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"THE NEW THING" by Tricia TillinPart Three: THE EZEK 47 MODEL & CONTENTS:
|
OUTER COURT |
HOLY PLACE |
THE HOLIEST |
HEAVENLY TEMPLE |
Jesus, the SAVIOUR |
Jesus, the ANOINTED |
Jesus the LORD |
Jesus the KING OF KINGS, ENTHRONED |
Jesus, a BABY |
Jesus a YOUTH |
Jesus a MAN |
Jesus GLORIFIED, RESURRECTED |
PASSOVER Lamb Slain |
PENTECOST Firstfruits |
TRUMPETS Day of Atonement |
TABERNACLES New Heavens and Earth, God dwelling with Man |
OUTER GATE Leads to Brazen Altar of Sacrifice (Salvation) |
DOOR OF THE TABERNACLE Leads into the Sanctuary of Ministry |
INNER VEIL Leads to the Holiest, His Presence |
DOOR OPENED IN HEAVEN (Rapture) Leads to Transformation |
Baptised in SEA |
Baptised in CLOUD |
Baptised in JORDAN |
Baptised into CHRIST |
Escape From Egypt (death) |
Divine Leadership |
Conflict for the Land, Warfare |
Entrance into the Promised Land, Rest |
Out of Egypt - Deliverance |
Through the Wilderness - Training |
Into the Promised Land - Inheritance |
Raised to the Heavenly Places - Rulership |
The 30-fold |
The 60-fold |
The 100-fold |
The Crown of Glory |
SALVATION |
ANOINTING |
ADOPTION |
MANIFESTATION as sons, Transformed into spiritual rulers |
To bring this teaching right into the present time, read this Internet message about the Feast of Tabernacles. It was sent to Richard Riss (Author of the book, "The Latter Rain") in June 1994. The subject matter was: The Toronto Meetings.
"The actual feast of tabernacles was a time of great celebration and a time of ingathering. It is also a time when God tabernacles among His people and His glory fills the church. We may now be in the dawning days of this great season in God's plan for the church!"
The Abuse of Ezekiel 47
Many of the leaders involved in promoting the Toronto Experience, and other revivalist phenomena, claim a connection to the prophecies of Ezekiel, and they especially use Chapter 47 to describe the current renewal. One who does so is Mark Stibbe, an English author and church elder. Mark Stibbe has extensively used Ezekiel 47 in relation to the Toronto Experience in his book on Toronto called"Times of Refreshing".
The first chapter of Mark Stibbe's book is entirely given over to what he calls the "four waves" of revival as prophesied in Ezekiel 47. This is fairly typical of the way the Toronto leadership handles this passage of scripture.
However, as we shall see, much more than just revival and the current "waters of renewal" is predicted using this passage in Ezekiel. There is an entire agenda in which events like the transformation of man and the establishment of his rule over the earth are predicted.
Firstly, Stibbe claims that Ezekiel saw the rebuilding of God's Temple and Renewal flowing out of that Temple. He says this Renewal is seen as four successive waves flooding out from the Temple. I guess his Bible must be a different one to mine. I don't see any waves in my reading of Ezek 47 - do you?
He goes on to claim that these four waves are symbolic, and that they represent movements and outpourings of the Spirit. (So now he has Ezekiel seeing the Church in the endtimes and successive waves of spiritual renewal.)
Then, to support this teaching, he quotes John 7:37f. which describes Jesus pouring out the water at the Feast of Tabernacles. In the light of the Internet message just quoted, this is interesting.
There appears, then, to be a link between Ezek 47, the renewal, and the dwelling of God with mankind as represented in the biblical Feast of Tabernacles! Remember that the Feast of Tabernacles is taken symbolically as the time of completion, when God's manifest presence comes to dwell permanently within the Church.
Here is one direct biblical link between Ezek 47 and John 7:37:
"In the last day, that great day of the feast, Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man thirst, let him come unto me, and drink. He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water. (But this spake he of the Spirit,...)"
See how very cleverly Mark Stibbe compares the River of Life that flows from the Temple [for the healing of the nations] to the Holy Spirit flowing from within believers in the Body of Christ. (1)
Back to the four waves, then. Stibbe sees four successive waves flowing from the Temple. He says this establishes a pattern for renewal, and that the fourth and final wave completes the cycle.
(1) The first wave, he says is Pentecostalism, starting with Azuza Street
(2) The second Wave is the Charismatic Movement - which as we know was seeded by the Latter Rain doctrines
(3) The third wave - the Signs and Wonders movement of John Wimber, and Church Growth by Peter Wagner - is when the charismatic movement went ecumenical and reached the Traditional Churches
(4) and the fourth wave, he says, is global revival - the glory of God filling the earth, and this began in Toronto with the laughing revival of Rodney Howard Browne and Randy Clark.
This last wave he calls the first few splashes on our faces of a mighty tidal wave, because the last wave of Ezekial's vision is of a river too wide to cross. It is uncontrollable. We are supposed to let go and submit to the power, not even trying to retain our discipline and order, for everything is swept away on the flood.
These days, you are not fully spiritual unless you are out of control, swimming in the river of Toronto, "going with the flow" as they say.
One correspondent who didn't like what I was saying about the Toronto fiasco, accused me of being just a lower initiate, paddling in the ankle deep water of Ezekiel, whereas he was swimming in the river than could not be crossed. He certainly was off the deep end!
These four successive waves rising higher and higher to spiritual fulfilment remind me of the levels of initiation of the new age or the esoteric cults.
Actually, in hard-core new-age circles, it is then possible to transcend this earth and go on to higher levels of "spirituality".
5. Ascended Masters - transformed, (raptured), gone beyond the material world
6. Solar Logos, in three aspects, including the christ, Maitreya
7. Planetary Logos.
Mark Stibbe continues with his teaching from Ezek 47. He allegorises about the other aspects of the passage:
The trees that provide healing are people who have deep revelation of the Word, (the gnosis if you will), to allow them to fuel this renewal. What they receive will not be plain Bible teaching, but spiritually imparted new interpretations for a new age. He describes this as:
"A charismatic hermeneutic… that will greatly facilitate the whole process of biblical integration…"
And what is the result of this river flowing from the Temple? Well, through astonishing miracles and supernatural signs, and a tremendous upsurge in spiritual power, the nations and even the land will be healed. Even the dry places of the desert will be flooded. The dead seas of the evangelical denominations will be flooded with the Spirit.
There will be huge numbers of fish, fish of every kind. Stibbe interprets this to mean there will be a mighty harvest round the world of all nationalities. Millions will be saved, he predicts.
The healing of the nations will be a tremendous program of feeding the hungry and healing the sick, with social action to liberate the oppressed peoples of the world.
Under this heading, Stibbe says that some places will however be left out of the divine flow. These symbolically are the marshes and swamps.
The marshes are churches which have become bogged down in rigid, lifeless traditions, where the leadership "exercises doctrinal control over congregations and where the doctrine is hostile to the experience of the Spirit". So he says that these verses "contains a frightful warning"of judgement to those places. (We'll see more about divine judgement later on.)
Stibbe finishes the chapter by quoting our old favourite, Isaiah 43:19, the new thing!
So, as we can see from this example (just one of many) the leadership of the new paradigm sees successive renewal movements sweeping over the world, and leading to a tremendous climax of glory and transformation.
And this river is seen pouring out of the Temple right now - it's not in the future, it's real, it's now. According to the leaders here are some of the streams that they believe are part of the River of Life that is going to heal the nations:
These and many more activities permeating the World Church are seen as small streams feeding into this one river of life. But where is all this activity heading? What is the goal? Where does the River meet the Sea?
The perceived goal today is "revival" but few stop to think what this really means, or how the word revival has been perverted and twisted out of its true meaning. Revival now means getting most of the world's population to approve of and join the harmonisation process that will (they hope) lead to a social and political climax of transformation.
As far as dates go, the cut off point for most groups is the year 2000, even if their goals are impossible to achieve by that time. Some kind of tremendous watershed event is supposed to occur to propel the world into a new age after that date. Let's examine this thinking for a while:
I was puzzled in 1995. I kept hearing about anniversaries, and the two that were being promoted in our Christian magazines were the 2000th birthday of the Lord Jesus, and the 3000th anniversary of the founding of Jerusalem.
But it felt odd to me. Something smelt fishy. I couldn't see why there was such an emphasis - indeed, a panic - to celebrate these anniversaries, especially as the promoters didn't seem certain they were really anniversaries at all.
Logically, who can really be sure that it's exactly 3000 years since the founding of the City of Jerusalem, or that Jesus was celebrating his 2000th birthday in 1996? Nobody really knows the historical dates that accurately, so why all the fuss?
I don't like loose ends. I wanted to understand what was going on, what these anniversaries meant in the larger scheme of things.
Then I put together the anniversaries idea with the emphasis on Ezekiel 47, and one day, it clicked. I saw it! THERE IS A PROPHETIC AGENDA! Let me show you:
Go back to your reading of Ezekiel 47. There you will notice something about the progression down the river. There are STEPS OF ONE THOUSAND:
- And when the man that had the line in his hand went forth eastward, he measured a thousand cubits, and he brought me through the waters; the waters were to the ancles.
- Again he measured a thousand, and brought me through the waters; the waters were to the knees. Again he measured a thousand, and brought me through; the waters were to the loins
- Afterward he measured a thousand; and it was a river that I could not pass over: for the waters were risen, waters to swim in, a river that could not be passed over. (Ezek 47:3-5)
Here we can see a progression by thousands. From the door to the first crossing, ankle deep; to the second crossing, knee-deep; to the third crossing, thigh deep; to the fourth crossing, a river too deep to cross, an uncontrollable flood. (Remember that most of the TB followers are speaking of the "flood" that they expect to come. This is the next, and the final, stage of the revival.)
Let's now translate this passage symbolically, as the leaders do, and turn it into a calendar. Each step of a thousand paces becomes a thousand years. Obviously, we must have a starting point. In Ezekiel, the starting point was the door of the Temple, so historically the leaders choose to begin with the building of Solomon's Temple (around 1000BC)
1000BC to 1AD |
1AD to 1000AD |
1000AD to 2000AD |
2000AD to 3000AD |
Eternity |
| Crossing = Birth of Christ | Crossing = Reform Movement | Crossing = Jubilee | Crossing = End of Millennial rule | Onwards to the Sea |
| The Law | Grace (1) | Grace (2) | Empowerment | Transformation |
| The Father | The Son (1) | The Son (2) | The Spirit | Perfect Unity; Three-in-One |
| The Jewish Era | Christian Era (1) | Christian Era (2) | Restoration of all things; Overcomers Ruling in the Heavenlies | "Tabernacles" - Eternal Presence of God with Man; Perfection |
| The Temple "Door" | Church Era (decline) | Church Era (reform) | Nations changed - Flow of "life" unchallenged | The Seas Cleansed; The Nations healed |
If you will refer back to Bill Britton's chart of the ongoing Restoration of the Church, you will notice the same kind of progression as here. That is, three distinct phases leading to a fourth and final stage. These stages roughly relate to -
Bill Britton and his Latter-Rain buddies were not the first, however, to propose such a scheme. Back in the 12th century, nearly all doctrine was Augustinian a-millennialism. Then along came a monk who overturned this idea and introduced a startling "new" theory that he had received by "divine illumination".
This monk was Joachim of Fiore, an Italian, born in 1130. He became a monk, then an abbot of a Cistercian Abbey, and eventually he founded his own order of monks.
The important thing about Joachim was that he overturned the Augustinian view of prophecy. Up to then the Church had adopted Augustine's beliefs that the interpretation of bible prophecy was allegorical, not literal. It did not refer to history, nor to the future. Nothing else was going to happen, according to Augustine.
Joachim changed all that, and from his time onwards there was a new understanding. He saw prophecy as relating to historical events, and also to the future. He could be seen as the father of futurism, except that his views were very different to our understanding of endtimes prophecy today.
What Joachim proposed was basically the same scheme that we have now in the Latter Rain movement and Toronto! Joachim believed in the Three Ages of mankind. See the chart below outlining his view of history.
| THE FATHER | THE SON | THE SPIRIT |
| The Body | The Soul | The Spirit |
Jewish Era |
Church Era |
New Era of Fulness |
The First Age = |
The Second Age = |
The Third Age = |
Joachim saw the Age of the Father as carnal, the Age of the Son as partly carnal and partly spiritual (a soulish age), but the Third Age would be pure spirit; people everywhere would have inner light and wisdom.
At that time, the world would be converted, the perfected Body of Christ would be revealed, and the saints would be given the dominion over the earth. But only those who had been preparing themselves with this new revelation would participate, not all the Christians! This sounds very familiar to anyone versed in Latter-Rain doctrine.
Joachim also believed each age had an overlap when the things of the coming age intruded into the old order. That ties in neatly with the Restoration belief that we are "living in the overlap". The new-agers also believe in the overlap theory, when the old order dominates, but certain enlightened people begin to wake up to the new order and move on ahead of the rest of mankind. The spiritual pioneers go ahead to prepare the new age. In Restoration terms, this elite company would be "Joseph Company" who go ahead and prepare the way.
What Joachim predicted was a new order. New spiritual forms of worship would arise, and there would be no need for church rituals and rites and formalities. Everything would be known and achieved "in the Spirit".
Joachim received his new vision for the future through deep spiritual meditation, and from the inner revelations given to him during periods of contemplation.
"The mystics claimed to see divine truth through the inner vision of the soul, by reflecting, brooding, and waiting for the light. Joachim and the school the followed the trail he blazed, exemplified mysticism, believing that the world was growing old and that the time of her change was at hand."
"The third age would be a new age. This new era would set in, supported by a new monastic society, which would raise life to a new spiritual basis...A new form of life and a new society would spring up. Joachim's call was not so much Repent, turn back to the old source, but to change and become new, to reach a higher goal. He said: It is fitting that the life be changed, since it is necessary that the state of the world be changed. (Prophetic Faith by L. E. Froom. Volume One, page 689).
Let's link this old vision of Joachim to Toronto and see if the same spirit is motivating these men:
Toronto Prophecy demanding Change:
"Change...change...change! Your ways are old ways, your thoughts are old thoughts, your prayers are old prayers, your cries are old cries, your worship is old worship, your way of doing church is an old way of doing church.
Renewal is not pouring new energy into old ways, it is bringing new ways. Let Me change you...let Me change you inside and out. Let go of yourself! Let me have you! I don't want a little bit at a time, I want all of you, NOW!
Desire change! Desire it because it is what I am doing in you! Hunger and thirst for my changing in you. You must change! I cannot equip you unless you change. Remember, this is a wholesale, not a partial, change. Don't focus on equipping...it is not time for equipping...it is time for change! …You will not be used in the harvest unless you change." (Barry Linville to the New Wine Vineyard Bulletin Board).
It's not restoring the old truths these people want, it's moving on to the new thing - something totally changed, a new era, with a new paradigm. And if you cling to the old order, you'll get left behind, or even worse, purged out.
Here are some recent examples of "new-thing" preaching, with the prophets of the new order preparing their followers to receive a deeper revelation, and a new paradigm of church government. Note that alongside these things is the antagonism and rejection of the "old" ways:
"At a conference in Birmingham attended by people from the UK, Ireland, USA and Brazil, and during a time of prayer for the healing of the Nations, I was blessed with this vision: I saw a very large sword (a Claymore - as in Braveheart) which was laid upon the top of an altar. This was THE SWORD OF THE LORD. I asked our Father what was the significance, and then I was shown many small swords being tossed into an open furnace, melted down to make this one new larger sword. I believe He said this to me:
"I am bringing My Church to a place at the end of her own understanding and devices, so that they have begun turning to one another, seeking strength through unity. Those who are relying upon the old ways must now learn that the old swords are useless for the battles which are ahead. Behold ! I am doing a new thing. If my people will forget their former ways, and allow my Spirit to melt them as one, then will I command such a blessing as has not been seen before..... And this I will do: I will take up My Sword, and will ride upon My White Horse. But now you must wait, pray and prepare. The day is soon coming when you will hear my trumpet sound as l ride throughout the earth, causing great consternation amongst the Nations. After this, you will follow, armed in the knowledge of mercy, not sacrifice, and with a new Sword. Thus, when you give your battle cry of 'FREEDOM....' they shall be free indeed. For none shall be able to stand against the authority of my Word."
"In Toronto, during the same month, Randy Clark gave a sermon entitled "The Making of a Warrior." The Spirit fell powerfully on many people and especially on Carol Arnott. For about twenty minutes, while on the floor, she was slashing violently with a two handed sword in her hands (her hands together as if holding a sword). She then gave the following prophecy:
TORONTO AIRPORT CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP
3rd Anniversary Meeting - Monday, January 20, 1997 - Prophecy by Carol Arnott
"This is My sword, this is not man's sword, this is My golden sword. The ways you have been using My weapons, the methods that you have been using in the past, you are to throw them away because I am giving you My sword now and the old ways of doing things will not do. The old methods will not be acceptable to Me anymore because I am doing a new thing. Do not look to the yesterdays but look to the future because I am doing a new thing and this new way is not the old. This new way is new and you must throw away the old ways of doing things and take up My sword because My sword is made of pure gold and is purer and is mighty."
"I have told you that I would do a new thing in your time. Not a new thing from what you have known in the past, but a new thing that you have not seen before. … I am pouring out a new wine. This is a deeply intoxicating wine… Many today, although I love them dearly are set on their ways of doing My things, and are operating out of their head knowledge of what I can do and how I can do it. Many say that we have been there and done that when it comes to ministering in My Spirit. again I say to you the former things have come to pass, behold I am doing a new thing…. If you will be hungry, and wait on Me I will speak to you, I will give you new visions, dreams, and prophesies. I will show you things you have not seen before. Behold the former things have come to pass. The ways in which you have prepared and carried the wine are coming to a close. I am going to be moving so suddenly in your midst you will know My mighty rushing breath of life in a way you have not before…. The whole earth is mine and all that it contains. You have heard my roar but now you are going to witness my bite. I am going forth with a shout against My enemies. And you My children, you shall be called the sons and daughters of God for you shall be My Peacemakers. ….I say to you the veil is being torn. Up until this time you have only seen a little. You have seen what is coming with a mist. But now I am tearing the veil, I will, just as I said I would speak to you of the things yet to come by My Spirit…Again, I say the veil is being torn. If you will seek me as a friend seeks another, as a lover seeks her bridegroom, with a passion, with a longing, I will speak to you and show you the things I have prepared for you from the foundations of the world."
"But concerning the old-guard you must be aware: Some, like Moses, have longed to see the things that you will see. Be patient and full of grace with these old and faithful servants. They lived in the light which I gave them. Cloaked with the pride of respectability and the false religion of old they are neither hot nor cold in my sight. They have succumbed to the fear of man and to the ways of the world. These I will vomit out of my presence, but do not rejoice, rather mourn what might have been…".You have only two choices, according to the modern-day prophets. Either you "go with the flow" of the new anointing or cling on to the old ways and die out with the old generation".
Here is an illustration of the choice as seen by Sid Roth in his "Messianic Vision" magazine:
"This world is not going to get better and better. It is self-destructing. The love of most will grow cold without this fresh anointing. But God's glory will grow brighter and brighter on His people. The lines are drawn - which side of the fence will you be on? Will you be a lukewarm, deceived, 20th century Laodicean Christian, or a HOT, biblical follower of Jesus. Hot is the only option - it's time for the world to see the Real Thing."
Rodney Howard Browne, the man linked with the outbreak of the laughter revival, actually warned that churches that refuse to submit to the "new wine" of the Spirit will dwindle and fail and those who oppose the movement will die: He is reported to have "sternly warned not to "touch the glory" or else you will drop dead." (source: George Robison at the Rodney Howard Browne (RHB) Camp Meeting January 9th-13th 1995 at Carpenters Home Church in Lakeland Florida.)
Another TB leader, Colin Dye of Kensington Temple, writing in the official magazine of the Elim Pentecostal Church in the UK said this:
"A great but painful transition is occurring, represented prophetically by the lives of Saul and David. God is doing a new thing, raising up believers who will move under the anointing of David to challenge the goliaths of our day. This fresh move threatens the powerless backslidden body of Christ represented by Saul. The Saul spirit must die, in order to make room for the David generation...The Saul church has lost the anointing; this backslidden Saul Spirit in the Church must die if the fresh powerful move of God's Spirit is to flow untapped" ("When The Spirit Comes - Ready to Face The Giants")
People take this revival seriously - they are deadly serious! Even if the leadership are only speaking metaphorically at present about their opponents dying, some of the rank and file may take them literally. Here's one example:
Somebody who objected to the Toronto blessing being brought into his church was treated to an anonymous death threat posted through his letterbox. This "prophet" claimed the Vicar in charge of his church had ---
"--- laid hands on me and anointed me as the sword of God to strike down and cast into hell devils such as you. I have been given the power of prophetic speaking against opponents of the new move - (this actually means making curses against opponents)…and so if you will not repent you will soon die on the roads in a car accident."
What possible connection could there be between Joachim of Fiore, 13th century mystic, and the Toronto Blessing in the Church today? The link is the continuity of thought behind the "new thing", the gnostic revelation throughout all ages. That spirit of wisdom, the serpent in the garden, has been preparing the apostate church for his new thing for centuries.
Once the church as a whole abandoned the literal interpretation of scripture - the literal return of the Jews to their land, the literal antichrist, the literal millennium and so forth - once started interpreting scripture allegorically, they were wide open for deception. Anything goes if you treat the Bible as a book of symbols and metaphors!
Then along came a mystic (Joachim) who planted new thoughts about a coming age of the spirit, and the church fell for it. This new thinking was triumphalistic and hopeful. It pierced the grim every-day boredom of Church life and gave Christians something to hope for, a glorious vision of the future! Christians eagerly believed they could be glorified and perfected and turned into world rulers. This was new and exciting!
Things don't change. People are the same today. After the War, when people began to give up the literal pre-millennial understanding of prophecy, they left themselves wide open to strange esoteric doctrines. The Latter Rain revival cashed in on that trend. Each time the message is the same: people can become spiritually transformed and rule the world. Satan's plan has not changed in essence since the beginning. "Ye shall be as God…"
FOOTNOTES
(1) There is some ambiguity here, in this scripture. Theologians are divided as to whether Jesus was speaking of Himself or believers. Mark Stibbe leaves it open to interpretation, so that River of Life could be flowing from Jesus or His Body - or both! But, whatever is intended, he does see the Church as the Temple and the healing waters flowing from her.
(a) Some claim that this was the restored Temple that Zerubbabel should have built, but he didn't build it, so this is not what Ezekiel sees.
(b) It is not Herod's Temple, for that was entirely different in design.
(c) Could it be the perfected Temple of the new heavens and Earth? Not so - for scripture says that there is now no Temple in the city. (Rev 21:22/23 and 22:1-5)
(d) Other commentators (in an a-millennialist setting) see these passages as symbolic of the final perfect and eternal "Temple" of God - God and man dwelling in perfect peace and unity. However, it is plain from these chapters that in this particular situation there is -
- none of which would be true of a recreated "new heavens and new earth".
I believe Ezekiel's Temple is the millennial Temple. The prophecies are specific to the time of the Lord's return, and state that the presence of God will never more depart the Temple. (Ezek 37:26-28) (Ezek 43:7) The glory of God and the king have returned. Ezekiel sees the Glory of God returning to this Temple, by the way of the east, (Ezek 43:1-4). However, God's Presence did not return in this way to dwell in the restored Temple of Zerubbabel after the exile. Also see Ezek 44:1-2. It is difficult to imagine a symbolic interpretation of such passages, or to suggest that they refer to an invisible Spirit inhabiting a Christian Church!
© 1997 Tricia Tillin of Banner Ministries. All rights reserved. Cross+Word Website: http://www.banner.org.uk/ This document is the property of its author and is not to be displayed on other websites, redistributed, sold, reprinted, or reproduced in printed or in any other format without permission. Websites may link to this article, if they provide proper title and author information. One copy may be downloaded, stored and/or printed for personal research. All spelling and phraseology is UK English.