19 June 2023
O LORD, for your servant’s sake, and according to your own heart, have you done all this greatness, in making known all these great things.
The above is David, in 1 Chronicle 17:19 (numbers speaking this time of the ordinal perfection of God’s people by His judgment), thanking the LORD for the things He’s revealed to give Him complete understanding of the future kingdom.
1 Chronicles 17
20 O LORD, there is none like you, neither is there any God beside you, according to all that we have heard with our ears [shama’ ‘ozen – when we paid close attention and obeyed].
21 And what one nation in the earth is like your people Israel, whom God went to redeem [paqad – visited as the Chief Overseer of the earth] to be his own people, to make you a name of greatness and terribleness, by driving out nations [who don’t know you and now possess the earth You gave us] from before [paniym – by Your presence manifested with] your people whom you have redeemed out of Egypt [from the oppression of the tyrants holding them]?
22 For your people Israel did you make your own people forever; and you, LORD, became their God.
23 Therefore now, LORD, let the thing that you have spoken concerning your servant and concerning his house be established [kuwn – raised to stand] forever [‘owlam], and do as you have said.
24 Let it even be established, that your name may be magnified forever, saying, The LORD of hosts [a man of war] is the God of Israel, even a God to Israel: and let the house of David your servant be established before you [paniym – by Your presence].
25 For you, O my God, have told your servant that you will build him a house: therefore your servant has found in his heart to pray before you [paniym – to Your manifested presence with us].
26 And now, LORD, you are God, and have promised this goodness unto your servant:
27 Now, therefore, let it please you to bless the house of your servant, that it may be before you [paniym – manifesting Your presence therein] forever [‘owlam]: for you bless, O LORD, and it shall be blessed forever [‘owlam].
Earlier in the chapter, Spiritually speaking of the perfection, the completion, through Nathan (the giver {of God’s word as received}] manifesting His presence, the LORD tells David:
1 Chronicles 17
1 And it shall come to pass, when your days be expired that you must go to be with your fathers, that I will raise up your seed after you, which shall be of your sons; and I will establish his kingdom.
12 He shall build me a house, and I will establish [kuwn] his throne forever [‘owlam].
13 I will be his father, and he shall be my son: and I will not take my mercy away from him, as I took it from him that was before you [paniym – Saul {desired: chosen by the people} in whom My presence was manifested]:
14 But I will settle him in my house and in my kingdom forever [‘owlam]: and his throne shall be established [kuwn – raised to stand] for evermore [‘owlam].
So, many ignorant voices oppose this message of the LORD, saying the above was fulfilled in Solomon naturally, and the LORD Jesus Spiritually. The LORD Himself tells us these were not fulfillments, not the completion, not the final perfection when the throne is established (raised to stand forever). The reason is the time of ignorance, darkness covering the deep, wasn’t ended, and the generation that immediately followed these two moments of great light quickly backslid into the same corruption (putting their abominations, the creations of men, in the place of the holy).
This pattern of corruption occurring quickly after the work of constituting a perfect understanding is evident in our time in the degeneration since our Declaration of Independence, Constitution, and Bill of Rights, until now when the whole lump (the principles of inalienable God-given rights, self-evident truths, and the government instituted under the law of nature and natures God to protect and defend them) is leavened by men’s corruption (as were the Law, the King-line/kingdom, and the Testament of the LORD Jesus).
Luke 19 [the judgment of the Chief Overseer]
37 And when he was come nigh, even now at the descent of the mount of Olives, the whole multitude of the disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen;
38 Saying, Blessed be the King that comes in the name [manifesting the identity] of the LORD: peace in heaven, and glory in the highest.
39 And some of the Pharisees [who’ve scattered the flock] from among the multitude said unto him, Master, rebuke your disciples [Your students].
40 And he answered and said unto them, I tell you that, if these should hold their peace, the stones would immediately cry out.
41 And when he was come near, he beheld the city, and wept over it,
42 Saying, If you had known, even you, at least in this your day, the things which belong unto your peace! but now they are [by the ignorance learned from those who’ve darkened your minds and scatter the ONE BODY] hid from your eyes.
43 For the days shall come upon you, that your enemies shall cast a trench about you, and compass you round, and keep you in on every side,
44 And shall lay you even with the ground, and your children within you; and they shall not leave in you one stone upon another [that shall not be scattered]; because you knew not the time of your visitation [episkope – time of the Chief Overseer coming to reset the foundations of the earth].
45 And he went into the temple, and began to cast out them that sold [salvation] therein, and them that [think it can be] bought;
46 Saying unto them, It is written, My house is the house of prayer [the conversation with the LORD, above His mercy seat where His presence is manifested]: but you have made it a den of thieves [selling salvation and robbing the treasury to consume it into your own belly].
47 And he taught daily in the temple. But the chief priests and the scribes and the chief of the people sought to destroy him,
48 And could not find what they might do: for all the people were very attentive to hear him.
As previously discussed, and thereby we know and understand, the four times used Greek word episkope means “inspection (for relief); by implication, superintendence; specially, the Christian “episcopate”:–the office of a “bishop”, bishoprick, visitation.” It is the equivalent of the Hebrew word pqaddah (from paqad), which we know from Acts 1:20, when Luke records Peter quoting from Psalms 109:8.
Acts 1
20 For it is written in the book of Psalms, “Let his habitation be desolate, and let no man dwell therein” [from Psalms 69:25]: and his bishopric [episkope] let another take [from Psalms 109:8].
Peter (here in Acts 1:20) speaks of Judas’ (Judah’s) replacement at the time of “visitation” he speaks of, in 1 Peter 2:12, in which he also describes the difference: when the LORD comes to “punish” (paqad) all those who refuse to obey this gospel, and is admired in all those who do believe it is Him.
1 Peter 2
3 If so be you have tasted [in this word of God] that the LORD is gracious.
4 To whom coming, as unto a living stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, and precious,
5 You also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.
6 Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Zion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believes on him shall not be confounded.
7 Unto you therefore which believe he is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner,
8 And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offene, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed.
9 But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a peculiar people; that you should show forth the praises of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvelous light;
10 Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.
11 Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul;
12 Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation [episkope – the day the LORD comes as the Chief Overseer of the earth].
2 Thessalonians 1
2 Grace unto you, and peace, from God our Father and the LORD Jesus Christ.
3 We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is meet [appropriate], because that your faith [in the LORD with us] grows exceedingly, and the charity [agape – receiving and giving this Word of God from His mouth, by which man lives] of every one of you all toward each other abounds;
4 So that we ourselves glory in you in the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that you endure:
5 Which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment of God, that you may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God, for which you also suffer:
6 Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you;
7 And to you who are troubled rest with us, when the LORD Jesus shall be revealed from heaven with his mighty angels,
8 In flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God, and that obey not the gospel of our LORD Jesus Christ:
9 Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the LORD, and from the glory of his power;
10 When he shall come to be glorified in his saints [in this day of the visitation], and to be admired in all them that believe (because our testimony among you was believed [to be the Word of God to you, as it is]) in that day.
Psalms 69
6 Let not them that wait on you, O LORD God of hosts, be ashamed for my sake: let not those that seek you be confounded for my sake, O God of Israel.
7 Because for your sake I have borne reproach; shame has covered my face.
8 I am become a stranger unto my brethren, and an alien unto my mother’s children.
9 For the zeal of your house has eaten me up; and the reproaches of them that reproached you are fallen upon me.
10 When I wept, and chastened my soul with fasting, that was to my reproach.
11 I made sackcloth also my garment; and I became a proverb [a mystery] to them.
12 They that sit in the gate speak against me; and I was the song of the drunkards.
13 But as for me, my prayer is unto you, O LORD, in an acceptable time: O God, in the multitude of your mercy hear me, in the truth of your salvation.
14 Deliver me out of the mire [the understanding men have clouded by their ways], and let me not sink: let me be delivered from them that hate me, and out of the deep waters [wherein the wicked are drowned].
15 Let not the waterflood [of corrupt men’s words] overflow me, neither let the deep swallow me up [into the belly of their hell], and let not the pit shut her mouth upon me [as their words hold others in their graves].
16 Hear me, O LORD; for your lovingkindness is good: turn unto me according to the multitude of your tender mercies.
17 And hide not your face [Your presence] from your servant; for I am in trouble: hear me speedily.
18 Draw nigh unto my soul, and redeem it: deliver me because of my enemies.
19 You have known my reproach, and my shame, and my dishonor: my adversaries are all before you.
20 Reproach has broken my heart; and I am full of heaviness: and I looked for some to take pity, but there was none; and for comforters, but I found none.
21 They gave me also gall [their venom] for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar [their bitterness] to drink.
22 Let their table become a snare before them: and that which should have been for their welfare, let it become a trap.
23 Let their eyes be darkened, that they see not; and make their loins continually to shake.
24 Pour out your indignation upon them, and let your wrathful anger take hold of them.
25 Let their habitation [of the current crop of corrupt leaders] be desolate; and let none dwell in their tents.
26 For they persecute him whom you have [sent to be] smitten [by them]; and they talk to the grief of those whom you have [sent to be] wounded [by them].
27 Add iniquity unto their iniquity: and let them not come into your righteousness.
28 Let them be blotted out of the book of the living, and not be written with the righteous.
29 But I am poor and sorrowful: let your salvation, O God, set me up on high.
30 I will praise the name of God with a song [repeating the words He’s put in my mouth, as He commands], and will magnify him with thanksgiving.
Psalms 109
1 Hold not your peace, O God of my praise;
2 For the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitful are opened against me: they have spoken against me with a lying tongue.
3 They compassed me about also with words of hatred; and fought against me without a cause.
4 For my love they are my adversaries: but I give myself unto prayer.
5 And they have rewarded me evil for good, and hatred for my love.
6 Set you a wicked man over him [as it is]: and let Satan stand at his right hand [as he does].
7 When he shall be judged, let him be condemned: and let his prayer become sin.
8 Let his days be few; and let another take his office [pquddah].
9 Let his children be fatherless, and his wife a widow.
10 Let his children be continually vagabonds, and beg: let them seek their bread also out of their desolate places.
11 Let the extortioner catch all that he has; and let the strangers spoil his labor.
12 Let there be none to extend mercy unto him: neither let there be any to favor his fatherless children.
13 Let his posterity be cut off; and in the generation following let their name be blotted out.
14 Let the iniquity of his fathers be remembered with the LORD; and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out.
15 Let them be before the LORD continually, that he may cut off the memory of them from the earth.
16 Because that he remembered not to show mercy, but persecuted the poor and needy man, that he might even slay the broken in heart.
When Peter and Paul speak of the day of the LORD’s vengeance as the time of the visitation, they are referring to the LORD’s decreed appointed time (mare’ choq – merchaq) to end the corrupt earth and begin the new, wherein dwells righteousness.
Isaiah 10
1 Woe unto them that decree unrighteous decrees, and that write grievousness which they have prescribed;
2 To turn aside the needy from judgment, and to take away the right from the poor of my people, that widows may be their prey, and that they may rob the fatherless!
3 And what will you do in the day of visitation [pquddah], and in the desolation which shall come from far [merchaq – in this appointed time I have decreed]? to whom will you flee for help? and where will you leave your glory?
4 Without me they shall bow down under the prisoners, and they shall fall under the slain. For all this his anger is not turned away, but his hand is stretched out still.
5 O Assyrian [communists – Obama, his she-man, and their useful idiot son Brandon now, in power, confederate with China, and other enemies foreign and domestic], the rod of my anger, and the staff in their hand is my indignation.
6 I will send him against a hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.
7 Howbeit he means not so, neither does his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy and cut off nations not a few.
8 For he says, Are not my princes [the corrupt infesting all institutions] altogether kings?
Jeremiah 8
3 And death shall be chosen rather than life by all the residue of them that remain of this evil family, which remain in all the places whither I have driven them, says the LORD of hosts.
4 Moreover you shall say unto them, Thus says the LORD; Shall they fall, and not arise? shall he turn away, and not return?
5 Why then is this people of Jerusalem slid back by a perpetual backsliding? they hold fast deceit, they refuse to return.
6 I hearkened and heard, but they spoke not aright: no man repented him of his wickedness, saying, What have I done? every one turned to his course, as the horse rusheth into the battle.
7 Yea, the stork in the heaven knows her appointed times [mow’ed]; and the turtle and the crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming; but my people know not the judgment of the LORD.
8 How do you say, We are wise, and the law of the LORD is with us? Lo, certainly in vain made he it; the pen of the scribes is in vain.
9 The wise men are ashamed, they are dismayed and taken: lo, they have rejected the word of the LORD; and what wisdom is in them?
10 Therefore will I give their wives unto others, and their fields to them that shall inherit them: for every one from the least even unto the greatest is given to covetousness, from the prophet even unto the priest every one deals falsely.
11 For they have healed the hurt of the daughter of my people slightly, saying, Peace, peace; when there is no peace.
12 Were they ashamed when they had committed abomination? nay, they were not at all ashamed, neither could they blush: therefore shall they fall among them that fall: in the time of their visitation [pquddah] they shall be cast down, says the LORD.
13 I will surely consume them, says the LORD: there shall be no grapes on the vine, nor figs on the fig tree, and the leaf shall fade; and the things that I have given them shall pass away from them.
14 Why do we sit still? assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the defensed cities, and let us be silent there: for the LORD our God has put us to silence, and given us water of gall [the venomous word of our enemies] to drink, because we have sinned against the LORD.
15 We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time of health, and behold trouble!
16 The snorting of his horses was heard from Dan [the sound of war and the judgment of God]: the whole land trembled at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones; for they are come, and have devoured the land, and all that is in it; the city, and those that dwell therein.
17 For, behold, I will send serpents, cockatrices, among you [with venom in their mouths], which will not be charmed, and they shall bite you, says the LORD.
18 When I would comfort myself [My ONE BODY] against sorrow, my heart is faint in me [My ONE BODY].
19 Behold the voice of the cry of the daughter of my people because of them that dwell in a far country [merchaq – this decreed time of the end]: Is not the LORD in Zion? is not her king in her? Why have they provoked me to anger with their graven images [the corruption they’ve created and put in My place], and with strange vanities [worthless ways that are far from Mine]?
20 The harvest is past, the summer is ended, and we are not saved.
21 For the hurt of the daughter of my people am I hurt; I am black [My ONE BODY is ignorant and dead]; astonishment has taken hold on me [all My scattered and lost people].
22 Is there no balm in Gilead [is there no cure in this life-giving word, the testimony from the LORD’s mouth, by which man lives]; is there no physician there? why then is not the health of the daughter of my people recovered? [It’s because they reject this word and don’t know this time of the visitation.]
Jeremiah 31
10 Hear the word of the LORD, O you nations, and declare it in the isles [the dry places among the people without this word of God] afar off [merchaq – this appointed time the LORD decreed], and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd does his flock.
11 For the LORD has redeemed Jacob, and ransomed him from the hand of him that was stronger than he.
12 Therefore they shall come and sing [repeat this word as received. – when will this sink in? how long will you rebel?] in the height of Zion, and shall flow together [into His ONE BODY] to the goodness of the LORD, for wheat, and for wine, and for oil, and for the young of the flock and of the herd: and their soul shall be as a watered garden; and they shall not sorrow any more at all.
13 Then shall the virgin [who are not defiled by the old corruption of wicked men] rejoice in the dance, both young men and old together: for I will turn their mourning into joy, and will comfort them, and make them rejoice from their sorrow.
14 And I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness, and my people shall be satisfied with my goodness, says the LORD.
15 Thus says the LORD; A voice was heard in Ramah, lamentation, and bitter weeping; Rachel weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children, because they were not [yet born again, because they are ignorant of this appointed time].
16 Thus says the LORD; Refrain your voice from weeping, and your eyes from tears: for your work [giving this word of the LORD as received] shall be rewarded, says the LORD; and they shall come again from the land of the enemy.
17 And there is hope in your end [‘achariyth – these last days], says the LORD, that your children shall come again to their own border.
18 I have surely heard Ephraim [God’s people, Rachel’s children, in this generation] bemoaning himself thus; You have chastised [corrected] me, and I was chastised, as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke [refusing to be joined with the LORD in this work]: turn you me, and I shall be turned; for you are the LORD my God.
19 Surely after that I was turned, I repented; and after that I was instructed, I smote upon my thigh: I was ashamed, yea, even confounded, because I did bear the reproach of my [ignorant] youth.
20 Is Ephraim my dear son? is he a pleasant child? for since I spoke against him, I do earnestly remember him still: therefore my bowels are troubled for him; I will surely have mercy upon him, says the LORD.
21 Set you up waymarks [tsiyuwn – the burial place of the man of God], make you high heaps: set your heart toward the highway, even the way which you went: turn again, O virgin of Israel, turn again to these your cities.
22 How long will you go about, O you backsliding daughter? for the LORD has created a new thing in the earth, A woman shall compass [gather around] a man.
Isaiah 46
1 Bel bows down [the idols men have created and put in My place], Nebo [the false prophets] stoops, their idols were upon the beasts, and upon the cattle: your carriages were heavy loaden; they are a burden to the weary beast [unbearable to men without My Spirit].
2 They stoop, they bow down together; they could not deliver the burden, but themselves are gone into captivity [in confusion, beyond Babylon].
3 Hearken unto me, O house of Jacob, and all the remnant of the house of Israel, which are borne by me from the belly [of hell], which are carried from the womb [born again by coming out of confusion]:
4 And even to your old age I am he; and even to hoar hairs will I carry you: I have made, and I will bear; even I will carry, and will deliver you.
5 To whom will you liken me, and make me equal, and compare me, that we may be like?
6 They lavish gold out of the bag, and weigh silver in the balance, and hire a goldsmith; and he makes it a god: they fall down, yea, they worship.
7 They bear him upon the shoulder, they carry him, and set him in his place, and he stands; from his place shall he not remove: yea, one shall cry unto him, yet can he not answer, nor save him out of his trouble [tsarah – tribulation].
8 Remember this, and show yourselves men: bring it again to mind, O you transgressors.
9 Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me,
10 Declaring the end [‘achariyth – the last days] from the beginning [the new day], and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand [My purpose shall rise], and I will do all my pleasure:
11 Calling a ravenous bird [the eagle to the carcass of the dead body of Christ] from the east [from the sunrise of this new day], the man [who will be compassed by the woman] that executes my counsel from a far country [merchaq – the appointed time, which the LORD has decreed]: yea, I have spoken it, I will also bring it to pass; I have purposed it, I will also do it.
12 Hearken unto me, you stouthearted [in power], that are far from righteousness:
13 I bring near my righteousness; it shall not be far off [rachaq – not be an unrighteous decree], and my salvation shall not tarry [‘achar – not put off to a latter day]: and I will place [nathan – give] salvation in Zion for Israel my glory.
Isaiah 9
5 For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood; but this shall be with burning and fuel of fire.
6 For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counsellor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.
7 Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even forever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform this.
8 The LORD sent a word into Jacob, and it has lighted upon Israel.
The word tsiyuwn (from tsiyah), rendered “waymarks” in Jeremiah 31:21 above, only appears two other times. It’s a tombstone, so those seeing it understand who is buried therein. It is meant to refer us to the life that springs from this ground, upon whose shoulders the church and state governments shall rest.
Isaiah 53
1 Who has believed our report [shmuw’ah – heard and obeyed the voice preaching these good tidings as the voice of Jehovah, as it is]? and to whom [thereby] is the arm of the LORD revealed?
2 For he shall grow up before him as a tender plant, and as a root out of a dry [tsiyah – this way marker] ground [‘erets – in the earth]: he has no form nor comeliness; and when we shall see him, there is no beauty that we should desire him.
3 He is despised and rejected of men; a man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief: and we hid as it were our faces from him; he was despised, and we esteemed him not.
4 Surely he has borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows: yet we did esteem him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted.
5 But he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities: the chastisement of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes we are healed.
6 All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the LORD has laid on him the iniquity of us all.
7 He was oppressed, and he was afflicted, yet he opened not his mouth: he is brought as a lamb to the slaughter, and as a sheep before her shearers is dumb, so he opens not his mouth [hiding His presence from those who see Him in the flesh].
8 He was taken from prison and from judgment: and who shall declare his generation? for he was cut off out of the land of the living: for the transgression of my people was he stricken.
9 And he made his grave with the wicked, and with the rich in his death; because he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.
10 Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he has put him to grief: when you shall make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand.
11 He shall see of the travail of his soul, and shall be satisfied: by his knowledge shall my righteous servant justify many; for he shall bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the spoil with the strong; because he has poured out his soul unto death: and he was numbered with the transgressors; and he bare the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.
Jeremiah 50
20 In those [last] days, and in that [appointed and decreed] time, says the LORD, the iniquity of Israel shall be sought for, and there shall be none; and the sins of Judah, and they shall not be found: for I will pardon them whom I reserve [sha’ar – left alive: remain awake].
21 Go up against the land of Merathaim [the second rebellion of the fallen angels: messengers], even against it, and against the inhabitants of Pekod [paqad – of the place of the visitation by the Chief Overseer]: waste and utterly destroy after them, says the LORD, and do according to all that I have commanded you.
22 A sound of battle is in the land, and of great destruction.
23 How is the hammer [that beat the people] of the whole earth cut asunder and broken! how is Babylon become a desolation among the nations!
24 I have laid a snare for you, and you are also taken, O Babylon, and you were not aware: you are found, and also caught, because you have strived against the LORD.
25 The LORD has opened his armory, and has brought forth the weapons of his indignation: for this is the work of the LORD God of hosts in the land of the Chaldeans [those who’ve used their deception to manipulate and control people into destroying themselves].
26 Come against her from the utmost border, open her storehouses: cast her up as heaps, and destroy her utterly: let nothing of her be left.
27 Slay all her bullocks; let them go down to the slaughter: woe unto them! for their day is come, the time of their visitation [pquddah – the punishment by the Chief Overseer of the earth].
28 The voice of them that flee and escape out of the land of Babylon [the confusion that has ruled the world into insanity], to declare in Zion the vengeance of the LORD our God, the vengeance of his temple.
The final time the word episkope appears is in 1 Timothy 3:1 as Paul speaks to Timothy about the office of a “Bishop,” which he also describes using the word episkopos. Timothy, sometime after this, becomes the Bishop (episkopos) of Ephesus. It is to him and others Paul speaks, in Acts 20, as in the letters to Timothy (a chosen soldier of God), warning of the apostasy, the falling away, that would very quickly come after his (Paul’s) good fight of faith ends in his death.
Acts 20
26 Wherefore I take you to record this day, that I am pure from the blood of all men [because I have given the warning of the coming vengeance as the LORD commanded me].
27 For I have not shunned to declare unto you all the counsel of God.
28 Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost has made you overseers [episkopos], to feed the church of God, which he has purchased with his own blood [the necessary sacrifice to give the message from God as received].
29 For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock [scattering the sheep, not leaving one stone upon another].
30 Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.
31 Therefore watch, and remember, that by the space of three years I ceased not to warn every one night and day with tears.
32 And now, brethren, I commend you to God, and to the word of his grace, which is able to build you up [as the living stones of His habitation], and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified [by Him made and declared holy].
33 I have coveted no man’s silver, or gold, or apparel [as have the den of robbers and thieves].
34 Yea, you yourselves know, that these hands have ministered unto my necessities, and to them that were with me.
35 I have shown you all things, how that so laboring you ought to support the weak [in need of this strength: understanding that shields us from the words of the wicked], and to remember the words of the LORD Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give [this word as received from God] than to receive.
1 Peter 2
13 Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the LORD’s sake: whether it be to the king [I Am – the LORD has now sent to oversee the governments of church and state], as supreme;
14 Or unto governors [leaders under the king], as unto them that are sent by him [the LORD] for the punishment of [ekdikesis – vengeance upon] evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well.
15 For so is the will of God, [His vengeance is] that with well doing you may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men:
16 As free, and not using your liberty for a cloak of maliciousness [to do evil, as is the way of the current corrupt government], but as the servants of God.
17 Honor all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honor the king [I Am].
18 Servants, be subject to your masters with all fear; not only to the good and gentle, but also to the froward.
19 For this is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfully.
20 For what glory is it, if, when you be buffeted for your faults, you shall take it patiently? but if, when you do well, and suffer for it, you take it patiently, this is acceptable with God.
21 For even hereunto were you called: because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow his steps:
22 Who did no sin, neither was guile [fraud] found in his mouth:
23 Who, when he was reviled, reviled not again; when he suffered, he threatened not; but committed himself to him that judges righteously:
24 Who his own self bare our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness: by whose stripes you were healed.
25 For you were as sheep going astray; but are now returned unto the Shepherd and Bishop [episkopos] of your souls.
The idea of the episkopos is understood in the once-used word skopos, meaning, “from skeptomai (to peer about (“skeptic”); perhaps akin to 4626 [skapto – to dig] through the idea of concealment; compare 4629); a watch (sentry or scout), i.e. (by implication) a goal:–mark.” It (skopos) means, to skeptically, not satisfied with what is seen superficially, dig for what is concealed; and compounded with epi, meaning superimposition, it tells of what is Found in the word’s (skopos’) one use.
Philippians 3
8 Yea doubtless, and I count all things [that were concealed in my own ignorance] but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my LORD: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them [my own ideas and ways] but dung, that I may win Christ,
9 And be FOUND in him, not having my own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ [the LORD in the flesh revealing all things real], the righteousness which is of God by faith:
10 That I may know him, and the power of his resurrection, and the fellowship of his sufferings, being made conformable unto his death [dying to the flesh mind so all things Spiritual can be revealed];
11 If by any means I might attain unto the resurrection of the dead.
12 Not as though I had already attained, either were already perfect [because perfection is reserved for our time, understanding those before us would not be made perfect without us]: but I follow after, if that I may apprehend that for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus.
13 Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended: but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before,
14 I press toward the mark [skopos – seeing as the LORD sees] for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.
15 Let us therefore, as many as be perfect, be thus minded: and if in anything you be otherwise minded, God shall reveal [apokalupto – in the apocalypse] even this unto you [when He comes as the Chief Overseer of the earth].
16 Nevertheless, whereto we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing.
17 Brethren, be followers together of me, and mark them which walk so as you have us for an example.
18 (For many walk [their own way], of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even weeping, that they are the enemies of the cross of Christ:
19 Whose end is destruction, whose God is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame, who mind earthly things.)
20 For our conversation is in heaven [in full understanding at His mercy seat, in the conversation in which He manifests His presence]; from whence also we look for the Savior, the LORD Jesus Christ:
21 Who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious [ONE] body, according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things unto himself.
Psalms 67
1 God be merciful unto us, and bless us; and cause his face [presence] to shine upon us; Selah.
2 That your way may be known upon earth, your saving health among all nations.
3 Let the people praise you, O God; let all the people praise you.
4 O let the nations be glad and sing for joy: for you shall judge the people righteously, and govern the nations upon earth. Selah.
5 Let the people praise you, O God; let all the people praise you.
6 Then shall the earth yield her increase; and God, even our own God, shall bless us.
7 God shall bless us; and all the ends of the earth shall fear him.
