Johannes Coccejus on Ezekiel 1:5 and the likeness of 4 living creatures

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Seeking_Thy_Kingdom

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The four animals mean the Assembly of the chosen, the redeemed, as is declared in Revelation 5:8,9. This is the meaning of the vision up to this point: that soon the Jewish people will be taken over by a severe storm; and that those who remain after the war, even though in sorrow, will still be protected by God, and that God still lives amongst them, but not in open revelation, and yet not without majesty and glory and in displays of His power, to show that His wrath will not to consume them all; but that He would rather be a light to them, and a flame of love that awaits them. But indeed to others God’s riches shall be revealed in the sending of the Angel of Testament to show the righteousness and holiness of God, and even His mercy, and He will be mostly praised for this joy; that the Church will be made alive by God, and in the same way the Kingdom of Christ, and that the Holy Angels will be the servants of Christ to the salvation of the elect.

Johannes Coccejus, De prophetie van Ezechiel, 1692
 

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The four animals mean the Assembly of the chosen, the redeemed, as is declared in Revelation 5:8,9. This is the meaning of the vision up to this point: that soon the Jewish people will be taken over by a severe storm; and that those who remain after the war, even though in sorrow, will still be protected by God, and that God still lives amongst them, but not in open revelation, and yet not without majesty and glory and in displays of His power, to show that His wrath will not to consume them all; but that He would rather be a light to them, and a flame of love that awaits them. But indeed to others God’s riches shall be revealed in the sending of the Angel of Testament to show the righteousness and holiness of God, and even His mercy, and He will be mostly praised for this joy; that the Church will be made alive by God, and in the same way the Kingdom of Christ, and that the Holy Angels will be the servants of Christ to the salvation of the elect.

Johannes Coccejus, De prophetie van Ezechiel, 1692
The last part may be mainly true, but the first part is badly mistaken. The four living creatures in Ezekiel 1 are cherubim - the guardians of God's holiness and bearers of his throne chariot (see chapter 10). As such, they can hardy represent the assembly of the redeemed.
 
The last part may be mainly true, but the first part is badly mistaken. The four living creatures in Ezekiel 1 are cherubim - the guardians of God's holiness and bearers of his throne chariot (see chapter 10). As such, they can hardy represent the assembly of the redeemed.

I agree it is an odd interpretation, but over the centuries there have been many ideas on what the living creatures mean and when I translate something I am not looking to just write what I believe to be correct, but rather give a faithful translation of what the author wrote. Cossejus was a professor of theology in the Netherlands and must have had a good reason for thinking the way he did, perhaps as I read on in the book I find out more.

A little further he says this:

The four animals could also be the Angels, but because the wheels point to diversity, that means the animals are the Church, just as it is dedicated and said of her in Revelation 5, and does not mean Angels.

I looked ahead to what he says in chapter 10 and seems to have no problem with the animals he saw in Chapter 1 being Cherubim.
 

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That is one passage that gives me the creeps. I realize the problem must be on my end. A creature with both human and animal faces, well, it isn't written as symbolism in my opinion, but as what he saw. I assume the modern Satanic darkness moving towards creating human- animal hybrids is an attempt to counterfeit this, perhaps unrealized by the scientists themselves.
 
I am continually humbled that even God's revelation of himself in Scripture is so profoundly mysterious. Who is like unto the Lord our God, who dwelleth on high!
 
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