Fulfillment of the Entire Revealed Word of God

After this, Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the scripture might be fulfilled, saith, I thirst. Now there was set a vessel full of vinegar: and they filled a sponge with vinegar, and put it upon hyssop, and put it to his mouth. When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, IT IS FINISHED: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost.

John 19:28ff

Of the many Christian teachers who have expounded on the relation between Tav and the Cross of Christ, one of the earliest on record is Origen (died 254 AD). He drew his insight from the Tav used in Ezekiel's vision, as he explained in his commentary on that prophet:

This [the Letter Tav] bears a resemblance to the figure of the cross; and this prophecy (Ezek. ix. 4) is said to regard the sign made by Christians on the forehead, which all believers make whatsoever work they begin upon, and especially at the beginning of prayers, or of holy readings.

Likewise, Saint Francis of Assisi (died 1226 AD), following the ancient tradition, took up the Tav as his own mark. A modern member of his Order explained its meaning and linked it to Ezekiel's vision in an article called The Tau Cross in Franciscan Tradition :

For our purposes, the last Letter of the Hebrew alphabet represented the fulfillment of the entire revealed Word of God. This Letter was called the Tau (pronounced "Tav" in Hebrew). When the Prophet Ezekiel (9:4) uses the imagery of the last letter of the alphabet he is com-mending Israel to remain faithful to God until the last, to be recognized as symbolically "sealed" with the mark of the Tau on their foreheads as God's chosen people until the end of their lives. Those who remained faithful were called the remnant of Israel, often the poor and simple people who trusted in God even without understanding the present struggle in their lives.

Seal of the A.R. Presbyterian Church

This is the overwhelming wonder of the Bible Wheel. The Last Letter Tav, the Divine symbol of both the Cross of Christ and the Seal of the Covenant, simultaneously consummates, completes, and finishes both the thematic and the geometric structures of Scripture. It is not merely a metaphoric "fulfillment of the entire revealed Word of God." The Tav Cross literally fulfills and seals the entire Biblical revelation on Spoke 22, the Last Spoke of the Wheel (see pg 69 of the Bible Wheel book). God engraved the essential sign of the Gospel in the structure of His Word. Yet this is only one of two great wonders. The pattern of the Cross appears again in the tri-radiant cruciform structure that simply falls together when we roll up the Bible and color the seven canonical divisions so now the primary message of the text – the Gospel of our Salvation – is seen to be engraved in two independent ways and we recognize again that the Holy Bible itself is a multifaceted Divine Icon of the Faith taught within its pages. All these ideas come together in countless denominational church seals such as that of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church which incorporates the Circle, Cross, Alpha Omega, Dove, and Bible. Page 56 of the Bible Wheel book shows more examples. This amplifies the symbolic overtones of the Canon Wheel yet again, suggesting it to be a Divine Seal of the universal Christian Church, designed by God Himself as a template for the very Book that defines it.

Next article: Consummation of God's Plan of the Ages

This article is essentially identical to page 38 of the Bible Wheel book.

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