4. In a Similitude

[Numbers 12:8] “With him will I speak mouth to mouth, even apparently, and not in dark speeches; and the similitude of the LORD shall he behold: wherefore then were ye not afraid to speak against my servant Moses?”

Notice here, the word “similitude” in “the similitude of the LORD”. The “similitude” is an appearance that is similar to something else.

 This “similitude” is seen with the eyes, which is the method [seeing involves vision].

 This “similitude” owns attributes, or properties, resembling a certain person [or an object].

Now, the absence of the similitude is the absence of vision. The people “heard” only a “voice” and “saw no similitude” … in Moses day: “And the LORD spake unto you out of the midst of the fire: ye heard the voice of the words, but saw no similitude; only ye heard a voice.” [Deuteronomy 4:12]

“Take ye therefore good heed unto yourselves; for ye saw no manner of similitude on the day that the LORD spake unto you in Horeb out of the midst of the fire: Lest ye corrupt yourselves, and make you a graven image, the similitude of any figure, the likeness of male or female,” [Deuteronomy 4:15-16].

The similitude of something may be “after” [in some manner] the similitude of something else.
For instance, our children growing up may be likened to plants [as plants growing up] or to a palace [where the corner stones are being polished]. “That our sons may be as plants grown up in their youth; that our daughters may be as corner stones, polished after the similitude of a palace:” [Psalm 144:12].

Now, a similitude can be so complete that it will describe a particular person to the point that recognition is successfully made. This truth is seen in the book of Daniel when Daniel realized [an appearance of] the Lord was standing before him: “And, behold, one like the similitude of the sons of men touched my lips: then I opened my mouth, and spake, and said unto him that stood before me, O my lord, by the vision my sorrows are turned upon me, and I have retained no strength.” [Daniel 10:16] The similitude causes the recognition.

God has in times past spoken to us using “similitudes” through the prophets. “I have also spoken by the prophets, and I have multiplied visions, and used similitudes, by the ministry of the prophets.” [Hosea 12:10]

Now a “vision” projects an “image”, and this “image” is a “similitude” of a person, a place, or a thing. This “similitude” describes a “figure” of this person, this place, or this thing.

Next, this thing is seen in the “figure” of the last Adam: “Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam's transgression, who is the figure of him that was to come.” [Romans 5:14] The “figure” of him that was to come was to be … after the “similitude” of someone who went before him.

In yet another similitude we have Melchisedec coming into view. Melchisedec is that similitude exactly describing Jesus Christ: “And it is yet far more evident: for that after the similitude of Melchisedec there ariseth another priest,” [Hebrews 7:15].

5. In a Secret Place

[Deuteronomy 27:15] “Cursed be the man that maketh any graven or molten image, an abomination unto the LORD, the work of the hands of the craftsman, and putteth it in a secret place. And all the people shall answer and say, Amen.”

It always begins in “a secret place”, then the thing will incubate [for a time], and then, when opportunity comes, it will move out into the open. Evil thoughts, plans and conspiracies begin in the “chambers of” “imagery”. It is visualized, and then the images are rehearsed over and over again till the very perfection of the thing is accomplished.

The “chambers of” “imagery” is the “secret place.”

And again, what incubates inside will eventually move to the outside to boldly make it known [public] to all men.

Once the thing is public it is then moved rapidly into action [the implementation of those evil thoughts, plans or conspiracies].

6. Emanates the Image of the Beast

“But hast done evil above all that were before thee: for thou hast gone and made thee other gods, and molten images, to provoke me to anger, and hast cast me behind thy back:” [1 Kings 14:9].

The imagery of the 21st century can only take you to one destination. This destination is the place of deception.

As Israel had made for themselves … gods, so the nations of the world are making for themselves … gods: “But ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images, the star of your god, which ye made to yourselves.” [Amos 5:26]

When all the nations, and all the people, have finally come together ... as one … in the spirit of “the god of this world” [who is the Devil according to Second Corinthians four: four], which time is in the near future and is located in the seven years of the tribulation [Matthew 24:21], they will be ready! They will be ready for what?

1. They will be ready to receive … a lie.
2. They will be ready to “make an image to the beast”.

Prophetically accurate is what is found in the book of Psalms: “Confounded be all they that serve graven images, that boast themselves of idols: worship him [God], all ye gods.” [Psalm 97:7]

Thus, the people of this world will come to this state. They will be confounded [in total confusion].

Whom you “worship” … is whom you will “trust”. In whom, or in what, you place your “trust” … will then become your god. If you worship a god, you thereby cast the true GOD behind your back!

[Now, do not let this happen to you!!!]

Question: What profit, or gain, is there in putting your “trust” into something you yourself, or man, has created, when your very motive in doing so … is to replace the God of Heaven and of the earth … from being your AUTHORITY.

God is asking you this question through his prophet, Habakkuk: “What profiteth the graven image that the maker thereof hath graven it; the molten image, and a teacher of lies, that the maker of his work trusteth therein, to make dumb idols?” [Habakkuk 2:18]

Answer: There is no profit! You will only reap DECEPTION!

If you place your “trust” in the “idol” [the images] of your Hollywood creation, you are set up to be deceived … lied to.

Now multiply the effect of all this imagery [or images] to many people, and you will have the total blindness [or deception] of all these people. The people will through imagery move to divination to look “in the liver.” “For the king of Babylon stood at the parting of the way, at the head of the two ways, to use divination: he made his arrows bright, he consulted with images, he looked in the liver.” [Ezekiel 21:21] Thus this king of Babylon is a type [a figure] in similitude of the BEAST in the book of Revelation.

Now, [even now] there is spreading over this planet [Earth] in the 21st century a pall. This pall is the spirit of deception. The Devil [or Satan] is very nearly ready to implement his personal prescription to all that dwell on the earth. “And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast; saying to them that dwell on the earth, that they should make an image to the beast, which had the wound by a sword, and did live. And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.” [Revelation 13:14-15]

What is more, the “image” has life. Now does this surprise you? The Devil has the “power” to “give life” to an “image”.

Man himself [along with the Devil] wants to counterfeit what the God of Heaven can do. To do what? To REPLACE the God of Heaven. The Devil has this same goal … to REPLACE the God of Heaven so that he may get the worship of men.

Here is the scene: “And the third angel followed them, saying with a loud voice, If any man worship the beast and his image, and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, The same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is poured out without mixture into the cup of his indignation; and he shall be tormented with fire and brimstone in the presence of the holy angels, and in the presence of the Lamb: And the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever: and they have no rest day nor night, who worship the beast and his image, and whosoever receiveth the mark of his name.” [Revelation 14: 9, 11]

The height of the imagery is now achieved. The “beast” will be trusted [or worshipped] in similitude as a god in the fulfillment of Isaiah chapter forty-two, verse seventeen: “They shall be turned back, they shall be greatly ashamed, that trust in graven images, that say to the molten images, Ye are our gods.” [Isaiah 42:17]

The “image of jealousy” [which is located in the book of Ezekiel, chapter eight], is the very image of the BEAST [which we see here in the book of Revelation, chapter fourteen], a GREAT ABOMINATION!

The conclusion to all of this … is this: Those who worship the beast, and his image, will follow Babylon in a great fall into Hell where they will have no rest day or night. “And, behold, here cometh a chariot of men, with a couple of horsemen. And he answered and said, Babylon is fallen, is fallen; and all the graven images of her gods he hath broken unto the ground.” [Isaiah 21:9]

Now pause here, and see this. There will be those who will refuse to worship the beast, and his image in the TRIBULATION that is coming to this earth very soon. See with me here in this scene, in the book of Revelation: “And I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire: and them that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the harps of God.” [Revelation 15:2]

7. The Culmination of Things in the Image of God

Now, mind you, there is a legitimate use for imagery. This thing is true for both God and man, for we are designed to receive images [imagery] through our eyes. Thus, we are said to have vision.
Having vision is healthy! “Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he.” [Proverbs 29:18]

In times past, God has spoken to men through visions [or in dreams]. For an example, see this account in Daniel, chapter two: “Thou, O king, sawest, and behold a great image. This great image, whose brightness was excellent, stood before thee; and the form thereof was terrible.” [Daniel 2:31]

The image that Nebuchadnezzar saw smitten in his dream ... was a dream from God.
God was visually showing Nebuchadnezzar how a stone flying from Heaven was going to destroy all of man’s kingdoms [at the end of the times of the Gentiles], and replace these same kingdoms with the Kingdom of Heaven [Daniel 2:31-35].

God uses imagery in communicating to man, which then gives rise to this question.

Question: What does the Scripture say about man’s use of imagery towards God?

Answer: If an image was to be made by man, then it was to be made expressly according to a pattern shown by God.

The Pattern: This fashioned image, as intended by God, was to point to HIM ... [and to HIM ONLY] as it was commanded to Moses [Numbers 21:8], or as it was shown to David and to Solomon concerning a certain place in the building of the temple. “But unto the place which the LORD your God shall choose out of all your tribes to put his name there, even unto his habitation shall ye seek, and thither thou shalt come:” [Deuteronomy 12:5] See also: [2 Chronicles 3:10, 2 Chronicles 33:7]

In the New Testament, the perfect image given to us [the believer] to steadily behold … is the image of the Son of God.

Now, this image, seen through the eyes of FAITH, is Jesus Christ, Who is God come in the flesh! See for this: “And without controversy great is the mystery of godliness: God was manifest in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, seen of angels, preached unto the Gentiles, believed on in the world, received up into glory.” [1 Timothy 3:16]

There is more to this image. Jesus Christ is “the express image” of GOD the FATHER. Read for this, in the book of Hebrews, chapter one: “Who being the brightness of his glory, and the express image of his person, and upholding all things by the word of his power, when he had by himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high;” [Hebrews 1:3]
What then should our response be as believers in Jesus Christ?

We are to be enthralled with this “image of the invisible God”, Jesus Christ: “Who is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every creature:” [Colossians 1:15]

Not only is Jesus Christ the express image of God, but the believers in Jesus Christ are destined to be “conformed to the image” of Jesus Christ. For this see the book of Romans, chapter eight, verse twenty-nine: “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren.” [Romans 8:29]

This image of His SON is called “the new man”: “And have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image of him that created him:” [Colossians 3:10]

It is a “heavenly image”: “And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.” [1 Corinthians 15:49]

The summation is this: A “vision” projects an “image” and this “image” is a “similitude” of a person, a place, or a thing, and this “similitude” describes the “figure” of this person, of this place, or this thing.

Are you ready for this?

Every true Christian is to be changed so as to “bear” the image of Jesus Christ : “But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.” [2 Corinthians 3:18

Summary: In the late nineteenth century three historical events occurred. These events brought America to the great continental divide. At the great continental divide we determined our future as a nation. We determined to become a nation of supermen.

[Supermen do not need the Bible, or the God of the Bible].

Let me summarize this whole thing.

The first event was the burst in imagery with the rolled photographic film process. [This was the birth of Hollywood.]

The second event was when David Josiah Brewer stated in his opinion as a Supreme Court judge: “These and many other matters which might be noticed, add a volume of unofficial declarations to the mass of organic utterances that this is a Christian nation.”

The third event was when a young man from Ames, Iowa, Billy Sunday, believed on the Lord Jesus Christ and began preaching all across America.

Things that may begin well do not always end well.

The United States of America began well but has not ended well.

In the beginning … the true believers in Jesus Christ affected [at the critical places and junctures] the men who were the framers of the founding documents of the United States.

As a result, the United States [in its beginnings] was predisposed towards the God of the Bible.

Therefore, the God of the Bible favored the United States with the bestowment of blessings upon this nation.

However, when this nation, through the course of time and events, became alienated to the God of the Bible, a spirit of jealousy was enabled to our own hurt. As a result, by the 1960’s, we were totally estranged from the God of the Bible through our love of the imagery of the night.

[The imagery of the night is from Hollywood.]

We had fastened onto those images that were invented in the secret places in similitude to the upcoming emanation of the image of the Beast.

The “image of jealousy” seen in the book of Ezekiel, chapter eight, verses three and five, is the very same image seen here in the book of Revelation, chapter thirteen.

Thus, we as supermen will meet the ant-lion, a type “of the beast”.

“Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six.” [Revelation 13:18]

And now I conclude this message with the antidote: “He which testifieth these things saith, Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come, Lord Jesus.” [Revelation 22:20]

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