Heavenly Wedding Banquet
( Church of God Heavenly Mother, God the Mother )
God the Father, Christ Ahnsahnghong, came to the earth to show us the way to receive eternal life and go back to the Kingdom of heaven.
Christ Ahnsahnghong came with Heavenly Mother as the prophecies of the Bible.
World Mission Society Church of God believes in God the Father and God the Mother who give us eternal life.
The Bible tells us that everything on this earth is a copy and shadow of what is in heaven (Heb 8:5). As we have a physical body, so we also have a spiritual body?a newly reborn body?which we, God’s children, will be clothed with when we go back to heaven. As we have our physical father and mother, so we have our spiritual Father and Mother who give birth to us and will change our physical body into a spiritual, heavenly body. We can find this fact in God’s providence over the creation.
Eternal life given in accordance with nature
Our ancestors would say that it’s natural that people should realize the will of Heaven and follow it, and that everything will go well when they do it in accordance with nature. Following nature means obeying the will of Heaven. God’s will be contained in all things He made, so following the principle of all things is the way to obey the will of Heaven.
Rev 4:9-11 『“. . . our Lord and God, . . . you created all things, and by your will they were created and have their being.”』
When God made all things, He created them by His will. No matter how much the world changes, it is impossible for a man to bear a child. Every male has his own duty as a man, and every female has her own duty as a woman, in accordance with the principle of God’s creation of mankind as male and female. So, it is natural that both of them should do their own duty. Ultimately, following the law or principle of nature means following God’s will for His creation.
God’s providence over creation is the will of God, and it is natural to follow it. Let’s find out what God has promised His people who follow His will.
1 Jn 2:25 『And this is what he promised us?even eternal life.』
Through all things on this earth, which are a copy and shadow, God shows us their realities?the things in heaven. The Old Testament and the New Testament mean the old covenant and the new covenant, respectively. So, it is not too much to say that all the books of the Old and New Testaments exist to testify about what God has promised?“eternal life.”
How is eternal life, which God has promised us, given to us? God already showed us the answer in His providence in creating all things. When we study the history of God’s work of creation in six days, recorded in the book of Genesis, we can see that God created man on the sixth and last day of the creation; God made the man Adam first, and then made Eve, saying, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.” By creating Eve God finished all His work of creation.
The most important reason why God created woman as a “helper for man” was because the fundamental role of giving birth, which men could not do, was given to women. All living things on the earth were born through their mothers. In other words, they are given life through their mothers. This principle of life shows the law of the invisible, heavenly world.
“The wedding of the Lamb has come”
The fact that we have our fathers on this earth implies that we have our Father in heaven. We also have our brothers and sisters on this earth, which shows that we have our brothers and sisters in heaven, too. Likewise, the fact that we have our mothers who gave us physical life on this earth shows us that we have our spiritual Mother who gave us eternal life which God promised us.
As we see through an earthly family, a new home is formed when a couple marries, and children are born through the couple?the main characters in the family. It is the same with the heavenly family. Jesus told us the parable of the heavenly wedding banquet as follows:
Mt 22:1-14 『Jesus spoke to them again in parables, saying: “The kingdom of heaven is like a king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son. He sent his servants to those who had been invited to the banquet to tell them to come, but they refused to come. . . . Then he said to his servants, ‘The wedding banquet is ready, but those I invited did not deserve to come. Go to the street corners and invite to the banquet anyone you find.’ So the servants went out into the streets and gathered all the people they could find, both good and bad, and the wedding hall was filled with guests. But when the king came in to see the guests, he noticed a man there who was not wearing wedding clothes. ‘Friend,’ he asked, ‘how did you get in here without wedding clothes?’ The man was speechless. Then the king told the attendants, ‘Tie him hand and foot, and throw him outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’ For many are invited, but few are chosen.”』
In the above parable, the king who prepared a wedding banquet for his son represents God, and the son, the bridegroom, stands for Jesus. Inviting people to the wedding banquet means gathering those who will be saved and go into the heavenly wedding banquet of eternal life. So, the Bible says that blessed are those who are invited to the wedding banquet.
Rev 19:9 『Then he said to me, “Write, ‘Blessed are those who are invited to the marriage supper of the Lamb.’ ” . . . 』
In the parable of the wedding banquet in Matthew, however, the bride?the heroine of the wedding?is missing. This shows us that the time did not yet come for the heavenly wedding banquet to be held. Then, when is the prophecy about the wedding of the Lamb to be fulfilled?
Rev 19:6-8 『. . . “ . . . Let us rejoice and be glad and give him glory! For the wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean, was given her to wear.” (Fine linen stands for the righteous acts of the saints.)』
The wedding of the Lamb has an appointed time. In the parable of the wedding banquet in Matthew, the bride didn’t appear. However, in Revelation, John said that the bride of the Lamb made herself ready. Revelation is a book of prophecy that Apostle John wrote around A.D. 96 when he saw in a vision what would take place in the future. Therefore, the event that Revelation 19:7 speaks about?“The wedding of the Lamb has come, and his bride has made herself ready”?is to take place at Jesus’ second coming.
Our
heavenly Mother is the Bride of the Lamb
Now, we need to find out who the bride, the wife of the Lamb, who has made herself ready, is. Jesus said that there are two kinds of people: those to whom the knowledge of the secrets of the kingdom of heaven has been given, and those to whom it has not been given (Mt 13:10-11).
The people, who have received a wedding invitation from the bridegroom and bride, know them and their names as well, but those who are not invited can’t know them or their names at all. Only those who are chosen and invited to the wedding feast of the Lamb can know this secret. As the Bible says, “Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!” the knowledge of the Lamb and His bride at the heavenly wedding banquet is a blessing given only to those who are chosen from among the six billion people.
Rev 21:9-10 『One of the seven angels who had the seven bowls full of the seven last plagues came and said to me, “Come, I will show you the bride, the wife of the Lamb.” And he carried me away in the Spirit to a mountain great and high, and showed me the Holy City, Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God.』
Gal 4:26 『But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother.』
The angel said to John that he would show him the “bride, the wife of the Lamb,” and then showed him Jerusalem. Here, we can see that Jerusalem represents the wife of the Lamb.
Jerusalem is our spiritual Mother who gives us eternal life. Without our spiritual Mother, a new life can’t be born. When God created all things, He let them receive life through their mothers. This is God’s will and providence.
Salvation and blessing given through Mother
In God’s work of redemption for 6,000 years, the greatest promise is eternal life given by Mother. There were so many forefathers of faith and prophets who lived in accordance with God’s will, but they didn’t receive this promise of eternal life. This promise of blessing is to be given when Mother the new Jerusalem appears in the last days.
Heb 11:38-40 『the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground. These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect.』
The promise of God, eternal life, can only be given by the coming of our spiritual Mother. Now, we are living in a very important age when this promise of eternal life is granted. God has chosen us to be the most refined people in His work of redemption for 6,000 years, and now He leads us to the kingdom of heaven. That’s why God has made known to us the core of the 66 books of the Bible, and has acknowledged us, who are following Mother in this age, as those who have the best faith.
Without the appearance of Mother, no one can get eternal life. Jesus said, “Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life” (Jn 6:53-54), when He established the Passover. We need to understand the providence of God. If salvation had been able to be fulfilled by Jesus’ establishing the Passover of the new covenant at His first coming, the age of the Holy Spirit would not have been required. The meaning of the Passover bread and wine can only be fulfilled when the existence of our heavenly Mother is revealed.
God divided the redemption period of six thousand years into three ages?the age of the Father, the age of the Son and the age of the Holy Spirit, and made plans for our salvation in each age. In God’s work of creation in six days, the last thing God did was to create Eve. This shows that salvation can be completed by our Mother who is to appear in the last days. That’s why in John 6 Jesus repeated the same words, “I will raise him up at the last day,” even four times.
Without Eve, a woman, life cannot be born. This precious secret of eternal life has been given to us in this age. Since we have received freely the promise of the greatest blessing, which cannot be replaced with anything else in the world, we must not neglect our salvation.
From the creation of the world, God has prophesied about the existence of our heavenly Mother who gives us spiritual birth.
Ge 3:20 『Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.』
The Bible tells us that Adam represents the one to come, Jesus (Ro 5:14). Since Adam stands for Jesus, we can easily understand that Eve, the wife of Adam, represents the wife of Jesus, the Lamb. Adam named his wife “Eve.” The name “Eve” means “life” (see note on Ge 3:20). Jesus, represented by Adam, named His wife “Eve,” which means “life.” Through this, Jesus showed us that it is His will for life to be born through His wife. The ultimate fruit of God’s redemption work for 6,000 years is eternal life, and the One who is indispensable for giving eternal life is our Mother, the wife of the Lamb, represented by Eve.
The Spirit and the
Bride give us the water of life
Without Mother, there is no eternal life. Without Mother, there is no truth. Those who do not believe in Mother can’t receive the promise of eternal life and the kingdom of heaven.
In the last chapter of the Bible, we can see that the water of life is given to those who realize our heavenly Father and Mother, who are the Bridegroom and the Bride at the heavenly wedding banquet, and come to the wedding feast.
Rev 22:17-19 『The Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” Whoever is thirsty, let him come; and whoever wishes, let him take the free gift of the water of life. I warn everyone who hears the words of the prophecy of this book: If anyone adds anything to them, God will add to him the plagues described in this book. And if anyone takes words away from this book of prophecy, God will take away from him his share in the tree of life and in the holy city, which are described in this book.』
The Spirit is our Father, and the bride is the wife of our Father, so she is our Mother. Our Father and Mother both give us the water of life, but the Bible describes God as a singular entity. It’s because God the Father is the representative of the heavenly family. In the book of Romans, it is written that sin entered the world through one man, Adam (Ro 5:12). This shows that the Bible views Adam as a representative, considering Eve as a part of Adam. Since Eve was created from the rib of Adam, the Bible says that they became one flesh (Ge 2:21-24). Also, people have the view that husband and wife are one. This view is originated from the providence of God.
However, in the New Testament, Mother is described as a completely separate entity. It’s because we can only be born to eternal life when our Father and Mother appear in the last days. The Bible testifies so clearly that there are the Spirit and the Bride who give us the water of life. Nevertheless, some people deny the existence of the Bride. The Bible concludes by saying that such people can never enter the everlasting kingdom of heaven.
There are so many churches in the world today, as numerous as the sands by the sea. However, they do not know the heavenly Mother, nor do they believe in Her or call upon Her. The heavenly Father and Mother, who give eternal life, are not their Gods, and the privilege to know Them is not given to them.
The Bible says, “Blessed are those who participate in the wedding banquet,” or, “Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding feast.” We can see that the blessed people, who are invited to the everlasting heavenly wedding banquet, are those who believe the truth about God the Father and also realize and believe the truth about Mother completely. I hope that we all God’s sons and daughters will keep our faith in the Spirit and the Bride, who have called us to receive the water of life, until the end, so that our mortal bodies can be changed into spiritual bodies.
Amen.
