Bible Believers' Newsletter 695
"We focus on the present Truth – what Jesus is doing now. . ."
ISSN 1442-8660Christian greetings in the precious Name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Recently, we uploaded an internet version of our PowerPoint presentation The Second Coming of Christ in which the content has been rearranged so as to be more readily understood by those who love the Lord but have no knowledge of God's Prophet, William Branham, or experience in his Message. This is of course not the literal, physical return of the glorified Man from Galilee, whose precious feet will not touch this earth until the millennium, but introduces His 'parousia' Coming, promised throughout the New Testament. Subscribers may request a free CD which you may copy and share with friends please send your postal address. To view the presentation online please click the image.
I pray this Newsletter feeds you with Spiritual food in due season.
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
'Muhammad': Regeh Omaar's Fundamental Flaw
July 12, 2011 — This is a refutation from the Rev. Dr. Alan Clifford of BBC2's predictably biased July 11 documentary on Mohammed, Part 1 of 3.
"Among the several flaws in Rageh Omaar's presentation is the fundamental claim that illiterate Muhammad could not have accessed Jewish, Christian and other supposed sources for the text of the Qur'an. However, what he couldn't read he heard well with his ears. His several acquaintances provided a range of material eventually reflected in the Qur'anic text. This includes ancient Arabic, Zoroastrian and Hindu beliefs as well as Jewish and sub-Christian ideas. This is irrefutable, as the scholarly demonstration of the Rev. W. St Clair-Tisdall, MA proved long ago in his book, "Sources of Islam".
In short, since the Qur'an's teaching is traceable to pre-6th century systems of thought, the claim that it came 'direct from heaven' simply falls to the ground. Hence, what is good in the Qur'an is not original, and what is original is not good. The early 'revelation' that there should be 'no compulsion in religion' was eventually abrogated in favour of the violent and bloody revelations which directed Islam's later conquests.
Of this we may be totally sure: Islam is not a religion of peace and its origins are certainly not divine: Dr. Alan C. Clifford.
Comment: The US has spent 700,000,000 taxpayer dollars refurbishing foreign mosques! Brother Branham said, "We had a great nation; but she is now rottening and crumbling and shaking and giving away, and trying to tax people to get money to send over yonder to buy friendship with our enemies. They're throwing it back in our face. One world war, two world wars, and still moving on to a third one" (This Day, this Scripture is Fulfilled, p. 16:131-132).
Two Examples of Fascism run by Banks
July 18, 2011 — The United States and other countries of the world are becoming more fascist as New World Order globalists rush to complete their fascist world government by late 2012. According to Italy's former fascist dictator and MI5 asset, Benito Mussolini, "fascism should rightly be called corporatism, as it is the merger of corporate and government power." The following examples demonstrate fascism/corporatism within the banking structure of the United States . . .
JP Morgan and Bank of America profit from government assistance programs. The Federal Reserve is a private bank that loans money to the government, thereby enslaving its citizens with the national debt. These two examples of fascism in the United States banking structure form the basis for ushering in the New World Order. . . Full story: activistpost.com
Comment: And Obama's "third way" for aliens youtube.com. The trouble with socialism is that eventually you run out of other people's money.
Agenda 21
July 2, 2011 — President Barack Obama has taken the next step to bring America under United Nations 'Agenda 21' tyranny. Obama signed Executive Order 13575 which will seize greater power over food and energy in rural areas across our once great and once free nation. The President created the 'White House Rural Council' to 'make sure we're working across government to strengthen rural communities and promote economic growth'. . . Full story: sgtreport.com, this MUST SEE youtube, and jonchristianryter.com
Source of Terror Threat is UK Govt: Police Principal Intelligence Analyst
July 9, 2011 — In 2010, one week before the 5th anniversary of 7/7, Tony Farrell (who had never previously doubted government versions of events) stumbled across '9/11 Truth' material on the web. Like so many millions before him, he was shocked to the core by this experience. He quickly realised that there was a great mass of evidence relating to 9/11 kept hidden by the mainstream media. As a Christian, Tony consulted his church minister, who suggested that he consider whether the same might be true for the London 7/7 bombings?
Something he had not suspected 'in his wildest dreams' then started to unfold. After reading much of the available but publicly-unreported witness statements and other evidence relating to 7/7, Tony found that he could only conclude that the official 7/7 narrative was 'a monstrous lie.' Instead of the official 'suicide bombers' narrative, which he and all of his colleagues had believed without question, he realised that the weight of evidence strongly points far more towards 7/7 being an event stage-managed by British intelligence . . . Full story: terroronthetube.co.uk youtube.com
NASA Solar Cycle Prediction
July 20, 2011 — The current prediction for Sunspot Cycle 24 gives a smoothed sunspot number maximum of about 69 in June of 2013. We are currently over two and a half years into Cycle 24. Three consecutive months with average daily sunspot numbers above 40 has raised the predicted maximum above the 64.2 for the Cycle 14 maximum in 1907. The predicted size would make this the smallest sunspot cycle in over 100 years.
Predicting the behavior of a sunspot cycle is fairly reliable once the cycle is well underway (about 3 years after the minimum in sunspot number occurs [see Hathaway, Wilson, and Reichmann Solar Physics; 151, 177 (1994)]). Prior to that time the predictions are less reliable but nonetheless equally as important. Planning for satellite orbits and space missions often require knowledge of solar activity levels years in advance. . . Full story: nasa.gov
Comment: Of four BIG LIES about "Carbon Pollution," Lie No. 4 is the biggest lie of all–"A tax on carbon dioxide is needed to reduce pollution and cool the planet." Decades of extreme cold weather always follow these hibernations of the Sun as the research shows going back 1,200 years or more. This next one has begun right on schedule, just as I predicted. We should therefore expect the same climate change to a long cold period just like it has done before. The last three record cold and long winters around the globe along with the lack of growth in the planet's average temperature for the past twelve years, and a new long term downward trend in global temperatures are solid enough signals to prove that global warming ended as and when I predicted and that the Earth is rapidly proceeding into a long cold era.
Andrew Bolt interviews Professor Richard Lindzen on the Climate change HOAX and scam! Carbon Sunday, 10th July 2011 was the start of the real Carbon War in Australia. Written in bureaucratic jargon, the 1967 "Report from Iron Mountain on the Possibility and Desirability of Peace" termed ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION "promising" as an "apparent" species threat: "But from present indications it will be a generation to a generation-and-a-half before environmental pollution, however severe, will be sufficiently menacing, on a global scale, to offer a possible BASIS for a solution. . . It may be, for instance, that gross pollution of the environment can eventually replace the possibility of mass destruction by nuclear weapons as the principal 'apparent' threat to the survival of the species."
UN Secretary General "Chicken Little" Ban Ki-moon claims Climate change threatens world security. The threat to world security is the Five Point Plan to kill the economy with High Cost Electricity causing PLANNED deindustrialisation, famine, and global genocide. Google Report from Iron Mountain, Global 2000 Report to the President, and Global Future: A Time To Act championed by the CFR and Trilateral Commission, and the Club of Rome's Limits to Growth. See also HAARP Weather Warfare on RECORD. Re-routing the jet stream to manipulate the atmosphere. 100% undetectable way to force a famine and flood.
SIS on Trail of Suspected Israeli Spies
July 20, 2011 — The police national computer has been under scrutiny in the aftermath of the Christchurch earthquake in February because of fears Israeli agents loaded software into the system that would allow backdoor access to highly sensitive intelligence files. [As the SIS officer explained, it would take only moments for a USB drive to be inserted in a police computer terminal and load it with a program allowing remote backdoor access. . . The SIS officer said the agency was also aware of a comment posted on the website of the Russian newspaper Pravda that the Christchurch earthquake had disrupted an Israeli spy base in the city]. . .
Three Israelis were among 181 people who died when the earthquake destroyed most of Christchurch's central business district on February 22. One was found to be carrying at least five passports. An unaccredited Israeli search and rescue squad was later confronted by armed New Zealand officers and removed from the sealed-off "red zone". . . The response of the Israeli government to the three deaths appears extraordinary. In the hours after the 6.3 quake struck [Jewish] Prime Minister John Key fielded the first of four calls that day from Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Israel's Ambassador in the South Pacific, Shemi Tzur . . . booked flights to Christchurch, where he visited the morgue. Israel's civil defense chief left Israel for Christchurch. A complete Israeli urban search and rescue squad was assembled and flown to Christchurch, arriving about the same time as . . . Three people who had smashed their way out of a van crushed by a concrete pillar in the central city, leaving a fourth person dead in the vehicle, arrived back in Israel. . .
Full story: stuff.co.nz
Pray for Libya
July 19, 2011 — [Dastardly] Western powers and certainly Western media are working overtime to suppress the fact that Libyans themselves do not share this view of their leader . . . are Libyans showing their support? To NATO? Certainly not: this is Libya on the ground. . . the question of being "pro-Gadhafi" or "anti-Gadhafi" is irrelevant when it comes to supporting Libya and Libyans, and to understanding what these NATO missions are accomplishing is the personification of cruelty, injustice and ultimate greed: "Libya is a Rich Man's War!"
"Humanitarian war" is an oxymoron of the utmost proportions. Western military and imperial powers need to stop playing their high-stakes PR game of "monkey-in-the-middle," pitting themselves as self-appointed "saviours" to the Libyan people against their heavily propagandized version of Gaddafi as the universal "evil-doer". . . Full story: globalresearch.ca globalresearch.ca
Comment: For the International Criminal Court, whose "arrest warrant" for Libyan leader Moammar Qaddafi was soundly rejected by the 53-member African Union, their last shred of self-proclaimed credibility has been rendered moot! Colonel Gaddafi is a noble servant loved by his people. The alien-controlled US government on the other hand is ignoble, and the apostate (once) Protestant United States is the image to the Judaeo-Catholic beast that will kill all who refuse to serve or receive Rome's trinitarian doctrine which is the "mark of the beast" (Revelation 13:15-18). As Plato said, "One of the penalties of not participating in politics is that you will be governed by your inferiors".
Brother Branham said, "This America is the prostitute of the nations. That's exactly what she is, and she's going to be worse than ever now. She's coming to her end! The Bible speaks of her doom, tells how she's going to be. America: lowdown, rotten, filthy, no good. That's exactly right, she's been a great nation. She's carried the Gospel message. What makes her the way she is? Because she's turned down the Gospel Message, and rejected the Truth. She's horrible. She's got it coming, don't worry. I seen it in the vision as THUS SAITH THE LORD! It's coming. She's going to pay for her sins" (Revelation, Chapter Four, January 8, 1961, p. 661:87-88; Revelation 3:17).
"It's a million miles from being a Christian country. I don't even pray for it. How can I pray for it, and it won't repent under the mighty powers of God demonstrated before it, and denying, and closing the doors to it, and walking away? . . . now she's going to sink. Just watch what happens" (Trying to do God a Service without being the Will of God, p. 23: 136).
Which Vaccines might be produced using Aborted Fetal Cell Lines?
July 10, 2011 — "An additional increased spike in incidence of autism occurred in 1995 when the chicken pox vaccine was grown in human fetal tissue". . . it wasn't disclosed on any consent form. Most people are unaware that human cell cultures derived from aborted human fetuses have been used extensively in vaccine production for decades. . . the ethics of nondisclosure are reprehensible. . . two primary cell cultures that have been growing in labs for more than 35 years and have been used to prepare hundreds of millions of doses of vaccines:
1. WI-38: Originating in the US in 1961, this line came from the lung cells of an intentionally aborted female human fetus of 3 months gestation.
2. MRC-5: Originating in the UK in 1966, this line was derived from the lung cells of an intentionally aborted 14-week-old male human fetus. . . PepsiCo, Kraft Foods, and Nestle are reported to have partnered with a biotech firm called Senomyx, which uses human embryonic kidney cells taken from an electively aborted fetus (HEK 293) in their product testing to find flavors that will positively affect human taste receptors.
When this news leaked, Campbell soup responded to an outraged public by severing all ties with Senomyx. However, PepsiCo has maintained their relationship with the company, saying the collaboration is necessary for creating low-calorie, tasty products for their consumers. . . Cosmetics are similarly produced from aborted fetal tissue cell lines. . .
Full story: mercola.com
Zechariah's First and Second Visions
Pharisaism is Judaism: before the apostle and prophet Paul was born-again he was a fanatical Pharisee trying to do God a service without it being His will. Acts 9:1-5, "Still breathing out threats and murder against the disciples of the Lord, Saul went to the high priest requesting of him letters to synagogues at Damascus, that if he found any Christian men or women, he might bring them bound to Jerusalem." [The euphemistic subterfuge Birkat haMinim or "blessing on the Heretics") is a curse on heretics which forms part of the Jewish rabbinical liturgy: "let there be no hope for the wicked and for Christians"—a pattern for the 144,000 Israelite Christians and the Foolish virgins Revelation 13:15-18].
"But as he was nearing Damascus, suddenly a brilliant Light from heaven encircled him! He fell to the ground and heard a Voice saying to him, Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me? And he said, Who are you, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom you persecute: it is hard for you to kick against the pricks".
One who persecutes God's elect is persecuting God Himself and will be judged. As He told Abraham: "I will bless those who bless you, and curse him who curses you: and in you shall all Gentile nations [of Adam's race] be blessed" (Genesis 12:3). Paul would see that "God and the soul that is joined together with God is One Spirit" (I Corinthians 6:17) for Abraham's Seed was Jesus Messiah so Christians are Abraham's seed by their new birth which is the baptism with the Holy Ghost (Genesis 22:18; Galatians 3:26-29), thus he who blesses us will be blessed and he who curses us will be cursed.
Brother Branham said, "Now we can see why there were two vines, one true and one false, [a tiny true Church, and an immense false church (Luke 12:32)]. Now we can see why Abraham had two sons, Ishmael born after the flesh who persecuted Isaac born after the promise. Now we can see how that out of the same parents two boys came forth as twins, one knowing and loving the things of God, and the other knowing much of the same truth, but not of the same Spirit, hence persecuting the child that was elect. God did not reprobate for the sake of reprobation. He reprobated for the sake of the elect. ELECT CANNOT persecute elect. ELECT CANNOT harm elect. It is the reprobates that persecute and destroy the elect. Oh, those reprobates are religious. They are smart. They are of the Cain line, the serpent seed. They build their Babels, they build their cities, they build their empires, and all the while calling on God. They hate the true seed, and they will do all they can, (even in the Name of the Lord) to destroy God's elect ones. But they are needed. "What is the chaff to the wheat?" No chaff, no wheat. But at the end, what happens to the chaff? It is burned with fire unquenchable. And the wheat? Where is it? It is gathered in His garner; it is where He is."
"Oh elect of God, beware. Study closely. Be careful. Work out your salvation with fear and trembling. Rely upon God and be strong in His might. Your adversary, the Devil, is even now going about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. Watch unto prayer and be steadfast. This is the end time. Both the true and false vine are coming into maturity, but before the wheat matures, those ripened tares must be bound for the burning. See, they are all joining the World Council of Churches. That is the binding. Soon the garnering of the wheat will come. But right now the two spirits are at work in two vines. Come out from among the tares. Start to overcome that you may be considered praiseworthy for your Lord, and fit to reign and rule with Him" (An Exposition of the Seven Church Ages, p. 359:1-2).
We aspire to be found praiseworthy as workmen with no cause to be ashamed, and having rightly divided the Message of Truth our first conviction on hearing and believing God's Word is a need to repent of our shortcomings and past unbelief. After the Judahites had returned from exile and rebuilt Jerusalem and its walls, the Lord said through His prophet Haggai, you have resettled in straitened circumstances: restore My Temple and I will bless you with good seasons and bountiful harvests. Two months later His prophet Zechariah called Judah to repentance: "The Lord was fervently angry with your fathers [indicated by the destruction of their city, His Temple, and their captivity]. Thus says the Lord of hosts; return to Me, and [in consequence] I will return to you. Do be not like your fathers [who were refractory], to whom the former prophets loudly proclaimed: Thus says the Lord of hosts, return from your evil ways and from your evil deeds: but they did not hear, or heed Me, says the Lord."
"Your fathers perished [as foretold and their fate ought to warn you]. [I grant] you may say, the prophets are also dead; but My Word endures so beware lest you share their fate. My Words and My statutes overtook and punished your fathers so they repented and said, As the Lord of hosts decreed to do to us for our evil ways and deeds, so has He dealt with us" (Zechariah 1:2-6).
The Church Age fathers and our prophet William Branham are long dead, but his Words will overtake us for good or evil, so let us "work the works of God while it is day: because night comes at the close of the Gentle dispensation when no man can work." Let us not, like Saul before his conversion "kick against the pricks and persecute Christ" by getting out of step with the Message of the hour. Ours is not religion, habit and duty, but the heartfelt depth of faith in action following the Spirit of Truth who guides us into all truth and shows us things to come. Thus there is little purpose in reading these Newsletters unless your heart is right with God as you will grieve the Holy Spirit.
The foundation of Christ's true Church has always been a clear revelation of "the present Truth" practised by obedience not sacrifice (which is for disobedience). Jesus' nine beatitudes of Matthew 5:3-12 invite us to look into our own heart and examine our attitudes that we may be blessed like the Judahites when they paid heed to Haggai, sanctified themselves and set to the work so that in four years the House of God was rebuilt (Ezra 6:15). I find this interesting because about four years after Israel's twelve tribes return to the Land of the Covenant the millennium Temple (which is the 144,000 elect Israelites) will be complete, and they will seal their testimony in martyrdom when they renounce Rome's pagan trinity of gods.
The visions of Haggai and his contemporary, Zechariah, encompass both the re-construction of King Solomon's Temple by Zerubbabel and the re-instruction of the millennium Temple by "the two anointed ones who stand by the Lord of all the Earth" for the restoration of the Kingdom to Israel. This will be the physical return of Moses and Elijah (Zechariah 4 and Revelation 11) calling to remembrance the Law with its statutes and judgments along with an exposition of the prophecies of Scripture fulfilled over the Gentile dispensation, confirming that the Law was but "a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, for the Law can never with those sacrifices which they continually offered year after year make the comers thereunto perfect" (Malachi 4:4; Hebrews 10:1). These prophets will introduce Jesus Messiah's unseen second or (Gk.) 'parousia' Coming prior to "the restoration again of the kingdom to Israel" (Acts 1:6) when His throne and dominion will be on earth, while as the eternal Spirit God's throne is in heaven (Isaiah 66:1; Revelation 3:21).
Much understanding of Zechariah is gained from the parallel passages of his predecessors prior to the Captivity, for a good deal of what was future to them is to Zechariah, a prophet of the restoration like Brother Branham (Malachi 4:5-6; Matthew 17:11) and Israel's two witnesses (Malachi 4:4; Acts 3:21-23), either past or present. So it is impossible to explain any of the glowing delineations of Zechariah and Haggai concerning a future state of Israel's deliverance as having been fulfilled in the return from Babylon for that pertains to the millennium. Their immediate design was to encourage the people and their religious leader Joshua, grandson of the high priest Hilkiah (who never attained the office of high priest himself as he was carried captive to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar), and their civil leader Zerubbabel, in their work of rebuilding the temple after the interruption caused by the Samaritans.
As the Lord Jesus spoke to Brother Branham one Sunday morning in June, 1933 and said that the Coming of the Lord was drawing nigh but that before He came seven major events would transpire and revealed seven major continuous visions—as in the night of February 15, 519BC He revealed eight visions to Zechariah, each closely connected and revealing an orderly progress in the restoration of the Kingdom to Israel (Zechariah 1:7–6:15). Both our Lord Jesus Christ and Brother Branham (who I believe was the interpreting angel of Revelation 1:1 and Zechariah 1:9) appear to and speak with Zechariah in his visions as they appeared to and spoke with John on the Island of Patmos. After His earthly work the mystery of God was shown to Jesus who gave it to one man, William Branham, after the close of the Seventh Church Age (Matthew 24:36; Daniel 12:4, 9; Revelation 1:1; 10:4-7); like John, Daniel, and Ezekiel, Zechariah was caught up in the Spirit into the Day of the Lord, and looking back through time, as I understand, he saw and heard Brother Branham reveal "the things that are to be".
His first vision sets forth the evident need of divine intervention in behalf of the people with the strong assurance it is vouchsafed. The second indicates one result of this intervention will be the expulsion of Israel's foes. The third promises great enlargement and absolute security in the Millennium under Messiah. The fourth exhibits the remission of sin, the cause of all the previous troubles, through Christ's vicarious death. The fifth is a counterpart to the fourth by promising the positive communication of God's Spirit and grace which secures sanctification as well as justification. The sixth is the curse on a scroll, recorded against sin flying over Judah and ultimately the whole earth; it will extirpate the impenitent by the fearful curse of God upon all sinners of whatever class. The seventh, the woman in the ephah signifies wickedness and Babylonian idolatry which will cease from the elect Israelites in the Day of the Lord. The eighth shows the accomplishment of everything promised by the first vision. The executors of God's judgment go forth from Jerusalem's sanctified mountains of brass upon the heathen persecutors and do not stay their hands until God's Spirit is completely satisfied. The eighth vision shows the union of the Priesthood and Kingship in Jesus Messiah, and reveals the conversion of the Gentile Church in the days of the Branch to His Wife, Israel's Queen.
The First Vision
The seventy years of Babylonian captivity had already expired in the first year of the reign of Cyrus (II Chronicles 36:22; Ezra 1:1; Zechariah 1:7). Zechariah 1:8-17, "I received a vision at night wherein I saw a Man (Christ, the Angel of the Lord) mounted upon a red horse that was standing among the myrtle trees in the glen or lowland (alluding to Babylon near the rivers Euphrates and Tigris); and behind Him were bay, tawny, and white horses. I asked, what are these my lord? And the angel that talked with me said, I will show you what these are. And the Man who stood among the myrtle trees answered and said, These are those whom the Lord sent to patrol the earth. And the [riders] answered the Angel of the Lord who was standing among the myrtle trees, We have patrolled the earth, and the whole earth remains at rest (Cyrus and Darius having subdued the Babylonian monarchy). Then the Angel of the Lord answered and said, O Lord of hosts, how long will you not have mercy on Jerusalem and the cities of Judah, against which you have had indignation these seventy years"?
"And the Lord answered with gracious and comfortable words to the angel who talked with me. Then the angel that was speaking with me said, Publicly proclaim, Thus says the Lord of hosts; I am exceedingly jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion, and I am vehemently displeased with the nations that are at ease: for while I was but a little displeased they afflicted them beyond My intentions. Therefore thus says the Lord; I have returned to Jerusalem with compassion: My house shall be rebuilt, says the Lord of hosts, and the measuring line shall be stretched out over Jerusalem. (In the second year of Darius the temple was still lying in ruins, notwithstanding Cyrus had issued the command to rebuild (Haggai 1:4). Proclaim moreover, Thus says the Lord of hosts; through prosperity My cities will be spread abroad; and the Lord will once more comfort Zion, and again choose Jerusalem. Again loudly proclaim, Thus says the Lord of hosts: My cities shall again overflow with prosperity, and the Lord will once again comfort Mount Zion and again choose Jerusalem".
The Man riding the red horse in Zechariah 1:8, 10 and 12 is "the Angel of the Covenant" incarnate in created flesh as when He appeared to Abraham (Genesis 18:1) and to Hagar (Genesis 16:7), wrestled Jacob (Genesis 32:24) and appeared to Gideon (Judges 6:11-24). Genesis 22:11, Exodus 3:2, Malachi 3:1 and many other Scriptures reveal God manifest in One created Man before His incarnation in the virgin-born Jesus Christ (Isaiah 7:14; Matthew 1:18-25; I Timothy 3:16). This confirms Matthew 24:36, "No man, not the angels of heaven, but only My Father knows the day and hour of the end of the world [and My glorified second (Gk.) 'erchomai' return]".
The colour of the horse symbolizes the purpose of its Rider, namely wrath and bloodshed to be inflicted on the foes of Israel (as Satan, the rider of the red horse in Revelation 6:4 slaughtered the saints from Pentecost to Pergamos). The myrtle that once grew on the hills about Jerusalem and on the Mount of Olives hereafter grows in what was a wilderness. Not stately like the cedar, the lowly though fragrant myrtle signifies the Old Testament Church of the Judahites in their affliction as a result of the Captivity (Isaiah 41:19; 55:13). The Angel of the Lord standing among them in the depression intercedes with Jehovah for Israel and is a guarantee for her safety, lowly though she now is. Behind the first Rider are horsemen sent to exact judgment against the nations, their ultimate victory over the world is indicated by the rearguard of white horses (Revelation 19:11-14).
Zechariah enquires of his guiding angel, "O my lord, what are these? And the angel that talked with me said, I will show you what they are." But the Angel of the Covenant answers, indicating that everything the interpreting angel says comes from Him as its source and is therefore THUS SAITH THE LORD. "These are they whom the Lord has sent to patrol the earth." Otherwise these are sent to counterwork and destroy the four Gentile world empires.
The riders' report that the Gentile world is dwelling in serene repose untroubled by any foe, is disturbingly contrary to Judah's expectation of a massive convulsion of nature based on Haggai 2:6-7, "Thus says the Lord of hosts; Once more, in a little while, I will shake the heavens and the earth and the sea and the dry land; and I will shake all nations, and the Desire of all nations [Messiah] will come: and I will fill this house with glory, says the Lord of hosts." But of course this vision was shut up and sealed to the close of the Gentile dispensation when its mystery would be revealed to us through the angel to the Seventh Church Age, then to Israel by their "two witnesses" (Daniel 12:4, 9; Revelation 10:4-7).
Neither the Judahites nor the riders in judgment foresaw the Gentile dispensation and Christ's 'parousia' Coming to us before Haggai's earthquakes; or Christ's 'parousia' to Israel before His physical return with the glorified saints of all Ages to restore the Kingdom to Israel. They could not contemplate Israel remaining under Gentile dominion—as it is and will be—from Nebuchadnezzar's conquest to the consummation of life (Daniel 9:27), or imagine that the sixfold purpose of Gabriel's visit to Daniel would remain unfulfilled until almost 2,600 years later when Israel—all 144,000 of them—is born-again as a nation in one day then martyred for their Christian faith by the reprobate church (Matthew 27:25; Revelation 6:13; 7:1-8; 14 and 15).
Peace in the world means persecution for the Israelites. I Thessalonians 5:3, "When they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction comes upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape." Brother Branham said, "I've sent a persecution here and a persecution there, and I've run the Jews [he means Israelites] and drove them as hard as I could. And they've drove back in. Many Jews in the United States (which they won't escape from) has already received the Holy Ghost. But I've got all of the hundred and forty-four thousand [Israelites] standing there [in Israel] that's going to receive the baptism of the Holy Ghost" (54-0103M, COD#1, par. 235). The announcement of peace will herald Daniel's Seventieth Week, "the time of Jacob's trouble" and the great tribulation (Jeremiah 30:7; Isaiah 14).
Knowing it will bring consolation and hope to the Judahites, the Angel of the Lord intercedes with the Lord as in the days of His flesh (Matthew 26:39, 42; John 8:28) as Father, Son and Holy Ghost are three dispensation claims or offices of the One Person of God): "How long will you have no mercy on Jerusalem, and the cities of Judah"? The Lord communicates His answer directly to the guiding angel, whom I believe is Brother Branham, who gives His answer to Zechariah. The seventy years of Judah's desolations (Jeremiah 25:12; Daniel 9:2) are past. Although the people have been restored, the population was small, the land largely a waste, they remained in a depressed state, and there was no sign of the violent convulsions of nature expected upon the heathen world.
They were anticipating the restoration of the Kingdom; little realizing that in 500 years Israel would murder his Messiah and suffer seven times more for her sin through 2,000 years of the Gentile dispensation. That is "How long"! Then grace will end for the world as when "God's voice shook the earth [after Israel went from grace under the Law]: now He has promised [in Haggai], Yet once more I shake not the earth only, but also heaven. And this word, "Yet once more," signifies the removing of those things that are shaken, as of things that are made [creeds, catechisms, and ritual], that those things which cannot be shaken [faith in His unfailing promises] may remain. Since we have a Kingdom which cannot be moved, let us have grace whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and awe: for our God is a consuming Fire" (Hebrews 12:26-28; Daniel 2:44; Haggai 2:5-9).
In order to be understood by all, the communicating angel is ordered to pronounce the immutable "THUS SAITH THE LORD, I am jealous for Jerusalem and for Zion. And I burn with vehement anger at the heathen in their state of carnal security, overconfident in their power and prosperity, but mainly because they have exceeded the chastisement I ordered upon Judah in love with a view to correction, to evil-entreating them for their own pleasure. Consequently I have returned to Jerusalem with mercies. All hindrances will be removed, the Temple will be restored, and the whole city shall pass under the surveyor's measuring line for building. Furthermore the communicating angel is commanded to publicly proclaim THUS SAITH THE LORD, prosperity shall overflow to the other cities throughout Judah in assurance God has by no means renounced His original purpose in choosing Jerusalem for His habitation".
When the red horses returned from the conquest of Babylon the Judahites had "rest" under the more kindly disposed Medo-Persian and Greek empires. And did you note a future "measuring" foreshadowed in verses 16 and 17 by the rod of the Message of the two prophets of Zechariah 4, Matthew 24:31 and Revelation 11:1-4? This will separate 144,000 elect Israelites—"those who worship in the Sanctuary of the Temple" and "raise up children to Abraham" as "lively stones" in His millennium Temple.
The objective of this first vision was to demonstrate that God's love is elective love and to encourage the dispirited Judahites that although there was no present appearance of the blessings promised in Haggai 2, yet these blessings were vouchsafed. Zechariah revealed the riders of God's righteous judgments on the ungodly nations, and like his predecessors looks down the whole vista of the future and outlines landmarks that do not exhaust the prophecy in one period but wrap up in terse pregnant sentences long cycles of historical development.
The Second Vision
Zechariah 1:18-21, "[Having sunk down in meditation after seeing my first vision] I raised my eyes and saw four horns, and I asked the angel who was speaking with me, What are these? And he answered, These are the horns that will scatter Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem [the entire Covenant people]."
"Then the Lord showed me four craftsmen [skilful destroyers or warriors to overcome the horns], and I said, What are these coming to do? He answered, These are the horns which have scattered Judah to such extent that no one could lift up his head, but these [skilful destroyers] have come to rout them and to cast down the horns of the Gentiles, who lifted up their horn against the land of Judah to scatter it".
A horn signifies a kingdom or national power and these four horns represent four successive Gentile world empires God would raise up to chastise and discipline the Israelites throughout "the times of the Gentiles" from Judah's defeat by "Nebuchadnezzar the king of Babylon, My servant" in 605BC to the consummation of life early in our twenty-first century (Luke 21:24; Daniel 9:27; Hosea 6:1-3). God represented the four horns to Nebuchadnezzar in the interpretation of his dream in Daniel 2 (explained in chapters 7 to 12 and Revelation 17). The four skilful destroyers or warriors sent to rout and cast out the four horns are the succeeding three horns, while the fourth is a "Stone cut out of the mountain without hands that will smite the image in the days of the ten toes of the feet that mingle themselves with the seed of men ["as it was in the days of Noah" (Matthew 24:37; Genesis 6:1-4)]. In the days of these ten kingdoms the God of heaven will set up a Kingdom that will never be destroyed, but will break in pieces and consume them all, and it shall stand for ever" (Daniel 2:42-45).
This unfolds the first vision in which the Lord is shown with the Medes and Persians, having taken the Babylonian empire and slain King Belshazzar. "God's anointed shepherd, King Cyrus of Persia" extended this rest to the Judeans as prophesied two hundred years beforehand (Isaiah 44:28; 45:1). Behind them in the vision, that is to say in the future, stand three hosts of skilful destroyers or warriors who will rout and cast out the remainder of the enemies of God and Israel: Greeks, Romans, and the Stone cut out of the mountain without hands which answers to the Stature of a Perfect Man, the white horses of the first vision and the Rider and His followers on white horses in the vision of Revelation 19:11-21 (where Brother Branham makes another appearance):
"I . . . . (insert your name here, because throughout the Book of Revelation John represents Christ's end-time Bride, the only group to whom the Message of the angel, Brother Branham, is revealed) . . . . saw heaven opened, and beheld a white horse whose Rider is called Faithful and True; in righteousness He judges and makes war. His eyes are like a flame of Fire, and on His head are many crowns with a Name inscribed which no one [of worldly understanding] knows. He was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood: and His Name is called The Word of God. And the armies of heaven, clad in fine linen, white and pure, followed Him upon white horses. Out of His mouth issues a sharp Sword with which to smite the nations: and He will rule them with a rod of iron [at the White Throne Judgment]: and He treads the winepress of God Almighty's furious wrath. On His robe and on His thigh He has a Name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS".
In Revelation 6:8 Satan had the name "Death" wrote on him; Christ's got Life wrote on Him. Those with Him are on white horses also, and they are called "the chosen before the foundation of the world." Amen. And they are faithful to the Word. Amen. Whew, I like that one. Called "chosen before the foundation of the world" and then faithful to the Word by their choosing, all stimulated with new wine and oil just riding right along, coming down to meet Him" (63-0321, The Revelation of the Seven Seals, par. 314; John 6:63).
"Then I saw an angel standing in the Sun; and he proclaimed with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in midheaven, Come gather for the great supper of God; to feast on the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and their riders, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, small and great."
In Ezekiel 39:17 God says, "And you son of man, THUS SAITH THE LORD GOD, speak to the birds of every feather, and to every beast of the field: Assemble yourselves and come, gather from every quarter to the great sacrificial feast that I am preparing for you upon the mountains of Israel, at which you shall eat flesh, and drink blood." This Angel standing in the Light of "the Sun of righteousness with healing [resurrection and translation power] in His beams" (Malachi 4:2; Ephesians 1:19-20; Revelation 19:17) is the fullness of the Spirit veiled behind Brother Branham after Christ opened the Seals. Thus he was "the firstfruit of those who are Christ's at His 'parousia' Coming . . . and if the firstfruit is holy, the lump is also holy: and if the Root is holy, so are the branches [you and me]" (I Corinthians 15:23; Romans 11:16). His ministry revealed "Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and today, and forever" (Hebrews 13:8), doing the SAME miracles and "discerning the thoughts and intents of the heart . . . as it was in the days of Lot" (Hebrews 4:12; Luke 17:28-30; Genesis 18). This was the LAST sign Jesus promised us Gentiles before the close of our dispensation.
Brother Branham said, "The Bridegroom call will come right through this, when the Son of man will come down and come in human flesh to unite the two together. The Church has to be the Word; He is the Word, and the two unites together, and to do that it'll take the manifestation of the revealing of the Son of man. Not a clergyman [i.e. Brother Branham] . . . Do you see what I mean? See, it's Son of man, Jesus Christ, will come down in human flesh among us. [The Angel of Ezekiel 1:28 and 43:2-3 is the "Mighty Angel" of Revelation 10:1-4 and 18:1 veiled behind "a son of man" to reveal "the Son of man"] and will make His Word so real that it'll unite the Church and Him as one, the Bride, and then she'll go Home to the wedding supper. Amen. She's already united (See?); we go to the wedding supper, not to the marriage. "Fill your flesh . . . self, of all the flesh of mighty men, 'cause the marriage of the Lamb has come" [(Revelation 19:7-18)]. But the rapture is going to the wedding supper. When the Word here unites with the person, and they two become one, and then what does it do then? It manifests the Son of man again, not the church theologians, the Son of man. The Word and the Church becomes one. Whatever the Son of man done, He was the Word, the Church does the same thing" (64-0816, Proving His Word, par. 236).
This vision of the "Angel standing in the Sun" is Ephesians 1:10, the end-time equivalent of Revelation 12:1 which portrayed the elect Israelites of the New Testament Church having crossed from the Law unto grace. "The Law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things" (Hebrews 10:1) is represented by the Moon whose dim reflection of Sunlight is now under the feet of the Church crowned with apostolic faith signified by the twelve stars over her head. Stars reflect the Light of the Sun in its absence and the Church is clothed in the Light of the ascended S_O_N.
In Matthew 13:39-41 Jesus said, "The harvest is the end of the world; and the reapers are the angels [or messengers to the seven Church Ages]. As therefore the tares are gathered [first in ecumenical councils such as the World Council of Churches, the charismatic movement, inter-faith groups, etc,] and burned in the fire; so shall it be in the end of this world. The Son of man shall send forth His angels, [Paul, Irenaeus, Martin, Columba, Martin Luther, John Wesley, and William Branham] and they shall gather out of His Kingdom all things that offend, and them which do iniquity".
Brother Branham explained, "An Angel is coming to bring the separation, the segregation between the right and the wrong. And no one can do that but the Angel of the Lord. He's the One that's going to tell which is right and which is wrong. God said He will send His angels at the last times. Not angels down through here, but angels at the last time, and would gather together. We know that this is the coming harvest time now. Now, and angel is actually interpreted a "messenger." And we see that there is seven angels . . . through the Church Ages . . ."
"Notice who He said that the sowers were, and also what the Seed was. One, the sower was He, the Son of God, who went forth sowing Seed. And an enemy came behind Him, which was the Devil, and sowed the seed of discrepancy, behind the sowing of the right Seed. Now, friends, that has happened through every Age since we've had a world. Exactly. All the way from the beginning, it started the very same thing."
"Now, He said, "The Seed of God, the Word of God . . ." Jesus said in a certain place, that the Word is a Seed (Luke 8:11). And every seed will bring forth of its kind (Genesis 1:11; Matthew 5:45; Hebrews 6:7-8)] And now, if the Christian, the children of God, the children of the Kingdom has become the Seed of God, then they must be the Word of God, the Word of God manifested in the Age that they're living in, for the promised Seed of that Age [i.e. "the present Truth" (II Peter 1:12; I John 1:7)]. God gave His Word at the beginning, and each Age has had its Seed, its time, its promises . . ." (65-0118, The Seed of Discrepancy, par. 19-21).
As Paul prophesied in Ephesians 1:10, "In the dispensation of the fulness of times [seven Church Ages] He might gather together in One all things in Christ, both which are in heaven, and which are on earth." As required by Psalm 19, the sign of this event was shown to the world on February 28, 1963 before the fulfillment of Scripture. It was the Shekinah in the form of the Pillar of Cloud signifying Christ's imminent 'parousia' Coming. The seven portions of the Spirit that anointed seven earthly angels or Church Age messengers were gathered as the fullness of the Spirit over Sunset Mountain on March 8, 1963 when Christ opened the Seven Seals and caught up His Prophet into a constellation of the seven stars, angels, seraphim or theophanies representing God's stone Bible—the Great Pyramid Enoch built—which is the Word; when the photographs are turned to the right they portray Jesus Christ wigged as Judge looking down upon the world (Revelation 1:16, 20; John 5:27; Daniel 7:9; Revelation 1:14).
This signified the "Mighty Angel," Jesus Christ, the Angel of the Lord fulfilling Ezekiel 1:28; 43:2, Revelation 10:1-4, and 18:8. It was the fullness of the Spirit that would veil itself behind the sin-born flesh of William Branham as once it was veiled behind the created flesh of Melchisedec in Genesis 18, and behind the virgin-born man in the Gospels to reveal Jesus Christ. Seven portions of the Spirit revealed PART-Word to the Church Age saints, but only the fullness of the Spirit could unveil the fullness of the Word, hence Brother Branham said, "The Elijah of this day will be Jesus Christ" (65-1127B, Trying to do God a Service without it being God's Will, par. 212; 65-0801M, God of this Evil Age, par. 170; 63-0322, The Fifth Seals, par. 212-215; 63-0324M, Seals Q & A, par. 53, 66; 60-1207. The Pergamean Church Age, par. 320; 53-0606, Demonology, par. 21-22; 62-1111, Why I am against Organized Religion, par. 194-223).
The Elijah of I Kings 18 slew the prophets of Baal, the enemies of God and Israel in the time of the latter rain following the evening sacrifice in the days of King Ahab and his domineering pagan Queen, Jezebel. He prophesied: "dogs will lick Ahab's blood . . . and eat Jezebel by the wall of Jezreel; the members of your family who die in the city will be eaten by dogs, and those who die in the country will be eaten by vultures" (I Kings 21:17-26). This established the type for Revelation 19:17 showing that it is the prophetic ministry of William Branham—Matthew 25:6, I Thessalonians 4:16, Revelation 14:9-11 and 18:1-3—the Elijah of Malachi 4:5-6, that will invite the birds and beasts to eat the sacrifice of the enemies of God and Israel in the days of the latter rain after the evening sacrifice of the 144,000 is received. Brother Branham expounds this in (63-0321) The Fourth Seal" par. 334 – 381. "Jezebel, that dominating woman, represents the apostate world church system, "MYSTERY BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS [her (once) Protestant daughters (Revelation 2:20-24)] AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH [like Islam]" under whom the apostate United States (and her allies) will soon submit. Daniel and Jesus foretold the Judaeo-Roman Catholic false church will rule the world in league with the blooded military of a (once) Protestant United States of America, killing all recalcitrants and dissenters (Daniel 7:15-27; Revelation 17:1-6; 13:15-18).
Her Ahab and head of this Jezebel religion will be the Devil-incarnate pope, the eighth Roman Emperor to deify himself (Isaiah 14:13-14; II Thessalonians 2:3-12; Revelation 17:10-11). Delivering their kingdoms into his hand as champion against Judaeo-Communism the kings of the earth (the Black Nobility/NATO) will make this usurper of Christ (implied by his title, VICARIVS FILII DEI), a "king of kings" and (Revelation 16:13-14; 17:12-14). And you want to be a Roman Catholic??? This Scripture speaks of Armageddon and the consummation of life.
"Then I saw the Papal beast [and reprobate humanity] and the kings of the earth and their armies gathered to make war against the One mounted on the horse, and against His army [Jesus Christ "whose Name is called The Word of God"]. And the beast was seized, and with him the false prophet [previous pope] who wrought miracles in his presence, by means of which he deceived those who had received the mark of the beast [trinitarian worship] and those who worshipped his image [the (once) Protestant churches]. These two were cast alive into the lake of Fire burning with brimstone. And the rest [of humanity] were slain with the Sword that issued from the mouth of the One mounted on the horse. And all the birds gorged themselves on their flesh".
God called Nebuchadnezzar "My servant" (Jeremiah 27:6) and sent him to chastise blasphemous Judah when it followed the Northern Tribes into trinitarian worship. His grandson the secondary king Belshazzar set Eastern propriety at naught, introducing women, even concubines and sensuality at his feast, and whose crowning guilt was to profane the vessels of God's Temple to be instruments of revelry to himself, his princes, wives and concubines, drinking out of them in honour of his gods, thus persecuting Jesus. To mark the inseparable connection of sin and punishment "the same hour" God wrote his doom on the wall and "skilful destroyers" of the Medes and Persians took the kingdom and slew Belshazzar (Daniel 5; I Thessalonians 5:3-7).
"Judah, Israel, and Jerusalem" were already scattered and Judah was a province of Persia at the time of Zechariah's vision. Israel is mentioned, not to indicate the Northern Kingdom which God dispersed two centuries earlier, but to identify those of the restoration as people of the Covenant. It was Semitic Persia, now known as Iran, that released the Judahites, returned the Temple treasures that had been carried to Babylon, and helped fund the restoration of God's Temple. This is of no consequence to the non-Semitic, anti-Semitic self-styled Jews in their enmity against the genuine Semitic Iranians (Genesis 3:15). Alexander's Greek empire succeeded the Medo-Persians and was in its turn supplanted by Imperial Rome. Her political and military power waned but "her deadly wound was healed" (Revelation 13:3) when Emperor Constantine united the Roman state with the remnants of the apostate First Church of Rome established by the apostles Junius and Andronicus. Constantine backed the union by force and the spirit that motivated pagan Rome now inspires false Christian Rome. The fourth empire never went out of existence; it just changed in its outer texture. Papal false Christian Rome now controls by religion even more ably than when pagan Imperial Rome controlled by the pure iron of force.
After the close of the Gentile dispensation the Judaeo-Roman Catholic church and her (once) Protestant daughters will reunite with the state—the apostate United States (and other colonies of 'the City of London')—which is "the image unto the beast" of Imperial Rome. Whereas God raised up Nebuchadnezzar to destroy Judah, He has raised Judaeo-Communism to destroy the false church and the United States. This will precipitate Armageddon and the consummation of Life.
The four horns have scattered the Israelites, who must not be confused with their impersonators, the non-Semitic, anti-Semitic self-styled Edomite and Khazar Jews of Europe and America. Scripture informs us all twelve tribes dwell primarily in the environs of the Muslim lands of the ancient Assyrian Empire (Psalm 17:7; Isaiah 6:10-13; 11:11-16; 13:14; 27:13; 49:17; Jeremiah 3:12, 18; 16:15; 23:8; 31:8; Ezekiel 37:14; 39:27; Micah 5:3; Zechariah 10:9-12; Matthew 24:29-31; Revelation 12:14, etc,). One should never conflate Jews with the descendents of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob: the Bible, history, and their most eminent scholars prove that "Jew" is a modern word found in no Bible prior to the latter half of the eighteenth century. Its meaning is contrary to the two words it has replaced, and Jews are seldom Judahites, Judeans, or even a Semitic people.
This is confirmed by Matthew 24:31. After the close of the Gentile dispensation "The Son of man will send His angels [the Hebrew prophets (of Zechariah 4 and Revelation 11)] with the great sound of the [Seventh] Trumpet (I Thessalonians 4:16; I Corinthians 15:52), and they will gather together His [144,000] elect from the four winds [the war and strife that have scattered them] from one end of heaven to the other [under the dominion of the four Gentile world powers]." Contrary to the understanding of the majority of believers in the circle of this Message, the Israelites have NOT yet been "gathered together" to the land of the Covenant "for fear of the Jews." According to Jesus in Matthew and the Scriptures delineated above they will not return until after the CLOSE of the Gentile dispensation.
Brother Branham said, "National force ["skilful destroyers"] put [the nation of] Israel in her homeland [whose citizens call themselves 'Israelis' because they know they are NOT Israelites but impersonators]. National force ["skilful destroyers"] will put the church in the World Council of Churches. But the power of God will put the people in the Bride. The world forces this way, and the world forces that way, but God forces upward, the Spirit of God, which is the Word of God—"My Word is Spirit and Life will put the Bride in her place," 'cause she'll recognize her position in the Word; then she's in Christ—no national force will do it. But the national force did drive Israel to the homeland. The national forces of the [Rockefellers'] Council of Churches will drive every organization into it, but the power of God will raise the Bride into glory, out of it" (64-0726M, Recognizing your Day and its Message, par. 192; 1980 Jewish Almanac, p. 3).
"We Jews, we are the Destroyers and will remain the Destroyers. Nothing you can do will meet our demands and needs. We will forever destroy because we want a world of our own" (Maurice Samuels, You Gentiles, p. 155; Benjamin Franklin; Genesis 3:15). These "skilful destroyers," of apostate (once) Christian nations are presently persecuting political Islam, forcing innocent people into World War III against political Zion with the objective of bringing both under submission to their god Lucifer's totalitarian one world government. I believe World War III has been ongoing at least since 9/11 but has not yet reached the "hot stage" which will be precipitated by the earthquakes prophesied by Haggai, Zechariah, Jesus Messiah and others, sinking Los Angeles, cleaving the Mount of Olives and demolishing the Dome of the Rock at the close of the Gentile dispensation and the start of Daniel's Seventieth Week. The military blueprint for this war was determined in 1871. After "the world sitteth still, and [is again] at rest" Rome will break her covenant with the self-styled Jewish banksters, then Judaeo-Communist Russia will annihilate both the United States and Vatican City State, and Armageddon will set in.
This vision carries forward the assurance given in the first vision by explaining the provision God has made for repelling the foes of elect Israelites of the Old Covenant—from the Captivity to the close of Daniel's Seventieth Week. Hebrews 10:30-31, "God has said, Vengeance belongs to Me, I will recompense, says the Lord. And again, The Lord shall judge His people. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God". nl695.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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