Bible Believers' Newsletter 838
"We focus on the present Truth – what Jesus is doing now. . ."
ISSN 1442-8660Christian greetings in the precious Name of our Lord Jesus Christ; we are pleased you could join us in fellowship around God's unchanging Word.
Our main article in this issue is a study on the renewed heaven and renewed earth. In addition we some important news articles, one of which is a five and a half hour video you should be sure to watch.
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
Save Meriam
May 27, 2014 — Meriam Yahia Ibrahim is a Sudanese Christian. On 13 May 2014 she was sentenced to death for apostasy—leaving Islam—although she’s been a Christian all her life. She was given until 15 May to recant, with the implication that her sentence would be annulled or reduced if she did so. Meriam stood firm and refused to recant, so her death sentence was confirmed. Meriam gave birth in prison to a baby girl in the early hours of 27 May. She will be held there until her newborn daughter is weaned, a period of up to two years, then will receive 100 lashes for alleged adultery [for marrying a non-Muslim] before the death sentence is carried out. Her 20-month-old son, Martin, is also in prison with her. . . . She is currently detained in Omdurman Federal Women's Prison along with her newborn daughter and 20-month-old son, Martin. Full story: csw.org.uk
Bilderberg Meetings 2014
May 28, 2014 — The 2014 Bilderberg Conference starts today at the heavily fortified, five-star Marriott Hotel in Copenhagen, Denmark. The Good News from Bilderberg is that they have invited back the Chinese college professors who attended Bilderberg 2012 but were snubbed in 2013. They also invited another Chinese professor who has worked on his government’s Five Year plan. Hopefully, this rapprochement means we can avoid a military confrontation in Asia. One Bilderberg agenda item is to discuss the recent Russo-Chinese economic alignment and what this means for the Western governments they control. They discuss agenda items until a consensus is reached. Then the participants are expected to carry that consensus back to their home countries.
This is my third annual Annotated Bilderberg Members List. The biographies of the participants tell us a lot about what they are thinking and what their interests are. The published biographies leave off any mention of relations to the Rothschilds.
The Bad News is that their assembled Bilderberg crew is incapable of any real solutions. The Russians announced the sale of the S-400 anti-aircraft system to China which China will sell to Iran. China wants to elevate Iran to that of a protected military ally. They invited the President of Iran to the Russo-Chinese Summit in Shanghai. America and Israel have reached the limits of their respective Empires.
This is the publicly acknowledged list. If others attend secretly, I will publish an update. Another agenda item is that Bilderberg seems to have concluded that you have no right to privacy. . . Full story: Annotated List of Invitees, 2014
Weaponized Agriculture
May 26, 2014 — Recently, an NGO in Russia—the National Association for Genetic Safety—began working closely with the Russian Duma to enact a set of laws criminalizing the introduction of harmful genetically-modified crops as well as withholding information on harmful effects of such crops. Russian President Vladimir Putin has indicated he will sign such legislation, saying Russia can grow enough food for itself without genetic engineering it. . .
In the early 1980s . . . the USDA and FDA (apparently at the behest of large agribusiness interests) determined that GMO crops were GRAS (Generally Regarded as Safe) meaning they were substantially equivalent to existing crops and were . . . Exempted from costly safety testing, a virtual "gold rush" of ag biotech companies and investors ensued to commercialize the first GMO crops. . .
I'd like to share my opinion that GMO crops are a form of "weaponized agriculture." Making foreign countries dependent on externally-supplied GMO seeds leaves them open to the worst sort of extortion and could lead to wars and global instability. Further, having established production and distribution facilities for GMO seed could allow rapid targeting of the agricultural sector of an "enemy" country. Simply having this capacity could create a climate of suspicion and lead to retaliatory measures that could substantially reduce the human population. Full story: paulcraigroberts.org
Russia-China Counter-Alliance to US-NATO Aggression
May 26, 2014 — Speaking on May 20 President Xi Jinping called for the creation of a new Asian structure for security cooperation based on a regional group that includes Russia and Iran and excludes the United States. Clearly pointing a finger at the United States he called NATO an outdated thinking of the Cold War. According to him, "We cannot just have security for one or a few countries while leaving the rest insecure." In his speech Mr. Xi Jinping offered an alternative vision for the region based on an all-inclusive regional security framework rather than individual alliances with external actors like the United States. China's proposal to push forward with the ambitious Free Trade Area of the Asia Pacific met an especially chilly reception from the US . . . In other words, Russia and China are standing up to the American hegemony and pushing back against the US aggression that the world had witnessed over the last few decades.
This China-Russia alliance should be welcomed as a counter bloc to the failing and desperate Western dominance concentrated in Washington. Ever since the break-up of the Soviet Union, America has imposed its economic model that favours corporations and the financial elite, while squeezing the ordinary people. Any country that refused to bow down to American pressure was attacked militarily under false pretexts of "civil protection" and "national security concerns". Unfortunately regional powers such as Russia and China were unable to prevent America from imposing its self-destructive neo-liberal order on other countries. However, recently China and especially Russia have started to fight back. Russia has averted another disastrous intervention in Syria and has fought back against the Western-backed coup in Ukraine.
Now, with China and Russia closely aligned, the two countries will be able to prevent the US and its Western puppets from further carrying out its economic imperialist agenda. With the European Union crumbling under the weight of Euro-sceptic opinion of the general public, as illustrated by the European election results tonight, the US is losing its closest ally. The EU will have to make a choice whether to continue to be a puppet of Washington, thus risking the wrath of its European citizens and eventually reaching complete self-destruction, or choosing to build closer ties with China and Russia. . .
Full story: globalresearch.ca
Comment: Do you see the Hegelian dialectic between Rothschild and Rothschild? The unavoidable conclusion is that America's wars have not protected our liberty but, instead, destroyed liberty. As Alexander Solzhenitsyn said, "A state of war only serves as an excuse for domestic tyranny" . . . By overthrowing the democratically elected government in Ukraine, Washington has brought the United States into confrontation with Russia.
Benghazi Terror Cover-up
May 26, 2014 — House Oversight and Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa has discovered an email from the Obama White House to Youtube, issued within hours of the start of the terrorist attack on the Benghazi that shows the Administration contacted YouTube and complained of an anti-Islamic video shortly after the terrorist attack commenced on the American mission in Benghazi, Libya, resulting in the murder of US Ambassador J. Christopher Stevens; US Foreign Information Management Officer Sean Smith; and CIA contractors Tyrone S. Woods and Glen Doherty. Issa views the email as an attempt to skew the story from the start, redirecting attention away from the fact of a terrorist incident to the fiction of a spontaneous uprising in response to the now infamous (and poorly done) video entitled Innocence of Muslims.
The email contradicts the White House account repeated by Administration officials, including former UN Ambassador Susan Rice, and the President that the Administration came to believe the incident to be a spontaneous uprising against the video because that is the account given the White House by the intelligence community. Sent at 9:11PM on the very day of the attack, September 11, the White House email proves that the Administration had already concocted the anti-Islamic video account within hours of the start of the Benghazi attack. Meanwhile we know that the Libyan government, the US military leadership, and accounts coming from those on the ground in Benghazi provided the Administration with a steady stream of complementary information before the attack, during it, and after corroborating it to be an attack by an al-Qaeda-aligned group, Ansar al-Sharia. . . Full story: newswithviews.com
Comment: We know that al Qaeda is an instrument of the CIA and that anti-Islam/anti-Christian Pastor Terry Jones is a CIA operative, and that the video entitled Innocence of Muslims is based on a book authored by Jewish Judaeo-Jesuit Cardinal Augustin Bea. Methinks this was a blackop.
Boko Haram Leader, Shekau, in Military Camp
May 26, 2014 — Renowned Kaduna-based Islamic cleric, Sheikh Ibrahim Zakzaky declared Saturday that the Nigeria military knew the whereabouts of the most wanted leader of violent Islamic sect, Boko Haram, Sheikh Abubakar Shekau . . . Boko Haram was being used as tool for the Western countries to invade Nigeria as they did in other countries to plunder the nation's resources. The cleric alleged collaboration with Nigeria's military authorities, insisting that the activities of the Boko Haram sect was part of covert operations of a section of the West to balkanize Nigeria and plunder the nation's resources. Full story: odili.net
Comment: The Shiite cleric is correct.
The Illustrated Protocols of Zion by David Duke
May 20, 2014 — The Illustrated Protocols of Zion is an historical and literary valuation of the original Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion. He presents the case that Protocols of Zion could well be titled the Protocols of "Zionism" in that it predicts many of the horrific wars and conflicts right down to the issues in the Israel or "Zion" of today and associated with Zionist power and influence that goes far beyond the borders of Israel.
In this video and his book upon which it is based, he shows that many of the most radical claims of the Protocols are today proclaimed by Zionists themselves around the world such as domination of media, banking, and extensive power and influence in America, the EU and in many governments around the world.
He quotes leading and influential Zionists and Zionist media in showing that many of the most important underlying themes can be documented in historical and contemporary terms. . . Full story: youtube.com
The Synagogue of Satan 1878-2006
This is a complete review of the world's history from 1878 to 2006. This important video is five and a half-hours of essential self-education and should be stored if you are not ready to view it. It reveals historical events that have never been presented so vividly in this media although much of what is covered has been found in print but cloaked and blocked from circulation. Jewry conquered England from Amsterdam in 1688 and set up the Bank of England in 1694 which is the basis of their international banking structure. Today's world is ruled by the 'Great Sanhedrin' of the City of London. This video should viewed and the matters therein confirmed by all seekers of Truth. Full story: vnnforum.com
The Renewed Heaven and Renewed Earth
The following statements present a resume and chronological ordering of the subjects we have discussed thus far and an outline of the areas we will be studying.
Revelation 19:17-21 describes the outcome of Armageddon and the judgment on the beast and the false prophet.
Revelation 20:1-6 describes Satan's incarceration in the abyss and explains that his impotence throughout the millennium is caused by the fact that his subjects are all disembodied and in the grave, while the glorified saints of all ages on earth throughout the millennium will be physically and spiritually impervious to his evil (Isaiah 65:19-25).
Revelation 20:7-10 describes the general resurrection, Satan sentenced before the White Throne Judgment and cast into the Lake of Fire where the beast and the false prophet have been in constant torment a thousand years (Ezekiel 28:18; Revelation 13:8-17; 14:11), and the consumption of his army with "Fire from heaven" (Matthew 25:41; Revelation 20:9). In Genesis 3:14-15 the Serpent was cursed and his form changed. As a snake he will be present throughout eternity since he is a spoken Word of God. His hybridized offspring, however, is not God's creation and accursed (Heb. 'cherem;' Genesis 4:11; 9:25). God put "enmity" between the Serpent's seed hybrids and the offspring of the first and the last Adam. The names of these hybrids and the fruit of miscegenation with Adam's race were never written in the Book of Life, and being without a KINSMAN Redeemer they are born 'lost.' God commanded Moses to cast a brazen serpent and put it upon a pole indicating that sin was judged (Numbers 21:8-9).
Perhaps you can provide further Scriptural or Message support to show that the physical Serpent's seed are or are not sentenced before the White Throne Judgment.
Revelation 20:11-15 describes the White Throne Judgment (Matthew 25:31-46). There "Jesus will say to them on the left hand, Depart from Me you cursed [of Adam's race], into everlasting fire, prepared [not for you, but] for the Devil and his angels" (Matthew 25:41). "And whoever was not found written in the Book of Life will be cast into the Lake of Fire".
Revelation 21:1-8 describes a vision revealed to John, that is, to you as Christ's end-time Bride whom he represents. The vision foretells the consummation of the corrupted state of the former heavens and former earth and their renewal by the baptism with the Holy Ghost and with fire and transformation into a new creation just as you, your soul was quickened to eternal Life as a new creation.
Revelation 21:9 – 22:5 features Brother Branham whose ministry "finished the mystery of God" and is an exposition of the vision shown to John in verses 1-8 centered upon the New Jerusalem.
Revelation 22:6-21 is an epilogue by Brother Branham, the angel who veiled Christ from the world and revealed Him to us. He led John who represents the members of Christ's end-time Bride throughout the Book of Revelation and expounded the visions. His final admonition to us is: "Stay in Line" with the Word (Revelation 22:17-19).
This drawing shows the ground plan for the "pyramid city" of Isaiah 66:1-2 that Jesus has gone away to prepare. It will descend from heaven once the Lake of Fire has purged and regenerated heaven and earth physically and spiritually.
Revelation 21:1-8, "And I saw a renewed heaven and a renewed earth: for the former heaven and former earth were departed; and the sea is no more. And I saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down out of the heaven, prepared as a Bride adorned for her Husband [each soul dressed in the righteosnesses of saints by her revelation of "the true sayings of God" (Revelation 19:7-9; Jeremiah 23:6)]. "And I heard a great Voice out of the throne saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them [as Emmanuel]. And shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; and death shall be no more, nor shall sorrow, nor crying, nor pain be any more: for the first things are departed. And the one sitting upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. And He said, Write: for these Words are faithful and true (Revelation 19:9; 22:6). And He said to me, "It is done" [as in Revelation 16:17 these Words have come to pass]. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. I will give to him that thirsts of the Fountain of the water of [eternal] Life [or fellowship with Christ (Isaiah 12:3; 55:1; Jeremiah 2:13; 17:13; John 4:13, 14; 7:37, 38; Revelation 22:17)] freely [or gratuitously]. He that overcomes shall inherit these things [the blessings here before described]; and I will be his God, and he shall be My Son. But to the cowardly [who do not quit themselves like men and so overcome in the good fight but are enslaved by the spirit of fear, not love towards God; and who through fear of man are not bold for God, and "draw back" (Revelation 21:27; 22:15)], and unbelieving [faithless], and abominable (Revelation 17:4)], and murderers, and fornicators, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all who are liars, will have their time in the Lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death".
The solemn declaration of a great voice from the throne announces the consummation of the Kingdom of heaven upon earth, "Behold, God's home is now with men." John types you as a member of Christ's end-time Bride for the Book was sealed until "the days of the voice of the seventh angel," William Branham, and not revealed to the Church Age saints. So this vision was your preview of the realization of the Kingdom of heaven on earth as the glorified temple of Jesus Christ and the Family of God as the Holy City descending out of heaven (Isaiah 66:1-2; Acts 7:48-49; I Corinthians 6:19-20; Ephesians 2:11, 20-22; Hebrews 10:5). Man was created to be the temple wherein God is worshipped and the place of His rest. Heaven and earth will dwell together as husband and wife like Christ and His Church, all meeting in one the glorious plan of redemption. I Corinthians 15:28, "With all things subjected to Him, the Son, too, will subject Himself to the One who put all things under Him, that God may be everything to everyone." So Jesus will not be on His Father's Throne [which is heaven], He will be on His own throne for heaven and earth and God and His elect will be united. God will be in Jesus on the throne, and in you and me, while the glory of His Logos will overshadow New Jerusalem.
In this old earth both Christians and pagans have temples or places of worship, but there is no temple in New Jerusalem for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb (who are One, and we are one in them) are His sanctuary and place of rest. Christ is "the beginning of the creation of God" (Revelation 3:14) and as Eve was not a separate creation from the first Adam but a continuation of the same creation formed from his rib, Christ's Bride is a continuation of Jesus Messiah, being formed of the Holy Spirit that came from His side. So in the renewed heavens and renewed earth God will be worshiped throughout eternity by the "saved" without the City manifest in the form of His glorified Family, Jesus Christ and His wife.
Melchisedec [King of righteousness] King of Salem met Abram after the slaughter of the kings and served him communion and blessed him. Abram gave Him tithes of all and sought His city in Palestine where it will rest on a fifteen hundred mile high Mount Zion. But as Melchisedec was King of "New Jerusalem that is above and is the mother of us all" it was just above Abrams head in a dimension Abram could not see through the veil of flesh.
The Lake of Fire marked the "departure" or "passing away" of the despoiled condition of the "former heavens and earth" which is an affront to God's holiness and must take flight before His Presence "and there was no place found for them" as the renewal pervades everything with His glory (Revelation 20:11). The Lake of Fire is the device God employs to transform them into their antithesis and enables the apokalupsis or unveiling of the "renewed heaven and renewed earth" in all their glory united together by "the Holy City, New Jerusalem, prepared in heaven as a Bride adorned for her Husband." The former heaven and earth cannot co-exist with the renewed heaven and earth any more than law and grace or your unregenerate soul can co-exist with your regenerated soul. There cannot be two natures dominating, "No servant can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. You cannot serve God and mammon" (Luke 16:13; Romans 7:1-6). Before you, your soul can be reborn, its old master, the worldly nature of Satan must die, only then can you be united with your new Husband, Christ the Word. Likewise, his nature must be purged from the heavens and the earth before they can be renewed by the baptism with the Holy Ghost. Although they are sanctified for the millennium by atomic fire and Satan and his demonic host will be bound, they must be annihilated before heaven and earth can be renewed and God be sovereign and everything to everyone. The consummation of Hell and Death (personified) in the Lake of Fire denotes the sudden and complete destruction of evil, its works and even the memory (history) of sin. "Behold, I make all things new"!
II Peter 3:6-13 tells how the world was justified and baptized in the days of Noah. "Whereby the world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished." Our English word "world" is an ambiguous translation of the (Gk.) 'kosmos' which means neither the planet nor the universe, but the world order. "By faith Enoch [one man called out from the seventh generation of the first Adam] was translated [some years before the Flood] that he should not see death; and was not found, because God had translated him: for before his translation he had the testimony that he pleased God. But without faith it is impossible to please Him: for he that comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him" (Hebrews 11:5-6). Christ's end-time Bride is an election called out from Laodicea, the seventh generation of the last Adam, and with the testimony of Enoch she will be translated without death.
Noah and his family represent those who will go through the tribulation and rise in the general resurrection showing that there will still be sin after the millennium. The earth was cleansed of her corrupt world order and sinners but repopulated by sinners and the physical Serpent's seed. This demonstrates that like the world a man can be justified by grace through faith one day and ultimately lost.
"But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same Word are kept in store, reserved to fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men." Earth will be sanctified for the honeymoon of the heavenly Bridegroom and His earthly Bride by atomic fire and we will step out on the ashes of the wicked for a thousand years of peace (Malachi 4:1-3). The consummation of life will bind Satan and his demons, but the general resurrection of sinners will loose them after the thousand years and they will come against the camp of the saints (Revelation 20:7-9). This shows that a man can be justified and even sanctified yet subsequently lost.
"But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night in which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works therein shall be burned up . . . Nevertheless we, according to His promise, look for renewed heavens and a renewed earth wherein righteousness dwells." This will be the regeneration of heaven and earth by its baptism with the Holy Ghost, its supernatural Fire annihilating evil spirits, germs, disease and anything that is not Word and uniting heaven and earth with God's own Life (II Peter 3:10, 13; Matthew 3:11-12). The oceans will explode, sending flames thousands of miles into space and fresh lava will overflow earth's surface, dissolving everything for miles below the surface the crust leaving no trace of her former history.
Like God's earth, "You must be born-again".
John 14:1-6, "Let not your heart be troubled: I know I have a bad name with people saying this, that, and the other but as you have believed in God, believe also in Me. In My Father's Kingdom are many dwelling places. If this were not so, I would have told you. For I am going away to prepare a dwelling place for you, a glorified Body." (Gk.) 'Hetoimazo' means to make ready, prepare: make the necessary preparations and get everything ready; it is drawn from the oriental custom of sending servants ahead of kings on their journeys to level and make the roads passable. As a voice in the wilderness (of unbelief) John the Baptist foreran Jesus to figuratively "make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley must be lifted up, every mountain and hill cut down, the crooked turns straightened, and the rough places made smooth. The glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together: THUS SAITH THE LORD" (Isaiah 40:3-5; Malachi 3:1).
Joseph represented Pharaoh and men ran before his chariot crying, "Bow the knee, Joseph is coming" (Genesis 41:39-45). Likewise Jesus Christ represents God and throughout the Church Ages His angels, Paul, Irenaeus, Martin, Columba, Martin Luther, John Wesley and William Branham ran before Him to prepare the minds of men to give Messiah a fit reception and "bow the knee" to secure His blessings by the baptism of the Holy Spirit for their Age. Brother Branham was commissioned in an audible Voice: "As John the Baptist foreran My first Coming, your Message will forerun My second Coming." Yet Jesus prophesied, "God will surely vindicate His elect who cry to Him day and night. He will speedily procure them justice. Nevertheless, when the Son of man comes, will He find the faith on earth" (Luke 18:7-8).
Once we are born-again our soul is one with God, but our old mortal body and spirit must die and be replaced by our glorified mansion from that city of gold. "And when all things are ready, I will come again, and take you to Myself so that where I am, you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going . . . I am the way . . . no man comes to the Father, but by their KINSMAN Redeemer".
Jesus has "gone away to prepare a dwelling place for you, a glorified Body" by interceding for the ignorance of the Church Age saints and providing a way whereby we can overcome trials and temptations, giving Him glory. "God brings tensions into the church, "For every son that cometh to God must be tried, and proven, and tested." He lets sickness strike you. He lets diseases come on you to test you and to prove you, to show the world that you're truly the seed of Abraham. He permits it by His own will. He permits disasters; He permits friends to turn against you. He permits all these things, and turns the Devil loose to tempt you, and he'll do all but take your life. He could throw you on a bed of affliction; he could turn your neighbors against you; he could turn the church against you; he can do most anything, and it's God's will for him to do it. We are taught that it is more precious than gold to us" (William Branham, Possessing the Enemy's Gates, #11:6R, p. 7:32).
The Prophet said, "There is no doubt but what the following words of Paul applied to the mass of Christians wherever they were in the world and in every age. Hebrews 10:32-38, "But call to remembrance the former days, in which, after ye were illuminated, ye endured a great fight of afflictions; partly, whilst ye were made a gazingstock both by reproaches and afflictions; and partly, whilst ye became companions of them that were so used. For ye had compassion of me in my bonds, and took joyfully the spoiling of your goods, knowing in yourselves that ye have in heaven a better and an enduring substance. Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense of reward. For ye have need of patience, that, after ye have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise. For yet a little while, and He that shall come will come, and will not tarry. Now the just shall live by faith: but if any man draws back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him".
"The mere association of kindhearted people with the true believer might well bring death in return for their kindness."
"Now the Lord God Almighty says, "I KNOW." There He is walking in the midst of His people. There He is, the Chief Shepherd of the flock. But does He hold back the persecution? Does He stem the tribulation? No, He does not. He simply says, "I KNOW your tribulation—I am not at all unmindful of your suffering." What a stumbling block this is to so many people. Like Israel they wonder if God really loves them. How can God be just and loving if He stands by and watches His people suffer"?
"That is what they asked in Malachi 1:1-3, "The burden of the Word of the Lord to Israel by Malachi. I have loved you, saith the Lord. Yet we say, Wherein hast Thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother? says the Lord: yet I loved Jacob, and I hated Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness".
"You see, they could not figure out God's love. They thought that love meant no suffering. They thought that love meant a baby with parental care. But God said that His love was "elective" love. The proof of His love is ELECTION—that no matter what happened, His love was proven truly by the fact they were chosen unto salvation (because God hath chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth). He may commit you to death as He did Paul. He may commit you to suffering as He did Job. That is His prerogative. He is sovereign. But it is all with a purpose. If He did not have a purpose, then He would be the author of frustration and not of peace. His purpose is that after we have suffered awhile we would be made perfect, be established, strengthened and settled. As Job said, "He puts strength in us" (Job 23:6b). You see He, Himself, suffered. He learned obedience by the things that He suffered. He was actually made perfect by the things that He suffered."
"Hebrews 5:8-9, "Though He were a Son, yet learned He obedience by the things which He suffered; And being made perfect, He became the author of eternal salvation unto all them that obey Him".
"In plain language, the very character of Jesus was perfected by suffering. And according to Paul He has left His church a measure of suffering that they, too, by their faith in God while suffering for Him, would come to a place of perfection. Why did He want this"?
"James 1:2-4, "My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing".
"Why does He stand by? The reason is in Romans 8:17-18, "And if children, then heirs, heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us".
"Unless we suffer with Him we cannot reign with Him. You have to suffer to reign. The reason for this is that character simply is never made without suffering. Character is a VICTORY, not a gift. A man without character can't reign because power apart from character is satanic. But power with character is fit to rule. And since He wants us to share even His throne on the same basis that He overcame and is set down in His Father's throne, then we have to overcome to sit with Him. And the little temporary suffering we go through now is not worthy to be compared to the tremendous glory that will be revealed in us when He comes. Oh, what treasures are laid up for those who are willing to enter into His kingdom through much tribulation."
"Think it not strange concerning the fiery trials that are to try you." That is what Peter said. Is it strange that God wants us to develop a Christ-like character that comes through suffering? No sir. And we all have trials. We are all tried and chastened as sons. Not one but goes through that. The church that is not suffering, and is not being tried, hasn't got it—it isn't of God".
Hebrews 12:6, "For whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth. But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons" (An Exposition of the Seven Church Ages, p. 115:2 – 117:2).
David "found favour before God, and desired to find a dwelling place for the God of Jacob. [God disallowed him as he had shed much blood]. But Solomon built him a house. However the most High dwells not in temples made with hands" (Acts 7:46-50). Isaiah 66:1-2: "Thus saith the Lord, The heaven is My throne, and the earth is My footstool: where is the house that you could build for me? And where is My place of rest? For My hand made all those things, thus all these things came into being, declares the Lord. But to this One will I look, to Him that is humble and of a contrite spirit, and who trembles at My Word." God's true Temple was built in that Man, and is being extended in men and women like Him. When the Head of the Corner was set at naught He pointed His disciples to the Temple in Jerusalem and said, "There will not be left here one stone upon another, that shall not be thrown down" (Matthew 24:2). Then pointing to Himself He challenged the Jews and said, "Destroy this Temple, and in three days I will raise it up".
Paul distinguished "Jerusalem which is above and is free, which is the mother of us all [born by the promise of God's spoken Word for their day whether Judean or Gentile]" from "Jerusalem which now is and with her children born after the flesh, is in bondage" [under the curse of the Law of sin and death] (Galatians 4:25-31).
Paul explained how the Blood of Christ brought peace between God and us Gentiles who "were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and excluded from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world . . . [and] has made both [Judean or Gentile] one, breaking down the dividing wall of hostility [which was the Law of commandments with its regulations that divided Jew from Gentile—and both from God]. He abolished the Law in His flesh ["and the veil of the sanctuary was torn in two from top to bottom; the earth shook and the rocks split"] that He might create in Himself one new man in place of two, so making peace" (Ephesians 2:12-20; Matthew 5:18; 27:50-51).
Paul addressed the Hebrews citing the exemplary lives of certain Old Testament saints: "All these, though well-attested by their faith did not receive the promised blessing of Abraham, since God had foreseen something better for us, that without us they should not be made perfect" (Hebrews 11:39-40). They were potentially redeemed under the blood of bulls and goats but they could not be resurrected and glorified until the Redeemer died for His Bride. So the last Adam had to surrender His Life to redeem His Wife as the first Adam had to lay down his life in order to redeem Eve.
We are now at the end of the Gentile dispensation, however the Church Age saints cannot be resurrected and glorified until the last member of Christ's end-time Bride is restored to the apostolic faith, and has received the blessing of Abraham by recognizing their place in the Caagsone, having the Token on display, and "in speaking conditions" for the 'third pull'.
"Since we [New Testament saints] are surrounded with such a great cloud of witnesses [as the Old Testament saints], let us also lay aside every weight, and the sin that ensnares us so easily, and run with patience the course mapped out before us . . . [You have not come to Mount Sinai] but to Mount Zion, and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable company of angels, and to the festal gathering and assembly of the whole church of the firstborn which are written in heaven, to God who is Judge of all, and to the spirits of just men made perfect" (Hebrews 12:1, 18, 22-23; Romans 8:28-33).
Christ fulfilled and magnified the Law which was given after the Promise and because of sin, restricting God's Covenant of promise to the physical seed of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and excluding the majority of Adam's race by supplanting grace with works. He also changed God's only provided place of worship from "Jerusalem that now is" to grace for every son of Adam wherever he happens to be so long as he recognizes his day and becomes a written epistle of its Message, which is "the present truth"—what Jesus is doing now. His second or parousia Coming will herald our full adoption, the millennium, general resurrection and the White Throne Judgment. "When all things are subdued unto Him, the Son will Himself be subject to Him that put all things under Him, that God may be all in all" (I Corinthians 15:28), then He will "make all things new"—heaven will descend to earth and earth will become heaven.
By "nailing the Law to His cross" Jesus Messiah took away the "middle wall of separation" between Israelites and Gentiles (Colossians 2:14); this wrought the consummation of Old Jerusalem and religious headquarters on earth. Vatican City, Canterbury, Mecca, Temple Mount, etc. have no part in God's plans which call for a heavenly Jerusalem, not made with hands, eternal in the heavens; a city with no temple "for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it" and Christ's Bride are its pillars, for God lives in us and is worshipped within each (I Corinthians 3:16; 6:19; II Corinthians 5:1; Hebrews 9:11; 12:22; Revelation 3:12; 21:3, 22). This will be the consummation of New Jerusalem as "the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them".
Revelation 3:12, "I will make the overcomer a pillar in the Temple of My God so he will be secure and leave it nevermore. And I will write on him the Name of My God and the Name of the city of My God, the New Jerusalem which comes down from heaven from My God, and My new Name".
Acts 15:14-18, "Simon Peter has declared [in verses 7-9 (Matthew 16:19)] how long ago [in about AD41 (Acts 10:9-17)] God concerned Himself with visiting the Gentiles to take out of them a people for His [compound redemptive] Name [Lord Jesus Christ]. Peter's statement is supported by the Words of the Prophets (Isaiah 11:10-11; 54:1-5; 56:3; Hosea 1:10; Amos 9:10-11; Zechariah 9:10; Malachi 1:11) as it is written, After this I will return, and will build again the House of David, which is fallen; and I will rebuild its ruins and restore it [under David's greater Son]: that the residue of men might seek after the Lord, even all the Gentiles, who are called by My Name, says the Lord, who reveals His plans foreknown from the beginning of the world and is now bringing them to pass" (Deuteronomy 29:29).
According to Genesis 9:27 the Lord God prophesied that under the new economy His purpose would be that "the heathen" or "Gentiles" should be "called by His Name" [i.e. Christians]. Thus the Bride is a people called out from the Gentiles for His Name. Revelation 2:17, "He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches [true and false]. To him that overcomes I will give to eat of the hidden manna [the revelation of the Word for the hour (II Peter 1:12)], and will give him a white stone, and in the stone a New Name written, which no man knows but he who receives it." The white stone is his witness or revelation that he is married and the new Name is that of his heavenly Bridegroom, for the two are now one (I Corinthians 6:17).
"And the One who sat on the throne (I Corinthians 15:24-28; Revelation 4:9; 20:11) said, Write: for these Words are faithful and true. And He said to me, "It is done" [or "These Words are fulfilled" as Brother Branham says in Revelation 16:17]. I am the Alpha and the Omega (I John 5:20; Revelation 1:8; 22:13), the beginning and the end." God has vindicated all of His promises concerning redemption; the former things have departed and His promised sinless renewed and eternal world is at hand.
The overcomer will inherit the fulfillment of all of God's promises and there will be no further longing as the substance of his inheritance as expressed in the words, "and I will be his God, and he shall be My Son".
I John 3:2, "Beloved, now are we the sons of God, and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall see Him as He is." The antithesis is the "lost" of Revelation 21:8 "who will have their time in the Lake of Fire, which is the second death". nl838.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
PowerPoint presentation The Second Coming of Christ
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