Bible Believers' Newsletter #133
"We focus on the PRESENT Truth -- what Jesus is doing NOW . . ." ISSN 1442-8660
We greet you in the wonderful Name of our Lord Jesus Christ and appreciate your fellowship.
In this newsletter we will review some of the things God has showed us out of His Word. As usual, everything presented should be confirmed personally in your own Bible.
Your brother-in-Christ, Anthony . . .
As it was in the Days of Lot
Sydney (SMH) August 22, 2000 -- A group of Sydney's most glamorous drag queens will frock up in Priscilla, Queen of the Desert outfits to take a starring role in the Olympic closing ceremony. They will perform on a float which is a "tribute to drag", featuring as part of a celebration of Australian "culture". Full story: http://www.smh.com.au/olympics/news/20000823/A21654-2000Aug22.html http://www.smh.com.au/breaking/0008/23/A22383-2000Aug23.shtml
Human Cloning can Go Ahead
London (BBC Radio 4 'World at One') August 16, 2000 -- Chairman of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority, a Church of England bishop, says he hopes an alternative method of growing disease-free tissue will be developed. In the meantime "the best we can manage is cloning from embryos."
Full story: http://www.diakrisis.org
UAE to build 50 Mosques in Kosovo
Muslims who helped destroy Serb churches in Kosovo now offer to finance new mosques.
PRISTINA, (Reuters) August 19, 2000 -- The United Arab Emirates defense minister had "offered to build 50 mosques in Kosovo at his own expense." The "project would be carried out with the help of the UAE troops serving in the NATO-led peacekeeping force."
(The UAE is as much NATO as were Jordanian and Pakistani (Muslim) "peacekeepers" in Kosovo who brutally shut down a Serb radio station and participated in the British seizure of the Serb mine in Kosovo last week or the Iranian (Muslim) troops during the Bosnian war.
What binds these Muslim "peacekeepers" is hatred for Orthodox Christians, and the NWO money that helps translate hatred into geopolitical gain. All hell broke loose (inside NATO) when some 250 Russian soldiers took Pristina airport on June 11, 1999. But they were Orthodox Christians.
Preparing the way for World War III between Islam and political Zionists).
Full story: http://www.truthinmedia.org
Patterns in Scripture
The purpose of this end-time Message God delivered through His prophet, William Branham, is to awaken the end-time Bride of Jesus Christ to recognize her day and its Message. Until we know and are sure of our identity and authority -- that we are each elect of God, and an integral indivisible part of God, how can we manifest the Sons of God and do the works of God by the Word of God?
God sent His Word through His prophet to accomplish this purpose. He is restoring His elect to the faith of the apostolic saints, by finishing the mystery of God which was sealed with Seven Seals from the foundation of the world. Abraham, Moses, Isaiah, Daniel and John saw glimpses of this mystery in symbols whose import would be fully and properly unveiled in its designated, decreed season -- but only to anointed eyes.
The prophet Joel called Brother Branham's Message, "the former (or teaching) rain", because It quickens or germinates Life in the Word Seed that has already been sown. You'll recall Brother Branham saying, "THUS SAITH THE LORD. . . I'll read it to you out of the Book: at the sounding of the seventh angel's message, the mystery of God should be finished that's (already) been declared by His holy prophets. That's the prophets who have written the Word. At the sounding of the seventh Church Age, the last Church Age, all the loose ends that through these Church Ages have been probed at, will be wound up together. And when the Seals are broke and the mystery is revealed, down comes the Angel, the Messenger, Christ, setting His foot upon the land and upon the sea with a rainbow over His head. Now remember, this seventh angel is on earth at the time of this Coming" (William Branham, The Revelation of the Seven Seals, 74:2; Revelation 5:1-8; 10:1-7).
Brother Branham's Message gathered up those "loose ends" of PARTIAL revelation Paul called "that which was in part", seen by ministers and messengers of previous Church Ages, and placed them correctly in the Bible and with history. In this way he "restored ALL things (already) spoken by the mouth of all God's Holy prophets since the world began" (Acts 3:21; Revelation 10:7). That is, the fullness of the Word, which is Christ, and Christ is the mystery of God revealed. So "this seventh angel, (William Branham), was on earth at the time of this Coming" because Christ's second or "parousia" Coming was through the fullness of the Word. The revelation of the Seven Seals brought Christ back to earth in Word form (I Corinthians 13:10).
The "teaching rain" is the "Shout" of I Thessalonians 4:16, the "midnight cry" of Matthew 25:1-13, awakening the wise and foolish virgin, calling them "out of Babylon" into the eternal Land of the Millennium. It is establishing the end-time Bride or wise virgin on the sure foundation of THUS SAITH THE LORD (of Paul's gospel by which God will judge the world) for the manifestation of the Sons of God and the great translation. This Message is Christ's proposal to His Bride, our invitation to the Wedding Supper of the Lamb in the Sky, our baptism with the Holy Spirit or new birth. And the Token Life in Christ on display is our Wedding Ring and Seal.
Since the apostolic faith has been restored, identifying the seven men who were the angels to each Church Age, we can see which parts of the Word they ministered to quicken the saints of their Age. And since those seven Church Ages are placed in history and we know by the calendar when each Age commenced and concluded, and that all seven Church Ages are fulfilled, we see clearly which Scriptures are already fulfilled. Therefore we can recognize OUR day and ITS Message and see which Scriptures must be fulfilled in our lives.
To be forewarned in to be forearmed. If we can recognize our part of the Word we will not ignorantly try to impersonate the Word for a day gone by, or act-out some one else's position in the Body. This is what the denominationals are doing and thus their folly is manifest to all men in Christ.
If we know our rights and stand on our purchased possession, we can withstand the Enemy as Jesus withstood him (Matthew 4:1-11). If on the other hand we are standing on someone else's property, claiming it as our own, when the Enemy trespasses he can be as bold as us because he knows our claim is bogus and that we are ignorantly trespassing. Such is the case of those claiming to be Christians in this day but standing on the Word for the Methodist, Lutheran or Pentecostal hours. They are trespassing on the Word for a day gone by.
Psalm 1:1-3, "Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor identifies with the behavior of sinners, nor associates with mockers who scoff at the things of God. But his delight is in the will of the LORD, always meditating on His Word and on how he can follow Him more closely. He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers, bearing luscious fruit IN HIS SEASON . . ."
God predestinated a different portion of His Word to each of the seven Church Ages. Each Age is distinguished by a distinct baptism of the Spirit evidenced by a different revelation and a different virtue of the Token Life of Christ. This was foretold by Peter in II Peter 1:1-8 and expounded by Brother Branham in The Stature of A Perfect Man.
We studied Zechariah 4:10 in Newsletter 131. "Who has despised the day of humble things? for they shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel with those seven, they are the eyes of the Lord." These are seven men anointed with a portion of the sevenfold Spirit of God to bring Light and Life to those predestinated to be saints in each of seven Church Ages. As in the Old Testament, these revelations did not come by the will of these seven 'angels' or messengers, for God is sovereign. They spoke as they were inspired by the Holy Ghost.
This is confirmed by Revelation 1:16 where they are described as being "in His right hand" which signifies the power and authority of God. Psalms 44:3, "For they got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them: but Your right hand, and Your arm, and the Light of Your face, for You favored them." This signifies that the very power and authority of God are behind His messengers to every age. They go forth in the Fire and power of the Holy Ghost with the Word. They are stars because they reflect light. The Light they reflect is His Light. They have no light of their own. They kindle not their own fires that men may walk in the light of their sparks (Isaiah 50:11).
God is sovereign. he reveals Himself through men of His choosing, and to men of Adam's race who can recognize their day and receive its Message, submitting to His sovereignty by dying to their own will and desires that His Word may anoint and live through them.
Scripture does not play with words. Whatever is in the Record is there for anointed eyes to see. It is there for a purpose. Let me illustrate. In that Word it says, Genesis 3:20, "And Adam called his wife's name Eve; because she was the mother of all living." But no Scripture ever says that Adam is the father of all living. If there is not this connotation to be placed upon Genesis 3:20, why would it be mentioned that Eve is the mother of all, and no word said about Adam? The fact is athough Eve was the mother of all living, Adam is not the father of all living.
Only anointed eyes will see this and receive the revelation that is implied and can be proven from Genesis to Revelation. This and other mysteries that have been restored are separating the end-time Bride from the world and anything less than the pure Word God.
Let's consider Paul, an anointed man, and the angel to the Ephesian Church Age (AD54-170; Revelation 2:1-7). Galatians 1:15-19, "When it pleased God, Who separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by His grace, to reveal His Son in me, so that I could preach Him among the Gentiles; I didn't go and discuss this with others or go up to Jerusalem to consult with those who were apostles before me; but I went into Arabia, and came back to Damascus. Three years later I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and abode with him fifteen days. And the only other apostle I saw at that time was Jesus' brother James."
Paul was unorganized, but Spirit-led, as when God moved upon Moses to lead Israel out of Egypt. Jerusalem's council never sent Paul out, nor did it have any power or jurisdiction over him. God, and God alone did the sending and the leading. Paul was not of men, but of God. Galatians 1:1, "Paul, an apostle, (not of men, neither by man, but by Jesus Christ, and God the Father, Who raised Him from the dead)." Galatians 2:3-5, "Titus, who was with me, being a Gentile, was not compelled to be circumcised. And the question would never have arisen were it not for false brethren who came to spy on us and see what freedom we have in Christ Jesus, that they might bring us under bondage to the Law. But we did not listen to them for a minute for we did not wish to see you confused into thinking that salvation can be earned by being circumcised and obeying the Laws."
Paul had been a theologian and member of the Sanhedrin or high court of the elders of Israel (patterned after the seventy who aided Moses). It was zealous for the Law, and in Paul's day, the traditions of the Mishna, which Jesus cursed and upon which the Talmud is based. Paul described himself BEFORE conversion as, "of tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the Law, a Pharisee. Concerning zeal, persecuting the church; touching the righteousness which is in the Law, blameless. But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ" (Philippians 3:5-7).
The fundamental principle of the Pharisees, common also to all Orthodox modern Jews, is that by the side of the written Law regarded as a summary of the principles and general laws of the Hebrew people there was an oral law to complete and to explain the written Law, given to Moses on Mount Sinai and transmitted by him by word of mouth. The first portion of the Talmud, called the Mishna or "second law", contains this oral law. It is a digest of the Jewish traditions and a compendium of the whole ritual law and came at length to be esteemed far above the sacred text.
While it was the aim of Jesus to call men to the Law of God itself as the supreme guide of life, the Pharisees, upon the pretense of maintaining it intact, multiplied minute precepts and distinctions to such an extent that the whole life of the Israelite was hemmed in and burdened on every side by instructions so numerous and trifling that the Law was almost if not wholly lost sight of.
Like Moses who wrote the Old Testament, Paul had to forsake all of his education and religious training, and curse it, in order to follow God. Once he was born-again and instructed by Ananias and the brethren at Damascus in some basics of the faith, he went to Arabia where he could be alone with the Lord to compare his experience with the Old Testament, whether it was Scriptural, and to seek the revelation of God.
Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John were scribes whose Gospels describe what Jesus did in the closing years under the Old Testament. Paul rightly divided the Word and wrote the New Testament. He brought into prominence doctrines that went far beyond and almost eclipsed the simple teaching of Christ he expounded.
Paul returned to Damascus with a clear understanding and began preaching in the synagogue where he confounded the locals, proving that Jesus is the Christ. Eventually, after three years, they sought to kill him and he escaped down the wall in a basket and went to Jerusalem. Paul said, "Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I was the greatest of all. But God had mercy on me so that Jesus Christ could use me as a pattern to show everyone how patient He is with even the worst of sinners, who should hereafter believe on Him to Life eternal" (I Timothy 1:15-16).
God used Paul as a pattern, a template or example. Paul understood from Malachi 3:6 (Hebrews 13:8) that God never changes His mind on His Word, and that's how he caught the revelation to write the New Testament. He saw that the Old Testament was merely a shadow setting forth natural patterns or types of good things to come and therefore its fulfillment, the New Testament, must be its Spiritual antitype.
If you saw the shadow of a natural lamb but had never seen a lamb, you would recognize it when it appeared because it would match the silhouette. Paul knew that the natural lamb offered by Israel was a shadow or type of a more perfect Sacrifice, so he took note of its nature and looked for a Kinsman Redeemer whose Spiritual characteristics matched the natural attributes of the lamb. One who was humble, led (of the Spirit of God), meek, not self-seeking. without spot or blemish, and sinless. He found all of these attributes fulfilled in Jesus Christ.
Paul took the Words of Jesus, "Verily, verily, I say, Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink His blood, you have no Life in you. Whoso eats My flesh, and drinks My blood, has eternal Life; and I will raise him up at the last day. For My flesh is meat indeed, and My blood is drink indeed. He who eats My flesh, and drinks My blood, dwells in Me, and I in him. As the living Father has sent Me, and I live by the Father: so he who eats Me, shall live by Me. This is that bread which came down from heaven: not as your fathers did eat manna, and are dead: he that eats of this bread shall live for ever" (John 6:53-58). He expounds these words in I Corinthians 11:23-34 to give us a clear understanding of Jesus' instructions for the Lord's Supper. He showed us that Jesus' Body was that real Supernatural bread from heaven of which manna was a natural type, and that the unleavened bread we partake in Communion is and remains plain wheat bread made by holy hands. But that it represents the Lord's Body or Word made flesh for us. And the red wine crushed by the feet or hands of the saints remains wine but represents the blood or Spirit of Christ (for the life is in the blood).
The saints partake these elements as a memorial of what Christ has done for us, symbolizing we are one with the Word and Spirit as we become one with the elements of bread and wine we eat. We feed our souls with that eternal Life as the Israelites fed their bodies for mortal life.
I Corinthians 10:1-6 is another illustration where Paul employs a natural type to reveal a Spiritual antitype: "Moreover, brethren, I would not that you should be ignorant, how that ALL our fathers were under the Cloud, and ALL passed through the sea; And were ALL baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; and did ALL eat the same spiritual meat; and did ALL drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ. But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness. Now these things were our examples . . ."
We are fulfilling the anti-type of Israel's exodus out of Egypt and their journey to the Promised Land. There are three exodus'. The first called Israel out of Egypt. The second called the Church out of Israel, and this third exodus is calling the Spiritual Bride out of the natural church.
As Israel inherited a land whose cities were already built, with established olive groves, orchards and vineyards, the meek shall inherit the earth and that City not made with hands, eternal in the heavens, Jesus has gone away to prepare for us (II Corinthians 5:1).
As Israel came out under the sacrifice of an innocent substitute dying for a guilty people. the Church came out of Israel under the innocent blood of Christ Jesus. Not a bone of the lamb was broken just as Psalm 34:20 said not a bone of Jesus' body would be broken. The Passover lamb was killed by the whole congregation of Israel (Exodus 12:6) as Christ was killed by the whole congregation of Israel whose high priest said, "His blood be on us, and on our children" (Matthew 27:25). And He was killed in the evening, like the lamb. A beautiful type.
We live in the evening time of the Gentile dispensation when the Word is to be sacrificed again. The Light that has been restored to us will return to Israel once the Gentiles have crucified unto themselves the Son of God afresh, and put Him to an open shame. They can't kill the Son of man again, "for it is given unto a man once to die", but as Christ is here in the fullness of the Word. "Whosoever speaks against the Holy Ghost (or revealed Word), shall not be forgiven in this world or the world to come" (Zechariah 14:7-8; Hebrews 6:6; Matthew 12:32).
This second crucifixion of the Word was signified by Moses smiting the rock a second time when he was to "speak to the rock". That rock typed Christ! The first time it was smitten it brought forth natural water that preserved Israel's natural Life. When It was smitten on Calvary It brought forth a resurrection and the earnest of our Spiritual Life. When It is smitten again at the end of this dispensation, it will produce a resurrection and living waters of the latter rain for the manifestation of the Sons of God. When they speak the Word, the Rock will answer.
When God was ready to deliver Israel He sent a man, Moses, who was a perfect type of Christ. He appeared as the Pillar of Fire and commissioned him from a burning bush. However Moses did not do the leading, except in the sense that he was the physical contact; God sent an Angel. Exodus 23:20-23 "Behold, I send an Angel before you, to keep you in the way, and to bring you into the place which I have prepared. Beware of him, and obey his voice, provoke him not; for he will not pardon your transgressions; for My Name is in him. But if you shall indeed obey his voice, and do all that I speak; then I will be an enemy unto your enemies, and an adversary unto your adversaries. For My Angel shall go before you. . ." God did not say: "Moses, I am sending YOU to do this," but "MY ANGEL shall go before you, and bring you in" to the Promised Land.
In the second Exodus, God appeared to Paul as a Pillar of Fire when he was traveling to Damascus and said, "I am Jesus Whom you persecute". As Paul was the last of the original apostles to see Jesus after his resurrection he said it was almost as if he had been reborn too late to be commissioned (I Corinthians 15:8).
Nineteen hundred years later, God appeared to Brother Branham as a Pillar of Fire and commissioned him for the third exodus. He said, "As John the Baptist foreran My first Coming, your Message will forerun My second Coming". Many photographs have been taken of the Shekinah in our day. And like Moses, Brother Branham was led by the Angel of the Lord Who said, as two signs had been given to the prophet Moses, two signs would be given to him. And that when the people saw those signs, they would believe. There was a third sign, of course, which meant death to all who disobeyed It.
Those who are following the Message of Brother Branham in this day are led by the same Cloud and Pillar of Fire that led the children of Israel in the first exodus, feeding on the living Body Word and drinking the waters of Life in Spiritual communion (Revelation 10:8-11; John 7:38). As the Lord went before Israel and baptized them in Cloud and in the Red Sea, He is leading the Church out of spiritual Egypt, out of trespasses and sins. He has led us through the sanctifying power of the Red Sea of Jesus' blood, liberating us from the power of the enemy to holiness in the power of God that absolutely separates man from sin.
Now we are in the evening time, just before the Spirit leaves the earth and the world enters complete darkness. Christ's end-time Bride is resting in the Son-shine of the revealed Word, knowing who she is. She has no doubts that she is redeemed and cannot come to the judgment but has passed from death unto Life. She knows even physical death has no hold on her and is maturing into His likeness to glorify God again through the Son by the manifestation of the Sons of God in the latter rain.
The latter (or harvest) rain, like the former rain, will fall upon the just and the unjust. God said that when Israel is back in the Land and the apostolic faith has been restored to the Gentiles, "I will pour out My Spirit upon ALL flesh. . ." It will be a double portion to call the New Testament saints to the Wedding Supper and sow the Seed Word for Israel's atonement (Joel 2:28; Zechariah 14:8; Acts 2:17).
After the end of the Gentile dispensation, the latter rain will be an anointing upon the whole world, to gather the Pentecostal first fruits of the wheat Bride into the Garner, beat the fruit from the olive and crush the vintage in the tribulation, then burn the chaff with that which bears thorns and briers in unquenchable fire (Matthew 3:12; Revelation 14:18-20; Hebrews 6:8).
The Bride will know who she is and have complete confidence in the Authority of her voice, being seasoned, trained, and not a novice. Confident because of her experience and long standing proof of her union with Christ Who is that Word she lives and speaks. With no doubts as to her identity. God will do what she speaks because she is declaring His thoughts, and that faith will change her in the atoms. nl133.htm
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Brother Anthony Grigor-Scott is a non-denominational minister. He has ministered full-time since 1981, primarily to other ministers and their congregations in various countries. He pastors Bible Believers' tiny congregation, and is available to minister in your church.
For Further Information Contact:
Bible Believers' Church
Currabubula, NSW 2342, Australia
e-mail: ags@biblebelievers.org.au
URL: http://www.biblebelievers.org.au/