“Opening the Old Lock with a New Random Key”
Author: Finishing Carpenter
My daily job is to install doors and locks for new houses. A puzzling experience I had in June 2014 is still fresh in my mind, which turns out to be a stepping stone for me to fully comprehend the last book of the Bible, Revelation.
Here was what happened…
There is a town called Cochrane on the west side of the city where I live. In March 2014 we finished a house in the western suburb of that town. Everything was fine until the builder for that house called me in June 2014, three months after the house was completely finished. It turned out that the back door lock could not be opened with any key left in the house.
That lock was a famous brand, Weiser, which has a handy re-key function called SmartKey. Normally we would use the functioning key and the learn tool to re-key all locks to work with the same and one set of keys and then throw away the other keys as they have no use afterwards.
It was possible in this case that we thought we had re-keyed the lock but in fact we forgot to do it before we got rid of the original key!
Since the original key could not be found anywhere, I discussed the matter with the builder and we decided that I went to purchase another same brand lock and to use it to completely replace the old one. What else could we do, right?
So I and a helper of mine went to the nearest Rona store on the way and simply grabbed one and paid for it. However, when we drove to the house to check it on site, we found the lock finish did not match with the old lock and the rest of locks in the house. After discussing with the builder again, we decided to do the next possible thing: take the core from the new lock and then all the rest from the old lock so that the new assembly in general look and finish will match all the rest of locks in the house. Normally, most people will not notice the slight difference in finish between the core face and the rest part of the lock.
Up to this point, the work was considered complete and my helper started to collect tools and walked outside, thinking I would follow and leave as well.
However, at the very moment of leaving, a thought jumped to my mind: wait a second, will this new key that comes with the new lock open the old lock?
As this thought hit me, I started to act and insert the new key into the old lock core’s keyhole. To my great surprise, the key turned and it indeed worked!
Suddenly my whole person froze right there for quite a few minutes! How could that be? The chance of getting another key that opens a lock is so slim that it is almost impossible.
Granted that a lock manufacture may not be able to make every lock/key combination truly unique, they must have a certain procedure to avoid distributing locks with the same lock/key combination to the same city, otherwise the trouble is great. Think about it, wouldn’t it open a door for a thief if he simply goes to purchase a lock that is the same brand and style and then it happens that the key inside the package works in opening the lock of your house?
But the fact is, things that are almost impossible and unthinkable happened on that very day, as if I had grabbed a “master key” that can open all locks!
Three months have passed and what happened on that very day still shocks me while I am trying to use words to describe it. Now I start to perceive it as a inspiration from God for me to face the next hard thing: how to open the last book of the Bible, the book of Revelation.
All previous and traditional interpretations of Revelation are based on one single principle: one key can only open one lock. For that reason, the majority part of the Christian world has been trained to use the “Premillennial” view to interpret the last book and also all other books of the Bible.
For those who know some Church history, it is not too hard for them to see that this well-accepted key, “Premillenium”, is in fact the second key to all the mysteries hidden in the Bible, just like what the Bible says about the righteousness of God being made known apart from the law. The first key to open the Bible has been thrown away by most Christians today and cannot be found.
According to God’s original plan, the first key to open the book of Revelation and all other books of the Bible is part of God’s design, and it is also the critical part of His plan.
This first key is the “Amillennial” view of the whole Bible. It is interesting that the letter “A” is the first letter of the English alphabet but when it is placed in front of anything, it changes the word’s meaning to its direct opposite.
“Amillennium” speaks for God’s special calling of certain groups of people here and there to whole-heartedly follow the steps of Jesus to do God’s will to become “the first fruit” from among all nations. Upon the second coming of Jesus, these people as a collective group will receive the reward of Revelation 20:6 “Blessed and holy are those who share in the first resurrection. The second death has no power over them…” Since this group of “the first fruit” will be harvested ahead of all others to be God’s priests and to reign with Him in the air for a thousand years, therefore, the coming “Millennial Jubilee” after the first resurrection is not meant for them to receive and live through.
In other words, out of the mercy of the Lord, “Jubilee Millennium” is indeed part of God’s plan. But for those who are fit to be called “the first fruit”, they have already experienced the reality of “Jubilee Millennium” on themselves so that they can enter into eternity with the needed maturity when the Lord comes the second time. For this reason, they see that the moment when Jesus first came to preach and quote from the book of Isaiah 61 “to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor” (Luke 4:19), that was indeed the beginning of God’s Jubilee. Through the Cross of Jesus and the following His footsteps of carrying their own crosses, they can reach to their destination and maturity in Christ. They do not need another Jubilee! Their earthly life time is enough for them to forsake the old and allow the new life in Christ to grow to maturity!
But in real life, just as Jesus pointed out long time ago, “many are invited, but few are chosen” (Matthew 22:14). God’s people who are mature to a point of being truly considered as “the first fruit” are indeed few. In fact, even when Jesus first came to Jews who have always been called by men as “the chosen people”, the Bible clearly records that He could not find any “first fruit” and for that reason He cursed the fig tree which represented the nation of Israel. Most people can accept the Gospel in theory but cannot live out its teachings. For some new believers, they do not have the time to grow into maturity, especially when the second coming of Jesus draws nearer and nearer with the current situation on the global scale playing out right before our eyes. All this is the basis for the second key for the end times described in the Bible. People do need another “thousand years” to see the return Lord with their naked eyes for their new life to continue and grow into maturity.
“Premillenium” believes that the Lord Jesus will come the second time to initiate the physical “Millennial Jubilee” on earth, during which Satan will be bound for a thousand years. Only Jesus has the power to bring in the final and grand revival and harmony that all people are hoping for.
The comforting message is, out of God’s great compassion and mercy, He indeed prepares another grace period for those who cannot enter into the reality of God’s Jubilee in their life time on earth. This second grace period after Jesus’ second coming serves for those who are not fit for the first resurrection to continue their process of sanctification in Christ to maturity. Nevertheless, God has never changed His basic requirements for them: (1) to admit that they are sinners, (2) to accept Jesus’ only atonement on the Cross, and (3) to not worship anyone else but Jesus Himself as the only Lord and Saviour.
For quite a few, even these three basic requirements are too much a challenge for them to face.
When things associated with the “Great Tribulation” prophesied in the Bible are already flashing here and there before our eyes, are you prepared to face these challenges hands on? When the “Beast” of the Bible is running without restriction on the earth, are you holding to the basic truths to the very end?
______________
For those who can read Chinese, please click here to download our 2nd book “The Sword for the End Times (I): Dividing Truths in Daniel & Revelation”.
Leave a Reply