Bible Believers' Newsletter 132
"We focus on the PRESENT Truth — what Jesus is doing NOW . . ."
ISSN1442-8660We greet you in the wonderful Name of our Lord Jesus Christ and appreciate your fellowship. This newsletter serves those of like precious faith and whosoever will receive the truth is welcome to feed their soul from the waters of the River of Life. Everything presented should be confirmed personally in your own Bible.
Your Brother in Christ,
Anthony Grigor-Scott
New Army Powers
Sydney, August 11, 2000 (ABC)—The House of Representatives has passed a bill giving the Army power to shoot citizens during times of civil unrest. It would give the Commonwealth powers to call out the military in civilian emergencies. State premiers have opposed the plan. The Government wants the bill enacted in time for the Sydney Olympics and the World Economic Forum in Melbourne.
(Before the world went insane, Governments would never have hosted events that threatened "civil unrest." Australia has hardly experienced "civil unrest" since the Eureka Stockade during the gold rush over a century ago. But of course this is a cover to take us one step closer to totalitarian government under the New World Order). Full story: abc.net.au
World Government by September?
Are you willing to cede national sovereignty to the United Nations? Are you prepared to become a citizen of the world and give up your individual rights—and your Christianity? The UN is certainly making no secret of the Millennium Forum. Full story: millenniumforum.org; un.org; worldnetdaily.com; InsideTheWeb.com
UN Set to Impose "One World Religion"
Beginning on August 28, the United Nations will convene the millennium Peace Summit of Religious and Spiritual Leaders, in New York. This assembly of over 1,000 "religious" leaders from around the world is leading to the definition and eventual imposition of a pagan One World Religion under the United Nations.
Full story: vvm.com
Malaria and DDT
Sydney, August 14, 2000 (ABC)—In a bad year, malaria kills almost 3-million people, nearly all of them children and pregnant women. 90% of them die in the wrecked economies of sub-Saharan Africa. Another 200-300 million, develop the disease which . . . makes you feel like death. . . one child dying every 30 seconds.
The United Nations Environment Program is almost certain to vote for a ban on the use of DDT at the end of this year. . .
According to Don Roberts of the Uniformed Services University of Health Sciences in the United States . . . after almost 55 years of studies, there have been no adverse public health effects from environmental exposures to DDT. Not a single human death. It does not cause cancer, and . . . international expert, Dr A.G. Smith, a toxicologist, concluded DDT used for malaria control, the effects on humans seems to be very slight.
The move to eliminate DDT today is . . . higher priority to some unsubstantiated but I suppose perceived threat to wildlife, than they will give to proven and fully substantiated threat to health of poor people in malaria-endemic countries.
Countries where malaria is most severe, are the poorest developing countries. . . a fairly consistent pattern of countries that reduce or stop the use of DDT, we see this very rapid spiralling growth of numbers of malaria cases . . . given that's the pattern we can document already, without DDT malaria's going to continue growing as a major public health burden . . . around the globe. Full story: .abc.net.au
Man of God
The Lord God Almighty says, "I KNOW."
There He is walking in the midst of His people. There He is, the Chief Shepherd of the flock. But does He hold back the persecution? Does He stem tribulation? No, He does not. He simply says, "I KNOW your tribulation—I am not at all unmindful of your suffering."
What a stumbling block this is to so many people. Like Israel they wonder if God really loves them. How can God be just and loving if He stands by and watches His people suffer? That is what they asked in Malachi 1:1-3, "The burden of the Word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi. 'I have loved you,' said the Lord."
"Yet we say, 'Wherein have You loved us'?"
"'Was not Esau Jacob's brother?' saith the Lord: 'yet I loved Jacob, And I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness'."
You see, they could not figure out God's love. They thought that love meant no suffering. They thought that love meant a baby with parental care. But God said that His love was "elective" love. The proof of His love is ELECTION—that no matter what happened, His love was proven truly by the fact they were chosen unto salvation (because God has chosen you to salvation through sanctification by the Spirit and belief of the truth). He may commit you to death as He did Paul. He may commit you to suffering as He did Job. That is His prerogative. He is sovereign. But it is all with a purpose. If He did not have a purpose, He would be the author of frustration and not of peace.
God's purpose is that after we have suffered awhile we would be made perfect, be established, strengthened and settled. As Job said, "He puts strength in us" (Job 23:6b).
You see He, Himself, suffered. He learned obedience by the things that He suffered. He was actually made perfect by the things that He suffered. Hebrews 5:8-9, "Though He was a Son, He learned obedience by the things which He suffered; And being made perfect, He became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him." In plain language, the very character of Jesus was perfected by suffering. And according to Paul He has left His church a measure of suffering that they, too, by their faith in God while suffering for Him, would come to a place of perfection.
Why did He want this? James 1:2-4, "My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into different temptations; knowing this, that the trying of your faith works patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that you may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing."
Why does He stand by? The reason is found in Romans 8:17-18, "And if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us." Unless we suffer with Him we cannot reign with Him. You have to suffer to reign. The reason for this is that character simply is never made without suffering. Character is a VICTORY, not a gift. A man without character can't reign because power apart from character is Satanic. But power with character is fit to rule. And since He wants us to share even His throne on the same basis that He overcame and is set down in His Father's throne, then we have to overcome to sit with Him. And the little temporary suffering we go through now is not worthy to be compared to the tremendous glory that will be revealed in us when He comes. Oh, what treasures are laid up for those who are willing to enter into His kingdom through much tribulation.
"Think it not strange concerning the fiery trials that are to try you." said Peter. Is it strange that God wants us to develop a Christ-like character that comes through suffering? No sir. And we all have trials. We are all tried and chastened as sons. Not one but goes through that. The church that is not suffering, and is not being tried, hasn't got it isn't of God. Hebrews 12:6, "For whom the Lord loves He chastens, and scourges every son whom He receives. But if you are without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then you are bastards, and not sons" (William Branham, An Exposition of the Seven Church Ages, 116:2-117:2).
God's purpose is to see his image reproduced in the flesh of His glorified Family as it was made manifest in Jesus Christ. John 12:28, "Jesus said, Father, glorify Your Name. Then came a Voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it (in You), and will glorify it again' (in Your Bride)." Through His Family, God will gather glory to Himself and enjoy fellowship throughout eternity. Indeed they will so perfectly reflect His glory that the "saved' will worship Him throughout eternity in the form of His glorified Family, the New Jerusalem.
In order to accomplish His purpose He had to bring to perfection a people able to realize the revelation of Himself and to recognize His attributes—Who He is, what His purpose is, and how through His plan he will achieve that purpose. A peculiar people who would die to the desires of their own flesh and mortal spirit so that His glorious character can be seen living through them.
Character is not something we are born with, and although it is without price, it must be earned. Hence Jesus said, "Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and you shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you: For every one that asks receives; and he that seeks finds; and to him that knocks it shall be opened" (Matthew 7:7-8). Character must be sought after and obtained lawfully.
Adam and Eve walked with the theophany or Angel of God in the cool of the evening. They were innocent and without sin. But God placed them on the basis of free moral agency so that they could come to know Him by freely chooosing whether to "trust and obey,"or blindly follow the way of reasoning against Him.
True oneness is based upon mutual agreement, andmutual agreement is built upon mutual understanding. Like the original Church who were one in heart and mind in the upper room (Acts 2:1). God being sovereign, the mutual agreement we are considering is not a 50:50 affair, but like marriage its 100:0 wherein the beloved creature willingly comes under pre-eminence to the Creator as a wife comes under pre-eminence to her husband, becoming his glory by reflecting His Christian attributes (I Corinthians 11:7-15).
But how could God reveal His attributes and how could His creation experience them unless sin entered and caused the Fall? Unless man was lost He would never require a Savior, and God could never be a Savior. We only have the revelation of God as Savior because He has manifested that attribute of Himself. Until man was sick, he had no need of a Healer; neither could God display His attributes as Healer. Likewise, God required the occasion to reveal Himself as a God of mercy, of justice, righteous judgment, and so-on.
Man had to develop relationship with God. Such relationship comes through loving intimacy. Intimacy comes through knowing as in the marriage union, and intimacy takes time and experience to grow.
At the fall Eve separated herself from her husband by accepting Satan's reasoning and thence the seed of the Serpent. Then Adam separated Himself from God by crossing the time line and the Life line to join his wife, knowing that when God redeemed him, Eve would be redeemed as she was flesh of his flesh.
Because of his love for her Adam did not put Eve away for her sin against him. He was a type of Christ. But in Adam all die, being separated from God. So each one in Adam's race must personally come to know the attributes and character of God, discover His purpose and His plan, die to the desires of the world—the flesh and mortal spirit—and be born anew in Him (I Corinthians 15:22).
Although He is never far away from each one of us, after the Fall, God no longer fellowshipped with His children as He had with Adam and Eve in the garden. Now that His Voice was silent, man would receive his instruction second-hand through a prophet, and learn the school of personal experience wherein he would make mistakes and grow into the likeness of God the hard way (Hebrews 1:1).
In Genesis and other pre-exilic Biblical writings, angels tend to represent the visible Presence of God among humans, but they were not given names. The births of Ishmael and Samson, for instance, were heralded by an angel, although in their stories the angel is not named.
Whenever God is preparing some major event, He always sends an angel. The word "angel" comes from the Greek "aggelos", a masculine noun translated from the Hebrew "mal'ak" which means "messenger". This emphasizes the distance between God and man since he offended God's holiness by disputing the sovereignty of His Word, and consequently the need for intermediaries between the two. Until the coming of Adam's Kinsman Redeemer Who lay down His Life in substitution for the life of Adam and all of his kin who were potentially in him, man was separated from God. Even in the temple several veils separated the holy place from the holy of holies where the high priest alone could enter once a year.
Many of Adam's antediluvian descendants intermarried with the children of Cain, emulating their corrupt and immoral characteristics instead of reflecting the attributes of God, and God destroyed them all but Enoch and Noah's family. Miscegenation with the Serpent's seed and identification with their corrupt manners is the curse of today, and God Who changes not will destroy our civilization (Matthew 24:37).
After the Flood God again began separating the righteous from the unrighteous by the Word of His prophets. Then when Israel rejected His Word and withstood his prophet Moses, He delivered the Law as a schoolmaster to guard them until the faith should be revealed (Galatians 3:23-25). The Law was to teach Israel the difference between things which were clean and acceptable and those which were unclean and prevented their assembly with the congregation of the Lord.
Thereafter Jesus Christ paid the price of sin but still man could not enter the Presence or be born-again outside Christ's Mediation because the Bible was sealed and ignorance of the Word makes imperfect faith. The profane offering of man's thoughts contrary to His sovereign and infallible mind is again an offense to the sovereignty of God.
From Pentecost until the revelation of the Seven Seals in 1963 God sent seven angels to reveal the Word of the hour to the elect of each age. Peter called It "the PRESENT Truth" (II Peter 1:12). But Christ was still a Mediator because the Bible was shut up—sealed with Seven Seals—until all seven Church Ages were fulfilled. Thus the saints of each age had only PART-Word to which they added man-made theology of trinities, catechisms, baptism in three Titles, and so-on, which was an affront to the sovereignty of God. As a Mediator between God and His elect, Christ received the "PRESENT Truth" or revelation for the hour, placing their guesswork and fables under the Blood in the sea of God's forgetfulness so they could be born-again.
When the last saint predestinated to the PART-Word Bride was born into the Body or baptized into Christ, He advanced from intercession, claimed the Book of Redemption from God, tore open the Seven Seals and revealed them through his prophet, William Branham, the angel to the Laodicean Church Age, who in turn revealed them to us (Revelation 4, 5, 10:1-7).
We now have the perfect interpretation of the Word (Acts 3:23; Revelation 10:7; I Corinthians 13:10). We have not only the faith Keys to the Kingdom, which is the revelation of the PRESENT Truth which open the new birth or Spiritual resurrection (Matthew 16:19), we have the Keys of hell and of death which unlock resurrection and translation power (Revelation 1:18; Ephesians 1:10-20).
Whenever God is preparing some major event, He always sends an angel (Amos 3:7). Gabriel was the One Who announced the first coming of Jesus Christ. And Gabriel will announce His second coming. This Man Gabriel bears studying.
Although I am quite certain Gabriel has appeared throughout the Old Testament, we first encounter Him by Name in Daniel 8:16-27. Here he unfolds the revelation of the ram and the he-goat to God's prophet, how the kings of Medo-Persia will fall to Alexander the Great, whose empire will ultimately be divided among his successors. Later, in response to the prayer of Daniel, Gabriel returns "in swift flight" at the time of the evening sacrifice (Daniel 9:21). to interpret Jeremiah's prophecy of the end of Jerusalem's desolation in seventy years, saying it would be seventy weeks of years, or 490 years of God's dealing with Israel, before the coming of the messianic Kingdom we call the Millennium.
By implication the being "having the appearance of a man" who comes to interpret Daniel's vision of the last days is also Gabriel (Daniel 10:18). Brother Branham described the appearance of the Angel of the Lord, "The One who told me all these things", as "a large man, weighing about two hundred pounds, with dark hair to His shoulder."
Just as in Ezekiel 4, one man, the prophet Ezekiel represents the house of Israel and the house of Judah, and throughout the Book of Revelation, one man, John, represents the end-time Bride of Christ who will not see physical death, I believe Daniel here represents the 144,000 elect Israelites because it is at the time of the evening sacrifice that these mysteries were revealed to the Bride by Brother Branham who restored us to the morning sacrifice or apostolic faith, adding "much incense" of the revelation of the Seven Seals which made the revelation of the Body of all ages acceptable to God (Malachi 4:5-6; Zechariah 14:7; Romans 15:16; Revelation 8:1- 4; 10:7). The revelation of Daniel's Seventy Weeks God gave us through Brother Branham will be the same revelation He will unveil to the 144,000 through their two prophets.
Our Bible says that Gabriel "flew swiftly" but this is a mistranslation that should refer to Daniel's "extreme weariness". By the way, angels do not have wings and are generally mortal human beings as in Hebrews 2:5-8 which speaks of the "angel" or messenger, king David (Psalm 8:5-8), and Revelation 2-3 which speaks of the "angels" Paul, Irenaeus, Martin, Columba, Luther, Wesley, and William Branham. As messengers of ministers of God, angels are always male for women are forbidden to preach or publicly minister the Word of God (Hebrews 1:7; I Timothy 2:12-15; Genesis 3:16).
It was the Angel of the Lord Who stood at the right side of the altar of incense and told Zacharias he was going to have a son by his wife Elisabeth. "Why," he said, "these things can't be. She's too old, and I'm old."
". . . there stood the great Archangel. It frightened the priest. And He told him all about his life, and things, and what he was going to do. Said, 'After days of your ministration . . '." (I Am the Resurrection and Life 52-0810A). If Gabriel can discern the thoughts and intents of the heart He is the Word, a manifestation of God Himself. Attributes (Hebrews 4:12).
He said, "I'm Gabriel that stands at the right hand of God, and in the Presence of God. Because you doubted My Words, you'll be dumb till the day the baby's born, for My Word will be fulfilled in Its season" (Luke 1:9-23).
Brother Branham said, "The great Archangel, Gabriel, Who is the messenger of the covenant to the Jewish people, Who stands at the right hand of God. . ." (60-0304, Thirsting for Life).
So Gabriel is Christ, the Rock that followed the Israelites in the wilderness and provided waters of life, He is the Pillar of Fire and Cloud that went before and followed after Israel in the wilderness (Exodus 17:6; Deuteronomy 32:4; I Corinthians 10:1-4).
Brother Branham said, "Did you ever notice in my healing services, I bring the people from my right, because the Angel of the Lord always comes on my right side. I want Him to meet the people, so they'll have the anointing when they come up here that He can tell them and bless them" (60-0724, Unchangeable Word of God).
Matthew 26:64, "Jesus said to Caiaphas the high priest, 'You have said: (I am the Christ, the Son of God) nevertheless I say to you, Hereafter you shall see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven."
Psalm 110:1, "The LORD said to my Lord, Sit at My right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool."
Hebrews 1:3-4, "God, Who at different times and in various ways spoke to the fathers IN the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us IN His Son, Whom he has appointed heir of all things, by Whom also He made the worlds; Who being the brightness of His glory, and the express image of His Person, and upholding all things by the Word of His power, when He had by Himself purged our sins, sat down on the right hand of the Majesty on high; being made so much better than the angels, as He has by inheritance obtained a more excellent Name than they. . ."
Hebrews 10-12, "But this Man, after He had offered one sacrifice for sins for ever, sat down on the right hand of God."
That's interesting isn't it? The Angel of the Lord, the one Who stands at the right hand of the Altar, is called Gabriel which means "Man of God" in the sense that He is a mighty man, a warrior or prevailer, like Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel because he prevailed or overcame as we know Jesus overcame for us. And we overcome by Him.
Brother Branham said, "Then the Holy Spirit, the Angel of God, Gabriel goes down into the city of Nazareth to little Mary. . ." (52-0727, Led by the Spirit). Angelic Beings are attributes of God, sent forth to minister to the Church, through the people. It was Gabriel Who passed the Word to Mary which, when she received It by faith, germinated in her womb, becoming Jesus of Nazareth (Luke 1:26-35).
So the Angel of the Lord is Gabriel, and as Gabriel announced the first Coming of the Lord, Gabriel will announce His second Coming. Therefore the Angel of the Lord Who spoke with Brother Branham, the "large man, weighing about two hundred pounds, with dark hair to His shoulder" was the same Angel, for an audible Voice commissioned Brother Branham on the Ohio River in 1933, "As John the Baptist foreran My first Coming, your Message will forerun My second Coming."
Since we now have the fullness of the Spirit on the fullness of the Word, the Bride is moving closer into the will and Presence of her Lord. It has taken six thousand years but slowly He is drawing His elect back to the relationship Adam forfeited. The Voice of the Lord has returned to the Bride in these last days.
Brother Branham's Message of the revelation of the Seven Seals is the "Shout" of I Thessalonians 4:16, calling both wise and foolish virgin out of Babylon, and baptizing the wise into Christ. The Shout was the return or "parousia" Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ is Word Form, finishing the mystery of God as declared by all His holy prophets since the world began (Acts 3:23; Revelation 10:7). Since we now have the fullness of the Word, part Word and a Mediator are done away, and to those who are truly born-again the "Voice of the Archangel" that spoke with Adam and Eve in the Garden is speaking within the heart of the Bride, turning the Key of the Message to unlock the Scriptures, making the Bible a new Book, bringing us into maturity in the unity of the faith for the manifestation of the Sons of God and the translation. Gabriel is speaking to you, Bride. And Gabriel will soon sound the Seventh "Trump" to announce the Wedding Supper of the Lamb in the Sky and call Israel to their atonement.
What about Michael? His name means "Who is like God" and He is the Archangel who will cast Satan down to earth at the end of the age, take his power, and fight for the elect of Israel (Daniel 12:1; Revelation 12:7). By implication therefore He was "the Captain of the host of the Lord" Who met with Joshua (Joshua 5:14). Michael is Christ, the Angel of the Covenant, the same Holy Spirit manifesting a different aspect of the Lord.
We are now approaching the manifestation of the Sons of God which will show who has the character of God or Token Life of Christ on display and subject to the sovereignty of God. Those who are His Own will be taken to the eternal land of the Millennium where we are assured, "It shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are yet speaking, I will hear" (Isaiah 65:24).
See the series Redemption Revealed for further understanding on this subject. nl132.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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