face="Times New Roman">Bible Believers' Newsletter 665
"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. An especial welcome to our new subscribers. Your brother-in-Christ, Anthony Grigor-Scott
If you will be in Africa this Christmas we encourage you to attend the "Holy Convocation" Convention hosted by Spoken Word Tabernacle in Makurdi, Nigeria, from December 23 – 27.
An Iranian woman, Mrs. Sakineh Mohammedi Ashtiani, a confessed adulteress who helped a man kill her husband received 22,588 Signatures on a petition to save her from stoning. Meanwhile Pastors Youcef Nadarhkani, sentenced to be hanged, Behrouz Sadegh-Khanjani (likely to receive the same sentence) and eight brethren imprisoned for converting to Christianity have received only 5,773 signatures on their petition. One of our subscribers has not signed the petition. Is it YOU? If so, please click the link above and demonstrate your brotherly love.
We have received some encouraging news regarding Pastor Nadarkhani and hear God is continuing to move in Iran with new believers being baptized in the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and churches being planted as they learn God's Message to restore His people to "the faith once delivered to our apostolic fathers." Brother Branham's sermons, "The Seventieth Week of Daniel," "Discerning the Lord's Body," and "Spiritual Amnesia" may be read at peygham.net in Farsi.
Our main Article illustrates the Supreme Deity of our Lord Jesus Christ who has visibly made known the invisible God from Genesis to Revelation. Christ was the Messenger of the Old Covenant as well as the New, and all of the manifestations of God in the Old Testament—the Shekinah and human appearances—were made in the Person of the Divine Son, making the true Oneness of the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob indisputable.
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.
Richard Holbrooke represented the Worst of the Foreign Policy Establishment
December 14, 2010 — Holbrooke got his start in the Foreign Service during the 1960s in the notorious pacification programs in the Mekong Delta of South Vietnam. This ambitious joint civilian-military effort not only included horrific human rights abuses, but also proved to be a notorious failure in curbing the insurgency against the US-backed regime in Saigon. This was an inauspicious start in the career of someone Obama appointed as his special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan to help curb the insurgency against those US-backed governments. Full story: truth-out.org
Comment: Good riddance to bad rubbish! Read on to discover the sordid career of this Machiavellian Zionist Jew pursuing violent, failed and immoral policies to the detriment of Adam's race.
Wikileaks is Zionist Poison
Part I — October 28, 2010 — Disinformation is defined as 'misinformation that is deliberately disseminated in order to influence or confuse rivals.' It is used by governments to mislead and brainwash their citizen populations, instigate wars, and blackmail foreign regimes. It is the ultimate instrument of the media. The most effective disinformation is that which is comprised of falsehood as well as facts. Wikileaks, founded by Julian Assange, fits this description perfectly, right down to the letter. Seemingly overnight, it has become one of the biggest 'whistle-blowing' agencies in modern history. In reality though, it is one of the biggest disinformation projects in modern history, and it may be the most dangerous because it is masquerading as an organization of truth. The information released by Wikileaks isn't new; it isn't groundbreaking; it doesn't hurt the US as much as people think, it's fractional really; and it is overloaded with as much propaganda as the day-to-day Zionist media is. This propaganda is benefitting someone. And that someone is the illegal usurping entity of Israel. Even the Israeli government itself thinks so. . . Full story: maskofzion.com
Part II — December 15, 2010 — Not since Zionist warmonger Barack Obama's 'ascension' to the US presidency, has there been such a hysteria in the anti-war/anti-Zionist community as there is with Julian Assange and his organization, Wikileaks. . . Wikileaks is no whistleblower. Assange is no hero. And the leaks, which have been hailed across the globe, aren't even leaks. Wikileaks isn't just toxic Zionist poison, it is a full-blown US-Zionist intelligence operation. . .
The questions are simple: If the Zionist entity isn't behind Wikileaks, how did its officials know it wouldn't become the subject of international media scrutiny? If Wikileaks wasn't protecting the Zionist agenda, why would Israeli officials intransigently say their illegal occupying entity remained unharmed after the leaks? And if in fact Israel is operating Wikileaks, then the Zionist media's depictions of Assange and his crew as whistleblowers are monstrously false, aren't they? Logic and common sense should guide all to the blatant, blue and white six-pointed-star-shaped answers. . . Wikileaks' largest success however, has been its coopting of the worldwide activist network, totally blinding it from seeing its function as the archer for every target that the Zionist entity considers an enemy. . . Full story: maskofzion.com
Wikileaks 'struck a Deal with Israel'
December 7, 2010 — In this dirty war by states around the globe against transparency and openness . . . in the world of politics, sadly, things are never as innocent as they appear. According to new revelations, Assange had allegedly struck a deal with Israel before the recent 'cable gate', which may explain why the leaks 'were good for Israel,' as the Israeli prime minister put it.
A number of commentators, particularly in Turkey and Russia, have been wondering why the hundreds of thousands of American classified documents leaked by the website last month did not contain anything that might embarrass the Israeli government, like just about every other state referred to in the documents. The answer appears to be a secret deal struck between the Wikileaks 'heart and soul,' as Assange humbly described himself once, with Israeli officials, which ensured that all such documents were 'removed' before the rest were made public. . . Full story: indybay.org 1917 Espionage Act If We Lose our Internet Freedoms because of Wikileaks, you should at least know why youtube.com youtube.com youtube.com farsnews.com
Comment: Given the corporate media's cohesive and structured relationship to US intelligence, not to mention the links of individual journalists to the military-national security establishment, the issue of a MOSSAD-CIA sponsored PsyOp must necessarily be addressed. "By deception thou shalt do war." Wikileaks is a psyop of 'the City' to advance their objective of totalitarian one world government which includes the control and communication of knowledge to craft perceptions.
The Abdication of the West
December 9, 2010 — 'Thanks to Wikileaks, everyone here in the Mañana Republic of Mexico now knows just how much bullying and arm-twisting the administration of Barack Obama in the United States applied to various countries around the world so that they would (and did) sign up to the Copenhagen climate accord. Without that pressure, nothing at all would have happened at Copenhagen this time last year, and 'the Process'—the interminable round of flatulent annual climate conferences in exotic locations at taxpayers' expense—would have tipped into the gulch forever. . .'
How did this monstrous transfer of power from once-proud, once-sovereign, once-democratic nations to the corrupt, unelected Secretariat come about? The story begins with Sir Maurice Strong, an immensely wealthy UN bureaucrat from Canada who, a quarter of a century ago, established the IPCC as an intergovernmental, political body rather than as a scientific body precisely so that it could be maneuvered into assisting in the UN's long-term aim, reiterated at a summit of senior UN officials this May by Ban Ki-Moon himself, of extinguishing national sovereignty and establishing one world government. . . Full story: sppiblog.org
Life in the Third Reich and the Political World
July 26-August 16, 2002 — World War II was conducted as a war of genocide against Germany, to kill the maximum number of Germans, while destroying the German economy for all time. The bombardment of German cities resulting in the deaths of more than a million women and children make that policy clearly evident. This war was a many millionfold bloodbath, caused by a small group of Judeo-Anglo-American capitalists, their lackeys and stooges, on behalf of their gold and their money. Today, the archives are open. The truth is known! One needs only to make the effort to track down this secret story, according to Honore de Balzac, for this is where the real causes of war appear.
The "Cold War" temporarily spared the German people from total annihilation, but our elected "representatives" in the Bundestag work openly to dissolve the German folk, and to replace us with a multi-cultural society, a multi-national state on German soil. Thus will the victors, who conducted genocide against Germany in war, achieve their final goal.
In order to conceal and cover up the real background and causes of the war against Germany, every means is used against Hitler and the Third Reich: defamation, criminalization, the falsification of history and outright lies. It is alleged that the 'democracies' had to defend themselves against Hitler's plans to 'conquer the world'. This is absolute nonsense, shameless calumny and lying atrocity propaganda, which is also spread by postwar German politicians and the Jewish-owned mass media. The entire political establishment of today is determined to conceal the truth about Hitler-times. Patriotic Germans who reveal the truth are thrown in jail, despite the 'guarantee' under Article 5 of the German constitution which states that everyone is free to express his opinions. . . Full story: thenewsturmer.com
The Seal of God
As an Old Testament scholar educated under the renowned Gamaliel, Paul the angel to the Ephesian Church Age, wrote in Hebrews 1:1 – 2:8: "Long ago God spoke to our fathers in the prophets [through dreams, visions, inspired revelations, and even face to face], but in these last days—the Messianic Age of redemption and completion under the New Testament—in His Son, whom He has appointed Heir of ALL things and through whom He created the world. As the reflection of God's glory and the true expression of His Being He sustains the universe by His almighty Word. And when He had effected our cleansing from sin, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high."
"He became as much greater than the angels [or prophets] as the Name He inherited is more excellent than theirs. For to which of the angels [or prophets] did God ever say, "You are My Son, this day have I begotten you"? Or, "I will be to him a Father, and he shall be to Me a Son"? And when He again brings the first-born into the world, He will say, "Let all the angels of God worship Him" (Deuteronomy 32:43 Sept.; Job 38:7; Psalm 89:26-27; 97:7-9; Revelation 3:14; 5:11-12). In contrast to Messiah His messengers are subordinate servants, changeable and impermanent like the natural elements of wind and flaming fire. But of the Son He says, "Your throne, O God, is for ever and ever: the sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of Your Kingdom. You have loved righteousness, and hated iniquity; therefore God, Your God, has anointed You with the oil of gladness above Your companions."
"God also called Him "Lord" when He said, "Lord, in the beginning You founded the earth, and the heavens are the work of Your hands (Psalm 102:25-27; Colossians 2:16): they shall perish; but You remain; and they will all grow old like a garment; and like a mantle you will fold them up, and they will be changed: but You are the same, and Your years will never end." But to which of the angels [prophets or messengers] has He ever said, "Sit at My right hand, until I put down your enemies as a footstool beneath your feet"? Are not all angels [even we who are flesh and blood] ministering spirits sent for the assistance of those who are to inherit salvation"?
"We must therefore pay more careful attention to the truth we have heard, lest we drift away from it. For if the Message declared by angels was always vindicated, and every transgression and disobedience received a just retribution; how shall we escape, if we neglect so great a salvation. It was declared at first by the Lord; it was confirmed to us by those who heard Him; then it was corroborated by God with signs and wonders, and with various miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost distributed according to His will"?
"For He did not submit the new heavens and new earth to the control of angels, but one, [the prophet 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 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).
The word "angel" means "messenger," and you are a messenger of good news or a messenger of bad news. Hebrew mal'ak refers to a messenger, angel or theophany (Strongs 4397) as in the Angel of the Lord, Angel of God, and Messenger with reference to the pre-incarnate manifestations of Christ. And you are ambassadors for Christ, God speaking through you as angels of the Covenant, messengers of the resurrection to this sinful world, bringing others back to the Name of Jesus Christ Who is the Tree of Life that stands in the paradise of God (II Corinthians 5:18-21; Revelation 2:7).
In these chapters, Paul was magnifying Jesus, the Messenger of the Covenant as more than just a prophet, for in the Old as well as in the New Testament He is called "God" and "Lord." Peter told the multitude in Acts 2:36, "Let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God has made that same Jesus, whom you have crucified, both Lord and Christ".
Angels that are Supernatural beings are God's servants, like Israel, whereas Jesus Christ and His mystic Body, the Church, are His Sons and Daughters. The Book of Revelation was shown to John by the earthly angel to the Laodicean Church Age. Revelation 1:1-2, "The Revelation of Jesus Christ, which God gave Him, to show to His servants things which must shortly take place; and He made it known by sending His angel [Brother Branham] to His servant John: who bore witness to the Word of God, and to the testimony of Jesus Christ, and to everything that he saw in the visions on Patmos Island".
The Supernatural angel, celestial body or theophany of God's Sons and Daughters is "always in the Presence of our Father in heaven" (Matthew 18:10) as we are eternal Attributes of the Logos which is the mind and theophany of God who does not see our dying, sin-born body, but our glorified form (Romans 8:30).
In his "The Incarnation of the Logos," Tertullian (AD160-230) wrote to the Greeks, ". . . God made this universe by His Word and reason and power. Your philosophers [e.g. Zeno and Cleanthes] also are agreed that the Artificer of the universe seems to be Logos—that is, word and reason. . . We also lay it down that the Word and reason and virtue, by which we have said that God made all things, have Spirit as their substance. . . This Word, we have learnt, was produced [prolatum or spun off] from God, and was generated by being produced, and therefore is called the Son of God, and God, from unity of substance with God. For God too is Spirit. When a ray is projected from the sun it is a portion of the whole sun; but the sun will be in the ray because it is a ray of the sun; the substance is not separated but extended. So from Spirit comes Spirit, and God from God, as light is kindled from light. . . This ray of God . . . glided down into a virgin, in her womb was fashioned as flesh, is born as man mixed with God. The flesh was built up by the Spirit, was nourished, grew up, spoke, taught, worked, and was Christ".
Whatever his destiny, these words bear the Seal of God as a clear revelation of the true Oneness of the godhead and the Supreme Deity of our Lord Jesus Christ. Brother Branham's calling was to "restore the faith once delivered to the apostolic saints" in order to separate Christ's end-time Bride from the world that "we all come into the unity of the faith—for the manifestation of the Sons of God—and the translation." As Attributes of the Logos, we were 'prolatum,' or spun off Christ when the Holy Spirit was taken form His side on Calvary. Thus we are of the same substance, not separated but extended, so that Christ's Bride is the continuation of the Creation of God in Christ and Eve was of the same substance as Adam, not separated but extended.
These precious revelations make us certain of our identity and inscribe our souls with the Imprimatur or Seal of God, which is the Token confirming that we are His Sons, and that the Bible is the story of God unfolding Himself or changing His form from the eternal Spirit alone with His thoughts to their manifestation in the form of His glorified Family: Jesus Christ and His Bride of all Ages. In this form the "saved" will worship God manifest and visible throughout eternity.
Brother Branham's revelation of the Logos, which subsequently manifest in the virgin-born Jesus Christ, was common with Tertullian who repudiates the notion that the 'mixture' in any way agrees with Rome's 'immaculate conception' (so-called). This heresy claims God fertilized Mary's ovum, making Jesus sinful flesh like herself, a 'tertium quid' or third thing, neither human no divine and not His "Holy One" of Psalm 16:10. We see the double status, the human and Divine not confused but conjoined in the first God-Man, towards which the born-again saints are growing (Ephesians 4:1-16; Romans 7). The Spirit in Christ went about its own business in deeds of virtue, works and signs, while the flesh under preeminence to the Spirit endured its own sufferings, hungering, thirsting, weeping, and in the end it died.
Speaking of the first resurrection and the body change and translation of "we who are alive and remain," Brother Branham said concerning our celestial bodies, "Angels are ministering Spirits, usually [they] come in the form of lights" (Angel of the Lord, #55-0502). "You see these little pockets going through the air they call "saucers," so forth. . . Well, we better leave that alone. "Hear how these people come up missing?" you say. "Don't hear from them; they're standing there, and they're not there." That's the way the rapture's going to be. One of them would drop right down, and this terrestrial body will take on a celestial body. And they'll be hide, hair, or bones left. It'll be transformed in a moment of time, dropping right out of space and taking home that. . . We see all this going on now, and the Pentagon wondering about these lights, and mystic lights, and everything they're seeing in the sky. You seen they had one here in the paper at Jeffersonville this week and so forth, a mystic light saw. Oh, they don't know what that is. But listen, little children, it's going to pick you up one of these days (See, see?); don't worry" (Christ is Revealed in His Own Word, p. 15:68).
"Trust in the Lord with all your heart; and lean not to your own understanding" (Proverbs 3:5). One man who did lean to his own understanding, was Judas Iscariot. . . He walked face to face with Christ, just like Eve did in the beginning. He had seen the vindication; he had looked God in the face, like Eve did in the cool of the evening. Eve looked at Christ in the cool of the evening in the garden. And Judas had set in the cool of the evening in the garden of Gethsemane and many places, and had looked at the same Christ; had heard Him teach, prove Himself by the Word, vindicated to be the prophet that Moses said would be raised up, and told them in the Scripture Who He was, and all about it. They had seen it proved by God, that He was, and then he leaned to his own understanding" (Lean Not unto Thy Own Understanding, p. 25:171).
In order to receive the Seal of God, we need to purge our minds of the quicksand of "Jewish fables," pagan dogmas and cunning devices of the politico-religous beast, and establish our hearts on the immoveable foundation of the apostles and prophets that we may identify with who and what Jesus Christ really is, and restored to fellowship, communicate with Him as Adam and Eve before the Fall. The promise to the overcomer in the Ephesian Church Age was, "to partake of the Tree of Life, which is in the midst of the paradise of God" (Revelation 2:7) and the blessings to Christ's Bride are cumulative, thus we have been restored to the capstone revelation, the most important revelation of Godhead in the whole Bible: that JESUS IS GOD, HE AND THE FATHER ARE ONE: THERE IS ONE GOD, AND HIS NAME IS LORD JESUS CHRIST.
Genesis 2:9, 16-17, "The Lord God caused every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food to sprout out of the ground; the Tree of Eternal Life, and the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil [which were not vegetation and did not spring from the ground] were in the midst of the garden. The Lord God commanded the man, saying, "Of every tree of the garden you may freely partake: but with the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, you shall not commune: for in the day that You partake thereof you shall surely die"."
Neither Eternal Life nor a Knowledge of Good and Evil grows on trees, so these trees are symbols signifying the theophany of Christ, and the angel Lucifer. The Tree of Life was not Jesus the Man who was not yet born, but it was Christ the Logos and theophany of God in human form who communed with Adam and Eve in the garden. I John 5:11, "This is the evidence: God has granted us eternal Life, and this Life is in His Son." It is no other place. I John 5:12, "He who has the Son has Life; and he who does not have the Son of God does not have eternal Life." Now since the evidence cannot change, be taken from or added to, the Tree in the garden has to be the theophany of Jesus. "He who eats My flesh and drinks My Blood [or communes with Me] has Everlasting Life." Communion with the Lord brings mutual understanding, agreement in the faith and new birth, which is the Seal of God—the greatest blessing there is in this world—Christ in you the hope of glory. So the Lord's Supper and footwashing may only be partaken by those who are genuinely born-again and living above the reproach of the Word.
John 8:12, "Jesus said, I am the Light of the world: he who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the Light of Life." Over a billion Muslims believe in Jesus but like Jehovah's Witnesses and Unitarians they see Him as just a prophet born of a virgin-born 2,000 years ago, yet He created and has been in the world from the beginning. Blinded by Talmudic denominationalism, the Jews blaspheme Him as an upstart when He has revealed Himself to man from Genesis to Revelation. Over a billion Roman Catholics and hundreds of thousands in their (once) Protestant daughter churches believe but see Jesus as a lately sprung up second or third person of God, when His theophany was in the garden of Eden Tree of Life.
In Genesis 12 the Lord spoke to Abram by inspiration and commanded him, separate yourself "Out of your country . . . and from your kindred, and from your father's house." Abram obeyed, and when his party had traveled as far as Shechem in the land of Canaan, "The Lord appeared to Abram [in a vision], and said, I give will this land to your seed: and Abram built an altar to the Lord, who appeared to him".
As "no man has seen God at any time," it was "the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, who made Him known [to Abram]" (John 1:18). In His Angel, celestial or theophany body Christ has "declared" the invisible Holy Spirit since the garden of Eden.
Now Abram's wife Sarai being barren gave her maid Hagar to Abram to wife, but when she conceived Sarai despised and dealt harshly with her so the pregnant woman fled into the desert. Genesis 16:7-12, "And the Angel of the Lord found her by a spring of water in the desert, along the road to Shur. And [discerning the thoughts and intents, proving He was the Word (Hebrews 4:12)] asked her by name whence she came and whither she was going. And she said, "I am running away from my mistress Sarai." And the Angel of the Lord said, "Return to your mistress, and submit to her authority. And I will greatly multiply your seed into a great nation. Yes, you are pregnant, and your baby will be a son, and you are to call him Ishmael [God hears], because the Lord has noticed your harsh treatment. He will become a wild ass of a man; his hand will be against every one, and every one's hand against him; and he shall live adjacent to his kindred."
"So Hagar called the Name of the Lord who spoke to her, "The God who looked upon me," for she said, "Have I really seen God and remained alive after seeing Him"?"
When Isaac was about fourteen years of age Sarah saw Ishmael mocking her son so Abraham gave Hagar provisions and sent them into the desert where they were perishing. Genesis 21:17-18, "But God answered the lad's cries; and the Angel of God called to Hagar from heaven: "Hagar, what troubles you? Fear not; for God has heard the lad's voice where he is. Rise up, raise the boy, and hold him by the hand, for I will make him into a great nation".
The Angel of the Lord is the Lord, who is God and the Angel of God who was our Lord Jesus Christ in theophany.
Genesis 22:1-2, 11-18, "Following these things, God tested Abraham's faith, He called, "Abraham"! And He replied, "Here I am." And God said, Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering on one of the mountains which I indicate to you. . . And the Angel of the Lord called out to him from heaven, "Abraham! Abraham"! And he said, "Here I am." And He said, "Lay down your knife, do not harm the lad in any way: for now I know that you revere God, seeing you have not withheld your son, your only son from Me. Then Abraham noticed a ram caught by his horns in a bush; so he took the ram and sacrificed it, for a burnt offering, instead of his son. Abraham named the place Jehovah-Jireh; as it is said to this day, "In the mountain of the Lord it shall be provided." And the Angel of the Lord called to Abraham out of heaven a second time, "I the Lord have sworn by Myself, because you have obeyed Me and have not withheld even your only son, I will bless you, and multiply your seed as the stars of the heaven, and as the sand which is upon the sea shore; and your Seed shall possess the gate of his enemies; and in your Seed [singular] shall all the nations of the earth be blessed; because you have obeyed My Voice"."
Because of His faith in God's promise that a great nation would spring from his only son, Isaac, Abraham was prepared to sacrifice the lad knowing God must save or raise him up again to realize His promise. Therefore the Angel of the Lord, who is the theophany of God, swore by Himself that He would sacrifice His only begotten Son, Abraham's promised Seed "in whom all nations of the earth shall be blessed" which would be Himself, the Angel of the Lord, incarnate in virgin-born flesh. "Abraham rejoiced to see the day of Messiah bringing redemption and resurrection: by revelation he saw it coming, and was glad" (John 8:56).
Acts 3:25-26, "You are the heirs of the prophets, and of the covenant that God gave to our fathers when He said to Abraham, "And in your Seed [singular] shall all the families of the earth be blessed. God having raised up His Son Jesus, sent Him to bless you [Israelites] first, as each of you turns from his iniquities." Abraham's promised Seed was the Angel of the Lord incarnate in the virgin-born flesh of Jesus Christ.
Galatians 3:8, 16, "In anticipation that God would justify the Gentiles through faith, the Scripture foretold the Good News to Abraham, in the promise, "In you shall all nations be blessed. . . Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He said not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to your Seed [singular], which is Christ".
After deceiving his father Abraham, in order to steal his brother Esau's blessing, Jacob fled toward Haran and his uncle Laban. On the first night he slept with a stone for his pillow, and the Lord appeared to him in a dream and confirmed His promise to Abraham, saying, "In you and in your Seed shall all families of the earth be blessed." Rest assured I am with you, and will protect you wherever you go, and will bring you back safely to this land, for I will not forsake you until I have done everything I have mentioned to you." The following morning Jacob dedicated his stone pillow as a memorial and promised to tithe a tenth of his increase to the Lord (Genesis 28).
After working for his uncle Laban for fourteen years, "The Angel of God spoke to Jacob in a dream, saying, Jacob: and he said, "Here I am." And the Angel said, I am the God of Bethel, where you anointed a pillar and made a vow to Me: now arise, leave this land, and return unto the land of your birth" (Genesis 31:11-13).
So the Angel of God is the theophany of God that later manifest as our Lord Jesus Christ, who is Himself the Lord.
Exodus 13:21, "The Lord moved before Israel by day in a pillar of a Cloud, to lead them on the way; and at night in a pillar of Fire to give them light so they could travel by day and by night." Exodus 14:19-20, "The Angel of God, who went before the camp of Israel, moved the pillar of Cloud around behind them and stood between the people of Israel and the Egyptians".
Nehemiah 9:7-15 summarized many of these Old Testament manifestations of Christ in theophany: "You are the Lord God who chose Abram, brought him forth out of Ur of the Chaldees, and changed his name to Abraham. You found his heart to be faithful to You, and made a Covenant with him to give the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Jebusites, and the Girgashites, and did fulfill Your promise for You are righteous, You saw the affliction of our fathers in Egypt, and heard their cry by the Red sea; You performed signs and wonders against Pharaoh and all his servants on all the people of his servants, and on all the people of his land because You knew they acted insolently against them. 
So You made a Name for Yourself as it is this day. You divided the sea before them, so that they went through the midst of it on the dry land; and cast their persecutors into the depths, as a stone into the mighty waters."You led them in the day by a pillar of Cloud and in the night by a pillar of Fire, to provide light in the way in which they should go. You came down upon mount Sinai, and spoke with them from heaven, giving them right ordinances, and true laws, good statutes and commandments: and made known to them Your holy sabbath, commanding them precepts, statutes, and laws, by the hand of Moses Your servant: and gave them bread from heaven for their hunger, and brought forth water out of the rock for their thirst, and told them to go in and possess the land which You had sworn to give them".
I Corinthians 10:1-4, "I want you to know, brethren, that although our fathers were under the Cloud, and all passed through the sea; and all as followers of Moses were baptized in the cloud and in the sea; and all ate the same spiritual food and drank the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that Spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ".
Zechariah 12:8, "In the day of the Lord, the Lord will defend the inhabitants of Jerusalem; and the weakest among them will be as mighty as David; and the house of David like God, like the Angel of the Lord before them".
From Exodus, Nehemiah, Zechariah and I Corinthians we learn that the Angel of the Lord and the Lord are one, of whom the Pillar of Cloud and the Shekinah are visible representations of "the appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord" (Ezekiel 1:28). And the Angel of God is the same as the Lord God Almighty, who is the Logos or theophany of God who became embodied in human flesh, crucified, resurrected and returned to heaven—our Lord Jesus Christ.
Exodus 3:2-6, "The Angel of the Lord appeared to Moses in a flame of Fire out of the midst of a bush: and when he saw that the bush burned but was not consumed, he went over to investigate. Then the Lord God called to him out of the midst of the bush, and said, "Moses! Moses!" And he said, "Here I am." And He said, "Do not come any closer. Take off your sandals, for you are standing on holy ground. I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." And Moses covered his face; for he was afraid to look upon God".
Acts 7:29-31, "Forty years after Moses had fled Egypt and become an alien in the land of Egypt the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in the desert near mount Sinai in the Flame of a burning bush. When Moses saw it he marveled at the sight, and as he approached to look at it closely, the voice of the Lord called out to him, "I am the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob." Moses trembled and did not dare to look".
The Messenger or Angel of the Lord was the Lord God Himself who revealed Himself as our Lord Jesus Christ. John 8:58, "Jesus said to the Judeans, "Truly I assure you, before Abraham was born, I am".
Irenaeus (AD130-200), the angel to the Smyrnean Church Age, wrote: "Wherefore, as I have already stated, no other is named as God, or is called Lord, except Him who is God and Lord of all, who also said to Moses, "I AM THAT I AM. And thus shalt thou say to the children of Israel: He who is, hath sent me unto you" [Exodus 3:14]; and His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who makes those that believe in His Name the sons of God [John 1:1]. And again, when the Son [as the Shekinah or Pillar of Fire in the burning bush] speaks to Moses, He says, "I am come down to deliver this people" [Exodus 3:4-8]. For it is He who descended and ascended for the salvation of men. Therefore God has been "declared" through the Son, who is in the Father, and has the Father in Himself—He who is, the Father bearing witness to the Son, and the Son announcing the Father [John 1:18; 5:36-37; 14:9-11; Matthew 3:17]. As also Esaias says, "I too am witness, he declares, "saith the Lord God, and the Son whom I have chosen, that ye may know, and believe, and understand that I am" [Matthew 12:17-21] (Irenaeus, Against Heresies, Book III, Chapter 6:2, in The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. I, p. 419).
Brother Branham said, "The Angel of the Lord, that was with Moses in the burning bush, [was] made manifested in Jesus Christ . . . Then He said, "A little while. . . I come from God; I go to God. . ." returned back in the form of the Holy Spirit in a Pillar of Fire again. . . Now you say, "Brother Branham, was that what struck Paul down? Was a Light. Nobody else saw it but Paul. And it said, "Saul, Saul, why persecute thou Me?"
He said, "Who are you, Lord?"
He said, "I'm Jesus." Is that right? He said, "I come from God and go to God." When He was on earth He said, "I was the I AM that was in the bush." So then, you see, "the works that I do, shall you also" (Queen of the South, #58-0613).
Numbers 22:20-22, "God came to Balaam at night and said, If the men come to call you, rise up and go with them, but only do the Word that I bid you. So Balaam rose in the morning, and saddled his ass and went with the princes of Moab. And God's anger was kindled because he went: and the Angel of the Lord [who is our Lord Jesus Christ in theophany] stood in the way as his adversary. Now he was riding upon his ass, and his two servants were with him".
Brother Branham said, "Now, I want to ask you something. Just a second ago, a different feeling come to you, that you knowed that Something is present here beside your brother. A real sweet humble feeling's come to you. Why? I saw that Light come right down over you. And that's what it is. [He was referring to the photograph of the pillar of Fire like a halo over his head taken at Houston, Texas, on January 24, 1950]. "How many saw the picture of that, let's see your hands? I think they got some here. They should have. It's in Washington, D.C., copyrighted. Now, that's what it is. God's ho—yes, there, the lady has one right there. The Angel of the Lord Who led the children of Israel, Jesus Christ, the Angel of the Covenant, that struck that lady just now. She be witness. Something come to her as she just witnessed. Such a feeling, it even brought tears to your eyes. Now, that's Him (Blind Bartimaeus, #57-0301).
This is supported by Zechariah 3:1-2, "The [Lord] showed me Joshua the high priest standing before the Angel of the Lord, and Satan standing at his right hand to resist him. But the Lord said to Satan, "The Lord rebuke you, O Satan; the Lord who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! I have decreed mercy to Joshua and his nation; they are like a burning stick plucked from the fire".
In a similar confrontation, "when Michael the Archangel, contending with the Devil, disputed about the body of Moses, He did not venture to pronounce a reviling judgment upon him, but said, "The Lord rebuke you" (Jude 9; II Peter 2:11; Deuteronomy 34:6). Jesus Christ, the Archangel or Chief Messenger of the Lord is Michael, which means 'Who is like God,' and Christ is "the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His Person, upholding all things by the Word of His power" (Hebrews 1:3). When Satan incarnate in the pope of Rome restores peace after the brief World War III, the world will marvel at Rome and worship the beast, saying "Who is like the beast" (Revelation 13:4)?
Christ is Israel's Prince (Isaiah 9:6; Daniel 9:25; Acts 3:14-15; 5:30-31; Revelation 1:5) whom Joshua worshipped as "the Captain of the Host of heaven" (Joshua 5:13-15; Revelation 12:7-10; 19:11-16). He has contended with the Gentile world empires, of Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece (Daniel 5; 10:13, 20-21), and Rome (Daniel 12:1) for over 2,500 years as Michael the Archangel .
As the Son of Man, King of Kings and Judge, Michael will summons the second or general resurrection, "And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contempt" (Daniel 12:2; John 5:28-29; Matthew 25:31-46; I Corinthians 15:24-28; Revelation 20:7-15).
Judges 6:20-23, "The Angel of God told Gideon, "Place the meat and the unleavened cakes upon this rock, and pour the broth over it." He did so and the Angel of the Lord touched the meat and the unleavened cakes with the end of the staff, and Fire rose up out of the rock and consumed them. Then the Angel of the Lord vanished from his sight. When Gideon perceived that He was the Angel of the Lord, he said, alas, O Lord God! for I have seen the Angel of the Lord face to face. And the Lord said, Peace be to you; fear not: you shall not die".
In Judges 13:17-18, "Manoah asked the Angel of the Lord, "What is Your Name so that we may do You homage when your Message comes to pass"? He replied, "Why do you ask My Name, seeing it is secret, [wonderful, incomprehensible, extraordinary]"? This is precisely what Isaiah 9:6 said we would call the Name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the Angel of the Lord was His theophany.
In Genesis 48:15-16, Jacob referred to God as "The Angel who continually redeemed me from all evil." He was speaking of Jesus Christ, for only as our virgin-born Kinsman Redeemer who was crucified from the foundation of the world in God's thinking could God manifest Himself as our Redeemer (Revelation 13:8; Isaiah 43:3, 11; 44:6, 24; 45:15, 21-23; 63:7-9).
Isaiah 44:24, "Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, who formed you from the womb, "I am the Lord that makes all things; that stretched forth the heavens alone; that founded the earth by Myself"." There was no Trinity when our Lord Jesus Christ created the universe (Colossians 1:15-19), and there is no Trinity today since Jehovah of the Old Testament is Jehovah-Savior, Jesus of the New. Jesus Messiah was the Messenger of the Old Covenant as well as the New, and all of the manifestations of God in the Old Testament—the Shekinah and human appearances—were made in the Person of the Divine Son (Exodus 23:20-21; Hebrews 11:26; 12:26).
Malachi 3:1-3, "Behold, I send My messenger [John the Baptist], and he shall prepare the way before Me (Isaiah 40; Matthew 11:7-14): and the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to His Temple (Matthew 26:61; John 2:19; Acts 6:14), even the Messenger of the Covenant, in whom you delight [Jesus Messiah]: behold, He is Coming, says the Lord of hosts [speaking of His first (Gk.) 'erchomai' Coming to redeem His people]. But who can endure the day of His Coming? [for Messiah would come, not, as they expected, to flatter the theocratic nation's prejudices, but to subject their principles to the fiery test of His heart-searching Truth (Matthew 3:10-12), and to destroy Jerusalem and the theocracy after they had rejected Him (Matthew 24:2-3a; 15-29). His mission covers the whole of the "last days" or Messianic Age of Israel's seven Trumpet Judgments (Luke 12:49-53): the process of refining and separating the godly from the ungodly begun during Christ's stay on earth will include His second or (Gk.) 'parousia' Coming to gather Israel in Daniel's Seventieth Week, and continue until the White Throne Judgment (Matthew 25:31-46)]. And who shall stand when He appears [in the second half of the Week, "the time of Jacob's trouble" when 144,000 elect Israelites recognize His 'parousia' (Daniel 12)]? for He is like a refiner's fire, and like fullers' soap (Zechariah 13:9; Matthew 3:10-12; I Corinthians 3:13-15): and He shall sit as a refiner and purifier of silver: and He shall purify the sons of Levi, and purge them as gold and silver (Isaiah 1:25; Daniel 12:10), that they may present offerings of [praise, self-dedication and thanksgiving as Christians live, signified by observing the Lord's Supper and footwashing] in righteousness to the Lord" (Psalm 4:5; 51:19).
This separating process is going on right now in the life of each Christian, and when the last elect is separated from the ungodly, the Gentile dispensation will end.
Nowhere in the Old or New Testaments of the Holy Bible is there the faintest hint that God might be a trinity, which is the religion from ancient Babylon that has been imposed upon the world by Satan and his dupes. The prophets of the Old Testament were eye witnesses to the preincarnate Jesus Christ, and the angel Irenaeus, like Paul, had a clear revelation of the true Oneness of God and His activities in the Old and New Testaments:
"Wherefore also John does appropriately relate that the Lord said to the Jews: "Ye search the [Old Testament] Scriptures, in which ye think ye have eternal Life; these are they which testify of Me. And ye are not willing to come unto Me, that ye may have Life" [John 5:39-40]. How therefore did the Scriptures testify of Him, unless they were from one and the same Father [as He], instructing men beforehand as to the advent of His Son, and foretelling the salvation brought in by Him? "For if ye had believed Moses, ye would also have believed Me; for he wrote of Me;" [John 5:46, saying this,] no doubt, because the Son of God is implanted everywhere throughout his writings: at one time, indeed, speaking with Abraham, when about to eat with him [Genesis 18:1-8]; at another time with Noah, giving to him the dimensions [of the ark, Genesis 6:14-22]; at another; inquiring after Adam [Genesis 3:9]; at another, bringing down judgment upon the Sodomites [Genesis 18:16-33]; and again, when He becomes visible, and directs Jacob on his journey [Genesis 32:24-30], and speaks with Moses from the bush [Exodus 3:2-6]. And it would be endless to recount [the occasions] upon which the Son of God is shown forth by Moses. Of the day of His passion, too, he was not ignorant; but foretold Him, after a figurative manner, by the name given to the Passover; and at that very festival, which had been proclaimed such a long time previously by Moses, did our Lord suffer, thus fulfilling the Passover [Exodus 12:1-17]. And he did not describe the day only, but the place also, and the time of day at which the sufferings ceased, and the sign of the setting of the sun, saying: "Thou mayest not sacrifice the Passover within any other of thy cities which the Lord God gives thee; but in the place which the Lord thy God shall choose that His Name be called on there, thou shalt sacrifice the Passover at even, towards the setting of the sun" [Deuteronomy 16:1-7] (Irenaeus, Against Heresies Book IV, Chapter 10:1, in The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. I, p. 473).
In "An Answer to the Jews," Tertullian wrote, "But if the Christ," say they, "who is believed to be coming is not called Jesus, why is he who is come called Jesus Christ?" Well, each name will meet in the Christ of God, in whom is found likewise the appellation Jesus. Learn the habitual character of your error. In the course of the appointing of a successor to Moses, Oshea the son of Nun [Numbers 13:8] is certainly transferred from his pristine name, and begins to be called Jesus [which means "Jehovah is salvation" Numbers 13:16]. Certainly, you say."
"This we first assert to have been a figure of the future. For, because Jesus Christ was to introduce the second people (which is composed of us nations, lingering deserted in the world [Genesis 12:3; 17:5; Isaiah 49:6; Ephesians 2:11-12] aforetime) into the land of promise, "flowing with milk and honey" (that is, into the possession of eternal Life, than which nought is sweeter); and this had to come about, not through Moses (that is, not through the Law's discipline), but through Joshua (that is, through the new law's grace), after our circumcision with "a knife of rock" [Exodus 4:25] (that is, with Christ's precepts, for Christ is in many ways and figures predicted as a rock [Exodus 17:6]); therefore the man who was being prepared to act as images of this sacrament was inaugurated under the figure of the Lord's Name, even so as to be Named Jesus. For He who ever spake to Moses was the Son of God Himself; who, too, was always seen (John 1:18]. For God the Father none ever saw, and lived [Exodus 33:20]. And accordingly it is agreed that the Son of God Himself spake to Moses, and said to the people, "Behold, I send mine angel before thy"—that is, the people's—"face, to guard thee on the march, and to introduce thee into the land which I have prepared thee: attend to Him, and be not disobedient to him; for he hath not escaped thy notice, since My Name is upon him" [Exodus 23:20-22]. For Joshua was to introduce the people into the land of promise, not Moses. Now He called him an "angel," on account of the magnitude of the mighty deeds which he was to achieve (which mighty deeds Joshua the son of Nun did, and you yourselves read), and on account of his office of prophet announcing (to wit) the Divine will; just as withal the Spirit, speaking in the person of the Father, calls the forerunner of Christ, John, a future "angel," through the prophet: "Behold, I send mine angel before Thy"—that is, Christ's—"face, who shall prepare Thy way before Thee" [Matthew 11:9-19]. Nor is it a novel practice to the Holy Spirit to call those "angels" whom God has appointed as ministers of His power. For the same John is called not merely an "angel" of Christ, but withal a "lamp" shining before Christ: for David predicts, "I have prepared the lamp for my Christ" [Psalm 132:17]; and him Christ Himself, coming "to fulfil the prophets," [Matthew 5:17] called so to the Jews. "He was," He says, "the burning and shining lamp" [John 5:35]; as being he who not merely "prepared His ways in the desert" [Isaiah 40:3], but withal, by pointing out "the Lamb of God" [John 1:29, 36], illumined the minds of men by his heralding, so that they understood Him to be that Lamb whom Moses was wont to announce as destined to suffer. Thus, too, (was the son of Nun called) JOSHUA, on account of the future mystery of his name: for that name (He who spake with Moses) confirmed as His own which Himself had conferred on him, because He had bidden him thenceforth be called, not "angel" nor "Oshea," but "Joshua." Thus, therefore, each name is appropriate to the Christ of God—that He should be called Jesus as well (as Christ)" (Tertullian, An Answer to the Jews, Chapter IX, in The Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. III, p. 163-164).
As you may have discerned from the above quotation, Tertullian, who lived in the Smyrnean Church Age, was creeping into error of Trinitarianism. The two vines within the framework of the church were drifting further apart with an increased bitterness toward the true vine on the part of the false. Death was not only the seed of the false vine but even in the true vine there was a creeping paralysis and impotence because they had already drifted from the unadulterated truth of the first few years after Pentecost; and no true believer is any stronger and spiritually healthy and alive than his knowledge of and adherence to the pure Word of God, as seen by the examples we have taken from the Old Testament.
In this exercise we have demonstrated the Supreme Deity of our Lord Jesus Christ from Genesis to Revelation, and that baptism for the remission of sins is therefore in the compound redemptive Name of He who is the Sole Person of God.
Since the mystery of God is finished and we now have the perfect interpretation of the Word the ignorances God "winked at" during the Church Ages when Christ was Mediator will keep you from receiving the Seal of God today. "You must do your utmost to show yourself as one approved of God, a workman who has no need to be ashamed, correctly discerning the Word of Truth" (II Timothy 2:15). nl655.htm
Pass
it on . . . please send this article to someone you know
>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.