May 18, 2024
Please post this along with today's article. Thanks.
THE SONG OF SOLOMON
It is my personal belief that the Song is the most prophetic book of the Bible. It ties together the 7 Church Ages along with the Matthew 25 parable of the 10 virgins, plus the prophecy of Matthew 13, especially the wheat and the tares. It is a STAGE PLAY IN 8 ACTS. EACH ACT IS A CHAPTER OF THE BOOK. EACH ACT HAS SPECIAL EMPHASIS ON THE LOVE OF CHRIST FOR HIS CHURCH. And probably the most marvelous thing is the fact that it was written (by the Holy Spirit using the hands of Solomon) 900 years before the birth of the absent SHEPHERD LOVER of the Song. It is a poem, not prose and it came from the mind of God Almighty. The ancient Jews did not understand it and in their stiff and rigorous way of worship, they simply forbade any male under age 30 to read it, due to its so-called eroticism. But Got does not deal in eroticism, but in the absolute beauty of sex within marriage. The beauty is so important to God, that he deemed violation of sex only within marriage as adultery and a gross sin. Satan grabbed onto that and used sex majorly in his attempt to usurp the Church of Jesus Christ by sexual corruption. And he succeeded to a large extent with pornography so rampant in today's churches. Many ministers have been thus corrupted, now that the internet is available to all. May Jesus Christ, who is my Lord and Savior, bless you as you read of Him and His Bride, the Church.
THE SONG OF SONGS
In our Bible readings, most of us have barely read the Song of Solomon, God’s greatest love story. It is a beautiful instructional book on love and marriage, sex and the beauty of it as God intended it to be. But, also, it was considered too risqué for anyone under age 30 to read by the ancient Jewish nation. It is full of descriptions of what true love is all about from God's point of view and it is specific in its details. And it is very prophetic in its scope. Poor Israel missed its importance entirely.
It is also a less read and even lesser preached book. But, there is a way to look at the message in the Song of Songs, as it may be properly called, that is different from the usual way in which it is seen. It is generally read as a love story about Solomon. In truth, it is a love story about Jesus Christ and His Church.
IT CAN (AND I BELIEVE MUST) BE VIEWED AS A MULTI-ACT STAGE PLAY WITH A DEFINITE PROPHETIC MESSAGE FOR THE END DAYS. AND IT IDENTIFIES THE TIMING OF THE RAPTURE OF THE CHURCH.
There is something of great import that must be considered. That is the message of Jesus to the seven churches. Primarily, to the 6th and 7th of these. In Revelation chapter 3 is the pertinent messages to this article. The first is to the Church of Philadelphia (brotherly love). It is the “Church of the (first) rapture. It is the Church of the hot Christians, those awaiting their Savior. It is the escaping Church which has set before it an open door that no man can shut. It has little strength, but it has kept His word and has not denied His name. (Rev 3:7, 8). The apostates will be forced to fall at the feet of this beautiful spiritual Church and will be made to know that Jesus loved this Church. (vs. 9). This Church is evangelical in nature.
Jesus declares that “because you have kept the word of my patience (that is during the time of my delay with patience) I also will keep thee from the hour of temptation (that is testing), which shall come upon the whole world to try them that dwell upon the earth”. (This is the great tribulation...vs 10). Do you see it? The rapture will occur to take Philadelphia out of the world at or prior to the great tribulation!
Now, look at the Church of Laodicea. Neither hot nor cold. Tepid...vomited out of the Lord's mouth. (vs. 15, 16). The whole Church left behind because they are tepid and unworthy of the (first) rapture event. This Church is drunk with riches of this world and is apostate concerning the Gospel message. (vs. 17a). It is also naked in terms of spiritual clothing, blind to its condition, and poor in terms of heaven's assessment. (vs. 17b). It is therefore wretched and miserable. This Church is counseled to get right with Jesus before it is too late. It must repent if it wishes to escape along with, or later join, the prior six Churches in the heavens. (vs 18, 19). The Laodicea Church has Jesus knocking knocking at the door, wanting to come into His own Church.
Why has this message been inserted here? Because it is paramount to the message of the Song of Songs given so many centuries before.
With the above in mind, please consider the Song as a stage play this way.
THE CAST
The characters in the play as listed on a Play Sheet are as follows:
The Shulamite (Gentile ) Girl…………………The Bride-to-be
The Shepherd Lover…………………………...The Bridegroom-to-be
Solomon the King………………………………The Tempter/Adversary
The Palace of Solomon………………………...The World System
The Daughters of Jerusalem…………………..Israel
The Little Sister……………………………….. Modern Re-gathered Israel
THE SONG OF SONGS
By Jehovah
The play opens with the abduction of a gentile girl, a Shulamite of great beauty. She is kidnapped and spirited away to the palace of Solomon, the world's wealthiest King. He has seen her beauty and he cannot resist her. He plans to make her his own. But the problem is, that she has no such plans. He knows this, but he has all the world’s treasures in his palace to heap upon her and with which to tempt her. This, he believes, will turn her head toward him and his desires as he takes a poor, but beautiful gentile girl and heaps all his treasures upon her. He literally offers her the world. (Satan offered Jesus this lure in the wilderness also).
The problem is that she is in love. There is a shepherd out there somewhere far away that has captured her heart. He is “absent” in person, but she can “fly” to him at will on what she describes as “wings of faith”. He dwells among the lilies in a field, which is a poetically descriptive phrase for heaven.
THE DRAMA OF THE SONG OF SONGS
Now enters the drama of it all. The more Solomon pressures this gentile girl, and tempts her to come to him, the closer she gets to her Shepherd Lover, whom she must visit by faith because of His longtime absence. Not only so, but she does not know when he will show up again. She waits for His return, but she knows not exactly when. She keeps herself pure, however, for Him. And, her love, for him is without reservation.
CLARIFYING THE CAST FOR PROPHETIC REASONS
At this point, the characters in the play may be re-identifed as follows:
The Shulamite (Gentile) Girl……………….The True Church of Jesus Christ
The Shepherd Lover…………………………Jesus Christ the Righteous One
Solomon the King……………………………The Usurper/Satan
The Palace of Solomon………………………The World System
The Daughters of Jerusalem…………………Israel re-gathered in 1948
The Little Sister……………………………….Israel after the rapture of the Bride
THE PROPHETIC SIGNIFICANCE OF THE SONG OF SONGS
The true Church (expressed here as all of them but especially Philadelphia being the first raptured one) is in love with her Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ. (There are no living members of the five Churches before Philadelphia as all of them await the resurrection of the dead in Christ. Philadelphia and Laodicea both have living members in the world today). The Shepherd is, in turn, in love with her, even before she ever thought about it. But He has been away (absent) almost 2,000 years). The only way for her to access Him is by prayer which must be done in faith believing. The Usurper/Adversary, Satan and his minions control the palace, i. e. the world system. Using every means at his disposal, Satan tries to woo the True Church away from Christ, her beloved, by wealth, fame, fortune, threat, destruction, sex, pornography, strong drink, envy, lust, etc. There is not a stone unturned in his quest to “own” the True Church. Why? So that he can deny the Lord Jesus Christ his Bride-to-be and wreck forever the plans of God Almighty for his creation.
A VERY SERIOUS MATTER UNFOLDS
Everlasting and eternal promises were made by YHWH to Israel. These MUST have a fulfillment or else God is not God. He has placed the Holy Writ above His own name, so important are they. God has often said that the Scriptures will never fail, no, not a word of them. Thus, Satan has but one task, and that is to make just one word of the Holy Writ fail. If he can do this, he wins. So, he uses every wile, every lie, every deceit, and all means his evil mind can conceive to do this. He has destroyed the souls of men over and over with every type of sinful practice and is ever more at it today. And when he is cast down to earth from heaven, he will be on earth in person to destroy even more.
ENTER THE TWO RAPTURES EVENT
But, here comes a plan of God that will really upset Satan’s applecart. That plan is called the “rapture”. It's the New Testament description found in I Thessalonians 4:15-18. In Thessalonians God says, “For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent (precede) them who are asleep. For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God; and the dead in Christ shall rise first; then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up (raptured) with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air; and so shall we ever be with the Lord”.
The corollary passage describing how the saints are changed at the rapture event is found in I Corinthians 15:51,52. “Behold, I show you a mystery: We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump; for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed”. And the Song of Songs says it this way. In chapter 2 and verse 10, “My Beloved spoke, and said unto me, Rise up my love, my fair one, and come away”. This is Jesus calling the Philadelphia church to Himself. It is the rapture, phase one, or number one, as you please. Jesus continues, “For lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth; the time of the singing of birds has come, and the voice of the turtle is in the land”. The fig tree putteth forth her green figs, and the vines with tender grape give forth fragrance. Arise my love, my fair one, AND COME AWAY”. (vs. 11, 12). Notice that the sign marches all the way from Spring to Summer, RAPTURE IS TO TAKE THE FAITHFUL CHRISTIANS WHO HAVE REPENTED AND BEEN FOUND HONORING CHRIST IN THEIR WALK OF LIFE. IT IS DEPENDENT ON WHAT IS IN THE HEART OF MAN, NOT WHAT HE DOES. BUT IT IS NOT FOR THE SLOVEN, LAZY, SELF SEEKERS WHO ARE, IN THE BIBLE CALLED “LAODICEANS.”
WHAT ABOUT ONCE SAVED ALWAYS SAVED?
Many godly men do not believe in this, however, the Scriptures seems to clearly teach it. So how can this be reconciled to the message herein?
In the matter of salvation of the soul, the Holy Spirit never makes a mistake, of course. But man has a free will, and we are told that man can “shipwreck” himself. I Timothy 1:19,20 says this: “Holding faith, and a good conscience, which some , having put away concerning faith, have made shipwreck; of whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have delivered unto Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme”. Does this mean that they has lost their salvation? I believe not. It seems to mean that they were excommunicated unless and until they straightened up. Satan would see to it that their heavenly rewards would diminish or perish. Proof of this is found in 1 Corinthians 3:11ff. I quote: “For other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Jesus Christ. Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble – every man's work shall be made manifest; for the day (rapture day) shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; (great tribulation fire) and the fire shall test every man's work of what sort it is. If any man's work abide which he hath built upon it, he shall receive a reward. If any man's work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss; but HE HIMSELF SHALL BE SAVED, YET AS BY FIRE”. Know ye not that that ye are the temple of God, and that the Spirit of God dwelleth in you? If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are”. Here Paul is speaking of the temple in the same way that Jesus spoke of His body. These defilers will go through the great wrath of God and may well be destroyed physically, BUT NOT THEIR SOULS AND SPIRITS FOR THEY ACCEPTED THE FOUNDATION WHICH IS CHRIST AT SOME POINT IN THEIR LIFE.
WHAT ABOUT THESE LAODICEANS AND THE RAPTURE?
In chapter 6 and verse 10 it starts the (second) rapture event by saying, “Who is she who looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun, and terrible as an army with banners”? This is a an obvious reference to the bride to be, the Philadelphian believers, the first army of raptured saints.
Laodicea's taking out in the first rapture could have come too, but she just wasn’t ready. One time the Shepherd even put His hand through the opening of the door to free the latch, but, alas, she was asleep. By the time she roused herself, He had departed. Personal ease seemed more important than waiting for Him as she should have. Read about this in Act V Song of Solomon (chapter 5), a sad commentary on the readiness of the Laodicean's believers. They are a Church, just as the Philadelphians and all the prior Churches were as well, but they were not ready for the first rapture. (I, personally assign this to 1988 when Brother Edgar Whisenant published his booklet titled “88 Reasons why the Rapture will be in 1988”. It woke the whole Christian world up for a time, but alas, the lazy Church was not ready).
The Laodicean Church now speaks of her readiness. She is tired of persecution at the hands of Satan and his crowd. She is aware that her sister Churches have gone before and she has been left behind. During this left behind time, She learns to obey the Lord as She helps bring in the greatest harvest of souls ever seen. When Her time comes to meet the Lord in heaven, she says: “I went down into the garden of nuts to see the fruits of the valley, and to see whether the vine flourished, and the pomegranates budded. Or ever I was aware, my soul made me like the chariots of Amminadib”. In these verses 11 and 12, is seen the rapture of the remaining Bride-to-be. An alternate reading could be “like the chariots of my princely willing people”. Amminadib seems to not be a name, but rather refers to Someone famous for His chariots. And who has more chariots than their precious Bridegroom? Elijah saw a bunch of them at his own rapture. Phase 2 of the rapture now occurs and she is taken to heaven.
Immediately after her departure, modern little Israel, called the “daughters of Jerusalem”, speak in their astonishment saying, “Return, return, O Shulamite; return, return that we may look upon thee.” In this verse 13, is seen the desire of modern Israel to have the Bride-to-be come back. But She asks, “What will ye see in the Shulamite?” In other words, She asks them why? Their answer comes immediately saying, “As it were, the company of TWO armies.” I think the two armies are Ephesus through Philadelphia taken in the resurrection and the first rapture and finally Laodicea, who has now joined them in Phase 2 or the second rapture. At the first rapture, it was a single army with banners in Song 6:10, but now at the second rapture it is two armies and all seven churches of Revelation 2 and 3 are now united.
THE CRUX OF THE PLAY
So, the rapture event, which includes the resurrection of the dead in Christ and the taking of the living in Christ has here occurred in its fulness. She, the Bride now, is gone to be with her Shepherd Lover, who is absent no longer. He has come in the air and with the clouds to get her out of the ”palace” of this world’s ungodly system and away from Satan, the Adversary/Usurper.
THE WEDDING
The seventh act, chapter 7 of the Song of Solomon finds the Bride described by her Beloved husband. He says in chapter 7 and verse 9, when I kiss your mouth, “the roof of thy mouth, (is) like the best wine”. This describes the beauty of the Bride of Christ. He truly loves her and His description of her is pure delight in her. She is the most beautiful woman in the universe as far as He is concerned. She interrupts, saying, “For my Beloved, that goeth down sweetly, causing the lips of those who are ASLEEP to speak”. (Perhaps this is a reference to the resurrected ones?) And in verse 10 she continues and says “I am my Beloved’s and His desire is toward me”. She is aware of her captivating power with this Beloved Groom. So she continues by saying, “Come my Beloved, let us go forth into the field; let us lodge in the villages. Let us get up early to the vineyards; let us see if the vine flourish, whether the tender grape appear, and the pomegranates bud forth. There will I give Thee my loves”, vss 11-12.
THE HONEYMOON
Here the marriage has occurred and the consummation of the marriage is to take place. The wedding feast is apparently over and she and her husband have started their honeymoon. She is no longer the Bride to be, but now she is the Bride. His consuming passion for her is to be fulfilled, now.
THE ELEVATION OF THE BRIDE
Finally, in Act 8, she speaks from a heart that recognizes that He is far superior to her socially, so to speak, but she realizes that He still loves her above all. She will take her place at His side, both in the Kingdom Age and in eternity. Her elevation is the fulfillment of many promises of the Bible.
NOW TO ISRAEL, GOD'S COVENANT PEOPLE
In chapter 8 and verse 8 the Bride speaks to her Beloved and says, “We have a little sister, and she hath no breasts. What shall we do for our sister in the day when she shall be spoken for?” Indeed, what shall be done for Israel, the little sister that has not been around for 1,878 years and is now in the land again (in 1948). By comparison to the age of the Bride, she is a sub-teen, if the count started in 1948. The Bride has an answer: “If she be a wall, we will build upon her a palace of silver; and if she be a door, we will enclose her with boards of cedar”. I think that this is saying that Israel will have her Temple in her Jerusalem, and in her Kingdom after all. We call it the Millennial Kingdom and Scripture calls it a thousand years reign of Christ, and it will apparently be for 360,000 days or 1,000 perfect orbital years.,
Maranatha
Gerry Almond
sgalmond@yahoo.com