Lampstand Part 1 Bible truth is lost

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The church began well but then lost the truth

The first three Chapters of Revelation involve seven candlesticks.

What does this teach us?

It is as if the church of the New Testament was "good seed" of Bible truth that was planted by the original apostles. Then Christians became complacently asleep in a spiritual sense and error crept in because they did not insist on being strictly Scriptural.

The seed of Truth was buried in the Dark Age of Europe’s history and then germinated back to life in the Reformation of Martin Luther. The reformers formed the first blades and shoots. The church slowly struggled to get back closer to the original New Testament beliefs of the apostles.

In the end the plant will produce seed which is identical to the seed that was first planted.

But this move was always opposed by other spirits in the church that focused on one-man human leadership, unscriptural doctrines, political involvement, big-money, and pagan influences.

This clash of spirits occurred within church circles and will continue to the end.

MATTHEW 13:24 Another parable put he forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field:

:25 But while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way.

:26 But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also.

:27 So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field? from whence then hath it tares?

:28 He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him, Wilt thou then that we go and gather them up?

:29 But he said, Nay; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them.

:30 Let both grow together until the harvest: and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers, Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them: but gather the wheat into my barn.

At first sight, it seemed that the church burned equally brightly in all seven church ages.

But there were wheat and tares present.

Therefore, the church light was and is a mixture of truth and error. There were two vines in the church.

Jesus was actually only seen in the middle candlestick.

REVELATION 1:13   And in the midst of the seven candlesticks one like unto the Son of man,

The middle candlestick represents the first church age that was established by the apostles, under the inspiring leadership of Saint Paul.

II THESSALONIANS 2:3   Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; 

II THESSALONIANS 2:4   Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God.

The church first had to fall away into the filth and unbelief of the Dark Ages before Martin Luther exposed the Pope who sat in the magnificent Vatican Temple as if he were God by claiming to forgive sin by selling indulgences. God alone can forgive sin.

After that, the Protestant church had to slowly reform as they attempted to return to the beliefs of the New Testament church.

An end-time Gentile prophet, William Branham from America, would complete that restoration.

MATTHEW 17:11   And Jesus answered and said unto them, Elias truly shall first come, and restore all things.

But the end-time churches would ignore him or corrupt his teachings as they focused rather on profit.

Church history can be summed up as starting well, falling away into the Thyatira Dark Age of the church age 4.

Great reformers like Martin Luther, John Wesley, and many Pentecostal preachers then struggled to restore the church back to the original apostolic beliefs. But they were unable to understand many of the mysteries of the written Scripture. This was brother Branham's ministry.

So, if we carefully consider what Bible truth was in the church in each age, and separate that from the human traditions and deceptions, then the true light in each age looks more like this:

EVIL is moving away from Scripture. LIVE is moving towards Scripture.

Let us consider the symbol of the seven candlesticks mentioned in the first three chapters of Revelation. The first church age will be the central lampstand with the biggest flame.

We cannot improve on the teachings of Paul and the apostles. The New Testament is the way God wants the church to be.

In the first church age, God made the church the way He wanted it. Now, in the last or seventh church age, God wants the church the way He made it.

As we move further away from the central lampstand, we move further away from the apostolic truth and into the Dark Ages.

Moving away from the beliefs of the first church age can be described as EVIL.

This is described by the four churches in Revelation Chapter 2.

According to some historians there was no church in the city of Thyatira by the time John the Revelator died about the year AD 100. That church only came into existence later. So, John’s letters were not just describing events in these local churches. But also referring to future events. There was no “Balaam” nor “Jezebel” in these early churches.

These names refer back to periods in Jewish history when false leaders raised up to oppose God’s men of those time periods, who were Moses and Elijah, respectively. Significantly, they are also the names of the two witnesses who will return to Israel in the 3½ years of great Tribulation (Revelation Chapter 11) to turn the 144000 Jews to Messiah.

The church of Thyatira did not form in the days of the apostles but formed soon after. This symbolized that the church age of Thyatira, the Dark Age, was the furthest that the church backslid away from the teachings and influence of the apostles.

REVELATION 1:19 Write the things which thou hast seen, and the things which are, and the things which shall be hereafter;

John would tell us some things about the first church age that he lived in. Then John would see future revelations about the church ages and then the Jews being restored in the time of great Tribulation.

Thus the “mystery of the seven churches” means that each of the existing six churches and the soon-to-be-formed church of Thyatira had within them the characteristics of a future age that the Christian church would go through.

God wanted to push His church through seven very different sets of circumstances.

In the end, God would be able to claim that whatever adverse conditions existed, and however Satan attacked the church in fiendishly different ways, there would always be those who are able to overcome. Their testimony would prove the falseness of those people who would claim that their circumstances were too tough for them to survive as Christians, which is why they abandoned the faith. Jesus can help everybody through their particular fiery furnace if they are not prepared to bow down to what is false and unscriptural, despite severe and intense pressure to do so. God’s rule is simple, as it was in early Babylon: If you refuse to bow, God will refuse to let you burn.

Church Age 1 has the original truth

Church Age 1 began in AD 33 on the day of Pentecost.

64-0209  COUNTDOWN

He starts from His first church age, which begin at A.D. 33,

and He started the countdown. He counted His church ages.

That was the birth of the Church, on the Day of Pentecost.

Around AD 100, the last apostle, John, died, and ambitious human leaders began to rise in the church.

This was the spirit of the Nicolaitans that God hated.

Ephesus means aimed at and relaxed.

Little unscriptural errors began to creep in. One-man leadership of the church began to creep in.

People, feeling complacent, did not care about small mistakes but the trickle of error would grow into a flood in later ages.

This first church age ended during the reign of the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius (161-180 AD) when Christians were persecuted. The second church age would see much persecution of the Christians.

Approximately 3 million Christians were killed by the Roman empire from the persecution of Nero starting in AD 64 and ending in AD 312 with the persecution started by emperor Diocletian. Most of these deaths happened in the second church age from about AD 170 to AD 312.

The first church age was built on the New Testament and the doctrines of the apostles. The Word of God was their Absolute. A group of elders ruled each local church. The only name that believers had was “Christian”. There were no denominations while the apostles lived.

ACTS 20:17 And from Miletus he sent to Ephesus, and called the elders of the church.

ACTS 20:28 Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to 

all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God,

which he hath purchased with his own blood.

Paul did not put a pastor in charge of the church at Ephesus.

ACTS 20:29 For I know this, that after my departing shall grievous wolves enter in among you, not sparing the flock.

Ambitious leaders, ruthless to seize power and money, would dominate the church in later days.

ACTS 20:30 Also of your own selves shall men arise, speaking perverse things, to draw away disciples after them.

New Testament Christianity would degenerate into denominational churchianity under a one-person ruler or boss who demands that people follow what he or she says. This would be the big failure of the future church.

The first church age became the pattern of what the church should be like in all ages.

The apostles never got involved in politics. The murderous Nero was emperor in Paul’s day. Paul could have had a great time listing Nero’s faults but Paul just said that we must pray for the leaders.

Paul always boosted Christ as the fullness of the Godhead.

COLOSSIANS 2:9 For in him [Jesus] dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily.

Nero would die, so Paul ignored him, but Jesus would remain so Paul uplifted Him.

This candlestick represents the first church age of the New Testament. Our best example of a Christian church.

The New Testament church is the model church that we should be restored back to.

Church Age 2

As time moved on human leadership introduced more error as different deviations from Scripture began. Men began to call themselves by new unscriptural titles like “the bishop of Antioch”.

PHILIPPIANS 1:1 Paul and Timotheus, the servants of Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons:

There were many bishops in the city of Philippi.

The early church never had a bishop of a city.

A bishop is simply an alternative title for an elder.

57-0908  HEBREWS CHAPTER FIVE AND SIX.1

Show me by the Bible what's greater, in the Bible, than a local elder to a local church?

That's right, yes, sir, the sovereignty of the local church, each church in itself.

The local elders rule each local church.

AN EXPOSITION OF THE SEVEN CHURCH AGES. PERGAMOS. NICOLAITANES.

“Now this doctrine actually started as a deed in the first age. It appears that the problem lay in two words: 'elders' (presbyters) and 'overseers' (bishops). Though Scripture shows that there are several elders in each church, some began (Ignatius [from Antioch] among them) to teach that the idea of a bishop was one of preeminence or authority and control over the elders.

Now the truth of the matter is the word 

'elder' signifies who the person is, while the word 'bishop' signifies the office of the same man.

The elder is the man. Bishop is the office of the man. 'Elder' always has and always will refer simply to a man's chronological age in the Lord. He is an elder, not because he is elected or ordained, etc., but because he IS OLDER. He is more seasoned, trained, not a novice, reliable because of experience and long standing proof of his Christian experience.

But no, the bishops did not stick to the epistles of Paul, but rather they went to Paul's account of the time he called the elders from Ephesus to Miletus in Acts 20. In verse 17 the record states, "elders" were called and then in verse 28 they are called overseers (bishops).

And these bishops, (no doubt political minded and anxious for power)

insisted that Paul had given the meaning that 'overseers' were more than the local elder with official capacity only in his own church.

To them a bishop was now one with extended authority over many local leaders. Such a concept was neither Scriptural nor historical, yet even a man of the stature of Polycarp leaned toward such organization.”

Elders had ruled the early church, which were usually small local groups.

The word “pastor” is only mentioned once in the New Testament but condemned prophetically six times in the Book of Jeremiah. There is no Scriptural authority for a pastor to be the head of the church. (Especially since there are 45000 different types of churches today, headed by tens of thousands of pastors with different beliefs. A real spiritual swamp).

As time passed, the church began to drift away from strict New Testament standards. Religious deception was creeping in. Jesus had warned, “Take heed that no man deceive you” in Matthew 24:4, but people preferred human wisdom instead of Scripture.

Smyrna means bitterness and death. Persecution and poverty stopped the church straying too far. God commended this church age.

The unpalatable truth is that persecution and poverty are good for the church.

The church looked like it was still shining bright but some of that light was just human wisdom caused by human leaders thinking up their own ideas. Jesus and John the Baptist were not polite when they addressed the Jewish religious leaders as these leaders were leading the Jews astray. Human leaders in this second church age were starting to mislead the churches and, sadly, the truth was shrinking.

So, the second church age looked like this, in terms of truth, as the flame of Bible truth was shrinking.

Church Age 3 was where Truth got lost

The Council of Nicaea in AD 325 put the official church under the domination of a ruthless political tyrant, the Roman emperor Constantine.

He had stopped persecuting the Christians in AD 312 and the grateful Christians now accepted this murderous semi-pagan politician as the head of the church. An awful mistake.

The bishop of Rome was given vast wealth and the beautiful Lateran palace by the emperor to make sure he obeyed the emperor. Because the bishop of Rome was backed by the Roman emperor Constantine, this bishop ambitiously then wanted influence and control over other cities. Rome had been the capital of the empire so the bishop of Rome felt that he was more important than the bishops of other cities. He wanted to be the main church leader.

Unscriptural words like Trinity, Christmas, Good Friday, and Pope became the focus of the church. Political involvement entered the church and pagans were persecuted. Eventually Christians who disagreed with the Roman Catholic church were also persecuted.

Pagan traditions were dressed up in Bible terms.

Christmas, on a made-up date of 25 December that copied the birthday of the Roman sun god, was declared a church festival by Julius I, the bishop of Rome, around AD 350.

The Bible never asked us to remember the birth of Jesus.

Spreading this unscriptural Christmas as a major church doctrine and festival around the world helped to establish the authority of Rome over other churches.

The Roman bishop invented Christmas. Thus all the churches that accepted Christmas fell under the influence of Rome. Rome made the laws of Christmas. Protestants havee also fallen for this unscriptural Christmas festival.

According to Rome, it must be a big festival on a pagan day in midwinter. Thus, shepherds could not be in the fields at night as winter is far too cold outside. This was an outright denial of Scripture. They claimed the wise men went to the stable which was another denial of Scripture. This gave them the excuse to introduce presents and a star. A star must obviously be up in the air so the decorated pagan “Christmas tree” was adopted.

The wise men actually went to a house, not a stable, and saw a young Child, not a baby.

MATTHEW 2:11 And when they were come into the house, they saw the young child with Mary his mother,

The Jews went astray when they introduced the star of their god.

AMOS 5:26 But ye have borne the tabernacle of your Moloch and Chiun your images, the star of your god, which ye made to yourselves.

The pagans worshiped a star god. Except for Venus the evening and morning star, Saturn was the next brightest star to be worshiped. They did not know it was a planet in those days.

That is why they claimed the wise men followed the star to the stable. The star had nothing to do with the stable when Jesus was born. The wise men only got there two years later. But the pagan star was part of the pagan mid-winter festivals in December.

JEREMIAH 10:2 Thus saith the LORD, 

Learn not the way of the heathen,

and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven [signs of the Zodiac]; for the heathen are dismayed at them.

:3 For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe.

:4 They deck it with silver and with gold; 

they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.

A cut-down and decorated tree and a star on the top of it were standard pagan mid-winter symbols. The word Yule in the Chaldean (or Babylonian) language means child. From them we got Yuletide. Thus, mid-winter had to be the time of the birth of Jesus to keep the pagans happy.

Picking the date 25 December according to the new Roman calendar, which had been changed in 45 BC by the Roman dictator Julius Caesar, gave this Roman calendar authority over other nations. To keep the made-up Roman Catholic laws of Christmas, the people had to adopt the new Roman calendar. This gave Rome even more authority over other people.

DANIEL 7:25 And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the most High,

and think to change times

 and laws:

Eventually, in 1582, Pope Gregory 13 would finalize the changes to the calendar by introducing the February 29 leap year. Now the whole world basically uses these changes that make the times of the Roman calendar fit in exactly with the seasons of the year. The pagan Roman Caesar and the Roman Pope Gregory 13 combined to produce the best calendar. This extended the authority of the Pope over church festivals.

GALATIANS 4:9 But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are known of God,

how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements,

whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?

:10 Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.

:11 I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.

Celebrating a special day makes us waste-of-time Christians.

Annual church festivals are to be avoided. There are no special days for annual festivals.

Paul complained of their bondage to days (25th) months (December) times (Christmas time) years (every year).

By means of these clever and popular festivals, that were based on paganism, believers got taken away from the Bible to follow the laws of the Roman Catholic church. A bad mistake.

Rome changed the calendar by which we measure time.

Rome introduced the laws of the Christmas festival as well as the Ishtar eggs and Ishtar bunnies for the spring festival or sex orgy in March-April. Nine months after mid April, babies would be born in mid December, Yule time or the time of the child.

Nimrod was killed and his wife Semiramis, claiming to be Ishtar the queen of heaven, took part in the mid April spring festival orgy so that her son Tammuz was born in mid December. She claimed that this child was the resurrection of her dead husband Nimrod. A tree, if cut down, often grows again. The cut down “Christmas” tree thus symbolized Nimrod being killed and the decorations on the tree symbolized Tammuz being born as the “resurrection” of Nimrod.

A round bun represented Semiramis or Ishtar as the moon or queen of heaven. (The source of Mary worship). A † on the bun was the initial for her son Tammuz who would be born 9 months later. This was the source or inspiration of our hot cross buns.

This third church age saw the spirit of paganism infiltrate the church, using Bible words for pagan practices. Ishtar became Easter.

Hugh Hefner corrupted millions of Americans with his Playboy magazine and bunny girls. Why did he dress the women in bunny outfits? What does this tell us about the source of Easter bunnies? Bunnies are the fastest breeders. The original Ishtar sex orgy. Ishtar eggs represent the male testicles.

Again, Rome dragged us into the orbit of her wrong dates.

The Pope declared that Jesus died on a Friday afternoon. Everybody obeys Rome without even thinking.

MATTHEW 12: 40 For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale's belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and 

three nights in the heart of the earth.

To be buried for three nights means that Jesus died on Thursday afternoon. He was in the tomb for Thursday night, Friday night, and Saturday night. Then he rose on Sunday morning.

The Passover lamb was publically chosen on the 10th day and taken to the person's house and killed on the 14th day.

EXODUS 12:3 Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house:

EXODUS 12:6 And ye shall keep it up until the fourteenth day of the same month: and the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening.

Jesus was publically chosen as King by the Jews on Palm Sunday, which was the 10th day of the month.

The 14th day would then be Thursday, when He was killed.

"Good Friday" is a Roman Catholic invention, not found in Scripture.

The 15th day was the first day of the feast of unleavened bread. This was a High Day or special Sabbath.

Denomination is an unscriptural word that was taking over the church world.

Constantine showered political authority, money, and buildings on the church.

Thus, the church listened to him, not the Bible.

Pergamos means thoroughly married. The church was married to paganism, worldliness, wealth, and politics.

The church shone brightly with human opinions like the Trinity, that they argued about for centuries until they convinced almost everybody. God lost His name and they were reduced to baptizing in three titles instead of a name. They talk about the name of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost but cannot tell you what that name is. You cannot find one name for three People.

But Trinity is an unscriptural word. As a result, the Trinity God has no name.

Thus, the third church age looked like the above candlestick, in terms of truth.

Trinity was the first time that they made an unscriptural word an official doctrine. Today they use that as an excuse for any other unscriptural word. Their argument is:

"If Trinity is unscriptural and it is the truth then any other unscriptural word like Christmas (for example) must also be the truth".

Thus, unscriptural truth spreads like a virus.

This is how the third church age looked.

Church Age 4

REVELATION 13:2 ... and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority.

The Roman emperor Constantine gave the Lateran palace to the Roman bishop and it still remains the official seat of the Roman Catholic church which the popes claim to be the seat of saint Peter.

With the backing of the emperor, the Roman bishop would soon claim power over the other churches. Then he became Pope after he accepted the title of Pontifex Maximus (Pontif) as High Priest of the Babylonian mysteries. he title Pontif gave him great authority over the pagan tribes that invaded and destroyed the Roman empire.

A massive church hierarchy with unscriptural titles would grow to dominate the Dark Ages where the Bible was in Latin and not read by ordinary people.

People were often killed just for owning a Bible or for disagreeing with the Roman Catholic church.

Murdering heretics who disagreed with the Pope was regarded as normal.

This was the church age of Thyatira, which means a dominating woman. A woman symbolizes a church.

Her history is described in Revelation Chapter 17.

The awful Borgia pope represented a pit of depravity as truth was buried under dirt.

Political power, church laws, and human greed dominated the church.

The official Roman church dominated Europe and truth died before the onslaught of unscriptural church traditions and doctrines. True believers had to flee to wilderness areas. The Waldenses started in the city of Lyons but had to hide from the murderous Catholic armies in the mountains of the Alps that formed a protective wilderness for them. The Rhine and Rhone rivers are shown on the next map.

Pope, Cardinal, Metropolitan, Archbishop, and Archdeacon are all unscriptural titles but that is what ruled the church.

The church was brightly illuminated with cunning human doctrines and philosophies and money-making projects.

Chapter 2 of the Book of Revelation lists four churches.

They represent the first four church ages. Four is the middle of seven. So the fourth church age is known as the Middle Age or Dark Age, when the church ruled Europe.

The truth had steadily declined from the apostolic age to the brutal and superstitious Dark Age of churchianity which had effectively replaced Christianity. Human traditions and church doctrines had moved away from the Bible truths of the New Testament.

But in terms of Bible truth, this is how the fourth church age looked:

The fourth lamp had little Bible truth compared to the first lamp.

The first four church ages had one thing in common, a movement away from the New Testament church.