36

Peter and the Apokalupsis

     The apostle Peter uses this Greek word apokalupsis all the way through his first letter, which is written to the “strangers throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, elect…”  He was writing to the elect, the chosen of God Almighty.  And these chosen ones are se-lected in agreement with the Father’s foreknowledge (1:2).  The Father knew beforehand who would be His spiritual offspring in the earth—who would be just like Him.

     And these chosen ones are set apart by His very Spirit whereby they obey Him (1:2).  This mercy is shed on the elect through which they obtain a hope within their hearts that someday soon they will, according to their Father’s promise, receive the eternal inheritance of im-mortality—that they might become His immortal children in a reality.

The Elect Are To Be Revealed in the Latter Days

     Peter goes on to say that through belief in God’s power, they are delivered from a certain physical death, “ready to be revealed in the last time.”  “Revealed” is translated from the Greek word apokalupto, meaning “unveiled.”  Yah’s sons and daughters will be prepared by Him to be unveiled, revealed, uncovered, made manifest, and made known to the world at the time He puts an end to the world system and establishes His kingdom here on earth.

     Later, Peter mentions that these elect “might be found unto  praise  and  honor  and  glory  at  the  appearing of Yahshua.”  The word “appearing” comes from the noun form apokalupsis, meaning the unveiling.  Here we see that the elect will be glorified at the “unveiling.”  This is the identical Greek word translated “manifestation” in Romans 8:17-19.  For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.  For the created universe waits with eager expectation for God’s sons to be revealed. NEB.  The creation waits in eager expectation for the sons of God to be revealed. NIV.

     Using apokalupsis, the unveiling, Paul says that God’s elect, His very own sons and daughters, will be “glorified together” if we suffer with Him (8:17).  He says that this glory “shall be revealed in us”!  And he uses that same root word apokalupto.  This glory will be unveiled in us.

     The whole creation is just waiting for the apokalupsis of the offspring of Yahweh. The whole creation is just biding time until the unveiling of the sons and daughters of the Most High here on earth.

     So now we see that the glory we are to shed forth at Christ’s “unveiling” or appearing, is the same glory that shall be revealed in us! 

The Apostles Spoke of Our Glorification During the Latter Days

     These apostles are trying in their letters  to communicate to us, the elect in these last days, that God Almighty has given a few humans the destiny of becoming His sons and daughters!  They will be changed!  Glorified!  Their old earthly bodies will be translated, transformed into a bright immortal covering that will no longer “veil” or cover or hide the Spirit within.  Now, at this present time we have this Spirit-treasure in these corruptible earthly bodies—bodies that can and will die!  But at the time of  the  apokalupsis,  we,  His  chosen  ones,  will  receive this change and become His immortal children—children of light.  This change is the manifestation or the revealing or the unveiling of the sons and daughters of God. 

     The elect are being asked by God to continue this sojourn here on earth, walking by the faith that their Father has given them and being tried and proven all along the way.   We are to walk on, believing the report about our Saviour, “having not seen” and yet, loving Him (I Peter 1:8).  And having persevered, the elect shall receive the end of their faith, “even the salvation of their souls.”

     Now, if we elect persist in looking at “salvation of our souls” through old leaven eyes, then we will miss this utterly astounding truth prophesied upon us here by the Spirit of God through the apostle Peter.  “Soul” is not to be seen as the “immortal soul” that is preached in Babylonian pulpits across the land.  “Man became a living soul” when he drew breath.  We are a soul; we do not have a soul.  Big difference.  The living, breathing physi-cal entity that we, as a spirit, reside in is the soul.  And this soul shall be saved at His unveiling or appearing when Yahshua returns in His glory, and “man is the glory of God.”  At this time will we be glorified with Him.  This is when our mortal souls “shall put on immortality.”  We are mortals now and are living souls, “for the soul that sins shall surely die.”

The Prophets of Old Inquired about This Granting of Immortality

     Peter continues to say that the prophets of old “inquired and searched diligently” for this salvation, this obtaining of immortality.  They spoke and wrote of the great favor that God would bestow upon His elect in these last days.  “The Spirit of Christ which was in them” showed them that Yahweh would come in human form in  the   future—that   this  man  would  hold  God fully in His vessel—that He would be called Immanuel, God with us—that He would be the Savior come in a flesh body and would take that body to the tree and sacrifice it to atone for all of our sins.  And that through these sufferings Christ would be glorified.  And that He would thereby open up this immortality, granting the glorification process to those who He had foreordained unto that blessed privilege of being His sons and daughters.  And they would then dwell with their Father and rule with Him in an immortal state of existence (1: 10-11).

     Peter goes on to say that these prophets of old were searching for the timing of this great event—the unveiling of the sons of God.  And it was revealed to them that it was not going to be in their own lifetimes, but in a time reaching far into the future.  It would be a time after Yahweh would pour Himself fully into a human being called the Messiah, the Saviour, the Lamb of God, the Son of God.  The prophets indeed did tell us in the scriptures about this immortality promised to God’s offspring. And Peter says that that message of the unveiling of the children of God has been reported unto us by the apostles who “have preached the gospel unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven” (1: 12).  Since “Ghost” and “Spirit” are translated from the same Greek word pneuma, we can see that the Spirit of the living Yahweh will preach and teach us of Yahweh’s crowning achievement, the unveiling of His immortal sons and daughters in these latter days. 

     Peter goes on and admonishes us to be sober-minded and “hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought to you at the revelation of Yahshua the Messiah” (13).  Here again we have the word apokalupsis, translated “re-velation.”  As we have seen, the word means a revealing, an unveiling of Yahshua in the latter days. 

     For the revelation or unveiling of Yahshua at the end time is  the unveiling  of not only Him, but also the rest of His body.  For He is the head, and we are His body.  When the head is unveiled, then so will His body be unveiled in glorious splendor. 

     Seeing we have this precious calling that has been given to us in our undeserving state, Peter admonishes us to sojourn here on earth “as obedient children.”  We are not to continue on acting like we did in our previous ignorant sinful state, but we are to be set apart for the Master’s use “in all manner of conversation.”  The words of our mouth should reflect the new life we have been given.  We should be obedient to His command in Leviticus 11:44, “Be ye holy, for I am holy.”  In other words, because you are now my children, walk as such, gratefully expressing out of your mouths the great things that the Father has bestowed upon us all (1: 15).

We Are To Walk As Sons and Daughters of the King of the Universe

     We are to walk here on earth in awe of this great God who has chosen us to be His sons and daughters, through no merit of our own.  Realizing that our old lives and our old conversations were vain, of no profit, received by the traditions from our earthly fathers.  We now realize that we have been bought back to our Father who has paid the ultimate fee for our deliverance from the bondage of sin and decay—“the precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish and without spot” (1: 17-19). 

     This sacrifice of the Lamb of God was ordered up “before the foundation of the world” but was unveiled “in these last times for you” (20).  It was only through the Lamb that we could ever believe in God, for we see God’s love in sacrificing the Lamb for us and then raising Him unto glory.  It is through this that we may put our faith and hope in Him that someday we will be unveiled as the immortal sons and daughters of God, His very body (21).

     So, because of all of this, Peter admonishes us to put away all the negatives of the old life—“all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings.”  We are to lay aside any bad intents on our part, any deceptions and insincerities or hypocritical actions, jealousies and slanderous speech (2: 1).

     But you are God’s “chosen generation”, his “royal priesthood”, his “holy nation”, his “peculiar people”—all the old titles of God’s people now belong to you.  It is for you now to demonstrate the goodness of him who has called you out of darkness into his amazing light.  I Peter 2: 9. Phillips.

     The apostle Peter, as were the rest of the apostles, was well aware of Yahweh’s plan of the glorification of a chosen precious few in the latter days.  He knew that God’s saving-us-from-the-moldering-grave was our only hope as human beings.  All of the prophets were involved in seeking out the details of God’s crowning achievement, the granting of immortality to His elect.  And now we must set our hearts and minds upon His business of doing this.  We must reach out by sharing this good news of His kingdom of life, light and immortality.  It is all in Him.  He has pre-written it all down, and He shall per-form it, for He has promised it, and He has made an oath, and He cannot lie.