Ezekiel 38 and 39 – Part I
Numbers 35:33-34, "You shall not pollute the land wherein you are: for blood defiles the land: and the land cannot be cleansed of the blood that is shed therein, but by the blood of him that shed it. [An eye for an eye and a life for a life]. Defile not therefore the land which you shall inhabit, wherein I dwell: for I the Lord dwell among the children of Israel".
Ezekiel 37:21-28, "THUS SAITH THE LORD; I will take the children of Israel from among the heathen, whither they have gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land: and I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and One King shall be King to them all: and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more: neither shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions: but I will save them out of all their dwelling places wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them: so shall they be My people, and I will be their God."
"And [throughout the millennium] David My servant shall be King over them; and they will all have One Shepherd (Ezekiel 34:23; John 10:16): they shall also walk in My judgments, and observe My statutes, and do them. And they shall dwell in the land that I have given to Jacob My servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they and their children, and their children's children for ever: and My servant David shall be their Prince forever."
"Moreover I will make a covenant of peace with them; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them and multiply them, and will set My sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore. My tabernacle also shall be with them: yea, I will be their God, and they shall be My people. And the heathen shall know that I the Lord do sanctify Israel, when My sanctuary [or Presence] is in their midst for evermore".
Ezekiel 37 describes Israel's restoration to the land of the Covenant in the first part of Daniel's Seventieth Week following a mass exodus of Jewry; the ministry of two Hebrew prophets to 144,000 elect Israelites (Zechariah 4; Revelation 11), their conversion and martyrdom after the midst of the week, and their resurrection in the Millennium. Ezekiel 38 and 39 are set in Daniel's Seventieth Week—after the end of the Gentile dispensation.
Whereas the land of the Covenant has been restored to the modern Israel state which is threatened by an invasion from the north, the Israelites themselves have not been restored. Some of the historical nations take part in the attack, but the invaders are remote barbarians, from outside the ancient civilized world.
In chapters 38 and 39 God will "bring forth Gog" and without human help defeat his vast armies and crumble every possible refuge with divinely induced panic as fell upon the army of the Midianites when Gideon's soldiers smashed their pitchers and shouted the cry to battle (Ezekiel 38:19-23; Judges 6-7). This is the time of the Sixth Seal: men shall implore the mountains, "Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sits upon the Throne and from the wrath of the Lamb." The details are omitted from the description of the victory for it permits no spectators (Genesis 19:24-26; Isaiah 17:12-14) and plunder from Gog's defeat is not treated as riches for Israelite soldiers but as belonging to the real Victor, our Lord Jesus Christ. It is therefore cherem and destined for fire (Ezekiel 39:9-10; Isaiah 9:4-5; Psalm 46:9-11) and as a feast for God's non-human creatures (Ezekiel 39:18-20; Isaiah 34:1-8). Israel's only participation is in burying the dead and destroying the weapons.
Ezekiel 38:1-7, "And the Word of the Lord came to me, saying, Son of man, look northward, toward the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech (Moscow), and Tubal (Tobolsk or Siberia)." [Magog represents the Scythians from whom after intermarriage with the Medes, came the Russians. According to the Table of Nations in Genesis 10, these are descendants of the sons of Japheth. In Ezekiel, "Gog" is their "chief" or principal man, the Czar or President of a union of several lesser princes, however, in Revelation 20:8 which takes place after the general resurrection and prior to the white throne judgment, Gog is a people]. Think carefully on the following and our subject.
The Eastward advance of Rome's empire was prevented by Parthia, which in the apostles' day extended from India to the Tigris, occupying areas now Iran, Iraq, Turkey, Armenia, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan and—for brief periods—sections of Pakistan, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Israel and Palestine. Rising from the ruins of the Persian Empire Parthia was the only power Rome dreaded. The Parthians were Scythian Tartars of the Turanian race whose roots lie in Mongolia. Hmm. An invasion from the East was something greatly feared by John's readers under the Imperial Roman Empire as it has been in the twentieth century under Papal Rome. Until the Armistice it came from Parthia's remnant under the Ottoman Turkish Empire. Alexander the Great's Empire that was succeeded in part by Rome encompassed Greece, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, Libya, Turkey, Armenia, and what would become the Parthian Empire. Today's reviving Holy Roman Empire of the European Union is in league with Israel and the 'City of London' subduing elements of her eastern capital by debt, and Muslim lands of the former Parthian Empire by bombs, guns and 'depleted' uranium at the hands of her US image and NATO since the end of the Church Ages.
Tartar is the name given early Mongol races of Central Asia. They lived in northeastern Gobi during the 400's, but were later driven southward by the Khitan tribes. During the 800's, the Tartars founded the Mongolian Empire. In the 1200's, the Mongols began a movement through Hungary, Romania, Poland, Turkey, Russia, and Bulgaria. Today, the term Tartar describes peoples of Turkish origin and other groups who live in western Asia and the European part of Russia. Their physical features and original stocks depend upon where they live.
Most of the present-day Tartars are Moslems, and speak some form of the Turkish language. Some are nomads. Others settled permanently and worked on farms or gardens. A typical Tartar group is the Kirgiz. Tartar comes from the Manchu word tatar, which means archer or nomad. They early took the form of Tartar because it was associated with Tartarus, the abode of the dead.
"Prophesy against him, and say, THUS SAITH THE LORD; Behold, I am against you, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal: and I will put hooks into your jaws, and draw you from your own land, and I will mobilize your troops and armored cavalry, and make you a mighty host, all fully armed: Persia [Iran], Ethiopia, and Libya [these last two are descendents of Ham]: shall join you with all of their weapons: Gomer, and all its troops; the armies of Togarmah from the distant north with all its troops, as well as many others.
[Gomer and Togarmah are the peoples of the eastern boundary of the old Roman empire in the area around Mount Ararat where the borders of Turkey, Iran, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Russia meet with Syria and Iraq]. Be prepared, stay mobilized, you and all your companies that are assembled unto you. You, Russia, are their leader".
Ezekiel 38:8-12, "After many days you will be summoned; in the latter years you will swoop down upon the land of Israel that is restored from the sword, whose inhabitants have been gathered out of many nations, to the mountains of Israel, which have been a continual desolation: but its people have been brought out from the nations, and are all living securely".
Ezekiel says the land of Israel is restored from the sword at this time and her citizens have been gathered out of the nations. Yet Jesus states emphatically, "Jerusalem shall be trodden down by the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled" (Luke 21:24) so many of the present citizens of Israel are neither Israelites nor even a Semitic people.
Jesus described the time after the Gentile dispensation as a period of extreme and universal terror (Luke 21:25-26). With the United States reeling from an earthquake that sinks Los Angeles, her NATO partners preoccupied supplying relief to their own citizens and former dominions, and Israel invaded after the earthquake splits the mount of Olives and demolishes "es Sakhra," the Dome of the Rock (Zechariah 14:4), Russia will take this window of opportunity to invade the United States and lead the Muslim attack upon Israel, insensible to the fact this prophetic catastrophe signals her restoration to God's favor and consequently their fight is against God.
"You Russians shall go up and roll down upon them like a storm, and cover the land like a cloud, you, and all your troops, and many peoples with you."
"THUS SAITH THE LORD; It shall also come to pass, that at this time things shall come into your mind and you shall devise an evil plan: And you will say, "Israel is an unprotected land of unwalled villages; I will march against them that are at rest, and dwell safely, all dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates." To capture spoil, and to seize plunder; to turn your hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have acquired cattle and goods, who live at the center of the world."
"Sheba, and Dedan, [descendants of Ham who established what we call Yemen in Southern Arabia], and the merchants of Tarshish, shall ask: Have you come to capture spoil? Have you gathered your company to carry away silver and gold, to drive away their cattle and seize their goods, and impoverish them?"
God is sovereign. He examines the motives and objectives of every heart. In addition to contemplating aggression against those who are defenseless and complacent, dwelling securely without walls, bars, or gates, Russia covets Israel's mineral wealth and strategic position "at the center of the earth".
Isaiah 60:5, "Then you shall see and be radiant, and your heart shall rejoice at your glorious return; because the abundant wealth of the Dead Sea shall be yours, the wealth of the Gentiles shall come to you".
A modern State of Israel has been established, the deserts have been made to produce abundantly, and the Dead Sea holds important chemical salts, the estimated total value of which is four times the wealth of the United States. Brother Branham said, "Russia will come down and say: We've just got to have that stuff. That's uranium and everything down there; we got to go get it. And as they go down, then will be the battle of Armageddon. That will be when God will stand like He did in the valley for the children of Israel and fight again. But that will not take place until the Gentile dispensation will be finished. And when that time is finished, she's cut off" (54-0103M, COD, par. 111; 294:530; 61-0806, The Seventieth Week of Daniel, par. 157). But not for several years after this invasion.
Armageddon (Revelation 16:16) is the place of slaughter in the struggle of good and evil as suggested by that great Old Testament battle plain of Esdraelon, which was famous for the victory of Barak over the Canaanites, and Gideon over the Midianites; and for the two great disasters, the death of Saul and Israel's defeat before the Philistines (I Samuel 31), and good king Josiah's death in battle with Pharaoh Necho (II Kings 23:20, 30). Hence in Revelation the scene of a terrible retribution upon the wicked. Armageddon means the hill or city of Megiddo. Both this and the valley of Berachah or 'Blessing,' where Jehoshaphat defeated the Gentiles (II Chronicles 20:26; Zechariah 14:2-4) may be figurative phrases for the scene of the final conflict between Christ and Antichrist. Joel 3:2, 12-14 prophesied, "I will gather the armies of all nations into the valley of Jehoshaphat [which means 'Jehovah has judged'], and punish them there for harming My people, for scattering My inheritance among the nations, and dividing up My land." That will be Armageddon.
Moab, Ammon and the Edomites, whom God did not allow Israel to invade on their journey to the Promised Land, came to invade Israel in the days of Jehoshaphat. God anointed a Levite who prophesied that "the battle is the Lord's" so when Israel goes to do battle, they should once again find their enemies have fought themselves to death (II Chronicles 20).
What a perfect type of God's prophecy for the end-time. Zechariah 14:13, "It shall come to pass in that day that Russia will be seized with great panic from the Lord; and they will fight against each other in hand-to-hand combat." In II Chronicles it was Moab, Ammon and the Edomites who attacked the Land of the Covenant, here Russia and the Islamic nations will attack.
Ezekiel 38:14-16, "Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say to Russia, THUS SAITH THE LORD: In the day when My people Israel live securely, won't you know it? And you will come from your place out of the remote north, you, and your vast host of cavalry will come up against My people Israel, like a cloud to cover the land; it shall be in the latter days, that I shall bring you against My Land, in order that the nations may know Me, when I shall be sanctified in your defeat, O Russia, before their eyes".
"THUS SAITH THE LORD: Are you he of whom I have spoken in old time by My servants the prophets of Israel, who prophesied in those days for many years that I would bring you against them" (Deuteronomy 32:43; Isaiah 5:26-29; 34:1-6; 63:1-6; 66:15-16; Joel 3:9-14)?
God calls Israel "My people," and the Land "My Land," signifying the Gentile dispensation is over, and He is dealing only with Israel. So an offense against Israel is an affront to God.
Though Gog stirs himself, comes from his place, and goes up like a cloud against Israel—three verbs implying his own self-propulsion—the real controlling power behind his attack is solely God: "It is 'I' Who will bring you." Ezekiel 38:4, "I will put hooks into your jaws, and draw you from your own land . . ." And by bringing Russia to the land for judgment, God will prove to the nations His Own holiness. Clearly, therefore, Ezekiel 38-39 describe "a time of trouble" that commences with an invasion of Israel after the Gentile dispensation, followed by three and a half years of 'peace' under Judaeo-Roman one world government during which two prophets minister to Israel, after which Rome breaks her covenant and the so-called Jews and their Black Nobility switch allegiance to Judaeo-Communist Russia then bomb Vatican City State and the United States, initiating Armageddon.
Ezekiel 38:18-20, "And it shall come to pass when Russia comes against the land of Israel," declares the Lord God, that My fury shall explode. For in My jealousy and blazing wrath I declare in that day there shall be a great earthquake in the land of Israel; And the fish of the sea, the birds of heaven, the beasts of the field, all the creeping things that creep upon the earth, and all men upon the face of the earth, will shake at My Presence, and the mountains shall be thrown down, cliffs shall tumble, and every wall shall fall to the ground".
Haggai 2:21-23, "Speak to Zerubbabel, governor of Judah [and representative of the Davidic monarchy and Covenant in the lineal ancestry of Jesus Christ], saying, "I will shake the heavens and the earth; And I will overthrow the throne of kingdoms, and I will destroy the strength of the kingdoms of the heathen; and I will overthrow the chariots, and those that ride in them; and the horses and their riders shall come down, everyone by the sword of his brother. [Russia and her allies will slaughter one another]. In that day, says the Lord of hosts, will I take you O Zerubbabel, My servant, the son of Shealtiel, says the Lord, and will make you [through Messiah, your descendant] My signet [Seal of Redemption]: for I have chosen you [with whom to renew My Covenant to David's line, says the Lord of hosts".
The earthquake follows and marks the Presence of God (Isaiah 2:19-21; Jeremiah 4:23-26; Joel 2:2, 21; Zechariah 14:3-4). It will sink Los Angeles, and split the Mount of Olives, destroying the Mosque of Omar on the Temple mount. For mercenary and strategic reasons, Russia and the Moslems through religious fanaticism grasp this opportunity and invade Israel, but God stands for His land and His people.
I Kings 19:11-12, "And God said to Elijah, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord. And, behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and broke in pieces the rocks before Him; but the Lord was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake: And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice."
This is precisely what occurred at Sunset Mountain in 1964 where a strong wind rent rocks from the mountain side, and each rock was a representation of the Caagsone mystery Brother Branham had delivered in the revelation of the Seven Seals. The Lord told Him, "Judgment is striking the West Coast," and three days later on March 27, 1964 a magnitude 9.2 earthquake struck Alaska. It was the second-largest earthquake recorded in modern times and the largest in the written history of North America, releasing 100 times more energy than the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and followed by tsunamis. Over 100,000 square miles of Alaska broke, twisted, tilted, dropped and rose, the floor of Seward harbour was lowered by 315 feet. Water sloshed in lakes and harbours as distant as Louisiana and water levels jumped in wells as far away as South Africa; seismic waves traveled through the planet for weeks and the Earth rang like a bell.
For all of this, Christ was not in the strong wind, nor was He in the earthquake. He was the still small Voice unfolding His secrets in the heart of His Bride to bring her to maturity in the unity of the faith for the manifestation of the Sons of God and the translation. And God will not be in the earthquake or the four winds that strike the mountains of Israel, but in the still small Voice of His two witnesses.
"And I will call for a sword against Russia throughout all My mountains says the Lord God: every man's sword shall be against his brother. With disease and with blood shall I fight him; and I will rain upon him and on his troops, and on the many peoples who are with him, a torrential rain of fire, and with hailstones of brimstone. Thus will I magnify, and sanctify Myself; and I will be known in the sight of many nations, and they shall know that I am the Lord".
I find it interesting that unlike the Book of Daniel, these chapters don't deal with Romanism and the beast but with Russia and the Islamic people. Rome does not become involved until after this battle when they form an alliance with the USA and the international Jews, and the Pope restores peace. Verses 21-23 would appear to be a summary of God's judgment upon Russia and its Muslim allies throughout the seven-year period of the Sixth Seal. The climax: rain of fire and hail of brimstone, is reminiscent of the judgment upon Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19:24-28). The chapter concludes with a triple assertion of God's purpose: "I will magnify Myself, and sanctify Myself; and I will be known in the sight of the many nations who witness Gog's fate, so they will recognize that I Am God." In thus exercising His wrath against the world powers, God proves His true identity and implies that His people shall be saved as in the Exodus. And as Joshua took seven years to conquer the land, so now Israel will spend an allegorical seven years destroying discarded weaponry after God defeats their invaders.
Ezekiel 39:1-16, "Therefore, you son of man, prophesy against Gog, and say, THUS SAITH THE LORD; Behold, I am against you, O Russia, the Leader of Meshech [Moscow] and Tubal [Tobolsk, Siberia]: and I will turn you around and drive you from the remotest parts of the north, and bring you against the mountains of Israel. [In the KJV we also read, "And leave but the sixth part of thee" which is a misinterpretation and should read: "drive" or "forcibly march"]. And I will smite your bow out of your left hand, and cause your arrows to fall out from your right hand."
"You and all your vast armies will die upon the mountains of Israel and I will give you as food to the birds of prey, and wild animals will devour you. You shall not reach the city, but fall upon the open fields: for I have spoken it, says the Lord God. And I will rain down fire on Russia, and on all your allies who live safely on the coasts: and they shall know that I am the Lord. Thus will I make My holy Name known among My people Israel; and I will not let them profane it any more: and the nations shall know that I am the Lord, the Holy One in Israel. Behold, that Day of Judgment will come, and everything will happen just as I have declared. And they that inhabit the cities shall go forth, and gather the weapons, and they shall burn them with fire seven years: They shall take no wood out of the field, neither cut down any out of the forests; for these weapons will furnish all the fuel they require: and they shall use the possessions of those who despoiled them, and rob those who plundered them," says the Lord God. And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will give to Russia a vast graveyard in Israel in the valley of the travelers, east of the Dead Sea: and it will block the path of the travelers: there Gog and all his multitude will be buried: and they shall call it "The valley of Hamongog" [Gog's Army].
It will take seven months for the house of Israel to bury them, in order to cleanse the Land.
"Everyone in Israel will help bury them; for it will be a glorious victory for Israel on the day I glorify Myself, says the Lord God. And at the end of seven months they shall employ men to systematically search throughout the land for any skeletons and to bury them, to cleanse it: And the travelers who see a man's bone, shall set up a sign by it, so they can be located and transported for burial in the valley of Hamongog. The name of the city there shall be Hamonah [Army or Multitude]. Thus shall they cleanse the land".
Ezekiel 39:1-16 restates the previous chapter with variations in detail. The first five verses announce Gog's defeat. In verses 6-8 we are told that Gog's defeat is extended to his homeland and that of his allies. The Fire of God's wrath will rain upon Magog and his allies "living carelessly" (i.e. securely (Heb.) 'betach') in distant lands. An ironic note, since Israel's own defenseless "living in security" had prompted Gog to launch his attack.
Gog's defeat and the destruction of his homeland will be followed by the burning of his weapons. A number of other Biblical passages use the motif of weapons to emphasize God's superiority over the nations, or the foolishness of trusting in, or fearing weapons.
Of Israel's restoration to the Land, Christ's 'parousia' to Israel, and the Millennium, Isaiah 9:4-7 says, "God has broken the yoke of Israel's burden, and the staff on their shoulder, the rod of their oppressor, as when He destroyed the vast host of Midianites on the plain of Esdraelon [which is Armageddon] by Gideon's little band. For every battle of the warrior is with confused noise, and garments rolled in blood; but this shall all be for burning as fuel for the fire. For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon His shoulder: and His Name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. There shall be no end to the increase of His government and of peace, upon the throne of David, and upon His kingdom, to establish and to uphold it, with judgment and with justice from henceforth forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of hosts will perform this" as Ezekiel 39:6 confirms.
The people themselves destroy the weapons; in fact this task and the burial are their only real participation in the whole contest. As the account makes clear from beginning to end, Gog's invasion and his defeat are totally under God's control. So much weaponry will be abandoned it will provide sufficient fuel to supply Israel with domestic fuel seven full years. If this is a literal period to be fulfilled, it must be placed at the start of the seventieth week as we have been teaching. However, I suspect the seven years is hyperbole implying completeness of the cleansing, and the people's zeal for purity. How different from the ancient Israelites, who left not merely the arms, but the heathen themselves, to remain among them.
The promise they will despoil those who would despoil them, and take booty from those who would rob them, turns the tables on Gog. Further irony is seen in that God gives Gog a burial place in the land, rather than the land itself. The burying of the remains of the dead keeps the land pure from ritual pollution, and since it proceeds for seven months, emphasizes the enormity of Gog's defeat and God's glory.
Ezekiel 39:17-21, "Son of man, THUS SAITH THE LORD; call all the birds and animals and say, assemble yourselves, and come; gather yourselves from far and near to My sacrifice which I am going to sacrifice for you, upon the mountains of Israel, that you may eat flesh, and drink blood. You shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, as though they were rams, lambs, goats, and bullocks, all of them fatlings of Bashan."
"You shall eat fat until you are glutted, and drink blood until you are drunk from My sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you. Thus you shall be filled at My table with horses and charioteers, with mighty men, and with all the men of war, says the Lord God. And I will set My glory among the nations, and all the nations shall see My judgment that I have executed, and My hand that I have laid on them".
The animal guests at the feast eat the fat and the blood, normally reserved in a sacrifice for Jehovah for these sacrifices are 'unclean.' The victory over Gog will be an occasion for the nations to see Jehovah's glory and to realize His justice. However, like pharaoh, their day of grace has expired and their hearts have been seared by the hot iron of unbelief.
The Son of man, Jesus Christ, has come down in His 'parousia' and made His Word so real it has united the Bride as one with Him and she has been taken Home. We go to the wedding supper, not to the marriage. Because "the marriage of the Lamb has come to pass . . . And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in the midst of heaven, Come! Gather yourselves together for the supper of the great God, that you may eat the flesh of kings, and captains, and valiant men, of horses and riders, and the of all humanity both small and great, bond and free" (Revelation 19:7-9,17-18; Ezekiel 39:17-20; 64-0816, Proving His Word, par. 236).
Ezekiel 39:22-23, "So the house of Israel shall know that I am the Lord their God from that day and forward. And the nations shall know that the house of Israel went into exile for their iniquity: because they dealt treacherously against Me, therefore I hid My face from them, and gave them to the hand of their enemies: and all of them fell by the sword".
Through Gog's overwhelming defeat the 144,000 elect Israelites will return to Israel. The cleansing of the land symbolizes renewed zeal for the Mosaic Law and ordinances. As Malachi 4:4 says, "Remember the Law of Moses My servant, which I commanded him in Horeb for all Israel, with the statutes and judgments." Before their 'Elijah' can introduce the elect to the New Covenant of Ezekiel 36, their 'Moses' must take them back to their foundation in the Old Covenant whence they have fallen.
This is no indication of repentance. Revelation 22:11, "He that is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he who is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he that is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he that is holy, let him be holy still." The time for repentance among "the nations" has passed. Those who are "the saved" must lay down their lives for their principles, or take the mark of the beast and have their names removed from the Book of Life.
Brother Branham said, "For three and one-half years while the retributive wrath of God is poured out, His Bride 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. 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" (William Branham, An Exposition of the Seven Church Ages, p. 40:2).
Ezekiel 36:21-29, "But I had pity for My holy Name, which the house of Israel had profaned among the heathen, whither they went. Therefore say to the house of Israel, THUS SAITH THE LORD; I do this not for your sakes, O house of Israel, but for My holy Name's sake, which you have profaned among the heathen, whither you went. And I will sanctify My great Name, which was profaned among the heathen, which you have profaned in the midst of them; and the heathen shall know that I am the Lord, says the Lord God, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes."
"For I will take you from among the heathen, and gather you out of all countries, and will bring you into your own land. Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and you shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put within you: and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh."
"And I will put My Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you shall keep My judgments, and do them. And you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; and you shall be My people, and I will be your God. I will also save you from all your uncleannesses. . ."
From the time of God's great sacrifice of Gog's army, the nations will learn it was because of iniquity and rebellion that Israel went into exile, and not God's weakness or His inability to defend them. But they will only harden their hearts for they have come to a place of no more repentance.
Ezekiel 39:24-29, "According to their uncleanness and according to their transgressions have I dealt with them, and hid My face from them. Therefore THUS SAITH THE LORD; Now will I restore Jacob, and have mercy upon the whole house of Israel, and will be jealous for My holy Name; their time of treachery and shame shall all be in the past, when they live safely in their land, with no one to make them afraid."
"Once I have brought them back from the peoples, and gathered them out from the lands of their enemies, My glory will be evident to all nations; then Israel shall know that I am the Lord their God, who caused them to be led into exile among the heathen: and then have gathered them to their own land, and left none of them there any longer. Neither will I hide My face any more from them: for I have poured out My Spirit upon the house of Israel, says the Lord God".
Restoration will lead to serious reflection among the elected on the reasons that led to their historic departure from the Land. Ezekiel uses the account of God's defeat of Gog's invasion in chapters 38 and 39 to underscore once more the finality and irreversibility of the divine promise for the future of Israel.
May the Lord use these words to clarify our understanding of things to come.Ezekiel Chapter 38 and 39 – Part II
Let us quickly review our study from Ezekiel 33 which commences the second and principal part of this Book and concerns faith in Jesus Messiah through whom God's mercies toward an election from the blood descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, and the restoration of the Kingdom to Israel will be realized. As we shall see, chapters 33 to 39, and right up to 48 pertain almost exclusively to Daniel's Seventieth Week.
Ezekiel's commission as a spiritual watchman to the house of Israel (Ezekiel 3:17-21) is renewed in chapter 33 where he is called upon to convey God's warnings as He reveals them to His prophet. The Lord vindicates Ezekiel before the captives and lays down repentance as the necessary preliminary to happier times for the people; the alternative was death. From chapters 33 – 37 Ezekiel is admonished of his duty to reveal to Israel its sin and hypocrisy, reprove the ministry, prophesy the destruction of Edom, and exhort Israel regarding its future hope in the unity of faith and brotherhood—very much a pattern for Brother Branham's ministry.
The "shepherds" were the entire body of officials responsible for the spiritual and political leadership of the people. In Ezekiel 34 the Lord reproves and promises removal of the false shepherds as preparatory to the raising up of Messiah, the Good Shepherd (Ezekiel 34:29-31) who will serve His people and not personal interests (Jeremiah 23:1; Zechariah 11:17). King David is His type (Ezekiel 34:23-24; John 10:16) as suggested in II Samuel 5:2 and Psalm 78:70-72, restoring the kingdom to Israel with millennium blessings. (See Newsletter 733, "Ezekiel 33 – 34").
Ezekiel 35 states that those who exulted over Israel's humiliation shall themselves be an irrecoverable "prey." As already noted in Ezekiel 25:12-14, Mount Seir, Esau/Edom or Idumea (Genesis 36:9) is singled out as seriously pre-eminent in its bitterness against God's people and made to represent all of their enemies everywhere and in all ages, both the natural and spiritual Serpent's seed (Genesis 3:15; 12:3). So in Isaiah 34:5 and 63:1-4 we see that Edom, the region of the greatest enmity towards God's people is metaphorically the ideal scene of the final judgments of all God's foes.
Ezekiel 35:10-15 states that the Lord God will make Himself known among Israel—all 144,000 elect Israelites—after He has judged Edom (Ezekiel 35:11). Brother Branham revealed that Christ will make Himself known to Israel after the midst of Daniel's Seventieth Week when Rome has broken her covenant with the self-styled Jewish banksters (Daniel 9:27; 11:44-45 – 12:1; An Exposition of the Seven Church Ages, p. 40:2). Verses 14-15, "Thus saith the Lord God; when the whole earth rejoices, I will make Edom desolate".
Revelation 11:18-19, "The Gentiles were angry; [having sold their birthright they are hereinafter regarded as Edomites and like Esau find no place of repentance (Hebrews 12:16-17)], and Your wrath is come, and the time that the dead should be judged, and that you should reward your servants the prophets and saints, and those who fear Your Name, small and great; and should destroy those who are destroying the earth. And God's temple in heaven was opened, and the Ark of His Covenant [the symbol of God's favour toward and Presence with Israel] was seen in His sanctuary [by the 144,000 by vision or revelation]. . ."
At this time Rome and her allies will send troops to force trinitarianism, her mark of the beast, and destroy all the God-fearing, Word-abiding Israelites (Revelation 13:15-18), and you can bet your last jar of Vegemite the lick spittle politicians will have Australian troops at the heels of Sir Henry Kissinger's US "Military men [who] are dumb, stupid animals to be used as pawns for foreign policy." But the Lord will repulse the enemy. "In that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all who burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth are gathered together against it. In that day, says the Lord, I will smite every horse with astonishment, and his rider with madness: and I will open My eyes upon the house of Judah, and will smite every horse of the people with blindness. . . in that day I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem. And I will pour upon the house of David, and upon the inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Spirit of grace and of supplications" (Zechariah 12 – 13; Daniel 11:44-45 – 12:1). Thus will the Lord sanctify Himself in the sight of Israel.
"The whole earth" signifies God's elect of all Ages, here the Old Testament saints: "a great voice of much people in heaven, shout Alleluia; salvation and glory and honour and power to the Lord our God . . . Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to Him: for the marriage of the Lamb has come to pass, and His wife has made herself ready" (Revelation 19:1-21). In this proleptic vision Christ's Bride of all Ages and the glorified 144,000 Israelites declare: "Rejoice over her, heaven, and you holy apostles and prophets; for God has avenged you on her" (Revelation 18:20; Jeremiah 51:48; Isaiah 49:13; Revelation 12:12; 17:6; 18:24). And in Revelation 14:1-5 and 15:1-4, 144,000 elect Israelites will rejoice when the Israel nation is born-again in one day. Then the foes of God and His people, physical or spiritual Serpent's Seed personified as Edom, shall be desolate. Circumstances will be completely reversed, and Israel that now for a time mourns shall then rejoice, and forever. Edom that now rejoices over fallen Israel shall then, when elsewhere all is joy, mourn, and forever (Isaiah 65:17-19).
Revelation 19 speaks of Israel's belated recognition of the sign of Christ's second or 'parousia' Coming manifest over a bifurcated Mount of Olives; Vatican City State has been bombed from the face of the earth and heaven opens," meaning the Lord reveals a vision signifying the Word, Husband and Wife, coming in judgment upon the beast and the false prophet and all who have received the mark of the beast and worshipped His image, to cast them into the lake of Fire.
This will be "the day of vengeance of our God to comfort all that mourn [the atonement (Zechariah 12:10 – 13:9)]. To put on the head of those who mourn in Zion a beautiful ornament and the oil of joy instead of the ashes of mourning, a garment which excites praise and admiration [for the divine goodness which has been manifested to them] instead of [sack cloth and] the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called oaks of righteousness planted by the Lord to glorify Himself" (Isaiah 61:2-3; 60:21). "For the Lord has a day of vengeance, a year of recompense for the cause of Zion" (Isaiah 34:8). But as there is no true grace without justice, Israel must make recompense in martyrdom and fulfill Matthew 27:25 (Revelation 14:12 – 14:5:4). The millennium follows (Isaiah 65:16-25; Ezekiel 34:23-28).
Ezekiel 35:15, "As you [Edom] rejoiced at the inheritance of the house of Israel because it was desolate, so will I deal with you: you shall become desolate, Mount Seir, and all Edom. So they shall know that I am the Lord." Only the elect of God shall inherit, and "although it does not yet appear what we shall be, we know that when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is" (I John 3:2).
Ezekiel 36 continues the prophet's theme of Israel's prospective revival and the essential distinction between Israel and Edom typing the apostasy of all of our (once) Christian nations with heathendom—including YOUR nation Mister—whichever it is, because God concludes them all in unbelief (Romans 11:32; Galatians 3:22). That knocks British Israel/Christian Identity out for a duck! In verses 1-15 we discover the essential distinction between Israel and Edom and all other nations is Israel's Covenant relationship to God ensuring restoration after chastisement so that the heathen's hopes of dispossessing Israel of the land of the Covenant must fail and they themselves be made desolate. This is why I foresee a mass exodus of the impersonators at the start of Daniel's Seventieth Week when "Jerusalem is invaded and the overcome, the houses looted, their wives and daughters raped, and the spoils calmly divided in the midst of the city" (Zechariah 14:1-2). The reason for Israel's chastisement was their incorrigible wickedness, and the necessity for God to vindicate the cause of His holiness on them in the severity of His displeasure (verses 16-21). Thus the Lord determines to "sanctify His great Name. . . in Israel before the heathen" by gathering the Israelites into their own land then largely vacated by the Serpent's seed, justifying them by grace through faith, sanctifying their mortal spirits, and ultimately regenerating their souls by the baptism with the Holy Spirit (verse 22-33). Hereby the heathen will be impressed with the power and goodness of God manifested so palpably towards the restored people (Ezekiel 36:34-38). Then Israel will regard the Lord as the Holy One, and acknowledge the holiness and justice of His judgments (Revelation 15:1-4).
Ezekiel 37 explains the outworking of the prophecies of the chapters reviewed above. The dry bones are a metaphor for the twelve tribes descended from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, who will be gathered back to the land of the Covenant in the first half of Daniel's Seventieth Week. Brother Branham identified the vision of dry bones with Israel's Spiritual revival "in the third day . . . as the [Bride's] latter rain and [Israel's] former rain upon the earth" (Hosea 6:1-3; Joel 2:22-23). Following the earthquake at the manifestation of the Sixth Seal the twelve tribes will be gathered from the four winds and brought back to the land of the Covenant where the Lord will restore the brotherhood between Israel and Judah (Matthew 24:31), and bring them under the headship of Jesus Messiah. Hereby He will put His Spirit within them through the ministry of the prophets of Zechariah 4 and Revelation 11 which will "reinstruct" the temple for the millennium. This sanctuary will be His Presence within 144,000 elect Israelites in the Millennium Temple. "And the nations will know that I the Lord do sanctify Israel, when My Sanctuary is in the midst of them forevermore" (Ezekiel 37:27-28; 39:29; Revelation 7:4-8).
Daniel 9:26-27, "After sixty-two weeks [or 434 prophetic years] Messiah will be cut off, His earthly kingdom anticipated by the Israelites unrealized at this time: and the people of General Titus will destroy the city and the sanctuary which will be overwhelmed as with a flood, and to the very end of the war [against God that commenced with Israel's murder of Messiah] desolations are decreed on Jerusalem. [Josephus recognized this in the title of his book, "The Wars of the Jews or the History of the Destruction of Jerusalem;" these natural wars are the plagues of the Seven Trumpets]. Rome's [then Devil-incarnate] pope will ratify the prophesied covenant with the international Jews for one week of seven prophetic years: and in the midst of the week he will outlaw the sacrifice and the oblation [they will reestablish as in Ezra 3:1-6 following the destruction of the Dome of the Rock], and in order to force the abomination of his trinitarian mark of the beast he will make Jerusalem desolate unto the consummation of life which is determined and will be poured upon the desolate [metaphorical Edomites]" (Luke 21:24; Revelation 19:19-21; 20:10).
Daniel prophesied two thousand years of war between Imperial and Judaeo-Papal Rome and Israelites, and between Israelites and the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, commencing with their rejection of Messiah in Matthew 23 and His murder in Matthew 27. Ezekiel 38-39, Daniel 7-12, Zechariah 12-14 and Revelation 6-19 mention three principal battles in this war during Daniel's Seventieth Week, the "hot stage" of the present World War III between political Zion and political Islam and "the King of the North" at the outset. With Russia's US victory, the Judaeo-Roman false church in federation with all religions will halt hostilities by decree and restore peace, confirming the authority of "the god of this age" then incarnate in Rome's pope (Matthew 4:8-9; John 12:31; II Corinthians 4:4; I John 5:19; Revelation 13:4, 8). He will be acclaimed inaugural president of one world government and in covenant with the Jewish banksters of the 'City of London' Rome will refinance the US dollar with gold backing and revive the world economy. Once monetary, fiscal and economic problems are resolved in the midst of the Week she will abrogate her covenant, usurp the dedication of the third temple and force her religion on pain of death. Initially her troops will be repulsed in the siege of Jerusalem, but once they are born-again she will martyr the 144,000 Israelites and the "saved" who refuse to serve her and her once Protestant US image, or receive her trinitarian dogma. International Jewry will turn upon the revived Holy (sic) Roman Empire cum banking rival, and support Judaeo-Communist Russia, and exercising their "Samson Option" bomb Vatican City State and the United States from the face of the earth which will lead to the battle of Armageddon and the consummation of life.
Ezekiel 33-39 is not an historical record but a series of prophecies, not in strict chronological order, and even as we read chapter 39 many of the events foretold in the previous chapters, such as the restoration of the Israelites to the land of the Covenant are yet to be fulfilled.
In Ezekiel 9 the Angel of the Lord placed a mark on elect Israelites ahead of the Roman Legions. Historians inform us these Christians escaped to Pella in the Jordan valley before Titus marched on Jerusalem (Matthew 24:15-21). In Revelation 8:5 the Messenger of Mercy becomes the Angel of Judgment as He did in Ezekiel 10:2, and He will seal 144,000 elect Israelites before the armies of Rome and her allies can take the city and martyr these Christians (Revelation 7:3-8).
Brother Branham does not explicitly expound Ezekiel 38 and 39 so we must cross-reference these Scriptures to parallel passages in Isaiah, Daniel, Zephaniah, Zechariah, Joel, Revelation, etc. This is what he has said on Ezekiel 38 and 39:
Ezekiel 38:12: "Dead Sea and all these things they're putting out the materials that's there, the Jews real rich, then that same thing will pollute their camp again. Yeah. They'll come right down, the cities of the world. Russia will come down, say, "We just got to have that stuff. That's uranium and everything down there; we got to go get it." And as they go down, then will be the battle of Armageddon. That'll be when God will stand like He did in the valley for the children of Israel and fight again. But that'll take place until the Gentile dispensation will be finished. And when that time is finished, she's cut off" (54-0103M, COD, par. 111; Isaiah 60:5; Joel 3:1-2, UNSCOP [UN docs. A/C.I/P.V.46-57 May 6-13, 1947]).
"The Dead Sea holds more riches than all the rest of the world put together" (57-1002, COD, par. 530).
"And we find out that in the Dead Sea there's more chemicals, enough to buy the world over" (61-0806, Daniel, par. 57).
Cunningham Craig of the Canadian Geological Survey discovered the chemical and mineral wealth of the Dead Sea in the 1920's, which is the real reason why Rothschild (who obtained title) and his Zionist stooges wanted to make Palestine into a Jewish State. In 1976 president F. D. Roosevelt's son-in-law Colonel Curtis B. Dall wrote: "The United Nations must take into consideration that the Zionists consist almost entirely of Eastern European Yiddish-speaking Jews of Khazar origin, or emigrants who have gone to live in other countries where they have never become loyal citizens."
"The Zionists claim that there is a 'Jew Race' or 'Jew Nation,' which is seeking to 'reconquer its former homeland' and to 'repatriate' this 'Jew Race' or 'Jew Nation' to the 'homeland' of its origin. The Zionists are spending tens of millions of dollars to force the acceptance of this historic and ethnic untruth upon an audience throughout the world which does not suspect that the Zionists could possibly be guilty of the great fraud in which they are engaged. There is not, and never has been a 'Jew Race' or 'Jew Nation.' There is not, and never has been, at any time in history, a 'race' which can be in any way—historically or racially associated with the Zionists."
"The claim of the Eastern European, Yiddish-speaking Jews of Pagan-Khazar origin to an historic or ethnic association either with Palestine or the Jews who lived there is one of the world's greatest frauds."
"The five trillion dollar ($5,000,000,000,000) chemical and mineral wealth of the Dead Sea is the real reason why the Zionists wish to make Palestine into a Jew State. (This is Benjamin H. Freedman's emphasis. All other emphasis is mine. CBD)."
"Little notice, if any, has been taken of what is the underlying cause of the present situation in Palestine. It is incorrectly supposed that the existing situation results from the question whether the Arab or Jewish community is to be preponderate numerically in the country. The real reason is rarely mentioned, even in private, and is not entirely appreciated in Palestine itself. This reason calls for more careful consideration than any other fact in connection with the entire Palestine problem."
"The possession of this five thousand billion dollar wealth of the Dead Sea is the only reason why the Eastern European, Yiddish speaking Jews of Pagan Khazar origin wish to re-establish the former Jew state in Palestine. . . If it were not for the Dead Sea, the sinister Zionist High Command would be quite content to allow the two hundred thousand remaining Eastern European Yiddish-speaking Jews of Khazar origin to be distributed throughout the world amongst the democratic countries where ten million of their co-religionists are already living in security and safety with civil rights equal to those of other citizens guaranteed by Constitutional provision. . . The well-veiled objective of the Zionists backed by the Rothschild financial interests was to acquire valid title to the Dead Sea and its vast, inexhaustible deposits of potash and other minerals, estimated by experts to be worth several thousand billions of dollars. Hence, any country owning title to the Dead Sea, with its vast mineral reserves would, in time, become the wealthiest country in the world. This is the secret concealed behind the 'Potash Curtain' (FDR's son-in-law Col. Curtis B. Dall, Israel's Five Trillion Dollar Secret, p. 9-10).
Ezekiel 38-39: Will the prophecy of Ezekiel 38 and 39 be fulfilled before the rapture?
"I think not. I think the next thing we look for is the rapture of the church. And then that's when Gog and Magog comes down is the Russian armies who comes in after" (54-0515, COD, par. 312).
Will Ezekiel 38 and 39 come to pass before the rapture?
"Now if you will notice, Ezekiel 38 and 39 deals with Gog and Magog, which is Russia, the north country. Now, I do not say that this is correct, but to my way of teaching it, that, it comes to pass after the rapture, after the church is taken up. And God deals with Gog and Magog when they come down before Israel there. And I think that will come to pass after the rapture. Now, that doesn't make it so. See? But that's just my way of teaching it. I suppose that's what they wanted to know, what my idea was" (61-0723E, COD, par. 102).
Ezekiel 39:17-20: "Now, we say He's raised from the dead. I didn't say it; the Word here said it. They said, "He raised from the dead." He says "He's the same yesterday, today, and forever." You believe that? He promised these things to happen in the last day that the same Son of man will be made manifest."
"Now, remember, that was not Jesus talking to Abraham there that could discern the thoughts in Sarah's mind behind him. That was not Jesus; He had not yet been born. But it was a Man in human flesh, that Abraham called, "Elohim, the great Almighty," [Genesis 18] showing. . . And Jesus said, "As it was in the days of Sodom," now watch close, "in the days of Sodom, so will it be at the Coming of the Son of man, when the Son of man is being revealed" [Luke 17:28-30]. Not no more as a church [with PART-Word and the Son of God as Mediator for ignorance of the fullness] (See?), not no more; the Bride's called. See? "In that day the Son of man will be revealed." What? To join the Church to the Head, unite the marriage of the Bride." [Uniting us with the fullness of the Word, which is Christ in the office of Son of man—King of kings and Judge—(John 5:27) through the revelation of the Seven Seals; His mediation for the ignorance of the Church Age saints in the fullness of the Word being fulfilled at the close of Laodicea (I Corinthians 13:10; Ephesians 4:13)].
"The Bridegroom call [Matthew 25:6, which is the "shout" of I Thessalonians 4:16; Revelation 10:1-7] will come right through this, when the Son of man will come down and come in human flesh to unite the two together. The Church has to be the Word; He is the Word, and the two unites together, and to do that it'll take the manifestation of the revealing of the Son of man. Not a clergyman. I don't know, I. . . Do you see what I mean [Hebrews 13:8; 4:12]"?
"See, it's Son of man, Jesus Christ, will come down in human flesh among us, [veiled behind the sin-born flesh of the seventh angel, William Branham, as He was veiled behind the created Man in Genesis 18, and the virgin-born Man in the Gospels] and will make His Word so real that it'll unite the Church and Him as one, the Bride, and then she'll go Home to the wedding supper [Matthew 25:10]. Amen. She's already united (See?); we go to the wedding supper, not to the marriage. "Fill your flesh . . . self, of all the flesh of mighty men, 'cause the marriage of the Lamb has come [to pass" (Isaiah 18:6; 34:6-7; Ezekiel 39: 4, 17-20; Revelation 19:17-18)]. But the rapture is going to the wedding supper [Revelation 19:9]. When the Word here unites with the person, and they two become one, and then what does it do then? It manifests the Son of man again, not the church theologians, the Son of man. The Word and the Church becomes one. Whatever the Son of man done, He was the Word, the Church does the same thing [John 14:12; Romans 8:19, the 'third pull']" (Proving His Word, p. 44:236).
In numerous other quotes Brother Branham speaks of Gog and Magog, which is Communist Russia, "the king of the North".
Daniel 11:40: "Now, Daniel is given this assurance, that at the end of the Gentile dispensations . . . tomorrow read the 11th chapter. You can see how the king of the north is coming down (which is nothing else but Russia), coming down to press against it like a whirlwind. And the great battle of Armageddon will be fought right there near the gates of Jerusalem. Notice, oh, I love this.
". . . and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that's been found written in that book. . ." (the Lamb's Book of Life).
"Michael, the great prince, shall stand up for" (what?) "for thy people." All right.
"And many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake" (When? When these times take place), ". . . and some to everlasting life, and some to shame and everlasting contemptment" (55-0109E, Beginning and Ending of the Gentile Dispensation, par. 100-101; Daniel 12:1-2; Jeremiah 25:30-33).
Revelation 17:4: "Now, the seven heads are the seven mountains on which the city sets. And this woman is a city, we know. "And the woman was arrayed in purple . . ."
". . . The beast was scarlet, but the woman was arrayed in purple. Now, have I not warned you the other day, there's three curtains? I don't know how long I'll live, but remember this. As I've told you many years ago, "Watch Russia." . . . There's three curtains; remember this. There is the iron curtain. There is the bamboo curtain (Red China and so). And there's a purple curtain; you watch that curtain; that's the deceiver. So much. . ." (54-0513, The Pergamean Church Age, par. 179-262; Matthew 24:24).
Revelation 3:14-22: "Now, the church life is at the end, the normal church, the church . . . carnal, the Esau church, she's come to her end. What she doing? Heading up in the federation of churches, which will finally join with Romanism Catholicism to fight Communism. Pope John is calling for all the churches to come back, and they will. And they'll unite themselves together; just exactly THUS SAITH THE LORD" (60-0221, Hearing, Recognizing, Acting on the Word of God, par. 215; II Thessalonians 2:3-12; II Timothy 4:3-4; Revelation 13:14; 17:5).
Revelation 17:5: "Don't worry about Russia. Russia's a small pebble on the beach. Don't you worry about communism; you watch Romanism, when it's uniting with the churches. There's nothing written in the Scripture about communism ruling the world. And I go by the Word, regardless of what anything else goes; It's the Word that I believe."
"It's Romanism that takes the world, and Romanism is the mother of organization. There never was an organization till Rome, and every one of them come out of it, and the Bible said so. She was the mother of harlots" (62-0311, The Greatest Battle ever Fought, par. 415-416; Daniel 2; 7-9; 11-12; Revelation 13:14).
Hosea 6:3: "When the Spirit falls and there becomes a move amongst the people, them denominations will swing together just as certain as I'm standing in the pulpit. And the Church of God will be ousted, and they'll make it such a racket until they'll confederate it and put a boycott on anybody that don't belong to them. Rome will rule the world for just a hour. She'll rule for a little piece. Not Communism, Romanism will rule the world with the cooperation of Protestantism in a denominational form of church, which God has rejected. That's as close as I know the Word of God" (62-0318, The Spoken Word is the Original Seed, par. 453-464; Joel 2:23; Matthew 5:45; Hebrews 6:4-8).
Revelation 14:20: "Now, the Bible predicts that in the last days that He will trap Catholicism, Romanism, and all those things, and communism, and all of them together in the valleys of Megiddo there, until there will be such a slaughter amongst them, until the blood will flow to a horse's bridle . . .
But thanks be to the heavenly Father, I don't think we'll be here. By His grace, we won't. We'll be in glory then. See? That will be right after the two prophets has prophesied the battle of Armageddon. That's when these Gentile nations gets so wicked, just keep on, and the confederation of churches, and all this come together, and God will take the Church, the Elect Church home out of every one. . .
Now, that bridle's bit there will come out from the sleeping virgins and all them back in that day. And Communism, when they're all meet there, and God said He'd plead with them like He did in the days gone by, you know, there in that valley. And that's where it'll ride to the bridle bits of the horse" (61-0808, Thy House, par. E-72; Isaiah 66:16; Ezekiel 22; Joel 3:2).
Ezekiel 38: "Now, now, therefore we find out that it's communism that's gathered together. God said Gog and Magog there will gather together (sure) to bring about the battle. That's exactly true, 'cause it's going to bring these forces together. It has to come; the Bible said it would" (62-0422, The Restoration of the Bride Tree, par. 351; Daniel 11:40-43; Revelation 16:12-16).
Daniel 11:40-45: ". . . this great nation is going to strike a war that's going to blow it to bits. . . the Lord showed me a vision of the great powerful woman, in '33, 1933, it's on paper. Of how that Roosevelt would cause . . . He helped cause the world to go to war. How that Mussolini would make his first invasion to Ethiopia, and he would take it, but he'd come to a disgraceful end. And how that then the three isms (Nazism, Fascism, and Communism) would all wind up in Communism. And how many in here remembers me just keep having you stand, and say it over like that, "Watch Russia. Watch Russia, the king of the north. Watch Russia, king of the north. Watch Russia, king of the north"? How many has heard me just say this, wave that over, over? The old-timers (You see?), back in the early part of the church. Just stand there and wave it over and over, "Watch Russia, the king of the north. See, what he would do, for all those isms will heap up into Russia" (60-1211E, The Laodicean Church Age, par. 43-44).
Brother Branham explained in The Feast of the Trumpets, "two hundred thousand horsemen that had been bound in the river of Euphrates was turned loose under the Sixth Trumpet [World War II to the present day] . . . They wasn't natural horses. They breathed fire, and they had breastplates of jasper, and they had tails, and the end of the tail looked like a serpent, a snake's head on the end of it, stinging. See? It was spiritual horses, spiritual devils, chargers, that had been bound in Euphrates all these years, supernatural devils. . . The old Roman Empire being revived, the persecution of the Jews. And they'd been bound for nearly two thousand years at the river Euphrates, can't cross to the promise, a religious sect that was trying to get to the other side. Euphrates, you know, come through Eden. But they were bound there, two hundred thousand devils of persecution."
Brother Branham spoke in the vernacular so we should understand the "religious sect trying to cross to the promise, trying to get to the other side" were not "Jews" but Israelites living in the Muslim lands of the ancient Assyrian empire. And they will not return to the land of the Covenant until the first half of Daniel's Seventieth Week (Psalm 17:7; Isaiah 6:10-13; 11:11-16; 13:14; 27:13; 49:17; 65:9-10; Jeremiah 3:12, 18; 16:15; 23:3, 8; 31:8; Ezekiel 28:24-31; 36:24; 37:14, 21-22; 39:27-28; Micah 5:3; Zechariah 10:9-12; Matthew 24:29-31). Like the demons of the old Roman Empire (and the preceding three Gentile world empires) they were bound there by the ecclesiastical powers of papal Rome in its traditions and superstitions which had also bound the Church prior to the revelation of the Seven Seals.
"And that spirit caught into the nations of the world, according to the prophecies of Ezekiel [9] and the rest of them . . . that same spirit coming up first, down there into Mussolini in Rome . . . Germany, Hitler. And notice over in the Bible . . . they received power as kings but wasn't crowned. A dictator is not a crowned king; just received power as a king."
"Now the ecclesiastical realm has been opened from the natural revival of the old pagan Rome, went forth on those Jews, which has always been their enemy (the lion with teeth and everything, that stomped down and broke out the people, Rome), always been God's enemy [Daniel 7; Luke 21:24; Revelation 11:2]. And it was turned loose in the same spirit by the dictators of the world, because the religious system was still holding; now it's been loosed. . . In the cunningness, as He said, he'd come in like flatteries [Daniel 11]. And what has he done? He's bringing the Protestant ecumenical the World Council of Churches, the spirit of antichrist, upon both of them, bringing them to the slaughter, just like they did the other [Israel] in an hour to call the Bride. How? Loosed in the ecclesiastical church spirit. Loosed upon what? Not upon the denominations, upon the Bride. But here you'd get it; the Bride will not go through that time. The Bible says not. The church will, but not the Bride. Can't you see? Ministers, can't you see that, brethren"?
"What does that thing stand for? Why, you have to surrender all your evangelical teachings and things. How can two walk together less they be agreed? They can't. Jesus said they can't [Amos 3:3]. And how can a church of Methodists and Baptists walk together? How can the Church of Christ walk with the Presbyterians? How can the Catholic walk with the Protestants? How can Protestant walk with Protestant? But the Bride can walk with the Word, which is Christ; it must be in agreement, not the ecclesiastical system, but the Word. You have to agree with the Word to walk with the Word. Jesus said so; that makes it right."
"Notice, while that group is riding, making themselves ready to stomp out everything that won't agree with them [Revelation 13:15-18], there's another group being made ready after while: Revelations 19. The next time the Church is heard, She comes also, not upon exactly horses, but the Bible said He was on a white horse, and the host of heaven was following Him upon white horses. That right"?
"While this group down here has got two thousand bound at the river Euphrates, and has been bound for two thousand years, also that [Judaeo-Roman] church has bound the Holy Ghost for nearly two thousand years, under martyrdom back there and under the Church Ages. It's been bound, not at the river Euphrates, but at the door of creeds and dogmas, that the Holy Spirit can't work in the church because of manmade systems. But She's going to be liberated [by Malachi 4:5-6; Matthew 17:11; 25:6; Revelation 10:7; 18:4]; She's coming back. That's what the Bible said. And those two meet one another on the battlegrounds: Lucifer and Michael again, like in the beginning [Revelation 12:7-12]."
"The same Gospel, the same Christ, that lived in flesh back yonder at the beginning on the eastern people, shall live again in the western people at the end time. "It shall be Light in the evening time." All Scriptures is given by inspiration and cannot be broken. The big fifty days has passed over; the Pentecostal feast has passed over. Seven sabbaths, until the Trumpets, a type of the Seventh Church Age. [We are living in the holy convocation of the antitype of the fiftieth day of the Pentecostal Feast. The antitype of the Feast of Trumpets will be the ministry of the 'Moses' and 'Elijah' to Israel after which they will be martyred and the 144,000 elect Israelites will belatedly recognize Christ's second or 'parousia' Coming in one day and mourn their atonement prior to their martyrdom (Isaiah 66:8; Zechariah 12:10 – 13:9)]".
"Under the Sixth Trumpet the Pentecostals reject the Bible, not only the Pentecostals, all the rest. The church world rejects Christ, and He's put on the outside [in 1963, Revelation 3:17-22]. And in the same Seal, when it was opened, they showed Jesus on the outside of the church trying to get back in; at the same time the Trumpet sounds for the Jews, and the Jews [Israelites] recognize the Atonement" (64-0719M, The Feast of Trumpets, par. 242).
Because of Judah's entrenched apostasy the Lord God raised up Nebuchadnezzar as His servant to exile the Judeans for a lifetime, destroy Jerusalem and raze His Temple that was already abandoned by the Shekinah of His Presence. After six hundred years it returned veiled behind the Holy of Holies of virgin-born flesh, but despised and rejected, it departed once more, leaving the Jews' house desolate and declaring, "You will not see Me again till you say, blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord".
The captivity initiated the times of the Gentile dominion over Jerusalem and Judea that will continue to the consummation of Life so the Kingdom will not be restored to Israel until the millennium (Isaiah 9:7; Acts 1:6). To suppose the modern Israel state is peopled and governed by Israelites is scripturally and historically unsound. Babylon was the first of four Gentile world empires that will rule throughout this time, the last is Rome which achieved global hegemony under the Caesars. By the Pergamean Church Age (312-606) Rome was much depleted as a nation and "wounded to death, but her deadly wound was healed" when state and church united at the First Nicaean Council in 325 and the Babylonian religion officially joined the rump of the apostate First Church of Rome that was founded by Junius and Andronicus in about AD36. Satan now had access to the Name of Christ and was enthroned as God in worship. With federal aid the churches fell heir to beautiful buildings lined with altars of white marble and images of the gods which they renamed after departed saints. The pagan Roman Empire came back to life and power as the "Holy Roman Empire" and her religious empire would keep her on top of the world governing from the inside where she would not appear to do so from without.
As God had raised up Nebuchadnezzar to destroy His apostate Temple and chastise the Judeans, He has raised up Judaeo-Communism to destroy the Judaeo-Roman false church of Vatican City State and her (once) Protestant image, the United States of America. Brother Branham said, "America . . . its a million miles from being a Christian country. I don't even pray for it. How can I pray for it, and it won't repent under the mighty powers of God demonstrated before it, and denying, and closing the doors to it, and walking away? I commit it to God. And she's going further away, and now she's going to sink. Just watch what happens.
America rejected her last opportunity for national repentance in 1956/7, which was the jubilee of the Laodicean Church Age. Her leaders have betrayed the people into the hands of aliens devoted to establishing Lucifer's totalitarian one world government. Her people have abandoned the Absolute of God's unchanging Word for the easy path of humanistic populism and reason while aliens gutted her productive economy, squandered her wealth, mortgaged her to usury, slaughtered and maimed her youth in their wars of aggression and poisoned their minds in cesspools of immorality. The nation is accursed of God with nothing to offer the world but DEATH at the hands of her callous, blooded military. She will kill, but she will never win another war except perhaps the ongoing terrorism against her own citizens.
The end of the Gentile dispensation will be marked by unprecedented natural catastrophes in the heavens and on earth. Los Angeles and a 1,500 x 300-400 mile segment of earth's crust will sink beneath the Pacific along with Florida, the US dollar, global economy, and 25% GDP contributed by California to the US economy. Tidal waves will sweep coastlands and islands and the Pacific ring of fire will erupt. The Mount of Olives will cleave in two, demolishing the Dome of the Rock and igniting the "hot stage" of the present World War III. The Lord will "put hooks in the jaws [of the Russian military] and drive them on" with the Muslim nations of Iran, Ethiopia, Somalia and the Sudan, Libya, and nations from the Caucasus among their allies (Ezekiel 38:1-6).
The Jews' City of London has provoked this attack. I believe Israel will be defeated, and that a permanent mass exodus of non-Semitic, anti-Semitic self-styled Jews will make way for the return of true blood descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Israel from their Muslim hosts where they will no longer be welcome. The invasion will not be restricted to Israel; Brother Branham said Russia will invade and occupy mainland United States, where their troops will rape the women, loot stores and homes (Job 4:8). bb960724.htmChanging LINKS
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