Bible Believers' Newsletter 921
"We focus on the present Truth – what Jesus is doing now. . ."
ISSN 1442-8660Greetings Bible Believers, in the precious Name of our Lord Jesus Christ; we are pleased you could join us in fellowship around God's unchanging Word.
The Lord God is infinite and omniscient so He can never change His mind on His Word or his ways as we read in Malachi 3:6 and Hebrews 13:8. Paul expounded this axiom in Hebrews 11 and 12, citing Old Testament saints and history as his witnesses to this theorem proven true over the previous 4,000 years of man's existence. Brother Branham based his faith and ministry firmly on the truth, "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and today, and forever." Like Paul, he measured and assessed the truth or fallacy of perceived revelation against scriptural shadows and types.
We are admonished to make our calling and election certain, and having put on the whole armour of God, to stand "for if the trumpet gives an uncertain sound, who shall prepare himself to the battle" (I Corinthians 13:8). To this end our main article, "Shadows and Types – Part I," considers the Word and Law of Moses which our Lord Jesus "magnified and made honourable" by fulfilling and transforming the promises of its shadows and types by grace through faith into the glorified substance of His Kingdom of God-men "made in His image and after His likeness" (Ephesians 4:13). If we can recognize the development of this 2,000 year process in correlation with Bible prophecy, and see it unfolding in our life now, we have the evidence of things hoped for—the "certain sound" on which to stand.
Our news items further confirm the apostasy of Christendom (so-called), which like Esau has passed the tipping point of repentance. There is now no place to run or to hide but into the arms of our Lord Jesus Christ.
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
A teachable Moment. The phrase 'America First' deemed offensive to Jews
May 6, 2016 — Brainwashed Americans too stupid to realize what this really means:
Jewish protests about Donald Trump's use of the phrase "America First" being anti-Semitic should tell you all you need to know about how Jews feel about America. They feel they own it—and they largely do!—but they also feel the goyim should obey them when they pontificate that Israel comes first, and that Americans should put Israel's interests before America's.
And why wouldn't they? Israel Firsters—both Jews and those bought off by Jews—own the US government and virtually the entire US infrastructure in its entirety, and have for decades. Top that off with the sad fact just about all the information everyone receives through electronic and print media comes from Jewish owned shills, creating the perfect recipe for totalitarianism that is being swallowed hook, line and sinker by the younger generations of Americans who have had no exposure to the real history of the world, which reveals hundreds of years of warmaking Jewish perfidy exactly like what is happening in the world today.
The Jewish Anti-Defamation League, the CNN network and a fatuous Jewish columnist named Eli Lake have insisted the phrase "America First" evokes highly charged memories of a different era some 76 years ago when the world was perched on the precipice of World War II, and the famed American aviator Charles Lindbergh was the most visible figure trying desperately to keep the US out of an unprecedented bloodbath.
The bloodthirsty Jews were frothing at the mouth in their frenzy to annihilate Adolf Hitler, who had removed the Jews from power in Germany and imprisoned many of them in work camps—which were not the death camps of Jewish media propaganda. The 6 million hoax has long ago been debunked as a cover story to conceal how Germany became prosperous when it put serious sanctions on the treasonous behavior of the exploitative Jews.
US President Franklin Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet Union dictator Josef Stalin—all of them descended from Jews and surrounded by Jewish advisers—had aimed for years to overthrow Hitler and liquidate the entire German population.
When Hitler removed the Jews from power in Germany in 1933, Jews all over the world declared war on him, and through their behind-the-scenes political control of the US, Britain, and the USSR, eventually obliterated the prosperous and innocent nation Hitler had resuscitated from the ashes of World War I. Of course, because the world's major media have been controlled by Jews throughout the 20th century, the world has been told a very different story about these events.
Now the ADL and their paid off lapdogs in America's kosher-stink press have actually claimed it is wrong for Trump to use the phrase "America First" because it brings back memories of when one of the great Americans, Charles Lindbergh, fought courageously to keep the US out of a falsely motivated World War II.
Had Lindbergh succeeded, it would have saved tens of millions of lives. But the combination of the Jewish press and their willingness to publish the lies of the politicians who were paid handsomely by the Jews who controlled the world's money supply was simply too strong for average citizens who simply wanted to live in peace to overcome.
After all—and to this very day—peace is never on the Jewish agenda.
Today CNN, a thoroughly Jewish propaganda organization that fires people when they mention that fact, actually acknowledges the truth of the facts of World War II, but brands them as lies. It is the way Jews typically flip reality on its head, as they do when they support the notion that shouting out "America First!" is anti-Semitic.
In a tainted screed written by Williams College professor Susan Dunn, CNN proceeds to paint with a broad brush of inferred anti-Semitism a whole phalanx of American politicians, from Supreme Court Justice Potter Stewart and former president Gerald Ford, to former Kennedy insider Sargent Shriver and former Yale President Kingman Brewster, for joining Lindbergh's "isolationist" crusade . . . Full story: buelahman.wordpress.com
Comment: After the captivity some expected "the kingdom would be restored," however the returnees found much of their land occupied by Edomites who are sworn to kill the sons of Jacob (Genesis 27:39-41). Subsequently John Hyrcanus I hired mercenaries who defeated and assimilated the more numerous Edomites who "were hereafter no other than [non-Semitic, anti-Semitic self-styled] Jews" (Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews, xiii. 9, 1; xv. 7, 9). Judea did receive a kingdom but it was Edomite, and when Herod the Great learned of his rival, "born King of theJewsJudeans" he ordered that all male children two years and younger in Bethlehem and environs should be slain (Matthew 2).
Like treacherous President Woodrow Wilson "no man spoke openly of Jesus for fear of the Jews." But expectations revived and in "three score and two weeks" multitudes in Jerusalem hailed Jesus on precisely that day, crying, "Hosanna to the son of David: Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest" (Daniel 9:25; Matthew 21:9). And "His disciples asked, Lord, will you at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel" (Acts 1:6)?
"After threescore and two weeks Jesus Messiah was cut off" and murdered by His own people because of unbelief. For which cause Isaiah 29:9-12, Ezekiel 9, Daniel 9:25-27, Zechariah 14:2, Matthew 21:37-41; 22:7; 23:37-38, Luke 21:20-24 and 23:28-31 prophesied "the people of the prince that shall come, Rome's General Titus, will destroy the city and the sanctuary; its end shall be overwhelming defeat with warfare and ruin decreed [under Seven Trumpet judgments] and to the consummation".
The Land of the Covenant is again occupied by non-Semitic, anti-Semitic so-called Jews whose PM Netanyahu and rabbis know from Israel's vindicated prophets that the 'hot stage' of the present World War III Israel will see utterly defeated, finished as a military force, and the USA defeated and invaded. Then a mass exodus of so-called Jews from Marxist, racist Israel will allow the blood sons of Jacob to return for redemption to the land of their Covenant without "fear of the Jews." Meantime their sovereign nation state 'the City of London' fights with the lives and treasures of apostate (once) Christian colonies like Britain (conquered 1688), Australia, Canada, USA and other vassal and occupied states to grab a monopoly on the rich natural resources of African and middle-Asian nations, and sow the world into debt.
Their objectives include the re-colonisation of their homeland Khazaria (Ukraine and Georgia) and the reconquest of Russia through the Middle East and Iran. This achieved they will first annihilate Vatican City State, and "America Second." As PM Netanyahu openly boasted, "Once we squeeze all we can out of the United States, it can dry up and blow away."
China: Preserving Sovereignty or sliding into Western Sponsored 'Color Revolutions'
May 3, 2016 — On April 28, New York Times was blasting "Clampdown in China Restricts 7,000 Foreign Organizations" . . . a concerted effort by foreign agents, including international and national organizations and NGOs that receive foreign training and funding to influence public opinion and eventually to cause civil unrest. Imagine, foreign agents teaching and influencing students at Chinese universities with western interests of, for example, privatizing China's public and social services; or directly interfering in sovereign state affairs, by for instance attempting to rig the Shanghai stock exchange ... to do with foreign 'agents', in this case Wall Street banks . . . Most of these 7,000 NGOs, if not all, are foreign agents with one purpose—destabilizing 'unaligned', sovereign and autonomous China. Russia is facing the same phenomenon, especially now, shortly before parliamentary elections . . .
The destabilization effort continued almost seamlessly to the former Soviet Republics which became the CIS countries (Commonwealth of Independent States) . . . The German-US promise to never expand NATO eastwards was a farce . . . because the conversion revolved mainly around East Germany, Genscher added explicitly: "As far as the non-expansion of NATO is concerned, this also applies in general." Shevardnadze replied that he believed "everything the minister said."
So much for trusting the West. NATO was expanded in 1999 to Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic, followed in 2004 by the Central and East-European countries Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. In 2009 Albania and Croatia joined. Under debate is now NATO membership of Sweden, Finland and Serbia. At its creation in 1949 NATO had 12 members. At present it has 28 members; all in an expansion towards the east, encroaching Russia . . .
Full story: globalresearch.ca
Comment: Washington is currently conducting economic and propaganda warfare against four members of the five bloc group of countries known as BRICS—Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa (paulcraigroberts.org).
US Aircraft Carrier denied Entry to Hong Kong
April 30, 2016, — The Chinese Foreign Ministry told the US on Thursday night the visit by the USS John C. Stennis would not be allowed . . . Last week, the US Pacific Command revealed they had sent six powerful A-10 Thunderbolt aircrafts near the Scarborough Shoal, which China occupies but Manila also claims. The Chinese Defence Ministry had expressed concern over the flight . . .
During the Thanksgiving holidays in 2007, Beijing rejected the USS Kitty Hawk's visit to Hong Kong after Washington announced an advanced missile deal with Taiwan and US President George W. Bush met the Dalai Lama. However, the Kitty Hawk was allowed to dock in the city five months later in April 2008, as Sino-US military relations returned to normal . . . Meanwhile, the USS Blue Ridge, the Japan-based flagship of the US Seventh Fleet, is in Hong Kong, where it is a regular visitor . . . Full story: scmp.com
Comment: On April 15, American defence secretary Ashton Carter announced that the US is on the verge of deploying "new undersea drones in multiple sizes and diverse payloads that can, importantly, operate in shallow water where manned submersibles cannot". He chose his visit to the US aircraft carrier Stennis, sailing in the South China Sea, to make the announcement, thus sending a clear message to China (scmp.com).
Aleppo Doctor attacks Western Media for Bias, Censorship and Lies
30 April, 2016 — When the US and NATO war of aggression was launched against Syria, Dr Nabil Antaki could have abandoned Aleppo to ensure his own safety. Instead he decided to remain and to serve the besieged people of his City, working with various local charities. Above all, he wanted to bear witness to the destruction caused by Western support for the foreign armed groups who have been systematically destroying Syria and terrorising its people for the last 5 years . . . Full story: 21stcenturywire.com
US supporting Al Qaeda: Heavy Propaganda rages in the Battle for Aleppo. Terrorists portrayed as 'Freedom Fighters'
May 01, 2016 — In an attempt to claim the moral high ground, Washington uses proxy NGOs alongside proxy militia, to maintain the fiction that the Syrian Army does nothing but attack Syrian civilians.
Prominent among these NGOs is 'The White Helmets' aka 'Syrian Civil Defence', which has become a principal source of claims that Syrian and Russian planes are targeting hospitals.
In fact 'The White Helmets', which claims to be independent, is a Wall Street creation, led by former British soldier James le Mesurier, co-funded by the US Government and embedded with the terrorist organisation Jabhat al Nusra, banned by the UN Security Council.
Every attack on al Nusra is thus portrayed as an attack on 'civilians' and clinics, or on emergency health workers. Much the same applies to Medicin Sans Frontiers (MSF), which funds al Nusra clinics (mostly without foreign volunteers) in several terrorist held areas. These links, including participation in sectarian executions, are well spelt out in a recent short documentary 'The White Helmets – al Qaeda with a Facelift' . . . Full story: globalresearch.ca.
Comment: 'They' are the same entity in every country globalresearch.ca
Hillary approved sending Sarin Gas to Syrian Rebels
April 28, 2016 — A report from British intelligence saying that the sarin that was used didn't come from Assad's stockpiles . . . a secret agreement in 2012 was reached between the Obama Administration and the leaders of Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Qatar, to set up a sarin gas attack and blame it on Assad so that the US could invade and overthrow Assad.
"By the terms of the agreement, funding came from Turkey, as well as Saudi Arabia and Qatar; the CIA, with the support of MI6, was responsible for getting arms from Gaddafi's arsenals into Syria" . . . "Evidence leads directly to the White House, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Martin Dempsey, CIA Director John Brennan, Saudi Intelligence Chief Prince Bandar, and Saudi Arabia´s Interior Ministry" . . .
Party that Assad leads, the Ba'ath Party, was the subject of a shelved CIA coup-plot in 1957 to overthrow and replace it; but, actually, the CIA's first coup had been not just planned but was carried out in 1949 in Syria, overthrowing there a democratically elected leader, in order to enable a pipeline for the Sauds' oil to become built through Syria into the largest oil market, Europe; and construction of the pipeline started the following year . . .
This way, US oil and gas companies will refine, and pipeline into Europe, the Sauds' oil and the Thanis' gas, and not only will Russia's major oil-and-gas market be squeezed by that, but Obama's economic sanctions against Russia, plus the yet-further isolation of Russia (as well as of China and the rest of the BRICS countries) by excluding them from Obama's three mega-trade-deals (TTIP, TPP & TISA), will place the US aristocracy firmly in control of the world, to dominate the 21st Century, as it has dominated ever since the end of WW II . . . Full story: russia-insider.com
Comment: Reporting by Christof Lehmann was better, and it appeared even earlier than Hersh's; it named names, and explained motivations in an honest and forthright way which is why Lehmann's piece was published only on a Montenegran site, and only online, not in a Western print medium, such as the New Yorker
Putin's Ukraine Strategy brilliantly explained by Top Russian Politician
June 15, 2015 — Starikov is a fixture on Russian TV—and is a very popular author and speaker who has started a conservative party called "The great fatherland party." One of his more controversial positions (to westerners) is that Stalin was a great leader, unfairly maligned and misunderstood.
Interesting note: the intellectual level of discourse in Russia in politics is head and shoulders above what it is in the US. Starikov is a classic example of this . . . Full story: russia-insider.com
Comment: City of London.
Is the US Economy heading for Recession?
April 30, 2016 — In 2013, the US redefined the way it estimated GDP, adding categories like R&D expenses and other intangibles that artificially boosted US GDP estimates . . . the real US GDP may be actually growing by less than 1 percent on average per year since 2007; and during . . . January-March 2016, may have . . . come to a halt . . .
India officially nearly doubled its GDP overnight by redefining it. So did Nigeria . . . Britain . . . desperate to raise their GDP . . . now include drug smuggling and prostitution services in their estimates of GDP . . . Full story: jackrasmus.com
Comment: With 30 year mortgage rates now at 3.6% sales are lower today than they were when mortgage rates were above 17% in 1982 . . . US new home sales per million workers remain at depression levels (wallstreetexaminer.com).
Remember the Golan Heights?
April 30, 2016 — During the 1973 Arab-Israeli War, Syrian forces had surprised Israel and were fast approaching the edge of the steep Golan Heights, captured by Israel during the 1967 war. It seemed as if Syrian armour and infantry would retake Golan, then pour down into Israeli Galilee.
Soviet recon satellites observed Israel moving its nuclear-armed, 500km-range Jericho missiles out of protective caves and onto their launch pads. At the same time, Israel was seen loading nuclear bombs on their US-supplied F-4 fighter-bombers at Tel Nof airbase.
Believing Israel was about to use nuclear weapons against Syria and Egypt, Moscow put huge pressure on both to rein in their advancing forces. Damascus, already in range of Israeli artillery on Golan, ordered its armoured forces on Golan to halt, allowing Israel to mount powerful counter-attacks and retake the strategic heights.
In 1981, Israel formally annexed the 580 sq. mile portion of Golan that it occupied . . . Benjamin Netanyahu, told Russia's president, Vladimir Putin, that his nation would never return Golan to Syria. Israeli artillery on Golan can hit Syria's capital Damascus; Israeli electronic sensors blanket Damascus and cover all Syrian military movement below . . . Israel is delighted to see Syria, a primary foe, lying in ruins as a result of a US, British, French, Turkish and Saudi-instigated civil war . . . Full story: ericmargolis.com
Comment: In the 19th century Rothschilds purchased about 20,000 acres on the Golan Heights.
Shadows and Types – Part I
Shadows and types manifest over four thousand years fitted perfectly together in union as the substance of things hoped for—the spoken Word made flesh—the Desire of all nations. That Truth spoken in love over a further two thousand years bore the many membered Body of His spoken Word Bride, and having grown up in every way toward Him who is our Head, whether in heaven or on earth we are being gathered together to be glorified with and in Him forever (Ephesians 1:10).
In an epistle addressed to "those who through the righteousness of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ have obtained like precious faith" II Peter 1:2-11 says, "Grace and peace be multiplied to you through the [precise and correct] knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord. For His divine power has bestowed on us every requisite for life and godliness through knowing Him who called us to His own glory and virtue: whereby He has granted to us His precious promised blessings by which means you might become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world through lust. For this very reason do your best to supplement your faith with virtue, add to virtue knowledge, and to knowledge self-control; to self-control add steadfast endurance; and to steadfast endurance, godliness; and to godliness add brotherly affection, and to brotherly affection, love. For if you possess those qualities increasingly, they will render your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ neither inactive nor unfruitful, while he who lacks these things is blind, and short-sighted, oblivious of the cleansing from his former sins."
"Therefore brethren, be more zealous to confirm your calling and election: for if you do these things you shall never fall: for so an entrance into the eternal Kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ will be provided for you".
Read Hebrews 11 whose shadows and types establish "Faith is the steadfast confidence in the existence of things hoped for and the tested evidence of things understood by revelation but as yet unseen by the natural eye." As God instructed Moses: "See that you make everything according to the pattern that was shown you on the mountain" (Hebrews 8:5) we must measure our revelation against Biblical shadows and types. And "since we are encircled with the great a cloud of witnesses of Hebrews 11 let us purge and simplify our lives of the frivolous pastimes of our unregenerate past, and the sin that clings so closely, and let us run steadily the course that is set before us" (Hebrews 12:1).
Cain and Abel foreshadowed Judas and Jesus; as Cain killed Abel at the altar, Judas killed Jesus at the altar. Jesus was God incarnate, Judas was Satan incarnate. When Jesus hung on the Cross, Judas hanged himself on a tree. On the Day of Pentecost the Spirit of Christ returned and the spirit of antichrist returned. Jesus was the Rock in the wilderness. He was the Lamb that died instead of Isaac. He was the brass serpent that hung on the pole and the Angel people could not see on the pool of Bethesda. The recognition of Biblical types confirms revelation and assures our expectation of the promise.
Today we will study certain key natural shadows and types from Exodus and Leviticus and their spiritual antitypes through the Christian dispensation. As Messiah Jesus is the sole Person of God manifest in flesh through the virgin birth to fulfil "the righteousness of His Law" we should acquaint ourselves with His evaluation of the Words of Moses.
On the day of His resurrection two of Jesus' disciples were walking on the road from Jerusalem to Emmaus which is about eight miles when He joined them unrecognized. In His testimony Jesus called the Pentateuch "the Law of Moses" (Luke 24:44); as to its authority: "I assure you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no way pass from the Law, till all be fulfilled" (Matthew 5:18). Again, Jesus declared "Moses wrote of Me," imputing foreknowledge and therefore divine inspiration to Moses (Genesis 3:15; Deuteronomy 18:15); and that faith in Himself was so connected with faith in Moses that had the Israelites believed Moses they would have believed Him (John 5:46-47).
Not only did Jesus endorse the Pentateuch, Isaiah prophesied "The Lord is well pleased for His own righteousness' sake; [not His people's who were unrighteous (Isaiah 42:21, 24; 45:24-25; 59:16)]. God is well pleased with His Son Jesus ["in whom My soul delights" (Isaiah 42:1)], "who fulfils all righteousness" (Matthew 3:15) for His people, and with them for His sake (Isaiah 42:6; Psalm 71:16, 19; Matthew 5:17; Romans 10:3-4; Philippians 3:9). He will magnify the Law, and make it honourable." Jesus accomplished this by fulfilling shadow and type in Hebrews 10:1-10:
"For the Law, since it has only a shadow of the good things to come and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect. Otherwise would they not have ceased to be offered? Because the worshippers once cleansed would have no consciousness of sins [as their soul distinguishing between what is morally good and bad, prompting to do the former and shun the latter, would commend the one while condemning the other (Romans 2:15). But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year. For it is impossible that the blood of bulls and of goats should take away sin [for animals have no soul that can come back upon the believer; their sacrifice is a ritual for the purpose of instruction by shadow and type (Galatians 3:22-25) preparing the believer to anticipate, recognize and receive their Kinsman Redeemer and Messiah in His season]".
Therefore when God manifest in flesh, born of a woman, He quoted the Words He had spoken through lips of His prophets David and Isaiah (Psalm 40:6-8; Isaiah 53:12), "Ritual sacrifice and burnt offering You did not desire, but as a near Kinsman You have prepared Me a body fit to offer as a pleasing and acceptable expiatory sacrifice of obedience by My free will: in whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin You have had no pleasure. Then I said, Behold, I have come (in the volume of the Book it is written of Me), to do Your will, O God".
"After this He said, You have neither desired nor taken pleasure in sacrifice and offering and whole burnt and sin sacrifices (which are offered according to the Law). Then He said, Behold, I have come to fulfil Your will [by grace through faith thereby magnifying the Law, making it great and glorious]. He takes away the first, legal system which was never God's will but given because of Israel's unbelief (Romans 8:2; Galatians 3:13), that He may establish the second, which is His will, that Jesus Messiah should redeem us by His self-sacrifice. Thus by the Absolute of God's sovereign will we are sanctified through the offering of the Body of Jesus Christ once for all" (I Peter 1:22; Ephesians 1:5-7).
When Jesus had fulfilled His supreme commission, which was to reveal God to men through His Life and teachings, and especially through His death on the Cross, "He said, It is finished: and He bowed his head, and gave up the ghost" (John 19:30). It is certain Jesus had perfect knowledge of the Father (I Timothy 3:16; John 1:18; 8:28; 5:17-47) and knew His Father's Word. We must have confidence in Moses' THUS SAITH THE LORD rather than denominationalism and literary critics as his ministry was a shadow and type of the ministry of Jesus Christ. Therefore Leviticus 1:1 is true: "And the Lord called to Moses, and spoke to him out of the tabernacle of the congregation." That word "and" is a conjunction joining two thoughts; Jesus said it connects Leviticus closely with the preceding Book of Exodus.
Since the Flood, the Kingdom of God, rejected by corporate humanity in the founding of the Babylonian world power and its system of religion practised to this day by almost the whole of humanity, whether they regard themselves Christian, Judaic, Muslim, Hindu or idolaters, continues. The names of deities differ but the religious systems are the same as every Pope has conceded since Vatican II which set the stage for the Luciferian one world religion and government Jesus rejected in Matthew 4:8-9 that will transpire following the 'hot stage' of the ongoing World War III (Revelation 13:8; 15-18), and since Pope Francis I is a Jesuit it would appear that the schism between the black and the white papacy has been resolved.
Moses taught the besetting sin of Noah's day was miscegenation, "and also after that when the sons of God saw that the daughters of man were fair; and took any woman that they chose" (Genesis 6:1-4). He showed how Noah's wife Naamah seduced his son Ham and bore Canaan who like his mother was not in Adam's race (Genesis 9:20-27). The Serpent's seed is with us today; Jesus prophesied that this great sin, now called 'multiculturalism,' would repeat (Matthew 24:37). Still, a few loyal souls remain separated from the world church system and its second-hand religions (Revelation 18:4).
In the line of Abraham and his seed, a few souls, at last, according to the promise of Genesis 15, had with the first exodus, formally established a theocratic Kingdom under the Law and its ordinances delivered amid thunders and lightnings on Sinai, and solemnly entered into a blood Covenant with God, swearing "All these things we will do and be obedient" (Exodus 19:20; 24:7-4), which Covenant they promptly broke.
Leviticus was given to direct Israel how they might live as a holy nation in fellowship with God. The keynote of the Book is "Holiness"; its object was to furnish a code of Law for the theocracy to set up in Israel that would secure their physical, moral and spiritual well being. But the establishment of the theocracy was itself only a means to an end; namely, to make Israel a blessing to all nations in mediating to the Gentiles the redemption of God. So the Levitical laws were all intended and adapted to train and prepare the nation for this special historic mission to which God had chosen them (Mark 11:17; Galatians 3:22-25).
But natural Israel failed and Spiritual Israel, the Gentile Church of our Lord Jesus Christ, mediated the redemption of God to the nations (Matthew 24:14; 28:18-20).
To this end, it was absolutely necessary; first of all, that Israel should be kept separate from the heathen nations. To effect and maintain this separation, the Levitical Laws were admirably adapted. Obedience, even in a very imperfect way has made the nation isolated and separate from all the peoples in the midst of whom they dwell. For if Israel was to teach the nations the way of holiness, in which alone they can be blessed, the chosen nation must itself first be taught holiness by the Holy One. A lesson here for every one of us! God's holiness was further revealed by the severity of the penalties attached to these Levitical Laws. Men often call these harsh, forgetting that we are certain to underestimate the criminality of sin; forgetting that God must, in any case, have rights over human life which no earthly ruler can have. But no one will deny that this very severity of the Law was fitted to impress the Israelite, as nothing else could, with God's absolute intolerance of sin and impurity, and make him feel that he could not trifle with God, and hope to sin with impunity.
Months begin with the new moon. In Exodus 12:1-50 the Lord told Moses and Aaron in the land of Egypt "the month Abib or Nisan shall be the beginning of months and the first month of the year" to the nation that would be inaugurated on the fourteenth of that month.
Here we have a FIXED day, a FIXED date, and a FIXED time. The Prophet said, "If you want to see what time of year it is, look on the calendar. If you want to see what time of night it is, look at the clock. If you want to see what day you're living in, look where theJewsIsraelites are. That's God's timepiece"; He set no certain time for us Gentiles.
In Newsletter 919 we observed that Scripture has provided a series of FIXED days, FIXED dates and FIXED times which we can plot on a calendar to place the events that occupied the last week of our Lord's life on earth, establish the precise day of His crucifixion, and "things which must be" according to prophecy. There remains considerable confusion among the most eminent scholars concerning dates, days and years, "but in the days of the Voice of the seventh angel the mystery of God should be finished as He has declared to His servants the prophets." The Voice is still speaking in the heart of Christ's end-time Bride confirming FIXED dates, days and times thus resolving the debate.
Preparations for the Passover began long before Nisan 14. A month previously bridges and roads had been repaired for the use of the pilgrims. This was also the time for administering the ordeal of jealousy to women suspected of adultery, for burning the red heifer (Numbers 19:1-10), and for boring the ears of those who wished to remain in servitude—and other preliminary arrangements such as whitewashing sepulchres (Matthew 23:27). Then, two weeks before the other two great festivals, the flocks and herds were to be tithed, the Temple treasury-chests publicly opened and emptied (John 11:55; I Corinthians 11:27-28).
On Nisan 10 Jesus entered into Jerusalem as King of the Judeans, not 'Jews', as Heir of David's royal line, with all of the symbolic, typic and prophetic import. Not the warrior Son of David anticipated by Israel after the flesh riding a white horse in proud triumph over Rome but on an ass's foal in the "meek" rule of peace (Matthew 21:1-11). On Nisan 10 each family was to select a male lamb of the first year without blemish, typing Christ. It was to be separated from the rest of the flock four days and kept in a prominent place within view as Christ was under examination four days and His spotless innocence declared before the world prior to His cruel execution.
Brother Branham, whose commission was to "restore the faith once delivered to the apostolic saints" (Malachi 4:5-6; Matthew 17:11; Jude 3) among whom were the writers of the New Testament said: "Jesus Messiah, rode into the city of Jerusalem, triumph, on the back of a white mule on Palm Sunday, April the second, AD30" [Nisan 10; Daniel 9:25] (The Seventy Weeks of Daniel, p. 91:80-88). This was a FIXED day and date which the Prophet confirms by the prophetic years of Daniel 9:26 and proves mathematically by the astronomical record of God's first Bible, The Witness of the Stars:
"All of God's system is put up by laws . . . Let's take the world . . . every twenty-four hours it makes a complete revolution, so perfect, that we have never been able, with all of our science, to make a watch to keep perfect time. Every once in a while, the best watches they ever make, in the run of a year, will gain or lose many minutes. But the world never fails but what she's right there on the second. It's so perfect till the scientists today, the astronomers can tell you in twenty years from now, or fifty years from now, just exactly the sun and the moon will pass one another. When it turns its twenty-four hour circle, and it turns its time around the orbit for a season, it does not miss a tick. Hallelujah. It's perfectly, because it's running according to the law of God."
"They know just exactly when that tide will go out just to the minute, because they know what time the moon drops. And God's got everything set in order by a law. And when that moon goes down, away goes the tide with it. When that moon comes up, here comes the tide with it. And they know exactly, by timing, when that moon will go down. They can put it on a almanac calendar for years ahead, and tell you to the minute when that tide will start dropping. Sure, because that's the way the Moon is going out, because it is set in the order of God's law" (Ever Present Water from the Rock, #14:6, par 118-120).
In delivering The Revelation of the Seven Seals Brother Branham quoted Matthew 24:1-3 and said: "Now, let's stop there. These three verses, it took place actually on Tuesday afternoon, April the fourth, AD30. And the first two verses took place on the afternoon of April the fourth, at AD30, and the third verse taken place on Tuesday evening of the same day [Nisan 12]. . . Then He went up on the mountain and set down. See? That there He starts it's in the afternoon. And then when they did, they asked Him up there, said, "We want to know about some things" (The Revelation of the Seven Seals, p. 412:1-419:7; 4:86:3).
On Nisan 13 the Israelites carefully cleared their houses of leaven, solemnly burning all they had gathered to ensure it would not corrupt the seven-day feast of Unleavened Bread, the only bread their forebears had been able to eat on the first seven days of the flight from Egypt. Leaven types iniquity—the remnant nature of the "old man" that ruled our past lives (Ephesians 4:22-24) thus we ought continually to search our soul so as to cast out every unclean thought.
Nisan 14 was the day of preparation for the sabbath meals of the holy convocation of Nisan 15, the first day of the feast of Unleavened Bread. In this way it was synonymous with Friday which was the day of preparation for the weekly sabbath meals since it was forbidden to kindle a fire on the sabbath (Exodus 16:5, 22-23; Leviticus 23:5-8). According to the reckoning of the Temple that year, the first day of the feast fell upon the weekly sabbath so it was a high holy day. The lamb was to be killed on the eve of Nisan 14 which was the interval between the sun's commencing to decline and its actual disappearance. This gave a sufficient period for the numerous lambs that had to be killed, and agrees with the traditional account that on the eve of the Passover the daily evening sacrifice was offered an hour, or, if it fell on a Friday, two hours, before the usual time because the following day would be the sabbath, a double sabbath.
John 19:14, 31, 41-42, "Now it was the preparation of the Passover; it was about the sixth hour [past 9.00am, the time of the morning sacrifice, and approaching noon]: and Pilate said to the Judeans, Behold your King! . . . [Jesus died at about 3.00pm which was the time of the evening sacrifice] . . . The Judeans therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain upon the Cross on the sabbath day, for that sabbath day was an high day [and no bodies were allowed to remain hanging on the tree], besought Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away . . . Now in the place where He was crucified there was a garden; and in the garden a new tomb in which no one had ever been laid. There they laid Jesus because of the Jews' preparation day; for the tomb was nigh at hand".
But the Temple reckoning erred that year. Jesus accused the scribes and Pharisees "you transgress the commandment of God by your tradition [the Talmud or 'Oral Torah' so-called], making the commandment of God of none effect so that you worship in vain, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men" (Matthew 15:1-9). He restored the faith of Moses that had been perverted with Pharisaism which became Talmudism, which became Medieval Rabbinism, which became Modern Rabbinism that is now called Judaism. His antitype Brother Branham restored the apostolic faith (Malachi 4:5-6; Matthew 17:11), "finished the mystery of God" (Revelation 10:7) and "revealed the Son of man, Jesus Christ the same yesterday and today, and forever" by the same signs and wonders (Luke 17:28-30; Hebrews 4:12; 13:8).
During the captivity the Judeans transformed the ancient Babylonian religion and mercantile system into the Talmud; they adopted Babylonian names for their months, changed year's beginning from Nisan to Tishri, and instead of commencing months according to God's synchrony by calculation from new Moon to new Moon, they adopted the Babylonian method of starting each new month by visually sighting the first crescent of a new Moon as rabbis and Muslims do to this day.
There is an astronomical new Moon or month commencing after the conjunction of Sun, Earth and Moon that may be easily and accurately calculated, and a crescent new Moon or month that must be observed with the eye, and those observations and the testimonies of witnesses thoroughly examined to determine the beginnings of the spring season, Nisan 1, then confirmed by calculation, accepted and finally announced by the Sanhedrin. However, a new Moon cannot be seen, and stays concealed from one to two days in the Middle East so that the sighting of the new crescent in Jerusalem typically occurs between sixteen to forty hours after the conjunction. If the crescent moon appeared during the night, it could be seen about 18 hours after conjunction. However, if it developed during daylight hours, the observer had to wait till nightfall to see it, possibly extending the witness to two days.
In the days of our Lord the nation and Temple employed the Babylonian system of establishing the new Moon by sighting the first crescent, while some calculated new Moons according to God's first Bible, so with two calendars there were two Passovers separated by one or two days. In Christendom to this day we find the Orthodox churches celebrate their Christmas on or about January 7 which is December 25 in the Julian calendar while Rome's Gregorian calendar has its December 25 and Christmas thirteen days ahead of the Julian calendar. Orthodox churches observe Easter after the Jewish Passover as required by the First Nicaea Council and in order to maintain what they see as the Biblical sequence of Christ's Passion, while Romish churches ignore this requirement.
Christians meanwhile know that Jesus Christ fulfilled the Passover two thousand years ago. Neither Easter nor Christmas is "the faith of our Chief Cornerstone and His apostles and prophets" (Ephesians 2:20). These are pagan festivals adopted by the Judaeo-Roman Catholic false church, and we observe neither. Brother Branham said: "Every day in the year ought to be an Easter . . . a thrill day of the resurrection" (Greatest News Flash in History, #61-0424).
For two thousand years the Jew's confusion has had theologians at wits end trying to reconcile the Judaeo-Roman 'Good Friday' crucifixion with the Gospels and with calendars to establish the correct date of Jesus' death. The mystery is, how Jesus could observe Passover with His disciples in the upper room (Mark 14:14-17) and also be entombed in the same year at the time of the national Passover which took place on Nisan 15 (John 19:14-31)? Since the observance of two calendars was a common part of Jewish life, the Gospel writers make no specific mention that two conflicting calendars existed. Since Jesus was arrested on the night after He ate the Passover with His disciples and the Jews observed the holy convocation of Nisan 15 on a seventh day sabbath in the year of His death (John 19:14-31), they must have sighted the first crescent two days after the new Moon.
Solar and lunar tables posted at the United States Naval Observatory (USNO) website offer astronomical data covering the possible years of the three years of Jesus' ministry. As the original URL for usno.navy.mil, is no longer active, please visit judaismvschristianity.com. This data is said to be accurate to within one to two hours. These FIXED days, FIXED dates and FIXED times are given in Universal Time (UT). Take particular note of the days of the week:
AD29 Vernal Equinox: Tuesday, March 22, 4:00pm
First New Moon on or after Equinox: Saturday, April 2, 5:00pm
AD30 Vernal Equinox: Wednesday, March 22, 10:00pm
First New Moon on or after Equinox: Wednesday, March 22, 6:00pm
AD31 Vernal Equinox: Friday, March 23, 3:00am
First New Moon on or after Equinox: Tuesday, April 10, 12:00 noon
According to the dates and times from the USNO, the new Moon occurred on the same night as the Equinox in AD30. (Jerusalem local time for the new Moon was 8:00pm, and for the Equinox, midnight). Since a new Moon and the Equinox occurred on the same day, a new month and New Year began on Wednesday night, March 22, UT). Converting UT to Bible Time: Wednesday night, March 22 becomes Thursday, Nisan 1 because the Hebrews reckon their days from sunset to sunset (arbitrarily 6.00 pm) instead of from midnight and they are also +2 hours ahead of UT, effectively gaining half a calendar day. Calculating astronomically new Moon to new Moon, New Year's Day AD30 (Nisan 1) began on Thursday and Passover (Nisan 15) also occurred on Thursday. Astronomers, the USNO and the Prophet use Julian years. The Roman Province of Judea and the Temple established the new Moon or month by sighting the new crescent. A new Moon cannot be seen, and stays concealed from one to two days in the Middle East so that the sighting of the new crescent in Jerusalem typically occurs between sixteen to forty hours after the conjunction. We have set forth Jesus' activities as they might have happened in the week before Calvary.
As Israel's first Passover signalled deliverance from Egyptian bondage the nation's last Passover heralded deliverance from the Law of sin and death.
The Bible clearly states that Jesus ate the Passover with His disciples on the night of Nisan 15 (Mark 14:12-18; Luke 22) before He was arrested, interrogated, sentenced and crucified. The Bible also indicates He died on the cross just before the national Passover which took place on Nisan 15 [by the Babylonian or First Crescent calendar] (John 18:28). This apparent conflict is resolved when we recognize the Judeans used two calendars; thus there were two Passovers in Crucifixion week.
As Friday night settled upon them, Jesus and three disciples went into the Garden of Gethsemane (Mark 14:32). There He was arrested: His trial began that night and He was crucified at 9:00am and died around 3:00pm. The Jews celebrated their national Passover on the sabbath night while Jesus lay in the tomb.
The Bible does not indicate anything unusual about Jesus eating Passover or beginning the Feast of Unleavened Bread at a time that was not in harmony with the national Passover (compare Matthew 26:17 with Mark 14:12), so there was nothing strange in killing the Passover lamb on late Thursday afternoon and eating the lamb on Friday night before Friday morning even though the national Passover lamb was killed one day later that Friday afternoon.
The Gospels are silent on this question as the dating of Passover was a common conflict among religious sects in Israel so that a discussion regarding the presence of two calendars was common knowledge in Judea. However, we find that John 12 dates Jesus' last week by the Babylonian calendar and Mark 14 uses the astronomical new Moon calendar.
This explains why there is an apparent conflict between the Gospels of Mark and John. Once we understand which calendars they are using, their writings are in perfect harmony and clearly indicate that two Passovers were celebrated during the year Jesus was crucified. The Creator certainly knew the true time for Passover and His actions affirm what is Truth, for Jesus is the Truth (John 14:6).
History says the Jewish nation synchronized Nisan 1, at the time of Christ, with the sighting of the first crescent of a new moon. Depending on the visibility afforded by weather, the position of the Sun and the season, the first sighting of the crescent of a new Moon in Jerusalem occurs between sixteen and forty hours after a new Moon.
It is impossible for us to precisely determine when the new Moon crescent was sighted in AD30; we deduce the probable date from these facts. The sighting of the new Moon crescent is most probable two days after a new Moon; Jesus was arrested on the night after He ate the Passover with His disciples and the Jews observed Nisan 15 on a seventh day sabbath the year of His death (John 19:14-31). Thus the sighting of the first crescent was two days after a new Moon, and Nisan 1 had to occur on the sabbath of March 25 according to the Babylonian calendar.
Jesus was crucified on Friday afternoon, April 7, AD30 which is precisely the year required by Daniel 9:25-26. Therefore, the national Passover lamb would have been killed near sundown on Friday, Nisan 14 and eaten on the sabbath, Nisan 15, Friday night by western reckoning. The important point to remember is that the Lamb of God died on the Cross at about 3:00pm Friday afternoon and was buried before sundown because a double sabbath or high holy day was about to begin since Nisan 15 is a holy convocation (John 19:31).
We know the astronomical positions of the Sun and Moon for AD30. We also know that Jesus rested in the tomb over the sabbath and rose on the first day of the week (John 20:1; Acts 10:40). In addition we know that AD30 occurred precisely five days after 69 weeks of prophetic years from "from the going forth of the command to build and to restore Jerusalem" in 445BC (Daniel 9:25-26; Nehemiah 2; Daniel's Seventieth Week, p. 91:80). This information leads to the solid conclusion that Jesus was crucified on Friday, April 7 (Nisan 14), AD30.
Jesus' actions and the astronomical positions of the Sun, Earth and Moon are two witnesses that confirm this truth. AD30 is the only year that will satisfy the Scripture.
In Egypt the blood was to be sprinkled with a sprig of hyssop on the lintel and the two door-posts so that when the "angel of death" passed over the land all in the house were secure "under the blood of the lamb." Hyssop is a common weed; it signifies common faith by which we flick a switch in expectation of light, knock in expectation of the door being opened, apply the Blood of Christ to our lives, and "ask what we will in His Name knowing He will do it" (John 14:12-14). [By the way, Hyssop is oregano: it contains 'carvacrol' which has antimicrobial, antifungal, anti-bacterial, antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties whose effects on cancer cells elevate it to the level of a super-spice like turmeric].
The whole animal, without breaking a bone, was to be roasted on the cross of a spit. One bar passed through the body lengthwise and the cross bar passed through its shoulders. It was eaten by each household with unleavened bread and bitter herbs, to symbolise the bitterness of their bondage, the haste of their deliverance, and also to point forward to the manner in which Israel's elect will have eternal fellowship in the Paschal Lamb.
Like the Lord's Supper, all the circumcised must partake of this meal, wives and daughters came under the circumcision of their husband of father. In type and antitype it is Life to be under the blood and partake, and death to be out from under the Blood or to partake without faith, not discerning the Body of the Lord (I Corinthians 11:27-33). The Israelites were dressed as for a journey, garments girt, staff in hand and shoes on their feet as we must be dressed in the revelation of the end-time Message (Revelation 19:7-8). Only those free from condemnation, "circumcised in heart and ears," rapture ready for the close of the Gentile dispensation and the flying of the Angel of death when Los Angeles sinks beneath the Pacific may observe the Lord's Supper (Exodus 11:4; Revelation 14:6-11; 18:21-24).
Whatever was not consumed was burnt on the spot (Exodus 12:10; Revelation 2:22-24; 17:16; 18:8-9, 18; 19:20; 20:10, 14-15). As Israel gathered manna on six days and ate on seven, Brother Branham gathered the loose ends of PART-Word for which Christ interceded and "finished the mystery of God." We now have the perfect interpretation of the Word with divine vindication and must walk in the Light of the present Truth (II Peter 1:12; I John 1:7; Deuteronomy 16:5-6).
All along the Court of the Temple up to the altar of burnt-offering priests stood in two rows, the one holding golden, the other silver bowls. In these the blood of the Paschal lamb, which each Israelite slew as representative of his company at the Paschal Supper, was caught by a priest, who handed it to his colleague, receiving back an empty bowl, and so the bowls with the blood were passed up to the priest at the altar, who jerked it in one jet at the base of the altar. By grace the souls of non-elect Israelites "martyred [through the Christian dispensation] for the Word of God and for the testimony of Moses and the Prophets" are preserved under the blood of the brazen altar pending the general resurrection and White Throne Judgment where they will be granted in to eternal Life (Revelation 6:9-11).
Leviticus 17:11-12, "The life of the flesh is in the blood: and I have given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls: for it is the blood [as evidence of the vicarious sacrifice of a life] that makes an atonement for the soul. Therefore I said to the children of Israel, No soul of you shall eat blood, neither shall any stranger that sojourns among you eat blood."
Thus on that first Passover night the Israelites painted the chemistry of the blood above the entrance to their homes as a token in evidence that their ransom has been met, and the lives of all under the blood, along with their animals, would be preserved when the Angel of Death passed through Egypt. Sceptical women who continued to paint their faces, cut their hair, dress immodestly or in slacks and adorn themselves in jewellery, and men who let their hair grow uncut, continued to wear shorts and go mixed bathing or otherwise choose not to display the required token, whether Israelites or Egyptians, would rise the next morning to discover the firstborn of their household, even of their fowls and animals, quite dead.
Obedience is better than sacrifice. Israel's animal sacrifices "offered year by year continually could never make the comers thereunto perfect" or reconcile them to God because animals are simply a body and mortal spirit. They are not kin to man and with no soul cannot come back; their end is death so we may "kill and eat" (Deuteronomy 12:15-16). Being human, our sinless "near kinsman" Jesus Christ, the antitypical Lamb of God, possessed a soul that comes back upon his elect as the Holy Spirit. Of course if God is three people, the second or third person could not come back upon us because neither of them is our kinsman, and as He is the Holy Spirit the Father could not die (Matthew 1:18, 20). But the sole Person of God manifest in flesh as Jesus Christ did die to perform the duty of KINSMAN Redeemer, and His soul is the Holy Spirit and Life (I Timothy 3:16).
Isaiah 63:3, "I have trodden the winepress alone; and of the people there was none with Me: for I will tread them in My anger, and trample them in My fury; and their blood shall be sprinkled upon My garments, and I will stain all My raiment." It is all of grace for God Himself was the sacrifice.
Like the ancient Israelites, Christians must display the evidence or Token of our redemption: not the painted chemistry of blood but the very Life of Christ that has come back upon and taken residence in us as Husband, bringing our soul under such preeminence to His Word that our lives are "written epistles" of the Word for this day (II Peter 1:12).
A significant allusion to the meaning of Passover-blood, as securing immunity from destruction, occurs in Ezekiel 9:4-6 which prophesied the destruction of the Temple by the Legions of General Titus in AD70. "The Man clothed with linen" was the Holy Spirit who "set a mark upon the foreheads" of elect Israelites sealed by the faith of Jesus Christ, so that they who were to "slay utterly old and young" might not "come near any." The same symbolic command occurs in Revelation 7:2-3 wherein we learn that from World War I the Lord has restrained Armageddon until Israel, all 144,000, are born in one day. Under the Fifth Trumpet of Revelation 9:1-12 those without the Seal of God were "tormented five months" in World War I.
All adult men were to appear in God's Presence on the first two days of the Passover feast with a burnt offering. The first Chagigah (which means "festive offering") was given as a peace offering on Nisan 14, and divided between God, the priest, and the offerer who would share it with family and friends as part of the Paschal Supper that night. The second Chagigah was offered on Nisan 15, the first day of the feast of unleavened bread. Joyousness was to be one's heartfelt demeanour throughout the eight days of the feast. Every Israelite who was physically able and not in a state of Levitical uncleanness or further distant than fifteen miles, was bound to appear in Jerusalem. Otherwise he should observe the second Passover one month later (Numbers 9:9-11). Since John 18:28 refers to verse 24 which shows that Jesus' fate had been decided on the final session of the Sanhedrin in the morning, and that Annas was sending Him bound to Caiaphas, everything further, even to leading Him into the heathen Praetorium, was decided. So the feigned fear that they might be unable to eat the Passover if they contracted defilement by entering the house of a Gentile—Pilate's judgment-hall—was a ruse, for the Passover lamb was not eaten before 6.00pm, which was the beginning of the next day, so that defilement in the morning would have ceased before the regular Passover. Annas, Caiaphas and the Sanhedrin hypocritically took cover under this excuse because if Pilate tried Jesus' cause in the palace, the Sanhedrists would lack the aid of the fanatical faction they had assembled, and upon which they could count upon outside, in front of the palace.
Every sacrifice had prefigured Christ's Work but only the Passover could so suitably commemorate His death, the great deliverance connected with it, and the great union and fellowship flowing from it. It was a sacrifice quite out of the order of all Levitical sacrifices for it had been instituted and observed before Levitical sacrifices existed, before the Law was given, before the Covenant was ratified by blood (Exodus 24) and was prefigured in the Garden of Eden and in the ram sacrificed in Isaac's stead (Genesis 3:21; 22:14). Just as His priesthood was a real Old Testament priesthood after the prophetic and royal order of Melchisedec, so His sacrifice was a real Old Testament sacrifice, after the earlier prophetic Passover sacrifice by which Israel had become a royal nation.
After supper Jesus and His disciples repaired to the Garden of Gethsemane across the brook Kedron before the Mount of Olives, perhaps three quarters of a mile from the walls of Jerusalem. In time Judas and with him a great number of reliable fanatics with swords and staves came from the chief priests and the scribes and the elders. And though the light of a full moon shone on the scene, they carried torches and lamps in case He or His followers should hide in the recesses of the garden or escape observation. But He whom they had come to take prisoner by violent means first overcame, and then willingly surrendered to them, stipulating only for the freedom of His followers. The mere fact that they did not possess the power of capital punishment would scarcely have restrained them from killing Jesus, as they afterwards stoned Stephen, and would have murdered Paul but for the intervention of the Roman garrison. It may have been that at this time their paramount object was to secure a public condemnation and execution, and to awaken the susceptibilities of the civil power against the movement Christ had initiated.
Here we have a foretaste of the fanatical opposition that will rise up against the "virgins" in the dark days after the end of the Gentile dispensation and the sinking of Los Angeles. Those of the world church system and the 'hidden hand" will come against Christ's end-time Bride, and eventually kill all who refuse their mark of the beast (I John 3:10-13; Revelation 13:15-18).
That afternoon of the first Passover day, "when the sixth hour [noon] was come, there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour [3.00pm] when Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani? Which is, being interpreted, My God, my God, why hast Thou forsaken Me? . . . And Jesus cried with a loud voice, and gave up the ghost. And the veil of the Temple was rent in twain, from the top to the bottom." This, just about the time when the evening sacrifice had been offered, so that the incensing priest standing in the Holy Place must have witnessed the awful sight.
Earth's axial displacement accompanied by earthquake and a darkening of the Sun at the close of the Hebrew dispensation is a shadow and type of the earthquake, tidal waves and 'darkness that can be felt' at the unprecedented convulsion of nature prophesied at the second crucifixion of the Word, the close of the Christian dispensation and the unfolding of the Sixth Seal (Isaiah 13:6-14; 34; Matthew 24:29-31; Luke 21:25-26; Revelation 6:12-17; 16:18-19).
A little later on in the evening of that same day (Matthew 27:57-61), a small band of mourners carried the body of the dead Saviour from the Cross to the rock-hewn tomb wherein no man had yet been laid. While another band emerged, amidst loud demonstrations, in a field across Kedron which had been marked out for the purpose. It was perhaps to this circumstance that Joseph of Arimathea owed the non-interference with his request for the body of Jesus, and Nicodemus and the women, that they could go undisturbed about the last sad offices of loving mourners. God said, "You shall bring a sheaf of the firstfruits of your harvest to the priest; and he shall wave the barley sheaf before the Lord to be accepted for you: on the morrow after the Sabbath [Nisan 16] the priest shall wave it" (Leviticus 23:10-11), accompanied by a burnt-offering of a "he lamb, without blemish, of the first year." This sheaf was reaped in public the evening before it was offered [that is, on the sabbath of Nisan 15 following the close of the evening of Nisan 14]. It was to witness this ceremony that the crowd had gathered around 'the elders,' who took care that all was done according to tradition.
We will continue our study on shadows and types in another lesson in which we will introduce additional FIXED days, FIXED dates and FIXED times that will further assist us to make our calling and election sure by confirming God's written Word with historical facts and the THUS SAITH THE LORD by our Brother William Branham, the Prophet of Malachi 4:5-6 and Revelation 10:7. nl920.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 e-mail Bible Believers
URL Bible Believers' Website
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