CHAPTER THREE 

by George R. Hawtin

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THE PREPARATION OF THE SONS OF GOD

We should approach all the great truths of God with a sense of reverence and godly fear. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and understanding, and all people who would approach unto God should come to Him with a sense of great awe, realizing that He is infinite in all wisdom and understanding but that we know nothing yet as we ought to know. It is much better to listen than to speak in God’s presence. It is wise on our part to wrap the mantle of humility about our heads and stand to listen to His blessed voice. If men and women can be found who are more anxious to hear God speak than to hear themselves speak, we will find men and women who know the purpose of God. Sadly and bitterly we must confess that we have stood up boldly to argue our causes both loud and long, but we have spent little time at His feet disowning our own wisdom, disclaiming our own knowledge, emptying ourselves of vain traditions, repenting of our vain doctrines taught to us by men, and beseeching Him that we might be partakers of His eternal wisdom, His infinite understanding, His counsel and His might. Oh, that men would seek to cast off their natural minds, their human ways of looking at things, and become partakers of the mind of Christ!

Perhaps few people will believe me, but there is a day coming when all the great sermons will fade into insignificance in the light of His greatness and all the doctrines will become utterly lacking before the glory of His fullness. The great man will bow his head before God in shame and repentance and confess that he knew nothing as he ought to have known.

My heart’s desire and prayer to God every waking hour of my life and in the night seasons as well is that I might be filled with the wisdom of Christ and be made one with His purpose and the knowledge of His will. For this to be accomplished, I find myself repenting constantly of the foolish things I have said, taught, and preached, and of the limited light and understanding I have had when I almost thought my little flickering candle to be as important as the sun and my tiny grain of sand to be the earth itself. Surely once again we need a Gamaliel to say to us, “Ye know nothing at all,” or a Paul to say, “If any man thinketh he knoweth aught, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know,” or Jesus to say to men who are so self-assured and confident in their knowledge of things, “Ye do greatly err, not knowing the scriptures or the power of God.”

I am saying these things here and now so that we might know before we start reading the following pages that there is a universe of truth which we have never touched, heard, seen, nor tasted, and that if we would bow our heads before God and admit our ignorance, He would open to us the things which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath entered into the heart of man.

One of the first things that Christians need to learn is that God is God. We need spiritual revelation to show us that God is almighty, that all the power and authority in the universe belongs to Him; that all things were made by Him, all things were made for Him, and all things consist and exist by His power; that thrones, dominions, principalities, and powers, whether in heaven or earth or hell, were created and designed by Him as part of His plan and purpose. Nothing can breathe or exist a second without Him. Nothing has power that He has not given. Even Satan himself is helpless and powerless and has no strength except what has been given him in the purpose of God. God is omnipotent. God is almighty. All power in heaven and earth belongs to Him.

Christians need a revelation of God’s wisdom. It is not enough to say God is omniscient knowing the end from the beginning and the beginning from the end. We must be able to see that a mind so infinitely wise as to contain all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge in the universe would never allow anything of any description to sneak unknown into His purpose that He Himself had not planned. No mistakes were made in the Garden of Eden. Every detail was planned as part of an eternal purpose. “The creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of Him who hath subjected the same in hope.” There were no mistakes in Eden. Neither were there any after thoughts about Calvary. All was planned before the foundation of the world. God is not making any mistakes today either. No enemy of any description is hindering His purpose even in the least, but all things are working together to triumphantly complete His purpose even as Paul once said, “We can do nothing against the truth.” 2 Cor. 13:8. No man can truly love God until he sees Him wise beyond the possibility of error, omnipotent beyond the possibility of defeat, immutable beyond the possibility of change, incorruptible beyond the possibility of decay, immortal beyond the possibility of death, loving beyond the possibility of loss, and eternal beyond the corroding influence of time.

Such a God as this leaves nothing to chance but includes all in His purpose. Only creatures of ignorance take chances. God never does. It was not chance that sold Joseph into Egypt. It was purpose. It was not chance that shipwrecked Paul on the Island of Melita. It was infinite purpose. It was not fate that confined him to jail. It was purpose. It is not bad fate that three quarters of the earth have not heard the gospel. It is purpose. The glory and the wonder of that infinite purpose will be made crystal clear in the ages yet unborn when all who sat in heathen darkness will see a great light. Once a man sees by the Holy Ghost that all things are working according to His purpose, then with confidence, abandonment, and dedication he can cast himself upon the almighty arms of the Father and submit himself to the direction of Him whose mind is infinite and His purpose immutable.

It is with knowledge of His glorious infinity and of the smallness of our own wisdom that we open our hearts to learn a little more about that purpose of purposes, the manifestation of the sons of God. You may have to change your mind a little or a lot as you read through these pages, but please remember that a change of mind is not a sign of stupidity, but of growth. It was not a backward step when man first began to believe that the earth was round and not flat. Mankind is forever discarding some clumsy old theory as new light is shed on the wonders of the universe. The puff of smoke on the ocean’s horizon is a sign that a ship is coming, and the cloud the size of a man’s hand was a sign to Elijah that many clouds were on the way, and the sound of abundance of rain.

There is nothing more important at this hour than the preparation of the sons of God for manifestation. The manifestation of the sons of God is God’s purpose for the end of this age, or, should I say, for that period between the ages of grace and the kingdom, in like manner as Jesus Christ, the first Son, was manifested between the ages of law and grace. It is the next great event in God’s order. There is an event for which the whole creation is groaning and travailing. That glorious event is the manifestation of the sons of God. For years we have been taught that the hope of the church is to be raptured out of the world to escape the tribulation. For years I went along with that belief, but I cannot help but feel that most of the hope for a rapture is built upon man’s human desire to escape suffering and tribulation, not knowing that it is through much tribulation that we enter the kingdom of God. While we have some statements that appear very definite about our being caught up, we must remember that Paul was caught up to the third heaven and yet remained right here on earth. John at Patmos was twice caught up to higher and higher realms in the Spirit in one and the same experience yet remained here to bear witness to it. Compare Rev. 1:10, Rev. 4:1. Then again the same truth is evident in Rev. 12 where the man child was caught up to God and His throne, yet was found feeding the woman in the wilderness even as Elijah did.

I have no great desire to change the mind of any man about these things, for we can safely leave this to the revelation of the Lord. However, the sons of God are not to be raptured out of the tribulation but will walk victoriously through it. They are not to be burned to a cinder by the fiery furnace of tribulation, but they are to walk as Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego with the Son of God, preserved in its sevenfold flame, to emerge liberated, unscathed, victorious, and without the smell of fire upon them. They are not to be eaten by the lions of the den, but to stand as Daniel unscathed and unharmed as the angel shut their mouths. They are not to perish of thirst in its wilderness, but to drink as Elijah of the brook of the living waters. They are not to die of hunger in its famine, but to supply the woman with meal and oil till judgment is sent forth unto glorious victory. They are not to be slain by its Jezebel (Babylon), but to defeat her prophets, destroy her altars, and race before the chariot of the king proclaiming rain upon the earth.

“I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us. For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of Him (God) who hath subjected the same in hope, because the creature itself shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children (sons) of God. For the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now and not only they, but ourselves also, which have the first fruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption (sonship), to wit, (which means), the redemption of our bodies.” (Rom. 8:18-23) This wonderful classic written by Paul on sonship shows what the true hope of mankind really is. May I further add that that hope is not confined to man but includes every creature and thing in the animal and vegetable world, and heaven itself is waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God.

We must now prepare to follow along into deeper waters. You will not be able to hear with natural ears nor understand with natural minds what I am now going to say. You must beg God to open the eyes of your understanding that you might know the hope and the purpose that lies before us, and I pray mightily that God will open your eyes and anoint them with eye salve that you may behold these wonders.

It is a source of wonder to me that very, very few Christians can see any difference at all between the church and the manifested sons of God. But there is a vast difference, and I pray God will give us all help as we think about it now, for without His help and revelation we cannot hope to understand. In any marriage there are two bodies. There is one body of the man or bridegroom and another body of the woman or bride. The body of the man is a complete body in itself without the woman, having head, shoulders, torso, legs, and feet with every ligament, bone, and muscle. That body has its own head, its own body, and its own feet. This same thing is also true of the woman. She has her own head, her own body, and her own feet. But when the man and the woman are united in marriage, the man, the whole man, becomes the head of the woman, and the woman, becomes the body of the man. Thus also it is with Christ and the church. We must understand that the sons of God and the church are two distinct companies, the sons of God being the body of the bridegroom and the true church being the body of the bride. When both are complete and perfect they will become one. It is about this very thing that Paul speaks in Ephesians 5. “This is a great mystery, but I speak concerning Christ and the church.”

At least twice in the Holy Scripture Jesus Christ is referred to as a sign. In that magnificent prophecy of Simeon recorded in Luke 2:25-35 things far beyond human understanding are spoken. Even Joseph and Mary were staggered and caused to marvel at his words. In verse 34 it is recorded that he turned to Mary and said, “Behold, this child is set for a sign!” A sign of what?

Again in Isa. 7:14 Jesus Christ is referred to as a sign. “Therefore the Lord Himself shall give you a sign: behold, a virgin shall conceive and bear a son and shall call His name Immanuel.” While it is generally understood that the sign was the virgin birth, according to the words of Simeon “this child is for a sign.” It is clear therefore that the sign was not the virgin birth but the child that was born of the virgin. Again I ask, a sign of what? In exactly the same way as the little cloud the size of a man’s hand in the days of Elijah was the sign of a sky full of clouds and abundance of rain, so Jesus Christ, the first begotten Son of God, was the sign of a vast number of sons to come of which He is the eldest, the first born, and the head. But all the other sons are with Him in all things, which is the head, even Christ. They are one with Him even as He is one with the Father. They are in His image: they are a part of Him; they form the complete Christ.

This is in exact accord with what Paul says in Rom. 8:28-29. “And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to His purpose, for whom He did foreknow He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren.” This passage does not make sense aside from what I am saying. I know the hope is beyond our wildest imaginations. It takes away our breath, but it is true. There is a company being formed whose members are members of Christ, and sons of God, begotten of God, perfected through suffering, cleansed by His blood, made in His image, and members of the bridegroom. I cannot help but pause again to pray that God will give you the Spirit of wisdom and understanding in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of your understanding being enlightened that you might know what is the hope of His calling. Jesus Christ, the perfect Son of God, was formed in the womb of an imperfect virgin. So now in like manner the vast family of sons is coming to perfection in the womb of another imperfect virgin. That is the existing church, torn by strife and division and carnality, held captive in Babylon and taxed by the dominion of a foreign power.

Every healthy body must be possessed of all its organs and its limbs. It must have, not only a head but hands, body, and feet. It should certainly then be easily understood that if Jesus of Nazareth, the first begotten Son of God, is the head of the body of the bridegroom, which is the sons of God, then those of us who are becoming sons will be hands and feet of His spiritual body. Do not turn away in unbelief. My heart has been pounding with joy and anticipation of this glorious thing for weeks, for there are things said about the feet of Christ that are said of nothing else. Therefore let us boldly pursue this course and see at least in part what the glorious truth really is.

In a normal birth the first member to be born is the head, then the body, and finally the feet. Ah! What sublime truth is here! That head was born two thousand years ago and through the centuries the other members of the body of Christ have been forming and coming forth from the womb. We cannot speak in particular about that now, but note that the last members to come forth from the womb are the feet. It is here our interests rest, for we are the members of the sons of God, the body of the bridegroom.

Jacob had twelve sons of whom the youngest was Benjamin. Benjamin was so named because he was born when Jacob was old. But he is the completeness of the family of Jacob and his name means ‘son of my right hand, born in the extremity of the age’. That is where we come in. We are the feet of the body of the bridegroom born in the extremity of the age.

Just before the glorious triumph of Christ at Calvary we have on record in John 13 how Jesus poured water in a basin and, girding Himself with a towel, began to wash the disciples’ feet. At last He came to Peter, and Peter asked the Lord, “Dost Thou wash my feet?” Jesus with utmost significance replied, “What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shall know hereafter.” For many years I with many others have held foot-washing services, and while there was a certain amount of blessing in it, I always felt that we did not know nor understand what we were doing. There was some significance far beyond what we saw and far greater than the little ordinance we were following which seemed to be in accordance with the instructions of Christ. Peter did not know the significance of the thing Jesus was doing, John did not know, nor did any others. The great truth was to be known hereafter. “Thou shall know hereafter.” It was to become plain in our day when we, the feet of the body of Christ, would be washed and prepared and made beautiful to spread the glorious gospel of peace to the universe.  The story proceeds thus: Peter declared, “Thou shall never wash my feet!” Jesus replied, “If I wash thee not, thou hast no part in Me.” Peter in his customary blundering way cried, “Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head.” The Lord bless him! He didn’t know what he was talking about. But Jesus corrected him with these words, “He that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit.” This is the hour of the cleansing of the feet.

The head was born pure, the hands have been cleansed long ago, but the feet, the only members of the body defiled by the earth, are being washed now. They are coming out of Babylon. Those naked feet are being shod now with “the preparation of the gospel of peace.” (Eph. 6:15) They will never again be contaminated with the dirt and grime of the earth.

Oh, how my heart leaped within me today as I read the words of the prophet, “0 Zion, put on thy beautiful garments – shake thyself from the dust and sit down – therefore My people shall know My name; therefore they shall know in that day that I am He that doth speak; Behold, it is I.”

“How beautiful upon the mountain are the feet of Him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace, that bringeth good tidings of good, that publisheth salvation, that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth: – For they shall see eye to eye when the Lord shall bring again Zion.” (Isa. 52:1-8)

It is the feet members of Christ who are to publish the tidings of the glory and peace of the kingdom according to Isaiah, and according to Paul it is the feet who are shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. I cannot help but believe that the preparation is on right now, and the feet members are being washed and shod in readiness to proclaim the glad tidings of peace.

How gloriously do the prophets describe the ministry of the feet. Let your heart thrill to its truth as we read. “The glory of Lebanon shall come unto thee, the fir tree, the pine tree, and the box (tree) together to beautify the place of my sanctuary; and I will make the place of my feet glorious. The sons also of them that afflicted thee shall come bending unto thee and they that despised thee shall bow themselves down at the soles of thy feet, and they shall call thee the city of the Lord, the Zion of the Holy One of Israel.” (Isa. 60:13-15) “Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace.” (Nahum 1:15) (We should notice as we read these passages that it is not said the feet of them, but the feet of him.) Zechariah, describing the tribulation and the war and the upheaval among the nations, ends the struggle by saying, “And His feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives which is before Jerusalem.” (Zech. 14:4)

It is small wonder that Jesus said to Peter, “What I do thou knowest not now, but thou shall know hereafter.”  Before we leave this part of our thought, I would like to point out one or two more outstanding things which show very clearly the infinite relationship between Christ, the firstborn Son, the first manifested Son, and that other glorious company of sons who come into His image and likeness and are the members of His body, members of His family, and members of the bridegroom.

John the beloved disciple had been with Jesus in the mount of transfiguration. He had seen the transcending wonders of things that were to come. Like the others he, too, had fallen down afraid, dumbfounded by the glory that was manifest, as he saw the face of Christ shining as the sun and heard the voice of God from the glory saying, “This is My beloved Son.” Sixty or sixty-five years had gone by since that wonder-filled day and now for the word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ this same John was exiled on the lonely island of Patmos. I do not think there was any place on earth that was lonely for John. He knew far too well how to fellowship with Christ in the Spirit to ever feel lonely, for the further he was from the earth the nearer he was to Him, and that is what he loved. Well John knew the Son of God and the sound of His voice was indelible in his ear. He had heard Him preach the sermon on the mount, had watched His gentle hand calm the fevered brow, raise the dead, and cast out the demons with His word. His wondering eyes had beheld Him on the mount of transfiguration; he had talked with Him after the resurrection; he had watched with awe as He rose from the earth and ascended into heaven. Yet he was not prepared for the excellent glory of the revelation that awaited him that distant day on Patmos, for the glory he was then to see was unlike any he had ever beheld before. In times past he had seen Jesus Christ, the only begotten Son of God, the first born from the dead, the manifested Son, the Son of Mary, the Son of the living God, but now he was to see the Christ in all His glorious completeness, Jesus Christ the Head with all that vast family of sons, every one in His exact image and likeness. The mercy drops of God were falling upon him that day as the glory of the Lord encompassed him as a cloud and from out the glory he heard a voice speaking. How well he knew that. blessed voice, for oft its accents had fallen on his willing ear, and yet it was completely different, for he had known the voice of the lonely Galilean, Jesus Christ the Head of the Sons, but now that voice though unmistakable was not altogether identical. Now instead of one voice it thundered forth as the sound of many waters, many people, many sons; yet as many waters lose their identity in one ocean, so the voices of these many manifested sons lose their identity in the glory of Himself that in all things He might have the preeminence.

It was natural that John should turn around to look for the one who spoke, and looking he saw the Christ, the Son of the living God, but was it He? Was it the Christ of long ago? John declared it was “one like the Son of man.” Very, very like Him. The exact image of Him. There He stood at the end of the age in all His glorious completeness as if to say, “Here am I and the children which God has given Me,” (Heb. 2:13), Christ, the first Son, and all the younger sons now perfected in His image standing with Him, one glorious and perfect bridegroom. His head and His hair were white like wool, as white as snow. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and His feet, His glorious feet, like brass as if they burned in a furnace; and His voice was as the sound of many waters. Out of His mouth went a sharp two-edged sword and His countenance was as the sun shining in its strength. And when John saw Him, he fell at His feet as dead. Oh, the glory of the message that came forth from the lips of the Christ as He took John by the hand to raise him up! “Fear not, I am the first and the last.” John had seen Him before and had known him as the first, but never had he seen the glorious end of the matter, Christ as He is at last. There before him stood the One who was dead and was now alive forevermore. The One with the keys of both death and hell. When the blessed Christ rose from the dead two thousand years ago. He led forth from hell a host of captives, but now at the end of the time He stands holding the keys that unlock the gates of both hell and death. No wonder He once said, “On this rock I build My church and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”

Marvelous are the promises of God made to those members of the body of Christ which are called the feet. Indeed it is positively true and abundantly evident that the final crushing blow that will destroy everything belonging to the kingdom of Satan will be accomplished by the feet members of the body of Christ, the sons of God, who will be manifested at the end of the age.

It was in the sad evening of the same day man fell that the first promise to the feet members of Christ was made. God had come to the garden to talk to the children He loved only to find them hiding from Him among the trees He had made. They had sewn fig leaves together to hide their nakedness, for the glory of God that had covered them at the first was gone and they were desperately afraid. And God said, “Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat?” And the man said, “The woman whom Thou gavest to be with me gave me of the tree and I did eat.” And the Lord said unto the woman, “What has thou done?” And the woman said, “The serpent beguiled me and I did eat.” And the Lord said unto the serpent, “Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt go and dust shall thou eat all the days of thy life; and I will put enmity between thee and the woman and between thy seed and her seed. It shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.” (Gen. 3:14, 15) Here the first promise of the coming of Christ, the seed of the woman, is made, but it is a promise not only of the coming of Jesus Christ who is the head but also of the coming of those sons in His image and in His likeness who are members of His body, of His flesh, and of His bones, that complete Christ whom John saw and described as “one like the Son of Man.” Rev. 1:13, whose feet were like fine brass (for judgment) as if they had burned in a furnace. These are not idle words. They are words of transcending truth and revelation. The promise to Eve was that the seed of the woman should finally and irrevocably crush the head of the serpent under His heel, or under His feet. We can find greater confirmation of this elsewhere. In Heb. 2:8 Paul said, “Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet.” Paul must be referring to the same thing when he says in Rom. 16:20, “And the God of peace shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly.” David also speaking by the Spirit said, “Thou hast put all things under His feet.”

It is always a fatal mistake for any man regardless of who he is. That mistake will lead him into endless difficulty and make him bigoted in his ideas and so established in his ways that God can never give him any greater light. We should always remember that the revelation of the Lord is as the path of the just that shineth more and more until the day is full. Revelation grows from the frail flickering light of dawn to the glory and fullness of the noonday sun. Oh, so often people send me books and tracts on moldy old subjects that had their day sometimes several hundred years ago. They are still striving to prove things that need no proof. They are strumming harps that have no strings. They are like the Jews hanging on to the law of Moses after the Holy Ghost was outpoured and Paul had come with his marvelous gospel of the grace of God. But even while I write the shadows are lengthening on the day of the gospel of grace. The day of Paul’s gospel is drawing to a rapid close and the glorious new day of the kingdom is at hand. Let us not try to revive the age of grace with its flickering lights, its spiritual gifts, and all its imperfections, but let us follow the increasing light into the perfect day where everything in-part is done away. If you want to stay there, my brother, by all means stay, but don’t ask me to stay with you, for the Holy Spirit is urging me within to stand with His feet on Mount Zion and proclaim the glorious kingdom of eternal peace. Farewell to the age of imperfections. Farewell to things that are in part. Farewell to seeing through a glass darkly and good morning to that which is perfect; good morning to that which is complete; good morning to seeing face to face.

Face to face, 0 blissful moment,

Face to face, to see and know;

Face to face with my redeemer,

Jesus Christ who loved me so.

What rejoicing in His presence

When are banished grief and pain;

When the crooked ways are straightened

And the dark things shall be plain.

When God revealed to Adam and Eve that the seed of the woman would bruise the serpent’s head, I am sure they saw the truth only in its embryo form. They saw the woman as Eve and the seed as Seth. Would we dare say they were wrong in so seeing the revelation? No! A thousand times no! They were perfectly right in what they saw, but they saw very, very little. They could not look through the vista of the years and see through the line of their son Seth that the glorious Christ in all His sinless purity would be born of a virgin mother, begotten of God, the seed of the Holy Ghost; and Joseph and Mary, rejoicing in the birth of the Christ-child, the only begotten Son of God, could not look down the corridors of the years to the culmination of the age of grace and see that the seed which fell into the ground and died had brought forth a whole harvest of begotten sons in His own image and in His exact likeness. They could not hear the words of revelation flowing from the anointed lips of Paul as he proclaimed, “Whom He did foreknow He also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren,” Rom. 8:29, or as Weymouth translates it, “That He might be the eldest in a vast family of brothers!”

In my spirit I hear the weeping voice of Jeremiah come ringing down the centuries saying to us at the end of this age, “The precious sons of Zion, comparable to fine gold, how are they esteemed as earthen pitchers, the work of the hands of the potter.” Lam. 4:2. But the full glory of the revelation was left for John to see, and when he saw it, he fell down as dead at the feet of that glorious seed of the woman, that glorious Christ, that complete Christ, the head, the body, the hands, and the feet – the seed of the woman that was promised to Eve long ago now ready to fulfill all that was promised in destroying forever from the face of the universe every work of the serpent. It was left for the beloved John to witness the final phase of the complete birth of that Son who is to rule the nations with a rod of iron. Thus in Rev. 12 we read that he saw a spiritual virgin bringing forth a man child, not a male child as some say, but a wonder never before known; a child that is a fully developed man at birth. Even Jesus grew in wisdom and stature and favor with God and man because He was born of a human and an imperfect mother though He was the Son of God. But this child is born of a spiritual woman and so is born a man-child. This is the Son who is to rule all nations with a rod of iron. This is the final company of the sons of God, the feet members of the body of Christ who are to rule all nations with a rod of iron and finally put their heel on Satan’s head to destroy his power in the whole universe.

The days of the preparation of the bridegroom are almost complete. The feet are coming forth from the womb of the virgin. Then the preparation of the sons of God will be accomplished. The feet are ready for the washing that they might be cleansed from the last particles of the dust of the earth and have their part in Him. “What I do thou knowest not now,” Jesus said to Peter, “but thou shall know hereafter.” Hallelujah! The glory of the truth is left for us, the feet, to know and I know for a surety that Christ is cleansing His feet from every trace of the world and its systems.

The story of the final coming forth of the sons of God is revealed in the twelfth chapter of Revelation in these words: “And there appeared a great wonder in heaven; a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars; and she being with child cried travailing in birth and in pain to be delivered. And there appeared another wonder in heaven; and, behold, a great red dragon, having seven heads and ten horns, and seven crowns upon his heads. And his tail drew the third part of the stars of heaven and did cast them to earth: and the dragon stood before the woman which was ready to be delivered, for to devour her child as soon as it was born. And she brought forth a man-child, who was to rule all the nations with a rod of iron: and her child was caught up unto God and to His throne. And the woman fled into the wilderness where she hath a place prepared of God, that they (the sons of God) should feed her there a thousand two hundred and threescore days.” (Rev. 12:1-6)

No one realizes better than I what difficulty is faced in declaring the things I have here taught. The difficulty arises because Christians have become literally filled with tradition and with stuffy old theories formed in the minds of men who imagine they are students of the word of God. I am a great lover of the Bible, but I am always afraid of any man who thinks he understands it. That man is a deceiver of himself and has closed his eyes to the shining light of the revelation of the Holy Spirit as it illumines His word. He will find himself possessing a stagnant pool and denying that rivers and oceans even exist. But those who can see the truth of these things will purify themselves even as He is pure.

We are in the closing hours of the dispensation of grace. The certain hope of the kingdom of God lies before us. Beasts and all cattle, creeping things and flying fowl, together with every living thing that moves draw near to the moment of triumph. The whole creation, that has groaned in travail and pain throughout the night of every dispensation, is soon to hear the joyous song of the kingdom morning where justice and equity will spread like a mantle over the tired world, for the knowledge of the Lord will fill the earth as the waters fill the seas.

Almost two milleniums ago God manifested His first Son, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the first born and the head of all the sons of God prepared of God throughout the ages, and when all those sons are complete, they will form one body, a sonship body in the exact image and likeness of that first Son who is Himself the image of the Father.

There are many things to learn from types and anti-types, for by them truth is taught with more force than any spoken word. In the plan of God two distinct systems are to rule in power over the entire earth. The first was Babylon, the image of which was vividly portrayed by the prophet Daniel. (Dan. 2:31-35) The second is to be the kingdom of Christ, the Lord and Ruler seen by the Apostle John at Patmos. (Rev. 1:10-18) See also Dan. 2:44. If we consider the image of Babylon with its head of gold, its breasts and arms of silver, its belly and thighs of brass, its legs of iron and its feet part iron and part clay, we will learn this: The image of Babylon is one image, all the various parts of the image contributing together to make one image of the dread forms of Babylonish rule that would prevail over the entire earth. With this in mind we may readily see that, when John beheld the revelation of the fullness of Christ, Rev. 1:10-18, he saw that the head, the hair, the eyes, the hands, and the feet, though all particular parts, were but one body. This was the revelation of the fullness of the sonship company, the in-Christ company, of which He is the head and the first born. Nebuchadnezzar was the head of the image of Babylon. (Dan. 2:38) Christ is the Head of the sons. (Rom. 8:29) The feet of the image of Babylon were ready to fall apart in dust, but the feet of Christ, like unto brass eternally enduring, burned as in a furnace of fire. Just as the image of Babylon representing all dominions and empires was one image, so this image of Christ with its many members is but one body. As many soldiers form one army, so many sons make one body, and that body is the fullness of Christ. When Paul exhorted the Ephesians to come to the stature of the fullness of Christ, Eph. 4:13, he was speaking of the fullness John saw in Rev. 1:13-15.

This is the perfect man among the candlesticks (churches) in His image. And we may further say that could we look more closely we would certainly see that every nerve and fiber, every muscle and sinew of that mighty one like unto the Son of man, was itself a manifested son of God, each the image of the other and all the image of Jesus Christ, the Head of all the sons of God.

The sons of God who are coming to maturity at the end of the age are the feet of Him. (Isa. 52:7; 60:13, 14) The clay feet of the image of Babylon are about to be smitten and crumble to dust. (Dan. 2:34, 350) With them will crumble the whole system of Babylon with all its millenniums of confusion. But the feet of Christ are not of clay but as brass (judgment) burning in a furnace of fire; for judgment shall be given to the saints of the Most High and they shall reign unto the ages of the ages. (Dan. 7:26, 27)

Deep from the depths of my spirit there comes a longing for the purification of the saints of the Most High. Too long have these sons wasted their living with harlot churches. It is time to come out from among them and return to the Father. It is time for the washing of the feet, not in ceremony, but in reality. This is the hour when we are to know what only Jesus knew when He said to Peter, “If I wash thee not, thou hast no part in Me.” (John 13: 6-8) This is the fulfillment of that blessed type so richly manifested when the woman washed His feet with tears of repentance and love and anointed them with the symbolic oil of the Spirit of God. (Luke 7:37, 38) We are those feet of Christ whom He is now washing (John 13:4, 5) that we might be shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace. (Eph. 6:14, 150) “How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace, that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth salvation, that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth!” (Isa. 52:7) (Rom. 10:15) Long ago Jesus showed them His hands and His side, and then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord; but the hour is at hand when He will show unto all the world His blessed feet, for it is they who will publish to all the world the glad news, Thy God reigneth.

There are many today whose feet are defiled, for they are far too interested in the affairs of this passing age though they protest otherwise. I am convinced that no man who has any love left in him for this present evil age will ever attain to that glorious feet company of the sons of God, for those who are with Him are not only called, but chosen and faithful as well. (Rev. 17:14) He whose feet are as brass in a furnace of fire is portraying in parable, expressive beyond words, that those who are to judge the nations of the earth must certainly themselves be first judged in fire, for the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is, and all that is wood, hay, and stubble shall be destroyed. (1 Cor. 3:12-16)

Let us then now judge ourselves and thus cleanse ourselves of all that is wood and hay and stubble, for these things vividly portray the passing and not the permanent. Let all who are double-minded purify their hearts. Let us make a clean break with the harlot systems of earth. Let us recognize every denomination, every sect, and every religious system as being part and parcel of the Babylon system that is soon to crumble, bringing destruction not only to itself but to all who are found in her. (Rev. 18:28)

All who are members of Christ must suffer the pains of crucifixion. The Head was pierced with thorns; the hands were pierced with nails, the side was pierced with a spear. So also must the feet be pierced, for He who proudly displayed His hands and His side shall presently display with equal pride His wounded feet. He from whom all men fled that He might suffer alone amid the millions who swarmed around will also have us to share the cross of walking alone and misunderstood amid the millions of this crooked and perverse age. The hour of preparation of the feet company is at hand. It is the preparation of the final company of God’s sons. Is it too much that we should be asked to abandon the trifles in which other men are so engrossed? For he that is washed needeth not save to wash his feet and is clean every whit.