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”...Jacob went out from Beer-sheba, and went toward Haran... And he dreamed, and behold a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven: and behold the angels of God ascending and descending on it.” Gen 28:10-12
So Jacob (Israel) dreamt of angelic beings who were able to climb back and forth from Heaven to earth. These steps could represent several dimensions or, as a fellow bible student reminded me, these could be a metaphor: God is higher, His thoughts are higher; therefore, His kingdom is higher than man's. Recall Paul wrote of “getting caught up into the third Heaven” i.e. Paradise (2 Cor 12:2-4). At least three levels are alluded to. There is no indication scripturally that the Father's throne is in Eden/Paradise. Apparently “Heaven” does have more than one dimension accessible to the spirit.
Doors / Portals =>
The Lord referred to Himself as the door Strong's #2374: John 10:7-11
“Then said Jesus... again, In truth I say to you, I am the door of the sheep. v.8 All that ever came before Me were thieves and robbers: but the sheep did not hear them. v.9 I am the door: by Me if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find pasture. v.10 The thief arrives only to steal, and to kill and to destroy: I have arrived that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.”
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In Mark 13:34 and John 10:3 the word portal is used of Christ Jesus' function - Strong's # 2377. In Revelation this theme is prominent:
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Rev 3:8 ”...I have set before you an open door, and no man can shut it: for you have a little strength, and have kept My word, and have not denied My name"
Rev 3:20 “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him...”
Rev 4:1 “After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me...”
Take notice of something else the Lord said: “... if any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out...” This “in and out” phrase is interesting. Everyone knows that sheep or cattle gather toward safety and rest in barnyards or beneath shelters and on rising, leave in of search greener pastures as they can find them. For humans, they find safety and rest in the Lord, yet on arising they depart to search other “pastures.” Could this allude to multiple dimensions?
Keys open “doors”... both to wisdom and possibly to dimensions
Rev 3:7 “And to the angel of the church in Philadelphia write; These things says He that is holy, He that is true, He that has the key of David, He that opens, and no man can shut; and shuts, and no man can open.”
The angel speaks of Christ Himself holding that key to - a door/portal. He is both the key and the door. Some of these references are figurative such as the word chain and bottomless pit but the meaning behind them is literal => a locked-down dimension reserved for Satan and his minions:
Rev 9:1 "And the fifth angel sounded, and I saw a star fall from heaven unto the earth: and to him was given the key of the bottomless pit." [This angel from the First Woe Trumpet is actually - Satan. He is allowed this one time to unleash his minions].
Rev 20:1 "And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.” [This angel is one of the Lord God's angels. He also has that bottomless pit key - and with it - locks up Satan and crew].
In the old testament, doors have natural applications but several allude to very spiritual ones:
Door lintels painted with sacrificial lamb's blood (Passover). Exodus 12:7 pointed to that of a protected portal. Other rituals were performed at the thresholds of Tabernacle doors. Ezekiel's vision of the Temple apostasy is loaded with the imagery of doors/gates. A sizeable study could be done just on this subject, but these passages above give more than a clue as to what's behind “the door.”
Angelic visitations
Angelic visitations were not common but neither were they rare. Angels, including the Lord Himself in the Image of His Son appeared as Melchizedek in *Gen 14 . Too, the Lord accompanied angels to the plain of Mamre to announce Isaac's soon-to-be conception, **Gen 18. These angels ate alongside people (recall, Abraham cooked a meal for them). Recall after Jesus' resurrection, He asked for something to eat - a fish and honeycomb were given to Him - which He ate, deliberately in front of the apostles. He proved that He was resurrected - not just into a spiritual body but also into His “organic” body. He was able to pass through a solid door giving proof of His transformative ability to accommodate all dimensions. Changing water to wine (His first miracle) was a foreshadowing of this type of transformation as was drinking wine and calling it representative of His blood. Transformation leads to the ability to sustain and to enter dimensions beyond our own. THIS is what He has prepared us for!
Paul even warned: “people have entertained angels unawares” Heb 13:2. Noah's flood as noted in Genesis was in large measure caused by “the sons of God (who) saw the daughters of Adam...and took them wives of all they chose” Gen 6:2-8. Commentators have attempted to downplay this passage as pointing to “bad” men marrying women and in their arrogance, working evil; yet, “bad” men have always existed - more to the point, the ancients from long ago always recognized the phrase sons of god as it refers to angels - good or evil. Jude even mentions that these angels left their first estate Jude 1:6 and were damned for it: 1 Peter 3:18-20, 2 Peter 2:3. Since no human in the recent past has experienced such angelic intimacy - discussing the matter of angels mating with humans would be rather “uncomfortable” in church. Except that it did happen.
Angelic visitations continued =>
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How these angelic beings changed their “garments” euphemistically speaking, i.e. transitioned from one dimension to another, to enable this carnal activity is unknown. Scripture does however, make it clear that these unholy matings produced offspring (nephilim and later, rephaim) as noted in several passages:
Gen 6:4, Num 13:33, Dt 2:11, 20, Dt 3:11, 13 with five passages as well in Joshua. The prophets also give accounts of angelic visitations during both their conscious moments and in dreams. Here too, angels
appearing in the light of day may have delivered messages after undergoing an unknown transformation to accommodate their presence in various dimensions.
Ezekiel's steps to the Temple
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This vision of Ezekiel's was given to him starting twenty-five years after the Kingdom of Judah (the southern kingdom vs. the northern Kingdom of Israel) was held in captivity by Babylon. Chap. 40-48 of Ezekiel deal with what the earth and the temple of Jerusalem will appear to be in the Millennium of teaching and rule beginning after the final advent of Christ. In Ezekiel's vision, a line of flax (linen is made from flax) is in the hand of an angel who is measuring the temple, both its inner and outer courts and many features therein. The chapters are extensive in their detail. Skipping to the steps...
=> Steps:
Several verses in chapter 40 mention a series of seven steps as to the outer court, while there is mentioned also, an eighth step leading up into the inner court where the priests reside. Chapter 41:4 then delves into the “most holy place” and its dimensions, while chapter 42 explains the priest's chambers. Then in verses 13-14 of Chapter 42 we read of the priests needing to change their clothes prior to leaving the holy chambers to minister to the people residing in the outer court. This changing of garments is revisited in chapter 44:16-19 where again, the priests who climb the steps from the outer court where they'd been teaching the populace, must now remove their wool and don linen before entering the inner court (up the eighth step). Recall in Rev 19:7, that the elect will don “fine linen” as these represent their righteous acts. Angels are oft mentioned as clothed in linen throughout several passages. Changing from wool to linen and back, up and back down steps, strongly suggests the process of walking in and out of portals to and from dimensions.
The gist of this brief study: getting people to understand scripture on a deeper level. It's not all about our dimension, which is brief and restricted. The Lord was trying to get us ready for what's ahead - the dimensions of forever.
* Refer to the PDF linked here & in the “About” section of this site => “Priesthood of One”
**Also to Bullinger's http://levendwater.org/companion/append32.html
(regarding the erroneous switch by scribes from YHVH to Adonai)
