Messiah
Melchizedek
We are near to ending "the age of the gentiles" initiated by Jesus
and elaborated by Christians over the last 2000 years. Before the "age of
the gentiles (Christians)" we had the "age of the Hebrews" which
also had lasted for approximately 2000 years. After the War of Rome in 70 AD,
the Jewish peoples and nation went back stage, and on hold, for 2000 years as
the Christians had their turn in the leading role as "God’s people."
According to prophecy, we are now entering the consummation of these two ages
of man. We are about to begin the trial period that comes before the arrival of
the Messiah of Old Testament description. Therefore this upcoming period is
referred to as the messianic period. During this upcoming messianic period both
the ages of Christian and Jew are unified and brought to a single, joint
consummation. Prophetic scripture of the Old Testament era has much to say
about how and why this messianic consummation will proceed
The majority of "the people" are passive;
blind, deaf, and dumb. They follow their mis-leaders into chaos and
catastrophe. God sends his prophets/messengers to warn and correct, but to no
avail, except for the few whose hearts and minds are set right and who are able
to be led to safety. These remaining few become the remnant, the survivors and
progenitors of the next cycle. However, this time the cycle is different. This
time nuclear weapons enter the scene. If there had been nuclear weapons when
Rome fell, we wouldn’t be here today to discuss the matter. The presence of
nuclear weapons changes God’s evolutionary, remnant plan into no-plan. It
changes the remnant into no-remnant. Man has never before been able to achieve
stability and avoid the abuse of power and the downfall of empire. Are we more
mature now? Are our leaders different than prior leaders? Are we wiser? Have we
stopped straying from God’s laws and ways? The presence of thousands of nuclear
weapons changes mans next fall into his last fall. The tower of Babel now has a
bomb on the top of it. However, God will not allow the many good and decent
people of our world to be annihilated. This is why the Messiah comes; this is
why God will choose to enter human history directly. Since the death of Adam
and Eve, our world has been without direct divine leadership. The age of
strictly human sovereignty will be terminated shortly and the World Messiah so
long awaited by faithful Jews, will enter the scene to stay. Our world will
never again be without direct divine leadership. Today’s upside down world becomes
tomorrow’s right side up world.
Melchizedek is the
Lord/Messiah who comes in the last days when "all the nations" come against
modern Israel as prophesied by the Old Testament Prophets (11Q13) This agrees
with The
Urantia Book
statements to the effect that Melchizedek is soon to be our Planetary Prince, a World Messiah in residence.
(UB 1025 and 1251)
The
third paragraph of the Dead
Sea Scroll text 5Q541
under consideration, again describes Jesus’ situation accurately and
specifically, this time crucifixion is alluded to, i.e. "do not afflict
the weak by wasting or hanging
[…] [let] not the nail approach him." The "nail"
and "hanging" are specific
to ancient descriptions
of crucifixion. No one knows for sure, but my intuition tells me that the
Qumran leader, the Teacher of Righteousness, is addressing his community in
this paragraph and is warning them not to have any part in the upcoming, near
future crucifixion of the Son of Man, so that they and their families will stay
on the side of righteousness. Very likely then, Melchizedek has already "collaborated"
with the Teacher of Righteousness in a revelatory process that has included
revelation of Jesus and his crucifixion. The Teacher of Righteousness is God’s
servant and prophet for that time period, 100 years before the birth of Jesus.
The Qumran community is then a faithful Jewish remnant of that time who have
elected to follow God's will, and who have chosen self-exile (isolation) from
the corruption and lawlessness of their times. By the evidence of this accurate
and important prophecy about Jesus, we can postulate that other prophetic
material in the Dead Sea Scrolls may also be highly accurate and important.
Since the Teacher’s prophecies clearly focused on a future Messianic time
period, when all is set right in the world, this body of prophecy is likely to
be very important to our situation today at the close of The Age, just before
the arrival of the Messiah, Melchizedek. What a "coincidence" that
these Scrolls have just been recently found and brought to our attention today,
the very day of its relevance.
The
Biblical Prophets, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and 1Enoch all predict a final end of
the age when the "Messiah" comes to put an end to war and to reunite
the Judah and Lost Israel remnants into one nation again and forevermore. The
Messiah also judges the nations, the peoples, and establishes justice. He
enters right after the onset of the messianic war where "all the
nations" come against Israel. As it stands now, the remnant of Judah (the
Jews) has been and is being re-gathered into modern Israel, with nationhood
declared in 1948. The Lost Israel (northern tribes) remnant is still
unidentified and un-gathered, seemingly lost to history. Also, for the first
time in the history of Israel, the world situation is entering a scenario that
could, for the first time, conceivably see "all the nations", (the
United Nations), as prophesied, come against modern Israel (remnant of Judah)
through the newly formed "global police force," NATO. If and when
this "police force" comes against modern Israel the Messiah is
prophesied to intervene. Our upcoming study of prophecy will fill in many
details of what is about to occur. Nevertheless, every individual is free to choose their own part in what is about to
unfold.
Zion is
also called the City of David and literally means "the dwelling place of
the Lord". Since we know that God himself has never "dwelled in
Zion", therefore "the Lord" must be either Melchizedek or an
error of some type. The likelihood of this being an error would seem remote, as
this same "dwelling in Jerusalem" context in association with
"Lord" is used in many places and by many different authors in the
Bible. That Zion
is a literal dwelling place for a divine being is supported by many other
contexts as well. For
example, "the Lord" is said to leave Zion before the Babylonian
captivity because of the continued rebelliousness and obstinance of the people.
The Lord can't leave Zion unless he previously lived in Zion. Also, Melchizedek
was at the right place, at the right time, and is known to have ministered in
"semi-material" form. We also know from the Urantia Book that
Melchizedek was referred to as "the Lord" in Genesis—why not in
Exodus, Deuteronomy, and the prophets? Moses speaks to "the Lord" in conversational dialogue and is described in scripture as being
observed by the people while directly
speaking to "the
Lord". There are dozens of lines of scripture in a variety of different
books that speak of "the Lord" leading the Israelites and Moses from
a "pillar of cloud" overhead. The cloud leads them
during the day and radiates light "like a fire" overhead during the
night. Who else but Melchizedek, in semi-material form, could conceivably fit
these Biblical descriptions? We will also see later on that one of Melchizedek’s
attributes in scripture is that he is able to emit large amounts of visible
light. Most importantly though, this same "Lord" returns in the
future to "dwell in Zion" again, to "judge the nations,"
and to establish peace and righteousness in the "latter days". The Dead Sea Scrolls identifies this
"Lord" as the Messiah figure of the future and as being none other
than Melchizedek himself. 11Q13 is a striking and tremendously important
document written in the first century BCE. It centers on the mysterious figure of Melchizedek and is
titled ‘the coming of Melchizedek’. There are only a few references (Genesis
14, and Psalms 110) in the Old Testament regarding Melchizedek by name. The
following excerpt is a quote from Michael Wise, The Dead Sea Scrolls about the 11Q13, Melchizedek scroll. This
excerpt is addressing "the agent of salvation," the Messiah who comes
at the end of the age and is referred to in the Bible as Lord and even ‘God’.
Michael Wise The author (of 11Q13) declares that the agent of this Dead Sea
Scrolls salvation is none other than Melchizedek, a mysterious figure
referenced only twice in the Bible (Old Testament), in Psalms 110 and Genesis
14. For our author (of 11Q13, probably the Teacher of Righteousness) Melchizedek is an enormously
exalted divine being, to whom are applied names that are generally reserved for God alone, the Hebrew
names el and elohim. In
the author’s citation of Isaiah 61:2, which speaks of "the year of The Lord’s favor," Melchizedek is substituted
even for the most holy name of Israel’s God, Yahweh.
Isaiah 40:3 A voice rings out:
‘Clear in the desert
A road for the Lord!
Level in the wilderness
A highway for our God…
The Presence of the Lord shall appear
And all flesh shall behold –,
For the Lord Himself has spoken. …
A voice rings out ‘Proclaim!’ …
Ascend a lofty mountain,
O herald of joy to Zion;
Raise your voice to with power, …
Raise it have no fear;
Announce to the cities of Judah:
Behold your God (Melchizedek)
John
the Baptist took the first stanza above for his own and used it to announce
Jesus. The Final Prophet to come will also use these lines to announce another
Lord who comes, Lord Melchizedek. The Final Prophet is specifically identified
here as ‘the herald of joy to Zion’ who proclaims to Zion ‘Behold your God!’ ‘Behold
your God’ is the same as ‘Your divine being reigns’ cited in 11Q13 of the Dead
Sea Scrolls which identifies this messenger as the interpreter of the law
(Final Prophet) and the divine being as Melchizedek. ‘The Presence’ recalls the
‘Lord in the bush’ and the ‘Presence of the Lord’ dwelling in Zion and within
the cloud during exodus. All of these presences are the semi-material presence
of Lord Melchizedek as described in the Urantia Book. The statement ‘that all
flesh will behold’ also conjures up the Lord Messiah who is described in
scripture to come in a very
visible display, in contrast to no display with regard to
Jesus. And so we have one scripture passage, which pertains to two different
ending ages with two different Lords and prophets. The Messiah is Melchizedek a
divine being, another messiah is God’s servant, the Final Prophet whom God has ‘put
His spirit upon’ (anointed).
It is
important to remember that Jesus knew and stated that he was not the Messiah of
Jewish expectation (Urantia Book). ‘My Kingdom is not of this world.’ More about this later. We
also note that these lines of Zechariah also attest to the presence of ‘those
who are far off’ coming to assist in the building of the true Temple. These
people are probably from the ‘nation that did not know you’ who ‘shall come
running to you’ (Isaiah 55:5) and will be identified later. Before leaving the
topic, here are a few more lines of scripture about this Temple:
Isaiah 60:17 Arise, and shine,
for your light has dawned.
The presence of the Lord has shone upon you.
Behold! Darkness shall cover the earth,
And thick clouds the peoples
But upon you the Lord will shine,
And His Presence be seen over you.
And nations will walk by your light.
Raise your eyes and look about:
They have all gathered and come to you (the Lord)
Your sons shall be brought from afar,
Your daughters like babes on shoulders.
As you behold, you will glow:
This
"Presence of the Lord" is some sort of visible manifestation of The
Lord/Messiah/Melchizedek. There are repeated references to the light that he
radiates in contrast to the "dark clouds" that are present upon the
"Lord’s" Messianic arrival. Such dark clouds could possibly be from
nuclear detonations or perhaps some natural phenomena, i.e. multiple volcanic
eruptions associated with the large scale tectonic event or events that occur
in concert with "the Lord’s" arrival, described elsewhere. Now, let’s
look at a very important passage that also refers to "clouds."
Daniel 7:13 One like a human
being (one like a son of man/ RSV.)
Came with the clouds
of heaven;
He reached the Ancient of Days
And was presented to Him;
Remember that Jesus took his title Son of Man from the
Book of Enoch (UB l390). Here the Messianic figure is referred to as
"one like a son of man," who is not Jesus
because:
UB 1749
Jesus endeavored to
lead his followers into the spiritual
kingdom… but they would not have it so. He well knew that
his earth mission could not possibly fulfill Messianic expectations
of the Jewish people; the older
prophets portrayed a Messiah,
which he could never
be.
We’ve
already noted the Biblical references to the "Lord’s" presence within
a "cloud" during the early history of Israel. We also know that
"the Lord" sometimes refers to Melchizedek. If the Messiah is
Melchizedek and he "comes with the clouds of heaven: this would fit with
our previous associations between "the Lord" and the "pillar of
cloud" that leads the Israelites. Remember that Melchizedek was on earth
in a "semi material form" as well as a material form previously, and
that a Melchizedek can take on a wide variety of forms; spiritual, material,
and semi material. Also notice the key word like,
in "one like a son of man." Jesus was a son of man because he
was born of woman. Melchizedek
incarnated in an adult human form and was
not born of woman. Therefore
he is not a son of man but rather is like a son of man. So the "cloud"
reference and the "one like a son of man" reference both point to
Melchizedek as the Lord/Messiah. Now consider the rest of this passage:
Daniel 7:14 And to him (one like a son of man) was
Given dominion, and glory and kingdom,
That all peoples, nations, and languages
Should serve him;
His dominion is an everlasting dominion,
Which shall not pass away,
And his kingdom is one
That shall not be destroyed
This is
not a spiritual Messiah, he comes in power and glory to judge the earth and
take dominion (sovereignty) of the nations and peoples of the world. Why does
he come and take sovereignty? Melchizedek is our Planetary Prince in waiting.
All normal planets have a Planetary Prince and we are about to be restored to
normalcy. Also, the present world leaders are misleaders; they spend no time truly addressing our global problems such as
overpopulation, pollution, environmental degradation, rapid loss of biologic
species, ongoing ozone depletion, global social and political unrest, and
increasing nuclear weapons proliferation. They talk a lot but actually do very
little, after all it may ruffle the feathers of some powerful corporation. This
planet is being and has been, raped by the wealthy and powerful. Nary a thought is given to putting
back what we take out. The
sole motivation is to get as much wealth and power as fast as possible. Because
of this, when Melchizedek steps in, we will be in the middle of many major problems.
But God is not going to let the many good people of the world be destroyed by
the strong and powerful. Sovereignty will be taken away from the present
leadership elite and given to
those who live according to God’s ways:
Revelation 11:15 Then the seventh
angel blew his trumpet…
Saying, "the power to rule over the
World belongs now to our Lord and His
Messiah, and he will rule forever and ever.
The word
Messiah is Christos in Greek. Christ means Messiah. Unfortunately, Jesus was surnamed for just what he
was not. Also notice that "our Lord" and "his Messiah" are
two different
personages in this verse. "Our Lord" is God and "his
Messiah" is God’s chosen representative for our world, Melchizedek. The
fact that this is a Messiah of this physical world and that he rules forever –
indicates a divine being. This divine being is on a cloud just as before in
Daniel:
Revelation 14:14 Then I looked, and
there was a white cloud, and sitting on
The cloud was what looked like
a human being (one
like a son of
man/RSV.)
With a crown of gold on his head and a sharp sickle in his hand.
Again,
"one like a son of man" is the reaper. Why is there a sickle in his
hand? The prophets have asked God for thousands of years over and over;
"How long Lord? How long?" meaning how long will the strong trample
the weak? How long will the arrogant govern the meek? God’s answer is that
everything has a season to grow and yield its full fruit; we then reap what we
sow. The sun is made to shine on the good and the
evil. Remember the parable when the good man sows good seed, but while he is
sleeping, an evil one sows weeds in the same field. And, when the weeds grow up
with the good crop, the parable tells us that both good and bad will be allowed
to reach harvest together. Then the field will be harvested and the good crop
stored away and the weeds bound up and thrown into the fire. This is done because
pulling the weeds up early would damage the good as well as the bad. The end of an age is a harvest time
when everything is harvested and accounted for. The one on the cloud has a "sickle in his hand"
to harvest the crop at the end of the age. This "one like a son of
man" is Melchizedek who comes to save the world from itself, give
restitution to "God’s people," and begin a new and glorious age of
promise. The prophecy, "The meek shall inherit the earth" will
finally become reality. Also, remember Jesus’ parable about the good landowner
of the vineyard. The landowner leaves his beautiful vineyard in the hands of
workmen who ransack his property and ruin his vineyard. The landowner sends his
best servants, and then even his very own son to check on its progress. The son
they kill, so as to deprive him of his inheritance, and Jesus then looks to the
listening audience and asks, "What do you think the landowner will
do?" In unison they answer, "he will destroy those men…" (UB. l893).
This story is not only a parable. It is also a prophecy of Jesus’ (the son in the parable)
subsequent death at the hands of the leaders of Jerusalem who are playing the
role of the workmen left in charge. Israel is the vineyard and God is the
landowner who sends his son Jesus to set right the spiritual affairs of Israel.
But Jesus is killed by the very ones causing the trouble in the first place,
the workmen left in charge, i.e. the leaders of Israel. But wait! The parable
prophecy hasn’t ended yet because God has not yet sent anyone to bring justice
to the vineyard workers, i.e. the leaders. The parable will end, when God’s
Agent of Justice arrives and sets the affairs of His "vineyard"
aright, just as at the ending of the parable. This is exactly the function of
the "Messiah" described in Old Testament prophecy. Not only was Jesus
aware of his upcoming death, but he also was aware that the complete story
would someday end like his parable ended.
The
word messiah is used only twice in the Bible, both times in Daniel (chp.9) embedded
in some passages regarding the seventy weeks prophecy. The word messiah is also
used several times in 1Enoch in association with a divine being who brings
peace and victory to those who "elect" God’s will during the end of
the Age. This Messiah figure in 1Enoch is called the Elect One, the Concealed
One, the Mighty One, and God of the World. Notice that the God of the World
designation well describes the function of a Planetary Prince/Sovereign. The
word messiah means anointed in spirit, and when capitalized, Messiah means the Anointed One over all other anointed
ones. Prophets and servants are also anointed ones, lower case. The word
"Christ" simply is the Greek translation of the word
"Messiah." Essentially, we have named Jesus "Christ" for
precisely what he is not, i.e. "Messiah." When Jesus came, people were looking
for the World Messiah and mostly missed recognizing the Spiritual Savior. This
time around Christians are looking for the Spiritual Savior and alas – the
World Messiah comes. Humanity
gets it wrong both times. No one can say that we’re not consistent. Now, please
consider:
Could
it be just an accident that all the world’s peoples are looking simultaneously for
their version of the Messiah? Would God only prepare Jews and Christians? Has
Melchizedek’s involvement been solely with the Judaic tradition? We learn from
John Hogue in his book, Millennium
Prophecy, of a very long
list of expected Messiah figures all of which are expected to set things
aright. Here he states: "Prophecy shares a collective vision of a Second
Coming of a Christ figure. All of our soothsayers say his ‘cloud’ is due to
land from heaven during our time." (Millennium Prophecy pg. 333). This is what the Kabala (a text
of Jewish mysticism) says about the number 21, that is, the 21st Century:
The future always comes in through the minority. The last battle won, "conventional
wisdom" is one step from the scrap heap. We fear and resist change, no
matter what its content. Nearly all-conventional wisdom today is wrong! Wrong
about science, wrong about politics, wrong about people, wrong about
philosophy, wrong about religion and wrong about most anything else we can
think of. Our leaders, our intellectuals and our so-called elite will have the
same constant refrain right up to the hour when they are removed from their
power and prestige. The refrain is "everything is fine, going just as we
expected." This is why they are so "confounded" in Micah 7:16
(above) when the World Messiah steps into the fray. It’s time we started
thinking for ourselves and stop buying the illusions, which are cast up in
front of us by the "leadership class" and the media; one working hand
in hand with the other. There is a Sufi metaphor about identification. Misery doesn’t come to us; we
unconsciously seek it out and hold on to it, like flinging our arms around a pillar. We squeeze
tighter and yell, "Oh if I could only be rid of this misery and
pain!"…We "do" misery we "do" expectation. Hell is not a place,
we "do" it, as American mystic Adi DaSantoshia once remarked…We make prophecy work because we are so
damned predictable… We have repeated again and again the behaviors that make it
easy for the seers to prophesy us unto doomsday. (John Hogue, Millennium Prophecy, Pg. 305).
Melchizedek enters as a warrior. Warriors enter a city on horseback, not riding an ass as Jesus did. Melchizedek comes in power
and glory to put out the fires of evil ravaging the world – perhaps the red
(crimsoned garments) symbolizes bloodshed. The Hopi Indian Messiah is expected
to wear a red cap and cloak. Jesus entered Jerusalem on the foal of an ass;
warriors enter a city on horseback, a symbol of power:
Zechariah
9:9 Rejoice greatly, Fair Zion:
Raise a shout, Fair Jerusalem!
Lo, your King is coming to you.
He is victorious, triumphant,
Yet humble, riding on an ass,
On a donkey foaled by a she-ass.
He shall banish chariots from Ephraim
And horses from Jerusalem;
The warrior’s bow shall be banished.
He shall call on the nations to surrender,
And his rule will extend from sea to sea
And from ocean to land’s end.
The
first six lines of this verse pertain to Jesus who entered Jerusalem on an ass.
The second six line s describe the activities of Melchizedek, the World Messiah,
who puts an end to war and who reigns over all. Also, Melchizedek comes riding
the "white horse" of Revelation to conquer and not an ass which is
the symbol of peaceful entry chosen by Jesus. Otherwise, Jesus and Melchizedek
are similar and easy to confuse from the standpoint of the prophet. They are
both Sons of God, both divine beings and both "Kings." One is the
King of the spiritual Kingdom of Heaven and the other is King of the external,
material Kingdom of God on earth.
The
next key phrase is "the angel (messenger) of the covenant" which
appears to be an alternate designation for the "Lord" who comes
"suddenly to the temple" in the previous sentence. The messenger of
the covenant is a divine being as indicated by the alternate translation
"angel" for "messenger," given in the Amplified Bible
translation. The covenant is the agreement between man and God that Melchizedek
brings to Abraham. The divine, messenger (angel)
of the covenant is then Melchizedek and once again, we independently identify
Melchizedek with "the Lord/Messiah" of scripture. Remember,
Melchizedek was referred to as "the angel of
the Lord" by the writers/editors of Genesis according to The Urantia Book. The angel (messenger) of the
covenant is Melchizedek and the author of the covenant is God.
UB 1754
…the three apostles
perceived that He (Jesus) referred to John the Baptist
as Elijah. Jesus knew that if they (the apostles) insisted
on regarding him
as the Messiah, then must John be the Elijah of the
prophecy. (My parentheses)
In
other words Jesus knew he
himself was not the Messiah and that John was not the
"Elijah" to come prophesied in Malachi. Jesus agreed to the use of
the reference to Elijah only because he knew the apostles insisted on viewing
himself as the Messiah. Elijah comes before the Messiah, identified previously
as Melchizedek. Therefore, "Elijah" comes before Melchizedek and is
the messianic final prophet.
The above quotes are from the book, "The Kingdom of Heaven is at Hand" by Ed Roache.