Bible Believers' Newsletter 368
"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 appreciate your company in fellowship with us around God's unchanging Word.
Joel 2:28-32 prophesied heavenly portents and an outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon Israel in the Day of the Lord. Knowing God is no respecter of persons and does not change His ways, Peter was able to apply Joel's THUS SAITH THE LORD to the quickening of Christ's Church 800 years later, and to Israel 2,000 years before Joel's prophecy could take place (Acts 2:17-39; 15:14-16). We each bear the fruit of one tree (Romans 11:13-24). Likewise when Brother Branham taught from Joel, He too spoke from the viewpoint of the New Testament Church. This week we will be studying Joel 1-2 from the Gentile perspective Brother Branham delivered. As with last week's teaching it will be profitable for you to hasten slowly with your Bible open at Joel.
It is becoming clear that hundreds of underwater volcanoes are erupting throughout the world, especially surrounding the Pacific Ring of Fire. Tectonic plate movements especially under the oceans have increased markedly. The Andaman and Nicobar islands are now experiencing underwater volcanoes in the Indian Ocean and Bay of Bengal. In America, the Pacific North West States are experiencing an unprecedented level of small earthquakes and underwater volcanoes. Seattle and Oregon are experiencing heavy levels of tectonic disturbance.
This Newsletter serves those of like precious faith. Whosoever 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
Hariri assassinated to make way for US Air Base in Lebanon?
March 11, 2005 — According to high-level Lebanese intelligence sources, Christian and Muslim, former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri was assassinated in a sophisticated explosion-by-wire bombing authorized by the Bush administration and Ariel Sharon's Likud government in Israel.
The United States wants Syrian troops completely out of Lebanon before construction of the base is initiated. . . Washington and Jerusalem media experts spun Hariri's assassination as being the work of Syrian intelligence on orders from President Bashar Assad. However, a number of Middle East political observers in Washington claim that Hariri's assassination was not in the interests of Assad . . .
Lebanese intelligence sources report that even without a formal agreement with Lebanon, the contract for the northern Lebanese air base has been let by the Pentagon to Jacobs Engineering Group of Pasadena, California. Other construction support will be provided by Bechtel Corporation. . .
Full story: onlinejournal.com
Israeli Prison Company eyeing Land in Mississippi and Louisiana
Christian, could this be your accommodation in the home of the brave and the land of the free during the "squeeze"? Full story: judicial-inc.biz
Satan's Scientific Eden
Nanotechnology will have tremendous potential (if it can be developed). Unproven simple applications involve the "creation" of new and powerful materials. In the next 30 years they aim to cure physical diseases, increase height, create "designer children," limitless wealth, reverse aging, prolong and restore vital youth, open frontiers of space within laws of physics (. . . and destroy themselves with the world in less than ten years . . . "as it was in the days of Noah". Browse: thenewatlantis.com
Scientists injected human brain cells into mouse foetuses, creating a strain of mice that were approximately 1% human . . . a follow-up . . . would produce mice whose brains are 100% human . . . Now, scientists have their sights trained on breaking the final taboo in the natural world—crossing humans and animals to create new human-animal hybrids. Already . . . scientists have created pigs with human blood and sheep with livers and hearts that are mostly human. Full story: guardian.co.uk
Petroleum Geology raining Hydrocarbons in the Gulf
Below the Gulf of Mexico, hydrocarbons flow upward through an intricate network of conduits and reservoirs. They start in thin layers of source rock and, from there, buoyantly rise to the surface. On their way up, the hydrocarbons collect in little rivulets, and create temporary pockets like rain filling a pond. Eventually most escape to the ocean. And, this is all happening now, not millions and millions of years ago, says Larry Cathles, a chemical geologist at Cornell University. Full story: geotimes.org
History is Warped
American schools do not "teach history" to their students. Rather, they "deceive" students with "government propaganda". An American with a Ph.D. in history does not have an "advanced degree in history," he has "extensive exposure to propaganda". Americans with PhDs in history are often given the title of Doctor. A more appropriate title would be Victim or Fool.
America, Europe, and Russia are full of people who spend enormous amounts of time hating the world, feeling sorry for themselves, committing crimes, and drinking excessively. These are nations of sickly people.
If everybody in the world was happy and healthy, and if we were all willing to contribute to society, we could make the world a beautiful place. With the technology we have today, we don't need to spend each day struggling for food or shelter. Instead, we could have plenty of time to enjoy beautiful cities, our wonderful variety of foods, and the beautiful sunsets, mountains, rivers, and flowers. Full story: erichufschmid.net
Comment: See a complimentary series of files and links at
Israeli Hospital refuses to treat Injured Jewish Settler
Occupied Jerusalem, March 11, 2005 — A Jewish settler injured in a road accident was refused admission into the Hadasa hospital in Jerusalem because she was brought in by a Palestinian ambulance, according to Yedioth Ahronoth . . . the hospital would not admit the woman because she had no identity papers on her. . . Full story: palestine-info.co.uk
Comment: Another "good Samaritan" aids an injured Jew whose plight is ignored by her own people (Luke 10:25-37). Had the injured been a Palestinian and the ambulance driver a Jew, Sanhedrin 37a in the Babylonian Talmud would restrict his duty to saving only Jewish lives; so also the most recent translation of the Jerusalem Talmud. Although the passage at issue (Sanhedrin Mishnah 4.5/Sanhedrin 37a) mentions Adam, it teaches elsewhere that Gentiles are not Adam, but animals.
The greatest Talmud codifier, Moses Maimonides, taught that Gentiles on the point of death should not be saved, and Christians should be killed.
More Wall Building
March 14, 2005 — Within weeks, the Israeli occupation forces are planning to build a second Wall around the Gaza Strip to separate it from Jerusalem . . .
"The plan is to construct, by July, an improvised barrier, a temporary one, in those areas where a permanent one cannot be built at the moment, mainly because of legal reasons," Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Moshe Ya'alon told Army Radio on Sunday. . . Full story: palestinemonitor.org
Comment: Ezekiel 38:11-12, "Gog will say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates. . . to a people gathered from the nations".
Do Israel's rabbis not believe Ezekiel's THUS SAITH THE LORD? In order to fulfill Scripture it seems Israel must demolish the illegal apartheid wall in the very near term.
Notes on Joel, Chapters 1 ? 2
Joel is the oldest of the Minor Prophets. He lived in the kingdom of Judah at a time when the temple services, priesthood and other institutions of the theocracy are represented as flourishing. No idolatry is mentioned so his prophecies were probably made between 870 and 865BC. But the Lord forewarned of apostasy in time to come.
Joel 1:1 – 2:27 is not a prophecy but his experience of an unprecedented plague of locusts and drought which the Lord inspires him to employ as a type of chastisements to come upon Judah from the Captivity to the great and dreadful day of the Lord. The plague is a divine judgment that has desolated the land (Deuteronomy 28:38-39), necessitating suspension of the daily sacrifice. Its antitype would be Israel's rejection of Messiah and the subsequent destruction of the temple by God's great army under Titus, causing the sacrifice and oblation to cease, with desolations unto the consummation: THUS SAITH THE LORD a third temple made by human hands is not the will of God and like the Dome of the Rock it will be an "abomination of desolation" (Daniel 9:27; Matthew 23:38-39; 24:15; Luke 21:24).
God's one provided place of worship is under the shed blood of the Lamb. But because Israel is blinded, the one place she knows to meet God is on the Temple mount under the blood of a natural lamb. But God has caused that place to be desolate in order to prevent the restoration of animal sacrifices which were done away in the sacrifice of Messiah. Since Israel rejected Messiah and is unable to sacrifice animals in the appointed place, her people have "died in their sins" for the past 2,000 years (John 8:24).
The desolation of the land required the priests to summons all inhabitants to unite their hearts in mournful repentance, seeking the sure mercies of God with the removal of the plague and the restoration of fertility (I Kings 8:37-40). In the antitype a revelation of Christ's 'parousia,' will cause Israel's 144,000 to mourn their true atonement leading to joy in the birth of the nation in one day (Leviticus 16; 23:27-32; Zechariah 12:10 – 13:9; Isaiah 66:8).
This visitation of the "nation" of locusts in chapter one is a type and foretaste of the devastating "times of the Gentiles" and "Jacob's trouble" in the Day of the Lord. Drought and locust plagues which produce natural desolation and destruction simulate the effect of spiritual drought accompanied by a plague of supernatural demons as instruments of divine judgment (Deuteronomy 28:38-39). Joel's prophecy foreshadowed Israel's apostasy and the bitter fruit of refusing John the Baptist's call for the nation to repent and receive their Messiah (Matthew 22:1-14; 23:29-39).
For the present, God will deliver Israel from the plague and amply repair its evils with new blessings, so proving He is their God. For the future, still greater things are promised. The Day of the Lord is surely coming: to the elect of Israel it will be a day of salvation, but a day of terror to their foes.
This day will break with massive earthquakes that sink Los Angeles and divide the Mount of Olives, and by an outpouring of God's Spirit upon all flesh. This unction will be the latter or "harvest" rain that causes each soul to manifest the fruit of its true nature, and anoints two Hebrew prophets to minister Israel's former or "teaching" rain in the same season.
Joel 2:28 – 3:21 commenced the fulfillment of "the Promise of the Father" (Luke 24:49) on the Day of Pentecost which would continue throughout 2,000 years of the Gentile dispensation and conclude in the time of the Great Tribulation in the seventh month, Tishri, with the regeneration of 144,000 elect Israelites. When under the Old Testament there should have been "joy and gladness" in the sanctuary at the Feast of Tabernacles or Ingathering; celebrations that would be impossible during an agricultural calamity, here the Devil-incarnate pope will have usurped the dedication of the Temple, enforced the mark of the beast, martyred Israel's two prophets, and set upon apprehending the 144,000 and all dissenters.
So these verses foreshadow the new dispensation with the outpouring of the Spirit at Pentecost and foretell a further outpouring upon Israel in the midst of Daniel's Seventieth Week. For us Gentiles, the time for "calling upon the Name of the Lord" is during the Pentecostal feast or Gentile dispensation when grace is full and free, before the great and dreadful day of the Lord. After the Seventh Trump deliverance will only be to 144,000 elect Israelites in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem. Having missed the Pentecostal feast they will receive their new birth after the midst of Daniel's Seventieth week.
Signs symbolized as cosmic disturbances are promised before the end of our dispensation in anticipation of the Day of the Lord when the diaspora will return to Jerusalem for deliverance and the pagan nations are gathered and judged for their cruelties to God's elect. Once innocent blood has been vindicated and earth cleansed, the Lord will dwell in Zion.
This nation of locusts "laid God's vine waste, and barked His fig tree, leaving its trunk and branches white and bare" and all other trees "withered." The vine and fig tree signify Israel as the olive tree on Roman coins represented Judaea, which this locust nation attacked in four stages. As the Palmerworm (or chewing locust), the (swarming) Locust, the Cankerworm (or crawling locust), and the Caterpillar (or consuming locust), which type the four Gentile world empires of Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, and Rome. In its Roman incarnation this bug united with Israel for the crucifixion of Messiah, and according to Romans 11 it was in this stage that the elect Hebrews were baptized into Christ while the non-elect branches of the olive tree were broken off for the burning and the elect Gentiles grafted into the same tree, which is Christ (Isaiah 49).
Since the true Church is Spiritual Israel, inheriting the promises natural Israel rejected, we are being devoured by Rome yet we must bear the fruit of repentance and newness of life or we too will be pruned and cast into the Fire. Satan is shrewd, and in AD325 at the First Nicaea Council he transformed Imperial Rome into Papal Rome, uniting the state with his false church to build an earthly kingdom that would claim originality, impersonate Christianity and live off the strength and goodness of the tree as a grafted branch while bearing her own corrupt fruits.
In its incarnation as Papal Rome this bug had four stages whereby Satan gathered to himself spiritual or RELIGIOUS POWER as the rider of the white horse, POLITICAL POWER as the rider of the red horse, DEMON POWER as rider of the black horse, and becomes SATAN INCARNATE in the pope on his pale horse which he rides to perdition (Revelation 6:1-8).
In Scripture, trees symbolize people, nations, and spiritual principles. Luke 21:29-32, "Look at the fig tree (Israel), and all the (Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, Pentecostal, etc,) trees. When they begin to show evidence of revival, you see and know of yourself that summer is now near. So you also, when you see these things happening, know that the kingdom of God is near. Truly I tell you, this generation shall not pass away, till all is fulfilled".
"The fig tree and all the trees" had their revival in Laodicea. However, since they did not carry on to know the Lord and walk in the Light of the present Truth—what Jesus is doing now—but "turned their ears from truth to fables . . . having a form of godliness, and denyed the revelation . . . God has sent them strong delusion to believe the lie [and three woes] that they might all be damned." And as it was in the days of Joel there is a drought that is now worldwide. In a time of material plenty and obesity it is "not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the Words of the Lord" (Amos 8:11; Revelation 3:17-20).
Joel 1:8, "Lament like a virgin dressed in sackcloth for the husband of her youth." When a woman is betrothed, her fianc?e is known as her husband (Deuteronomy 22:23-24; Matthew 1:19). Judah is regarded as a young bride mourning for the husband of her youth. Jehovah is the betrothed husband of her early days, whom Zion is called on to grieve because the visible emblems of His Presence, the grain offering and the drink offering, have been cut off since the corn, the new wine, and the oil are destroyed at their source by the plague of locusts. Joy withdraws herself and becomes ashamed when the husbandmen and vinedressers look pale-faced upon their desolate land, for there is nothing they can offer to Jehovah, so the temple-worship must cease. The daily sacrifice of two lambs, accompanied by the cereal offering and the libation of olive oil and wine, was the symbol and expression of fellowship between God and His people (Exodus 28:38-43; Numbers 28:3-8). Thus the priests mourn in the house of the Lord as sacrifice is not impossible, so there is a practical suspension of covenant relationship. The stopping of the sacrifice in Jerusalem by Antiochus Epiphanes in 168BC (I Maccabees 1:24-64), and again by the Roman siege of Titus in AD70 (Josephus, Jewish Wars, VI, 2:1), horrified the pious but misguided Jews.
Hence the priests, the ministers of the altar, are called to lament and offer supplications in sackcloth day and night before the Lord for the want of materials for the temple service. They in turn, are to call the old folk to testify to all the inhabitants of the land that no such calamity had ever before happened (Joel 1:1-2), and "consecrate a fast" as a service of prayer to the Lord in the absence of the morning and evening sacrifices.
The desolation is so thorough one may well imply the Day of the Lord is at hand considering the devastation it will bring. This visitation was an act of God calling for national repentance and return to Him whom they had forgotten. The day of the Lord will come like the devastation of the locusts but the desolation will be spiritual. Fire and flame are a common metaphor for severe drought and heat accompanying the plague (Joel 1:19).
Most commentaries refer to the locust plague of 1915 in Jerusalem as a vivid description of what must have happened in the time of Joel (George L. Robinson, The Twelve Minor Prophets, New York, George H. Doran & Co., 1926, p. 34; B. P. Uvarov, Locusts & Grasshoppers, London Imperial Institute of Entomology, p. 250-261).
"A loud noise was heard before the locusts were seen, produced by the flapping of myriads of locust wings and resembling the distant rumbling of waves. The sun was suddenly darkened. Showers of their excrements fell thick and fast, resembling those of mice. Their elevation about earth was at times hundreds of feet; at other times they flew quite low, detached numbers alighting. 'In Jerusalem, at least,' Mr. Whiting said, 'they inevitably came from the northeast going toward the southwest establishing the accuracy of God's account in Joel 2:20.' Tons were captured and buried alive; many were thrown into cisterns or into the Mediterranean Sea, and when washed ashore, were collected and dried and used for fuel in Turkish baths."
"Mr. Aaronsohn, another witness of the plague in 1915, testifies that in less than two months after their first appearance, not only was every green leaf devoured, but the very bark was peeled from the trees, which stood out white and lifeless, like skeletons. The fields, he says, were stripped to the ground. Even Arab babies left by their mothers in the shade of some tree, had their faces devoured before their screams were heard. The natives accepted the plague as just judgment because of their wickedness."
As in Romans 8, the beasts of the field suffer the divine punishment of man's sin, and as if sharing in their distress, the prophet intercedes in their behalf "for fire has devoured the open pastures, and the water brooks are dried up" (Joel 1:18-20).
Joel 2:1-11 describes more fully than in chapter one the misery that was coming upon the land, a harbinger of the great and dreadful day of the Lord, a more terrible judgment than that of the locusts. He therefore exhorts to repentance, assuring the Hebrews of Jehovah's pity if they would repent, with the promise of the Holy Spirit in the last days or 2,000 years under Messiah (Acts 2:17-39), and the deliverance of all believers in Him (Joel 3:32).
The sounding of the Trumpet is an anticipation of the fuller prophecy or antitype in this chapter and the Seventh Trumpet of Revelation 11:15-19, "For the day of the Lord is coming, it is at hand." In the parallel passage Revelation 9:1-11, we find the locusts "had a king over them, the angel of the bottomless pit—in the Hebrew, Abaddon ("destroyer"), but in the Greek, Apollyon." And "on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men" (Revelation 9:7). From Revelation 17:8-11 we learn that their King is Satan who will incarnate the pope following the end of the Gentile dispensation. So these "locusts" are actually demon-oppressed men. Revelation 13:8 informs us that "all who dwell upon the earth other than the elect 144,000 Israelites shall serve the incarnate pope and thereby worship Satan vicariously." So we see clearly that the whole world will be against Israel, particularly after the pope breaks Rome's covenant with the international banksters.
Joel 2:11 calls "the Day of the Lord . . . great and very terrible," implying the ultimate reference of this prophecy is connected with Messiah's second coming in judgment. The natural locusts which darkened the land at dawn when men looked for morning light are likened to a great and powerful people set in battle array before whom "peoples (of all nations, since the day of the Lord will be universal), will blanch."
Under the metaphor of "fire" which burns wheat stubble after the harvest, the land is pictured as a Garden of Eden before the line of the plague, and a desolate wilderness left behind it. Since the plague came from the Northeast, to a dweller in Jerusalem, the first wave would appear on the tops of the Mount of Olives as in the invasion of Titus in AD70.
The army of natural locusts is compared to a well-trained army, swarming upon the walls of Jerusalem, neither swerving nor breaking their ranks. Not jostling one another, each one takes his own way, not halted by the sword nor other weapons held against them. W.T. Thompson describes vain attempts to check locusts in Lebanon in 1845: "We dug trenches, and kindled fires, and beat and burned to death 'heaps upon heaps,' but the effort was utterly useless. Wave after wave rolled up the mountain-side, and poured over rocks, walls, ditches, and hedges, those behind covering up and bridging over the masses already killed" (Interpreter's Bible VI, p. 745).
The locusts ran as horses, upon the wall. They climbed up upon the houses and crawled in at the windows like a thief. Nothing could contain or resist them. "The earth shall quake before them"—in the 1915 invasion under the Fifth Trumpet when the army of locusts was at times so dense, it seemed the earth moved. The sun was darkened by their flights and the stars were obliterated from the sight of man. So will it be after Los Angeles sinks beneath the ocean, and the Mount of Olives is divided by the earthquake marking the end of the Gentile dispensation. Demons of darkness stand between Israel and the Messages of His messengers. Then those who are filthy will remain in that state, for God will only be dealing with the 144,000.
The Day of Jehovah yet to come will be worse than the natural locust plague, warns Joel 2:11-14. These locusts represent God's army of demons, whose leader will soon be cast out of heaven. Nothing can stop their irresistible advance. Nothing breaks ranks; a descriptive image of the irresistibility of God's wrath in the Day of Jehovah when He marshals all forces and methodically pursues His divine end. (In Revelation 9, these demons that persecuted Israel and the unsealed believers under the Fifth and Sixth Trumpets, moved from the political to the ecclesiastical realm through the apostasy of the Gentile denominations via the World Council of Churches to destroy Christ's Bride and force the mark of the beast).
Taking the present natural plague as his type, Joel prophesied the Day of the Lord from the Hebrew perspective. It heralds the time of "Jacob's trouble" in the great tribulation, the rebirth of the nation in one day (Isaiah 66:7-9; Jeremiah 30:6) and then martyrdom under Rome. Brother Branham viewed the same prophetic Words from the aspect of the elect Church and saw the manifestation of the Sons of God under the latter rain. "Oh, not many in number, but what a powerful group that's got Eternal Life. Said, "They shall run through a troop and leap over a wall." Yes, the troop of death will have no holders to it, She'll run right through it, leap over the wall between natural and supernatural, and go into the arms of God, into that great eternity. Lord God, we thank You for this. We know the time is approaching at hand" (Warning then Judgment, p. 29:189).
He also said, "There'll be a ministry that'll show great wonders (Joel said so), but there'll be no time for redemption. It's all over. The Lamb's done took His Book, and redeemed is over. As Jesus first preached and was rejected and then went and haunted those that were in there, preached to them that were in prison and could not repent, no time for salvation, that same ministry will have to repeat again. What if that could be the Third Pull to the eternal lost?" (Souls that are in Prison Now, p. 31, 206).
". . . It's going to be used. And everyone knows that, for as certain as the first was identified, so has the second been identified; and if you'll think real closely, you who are spiritual (as the Bible said, "Here's to him who has wisdom"), the third is properly identified. See? We know where it is. So the third pull is here."
"It is so sacred that I mustn't say much about it, as He told me in the beginning. Said, "This, say nothing of it." You remember that years ago? It speaks for itself. See? I've tried to explain the others, and I made a mistake. This will be the thing that, to my opinion (I don't say the Lord tells me this)—this will be the thing that will start the rapturing faith for the going away. See, see? Now . . . I must lay quiet for just a little while. [Indicating his approaching death – Ed]. Now, remember (and who's listening to this tape) you might see such a change in my ministry right away, dropping back. . . Not going up, dropping back. . . We're right at the age now, and it can't go any further. We have to wait here just a minute until this happens over here to catch up, then the time comes. But it's thoroughly identified."
"There's coming a time in this nation, to where this nation is going to exercise all the power that the beast had before (which was pagan Rome, when it become papal Rome. See?) that this nation will do that. Revelations 13 plainly explains it. The lamb came up out of the earth. The other beast came up out of water, thickness and multitudes of people. This lamb came up where there were no people. A lamb represents religion—the Lamb of God. And remember, it spoke like a lamb; it was a lamb, and then after while it received power and spoke like a dragon, and exercised all the power the dragon had before him; and the dragon is Rome always. So don't you see, Roman denomination, a marked Protestant denomination, an image unto the beast, making a power that'll force all Protestants like a union. You'll have to be into this Council of Churches, or you won't be able to have fellowship, well, it's practically that way now. You can't go to a church and preach, 'less you have a fellowship card or some identification."
"And now, on persons like ourselves, we're going to be cut out of all that altogether. That's exactly, because they won't be able to do it. It's tightening; and then when that time comes, and the press comes to a place to where you're pressed out, then watch (what I am fixing to tell you in a few minutes) watch the third pull then. It'll be absolutely to the total lost, but it will be for the Bride and the church" (Look Away to Jesus, p. 6:4 – 7:4).
Brother Branham was trying to show the end-time Bride she must come under pre-eminence to the revealed Word before she can do "the greater works . . . for the servant is not greater than his lord; neither is he who is sent greater than He that sent him . . . If they have persecuted Me, they will also persecute you; if they have kept My saying, they will keep yours also." Jesus spoke only what He heard by inspiration from the Father, and did only what the Father showed Him by vision (John 5:19-20; 14:10, 31).
We are to have the Token or evidence of the Life of Christ on display. Our lives are to become written epistles of the present Truth. That is why revelation was given. This end-time Message is not some new form of do-it-yourself Christianity but the restoration of the apostolic faith wherein God set a five-fold ministry to bring the saints to maturity, edify and keep them clean. We are required to attend Church, support it by our free-will offerings, edify the Brethren, and provide for the pastor through our tithes.
"Now remember this. Christ in the True Church is a continuation of the Book of Acts. But the Book of Revelation shows how that antichrist spirit would come into the church and defile it, making it lukewarm, formal and powerless. It exposes Satan, revealing his works (attempted destruction of God's people and the discrediting of God's Word) right down to the time he is cast into the lake of fire. He fights that. He cannot stand it. He knows that if the people get the TRUE REVELATION of the TRUE CHURCH and what she is, what she stands for and that SHE CAN DO THE GREATER WORKS, she will be an invincible army. If they get a true revelation of the two spirits within the framework of the Christian church, and by God's Spirit discern and withstand the antichrist spirit, Satan will be powerless before her. He will be as definitely thwarted today as when Christ withstood his every effort to gain power over Him in the desert. Yes, Satan hates revelation. But we love it. With true revelation in our lives, the gates of hell cannot prevail against us, but we will prevail over them" (An Exposition of the Seven Church Ages, p. 15:3).
This is the invincible army the prophet saw in Joel 2:1-11 from the Gentile perspective. It is Christ's Word Bride in the "squeeze" following the Seventh Trump, manifesting the Sons of God by the "third pull." She will be a Word Bride, not a do-it-yourself Bride. She will have THUS SAITH THE LORD, or remain silent and do nothing. Each of her members will come by God's provided way without compromise. There will be no Sisters with cut-hair, no social drinking Brothers, or Sisters who wear clothes that pertain to a man.
Joel 2:7-9, "They shall run like mighty men; they shall climb the wall like men of war; every one marches in formation, and they do not break ranks: neither do they push one another; everyone marches in his own column: and when they lunge between the weapons, they are not wounded. They run to and fro in the city; they run on the wall, they climb into the houses; they enter at the windows like a thief".
This army will march "Word upon Word, line upon line, and precept upon precept" (Isaiah 28:10; Matthew 4:4). Whilst the denominations trust in intellectual reasoning and guesswork, we rest in the Absolute, being one with the Word as Jesus prayed (John 17:20-26).
When God gave Brother Branham a preview of the Bride they were "the cleanest, sweetest-looking people I ever saw in my life. And the Voice said, That was the Bride, now we'll review the churches. . . And when they came up, each one . . . got worse. I never seen such a filthy bunch in my life. And it said, Next, here comes the American group."
"When the women were coming, the leader of them was a witch. She had a great long nose and a great big mouth. And all of them were dressed with some kind of lower clothes down here, but the top just had a strap . . . And each one had hair cut up real short and frizzy-looking things all over it like that, real short cut hair, and full of makeup: absolutely nothing but looked like street prostitutes. And they were walking with this paper. And the vulgarity . . . Now, the paper was what was held in front of them; but when they passed the review stand, in the back of them. . . And to see the way they were going on in their foremost and their back part, and how they were acting. . . I thought, 'Is that the church'?"
"And there she went. And they were singing this here twist-and-roll songs, you know, ever what you call, going down, singing like, going behind. . . I said, 'Is that the church?' And I was standing there. And in my heart I was crying. And this witch. . . To my notion it's nothing else in the world, but she's that World Council of Churches leading them right straight down the road where she was going. They went off to the left and disappeared in chaos, still beating this music and making real funny sounds, and shaking their bodies one side and then the other side, and then like that, carrying on like that, walking."
"And I just started to bow my head, and he said, Wait, the Bride must come again. And I looked, and here they came again. And they passed by, sweet-looking little ladies. They were all looking right at me as they passed by. And I noticed each one was dressed different. And one in the back had kinda long hair hanging down and had it rolled around like this, might been German or something like that. And I watched them. And then, as they started leaving, two or three of them in the back . . . ? . . . got out of step. And I was going to holler at them, and they was trying to get back in step again. And I seen the vision just fade out and change from me. . ."
"Did you notice the Bride came in view twice? The first Seed and the second Seed, both of them exactly the same one. And the reason they were dressed in different parts, she'll come from all nations; it'll make up the Bride. Each one had long hair and no makeup, and real pretty girls. And they were watching me. That represented the Bride coming out of all nations. See? She. . . Each one represented a nation, as they marched perfectly in line with the Word. See"? (The Masterpiece, p. 33:189-194). This is the antitype of the wave offering of two loaves baked with leaven (Leviticus 23:15-21).
At the time of Christ's parousia to Israel, she will catch the vision of "the armies which were in heaven follow Christ upon white horses, clothed in fine linen, white and clean" (Revelation 19:14). As the earth trembles before the natural locusts, John representing Christ's end-time Bride "saw, and when Christ had opened the Sixth Seal there was a great earthquake; (Los Angeles) and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; and the stars of heaven fell to the earth, even as a fig tree casts her untimely figs, when she is shaken of a mighty wind" (Revelation 6:12-13).
Joel 2:11, "And the Lord will lead His mighty army with a shout and the Voice of the Archangel (I Thessalonians 4:16; Revelation 10:3-4): for His camp is very great; for strong is the One who executes His Word: for the Day of the Lord is great and very terrible; and who can endure it?"
Though the anger of the Lord is so clearly revealed that men may see His day coming, "Yet even now," He says, in the time of His 'parousia' to us Gentiles, turn with all of your heart, not with just a public show, and "come out of her My people, that you do not partake of her sins and receive not of her plagues" (Revelation 18:4).
The Seventh Trumpet calls Israel to assemble for repentance. The whole nation is gathered, from aged men to children and babies. Not even newlyweds are exempt (Deuteronomy 24:5). The northern army that is repelled will be the Russian Federation and Muslim nations named in Ezekiel 38-39 whom the Lord will overcome with earthquake and pestilence and blood, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone. And travelers east of the Dead Sea will be repulsed by the stench of their rotting flesh (like dead locusts Joel 2:20; Ezekiel 39:11).
Ezekiel 39:21, 29, "I will demonstrate My glory among the nations, and all shall see the punishment of Gog and know that I have done it. . . And I will never hide My face from Israel again, for I will pour out My Spirit upon them, says the Lord".
Joel 2:21-27 speaks of the restoration of the land following Israel's repentance. We will study what Brother Branham said concerning Joel 2:23-27 from the Gentile perspective. He explains, "My great army that I sent among you," was Imperial and Papal Rome as revealed by the first four Seals. "See how that Judas spirit came back as a rider on a white horse. It was white. So close to the real, just as Judas was so close to Jesus. A crown was given to him (white horse rider). How? That spirit was now in the leader of the Nicolaitane system and he was a triple crowned pope who sat as God in his temple, calling himself the Vicar of Christ. If vicar of Christ means 'instead of Christ' or 'in place of' or 'on behalf of God' then the pope was calling himself the Holy Ghost, or deposing the Holy Ghost, acting for Him. That was the Judas spirit in him doing that. See how he conquered—going forth conquering and to conquer. Christ did not do that. The only ones that came to Him were already predestinated by the Father. And so on and on went that spirit and one day it will become truly incarnate in a man who will head up the World Council of Churches, just as we have been saying. And by his gold (remember Judas held the bag) he will control the whole world, and that antichrist system will own everything and try to control everybody. But Jesus will come back and destroy them all with the brightness of His Coming. And their end will be the lake of fire."
"But what about the true seed? It will happen just as we have said. The people of God are being made ready by the Word of Truth from the messenger to this Age. In her will be the fullness of Pentecost for the Spirit will bring the people right back to where they were at the beginning. That is "Thus saith the Lord."
"It is "Thus saith the Lord" for that is what Joel 2:23-26 says, "Be glad then, you children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God: for He has given you the former rain moderately, and He will cause to come down for you the rain, the former rain and the latter rain in the first month. And the floors shall be full of wheat, and the fats shall overflow with wine and oil. And I will restore to you the years that the locust has eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpillar, and the palmerworm, My great army which I sent among you. And you shall eat in plenty, and be satisfied, and praise the Name of the Lord your God, That has dealt wondrously with you: and My people shall never be ashamed."
"Now it says God is going to "restore." The Lutheran Age did not restore the church; it started a reformation. The Wesleyan Age did not restore. The Pentecostal Age did not restore. But God has to restore for He cannot deny His Word. This is not the resurrection of the Church; it is the "Restoration." God will take the Church right back to Pentecost of the beginning. Now notice in verse 25 it tells why we need restoration. The locust, cankerworm, caterpillar and palmerworm have eaten all but the root and a small bit of the stem. Now we are told that all these insects are all one and the same in different stages. That is right. They are the antichrist spirit manifested in organization, denomination and false doctrine through the ages. And that poor little root and stalk is going to be restored. God isn't going to plant a new Church, but is going to bring His original planting back to original seed. He is doing it as stated in verse 23, by the teaching, or "former" rain. Next will come the harvest rain or rapturing faith."
"Thus at this very moment we are in the complete fulfillment of Matthew 24:24 "insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect." And who is it that shall attempt to deceive the very elect? Why, the spirit of antichrist in the "false anointed ones" of this last day. These false ones have already come in "Jesus' Name" claiming that they have been anointed of God for the last day. They are the false Messiahs (anointed ones). They claim that they are prophets. But are they one with the Word? Never. They have added to it or taken from it. No one denies that the Spirit of God manifesting in gifts is upon them. But like Balaam they all have their programs, make their appeal for money, exercise gifts, but deny the Word or by-pass it for fear that a controversy might diminish their chances for greater gain. Yet they preach salvation and deliverance through the power of God, just like Judas, with a ministry imparted by Christ. But because they are wrong seed, consequently they have a wrong spirit motivating them" (An Exposition of the Seven Church Ages, p. 378:1 – 380:1).
The teaching rain of Brother Branham's Message has sown the Seed of "that which is perfect," the fullness of the Word. Joel 2:28, "And it shall come to pass afterward that God will pour our His Spirit upon all flesh" in a latter or harvest rain when every seed that has been sown shall come to maturity and bear its fruit. The mind is the womb of the spirit and as the soul bears the nature of the spirit that is on it, Baptists will manifest the fruit of Baptist teaching, and Buddhists, Pentecostals, Communists, Judaists, Nihilists, Pentecostals, etc., will each bear the life of the spirit they have received (Matthew 5:45; 13:30,37-43; Hebrews 6:7-8). But Christ's end-time Bride will manifest by the "third pull" that they are the Sons of God and one with His Word.
From the Hebrew perspective Joel 2:28-32 speaks of the restoration of the spiritual kingdom to Israel by the new birth of the 144,000 elect (Acts 1:6). Their former rain will be the teaching ministry of two prophets anointed by the Spirit that endued Moses and Elijah of old. Three and a half years after the Bride has been translated and their prophets have been martyred, Israel will receive its latter rain.
Joel 2:30-31. "I will show wonders in the heavens and on Earth, blood, and fire, and columns of smoke. The sun shall be turned into darkness and the moon into blood, before the coming of the great and terrible day of the Lord" (Isaiah 13:10; Matthew 24:29; Mark 13:22-25; Revelation 6:12-14).
When the Gentile dispensation and grace end at the opening of the Sixth Seal, Heaven will close like a scroll rolling shut. All seeds will have been sown and each will bring forth of its kind in the time of the latter rain. Revelation 22:10-12, "And the angel (William Branham – Ed) said to me (insert your name here for throughout the Book of Revelation John represents Christ's end-time Bride – Ed). Do not seal up the Words of the prophecy of this Book (i.e. the revelation of the Seven Seals which is the Message of the seventh angel), for the time of their fulfillment is near. (From the sounding of the Seventh Trumpet at the close of the Gentile dispensation) He who is unjust, let him be unjust still: and he who is filthy, let him be filthy still: and he who is righteous, let him be righteous still: and he who is holy, let him be holy still. Behold I will come suddenly; and My reward is with Me, to render to each according to his doings".
Once grace is over there will never be anyone "saved." Only 144,000 elect Israelites written in the Lamb's Book of Life will enter the Kingdom when it is opened to them in Revelation 19.
Brother Branham said, "Now where will the Gentile Church be while Jesus is making Himself known to His brethren? Remember that the bride of Joseph with the two children were in the palace, for Joseph had commanded, "Let everyone leave me; put them all out from before me." So the Gentile bride was hidden in the palace of Joseph. Where will the Gentile Church go in the rapture? Into the palace. The Bride will be taken off the earth. She will be caught up before the great tribulation to meet her Lord in the air. For three and one-half years while the retributive wrath of God is poured out, she will be in the great Marriage Supper of the Lamb. Then will He return, leaving His Bride in "His Father's house," while He makes Himself known to His brethren."
"At this very time, the antichrist covenant that the Jews have made with Rome will be broken. Rome and her allies then send their troops to destroy all the God-fearing, Word-abiding Jews. But as they come against the city to destroy it, there will appear in the heavens the sign of the coming of the Son of Man with His mighty armies to destroy them who have been destroying the earth (Matthew 24:30 – Ed). With the enemy repulsed, Jesus then comes and presents Himself to the 144,000. Having seen His mighty acts of salvation, they have come to know His power. But also seeing His wounds and knowing that they had rejected Him even to that moment, causes them to cry out in the agony of terror and fear, even as did their brethren of old when they stood before Joseph, being sore afraid that they would be killed. But as Joseph said, "Don't be angry with yourselves. It is all right. God was in it all. He did it to preserve life." Even so will Jesus speak peace and love to them" (Ibid, p. 40:2 – 41:1).
Only the Hebrew remnant in mount Zion and in Jerusalem, not New York, London or Budapest, "who call upon the Name of the Lord Jesus Christ" by revelation after the midst of Daniel's 70th Week will be baptized with the Holy Ghost and delivered from the final judgment (Joel 2:32).nl368.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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