Bible Believers' Newsletter #092
"We focus on the PRESENT Truth -- what Jesus is doing NOW . . ." ISSN 1442-8660
We greet you in the wonderful Name of our Lord Jesus Christ and appreciate your fellowship. This newsletter serves those of like precious faith and whosoever will receive the truth is welcome to feed their soul from the waters of the River of Life. Everything presented should be confirmed personally in your own Bible.
Faith
Faith is a clear revelation. It is having the mind of Christ in you such that you are dead to your own thoughts and your words and works are the expression of His will. This is known as being under pre-eminence to our Husband, the Word. Jesus and Paul type this with the relationship of a man's natural wife who, like Sarah, reverences him as her lord, obeying him in every thing.
We can only experience or express such a relationship if we are in the common faith or understanding of the Word, knowing precisely what Jesus is doing NOW; how we should manifest His Word today, what He will be doing in the near future and our place in that Word. Paul said, "Without faith it is impossible to please God", so we must be familiar with the PRESENT Truth. We must recognize our position in the Body of Christ, not try to impersonate the work of some part that is already complete.
We must recognize if we are NOT (yet) in the Body of Christ and lay aside all else until we are truly born-again. The great problem today is that too many people are ignorant. Almost 100% of Christians are not born-again and therefore not truly Christians at all. Too many subscribers to this Newsletter are not born-again. Worse, they have not taken steps to replace their ignorance with the Spiritual understanding necessary to be born-again in this day.
Please don't just read these Newsletters because it stimulates your spirit and you "get a buzz". Prove what they say by the Scripture and make sure you can "see" it clearly in your own Bible, and that it is correct, OR that it disagrees with the Bible and is in error. And please devote time each week to studying the teaching sermons, radio transcripts or books on Bible Believers' Church web site so you can "grow" and "mature" in the faith. When you prove or disprove these things in God's Word you are having fellowship with Jesus Christ; God is speaking to you personally.
Please use these facilities to educate others, to educate as many people as possible. Introduce your friends to the Site and to the Newsletters like a missionary seeking to save their souls, because that's what you are doing. With Y2K, world financial collapse, net censorship, earthquakes, the end of the Gentile dispensation, World War III, martial law, diseases, famine, the manifestation of the Sons of God and the imminent rise of the Roman Catholic church to totalitarian power on the horizon, precious little time remains.
My Brother or Sister, we each have to change. Change into a more perfect reflection of Jesus. I'm not speaking about the fruits of the spirit. One can have all those in abundance and be lost. I mean faith. Not great faith as in an abundance of revelation, but perfect faith: knowing that you know that you know because you can prove It -- not just here and there -- but from Genesis to Revelation.
We must see our ideas changing as our understanding of God's Word matures. Jesus spoke about "sleeping virgin" and how both the wise and foolish virgin slept through the Church Ages until the "Shout" of the seventh angel's Message "Behold the Bridegroom! Come out of Babylon and be filled with the Spirit" (Matthew 25:1-13; I Thessalonians 4:16; Revelation 18:4).
Notice, both the wise and foolish virgin heard the midnight cry, and came out from the all denominational religion. Where are they today? They're ourselves, who believe the Prophet and attend Message Churches.
William Branham, who was the seventh angel, taught us that the only difference between the wise and foolish virgin is that the wise are born-again. And that the other virgins are foolish because either they did not diligently "search the Scripture" to "prove all things", or because their Pastor was a foolish virgin and not being in the faith, unable to impart the Life of Christ which is the new birth.
Sadly, most people in Message circles actually know almost nothing and as time passes their children will know even less. I say this because in place of faith they have adopted opinions and follow certain social norms which they believe will make them accepted in Message circles. Or even bring tangible rewards such as a higher rank in the church clique, marriage or employment.
Brethren, the One we have to please in our Lord Jesus Christ who elevates the humble. And we can only please Him by faith (Hebrews 11:5-6). Faith is personal intimacy with the Word. It is a two-way communication between an individual and God. Faith is knowing at first hand, not consensus of the majority or the adoption of some second-hand opinion.
We have to be wise virgin in personal communication with the Voice of God with discernment to recognize His will and follow Him. Even if God disagrees with the majority as invariably He does.
Please spread the message and forward this newsletter in its entirety to related mailing lists, friends, associates, and Webmasters.
Half Dying in Global Village
If the world's population was represented proportionately as a village of 100 people, here is how it would look:-
- 57 Asians, 21 Europeans, 12 from the American continents, 8 Africans and 2 from elsewhere.
- 70 would be non-white and 30 white.
- 70 would be non-Christians and 30 (nominally) Christian.
- 50% of the village's wealth would be held by 6 Americans.
- 70 would be illiterate and 50 would suffer from malnutrition.
- 80 would live in sub-standard dwellings and I would have a university education (The Alternative, Spring, 1999).
Another Executive Order
Freedom of Ideas and Expression
By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, and in order to address unlawful conduct that involves the use of the Internet, it is hereby ordered as follows:
Section 1. Establishment and Purpose.
(a) There is hereby established a working group to address unlawful conduct that involves the use of the Internet ("Working Group"). The purpose of the Working Group shall be to prepare a report and recommendations concerning:
(1) The extent to which existing Federal laws provide a sufficient basis for effective investigation and prosecution of unlawful conduct that involves the use of the Internet, such as the illegal sale of guns, explosives, controlled substances, and prescription drugs, as well as fraud and child pornography.
(2) The extent to which new technology tools, capabilities, or legal authorities may be required for effective investigation and prosecution of unlawful conduct that involves the use of the Internet; and
(3) The potential for new or existing tools and capabilities to educate and empower parents, teachers, and others to prevent or to minimize the risks from unlawful conduct that involves the use of the Internet.
(b) The Working Group shall undertake this review in the context of current Administration Internet policy, which includes support for industry self-regulation where possible, technology-neutral laws and regulations, and an appreciation of the Internet as an important medium both domestically and internationally for commerce and free speech.
More of the same:-
http://www.nytimes.com/library/tech/99/09/cyber/articles/25ratings.html
Internet Rating System Plans to Globalize - "In response to the increasing globalization of the Internet, a content rating and filtering system that was originally developed primarily for the United States will be expanded to encompass a more global audience".
Earthquakes
While sensible folk regard the recent earthquakes in Turkey as an Act of God, rumors are rife that Russia has a "new physical principles" capacity capable of causing atmospheric effects and earthquakes in earthquake-prone areas, if it desires to cause such catastrophes to incapacitate an attacker. (And City of London assets from Turkey are said to be behind present troubles in Dagestan and Chechenya). The rumored existence of a UN-Treaty forbidding nations to effect the application of new physical principles to cause geophysical phenomena, such as earthquakes and atmospheric disasters are fueling these rumors (The Strategy, Vol 8 No.96 by Willem Lankhorst).
On Mount Transfiguration
If we have faith, our understanding will agree with the Bible from Genesis to Revelation. Now I cannot give you faith, I can only share the faith God has given to me. You have to take what I preach back to your own Bible, asking God to give you HIS understanding of His Word.
Search the Scripture and write down what God promised He would do in OUR day. One thing God promised to OUR day was a vindicated prophet.
Scripture says, 'Surely the Lord God will do nothing, unless He first reveals His secret counsel to His servants the prophets'. And Jesus promised US a prophet in the Spirit and Power of Elijah who would restore the church to the faith of their apostolic fathers BEFORE the Tribulation.
Let's read Malachi 4:5-6. It's the last Book of the Old Testament. 'Behold, I WILL send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord: And he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse'. Jesus and His disciples often referred to this Scripture.
On Mount Transfiguration, Jesus showed Peter, James, and John a preview of His second Coming, glorified, to reign on earth a thousand years, preceded by two prophets to Israel with the anointings of Moses and Elijah.
Puzzled by an apparent omission from the vision, the disciples asked, 'Surely Malachi 4 promises ANOTHER Elijah will come to the Gentiles BEFORE these visit Israel?' Jesus agreed, 'Elijah truly SHALL first come to the Gentiles BEFORE these witnesses to Israel. And he will RESTORE all things according to Malachi 4.
But John the Baptist was the Elijah of Malachi 3, NOT Malachi 4. John laid the ax to the root of all spiritual principles, he cut up and tore down. John restored nothing. He introduced My first Coming and was martyred when his mission was fulfilled; otherwise men would be following the messenger instead of the Word'.
In Acts 19, about five years after Pentecost, Paul met a group of John's disciples who knew not Messiah had come, been crucified and sent the Holy Ghost to regenerate men's souls.
Do you realize that multitudes who claim to have the Holy Spirit actually believe John the Baptist was the Elijah of Malachi 4? But if we read the Scripture we will discover Malachi 3 and 4 are both concerned with the NEW Testament, and most verses are yet FUTURE.
Whilst it is true, that AFTER John's death, his ministry resulted in the heart of the Church fathers turning away from God's SERVANT nation to the CHILDREN born of His Spirit, the SECOND part of this verse, 'and turn the heart of the children to THEIR fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse', could not possibly apply to John. Otherwise he would have restored them back to the faith of the Patriarchs, and denied Calvary. Israel is God's SERVANT, not His HEIR: the elect Church are God's heirs, and joint-heirs with Christ.
Besides, the prophecy said that immediately after the RESTORATION, tribulation judgments would set in; all life would be destroyed, and Jesus Christ WITH the glorified saints of all ages would 'step out upon the ashes of the wicked' for the Millennium.
Two thousand years have passed since John, and the DAY of the Lord has still not come. Regarding this prophecy, Peter said, 'The Lord is not slack concerning his promises'. So Peter, who was himself a prophet, knew John the Baptist was the Elijah of Malachi 3 and not Malachi 4. And in the Gospels, Jesus and John both identify him as the Elijah of Malachi 3.
Now we know that the day of the Lord comes immediately after the end of the Gentile dispensation, when God turns to Israel to fulfill Daniel's seventieth week. And Jesus told us that the generation which saw Israel planted back in his Homeland would not die-out in the normal process of time until the day of the Lord and the Millennium comes in. Israel was restored in 1948, so how late is the hour? And God is cutting the time short.
Did you hear what I just said? According to Jesus Christ, WE are the last generation before Armageddon destroys ALL life on earth in atomic conflagration. There is no future in our civilization. Only more wars, more disease, and more bloodshed. Jesus said so. Our ONLY hope is to get into Christ. But Christ is the Word, so we must get into the Word, and every Word. That Word is already justified and will not go through the Tribulation.
If we are God's Children who will be translated to meet the Lord in the Air, we must be RESTORED to the apostolic faith which means we must RECOGNIZE the Elijah who came in OUR day and RECEIVE his Message of restoration. That Message, according to Peter in Acts 3 is 'ALL things, which God hath spoken by the mouth of ALL His holy prophets since the world began' (Acts 3:21). The FULLNESS of the Word.
Peter said that every soul which will not hear that prophet will not be restored, and shall be destroyed from among the people. We live in fearsome times -- the consummation of the ages.
God gives us two choices in this day. Be RESTORED to the apostolic faith, receiving the Word of the hour, and be translated. OR take your chances in entering the tribulation, where you will be killed along with ALL life, then appeal at the White Throne Judgment.
Christ is FINISHING His Church. The END-time evangelism is NOT 'Go ye into all the world and make disciples of all nations', but 'Come out of her my people'.
God has sent US a prophet with a Message of RESTORATION to the one faith of Jesus Christ. Without that prophet there could be NO restoration of the faith and NO rapture. The prophet Amos said the Lord CANNOT send judgment without first sending grace by a prophet and a way of escape.
Any church that has not received or is not looking for the prophet Jesus promised God would send US in THIS day has not seen the Bible promises for this day.
Christ is calling a WORD-Bride out from all man-made religious systems to fulfill His prayer, 'That we might all be IN agreement by faith as He and the Father are in agreement by faith, or ONE in their UNDERSTANDING of the revealed Word'.
The REASON God has sent us a prophet in the end-time is to call His people out from all the 'new traditions', adopted at the First Nicea Council where the Roman Catholic system of worship was organized. He's us calling BACK to the old time religion of Jesus Christ, Peter, Paul and the apostolic saints.
God is calling HIS people: NOT all church members, just His elect, BACK to the Word the church has fallen away from over 2,000 years. If He's RESTORING the one and only faith of His Word, not starting another denomination, he must send us a prophet. For the Word of God comes ONLY to a prophet.
I'm saying that the Elijah of Malachi 4:5-6 and Revelation 10:7 HAS been in OUR day and fulfilled ALL Scripture spoke of him.
Some may quote Matthew 11:13-15, 'For all the Prophets and the Law prophesied until John. And if you are willing to accept it, he is the Elijah who was to come. He who has ears, let him hear'.
While this Scripture is true, it has no relevance to Malachi 4:5-6 or Revelation 10:7. Neither does it mean that the prophets who have been since John and the prophets Jesus promised will yet come to Israel in the future, are false prophets.
Jesus Christ came after John, and Jesus was a prophet. Peter, Paul, Jude, John the Divine, Agabus, Phillip's daughters and multitudes of vindicated prophets have come since John.
According to I Corinthians 12:28, Ephesians 4:11 and Matthew 23:34 "God set PROPHETS in the church". And "the Church" was established almost four years AFTER the death of John, and AFTER the death, resurrection and ascension of Jesus Christ Himself.
Jesus identified John as the Elijah of Malachi 3:1 and Isaiah 40 . . . so did John, whose ministry resulted in 'the hearts of the FATHERS being turned to the CHILDREN', over three years AFTER his death, and some time after Pentecost. The Bible does not say John turned the hearts of the children back to their fathers.
'The disciples asked Jesus, "Why then do the teachers of the Law say that Elijah must come first?" Jesus replied, "To be sure, Elijah comes and will RESTORE all things BEFORE the tribulation, BEFORE the two witnesses to Israel forerun the Millennium".
Indeed His commission was the very opposite. John 'laid the ax to the root of ALL the man-made traditions of those Jewish denominations'. Had John restored the children to the faith of their fathers, he would have REJECTED the One He was sent to forerun. Instead of introducing the Coming of the Word, He would have promoted the Patriarchs who PRE-DATED even Moses and the Law!
Moreover were John the Elijah of Malachi 4:5-6, he would have been commissioned to restore the Gentiles to the teachings of Israel's Patriarchs. Israel is God's SERVANT nation, NOT His children. The CHILDREN were those BORN of God. But aside from the Lord Jesus Christ, no-one had been BORN of God in the days of John the Baptist. The Sacrifice for sins had not been offered. And the Gentiles could not be restored to something they knew nothing about in the first place. God was not dealing with the Gentiles until AFTER Pentecost. The Covenant was between God and Israel -- Abraham's NATURAL seed. John was NOT sent to the Gentiles.
How could John restore the Gentiles to something they never held?
'The disciples asked him, "Why then do the teachers of the Law say that Elijah must come first?" Jesus replied, "To be sure, Elijah comes and will RESTORE all things'.
Jesus is NOT speaking here of John the Baptist, but of the Elijah of Joel 2:25; Malachi 4:5-6 and Acts 3:21. He is speaking of the Elijah who restores the Gentiles back to the APOSTOLIC faith before the great and dreadful day of the Lord; BEFORE the vision He's just shown Peter, James and John comes to pass.
That is ... BEFORE two prophets with the anointings of Moses and Elijah come to minister to Israel during the Tribulation. For it is THEIR Message which precedes the return of the glorified Jesus WITH the saints of ALL ages at the START of the Millennium.
"But I tell you, Elijah has ALREADY come and they didn't RECOGNIZE him, but have done to him everything they wished".
This was John (PAST tense), the Elijah of Malachi 3. Whereas Jesus said ANOTHER Elijah 'Surely will first come (FUTURE tense); before the great and dreadful day of the Lord (which is STILL FUTURE)'. This Elijah could by no means be John, could it? Because John was already DEAD. radio011.html
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Brother Anthony Grigor-Scott is a non-denominational minister. He has ministered full-time since 1981, primarily to other ministers and their congregations in various countries. He pastors Bible Believers' tiny congregation, and is available to minister in your church.
For Further Information Contact:
Bible Believers' Church
Currabubula, NSW 2342, Australia
e-mail: [email protected]
URL: http://www.biblebelievers.org.au/