Bible Believers' Newsletter 1127
"We focus on the present Truth – what Jesus is doing now. . ."
ISSN 1442-8660Christian greetings in the precious Name of our Lord Jesus Christ; we are pleased you could join us in fellowship around God's unchanging Word.
Our main article, "The Seventh Trumpet – Part III," explains its relevance to Christ's end-time Bride in the pivotal role of bringing us into "speaking conditions" for the manifestation of the Sons of God and the translation. The world, its church and her daughters are materially rich and in need of nothing yet spiritually they are naked and blind and know it not, like the emperor in his new clothes. Take for instance COVID-19, possibly a frightening new name for the common cold (which sometimes becomes deadly). History may look back and laugh at the sensationalism over a president with a cold, now back in the Oval Office polarizing America one Tweet at a time. The worldwide media monopoly has persuaded the leaders of 193 nations that nothing will release mankind from the clutches of COVID-19 but a miraculous vaccine. Meanwhile to ameliorate the situation they have destroyed their economies and adopted the wise precaution of placing citizens in home detention without employment or schooling. Those whom the gods would destroy they first make mad.
Please devote precious time to reading the news items which name certain individuals and organizations involved in the planning, proving and execution of this project in public records over twenty years. For we are admonished "to receive these words with all readiness of mind, and search the scriptures daily, whether those things were so" (Acts 17:11).
This Newsletter serves those of like precious faith. We encourage you to share our Newsletter with friends, family and colleagues, and look forward to any comments or questions you may have. Whoever will receive the truth is welcome to feed their soul from the waters of the River of Life. Everything here presented should be confirmed personally in your own Bible.Your brother-in-Christ
Anthony Grigor-Scott
Global Food Shortages becoming Very Real; US Grocery Store Chains Preparing for Worst
September 30, 2020 — Head of the UN World Food Program repeatedly warned us that we would soon be facing "famines of biblical proportions," and his predictions are now starting to become a reality. We have already seen food riots in some parts of Africa, and it isn't too much of a surprise that certain portions of Asia are really hurting right now. But I have to admit that I was kind of shocked when I came across an article about the "hunger crisis" that has erupted in Latin America . . . Full story: activistpost.com
Waste Not, Want Not?
October 7, 2020 — An ongoing campaign against wasting food in China has sparked questions over the country's food security amid a global agricultural crisis (Kenya, India). The "clean plate" campaign, launched in August and promoted by President Xi Jinping himself, has limited the number of dishes allowed at restaurant tables and led to a flurry of postings by celebrities showcasing their parsimonious eating habits.
Online commentators have pushed back on the Washington Post's coverage of the campaign in what appears to be a mixture of genuine sentiment and irate nationalism, arguing that the measures were moral, not the result of any incipient crisis. But it is the poor who are the worst affected by food price inflation, which has run at over 10 percent for much of 2020. Xi, meanwhile, has said that citizens should retain a "sense of crisis" about food security.
Crisis mode! Food prices in China have risen sharply this year due to natural disasters. Pork prices have fluctuated wildly after last year's African swine fever outbreaks. The government drew upon its deep pork reserves, but now those are running out, forcing prices back up again. Flooding in southern China, meanwhile, ruined around edition.cnn.com 13 million acres of crops . . . Full story: foreignpolicy.com
We need to Talk about Proteins – Ronascam, Vaccines & Genetic Patents
September 26, 2020 — Part of the 'reset' the UN and WEF have announced is a future dominated by proteins and genetic hybrids.
There are genetically engineered proteins for vaccines, brewed in bioreactors inside cells from insects or bacteria, and there are bioreactors for 'food' products, etc., and a whole range of things, including pharmaceuticals. Proteins are also what the ronavax are all about, with some of them even using 'fake DNA' to turn our own bodies into bioreactors, churning out the proteins the genetic code instructs us to. Your body is a protein factory. Why pay for a bioreactor and wait months for them to 'grow'? Injecting the code straight into us saves time and money.
The new coronavirus (SARS-CoV2) vaccines are totally different to any vaccines that have been approved before, and yet they've been in development for over twenty years. So the COVID-19 plandemic is HOAX and a fraud planned over more than two decades!! There have been some genetic treatments made available, so why have no vaccines for humans been licensed? . . .
[That 166 candidate vaccines are under "warp speed" development of a vaccine, is indicative of planning years in advance of the December, 2019 public announcement of the SARS-CoV2 now referred to simply as Covid-19 (anthonypatch.com, page 57)].
There have been at least two deaths and a lot of illness and adverse events during trials, most of which are said to be under-reported. During the inquiry into Jesse Gelsinger's death, for instance, "the FDA and NIH revealed that 691 volunteers in gene-therapy experiments had either died or fallen ill in the seven years before Jesse's death; only 39 of these incidents had been reported promptly as required."
It's acknowledged by the experts that there's a chance of cancer, autoimmune diseases and other problems, but they don't say what happened to people more than a year or two after clinical trials, because nobody seems to check! . . .
Perhaps the coronascam is partly about overcoming the problems with getting genvax to market quickly—the laws arising from the Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) have blocked many genetic patents from success over the years, but it seems to be giving up its power to the WHO! Bill Gates seems to have tried to influence the CBD about gene drives in 2017. The Nagoya Protocol and Cartagena Protocol of the CBD are clearly standing in the way of a 'free and open market' for genetic products and patents, but the coronascam could enable the WHO to reframe Agenda 21 in favour of biotech . . .
- Ultimately, the coronavax could open the door to more and more genetic patents, involving 'alien' life forms, etc., which could lead to the loss of biodiversity.
From DNA to protein youtu.be 2.42 mins . . . Inside the quest to make lab grown meat youtu.be 7.04 mins.
Full story: Part I activistpost.com, Part II activistpost.com
Many are wondering if the new vaccines will genetically modify the human race, or what else they could do to people. Geneticists themselves admit that permanent changes to the genome could occur, but think it's unlikely. However, previous trials with gene therapeutics have caused serious illness, and even deaths.
Considering the lengths governments are going to, just to maintain the illusion of a pandemic, anything seems possible right now. But a huge amount of effort has also gone into procuring investment, changing regulations and digital architecture, and censoring people, all in the name of the coming vaccines. So it's also possible that, for now, the vaccines are what is being claimed, or at least similar, and it's worth having a look at how they're designed. youtu.be 0.55mins.
Note, first of all, that there are actually about 150 ronavax in development, but the likes of AstraZeneca, Pfizer, Sanofi, Novavax and Moderna are the ones with the contracts—they also have the clinical trials in place, and the ones using the most concerning techniques.
Part III activistpost.com.
Julie Beal is a UK-based independent researcher who has been studying the globalist agenda for more than 20 years, focusing on a wide range of information around Agenda 21, Communitarianism, Ethics, Bioscience, and much more. The science behind gene therapy youtu.be
Comment: In Newsletter 1126 we discovered that the WEF and UN have conspired to take control of earth's population, and we learned that the Kings, Presidents, Prime Ministers and dictators of 193 nations have sold out their people and driven them to near-term economic destitution. The research in this series of articles by Julie Beale reveals how earth's population is to be transformed into genetically modified into obedient cyborgs.
Tuberculosis kills more people than any other infectious disease, according to information shared by the United Nations (UN) on Tuesday. Think, around 1.5 million died from the bacterial infection in 2018, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported, bringing attention to World Tuberculosis Day on March 24.
Approximately 10 million people are infected with tuberculosis every year, the WHO said on its website. Only a small portion of global cases receive the necessary life-saving medicine. Over 4,000 people die of tuberculosis every day. Yet the WHO has not declared tuberculosis a pandemic, sufferers are not forced into "lockdown" or made to wear a mask, and the UN has not destroyed the world economy by generating fear on these real facts.
According to WHO, every year there are an estimated 40-50 million abortions worldwide. This corresponds to approximately 125,000 abortions per day. In the USA, where nearly half of pregnancies are unintended and four in 10 of these are terminated by abortion, there are over 3,000 abortions per day. Twenty-two percent of all pregnancies in the USA (excluding miscarriages) end in abortion. Yet this has not been declared a moral or psychic pandemic.
The children of Cain control the UN, CDC and WHO as well as education, entertainment, the MSM, and media. As Israel was to live in separation from the nations, Christians do not have a television set in the home, and are to separate from the denomi-nations.
Christians are virgins to God's unchanging Word; as the "No" of a virgin girl puts a stop to the problem. "No" can put a stop to the international criminal operation called COVID-19.
October 6, 2020—As the UK heads into winter watch death statistic manipulation go into overdrive, check out this "Medical Practitioners" guidance on death provisions . . . the UK Government removed Form 5 of the Cremation Certificate for deaths relating to Covid-19 under the Coronavirus Act which is the form that the relative who registers the death must be given as it enables them to see and query the death certificate before cremation. So basically if your loved one dies of or with Covid-19 they can have their death certified and cremation certified by the same medical practitioner and sent for cremation within hours and the government have removed your right to see or query that decision before the cremation takes place which in turn removes your right to request a coroners report or second opinion.
Why would they do this? And the removal notice of Form 5 doesn't explain what the section that's been removed is actually for. I had to search the internet for older cremation forms to find out what Form 5 was used for; that information was nowhere on the UK Government website. The order in which the co-morbidities are listed determines how the death appears in the statistics and if the patient just happens to test positive without symptoms then it should not be listed in the cause of death at all. Neither "of Covid19" or "with Covid19" should be used at all . . . the scam is bigger than you know.
The Pandemic that Never Was
October 1, 2020 — On March 11, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic . . . it conjures up heartbreaking images of vast numbers of people suffering, precipitated into abysmal poverty . . . For years the WHO on its "Pandemic Preparedness" homepage defined a pandemic as "several simultaneous epidemics worldwide with enormous numbers of deaths and illness." In 2009, however, the words "enormous numbers of death and illness" were removed. Since 2010, WHO's "Emergencies preparedness, response" page now has the following definition: "A pandemic is the worldwide spread of a new disease."
In a May 4, 2009 article, David Ozonoff, professor of environmental health at the Boston University School of Public Health told CNN: "The word pandemic refers to how widely dispersed a disease is, not to how severe the disease is . . . you can have a pandemic without a large number of deaths." This is exactly what we have in the case of the [seasonal] flu. According to the WHO: "Influenza remains one of the world's greatest public health challenges. Every year across the globe, there are an estimated 1 billion cases, of which 3 to 5 million are severe cases, resulting in 290,000 to 650,000 influenza-related respiratory deaths."
In the case of COVID-19, officially, worldwide, there are 33,916,696 cases and 1,013,879 deaths. Out of a global population of 7,815,358,156, this amounts to a death count of almost 1/100th of one percent. In the US, the tally is 7,407,201 cases and 210,814 deaths out of a population of 334,742,314 which amounts to a death count of around 2/3 of 1/10th of 1 percent . . . All COVID-19 tests are faulty . . . Full story: globalresearch.ca
Comment: October 2, 2020 — Thousands of doctors sign petitions, speak about the unreliable test numbers, unreliable masks, the WHO's role in this, and the determination to not just ignore but punish those in the profession who speak out. Full story: globalresearch.ca
"Bacterial Pneumonias are on the Rise" from Mask Wearing. Dozens of studies over decades had established that public masking does not impede viral transmission.
Proof that the Pandemic was planned with a Purpose
Our aim is to present accurate information. Every fact can be checked in the references below. Be wise and read the Full story: stopworldcontrol.com
1 : German group of Doctors For Information
2 : Spanish group of Doctors For Truth
2B: EU comic strip depicts global pandemic
2C: World Bank shows planned end date of project COVID-19
2D: Rothschild owning central banks around the world
3 : Fauci guarantees an outbreak with the next two years.
4 : Bill Gates announced a global pandemic
5 : Melinda Gates says humanities greatest threat is an engineered virus
6 : Lyrics of 2013 song that predicted coronavirus pandemic in 2020
7 : Harry Vox predicted the global pandemic
8 : Robin de Ruiter predicted lockdowns
9 : Scenario for the future described global pandemic
10: Andrew Cuomo talks with Bill Clinton about authoritarian control
11: Bill Gates talks about a digital ID to control people
12: Linking vaccines to a digital ID
13: Gates has patent on technology to trace a body anywhere
14: Gates wants a global monitoring system
15: Download the book of CIA officer Coleman
16: Gates talks about reducing world population using vaccines
17: Tens of millions of Covid-19 test kits were exported by the EU, USA, China etc in 2017 and 2018
18: DAVOS and the gathering of the globalists
19: The head of the World Health Organization is member of violent terrorist group
20: Letter from archbishop and cardinals to humanity
Here is the Full story: stopworldcontrol.com
Grim Warning Aussies face TWO YEARS Social Distancing – No Overseas Trips until EVERYONE Vaccinated
October 7, 2020 — The Federal Budget has some grim news for most Australians hoping the pandemic to end soon and life to return to normal. The government is predicting Australia's population won't be vaccinated until the end of 2021—which means overseas travel will 'remain low' until then and social distancing measures will be kept in place . . . Overseas travel has been banned since March and it remains unclear when it will resume. The budget papers say travel will 'remain low' until 2021—presumably only for essential journeys . . . Full story: dailymail.co.uk
Comment: A paper published in the New England Journal of Medicine has called for mandating a coronavirus vaccine, and outlined strategies for how Americans could be FORCED to take it: ‘Noncompliance Should Incur a Penalty.' Just coincidentally, the authors of the paper reside at Yale and Stanford, institutions that have received substantial funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation for vaccine development (summit.news). Leger and the Association for Canadian Studies found that "60 per cent of respondents believe people should be required to get the vaccine once it is ready".
Germany is again in the forefront in fighting the devastating, unjustified, illegal, economy-destructive, people debilitating and outright genocidal—Corona Measures. The German COVID-19 Extra-Parliamentary Inquiry Committee—in German—ACU—German acronym for Ausserparlamentarischer Corona Untersuchungsausschuss—(see diagram from ACU2020.org website, on the left) is planning to launch a Class Action Suit against not only governments and government officials, but specifically against the manufacturers of the infamous PCR test (PCR—Polymerase Chain Reaction—is a technique used to "amplify" small segments of DNA) which, according to honest virologists all over the world, is absolutely unsuitable for covid-19 testing. It has actually not even been licensed to carry out such tests (globalresearch.ca).
Australian State Law empowers Officials to forcibly remove Underwear to administer Vaccine
September, 2020 — Law enforcement has the legal power 'to remove anything (including underwear) that the relevant person is wearing' if it's determined that that person must be vaccinated. Full story: lifesitenews.com, naturalnews.com
Comment: No COVID-19 vaccine is available at this time. Vaccine is not required as we have inexpensive and proven hydroxychloroquine, azithromycin and zinc, OR Ivermectin, doxycline and zinc. This police state action shows that eugenicist Bill Gates and fellowtravelors in the WEF and UN mean to make their vaccine compulsory, and that its purpose will be more than killing corona virus.
Once citizens are trained to obey on reflex like unthinking Pavlov's dogs, "the squeeze" will require that Christians, whose churches are closed by statute, conform to Revelation 13:15-18. Such 'Christians of the class of Revelation 3:15-20 know not they have borne "the mark of the beast" from childhood, and trying to do God a service without it being His will shall persecute non-conformists.
Deutsche Bank Money Laundering Scandal could create Greatest Economic Crisis in History
September 21, 2020 — The leak of the FinCEN Files over the weekend has rocked global markets and augurs a financial crisis of epic proportions as Deutsche Bank hovers over the precipice. Deutsche Bank, along with several of the world's biggest commercial banks, are embroiled in a global money laundering scandal that spans over two decades, as documents leaked to BuzzFeed show the movement of $2 Trillion in illicit cash through the Western banking establishment.
The cache of Suspicious Activity Reports (SARs) detailing years of potentially illegal banking transactions were shared with 108 news organizations in 88 countries, according to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ). These records are a requirement for any financial institution that engages in dollar-denominated transactions anywhere in the world and are filed with the Treasury Department's intelligence unit, the Financial Crimes and Enforcement Network or FinCEN.
The more than 2,100 SARs released to the press are considered "historical" documents by the implicated banks, who responded with their usual Pontius Pilate routine when reached for comment by the media and washed their hands of the matter by claiming to have fulfilled their legal obligation before the US Treasury "as part of our partnership with regulators and law enforcement to protect the global financial system," as a Deutsche Bank statement puts it . . . Full story: mintpressnews.com
IMF pushes Changes Governing Debt Restructurings
October 2, 2020 — IMF officials called for the G20 debt service suspension initiative to be extended for another 12 months until the end of 2021, and a common restructuring approach across all official bilateral creditors, including China. A new IMF research paper also laid out options for improving debt transparency and restructurings. "A pandemic-induced systemic debt crisis cannot be ruled out" . . .
While they did not specifically name China, they called for increased debt transparency so that creditors know what debts are owed by countries under what terms, which would help encourage debt restructurings . . . ensure information sharing and fair burden sharing across all creditors . . . it would likely raise participation and avoid costly delays" . . . Full story: asiatimesfinancial.com
Comment: The chance of catching Covid-19 from a passing interaction in a public space is . . . minimal . . . the desire for widespread masking is a reflexive reaction to anxiety over the pandemic (The New England Journal of Medicine Michael Klompas, M.D., M.P.H., Charles A. Morris, M.D., M.P.H., Julia Sinclair, M.B.A., Madelyn Pearson, D.N.P., R.N., and Erica S. Shenoy, M.D., Ph.D.
Combating the Virus: Mass Unemployment not the Solution
October 5, 2020 — Preventing the Reopening of the National Economy will contribute to wiping out (regional and local) small and medium sized enterprises worldwide. Millions around the World are victims of the fear campaign. Panic prevails . . . The proposed solution to combating the "killer virus" is to prevent and postpone the reopening of the national economy, coupled with the enforcement of social distancing, the wearing of the face mask, etc.
What is ongoing is a process of concentration of wealth, whereby the financial establishment, (i.e. the multibillion dollar creditors) are slated to appropriate the real assets of both bankrupt companies as well as State assets . . . The real economy at the global and national levels is being targeted by the lockdown and closure of economic activity. The Global Money financial institutions are the "creditors" of the real economy.
The closure of the global economy has triggered a process of global indebtedness. Unprecedented in World history, a multi-trillion bonanza of dollar denominated debts is hitting simultaneously the national economies of 193 countries. The creditors will also seek to acquire ownership and/or control of "public wealth" including the social and economic assets of the State through a massive indebtedness project . . . scrapping "national auto-determination" and constructing a Worldwide nexus of pro-US proxy regimes controlled by a "supranational sovereignty" (World Government) composed of leading financial institutions, billionaires and their philanthropic foundations (Michel Chossudovsky, August 2020).
The COVID-19 crisis is disproportionately affecting 1.25 billion workers in at-risk jobs . . . (ILO, 2020b) . . . Famines have erupted in at least 25 developing countries according to UN sources, according to the FAO July 17, 2020.
The UN's Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and World Food Programme (WFP) identifies 27 countries that are on the frontline of impending COVID-19-driven food crises, as the pandemic's knock-on effects aggravate pre-existing drivers of hunger. No world region is immune, from Afghanistan and Bangladesh in Asia, to Haiti, Venezuela and Central America, to Iraq, Lebanon, Sudan and Syria in the Middle East to Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Liberia Mali, Niger, Nigeria, Mozambique, Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe in Africa . . . rising numbers of people pushed into acute hunger . . . With over two billion people, or 62 percent of all those working worldwide, employed in the informal economy according to ILO data, millions of people face a growing risk of hunger. Earnings for informal workers are estimated to decline by 82 percent, with Africa and Latin America to face the largest decline (ILO 2020). (FAO, p. 6) . . . Full story: globalresearch.ca
Nothing that Works
October 6, 2020 — Green zealots infest all parties, the media, academia, education and the business vested interests. They consistently oppose what works and promote what won't. Greens demand "Zero Emissions." Nuclear and hydro powers are the only practical "zero carbon" electricity options for Australia. Greens oppose both.
Greens worship "the environment", but support widespread environmental destruction by bird-chopping windmills, land-stealing solar panels and their inevitable spider-webs of roads and transmission lines. All to produce intermittent energy that is forced onto distributers and consumers by legislated targets, taxes, subsidies and mandates. Green policies support cutting forests in America to ship woodchips to UK for burning in the DRAX power station. Other policies support growing crops using diesel fuel for tractors, harvesters and trucks to produce bio-diesel with less net energy than they started with. Not smart.
Greens support carbon capture and storage, fully aware that this won't happen without legislated subsidies, taxes and targets. They know that CCS will favour their wind and solar toys by multiplying costs and energy waste for coal, oil or gas generators. Big miners also love it because far more coal or gas will be needed to produce the same electricity.
Most politicians now support "green" steel and aluminium, via zero-emissions hydrogen. The hydrogen must be made by electrolysis of water or from methane. Electrolysis is not feasible without the nuclear power they oppose. And the methane route produces poisonous carbon monoxide plus more of the carbon dioxide they dread. All processes use more energy than can be generated from the products. Australia's huge untapped resources of uranium and hydrocarbons are the envy of the world. But their green tape, locked gates and death-by-delay strangles all exploration and development. And Green Guru, Ross Garnaut, thinks graziers should harvest kangaroos not cattle. Let them do both. (Viv Forbes)
Green Sabbath: Sunday Lockdowns for 'Gaia' & Jubilee for Earth
October, 2020 — Christian Westbrook, the Ice Age Farmer, revealed that climate alarmists—from the Pope to Rabbis to Greta Thunberg—are calling for a "Green Sabbath," forcing people to stay at home, with all shops closed, in deference to Gaia on Sunday. He says that people are now used to hyper surveillance and enforced lockdowns, setting the stage for worship of the creation (nature), instead of the Creator, on a day chosen by the Catholic church. Full story: needtoknow.news, youtube.com.
Black Alliance for Peace: International Day of Action on AFRICOM
October 1, 2020 — We demand:
The complete withdrawal of US forces from Africa,
The demilitarization of the African continent,
The closure of US bases throughout the world, and
The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) oppose US Africa Command (AFRICOM) and conduct hearings on AFRICOM's impact on the African continent, with the full participation of members of US and African civil society.
October 1, 2020 is the 12th anniversary of the launch of the US Africa Command (AFRICOM), a command structure with bases that are now in dozens of African nations. Yet, the existence of AFRICOM has escaped the awareness of not only the general public in the United States and the world. When four US soldiers were killed in the small African nation of Niger, even members of the US Congress were unaware of the US military's presence in the country and the extent of the US military presence throughout Africa.
The International Day of Action on AFRICOM (October 1, 2020) aims to raise the public's awareness about the US military's existence in Africa, and how the presence of US forces exacerbates violence and instability throughout the continent.
The (BAP) has taken up the task of educating the public on AFRICOM and the extensive basing networks in Africa and throughout the world. Our campaign on AFRICOM is an integral element of our general opposition to US global militarization, with its offensive command structures, approximately 800 to 1,000 overseas bases, and the United States' status as the number one arms merchant on the planet . . . Full story: globalresearch.ca
The Seventh Trumpet – Part III
The prophet Isaiah's mind is obviously projected into the future God has unfolded before him when the chastisement and discipline under Israel's Seventh Trump, having accomplished its purpose, is understood to be succeeded by the restoration of the kingdom to Israel under Jesus Messiah and His Gentile Queen in the blessedness and peace of the millennium. Isaiah 34:1-17, "Draw near, O nations, to hear; and listen, O nations: let the earth and all its fullness hear, the world, and all that springs from it. For the indignation of the Lord is upon all nations, and His fury upon all their armies: He has utterly destroyed them, He has appointed them to the slaughter. Their slain also shall be cast out, and their stink shall come up out of their carcasses, and the mountains shall be melted with their blood."
"And all the host of heaven shall rot, and the sky shall be rolled together as a scroll [when the Gentile dispensation ends (Matthew 24:20; Revelation 6:12-14): and all their host ["false anointed ones and false prophets"] shall also wither as the leaf withers from the vine, or as a fig falls from the tree. For My sword shall be bathed in heaven (Revelation 12:8-9): behold, it shall come down upon Idumea, and upon the people who are (Heb.) 'cherem,' devoted to destruction for the glory of God" (Isaiah 63:1-6)." After the end of the Gentile dispensation all whose names are not in the Book of Life will be 'cherem' [like Idumea, Esau/Edom] and devoted to destruction
"The sword of the Lord is filled with blood, it is sated with fatness, and with the blood of lambs and goats, with the fat of the kidneys of rams: for the Lord has a sacrifice in Bozrah, and a great slaughter in the land of Idumea . . . (Revelation 19:17-18). For it is the day of the Lord's vengeance, and the year of recompenses for the controversy of Zion. And the streams thereof shall be turned into pitch, and its loose earth into brimstone and its land shall become burning pitch. It shall not be quenched night nor day; the smoke thereof shall go up forever: from generation to generation it shall lie waste; none shall pass through it forever and ever . . . Seek the Lamb's Book of Life, and read: not one of these names shall fail. Not one will lack its mate: for His mouth has commanded, and His Spirit has gathered them. And He has cast the lot for them, and His hand has divided it to them by line. They shall possess it forever; from generation to generation they shall dwell therein".
Isaiah 35:1-10, "The wilderness and the solitary place will be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. It will blossom profusely, and rejoice even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the Lord, and the majesty of our God. Strengthen the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees. Tell those with a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompense; He will come and save you. Then the eyes of the 144,000 shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf will be unstopped. Then the lame will leap like a deer, and the tongue of the dumb will shout for joy: for waters will break out in the wilderness, and streams in the desert. And the parched ground will become a pool, and the thirsty ground springs of water: in the haunt of jackals, its resting place will grow grass and reeds and rushes. And a highway will be there, a way, and it will be called The way of holiness; the unclean will not travel on it; but it will be for those who walk that way, and wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein."
"No lion will be there, nor will any ravenous beast go up thereon; these will not be found there. But the redeemed will walk there: and the ransomed of the Lord will return, and come with singing unto Zion and everlasting joy shall be upon their heads. They shall obtain gladness and joy, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away".
In Isaiah 39 the prophet foretold the impending dissolution of the kingdom of Judah, the captivity of the royal house of David, and its people under king Nebuchadnezzar a century ahead of this event that initiated almost three thousand years of Gentile suzerainty. As the subject of Isaiah's subsequent prophecies was to be chiefly consolatory, he prophesies the return of the people from Babylon. But the views of the prophet are not confined to this event as the restoration of the royal family and of the tribe of Judah was necessary in the design and order of Providence to fulfil God's promises of establishing a more glorious and everlasting kingdom under Jesus Messiah, the root and offspring of David; Isaiah connects these two events together, and seldom treats of the former without throwing in some intimation of the latter. At times he is so fully possessed with the glories of the future more remote kingdom that he seems to leave the more immediate subject of his commission almost out of the question.
Now let us read Isaiah 40:1-21, "You prophets and ministers of the Lord, who now are, or shall be hereafter, Speak to My people, and to the heart of Jerusalem, says your God." The phrase "My people" is a distinct echo of Hosea 1:9 where God commanded Hosea to name his first born son, "Lo Ammi" (Heb.) "not My people." Seventy-three years later Isaiah prophesied that Judah would be reinstated to its true position as "Ammi" (Heb.) "My people" under Israel's Seventh Trumpet "when the fullness of the Gentiles has come in" (Romans 11:25). "Speak comfortably to Jerusalem, and tell her that her appointed time of endurance is accomplished; in God's mercy her punishment is deemed sufficient as it has accomplished its purpose, and her iniquity is pardoned."
"The voice of him that cries in the wilderness, Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low: and the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain: and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: for the mouth of the Lord has spoken it" (Psalm 97:6; Isaiah 66:18-19; Jeremiah 3:17).
This passage was deliberately taken by John the Baptist as defining his own mission (John 1:23). This way of holiness is not traveled by the intellectual believers "of the letter, but of the spirit: for the letter kills, but the Spirit gives life;" thus elect wayfaring men, though "ignorant and unlearned" shall not err for the way leads from the captivity of sin and the dominion of death through the spiritual desert to the green pastures and still waters of eternal Life.
When Christ's feet place judgment on the Mount of Olives before Jerusalem on the east, cleaving the Mount in two from east to west creating a very wide valley when one half of the mountain moves northward, and the other half southward. This will be Lord's standard, ensign or rallying point to the unrecognized glory of His Presence in Israel (Isaiah 11:10-12; 29:6; 49:22; 62:10; Ezekiel 43:1-2; Zechariah 14:4; Matthew 24:30-31; Revelation 16:19). An "everlasting sign" of the Lord's glory typed by the Shekinah that led Israel to Canaan; Israelites who escape through the valley of God's new mountains will proclaim this sign of Christ's (Gk.) 'parousia' to their brethren dwelling in the Muslim lands of the ancient Assyrian empire. When Edomite Jews abandon Israel their exodus will enable blood Israelites to migrate to the Land of their Covenant for redemption (Matthew 17:1-8; Acts 1:11).
In Isaiah 66:18-20 the Lord declares, "I will gather all nations and tongues; and they shall come, and see My glory. I will send those [Israelites] who escape to the nations, to Tarshish [Spain], Pul [an island in the Nile between Egypt and Ethiopia], and Lud [Libya], to Tubal [south of the Caucasus, between the Black Sea and Araxes, probably Cappadocia, now part of Turkey], and Javan [Greece and Asia Minor], to the isles afar off, that have not heard My fame, neither seen My glory; and they will declare My glory, [Jesus Christ "from whom the whole Family of God in heaven and earth is named," to the Israelites] among the Gentiles. [The glory of God is employed as the Lord's standard, His sign or rallying point in Israel (Isaiah 11:10-12; 49:22; 62:10, and Ezekiel 43:1-2)]. And they will bring all your brethren for a [precious unbloody] offering to the Lord out of all nations upon horses, and in chariots, and in litters, and upon mules, and upon swift beasts, to My holy mountain Jerusalem, says the Lord, as the children of Israel bring an offering in a clean vessel to the house of the Lord." These verses confirm that the Mount of Olives will cleave at the opening of the Sixth Seal beneath "the sign of the Son of man coming [to Israel] in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory" (Matthew 24:30-31; Ezekiel 43:2; Revelation 7:2).
The unnamed voice in Isaiah 40:6-8 said, "Cry. And Isaiah said, What shall I cry? All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field: the grass withers, the flower fades: because the Spirit of the Lord blows upon it: surely the people are grass. The grass withers, the flower fades: but the Word of our God stands forever." We are resting on that, as will the Israelites in "the time of Jacob's trouble".
Zechariah 14:6-7, "And it shall come to pass in that day, when the Lord comes forth to fight [against the nations that have fought against Jerusalem] that at first the Light of spiritual revelation shall not be clear, nor dark".
After Christ opened the Seven Seals in 1963 it took about twelve years before the first Bride Age saints began to recognize "the evening time Light," for we were greatly obscured by ignorance, heresy, superstition and idolatry. Israel's dispensation will be one continuous time of Christ's second or (Gk.) 'parousia' Coming known to the Lord but unrecognized by His elect as "either day or night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening time [in the second half of Daniel's Seventieth Week] it shall be Light" (Revelation 10:7; Daniel 12:1-13).
Zechariah 14:8, "And it will come about in that day, that living waters will flow out of Jerusalem, half of them toward the Dead Sea, and half toward the Mediterranean Ocean: in summer when the streams in Palestine are altogether dry, and in winter shall it be." Brother Branham said, "The Gospel going forth; both Jew and Gentile" (65-075E, What is the Attraction on the Mountain, par. 98). Their former rain will be the Spirit of revelation from the ministry of Israel's two witnesses preceded by our latter rain as we manifest that we are the Sons of God with the 'third pull'.
Zechariah 14:9, "And the Lord shall be King over all the earth: in that day shall there be one Lord, and His Name one" There are only so many elect and the Lord knows each of us by name, so when the last elect Israelite is baptized into Christ we will all know the Lord; He will be the only Lord and His Name the only Name. In John 17:11-23 Jesus prayed, "And now I am no more in the world, but these are in the world, and I come to you. Holy Father, keep through Your own Name those whom You have given Me, that they may be one [in the agreement of faith (Zephaniah 3:9)], as We are. While I was with them in the world, I kept them in Your Name: those that You gave Me I have kept, and none of them is lost, but the son of perdition; that the scripture might be fulfilled. And now I come to You; and these things I speak in the world, that they might have My joy fulfilled in themselves. I have given them Your Word; and the world has hated them, because they are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. I pray not that You should take them out of the world, but that You should keep them from the evil. They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. Sanctify them through Your truth: Your Word is truth. As You have sent Me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. Neither do I pray for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on Me through their word; that they all may be one; as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that You have sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and You in Me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them, as You have loved Me".
The Bible is the story of God unfolding Himself by changing His form from the eternal Spirit alone with His eternal thoughts to the flesh of His glorified Family. So we must be at one with His Word which is His eternal thoughts expressed if we are to display the Token of the Life of Christ. Then what we ask we shall receive. Isaiah 54:5 implies that Israel will be born-again as a nation in one day when all 144,000 are at "One" (Deuteronomy 6:4; Daniel 2:44; Zechariah 13:2; I Timothy 6:15; Revelation 11:15).
This map shows the location of the natural fault line that passes through the Mount of Olives from west to east indicating the valley through which the elect Israelites will escape to the east to witness to their brethren resident in the former Babylonian and Assyrian Empires. Revelation 6:12-17, "lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; and the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casts her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of Him that sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the great day of His wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand"? (Also Matthew 24:29; Isaiah 13:9-10; 34:4; 50:1-3; 63:4; Joel 3:15; Revelation 11:18-19). Here is a Topographical map of Israel.
Zechariah 14:10-11, "All the land shall be changed into a plain from Geba to Rimmon south of Jerusalem; but Jerusalem will be exalted, and inhabited from Benjamin's gate to the place of the first gate, to the corner gate, and from the tower of Hananeel to the king's winepresses (map). And men shall dwell in it, and there shall be no more utter destruction (Heb.) 'cherem' [the curse]; but Jerusalem shall be safely inhabited" (Jeremiah 30:18; Zechariah 12:6). And surrounding land will sink into a plain dominated by the Holy City that stands sublime on a lofty mountain (Isaiah 2:2; Micah 4:1). This will follow the earthquake that divides the Mount of Olives—a mere token of the 1,500 mile high Mount Zion in the renewed heavens and renewed earth.
Brother Branham explained, "Why is it God so thought and cared so much about that little place of Palestine, see, when it's just a little spot? But right in there is where the temple is set. That's where the New Jerusalem will break up, right there. "Olive, Mount of Olive shall cleave, part to the right and left," sure, when she pushes up from the beneath. Not, they say, it's "apart like this." Its up, "In that day when He stands His holy feet upon the Mountain" (64-0802, The Future Home of the Heavenly Bridegroom and the earthly Bride, par. 406, Zechariah 14:4).
Having noted the blessings on true Israelites, the prophet gives further details concerning the destruction of their enemies: they shall perish by plague, by mutual slaughter, by the sword of Judah. Zechariah 14:12, "And this shall be the plague with which the Lord will smite all the nations that have fought against Jerusalem [to maliciously destroy, and waste, and extirpate the city]; their flesh shall consume away while they stand on their feet, and their eyes shall consume away in their sockets, and their tongue shall consume away in their mouth." This proves that the general plague extends to every individual. With body, eye, and tongue they opposed the holy city, and took pleasure in its discomfiture: in all their members they shall suffer retributive punishment while they stand upon their feet.
Galatians 6:8, "One who sows to his own flesh shall from the flesh reap corruption; but one who sows to the Spirit shall from the Spirit reap eternal Life." The punishment on the last Antichristian confederacy will be living death—the corruption of death combined in ghastly union with the conscious sensibility of life (Isaiah 59:18; 66:24; Ezekiel 38:1-39:29; Revelation 19:17-21). Sin will be felt by the sinner in all its loathsomeness, inseparably clinging to him as a festering, putrid body. "While they stand upon their feet" in serried ranks before the holy city the plague will come upon them in a moment, their flesh mouldering away, as in a graveyard, their sightless eyeballs decaying in their holes, the tongue putrefying in their mouth, a disgust to themselves and to others.
The deliverance and prosperity of Jerusalem shall be accomplished by a terrible plague sent upon those who fought against her, and by a panic which shall cause them to slay one another, and also by the courage and prowess of Judah. A situation causes a terror of panic, creating social discord with such confusion that each turns his hand upon the other (Ezekiel 38:21) as in Judges 7:22, I Samuel 14:20 and II Chronicles 20:23. The wealth of their enemies shall be the spoil of the Judeans, while the consuming pestilence shall extend to all the cattle in the hostile camp, Zechariah 14:12-15. So shall be the plague of the horse, of the mule, of the camel, and of the ass, and of all the beasts that shall be in these tents, as this plague".
Deuteronomy 13:15, "You shall surely smite the inhabitants of that city with the edge of the sword, destroying it utterly, and all that is therein, and the cattle thereof, with the edge of the sword." According for the sins of men "the irrational creature is, against its will, made subject to vanity" (Romans 8:19-23). Analogous to the offence of Achan, "his children, his oxen, asses and sheep were (stoned and) burned with him" (Joshua 7:24-25); Antiochus Epiphanes and his host at Jerusalem (I Maccabees 13-49; II Maccabees 9-67), and soon Los Angeles and the islands, coastlands, mountains and ships throughout the world will perish in earthquakes, tsunamis and hail (Revelation 18:22-24; 19:18).
Zechariah 14:16, "And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left [on the Book of Life] of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles [not literally, but spiritually in thanksgiving because the consummation and earth's renewal will destroy every living thing]." Besides, the antitypes of Israel's natural, typical compulsory feasts have been fulfilled, for the Sixth Day commemorates the completion of the harvest. The Seventh Day will be the millennial sabbath, the "honeymoon" of the Heavenly Bridegroom and his earthly Bride. This is yet to be fulfilled, while the Eighth Day of Tabernacles will be eternity.
Those whose names will remain in the Book of Life will all be martyred. They include the Foolish Virgins, Israelites martyred under the Fifth Seal for their faithfulness to the Law of Moses, those who have been good and kind to the Bride—Buddhists, Muslims, animists, etc., those who die before the age of accountability, and those of any religion or none who are martyred for refusing to take the Mark of the beast in Daniel's Seventieth Week. These will be granted into eternal Life after the general resurrection and White Throne Judgment for the Eight Day of the Feast of Tabernacles. This Feast of Tabernacles is figurative for Psalm 22:27 that assures us a time will come, when all the ends of the world shall remember and turn unto the Lord, and all the families of the nations shall worship before him. This can only come to pass on the Eighth Day.
Zechariah 14:17-18, "And it shall be, that whoever will not come up of all the [many] families of [the one people of] the earth [Adam's race] to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, even on them shall be no rain. And if the family of Egypt that have no rain go not up, and come not, [they shall not be exempt from punishment with the other nations that sinned in like manner, namely, famine would be the sure consequence if the rains did not fall in Ethiopia. Since the Egyptians depended on the overflowing of the Nile for their annual harvest, and not on rainfall, their penalty for non-attendance was to be plague [of famine, not drought]. There shall be the plague, with which the Lord will smite the heathen that come not up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles".
I do not believe that this is a laying down of the Law with threats of chastisement, for there will be no sin (i.e. unbelief in the revealed Word) in the Eighth Day; it is hyperbole illustrating the perfect order in the renewed heavens and renewed earth.
Zechariah 14:19-21, "This shall be the punishment of Egypt, and the sin of all nations that come not up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. In that day shall there be upon the bells of the horses, HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD; and the pots in the Lord's house shall be like the bowls before the altar. Yea, every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness unto the Lord of hosts: and all they that sacrifice shall come and take of them, and seethe therein: and in that day there shall be no more the Canaanite [merchant, Ishmaelite, unclean or godless person like Canaan] in the house of the Lord of hosts, for he was physical Serpent's seed and accursed of God" (Genesis 9:25; Deuteronomy 7:2; 20:16-17).
Every vessel that came to hand would serve God's purpose, the sacrificer need no longer buy a special vessel, and therefore the traffickers in such wares (John 2:14; Matthew 21:12) would cease to frequent the Temple courts). There shall be holiness even in common things. Every action and every enjoyment of the believer should be so regulated according to the will of God, that it may be directed to his glory. Our whole lives should be as one constant sacrifice, or act of devotion; no selfish motive should prevail in any of our actions.
Noah cursed Ham's illegitimate son Canaan and said, "Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be to his brethren" (Genesis 9:24-27). Canaan would be the lowest of the low: a euphemism for "excrement" according to Danby's "Mishnah." Canaan was physical Serpent's seed absent the Book of Life which is the genealogy of Adam's race and he is without a kinsman redeemer.
The ceremony of water-pouring was performed on seven mornings of the Feast of Tabernacles as an acknowledgment that no amount of work on the land could produce a harvest unless God sent rain in the proper season. Zechariah 14:8 implies due observance of the Feast of Tabernacles (including the water-pouring ceremony) guaranteed rain for the ensuing year and represents the seven Church Ages and seven thousand years of man on earth prior to the renewed heavens and renewed earth. This water-pouring forms the background to Jesus' proclamation on the eighth and last day of the Feast of Tabernacles in AD30, the day on which it was not carried out—John 7:37.
The law specifies that, during the Feast of Tabernacles, "You shall dwell in booths seven days. All who are native-born in Israel shall dwell in booths, that your generations may know that I made the children of Israel to dwell in booths, when I brought them out of the land of Egypt" (Leviticus 23:42-43). It also characterizes this feast as an August harvest festival (Exodus 23:16; Deuteronomy 16:13).
A water pouring ritual took place at the Feast of Tabernacles. On each of the first six days, the priest would march in procession to the Pool of Siloam, where he would fill a golden vessel with water. He would then march back to the temple, accompanied by the people reciting, "Therefore with joy you will draw water out of the wells of salvation" (Isaiah 12:3). At the temple, the priest would process around the altar with the vessel of water to the accompaniment of a choir singing Hallel Psalms. He would pour out the water as an offering to God, thus bringing to mind the water from the rock that sustained the ancient Israelites (Exodus 17:1-7; Numbers 20:1-13) as well as the rains that sustained Israel during the year just passed. The rite also constituted a prayer for God's continued provision of rain for the days to come. On the seventh day, they would march around the altar seven times. They did not observe the water ritual on the eighth day.
John 7:37-39, "In the last [or eighth] day, that great day of the feast [on which the natural water was not poured out] Jesus stood and cried, saying, If any man is athirst spiritually, let him come unto Me, and drink. He who believes on Me, as the scripture has said, out of his innermost being, his soul, shall flow rivers of living water. (But this He spoke concerning the Spirit, which they that believe on Him should receive: for the Holy Ghost was not yet given; because Jesus was not yet glorified").
You will remember Jesus' encounter with the Samaritan woman at the well where He asked her to give him water to drink and she asked how could he ask when there was segregation between the Samaritans and Judahites. Jesus replied "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that said, "Give me to drink:" you would have asked of Him, and He would have given you living water. All who drink this water will thirst again, but whoever drinks of the water I will give him will never thirst again; but the water that I give will become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life" (John 4:1-14).
The traditional Hebrew Bible began with Genesis and ended with II Chronicles (Luke 11:51). So Abel is the first martyr and Zechariah the priest son of Jehoida, is the last (II Chronicles 24:20-24). Abel had the faith which spoke of Messiah as evidenced by his righteous offering. The Jews had been taught this story and were expecting Messiah, but they lacked the faith of Abel to recognize Him, because they were parsing the scripture through the Phasisees, Babylonian Talmud (Matthew 15:1-9). Jesus traced the Pharisees back to Cain (Matthew 23:35).
Israel's Pharisaic High Priest and mediator between God and Israel stood before the Lord wearing a fine white linen turban adorned in front with a plate of pure gold bearing the inscription "Holiness to the Lord," attached to the linen fabric by a ribbon or "lace" of blue, the implication being that holiness belongs to every member of true Israel, that they should be "a holy nation, a kingdom of priests" consecrated heart and soul to the Lord.
This word in Hebrew, Greek and English means separated or set apart, not primarily moral character, but relation to God. II Corinthians 6:17, "Come out from among them, and be separate, says the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you." I John 2:15, "Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him." Hebrews 12:14, "Follow peace with all men, and holiness, without which no man shall see the Lord".
The only way to holiness is by self-surrender. A man becomes God's own when he says, "Lord, take me and mould me, fill me and cleanse me, and do with me what You will." The first thing to be offered is our will. When we yield our will in submission both to commandments and providences, both to gifts and to withdrawals, both to gains and to losses, both to joys and to sorrows, then we begin to write upon our foreheads "Holiness to the Lord." And when we go on to yield our hearts to Him by enshrining Him sole sovereign in our soul, and turning to Him the whole current of our life and desires, our hopes and confidences, which we are so apt to allow to run to waste, we write more of that inscription. And when we fill our minds with joyful submission to His truth, and occupy our thoughts with His mighty Name and His great revelation, and carry Him with us in the hidden corners of our consciousness, even while busy about daily work, then we add further letters to it. And when the submissive will, and the devoted heart, and the occupied thoughts are fully expressed in daily life and its various external duties, then the writing is complete. "Holiness to the Lord" is self-surrender of will and heart and mind and everything. And that surrender is of the very essence of Christianity.
A saint is a man or woman in the world who, moved by the mercies of God, yields self to God as "a living sacrifice." With affectionate memories I recall our late Sister Gladys Emma Donnithorne (1891 – 1977) who with her missionary husband served many years in Szechuan and Hong Kong. She would admonish, "Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof" (Matthew 6:33-34).
The Gospel writers never hesitate to speak of such imperfect Christians as found in abundance in churches like Corinth and Galatia as 'saints,' every man of them. That was not because they were minimizing their defects, or idealizsing their persons, but because, if they are Christians at all, they are saints; seeing that no man is a Christian who has not been drawn by Christ's great sacrifice for him to yield himself a sacrifice for Christ.
The true way to conquer self is to surrender self; and the more entire our giving up of ourselves, the more certainly shall we receive ourselves back again from His hands. "By the mercies of God, I beseech you, yield yourselves living sacrifices".
Zechariah has a vision of the ideal Messianic times, and, of course his picture is painted with colours laid upon his palette by experience, and he depicts that distant future in the guise suggested by what he saw around him. So we have to disentangle from his words the sentiment which he expresses, and to recognize the symbolic way in which he puts it. His thought is that the inscription on the high priest's mitre will be written on the bells which ornament the harness of the horses, which in Israel were never used as with us, but only either for war or for pomp and display, and the use of which was always regarded with a certain kind of doubt and suspicion. Even these shall be consecrated in that far-off day.
And then he goes on with variations on the same air, "In that day there shall be upon the bells of the horses, "Holiness to the Lord," and adds that 'the pots in the Lord's house'—the humble vessels that were used for the most ordinary parts of the Temple services—'shall be like the bowls before the altar,' into which the sacred blood of the offerings was poured. The most external and secular thing bearing upon religion shall be as sacred as the most sacred. But that is not all. 'Yes! Every pot in Jerusalem and in Judah shall be holiness unto the Lord of hosts, and all they that sacrifice shall come and take of them,' and put their offerings therein. That is to say, the coarse pottery vessels that were in every poverty-stricken house in the city shall be elevated to the rank of the sacred vessels of the Temple. Domestic life with all its secularities shall be hallowed. The kitchens of Jerusalem shall be as truly places of worship as is the inner shrine of the Most High.
On the whole, the prophet's teaching is that, in the ideal state of man upon earth, there will be an entire abolition of the distinction between 'sacred' and 'secular;' a distinction that has wrought infinite mischief in the world, and in the lives of Christian people. Every common piece of service that we do, down among the vulgarities and the secularities and the meannesses' of daily life, may be lifted up to stand on the same level as the most sacred office that we undertake. The bells of the horses may jingle to the same tune as the trumpets of the priests sounded within the shrine, and on all, great and small, may be written, "Holiness to the Lord".
Holy men make all things holy. "To the pure all things are pure," but unto them that are unclean and disobedient there is nothing pure. Hallow yourself, and all things are clean unto you.
The connection between the first and the last of these texts is as plain and close as between the first and the second. For John in his closing vision gives emphasis to the priestly idea as designating in its deepest relations the redeemed and perfected Christian Church. Therefore he says, as I have already explained, 'His servants shall do Him priestly service, and His name shall be in their foreheads.' The old official dress of the high priest comes into his mind, and he paints the future, just as Zechariah did, under the forms of the past, and sees before the throne the perfected saints, each man of them with that inscription clear and conspicuous.
But there is an advance in John's words: it is only the Name that is written in the perfected saint's forehead. Not "Holiness to the Lord," just the bare name. That means the same as you writing your name in one of your books, or as a man puting his initials on the back of his oxen. It means absolute ownership. But it means something more. The name is the manifested personality, the revealed God. That Name is to be in the foreheads of His perfected people. How does it come to be there? "His servants shall see His face, and His Name shall be in their foreheads." Thus, the perfected condition is not reached by surrender only, but by assimilation; and comes by contemplation. The faces that are turned to Him, and behold Him, are smitten with the Light and shine, and those that look upon them see "as it had been the face of an angel," as the Sanhedrim saw that of Stephen, when he beheld the Son of Man "standing at the right hand of God".
And "We shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is." The Name is to be "in their foreheads," where every eye can see it. Alas! Alas! It is so hard for us to live out our best selves, and to show to the world what is in us. Cowardice, sheepishness, and a hundred other reasons prevent it. In this poor imperfect state no emotion ever takes shape and visibility without losing more or less of its beauty. But yonder the obstructions to self-manifestation will be done away; and "when He shall be manifested, we also shall be manifested with Him in glory".
"Then shall the righteous blaze forth like the sun in My heavenly Father's Kingdom." But the beginning of it all is "Holiness to the Lord'" written on our hearts; and the end of that is the vision which is impossible without holiness, and which leads on to the beholder's perfect likeness to his Lord.
"We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at Israel's Seventh Trumpet: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we will be changed. For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality. So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then will come to pass the saying that is written, Death is swallowed up in victory.
O death, where is thy sting? O grave, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin; and the strength of sin is the Law. But thanks be to God, Who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, unmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as you know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord". nl1127.htm
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Brother Grigor-Scott is a non-denominational minister who has ministered full-time since 1981, primarily to other ministers and their congregations overseas. He pastors Bible Believers' tiny congregation, and is available to teach in your church.
Bible Believers' Church
Gunnedah NSW
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