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THE VIDEO OF THE TABERNACLE IS NOW AVAILABLE!

- Ignatius A le Roux

In the first issue of the Kérugma Bulletin we mentioned the possibility of reconstructing a full-scale model of the tabernacle as it was built by Moses. The subject of that Bulletin was NEW CHALLENGES IN PROCLAIMING THE GOSPEL. In it we mentioned that the world was on the verge of a digital video renaissance and we indicated by example how this would make it possible for us to proclaim the Gospel throughout the world in many different languages, by means of multimedia productions.

Technology has developed to such an extent that this is now possible. Since that Bulletin was published, and without our prior knowledge, a full-scale replica of the tabernacle has been built in the Judean desert near Jerico, possibly close to where it stood in the time of Israel's campaign against that city. In that first Bulletin we also mentioned amongst other things, how it might be possible to produce a video of the five different sacrifices that the Israelites had to perform at the tabernacle. We never in our wildest dreams imagined that one of the first videos that we produced would actually be about such a tabernacle. That first Bulletin was barely distributed when a certain Ds. Vermeulen of the Dutch Reformed Church contacted me to advise me of a registered project known as Project Tabernacle. This is an ongoing project and the plan is to erect a tabernacle in the Pietersburg district. As mentioned in the previous Bulletin, we had the privilege of visiting and filming the tabernacle that was built in Israel by Dr. Randall D. Smith.

The video covering this has just been released. The video is suitable for use in sermons, cell groups and bible studies to name but a few. It can be used to illustrate any teaching with regard to the tabernacle. In the video Dr. Randall Smith personally takes the audience on a guided tour of the tabernacle. One interesting facet, which we discovered when first taken on a tour of the tabernacle, was that all the copper, silver and gold used in it came from South Africa. The reason being that our gold was the cheapest in the world.

Before entering the tabernacle, the first structure one passes, besides the place where sacrificial animals were slaughtered, is the altar of burnt offering. From the courtyard, the place where these animals were slaughtered can be seen. After the priests had slaughtered the animals, which the people of Israel had provided, the carcases were placed on the fire of the altar. THE ALTAR OF BURNT OFFERING A noticeable aspect of the altar of burnt offering is that it was so holy that anyone who touched it would be made holy as well:

This unique quality of the altar, says a great deal about God's intention for the structure on which the sacrifices were presented. The Bible teaches that holiness could not normally be transferred from one person or object to another. An example of this is Haggai 2:11-13 where it is stated that holiness, unlike uncleanliness, was not transferable. Should meat that was used in the burnt offering ("consecrated meat") touch any person, that person would not become holy as a result of the contact. However, anything touched by any unclean person (who became unclean after contact with a dead body for example) would subsequently become unclean as well.

Uncleanliness is contagious but holiness is not. Yet the altar had this unique quality that all who came into contact with it became holy. It must be clearly understood that the altar did not possess an inherent ability to do this. The altar had to be consecrated in a particular manner before it had this unique power to sanctify. Exodus 30:22-39 teaches that the tabernacle and all its implements had to be consecrated by means of anointing with holy oil. The altar of burnt offering, an integral part of the tabernacle, not only had to be consecrated by means of the holy anointing oil but had first to be purified by means of blood. It had to be purified by the blood of a bullock given as a sin offering. Through the blood of this bullock atonement was made for the altar. This was done every day for seven days. The altar was acceptable to God only after the blood had purified it seven times. Only then was it, together with the rest of the tabernacle, an instrument through which God sanctified everyone who touched it (Ex. 31:29).

In the video Dr. Randall Smith shows the audience what a critical role the blood played in the tabernacle service. The blood came into contact, not only with the altar of burnt offering, but also mixed with the water in the laver where the priests washed their hands and feet. Blood was also placed on the horns of the altar of incense, and on the Day of Atonement the high priest could only enter the most holy place once he himself, the curtain and the mercy seat had been sprinkled with the blood (Lev. 16). Blood thus played an essential role in the tabernacle service. The altar had to be purified seven times with it before it could be consecrated as an instrument through which God could sanctify. All that touched it would be holy.

WHAT IS HOLINESS?

God is holy and He gives us the command: "... be holy, for I am holy..." (Lev. 11:44, 1 Pet. 1:16). We are commanded to be holy and called to sanctify ourselves. Many people interpret the concept of "calling" to be applicable only to those people whom God specifically called to fulltime service in His kingdom. However, Ephesians 4:1 shows us that every Christian is to lead a life worthy of the responsibility to which he/she has been called. When God calls upon a person to become His child, He calls him out of this world to become a part of His kingdom. Being called out of this world already indicates one aspect of sanctification. That is to be holy, separate and to live apart from the world. Although we are still in the world, we are not of the world anymore. Therefore the Bible also teaches that we are called to lead a holy life. The apostle Paul writes:

When God calls us to repentance, then He calls us out of the world to become His children and thus to become like Him. He is holy. He is separate from the world. He calls us to come out of the world and to live a life separate from the world. In part the idea of "holiness" means to be separate. That which is holy is separate from that which is defiled. God cleanses us through the Word by which He calls us (Ezek. 36:25, Eph 5:26). He also sanctifies us through the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ (Heb 13:12, 1 Pet 1:19). He gives us the Spirit of His holiness, the Holy Spirit, to live in our newly born spirit (Ezek. 36:26-27). When we study the word "holy", it would seem that the word has a meaning more than just to be separate from the world. The Lord tells us that we are to shine like stars in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation in which we live (Phil. 2:15). Holiness also seems to indicate something of the beauty of the golden ornaments in the tabernacle. Despite the dimly lit tabernacle, the gold reflected its unmistakable gleam. God is holiness, and those who belong to Him are called to be like Him. They are separate from the world and they reflect the light of His glory. They cannot hide themselves. Like a city built on a hill, they stand out (Mat 5:14). For this reason the Lord Jesus Christ confirmed to God the Father that He had given His glory to His followers (John 17:22).

How does God the Father see the followers of the Lord Jesus? He sees them as having been sanctified in the blood of the Lamb. Colossians 1:20 teaches that God reconciled all things to Himself by making peace "through the blood of His cross". It is important to note exactly what God the Father reconciled to Himself through the blood of His Son. It is "whether things on earth or things in heaven." (Col 1:20). Have you noticed that it says here that God reconciled "…things in heaven" to Himself through the blood of the Lamb? It is understandable that God needed to reconcile things on the earth with Himself. Sin had such an effect on man and earth that nothing escaped its defilement. But why did God need to reconcile things in heaven with Himself through the blood of the Lamb? The answer to this is found in the command to build the tabernacle. When God instructed Moses to build the tabernacle, He told him specifically to make it:

According to this, and other verses (Ex. 25:40; 26:30; 27:8 and Num 8:24), it appears as if God showed Moses an example of a tabernacle. Moses had to make the tabernacle "according to the pattern…shown you on the mountain" (Ex. 25:40). This example is the tabernacle built in heaven. The tabernacle in heaven is called the "Holy Place" which is "not of this creation" (Heb 9:11). The tabernacle on earth was built according to the example of it. In Hebrews 9:11-12 we learn that the Lord Jesus entered the Holy Place as high priest with His own blood to obtain eternal redemption. The earthly high priest had to enter through the curtain once a year on the Day of Atonement to sprinkle the mercy seat with the blood (Lev. 16). This had to be repeated every year as this sacrifice was not perfect and could not satisfy the conscience of the high priest (Heb. 9:9).

HEAVEN CLEANSED BY THE BLOOD

The principal angel created by God, wanted to equate himself to God (Is. 14:14). He rebelled against God and enticed a third of the angels in heaven to himself. Heaven was violated by this rebellion. This sin polluted heaven. When this angel rebelled further against God by wanting to become "like God" (Gen. 3:5), the earth was struck by this sin. God, in His grace, determined that redemption would be possible for fallen man. But this redemption would only be possible through a Person who would pay the price for sin with His own blood. He would be the offspring of the woman who would strike Satan's head (Gen. 3:15). We know that the Lord Jesus Christ paid for our sin with His blood on the cross. The cross represented the altar on which He presented Himself as a perfect sacrifice for our sin. It is interesting to note that in times before the tabernacle was built, sacrifices were regularly offered on the altar. God could be worshiped even though the tabernacle or temple did not exist; but not without an altar (Ex. 20:24). The meaning of the word "altar" is to slaughter, kill or sacrifice. Sacrifices made by man, and indeed man himself, are not "perfect". They are unclean and therefore not acceptable before God. That is why the altar on which the defiled, unholy man brought his unclean sacrifice first had to be purified so that God could sanctify man and his sacrifice through it. God's requirement was first to purify the altar with the blood. Only a purified and holy altar could cleanse that which was sacrificed on it. But even such a sacrifice could not fully perfect the conscience of the high priest (Heb. 9:9). To accomplish a perfect sacrifice a high priest was required who Himself was without sin.

That is why the Son of God had to become a man. He put Himself in our place and overcame temptation and sin. On the cross He surrendered Himself to the just judgement of God the Father. You see, Jesus Christ became a man of flesh and blood. The only path to God and everlasting life was through the blood of the flesh. Our lives are so under the power of the flesh that we cannot be set free from it through any suffering, self-denial, obedience or death. But through His death on the cross, the Lord Jesus has won the right and the power that allows us to follow in the same way he did namely the way of the cross. You see: the cross is not only the tree on which Christ died. No, we too have to die on the cross. When a sinner comes to the knowledge that Jesus Christ shed His blood on the cross in our place, he identifies with the suffering and death of the Lord Jesus. The price paid by Jesus Christ here on earth through His suffering and death, has such power with God the Father that He gives all, who live in fellowship with the death of Jesus, the power of resurrection (Rom. 6:3-4). Jesus works this power in our lives through the Holy Spirit. First to give us the rebirth and second to give us the power to walk a new life.

Many people believe in a cross on which Christ suffered. But the true cross is one on which all who have been baptised in the blood of Jesus have been crucified. This is the cross, which has been purified by the blood of the Lord Jesus so that God will sanctify all who touch it, by their faith. The true cross has the purifying and sanctifying power of the blood of the Lamb of Golgotha to purify and sanctify all who nail themselves to it by their faith. God the Father has made peace with all things in heaven and on earth through the blood on the cross.

Have you been sanctified in this blood? Are you at peace with God? Child of God, you that say that the blood has already cleansed you, do you constantly live under the blood of the Lamb?

The cross is holy through the blood that Jesus shed. It has been sanctified and is the only altar through which we are allowed to offer anything to God. The altar in the tabernacle had to be purified for seven days by seven sin offerings before it could be consecrated with the holy anointing oil. Seven is the number of perfection. The sacrifice of Jesus was perfect. He consecrated the altar of the cross with His blood in a single sacrifice. That blood has still the same power today to purify and sanctify. We so readily start thinking that we are unworthy to do something for God. We feel we are too sinful, too weak, and too inferior to please God. Man alone is unable to do anything for God or to offer Him anything or to please Him. But through His blood the Lord Jesus has sanctified the cross as the only altar on which we may offer anything to God. When a child of God seeks advice on any project he wishes to undertake or wants to offer his services to God, he must lay it on the cross of Christ knowing that the cross will sanctify it before Almighty God. Ask God to nail to the cross that which you want to do for Him or offer to Him. Believe and accept that the death of the Lord Jesus Christ works in you and that His resurrection power gives you the ability to walk with Him. You do what you do by the power He has given you. Jesus Christ is the high priest who intervenes on our behalf before the Father and who reveals in us His resurrection life through the Holy Spirit. Through His Holy Spirit He gives us the heavenly power and ability to do what we do for the pleasure of God the Father.

When the cross sanctifies us, the blood of the Lord Jesus Christ purifies us. This is an ongoing miracle. John says that if we walk in the light, as God Himself is in the light, the blood of Jesus cleanses us from all sin (1 John 1:7). This indicates that the heavenly High Priest continuously sprinkles us with His blood. Thus purifying us continuously of sin in the world. The Lord Jesus says that those who follow Him, daily take up their cross, and follow Him (Luke 9:23). Each morning as we ask the Lord to nail us to His cross and keep us there for the day, He purifies us in His blood. In this manner He sanctifies us on His altar and gives us the power of the new life through which He reveals Himself to the world around us.

In Israel, as I stood next to the altar of burnt offering, I wondered what impression it had made on the Israelite and his family when they came to sacrifice their best lamb. The lamb which was so precious to them and which they tended so faithfully. The lamb that slept in the stable at night - the roomiest part of the house. The lamb that they could sell for a profit on the market place. This was what they offered in place of themselves so that they did not have to die. What went through their minds as the father placed his hand on the lamb and confessed his sin and the priest thereafter slaughtered it and placed it on the fire of the altar? The Lord Jesus Christ took our transgressions upon Him and willingly offered Himself on the cross as the perfect Lamb of God. He

He now appears in the presence of the Father on our behalf while His Holy Spirit imparts to us His life. His desire is for us to present our bodies "as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God" (Rom. 12:1). Child of God, you who confess that the Spirit of the Holy God lives in you; who confess that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. Do you live a life which is acceptable to God? That which your body is and does, that which the lips of your body speaks, your hands do, where your feet walk, and what your eyes look at and your ears listen to, that which your attitude and your appearance radiates. Is all that under the control of the Holy Spirit to the glory of God? Does it proclaim the image of the Lord Jesus Christ? Does the Lord Jesus, through your body, proclaim the Father to the world around you? Let us surrender our bodies to the cross as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God.

T.B Joshua: An Evaluation - By Bill Randles

(A video production by Bill Randles which shows what this prophet does, will be released, God willing, by the 15 th June)

As a Christian Pastor and teacher I am concerned about some of the aspects of this prophet's ministry which are either unreported or perhaps unappreciated for their significance. In the light of the fact that we believe we are living in the last days before Jesus' return, and that one of the warnings Jesus gave us was that immediately before that time there would arise on the scene False prophets, who would be able to perform "signs and wonders…so that if possible they would be able to deceive even the very elect" (Matt. 24:24), It is extremely important that we be all the more discerning.

I don't know Pastor Joshua's heart; in fact indeed it seems to be that he is a very sincere man living a simple lifestyle. Rather than taking money constantly (as a good many of the celebrated televangelists have done) there are stories of T.B. Joshua's generosity to the poor who struggle to come to him for healing. However we are told nonetheless to be discerning in our evaluation of anything, which claims to be of God. "Try the Spirits to see whether they be of God"(1 John 4:1). There are several caveats I offer to those who are seeking discernment of these phenomena.

* On a French television interview, Prophet Joshua said that he had received this gift at birth. The true Gifts of the Spirit of God (see I Cor. 12-14) are not bestowed at birth to anyone. One must be converted to Christ, and even then the gifts are distributed as the Spirit wills (1 Cor. 12:11).

* Transubstantiation : On videotape distributed by the Synagogue of all Nations, A Blood of Jesus- Service was shown. It consisted of the Prophet Joshua blessing a huge tank of water, touching each of twelve running spigots, proclaiming them to now be the blood of Jesus. The congregation was then shown rushing forward, pushing and pulling among themselves seeking to get to those spigots first, that they might drink, splash, and in some cases even shower in the blood of Jesus. This is perhaps the most disturbing aspect of it all, as it turns the Biblical doctrine of the blood of Jesus (His vicarious death) into a sensuous, superstitious experience. No Priest or Prophet can turn any substance into the blood of Jesus that is more akin to paganism and magic than Christianity. The blood of Jesus was shed as a sacrifice to God the Father, not as a potion to be slashed and bathed in!

* False separation between the Sheep and the goats: In addition to the other antics at the blasphemous Blood of Jesus service, as the people pushed, pulled and shoved forward to participate in the so called blood, those who had agents of Satan, were put into a demonic frenzy, rolling on the ground, through the muck and mire (more on that next) screaming and moaning in agony. There is demon possession indeed, but one would look in vain anywhere in the scriptures to find any deliverance service remotely resembling this so called Blood of Jesus-service. Joshua proclaimed this as the separation of the sheep and the goats, which actually takes place at the Judgment day.

* Remote control: T.B. Joshua uses a technique called remote control, in which by hand motions, standing ten feet or so away from patients he manipulates their motions. By scooting his hands to the left, the patient seems irresistibly drawn to the left, and to the right, the patient goes to the right, by circling his hands, Joshua sends the patient into a circle, often until they spiral out of control, falling into a dazed heap! This method once again is more akin to occult healing practices, than it is to the majestic healing gifts of Jesus Christ. Another similar technique is called "point of contact". For example, the bare breasted woman suffering in agony before the congregation, of a cancer, for her Joshua stands about 15 feet away, and rubs his chin vigorously, this is evidentially affecting her cancerous breast, by remote control. (See the healing of the woman with a blood problem for years, she only touched Jesus and was healed)

* Calling Fire from heaven: Joshua has the power to call fire from heaven upon the body parts of sinning members of his congregation! A woman in the video is seen clutching her private parts in agony, (it seems to the mild amusement of others) as Joshua's fire cleanses her of the sin. We are told in the book of Revelation that the false prophet calls fire from heaven to the amazement of those under the delusion.

* Joshua has strange beliefs: for example he is a vegetarian because he told an interviewer that many of the people he ministers to in the area of deliverance are half fish and half man. In another interview he said that the divine person within him can appear to thousands simultaneously, even coming to them in their dreams! This is not Christianity!

In closing, I don't pretend to know Joshua's motivation; by all accounts he seems to be a very sincere man. However sincerity is no safeguard against deception. I am sure Edgar Cayce, Jean Dixon and countless other prophets, who by Christian, Biblical standards would have to be regarded as false, were equally sincere and unassuming. There are countless warnings in scripture about the emergence of False Prophets and teachers who like Pharaohs magicians, withstood and hindered the true gospel by means of signs, wonders and miracles. Just because Joshua seems to be able to produce results, He seems to have the goods, it doesn't mean we should go there, for the ends do not justify the means. Even the idea of having to go to Nigeria to receive a healing, or a miracle, or a Word from God, is unscriptural. "Jesus Christ is the same, yesterday, today, and forever".

Copyright © 1999 Kérugma^® Productions. All rights reserved.
PO/Box 1367, KUILS RIVER, 7579 SOUTH-AFRICA Tel: +27 (0)21 903-1901 Fax: +27 (0)21 906-2637
E-mail: info@kerugma.org.za; http://www.kerugma.org.za/