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Grace to you and peace from him who is and who was and who is to come, and from the seven spirits who are before his throne, and from Jesus Christ, the faithful witness, the firstborn of the dead, and the ruler of the kings of the earth.
To him who loves us and freed us from our sins by his blood, and made us to be a kingdom, priests serving his God and Father, to him be glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen.
Look! He is coming with the clouds; every eye will see him,
even those who pierced him; and on his account all the tribes of the earth will wail.
So it is to be. Amen.
“I am the Alpha and the Omega,” says the Lord God, who is and who was and who is to come, the Almighty.
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This is the Epistle selection to be read aloud on the twenty-sixth Sunday after Pentecost, also called the Last Sunday or Christ the King Sunday [Proper 29], Year B, according to the lectionary for the Episcopal Church. It will follow one of two parings of Old Testament and Psalms, either a Track 1 or Track 2 set, depending on the predetermined path an individual church has set upon. The Track 1 course offers a reading from Second Samuel, which is David’s last song. There he wrote, “The el of Israel has spoken, the rock of Israel has said to me: One who rules over people justly, ruling in the fear of elohim”. That will be accompanied by Psalm 132, where he sang, “Yahweh has sworn an oath to David; in truth, he will not break it: “A son, the fruit of your body will I set upon your throne.” The Track 2 pair will present a reading from Daniel, where his vision said, “I saw one like a human being coming with the clouds of heaven. And he came to the Ancient One and was presented before him.” That will be accompanied by a singing of Psalm 93, which sings, “Ever since the world began, your throne has been established; you are from everlasting.” All will accompany the Gospel reading from John, where Jesus told Pilate, “You say that I am a king. For this I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone who belongs to the truth listens to my voice.”
I have written quite deeply about this reading. I give a basic explanation as how I came to be able to read Scripture and see the truth of that written. I welcome everyone to read my background there, which I will not go into now. That commentary can be found at this link. Because I have discerned these five verses most deeply – segment by segment – I will not repeat those observations at this time. Instead, I will place a broader focus on this selection and show how it fits in with the other readings presented on the last Sunday after Pentecost, the ‘end times’ for Year B’s ordinary season.
One thing that I must point out is the translation that reads “Jesus Christ.” The Greek written is “Iēsou Christou,” which should not be translated as if John wrote the first and last name of Jesus. The Greek form that would say “Christ” is “Christos.” The form “Christou” is the genitive form of Christos, with the genitive case expressing possession. This means John wrote, “Jesus of Christ.” That is a statement that Jesus was possessed by Yahweh, as one “Anointed” divinely. The Greek word “christos” means: “anointed; messiah,” where “messiah” is an English variation of the Hebrew word “mashiach,” which means the exact same thing: “anointed.” The capitalization must then be seen as a divine level of importance placed on “Anointment,” which means by Yahweh. The man named “Jesus” was then “one of” all those souls who had likewise been “Anointed” by Yahweh; and, David was one who was so “Anointed.”
It is also important to point out that the word translated as “spirits” [“seven spirits”] is written “Pneumatōn,” where the capitalization has been erased in translation. Again, the capitalization must be seen and understood as a divinely elevated state of “spirit,” which makes it be the spiritual oil of Anointment, as Yahweh’s “Spirit.” The number “seven” (as I wrote about last week) has to do with the “completion, perfection, and rest” of a cycle. Thus, when the “perfection Spirit” is before the throne of Yahweh, it is importantly [use of “kai”] that which is displayed in Jesus, who was “of the Anointment” by that “perfect Spirit.”
The plural number of “Spirits” must be seen as all who appear before the throne of Yahweh in Judgement. It those are truly reflecting the “completion Spirits,” of those souls united as one with Yahweh, as “perfected Spirits,” those cleansed of all past sins through submission in divine marriage; and those “Spirits able to rest” knowing their service to Yahweh had been done, they all become the souls of the “faithful,” or those who have displayed the “obedience” of union and the “loyalty” of servitude [all uses of “pistos”]. This is because those souls, formerly in bodies of flesh, prior to death, are “witnesses” [from “martys”], where that denotes a personal experience as Jesus reborn within their souls, with all having that presence as the “Christs of” Yahweh.
This then reverts back to the segment that says, “kai from Jesus of the Anointed,” such that the “perfected Spirits” will all have been resurrection of “Jesus” [a name that means “Yah[weh] Will Save”], where that soul possessing one’s own soul [two souls in one body of flesh] is what makes all be “of Anointment” from Yahweh. This presence of the soul of Jesus, in union with one’s own soul [like twins] then makes belief to transform into true “faith,” which obediently allows the soul of Jesus to rule over one’s body of flesh [divine possession], all of which is personally witnessed by the host soul, experiences through the eyes and ears of its flesh.
When John wrote “firstborn of the dead” [“prōtotokos tōn nekrōn”], the use of “firstborn” must be seen as the Passover demands, which Moses said would bring Yahweh as the angel of death, so all firstborn males of families not marked by the blood of the sacrificial lamb would die. The “firstborn” would also be the demand of those so marked, where their firstborn male children were to be dedicated to serve Yahweh as a priest [Samuel is an example of this sacrifice of the “firstborn”]. The element of “dead” must be seen as what a soul in a body of flesh is marked by, as the body of flesh is like the doorway to the soul within. When that body of flesh dies, then the soul is released for Judgement, where it then stands before the throne of Yahweh. To be the “firstborn of the dead,” then one is covered in the blood of Jesus – the sacrificial lamb – so one’s soul is spared the repeat of death, which is Judgment of reincarnation [or worse].
The point I want to make now is the beginning what says, “him who is and who was and who is to come” and the end that says, “who is and who was and who is to come” repeats the eternal way of Judgment. All souls stand before the throne of Yahweh after release from their bodies of flesh. All will be judged as to whether or not those souls married Yahweh, received His Spirit and gave birth to His Son Jesus. The only way to secure Salvation is to follow this path; as it has been this way from the beginning, and will be that way until the end. To see John’s Revelation as a future thing to worry about is wrong. The future is always one’s own pending death and whether or not one has sought Yahweh in marriage, to become Jesus reborn and live a righteous life that earns Salvation.
When this reading is paired with David’s last song before his death, one needs to see that theme of a soul being released for Judgment. In the verse of his song [2 Samuel 23:3] that is translated to say “the rock of Israel,” the “rock” needs to be read as the “cornerstone” that becomes set in place, which ensures “Israel” means one “Who Retains Yahweh,” as one of His elohim. To be a Yahweh elohim is to be a soul married to Yahweh’s Spirit; and, to have the “rock” that makes this stay put, that is being resurrected as Jesus.
In David’s last three verses [5-7], his focus is on those who reject marriage to Yahweh, so their souls have become the “firstborn” who do not escape the Judgment of Yahweh, so they will be made to die again. David’s metaphor for them was “thorns,” which choke the desire to become saved by righteousness out of them and others surrounding them. This echoes the words of John, who wrote, “even those who pierced him; and on his account all the tribes of the earth will wail.”
In the Daniel reading, the first two verses speak of the Judgment Yahweh made against the evil spirits, who were not “seven Spirits,” but instead the elohim of the first six days of Creation. I see those verses as the Judgment against Satan [or Lucifer, or Azael], who was the beast that antagonized mankind, despite the commands of Yahweh. While Satan was cast into the inner darkness of the earth, the other three beasts were stripped of their abilities to attack humanity; but they could lure human souls to desire worldly things, possessing them demonically as being what those souls sought. This, again, matches the piercing and wailing of which John wrote.
As for the last two verses of Daniel, which are clear metaphor of the coming of Jesus, John’s metaphor matches well with this being all souls who stand before the throne of Judgment, after having welcomed the soul of Jesus coming from heaven, becoming a human being again in the flesh of another. It is that new body of flesh that becomes the kingdom of Jesus, the soul of a high priest merged with one obedient to Yahweh’s Will.
When John wrote in his Gospel of Jesus telling Pilate, “My kingdom is not from this world,” that means Jesus is not a king of matter or as a soul itself in a body of flesh. Jesus would die, so his soul stood before the throne of Yahweh and was judged as pure. With that Judgment, the soul of Jesus would be the soul sent to all souls who would receive Salvation, from the beginning to the times of Judgement, to the End Times, with all deaths of humans in flesh being the same repeatedly.
As the Epistle reading to be read aloud on the last Sunday after Pentecost, when one’s own personal ministry for Yahweh should already be well underway, the lesson is to let Jesus be one’s King, which means one’s soul must submit to Yahweh in loving marriage, so Jesus can come into one’s soul, as the Anointment of Yahweh upon His beloved. This is not only a guarantee of Salvation at Judgement, but the day one begins to serve Yahweh as His Son resurrected in the flesh. Ministry is how others are led to Salvation; and, one’s actions in life will be known when one’s soul stands before Yahweh to be judged.