The Former and Latter Rain

"We focus on the present Truth – what Jesus is doing now. . ."
ISSN 1442-8660

Christian greetings in the precious Name of our Lord Jesus Christ; we are pleased you could join us in fellowship.

In this issue, current news wins more space than our main article because in spite a controlled mass media the character and activities of those working to realize Lucifer's totalitarian one world government are increasingly exposed to the Light. We are fast approaching the climax of the Gentile dispensation: knowledge has increased, the wicked are doing wickedly, and only the wise with a more sure Word of prophecy will understand. The wheat and the tares are both ripe for harvest. The tares are being bound together by chains of iniquity in false "Free Trade" agreements, globalization, multiculturalism, and a World Council of Churches, ready for hellfire, while the present Truth is separating the Wheat Bride into the unity of the faith in preparation for the manifestation of the Sons of God and our gathering into His garner.

In this week's news Pharisaism and Catholicism finally admit they are mother and daughter as history and the Bible record. Although theirs is not a loving relationship, these hostile partners are two of the more visible and prominent players in the quest for world hegemony. Each of these tragedians impersonating Scripture will be destroyed once they have played their treacherous roles, as it is written (Isaiah 63:1-6; Daniel 9:27). In their apostasy God has sent them a strong delusion to believe what is false, so that they are not impersonating but actually fulfilling Scripture that they might be damned for not believing the Truth but taking pleasure in wickedness (Matthew 23:33; Revelation 2:20-23). Their darkness is palpable to those blessed with eyes that can see and ears that can hear (Matthew 13:16).

Last week we quoted Isaiah 1:2 which spoke of the blindness of apostate Israel at the close of the Old Testament and the parallel with apostate Christendom today at the close of grace (Romans 11:32). God said, "The ox knows his owner and the ass his master's crib: but Israel does not know Me; My people do not care." This week's news items disclose the face and character of those who, during the tribulation, will be absolute masters of all who do not know the Lord.

The greatest Man in history had no servants, yet they called Him Master. He had no degree, yet they called Him Teacher. He had no medicines, yet they called Him Healer. He had no army, yet kings feared Him. He won no military battles, yet He conquered the world. He committed no crime, yet they crucified Him. He was buried in a tomb, yet He lives today. I feel honored to serve such a Leader who loves us and died, rising again that you and I might have Life more abundantly.

This Newsletter serves those of like precious faith. Whoever will receive the truth is welcome to feed their soul from the waters of the River of Life. Everything here presented should be confirmed personally in your own Bible.

RBS issues Global Stock and Credit Crash Alert

June 19, 2008 – The Royal Bank of Scotland has advised clients to brace for a full-fledged crash in global stock and credit markets over the next three months as inflation paralyses the major central banks. . .

A report by the bank's research team warns that the S&P 500 index of Wall Street equities is likely to fall by more than 300 points to around 1050 by September as "all the chickens come home to roost" from the excesses of the global boom, with contagion spreading across Europe and emerging markets. Such a slide on world bourses would amount to one of the worst bear markets over the last century. . . Full story: telegraph.co.uk

Support for euro in doubt as Germans reject Latin bloc notes. Ordinary Germans have begun to reject euro bank notes with serial numbers from Italy, Spain, Greece and Portugal, raising concerns that public support for monetary union may be waning in the eurozone's anchor country. Full story: telegraph.co.uk

Morgan Stanley warns of 'catastrophic event' as ECB fights Federal Reserve. The clash between the European Central Bank and the US Federal Reserve over monetary strategy is causing serious strains in the global financial system and could lead to a replay of Europe's exchange rate crisis in the 1990s. . . Washington has slashed rates to bail out the banks and prevent an economic hard-landing, while Frankfurt has stuck to its hawkish line. . . Full story: telegraph.co.uk

John Paul II taught Universal Salvation, that All Men will be Saved

The Heresies of John Paul II, the most traveled man in history and perhaps the most heretical.

Pope JPII

The only difficulty in discussing the heresies of John Paul II is deciding where to begin. His heresies are so numerous that one is almost overwhelmed with the decision of where to start. A good place to begin is his consistent teaching of universal salvation. The idea that all men are saved is contrary to the clear words of the Gospel and numerous Catholic dogmas, especially the dogmas that outside the Catholic Church there is no salvation and that all who die in original sin or mortal sin cannot be saved. . .

With a doctrine such as this, who wouldn't be loved by the world? John Paul II appealed to, and was loved by the masses, because he accepted everyone's religion and taught that everyone is united with Christ no matter what they believed or did. This religious indifferentism characterized his anti-pontificate. . . In taking part in a Jewish worship service, John Paul II committed a public act of apostasy, and showed again that he was a manifest heretic and an apostate. . . John Paul II and the rabbi greeted each other as if they were long-lost best friends. During his stay at the synagogue, John Paul II bowed his head as the Jews prayed for the coming of their "Messiah."
Full story: mostholyfamilymonastery.com moremostholyfamilymonastery.com

Jewish Author George Orwell (Alias Eric Blair) warned the World

Are you an unintentional anti-Semite? The US State Department's "Office of Global Anti-Semitism" warns not just of conscious, intentional anti-Semitism but of another lurking form of potential bigotry: unintentional anti-Semitism. . . this consists of criticisms of Israel which, though true, might be manipulated by others to Israel's detriment. To avoid assisting Israel's enemies, the State Department recommends that every comment about Israel (including its leaders and military) first be scrutinized for whether it could put Israel in a bad light. If so, it shouldn't be said. Only then can we consider ourselves both consciously and unconsciously free from anti-Semitism.

Today, evangelicals reflexively honor the code that, no matter how true an unflattering fact or opinion about Jews may be, it will not be repeated. As a result of a century of self-censorship, tens of millions of evangelicals live in a virtual iron curtain of exclusion of truth about Jews, Judaism and Israel. Taught to see, hear, and speak no evil of Israel, they subsist on a religious and political diet of Zionist-approved pabulum. The magnitude of truth that has never been allowed to reach them is encyclopedic.

Evangelicals think that, by only speaking well of Jews, they are beyond the reproach of ever being labeled anti-Semitic. Wrong. The state department says that if Christians believe the New Testament account that Jewish leaders had Christ crucified they are the very worst kind of anti-Semites: 'classical' anti-Semites. . . Because statements of truth affirm reality, they are akin to God Himself, the ultimate Reality. Jesus said, "Thy Word is truth" (John 17:17).
Full story: truthtellers.org

Comment: If US Congressmen, Senators and the State Department were to read their Bibles, all Jewish and every other Encyclopaedia, they would learn the non-Semitic, anti-Semitic self-styled Jews are the sworn enemy of the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Israel.

Rome and the Jews: Noahide Laws in the News

The Kosher-Catholic Paulist Press published Elijah ben Abraham Benamozegh's (1823-1900) "Noahide" tome "Israel and Humanity" as a "Classic of Western Spirituality." Israel and Humanity forms a grand synthesis of Benamozegh's religious thought. It is at once a wide-ranging summa of scriptural, Talmudic, Midrashic, and Kabbalistic ideas, and an intensely personal account of Jewish identity. It is also a systematic, meticulously reasoned philosophy of Judaism in its relation to the other religions of mankind, especially its daughter religions, Christianity and Islam.

The Anti-Defamation League's Interfaith Affairs Director Emeritus Rabbi Leon Klenicki who champion's the Kabbalist Elijah Benamozegh's attempt to transform Christendom into a "Noahide" Golem, was made a papal knight by Benedict XVI in 2007.

In 1998 Rabbi Knight Leon Klenicki launched an inquisition against the heresy of "Holocaust denial" saying, "The deniers of the Holocaust in Europe now have to deal with the Vatican."

I hope that opponents of "dual-covenant" theory will read this interview closely because it reveals a truth regarding this theory that is missed by most investigators, which is, "dual-covenant" theory is the "Noahide Laws." According to the Rabbis, "Jews" have their own exclusive covenant and the other "70 Nations" have another non-Biblical, lower-tier covenant which the rabbis contrived for them which culminates in the Talmudic "Noahide Laws."

Never forget that when the rabbis and the bishops "dialogue" about "dual-covenant" theory, that it's the Talmudic "Noahide covenant" that applies for Christians, not the Biblical covenants. Their challenge is to make the Talmudic "Noahide Laws" appear to be Biblical. We saw a Vatican attempt at this impossible task last year:

Papal Commission Promotes Noahide Laws.

This is all pretended in accordance with the popular delusion that Christianity is the "daughter religion" of rabbinic Judaism–a ridiculous proposition if there ever was one.

Did you know that the ADL has an office in the Vatican? Did you know that the Anti-Defamation League's Director of Catholic-Jewish Relations, Papal Knight, Dr. Joseph L. Lichten, was a major player at the Second Vatican Council? As head of ADL's Vatican Liaison Office, he was given the rare gift of an office in the Vatican itself and he continued to teach at the North American college, where only the finest young Americans studying for the priesthood are privileged to attend.

During the deliberations of the Second Vatican Council, he gave every bishop a copy of an ADL-sponsored survey of American anti-Semitism which pointed out the influence of the deicide charge on American Catholics. The final Council vote on Nostra Aetate showed the church's special concern and Joe Lichten's profound influence. . .

Comment: Roman Catholicism is a true daughter of Talmudic Judaism, which is Pharisaism. Christianity is the prophetic fulfilment of Yahweh Torah, the faith of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, of Moses and the prophets of Israel. There can be no concord between Christ and the Babylonian religions of either Judaism or its Judaeo-Roman Catholic daughter (Amos 3:3; II Corinthians 6:14-18).

Rabbi Ovadia Yoseph, spiritual head of Israel's Shahs party, argued in a 1989 article that although Israel is not yet strong enough to expel and destroy "churches [which] are definitely places of idolatry and cult practice. . . we are commanded by our Law to destroy all idolatry and its servants until we uproot it from all parts of our land and any areas that we are able to conquer" (Dr. Israel Shahak and Professor Norton Mezvinsky, Jewish Fundamentalism in Israel, 1999).

Since Talmudic Judaism considers Christians idolaters of the false god Jesus, the rabbi is teaching that if things were as he believes they one day shall be, all Christian "idolaters" should be killed worldwide!

The people of the earth are idolaters, and it has been written about them: Let them be wiped off the face of the earth. Destroy the memory of the Amalekites (Talmud, Bereshith, 25a).

Rabbi Jehudah said to him, [Rabbi Chezkia]): "He is to be praised who is able to free himself from the enemies of Israel, and the just are much to be praised who get free from them and fight against them." Rabbi Chezkia asked, "How must we fight against them?" Rabbi Jeduha said: "By wise counsel thou shalt war against them." (Proverbs 24:6) By what kind of war? The kind of war that every son of man must war against his enemies, which Jacob used against Esau—by deceit and trickery wherever possible. They must be fought against without ceasing, until proper order be restored. Thus it is with satisfaction that I say we should free ourselves from them and rule over them" (Zohar, I, 160a).

Are these the ravings of bigoted medieval rabbis, too absurd to be taken seriously by modern religious Jews? Quite the contrary. Ultra-orthodox settlers live and breathe the Zohar, as do their Hassidic brethren worldwide. The preface to the 1984 Soncino edition of The Zohar Volume 4 (of 5 volumes translated by Sperling and Simon) says:

"The Zohar appeals to many Jews in a way that makes them regard it as the most sacred of sacred books! For it mirrors Judaism as an intensely vital religion of the spirit. More overpoweringly than any other book or code, more even than the Bible, does it give the Jew the conviction of an inner, unseen spiritual universe—an eternal moral order" (p. 12).

Kabbalistic "mystic sentiment and emotion," the preface continues, is "indispensable to Judaism if it is to continue to play its predestined part in bringing mankind 'under the wings of the shekinah,'" (i.e. Jewish world domination. p. 25).

The Christians are idolaters,[1][1] and Sunday is their holiday . . . (Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Avodah Zorah, 9;4).

The Christians are worshipers of Avodah Zorah [idolatry] (Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Ma'akhalot Assurot, 11:7).

It is a mitzvah [religious duty], however, to eradicate Jewish traitors, minim, and apikorsim, [sincere Jewish converts to Christianity] and to cause them to descend to the pit of destruction, since they cause difficulty to the Jews and sway the people away from God, as did Jesus of Nazareth and his students, and Tzadok, Baithos, and their students. May the name of the wicked rot (Maimonides, Mishneh Torah, Chapter 10).

". . . a gentile who worships false gods is liable, [for the death penalty] provided he worships them in the accepted manner. A gentile is executed for every type of foreign worship which a Jewish court would consider worthy of capital punishment (Maimonides, Hilchot Melachim XI, Mishneh Torah).

The Talmud corroborates Maimonides' judgment:

A non-Jew is put to death on the basis of a decision given by one judge [no jury], and on the basis of testimony given by a single witness, and even if he was not given a proper warning prior to the commission of his offense. He is put to death on the basis of testimony and a decision given by a man but not on the basis of testimony and a decision given by a woman, and the man who testified or decided against him can even be a relative. A Jew can only be put to death by a court of twenty-three judges, and on the basis of the testimony of two male witnesses who are not disqualified from testifying on account of kinship, and after being properly warned against committing the transgression. But none of these rules apply in the case of a non-Jew (Talmud, Sanhedrin 57b, Steinsaltz edition, vol.18, page 110).

The Jewish Encyclopedia affirms that the punishment for Christian "idolatry" is beheading.[2][2].

The Talmud is quite clear on the matter (Jesus and His followers are idolaters and liable for death—"Surely he [Jesus of Nazareth] incited others to idol worship and regarding such a person the Torah says (Deuteronomy 13:9): 'You shall not spare nor shall you conceal him'. . ." (Talmud, Sanhedrin 43a, Steinsaltz edition p. 159) and the Talmud is accepted as dispositive by a majority of Judaic sects.

"The Bavli [Babylonian Talmud] has formed the definitive statement of Judaism from the time of its closure to the present day" (Rabbi Jacob Neusner, quoted by Norman F. Cantor, The Sacred Chain: A History of the Jews, page 112).

Pope Benedict XVI calls Rabbi Jacob Neusner a "great Jewish scholar" (Jesus of Nazareth, Benedict XVI, p.71). ". . . the Babylonian Talmud represents God in the flesh. . ." (Rabbi Jacob Neusner, Rabbinic Judaism, Minneapolis MN: Augsburg Fortress, 1995. p. 62).

"You are adam ["man"], but goyim [gentiles] are not called adam ["man"]" (Kerithoth 6b).

". . . 'living soul' designates Israel because they are children of the Almighty, and their souls, which are holy, come from Him. From whence come the souls of other peoples? R[abbi] Eleazar said: 'They obtain souls from those sides of the left which convey impurity, and therefore they are all impure and defile those who have contact with them.' . . .'living soul' refers to Israel, who have holy living souls from above, and 'cattle and creeping thing and beast of the earth,' to the other peoples who are not 'living soul,' but who are as we have said" (Bereshith 47a. Here is the root of the "Two Souls" heresy).

Some of the Turks and the nomads in the North, and the Blacks and the nomads in the South, and those who resemble them in our climates. And their nature is like the nature of mute animals, and according to my opinion they are not on the level of human beings, and their level among existing things is below that of a man and above that of a monkey, because they have the image and the resemblance of a man more than a monkey does (Maimonides, Guide for the Perplexed, Book III, chapter 51][3]).

George W Bush meets Pope amid claims He might convert to Catholicism

June 13, 2008 – After a stroll through the Vatican gardens, the men listened to a recital by the choir of the Sistine Chapel. . . A source close to the Vatican said that Mr. Bush was the most "Catholic-minded" president since John F. Kennedy, who famously played down his Catholicism. . . However, it is thought unlikely that Mr. Bush would convert until after he has left office. Jeb Bush, the president's brother, has already converted to Catholicism.

Catholics have noted that during the contested election in 2000, Jeb Bush traveled to Mexico and prayed to the icon of Our Lady of Guadeloupe. His victory was announced by the Supreme Court on December 12, the feast day of the Lady of Guadeloupe. Full story: telegraph.co.uk

Comment: Italian papers claim George II is a "born-again Christian"! But they don't know what a Christian is.

EU Dictators may ram through Lisbon Treaty Despite Irish Rejection

June 13, 2008 – Spearheaded by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, the EU and its member states, in their relentless pursuit of a federal superstate, may break its own laws and ram through the Lisbon Treaty despite it being rejected by Irish voters today.

Under EU laws, if one of its member states rejects a treaty, the EU is mandated to scrap the bill. But the European Union's contempt for direct democracy is likely to lead them to ignore the Irish referendum and pursue the implementation of the Lisbon Treaty anyway – underscoring the fact the EU is nothing more than an illegitimate dictatorship of manufactured consent. . . Today's surprise rejection of the treaty has been met with total arrogance by British Prime Minister Gordon Brown whom, according to reports, called French President Nicolas Sarkozy, "to assure him that British ratification would continue". . . Full story: propagandamatrix.com

Comment: The revived Roman Empire must be quickly realized. France will soon rejoin NATO's military command 42 years.

John McCain's Chilling Project for America

June 12, 2009 – John McCain has long been a major player in a radical militaristic group driven by an ideology of global expansionism and dominance attained through perpetual, pre-emptive, unilateral, multiple wars. The credo of this group is "the end justifies the means," and the end of establishing the United States as the world's sole superpower justifies, in its estimation, anything from military control over the information on the Internet to the use of genocidal biological weapons. Over its two terms, the George W. Bush administration has planted the seeds for this geopolitical master plan, and now appears to be counting on the McCain administration, if one comes to power, to nurture it. . . Full story: truthdig.com

Comment: Is the United States the "Great Satan" and image to the beast of Imperial Rome or Revelation 13:11-18?

B'Tselem – The Israeli Center for the Investigation of Human Rights in the Occupied Territories

June 13, 2008 – For the past year, B'Tselem has handed out video cameras to Palestinians as part of its "Shooting Back" project. The BBC has been given exclusive access to the footage of this particular attack. . . Over the brow of the hill walk four masked men holding baseball bats. To the right of the screen, in the foreground, stands a 58-year-old Palestinian woman. Thamam al-Nawaja has been herding her goats close to the Jewish settlement of Susia, near Hebron in the southern West Bank. Within a few seconds, she, along with her 70-year-old husband and one of her nephews, will be beaten up.

As the first blows land, the woman filming—the daughter-in-law of the elderly couple—drops the camera and runs for help. Mrs. Nawaja spent three days in hospital after the attack. . . A dark stain showed through the white gauze covering her broken right arm. Her veil was lifted gingerly away from her lined face. A bloodshot eye and intersection of scars revealed a fractured left cheek.

"The settlers gave us a 10-minute warning to clear off from the land," she told me, her voice a tired, cracked whisper. She and her husband had stood their ground. It is at this point that her voice grows louder. "They don't want us to stay on our land. But we won't leave. We'll die here. It's ours," she added. . .
Full story: btselem.org. Video of cowardly attack by Jewish squatters haaretz.com and bbc.co.uk.

Global Warming: the Scientific Hoax Exposed

If there ever were a layer of "greenhouse" gases which is reflecting heat from the earth and raising the temperature of the earth, then it should still be there as a gaseous layer at night. Why would it go away just when the sun goes down? It couldn't and it wouldn't. But if that "greenhouse" layer did exist . . . on a clear starry night . . . you could not feel the cold of outer space since the "greenhouse" gases would reflect heat back to your hand, just like a cloud, and you couldn't feel the cold of space. It would be just like a cloudy night, but you would still see the stars. . . Thus proving that there is NO "greenhouse" gas layer which reflects heat back to earth . . . and never has been and never will be. . .

[N]o astronomer who measures the universal background radiation temperature has ever said, "We can't measure the temperature of space anymore because there is a huge reflective greenhouse layer which measures 300 degrees Kelvin. So we can't see the 3 degrees Kelvin background anymore." No astronomer has ever said that, thus proving absolutely, there is NO "greenhouse" gas layer. Absolutely none. Any, even slight greenhouse effect would raise the apparent background temperature of the night sky by hundreds of degrees. . .

This is a very simple and fun experiment which even kids can do and shows much about scientific principles. You take two balloons and blow them up to the same size, about one foot or so, depending on the size of the balloon. The size is not important, just simply that they are the same size when blown up with air. One of the principles of chemistry and thermodynamics is that if I have two balloons of the exact same size, they will have exactly the same number of molecules of gas in each one.

Advanced students can find out what that number of molecules is called and even how to calculate that number. But let's just call it one jillion molecules. Since the air is made up mostly of di-atomic molecules of Nitrogen and Oxygen, there are two atoms inside each molecule of air. So each balloon has exactly TWO jillion atoms inside. If they both have the same number of molecules and atoms then they should weigh exactly the same. If you hold up both balloons and then let go, they will slowly drift down to the floor. You've probably seen this a lot at birthday parties and such. You know what it looks like.

Now take one of the balloons and instead of air, blow it up to the same size with Carbon Dioxide gas. But the CO2 molecule is made of two atoms of Oxygen, just like the air, and then also has an extra Carbon atom inside each molecule. That's why it is called Carbon DiOxide—or one carbon atom and two oxygen atoms in each molecule of gas. So if I have the same size balloon filled with CO2, now instead of just two jillion atoms, this balloon contains THREE jillion atoms. That means the weight of the CO2 balloon is half again heavier than the balloon full of air. In science, that is called the specific gravity and for CO2, it is 1.5 times that of air, meaning it weighs half again more than 1.0 which is the specific gravity of air. This is like weighing two tennis balls, and then three tennis balls, and saying that three tennis balls weighs much more than just two tennis balls. Thus the CO2 balloon is much heavier than air. If you hold up the CO2 balloon and let go, it drops like a rock. Why? Because it is much heavier than air.

What this proves is that CO2 molecule which comes out of cars burning hydrocarbon fuels, does not make a gas which rises miles high up in the atmosphere and creates a thick layer of Carbon Dioxide which reflects heat and becomes a "greenhouse" layer gas. No! No! If you have ever watched smog coming from cars, it hangs close to the ground, and then disappears over night. At most it will rise up several hundred feet into the air during the daytime and no higher. Why does it disappear? Because all the components of smog, such as: CO2, Ozone and smoky unburned hydrocarbons are all much heavier than air, and over night when it is cool and calm they all sink to the ground. They do not magically rise up high, all by themselves, into the sky to become a high altitude "greenhouse" layer.

Hot air balloons can rise up in the air, but heavier-than-air craft, such as airplanes do not rise up all by themselves to become a thick layer of heavy airplanes floating in the sky. It will never happen, could never happen and has never happened. It cannot happen with CO2 which is also much heavier than air. And as I have just showed you, with these three simple experiments, which you can do yourself—you can prove it for yourself. . . Full story: brojon.org

The Former and Latter Rain – Part I

James 5:1-9, "Come now you wealthy, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. Your hoarded wealth has decayed, your fine clothes are moth-eaten, your gold and silver have rusted; and their rust will be evidence against you. As fire that you have stored up for the last days, it will eat your flesh."

"The cries of the labourers who have reaped your fields, whose wages you have kept back by fraud have reached into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth. You have lived a life of ease and pleasure on earth, and been wanton; you have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter. You have condemned and killed the righteous man without his resisting you."

"Therefore endure patiently brethren, until the ['parousia'] Coming of the Lord. Take notice how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the soil, continuing patiently until he receives the former and latter rain. So you keep waiting patiently, and take courage, for the ['parousia'] Coming of the Lord is at hand." Christ's 'parousia' Coming was in 1963; He has come and He is present now. "Don't grumble against one another brethren, for you yourselves are not above criticism. Look! The Judge stands before the door" (John 5:22, 27)!!!

Tilling the ground and rearing cattle were the chief employments in ancient times (Genesis 2:15; 4:2-3, 12). The Egyptians excelled in agriculture, and after the Israelites entered into possession of the Promised Land agriculture became the basis of the Mosaic commonwealth. Their skill at once made Palestine into a garden.

Israel was an agrarian economy and their religious feasts followed the seasons ruled by the greater and lesser lights as the natural types the Spiritual (Genesis 1:14). As farming is dependent upon the former rainfall at seedtime and the latter rain before the beginning of harvest, so God's spoken Word requires heavy showers of blessing from heaven to quicken eternal Life in the soul of His elect, followed up by refreshing showers of the latter rain for the manifestation of the Sons of God and harvest-Home once the revelation of Christ's 'parousia' has brought us to maturity in the unity of the faith (Acts 3:19-21; Ephesians 4:13).

Rain seldom fell in Judea except at two seasons: the former rain at the end of autumn for seedtime; and the latter rain in spring before the beginning of harvest (Jeremiah 5:24). However, there are three Hebrew words used to denote the rains of different seasons:

Rain is referred to symbolically as "doctrine" in Deuteronomy 32:2; as "Messiah" in Psalm 72:6; and as an "anointing of the Holy Spirit" in Joel 2:23.

In the natural, autumn or early rains fall before sowing so there is moisture in the soil to fertilize the seed. The Hebrew word 'mowreh' also means "teacher" so in the Spiritual, the former rain is the teaching wherewith the Seed of God's Word planted in the soul of His elect by the spoken word of parents, Sunday school teachers or acquaintances later in life is quickened by hearing or reading the present Truth. This revelation gives the baptism with the Holy Ghost, or new birth.

God's elect may be one with no knowledge of the Lord, an unregenerate minister who has written and lectured in theology, a criminal or a plutocrat who has never grasped the revelation of the "letter" learned as a youth. Yet each in his appointed season will hear or read what, added to what he already knows, will generate understanding, causing Scripture to fit with Scripture and bringing Light on the present Truth. This is the new birth that reproduces new Life—God's own Life—in you. This is what took place at the inauguration of the Church on the day of Pentecost.

Jesus had said, "The Kingdom of God is not a geographical expanse to be observed with the eye. The Kingdom of God consists of the Word of God, and the Kingdom of God is within you. . ." when you see the revelation (Luke 17:20-23). The Pharisees and Judas Iscariot could not see, for Deuteronomy 29:4, Isaiah 6:9-10, Jeremiah 5:21 and Ezekiel 5:22 foretold Israel's Spiritual blindness as a nation (Romans 11:25). Jesus told the twelve, "Blessed are your eyes, for they see; and your ears, for they hear" (Matthew 13:10-17).

As the vision was clearly understood the Kingdom was potentially "in" the hundred and twenty before they gathered in the upper room yet they could not be re-born until their sins were remitted when "the day of Pentecost was fully come." Then the Holy Spirit took residence in Christ's mystic Body, which He signified as the place of His rest or Temple by the visible Presence of the Shekinah, which divided itself and rested on each of the inaugural members of the Church (Isaiah 66:1). This sign vindicated His Presence in the Tabernacle (Exodus 40:34-35), Solomon's Temple (I Kings 8:10-11), the Temple of Jesus Christ (Matthew 3:16-17), and will be His glorious banner of love over New Jerusalem in the new heavens and new earth (Revelation 21:22-23).

As no man could enter the Tabernacle or the Temple whilst the Shekinah of the Lord's Presence filled not only the Holy of Holies but the sanctuary and its courts, so the New Testament saints could not be glorified and enter the heavenly Temple until the seventh angel has poured out his Vial after the close of the Gentile dispensation in the ordeal of jealousy that will distinguish the foolish virgin from the harlot church (Revelation 15:8; 16:17).

At Pentecost the former or teaching rain fell upon the early Church which had a predominantly Hebrew congregation. In The Acts of the Holy Spirit in the Apostles 2:16-17 Peter said, "This is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel: And it shall come to pass in the last days, said the Lord, I will pour out My Spirit upon all flesh. . ." The same rain anointed the prophet Paul who had studied the Law and the prophets at the feet of Gamaliel, the leading teacher in his day. Paul had been a Pharisee and an elder among the Sanhedrin, whose seventy-one members were the chief priests or heads of the twenty-four courses, those who had been high priests, and the elders and scribes learned in the Law.

As a matter of interest, they tried cases of idolatry and false prophets. On this allegation Jesus, and subsequently Peter, John, Stephen, and Paul were brought before them (John 11:47). The Gemara states that the power of life and death was taken from them just forty years before the destruction of Jerusalem, coinciding with John 18:31-32. Hence they took Jesus before Pontius Pilate on a different charge to that of blasphemy, for which the Sanhedrin had condemned Him, viz. that of treason against Caesar, the only one which Pilate would have entertained. The stoning of Stephen was an illegal assumption of power, an outbreak of fanatical violence, as also the execution of the apostle James in the procurator's absence (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, xx. 9:1).

After Paul was born-again and received his calling as an apostle, that great master of the Law and Prophets went down to Arabia to study in seclusion for three years. Based upon the shadows and types of the Old Testament he was inspired with "the faith once delivered unto the apostolic saints." Paul introduced the Gospel to the Gentiles, and as their numbers grew over the first three Church Ages, the signs ceased, "For Judeans require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom" and from the seventh century the majority of saints were Gentiles (I Corinthians 1:22).

The former rain reproduced the Life of Christ in the apostolic saints who make up one of two wave loaves of the firstfruits of the Spirit that will be waved before the Lord in the manifestation of the Sons of God for the resurrection of the Church Age saints (Leviticus 23:17). Pentecost was the antitype of the last six days of Israel's feast of Unleavened Bread which types the pure Word of God before it became leavened (Leviticus 23:10-14).

Body of Christ

Pentecost lasted from AD33 to about AD53, followed by the antitype of the seven sabbaths or rests of the first forty-nine days of the Pentecostal feast (Leviticus 23:15; Revelation 1–3). The saints predestinated to each of these seven Church Ages were baptized into their part of the Body by a different revelation of the Word, a unique baptism with the Holy Spirit producing a different virtue of the Spirit as the Lord "lifted up a standard" against the insidious attacks of the Evil one who sowed the tares. In the Ephesian Age (53-170) the Church left her "first love," Christ the Word, and allowed tares of "Jewish fables" and the "deeds of the nicolaitanes" to enter and usurp the preeminence of Christ.

This indulgent attitude allowed false Jews and false Christians to enter the Church in the Smyrnean Age (170-312), so that in Pergamos (312-606) these apostates, in league with the Imperium, organized the Judaeo-Roman Catholic church at the First Nicaea Council (AD325). Balaamism was introduced, which is the substitution of creeds and dogma such as the pagan Babylonian Trinity, baptism in three Titles and Apostles' Creeds (so-called) in place of the revealed Word of God. And the "deeds of the nicolaitanes" became "doctrine" in this Judaeo-Roman Catholic dogma. Nicolaitanism separates the ministers from the people and makes the leaders overlords instead of servants. By the end of this Age the church was predominantly Gentile, pagan, and papal Rome had become the actual seat or power of Satanic religion (Revelation 2:13).

In Thyatira (606-1520) the seed died in apostasy and went back into the ground through almost a thousand years of Dark Ages. It revived in the Reformation of the Judaeo-Roman Catholic system of false worship under the Sardis (1520-1750), Philadelphian (1750-1906) and Laodicean (1906-1963) Church Ages. In Laodicea, also called Pentecost, the believers began to speak with other tongues and the Lord showed signs and wonders. Because of the revival in the gifts of the Spirit, some people became over-enthusiastic and thought this was the latter rain. But this was not possible since the teaching rain had not been restored.

The teaching rain or former rain was Brother Branham's ministry after the close of Laodicean Pentecost to restore the apostolic faith:

Malachi 4:5-6, "Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: and he shall turn the heart of the apostolic fathers to those predestinated to be children born of God. (This was the fruit of the ministry of John the Baptist, the Elijah of Malachi 3:1 and Isaiah 40:3, three years after his death as evidenced in Acts 2, etc). And return the heart of the children back to the faith of their apostolic fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse." Or as Jesus said in Matthew 24:22, "Unless the days should be shortened (by the revelation of the Seven Seals "finishing the mystery of God" (Revelation 10:7) to call the "wise virgin" out from Mystery Babylon and her (once) Protestant daughter churches (Matthew 25:6; Revelation 18:4) "into the unity of the faith" (Ephesians 4:13) for "the manifestation of the Sons of God" (Romans 8:19) and the translation – I Corinthians 15:46-57), there should be no flesh saved" for the translation.

The children of Israel are God's servant nation not His Children; and John the Baptist restored nothing. John was ordained to forerun Messiah's first Coming; had he turned Israel back to the faith of the Patriarchs he would have denied the Law and abrogated His divine commission. John "laid the axe to the root of all trees" (Matthew 3:10), cut down and uprooted the religious principles of Essenes, Herodians, Zealots, and Pharisees in order to introduce the Word of God; so the second "Elijah" of this prophecy could not have been John.

After they had seen a vision of the return of the glorified Jesus in the Millennium preceded by the ministry of a "Moses" and an "Elijah" to the 144,000 elect Israelites, "His disciples asked, why do the scribes say that Elijah must first come? And Jesus answered, Elijah truly shall first come, and restore all things" (Matthew 17:11) ". . . God has spoken by the mouth of all His holy prophets since the world began" (Acts 3:21). That could not have been John the Baptist.

Matthew 17:12-13, "But I tell you, that Elijah has already come, and they knew him not, but decapitated him. Likewise shall the Son of man also suffer at their hands. Then the disciples understood that He spoke to them of John the Baptist".

God endues five men with the Spirit that anointed Elijah who was followed by Elisha with a double portion of the same Spirit (II Kings 2:12-15). The third "Elijah" was John the Baptist, fourth was William Branham to be followed by the two Hebrew prophets of Zechariah 4 and Revelation 11 seen by the disciples in the vision on Mount Transfiguration.

Revelation 10:7, "In the days of the voice of the angel to the Seventh or Laodicean Church Age, when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as He has declared to His servants the prophets".

Brother Branham was the Elijah of Malachi 4:5-6 and the angel to the Laodicean Church Age. His Message is the former or teaching rain that has restored Christ's end-time Bride back to the faith of the apostolic fathers for the manifestation of the Sons of God under the latter rain following the sinking of Los Angeles at the close of the Gentile dispensation. This is when the two loaves of the Alpha and Omega Bride will be presented to the Lord for His approval.

Joel 2:23-25, "Be glad, O sons of Zion (Christ's Bride), and rejoice in the Lord your God: for He has given you the former rain teaching righteousness for your vindication, and He will pour down for you the rain, the former rain, and the latter rain when first it is needed. And the floors shall be full of wheat, and the vats shall overflow with wine and oil. And I will restore to you the years that the locust has eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpillar, and the palmerworm, My great army which I sent among you."

The Lutheran Age did not restore the church; it started a reformation. The Wesleyan Age did not restore. The Pentecostal Age did not restore. But God has to restore for He cannot deny His Word. This is not the resurrection of the Church; it is the "restoration." God has restored us right back to the Pentecost of the beginning. Verse 25 explains why we need restoration. The locust, cankerworm, caterpillar and palmerworm have eaten all but the root and a small bit of the stem. These are four stages in the life of the same insect. In the Spiritual realm they type Satan, the rider of the four horses of Revelation 6 in his attack upon the Christian Church under the first four Seals as the antichrist spirit manifested spiritual power, political power, and demonic power and will soon incarnate himself in the pope, "that man of sin, the son of perdition." That poor little root and stalk is going to be restored. God is not going to plant a new Church; He is bringing His original planting back to original seed as stated in verse 23 by the teaching or former rain. The same teaching rain that instructed the early Church had to be restored to bring Christ's end-time Bride into the unity of the faith in preparation for the latter rain which will endue us with rapturing faith.

Luke 21:29-32, "Jesus told a parable; Observe the fig tree (Israel), and all the trees; (Baptist, Methodist, Pentecostals, Islam, and so forth), When they come into leaf you know by looking at them that summer (and the harvest of souls) is in the offing. In the same way, when you see these things taking place, be assured that the Kingdom of God is near. I assure you, all this will happen before this generation passes away".

The Reformation and all seven Church Ages are over. We are living under the Fourth Seal in which we are spiritually redeemed, and under the Seventh Seal in which we have recognized the second or 'parousia' Coming of the Lord for our physical redemption. The Fifth Seal has been in process since Calvary, under which non-elect Israelites who die as martyrs for their testimony of the Law are "saved" because the Lord has allowed their denominational rabbis to blind them to the faith as the prophet foretold in order that Messiah might marry His Gentile Bride. Now God is baptizing His end-time Bride into the Caagsone of the Body of the Church by the fullness of the Word through the revelation of the Seven Seals to restore His end-time Bride back to a W_O_R_D Bride like Her Word Groom.

Brother Branham said, "Jesus did NOT say no man could know the year, month or week in which His coming was to be completed" (An Exposition of the Seven Church Ages, p. 322:4). In the natural, the spring or latter rain falls in the Passover month, at the end of March or early April to bring forward the crop toward full maturity and ripeness, so in the Spiritual the latter rain is our harvest rain. . . Now you know! This will be a fresh outpouring after the close of the Gentile dispensation at the sinking of Los Angeles to enable Christ's end-time Bride to operate the 'third pull' to vindicate that we are the Sons of God. When omnipotence speaks miracles happen! This manifestation of the spoken Word will raise faith in us so that we can change in the atoms and meet the Lord in the Air. nl532.htm

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Brother Grigor-Scott is a non-denominational minister who has ministered full-time since 1981, primarily to other ministers and their congregations overseas. He pastors Bible Believers' tiny congregation, and is available to teach in your church.

Bible Believers' Church
Gunnedah NSW
Australia 2380

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Bible Believers' Newsletter 532