Bible Believers' Newsletter 775
"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 especially warm welcome to our new subscribers. Your brother-in-Christ, Anthony Grigor-Scott
It has been estimated that scores of Old Testament prophecies were fulfilled on the day of Christ's crucifixion, and as we witness the second crucifixion of the Word and see the end of the dispensation coming to pass many signs and prophecies are being fulfilled. One important end-time sign and prophecy was the election of Pope Francis I who appears qualified to meet the requirements for the last pope. Our main article focuses upon the four cherubim and explains that because of apostasy at the end of the dispensations of Law and grace they are ultimately represented by four men.
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.
The Horror! A Buenos Aires Journalist describes Bergoglio
March 14, 2013 — Of all the unthinkable candidates, Jorge Mario Bergoglio is perhaps the worst. Not because he openly professes doctrines against the faith and morals, but because, judging from his work as Archbishop of Buenos Aires, faith and morals seem to have been irrelevant to him . . . He has not missed any occasion for holding acts in which he lent his Cathedral to Protestants, Muslims, Jews, and even to partisan groups in the name of an impossible and unnecessary interreligious dialogue. He is famous for his meetings with Protestants in the Luna Park arena where, together with preacher of the Pontifical House, Raniero Cantalamessa, he was "blessed" by Protestant ministers, in a common act of worship in which he, in practice, accepted the validity of the "powers" of the TV-pastors. . . Full story: rorate-caeli.blogspot.com
Comment: Beware the ides of March!
Brother Branham prophesied, "When the church goes up, then the confederation, the sleeping virgins: Methodist, Baptist, Presbyterian, lukewarm Pentecost, all of them together were the confederation, which they've already got their big regime now [Rockefeller's World Council of Churches] . . . And when they do, they'll make a covenant that will [form a (once) Protestant image unto the beast (Revelation 13:14-18] . . . Now, this new pope that we got now wants to bring them all in. [The second John XXIII (1958-1963) who organized Vatican II for this purpose. The first John XXIII (1004-1009) was an antipope]. Can't you see the thing heaping right up? Going to give a talk on it and bring them all in—first time for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years, a thousand years or two it's ever been done. But now, he's to bring them all in together and make a confederation, and in there the Jews will accept it [Daniel 9:27]. Oh, glory, hallelujah. Praise be to our God Who lives forever and ever. There you are. Now, brother, it's just as simple as simple as . . . A little kid could see it. The confederation will bring in Jewish, and Protestant, and Catholic together. . ." [contrary to Amos 3:3]
"What's these two prophets [Zechariah 4; Matthew 17:3; 24:31; Revelation 11] going to do when they come? This beast, this prince that shall scatter the power of the holy people [Daniel 12:7], what will he do? He'll break his covenant with them after three and a one half years [Daniel 9:27]. He'll oust them. Now, people thinks that's Communism. That's just 'cause the Spirit of God hasn't dealt with you yet. It's not Communism; it's religion. The Bible said it'd be so close it'd deceive the very elected if possible [Matthew 24:24]. Jesus said so. See, we're in the last one" (The Seventy Weeks of Daniel, p. 125:169-170).
LA Shaken by Biggest Quake in Years which could be Foreshock for Something Larger, Officials urge Residents to Prep for '2 Weeks on Your Own'!
March 11, 2013 — The magnitude-4.7 earthquake that rattled Southern California on Monday was the largest centered in the greater Los Angeles area since 2010, officials said. "It's been three years since we had anything this size this close to Los Angeles," said Susan Hough, a seismologist with the US Geological Survey. She cited a magnitude-5.4 quake that struck the desert area in July 2010.
It happened along the San Jacinto fault between the San Andreas and the Elsinore faults. This is a fault famous for big earthquakes according to retired geology professor Pat Abbott, Ph.D. "There's always that slight chance—slight chance now—that this could be the foreshock of something larger. Probably not. Usually this is just an event all by itself," Abbot said. . . Full story: investmentwatchblog.com usgs.gov
Israel: a De Facto Member of NATO
March 9, 2013 — Israel is already involved in covert operations and non-conventional warfare in liaison with the US and NATO. . . Israel would be directly involved were US-NATO to launch an outright military operation against Syria, Lebanon or Iran. Israel offered to assist NATO in counter-terrorism operations directed against Hezbollah and Iran. "The two agreed during their discussions that Israel and NATO are partners in the fight against terror . . ." The ongoing premise underlying NATO-Israel military cooperation is that "Israel is under attack".
The March 2013 Israel-NATO Brussels agreement is all the more significant because it "obligates" NATO "to come to the rescue of Israel" under the doctrine of "collective security" . . . Full story: globalresearch.ca
How Deregulation has Resurrected American Economic Insecurity
March 8, 2013 — We might not be in a Great Depression, but economic insecurity has nevertheless returned to America.
John N. Gray, a distinguished intellect and retired professor of intellectual history at the London School of Economics, disagrees with the view that "the end of history" has placed humanity on a course of ethical and economic progress. History, Gray believes, is not progressing to a higher stage. Instead, humanity is repeating the same follies and is destined to endure the same disasters. It is the Enclosures, Repeal of the Corn Laws, and the Poor Law Act of 1834 all over again.
The problem is humans themselves. They are not questioning beings. "Human beings use the power of scientific knowledge to assert and defend the values and goals they already have." Instead of ethics and politics having advanced with the growth of knowledge, we are experiencing today state terror and murder on unprecedented scale as Washington kills people with drones and invasions in seven countries and threatens others. The US claims to be the democratic "light unto the world," the "indispensable nation," but it has resurrected in violation of its own law and international law the torture dungeons of the unaccountable governments of medieval Europe.
Few people see the disconnect between the propaganda about the goodness of America and the evil that its government practices. Torture was banned. Its practice was made the act of a war criminal government. But the Bush and Obama regimes have resurrected torture as a defense of the state against citizens who reveal its crimes and against those who resist its aggression.
The CIA official who revealed that the US government was torturing detainees in violation of US and international law, John Kiriakou, was subjected to wrongful prosecution and sentenced to prison. The elected officials who approved the torture and those who conducted the torture remain free of all charges to torture again.
Bradley Manning, the US soldier who did his duty under the military code and revealed US war crimes that were ignored by his superiors had all of his constitutional rights violated and is now being tried on trumped-up and false charges. The US government claims that by telling the truth Manning aided the "enemies of the United States."
The US government is so corrupt that it doesn't realize the self-damnation of declaring the truth to be against it. Some "light unto the world" Washington is.
The myths to which Americans subscribe are resulting in their social, political, and economic destruction. . . Full story: globalresearch.ca
Cultural 'Enrichment' and Diversity at Work . . . in Your Community
March 7, 2013 — At the siege of Vienna in 1683 Judaeo-Roman Islam seemed poised to overrun Judaeo-Roman faux Christian Europe. We are in a new phase of a very old war—both sides controlled by the same hidden hand and manipulated by the same objective . . . global hegemony.
An English transcript of the English subtitles follows this Hungarian TV report on the "Sensitive Zones" (ZUS) of the suburbs of Paris, where police are forced use military-style armored vehicles to enter the culturally 'enriched' no-go zones.
Full story: gatesofvienna.net
US Plots Conquest of Venezuela in Wake of Chavez' Death
March 07, 2013 — US corporate-financier funded think-tank, the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), declared in its "post-Chávez checklist for US policymakers," that the US must move quickly to reorganize Venezuela according to US interests. Upon its checklist were "key demands":
• The ouster of narco-kingpins who now hold senior posts in government
• The respect for a constitutional succession
• The adoption of meaningful electoral reforms to ensure a fair campaign environment and a transparent vote count in expected presidential elections; and
•The dismantling of Iranian and Hezbollah networks in Venezuela
In reality, AEI is talking about dismantling entirely the obstacles that have prevented the US and the corporate-financier interests that direct it, from installing a client regime and extracting entirely Venezuela's wealth while obstructing, even dismantling the progress and geopolitical influence achieved by the late President Hugo Chavez throughout South America and beyond.
The AEI "checklist" continues by stating: Now is the time for US diplomats to begin a quiet dialogue with key regional powers to explain the high cost of Chávez's criminal regime, including the impact of chavista complicity with narco-traffickers who sow mayhem in Colombia, Central America, and Mexico. Perhaps then we can convince regional leaders to show solidarity with Venezuelan democrats who want to restore a commitment to the rule of law and to rebuild an economy that can be an engine for growth in South America.
Of course, by "Venezuelan democrats," AEI means Wall Street-backed proxies like Henrique Capriles Radonski and his Primero Justicia (Justice First) political front, two entities the Western media is already gearing up to support ahead of anticipated elections. The West has positioned proxies to strip Venezuela to the bone after Chavez' passing.
Primero Justicia (Justice First) was co-founded by Leopoldo Lopez and Julio Borges, who like Radonski, have been backed for nearly a decade by the US State Department. Primero Justicia and the network of foreign-funded NGOs that support it have been recipients of both direct and indirect foreign support for at least just as long (US State Department).
US military contractors and Special Forces had been caught operating in and around Venezuela. Just as there were warning signs in Syria years before the 2011 conflict began, the US' intentions of provoking bloodshed and regime change in Venezuela stretch back as far as 2002. Just as Syria is now facing a Western-engineered proxy war, Venezuela will too, with the AEI already declaring US plans to wage a Syria-style proxy war in South America.
Full story: globalresearch.ca
Comment: The communist criminals are in the US Administration and associated think-tanks. "Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has lost his two-year battle with cancer. Often described in the Zio-media as a "sworn enemy of the United States," under Chavez Venezuela actually donated about 200 million gallons of heating oil to lower income families in 25 states and Washington, DC, offering 100 gallons per family. Of course Chavez wanted his people to live free of domination from the corrupt government in Washington—so do a lot of Americans. So what caused the Zio-media to demonize the popular Venezuelan president for 14 years davidduke.com? Chavez chose a social safety for his people over skyscrapers and chutzpah!
Was Hitler a Zionist Stooge?
March 6, 2013 — Perhaps no other political figure and period of history is as misunderstood as Adolf Hitler and his rise to power and reign as the Führer of National Socialist Germany. Confused and oftentimes disingenuous conspiracy historians and alternative media personalities present a wide variety of interpretations of Adolf Hitler and National Socialist Germany, with many claiming Hitler was some sort of secret "Rothschild operative" collaborating with the Jewish international bankers as an agent of Zionist interests in the Middle East, as J. Speer Williams has recently argued. These alternative "conspiracy industry"-type theories are as absurd and baseless as the mainstream version of Adolf Hitler and National Socialist Germany as the embodiment of evil, hell bent on conquering first Europe, then the world, exterminating all Jews, gypsies, and other scapegoated and "persecuted" groups in the process. . .
Full story: john-friend.net
Comment: The truth will set you free.
Introducing the Glory of God
Genesis 3:24, "So the Lord God drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the Garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the Tree of Life".
On the fourth day God said, "Let there be lights in the firmament of the heavens to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs [of a prophetic nature, and for agriculture, navigation, travel], and for seasons [or appointed times of meeting with the Lord on sabbaths, new moons and annual festivals], and for days, and years, [for warmth, regulation, determination and preservation of all life for the earth-world]. And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. And God made two great lights; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: He made the stars also [in which the Lord God wrote His first Bible]" (Genesis 1:14-16).
"Whatever can be known of God is evident to men, because God has shown it to them in the stars. For since the creation of the world His invisible qualities, namely His eternal power and divine nature, plans and purposes have been clearly seen, being understood by His handiwork, [the mind brightly beholding what the eye cannot discern] so that men will have no excuse [all their degeneracy being a voluntary departure from truth thus brightly revealed to the unrefined spirit]" (Romans 1:19-20).
"Faith comes by hearing, and understanding the Word of God . . . have the Israelites [and all men] not heard? Indeed they have, the witness in the stars has gone out to all the earth, and their Words to the ends of the world" (Romans 10:17-18). "The [incessant testimony of the] heavens is telling the glory of God; and the firmament [or vault of heaven supporting the waters above] is [conspicuously] showing His handiwork. Day after day pours forth speech [super adding to the revelation 'precept upon precept, line upon line'], and night unto night declares knowledge. There is no [articulate] speech, nor are there words; their voice is not audible. Yet their Message [in God's first Bible still] goes out through all the earth and their Words to the ends of the inhabited world" (Psalm 19:1-4).
Likewise in God's third Bible written in paper and ink rather than in the heavens we read: "No man has ever seen God; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, has made Him known" (John 1:18; 3:13; 14:9; 17:6, 26).
This planisphere of the heavens taken from E.W. Bullinger's "Witness of the Stars" signifies how "God who commanded light to shine out of darkness, has shone in our hearts the Light of the knowledge of His glory in the person of Jesus Christ" (II Corinthians 4:6; John 1:18; Acts 26:18; Philippians 1:11). There is however nothing in the constellations that might indicate the form of these overlaying pictures. Therefore the pictures that have been drawn around certain stars in God's first Bible illustrate His foreknowledge of sin and His plan and purpose of redemption in Jesus Christ, and must have preceded the foundation of the material world as indicated in Genesis 2:3, "God rested from all His work which He created [Heb. 'bara' out of nothing] to make [Heb. 'asah' from existing material]." His "Gospel in the Stars" announce and irrevocably establish His decreed season and time for the fulfillment of those prophecies (Isaiah 42:9; John 13:19). Ecclesiastes 3:1, "To everything there is a season, and a time to every purpose [of God] under the heaven".
These pictures were designed to preserve, expound, and perpetuate the one first great promise and prophecy of Genesis 3:15, that all hope for Man, all hope for Creation, was bound up in a coming Redeemer; One who should be born of a woman; who should first suffer, and afterwards gloriously triumph; One who should first be wounded by that great enemy who was the cause of all sin and sorrow and death, but who should finally crush the head of "that Old Serpent the Devil."
These ancient ideograms foretell the Coming One and reveal "the sufferings of Christ and the glory that should follow." All told there are forty-eight, twelve signs each conjoined with three constellations, but their circle is endless and eternal. Sin caused the breach and time began when Cain was conceived of a woman's unbelief not through the faith of her husband. Thus "Man born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble" (Job 14:1). The story of redemption and man's journey through time begins and ends with the Alpha and the Omega, Jesus Messiah, who was born of the virgin and will reign as King of kings throughout eternity. The revelation signified in the Sphinx standing before God's second Bible, the Great Pyramid of Giza begins with the constellation of Virgo where Adam as a perfect type of Christ stepped over the time line and the Life line to redeem his fallen wife, Eve. Romans 5:17, "If by Adam's trespass death became king by one man, far more surely will those who receive the abundant grace and the free gift of righteousness reign as kings in Life through the one Man Jesus Christ."
The Sphinx—a word which means "to bind closely together"—was designed to show that the two ends of the Zodiac are to join together through the Cross in the constellation of Leo where time will end with the renewed heavens and renewed earth and the great circle of the heavens will continue through eternity. This was established by Psalm 40:6-10, "Sacrifice and offering [expressed in the disparate offerings of Cain and Abel] You did not desire; but a body have You prepared Me [as per the Septuagint and Hebrews 10:5]: whole burnt offering and sin offering You did not require [but revelation and My obedience unto death as Adam's kinsman Redeemer]. Then I said, Lo, I am come [as an obedient servant, ready for the service of His lord, standing in this willingness before the Lord to ransom life for life]: in the volume of the Book it is written of Me (Genesis 3:15; 49:10; Deuteronomy 18:15), I delight to do Your will, O My God: yes, Your Law is within My heart. I have preached righteousness in the great congregation: as You know, O Lord, I have not restrained My lips. I have not hid Your righteousness within my heart; I have declared Your faithfulness and Your salvation: I have not concealed Your lovingkindness and Your truth from the great congregation." This Paul confirms in Hebrews 10, reading from the Septuagint.
The twelve great signs were identified with the twelve sons of Israel, and the order in which the tribes pitched around the Tabernacle to guard the way to the Presence corresponds with that of the Zodiac, with Judah, Reuben, Ephraim, and Dan representing the middle signs of Leo, Aquarius, Taurus, and Scorpio, respectively (Numbers 2). In deference to God's first Bible, Aaron's breastplate was set with the birth stones of the twelve tribes which in the New Testament Jesus represents as the wall of New Jerusalem overshadowed with the Shekinah which would flash on that Urim Thummim to vindicate the interpretation of a dream or prophecy. From God's first Bible He identified "the third part of the stars of heaven . . . cast down to earth" as apostate Israelites, and the "seven stars in His right hand" as the angels to the Seven Church Ages.
When Israel blessed his sons in Genesis 49 he prophesied the situation of each tribe in the closing years of the Messianic Age of completion, that is, in Daniel's Seventieth Week. His blessings are complimented in Moses' blessing in Deuteronomy 33; he too prophesied the discovery of oil in Asher in these last days as Brother Branham also understood (C.O.D. p. 137:Q23). These prophecies are portrayed on the tribal ensigns used to this day and displayed on the outside back cover of Brother Branham's exposition of Daniel chapter 9. The four leading tribes guarding the way to the Presence of God and their ensigns correspond to the four living creatures before the throne of God in Ezekiel and Revelation.
Following the Fall four living creatures with the face of a Lion, an Ox, a Man, and an Eagle guarded the way to Christ, the theophany of God represented as "the Tree of Life" in the Garden of Eden as portrayed in God's first Bible. In the Old Testament they are signified by natural Israel's four leading tribes guarding the way to the Presence of God over the Ark in the Holy of Holies. In the New Testament they are represented by the four Gospels: Apostle Matthew guarding the way from the east, Pastor Mark guarding the way from the west, Luke the Teacher of Gentiles guarding the way from the south, and John the Evangelist and Prophet guarding the way to the Presence by the baptism with the Holy Spirit from the north. Thus the four living creatures also represented Spiritual Israel, the elect Church covered by the Shekinah from the loins upward and downward as in Ezekiel 1:27, and living by the power of the resurrected Christ. They announced the first Four Seals of our Spiritual redemption at the close of Laodicea on March 8, 1963 when redemption was over, the Church finished and already caught up into heavenly places (Revelation 5:8-14). As Christ's end-time Bride is predestinated to be reborn by the fullness of the Word, unlike the PART-Word saints during the Church Ages we do not require mediation for ignorance and were fully redeemed in Christ on Calvary.
Since the opening of the Seals redemption has been revealed by the "shout" of Brother Branham's Message calling the wise and foolish virgin OUT from the false Church (Matthew 25:6; I Thessalonians 4:16; Revelation 18:4) and identifying them in each Age, while "the Voice of the Archangel" in the heart of the Bride is placing the Message from Genesis to Revelation to bring us to maturity in the unity of the faith for the manifestation of the Sons of God and the translation. Throughout the Book Christ's end-time Bride is represented by John caught up into heaven into the three-fold revelation of the rapture, and Christ is whispering His secrets to us, so you may replace his name with your own as the revelations he sees and hears are your own personal experience.
I Corinthians 1:26-30, "Notice among you who have been called, dear brethren, how that not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many mighty, not many of noble birth; but God has chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise. Instead, God has intentionally chosen what the world considers foolish and of little worth to confound those things which are mighty. God has chosen what is insignificant and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are, so that no flesh might boast in His Presence. He is the source of your Life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom, our righteousness, and sanctification, and redemption; so according as it is written, "Let he who boasts, boast only of what the Lord has done".
The born-again man is influenced by Divine revelation, and nothing else. Jesus said, "If any man come to Me, and hate not his father, and mother, and wife, and children, and brethren, and sisters, yes, even his own life, he cannot be My disciple. And whoever does not bear his own cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple . . . so first count the cost of the Christian life before beginning your walk, otherwise you will be mocked by the unbeliever. Whoever of you does not renounce all that he has cannot be My disciple. Salt is good: but if the salt has lost its saltiness it cannot be restored. It is fit for nothing, not even for fertilizer but must be thrown away. He who has ears to hear, let him hear" (Luke 14:26-34; 9:57-62; Hebrews 6:4-8).
The Prophet said, "The importance of revelation by the Spirit to a true believer can never be over-emphasized. Revelation means more to you than perhaps you realize. Now I am not talking about this Book of Revelation and you. I am talking about ALL revelation. It is tremendously important to the Church . . . The Church is built on Revelation, on the "Thus Saith the Lord" (An Exposition of the Seven Church Ages, p. 13:4).
The responsibility of the ministry is to point the brethren to Divine Revelation. Nothing less. Nothing else. Holding not only to the authority but also to the sufficiency of Holy Scripture which is 'third pull' faith! If a minister does not properly fulfill his given, accepted and needed responsibilities in the church, his problem is unfaithfulness, irresponsibility, and disobedience and his elders must deal with real causes and real issues, not the symptoms.
God commanded Moses: "You shall put the mercy seat above upon the ark; and in the ark you shall put the testimony that I shall give you [like David acting as Christ (in Psalm 40:8 above) for the Ark was a type of Christ]. And there I will meet with you, and I will commune with you from above the mercy seat, from between the two cherubims which are upon the ark of the testimony, of all that I will give you to command the children of Israel" (Exodus 25:21-22).
Under the Law God's throne was represented by the Ark of the Covenant which was a throne of mercy so long as the golden Mercy Seat was covered with the blood of the lamb. In the absence of blood it was His judgment seat. This types Christ as Mediator in the office Son of God from Pentecost to the end of the Laodicean Church Age (John 5:25-26) when He became King of kings and Judge in the office Son of man from the opening of the Seven Seals on March 8, 1963 to the millennium (Revelation 5:1-8; John 5:27). The cherubim were fourfold representatives of redeemed creaturely life in which man is preeminent and whose characteristics are the basis and body of the whole (Ezekiel 1:5-8; Revelation 4:7). At the east of Eden, after the Fall, "God set the cherubim to guard the dwelling place of His Shekinah, and a flaming sword [of His revealed Word] which turned every way to guard the way to the Tree of Life." Even as the "flaming sword" proclaimed God's just wrath against sin, the cherubim were a pledge of the restoration of man and the creaturely world subject to him. Not only were the cherubim to guard the Presence from anything unclean or profane, they were to guide the righteous back into the Presence (Psalm 8; Isaiah 11:6-9; Romans 8:17-24; Ezekiel 34:25; Hosea 2:18).
By forbidding entry to the eastern gate the cherubim were preserving the first man and his wife from becoming Cherem or accursed and dedicated for destruction as an affront to the glory of God. The way had to be guarded until the remission of sins was made possible, but "No man is able to enter into the temple [until after the Gentile dispensation when the Sixth Seal] and the seven plagues of the seven Trumpet angels are fulfilled . . . And when Brother Branham has poured out the Seventh Vial into the air [to cast down Satan and cleanse the heavenly sanctuary] a great voice out of the temple of heaven, from the throne, will say, 'It is done' (Revelation 15:8 and 16:17)!" Only then will fit men be able to enter into the joy of the Lord and never depart (Isaiah 35:10).
The Cherubim and the flaming sword were the forerunners of the sanctuary where Christ's Bride of all Ages and the 144,000 elect Israelites are represented in the golden lampstand and the table of showbread, thence after repeated washings and approbations the high priest alone could enter once a year into the Holy of Holies which was a type of the Garden of Eden where man walked with the Lord God "in the cool of the evening." Therein the cherubim had their representation on the fabric around and above the Most Holy Place.
Exodus 26:31-32, "You shall make a vail of blue, and purple, and scarlet, and fine twined [white] linen with cherubims skillfully embroidered: and you shall hang the vail from golden hooks resting in four silver sockets upon four acacia pillars overlaid with gold." Revelation 4:8-9, "And the four cherubim each had six wings; and they were full of eyes [ubiquitous wisdom] within: and they rest not day and night, saying, Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come. And they give glory and honour and thanks to Him that sat on the throne, who lives forever and ever".
Four is the number of earth and deliverance as in the first Four Seals of our Spiritual redemption. From the above Scripture you will understand how the four leading tribes whose ensigns represent the Lion, the Ox, the Man and the Eagle, assisted by the eight lesser tribes, and sanctified by Levi's instruction—"for the Law was their schoolmaster to bring Israel to Christ that they might be justified by faith"—performed the duties of the cherubim in guarding the way to the Presence of the Lord over and above the Ark by separating clean from unclean and sacred from profane.
Exodus 37:6-9, "Moses made a mercy seat of pure gold: two and a half cubits
long, and one and a half cubit broad. And he made two cherubim of gold, beaten out of one piece, on the two ends of the mercy seat; one cherub on this end one on the other. He made the cherubims of one piece with the mercy seat on the two ends. And the cherubims spread out their wings above, overshadowing the mercy seat with their wings, their faces toward each other and their eyes on the mercy seat".
The Mercy Seat with its cherubim was made of pure gold beaten with hammers into due form from the same mass as the mercy seat, typing Christ our propitiation or Mercy Seat (Romans 3:25; Hebrews 2:17; I John 2:2; 4:10) and illustrating that the saints must be at one with God by faith whereby we are able to endure the fiery trial as partakers of Christ's sufferings, put on His Character and be His glory.
The mercy-seat being of the same measure as the ark covered it exactly. No was part uncovered, and so long as the blood was on the mercy seat the transgressions of the penitent were completely hidden from the Law.
The cherubim on either side of the Shekinah glory of God's Presence (from which, as on Mount Sinai, the flame might at any moment dart) looked down on the blood-sprinkled mercy seat of the Ark, God's meeting place in reconciliation with sinners by the atoning blood; mercy and justice uniting in man's redemption. Hence it must have been at the east of the Garden of Eden that God sacrificed two innocent lambs and placed the first couple under their blood. Here also at the east gate Cain and Abel offered the first sacrifices back to God: the carnal son of the Serpent sought to appease and earn His favour, his half-brother Abel, in thankful recognition of the propitiation already made in His gracious purpose foreshadowing Calvary (Genesis 3:21-24; 4:3-4; Revelation 13:8).
Under the New Testament our hearts must be cleansed by the Holy Spirit and Fire of His revealed Word (Matthew 3:11-12). Jesus declared, "I am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I, if it be already kindled? But I have a baptism to be baptized with [on Calvary]; and how am I straitened till it be accomplished! Do you suppose that I have come to give peace on earth? I tell you, No; but rather division: for from henceforth there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three. The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father; the mother against the daughter, and the daughter against the mother; the mother in law against her daughter in law, and the daughter in law against her mother in law" (Luke 12:49-53).
Matthew 27:51, "And the veil of the temple was torn in two from the top to the bottom; and the earth did quake, and the rocks rent." So under the New Testament "With the mind I [my soul] serve the Law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin. There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death".
Brother Branham said, "No man has a right to enter the sacred desk to preach the Word until he has did as Moses did: meet God himself upon grounds where that there's no theologian can explain it away. Moses was there. No matter how Israel's messengers said, "Oh, it was a nonsense, you just imagined you saw this; it's nonsense," you couldn't take it away from him; he knowed. He was there. He was the one it happened to. And no man by a theological degree or some doctor's degree has a right behind the pulpit to claim the Message of Jesus Christ, until he's first met God face to face in the Pillar of Fire" (Why it had to be Shepherds, p. 36:184).
The cherubim are the executers of God's righteous judgment (Genesis 3:22-24; Psalm 149:9; Isaiah 9:6; Daniel 7:22; Matthew 19:28; I Corinthians 6:1-3; Revelation 1:5-6; 19:11-16). Their representation on the fabric around and above the Holy Place stresses the righteousness of God and those who serve him in his perfect holiness. Under the New Testament the cherubim are represented by the righteous government of God entrusted to the five-fold ministry and all true saints as indicated on the preceding diagram.
The climax of the Ark's symbolism was revealed where the glory of the Lord appeared. The Shekinah manifested above the mercy seat and between two cherubim. Ultimately, because of apostasy, God's throne guards have their representation in four men. Two of these will be anointed with the Spirit that endued Moses in Israel's apostasy from Kadesh Barnea through forty years in the wilderness, and Elijah in the dark age of King Ahab. A double portion of the same Spirit endued Elisha, whose mission was to make apostate Israel confess "The Lord our God is one Lord," NOT a trinity (Deuteronomy 6:4). Zechariah 4:14 prophesies of two men endued with the same anointings that were upon Moses and Elijah, "These are the two anointed ones, that stand by the Lord of the whole earth" as once the cherubim stood by the Logos over the Ark of the Covenant. These are the two witnesses of Matthew 24:31 and Revelation 11 whose ministry will cause the nation of Israel to be born in one day (Isaiah 66:8).
Matthew 17:3: "After six days Jesus took [three witnesses representing the 144,000], Peter, James and John, into a high mountain apart." There He showed them a vision of the glorified appearance of His second or 'parousia' Coming prior to His millennial reign in the office Son of David when "the kingdom will be restored to Israel," preceded by the Hebrew prophets of Zechariah 4 and Revelation 11 ministering to genuine Israelites in the land of the Covenant in Daniel's Seventieth Week.
The hour for this ministry is at hand, but let us look back two thousand years in time to a seminal event just ten days before the inauguration of the Church and commencement of the Gentile dispensation. Acts 1:10-11, "While the Apostles looked intently toward heaven as He went up, two men stood by them in white apparel; and said, Men of Galilee, [note not one of the apostles was a Jew] why do you stand gazing into heaven? This same Jesus, who was taken up from you into heaven, will come again in the same manner as you have seen Him go into heaven." And He has!
Our precious Brother Morris Ungren who sang "Down from His Glory" before Brother Branham delivered the revelation of the First Seal, had this to share concerning our Lord's parting promise as He was taken up from the Mount of Olives in the Pillar of Cloud. "These two men in white were NOT angels. They were both men. They were the messengers who introduced Jesus. One as the Lamb of God. The other as the descended Logos. They told these Galileans that "this same Jesus"—the One they introduced to the world—will come again as you have seen Him go. He vanished from them in the cover of a Cloud, and He will come again in the same way. This was the Pillar of Cloud that manifest over Mount Sunset" on March 8, 1963, seen only by the Prophet as was explained in Newsletter 752.
The public manifestation of the same Cloud on February 28, 1963 and the existence of many photographs taken from 150 locations were unknown to the Prophet till three months later on July 1, when Brother Norman showed him this magazine he borrowed while visiting. God always signifies major events in the heavens before they take place on earth (Genesis 1:14; Psalm 19:1-5). This Cloud was the sign promised us Gentiles in Daniel 7:9, Matthew 24:3; 26:64, Acts 1:11, Revelation 1:7, etc., foretelling Christ's imminent second or 'parousia' Coming. God told Brother Branham, "Turn the photo to the right." As you can see it represents Jesus Christ wigged as the Judge precisely as described in Daniel 7:9 and in Revelation 1:12-16. We have superimposed the Cloud over Hoffman's painting to simulate how He appeared to Daniel and John when they saw Him in visions set after the Church Ages and His Mediatorial Office were fulfilled. The Judge, looking down on the Western world that has rejected and put Him out of the churches or "walled cities" that bear His Name as the Eastern world rejected and crucified Him without Jerusalem (Romans 11:32; Revelation 3:20).
Our Brother continued, "The same two appeared standing at the feet and head of the place where Jesus had lain following His resurrection (Mark 16:1-5; Luke 24:3, 23). Both were anointed with the Spirit of Elijah . . . John, and Branham. Jesus vanished from them but His Spirit did not depart. The last act of Jesus was one of vanishing. He went out of sight as a Bodily Presence. His promise is, "I am with you always" (Matthew 28:20).
Whereas Moses and Elijah introduced the Logos of the invisible God, seen as the Shekinah once a year by the high priest on the Day of Atonement, John and Brother Branham introduced the Logos of the same God made flesh. Jehovah of the Old Testament is Jesus of the New.
As the Shekinah glory was last seen in Israel on the east (Ezekiel 11:23) so it shall return by way of the east (Ezekiel 43:2; Revelation 7:2). It has appeared and been photographed many times in these last days; Brother Branham had to travel west to meet the sevenfold Spirit coming back east to reveal the mystery of the Seven Thunders before returning to the Mount of Olives, Jerusalem and Mount Zion (Zechariah 14:3-4; Matthew 24:30-31; Joel 2:32).
The Shekinah was manifest as a pillar of Cloud in the form of the head of Christ—the fullness of the Word in the office Son of man wigged as Judge, signifying His Mediation and all Seven Church Ages are fulfilled and redemption is over. It was seen only by the seventh angel who was caught up into the constellation of the theophanies of the previous six angels when Jesus Christ opened the Seven Seals on March 8, 1963 (Revelation 6:1). Unbeknownst to him until three months later, this sign had appeared publicly on February 28, 1963. Photographs featured in the May 17 issue of Life magazine shown above. Since that time newspapers, magazines and scientific journals around the world have written about this mysterious cloud formed above the atmosphere where there is no moisture to make a cloud.
It has been estimated that scores of Old Testament prophecies were fulfilled on the day of Christ's crucifixion, and as we witness the second crucifixion of the Word and see the end of the dispensation coming to pass many signs and prophecies being fulfilled. An important end-time sign and prophecy relevant to the present discussion unfolded on March 13, 2013 as I explain:
In 2007 Pope Benedict XVI accepted Jesuit Superior General Peter-Hans Kolvenbach's unprecedented request to retire from what has always been a lifetime posting. And on January 19, 2008 the Society of Jesus elected the little-known 'Father' Adolfo Nicolas, 71, as their new "Superior General".
Benedict XVI himself retired on February 28, 2013, precisely fifty years after the heavenly sign heralding the end of Christ's mediation and redemption with the close of the Laodicean Church Age nine days later on March 8. Nine is the last of the digits, and thus marks the end; and is significant of the conclusion of a matter. It is akin to the number six, six being the sum of its factors (3x3=9, and 3+3=6), and is thus significant of the end of man, and the summation of all man's works. Nine is, therefore the number of finality and judgment, for judgment is committed unto Jesus as "the Son of man" (John 5:27; Acts 17:31). It marks the completeness, the end and issue of all things as to man—the judgment of man and all his works.
It is a factor of 666, which is 9 times 74.
The gematria of the word "Dan," which means a judge, is 54 (9x6).
"My wrath" = 999 (Hebrews 3:11, 4:3).
The solemn amen, or "verily" of our Lord amounts also to 99, summing up and ending His words.
The sum of the 22 letters of the Hebrew alphabet is 4,995 (5x999). It is stamped, therefore, with the numbers of grace and finality. The sum of the Greek alphabet is 3,999.
On March 13, 2013 (every occurrence of the number thirteen, and likewise of every multiple of it, stamps that with which it stands in connection with rebellion, apostasy, defection, corruption, disintegration, revolution, or some kindred idea) Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio of the Jewish Society of Jesus, former right hand man to Jesuit Superiors General Pedro Arrupe and Peter-Hans Kolvenbach has been elected Pope Francis after St. Francis of Assisi whose full name was Francesco di Pietro (Peter) di Bernardone, an Italian who was once a beggar in Rome, effectively making Bergoglio "Peter the Roman." Francis is the first Jesuit and the first from the Americas to be elected Pope and almost certainly the last pope prophesied by Brother Branham in 1954. He is the first non-European pope since Syrian-born Pope Gregory III, who served for ten years (731–741).
Francis I appears to fulfill Revelation 17:11 and the sequel to the prophecies of St. Malachy: "In extreme persecution, the seat of the Holy Roman Church will be occupied by Peter the Roman, who will feed the sheep through many tribulations, at the term of which the city of seven hills will be destroyed [in accordance with Revelation 18:4-20], and the formidable Judge will judge His people. The End!" If so, after the brief 'hot stage' of World War III he will also fulfill Brother Branham's prophesy: "I believe, one of these glorious days, when this united confederation of church goes together, and the new pope is brought out of the United States and put over there [in Jerusalem] according to prophecy [Daniel 7:25-25; 8:23-25; 9:27; 11:32-35; Revelation 13], then they'll form an [US and Protestant] image like unto the beast".
Remember also that on March 20 (Nisan 9) Jewish President Obama will enter the city of Jerusalem "which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was crucified." On the morning of March 21 (Nisan 10), the day on which the sacrificial lamb was taken, Obama will visit Palestine, return to Jerusalem by noon, and on March 22 (Nisan 11), breakfast with Prime Minister Netanyahu either in his home or at the King David hotel then fly to Jordan at 1.00pm local time. nl775.htm
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Brother Grigor-Scott is a
non-denominational minister who has ministered full-time since 1981, primarily
to other ministers and their congregations overseas. He pastors Bible Believers' tiny congregation, and is available to teach in your church.
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1 comment:
Hi Anthony.
I met you in 1984. Just tell me why do you need to mirror the original picture of Hoffamn's head of Christ to fit the cloud?
Bro. Albert
christianbelievers.co.nz
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