#and both those times nace translated it to english for him

[me-sploh-rada-imas]

finally figured out what jan and nace talk about during gigs

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New Post has been published on https://passingbynehushtan.com/2020/02/11/when-i-survey-the-wondrous-nace/

When I Survey the Wondrous Nace, part 1: A Prophetic Think Tank

 When I Survey the Wondrous Nace?

You know that old hymn When I survey the Wondrous Cross? Its a standard. It almost represents the Church itself. It’s comfortable and peaceful, like a sit by the fire in an old pair of slippers. Like going home and getting a hug from your mother. The words are also true, that before peace, when you think about the Cross and know what its all about, you get hammered by a Truth, resulting in an essential disconnect from the world and its cares, setting them only on what really matters.

But I take that back. Not when you survey the Cross. The real Cross when surveyed, the symbol of the Church everyone, is only like the song because they both are about a wondrous thing that is also a device of execution for the least deserving Person imaginable. What is a truly wondrous Cross is the only thing you can think about which can take you out of here, the Nace, which is alone wondrous, and alone is capable of setting our sights on our true home where wonders come. The Nace is essentially the historical object of the Cross but turned to a sharply foreign, non-contingent, spiritual and miraculous aspect of view that you will never get by the motivations of pedestrian or historical church culture.

The Cross. That symbol of torture and death.  The altar on which was the Messiah immolated, died and atoned for sin. That innocent and simple shape comprised of one horizontal and one vertical beam, which provokes such revulsion and such reverence. On this site, the insignia of Christianity speaking of its power to divide the human race into those aligned toward a love of spiritual truth and those who only horizontally oriented to the world. 

Only one problem if we love the truth and want to raise a banner for the faith of the Messiah accurately: nix the horizontal beam, leaving only a bare pole.  The word “cross” is not in the Greek New Testament, but “pole” is, leaving us to wonder what the traditional shape of the cross has really stood for all these centuries. Not the shape of a piece of wood, the shape of the real Christian faith motivation.

It is very well known. I am not by any means serving up some new revelation here. And that is what makes it all the more damning of us. Nothing is standing in our way of knowing the answers to the most profound questions of the ages. Our problem is we prefer half-truths because the whole thing is just too much to bear.

Superficial Survey

The word translated “cross” in the Greek is stauros. In every Greek lexicon stauros means, as in Liddell and Scott’s Greek-English Lexicon: 

“Wood cut and ready for use, firewood, timber, etc. . . . piece of wood, log, beam, post . . . cudgel, club . . . stake on which criminals were impaled . . . of live wood, tree.”1

In Acts 5:30 and 10:39, it states that on a tree was hung Jesus. The word “tree” in Greek denotes a simple upright post, as in Strong’s Greek Dictionary:

3586. xulon xulon xoo’-lon

from another form of the base of 3582; timber (as fuel or material); by implication, a stick, club or tree or other wooden article or substance:–staff, stocks, tree, wood.

This word xulon is put for staves or spears, as in:

And while he yet spake, lo, Judas, one of the twelve, came, and with him a great multitude with swords and staves, from the chief priests and elders of the people. (Matthew 26:47 KJV)2

It turns out that there were four basic types of crosses that the Romans used to carry out crucifixion.

The Crux Simplex: a single, upright piece of wood.

The Crux Decussata, or St. Andrew’s cross. This was in the shape of an X and was used extensively in Britain by the Romans during their conquests.

The Crux Commissa, or St. Anthony’s cross. This was a capital T shape, without the beam overhead.

The Crux Immissa, or Latin cross, or traditional t shape. 

It is interesting to read all the objections raised to the notion of Jesus having been crucified on the simple upright stake, or stauros, of which the New Testament speaks. Some maintain that the “sign King of the Jews” could not have been affixed over the head of any type of post other than that of the Immissa. These arguments almost invariably fail to mention the crux simplex as one of the four possibilities. Others say that it would be impossible for a man to survive more than 6 hours nailed to a plain upright post, with both hands nailed together overhead and both feet nailed together below. Yet, I have never read a medical analysis, credible or otherwise, supporting this claim.

Denominational Survey

Interestingly, the traditional cross shape is not described graphically or scripturally by the church much before the time of Constantine, who officially adopted it as the symbol of the new state religion. Historical data is overflowing which details the Roman and Eastern Church’s adoption of pagan thinking and practices leading up to Constantine’s time, which were used quite effectively to bring into the church scores of polytheists by making Christianity less alien to them. Crosses were certainly used in at least two prominent pagan religions at that time.

Although Protestants agree wholeheartedly about the pagan influences that came into the church, they do not even want to consider that the cross might be one of them. It seems that the traditional cross has become such a focus of reverence over the years it’s just not open to discussion, rational or otherwise.

The Jehovah’s Witnesses have claimed for years that the Crux Simplex was the instrument of crucifixion. But don’t blame me because those wacky folks believe this as well. I am not wrong because I happen to agree with one thing with the J.W.’s. As the saying goes, even a stopped clock is right once a day? They have so many anti-biblical doctrines how difficult would it be for them to get one thing right?

Although they never take up the question seriously unless in the oblique, neither the J.W.’s nor the mainstream church has it right about why one type of cross or another best serves the Christian message. What is clear is that one type of cross is not wrong simply because it might be pagan and another wrong simply because it’s not traditional.

Interrogative Survey

OK, then, what does make one type of cross wrong and another right in the most profound and consequential way we can think of?

First, we can use the fact that, beyond trivial historical research, commending to wisdom instead of only extra-biblical historical data, an option does not honestly present itself for Christianity to adopt symbols of their faith based on evidence gleaned primarily from sources other than the text of the bible. One can understand the Catholic apologetic for the Immissa since Catholicism does not use the bible as their sole rule for faith and practice. Their wild doctrines don’t need any biblical backup, as Catholic tradition, they say, has equal authority. The Catholic Church has had its reward. The J.W.’s too since it’s not the bible that is their rule of faith, but gratuitous iconoclasm. But what about all these “protestants” who are supposed to be fiercely Word-centered?  If the symbol for their faith is the Latin cross, it makes one wonder what they were, or are, really protesting.

You might say, “hey, what real difference does it mean whether or not the shape of the cross is accurately represented. It’s just a symbol. The heart of Christianity is its root of truth, not its branches of mere outward expressions in symbolism.” I quite agree. It does not matter a brass farthing whether the cross looked like an Immissa or a Simplex. How is a symbol going to hurt anyone? Except, of course, if there is something biblically profitable to be learned from a plain, upright stake as opposed to an upright cross. Except if the absence of an operational symbol for the essential nature of righteous faith in the Messiah, and atonement through it, is more biblical than the use of any symbol. I think in our time the bible is certainly prophetic about the absence of that symbol in our form of Christianity.

What makes one cross wrong and another right is not its traditional or pagan appearance, but whether or not the substance of that cross as a reason for righteous faith in the Messiah that the church professes is 1st century-traditional or pagan.

Prophetic Survey

Let us first consider the fact that the word “cross” is used to convey a double meaning: one, the actual piece of wood and, two, the atonement of Christ. This is a great expression of the dual streams of scriptural revelation and dual streams of meaning that any symbol is made to convey.

The “p’shat”, as the ancient Rabbi’s called it, was the meaning of a biblical text that presented itself without need for deep meditation. In Ruth, the scene where Ruth obeyed Boaz’s command to dip her bread in the sour wine was simply that: dipping the doughnut in the coffee is a way to get the pleasant taste of your meal and drink in one bite. It makes the meal more interesting, more pleasant. I have also heard that in the case of the Jews this was an invitation to Ruth by Boaz feel welcome and at home, to sit down and enjoy the meal instead of feeling like a starving outsider who is scrambling to gather some leftovers from underneath the masters table.

But the rabbi’s also recognized a “remez” in scripture. This was the meaning under the surface text.

The Midrash Ruth Rabbah states that these verses really mean something prophetic about the coming Messiah: 

“‘Come this way’, refers to King Messiah, ‘Eat from the bread’, means the bread of royalty, and ‘dip your morsel in the sour wine’, refers to the sufferings of the Messiah, as it is written, ‘but he was wounded for our transgressions, bruised for our iniquities.”3

Also:

“It will be with the last deliverer,(the Messiah), as with the first (Moses); as the first deliverer revealed himself first to the Israelites and then withdrew, so also will the last deliverer reveal himself to the Israelites and then withdraw for a while.“4

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The bible is a book of stories and exhortations which have all sorts of social, historical and moral import. We can read it like a newspaper or a self-help book and glean great expressions of love, great reasons for justice and peace, great reasons to live a clean life free of the filth and degradation of the world, resulting in greater happiness in this world and a model for spiritual life in another. We can run an honest political campaign on the lessons found there. We can use it as a basis of civil law. We can use it to guide us in knowing how to treat our spouse and children. We can certainly use it to get a good idea of how God expects us to behave if we are His children.

But, most importantly, the bible is a book of prophecy. It exists to certify God’s righteousness in His faithfulness to promise and precisely fulfill. It demonstrates His sovereignty over all time and space, and discredits the claims of other “gods.” It exists to activate and maintain a certain quality of faith propelled by a love for spiritual truth. In this sense, it can’t do a thing for the world, the flesh and the devices of men to benefit them because those things have a limited life span. It works indirectly only as for secondary benefit for societies and individuals to build a world that is at peace and at least tolerant of evangelism, but a primary benefit, a “remez”, to prove the existence and nature of God for those who look at the world primarily as an evidential means to righteously believing in Him, not an end in itself.

The idea of the cross as a dual meaning is one of a simple shape of wood and a theological idea and belief. Jesus hung on a piece of wood with a vertical and horizontal beam and Jesus made atonement. But is this as far as we can understand the cross as a p’shat and a remez, going on without a nagging conscience about the shape of a true cross or the nature of real theology? Or, is both the whole modern plain and theological and understanding of the cross a p’shat awaiting a real remez?

Which is a superior translation of stauros: cross or pole? If we are stubbornly Word-centered, as we should be, we start by looking at the words equivalent in Hebrew. That word that most closely matches stauros is nace. Not only in definition but most importantly in spiritual meaning. Hold on, because this will get very disturbing for those who act like the shape of the cross, its p’shat, is more important to the Christian faith than its remez.

Nace in Hebrew, or נֵס, according to Strong’s Hebrew Lexicon, is: 

a flag; also a sail; by implication, a flagstaff; generally a signal; figuratively, a token:–banner, pole, sail, (en-)sign, standard.

Another word form is:

 nacac (naw-sas) – to gleam from afar, i.e., to be conspicuous as a signal (the idea of a flag as fluttering in the wind); to raise a beacon; lift up as an ensign

The word carries three primary meanings:

A pole, staff, or flagstaff.

The banner raised upon a pole.

A sign, particularly a miraculous, prophetic sign, as we will see, particularly that of the Messiah.

In accord with # 3, nace means “something lifted up.” It means exaltation. Let’s go through the OT and see how the word and meaning are used in a few typical instances when what is lifted up is the prophetic of God’s word. Ultimately, we are asking something like “how is God lifted up.” Then, we are asking, “is this the reason and way we lift Him up today?”  

When used to signify a pole

And the LORD said unto Moses, Make thee a fiery serpent, and set it upon a pole (נֵס): and it shall come to pass, that every one that is bitten, when he looketh upon it, shall live. And Moses made a serpent of brass, and put it upon a pole (on), and it came to pass, that if a serpent had bitten any man, when he beheld the serpent of brass, he lived. (Numbers 21:8-9 KJV)

When used to signify the banner 

How long shall I see the standard (נֵס), [and] hear the sound of the trumpet? For my people [is] foolish, they have not known me; they [are] sottish children, and they have none understanding: they [are] wise to do evil, but to do good they have no knowledge. (Jeremiah 4:21-22 KJV)

Thou hast given a banner (נֵס) to them that fear thee, that it may be displayed because of the truth. Selah. (Psalms 60:4 KJV)

And he will lift up an ensign (נֵס) to the nations from far, and will hiss unto them from the end of the earth: and, behold, they shall come with speed swiftly: (Isaiah 5:26 KJ

When used to signify a prophetic sign, particularly the sign of the Messiah

 And the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed them up together with Korah, when that company died, what time the fire devoured two hundred and fifty men: and they became a sign (נֵס). (Numbers 26:10 KJV)

And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign (נֵס) of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and his rest shall be glorious.  (Isaiah 11:10 KJV) 

And he shall set up an ensign (נֵס) for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.  (Isaiah 11:12 KJV)

And he shall pass over to his strong hold for fear, and his princes shall be afraid of the ensign (נֵס), saith the LORD, whose fire [is] in Zion, and his furnace in Jerusalem.  (Isaiah 31:9 KJV)

Thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, I will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles, and set up my standard (נֵס) to the people: and they shall bring thy sons in [their] arms, and thy daughters shall be carried upon [their] shoulders.  (Isaiah 49:22 KJV)

Go through, go through the gates; prepare ye the way of the people; cast up, cast up the highway; gather out the stones; lift up a standard (נֵס) for the people. Behold, the LORD hath proclaimed unto the end of the world, Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh; behold, his reward [is] with him, and his work before him.  And they shall call them, The holy people, The redeemed of the LORD: and thou shalt be called, Sought out, A city not forsaken. (Isaiah 62:10-12 KJV)

The word that the LORD spake against Babylon [and] against the land of the Chaldeans by Jeremiah the prophet. Declare ye among the nations, and publish, and set up a standard (נֵס); publish, [and] conceal not: say, Babylon is taken, Bel is confounded, Merodach is broken in pieces; her idols are confounded, her images are broken in pieces. For out of the north there cometh up a nation against her, which shall make her land desolate, and none shall dwell therein: they shall remove, they shall depart, both man and beast. In those days, and in that time, saith the LORD, the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together, going and weeping: they shall go, and seek the LORD their God. (Jeremiah 50:1-4 KJV)

You can see that if we were to settle on one definition for nace, it would certainly be a prophetic sign. We must also remember that a prophetic sign is not only a prophetic promise but the actual person or event which fulfilled it. The person who speaks in the Bible is put as the equivalent of what he speaks and believes, particularly as a means of certifying that person morally. We do the same thing today when we say “he is a person of His word,” “a man is only as good as his word.” A person’s word is a moral sign. The Messiah is also a sign and the ultimate sign at that! He is prophesied, and his person appearing among men is a fulfillment of the promise, the Word of God. Jesus was Himself called a sign (miracle, sign, token, wonder). Giving one of many examples from the New Testament:

For mine eyes have seen thy salvation, Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people; A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel. And Joseph and his mother marvelled at those things which were spoken of him. And Simeon blessed them, and said unto Mary his mother, Behold, this [child] is set for the fall and rising again of many in Israel; and for a sign which shall be spoken against; (Luke 2:30-34 KJV)

In Jeremiah 4:21-22, you might think that only a flag or banner is indicated, but it’s not. Go back a moment, and we see this:

Then said I, Ah, Lord GOD! surely thou hast greatly deceived this people and Jerusalem, saying, Ye shall have peace; whereas the sword reacheth unto the soul. (Jeremiah 4:10 KJV)

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What is the sword that reaches into the soul? The flag is a signal that the prophecy of the Babylonian invasion is underway, and that God’s word is in the process of fulfillment. They don’t want to see the signal because their lives or way of life are set for destruction as God said would happen. In fact, the people of Jerusalem even go so far as to say that God has deceived them for promising peace and giving, or allowing, destruction. They forgot that God promised them that their foot would slide (Deu 32:35, Due 18:18-19) and that all this would come upon them because of their unbelief in his word. Their concern is only for their flesh and the world, and if God does not for any reason give it to them and maintain it, then he has deceived them. In short, the flag and the sound of the trumpet that the people do not want to hear is prophecy itself, and therefore God. This is the reason for their destruction.

In Numbers 26:10, the kind of people under destruction is typified by Korah and his gang. Here, nace is used exclusively for a prophetic sign of those unbelievers whom God said he would destroy.

In Psalms 60:4, what does the banner stand for? “Thou hast made the earth to tremble; thou hast broken it: heal the breaches thereof; for it shaketh. Thou hast shewed thy people hard things: thou hast made us to drink the wine of astonishment. Thou hast given a banner (on) to them that fear thee, that it may be displayed because of the truth.  Selah” (Psalms 60:2-4 KJV). I think this is obvious.

In Isaiah 5:26, are we talking only about a flag, or a person?

Isaiah 11 contains one of the greatest messianic prophecies. It’s clear here that the ensign is Jesus Messiah

In Isaiah 31:9, the ensign that the people will fear is a person.

Isaiah 49:22 has a Standard lifted up to the people. Who or what is it?

Jeremiah 50:2. We have “standard” the parallel of “publish.” The standard that will be displayed is a declaration that God’s prophecy of the destruction of Babylon is headed toward fulfillment.

In Isaiah 62:10-12, the standard is indisputably messianic prophecy: “lift up a standard for the people. Behold, the LORD hath proclaimed unto the end of the world, Say ye to the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy salvation cometh; behold, his reward [is] with him, and his work before him.” But it does not stop there. Who is this Messiah? What is his name? The word for salvation here is none other than a variation on the name Yeshua, or Jesus. Reading this part again, we have: Behold, thy Yeshua cometh; behold, his reward [is] with him, and his work before him.

Survey of Christ

All three meanings come through clearly in Numbers 21:8-9, where Moses lifts up the brass serpent on the Nace. The brass serpent is, of course, a symbol for Satan, sin, and judgment. But this is also a prophecy of the Messiah hung on the cross. It’s a very difficult problem. Most say something like “the Messiah, in the guise of sin, would be lifted up on the pole, and whoever looked upon Him in faith would be not be struck by the serpent and the penalty of sin.” One thing we know for sure, Moses is lifting up a prophetic sign for the people. But I saved this for last because these verses if properly and honestly read, would cause an earthquake to the popular forms and fashions of bible exposition over the previous 1800 years. We are not reading deep enough:

There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, Rabbi, we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him. Jesus answered and said unto him, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.  Nicodemus saith unto him, How can a man be born when he is old? can he enter the second time into his mother’s womb, and be born? Jesus answered, Verily, verily, I say unto thee, Except a man be born of water and [of] the Spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God. That which is born of the flesh is flesh; and that which is born of the Spirit is spirit. Marvel not that I said unto thee, Ye must be born again.  The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is every one that is born of the Spirit. Nicodemus answered and said unto him, How can these things be? Jesus answered and said unto him, Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen; and ye receive not our witness. If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you [of] heavenly things? And no man hath ascended up to heaven, but he that came down from heaven, [even] the Son of man which is in heaven. And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up: That whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have eternal life. For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved. He that believeth on him is not condemned: but he that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God. And this is the condemnation, that light is come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil. For every one that doeth evil hateth the light, neither cometh to the light, lest his deeds should be reproved.  But he that doeth truth cometh to the light, that his deeds may be made manifest, that they are wrought in God. (John 3:1-21 KJV, emphasis mine)

There is a huge amount of information here, but take the italics as words begging for a particular definition as a consequence of the real subject under discussion.

First, let’s remember what Jesus did and said that prompted Nicodemus to approach him.

Then answered the Jews and said unto him, What sign shewest thou unto us, seeing that thou doest these things? Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? But he spake of the temple of his body. When therefore he was risen from the dead, his disciples remembered that he had said this unto them; and they believed the scripture, and the word which Jesus had said. Now when he was in Jerusalem at the passover, in the feast [day], many believed in his name, when they saw the miracles which he did. But Jesus did not commit himself unto them, because he knew all [men], And needed not that any should testify of man: for he knew what was in man. (John 2:18-25 KJV)

Notice the oracular emphasis here. Jesus speaks of a prophecy uttered by the prophets about the crucifixion of the Messiah and gives prophecy himself, saying that his disciples will believe the “scriptures,” the Old Testament testimony about him, after he rises from the dead.  It goes on to say that many believed in his name because of the miracles he performed, but Jesus knew that they are motivated by the show and not the scriptures and did not commit himself to them. This is also the story of Nicodemus and Jesus’ problem with his faith.

I also contend that the appellation Son of Man, from the astounding vision of Daniel 7:13-14, is a symbolic reference to the messianic oracles themselves. Jesus was running the money changers out of the temple. The Jews wanted to know by what authority he was doing these things. If he were Messiah, he would have the right to do what he wanted with his own house. They asked him for a sign, and Jesus gave them one. But Jesus did not give them some flashy miracle. Jesus steadfastly refused to put on a supernatural show for the Pharisees, because expressly because a miracle can be believed for itself without any incorrigible prophetic associations, but messianic prophecy cant, which promises the miracles and is a miracle when its fulfilled. The miracle is the fulfillment of the prophecy, a dependency, and if you don’t know the scriptures, then you will not feel responsible for fundamental spiritual motivation.  It is a belief from and then through the fulfilled prophetic signs that save. He gave them the sign of the temple, which stood for His body. He gave them the sign of the resurrection: They would destroy his body, but in two days, he will rise from the dead. All of this is well established in prophetic scriptures. If they cared about the prophetic signs, they should have known that the Messiah would die by murder, killed by piercing and that his soul would be through this an offering for sin (Isaiah 53, Psalms 22). They should have known that God would not leave His Holy One to see corruption (Psalms 16:10).

The Jews, of course, thought He was talking about the literal temple. They are spiritually blind to the prophetic word of God, both in its letter and importance. So was Nicodemus.

Nicodemus was impressed and motivated by Jesus’s healing power. However, Nicodemus did not even think water into wine at Cana and the other miracles certified Jesus as Messiah, evidenced in the phrase “we know that thou art a teacher come from God: for no man can do these miracles that thou doest, except God be with him.“ The wonders also were not regarded by Nicodemus as prophetic signs of the Messiah. Otherwise, he would not have merely called him a teacher sent by God. And this is from religious leadership! Jesus’ response was that Nicodemus had to be born again to enter the promised Kingdom of God. Nicodemus, just as the unbelieving Jews in the temple, still thought He was speaking only in naturalistic terms and wondered how he could re-enter his mother’s womb.

Now, indeed, being born again refers to a miraculous spiritual rebirth through faith, transforming one in spirit as a little child. But, perhaps, more importantly, are we not also talking here about people going back and starting over in the way they were looking at scripture through the phenomenon of its present fulfillments by Jesus? Going back to a faith built exclusively on a trust that God is faithful in promising and keeping His promises, of which Jesus was the ultimate example? Faith through the signs of scripture?

Jesus rebukes Nicodemus’s unbelief by effectively telling him that he should be ashamed to call himself a religious leader in Israel and did not know or believe in messianic prophecy: Art thou a master of Israel, and knowest not these things? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, We speak that we do know, and testify that we have seen, and ye receive not our witness. If I have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if I tell you [of] heavenly things? The “earthly things’ refer to Jesus speaking of the literal temple and physical birth. The “heavenly things” refer to something about spiritual things gleaned through knowledge (We speak that we do know) and direct experience (and testify that we have seen). Therefore, “heavenly things” are the proofs of Jesus Messiah through the Word confirmed and fulfilled through His miraculous signs, just as the Temple is a sign of the prophesied Messiah.  Jesus is not complaining that Nicodemus or the Jews did not believe that he would build the temple in three days or that one could physically be born again. That would be foolish. He was complaining that these people would not take his miracles and words as pointers to the wonders of fulfilled prophecy in scripture and that his death and resurrection were among them.

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If you think I am way off base here, consider Jesus’s next astounding statement: And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up. Jesus is again speaking in two senses of lifting up: One, what must lifted and, two, why. What is that part of the nace which is the Messiah, whose sacrifice will atone for sins.

Why it/He should lifted up is that part of the nace upon which supports and displays the What part of the Nace. Why is because of the faithfulness of God’s promises to man, expressed through the prophecies. Yes, Jesus Messiah is set up high as a banner upon the pole of the oracles of God. This is the only pole upon which he can be lifted to be Messiah among the people, to faith, and this is the only reason, the only nace, upon which God accepts faith in Messiah to be supported. The light which Jesus speaks, and from which the unbelievers flee, is the light of the p’shat of scripture and Jesus Himself.

When I survey the Wondrous Nace.

We all know that old song “When I Survey the Wondrous Cross.”

When I survey the wondrous cross On which the Prince of glory died, My richest gain I count but loss, And pour contempt on all my pride.

Exactly. I share these feelings. Big Time. I became dead to the world and the world to me. But you will never get that when you survey the Cross, only a Cross which is a Nace.

What Christ died on and for is not a piece of wood. Not upon anything you can think of that is natural to the world or natural to human sensibilities, intellect and priority. It’s not anything upon which you can divine divinity in which your view of the divine is controlled or created by you. Vertical but meant to be applied horizontally to your spirit. A burden and the only source of illumination that we can put our hands on. It lifts up Christ for the world to see and believe or it’s a specially designed tool of debasement, disrespect, rejection, revulsion, apathy, and ignorance applied to Him. A real Cross is as infinitely a transgression against Transcendence as it a means of infinite forgiveness. For one, nothing, or a whip, or a bludgeon, or a mock laugh, and to the other a reason to live and to die. The Nace is the Revelation of Jesus of Nazareth, Messiah, fulfilled by him and foretold by the prophets. And, yes, it really is a wonder far beyond a hug from your mother.

How would Bible exposition change with the insistence that Messianic prophecy is the only single legitimate reason for faith in Christ and the only ordained content of evangelism?  Upon what scriptural axiom or basis will be the next reformation, the only possible reformation? What is Christianity all about, really?

If there is to be a real reformation, it will not only be by the What of scripture, its p’shat.  Not feelings of sorrow for a man in pain. Not the guilt that one feels that Jesus had to go through so much so that we could live. It’s not a deep commitment to accepting the precepts and moral code of religion. It’s not the personal benefits of riches in heaven or the personal benefits of a prayer object or a belief object. It’s not decisions based upon hunches and feelings about the truth of Christ in the face of an onslaught of all kinds of good reasons not to believe. It’s not “by grace through faith alone” or any other pious theological idol that one can believe fervently in, yet such belief can’t substantially benefit one spiritually. It is not through things about Christianity that show up in any other religion, and therefore not through things upon which a common, unrighteous faith can find nourishment.

It’s the Why of scripture, the remez. The Immissa cross is not an object of faith because it’s too complicated: there is one added horizontal beam that should not be there. It should be a simplex. It should be a nace. It should be messianic prophecy alone as the only path to truth, and the only path to which Truth can reach the heart of those who love the truth and want more of it.

Not that the Immissa cross has no meaning at all. It’s is full of meaning:

“I have declared the former things from the beginning; and they went forth out of my mouth, and I shewed them; I did [them] suddenly, and they came to pass. Because I knew that thou [art] obstinate, and thy neck [is] an iron sinew, and thy brow brass;  I have even from the beginning declared [it] to thee; before it came to pass I shewed [it] thee: lest thou shouldest say, Mine idol hath done them, and my graven image, and my molten image, hath commanded them. Thou hast heard, see all this; and will not ye declare [it]? I have shewed thee new things from this time, even hidden things, and thou didst not know them. They are created now, and not from the beginning; even before the day when thou heardest them not; lest thou shouldest say, Behold, I knew them. Yea, thou heardest not; yea, thou knewest not; yea, from that time [that] thine ear was not opened: for I knew that thou wouldest deal very treacherously, and wast called a transgressor from the womb.” (Isaiah 48:3-8 KJV)

It symbolizes the hard-heartedness of man.

Well, it really doesn’t matter what the real shape of the Cross was. The only thing that matters is what the wood that Christ was lifted up on ultimately means.

It’s like the ten commandments monument controversy in Alabama. This battle over only a symbol has itself come to symbolize, even among the combatants, the essential disagreements that Christianity has with the world: one group wants the monument to stay because it represents Christian values. Another wants it to go because it represents Christian values. The substance of Christian values, not the symbol, is that God has proven to Man that Jesus of Nazareth is the divine Messiah through the prophecies and is the preeminent reason for righteous faith in Him and the preeminent reason by which God would accept his faith to salvation, has been lost to those who place symbols above it.

When You Survey the Wondrous Nace?

When I survey the Wondrous Cross? Take up a survey of that which has the first purpose not of proving your own fitness for heaven, but to prove the only way that God’s morally exists to faith. Only then can you say that you surveyed the Wondrous Cross and know God, not just some song.

Here is the next article in this series: The Meaning of the Cross and the Lord’s Prayer, part 2: Passing by Nehushtan

What is the Word of God?: Passing by Nehushtan

An Analysis of the Brazen Serpent Imagery: Passing by Nehushtan

Oxford, 1968, pp. 1191, 1192 ↩

https://www.bibletools.org/index.cfm/fuseaction/Lexicon.show/ID/G3586/xulon.htm ↩

https://www.amazon.com/Servant-Jehovah-Sufferings-Messiah-Should ↩

https://www.amazon.com/Moses-Fourth-Gospel-T-Glasson ↩