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Failures and Disqualifications in the Universal Kingdom

The term "catholic" means universal. Hence, some may think that the Universal Kingdom to come is the ultimate triumph of the Roman Catholic Church.

I do not believe so. Here is why.

Israel under Moses was the first Church (Acts 7:38). The term "Church" means "called out ones." Moses called Israel out of Egypt. Moses also established a Passover Age, because this Church entered the Kingdom (Promised Land) at the time of Passover (Joshua 5:10). That Church had rejected Pentecost at Sinai (Ex. 20:18-21), but yet all of them had sufficient faith to keep Passover.

Passover was good, but insufficient to manifest the fulness of the Kingdom. So 1480 years later (the gematria of "Christ"), the second Church was established. A new called-out body was needed. This time, the disciples were called out of the old order of Judaism and were able to experience Pentecost. They were well on their way to establish the Kingdom. However, Pentecost too proved to be insufficient to manifest the fulness of the Kingdom.

This was already prophesied in the story of King Saul, who fell short of the Kingdom ideal. Saul was crowned on the day of wheat harvest (1 Sam. 12:17), which was later called "Pentecost." His kingdom was a type of Pentecostal Kingdom, and his life prophesied of the Church under Pentecost. Because Saul proved to be ruled by the flesh, the prophet Samuel finally told him that he was disqualified in 1 Sam. 15:23-28,

²³ For rebellion is as the sin of divination, and insubordination is as iniquity and idolatry. Because you have rejected the word of the Lord, He has also rejected you from being king. ²⁶ But Samuel said to Saul, "I will not return with you, for you have rejected the word of the Lord, and the Lord has rejected you from being king over Israel." ²⁷ But as Samuel turned to go, Saul seized the edge of his robe, and it tore. ²⁸ So Samuel said to him, "The Lord has torn the kingdom of Israel from you today, and has given it to your neighbor who is better than you."

The 40-year reign of Saul prophesied of the 40-Jubilee reign of the Church under Pentecost. Like Saul, the early part of this Kingdom was good. But eventually, like Saul, the Church "rejected the word of the Lord" in favor of their own traditions of men. Because of this, a third Church is now being called out of the Church of Pentecost. It is the Tabernacles Church.

I am not speaking of Church membership. Being a member (or even attending a Church) is not the issue. It is a matter of the heart. It is a matter of learning the lessons God intended for us through the feast of Pentecost. It is about having the law written on your heart, as opposed to being in rebellion against the word of the Lord. Do we follow the pattern of Saul the Pentecostal rebel? or do we follow the example of David, who confessed, "The law of the Lord is perfect" (Ps. 19:7)?

In his day Saul was the best man qualified to be king. The Spirit of the Lord came upon him, and he prophesied (1 Sam. 10:10) as a true Pentecostal. But he was also of the tribe of Benjamin (1 Sam. 9:1, 2), which was not supposed to be the ruling tribe. That honor went temporarily to Judah until such time as Joseph would receive the crown (Gen. 49:10).

So why did God choose a man from Benjamin to rule Israel? It was a temporary measure until the man of Judah would be born. When Saul was crowned king, David was not yet even born. We know this, because 40 years later, when Saul died, David was just 30 years old (2 Sam. 5:4). So Saul had ruled for ten years before David was even born.

Furthermore, another eight years went by before Saul was fully disqualified. David was just eight when Samuel anointed him to replace Saul. Saul reigned another 22 years until David was thirty.

The New Testament Church under Pentecost was also "of Benjamin," because most of Jesus' disciples came from Galilee, the territory where the tribe of Benjamin settled after the Babylonian captivity (Neh. 11:31-35). Judah settled south of Jerusalem, and Benjamin settled north of the city. Hence, the Church under Pentecost was ruled by the apostles who were from Benjamin. The notable exception, of course, was Judas, who was from Hebron south of Jerusalem. But he was ultimately replaced by Saul (Paul), who, like his ancestor, was of the tribe of Benjamin (Phil. 3:5).

It is plain, then, that in the divine plan, the first two Churches would fail to achieve the ultimate goal--the fulness of the Kingdom. This goal cannot be achieved by Passover alone, nor even by adding Pentecost to the mix. The full Kingdom requires "the fulness of God" (Eph. 3:19) found only in the feast of Tabernacles. And although some individuals, like Moses in Ex. 34:29, may have attained to some portion of Tabernacles anointing, they could not establish the full Kingdom alone. Even Moses' glory had to fade (2 Cor. 3:7), because, like Paul, he was a man born out of due time.

So we can see that the coronation of Saul was predetermined to fail in the end. Saul did indeed have a legitimate kingdom, but it was characterized by carnality, and it finally succumbed to the Philistines, who prophetically represent the fleshly tendencies of the carnal mind. His failure in turn prophesied the failure of the Church during the Age of Pentecost.

Yet in spite of these failures, a certain measure of success occurred. Saul unified the tribes into a single kingdom and gave them equality. The New Testament Saul (Paul) likewise insisted on equality, though on a higher level, for he was the champion of equal rights for the non-Jewish converts to Christianity. Paul's ministry occurred during the first Jubilee cycle of the Church (33-83 A.D.), and this time period correlated with the first year of Saul (1 Sam. 13:1) before he ran into serious problems. Hence, in that way the Apostle Paul represents the best of Saul's reign, and he also shows us how to be transformed from Saul to Paul. This transformation is fulfilled in two ways: moving from Old Covenant to the New, and moving from Pentecost into the glory of Tabernacles.

Of interest to us also is the 18th year of Saul, the year that he was fully disqualified. Shortly thereafter, Samuel anointed David. This 18th year of Saul prophesied of the 18th Jubilee cycle of the Church (866-915 A.D.). Bernard Grun's The Timetables of History, speaks of the year 904 in this way:

"With Pope Sergius III (904-911) begins the era of pornocracy, the darkest period in the history of the papacy; his mistress Marozia becomes the mother of Pope John XI (931-936), the aunt of John XIII (965-972), and the grandmother of Benedict VI (973-974)."

Having studied those years of Church history for myself, I can certainly concur with Grun's brief statement. Pope Sergius and Marozia begat Octavian, who, through the intrigues of his mother, became Pope John XI at the age of 18. Marozia then became the mistress of her own son. In Cormenin's History of the Popes, Vol. 1, p. 287, we read of her,

"This abominable woman, who was then in all the splendour of her beauty, wished to assure her rule over the mind of the young pope by becoming his mistress, and she abandoned herself to incestuous amours with her son."

The life of King Saul runs directly parallel to the history of the Church. Hence, even as Saul was disqualified for rejecting the word of the Lord in the 18th year of his reign, so also was the Roman Church rejected in its 18th Jubilee.