Bible Believers' Newsletter 794
"We focus on the present Truth – what Jesus is doing now. . ."
ISSN 1442-8660
Christian greetings in the precious Name of our Lord Jesus Christ; we are pleased you could join us in fellowship around God's unchanging Word. Your brother-in-Christ, Anthony Grigor-Scott
Our main article in this issue is once again sourced from Volume III of Brother Owen Jorgensen's anointed book, "The Life of William Branham." In this account of "Wilderness Visions Fulfilled" we follow the Lord's amazing prophecies concerning the vision of a caribou and silver tip grizzly bear which he was to shoot on a hunting trip with several brethren, and describe precisely how they came to pass to he foresaw. God's Word does not fail. If you would like to view and perhaps order these three volumes or even one of them in soft cover or hard bound please visit supernaturalchristianbooks.com and pass on our greetings.
These contributed articles are providing me with a tiny window of opportunity to catch up with my backlog of work and to make some progress toward our project. In Newsletters 548 and 649 we considered the prophetic symbolism of these two visions and their fulfillment.
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.
Political Assassination and the Crimes of War
July 19, 2013 — The hunt for "WMDs" in the land of the two rivers had a hollow ring given the three nearest countries—'Israel', Pakistan and India have not had their nuclear weapons inspected by the IAEA. As for germ weapons, of the 16 non-signatory states 'Israel' is one and 'No action is expected in near future.'
US, UK and UN hypocrisies flourished in the sun. UNSCOM begat UNMOVIC and UNMOVIC begat IRG . . . Saddam's Iraq had been supported in its war with Iran and April Glaspie the US Ambassador to Iraq had later passed him the green light to invade Kuwait. The litany of black lies was long and blood soaked. The 'turkey shoot' as Iraqi soldiers and civilians streamed back from Kuwait under white flags ended with live burial for hundreds by US army bulldozers. In Baghdad, the charred remains of over 400 women and children in the Amiriya bomb shelter were testament to Allied and UN evil. And were not the two laser guided bombs WMDs?
. . . The intelligence for targeting, bridgeheads etc. was in place. The paramount war criminal and psychopath, Anthony Blair, conspired with Bush in April 2002 at Crawford over blood oozing steaks to tear into Iraq. The black propaganda machine changed gear. A succession of signatories of The Project for the New American Century began appearing nightly, courtesy of the State Broadcaster, the BBC. We could soon tell Wolfowitz from Bolton, and Perle from Bolton. Mangold tried to scare the pants off vulnerable members of the UK public in September 2002 with sarin in the Tokyo tube and with all the focus on the rogue regime. The Sun carried the headline "Brits 45mins from doom" to its 6 million readers. The prescription of Oded Yinon from the 'Israeli' Ministry of Foreign Affairs was being followed to the letter). "Iraq, rich in oil on the one hand and internally torn on the other, is guaranteed as a candidate for Israel's targets. Its dissolution is even more important for us than that of Syria."
. . . against majority opinion in the UK and the truth, a massive invasion and bombardment started 22nd March 2003. It had been planned since 1988. A sceptical British public became more certain that the hell had been conjured up and brought to earth. On May 29 the author heard Andrew Gilligan at 6.20 am on the premier propaganda programme, the BBC's Today, say that a source had told him the 'September' dossier had been enhanced. (There was probably no mention of the 'Iraq Dossier' of 3rd February which within 3 days was shown by Rangwala to be fake throughout. . .
Full story: globalresearch.ca
Comment: As it was in the days of Noah, "The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence" (Genesis 6:11; Matthew 24:37).
Edward Snowden's Hidden Documents could cause America's Worst Nightmare
July 14, 2013 — The Guardian journalist, Glenn Greenwald, published leaked documents supplied by Snowden in June that revealed details of secret US surveillance programs. Greenwald is warning that Snowden has more harmful information tucked away in different parts of the world. In an interview with Argentinean newspaper La Nacion, Greenwald said the US government should be careful in its pursuit of the former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor.
"Snowden has enough information to cause more harm to the US government in a single minute than any other person has ever had," he said. . . "The US government should be on its knees every day begging that nothing happens to Snowden, because if something does happen to him, all the information will be revealed and it could be its worst nightmare" . . .
Full story: abc.net.au
Comment: "The Red Terror to Come" according to Zechariah 14:2 (darkmoon.me). Brother Branham revealed the plague of the Sixth Vial is Judaeo-Communism (Revelation 16:13-16). Concerning the United States he prophesied, "Wave after wave of ship loads of soldiers; wave after wave of airplanes would land in this nation. The women would be ravished in the streets. What would you do? It belongs to them. Kicked out of your home, they'll take it over. What'll happen to you young girls, and you young men, and all of you at that time? Sin has to be paid for. No matter what nation it is, or who it is, it does it, individually, or a nation, it's going to be paid for. And a bunch of brutal, ungodly, whisker-jawed, communistic soldiers would grab your wives and ravish them, your young girls. And you'd stand and like it; there's nothing you can do about it" (Handwriting on the Wall, p. 11:85-86).
Internment and Resettlement Operations in US
May 10, 2013 — US Department of Defense Document FM 3:39-40 created in February 2010.
Full story: info.publicintelligence.net youtube.com
The Death Merchants of Tel Aviv
July 15, 2013 — Haaretz reported today that there are more than 6,800 arms exporters working in Israel. As of the end of 2012, there were "6,684 individuals dealing with security exports in 1,006 companies and 312 independent businesses. The Israeli Defence Export Controls Agency issued 1,900 marketing permits and 8,716 export permits."
Apparently some 6,684 Israelis are making a living selling death around the world. They are serving an industry that produces more than 150,000 jobs. However, the most crucial question here is how did the Jewish State become a death factory? Early Zionism promised, indeed, to bring to the world a 'new Jew'—a productive, proletarian authentic human being driven by ethics and humanism. But, it didn't take long for the Jewish State to reveal its real supremacist inclinations and plunderous pragmatism.
By now, Israel isn't just a regional threat. It actually operates as a military industrial lab. On a daily basis it celebrates its destructive powers on the expense of Israel's neighbours and the Palestinians, just in order to find new markets for its growing class of death merchants. Is it a coincidence that the Jewish State's economy is based on weapon dealing, organ harvesting and blood diamonds? I will let you judge. Full story: gilad.co.uk
Comment: Jews are Edomites who were driven westward out of Petra, and out of their country, Seir by the Nabatheans during the Babylonian captivity, took possession and settled the southern parts of Judea and whole of the land of Simeon. The land was later named Idumea which is Greek for Edom; Hebron its capital is just fifteen miles south of Jerusalem.
130 years before Jesus, Judah's High Priest and King John Hyrcanus hired mercenaries and defeated then assimilated the accursed Edomites. This is taking place throughout the European world today to eliminate the white race by miscegenation (multiculturalism) which their taxpayer-funded ABC in Australia boasts is a "Mongrel Nation." Their strategy was announced by Rabbi Emanuel Rabinovich before a special meeting of the Emergency Council of European Rabbis in Budapest on January 12, 1952 concerning progress towards their NWO. ". . . We will openly reveal our identity with the races of Asia and Africa. I can state with assurance that the last generation of white children is now being born. Our Control Commissions will, in the interests of peace and wiping out interracial tensions forbid the whites to mate with whites. The white women must cohabit with members of the dark races, the white men with black women. Thus the white race will disappear, for mixing the dark with the white means the end of the white man, and our most dangerous enemy will become only a memory" (Pawns in the Game by Captain William Guy Carr, p. 104-106).
"Hyrcanus took also Dora and Marissa, cities of Idumea, and subdued all the Idumeans; and permitted them to stay in that country if they would circumcise their genitals and make use of the laws of the Jews; and they were so desirous of living in the country of their forefathers, that they submitted to the use of circumcision, and of the rest of the Jewish ways of living; at which time therefore this befell them, that they were hereafter no other than Jews" (Josephus "The Antiquities of the Jews," XIII, Ch. 9:1).
According to the Torah Hyrcanus should have utterly slain these Serpent's seed wherever they were encountered in the land of the Covenant as He had commanded Moses (Deuteronomy 7:1-2; 20:16-17) and as David attempted (I Kings 11:14-16). Israel was to live apart from other nations and their customs, separated to God and His Word as Christians are to separate themselves from denomi-nations and their customs. Through politics Satan caused Hyrcanus to join Israelites of the southern kingdom with the more numerous Amalekites; naturally they would intermarry and their offspring would be natural and spiritual Serpent's seed. This curse of multiculturalism and ecumenism is today imposed upon Christian peoples of all colours in Adam's race and on all continents by a people who know not the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
"For fear of the [Edomite] Jews" who are sworn to kill Jacob (Genesis 27:39-41), Israel's Messiah and His disciples lived in another country and were not Jews, and Israel's twelve tribes will not return to the Land of the Covenant until the mass exodus of non-Semitic anti-Semitic self-styled Jews after modern Israel is utterly defeated according to Zechariah 14:2 and Revelation 16:19 (Hosea 6:1-3; Psalm 17:7; Isaiah 6:10-13; 11:11-16; 13:14; 27:12-13; 49:17; 65:9-10; Jeremiah 3:12, 18; 16:15; 23:3, 8; 31:8; Ezekiel 28:24-31; 36:24; 37:14, 21-22; 39:27-28; Micah 5:3; Zechariah 10:9-12; Matthew 24:29-31).
"Strictly speaking, it is incorrect to call an ancient Israelite a Jew or to call a contemporary Jew an Israelite or Hebrew" (Jewish Almanac, 1980, page 3). The Scriptural word for "Jew" meant any resident of Judea regardless of race or religion. The modern word "Jew" is not found in either the Old or New Testaments in any language prior to the latter half of the eighteenth century, and its meaning is contrary to the two words it has replaced. By buying up Bible publishing houses, the Jews have been able to write themselves into the Bible and pretend to be people of the Old Covenant when generally speaking they are not Israelites or even Semitic. (See, for instance, the corrupt Scofield Bible. Brother Branham said "I am not a Scofieldite. I certainly don't agree with him in his footnotes," and commended the Thompson Chain Reference Bible). They admitted to Israel's Messiah that they were never in Egypt (John 8:33) and in Matthew 23:33-66 He said they are of Cain whom God set "at enmity with Adam's race" (Genesis 3:15), and that Pharisaism or Judaism is "the commandments of men that have made the commandments of God of no effect" (Matthew 15:6-9).
World Population could be nearly 11 Billion by 2100
July 13, 2013 — A new statistical analysis shows the world population could reach nearly 11 billion by the end of the century, according to a United Nations report issued June 13. That's about 800 million, or about 8 percent, more than the previous projection of 10.1 billion, issued in 2011.
"Projections of the total world population at the year 2100 have risen, largely due to fertility rates in Africa not falling as previously predicted," said Adrian Raftery, a University of Washington professor of statistics and of sociology.
The current African population is about 1.1 billion and it is now expected to reach 4.2 billion, nearly a fourfold increase, by 2100. Global population reached 7 billion in 2011. By far the largest expected increase is in Nigeria, projected to increase by 730 million people, from 184 million now to 914 million in 2100. Eight of the top ten increases are in Africa, with India in second place. The United States is eighth, with an expected increase of 146 million, or 46 percent, from 316 million now to 462 million in 2100. The largest projected decline is in China, expected to decrease by about 300 million, from 1.4 billion now to 1.1 billion in 2100. . . Full story: washington.edu
Comment: As it was in the days of Noah, "men began to multiply on the face of the earth" (Genesis 6:1; Matthew 24:37). The currently existing world resources including the technology in hand today are sufficient for 6 times the current world population (i.e. about 40-45 billions). Resources never were a problem; the crisis is a crisis one of conscience!
Nigeria, which will account for nearly a quarter of Africa's population, already has a very diversified economy and GDP doubled between 2000 and 2012. By 2100, Nigeria GDP has the potential to pass the United States. The idea that Africa survives only on the developed world's food aid is outdated.
Wilderness Visions Fulfilled
By Owen Jorgensen
William Branham returned to Jeffersonville around the first of June, 1961. Usually his wilderness adventures refreshed him; but this year, his late spring hunting trip to northern British Columbia had sent him home feeling depressed. There were several reasons for his depression. After he spoke to the Chicago Ministerial Association, a tremendous spirit of humility and love had filled his audience. Seventy ministers of the Gospel had told him they were going to come to Jeffersonville and get baptized in the Name of Jesus Christ. Over a month had passed since that day and none of those ministers had come; nor had any of them called to tell him why. He could only assume they had changed their minds, perhaps under pressure from their supervisors. Later that summer, William Branham preached three sermons on Daniel's encounter with the Angel Gabriel (Daniel 9:20-27). On Sunday morning, July 30, 1961, he preached, "Gabriel's Instructions to Daniel," and that night he preached, "The Six-fold Purpose of Gabriel's Visit." He followed these a week later with, "The Seventy Weeks of Daniel," in which he showed how the things Gabriel told Daniel about the coming Messiah speak to us today about the second Coming of Christ. In September, 1961, William Branham returned to northern British Columbia for another try at hunting in the Canadian Rockies. He met Ed Byskal at Dawson Creek and together with Billy Paul they drove 400 miles north to Bud Southwick's cabin. Bud was eager to tell Bill about his brother's healing. "Brother Branham, he hasn't had a seizure since the day my wife threw his shirt in the fire". William Branham considered this hunting trip as the highpoint of his year. The consideration God showed him in the mountains of British Columbia became a source of comfort to him during the sad months ahead. . . By now, November had once again chilled the landscape of Indiana, although it had not yet snowed. Since Bill had canceled all his campaigns through the end of the year, he decided that next month he would fast and pray about what course his ministry should take in 1962. Sometime around 3 o'clock Tuesday morning, November 21, 1961, he got out of bed, walked into his living room, turned on a light, and knelt to pray beside a chair. After a few minutes he felt his body moving. Opening his eyes, he was surprised to find himself walking on top of a giant map of the Middle East. He seemed to be walking west toward a thin strip of blue that crossed his path in the distance. In the background he heard someone singing, "I'm going down to the Jordan River." When he had covered about two-thirds of the distance to that blue strip of ink on the map, he said, "Praise God, on the other side of that river is Palestine, the Promised Land, where every promise abides."
The Chicago Ministerial Association was just part of the reason for his discouragement. Far more troubling were rumors he was hearing about people who believed he was actually Jesus Christ. He first encountered this problem the year before while fishing with some Christian men. They astonished him when they asked him if he was the Christ, the anointed Messiah. Of course he said no, and he warned them that they could ruin his ministry if they spread such a lie. He hoped that would end it, but rumors circulated about other people with the same idea. When he prayed about this problem, God directed him to Luke 3:15, which said "the people were in expectation; and all reasoned in their hearts about John, whether he was the Christ or not." Bill saw the similarities. Still, these rumors bothered him because he didn't know how to stop such a fallacy from spreading.
[This was the fulfillment of Revelation 22:6-9. Throughout the Book of Revelation John represents Christ's end-time Bride who will be translated before the tribulation; we know this because the Book was "sealed to the time of the end, but in the days of the Voice of the Seventh angel the mystery of God should be finished" (Daniel 12:4, 9; Revelation 10:4-7; I Corinthians 13:10). These divinely revealed mystery truths of the Seven Thunders of Revelation 10 are the revelations contained in the Seven Seals which will call God's children out from the man-made dogma of the Rome and her (once) Protestant daughters, restore our hearts to the unleavened faith of our apostolic fathers, and bring us to maturity in the unity of the faith for the manifestation of the Sons of God and the translation. Furthermore we know that the angel of Revelation 1:1 to whom Jesus revealed these mysteries was William Branham who was the Elijah of Malachi 4:5-6 and Matthew 17:11, and the seventh angel or Revelation 3:14 and 10:7.
In the Patmos visions the Voice of the Archangel, Jesus Christ (I Thessalonians 4:16) said in your heart, "These sayings [of Revelation 18:1 – 22:5 are faithful and true: and the Lord God of the holy prophets sent His angel [William Branham] to show His servants the things which must shortly be done. Behold, I come quickly: blessed is he that keeps the sayings of the prophecy of this Book. And I John [certain followers who because of the abundance of the Supernatural revealing "Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and today, and forever as it was in the days of Lot" (Luke 17:28-30; Hebrews 13:8; 4:12) confused Brother Branham with Jesus Himself] saw these things, and heard them. And when I had heard and seen, I fell down to worship before the feet of the angel which showed me these things. Then he told me, See you do it not: for I am your fellowservant, and of your brethren the prophets, and of them which keep the sayings of this Book: worship God. And he said to me, Seal not the sayings of the prophecy of this Book (his Spoken Word Message): for the time is at hand"].
One night in Dawson Creek, Bill was talking to people after the service when a man came up to him and wanted to confess his sins. Bill didn't understand what he meant, so the man took out his wallet and showed him a card that said, "William Branham is my Lord." Aghast, Bill questioned the man until he was certain it wasn't a joke. This incident upset him so much that he trembled for days. He kept thinking how tragic it would be if, after spending all of his adult life working for the honor and glory of Jesus Christ, he ended up being remembered as antichrist. He couldn't stand the thought of such a horrible possibility. Wouldn't it be better for him to die right now, rather than give this heresy time to spread? When he got to Bud Southwick's cabin farther north, he considered having a "hunting accident." Then he thought about his six-year-old son, and he changed his mind.
Now that he was home, his distress grew worse. He learned that two men who attended Branham Tabernacle were saying the same thing as that deluded man in Dawson Creek. Think of it—two men from his own congregation who thought he was the Lord Jesus Christ! How could that be? Surely they had heard him preach that Jesus Christ was supreme deity. They were mistaking the messenger for the Message; or more precisely, they were mistaking a son of man for the Son of man. Their folly cut into Bill's heart more deeply than he could bear. Something drastic had to be done, even if it meant his leaving the ministry forever. He closed his office, put his house up for sale and canceled all his preaching engagements for the rest of the year. Then he told everyone to stay away and leave him alone.
For a week he trembled nervously and cried in such agony of spirit that he wondered if he was losing his mind. His only solace came on Friday, June 9, 1961, when God showed him a vision. He saw those two men from his church standing next to a pond, playing with a little yellow-and-black snake on the ground. Bill walked up to the men and warned them that the snake was poisonous. Suddenly the serpent lashed out and struck him on the leg. Quickly he jumped back so he could examine his wound. Pulling up his pant leg to expose his skin, he saw blood oozing from two fresh fang marks next to a previous snakebite. At first he was worried. Then he noticed his blood was so thick that the poison wasn't affecting him. Picking up his rifle, he shot the snake in its mid-section, sending it into a frenzy of writhing contortions. With great difficulty Bill was trying to aim at the small, squirming head so he could finish it off.
One of the men said, "Don't use your gun; use that stick over there".
As Bill was reaching for the stick, the snake slithered into the water and disappeared among the pond reeds. Bill said, "Now these brothers will realize how dangerous that snake was; but it can't do much more harm because it's mortally wounded".
On Sunday morning he told this vision to his congregation. Then he said, "I have always wanted to be a true servant to Jesus Christ, my Lord and Savior. Even though I've made mistakes, yet in my heart I love Him. I have always wanted my ministry to be clean. But now a heresy has risen among you that is forcing me to leave the ministry. Some of you have taken me from my place as a brother or a minister, and are calling me Jesus Christ. Don't you realize that would brand me as antichrist? And I'll meet God as a quitter before I would meet Him as an antichrist! I have received letters and phone calls from different places, asking me if I believed that I was Christ. Brethren that is a horrible, disgraceful, ungodly lie of the Devil! I am your brother!"
"Today I hope that error receives a deadly wound and will die out quickly so I can return to my ministry. Until then, I'm asking all of you to pray for me. If you've ever believed me to be a servant of Christ, remember: Thus saith the Lord, 'That thing is false.' It's wrong. Have nothing to do with it. I am your brother."
Monday morning these two men came to Bill's house and apologized. He felt relieved and somewhat comforted, at least enough to reopen his office and take his house off the market. But he did not reschedule his preaching engagements, choosing rather to wait and see how the Lord would lead him.
A few weeks later, God showed him another vision. In this vision he was standing on the side of a mountain above the timberline, looking at a panorama of deep valleys and high peaks. He saw a large deer-like animal standing on a shale-covered slope. He wasn't sure what it was. It definitely wasn't a moose because moose have paneled antlers. This creature looked more like an elk or a caribou, except that it was chocolate brown in color. All the caribou he had ever seen were battleship gray in color. The antlers of this creature were also peculiar. Elk antlers branch off into many spikes all the way up the main stem. The antlers of caribou and reindeer have fewer branches, which usually begin high up on the main stem. Instead of spikes, caribou antlers are thicker at the tips, and some of the branches are filled in between tips, giving it a paneled look, especially noticeable in the forward-pointing brow tines. The animal in this vision had spike-tipped antlers like those of an elk, but branched like the antlers of a caribou. Bill had never seen anything quite like it before. In the vision, he shot this dark brown animal at close range. Then, looking through his field glasses toward the tree line below him, he spotted a man wearing a green-and-beige checkered shirt, but the distance was too great to tell who it was. Making his way down the mountainside, he saw a huge silver-tipped grizzly. The bear attacked him and he killed it by shooting it through the heart with a small caliber rifle. Next the vision sprang back to the deer-like animal with unusual antlers. Bill saw a tape-measure laid along one antler of the trophy head, stretched from the base of the skull up the main stem to the top point of the antler. Then he saw two small hands reach out to hold the tape-measure in position. As the vision faded, he heard the angel of the Lord say, "Those antlers will be 42 inches long, and that bear will be nine feet long".
A week later Miner Arganbright called and asked Bill if he would go with him to Alaska in August and help him organize two new chapters of the Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship, one in Fairbanks and the other in Anchorage. Arganbright said he would pay all Bill's expenses on the trip, and even offered to take him on a grizzly bear hunt after their business was done. It sounded like the perfect opportunity, considering his latest vision; but when he prayed about it, he felt checked. After two days, he called Miner Arganbright back and said the Holy Spirit would not let him go, at least not at this time.
On August 25, 1961, Bill and Billy Paul went squirrel hunting with Banks and David Wood near Salem, Indiana. Before daybreak, Bill let his companions off in one place, and then he drove farther along the road so he could hunt alone at one of his favorite spots . . . if he got to hunt at all, that is. So far it didn't look promising. The sky was a solid sheet of gray clouds, and a drizzling rain threatened to make the day miserable. Gradually the horizon grew lighter as dawn approached. He walked along a familiar path beside a pasture. Eventually the path took him into an L-shaped patch of woods, a place he had hunted often. He was walking west along the side of a hill and had just stepped over a log when the corner of his eyes caught what he at first thought was the glimmer of sunrise. On second thought he realized it couldn't be the sun because the glimmer came from the south. Looking to the south, he saw a ball of fire blazing in the air. That supernatural light he had seen many times, but what lay beneath it he had never seen before.
On top of the hill sat what looked like a huge bowl with two rainbows coming out of it. The rainbows were about thirty feet tall and stood side-by-side, forming a double arch, with one stem from each rainbow disappearing into the bowl. Taking off his hat and setting down his rifle, Bill raised his hands and walked toward the phenomenon. Soon he could see it wasn't a double arch after all, but rather a triple arch. A third rainbow came out of the bowl at a 120-degree angle from the other two.
He stopped within thirty feet of the hilltop. The rainbows were growing, expanding, shimmering in the mist as if they were alive. Bill yelled, "O God, what would You have Your servant know?"
Like a rumble of thunder, a voice answered, "Jehovah of the Old Testament is Jesus of the New Testament. He just changed His mask from Spirit to man. Remain faithful".
Feeling so numb he couldn't speak, yet at the same time feeling strangely satisfied, Bill took a few steps closer. All three rainbows shrank back into the bowl and the phenomenon disappeared, except for the Pillar of Fire, which lingered just long enough for Bill to notice it was in line with the spot where God had taught him the meaning of Mark 11:23.
Picking up his hat and gun, Bill made his way through the woods until 40 minutes later he came to that sycamore tree with its four main branches pointing north, south, east, and west. Climbing the trunk, he sat in the cradle of those four branches and thought, "Two years ago in this very spot God let me speak three squirrels into existence, showing me that Mark 11:23 is true—If you say to this mountain 'Be moved' and don't doubt, you can have what you say." Taking off his hat, he said, "Lord God, You are still the same Jesus. You are still God."
Soft as a misty rain, that voice filled the woods: "How many squirrels do you need this time?"
"Just like before; and I shall have this limit by ten o'clock today." Looking at his watch, he saw it was about six o'clock now. He slapped a mosquito that was biting him next to his eye. The mosquitoes were especially bad in this area and he had forgotten to bring mosquito repellent; so he added, "Besides this, the sun will shine within 30 minutes and not one mosquito will bother me the rest of the day".
Behind him a squirrel barked. Bill studied the woods until he spotted a red squirrel on a limb about 75 yards away. That was too far away to aim for its eye, so he lifted his scope slightly above its body and fired. The squirrel fell. When Bill walked over to get it, he wasn't surprised to find he had hit it in the eye, the same way he had shot that first created squirrel two years ago. Thirty minutes later the sun burnt away the clouds and at three minutes to ten he shot his third squirrel. He had not even heard the buzz of a mosquito in all that time.
Afterward, Bill taught, "Jehovah of the Old Testament is Jesus of the New Testament. See? He's the same God, just changing His form. The other day a Baptist minister said to me, 'How can you think that Jesus and God would be the same Person?' I said, 'Well, it's very easy if you just let your own thinking go and think in Bible terms. They are the self-same Being. God is a spirit; Jesus is the body that God was veiled in.' See? I said, 'Like in my home, I am a husband to my wife; a father to my daughter; and a grandfather to my grandson. So, I am husband, father, and grandfather, all in one. My wife has no claim on me as her father or grandfather; she has a claim on me alone as her husband. And my daughter has no claim on me as her husband or grandfather; she is my child. Yet all three of these offices are in the same person. That is like God—Father, Son, and Holy Ghost are just a dispensational claim. God is the same; He just changes His form."
"In Philippians 2, Paul said, 'Christ Jesus, who being in the form of God . . . took upon Him the form of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men.' The Greek phrase for describing this is en morphe, which means that He changed Himself, He changed His mask. (Strong's Greek Lexicon describes 'morphe' as "the form by which a person or thing strikes the vision; an adjustment of external appearance"). See? Something can't be seen, then it's changed, and the eye can catch it. Like Elisha at Dothan. Elisha's servant couldn't see all those angels around the prophet, and God changed (not brought the angels down) but He changed their form so the servant could see them (II Kings 6:1-7)".
"Here is another example of en morphe. When Shakespeare wrote his great drama Macbeth, he had one person play several parts. To do this an actor had to change his mask and costume during the play. Sometimes he came out as one character, and the next time he came out as another; but it was the same person each time. That's like God. He changed Himself from a Pillar of Fire to become a man; then changed Himself from a man back to the Spirit again, that He might dwell in men: God acting in a man what He really was. Jesus Christ was God acting in a man".
"And he won't ever have another one, as long as he believes it," Bill said.
"Now I'll tell you about a vision I had in August." He described the deer-like animal with antlers that were exactly 42 inches high, and he told them about seeing someone with a green-and-beige checkered shirt just before he shot a huge silver-tipped grizzly bear.
Bud Southwick rubbed his chin thoughtfully. "I doubt any of that will happen on this trip. For one thing, we're not going into bear country; we're going into sheep country, high above the timberline. And as far as that big deer goes, I've never seen an animal quite like the one you're describing."
"That doesn't matter," Bill said, "because God can do anything. Let me ask you brothers, do any of you have a green checkered shirt?"
"I don't," said Bud.
"I used to have one," Ed Byskal said, "but it was worn out, so I threw it away".
"Then it must be another hunting trip when I'll shoot that bear. But it will happen; you just wait and see. It is 'Thus saith the Lord.'"
It took them a couple of days to ride their horses into the high country and set up a base camp near the timberline. Early the next morning they hunted along the alpine slopes. Later that afternoon about six miles from camp they spotted a herd of mountain sheep, including three rams with horns that curled so far around they made a full circle. It was too late in the day to pursue the herd, so the hunters went back to camp with the idea that in the morning they would get an early start, return to the same spot and catch the rams sleeping.
Early the next morning Ed Byskal crawled out of his warm sleeping bag into the chilly air of his tent. Lighting his kerosene lantern, he rummaged through his duffle bag looking for the warmest clothes he could find. He was surprised to find his old green-and-beige checkered shirt folded at the bottom of his bag—surprised because he had told his wife to throw it away. Instead she had mended the big tear in its side and had packed it for this trip. Ed slipped it on, then put on his orange coat, zipped up the front and went outside to start the campfire and make breakfast. The vision Bill had described four days ago was far from his thoughts.
By nine o'clock the hunters had hiked up to the ridge where the day before they had seen the rams and sheep. Today through their binoculars they spotted a bull caribou down in the timber. Ed and Blaine went after it, while Bill and Bud climbed higher up the ridge to look for that herd of sheep. After a while Bill heard a shot echo through the valley. He pulled out his binoculars and searched along the timberline until he saw the orange of Ed's coat. Ed Byskal was leaning over the carcass of a bull caribou.
Feeling contented, Bill leaned back against a rock outcropping so he could rest and admire the beautiful fall scenery. Below him stretched a wide, expansive valley speckled red, yellow and green with tamarack, aspen, fir, spruce, and pine trees. The colors near the timberline were mostly the blue-green of pygmy spruce and the red of buck-brush. Above the timberline the slopes were carpeted with yellow moss and blueberry bushes that grew only a few inches tall. Farther up, the slopes turned into shale slides below majestic granite cliffs. Here and there, glaciers clung to the mountains like frozen tears. Scanning this panorama with his field glasses, Bill spotted a large animal just a few miles away. "Bud, what's that over there?"
Bud squinted into his binoculars. "Brother Branham, that's a caribou, but it sure looks different than any caribou I've ever seen before. Look at the points on that rack."
"A caribou, huh? Well, that's the animal I saw in a vision last month. Let's go get him."
"How are we going to get him? He's nearly two miles around the side of that shale slope".
"I don't care if he's twenty miles away. He's mine. The Lord gave him to me".
First they went down to the spot where Ed and Blaine were gutting and skinning Ed's caribou. They arranged to have the younger men bring the packhorses along the timberline to a ravine below Bill's intended target. Then Bill and Bud hiked back up the slope. Eventually their path leveled off and they picked their way along the loose shale slopes as quietly as they could. By now they were hot enough to take off their coats. That singular caribou must have been sleeping in the warm September sunshine because Bill was able to work his way within 30 yards of it. One shot was all it took to kill the animal.
Bud scratched the stubble of whiskers on his chin. "You say these antlers are about 42 inches high?"
"Forty-two inches exactly."
"I have a measuring tape in my saddle bag, so we'll soon know. Now, what about that silver-tipped grizzly bear?"
"It's around here somewhere. What puzzles me is this—where is that guy in the green checkered shirt?"
Bud lifted his field glasses to his eyes. "Well, I'll be . . . Brother Bill, look."
Through his binoculars Bill looked down the slope to the bottom of a ravine a few miles away where Ed and Blaine were waiting with the packhorses. Ed had taken off his coat, revealing the green-and-beige checkered shirt he had donned that morning. Bill said, "Everything is in place. Somewhere between here and that green checkered shirt we'll see a silver-tipped grizzly".
Bud still had his binoculars up to his eyes, scanning the slopes and ridges. "I don't mean to doubt you, but I can see every inch of these slopes, and I don't see him".
"He's there somewhere. You'll see".
Tomorrow they would come back for the caribou's meat. Today the only thing they would pack out was its head, which Bill planned to stuff and keep as a trophy. Bill balanced the head on his shoulders and started down the mountain. Bud followed carrying both of their rifles. After a while they switched jobs. The caribou's head weighed over a hundred pounds, so it didn't take long to get tired while carrying it. They crossed a small glacier, and then stopped to drink ice water dripping from its base.
"What's that up there on the ridge?" Bill asked.
Bud focused his binoculars farther along the slope. "So help me, it's a silver-tipped grizzly."
Bill nodded. "That's him. Let's go get him."
"You're going to shoot him with that little rifle?" asked Bud skeptically, pointing at Bill's Remington model 721 with its small .270 inch bore. "Maybe you should use mine."
"This is what I used in the vision, and in the vision I dropped him with one shot."
"I know you've shot bears before, but those black bears are nothing compared to these grizzlies. When you shoot a grizzly, he doesn't go into shock like most animals; he just keeps coming. You'd better shoot this one in the chest. That way if you miss his heart, you could still break his back".
'The bear was about two miles away. As they stalked nearer, the two hunters dropped into a ravine that hid them for most of the remaining distance. When they came out of the ravine, there lay the grizzly a hundred yards or so up the slope, watching them alertly. It looked like a brown haystack. Its fur was dark brown close to its body, but the ends of the hairs were silvery-white; hence the name silver-tipped. Bill aimed for its chest and fired. With a ferocious roar the grizzly charged, crashing down the slope like an army tank, jaws open, lips peeled back in a snarl, teeth poised to bite and tear. Before Bill had time to bolt another shell in the chamber, the grizzly collapsed scarcely 20 yards away.
All the sunburn had drained from Bud's face. He sighed with relief and muttered, "I didn't want him in my lap".
They gutted and skinned the bear, but of course there was no way they could carry the skin by themselves. Just the bear's skin alone weighed 300 pounds. They would have to bring a packhorse up later and get it. Walking back to the spot where they left the caribou head, they picked it up and carried it down the mountain to the place where Ed and Blaine were waiting for them with the packhorses.
Eagerly Bill told them about his two kills. Then he said, "Brother Ed, you told me you didn't have a green checkered shirt."
"I'm sorry I told you something wrong, Brother Branham. My wife packed it and I didn't know it was there".
Getting his measuring tape out of his saddlebag, Bud knelt beside the caribou's head. He ran the tape up one antler from the base of the skull to the tip of the main beam, but because of the way the antler curved, the tape kept slipping off. The second time he tried Blaine reached down with both hands and held the tape in the middle. Bill elbowed Ed in the ribs, whispering, "See, there are those two small hands I saw in the vision." With the tape in place, everyone leaned over to see the results. The tip of the antler reached exactly to the 42-inch mark on the tape.
Abruptly he was back in his living room, still kneeling in prayer beside his chair. "Could I have fallen asleep and dreamed that?" he thought. "After all, it is night time." As if God was answering that question, he felt his body moving again, rising from the floor until it left the room. This time the vision set him down on a straight, narrow highway that ran through grassy lowlands. He was walking beside a Christian brother whom he did not know. Other people were also walking along this highway and everybody seemed to be afraid of something. Bill said, "Now I'm sure this is a vision and the Lord God is here. But what is everyone afraid of?"
A deep, resonant voice said, "There is great danger in these days. There is a hideous serpent that kills when it strikes you."
Just then he heard something approaching through the tall grass. He stopped to watch, and soon he saw a huge black snake slither onto the highway in front of him. Bill recognized it as the African mamba, one of the deadliest snakes in the world. Mambas are fast and aggressive snakes, with a habit of raising their bodies partway off the ground and striking their prey high in the body or head. Their venom is so potent that a high percentage of people who are bitten by mambas die, unless they receive antivenin treatment soon after the bite. Consequently, African natives are deathly afraid of mambas. One time while he was hunting in Africa, he heard a porter yell, "Mamba!" Bill saw those natives drop their packs and even run into one another in their haste to get away from that dangerous spot.
In this vision, the mamba glared at him with evil intent, its tongue darting in and out of its mouth. The Christian brother who had stopped beside him now backed away, leaving Bill to face this deadly threat alone. The mamba attacked. It moved quickly at first, but as it slithered forward, it moved slower and slower until something stopped it a few feet away from him. Its mouth opened and its fangs quivered, but as hard as it tried, it couldn't bite him. So it slithered around and attacked him from the other side. The same thing happened. It came within a few feet of him, and then something mysteriously kept it from coming any closer. Finally it gave up and changed victims, attacking Bill's friend instead. The anonymous brother leaped aside, barely escaping. Again and again the mamba struck at the man, who continued to jump evasively.
Bill thought, "No wonder everybody on this highway is so scared." Throwing his hands up in the air, he prayed, "O God, have mercy on my brother. If that serpent bites him, it will kill him." As soon as he said this, the mamba again threatened to strike at Bill. From somewhere above him, that voice said, "Be of good courage. You have been given the power to bind it."
"Well, God, what must I do?"
"To do this, you must be more sincere."
The mamba was slithering toward him again.
"God, forgive me for my insincerity and help me to be more sincere." Suddenly an anointing flowed through him that charged his body with power he could feel. Pointing at the mamba, he said, "Satan, in the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ, I bind you."
Instantly the snake twisted into an ampersand (&)—that figure-eight-like symbol used in place of the word "and." Then the snake wrapped its tail around its own throat & choked itself to death. A puff of blue smoke came out of its mouth. Now the rigid carcass looked as harmless as a pretzel.
The voice above him said, "You can unbind him also" [Like Peter and every Christian (Matthew 16:19; 18:18)] This is the 'third pull'.
"Then Satan, so that I might know, I unbind you."
The snaked opened its mouth & sucked blue smoke back into its lungs. Its scales softened & it wiggled, starting to unravel its body. Quickly Bill said, "I bind you back in the name of Jesus Christ".
Smoke flew out of its mouth again & the mamba twisted into that ampersand-shape, choking itself until it was rigid.
He heard the alarm clock ringing back in his bedroom. Soon he heard Meda walk down the hall and tell Sarah and Becky it was time to get up. The house filled with the typical noises of children preparing for school. Bill retreated to his den to think about this vision. The mamba seemed to represent sin at its worst. The power to bind Satan was available. What else could it mean? Bill prayed, "Heavenly Father, before Your Spirit leaves me and I have to take my children to school, will You explain what You're trying to tell me in this vision by showing me something in Your Word?"
When he opened his Bible, his thumb pressed the page directly under I Corinthians 5:8, "Therefore let us keep the feast, not with old leaven, neither with the leaven of malice and wickedness, but with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth" [the 'third pull' of the "midnight cry" or "shout" his end-time Message (Matthew 25:6; I Thessalonians 4:160 which is the revelation of the "seven thunders" (I Corinthians 13:10; Revelation 10:1-7)]. Now he understood. He was planning to fast and pray about his future. Spiritually speaking, a fast in the body is a feast with the Lord. God was telling him that during this fast, he must be more sincere than he had ever been before.
That meant he was approaching something momentous. Walking toward that river on the map reminded him of how Joshua led the Israelites up to the Jordan River and then gazed across the river at the Promised Land, where he was supposed to divide and distribute an inheritance for God's people. At that time the Lord said to Joshua, "This day I will begin to magnify thee in the sight of all Israel, that they may know that, as I was with Moses, so I will be with thee" (Joshua 3:7). Bill could never forget that day when a disembodied hand appeared in his room, split open the pages of his Bible and pointed to the first nine verses of Joshua. How could he forget it? He had written that vision in the flyleaf of his Scofield Study Bible—the same Bible he still used constantly at home and when he traveled. Ever since that day in 1952, he had known that his ministry would somehow parallel the ministry of Joshua.
The next morning, Wednesday, November 22, 1961, Bill woke before his alarm clock went off. Something was chattering at him from the corner of his bedroom. Rolling over, he was startled to see a hideous demon standing in the corner. It looked something like a Neanderthal man with horns protruding from its head, and it was cackling like a chicken that had just laid an egg. Instead of frightening him, it amused him. The demon sort of looked like Alley Oop, that cave man character he saw in the comic section of the newspaper. "Meda," he said, reaching over and putting a hand on her shoulder. "Meda, honey, look at that." He decided not to wake her, thinking, "That would scare her to death".
The longer he listened to the demon's chatter, the more he could make out words. It was definitely talking to him, accusing him, saying things like, "You don't have any power with God. You're just a bluff. You have no power at all".
Bill said, "Satan, you're an offense to me. Get out of my way in the name of Jesus Christ." Like dirty water spiraling down the drain of a sink, this demon swirled into a fluid mist and vanished. Bill settled back on his pillow, enjoying the sudden quiet. Then he felt a peculiar sweetness surround him, filling his cup of joy until it overflowed. "I wonder if the Holy Spirit is close to me now?" he thought.
From the opposite corner of his bedroom, the sweetest voice he had ever heard, said, "Don't fear to do anything or go anywhere or say anything, for the never-failing presence of Jesus Christ is with you wherever you go" (Joshua 1:1-8; Israel in the Homeland, p. 134:43).
That morning, after he took his children to school, he bundled himself in his warmest winter clothes, drove to the Tunnel Mill wilderness area and hiked to his cave. Regardless of the cold weather, he had to fast and pray. Something momentous was approaching. He could feel it in his joints, his nerves, and his spirit. nl794.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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