When I first began understanding Nostradamus, I was amazed with what I was seeing. I felt how important it was for everyone in the world to understand a document that some people were interested in, but none realized the whole truth it contained. I was filled with urgency.
In hindsight, after reading the readings for today, which the focus on prophecy of the end times, I see how easy it would have been for me to feel the first slap of rejection and stop trying to tell anyone anything about Nostradamus, anymore.
“I have this book you might want to publish.”
“Not interested,” was the reply over fifty times.
“I have this book I self-published, if you would like to buy it, then I would be available to help you understand any confusing parts.”
“Not interested,” has been the most prevalent reply for the past 13 years.
“I can teach anyone who is interested in learning how to understand Nostradamus, if you just make the time to learn it as a course.”
“Not interested,” has been the resounding response.
“I can tell anyone how to read the books of the Holy Bible, based on what I have been able to understand from reading the Book of Nostradamus (The Prophecies), as long as someone comes to Bible Studies and wants to learn the truth of the Word.”
While not said, I feel people hear what I have to say and want to say, “I have never before heard anyone say what you say, therefore you must be a liar and I will stop coming to Bible Studies as long as you come.” While not stated that directly or that specifically, that is how I read the responses I have encountered over the last eight years. Bible Studies is an exercise few have an interest in taking part to begin with, and I tend to make those who falsely come want to cease coming.
One of the things I have pointed out recently, to gasps and silence, is how I “see” the Gospel of John in a light that exposes John as a child, not an adult. I read what John wrote, and the longer I look at his words, the more it says between the lines, “Jesus may have been married to Mary Magdalene. Jesus was related to Lazarus, Martha, and John, through that marriage.”
I have recently, within the last few months, come to the realization that John was actually the son of Jesus; and I have made that known, because it does me no good to see that and remain silent about it.* I see that revelation as spiritually uplifting. I see it as more reason to believe, rather than think lesser of Jesus or Christianity. I have heard people speak about John’s Gospel as if there may be reason to doubt John’s words, seeing how his Gospel does not seem to match the other three. Reading it as the memories of a man recalling his childhood explains this.
I have heard the disbelief of others, aghast that I would even suggest such a thing. I have felt the rejection. Not once has anyone come to me asking, “Robert, will you help me understand more, about how you see what you see?”
What?!?!
Recently, the news has reported a book is about to be published and on the market that proclaims an ancient biblical text has been translated for the first time. In it, Jesus is said to have been married to Mary Magdalene, and that marriage is said to have produced two children.
The response to that news has been quite negative. No one wants a married Jesus. No one wants a Jesus with children. No one wants a Jesus that was human, and just like us. A godly Jesus is less likely to be duplicated, so keep him that way and let me be blind to ever being like a human Jesus.
Even the name for this last Sunday of Pentecost – as Christ the King Sunday – makes the man Jesus well above what normal people can aspire to become. After all, kings are few and far between. The title actually comes from the Roman Catholic Church, as the name of a Feast Day in honor of Christ. The readings have nothing to do with recognizing that feast.
With that understood, let us look at what we have just heard read.
In the prophecy of Ezekiel that we read today, it says, “the Lord GOD will search for his sheep, and will seek them out.” God told Ezekiel, “I will rescue them from all the places to which they have been scattered on the day of clouds and thick darkness.”
I see the words of Nostradamus as being cloudy, with them telling a theme that is thick with darkness; because The Prophecies tells of the end of the world. That end is not pretty; and, thus, a parallel can be drawn to The Apocalypse of John. Thus, from knowing that it is clear to me that God told Ezekiel to prophecy of the end times, when all God’s sheep will be gathered for safe keeping.
In Ezekiel we read, “I will bind up the injured, and I will strengthen the weak, but the fat and the strong I will destroy. I will feed them with justice.” It later says, “I will judge between sheep and sheep.”
That relates to the prophecy told by Jesus, as told in the Gospel of Matthew, but only Ezekiel’s “sheep and sheep” are restated by Jesus as “sheep and goats.”
To many people reading a difference stated as “sheep and goats,” the brain leads one to conclude that sheep are different from goats, as a different species, easily distinguishable, one apart from the other, when seen in a field or pasture. This thinking then leads one to think that Jesus is telling us about believers and non-believers, which could be read as Christians on the right hand of God, and those of all the other religions on the left side.
The problem with that thinking is it fails to read how Jesus spoke to both sheep and goats as having a relationship with Jesus Christ. One group helped Jesus, while the other group denied Jesus. To deny Jesus is to claim to know him, believe in him and even love him, as did Simon Peter, only to deny him when the going gets tough. Therefore, both groups can be seen as calling themselves “Christians,” but only the sheep acted Christian. That is who will be gathered when Jesus comes again.
When you can see this, you can then re-read Ezekiel and see how the fat and strong sheep that God will destroy are parallel to the goats of Jesus. That symbolizes those who have profited by claiming to be Christians, when they will not in truth be Christian in their actions. Those “goats” are who “will go away into eternal punishment.”
The thing that makes a sheep a sheep and a goat not a sheep is the Holy Spirit. That is what, as Paul wrote, makes one a “saint.” A “saint” is a sheep that serves the Lord, to the point of being persecuted to death. True Christians make that sacrifice so their souls can attain Heaven. A “saint” is one who receives the “spirit of wisdom and revelation,” and who walks the earth as the resurrected “body” of Jesus, so that “the fullness of him fills all in all.” That means not just the mind (“I believe. Therefore, I am Christian.”), but every nook and cranny of the human being – mind, body, and soul – full, ALL in every place. “I am Jesus. Therefore, I am Christian.”
Paul wrote that to the yet to be filled Christians of Ephesus, praying that they would open their hearts and receive the Spirit.
Of course, hoping, praying, and telling people, “You can do it, if you just apply yourself,” does not always gain the desired result.
Perhaps, all the Ephesians did as Paul wished, and all became true Apostles of Christ. Perhaps, their sacrifices then are why there are still Christians around today.
Paul also wrote, “Above every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the age to come,” which means all who change their names to Jesus, via the presence of the Christ Mind from the Holy Spirit. No matter when that happens, the same result will bring about complete compliance with God’s Law, with no more sinning done. In other words, every goat that stops being a goat and becomes a reproduction of Jesus, as the Lamb of God in Spirit, becomes a sheep that will be gathered by Jesus. Those transformations were seen to begin in Age of Pisces and have lasted into the “new age,” the Age of Aquarius.
Remember “Hair”?
We are in that age now … the age of information, technology, and instant global connections. The Age of Aquarius is the Age of the Big Brain, when “tastes great and less filling” can be seen as the worldly mantra, as opposed to the mantra of the Holy Spirit. Christians lose their desires for sensual delights, opting to be more filled with the Spirit of God.
But, it is the Age of Goats, or the Age of Fat and Strong Sheep.
It is also the Age of the End Times.
If you remember, Matthew began this prophecy of Jesus by remembering how Jesus told them of the time of his return in glory, with angels. That return will be when Judgment comes to the sheep and goats. The Judgment will be based on how each individual helped Jesus, by feeding him, giving him drink, welcoming him, clothing him, healing him, and visiting him in prison.
Neither the sheep nor the goats knew they had ever met Jesus. After all, when the age of return comes, the man named Jesus will have been long gone, not seen in the flesh for nearly two thousand years. His return will have him find a world of all new sheep and goats. How could either sheep or goats have done any of those things mentioned by Jesus?
The answer is by becoming Jesus, through the Holy Spirit being received. They feed Jesus by eating while Jesus is them. They give Jesus drink by being Jesus and quenching their own thirsts. They welcome Jesus by receiving his mind through the Holy Spirit, becoming Jesus. They clothe Jesus by dressing themselves, as Jesus resurrected. They heal Jesus and care for his illness, by letting Jesus come within them and do what is necessary to cure their bodies. They visit Jesus in prison by understanding the earthly realm is everyone’s prison, such that Jesus inside one’s heart is visiting him before freedom from the earthly realm allows a return to Heaven.
The sheep also consume the bread of the holy Word. They drink the blood of Christ, as the Holy Spirit. They dress in attire that says, “I am not led by earthly lusts.” They cure themselves of an addiction to sins. They minister to others in their various states of persecutions and rejections.
The goats reject all of that. They are too concerned with how others will see them. They think (not feel) that if they start acting like a “Jesus freak,” then they will lose contacts and their important network of worldly securities. The fat and strong sheep reject all that too, while lapping up all the luxuries of being deemed holy, by pretending to be religious, all while getting rich on earthly delights given them by the lost who seek to be found.
There is nothing new exposed in today’s readings. It is the same song sung, just one more added verse. The message has long been how it is easier to do nothing than it is to receive the Holy Spirit and be led to a life that has people reject those who say, “Jesus was a married man with children, just like us. So, why can’t we be like him?”
It is easier to ignore those who say, “Nostradamus wrote a prophecy the same as did Ezekiel, saying the same things as Matthew said Jesus said.”
But the clock is ticking. We have entered the “age to come,” the time when Jesus will return and Judge the living and the dead.
The message is always the same as we close this Pentecost season, and come to the end of another Church cycle. On the eve of Advent, we have to ask ourselves, sincerely and honestly …
Am I living with the Holy Spirit, or living for all the possessions I can grab?
Am I dead and reborn in Christ, as Jesus resurrected, helping others; or am I dead to belief in God and Christ, rejecting being a servant, a priest, a minister to those lost?
Am I ready for the Advent of Jesus’ birth long ago?
Am I ready for the Second Coming of Jesus … the meaning of Advent?
Am I ready to finally have the Advent of Jesus born within me?
Is Christ my King today, or am I waiting until the last minute to decide?
Only you can answer those questions.
Amen
* To clarify this aspect of “marriage” and having a “son,” this does not necessarily mean Jesus had sex with anyone. Although I firmly believe the DNA of Jesus was in John the Beloved, the possibility is John was a Divine offspring. Jesus was the product of a miracle birth, so there is no reason why John could not have been likewise conceived by holy means. I also do not expect anyone to adopt my feeling about this matter, as I have no proof. Remember, Adam was the Son of God and his mating with Eve was a holy exchange, for a Divine purpose, resulting in multiple children. Jesus referred to himself as the Son of Man, where the Hebrew word for “man” is “adam.” The only reason Jesus would likewise have a blood offspring would be for the purpose of generating both “body” and “blood” Christians – the kings of Europe and the Apostles who would lead the churches of Christ.