A Parable
For The Blind
I was blind, but now I see. At least I think I see a little bit better through the darkened looking glass1 than I did before. This is my parable for all that I understand and believe is Holy, Good, Beautiful, and True, as personified in Jesus Christ the Nazarene, Son of God, and Son of Man, who is the Way, the Truth, and the Life. Only in and through Him can we come into the presence of God The Father, the invisible, all-consuming fire, Who no man can see and live. Jesus Christ is the only Begotten God, who makes the invisible Father God, visible to us. This exact image of God in the spiritual and physical aspects of the One True Triune Reality, is the Son of God, and He is the Triune Reality in Whom we live, move, and have our being.
The Kingdom of Heaven is like a family, Father, Son, and the Bride of the Son, who will soon and forevermore be the Son’s only Wife. She will be made the greatest, most glorious, expression of all that is Holy, Good, Beautiful, and True.
“woman is the glory of man”2
Before all else, reality was just God (YHWH), unitary.3 The Father is not just originally unitary, He remains so, and always will, because there is no shadow or variation4 in His essence, His very being, His very soul. Then God begot His only Son who is divine by nature because the Father gave Him to have life in Himself.5 In their divine nature, the Father and the Son are One; they are in perfect and complete union in their eternal divine Father-Son relationship.6 But they are not equal, because their distinctiveness as divine Persons is eternal and without end. The Son was begotten by the Father with a perfect spiritual and physical nature, which is the glory He had with the Father before the foundation of the world, and is why the Scriptures state that the Son is the Firstborn of all creation.7 The Son of God is the One and only begotten God revealed to us in the Holy Scriptures8 as the One True God-Man (body, soul, and spirit)9 in Whose image we are made body, soul, and spirit;10 male and female, we are made in His image.11 The Son’s triune nature has never changed and will not,12 not even temporarily when He condescended and appeared to us as the Son of Man, born of a virgin, in the form of a slave.13 Nor when He ascended to the Father after conquering death, becoming the Firstborn of the dead.14 His eternal birth, condescension, death, burial, resurrection, and ascension all happened first in the eternal order,15 but were not revealed to us in the chronological order until about two thousand years ago.16 In the Son of God, all of creation lives, moves and has its being.17 Only the Son can fully see the Father and be in His direct presence unveiled and not be made nought, annihilated, cease to exist. All of creation must always be veiled in the Firstborn of creation or it would be made nought. When the Son of God died, He was completely and utterly separated from the Father, forsaken18 for a moment of eternity;19 but because the Son has life in Himself, He did not cease to exist. And because all of creation is hidden in the Son,20 creation did not cease to exist when the Son died. Otherwise, there would not have been anything nor anyone but YHWH B.C. From the eternal perspective, there actually is nothing and no one Before Christ, except for YHWH.
So instead of the Godhead and the Trinity, I believe in the One Triune God, Who is Jesus Christ, our Everlasting or Eternal Father.21 He gives us eternal life and unites us individually and collectively to Himself and in Him unites us to His God and Father,22 Who is also our God and Father.23 This unity is accomplished by the life-giving power and might of the Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ, who is Jesus Christ Himself.24 God the Son and the Holy Spirit are equal in the only way that can be absolutely true, self-identity.25
There are three divine persons: the invisible God the Father, the visible God the Son Who makes His God and Father visible to us, and the Bride/Wife of Christ Who shares26 in the divinity of the Father and Son and has eternal life by the full indwelling of the life-giving Holy Spirit of Jesus Christ. Within the chronological order the Bride is still being washed clean and sanctified to divine perfection. The Bride of Christ has eternal life because the life-giving Son gives freely of His eternal spiritual and eternal physical nature to Her. The life-giving first Adam, with Eve being fashioned from the living flesh and bone taken from him27 before their fall into sin and death, is a wonderful and beautiful picture of what God has accomplished in the eternal order and is accomplishing within the chronological order. Christ the True and Better Adam!!!
The Bride also called Wife28 is divine by the eternal decree of the Father, and is sanctified within God’s chronological order to share in the divine nature of the Son, Who is Her Betrothed Groom and Her Eternal Husband upon the Marriage Feast of the Lamb29 and the consummation of the union between divine Husband and divine Wife. Repeatedly in Scriptures, God commands us to not uncover the nakedness of another.30 Uncovering nakedness in the sense required by the context should only occur before our Holy God in a union of one husband and one wife bound together in the life-long marriage covenant. The Father, Who does not know evil,31 does not uncover the nakedness of His Daughter-in-Law, divine Daughter by decree, and neither does the Son uncover it to His Father. Hence, there is inequality in the knowledge of Father and Son.
I believe in the triunity of the three unequal divine persons: God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit as the Bride of Christ. The Son of God is in eternal subordination as a distinct divine person to His God and Father. The Bride is in eternal subordination to Her Kinsman Redeemer, Her Groom, and soon to be Husband. The Bride is also in eternal subordination to Her One True Supreme God and Father in and through the Son, as the Body of Christ, the Church universal, the Communion of the Saints, of all those sanctified by their Savior and Redeemer. The Scriptures declare that the woman is the glory of man.32 I believe this is not only inevitably true in properly formed and ordered marital relationships in the here and now, but also much more gloriously true without end in the eternal perfect union between the Bride and Her Maker and Husband in the Heaven of Heavens.
The reality God has brought forth is triune (divine, spiritual, and physical). This reality is unequal, hierarchical,33 authoritarian,34 authoritative,35 and patriarchal.
Reality is a divinely ordered hierarchy, with the first order being YHWH Himself unveiled in all His unequaled supremely self-existent Holy divine nature. He is One and He is Life personified and the supreme Author of all other life. He is without beginning and He is without end.
The second order of reality is like the first, but glorified with an eternal triune nature as the Three in One only begotten Son of YHWH God the Father. The eternal nature of the Son is eternally divine, eternally spiritual, and eternally physical from the eternal moment of His eternal divine birth and without end. In the Son of God Himself is the union of the divine, spiritual, and physical aspects of the reality we experience. The Son is given to have Life in Himself by His God and Father and is The Author of Life for all creation. The Son is the Firstborn of all creation.
The third order of reality is created and has existence within the Son, Whose Holy Soul is in eternal full union with the Holy Soul of His God and Father. The Son is the Veil between the Father and creation. Nothing in creation can have a relationship with the Father outside the Veil. Nothing in creation can exist outside the Son.
And the rest is the GRAND STORY that the Almighty, All-Knowing One True God and His Only Begotten Son are weaving and revealing to us, His creatures, in whose hearts He has set eternity.
This is how I understand the nature of existence and reality as I see it declared in the special revelation of God’s inspired Holy Scriptures36 that was given to us and preserved for us down through the ages.
I urge you to be like the noble-minded Bereans and go search the Scriptures to see if it so.37
1 Corinthians 13:12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part, but then I will know fully just as I also have been fully known.
Legacy Standard Bible (LSB) here and below, unless noted otherwise
1 Corinthians 11:7b
Exodus 3:14-15 And God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM”; and He said, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” And God furthermore said to Moses, “Thus you shall say to the sons of Israel, ‘Yahweh, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is My name forever, and this is My memorial-name from generation to generation.”
Deuteronomy 6:4 “Hear, O Israel! Yahweh is our God, Yahweh is one!”
Isaiah 29:16 You turn things around! Shall the potter be considered as equal with the clay, That what is made would say to its maker, “He did not make me”; Or what is formed say to him who formed it, “He has no understanding”?
Isaiah 40:25 “To whom then will you liken Me That I would be his equal?” says the Holy One.
Isaiah 46:5 “To whom would you liken Me And make Me equal and compare Me, That we would be alike?”
James 1:17 Every good thing given and every perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shifting shadow.
John 5:26 For just as the Father has life in Himself, even so He gave to the Son also to have life in Himself;
John 17
Colossians 1:15 Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation.
John 1:14,18; 3:16
Jesus Christ is fully God and fully Man. Man is made in the image of God, and man is body, soul, and spirit. Therefore, Jesus Christ is body, soul, and spirit.
1 Thessalonians 5:23 Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Genesis 1:27 And God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.
Hebrews 13:8 Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever.
Philippians 2:5-7 Have this way of thinking in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although existing in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, by taking the form of a slave, by being made in the likeness of men.
Colossians 1:18 And He is the head of the body, the church; Who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, so that He Himself will come to have first place in everything.
Revelation 1:5 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 released us from our sins by His blood—
Eternity
Eternity is the ever present moment that endures without end until the Almighty, All-Knowing, Supreme One declares the end of the eternal moment from its beginning. If an end is not declared by the Almighty, the only One with the sovereign power to do so, then eternity is forever. Eternity is God’s timeline, but His timeline does not happen to Him like …
2 Kings 19:25 ‘Have you not heard? Long ago I did it; From days of old I formed it. Now I have brought it to pass…’
Acts 17:28 for in Him we live and move and exist,
Matthew 27:45-46 Now from the sixth hour darkness fell upon all the land until the ninth hour. And about the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, “Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani?” that is, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?”
See also Mark 15:34
Within time, about two thousand years ago, He was crucified and died, was buried, and on the third day rose from the dead.
Colossians 1:15-17 Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For in Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him. And He is before all things, And in Him all things hold together.
Isaiah 9:6b and his name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace. ESV
Isaiah 9:6b And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace. LSB
John 14
John 17
John 20:17 Jesus *said to her, “Stop clinging to Me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father; but go to My brothers and say to them, ‘I ascend to My Father and your Father, and My God and your God.’” See also Romans 15:6; 2 Corinthians 1:3; 11:31; Ephesians 1:3, 17; 1 Peter 1:3; Revelation 1:6; 3:2, 12.
1 Corinthians 15:45 So also it is written, “The first MAN, Adam, BECAME A LIVING SOUL.” The last Adam became a life-giving spirit.
See following for self-identity of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit: Romans 8:9-11, John 6:63, 1 Corinthians 15:45, 2 Corinthians 3:4-18, 4:3-5; John 14:6, and 1 John 5:6.
2 Peter 1:4 For by these He has granted to us His precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.
Hebrews 12:9-10 Furthermore, we had earthly fathers to discipline us, and we respected them. Shall we not much rather be subject to the Father of spirits, and live? For they disciplined us for a short time as seemed best to them, but He disciplines us for our benefit, so that we may share His holiness.
Genesis 2:21-25 So Yahweh God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. And Yahweh God fashioned the rib, which He had taken from the man, into a woman, and He brought her to the man. Then the man said, “This one finally is bone of my bones, And flesh of my flesh; This one shall be called Woman, Because this one was taken out of Man.” Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother, and cleave to his wife; and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed.
Revelation 21:9 Then one of the seven angels who have the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and spoke with me, saying, “Come here, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.”
Revelation 19:7-9 Let us rejoice and be glad and give the glory to Him, for the marriage of the Lamb has come and His bride has made herself ready.” And it was given to her to clothe herself in fine linen, bright and clean; for the fine linen is the righteous acts of the saints. Then he *said to me, “Write, ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.’” And he *said to me, “These are true words of God.”
Leviticus 18, Leviticus 20, Ezekiel 16:35-37, 22:10, 23:10.
Genesis 3:22a, Jeremiah 19:3-6
Habakkuk 1:12-13 Are You not from everlasting, O Yahweh, my God, my Holy One? We will not die. You, O Yahweh, have placed them to judge; And You, O Rock, have established them to reprove. Your eyes are too pure to see evil, And You cannot look on trouble. Why do You look On those who deal treacherously? Why are You silent when the wicked swallow up Those more righteous than they?
1 Corinthians 11:7b
Matthew 19:27-30 Then Peter answered and said to Him, “Behold, we have left everything and followed You; what then will there be for us?” And Jesus said to them, “Truly I say to you, that you who have followed Me, in the regeneration when the Son of Man will sit on His glorious throne, you also shall sit upon twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel. And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or farms for My name’s sake, will receive one hundred times as much, and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last; and the last, first.
Matthew 20:8-16, Mark 9:34-36, 10:31
Psalm 2, Revelation 2:27, 12:5, 19:15
Matthew 28:18-20 And Jesus came up and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to keep all that I commanded you; and behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”
John 17:1-3 Jesus spoke these things; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You, even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life. And this is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.”
The 39 books of the Old Testament and the 27 books of the New Testament.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 All Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be equipped, having been thoroughly equipped for every good work.
Hebrews 4:12-13 For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are uncovered and laid bare to the eyes of Him to whom we have an account to give.
Acts 17:10-11 And the brothers immediately sent Paul and Silas away by night to Berea, and when they arrived, they went into the synagogue of the Jews. Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.