The Holy Spirit Incarnate Hails from the Far East (Part 1) - By Danilo T. Nacua

The Prophecy in Isaiah 46:11

In his book, The Missing Dimension In Sex, Herbert W. Armstrong on page sixteen states that “Much of the Bible is in symbols – but the Bible explains its own symbols”. We are in total agreement with this statement, especially when it comes to biblical prophecies. The Bible almost always describes prophecies in symbols, but most assuredly the Bible explains these symbols. For example, in John 1:29, John the Baptist labeled Jesus Christ as a “lamb”. Naturally, we must not accept that Christ is literally a lamb! The symbol of the “lamb” is used because during the era of God the Father (Jehovah), the practice of slaughtering a lamb as a sacrificial offering was done for the forgiveness of sins, Leviticus 9:1-4. Since Christ was a type of sacrificial offering, sent to the world to save it from its sins (1 John 2:1-2), the “lamb” symbol was used to describe Him. That’s proof that when the Bible uses symbolic language, it explains its own symbols.

Now let’s take a look at the text in Isaiah 46:11, RSV, “Calling a bird of prey from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country. I have spoken, and I will bring it to pass; I have purposed, and I will do it”. At first glance, the unaided reader would perceive nothing but another simple biblical statement. Actually, this is a very important and significant prophecy concerning the coming of the Holy Spirit in human form. This prophecy needs to be scrutinized. The symbol, “bird of prey” is used here. The act of “calling”, though not a symbol, has a different meaning. You can’t just jump to claim this prophecy without slicing it to pieces for there’s more than meets the eye with this one. Let the Bible explain itself.

Four entities are involved here. The one “calling”, the man “called” who is labeled as the “bird of prey”, the “far country” and the location which is “east”. The “far country” and the “east” is not a problem since this simply means “a country in the far east”. To prove that we are correct with regards to the “east” concept, Young’s Analytical Concordance To The Bible, by Robert Young, on page 284, pointed out that “mizrach” is the “rising of the sun” meaning east and he cited Isaiah 43:5; 46:11. Smith’s Bible Dictionary by William Smith, page 154, further validates our claim by nothing that the original manuscript used the Hebrew word “mizrach” meaning “far east” in Isaiah 46:11 and 43:5.As for the one who does the “calling”, the Bible also gives its own definition to the word “call”. In Psalms 4:1 David uttered “answer me when I call, O god of my right!...be gracious to and hear my prayer” (underscoring mine). How did David call God? By praying! Therefore, when David called God he actually meant praying. So in this case, the word “call” is the same as “to pray” and vice versa. So, who does the “calling or praying” so that the man who is labeled as “bird of prey” will come from the far east?

Jesus Christ in John 14:15-16, RSV uttered that “If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will pray the Father, and he will give you another Counselor, to be with you forever…the Holy Spirit, whom the father will send in my name…” (underscoring mine). What? How come Christ is the one who did the “calling or praying” when the prophecy mentioned that the one to be called is a “bird of prey” and not the Holy Spirit? That’s the beauty in Bible prophecy. If you are not the fulfillment you wouldn’t be able to explain mysteries like these and consequently you will commit mistakes which will reveal your fraudulent claims. So, here’s the answer to the question. It is true that the one to be called is a “bird of prey”, but remember that this is merely the actuation of the man that possessed the label and just because the man here is labeled as a “bird of prey” doesn’t mean a bad connotation is implied. The “preying” of the bird here simply meant salvation. To give you a parallel example, Jehovah is also labeled as a “bird of prey” (eagle) in Deuteronomy 32:9-11. Does that mean that Jehovah is bad just because He was called an eagle? Of course not! He was likened to a bird of prey because like the eagle who is strong and powerful in protecting its young, so is God when it comes to saving His people!