John Saw Jesus Christ Crowned King Of Kings :: by Joseph Chambers

THE GRANDEST MOMENT IN CHURCH HISTORY WILL BE WHEN THE DIVINE SON IS CROWNED “KING OF KINGS.” If there is one mystery in the entire Bible that is greater or more breathtaking than all the rest of truth, it is the eternal person of Jesus Christ. In Genesis chapter one, He is the going forth of all creation. We see this in these supernatural words, “And God said …” (Genesis 1:3). Seeing the mystery of those three words spoken nine times in Genesis chapter one clearly proves John’s statement, “All things were made by him; and without him was not anything made that was made.” (John 1:3) Every time God speaks, it is in the person of the Eternal Word. The Father opened the door to Christ His Son when He said, “Let Us make man …” (Genesis 1:26). What a fabulous word God used when He said “US” in Holy Scripture to the overall revelation of the Bible.

To seek to remove the Son from the Revelation of God is to have nothing left but another religion. God Himself could not come down and redeem us because of His unapproachable Holiness, but He could send His Son in a hidden form of flesh. Preparation for this sacrifice began in the presence of the first human sin. An animal was slain by the Father to provide a blood offering and to cast a shadow toward the cross where the Son would be offered instead. A crimson cord of hope never faded until Divine blood dropped on Calvary’s hill.

In Genesis, He is the Word. In Exodus, He is Water from the Rock. In Leviticus, He is the future priest; while in Numbers, He is the sacrifice for all sin. Throughout the Bible, He never fades from the center of all Scripture. He is the mystery Word hidden in the written Word that shines time and time again throughout the First Testament. Solomon saw Him as the “Rose of Sharon and Lilly of the Valley.” (Song of Solomon 2:1) Isaiah actually saw Him as the “Son” (Isaiah 9:6) in one rare instance of the First Covenant. He was like the “Son” light of eternity waiting to shine in the brilliance of His incarnation. “And the Word was made flesh …” (John 1:14)

His coming to this earth set the world on its heels. Even as a baby in Bethlehem and Nazareth, kings tried to shake loose from His presence. Many babies died in the search for Him. When He began to preach, it turned the religious crowd of Judea into a frenzy. They could not kill Him until His time had come and then the Father planned it for them. All the terror of His presence among them had no kinship to the terror of His departure. His death split the timeframe of all ages. The entire world came to divide time by His short life and timely death.

If His life was impacting, His death was overwhelming. He did not just die; He walked through death as only God could do and left behind nothing but a whisper. Not only does He live, but every soul that belongs to Him in the redemption of His death now lives in His resurrection and cannot die. He is calling the chosen to live in His new life of holiness and He is preparing a Bride for His New Jerusalem. We often think of New Jerusalem being prepared for the Bride, but is it not better to think of the Bride being prepared for the city?

When the Eternal Son returned to His Father’s presence, the Father exalted Him. We may ask, “What can be an exalted position above Sonship, which He has eternally occupied?” Apostle Paul declared,“Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him, and given him a name which is above every name: That at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth; And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.” (Philippians 2:9-11)

In Revelation John the Revelator saw the Lord in His post-resurrection glory. There are actually forty-one (41) descriptive words of His glory in thirteen verses of Revelation chapter one. Many beautiful descriptive words of Him are used, but one missing title that He is soon to be given is “King of Kings and Lord of Lords.” This title is not really a title that represents His Father and Son relationship. He is the Father’s Only Begotten Son, High Priest of all redemption, Prince of all the kings of the earth. He sits at the Father’s right hand in all of Heaven’s glory. But, this future title is a relationship title with His Bride and His kings and priests of the Millennial reign of one thousand years. This name is a title that we the chosen company of the Sanctified that sit down with Him at the Marriage Supper will give Him. At the strategic moment in the midst of the greatest celebration of church history, all of this victorious multitude will come to sharp attention.

The Apostle Paul saw this day in the future when the greatest possible honor of human understanding would be attributed to Christ our Lord.The language reveals that this glory is future and relates to the government of the Millennial Kingdom. “Which in his times he shall shew, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords; Who only hath immortality, dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto; whom no man hath seen, nor can see: to whom be honour and power everlasting. Amen.” (I Timothy 6:15-16) We are His subjects and it will be our honor to declare for all of Heaven and Earth to enjoy that He is indeed our “King of Kings and Lord of Lords.” This must be one of the greatest honors of the chosen Bride of Christ. It is beautiful to know that when we are receiving our crowns, He will receive His prized crown as the King of the Millennium. He will be more than King; He will be King of Kings. He will be more than Lord; He will be Lord of Lords.All of our honor will be subject to His honor.

As soon as the Marriage Supper is complete and all the honors of that celestial event has been given; it’s time to possess the prize. The anointed Potentate moves from the Banquet Hall and He will mount the Great White Stallion. Calling His army of the rewarded saints, His kings and priests, He will descend to defeat the Armageddon army and take possession of Jerusalem and the Earth. John saw this moment himself and then showed us the thrilling drama of His descent, “And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations: and he shall rule them with a rod of iron: and he treadeth the winepress of the fierceness and wrath of Almighty God. And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, “KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.” (Revelation 19:11, 15-16)

The judgments of the seven years of Tribulation will have affected a purification of this world and we will begin a thousand years of holiness and peace. The King of Kings will reign from David’s Throne in Jerusalem and the chosen will be the joy of the whole earth. His kings and priests will rule in righteousness and all honors will be complete in Him. Serving in the Millennium is one of the highest honors offered His saints. It will be given to those chosen of the Father. Jesus said, “… but to sit on my right hand, and on my left, is not mine to give, but it shall be given to them for whom it is prepared of my Father.” (Matthew 20:23b)

Rick Warren, Chrislam & The Yale University Covenant :: by Joseph Chambers

I NOW HAVE THE OFFICIAL YALE UNIVERSITY COVENANT SIGNED BY RICK WARREN. This is proof positive that he is a signed partner in promoting the Covenant between Islam and our Jehovah God as one God now named “Chrislam”. I’m simply printing for you the entire covenant and also coping his and other name from this document. Below is the exact list directly from the web page itself. Please note the underlined names mentioned here, and on the radio program: Robert Schuller, Rick Warren, Brian D. McLaren an David Yonggi Cho. Check the list for other names you might be familiar with. There are hubdreds of ministers thet may inlude your Pastor or leaders in your denominations. Check the large list of names on this offocial list from Yale. http://www.yale.edu/faith/acw/acw.htm

While thousands of Arabs and former Islamic believers are coming to Christ and experiencing forgiveness and the “New Birth” by the Cross, American Apostate ministers are turning to Chrislam. Say what you please, but the Bible has made it plain, “seeing they crucify to themselves the Son Of God afresh and put Him to an open shame.” (Hebrews 6:6b) This crowd, unless they repent with great sorrow will spend eternity in a “devil’s hell”.

Rev. Colin Chapman, Former Lecturer in Islamic Studies, Near East School of Theology, Beirut, Lebanon, and author of Whose Promised Land?
Ellen T. Charry, Assoc. Professor of Systematic Theology, Princeton Theological Seminary
David Yonggi Cho, Founder and Senior Pastor of Yoido Full Gospel Church, Seoul, Korea
Hyung Kyun Chung, Associate Professor of Ecumenical Studies, Union Theological Seminary in New York
Rev. Richard Cizik, Vice President of Governmental Affairs, National Association of Evangelicals

Elsie McKee, Archibald Alexander Professor of Reformation Studies and the History of Worship, Princeton Theological Seminary
Scot McKnight, Karl A. Olsson Professor in Religious Studies, North Park University, Chicago, IL
Brian D. McLaren, Author, Speaker, Activist
C. Edward McVaney, Retired Chairman, CEO and President, J.D. Edwards and Company
Kathleen E. McVey, J. Ross Stevenson Professor of Early and Eastern Church History, Princeton Theological Seminary

Warren C. Sawyer, President and CEO, The Caleb Foundation, Swampscott, MA
Rev. Dr. Christian Scharen, Director, Faith as a Way of Life Program, Yale Center for Faith & Culture
Rev. Dr. Robert Schuller, Founder, Crystal Cathedral and Hour of Power
Elizabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, Krister Stendahl Professor of Divinity, Harvard Divinity School
Francis Schüssler Fiorenza, Stillman Professor of Roman Catholic Studies, Harvard Divinity School

Charlotte R. Ward, Associate Professor of Physics, Emerita, Auburn University and Life Deacon, Auburn First Baptist Church
Charles H. Warnock III, Senior Pastor, Chatham Baptist Church, Chatham, VA
Rick Warren, Founder and Senior Pastor, Saddleback Church, and The Purpose Driven Life, Lake Forest, CA
Very Rev. Debra Warwick-Sabino, Rector, Grace Episcopal Church, Fairfield, CA
Mark R. Wenger, Director of Pastoral Studies, Lancaster Eastern Mennonite Seminary P.O., Lancaster, PA

YALE CENTER FOR FAITH AND CULTURE
IN THE NAME OF THE INFINITELY GOOD GOD WHOM WE SHOULD LOVE WITH ALL OUR BEING. This Title and document is word for word from the following Website: http://www.yale.edu/faith/acw/acw.htm

Preamble

As members of the worldwide Christian community, we were deeply encouraged and challenged by the recent historic open letter signed by 138 leading Muslim scholars, clerics, and intellectuals from around the world. A Common Word Between Us and You identifies some core common ground between Christianity and Islam which lies at the heart of our respective faiths as well as at the heart of the most ancient Abrahamic faith, Judaism. Jesus Christ’s call to love God and neighbor was rooted in the divine revelation to the people of Israel embodied in the Torah (Deuteronomy 6:5; Leviticus 19:18). We receive the open letter as a Muslim hand of conviviality and cooperation extended to Christians worldwide. In this response we extend our own Christian hand in return, so that together with all other human beings we may live in peace and justice as we seek to love God and our neighbors.

Muslims and Christians have not always shaken hands in friendship; their relations have sometimes been tense, even characterized by outright hostility. Since Jesus Christ says, “First take the log out your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your neighbor’s eye” (Matthew 7:5), we want to begin by acknowledging that in the past (e.g. in the Crusades) and in the present (e.g. in excesses of the “war on terror”) many Christians have been guilty of sinning against our Muslim neighbors. Before we “shake your hand” in responding to your letter, we ask forgiveness of the All-Merciful One and of the Muslim community around the world.

Religious Peace—World Peace

“Muslims and Christians together make up well over half of the world’s population. Without peace and justice between these two religious communities, there can be no meaningful peace in the world.” We share the sentiment of the Muslim signatories expressed in these opening lines of their open letter. Peaceful relations between Muslims and Christians stand as one of the central challenges of this century, and perhaps of the whole present epoch. Though tensions, conflicts, and even wars in which Christians and Muslims stand against each other are not primarily religious in character, they possess an undeniable religious dimension. If we can achieve religious peace between these two religious communities, peace in the world will clearly be easier to attain. It is therefore no exaggeration to say, as you have in A Common Word Between Us and You, that “the future of the world depends on peace between Muslims and Christians.”

Common Ground

What is so extraordinary about A Common Word Between Us and You is not that its signatories recognize the critical character of the present moment in relations between Muslims and Christians. It is rather a deep insight and courage with which they have identified the common ground between the Muslim and Christian religious communities. What is common between us lies not in something marginal nor in something merely important to each. It lies, rather, in something absolutely central to both: love of God and loveof neighbor. Surprisingly for many Christians, your letter considers the dual command of love to be the foundational principle not just of the Christian faith, but of Islam as well. That so much common ground exists – common ground in some of the fundamentals of faith – gives hope that undeniable differences and even the very real external pressures that bear down upon us can not overshadow the common ground upon which we stand together. That this common ground consists in love of God and ofneighbor gives hope that deep cooperation between us can be a hallmark of the relations between our two communities.

Love of God

We applaud that A Common Word Between Us and You stresses so insistently the unique devotion to one God, indeed the love of God, as the primary duty of every believer. God alone rightly commands our ultimate allegiance. When anyone or anything besides God commands our ultimate allegiance – a ruler, a nation, economic progress, or anything else – we end up serving idols and inevitably get mired in deep and deadly conflicts.

We find it equally heartening that the God whom we should love above all things is described as being Love. In the Muslim tradition, God, “the Lord of the worlds,” is “The Infinitely Good and All-Merciful.” And the New Testament states clearly that “God is love” (1 John 4:8). Since God’s goodness is infinite and not bound by anything, God “makes his sun rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous,” according to the words of Jesus Christ recorded in the Gospel (Matthew 5:45).

For Christians, humanity’s love of God and God’s love of humanity are intimately linked. As we read in the New Testament: “We love because he [God] first loved us” (1 John 4:19). Our love of God springs from and is nourished by God’s love for us. It cannot be otherwise, since the Creator who has power over all things is infinitely good.

Love of Neighbor
We find deep affinities with our own Christian faith when A Common Word Between Us and You insists that love is the pinnacle of our duties toward our neighbors. “None of you has faith until you love for your neighbor what you love for yourself,” the Prophet Muhammad said. In the New Testament we similarly read, “whoever does not love [the neighbor] does not know God” (1 John 4:8) and “whoever does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen” (1 John 4:20). God is love, and our highest calling as human beings is to imitate the One whom we worship.

We applaud when you state that “justice and freedom of religion are a crucial part” of the love of neighbor. When justice is lacking, neither love of God nor love of the neighbor can be present. When freedom to worship God according to one’s conscience is curtailed, God is dishonored, the neighbor oppressed, and neither God nor neighbor is loved.

Since Muslims seek to love their Christian neighbors, they are not against them, the document encouragingly states. Instead, Muslims are with them. As Christians we resonate deeply with this sentiment. Our faith teaches that we must be with our neighbors – indeed, that we must act in their favor – even when our neighbors turn out to be our enemies. “But I say unto you,” says Jesus Christ, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, so that you may be children of your Father in heaven; for he makes his sun rise on the evil and on the good” (Matthew 5:44-45). Our love, Jesus Christ says, must imitate the love of the infinitely good Creator; our love must be as unconditional as is God’s—extending to brothers, sisters, neighbors, and even enemies. At the end of his life, Jesus Christ himself prayed for his enemies: “Forgive them; for they do not know what they are doing” (Luke 23:34).

The Prophet Muhammad did similarly when he was violently rejected and stoned by the people of Ta’if. He is known to have said, “The most virtuous behavior is to engage those who sever relations, to give to those who withhold from you, and to forgive those who wrong you.” (It is perhaps significant that after the Prophet Muhammad was driven out of Ta’if, it was the Christian slave ‘Addas who went out to Muhammad, brought him food, kissed him, and embraced him.)

The Task Before Us

“Let this common ground” – the dual common ground of love of God and of neighbor – “be the basis of all future interfaith dialogue between us,” your courageous letter urges. Indeed, in the generosity with which the letter is written you embody what you call for. We most heartily agree. Abandoning all “hatred and strife,” we must engage in interfaith dialogue as those who seek each other’s good, for the one God unceasingly seeks our good. Indeed, together with you we believe that we need to move beyond “a polite ecumenical dialogue between selected religious leaders” and work diligently together to reshape relations between our communities and our nations so that they genuinely reflect our common love for God and for one another.

Given the deep fissures in the relations between Christians and Muslims today, the task before us is daunting. And the stakes are great. The future of the world depends on our ability as Christians and Muslims to live together in peace. If we fail to make every effort to make peace and come together in harmony you correctly remind us that “our eternal souls” are at stake as well.

We are persuaded that our next step should be for our leaders at every level to meet together and begin the earnest work of determining how God would have us fulfill the requirement that we love God and one another. It is with humility and hope that we receive your generous letter, and we commit ourselves to labor together in heart, soul, mind and strength for the objectives you so appropriately propose.