All Bible
prophecies will invariably be fulfilled at their appointed
time. God's Word never fails. It never returns unto Him void of
Its purpose (Isa.55:11). Several of the most important prophecies
in the Scripture are being fulfilled in this generation. Among them
is a vision which the Lord had shown to the Apostle John during his
captivity on the Isle of Patmos. The vision is recorded in Revelation Chapter 10, which is the subject of this study.
The Book of
Revelation deals with the revelation of our
Lord Jesus Christ which God gave unto Him to show to His people that
they may read and understand, and be blessed as they keep the words
of the revelation (Rev.1:1-3). Undoubtedly, of all the sixty-six
books in the Bible, the Book of Revelation is the most
popular book with Bible students. As a result there are many
different interpretations (or misinterpretations)
of the book. Because the revelation of Jesus Christ was given to
the Apostle John in the form of visions of prophetic symbols,
and not by way of narration of chronological events, the reader will
certainly need to have the Holy Spirit and the Spirit of revelation
to understand the many mysteries which are hidden in the spiritual language.
Revelation 10
is
commonly known among the Endtime Bible believers as ‘The Coming
of Christ’ chapter. But how are the events as seen by John in
his vision reconciled with the rest of the Holy Scriptures? While
some believe that the chapter deals with the Coming of the
Word through the Seventh Church Age Messenger,
William Marrion Branham, others believe that it is about the Rapture (which either has already taken place or will take
place in the future). Revelation 10 records the final events
in the closing period of the Dispensation of Grace,
which is also known as the Gospel Age or the Seven Church
Age.
Before I deal
with the subject matter, I wish to state that I am not a proud
person. Everyone is entitled to his own views, which may be
different from mine. But for any person to claim that his beliefs
are never wrong, he must be more than the Apostles of the Early
Church or perhaps more than a Prophet-Messenger. Otherwise, he must
be a proud man who believes that he is above all others! The only
person who is infallible is the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, it is
necessary to seriously think about that!
However, one
should bear in mind that the revelation of the Word of God is of
no private interpretation. It does not deal with the opinions
of the Apostles or Prophets of the Bible; it deals with the revealed
Word and Plan of God. It is easy for a person to say
“It means this” or “It means that”, but the Holy
Spirit will only bear witness to a true revelation of the LOGOS of any doctrine or prophecy which is Word-based and
consistent with all other LOGOS in the whole
Scripture. As it is written in the Scripture: “Let God be true,
but every man a liar” (Rom.3:4). Amen.
REVELATION 10
1:
And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a
cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were
the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire:
2:
And he had in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot
upon the sea, and his left foot upon the earth,
3:
And cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth: and when he had
cried, seven thunders uttered their voices.
4:
And when the seven thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to
write: and I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Seal up those
things which the seven thunders uttered, and write them not.
5:
And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the earth
lifted up his hand to heaven,
6:
And sware by him that liveth for ever and ever, who created heaven,
and the things that therein are, and the earth, and the things that
therein are, and the sea, and the things which are therein, that
there should be time no longer:
7:
But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall
begin to sound, the mystery of God should be finished, as he hath
declared to his servants the prophets.
8:
And the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again, and
said, Go and take the little book which is open in the hand of the
angel which standeth upon the sea and upon the earth.
9:
And I went unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little
book. And he said unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall
make thy belly bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey.
10:
And I took the little book out of the angel's hand, and ate it up;
and it was in my mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten
it, my belly was bitter.
11:
And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy again before many peoples,
and nations, and tongues, and kings.
THE BREACH
According to
God's prophetic calendar, we are now living in the closing
hour of the dispensation of the Grace Age, which is also called the
Laodicean Church Age. With the culmination of the Grace Age,
God will return the Gospel to the children of Israel and deal with
them for a period of seven years to fulfill Daniel's prophecy about
the 70th Week (Dan.9:24-27) following the events of Revelation 10,
which are currently being fulfilled.
In the New
Testament we read that the Gospel was first preached to the
Jews. But when the Jews rejected it, the Gospel was then preached
to the Gentiles. The number of Jewish converts became less.
Similarly,
Revelation 10 bridges the gap between the end of the Grace
Age for the Gentiles and the return of the Gospel to the Jews.
Over the last two decades or so, there has been decadence in
Organized Christianity. There has been much compromise in
the preaching of the Word of God. The fall in the number of true
believers among the Gentiles is matched by the increased interest
among the Jews in the Gospel of Christ.
Yes, we are at
the endtime. We are living in the final few grains of sand in the
hourglass of God's time. And, as believers of God's precious Word,
we are now seeing the unfolding of final events which will
lead to the UNION of the Bride of Christ and her Groom. Let
us, therefore, rejoice and be glad.
UNDERSTANDING THE VISION
In order to
understand Revelation 10 we must remember that when the Apostle John
was caught up in the Spirit on the Lord's Day what he had witnessed
were visions. Almost all things and events which appeared to
him in the visions were prophetic symbols. As such, we
should not expect to see them happen in the form which John had seen
them in the visions. For example, we should not expect to literally
see a woman sitting on a seven-headed scarlet-colored beast
(Rev.17:3) or a city coming down from Heaven (Rev.21:2).
Therefore, with a
correct understanding of Revelation 10, we will realize that the
vision is not about the Rapture, neither is it about
the Coming of Christ to the Mount of Olives. (Please refer to
1Cor.15: 51-53;
1Thess.4:13-17; Zech.14:4
and Acts 1:10-12.) The Rapture will be a literal event when
Christ Jesus will meet His Bride in the air. Christ's feet will
not touch the earth. And in the Coming of Christ to
Mount Olives, the Holy Scripture clearly shows us that He shall
stand on the mount and not on the sea and land.
THE MYSTERIOUS COMING OF THE CHRIST
The vision,
as recorded in Revelation 10, shows the MYSTERIOUS Coming of Christ
for His True Church (at the close of the Grace Age) before He comes
physically to take her to the
Marriage Supper of the Lamb and return the Gospel to
the Jews. The final events began to take place the moment John saw
the Mighty Angel come down from Heaven until he took
the little book out of the hand of the Mighty Angel,
ate it, and was told that he “must prophesy again before many
peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings”. Five of the
events shown in this vision are
i)
the Mystery of the
Marriage of the Lamb (2Cor.11:2;
Rev.19:6-9), ii)
the Ministry of the
Seventh Star-Messenger (Rev.10:7; Rev.3:14-22),
iii)
the Revelation of
the Sealed Book (Rev.5),
iv)
the Ministry of the
Ascension Gifts (Eph.4:11-16), and
v)
the Final Call to
the Bride for her Translation to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb
(1Cor.15:51-53;
1Thess.4:13-17;
Rev.19:6-9). These five events will be discussed in more detail as
we study the verses in Revelation 10.
The utterance of the
Mighty Angel that John “must prophesy again” contains a
dual prophecy.
Though, after his release from exile in 96 A.D., John probably did
prophesy for a few years while residing in Ephesus, those prophetic
words have a more definite bearing on the Endtime Church. Being the
beloved disciple of Jesus, John was given
the special privilege of being transported in the Spirit to the
Lord's Day to see “the things which are,
and the things which shall be hereafter”. Prophetically, he
types the Endtime Bride, the Beloved of Christ,
who will certainly enjoy the same privilege to understand
those “things which are, and the things which shall be
hereafter”.
To fully
understand the doctrine of the Second Advent of our Lord
Jesus Christ, as Bible believers, we must realize that, before the
GLORIOUS PHYSICAL APPEARING (Grk: epiphaneia) of
Christ to meet His Bride in the air, there is a SPIRITUAL COMING
of His WORD to His Elect. In the First Advent of Christ,
the WORD first came to a chosen few for about 30 years
before the LITERAL COMING (Grk: eisodos ―
an entering in [see Acts 13:24]) of Christ Incarnate (at
River Jordan, after which the people beheld His GLORY, “the
glory as of the only begotten of the Father” [see
Jhn.1:14]). Likewise, the Second Advent also consists of a
period of several events in which His PRESENCE (Grk:
parousia) and His REVELATION (Grk: apokalupsis) are gradually made known to an elected few before
His LITERAL COMING (Grk: epiphaneia) for them
in the Rapture. This fact can never be
over-emphasized. It is this SPIRITUAL COMING of the
WORD (LOGOS, the CHRIST)
that has awakened the sleeping virgins of Christ
Jesus who, since the beginning of this 20th Century, have received
the outpouring of the Holy Spirit in anticipation of the meeting
with their Lord. However, only the wise, who are well prepared,
will see and receive the revelation of the WORD of God and
enter into the Marriage (Matt.25). The nominal
Christians who are constantly looking for the Rapture in the
sky will miss this truth as this mystery is hidden from them.
THE IDENTIFICATION OF THE MIGHTY ANGEL
“And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with
a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it
were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire:”
It is certainly
not difficult to identify this Mighty Angel
whom John had seen in his vision. Though some
theologians may teach that he was just one of the many angelic
beings doing his job, it is our prerogative, as Bible believers, to
establish the truth and maintain an unwavering faith in the Word of
God.
The Greek word
for ‘angel’ is ‘aggelos’, and the equivalent in the Hebrew is
‘malokh’. The word means ‘one who is sent to deliver a
message, a messenger’, and ‘a messenger’ can be one who
is a spirit being or a human being. However, in this case the
Mighty Angel, who was seen coming down from Heaven, was
neither a created spirit being nor a human being. He was the very
personification of Almighty God in the Person of Jesus
Christ Himself.
Again, let me
emphasize: what John saw was a vision of Prophetic Events in
spiritual symbols.
Therefore, do not expect to see a giant-sized Person of Christ
descending from Heaven when this prophecy is being
fulfilled.
The description of how the
Mighty Angel was clothed
clearly shows that He was the personification of God in Christ. In
Revelation chapter 1, we are shown how the Son of Man was
clothed as a High Priest and Supreme Judge. However, in chapter 10,
He is described as being clothed with a cloud and
crowned with a rainbow. His face was shining like the
sun and His feet were like pillars of fire.
These descriptions identify Him as the Mighty Angel of
the Covenant.
In the
Scriptures, we often read of cloud being used to
shroud the Glory of the Lord whenever He appeared
before the people. Just as the natural cloud covers and dims the
glorious light of the sun so that the eyes of its beholders would
not be blinded, the Lord chose to cloth Himself with a cloud
to protect those standing before Him from being blinded by His
Glorious Light (Ex.24:15-18; 34:5; Lev.16:2). The Pillar of
Cloud which was with the children of Israel in their exodus
from Egypt was a testimony of His Presence, Leadership,
and Strength. It was a Cloud of Blessings.
Cloud
is also usually associated with His Coming for the
Bride (1Thess.4:15-17)
and His Second Coming to earth (Matt.24:29-30;
Rev.1:7). Hence, this MYSTERIOUS Coming of Christ,
as seen by John also shows His Coming with a
cloud. And, other than the elect, no one is able to look
beyond the cloud and see the Glorious Light.
Amen! Did not God show His Presence to this
generation in 1963 in the form of the Face
of Jesus Christ in the cloud?
The Living God of
the Bible is a Maker of covenants. He is a ‘Covenanter’ and
the rainbow was the first token of an everlasting covenant
He made with the man Noah (Gen.9:8-17). Even round about His
throne, there is a rainbow to remind us of Who He is
(Rev.4:3). The rainbow on the head of this
Mighty Angel shows us that He is none other than the
Covenant-Maker Himself in angelic form. He is the
Angel of THE COVENANT (Mal.3:1). THIS COVENANT which
was ratified by His Own Blood (Heb.9:11-23) was a firm covenant
He made with Abraham. The Old Covenant, which was established
at Sinai (Ex.19:5), could not disannul THIS PRECIOUS
COVENANT (Gal.3:17-25) within which can be felt God's heartbeat
of love for His elect, both Jews and Gentiles (Jhn.17). He is the
Redeemer.
[Note: There are
some believers who teach that Revelation 10 contains events dealing
with the Jews only because they believe that ‘THE ANGEL OF THE
COVENANT’ relates Himself to Israel and not the Gentiles.
However, the fact is that ‘THE ANGEL OF THE COVENANT’ binds
Himself to His Own Covenant. Read Heb.6:13-20. Jesus Christ is the
Mediator of THE COVENANT which is for both Jews and
Gentiles. Read Heb.6:16-19; 8:6; 12:24, cf. Mal.3:1.]
Notice, though we
may not see a rainbow
when we see a cloud, rainbow does not appear
without the cloud. Rainbow is formed by a spectrum of
seven colours produced by the refraction of sunlight. Hence, the
FACE or
PRESENCE of God
(Ex.33:14; Isa.63:9; 2Cor.4:6)
refracts the GLORY OF GOD ―“His
face was as it were the SUN”.
Without the
Glorious Light shining from the SON of God,
God's Blessings (His Presence, His Leadership and His
Strength) in the Cloud would not be apparent to
His people. As His Glory shines from His Face,
Its Light refracts the Rainbow
of His Everlasting Covenant
through the Cloud.
“His feet as Pillars of Fire”.
Fire is another identification of the personality
of the Mighty Angel. Fire is not only
often used in the Bible to symbolize the Presence of God,
it is also used in association with searching, illuminating,
separating, cleansing, purifying, and judging
(Gen.15:17; Ex.14:24; Deut.4:24; Lk.3:16-17).
THE SEQUENCE OF THE VISION
To have a better
understanding of the vision, we should not overlook the sequence
of how it was revealed to John. First, John saw the “Mighty Angel come down from Heaven”.
The Mighty
Angel did not suddenly appear in his vision standing
on the sea and land. He was DESCENDING from Heaven. Next,
John noticed that He was clothed with a white CLOUD.
As the Mighty
Angel continued to descend, His face and other parts of His body
became obvious. And He had a little open scroll in His left hand.
THE LITTLE OPEN BOOK
“And he had in his hand a little book open;…”
What was that
little open book?
The book
was actually a scroll. It was the same scroll
that John saw earlier in the right hand of the One Who sat on
the Throne (Rev.5:1). It was then a sealed scroll, which
was sealed with seven seals. And only Jesus Christ, the Lion of the
tribe of Judah and the Lamb of God, was worthy to open the seals.
This ‘Seven Seals’ Scroll is now an open scroll. It
is the title-deed to the possession of the earth and the
Eternal Life that Adam and Eve had lost.
But why did it
become a “little scroll” in the hand of the Mighty Angel?
The scroll did not in any way shrink. We must realize that the
Mighty Angel
was a huge figure in the vision. It is obvious from the fact that
He had “His right foot upon the sea, and His left foot upon the
land”. He was not just a six-foot tall person standing
on the seashore with one foot in the sea water and the other on the
beach.
One important
fact to bear in mind is that the whole vision was centred on
the MIGHTY ANGEL Himself and all that He represented. He
was THE PRE-EMINENT FEATURE in the vision. Failure to
recognize this fact will cause the events in this prophetic vision
of the Apostle John to be misinterpreted. Those who teach that this
prophetic vision pertains to the RAPTURE have probably
focused their attention on the wrong things in the vision. The
“little book” and its Seventh Seal are often
over-emphasized. There are two groups who believe that Revelation
10 is about the RAPTURE. One group contends that the Rapture has yet to take place because the
Seventh Seal is
still unopened, and that Christ will only come for His Bride once
the seal is broken. The other group believes that all
Seven Seals were opened by William M. Branham in 1963.
Based on certain specific year which Brother Branham had mentioned
in some of his sermons, this group teaches that the Rapture
has already taken place on a certain date.
THREE PHASES: OPEN, REVEAL, FULFILL
Any Bible
believer, who knows the Word of God well enough, should know that
God had woven a certain pattern of numbers in His Bible.
Many series of three, five, and seven events or things are recorded
throughout the Bible. Similarly, there are three phases in
each of the Seven Seals found on the ‘Seven
Seals’ Scroll for the accomplishment of God's purpose. They
are the OPENING phase, the REVEALING phase, and the FULFILLING phase.
Let me give an
illustration. Let's suppose that you have never read a Bible. You
have one in your hand. To you, it is a closed Book because
you do not know what is written in the Book. Then you proceed to
open the Book and turn to the first chapter of St. John and
begin to read the first verse: “In the beginning was the Word,
and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”. Now, you have
just opened and read a part of the contents of the Bible. But, do
you understand what you have just read? Do you have the
revelation of the verse? If not, what you have read will remain
a mystery to you. Hence, the contents must be revealed to
you or else the open Bible is still as good as a closed
Book to you. When they are revealed to you, you will
begin to see the purpose of God as He brings about the fulfillment of His Word.
Now, when
was the ‘Seven Seals’
Book actually opened, and by whom?
It was certainly
not opened in 1963 by William M. Branham. But the majority of his followers
(the Endtime Message believers) believe otherwise.
Unfortunately, their belief is contrary to the Scriptures.
As we have noted in an earlier paragraph, it was none other than
Jesus Christ Himself Who opened the Seven Seals after
taking the sealed Book from the hand of the One sitting upon the
Throne (Rev.5:5-10; 6:1,3,5,7,9,12; 8:1). The Apostle John
was the only earthly witness to that event. When he was in
exile on the Isle of Patmos, he was caught up in the Spirit
(probably in 96 AD.) to witness the OPENING of the Seven Seals
by the Lord Jesus. He was transported in the spirit (so to
speak) to the future for a preview of the endtime events which will precede the closing of the
Grace Age for man.
Whatever were revealed to John in symbols then are now being
revealed in the real form to the Bride of Christ in the Light
of the revelation of God's Holy Word. (John is a type of the
Endtime Bride of Christ, and the Book of Revelation was
written specially to prepare her for that final hour.)
Now, if
the Seven Seals
were not opened at all, then John would have
seen nothing, and he would not have
recorded those symbols that were described after the breaking of
each Seal. Though the Seven Seals were opened
in Heaven by Christ, and the events recorded by John in the
First Century, the contents were never fully revealed to the Church
until this Endtime Age. Remember,
John witnessed the Four Horse Riders, the Souls under the
Altar, the Great Earthquake in the Dreadful Day of the Lord,
and the Silence in Heaven. But, being in symbolic forms, all
these were very little understood by Christians throughout the
Church Ages even though some of the events were fulfilled
in their time.
However, in
1963, God revealed the mysteries which were
hidden in each OPEN
Seal to the Church through His Seventh Church Age Star-Messenger. Only then did we realize that the events described
after the breaking of the first four Seals were
historical events. However, the spirits of those four horses
and their riders are still living today and will continue to live
until their consummation in the Day of the Lord. The
Fifth Seal has two parts. The first part was fulfilled in
the Second World War, and the second will be fulfilled during the Great Tribulation. The
Sixth Seal marks the end
of the Great
Tribulation prior to the return of Christ on the Day of the
Lord.
THE SEVENTH SEAL
Since it is
recorded that Christ Jesus had opened all the Seven Seals,
the Seventh Seal cannot be an unopened Seal.
The Apostle John had witnessed the opening of the Seventh Seal.
“And when He had OPENED the seventh seal, there was SILENCE in
heaven about the space of half an hour” (Rev.8:1). This
period of SILENCE
in Heaven conceals a GREAT and IMPORTANT event that will take
place on the Earth. When will it take place? Has it already taken
place? Is it still ahead of us? Or, is it taking place now.
Now, we know that
John saw Christ open all the Seven Seals in the vision
when he was on the Isle of Patmos at the end of the First Century.
As such, how could anyone believe that the Seventh Seal
is still unopened and that it will only be opened
just before the Rapture
when Christ shall come for His Bride.
At this juncture
I would like to point out that many ministers and believers have a
wrong concept of the Mercy Seat. They teach and
believe that once the Seventh Seal is opened, “Christ (or
His Blood) is off the Mercy Seat”. This concept has no
Scriptural foundation. It is, at best, only an idea of speculative
theology. Some even have the notion that Jesus Christ is literally
sitting on a Throne called the ‘Mercy Seat’
from which He will get up the very moment He has broken the
Seventh Seal.
The term Mercy
Seat, in the Biblical sense, refers to the act, the place, and
the accomplishment of the atonement that is in Christ Jesus. The
‘Mercy Seat’ in the
Old Testament was the top of the Ark, a lid of solid gold, where the
blood of a sacrificed bullock was sprinkled once a year.
And, as far as
the Gospel of Salvation is concerned, it does not necessarily
mean that there will be no more mercy for the Jews when God stops
showing His mercy to the Gentiles. God's work of redemption will
not be over yet even when the Grace Age ends. In God's
great Grace and Mercy, the Gospel will have to be preached to the
Jews. As such, the Blood is still on the ‘Mercy Seat’.
Remember, the Seventh Seal will end all things which
include the redemption of the earth. Hence, God's mercy will be
over only after the Millennial Reign of Christ
when He will set fire to this earth to bring an end to
all things and to bring forth a New Heaven and a New Earth.
I must again
emphasize that all the Seven Seals had been opened as
witnessed by John at the end of the First Century. Certain events
described in some of the Seals were fulfilled even before they were
fully revealed in 1963.
Chronologically,
all the Seven Seals are rightly placed to end at the Coming of Christ.
Each Seal holds certain events which have
to take place within a given space of time. Though the
Seventh Seal is
the last Seal, the time for the fulfillment of this Seal has already
begun. But its consummation is not yet complete.
THE
MYSTERY HIDDEN IN THE SEVENTH SEAL CONCERNS THE COMING OF
CHRIST. It is a three-fold mystery. The
Coming
of Christ consists of several phases, which are the PAROUSIA of Christ, the
APOKALUPSIS of Christ,
and the EPIPHANEIA of Christ, first to the Bride at
the Rapture and then to the world in the Day of the Lord.
It began with the COMING OF THE WORD through the
prophet (seer) of Malachi 4:6b, who is also the Angel (Messenger) of
Revelation 3:14 and Revelation 10:7, to the True Church, and will
end with Christ's Epiphany in the Day of the Lord
when God shall execute His judgment upon the nations just
before setting up His Kingdom on earth. The Seventh Seal
shall bring an end to all things. Hence, the vision in Revelation
10 was a preview of the final events.
HIS CLAIM
“… and He set His right foot upon the sea, and His left foot on the
earth,”
“The earth is the
Lord's, and the fullness thereof; the world, and they that dwell
therein”
(Psm.24:1 cf.
Isa.66:1a). Yes, the earth belongs to the Almighty God Who gave its
title-deed to the first man, first Adam. But Adam lost his
inheritance when he failed his test. As a result, the title-deed
reverted to its Owner until a Kinsman Redeemer was
found to redeem it. But while the Everlasting God waited for the
arrival of the Kinsman Redeemer, the devil continued to
further corrupt the world with his evil and so-called wisdom. By
his deception, he is even worshipped as the god of this world. When
the Kinsman Redeemer, the second man, last Adam, came
forth to redeem, He overcame the devil and his works by laying down
His life at Calvary and raising it up again. Hence, Jesus Christ
bought the right to take the title-deed from the hand of the One
sitting upon the Throne (Rev.5). He has the right to take back
Eternal Life and the earth, and to restore man to the original
position that he had fallen from. And the Seals were opened to show
the redeemed
Church the things that must transpire on earth before He
would literally come to claim the earth and set up His Kingdom.
And, Revelation 10 shows that the time has arrived for that
fulfillment.
By placing His
feet on the sea and on the land, He signified that He had come to
claim the earth and all His possessions. Scripturally, the words
‘sea’ and ‘land’ connote ‘Gentiles' and ‘Jews’
respectively. (See Isaiah 42:5-12; 23:2-11; 24:14.) Notice
that He placed His right foot first upon the sea and
then His left foot upon the land. (The word ‘earth’
in the K.J.V. version of the Bible is a mistranslation.)
Placing His fiery right foot first upon the sea shows that
He had come to the Gentiles first to claim
His Bride. Scripturally, ‘right’
connotes the Grace and Mercy
of God whereas ‘left’ connotes His Judgment.
(See Matthew 25:31-46.) So, we see that the Grace of Christ is shown
to the Gentiles as Christ comes to search for His elected few and
reveal His Presence
to them. His Presence
brings an Illumination (Revelation) of His Word
which purges and purifies, and separates
the True Believers from the works of the devil in the systems
of the churches today. Amen! God is rich in mercy to whom He will
show mercy. But judgment is now upon the False Church and
all her prostitute daughters. The Fire of God will soon consume
them. (See Revelation 3:14-22 and Revelation 18.)
After the Bride
is “caught away” (raptured
) to the Grand Marriage Supper of the Lamb and
when the last of the Church Ages has ended, Christ will turn
to deal with the nation of Israel. He will purge her and
claim as His own those true seeds of Israel. It will
be a time of trouble. That's why the fiery left foot of the Mighty Angel
was placed upon the land after He had placed His
right foot upon the sea. Although they rejected the Messiah and His
Gospel, the Jews have never been forsaken by God. But they will
certainly have to suffer great trials and persecutions when
they become converts to the Gospel of Jesus Christ which the Two
Witnesses (of Revelation 11) shall preach to them. The time of
their trouble is known as Jacob's trouble (Jer.30:7). It is
the Great Tribulation mentioned by our Saviour in Matthew 24.
THE CRY
“And cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth: and when he
had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices. And when the seven
thunders had uttered their voices, I was about to write: and I heard
a voice from heaven saying unto me, Seal up those things which the
seven thunders uttered, and write them not.”
It is said that
when a lion roars in the jungle, its roar can be heard several miles
away. All animals would hush to listen. The environment would
become silent as the animals remain still and wait for something to
happen because the king of the beasts has sounded his cry. And that
was exactly what the Apostle John had observed in his vision. The
Mighty Angel, having put his fiery feet upon the sea and
land, gave a loud cry like the roar of a lion. Although John did
not record what the cry was, we can deduce its significance from
verses 5, 6 and 7. The phrase “as when a lion roareth” signifies that the
Mighty Angel had proclaimed Himself as the
RIGHTFUL KING of the whole earth and had come to claim
His rights over it. He had fought well and had paid the price for
it. [Note: Contrary to some views, this verse and the whole
context of Revelation 10 do not in anyway indicate that the Mighty Angel
descended as the Lion of the tribe of Judah.]
Now, after the
mighty leonine cry, the SEVEN THUNDERS, which were on
the earth in John's vision, uttered their VOICES.
John heard the utterances of the Seven
Thunders. However, a Voice from Heaven forbade him to write
down what he had heard. God has a reason in sealing up those
utterances. God's Star-Messenger, William Branham, said that
it was God's purpose to keep Satan from knowing what those utterances were because he was
an impersonator and would
certainly cause great damage if he knew the secret. It is
true that the Elect of God cannot be deceived. But we know what
Satan can do when he distorts a Truth. Churches would split and
members would fight each other over the ‘teaching’. Some
would get frustrated while others would backslide. Those who
believe the lie would find themselves hard to regain their footing.
Hence, there was silence in Heaven for about half an
hour when the Seventh Seal
was opened. Satan could not do a thing. Amen!
The “silence in heaven”
after the opening of the Seventh Seal
(Rev.8:1) contains the revelation of the events of the
Coming of Christ. The revelation of the events is hidden
in Revelation 10, that is, the Mighty Angel coming down from
Heaven to claim His own and everything that He has redeemed! This
revelation, though hidden from the world, is being unfolded
to the Bride of Christ.
Now, the
revelation of the “things which the seven thunders uttered” on earth, but were sealed up, is in the
Seventh Seal. The
voices of the Seven Thunders are only A PART of the
THREE-FOLD MYSTERY of the SEVENTH SEAL. The Bride
needs to know what the Seven Thunders had uttered and she
will certainly get to know them. Since John, being a type of the
Bride, the Beloved of the Lord, had heard the voices uttered
by the Seven Thunders on earth, the Bride will
certainly get that great revelation of the VOICES of the Seven Thunders
just
before the Lord appears in the air to take her away.
THE SEVEN THUNDERS
However, before
the Bride can hear the VOICES of the Seven Thunders, she will have to know what or who the
Seven Thunders are. There has been much speculation about
the Seven Thunders. Without a spirit of reverence to God's
Inspired Written Word and the wisdom to rightly divide the Word of
Truth, many Endtime Message
believers have merely quoted the statements of Brother
Branham to say that the SEVEN THUNDERS
were the SEVEN SEALS
when they were opened, or revealed
(depending on their understanding of the two words). But, it
is not recorded in the Holy Scriptures that a thundering
noise was heard by John when each seal was opened, or
when each of them was revealed, in 1963. In fact, the Apostle John
did not hear Seven Voices of Thunders, he heard only one
“noise of thunder” “when the Lamb OPENED ONE of
the seals” at the close of the First Century (Rev.6:1). This
“noise of thunder” was reflected on earth in February
1963 over Arizona, U.S.A. just before Christ gave the REVELATION of
the Seven Seals to
the Church through His servant, William Branham. Hence, the voices of the
Seven Thunders were not the
sounding forth, nor the opening, of the Seven Seals.
There are also
some who believe and teach that the SEVEN THUNDERS
are the SEVEN VIRTUES
of Christ (2 Pet.1:5-7) which all True Believers of
Christ must ‘thunder forth' in their lives to manifest that they are
the children of God. This teaching is concocted from some statements
taken from some sermons of the Seventh Church Age Messenger.
Regardless of
what have been taught about the Seven Thunders, the Truth can
only be found in the Holy Scriptures which is the foundation of our
faith. God is in His Word, and whatever is written for His Bride, it
will surely be revealed to her. Amen.
THE SEVEN SPIRITS OF GOD
Now, it is
recorded in the Book of Revelation that there was only one
group of SEVEN SPIRITS (Grk: Pneuma) of God
before the Throne of God. Read Revelation 1:4-5. They were
not
seven other Gods besides the ETERNAL “I Am That I Am”. (The
number “seven” refers to spiritual perfection.) Note carefully the
three greetings in those two verses. The first is the greeting
“from Him which is, which was, and which is to come”, Who is the
“I Am That I Am”, the Almighty Spirit Himself. The second is
“from the Seven Spirits which are before His Throne”, and the
third is “from Jesus Christ”.
The two-fold
prophecy of Zechariah (in Zech.4), concerning the House of God, the
golden lampstand of seven lamps and the two olive trees, reveals
that the Seven Spirits
are the “eyes of the Lord, which run to and fro through the
whole earth” as they rejoice to see the “plummet in the hand
of Zerubbabel”. (Zerubbabel was the appointed governor in
post-exilic Jerusalem under the rule of Darius I of Persia.
Together with the High Priest Joshua, he led in the reconstruction
of the Temple. Zerubbabel types Christ as the Chief Administrator.
The plummet is the authority of the Almighty God.) This prophecy of
Zechariah points to the days when Christ Jesus would become the AUTHORITY of God, and the
Seven Spirits
would rejoice when they shall be assigned to work with Him in
the building of the Spiritual Temple (Church) of God as well as the
‘Millennial’ Temple for the Age of Regeneration
when Christ shall reign.
When John first
saw these SEVEN SPIRITS, they were before the Throne
of God (Rev.1:4). They were like Seven Lamps of Fire burning
before the Throne (Rev.4:5). Notice: before they were
assigned any task, the Seven Spirits did not have any
specific identity except their divine status and nature. However,
in their first assignment, they took the form of Seven Angels
(Grk: Aggelos) to the Seven Church Ages. They
were the Seven Stars in the right hand of the Son of
Man, the High Priest and Supreme Judge, Who walked in the midst of
the Seven Golden Candlesticks (Rev.1:16,20). Through
the earthly Seven Church Age Messengers, the Seven Stars
had kept the Lamps (Churches) of Truth
and Faith burning for the Word of God to shine in their respective
ages. Therefore, being the Seven Lamps of Fire burning
before God's Throne, they were also the Seven Golden
Candlesticks.
Each time the
Seven Spirits took on a
different task, they assumed a different identity
according to the role of the One (in
Whose hand was the plummet of God) Whom they were working with. In
Revelation 5:6, the Seven Spirits are identified
with the Lamb as its “Seven Horns and Seven Eyes”.
The Lamb of God, as we know, is none other than Jesus
Christ in His role as the Saviour. Having “Seven Horns and
Seven Eyes” do not make the Lamb of God a freak. It is
merely the language of the Spirit to describe the Seven
Spirits as being a part of the Lamb as He works through them
throughout the Seven Church Ages
of Grace.
The Seven
Horns denote the
seven-fold Perfect Power
(Omnipotence) of the Lamb, and the Seven Eyes
show His Perfect Knowledge (Omni-science).
Hence, the Seven Horns and Seven Eyes together show
that the Lamb is ALL-POWERFUL to redeem the household
of God, besides possessing PERFECT KNOWLEDGE to mete
out perfect justice to all who dwell upon the earth. The Seven
Redemptive Names of YAHWEH of the Old Testament are
manifested in the Lamb of God of the New Testament as He works
throughout the Seven Church Ages. As Revelation 5 shows, the
Lamb with Seven Horns and Seven Eyes is truly worthy
to take the Sealed Book of Redemption and to break open
its Seven Seals. And in 1963, the SEVEN SPIRITS,
in a constellation of SEVEN ANGELS, came to meet William
Branham on a mountain in Arizona, U.S.A. and told him to return East
to his home in Indiana, where each of them would unfold to
him the REVELATION of the SEVEN OPEN SEALS. This
REVELATION was then shown to the Church.
Here in
Revelation 10 we still find the same SEVEN SPIRITS
with Jesus Christ as He takes the role of the MIGHTY
ANGEL OF THE CONVENANT descending from Heaven. As Christ changes
His role, they too assume a different role. They are now the
SEVEN THUNDERS. Notice closely: each of them has a VOICE!
VOICES
In the Book of
Revelation, the SEVEN SPIRITS assume a total of SEVEN DIFFERENT ROLES. In their assignments, they have been
identified as:
1)
SEVEN STARS in the right hand of the HIGH PRIEST
and JUDGE
Who walks in the midst of the Seven Golden Candlesticks,
2)
SEVEN LAMPS BURNING
on the CANDLESTICK,
3)
SEVEN SEALS on the backside of the SEALED-BOOK
in the right hand of the Almighty,
4)
SEVEN HORNS and SEVEN EYES
on the LAMB,
5)
SEVEN THUNDERS
with the MIGHTY ANGEL,
6)
SEVEN TRUMPETS
which will sound after the Rapture of the Bride, and,
7)
SEVEN VIALS of God's Wrath which will be poured out
upon the earth between the closing of the Great Tribulation
and the Day of the Lord.
And in two of
their seven jobs, as the SEVEN STARS and the
SEVEN THUNDERS, their (audible)
VOICES are
heard by the True Worshippers of God.
Every Christian
knows that God works with, and through, men. God's messengers (both
in the Old and New Testaments) were a special breed of
men whom God had chosen to carry out certain special tasks. The Word
of God was given them to be voiced
to the people of Israel and the Church. Thus, the
VOICES of the messengers were the sounding
of the MESSAGES of God.
Now, when the
VOICES of the men of God are sounded to the people, they
do not always deal with teachings or doctrinal truths of God. The
Word is sometimes given to correct a certain misconception or to
give specific instruction for a certain purpose.
Throughout the Seven Church Ages, the
SEVEN SPIRITS ministered as the
SEVEN STARS and
the SEVEN LAMPS (upon the LAMPSTAND). Individually
they represented, and ministered to, each of the SEVEN MEN
of God who were chosen to be the STAR-MESSENGERS
to the seven successive Church Ages. Their duty was to keep the
Church in line with the Truth. Because the SEVEN SPIRITS
stood before the Throne of God as SEVEN LAMPS BURNING, the
SEVEN MESSENGERS only spoke “what THE SPIRIT SAITH unto the
churches” (Rev.2-3). Hence, in each Church Age the VOICE
of the SPIRIT, which represented that particular age, was heard as his
MESSAGE SOUNDED forth through the
mouthpiece of the Star-Messenger to the Church. And after that
Star-Messenger was taken off the scene, that same SPIRIT to
the age would not only keep the LAMP of Truth BURNING in the
lives of the saints who had the Light of God's Life and Love, but
also to provide LIGHT
for that period of time.
Now, have not the
SEVEN STARS uttered their
VOICES in their respective Church Ages? And were
not their VOICES distinct? Yes. So will be the
VOICES of the SEVEN THUNDERS. If the SEVEN STARS
were SEVEN ANOINTED MEN of God, so will be the SEVEN THUNDERS. However,
THE SEVEN THUNDERS WILL
UTTER THEIR VOICES
CLOSE TOGETHER only at the close of the Grace Age after
the Mighty Angel of The Covenant
has descended to earth with a SHOUT, and
just before the SOON APPEARING of the Lord Jesus to His Bride
(cf. Rev.10:1,3). Their VOICES
will be heard by the Bride of Christ as the FINAL CALL of God
within a very short space of time.
[Notice: As
recorded in the Book of Revelation, the Apostle John received
three greetings of Grace and Peace which were to be
delivered to the seven churches on earth. (See Rev.1:4,5.) These
greetings came together to the Beloved Apostle from the voices
of the Eternal Spirit, the Seven Spirits,
and Jesus Christ in Heaven just before he was
given the seven prophetic letters to the seven churches in Asia
Minor and also shown their spiritual conditions. At the closing
of the Church Ages (Rev.10), John once again heard the three
voices uttering
together. How appropriate, for the Almighty is truly the Alpha and
the Omega. However, the voices of Jesus Christ (Who
was seen in the role of the Mighty Angel)
and the Seven Spirits (which were seen in the role of the Seven
Thunders) were heard (uttered) on earth. This clearly shows that
the distinct and audible utterances of the
voices of the Seven Thunders, which John heard but were
sealed up, will be heard by the Bride.]
SEVEN MEN
Having studied
all the relevant portions of the Scriptures, I can say without a
shadow of doubt that the SEVEN THUNDERS represent
SEVEN MEN whom the SEVEN SPIRITS will
identify with and work through just before the
Rapture of the True Church. The
VOICES of the Seven Thunders will
be heard by every True Believer of Christ. It will be the sounding
of the LAST TRUMP
of God to the Word-Bride to bring about a change in her Body
for her to meet her Word-Groom in the air, and be whisked home to
His Father's House for the Grand Marriage Supper of the Lamb.
REMEMBER, there
is only one group of SEVEN SPIRITS of God, and they are
assigned to seven different roles. (Note the seven “seven”.)
Five roles are played during the Dispensation of Grace
and two roles will be
played during the 70th Week of Daniel which will begin after
the Church is raptured. Their first assignment was to identify with
–
and utter their VOICES through
–
the SEVEN ANGELS to the Seven Church Ages. They are
called STARS. At the closing of the Seven Church Ages,
they will appear as the SEVEN THUNDERS to utter their
VOICES which will be heard and understood by the Bride only.
No, the Seven Star-Messengers will not be resurrected
to appear as the Seven Thunders. The Seven Thunders
are not the Seven Stars. As their identities are different, so are their ministries. Each of the
Seven Stars has his own specific MESSAGE, which deals
with the WORD, and which is for his respective Church Age to keep
the Lamp of God burning in the Church (Rev.2-3).
The Seven Stars
are Seven Church Age Messengers. The Seven
Thunders are not; they are just seven chosen
endtime servants of God who are anointed to utter
their voices in respect of the Seventh Seal. (The
voices of the Seven Thunders cannot be
the voice(s) of the Five-Fold Ministry.
Remember the number “seven”. There are SEVEN Voices.)
When the Apostle
John saw the Seven Thunders
in his vision, he also heard their voices
but he was forbidden to write down what he had
heard. The reason, as we know, is to keep it a secret from Satan
who has always been an impersonator and a trouble-maker of God's
plan and purpose. As such, this MYSTERY
has yet to be revealed. It will be revealed to the elect
of Christ in due course. It will be revealed at about the time
when the Lord Jesus shall appear to catch away His Bride. When the
Seven Thunders shall UTTER THEIR VOICES, it will be
the final ‘reveille’ of God to the Bride. It will be the LAST
TRUMP of God to her. “And the dead in Christ shall rise
first: then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up
together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and
so shall we ever be with the Lord” (1Thess.4:16b-17, cf.
1Cor.15:52). Amen!
Then
awake, ye saints of the Lord,
Why slumber when the end is nearing.
But get ready for
the final call!
TIME
Time has been
ordered and designed by God since the heavens and the earth were
created. It was originally designed to regulate the life cycle of
all His creations. But after the Fall of man, time has become the
measuring rod which measures the life and existence of man against
the infinite and immense universe. Since time immemorial, man has
always felt that TIME is on his hands as he continues to dream and
search for Utopia. To the True Believers of God, the dream will
soon become a reality because that Mighty Angel of
Revelation 10 has sworn (unto the Creator) that time should no
longer delay
the completion of the work of redemption and the execution of
judgment upon the earth. According to God's Prophetic Hourglass,
the countdown for this event has begun and it will culminate in His
Son's Return to judge the world. This great event will come as a
shocking surprise to the majority of people all over the world. It
will be welcome only by a very small group of people who are the
elect of God. Many people would either wish that they had died or
that they had been more watchful and prayerful. However, as much as
they would wish, everything would be irreversible by then.
TIME SHOULD NO LONGER TARRY
Now, from the
prophecies in the Bible, we know that after the Rapture of
the Bride, the Gospel will be returned to the Jews. But according
to THE VISION of the Final Events in Revelation 10, John did
not see the closing of the Gentile Age after the Seven
Thunders had uttered their voices. He was
told by a voice from Heaven not to write down what the
Seven Thunders had uttered. Logically, the Gentile
Age should end then so that the Gospel might again be preached
to the Jews by the Two Witnesses (Rev.11). However, he said:
“And the angel which I saw stand upon the sea and upon the land
lifted up his hand to heaven, and sware by him that liveth for ever
and ever, who created heaven, and the things that therein are, and
the earth, and the things that therein are, and the sea, and the
things which are therein, that there should be time no longer:”
Looking closely
at Revelation 10 one cannot help but notice that the Prophetic
Time and Events in this vision were sort of ‘interrupted’
when the Apostle John was told by the voice
from Heaven not to write down what the Seven Thunders
had uttered. In reality, the
Prophetic Time and Events
did not stop but in this vision of John they were sort
of ‘being held in abeyance’. This state of suspension
is just like a parenthesis that is being inserted to show the Bible
reader something important.
Because of the nature of the events, the whole chapter of
Revelation 10 can be separated into two main divisions.
Verses 1 to 4 form the first
division and verses 5 to 11 form the second division.
The vision in the
second division actually provides the true believers a bearing on
how the Final Events will literally be accomplished in full.
This division, in itself, can further be divided into three
separate parts ―
verses 5-6, verse 7 and verses 8-11. The three parts should be
correctly understood in order to get the correct revelation of the
whole chapter of Revelation 10.
Now, after the
voice from Heaven told John to “seal up those things
which the Seven Thunders uttered, and write them not”, the
Mighty Angel raised His right hand to heaven, and swore
in the Name of the Creator of Heaven and the Earth, and said: “There should be time no longer!”.
Why did the
Mighty Angel do
that? And what did he mean when He said that “there should be
time no longer”?
The answers are
found within Revelation 10 itself. According to THE VISION,
the Mighty Angel
had already made His claim of the Earth when He descended from Heaven. But because
John was not permitted to
record the revelation of the Seven Thunders, the Prophetic Time and Events
were sort of ‘suspended’, and
the claim of the Mighty Angel
was not realized. Hence, the Mighty
Angel swore by the Creator that “there should be time no
longer”.
The sentence “THERE SHOULD BE TIME NO LONGER”
would be better translated or
paraphrased as “TIME SHOULD NO LONGER TARRY” or “TIME
SHOULD NO LONGER DELAY OR RESPITE”. [Some translations render
it as “TIME SHOULD NOT INTERVENE” or “THE TIME OF WAITING
IS OVER”.] This would give us a better understanding that the
Mighty Angel was proclaiming that TIME SHOULD NOT DELAY
THE REALIZATION OF HIS CLAIM OF THE EARTH. Per se, the time
allotted for the preaching of the Gospel of Salvation to the
Gentiles will have to end first before the Gospel can be returned to
the children of Israel. And beloved, we do not have to wait very
long for those Seven Thunders to utter their
voices and transform the Bride before her
home-going to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. However, a
question arises: HOW DO WE KNOW THE TIMES AND THE SEASONS THAT THESE
PROPHETIC EVENTS WOULD TAKE PLACE?
TIMES AND SEASONS
The oath of the Mighty Angel provides the answer to that question:
“There should
be time no longer: BUT IN THE DAYS OF THE VOICE OF THE SEVENTH
ANGEL, WHEN HE SHALL BEGIN TO SOUND, THE MYSTERY OF GOD SHOULD BE
FINISHED, AS HE HAD DECLARED TO HIS SERVANTS THE PROPHETS”
Yes, “IN THE
DAYS” of the ministry of the Seventh Angel (to the Laodicean Church Age) when he shall begin to
sound forth his voice
–
his message
–
the “Mystery of God”, which He had made known to His
prophets of old, should (ought to) be finished (accomplished,
fulfilled). And when that happens, time shall no longer delay
the return of the Lord's Christ.
In his first
letter to the Thessalonian believers, concerning the Coming of
the Lord (see chapters 4 and 5), Paul said that there was no
need for him to write about the precise times and seasons when that
event would take place because they were children of light
and that that day should not overtake them like a thief coming upon
them by surprise in the night. Being sober and watchful they would
surely know when it would take place.
Paul's admonition
is certainly applicable to the present generation which will see the
Second Advent of Christ. This is the very time and season
that every true child of God, who walks in the Light of God's Word,
will not only witness the visitation of God but also feel His PAROUSIA
–
His
PRESENCE, His COMING –
which will hasten the Day of the Lord.
The clear
message sounded (uttered)
by the Seventh Church Age Messenger marked the beginning
of the times and the seasons when the “Mystery of God”
would be brought to a close (finished, accomplished,
fulfilled). For in sounding forth that Message, the Star-Messenger
was actually giving forth a SHOUT, a MIDNIGHT CRY
―
“Behold the Bridegroom cometh! Come ye out to meet Him!”
(1Thess.4:16; Matt.25:6).
“MYSTERY OF GOD”
―
“GRAFTING OF THE GENTILES”
What is the “Mystery of God”
in Revelation 10:7? Many followers of the
Message of the hour believe that it refers to all the (prophetic and
spiritual) MYSTERIES contained in the Bible. Others believe that it
is the doctrine on how God became a man.
The “Mystery
of God” is actually hinted in the Old Testament. It has
been wrapped in mystery in the prophecies, by the prophets, on how
God would show His Mercy to the Gentiles. In the New Testament,
Paul revealed that God had made known to him this mystery, which was
hid before the foundation of the world, “that the Gentiles should
be fellow heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of His promise
in Christ by the Gospel” (Eph.3:6). Hence, the “Mystery
of God” is the period of time which God had allocated for the grafting of the Gentiles into His Promised Word
just as He
had declared to His servants, the (Old Testament)
prophets. Read Romans 9:6-8; 16:25-26; Ephesians 2:11-3:11; Genesis
12,15,17; Isaiah 42:6; 49:6; 60:3; Galatians 3:16-18.
Now, the purpose
of that precious message of the Seventh Church Age Messenger is to
separate the Wheat from the Tares, and the
True Believers from the Make-believers and Unbelievers. (Read
Matthew 13.) It aims to lead the Elect out of darkness and out of
the bondage of the world and its religious systems into God's Divine
Word. The religious systems of the Mother Harlot and her
Daughters (Catholicism and all ‘isms’ associated with her
―
Protestantism, Pentecostalism, Charismaticism, Ecumenism, etc.)
have already been judged when they rejected the Truth. By and by,
they will “become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every
foul spirit, and a cage of every unclean and hateful bird” (Rev.18:2). And as the true elected members of the Body of Christ
are being gathered into the WORD, the “Mystery of God” (which
is the Dispensation of Grace) shall be drawn to a close. So,
the “Mystery of God”
should be (not is) finished. Yes, the
grafting of the wild olive tree should be accomplished. And “until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in”
the Gospel
cannot be returned to Israel. (Read Romans 11.)
[Note: It is
clear that in the “Mystery of God” the Gentile Church has
become a part of THE COVENANT
which God had made with Abraham, and which He had
declared unto His Old Testament prophets. So, would anyone
dare to deny that the Lord Jesus Christ, in His role as the MIGHTY ANGEL OF THE COVENANT
(of Revelation 10), has no
relationship with the Gentile Bride?]
“IN THE DAYS OF THE VOICE OF THE SEVENTH ANGEL”
Having
established the identity of the Mighty Angel, we have
come to understand that THE VISION of Revelation 10 is a vision of
the Final Events which would take place at the closing of the
Church Ages before the beginning of the 70th Week of
Daniel, during which time God will deal with the Jews. Besides
the revelation that the Mighty Angel is Christ, Who will come and
claim His right to the Earth, we also know that the Seventh Angel
is the last Church Age Messenger (Rev.10:7). This further
proves that the vision relates to the ‘last days’ of the Church Ages.
We shall now take
a look at the Seventh Angel of Revelation 10:7. Those who
understand Malachi 4:5-6 would recognize that the ‘Elijah’ (a
Prophet-Seer), who fulfilled the second half of that dual prophecy
―“to
turn the heart
(faith) of the
children (of God) to their (apostolic) fathers”
–
was also the Seventh Angel (Grk: Aggelos
–
Messenger) to the Laodicean Church Age recorded in Revelation
3:14. And the late William Marrion Branham was that Prophet-Seer
and Star-Messenger of God.
However, there
are some who have not come to grips with the fact that the Seventh Angel
of Revelation 10:7 was also that same
Star-Messenger. They are confused by the words “to sound”
(in the said verse) which give the impression that the Seventh
Angel is the Seventh Trumpeting Angel of Revelation 11:15
who is sounding his trumpet. Well, he is not. Though the verb
“to sound” (Grk: salpizo ―
to trump) seems to refer to the sounding of a trumpet, the phrase “the VOICE of the Seventh Angel”
clearly points to the UTTERANCE of the Seventh Messenger. The word
“voice” comes from the Greek word “phone”. It means
“a sound,
noise, voice that is uttered; an address, saying or language”.
Simply, “the VOICE of the Seventh Angel” is the
ADDRESS (or the SAYING)
of the Seventh Church Age Messenger. The
sounding of his message is likened to a trumpet which is being blown
to call for an audience. (See example in Matthew 6:2.) The
Seventh Trumpeting Angel has NO voice (Grk: phone),
but only a trumpet (Grk: salpinx). [Note:
Undoubtedly, there is a parallel in the Seventh Church Age Angel uttering his voice and the
Seventh Trumpeting Angel blowing his trumpet. The former deals with the
Church,
while the latter deals with Israel. But, both also wind up
an age to usher in the Reign of Christ.]
Personally, I
believe that without the ministry of the Seventh Angel (Messenger), William Branham, many Christians today will never know
the times and seasons when the Lord Jesus Christ will return. O
certainly the denominational faithful could make guesses by looking
at certain signs and prophecies of Scriptures. But when we come to
realize who he was, we definitely have a clearer understanding of
the actual time and season that the Lord will return. As a man sent
from God with a message to this generation, his ministry manifested
the ‘sign of the Messiah’ and brought back “one of
the days of the Son of man” as prophesied by the Lord Jesus
Himself. (Read Luke 17:22-30.)
THE BRIDE OF CHRIST
“And the voice which I heard from heaven spake unto me again, and
said, Go and take the little book which is open in the hand of the
angel which standeth upon the sea and upon the land. And I went
unto the angel, and said unto him, Give me the little book. And he
said unto me, Take it, and eat it up; and it shall make thy belly
bitter, but it shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey. And I took the
little book out of the angel's hand, and ate it up; and it was in my
mouth sweet as honey: and as soon as I had eaten it, my belly was
bitter. And he said unto me, Thou must prophesy again before many
peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.”
This is the third
part of the second division of Revelation 10. The Voice
which spoke to John from Heaven was that of the Eternal Spirit.
Up to that stage of the vision John had already seen and heard all
that he was supposed to see and hear. When the Voice from Heaven
spoke to John again, there was actually a mystery hidden in all that
He was telling John to do.
John was
transported in the spirit into the future and shown all those
visions. Prophetically, he types the Endtime Living Bride who
will not only be raptured
but will also see and understand the revelation of what John had seen. John was also told by the
Voice of the Eternal Spirit to take the “little open book” from the hand of the
Mighty Angel and eat it. This
clearly shows that he types
the Endtime Bride who is willing to obey the Voice of the
Eternal Spirit and eat of the Book of Life.
Remember, the “little book”
is the title-deed to the possession of the earth
and Eternal Life. And Christ has paid the full price for the right
to that book which is now opened in his hand. Spiritually, it is the
Book of Redemption, the Book of Life. It is the
Original Word of God, the Word of Life, which is NOW
fully opened up and being revealed to His Bride as the Age of
Redemption quickly
draws to a close.
Notice that the
OPEN BOOK was in the HAND of the Angel of the Covenant. Upon God's
instruction John went up to Him and asked, “Give it to me.”
And it was given to him. This proves God's Promise, that He will
give to anyone who asks, to be true, especially regarding the “eating”
of His Revealed Word. Notice also that the OPEN BOOK
was handed to John by the One who is the Life of the Bride. Hence,
it is the Mighty Angel
of the Covenant, Christ Himself in Angelic form, Who
is dishing out the Truth, the Original WORD of God, and the Revealed
Word of Life for the hour to the Bride. Amen! The WORD OF GOD
giving out the Word of God! He said:
“Take it, and eat it up: and it shall make thy belly bitter, but it
shall be in thy mouth sweet as honey.”
Yes, the Word of
Life will provide a delightful spiritual manna of Revelation and
Truth to the hungry Bride of Christ. It will give her a pleasant
enlightenment as she receives It. But when It gets into the inner
being of her soul and spirit where It is being digested
and assimilated, she will feel totally unpleasant
and uncomfortable. The reason is that once the
Revealed WORD is spiritually assimilated in her life
it will bring about a complete work of perfection in her whole
spiritual being. The Digested WORD will automatically
counteract every ‘poisonous’ thought, deed or belief within her.
The purpose of the process is to restore her to the original
standing that she had held when she first started off on the Day
of Pentecost.
The spirit of
‘People's rights’ is prevalent in this present age. Like the people
of the world, Christians too are going their own ways. But the True
Believers and Worshippers of God will follow God's Way, God's
Leadership, even if it means having to swallow their ‘self’
pride. Since they have been led out of the man-made systems, by the
voice of the Seventh Angel, and placed back into the WORD,
they will now have to ‘clean house’ and get strictly in line with
the WORD. “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by EVERY WORD
that proceedeth out of the mouth of God” (Matt.4:4). They
should now literally live by this verse just as the Mighty
Angel had told
John to “EAT UP THE BOOK”. That's right, eat the Whole
BOOK!
However, who will
be feeding the Bride of Christ with the Whole Word of God when the
Seventh Church Age Messenger has already been called home?
The answer lies
in the last verse of the third part of the second division of
Revelation 10.
…AND HER MINISTRY
As the Body of
Christ, the Bride has a Ministry. John was told that he “must
prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and
kings”. This clearly shows that the Bride will manifest her
ministry. John is a type of the Endtime Bride who has
a
True Ministry ―
the Ministry of the Ascension Gifts of Jesus Christ
(Eph.4:1-16).
The statement of
Revelation 10:11 is undoubtedly a dual prophecy. The scope
of that statement is prophetically for our days though John probably
did prophesy for a few years upon his release from exile.
The ‘Ascension
Gifts’ Ministry is commonly called the Five-Fold Ministry.
This ministry had not been able to achieve its purpose (as described
by Paul in Ephesians 4:12-16) during the past Church Ages because the Church, having fallen deeply into error, had not been
restored back to the Original Word. Of course, according to God's
plan, it was not time yet for the restoration then. So, until the
Church is restored to the Original Word the True Five-Fold Ministry
will not be in full operation.
However, now
that the Elect is called back to the Original Word, the perfecting
of the True Church by the Five-Fold Ministry is now being fulfilled.
Christ will perfect His Bride by the gifts He has set in the Body of
True Believers.
Answering a
question put forth to him during a meeting, Brother Branham said, “Would the Bride of Christ have a ministry before the Rapture?
Sure. That's what's going on right now. Certainly! It is the
Message of the hour. And the Bride of Christ consists of Apostles,
Prophets, Evangelists, Pastors, and Teachers. Is that right?
That's the Bride of Christ, she's got a ministry
–
a great ministry –
the ministry of the hour. It'll be so humble…”
PUTTING THE PIECES TOGETHER
Now that we have
an understanding of each of the three parts of Revelation 10:5-11 we
can piece them together with Revelation 10:1-4 and see the overall
events that are taking place in this final hour of the closing age
of Laodicea.
The Mighty
Angel descending to earth is not the Rapture
nor the Return of Christ on Mount Olivet but the Mysterious Coming of Christ in Spiritual (Word) form. By divine
revelation, we have identified the Mighty Angel
as the personification of Jesus Christ in Angelic form.
Again, let me
emphasize: Revelation 10 is the MYSTERIOUS COMING of Christ in
Angelic form. It is not
Christ's return to Israel on Mount Olivet or His coming in
the Rapture. The former teaching is based upon the wrong
notion that the title ‘Angel of the Covenant’
relates only to Israel and never to the Gentiles. This
teaching is false as we have already established. On the other
hand, the latter teaching is based upon the ‘fact’ that the
Seventh Seal is
first seen opened in chapter 8 before Christ comes bodily for His
Church in chapter 10. Both teachings are based on the wrong idea
that the Seven Seals are opened in this age. The Truth is
that the opening of the Seven Seals took place in Apostle
John's days but the Revelation of the (open) Seven
Seals took place in our days. Remember, there is an opening, a
revealing and a fulfilling of the Seals.
As I have also
mentioned before, the Second Advent of Christ, like His First Advent, will take place within
a given space of time.
During this period the PRESENCE (Grk: PAROUSIA, sometimes
translated as COMING) of CHRIST will be unfolded to the Chosen few
as He comes in WORD FORM to make Himself known to them. This
REVELATION (Grk: APOKALUPSIS)
of CHRIST THE WORD to the Bride will precede His GLORIOUS PHYSICAL
APPEARING (Grk: EPIPHANEIA) to meet her in the air. So, in
His Second Advent, CHRIST would first DESCEND from Heaven to
the Earth in Word (Spiritual) form as He was revealed in Angelic
(Word) form in John's vision.
The DESCENT of
the Mighty Angel from Heaven to the Earth involved a period of time. And, it was during this period that the
SHOUT of 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17 was first uttered by the
Seventh Church Age Messenger to call the Elect out of Satan's
worldly and religious systems of deception, ‘darkness’ and
‘bondage’. The SHOUT message is the first of the
three phases in the Second Advent of Christ to earth. The
other two are the VOICE OF THE ARCHANGEL, and the
LAST TRUMP.
We have to look
into what the late William Branham said about the various phases of
the Second Advent of Christ in order to understand the
three-fold mystery that is in the Seventh Seal
in relation to Revelation 10. The Seventh Seal
deals with the Coming of Christ, and Revelation 10
forms a great part of the Seventh Seal. It deals with
the
Final Events which will transpire before the Gospel would be
returned to the Jews. We shall now make a comparison of what
the late William Branham had said with the revelation of the Apostle
Paul, the First Church Age Messenger, as recorded in 1
Thessalonians 4:13-17 and 1 Corinthians 15:51-53 so that the whole
picture can be viewed clearly and correctly.
THE THREE-FOLD MYSTERY OF THE SEVENTH SEAL
To the Endtime
Message believers the Seventh Seal is commonly known as
the ‘Endtime Seal’ or the ‘End of Time Seal’ because
this is the seal which would bring about an end to all things. As
with all the other Seals, this one also covers a period of time.
In his sermon on
the ‘THE SEVENTH SEAL’
(see pages 557, 568, 575 and 576), Brother Branham said that
this seal had a three-fold mystery, one of which was the mystery of
the Seven Thunders. He compared this Seal with the Sixth,
and referred to Matthew 24 where he quoted what Jesus said,
concerning His Coming of which only God Himself knew, and said, “No wonder, it wasn't even written. You see, they hushed… nothing
taken place then. Angels don't know it; NOBODY KNOWS WHEN HE'S
COMING. BUT THERE'LL BE SEVEN VOICES OF THESE THUNDERS THAT WILL
REVEAL THE GREAT REVELATION AT THAT TIME. So, I believe… if we
don't know it, and it won't be known till that time. But it will be
revealed in that day, in that hour that it's supposed to be revealed
in. So, the thing for us to do is to be reverent before God and
serve Him, and do all that we know how to do, and live good
Christian lives.”
This is clearly
what Brother William Branham had taught, that Revelation 10 deals
with the Coming of Christ. The declaration of the
Mighty Angel in the same chapter also points to His
Coming. And the Seventh Seal
is about His Coming.
In his first
epistle to the Thessalonian believers, the Apostle Paul wrote that
the Coming of Christ would be in three phases.
He declared: “For the Lord Himself shall DESCEND from Heaven with
A SHOUT, with THE VOICE OF THE ARCHANGEL, and with THE TRUMP OF
GOD…” (1 Thess.4:16). Simply, Christ shall descend from Heaven
with A SHOUT to be followed by THE VOICE OF THE
ARCHANGEL and THE TRUMP OF GOD (or THE
LAST TRUMP as stated in 1 Corinthians 15:52). After the
sounding of THE LAST TRUMP, the bodies of both the dead and
living saints will be transformed before they shall meet the Lord in
the air.
Meditate
upon it for
awhile. If the voices of the Seven
Thunders are a part of the three-fold mystery of the Seventh Seal, and if the
SHOUT of 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17
is the message of the Seventh Church Age Messenger, while the
LAST TRUMP of 1 Corinthians 15:51-53
is the bodily change of the dead and living saints just before the
Rapture, then the Seventh Seal,
1 Thessalonians 4:13-17,
and 1 Corinthians
15:51-53 must all be related to the same event ―
the Second Advent of Christ.
Therefore the
three-fold mystery of the Seventh Seal is actually the
three-fold mystery of the Coming of Christ for his Bride as revealed
by Apostle Paul in 1 Thessalonians 4:13-17. The mystery of the
SHOUT, the VOICE OF THE ARCHANGEL, and
the (LAST)
TRUMP OF GOD in this passage of Scriptures will always
remain a mystery to the nominal Christians who have always believed
that Jesus will suddenly appear, without any warning, to give an
angelic shout and a trumpeting sound, and take them to the Marriage Supper of the Lamb. But the Bride knows that
the
Coming of Her Bridegroom covers a period of time (as in
the Ancient Oriental Marriage Customs and Traditions), when the Word would first
pave the way for the Bridegroom and prepare the Bride, to
make her ready, for the Bridegroom
to receive her in marriage. Then after a period of
nuptial bliss, the Bridegroom would take His Wife to His
Father's House for the Grand Wedding Feast.
ANCIENT WEDDING CUSTOMS AND TRADITIONS
In order to have
a clear picture of Christ's Second Advent, we must have an
understanding of the Ancient Oriental Wedding Customs and
Traditions. In Ancient Oriental Wedding, a Betrothal would normally
precede the actual Wedding itself. After the Betrothal, a date
would be fixed for the Marriage. The Wedding Ceremonies would vary
depending on the distance between the homes of the couple. The
Ancient Oriental Wedding was an elaborate affair and normally lasted
for many days. It was usually conducted in three phases.
The following is a brief description of a Marriage of a couple
living far apart from each other.
i)
On the appointed day the groom would put on his best garments and a
beautiful headdress (not a crown) and set off from his home
in a Wedding Procession led by the friend of the bridegroom. The
procession, comprising of musicians, friends and relatives, some
bearing gifts and firebrands, would usually take place after sunset
at EVENING TIME. The friend of the groom would reach the
vicinity of the bride's home ahead of the procession, with a
message, to herald the coming of the bridegroom. He would be
carrying a firebrand (torch) as the surrounding would be in
semi-darkness by then. Upon reaching the vicinity of the bride's
home, he would announce the arrival of the bridegroom: “Behold!
The bridegroom cometh! Come ye out to meet him!” Amidst the
noise, gaiety and brightness (caused by the torches) of the
procession behind him, his message declared the PRESENCE of
the bridegroom. Even though the bridegroom might still be way back
in the procession, his PRESENCE would inevitably be felt. The
SHOUT of the forerunner was an announcement and a sign to the
bride to get ready and be prepared to meet her beloved. By then,
she should have been beautifully dressed up in the Wedding Garments
provided by the bridegroom and be eagerly looking forward to the
meeting.
ii)
The Wedding would take place with a renewal of the Marriage vow.
There would be much feasting and gaiety throughout the evening and
night. Later in the night the couple would then be escorted to
their Nuptial Chamber. Here, in the privacy of the chamber as well
as in the ‘canopy’ of the groom's love, the bride, who was heavily
veiled throughout the wedding ceremony, would be unveiled by her
beloved. Intimacy between them would follow and end in a physical
union to consummate their marriage. In the process, the bride's
virginity would be uncovered and a proof obtained. The Bride would
then become the Wife. The Marriage Feast and Nuptial Love of the
bridegroom and his bride-wife might continue for several days.
iii)
After the Wedding and Nuptial Ceremonies, the groom would take his
wife home to his father's house. They would be dressed up in Fine
Linen. In the house of the groom's father, the Marriage of the
couple would culminate in a Grand Wedding Feast.
Remember, the
vision of the final events consists of the following:
i)
the Mystery of the
Marriage of the Lamb which takes place on earth (2 Cor.11:2;
Rev.19:6-7), ii)
the Ministry of the
Seventh Star-Messenger (Rev.10:7; Rev.3:14-22),
iii)
the Revelation of
the Sealed Book (Rev.5),
iv)
the Ministry of the
Ascension Gifts (Eph.4:11-16), and
v)
the Final Call to
the Bride for the Rapture to the Marriage Supper of the
Lamb in heaven (1 Cor.15:51-53;
1 Thess.4:13-17;
Rev.19:8-9). All these can be seen in the types of the Ancient
Oriental Wedding Customs and Traditions.
THE FIRST PHASE
― THE
SHOUT
Now, the SHOUT
is the message of the Seventh Church Age Messenger.
Being the last of the Seven Messengers to the Grace Age, Brother
Branham was also a Forerunner of Christ's Return just
as John the Baptist was a Forerunner of Christ's First
Advent. The Second Advent of Christ consists of
Christ's Coming to claim His Bride in Spiritual Marriage and
His Physical Appearing in the ‘Rapture’ to take her home to
his Father's House.
As a type of the
Ancient Oriental Marriage Customs and Traditions, this Spiritual
Marriage of the Lamb of God also takes place at the evening time.
And, the time that we are living in is the ‘evening
time’, not because it is the closing of the Grace Age
but because these ‘latter days’ had been predestinated of
God for Christ to come and take His Bride in Spiritual Marriage.
[Note: ‘Darkness’ existed in every Church Age. Hence a STAR
was sent to each age to light up the Way of Truth. But only in the
Seventh Church Age do we have the ‘evening time’ setting. ‘Evening time’
and ‘evening light’ are necessary for the
Wedding ceremonies to be conducted. And then the bright ‘Morning
Star’ (Rev.22:16) will come dawning upon His Bride and take her
in Wedlock.] The Star-Messenger, a Friend of the Bridegroom,
was sent ahead of the Mighty Angel's descent to earth to meet His
Bride. Notice that the Mighty Angel, as the
Word-Groom, was seen wearing a beautiful ‘seven-colored’ wedding
headdress rather than a crown of gold. (Read Song 3:11;
Isa.61:10b.) As a STAR, Brother Branham was sent to pave the way.
He carried an EVENING LIGHT message for the Bride to get her ready
for the Marriage. (Read Psm.45:13-14; Jer.2:32.)
This herald of
Christ's Coming in Angelic form took place around the years 1956 to
1963. It was about that period that the Voice of the Seventh
Angel began to sound: “Behold! The Bridegroom
cometh! Come ye out to meet Him!” The SHOUT of the
VOICE of the Seventh Angel
caused a stir among the churches. Practically
everyone hushed to listen but only the Elect truly “hath an ear
to hear what the Spirit saith to the churches.” The Truth set
the Elect free. Their denominational shackles were broken and they
walked out of their religious traditions and dogmas into the
Original Word and Light of God. (This ‘evening light’ message is
still calling out to gather in the last few staggering Elect.)
When the Seventh Church Age
Messenger (Rev.3:14) proclaimed his Message,
he was to achieve two things. Firstly, as the Endtime
‘Elijah’, his message was to turn the hearts of the children
of God back to the faith of their Apostolic Fathers, according
to Malachi 4:5-6. Secondly, as his ministry was placed in the period
of the Coming of Christ (Rev.10:7), he was also
given the REVELATION of the Seven Seals to show to the Endtime Bible
believers so that they might be able to discern the time and the
season that they were living in. These two things were done by
Brother Branham. In so doing, he was proclaiming the Coming
of Christ. He sounded the MIDNIGHT CRY (Matt.25:6).
His message pointed to the Word-Groom's ARRIVAL and
PRESENCE (Grk: PAROUSIA). The various
supernatural signs and gifts marked His PRESENCE. His
PRESENCE then brought the REVELATION (Grk: APOKALUPSIS) of THE
WORD Itself. The times and seasons were made clear to the Elect.
When the members
of the Bride came out of denominationalism to receive the
WORD(-Groom) they also received many blessings and gifts from the
Lord. Among them was the REVELATION of the Book which was sealed
with Seven Seals. She was given the understanding of the REVELATION,
even as its Seals were opened to the Beloved Apostle, John.
However, the Elect should not focus their eyes on the “little
book”. They should now cast their eyes steadfastly on the
prominent MIGHTY ANGEL
Who is their Beloved WORD-GROOM.
THE SECOND PHASE
― THE
VOICE OF THE ARCHANGEL
After the
churches were indicted for rejecting the PRESENCE of the
WORD, the Word-Groom and His Bride entered into the Spiritual
Marriage. It took place approximately during the period 1963 to
1965. The Bride ‘renewed’ her vow to her Beloved. There was much
feasting of the Spiritual Manna spread on the table of God. There
were also much rejoicing and dancing in the Spirit of the Lord.
Now, as long as the Friend of the Word-Groom was around, the
GROOM and the BRIDE could not have any intimacy yet. The reason
being that he was an ‘important’ person who was chosen as a Steward to ensure the proper conduct of the whole event. He was
not only a Friend of the Groom, but also His Companion, His
Messenger, and His ‘Governor’ of the wedding feast. And as ‘Governor’ of the
feast his duty was to see to it that the guests were adequately
provided with ‘food and drinks’. All these were commissioned
by his Master. (Read John 2.)
Having finished
his work as a Steward of the WORD-GROOM, the Seventh
Angel-Messenger's presence was no longer necessary. (He
was told to ‘go home’.) Then the WORD-GROOM and His BRIDE
entered into the Spiritual Nuptial Chamber of the WORD OF GOD.
They have been in there since around 1966.
Since then the
Bride-Wife has gradually become mellowed. However, it will be many
more days before she finally makes herself ready to be a WIFE.
And as long as the Marriage upon this earthly home of the Bride-Wife
lasts, as predestinated by the GROOM's Father, the SPIRITUAL
NUPTIALS (feasting and love-making) will continue. (Read
Gen.29:27; Jdg.14:12.)
The Nuptial
(Marriage) Chamber in Hebrew is called ‘Chuppah’.
It means ‘COVERING, PROTECTION and DEFENCE’ (cf.
Matt.23:37; Phil.1: 3-21; Eph.6:17), and represents the BRINGING
HOME OF THE BRIDE. It is the HOME of the Word-Groom. And
THE ORIGINAL WORD is the ‘Chuppah’ of God. The Word-Groom
takes His Bride into It and she is safe for what It provides. It is
in here that the Bride (the True Church) is identified as the
Word-Groom turns on the (SON)LIGHT of the FULL REVELATION of Himself.
And the Invisible Union of the Heavenly Bridegroom and the
Earthly Bride begins. (Read Gen.29:21-25; Deut.22:13-21;
Matt.25:12.)
The VOICE
OF THE ARCHANGEL is the VOICE of our BELOVED. He is now
speaking to the Bride! And whatever goes on in the ‘Chuppah’
of God between the Word-Groom and His Word-Bride is hidden from the
eyes of the world.
Notice. WITHIN
the ‘CHUPPAH’ OF GOD the BRIDE is being mellowed by the SON-LIGHT
(Morning Star or Daystar). She is locked in deep
Spiritual embrace with her Beloved in her new relationship as His
WIFE.
Consider the
words of this song:
“Into Thy
Chamber, be free Holy Spirit;
Speak
to me gently as You close the door.
Heavenly Lover, let Thy Presence cover;
Shekinah unending is all I long for.”
And on the
OUTSIDE, the EVENING LIGHT
is still brightly lit and a flurry of activity continues.
Pause a moment
here. Do you recognise the significance of the activities that are
taking place now? If you are a member of the Bride of Christ, where
are you now in the final events? Are you now inside the ‘Chuppah’
of God being mellowed by the SON-LIGHT, or are
you still outside the ‘Chuppah’ and clinging on to the EVENING LIGHT
(with
all the blessed events and things that had accompanied it)? In this
hour of time, are you standing upon the WORD and walking in the SON-LIGHT
of God, or are you standing upon the words of a man,
an organization or a church? Has the DAYSTAR arisen in your
heart, or are you still in the VENING LIGHT, away from the ‘Chuppah’
and feeding only upon the words of the historical
Evening Time Messenger, William M. Branham, and trying to figure
out what he had said as you mess around with his sermon tapes
and books? (Read and ponder what John the Baptist said in John
3:27-36.)
Yes, this is the
EVENING TIME. This is the Laodicean Age. But the
Bride is not in it. She is not in that realm. She
has been lifted up into another dimension which is parallel
to the Laodicean Age. She is in the Token Age or the
Eagle Age. It is a dimension
where the BRIGHT AND MORNING STAR (or DAYSTAR) shines
ever so brightly for the Bride. The SON has arisen in her heart.
The FULL LIGHT is in the ‘Chuppah’ of God to mellow and
perfect her. The
VOICE of the ARCHANGEL (Strong Angel, Chief Angel, Mighty
Angel) is the VOICE of the Word-Groom to the Bride. He is the
ONLY ONE Whose FACE the Bride is NOW BEHOLDING! As the
ARCHANGEL of the COVENANT His VOICE (His WORD) is sounded through
His Own Ascension Gift (Eph.4) which He has given unto certain
members of His Bride. Hence, the Bride is not just eating THE WORD
to enjoy Its sweetness (revelational truth) in her mouth, she is
also willing to accept Its bitterness (bitter-healing) in her belly
to be perfected. She, too, has a Ministry. Amen. Her Ministry is
to declare the Truth to the world, both in words and in deeds. Both
the Bride and the Word Ministry are one (Rev.22:17). Blessed be the
Name of the Lord!
THE THIRD PHASE
― THE LAST
TRUMP OF GOD
“Alleluia: for
the Lord God omnipotent reigneth. Let us be glad and rejoice, and
give honor to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his
wife hath made herself ready. And to her was granted that she
should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen
is the righteousness of saints.”
–
Rev.19:6b-8
When this
prophecy comes to pass, the Earthly Bride-Wife will have gone
through the stage of being a true Wife to her Husband.
There is clearly
a difference between a bride and a wife.
However, in the Ancient Oriental Marriage Customs and Traditions, when a bride
had made herself ready as a wife, she would be
given a CHANGE of dress made of Fine Linen. Then she would be
taken to the house of her husband's father to be presented as
WIFE of the man who would also be dressed in fine linen. She
would then sit as a ‘queen’ next to her ‘king’ at the
head of the supper table. (Read Esther 2.) [Note: This is very
similar to another custom in which a male child has to be tutored
and trained before his father would accept and positionally place
him as a son before the people. Read
Galatians 4:1-7.]
“The WIFE hath
made herself ready for the Marriage Supper of the Lamb!”
Yes, without
a doubt, the Word-Bride of Christ must now make herself ready.
In the ‘CHUPPAH’ of God and in the PRESENCE
of the Word-Groom she must now strip off all the carnal ideas
and man-made garments which are still with her. She must submit
herself completely to the desires of the Word-Groom as her
Husband, in order to be perfected and be presented as WIFE at the
HOME of the Groom's Father. The secret of that home-going will be
made known to her here when the LAST TRUMP of God takes place.
It will be the final phase of the Seventh Seal.
The Seven Thunders will appear on the scene and utter
their voices. Although the voices will be heard
around the world only the members of the Bride-Wife will have
the ears to hear what the voices shall utter. (The Bride-Wife
will receive a revival in the power of the Spoken
Word of God in the Last Trump. Brother Branham
said, “Wait 'til them seven thunders utter their voices to that
group who really can take the Word of God and hand it there!”
[The Fourth Seal, pg.304])
Yes, the REVELATION of the
VOICES of the Seventh Thunders
will be a secret to the world but it will be known to
the Bride-Wife who will “hath made herself ready” for
her TRANSFORMATION by then. It will be around the time just
before the Word-Groom appear in all His Beauty, Power, and Great
Glory in the air and say, “Arise, My Love, My Fair One, Come
away! Come up hither, and let us return to My Father's House!”
Then the TRANSFORMATION shall occur,
“in a moment, in a twinkling of
an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead
shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed. For this
corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on
immortality” (1 Cor.15:52-53). Amen. For
“to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen,
clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints”
(Rev.19:8). The Word-Wife of the Word-Husband will
be changed and be dressed in Fine Linen, Clean and White,
to testify of her righteousness in her Husband. And He will bring
her to His Father's House to receive her reward (Rom.14:10-12).
With a Crown of Life upon her head she will sit as a Wife and Queen
beside her Husband and King, the Lamb of God, at the head of the
Final Grand Marriage Supper Table in the presence of the holy
angels. The Marriage of the Lamb
will culminate in this great event.
When this grand
final event takes place in Heaven, the Gospel of Christ will be ‘off
the mercy seat’ for the Gentiles on the earth. It will be returned
to the Jews through Two Witnesses whom God will send (Rev.11;
Zech.4:2-3, 10-14).
[Note: According
to the parable of Jesus, in Matthew 25:1-13, there are “foolish
virgins”. They are foolish because they lack the commonsense
perception of what they should do while waiting for the arrival of
the bridegroom. Their failure in not carrying oil in their vessels,
except in their lamps, testifies of their imprudent ordering of
their lives in regard to something as important as meeting the
bridegroom. Is this not what we are seeing today among the
Christians? No, I am not talking about the Ecumenists, Modernists,
Hollywood Evangelicals, ‘Jezebels’, etc., but those who claim to be
born again, especially those who claim to believe in the Endtime
Message. What is their perception of the reality of things
spiritual? Are not their reckless and inconsiderate habit of mind
to the Truth manifesting the folly of their lives as ‘virgins’ in
regard to their faith? Are they not truly foolish?
Friend, what
about you? If you fail to enter into the Marriage of the Lamb
now, like the “foolish virgins”, one of these days, you too
will find it too late when the ‘door’ is shut. And you will find
yourself cast into the “outer darkness” of the Great
Tribulation that will soon come upon this world.]
UTOPIA AND NEW HEAVEN AND NEW EARTH
After the Great Tribulation, Christ and His Saints will return to earth.
They will come riding on white horses. They will mete out vengeance
upon the wicked and judge the world (Zech.14:4; Rev.19: 11-18;
20:4). Then the earth will be cleansed of all sins and wickedness as
God brings about a restoration of the earth to its Edenic
condition. It will be like an Utopian World (Isa.65:18-25).
This age is known as the Age of Regeneration (Matt.19:28), an age
in which Christ and His Wife will reign over the earth. And the
long awaited event –
the MANIFESTATION OF THE SONS OF GOD
–
will be fulfilled in this age. All the members of the Bride will be
manifested as sons and daughters of God (Rom.8:18-23). They will
all be positionally placed by God Who, in His Infinite Power and
Knowledge, has predestinated according to His Own Will and good
pleasure before the foundation of the world (Eph.1:3-14).
Beloved, whatever
we have potentially right now
–
as sons and daughters of God –
shall become a reality. Spiritually, we are right now having
a foretaste of the reality of that age when our true
ADOPTION will be declared. And that Age of
Regeneration will be a preliminary stage of the TRUE STATE
OF UTOPIA when this present earth and the heavens around it will be
burned up to be replaced by a New Heaven and New
Earth in a re-creation (2 Pet.3:10-13).
“Wherefore,
beloved, seeing that ye look for such things, be diligent that ye
may be found of Him in peace, without spot, and blameless. And
account that the long-suffering of our Lord is salvation…”
(2
Pet.3:14-15a). Amen.
Into Thy
Chamber, be free Holy Spirit,
Speak to me gently as You close the door.
Heavenly Lover, let Thy Presence cover;
Shekinah unending is all I long for.
Come my
Beloved, be my Lord, my Master;
As I yield myself, unite me to Thee.
Let Thy Holy Word wrap 'round me I plead;
My Defence, Protection and Covering be.
