Bible Believers' Newsletter 933
"We focus on the present Truth – what Jesus is doing now. . ."
ISSN 1442-8660
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.
Today we will study "Joel Chapters 1 and 2" not so much for the historical context itself as for the types and shadows they established for future events under the times of Gentile dominion over Judah and Jerusalem that would commence almost three hundred years after Joel's passing and will extend to the consummation of Life. Our study supports what we learned last week: "Visions never Fail".
Items of current news support the focus of Christian ministry which is "the present Truth" . . . what Jesus is doing now.
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.
Today we will study "Joel Chapters 1 and 2" not so much for the historical context itself as for the types and shadows they established for future events under the times of Gentile dominion over Judah and Jerusalem that would commence almost three hundred years after Joel's passing and will extend to the consummation of Life. Our study supports what we learned last week: "Visions never Fail".
Items of current news support the focus of Christian ministry which is "the present Truth" . . . what Jesus is doing now.
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.
Your brother-in-Christ
Anthony Grigor-Scott
Anthony Grigor-Scott
Obama's Second Illegal War on Libya
August 4, 2016 — In 2011, Obama and then secretary of state Hillary Clinton bore full responsibility for the rape and destruction of Libya, transforming Africa's most developed country into a cauldron of endless violence, instability, turmoil and unspeakable human suffering—the aftermath of all US imperial wars . . .
He's raped Libya since 2011, new terror-bombing continuing where earlier assaults left off, virtually certain to go on indefinitely, perhaps with varying degrees of intensity, supplemented with US and other NATO special forces on the ground operating covertly. His tenure ends in January. If Hillary succeeds him, perhaps she'll turn the entire region and beyond ablaze. Full story: globalresearch.ca
Comment: The USA is the image of the beast of Revelation 13.
He's raped Libya since 2011, new terror-bombing continuing where earlier assaults left off, virtually certain to go on indefinitely, perhaps with varying degrees of intensity, supplemented with US and other NATO special forces on the ground operating covertly. His tenure ends in January. If Hillary succeeds him, perhaps she'll turn the entire region and beyond ablaze. Full story: globalresearch.ca
Comment: The USA is the image of the beast of Revelation 13.
NY Times met secretly with State Department in 2010 to bury Iraq War Logs
August 3, 2016 — A 2010 correspondence found in the WikiLeaks Hillary Clinton Email Archive reveals that Michael R. Gordon of the New York Times met secretly with US State Department officials prior to the newspaper's coverage of WikiLeaks' Iraq War Logs . . . from a private, unsecured server used by Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton during her time as Secretary of State . . .
The purpose of Gordon's meeting with officials of the State Department was nothing other than damage control . . . making every assurance that his paper would cherry-pick leaked documents to spin coverage in favour of American foreign policy while burying its most criminal offenses.
The hundreds of thousands of documents detailing war crimes in Iraq—now known as the Iraq War Logs—were obtained by WikiLeaks from whistleblower Chelsea Manning . . . makes clear the degree to which the "fourth estate" is completely integrated into the capitalist state . . . total subservience of the so-called "free press" to Washington's military-intelligence apparatus . . . Gordon, the Chief Military Correspondent for the Times . . . gained notoriety in 2002 after co-writing a story with Judith Miller that put forward the bogus claim that Saddam Hussein was procuring aluminium tubes to further a nonexistent nuclear weapons program. During the first phase of the Iraq War, he was the only journalist embedded with the Allied Command . . . Full story: wsws.org
Comment: In collusion with the Jew-controlled worldwide media the US government is deceiving its citizens and the world.
The purpose of Gordon's meeting with officials of the State Department was nothing other than damage control . . . making every assurance that his paper would cherry-pick leaked documents to spin coverage in favour of American foreign policy while burying its most criminal offenses.
The hundreds of thousands of documents detailing war crimes in Iraq—now known as the Iraq War Logs—were obtained by WikiLeaks from whistleblower Chelsea Manning . . . makes clear the degree to which the "fourth estate" is completely integrated into the capitalist state . . . total subservience of the so-called "free press" to Washington's military-intelligence apparatus . . . Gordon, the Chief Military Correspondent for the Times . . . gained notoriety in 2002 after co-writing a story with Judith Miller that put forward the bogus claim that Saddam Hussein was procuring aluminium tubes to further a nonexistent nuclear weapons program. During the first phase of the Iraq War, he was the only journalist embedded with the Allied Command . . . Full story: wsws.org
Comment: In collusion with the Jew-controlled worldwide media the US government is deceiving its citizens and the world.
Human Rights Watch reports US Government Tortured Children
August 1, 2016 — Human Rights Watch (HRW) has just released its report, "Extreme Measures: Abused Children detained as National Security Threats." From my reading of the report, [Jew-controlled] Israel and the [Jew-controlled] US are the two worst abusers. [Jew-controlled] Boko Haram is a distant third. Which country is the worst abuser, [Zionist] Israel or the [Zionist] US?
Taking into account that the US is responsible for the violence in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria that has resulted in torture and detention, if we include these victims in the American total, then the US is the Number One torturer of children. As it is unlikely that Israel could get away with abuse of Palestinian children without Washington's support, we can add Israel's abuses to Washington's total . . . What kind of US government would pay two US psychologists $81 million to help the CIA devise torture techniques? Only a lawless government with no respect for US law and international law . . .
When the [Jew-centric] Democratic National Committee can hire Americans for $50 per night to fill up the empty seats at the Democratic convention, what does that tell you about the price of American integrity? . . . It is Donald Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, who says he doesn't want conflict with Russia and sees little point to NATO. Yet, the "liberal" media doesn't miss an opportunity to demonize Trump, just as the presstitutes demonize the peace-seeker, Vladimir Putin . . . Full story: paulcraigroberts.org
Comment: Jew-controlled USA is "the image unto the beast".
Taking into account that the US is responsible for the violence in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria that has resulted in torture and detention, if we include these victims in the American total, then the US is the Number One torturer of children. As it is unlikely that Israel could get away with abuse of Palestinian children without Washington's support, we can add Israel's abuses to Washington's total . . . What kind of US government would pay two US psychologists $81 million to help the CIA devise torture techniques? Only a lawless government with no respect for US law and international law . . .
When the [Jew-centric] Democratic National Committee can hire Americans for $50 per night to fill up the empty seats at the Democratic convention, what does that tell you about the price of American integrity? . . . It is Donald Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, who says he doesn't want conflict with Russia and sees little point to NATO. Yet, the "liberal" media doesn't miss an opportunity to demonize Trump, just as the presstitutes demonize the peace-seeker, Vladimir Putin . . . Full story: paulcraigroberts.org
Comment: Jew-controlled USA is "the image unto the beast".
Holocau$t Deprogramming Course
"The Holocaust is a deeply anchored belief even in people who know very little about it. We can see that not only does disbelief in the Holocaust myth threaten modern Jewish identity as shaped by political Zionism, but for others it brings into question the credibility of those in authority who told everyone it was true: the state, the churches, the schools, and media of every kind. These sources are the same ones people trust and depend on every day for information. If these trusted authorities are wrong about the Holocaust, what else are they wrong about? What other dishonesties are they promoting?" — John Weir, The Holocaust as Myth: Betraying the Public Trust.
"If the Holocaust were unimportant we wouldn't have around 20 countries on this planet outlawing its critical investigation. In fact, this is the only historical topic that is regulated by penal law. This is proof for the fact that the powers that be consider this topic to be the most important issue to keep under their strict control. Those censoring, suppressing powers are the real criminals—not the historical dissidents they send to prison" — Germar Rudolf, Logic and Reason Can and Will Destroy the Holocaust Establishment.
"The rising flood, particularly on the Internet, that is bringing to the world's knowledge the spectacular achievements of historical revisionism is not suddenly going to halt its advance or return towards its source" — Robert Faurisson, The revisionists' total victory on the historical and scientific level. Full story: holocaustdeprogrammingcourse.com
Comment: Please visit the compendium of interviews, statistics, videos, exposes and other evidence. Purge your heart of the LIES you have believed and repent of the cruel arrows of defamation you have fired against innocent Germans and Germany in support of this HOAX begun in the 19th century and perpetrated upon your unjust, unthinking self, making yourself an accessory after the fact. England was conquered in 1688 since when it has been ruled by the sovereign foreign City State of "The City of London" as the united States are ruled by the sovereign foreign city state of Washington D.C.
"Governments do not govern, but merely control the machinery of government, being themselves controlled by the hidden hand." — Benjamin Disraeli Prime Minister of Great Britain
"If the Holocaust were unimportant we wouldn't have around 20 countries on this planet outlawing its critical investigation. In fact, this is the only historical topic that is regulated by penal law. This is proof for the fact that the powers that be consider this topic to be the most important issue to keep under their strict control. Those censoring, suppressing powers are the real criminals—not the historical dissidents they send to prison" — Germar Rudolf, Logic and Reason Can and Will Destroy the Holocaust Establishment.
"The rising flood, particularly on the Internet, that is bringing to the world's knowledge the spectacular achievements of historical revisionism is not suddenly going to halt its advance or return towards its source" — Robert Faurisson, The revisionists' total victory on the historical and scientific level. Full story: holocaustdeprogrammingcourse.com
Comment: Please visit the compendium of interviews, statistics, videos, exposes and other evidence. Purge your heart of the LIES you have believed and repent of the cruel arrows of defamation you have fired against innocent Germans and Germany in support of this HOAX begun in the 19th century and perpetrated upon your unjust, unthinking self, making yourself an accessory after the fact. England was conquered in 1688 since when it has been ruled by the sovereign foreign City State of "The City of London" as the united States are ruled by the sovereign foreign city state of Washington D.C.
"Governments do not govern, but merely control the machinery of government, being themselves controlled by the hidden hand." — Benjamin Disraeli Prime Minister of Great Britain
After Brexit, Clexit
August 1, 2016 — Harmful, Costly, Unscientific Climate Treaties should be torn up.
A new international organisation aims to prevent ratification of the costly and dangerous Paris global warming treaty which is being promoted by the EU and the present US administration. "CLEXIT" (CLimate Exit) was inspired by the Brexit decision of the British people to withdraw from the increasingly dictatorial grasp of the EU bureaucracy.
Without any publicity or serious recruiting, Clexit has attracted over 60 well-informed science, business and economic leaders from 16 countries . . . "For the EU and the rest of the Western world, ratification and enforcement of the Paris Treaty (and all the other associated decrees and Agendas) would herald the end of low-cost hydrocarbon transport and electricity, and the exit of their manufacturing, processing and refining industries to countries with low-cost energy.
"For developing countries, the Paris Treaty would deny them the benefits of reliable low-cost hydrocarbon energy, compelling them to rely on biomass heating and costly weather-dependent and unreliable power supplies, thus prolonging and increasing their dependency on international handouts. They will soon resent being told to remain forever in an energy-deprived wind/solar/wood/bicycle economy.
"Perhaps the most insidious feature of the UN climate plan is the "Green Climate Fund". Under this scheme, selected nations ("The rich") are marked to pour billions of dollars into a green slush fund. The funds will then be used to bribe other countries ("developing and emerging nations") into adopting silly green energy policies . . . If allowed to continue as envisaged by the Paris Treaty, this economic recession will become a world-wide depression, and all nations will suffer.
"We must stop this futile waste of community savings; cease the destruction and dislocation of human industry; stop killing rare bats and birds with wind turbine blades and solar/thermal sizzlers; stop pelletising trees and shipping them across the world to feed power stations designed to burn coal; stop converting food to motor vehicle fuel; and stop the clearing of bush and forests for biofuel cultivation and plantations." "Carbon dioxide does not control the climate. It is an essential plant food and more carbon dioxide will produce more plant growth and a greener globe." Full story: clexit.net
A new international organisation aims to prevent ratification of the costly and dangerous Paris global warming treaty which is being promoted by the EU and the present US administration. "CLEXIT" (CLimate Exit) was inspired by the Brexit decision of the British people to withdraw from the increasingly dictatorial grasp of the EU bureaucracy.
Without any publicity or serious recruiting, Clexit has attracted over 60 well-informed science, business and economic leaders from 16 countries . . . "For the EU and the rest of the Western world, ratification and enforcement of the Paris Treaty (and all the other associated decrees and Agendas) would herald the end of low-cost hydrocarbon transport and electricity, and the exit of their manufacturing, processing and refining industries to countries with low-cost energy.
"For developing countries, the Paris Treaty would deny them the benefits of reliable low-cost hydrocarbon energy, compelling them to rely on biomass heating and costly weather-dependent and unreliable power supplies, thus prolonging and increasing their dependency on international handouts. They will soon resent being told to remain forever in an energy-deprived wind/solar/wood/bicycle economy.
"Perhaps the most insidious feature of the UN climate plan is the "Green Climate Fund". Under this scheme, selected nations ("The rich") are marked to pour billions of dollars into a green slush fund. The funds will then be used to bribe other countries ("developing and emerging nations") into adopting silly green energy policies . . . If allowed to continue as envisaged by the Paris Treaty, this economic recession will become a world-wide depression, and all nations will suffer.
"We must stop this futile waste of community savings; cease the destruction and dislocation of human industry; stop killing rare bats and birds with wind turbine blades and solar/thermal sizzlers; stop pelletising trees and shipping them across the world to feed power stations designed to burn coal; stop converting food to motor vehicle fuel; and stop the clearing of bush and forests for biofuel cultivation and plantations." "Carbon dioxide does not control the climate. It is an essential plant food and more carbon dioxide will produce more plant growth and a greener globe." Full story: clexit.net
As it was in the Days of Lot
July 30, 2016 — The Navy has sent congressional notification that it intends to name a new oiler ship Harvey Milk, a US Navy official confirmed Friday to CNN . . . Harvey Milk was a San Francisco politician and gay rights activist . . . the first openly gay California politician to be elected to office . . . Full story: kfor.com
Joel Chapters 1 and 2
Joel is the oldest of the Minor Prophets. He lived in the kingdom of Judah at a time when the temple services, priesthood and other institutions of the theocracy are represented as flourishing. Because no idolatry is mentioned his prophecies were probably made between 870 and 865BC. But the Lord forewarned of apostasy in time to come.
Joel 1:1 – 2:27 is not a prophecy but his experience of an unprecedented plague of locusts and drought which the Lord inspires him to employ as a type of chastisements to come upon Judah from the Captivity to the great and dreadful day of the Lord. The plague is a divine judgment that has desolated the land (Deuteronomy 28:38-39), necessitating suspension of the daily sacrifice. Its antitype would be Israel's rejection of Messiah and the subsequent destruction of the temple by God's great army under Titus, causing the sacrifice and oblation to cease, with desolations unto the consummation, for THUS SAITH THE LORD a third temple made by human hands will be blasphemy and is not the will of God (Daniel 9:27; Matthew 23:38-39; Luke 21:24; Acts 7:48; 17:24).
God's one provided place of worship is under the shed blood of the Lamb. Because Israel is blinded, the one place she knows to meet God is on the Temple mount under the blood of a natural lamb. But God caused that place to be desolate in order to prevent animal sacrifice which was done away in the sacrifice of Messiah. Since Israel rejected Messiah and is unable to sacrifice animals in what was the once appointed place, her people have "died in their sins" for the past 2,000 years (John 8:24).
The desolation of the land required the priests to mourn and summons all inhabitants to unite their hearts in mournful repentance, seeking the sure mercies of God with the removal of the plague and the restoration of fertility (I Kings 8:37-40). In the antitype a revelation of Christ's 'parousia' will cause Israel's 144,000 to mourn their true atonement leading to joy in the birth of the nation in one day (Leviticus 16; 23:27-32; Isaiah 66:8; Zechariah 12:10 – 13:9).
This visitation of the "nation" of locusts in chapter 1 is a type and foretaste of the devastating "times of the Gentiles," and "Jacob's trouble" in the Day of the Lord's wrath. Natural drought and locust plagues which produce utter desolation and destruction, foreshadow and warn of the effect of a Spiritual drought and accompanying plague of supernatural demons as instruments of divine judgment (Deuteronomy 28:38-39; Amos 8:11). It foreshadowed Israel's apostasy and the bitter fruit of refusing John the Baptist's call for the nation to repent and receive her Messiah (Matthew 22:1-14; 23:29-39).
For the present, God will deliver Israel from the plague and amply repair its evils with new blessings, so proving He is their God. For the future still greater things are promised. The Day of the Lord is surely coming but to the elect of Israel it will be a day of salvation, and a day of terror only to their foes. It will break with massive earthquakes sinking Los Angeles and dividing the Mount of Olives, followed by an outpouring of God's Spirit upon all flesh. This unction will be the latter or "harvest" rain that causes each soul to manifest the fruit of its true nature, and anoints two Hebrew prophets to minister Israel's former or "teaching" rain in the same season.
Joel 2:28 – 3:21 is set in the time of the Great Tribulation of the seventh month, Tishri, when there should be "joy and gladness" in the sanctuary at the Feast of Tabernacles or Ingathering; celebrations that would be impossible during an agricultural calamity.
These verses foreshadow the new dispensation of grace with the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost and foretell a further outpouring upon Israel after the midst of Daniel's Seventieth Week. For us Gentiles, the time for "calling upon the Name of the Lord" is during the Pentecostal feast or Gentile dispensation when grace is full and free, before the great and dreadful Day of the Lord. After the Seventh Trump sounds, deliverance will only be to 144,000 elect Israelites in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem. They have missed the Pentecostal feast but will receive their baptism with the Holy Ghost after the midst of Daniel's Seventieth Week.
Signs symbolized as cosmic disturbances are promised before the end of our dispensation in anticipation of the Day of the Lord. Only then will Israelites return to Jerusalem for deliverance (Psalm 17:7; Isaiah 6:10-13; 11:11-16; 27:13; 49:17; Jeremiah 3:12, 18; 16:15; 23:8; 31:8; Ezekiel 37:14; 39:27-29; Joel 3:1; Micah 5:3; Zechariah 10:9-12; Matthew 24:29-31; Revelation 12:14) and pagan nations will be gathered and judged for their cruelties to God's servant Israel. Once innocent blood has been vindicated and earth cleansed, (metaphorically by Ezekiel 39:11-16), the Lord will dwell in Zion.
This nation of locusts "laid God's vine waste, and barked His fig tree, leaving its trunk and branches white and bare" and all the other trees "withered." The vine and fig tree signify Israel, as the olive tree on Roman coins represented Judaea. This locust "nation" attacked Israel in four stages—as the Palmerworm (or chewing locust), the (swarming) Locust, the Cankerworm (or crawling locust), and the Caterpillar (or consuming locust)—which type the four Gentile world empires of Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. In its Roman incarnation it united with Israel for the crucifixion of Messiah, and it was in this stage, according to Romans 11:7-20, that the elect Hebrews were baptized into Christ, while the non-elect branches of the olive tree were broken off for the burning, and elect Gentiles grafted into the same tree.
In its Judaeo-Roman Universal church incarnation the locust "nation" has again united with "the blasphemy of them who say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan" (Revelation 2:9) whose love of the world and the things of the world is crucifying the Son of God afresh in service to Mammon and Talmudic hopes of global hegemony through Lucifer's totalitarian one world government.
Since the true Church is Spiritual Israel, heirs of the promises natural Israel rejected, we are being devoured by Rome yet we must bear the fruit of repentance and newness of life or we too will be pruned and cast into the Fire. Satan is shrewd, in AD325 at the First Nicaea Council he transformed Imperial Rome into Papal Rome, uniting the state with his false church, like Babylon, to build a terrestrial kingdom that could claim originality, impersonate Christianity and live off the strength and goodness of the Tree of Life as a grafted branch while bearing her own corrupt fruits.
In its incarnation as Papal Rome this insect had four stages whereby Satan gathered to himself RELIGIOUS POWER as the rider of the white horse, POLITICAL POWER as the rider of the red horse, DEMON POWER as the rider of the black horse, and will become SATAN INCARNATE in the pope on his pale horse ride to perdition (Revelation 6:1-8; 17:11, 8).
When Papal Rome has refinanced the US dollar the United States will unite with the once Protestant churches to "make an image to the beast" (Revelation 13:14-18).
In Scripture, trees symbolize people, nations, and spiritual principles. Luke 21:29-32, "Look at the fig tree [Israel], and all the [Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, Pentecostal, etc.,] trees. When they begin to show evidence of revival, you see and know of yourself that summer is now near. So you also, when you see these things happening, know that the kingdom of God is near. Truly I tell you, this generation shall not pass away, till all is fulfilled".
"The fig tree and all the trees" had their revival in Laodicea. But since they did not carry on to know the Lord and walk in the Light of the present Truth—what Jesus is doing now—and "turned their ears from truth to fables . . . having a form of godliness but denying the revelation . . . God has sent them strong delusion to believe the lie [and three woes] that they might all be damned." So as it was in the days of Joel there is a drought today, and it is worldwide. In a time of material plenty and obesity it is "not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the Words of the Lord" (Amos 8:11; Revelation 3:17-20).
Joel 1:8, "Lament like a virgin dressed in sackcloth for the husband of her youth." When a woman is betrothed, her fiancée is known as her husband, lord and possessor (Genesis 3:16; Deuteronomy 22:23-24; Matthew 1:19). Judah is regarded as a young bride mourning for the husband of her youth. Jehovah is the betrothed husband of her early days, whom Zion is called on to grieve because the visible emblems of His Presence, the grain offering and the drink offering, have been cut off since the corn, the new wine and the oil are destroyed at their source by the plague of locusts. Joy withdraws herself and becomes ashamed when the husbandmen and vinedressers look pale-faced upon their desolate land, for there is nothing they can offer to Jehovah so the temple-worship must cease. The daily sacrifice of two lambs, accompanied by the cereal offering and the libation of olive oil and wine was the symbol and expression of fellowship between the Lord and His people (Exodus 28:38-43; Numbers 28:3-8). Thus the priests mourn in the house of the Lord, as sacrifice is impossible, so that there is a practical suspension of the covenant relationship. The stopping of the sacrifice in Jerusalem by Antiochus Epiphanies in 168BC (I Maccabees 1:24-64), and again by the Roman siege of Titus in AD70 (Josephus, Jewish Wars, VI, 2:1), horrified the pious but misguided Jews.
Hence the priests, the ministers of the altar, are called to lament and offer supplications in sackcloth day and night before the Lord for the want of materials for the temple service. They in turn are to call the aged to testify to all the inhabitants of the land that no such calamity had ever before happened (Joel 1:1-2), and "consecrate a fast," as a service of prayer to the Lord in the absence of the morning and evening sacrifices.
The desolation is so thorough one may well imply the Day of the Lord is at hand considering the devastation it will bring. This visitation was an act of God calling for national repentance and return to Him whom they had forgotten. Fire and flame are common metaphors for severe drought and heat accompanying the plague (Joel 1:19) and the Day of the Lord shall come like the devastation of the locusts but the desolation will be demonic and spiritual.
Most commentaries refer to the locust plague of 1915 in Jerusalem as a vivid description of what must have happened in the time of Joel. "A loud noise was heard before the locusts were seen, produced by the flapping of myriads of locust wings and resembling the distant rumbling of waves. The sun was suddenly darkened. Showers of their excrements fell thick and fast, resembling those of mice. Their elevation about earth was at times hundreds of feet; at other times they flew quite low, detached numbers alighting. 'In Jerusalem, at least,' Mr. Whiting said, 'they inevitably came from the northeast going toward the southwest establishing the accuracy of God's account in Joel 2:20.' Tons were captured and buried alive; many were thrown into cisterns or into the Mediterranean Sea, and when washed ashore, were collected and dried and used for fuel in Turkish baths."
"Mr. Aaronsohn, another witness of the plague in 1915, testifies that in less than two months after their first appearance, not only was every green leaf devoured, but the very bark was peeled from the trees, which stood out white and lifeless, like skeletons. The fields, he says, were stripped to the ground. Even Arab babies left by their mothers in the shade of some tree, had their faces devoured before their screams were heard. The natives accepted the plague as just judgment because of their wickedness" (George L. Robinson, The Twelve Minor Prophets, New York, George H. Doran & Co., 1926, p. 34; B. P. Uvarov, Locusts & Grasshoppers, London Imperial Institute of Entomology, p. 250-261).
As in Romans 8, the beasts of the field suffer the divine punishment of man's sin, and as if sharing in their distress, the prophet intercedes in their behalf "for fire has devoured the open pastures, and the water brooks are dried up" (Joel 1:18-20).
Joel 2:1-11 describes more fully than in chapter one the misery that was coming upon the land, a harbinger of the great and dreadful Day of the Lord, a more terrible judgment than that of the locusts. He therefore exhorts to repentance, assuring the Hebrews of Jehovah's pity if they would repent, with the promise of the Holy Spirit in the last days or 2,000 years under Messiah (Acts 2:17-39), and the deliverance of all believers in Him (Joel 3:32).
The sounding of the Trumpet is an anticipation of the fuller prophecy or antitype in this chapter and the Seventh Trumpet of Revelation 11:15-19, "For the Day of the Lord is coming, it is at hand." In the parallel passage Revelation 9:1-11, we find the demonic locusts "had a king over them, the angel of the bottomless pit—in the Hebrew, Abaddon ("destroyer"), but in the Greek, Apollyon." And "on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men" (Revelation 9:7). From Revelation 17:8-11 we learn that their King is Satan who will incarnate the pope following the end of the Gentile dispensation. So these "locusts" are actually demon-oppressed men. Revelation 13:8 informs us that "all who dwell upon the earth other than the elect 144,000 Israelites shall serve the incarnate pope and thereby worship Satan vicariously." So we see clearly that the whole world will be against Israel, particularly after the pope breaks Rome's covenant with the international banksters.
Joel 2:11, calls "the Day of the Lord . . . great and very terrible," implying the ultimate reference of this prophecy is connected with Messiah's second Coming in judgment. The natural locusts which darkened the land at dawn when men looked for morning light are likened to a great and powerful people set in battle array before whom "peoples [of all nations, since the day of the Lord will be universal], will blanch."
Under the metaphor of "fire," which burns wheat stubble after the harvest, the land is pictured as a Garden of Eden before the line of the plague, and a desolate wilderness left behind it. Since the plague came from the Northeast, to a dweller in Jerusalem, the first wave would appear on the tops of the Mount of Olives as in the invasion of Titus in AD70.
The army of natural locusts is compared to a well-trained army, swarming upon the walls of Jerusalem, neither swerving nor breaking their ranks. Not jostling one another, each one takes his own way not halted by the sword or other weapons held against them. W.T. Thompson describes vain attempts to check locusts in Lebanon in 1845: "We dug trenches, and kindled fires, and beat and burned to death 'heaps upon heaps,' but the effort was utterly useless. Wave after wave rolled up the mountain-side, and poured over rocks, walls, ditches, and hedges, those behind covering up and bridging over the masses already killed" (Interpreter's Bible VI, p. 745).
The locusts ran as horses, upon the wall. They climbed up upon the houses and crawled in at the windows like a thief. Nothing could contain or resist them. "The earth shall quake before them"—in the 1915 invasion under the Fifth Trumpet when the army of locusts was at times so dense, it seemed the earth moved. The sun was darkened by their flights and the stars were obliterated from the sight of man. So will it be after Los Angeles sinks beneath the ocean, and the Mount of Olives is divided by the earthquake, marking the end of the Gentile dispensation. Demons of darkness stand between Israel and the Messages of God's prophets. Then those who are filthy will remain in that state, for God will only be dealing with the 144,000.
Joel 2:11-14 warns the Day of the Lord soon to come will be worse than the natural locust plague. These locusts represent God's army of demons, whose leader will soon be cast out of heaven. Nothing can stop their irresistible advance. Nothing breaks ranks; a descriptive image of the irresistibility of God's wrath in the Day of the Lord when He marshals all forces and methodically pursues His divine end. (In Revelation 9, these demons that persecuted Israel and the unsealed believers under the Fifth and Sixth Trumpets, moved from the political to the ecclesiastical realm through the apostasy of the world church system to destroy Christ's Bride and force the mark of the beast).
Taking the present natural plague as his type, Joel prophesied the day of the Lord from the Hebrew perspective. It heralds the time of "Jacob's trouble" in the great tribulation, the rebirth of the nation in one day and then martyrdom under Rome. Brother Branham looked upon the same prophetic Words from the viewpoint of the elect Church and saw the manifestation of the Sons of God under the latter rain. "Oh, not many in number, but what a powerful group that's got Eternal Life. Said, "They shall run through a troop and leap over a wall." Yes, the troop of death will have no holders to it. She'll run right through it, leap over the wall between natural and supernatural, and go into the arms of God, into that great eternity. Lord God, we thank You for this. We know the time is approaching at hand" (Warning then Judgment, p. 29:189; Joel 2:7-9).
He also said, "There'll be a ministry that'll show great wonders [the 'third pull'] (Joel said so), but there'll be no time for redemption. It's all over. The Lamb's done took His Book, and redeemed is over. As Jesus first preached and was rejected and then went and haunted those that were in there, preached to them that were in prison and could not repent, no time for salvation, that same ministry will have to repeat again. What if that could be the Third Pull to the eternal lost?" (Souls that are in Prison Now, p. 31:206).
". . . it's going to be used. And everyone knows that, for as certain as the first [pull] was identified, so has the second [pull] been identified; and if you'll think real closely, you who are spiritual (as the Bible said, "Here's to him who has wisdom"), the third is properly identified. See? We know where it is. So the third pull is here."
"It is so sacred that I mustn't not say much about it, as He told me in the beginning. Said, "This, say nothing of it." You remember that years ago? It speaks for itself. See? I've tried to explain the others, and I made a mistake. This will be the thing that, to my opinion (I don't say the Lord tells me this)—this will be the thing that will start the rapturing faith for the going away. See, see? Now . . . I must lay quiet for just a little while. Now, remember (and who's listening to this tape) you might see such a change in my ministry right away, dropping back. . . Not going up, dropping back. . . We're right at the age now, and it can't go any further. We have to wait here just a minute until this happens over here to catch up, then the time comes. But it's thoroughly identified."
"There's coming a time in this nation, to where this nation is going to exercise all the power that the beast had before (which was pagan Rome, when it become papal Rome. See?). That this nation will do that. Revelations 13 plainly explains it. The lamb came up out of the earth. The other beast came up out of water, thickness and multitudes of people. This lamb came up where there were no people. A lamb represents religion—the Lamb of God. And remember, it spoke like a lamb; it was a lamb, and then after while it received power and spoke like a dragon and exercised all the power the dragon had before him; and the dragon is Rome always. So don't you see, Roman denomination, a marked [Revelation 13:15-18] Protestant denomination, an image unto the beast, making a power that'll force all Protestants like a union? You'll have to be into this Council of Churches, or you won't be able to have fellowship, well, it's practically that way now. You can't go to a church and preach, 'less you have a fellowship card or some identification."
"And now, on persons like ourselves, we're going to be cut out of all that altogether. That's exactly, because they won't be able to do it. It's tightening; and then when that time comes, and the press comes to a place to where you're pressed out, then watch (what I am fixing to tell you in a few minutes) watch the third pull then. It'll be absolutely to the total lost, but it will be for the Bride and the church" (Look Away to Jesus, p. 6:4 – 7:4).
Brother Branham was trying to show the end-time Bride she must come under pre-eminence to the revealed Word before she can do "the greater works . . . for the servant is not greater than his lord; neither is he who is sent greater than He that sent him . . . If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept My saying, they will keep yours also." Jesus spoke only what He heard by inspiration from the Father, and did only what the Father showed Him by vision (John 5:19-20; 14:10, 31).
We are to have the Token or evidence of the Life of Christ on display. Our lives are to become written epistles of the present Truth. That is why revelation was given. This end-time Message is not some form of do-it-yourself new Christianity but the restoration of the apostolic faith wherein God set a five-fold ministry to bring the saints to maturity, edify and keep them clean. We are required to attend Church, support it by our free-will offerings, edify the Brethren, and provide for the pastor through our tithes.
"Now remember this. Christ in the True Church is a continuation of the Book of Acts. But the Book of Revelation shows how that antichrist spirit would come into the church and defile it, making it lukewarm, formal and powerless. It exposes Satan, revealing his works (attempted destruction of God's people and the discrediting of God's Word) right down to the time he is cast into the lake of fire. He fights that. He cannot stand it. He knows that if the people get the TRUE REVELATION of the TRUE CHURCH and what she is, what she stands for and that SHE CAN DO THE GREATER WORKS, she will be an invincible army. If they get a true revelation of the two spirits within the framework of the Christian church, and by God's Spirit discern and withstand the antichrist spirit, Satan will be powerless before her. He will be as definitely thwarted today as when Christ withstood his every effort to gain power over Him in the desert. Yes, Satan hates revelation. But we love it. With true revelation in our lives, the gates of hell cannot prevail against us, but we will prevail over them" (An Exposition of the Seven Church Ages, p. 15:3).
This is the invincible army Brother Branham saw in Joel 2:1-11 from the Gentile perspective. It is Christ's Word Bride in the "squeeze" following the Seventh Trump, manifesting the Sons of God by the "third pull." She will be a Word Bride, not a do-it-yourself Bride. She will have THUS SAITH THE LORD, or remain silent and do nothing. Each of her members will come by God's provided way without compromise. There will be no Sisters with cut-hair, no social drinking Brothers, or Sisters who wear clothes that pertain to a man.
Joel 2:7-9; "They shall run like mighty men; they shall climb the wall like men of war; every one marches in formation, and they do not break ranks: neither do they push one another; everyone marches in his own column: and when they lunge between the weapons, they are not wounded. They run to and fro in the city; they run on the wall, they climb into the houses; they enter at the windows like a thief".
This army will march "Word upon Word, line upon line, and precept upon precept" (Isaiah 28:10; Matthew 4:4). Whilst the denominations trust in intellectual reasoning and guesswork, we rest in the Absolute, being one with the Word as Jesus prayed (John 17:20-26).
When God gave Brother Branham a preview of the Bride they were "the cleanest, sweetest-looking people I ever saw in my life. And the Voice said: That was the Bride, now we'll review the churches . . . And when they came up, each one . . . got worse. I never seen such a filthy bunch in my life. And it said, Next, here comes the American group."
"When the women were coming, the leader of them was a witch. She had a great long nose and a great big mouth. And all of them were dressed with some kind of lower clothes down here, but the top just had a strap . . . And each one had hair cut up real short and frizzy-looking things all over it like that, real short cut hair, and full of makeup: absolutely nothing but looked like street prostitutes. And they were walking with this paper. And the vulgarity . . . Now, the paper was what was held in front of them; but when they passed the review stand, in the back of them. . . And to see the way they were going on in their foremost and their back part, and how they were acting. . . I thought, Is that the church?"
"And there she went. And they were singing this here twist-and-roll songs, you know, ever what you call, going down, singing like, going behind. . . I said, Is that the church? And I was standing there. And in my heart I was crying. And this witch. . . To my notion it's nothing else in the world, but she's that World Council of Churches leading them right straight down the road where she was going. They went off to the left and disappeared in chaos, still beating this music and making real funny sounds, and shaking their bodies one side and then the other side, and then like that, carrying on like that, walking."
"And I just started to bow my head, and he said, Wait, the Bride must come again. And I looked, and here they came again. And they passed by, sweet-looking little ladies. They were all looking right at me as they passed by. And I noticed each one was dressed different. And one in the back had kinda long hair hanging down and had it rolled around like this, might been German or something like that. And I watched them. And then, as they started leaving, two or three of them in the back . . . ? . . . got out of step. And I was going to holler at them, and they was trying to get back in step again. And I seen the vision just fade out and change from me. . ."
"Did you notice the Bride came in view twice? The first Seed and the second Seed, both of them exactly the same one. And the reason they were dressed in different parts, she'll come from all nations; it'll make up the Bride. Each one had long hair and no makeup, and real pretty girls. And they were watching me. That represented the Bride coming out of all nations. See? She. . . Each one represented a nation, as they marched perfectly in line with the Word. See"? (The Masterpiece, p. 33:189-194).
At the time of Christ's parousia to Israel, she will catch the vision of "the armies which were in heaven follow Christ upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean" (Revelation 19:14). As the earth trembles before the natural locusts, John who represents Christ's end-time Bride, "saw, and when Christ had opened the Sixth Seal, there was a great earthquake; (Los Angeles) and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; and the stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree casts her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind" (Revelation 6:12-13).
Joel 2:11, "And the Lord will lead His mighty army [with a shout and the Voice of the Archangel (I Thessalonians 4:16; Revelation 10:3-4)]: for His camp is very great; for strong is the One who executes His Word: for the day of the Lord is great and very terrible; and who can endure it?"
Though the anger of the Lord is so clearly revealed that men may see His day coming, "Yet even now," He says, in the time of His 'parousia' to us Gentiles, turn with all of your heart, not with just a public show, and "come out of her, My people, that you do not partake of her sins and receive of her plagues" (Revelation 18:4).
The Seventh Trumpet calls Israel to assemble for repentance. The whole nation is gathered, from aged men to children and babies. Not even newlyweds are exempt (Deuteronomy 24:5). The northern army that is repelled will be the Russian Federation and Muslim nations named in Ezekiel 38 – 39 whom the Lord will overcome with earthquake and pestilence and blood, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone. And travellers east of the Dead Sea will be repulsed by the stench of their rotting flesh (like dead locusts Joel 2:20; Isaiah 34:3; Ezekiel 39:11).
Ezekiel 39:21, 29, "And I will demonstrate My glory among the nations, and all shall see the punishment of Gog and know that I have done it. . . And I will never hide My face from Israel again, for I will pour out My Spirit upon them, says the Lord".
Joel 2:21-27 speaks of the restoration of the land following Israel's repentance. We will study what Brother Branham said concerning Joel 2:23-27 from the Gentile perspective. He explains, "My great army that I sent among you," was Imperial and Papal Rome as revealed by the first four Seals. "See how that Judas spirit came back as a rider on a white horse. It was white. So close to the real, just as Judas was so close to Jesus. A crown was given to him (white horse rider). How? That spirit was now in the leader of the Nicolaitane system and he was a triple crowned pope who sat as God in his temple, calling himself the Vicar of Christ. If vicar of Christ means 'instead of Christ' or 'in place of' or 'on behalf of God' then the pope was calling himself the Holy Ghost, or deposing the Holy Ghost, acting for Him. That was the Judas spirit in him doing that . . . going forth conquering and to conquer. Christ did not do that. The only ones that came to Him were already predestinated by the Father. And so on and on went that spirit and one day it will become truly incarnate in a man who will head up the World Council of Churches, just as we have been saying. And by his gold (remember Judas held the bag) he will control the whole world, and that antichrist system will own everything and try to control everybody. But Jesus will come back and destroy them all with the brightness of His Coming. And their end will be the lake of fire."
"But what about the true seed? It will happen just as we have said. The people of God are being made ready by the Word of Truth from the messenger to this Age. In her will be the fullness of Pentecost for the Spirit will bring the people right back to where they were at the beginning. That is "Thus saith the Lord."
"It is "Thus saith the Lord" for that is what Joel 2:23-26 says, "Be glad then, you children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God: for He has given you the former rain moderately, and He will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain and the latter rain in the first month. And the floors shall be full of wheat, and the vats shall overflow with wine and oil. And I will restore to you the years that the locust has eaten, the cankerworm, the caterpillar, and the palmerworm, My great army which I sent among you. And you shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the Name of the Lord your God who has dealt wondrously with you: and My people shall never be ashamed".
"Now it says God is going to "restore." The Lutheran Age did not restore the church; it started a reformation. The Wesleyan Age did not restore. The Pentecostal Age did not restore. But God has to restore for He cannot deny His Word. This is not the resurrection of the Church; it is the "restoration." God will take the Church right back to Pentecost of the beginning. Now notice in verse 25 it tells why we need restoration. The locust, cankerworm, caterpillar and palmerworm have eaten all but the root and a small bit of the stem. Now we are told that all these insects are all one and the same in different stages. That is right. They are the antichrist spirit manifested in organization, denomination and false doctrine through the ages. And that poor little root and stalk is going to be restored. God isn't going to plant a new Church, but is going to bring His original planting back to original seed. He is doing it as stated in verse 23, by the teaching, or "former" rain. Next will come the harvest rain or rapturing faith."
"Thus at this very moment we are in the complete fulfilment of Matthew 24:24 "insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect." And who is it that shall attempt to deceive the very elect? Why, the spirit of antichrist in the "false anointed ones" of this last day. These false ones have already come in "Jesus' Name" claiming that they have been anointed of God for the last day. They are the false Messiahs (anointed ones). They claim that they are prophets. But are they one with the Word? Never. They have added to it or taken from it. No one denies that the Spirit of God manifesting in gifts is upon them. But like Balaam they all have their programs, make their appeal for money, exercise gifts, but deny the Word or by-pass it for fear that a controversy might diminish their chances for greater gain. Yet they preach salvation and deliverance through the power of God, just like Judas, with a ministry imparted by Christ. But because they are wrong seed, consequently they have a wrong spirit motivating them" (ibid, p. 378:1 – 380:1).
The teaching rain of Brother Branham's Message has sown the Seed of "that which is perfect," the fullness of the Word. Joel 2:28, "And it shall come to pass afterward that God will pour our His Spirit upon all flesh" in a latter or harvest rain when every seed that has been sown shall come to maturity and bear its fruit. The mind is the womb of the spirit and as the soul bears the nature of the spirit that is on it, Baptists will manifest the fruit of Baptist teaching, and Buddhists, Pentecostals, Communists, Judaists, Nihilists, Pentecostals, etc., will each bear the life of the spirit they have received (Matthew 5:45; 13:30, 37-43; Hebrews 6:7-8). But Christ's end-time Bride will manifest by the "third pull" that they are the Sons of God and one with His Word.
From the Hebrew perspective Joel 2:28-32 speaks of the restoration of the Spiritual kingdom to Israel in the millennium (Acts 1:6) by the regeneration of 144,000 elect Israelites. Their former rain will be the teaching ministry of two prophets anointed by the Spirit that endued Moses and Elijah of old. Three and a half years after the Bride has been translated and their prophets have been martyred, Israel will receive its latter rain.
Joel 2:30-31. "I will show wonders in the heavens and on Earth, blood, and fire, and columns of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord" (Isaiah 13:10; Matthew 24:29; Mark 13:22-25; Revelation 6:12-14).
When the Gentile dispensation and grace ends at the opening of the Sixth Seal, heaven will close like a scroll rolling shut. All seeds will have been sown and each will bring forth of its kind in the time of the latter rain. Revelation 22:10-12, "And the angel [William Branham] said to me . . . (insert your name here for throughout the Book of Revelation John represents Christ's end-time Bride) . . . Do not seal the Words of the prophecy of this Book [the revelation of the Seven Seals which is the Message of the seventh angel], for the time of their fulfilment is near. [From the sounding of the Seventh Trumpet at the close of the Gentile dispensation] He who is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he who is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he who is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he who is holy, let him be holy still. Behold I will come suddenly; and My reward is with Me, to render to each according to his doings".
Once grace is over there will never be another Gentile born-again. Only 144,000 elect Israelites written in the Lamb's Book of Life will enter the Kingdom when it opens to them shortly before their martyrdom (Revelation 11:19; 14; 15).
Brother Branham said, "Now where will the Gentile Church be while Jesus is making Himself known to His brethren? Remember that the bride of Joseph with the two children were in the palace, for Joseph had commanded, "Let everyone leave me; put them all out from before me." So the Gentile bride was hidden in the palace of Joseph. Where will the Gentile Church go in the rapture? Into the palace. The Bride will be taken off the earth. She will be caught up before the great tribulation to meet her Lord in the air. For three and one-half years while the retributive wrath of God is poured out, she will be in the great Marriage Supper of the Lamb. Then will He return, leaving His Bride in "His Father's house," while He makes Himself known to His brethren."
"At this very time, the antichrist covenant that the Jews have made with Rome will be broken. Rome and her allies then send their troops to destroy all the God-fearing, Word-abiding Jews. But as they come against the city to destroy it, there will appear in the heavens the sign of the Coming of the Son of Man with His mighty armies to destroy them who have been destroying the earth (Matthew 24:30 – Ed). With the enemy repulsed, Jesus then comes and presents Himself to the 144,000. Having seen His mighty acts of salvation, they have come to know His power. But also seeing His wounds and knowing that they had rejected Him even to that moment, causes them to cry out in the agony of terror and fear, even as did their brethren of old when they stood before Joseph, being sore afraid that they would be killed. But as Joseph said, "Don't be angry with yourselves. It is all right. God was in it all. He did it to preserve life." Even so will Jesus speak peace and love to them" (Ibid, p. 40:2 – 41:1; Genesis 45:1-8).
Only the Hebrew remnant in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, not New York, London or Budapest, "who call upon the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ" by revelation after the midst of Daniel's Seventieth Week will be baptized with the Holy Ghost and, although martyred, delivered from the final judgment (Joel 2:32; Matthew 27:25; Revelation 6:11; 14:12; 15:2-4). First will be the manifestation of the Sons of God and the resurrection of the Bride of all Ages.
Brother Branham said, "I believe that the Church of the Living God is moving into a sphere now that's going to shake the whole world . . . Oh, it's going to come to pass pretty soon. I'm looking for it to happen in this meeting. I'm wanting it to happen now. That the anointing will strike the whole Church of the living God and she'll rise to her feet like a mighty marching army! The sick will be healed by a word. The blind will see, the deaf will hear, the dead will be raised up and the power of God will shake the world with the Church of the living God. We're in the PROCESS of it now" (Speak to this Mountain, #59-1123). nl933.htm
Joel 1:1 – 2:27 is not a prophecy but his experience of an unprecedented plague of locusts and drought which the Lord inspires him to employ as a type of chastisements to come upon Judah from the Captivity to the great and dreadful day of the Lord. The plague is a divine judgment that has desolated the land (Deuteronomy 28:38-39), necessitating suspension of the daily sacrifice. Its antitype would be Israel's rejection of Messiah and the subsequent destruction of the temple by God's great army under Titus, causing the sacrifice and oblation to cease, with desolations unto the consummation, for THUS SAITH THE LORD a third temple made by human hands will be blasphemy and is not the will of God (Daniel 9:27; Matthew 23:38-39; Luke 21:24; Acts 7:48; 17:24).
God's one provided place of worship is under the shed blood of the Lamb. Because Israel is blinded, the one place she knows to meet God is on the Temple mount under the blood of a natural lamb. But God caused that place to be desolate in order to prevent animal sacrifice which was done away in the sacrifice of Messiah. Since Israel rejected Messiah and is unable to sacrifice animals in what was the once appointed place, her people have "died in their sins" for the past 2,000 years (John 8:24).
The desolation of the land required the priests to mourn and summons all inhabitants to unite their hearts in mournful repentance, seeking the sure mercies of God with the removal of the plague and the restoration of fertility (I Kings 8:37-40). In the antitype a revelation of Christ's 'parousia' will cause Israel's 144,000 to mourn their true atonement leading to joy in the birth of the nation in one day (Leviticus 16; 23:27-32; Isaiah 66:8; Zechariah 12:10 – 13:9).
This visitation of the "nation" of locusts in chapter 1 is a type and foretaste of the devastating "times of the Gentiles," and "Jacob's trouble" in the Day of the Lord's wrath. Natural drought and locust plagues which produce utter desolation and destruction, foreshadow and warn of the effect of a Spiritual drought and accompanying plague of supernatural demons as instruments of divine judgment (Deuteronomy 28:38-39; Amos 8:11). It foreshadowed Israel's apostasy and the bitter fruit of refusing John the Baptist's call for the nation to repent and receive her Messiah (Matthew 22:1-14; 23:29-39).
For the present, God will deliver Israel from the plague and amply repair its evils with new blessings, so proving He is their God. For the future still greater things are promised. The Day of the Lord is surely coming but to the elect of Israel it will be a day of salvation, and a day of terror only to their foes. It will break with massive earthquakes sinking Los Angeles and dividing the Mount of Olives, followed by an outpouring of God's Spirit upon all flesh. This unction will be the latter or "harvest" rain that causes each soul to manifest the fruit of its true nature, and anoints two Hebrew prophets to minister Israel's former or "teaching" rain in the same season.
Joel 2:28 – 3:21 is set in the time of the Great Tribulation of the seventh month, Tishri, when there should be "joy and gladness" in the sanctuary at the Feast of Tabernacles or Ingathering; celebrations that would be impossible during an agricultural calamity.
These verses foreshadow the new dispensation of grace with the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost and foretell a further outpouring upon Israel after the midst of Daniel's Seventieth Week. For us Gentiles, the time for "calling upon the Name of the Lord" is during the Pentecostal feast or Gentile dispensation when grace is full and free, before the great and dreadful Day of the Lord. After the Seventh Trump sounds, deliverance will only be to 144,000 elect Israelites in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem. They have missed the Pentecostal feast but will receive their baptism with the Holy Ghost after the midst of Daniel's Seventieth Week.
Signs symbolized as cosmic disturbances are promised before the end of our dispensation in anticipation of the Day of the Lord. Only then will Israelites return to Jerusalem for deliverance (Psalm 17:7; Isaiah 6:10-13; 11:11-16; 27:13; 49:17; Jeremiah 3:12, 18; 16:15; 23:8; 31:8; Ezekiel 37:14; 39:27-29; Joel 3:1; Micah 5:3; Zechariah 10:9-12; Matthew 24:29-31; Revelation 12:14) and pagan nations will be gathered and judged for their cruelties to God's servant Israel. Once innocent blood has been vindicated and earth cleansed, (metaphorically by Ezekiel 39:11-16), the Lord will dwell in Zion.
This nation of locusts "laid God's vine waste, and barked His fig tree, leaving its trunk and branches white and bare" and all the other trees "withered." The vine and fig tree signify Israel, as the olive tree on Roman coins represented Judaea. This locust "nation" attacked Israel in four stages—as the Palmerworm (or chewing locust), the (swarming) Locust, the Cankerworm (or crawling locust), and the Caterpillar (or consuming locust)—which type the four Gentile world empires of Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. In its Roman incarnation it united with Israel for the crucifixion of Messiah, and it was in this stage, according to Romans 11:7-20, that the elect Hebrews were baptized into Christ, while the non-elect branches of the olive tree were broken off for the burning, and elect Gentiles grafted into the same tree.
In its Judaeo-Roman Universal church incarnation the locust "nation" has again united with "the blasphemy of them who say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan" (Revelation 2:9) whose love of the world and the things of the world is crucifying the Son of God afresh in service to Mammon and Talmudic hopes of global hegemony through Lucifer's totalitarian one world government. Since the true Church is Spiritual Israel, heirs of the promises natural Israel rejected, we are being devoured by Rome yet we must bear the fruit of repentance and newness of life or we too will be pruned and cast into the Fire. Satan is shrewd, in AD325 at the First Nicaea Council he transformed Imperial Rome into Papal Rome, uniting the state with his false church, like Babylon, to build a terrestrial kingdom that could claim originality, impersonate Christianity and live off the strength and goodness of the Tree of Life as a grafted branch while bearing her own corrupt fruits.
In its incarnation as Papal Rome this insect had four stages whereby Satan gathered to himself RELIGIOUS POWER as the rider of the white horse, POLITICAL POWER as the rider of the red horse, DEMON POWER as the rider of the black horse, and will become SATAN INCARNATE in the pope on his pale horse ride to perdition (Revelation 6:1-8; 17:11, 8).
When Papal Rome has refinanced the US dollar the United States will unite with the once Protestant churches to "make an image to the beast" (Revelation 13:14-18).
In Scripture, trees symbolize people, nations, and spiritual principles. Luke 21:29-32, "Look at the fig tree [Israel], and all the [Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, Pentecostal, etc.,] trees. When they begin to show evidence of revival, you see and know of yourself that summer is now near. So you also, when you see these things happening, know that the kingdom of God is near. Truly I tell you, this generation shall not pass away, till all is fulfilled".
"The fig tree and all the trees" had their revival in Laodicea. But since they did not carry on to know the Lord and walk in the Light of the present Truth—what Jesus is doing now—and "turned their ears from truth to fables . . . having a form of godliness but denying the revelation . . . God has sent them strong delusion to believe the lie [and three woes] that they might all be damned." So as it was in the days of Joel there is a drought today, and it is worldwide. In a time of material plenty and obesity it is "not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the Words of the Lord" (Amos 8:11; Revelation 3:17-20).
Joel 1:8, "Lament like a virgin dressed in sackcloth for the husband of her youth." When a woman is betrothed, her fiancée is known as her husband, lord and possessor (Genesis 3:16; Deuteronomy 22:23-24; Matthew 1:19). Judah is regarded as a young bride mourning for the husband of her youth. Jehovah is the betrothed husband of her early days, whom Zion is called on to grieve because the visible emblems of His Presence, the grain offering and the drink offering, have been cut off since the corn, the new wine and the oil are destroyed at their source by the plague of locusts. Joy withdraws herself and becomes ashamed when the husbandmen and vinedressers look pale-faced upon their desolate land, for there is nothing they can offer to Jehovah so the temple-worship must cease. The daily sacrifice of two lambs, accompanied by the cereal offering and the libation of olive oil and wine was the symbol and expression of fellowship between the Lord and His people (Exodus 28:38-43; Numbers 28:3-8). Thus the priests mourn in the house of the Lord, as sacrifice is impossible, so that there is a practical suspension of the covenant relationship. The stopping of the sacrifice in Jerusalem by Antiochus Epiphanies in 168BC (I Maccabees 1:24-64), and again by the Roman siege of Titus in AD70 (Josephus, Jewish Wars, VI, 2:1), horrified the pious but misguided Jews.
Hence the priests, the ministers of the altar, are called to lament and offer supplications in sackcloth day and night before the Lord for the want of materials for the temple service. They in turn are to call the aged to testify to all the inhabitants of the land that no such calamity had ever before happened (Joel 1:1-2), and "consecrate a fast," as a service of prayer to the Lord in the absence of the morning and evening sacrifices.
The desolation is so thorough one may well imply the Day of the Lord is at hand considering the devastation it will bring. This visitation was an act of God calling for national repentance and return to Him whom they had forgotten. Fire and flame are common metaphors for severe drought and heat accompanying the plague (Joel 1:19) and the Day of the Lord shall come like the devastation of the locusts but the desolation will be demonic and spiritual.
Most commentaries refer to the locust plague of 1915 in Jerusalem as a vivid description of what must have happened in the time of Joel. "A loud noise was heard before the locusts were seen, produced by the flapping of myriads of locust wings and resembling the distant rumbling of waves. The sun was suddenly darkened. Showers of their excrements fell thick and fast, resembling those of mice. Their elevation about earth was at times hundreds of feet; at other times they flew quite low, detached numbers alighting. 'In Jerusalem, at least,' Mr. Whiting said, 'they inevitably came from the northeast going toward the southwest establishing the accuracy of God's account in Joel 2:20.' Tons were captured and buried alive; many were thrown into cisterns or into the Mediterranean Sea, and when washed ashore, were collected and dried and used for fuel in Turkish baths."
"Mr. Aaronsohn, another witness of the plague in 1915, testifies that in less than two months after their first appearance, not only was every green leaf devoured, but the very bark was peeled from the trees, which stood out white and lifeless, like skeletons. The fields, he says, were stripped to the ground. Even Arab babies left by their mothers in the shade of some tree, had their faces devoured before their screams were heard. The natives accepted the plague as just judgment because of their wickedness" (George L. Robinson, The Twelve Minor Prophets, New York, George H. Doran & Co., 1926, p. 34; B. P. Uvarov, Locusts & Grasshoppers, London Imperial Institute of Entomology, p. 250-261).
As in Romans 8, the beasts of the field suffer the divine punishment of man's sin, and as if sharing in their distress, the prophet intercedes in their behalf "for fire has devoured the open pastures, and the water brooks are dried up" (Joel 1:18-20).
Joel 2:1-11 describes more fully than in chapter one the misery that was coming upon the land, a harbinger of the great and dreadful Day of the Lord, a more terrible judgment than that of the locusts. He therefore exhorts to repentance, assuring the Hebrews of Jehovah's pity if they would repent, with the promise of the Holy Spirit in the last days or 2,000 years under Messiah (Acts 2:17-39), and the deliverance of all believers in Him (Joel 3:32).
The sounding of the Trumpet is an anticipation of the fuller prophecy or antitype in this chapter and the Seventh Trumpet of Revelation 11:15-19, "For the Day of the Lord is coming, it is at hand." In the parallel passage Revelation 9:1-11, we find the demonic locusts "had a king over them, the angel of the bottomless pit—in the Hebrew, Abaddon ("destroyer"), but in the Greek, Apollyon." And "on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men" (Revelation 9:7). From Revelation 17:8-11 we learn that their King is Satan who will incarnate the pope following the end of the Gentile dispensation. So these "locusts" are actually demon-oppressed men. Revelation 13:8 informs us that "all who dwell upon the earth other than the elect 144,000 Israelites shall serve the incarnate pope and thereby worship Satan vicariously." So we see clearly that the whole world will be against Israel, particularly after the pope breaks Rome's covenant with the international banksters.
Joel 2:11, calls "the Day of the Lord . . . great and very terrible," implying the ultimate reference of this prophecy is connected with Messiah's second Coming in judgment. The natural locusts which darkened the land at dawn when men looked for morning light are likened to a great and powerful people set in battle array before whom "peoples [of all nations, since the day of the Lord will be universal], will blanch."
Under the metaphor of "fire," which burns wheat stubble after the harvest, the land is pictured as a Garden of Eden before the line of the plague, and a desolate wilderness left behind it. Since the plague came from the Northeast, to a dweller in Jerusalem, the first wave would appear on the tops of the Mount of Olives as in the invasion of Titus in AD70.
The army of natural locusts is compared to a well-trained army, swarming upon the walls of Jerusalem, neither swerving nor breaking their ranks. Not jostling one another, each one takes his own way not halted by the sword or other weapons held against them. W.T. Thompson describes vain attempts to check locusts in Lebanon in 1845: "We dug trenches, and kindled fires, and beat and burned to death 'heaps upon heaps,' but the effort was utterly useless. Wave after wave rolled up the mountain-side, and poured over rocks, walls, ditches, and hedges, those behind covering up and bridging over the masses already killed" (Interpreter's Bible VI, p. 745).
The locusts ran as horses, upon the wall. They climbed up upon the houses and crawled in at the windows like a thief. Nothing could contain or resist them. "The earth shall quake before them"—in the 1915 invasion under the Fifth Trumpet when the army of locusts was at times so dense, it seemed the earth moved. The sun was darkened by their flights and the stars were obliterated from the sight of man. So will it be after Los Angeles sinks beneath the ocean, and the Mount of Olives is divided by the earthquake, marking the end of the Gentile dispensation. Demons of darkness stand between Israel and the Messages of God's prophets. Then those who are filthy will remain in that state, for God will only be dealing with the 144,000.
Joel 2:11-14 warns the Day of the Lord soon to come will be worse than the natural locust plague. These locusts represent God's army of demons, whose leader will soon be cast out of heaven. Nothing can stop their irresistible advance. Nothing breaks ranks; a descriptive image of the irresistibility of God's wrath in the Day of the Lord when He marshals all forces and methodically pursues His divine end. (In Revelation 9, these demons that persecuted Israel and the unsealed believers under the Fifth and Sixth Trumpets, moved from the political to the ecclesiastical realm through the apostasy of the world church system to destroy Christ's Bride and force the mark of the beast).
Taking the present natural plague as his type, Joel prophesied the day of the Lord from the Hebrew perspective. It heralds the time of "Jacob's trouble" in the great tribulation, the rebirth of the nation in one day and then martyrdom under Rome. Brother Branham looked upon the same prophetic Words from the viewpoint of the elect Church and saw the manifestation of the Sons of God under the latter rain. "Oh, not many in number, but what a powerful group that's got Eternal Life. Said, "They shall run through a troop and leap over a wall." Yes, the troop of death will have no holders to it. She'll run right through it, leap over the wall between natural and supernatural, and go into the arms of God, into that great eternity. Lord God, we thank You for this. We know the time is approaching at hand" (Warning then Judgment, p. 29:189; Joel 2:7-9).
He also said, "There'll be a ministry that'll show great wonders [the 'third pull'] (Joel said so), but there'll be no time for redemption. It's all over. The Lamb's done took His Book, and redeemed is over. As Jesus first preached and was rejected and then went and haunted those that were in there, preached to them that were in prison and could not repent, no time for salvation, that same ministry will have to repeat again. What if that could be the Third Pull to the eternal lost?" (Souls that are in Prison Now, p. 31:206).
". . . it's going to be used. And everyone knows that, for as certain as the first [pull] was identified, so has the second [pull] been identified; and if you'll think real closely, you who are spiritual (as the Bible said, "Here's to him who has wisdom"), the third is properly identified. See? We know where it is. So the third pull is here."
"It is so sacred that I mustn't not say much about it, as He told me in the beginning. Said, "This, say nothing of it." You remember that years ago? It speaks for itself. See? I've tried to explain the others, and I made a mistake. This will be the thing that, to my opinion (I don't say the Lord tells me this)—this will be the thing that will start the rapturing faith for the going away. See, see? Now . . . I must lay quiet for just a little while. Now, remember (and who's listening to this tape) you might see such a change in my ministry right away, dropping back. . . Not going up, dropping back. . . We're right at the age now, and it can't go any further. We have to wait here just a minute until this happens over here to catch up, then the time comes. But it's thoroughly identified."
"There's coming a time in this nation, to where this nation is going to exercise all the power that the beast had before (which was pagan Rome, when it become papal Rome. See?). That this nation will do that. Revelations 13 plainly explains it. The lamb came up out of the earth. The other beast came up out of water, thickness and multitudes of people. This lamb came up where there were no people. A lamb represents religion—the Lamb of God. And remember, it spoke like a lamb; it was a lamb, and then after while it received power and spoke like a dragon and exercised all the power the dragon had before him; and the dragon is Rome always. So don't you see, Roman denomination, a marked [Revelation 13:15-18] Protestant denomination, an image unto the beast, making a power that'll force all Protestants like a union? You'll have to be into this Council of Churches, or you won't be able to have fellowship, well, it's practically that way now. You can't go to a church and preach, 'less you have a fellowship card or some identification."
"And now, on persons like ourselves, we're going to be cut out of all that altogether. That's exactly, because they won't be able to do it. It's tightening; and then when that time comes, and the press comes to a place to where you're pressed out, then watch (what I am fixing to tell you in a few minutes) watch the third pull then. It'll be absolutely to the total lost, but it will be for the Bride and the church" (Look Away to Jesus, p. 6:4 – 7:4).
Brother Branham was trying to show the end-time Bride she must come under pre-eminence to the revealed Word before she can do "the greater works . . . for the servant is not greater than his lord; neither is he who is sent greater than He that sent him . . . If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept My saying, they will keep yours also." Jesus spoke only what He heard by inspiration from the Father, and did only what the Father showed Him by vision (John 5:19-20; 14:10, 31).
We are to have the Token or evidence of the Life of Christ on display. Our lives are to become written epistles of the present Truth. That is why revelation was given. This end-time Message is not some form of do-it-yourself new Christianity but the restoration of the apostolic faith wherein God set a five-fold ministry to bring the saints to maturity, edify and keep them clean. We are required to attend Church, support it by our free-will offerings, edify the Brethren, and provide for the pastor through our tithes.
"Now remember this. Christ in the True Church is a continuation of the Book of Acts. But the Book of Revelation shows how that antichrist spirit would come into the church and defile it, making it lukewarm, formal and powerless. It exposes Satan, revealing his works (attempted destruction of God's people and the discrediting of God's Word) right down to the time he is cast into the lake of fire. He fights that. He cannot stand it. He knows that if the people get the TRUE REVELATION of the TRUE CHURCH and what she is, what she stands for and that SHE CAN DO THE GREATER WORKS, she will be an invincible army. If they get a true revelation of the two spirits within the framework of the Christian church, and by God's Spirit discern and withstand the antichrist spirit, Satan will be powerless before her. He will be as definitely thwarted today as when Christ withstood his every effort to gain power over Him in the desert. Yes, Satan hates revelation. But we love it. With true revelation in our lives, the gates of hell cannot prevail against us, but we will prevail over them" (An Exposition of the Seven Church Ages, p. 15:3).
This is the invincible army Brother Branham saw in Joel 2:1-11 from the Gentile perspective. It is Christ's Word Bride in the "squeeze" following the Seventh Trump, manifesting the Sons of God by the "third pull." She will be a Word Bride, not a do-it-yourself Bride. She will have THUS SAITH THE LORD, or remain silent and do nothing. Each of her members will come by God's provided way without compromise. There will be no Sisters with cut-hair, no social drinking Brothers, or Sisters who wear clothes that pertain to a man.
Joel 2:7-9; "They shall run like mighty men; they shall climb the wall like men of war; every one marches in formation, and they do not break ranks: neither do they push one another; everyone marches in his own column: and when they lunge between the weapons, they are not wounded. They run to and fro in the city; they run on the wall, they climb into the houses; they enter at the windows like a thief".
This army will march "Word upon Word, line upon line, and precept upon precept" (Isaiah 28:10; Matthew 4:4). Whilst the denominations trust in intellectual reasoning and guesswork, we rest in the Absolute, being one with the Word as Jesus prayed (John 17:20-26).
When God gave Brother Branham a preview of the Bride they were "the cleanest, sweetest-looking people I ever saw in my life. And the Voice said: That was the Bride, now we'll review the churches . . . And when they came up, each one . . . got worse. I never seen such a filthy bunch in my life. And it said, Next, here comes the American group."
"When the women were coming, the leader of them was a witch. She had a great long nose and a great big mouth. And all of them were dressed with some kind of lower clothes down here, but the top just had a strap . . . And each one had hair cut up real short and frizzy-looking things all over it like that, real short cut hair, and full of makeup: absolutely nothing but looked like street prostitutes. And they were walking with this paper. And the vulgarity . . . Now, the paper was what was held in front of them; but when they passed the review stand, in the back of them. . . And to see the way they were going on in their foremost and their back part, and how they were acting. . . I thought, Is that the church?"
"And there she went. And they were singing this here twist-and-roll songs, you know, ever what you call, going down, singing like, going behind. . . I said, Is that the church? And I was standing there. And in my heart I was crying. And this witch. . . To my notion it's nothing else in the world, but she's that World Council of Churches leading them right straight down the road where she was going. They went off to the left and disappeared in chaos, still beating this music and making real funny sounds, and shaking their bodies one side and then the other side, and then like that, carrying on like that, walking."
"And I just started to bow my head, and he said, Wait, the Bride must come again. And I looked, and here they came again. And they passed by, sweet-looking little ladies. They were all looking right at me as they passed by. And I noticed each one was dressed different. And one in the back had kinda long hair hanging down and had it rolled around like this, might been German or something like that. And I watched them. And then, as they started leaving, two or three of them in the back . . . ? . . . got out of step. And I was going to holler at them, and they was trying to get back in step again. And I seen the vision just fade out and change from me. . ."
"Did you notice the Bride came in view twice? The first Seed and the second Seed, both of them exactly the same one. And the reason they were dressed in different parts, she'll come from all nations; it'll make up the Bride. Each one had long hair and no makeup, and real pretty girls. And they were watching me. That represented the Bride coming out of all nations. See? She. . . Each one represented a nation, as they marched perfectly in line with the Word. See"? (The Masterpiece, p. 33:189-194).
At the time of Christ's parousia to Israel, she will catch the vision of "the armies which were in heaven follow Christ upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean" (Revelation 19:14). As the earth trembles before the natural locusts, John who represents Christ's end-time Bride, "saw, and when Christ had opened the Sixth Seal, there was a great earthquake; (Los Angeles) and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; and the stars of heaven fell to the earth, as a fig tree casts her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind" (Revelation 6:12-13).
Joel 2:11, "And the Lord will lead His mighty army [with a shout and the Voice of the Archangel (I Thessalonians 4:16; Revelation 10:3-4)]: for His camp is very great; for strong is the One who executes His Word: for the day of the Lord is great and very terrible; and who can endure it?"
Though the anger of the Lord is so clearly revealed that men may see His day coming, "Yet even now," He says, in the time of His 'parousia' to us Gentiles, turn with all of your heart, not with just a public show, and "come out of her, My people, that you do not partake of her sins and receive of her plagues" (Revelation 18:4).
The Seventh Trumpet calls Israel to assemble for repentance. The whole nation is gathered, from aged men to children and babies. Not even newlyweds are exempt (Deuteronomy 24:5). The northern army that is repelled will be the Russian Federation and Muslim nations named in Ezekiel 38 – 39 whom the Lord will overcome with earthquake and pestilence and blood, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone. And travellers east of the Dead Sea will be repulsed by the stench of their rotting flesh (like dead locusts Joel 2:20; Isaiah 34:3; Ezekiel 39:11).
Ezekiel 39:21, 29, "And I will demonstrate My glory among the nations, and all shall see the punishment of Gog and know that I have done it. . . And I will never hide My face from Israel again, for I will pour out My Spirit upon them, says the Lord".
Joel 2:21-27 speaks of the restoration of the land following Israel's repentance. We will study what Brother Branham said concerning Joel 2:23-27 from the Gentile perspective. He explains, "My great army that I sent among you," was Imperial and Papal Rome as revealed by the first four Seals. "See how that Judas spirit came back as a rider on a white horse. It was white. So close to the real, just as Judas was so close to Jesus. A crown was given to him (white horse rider). How? That spirit was now in the leader of the Nicolaitane system and he was a triple crowned pope who sat as God in his temple, calling himself the Vicar of Christ. If vicar of Christ means 'instead of Christ' or 'in place of' or 'on behalf of God' then the pope was calling himself the Holy Ghost, or deposing the Holy Ghost, acting for Him. That was the Judas spirit in him doing that . . . going forth conquering and to conquer. Christ did not do that. The only ones that came to Him were already predestinated by the Father. And so on and on went that spirit and one day it will become truly incarnate in a man who will head up the World Council of Churches, just as we have been saying. And by his gold (remember Judas held the bag) he will control the whole world, and that antichrist system will own everything and try to control everybody. But Jesus will come back and destroy them all with the brightness of His Coming. And their end will be the lake of fire." "But what about the true seed? It will happen just as we have said. The people of God are being made ready by the Word of Truth from the messenger to this Age. In her will be the fullness of Pentecost for the Spirit will bring the people right back to where they were at the beginning. That is "Thus saith the Lord."
"It is "Thus saith the Lord" for that is what Joel 2:23-26 says, "Be glad then, you children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God: for He has given you the former rain moderately, and He will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain and the latter rain in the first month. And the floors shall be full of wheat, and the vats shall overflow with wine and oil. And I will restore to you the years that the locust has eaten, the cankerworm, the caterpillar, and the palmerworm, My great army which I sent among you. And you shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the Name of the Lord your God who has dealt wondrously with you: and My people shall never be ashamed".
"Now it says God is going to "restore." The Lutheran Age did not restore the church; it started a reformation. The Wesleyan Age did not restore. The Pentecostal Age did not restore. But God has to restore for He cannot deny His Word. This is not the resurrection of the Church; it is the "restoration." God will take the Church right back to Pentecost of the beginning. Now notice in verse 25 it tells why we need restoration. The locust, cankerworm, caterpillar and palmerworm have eaten all but the root and a small bit of the stem. Now we are told that all these insects are all one and the same in different stages. That is right. They are the antichrist spirit manifested in organization, denomination and false doctrine through the ages. And that poor little root and stalk is going to be restored. God isn't going to plant a new Church, but is going to bring His original planting back to original seed. He is doing it as stated in verse 23, by the teaching, or "former" rain. Next will come the harvest rain or rapturing faith."
"Thus at this very moment we are in the complete fulfilment of Matthew 24:24 "insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect." And who is it that shall attempt to deceive the very elect? Why, the spirit of antichrist in the "false anointed ones" of this last day. These false ones have already come in "Jesus' Name" claiming that they have been anointed of God for the last day. They are the false Messiahs (anointed ones). They claim that they are prophets. But are they one with the Word? Never. They have added to it or taken from it. No one denies that the Spirit of God manifesting in gifts is upon them. But like Balaam they all have their programs, make their appeal for money, exercise gifts, but deny the Word or by-pass it for fear that a controversy might diminish their chances for greater gain. Yet they preach salvation and deliverance through the power of God, just like Judas, with a ministry imparted by Christ. But because they are wrong seed, consequently they have a wrong spirit motivating them" (ibid, p. 378:1 – 380:1).
The teaching rain of Brother Branham's Message has sown the Seed of "that which is perfect," the fullness of the Word. Joel 2:28, "And it shall come to pass afterward that God will pour our His Spirit upon all flesh" in a latter or harvest rain when every seed that has been sown shall come to maturity and bear its fruit. The mind is the womb of the spirit and as the soul bears the nature of the spirit that is on it, Baptists will manifest the fruit of Baptist teaching, and Buddhists, Pentecostals, Communists, Judaists, Nihilists, Pentecostals, etc., will each bear the life of the spirit they have received (Matthew 5:45; 13:30, 37-43; Hebrews 6:7-8). But Christ's end-time Bride will manifest by the "third pull" that they are the Sons of God and one with His Word.
From the Hebrew perspective Joel 2:28-32 speaks of the restoration of the Spiritual kingdom to Israel in the millennium (Acts 1:6) by the regeneration of 144,000 elect Israelites. Their former rain will be the teaching ministry of two prophets anointed by the Spirit that endued Moses and Elijah of old. Three and a half years after the Bride has been translated and their prophets have been martyred, Israel will receive its latter rain.
Joel 2:30-31. "I will show wonders in the heavens and on Earth, blood, and fire, and columns of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord" (Isaiah 13:10; Matthew 24:29; Mark 13:22-25; Revelation 6:12-14).
When the Gentile dispensation and grace ends at the opening of the Sixth Seal, heaven will close like a scroll rolling shut. All seeds will have been sown and each will bring forth of its kind in the time of the latter rain. Revelation 22:10-12, "And the angel [William Branham] said to me . . . (insert your name here for throughout the Book of Revelation John represents Christ's end-time Bride) . . . Do not seal the Words of the prophecy of this Book [the revelation of the Seven Seals which is the Message of the seventh angel], for the time of their fulfilment is near. [From the sounding of the Seventh Trumpet at the close of the Gentile dispensation] He who is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he who is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he who is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he who is holy, let him be holy still. Behold I will come suddenly; and My reward is with Me, to render to each according to his doings".
Once grace is over there will never be another Gentile born-again. Only 144,000 elect Israelites written in the Lamb's Book of Life will enter the Kingdom when it opens to them shortly before their martyrdom (Revelation 11:19; 14; 15).
Brother Branham said, "Now where will the Gentile Church be while Jesus is making Himself known to His brethren? Remember that the bride of Joseph with the two children were in the palace, for Joseph had commanded, "Let everyone leave me; put them all out from before me." So the Gentile bride was hidden in the palace of Joseph. Where will the Gentile Church go in the rapture? Into the palace. The Bride will be taken off the earth. She will be caught up before the great tribulation to meet her Lord in the air. For three and one-half years while the retributive wrath of God is poured out, she will be in the great Marriage Supper of the Lamb. Then will He return, leaving His Bride in "His Father's house," while He makes Himself known to His brethren."
"At this very time, the antichrist covenant that the Jews have made with Rome will be broken. Rome and her allies then send their troops to destroy all the God-fearing, Word-abiding Jews. But as they come against the city to destroy it, there will appear in the heavens the sign of the Coming of the Son of Man with His mighty armies to destroy them who have been destroying the earth (Matthew 24:30 – Ed). With the enemy repulsed, Jesus then comes and presents Himself to the 144,000. Having seen His mighty acts of salvation, they have come to know His power. But also seeing His wounds and knowing that they had rejected Him even to that moment, causes them to cry out in the agony of terror and fear, even as did their brethren of old when they stood before Joseph, being sore afraid that they would be killed. But as Joseph said, "Don't be angry with yourselves. It is all right. God was in it all. He did it to preserve life." Even so will Jesus speak peace and love to them" (Ibid, p. 40:2 – 41:1; Genesis 45:1-8).
Only the Hebrew remnant in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, not New York, London or Budapest, "who call upon the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ" by revelation after the midst of Daniel's Seventieth Week will be baptized with the Holy Ghost and, although martyred, delivered from the final judgment (Joel 2:32; Matthew 27:25; Revelation 6:11; 14:12; 15:2-4). First will be the manifestation of the Sons of God and the resurrection of the Bride of all Ages.
Brother Branham said, "I believe that the Church of the Living God is moving into a sphere now that's going to shake the whole world . . . Oh, it's going to come to pass pretty soon. I'm looking for it to happen in this meeting. I'm wanting it to happen now. That the anointing will strike the whole Church of the living God and she'll rise to her feet like a mighty marching army! The sick will be healed by a word. The blind will see, the deaf will hear, the dead will be raised up and the power of God will shake the world with the Church of the living God. We're in the PROCESS of it now" (Speak to this Mountain, #59-1123). nl933.htm
Pass it on . . . please send this article to someone you knowBrother 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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