95-Disputations on Ezekiel 1:4 and Behold, A Vision of God

By Dr. M.A. Petillo & Reformed Baptist Preacher

“As I looked, behold, a storm wind was coming from the north, a great cloud with fire flashing forth continually and a bright light around it, and in its midst something like glowing metal in the midst of the fire.”  (Ezekiel 1:4 NASB).

1.     The look of Ezekiel was God’s foredetermined intent in holiness to behold His majestic glory.

2.     The beholding gaze of Ezekiel was by the Spirit of God under the holding power of the Triune Majesty unto His glory.

3.     Jesus gave St. Peter the Apostle the look that brought him to tears over his rebellion of thrice betrayal but this was not a vision but beholding the Lamb to be slaughtered.

4.     St. Peter was restored three times after his thrice betrayal after the self-existent Christ restored him in His post-resurrection unto a glorious bodily resurrection that destroyed death.

5.     St. Peter gazed into heaven to behold the vision of God in a trace where he was shown to be allowed to eat all kinds of animals because the divine Messiah made all things clean that welcomed the Gentiles into the redemptive family of God through Christ.

6.     St. Paul was brought to the third heaven where it is impossible to describe the heavenly because it seems so difficult to describe the earthly with our dull minds but it was the bodily Christ as Incarnate Deity who St. Paul saw in his vision of God.

7.     God condescends to us in the vision of Ezekiel to declare His superintendent glory in transcendent majesty unto His mercy to condescend but to establish His justice.

8.     The Apostle John saw the visions of God on the Island of Patmos where he behold the glory of God of the bodily risen Christ who corrected the local churches in edification of His mighty Word.

9.     There is a civil searching and a Spirit-awakened searching.

10.                        There is a civil looking into holy things that is different than a spiritually awakened looking into godly things.

11.                        There is a seeing blindness and a blindness that sees.

12.                        The authentic searcher is because they are a Christian.

13.                        A searcher is according to the vanity of the sinful nature.

14.                        The sinful nature in itself cannot see the kingdom of heaven in true ascent to biblical divine truth in experience by the Spirit.

15.                        There is a blindness that does not recognize God’s handiwork.

16.                        There is a blindness that does not recognize Scripture.

17.                        There is blindness in the rarity of miracles these days.

18.                        There is a seeing awareness by the Spirit about His creation.

19.                        There is a spiritual awakening by the Spirit and Word about the divine truth of God in the essentials of the Christian faith.

20.                        The seeing blindness is something that says in the heart “I see that it is of God and true but I refuse to embrace it in despisement of Christ and hated of His Name’s sake.”

21.                        There is a blindness that sees which is something like “I see that God’s way of truth is really true but I understand at a civil level without authentic spiritual awakening and now it is a way of God’s judgment upon me as a rebel but I offer my worthless prayer to believe His truth in a redemptive sense by the Spirit in regeneration by His written Word.”

22.                        There are those who recognize God’s visions as God’s revelation.

23.                        There are those who mistake God’s visions for false visions.

24.                        There are those who mistaken Satan for God and God for Satan.

25.                        There is a counterfeit ministry of Satan that masquerades as an angel of light to destroy those whom Jesus boasts unto His glory.

26.                        There are providential signs that show God’s Word in action regarding Ephesians 1:11.

27.                        There is no extra-biblical revelation that adds to the Scripture alone because it alone is demonstrate by God Incarnate to be God’s infallible written Word.

28.                        How do we know the Book of Ezekiel is acceptable in the canon in church history?  According to ancient times, it has never been doubted to be in the canon of Scripture and fathers like St. Athanasius and St. Jerome accepted this Book of God as canon because it is consistent with the council in that it declared God’s hand of determination of “we receive” regarding the list of books in the table of contents of the Scriptures by the mind of God Himself in determining the list of books.

29.                        If God determines every snow flake, would He be so careless as to uninspire every iota of Scripture in every jot and tidal?

30.                        Those who see the Virgin Mary in some obscure window as divine revelation is contrary to the sole supremacy of the preeminence of Jesus Christ in all things because heaven does not come to earth accept in the Incarnation where if we make other saints from heaven on earth we deny the all-exclusive uniqueness of the Incarnation of Jesus Christ who is Incarnate Aseity.

31.                        Those of other so-called holy books do not provide the accuracy of Ezekiel’s Book on his particular divine revelation that speaks of the wrath of God from the north that speaks of His judgment upon fallen sinners where the monergistic divine intervention of the Spirit and Word is absolutely necessary for the gift of spiritual salvation in providing the gift of a new creation.

32.                        The Christian life is a life of conflict between sin and God.

33.                        The Christian life is sometimes in the stormy winds because the godly are persecuted for the Name’s sake of Jesus Christ.

34.                        Here we see the exile of this king where Jesus’ atoning death in propitiation and expiation of the forgiveness and cleansing of sin for the intent of His chosen was outside the city of Jerusalem to pay the debt, silence the accusations of Satan and abolish the curse of reprobation for an eternal bliss of heaven that is all about the glory of the death that turned death backwards and through death made life by a perfect sacrifice by the bearing of sin by the Son of Man of His people and where He imputes back to them in the freedom of the sorrow of His awesome grace unto joy their divine righteousness that alone stands before the Father because its all about Jesus Christ.

35.                        There is a hell on clouds because it is a cloud of fire that is far from purgatory and UFO’s but is about the fury of the indignation of the Triune God about the sinfulness of the depravity of corruption in light of God’s superlative holiness.

36.                        The fire of clouds is about God’s essence as the consuming fire in His very nature that is from everlasting to everlasting, but He takes on the human expression of fire to provoke biblical rationalism to fallen sinners regarding the sense of His untouchable and superlative holiness.

37.                        There are many who are symbolized by the so-called and alleged whiteness of their cloud (their so-called piety) but are walking trophies of the flame kindled for hell in outer darkness where the cloud is no longer white but a darkness that is alive that is the Hand of God that destroys body and soul in the place of hell because of the sin of wrongdoing by God’s due precedence of divine justice in the ultimate plan of the Father’s design.

38.                        The fire flashes continually like the flames that are relentless upon the object of God’s justice as His trophy unto His fury in hell.

39.                        The fire flashes continually by the Spirit through the Word in the heart of an awakened sinner that is on fire for Jesus but sometimes it seems to be dying but God revives His people.

40.                        The written Word is the fire that burns up our sin upon our hearts that is all about the unified purity of Jesus Christ that brings life to the soul that is led by the Spirit for purification that is all about the Cross and His glory.

41.                        Hell is a place where the darkness produces the flame that the reprobate sinner is engulfed in by the Father’s design.

42.                        The greatest cloud of glory belongs to no man.

43.                         The Triune Majesty in His greatest cloud of glory is for His honor, glory, veneration and worship of His Name.

44.                        Jesus Christ is the Incarnate Cloud of Glory: namely, Jesus Christ is the very essence of the Shekinah Glory in human form.

45.                        The serpents burned the people of God because of rebellion to awaken them to the power of the serpent lifted up as the Son of Man was lifted up to atone for the sins of God’s people.

46.                        The Man Who is the Shekinah Glory is Jesus Christ Who comes as the Incarnate Consuming Fire that flashes with eyes of fire to bring divine correction upon a fallen humanity unto His glory of mercy but some are left as objects of His justice.

47.                        This vision comes from the Trinity up from heaven to earth.

48.                        The light of heaven is about the glory of God and His Word that is about exalting Jesus Christ and His unified work.

49.                        The sin rises up to heaven but a furious God in holiness will match it with overflowing love with redemption through the Cross by the appeasement through the Son’s Cross to the Father’s wrath or…

50.                        He will raise the flames of hell to quench the sin of reprobation in just punishment of their sins that wrongly rebelled against the Triune innocence of God, His plan and His glory.

51.                        Satan’s cloud is the essence of blind darkness but appears on clouds of white in his masquerade but God’s cloud is the essence of just darkness against his sin but appears on clouds of glory in His Second Coming to bring judgment to the wicked but acquittal to the just sinner through Jesus.

52.                        The Father is the essence of the Shekinah Glory as the First Person of the Trinity.

53.                        The Son is the Incarnation of the Shekinah Glory as the Second Person of the Trinity.

54.                        The Spirit is the essence of the Shekinah Glory as the Third Person of the Trinity.

55.                        There is One Shekinah Essence (or Nature or Being) but Three (Distinct) Shekinah Persons!

56.                        The Trinitarian Shekinah Glory is saying God alone is God and there is none besides Him from all eternity and all time.

57.                        The lightening flashes continually in the City of Destruction.

58.                        The thunder clouds come and flash with great light in the City of Rebellion.

59.                        The clouds block the Sun but than it appears again because trails could take us away from the Son but because God’s grace is sufficient He uses it to mold us into conformity to the image of the Son where we become more than conquerors in Him and for His Name’s Sake that is all about the glory of the Son.

60.                        The Father is God the Father of lights.

61.                        The Son is God the Son of lights.

62.                        The Spirit is God the Spirit of lights.

63.                        There is no darkness in the Triune Light Who is God alone because He symbolizes His fury through His abiding darkness in clouds around the Incarnate Ark of the Covenant where fallen rebels have commit cosmic treason against the innocence of the eternal Son.

64.                        The bright light is the work of the Spirit in being reborn.

65.                        The bright light is the design of the Father through His Son.

66.                        The bright light is the unified work of the matchless Son.

67.                        Jesus does not reflect the Father’s glory but He is the Father’s glory as the Incarnate Jehovah.

68.                        The Son is about the Word of the Spirit.

69.                        The Spirit is about the Son.

70.                        The Father is about the Son’s work by the Spirit.

71.                        The Bible is the written light by the Spirit of lights.

72.                        The Spirit of lights is all about the Son’s work in the design of the Father’s light.

73.                        Christians must be a beckon of light in a dark world.

74.                        A beckon of light is all about honoring Jesus in life.

75.                        Honoring Jesus in life is imitating the Light of the World.

76.                        The Light of the Word surrounds God’s people.

77.                        There is no bright light in false religion of false revelation.

78.                        There is a false light for a false religion that is not a true light but a light of deception that is not really a light but a blinding darkness that yields God’s justice with flames to clouds and darkness to a false light unto eternal condemnation.

79.                        The glowing metal is the Transfigured Christ where He glows, exurbs but is the glory of God as Christ glorified.

80.                        Sinners who are saved possess the imputed unified righteousness of Jesus Christ in justification by faith alone.

81.                        Elect sinners shine like the sun before the Father because of Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone.

82.                        The centrality of the glowing metal is the centrality of the Son, because the glow is really those destined to see the beatific vision: namely, the very Triune Face of the Triune Godhead: the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

83.                        The Triune Godhead is about the crux of the Father’s design that is the Incarnate I AM that is given by His Spirit.

84.                        The glowing metal is like the proclaimation of the Gospel.

85.                        The Gospel is the centrality of the written Word.

86.                        The Gospel is about Jesus Christ and His unified work of glory.

87.                        The Gospel is the reason for every Season because it’s about Someone who made the Seasons but transcends the Seasons and yet became man as God the Son to live a perfect life and die a perfect death to save a lost people unto His glory.

88.                        The armor of God is the spiritual metal that glows with the power of the Word of God by His Spirit.

89.                        Jesus stands in the midst of the wrath of the Father in His furious indignation of His fiery justice at the Cross as a bridge for sinners who should be born in hell but save them to Himself.

90.                        The glowing metal is the unified work of Jesus Christ.

91.                        The glowing metal is the regenerating and sanctifying work of the Spirit of God.

92.                        The glowing metal is the Father’s design.

93.                        The only Book that glows in the sense of being holy and set apart without observance but still in a real sense before the Father is His written Word.

94.                        There is a glow that is not a glow but there is a true glow and a false glow but to determine the truth of God is His Spirit and Word in how someone is right before God and godly living.

95.                        This fallen world is kindled with flames of hell before the time from reprobate evildoers but you walk through the flames that threaten you to destroy you because nothing overcomes the conquering King who never leaves any wounded in battle as more conquerors because of Jesus Christ conquers every flame, every darkness, every storm, every fire, every blinding darkness, every false glow.