It follows that the path of God’s quest to find a perfect Bride for His Son is one carefully considered by the Father. His primary agent in the quest as we have noted before is none other than the Holy Spirit. The invitation to become married to Jesus has been issued from the Father’s throne itself.

This being the case, we are told in Ephesians 5 that The Son will prepare His Bride Himself, his agent in this grooming process is the Spirit. This joint quest of the Elohim (see note below on Trinity) is hidden within the parables of the Old and New Testaments, as well as those things, suggested in the similitudes and portraits of select female personages scattered throughout the old and new testaments.

As with any mystery, the story of the Bride must be searched out and investigated. Each mystery must be sifted from the broader things of Man’s personal salvation. In the end, the wise will discover the mystery of Christ and the Church and conclude that it makes perfect sense that God the Father’s first priority in creating Man was to provide His Son with a pure and perfect companion with whom His son could be one with for all eternity. This requires, of course, that this ‘Bride’ be perfectly in love with His Son and that she be not only redeemable but have eternal life abiding in her.

It should not be supposed, however, that every lost soul is doomed because they are not the Bride per se. No doubt, the vast majority of saved souls will not be the Bride, though they shall find salvation and take their place among the eternal elements and souls of heaven, some as part of the “bridal party” and an entourage of believers, while others may be members of the greater household of God, albeit, gloriously robed in the auspices of eternal life. There is a place in heaven for those who are not intimately married to Christ. They have a different relationship with the Father and the Son, it too is eternal and secure. They will not have the same authority as the Bride or the same relationship with Christ. Over the years the patrons and stewards of God’s mysteries have argued, sometimes contentiously and vehemently over this idea of different degrees of relationship with God among the saved. Yet it this fact of different degrees of relationship with God and Christ and their appropriate applied rewards is undeniable once 1 Corinthians chapter 3 is honestly scrutinized by our heart within God’s heart, rather than with the not so tricky rationalizations of Man’s self-assumed, self-delusional sophistries. The directness of the passage can in no wise be interpreted in any way other than that there are different rewards and judgments fitting a person’s personal action-faith that are not expunged simply by what some believer has professed by way of mouth or by excuses rendered without a faithful repentance shown by ongoing action. (see note below:  I Corinthians 3:1-15 with brief exegesis)     

Identifying The Bride
Psalm 45 illustrates both points that there are various parties that have their own place and station in the kingdom of God, and that the closest relationship of all belongs to the Bride. Psalm 45 indicates the different parties, those who bring gifts to the wedding, those who are in the bridal party (the virgins), those that are of the kings’ house, but essentially the Holy ghost introduces the Psalm in the first verse, the next eight verse are about the Christ, the second eight are about the Bride who is called the king’s daughter(-in-law). The theme of this wonderful Psalm, therefore, is simply about the Bridegroom and His Perfect Bride.

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Psalm 45 on the Bride

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First verse is the voice of the narrator – The Holy Spirit

1] My heart is inditing a good matter: I speak of the things which I have made touching the king: my tongue is the pen of a ready writer.

            First set of 8 verses are about The Christ
[2] Thou art fairer than the children of men: grace is poured into thy lips: therefore God hath blessed thee for ever.
           *Christ the Greatest and most gracious of all
[3] Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty, with thy glory and thy majesty.
[4] And in thy majesty ride prosperously because of truth and meekness and righteousness; and thy right hand shall teach thee terrible things.
[5] Thine arrows are sharp in the heart of the king’s enemies; whereby the people fall under thee
          *Strongest, perfect in every way and able to impose goodness and truth and righteousness when He returns
[6] Thy throne, O God, is forever and ever: the sceptre of thy kingdom is a right scepter.
[7] Thou lovest righteousness, and hatest wickedness: therefore God, thy God, hath anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows
           *The great and honorable ruler of all things
[8] All thy garments smell of myrrh, and aloes, and cassia, out of the ivory palaces, whereby they have made thee glad.
            *Majestic, clothed in beauty, of a truly magnificent character, who abides in heavenly dwellings.
[9] Kings’ daughters were among thy honourable women: upon thy right hand did stand the queen in gold of Ophir.
           *The virtuous and powerful husband and head of the bride-queens of heavenly character.

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 Second set of 8 verses are of The Bride
[10] Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear; forget also thine own people, and thy father’s house;
           *She is God’s daughter now. She will listen and forsake everything, even her own heritage in favor of Him and joining His heritage forsaking this world and all she has in it.
[11] So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty: for he is thy Lord; and worship thou him.
           *Jesus will greatly desire her and give all for her devotion to Him and nothing will rival Him in her heart – nothing.
[12] And the daughter of Tyre shall be there with a gift; even the rich among the people shall entreat thy favour.
           *All the world will bow to her and will be at her feet when all things come to pass.
[13] The king’s daughter is all glorious within:  her clothing is of wrought gold.
[14] She shall be brought unto the king in raiment of needlework: the virgins her companions that follow her shall be brought unto thee.
           *She is clothed in the same glory as Jesus and clothed with the same rejoicing heart and spirit into eternity. And those that follow her example shall also be brought into her kind of relationship with the king of Kings, and become one with Him..
[15] With gladness and rejoicing shall they be brought: they shall enter into the king’s palace.
[16] Instead of thy fathers shall be thy children, whom thou mayest make princes in all the earth.
[17] I will make thy name to be remembered in all generations: therefore shall the people praise thee for ever and ever.

*And the Bride shall live with Him forever in His dwelling place and those who are their spiritual children shall be their glory for ever.

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As with any mystery, the mystery of the Bride must be searched out and investigated carefully. Each mystery must be sifted out and questioned from within the broader mystery of God’s quest for Man and it should be understood in the context and light of that specific part of the Gospel of which it applies. In the end, we shall discover that the mystery that is Christ and the church is finally revealed as perfect man cohabiting eternity with God. Perfect Man (those with perfect hearts towards Him) and  God united in eternal matrimony as two fused into perfect ONENESS forever.

This presupposes that not every lost soul is doomed just because they are not the Bride per se. Many tens of millions shall find salvation and take their place among the saved in heaven, some as part of the Bridal party, others as members of the greater household of God. There is a place in heaven for those who are not intimately married to Christ. They have a different relationship with the Father and the Son, it too is eternal and secure. They too, will be great and edifying additions to the utopia of the ‘Greater Bride’ called paradise.

Over the years patrons and stewards of God’s mysteries have argued, sometimes contentiously and vehemently over this idea of different degrees of relationship with God among the saved. Some are threatened by the idea of degrees of intimacy and relationships with God. Even responsible, diligent stewards and benevolent preachers have argued over whether the Bride should be reckoned as the church or Israel. It is a controversy that need not be reared. They have overlooked, or in some way not discovered or been enlightened as to the unveiling of the Bride in the last pages of the Bible. There, at Bible’s end, the Bride comes down out of heaven. An angel shows her to the apostle John. The Bride is clearly identified as the so-called Commonwealth of Israel – Jew and Gentile – her gates are the patriarchs of the tribes of Jacob, her foundations the twelve apostles of the church of Jesus Christ. The Bride is not one or the other, but both –those who have been perfected by Christ because they had perfect hearts toward God. They are plucked out of every age and epoch of God’s quest for a Bride. They are Seth, Enoch, Abraham, Melchizedek, Elijah, David, Nehemiah, Peter, Paul and the pure and righteous saints of the Age of Grace, the Apostolic Age, the age of persecution, Medieval Times, Modern Times, the End of Days, all the martyrs – those who God searched out with eyes running to and fro over the whole earth, intent in His quest looking for those suitable prospects for the Bride of the Son of Man. Any believer has the potential to be the Bride.

The path tracked is the one which we understand to have been taken by God in His quest for a Bride. It is, however, arbitrary in that we may have missed some stop-over points, some edifying details of the quest or even a whole segment, but we believe we have sufficiently traced the general story of God’s quest for a Bride as presented in the Bible so that it will help the heart of anyone inclined to love the idea of Brideship and aid them to more fully enter into its eternal blessings and provide a key for greater richness of life in the here and now, and not only the life to come. The saga of this quest within the quest for a Bride ascends in the following order:

[1) Promise 2) Divorce 3) Vision 4) Faithful Fiancee 5) Qualities of a Perfect Wife 6) Pure Bride 7) Perfect Wife.]

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A Note On The Trinity

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Wherever the word God appears in the English versions of the Old Testament it is translated from the word  Elohim.

Elohim is the plural form of Eloah, remarkably, the sacred Hebrew Scriptures almost never use Eloah when mentioning or recognizing God, whereas Elohim is used exclusively. This plural designation for God, commencing with all references to Him in Genesis, including the story of creation of Man, is remarkable because it insinuates the Triune nature of the Godhead, which traditionally the Jews fought against tooth and nail.

“And God (Elohim) said, Let us make Man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
So God (Elohim) created man in his own image, in the image of God (Elohim) created he him; male and female created he them.” Gen. 1:26-27

This Elohim is not a single Eloah, or Creator, but three eternal and divine witnesses of perfect oneness, in heaven. By two or three witnesses shall the matter be established is the pronouncement of The Elohim, because it is in keeping with the nature of the divine. Three bear witness in heaven, Yahweh [the Father], Dapar [the Word], and Ruwach [the Holy Ghost]: and these three are ONE and together exist as The Elohim, or, simply – Elohim [God]. Therefore, 1 John 5.7 can accurately say: “For there are three that bear record in heaven, the Father, the Word, and the Holy Ghost: and these three are one.” This is Elohim, translated God, taken by the Hebrews as One God, but undeniably referring to the plural nature of god, though ONE in perfect unity. And this, this plurality of God always insinuated in the use of Elohim, was used exclusively by all prophets and scribes of the Old Testament whenever they spoke of the Creator and maker of all things.

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1 Corinthians 3:1:15

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[1] And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as unto spiritual, but as unto carnal, even as unto babes in Christ.
[2] I have fed you with milk, and not with meat: for hitherto ye were not able to bear it, neither yet now are ye able.
[3] For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?
*We are told we all carnal, not spiritual until we have true conversion.

[4] For while one saith, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; are ye not carnal?
[5] Who then is Paul, and who is Apollos, but ministers by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to every man?
*We are of the Lord, though until we become spiritual and not carnal we actually follow mortal men and women, when we should follow Jesus by the influence of the Holy Spirit.

[6] I have planted, Apollos watered; but God gave the increase.
[7] So then neither is he that planteth anything, neither he that watereth; but God that giveth the increase.
[8] Now he that planteth and he that watereth are one: and every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour.
*Each person shall get their own reward according to their own doing. How could this be any clearer? And no person shall be judged according to a group, a church or any corporate body of any shape. But according to their own works of love and devotion to the person of Jesus Christ. [Check out Romans 8:33-39]

[9] For we are labourers together with God: ye are God’s husbandry, ye are God’s building.
[10] According to the grace of God which is given unto me, as a wise masterbuilder, I have laid the foundation, and another buildeth thereon. But let every man take heed how he buildeth thereupon.
[11] For other foundation can no man lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ.
[12] Now if any man build upon this foundation gold, silver, precious stones, wood, hay, stubble;
[13] Every man’s work shall be made manifest: for the day shall declare it, because it shall be revealed by fire; and the fire shall try every man’s work of what sort it is.
[14] If any man’s work abide which he hath built thereupon, he shall receive a reward.
[15] If any man’s work shall be burned, he shall suffer loss: but he himself shall be saved; yet so as by fire.
*Everyone will be rewarded according to what they actually do. There is not going to be trophies given out to everyone; there will be discretion as to the truth. Those that built a golden relationship with Christ will be rewarded with a special, intimate and close relationship with the Master – as with Bridegroom to Bride. The rewards are degrees of intimacy, influence, riches, trust and authority: all to be shared with Christ in eternity. Those who proved they could be trusted to love him will be rewarded accordingly with gold.

Then there is the riches of silver, i.e. may be equated to being a bridesmaid in the retinue of Christ and His Bride. Then, precious stones might equate to being magistrates and authorities in kingdom come and heading up the rear, those who have residence in heaven but little else – not to say it will not be unimaginably wonderful itself; and then to being saved, as it were ‘by the skin of one’s teeth’.

“But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death. (Rev. 21:1)