Page 63 - Gods Plan of the Ages

for He is the first of a new type of man. In carrying the Ark upon their shoulders, the priests
were providing a type and shadow of those men and women who would one day take Christ
as their Head.
There is a parallel observed between the priests of Yahweh carrying the Ark with
wooden poles on their shoulders, and the disciple of Christ bearing the cross. Even as the
priests entered the waters that signified death, the disciple must be baptized into Christ and
take up his cross which is an instrument of death to the soul. Those who are true disciples
have yielded the rule of their lives to Christ. They have removed themselves as head, that
they might take Christ as Head. This is the meaning of the following words of John.

Revelation 20:4
And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony of
Yahshua and because of the word of God, and those who had not worshiped the beast or
his image, and had not received the mark on their forehead and on their hand; and they
came to life and reigned with Christ for a thousand years.

Revelation is a book that conveys truth through signs. It is a book of parables. Those
who would be Christ's disciples must hate their own souls. They must accede to the
Lordship of Christ in a very real and practical manner, taking Him as their Head. No man
can take Christ as Head while his own head is still ruling. John describes these beheaded
ones as coming to life and ruling with Christ during the Millennium. This honor is reserved
for the overcomers in Christ. It is for those who attain to the first resurrection, gaining the
right of the firstborn of Christ.

Revelation 20:6
Blessed and holy is the one who has a part in the first resurrection; over these the second
death has no power, but they will be priests of God and of Christ and will reign with Him
for a thousand years.

Because these ones have surrendered to the death of the cross in this age, they will be
spared from the second death in the next age. The second death is the lake of fire. Every
person must experience death to the natural life in order to enter into resurrection life in
Christ. There can be no resurrection apart from a death first taking place. We must die to
that natural, Adamic life, ruled by the soul, in order to be resurrected into that new spiritual
life found in Christ. This pattern is inviolable.
The Christian is not saved from death, so much as he is saved through death. It is by
following Christ, taking up our own cross, and dying to self (that natural soulish life) that
we are delivered from the kingdom of darkness and translated into the kingdom of light. It
is by virtue of being born again of the Spirit of Christ, becoming a partaker of His divine life,
that we find resident within our members the desire, and power, to deny ourselves, and
yield our lives wholly to the Father.

Philippians 2:12-13
Work out your salvation with fear and trembling; for it is God who is at work in you, both
to will and to work for His good pleasure.

Christians like to speak of salvation as something that Christ obtained for them at the
cross. There are Scriptures that support such a conclusion. Once again, however, many
Christians have fallen short of "rightly dividing the word of truth." They have not