Bible Believers' Newsletter 1282
"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. We appreciate receiving emails expressing your thoughts, questions and suggestions.
This week's Newsletter is unusual as most content is current news showcasing the near approach of the close of the Gentile dispensation, the resurrection of the sleeping saints and the translation of Christ's end-time Bride, followed by the invasion and defeat of the modern Israel state, terminating her military status. This will produce the mass exodus of non-Semitic, anti-Semitic self-styled Jews, enabling the Ten Tribes of the Northern Kingdom to repatriate from North Africa and the Middle East along with stragglers of Benjamin and Judah without "fear of the Jews" who threatened Israelites, Jesus Messiah, and His disciples.
"Behold, in the Day of the Lord your spoil will be taken from you and leisurely divided among the conquerors in the midst of Jerusalem. And the Lord will gather all nations to battle against Jerusalem; and the city will be captured, and the houses plundered, and the women ravished; and half of the city exiled, but the residue of the people shall not be cut off from the city" (as UN Resolution 181 is enforced). Then the LORD will go forth and fight against those nations, as when He fights on the day of battle. And His feet shall stand on the Mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the Mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west by a very large valley" (Zechariah 14:1-8; 4:7; Isaiah 64:1-2; Ezekiel 47:1-10; Micah 1:3-4; Habakkuk 3:6). "Half of the mountain will recede toward the north and the other half toward the south".
"And you genuine Israelites of the pure blood of (Abraham, Isaac and Jacob) will flee by the valley of My mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azel: yes, you will flee, like as you fled after the earthquake (Isaiah 29:6; Joel 3:2; Amos 1:1) in the days of Uzziah king of Judah. Then the LORD my God will come, and all the saints with Him" (Isaiah 49:11; Joel 3:9-11; Amos 8:7-10; Micah 1:2-4; Revelation 19:11-16).
Many confuse the Israel state with Jews, Israelis and Israelites. The State of Israel is a small country with defined and unchanging boundaries that God promised Abram and His Seed (Genesis 12:7). "Now the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his Seed. He did not say, And to seeds, referring to many; but to one, And to your Seed, which is Jesus Messiah" (Galatians 3:16; Acts 3:25; Romans 4:16). Israelites are the blood descendants of Abraham, but in the Day of the Lord the 144,000 elect Israelites will also be born spiritually by the Spoken Word, Jesus Messiah. "Jew" is an unscriptural modern English word that has replaced two scriptural words "Judahite," a descendant of Judah, and "Judean" which is any resident of Judea regardless of race or religion. Once again we smell deception by misrepresentation. Most of those who style themselves "Jews" are not even Semitic like the Palestinians, Lebanese, Syrians, Arabs, et al.
According to the Encyclopedia Judaica over ninety percent of Jews in Israel and globally are unrelated to Jacob, neither are they Semitic. Matthew 24:29-34 and Mark 13:28-30 qualify the establishment of the modern Israel state as a sign of the end of the dispensations, leaving seven years to Israel after the Gentile dispensation ends and before the consummation. Matthew 24:31 and Mark 13:27 inform us that "after Israel's Seventh Trump and our resurrection and translation God will send His angels—a 'Moses' and an 'Elijah'—to gather His elect Israelites from war and strife and from the uttermost part of the earth to the uttermost part of heaven to the Land of their Covenant for redemption."
The Oxford English Dictionary states "the earliest use of the word "Israeli" was in the 1940s." Like his father, the Devil-incarnate Serpent, Cain was subtle and craftier than any other beast of the field, and so are his children to this day. Jesus said, "As the days of Noah were, so shall also the (Gk.) 'parousia' coming of the Son of man be." So clearly there are still two races on man on earth, "and God put enmity between them".
As we have quoted from God's unchanging Word, the modern Israel State will be invaded and emptied of many of her inhabitants to allow the genuine children of Abraham to repatriate the country because those living without the Promised Land are without the Covenant, and that includes expatriate rabbis.
Our main article is "Fasting."
This Newsletter serves those of like precious faith. Whoever will receive the truth is welcome to feed their soul from the waters of the River of Life. Everything here presented should be confirmed personally in your own Bible.Your brother-in-Christ
Anthony Grigor-Scott
The Great Dispossession Part 3
April 17, 2024 — The 21st century is characterized by a long-term fall in the velocity of money . . . while stocks and real estate have been driven to unprecedented levels by years of zero interest rates. When this bubble pops, we will be dispossessed.
The Fed suddenly and rapidly moved from zero to 5% interest rates, a reversal of the policy that drove up prices of stocks and bonds. The Fed raises rates by reducing money supply growth, thus removing the factor supporting high stock prices and collapsing the value of bonds. This results in a lowering of the value of stocks and bonds serving as collateral for loans, which, of course, means the loans and the financial institution behind them are in trouble . . . the velocity of money collapsed in the 21st century while the Fed introduced "quantitative easing". . . when the velocity of money collapses, the Fed is pushing on a string . . . when after more than a decade of near zero interest rates, the Fed raises interest rates it collapses the values of financial portfolios and real estate and produces a financial crisis.
As the authorities have set in place a system that bails out secured creditors with our bank deposits, stocks, and bonds, we will have no money and no financial assets to sell for money . . . The way the system works is you lose your money but not your debts. The secured creditors are the creditors of the troubled institutions. Ultimately, the secured creditors are the mega-banks defined as "privileged creditors" . . . (see Part 2).
The provision of CBDC to the population would provide a money supply and income to a population in total chaos and restore order to a grateful population . . . giving total control to rulers . . . with CBDC the central bank will know how each person uses their allotment of digital currency which gives the central bank absolute control over you via the capability to regulate your purchases, to turn off disapproved purchases, to discipline dissenters. You will be supplied with the means of life as long as you have a good social credit score, which means that you are a non-dissenter of official narratives.
The WEF was founded 53 years ago and has over the half century recruited many of the important people in business, finance, and politics (like former PM Scott Morrison and his Health Minister Greg Hunt –Ed). If you are not a WEF member and attendee at Davos, you are lower down on the totem pole. Social, political, and intellectual standing depends on membership. It is important to understand that The Great Reset means the re-institutionalization of feudalism. Full story: The Great Dispossession Part 3
Comment: you must study The Great Dispossession Part 1; The Great Dispossession Part 2, and The Great Dispossession Part 4.
Israel 'Do Our Dirty Work'? Toward Military Escalation? 'Theater Iran Near Term (TIRANNT)'? War on Iran 'No Longer On Hold?
April 18, 2024 — "Iran said that after tonight's attack, the "matter can be deemed concluded" unless there is more violence."
The dirty work concept is embedded in US foreign policy. Let your allies do the Dirty Work for You. The Israeli attack against the Iran Consulate in Damascus was conducted in consultation with Washington . . . The use of nuclear weapons by Israel in response to Iran's retaliation is being discussed behind closed doors both in Tel Aviv and in Washington. That does not mean that it is contemplated as an option . . . war on Iran would be a joint US-Israeli endeavor, coordinated by US Strategic Command with America's allies playing a key (subordinate) role."
The USS Gerald Ford is presented as a "show of force and a warning to bad actors." It also points to escalation. The hideous crimes committed by the IDF against 2.3 million Palestinian civilians in the Gaza Strip are not mentioned . . .
We are nonetheless at a dangerous crossroads in our history. While Pentagon analysts are fully aware that the US cannot win a conventional war against Iran, a first strike tactical nuclear weapons attack is still "on the table." So are intelligence ops, the recruitment of hired "jihadist" terrorists (CIA's al Qaeda, Mujahedeen, ISIS, etc – Ed), the funding of insurgencies, etc. (not to mention the use of a panoply of nonconventional weapons systems including electromagnetic, chemical and biological weapons) . . . War is a criminal undertaking which is supported by the US media. Full story: globalresearch.ca
Comment: The Jew York Times instructed journalists covering Israel's war on the Gaza Strip to restrict the use of the terms "genocide" and "ethnic cleansing" and to "avoid" using the phrase "occupied territory" when describing Palestinian land, according to a copy of an internal memo obtained by The Intercept.
The Last Stammering of Jewish Fascism
March 12, 2024 — Anyone acting in good faith understands that murdering 30,000 innocent people has nothing to do with eliminating Hamas. Operation Iron Glaive appears for what it is: a cover to realize the old dream pursued by Jewish fascists from Jabotinsky to Netanyahu: to expel the Arab population from Palestine. From then on, this mass crime, committed for the first time live on television, turned the world's political chessboard upside down. Feeling threatened, the Jewish supremacists themselves threatened the United States. Anxious to remain masters of the "free world," the United States is preparing to topple the Jewish supremacists.
The Biden administration watched with bated breath as Israel reacted to the attack by the Palestinian Resistance, including Hamas, known as the "Flood of Al-Aqsa" (October 7). Operation Iron Glaive began with a massive pounding of Gaza City on a scale unprecedented anywhere in the world, including the World Wars. From October 27 onwards, this was followed by ground intervention, looting and the torture of thousands of Gazan civilians. In five months, 37,534 civilians were killed or disappeared, including 13,430 children and 8,900 women, 364 medical personnel and 132 journalists.
At first, Washington reacted by unwaveringly supporting "Israel's right to defend itself," threatening to veto any ceasefire request and supplying as many bombs as necessary for the widespread destruction of the Palestinian enclave. It was unthinkable, in its eyes, to suffer yet another defeat, after those in Syria, (Afghanistan – Ed.) and Ukraine. However, Americans were watching the horrors live on their cell phones. Many high-ranking State Department officials wrote and spoke of their shame at supporting this butchery. Petitions were circulated. Prominent figures, both Jewish and Muslim, resigned . . .
For 75 years, the West has imposed its will on its former colonies in the "wider Middle East," either through jihadists or directly through its armies. By supporting for four months the massacres perpetrated by the Jewish fascists of the Jabotinsky-Netanyahu group, the West has lost its prestige. Whatever Israel does next, with Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid rather than Benjamin Netanyahu and Itamar Ben-Gvir, Israel's power, based on the myth that Jews are incompatible with fascism, has collapsed. From now on, it will be possible to exhume all the crimes committed by this tiny group, on behalf of the CIA, during the Cold War, in the Middle East, Africa and Latin America. Full story: voltairenet.org
Comment: One must read the Full story. To date, no one has offered reparations to Iran after the destruction by Israel of its consulate and the residence of its ambassador in Damascus (cf. 0907). However, in everyone's opinion, this is an extremely serious crime (voltairenet.org).
Netanyahu's Timeline: 'Before the Beginning of 2024'
April 14, 2024 — The timeline resulting from these bilateral Israel-Egypt "secret talks" i.e. confiscation of Palestine's offshore Maritime Gas Reserves is "The Beginning of 2024". . . An important United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) (2019) report describes Palestine's predicament as follows:
Geologists and natural resources economists have confirmed that the Occupied Palestinian Territory lies above sizeable reservoirs of oil and natural gas wealth, in Area C of the occupied West Bank and the Mediterranean coast off the Gaza Strip. . .In the words of Netanyahu who is on Record for Supporting and Financing a faction within Hamas:"Anyone who wants to thwart the establishment of a Palestinian state has to support bolstering Hamas and transferring money to Hamas . . . This is part of our strategy—to isolate the Palestinians in Gaza from the Palestinians in the West Bank."Crimes against humanity beyond description by the Netanyahu government against the People of Palestine,
(Benjamin Netanyahu, statement at a March 2019 meeting of his Likud Party's Knesset members, Haaretz, October 9, 2023, emphasis added)"
"Hamas was treated as a partner to the detriment of the Palestinian Authority to prevent Abbas from moving towards creating a Palestinian State. Hamas was promoted from a terrorist group to an organization with which Israel conducted negotiations through Egypt, and which was allowed to receive suitcases containing millions of dollars from Qatar through the Gaza crossings."
(Times of Israel, October 8, 2023, For years, Netanyahu propped up Hamas. Now it's blown up in our faces (emphasis added)
Crimes also committed against the People of Israel who are the victims of the Hamas "False Flag Attack" carefully engineered by Mossad-IDF.
There are deep-seated divisions within Hamas. Our "False Flag" analysis pertains to a military-intelligence faction within Hamas which cooperates with Israeli and US intelligence. See: Is the Gaza-Israel Fighting "A False Flag"? They Let It Happen? Their Objective Is "to Wipe Gaza Off the Map"? . . .
Full story: globalresearch.ca; rumble.com
Iran on the Rise: Retaliation, 'Important Military Targets'
April 15, 2024 — This is not only Apartheid "social cleansing"—it is also taking possession, stealing, of tens or hundreds of billions worth of Gazan off-shore gas reserves. To be sure, Israel is an illegal state, on Palestinian land stolen through the 1917 UK-sponsored Zionist-initiated Balfour Declaration, with the support in 1948 of the then 52-member young US-dominated United Nations. See this.
For the past 100 years or so, Washington was—and still is—tacitly as well as openly manipulated by a strong worldwide Zionist movement. Zionists control the world's—at least the Western world's—financial system, Big Finance, Wall Street, and not least the Bank for International Settlements (BIS), in Basle Switzerland, also called the Central Bank of all central banks, controlling about 90% of the worldwide monetary flow. All in Zionists command.
There is a strong symbiotic relationship, an interdependence between the Zionists, today's Israel, and the US. The Zionists, the self-declared Chosen People, wield the scepter of Big Finance, aspiring for world domination through Greater Israel, with the might of military power by the United States. See the Greater Israel map, 100% of Palestine, Jordan and Lebanon, 70% of Syria, 50% of Iraq, 33% of Saudi Arabia, and Egypt up to the Nile. Iran is the major stumbling block for Israel's Zionists to achieve their goal. Once Iran is conquered, they dream, Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf States will fall in place.
Zionist-Israel has been allowed by the discreet influence of the US and UK secret services to become a "clandestine" nuclear power. They know they can count not only on the US tax-payers' financial support, but more importantly, also with the Pentagon's military might. By the way, US taxpayers have been footing a considerable portion of Israel's budget for its 75-year existence. Full story: .globalresearch.ca
Comment: The United Nations Security Council failed to condemn the attacks against the Iranian embassy due to the lack of support by the western imperialist states which arm and finance the settler-colonial regime in Israel. Therefore, it was not surprising that the Iranian government was compelled to strike Israel in a major way (globalresearch.ca).
The Missiles of April
April 14, 2024 — Iran's retaliatory attack on Israel will go down in history as one of the greatest victories of this century . . . Israel was a nation drunk on hubris and power, and unless the United States could find a way to remove the keys from the ignition of the bus Israel was navigating toward the abyss, we would not join Israel in its lemming-like suicidal journey...
First and foremost, Iran has been engaged in a strategic policy premised on a pivot away from Europe and the United States, and toward Russia, China, and the Eurasian landmass. This shift has been driven by Iran's frustration over the US-driven policy of economic sanctions, and the inability and/or unwillingness on the part of the collective West to find a path forward that would see these sanctions lifted. The failure of the Iranian nuclear deal (the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, or JCPOA) to produce the kind of economic opportunities that had been promised at its signing has been a major driver behind this Iranian eastward pivot. In its stead, Iran has joined both the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) and the BRICS forum and has directed its diplomatic energies into seeing Iran thoroughly and productively integrated into both groups . . .
Through its criminal behavior toward the Palestinian civilians in Gaza, Israel has lost the support of much of the world, putting the United States in a position where it will see its already-tarnished reputation irreparably damaged, at a time when the world is transitioning from a period of American-dominated singularity to a BRICS-driven multipolarity, and the US needs to retain as much clout in the so-called "global south" as possible . . . the Iranian actions were justified under Article 51 of the UN Charter (and 1961's Vienna Convention)—Iran retaliated against those targets in Israel directly related to the Israeli attack on Iran, and second, that Israeli air defense sites were vulnerable to Iranian attack. The combined impact of these two factors is that all of Israel was vulnerable to being struck by Iran at any time, and that there was nothing Israel or its allies could do to stop such an attack . . . a sea-change moment in Middle Eastern geopolitics—the establishment of Iranian deterrence that impacts both Israel and the United States . . . the underlying policy objective of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over the course of the past 30-plus years, namely to drag the US into a war with Iran, has been put into checkmate by Iran.
Moreover, Iran has been able to accomplish this without either disrupting its strategic pivot to the east or undermining the cause of Palestinian statehood. "Operation True Promise," as Iran named its retaliatory attack on Israel, will go down in history as one of the most important military victories in the history of modern Iran, keeping in mind that war is but an extension of politics by other means. The fact that Iran has established a credible deterrence posture without disrupting major policy goals and objectives is the very definition of victory. Full story: scottritterextra.com
Comment: The latest test (of Russia's ICBM) sends a very clear message to the political West. If NATO is considering the possibility of escalating its aggression in Europe, such actions will certainly be met with a swift response. This may also include the belligerent alliance's recent engagement in the Middle East, where the US and its regional vassals have been contemplating attacks on Iran.
Moscow certainly knew about Tehran's retaliatory strikes on Israel, meaning that the latest test-launch was another warning sign to the political West that Russia won't tolerate any large-scale attacks on Iran, as they would destabilize the situation on its southern borders. It's also a message that "Rubezh" (a Russian solid-fueled ICBM) effectively nullifies all NATO ABM systems in Europe, while also cooling down the increasingly hawkish behavior of some of its European members such as France and the United Kingdom (globalresearch.ca).
Germany Confirms its Collaboration with Genocide, Shuts down Palestine Conference
April 16, 2024 — A three-day Palestine conference in Berlin was forcibly shut down after three hours on Friday. Electricity was abruptly terminated in the midst of the presentation by Salman Abu Sitta, the 87 year old author of the authoritative "Atlas of Palestine".
Former Greek Finance Minister and leader of DIEM25, Yanis Varoufakis, was prevented from entering Germany to attend the conference. He went on Twitter/X to send a message. Another banned guest speaker was UK citizen Dr. Ghassan Abu Sittah, Rector of Glasgow University. He told Middle East Eye youtu.be. "Germany is defending itself against Nicaraguan charges that it is an accomplice to genocidal war as described by the International Court of Justice. This is exactly what accomplices to a crime do. They bury the evidence and they silence or harass or intimidate the witnesses . . . This crackdown on free speech is a dangerous precedent . . . We are watching the first genocide unfold in the 21st Century and for Germany to become implicated as an accomplice in silencing the witnesses of this genocide does not bode well for the rest of the century".
Western and Israeli media reported the closure was to prevent "anti-Semitism" or "hatred of Israel." On this dubious and hypothetical basis, public education about a real ongoing massacre and mass starvation was made illegal. Full story: globalresearch.ca.
Comment: Germany Buries the Evidence of Complicity in Gaza Genocide: Nicaragua Exposes It. Nicaragua's accusation before the International Court of Justice is that Germany is actively participating in the genocide committed by the Israeli armed forces in the Gaza Strip. And I as a German learned in school that I have to resist when genocide is happening in front of my eyes.
I can hardly recognize my homeland Germany. Now people are talking about "fitness for war" again. We're supposed to march east again . . . No, the Gaza war is an "asymmetric war:" a fully equipped and armed army fights a defenseless civilian population—until this civilian population either flees or is completely annihilated. The Netanyahu regime's argument that it is fighting a Hamas army in a symmetrical way is not convincing. Hamas was able to claim some kind of residual vegetation in the underground tunnels. Militarily, Hamas plays no role at all—apart from a few sniper attacks on isolated Israeli soldiers. Potentially and verbally allied forces of Hezbollah and Iran have so far largely kept a low profile out of fear of Israeli nuclear bombs. (This video in 3D shows Israel's Dimona Nuclear Weapons Facility based on sixty images secretly shot by Mordechai Vanunu) . . . The overwhelming majority of Jews worldwide strongly condemn the crimes of the Netanyahu govt.; these courageous people express their protest in the streets (globalresearch.ca).
Checkmate
April 16, 2024 — The Iranian defeat of the US-Israeli missile defense architecture has global security consequences . . . Iran's purpose in launching the attack was to establish a deterrence posture designed to put Israel and the United States on notice that any attack against Iran, whether on Iranian soil or on the territory of other nations, would trigger a retaliation which would inflict more damage on the attacker than the attacker could hope to inflict on Iran . . . Iran had to prove itself capable of overcoming the ballistic missile defense systems of both Israel and the United States which were deployed in and around Israel at the time of the attack. This Iran was able to accomplish, with at least nine missiles striking two Israeli air bases that fell under the protective umbrella of the Israeli-US missile defense shield . . . Iran exposed the notion of US missile defense supremacy that serves as the heart of US force protection models used when projecting military power on a global scale. The US defensive posture vis-à-vis Russia, China, and North Korea hinges on assumptions made regarding the efficacy of US ballistic missile defense capabilities . . . Iran exposed the vulnerability of the US missile defense shield to modern missile technologies involving maneuverable warheads, decoys, and hypersonic speed. US bases in Europe, the Pacific and the Middle East . . . have suddenly been revealed to be vulnerable to hostile attack; so to are US Navy ships operating at sea.
. . . the combination of US and Israeli anti-ballistic missile defense capabilities deployed in and around the Negev desert made the Israeli air bases located there the most protected locations in the world from threats posed by ballistic missiles . . . global strategic implications of this stunning Iranian accomplishment are game-changing . . . failure of the combined US-Israeli defense systems in the face of a concerted Iranian missile attack exposed the short-comings of the US ballistic missile defense capabilities world-wide . . . this means that the US and NATO forces in Europe are vulnerable to attack from advanced Russian missile technologies which match or exceed those used by Iran to attack Israel. It also means that China would most likely be able to strike and sink US navy ships in the Pacific Ocean in the event of a conflict over Taiwan. And that North Korea could do the same to US ships and forces ashore in the vicinity of Japan and South Korea . . . US military power projection capabilities are in a state of checkmate by America's potential adversaries. Full story: scottritterextra.com
Comment: Iran, now militarily speaking, one of the three key members of the newly ten BRICS nations must assure the West that sanctions and threats and random unprovoked attacks will not cut it anymore. The 14th April attack by Iran was not just a retaliatory strike, but has established a new order, depriving Israel of her absolute impunity, which until recently had been guaranteed by the US.
Let us not forget, whatever Zionist-Israel does in pursuit of her ultimate goal, the establishment of Greater Israel, is to control the Middle East's inexhaustible energy resources. Achieving Greater Israel depends very much on Israel conquering Iran, not only because Iran is literally in "command" of the oil and gas rich Middle East, but also a Greater Israel needs control over the Strait of Hormuz, now controlled by Iran.
Attack One BRICS state, you attack them all. Iran does not want war. They may follow the Tao philosophy, as expressed by Sun Tzu in ancient times, "To fight 100 battles and win 100 battles is not the height of skill. The best way to win is not to fight at all." This is Iran's strategy. Its strike against Israel was not so much a military response as a grandmaster's move in a big chess game. And the game is not over yet (RT News, 16 April 2024).
May President Putin's words resonate and be taken seriously, "I hope WWIII can be avoided"; meaning that an Israeli assault on Iran would not remain unanswered by Russia, which would bring in NATO and WWIII could explode overnight.
Fasting
"Usually before I start in the prayer lines, I take three days of fasting and praying, as many people know" (50-0711, Ministry Explained, par. E-2).
The Hebrew word 'tsum' means to abstain from food; however it never occurs in the Pentateuch. Although the Mosaic Law meticulously directs the foods to be eaten and to be shunned, it never enjoins fasting as false asceticism so common in the East was carefully avoided. On the annual Day of Atonement, the tenth day of Tishrei, Israelites were directed to "afflict the soul" (Leviticus 16:29-31; Leviticus 23:27; Numbers 30:13). This significant term implies that the essence of scriptural "fasting" lies in self-humiliation and penitence. However the precise mode of subduing the flesh to the spirit, and of expressing sorrow for sin, is left to the conscientious discretion of each person. In Acts 27:9 the yearly Day of Atonement is popularly designated "the fast" (Leviticus 27:9).
You fast for a purpose, either because you feel the Lord would have you fast, to discipline your body and mortal spirit, or for health and hygiene. There is no point in fasting for the sake of fasting. A fast should be for a definite purpose. By sanctification we bring our mind or mortal spirit subject to the revealed Word, that in turn "mortifies the deeds of the body" (Romans 8:13). Fasting may help discipline your body and mortal spirit to the Word, but if God tells you to fast abstain for one or at the very most three days. Do not fast publicly like the hypocrites who try to appear wan and disheveled so people will feel sorry for them; truly that will be their only reward.
An animal is composed of a mortal body and mortal spirit. We may kill and eat an animal because it does not possess a soul that can return, therefore we may "kill and eat" because without a soul the mortal spirit goes to ground and breaks up like a charge of electricity; the body corrupts and returns to ground. Human beings possess a soul and you are that soul you are your soul on earth with free moral agency to make the decisions that will determine vour destiny, whether salvation, eternal Life, or damnation. We were created to be the gods of this earth with dominion over earth and rule nature.
Me, my soul, is to exercise dominion and rule over my mortal spirit which in turn is rule my corruptible flesh, hereby to mature as glorified eternal beings. Eve's horrible sin interrupted the ideal and bringing death upon all earthly creatures and enabling God to reveal Himself as a jealous but just God, a healer, redeemer, consoler, forgiving, jealous, omniscient and omnipotent God of love.
Brother Branham said, "Usually in a fast I never feel hungry. If you feel hungry, it's time to eat" (55-1001, Expectation par. E-20). "If you keep your stomach empty, the blood is at your brain, and you must be ready . . . That's the power of fasting. When you're full, the blood goes into your stomach to digest your food. You see? And when you're empty, it's in your brain" (50-0813A, The Resurrection of Lazarus, par. E-4).
A fast in the body is a feast with the Lord. So when you fast, you shouldn't feel hungry, and after your fast you'll be full of joy, "For they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength." Paul said, "In Christ Jesus our Lord, I die daily" (I Corinthians 15:31).
But God, while not discountenancing outward acts of sorrow expressive of inward penitence, declares, "Behold, you fast for strife and debate, and to smite with the fist of wickedness: you shall not fast as you do this day, to make your voice to be heard on high. Is it a fast like this that I have chosen, a day for a man to afflict his soul? Is it to bow down his head as a bulrush, and to spread sackcloth and ashes under him, will you call this a fast, and an acceptable day to the LORD? Is not this the fast that I have chosen, to loose the bands of wickedness, to undo the heavy burdens, and to let the oppressed go free, and break every yoke? Is it not to deal your bread to the hungry, and that you bring the poor that are cast out to your house; when you see the naked, that you cover him; and not to hide not yourself from your own flesh?" (Isaiah 28:4-7).
Compare similar warnings against mistaking outward fasting as meritorious before God. Malachi 3:14-18, "You have said, it is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have kept His ordinance, and walked mournfully before the LORD of hosts? And now we call the arrogant blessed; not only are the doers of wickedness built up; they also tempt the Lord and escape".
This diagram illustrates the five senses of our flesh with which we contact the natural world by—sight, hearing, taste, touch and smell. Beneath the realm of our mortal spirit we contact the world. The inside being contacts the world by the senses of memory, reasoning, imagination, conscience and affection. Surrounding the perimeter are some of the positive and negative reactions to the stimulus on the two outer realms. Now we come to you, your soul, which has one of two reactions—faith, or doubt, and that determines eternal destiny.
"Then those who feared the LORD spoke often to one another, and the LORD gave attention, and heard it, and a Book of remembrance was written before Him for them that feared the LORD, and who esteem His Name. They shall be Mine says the LORD of hosts, in that day when I prepare My jewels; I will spare them, as a man spares his own son that serves him. Then you will again distinguish between the righteous and the wicked, between one who serves God and one who does not serve Him".
Matthew 6:16, "And whenever you fast, do not put on a gloomy face like the hypocrites, for they neglect their appearance in order to appear unto men to fast. Truly I assure you, they have their reward".
Brother Branham said, "I spend my time in prayer all through the day. I must do it in order to meet the obligation of the night. And the sickly take the life from you, fasting and praying" (50-0714, At Thy Word, par. E-2).
The only other periodical fasts in the Old Testament were those connected with the capture of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar: the fast of the fourth month commemorated its capture (Jeremiah 39:2; 52:6-7); that of the fifth month, the burning of the temple and the chief houses (Jeremiah 52:12-14); that of the seventh, the murder of Gedaliah (Jeremiah 41:1-3); that of the tenth the beginning of the siege (Zechariah 7:3-5; 8:19). Jeremiah 52:4, "did you at all fast unto Me, even to Me?" Nay, it was to gratify yourselves in hypocritical will worship. If it had been to Me, you would have separated yourselves not merely from food but from your sins.
Once the principle is enacted, "he that eats, eats to the Lord, and he that eats not, to the Lord he eats not" (Romans 14:6), for "meat does not commend us to God, for neither if we eat are we the better, neither if we eat not are we the worse" (I Corinthians 8:6), fasting and eating are put in their true place, as means not ends. There are now 28 yearly fasts in the Jewish calendar. Daniel's mode of fasting was, "I ate no pleasant bread, neither came flesh nor wine in my mouth" (Daniel 10:3). "I ate unleavened bread, even the bread of affliction" (Deuteronomy 16:3). In Matthew 9:14 "fast" is explained by "mourn." In Matthew 9:15, "Jesus said unto them, Can the children of the bridechamber mourn, as long as the Bridegroom is with them? But the days will come, when the Bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast." So fasting was but an outward expression of mourning, not meritorious, nor sanctifying in itself (Psalms 69:10).
A mark of apostasy is "commanding to abstain from meats which God has created to be received with thanksgiving" (I Timothy 4:3). The "neglecting of the body," while seeming to deny self, really tends "to the satisfying of the flesh." Ordinances of "will worship" gratify the flesh while seeming to mortify it; for "self crowned with thorns in the cloister is as selfish as self crowned with ivy in the revel" (Colossians 2:18-23). Instances of special fasts of individuals and of the people in the Old Testament, either in mourning and humiliation or in prayer, occur in Judges 20:26; I Samuel 1:7; 20:34; 31:13; II Samuel I:12; 12:21; 3:35; I Kings 21:9-12; Ezra 8:21-23; Ezra 10:6; Esther 4:16; Nehemiah 1:4.
National fasts are alluded to in I Samuel 7:6 (wherein the drawing of water and pouring it out before Jehovah expressed their confession of powerlessness and utter prostration (Psalms 22:14; 58:7; II Samuel 14:14; II Chronicles 20:3; Jeremiah 36:6-10; Nehemiah 9:1; Joel 1:14; 2:15). In New Testament times the strict Israelites fasted twice a week (Luke 18:12), namely, on the second and fifth days. While Christ is with His people either in body or in Spirit, fasting is unseasonable, for joy alone can be where He is; but when His Presence is withdrawn, sorrow comes to the believer and fasting is one mode of expressing his sorrowing after the Lord. This is Christ's teaching, "Jesus said unto them, Can the children of the bridechamber mourn, as long as the Bridegroom is with them? but the days will come, when the Bridegroom shall be taken from them, and then shall they fast" (Matthew 9:15). As to the texts quoted for fasting as a mean of spiritual power, the Sinaiticus and Vaticanus manuscripts omit Matthew 17:21 and Mark 9:29, "Howbeit this kind goeth not out but by prayer and fasting" while the Alexandrinus manuscript omits I Corinthians 7:5, "Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent for a time, that ye may give yourselves to fasting and prayer; and come together again, that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency." Evidently the growing tendency to asceticism in post apostolic times accounts for these interpolations.
However the apostles, Brother Branham, you and me "prayed with fasting" in ordaining elders (Acts 13:3; Acts 14:23). But this continuance of the existing Jewish usage never divinely ordered does not make it obligatory on us, except in so far as we severally, by experience, find it conducive to prayer. Moses', the Elijah's and Christ's 40 days' foodlessness was exceptional and miraculous. Forty is significant of punishment for sin, confession, or affliction. Christ, the true Israel, denied Himself for forty days, as Israel indulged the flesh forty years. They tempted God that time; He overcame the tempter in each and all of the of the forty days (Genesis 7:4; 7:12; Numbers 14:33; 32:13-14; Psalms 95:10; Deuteronomy 25:3; II Corinthians 11:24; Ezekiel 29:11; 4:6; Jonah 3:4. nl1282.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
Australia 2380e-mail Bible Believers
URL Bible Believers' Website
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