“In the preceding chapter we considered references in early Biblical history to the physical manifestation of the Order of Melchizedek. The unequivocal declaration in Hebrews that Jesus was of that Order is a fact, whatever the belief may be regarding the authenticity of the Epistle to the Hebrews or of the Bible.
The existence in all times past of what are called mystic orders, is evidence in itself that instructions have been left on record concerning laws and methods of life by which man may obtain superordinary, not supernatural powers. These records are not so full in the Bible as in the chronicles of a few of the most ancient orders still surviving. These chronicles contain, however, scarcely more than shadows of the truth – reflections from the time when “God saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.” (Genesis 6:5). Because of these evil imaginations, whatever of divine truth man was able to obtain through the members of the Order of Melchizedek was degraded for selfish purposes; and so, as the ages rolled on, perversion increased, until when the Christ came, the light of those truths had almost left the earth.
We have in the Bible, accounts of three persons that attained complete unity with the Father and overcame death, although in the case of the first, Enoch, the seventh from Adam, the account is so meager, that we are left largely to speculation in regard to his attainment. For we read simply that, “Enoch walked with Elohim, and he was not; for Elohim took him.” We are told that Elijah was taken to heaven in a whirlwind. Heaven means merely the region above us. Now, these men may have been taken to the locality of this Brotherhood on earth, or, their bodies having been transmuted to spirit-bodies, they may have joined the Brotherhood in the heavens.
Everybody is familiar with the account of Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection, and with the fact that he took special pains to demonstrate beyond question to his disciples that it was not a spirit-body that he possessed after the resurrection, but the same physical structure that was placed in the grave. This demonstration that he had power over death, as well as over all other enemies, was the crowning revelation that he came to give to the world.
We noticed in a former chapter that of this Order of Melchizedek, this Eternal Brotherhood that has been from all eternity and will be to all eternity – are the angel messengers of Elohim who guide and control the affairs of earth; and they have caused to be put on record, the truths of the Hebraic and Christian Bible – still held sacred by a few.
We are told that Abraham was chosen and was led out from Ur of the Chaldees, the greatest and most enlightened nation then living on the planet; but a nation, like the Egyptian, devoted to magic which they had perverted. Abraham was chosen because, having reached a development superior to that of his race, he was better fitted to become the progenitor of a people who would, in the fulness of time, constitute the first ripe fruit of the earth, a center around which all other nations would gather, a body that would become the light of the world.
The great truths held by this divine Order of Melchizedek and the purpose in the mind of the Elohim in the creation of the world, were set forth in the types and shadows of the Mosaic law, and in what was denominated the ten commandments, “the everlasting covenant.” And, finally, Abraham’s posterity, Israel, the covenant people, were watched over by the Elohim and guided by their angels – members of the Order of Melchizedek – until the vital formula of types and shadows could no longer hold them, or in other words, until the nation had developed to a point where the symbolism of religion had accomplished its work, when one of the grand order of Elohim came to earth, and, as the writer of Hebrews says in reference to Jesus, “took on him the seed of Abraham.”
You will observe that these words refer to a personality who performed a voluntary act independently of the seed of Abraham, or of the fleshly body which grew from the germ. This implies that Jesus was the incarnation of a personality who voluntarily came to earth and took on a fleshly body, and that the fleshly body which he took was from the seed of Abraham. We have, then, in this declaration, two personalities so to speak, the spiritual soul or the pre-existing man, and the fleshly body, that “he took on him.” The English Revised Version has it, “He taketh hold of the seed of Abraham.”
“Taking hold of” suggests the thought of taking hold of an instrument – a carpenter takes hold of his plane when he would use it; an engineer takes hold of his engine, and thus the engine is caused to express his will. All the prophecies, from beginning to end, demand that the fleshly body of Jesus come of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Judah, and of the lineage, of David. (See Deuteronomy 18:15-19.)”
Hiram Butler
The Mark Of God: Understanding Your "I AM Presence" 