Bible Believers' Newsletter 180

I Peter 2:9, "You are an elect lineage, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a purchased people; that you should show express the virtues of Him who has called you out of darkness into His marvelous Light".

In the solitude of Sinai, God directed Moses to separate Aaron and his sons for an hereditary priesthood (Exodus 28:1), and gave minute directions for their official dress, for their consecration and their duties (Exodus 28-29).

Emphasis is everywhere placed upon the fact that like their Antitype they were appointed of God. "No man can take to himself the honor of being high priest. He must be called of God, as was Aaron. Even Christ did not elect Himself to this honor; but was chosen of God when He said, My Son, this day have I begotten You. And again, You have been chosen to be a priest forever with the same rank as Melchisedec" (Hebrews 5:4-6).

Aaron the high priest, his sons and the Levites were a gift to the children of Israel to serve God in the Tabernacle and to bear away their sins by ordained means. In no sense were the Levites appointed by the people; had they been they could not have mediated in their behalf because "a mediator is not a mediator of one party only" (Galatians 3:20). Today God's five-fold ministry of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers are all sons by our High Priest, Jesus Christ, chosen and appointed of God as His gift to men for the perfection of the Body (Ephesians 4:8-13). Our priesthood is also hereditary (Hebrews 2:10-11). Our High Priest and Judge, the five-fold ministry and every living saint in the body of Christ has the ministry of intercession to reconcile the world to the Word (II Corinthians 5:18-20).

The Levitical system emphasized the fact that the sacrifices had no efficacy in themselves, but like the priesthood (and the five-fold ministry) derived their whole value from Divine appointment. They themselves needed atonement, and were obliged to offer for their own sins; yet by the commanded anointing and dress they were made acceptable intercessors and mediators for the people. All of this was ordained of God but the priests' imperfection showed they were but a type of that Seed Who would make true reconciliation with God by the restoration of holiness to man, interceding through the seven Church Ages of PART-Word while the Bible was sealed (Hebrews 7:28).

On the first day of Nisan in the second year the Tabernacle was set up (Exodus 40:17). After its dedication, Moses instructed Israel in the Law of sacrifices, and in conduct, order and doctrine for the church in the wilderness. Next he washed, dressed, anointed, offered sacrifices for and consecrated Aaron and his sons. Their consecration required them to remain in the Tabernacle for seven days, and Aaron's priesthood like that of Christ, commenced on the eighth day, it being the fiftieth day of the feast of Pentecost when the Christian Church was dedicated.

The Tabernacle and its furnishings in the earthly sanctuary were dedicated before service had begun and Aaron was dedicated to the work of the sanctuary as high priest. Since each step of their service was a type, which would later be fulfilled literally in Christ's ministry when He became our High Priest. The details of this dedication service are described in Leviticus 8-9. The outstanding points are:

The consecration of Aaron was public with the people gathered before the wide opening of the court probably represented by the elders of the Tribes, with the mass of men generally standing upon the surrounding heights which overlooked the Tabernacle. By their presence they were assenting to the consecration of one who was to minister among them and for them as those on Jordan's shore bore witness after Jesus was washed, dedicated, and anointed by the Shekinah like a dove in the sight of John the Baptist, and vindicated by the heavenly Voice: "This is My beloved Son in Whom I am well pleased".

In 1933 when Brother Branham was baptizing the seventeenth of 500 people in the Ohio River before a crowd of 5,000, he was anointed by the Shekinah in the form of a star and a heavenly Voice said, "As John the Baptist foreran My first Coming, your Message will forerun My second Coming".

Before Aaron was anointed high priest he first bathed his whole body (Exodus 29:4) as practiced on the great day of Atonement and as Christ did before entering upon His public ministry (Leviticus 16:4; Matthew 3:13-17). As Aaron was anointed with oil, "God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Ghost and with power: Who went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed of the devil; for God was with Him" (Acts 10:38). And as priests unto God we must first confess our sins, present the sacrifice of our faith, and be baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ for the remission of past sins after which the Anointing is promised those who press in to the Kingdom (Acts 2:38-39; Hebrews 10:22).

Aaron was robed in the priestly garments of office. Then his sons, typing the five-fold ministry, were clothed. We like Christ, are robed in character from within (Ephesians 6:11-18; II Peter 1:5-8; Revelation 3:18; 19:7-8). After sacrifices and accompanying ceremonies these typical things in the Tabernacle were reconciled by the blood of the typical sacrifice as all things in heaven and in earth are reconciled to God by the blood of the Cross (Colossians 1:20). In all these things Moses acted as priest for Aaron as the Holy Spirit in Christ offered up His blood to God (Hebrews 9:14).

Whereas Aaron was consecrated by these sacrifices to be a priest, "daily offering the same sacrifices, which can never take away sins" . . . "Christ after He had offered a single sacrifice for sins that shall avail for all time has forever completely cleansed and consecrated as priests them that are sanctified" (Hebrews 10:11-14; Revelation 1:5-6). That's you, me and all of His elect.

After this dedication Aaron and his sons were to pass seven days in holy seclusion in the court. For seven days they were to bring the appointed sacrifices and to live on the sacrifice of consecration; what remained was to be burned. And Christ's Bride was hidden from the world in a spiritual wilderness for seven Church Ages, living on the faith once delivered to the apostolic saints. When the Ephesian Age left its first love, the Word, the faith became lost, subverted and perverted such that any traditions left over from a previous Age were to be burned with fire in the succeeding dispensation. We are to walk in the Light of the present Truth, not impersonate the Messages of Luther, Wesley or some other day gone by. Since the seven Church Ages are all fulfilled, and the revelation of the Seven Seals has restored the apostolic faith and finished mystery of God, those things and Christ's mediation are done away (I Corinthians 13:10).

We now feast upon the living Body Word of Christ, the fullness (Leviticus 8:31-36; Revelation 10:7; 18:4). The revelation of the Seven Seals in 1963 brought Christ back to earth in Word Form. Being Attributes of the Logos, the angels of God, our theophanies, came with Him (I Thessalonians 4:14), for through the invisible union we are one. When the last member of the Bride is joined in love to her Husband, there'll be a resurrection. The royal priesthood will manifest the Sons of God, taking victory over death and the grave and rise to the Wedding Supper in the Sky. Then together with Christ we will be revealed to Israel as his King and Queen (Revelation 15:3-4).

Throughout the Book of Revelation John represents the end-time Bride. In the Spirit John stood in the court of the heavenly Temple and recorded what he saw through seven Church Ages just as Aaron and his sons and the Levites (typing the Church Age saints under golden Altar) had kept holy watch in the court of the Tabernacle seven days under penalty of death. And "no man was able to enter into the Holy of Holies until the seven plagues of the seven angels [to the Church Ages] were fulfilled" (Revelation 15:8).

On the eighth day, Moses passed over to Aaron the duty of directing the people in their sacrifices as their appointed and consecrated high priest. He has explained what is to be done on the eighth day, announcing beforehand the appearance of the glory of the Lord so the people may be intelligent witnesses. Thereafter Aaron and every succeeding high priest was a mediator between Israel and God, interceding for inadvertent and ignorant mistakes. A perfect type of Christ, and when Aaron came out of the tabernacle he blessed the people and "the glory of the Lord" appeared (Leviticus 9:23).

In the Heavenly sanctuary Jesus Christ received the Office of High Priest and spent seven Church Ages in seclusion consecrating with the Church Age saints like Aaron and his sons the priests who were their type, and only Christ went beyond the vail into the Holy of Holies. When the eighth day (which was the fiftieth day following the seven sabbaths of the Pentecostal feast or Church Ages) drew nigh, the glory of the Lord appeared above Arizona on February 28, 1963, signifying the imminent end of the Church Ages of PART-Word and that the second or 'parousia' Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ was at hand. Several months earlier Brother Branham was shown this in a vision which he described in, "Sirs, is This the [Sign of] the End-Time?" (Matthew 24:3; Acts 1:9-11; Revelation 1:7).

Following the revelation of the Seven Seals in this holy convocation following the Church Ages, Christ gave us the open Bible saying, "You must re-present this revelation before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings" (Revelation 10:11).

Two is a confirmation or intensification, three is perfection, five is the number of grace, seven is the number of completion, and eight signifies eternity while ten is the number of closed history, the reckoning-up of twice five, well-used or ill-used freedom; grace received or grace rejected, and is the number of judgment. Brother Branham said, "ten, is a bad number. They had ten tribes of Israel, and they was just all carnal. And he had to take Joseph's two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh the prophet's children and bless them. And when he did, his hands crossed. And he said, "Father, not so, you put your hands on Ephraim, it should be on Manasseh." He said, "God crossed my hands". . . Taking it from the older son, the Law, and putting it up over on Christ. And . . . through the cross, came the change of the birthright . . . to the younger son" [the Gentile Church] (Countdown, 12:79-82).

Three years were occupied quarrying and perfecting the stones for Solomon's Temple, while seven additional years were required to assemble and complete the building, which was a type of God's dwelling place in His elect. Ten years altogether.

There were ten days from Christ's ascension to the dedication of the Church. After the Dark Ages, three Church Ages were required to rediscover and restore the apostolic faith, and from the close of the Gentile dispensation seven more years known as Daniel's Seventieth Week will be required to "build again the Tabernacle of David, which is fallen down" or gather Israel's elect and restore the kingdom to Israel in the millennium (Acts 15:16).

In the memorial of the feast of Trumpets during the first three and a half years of Daniel's Seventieth Week two prophets will reveal the judgments God has poured upon Israel from Calvary to their Atonement. This revelation will gather 144,000 elect Israelites for their feast of Atonement which will follow after ten days and form the climax of Israel's history in their purification and the birth of the nation in one day.

The feast of Trumpets and the day of Atonement were both holy convocations. In the former no servile work was permitted whereas in the latter no work whatever was permitted: all were to fast and afflict their souls upon penalty of damnation. The people as a nation did not gather to the Tabernacle, Temple or synagogue on either day but personally contemplated as individuals, for in the fulfillment of these feasts, God will separate 144,000 elect individuals by faith out from their nation, from their tribes and from their families (Zechariah 12:10-13:2). Revelation will unite them with Him in a new birth, the preliminary condition qualifying them to the feast of Tabernacles which, like the feast of Unleavened Bread, commences on the fifteenth day of the month (or eight day) and not the fourteenth.

The feast of Tabernacles spanned seven-days. The first six type man's earthly journey laboring against sin six thousand years, while the seventh represents completion of his labors with a millennial sabbath or rest. At the end of this period comes the general resurrection and white throne judgment followed by an eighth day of endless Eternity in a renewed heavens and earth.

Meanwhile in the solitude of "silence in heaven about the space of half an hour", God has been calling the wise and foolish virgin out from Rome and her (once) Protestant daughter churches into maturity in the unity of the faith for the manifestation of the Sons of God and the translation (Matthew 25:6; Revelation 8:1; 18:4). nl180.htm