Bible Believers' Newsletter 876
"We focus on the present Truth – what Jesus is doing now. . ."
ISSN 1442-8660
Christian greetings in the precious Name of our Lord Jesus Christ; we appreciate your company in God's unchanging Word. Your brother-in-Christ
Scripture does not play with words. Since the Garden of Eden each Message was sent for God's elect. Whatever is in the Record is there for the anointed eyes to see. You who have received anointed eyes by God's grace will see Scriptures unfolding according to prophecy in our news. As the Prophet foretold, the world is falling apart; not of its own volition but by the sedition of wicked men who proclaim Christ when they are antichrists whose sin has severed the invisible bond of God's Word by which all things are held together (Colossians 1:17).
Our main article, "Zechariah Chapters Ten and Eleven" continues from "Zechariah Chapter Nine," and stretches over the period between the fall of the Persian World Empire, beyond the Grecian World Empire to the appearance of Jesus Messiah under the Roman World Empire that rules us today. Chapter Eleven describes how when Messiah would have joined Judah and Israel in the bonds of common faith and common laws, He broke "His Covenant which He had made with all the people [of Israel]" in just retribution when as a nation they renounced Him (Matthew 27:22-25). God deals with Israel as a nation in the Land of the Covenant (Isaiah 66:8), us Gentiles as individuals wherever we might be. Once He "hacked" the staves even General Titus could not save the Temple from his own Roman soldiery.
Any who believe that Daniel's Seventieth Week is fulfilled "are wise in their own conceits for Israel is blinded spiritually until the last Gentile is baptized into Christ, completing the Church" (Luke 21:24; Romans 11:25). The Old Covenant was broken after Messiah's betrayal (Zechariah 11). Israel will enter the New Covenant by revelation of the Message of their martyred prophets (Zechariah 4; Matthew 24:31; Revelation 11) in the second half of Daniel's Seventieth Week when they mourn the atonement their forefathers rejected (Zechariah 12-13) after Zechariah 14:3-8 (Ezekiel 47:1-5; An Exposition of the Seven Church Ages, p. 260; Joel 3:18). As "all Israel" betrayed Messiah to death at the hands of Rome, "all Israel" is under "condemnation" and must make recompense "life for life" according to their Law which suspends the curse over the nation because of their sin in Sinai (Matthew 23:39; Romans 8:1-2; Revelation 6:11).
This Newsletter serves those of like precious faith. Whoever will receive the truth is welcome to feed their soul from the waters of the River of Life. Everything here presented should be confirmed personally in your own Bible.
Anthony Grigor-Scott
Complaint against John Howard to the International Criminal Court
January 11, 2015 — Australia's former Prime Minister John Howard has been accused of war crimes before the International Criminal Court in The Hague.
The Accused's criminal policy and practice could be characterised as an "act of aggression", the "supreme international crime" as early defined by the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg" (hereafter IMT), and thus in violation of the United Nations Charter's Art. 2 (3) which prescribes the use of peaceful means to settle international disputes between Members, Art.2 (4) which proscribes the use of force against sovereign states, Art. 33 which sets down the duty to exhaust peaceful settlement of disputes and Art. 39 which states that the power to determine threats to peace or acts of aggression rests with the Security Council. [ANNEX 26]
The Accused knew or was in a position to know that no chemical, biological or nuclear weapons of mass destruction had been found in Iraq.
The Accused had no legal justification to participate in the "coalition of the willing" in a war against Iraq under Security Council Resolution 1441, because that Resolution could not "reasonably be interpreted [as the Davids Commission found] as authorising individual member states to use military force against Iraq to comply with the Security Council's Resolutions". . . Full story: theaimn.com
Comment: Were time to go on George II's "Man of Steel" should expect company.
Pravda: 'Putin threatens to release Satellite Evidence of 9/11?'
February 14, 2015 — The transparent US Government complicity in the coordination and coverup of the 9/11 crimes against its own citizenry has now been proven—UNEQUIVOCALLY—by mountains of scientific, circumstantial and anecdotal evidence. Only because the Mainstream Media has relentlessly covered up this crime against humanity, for well over 13 years and counting, have the successive administrations been free from prosecution (stateofthenation2012.com).
This video alleges 'Charlie Hebdo' Police Commissioner Helric Fredou murdered, Mossad-funded-and-controlled false flag to generate casus belle and diversion from Paris deli and other Mossad false flags on Iran, Argentina, Uraguay. Bogus "direct external threats" to USA of alleged Arab and Muslim extremism are exposed as 'new Pearl Harbour strategy'.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is preparing the release of Russian satellite photos and other evidence showing that 9/11 was a false-flag operation by treasonous elements of the American national security community. The original story reporting Putin's threat was published by Pravda . . . historic photos are expected to show:
That none of the passenger airliners allegedly used as weapons on 9/11 actually crashed where we were told they did; and:
- That the World Trade Center demolitions were conducted using extremely high-energy weapons.
They are primarily a deterrent—a last-ditch ace-in-the-hole whose main role is to deter and dissuade the enemy from going too far . . . the "truth bomb" will not kill anyone; and its use against the US would first and foremost harm the 9/11-complicit faction of the American power structure, while helping the non-complicit faction regain control and adjust the course of the ship of state away from the icebergs . . . Polls show that 36% of Americans (over 100 million people) think 9/11 was an inside job, while a whopping 84% or so don't believe they are getting the full truth about 9/11 from their government. Confidence in government is at record lows, and the sickening feeling of having been lied to is largely responsible for the US military's inability to win wars—and for the rash of troop and veteran suicides that are far more lethal than any enemy army.
Though Putin doesn't want to play his ace in the hole, the 9/11 truth card, until he absolutely has to, the moment of truth may have finally arrived. As soon as it becomes absolutely clear that the US is never going to back off from its attempt to turn Ukraine into a hostile NATO base; that the economic war on Russia has reached a point of no return; that the neoconservative "flight forward" into World War III is inevitable . . . at that point, no sooner and no later, Putin will slap his 9/11 truth card down on the table and let the chips fall where they may . . .
Comment: follow or precede The Dark Minds of the 9/11 Conspirators.
The Dark Minds of the 9/11 Conspirators
February 8, 2015 — We now have the secret Able Danger Report and the AEC Sandia Labs Report which lists all the Perps responsible for planning, deploying and covering up the attack on America on 9-11-01 which was nuclear.
The 9-11-01 Perps were so frightened of this Able Danger investigation that Rumsfeld and Blackjack lured them to the special newly reinforced Naval Intel Section of the Pentagon on the morning of 9-11-01 for an emergency meeting. That part of their cover story was in a sense true, the rest was a BIG LIE used to lure them to certain assassination . . . with a cruise missile accompanied by a large conventional jet that did a flyby over the Pentagon right before to confuse witnesses.
In this Pentagon attack, 38 of the 50 Able Danger investigators were killed, and the other 15 were not there . . . some Able Danger Investigators were tracking nuclear pitts stolen out the back door at Pantex in Texas, taken to Israel to be reprocessed, brought back to America and then stored in near NYC at Fort Lee . . .
Here is a partial list of these covert ops deployed as distraction by the Perps who are Top Kingpins in the Organized Crime Cabal (OCC):
The 7/7 London Bombing . . . Madrid train Bombing . . . Boston bombing . . . Sandy Hoax . . . Chris Kyle murder and movie to distract . . . ISIL/ISIS/Daish . . . Charlie Hebdo . . . ISIL/ISIS/Daish beheadings . . . some were filmed in Israeli . . . many of the ISIL wounded have been taken to Israel . . . Disneyland Measles False-Flag . . . the apparent ISIS burning alive of a captures Lebanese Pilot . . . *WZ stands for World Zionists based in the City of London who use the Israel International Zionist Crime Syndicate (IZCS) and the Bush Crime Cabal (BCC) as their main action-agents to do their dirty work . . . Full story: veteranstoday.com
Comment: "The Russian Republic . . . Secret Space War weaponry, all of it somewhat superior to everything we have" [as Brother Branham always stated].
The world has been irreversibly demoralised and brainwashed as by 'holocaust' propaganda, trinitarianism, 9/11, Port Arthur and other massacres and this mind manipulation cannot be reversed because such people will refuse to believe the truth (youtube.com). Much of this is done by our own race, nationality, and the Judaeo-Roman false church (Revelation 2:9; 3:9).
The alien-controlled media is complicit in 9/11: within seconds of the explosions on the WTC they began accusing Osama bin Laden. There were NO planes and no aircraft debris. There are holes in the plane stories. NO plane struck the WTC South Tower. This is what 9/11 should have looked like; report of planes is a HOAX. All four allegedly hijacked planes on 9/11 made long detours. How did the hijackers know about "radar holes"? How could they conduct key hijacking events simultaneously all within 10 minutes? Who controlled the planes?
Get the Hell out of Our Country! Part V
February 6, 2015 — Every day more and more Americans are learning about how World Zionist Neo-Bolshevik Judaics have infiltrated America and hijacked most of its Institutions of Government and collaborated with Israel to attack America on 9-11-01. It's time for We the People to do something about it!
Here are some of your alleged Perps involved in the nuclear attack on America on 9-11-01. Don't forget about the PNAC Members either. Hopefully these men will be brought to justice; they will likely be forever shamed for what they have done. And there are more alleged Perps too, traitors in the JCS, USAF, NORAD, FAA and the Administration including Cheney, Rumsfeld, Blackjack and Bush2 and yes, allegedly some AIPAC Directors. Some in our high military command now want to bring all the 9-11-01 Perps to justice and re-open the 9-11-01 Grand Jury in Houston, Texas which has enough evidence to convict almost every Perp involved at all levels. Once they are charged many will "sing like canaries" to save themselves from execution and will expose everything we don't already know, which now isn't much. May the 9-11-01 Perps be forever damned and shamed for what they have done on 9-11-01, and for manipulating America into all the phony Mideast wars afterwards which has caused so much painful death and horrible human suffering in Soldiers and innocent civilians alike . . . Full story: veteranstoday.com
Truth beneath the Lies: the West finances, organizes, trains Fundamentalist Proxy Forces in its Illegal Wars
February 12, 2015 — If the governing media framed itself in terms of truth rather than government-sponsored lies, the root causes of terrorism could be addressed and rectified. Currently, the root causes are being obscured, and Police State legislation is being offered as a false solution, and for ulterior purposes. We already have the tools to combat domestic terrorism. 'Terrorism, treason, sedition, espionage, proliferating of nuclear and biological weapons, and other offences . . .'
The answer emerges once we realize that the governing media is perpetrating the lies, distortions, and omissions offered to it by government commissioned Public Relations (PR) firms that are paid to obscure the truth and spin palatable lies . . . perfect cover for selling illegal wars and subversive agendas that create and perpetuate terrorism . . . The secular governments of Iraq, Libya, and Syria all—prior to Western invasions—opposed terrorist organizations such as al Qaeda . . . The West is currently allying itself with some of the same terror groups 'al Qaeda/al Nusra Front, and ISIS, as it finances, organizes, and trains fundamentalist proxy forces in its illegal war against Syria. The West's cover for invading Syria is, ironically, to wage war on ISIS, even as ISIS forces are comrades-in-arms in the sense that they share a common 'enemy', with the US: President Bashar Al Assad's secular government . . .' Full story: globalresearch.ca
Former CIA Contractor: 'ISIS Completely Fabricated Enemy Funded by US'
August 29, 2014 — Former CIA contractor Steven Kelley says that the ISIS terrorist group is a fabricated enemy and funded by the United States. "This is a completely fabricated enemy," he said in a phone interview with Press TV from Anaheim, California on Thursday.
"The funding is completely from the United States and its allies and for people to think that this enemy is something that needs to be attacked in Syria or Iraq is a farce because obviously this is something that we created, we control it, only now it has become convenient for us to attack this group as a legitimate enemy," Kelley added. He made the remarks as US President Barack Obama is under pressure to seek congressional approval before expanding Washington's military air campaign against ISIS targets from Iraq into neighboring Syria. The Pentagon has already launched at least 100 airstrikes on ISIS positions in northern Iraq since Obama authorized the use of force against the terrorist group earlier this month.
The White House insists it does not need explicit congressional authorization for those operations because they are intended to protect American personnel and interests inside the Arab country. White House press secretary Josh Earnest said Monday that Obama "will not hesitate to use his authority" to keep Americans safe, but added that the president was "committed to coordinating and consulting with Congress" on a decision to hit ISIS targets in Syria.
"If you want to get to the root of the problem and remove this organization, the first thing they need to do is to remove the funding and take care of entities responsible for the creation of this group," Kelley said.
"I believe that this ISIS group would probably go away, would be easily defeated by the armies of [Syrian President] Bashar Assad," he said.
Full story: presstv.com (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_lN1fPfBkU).
Comment: President Obama has no more "authority" in Syria than Syria has to bomb its enemies in the USA.
Europe fractures: France pivots to Putin, Cyprus offers Moscow Military Base, Germany-US Splinter on Ukraine
February 8, 2015 —
Full story: zerohedge.com
Comment: You should recognize these fractures as a harbinger of Daniel 2:41-43 and Revelation 17:16-18.
What is the Mainstream Media NOT Reporting?
February 11, 2015 — In George Orwell's oft-quoted and insightful book 1984, we clearly see how this work of fiction has become reality, and in turn how reality is turned back into fiction through the manipulative, inaccurate and deceptive reporting of mainstream media. As Orwell accurately wrote:
'Day by day and almost minute by minute the past was brought up to date. In this way every prediction made by the Party could be shown by documentary evidence to have been correct; nor was any item of news, or any expression of opinion, which conflicted with the needs of the moment, ever allowed to remain on record. All history was a palimpsest, scraped clean and reinscribed exactly as often as was necessary.'
Indeed, this is the 'reality' we face when we turn to mainstream news networks, a reality coloured and created through corporate interests which reflect their own agendas instead of the truth.
For example, political leaders and the mainstream media continue to explain to us that the reasons for NATO's armed interventions here and there are to bring freedom and democracy to the subjugated masses . . .
Full story: globalresearch.ca
US Military to train Kiev Troops fighting in E. Ukraine
February 11, 2015 — The US military will train Kiev troops fighting against militias in southeast Ukraine, Ben Hodges, US Army Europe commander, said hours before the start of "Normandy Four" talks dubbed a "last chance" for the peaceful resolution of the conflict.
The training, which is scheduled to kick off in March, will see a battalion of American troops training three battalions of Ukrainians, he said. "We'll train them in security tasks, medical [tasks], how to operate in an environment where the Russians are jamming [communications] and how to protect [themselves] from Russian and rebel artillery," Hodges was cited as saying by Reuters.
Hodges' recent statement echoes a similar announcement he made in Kiev in January. At the time, he did not provide information on the numbers of US troops participating . . . Full story: rt.com
Is Boko Haram a CIA Covert Op to Divide and Conquer Africa?
February 14, 2015 — In 2007, US State Department advisor Dr. J. Peter Pham commented on AFRICOM's strategic objectives of 'protecting access to hydrocarbons and other strategic resources which Africa has in abundance, a task which includes ensuring against the vulnerability of those natural riches and ensuring that no other interested third parties, such as China, India, Japan, or Russia, obtain monopolies or preferential treatment' (globalresearch.ca).
At the beginning of February, AFRICOM's head General David Rodriguez called for a large-scale US-led 'counterinsurgency' campaign against groups in West Africa during remarks at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington, DC:
In similar remarks at a the US Army West Point academy last week, US Special Operations Command (SOCOM) chief General Joseph Votel said that US commando teams must prepare for new deployments against Boko Haram and the Islamic State (globalresearch.ca).
Mark P. Fancher highlighted the hypocrisy and the 'imperialist arrogance' of western countries, which 'notwithstanding the universal condemnation of colonialism', are ever more willing 'to publicly declare (without apologies) their plans to expand and coordinate their military presence in Africa' (globalresearch.ca) . . .
To understand why the media focuses on Boko Haram, we need to know what it is and who is behind it. What is the underlying context, what interests are being served? . . .
[Boko Haram is a CIA Covert operation – Wikileaks
In May 2014, African Renaissance News published an in-depth report on Boko Haram, wondering whether it could be another CIA covert operation to take control of Nigeria:
"[T]he greatest prize for AFRICOM and its goal to plant a PAX AMERICANA in Africa would be when it succeeds in the most strategic African country, NIGERIA. This is where the raging issue of BOKO HARAM and the widely reported prediction by the United States Intelligence Council on the disintegration of Nigeria by 2015 comes into perspective . . . In the 70's an 80's Nigeria assisted several African countries 'in clear opposition and defiance to the interests of the United States and its western allies which resulted in a setback for Western initiatives in Africa at the time . . .
[R]eports provided by Wikileaks which identified the US embassy in Nigeria as a forward operating base for wide and far-reaching acts of subversion against Nigeria which include but [are] not limited to eavesdropping on Nigerian government communication, financial espionage on leading Nigerians, support and funding of subversive groups and insurgents, sponsoring of divisive propaganda among the disparate groups of Nigeria and the use of visa blackmail to induce and coerce high ranking Nigerians into acting in favour of US interests.]"
The Greenwhite Coalition report on Boko Haram reveals a three stage plan of the National Intelligence Council of the United States to 'Pakistanize' Nigeria, internationalize the crisis and divide the country under a UN mandate and occupying force. The plan 'predicts' Nigeria's disintegration for 2015 . . .
As covertly supporting terrorist organizations to achieve foreign policy aims appears to be the commanding prerequisite of foreign policy operations under the Obama Administration, Boko Haram exists as a separate arm of the US destabilization apparatus, aimed at shattering Africa's most populous nation and biggest potential market (globalresearch.ca) . . .
. . . a Nigerian soldier in Borno state confirmed that Boko Haram attacked Gamboru Ngala in their presence but their commander asked them not to repel the attack . . . The soldier said that the Boko Haram insurgency will end when superior officers in the army cease to fuel it . . . At the abductions of Chibok girls . . . we were ordered to arrest vehicles carrying the girls but just as we started the mission, another order was issued that we should pull back . . .
Boko Haram and Islamic State, have been, in one way or another, armed, trained and financed by the US-NATO alliance and their allies in the Middle East . . . Thanks to the covert support of Western countries, arms dealers and bankers profiting from killing and destruction, the war on terror is alive and well . . . justifying military invasion and achieving their conquest of the African continent's richest lands under the pretext of saving the world from terror.
Full story: globalresearch.ca
Comment: The United States is "the image unto the beast" of Imperial Rome as prophesied by Jesus Christ and revealed by the Prophet.
70th Anniversary of the Dresden's Real Holocaust
February 13, 2015 — Imperishable pain, the suffering of our people from what was done to us after WWI when our Homeland, Danzig, was made a Free State. A Free State with a Harbour city to boot of 408,000 pure German people completely disarmed but surrounded by 35 Million hungry Poles armed to their teeth. Proud of our German heritage they called us Nazis. They call us Nazis still, and that was good enough to destroy the City of Danzig totally and for good measure gave it to Poland even before WWII had come to an end. The Poles then engaged in organized ethnic cleansing better known as Genocide of the whole of the Free State of Danzig population much to the delight of [Jewish] war criminals Roosevelt and Churchill, both responsible for the mass killings of Dresden inhabitants. Evil has triumphed! . . . Full story: hellstormdocumentary.com
Timeline of International Nuclear Weapons Testing
August 22, 2011 — Japanese artist Isao Hashimoto has created a beautiful, undeniably scary time-lapse map of the 2,053 nuclear explosions which have taken place between 1945 and 1998, beginning with the Manhattan Project's "Trinity" test near Los Alamos and concluding with Pakistan's nuclear tests in May of 1998. This leaves out North Korea's two alleged nuclear tests in this past decade (the legitimacy of both of which is not 100% clear) . . .
Full story: youtube.com
Comment: When you understand that there have been 1,032 nuclear explosions on the US West Coast alone from 1945 to 1998, you will appreciate how God allows man to destroy himself and prepared Los Angeles, much of California and a 1,500 x 300 – 400 section of Earth's crust to sink beneath the Pacific, generating tidal waves that will sweep the world (Luke 21:25-26; Revelation 16:18; 18:21-24).
What's behind Big Pharma's Freak-out Media Blitz over Measles?
February 11, 2015 — "It is difficult to get a man to understand something, when his salary depends upon his not understanding it!" – Upton Sinclair, anti-fascist, anti-imperialist American author who wrote in the early 20th century.
"No vaccine manufacturer shall be liable . . . for damages arising from a vaccine-related injury or death." – President Ronald Reagan, as he signed The National Childhood Vaccine Injury Act (NCVIA) of 1986, absolving drug companies from all medico-legal liability when children die or are disabled from vaccine injuries.
"The AAP leadership knows very well that vaccines cause autism. We need not waste anymore efforts in trying to educate them; we need to indict them." – Dr. David Ayoub
"When a well-packaged web of lies has been sold gradually to the masses . . . the truth will seem utterly preposterous and its speaker, a raving lunatic." – Dresden James
"In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act." – George Orwell
"Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely." – Lord Acton
Everybody is well aware of the fear-based, 24/7 media freak-out over the 150 cases of red measles in the US, an unreported number of which had already been fully or partially vaccinated against measles. Some of them may possibly have been exposed to a recent vaccinee who was still actively shedding the live virus from that inoculation.
No conscientious truth-telling person in a position of authority has been allowed to come forward with all the facts that we need to know before ignorant non-scientist legislators go off half-cocked and pass laws demanding that every child everywhere be forced to get every CDC-recommended shots that keep the 'well-child' clinics humming (despite the fact that the 'crisis' is only about measles).
The blitz has all the markings of an orchestrated campaign, perhaps a good example of 'crisis capitalism' revealed to us in Naomi Klein's seminal work, 'The Shock Doctrine'. Whoever the hidden persuaders are, we know who will benefit from the freak-out. They are the Big Pharma megacorporations, their shareholders and others who are trying to shine up the honor of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Academy of Family Practice, and other medical trade organizations, all of which are highly dependent on Big Pharma's largesse (in the form of advertising revenues and financial support for their medical conventions).
The 150 measles victims that everybody is talking about reside in the most highly vaccinated nation in the world. With 320,000,000 people as of January 1, 2015, there are still 319,000,850 unaffected people, many of whom have never been vaccinated against measles. I'm one of them, having gotten natural wild measles in childhood, which confers lifetime immunity, whereas the inoculations that contain the live measles virus do not confer lifetime immunity. A lot of people will take their chances, especially since the shots have become more and more unaffordable ever since corporations like the pharmaceutical companies have come to rule the nation, have bribed most of the politicians and have bought up most of the media . . . Full story: globalresearch.ca
Comment: The federal government agreed to pay damages to the family of Hannah Poling, "a child who developed autism after multiple vaccinations." Attkisson explained that the "landmark case" amounted to $1.5 million for the girl the first year and $500,000 each year after. In total, the compensation could amount to $20 million over the child's lifetime.
The Poling case was just one of thousands of cases filed in the National Vaccine Injury Program. But it was selected as a "test case" to evaluate the arguments underlying most of the other vaccine-autism claims. The case was "ordered sealed, protecting the pharmaceutical vaccine industry and keeping the crucial information hidden from other families who have autistic children and also believe vaccines to be the culprit." But word leaked out (newswithviews.com).
On September 23, 2014, an Italian court in Milan award compensation to a boy for vaccine-induced autism. (See the Italian document here.) A childhood vaccine against six childhood diseases caused the boy's permanent autism and brain damage. While the Italian press has devoted considerable attention to this decision and its public health implications, the US press has been silent (ageofautism.com).
Keiser Report: Hidden Truth about Greece
February 3, 2015 — A nation is not what it thinks it is but what others attempt to hide about that nation—like the fact that it is bankrupt. The role Goldman Sachs played in helping Greece hide its debts, thus strapping it to the euro and the mispricing real risk by well-compensated bond investors lending to Greece at ultra low interest rates. The various ways that brokers defraud American investors of year's worth of retirement income. Full story: youtube.com
The Religion of Vladimir Putin
March 12, 2014 — View this short youtube to the end, then read Genesis 18-19 and you will discover Luke 17:28-30 is fulfilled in this our day, including "the Coming of the Son of man . . . as a thief in the night".
The Amazing Biblical Archaeological Find no one Talks About
January 12, 2014 — It is probably one of the greatest finds of all time and, by the bizarre rules of biblical archeology; it's also one of the least reported. Basically, in 1967, in Deir Alla, Jordan, Dutch archeologists discovered some kind of pagan house of worship or seminary. On its walls, there was a 2,800-year-old inscription in black ink. Key phrases are highlighted in red ink and the whole writing is framed in red. First of all, this is the oldest Aramaic inscription ever found. But if that's not enough to make it a world-headline, the inscription is 600-800 years older than the Dead-Sea Scrolls. And if that's not enough to merit international attention, the inscription mentions a prophet or "seer" named "Balaam son of Beor." This is the exact name mentioned in the Torah/Bible (Numbers 22:2 – 24:25). This is the only instance where a specific individual mentioned in the story of the Exodus can be pointed to in archeology. So who is Balaam, and where is this inscription now?
Balaam is the bad guy of the Torah. He is the Darth Vader of the biblical Exodus. According to the Talmud, Balaam had the potential to be Moses, but he turned to the dark side (Av. Zar. 4a–b; Sanh. 105b; Avot 5:19). In a famous incident, as the Israelites are about to enter the Promised Land, Balak King of Moab asks Balaam to curse the children of Israel. Balaam is unable to do so. The Talmud explains that he looked at the Israelite tents and saw an amazing thing. The tents were rotated so that people could not see into each other's bedrooms, so to speak. At that point, Balaam realized that the only way to weaken Israel was to corrupt them through sex.
According to the biblical narrative, Balaam was in charge of sex priestesses made up of Moabite and Midianite women. These women successfully seduced the Israelites in an orgy of sex and idolatry (Numbers 31:8, 16). 24,000 Israelite men were punished by God with death. At one point, the Israelite prince, Zimri son of Salu, publically fornicated with a Midianite princess named Cozbi, daughter of Zur, in the name of some kind of fertility rite. Apparently, these rituals were drawing big crowds until Phinehas son of Eleazar, son of Aaron the High Priest (brother of Moses), picked up a spear and killed Zimri and Cozbi with one thrust. This act ended Balaam's attempt to subvert Israel through pagan sex (Numbers 25; 6-15). According to the Book of Joshua, Joshua took revenge by killing Balaam during the Israelite conquest of Canaan (Joshua, 13:22).
So . . . back to the Deir Alla inscription. The amazing thing is that it is found on the border of ancient Israel, exactly where you would expect to find it given the Biblical narrative. The people writing it are Balaam's people. Meaning, for them he's a hero, not a villain. So we're getting the opposition point of view. They refer to him, just as in the Torah, as "Balaam Son of Beor." Meaning, there is a letter-perfect synchronicity between the archeology and the Bible. But it gets better. According to the Torah, Balaam does have prophetic powers. According to the inscription, he is a prophet. According to the Torah, he gets his visions at night. According to the inscription, he gets his visions at night. According to the Torah, he worships false gods, but also dialogues with the God of Israel. According to the Deir Alla inscription, Balaam speaks to the "gods" and to "El" i.e., the God of Israel. But more than this, Balaam seems to be devoted to a goddess of fertility. Lest anyone think that the orgy episode in the Torah is exaggerated, the Deir Alla inscription refers to a "girl" or priestess who is "used" for the purpose of making one "saturated with love" (Combination 2, ii 4). It talks about God himself being "satisfied" with love making (Combination 2, ii 6).
So here you have a perfect synchronicity between the story in the Bible and the story that archeologists have discovered in a pagan temple in Jordan. But except for a few scholars, very few people have even heard of this discovery. More than this, the inscription has been removed from Deir Alla and put in drawers—I'm not kidding, drawers—in the Archeological Museum of Amman, capital of Jordan. Meaning, you could be standing right next to the greatest archeological match to the Bible and not know it.
The ultimate irony: in the Archeological Museum of Amman, they have a fragment of the Dead-Sea Scrolls. It is a quote from the Bible—the story of Balaam! So the amazing thing is that about 20 feet from each other are the Deir Alla inscription and the Dead-Sea Scroll, both quoting the exact same story—and both matching the Bible perfectly.
Isn't it incredible? You don't have to go into the realm of "Da Vinci Code" style fiction to discover biblical cover-ups. They're happening as I write—and it's not fiction, it's all too real.
Wikipedia has an entry on it, and its translation doesn't seem to necessarily refer to a fertility goddess, but it is the clear mention of a prophet Balaam son of Be'or as one of the few extra biblical references to Biblical characters by name.
See my episode on Balaam as part of "The Naked Archeologist", Season 2, Episode 24. Full story: simchajtv.com
Zechariah Chapters Ten and Eleven
Zechariah chapter 10
Zechariah 9:1 declared, "The burden of the Lord's wrath will settle permanently upon the land of Hadrach and Damascus [until Syria is utterly prostrate, which was fulfilled under Alexander], for the Lord's providence extends over the whole earth as well as all the tribes of Israel." Chapters
10 and 11 describe God's judgment upon Israel for rejecting Messiah Jesus through unbelief. Chapter 10 is an expansion of the prophecy in the foregoing chapter calling upon the Judahites to forsake their teraphim idolatry and petition the Lord in prayer; it promises rain, which He alone can send in response to faith, and fruitful seasons as promised in chapter 9:17.
Zechariah 10:1, "Ask the Lord for rain in the time of the latter rain [in mid-February, which is spring in Israel]; the Lord makes the thunderbolts and storm clouds and gives everyone who asks rain in abundance with vegetation in every field."
Rain is a temporal symbol of Spiritual blessings. We are awaiting the latter rain, a Spiritual outpouring like the former or teaching rain that came upon Israelites on the day of Pentecost and upon Christ's end-time Bride through the ministry of Brother Branham that restored the heart of those predestinated to be Christ's end-time Bride back to the faith of their apostolic fathers by the revelation of Seven Thunder mysteries hidden under the Seven Seals (Malachi 4:5-6; Revelation 10:1-7). Brother Branham said the latter or harvest rain will sweep the world causing every soul to manifest the nature of the seed sown therein. Judaeo-Catholic seed will bear Judaeo-Catholic fruit, and Judaeo-Communist seed, socialists: "he who is filthy will be filthy still, he who is righteous will be righteous still, and he who is holy will be holy still" (Genesis 1:11; Matthew 13:24-30, 36-43). Christ's end-time Bride will manifest that she is the Word for her Age (Romans 8:19), and two Hebrew prophets of Zechariah 4 and Revelation 11 will be anointed to pour out the former or teaching rain on 144,000 elect Israelites (Joel 2:23; Daniel 12:10).
At the close of the Gentile dispensation an earthquake cleaving the Mount of Olives will destroy the Dome of the Rock on Mount Moriah, igniting the 'hot stage' of World War III. Then Jerusalem will be invaded, her women raped, homes and businesses looted, and the spoil leisurely divided in the city (Isaiah 13:16; Zechariah 14:1-2; Revelation 12:13-14). Consequently the Khazars will desert Israel en masse, returning to Poland, Russia, Germany, France, Hungary, Italy, USA, and the UK, etc. Jerusalem will be divided between East and West, the Palestinian sovereign state will be established as per UN Resolution 181, and the remnant of God's people (Isaiah 11:11) [genuine blood Israelites who have remained in exile "for fear of the Jews" will return for their redemption to the land of the Covenant abandoned by their sworn enemy (Genesis 27:39-41)] and shall not be cut off from the city of Old Jerusalem.
Satan will be cast down to Earth to incarnate the pope of the Judaeo-Roman Universal church and great tribulation will envelop a world ruled by Rome and her US image. Russia will invade and occupy the earthquake-devastated US, with Los Angeles and much of the west coast sunk beneath the Pacific as William Branham prophesied—the antitype of Capernaum, which was sunk by earthquake beneath the Sea of Galilee in answer to Jesus' prophecy (Matthew 11:23; Luke 10:15-16). Under martial law following this global convulsion of nature the wise and foolish virgin will be persecuted for their witness warning friends and strangers against the mark of the beast, and forbidden by the world church system from conducting services or even praying for the sick without affiliation. (This has been happening for years in the military and US prisons where I had to visit on the coat tails of the Gideons. Now house churches are being required to hold a permit). Quickly we will be made a hunted and persecuted little group with no resources but the Word of God and prayer, causing us to resort to the 'third pull': God's response will elevate our faith to receive translation grace and change in the atoms. Thereafter the Devil-incarnate pope will unite the Judaeo-Roman denominations and all religions to restore peace, and be acclaimed president of one world government.
The call to prayer is contrasted with the idol-worship which had brought judgments on the princes and people. "For the idols have spoken vanity and the diviners have seen a lie, and have told false dreams; they comfort in vain: therefore they went their way as a flock, they were troubled, because there was no shepherd. My anger was kindled against the shepherds, and I punished those he-goats: for the Lord of hosts has visited His flock the house of Judah, and has made them as His goodly horse in the battle. Out of Judah shall come the cornerstone, out of them the tent peg, out of them the battle bow, out of them the Ruler over all the earth".
Teraphim were household gods worshipped by Abram's kinfolk in Mesopotamia (Joshua 24:14). Possession of the teraphim was the equivalent to holding title to the family estate. So when Jacob departed with Rachel, she stole her father Laban's teraphim (Genesis 31:30-35), small images in human form (I Samuel 19:13-17) consulted in divination in place of the Urim Thummim alongside the worship of Jehovah (Hosea 3:4). There was a preponderance of diviners and false prognosticators before the overthrow of Israel, and then Judah (Jeremiah 27:9; Ezekiel 22:28). As a consequence the Lord sent them into exile, and until the advent of Jesus Messiah they were without a ruler in the Davidic line.
Owing to idolatry the Northern kingdom was dissolved and her subjects dispersed throughout the Assyrian Empire where they dwell to this day. When Judah followed Israel into trinitarian idolatry she lost her Davidic king "until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled," that is, from Nebuchadnezzar's invasion to Israel's rebirth (Luke 21:24). So the people of all twelve tribes were without a true shepherd and became subjects of heathen governors whom the Lord calls "shepherds" but who as "he-goats" led the lambs to the slaughter. The Lord punished the he-goats in a military struggle and as in Zechariah 9:13 He called Judah His bow and Ephraim His arrow; here he calls Judah "His goodly horse in the battle" and "His flock." The blessings promised in answer to prayer included rulers coming out of themselves—the Maccabees, Judah's governors and deliverers from Antiochus—typifying Messiah's future deliverance of the nation, the conquest of their foes, and restoration and establishment of both Israel and Judah in their own land in lasting peace and piety.
"Out of Judah came forth the corner, out of Judah the nail, out of them the battle bow, and out of them Messiah, the world Ruler." The word "corner" signifies a governor (I Samuel 14:38; Isaiah 19:13; 28:16; Ephesians 4:15-16). Judah will no longer be subject to foreigners, but from itself will come every one of its rulers. This refers primarily to the Maccabees, Judah's governors and deliverers from Antiochus the oppressor, and a type of Messiah. On them will hang all the glory and hope of Israel as on the large ornamental nail built into the wall of oriental tents hung most of its valuable furniture.
Messiah is the Antitype and Corner-stone who stays and binds together the Church of both Judahites and Gentiles. "And they shall be as mighty men, who tread down their enemies in the mire of the streets in the battle: and they shall fight, because the Lord is with them, and the riders on horses shall be confounded. And I will strengthen the house of Judah [the southern Kingdom], and I will save the house of Joseph [the northern Kingdom], and I will bring them again to place them [for redemption in the land of the Covenant]; for I have compassion upon them: and they shall be as though I had not cast them off: for I am the Lord their God, and will hear them." Judah will not need foreign soldiery as Messiah will be her battle-bow. They are made Jehovah's war horse, and so tread down on foot the foe with all his cavalry into the mire (Ezekiel 38:4; Daniel 11:40). Cavalry was the chief strength of the Syro-Grecian army (I Maccabees 3:39; 4:1).
In Zechariah 10:6 Judah and Joseph comprehend the whole House of Israel that is to be completely restored in the land of the Covenant: NOT in 1948 (Leviticus 26:40-46; Psalm 17:7; Isaiah 6:10-13; 11:11-16; 13:14; 27:13; 49:17; Jeremiah 3:12, 18; 16:15; 23:8; 31:8; Ezekiel 37:14; 39:27; Micah 5:3; Zechariah 10:9-12; Matthew 24:29-31; Revelation 12:14, etc,), but in the first half of Daniel's Seventieth Week, hastening Israel's glorious final consummation under Messiah. [Judah received the sceptre while Jacob marked Joseph as firstborn by assigning to him the birthright and double portion (forfeited by Reuben) which he bequeathed his two sons Ephraim and Manasseh in two tribal domains according to the law of the firstborn (Deuteronomy 21:15-17)]. Jehovah will hear them and they will rejoice in the Lord who has given them victory over the foe.
"Then Ephraim shall be like a mighty warrior, and their hearts shall be glad as with wine: their children shall see it, and rejoice; their hearts shall exalt in the Lord. I will whistle for them to gather together, for I have redeemed them: and they shall be many as of old".
The metaphor is of the shepherd whistling to control his flocks. In Scripture it is always God, as the Great Shepherd who whistles (Judges 5:16; Isaiah 5:26; 7:18, etc.). This is the Good News of Jesus Messiah for Ephraim, and speaks of the restoration of the whole house of Israel in the first half of Daniel's Seventieth Week. "Their children" speaks of the elect of the northern Tribes as qualified by Isaiah 54:13, "And all your children shall be taught of the Lord; and great shall be the peace of your children".
Isaiah's "all" is defined by John 6:44-45: "No man can come to Me, except the Father who has sent Me draws him: and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets: And they shall be all taught of God. Every man therefore that has heard, and has learned of the Father, comes to Me." So Isaiah's "all" is restricted to an election who recognize their day and its Message, as the blessing or new birth in each of the seven Church Ages was to those with a Spiritual ear to hear what the Spirit was saying to the Churches. Again, Jesus said: "My sheep receive My Word and will not follow a stranger" (John 10:1-5).
The Lord will soon gather His dispersed people back to Palestine (Zechariah 10:10; Isaiah 5:26; Ezekiel 36:11); the utter downfall of the Northern Kingdom so long before that of Judah will have removed every political reason for maintaining the ancient disruption, and all the circumstances of this coming time will incline the tribes to coalesce again as one people (Ezekiel 36:11).
Zechariah 10:9-12, "Though I have sown [and increased (Exodus 1:12)] them among the nations in far countries they will remember Me, and return to Israel with their children" (Ezekiel 37:14). The wide dispersion just before Christ's first Coming prepared the way for the apostles' preaching in synagogues throughout the world; and everywhere some Old Testament seed had been sown it was ready to germinate when New Testament Light and heat were brought to bear on it by Gospel preachers. Thus the way was opened for entrance among the Gentiles who would comprise the vast mass of Christ's Bride.
"I will bring them back from the land of Egypt, and gather them from Assyria to the land of Gilead and Lebanon [the former home of the ten tribes on either side of the Jordan], till there is no room for them" because of their increase. This refers to the imminent restoration of the Israelites to the Land of the Covenant in the first half of Daniel's Seventieth Week. As of old, God gloriously vindicated His people in the passage through the Red Sea, so now He will He make a way through every obstacle that opposes Israel's restoration (Isaiah 11:11-16; Revelation 16:12). "And I will strengthen them in the Lord; and they shall walk up and down in His Name [Jesus Messiah, the Son of God]".
These last four verses describe a far greater blessing than the victories of the Maccabees: spiritual blessings couched in terms borrowed from the old experiences of the people—the drying up of the Red Sea, the humiliation of Assyria and the overthrow of Egypt—set forth the removal of all obstacles impeding a spiritual return to God. But 2,000 years before this event takes place Israel would reject her Davidic King Messiah and be rejected herself while Christ calls His Gentile Bride; our dispensation will soon end followed by the resurrection of the sleeping saints and the manifestation and translation of the living Sons of God. The hour is exceedingly late.
After tracing the distresses of Israel in their apostasy, chapter 9 set forth their deliverance through military conflicts in which "the Lord will appear above them [because He fights from heaven on their behalf]" (Zechariah 9:14). The victories of the Maccabees were followed by a substantial increase in population within the dispersed of Israel and among the Judeans. In chapter 10 Judah was charged to put away idolatry and return to the Lord in repentance and prayer with the promise of millennial blessings. Now we will visit the fulfilled history of Judah under the Roman World Empire primarily from Christ's first Coming, His rejection and resurrection, the destruction of the second Temple and Israel's rejection, to the present day with glimpses of His millennial reign as the Son of David.
Zechariah chapter 11
This chapter concludes Zechariah's first "burden" of God's judgment upon Israel announced in chapter 9 and presents a marked contrast to the previous two chapters which were full of encouragement and speak much of conflict, but uniformly represent the Covenant people as victorious. After foretelling Judah's protection from Alexander and with a passing glance at Zion's future King Messiah, the triumphs of the Maccabees and the recovery of their former national strength and prestige, Zechariah proceeds to lift the veil from the final outcome of Jewish obduracy and it's terrible results in order that the faithful should take alarm in time, and earnestly draw near to God that they not be overtaken by the divine judgment upon the unfaithful prophesied in the long chapters of Moses (Deuteronomy 28-32).
Zechariah 11:1-3, "Open your doors, O Lebanon, that the fire [of invasion by Imperial Rome] may devour your cedars. Wail, O cypress trees, for the cedar has fallen, the glory of the trees is ruined: Wail, O oaks of Bashan [in Syria], for the thick forest has been felled! Hear the cries of the shepherds; for their glory is despoiled [as the invaders devour pasture on which their flocks are dependent]: hear the roaring of young lions driven by the fiery blast of the invaders from their favourite lair, the thickets on the river banks, [then known as] the pride of the Jordan [because of the luxuriant bushes and reeds that enclose the stream] is laid waste" (Jeremiah 12:5; 49:19).
The Jordan valley forms a deeper gash than any on the earth. The Waters of Merom are level with the Mediterranean; the Sea of Tiberius (Galilee) is 650 feet below that level, and sixty miles further south the Dead Sea is 1,950 feet below the Mediterranean.
Lebanon was Israel's northern boundary, the route by which Josephus says Rome gradually advanced towards Jerusalem, and owing to the civil war which caused their summons, swept through the land and deprived Judea of its independence. The second Temple and Jerusalem were razed and wasted under the successful siege of General Titus in AD70. God calls on the lesser trees to bewail the fall of the stately cedars as foreshadowing their own doom, for if the steep inaccessible forest on the mountainside is laid prostrate, much more must the cypresses and oaks be consumed. But the crushing ruin extends yet further. In a metaphor, the first three verses symbolize a whirlwind of flame sweeping
through the entire land, laying waste to mountain and plain, forests and meadows, and drying up even rivers and streams. Men and beasts—Judah's civil and religious leaders and those they are supposed to shepherd are overtaken and together cry in despair. Natural Israel had enjoyed peculiar privileges under the Covenant, but neglected the accompanying responsibilities. Amos 3:2, "You only have I known of all the families of the earth: therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities".
Zechariah 11:4-14, "Thus says the Lord My God; [personate Me in pantomime as the Good Shepherd, Jesus Messiah, and] feed the flock doomed to slaughter; whose buyers and possessors [the Roman World Empire] slay them, and hold themselves not guilty; while those who sell them, [their Jewish rulers who thought that Jesus was thus sold and their selfish interest secured by His delivery to the Romans for crucifixion; but it was themselves and their country that they thus sold to their Roman possessors] saying, Blessed be the Lord; for I am rich: and not one of their own shepherds has pity on them (John 11:48-50; 19:15-18). For I will no longer have pity on the inhabitants of this land, says the Lord: but will cause every man to fall into the hand of his neighbour and into the hand of his king [Vespasian or Titus]: and they will turn the land into a wilderness, and I will not deliver it from their hand."
"So I became the Shepherd of the flock destined for slaughter, even the poor of the flock. And I took two staves; the one I called Beauty, and the other I called Bands; and so I fed the flock. In one month I cut off three shepherds. My soul became impatient with them, and their soul detested Me. Then I said I will no longer shepherd you. What is to die, let it die; what is to be cut off, let it be cut off; and let the remainder eat the flesh of his fellow" (Revelation 22:11, 18-19).
The cause of this judgment is Israel's rejection of the Good Shepherd, Jesus Messiah, through their unbelief. Zechariah acted out the part of Messiah who would fulfill the prophecy five hundred years later and feed "the lost sheep of the House of Israel." Israel types the United States which Messiah fed veiled behind the flesh of William Branham and was again rejected and crucified afresh (II Timothy 4:3-4; Hebrews 6:6; Revelation 3:20). Brother Branham prophesied the terminal fate of that rogue state and terrorist nation with other colonies and occupied nations subservient to the City of London, Israel and Vatican City. Amos 3:3, "Two cannot walk together except they are agreed." Repeatedly in the course of previous history God visited Israel, executing His wrath by war, pestilence or famine, or sold them into the hand of their enemies for shorter or longer periods. In the end the rod was lifted but sadly they resumed their former condition. Now, however, there would be a final act of judgment summing up all that had gone before, filling His wrath on obdurate impenitence as presaged in the seventh vision of Brother Branham's apocalypse "wherein I heard a most terrible explosion. As I turned to look I saw nothing but debris, craters, and smoke all over the land of America" (An Exposition of the Seven Church Ages, p. 322:3).
One and a half million perished in the Jewish war and a million one hundred thousand at the fall of Jerusalem. During the siege of Titus parents did to their own children according to prophecy (Deuteronomy 28:55; Jeremiah 20:9; Lamentations 4:10). Josephus tells of a certain Mary who, "snatching up her son, who was a child sucking at her breast, she said, "O thou miserable infant! For whom shall I preserve thee in this war, this famine, and this sedition? As to the war with the Romans, if they preserve our lives, we must be slaves. This famine also will destroy us, even before that slavery comes upon us. Yet are these seditious rogues more terrible than both the other. Come on; be thou my food, and be thou a fury to these seditious varlets, and a byword to the world, which is all that is now wanting to complete the calamities of us Jews." As soon as she had said this, she slew her son, and then roasted him, and ate the one half of him, and kept the other half by her concealed. Upon this the seditious came in presently, and smelling the horrid scent of this food, they threatened her that they would cut her throat immediately if she did not show them what food she had gotten ready. She replied that she had saved a very fine portion of it for them, and withal uncovered what was left of her son. Hereupon they were seized with a horror and amazement of mind, and stood astonished at the sight, when she said to them, "This is mine own son, and what hath been done was mine own doing! Come; eat of this food; for I have eaten of it myself! Do not you pretend to be either more tender than a woman, or more compassionate than a mother; but if you be so scrupulous, and do abominate this my sacrifice, as I have eaten the one half, let the rest be reserved for me also." After which those men went out trembling, being never so much affrighted at anything as they were at this, and with some difficulty they left the rest of that meat to the mother. Upon which the whole city was full of this horrid action immediately; and while everybody laid this miserable case before their own eyes, they trembled, as if this unheard of action had been done by themselves. So those that were thus distressed by the famine were very desirous to die, and those already dead were esteemed happy because they had not lived long enough either to hear or to see such miseries."
"This sad instance was quickly told to the Romans, some of whom could not believe it, and others pitied the distress which the Jews were under; but there were many of them who were hereby induced to a more bitter hatred than ordinary against our nation. But for Caesar, he excused himself before God as to this matter, and said that he had proposed peace and liberty to the Jews, as well as an oblivion of all their former insolent practices; but that they, instead of concord, had chosen sedition; instead of peace, war; and before satiety and abundance, a famine. That they had begun with their own hands to burn down that temple which we have preserved hitherto; and that therefore they deserved to eat such food as this was. That, however, this horrid action of eating an own child ought to be covered with the overthrow of their very country itself, and men ought not to leave such a city upon the habitable earth to be seen by the sun, wherein mothers are thus fed, although such food be fitter for the fathers than for the mothers to eat of, since it is they that continue still in a state of war against us, after they have undergone such miseries as these. And at the same time that he said this, he reflected on the desperate condition these men must be in; nor could he expect that such men could be recovered to sobriety of mind, after they had endured those very sufferings, for the avoiding whereof it only was probable they might have repented" (Josephus, Wars of the Jews, VI, 3:4-5).
"And I took My staff, Beauty [that makes the Lord the object of desire], and hacked it apart, to break the covenant which I had made with all the people. It was broken in that day: and the wretched among the sheep, who were watching Me, knew that it was the Word of the Lord. Then I said to them, If it seems right to you, give Me My wage; and if not, forbear. So they weighed for My wages thirty pieces of silver. And the Lord told Me [not without irony]: Cast it to the potter—a magnificent price, so highly esteemed and precious am I in their sight. [Jesus of the New Testament is Jehovah of the Old]. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them to the potter [or image-maker] in the house of the Lord. [Thus in verses 15 and 17 He calls Rome and the whole body of native rulers "idol [or wicked] shepherds"]. Then I hacked apart My other staff, even Bands [or cords of unity], that I might break the brotherhood between Judah and Israel".
The Eastern people in making a league would often tie a cord or band in symbol of it, and untie it when they dissolve the confederacy. Messiah would have joined Judah and Israel in the bonds of common faith and common laws, but they would not; therefore in just retribution He broke "His covenant which He had made with all the people [of Israel]" when "all the people" as a nation renounced Him (Matthew 27:22-25). Alexander, Antiochus Epiphanes, and Pompey were all kept from marring utterly the distinctive "beauty" and "brotherhood" of Judah and Israel, which subsisted more or less so long as the Temple stood. But once He "hacked" the staves Titus himself could not save the Temple from his own Roman soldiery.
Picture Zechariah in your mind as he rehearses this pantomime before the people here and there, as he moves about the towns and villages in Judah.
The Good Shepherd loves His sheep and when He came He expected that He would be loved and received by them in return, but instead He is despised and rejected by a people who demand His blood and prefer the murderous life of Barabbas and Caesar's heathen rule to that of Messiah their King (Isaiah 53:3; Matthew 27:15-21; John 19:15). His acting is in vain because of their obdurate wickedness, and results in mutual recoil. He loathes them, and they abhor Him. Compelled by their ingratitude, He breaks His two staves in token that all is over. Thus Israel is a flock doomed to perish in the divine judgment, their national inheritance and "the kingdom of God taken from them is given to a nation bringing forth its fruits. And whoever shall fall on this [Cap-]stone shall be broken: but on whomsoever it falls, it will grind him to powder" (Matthew 21:33-46). As Judge the Stone falls upon unbelievers who, running against and falling over the Word, make Him a spiritual offence and stumbling block (Isaiah 8:14; Matthew 23:39; I Peter 2:6-8). They will be spiritually dismembered in individual reprobation as Israel was dissolved then ground to powder, reduced to their elements and annihilated (Daniel 2:34-35).
As Christ, Zechariah "fed the flock" or set to guide, feed and defend a people so wicked and hardened that they are already 'cherem' or devoted to slaughter in just retribution for their sinful ways. The passage is analogous to the parable of the wicked husbandman just quoted wherein the Jews, when asked by our Lord what should be the fate of those wicked husbandmen, sealed their own fate and pronounced their own sentence, saying, "They will be miserably destroyed, and the vineyard let out to others, [Gentiles], who will render the fruits in their seasons [or Church Ages]".
"In one month [at the terminus of His ministry] Messiah cut off three shepherds"—the three orders by which Israel was ruled (Matthew 16:21)—the civil authorities, the priests and the prophets (through the scribes), which were subsumed in the true Temple, their Prophet, Priest and King, Jesus Messiah, whom the elect nation will recognize in the second half of Daniel's Seventieth Week. Jesus was presented as the prophet of Nazareth of Galilee, while as priest He taught in the Temple and was hailed as Son of David and King (Matthew 21:9-11, 23). Then the furious mob, incensed by these "three shepherds" to unthinking hatred against Messiah, gathered before Pilate's tribunal shouting: "Away with Him, crucify Him. The Roman governor asked, Shall I crucify your King? The chief priests replied [decisively], We have no king but Caesar" of whom Zechariah, personating Jesus, had said, "I will no longer have compassion on the inhabitants of this land: I will deliver every man into the hand of his fellow, and into the hand of his king [Caesar]: and they will transform the land into a desert, and I will not deliver them from their hand" (John 19:15; Zechariah 11:6). Like their counterparts in Christendom, these perverters of the nation were the cause of its destruction (Jeremiah 2:8, 18) and were "cut off" in the last period of the siege of Jerusalem when all authority within the city was at an end. "One month" approximated the Feast of Weeks at whose conclusion the New Covenant opened to "whomsoever will" of Adam's race. Today these "three shepherds," incensed against God's revealed Word, have outlawed Christianity and plot false flag terrorism upon innocent Islam (Daniel 9:27; Revelation 17:11-14).
These decisive words "cut off the three shepherds" and filled up Israel's iniquity: "Had I not come and spoken to them, they would not be guilty: but now they have no excuse for their sin. He who hates Me hates My Father also. Had I not accomplished the works among them which no other man accomplished, they would not be guilty: but now they have seen and hated both Me and My Father. They have done this so the Words of their Law might be fulfilled: They hated me without a cause" (Psalm 69:4; John 15:22-25).
After four hundred years without a prophet John the Baptist and Jesus Christ were murdered, since when no prophet has been sent to Israel. Her Levitical priesthood was replaced by the priesthood of Jesus Christ and spiritual Israelites from every nation, tribe, and tongue of Adam's race, and God sent Titus to destroy the Temple and the Muslims to desecrate Mount Moriah with Al Aqsa Mosque and Es Sakhra, the Dome of the Rock as prophesied by Jesus and Daniel (Daniel 9:26; 11:31; Matthew 24:2, 15). Israel's King was to be God Himself but Israel desired a man "born in sin and conceived in iniquity," who could be touched sensually without faith and chose a handsome Hollywood type who was head and shoulders over his kinsmen: he failed. God's choice was a ruddy-faced little runt named David, a young man of such faith he feared not to confront and slay the Serpent's seed Goliath in the Name of the Lord. As the Israelites degenerated spiritually and morally, God chastised them with a view to correction and at the season foretold by the prophets He took human form as Israel's King through the virgin birth. Repudiated by Israel and "delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, they crucified Him by wicked hands" (Acts 2:23).
Do you see the parallel with the apostate churches of today who despised and rejected the ministry of Brother Branham which revealed Jesus Christ the same, yesterday, and today, and forever, in the office of Son of Man as foretold in Luke 17:28-30 by discerning the thoughts and intents of the heart, restoring sight to the blind, speech and hearing to deaf mutes, casting out demons, making cripples whole, and raising the dead? Do see the reality of "preaching to the total lost"? "For the Word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any twoedged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart" (Hebrews 4:12). This was the Messianic sign that revealed Christ the Word veiled behind the created man in the days of Lot, behind the flesh of the virgin-born Man in the Gospels, and behind the flesh of William Branham, a sinner saved by grace.
The Good Shepherd renounced His flock to receive the consequences of its fatal rejection of the means of their own deliverance. Accordingly He broke the staff He named "Beauty," annulling the Covenant and setting aside the outward symbols distinguishing the excellency of Israel above the Gentiles (Zechariah 11:7) as God's own people hereby removing the restraint from violence which He had hitherto laid upon the enmity of foreign nations. In the day it was broken, the "little flock" who gave heed to the Lord recognized the fulfillment of Scripture (John 10:4-5, 14-15; Jeremiah 32:8). After breaking one, and before breaking the other He asked Jewry for His wages, but only if they were willing to acknowledge and appreciate His pastoral care. That He left the matter to their pleasure—if it seems good"—indicates He served them in obedience to the divine will and not for money. The wages due were heartfelt penitence and faith. But they offered the compensation for a slave who had been killed or the price for which one could purchase a female slave, thirty pieces of silver (Exodus 21:32; Hosea 3:21). Matthew 27:9-10 refers to Jeremiah since he was the original author from whom Zechariah derived the groundwork of the prophecy. Such a contemptuously undervalued offer by the flock was more offensive that a direct refusal, and was indignantly rebuked by the Lord.
Do you see the parallel in Brother Branham's ministry whereby he indicted the Great harlot of Rome and her (once) Protestant daughters, commanding the wise and foolish virgin: "Come out of Babylon that you do not partake of her sins and receive not of her plagues" (Revelation 18:4)? When Christ "the fullness of the Word came" through the spoken Word of Brother Branham's Elijah ministry revealing the unwritten mysteries of the Seven Thunders of Revelation 10, which are the revelations of the six written Seals, the denominations "cut off three shepherds": Prophet, Priest and King, and because "that which was in part was done away" (I Corinthians 13:10) God annulled His Covenant. His priesthood as Mediator in the Office Son of God was fulfilled at the close of the Laodicean Church Age as confirmed by Revelation 4 and 5; simultaneously they rejected His Offices of Son of Man and King. Hence Brother Branham's ministry "proclaimed the day of vengeance of our God" (Isaiah 61:2; Malachi 4:6; Revelation 18:4).
The Good Shepherd then broke the second staff named "Bands," signifying the loss of fraternal unity represented under the disruption of the nation into two hostile entities in the days of Jeroboam of Israel and Rehoboam of Judah, and the severance of the tribes will continue until their reunion and martyrdom in Daniel's Seventieth Week (Isaiah 11:13; Romans 11:15; Revelation 7:1-8). Now the scene changes; instead of personating the wise and kind Good Shepherd, Zechariah is told to play the part of a worthless shepherd, or ruling power. His gentle staves Beauty and Bands are replaced by knives and battle axes, and the flock, so far from being fed, guided and guarded, is torn and devoured, and then at last its misguided rulers are smitten and palsied.
We come now to the Gentile dispensation—2,000 years during which God's Covenant with Israel is breached because to preserve their social standing her shepherds sold Him to Satan incarnate in Judas Iscariot, such was their unbelief (Matthew 26:14-16; John 13:2; Modern Events are made Clear by Prophecy, p. 42:282). John 11:47-50, "The chief priests and the Pharisees summoned the Sanhedrin and said: What shall we do, for this Man does many miracles? If we let Him go on this way, everyone will believe on Him: and the Romans will come and take away both our holy place and nation. But one of them, Caiaphas, the high priest that year, said to them, You know nothing at all, you do not understand that it is expedient for you to have one man die for the people, that the whole nation should not perish".
Zechariah 11:15-17, "The Lord said to me: Take again the implements of a worthless shepherd. For I am raising up in the land a shepherd who does not care for the perishing, nor seek the scattered, or heal the wounded: even the healthy he will not sustain: but the flesh of the fat he will eat, even their hoofs he will tear off [indicating the ferocious greed of the shepherds who will rend the extremities to extract their "pound of flesh"]. Woe to the worthless shepherd who forsakes the flock! The sword shall be upon [the strength of] his arm and [the vigilance of] his right eye: his arm shall be totally withered, and his right eye utterly blinded".
The "worthless shepherd" was pagan Rome that became papal Rome which will ultimately be shepherded by Satan himself, cast down to earth and incarnate in the pope (as he incarnate Judas Iscariot) with whom Jewry will covenant when he restores peace following the brief 'hot stage' of the present World War III (Daniel 7:8-11; 8:9-27; 9:27; 11:35-38), and the world will acclaim him president of one world government. When Jesus said: "I have come in My Father's Name, and you receive Me not: if another comes in his own name, you will accept Him," He was speaking of Israel's false messiah (John 5:43). In Matthew 24:21-23 He said: "[After the destruction of the Temple there] will be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And unless those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved [for the translation]: but for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened [by the revelation of the mystery of the Seven Thunders]. Then if any man tells you, Look, here is Christ, or there; believe it not." Because, as He explains, His second Coming to His Bride and later to Israel, will NOT be the physical 'erchomai' return of the glorified Jesus but the 'parousia' Coming of Christ in W_O_R_D form.
In Revelation 13:1-8 Jesus identifies the pope of Rome, a man incarnate by Satan whom the whole world will worship as the false messiah. ". . . all the world wondered after the beast. And [vicariously] worshipped the dragon [Satan] for he has given his authority to the beast: and they worshipped the beast, saying: Who is like the beast, and who is able to make war against him? . . . And he was allowed to make war on the saints, and to overcome them [in martyrdom]: and power was given him over every tribe and people and tongue and nation. And all who dwell on the earth whose names are not written in the Book of Life of the Lamb slain from the foundation of the world will worship him." And in Revelation 17:11 Jesus identifies this beast as "the eighth, and is of the seven [deified Roman rulers], and goes into perdition".
Isaiah 14:13-14 identifies Israel's false messiah as Lucifer, who will usurp the dedication of the third Temple in Jerusalem and be worshipped as God, "I will sit in the mount of the congregation [of Israel], in the sides of the North: I will ascend above the heights of the clouds; I will be like the Most High," a prophecy confirmed by Paul in II Thessalonians 2:1-12. "The Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our gathering together to meet Him [in the Air] . . . will be preceded by universal apostasy (Matthew 25:6; II Timothy 3-4; Revelation 3:17-20; 18:4) and the revelation of that man of sin, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above every so-called god that is worshipped, so that he seats himself in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God . . . For the mystery of iniquity is already at work: only the Holy Spirit will continue to restrain it until He is taken out of the way in the translation of His end-time Bride. Then that Wicked One will be revealed, whom the Lord Jesus will consume with the Spirit of the spoken Word, and destroy with the brightness of His Coming. . ."
In Luke 19:41-44, Jesus wept over Jerusalem, "Saying, If only you knew that eternal peace was within your reach! But now it is hidden from your eyes. For the time is coming when your enemies will throw up ramparts, and build a trench, and encircle you, and besiege you on every side, and lay you and your children even with the ground; and will not leave one stone upon another; because you knew not the time of your Divine visitation".
In response to the unanimous pleas of the Jews—"Messiah's Blood be on us and upon our children"—the ruin of Jerusalem and Judea was overwhelming (Matthew 26:25). To this day they are ruled by worthless shepherds, impersonators sworn to kill the Covenant people (Genesis 27:39-41) and any who disagree with them. God often uses instruments which He afterwards destroys, and He will destroy the children of Cain whom He set at enmity with Adam's race. How many are the "idol shepherds" in the circle of this Message? "Foolish shepherds" with the audacity to invite Christ-rejecting Talmudic rabbis to speak from their pulpits, promoting the construction of Jerusalem's third Temple and the restoration of animal sacrifices which are patent blasphemy manifesting their folly to all men (II Timothy 3:9; Revelation 3:17-20).
What Rome did to Israel, Jewry will do to the world in Armageddon. Israeli Professor Martin Levi van Creveld declared, "We possess several hundred atomic warheads and rockets and can launch them at targets in all directions, perhaps even at Rome. Most European capitals are targets for our air force. Let me quote General Moshe Dayan: 'Israel must be like a mad dog, too dangerous to bother.' We have the capability to take the world down with us. And I can assure you that this will happen before Israel goes under." Golda Meir stated, "If ever Israel was in danger of being defeated on the battlefield, it would be prepared to take the region and even the whole world down with it." Their international banksters have accomplished this financially with their Babylonian WMD fractional reserve system of usury, which is forbidden by the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob who has provided a way to rid modern Israel of a great many self-styled Jews so that the 144,000 elect Israelites can safely return for redemption to the land of their Covenant in the first half of Daniel's Seventieth Week (Zechariah 14:2; Revelation 12:13-14).
Wicked rulers are the curse of God upon a wicked nation; not only upon Israel, for the United States, Australia and every nation is being chastised by God, because by placing materialism above Christ we have sold principle, soul and nation to the sons of Cain. Satan says politics and religion should never be discussed in polite company. Thus "the whole creation groans and travails in pain together until now, waiting in earnest expectation for the manifestation of the Sons of God" (Romans 8:19, 22). A right understanding of and obedience to heavenly and temporal tenets should be our prime concern as individuals and members of society. Politics and the one true faith, which tends to prevent the reign of evil, must be unashamed partners led by revelation of the Absolute of God's unchanging Word.
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Brother Grigor-Scott is a
non-denominational minister who has ministered full-time since 1981, primarily
to other ministers and their congregations overseas. He pastors Bible Believers' tiny congregation, and is available to teach in your church.
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