was a spiritual fire. This spiritual fire resembles natural fire, but is a completely different substance.
- When Heb. 12:29 then states that “our God is a consuming fire”, we need to understand that He is obviously more than just fire, and not literal fire, although He does at times transcendentally transmutate in fire. Typologically this insight is very important, as the entire future of man on earth is placed in relief to the working of Godly fire – “it will be revealed by fire; and the fire will test each one’s work, of what sort it is”.
- The unreality needs to be removed so that the true Godly reality can be manifested. This change or translation to the third dimension is mediated by fire.
- A clothing with fire takes place, “an overshadowing or descent of a supernatural principle”. This clothing translates from the spiritual reality to our reality’s unreality. This metaphor of being clothed by fire is “the superimposition and investation of a garment”.
- We examined all the most important Old Testament examples of Theophany (Godly appearance) in and through fire, and found that it is the most common form of Theophany, with Dan. 7:9-10’s characterisation of the Ancient of Days (thus, Yeshua) as a consuming fire perhaps the most descriptive: “His throne was a fiery flame, its wheels a burning fire; a fiery stream issued and came forth from before Him.”
About Yeshua, the Son of the Living God, Col. 2:9 (NJB) states – “In Him, in bodily form, lives Divinity in all its fullness …” The GW Translation states: “All of God lives in Christ’s body …”. In Him the consuming-fire nature of God was thus also manifested. BUT: “Jesus treats the Old Testament as the seed that gives birth to something wonderfully new.” (Bruxley: The End of Religion, p. 201.) How everything was changed in the New Covenant IN JESUS THE CHRIST, especially the Theophany of fire, is an amazing mystery which we still need to figure out. Indeed – everything will be made visible through fire (1 Cor. 3:13).
- Selah: Start pondering how Theophany of fire takes place in the New Covenant.
- Read: 5-10
- Examine how this has been fulfilled: 5:11 (Tip: Rom. 11:21; 2 Pet. 2:4-5)
- For a deeper understanding: Read Bruxley’s book.
