Bible Believers' Newsletter 288
"We focus on the present Truth – what Jesus is doing now. . ."
ISSN 1442-8660Christian greetings in the precious Name of our Lord Jesus Christ; we appreciate your company.
As I write I am listening to Cardinal Walter Kasper speak on "The Future of Christianity: a Meditation on the Church and Contemporary Pluralism in the Post Modern Era."
He states that ". . . within the mentality of ideological pluralism, religious pluralism is the challenge for Christianity and for the Church".
"Biblically, alongside universality is a concern with unity, even uniqueness understood as oneness. The Bible gives witness to the one and only God (Deuteronomy 6:4; Mark 12:29), who is the Father of all human beings, good and bad alike (Matthew 5:45). It confesses the one Lord Jesus Christ (I Corinthians 8:6; Ephesians 4:5). In no other Name is there salvation (Acts 4: 12). He is the one and only mediator between God and humankind (I Timothy 2:5). He is the one high priest who has redeemed us once and for all (Hebrews 7:27). This message is entrusted to us once and for all (Jude 3). For that reason, there can be only one true Church; confessing the una sancta ecclesia is common to all Churches. This common confession is the basis of the present ecumenical movement, the purpose of which is the restoration of full visible Church unity.
Unity and universality are fundamental categories of the Bible, which cannot be extracted from the biblical witness without destroying its roots and affecting its core. Those who profess that unity, if they are consistent with themselves, must sail against the wind of the spirit of the times—whether they want to or not. Experienced sailors know that this seems impossible only to beginners, while they themselves confront it as a challenge and an art that offers joy and satisfaction. In fact, history has shown that it has not always been constructive for the Church to be just the spoiled child of the world in which she lived; she has always been strengthened through various challenges. . ."
". . . The Church does not question empirical pluralism; indeed, she acknowledges its right, although at the same time she asks questions and wants to help in preventing and overcoming the dangers immanent in ideological pluralism. . . The Church should knowingly permit such a plurality and seek to shape it in a constructive way, and not try to suppress it through—in any case futile—disciplinary measures. The principle should be: 'In necessariis unitas, in aliis libertas, super omnia caritas' (in what is necessary unity, in all else liberty, and in everything charity)."
". . . While there is no question of renouncing unity and universality, we have to exclude the interpretation and implementation of unity understood as uniformity. The ultimate model of the Church is the Trinity; so we have to understand the unity of the Church in terms of Trinitarian unity, which is a unity in three persons, and we have to shape the Church along the lines described by the Second Vatican Council, as the people of God 'brought into unity from the unity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit' (LG 4)".
The present Truth of Scripture God interpreted through His Prophet William Branham takes us behind the Cardinal's crafty diplomatique. "The Church" or "ecclesia" he calls "the one holy legislative assembly" is the Judaeo-Roman Catholic false church that truly is ordained of God and qualified to rule the new world order. And as God has decreed, Rome will again be strengthened to meet this very challenge:
Revelation 13:4-8, "They worshipped the Dragon (Satan) who gave power to the beast (Rome): and they worshipped the beast, saying, 'Who can compare with the beast; who is able to make war with him'? (The military force of his US image enforces his edicts) . . . And he opened his mouth in blasphemy against God, to blaspheme His Name (making Him a Trinity), and His tabernacle, and them that dwell in heaven. And it was given to him to make war with the saints, and to overcome them (through ecumenism "the purpose of which is the restoration of full visible Church unity"): and power was given him over all kindreds, and tongues, and nations (through "pluralistic" alliances with all religions "shaped in a constructive way"). And all who dwell on the earth shall worship him, whose names are not written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world".
Rome is the fourth Gentile world empire. Daniel 7:7-8, ". . . exceedingly strong with great iron teeth: it devoured and broke in pieces, and stamped the residue with its feet: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; . . . in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man (pope), and a mouth speaking great things".
True to her motto, "Semper Eadem," Rome remains "always the same." As Cardinal Kasper said: "The principle should be: 'In necessariis unitas, in aliis libertas, super omnia caritas' (in what is necessary unity, in all else liberty, and in everything charity)." Or as the Pope's Judaeo-Jesuits and the Babylonian Talmud say, "The ends justify the means".
However, God is a Separator, calling the wise and foolish virgin out from what Isaiah and Peter termed the "vomit" of Roman and denominational doctrine into oneness and spiritual discernment with our Husband, the Word. Yes, Jesus prayed that we "might be one", but one in the faith, by grace, not one by organization through force (Revelation 13:15-18). Brother Branham said, "At the opening of the Seven Seals, Revelations 10, the full Word is to be born into manifestation again and vindicated by the Spirit of God in full strength, as it was when it was here on earth, manifested in the same way, doing the same things." The fullness of the Word God once manifest in Brother Branham's ministry is born and now growing to maturity in Christ's end-time Bride for the manifestation of the Sons of God and the translation.
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. Please confirm everything personally in your own Bible, and obey what it says do.Your brother in Christ
Anthony Grigor-Scott
Christian Churches should stop using the Cross
Capitol Hill, August 22, 2003 — An interfaith group founded by Unification Church leader Sun Myung Moon is spearheading an effort to have Christian ministers remove crosses from their churches, calling them a symbol of oppression and perceived superiority. Mainstream Christian leaders call the request "outrageously bigoted."
The American Clergy Leadership Conference (ACLC), an organization that began as a project of Moon's Family Federation for World Peace and Unification (FFWPU), believes the key to "true and lasting peace in the Middle East" is reconciliation between members of the world's three largest religions.
"Jews, Christians and Muslims must come together to heal divisions of the past, to stand together in a moment of repentance and reconciliation, and thus, tear down the walls that separate us as people of faith," said Archbishop George Augustus Stallings, Jr., of the independent Imani Temple African American Catholic congregation in Washington, D.C.
Full story: cnsnews.com
Bloodcurdling Libel
Paradoxically, Jews tend to harbour criminals because their world view is so different from the Christian one. The deepest chasm between Christianity and Judaism is not located in the murky area of sacrifices. Jews believe in collective salvation, guilt and innocence; Christians—in individual salvation, guilt and innocence. That is why a sin committed by a Christian has no bearing for the rest of Christians. A Christian is free of guilt by virtue of Christ's incarnation, death and resurrection, by virtue of his own baptism and communion. But Jews also bear no collective guilt in Christian eyes.
For a Jew, the admitted guilt of one Jew would turn all Jews into guilty ones. That is why for Jews, all Christians (or all Germans, all Palestinians etc.,) are guilty for an offence committed by some of them. That is why non-Jews are always guilty in Jewish eyes. Americans are guilty because their fathers did not collect all the Jews to their bosom in the 1930s. Christians are guilty because their ancestors did not like to be cursed and occasionally mistreated the cursers. Germans and Palestinians, Russians and French—everybody is guilty towards Jews in Jewish eyes. Full story: israelshamir.net
Comment: This is an interesting observation because God deals with Israel as a nation according to the appointed seasons of meeting. "Jews" impersonate Israel in this respect by following the "letter." Individual Israelites and "Jews" who have entered into the Spirit and been born-again are rid of this collective mentality. Thus the rabbis and those behind them have never tolerated Christianity or social and moral assimilation which destroy their power base. God does not deal spiritually with natural Israel and the Church at the same time. When He returns to the nation, he will hold each Israelite individual accountable for his obedience or disobedience to the revealed Word (Ezekiel 18:20). The increasing rigor of Jewish blood libel today will guarantee martyrdom of the born-again 144,000 remnant of Israel's elect by reprobate Marrano turncoats.
Children's Author faces Jewish Wrath
Jewish pressure groups are calling on Macmillan publishing to withdraw a children's book about a Palestinian boy growing up intifada on the West Bank.
A Little Piece of Ground, by the multi-award-winning author Elizabeth Laird, is a fictional account of how a 12-year-old called Karim—whose family's olive groves have been confiscated by settlers—copes when his father is stripped naked and humiliated by Israeli troops. As the boy is swept up in the protest against the occupation and his friends make a fake bomb, he dreams of developing an 'acid formula to dissolves the steel in Israeli tanks'.
Comment: One is expected to lament the holocaust hoax of six million non-Semitic "Jew's" in World War I and a mythical six million in World War II, and cheer their real present-day, day-by-day holocaust of Semitic Palestinians.
Full story: guardian palestinemonitor.org
Jews sued for 'stealing' Gold in Exodus
August 22, 2003 — As attorneys and politicians grapple over the validity of slave reparations, a group of Egyptians have trumped the debate with a claim against Jews that dates back thousands of years.
Dr. Nabil Hilmi, a dean at the University of Al-Zaqaziq, said Egyptian expatriates in Switzerland are mounting a massive lawsuit against "all Jews around the world" that seeks compensation for "tons" of gold they claim was stolen during the Jews' exodus . . .
Hilmi described the suit in an interview with the Egyptian weekly Al-Ahram Al-Arabi. "If (the alleged theft) is for the purpose of borrowing, legally it has a temporary dimension, not a permanent dimension, and therefore they must return (the gold), with interest, to its owners," he said. "On the other hand, if the Jews took the goods from the Egyptians not for the purpose of borrowing it but to keep them for themselves, by legal norms this is theft, and therefore they must return the stolen goods to their owners, in addition to the interest for its use over the entire period of the theft."
Full story: wnd.com
Forbidden Cures
The medico-drug cartel was summed up by J.W Hodge, M.D., of Niagara Falls, N.Y., in these words: 'The medical monopoly or medical trust, euphemistically called the American Medical Association, is not merely the meanest monopoly ever organized, but the most arrogant, dangerous and despotic organization which ever managed a free people in this or any other age. Any and all methods of healing the sick by means of safe, simple and natural remedies are sure to be assailed and denounced by the arrogant leaders of the AMA doctors' trust as fakes, frauds and humbugs. Every practitioner of the healing art who does not ally himself with the medical trust is denounced as a 'dangerous quack' and impostor by the predatory trust doctors. Every sanitarian who attempts to restore the sick to a state of health by natural means without resort to the knife or poisonous drugs, disease-imparting serums, deadly toxins or vaccines, is at once pounced upon by these medical tyrants and fanatics, bitterly denounced, vilified and persecuted to the fullest extent.'
Full story: educate-yourself
Roy Moore: In God I Trust
August 25, 2003 — For half a century the fanciful tailors of revisionist jurisprudence have been working to strip the public sector naked of every vestige of God and morality. They have done so based on fake readings and inconsistent applications of the First Amendment. They have said it is all right for the US Supreme Court to publicly place the Ten Commandments on its walls, for Congress to open in prayer and for state capitals to have chaplains—as long as the words and ideas communicated by such do not really mean what they purport to communicate. They have trotted out before the public using words never mentioned in the US Constitution, like "separation of church and state," to advocate, not the legitimate jurisdictional separation between the church and state, but the illegitimate separation of God and state. (Statement by Mr. Roy Moore, chief justice of the Supreme Court of Alabama).
Full story: newsminute.com reclaimamerica.org
The Philosophers of Chaos reap a Whirlwind
Paris, August 23, 2003 — The intensification of violence in Iraq is the logical outcome of the Bush administration's choice in 2001 to treat terrorism as a military problem with a military solution—a catastrophic oversimplification. Choosing to invade two Islamic states, Afghanistan and Iraq, neither of which was responsible for the attacks of September 11, 2001, inflated the crisis, in the eyes of millions of Muslims, into a clash between the United States and Islamic society.
The two wars did not destroy Al Qaeda. They won it new supporters. The United States is no more secure than it was before. The wars opened killing fields in two countries that no one knows how to shut down, with American forces themselves increasingly the victims. This was not supposed to happen . . .
Comment: This was most definitely was supposed to happen! This offensive against the innocent Islamic world is what was planned for World War III as long as 150 years ago.
Americans are no longer attacking Iraq from the unreachable sanctuaries provided by technological superiority and command of the air. They are on the ground, among 23 million Iraqis, the objects of elusive and unidentifiable attacks. This is what the US Army has sought to avoid ever since the Vietnam War. There is no victory in sight, not even a definition of victory.
Comment: Precisely as planned by the 'hidden hand' that has always ruled over the United States and Iraq.
Full story: informationclearinghouse.info conspiracypenpal.com informationclearinghouse.info
US Republican Party outsources Fund raising to India
August 27, 2003 — The Republican Party is using call centres in Gurgaon and Noida in India to raise funds for itself and for its chieftain, George W. Bush.
Young people at the call centres are helping robots to phone American citizens to enlist their support and money for the political party, with plans to extend the scheme if they whip up enough donations . . . "human intervention" is limited because of an integrated voice recording technology which picks up on clues from people that answer the phone.
Full story: theinquirer.net
The Patmos Vision, Part II
Revelation 1:9-20 lays a foundation to the letters of the Seven Church Ages and is the basis for the whole Apocalypse. Throughout the Book of Revelation John represents Christ's end-time Bride—you and me—and reports what God is reveals to us as we are transported in the Spirit into the Day of the Lord; and what we see when we turn and look back in time through Seven Church Ages to the Ephesian Age where in his flesh John is imprisoned on the Island of Patmos as the elements of our flesh are bound within three dimensions on this material world, wherever we live, but in the Spirit of revelation he is in the Lord's Day, and so are we.
This is the "rapture" our denominational cousins are missing and will miss because they have confused our present spiritual catching up into the future Day of the Lord with the subsequent physical resurrection of the sleeping saints and the translation of the living Bride after their glorification here on earth.
The "rapture" is not our physical farewell but our spiritual catching-up into the Presence of Christ by the Message of the angel of Revelation 1:1 and 10:7. It is the "Shout" of I Thessalonians 4:16 calling us out from man-made teachings of the world church system into new birth and direct communion with the "Voice of the Archangel," which is Christ speaking within our heart. When we are in the Spirit we hear Jesus like John heard Him, as witnessed by red letters throughout the Book of Revelation.
If you are God's elect you will see this gem of Light that reveals the secret place where Christ is hidden in His Word in the heart of His Bride, the true Church. Alone and unseen or unrecognized by the world as they make love He whispers His secrets that unite them in the faith (Ephesians 4:13), so that after the "Seventh Trump" her word will His Word and THUS SAITH THE LORD. Only then will God vindicate each of her members as His Child, do what she has said, and endue them with faith for translation grace to change in the atoms and be physically caught up together with their resurrected brethren to meet the Lord in the air and be ever by His side.
The world knows nothing of this threefold process of the rapture that was initiated in March, 1963. They cannot know anything about it because, like apostate Israel, "God has given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear; to this day" (Romans 11:8, 32).
In the Spirit we are already in the Lord's Day, whilst in the body we are in Eagle Bridge, Ste. Emelie de l'Energie, Belize City, Accra, Wah Cant or Sydney as John was on Patmos. When our denominational cousins realize the translation has passed the rapture will seem to them as secret and sudden as a thief in the night; our physical catching away will be just that but the rapture has been in process these past forty years. Because their souls are not in the Spirit they have not been caught up into the Lord's Day to see "the things we have seen, the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter" and are as earthbound as their bodies and will not be caught up together with us to meet the Lord in the air.
Revelation 1:9, "I John, your brother, and companion in the tribulation, and kingdom and endurance in Christ, was in the Island of Patmos, for the Word of God, and for the testimony (or martyrdom) of Jesus".
If you replace John's name with your own, you will see him as a symbol for you and me as brethren and fellow-partakers in tribulation with the saints of each Church Age who "read aloud, and all who have heard and understood the Words of this prophecy and who kept those things that are written therein." Since Christ has opened the Seals we are now receiving the revelation of the Message of Brother Branham, the angel Jesus sent to "signify those things" for John to record and seal under Old Testament symbols. This fullness of what has been seen in PART by the Church Age saints is drawing us into what Paul called "the common faith," and ultimately into the glory of the Kingdom. While the tribulation is present the Kingdom is only in hope and will only be obtained through the constancy and endurance characteristic of a man not bent from his deliberate purpose and loyalty to the faith and piety by even the greatest trials and afflictions at the hands of a hostile world as a suffering with Christ for His Name's sake (Acts 14:22; II Timothy 2:10-13).
John was experiencing tribulation himself, having been incarcerated under Domitian who spent his youth studying Roman history so that upon becoming emperor, he tried to restore the old standards of conduct and religion, executing those of other religions such as the Christians.
The Day of the Lord is neither a Saturday, Sunday nor any other day but refers to the point from which God's grace ends, and judgments begin. The Day of the Lord will be announced after man's day by the Voice of the Seventh Trumpet answered by an earthquake that will sink Los Angeles, much of California, and split the Mount of Olives, marking the close of the Gentile dispensation. In ancient Israel, trumpets were blown to gather the people and to signal the revelation of the Law (Exodus 19:19; Numbers 10:1-7). The Seventh Trumpet will gather Israel to their feast of Trumpets which will be the revelation of the Seven Trumpet mysteries by two prophets to prepare Israel's elect for their national Day of Atonement (Matthew 24:31).
Caught up in the Spirit of revelation into the Lord's Day, John hears the sound of the Seventh Trumpet opening the Apocalypse to us and announcing the commencement of Daniel's Seventieth Week to Israel. The Trumpet's great Voice sounded behind John. From the viewpoint of his soul in the Day of the Lord, this was in the past. But from the viewpoint of John's body in man's day AD95, or your body at this point in time, it is future. The trumpet-like Voice having identified itself commanded John "Saying, write what you see into a book, and send it to the seven Church Ages; to Ephesus, and to Smyrna, and to Pergamos, and to Thyatira, and to Sardis, and to Philadelphia, and to Laodicea".
Being turned about to see the Voice that was speaking with him, John looked back from the Day of the Lord to the end of man's day where he saw an image identical to the Son of man in character. It was Christ's masterpiece, His finished Bride, shown as one Body drawn out from all Seven Church Ages (II Corinthians 3:18).
Revelation 1:12-16, "I saw seven golden lamp stands; and in the midst of the seven lamp stands one like to the Son of man, clothed with a [priestly] robe reaching to the foot, and girt round at the breasts with a golden girdle. His head and his hairs were white as white wool, like snow; and His eyes were as a flame of fire; and His feet glowed like a stream of molten brass when it is burned in a furnace; and His voice as the sound of many waters. He had in His right hand seven stars: and out of His mouth went a twoedged sharp sword: and His countenance shone as the sun in its strength".
John was told to report this vision to the saints of seven Churches in Gentile Asia Minor whose natural characteristics and circumstances would type the situations and spiritual natures of Seven Church Ages whose saints will together make up the finished Body of Christ signified by this vision. Although it is in the image of Christ, it bears no nail scars or wounds on its brow or in its back, and is feminine in designation. The golden girdle is no longer girt around the waist where the priest must wear it as he ministers to God in the Holiest Place, but about the breast and around the shoulders. Christ is no longer in the Office of Son of God and priestly Mediator for He is Son of man and Judge.
John 5:22, 27: "For the Father judges no man, but has committed all judgment unto the Son." I Corinthians 6:2, "The saints shall judge the world".
The brilliantly white hair does not signify age but experience, maturity, and wisdom. The Eternal One does not age.
Daniel 7:9-14, "I watched the vision till the thrones were placed and the Ancient of Days was seated, His garment was white as snow, and the hair of His head was like pure wool. His throne was a fiery flame, its wheels a burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before Him. A thousand thousands ministered to Him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him. The Court was seated, and the books were opened. I watched then because of the sound of the pompous words which the horn [Devil-incarnate Roman pope] was speaking: I watched till the beast [of the Papal Roman Empire] was slain, and its body destroyed and given to the burning flame. As for the rest of the beasts, they had their dominion taken away: yet their lives were prolonged for a season and time. I saw in the night visions, and behold, One like the Son of Man came with the clouds of heaven! He came to the Ancient of Days, and they brought Him near before Him. Then to Him was given dominion and glory and a kingdom, that all peoples, nations, and languages, should serve Him. His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and His kingdom the one which shall not be destroyed."
Daniel saw Him as the white haired Judge opening the books and judging out of them. He saw Him coming in clouds exactly as John saw Him (Revelation 1:7). They both saw the Judge with His judgment girdle over His shoulders, standing pure and holy, full of wisdom, fully qualified to judge the world in righteousness. Glory! In many countries today the white wig and long robe of a judge signify His complete authority to mete out justice.
Those eyes that saw not the evil of the murderers who hanged Him on a cross but in sorrow cried, "Father forgive them," now blaze like fire. Those flaming eyes of the Judge are even now recording the lives of all flesh. The day of mercy is over; He will recompense those who rejected Him. Think of it!
This brass that describes His feet is more remarkable yet in that it has stood the test of the fiery furnace, a test no other has endured. Brass signifies Divine Judgment: judgment God decreed and brought to pass (John 3:14-19; Numbers 21:8, 9).
The brazen serpent on the pole symbolized sin from the Garden of Eden where the serpent beguiled Eve. As seen in the outer court where the penalty for sin was met in the sacrifice on the brazen altar, brass speaks of judgment. When God judged Israel for her sins in the days of Elijah, He withheld the rain and the fiery heavens became as brass. Now we can see that the serpent on the pole represents sin already judged, for it is made of brass, showing Divine judgment had already fallen upon sin. Then whoever looked at the serpent on the pole, accepting its significance, was made whole, for this was the work or salvation of the Lord (John 3:14-19).
The serpent on the pole is a type of what Jesus came into the earth to accomplish. He was the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world and made flesh in order to take upon Himself the judgments of God for sin. Judgment had already passed upon Him when as yet there were no sinners. Salvation being entirely of the Lord, He trod the wine press of the fierceness of the wrath of God alone. His vesture was dyed crimson with His own blood. The fiery furnace of the just judgment and wrath of God was His portion. He suffered, the just for the unjust. "You are worthy, O Lamb of God, for You have redeemed us by Your own blood . . . He was wounded for our transgressions, He was bruised for our iniquity, the chastisement of our peace was upon Him, and by His stripes we are healed." The Lord has laid upon Him the iniquity of us all. He suffered as no man had ever suffered. Even before the cross He had shed great drops of sweat like blood from His body, as in the intense agony of the ordeal ahead the very blood separated in His veins.
But some day those feet of brass will stand upon the earth. And the Judge of all the earth He shall be, and with equity and perfection will He judge mankind. There will be no evading that judgment. No turning of that justice. There will be no tempering of it. "He who is unjust will be unjust still; he who is filthy will be filthy still." The Unchanging One will not change then, for He never has and never will. Those feet of brass will crush the enemy. They will destroy the antichrist, the beast and its image and all that is vile in His sight. He will destroy the church systems that have taken His Name only to corrupt its brilliance, and crush them along with the antichrist. All the wicked, the atheists, the agnostics, the modernists, the liberals, will be there. Death, hell, and the grave will be there. Yes they will.
"His Voice was as the sound of many waters." Revelation 17:15, ". . . the waters which you saw . . . are peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues." These are the voices of the multitudes of witnesses, who by the Holy Spirit all through the Ages have testified to Christ and preached His Gospel. It will be the voice of every man rising in judgment against the sinner who would not take warning. John 17:20, "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through their word." The same waters that destroyed the world saved Noah and also saved the whole earth for him. Listen to His Voice, the Voice of His servants, as it calls to repentance and Life.
"In His right hand were seven stars." These seven stars are the messengers to the seven successive Church Ages. From the Ephesian Age on down to the Laodicean Age each messenger brought the message of truth to the people for that particular Age. They were safe in His care, for nothing could pluck them out of His hand; neither could anything separate them from the love of God. They were denounced by organizations and held in mockery, but they kept true to the Word.
This comfort is not for the seven Church Age messengers only. Every true believer is in the hand of God and can draw from His love and power, and receive the full benefit of all that God is to the believer. What God gives the messenger, and how He blesses and uses the messenger, is an example to all believers of His goodness and care to all members of His body.
And out of His mouth went a twoedged sharp sword which is the Word of God (Hebrews 4:12; Revelation 19:11-16). Christ overcomes the world with His Word: as with a twoedged sword (Isaiah 11:4; 49:2; Ephesians 6:17; II Thessalonians 2:8).
When He comes, that Word will come against all nations and all men. And none will be able to stand against it. It will reveal what was in every heart as it did with Nathanael. The Word of God will show who did the will of God and who did not. It will make known the secret works of every man and why he did them. It will divide asunder. The same Spirit that was in Jesus (the Word) is present again in the Church in this last Age as a last sign trying to head the people off from judgment, for they that reject Him (the Word) are now already come into judgment, crucifying Him afresh. That Word has never failed in the mouths of believing Christians. And in this last day it is here stronger and greater than ever in His true Word Bride. Oh, little flock, you little minority, hold on to the Word, fill your mouth and heart with it, and some day God will give you the Kingdom.
"And His countenance was as the sun shines in its strength." In Matthew 16:28, Jesus said, ". . . There are some standing here, who shall not taste of death until they see the Son of Man coming in His kingdom."
And the three apostles saw just that—the order of His second coming. They saw Jesus transfigured there on the mountain top. His raiment was blazing white and His face shone like the sun at its zenith. And there as He appeared, stood Moses and Elijah on either side. That is exactly how He is coming again. Truly Elijah will first come and turn the hearts of the children (His Bride) back to the faith of the apostolic fathers (Malachi 4:5-6).
Israel is already a nation. But still to be fulfilled is the Scripture that says, ". . . shall a nation be born at once?" (Isaiah 66:8). That day is coming soon. The fig tree has put forth her buds. Israel will be reborn spiritually, all 144,000 of them, when Jesus Messiah, her Light and Life is revealed to her.
Revelation 21:23, "And the city had no need of the sun, neither of the moon, to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the Light thereof."
This is the New Jerusalem. The Lamb will be in that City, and because of His presence, there will be no light needed. The sun won't rise and shine there, for He is the Sun of Righteousness and Light thereof, Himself. The nations that come into it will walk in His Light. Aren't you happy that day is upon us? John saw that day coming. Even so, Lord Jesus, come quickly!
Malachi 4:1-3, "For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven: and all the proud, yea, and all that do wickedly, shall be stubble: and the day which is coming shall burn them up, says the Lord of Hosts, that will leave them neither root nor branch. But to you who fear My Name the Sun of Righteousness shall arise with healing in His wings [to give us new, glorified bodies]; and you shall go out and grow fat like stall-fed calves [in the Millennium]. And you shall tread down the wicked; for they shall be ashes under the soles of your feet in the day that I do this, says the Lord of Hosts."
There it is again. The Sun shining out in all its strength. Oh, the strength of the Son of God shining in the midst of the seven golden lamp stands. There He stands, the Judge, the One Who suffered and died for us. He took the wrath of Divine judgment upon Himself. He trod the wine press of the fierceness of the wrath of God alone. To the sinner His Voice is as the sound of the cataract or the surf pounding in waves of death upon rocky shores. But to the saint, His voice is as the sound of a sweetly singing brook as he lies at rest, satisfied in Christ. Shining upon us with His warming rays of love He says, "Fear not, I am He Which Was, Which Is, Which Is To Come; I am the Almighty. Beside Me there is no other. I am the Alpha and Omega, the all of it." He is the Lily of the Valley, the Bright and Morning Star. He's the fairest of ten thousand to my soul. That great day is ready to break and the Sun of Righteousness will arise with healing in His wings.
Revelation 1:17-18, "And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. And He laid His right hand upon me, saying, Fear not; I am the first and the last: I am He that lives, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen."
Who would not experience the well-nigh fatal effect of fear which the appearance of the Heavenly and Holy One produces upon sinful men? But He laid His right hand upon John, saying, "Fear not; I am the first and the last: I am He that lives, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen."
Jesus is the fountain of Life. I John 3:5, "And we know that He was manifested to take away our sins; and in Him is no sin." What have we to fear, for we are in Him.
John represents Christ's sinless, spotless end-time Bride whose past sins are remitted and who is one with no unbelief in the fullness of the Word. Like John, many of us are living below our privilege as Sons and Daughters of God when we should be soaring the skies of God's great pleasure and power.
We should not fear to enter boldly into the very Presence of God with neither fear nor condemnation. If we are under condemnation, we must identify its cause, repent, and make matters right before God and man. If we feel unjust, we must enter deeper revelation of true justification which is new birth, replacing the psychology that we are simply "forgiven" with the revelation of our sinless perfection in Christ. The true revelation of marriage and divorce shows how the former sins of the saints rest firmly on Satan, whose nature was the former husband of our soul. God has remitted our sins and iniquities to that account of Satan who will one day be cast into the Lake of Fire and annihilated such that even God can remember them no more.
Just a touch from the Lord Jesus at once restores animation to the paralyzed John as he recognizes his place in Christ, and that "where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty." Jesus explains, "I am He that lives," I'm a man like you. By My resurrection, death is behind Me and under Me, "and because I live, you shall live also" (John 14:19).
"Now if we are dead with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him" (Romans 6:2-9). And since we were foreknown in Christ the Logos, we were accounted in Him on Calvary when He died for the elect of Adam's fallen race, then when God raised up Jesus from the dead we were raised and are now seated in heavenly places in Him.
In Acts 13:32-34 Paul said, "We declare the glad tidings to you that God has fulfilled the promise He made to the fathers for us their children, in that He has raised up Jesus. As it is also written in the second Psalm, "You are My Son, today have I begotten You [to eternal Life]." And that He raised Him from the dead, no more to return to corruption, He has spoken thus: I will give you the sure mercies of David".
In II Samuel 7:8-17 and Psalm 89:34-37, David's greater Son was promised an eternal Kingdom. It can only be eternal if there is no death, and death can only be banished if there is no sin, for the wages of sin is death. And as Christ the King must have His Bride and Queen, what have we to fear? We are eternal Life and therefore free from sin through our union with the Logos of God (I John 3:5-9; 5:17-19).
"I am He that lives, and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore. Amen".
Jehovah Witnesses and certain other students might stumble over the words "alive evermore," insisting Jesus and you and I have 'aionian' (Gk. aionios), and not 'eternal' Life. But these words mean a series of aeons of aeons unfolding into an endless plurality—not of years but of aeons—which, when associated with God and the Logos mean Eternity. Christ does not live passively into these aeons, but as He who possesses the keys of Death and Hades (or the grave). Thus He has exclusive authority to redeem men from Death and Hades, or to cast them thither, whereas in Revelation 6:8 Death personified appears as the former lord of Hades, being the previous possessor of the keys. Death is personified because through sin it became an independent power inasmuch as our mortal spirit is powerless in its presence. Now Christ alone has this power and prerogative.
"All power is given unto Me in heaven and on earth. Therefore go," it is yours to use. You can speak the Word and I will perform it. That is My covenant and it cannot fail (John 15:7; 14:12; Mark 16:15-20).
Since you are now freed from your dread, little Bride, write of Life's triumph over death. "Write of the vision of the finished Bride you have already seen" (Revelation 1:9-20); "of the Church Ages which are" (Revelation 2-3), "and of things which shall be after the Church Ages have ended" (Revelation 4:1-22:21). In short, fulfill Revelation 10:8-11. For the prophetic unfolding of the hope in the triumphant consummation of Christ's Church through His parousia to the end-time Bride and her manifestation of the Sons of God at dispensation's end rests upon the mystery of the seven stars in Christ's right hand and the seven lamagsands amidst which He walks. Revelation 1:20, "The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches: (Paul, Irenaeus, Martin, Columba, Luther, Wesley and Branham): and the seven lamagsands which you saw are the seven Church Ages" (from Ephesus to Laodicea whence the saints are drawn to form the image of Christ you have just seen). nl288.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 2380e-mail Bible Believers URL Bible Believers' Website
PowerPoint presentation The Second Coming of Christ
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