Though this writing is for all believers in Christ, I will be using both scripture and the inspired words from our last day prophet Mrs. Ellen G White to illustrate what our Father showed me in a vision. Please be courteous in how you respond. Thank you and enjoy.
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Have you followed him in the garden of Gethsemane? Have you seen the bloody sweat bedew the ground?” {RH July 12, 1892, par. 6}
My name is James, a member of the Seventh Day Adventist Church, a brother in Christ.
The evening of August 12th, 2009, was a perfectly beautiful night here in Elk River MN..
There's this special place next to the lake I live near that I love to go to pray and think on the closing hours of Christ’s life. Over the years I’ve had wonderfully insightful and peaceful experiences there prompting me to go more and more until it was habit, but this was a special night. I felt a peace like no other surround me and the tokens of forgiveness were so strong I couldn’t resist, so I took a deep breath and bowed to pray.
In my meditation that evening I was imagining Jesus coming into the Garden of Eden saying “Adam, where are you”, after Adam had betrayed Him and was hiding. Then I imagined Holy angels leading Adam out of the gate
east of Eden because of this sin and show him what he had done to His creator.
The words of scripture and the Spirit of Prophecy help me to envision these things, and I remembered Ellen White wrote; “To Adam were revealed future important events, from his expulsion from Eden, to the Flood, and onward to the first advent of Christ upon the earth.” {SR 48.2} The angels had revealed to him the plan of salvation and encouraged him to participate so he wouldn’t have to die that day, as commanded; “in the day you eat of it you shall surely die”.
“As Adam was slaying the innocent victim" on the first altar erected outside of
Eden’s Eastern Gate, "it seemed to him that he was shedding the blood of the Son of God by his own hand…pointing to the great and perfect offering of God's dear Son. There appeared a star of hope to illuminate the dark and terrible future, and relieve it of its utter hopelessness and ruin.” {SR 50.2}
I was next impressed to imagine Jesus in the
Garden of Gethsemane east of Jerusalem's eastern gate, as He "realized His separation from His Father in consequence of bearing man's sin”, {2T 206.1} another theme my mind had recently been drawn to prior to that night .
The Holy Spirit attested to, and I fully realized at that moment, that the angels that day had led Adam to have a 'Garden of Gethsemane experience' at the first altar outside the Eastern Gate of Eden. It also dawned on my heart that longing sympathy for Adam and his family is why Jesus loved to go, as His custom was, to the Garden of Gethsemane. I had no idea what else there was to learn from these images from scripture, but I could sense the still small voice urging me on in this line of thought, to go further in this mental picture.
In support of the divine inspiration leading to this upcoming vision and subsequent study, recently I found this;
“The garden of Eden with its foul blot of disobedience is to be carefully studied and compared with the garden of Gethsemane where the world’s Redeemer suffered superhuman agony when the sins of the whole world were rolled upon Him.” {Ms 1, 1892}
I had never read that quote before, but felt drawn to these two subjects that night in 2009, as if lured in righteousness to find a deeper comprehension. A year later I found that perfect command by our prophet to prove that it is Gods will that we compare these two events. I can tell you, finding this quote made me so excited.
While envisioning these two premises; Adam outside of Eden’s Eastern Gate and Jesus outside Jerusalem’s Eastern Gate, I was impressed that God wanted me to go further in this image. So I responded by praying, “Please Father, show me more”. Then immediately I had a vision…
I was shown Jesus on His hands and knees in the Garden of Gethsemane, covered in bloody sweat, and simultaneously saw an all Red Heifer super imposed over Him. I was privileged to be shown by our Father that Jesus fulfilled the mysterious Red Heifer sacrifice in the Garden of Gethsemane.
Every one of the commanded sacrificial offerings such as the Passover lamb, and the Atonement’s ‘goat for the Lord’, has major significance to help us peer into the life and ministry of Christ. What a wonderful experience to be shown a forgotten sacrifice illuminating an added dimension to the complete knowledge of the plan of salvation.
In the vision; Jesus was in a deep ravine, looking up and west towards Jerusalem’s Eastern Gate, in the same proximity of the first altar erected by Adam outside of Eden’s eastern gate. “Large blood drops were forced from his pores moistening the sods of Gethsemane,” {ST, 12/2/1897} and there was no immediate reply from the Father in answer to His prayers. The gates of heaven were closed to Him. He had left the heavenly city’s eastern gate, to cross into the darkness of Hades, the place of the spiritually dead, to save me from my sinful nature. He was taking my part in the second death, with evil angels pressing the guilt of all my sins upon Him, as if resurrected after the thousand years with no help from the Father, Holy Spirit or heavenly angels.
This vision was so perfectly clear. I ran home to go on-line to see everything I could about the Red Heifer in Scriptures and the Spirit of Prophecy. I knew nothing on this subject except the name, which I had read in passing with no comprehension of its fulfilled meaning.
When I got home, while my computer was warming up, I turned on my TV to what I thought was the Seventh Day Adventist TV channel ‘3 ABN’, but turned out to be another Christian cable station. To my total astonishment, they where talking about the Red Heifer! I had never even heard a sermon about it before and had never put any thought into the significance of this guilt offering/ cleansing ceremony, but all of the sudden I was surrounded by the Red Heifer image. It was so imposing, and so significant.
The program that day was from a Judeo-Christian organization, and although they helped in my knowledge historically, immediately in my heart God showed me they are wrong about their interpretation of the future. The temple does not need to be rebuilt and they do not need to find another Red Heifer, because it’s already been sacrificed in the Garden of Gethsemane.
All I had been groomed for in my walk of faith was coming to a climax, warning and guiding my thoughts, leading me to perfect truth in answer to my prayer of faith.
The scriptures at first glance have very little to say about the Red Heifer; but the Spirit of Prophecy shows where this message is hidden throughout scripture, expounding upon it, having a lot to say about her. This also fits with the ‘present truth’ element of this, most mysterious of all the sacrificial offerings. Combined, there is less than half a page in scattered Scriptures about her, but several chapters dedicated in the Spirit of Prophecy.
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Some may look upon this slaying of the (Red) heifer as a meaningless ceremony, but it was done by the command of God and bears a deep significance that has not lost its application to the present time.” {4T 122.1}
Continued on this blog....
http://redheifersbloodysweat.blogspot.com/2011/12/red-heifer.html
