FSHOD - Fearlessly Seeking Honest Open Disclosure

The Resurrection Key?

201 comments - Click for Blog by Will Devine

"If a man die, shall he live again?"




The Biblical patriarch Job asked this question amid the throes of agony. It was a rhetorical question, no doubt, as Job was a devout man and had faith that God could resurrect him. This Scripture has gotten me through some tough times in the past, and it figures prominently in this blog. I want to take a few minutes to discuss a few recent experiences and theories of mine on the subject of resurrection. Before I go any further, let me throw an important disclaimer out there: I come from a Jehovah's Witness background (though I have recently become thoroughly disillusioned with the Watchtower organization). I mention this primarily so that you will understand my perspective and give you a frame of reference as to where I'm coming from - but believe me, I'm not here to "pimp" the organization or count time in the ministry. I still consider myself a Christian, albeit not "born-again" or "orthodox" - at least not in the traditional sense. So if you take umbrage at Bible references or a Judeo-Christian viewpoint (albeit a decidedly non-mainline one), you may want to skip this blog. That said, let's dive in.

My previous blog discussed theories regarding combinations on the numbers 1 and 4, in particular the numbers 144 and 14. I want to focus on the number 14 as it's the one that has been manifesting itself in a big way for me as of late. It started earlier last year when I began to formulate some theories as to its significance. I think what set it off was the Watchtower's year text for 2007, Zephaniah 1:14, "The great day of the LORD is near, it is near, and hasteth greatly". I realized shortly thereafter that the date of Jesus' crucifixion (and the Jewish Passover) was 1/14 on the Jewish calendar. Then I remembered that my wife and I were married on 11/14. After doing a little research I begin to formulate the theory that the number 14 (as well as other 1-4 combos such as 144) symbolized Christhood/anointing and resurrection/renewal of life. I realized that the letters D.N.A. were the 4th, 14th, and 1st letters of the alphabet, respectively, making for the sequence 4141 (or 1414 backwards). The 14th book of the Bible (Western/Protestant canon) is 2nd Chronicles, which details the building, destruction, and rebuilding of Solomon's Temple (a symbol of resurrection, possibly Christ's). The 14th book of Genesis introduces the mysterious Melchizedek (considered by scholars to be a "type" of Christ, if not Christ himself in an earlier incarnation), and the 14th book of Revelation introduces the 144,000 (whom some would consider "anointed"), standing with Christ. And according to Matthew 1:17, "All the generations, then, from Abraham until David were fourteen generations, and from David until the deportation to Babylon fourteen generations, and from the deportation to Babylon until the Christ fourteen generations". I could go on, but I think you get the point.

Now comes another important symbol of resurrection. I also happened to be studying the prophet Elijah and noticed that the 14th stop (by my count) on Elijah's journey was the city of Jericho. Jericho was destroyed and rebuilt by Yahweh and/or his prophets. Could the city be a symbol of resurrection as well? Interestingly, around the same time I happened to be flipping through the dictionary and came across a plant I'd never heard of before called the "Rose of Jericho" - also known as a "resurrection plant"! The thought then occurred to me, "Isn't there a show on CBS called 'Jericho'"? Indeed there was. It's a postapocalyptic drama set in a not-too-distant future. Shortly thereafter, I saw a TV commercial for a new series entitled... drumroll please... "Jericho Rising". Things were definitely starting to get interesting now. Keep in mind the "Jericho" theme as it will figure in the blog again shortly.

OK, now here's where the Watchtower comes in: It had never occurred to me before, but 3 important doctrines of the religion I grew up in revolved in some way around the resurrection and the numbers 14 and 144. The major difference between the Watchtower and mainline Christianity (besides being anti-Trinitarian) is the teaching that only 144,000 "anointed" will go to heaven and the majority of mankind will be resurrected to a paradise Earth. The number 14 figures into the year 1914, the second most important date to Jehovah's Witnesses (it's when Christ supposedly returned, albeit "invisibly"), second only to Nisan 14, the day Witnesses observe the "Lord's Evening Meal" and the same date as the Passover and crucifixion.

Could it be that God was trying to send me a message, even via a vessel as spiritually, intellectually, and morally bankrupt as the Watchtower? Hey, stranger things have happened. The 2007 District Convention was coming up... maybe another "clue" would appear there. And, sure enough, after the first day of the convention, I was enjoying a newspaper at the hotel we were assigned to when an article about the TV show "Jericho" caught my eye. It was about a fan campaign to save the show from cancellation. The title? "Jericho Resurrected". I was still reeling from this but nothing could prepare me for the ultimate synchronicity the next day. Saturday morning and afternoon, I was ruminating on the number 14 in an attempt to heal my troubled mind when the Watchtower article for discussion was introduced... "The Resurrection Hope - Is it Real to You?" Well, if it wasn't BEFORE this, it sure as hell was now! And the featured Scripture? The same one as this blog's title, from the book of Job. What I had never realized until now was... get ready... it was the 14th verse... of the 14th chapter.

OK, so things were well beyond coincidence in my mind at this point. A blog was beginning to crystallize in my head, amazingly, right before Goro introduced HIS resurrection blog on Etemenanki. Somebody, it seemed, was trying to send me a message. But what exactly WAS that message? Is a resurrection of some kind imminent? Would it be heavenly? Earthly? The real deal or an Illuminist fake, i.e. human cloning? I'm leaning toward a possible ruse perpetrated by Illuminist-controlled government and religion. A couple of interesting clues may or may not be related: A couple of years back I ran across a fascinating individual named Norval Cunningham (http://www.kingdomofyhwh.com/) on an ex-Witness forum. From what I gathered he was ex-Watchtower and ex-military. Among some of his fantastic Hoagland-esque claims was that the government possessed the technology to resurrect the dead. Around the same time, purely by accident, I ran across something called the Harp of God (http://www.harpofgod.org/) while Googling an older Watchtower book of the same name. Supposedly this is a device described in a so-called "sacred text" known as the Book of Urantia or the Urantia Papers used in the resurrection of the dead. Interestingly, around the same time, rumor mill amongst the ex-Jehovah's Witness community had it that a list was soon to be published by the Watchtower of names of people who had died that we could soon expect to see resurrected. Given the Watchtower's reputation among some Christian conspiracy theorists as one of the main tools of the Freemasons/Illuminati, nothing would surprise me. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

So what, you may wonder, prompted me to finish a blog that I abandoned 6 months ago? Glad you asked. The number 14 (and other 1-4 combos) has recently began to smack me across the chops again. I think the real "OK, get off your ass and finish the damn blog" moment came when I was thumbing through a Bible study volume and learned that (according to the Watchtower) Abraham crossed the Euphrates river from Mesopotamia to his new God-directed place of lodging on Nisan 14 of the Jewish calendar - this while Track 14, "The Mesopotamians", by They Might Be Giants, was blasting on my MP3 player. SHIT-A-GOLD-A-BRICK-A! Also, I had been thinking quite a bit about the Second Coming of Christ. It's my belief that Jesus will return corporeally to Earth and I was trying to figure out where that might occur. "Didn't he ascend from the Mount of Olives? Maybe he'll return there", I thought, recalling Acts 1:1 -

"
Ye men of Galilee, why stand ye gazing up into heaven? this same Jesus, which is taken up from you into heaven, shall so come in like manner, as ye have seen him go into heaven".

Guess what Scripture I then proceeded to stumble upon... Zechariah 14:4 -

"And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives".

Bada bing! Interestingly, the ascension is said to have taken place at or near a town called Bethany, which is where Jesus brought Lazarus (the fella in the above picture) back to life. Is there a name more synonomous with earthly resurrection than Lazarus?

Oh, and have a look at the numbers in the following verses: I discovered that, if you take all possible permutations of the 1-4 number combo in John chapter 11, you get a pretty neat little summary of the Lazarus account. Check it out:

John 11:1 - "Now a certain man was sick, named Lazarus, of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha."

John 11:4 - "When Jesus heard that, he said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby."

John 11:11 - "These things said he: and after that he saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep."

John 11:14 - "Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead."

John 11:41 - "Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lifted up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me."

John 11:44 - "And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go."

Well, that's all the 14-related chocolatey goodness I have for now. Hopefully I didn't ramble too much... though I wouldn't be too surprised if I were the next recipient of the coveted Peckerhead Award. And I hope none of this sounded too preachy. (Now GIT BORN AGIN OR Y'ALL ARE GOIN' TO HELL!) ;)

Labels: Elijah, Etemenanki, Genesis, Goro Adachi, Harp of God, Jericho, Job, Resurrection, Solomon's Temple, the Number 14, Urantia