The Lamb Eternal

By Dr. Christine Van Horn

When Jesus died on Passover, He became the sacrificial lamb for the salvation of the world. Since He died as the sacrificial lamb, He also had to begin His life on earth as the Lamb, the Lamb of God.

Jesus was the Lamb of God from the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8). Jesus was the Lamb of God even before His appearance on earth as the babe in the manger. John the Baptist revealed Jesus to the world as the Lamb of God. He lived and died as the Lamb. He is the Lamb to come in the Book of Revelation. Jesus was, is, and always will be the Lamb of God.

May this book take you on a journey to learn more about the birth, life, death, and eternal nature of our Lord Jesus Christthe Lamb of God.Your understanding of what Jesus did for us on Calvary will be enriched.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Mar 30, 2017
• ISBN: 9781512779813

Dr. Christine Van Horn

Dr. Christine Van Horn is an avid student of the Scriptures seeking to find depths greater than we basically see. She earned her Doctorate Degree in Theology with an emphasis on Biblical Studies from the International College of Excellence, under the direction of Dr. Robb Thompson, who is her Senior Pastor at Family Harvest Church in Tinley Park, IL. She and her husband, John, served in the Childrens Ministry there for many years. Dr. Van Horn has been on the faculty for the International College of Excellence and DanEl Christian College. Her greatest desire is to better understand the deeper things of God (1 Corinthians 2:10). She used this desire and revelation from God to seek a greater understanding of Jesus, the Lamb of God. Dr. Van Horn is also the author of the books God in Schools and The Lamb Eternal, which is part 1 of this book. Dr. Christine Van Horn may be contacted at: [e-mail].

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Copyright © 2017 Dr. Christine Van Horn.

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All scripture quotations, unless otherwise indicated, are taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The NIV and New International Version are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™

Scripture quotations marked (NLT) are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright ©1996, 2004, 2007, 2013, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked (KJV) are taken from the King James Version of the Bible

Scripture quotations marked (AMP) are taken from the Amplified® Bible, Copyright © 2015 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. www.Lockman.org.

interior illustration by Peter Case

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ISBN: 978-1-5127-7980-6 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-7982-0 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-7981-3 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017904256

WestBow Press rev. date: 03/27/2017

Contents

Dedication

Preface

Introduction

Chapter 1 THE Lamb of God

Chapter 2 The Fight for the Seed

Chapter 3 God Prepares the Seed Line

Chapter 4 God Prepares the Earth for the Lamb

Chapter 5 The Lamb of God on Earth

Chapter 6 The Death of The Lamb

Chapter 7 The Return of the Lamb

Conclusion

Bibliography

Dedication

To our loving Father God, for giving me this revelation of the truth of Your dear Son Jesus, The Lamb of God. Thank you for guiding me in this understanding and letting me be Your instrument for You to reveal this message to the world. This is Your truth.

To my husband, John, who shared in this revelation and walked out this journey with me. Thank you for helping me proof this book again and again.

To Dr. Robb Thompson, my pastor (Senior Pastor, Family Harvest Church in Tinley Park, IL). Thank you for your faithfulness to your flock and for your leadership in our lives. You have consistently sown the Word of God into our hearts. In you, we have seen the pattern for a good shepherd and watched the Good Shepherd work through you. My first in-depth understanding of what Jesus truly did for us in His death on the cross came from you.

To Dr. Rick Renner, who took my husband John and me on one of your trips to study the 7 Churches of the Book of Revelation in Turkey (Asia Minor of the New Testament). You taught us to search deeper into the Word of God to find all that God has for us within His Word; there is far more there than we usually see. You also taught us to put ourselves into the time period in which these words were written to more fully comprehend what those people originally understood. That trip helped birth this book. Thank you also for your dedication to us at Family Harvest Church and for your books, Light in the Darkness and No Room for Compromise, which are written about the 7 Churches of Revelation. I used your book Sparking Gems from the Greek in this study.

To Ray Vander Laan, who taught us the importance of studying the Word of God from the Hebrew perspective and culture. Thank you for your video study, That the World May Know which we have thoroughly studied – again and again. It was so good to also be taught by you in person, which we have been honored to do several times. From you we learned that the Word of God is one story. When we study a story in either the Old or New Testament we need to go back and see where that story originated. When we studied under you in February, 2014, I finally understood why God took me on such an in-depth study of this subject. A study of Jesus as The Lamb of God is all one story. I needed to explain it from God’s eternal past into God’s eternal future. Thank you for revealing this understanding to me.

Preface

As you seriously study Scripture, truly believe that it is true and accurate. Scripture is the Word of God. Think of it as God speaking directly to you today – for it truly is. God never changes.

For I am the Lord, I do not change. (Malachi 3:6 NKVJ)

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today and forever. (Hebrews 13:8 NKJV)

Yes, God used men to document His Word, but it is His Word. God never changes – and neither does His Word. He inspired men as to the exact words and meaning to document.

All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. (2 Timothy 3:16 NKJV)

Dr. Rick Renner explains this verse in his book, Sparking Gems from the Greek. He says that the word inspiration comes from the Greek word pneuma, meaning to breathe, or a dynamic movement of air. This means that all Scripture is God-breathed. He breathed on His words, moved on the hearts of men and gave them to them under divine inspiration. It is His Word and not the words of men. Men were just the instruments to write down God’s words (2003, 298-299).

Time has proven that the intent of these words and meanings have not changed. An excellent proof of this is found with the Dead Sea Scrolls. These ancient manuscripts, from around the time of Christ, were found in 1947 in caves near the Dead Sea, in Qumran, Israel. One of these scrolls was the Book of Isaiah, which was found in Cave #1. When it was translated, this showed that the Book of Isaiah from the time of Christ matches the current day Book of Isaiah. Yet, this is not an isolated example; there are many other Scriptures found in Qumran that also match the Bible of current day. This is important because it proves the authenticity of the Scripture we have today.

The Great Isaiah Scroll is one of the original seven Dead Sea Scrolls discovered in Qumran in 1947. It is the largest (734 cm) and best preserved of all the biblical scrolls, and the only one that is almost complete. The 54 columns contain all 66 chapters of the Hebrew version of the biblical Book of Isaiah. Dating from ca. 125 BCE, it is also one of the oldest of the Dead Sea Scrolls, some one thousand years older than the oldest manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible known to us before the scrolls’ discovery. (http://dss.collections.imj.org.il/isaiah)

This excerpt listed above is from the website The Digital Dead Sea Scrolls sponsored by the Israel Museum, in Jerusalem. This website hosts information and translations of the Dead Sea Scrolls. The Israel Museum’s Shrine of the Book houses some of the most complete and best preserved of the Dead Sea Scrolls, including the complete Isaiah Scroll which was cited here. In 1947, a Bedouin discovered these scrolls. Over the next decade, additional scrolls and fragments were found in ten nearby caves. Most of these are currently in possession of the Israel Antiquities Authority (IAA). Most of the books of the Old Testament are represented in these fragments (http://dss.collections.imj.org.il). This also proves the authenticity of the Books of the Old Testament that we hold as true.

My husband, John, and I have been to Qumran and the Shrine of the Book in Jerusalem and have seen these ancient Dead Sea Scrolls and the remains of the Qumran site and caves with our own eyes. It is incredible to see these scrolls and realize that they were placed in clay jars and put into these caves by the Dead Sea two thousand years ago. It is thought that a Jewish sect, called the Essenes, placed these scrolls into these caves. They lived in a community near the caves during the time of Jesus. They may have hidden the scrolls in the caves to save them and then fled during the time of the Roman invasion of Jerusalem (First Jewish Revolt) in 70 A.D. There is no evidence of life in the Essene community after 70 A.D. (Murphy, 1956, 9). Yes, the Dead Sea Scrolls do prove the authenticity of the Old Testament of the Bible we read today. And they prove that what we are reading today is what Jesus read when He walked this earth.

Many people have studied the accuracy of the Word of God. What they find is astounding. A modern-day man who has written many books on this subject is Josh McDowell. He started as a law student trying to dis-prove the Bible. What he found was just the opposite. He has now spent his life writing books on the factual accuracy of the Bible and lecturing worldwide on this topic. His books include Evidence that Demands a Verdict, A Ready Defense, More Than a Carpenter and Evidence for Christianity, among others. If you want to study this subject, please read the books of Josh McDowell and you will not be disappointed. His in-depth writings will answer all your questions on the authenticity of the Bible. Consider what he wrote in his book Evidence for Christianity about the unique characteristics of the Bible. When you realize the diversity of the content, authors, places written and time span in which they were written, it truly shows that it is God-breathed.

On pages 20-23 of Evidence for Christianity, Josh McDowell explains that the Bible was written over a 1,500-year time span. It was written by forty authors (including kings, military leaders, statesmen, philosophers, fishermen, peasants, scholars and shepherds, among others). It was written on three continents (Asia, Africa and Europe), in different settings (peacetime and in war). It was written in three languages (Hebrew, Aramaic and Greek). It was written in many styles (poetry, personal correspondence, law, biography, prophecy, parable, and historical narrative). It addresses controversial subjects (marriage, adultery, obedience to authority, lying, homosexuality and parenting). But through all of this, it carries with it one essential truth that God became known to man through Jesus Christ.

Josh McDowell explains that Jesus is revealed to mankind in specific ways in the types of books