Bible Believers' Newsletter #482
"We focus on the present Truth – what Jesus is doing now. . ."
ISSN 1442-8660
Christian greetings in the precious Name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
When Adam joined Eve across the time-line and the Life-line he forfeited man's dominion over Earth, empowering Satan to lawfully offer Jesus "all the kingdoms of the world" if He would pay homage (Matthew 4:8-9): such profound reverence as would make him Jesus' god. Jesus deferred to the Word, for He was the Word manifest in virgin-born flesh, but He foretold two men who would surrender their souls to Satan and be known as "sons of perdition" (Jude 1:4). One was Judas Iscariot (John 17:12; 13:27). The other will be the last pope of the Judaeo-Roman Catholic church who rule the coming New World Order (Isaiah 14; Daniel 2:40-45; 7:19-28; 9:27; II Thessalonians 2:3; Revelation 17:8-11).
Scripture says, "All the world will worship Satan vicariously when he is incarnate in that man of sin, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped, saying, Who is as great as the beast, and who is able to oppose him" (II Timothy 2:3-4; Revelation 13:4, 8; 17:8-11)?
How can it be that committed Christians and ministers of the Gospel will love the Lord Jesus and worship Satan vicariously?
Their love and commitment is to the storybook Jesus of their imagination and they have not received the love of Christ the anointed Word. They are sincere, and will lay down their lives during the tribulation "for the testimony of Jesus Christ," if they are "saved." But the deluded and "unsaved" majority who believe Satan's lie will be damned (II Thessalonians 2:9-12).
Many love God with all of their heart, but their knowledge of Him is intellectual: sincere philosophy and psychology without faith. That epitomizes the "lying spirit of strong delusion" of which Paul spoke. The Lord allowed such a lying spirit to persuade the prophets of Ahab who spoke their own thoughts to please the king, and not the mind of Christ (I Kings 22).
Please welcome our guest contributor, independent researcher and writer, Erica Carle BS. Mrs. Carle has been involved in radio and television writing and production, published several books, taught school, and as Education Editor wrote a weekly column, "Truth In Education," for the Wisconsin Report. The method of lion taming mentioned in her article is definitely not recommended for the faint of heart.
This article explains how Satan is stamping society with "the mark of the beast," which is wisdom against faith, employing government policy at taxpayer expense to coerce individuals to sacrifice their soul in order to satisfy the momentary lusts of their mortal spirit and corruptible flesh with things that perish with use. You see, it is all in the mind — perception, not reality. Ideas are planted into your mind through perverse education and entertainment that do your thinking for you, so that you live a second-hand life just as you will serve a second-hand religion unless you take the Prophet's words back to God's unchanging Word to understand what He meant, not what Brother Branham said.
Truth is hate to those who hate the truth, because if you "know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." Oh, your body may be imprisoned in the world system, but your soul is emancipated: you are seated together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus, in Jerusalem which is above and is free. A clear revelation of truth will overcome and give you victory over the world, sin, sickness, Satan and his social scientists. Truth is Absolute.
Just a little longer, and the Trumpet of God will sound.
Just a little longer, and we'll all be glory bound.
Look away to heaven, your redemption draweth nigh,
Just a little longer, and we'll meet Him in the sky.
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
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Quiet Transfer
June 28, 2007 – Last month two Israeli organisations, The Association for Civil Rights in Israel and B'tselem, and The Israeli Information Centre for Human Rights in the Occupied Territories, issued a joint report on what the organisations describe as Israel's "quiet transfer" of Palestinians from the West Bank city of Hebron. This policy, the report notes, consists of three elements: the use of curfews and closing parts of the centre of the city to Palestinian vehicles and pedestrians, harassment and violence by Israeli soldiers, and a systematic failure to prevent Jewish settlers from attacking Palestinians living in the city.
The effect of this violence has been the depopulation and economic collapse of the Old City centre. More than a thousand Palestinian houses in the centre of the city have been abandoned and over 1,800 businesses forced to close.
Full story: abc.net.au
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Why Anti-Semitism?
A review of The Fatal Embrace: Ashkenazim and the State by Benjamin Ginsberg, University of Chicago Press, 1993. Henry Makow comments on a this review by Paul Grubach, originally published in the now defunct Instauration (April, 1995, p p. 12-14):
In simple terms, "Why Anti-Semitism?" is a question Ginsberg fails to answer satisfactorily because he did not consider the ultimate implications of this research. He openly admits Jews amass tremendous power in a state, and then use that state to advance their own selfish interests to the detriment of the host culture. What Ginsberg fails to see—or refuses to consider—is that the destructive, anti-Gentile characteristics of Jewry are a major cause of anti-Semitism. In this regard, many anti-Jewish reactions are normal, self-preserving responses on the part of non-Jews to the collective behavior of large groupings of Jews.
In their sojourn in America, Zionist Jews are again setting the stage for the aftermath of another "fatal embrace." The pro-Zionist government was and is detrimental to the interests of the American Majority at large. Is it any wonder that "anti-Semitic" movements should arise to challenge pro-Zionist policies? What Ginsberg labels as "anti-Semitism" is actually in many cases a healthy concern for the welfare of America, plus a critical attitude towards the Jewish power elite which props up a government harmful to Majority interests. Perhaps it is an intense Jewish ethnocentrism which blinds Professor Ginsberg from seeing the legitimacy of many "anti-Semitic" movements.
All things considered, Fatal Embrace is a step in the right direction. It strips away Jewry's aura of saintliness and shows readers the ulterior reality which lies behind the propaganda façade. As long as Jewish and Gentile politicians and intellectuals refuse to see the destructive aspects of Jewry and the legitimate side of "anti-Semitic" complaints, there will never be an open and honest discussion concerning the undeniable problems which burden Jewish-Gentile relations. Nor will these problems ever be resolved in a manner which is rational, humane, and acceptable to both Jews and Gentiles. . .
Full story: savethemales.ca.
Comment: "Why Anti-Semitism?" Why indeed, since your Bible, Jewish historians and Encyclopedias establish that almost 100% of "so-called Jews," are as Jesus Messiah said (Matthew 23:33-35; Revelation 2:9; 3:9), not a Semitic people. Under the heading of "A brief History of the Terms for Jew" in the 1980 Jewish Almanac (page 3) we read: "Strictly speaking it is incorrect to call an Ancient Israelite a 'Jew' or to call a contemporary Jew an Israelite or a Hebrew".
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FBI's 9/11 Saudi Flight Documents Released
June, 22 2007 – Newly released documents reveal the FBI suspected that a plane hired to transport members of the bin Laden family from the United States back to Saudi Arabia might have been chartered by Osama bin Laden himself. . . A heavily redacted FBI report on the incident begins by describing a private jet that was hired to pick up members of the bin Laden family that were in the US eight days after the 9/11 attacks. "The plane was chartered either by the Saudi Arabian Royal Family or Osama bin Laden". . . PENTTBOMB (page 3). Subsequent references to the chartered flight in the released documents state that it was "chartered by the Saudi Arabian Embassy in Washington, DC" (page 106). . .
Full story: truthout.org
Comment: The 'hidden hand' control both sides of every conflict.
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NASA exposes their Apollo Moon landing Hoax!
June 20, 2007 – Was it an accident? Did they realize what they were doing? Or are some NASA employees getting tired of supporting the lies? This image at the NASA site is a scale drawing of what Earth's sky would look like during the daytime if the atmosphere did not scatter sunlight. NASA admits that even with the sun shining, the stars would be visible. Yet for decades NASA has been claiming that it is nearly impossible for astronauts to see stars, however now their "Astronomy Picture of the Day" admits that without an atmosphere, we would see stars even when the sun was shining. Have you seen the Apollo press conference when Neil Armstrong and Mike Collins said they didn't see stars? . .
Full story: iamthewitness.com
Comment: Brother Branham said, "They ain't going to get there. I don't believe, with all my heart, they'll ever get there".
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Anatomy of a Solar Storm
May 2007 – The worst solar-storm season in half a century starts this year. These fiery explosions – which unleash as much energy as a billion hydrogen bombs – could, under the right conditions, black out cities and fry satellites. But new solar scopes can give us advance warning.
Last December, a colossal wave swept across the entire solar surface within minutes, bulldozing everything in its path. The rare tsunami- like shockwave formed on the heels of a major flare that erupted from an Earth-size sunspot 15 minutes earlier. Though that storm didn't have a major impact on Earth, we aren't always so lucky. . . Full story: popsci.com
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Google asks Gov't to Fight Censorship
Washington, June 22, 2007 – Once relatively indifferent to government affairs, Google Inc. is seeking help inside the Beltway to fight the rise of Web censorship worldwide.
The online search giant is taking a novel approach to the problem by asking US trade officials to treat Internet restrictions as international trade barriers, similar to other hurdles to global commerce, such as tariffs.
Google sees the dramatic increase in government Net censorship, particularly in Asia and the Middle East, as a potential threat to its advertising-driven business model, and wants government officials to consider the issue in economic, rather than just political, terms. Full story: apnews.myway.com
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Errors or Treason?
Our history has a cloudy, if not sordid past and we can't forget the army passing out smallpox infected blankets to the Sioux. . . Full story: newswithviews.com
Comment: Some important truths revealing how past history has been planned over the long term, and if you read between the lines you will recognize the identity of the Christ-hating 'hidden hand' behind the plan. And in relation to the "plan," an analysis of film footage shows explosions in real time at the controlled demolition of the World Trade Center.
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Training Teens to Twist the Truth
"You can only have a new society. . . if you change the education of the younger generation. . ." (Marilyn Ferguson, The Aquarian Conspiracy , (New York: J.P. Tarcher, Inc.,1980) p. 280).
Meanwhile Promise Keepers "are launching a rite-of-passage offshoot for teenage boys:"
"Hoping to capture what organizers fear could be a lost generation of evangelical Christians, 'Passage' uses Christian rock bands, hip-hop artists, extreme sports exhibitions. . . Randy Phillips. . . says a youth revival is possible if the Christian message is repackaged in a more relevant form. . . '[T]hey are rejecting the current expression of the church. . .'" (Teens' Rite of Passage Can Include Their Faith).
"Instead of destroying and ridiculing the native names of the Creator God [of other religions], we. . . should introduce Jesus as the Son of their creator God." (Daniel Kikawa, Perpetuated in Righteousness, 1994, page 27. More information in this book review. See also "Culture Specific Evangelism Conference").
"Fundamentalism is a worldwide threat. . . So how do we counter it? The key is to change the view that salvation depends on playing by certain religious rules: everyone is saved."(Dominic Peccoud, Adviser for Socio-Religious Affairs, Religion as a Global Phenomenon for the New Millennium, World Economic Forum, Annual Meeting, 01.02.1999). . .
Full story: crossroad.to
Comment: Again, if you read between the lines you will the identify the Christ-hating 'hidden hand' behind these plans.
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Robotizing (Skinnerizing) of America
by Erica Carle © 2007 - All Rights Reserved
Do you have free will?
You may think that is a stupid question. However, many materialist philosophers and social scientists believe that free will does not exist. They state that all human action is automatic at all times, that nothing can be credited to human will, inner control, or volition. They say we became what we are by the process of evolution, and everything we do depends on material conditions. Heredity and environment determine our destiny. We have no real part in making ourselves what we are or what we will become.
I heard a religious broadcaster protest that idea. He said that we do have free will because God allows us to sin. Sorry, but that proves nothing. We don't need free will to help us give in to sin, bad habits, or stupidity. Persons who lie, cheat, steal, murder, commit adultery, envy, intoxicate and drug themselves, are slothful, who blaspheme, exhibit violent temper, betray trusts, etc., are not demonstrating free will when they do these things. They are reacting to their environments like biological robots or automatons. They actually become unrestrained and uninspired biological machines. Free will is not involved. They do automatically what they think will give them pleasure and avoid what they think might cause them pain. Consideration of others is non existent in their reactions. No cerebral activity, inner control, or effort at restraint is required.
Free will is needed to build character and resist temptations — not to give in to them.
Will is not self-abandonment, but self-control. Instead of saying that God allows us to sin, the preacher should have said that we have free will because God gives us the power NOT TO SIN.
There was a good deal of literature, discussion, and debate about this subject in the later part of the 19th Century. On the one hand, materialists such as Harriet Martineau, Professors Huxley and Clifford claimed that the feeling of volition is not the cause of a voluntary act, but merely its symbol in consciousness. It signals, but does not cause the action. This idea was compared to the blowing of a steam whistle on a locomotive. It signals, but does not cause, the starting of the locomotive.
In opposition, physician/biologist William B. Carpenter agreed that there are many human actions that are purely automatic and others that become automatic after much practice, and repetition. There are also persons having little or no self-control who, for most of their lives, might be compared to biological machines.
In his book, Principles of Mental Physiology with their Applications to the Training and Discipline of the Mind and the Study of its Morbid Conditions 1. Carpenter wrote, "It is in the control he acquires over the automatism in his nature, that man's freedom of choice essentially consists; whilst on the other hand, it is in virtue of his want of power to gain a complete control, that his freedom is limited."
At the time Carpenter's book appeared, the so-called social sciences were gaining prominence. Through them the idea was promoted that right was merely behavior of which Society, the Great Being, approved; and wrong was what Society, disapproved. According to social science — Scripture, the Ten Commandments, and the Golden Rule are no longer relevant. Public opinion replaces them, and social scientists direct and control public opinion. Free will and personality have to be phased out.
Auguste Comte, the father of social science stated, "We must get rid of personality in every shape . . . if we would found a powerful and enduring discipline in the name of humanity" (System of Positive Polity, Vol.IV. p. 249).
More recently, Harvard psychology professor, the late B. F. Skinner, argued that free will, if it exists, is not only useless, but dangerous and destructive to "social scientists'" plans to redesign culture for the future of the human race. Skinner wrote:
1. A scientific analysis of behavior dispossesses autonomous man and turns the control he has been said to exert over to the environment. The individual may then seem particularly vulnerable. He is henceforth to be controlled by the world around him, and in large part by other men . . . environmental contingencies now take over functions once attributed to autonomous man, and certain questions arise. Is man then abolished? Certainly not as a species or as an individual achiever. It is the autonomous inner man who is abolished, and that is a step forward . . . His abolition has been long overdue (Beyond Freedom and Dignity, B. F. Skinner; Bantam/Vantage Book, 1971, p.196, 205. NOTE: This book is funded by the National Institute of Mental Health)!!!
2. We want to know why men behave as they do. Any condition or event which can be shown to have an effect upon behavior must be taken into account. By discovering and analyzing these causes we can predict behavior; to the extent that we can manipulate them, we can control behavior (Science and Human Behavior; B. F. Skinner; The Macmillan Company, 1953, New York, p. 23).
3. A government may prevent defection by making life more interesting — by providing bread and circuses and by encouraging sports, gambling, the use of alcohol and other drugs, and various kinds of sexual behavior, where the effect is to keep people within reach of aversive sanctions. The Goncourt brothers noted the rise of pornography in the France of their day: "Pornographic literature," they wrote, "serves a Bas-Empire . . . one tames people as one tames lions, by masturbation" (Beyond Freedom and Dignity, p. 32).
Skinner sought to control people by studying the stimuli which influence behavior. But he sought much more than that. His long term goal, the same as Auguste Comte's, was to change the entire culture by shifting control by the "organism itself" to that of its environment. To do this the culture designers need to be in control of the environment—both the human and the natural environment. They need to tame the people and control the use of their property. This, they call social science.
Skinner's Beyond Freedom and Dignity was published in 1971. Since it was required reading for college courses all across the nation it became an immediate million copy best seller. After the 1970's millions of the young were trained and taught that they should make their own individual moral codes. What this meant was that they could adopt any behavior they wished to experiment with, or that had been suggested to them, and claim it as part of their personal morality.
With no rules or guidelines to defend them from vice and self indulgences, their desires became their morality, and no one had the right to tell them otherwise. They were Skinnerized — robbed of free will and self control. They became environmentally-controlled automatons who thought they were free spirits. Parents of "free spirit" students could not understand the changes in the behavior of their offspring. Some young people were permanently damaged. Others did not survive their moral experimentation. Hardly a family was unaffected. It was, and is, an ongoing national tragedy, supported legally, financially, and philosophically by all branches of the U.S. government.
The 1970 White House Conference on Children was one example of the support for sociological culture change. Participants claimed:
1. It is now clear that children and their families must be involved in the decision-making process if we are to increase the chances that positive innovations will be accepted. Any set of recommendations should be predicated on support for diversity in family life styles. Punitive measures and tactics toward those family forms that differ from the traditional must be eliminated and experimentation in ways of living accepted. Attempts to prejudge and restrict the future shape of society should be discouraged (Report to the President White House Conference on Children, Washington D. C. 1970. p. 232).
2. One of our most destructive educational assumptions is that "teachers know and children don't . . . The educational consequence of this myth is teacher-oriented rather than student-oriented schools.
And the rapidity with which the known world now changes provides new perspectives and reduces the "stability" of previous knowledge, so that a teacher may frequently have difficulty keeping up with changes in our society—changes about which students may be more informed (ibid p. 124).
Since the 1970s millions of Americans' minds have been vandalized and robbed of the ability to control their own thoughts and feelings. They have become biological machines tamed and trained for the cultural change of the New World Order. They have been skinnerized 2. Some of those who have been skinnerized in the 1970s and after now occupy high positions in business, education, government, and the media. Most of them are intelligent, but they lack free will. They are easily managed by behavior modifiers who know what behavior buttons to push to gain cooperation for the culture changes necessary to bring about the New World Order.
Those who are skinnerized no longer believe that individuals are responsible for their conduct. Responsibility is shifted to the environment. Credit and blame are no longer assigned to individuals. To a skinnerite it is the environment that is responsible for all types of behavior. Loading children on buses and transporting them away from schools in their own neighborhoods is an example of a skinnerite solution to what sociologists determined to be a problem. Airport security, as it is now being conducted, is another example of a skinnerite solution. The environment must be changed for every traveler. Every traveler must be considered to be an enemy. Blame cannot be assigned to any individual or type of individual. Old people in wheel chairs must be patted down, and must remove their shoes. Baby bottles must be checked for explosives and confiscated if they contain too much liquid. We all must submit to this new environment.
Like the bite of the fictional vampire, skinnerites seek to afflict others with their own disability of will and conscience. One who is skinnerized will lie when he deems it necessary, and betray those to whom he owes personal obligations. He has no consistent principles—only goals. Many skinnerites not only ignore, but hate, the Bible, the Ten Commandments and the Golden Rule, and make every effort to deprive others of their protection.
No matter where they are you can learn to recognize skinnerites by their talk and behavior, and by their attempts to turn individual problems into universal problems. Are you a skinnerized biological robot? Is your neighbor? A member of your family? Your teacher? Your congressman? Your mayor? Your governor? Your president? Is your behavior being modified for the New World Order? Will you allow culture redesigners to deprive you and future generations of free will and self control? Will you continue to allow skinnerized robots to rule? These are questions all of us will have to answer and act on. It is of vital importance that we retain and restore the ability to make right choices.
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1. Reprints of this book are now available. It has been republished by Kessinger Publishing's Rare Reprints www.kessinger.net
2. A word I recently coined. It means means robotized. One who has been skinnerized is called a skinnerite. Skinnerites lack free will, love of truth, and independence of thought. Skinnerites have been tamed and trained to surrender their personality to the culture changers of the New World Order. If you find skinnerized, skinnerite and skinnerism to be useful words, they are yours to use at any time. nl482.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 in other countries. He pastors Bible Believers' tiny congregation, and is available to teach in your church.
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Thursday, June 28, 2007
Friday, June 22, 2007
The Feast of Trumpets - Part I
Bible Believers' Newsletter #481
"We focus on the present Truth – what Jesus is doing now. . ."
ISSN 1442-8660
Christian greetings in the precious Name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are pleased you could join us in fellowship around God's unchanging Word.
In this issue we will begin a study on Israel's Feast of Trumpets whose antitype will manifest following the soon-coming earthquakes that will sink Los Angeles, trigger the Pacific ring of fire and split the mount of Olives, demolishing the Dome of the Rock and al Aqsa Mosque to ignite the "hot" stage of World War III. These climactic events will signal the close of the Gentile dispensation and the commencement of Daniel's Seventieth Week in which the Lord will gather an elect remnant of the twelve tribes of Israel back to their Homeland for redemption. In this first installment of our study we will consider the groundwork set forth by Moses in Israel's great annual harvest festivals of Leviticus 23, which compelled all adult male Israelites to assemble under the covering blood of an innocent substitute. These natural festivals act out in pantomime the substance and reality of Spiritual antitypes in symbols to guide the believer back into Divine Presence and fellowship by expounding God's plan of redemption in the fulfillment of His promise to make Abraham the father of the Gentiles, and finally of an election of 144,000 blood Israelites.
The Feast of Trumpets concerns Israel's redemption. Israel is a nation of the blood of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. God only deals with Israel in the land of the Covenant, which is of no effect to those outside the land. The only place Israel will find God is where they left Him. They are compelled to return to Jerusalem and confront the Blood of the Lamb they crucified. Joel 2:32, "It shall come to pass, that all who call on the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the Lord has said, and in the remnant whom the Lord has called. . . for whoever does not humble his soul in that day shall be cut off from His people" (Leviticus 29:3; Acts 3:22-23).
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
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Oil Industry scales back Refinery Plans
A push from Congress and the White House for huge increases in biofuels, such as ethanol, is prompting the oil industry to scale back its plans for refinery expansions. That could keep gasoline prices high, possibly for years to come. With President Bush calling for a 20 percent drop in gasoline use and the Senate now debating legislation for huge increases in ethanol production, oil companies see growing uncertainty about future gasoline demand and little need to expand refineries or build new ones. Full story: truthout.org
Comment: In conjunction with the cutback of production at the wellhead in Iraq, a diminution of refinery capacity will reduce fuel supplies, increasing price and oil company profitability. This planned dis-investment as per the "Global 2000 Report to the President," and "Global Future, a Time to Act" which are correctly understood as political statements of intent on the part of such policy centers as the CFR, Trilateral Commission and the IMF, follow the neo-Malthusian "Limits to Growth" policies set forth by the Club of Rome. These policies will result in massive depopulation by restricting scientific and technological development, restricting technology transfer to the developing countries, restricting food production and preventing nuclear energy development.
World population levels can be determined by people themselves by financial, economic and scientific-technological policies adopted by peoples and their governments. Diversion of land use to the production of biofuels will increase food prices and induce population decrease; droughts will cause shortages, inflating fuel and food prices that will lead to impoverishment, famine, depopulation and the return to serfdom. Truly a diabolical plan.
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9th Circuit Hate Speech
Sadly, by co-mingling international law into the US Code, the US federal court system has succeeded in converting the unconditional rights and liberty possessed by Americans under the Bill of Rights into the conditional rights found in the UN Declaration on Human Rights. Under the First Amendment, "Congress shall make no laws respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peacefully to assemble, and to petition the government for redress of grievances." All of the restrictions are placed on government. None on the people.
However, in Articles 13 and 14 of the UN Covenant on Human Rights, we see the restrictions are shifted to the people with government serving as the grantor of conditional rights—and possessing the right to arbitrarily alter those rights whenever it deems necessary. Article 13 says: "Freedom to manifest one's religion or beliefs may be subject only to such limitations that are prescribed by law." Article 14 says: "The right to seek, receive and impart information and ideas carries with it special duties and responsibilities, and restrictions, but these shall be only as such as are provided by law". . . the courts no longer interpret our rights under the First Amendment as unconditional. Our "rights" are construed to be those provided under Articles 13 and 14 of the UN Covenant on Human Rights. . . The 9th Circuit understood something the US District Court hadn't grasped—the Bill of Rights has been replaced with a universal doctrine—the UN Covenant on Human Rights. And with that doctrine comes the "greater freedoms" of the communist-slanted totalitarian Orwellian New World Order. . . Full story: newswithviews.com
Comment: "As it was in the days of Lot" (Luke 17:28-30). Presidential edicts are pressing US citizens into the totalitarian one world government Jesus refused (Matthew 4:8-9).
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Pakistani Man can Personally sue FBI Director & Former US AG Ashcroft
Javaid Iqbal, a Muslim, was held for more than a year at a Brooklyn detention center after the September 11 attacks. . . abused and held for no legitimate reason. Full story: truthout.org
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Agent Orange, Mutagenic Weapons, and Big Pharma
June 14, 2007 - No less than 35 diseases and disorders are clearly connected to dioxin from generational birth deformities, chloracne, blindness, diabetes, mental retardation, and a number of cancers. Binding with protein molecules and not being water soluble, dioxin now sits deep in the soil, continually wreaking havoc on the environment and the populace, settling into the gene pool. . . Full story: truthout.org
Under the false pretense of improved food and drug safety the FDA is re-inventing itself as a kingpin drug company. This charade has so far hoodwinked virtually all members of Congress. The Senate has already approved this FDA transformation. The House will bring similar legislation out of committee next week, with a vote in the full House likely in July. The measure will then go to a conference committee to work out the differences. The final chapter in this transformation occurs when the Reagan-Udall Foundation for the FDA becomes law, which is scheduled to happen some time before September 30, 2007. . .
The Bush administration figured out that the fastest way to get the FDA out of the way of Big Pharma’s profits was to appoint FDA critics to key positions, thereby changing the FDA from within. . . Full story: newswithviews.com
Comment: "For without new Jerusalem are dogs, and sorcerers. . . and whosoever loves and makes a lie" (Malachi 3:5; Revelation 9:21; 18:23; 21:8; 22:15). Sorcery (Gk.'pharmakeia') or the use or the administering of drugs, poisoning, sorcery, magical arts and remedies, often in connection with idolatry. Now you can see the objective of Codex Alimentarius, restrictions on natural vitamin sales, growth and sale of natural herbs, etc.,
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Things Your Media Momma didn't tell You
June 15, 2007 – The fact that most Americans oppose the war in Iraq, and want the president impeached, is testimony to the native intelligence and common sense of the citizens of this nation.
It sure isn't thanks to the quality of the news we're getting here in America! . . Full story: freemarketnews.com
Comment: Now you know why Americans are so insular. So who runs the Media in America and throughout the world? Who is responsible for the lies, subterfuge, equivocation and mental reservation that is the wolf dressed-up as news and education? That's what Moses and Jesus thought (Deuteronomy 33:29; Joshua 9:3-23; Matthew 23:33-35; John 8:44; Revelation 2:9; 3:9). This is supported by the Babylonian Talmud (Iore Dea 157:2; Babha Kama 113a, b; Kallah 1b, p. 18; Schabbouth Hag. 6d; Zohar 1, 160a; Peshachim 113b ).
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The Feast of Trumpets - Part I
Genesis 1:14, "God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for appointed seasons of meeting, and for days, and years".
Leviticus 23 establishes the chronological sequence and duration of the seasons of man's mortal journey through time to redemption and glorification in eternity, or loss. This is typed by the three feasts that fall at certain points in the harvest season and form part of an elaborate system of sacred times based on the sacred number seven, which signifies sabbath, completion, rest and redemption. (Eight signifies eternal rest, new creation, the last Adam's Kingdom in new Jerusalem on a renewed heaven and earth).
Every adult male Israelite was bound to attend these three feasts, beginning with Passover and the Feast of Unleavened bread at the opening of the barley harvest; followed eight days later by Pentecost and the commencement of the wheat harvest, and finally by the Feast of Tabernacles, which ended the harvest with the ripening of the fruit of the trees.
Leviticus 23:2-3, "Tell the children of Israel: These are the appointed times of the Lord, which you shall proclaim as holy convocations, My fixed, appointed times. Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is a sabbath of complete rest, a holy convocation when you shall do no work at all: it is a sabbath to the Lord in all your dwellings".
A "holy convocation" is a sacred assembly in which no servile work is to be done. Whereas the Church Age saints labored throughout seven sabbaths wherein the Book was shut (Leviticus 23:6-14; Revelation 1-3) trying to 'work out' the meaning of Scriptures, the revelation of the Seven Seals finished the mystery of God giving us the perfect interpretation of His Word (I Corinthians 13:10). When the Seven Church Ages and Christ's Mediation were fulfilled, those who constitute Christ's end-time Bride began to be born into the "holy convocation" of the fiftieth day of the Pentecostal Feast (Leviticus 23:15-19). We do no servile work but rest, like Ruth after her gleaning, waiting for the fulfillment of the promise when our Boaz, having received His claim (Revelation 5), returns to take us Home after the last member of the Bride has come in (Leviticus 23:20-21).
The sabbath is found in the history of creation (Genesis 2:3), which is the groundwork of Moses' inspiration. From time immemorial the week has been divided into seven days (Genesis 8:10-12; 29:27-28; Exodus 16:5, 23). An Assyrian calendar discovered by George Smith divided every month into four weeks, and marked out the seventh days as days in which no work should be done. This follows the pattern in which God divided His work into six portions and sanctified the seventh on which He rested and watched His spoken Word manifest what he had spoken. The Divine rest was not one of twenty-four hours, but an eternal sabbath signifying the baptism of the Holy Spirit. This is our earnest of eternal rest, not the observation of sabbath day (Isaiah 66:23; Ephesians 1:13-14; Hebrews 4:10).
All mankind is included in the seventh day rest for the body and mortal spirit, "for the rhythm of life is a powerful beat. . ." but only Israel is commanded to observe it, and on a Saturday (Exodus 20:10-11). Needless and avoidable work was forbidden, but like other feasts it was to be a day of enjoyment. The fact that God, speaking through His prophet David 500 years after Joshua had led the people of Israel into their rest in the Promised Land, speaks of another day in which His voice will call them to enter into His rest (Psalm 95:7-11; Hebrews 4:1-11) proves that the rest of God, which has existed since the creation, is not identical with the rest secured by Joshua (Exodus 38:14; Deuteronomy 3:20; Joshua 1:13-15).
God deals with Israel as a nation: their covenant is of no effect outside the Promised Land, and their sabbath day can only be observed in that place. Jesus came not to destroy but to fulfill and magnify the Law that was given to train a perverse nation devoid of faith (Deuteronomy 32:20; Isaiah 42:21; Matthew 5:17). Jesus said, "Come unto Me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you sabbath for your souls" (Matthew 11:28-30). We enter the rest of God when the Holy Ghost baptizes us into our place in His Body, making us written epistles of the present Truth of His Word. When Jesus overcame the works of the Devil, He ceased from His works as God did from His. So when we are baptized into Him, we too have overcome and entered the rest of God — that eternal sabbath of which new birth is the Token (II Corinthians 5:13-21; Ephesians 1:13-14; I John 3:5-10).
Those who claim to be Christians yet observe Israel's sabbath day deny Christ's resurrection and the baptism with the Holy Ghost. One day is as a thousand years with the Lord but because of the Fall man has not lived one day (Genesis 2:17), and expelled from rest, he is compelled to labour against sin through six days of a thousand years until the sabbath of the millennium for overcomers, followed by the eighth day, which is eternity. Christians are "seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus," or recognized in our place in the Logos, and potentially in the eighth day (Ephesians 2:6).
God can only redeem or "buy back" those who are a part of His creation: attributes of the Logos — a penitent people of faith who having lost their way have been found by grace. God can only redeem His own Word — the lineage of Adam. He cannot redeem the descendants of Seth's half-brother Cain who are not in Adam's race and have no kinsman Redeemer. The Book of Genesis traces the history of two lines of humanity from Eden, through the Flood, to the era of the Exodus when Israel became a nation separated to God from all other peoples of Adam's race because of Jehovah's respect to the faith of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Miscegenation between Eve and the Satan-incarnate man-like animal called the Serpent produced a hybrid species in Cain and his offspring, who are not a part of God's creation. Here we see the groundwork of the reward for obedience promised in the second commandment, "You shall make for yourself no idol in the likeness of anything in the heavens above, or on the earth below or in the waters under the earth; you shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate Me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love Me and keep My Commandments".
God is faithful. The first Israelites were several generations removed from the third and fourth generation of the patriarchs whose faith God honoured to their unmerited benefit. A similar promise is granted to the Spiritual descendants of the New Testament fathers. I Corinthians 7:14, "The unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband: else were your children unclean; but now are they holy." Brother Branham commanded us to keep the Token or evidence of the Life of Christ on display to sanctify our house and help maintain the names of our loved ones in the Book of Life thereby securing their salvation.
On the first Passover the faithful head of every Israelite household sacrificed a lamb and painted its blood on the lintel and door posts of his house, not on the threshold where it would be trodden underfoot. And the angel of death, seeing he had met God's requirement would pass over his house and spare the lives of the firstborn because all who entered that door were secure by his faith in God's promise and under the blood of the substitute. This was the evidence an innocent life had died in their stead as it had for Adam and Eve; a perfect type of Christ's sacrifice. Hold the Token over your house.
The life of the animal could not come back upon human beings as an evidence of salvation because animals do not possess a soul, but Christ had a soul and the baptism with the Holy Ghost is our Token that His Life has come back upon us. Jesus was no mere human being, He was God manifest in flesh. The Token is His Life on display in us and the evidence that we, like Him, are the Sons of God. The Token is our identification with God's Passover and His acceptance of our faith in His plan of redemption. Israel displayed the chemistry of animal blood as their evidence, the Church Age saints claimed the symbol of Christ's Blood; and since the opening of the Seven Seals has released the fullness of the Spirit to quicken the fullness of the Word, the Life of Christ on display is our Token. He met Jehovah's requirements at Calvary; you meet them on your knees by faith. There God gives you the Token that the Spirit that was upon Christ has returned into you. This is the guarantee of your resurrection and eternal Life. "These signs shall follow you who believe," and "the works that I do shall you do also." Your identification is to manifest the promised Word of this day by the same Spirit that manifested and quickened the Word then, showing that the Token, which is the resurrected Life of Jesus Christ, is living in you.
As Paul illustrates in Hebrews 11, God is powerless to redeem or heal anyone who does not possess faith. His Word can only work by faith. God reveals Himself in nature and symbols, communicating His will to His prophets through visions, dreams and inspired utterance. Thereafter it is recorded and propagated by men and women of faith: "faith comes by hearing, and hearing comes by the preaching of God's revealed Word" (Romans 10:17). Thus faith flourishes in families and communities of believing ears so when God is able to get one man completely under preeminence, say an Abraham who is sincere and can get people to believe him, His Word will bring forth fruit (Mark 4:20). The works will be reported, attracting men and women of faith to follow and watch as faith continues to unfold, then God will raise up other prophets through whom He can shine further Light on the prophecy. Abraham is called the father of faith, and is the father of faith to we Gentiles as his new name implies (Genesis 17:5).
Abraham's faith spread through his immediate family. His grandson Jacob went down to Egypt with seventy souls, and two hundred and ten years later at midnight on Nisan 15, Moses departed with a nation numbering about 1.8 million. In one night Israel was born as a natural nation, chosen to spread God's revelation to all of Adam's race.
Exodus 12:2-3, "Hereafter this month shall be for you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year for you. Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man shall take a lamb for his family, one lamb for each house".
The lamb was roasted whole so that not a bone of its body is broken (verse 46), and eaten by everyone under the blood within the house. They were to eat as a community, as the community of faith share the Lord's Supper, "for we being many are one bread and one Body; for we are all partakers of that one bread" (I Corinthians 10:17), and in readiness to start their journey as are we, having judged ourselves and tarried one for another. The seven days of unleavened bread was contemporaneous with the Passover and its real symbolism was the removal of Egyptian leaven, symbolizing an entire separation from everything Egyptian. God's Word calls for a total separation from unbelief. I Corinthians 5:6-8, "Your boasting in your own righteousness and sanctification is deplorable when you tolerate fornication in your midst. Don't you know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven, that you may be another lump, pure and unleavened. For Christ our Passover has been sacrificed for us: let us therefore celebrate the feast, not with the old leaven, and not with the leaven of iniquity and wickedness that is not ashamed to break laws; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth". Leaven symbolizes transmission and fellowship, we are to eliminate the leaven of our old Egyptian character, corrupt doctrine, gossip, legalism or anything likely to diffuse its influence from our personal life throughout the congregation. Sin must not be tolerated, it must be excised.
The Passover was the greatest of all the annual festivals of Israel, and was the only one resting upon a distinct historical and miraculous event, and the only one, the neglect of which was accompanied with the penalty of excision (Numbers 9:18). The obligation to observe it was so emphatic that a second Passover was observed in the following month for those who were prevented from keeping it by reason of absence or defilement with a dead body, and all Israel is defiled by contact with the body of Jesus Messiah (Matthew 27:25; John 11:49-52).
The Passover commemorated the dreadful night of judgment and deliverance in which the nation of Israel was born, the Feast of Unleavened Bread signified Israel's separation from the fleshly lusts of Egypt (Numbers 11:15). In the antitype, Christ died as kinsman Redeemer taking our sins upon Himself and bearing them away. The unleavened bread was "bread of affliction" as it had been Israel's "affliction," and a mark of their bondage and subjection to the Egyptians, to be driven forth in such "haste" as not even to have time for leavening their bread (Deuteronomy 16:3; Exodus 12:33, 39). In the antitype the first day represents the pure Word of God Christ preached as a witness of judgment to souls imprisoned in chains of darkness, and vindication of deliverance to the Old Testament saints over the chasm in Paradise. The remaining six days represent the Alpha Age of Pentecost which held the pure faith once delivered to the apostolic saints unleavened by creed and tradition. As bread is the staff of natural life, Christ the Word is the Bread from heaven and staff of Spiritual Life, which if a man eat he shall never die.
After Christ the firstfruits of the new creation was "reaped" on Calvary's cross, His body was buried but His theophany descended into the place of the departed where he witnessed to the lost souls who had rejected the Message of God's prophets. On the Day of Pentecost He re-entered and resurrected His body in glorified form and was "waved" before the Lord as the firstfruits of those who had fallen asleep. He ascended on High and with His own blood cleansed the heavenly sanctuary of the sins of the Old Testament saints; then He descended, and raised the Old Testament saints who had been captives of death to glorified captives of eternal Life.
Leviticus 23:4-14 specifies when the Feast of Unleavened Bread should be held, lays down strict requirements for the first and last days, which are to be holy convocations, and appoints a special observance for the day after the Sabbath, which was resurrection Sunday, known to Israel as the Feast of First Fruits, on which the priests present the Lord with a wave offering consisting of a single sheaf of barley offered on behalf of the whole nation.
This represented the first produce of the barley harvest just then beginning. According to Leviticus 23:10-14, the bread was made of unleavened flour from the previous year's harvest. No significance or symbolism is attached to the flour's age, and there is no mention of which grain was used, nor is any specialty accorded the bread denoted in Scripture. It was simply bread. Nothing from the new harvest could be used or eaten until the offering was presented. The barley harvest in Nisan was the first harvest of the year. Since fruit of a single sheaf represents one Man in his risen state, we see in this a type of the resurrection of Messiah, who had to be waved and accepted as representative of the whole harvest before the Old Testament saints could partake the same eternal Life.
John 12:23-25, "Jesus said, The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified. Truly, I assure you, unless a corn of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone: but if it dies, it brings forth much fruit. He who loves his life shall lose it; and he who hates his life in this world will preserve it to eternal Life.
Jesus was the original Seed, the forerunner and Spiritual progenitor of every Son of Adam willing to renounce this world for the promises of God, even at the cost of his life, with the assurance of eternal Life. Like a seed, he will not expire but progress to a superior form of life, and God will raise him to glory in an incorruptible body.
1 Corinthians 15:35-38, 42-44, "Some will ask, How are the dead restored to life, and what kind of bodies will they have? What a foolish question! You will find the answer in your own garden! What you sow does not grow into a plant unless it dies first. Nor is the seed you sow the body that is to be, but bare grain of wheat, or whatever it is you are planting: then God gives it the body of His choice according to the kind of seed. . . So is the resurrection of the dead, our earthly bodies which die and decay are different from the glorified bodies we will have in the resurrection. What was sown was perishable, what is raised is imperishable. The bodies we now have were sown in dishonour, for they become sick and die; but they will be full of glory when we come back to life again, for they will be raised in glory and strength. It was sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body".
Your present body is like random, perishable seed and no comparison to the glorified body you will inherit at the translation when you will be mature like ripened grain. And although the Church Age saints first returned to the earth in a kind of death pending the first resurrection, you will be changed in the atoms without death.
Unlike our day, which begins after midnight, the Hebrew day begins after 6.00 pm. God's Passover was slain and prepared between 3.00 pm and 6.00 pm on Friday, Nisan 14, and eaten some time after 6.00 pm the same night, which was Nisan 15, a sabbath and the commencement of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The Feast of Firstfruits fell on Nisan 16, which was resurrection Sunday as recorded in Matthew 28:1-6 (in which the words "In the end of the sabbath" belong to chapter 27), and in John 18:28 and 19:31.
The time of the Feast of Weeks was determined by the Passover and commenced on Nisan 16, or resurrection Sunday on which Messiah was waved before the Lord, I Corinthians 15:20, "Now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept." Pentecost followed fifty-two days after Passover at the completion and close of the wheat harvest. It was celebrated with thanksgiving for it types the Pentecostal Jubilee and our meeting with the saints in the air. Whereas the Old Testament saints were represented by the harvest of barley — its inferiority to wheat being marked by the offering of barley in the ordeal of jealousy (Numbers 5:15; Hosea 3:2) — as Christ's "wheat Bride" and Israel's Queen we are represented by the most noble of grains.
We are ready to be offered as two loaves of bread baked with leaven and made with flour of the first fruits sifted fine, indicating Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and forever. This new wave offering represents the Alpha Bride born of the apostolic faith and the Omega Bride born of the same faith restored by the prophet of Malachi 4:5-6 (Romans 15:16). The Alpha and Omega Bride are identical as God showed Brother Branham in a vision recorded in The Masterpiece. The day after the earthquake sinks Los Angeles, which will be the same night by Hebrew reckoning, we will witness to our loved ones and all we meet as Jesus witnessed to the departed souls. The following day we will be waved before the Lord as Christ was waved on Nisan 16 two days after the earthquake that marked the breach in Jehovah's relationship with Israel (Daniel 9:26; I Peter 3:19-20; Jude 5-6). Our acceptance will signify God's consecration of the whole harvest of the Alpha and Omega Ages and the PART-Word saints in-between. Since we are "baked with the leaven" of corruptible flesh we cannot be offered as a burnt offering, an assurance Christ's Bride will not go through the tribulation. As the former rain began to fall on that first day of Pentecost, the latter rain will fall on this first day of Pentecost, initiating the resurrection of the sleeping saints and the manifestation of the living Sons of God. Then on the fiftieth day we shall be "changed and caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: so shall we forever be with the Lord".
The two wave loaves were seven palms in length and four in breadth, signifying "the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" in His Bride of all Ages redeemed by the seven-fold Spirit of God under the first Four Seals. They were made the day prior to, or in the event of a sabbath preceding, two days before the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, on Nisan 14. This shows (in type) that His end-time Bride with the perfect interpretation of the Word (I Corinthians 13:10; Revelation 10:7) was fully redeemed in Christ on Calvary, for at the close of the Laodicean Church Age redemption is over. Whereas the saints of Pentecost and the Church Ages required Christ's mediation for their ignorance of the fullness of the Word, when He opened and revealed the Seven Seals, all seven sabbaths or Church Ages were fulfilled and there was no further delay for mediation, yet we were not born-again (Revelation 10:6). This proves that our dispensation is the holy convocation typed by the fiftieth day of the feast when all servile work is prohibited, including mediation for ignorance. But with "the true sayings of God" (Revelation 19:9; 22:10) we do not need mediation, and as we are all members of one Body, they cannot be resurrected and glorified without us. Brother Branham said, "These people who died in here are depending and waiting on us." Let us not keep them waiting.
One loaf was given to the high priest typing Christ the Principal Man, the other to the ordinary priests or seven shepherds who officiated during His absence. It was eaten that same night in the temple, and no fragment was suffered to remain till the morning, signifying that when we go Home we will not leave so much as a hoof left behind. Praise the Lord! Then the Angel of the Lord will reveal Himself to Israel in the office of Son of man (Revelation 7:1-2).
Pentecost signified the restoration of the Law to Israel, but the Pentecostal Feast was never celebrated until Israel had entered her natural rest in Canaan, God's provided place for them to live and worship (Leviticus 23:10). Canaan with its wars and killing does not type the millennium, but the time of overcoming, which in the antitype was the Church Ages when the full number of Spiritual Israel was gathered in to her promised rest. For Israel this will be the time of Jacob's trouble and the in-gathering of their 144,000 elect. After the catching-away of the Bride, God will anoint two Hebrew prophets with the Spirit that endued Moses and Elijah to reveal whence the nation fell. "Remember the Law of My servant Moses, the statutes and judgments which I commanded Him in Horeb for all Israel." They will place Scripture in history to expound their seven Trumpet judgments and introduce Messiah's 'parousia' Coming with His Bride, their Queen.
James 1:18, "Of His own will He gave us new birth by the Word of truth, so that we might be a kind of firstfruits in His Family." But after the harvest of the field, the husbandman was to leave some grain for the poor in revelation and those unfamiliar with the faith to glean during the tribulation and retain their names on the Book of Life (Leviticus 23:22).
Leviticus 23:23-25, "The Lord said to Moses, Tell the children of Israel, In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, you shall have a sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, an holy convocation. You shall do no servile work, and you shall offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord".
Three of the appointed times of meeting fall in Tishri, the seventh month of the harvest season, and their antitypes apply exclusively to the nation of Israel as the work of redeeming the nation begun on the first Passover will conclude with the true Atonement of the nation on the tenth day of Tishri and the restoration of the kingdom to Israel typed by the seventh day of the Feast of Tabernacles, which speaks of that day of millennial rest no man has completed.
The first of Tishri was new year's day in the civil year and commenced the sabbatical month in which the sabbatical year and year of Jubilee completed the cycle of harvest feasts in the ecclesiastical year, the natural typing the Spiritual. It was the month of ingathering the last of the ripe fruits, the vintage and the olive, as well as ploughing and sowing at the start of a new cycle. The first of Tishri is a holy convocation, a Feast of Trumpets fashioned from the silver half shekel ransom of souls (Exodus 30:11-16; Numbers 10:2, 10). Their sound represents the Voice of God: to some it will be the joyous sound of redemption, to others foreboding judgment and doom (Isaiah 58:1; Hosea 8:1; Revelation 1:10; 4:1).
The Feast of Trumpets is a memorial that reminds Israel of their Covenant and puts God in remembrance of His promises (Isaiah 43:22-28), an announcement from the King that the glad sabbatical month has begun, and that the great day of atonement is at hand. In the modern service of the synagogue, Psalm 81 is read at the Feast of Trumpets which they regard as a commemoration of the creation, when "all the Sons of God shouted for joy" (Job 38:7). The rabbins may not understand that from the foundation of the world God foresaw us shouting for joy at the revelation of our redemption in Jesus Messiah and the promise of a renewed creation.
At the end our holy convocation and the Gentile dispensation, Israel's Seventh Trumpet will shatter the "silence in heaven about the space of half an hour" (Revelation 11:15-19), call the resurrection of the PART-Word Bride, the manifestation of the living Sons of God, and our translation and catching-away to the Wedding Supper of the Lamb in the Sky (I Corinthians 15:52; I Thessalonians 4:16). In Isaiah 26:13 it is called "the great trumpet".
As the ministry of the prophet of Revelation 10:7 revealed the mystery of the six written Seals in the exposition of the unwritten Seventh Seal, under the Seventh Trumpet two prophets will reveal the mystery of the previous Six Trumpet judgments upon Israel (Revelation 8:6-9:21; 11:15-19). Matthew 24:31, "Jesus Messiah will send His angels, (two Hebrew prophets), with the great sound of a trumpet, and their Message will gather His elect from the four winds (war and strife – Revelation 7:1-3), from one end of heaven to the other" into the 'Goshen' of Israel (Revelation 7:1-3; 11:3-6). These men are waiting for the manifestation of the Sixth Seal and Seventh Trumpet that will end the Gentile dispensation, then they will be anointed with the Spirit and authority that endued Moses and Elijah to reveal Israel's Trumpet mysteries. This three and a half-year ministry will be the antitype of the Feast of Trumpets, gathering an election of 144,000 from "the house of Judah and the house of Israel out of the north country into the land of their forefathers" (Jeremiah 3:18) for the revelation of their atonement. Then Israel will mourn the iniquity of Talmudic Judaism by which the Pharisees caused their forefathers to kill Messiah (Leviticus 23:32; Jeremiah 6:26; Amos 8:10; Zechariah 12:10-14:9; Matthew 15:9; 27:25; John 7:1; Revelation 1:7).
Leviticus 23:26-32, "The Lord said to Moses, The tenth day of the seventh month shall be the Day of Atonement: it shall be a holy convocation. You shall afflict your souls and present an offering by fire to the Lord. On this day you shall do no work of any kind: for it is a day of Atonement, to make atonement for you in the Presence of the Lord your God. For whoever is not afflicted in this day shall be cut off from His people. And whosoever does any work on this same day, that soul will I destroy from among the people. You shall do no work whatever: it is an everlasting ordinance throughout your generations in all your dwellings. It shall be for you a sabbath of solemn rest, and you shall afflict your souls on the ninth day of the month beginning at eventide; from evening to evening you shall keep your sabbath".
It was on this day of national humiliation, enjoined in law, that types Israel's soon-coming realization of her great sin and humiliation in the recognition of Christ's 'parousia,' repentance and rebirth in one day (Isaiah 66:8), and not on the first of the month, that the Jubilee was to be proclaimed and will soon be proclaimed. Thereafter "the remnant of the woman's seed that keep the commandments of God (the nation of 144,000 elect Israelites), and have the testimony of Jesus Christ (the foolish virgin and other groups of "saved" non-elect Gentiles), will be hunted down like dogs and give their life for their testimony" (Revelation 6:11; 12:11, 17).
This was a day of expiation and fasting from the evening of the ninth to the evening of the tenth, five days before the Feast of Tabernacles which implied rest in Israel's inheritance, and atonement must precede the realization of rest. This was a day upon which the holy convocation must have been kept in the home. It is significant that it should fall upon the tenth day: ten is the number of closed history, the reckoning of the double five, of well-used or badly-used free moral agency, the number of judgment — what Brother Branham called a "bad" number.
Leviticus 16 pronounces observance of the Day of Atonement as a day of national purification, a preliminary condition for participating in the great obligatory Feast of Tabernacles or ingathering (of souls). Yet all of its legal atonements could not bring full purification under the blood of bulls and goats as indicated by the goat for Azazel, with which the Levitical atonement sends inexpiated sins away to a future and real atonement (Romans 3:25; Hebrews 10:1-10). The two goats represented one sacrifice (as did the two turtledoves – Leviticus 14:4-7; 48-53); they represent Jesus Messiah who both died for our sins and carried them away to a place of no remembrance (Hebrews 9:28). We can only "joy in the Lord" when "through our Lord Jesus Christ we have now received the atonement" (Romans 5:11).
The high priest placed two lots into an urn, into which he put both his hands and took out a lot in each, while the two goats stood before him, one on the right, the other on the left; the lot in each hand belonged to the goat in corresponding position: when the lot "for Azazel" was in the right, it was a good omen. He then tied a tongue-shaped piece of scarlet cloth on the goat for complete sending away or removal, and according to the Gemara, "the red cloth ought to turn white as a token of God's acceptance of the atonement; which illustrates Isaiah 1:18, "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow." No such change took place for 40 years before the destruction of Jerusalem; a signal testimony from Jewish authority to Messiah, as His ministry was precisely 40 years before the destruction of the holy city; the type ceased when the Antitype came.
"Living, He loved me. Dying, He saved me.
Buried, He carried my sins far away.
Rising He justified freely forever:
One day He's coming — Oh glorious day!"
"Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say, rejoice!" All of Israel's feasts were celebrations of joy before the Lord, except the fast of the Day of Atonement.
The sin of Israel having been removed, the Feast of Tabernacles occupied a week from the fifteenth to the twenty-second of the seventh month. The first day was a holy convocation as a memorial of Israel's wandering in the wilderness and dwelling in tents when God revealed His Attributes which would later identify Him in Messiah:
Jehovah-Jireh - the Lord our Provider (Exodus 16:11-16; Matthew 14:15-21).
Jehovah-Rapha - the Lord our Healer (Exodus 15:26; Matthew 4:23).
Jehovah-Nissi - the Lord our Banner (Exodus 17:8-15; Revelation 19:11-16).
Jehovah-Shalom - the Lord our Peace (Judges 6:22-24; Luke 19:38).
Jehovah-Raah - the Lord my Shepherd (Numbers 27:17; Matthew 26:31).
Jehovah-Tsidkenu - the Lord our Righteousness (Jeremiah 23:6; Romans 10:4).
Jehovah-Shammah - the Lord is Present (Ezekiel 48:35; Revelation 21:3).
Whereas Pentecost typed the firstfruits of the world's harvest in an ingathering of an election from all seventy nations, the Feast of Tabernacles typifies the completion of that final and universal harvest in a spiritual ingathering of the fruit of six thousand years for the millennium. Whereas the first day was a sabbath which Adam and Eve broke, the eighth day is an eternal sabbath that will never be broken. However, it is not our intention to teach in depth on the Feast of Tabernacles as our purpose is to lay the groundwork for a study of the antitype of the Feast of Trumpets.
The Feast of Tabernacles is referred to in John 7 where Jesus alludes to the custom of drawing water from Siloam in a gold goblet on the last day of the feast and pouring it mingled with wine on the sacrifice on the altar with great rejoicing. It was to the Words of Isaiah 12:3, which were repeated in commemoration of the water drawn from the rock in the desert, that Jesus said, "If any one thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. I am the living Rock of living water. For Scripture declares that rivers of living water shall flow from the innermost being of he who believes in Me." He spoke concerning the baptism with the Holy Spirit which was to come. Coming the next day at daybreak to the temple court as they were extinguishing the artificial lights, two colossal golden candlesticks in the centre of the temple court, recalling the pillar of fire in the wilderness, He said, "I am the Light of the world" (John 8:1-2, 13). As the sun by natural light was eclipsing the artificial lights, so Jesus implied, "I, the Sun of righteousness, am superseding your typical light".
"The great last day of the feast" is the eighth day marked by a service in memory of the dead and a special prayer for rain. Joy was the prominent feature, the feast was called Hosanna, "save we beseech Thee." This cry had accompanied Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem on the first day of the Feast, "And Jesus went into the temple of God, drove out the merchants, and overturned the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of those who sold doves. . . but when the chief priests and scribes saw His miracles of healing, and heard even little children in the temple shouting, Hosanna to the Son of David; they were indignant. . . In the morning as He was returning to the city, He was hungry, and noticed a fig tree besides the road. He went over to see if there were any figs, but there were only leaves. Then He said, Let there be no fruit on you forever, and instantly the tree withered" (Matthew 21). The fig tree, represented Israel, whose apostate chief priests, elders, and Pharisees caused the nation to reject and crucify their King who came not to destroy, but having salvation in Himself (Zechariah 9:9-13). "Behold, your temple is forsaken of God and desolate. For I tell you, You will not see Me again, until you say, Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord" (Matthew 23:38-39).
Zechariah 9:10 and Isaiah 11 refer to the future restoration of Israel after their long dispersion whereas the antitype of the Feast of Tabernacles connected with Isaiah 12 is the thanksgiving hymn of the born-again Israelites, just as the other two great feasts, Passover and Pentecost have their antitype respectively in Christ's sacrifice for we Gentiles, and in His writing His new law in our hearts.
The trumpet call on the first of Tishri was not only in connection with the central sanctuary as it was from time to time throughout the year, but on this day it was a universal proclamation throughout the land of Israel to announce the day of Atonement and Feast of Tabernacles are at hand, typing the full consummation of the Kingdom of God. In the antitype, the final sabbath month will result in Israel's repentance and Spiritual restoration, and the consequent reappearing of Israel's High Priest, Jesus Messiah from within the veil (Acts 3:19-21), or the recognition of His 'parousia' by 144,000 elect Israelites, followed by the harvest of the world (Revelation 14; 19) and reversal of the curse of Genesis 3:19-21.
In the antitype of Israel's Feast of Trumpets the Message of "Moses" and "Elijah" will call the nation out of spiritual Egypt by bringing the past to remembrance: their rejection of Abraham's grace Covenant at Kadesh, the conditional Covenant they dishonoured at Sinai, their disobedience to the prophets, the apostasy of Israel followed by Judah's apostasy, the development of Babylonian Pharisaism, assimilation and miscegenation with the Jebusites, Amorites, Hivites, Hittites, Perizzites and Edomites, the murder of Messiah at Calvary, assimilation and miscegenation with the Khazars, and their ongoing wickedness under the dominion of Edom. Their prophets will identify indisputable historical facts with prophetic truth as Bible Believers' Church has done in a more humble work based on the ministry of William Branham, the "Elijah" of Malachi 4:5-6. The fruit of their ministry will be the Spiritual awakening of 144,000 elect Israelites to repentance, pardon and true Atonement, or new birth, ensuring their part in the antitype of the seventh day of the Feast of Tabernacles, which will be the Millennium. But first they will be martyred by the Judaeo-Roman Catholic church and the non-Semitic, anti-Semitic so-called Jews. nl481.htm
Homework: Please review Old Testament Shadows and Types.
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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 in other countries. He pastors Bible Believers' tiny congregation, and is available to teach in your church.
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"We focus on the present Truth – what Jesus is doing now. . ."
ISSN 1442-8660
Christian greetings in the precious Name of our Lord Jesus Christ. We are pleased you could join us in fellowship around God's unchanging Word.
In this issue we will begin a study on Israel's Feast of Trumpets whose antitype will manifest following the soon-coming earthquakes that will sink Los Angeles, trigger the Pacific ring of fire and split the mount of Olives, demolishing the Dome of the Rock and al Aqsa Mosque to ignite the "hot" stage of World War III. These climactic events will signal the close of the Gentile dispensation and the commencement of Daniel's Seventieth Week in which the Lord will gather an elect remnant of the twelve tribes of Israel back to their Homeland for redemption. In this first installment of our study we will consider the groundwork set forth by Moses in Israel's great annual harvest festivals of Leviticus 23, which compelled all adult male Israelites to assemble under the covering blood of an innocent substitute. These natural festivals act out in pantomime the substance and reality of Spiritual antitypes in symbols to guide the believer back into Divine Presence and fellowship by expounding God's plan of redemption in the fulfillment of His promise to make Abraham the father of the Gentiles, and finally of an election of 144,000 blood Israelites.
The Feast of Trumpets concerns Israel's redemption. Israel is a nation of the blood of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. God only deals with Israel in the land of the Covenant, which is of no effect to those outside the land. The only place Israel will find God is where they left Him. They are compelled to return to Jerusalem and confront the Blood of the Lamb they crucified. Joel 2:32, "It shall come to pass, that all who call on the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the Lord has said, and in the remnant whom the Lord has called. . . for whoever does not humble his soul in that day shall be cut off from His people" (Leviticus 29:3; Acts 3:22-23).
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
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Oil Industry scales back Refinery Plans
A push from Congress and the White House for huge increases in biofuels, such as ethanol, is prompting the oil industry to scale back its plans for refinery expansions. That could keep gasoline prices high, possibly for years to come. With President Bush calling for a 20 percent drop in gasoline use and the Senate now debating legislation for huge increases in ethanol production, oil companies see growing uncertainty about future gasoline demand and little need to expand refineries or build new ones. Full story: truthout.org
Comment: In conjunction with the cutback of production at the wellhead in Iraq, a diminution of refinery capacity will reduce fuel supplies, increasing price and oil company profitability. This planned dis-investment as per the "Global 2000 Report to the President," and "Global Future, a Time to Act" which are correctly understood as political statements of intent on the part of such policy centers as the CFR, Trilateral Commission and the IMF, follow the neo-Malthusian "Limits to Growth" policies set forth by the Club of Rome. These policies will result in massive depopulation by restricting scientific and technological development, restricting technology transfer to the developing countries, restricting food production and preventing nuclear energy development.
World population levels can be determined by people themselves by financial, economic and scientific-technological policies adopted by peoples and their governments. Diversion of land use to the production of biofuels will increase food prices and induce population decrease; droughts will cause shortages, inflating fuel and food prices that will lead to impoverishment, famine, depopulation and the return to serfdom. Truly a diabolical plan.
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9th Circuit Hate Speech
Sadly, by co-mingling international law into the US Code, the US federal court system has succeeded in converting the unconditional rights and liberty possessed by Americans under the Bill of Rights into the conditional rights found in the UN Declaration on Human Rights. Under the First Amendment, "Congress shall make no laws respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peacefully to assemble, and to petition the government for redress of grievances." All of the restrictions are placed on government. None on the people.
However, in Articles 13 and 14 of the UN Covenant on Human Rights, we see the restrictions are shifted to the people with government serving as the grantor of conditional rights—and possessing the right to arbitrarily alter those rights whenever it deems necessary. Article 13 says: "Freedom to manifest one's religion or beliefs may be subject only to such limitations that are prescribed by law." Article 14 says: "The right to seek, receive and impart information and ideas carries with it special duties and responsibilities, and restrictions, but these shall be only as such as are provided by law". . . the courts no longer interpret our rights under the First Amendment as unconditional. Our "rights" are construed to be those provided under Articles 13 and 14 of the UN Covenant on Human Rights. . . The 9th Circuit understood something the US District Court hadn't grasped—the Bill of Rights has been replaced with a universal doctrine—the UN Covenant on Human Rights. And with that doctrine comes the "greater freedoms" of the communist-slanted totalitarian Orwellian New World Order. . . Full story: newswithviews.com
Comment: "As it was in the days of Lot" (Luke 17:28-30). Presidential edicts are pressing US citizens into the totalitarian one world government Jesus refused (Matthew 4:8-9).
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Pakistani Man can Personally sue FBI Director & Former US AG Ashcroft
Javaid Iqbal, a Muslim, was held for more than a year at a Brooklyn detention center after the September 11 attacks. . . abused and held for no legitimate reason. Full story: truthout.org
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Agent Orange, Mutagenic Weapons, and Big Pharma
June 14, 2007 - No less than 35 diseases and disorders are clearly connected to dioxin from generational birth deformities, chloracne, blindness, diabetes, mental retardation, and a number of cancers. Binding with protein molecules and not being water soluble, dioxin now sits deep in the soil, continually wreaking havoc on the environment and the populace, settling into the gene pool. . . Full story: truthout.org
Under the false pretense of improved food and drug safety the FDA is re-inventing itself as a kingpin drug company. This charade has so far hoodwinked virtually all members of Congress. The Senate has already approved this FDA transformation. The House will bring similar legislation out of committee next week, with a vote in the full House likely in July. The measure will then go to a conference committee to work out the differences. The final chapter in this transformation occurs when the Reagan-Udall Foundation for the FDA becomes law, which is scheduled to happen some time before September 30, 2007. . .
The Bush administration figured out that the fastest way to get the FDA out of the way of Big Pharma’s profits was to appoint FDA critics to key positions, thereby changing the FDA from within. . . Full story: newswithviews.com
Comment: "For without new Jerusalem are dogs, and sorcerers. . . and whosoever loves and makes a lie" (Malachi 3:5; Revelation 9:21; 18:23; 21:8; 22:15). Sorcery (Gk.'pharmakeia') or the use or the administering of drugs, poisoning, sorcery, magical arts and remedies, often in connection with idolatry. Now you can see the objective of Codex Alimentarius, restrictions on natural vitamin sales, growth and sale of natural herbs, etc.,
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Things Your Media Momma didn't tell You
June 15, 2007 – The fact that most Americans oppose the war in Iraq, and want the president impeached, is testimony to the native intelligence and common sense of the citizens of this nation.
It sure isn't thanks to the quality of the news we're getting here in America! . . Full story: freemarketnews.com
Comment: Now you know why Americans are so insular. So who runs the Media in America and throughout the world? Who is responsible for the lies, subterfuge, equivocation and mental reservation that is the wolf dressed-up as news and education? That's what Moses and Jesus thought (Deuteronomy 33:29; Joshua 9:3-23; Matthew 23:33-35; John 8:44; Revelation 2:9; 3:9). This is supported by the Babylonian Talmud (Iore Dea 157:2; Babha Kama 113a, b; Kallah 1b, p. 18; Schabbouth Hag. 6d; Zohar 1, 160a; Peshachim 113b ).
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The Feast of Trumpets - Part I
Genesis 1:14, "God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for appointed seasons of meeting, and for days, and years".
Leviticus 23 establishes the chronological sequence and duration of the seasons of man's mortal journey through time to redemption and glorification in eternity, or loss. This is typed by the three feasts that fall at certain points in the harvest season and form part of an elaborate system of sacred times based on the sacred number seven, which signifies sabbath, completion, rest and redemption. (Eight signifies eternal rest, new creation, the last Adam's Kingdom in new Jerusalem on a renewed heaven and earth).
Every adult male Israelite was bound to attend these three feasts, beginning with Passover and the Feast of Unleavened bread at the opening of the barley harvest; followed eight days later by Pentecost and the commencement of the wheat harvest, and finally by the Feast of Tabernacles, which ended the harvest with the ripening of the fruit of the trees.
Leviticus 23:2-3, "Tell the children of Israel: These are the appointed times of the Lord, which you shall proclaim as holy convocations, My fixed, appointed times. Six days shall work be done: but the seventh day is a sabbath of complete rest, a holy convocation when you shall do no work at all: it is a sabbath to the Lord in all your dwellings".
A "holy convocation" is a sacred assembly in which no servile work is to be done. Whereas the Church Age saints labored throughout seven sabbaths wherein the Book was shut (Leviticus 23:6-14; Revelation 1-3) trying to 'work out' the meaning of Scriptures, the revelation of the Seven Seals finished the mystery of God giving us the perfect interpretation of His Word (I Corinthians 13:10). When the Seven Church Ages and Christ's Mediation were fulfilled, those who constitute Christ's end-time Bride began to be born into the "holy convocation" of the fiftieth day of the Pentecostal Feast (Leviticus 23:15-19). We do no servile work but rest, like Ruth after her gleaning, waiting for the fulfillment of the promise when our Boaz, having received His claim (Revelation 5), returns to take us Home after the last member of the Bride has come in (Leviticus 23:20-21).
The sabbath is found in the history of creation (Genesis 2:3), which is the groundwork of Moses' inspiration. From time immemorial the week has been divided into seven days (Genesis 8:10-12; 29:27-28; Exodus 16:5, 23). An Assyrian calendar discovered by George Smith divided every month into four weeks, and marked out the seventh days as days in which no work should be done. This follows the pattern in which God divided His work into six portions and sanctified the seventh on which He rested and watched His spoken Word manifest what he had spoken. The Divine rest was not one of twenty-four hours, but an eternal sabbath signifying the baptism of the Holy Spirit. This is our earnest of eternal rest, not the observation of sabbath day (Isaiah 66:23; Ephesians 1:13-14; Hebrews 4:10).
All mankind is included in the seventh day rest for the body and mortal spirit, "for the rhythm of life is a powerful beat. . ." but only Israel is commanded to observe it, and on a Saturday (Exodus 20:10-11). Needless and avoidable work was forbidden, but like other feasts it was to be a day of enjoyment. The fact that God, speaking through His prophet David 500 years after Joshua had led the people of Israel into their rest in the Promised Land, speaks of another day in which His voice will call them to enter into His rest (Psalm 95:7-11; Hebrews 4:1-11) proves that the rest of God, which has existed since the creation, is not identical with the rest secured by Joshua (Exodus 38:14; Deuteronomy 3:20; Joshua 1:13-15).
God deals with Israel as a nation: their covenant is of no effect outside the Promised Land, and their sabbath day can only be observed in that place. Jesus came not to destroy but to fulfill and magnify the Law that was given to train a perverse nation devoid of faith (Deuteronomy 32:20; Isaiah 42:21; Matthew 5:17). Jesus said, "Come unto Me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you sabbath for your souls" (Matthew 11:28-30). We enter the rest of God when the Holy Ghost baptizes us into our place in His Body, making us written epistles of the present Truth of His Word. When Jesus overcame the works of the Devil, He ceased from His works as God did from His. So when we are baptized into Him, we too have overcome and entered the rest of God — that eternal sabbath of which new birth is the Token (II Corinthians 5:13-21; Ephesians 1:13-14; I John 3:5-10).
Those who claim to be Christians yet observe Israel's sabbath day deny Christ's resurrection and the baptism with the Holy Ghost. One day is as a thousand years with the Lord but because of the Fall man has not lived one day (Genesis 2:17), and expelled from rest, he is compelled to labour against sin through six days of a thousand years until the sabbath of the millennium for overcomers, followed by the eighth day, which is eternity. Christians are "seated in heavenly places in Christ Jesus," or recognized in our place in the Logos, and potentially in the eighth day (Ephesians 2:6).
God can only redeem or "buy back" those who are a part of His creation: attributes of the Logos — a penitent people of faith who having lost their way have been found by grace. God can only redeem His own Word — the lineage of Adam. He cannot redeem the descendants of Seth's half-brother Cain who are not in Adam's race and have no kinsman Redeemer. The Book of Genesis traces the history of two lines of humanity from Eden, through the Flood, to the era of the Exodus when Israel became a nation separated to God from all other peoples of Adam's race because of Jehovah's respect to the faith of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
Miscegenation between Eve and the Satan-incarnate man-like animal called the Serpent produced a hybrid species in Cain and his offspring, who are not a part of God's creation. Here we see the groundwork of the reward for obedience promised in the second commandment, "You shall make for yourself no idol in the likeness of anything in the heavens above, or on the earth below or in the waters under the earth; you shall not bow down to them or serve them; for I the Lord your God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and the fourth generation of those who hate Me, but showing steadfast love to thousands of those who love Me and keep My Commandments".
God is faithful. The first Israelites were several generations removed from the third and fourth generation of the patriarchs whose faith God honoured to their unmerited benefit. A similar promise is granted to the Spiritual descendants of the New Testament fathers. I Corinthians 7:14, "The unbelieving husband is sanctified by the wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the husband: else were your children unclean; but now are they holy." Brother Branham commanded us to keep the Token or evidence of the Life of Christ on display to sanctify our house and help maintain the names of our loved ones in the Book of Life thereby securing their salvation.
On the first Passover the faithful head of every Israelite household sacrificed a lamb and painted its blood on the lintel and door posts of his house, not on the threshold where it would be trodden underfoot. And the angel of death, seeing he had met God's requirement would pass over his house and spare the lives of the firstborn because all who entered that door were secure by his faith in God's promise and under the blood of the substitute. This was the evidence an innocent life had died in their stead as it had for Adam and Eve; a perfect type of Christ's sacrifice. Hold the Token over your house.
The life of the animal could not come back upon human beings as an evidence of salvation because animals do not possess a soul, but Christ had a soul and the baptism with the Holy Ghost is our Token that His Life has come back upon us. Jesus was no mere human being, He was God manifest in flesh. The Token is His Life on display in us and the evidence that we, like Him, are the Sons of God. The Token is our identification with God's Passover and His acceptance of our faith in His plan of redemption. Israel displayed the chemistry of animal blood as their evidence, the Church Age saints claimed the symbol of Christ's Blood; and since the opening of the Seven Seals has released the fullness of the Spirit to quicken the fullness of the Word, the Life of Christ on display is our Token. He met Jehovah's requirements at Calvary; you meet them on your knees by faith. There God gives you the Token that the Spirit that was upon Christ has returned into you. This is the guarantee of your resurrection and eternal Life. "These signs shall follow you who believe," and "the works that I do shall you do also." Your identification is to manifest the promised Word of this day by the same Spirit that manifested and quickened the Word then, showing that the Token, which is the resurrected Life of Jesus Christ, is living in you.
As Paul illustrates in Hebrews 11, God is powerless to redeem or heal anyone who does not possess faith. His Word can only work by faith. God reveals Himself in nature and symbols, communicating His will to His prophets through visions, dreams and inspired utterance. Thereafter it is recorded and propagated by men and women of faith: "faith comes by hearing, and hearing comes by the preaching of God's revealed Word" (Romans 10:17). Thus faith flourishes in families and communities of believing ears so when God is able to get one man completely under preeminence, say an Abraham who is sincere and can get people to believe him, His Word will bring forth fruit (Mark 4:20). The works will be reported, attracting men and women of faith to follow and watch as faith continues to unfold, then God will raise up other prophets through whom He can shine further Light on the prophecy. Abraham is called the father of faith, and is the father of faith to we Gentiles as his new name implies (Genesis 17:5).
Abraham's faith spread through his immediate family. His grandson Jacob went down to Egypt with seventy souls, and two hundred and ten years later at midnight on Nisan 15, Moses departed with a nation numbering about 1.8 million. In one night Israel was born as a natural nation, chosen to spread God's revelation to all of Adam's race.
Exodus 12:2-3, "Hereafter this month shall be for you the beginning of months: it shall be the first month of the year for you. Tell all the congregation of Israel that on the tenth day of this month each man shall take a lamb for his family, one lamb for each house".
The lamb was roasted whole so that not a bone of its body is broken (verse 46), and eaten by everyone under the blood within the house. They were to eat as a community, as the community of faith share the Lord's Supper, "for we being many are one bread and one Body; for we are all partakers of that one bread" (I Corinthians 10:17), and in readiness to start their journey as are we, having judged ourselves and tarried one for another. The seven days of unleavened bread was contemporaneous with the Passover and its real symbolism was the removal of Egyptian leaven, symbolizing an entire separation from everything Egyptian. God's Word calls for a total separation from unbelief. I Corinthians 5:6-8, "Your boasting in your own righteousness and sanctification is deplorable when you tolerate fornication in your midst. Don't you know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Purge out therefore the old leaven, that you may be another lump, pure and unleavened. For Christ our Passover has been sacrificed for us: let us therefore celebrate the feast, not with the old leaven, and not with the leaven of iniquity and wickedness that is not ashamed to break laws; but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth". Leaven symbolizes transmission and fellowship, we are to eliminate the leaven of our old Egyptian character, corrupt doctrine, gossip, legalism or anything likely to diffuse its influence from our personal life throughout the congregation. Sin must not be tolerated, it must be excised.
The Passover was the greatest of all the annual festivals of Israel, and was the only one resting upon a distinct historical and miraculous event, and the only one, the neglect of which was accompanied with the penalty of excision (Numbers 9:18). The obligation to observe it was so emphatic that a second Passover was observed in the following month for those who were prevented from keeping it by reason of absence or defilement with a dead body, and all Israel is defiled by contact with the body of Jesus Messiah (Matthew 27:25; John 11:49-52).
The Passover commemorated the dreadful night of judgment and deliverance in which the nation of Israel was born, the Feast of Unleavened Bread signified Israel's separation from the fleshly lusts of Egypt (Numbers 11:15). In the antitype, Christ died as kinsman Redeemer taking our sins upon Himself and bearing them away. The unleavened bread was "bread of affliction" as it had been Israel's "affliction," and a mark of their bondage and subjection to the Egyptians, to be driven forth in such "haste" as not even to have time for leavening their bread (Deuteronomy 16:3; Exodus 12:33, 39). In the antitype the first day represents the pure Word of God Christ preached as a witness of judgment to souls imprisoned in chains of darkness, and vindication of deliverance to the Old Testament saints over the chasm in Paradise. The remaining six days represent the Alpha Age of Pentecost which held the pure faith once delivered to the apostolic saints unleavened by creed and tradition. As bread is the staff of natural life, Christ the Word is the Bread from heaven and staff of Spiritual Life, which if a man eat he shall never die.
After Christ the firstfruits of the new creation was "reaped" on Calvary's cross, His body was buried but His theophany descended into the place of the departed where he witnessed to the lost souls who had rejected the Message of God's prophets. On the Day of Pentecost He re-entered and resurrected His body in glorified form and was "waved" before the Lord as the firstfruits of those who had fallen asleep. He ascended on High and with His own blood cleansed the heavenly sanctuary of the sins of the Old Testament saints; then He descended, and raised the Old Testament saints who had been captives of death to glorified captives of eternal Life.
Leviticus 23:4-14 specifies when the Feast of Unleavened Bread should be held, lays down strict requirements for the first and last days, which are to be holy convocations, and appoints a special observance for the day after the Sabbath, which was resurrection Sunday, known to Israel as the Feast of First Fruits, on which the priests present the Lord with a wave offering consisting of a single sheaf of barley offered on behalf of the whole nation.
This represented the first produce of the barley harvest just then beginning. According to Leviticus 23:10-14, the bread was made of unleavened flour from the previous year's harvest. No significance or symbolism is attached to the flour's age, and there is no mention of which grain was used, nor is any specialty accorded the bread denoted in Scripture. It was simply bread. Nothing from the new harvest could be used or eaten until the offering was presented. The barley harvest in Nisan was the first harvest of the year. Since fruit of a single sheaf represents one Man in his risen state, we see in this a type of the resurrection of Messiah, who had to be waved and accepted as representative of the whole harvest before the Old Testament saints could partake the same eternal Life.
John 12:23-25, "Jesus said, The hour is come, that the Son of man should be glorified. Truly, I assure you, unless a corn of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it abides alone: but if it dies, it brings forth much fruit. He who loves his life shall lose it; and he who hates his life in this world will preserve it to eternal Life.
Jesus was the original Seed, the forerunner and Spiritual progenitor of every Son of Adam willing to renounce this world for the promises of God, even at the cost of his life, with the assurance of eternal Life. Like a seed, he will not expire but progress to a superior form of life, and God will raise him to glory in an incorruptible body.
1 Corinthians 15:35-38, 42-44, "Some will ask, How are the dead restored to life, and what kind of bodies will they have? What a foolish question! You will find the answer in your own garden! What you sow does not grow into a plant unless it dies first. Nor is the seed you sow the body that is to be, but bare grain of wheat, or whatever it is you are planting: then God gives it the body of His choice according to the kind of seed. . . So is the resurrection of the dead, our earthly bodies which die and decay are different from the glorified bodies we will have in the resurrection. What was sown was perishable, what is raised is imperishable. The bodies we now have were sown in dishonour, for they become sick and die; but they will be full of glory when we come back to life again, for they will be raised in glory and strength. It was sown a natural body; it is raised a spiritual body. There is a natural body, and there is a spiritual body".
Your present body is like random, perishable seed and no comparison to the glorified body you will inherit at the translation when you will be mature like ripened grain. And although the Church Age saints first returned to the earth in a kind of death pending the first resurrection, you will be changed in the atoms without death.
Unlike our day, which begins after midnight, the Hebrew day begins after 6.00 pm. God's Passover was slain and prepared between 3.00 pm and 6.00 pm on Friday, Nisan 14, and eaten some time after 6.00 pm the same night, which was Nisan 15, a sabbath and the commencement of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. The Feast of Firstfruits fell on Nisan 16, which was resurrection Sunday as recorded in Matthew 28:1-6 (in which the words "In the end of the sabbath" belong to chapter 27), and in John 18:28 and 19:31.
The time of the Feast of Weeks was determined by the Passover and commenced on Nisan 16, or resurrection Sunday on which Messiah was waved before the Lord, I Corinthians 15:20, "Now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept." Pentecost followed fifty-two days after Passover at the completion and close of the wheat harvest. It was celebrated with thanksgiving for it types the Pentecostal Jubilee and our meeting with the saints in the air. Whereas the Old Testament saints were represented by the harvest of barley — its inferiority to wheat being marked by the offering of barley in the ordeal of jealousy (Numbers 5:15; Hosea 3:2) — as Christ's "wheat Bride" and Israel's Queen we are represented by the most noble of grains.
We are ready to be offered as two loaves of bread baked with leaven and made with flour of the first fruits sifted fine, indicating Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and forever. This new wave offering represents the Alpha Bride born of the apostolic faith and the Omega Bride born of the same faith restored by the prophet of Malachi 4:5-6 (Romans 15:16). The Alpha and Omega Bride are identical as God showed Brother Branham in a vision recorded in The Masterpiece. The day after the earthquake sinks Los Angeles, which will be the same night by Hebrew reckoning, we will witness to our loved ones and all we meet as Jesus witnessed to the departed souls. The following day we will be waved before the Lord as Christ was waved on Nisan 16 two days after the earthquake that marked the breach in Jehovah's relationship with Israel (Daniel 9:26; I Peter 3:19-20; Jude 5-6). Our acceptance will signify God's consecration of the whole harvest of the Alpha and Omega Ages and the PART-Word saints in-between. Since we are "baked with the leaven" of corruptible flesh we cannot be offered as a burnt offering, an assurance Christ's Bride will not go through the tribulation. As the former rain began to fall on that first day of Pentecost, the latter rain will fall on this first day of Pentecost, initiating the resurrection of the sleeping saints and the manifestation of the living Sons of God. Then on the fiftieth day we shall be "changed and caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: so shall we forever be with the Lord".
The two wave loaves were seven palms in length and four in breadth, signifying "the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ" in His Bride of all Ages redeemed by the seven-fold Spirit of God under the first Four Seals. They were made the day prior to, or in the event of a sabbath preceding, two days before the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, on Nisan 14. This shows (in type) that His end-time Bride with the perfect interpretation of the Word (I Corinthians 13:10; Revelation 10:7) was fully redeemed in Christ on Calvary, for at the close of the Laodicean Church Age redemption is over. Whereas the saints of Pentecost and the Church Ages required Christ's mediation for their ignorance of the fullness of the Word, when He opened and revealed the Seven Seals, all seven sabbaths or Church Ages were fulfilled and there was no further delay for mediation, yet we were not born-again (Revelation 10:6). This proves that our dispensation is the holy convocation typed by the fiftieth day of the feast when all servile work is prohibited, including mediation for ignorance. But with "the true sayings of God" (Revelation 19:9; 22:10) we do not need mediation, and as we are all members of one Body, they cannot be resurrected and glorified without us. Brother Branham said, "These people who died in here are depending and waiting on us." Let us not keep them waiting.
One loaf was given to the high priest typing Christ the Principal Man, the other to the ordinary priests or seven shepherds who officiated during His absence. It was eaten that same night in the temple, and no fragment was suffered to remain till the morning, signifying that when we go Home we will not leave so much as a hoof left behind. Praise the Lord! Then the Angel of the Lord will reveal Himself to Israel in the office of Son of man (Revelation 7:1-2).
Pentecost signified the restoration of the Law to Israel, but the Pentecostal Feast was never celebrated until Israel had entered her natural rest in Canaan, God's provided place for them to live and worship (Leviticus 23:10). Canaan with its wars and killing does not type the millennium, but the time of overcoming, which in the antitype was the Church Ages when the full number of Spiritual Israel was gathered in to her promised rest. For Israel this will be the time of Jacob's trouble and the in-gathering of their 144,000 elect. After the catching-away of the Bride, God will anoint two Hebrew prophets with the Spirit that endued Moses and Elijah to reveal whence the nation fell. "Remember the Law of My servant Moses, the statutes and judgments which I commanded Him in Horeb for all Israel." They will place Scripture in history to expound their seven Trumpet judgments and introduce Messiah's 'parousia' Coming with His Bride, their Queen.
James 1:18, "Of His own will He gave us new birth by the Word of truth, so that we might be a kind of firstfruits in His Family." But after the harvest of the field, the husbandman was to leave some grain for the poor in revelation and those unfamiliar with the faith to glean during the tribulation and retain their names on the Book of Life (Leviticus 23:22).
Leviticus 23:23-25, "The Lord said to Moses, Tell the children of Israel, In the seventh month, in the first day of the month, you shall have a sabbath, a memorial of blowing of trumpets, an holy convocation. You shall do no servile work, and you shall offer an offering made by fire unto the Lord".
Three of the appointed times of meeting fall in Tishri, the seventh month of the harvest season, and their antitypes apply exclusively to the nation of Israel as the work of redeeming the nation begun on the first Passover will conclude with the true Atonement of the nation on the tenth day of Tishri and the restoration of the kingdom to Israel typed by the seventh day of the Feast of Tabernacles, which speaks of that day of millennial rest no man has completed.
The first of Tishri was new year's day in the civil year and commenced the sabbatical month in which the sabbatical year and year of Jubilee completed the cycle of harvest feasts in the ecclesiastical year, the natural typing the Spiritual. It was the month of ingathering the last of the ripe fruits, the vintage and the olive, as well as ploughing and sowing at the start of a new cycle. The first of Tishri is a holy convocation, a Feast of Trumpets fashioned from the silver half shekel ransom of souls (Exodus 30:11-16; Numbers 10:2, 10). Their sound represents the Voice of God: to some it will be the joyous sound of redemption, to others foreboding judgment and doom (Isaiah 58:1; Hosea 8:1; Revelation 1:10; 4:1).
The Feast of Trumpets is a memorial that reminds Israel of their Covenant and puts God in remembrance of His promises (Isaiah 43:22-28), an announcement from the King that the glad sabbatical month has begun, and that the great day of atonement is at hand. In the modern service of the synagogue, Psalm 81 is read at the Feast of Trumpets which they regard as a commemoration of the creation, when "all the Sons of God shouted for joy" (Job 38:7). The rabbins may not understand that from the foundation of the world God foresaw us shouting for joy at the revelation of our redemption in Jesus Messiah and the promise of a renewed creation.
At the end our holy convocation and the Gentile dispensation, Israel's Seventh Trumpet will shatter the "silence in heaven about the space of half an hour" (Revelation 11:15-19), call the resurrection of the PART-Word Bride, the manifestation of the living Sons of God, and our translation and catching-away to the Wedding Supper of the Lamb in the Sky (I Corinthians 15:52; I Thessalonians 4:16). In Isaiah 26:13 it is called "the great trumpet".
As the ministry of the prophet of Revelation 10:7 revealed the mystery of the six written Seals in the exposition of the unwritten Seventh Seal, under the Seventh Trumpet two prophets will reveal the mystery of the previous Six Trumpet judgments upon Israel (Revelation 8:6-9:21; 11:15-19). Matthew 24:31, "Jesus Messiah will send His angels, (two Hebrew prophets), with the great sound of a trumpet, and their Message will gather His elect from the four winds (war and strife – Revelation 7:1-3), from one end of heaven to the other" into the 'Goshen' of Israel (Revelation 7:1-3; 11:3-6). These men are waiting for the manifestation of the Sixth Seal and Seventh Trumpet that will end the Gentile dispensation, then they will be anointed with the Spirit and authority that endued Moses and Elijah to reveal Israel's Trumpet mysteries. This three and a half-year ministry will be the antitype of the Feast of Trumpets, gathering an election of 144,000 from "the house of Judah and the house of Israel out of the north country into the land of their forefathers" (Jeremiah 3:18) for the revelation of their atonement. Then Israel will mourn the iniquity of Talmudic Judaism by which the Pharisees caused their forefathers to kill Messiah (Leviticus 23:32; Jeremiah 6:26; Amos 8:10; Zechariah 12:10-14:9; Matthew 15:9; 27:25; John 7:1; Revelation 1:7).
Leviticus 23:26-32, "The Lord said to Moses, The tenth day of the seventh month shall be the Day of Atonement: it shall be a holy convocation. You shall afflict your souls and present an offering by fire to the Lord. On this day you shall do no work of any kind: for it is a day of Atonement, to make atonement for you in the Presence of the Lord your God. For whoever is not afflicted in this day shall be cut off from His people. And whosoever does any work on this same day, that soul will I destroy from among the people. You shall do no work whatever: it is an everlasting ordinance throughout your generations in all your dwellings. It shall be for you a sabbath of solemn rest, and you shall afflict your souls on the ninth day of the month beginning at eventide; from evening to evening you shall keep your sabbath".
It was on this day of national humiliation, enjoined in law, that types Israel's soon-coming realization of her great sin and humiliation in the recognition of Christ's 'parousia,' repentance and rebirth in one day (Isaiah 66:8), and not on the first of the month, that the Jubilee was to be proclaimed and will soon be proclaimed. Thereafter "the remnant of the woman's seed that keep the commandments of God (the nation of 144,000 elect Israelites), and have the testimony of Jesus Christ (the foolish virgin and other groups of "saved" non-elect Gentiles), will be hunted down like dogs and give their life for their testimony" (Revelation 6:11; 12:11, 17).
This was a day of expiation and fasting from the evening of the ninth to the evening of the tenth, five days before the Feast of Tabernacles which implied rest in Israel's inheritance, and atonement must precede the realization of rest. This was a day upon which the holy convocation must have been kept in the home. It is significant that it should fall upon the tenth day: ten is the number of closed history, the reckoning of the double five, of well-used or badly-used free moral agency, the number of judgment — what Brother Branham called a "bad" number.
Leviticus 16 pronounces observance of the Day of Atonement as a day of national purification, a preliminary condition for participating in the great obligatory Feast of Tabernacles or ingathering (of souls). Yet all of its legal atonements could not bring full purification under the blood of bulls and goats as indicated by the goat for Azazel, with which the Levitical atonement sends inexpiated sins away to a future and real atonement (Romans 3:25; Hebrews 10:1-10). The two goats represented one sacrifice (as did the two turtledoves – Leviticus 14:4-7; 48-53); they represent Jesus Messiah who both died for our sins and carried them away to a place of no remembrance (Hebrews 9:28). We can only "joy in the Lord" when "through our Lord Jesus Christ we have now received the atonement" (Romans 5:11).
The high priest placed two lots into an urn, into which he put both his hands and took out a lot in each, while the two goats stood before him, one on the right, the other on the left; the lot in each hand belonged to the goat in corresponding position: when the lot "for Azazel" was in the right, it was a good omen. He then tied a tongue-shaped piece of scarlet cloth on the goat for complete sending away or removal, and according to the Gemara, "the red cloth ought to turn white as a token of God's acceptance of the atonement; which illustrates Isaiah 1:18, "Though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be white as snow." No such change took place for 40 years before the destruction of Jerusalem; a signal testimony from Jewish authority to Messiah, as His ministry was precisely 40 years before the destruction of the holy city; the type ceased when the Antitype came.
"Living, He loved me. Dying, He saved me.
Buried, He carried my sins far away.
Rising He justified freely forever:
One day He's coming — Oh glorious day!"
"Rejoice in the Lord always, and again I say, rejoice!" All of Israel's feasts were celebrations of joy before the Lord, except the fast of the Day of Atonement.
The sin of Israel having been removed, the Feast of Tabernacles occupied a week from the fifteenth to the twenty-second of the seventh month. The first day was a holy convocation as a memorial of Israel's wandering in the wilderness and dwelling in tents when God revealed His Attributes which would later identify Him in Messiah:
Jehovah-Jireh - the Lord our Provider (Exodus 16:11-16; Matthew 14:15-21).
Jehovah-Rapha - the Lord our Healer (Exodus 15:26; Matthew 4:23).
Jehovah-Nissi - the Lord our Banner (Exodus 17:8-15; Revelation 19:11-16).
Jehovah-Shalom - the Lord our Peace (Judges 6:22-24; Luke 19:38).
Jehovah-Raah - the Lord my Shepherd (Numbers 27:17; Matthew 26:31).
Jehovah-Tsidkenu - the Lord our Righteousness (Jeremiah 23:6; Romans 10:4).
Jehovah-Shammah - the Lord is Present (Ezekiel 48:35; Revelation 21:3).
Whereas Pentecost typed the firstfruits of the world's harvest in an ingathering of an election from all seventy nations, the Feast of Tabernacles typifies the completion of that final and universal harvest in a spiritual ingathering of the fruit of six thousand years for the millennium. Whereas the first day was a sabbath which Adam and Eve broke, the eighth day is an eternal sabbath that will never be broken. However, it is not our intention to teach in depth on the Feast of Tabernacles as our purpose is to lay the groundwork for a study of the antitype of the Feast of Trumpets.
The Feast of Tabernacles is referred to in John 7 where Jesus alludes to the custom of drawing water from Siloam in a gold goblet on the last day of the feast and pouring it mingled with wine on the sacrifice on the altar with great rejoicing. It was to the Words of Isaiah 12:3, which were repeated in commemoration of the water drawn from the rock in the desert, that Jesus said, "If any one thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. I am the living Rock of living water. For Scripture declares that rivers of living water shall flow from the innermost being of he who believes in Me." He spoke concerning the baptism with the Holy Spirit which was to come. Coming the next day at daybreak to the temple court as they were extinguishing the artificial lights, two colossal golden candlesticks in the centre of the temple court, recalling the pillar of fire in the wilderness, He said, "I am the Light of the world" (John 8:1-2, 13). As the sun by natural light was eclipsing the artificial lights, so Jesus implied, "I, the Sun of righteousness, am superseding your typical light".
"The great last day of the feast" is the eighth day marked by a service in memory of the dead and a special prayer for rain. Joy was the prominent feature, the feast was called Hosanna, "save we beseech Thee." This cry had accompanied Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem on the first day of the Feast, "And Jesus went into the temple of God, drove out the merchants, and overturned the tables of the moneychangers, and the seats of those who sold doves. . . but when the chief priests and scribes saw His miracles of healing, and heard even little children in the temple shouting, Hosanna to the Son of David; they were indignant. . . In the morning as He was returning to the city, He was hungry, and noticed a fig tree besides the road. He went over to see if there were any figs, but there were only leaves. Then He said, Let there be no fruit on you forever, and instantly the tree withered" (Matthew 21). The fig tree, represented Israel, whose apostate chief priests, elders, and Pharisees caused the nation to reject and crucify their King who came not to destroy, but having salvation in Himself (Zechariah 9:9-13). "Behold, your temple is forsaken of God and desolate. For I tell you, You will not see Me again, until you say, Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord" (Matthew 23:38-39).
Zechariah 9:10 and Isaiah 11 refer to the future restoration of Israel after their long dispersion whereas the antitype of the Feast of Tabernacles connected with Isaiah 12 is the thanksgiving hymn of the born-again Israelites, just as the other two great feasts, Passover and Pentecost have their antitype respectively in Christ's sacrifice for we Gentiles, and in His writing His new law in our hearts.
The trumpet call on the first of Tishri was not only in connection with the central sanctuary as it was from time to time throughout the year, but on this day it was a universal proclamation throughout the land of Israel to announce the day of Atonement and Feast of Tabernacles are at hand, typing the full consummation of the Kingdom of God. In the antitype, the final sabbath month will result in Israel's repentance and Spiritual restoration, and the consequent reappearing of Israel's High Priest, Jesus Messiah from within the veil (Acts 3:19-21), or the recognition of His 'parousia' by 144,000 elect Israelites, followed by the harvest of the world (Revelation 14; 19) and reversal of the curse of Genesis 3:19-21.
In the antitype of Israel's Feast of Trumpets the Message of "Moses" and "Elijah" will call the nation out of spiritual Egypt by bringing the past to remembrance: their rejection of Abraham's grace Covenant at Kadesh, the conditional Covenant they dishonoured at Sinai, their disobedience to the prophets, the apostasy of Israel followed by Judah's apostasy, the development of Babylonian Pharisaism, assimilation and miscegenation with the Jebusites, Amorites, Hivites, Hittites, Perizzites and Edomites, the murder of Messiah at Calvary, assimilation and miscegenation with the Khazars, and their ongoing wickedness under the dominion of Edom. Their prophets will identify indisputable historical facts with prophetic truth as Bible Believers' Church has done in a more humble work based on the ministry of William Branham, the "Elijah" of Malachi 4:5-6. The fruit of their ministry will be the Spiritual awakening of 144,000 elect Israelites to repentance, pardon and true Atonement, or new birth, ensuring their part in the antitype of the seventh day of the Feast of Tabernacles, which will be the Millennium. But first they will be martyred by the Judaeo-Roman Catholic church and the non-Semitic, anti-Semitic so-called Jews. nl481.htm
Homework: Please review Old Testament Shadows and Types.
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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 in other countries. He pastors Bible Believers' tiny congregation, and is available to teach in your church.
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Thursday, June 14, 2007
Looking at the Unseen, or the Mental Habit of Faith
Bible Believers' Newsletter #480
"We focus on the present Truth – what Jesus is doing now. . ."
ISSN 1442-8660
Christian greetings in the precious Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and an especial welcome to our new subscribers. We are pleased you could join us in fellowship around God's unchanging Word.
Once again our guest contributor is Evangelist Brother F. F. Bosworth, waiting in the unseen sixth dimension for Christ's end-time Bride to make herself ready for the Wedding Supper of the Lamb. His subject is "Looking at the Unseen, or the Mental Habit of Faith," and his conclusion is, to see the unseen is possible only through faith in Jesus Christ. This is one of the teachings Brother Branham mentioned and preached Himself in 1950.
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
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Bush in "Fantasyland"
"President Bush is rushing to deploy a technology that does not work against a threat that does not exist," Cirincione says. "Iran is at least 5 to 10 years away from the capability to build a nuclear weapon and at least that far from having a missile that could hit Europe let alone the US. And anti-missile systems are still nowhere near working despite $150 billion spent since the 1983 Star Wars program started and years of phony tests staged to demonstrate 'progress' and 'success.'" . . .
"President Bush so fervently believes in something that doesn't exist that he jeopardizes – again – our real security interests. The fact is the Czechs don't want the radar, the Europeans don't trust his explanations and deplore his unilateralism, the Congress has already cut the funds on purely programmatic grounds. This was a dumb idea before, now it is yet another foreign policy disaster". . . In The Rise of US Nuclear Primacy, published in Foreign Affairs last year, Keir A. Liber and Daryl G. Press wrote: ". . .the sort of missile defenses that the United States might plausibly deploy would be valuable primarily in an offensive context, not a defensive one — as an adjunct to a US first-strike capability, not as a stand-alone shield. If the United States launched a nuclear attack against Russia (or China), the targeted country would be left with a tiny surviving arsenal — if any at all. At that point, even a relatively modest or inefficient missile-defense system might well be enough to protect against any retaliatory strikes. . ."
"President Putin thinks the US policies represent a new imperialism. Now, he sees President Bush trying to build permanent military bases on Russia's borders. Putin isn't afraid of 10 interceptors but he has to worry about what comes next — any Russian leader would. He doesn't believe President Bush and many Europeans don't either. This issue feeds into the mistrust of America that Europeans feel on a host of Bush Administration policies from global warming to Iraq". . .
"Politics drives this deployment decision," Cirincione says. "Bush Administration officials are trying to lock in the program before they leave office. They are trying to build bases they hope the next president will find impossible to shut down" . . . President Bush has fallen neatly into Putin's trap. They may have to invent a new name for this gambit."
Full story: thenation.com
Comment: The image of the beast that "exercises all the power of Imperial Rome, and will cause the earth and all who dwell therein to serve Papal Rome" (Revelation 13:12).
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Putin’s Censored Press Conference
June 10, 2007 – Russian President Vladimir Putin gave an hour and a half-long press conference which was attended by many members of the world media. . . (Read the entire press conference archived here). . .
The meeting gave Putin a chance to give his side of the story in the growing debate over missile defense in Eastern Europe. He offered a brief account of the deteriorating state of US-Russian relations since the end of the Cold War, and particularly from 9/11 to present. Since September 11, the Bush administration has carried out an aggressive strategy to surround Russia with military bases, install missiles on its borders, topple allied regimes in Central Asia, and incite political upheaval in Moscow through US-backed "pro-democracy" groups. . . . The Bush administration’s belligerent foreign policy has backed the Kremlin into a corner and forced Putin to take retaliatory measures. He has no other choice. If we want to understand why relations between Russia are quickly reaching the boiling-point; we only need to review the main developments since the end of the Cold War. Political analyst Pat Buchanan gives a good rundown of these in his article "Doesn’t Putin Have a Point?" Full story: informationclearinghouse.info
Comment: Ezekiel 38-39, Zechariah 14 and Revelation 13 are unfolding before our eyes.
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Katrina and the Question of Scalar EM Weather Weapons
Scalar technology which has been blamed for hurricane Katrina is now suspected as the cause of drought across much of southern USA. Meanwhile those interesting folk who brought us two World Wars, AIDS, 9/11, Y2K, and other hoaxes, have activated a further phase of the Report from Iron Mountain on the Possibility and Desirability of Peace, which like The Protocols, was presented as satire but is in reality the revelation of the method. Their agents are now pushing the hoax of climate change as if it were caused by industrialization and not scalar warfare calculated to hasten deindustrialization and world depopulation. Now any change in weather, be it mild winters or cool summers can be attributed to "climate change." Whatever the weather, the news is very bad, and it seems Iran may be learning a lesson in just how "bad" weather can be in face of recalcitrance.
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The Stranger
A few years after I was born, my Dad met a stranger who was new to our small town. From the beginning, Dad was fascinated with this enchanting newcomer and soon invited him to live with our family. The stranger was quickly accepted and was around from then on.
As I grew up, I never questioned his place in my family. In my young mind, he had a special niche. My parents were complementary instructors: Mom taught me good from evil, and Dad taught me to obey. But the stranger. . . he was our storyteller. He would keep us spellbound for hours on end with adventures, mysteries, and comedies.
If I wanted to know anything about politics, history or science, he always knew the answers about the past, understood the present and even seemed able to predict the future! He took my family to the first major league ball game. He made me laugh, and he made me cry. The stranger never stopped talking, but Dad didn't seem to mind.
Sometimes, Mom would get up quietly while the rest of us were shushing each other to listen to what he had to say, and she would go to the kitchen for peace and quiet. (I wonder now if she ever prayed for the stranger to leave).
Dad ruled our household with certain moral convictions, but the stranger never felt obligated to honor them. Profanity, for example, was not allowed in our home. . . Not from us, our friends, or any visitors. Our longtime visitor, however, got away with four-letter words that burned my ears and made my dad squirm and my mother blush.
My Dad didn't permit the liberal use of alcohol. But the stranger encouraged us to try it on a regular basis. He made cigarettes look cool, cigars manly and pipes distinguished. He talked freely (much too freely!) about sex. His comments were sometimes blatant, sometimes suggestive, and generally embarrassing.
I now know that my early concepts about relationships were influenced strongly by the stranger. Time after time, he opposed the values of my parents, yet he was seldom rebuked. . . And NEVER asked to leave.
More than fifty years have passed since the stranger moved in with our family. He has blended right in and is not nearly as fascinating as he was at first. Still, if you could walk into my parents' den today, you would still find him sitting over in his corner, waiting for someone to listen to him talk and watch him draw his pictures. His name?. . .
We just call him, "TV."
He has a younger sister now. We call her "Computer."
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Looking at the Unseen, or the Mental Habit of Faith
by F. F. Bosworth
"We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal" (II Corinthians 4:18).
Our text suggests to us eight great things.
I. THAT WE ARE LIVING IN TWO WORLDS
The material realities which we see with our natural eyes, exist in the midst of the far better realities which are unseen.
There are two worlds – the world of sense, and the world of spirit: and the world of spirit surrounds, enspheres, and interpenetrates the world of sense. Both worlds occupy the same space at the same time. Many speak as though the world of sense comes first, and the world of spirit comes after; whereas the world of spirit is all about us now, though the veil of sense hangs between.
Many imagine that we dwell in time here, and shall dwell in eternity hereafter; while the fact is that we dwell in eternity here, though we take a little section of it and call it "time".
The Scriptures teach us that the unseen realities – the best of all realities, encompass us now. What sights might every one of us see at every moment of our existence, at every turn of our path, had we only eyes with which to see them!
The "Seen" exists in the Midst of the "Unseen"
The "seen" exists in the midst of the "unseen," the "temporal" in the midst of the "eternal." Faith, based on glorious and eternal facts, serves the Christian for eyes, and enables him to see and enjoy what others cannot see.
God, the greatest and best of all realities, and the Creator of them all, is everywhere; yet sin-blinded eyes see Him not. God, who is infinitely real, is nonexistent to those who are blinded by "the god of this world".
The servant of Elisha was greatly stricken with fear because of the Assyrian hosts at Dothan because he had not yet formed the habit of looking at things invisible. He had no perception of spiritual forces. Elisha, on the other hand, was kept calm by seeing the invisible host. Such a man is a match for ten thousand others, because with two clear eyes on the unseen forces of the living God, he can say cheerfully: "Fear not, for they that be with us are more than they that be with them".
The Scriptures tell us that "Moses endured as seeing Him who is invisible" (Hebrews 11:27).
Many are occupied with the matters that belong only to the material side of life, expecting that after death, in some way, they will be brought into contact with the unseen things. But in this text Paul makes an appeal for life as in the presence of these two empires, the seen and the unseen; because every day the heart beats in both, and a man cannot alienate himself from the one and stand solitary in the other. Thank God that while we are living in this changing world, we are at the same time living in an everlasting universe of unchanging and eternal realities!
Eternal Things are Present Things
The Apostle does not say that he looked at future things; the eternal things which filled his vision were also present. The present things which he looked at and enjoyed were eternal. We, too, can now look at unseen things, because they are closer to us than the things seen. The visible world is not always before us; darkness comes on and we are in solitude; but the world of thought, and the great invisible realities are still with us to be seen and enjoyed.
While the Christian, for the time, forgets the invisible, his thoughts of God, of Christ, of truth, of righteousness, of love, of the perfect and beautiful in life, engage his whole attention. The natural man is blind. He does not realize the fact that there are just as great realities in the realm of the spiritual as there are in the realm of the material.
The Scriptures tell us that the natural man cannot know the things of God. The reason is, that every contact he has made is only through his central nervous system and his five senses – sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell. These senses belong to the physical body, and they can only contact matter. The purpose of the five senses was never to reveal God to man; man was to know God through his soul. God created man a spirit being but gave him a physical body with its five senses through which he was to contact the natural world, which was to be his home.
Invisible Things are Real Things
What a mistake to suppose that invisible things are not real! The facts are that visible and material things could never have had an existence unless the invisible was first here, and was real enough and wise enough to create the visible. The far superior invisible realities and personality were here before the visible or material were created. "The things which are seen" by the physical vision were created by the "unseen." This fact surely proves, the reality and the superiority of "the things that are not seen." The best part of man himself is his invisible personality – his soul.
If you ask: How can unseen things be real? I ask you: What about yourself? Your body can be seen, but no natural eyes have ever seen you.
The invisible God is a Spirit – a Person, and so are you. You are a much greater reality than your temporal body. Nothing is more of a reality to you than your invisible self. What is more real to you than your mind and your own thoughts?
Your whole life is occupied with them. You have never seen them; but they are as real to you as your body.
Surely the Creator is far greater than the universe which He created, so I am more interested in knowing and loving the Creator Himself than anything He made.
Compared with the reality of the great unseen world, all that can be seen with the natural eyes is scarcely a shadow. The poorest vision in this world is the optic nerve, because it is blind to everything but temporal things. I have heard physically blind men saying "Praise the Lord" in nearly every sentence they uttered, because of what they were seeing among the eternal realities which are invisible to the optic nerve. Many sympathise with the physically blind while they themselves have a much worse form of blindness; for they have never seen the superior things which satisfy the soul.
Truth is invisible, and yet it is the only thing that can set us free. "Two and two equal four" is an invisible fact. Character, honesty, love, happiness and virtue are all invisible, but they are eternal realities. They can only be seen with the mind.
Senses are not essential to Spiritual Joy
The five senses are not essential to spiritual joy. Christians, when they have lost their five senses through physical death, instantly become happier than they had ever been before because then they are "absent from the body and present with the Lord".
Some people are so miserable they try to get rid of their five senses by committing suicide.
If a material body were essential to the highest happiness, then God the Father would create for Himself a physical body.
Angels are happy, yet they are without material bodies. Jesus tells us that Lazarus after he died was happy with Abraham. Instead of making them happy, what men have contacted by their five senses has often made them unhappy.
Things not less real because Unseen
Because you do not see things with the natural eye, does not make them any less real. Suppose you close your eyes so that you cannot see the things around you, this does not do away with them. If you think it does, then open your eyes and you will see the things which were unseen a moment before.
The angels at Dothan would have been none the less present if Elisha’s servant had not seen them, just as the Assyrian troops would have been none the less there if Elisha had not seen them.
Things both temporal and spiritual are real whether you see them or not. The new power of Elisha’s servant to see the chariots and horses of fire sweeping around Elisha did not create these spiritual forms or beings. His new sight could not create, any more than his blindness could destroy these supernatural realities.
The angel host which Elisha saw, the spiritual warriors of God, was the great reality, while the army with banners which Elijah’s servant saw was but a shadow.
The Bible is full of this kind of thing, and this is God’s effort to impress upon the world the great facts of the invisible and the eternal.
II. THAT MATERIAL THINGS ARE INSUFFICIENT
The common occupations of the world, the keen and ever-increasing competition of business, the cares of home, have a most pernicious effect upon us, unless some counterbalancing influence is brought to bear. They make us grow intensely secular in thought and feeling. They beguile men by insensible degrees into the belief that what we see are the only realities. They drag men down to the very dust.
The Great Corrective
The great corrective of this state of mind is to look away to the better things which are not seen. The very remembrance that all around about us there is a region of spiritual existence – a world which, though unrealized by the senses, is as real as, yes, more gloriously real than the solid earth on which we tread, will help to keep the soul from injury. Within that invisible region lie all of our supreme interests. God is there; and Christ is there; and all the gracious influences which save and sanctify the soul are there.
The unseen magnetic pole controls the needle of the compass and enables the mariner to navigate the pathless ocean; even so only the unseen God can rightly guide us. Thank God we are not shut in on all sides by solid walls of matter; there is an existence outside and independent of it! The Christian feels a spiritual existence within him which no philosophy can explain away. We are conscious that we ourselves are spirit and not flesh. We have a body, but we ourselves are not visible. The invisible in man thirsts for the invisible, without which he cannot live.
Two Kinds of Rest
There are two kinds of rest – one for the body, the other for the soul; two classes of enjoyment those derived from things, and those drawn from thought; and for the unseen sources of enjoyment and rest, men thirst.
More than a hundred thousand people who were living in physical bodies yesterday are today absent from the body, and are face to face with the eternal realities which many of them did not recognize yesterday. If temporal things only have been their aim, if their enjoyments have been pleasures only of sense, they are now, since death, like living creatures taken from their native element. By making things "seen" their portion, they are now exposed to destitution. The good things which they have seen are gone.
Things Seen do not Satisfy
Because there is more in man than what is seen; because the invisible in man thirsts for the invisible outside and beyond, we say that the good things seen are not enough for us. We need living bread, water of life, raiment which waxes not old, houses not made with hands, treasures which moth and rust do not corrupt, "fullness of joy," "pleasures for evermore," perfect peace and undisturbed rest. These are not to be derived from things temporal. Worldly things, wealth, honor, happy homes, all cry, "Heaven is not in us." "The things which are seen are temporal." This common truth has long been in our Bibles. God wants it written in our hearts.
Let us hold the good things seen with a slack hand. They are temporal, and they will be taken from us, or we will be taken from them; if we grasp them firmly the removal of them will shake us from head to foot; but if we hold them lightly, when they are taken away, we will stand unshaken. Let us all enjoy our glorious heritage and our portion in that which is unseen and eternal. We may thus enjoy the foretaste of heaven every day.
True Philosophy of Life
The true philosophy of life is the philosophy which turns the eye of the soul towards a present eternity. All should realize that the life that transcends the senses is the real one, and not the life which is simply in the senses.
We have five gate-ways of knowledge to bring us into contact with the visible world; but that world is but a symbol of the other; it is not the great reality. The life, therefore, which deals only with those things which can be measured and weighed, is the life which is making the most serious of all blunders.
You cannot go very far in existence without realizing the sweep of such forces as love, faith and hope, and these at once draw you away from the material.
Oh how many people are living as though there was nothing so permanent as the tangible and visible; and nothing so elusive and transient as the invisible! This is an eternal blunder, the opposite of the truth. Man’s true life is above the level of the senses. If we neglect this truth, we cannot truly live.
In proportion as we trust in that which is seen, we are weak in its weakness, and insecure in its uncertainty. Our affections are sure of their object only as they entwine themselves with the unseen.
III. THAT GOD HAS MADE THE TEMPORAL AND VISIBLE THINGS TO BE TYPES
OF THE SUPERIOR INVISIBLE AND ETERNAL THINGS
Paul rejoices that the invisible things of God, even His eternal power and Godhead, are from His creation clearly seen.
In Romans 1:20 he tells us that "the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead; so that they [the heathen] are without excuse".
The material things which God has created are types and images of the most effective and most glorious truths of Christianity. The rising and setting sun speak to us of a day that never ends. What are all human relationships but types of unseen realities? Are not fatherhood and motherhood drawing and wooing the heart to the Infinite One, Who is our Heavenly Father? The waters and springs which quench our thirst, point us to the "living water" which satisfies the soul. The bread that feeds our bodies points us to Christ the "Living Bread." God uses the growing corn in its various stages, the tares growing with the wheat, the lilies in their beautiful clothing, the clouds and the sun, and countless other things as illustrations of the better things which are eternal.
God aims to compel Us to see Eternal Things
It is a continual object in all God’s management, temporal and spiritual, secular and Christian, to bring us into positions where we can see, or rather be compelled to see, the eternal things of His government.
God’s scheme of providence is adjusted so as to open the windows upon us continually in "this earthly house of our tabernacle," through which the "building of God not made with hands" may be better discovered. Our complaint, therefore, that temporal things hide the eternal and keep them out of sight, is like a man complaining of telescopes hiding the stars, or window-panes shutting out the sun, or even eyes themselves obstructing the view of things visible.
Paul looked on material things just as one looks on a window-pane through which he studies the landscape without. So we are to live in these temporal things as in glass houses, looking through them into the grand realities which are eternal. The true use of the temporal things puts us under the constant all-dominating impression of things eternal.
Temporal and Eternal Related
There is a fixed relation between the temporal and the eternal, such that we best realize the eternal by rightly using the temporal. Paul saw even the temporal things a great deal more penetratingly than any mere worldly mind could. He saw far enough into them to discover their transitory consequences, and to apprehend just so much more distinctly the solid and the eternal things represented by them.
The Son of God Himself came out of his eternity to be incarnated among these earthly scenes, to live in them, and to look upon them with human eyes, He thus hallowed these things, making them the types of eternal realities.
The Visible reveals the Invisible
Every existing thing or object in the created empire of God, all forms, all colors, weights, magnitudes, come out of God’s mind covered all over with tokens, saturated all through with flavors of His intelligence. They all represent God’s thoughts, the invisible things of God; and an angel coming into the world, instead of seeing nothing in them but only temporal and temporary things, would see God expressed by them just as we are expressed by our faces and bodies.
God is turning our experiences always in such a way as to give us the more inward sense of things, acting always on the principle that the progress of knowledge is but a progress out of the matter view into the mind view of things. All the laws and classification of objects are thoughts of God made visible in them so that all the growth of knowledge is a kind of spiritualizing of the world; that is, a finding of the eternal in the temporal.
IV. THAT ETERNAL THINGS ARE VASTLY SUPERIOR TO TEMPORAL THINGS
The transitory character and the uncertainty of the things which are seen, and the certainty of the things that are not seen, should encourage us to set our hearts on the things which are eternal. What we cherish most in temporal things are often taken from us; but no such uncertainty prevails in regard to the eternal things; they are as firm and sure as the everlasting hills.
The Apostle Paul, having divided in his mind all existing things into two classes, temporal and eternal, seems to have asked himself: "Which are the best? Which shall I take as the objects of my pursuit?" He decided upon the invisible things, because of their great superiority. He prefers them because they are more enduring.
When in Christ, we obtain immortality. What matters it then to us what things are? Will they abide? Will they?
Visible Things not equal to Capacity of Human Soul
As to the intrinsic value of the two classes of things, the disparity is inconceivable. Visible things are not equal to the capacity of the human soul. All temporary objects put together cannot afford the soul a happiness equal to its capacity. But when we take a survey of invisible things, we find them all great and majestic – not only equal but infinitely superior to the most enlarged powers of the human, and even of the angelic nature.
When men are tempted to any unlawful pleasures, how they would shrink away from the pursuit of them had they a due sense of the misery incurred and the happiness forfeited by them. When men’s hearts are eager after things below, had they a suitable view of eternal things, all these things would shrink into trifles. Paul counted them but refuse in comparison with Christ and His blessings.
A suitable impression of eternal things would alter the aspect of things in the world. It would turn the capacity of the world into another channel.
V. THAT LOOKING AT THE UNSEEN BRINGS GREAT BENEFITS
The mental habit of Spirit-filled Christians – the habit of looking at the unseen, removes the obstacles out of the way of infinite benevolence, which then showers upon them the blessings which are a foretaste of heaven. A steady contemplation of invisible realities brings repose to the spirit amidst the ceaseless changes of life. The sense of things eternal gives endurance to bear the pains of present discipline. God keeps those souls in perfect peace whose minds are stayed upon him.
Afflictions Temporal, their Resultant Glory Eternal
The most grievous things should not make the Christian faint. The afflictions of Christ’s disciples are all temporal, but the good wrought for them by their afflictions is eternal. "The peaceable fruits of righteousness" remain after the blossoms are destroyed. The fire of the refiner is transient, but the refinement, thank God!, endures.
If we are Christians, our light afflictions, as Paul regards them, are only temporary; our prisons have no everlasting doors. Our circumstances may be complicated, but all are working together for our good. What a glorious fact! While we are looking at the things which are unseen even our afflictions increase our glory.
If nothing seen by any man is neither his hell nor his heaven, no consuming fire here need be unquenchable. Thank God, there is a fire-annihilator – a Brother able and ready to raise us from the pit! When sorrow surges against us, when difficulties spring up as mountains before us, we are able to smile at them all, because we know that they are short-lived, and because we have a vision of things which never perish. This vision of the perishable nature of these temporal things, and of the enduring quality of the things in the spiritual realm, enables the Christian to triumph over all things on the earth. He becomes, as Paul says, "more than conqueror".
Though Powerful Temporal Things are Transitory
The power of things visible is great when they have our attention. It was a supreme point of view that the Apostle had attained. The material things which so impress the natural man, Paul looked upon as only transitory. He looked up with other than the physical vision, saw God, and declared Him "eternal".
This insight of Paul’s was evidence of spiritual attainment. He shows that his soul had been struck through and through with heavenly truth. This experience, however, was not peculiar to the Apostle, for he says, "while we look" – including the Corinthians to whom he was writing, "and to all that in every place call upon the name of the Lord." This spiritual insight belongs to all Christians, but of course more perfectly to those who are more perfect. The glory of the Gospel is that it brings these transforming truths to the minds of men continually and irresistibly. It addresses faith, revealing the eternal nature of invisible things.
True Greatness a Result of Seeing the Invisible
No man is great in any department who does not see the things that are invisible. Only when he looks above the material and grasps great principles, has the statesman any depth of observation. Then he sees when others see not. The poet, thus inspired, beholds what others do not see, when he looks upon the storm which seems to tear and split the very heavens over head.
Looking at the unseen gives confidence, and even joy, amidst the sorrows and afflictions of life. Paul heaps one word upon another in order to describe his many buffetings: "In labors more abundant, in stripes beyond measure, in prisons more frequent," and many more such things: but his vision of the "far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory" which these things were working out for him caused him to say of all his buffetings, "These light afflictions." He looked straight through all these visible things to the glorious things which are not seen, as you would look through your window at a beautiful landscape. The sense of the eternal is the key to the Christian position. To quicken that sense, to develop it, to intensify it, is the master purpose of all religious training. This is our aim in speaking to you on this subject.
It is wonderful and glorious what looking at the unseen will do for us! It puts God to work creating within us that which is well-pleasing in His sight. It transforms us into the image of Christ from one degree of glory to another.
How to understand the Visible
If we want to understand the visible, or to get the highest good out of the things which are seen, we must bring into the field of vision the things which are not seen. Those who look at the things which are eternal have the true measuring rod and standard by which to estimate the duration and the intensity of the things which are present. By letting the steady light of eternity and the sustaining pressure of "the exceeding weight of glory" pour into our minds, we carry with us a standard which will lighten the pressure of the most crushing sorrow, and set in true dimensions everything that is visible.
There is nothing that makes man’s present existence so utterly contemptible, insignificant, and transitory, as to blot out from his sight its connection with eternity. If you shut out eternity from your life in time, then it is an inexplicable riddle. If you think only of that which is visible, you will be utterly puzzled. Should you take faith away from the world where you stand, the eyes of your heart will be smitten with blindness – a blindness which is worse than physical.
Seeing the Unseen prepares One for Eternity
Looking at the unseen is the condition on which time prepares us for eternity. The Apostle is speaking about the effect of affliction in making ready for us an eternal weight of glory; and he says that it is done while, or on condition that, during the suffering, we are looking steadfastly at "the things which are not seen." But no outward circumstances or events can prepare a weight of glory for us hereafter unless they prepare us here for the glory.
When a Christian suffers reproach or contempt for Christ’s sake, a due estimate of eternal things fortifies him with undaunted courage. A realizing view of eternal things animates us in our devotion. Paul gained what no historic research or scientific insight alone could discover – an apprehension of the unseen by the exercise of faith. Power of character comes not from intellectual training, or from association with the greatest men of the race, but by conscious relation to God, by reflecting the glory shining from above. Looking at the unseen imparts to us a devout appreciation of God and an intelligent recognition of His providential control of the world’s affairs.
Paul saw this unseen power in other lives, and felt it in his own. He knew, and so do we, how this indwelling life and love blazed forth in suffering martyrs and in the toiling missionaries, and was a power more real than a city, or a sea, or a mountain. He saw the greatness of immortality; and how infinitely great it is!
Looking at the Eternal lifts One above the Transient
By looking at the things that are unseen the human soul can rise from the transient to the eternal. Looking attentively at these eternal realities, regarding them habitually, realizing the fact of our being surrounded by them, and acting in relation to them, elevates and dignifies all things. The world and the man are no longer merely material; life is no longer temporal and unimportant; for everything is capable of being associated with these eternal, infinite, unseen things. There is no littleness even in the follies and vices of society, when we regard their relation to God and to eternity.
Seeing the Unseen an Incentive to doing One’s Duty
Looking at unseen things affords the Christian a glorious reason for the fulfillment of duty, and the resistance of temptation. "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might," because the principle is an eternal thing.
Temptation is nothing to the man who sees that it is merely the bubble rising to the surface of the stream, and knows that though it looks beautiful for the moment, in the sunbeams that are falling upon it, it shall perish and pass away, but that he has to do with things real, God-like, and enduring. Looking at the unseen is the great secret of the inward life, by which we may bear sorrow, and get good out of everything which may come upon us.
VI. THAT TRUE CHRISTIANITY BEGINS AND ENDS WITH THE INVISIBLE.
It has to do with the invisible God, with the unseen Saviour, and with another world.
The glory of the Gospel is that it is saturated with the unseen. A quiet lake, over whose bosom not the faintest breeze is felt, seems like a mirror suspended between two immensities, the one seen above, and the other in its liquid depths. Just so the Gospel shows the realities of both worlds as in a mirror.
The Secret of Paul’s Power
In our text, the Apostle discloses the great secret of his life and power. He was one of the world’s greatest benefactors; and yet the world repaid him with contempt, stripes, and imprisonment; but all of his sufferings fitted him for his work. He lived close to God, weaned from all low and selfish aims, and was filled with zeal.
The Church does not exist primarily for charity or for education; but to bring men to Christ, and then lead them to see the source of all true permanence.
No man is what God intends him to be until he grasps the invisible. In the great railways there are many branch-lines, but there is a trunk-line into which all the branch-lines run, and the trunk-line of the Apostle Paul was the invisible. Paul was kind to all he met, he took an interest in everything that he saw, he was gentle to everybody, and was willing to help everybody, he admired everything that was worth admiring; and still his trunk-line was toward the invisible, the everlasting; and all his earthly plans and joys ran into that and served him.
Earthly Affairs must be adjusted to Heavenly Affairs
We have our earthly affairs to attend to; but all must be arranged in relation to the everlasting. This will not make one less attentive to earthly duties. It is said of the lark that while up in the air it can see the smallest things on the ground below. So the man soaring in contemplation and looking toward the everlasting God will attend to all the little duties which come upon him every day, and enjoy them.
Looking at the unseen should be the mental habit of all Christians. Paul takes it for granted that every Christian man is, as the habitual direction of his thought, looking toward those things which are unseen. The immensely superior value of the things not seen require that they shall be first in our attention and in our esteem. On the same principle on which we readily sacrifice one dollar to gain a thousand dollars, or would be willing to endure five minutes of pain if it would secure to us a whole life time of comfort, we must admit that the transitory things which are seen ought to be subordinated to things which are abiding.
Revelation tells us that our life which is lived here among things which change and pass away, is also surrounded by what is permanent. It teaches us that the relationships in which we shall enter the spiritual realm will never be broken; that the good we attain will never be in danger of being lost. Among the visible things nothing is constant, while the eternal things are like God Himself – fixed and secure.
A True Metaphor
It is the truest of metaphors that "the soul has eyes as well as the body." With your physical eyelids closed your soul is all the freer to gaze on the world within – the world of thought and feeling. Paul employed more than his body in his various activities; the energy that he exhibited was sustained by his keen gaze on spiritual realities.
Let your heart be set on human beauty, and it is but a question of time when you will be weeping over its loss. But, thank God! if your affections are fixed on charms and graces of character, you will find them again unchanged, imperishable, and eternal.
VII. THAT FAITH IS LOOKING AT UNSEEN THINGS AND ACTING UPON THEM
Men talk about "blind faith" and "enlightened reason." The history of the world proves the reverse. Reason is often blind; faith never, because it sees that which is perfect reason for believing. As far as the optic nerve is concerned, "faith is the evidence of things not seen." But when with the mind we see and act upon the unseen realities, faith is the evidence of things seen.
Walking by faith is really walking by sight, for we see God, we see His promises, we see His faithfulness, and are so fully convinced by these great facts that we act upon them. Faith is the most rational thing in the world, because it is based on the greatest and best of facts and realities.
Faith is produced and grows by looking at the Unseen
Faith is produced, increased, and accomplishes its wonders "while we look not at the things that are seen, but at the things that are not seen." As a condition of salvation, God said, "Look unto Me, all ye ends of the earth, and be ye saved." When the serpent of brass was put upon the pole, it is written of those who were dying from the serpent’s bite, "Everyone that looked lived".
What it means to "Look"
The word "look," which stands for faith, is a very peculiar one. It means a steady, fixed gaze. You may walk through a garden with some friend and see the trees and flowers and walks, and as you pass through your friend says to you, "Did you see such and such a tree?" Turning back, you look at that tree until it is impressed upon your mind. You had seen the whole garden before, but you had not "looked" at anything in particular.
Our text represents the Christian in an attitude of attention. The word "look" signifies to "look at earnestly," intently. The word "look" is more than merely seeing; you can see things and yet have your mind wholly occupied with other things. The word "look" in this passage means that we are looking with our minds occupied with what we are seeing. So you see the Scriptural statement that "faith is the evidence of things not seen" (because they are not material) is true only of natural sight, while to our spiritual vision it is the evidence of things seen. Faith is believing only what we see with our spiritual vision. Paul shows that the mental habit of a Christian is walking by faith, and not by sight, meaning that we walk by spiritual and not by physical sight. The Apostle’s statement, "The just shall live by faith," is another way of saying that they shall live by looking at things unseen.
"The Word is God," says John. It is God speaking. It is always a present tense fact. God’s Word is the healer of both soul and body; it goes to work when we so believe it that we act upon it.
Mental Assent is not Faith
We must distinguish between mental assent and faith. Mental assent is acknowledging the truthfulness of the Word, the integrity of the Word, without acting upon it. Mental assent is standing outside the bakery window looking at the cakes and pies; it is not possessing. The promises of God which cover your case are of no value to you until you act, upon them. The man who wishes to be strong in faith, and free from doubt, must feed his faith constantly; he must study and meditate upon the Word of God, which is the only food for faith, with the same persistence, regularity, and liberality as he feeds his body.
Faith is both Negative and Positive
Our text as well as many others show us that faith is both negative and positive. "While we look not at the things which are seen" is the negative side. "But at the things which are unseen" is the positive side. We cannot look in opposite directions at the same time; so if we are to be under the domination of eternal realities, we must refuse to be influenced by the things that are seen. When Peter saw only Jesus, he walked on the water; but when he looked at the waves he began to sink. The wind and the waves could not hinder him until he looked at them.
True Faith makes Us more than Conquerors
The words of our text were written by the Apostle Paul who was thoroughly tried by the antagonisms of this world’s wrong. But by refusing to look at this world’s wrong, and by looking at the unseen things, he was "more than conqueror".
If we follow Paul’s path, we see it is shadowed by storms; but his gaze is fixed on the unseen. Paul steadied his life by the standard of a Divine righteousness. He thus gives us the creed of life which is to be lived by those who recognize God, and are living in a more enduring realm than the domination of the visible. Everything in the life of a man of faith tends toward the invisible; his life is arranged on that plan; it is his aim to secure the invisible.
VIII. THAT IT IS OUR DUTY TO PASS BEYOND VISIBLE THINGS AND TO LOOK AT
AND ENJOY THE THINGS WHICH ARE UNSEEN
It is our privilege to look away from the seen trial to the unseen support. This is what Elisha’s servant did after Elisha prayed, "Open the young man’s eyes." The young man’s eyes having been opened he looked away from the Assyrian hordes to the hosts of God, even the horses and chariots of fire.
We have the glorious privilege of looking away from the seen reflections to the unseen substances. The visible is a parable of the invisible. Things temporal are types of things eternal. How many people stop short with the parable! How many begin and end with the types! The best of realities they do not reach.
One Gravitation against Another
It is a glorious privilege to be occupied with eternal things; for by looking at the unseen God’s righteousness peaceably draws its fibers around our nature and draws us upward. It is one gravitation against another. The earth would hold you, but God’s righteousness counter-works the earth and wings you Godward.
It is our privilege to look at the glorious and abiding things until they are far more precious to us than material things. Creation changes, the Creator is the same. If all material things should vanish, I would still have the Father of my soul for my portion.
Failure to look at the Unseen Weakens
Failure in the matter of looking at the unseen is the reason for so much weakness in the lives of modern Christians. The things which are seen will soon lose all the value which they now appear to possess. Gold cannot procure a plaster that will heal a wounded conscience, a bandage that will bind up a broken heart, or a pillow that will ease a dying head.
Pitiable beyond expression is the case of the dying sinner. All his joys are past. But on the other hand how glorious are the prospects of the faithful in Christ Jesus! Their trial is ending, but the eternal triumph is commencing. Oh what an infinite disparity there is between an eternity of the most perfect happiness and a few years of unsatisfied delight with the things that are temporal! In heaven, the rivers of pleasure flow untroubled without a drop of sorrow.
The thing which is eternal is Revelation (the contact of the Divine mind with the human mind), the impartation of heaven’s high purposes; the revelation and the impartation of the nature of God.
How to see the Invisible
Every man whose duty is real to him, is looking at the things unseen. If it is hard for you to look at the unseen, then come closer to God. Here is a man who is striving hard to see the object he is working at. If he would take a few steps nearer to the light his striving to see would not be necessary. A man may have difficulty trying to see the stars from the basement of his home. He has this difficulty because of the houses which surround his. If he would go to the top floor of his house, what an expanse there would be before him without the slightest effort.
The Secret
The secret of looking at things unseen and finding it easy lies just here – take up the right position. The right position is the spirit of reconciliation. Unless you take this position, a cloud is lying between your soul and God. If you would see the unseen things which are eternal, come out into the sunshine of God’s love.
Dwell on the unseen things that you already see and you will see more. Look steadily at the unseen things of duty which are the most real and weighty to you, and it will not take long for a tender and brave conscience to come in sight of the greatest things.
Sorrow for sin visits all men, but only some welcome it; but the wise recognize it as among their best friends.
It is in the darkness of life that men see the stars of heavenly guidance.
Think much of Christ as He appeared on earth. He was the invisible made visible. He is the bridge between the seen and the unseen.
To see the Unseen is possible only through Jesus
It is of importance to see that the look at the things that are unseen is only possible through Jesus Christ. He is the only window that opens out and gives the vision of the best things – the things which are eternal. Jesus is the Columbus of the New World. It is only in Christ that the look which our text enjoins is possible. With Christ, we can positively know the things which, without Him, we can only believe.
My friend, since there is to be a total separation between you and the things which are seen, how important that you recognize them as only "temporal"! However attractive they may appear, this is unavoidable but that your connection with them must be brief. It is in this world that we are to deal with things eternal. nl480.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 in other countries. He pastors Bible Believers' tiny congregation, and is available to teach in your church.
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"We focus on the present Truth – what Jesus is doing now. . ."
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Christian greetings in the precious Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and an especial welcome to our new subscribers. We are pleased you could join us in fellowship around God's unchanging Word.
Once again our guest contributor is Evangelist Brother F. F. Bosworth, waiting in the unseen sixth dimension for Christ's end-time Bride to make herself ready for the Wedding Supper of the Lamb. His subject is "Looking at the Unseen, or the Mental Habit of Faith," and his conclusion is, to see the unseen is possible only through faith in Jesus Christ. This is one of the teachings Brother Branham mentioned and preached Himself in 1950.
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
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Bush in "Fantasyland"
"President Bush is rushing to deploy a technology that does not work against a threat that does not exist," Cirincione says. "Iran is at least 5 to 10 years away from the capability to build a nuclear weapon and at least that far from having a missile that could hit Europe let alone the US. And anti-missile systems are still nowhere near working despite $150 billion spent since the 1983 Star Wars program started and years of phony tests staged to demonstrate 'progress' and 'success.'" . . .
"President Bush so fervently believes in something that doesn't exist that he jeopardizes – again – our real security interests. The fact is the Czechs don't want the radar, the Europeans don't trust his explanations and deplore his unilateralism, the Congress has already cut the funds on purely programmatic grounds. This was a dumb idea before, now it is yet another foreign policy disaster". . . In The Rise of US Nuclear Primacy, published in Foreign Affairs last year, Keir A. Liber and Daryl G. Press wrote: ". . .the sort of missile defenses that the United States might plausibly deploy would be valuable primarily in an offensive context, not a defensive one — as an adjunct to a US first-strike capability, not as a stand-alone shield. If the United States launched a nuclear attack against Russia (or China), the targeted country would be left with a tiny surviving arsenal — if any at all. At that point, even a relatively modest or inefficient missile-defense system might well be enough to protect against any retaliatory strikes. . ."
"President Putin thinks the US policies represent a new imperialism. Now, he sees President Bush trying to build permanent military bases on Russia's borders. Putin isn't afraid of 10 interceptors but he has to worry about what comes next — any Russian leader would. He doesn't believe President Bush and many Europeans don't either. This issue feeds into the mistrust of America that Europeans feel on a host of Bush Administration policies from global warming to Iraq". . .
"Politics drives this deployment decision," Cirincione says. "Bush Administration officials are trying to lock in the program before they leave office. They are trying to build bases they hope the next president will find impossible to shut down" . . . President Bush has fallen neatly into Putin's trap. They may have to invent a new name for this gambit."
Full story: thenation.com
Comment: The image of the beast that "exercises all the power of Imperial Rome, and will cause the earth and all who dwell therein to serve Papal Rome" (Revelation 13:12).
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Putin’s Censored Press Conference
June 10, 2007 – Russian President Vladimir Putin gave an hour and a half-long press conference which was attended by many members of the world media. . . (Read the entire press conference archived here). . .
The meeting gave Putin a chance to give his side of the story in the growing debate over missile defense in Eastern Europe. He offered a brief account of the deteriorating state of US-Russian relations since the end of the Cold War, and particularly from 9/11 to present. Since September 11, the Bush administration has carried out an aggressive strategy to surround Russia with military bases, install missiles on its borders, topple allied regimes in Central Asia, and incite political upheaval in Moscow through US-backed "pro-democracy" groups. . . . The Bush administration’s belligerent foreign policy has backed the Kremlin into a corner and forced Putin to take retaliatory measures. He has no other choice. If we want to understand why relations between Russia are quickly reaching the boiling-point; we only need to review the main developments since the end of the Cold War. Political analyst Pat Buchanan gives a good rundown of these in his article "Doesn’t Putin Have a Point?" Full story: informationclearinghouse.info
Comment: Ezekiel 38-39, Zechariah 14 and Revelation 13 are unfolding before our eyes.
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Katrina and the Question of Scalar EM Weather Weapons
Scalar technology which has been blamed for hurricane Katrina is now suspected as the cause of drought across much of southern USA. Meanwhile those interesting folk who brought us two World Wars, AIDS, 9/11, Y2K, and other hoaxes, have activated a further phase of the Report from Iron Mountain on the Possibility and Desirability of Peace, which like The Protocols, was presented as satire but is in reality the revelation of the method. Their agents are now pushing the hoax of climate change as if it were caused by industrialization and not scalar warfare calculated to hasten deindustrialization and world depopulation. Now any change in weather, be it mild winters or cool summers can be attributed to "climate change." Whatever the weather, the news is very bad, and it seems Iran may be learning a lesson in just how "bad" weather can be in face of recalcitrance.
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The Stranger
A few years after I was born, my Dad met a stranger who was new to our small town. From the beginning, Dad was fascinated with this enchanting newcomer and soon invited him to live with our family. The stranger was quickly accepted and was around from then on.
As I grew up, I never questioned his place in my family. In my young mind, he had a special niche. My parents were complementary instructors: Mom taught me good from evil, and Dad taught me to obey. But the stranger. . . he was our storyteller. He would keep us spellbound for hours on end with adventures, mysteries, and comedies.
If I wanted to know anything about politics, history or science, he always knew the answers about the past, understood the present and even seemed able to predict the future! He took my family to the first major league ball game. He made me laugh, and he made me cry. The stranger never stopped talking, but Dad didn't seem to mind.
Sometimes, Mom would get up quietly while the rest of us were shushing each other to listen to what he had to say, and she would go to the kitchen for peace and quiet. (I wonder now if she ever prayed for the stranger to leave).
Dad ruled our household with certain moral convictions, but the stranger never felt obligated to honor them. Profanity, for example, was not allowed in our home. . . Not from us, our friends, or any visitors. Our longtime visitor, however, got away with four-letter words that burned my ears and made my dad squirm and my mother blush.
My Dad didn't permit the liberal use of alcohol. But the stranger encouraged us to try it on a regular basis. He made cigarettes look cool, cigars manly and pipes distinguished. He talked freely (much too freely!) about sex. His comments were sometimes blatant, sometimes suggestive, and generally embarrassing.
I now know that my early concepts about relationships were influenced strongly by the stranger. Time after time, he opposed the values of my parents, yet he was seldom rebuked. . . And NEVER asked to leave.
More than fifty years have passed since the stranger moved in with our family. He has blended right in and is not nearly as fascinating as he was at first. Still, if you could walk into my parents' den today, you would still find him sitting over in his corner, waiting for someone to listen to him talk and watch him draw his pictures. His name?. . .
We just call him, "TV."
He has a younger sister now. We call her "Computer."
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Looking at the Unseen, or the Mental Habit of Faith
by F. F. Bosworth
"We look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal" (II Corinthians 4:18).
Our text suggests to us eight great things.
I. THAT WE ARE LIVING IN TWO WORLDS
The material realities which we see with our natural eyes, exist in the midst of the far better realities which are unseen.
There are two worlds – the world of sense, and the world of spirit: and the world of spirit surrounds, enspheres, and interpenetrates the world of sense. Both worlds occupy the same space at the same time. Many speak as though the world of sense comes first, and the world of spirit comes after; whereas the world of spirit is all about us now, though the veil of sense hangs between.
Many imagine that we dwell in time here, and shall dwell in eternity hereafter; while the fact is that we dwell in eternity here, though we take a little section of it and call it "time".
The Scriptures teach us that the unseen realities – the best of all realities, encompass us now. What sights might every one of us see at every moment of our existence, at every turn of our path, had we only eyes with which to see them!
The "Seen" exists in the Midst of the "Unseen"
The "seen" exists in the midst of the "unseen," the "temporal" in the midst of the "eternal." Faith, based on glorious and eternal facts, serves the Christian for eyes, and enables him to see and enjoy what others cannot see.
God, the greatest and best of all realities, and the Creator of them all, is everywhere; yet sin-blinded eyes see Him not. God, who is infinitely real, is nonexistent to those who are blinded by "the god of this world".
The servant of Elisha was greatly stricken with fear because of the Assyrian hosts at Dothan because he had not yet formed the habit of looking at things invisible. He had no perception of spiritual forces. Elisha, on the other hand, was kept calm by seeing the invisible host. Such a man is a match for ten thousand others, because with two clear eyes on the unseen forces of the living God, he can say cheerfully: "Fear not, for they that be with us are more than they that be with them".
The Scriptures tell us that "Moses endured as seeing Him who is invisible" (Hebrews 11:27).
Many are occupied with the matters that belong only to the material side of life, expecting that after death, in some way, they will be brought into contact with the unseen things. But in this text Paul makes an appeal for life as in the presence of these two empires, the seen and the unseen; because every day the heart beats in both, and a man cannot alienate himself from the one and stand solitary in the other. Thank God that while we are living in this changing world, we are at the same time living in an everlasting universe of unchanging and eternal realities!
Eternal Things are Present Things
The Apostle does not say that he looked at future things; the eternal things which filled his vision were also present. The present things which he looked at and enjoyed were eternal. We, too, can now look at unseen things, because they are closer to us than the things seen. The visible world is not always before us; darkness comes on and we are in solitude; but the world of thought, and the great invisible realities are still with us to be seen and enjoyed.
While the Christian, for the time, forgets the invisible, his thoughts of God, of Christ, of truth, of righteousness, of love, of the perfect and beautiful in life, engage his whole attention. The natural man is blind. He does not realize the fact that there are just as great realities in the realm of the spiritual as there are in the realm of the material.
The Scriptures tell us that the natural man cannot know the things of God. The reason is, that every contact he has made is only through his central nervous system and his five senses – sight, hearing, touch, taste, and smell. These senses belong to the physical body, and they can only contact matter. The purpose of the five senses was never to reveal God to man; man was to know God through his soul. God created man a spirit being but gave him a physical body with its five senses through which he was to contact the natural world, which was to be his home.
Invisible Things are Real Things
What a mistake to suppose that invisible things are not real! The facts are that visible and material things could never have had an existence unless the invisible was first here, and was real enough and wise enough to create the visible. The far superior invisible realities and personality were here before the visible or material were created. "The things which are seen" by the physical vision were created by the "unseen." This fact surely proves, the reality and the superiority of "the things that are not seen." The best part of man himself is his invisible personality – his soul.
If you ask: How can unseen things be real? I ask you: What about yourself? Your body can be seen, but no natural eyes have ever seen you.
The invisible God is a Spirit – a Person, and so are you. You are a much greater reality than your temporal body. Nothing is more of a reality to you than your invisible self. What is more real to you than your mind and your own thoughts?
Your whole life is occupied with them. You have never seen them; but they are as real to you as your body.
Surely the Creator is far greater than the universe which He created, so I am more interested in knowing and loving the Creator Himself than anything He made.
Compared with the reality of the great unseen world, all that can be seen with the natural eyes is scarcely a shadow. The poorest vision in this world is the optic nerve, because it is blind to everything but temporal things. I have heard physically blind men saying "Praise the Lord" in nearly every sentence they uttered, because of what they were seeing among the eternal realities which are invisible to the optic nerve. Many sympathise with the physically blind while they themselves have a much worse form of blindness; for they have never seen the superior things which satisfy the soul.
Truth is invisible, and yet it is the only thing that can set us free. "Two and two equal four" is an invisible fact. Character, honesty, love, happiness and virtue are all invisible, but they are eternal realities. They can only be seen with the mind.
Senses are not essential to Spiritual Joy
The five senses are not essential to spiritual joy. Christians, when they have lost their five senses through physical death, instantly become happier than they had ever been before because then they are "absent from the body and present with the Lord".
Some people are so miserable they try to get rid of their five senses by committing suicide.
If a material body were essential to the highest happiness, then God the Father would create for Himself a physical body.
Angels are happy, yet they are without material bodies. Jesus tells us that Lazarus after he died was happy with Abraham. Instead of making them happy, what men have contacted by their five senses has often made them unhappy.
Things not less real because Unseen
Because you do not see things with the natural eye, does not make them any less real. Suppose you close your eyes so that you cannot see the things around you, this does not do away with them. If you think it does, then open your eyes and you will see the things which were unseen a moment before.
The angels at Dothan would have been none the less present if Elisha’s servant had not seen them, just as the Assyrian troops would have been none the less there if Elisha had not seen them.
Things both temporal and spiritual are real whether you see them or not. The new power of Elisha’s servant to see the chariots and horses of fire sweeping around Elisha did not create these spiritual forms or beings. His new sight could not create, any more than his blindness could destroy these supernatural realities.
The angel host which Elisha saw, the spiritual warriors of God, was the great reality, while the army with banners which Elijah’s servant saw was but a shadow.
The Bible is full of this kind of thing, and this is God’s effort to impress upon the world the great facts of the invisible and the eternal.
II. THAT MATERIAL THINGS ARE INSUFFICIENT
The common occupations of the world, the keen and ever-increasing competition of business, the cares of home, have a most pernicious effect upon us, unless some counterbalancing influence is brought to bear. They make us grow intensely secular in thought and feeling. They beguile men by insensible degrees into the belief that what we see are the only realities. They drag men down to the very dust.
The Great Corrective
The great corrective of this state of mind is to look away to the better things which are not seen. The very remembrance that all around about us there is a region of spiritual existence – a world which, though unrealized by the senses, is as real as, yes, more gloriously real than the solid earth on which we tread, will help to keep the soul from injury. Within that invisible region lie all of our supreme interests. God is there; and Christ is there; and all the gracious influences which save and sanctify the soul are there.
The unseen magnetic pole controls the needle of the compass and enables the mariner to navigate the pathless ocean; even so only the unseen God can rightly guide us. Thank God we are not shut in on all sides by solid walls of matter; there is an existence outside and independent of it! The Christian feels a spiritual existence within him which no philosophy can explain away. We are conscious that we ourselves are spirit and not flesh. We have a body, but we ourselves are not visible. The invisible in man thirsts for the invisible, without which he cannot live.
Two Kinds of Rest
There are two kinds of rest – one for the body, the other for the soul; two classes of enjoyment those derived from things, and those drawn from thought; and for the unseen sources of enjoyment and rest, men thirst.
More than a hundred thousand people who were living in physical bodies yesterday are today absent from the body, and are face to face with the eternal realities which many of them did not recognize yesterday. If temporal things only have been their aim, if their enjoyments have been pleasures only of sense, they are now, since death, like living creatures taken from their native element. By making things "seen" their portion, they are now exposed to destitution. The good things which they have seen are gone.
Things Seen do not Satisfy
Because there is more in man than what is seen; because the invisible in man thirsts for the invisible outside and beyond, we say that the good things seen are not enough for us. We need living bread, water of life, raiment which waxes not old, houses not made with hands, treasures which moth and rust do not corrupt, "fullness of joy," "pleasures for evermore," perfect peace and undisturbed rest. These are not to be derived from things temporal. Worldly things, wealth, honor, happy homes, all cry, "Heaven is not in us." "The things which are seen are temporal." This common truth has long been in our Bibles. God wants it written in our hearts.
Let us hold the good things seen with a slack hand. They are temporal, and they will be taken from us, or we will be taken from them; if we grasp them firmly the removal of them will shake us from head to foot; but if we hold them lightly, when they are taken away, we will stand unshaken. Let us all enjoy our glorious heritage and our portion in that which is unseen and eternal. We may thus enjoy the foretaste of heaven every day.
True Philosophy of Life
The true philosophy of life is the philosophy which turns the eye of the soul towards a present eternity. All should realize that the life that transcends the senses is the real one, and not the life which is simply in the senses.
We have five gate-ways of knowledge to bring us into contact with the visible world; but that world is but a symbol of the other; it is not the great reality. The life, therefore, which deals only with those things which can be measured and weighed, is the life which is making the most serious of all blunders.
You cannot go very far in existence without realizing the sweep of such forces as love, faith and hope, and these at once draw you away from the material.
Oh how many people are living as though there was nothing so permanent as the tangible and visible; and nothing so elusive and transient as the invisible! This is an eternal blunder, the opposite of the truth. Man’s true life is above the level of the senses. If we neglect this truth, we cannot truly live.
In proportion as we trust in that which is seen, we are weak in its weakness, and insecure in its uncertainty. Our affections are sure of their object only as they entwine themselves with the unseen.
III. THAT GOD HAS MADE THE TEMPORAL AND VISIBLE THINGS TO BE TYPES
OF THE SUPERIOR INVISIBLE AND ETERNAL THINGS
Paul rejoices that the invisible things of God, even His eternal power and Godhead, are from His creation clearly seen.
In Romans 1:20 he tells us that "the invisible things of Him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead; so that they [the heathen] are without excuse".
The material things which God has created are types and images of the most effective and most glorious truths of Christianity. The rising and setting sun speak to us of a day that never ends. What are all human relationships but types of unseen realities? Are not fatherhood and motherhood drawing and wooing the heart to the Infinite One, Who is our Heavenly Father? The waters and springs which quench our thirst, point us to the "living water" which satisfies the soul. The bread that feeds our bodies points us to Christ the "Living Bread." God uses the growing corn in its various stages, the tares growing with the wheat, the lilies in their beautiful clothing, the clouds and the sun, and countless other things as illustrations of the better things which are eternal.
God aims to compel Us to see Eternal Things
It is a continual object in all God’s management, temporal and spiritual, secular and Christian, to bring us into positions where we can see, or rather be compelled to see, the eternal things of His government.
God’s scheme of providence is adjusted so as to open the windows upon us continually in "this earthly house of our tabernacle," through which the "building of God not made with hands" may be better discovered. Our complaint, therefore, that temporal things hide the eternal and keep them out of sight, is like a man complaining of telescopes hiding the stars, or window-panes shutting out the sun, or even eyes themselves obstructing the view of things visible.
Paul looked on material things just as one looks on a window-pane through which he studies the landscape without. So we are to live in these temporal things as in glass houses, looking through them into the grand realities which are eternal. The true use of the temporal things puts us under the constant all-dominating impression of things eternal.
Temporal and Eternal Related
There is a fixed relation between the temporal and the eternal, such that we best realize the eternal by rightly using the temporal. Paul saw even the temporal things a great deal more penetratingly than any mere worldly mind could. He saw far enough into them to discover their transitory consequences, and to apprehend just so much more distinctly the solid and the eternal things represented by them.
The Son of God Himself came out of his eternity to be incarnated among these earthly scenes, to live in them, and to look upon them with human eyes, He thus hallowed these things, making them the types of eternal realities.
The Visible reveals the Invisible
Every existing thing or object in the created empire of God, all forms, all colors, weights, magnitudes, come out of God’s mind covered all over with tokens, saturated all through with flavors of His intelligence. They all represent God’s thoughts, the invisible things of God; and an angel coming into the world, instead of seeing nothing in them but only temporal and temporary things, would see God expressed by them just as we are expressed by our faces and bodies.
God is turning our experiences always in such a way as to give us the more inward sense of things, acting always on the principle that the progress of knowledge is but a progress out of the matter view into the mind view of things. All the laws and classification of objects are thoughts of God made visible in them so that all the growth of knowledge is a kind of spiritualizing of the world; that is, a finding of the eternal in the temporal.
IV. THAT ETERNAL THINGS ARE VASTLY SUPERIOR TO TEMPORAL THINGS
The transitory character and the uncertainty of the things which are seen, and the certainty of the things that are not seen, should encourage us to set our hearts on the things which are eternal. What we cherish most in temporal things are often taken from us; but no such uncertainty prevails in regard to the eternal things; they are as firm and sure as the everlasting hills.
The Apostle Paul, having divided in his mind all existing things into two classes, temporal and eternal, seems to have asked himself: "Which are the best? Which shall I take as the objects of my pursuit?" He decided upon the invisible things, because of their great superiority. He prefers them because they are more enduring.
When in Christ, we obtain immortality. What matters it then to us what things are? Will they abide? Will they?
Visible Things not equal to Capacity of Human Soul
As to the intrinsic value of the two classes of things, the disparity is inconceivable. Visible things are not equal to the capacity of the human soul. All temporary objects put together cannot afford the soul a happiness equal to its capacity. But when we take a survey of invisible things, we find them all great and majestic – not only equal but infinitely superior to the most enlarged powers of the human, and even of the angelic nature.
When men are tempted to any unlawful pleasures, how they would shrink away from the pursuit of them had they a due sense of the misery incurred and the happiness forfeited by them. When men’s hearts are eager after things below, had they a suitable view of eternal things, all these things would shrink into trifles. Paul counted them but refuse in comparison with Christ and His blessings.
A suitable impression of eternal things would alter the aspect of things in the world. It would turn the capacity of the world into another channel.
V. THAT LOOKING AT THE UNSEEN BRINGS GREAT BENEFITS
The mental habit of Spirit-filled Christians – the habit of looking at the unseen, removes the obstacles out of the way of infinite benevolence, which then showers upon them the blessings which are a foretaste of heaven. A steady contemplation of invisible realities brings repose to the spirit amidst the ceaseless changes of life. The sense of things eternal gives endurance to bear the pains of present discipline. God keeps those souls in perfect peace whose minds are stayed upon him.
Afflictions Temporal, their Resultant Glory Eternal
The most grievous things should not make the Christian faint. The afflictions of Christ’s disciples are all temporal, but the good wrought for them by their afflictions is eternal. "The peaceable fruits of righteousness" remain after the blossoms are destroyed. The fire of the refiner is transient, but the refinement, thank God!, endures.
If we are Christians, our light afflictions, as Paul regards them, are only temporary; our prisons have no everlasting doors. Our circumstances may be complicated, but all are working together for our good. What a glorious fact! While we are looking at the things which are unseen even our afflictions increase our glory.
If nothing seen by any man is neither his hell nor his heaven, no consuming fire here need be unquenchable. Thank God, there is a fire-annihilator – a Brother able and ready to raise us from the pit! When sorrow surges against us, when difficulties spring up as mountains before us, we are able to smile at them all, because we know that they are short-lived, and because we have a vision of things which never perish. This vision of the perishable nature of these temporal things, and of the enduring quality of the things in the spiritual realm, enables the Christian to triumph over all things on the earth. He becomes, as Paul says, "more than conqueror".
Though Powerful Temporal Things are Transitory
The power of things visible is great when they have our attention. It was a supreme point of view that the Apostle had attained. The material things which so impress the natural man, Paul looked upon as only transitory. He looked up with other than the physical vision, saw God, and declared Him "eternal".
This insight of Paul’s was evidence of spiritual attainment. He shows that his soul had been struck through and through with heavenly truth. This experience, however, was not peculiar to the Apostle, for he says, "while we look" – including the Corinthians to whom he was writing, "and to all that in every place call upon the name of the Lord." This spiritual insight belongs to all Christians, but of course more perfectly to those who are more perfect. The glory of the Gospel is that it brings these transforming truths to the minds of men continually and irresistibly. It addresses faith, revealing the eternal nature of invisible things.
True Greatness a Result of Seeing the Invisible
No man is great in any department who does not see the things that are invisible. Only when he looks above the material and grasps great principles, has the statesman any depth of observation. Then he sees when others see not. The poet, thus inspired, beholds what others do not see, when he looks upon the storm which seems to tear and split the very heavens over head.
Looking at the unseen gives confidence, and even joy, amidst the sorrows and afflictions of life. Paul heaps one word upon another in order to describe his many buffetings: "In labors more abundant, in stripes beyond measure, in prisons more frequent," and many more such things: but his vision of the "far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory" which these things were working out for him caused him to say of all his buffetings, "These light afflictions." He looked straight through all these visible things to the glorious things which are not seen, as you would look through your window at a beautiful landscape. The sense of the eternal is the key to the Christian position. To quicken that sense, to develop it, to intensify it, is the master purpose of all religious training. This is our aim in speaking to you on this subject.
It is wonderful and glorious what looking at the unseen will do for us! It puts God to work creating within us that which is well-pleasing in His sight. It transforms us into the image of Christ from one degree of glory to another.
How to understand the Visible
If we want to understand the visible, or to get the highest good out of the things which are seen, we must bring into the field of vision the things which are not seen. Those who look at the things which are eternal have the true measuring rod and standard by which to estimate the duration and the intensity of the things which are present. By letting the steady light of eternity and the sustaining pressure of "the exceeding weight of glory" pour into our minds, we carry with us a standard which will lighten the pressure of the most crushing sorrow, and set in true dimensions everything that is visible.
There is nothing that makes man’s present existence so utterly contemptible, insignificant, and transitory, as to blot out from his sight its connection with eternity. If you shut out eternity from your life in time, then it is an inexplicable riddle. If you think only of that which is visible, you will be utterly puzzled. Should you take faith away from the world where you stand, the eyes of your heart will be smitten with blindness – a blindness which is worse than physical.
Seeing the Unseen prepares One for Eternity
Looking at the unseen is the condition on which time prepares us for eternity. The Apostle is speaking about the effect of affliction in making ready for us an eternal weight of glory; and he says that it is done while, or on condition that, during the suffering, we are looking steadfastly at "the things which are not seen." But no outward circumstances or events can prepare a weight of glory for us hereafter unless they prepare us here for the glory.
When a Christian suffers reproach or contempt for Christ’s sake, a due estimate of eternal things fortifies him with undaunted courage. A realizing view of eternal things animates us in our devotion. Paul gained what no historic research or scientific insight alone could discover – an apprehension of the unseen by the exercise of faith. Power of character comes not from intellectual training, or from association with the greatest men of the race, but by conscious relation to God, by reflecting the glory shining from above. Looking at the unseen imparts to us a devout appreciation of God and an intelligent recognition of His providential control of the world’s affairs.
Paul saw this unseen power in other lives, and felt it in his own. He knew, and so do we, how this indwelling life and love blazed forth in suffering martyrs and in the toiling missionaries, and was a power more real than a city, or a sea, or a mountain. He saw the greatness of immortality; and how infinitely great it is!
Looking at the Eternal lifts One above the Transient
By looking at the things that are unseen the human soul can rise from the transient to the eternal. Looking attentively at these eternal realities, regarding them habitually, realizing the fact of our being surrounded by them, and acting in relation to them, elevates and dignifies all things. The world and the man are no longer merely material; life is no longer temporal and unimportant; for everything is capable of being associated with these eternal, infinite, unseen things. There is no littleness even in the follies and vices of society, when we regard their relation to God and to eternity.
Seeing the Unseen an Incentive to doing One’s Duty
Looking at unseen things affords the Christian a glorious reason for the fulfillment of duty, and the resistance of temptation. "Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do it with thy might," because the principle is an eternal thing.
Temptation is nothing to the man who sees that it is merely the bubble rising to the surface of the stream, and knows that though it looks beautiful for the moment, in the sunbeams that are falling upon it, it shall perish and pass away, but that he has to do with things real, God-like, and enduring. Looking at the unseen is the great secret of the inward life, by which we may bear sorrow, and get good out of everything which may come upon us.
VI. THAT TRUE CHRISTIANITY BEGINS AND ENDS WITH THE INVISIBLE.
It has to do with the invisible God, with the unseen Saviour, and with another world.
The glory of the Gospel is that it is saturated with the unseen. A quiet lake, over whose bosom not the faintest breeze is felt, seems like a mirror suspended between two immensities, the one seen above, and the other in its liquid depths. Just so the Gospel shows the realities of both worlds as in a mirror.
The Secret of Paul’s Power
In our text, the Apostle discloses the great secret of his life and power. He was one of the world’s greatest benefactors; and yet the world repaid him with contempt, stripes, and imprisonment; but all of his sufferings fitted him for his work. He lived close to God, weaned from all low and selfish aims, and was filled with zeal.
The Church does not exist primarily for charity or for education; but to bring men to Christ, and then lead them to see the source of all true permanence.
No man is what God intends him to be until he grasps the invisible. In the great railways there are many branch-lines, but there is a trunk-line into which all the branch-lines run, and the trunk-line of the Apostle Paul was the invisible. Paul was kind to all he met, he took an interest in everything that he saw, he was gentle to everybody, and was willing to help everybody, he admired everything that was worth admiring; and still his trunk-line was toward the invisible, the everlasting; and all his earthly plans and joys ran into that and served him.
Earthly Affairs must be adjusted to Heavenly Affairs
We have our earthly affairs to attend to; but all must be arranged in relation to the everlasting. This will not make one less attentive to earthly duties. It is said of the lark that while up in the air it can see the smallest things on the ground below. So the man soaring in contemplation and looking toward the everlasting God will attend to all the little duties which come upon him every day, and enjoy them.
Looking at the unseen should be the mental habit of all Christians. Paul takes it for granted that every Christian man is, as the habitual direction of his thought, looking toward those things which are unseen. The immensely superior value of the things not seen require that they shall be first in our attention and in our esteem. On the same principle on which we readily sacrifice one dollar to gain a thousand dollars, or would be willing to endure five minutes of pain if it would secure to us a whole life time of comfort, we must admit that the transitory things which are seen ought to be subordinated to things which are abiding.
Revelation tells us that our life which is lived here among things which change and pass away, is also surrounded by what is permanent. It teaches us that the relationships in which we shall enter the spiritual realm will never be broken; that the good we attain will never be in danger of being lost. Among the visible things nothing is constant, while the eternal things are like God Himself – fixed and secure.
A True Metaphor
It is the truest of metaphors that "the soul has eyes as well as the body." With your physical eyelids closed your soul is all the freer to gaze on the world within – the world of thought and feeling. Paul employed more than his body in his various activities; the energy that he exhibited was sustained by his keen gaze on spiritual realities.
Let your heart be set on human beauty, and it is but a question of time when you will be weeping over its loss. But, thank God! if your affections are fixed on charms and graces of character, you will find them again unchanged, imperishable, and eternal.
VII. THAT FAITH IS LOOKING AT UNSEEN THINGS AND ACTING UPON THEM
Men talk about "blind faith" and "enlightened reason." The history of the world proves the reverse. Reason is often blind; faith never, because it sees that which is perfect reason for believing. As far as the optic nerve is concerned, "faith is the evidence of things not seen." But when with the mind we see and act upon the unseen realities, faith is the evidence of things seen.
Walking by faith is really walking by sight, for we see God, we see His promises, we see His faithfulness, and are so fully convinced by these great facts that we act upon them. Faith is the most rational thing in the world, because it is based on the greatest and best of facts and realities.
Faith is produced and grows by looking at the Unseen
Faith is produced, increased, and accomplishes its wonders "while we look not at the things that are seen, but at the things that are not seen." As a condition of salvation, God said, "Look unto Me, all ye ends of the earth, and be ye saved." When the serpent of brass was put upon the pole, it is written of those who were dying from the serpent’s bite, "Everyone that looked lived".
What it means to "Look"
The word "look," which stands for faith, is a very peculiar one. It means a steady, fixed gaze. You may walk through a garden with some friend and see the trees and flowers and walks, and as you pass through your friend says to you, "Did you see such and such a tree?" Turning back, you look at that tree until it is impressed upon your mind. You had seen the whole garden before, but you had not "looked" at anything in particular.
Our text represents the Christian in an attitude of attention. The word "look" signifies to "look at earnestly," intently. The word "look" is more than merely seeing; you can see things and yet have your mind wholly occupied with other things. The word "look" in this passage means that we are looking with our minds occupied with what we are seeing. So you see the Scriptural statement that "faith is the evidence of things not seen" (because they are not material) is true only of natural sight, while to our spiritual vision it is the evidence of things seen. Faith is believing only what we see with our spiritual vision. Paul shows that the mental habit of a Christian is walking by faith, and not by sight, meaning that we walk by spiritual and not by physical sight. The Apostle’s statement, "The just shall live by faith," is another way of saying that they shall live by looking at things unseen.
"The Word is God," says John. It is God speaking. It is always a present tense fact. God’s Word is the healer of both soul and body; it goes to work when we so believe it that we act upon it.
Mental Assent is not Faith
We must distinguish between mental assent and faith. Mental assent is acknowledging the truthfulness of the Word, the integrity of the Word, without acting upon it. Mental assent is standing outside the bakery window looking at the cakes and pies; it is not possessing. The promises of God which cover your case are of no value to you until you act, upon them. The man who wishes to be strong in faith, and free from doubt, must feed his faith constantly; he must study and meditate upon the Word of God, which is the only food for faith, with the same persistence, regularity, and liberality as he feeds his body.
Faith is both Negative and Positive
Our text as well as many others show us that faith is both negative and positive. "While we look not at the things which are seen" is the negative side. "But at the things which are unseen" is the positive side. We cannot look in opposite directions at the same time; so if we are to be under the domination of eternal realities, we must refuse to be influenced by the things that are seen. When Peter saw only Jesus, he walked on the water; but when he looked at the waves he began to sink. The wind and the waves could not hinder him until he looked at them.
True Faith makes Us more than Conquerors
The words of our text were written by the Apostle Paul who was thoroughly tried by the antagonisms of this world’s wrong. But by refusing to look at this world’s wrong, and by looking at the unseen things, he was "more than conqueror".
If we follow Paul’s path, we see it is shadowed by storms; but his gaze is fixed on the unseen. Paul steadied his life by the standard of a Divine righteousness. He thus gives us the creed of life which is to be lived by those who recognize God, and are living in a more enduring realm than the domination of the visible. Everything in the life of a man of faith tends toward the invisible; his life is arranged on that plan; it is his aim to secure the invisible.
VIII. THAT IT IS OUR DUTY TO PASS BEYOND VISIBLE THINGS AND TO LOOK AT
AND ENJOY THE THINGS WHICH ARE UNSEEN
It is our privilege to look away from the seen trial to the unseen support. This is what Elisha’s servant did after Elisha prayed, "Open the young man’s eyes." The young man’s eyes having been opened he looked away from the Assyrian hordes to the hosts of God, even the horses and chariots of fire.
We have the glorious privilege of looking away from the seen reflections to the unseen substances. The visible is a parable of the invisible. Things temporal are types of things eternal. How many people stop short with the parable! How many begin and end with the types! The best of realities they do not reach.
One Gravitation against Another
It is a glorious privilege to be occupied with eternal things; for by looking at the unseen God’s righteousness peaceably draws its fibers around our nature and draws us upward. It is one gravitation against another. The earth would hold you, but God’s righteousness counter-works the earth and wings you Godward.
It is our privilege to look at the glorious and abiding things until they are far more precious to us than material things. Creation changes, the Creator is the same. If all material things should vanish, I would still have the Father of my soul for my portion.
Failure to look at the Unseen Weakens
Failure in the matter of looking at the unseen is the reason for so much weakness in the lives of modern Christians. The things which are seen will soon lose all the value which they now appear to possess. Gold cannot procure a plaster that will heal a wounded conscience, a bandage that will bind up a broken heart, or a pillow that will ease a dying head.
Pitiable beyond expression is the case of the dying sinner. All his joys are past. But on the other hand how glorious are the prospects of the faithful in Christ Jesus! Their trial is ending, but the eternal triumph is commencing. Oh what an infinite disparity there is between an eternity of the most perfect happiness and a few years of unsatisfied delight with the things that are temporal! In heaven, the rivers of pleasure flow untroubled without a drop of sorrow.
The thing which is eternal is Revelation (the contact of the Divine mind with the human mind), the impartation of heaven’s high purposes; the revelation and the impartation of the nature of God.
How to see the Invisible
Every man whose duty is real to him, is looking at the things unseen. If it is hard for you to look at the unseen, then come closer to God. Here is a man who is striving hard to see the object he is working at. If he would take a few steps nearer to the light his striving to see would not be necessary. A man may have difficulty trying to see the stars from the basement of his home. He has this difficulty because of the houses which surround his. If he would go to the top floor of his house, what an expanse there would be before him without the slightest effort.
The Secret
The secret of looking at things unseen and finding it easy lies just here – take up the right position. The right position is the spirit of reconciliation. Unless you take this position, a cloud is lying between your soul and God. If you would see the unseen things which are eternal, come out into the sunshine of God’s love.
Dwell on the unseen things that you already see and you will see more. Look steadily at the unseen things of duty which are the most real and weighty to you, and it will not take long for a tender and brave conscience to come in sight of the greatest things.
Sorrow for sin visits all men, but only some welcome it; but the wise recognize it as among their best friends.
It is in the darkness of life that men see the stars of heavenly guidance.
Think much of Christ as He appeared on earth. He was the invisible made visible. He is the bridge between the seen and the unseen.
To see the Unseen is possible only through Jesus
It is of importance to see that the look at the things that are unseen is only possible through Jesus Christ. He is the only window that opens out and gives the vision of the best things – the things which are eternal. Jesus is the Columbus of the New World. It is only in Christ that the look which our text enjoins is possible. With Christ, we can positively know the things which, without Him, we can only believe.
My friend, since there is to be a total separation between you and the things which are seen, how important that you recognize them as only "temporal"! However attractive they may appear, this is unavoidable but that your connection with them must be brief. It is in this world that we are to deal with things eternal. nl480.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 in other countries. He pastors Bible Believers' tiny congregation, and is available to teach in your church.
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