Keep Me Near the Cross

In the Cross

 

You see that title above!  What do you suppose is “in the cross”?  I know some of you know that song and you might have had occasion to sing it! 

 

All crosses lead to Calvary, and “Calvary” means See “© - All- Vary” in weight and agony!  There is a cross for every man.

 

Matthew 16:24 Then said Jesus unto his disciples, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me.

 

Calvary also means the Call Varies.  Some come at birth; some in youth, and some in old age in the hospital.  When you hear him call, you STOP whatever you are doing, and RISE UP, and fly away Home! John 5:25-28.

 

Here is what John learned about the cross:

 

REVELATION OF THE MYSTERY OF THE CROSS

97. After the Lord had so danced with us, my beloved, he went out. And we were like men amazed or fast asleep, and we fled this way and that. And so I saw him suffer, and did not wait by his suffering, but fled to the Mount of Olives and wept at what had come to pass. And when he was hung (upon the Cross) on Friday, at the sixth hour of the day there came a darkness over the whole earth. And my Lord stood in the middle of the cave and gave light to it and said, 'John, for the people below in Jerusalem I am being crucified and pierced with lances and reeds and given vinegar and gall to drink. But to you I am speaking, and listen to what I speak. I put into your mind to come up to this mountain so that you may hear what a disciple should learn from his teacher and a man from God.'98. And when he had said this he showed me a Cross of Light firmly fixed, and around the Cross a great crowd, which had no single form; and in it (the Cross) was one form and the same likeness. And I saw the Lord himself above the Cross, having no shape but only a kind of voice; yet not that voice which we knew, but one that was sweet and gentle and truly (the voice) of God, which said to me, 'John, there must (be) one man (to) hear these things from me; for I need one who is ready to hear. This Cross of Light is sometimes called Logos by me for your sakes, sometimes mind, sometimes Jesus, sometimes Christ, sometimes a door, sometimes a way, sometimes bread, sometimes seed, sometimes resurrection, sometimes Son, sometimes Father, sometimes Spirit, sometimes life, sometimes truth, sometimes faith, sometimes grace; *and so* (it is called) for men's sake. But what it truly is, as known in *itself* and spoken to us, (is this): it is the distinction of all things, and the *strong uplifting* of *what is firmly fixed* out of what is unstable, and the harmony of wisdom, being wisdom in harmony (?). But there are places on the right and on the left, powers, authorities, principalities and demons, activities, threatenings, passions, devils, Satan and the inferior root *from which* the nature of transient things proceeded.

 

99. This Cross then (is that) which has united all things by the word and which has separated off what is transitory and inferior, which has also *compacted* all things into one. But this is not that wooden Cross which you shall see when you go down from here; nor am I the (man) who is on the Cross, (I) whom now you do not see but only hear (my) voice. I was taken to be what I am not, I who am not what for many others I was; but what they will say of me is mean and unworthy of me. Since then the place of (my?) rest is neither (to be) seen nor told, much more shall I, the Lord of this (place), be neither seen nor told.

 

100. The multitude around the Cross that is not of one form is the inferior nature. And those whom you saw in the Cross, even if they have not (yet) one form -not every member of him who has come down has yet been gathered together. But when *human* nature is taken up, and the race that comes to me and obeys my voice, then *he who* now *hears* me shall be united *with this* (race) and shall no longer be what he now is, but (shall be) above them as I am now. For so long as you do not call yourself mine, I am not what I am; but if you hear me, you also as hearer *shall be* as I am, and I shall be what I was, when you* (are) as I am with myself; for from *me* you are what I am.(?) Therefore ignore the many and despise those who are outside the mystery; for you must know that I am wholly with the Father, and the Father with me.

 

101. So then I have suffered none of those things which they will say of me; even that suffering which I showed to you and to the rest in my dance, I will that it be called a mystery. For what you *are*, that I have shown you, (as) you see; but what I am is known to me alone, and no one else. *Let me* have what is mine; what is yours *you must see* through me; but me *you must see* truly -not that which I am, (as) I said, but that which you, as (my) kinsman, *are able* to know. You hear that I suffered, yet I suffered not; and that I suffered not, yet I did suffer; and that I was pierced, yet I was not wounded; that I was hanged, yet I was not hanged; that blood *flowed* from me, yet it did not flow; and, in a word, that what they say of me, I did not endure, but what they do not say, those things I did suffer. Now what these are, I secretly show you*; for I know that you will understand. You must know me, then, as the *torment* of the Logos, the *piercing* of the Logos, the blood of the Logos, the wounding of the Logos, the fastening of the Logos, the death of the Logos. And so I speak, discarding the man(hood). (refers to losing the human body).  The first then (that) you must know (is) the Logos; then you shall know the Lord, and thirdly the man, and what he has suffered.'

 

102. When he had said these things to me, and others which I know not how to say as he wills, he was taken up, without any of the multitude seeing him. And going down I laughed at them all, since he had told me what they had said about him; and I held this one thing fast in my (mind), that the Lord had performed everything as a symbol and a dispensation for the conversion and salvation *of man*.

 

This is from the Acts of John, New Testament Apocrypha by Hennecke- Schneemelcher, Vol. II, Westminster Press. 

 

John’s conclusion is of great significance: the Lord had performed everything as a symbol and a dispensation for the conversion and salvation *of man*.  I do believe that Jesus’ ATONEMENT ACT on the cross was successful.  John the Baptist even prophesied saying:

 

John 1:29 The next day John seeth Jesus coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world. 

 

That is the fulfillment of his work prophesied by Isaiah:

 

Isaiah 53:4 Surely he hath 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 hath 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 openeth not his mouth. 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. 

 

Devils did not appreciate what Isaiah wrote about Jesus before he came.  Therefore they plotted against him for writing those words and many others foretelling the glory of the Son of God.  Therefore when they got their opportunity, they had Isaiah sawn apart  You cannot work for God in Satan's prison and expect to dance through it all in peace!  They eventually LYNCHED Jesus, too!  Blacks can understand my use of the word, "lynch", because devil-possessed men have done it to them many times.  Devils do not care if you are a 15-year old Black kid named Emmett Till.  They will make up any lie to satisfy their lust for blood.  “Kill!  Kill! Kill is the motto of Babylon's demonic offspring”!

 

Revelation 17:1 And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew unto thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters: 2 With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication, and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk with the wine of her fornication. 

 

Revelation 18:24 And in her was found the blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were slain upon the earth there is a lot of blood shed in the cross.  This applies to all men living on this planet “universally”!

 

 Acts 17:24 God that made the world and all things therein, seeing that he is Lord of heaven and earth, dwelleth not in temples made with hands; 25 Neither is worshipped with men's hands, as though he needed any thing, seeing he giveth to all life, and breath, and all things; 26 And hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; 27 That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us: 28 For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring. 

 

Every man is given a symbolic drink from the same cup Jesus drank from.  It is indicated by the spillage and loss of human blood when men die!

 

Hebrews 2:6 But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that thou visitest him? 7 Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownedst him with glory and honour, and didst set him over the works of thy hands: 14 Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; 15 And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage. 

 

More of  “the meaning of the cross" from Acts of John in the New Testament Apocrypha::