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[Addendum - 2016]  
 

ADDENDUM 2016 -- The Next Revelation of Christ : How Will the Word of God Be Expressed?

 

February, 2016

Today's article is a very late sequel to two previous  significant impartations from this ministry: The End of the Law of Mankind (1990) and The New Gentiles & The Next Revelation of Christ (1996).  It comes by way of the Lord's recent call to reorganize and make available all the past teachings of this ministry to the 21^st century "cyber-body" of Christ.

 

In course of bringing all this together, it became clear there was some latent confusion between these two messages. The 1990 message said the glorified saints are to become the embodiment of the next dispensation of the Word of God, a theme introduced in the preceding message as the Coming Super Revelation of the Gospel. So in those articles, the next revelation of the Gospel is seen to be in the glorified saints themselves.

 

The 1996 treatise on the "next revelation of Christ" did not make this equation, but remained fuzzy in connecting the next revelation with the glorified saints. That article instead measured the coming revelation in terms of the Word's dissemination among mortals. It focused on the historic cataclysmic shifts in the message itself and its means of transmission that occur every time a new dispensation of God's self-revelation is introduced to men.

 

Interestingly, when I wrote the second treatise, the memory of having written the first articles around the glorified saints was veiled from me. When I write, I am only aware of what I am receiving in the present, and can only relate to something I wrote previously if the Lord brings it back to mind, which He did not in this case.

 

The purpose of today's article then, some 26 years after the first understanding and 20 years after its second variation, is to see if we can bring some harmonious clarification to these differing mortal and immortal concepts of the next revelation of God's Word. To do this, we need to start by looking at the nature of revelation itself.
 

 

Revelation and Its Embodied Means of Expression

 

When we are talking about revelation, we are talking about illumination to the heart, mind and the eye. We are talking of course about light itself.

 

But in our world, light often requires an "embodiment" for its transmission to be usable among us because of darkness. That embodiment could be as simple as a primitive wood torch, or it could be an oil-fed glass lantern, or an electric light bulb.

 

In these embodiments, the light and its means of transmission are not the same, yet are intrinsically inseparable. In all cases, there must be both the light energy itself (a flame or electric current) and an element to burn upon (a stick of wood, some oil and a cloth wick, or a tungsten filament inside of a glass bulb) in order to convey light amid darkness in our world.      

 

The same is true of spiritual revelation. We know God is spirit Light. He is the all consuming fire of the unseen universe. He is the unharnessed energy illumining all even as the naked sun lights the solar system. But to be Light in this fallen world, He requires "embodiment" to reach the spiritual eyes of men in dark places. He needs "something to burn on" in order to convey Himself to our hearts and minds.

 

Therefore, when we are talking about the "next revelation" of Christ and His Word, we are never just talking about the spiritual Light of Christ Himself. We must also talk about the embodied means for His expression.

 

So with regard to the previous discussions on this next revelation, we are considering different aspects of the combustible substance--the "filament" as it were--the embodied means of transmission by which God's Word is conveyed over time. We are not talking so much about Christ Himself, who is the Light energy through all.

 

Understanding the changing means of delivering that Light relative to what is yet to come is what these articles have been about. Reconciling the mortal and immortal aspects of that next delivery is what this article is about.

 

 

Time and Parts in the Expression

 

As we consider more carefully the expression and delivery of Christ's revelation to us, two factors immediately step forward that will help bring into focus the apparent disparities to be reconciled from the previous articles.

 

-         Time

 

The first factor is one we just hinted at about the "changing means" by which God's Word is embodied. This is the factor of progressive development over time.  

 

While God as Light never changes, the means of His embodied expression in this world have been steadily changing over the millenniums. They have been "improving."  We detailed these changing expressions in the 1996 treatise. We talked about the changes in revelation from Noah, to Abraham, to Moses, to Christ as relayed through Paul and then projecting into the coming change from there.

 

And is this not what we also see in the history of natural light transmission? We mentioned above some different light embodiments; first a torch, then a lantern, then an electric light bulb. Note how each succeeding embodiment has improved on the last. Each was developed during a certain dispensation in history. And it is still being developed.

 

As it is in the natural, so in the spiritual concerning the changing and developing embodiment of Gods light in the world.

 

-         Parts

 

The other factor affecting the embodiment of revelatory light is the variety of parts required. Whatever the housing is for the light, it rarely consists of just one object. Even a torch, the most primitive of light bearing instruments, is something more than a just a burning stick. A lasting usable torch is bound with some sort of pitch and tinder so the flame will last.

 

As Light embodiment improves, the number and complexity of parts needed to convey the light increase. An oil fed lantern includes a metal body, glass, a wick and other interior parts. When we come to the electric lightbulb, we have still more complexly manufactured metal and glass parts.

 

This is again true with the increasing display of the Living Word of God among us, except that the improving components are constructed by the Spirit. From a simple conversation between Noah and God, the transmission of the Word of God has taken on innumerable parts of developed expression through the multi-faceted Body of Christ based on a history of scriptures capturing numerous stories, truths and practices.

 

 

&&&&&&&&&&

 

All together then, we see this developing over time of an embodiment of God's word consisting of more numerous and complex parts. If the revelation to Noah or Abraham was like that of a wooden torch, and the revelation through Moses was the equivalent of a glass lantern, the first revelation of Christ to humanity bodily and through the Church was like Edison's leap into the electric age!

 

Yet, there is another revelation to come, even further developed and consisting of more advanced, numerous parts.  

 

 

Reconciling the Variegated Elements of the Next Revelation of Christ

 

Once we spread out the components like this, it becomes easier to see that in talking about the "next revelation of Christ" and His Word, it is not just about whether it is embodied through the glorified saints alone or also expressed among the larger body of mortal saints concerning how the church meets, the new language to arise, or the nature of the message communicated. It is about both of these and all of these.

 

In other words, the next revelation through the immortals and its accompanying expression among the mortals are just different parts of the one overall awaited embodiment.

 

In the 1990 articles, we said that transmission of the Word of God through mortal man was coming to an end ("the end of the 'law' of mankind"). And this is so. It is so in the same way that Christ Himself first replaced the Law. Similarly, in the day at hand, the immortals will be the flawless embodiment of the revelation of Christ together with Christ, untainted by the legalisms and inadequacies under mortality. They will replace the clunky frail clay by which the original gospel has been transmitted. No errors. No quirks. No imbalances. Just pure perfect expression of the authoritative Living Word.

 

But even so, that next revelation will still be imparted to and through the remaining mortal church. This will be as it was when Christ imparted His gospel to the apostles. The apostles became the mortal embodiment of the perfected message even though they remained subject to incomplete understandings and divisions. All the changes that came to define what the new gospel and "ekklesia" was for this church age occurred through them.

 

Likewise, the mortals stewarding tomorrow's revelation will have a part to play in transmitting this next superior Word in tandem with the immortals who will supremely embody the renewed Living Gospel among us.

 

What are we seeing then? Just as there were immortal and immortal components to the last revelation of Christ, so will it be with the next. And just as Christ brought an end to the Law, though men afterward continued to live under it for a time, so will the immortal Sons of God bring an end to the Word of God through mortal mankind, although mortal men will continue for some time to steward this renewed revelation of Christ in more developed form.

 

Borrowing from our illustration of the light bulb which embodies the light, we can assign the mortal and immortal aspects of the next revelation to different parts of the one bulb housing. If Christ Himself is the light energy, and His own body is the filament, then we could liken the immortals to the immediate glass surrounding the filament through which the energy directly shines. And the mortals and their stewarding of all the mortal aspects would thus be as the "housing" comprised of the metal socket components to which the glass is affixed.

 

And so this is how we reconcile the two previous messages. The 1990 messages discussed the "brilliant glass" of the light bulb. The 1996 message described the housing of the light bulb with all its operating parts.

   

 

Which Comes First? The Chicken or the Egg?

 

So it is these mortal and immortal aspects will be in close proximity at the next revelation. Christ the returned resurrected Lord will be the fountainhead of the Word. The glorified saints will be the perfected immortalized grace display and carriers of the Gospel II, ending and replacing the "law" of the Word of God through flesh and blood with all its faulty soul images.

 

Yet the ages of immortality and mortality will be in overlap. The next revelation will still come to mortals among whom it will be developed. This was the focus of the 1996 treatise.  So there will be this interplay between the heavenlings and the earthlings in the next revelation*.

 

(*For further discussion on this overlap as it is to play out in the Promised Land, see Projecting National Israel's Destiny into the Age of Restoration from the treatise A Transcendental Presentation of Israel.)

 

But when I wrote the 1996 treatise, I could not conclusively cite the actually timing of this next revelation among the earthlings relative to its embodiment among the glorified. In discussing this timing, I surmised that it would actually precede the glorification in the same way that the dawn precedes the sunrise:

 

It is entirely within the realm of reality to say that the next revelation of Christ does not begin with His full-blown bodily appearingThis revelation will be but part of the dawning, a dawning that will include other developmental aspects before the Son of God appears in all his glory to take over the earth.

 

From another view though, it would make sense that the next revelation is actually transmitted first to and then from the glorified ones to the mortals. But that is not what I saw at that time. I was seeing the next revelation among the mortals similar to how John the Baptist received and preached the revelation of Christ ahead of Christ.

 

So there is this question of the "chicken and the egg." Which comes first? Does the next revelation come first as by the spirit of Elijah, as the dawn heralding the nearing immortal display? Or do the immortals receive it ahead of all the mortals who then transmit it to the mortals the way Christ passed on His gospel to the apostles?

 

Since the Father does things over and over in prophetically repeating patterns, my conclusion would have to finally be, "both are true!" Just as there was a "pre-revelation" from John thence to the actual revelation of Christ and thence to the apostles, I would say that the complete next revelation of Christ embodies a pre-revelation to forerunning apostles (as seen in the 1996 treatise) followed by the actual revelation through the glorified ones (as seen in the 1990 articles), who then impart back again to the commissioned mortals!

 

Let's stay tuned to find out.

 

&&&&&&&&&&

 

Isn't the word of God amazing? Aren't the developments and the prophetic patterns breathtaking?  

 

May these late cumulative thoughts on these two prior teachings bring us all more light as we await and even now begin entering into the Spirit of the Next Revelation of Christ and the perfected Expression of the Word of God to this earth through His glorified saints.

Chris Anderson
New Meadow Neck, Rhode Island


First Love Ministry
- a ministry of Anglemar Fellowship
http://www.firstloveministry.org

2/16



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