THE MAN CHILD COMPANY (2)

NB: This is in continuation of the article begun last week. We are presenting a stronger case for the vision of the 144,000 saints who, operating in councils of twenty-four, would be the political leaders and overseers of the 6,000 provinces, or language nations, of the promised global kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. We will pick it up right where we stopped. To read the first part of the article, click here.)

Let’s come up to speed with the Sun-clothed Woman who gives birth to the Man Child. It is generally believed that she is symbolic of the nation of Israel. That’s true, for Israel is the only Elect Lady this side of the Millennium that could be identified with a crown. Her crown of twelve stars (pointing to her twelve tribes) indicates her sovereignty at the implied time. Also, her being clothed with the sun, with the moon (a reflection, or “shadow,” of the sun) under her feet, reveals that she has put behind the Law of Moses, “a shadow of good things to come” (Hebrews 10:1), and entered into the glorious liberty of the Gospel of Christ, “the sun of righteousness” (Malachi 4:2). Simply put, she is symbolic of the remnant of Israel to be revisited by God in the last days, as noted earlier (see Isaiah 10:20-23; Romans 9:27,28).

So, if the woman represents a group of people, it is only logical and reasonable that her child, the Man Child, would be likewise – it would represent a group of people. That the events projected in Revelation 12 are yet future, that the woman is symbolic of Israel, and that the Man Child is also symbolic of a group of people, are all confirmed by the prophet Isaiah’s prophecy of the same things: “Before she travailed, she brought forth; before her pain came, she was delivered of a man child. Who hath heard such a thing? who hath seen such things? Shall the earth be made to bring forth in one day? or shall a nation be born at once? for as soon as Zion travailed, she brought forth her children” (Isaiah 66:7,8). The prophet first captures the birth of a “man child,” but it soon unfolds to where he discovers that the product actually represents a group of people, “her children.” And I am yet to find any opposition to the belief that the fulfillment of this prophecy is outstanding.

So we see that the catching up of the Man Child is yet future, and it is symbolic of the translation of a living company. There might, however, be the inclination to think that if the woman is Jewish, her child, the Man Child Company, would also have to be Jewish. That might be true. For emphasis, that might be so. Really, that is what we would ordinarily expect, especially considering Isaiah’s testimony. But this might actually be a significant aspect of something we considered in Chapter 8, the “mystery of Christ” – “that the Gentiles should be fellowheirs, and of the same body, and partakers of his promise in Christ by the gospel” (Ephesians 3:4-6).

To begin with, the idea that the child would have to be Jewish if its mother is Jewish is obviously weak; it falls apart in the face of what we know about the natural. But more instructive is the biblical revelation that the Gentiles are a grafted branch in the elect Jewish tree (Romans 11:13-18), the same Sun-clothed Woman of Revelation 12! It is the same “fatness of the olive tree” that flows from the roots, through the trunk, and into the branches that bear the fruits. It is therefore a question of whether the particular branch that bears the Man Child fruit is a native or the grafted one. And even then we must bear in mind that the Jews have been so dispersed among and mixed with other nations of the earth that some of their present-day descendants might be physically indistinguishable from the native peoples of those nations. We are speaking of the trail of an elect seed. The word of the Lord is, “I scattered them [the children of Israel] with a whirlwind among all the nations whom they knew not” (Zechariah 7:14).

This idea of the Church, supposed to be a bride, giving birth to the Man Child Company is no more baffling than the Virgin Mary’s Immaculate Conception of Christ. As it was then, so might it be this time around – “Before they came together, she was found with child of the Holy Ghost”! (Matthew 1:18.) That would make it a classic “like father, like son” affair, which might be the reason why some have difficulty distinguishing between the Man Child Company and Christ.

There is more to the seventh and last message to the Gentiles that marks the beginning of the said shift in the focus of the Christian Church back to the Jews. A portion of it reads: “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me” (Revelation 3:20). As we can see from the emphases, the Lord is calling individual believers, in the midst of the apostasy of the last days of the present world order (see I Timothy 4:1), into a special, interpersonal communion with Him. From among those who heed this entreating voice, open to, and enter into this special one-on-one communion with Him, I believe, would come the Man Child Company. And this by itself does not discount the possibility that they might be Jews, for there has always been an element of Jews in the present Christian Church. This personal, covert dealing of the Lord with individual believers explains why the Revelation makes no reference to the Church until the Jewish remnant take the centre stage in Chapter 12.

Yes, within the period it takes for the focus of the Christian Church to fully shift from the Gentiles back to the Jews is the silent conception and development of the Man Child Company – just as the early apostles who laid the foundation of the Christian Church were in silent gestation in the Gospels that marked the transition from the Mosaic order to the Christian! As those former apostles, in conjunction with Christ, laid the foundation of the Christian Church (Ephesians 2:19,20), so would the Man Child Company cap it off! (I Peter 2:4-7.) They are the spearheads of the last Christian revolution – the “next wave,” “soul harvest,” or “revival in His coming” – that will precede the establishment of the kingdom! “Fear not, O land; be glad and rejoice: for the Lord will do great things”! (Joel 2:21-32.) Halleluiah!

(To be continued next week.)

God bless you always.

In the King’s Service,

David Olagoke Olawoyin.

(To read the concluding part of this article, click here.)