The Consummate Messiah and The Messianic Capital
The Resting Place or Settlement of the Lord among humans, Ahaba (or Asaba), is identified in the Scriptures:
There is a river whose streams gladden the City of God [Ahaba], the Holy Dwelling of God the Highest. God is in Her midst [Onishe]; She shall not be moved; God will help Her at the break of dawn (Psalms 46:4-5).
Indeed, the natural Jerusalem is not situated by a river, and its natural water resources are limited. Therefore, this passage does not pertain to the “earthly” Jerusalem. Instead, it refers to Ahaba (meaning I settle here), the New Jerusalem and ancestral home of the Ultimate Messiah. Ahaba is located by the Niger River, complemented by a system of streams or tributaries: Abutta, Ngene Ugbomanta, and Ngene Umuagu. At the exact location of God the Mother’s dwelling, Onishe, there is a mystical Rock-Fountainhead (The mystical Throne of God), whose effluent feeds into the river, similar to the network of three streams. (As illustrated by the shading of light in the Cryptogram, the gradation of Numen [Divine Grace] in the Spiritual Structure gives the impression of water cascading from a source like a fountain.
The Scriptures attested to this portraiture of the Structure: “For with you [the Exalted Messiah] is the Fountain of Life; in your [Flame] shall we see light”—Psalms 36:9. Recall that the Structure was derived from a combustion experiment.)
The Scriptures, indeed, identified this Rock-Fountain with Christ:
All drank the same spiritual drink; they drank from the Spiritual Rock that followed them; and that Rock was Christ (1 Corinthian 10:4).
Thus, the Rock-Fountain was in transit with the Hebrews; but it has since settled in Asaba, the New Zion. Behold the Transition! The transitory Rock-Fountain with the Hebrews (in the desert) was identified with the Pre-Exalted Christ, Jesus, while the Enduring One in Asaba is associated with the Exalted Christ, the Holy Spirit:
If any man thirsts, let him come to me; he that believes in me let him drink. Scripture says: ‘Out of Him [i.e., the Rock] shall flow rivers of living water’ (John 7:37-38)
Indeed, in the subsequent passage in John’s Gospel, this living water was, inarguably, identified with the Exalted Christ, the Holy Spirit:
He spoke here of the Spirit, whom they that believe in Him were to receive; there was, of course, no Spirit as yet, because Jesus had not yet been glorified (John 7:39)
Moses and Aaron were denied entry into the (natural) promised land, because of their disbelief in connection with this Rock-Fountain, the Embodiment of Faith (Num. 20:7-12; Ex. 17:1-7). Thus, the primacy of the Holy Spirit in the Salvific Plan was demonstrated.
Regarding this Mystical Source and River, the Scriptures further testified:
And he showed me a River of life-giving water, clear as crystal, “proceeding out of” the Throne of God [i.e., the Rock-“Source“] and of the Lamb (Rev. 22:1; cf., John 7:38 [above]: ‘Out of Him. . .’)
The One that sat on the Throne said [then and says again, now] . . . I am the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End [the Cherubim]. To anyone who thirsts, I will give to drink, freely, from the Fountain of Life-giving water. He that surmounts [Mount Zion] shall inherit all things; and I will be his God and he shall be my son (Rev. 21-5-7).
The Spirit and the Bride [the Cherubim] say: “Come”! Let him who hears respond, “Come”! Let him who is thirsty come forward; let all who wish it receive the life-giving water freely (Rev. 22:17; 7:17).
It is clear from the foregoing passages that the Mystical Fountain depicted by the Cryptogram is, indeed, the Messianic Emblem. Hence, the expression: “For with you is the Fountain of Life [Justice]; in your [Flame] shall we see light” (Psalms 36:9; Amos 5:24). Indeed, the Emblem is with the Consummate Messiah, both on His Person as an Insignia, the Cryptogram, and in His ancestral home, Asaba—the New Zion:
In that place [Ahaba], I beheld a Fountain of Righteousness which never failed [unlike the occasional fountain with the Hebrews in the desert], encircled by many springs of wisdom. Of these all the thirsty drank, and were filled with wisdom, having their habitation with the righteous, the elect, and the holy. In that hour was this Son of Man invoked before the Lord of Spirits, and His name [Olisadumkwu] in the Presence of the Ancient of Days (1 Enoch* 48:1-2 [Translated by Richard Laurence]; Amos 5:24).
Wisdom is poured forth [from Him] like water, and glory fails not before Him forever and ever; for potent is He in all the secrets of righteousness (1 Enoch 48A:1)
The prophet, Ezekiel, had a corrupt vision of this Fountain in Ahaba:
Then he brought me back to the door of the temple. And behold water was issuing from below the Threshold of the temple [i.e., the Table-Rock-Fountain—the Onishe Shrine], toward the east (for the temple [i.e., the Altar] faced east); and the water was flowing down . . . south of the Altar (Ezekiel 47:1; Joel 3:18d).
Indeed, Onishe Shrine, which is located on the west bank of the Niger River, faces east: From a gaping-hole beneath a Table-Rock, water gushes east, and merges with the river flowing down south of the Shrine toward the Niger River Delta. Ezekiel reported, erroneously, seeing a temple on the Site of this Fountainhead, replete with specific dimensions, much like the temple of Solomon. He rehashed obsolete Mosaic laws as requisites for entry into this New Sanctuary (Ezekiel 40-48). This misconception necessitated correction. And the apostle, John, felt the need for this correction, following his own vision:
I saw no temple in the City. For its Temple is the Lord God, the Almighty, and the Lamb. The City has no need of sun or moon to shine upon it, for the Glory of God is its Light, and its Lamp is the Lamb. By Its light [the Cryptogram] shall the nations walk. And the kings of the Earth shall bring their wealth and treasures into it . . . (Revelation 21:22-27)
Thus, a Mystical Temple is truly in reference, not a temporal one.
The Scriptures affirmed that this Dwelling of the Lord among humans, Asaba—uniquely identified with the Rock-Fountainhead, the River, and the network of streamlets: symbols of the Exalted Christ—is indeed the New Jerusalem:
And I, John, saw a New Jerusalem, the Holy City, coming from God out of Heaven . . . And I heard a loud voice from the Throne saying: ‘Behold! God’s Dwelling among human’s [Ahaba], and He will Dwell with them, and they shall be His people; and God, Himself, shall be with them and be their God’ (Rev. 21:2-3; Zec. 8:3).
Thus, Ezra’s prophecy is fulfilled which said:
For behold the time will come, when the signs which I foretold to you will come to pass, that the City [New Jerusalem] which now is not seen shall appear, and the Land [Ahaba] which now is hidden shall be disclosed (4 Ezra 7:26 or 2 Esdras 7:26; Revised Standard version).
Truly, the Transcendent God has become ultimately immanent—dwelling among humans.
It is to this New Heaven that Jesus ascended, following His crucifixion, death and burial at Calvary: Behold, the Transmigration! This Event signalized the renewal and relocation of the Primal Spirit: from Its transitory association with the Old Jerusalem, to Its Eternal Settlement in the New; from the earthly plane of the Transcendent God, to the Heavenly Heights of the Immanent One. The Scriptures attested:
The former Heaven and the former Earth [and thus the former Jerusalem] have passed away . . . (Rev. 21:1-2
Indeed:
He that sat on the Throne said [then and says again now], ‘Behold, I make all things new . . . These words are already fulfilled’ (Rev. 21:5-6).
In anticipation of this Momentous Event—the renewal and settlement of the Consummate Spirit on another chosen people, the Asaba people—the envy of the Jews toward this people was prophesied through Moses:
I will move them to jealousy with those who are not a [nation]; I will provoke them to anger with a foolish [people] (Deuteronomy. 32:21; Rom. 10:19).
It is to this New Jerusalem that peoples of all nations are, upwardly, being drawn for protection against the Day of Judgment: to Zion, the Throne of the God of Nnebisi, the Supreme Goal of the mystical pilgrimage on Mount Zion, the Rock-Fountainhead. It is in these Spiritual Heights, Asaba, that the thrones of judgment will be set, and peoples of all nations and ages are being mystically gathered for the Final Judgment:
I come to gather all nations, and they shall come and see my Glory; I will set a Sign [the Divine Emblem] among them. And from them I will send survivors to the nations . . . And they shall bring all your brethren [the righteous] from all the nations as an offering to the Lord . . . to my Holy Mountain, [New] Jerusalem, says the Lord. Just as the [Natural] Israelites bring their cereal offering . . . to the house of the Lord. Some of these I will take as priests and Levites, says the Lord (Isaiah 66:18-24)
This Universal Convocation in New Jerusalem is compared with, and so is distinct from, the phantom practice on bogus Mount Zion. A new priestly class is affirmed here for this New, Eternal House of God: an agglomeration from different nations.
As to membership in this new, priestly class, the Budding Spirit remarked:
He that surmounts [Mount Zion] will I make a pillar [i.e., priest] in the Temple of my God, and he shall never leave it. I will write upon him the name of my God [Onishe], and the name of the City of my God [Ahaba], the New Jerusalem**, which comes down from my God in Heaven [cf., Rev. 21:2]. And I will write upon him my new name [Nnebisi] (Rev. 3:12).
Contrast this Elect Pilgrimage to New Jerusalem with that of Islam to Mecca: The former is a mystic climb up Mount Zion to a glistening, life-giving Rock-Fountain in the Heavenly Oasis; while the latter is a symbolic “trip” (or fall) down Its Valley to a black, parched desert-rock in the Forbidden Sanctuary. So, Islam, which identifies itself with Ishmael (as scapegoat), fulfilled this prophecy on Ishmael: “In opposition to his brethren shall he dwell [on Mount Zion]” (Gen. 16:12). As the Cosmic Scapegoat, an outcast from Heaven, Muhammad surely turned his back on the True God. Indeed, subsequent to his banishment from Heaven, Muhammad changed his way of worship: from facing the True God on Mount Zion in Old Jerusalem (the first qibla) to turning his back on Him and facing the False God in the Desert-Valley, Mecca (the second qibla) —[Quran 2:142], as shown mystically in the Cryptogram*** by the vector arrows of surfaces b-and-a. (See the Cryptogram-schematic below. While the arrow which depicts surface-b points toward the Throne of God [d] in the Efficiency line [the Heavenly Sanctuary], the other points away from it toward the valley.)
Thus, the Cryptogram depicts the two-faced nature of apostates and hypocrites; and Muhammad exemplified them.
The New Jerusalem is, aptly, identified with (God) the Mother (Onishe):
For this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the [Old] Jerusalem which is now in bondage [on the earthly plane] with her children. But the [New] Jerusalem [that is, Mount Zion] which is above is free, and it is She [Onishe] who is our Mother (Gal. 4:25-26; 4 Ezra 10:7, 44 or 2 Esdras 10:7, 44).
So, Old Jerusalem, being in spiritual bondage on the earthly plane, is in need of rescue; and its deliverance is a Mission of the Consummate Messiah. It is, therefore, time for Her Children, the Jews, to forsake ethnocentrism and arrogance, and acquire humility: to join the ascent of pilgrims to freedom in New Zion. Surely, the old sanctuary is defunct; its shell has been relegated to the clan of Ishmael, which is in spiritual bondage, too. Its substitute, the real Heavenly Sanctuary, Ahaba, is the domain of celestial freedom for Nnebisi’s clan. Hence, Old Jerusalem was linked with Hagar, a bondmaid, and New Jerusalem with God the Mother, Onishe.
Indeed, the demise of Old Jerusalem and the birth of the New were presaged by Ezra’s vision of the bereft Mother (4 Ezra 9:23ff or 2 Esdras 9:23ff). Before this vision, Ezra was instructed to withdraw from the city and to go to Ardat: a field ‘where no house had been built’. There, he encountered (God) the Mother who had retired from the city, too, to mourn Her dead Son, (Old) Jerusalem (4 Ezra 10:48). In view of the Cryptogram, Ezra’s vision was an allegorical prophecy, whereby God the Mother symbolized Mount Zion (4 Ezra 10:44, 7) while God the Son stood for Old Jerusalem. Accordingly, the death of God the Son, Jesus, was equated, in the vision, with the destruction of Old Jerusalem. The untimely death of God the Son in His wedding chamber thus signaled the rejection of Jesus as the Chosen Seed for the Cosmic Womb (cf., ΒΆ4 & 5 of “The Standard Spirit” in Blog Post 13; Dan. 9:26). The vision’s final act was a fitting denouement of this Divine drama: While Ezra was discussing the destruction of Old Jerusalem with God the Mother, at that virgin field, She transformed wondrously into New Jerusalem—the epitome of the Exalted Christ:
Therefore, I told you to go into the field where there was no foundation of any building, for no work of man’s building could endure in a place where the City of the Supreme God [Ahaba] was to be revealed (4 Ezra 10:53-54; 7:26; 13:36; Rev. 19:11).
Ezra’s initial perception of the unfolding vision was in the literal sense of the ruination and pillage of Old Zion. The meaning of the vision, however, transcends this historic event. Ezra’s lamentation at the loss of Old Jerusalem—God the Son—gave way to wonderment at the sudden transformation of God the Mother into a Glorious City: New Zion. Behold, the demise of Old Jerusalem was followed by the remote emergence of this New City of God! And so, these Events augured the relocation of the Messianic Capital, Jerusalem. Moreover, Ezra’s perception of the accompanying (phantom) transfer of the State Seal reinforced that omen. Now, the realization of this Seal—the Cryptogram—by a Gentile from the New Capital has ratified it. “And what is more than all, the Seal of Zion—for she has now lost the Seal of her glory and has been given over into the hands of [others]” (4 Ezra 10:23; the Revised Standard version).
(This excerpt will be found in the Book between Pages 194-200 (pdf) and [174-180] (text). The Book version has more footnotes.)
*The Book of Enoch had been classified by many believers as non-canonical. However, the selection process for the Biblical canon had also been capricious. The relevant question, now, is whether a Book’s passage can be borne out: an indication of its Divine sanction.
**Observe the inference here to the Cosmic Renewal: a new Heavenly City on Earth, the New Jerusalem: a new name for the Budding Spirit (and for the New City—Isa. 62:2; even born-again pilgrims receive new names—Rev. 2:17). The born-again criterion for entry into Heaven (John 3:3-9) is best understood with reference to this Cosmic Renewal: cf., 1 Pet. 1:3, 23.
***Surface-a depicts spiritual pilgrims forsaking the True God on Mount Zion for the False God in the wilderness-valley, symbolizing apostates. These individuals, once righteous on surface-b, changed their allegiance at the Structure’s cornerstone, the Sanctuary. In the Old Order, the scapegoat’s journey mirrored the apostate’s path: An escort would lead the scapegoat up to the gate of sanctuary of the Temple Mount, presented it to the Convergent Spirit, or True God. Upon its rejection by the True God, the high priest would confess the sins of the Israelite community on its head before being banished (eastward and cast off a cliff) to the wilderness (valley) for Azazel, or the Divergent Spirit (Lev. 16). Similarly, an Angel guided Muhammad, in a vision, from Mecca to the Temple Mount, then further up to the gate of real Mount Zion, where he was presented to the True God. Muhammad was rejected by the True God and subsequently led eastward in a banishment and fall back to the wilderness-valley of Mecca. He was thus offered as a negative Sin-offering goat for Azazel, the False God. Indeed, before Muhammad’s banishment and fall, the sins of Mount Zion were confessed upon his head which he carried into Mecca valley: hence, the negative role of his sin-offering agency.
The Hegira was Muhammad’s secondary banishment, and the subsequent manifestation of Heavens’ rejection of him. It, thereby, revealed Kaaba (which literally means a “grand high place”) as the echo of Mount Zion: the apparent negative (or forbidden) sanctuary from which Muhammad was cast out, as well. In fact, Muslims regard Kaaba as the shadow of God’s House in Heaven (that is, Mount Zion). So, to a Muslim at hajj, arrival at Kaaba is a symbolic ascent and ironically a lesser hajj, in contrast to the greater hajj which involves the Muslim’s departure (eastward) from Kaaba, a fall. To prepare for the greater hajj, the Muslim would attire as if for burial (in anticipation of a symbolic, fatal fall from the “grand high place”), until the sacrifice at Mina. And so, the hajj is a Muslim’s vicarious reenactment of the scapegoat’s journey and eventual demise, marked by its ejection and fall from the “grand high place”—surface-a. Muslim pilgrims ultimately identify with the scapegoat’s agency by shaving their heads at the end of their “mortal” journey; thus, symbolically shedding the sins thrust upon them at the gate of the sanctuary (Kaaba). The entire hajj proceedings entail roaming the wilderness much like Ishmael (and his escort, Hagar—Gen. 21:14), the prototypical human scapegoat. In contrast to the scapegoat, the sin-offering goat of the Old Order (without an escort) was destined for the “true” goal: the positive sanctuary and the “abode” of the Convergent Spirit, that is, the True God.
Muhammad’s change of qibla (apostasy) echoed this mystical journey: his heavenly summons (ascent) and ensuing exile (fall). Having been banished from Heavenly Mount Zion, Muhammad rebelled by altering the Goal of his devotion: from the True God on Mount Zion to the False God (Azazel) in the wilderness-valley; despite assertions that ‘there will be no alterations in the course of [his Lord]’ (Quran 48:23). This shift in qibla demonstrated his discontent with the divine disfavor: it is remarkable that he would forsake Old Jerusalem, the site of his brief ascension, in favor of the Kaaba shrine. The brevity of his account of this event is evident (Quran 17:1).
(For the literal, Arabic meaning of Kaaba visit this link [and look under the sub-title: “The Other Names of the Kaaba”]: The Kaaba (missionislam.com). According to that official Islamic site: “Literally, Kaaba in Arabic means a high place with respect and prestige”, in other words “A grand high place.”)