The testimony of Jesus
The Spiritual Journey expressed Apocalyptically
“The Testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of prophecy” — Rev 19v10b
The life of Jesus is believed to reveal a journey for God’s people in the last days.
Jesus came to rescue us from the power of sin and to give us the hope of eternal life by God’s grace, through faith in Him. He accomplished this mission for us at the cross by his death and resurrection, but his whole life is important. A life long journey with God is revealed in Jesus, a journey that may also be called a testimony.
Jesus calls us to follow him. So the first Christians were called “Followers of the Way,” which acknowledges that salvation involves a journey.
As with any journey, the beginning and the end have special significance.
Life begins at birth. We must be ‘born again’ (John 3) - a spiritual birth which requires faith and repentance.
As we seek to understand the end times journey, we need to take a close look at the birth.
Birth relates to apocalypse, when new life is first revealed or unveiled. The testimony of Jesus is prophetic, and his birth is recorded in prophecy, so see that prophecy begins with birth.
Have you ever considered the birth of the end times generation?
The Birth
Jesus came into the world as a baby, born with signs in heaven and according to prophecy, but then escaped King Herod’s slaughter of the infants. So the journey that begins at birth with an escape from a dangerous enemy.
For us, the journey of salvation begins with an escape from the enemy of sin through the act of repentance when we receive spiritual new birth.
We are ‘born again’ when we put our faith in Jesus, and through repentance, committing to live life His way. God makes a covenant (or agreement) at that time, and gives us His Spirit as a deposit guaranteeing the inheritance to come if we continue to follow him all the way to the end.
If you are not yet familiar with the basic Christian message, please read about it here:
Revealing the Hidden Journey
The true journey of salvation is spiritual in nature, and therefore it goes largely unseen to the wider world. However at certain times God reveals the spiritual journey in outwardly visible ways, using symbolism and typology (types, shadows, or parallels).
Revelation can also be translated ‘apocalypse’, and in Biblical times revelation involved major events, especially in Israel. For example, Isaiah and his children were called, “signs and symbols” (Isaiah 8v18), and they revealed Jesus from birth with the example of ‘Immanuel’.
Jesus was an example himself, but of course Jesus is much more than just another example. Jesus is the very source and substance of salvation. But the example of His life reveals the journey that we must take.
The Symbolic Repentance of Jesus
The journey of salvation begins when we put faith into action by coming to God in repentance.
But how could Jesus demonstrate repentance?
Jesus was perfect, having no sin from which to repent. Therefore Jesus demonstrated repentance symbolically:
By being circumcised,
By escaping King Herod, and the slaughter of the infants,
By coming up out of Egypt,
By being baptised.
We do these things spiritually, to escape the power of sin:
Circumcision of the heart — cutting off the sinful nature.
Escaping the King Herod enemy — fleeing from sin,
Coming up out of the ‘Egypt’ of this world for the holiness of God’s Kingdom.
The washing of baptism — the removal of sin is like washing away dirt.
Spiritual new birth is understood in these terms as we make the initial escape from the power of sin.
The Escape from Sin
Revelation 12 gives a picture of repentance in which the new born Christ child escaped the dragon, or Satan who was waiting to devour the child the moment he was born. A cosmic battle followed involving falling stars, but God’s family escaped.
King Herod was a symbolic Satan who Jesus needed to escape, just as we need to flee from the sin in our lives that would otherwise kill us spiritually. This initial escape is made at birth.
To escape King Herod, Jospeh and Mary took little Jesus down to Egypt for a while until Herod died.
After His baptism (which represents birth), Jesus did a similar thing by going into the wilderness for 40 days until temptation was overcome.
It is a common practise of many new converts to take time away from usual activities to focus on breaking bad cycles and to clean up life. For some people it can involve burning or throwing out books, movies, and certain possessions. Bad habits are broken and sometimes negative relationships are left.
Putting to death the sinful nature is like escaping King Herod, but Egypt is a foreign place to be. It is the true baptism, but the wilderness is no place to live either. Once Herod is dead and the temptations of the old life have been left in the wilderness, we respond to God’s call:
“Out of Egypt I called my son.” — Mat 2v15.
Egypt was another symbolic Satan. In Old Testament times the prophets called Egypt “Rahab”, a poetic name that likened Egypt to the sea monster, the leviathan, also called the dragon. Rahab resembles the storm, and the chaos of the sea.
For more information on the Rahab dragon of Egypt:
For the new convert, the storm of sin and temptation is overcome in God’s strength by faith through repentance, as we come out of Egypt and enter the community of God’s people.
Leaving the old life of sin is a kind of Exodus as we begin a new life as part of God’s family.
The Exodus of Israel from Egypt was regarded as the birth of the nation, and was called a ‘baptism’ (1 Cor 10v2). God said, “Israel is my first born son” — Exodus 4v22.
But within three months the new born nation of Israel were fearing for their lives at Mount Sinai as they saw the wrath of God on the mountain.
Baby Moses was also three months old when he escaped Pharaoh and the slaughter of the infants.
The birth of Israel followed the prophetic pattern that foreshadowed the birth of Jesus. It relates to our spiritual birth, and ultimately to the apocalyptic birth of the final generation when the journey of the last days will begin.
So what will the end times birth be like?
Apocalyptic Repentance
The revealing or unveiling of Jesus is called, “The ‘apocalypse’ of Jesus Christ,” as it is written in the Greek, Revelation 1v1.
The life of Jesus was foreshadowed many times by Israel in the Old Testament, each time from birth. Each example also reveals the journey of the last days. “The testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of prophecy.” — Rev 19v10b
The twelve main typological examples of Jesus are presented in the Chiasm of World History.
When Jesus came and fulfilled prophecy he did so without abolishing the law or the prophets, (Mat 5v17). They remain to reveal to us the apocalyptic journey of the last days.
God acts apocalyptically at certain appointed times of His choosing. When the time comes for an apocalyptic journey, God uses his people in symbolic ways to reveal Jesus to the world.
The purpose of an apocalyptic journey is to express hidden spiritual things in outwardly visible ways as a way of bearing witness and giving testimony symbolically to the wider world.
The apocalyptic end times birth will reveal repentance, as an escape from an overpowering enemy, or a great calamity like a baby escaping from an angry king.
Other examples of the escape include:
Noah and his family escaping the world wide flood,
Joseph and his family escaped the famine as they were ‘born’ into Egypt,
Immanuel (God with us) and the faithful remnant escaped the destruction of the King of Assyria — a war.
The King of Assyria came like ‘a flood up to the neck’ (Isaiah 8v8). It was a war, but they had curds and honey, and God was with them.
We don’t need to fear the apocalyptic birth, but many signs are currently pointing to it coming around the year 2023 or 2024.
Daniel 11 presents presents this end times war. Please be familiar with this prophecy.
We need to pray about these things and test this way of thinking, but if we see the conflict coming that is described in Daniel 11v36-44, and Revelation 6, 8 & 9, we will need to act to prepare like Noah prepared for the flood, and like Joseph prepared from the famine.
We don’t need to fear, God is with us, ‘Immanuel’. God promises to give his people a good escape at the vulnerable time of birth, and it will be like a pentecost moment for the final generation.
The Testimony
When God acts in history, the pattern of events always begins with a kind of birth, and the story forms a ‘testimony’.
“The testimony of Jesus is the Spirit of prophecy.” — Rev 19v10b
God’s ways do not change, so when he acts again in the future we should expect events to begin with a kind of birth.
The apocalyptic aspect of Jesus life will have special relevance to the final generation, and to understand what we might expect we need to study the birth of Jesus in all it’s symbolic and typological forms.
In escaping the dragon of Revelation 12, the child was snatched up to God and to His throne to rule with a rod of iron (Rev 12v5).
The birth and escape is followed by a blessed life and powerful ministry. When Jesus returned from the desert he began calling people to repent:
“Repent for the kingdom of heaven has come near” — Mat 4v17.
The apocalyptic journey of the last days will not be limited to just seven years, but will last a lifetime. Sometimes it is said to continue to the third and fourth generation, or as Jesus said,
“I tell you the truth, this generation will certainly not pass away until all these things have happened.” — Mat 24v34.
The pattern of the testimony revealed in Jesus has three parts:
Jesus was born with a sign in heaven. Angel met shepherds and there were prophecies given in the temple. Jesus was born miraculously, but then his family needed to escape a nasty calamity — the slaughter of the infants.
This moment of birth was repeated, as an echo, at the Jordan river when he was baptised, and then overcame Satan in the desert.
Jesus lived a blessed life and had a powerful ministry. He revealed himself as the Son of God.
Then Jesus gave his life for us all sacrificially, at the cross, where he was glorified. Death and resurrection concludes the journey of salvation. After the suffering comes eternal glory.
Jesus came as Messiah to deliver us from our enemies so that we may have life in the Kingdom of God. By his death and resurrection he accomplished that mission as an act of great love, in which he made God’s forgiveness of sin available to all people.
Writing in progress…
