Bible Believers' Newsletter 973
"We focus on the present Truth – what Jesus is doing now. . ."
ISSN 1442-8660Christian greetings in the precious Name of our Lord Jesus Christ; it's good to see you.
Today we complete our study on Revelation 7 by expounding verses 9-17 which concern the Christian Church which for the first six centuries was comprised of predominantly Israelite Christians, since when they have been vastly outnumbered by Gentile saints. Although we are all one Body these verses demonstrate that there is a Church made up of PART-Word saints while the Book was sealed and Christ was a Mediator for their ignorance of the fullness of the Word. These saints enter the Presence via the grave and will be raised in the first resurrection. There is also a Bride baptized into Christ by the FULLNESS of the Word after the revelation of the Seals. These saints will be changed in the atoms and translated to meet the glorified Church Age saints and our Lord Jesus in the air.
We have expanded the explanation in the first three verses of the main article in Newsletter 972, and added three paragraphs expounding the Fifth Seal above the image of the Seal once proposed for the UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. There are only two brief items of news this week.
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
Tell us why we're at War, President Trump
April 24, 2017 — The Afghan war is dragging into being our generation's and soon the next generation's Vietnam as well, over a decade and a half old. There are troops deploying now that were two years old when the conflict started. There are fathers and sons deploying together. Bin Laden's been dead for years.
With a slight break, the current war in Iraq has been ongoing for some 14 years. If you want to think of it in a longer view, Trump is now the fifth consecutive president to make war on that country. Saddam's been dead for years [since December 13, 2001 – Ed].
And though of more recent vintage, the war in Syria appears both open-ended in duration and ramping up in US involvement. If Assad died tomorrow, the war would likely only intensify, as the multiple parties in the fight vie to take over after him.
The reason we're fighting all of these places and more can't still be "terrorism," can it? That has sort of been the reason for the past 16 years so you'd think we would have settled that. Regime change? A lot of that has also happened, without much end game, and nobody seems to know if that does or ever did apply in Syria to begin with. America can't be under threat after all these years, right? I mean, world's most powerful military and all that. So maybe it's time for the current president to tell us why we're still fighting in all of these wars . . . previous presidents' track records on explaining to the ever-bloodthirsty American public why we are fighting is poor . . . Full story: antiwar.com
Comment: This is the reason, this, and this.
Horst Mahler: Final Speech before fleeing the Inquisition's Henchmen
April 15, 2017 — Former lawyer and political activist, Horst Mahler was sentenced to ten years and two months in prison for incitement to racial hatred. He was released after serving seven years because of health problems. A speech given last January in Ludwigshafen caused the authorities to recall Mahler to prison to finish off his sentence. This is possibly the last time he will appear in public. Therefore, his message is both moving and of the utmost importance. Full story: youtube.com English audio and subtitles; youtube.com English subtitles only.
Comment: It is astounding how most, if not all such nationalists and National Socialist defenders are ignorant of the original sin, Genesis 1:11, 25; 3:15; 6:1-4 and the prophecy of Matthew 24:37 for this our day. God's commandments to Abraham, Moses and all prophets of the Old and New Testaments forbid miscegenation with Cain's descendants, which is genocide to Adam's race. Yet the best politicians the City of London can buy to govern colonies such as Britain, the USA, Australia, occupied Germany and Israel, mandate or make miscegenation inevitable via legislation, because generations of ministers of religion qualified by learning "the letter" of God's Word without faith and impersonate the Word for a day gone by. Sincere but sincerely wrong people like Horst Mahler and his wife are victims of this perverse ministry in disservice to themselves and their cause.
Revelation 7 Part V
Revelation chapter 7 is a parenthesis between the Six written Seals and the Seventh unwritten Seal. In Revelation 7:1-8 we saw the vision of 12,000 elect Israelites descended from each of the twelve sons of the patriarch Jacob. These will be called and chosen in the time of Israel's Seventh Trumpet, the Sixth Seal and Seventh Vial; born as a nation in one day in the latter part of the second half of Daniel's Seventieth Week, and then martyred by the Papal Roman beast and her US (once) Protestant image (Revelation 6:11; 14:1 – 15:4; 13:15-17).
"After these things," we enter a second vision portraying a multitude that cannot be numbered—the Body of Christ of all Ages, "all cultures, all nations and tongues and kindreds descended from the common ancestry of Adam's race standing before the throne of God in heaven, and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and with palms in their hands." Pictured here is the Church triumphant in glory beyond all the scenes of conflict, strife and persecution on earth well before the 144,000 Israelites return to the Land of their Covenant.
Among Greek and Roman Gentiles the palm was a token of joy and triumph whereas to the Hebrews who met our Lord with branches of palm trees in their hands when He rode in triumph to Jerusalem, they were a memento of trials from which they had been delivered and the symbol of salvation. Hence they cried, "Hosanna to the Son of David: Blessed is He that comes in the Name of the Lord; Hosanna in the highest" (Matthew 21:9). Alas, after four days the palm-bearing multitude crucified their Messiah. This scene anticipates the antitype of His entry into Jerusalem when every eye shall see Israel's Warrior King clothed in a robe dipped in the blood of His enemies, riding a white horse coming in clouds of glory. Then the 144,000 will say, "Blessed is He that comes in the Name of the Lord" for the antitype of the seventh day of the Feast of Tabernacles will be the restoration of the Kingdom of Israel in the millennium (Leviticus 23:34-44; John 4:10, 14; 6:35; 7:37-38; Acts 1:6).
While the non-Semitic, anti-Semitic self-styled Jews whinge and whine as if they have been persecuted like no other, it is the Christian Church that has been persecuted throughout the great tribulation of the past 2,000 years, predominately by Jewry and the Judaeo-Roman Catholic false church.
There is a Bride and there is a Church. The Church entered the Great Tribulation even before it fled Jerusalem to Pella when the dragon ensigns of the Roman legions were sighted on Mount Scopus (Matthew 24:3a, 15-20) and will suffer until the close of the Gentile dispensation. Matthew 24:21-29, "Then shall be great tribulation, such as has not occurred since the beginning of the world until now, nor ever will be. And except those days are shortened, there should be no flesh saved [for the translation]: but for the elect's sake those days will be shortened [by the restoration of the apostolic faith and the revelation of the Seven Thunder Mysteries which brought Christ back to earth in W_O_R_D form (I Corinthians 13:10; Revelation 16:15)]. Then [in the time of the shortening of days, which is Christ's second or (Gk.) 'parousia' Coming "with a shout and the voice of the Archangel" (I Thessalonians 4:16)] if anyone says to you, Look, here is Christ, or there He is; do not believe them. For false Christs, and false prophets will arise and show great signs and wonders; so as to deceive the very elect, if it were possible. Behold, I have told you in advance. If they say to you, Behold, He is in the desert; go not forth: behold, He is in the secret chambers; believe it not. For as the lightning comes from the east, and flashes even to the west; so shall also the Coming of the Son of man be. For wherever the carcase is, there will the eagles be gathered together. Immediately after the tribulation of those days the sun will be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light; the stars will fall from heaven and the powers of the heavens will be shaken" in the manifestation of the Sixth Seal and Seventh Trumpet.
Under the Sixth Seal John recognized the Israelites by the tribal markings on their garments but he could not identify the countless men of a sinful race—the Gentile PART-Word Church Age saints purged and martyred through centuries of tribulation dressed in the garb of victory and righteous innocence (Revelation 20:4). How could this be possible?
The Bride of all Ages was present in theophany when Jesus took the Book of Redemption and opened the Seals in Revelation 5:8-14. Once again we were all present in theophany when John inquired of one of the twenty-four elders in Revelation 7:9-12. In each vision all Seven Church Ages of PART-Word were over and their full number made up. On the other hand many of Christ's end-time Bride were not even born, but like the 144,000 Israelites our number and person is fixed by the fact we receive the fullness of the Word and do not require a Mediator for ignorance of "that which is Perfect [or complete]." Therefore being fully redeemed in Christ on Calvary our theophanies were present in each vision. Revelation 7:13-17 describes the PART-Word saints who endured the great tribulation, "washed their robes and made them white"—not by their own sufferings and trials, afflictions and sorrows, but "by the blood of the Lamb" that had been shed for sinners (Matthew 24:21; Revelation 22:14). These souls passed on as "the spirits of just men made perfect" (Hebrews 12:23). Thereby the Church is distinguished from Christ's end-time Bride that does not go through the Great Tribulation and after manifesting that we are the Sons of God is translated without death. Concerning the first resurrection which for us will be the translation Paul wrote, "If by any means I might attain to the [out] resurrection from among the dead" (Philippians 3:11). Were he in Christ's end-time Bride Paul would be anticipating translation rather than resurrection. "Blessed and Holy is he who has part in the first resurrection, on such the second death has no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ and shall reign with Him a thousand years" (Revelation 20:6).
Isaiah 49:10, "They shall not hunger nor thirst; neither shall the heat nor sun smite them: for He who has mercy on them shall lead them, even by springs of water shall He guide them." [This verse speaks of the Gentile Church. It thrilled my heart when I saw the Old Testament confirmed in the New. Revelation 7:16-17, "They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; neither shall the sun light on them, nor any heat. For the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and lead them to living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes." The language of promise, of comfort and assurance is the same in both Testaments, see "Named in Zion".
Curiously both before and after the revelation of the Seven Seals Brother Branham identifies Revelation 7:9-17 as Christ's Bride and as the foolish virgins. On the strength of such Scriptures as Isaiah 49:10, Matthew 24:21-28, Revelation 21:6; 22:14, and Psalm 23:1-4, Isaiah 25:8, Matthew 2:6, John 4:14; 10:11 and Revelation 20:4 I believe Revelation 7:9:17 describes Christ's Bride of all Ages and that it distinguishes the PART-Word Church Age saints from Christ's end-time Bride of this present holy convocation.
There is a Church that enters the Presence of God via the grave then returns in theophany to put on its glorified bodies during the first resurrection, and there is a Bride who will not see death but change to glorified flesh and receive her theophanies.
For over a month beyond the close of the Christian dispensation the enemy will seek to destroy "we who are alive and remain." We will suffer persecution but we will endure, brought to reliance upon faith in God's creative Word in our heart and on our lips. With discretion we will apply the 'third pull' for our necessities thereby growing faith for translation grace pending the moment one of the resurrected saints appears: our mutual recognition will raise faith, enabling us to change in the atoms. Fear not those things that are coming upon the earth, "having loved His own who were in the world, He loves them to the end" (John 13:1). From the day of Pentecost and particularly since the dispersion that followed Titus' siege of Jerusalem every member of the Bride has experienced "tribulation" (Matthew 24:21, 29; II Timothy 3:12).
This group in Revelation 7:9-17 is constantly in the Presence of the Lord Jesus, serving Him "day and night in His temple" as a wife serves her husband, and He dwells among them as king David dwelt among his harem. In union with the Lamb we are His Temple and the Holy City, New Jerusalem. The Greek word for temple, 'naos,' refers to the Holy Place and the Holy of Holies where only the high priest could go. But the Bride of Christ are priests (Isaiah 66:19-21; I Peter 2:5, 9; Revelation 1:6) united as one with their Husband through the invisible marriage union (Revelation 21:22; Daniel 9:24). The 'naos' is Christ and His Bride who are "the Most Holy," since we are God manifest in glorified flesh, "the place of His rest" (Isaiah 66:1).
Revelation 21:23-24, "And the City had no need of the sun, neither of the moon to shine in it: for the glory of God did lighten it, and the Lamb is the Light thereof. And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the Light of it: and the kings of the earth tithe their glory and honour into it".
Revelation 7:16, "neither shall the sun light on . . ." . . . the Bride who is the City. The "saved" non-elect will not enter the City but toil around the world under the sun. The word "light" in verse 24 is employed as a metaphor. The Lamb is the Light of the City and the "saved" walk in the Light or knowledge of Truth emanating from the City. Mount Zion will be 1,500 miles high, but since the horizon is only about 15 miles distant, the Shekinah overshadowing the City will not be visible without the City, neither will it illumine Earth's full circle.
Jesus has gone away to prepare our place in this City whose foundation is the doctrine of the apostles and prophets which is eternal (John 14:1-4; Ephesians 2:20; II Corinthians 5:1). We enter that City in this life by the new birth which is the baptism with the Holy Ghost by a clear understanding of "the present Truth" which the "saved" do not receive. Throughout the Book of Revelation John represents Christ's end-time Bride who will not see death; she alone sees the revelation of the Seven Seals which are opened after the end of the Laodicean Church Age. nl973.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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