About

Link to Youtube channel:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCmP-DyMLCao2H3vG9ub9pew

Welcome.

Lamp-stand.com is a site devoted to following  the historic progress of the restoration of apostolic doctrine, and the assessment of that history through the lens of type offered in the lamp-stand of the Mosaic tabernacle as an illustration of God’s plan for redemption and His witness wrought through the Person and work of the Lord Jesus Christ.   This site is a work-in-progress which envisions the development of a comprehensive Pentecostal theology through analysis of history in terms of the recovery of the Apostolic Gospel since the Reformation, and the interpretation of Christian-experience and doctrine in light of the model presented in the design of the golden lamp-stand.  Taken together, a theological system will begin to unfold having its structure in the lamp-stand design.  This structure is laid down graphically in two 50-minute Powerpoint videos which provide the structure of this treatise.  They are available at the bottom of this page for viewing.  These are narrated, so have your speakers on.

Pentecostal theology incorporates the experience known as the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and there is as much that can be said about the baptism as one has time to write in one’s lifetime.  Concisely, the baptism of Christ is the power to perceive the Kingdom of God as it will bring men into the revelation of Jesus Christ.   The baptism of the Holy Spirit is the power of God given to men for the purposes of redemption.  Taken with the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, it sets men on a path leading to the true spiritual-knowledge that:

–  God is love,

–  God loves me,

–  God loves humanity,

–  God’s capacity and willingness through Christ to forgive sin is truly immense,

–  God cleanses men from the consciousness of sin that separates them from Himself,

–  God delivers men from the bondage to sin,

–  there is no greater principle than the love of God,

–  there is no greater joy than dwelling in the love of God,

–  that the death of the body cannot separate us from the love of God

The baptism of the Holy Spirit has another purpose that is closely interwoven with the redemption of men that shall be made clear through a study of the Lamp-stand-model as it develops on this site.  The baptism of the Holy Spirit is also God bearing a witness to the creature concerning Himself.

God’s sovereign purposes in Redemption and in bearing Witness are transacted upon in this principle of the baptism in the Holy Spirit.   Christ consented at baptism to identify with fallen humanity and to take upon Himself the penalty due fallen humanity, us.  He was anointed as Christ with the affirmation of His Father’s voice declaring Him to be His beloved and well-favored Son.  For His sacrifice, He was appointed a resurrection within which humanity is invited to share.  When we ask for the Holy Spirit’s baptism, we are asking God to induct us into this, His covenant.  We are asking to partake in His death that we may partake also in His resurrection.

This process of allowing God to bear a witness through His Spirit contemplates that judgment must be allowed to proceed as well.  In proclaiming that Christ would “baptize [us] with the Holy Ghost, and with fire”  (Matt. 3:12) John the Baptist preached Pentecost.  But John also proclaimed that Christ would “thoroughly purge his floor” – a promise of the judgment necessary to truly advance us into the kingdom of God – and therefore Isaiah prophesies:

Zion shall be redeemed with judgment, and her converts with righteousness.      – Is. 1:27

Without this judgment, neither can we experience the kingdom of God for which our baptism by His Spirit would prepare us.  Therefore the prophetic lament:

And judgment is turned away backward, and righteousness stands afar off.  For truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter.    –  Is. 59:14

This treatise proceeds upon the observation that “truth” has “fallen in the street” since Pentecost was restored to the church at Topeka and Azusa Street in the beginning of the twentieth century.   This work is an endeavor to pick up that fallen truth.  Indeed, this author has “fallen in the street” and would not have been picked up but for the divine intervention.   This work was commenced with the profound sense of the Lord’s grace.

Its Writing

The history of this essay involves a span of about thirty years since 1982 when I received the baptism.  The rudiments of the model were given to me through prayer during a time of trouble in 1991.    The model was set aside for many years while I pursued a career in law.  In the Spring of 2008, upon arriving at my office I experienced a sanctifying event promised every believer upon repentance.   There was a revelation made to me of the all-sufficiency of Jesus Christ as God’s provision for my sins.   While it is difficult to relate what I saw, this experience included a  mortification of my body and an empowerment in prayer against sin.  With my heart set back upon the work under a consciousness of the Holy Spirit’s guidance, the model was picked up again.

In 2009 I produced a clearer illustration supplemented with Scriptural supports.  However, a problem seemed to underlie the first problem of a lack of a comprehensive Pentecostal theology in the Church, ie. the lack of an awareness that a need for doctrinal restoration existed.  A doctrinal context will therefore be laid out in Parts two and three through a review of the history of the various Christian movements that seem to have particular relevance to the restoration of apostolic doctrine (not always positively.)  Effort is made to present the doctrinal issues evenly.  In 2011 I felt profoundly led to close my professional offices and to devote my focus to production of a clear explanation of the lamp-stand model.

The model itself is related in Part One.  Again, given its difficulty to be followed in treatise-form I will supplement the material with Powerpoint videos.  Two of the key video presentations which serve as an outline of the lamp-stand model are available below for viewing.

The treatise is composed of seven parts:

I.    The Lamp-Stand Model diagrams the model’s construction and characteristics.  This includes explanation of the meaning of the lamp-stand construction through intensive use of the Scriptures assisted by some video;

II.    Application of the Model to Reformed & Evangelical Theology is as an abbreviated account of the historical restoration of the apostolic doctrine and experience since the Reformation, but prior to the Pentecostal Renewal.  This was a time of laying the foundations of the reformed and evangelical truths which would later be empowered upon the Pentecostal Renewal;

III.    Application of the Model to Pentecostal Theology is as an abbreviated account of the historical restoration of the apostolic doctrine and experience since the Pentecostal renewal, which served to empower the reformed and evangelical truths;

IV.  Application of the Model to Third Wave Paradigm is an abbreviated account of the road taken in neglect of much of the history that went before, and which seems to present a profound basis for the stumbling of men in our day;

V.  Associational Aspects of the Model:  A study of how the model correlates the redemptive aspect of God’s purposes in Christ with the principle of His witness.

VI.  Transitional Aspects of the Model:  A study of how the elements of the model relate transitionally one to another so as to present redemption and the witness of God as a progressive (ie. as a matter of process,) using the study of apostolic doctrine and prophecy;

VII. Reflexive/ Transactional Aspects of the Model:  A study of the intersections between the witness of heaven and the witness of earth (I John 5:7-8) that occupy the central shaft of the lamp-stand depicting redemption and the witness of God as having even-oriented and transactional properties in respect to the Holy Spirit’s agency between Christ and His Church.

This treatise; The Lamp-stand; An Illustrated Pentecostal Theology describes a framework of trunk and limbs upon which can be assembled the apostolic doctrines.

Jesus directed us to “discern the signs of the times”,[1] and the true student of God’s work will recognize a wealth of signs we have been given during the past five hundred years of church history and particularly in the last hundred years of church history.   Reflection upon this history constitutes a vital part of acquiring  an understanding of the present-day , of spiritual things, and a key means of  achieving a discernment that will benefit our own hope for eternal life and the hope of those around us that by God’s providence reside within our influences.  Many of the articles on this site will challenge some of the errors to which Christians are falling prey in these days.  With the Lord’s help, careful Biblical expository will constitute a flat firm place upon which the seeker after God’s kingdom may place his foot.

Should this teaching succeed in finding placement within the restored doctrines of the church, then time and labor shall certainly hone it to more exacting specifications and adorn it with more insights than are found in this treatise.   I leave you to read this treatise with the blessing that; If this be a correct construction of God’s plan of redemption, may faith accompany its reading.  But if this teaching be incorrect, may it wither without-effect in the hand.  And may grace be always upon the believer in Jesus Christ,  the only begotten Son of God.

Daniel Irving

(NOTE:  The first video does not begin until 45 seconds have elapsed.)

      

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Daniel Irving