Hidden Wisdom

By C. Eldon McNabb

“We speak wisdom among them that are perfect: yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the princes of this world, that come to nought: but we speak the wisdom of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before the world unto our glory: which none of the princes of this world knew: for had they known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.  But as it is written, Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.  But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit: for the Spirit searcheth all things, yea, the deep things of God” (1 Corinthians 2:6-10).

I am occasionally contacted by some Christian minister who feels compelled to tell me how wrong it is for me to preach and teach to people the deeper things of the Word of God.  It is somehow offensive to them that I do not limit my ministry to that relatively small portion of the huge volume of the Holy Scriptures which deals solely with the redemption of the souls of men.  According to that way of thinking, I would have to wonder why the book of Esther is in the Bible at all.  It makes no specific mention of God at all.  It needs to be included, however, because it contains some very important prophecies of the work of God in the Grace Age.

That idea is strange to me, for several reasons.  Not the least of which is the admonition which Jesus gave us in Matthew 11:29.  He said, “Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls.”  The Apostle Paul indicated to us that, even being baptized with the Holy Ghost, we have only part of the spiritual “equipment” which we need in order to fully grasp some of the wonderful things of God.

It was Paul who laid hands on the saints in Ephesus, by which they received the baptism of the Holy Spirit.  Yet he wrote to them of another spirit, one of “The Four Spirits of the Heavens” [The Spirit of Wisdom and Understanding]; which are mentioned in Isaiah 11:1-2 and Zechariah 6:1-5, saying, “After I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all the saints, [I] cease not to give thanks for you, making mention of you in my prayers; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give unto you the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him: the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints.”  What we all need, in our spiritual lives, is the function of all of the “Four Spirits of the Heavens;” particularly the baptism with the Spirit of the Lord and The Spirit of Wisdom and Understanding (Ephesians 1:15-23).

Paul added to that, in 2 Timothy 2:15, by saying to Timothy, “Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.”  These statements say to me that the opposite of the admonition of my detractors is true.  Understanding the revelation of God, which we are given in the Bible, requires a lot of work, but it must be preached to God’s hungry family, as Paul told us in 1 Corinthians above.

Jesus thought that His household needed a variety of food and told us in a parable, in Matthew 24:42-47, how He would provide it for them.  He said, “Know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up.  Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not the Son of Man cometh.  Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season?  Blessed is that servant, whom his lord when he cometh shall find so doing.”

Peter also gave us a very strong admonition in 2 Peter 1:16-21; concerning prophecy, saying, “We have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.  For he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.  And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount.  We have also a more sure word of prophecy; whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as unto a light that shineth in a dark place, until the day dawn, and the day star arise in your hearts [apparently not Jesus]: knowing this first that no prophecy of the scripture is of any private interpretation.  For the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man: but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost.”  It is now up to a group of apostles and prophets to “rightly divide” it all so we will understand it, and know what to do.  We need to do as those Jews did on that day of Pentecost, asking God, What must we do?

 “Know this.”  It is important that we be prepared for the occasion of a possible break-in by thieves, and it is equally, if not more important that we be ready for the coming of Jesus.  Know this also that God intends to prepare a people for the coming of the Son of Man.  The way He intends to accomplish that is to provide His “household” with a leader, who is wise in the Word of God, to lead them, and to keep them informed as to where we are on God’s prophetic time table: “Meat in due season.”  And when Jesus comes back, He will find His appointee doing exactly that.

Christians need the nourishment of spiritual milk, but they also need the spiritual protein of spiritual meat.  The promise which God gave to the Fathers of Israel was “a land flowing with milk and honey.”  So we also must need the “enlightening of the eyes” which spiritual honey provides (Hebrews 5:11-14; 1 Samuel 14:25-29).

In the above passage in Matthew 24, Jesus expressed the need for “Meat in due season,” and tied that to the events leading up to the second coming of our Lord.  Getting people to accept the redemption which is afforded unto us by the death of Jesus on the cross will not save them, or us from the wrath of God which he will pour out upon his disobedient children at the end of the Grace Age, or from the wrath of the dragon (Zephaniah 2:13-3; Revelation 12:17).  The only thing that will enable us to escape is having a revelation of the prophetic events which lead up to the coming of the Bridegroom, and to be seeking God with all of our hearts.

How else shall we know when to obey the prophetic command in Isaiah 26:20?  God said, “Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee: hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast.”  Scriptures such as this are totally nullified by the false prophecies which we hear almost everywhere, and almost every day, telling us that we can not know when Jesus is about to return.  Conversely, Paul said, “let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching” (Hebrews 10:25).  Paul spoke even more plainly to the Church, in 1 Thessalonians 5:4, saying, “Ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief.”  How can I possibly “see the day approaching,” if these ministers are correct in their promotion?

In 1 Thessalonians 4:13-18, Paul used a portion of the prophecy of the second coming of Jesus which is recorded in Exodus 19.  When the Lord came down unto Moses on the mountain, He gave Israel a three-day notice to become sanctified, and to wash their clothes before His “public” appearance.

To get the full scope of that prophecy, you must read the entire 19th chapter of Exodus.  From the instructions which God gave to Moses that day, we can be sure that God will appear to His “anointed one,” in this last time, to give us two or three years advance notice to prepare ourselves for the coming of our Bridegroom (God prophesies of time in various ways, one of which we find in Ezekiel 4:6.  He told Ezekiel to lay on his right side, and that thus he would bear the iniquity of the house of Judah forty days: “I have appointed thee each day for a year.”)   I say Bridegroom, because when the Lord descended on the mount at the day appointed, He gave to Moses “the covenant [of marriage], the ten commandments” (Exodus 20 and 34:28; Jeremiah 3:14).

While my detractors go about bashing me for preaching the “hidden wisdom” of the Bible they do a very strange thing.  Whereas I follow Paul’s example, and “preach Jesus Christ according to the revelation of the mystery” (Romans 16:25-26), they preach that all of the redeemed make up God’s Church, and insist that a person is born spiritually into the “body of Christ.”  That is a whole lot more of a “mystery” than what I preach.  The soul of a man is redeemed from the hand of Satan as he is being born again, but become a part of God’s Church, according to Isaiah 62:1-7, is like a marriage.  It is similar to receiving the Holy Ghost; only a Christian can receive it (John 14:17).

If you think that it is less complicated to believe that becoming a Christian automatically makes you a part of God’s Church, then you find yourself in direct opposition to the Apostle Paul.  You see, Paul thought that, far from being simple, the subject of Christ and the Church is “a great mystery” (Ephesians 5:32).  Many, if not most of our ministers today have approached that great mystery, and have tried to make it appear to be simple, but have met with some serious complications in the process.  We can pretend that the New Testament is all about redemption, and is quite simple, but from its beginning to its conclusion it is about the mystery of God’s will.  The process of redemption is quite simple, but God has given to us men with the gifts of Apostle and Prophet to the end that we might be able to comprehend it all (Ephesians 1:3-9 and 3:1-11).

Matthew called his Gospel “The Book of the Generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham,” pointing out that the promised King, and Messiah had come.  After he had named those forty-two generations, he then related the events which occurred with a visitation of God’s angel to Joseph and Mary.  By way of explanation, in Matthew 1:22, he wrote, “Now all this was done, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken of the Lord by the prophet.”

The New Testament begins with Matthew’s “Gospel,” and with 21 verses which cover prophecies of the genealogies which had to come to pass, concluding with the birth of Jesus Christ (Jesus later testified that He was born to be “King of the Jews”).  Nine times, throughout the book of Matthew, he used the phrase, “That it might be fulfilled.”  Thus Matthew showed us that everything in the New Testament: every detail of every narrative, or ministry, or work was “prophecy fulfilled.”

The New Testament ends with a similar prophetic note, saying, “I Jesus have sent mine angel to testify unto you these things in the churches.  I am the root and the offspring of David, and the bright and morning star.  And the Spirit and the bride say, Come.  And let him that heareth say, Come.  And let him that is athirst come.  And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.  For I testify unto every man that heareth the words of the prophecy of this book, If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues that are written in this book: and if any man shall take away from the words of the book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the holy city, and from the things which are written in this book.”

God showed us here that there is more than one book which is written concerning His people, and their gifts and rewards, or loss of gifts and rewards.  To have your name written in the holy city is not the same thing as to have it written in the book of life.  There are actually four books which are written concerning, and for the benefit of those who manage to get their names in them, and maintain their presence there.  There is the all-famous “Book of Life;” referred to in Exodus 32:32, but mentioned by name only in Philippians 4:3 and five times in Revelation, and the “Book of Life of the Lamb,” only in Revelation 13:8.  And, there is the “Book of Remembrance;” in Malachi 316-17.  There is also the “Book of the Holy City:” the Church, Jerusalem, Zion (Hebrews 12:18-23).

Before God chooses who shall be in the Church, they must first qualify to be written in the Book of Remembrance.  That is where people who are generally qualified are listed to be considered later, when the time comes for God to “make up His jewels.”

In Revelation 22:19, it is easily seen that the Book of Life and the Book of the Holy City are not the same thing.  The importance of having your name written in the Book of the Holy City is better understood when we realize the truth of Revelation 19:6-9 and 21:9-11.  The Church is the Holy City: The Bride the Lamb’s Wife.  It is important to know that Israel was united when God brought them out of Egypt, yet He described them saying, Judah was His Sanctuary, and Israel His Dominion (Psalm 114:1-2).  When they came out of Egypt, and Pharaoh went forth to destroy them, God defended them with a pillar of cloud and pillar of fire.  It is in this context which we must comprehend how God will deliver us out of the enemy’s hand when persecution is forced upon Christianity in the next few years.

In this last time, God will indeed defend His people.  First we must fulfill the words of Paul, “endeavoring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace,” until His gifted ministry of Apostles, Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors and Teachers can manage to bring us together “in the unity of the faith.”  Christians are having difficulty, at this time, seeing any reason for them to unite together.  That day is about over.  The pressure of government imposition upon God’s people is steadily increasing, and breaking point will come.

A number: a list of Christians, clean and unclean, must be brought together under one banner: the flag of The Kingdom of God which is prophesied of in Daniel 2:43-44.  You cannot be born into it.  You must decide to be part of it, and have your name written there, as is prescribed in Matthew 18:15-20; John 20:23; and 1 Corinthians 5:1-13.  Whatever, and whoever the officials of God’s Elect “bind on Earth,” writing their names in a book, God shall write their names in the Book of the Holy City in Heaven.

As the pressure builds, and persecution breaks out against us, God will defend us, as He did the united nation of Israel, with the pillar of cloud, and the pillar of fire that day, as they waited for the sea to open.

Even so, God promised us, in Isaiah 4, that He will defend us as He did Israel on that day.  He said, “In that day shall the branch of the Lord be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel.  And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem: when the Lord shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning.  And the Lord will create upon every dwelling place of mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night: for upon all the glory shall be a defense.  And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in the daytime from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a covert from storm and from rain.”

The glory of the Lord shall soon be manifested upon the Gentile Church, because they will have fulfilled the prophecies in Isaiah 52:8, and Isaiah 60:7.  He said, “They shall see eye to eye when the Lord shall bring again Zion.”  “All the flocks of Kedar shall be gathered together unto thee, the rams of Nebaioth shall minister unto thee: they shall come up with acceptance on mine altar, and I will glorify the house of my glory.”

As the prophetic scene unfolds, tens of thousands of people from many churches shall assemble together with them.  Those who do so shall enter into a covenant with them to have their name written together with all of those who accept the fellowship of God’s Kingdom and Sanctuary.  Thus shall we fulfill the allegory of the Kingdom of God under Kings David and Solomon.

Then shall the Cloud of the Lord’s Glory be seen upon all for a defense from all of the troubles which shall afflict men in that “Day of the Lord.” 


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