Bible Believers' Newsletter 866
"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 happy to see you. Your brother-in-Christ
This week we progress to Zechariah 2 in which the universality of the Messianic dispensation is suggested; not all individuals, but many nations and far off peoples are to be joined to the Lord (Genesis 9:27; Zechariah 6:15; 8:20-23; 9:10; Acts 2:39). The boundaries of the Old Covenant people are to be enlarged until they become coextensive with the limits of the habitable earth (Psalm 22:27; 98:2-3; Isaiah 11:9; 45:6; 52:10; 66:18-23; Zechariah 14:8-9). Indeed in his third consecutive vision Zechariah sees the sacred inscription upon the tiara of the high priest, HOLINESS TO THE LORD, which proclaimed his entire consecration to the sacerdotal function, engraved hereafter upon the bells of the horses in token of the fact that all of His elect are to become a royal priesthood, a holy nation, and that, to such a degree that even the most ordinary functions of life shall be discharged in a the Spirit of holiness (I Peter 2:9; Revelation 1:6).
Our news items are particularly important this week for the US Congress has passed a bill that paves the way for President Obama to declare war against Russia for the sins of the United States and NATO. Russian media is already warning that the recently passed House Resolution 758 could lead to "all-out" war if the US Senate were to pass similar legislation. While President Barack Obama has yet to offer lethal aid and weapons to Ukraine, Canada has already announced they will provide military assistance outside the constraints of NATO.
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.
Anthony Grigor-Scott
US on 'Hot War Footing': House Legislation paves Way for War with Russia?
December 5, 2014 — While, a World War Three Scenario has been on the drawing board of the Pentagon for more than ten years, military action against Russia is now contemplated at an "operational level." Similarly, both the Senate and the House have introduced enabling legislation which provides legitimacy to the conduct of a war against Russia . . . the United Nations has turned a blind eye to extensive war crimes committed by the Western military alliance.
The adoption of a major piece of legislation by the US House of Representatives on December 4th (H. Res. 758) would provide (pending a vote in the Senate) a de facto green light to the US president and commander in chief to initiate—without congressional approval—a process of military confrontation with Russia.
Global security is at stake. This historic vote—which potentially could affect the lives of hundreds of millions of people Worldwide—has received virtually no media coverage. A total media blackout prevails . . . Moscow has responded to US-NATO threats. Its borders are threatened.
On December 3, the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation announced the inauguration of a new military-political entity which would take over in the case of war.
Russia is launching a new national defense facility, which is meant to monitor threats to national security in peacetime, but would take control of the entire country in case of war (RT, December 3, 2014).
In May 2014, the Russian Aggression Prevention Act (RAPA) was introduced in the US Senate (S 2277), calling for the militarization of Eastern Europe and the Baltic States and the stationing of US and NATO troops on Russia's doorstep . . . its essential premises are already in the process of being implemented. In mid-July, NATO's Europe commander General Philip Breedlove in consultation with the Pentagon and Britain's Ministry of Defence, called for: "stockpiling a base in Poland with enough weapons, ammunition and other supplies to support a rapid deployment of thousands of troops against Russia" (RT, July 24, 2014). . . Full story: globalresearch.ca
Comment: More prophecy being fulfilled as the result of the apostasy of the once-Christian West. The United States rejected her last opportunity for national repentance in 1956/57 (William Branham, He that is in You, p. 10:48). The USA will be defeated and briefly occupied in her war of aggression against Russia, integrity and honest dealing.
Ron Paul: Today the US House passed what I consider to be one of the worst pieces of legislation ever. H. Res. 758 was billed as a resolution "strongly condemning the actions of the Russian Federation, under President Vladimir Putin, which has carried out a policy of aggression against neighboring countries aimed at political and economic domination." In fact, the bill was 16 pages of war propaganda that should have made even Neocons blush, if they were capable of such a thing . . . (lewrockwell.com).
Communist Adulteress Sahra Wagenknecht: criticizes German Prime Minister Angela Merkel for serving US interests to detriment of the EU population and economy in the Bundestag over the iniquity of sanctions against Russia and co-operation with the thoroughly corrupt US-Jewish thugs ruling the Ukraine.
6,000 Ukrainian Jewish Refugees to be granted Israeli Citizenship while West supports Neo-Nazi Parties
December 04, 2014 — The rapid spread of ultra nationalism, overtly Nazi Parties and militia, and their rapid rise to power during the Western-backed "Euro-Maidan" protests in Kiev has resulted in pogroms and threats against Jews and Jewish communities throughout Ukraine with the exception of the areas in the rebelling Donbass region which are firmly under the control of the rebelling regional governments, as well as with the exception of Crimea, which acceded into the Russian Federation after a referendum in Crimea on March 16, 2014 . . . The UNA-UNSO has been linked to NATO's so-called stay-behind aka "Gladio" network . . .
The US and other western governments have consistently passed their "partners" in Ukraine off as "moderates and rejected allegations about cooperation with Ukrainian parties and organizations with Nazi ideology.
In May 2014, the US Assistant Secretary of State, Victoria Nuland, however, admitted during a two-hour hearing before the House of Representatives, that the US Administration cooperates with Ukrainian Nazis. The cooperation with Ukrainian Nazis was, however, not limited to official members of the Obama administration. Among those directly involved in cooperating with e.g. Svoboda "leader" Tyahnbok was US Senator John McCain, who is also known for making "deals" with ISIS "Caliph Ibrahim", aka al-Badri or al-Baghdadi.
Delta, the nom de guerre of the Jewish commander of a Ukrainian street-fighting unit, is pictured in Kiev (Courtesy of 'Delta'). Israeli military units were reportedly also involved in the coup d'état in Ukraine that lead to the rise of Nazi ideologists and the threat against Jewish citizens and communities in Ukraine.
In an article from March 14, 2014, the director of the Canada-based Centre for Research on Globalisation, Dr. Michel Chossudovsky, noted that the Jewish News Agency JTA reported about the presence of units associated to the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) in Ukraine. JTA quotes "Delta", a member of the IDF's Givati Infantry Brigade as confirming the presence of Israeli forces during the coup d'état.
The Givati Infantry Brigade was, among others, involved in Israel's 2009 "Operation Cast Lead" against Palestine's Gaza Strip as well as in massacres in Tel El-Hawa neighborhood of Gaza, reports Chossudovsky.
While the threat against members of Ukraine's Jewish community is real, the situation poses the question whether the Netanyahu administration participated in creating the threat with the purpose to create potential new Israeli immigrants and citizens. Over the last two years, Israel experienced a marked increase of Israeli citizens who are leaving Israel for Germany, the USA, and other western countries. 6,000 new Ukrainian Jews could help the Netanyahu administration with maintaining Israel's policy of aggressive settlement expansion in the illegally occupied Palestinian territories.
Full story: globalresearch.ca
Comment: Not 4,000 or 8,000 Ukrainian Jewish Refugees, it has got to be 6,000, or six million.
The Rise of German Imperialism and the Phony 'Russian Threat'
December 07, 2014 — The US-EU seizure of power via vassal political clients backed by corrupt oligarchs and Nazi street fighters in Ukraine detonated the current crisis. Ukraine power grab posed a top security threat to the very existence of Russia as an independent state. After the Kiev take-over, NATO moved its stooge regime in Kiev forward to militarily eliminate the independent regions in the Southeast and seize the Crimea, thus totally eliminating Russia's strategic position in the Black Sea. Russia the victim of the NATO power grab was labeled the 'aggressor.' The entire officialdom and mass media echoed the Big Lie. Two decades of US NATO military advances on Russia's borders and German-EU economic expansion into Russian markets were obfuscated. Ukraine is the most important strategic military platform from which the US-NATO can launch an attack on the Russian heartland and the single largest market for Germany since the annexation of East Germany.
The US and Germany see the Ukraine conquest as of extreme value in itself but also as the key to launching an all-out offensive to strangle Russia's economy via sanctions and dumping oil and to militarily threaten Russia. The strategic goal is to reduce the Russian population to poverty and to re-activate the quasi-moribund opposition to overthrow the Putin government and return Russia to permanent vassalage. The US and German imperial elite, looking beyond Russia, believe that if they control Russia, they can encircle ,isolate and attack China from the West as well as the East.
Wild-eyed fanatics they are not. But as rabid proponents of a permanent war to end Russia's presence in Europe and to undermine China's emergence as a world power, they are willing to go to the brink of a nuclear war.
The ideological centerpiece of US-German imperial expansion and conquest in Europe and the Caucuses is the 'Russian Threat'. It is the touchstone defining adversaries and allies. Countries that do not uphold sanctions are targeted. The mass media repeat the lie. The 'Russian Threat' has become the war cry for cringing vassals—the phony justification for imposing frightful sacrifices to serve their imperial 'padrones' in Berlin and Washington—fearing the rebellion of the 'sacrificed' population. No doubt, under siege, Russia will be forced to make sacrifices. The oligarchs will flee westward; the liberals will crawl under their beds. But just as the Soviets turned the tide of war in Stalingrad, the Russian people, past the first two years of a bootstrap operation will survive, thrive and become once again a beacon of hope to all people looking to get from under the tyranny of US-NATO militarism and German-EU economic dictates . . . Full story: globalresearch.ca
ISIS, the US and Israel
By Barry Chamish
December 9, 2014 — It has been almost a year since, relying on sources I trusted, I reported that US Special Forces were running a camp in the northern Jordanian town of Iswafa, to train, fund and equip forces to supposedly bring down the Assad regime in Syria, with covert Israeli military co-ordination and obvious Jordanian co-operation. These troops made their way from Syria to Turkey and in a miracle of military tactical genius, were transformed into ISIS, which in a mere three years captured half of Syria and Iraq. December 8, 2014 — Mossad transferring 'spying experience' to the leadership of ISIS, as Israeli military advisers assist the terrorists, claims the aide. Clearly, it's not good for one's longterm survival to reveal what Putin indubitably has come to accept as truth. An Israeli intelligence source, Debka, opened the ugly lid a few months ago and suddenly were shut down to 'update' their website for a three weeks. The upgrading was extended and now Debka is, at best, a touch and go operation.
And even better, with some well-publicized decapitations, brought the US back to the Middle East to fight the beheading beasts. In short, the US, with Israeli help, created their own worst enemies. And Russia now agrees:
Putin Aide says Israel is training ISIS
A senior aide to Russian President Vladimir Putin has accused Israel's Mossad of training Islamic State (aka ISIS) terrorists operating in Iraq and Syria, Iran's Press TV reports.
Alexander Prokhanov told the state-controlled news outlet that Mossad is also likely to have transferred some of its 'spying experience' to the leadership of ISIS, even as Israeli military advisers assisted the terrorists in other ways.
Prokhanov said ISIS is a byproduct of US policies in the Middle East.
"ISIS is a tool at the hands of the United States. They tell the Europeans that if we (the Americans) do not intervene, ISIS will cause you harm," he said. In fact, however, he added, Iran and Russia are the main targets of ISIS terror.
"They launched their first terror attack against us just a few days back in Chechnya," he said, stressing that the ISIS ideology has got nothing to do with the Islam practiced in Iran and some other Muslim countries in the Middle East region.
Prokhanov said the United States and Israel are one and the same when it comes to supporting a terror organization like the ISIS . . . Full story: israelnationalnews.com
This appeared to contradict a fact which Israel has kept very dark:
"The Syrian rebel offensive to wrest Quneitra would have stood no chance without Israel's aid—not just in medical care for their injured, but also in limited supplies of arms, intelligence and food. Israel acted as a member, along with the US and Jordan, of a support system for rebel groups fighting in southern Syria."
"Their efforts are coordinated through a war-room which the Pentagon established last year near Amman. The US, Jordanian and Israeli officers manning the facility determine in consultation which rebel factions are provided with reinforcements from the special training camps run for Syrian rebels in Jordan, and which will receive arms".
To those 'rational' minds who insist their Jewish leaders would never assist in the formation of the bloodthirsty foes dedicated to their final demise . . . no matter how much it pains you, recall the connivance between the Nazis and the Labor Zionist founders of Israel:
We now jump to 1933. Less than 1% of the German Jews supported Zionism. Many tried to escape from Nazism by boat to Latin and North American ports but the international diplomatic order was to turn them back. Any German Jew who rejected Palestine as his shelter would be shipped back to his death. [This was and is continuing shameless propaganda to cover atrocities of the Allies fighting the City of London's wars to establish Lucifer's one world government promised them by the false interpretations of Talmudic rabbis. Such lies are now deployed against Russia by the Jew-controlled USA].
By 1934, the majority of German Jews got the message and turned to the only Jewish organization allowed by the Nazis, the Labour Zionists. For confirmation of the conspiracy between them and Hitler's thugs read The Transfer Agreement by Edwin Black, Perfidy by Ben Hecht or The Scared and The Doomed by Jacob Nurenberger. The deal cut worked like this. The German Jews would first be indoctrinated into Bolshevism in Labour Zionism camps and then, with British approval, transferred to Palestine. [Note the hand of the Jew's 'City of London': Judaeo-Communism was the enemy of Hitler, God and man]. Most were there by the time the British issued the White Paper banning further Jewish immigration. The Labour Zionists got the Jews they wanted, and let the millions of religious Jews and other non-Frankists perish in Europe without any struggle for their survival. [end]
Comment: The Old Testament speaks of a jubilee every fiftieth year in which all debts are canceled, Hebrew slaves were freed and any land that was mortgaged is returned (Leviticus 25:10). It seems the letter "v," which in Hebrew represents the number six, has not been copied so with Talmudic license the rabbis twisted this to mean, "You shall return minus six million" (Facts on File Inc., 460 Park Ave., S., New York, NY 10016, 1990, p. 214 quoted by Ben Weintraub (Robert L. Brock), in The Holocaust Dogma of Judaism: Keystone of the New World Order, Cosmo Publishing, PO Box 15248, Washington, D.C. 20003, USA. (1995), p. 3; based upon The Secrets of Hebrew Words by Rabbi Benjamin Blech, p. 5-6).
The first reference to the extermination of six million Jews appears is an article on 'Antisemitism' in the Encyclopaedia Britannica (10th Ed. (1902) Vol. XXV p. 482), "While there are in Russia and Rumania six millions of Jews who are being systematically degraded. . ." Next Chief Rabbi of the United States, Russian immigrant Stephen S. Wise wrote in The New York Times, of June 11, 1900, "There are 6,000,000 living, bleeding, suffering arguments in favor of Zionism." And The New York Times, of March 25, 1906, quoted Jewish publicist Dr. Paul Nathan "the Russian Government's studied policy for the "solution" of the Jewish question is systematic and murderous extermination." Then Max Nordau, co-founder with Theodore Herzl of the World Zionist Organization claimed "In the World Zionist Congress of 1911, 22 years before Hitler came to power, and three years before World War I . . . the same righteous governments, who are so nobly, industrially active to establish the eternal peace, are preparing, by their own confession, complete annihilation for six million people." (Quoted by fellow-Zionist Ben Hecht, in his book Perfidy, p. 254).
Many more illustrations of Jewish perfidy is collated in The "Six Million" Myth. Also see The Myth of the Six Million. For further information please see Esau/Edom and the Train of the Serpent,
Pope Francis Unites Hindus, Muslims and Buddhists to sign Pact with Rome
Vatican City — December 2, 2014 — Religious leaders from a half-dozen faiths signed a new Vatican initiative Tuesday to end modern-day slavery by 2020, declaring that human trafficking, organ trafficking and forced labor and prostitution are crimes against humanity.
Pope Francis was joined by the Hindu guru Mata Amritanandamayi, known as Amma, as well as Buddhist, Anglican, Orthodox, Jewish, Shiite and Sunni Muslim leaders in signing a joint declaration at an unusually high-profile ceremony inside the Vatican walls . . . Full story: nowtheendbegins.com
Comment: Pope Francis and Rick Warren united in November at Global Chrislam Conference. Warren said Francis is the Pope of all Christians.
"I think that from the very start John Paul II for whatever reasons has sought after one thing and one thing only. The formation of what now appears to be in his mind, a universal assemblage of Catholics at the core; grouped with them Protestant denominations, sects and churches; grouped around them believing Jews, believing Muslims, believing Hindus, believing Buddhists . . ." (Uri Dowbenko, Bushwhacked: Inside Stories of True Conspiracy, ISBN 0971004218, p. 213).
Dr. Horowtiz: Ebola/HIV designed to genocide Black & Brown Races
October 9, 2014 — In a powerful presentation, Dr. Leonard Horowtiz present direct evidence and compelling documented proof that the US Congress, WHO, the Rockefeller Foundation, and a host of other secret conspirators, deliberately created and genetically designed the Ebola and HIV viruses to genocide the Black and Brown populations, through a secret eugenics bioweapons program paid for with tax payer monies. The entire presentation where Horowtiz also discusses the weaponized cancer program, deadly vaccines, the conspiracy to remove critical health foods and vitamins from the market, and the creation of unnatural diseases can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6bPDBND2jL4 . . . Full story: youtube.com
Japan investing in Robotic Workforce to regain Status as World's Top Manufacturer
November 23, 2014 — Once the undisputed world leader in robotic technology, Japan's supremacy in the field is being challenged by rival robot producing countries. Now the government is pouring money into regaining that place to ensure the robot age starts in Japan.
Pepper is the world's first emo robot and represents a huge leap in artificial intelligence. It can read facial expressions, voice tones and body language and then respond. At Omotosando, an upmarket shopping district in Tokyo, Pepper works in a mobile phone store doing market research.
Pepper told one woman: "You're very lovely—do people say that to you often? Now it's your turn to compliment me! What do you think of my face?"
And then later joked with a male customer: "So you want to become Pepper? Well you've got shave off your chest hair and smear white paint over your body and then strip off your clothes."
Pepper is designed to be cute. He stands about 120 centimetres tall and has big puppy dog eyes. On sale for $2,000 from next year, Pepper is sure to be big seller. As a household robot, Pepper will do the washing, the vacuuming and all the mundane chores with a smile.
But Japanese industry and government have serious plans for Pepper and robots like him. They want to build 30 million Peppers to create a workforce that can make Japan the world's number one manufacturer again. On the outskirts of Tokyo is the factory of the future, Nextage. Robots control the floor making ATMs and vending machines . . . Full story: abc.net.au
Green and Defenceless
December 10, 2014 — Australia will contribute A$200 million over four years into a UN fund to help poor nations cope with global warming [HOAX] (dailymail.co.uk). As Australia’s industrial capacity declines, Australia is becoming green and defenceless. History holds lessons.
Back in December 1941, Japan suddenly attacked the US Naval base at Pearl Harbour. Three days later, two 'invincible' British warships, "Repulse" and "Prince of Wales" were sunk by Japanese planes off Malaya. Soon Japanese armies were rampaging through Asia towards Australia. By February 1942, the British fortress of Singapore surrendered and Japanese bombs were falling on Darwin. By September 1942 the Japanese army had slashed their way down the Kokoda Track and could see the lights of Port Moresby. They were looking across Torres Strait to Australia. At that time, most of our trained soldiers were fighting Rommel in North Africa or in Japanese prison camps . . .
The war on carbon energy, the carbon tax, the renewable energy targets, escalating electricity costs and the voices in Parliament calling for Emissions Trading Schemes have all unnerved our big users of carbon fuels and electricity. Smelting and refining have become threatened industries in Australia, and closure of Mount Isa copper smelter and the Townsville copper refinery has been foreshadowed. Already six major metal smelting/refining operations have closed in Australia this century and more are likely. The closures have affected copper, lead, zinc, steel and aluminium—the sinews of modern industry. And the car industry, with all its skills and tools, is closing.
Our foolish green energy policies and the suicidal war on carbon fuels are killing real industry leaving us unskilled and defenceless—like a fat toothless walrus basking on a sunny beach . . . Full story: carbon-sense.com
Comment: There is no carbon and only 0.0037% carbon dioxide, the essential building block of all life, in the atmosphere. Australia is funding another HOAX of our master, the Jews' City of London in pursuit of global hegemony.
Zechariah's Third Vision
In Zechariah 1:1-6 the Lord expressed His displeasure with the Judeans, who even after a lifetime's captivity in Babylon where they were unable to offer the prescribed sacrifices and fulfill the obligatory triennial attendance at the Temple, had not turned their hearts back to Him. He called them to repent and cautioned recalcitrants against the dire consequences witnessed in the lives of their disobedient forebears (Isaiah 55:11).
Three to four months later and two months after Haggai's last prophecy in 519BC, the second regnal year of King Darius the Mede, the Lord God revealed an apocalypse of eight visions to His prophet Zechariah. The precise day of the month here and in Haggai 2:10-11, seems to be have been suggested by the fact that on this very day in the sixth month work had resumed on rebuilding the Temple (Haggai 1:14-15). The Lord had been displeased with the backslidden Judeans who had built and furnished their own comfortable homes while neglecting to build the House of the Lord which was absolutely essential to the nation's relationship with Jehovah under His Covenant on Sinai. God had vouchsafed His Covenant, "Thus says the Lord of hosts; Once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land; and I will shake all nations, and the Desire of all nations [Messiah] will come: and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord of hosts" (Haggai 2:6-7).
Through lack of revelation the Judeans did not understand that the "one day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day" as a consequence of which the "little while" and the "shaking of all nations" referred to the restoration of the Kingdom to Israel under King Jesus in the millennium, and "the glory of the latter house" refers to Christ, His glorious Bride, the glorified Israelite and Old Testament saints, a spiritual Temple "made without hands" (Mark 14:15; John 2:19) preceded by God's wrath in the destruction of Israel's foes. The prophecies of Haggai and Zechariah's first vision encouraged the Judeans to go forward with the work and not fear the world power for the Lord God had given His assurance and has "returned to Jerusalem with mercies" (Zechariah 1:16-17). All hindrances shall be removed, the temple completed, and the whole city shall pass under the surveyor's measuring line, and all Judah shall overflow with prosperity.
In Zechariah's second vision the Lord God promised He would expel Israel's foes and describes how He will send four smiths to cast down four Gentile world empires one by one. To a pastoral people the horns of the strongest in the herd naturally suggested a symbol of power and pride of conscious strength: hence Daniel and Jesus symbolized the ruling powers of the world as beasts (Daniel 7:1-8; Revelation 13:2; 17:3, 12). In the Spirit Zechariah saw beyond the four cardinal points and Israel's immediate neighbours to four Gentile world empires God would raise, commencing with King Nebuchadnezzar, to chastise and mold godly character and obedience by faith into an election of Israelites until the Kingdom of Messiah smites the image of the King's dream in the feet and takes universal dominion (Daniel 2:44). When a "horn" exceeded the bounds of God's intent He sent the succeeding "horn" or Gentile world empire as a "smith [or skillful destroyer] to fray [terrify] and cast out that horn of the Gentiles, which lifted up its horn over the land of Judah to scatter it" as prophesied in the Book of Daniel.
In Romans 11:22-26 Paul cautioned Christians in Rome to "note the kindness and severity of God: severity toward the nation of Israel that has fallen from grace; but kindness toward you, provided you continue in His kindness; otherwise you will likewise be cut off. And if Israel does not persist in unbelief it will be grafted in; for God is able to graft them in again. . . I do not want you to be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own conceits; for although individual elect Israelites receive the "blessing of Abraham" and new birth, their nation, like Pharaoh, has been hardened against and blinded to God's Word until the full number of elect Gentiles is baptized into Christ, then the whole nation will be born-again in one day—[all 144,000]" (Isaiah 66:8; Ezekiel 39:22; Zechariah 3:9).
Paul established his case for Israel's salvation on the authority of Isaiah 59:20-21, and I Thessalonians 2, II Timothy 3-4, and Revelation 3:17 foretold the hardened blindness of Christendom toward "the Voice of the seventh angel" in this holy convocation of the fiftieth day of the antitype of Israel's Pentecostal Feast in order that God may return to Israel with mercy and fulfill Daniel's Seventieth Week. We will read Isaiah 59 in its entirety because the wretched moral and spiritual condition of Israel in the day of Christ is like our worldly-wise "wicked and adulterous generation of sign-seekers" that is blind to the vindicated Scriptural signs of the Presence of Jesus Messiah in these last days (Luke 17:28-30).
Isaiah 59:1-21, "Behold, the Lord's hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear too dull to hear; your iniquities have separated you from your God; your sins have hidden His face from you so that He does not hear. Your hands are defiled with blood and your fingers with iniquity; your lips have spoken lies, your tongue has muttered wickedness. No one enters suit justly, nor goes to law honestly; they trust on empty pleas and speak lies, they conceive mischief and bring forth iniquity. They hatch the eggs of asps, and weave the spider's web; he who eats their eggs dies, and a viper is hatched from one which is crushed. Their webs will not serve as clothing; men will not cover themselves with what they make. Their works are works of iniquity; deeds of violence are in their hands. Their feet run to do evil, and they hasten to shed innocent blood; their thoughts are thoughts of iniquity; desolation and destruction are in their highways. They know not the way of peace, and there is no justice in their paths; they have twisted their ways before them, no one who walks in that way knows peace."
Israel had been conquered by Assyria and her citizens transported to various colonies throughout the Empire. In Isaiah 59 the Lord charges the Judahites with moral corruption as they gravitate to the worship of Babylon's pagan trinity of gods—the very apostasy that brought God's wrath upon Israel. Judah, too, would be conquered and her people exiled to Babylon where they would further "twist their ways before them" by devising the Talmud, the antithesis of the Torah that generated such disobedience her people committed deicide (Matthew 15:1-9; Acts 2:23). The condition of the Israelites was at that time wretched, miserable, poor, spiritually blind and naked like the nominal Christian world today which is "crucifying to themselves the Son of God afresh".
"Therefore justice is far from us, and righteousness does not overtake us; we wait for Light, and behold darkness; and for brightness, but we walk in gloom. We grope like a blind man along a wall, we feel our way like those who have no eyes; we stumble at noon as in the twilight, among those in the prime of life we are like dead men. We all growl like bears, and sadly moan like doves; we look for justice, but there is none; for salvation, but it is far from us. For our transgressions are multiplied before You, and our sins witness against us; for our transgressions are ever with us, and we are conscious of our iniquities: rebelling against and denying the Lord, and turning away from following after our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart words of falsehood. Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands afar off; for truth has fallen in the public squares, and uprightness cannot enter. Truth is so lacking that he who departs from evil makes himself a prey."
"The Lord saw it, and it displeased him that there was no justice. He saw that there was no man to help and wondered that there was no one to intervene; then His own arm brought Him victory, and His righteousness upheld Him. He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation upon His head; He put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and wrapped Himself in fury as a mantle. According to their deeds, so will He repay, wrath to His adversaries, requital to His enemies; to the coastlands He will render requital. So they shall fear the Name of the Lord from the west, and His glory from the rising of the sun; for He will come like a rushing stream, which the wind of the Lord drives".
Romans 11:26-27, "And so all Israel will be saved; as it is written in Isaiah 59:20-21: "And He will come to Zion as Redeemer, to the elect in Jacob who turn from transgression, says the Lord. And this will be My Covenant with them, says the Lord: My Spirit which is upon you, and My Words which I have put in your mouth, shall not depart out of your mouth, or out of the mouth of your children, or out of the mouth of your children's children, says the Lord, from the time of their new birth and for evermore".
Meanwhile, "As regards the Good News of Jesus Messiah the Israelites are enemies of God for your sakes: but in so far as the election is concerned, they are beloved of God because of His promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, because God's gifts of grace and His calling [of the elect blood Israelites (not Jews)] are irrevocable. [You must appreciate that if the Abrahamic Covenant is abrogated the New Testament is of no force, for Abraham's Seed is Jesus Christ, and Gentiles are Abraham's seed by the baptism of the Holy Ghost]. For whereas you Gentiles have in times past refused belief and obedience toward God's Word promulgated to you by the creation (Romans 1:21) but have now obtained mercy through their disobedience: even so Israel has now also not believed that through your mercy [which provokes them to jealousy of your faith (verse 11)] they also may obtain mercy. For God shut up ALL men together in unbelief and disobedience to the divine will that HE might have mercy upon all men" (Romans 11:28-32).
"There is no difference: for the righteousness of God through faith in Jesus Christ is for all who believe, since all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God" (Acts 15:9; Romans 3:22-23; 10:12-13). And all men are shut up in consequence of the Fall. The Gentiles were first bound in the process of unbelief as Paul explains in Romans 1 but when they were ripe for mercy the hearts of the Israelites were hardened. Israel followed them by means of this organic connection (Romans 2), so that when their confinement under the curse of the Law of sin and death (Romans 8:2; 7:13; Galatians 3:13, 22) was abolished, they proved by their unbelief and self-righteous conceit that "all Israel is not Israel" for the mass were children of the bondwoman; few were children of the free and able to enter liberty in Christ. Again, when the last elect Gentile is baptized into Christ Israel shall be ripe for mercy. Only by the terrible power of worldliness bringing reprobates under bondage to their ten carnal senses can sin be consummated in unbelief under God's judgment in order that sinners might seek Divine mercy while grace is still available (Romans 5:20; 7:13).
Now let us turn to Zechariah 2 where the Lord reveals the third of eight continuous visions. As his second vision foretold the destruction of Israel's foes, the third unveils the prophecy of the Kingdom with the surety of great enlargement and absolute security under the New Covenant.
The Third Vision
In Zechariah 2:1-5 we see a Man with a measuring line surveying the present dimensions of Jerusalem with a view to its indefinite enlargement to accommodate the redeemed in its ultimate future beyond the promise of Zechariah 1:15-17. This Man is Christ (Ezekiel 1:26; 40:3-4; 43:6-7; 47:3; Zechariah 1:8; 10; Revelation 1:13-15). As He departs to "stretch His line," Zechariah sees Brother Branham, the interpreting angel, approaching from the direction in which the Surveyor has disappeared. However before he reaches Zechariah he is met by a third angel, the Angel of the Lord (verses 5, 8-9) coming from the opposite direction and who instructs him as in Revelation 1:1, "Run [with the Good News]; say to that young man [Zechariah], Jerusalem shall be inhabited as unwalled villages for the multitude of men and cattle therein: for I will be to her a wall of Fire round about, and for glory within her".
This third angel is the Angel of the Lord as confirmed by Isaiah 49:1-12, which speaks of Jesus Messiah as the ideal Overcomer and Prince of God, or "Israel," and who, having been rejected by the Israelites calls us Gentiles, "Listen, to Me you far-off lands. The Lord called Me from the womb; from the body of My mother He named Me (Matthew 1:21). He made My Words like a sharp sword (Hebrews 4:12); in the shadow of His hand He hid Me and made Me a sharp arrow in His quiver. He told Me, You are My servant, Israel, in whom I will be glorified. Then I replied, But I have laboured in vain, I have spent My strength for naught, and in vain: nevertheless surely My judgment is with the Lord, and My recompense rests with God."
"And now, said the Lord—who formed Me from the womb to serve Him and commissioned Me to restore to Him His people Israel, who strengthened Me to perform the task and glorified Me in doing it—It is too light a thing that You should be My Servant to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the preserved of Israel: I will make You a Light to the Gentiles, that My salvation may extend to the end of the earth."
"Thus says the Lord, the Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, to He whom man despises, whom the nation of Israel abhors, to a Servant of rulers (Matthew 17:27; 26:52-53), [Gentile] Kings shall see [Him as God's Light] and stand to attention, princes shall [see and] worship, because of the Lord who is faithful, the Holy One of Israel, who has chosen You [Jesus as His elect" which in turn makes those Gentiles and us His elect (Isaiah 42:1)].
"THUS SAITH THE LORD, I have I heard You in an acceptable time, in a day of salvation I have helped You [as a Man to accomplish man's salvation by performing the duty of Kinsman Redeemer for Adam and his seed]: I will preserve Your Life [from Satanic assault in order that You may make a voluntarily surrender for your Wife as Adam forfeited his life for Eve (Matthew 26:42)] and make You a covenantal pledge to Israel (Isaiah 42:6; Matthew 23:39) to restore the land of the Covenant and [like Joshua, whose name you share], divide the land among its true heirs (Isaiah 54:3; 61:4)]; saying to the [Israelite] prisoners, Come forth (Isaiah 42:7; Zechariah 9:12); to those in darkness, [Gentiles having no Light as to the one true God]: Show yourselves! They shall feed alongside the roads and on all bare hills; there shall be pasture in the ways, and their pastures [shall be] on all bare heights."
This "acceptable time" is the Pentecostal Jubilee or release from which apostate Israel disqualified herself at Passover. This was "acceptable time" for us Gentiles; we were ripe to receive God's mercy as Paul explained in Romans 11:28-32 (Isaiah 61:2; II Corinthians 6:2).
"They shall not hunger or thirst; neither scorching wind nor sun shall smite them: for He who has mercy will lead them and guide them by cool waters. And I will make all My mountains [submit to Me as My creations and lower themselves to] become a way, while [the valleys] shall be exalted. These shall come from afar: look, these from the north and from the west; and these from the land of Sinim".
In their lust for mammon and dominion over Satan's Eden, Talmudic Jews have concocted an ungodly interpretation of Isaiah 60, presuming it refers to old Jerusalem when it speaks of New Jerusalem over which Jesus Messiah and the Church will reign as King and Queen. Thus Israeli Sephardic leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef said non-Jews exist to serve Jews. "Goyim were born only to serve us. Without that, they have no place in the world; only to serve the People of Israel," he said during a public discussion of what kind of work non-Jews are allowed to perform on Shabbat. "Why are Gentiles needed? They will work, they will plow, they will reap. We will sit like an effendi and eat," he said to some laughter. Yosef, the spiritual leader of the Shas Party and the former chief Sephardi rabbi of Israel, also said that the lives of non-Jews are protected in order to prevent financial loss to Jews.
Because of the "wall of shame" the Zionists have erected, Isaiah's prophecy is clearly not speaking of present-day Jerusalem or Judah. So it is the vastly extended 1,500-mile square by 1,500-mile high New Jerusalem that will be "inhabited as unwalled villages" (Zechariah 2:4-5) whose defense will be the encompassing Shekinah signifying the Presence of Jesus Messiah, the glory of God within. Isaiah 60:18-20, "Violence shall no more be heard in your land, devastation or destruction within your borders; but you shall call your walls Salvation, and your gates Praise. The Sun will no longer be your light by day neither will the Moon give light for brightness at night, for the Lord your God will be your everlasting Light, and He will be your glory. Your Sun will never set, and your Moon shall never wane; for the Lord will be your everlasting Light and your days of mourning will be ended" (Isaiah 4:5; 26:1; Zechariah 2:10; Revelation 21:23-27).
Neither does Zechariah 2:5 refer to Jerusalem following Judah's return from exile because Ezekiel saw the Shekinah depart the Temple in 594BC before the destruction of Jerusalem (Ezekiel 10:18-22), and neither the Ark of the Covenant nor the Shekinah ever returned to the Temple. When the Shekinah returns in Ezekiel 43:1-7 His parousia will not be recognized immediately as indicated by the instructions in the following chapters, for Jesus said "You will not see [know, perceive or understand] Me henceforth, until you say, Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord." By revelation that compound redemptive Name is obviously LORD JESUS CHRIST, for Jesus of the New Testament is Jehovah of the Old (Luke 24:47; Acts 2:38-39; 4:12). After the midst of Daniel's Seventieth Week, the revelation of His Presence will "anoint the Most Holy," fulfilling the six-fold purpose of Gabriel's visit to Daniel by the new birth of 144,000 elect Israelites—the antitype or millennium temple—made not with hands but living stones; witnesses built and inhabited by the spoken Word of God (Daniel 9:24; Revelation 14:1-5). "The Most Holy place" was where the Ark of the Covenant stood in the Temple. The true antitype of the Ark, the glorified Man from Galilee, will not set foot on earth till the millennium when the Kingdom of Israel is restored and He is the object of worship living and reigning over the hearts of the 144,000.
Ezekiel 43:1-7, "Afterward he brought me to the gate facing east: and the Shekinah Cloud of the glorious Presence of the God of Israel came from the Mount of Olives east of Jerusalem (Zechariah 14:4): and the sound of His Coming was like the sound of many waters [the saints in unison with Christ as witnesses of judgment (Numbers 24:7; Jude 14:15; Revelation 1:15; 17:15; 19:6)]: and the earth was lightened with His glory (Ezekiel 1:28; 10:4; Revelation 18:1). And the vision was like the appearance I had seen when He came to destroy the city, like the vision I saw by the River Chebar; and I fell upon my face as the glory of the Lord entered the Temple by the gate facing east. Then the Spirit caught me up, and brought me into the inner court, and the glory of the Lord filled the Temple."
"I heard Him speaking to me out of the Temple, while the Man stood beside me. He said, Son of man, the place of My throne and the place of the soles of My feet, where I will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel forever . . ."
This is the anointing of the Most Holy Place where the Lord "will dwell in the midst of the children of Israel forever"—the "Temple" that is to be re-instructed. This is when the King takes His throne in the heart of the 144,000 for the millennium reign, completing the number of names in the Lamb's Book of Life permitted entry to New Jerusalem (Jeremiah 3:12-18; Daniel 9:24; Revelation 21:27 – 22:1-5). This follows the pattern of Exodus 40:34-38, I Kings 8:10-11, Matthew 3:13-17, and Acts 2:1-4 when the Lord took His abode in the Tabernacle in the Wilderness, in King Solomon's Temple, in the Temple of Jesus Messiah, and in His Body, the Church. Here He is taking His abode in 144,000 Israelites born in one day—His Millennium Temple (Isaiah 9:14; 66:8; Zechariah 3:9-10).
The Angel who measured the ruined city of old Jerusalem in Zechariah 2:1-2 is Jesus Christ, however I believe the angel who measures New Jerusalem is William Branham (Revelation 17:1; 21:9, 15-17), "the angel that talked with me" (Zechariah 1:9; 13, 19; 2:3; 4:1, 4-5; 5:5, 10; 6:4). Brother Branham was the "angel" of Revelation 1:1, the man to whom Jesus Christ revealed the Seven Seals and whose ministry "finished the mystery of God" (Revelation 10:7). Certain misguided followers of his Message thought he actually was Jesus Christ and sought to worship him but were reprimanded and brought to correction as prophesied in Revelation 21:15 – 22:11 (Bruised Serpent, p. 719:17-50). John, who represented Christ's end-time Bride throughout the Book of Revelation saw and heard Brother Branham in his visions from AD95-96 and he too referred to him as "the angel" and "he that talked with me" (Revelation 21:15).
In Revelation 11:1-2 Christ's end-time Bride is instructed to measure or judge and separate the sanctified blood Israelites by the Absolute of the open Book we take from Christ's hand, here represented as a reed or measuring rod whereby the 144,000 elect Israelites are separated and re-instructed. I believe Ezekiel represents the 144,000 elect Israelites as in Revelation John represented Christ's end-time Bride, "the Voice of many waters" who lightens the earth with His reflected glory (Ezekiel 43:1; I Corinthians 11:7) as in Revelation 18:1. Like John in Revelation 1:1 and 10:8-11, Christ and His Bride who are one by their invisible marriage union instruct Ezekiel, "Son of man, describe the house to the house of Israel, that they may be ashamed of their iniquities: and let them measure the pattern [and compare it with their own lives] (Ezekiel 36:31-32; Zechariah 12:10 – 13:9). And if they are ashamed of all that they have done, show them the construction of the house [or the revelation of the Message of their two witnesses that they may recognize My second or 'parousia' Coming], and its arrangement, its exits and its entrances, and its whole form; and make known to them all its ordinances and all its laws; and write it down in their sight, that they observe the whole constitution and its regulations and do them; [that is, repent]" (Ezekiel 43:10-11).
Zechariah 2:6-7, "Attention! Flee from Babylon, the land of the north, says the Lord: for I have spread you abroad and I will gather you from the four winds of the heaven (Septuagint), says the Lord, even to Zion. Deliver yourselves, you who dwell with the daughter of Babylon" (Revelation 14:9-11).
Jeremiah 32:6-15 foresaw the reoccupation of Jerusalem, and to the Judeans who returned to the Land of the Covenant this urgent call of the Angel of the Lord to flee would appear to be directed toward the mass that remained in Babylon, but our interest is not in the historical development but to its eschatological significance stated clearly in Zechariah 2:5-13 and its now imminent reality. As we discovered in Zechariah's first two visions, it was the Angel of the Lord who scattered the Judahites to the four cardinal points, and it is He who will soon gather them—principally from the Muslim lands of the ancient Assyrian empire—to Zion, which is inseparably connected with the Temple, "for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem will be [deliverance] the only place of safety, as the Lord has said, among the remnant whom the Lord shall call" (Joel 2:32).
This urgent call of the Angel of the Lord will be Revelation 7:1-8 gathering them from the Babylonian religion of Talmudic Judaism by the Message of restoration and revelation of the two Hebrew prophets of Zechariah 4 and Revelation 11—as He called His end-time Bride out from "MYSTERY BABYLON THE GREAT" (Revelation 18:4).
Now the only way prior to the regeneration of the 144,000, or the millennium, and the new heavens and new earth in which the Lord could be regarded as "a wall of fire roundabout and for glory in the midst of Jerusalem" is by Christ's 'parousia' Coming to Israel. He will return to the Mount of Olives whence He departed as the Shekinah or Pillar of Cloud and Fire prophesied in Zechariah 14:3-5: "His feet shall stand upon the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east." This accords with Ezekiel's vision of the Shekinah glory of the Presence of the Lord returning by way of the east (Ezekiel 43:1-7). As this image of the Pillar of Cloud that manifest over Tucson, Arizona USA on February 28, 1963 was "the sign of Christ's second or 'parousia' Coming to us Gentiles" (Daniel 7:9; Matthew 24:3; 26:64; Acts 1:9-11; Revelation 1:7, 14; 18:1). The Lord will display a similar manifestation of the Pillar of Cloud above the Mount of Olives at the end of the Gentile dispensation to signify Messiah's second or 'parousia' Coming to Israel (Zechariah 14:4; Ezekiel 43:2; Matthew 24:30-31; Acts 1:9-11; Revelation 1:7).
Zechariah 2:8-11, "For Thus saith the Lord Almighty, after restoring the glory [of His Presence to Jerusalem], He has commissioned Me to visit His wrath upon the nations which spoiled you: for He who touches you touches the apple of His eye. For with the mere shake of My hand they shall be a spoil to those that serve them: and [by the execution of this judgment] you will know that the Lord of hosts has sent Me [the Angel of the Lord]" (II Thessalonians 1:7-10; Revelation 19). Sing and rejoice, O daughter of Zion: for I am coming, and I will dwell among you, says the Lord. Many nations shall join themselves to the Lord in that day, and shall be My people: and I will dwell in the midst of you, and you shall know that the Lord of hosts has sent Me to you".
Here is a further example of the true Oneness of the Godhead. Jehovah of the Old Testament is Jehovah-Saviour—Jesus Christ of the New—this is one and the same Person (Isaiah 7:14; 9:6; 43:3; 44:5-6; 45:21) for there is no trinity (Isaiah 44:24), God being at once the Sender and the Sent. Isaiah 48:16, "Draw near to Me and hear this: from the first I have not spoken in secret; at the time it comes to pass I will be there. For the Lord God, has sent Me and His Spirit." Both offices manifest His glory.
Zechariah 2:12, "And the Lord will inherit Judah as his portion in the holy land [as Son of David] (Deuteronomy 32:9), and will take pleasure in Jerusalem again." The elect Israelites will forever be His servant nation, and servants to their King and His Queen. Romans 11:7 and 28-29 explain that although the course of God's grace to the Israel nation is interrupted for a time, the Covenant remained intact so when the 144,000 recognize the sign of Christ's parousia Coming to them the nation will be born-again in one day, and the world will move toward the great battle of Armageddon.
Within these verses one could define Messiah's first Coming followed by the Gentile dispensation—the fulfillment of Genesis 9:27: "God will enlarge Japheth and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem," and Messiah's recognition by the 144,000 elect Israelites. But ultimately they speak of the restoration of the kingdom to Israel, which is enlarged by the union of myriads of Christians from every Adamic family (Isaiah 2:1-4; 65:18-19; Micah 4:1-5), for the boundaries of the Old Covenant will be enlarged until they are coextensive with the limits of the habitable earth (Zechariah 6:15; 8:20-23; 9:10; 14:9-16).
Zechariah 2:13, "Hush, all [weak and ignorant] flesh, before the [omnipotent and omniscient] Lord: for He has roused Himself from His holy habitation." All flesh is summoned to wait in reverential silence for the day of the Lord, for He has risen from His heavenly habitation to destroy His foe in the consummation prior to the millennium: let His enemies beware. As Christ's end-time Bride is already in the rapture, we turn our eyes to I Thessalonians 4:14-16, and exclaim with Brother Branham, "Jesus comes from heaven with ten thousands times ten thousands of His saints, and the Bible said that the heavens was empty for the space of a half hour" (The Sardisean Church Age, p. 348:96). And He has, and they are!
"Behold, God's dwelling place is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be with them, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there will be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things have passed away".
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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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