Bible Believers' Newsletter 661
"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. Your brother-in-Christ, Anthony Grigor-Scott
An especial welcome to our new subscribers. If you advise your postal address we will mail a CD of our free PowerPoint presentation, "The Second Coming of Christ." While grace continues please educate yourself and as a labourer in the Lord's garden impart to others the "Good News" of the present Truth—what Jesus is doing now.
Subscribers will have received an update on the circumstances of our Iranian Brethren, including Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani, his wife Fatemeh Pasandideh; Pastor Behrouz Sadegh-Khandjani and his wife, Fatemeh Kojouri Tork; Pastor Behnam Irani Shiraz; Mehdi and Mina Kerbalayi and their mother, Nahid; Brother Afshin, Sister Mahsa, Brother Mid, Sister Nasrin Karaj, and Amin Pishkar who are either incarcerated for the faith or released on bail. Several other families have fled into exile in Turkey. You will appreciate the necessity for prayer, in particular for Pastor Nadarkhani, who has now received the official written sentence of death by hanging, and has about two weeks in which to lodge his appeal.
In our main Article we will be studying the resurrection body.
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.
Hallelujah Chorus at Macy's
Shoppers at Macy's in Philadelphia were surprised when over 600 choristers mingling with regular shoppers suddenly burst into Handel's Hallelujah Chorus. The Opera Company of Philadelphia was instrumental in bringing it together to perform one of the Knight Foundation's "1000 Random Acts of Culture" which they'll be doing over the next three years across the country. Accompanied by the Wanamaker Organ—the world's largest pipe organ—the singers burst into song at exactly noon. Full story: creativeminorityreport.com
City of London demands End of Sovereignty – for Ireland and the World
November 19, 2010 — The City of London and its Inter-Alpha Group of Banks is strangling Ireland, to force the Irish government to take over the debts of the private banks, including Inter-Alpha’s own Allied Irish Banks. . . The illusion of a 'recovery' since September/October 2008 has depended entirely upon governments taking over the banking system’s gambling losses, and pushing the burden of those losses on to the public. . . The flagship [Rothschild's] London Economist similarly says that the purpose of the bailout of the Irish banking sector is to 'make it sturdy enough for some of Ireland’s banks to be bought up by foreign ones'. . .
Collectively, Australia's banks have $15.195 trillion in exposure to the very 'derivatives' financial instruments that in September 2008 collapsed Lehman Brothers and blew out the global financial system. Meanwhile the central banks in Japan, South Korea, Switzerland and Taiwan have reduced the value of their currencies to make the commodities manufactured in their countries more attractive to foreign buyers, and the US continues to export its inflation by monetising debt.Full story: cecaust.com.au
Globalization: Towards Universal Serfdom
April 3, 2008 — If four low-wage workers are riding an elevator and Bill Gates gets on, everyone on the elevator becomes, on average, a billionaire. The economic benefits of US-China trade, like the average net worth on that elevator, look good until you consider their distribution.
The gains from trade between the United States and China have flowed to a very small segment of both countries' elites. The gap between the value of what US workers produce and what they receive has widened dramatically, partly because deregulated trade has suppressed the real wages of all non-college educated workers (about 70% of the labor force). Between 1980 and 2005, US productivity rose 71% while real compensation (including benefits) of non-supervisory workers rose just 4%. This measure includes all the benefits of globalization received by these workers. Most of the benefits of growth since 1980 have been captured by the top 10%, especially the top 1%, of US workers. The problem is not trade, per se, but the current trading system which has encouraged a race-to-the bottom in wages and labor standards.
The systematic suppression of workers' rights has reduced Chinese wages by 47% to 85% according to a recent labor-rights petition, and the problems are worsening. Occupational illness and injury rates have never been higher in Chinese manufacturing. Workers are frequently forced to go unpaid, and their complaints and protests are often met with violent government responses.
Fueling China's vast trade surplus with the United States is its very high savings rates, nearing 50% of GDP in recent years. Conventional wisdom is that Chinese workers save excessively because China's pension and public health systems are so poor. However, household savings recently declined to 16% of GDP. Business savings, on the other hand have soared to nearly 24% of GDP and government savings exceeded 10% according to the IMF.
Thus, globalization's benefits in China are reaped by an elite cadre who own and operate private and public enterprises. Their savings are piling up in the net worth of the rapidly expanding business empires under their control.
Getting tough with China about international trade and labor rights violations would help workers in both countries. The Bush administration has rejected two labor rights petitions submitted by the AFL-CIO and US Representatives Ben Cardin and Chris Smith, and workers in both countries have suffered as a result.
China needs more spending on infrastructure, environmental clean-up, and public health and other social services. It needs fundamental improvements in labor rights and enforcement, which will raise wages, increase private consumption and reduce China's need to export. These win-win policies can help workers in the United States, China and all our trading partners. Full story: Robert Scott
Comment: Read the links. Globalization benefits only the elite of the City of London's Round Table Group under Rothschild-controlled WTO and IMF. These affiliates control our lives through well-planned psycho-political operations. These psyops rob citizens of the present by creating false reality worlds to trick them not to act in their own best interest but in the interest of a group of subtle fascists intent on creating one Luciferian world order under their control.
South Africa Illegal Kidney Deals tied to Israel
November 13, 2010 — Netcare, the biggest health care provider in South Africa, has pleaded guilty to charges of performing illegal kidney transplant operations using Israeli-linked organ trafficking syndicate. . . The suit follows a seven-year investigation into the illegal operations at St. Augustine's Hospital in Durban in association with an Israeli-linked organ trafficking syndicate. . .
Other related reports surfaced regarding 25,000 Ukrainian children who had been brought to Israel over the past two years to be used by Israeli medical centers for their "spare parts." Additionally, the Israeli military was accused of stealing the organs of Palestinian prisoners. . . Full story: globalresearch.ca
The Murder of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy
"Congressman Johnson used legal and sometimes illegal methods to smuggle hundreds of Jews into Texas, using Galveston as the entry port. . . Johnson smuggled boatloads and planeloads of Jews into Texas" (total_truth_sciences).
"It is interesting, but not surprising, to note that in all the words written and uttered about the Kennedy assassination, Israel's intelligence service agency, the Mossad, has never been mentioned. And yet a Mossad motive is obvious. On this question, as on almost all others, American reporters cannot bring themselves to cast Israel in an unfavourable light—despite the fact that Mossad complicity is as plausible as any of the other theories (US Representative Paul Findley, March 1992).
As recorded in the Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States, John F. Kennedy was completely against nuclear weapons technology falling into the hands of the Israelis: "Personally I am haunted by the feeling that by 1970, unless we are successful, there may be ten nuclear powers instead of four, and by 1975, 15 to 20. . . I see the possibility in the 1970s of the president of the United States having to face a world in which 15 or 25 nations may have these weapons. I regard this as the greatest possible danger and hazard."
"[JFK's] personal commitment is apparent in the way he dealt with the Israeli nuclear issue after he assumed office on January 20, 1961. Only ten days later, Secretary of State Dean Rusk gave the president a secret two-page memo on Israel's atomic activities, which noted the 'categoric assurances' obtained from Ben Gurion 'that Israel does not have plans for developing atomic weaponry" (jewwatch.com).
David ben Gurion was nothing more than a dangerous, pathological liar and terrorist. John Kennedy maybe did not see this in 1961, but was almost certainly aware of it by mid-1963. President John F. Kennedy tried to stop Israel from starting a nuclear arms race in the Middle East. In a June 1963 letter to Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, he insisted on proof "beyond a reasonable doubt" that Israel was not developing nuclear weapons at its Dimona reactor facility. Though his letter was cabled to the US embassy, Ben-Gurion resigned (citing undisclosed personal reasons) before the message could be physically delivered.
Lyndon 'Lyin' Johnson was a Zionist and hence favourable to Ezra-hell (nuclear weapons of mass destruction given to the enemies of humanity, prolonging and escalating the Vietnam war, allowing the Federal Reserve Bank scam to continue, etc.,), whereas President John F. Kennedy saw the Zionist entity for what it is and would have curbed its power and influence (no nuclear weapons allowed to the enemies of humanity, an end to the Vietnam war, abolition of the Federal Reserve Bank, dismantling of the CIA, etc.,).
The evidence contained within Zapruder's movie points to the murderess being John Kennedy's own wife, Jacqueline, who placed a small handgun either under JFK's chin or just below his left ear and fired a single, low velocity bullet straight up through his brain. Johnson & Co. made sure that they captured this moment, by having it filmed from three different perspectives. (There are other films in existence).
The extent to which the Zionists ensured that this heinous crime against a decent family man was caught on cine film gives some insight into their depraved and spiritually dead minds. No doubt this assassination is gleefully watched by the offspring of the Devil, behind closed doors, to this day.
Notice, for instance, a couple of similarly-dressed men, marked 'A' and 'B' (with an equipment bag, marked 'C'), who are almost certainly CIA operatives. President Kennedy is shot in the head right before their eyes, but they do not even flinch, because they are there to document the event, just as the Dancing Israelis were there in New York City to document the controlled demolition of the Twin Towers at the World Trade Center (as discussed elsewhere on this web site).
Where is their film? Why were they already set up, just like the Jew, Abraham Zapruder, along a street President Kennedy was not scheduled to go down?
In answer to these questions and in line with the facts presented here, I contend that President John F. Kennedy, arguably the finest United States president of all time, was murdered by David ben Gurion, Lyndon 'Lyin' Johnson, Aristotle Onassis, John Connally and the one who actually pulled the trigger . . . Jacqueline Kennedy, née Bouvier. . .
Full story: realityreviewed.com
Comment: This an update of a news item in Newsletter #544.
Chemtrails, Earthquakes, Weather Wars, and HAARP
This is an excellent documentary of the chemtrails scam.
HAARP is actually Ronald Reagan's Star Wars Program that was renamed when Congress refused funding. 360 transmitters each generating 10,000 watts, send 3,600,000 watts to the antennas, which can focus the signal to a point in the sky, which amplifies the signal a thousandfold, giving an effective power of 3,981,000,000 watts, which can then be redirected to Earth.
HAARP's older, 100-fold weaker brother, the Russian Soviet Woodpecker or Duga, was officially a ponadhoryzontalnego radar backscatter (Over-The-Horizon Backscatter—OTH-B). The Soviets launched it on the anniversary of American Independence, July 4, 1976. [This Cabala and reveals the identity and intent of the Serpent's seed -Ed]. Like HAARP, Russia's Woodpecker has been associated with earthquakes and the destruction of enemy missiles.
In the mid-70's, when the USSR created the Woodpecker, there were high frequency (HF) ionospheric heating experiments at Arecibo, Plattesville in Colorado and Armidale in New South Wales, Australia. It enables underground tomography to locate underground enemy bases, which is why the US Senate approved funding for HAARP. Extremely low frequency (ELF) enable communication with the submarines. And by creating a cloud of atmospheric particles (chemtrails) to act as lenses or other focusing device it is possible to modify the wind currents in the upper atmosphere, and thus manipulate the weather.
"In 1983 we were looking for oil by underground tomography using 30 watts. I found 26 fields in nine states. The method was 100% effective, even though only 30 watts was directed into the rocks. HAARP hits the ionosphere billion watts of energy. Imagine the strings of the piano as layers of the earth. Each has its own frequency. Radio waves sent into the ground vibrate its component strings. We can pick up the sound . . . and identify all minerals by their frequencies with radio waves of just 30 watts. Were we to employ billions of watts, the vibrations would be so violent that the whole 'piano' would be shaken, causing an earthquake." Theoretically, HAARP researchers could discover deposits of oil, gas, gold and other raw materials in a country, after which that state could be attacked by the US under some pretext.
Over the past thirty years man-made earthquakes accompanied by multicoloured luminosity in the skies [this explains the huge coloured balls of plasma that cross Australia from the US bases—Ed]. These include the earthquake that killed 650,000 Chinese in Tangszan, China, on July 28, 1976, earthquakes in Iran, Indonesia, Chile, Haiti, Turkey, and Pakistan; drought and fires in Russia, volcanic eruptions in Iceland, Russia, and Indonesia; tsunamis; drought and crop failures in Iran, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, and in Baluchestan where lakes and wetlands have dried up.
"Since October 1976, the USSR has directed ELF signals from multiple Tesla-like transmitters sending frequencies that correspond to the rhythm of human brain waves in a state of depression. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found that these Soviet signals can induce a psychological reaction, and that 60-hertz power transmission lines can absorb and emit Soviet ELF signals.
"Potentially, any information introduced to a person's brain would be processed as internally generated data or responses. Words, phrases, images, sensations and emotions can be directly placed in the minds of living beings. . . Such transmissions can be used to induce depression or irritability in a sample of the population. The use of large-scale behavior modification using ELF waves can have tragic consequences." People, fauna, flora, and Earth itself are all tied to frequencies, the violation of which can lead to disaster.
Dr. Beverly Rubik said, "It is interesting to compare humans with the Earth which has a magnetic field, and people generate a magnetic field, especially in their heart and brain. Each cell contains magnetite which reacts to the magnetic field of our surroundings. HAARP is changing Earth's magnetosphere, which will impact our health and physiology. . . Earth's energy fields and humans are closely related. Like the Earth, we are like balls of electrical and magnetic energy . . . Files 2, 3, 4, and 5 are the most informative: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 Part 5. Excellent images of Russia's installations.
Comment: As it was in the days of Noah, man will once again destroy the Earth. This time by fire.
It will enables the focus of powerful concentrations of energy such that entire regions of the planet can be desertified. Electromagnetic waves can cause earthquakes and tidal waves. Independently of the sense of hearing HAARP can send sound directly into your brain linking speculation of mind-control with the 700-odd internment camps built and staffed across the USA. HAARP can control extremely low frequency (ELF) waves to communicate with submarines or to penetrate underground to locate raw materials, underground bases and bunkers. These waves can affect the human mind and trigger earthquakes. HAARO can push the upper portion of the atmosphere into space which could change the trajectory of missiles.
The Resurrection Body
In I Corinthians 15 Paul explained the necessity of bodily resurrection and glorification of the saints for eternal Life, building his case on the example of the Forerunner and Captain of our salvation, Jesus Christ who identified with us in His birth, life and death, and through His identification with Scripture raised His body by faith (Psalm 16:10; Isaiah 53; John 2:19). Paul cites hundreds of witnesses who saw the risen Christ, most of whom were living at the time of this writing. They included Peter, the disciples and apostles, and last of all Paul himself when the risen glorified Lord Jesus objectively appeared "also to me" and communed in the glory of the Shekinah on the Damascus road (John 16:27-28; Acts 9:3-9; 12:7).
Paul designates himself as the only "abortion" in the whole company and least worthy of all the apostles because he had persecuted the Church, a sin for which he could not forgive himself. This important statement illustrates that although the Lord forgives and has no more memory of our remitted sins, the forgiveness of sin does not erase our grievous memories; neither does it remove our sense of under-serving unworthiness, but "forgetting those things that are behind us, and reaching forth to those things that are before" we press on with faith in the finished Work to attain to the resurrection of the dead or the translation (Philippians 3:6-14). "There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus: for the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus has made me free from the Law of sin and death. . . Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees. Mark out a certain path for your feet, so those who follow, though weak and lame may not fall and be disjointed but rather be healed" (Romans 8:1-2; I Timothy 1:13; Hebrews 12:12-13).
Raise your sights above circumstance and self to the present Truth and its promise by grace through faith.
Paul flatly states that if there is no resurrection from the dead, then Christ is not raised and our faith is in vain, and he sets forth the consequences that flow from the resurrection of Christ, showing that it is but the beginning of a new creation. "But the fact is that Christ has risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of those who [once] slept [and are now entered in with Jesus in His resurrection, and of a rich resurrection harvest of New Testament saints for whom His resurrection is God's pledge and proof]." He proceeds to explain the principle of redemption, whereby that which was lost, borrowed or stolen must be replaced with an identical and acceptable substitute without usury, according to the law of the Kinsman Redeemer described in Leviticus 25:23 – 55 and illustrated in the Book of Ruth. Hence the life of the first Adam who was a spoken Word made flesh was replaced by the Life of the last Adam, who is the speaker of the Word made flesh. Whereas the first Adam and his seed perish through the unbelief of a deceived woman who listened to Satan's reasoning against God's Word, the last Adam was born through the faith of a woman, and His Seed is reborn of like precious faith. "For inasmuch as death came by a man, the resurrection of the dead is also through a Man. For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive." Christ fulfilled the Law that requires "life for life" (Exodus 21:12). All whose headship is in Adam partake of his nature and must die, and all whose Headship and nature is in Christ will participate in the first resurrection.
It is important to recognize that Paul is speaking not only of the resurrection of the just, but also of the second or general resurrection.
"But every partaker of the first resurrection shall be raised with his own dispensation: Christ the firstfruits, [and two millennia] afterward those who are Christ's at His [unseen (Gk. 'parousia') Coming." This is the first resurrection of Christ's Bride of the nine New Testament dispensations (15:46-58; I Thessalonians 4:16-18), and after the Wedding Supper in the Sky, the resurrection of 144,000 elect Israelite martyrs also, who will step out on the ashes of the wicked for a thousand years of peace (Malachi 4:1-3; Revelation 20:4-5).
"Then comes the end, when Jesus delivers the Kingdom to God, even the Father; after the general resurrection and final judgment and consummation whereby He abolishes all rule and all authority and power (Daniel 7:27; Matthew 25:46). For He must reign, until God has put all enemies under His feet (Psalm 110:1; Revelation 20:7-15; 21:4). And the last enemy, Death [personified as in Revelation 20:14], shall be destroyed [when the resurrection is complete]." Thereafter there will be no such thing as dying and death.
The commission is recorded in Psalm 110:1: "The Lord said unto my Lord [Jesus Christ], Sit at My right hand, until I make Your enemies Your footstool" (Psalm 8:6; 2:6-9). And this is the foundation for Matthew 28:18, "Jesus told His disciples, All power is given unto Me in heaven and in earth." This being so, where is that Big Fellow God? . . . He is in Christ, for the two are One. John 1:18, "No man has seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, has unfolded [the fullness of His nature and character] and made Him known".
In Psalm 110:1 it is quite clear that it is God who is putting Christ's enemies under His footstool, and according to I Corinthians 15:24-27, Christ must reign until God has "put all enemies under His feet." Also from Psalm 8:6, "You made Man [portrayed as the perfect Man in harmony with God] to have dominion over the works of Your hands; You [God] have put all things under His feet. . ." But it is also evident that He who "abolishes every other ruler and authority and power" must be the same as "He who delivers the Kingdom."
Here we see the Supreme Deity of our Lord Jesus Christ revealed in God's threefold purpose. First was to reveal the fullness of His character and nature in One Man under preeminence, which He could only accomplish by becoming a Son of man Himself. Secondly and by this revelation to receive the preeminence in Christ's Body of believers, that He might live and express Himself in them also. And thirdly, to restore the Kingdom to its rightful position whence it fell under the dominion of His Adversary and death as Brother Branham explained in, "Christ is the Mystery of God Revealed".
I Corinthians 15:27-28, "For "He has put all things under His feet." But when He says "All things are subjected to Him," it is clear that God who subjected all things under Jesus is excepted. When all things are subjected to Jesus, then [and not until then (Hebrews 2:8)] the Son, too, will subject Himself to the One who put all things in subjection under Him that God may be everything in every one [in the restoration of all things because we are all under preeminence]" (Acts 3:21).
It is a fact that God and Christ are One, for Christ is the Logos or theophany of God made flesh.
Whereas God expressed the fullness of the godhead bodily in Jesus Christ, "and we are complete in Him" (Colossians 2:9-10), so the complete fullness of the godhead now dwells bodily in His Church, for we, too, are under preeminence to the Headship of Christ in God, and in the renewed heavens and earth God will be worshipped by the "saved" throughout eternity in the form of His glorified Family: Jesus Christ and His many-membered spoken Word Body. As Jesus prayed in John 17:20-26: all God was He poured into Christ; and all Christ is He has poured into His Church. Thus Christ gives the power conferred on Him back into the Father's hands, not to possess it no more but in order to possess it again, as He possessed it before the foundation of the world (John 1:1; 8:58; 17:1-5, 24; Philippians 2:6).
In verses 29 – 34 Paul returns to the general argument at the beginning of the chapter where he was proving not only the objective reality of Christ's resurrection, but the necessity for Him to live and die according to prophecy and vindicate the Scriptures through His identification by faith thereby resurrecting His own body as Christ's end-time Bride will change her body in the atoms by her faith in His spoken Word.
Our very being is being changed into the image of the glory of the Lord by the Spirit of the Lord which is "Christ in you, the hope of your glorification"—ministered to us by angels, both supernatural theophanies, and natural men who will inherit salvation. In Hebrews 2 Paul admonishes us to pay close attention to their THUS SAITH THE LORD lest at any time we should let them slip. For we will not escape punishment if we are indifferent to this great salvation announced by the Lord Jesus Himself and confirmed to us by those who heard Him speak, God also vindicating them with signs, wonders, various miracles and sovereign gifts of the Holy Ghost as we have witnessed personally in the ministry of Brother Branham.
"For He did not subject the renewed heavens and renewed earth under the control of angels, but one of them, the angel or messenger king David, testified in Psalm 8:4-6, saying: "What is man, that You even bother with him? or the Son of man, that You care for Him? For You made Him a only a little less than God; then crowned Him with glory and honour, and gave Him dominion over the works of Your hands: and put all things in subjection under His feet" (as confirmed in Matthew 28:18 and I Corinthians 15:25, 27).
In Jesus Christ, God was only slightly diminished that by the grace of God He should taste death for every man and be exalted again, crowned, and inherit all the things of the world. After His death and resurrection God and man were united in Christ. The Logos had been manifest in flesh, slain and raised for our justification to become Emmanuel—"God with us"—for eternity. Thus He declared to His disciples, "All power is given to Me in heaven and in earth. Because this is so, go and teach all nations, baptizing them in the Name [singular] of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost [not three of My many titles or dispensation claims; but My Name, LORD JESUS CHRIST]: teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the world" (Matthew 28:18-20).
The One Person of God changed His dwelling place from a heavenly throne to the Tabernacle in the wilderness, thence to the Temple in Jerusalem (Acts 7:47-48), and from the Temple to the heart of His Son, Jesus Christ (John 2:19-21), as the angel David prophesied in Psalm 40:6-8, "When Christ came into the world, He said, Sacrifice and offering You have not desired, but a body You have prepared for Me: In whole burnt offerings and sin offerings You have taken no pleasure. Then I said, Here I come (in the volume of the Book it is written of Me), to do Your will, O God."
When He said above, "You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifices and offerings and burnt offerings and sin offerings," (all of which are offered according to the Law), He added, "Here I come to do Your will," He abolished the first in order to establish the second" (Hebrews 10:5-9), whereby on the day of Pentecost, God spread His tent over the New Testament Church (I Corinthians 3:16). Herein we see the first and second objectives of God's threefold purpose is being fulfilled.
"In that God put everything in subjection to Jesus, He left nothing that is not subject to Him. But as it is we see all things are not yet in subjection to Him" [because people are still dying (I Corinthians 15:26-27)]. "But we see Jesus, who for a short time was ranked a little lower than the angels, crowned with glory and honour because of the sufferings of death, so that He by the grace of God might taste death for everyone. For it befitted God for Whom and by Whom all things exist, in bringing many Sons to glory, to perfect the Captain of their salvation through sufferings. For both He who sanctifies and those who are sanctified now have the same Father [by our spoken Word new birth]: which is why Jesus was not ashamed to call us brothers when He said through the prophets (Psalm 22:22; Isaiah 8:17-18): "I will declare Your Name to My brethren, in the midst of the church will I sing Your praise." And again, "I will put My trust in Him." And again, "Here am I and the children God has given Me" (John 15:5).
"Since we, God's children are human beings—made of flesh and blood—God Himself became flesh and blood by being virgin born in human form; for only as a human being could He die and fulfill the part of kinsman Redeemer for Adam's race, that by means of His death He might destroy him who had the power of death, namely, the Devil; and deliver them who throughout life were held in bondage through fear of death (Romans 8:15; Ephesians 4:8). For it is surely not to the angels that He reaches out to help, but to the offspring of Abraham, therefore He had to be made like His brethren in every respect in order to become a merciful and faithful High Priest in the service of God, and [as kinsman Redeemer] make atonement for the sins of the people. For since He Himself has suffered by being tempted, he is able to succor them that are tempted".
Having testified to so-called Christians who, like the Sadducees, say there is no resurrection, neither angel, nor spirit; or like the Mormons, baptize for the dead, Paul calls on the Corinthians to separate themselves from intimacy with profligate society whose company was apt to corrupt the principles of faith, and "awake" out of the sleep of carnal intoxication into which they have been thrown by the influence of these skeptics (I Corinthians 15:34; Joel 1:5), as through the Message of Brother Branham in this day Christ is calling the wise and foolish virgin to separate themselves from EVERY religious association that is not preaching and living the Message of this hour (Matthew 25:6; I Thessalonians 4:16; Revelation 18:4). "To your shame certain of you Corinthian so-called Christians maintain contact with those so practically ignorant of God, as to deny the resurrection. They have not the knowledge of God and consequently know not His resurrection power" (Matthew 22:23-33).
Having established the belief in the resurrection of the dead on the grounds of Christ's resurrection, Paul now proceeds to explain the necessity of spiritual death for Spiritual regeneration to eternal Life, and of natural death in the body as the necessary prelude to the physical resurrection of sinner or saint.
The skeptic asked Paul: "How are the dead raised up? What kind of bodies will they have?"
"You simpleton! You will find the answer in your own garden! What you sow does not grow into a plant unless it dies first, and when the green shoot comes up out of the seed it is very different from the seed you first planted. For all you put into the ground was a little dry seed of wheat or whatever it is you were planting, then God gives it a beautiful new body as He determined at creation" (Genesis 1:11). Should the seed remain a seed, that is the end of it; but if it dies it brings forth much fruit (John 12:24). "Every seed shall have its own body, and the plant will be instantly recognized as to its kind. And just as there are different kinds of seeds and plants, so also there are different kinds of flesh. Humans, animals, birds and fish are all different and the diversities in their glory are analogous to the diversity of the present and the resurrection body. The dying and corruption of the human body furnishes no ground for asserting the impossibility of the resurrection".
"There are also celestial and terrestrial bodies and your terrestrial body here is reflecting God's foreknowledge of the nature of your celestial body. If you display malice, envy, and strife, it shows that your celestial body is also down here: a fallen angel. But if your innermost being has become cleansed and purged, it shows you have a theophany reflecting in the flesh. . . If this earthly tabernacle be dissolved, we have one already waiting" (II Corinthians 5:1-2).
"The Sun has one kind of glory and the Moon and stars have another kind, and the stars differ from one another in their beauty and brightness although they all seem so alike. And as there is such a great variety of forms above, so also in the resurrection of the dead there will be an infinite variety of shapes and sizes, colours and other physical features among the glorified elect, each with its unique splendor. Our earthly body "sown in corruption," and constantly tending to decay, disease and death, will be "raised in incorruption" above corruption and harm, disease and suffering, into a state imperishable and fixed. "It is sown in dishonour," a stinking, broken corpse according to the penalty inflicted by death. It is raised in power in the glorified dignity of the children of God, resplendent in the radiance of its resurrection body, fashioned like unto His Own glorious body without the memorial of scarred forehead, side, back, hands and feet. "It is sown in weakness," a powerless corpse unable to resist corruption. "It is raised in power" such that it overcomes death and the laws of physics, with a fullness of strength and energy which a renewed vitality will confer on the resurrection body, enabling it to execute all the purposes and volitions of the Spirit with the utmost ease and readiness.
"It is sown a natural [animal] body" dependant upon the physical world, by reason of which it is exposed to all we have just described as "corruption," "dishonour," and "weakness" resulting from the Fall, of which death is the catastrophe. The Spiritual body is, on the contrary, free from and lifted above all dependence upon the natural world and its consequences, and displays itself in "incorruption," "glory," and "power." "There is a natural [physical] body, and there is a Spiritual [glorified] body".
John 3:6, "That which is born of the [sensuous, animal nature of the] flesh is carnal (I Corinthians 2:14); and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit." As a result of the Fall everything in us is carnal—body, spirit and soul—in antithesis to the Spirit, and tends to sin under the perverse nature of this world under Satan's dominion, but we can be regenerated by the Spirit to purity; hence Jesus prayed, "Glorify Your Son, that He may glorify You: as You have given Him power over all flesh, that He should give eternal Life to as many as You have given Him" (John 17:1-2; John 1:13; 6:51).
"[If] there is a natural body [ruled by our mortal spirit], there is also a Spiritual [glorified] body [represented by your theophany or guardian angel, your umbilical cord to new Jerusalem, the mind of God and mother of us all]." Brother Branham said, "after you recognize the very Word of God was Eagle Food, then you left the other thing. You've then been formed into the living image of the living God. You heard from your theophany. "If this earthly body be dissolved, we have one waiting" (Who is this Melchisedec, p. 17:88).
"And so it is written, The first man Adam was made a living being [by a mortal spirit]; the last Adam, a Life-giving Spirit." Had Adam abided in the Vine he would have maintained fellowship with God and continued feeding his soul on the Divine Spirit whose higher Life would have glorified the lower making it partaker of immortality without the intervention of death. This Life of the Spirit as it increases in intensity brings our soul "into the unity of the faith" and no longer susceptible to sin (Matthew 24:24; John 8:32; 10:1-5; I Peter 1:23; I John 3:9); it brings our mortal spirit into submission, which in turn brings the body subject and we mature into the stature of the perfect Man. The purpose of this end-time Message is to accomplish precisely this by "the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of Him, the eyes of our understanding being enlightened, we may know what is the hope of His calling, the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and the exceeding greatness of His power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of His mighty [resurrection] power" in us as we exercise the 'third pull' (Ephesians 1:17-20).
It is evident that Christ was not made this "Life-giving Spirit" from His birth, but His resurrection, prior to which He was in the likeness of sinful flesh and had a natural or animal body; and it was not until He overcame and maintained Himself sinless throughout all the stages of His natural life in a world of sin that He, who, by a living resemblance, was the representative of a humanity that had become flesh in all its natural susceptibility to sin and death, became in like manner the representative and Head of a humanity glorified through the power of the Spirit (Romans 8:11). And since it was natural to wish that the perfect had existed from the beginning, Paul proceeds to state the law of Divine order:
"It is not the Spiritual which is first, but the natural, [sensual and animal]; and afterward that which is Spiritual." This is the established order necessary to develop humanity in obedience, learning, experience, maturity and wisdom as we have described in the development of Jesus Christ, and "unless we suffer with Him we cannot reign with Him. You have to suffer to reign. The reason for this is that character simply is never made without suffering. Character is a VICTORY, not a gift. A man without character can't reign because power apart from character is Satanic. But power with character is fit to rule. And since He wants us to share even His throne on the same basis that He overcame and is set down in His Father's throne, then we have to overcome to sit with Him. And the little temporary suffering we go through now is not worthy to be compared to the tremendous glory that will be revealed in us when He comes. Oh, what treasures are laid up for those who are willing to enter into His kingdom through much tribulation" (An Exposition of the Seven Church Ages, p. 117:1).
"The first man is of the earth, earthy: the second man is from heaven." Adam was formed from the dust (Genesis 2:7; 3:19) and therefore perishable. The second man is the glorified Lord at His second or (Gk.) 'erchomai' return from heaven for the millennial reign. "Those who have descended from the man of dust, are of an earthy nature like Adam: as those who are heavenly and belong to Christ wear the likeness of the heavenly in their state of heavenly perfection".
"And as during out earthly life we wore the image of the vile earthy body
[as a garment] (Philippians 3:21); from the resurrection at the time of His appearing (I Timothy 6:14-16) we shall wear the likeness of the heavenly" begun here in our souls and perfected at the resurrection in our body (Romans 8:29).
This is how Brother Branham explained I Corinthians 15:42-54: "This old earthly tabernacle here, you know what it is? This body is like an old coat that you wear, a coat that you once wear. But now, you have one so much better, you don't use it any more. What do you do? You hang it in a closet, for you've got one better. You've got a better coat. It's more up to date than the one you used to wear that's worn out. What? It is that garment. You are the inside of that. Remember, that garment only done what? It bore your image. See? But you don't need it anymore now. You've hung it up. It's a rag. And that's the way this old body is. It's bore the image of the heavenly, yet it is not you. You are on the inside of that body. You, the Spirit of God, is on the inside of that body. That's what makes the outside come into subjections, because the inside is pulling it (See?), bringing it in the line with the Word of God: your inside, you, yourself, your being. This body's just an old coat, and someday what will you do with it? For you was only in the garment for a while. That is like the earthly garment, this body, your real body, your real self is on the inside of this old coat, that you call William Branham, or Susie Jones, or whoever it is. See? Someday it will hang in the earth's hall of memory of you. You'll put it out yonder in the grave, and somebody will put a tombstone up, "Here lies Rev. So-and-so, or John So-and-so, or So-and-so." It'll lie there as a memorial of you. The people just seeing you in this, and what you was; your real you, was on the inside of that. But the old coat itself just born the image of the heavenly. Oh, people, have you made reservations to change coats? Have you made reservations for heaven? Remember, you must have reservations. You can't get in without them. I'm talking to you in modern language now. . ." (Things that are To Be, p. 33:106).
Paul concludes his exposition respecting our resurrection body and confirms that we will wear the image of the heavenly by stating, "Brethren: [our mortal nature of] flesh and blood [originating in natural birth] cannot inherit the kingdom of God; nor does the perishable inherit the imperishable." Therefore the Church Age saints gladly acquiesced in the unrepealed sentence of the holy Law, which appoints the death of the present body as the necessary preliminary to the resurrection body of glory. Corruption does not inherit, though it is the way to, incorruption. And we "die daily" to the flesh and to the world, as the necessary condition to our full adoption. The resurrection body though Spiritual will be a body substantially retaining your personal identity as you were in your prime (Luke 24:39; John 20:27). nl661.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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