Following is the introduction to my book "THE CLOUDS OF HEAVEN".
It includes a summary of what is in the book. If
you read
the summary in this introduction, you don't need to read my book to get
the message.
What is this book all about? It's about listening to Jesus. We need to listen to His every word because Jesus never wasted His words. He never made casual remarks about anything and that includes the weather and He was not just predicting a stormy day when He returns with the clouds of heaven.
If He thought it was
important enough to
mention His coming in or on clouds several different times, they are
not just
normal water vapor clouds. There
is
something special about those clouds of heaven.
The gospels record Him saying how He will be coming on the clouds or with the clouds of heaven five or six different times. John did not mention it in his gospel but he did in his book of Revelation. Why all the clouds? What have clouds got to do with anything?
Those clouds of heaven are also mentioned in the Old Testament
scriptures. Daniel mentioned them, saying, "And
behold, with the clouds of heaven One like a Son
of Man was coming , And He came up to the Ancient of Days And was
presented
before Him"
(Daniel 7:13).
Do the scriptures say something that might help us understand what Jesus is telling us? When we look at those scriptures and put them together, we can begin to see some interesting things.
Why does the scripture
include that statement
about a cloud receiving Jesus when He ascended? If
it was just a normal cloud, He would have
ascended "into a cloud". Scripture says that cloud "received
Him"
(Acts 1:9).
Would a cloud
receiving Him indicate that the
cloud had some ability to accept Him?
Paul
tells us about how Jesus will be
returning. He did
not mention Jesus
returning in clouds or with the clouds of heaven but he did say how He
would be coming with all His
saints (1 Thessalonians
The saints will be coming back with
Jesus and their
bodies will be resurrected. Jesus
will
resurrect their bodies and they will ascend together with the faithful
who are
still living at that time. Paul said they
will be
"caught
up together
with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air".
Paul did not mention
Him coming with clouds
but he does say that He will be coming with the saints and they will be
caught
up in the clouds.
Some Christians believe that Paul is speaking of an event
(The caught up) that will take place long before Jesus returns with the clouds
of heaven to judge the nations. From the prospective of our lesson it
does not matter. We will see that as we continue
reading scripture.
In chapter 11, when the Hebrew writer spoke of
the departed faithful, he ended the chapter saying that they could not have
been made perfect apart from us. All of the faithful for all time have
become perfect in Christ Jesus because of His redeeming blood.
He continued his discussion of the departed
faithful and how they are with us (Those alive on earth) in chapter 12. He began by saying that since we have so great
cloud of witnesses surrounding us we should strive to run the race that is before
us. He is still speaking of the departed faithful but not as though they
are gone on but as though they are still with us in our assembly (Church
assembly).
When he wrote those words, the faithful of
old had long since died and their bodies were sleeping in the ground. Was
he speaking of the spirits of those that have been made perfect being a cloud,
surrounding the brotherhood of believers in the church on earth?
With regard to those ancient ones of
faith surrounding us as a cloud of witnesses the Greek wording says they are a
cloud, not crowd. If he meant exactly what
he said about the departed faithful, they are actually present with us in our
assembly of the church and with us individually.
He continues by telling us to lay aside
everything that could hold us back and run with endurance the race before us.
Are they surrounding us like spectators
at the games watching us and cheering for us as we run? Did they first see
The writer could have been just speaking
in general terms of the departed faithful. They had run their race and won their
victory before we started and we can read from scripture how they won their
race. Was he saying that they have
become examples for us when he said they are a cloud of witnesses around us?
If that is the case they would not be surrounding us as witnesses,
however. We would be the ones watching them (Looking back). From
the wording it sounds like their spirits are now present with each one of us
and they are with us in our church assembly. We can see that possibility
in the same chapter of Hebrews (Chapter 12).
After speaking of how we must be diligent as
we run our race and of the Father’s discipline, the writer tells us not to come
short of the grace of God and be godless or immoral like Esau who sold his
birthright for a meal. He continues by speaking
of what happened to that old Hebrew nation in the wilderness and how it relates
to us.
He says that we have not come to an earthly
mountain (Like
He is speaking of the goal that we are
striving for as we run our race. Our
prize is that spiritual
That city is the prize and it belongs to the church. Some of our church members are with us as we
have come to the foot of our mountain and it sounds like some have gone on
before us and are upon that mountain.
He says that we have come to the
assembly of the church and when He lists those who are with us in the assembly he
says it includes the Father and the Son and myriads of angels and it includes
the spirits of the righteous made perfect.
It sounds like the spirits of the righteous made perfect are present
with us in the assembly of the church and the assembly stretches from us to the
top of that mountain.
Would our church assembly not include
the spirits of those departed faithful that he wrote of as not having been made
perfect apart from us (Chapter 11)? He listed them as being in
the assembly. The ones that lived and died before the cross were made perfect
with us by the blood of Christ and they have been brought into His church.
Are they not the same ones who are in
the cloud of witnesses that now surround us (Hebrews 12:1)? It
sounds like they are a cloud of glory around us.
Are the departed faithful with us in the
assembly of the church as the cloud of glory on our tabernacle? Would
that be like the cloud of glory that was on the old wilderness tabernacle? Was that old Hebrew tabernacle and its glory
cloud just an earthly copy of our tabernacle and our glory cloud?
Jesus told the woman at the well that
the time had come when people would no longer worship in
That old Hebrew salvation story was
brought about by God as an earthly copy of what is spiritual for us. Their worship was a part of that copy. They worshipped at an earthly tabernacle to
foretell how we would worship at God’s spiritual tabernacle.
The Hebrew writer tells us that Christ
is our true High Priest (Chapter 7). He
begins the next chapter by saying that the main point is that, “we have such a high priest, who has taken His seat at the
right hand of the throne of the Majesty in the heavens, a minister in the
sanctuary and in the true tabernacle, which the Lord pitched, not man.”
That old
tabernacle was not God’s true tabernacle; it was only an earthly copy of His
true tabernacle. Christ is the true High
Priest and He is seated in God’s true tabernacle, not the earthly copy. The writer
then tells us how those old Hebrew priests were serving a copy and shadow of
the heavenly things (Hebrews 8:5).
In the next chapter he tells us that
Christ did not enter a holy place made with hands, “a mere copy of the true one, but into heaven itself,
now to appear in the presence of God for us” (Hebrews 9:24).
Christ is our true High Priest and He is
now seated at the right hand of the Father in the true tabernacle Holy of
Holies. He is serving as our High Priest in the inner room Holy of Holies
as we serve in the outer room holy place of the church on earth.
Remember, the church is His body
(Colossians
The true tabernacle was raised up when
Christ’s body came forth from the tomb. All
of His people of faith from all time have been brought into that house of God.
The Spirit of God dwells in His tabernacle and it dwells in those who are a
part of His church. Those who are alive
today are the serving priesthood in that house but the departed faithful are
also a part of that house. Are they a
cloud of glory in and on our house?
When Moses erected the tabernacle, scripture
says, “Then the cloud covered the tent of meeting, and the glory of the
LORD filled the tabernacle. Moses was not able to enter the tent of
meeting because the cloud had settled on it, and the glory of the LORD filled
the tabernacle.” (Exodus 40:34-35)
A little later Moses spoke of the
tabernacle and that cloud and said that, "throughout all
their journeys, the cloud of the LORD was on the tabernacle by day, and there
was fire in it by night, in the sight of all the house of
They were brought
out of slavery in
When Moses spoke of how the cloud of the LORD
was on that old covenant tabernacle throughout all their journeys was he
speaking ahead to our true tabernacle and its glory cloud? Was that old glory cloud on their tabernacle just
a copy of a cloud of glory on our tabernacle?
The Spirit of the LORD was in that old covenant
glory cloud. His Spirit has now been poured out on God’s new covenant
people. We are the outer room of God’s
tabernacle on earth and His Spirit dwells in our tabernacle outer room. Paul said
that we who have become joined to the Lord have become one spirit with Him (1
Corinthians
If all of the faithful have become one spirit with the Lord and His Spirit dwells in each one of us will we not continue to be one spirit with Him after our earthly body sleeps in death?
Jesus said that those who believe in Him will never die (John
We heard Daniel speak of one like the Son of
Man coming with the clouds of heaven and being presented before the Ancient of
Days (Daniel
Did that happen on the day of the cross? Was Daniel speaking ahead of Christ being glorified by the sacrifice that He would make for His people?
Just
before He was to die on the cross Jesus told His disciples, "The hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified.” (John
12:23) The Hebrew writer tells us that we can see Jesus crowned with
glory and honor because of His suffering and death for everyone (Hebrews 2:9).
When the Son of Man appeared with the
clouds of heaven before the Ancient of Days, was He given His crown of
glory? Were those clouds of heaven the spirits
of the righteous made perfect by His sacrifice shouting glory to God because
they had been redeemed that day?
Was Jesus speaking of that event when He
spoke to the thief on the cross? The one
thief had confessed Him and asked Him to remember him when He came in His
kingdom. Jesus told him, "Truly
I say to you, today you shall be with Me in Paradise."
Jesus said those words in response to that
man’s request to remember him when He came in His kingdom. If the thief
was speaking of the day when Christ would be given His kingdom and if Jesus was
responding directly to that request, was He saying that He would be crowned and
given His kingdom that day in Paradise?
Jesus was glorified because He was
willing to die on the cross for God’s people. When He returns with the
clouds of heaven He will be revealed in clouds of glory. Paul said that
when Christ is revealed, “then you also will be revealed with Him in
glory.” (Colossians 3:4) All people will see Him returning with the
saints in clouds of glory.
When Christ told the thief that he would be
with Him in
Paul spoke of the time when he was “caught
up into Paradise"
God’s home is up in the third heaven. It
sounds like
There is no doubt about the fact that Jesus
went to
Paul seems to be saying that in his first
letter to the Thessalonians. He speaks of being hopeful that God will
sanctify them entirely and then he says, "may your spirit and soul and body
be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus
Christ." (1 Thessalonians 5:23)
Paul said that our being consists of our spirit
and soul and body. We hope to be preserved complete in all
three when He comes. Could that imply that some may not be made complete
when Christ returns?
We heard Paul tell how Christ will be returning
on that day and He will bring with Him those who have fallen asleep in Jesus
and He will raise the bodies of the dead in Christ (1 Thessalonians, chapter
4). They will then be caught up with the
living faithful to meet the Lord in the air.
If He will be bringing the spirits of the departed
faithful with Him to receive their resurrected bodies will the spirits of
others not be returning for their resurrected bodies? When Christ returns all who are in
the tombs will hear His voice and come forth (John
Will there be some who will not receive their
spirit and be sanctified entirely in spirit and soul and body? If so, then they will come forth dead because
the body without the spirit is dead (James
Regarding Christ's resurrection from the dead, Paul says, “But now Christ has been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who are asleep.” (1 Corinthians 15:20)
If Jesus was raised as the first fruits of
those who are asleep, then, there are later fruits. Christians are the
later fruits. They have also become children of God. Will they not
be sanctified entirely and made complete in spirit and soul and body when He
returns?
Between the time of their death and His coming
their bodies will be asleep in the tomb and their souls will be in Hades.
Will their spirits not have been with Jesus and seen
Did it not happen to Stephen when he died? He was brought before the council to answer for preaching against Moses (Acts, chapter 6). When he spoke of seeing the Son of Man standing at the right hand of God, they drug him out and stoned him.
Just before his body
fell asleep, he called on the Lord and said, "Lord Jesus,
receive my spirit!" His spirit went to be with Jesus when his body
fell asleep. Will it not happen for all of the faithful?
When we die, will our spirit see
The ones who fell in the wilderness
never arrived at their land because they were not faithful. If we are not
faithful, will we be left behind in our wilderness? If we remain
faithful, will we not continue to travel along with our tabernacle toward our
land?
Will
those who have been born again of
water and the Spirit be set free to blow where they wish after their
departure? Jesus spoke of those born of the Spirit, saying, "The wind blows where
it wishes and you hear the sound of it, but do not know where it comes from and
where it is going; so is everyone who is born of the Spirit" (John 3:8).
What did Jesus mean by that? Those who are born of the Spirit will somehow be hearing a sound like the wind blowing. Could it be like what happened on the Day of Pentecost? Remember what happened that day? It had not been long since Jesus had ascended back to the Father and the disciples were together in one place that day. That was when the Spirit came upon them.
Scripture says, “- suddenly there came from heaven a noise like a violent rushing wind, and it filled the whole house where they were sitting." (Acts 2:2) They were filled with the Holy Spirit and they began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit directed them.
We
remember what happened next. The Jews
that were gathered for the feast heard the sound and came to see what was
happening. By the power of the Spirit, the
apostles preached the first gospel message to the crowd of Jews that had
gathered and they preached it in the different languages of all of those who
were there. Each one heard the message
in his language.
Those
Jews were amazed and wondered what was happening. Peter stood up and told them that what was
happening had been foretold by the prophet, Joel. Joel had foretold how that in the “Last Days”
God would pour out His Spirit on all mankind and how they would prophesy and
have visions and dreams.
The Last Days had come and God’s Spirit was poured out on man that day and it come with a loud noise like the sound of a violent wind. Was that what Jesus was referring to? He said that the wind blows where it wants to blow and you can hear the sound of it but you don’t know where it is coming from or where it is going and so is everyone who is born of the Spirit.
Everyone who has
obeyed the gospel message has been born of the Spirit and they have been given
that same Spirit of God. That includes all
of the saved today. It came like the
sound of a rushing wind for those back then but it is not happening to us today. We can’t hear the sound of it. Why not?
Could He have been speaking of the spirits of the faithful who have been made one Spirit with Christ blowing about like the wind?
We can't blow where we wish; at least not while in the flesh. Is He speaking of the departed spirits that are in the cloud around us blowing where they wish?
Have
the spirits of the departed faithful been
blowing about to the four winds and surrounding God's people wherever
they have
been scattered over this earth? Are
they
blowing around among the scattered assembly of the church?
Some day, Christ will send forth His angels "with A GREAT TRUMPET and THEY WILL GATHER TOGETHER His elect from the four winds, "from one end of the sky to the other" (Matthew 24:31). Was He speaking of gathering from the four winds those born of the Spirit that have been blowing about like the wind?
Was Jesus saying the same thing through Ezekiel when he had seen that valley of dry bones become assembled into dead bodies? He was commanded to prophesy to the breath and tell the breath to "Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they come to life" (Ezekiel 37:9). He went on to say "I will put My Spirit within you and you will come to life, and I will place you on your own land".
When
we look at the
Hebrew wording and Strongs Definitions, we see the Hebrew word for
breath is
the same word as the word for Spirit. There
is something else to remember. The
one
who has been joined to the Lord is one Spirit with Him (1 Corinthians
Did
not the Old Testament prophets show us the
same picture that we read about in the New Testament?
Does
not Jesus speak to us from the Old
Testament scriptures, telling us of the cross and its resulting glory?
Peter said, "the prophets who prophesied of the grace that would come to you made careful searches and inquiries, seeking to know what person or time the Spirit of Christ within them was indicating as He predicted the sufferings of Christ and the glories to follow" (1 Peter 1:10-11).
When
the
prophets spoke of the cross and the glory to follow, it was really
Christ
speaking. When
Ezekiel spoke of that
valley of bodies being raised up and of God calling the breath from the
four
winds to breathe life into them and then of His bringing them into the
land of
promise, Christ was speaking and He is telling us about the glories to
come. He spoke
through the prophets what He would
later speak in the flesh and through the inspired writers of the New
Testament.
When Ezekiel spoke of how he was commanded to prophesy to the breath and tell the breath to "Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe on these slain, that they come to life", was he saying the same thing that Paul said when he spoke of Jesus returning?
In 1
Thessalonians,
chapter 4, Paul
said He will return,
bringing with Him those who had fallen asleep (In Jesus) and then He
will
resurrect their bodies and they will rise to meet Him. Will that not be the day
when Jesus will lead
them to their own land?
Did
not Ezekiel, show us the same picture in
chapter 1 of his book? Ezekiel
saw, a
storm wind coming with a great cloud and bright light and continuous
flashing
fire. Ezekiel will
say,
"As
the appearance
of the rainbow in the clouds on a rainy day"
and
"Such
was the
appearance of the likeness of the glory of the LORD".
Was Ezekiel
foretelling the Lord's return in
His glory clouds?
Could
the appearance
of the likeness of the LORD'S glory that Ezekiel saw be the same as
what Jesus
described about His return? Could
fire
flashing forth be,
"For
just like the lightning, when it flashes out of one part
of the sky, shines to the other part of the sky, so will the Son of Man
be in
His day"
(Luke 17:24). Is
Ezekiel
seeing Jesus sending forth His angels to gather His elect from the four
winds?
Whatever
Ezekiel saw it was not just some
prophet rambling on. This
was not just
Old Testament poetry.
It
was Christ
speaking through Ezekiel and He is telling of that day when He will return in glory. Ezekiel
was seeing Jesus coming on the clouds
of the sky.
When He comes He will be coming on the clouds and be
"revealed
from
heaven with His mighty angels in flaming fire" - - "when He comes to
be glorified in His saints on that day, and to be marveled at among all
who
have believed"
(2
Thessalonians
Ezekiel foretold it all again in chapter 34. In verse 12, he said, "I will care for My sheep and will deliver them from all the places to which they were scattered on a cloudy and gloomy day". It will be a cloudy and gloomy day for most but a day of glory for those who are called from the four winds to be revealed in clouds of glory.
Those
departed faithful are
there in the
clouds now but they can only be seen by faith. Some
day they will be revealed with Him in
glory. When it
happens, every eye will
see Him coming with the clouds of heaven ("BEHOLD,
HE IS COMING WITH THE
CLOUDS, and every eye will see Him , even those who pierced Him ; and
all the
tribes of the earth will mourn over Him"
- Revelation 1:7) .
Paul said that whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction (Romans 15:4). It was written so that we might have hope. We can have hope to live with Jesus in eternal glory but as our earthly tabernacle is still traveling toward our land can we not hope to continue to travel with it after we depart this life?
Jesus
will
keep His promise; He truly will be
with us to the end of the age. He will not leave us alone,
even
after
our
bodies fall asleep. He is with those who are serving in the
tabernacle outer room and He is with those departed ones who are in the
cloud around us.
So, how is it that the spirits of the departed saints are now in the clouds around us but Judgment Day is yet to come? How are the departed saints with Jesus, in a cloud of glory if they have not yet been judged? Is it possible that they have been judged?
We don't know all of the answers but everything God wanted us to know is in the scriptures. We do know that all scripture is God breathed and we know that JESUS IS LORD and He is the Word spoken in the Holy Scriptures. We know that all will be judged and we know that when He returns in clouds of glory, all bodies will be raised and the saints will ascend to meet Him in the air.
We also know that Jesus will
judge the
nations when He comes. He will
judge the nations in
body and soul and the bodies and souls of the damned will be condemned
and cast into
hell.
Will
the saints be judged before the
unbelieving nations are judged? Will
it
happen when we depart this life (Except for those who will still be
living when
He returns)? Was
Peter speaking of that
when he wrote, "For
it is time for judgment to begin with the household of
God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the outcome for those
who do
not obey the gospel of God"
(1
Peter
Peter
included himself
and he said that we, who
are of God's household, will be judged first, before unbelievers are
judged. He also
said the time had come for judgment of
the saints to begin. He made that statement nearly two
thousand years ago.
Did
judgment of the saints begin as the first century saints fell asleep? Were
their souls judged and separated in Hades?
Does the story of
the rich man and
Lazarus tell us about that (Luke
Remember, the rich
man died and found himself
in torment in Hades. The
poor man was in
comfort. The last
day had not come
because the rich man was concerned about his brothers, still living on
earth. The bodies
of those two men were still in the
tomb; only their souls would have been in Hades.
A judgment had happened to separate the souls of those two men and it happened before Jesus will come in glory and judge the nations. A judgment of the saints who are still living and serving will happen on that last day but the souls of the departed saints may be judged first to determine where they will dwell until the final resurrection and judgment takes place.
If
the departed faithful have already been judged and selected, then they
have
obtained
eternal life and will not
"come
into judgment but has already passed
out of death into life" (John
I have written this book so that we can listen to Jesus speak from His holy word as He tells us of His return in the clouds of heaven. We must be careful not to go beyond what is written and for fifty years I have tried to meet that requirement but I may have been cutting some scriptures short and not have believed they meant what they said.
Those,
way-out, scriptures are not, way-out, they are right on. Some are hard to understand
and we may not be
able to find answers to all of our questions but we must continue to
search the
scriptures. All
scripture is true and it
will happen, just as Jesus said it will happen.
I
must tell you that I am not from one of the
schools of theology. I
am a retired
engineer and have been a Christian most of my life. It
has only been within the last few
years that I have come to realize how God caused the old covenant
tabernacle
and its worship to happen to show us some things about our spiritual
worship
and our tabernacle.
You
will notice that I have used the New
American Standard translation for the copied scriptures in this book. You may wish to also read
the same scriptures
from the translation that you normally use.
Johnny
Rogers
Revised
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of the cross is from FreeFoto.com
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