Bible Believers' Newsletter 524
"We focus on the present Truth – what Jesus is doing now. . ."
ISSN 1442-8660Christian greetings in the precious Name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
In this, the tenth anniversary issue of Bible Believers' Church free weekly Newsletter, we declare there is no possibility of "peace on earth, goodwill toward men" for almost the next decade. Jesus "came not to bring peace on the earth, but to separate His elect and the saved from the lost by the sword of His Word":
"I have come to bring division, to set a man against his father, and a daughter against her mother, and the daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law; and a man's foes will be of his own household. He who loves his father or mother more than Me is not worthy of Me: and he who loves son or daughter more than Me is not worthy of Me; and he who does not take his cross, and follow Me, is not worthy of Me. He who finds his life shall lose it: and he who loses His life for My sake shall find it" (Matthew 10:34-39).
The immediate world outlook is inflation, depression, and "killing by war, famine, disease and by wild beasts" (Gk. 'therion') �metaphorically, brutal, bestial men, reprobate concerning the faith (Revelation 6:8). Prepare yourself spiritually; provide for your home materially and be watchful in everything. We are entering times of lawlessness when only criminals and the ungodly can buy or receive "justice," and the worldly church system in league with the 'hidden hand' is the 'therion' of the pale horse ridden by Satan. Revelation 13, 17 and 18 identify the beast, his image and their companions in your country.
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.
Your brother-in-Christ,
Anthony Grigor-Scott
US Food Riots much closer than You Think
October 23, 2007 – Up until the 1980s there was a system that stored a lot of grain in elevators around the country. At one time, a whole year's harvest of grain was stored that way. But since taxpayers were paying to store it, certain urban politicians engineered the movement of that money from providing a safety net or backup for their own food supply in order to give the money to various other social welfare things. So now, nothing is stored. We produce what we consume each year and store practically none of it. There is no contingency plan . . .
It's likely too late for the government to do anything to prepare for such an event, so it probably won't do any good to try to lobby them for a solution . . . They're more concerned with urban political issues and helping (or invading � Ed) other countries than they are about preserving the security of their own food supply . . . Full story: rense.com
The global food crisis reached the United States yesterday as big retailers began to ration sales of rice in response to bulk purchases by customers alarmed by rocketing prices of staples. Full story: guardian.co.uk; America's Role in Haiti's Hunger Riots; Fertilizer Price Hikes are Pinching Farmers; Why More Food is not the Answer; Genetic modification actually cuts the productivity of crops
Comment: The government IS doing something "to prepare for such an event" by helping (or invading other countries). "Such an event" is intended. Massive world depopulation and anarchy are the NWO agenda.
Chemtrails, Morgellons, Weather and Mind-Control, Depopulation
Futuristic engagement systems and techniques such as holographic projection, noise and gravity fields, biomedical operations, psychological operations, military deception, and information attack are all possible. These innovative indirect means are discussed in the classified C2 and Information Attack white papers. As a complement to those indirect techniques, this paper focuses on target engagements that use direct attacks with lethal and nonlethal power.(58) Did you catch that? What do they mean by "biomedical operations," "holographic projection," "noise and gravity fields," or some of the other terms? These terms have to do with classified information about "getting into the head" of a person, and command and control (C2). Modern attacks on C2 degrades the enemy�s ability to make the best decisions and makes them change their decision without them realizing that they were ever manipulated.
There is a saying: life mirrors art. Let�s go back to the original chapter we discussed. If the aerosol operations described in "Weather as a Force Multiplier" are just sci-fi, military daydreaming, then why are there charts within that document than can only be described as spray schedules? These charts tell the reader exactly which substances will be sprayed and during which years. . . Full story: exoticwarfare.com
Comment: Brother Branham called this "Satan's Eden".
Twelve Answers to Questions No One is bothering to ask about Iraq
April 20, 2008 – Can there be any question that, since the invasion of 2003, Iraq has been unravelling? And here's the curious thing: Despite a lack of decent information and analysis on crucial aspects of the Iraqi catastrophe, despite the way much of the Iraq story fell off newspaper front pages and out of the TV news in the last year, despite so many reports on the "success" of the President's surge strategy, Americans sense this perfectly well. In the latest Washington Post/ABC News poll, 56% of Americans "say the United States should withdraw its military forces to avoid further casualties" and this has, as the Post notes, been a majority position since January 2007, the month that the surge was first announced. Imagine what might happen if the American public knew more about the actual state of affairs in Iraq�and of thinking in Washington. So, here, in an attempt to unravel the situation in ever-unravelling Iraq are twelve answers to questions which should be asked far more often in this country. . . Full story: tomdispatch.com Petraeus Promotion Ensures Future for Bush War Policy
Great Flood proven by Mayan Calendar
Joseph Scaliger (1540-1609), a scholar of immense ability . . . rightly recognised that the calendar as it now stands, i.e. the Gregorian Calendar which was introduced in Europe in 1582, and which he heavily criticised, was a somewhat cumbersome apparatus with which to reconstruct the chronology of past events. Its very complexity lent itself to mistakes, whilst its inherent inaccuracies lent themselves to yet further inaccuracies. So he decided to solve the problem, and his solution was as ingenious as it was simple. Instead of an event being said to have occurred at such a date in such a year BC or AD, it would henceforth be said to have occurred on a certain numbered day.
From which point in time should this day count begin? The answer was obvious. It should begin from Day 1 of the Creation. But when did Day 1 occur? Well, Scaliger (partially) solved the problem by turning his attention to the three basic units upon which virtually all workable calendars are based, namely, the Solar Cycle, the Metonic Cycle and the Roman Indiction.
In simple terms, the Solar Cycle is completed every 28 years, the Metonic Cycle every 19 years, and the Roman Indiction every 15 years. Scaliger realised that there must obviously be points in time when all three cycles begin and end together, so, noting carefully the age of each cycle at the moment when he began his calculations, he counted the years backwards until he came to that year when all three cycles began together. And that was the year 4713 BC.
Simple arithmetic then told him that the three cycles would only meet together in time every 7980 years (this figure being the product of 28 x 19 x 15), and given that they had begun together in 4713 BC, the period, which he named the Julian Period in honour of his father Julius, would not end until the close of the year AD 3267 (Encyclopaedia Britannica. 1985 ed. Vol. 15. p. 463).
This was an excellent and broad base upon which to build his system of chronology, and for convenience's sake Scaliger counted 1st January 4713 BC as Day 1, building up his chronology from there. However, the fact that the three cycles (Solar, Metonic and Roman Indiction) began in the year 4713 BC will hold a certain significance for creationists, for Genesis is quite clear on the matter when it tells us that, apart from their light-giving properties, the solar system and its backdrop of stars were created so that we could measure by them times and seasons, days and years. In other words, God had created a gigantic clock, and what more natural than that the Creator should start that clock ticking, as it were, at a setting that would measure the age of the universe as well as the more mundane passing of the seasons here on earth?
But, before we recklessly assume that Scaliger had all unwittingly stumbled across the true date for the Creation, we must remember that Scaliger based his calculations on the present values of the Solar and Metonic Cycles, or at least the values of these cycles as they stood in the year 1582/3. Creationists should be painfully aware by now that values today may not necessarily be the values of the past. This is constantly argued by creationists in refutation of the uniformitarian hypothesis. Much damage, disruption and mayhem has occurred which will undoubtedly have altered those values to an extent we can only guess at. On a local (planet earth) level, we have had the global Flood of Noah and other geological disasters to alter the rotation of the earth and hence the lengths of the day and year. The moon has suffered local catastrophes of its own affecting no doubt the length of the lunar month, and the universe in general has degenerated noticeably in its values during the past six thousand years or so simply through the inexorable workings of the Second Law of Thermodynamics . . .
Now, the Maya instituted a day count exactly like that which Scaliger devised in order to solve certain chronological and genealogical problems that they had come across whilst reconstructing their own ancient history. The unnerving aspect of this from the modernist point of view, however, is the fact that the Maya perfected their day count some six hundred years or more before Scaliger was even thought of . . .
If we correlate the Mayan day count with that of Scaliger, we find that the Mayan Day 1 began on Julian Day 584283 (Encyclopaedia Britannica. 1985 ed. Vol. 15. p. 474), which equals in our terms 10th August 3113 BC (I make that a Thursday) for the start of the Mayan day count. Now, the significance of this lies in the fact that although the Mayan concept of time was cyclic, they nevertheless knew that the world-destroying catastrophe that had closed the previous age was brought about by water, and that their own age had begun after that catastrophe. In other words, they looked back to the Flood as the close of the old age and the beginning of the new. And it is here that their day count takes on an immense significance. Scaliger's day count, we remember, took him back to the year 4713 BC, and it is more than probable that this corresponds roughly to the year of the Creation. The Mayans, however, did not begin their day count from the Creation, but from the Flood, and this event was set in their chronology, not Scaliger's, in the year 3113 BC, and subtracting 3113 from 4713 leaves us with a 1600 year period between the two dates for the Creation and the Flood, a period of time which corresponds remarkably closely to the 1656 year period set out so precisely in the Genesis record. Little wonder that this information is precluded these days by a cursory dismissal of Mayan mathematics and astronomy. If I were a modernist, I'd dismiss it too!
. . . not only did our ancient forebears look back, in pre-Christian times, to their descent from patriarchs that are named in the Table of Nations, but they also held that the earth was of recent creation and that it had once suffered a Flood. And they knew all this without any recourse to the book of Genesis, of which they were entirely unaware. In all, their records constitute a rather formidable body of evidence. (Bill Cooper, After the Flood, p. 124-129).
Comment: Of course "the day of creation" was "in the beginning"�perhaps trillions of years before the six days each of a thousand years in which God prepared earth for the habitation of life.
In his article, "The Significance of the Year 2012 Explained" Richard Lowe discusses the Mayan Calendar which ends in 2012. "During early 2001, the Sun's solar cycle was completed and the Sun switched magnetic poles, so the Sun is due for another cycle in the year 2012. Well, who cares if the Sun flips again? It flips every 11 years so why should the next flip be any different? The solar cycle of 2012 is more significant than any other for several reasons:
During this time the two biggest planets in our solar system, Saturn and Jupiter, will be in line with each other. The gravitational effects of the two planets on the Sun will cause it to wobble during its pole shift. This can have huge effects on the magnitude of the Coronal Mass Ejections the Sun will be tossing into space . . . Since opposites attract, the Sun, along with its gravitational influence from Saturn and Jupiter, may cause the Earth to switch magnetic poles too! With the magnetic field of the Earth switching in a matter of minutes, there can be huge disruptions in the Earth's geological and ecological system. It can cause mass earthquakes and volcano eruptions all over the world. After its all done, compasses will point South, the Sun will rise in the West and set in the East.
The most farfetched possibility and probably the most catastrophic is the phenomenon called "polar wander." Polar wander is a result of the Earth's outer crust shifting at a rapid rate. The magnetic poles stay put but Antarctica becomes the equator and the tropics become the North Pole.
The final event that will occur on December 21, 2012 will be at 11:12 GMT . . . and it happens every 25,800 years. At that time our Sun will line up directly with the center of the Milky Way Galaxy . . . Full story: helium.com.
Brother Branham said, "something's fixing to happen one of these days, something similar to that, when the five planets, Mars, Jupiter, and Venus, and so forth comes into their. . . They never have did it. Oh, they claim maybe twenty-five thousand years ago, but who was back there to know it?" (Communion, p. 14:74). The natural types the Spiritual: thirteen months later the seven stars of Revelation 1 formed a pyramid-shaped constellation, the Laodicean Church Age ended and Christ returned in the Office of Son of man according to Scripture.
Moon's gravitational attraction makes the ocean tides and at 5,000ft below sea level the pressure of salt water is 2182psi so it also distorts earth's crust. Thus, prior to the Great Flood there would have been no major earthquakes. We anticipate massive earthquakes that will sink Los Angeles, much of California, and split the Mount of Olives, with volcanic eruptions throughout the Pacific ring of fire, and on the Moon. Full story: gazza.co.nz usgs.gov
Augustine was no Saint
Christianity arrived in Britain during the first century AD. The notation that Augustine brought Christianity to Britain is pure myth. He came here as the representative of the Pope and persuaded the Saxon kings to submit to Rome. There were mass baptisms all over the country as the Saxon people followed the example of their leaders. Then in 601 he went to Wales, expecting the same success, but was disappointed. The Welsh already had the true faith, given to them by the early church, and they did not need any new innovations from Rome.
Augustine demanded that the Britons should accept all the doctrines of the Roman Catholic church, although he offered them time to do it in piecemeal fashion, without converting to Roman Catholicism all at once. When they refused, he instigated the Saxon army to attack the monastery at Bangor-is-y-coed, killing 1200 monks and scholars [in AD604]. . .
Full story: annomundi.com
From that day on there existed an animosity between the Britons (Welsh) and the papacy that was to ferment throughout the early to late Middle Ages, only to culminate in the eventual expulsion of the papal authority from the realm of England under king Henry VIII, who was significantly himself of Welsh Tudor stock. But the early ascendancy of the Saxons meant that all recorded history of Britons was consigned to oblivion as far as historians and chroniclers were concerned, with only Roman, Saxon and, later, Norman accounts of events being taught and promulgated in schools throughout the land. . .
Full story: ldolphin.org
Comment: The Roman Catholic church organized in the Pergamean Church Age (312-606) and took Europe into the Dark Ages in the Thyatira Church Age (606-1520).
In his book, After the Flood, Brother Bill Cooper says: "We are presented with the simple question as to why a two thousand year recorded history has been so pointedly ignored by modern scholars. Why is it that the history of Britain is an entirely blank page before the year 55BC in any conventional modern history book when such an easily accessible and informative record is at hand? Could it have anything to do with the fact that the Britons traced their ancestry in these pre-Christian records back to patriarchs that are known to us from the Genesis record but of whom the Britons should have known nothing in their pre-Christian culture if what the modernists have always told us was true? . . . there is much else besides regarding the histories and genealogies of other European peoples that is also ignored but which likewise verifies the Genesis account.
The Creation of God and His One Eternal Purpose – Part V
We are studying the new creation�of God Himself�not a second or third person, manifest in the glorified flesh of Jesus Christ and His Bride, who are the fullness of His glorious Attributes. Jesus Christ is the beginning of the creation of God. As the Logos manifest in flesh, the fullness of the "divine nature" or godhead dwells bodily in Him (Revelation 3:14; Colossians 2:9). This why Brother Branham said, "The greatest of all revelations is the supreme Deity of Jesus Christ".
As the first Adam was formed with his wife in him, Jesus Christ was begotten with His Wife in Him. As Attributes of the Logos, she came from the same source and is eternal with Him. Whereas He was the Word pre-manifested in theophany as the Tree of Life, Melchisedec, etc., before He was flesh (Genesis 2:9; 14:18), we bypassed our theophany and came first into flesh to be tested by sin and proven as Attributes. Clearly, the Bible is the story of God unfolding Himself from the eternal Spirit alone with His thoughts to the flesh of His glorified Family�Jesus Christ and His Bride. This is God's one eternal purpose.
In this form He will be worshipped by the "saved" throughout eternity because we are God manifest. In this form also, the glorified 144,000 New Testament Israelites and Old Testament saints will serve Him. Together with their King and Queen, they are the elect of God that constitute the New Jerusalem. The root meaning from the Hebrew term for "city" means "to keep watch" and implies that the leading object of gathering into towns was for security against marauders. The Shekinah will watch over New Jerusalem which will rule the "saved" non-elect dwelling around the circumference of the renewed earth. These will worship the new creation of God and tithe of their increase, but never enter into the holy City.
Jerusalem means "vision or foundation of peace" as indicated by Scripture and the double line of faith on what the City is founded. True eternal security, inner peace and rest derive from the revelation wherein you heard your name called from the Lamb's Book of Life, whence it can never be erased. John 5:24, "I assure you He that hears My Word, and believes on Him that sent Me, has eternal Life, and shall not come into condemnation; but is passed out of death into Life." Jesus was not speaking of the "letter" but what the Spirit is saying to the churches. To the elect and Word-born Church, it means new birth, to the nominal church it spells rebuke and correction.
Author Bill Cooper wrote, "It is commonly thought in this present age that nothing is worthy of our belief unless first it can be scientifically demonstrated and observed to be true. This idea, known today as empiricism, has been around since the 1920s, and says basically that nothing is to be taken on trust, and that anything which lacks direct corroboration must be discarded from mankind's fund of knowledge as simply not knowing. Not surprisingly, a special case was made by those who had thought of the idea for including the Bible in this great process of deselecting, and it was assumed without further enquiry that nothing in especially the earlier portions of the biblical record could be demonstrated to be true and factual. This applied particularly to the Book of Genesis. There all was relegated, by modernist scholars at least, to the realms of myth and fiction, with very little of its contents being said to bear any relevance at all to 20th-century man. Not even a moral relevance was granted. In other words, we were solemnly assured in the light of modern wisdom that historically speaking, the book of Genesis was simply not worth the paper it was written on" (After the Flood, p. 10).
Intellectuals try to reason with the "letter" that can be seen, and with material substance that may be heard, touched, smelt or tasted, or reasoned by mathematics, whereas "Faith is the confident assurance of the actual existence of things hoped for, the conviction of unseen realities . . ." tested by the Word (Hebrews 11:3).
Brother Branham said, "Have you ever noticed how Satan hates two books of the Bible more than all others? Through liberal theologians and pseudo-scientists he is always attacking the Book of Genesis and the Book of Revelation. In both of these books we find Satan's origin, his awful ways and his destruction. That is why he attacks them. He hates to be exposed, and in those books he is exposed for exactly what he is. Jesus said about Satan, "He has no part in Me and I have no part in him." The Devil would like to prove that different; but he cannot, so he does all he can to destroy confidence in the Word. But when the church disbelieves Satan and believes the Spirit's revelation of the Word the gates of hell cannot prevail against her" (An Exposition of the Seven Church Ages, p. 14:4).
The first Eve was deceived and beguiled by the Serpent when she let Satan misinterpret one word. Genesis 3:1-4, "Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said to the woman, has God said, "You shall not eat of any tree of the garden"? And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: but God said, "You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die." And the serpent said to the woman, You shall not surely die".
According to Revelation 22:17-19, the last Eve will say only what the Spirit says, she will neither add to not take from Brother Branham's THUS SAITH THE LORD, for this Book is the complete revelation of Jesus Christ whom the Seven Seals brought back to earth in W-O-R-D form at the end of time. Unfortunately the foolish virgin in our ranks, being justified and sanctified by faith in God's unchanging Word but not born-again, have received the hiss of the serpent by adding human reasoning to the "letter" of the prophet's Message.
Brother Branham said, "Like the Dutchman, you take me for what I mean and not what I say." So we understand that when he said, "Say what the tapes say. Say what the visions say," he did not intend us to parrot the "letter only" but to filter his Message through God's unchanging Word from Genesis to Revelation just as we follow the apostolic saints and filter the Words of Jesus Christ in Matthew 28:19 through the whole Bible, obeying what He meant, not what He said, and baptizing in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ.
Brother Branham said, "I only work by revelation; the revelation has to be the Word. If it isn't according to the Word, then it's a wrong revelation." Yet fine people within the circle of this Message echo the hiss of the Serpent when they reason, "Hath God said" there is no Two Souls; or no Return Ministry? "Hath the Prophet said" the word 'parousia'? That the Seven Thunders are revealed? Or that the Laodicean Church Age has ended? The answers to all these questions are found in the Bible, whose mystery was unlocked by the "shout" of the end-time Message.
We will now consider two other groups: the non-elect "saved," whose names were not in the Lamb's Book of Life, but are in the Book of Life and who will be our subjects in the Kingdom; and those whose names have been blotted out from the Book of Life and are the "lost".
Brother Branham said, "As Israel (chosen people of God) in majority forfeited their rights in the Book of Life by rejecting Jesus, so the majority of the Gentile church will also come into condemnation with the resultant removal of their names from the Book of Life by rejecting the Word and thereby entering into the world ecumenical movement which is the image erected unto the beast . . ."
"You have a perfect type of that in Israel leaving Egypt. They came out about two million strong. ALL escaped through the sacrificial blood. ALL were baptized in the Red Sea; ALL came up out of the water enjoying Holy Spirit manifestation and blessings; ALL ate angel food; ALL drank of the rock that followed them. Yet except for a very few they were naught but carriers for the children who should follow them and enter Canaan land. All Israel is NOT Israel. And all but a tiny minority had their names blotted out of the Book of Life."
(Moses led Israel out of Egyptian bondage in the first exodus; Paul led the Church out of apostate Israel in the second exodus, and the "Shout" of Brother Branham's Message is calling Christ's end-time Bride out from the apostate church in the third exodus � I Thessalonians 4:16; Matthew 25:6; Revelation 18:4).
"We have the same right today in the church. Names are going to be blotted out of the Book of Life. No names will be blotted out of the Book of Eternal Life for that is another record though contained in the Book of Life. THIS IS THE RECORD: GOD HATH GIVEN US ETERNAL LIFE, AND THIS LIFE IS IN HIS SON. HE THAT HATH THE SON HATH LIFE (ETERNAL) AND HE THAT HATH NOT THE SON HATH NOT LIFE (ETERNAL). And those who have that Life were in HIM before the foundation of the world. THEY WERE CHOSEN IN HIM BEFORE THE FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD. That GREAT ROYAL SEED, Jesus Christ, was planted (He died) and that life that was in Him came up through the wheat plant and is reproducing itself in multitudes of wheat seeds having the same Life in them, and being like the Original because by Spirit they are original" (An Exposition of the Seven Church Ages, pp. 274:2; 284:1-2).
As in the previous Church Ages, there are three kinds of believers within the circle of this end-time Message. There is the elect believer who was represented as an Attribute of the Logos in Christ on Calvary; their names are in the Lamb's Book of Life. There is the non-elect make-believer of Adam's race, whose name remains in the Book of Life and who is "saved" and will be granted into eternal Life at the White Throne Judgment, and there is the un-believer whose names have been removed from the Book of Life, or being physical Serpent's seed were never in the Book of Life, and are the LOST.
It should be clearly understood by everyone in the circle of this Message that very few of our number are elect. That is most of our number are not in the Lamb's Book of Life because God foreknew they would not exercise the zeal required to "search the Scriptures daily, whether their understanding of the Message is so" (Acts 17:11). As Brother Branham said, Not only are they not elect and in the Lamb's Book of Life, but "All but a tiny minority [will have] their names blotted out of the Book of Life."
Don't look for the foolish virgin in churches outside this Message; most of those people are the "denominational harlots" of Revelation 17:5. Now is the hour to "give diligence to make your calling and election sure" by "studying to show yourself approved of God, rightly dividing the Word of Truth" (II Peter 1:10; II Timothy 2:15).
Mankind is not evolving but has been devolving since the Fall. This ought to be obvious owing to the inexorable workings of the Second Law of Thermodynamics. And God having redeemed an election has set aside a group who are the "saved," and consigned earth, its creatures and the works therein to be returned to the elements by fire as Scripture informs us from Genesis to Revelation.
Brother Bill Cooper wrote, ". . . we must first allow that many of our preconceptions regarding ancient man are mistaken. It is commonly supposed, for example, that the nations of the world became aware of the God of Genesis only after they were evangelized by Christian missionaries. Only since the translation of the scriptures into their own language, it is assumed, did they become conscious of the Creation and the God who created it. It is further supposed that early pagan man can have had no concept of a divinity higher than that of an idol, because it is impossible to come to knowledge of the one true God without that knowledge being given through the direct revelation of His Word, and so on. Popular thought seems never to have considered the possibility that pagan man was indeed aware of God and of His attributes and power, and that this awareness had existed and flourished for centuries without any recourse at all to the scriptures. So it is with something of a surprise that we meet with exactly that, a profound knowledge and appreciation of an eternal and almighty Creator God, His fatherhood of the human race and His infinite attributes in the writings of various historians in the ancient world and amongst the teachings of the earliest philosophers. It is of the utmost importance that we familiarize ourselves with this truth . . ."
"So profound was the concept and knowledge of God amongst certain pagan peoples in the ancient world, and in particular the Greek and Roman worlds, that a controversy eventually arose and was to rage for many centuries between those who propagated and preserved that knowledge of God as the Creator, and those who sought to destroy it by attributing the creation of the universe to purely natural forces. The marked similarity between that pagan controversy and the controversy that rages today between creationists and evolutionists is surprising and we . . . must understand something of the sheer profundity of the pagan philosophical concept of the one true God. We meet with it in places as distant from each other as the world is wide, and among cultures as socially and politically diverse as those of ancient Greece and China. For example, it is from the writings of the Taoist Lao-tzu, who flourished in the China of the 6th century BC, that the following profound statement concerning the existence and some of the attributes of God is taken:"
"Before time, and throughout time, there has been a self-existing being, eternal, infinite, complete; omnipresent . . . Outside this being, before the beginning, there was nothing."
"It was clearly from no copy of Genesis that Lao-tzu could possibly have derived such an awareness of God. But then as other pagan philosophers from different cultures altogether were to add their convictions to that of the Chinese sage Lao-tzu, (and that takes no account of all those who lived before him), it becomes immediately obvious that no such copy was necessary. It would seem that, contrary to most of the assumptions of modern psychology on the matter, the knowledge of God is in fact and indeed innate within the human soul. It is a built-in awareness that may well be awakened and perfected with the reception of God's Word, but it is certainly something that exists quite independently of knowledge of scripture. That is not to say that it was admitted to or proclaimed equally by all men in the ancient world. Many, of course, denied it just as they deny it today . . ." (ibid pp. 15-17).
In Romans 1:17-32 Paul traces the devolution of humanity from the knowledge of the revelation of God to wilful ignorance through the conceit of human wisdom. He demonstrates that unlike the animals, man has innate conscience "Showing that what the Law requires is written in their hearts, while their conscience also bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or perhaps excuse them" (Romans 2:13-16).
Romans 1:17-25, ". . . the righteousness of God is revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, the just shall live by faith. On the other hand, God's indignation is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who suppress the truth in unrighteousness; because whatever can be known regarding God is plainly recognized and known among them; for God has shown it to them." Paul is speaking of the knowledge of God through creation which preceded the development of heathenism. This external revelation in the creation proclaims God's wisdom and goodness (Romans 1:20). Then also there is the innate internal revelation to the reason and conscience of every man (Acts 17:22-29; Romans 2:15; John 1:9). This nature-given faith is confirmed and completed by a Spiritual revelation of God's Word and in the Person and completed work of the risen Christ which exhibits God's Attributes of justice, holiness and love.
The revelation of God's indignation from heaven in penal righteousness upon Israel in the Law of sin and death preceded the revelation of His grace in justifying righteousness through the Gospel as the power of God for salvation (Matthew 3:16-17; 16:13 – 17:13). The complete revelation of ungodliness appeared at the New Testament revelation of grace when the world's guilt reached its climax in the crucifixion and death of Jesus Christ.
However the revelation of wrath poured out in the seven Trumpet and Vial Judgments is progressive as well as historical, in opposition to which the progressive revelation of the righteousness of salvation in the Gospel acquires its perfect clarity and significance through the unveiling of the seven Church Ages and Seals. Because spirits do not die, "the wicked will do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand," so the world cannot become a better place before the Millennium when Satan is bound. However, "the wise shall understand," and although our numbers have diminished with each passing age, "grace and peace have been multiplied unto us through the knowledge of God and of Jesus Christ our Lord," as we grow into the unity of the faith and put on the divine nature.
"Ungodliness" is the absence of reverence for God, whereas the "unrighteousness of men" is the corresponding iniquity against God's laws in the lives of men universally who withhold the revelation of His Word.
"From the time of the creation of the world His invisible Attributes such as His eternal power and divine nature, have been made visible and understood through the things that are made. So they are without excuse: because although they had knowledge of God they did not honour Him as the one true God (in opposition to the false gods whom the heathens worshipped), or render the praise and thanks due to Him. Instead, they indulged in futile thoughts, reasonings and speculations, and their senseless minds were darkened".
Omnipotence reveals the Attributes of God "through the things that are made"�His works; and worship has its root in the feeling of dependence on the Supernatural power of the Almighty (Genesis 17:1; Exodus 6:3). The invisible becomes visible not to the eyes, but as something known and perceptible to reason. The pagan knowledge of God through the revelation of Him in His works, although only partial and fragmentary, is sufficient to leave those who possess it with no ground on which to excuse ignorance and designed neglect of God. The world was not ignorant of God at the outset; its ignorance is the result and punishment of its great sin of neglect. They lost even their imperfect knowledge because they did not raise it to faith through the labour of the heart (Matthew 13:12). Choosing to devise vanities (Acts 14:15) rather than to retain God in their knowledge their foolish hearts and minds became Dark, losing what little Light they once owned. They were not wanting in worship, but "worship in Spirit and in truth" (John 4:24). This was the beginning of heathendom as idolatry traces back to sin, which is unbelief in the revealed Word of God.
"Claiming to be wise, they became foolish and exchanged the glory of the immortal God into images of mortal man, and birds, and animals, and reptiles."
The assumption of wisdom is always associated with alienation from the truth of God. Their folly was in proportion to their boast of wisdom, for there can be no greater folly than to worship a beast rather than God (I Corinthians 1:19-25; 3:19; 8:1; Proverbs 16:18).
Having abandoned the contemplation of God's real glory communicated through the Spiritual contemplation of the creation, later manifested to Israel in the Shekinah in exalted moments of vision, and which was finally unveiled to us Gentiles in the righteousness of Christ for faith�men universally exchanged God's glory for idols; Israel for the lewdness of the Babylonian Talmud, and Christendom for hedonism, narcissism, nihilism and humanistic materialism which is Judaeo-communism.
Brother Branham writes: "Historians such as Wilkinson and Mallett have proven conclusively from the ancient documents that at one time all the peoples of the earth believed in ONE GOD, supreme, eternal, invisible, Who by the Word of His mouth spoke all things into existence, and that in His character He was loving and good and just. But as Satan will always corrupt whatever he can, we find him corrupting the minds and hearts of men so that they reject the truth. As he has always attempted to receive worship as though he were God and not the servant and creation of God, he drew worship away from God to the end that he might draw it unto himself and so be exalted. He certainly did accomplish his desire to spread his religion throughout the whole world. This is authenticated by God in the Book of Romans, "When they knew God, they glorified Him not as God, until they became vain in their imaginations, and through darkness of heart accepted a corrupted religion to the extent that they worshipped creatures and not the Creator."
"Remember, Satan was a creature of God (Son of the Morning). Thus we find that where once truth was disseminated amongst men, and all held to that one truth, there later came a day when a vast group turned from God and spread a diabolical form of worship around the world. History bears it out that those of the tribe of Shem that stood with the unchanging truth were in solid opposition to those of Ham who turned away from truth to the devil's lie" (An Exposition of the Seven Church Ages, p. 183:1).
"Therefore God also gave them up in the lusts of their own hearts to such impurity as dishonoured their own bodies among themselves, because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshipped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed throughout eternity. Amen".
Idolatry is spiritual adultery and leads to moral whoredom (Numbers 25; Ezekiel 23). Thus heathen worship is connected in various ways with the practice or even the worship of lust, and their bodies already dishonoured by natural lewdness, lost their dignity as temples of God and are degraded into instruments of sensual lust (I Corinthians 3:17; 6:15-20). God withdrew in retribution for their moral condition, and by this judicial act allowed them to walk in their own ways. Since without God's Spirit they will be unable to control the lusts of their heart, they will be delivered over to a still worse moral condition as the sins of the mind become sins of the flesh (Psalm 81:13; 147:20; Acts 14:16).
Romans 1:26-32, "For this cause God gave them up to shameful passions. Their women exchanged natural functions for unnatural and the men forsook their natural relationships with women and burned in their lust one for one another; men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in their own persons the recompense due to their error. And as they did not see fit to acknowledge God, so God gave them over to depraved thoughts, to practice that which is indecent, because they have been filled with all manner of wickedness, fornication, covetousness, malice; crammed with envy, murder, quarrelling, deceit, malignity; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, proud, boasters, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without conscience, fidelity, natural affection or pity. While knowing God's decree�that those practicing such things deserve to die�they not only do them but give their approval to those who do them".
When Israel exchanged the truth of God for a lie, the Lord destroyed that kingdom and scattered the people. When Judah did likewise, He razed the temple, destroyed the City and exiled the cr�me of the people captive to Babylon. There they exacerbated their apostasy by superimposing the philosophy of the Babylonian Mercantile Code over Yahweh Torah to create Pharisaism which is Talmudism or Judaism. This caused them to crucify Messiah, and God turned to us Gentiles, "to purify (not replace) our souls by faith," and "take out of them a Bride for His Name" (Acts 15:7-15; Isaiah 11:10). Since then they have been overcome by their mortal enemy and peddle filth throughout the world.
When Rome exchanged the truth about God for a lie, God gave them up to the lie of sexual lusts. This is graphically illustrated in the prominent exposure of homosexuality and pederasty within the Roman priesthood. During his United States tour this week, Pope Benedict XVI apologized to some of their victims. ABC Radio National's Religion Report questioned whether the Pope will apologize to victims when he visits Sydney for World Youth Day, and named some ex-priests guilty of abusing hundreds, one of over a thousand boys.
The anointing for Brother Branham's Elijah ministry was withheld until the conditions foretold in Luke 17:26-30, II Thessalonians 2:3-12, and II Timothy 4:4 were fulfilled. He indicted the whole world for exchanging the truth of God for a lie, and His Message is calling the wise and foolish virgin out from Rome and her (once) Protestant daughters into the unity of the faith before God smites earth with a curse. Today the world is immersed in sin, and as punishment for exchanging the truth of God for a lie, He has given them up to desecrating the temple of their own bodies. People paint, pierce, tattoo and parade their flesh. Australia has an openly homosexual judge; the United States has Slick Willy, the reputedly depraved George I and II, vice president Cheney and his lesbian daughters, while an alleged lesbian is campaigning for president, "as it was in the days of Lot".
Sin is punished by sin, as virtue is rewarded by virtue. Yet God's judicial abandonment has not taken away the free moral agency and responsibility of these deviants who have been carried away by their own corrupt nature which has overridden the Law of Life. They have regressed from wicked passions to wicked acts, and from these to wicked characters in whom the inclination for what is good is extinguished; and from these, to wicked maxims.
Apostasy from Christianity is worse than heathenism. Whereas heathen corruptions were produced and sanctioned by the heathen mythology and idolatry, Christian nations are corrupt in spite of and in direct opposition to Christianity, which raises the highest standard of virtue, and acts continually on the world as a purifying power. The moral and spiritual state of the world signifies the end of grace, which will take place when the last Gentile predestinated to Christ's Bride has heard their name called from the Lamb's Book of Life and taken his or her place in the Word.
The Lamb's Book of Life is the record of God's foreknowledge of the offspring of the last Adam, Jesus Messiah. It occupies a section in the Book of Life of the first Adam and is the record of the elect of his race whose souls have been quickened or born a second time by the Word of God. These are Attributes of the Logos who were accounted crucified in Christ on Calvary. This Book was compiled from the foundation of the World and contains only names. Since they are Attributes of the Logos, not one of these names can be removed, and none can be added (Revelation 22:18-19).
The Book of Life is the record of God's foreknowledge of the natural offspring of the first Adam. It contains only names and was compiled at the foundation of the World. No names can be added to this Book, but by the consummation of life at Armageddon the vast majority of names will have been blotted from the Book, and their owners will ultimately be cast into the lake of Fire, which is the second death, the annihilation of the soul.
Those with the opportunity of election are they who hear the Word for their hour. Those who refuse it reject the Holy Spirit, which is the "unforgivable sin" resulting in the removal of their name from the Book of Life. Those who do not attain to the high calling of election but maintain their status as justified and sanctified are "foolish virgin" and "saved."
Denominational teaching of salvation is good psychology and good for business; however, it exchanges the truth of God for a lie. In God's foreknowledge, the last Adam was slain as KINSMAN Redeemer for the first Adam, the sum of whose offspring were potentially in Adam when God formed him from the dust of the ground (Genesis 2:7). God's law of redemption requires a near kinsman to satisfy the outstanding obligation of his relative with an identical substitute, which in this case called for the surrender His own life to save the lives of Adam and his seed (I John 3:8; Leviticus 25; Ruth).
The denominational presumption is fourfold:
They imagine the "lost" can be "saved" whereas only those whose names were written in the Book of Life from the foundation of the world are "saved." Because they are in Adam's race these were all born "saved" from their mother's womb; they remain "saved" so long as their names are in the Book of Life and will be granted into eternal Life at the White Throne Judgment.
John 1:29, "Behold the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world." Potentially He could remit the sins of the totality of Adam's race alone, as His blood was not shed for those who were never in the Book of Life. But ultimately His blood could only be applied to believing penitents in Adam's race.
John 19:28-30, "Jesus knowing that all things were now accomplished, that the Scripture might be fulfilled . . . said, it is finished". See I John 3:8.
I John 2:1-2, "My little children in Christ, I write these things that you sin not. But if anyone does sin, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous: and He Himself is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world" of souls in Adam's race. We may trust this Advocate who although righteous Himself is the Agent accomplishing the propitiation or expiation that exists in His Person which comprises the High Priest and the Sacrifice. This propitiation is universal without exception, for "the whole world [of Adam's race] lies in wickedness" (I John 5:19).
They confuse "salvation" with new birth, overlooking election and the distinction between the nine dispensations within the Gentile dispensation, and the fact that there are three steps by grace through faith to "eternal security" which is the new birth (Ephesians 4:30).
The first step once they have received a revelation of the true oneness of the godhead and Christ's propitiation is the confession of past unbelief and baptism in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ for the remission of past sins as a public testimony of justification by grace through faith.
The second step is that they should forsake their former ways and live according to His every Word. Sanctification is the constant washing of water by an ongoing revelation of God's Word, cleansing us for Scriptural holiness as we receive correction. So long as one's name (or soul) is sanctified it will remain "saved" in the Book of Life, and be granted into eternal Life at the White Throne Judgment.
The third step in grace is the new birth. Very few people take this third step, either because they are dilatory and slothful, or because they never encounter what Peter called "the present Truth." God is only writing epistles of the Light He is manifesting now (I John 1:7; II Peter 1:12). He revealed a particular measure of Word and Spirit to each Age by the Message of the "angel" to the Age. These Messages in their fullness are called "the Seven Thunders" or seven Voices of God to the New Testament saints. "He authorized as many as recognized their day and whose lives manifest its Message to become the Sons of God" (John 1:12).
They teach that all can be "saved." It is important you recognize that Adam's kinsman Redeemer cannot redeem the Serpent's seed because He is not their near kinsman. Those born in Cain's lineage were never in the Book of Life. Like the mule or the liger they are not part of God's creation, and since God cannot redeem or "buy back" what was never His they are born "lost." Their leaders are aware of this, which explains why they are at "enmity" with Adam's race (Genesis 3:15), why they hate Jesus Messiah and could not contemplate Him as their Redeemer.
They teach that the only means of salvation is by justification and sanctification through faith in Christ. But what of those in Adam's race who have never encountered the Word of God, much less the Word for their hour? What of the billions who lived before there was a Jesus Christ. Are these all "lost"? Our gracious God has made provision whereby many will be justified by their works (Matthew 25:31-46; I Corinthians 3:15; I Timothy 5:24; Revelation 14:13):
The Israelites under the Fifth Seal retain their names on the Book of Life by surrendering their life in martyrdom for their testimony of Moses and adherence to the Law. God allowed their denominational leaders to blind them to Old Testament prophecy (Jeremiah 31:31-34) so that we could receive grace under the New Covenant. The elect Israelites received Messiah and were born-again; these non-elect, justified by their faith in the Old Covenant will be granted into eternal Life at the White Throne Judgment (Exodus 20:6; Matthew 24:9-11; Revelation 6:9-11).
Those who have been good and kind to the Bride retain their names on the Book of Life by virtue of the fact that in honouring Christ's Wife they have honoured Him, thereby justifying and sanctifying their names under the blood by His grace (Matthew 25:31-46).
Those who will be martyred during the tribulation for refusing to take the mark of the beast or to serve Rome's will, thereby retain their names on the Book of Life�Buddhists, Muslims, Hindu. Baptist, come who may. God honours their moral stance (Revelation 13:16-18).
And, of course, all live births in Adam's race that die under the age of accountability are "saved".Brother Branham was asked a question about the time of Daniel's Seventieth Week when God has returned to Israel: "Is it true that every Jew born since Christ that came into the world is to be saved"?
He replied: "No. Nothing will be saved, only those whose names were put on the Lamb's Book of Life before the foundation of the world, Jew or Gentile. See? That's all; the Book holds that mystery, and the Book is only unfolding it now, not each one's name, but what the mystery of the Book is while it's calling those names" (The Exposition of the Seven Seals, p. 473:2-3; I John 1:7; II Peter 1:12).
No one will be "saved" by grace through faith during the tribulation as this is "the day of vengeance of our God" (Isaiah 61:2; 63:4; Ezekiel 43:10). Millions of the "saved" will be LOST as their names are blotted from the Book of Life. Whereas the foolish virgin are justified and sanctified by grace through faith before grace ends, others who retain their names on the Book will preserve their salvation by sanctifying "works" as martyrs for the truth of God (Matthew 16:25; James 2:18). Sanctification can maintain a name in the Book of Life.
Sanctify your home, your business and your associates by your Token on display. "Resist the Devil, and he will flee from you." Hold the Token over your unmovable faith in His promised Word, and when I see the Token, I will pass over you. Brother Branham said, "You believe for your safety, and then apply the Token for the whole family. See?"
You say, "How can I do that?"
Claim it. If it worked on you, then you and the Word becomes one. Amen. Amen. See, it works for both of you. You and the Word are one. Then apply it to your children. Apply it to your loved ones like Rahab did. She applied the token to her father; she applied it to her mother; she applied it to her brothers and sisters, and got them all in. You apply it. Say, "Lord, I'm going after my son. I'm going after my daughter. I claim her; Satan, you turn her loose. I'm coming after her. I apply my Token." The Holy Spirit . . . "Oh, Holy Spirit that lives within me, catch my daughter there. I'm going to her now with Your anointing upon me. He will do it. Amen.
That's what they did in Egypt. That's what they did in Jericho. If you want to read another one: Acts 16:31. Paul told the centurion, "Believe; I'm the messenger of the hour. Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, thou and thy house shall be saved." Is that right? Believe for your house. Bring them all under it.
Now, you've seen the God of heaven perform a miracle, just before judgment. You believed it. "Yes, what can I do?"
He said, "Rise and be baptized."
Paul took him out and baptized him, said, "Now, believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou and thy house shall be saved." Believe what? Believe the Lord Jesus Christ for your house. Apply the Token to your house. Then what do you do when you apply it to your house? Move all the trash out. Get all the short skirts, and the shorts, and the cards, and the cigarettes, and televisions, and whatever more, and kick them out the door. You're going to apply the Token, won't stand still for it. Yes, sir. Take it all out. All the dances and the parties, and rock-and-roll, and old vulgar newspapers, and the stuff that's of the world, kick it out the door. Say, "We're cleaning out this place around here."
Like Jacob did. He told his wife and all of them, said, "Wash your clothes and everything. Put away them gods." Amen.
You know what Joshua said 'fore crossing over? He said, "Wash your clothes, come not at your wives, and so forth, and get ready. For within three days we'll cross Jordan." Amen. He was getting ready. They was applying the token. Amen. That's it.
Get ready. Apply it. Believe it. Clean up. Let your children, let your family, let your loved ones see it in you. That's right. It'll take effect. Yes, sir.
Then apply the Token in prayer with consideration, with believing. Apply it with such love and so forth, you know it's going to take place. That's all. Apply it in confidence, believing it's going to help. When you talk to that child, when you talk to your husband, talk to your wife, talk to this loved one, believe that it's going to help, and stand there and say, "Lord, I've claimed them; they're mine. I'm getting them for You, Lord" (The Token, pp. 46:362-373). The non-elect of Adam's race are "saved" because so long as they are sanctified their names will remain in the Book of Life.
The 144,000 elect Israelites will not be "saved" during the tribulation. These are not Jews, and being in Adam's race they were born "saved" and were fully redeemed in Christ on Calvary because they are predestinated to receive the fullness of the revealed Word like Christ's end-time Bride. On the other hand, the saints from Pentecost to Laodicea could not be fully redeemed on the Cross because the Book was sealed to the end of Laodicea and as they possessed only PART-Word they required Christ's mediation for their errors through ignorance of the fullness in order to be born-again.
Soon the new creation of God Himself will be complete, then He will gather all of His Attributes in clouds of glory. And after the Wedding Supper of the Lamb in the Sky we will take dominion over earth and its creatures, build and inhabit, plant and eat the fruit of our labours through a thousand years of peace. Then comes the general resurrection and we will judge and rule the nations "with a rod of iron," thereafter we shall rejoice in the completion of God's one eternal purpose in the new heavens and new earth. nl524.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 e-mail Bible Believers
URL Bible Believers' Website
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