Bible Believers' Newsletter 109

"We focus on the PRESENT Truth�what Jesus is doing NOW . . ."
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We greet you in the wonderful Name of our Lord Jesus Christ and appreciate your fellowship.

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

Your brother-in-Christ,
Anthony Grigor-Scott

Two Bills: Scandal & Opportunity in Gold?

Evidence is accumulating that the administration of Bill Clinton may have turned the Exchange Stabilization Fund (ESF) into a political slush fund to make itself look good and simultaneously profit some of its closest Wall Street friends and supporters. Specifically, the known facts support credible allegations that the Clinton administration has effectively capped the gold price by using the ESF to backstop the selling of gold futures and other gold derivative products by politically well-connected bullion banks. Full Story: gold-eagle.com, and forbes.com

America's Most-hated Senator was Right

Remember Senator Joseph McCarthy who fingered Communism in the United States�its source, and some of its top people in the Administration?

The Enemy of the people, the ones with dual citizenship who own the big banks, invented Communism and Nazism and still control and fund Communist Russia with US taxpayer's money via tax-exempt foundations and their IMF, ridiculed McCarthy in the public eye with their controlled Media. But FBI recordings of Soviet embassy conversations and 5,000 pages of FBI files released only a few years ago to the public (although accessible to the White House at the time) prove McCarthy was right! Full Story: members.xoom.com

The Plagues are Already Here

Brother Branham said, "Sickness came through the fall, and the fall was sin, and sin is unbelief. He that believeth not is condemned already."

"Maybe you never sinned, but there might be a sin that your father did, your grandfather did. God said He'd visit the iniquity of the parents upon the third and fourth generation. And each generation is becoming weaker but wiser because we inherit the result of sin . . . and the world is becoming more wicked all the time . . . and the more we probe into science, the further we get away from God." If you have an inbred weakness from some sickness inherited from your people back in the generations . . . the Blood of Jesus Christ atoned for that at Calvary. You've got a right to accept it and be healed.

In 1988, infectious disease did not even make the top ten list of causes of death in the US, whereas in 1995 infectious disease was number 3, and rising! Today over 100 million Americans are suffering from chronic forms of illnesses all attributable to low immune systems.

According to a 1996 World Health Organization (WHO) report. "Diseases such as AIDS, ebola, mad cow, tuberculosis, etc., killed more than 17 million people worldwide last year, including 9 million children . . . taken together, bacterial, viral and parasitic diseases remain the world's leading cause of premature death, accounting for one out of every three deaths . . ."

Among the reasons that many infectious diseases are spreading so rapidly, the WHO report says, are growing antibiotic resistance and heavy international travel.

David prayed, "Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts" (Psalm 139:23). Yet instead of examining ourselves and asking God to reveal any hidden sin that we might repent, we invest billions in medical research to find ways in which to cover or suppress the symptoms of disease rather that expose the cause, which is in the realm of unseen spirits.

Science is hybreeding food crops and animals�God's manifested spoken Word�on which our physical life is dependent, with different genes, making the food of no nutritional benefit to good health and ensuring physical disease and DEATH as surely as when we hybreed His written Word with the traditions of men It is of no benefit to our Spiritual health. We are becoming weaker but wiser.

The Human Genome Project (HGP) is well advanced in mapping the DNA (or deoxyribonucleic acid) in the human body. But the big drug companies are taking advantage of a US Patent Office decision making it possible to patent minute genetic variations called single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs). Oh, the love of money.

Significantly, many of the genes being sought are for diseases and problems of the wealthy. For instance, the annual market for hair loss products in the US alone is an estimated US$7 billion.

Long term profits could be in the billions that could ultimately restructure the entire health care industry. Companies like Orchid Biocomputer Inc., are staking their claims at the US Patent Office and their future on the 'net. (SNPs.com/).

For more information on this subject and the current genetic modifications of food and seeds, see Rural Advancement Foundation International (rafi.org).

Fire, Flood, Wind, Hail, Earthquake

Munich Re, based in Germany, reinsures the risks of 5,000 insurance companies in 150 countries! The latest report of their Geoscience Research Group which provides statistics to enable scientists, engineers and institutions world-wide to establish probability shows a fourfold increase in major natural disasters from 20 in the 1950s to over 80 in the 1990s with economic losses rising from US$ 38 billion per decade to US$ 535 billion (at current prices). An increase of 14 times! Full story: munichre.com

Warning!!! Charter 99 � a NWO Deception

In September 2000 the United Nations will hold a special Millennium Assembly and Summit on the future of the world. This Charter will be published as an open letter worldwide and presented to UN Representatives. . . . This Charter is addressed to you and all the governments and peoples of the world you represent. It is a demand for global democracy.

In fact, Charter 99 is a demand for a GLOBAL POLICE STATE! Read it and educate yourself. Know your Enemy, but do NOT sign. Full Story: charter99.org/

Rothschild's Estate on Golan Heights

by Barry Chamish

"In the 1890s, Baron Rothschild purchased 20,000 acres of Syrian land owned by the Ottoman empire. In 1942, the Syrian government illegally confiscated the land. The Baron transferred the deeds to the Jewish National Fund (JNF) in 1957. In 1992, the deeds were moved to the Prime Minister's Office where they are stored today."

Chamish's article contains some inaccuracies (to do with US foreign policy in the Middle East). Full Story: truthinmedia.org

Nicolaitanism

I appreciate those who send me questions, even criticisms: so long as they're supported by Scripture. This feedback gives me a guide to the things that you need to understand, and how I might be able to serve you more effectively.

Our purpose in the next few weeks, will be to trace the church and her history, as given to John by the Spirit of God, through all Seven Church Ages, beginning with the Ephesian Age.

We've already discovered that much of the Revelation is totally misunderstood, because we did not formerly know, that the "church" spoken of, and spoken to in this Book, does not refer to the pure "ekklesia": the "elect," the "Body of Christ," or "bride." But it speaks to the entire body of people who are called Christians�whether they be true, or merely nominal.

As all Israel is not Israel, so all Christians are not Christians. Thus we learned that the church is made up of two vines, the true and the false. These two vines are motivated by two kinds of spirits; one has the Holy Spirit while the other is endued with the spirit of antichrist. Both claim to know, and be known of God. both purport to speak for God. Both believe certain very basic truths, and differ on others. But since both bear the name of the Lord, being called CHRIST-ians, and by such name-bearing obviously claim a relationship to Him (God calls it marriage), God now holds them both responsible to Him and therefore speaks to each.

The Message to each of the seven men God sent to His Church in each age ends with the admonition, "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches" (PLURAL). To the elect, It was Life and peace through the new birth; to the nominal church, condemnation and judgment.

What is this? but the fulfillment of Jesus' prophecy of John 5:24: "Truly, I tell you, he who hears My Word, and believes (by faith or understanding), on Him Who sent Me, has eternal Life, and shall not come into judgment; but is passed from death unto Life" . And John 3:18, "He who believes not is judged already, because he has not believed in the Name of the only begotten Son of God".

We further learned that these two vines, would grow side by side, until the end of the ages, when both would come to maturity, and both be harvested. The false vine would not overcome and destroy the true vine, but then, neither would the true vine be able to bring the false vine into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ.

We learned the most amazing truth, that the Holy Spirit could, and would fall upon the un-regenerate false vine Christians, and manifest powerfully in various signs and wonders, even as Judas had a definite ministry in the Holy Ghost, though he himself was pronounced to be a devil.

We see the same phenomena today, wherein multitudes are exercising the Gifts of the Spirit and denying the Word, proving they are unregenerated and without the Spirit. The so-called Toronto blessing is a perfect example of this. Happy people, dancing, and singing, and speaking in tongues, yet denying what God's Word promised for this day. The Holy Spirit indeed falls on the just, and the unjust.

With these principles in mind, we shall trace the church through the various seven ages.

The birth of the Church was at Pentecost. As the first Adam was given a bride, fresh from the hand of God, and was undefiled for a brief span, so was Christ, the last Adam, given a bride, pure and fresh at Pentecost; and she remained separate and undefiled for some time. Acts 5:13, "And of the rest durst no man join himself to them." And Acts 2:47, "The Lord added daily such as should be saved." How long this continued we don't know, but one day, even as EVE was tempted and seduced by Satan, so the church was contaminated by the entrance of an antichrist spirit. I John 4:3, "And this is that spirit of antichrist whereof you have heard that it should come, and even now already is it in the world".

Jesus said concerning His bride in that first age, "I have somewhat against you, because you've left your first love�the Word! Remember therefore whence you have fallen, and repent" (Revelation 2:4-5). The church in that first age, was already a "fallen woman." As Satan got to Eve before Adam, even now had he seduced the church, the bride of Christ, before the marriage supper of the Lamb. And what specifically was in her midst that caused the fall?

What but Revelation 2:6, "The deeds of the nicolaitanes." Already that first age had turned from following the pure Word of God. They turned from God's demand of a church absolutely dependent upon Him, (depending entirely upon God to fulfill His Word from start to finish, apart from human government), to nicolaitanism, which is organizing a human government within the church, which, as all governments do, legislates for the people. They did exactly what Israel did. They took the expediency of human government, instead of the word and the Spirit.

Death had entered. How do we know? Do we not hear the Voice of the Spirit, raised in that first age, for all who will hear? "To him that overcomes will I give to eat of the Tree of Life in the paradise of God." The church had already imbibed too deeply of the tree of death (or the denominational false vine), whose end is the lake of Fire. But there are NO cherubim with flaming swords to guard the Tree of Life now. God does not now depart from the midst of the church, as He departed from Eden. Oh, no, He will ever be in the midst of His church, until the final age. And until that time, He calls to all to come.

Now please, let's be careful here. This Message, to the angel of the church which is at Ephesus, is not a Message to the actual local Ephesian church. It's a Message to the age. And that age had in it the seed of truth and the seed of error, exactly as set forth in the parable of the wheat and the tares. The Church Ages are the field, and in it are wheat and tares. The false church organized, humanized the government and the Word, and fought the true Christian.

Tares always flourish mightier than wheat, or any other cultivated plant. The tare church grew rapidly in this first age. But the wheat church was flourishing also. By the end of the first age the deeds of the Nicolaitanes were flourishing in the local false vine churches, with increasing attempts to spread their influence further than their own local body. The influence of nicolaitanism was felt upon the true church, for men like the venerable Polycarp, were calling themselves bishops, with a reference to that title which was not inherent in it according to the Word. Also in that age, the true Church had lost its first love. That love was typified as the love of a bride and groom at their marriage and early years of wedded life. There was a cooling of that complete love and abandonment to God.

But notice. Revelation 2:1 describes the Lord Jesus as in the midst of His church and holding the messengers in His right hand. Because this bride has fallen, because the church corporate is now an admixture of true and false, He does not leave it. It is His. And according to Romans 14:7-9 that's exactly right. "For NONE of us lives to himself, and no man dies to himself. For whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord; whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's. For to this end Christ both died, and rose, and revived, that He might be Lord, both of the dead and living." On the cross He bought the whole world of people. They are His. He is the Lord of the living and dead. (As pertaining to ownership, NOT relationship). And He walks in the midst of that body that has within it Life and death.

What was planted in the first age, will develop in the second age, and in all other ages, until it comes to maturity and harvest.

Next, we'll examine just what "nicolaitanism" is . . .

In reviewing the Ephesian Age we encountered the word NICOLAITANE. It comes from two Greek words: NIKAO which means "to conquer," and LAO which means "the laity." NICOLAITANE means, "to conquer the laity".

Now, why is this such a terrible thing? It's terrible, because God has never placed His Church in the hands of an elected leadership which moves with political mindedness. He's placed His Church in the care of God-ordained, Spirit-filled, Word-living men who lead the people, through FEEDING them the Word. He has not separated the people into classes, so that the masses are led by a holy priesthood. It is true that the leadership must be holy, but then so must the whole congregation.

Further, there's NO place in the Word, where priests or ministers MEDIATE between God and the people, nor is there a place where they're separated in their worship of the Lord. God wants ALL to love and serve Him together. Nicolaitanism destroys those precepts, and instead separates the ministers from the people, and makes the leaders overlords, instead of servants.

Now this doctrine actually started as a DEED in the first age. It appears that the problem lay in two words: "ELDERS" (presbyters), and "OVERSEERS" (bishops). Though Scripture shows that there are SEVERAL elders in EACH church, some began (Ignatius among them) to teach that a bishop was one with pre-eminence or authority and control over the elders. Now the truth of the matter is that the word "elder" signifies who the person is, while the word "bishop" signifies the office of the same man. The elder is the MAN. Bishop is the OFFICE of the man. "Elder" always has and always will refer simply to a man's chronological age in the Lord. He is an elder, NOT because he's elected or ordained, but because he is older. He is more seasoned, trained, not a novice, and reliable because of his experience and long standing proof of his Christian experience.

But no, the bishops did not stick to the epistles of Paul, instead they went to Paul's account of the time he called the elders from Ephesus to Miletus, in Acts 20. In verse 17, the record states, "elders were called"; then in verse 28 they're called overseers or bishops. These bishops, no doubt politically minded and anxious for power, insisted that Paul had meant that "overseers" were more than the local elder, with official capacity only in his own church. To them a bishop was now one with extended authority over many local leaders. Such a concept was neither scriptural nor historical, yet even a man of the stature of Polycarp leaned toward such organization.

Thus, that which started as a DEED in the first age was made a literal DOCTRINE, and so it is today. Bishops still claim power to control men, and deal with them as they desire, placing them where they so will in the ministry. This denies the leadership of the Holy Ghost, Who said, "Separate Me Paul and Barnabas, for the work where-unto I have called them." This is anti-Word and anti-Christ.

Matthew 20:25-28, "But Jesus called them unto Him, and said, You know that the princes of the Gentiles exercise dominion over them, and they that are great exercise authority upon them. But it shall not be so among you; but whosoever will be great among you, let him be your minister; And whosoever will be chief among you, let him be your servant: Even as the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His life a ransom for many." Matthew 23:8-9, "But don't be called Rabbi: for one is your Master, even Christ; and you are all brethren. And call no man your father upon the earth: for one is your Father, Which is in heaven."

Did you know that a bishop is actually a layman, who is an elder with an ability to teach? He's only permitted to teach what his pastor's already taught and is under his authority. Whereas the five-fold ministry is set in the Church by God, bishops and deacons are chosen by men. A bishop must be a married man with children, not in polygamy, and whose family is subject to his authority and in the faith. Read Titus chapter one and II Timothy chapter three.

You'll recall that in Revelation 13:3 it says, "And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death: and his deadly wound was healed: and all the world wondered after the beast." We know that the wounded head was the pagan Roman Empire, that great political world power. This head rose again as the "Roman Catholic spiritual empire". Now watch this carefully. What did political pagan Rome do that was the basis of her success? She "divided and conquered." That was the seed of Rome�divide and conquer. Her iron teeth tore and devoured. Who she tore and devoured could not rise again, as when she destroyed Carthage and sowed her to salt. The same iron seed remained IN her when she arose as the false church, and her policy has remained the same�divide and conquer. That is nicolaitanism, and God hates it.

The Roman Catholic church calls herself, the "mother church". She calls herself the first or original church. That is absolutely correct. She was the original First Church of Rome, that backslid and went into sin. She was the first that organized. In her was found the DEEDS and then the DOCTRINE of Nicolaitanism.

No one will deny that she IS a mother. She is a mother and has produced daughters. Now a daughter comes out of a woman. A woman robed in scarlet is sitting on the seven hills of Rome. She is a harlot and has borne daughters. Those daughters are the Protestant churches that came out of her and then went right back into organization and nicolaitanism. nl109.htm

Pass it on . . . please send this article to someone you know
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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