THE CAMBRIAN PESHER
THE VOICE OF THE DESPOSYNI TO THE AMERICAN DISPERSION
Transfiguration Day (August 6, 2000 vulgar)
Beloved:
Much ado is made by unbelievers concerning perceived rivalries among the Apostles. They cannot allow the Apostles their humanity. Somehow, in the quest to attack the inerrancy of the Bible, they must diminish these men. These attempts are misguided. The stories of Balaam and the burning bush prove that if the Almighty could speak through the mouth of a donkey or a plant, He could certainly speak through a man, even an imperfect man.
That there ever was a rivalry between Paul and Peter, or Paul and Barnabas, or Peter, Paul, and James (etc., etc.) turns upon our definition of the term "rivalry". If by rivalry, we mean they had disagreements over their respective roles and missions in the Early Church or what to do with their converts, perhaps there was some sorting out that had to be done. But if we mean by it that they did not share a common Gospel or a common Lord, that is nonsense. In the Scriptures, we can find no fundamental disagreement among them.
Peter's second Epistle is one of the most Desposynic documents of the New Testament. As I have pointed out in Biblical Terranomics #22, Peter uses the Pesher technique and relies heavily upon Jude's Enochian theology. (Jude, you will recall, was one of our Lord's brothers.) An example of this Jude/Enoch connection is in the passage where Peter describes the Transfiguration:
For we have not followed cunningly devised fables, when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but were eyewitnesses of his majesty.
For he received from God the Father honour and glory, when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.
And this voice which came from heaven we heard, when we were with him in the holy mount.
- 2 Peter 1:16-18
For the modern Evangelical, this is a most odd text. Peter speaks of the "power and coming" of Jesus Christ - as if speaking of the second Parousia - and then identifies the Transfiguration as a fulfillment of that "Coming" (see Matthew 17; Mark 9; Luke 9 for the Gospel accounts). Traditionally, we are taught that Christ's first coming was that of the "suffering servant". There was no glory, no majesty - only sacrifice and suffering. The glory and majesty and power is yet to come, we are told, at His "Second Coming".
And yet, here is this nagging assertion of Peter: that all the while during His earthly sojourn, Christ possessed this majesty, power, and "excellent glory". It just could not be perceived by the mortal eye of man. Not until Peter and his companions saw His luminous body and heard the "voice from heaven", did they realize who Jesus really was.
The use of the term in the New Testament of Christ's "appearing" adds more insight. In Pauline texts (such as 1 Timothy 6:14; 2 Timothy 4:1) and the Petrine texts (1 Peter 1:7; 5:4), "appearing" is used to describe what is commonly understood to mean the "Second Coming". But recall that there were many post-Resurrection appearances cited in the Gospels and elsewhere (e.g. 1 Corinthians 15:4-9). Stephen, the first Christian martyr, saw "heaven opened" (compare with John's baptism of Jesus - John 1) and "the Son of man standing on the right hand of God".
I saw in the night visions, and, behold, one like the Son of man came with the clouds of heaven, and came to the Ancient of days, and they brought him near before him.
- Daniel 7:13
Christ ascended into the clouds (Acts 1). We cannot interpret it any differently, but that the Ascension of Jesus was the fulfillment of Daniel's vision and that the reality of that fulfillment was what Stephen bore witness to:
And there was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all people, nations, and languages, should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.
- Daniel 7:14
This text, thus, corresponds with our Lord's claim in Matthew 28, where he says that "All power has been given unto me in heaven and on earth".
Returning to Peter's description of the Transfiguration, compare with Jude's quotation of Enoch:
Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints . . .
v. 14
And then, compare again with Daniel's vision, speaking of Antichrist, he says:
And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High, and think to change times and laws: and they [who? the saints - JWS] shall be given into his hand until a time and times and the dividing of time.
But the judgment shall sit, and they [who? the saints - JWS] shall take away his dominion, to consume and to destroy it unto the end.
And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him.
- 7:25-27
Sir Isaac Newton says of this text: "After which the judgment is to sit, and they shall take away his dominion, not at once, but by degrees . . ." (Observations upon the Prophecies of Daniel, facsimile, p.114). As a historicist, Newton did not see a sudden, cataclysmic end to the Antichrist kingdoms of the world, but a gradual, victorious march of the saints.
The story of Elisha in 2 Kings 6:17 offers another insight. Elisha is besieged by an enemy host, but he is not afraid. He prays for his fearful servant "that his eyes might be opened". He then sees the panoramic vision of the heavens filled with "chariots of fire" - the LORD and His hosts ("the Lord of Sabaoth" as James says).
The key, then, to understanding the message of the Transfiguration is to first answer the question: do we see Christ, the Messiah, in his glory, majesty, and power? If we do, then we understand that history is merely the unfolding of His rule of the nations, the manifestation of His judgments in time and on Earth (1 Corinthians 15; Psalm 2). On the other hand, if we do not see with the eyes of faith, then we see only defeat and the rage of demons.
At Christ's Transfiguration, He appeared with two saints: Elijah and Moses. At the Transfiguration described by Enoch, He appears with ten thousands of his saints. Are you one of those saints? To whom is given "an everlasting kingdom"?
At the Cambrian Episcopal Church of the Grail, we teach that the "hosts" of the Kingdom are organized according to chiefs of tens, fifties, hundreds, and thousands (Exodus 18). "Thousands" is the highest level of government allowed in Biblical law. The notion of kings of nation-states is a satanic doctrine, a rivalry against the true King of kings and Lord of lords. Even Israel's monarchy was recognized as a rejection of the kingship of Yahweh (1 Samuel 8). However, the Davidic dynasty has been sanctified by the incarnate Messiah and the kingdom has been distributed to His viceroys and vicegerents.
Headship for the people of the saints has been established in the Desposyni. Are you in covenant with them?
A Servant of Jesus,
James Wesley Stivers