As we have studied before, Scripture points to two levels of righteousness. The first level focuses on fulfilling your personal obligations and being righteous yourself; the second level focuses on making voluntary sacrifices to enable the righteousness of others. As you can see, the "aesthetic" level refers to someone who is not interested in righteousness, full stop, and who is only interested in blessing himself. The "ethical" level refers to those who enter level-1 righteousness, and the "religious" level refers to those who cross over "Adam's bridge", from level-1 righteousness into level-2 righteousness.

As you can see above, the Lord had us quote several passages from the so-called "Sermon on the Mount". This is no spiritual coincidence. If you study the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew chapters 5 through 7) carefully, you will see that its central message is the transition from level-1 to level-2 righteousness. As the Sermon on the Mount bears out, people who go beyond level-1 righteousness enter into an understanding of "ethical" principles that transcend natural appearance. In other words, level-2 believers get to know the true nature of righteousness, for they not only know the literal laws, but they know the Person behind those laws:

"¹⁷ Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. ¹⁸ For verily I say unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled. ¹⁹ Whosoever therefore shall break one of these least commandments, and shall teach men so, he shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven: but whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom of heaven. ²⁰ For I say unto you, That except your righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 5:17-20)

"²¹ Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not kill; and whosoever shall kill shall be in danger of the judgment: ²² But I say unto you, That whosoever is angry with his brother without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment: and whosoever shall say to his brother, Raca, shall be in danger of the council: but whosoever shall say, Thou fool, shall be in danger of hell fire." (Matthew 5:21-22)

[Level-2 believers are not only aware that they should do no unrighteousness to others, they understand why they should not. They become aware of the inherent value in others, for they see the God-potential in them. Those who come to know the Person behind the laws begin to recognise "His shape" inside their neighbour. That is why they do not see their brethren as "Raca".]

Level-1 righteousness is not wrong per se. In fact, it is a necessary stage; it is impossible to enter into level-2 righteousness without going through level 1. However, level-1 righteousness is a temporary stage, which means that the problem starts when you remain stuck there. Those who remain stuck at level 1 become Old-Covenant believers; those who cross into level-2 become full-fledged New-Covenant believers.

"¹ Now I say, That the heir, as long as he is a child, differeth nothing from a servant, though he be lord of all; ² But is under tutors and governors until the time appointed of the father. ³ Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under the elements of the world: ⁴ But when the fulness of the time was come, God sent forth his Son, made of a woman, made under the law, ⁵ To redeem them that were under the law, that we might receive the adoption of sons. ⁶ And because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father. ⁷ Wherefore thou art no more a servant, but a son; and if a son, then an heir of God through Christ. ⁸ Howbeit then, when ye knew not God, ye did service unto them which by nature are no gods. ⁹ But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage? ¹⁰ Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years. ¹¹ I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain." (Galatians 4:1-11)

People who remain stuck at level 1 become faithful followers of "Cain". Even when they hear the red-horse shout of the Person who created all righteous laws, they prefer to remain within the structures of Cain because they are too afraid of breaking visible "laws". As these "ethical" believers remain within the structures of Cain, those who do heed the red-horse shout go out into the black-horse desert of scarcity. However, Cain's structures become so damaged by God's red-horse shout that Cain is forced to morph into a grace-perverting Balaam who returns people to the "aesthetic" pursuit of earthliness and self-gratification, but now under the name of "Christianity". It is ironic, therefore, that those who choose to remain under Cain's structures because of "ethical" reasons slowly degrade into "aestheticism", the same anti-ethical "aestheticism" that they had come out of when they became "believers" in the first place.

In a sense, we can say that the journey from level-1 to level-2 righteousness is represented in the 4 horses of the Apocalypse. The white horse awakens you to the journey deep within your consciousness, and the red horse begins to expose the emptiness of staying at level 1. Once you go into the black-horse stage, you enter level 2, and you begin to experience the Personhood of God. As you enter into the sacrificial nature of the green-horse stage, you enter into the fullness of level-2 righteousness, for it is there that you begin to make yourself into a living sacrifice, going through Death and Sheol in order to release the God-potential and God-righteousness in the lives of others.

Interestingly enough, Kierkegaard speaks of 2 sub-levels within the "religious" level: "Religiousness A" and "Religiousness B". As described on purdue.edu, "Religiousness A" is an "autodidactic" stage, an introspective stage in which one becomes acquainted with objective truth; by contrast, "Religiousness B" is a "theodidactic" stage in which one becomes acquainted with God's eternity in a subjective manner, leading to an "existential immersion". These two "religious" levels correlate perfectly with the black-horse and green-horse stages. The black-horse stage is one of learning in the desert at the feet of God Himself as we begin to have direct interaction with Him; this means that the black-horse stage is a "Religiousness A" autodidactic stage in which we get a direct impartation of the apostolic and prophetic endowments, which we then use to launch invisible judgements into the religious structures we left behind. In the green-horse stage, we move from the period of "learning" to the period of "subjective transcendence". We are called to shed our lives in sacrifice and endure the torments of Sheol, and, in doing so, we cross the light barrier into the eternal realm; that is when we come to know God in a truly transcendent way.

It is interesting to consider that Kierkegaard chose to split what he called the "religious" stage into two sub-stages and that each sub-stage correlates to the last 2 horses of the Apocalypse. And it is also interesting to consider that the "ethical" stage he describes correlates so perfectly with the red-horse experience, and that the "aesthetic" stage correlates with the white-horse awakening. Without knowing explicitly about the 4 horses of the Apocalypse, Kierkegaard had come to know these things in his heart. All of this reveals that Kierkegaard had the heart of a green-horse rider. He understood the level of righteousness that stands above the righteousness that most believers are comfortable practicing. He knew the "higher love".

The loving dreamer

As we said above, Kierkegaard's father taught him to explore the realm of his imagination through exercises and games that they would play together. This development of one's imagination points to the ability to dream, the ability to transcend the limitations of the natural realm and visualise what is potentially feasible in the Spirit. The ability to imagine and visualise is strongly developed in the green-horse stage. This is when the believer begins to visualise the manifestation of God's Kingdom on Earth and becomes enamoured with that vision. Just like a person "in love", the believer becomes emotionally involved with the vision, suffering inconsolably when he sees the vision fading away, and rejoicing as he sees the vision coming closer to reality. In a sense, it is as if the believer is called to transcend the natural and enter into the eternal through his imagination; once there, he must then pull the vision from the eternal and into the visible realm through his subjective sacrifice. As Barbra Streissand would say,

{Lyrics from "Woman in love", adapted from seeklyrics.com}

I am a woman in love
And I'd do anything
To get you into my world
And hold you within
It's a right I defend
Over and over again
What do I do

With you eternally mine
In love there is no measure of time
We planned it all at the start
You and I live in each other's heart
We may be oceans away
You'll feel my love
I hear what you say
No truth is ever a lie
I stumble and fall
But I give you it all

This ability to imagine and visualise is also essential during the 5th-seal stage, the stage that the green-horse rider goes through after he has given his life in sacrifice. As he lies there in the darkness of Sheol, he must be able to visualise God's salvation from the dark pit he is in, just as Joseph did when he remained in prison and a slave for 13 years. Green-horse riders become experienced in hope, and they become accustomed to the thrill of a hope visualised and the despair of a vision unfulfilled.

Imagination is also essential in discerning the potential of others. It is as you visualise the inherent God-potential in others that you will be willing to make radical sacrifices on their behalf. You will be unwilling to go through Death and Sheol on behalf of people whose value you are unable to perceive. In other words, without an imagination developed in righteousness, you will be unable to love others in a transcendent way. It is this "love" component which prevents the green-horse rider's sacrifice being irrelevant and non-transcendental:

"And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing." (1 Corinthians 13:3)

[The word "charity" is an unfortunate mistranslation of the Greek word agape meaning "love"]

Since there is a strong connection between imagination and true green-horse love, it is not surprising that Kierkegaard's life was marked by a love interest that, for one reason or another, never materialised. As indicated on wikipedia.org, Kierkegaard was briefly engaged to Regine Olsen. They were deeply in love with one another, but, for reasons that no one is quite able to decipher, Kierkegaard chose to break the engagement. This sudden breakup affected Regine in a profound way, throwing her into a state of total despair. Despite her pleas to Kierkegaard to make him reconsider, he remained determined to push Regine out of his life. Even so, Regine remained very relevant in his heart, and those who have studied Kierkegaard's writings and his life agree that Regine is very much visible in his work. As stated on wikipedia.org, it can be argued that "no other single woman has been so instrumental in a major philosopher's development as Regine was to Kierkegaard".

Kierkegaard regretted the fact that he had hurt Regine so deeply, and he describes himself as spending his nights crying in his bed for not having her by his side. Six years after Kierkegaard had broken off their engagement, Regine married her tutor, Johan Frederik Schlegel, a prominent civil servant in Denmark who was 5 years her elder. After her marriage, Kierkegaard and Regine crossed paths occasionally, but they lived separate lives. Seven years into her marriage, Regine's husband was appointed governor of the Danish West Indies (now known as the U.S. Virgin Islands), and she left Denmark for the Caribbean on March 17, 1855. Sadly enough, she never saw Kierkegaard again; he died 239 days later, on 11 November 1855, and Regine returned to Denmark until 1860, 5 years later. In his will, Kierkegaard left his estate to Regine, the woman that he had loved but whom he never married.

Based on Kierkegaard's writings, it seems as if Kierkegaard did not deem himself a "good enough" husband for Regine. He probably thought that his recurring "melancholy" prevented him making her happy, and he probably felt that he could not fulfil his calling as a writer whilst at the same time trying to care for her in a "normal" way. It would seem as if Kierkegaard punished himself unduly (in much the same way his father did). It is very difficult to discern exactly why Kierkegaard pushed Regine away, and I am struggling in my inner self to understand what God thought of the matter. As far as I know, there is no record of Kierkegaard's cause of death, which is rather odd considering how young he died and how well known he was in Denmark. Like a candle in the wind, he came, he burnt for a while, and then went away as suddenly as he had come. Is it possible that he discerned his imminent death? Could it be that Kierkegaard did not want Regine to be left a young widow unable to remarry? Could it be that Kierkegaard was told to wait a certain number of years (maybe 7) before approaching Regine again? Could there have been a testing period imposed from above that was intended to fulfil some sort of spiritual purpose? I personally do not comprehend the purpose behind the story of Kierkegaard and Regine. Some specific elements of it seem so prophetic and purposeful, and others seem so purposeless and cruel. Was Kierkegaard's rejection of Regine a prophetic act that symbolised how the Church foolishly dismisses God, having Him so close but yet not recognising Him and not becoming One with Him? Did God call Kierkegaard to act out the foolishness of the Church in order to bear the Church's iniquity, as an Azazel goat that bears the iniquity of the people and is driven out into the desert to die? Such a possibility does not sound so remote, especially because green-horse riders are called to carry out "kamikaze" operations that seem utterly ludicrous to those operating in the natural mind, and even to those in the early phases of the black-horse stage. Green-horse riders develop God's fractal nature, a nature too intricate to be understood by the more "natural" believers; and, as they become pregnant with God's vision, that fractal nature drives them to behave in "crazy" and "unexplainable" ways.

The fact that Regine left Denmark on March 17 (1855) is specially meaningful, given that "March 17" is a very "green" date. The fact that Kierkegaard "waited" for Regine to leave Denmark before dying less than 8 months later is also significant; it is as if he placed an abyss between himself and Regine to spare her the pain she would have endured had she married a man who would die so young; that "abyss" of separation would be represented by the Atlantic Ocean that Regine was forced to cross before Kierkegaard could die. Her marriage to a well-established civil servant could be taken as a figure of how the Church's soul prefers the company of the well-established "ministers", instead of the company of the invisible God she is unable to discern. The fact that Regine's husband had been her tutor prior to their marriage would reinforce this, given that Galatians 4 portrays the "Old-Covenant" structures as a "temporary tutor" that God allows in our lives as we mature. Even so, we must consider the fact that Regine wanted to be with Søren, yet he constantly pushed her away, to the point that she eventually got tired of waiting and married someone else. The name "Regine" literally means "queen"; can we say, then, that Regine somehow represented the matriarchy of the soul that the green horse is so uncompromisingly against, for which reason Kierkegaard was forced to push her away? It might be a while before I am personally able to fully understand the spiritual dynamics of what happened between Kierkegaard and Regine Olsen, but, regardless of whether Kierkegaard acted in obedience to God or not, it is very safe to say that there are very strong green-horse elements in this story.

It is curious that Kierkegaard's pushing away of Regine is what actually "immortalised" their relationship. Even though they never married, they are always spoken of together. You cannot speak of Kierkegaard without mentioning Regine, and you cannot consider Regine without mentioning Kierkegaard; 105 years after her death, Regine Olsen, who never published a single essay or book on "philosophy", has an article about her on Wikipedia, and she is well known by just about anyone who has spent a significant amount of time studying philosophy, existential psychology, or existential literature. In his literal death, Kierkegaard left her a literal legacy in his will; and, in his figurative death (the death he experienced as he forcibly separated himself from her), he left her a lasting legacy that has us talking about Regine Olsen even to this day.

It is also worth considering that Kierkegaard died as Regine was living in the Danish West Indies, which were baptised as "Virgin" islands, even from the time when they were discovered by Christopher Columbus (according to wikipedia.org). This points to the remnant of "144,000" mentioned in Revelation 14, the remnant of "virgins" who did not "defile themselves with women". These are the remnant of believers who do not allow their souls to be contaminated by the matriarchy of the "female" soul, choosing to die rather than submit to it; given that "Regine" means "queen", there seems to be a correlation between Kierkegaard's death as a celibate bachelor and Regine being in the Virgin Islands.

Introspective leaping green

As indicated on wikipedia.org, Kierkegaard stressed the paradoxical importance of introspection and self-reflection in forging a true relationship between the individual and the world. In other words, you cannot be truly connected to the outside world unless you are first willing to look within yourself and find a truth that you are willing to commit to and live your life for. Therefore, we can reach the ironic conclusion that those who live self-involved lives are the people who are the least self-reflective. They live in a dulled state driven by the pursuit of self-centred interests without ever engaging with the self they supposedly are so interested in. Only those who look within themselves are truly able to project themselves into the world and live a truly relevant life.

This need for "introspection" before "outward projection" correlates with the white horse of the Apocalypse. As we have studied before, the white-horse anointing causes believers to endeavour the conquest of the Church before conquering the outside world. A non-committal body of believers who are self-absorbed and who understand the outside world only in terms of how the world may benefit them can never conquer the world unto God. A self-involved Church that is only interested in "evangelising" the outside world in order to fill its congregations and indoctrinate the newcomers with its superficial rituals and traditions will never conquer the world's spiritual atmosphere unto God. How can you conquer the world when you have yet to even do a basic reconnaissance of the self, much less conquer it?

As we have shared before, the white horse acts as an umbrella over the other 3 horses of the Apocalypse. Therefore, as the horses of the Apocalypse gallop on, the "introspection" required to conquer the self intensifies, reaching its apex at the stage of the last horse, the green horse. Green-horse riders reach the highest level of introspection and self-reflection, which, in turn, leads to the highest level of loneliness and apparent detachment from the world. This is the reason why the Lord was left alone praying at the Garden of Gethsemane as His green-horse sacrifice at Golgotha drew near. This is why the Lord was abandoned by His disciples as He was captured and tortured before His death. It is ironic, therefore, that those who truly connect with the world and effect eternal change upon it are those who at one point seem the most detached and ostracised from it.

The self-reflection forged by the horses of the Apocalypse is not narcissistic in nature. Instead, it is self-critical; it is willing to judge the self and to raise fundamental questions about the nature and purpose of one's existence. It is willing to confront the apparent emptiness and purposelessness of the human experience, an emptiness that is so disconcerting that most in the world prefer to sweep it under the carpet. As one engages in this introspective battle, one discovers a truth far greater than ourselves, a truth worth sacrificing one's life for. That is when we make what Kierkegaard calls the "leap of faith", a leap that defies superficial logic because it operates by a much more complex logic than the one most people understand. This "leap of faith" correlates with the "quantum leap of light" that we have shared on before. In the physical world, time "changes" as we approach the speed of light. The time dimension that seems absolute and universal under Newtonian physics becomes "relative" and "individual" in the physics discovered by Einstein. My watch and your watch may seem to be moving in perfect synchronicity, but they are actually running independently, and the difference becomes more notorious as one of us begins to move near the speed of light. That is when 1 minute in my watch becomes 2 minutes in your watch. Such a statement sound as utter nonsense if all you are acquainted with is Newtonian physics, but it makes perfect sense if you are acquainted with the theory of relativity, for you then become aware of complex laws that are hidden from the eyes of banal, everyday existence. Kierkegaard believed that the world was composed of an endless variety of "subjective alternate realities", which correlates with the physical fact that we all have our own internal clock whose hands move in accordance with our own particular movements in space. Presented with this endless variety of "subjective alternate realities", Kierkegaard believed that we must jump and proclaim our own choice. That is when God's objective truth becomes our own subjective reality.

The fact that each individual's internal clock runs independently of anyone else's prompted Einstein to speak of the "time-space continuum". Since time was not an absolute entity, Einstein was forced to admit that time was a separate dimension, meaning that the known physical world consisted of 4 dimensions, not the 3 that were known before. In other words, to fully give an object's "location", one had to give its 3 space coordinates plus a 4th coordinate, its time measurement. Therefore, it is no spiritual coincidence that believers become fully aware of the "subjective" component of God's truth as they go through the stage of the 4th horse of the Apocalypse, the green horse.

According to the Lorentz factor, an outside observer will see my watch come to a complete stop the moment I reach the speed of light. This means that the speed of light is the barrier between the temporal and the eternal. Thus, we can say that, when we make a commitment to shed our life in green-horse sacrifice for the sake of God's purposes on Earth, we are making a "quantum leap of light" that transports us from the temporal realm into the realm of God's olam eternity. That is when we begin to effect earth-shaking, eternal changes upon the Earth's spiritual atmosphere. This is what happened when Abraham was willing to sacrifice his own son for the Lord's sake; in carrying out this leap of faith, he transcended from an ephemeral man into a man who exerted a profound, eternal change on human history, so much so that we are still talking about him almost 4 millennia after his death.

Making this "leap of faith" requires an uncompromising commitment to a higher truth and an utter rejection of any alternative but that truth. This once again points to the green horse of the Apocalypse, given that green-horse riders are utterly unwilling to compromise with the soul matriarchy that they so deeply abhor. They prefer to perish rather than surrender under it, for they have come to understand that the truth lies in the submission of the soul under the spirit and in the manifestation of the Spirit upon all of creation. This is the manifestation that all of creation groans for, the manifestation that will unleash the fullness of meaning into the Earth (Romans 8:18-23).

According to Kierkegaard, the "leap of faith" was faith at its deepest level, for it reflected a total commitment to truth. Ironically, this leap of faith requires introspective doubt. According to Kierkegaard, a person who does not see the "doubtfulness" of Christianity has not grown into true faith. If you have never been willing to ponder the possibility that your Christian (or pseudo-Christian) beliefs may be false, you have no true faith. If, like Osteen's wife, you simply accept a "Christian" belief because that is the tradition you grew up in, you are acting like a lifeless automaton whose beliefs are detached from your essence, from your "self". When you program a machine to carry out a specific task, the machine does not care about the commands that you have loaded into it. It does not understand why they are necessary or what consequences those commands may produce. It simply executes them, for it has no "self", no "consciousness" to invest into those commands. This is the state of most believers, especially "conservative" believers in America, who are solely concerned with "conserving" or "preserving" traditions on the mere basis that those are the values America has accepted for generations. How pathetic! How clueless! No wonder someone such as Joel Osteen can be the head of the largest congregation in America!

False faith relies on the passive acceptance of the status quo. True faith entails the proactive pursuit of God's transcendent truth. This introspective pursuit eventually leads to an edge that requires a "quantum leap of light", and the green-horse believers who make this leap of faith are the ones who effect eternal and transcendent change on the world around them. Despite the "naive" connotation that the phrase "leap of faith" may have, the leap of faith carried out by green-horse believers is not done in naive ignorance. Instead, it is done in the full awareness of higher laws that operate above the "normal" laws, laws that demand an uncompromising commitment that the "normal" laws do not demand.

As we have studied before, this "quantum leap of light" represents tithing in its truest form (i.e.- tithing with one's very own life). Therefore, it is no coincidence that Kierkegaard collapsed and went to hospital just before the 10th chapter of "The Moment" (a series of self-published pamphlets) could be published. He did not recover from this collapse, dying soon afterwards. Thus, we can say that Kierkegaard's 10th chapter was "published" when he surrendered his very life. That was the tenth, or tithe, that he gave unto the Lord.

Anti-antidisestablishmentarianism

In the final years of his life, Kierkegaard maintained a blunt and relentless attack on the Danish People's Church, the (Lutheran) state church of Denmark. This points to the strong "anarchical" and "pirate-like" non-conformity that green-horse riders manifest. Because of their "leap of faith", they cannot rest in peace until the entire soul-matriarchy system has collapsed. The pastoral matriarchy is an abomination to them; these irreverent buccaneers have no respect for the Korahs that make a last-ditch effort to preserve the soul's predominance over the Spirit.

As indicated on wikipedia.org, the word "antidisestablishmentarianism" refers to a 19th-century political movement that was opposed to the disestablishment of the "Church of England" as the state church of England. In other words, it referred to those who wanted to make sure that the "Church of England" remained the state's official church. Therefore, this word (which is as long as a bureaucratic process) is now used to refer to anyone who opposes the separation of church and state. Since Korah is satan's last effort to preserve the soul matriarchy, we can say that Korah is the ultimate "antidisestablishmentarian". And, since Korah is the green horse's nemesis, we can say that the green-horse rider is the ultimate "anti-antidisestablishmentarian". This is why Kierkegaard spent the final years of his life opposing the official church in Denmark. As indicated on wikipedia.org, he saw pastors as "mere political officials with a niche in society", not as "representatives of the divine"; this is the reason why he refused to "receive communion" from a pastor, even as he lay on his deathbed.

Kierkegaard opposed the Danish People's Church through articles published in "The Fatherland" (the daily paper in Copenhagen) and a series of pamphlets called "The Moment". The newspaper's name, "The Fatherland", points to the "male" spirit nature of God's green-horse riders. Whereas Korah's followers long for a "Motherland", a spiritual "nanny state", the green-horse rider longs for a "Fatherland" in which God's Fatherly judgements fill the Earth (Psalm 105:7, Genesis 18:19, Hebrews 12:5-11). The name of the pamphlet series, "The Moment", also has spiritual significance, for it points to the green-horse riders' awareness of how urgent the current "moment" is. They are the ones most aware of the spiritual portals opening in the heavenlies, and, as such, they are the ones who grieve the most when those portals are wasted by the indifference of the "fence straddlers".

Elisha's sickness unto death

As we have studied before, Elisha is a figure of how green-horse riders "die" and go into 5th-seal hibernation with the anointing still within them and without the Promise within them fulfilled. As a result, it is safe to say, from all that we have studied about Kierkegaard so far, that there was a strong "Elisha anointing" on him. A subtle manifestation of this lies in the name that Kierkegaard gave to one of his most influential manuscripts, which contains an impacting analysis on the nature of despair and has influenced future philosophers such as Heidegger and Sartre (as indicated on wikipedia.org). This manuscript was written in 1849, the year after he had begun his literary assault on the Danish People's Church. The manuscript's name is "Sickness unto death", which points to the following passage:

"Now Elisha was fallen sick of his sickness whereof he died. And Joash the king of Israel came down unto him, and wept over his face, and said, O my father, my father, the chariot of Israel, and the horsemen thereof." (2 Kings 13:14)

Notice that the Holy Spirit takes the time to mention the fact that Elisha fell sick of the sickness that led to his death; in other words, Elisha had a "sickness unto death". Why would the Holy Spirit take the time to mention this? What is its spiritual relevance in the context of Elisha's life? The answer can be discerned from what the Holy Spirit narrates immediately after mentioning Elisha's sickness unto death.

"¹⁵ And Elisha said unto him, Take bow and arrows. And he took unto him bow and arrows. ¹⁶ And he said to the king of Israel, Put thine hand upon the bow. And he put his hand upon it: and Elisha put his hands upon the king's hands. ¹⁷ And he said, Open the window eastward. And he opened it. Then Elisha said, Shoot. And he shot. And he said, The arrow of the LORD'S deliverance, and the arrow of deliverance from Syria: for thou shalt smite the Syrians in Aphek, till thou have consumed them. ¹⁸ And he said, Take the arrows. And he took them. And he said unto the king of Israel, Smite upon the ground. And he smote thrice, and stayed. ¹⁹ And the man of God was wroth with him, and said, Thou shouldest have smitten five or six times; then hadst thou smitten Syria till thou hadst consumed it: whereas now thou shalt smite Syria but thrice. ²⁰ And Elisha died, and they buried him. And the bands of the Moabites invaded the land at the coming in of the year. ²¹ And it came to pass, as they were burying a man, that, behold, they spied a band of men; and they cast the man into the sepulchre of Elisha: and when the man was let down, and touched the bones of Elisha, he revived, and stood up on his feet." (2 Kings 13:15-21)

Joash, the king of Israel, was supposed to have an impartation of the anointing in Elisha. This is why Joash called Elisha his "father" (v14). As shown by the story above, however, Joash fell short of his calling. Instead of striking the ground 5 or 6 times, he only struck it 3 times (which is half of 6). This speaks of a man who appreciated the anointing in Elisha (otherwise, he would not have run to him), but who had a half-hearted commitment to God's calling for his life. He enjoyed the benefits of the anointing, but he was only interested enough to live a "nice, good life". He had no ambition to expand God's Kingship on Earth. He had no zeal to obliterate the enemies of God so that God's glory could be manifested. Therefore, he was only interested enough to get Syria "out of his hair", but not to consume it. In this context, the numbers "5 or 6" that Elisha refers to speak of the "dual nature" of the mature believer. The number "5" represents ministerial grace, and the number "6" represents human weakness. There are times when we must operate in the fullness of our ministerial endowments ("5"), and there are times when we are to expose ourselves in weakness unto death. As we have studied before, half-mature "ministers" become enthralled with the "5" of their ministerial grace, and they are never able to make the transition from "5" to "6"; this is why they become stuck at age "25" (=5 times 5) and are never able to reach "30" (=5 times 6), which is the age of spiritual maturity.

From the above, we can conclude that the "sickness" that led to Elisha's death was the half-hearted indifference of the people around him. Elisha had a green-horse vision; he wanted to see the obliteration of the enemy so that God's Spirit would be manifested, but no one around him shared in his vision. He wanted to impart the anointing in him to others, but no one cared for his vision enough to care for the anointing in him. As a result, there was no reason for Elisha to "stick around" anymore, and that is why Elisha passed away, taking the anointing in him to the grave. All of this explains why, after speaking of Elisha's sickness and Joash's indifference, the Holy Spirit proceeds to speak of Elisha's burial and how a dead man was resurrected after he was cast into Elisha's sepulchre and touched Elisha's bones (v20, 21). The man was resurrected because of the anointing that Elisha took with him to the grave.

As a side note, it is worth considering the fact that Elisha was "unable" to "cure himself" of the disease that caused his death, even when Elisha was an anointed man who performed many miracles and whose anointing was so thick that it resurrected a man even after Elisha himself had died. This goes against the "claim-it-by-faith" message that many ministers preach from the pulpit. Elisha was not interested in living a nice and happy life. He was not a false prophet interested in curing symptoms without dealing with root issues. He wanted to see God's purposes fulfilled on Earth, and, unlike king Hezekiah (Isaiah 38), Elisha was a narrow-gate believer who was more interested in God's will than in his own blessing. He knew that there was no point in sticking around if there were no takers for his anointing and if there was no one else interested in enabling the vision within him. His physical disease was the physical manifestation of a spiritual issue in other people's hearts, and, as long as those hearts refused to change, any change in his physical condition would have been nothing more than an artificial masking of the spiritual reality. Elisha had to die, for the people around him had left him to "starve to death" (spiritually speaking), and his death was necessary as physical evidence of how the people of his day had ignored the fullness of what was in him. Elisha died like Lazarus at the rich man's gate (Luke 16:20), without the vision and anointing in him being enabled by those who could have.

According to wikipedia.org, Kierkegaard drew the title "Sickness unto death" from the following passage:

"¹ Now a certain man was sick, named Lazarus, of Bethany, the town of Mary and her sister Martha. ² (It was that Mary which anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped his feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick.) ³ Therefore his sisters sent unto him, saying, Lord, behold, he whom thou lovest is sick. ⁴ When Jesus heard that, he said, This sickness is not unto death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of God might be glorified thereby." (John 11:1-4)

Just like the "Lazarus" who died at the rich man's gate, the "Lazarus" described above did die, and he did so whilst surrounded by the people who loved him but who did not understand the purpose behind his life. Lazarus had to remain dead for 4 days before Jesus resurrected him. When Lazarus came out of the cave where he had laid dead, the Lord commanded those around him to loose him from his grave-clothing binds. In a spiritual sense, God was commanding those around Lazarus to enable the man that they had been unwilling to enable before. God was commanding those around Lazarus to forsake the spiritual indifference and lack of discernment that had led to Lazarus' death in the first place. Even after Jesus had resurrected Lazarus, he remained bound by the passive indifference of others until they proactively stepped in to support him. This is how Lazarus' sickness went from being "one unto death" to "one not unto death".

"⁴³ And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. ⁴⁴ And he that was dead came forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus saith unto them, Loose him, and let him go." (John 11:43-44)

According to Kierkegaard, the "sickness unto death" is the despair that comes when a person does not align himself with God or with God's plan for the self. Even though Kierkegaard considered this despair in the context of the "unaligned" person, this despair can also affect those who are "aligned" with God's plan. Why? Because, even though this despair is produced by those "unaligned" with God, those who are aligned will suffer the consequences of that despair. Those aligned with God are gripped by this despair as they see the unwillingness of others (to align themselves with God) getting in the way of God's purposes on Earth. Those unaligned generally hide this despair in their subconscious and pretend as if it is not there. Those aligned are too "alive", too sensitive in the Spirit to ignore the cloud of despair built up by the "unaligned", and they are forced to bear the brunt of its impact on their weary priestly shoulders.

"You never knew me"

According to wikipedia.org, Kierkegaard was interred at Assistens Cemetery in Copenhagen (where Niels Bohr and Harald Bohr are also buried). At Kierkegaard's funeral, his nephew Henrik Lund raised a ruckus over the fact that Kierkegaard was being buried by the official state church that he had so staunchly opposed during his living years. Instead of heeding Mr. Lund, the Danish authorities chose to fine him for disrupting a public funeral.

The fact that the Danish church chose to officiate Kierkegaard's funeral reveals a fundamental flaw in those who are led by the soul. As the Lord has stated, the mouth speaks out of the abundance of the heart, meaning that a man's words reveal his innermost character. This means that you cannot sincerely approve of a man without also approving his words; you cannot honour a man whilst at the same time rejecting the fundamental principles he sincerely spoke for. As evidenced by Hebrews 4:12, words reveal a person's judgements; they reveal the value system that a person uses to label things "good" or "bad". Soul-centred people, however, have a tendency to artificially separate a man from his value system, as if the two were different entities. To soul-centred people, the focus is on "emotional harmony", on people being "nice" to each other, regardless of what the judgement system each person may uphold. So, if, for some reason, you have found some grace in the eyes of soul-centred people, and you have yet to provoke them to vitriolic Canaanite revenge, they will see no hypocrisy or inconsistency in being emotionally supportive of you whilst at the same time abhorring the very essence of your words. This is particularly true of religious people. This is why the Lord declared the following:

"²⁹ Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! because ye build the tombs of the prophets, and garnish the sepulchres of the righteous, ³⁰ And say, If we had been in the days of our fathers, we would not have been partakers with them in the blood of the prophets. ³¹ Wherefore ye be witnesses unto yourselves, that ye are the children of them which killed the prophets. ³² Fill ye up then the measure of your fathers. ³³ Ye serpents, ye generation of vipers, how can ye escape the damnation of hell?" (Matthew 23:29-33)

The people who are emotionally supportive of you even as they hate or ignore the essence of your words are the greatest hindrances to the manifestation of God's Kingdom. Because of their half-hearted commitment, they are embedded enough within "God's camp" so as to get in the way of God's Spirit people whilst at the same time not contributing anything to God's cause. In the cases where these fence straddlers do submit to God, a bridge is enabled that allows for the infusion of God's Kingdom into the Earth; in the cases where the number of these lukewarm fence straddlers remains high, God's Kingdom is stifled, and His plans are greatly delayed and even cancelled.

The soulish heart that is willing to "support" a person whilst at the same time rejecting the person's value system is the reason behind natural man's constant effort to forge "reconciliation" without tackling the fundamental issues that led to the rupture in the first place. Soulish, religious man tries to convince others to "lay their differences aside" so that "we can all love each other". To the soulish man, judgements are inherently secondary, even when judgements are what ultimately decide the state of all things in the visible realm. The soulish heart tries to address everything but the judgements that are causing the problem it is trying to "fix".

In an ironic sense, it was "fitting" that the Danish state Church showed up to officiate Kierkegaard's funeral, for it was their half-hearted apathy to God's voice which triggered Kierkegaard's early death. In showing up, they proved to the world that they never knew the man they were burying, for, had they truly wanted to honour him, they would have respected his lifelong disdain of their rituals and ceremonies. Instead of honouring him, they acted the way patronising pastors always do, which is to "save the little people from themselves"; they thought that they were saving "poor little Kierkegaard" from eternal torment by showing up to perform their vain funeral rituals. As they stood over Kierkegaard's body to "honour" him with a "Christian" burial, they were unaware of how much they had dishonoured him throughout his life, and they were unaware that they were the spiritual cause of his early death. Sadly enough, Kierkegaard's funeral shows how poorly the religious interpret the deaths of people with a green-horse anointing.

Saying it without saying it

As indicated on wikipedia.org, Kierkegaard believed in a concept he called "indirect communication". Kierkegaard never wanted his readers to treat his works as a "philosophical system" with a "systematic structure". He did not want his readers to see his writings as a laundry list of creeds that they could "understand" and accept with their natural mind. Instead, he wanted them to immerse themselves into his writings and to search for the truth for themselves. To do this, he avoided as much as possible acting as a lecturer who simply recited information that a passive audience could simplistically absorb. This is why half of Kierkegaard's works were written under pseudonyms, with each pseudonym assuming a "persona" that reflected a certain style of thinking. In doing so, he also wanted to avoid having his readers attribute his words to Kierkegaard's personal experiences instead of considering them as potentially objective truth. It becomes more difficult for people to receive your words if they perceive them as mere "emotional reactions" to an event that occurred in your life. This "emotional" interpretation of other people's words is particularly prevalent amongst those entrenched in the pastoral matriarchy, especially if those words are unpleasant to their own souls.

Believe it or not, this concept of "indirect communication" was initiated by God Himself. This is the reason why Scripture is written in a prophetic and figurative language, a language that is "indecipherable" unless you become personally involved in it.

"¹⁰ And the disciples came, and said unto him, Why speakest thou unto them in parables? ¹¹ He answered and said unto them, Because it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given. ¹² For whosoever hath, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance: but whosoever hath not, from him shall be taken away even that he hath. ¹³ Therefore speak I to them in parables: because they seeing see not; and hearing they hear not, neither do they understand. ¹⁴ And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Esaias, which saith, By hearing ye shall hear, and shall not understand; and seeing ye shall see, and shall not perceive: ¹⁵ For this people’s heart is waxed gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes they have closed; lest at any time they should see with their eyes, and hear with their ears, and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them." (Matthew 13:10-15)

God cannot speak the deeper secrets of the Spirit in a literal way that is easily understandable by the natural mind, and He cannot do so for two reasons. First of all, it is metaphysically impossible; it is like asking someone to solve a complex differential equation using arithmetic only.

"But the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned." (1 Corinthians 2:14)

"²² And it was at Jerusalem the feast of the dedication, and it was winter. ²³ And Jesus walked in the temple in Solomon’s porch. ²⁴ Then came the Jews round about him, and said unto him, How long dost thou make us to doubt? If thou be the Christ, tell us plainly. ²⁵ Jesus answered them, I told you, and ye believed not: the works that I do in my Father’s name, they bear witness of me. ²⁶ But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. ²⁷ My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: ²⁸ And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand. ²⁹ My Father, which gave them me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of my Father’s hand. ³⁰ I and my Father are one. ³¹ Then the Jews took up stones again to stone him." (John 10:22-31)

"⁷Then after that saith he to his disciples, Let us go into Judaea again. ⁸His disciples say unto him, Master, the Jews of late sought to stone thee; and goest thou thither again? ⁹Jesus answered, Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world. ¹⁰But if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no light in him. ¹¹ These things said he: and after that he saith unto them, Our friend Lazarus sleepeth; but I go, that I may awake him out of sleep. ¹² Then said his disciples, Lord, if he sleep, he shall do well. ¹³ Howbeit Jesus spake of his death: but they thought that he had spoken of taking of rest in sleep. ¹⁴ Then said Jesus unto them plainly, Lazarus is dead. ¹⁵ And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, to the intent ye may believe; nevertheless let us go unto him. ¹⁶ Then said Thomas, which is called Didymus, unto his fellowdisciples, Let us also go, that we may die with him." (John 11:11-16)

[Notice how the disciples were unable to discern that Jesus was speaking in a spiritual way when He declared that Lazarus "sleepeth" and that they had to go "awake him out of sleep" (v11). This forced Jesus to speak "unto them plainly" (v14). When He did, the disciples' eyes did not light up with understanding. Instead, one of them (Thomas) sarcastically remarked, "Let us go to where the Jews are; they want to kill Jesus, so we will probably all get killed and join Lazarus in his death". This shows that, even when Jesus was forced to speak "plainly" (i.e.- in a literal way), the disciples were still unable to understand the message, and they even distorted Jesus' message of resurrection hope into a message of pointless suicide.]

The second reason why God cannot explain the deep secrets of the spirit in a literal way is that literal descriptions expose the message to tragic distortions. The natural mind is unable to contain spiritual truths, so it quickly bends them and disfigures them until they can fit into the natural mind's limited space, and the resulting distortion becomes worse than the "ignorance" that preceded it. The natural mind's ability to distort spiritual truth is so strong that it even distorts truths hidden in mystery, with no literal interpretation. This is the reason why the matriarchal Church has distorted so much of God's Scripture, taking passages out of their spiritual context and giving them spiritually sordid interpretations.

"²⁸ I came forth from the Father, and am come into the world: again, I leave the world, and go to the Father. ²⁹ His disciples said unto him, Lo, now speakest thou plainly, and speakest no proverb. ³⁰ Now are we sure that thou knowest all things, and needest not that any man should ask thee: by this we believe that thou camest forth from God. ³¹ Jesus answered them, Do ye now believe? ³² Behold, the hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered, every man to his own, and shall leave me alone: and yet I am not alone, because the Father is with me. ³³ These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." (John 16:28-33)

Jesus spoke these words to the disciples in the Upper Room on the night of the "Last Supper", the night He was arrested to be crucified. Notice, therefore, that Jesus began to "speak plainly" to them only until the day He was going to be taken away from them. He waited for them to complete the journey with Him before He began to remove the veil. This emphasises the fact that God requires a personal commitment before He begins to reveal His spiritual truth. As long as you remain passively aloof, expecting the truth to come to you, His truth will never come. You must proactively go after the truth in order to forge its manifestation.

"²⁶ And when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were troubled, saying, It is a spirit; and they cried out for fear. ²⁷ But straightway Jesus spake unto them, saying, Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid. ²⁸ And Peter answered him and said, Lord, if it be thou, bid me come unto thee on the water. ²⁹ And he said, Come. And when Peter was come down out of the ship, he walked on the water, to go to Jesus." (Matthew 14:26-29)

Having said all of the above regarding "indirect communication", it is worth making a side comment about this website. As many of you may have noticed, we make constant mention of concepts such as the "latter rain", the "remnant", and the "manifestation of God's Kingdom", yet we have never given a formal and literal definition of what those concepts mean. We constantly criticise the eschatological parrots for reciting their simplistic and literal interpretations of the "rapture" and the prophecies in the book of Revelation, yet we have never given a literal explanation of what the "rapture" really is or what many of the prophecies in Revelation literally foretell. We constantly refer to the Lord's second coming, and we criticise the "cloud gazers" who are waiting for Jesus to appear in the sky one day, yet we offer no literal explanation for what that "second coming" will actually look like. Even so, we believe that, after reading many of the postings on this website, all these unexplained concepts should become evident to you. Upon hearing the phrase "latter rain", your imagination should race with the vision of what that "latter rain" will look like. Upon hearing the phrase "second coming", the eyes of your spirit should fill up with visions of how that second coming will come about. Upon hearing the word "rapture", your mind should have a clear vision of what that "rapture" actually is; instead of visualising what the "Left behind" novels describe, you should visualise something completely different.

Those who demand a literal explanation of all these concepts do not deserve to understand them, and, even if they were granted a more "plain" explanation, they would not be able to comprehend it, and they would end up perverting that "plain" explanation into a flat and literal creed. Without introspection, true understanding is impossible; if your heart is not proactively after God's Kingdom and His righteousness, the deep truths of the Spirit will never make sense to you.

One of Kierkegaard's pseudonyms is "Johannes de Silentio"; this is the pseudonym under which the work "Fear and trembling" was written. As indicated on wikipedia.org, this work's title is derived from Philippians 2:12, which speaks of how we must proactively forge our salvation with "fear and trembling". This work is a study on Abraham's sacrifice of Isaac, as narrated in Genesis 22. The name "Johannes de Silentio" can be translated as "John the Silent". As many of you may know, John was the name of the disciple who leaned on Jesus' breast in the "last supper" (John 13:25, John 21:20), meaning that he could hear the silent beating of Jesus' heart. Therefore, the name "Johannes de Silentio" points to those who take the time to hear the "small still voice" of the Spirit, the voice that most believers are impervious to. It is only through listening to the "small still voice" of the Spirit that Abraham could have possibly understood the sacrifice that God was requiring of him. It is only through the "small still voice" of the Spirit that transcendent operations can be carried out in your inner self and in the world around you. Whereas the Church is after revivals with "strong winds" and "earthquake" and "fire", God is after a "silent" revival that transforms the believers' inner being in such a way that God's very nature is manifested in each believer. Ironically, this silent inner transformation will lead to a very loud external transformation of the entire spiritual atmosphere of the Earth. Those with little faith will never forge it, for they see no point in listening to that "small still voice", and they are unable to visualise the God-potential inherent in man, reducing the human existence to a mere biological existence composed of material and emotional pursuits.

Fellow believer, if you visit this website frequently, we recommend (if you don't already do so) to see this website as more than a source of information. Instead, we recommend that you see it as a source of impartation. We can confidently tell you that the content on this website is birthed through much travail. Each line is painstakingly written with the blood of our very lives (as it should be, for that is the only way to write in the Spirit). As a result, each posting holds a dense amount of spiritual content that cannot be absorbed in one "natural" sitting. Because of this, we recommend that you read the postings multiple times. Even if the content may at times seem "abstract" and "ethereal", it is birthed directly from principles hidden in Scripture, and, if God took the time to embed these principles within His book, you can rest assured that they serve a purpose, a spiritual purpose that reaches into every aspect of the human experience, including our pragmatic life. The natural realm is moved by the spiritual realm; this is what those who live by faith know very well (Hebrews 11:3). Therefore, as you allow God to pour His spiritual framework into your mind, emotions, and heart, a powerful work will be carried out in your life. This is why we recommend that you read the postings multiple times and allow the words to wash over you. Words in the Spirit are laden with "good radiation", and, as you expose your soul to that radiation, a mighty operation will be done. As you expose your soul, however, you must also take a proactive role, seeking after a deep understanding of God's truths in Scripture. That is the only way to forge significant spiritual growth.

A lingering presence

As we shared above, Kierkegaard had a tremendous influence on a great number of people in a great number of fields, with most of that influence coming long after he had died. As indicated on wikipedia.org, the Danish state church, the very one that had pretended to honour him at his funeral, shunned his work and encouraged other Danes to do the same. This was compounded by the relative obscurity of the Danish language, which prevented Kierkegaard's works becoming known outside of Denmark. It took the efforts of Georg Brandes, a Dane of Jewish descent, to begin the efforts of spreading the word regarding Kierkegaard's works. Having been influenced by Kierkegaard, he began to give formal lectures on Kierkegaard around Europe. Some 22 years after Kierkegaard's death, Brandes published the first book on Kierkegaard's philosophy and life. In the 1890s (more than 35 years after Kierkegaard's death), Kierkegaard's works became better known in German circles; in the meantime, Japanese philosophers began to promulgate his works as well. However, it was only until the 1910s and 1920s (more than 60 years after his death) that Kierkegaard's works really began to take deep root in Germany (and Japan). It was until the 1930s that the first academic English translations of Kierkegaard appeared, and that was what finally allowed his works to finally become a "worldwide phenomenon".

Kierkegaard is known not only for his formal works but for his journals. As indicated on wikipedia.org, he wrote over 7000 pages in his journals that contained descriptions of personal events, everyday remarks, and thoughts about his own works. Kierkegaard did not treat his journals in a casual way, so much so that they are amongst the most elegant and poetic of all his writings. Interestingly enough, Kierkegaard was aware of how his journals would someday be relevant and influential to a great number of people, even if they may have seemed at the time like nothing more than "the personal musings of a local". Consider what he wrote in his journal in December 1849, at the age of 36, almost 160 years ago, and less than 6 years before his passing:

"Only a dead man can dominate the situation in Denmark. Licentiousness, envy, gossip, and mediocrity are everywhere supreme. Were I to die now the effect of my life would be exceptional; much of what I have simply jotted down carelessly in the Journals would become of great importance and have a great effect; for then people would have grown reconciled to me and would be able to grant me what was, and is, my right."

{Emphasis added by us}

This "posthumous" influence on others once again points to the Elisha anointing, i.e.- to the anointing that is so transcendent that it can resurrect people even after the death of the person carrying the anointing. In fact, as Kierkegaard's words above bear out, the key to that anointing's transcendence is the willingness to cross from life into Death and Sheol. Only those willing to complete the green-horse stage and cross the light barrier can effect transcendent change, both in the spirit realm and the natural realm.

As can be seen from all of the above, the connection between Denmark and the 4th and 5th seals of the Apocalypse becomes all the more evident. God willing, we will share more on the spiritual relevance of Denmark in future postings.

{Fellow believer, we strongly recommend the BBC Radio 4 broadcast on the life of Kierkegaard, from the "In our time" programme aired on 20 March 2008. You may access it on the "In our time" website whilst it is still available.}

We share more on Denmark in the next posting...