THEN HE REMEMBERED THE ANCIENT DAYS
MATTHEW 5:17-20; 28:18-20
Do not think that I have come to nullify the Law or the Prophets: I have not come to nullify them but to fulfill them. For Amen do I say to you, until heaven and earth pass away not the smallest letter, not a part of a letter, will drop out of the Law until everything written has come to pass. Whoever therefore will nullify one of these “least” commandments and teach men so will be called “least” in the Kingdom of the Heavens; but whoever will perform them and teach them, that one will be called “great” in the Kingdom of the Heavens. For I say to you, that unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, you will not even enter the Kingdom of the Heavens.
All authority in Heaven and on earth has been given to Me. Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey all things whatsoever that I have commanded you. And behold, I will always be with you, even to the conclusion of the age.
And see how the immense superiority of the miracles of the prophet Moses over those of Christ, and He having arranged and decreed it from the beginning that it should be so, clearly indicates a primary and ultimate divine focus upon the Law given through him, and not at all upon mere formal Christianization — lord of the prophets is he, master of the plagues of Egypt, who brought down food from the sky for forty years straight, stopping every Saturday, he who split the Sea, as also the ground under Korah, whose face shone in rays in the presence of a nation, through whom came the fire by night and the cloud by day, the fire of acceptance and the fire and the plague of vengeance, and the great and fearful standing by mount Sinai. And the Law itself witnesses with great plainness in Deuteronomy 34:10-12, “And a prophet like Moses whom the LORD knew face to face will not arise again in Israel, according to all the signs and the wonders that the LORD sent him to perform in the land of Egypt against Pharaoh and against all his servants and against his entire land, and according to all the mighty hand and according to all the great terror that Moses displayed in the sight of all Israel.” And this that seems to be missing, the giving of life to the dead, though this is also to open up a path before Christ and to point to Him, was truly accomplished through disciples of Moses before Christ’s coming, and one of them, the prophet Elisha, as per II Kings 13:20-21, already dead and buried! And if the blessed Jesus spoke so strongly for the Law as He did in Matthew 5:17-20, does He not exclude any slightest touch of antinomianism by the Great Commission of 28:18-20, save only as a technique and device and guidance for a time that we might be functionally “wise as serpents, but yet unmixed in loyalty as doves” (10:16), intended ultimately to draw all men to this same Law? And behold a mystery, seven — Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Levi, Kohath, Amram, Moses. Seven. For everything was contained from the beginning in however veiled form within the Law of Moses, and the very universe was created for its sake, and if we will only look first and foremost toward this Law, all good things will be added on to us.
And go forth and count and you will find precisely twenty-six generations from Adam to the prophet Moses (twenty-six being the numerical evaluation of the Divine name — roughly approximated as “Jehovah” — whose four letters have the value respectively of ten, five, six, and five), so that not only does the entire universe serve as a great cosmic finger pointing at the Mosaic Law through the deliberate choice of the number seven to erect it, but further God connects His Law through the count of His Name both to all humanity by linking Moses to Adam, thus prefiguring ultimate universalization, and to His very essence and being and the essence of His will by choosing the number of His Name as this link.
And Nadab and Abihu, whose service, though quite Mosaic-like in Leviticus 10, was not at all precisely what the Lord had actually commanded, truly prefigure the heretics, the Pharisees; but the first of all their company was Eve, for God had said, “But of the tree of the knowledge of what is useful and what is harmful, do not eat of it,” and she quoted Him as having said, “do not eat of it, and do not touch it,” as though erecting a pietistic fence around the divine commandment, adding thereby (Genesis 2:17; 3:3). And so she confused the superficiality of her own addition with the revealed word of the Sublime One, the All-knowing, and there was visited upon her expulsion and death, and on her disciple.
Now say of Islam, “Our Law was a mere national revelation, and a multitude of such there were scattered abroad throughout the ancient world, and only through Muhammad were all peoples called as one to faith and the divine service, according to your words. How was it then that nature well-nigh dissolved before our prophet Moses, as the Koran itself freely admits, but before Muhammad not a bird moved a wing or peeped that would not have done so in the world of Marx?” And the true verse says, “I did not speak in secret, in a place of a land of darkness,” that is, as opposed to Arabia, and her imitator and aspiring king; but then, “Turn to Me and be saved, all you ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other” (Isaiah 45:19 and 22). And so the Lord asks rhetorically in Zechariah 1:5 in a section given in the year of Temple rebuilding and warning of a second Destruction to come, “But will there always be living prophets?” for prophecy was to cease in that time of rejection by and of Israel and divine turning toward the Gentiles. Now these late Second Temple-period prophets were sent and our Lord among them and were rejected, and Israel was rejected and the Temple destroyed, and God turned to the Gentiles, and the book of Revelation, the perfection of knowledge and prophecy of I Corinthians 13:8-13, was given in 98 A.D., and prophecy did then in fact cease — and was it to attain its highest state and glory centuries later in a text that flees the issue of proof and miraculous validation as before an invincible foe, but yet nullifies the work of ages and seeks to suppress it out of all remembrance?
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And her name is Hagar, meaning “flight,” and is linked to Arabia in Galatians 4:21-31 (and compare Genesis 16 and 21:8-21), and she is a figure for the Hegira, or “flight,” of Muhammad her son. And she flees to a well between Kadesh, or “sanctuary,” and this is the likeness of Mecca, and Bered, meaning “hail,” and this is the ancient port called Leuke Kome, or “White Village,” by the Greeks, and between these two is Yathrib, which is Medina, where he was king. And his people is to become great, but not in his merit (for he points a finger, if not with precise clarity, in his Koran at many elements of Biblical truth universally suppressed within Christendom), but rather in that of Abraham, true figure of the elect, and is to be against everyone, and this is the Islamic Jihad or “holy war,” and so the hand of all men of whatever orientation would turn against him; and at the end he dwells “in the presence of all his brethren,” that is, the border of the Caliphate was to march in tandem with the whole southern border of Christendom; and this after he marries a woman of Egypt, and this represents the acquisition of Egypt for the Arabian language and culture, she being by far the pre-eminent one of all lands so acquired. And seeing the elitist impress within the Koran, the prophet ascribes bondage to it, saying, “which is in bondage with her children” — but freedom sprouts forth from the Gospel of Jesus. And the first flight is followed by a second flight, and this time there is no return, and this is the abrogation of merit and the casting out. And, yes, it is in the true church of these last days of Babylon’s world rule that seed is called in Isaac for Abraham. Hallelujah!
And this Islam is the “little sister” mocked at in Song of Solomon 8:8-10, the prophet having spoken in a figure of the Egyptian Exile in 1:5-13; David in verse 14, as per I Samuel 23:29-24:22; the building of the First Temple and the days of Solomon in 1:15-2:14, including the counsel of verse 7, repeated in 3:5 and 8:4, to follow the sign of redemption when it appears, but not to rush heedlessly to doom as in the Wilderness when the true sign is not present; the division of the kingdom (understanding “mountains of division” in 2:17) and the premonition of approaching calamity in 2:15-17; the Babylonian Exile and the Restoration after seventy years — but surely they would have been hunted down and exterminated like gazelles or does if they would have neglected to wait for the true sign announced through the prophets — the wars of the Hasmoneans in 3:6-8; the appearance of our blessed Lord and the preparation for His ministry He received at the hands of His mother, she who first taught class war among men, as discussed elsewhere, in 3:9-11; the believing remnant of Jewry in 4:1-11, as hinted at in the words “with one of your eyes, with one chain from your neck,” of verse 9, with again a premonition of approaching doom, and with the New Testament hinted at in the words “and your speech is fair” and “your lips drop as the honeycomb” of verses 3 and 11, Amana, meaning “faithful,” being, as well, derived from the same Hebrew root as is the word for “faith,” and “lions” and “leopards” bespeaking persecution; the completion of the Scripture and the cessation of prophecy in 4:12, where the “locked garden” is the completed Old Testament, the “locked spring” is the completed New Testament, and the “sealed fountain” is the now defunct gift of prophecy; the universalization of the Message of God in 4:13-16; the stamp of divine approval of the new Christian community, and the divine invitation for outsiders to enter it in 5:1; the sprouting forth of heresy among the Christian people rooted in a Satanic sprinkling of wealth upon them followed by oppression at the hands of the pagans in 5:2-9; the witness of the Christian people to their oppressors and to all men, though they know now only part of the truth and Christ has forsaken them in 5:10-16; the ultimate repentance of the Christian people after the passing of many ages in 6:1-3 (truly the function of Peter — as irreplaceable by nature as any of the Twelve, save only for Judas, and as per Acts 1:15-26 and Revelation 21:14 — was to personally open the door of faith and Heaven before first the Jews and then the Gentiles; and he is a figure of the falling away as though in death and nullity, but then the restoration as though from that same state, of Christ’s true church); the divine acceptance and turning in favor toward the restored true church in 6:4-12 and its literal martial character, as per verse 12, “I did not take note of, neither had I set My mind upon, the chariots of My noble people,” and above in verse 4, “terrible as an army with banners”; and the full restoration of the ancient life is spoken of in 6:13, saying, “Return, return, O Solomonitess. Return, return, that we might look at you!” that is, that we might see you in your full splendor, which is the state of full restoration, and, “What would you see in the Solomonitess as fine as the dancing of the two camps?” being in such a context, of course, rhetorical, and these two are the capitalistic and Marxist camps of this our present age; and in the panegyric of 7:1-9, note how she is connected to a place called, “Daughter of Many,” and as this parallels a second location referred to in 8:11 called “Master of a Multitude,” for so does this bride of the king, the anointed, this bride of Christ, represent a collectivity, and indeed one drawn from the Abrahamic “multitude of nations,” and Heshbon in 7:4 means “Enumeration,” and God is here enumerating the saved in Jesus out of all peoples, and “causing the lips of those who sleep to begin to speak,” is a reference to the resurrection of the dead; and 7:10-13 speaks also in a figure of the wonders of the coming age; and the mother of the bride in 8:2 who instructs her is a figure for the Bible, given almost entirely through Israelite prophets, and 8:1-4 also contains in verse 4 the final adjuration of three, clearly the reason the first two were given, that we are to seek for the true sign as it is in Jesus and not in Bar Cochba, that is, class and not race, as discussed in detail elsewhere, now that the Time has come; and it is the holy Mary spoken of in 8:5; and it is the eternity of God’s dealings with Israel, though we were grafted in to the slightest of all stems, that is spoken of in 8:6-7; and in regard to 8:8-10 analyzed above, it can now be noted that by comparing the servitude of Egypt to the tents of Kedar and the curtains of Solomon in 1:5, the coming of Islam as an enemy and destroyer is being prophesied here by the true Scripture of God, for it proceeded forth in the beginning out of Arabia, where ancient Kedar was, and in its later Ottoman form was most powerful under one called Suleiman the Magnificent, Suleiman being the Arabic form of Solomon; and the two breasts of the bride are the two Testaments of the authentic Scripture, but the “little sister” lacks true Scripture and so is limited to the things of this material existence that can never suffice (but yet she is our sister who does know God if not his will — truly a designer made all the designs of the universe including man, and this designer is God); and economic arrangements are hinted at in 8:11-13 and how the elect would come to dominate in this area under the rule of Heaven; and the prayer for redemption with which the book closes, that is 8:14, hearkens back to the introductory section, which is 1:1-4. Thus this God-breathed book is called the Song of Songs in prophetic contradistinction to the poems of Muhammad, which add not a thing to us, but are rather all vanity and the work of error, which bear thorns and thistles, and whose end is to be burned.
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Knowing that the Law and the Prophets form no full book, being incomplete and just breaking off as though at random with Malachi, the same as if the Law had ended with Numbers, then look and you will plainly see how the Pentateuch through its structure — introduction, main body, inspired commentary — looks forward to and validates the completed Scripture — Law, Prophets, Gospel — and in particular its view of the New Testament as in essence an inspired commentary on all that came before. But yet the first two divisions more readily divide from Deuteronomy than from each other, prefiguring together the Old Testament; and as Genesis and Deuteronomy are comparatively short within the Law, each being one of five, so are the Law and the New Testament within the Bible. May we therefore ask you now, O sages of Islam, after 1350 years of contemplation, though Muhammad himself paid this issue no regard, just where or how in all this is the boastful pompous deceiving imposture of one too proud for our Law and too rich for Christ foretold? And as the Bible has been suppressed out of all the lands of Islam, it is manifestly incompatible with the Koran. And this is the clear teaching of our Scripture looking forward as well, as Ezekiel 13:9 bears witness, “And My hand will be against the prophets who see vanity and who divine lies: their words will not appear within the source of counsel of My people, for they will not be written in the Scripture of the house of Israel: neither will they themselves enter the land of Israel; and then you will know that I am the Lord GOD.” Thus no later work may challenge the canon or perfection of existing received Scripture and be authentic. And can the “light-skinned Arab” (though there is no flaw in this, or in being of any race at all) be compared in righteousness to the true prophet Moses who married a racial African, God approving of his choice through an attendant miracle, and prominently featuring the incident in His Law (Numbers 12; Deuteronomy 24:9)? And yet our prophet exterminated vast zones in Trans-Jordan at his Lord’s behest, and was not ashamed and did not flinch. And so does Jesus Christ of the sharp two-edged sword command today of Babylon, “Give her back what she has herself given and pay back double according to her works; in the same cup that she has herself mixed mix for her a double portion; to the same degree that she has arrogated to herself glory and luxury give her that much torment and grief” (Revelation 18:6-7). Amen, Lord! By the Name of Jesus we shall conquer!
Whatever exists is caused by another. Thus there was a beginning to what is therefore a causal chain when an uncaused First Cause brought the world into being. Hallelujah! And to read the Divine Name or hear it in teaching is to meet this very demonstration, for implicit in its meaning, “He who is,” are two senses, “the Eternal,” and “the Root of all Being”; as also the Incarnation, for He says to Moses (Exodus 3:14), “I will be who I will be,” that is, as a man among men, though God, but now as Savior of the world, and as shown through the cover-name, “the Lord.” And so it was with the thought of salvation through Jesus that the blessed God first began to construct for us all one heritage, tradition, and identity, as He says in 6:3, “And I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty — and did I not make Myself known to them by My Name the LORD?” And though the people of the Zionists surely are not real Jews, being racially European where all men are European, Semitic only where all men are Semitic, and African where all men are African, yet it is plain that we are the true Israel for whose benefit ancient fleshly Israel was ever raised up, for are we not the other earthly body of He who came as a figure of the world’s poor in the hands of the wealthy and the rulers of the lands? And so are we all branches of the True Vine (John 15:1-17; Psalm 80); also twelve tribes built upon twelve apostles, and the collective Son called forth out of Egypt — authentic Israel of God. And that the Law penned by Moses is perfect and its commandments in the Hebrew clear is the plain teaching of the 19th Psalm, “The Law of the LORD is perfect, restoring the spirit; the commandments of the LORD are clear, causing the eyes to light up” (verses 7 and 8); and compare Joshua 1:7-8, where “all the Law” is equated with “this book of the Law” and “all that is written in it,” and how one is not to turn from this written code to the right hand, the hand of strength, to add, or the left, the hand of weakness, to take away (and see Deuteronomy 4:2 and 12:32 — but yet both the synagogue form and the ancient Hebrew liturgy arose in conformity with Biblical indications, and are to be received with joy among us, and as discussed elsewhere). And truly there was not a word of all that Moses commanded that is not written in the book of the Law, for Joshua “wrote there upon the stones before the children of Israel a copy of the Law of Moses that he had written. And afterwards he read all the words of the Law with its blessings and curses, according to everything that is written in the book of the Law. There was not a word of all that Moses commanded that Joshua did not read before all the congregation of Israel,” as in Joshua 8:32, 34-35. And the very existence of the book of Deuteronomy is a sure warranty that no extra-textual commentary was ever given to Moses by the Holy One, for note how this book is in essence an inspired commentary on all that came before, likeness of the New Testament within the entire Bible, and so all that required explanation was in fact explained in writing, “structured throughout and secured” (II Samuel 23:5), in the sight of all the ages. True and established it is that the Oral Law concept of the Pharisees, who strained out the New Testament but swallowed that, as in Matthew 23:24, traces its ultimate origin back to the heretical overview of the text of the Pentateuch adopted by Jeroboam the son of Nebat and his counsellors, as in I Kings 12:25-33; and compare Exodus 32:1-6; Leviticus 23:33-34; and Zechariah 14:16. And yet see how Muhammad the illiterate in his Koran errs and accepts this Oral Law of Pharisaism as an integral component of the Mosaic revelation. And he accepts its manifestly elitist conception of Deity as a disembodied computer-type mind — but surely He came with the flesh of Heaven into this world which is His dream, and as per Psalm 73:20 and Acts 17:28. And the generality of Semitic speech is no holy language, as Latin is not Greek, but this purely Biblical tongue that came spontaneously to Adam, called Hebrew, being also the tongue of angels, is the true holy language alone and the one approved speech for all mankind (and compare Zephaniah 3:9). Nonetheless, “commandment must be added on to commandment, even commandment to commandment, and line must be added on to line, even line to line, so that some will be here and some there. For through foreign speech and another tongue will He speak to this people, to whom He shall say, ‘This is the rest through which you may cause the weary one to rest, and this is the respite,’ but they will have no desire to listen” (Isaiah 28:10-12). And so the prophet speaks with all plainness here of our Greek New Testament, the Scripture and vehicle of universalization.
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Yes, truly, “Blessed are the poor people, because the Kingdom of God belongs to you; but woe to you who are rich, because you have received your consolation” (Luke 6:20, 24); and, “Hasn’t God chosen the poor people out of the world, those being rich in faith?” (James 2:5). And see from the multitude of its highly complex already-fulfilled prophecies that the Bible alone is even today miraculously self-validating as it ever was from the beginning, and all its words are true and the gift of Heaven. And what is this perfect love of “Love your comrade like yourself,” but sharing all things with him in the love and light of Christ, and this is called Christian communalism, and taking counsel with him in all things, and this is called democracy? And so the Scripture witnesses in Matthew 5:3, “Blessed by the Spirit are the poor people, because the Kingdom of the Heavens belongs to them.” Religionist, communalistic, democratic — such was the life of the ancients, and such is the life restored for us through the Gospel.
And this is the witness of the ancient peasant in the name of the flawless book — and no corruption has entered it in transmission, for God has shielded it — and he said: The words of the Compilation, son of obedience, even the prophecy: So says the man to “God is with me,” even to “God is with me and so I shall prevail”: Though I am more brutish than a man and lack the understanding of men, and though I have not learned wisdom, yet I have the knowledge of holy matters. Who has gone up to Heaven, having come down? Who has gathered the wind in His fists? Who has bound up the waters in His garment? Who has established all the ends of the earth? What is His Name, and what is the Name of His Son? — for you know that. Every utterance of God is without flaw; He is a shield to those who trust in Him. Do not add to His words, lest He rebuke you, and you be proven a liar (Proverbs 30:1-6).
And who is this “seal of the prophets” who cannot prophesy tomorrow’s weather? And God’s true Scripture says, “in a case where the prophet speaks in the Name of the LORD, but his word does not occur, even come to pass, that is the word that the LORD has not spoken, but out of his arrogance has the prophet spoken it: have no fear of him” (Deuteronomy 18:22). But such wonders as this, Muhammad does display, that women are constantly spoken of as inferior in his Koran and to be beaten by their husbands, and so on, and are plainly fit for nothing but to be sex-slaves for men. Indeed it a hellish life the Koran assigns to women — one half of humankind — trivial, frustrating, wearisome, worldly, and full of fear. But the true verse says, “I am the Light of the world. Whoever follows Me will not walk in darkness, but will have living Light” (John 8:12). And it was one of the holy women who answered the Lord — He is Lord of all — and she said, “Yes, Lord — I believe that You are the Christ, the Son of God, who was to enter the world” (11:27). And to a Canaanite woman Jesus Christ said, “O woman, great is your faith! May it be to you as you will!” (Matthew 15:28). And it was the prophetess Deborah who said, “So may all Your enemies perish, O LORD — but may those who love Him be as the sun when it rises in its might” (Judges 5:31). And this is the very thought expressed by the prophetess Hannah when she said, “Those who strive against the LORD will be broken to pieces; He will thunder in Heaven against them: for the LORD will judge the ends of the earth; and He will impart strength to His king, and will exalt the horn of His anointed” (I Samuel 2:10). Amen! Hallelujah!
We praise the name of God
The One
Who filled the tombs of Egypt with the proud
And gave a Law
Radiant in splendor
Pure and noble
High and awful
All who follow follow to life
All who fall
these are the losers
lost in dimness are they
nothing is known to them
nothing is felt by them
The waves have covered, O Lord, the strong
waves, the strong waters have covered my soul
O how I love Thy Law
It is my meditation all the day
— Barry I. Hyman
CHRISTIAN REVOLUTIONARY BROTHERHOOD
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