Matthew 15 - A Gentile woman's deep revelation

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Man-made church traditions corrupt our Bible faith

There is a big danger in our modern church world.

We come to Jesus for salvation and for the inspiration to do good works. Then we allow the church to guide us away from what is written in the Bible as we learn the church traditions from the church leaders. There are now over 45000 different kinds of churches, all professing to tell the truth which creates a real spiritual swamp of confusion. Under these conditions, it is no wonder that church leaders have more influence over the people than the Bible has. Unable to comprehend so many different opinions, church-goers hang desperately onto their visible leader and develop tunnel-vision that is restricted to his viewpoint which enables them to ignore any other viewpoints. Thus the church-goers can never be corrected.

MATTHEW 15:1   Then came to Jesus scribes and Pharisees, which were of Jerusalem, saying,

The Jewish religious leaders were always keen to find fault with Jesus and His disciples. These disciples plus a few more disciples who joined the early church a little later wrote down the New Testament for us. The Jewish religious leaders came to Jesus to reject Him and His thoughts, not learn from Him.

Today, church leaders still criticize, find fault, and change the King James Version of the Bible which reveals the thoughts of Jesus. They come to the Bible to reject what it says in places, rather than trying to learn what the Bible is saying. Seeking to understand what the Bible says takes a lot of hard work. That is not helped by there being over 100 different versions of the English Bible. With so many options people believe that the Bible cannot be the Absolute. So people join a church that suits them and then huddle down and hope that they are right.

It is much easier for saved church-goers to end up just obeying what their preferred church leader says, not what the Bible says.

MATTHEW 15:2   Why do thy disciples transgress the tradition of the elders? for they wash not their hands when they eat bread.

Once a religious group or church develops a man-made tradition, it becomes binding on the people.

A Jewish tradition that had developed over the years was that you had to wash your hands before eating. That way you looked clean on the outside.

But it revealed nothing about the evil motives that lurked inside the human heart.

The Jewish religious leaders were obsessed with the outer appearance of conformity to human rules.

Today, church-goers have been taught the tradition that they must celebrate Christmas, but the Bible never asks us to celebrate the birth of the Lord. But church-goers become very hostile if you dare to criticize Christmas.

MATTHEW 15:3   But he answered and said unto them, Why do ye also transgress the commandment of God by your tradition?

Yes, the disciples did disobey the man-made traditions of outer cleanliness. So, what harm is done? Our stomach acid will destroy the germs that were on our hands.

But the Jewish religious leaders were doing something far worse. They were making up man-made traditions that enabled people to disobey the Word of God. In other words, they were promoting the traditions of men to take precedence over the Word of God. Especially if the religious leaders could benefit from these made-up traditions.

Compare that with today.

Church leaders have made Christmas, the celebration of Christ’s birth, into the annual major festival of the church. Christians slavishly follow this tradition that started with Pope Julius I around AD 350.

The Pope asked us to celebrate the Lord's birth, not the Bible. So, even as non-Catholics, we do what the Pope says rather than what the Bible says. The Catholics invented the mass. Non-Catholics do not do the celebration of the mass, or so they think.

Christmas is Christ's mass. So the Catholics have fooled us and got us to celebrate a mass after all. Who said we cannot be deceived?

25 December is a false date, invented in AD 274 by the pagan Roman emperor Aurelian as the birth date of the pagan sun god. Pope Julius shamelessly copied the date as the birthdate of the Son of God. And we Protestants or non-Catholics are silly enough to fall for that tradition.

What does the Bible say about having a fixed date of the year for a religious festival?

It simply means that we are in bondage to weak and pathetic ideas.

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?

A fixed day of the year is not God’s plan.

GALATIANS 4:10    Ye observe days, and months, and times, and years.

25^th day.  12^th month. Christmas time.  Every year.

This is all wrong. The religious Christmas celebration contradicts this Scripture in Galatians.

GALATIANS 4:11   I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon you labour in vain.

When church-goers fall for a religious tradition like Christmas that is held on a fixed day of the year, then Paul fears that we have just wasted his time. We were not worth his efforts.

Breaking man-made traditions is no sin. Breaking God’s Law is deadly.

MATTHEW 15:4   For God commanded, saying, Honour thy father and mother: and, He that curseth father or mother, let him die the death.

God demands that people respect their parents.

Satan wants to contradict Scripture.

So, the really deceptive evil is to invent a man-made tradition that contradicts Scripture.

Then promote that tradition above Scripture until it is obeyed and then pretend that the Word of God can thereby be safely bypassed.

In 2020 the COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic suddenly exploded over the Christmas and New Year holidays. All those celebrations and get-togethers that were regarded as essential by the churches simply became a death trap for many. God was expressing his anger with these festivals. Brain-washed church-goers were refusing to listen because their man-made traditions are too entrenched in their minds. Like the Pharisees, they could never consider the possibility that they were wrong.

Jesus mentioned a Jewish tradition that contradicted God’s Word.

MATTHEW 15:5   But ye say, Whosoever shall say to his father or his mother, It is a gift, by whatsoever thou mightest be profited by me;

The Jews made a tradition. You can dedicate all you own as a gift to the service of God. Then it all belongs to God and you are not thus obliged to help anybody else. Not even your parents. Whatever your parents need from you, you can say that you have given it to God as a gift. Then they cannot touch it.

MATTHEW 15:6   And honour not his father or his mother, he shall be free. Thus have ye made the commandment of God of none effect by your tradition.

That way a person gives his parents nothing and thereby breaks God’s Word to honour and support his parents. He effectively curses his parents to a life of poverty. But in the eyes of the Pharisees who are the religious leaders, the man has done no wrong because he has obeyed his own made-up oath. So, their human religious traditions corrupt God’s Word.

But everything that the man dedicated to the service of God would eventually go to the religious leaders who were thus not objecting to this man-made tradition. In order to give everything to God, a man would have to give everything to the religious leaders in the end.

The Pharisees were very hypocritical. God’s commandment to look after parents had been broken but religious leaders would benefit in the future from all the money and goods that should have gone to the poor parents. Let the parents suffer now, the Pharisees will benefit in the future. Thus, the Pharisees were not complaining.

MATTHEW 15:7   Ye hypocrites, well did Esaias prophesy of you, saying,

Esaias is the Greek for the Hebrew Isaiah.

"Hypocrites" is the standard term that Jesus used when He spoke to the religious leaders of His day.

MATTHEW 23:14   Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!

Would He say the same to the church leaders of today? They have produced 45000 different types of churches with their huge variety of man-made traditions.

MATTHEW 15:8   This people draweth nigh unto me with their mouth, and honoureth me with their lips; but their heart is far from me.

ISAIAH 29:13   Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near me with their mouth, and with their lips do honour me, but have removed their heart far from me,

and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men:

Our fear of God is taught to us by humans. Thus we learn to fear humans more than God.

We, as people, say all the right words to impress other people.

We are scared of God but even more scared of the church leader.

But we do not always mean what we say.

Words prove who we want to be, but actions prove who we actually are.

We call somebody, “Brother” outwardly so that people are impressed with our politeness.

But inwardly we detest the person because he disagrees with us.

Our biggest fear is to be kicked out of our church for believing something different. We fear to disagree with the church leader and by obeying him, we bluff ourselves that we are obeying God.

It takes nothing to join the church crowd but it takes everything to stand against them.

Man-made commandments produce worship that is in vain. Basically, a waste of time

MATTHEW 15:9   But in vain they do worship me, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men.

Praising God with our mouths and performing supernatural miracles does not mean that we are worshiping or serving God.

MATTHEW 7:21   Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.

Church-goers loudly praise God but they do not seek to do His will. They are uninterested in the fact that God is trying to reveal the mysteries of Scripture at the end time. Especially when those revealed mysteries contradict church traditions.

:22     Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?

:23     And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.

Obeying Jesus, Who is the Word, is the only way that we prove our love for Him.

JOHN 14:15   If ye love me, keep my commandments.

What is it that God wants us to do in the end time?

God wants to reveal His deep mysteries to us.

DANIEL 12:4   But thou, O Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end: many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased.

The mysteries of Scripture will be revealed at the end

The fourth and last beast around the throne is an eagle with its piercing eyesight symbolizing a clear insight into the understanding of Bible mysteries.

REVELATION 4:7   And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle.

It is God’s will that we should seek an understanding of the Bible mysteries at the end.

But that will take hard work. There is no easy path to understanding Bible truth.

MATTHEW 15:10   And he called the multitude, and said unto them, Hear, and understand:

We do not hear the Bible unless we can understand what is written.

Jesus puts an emphasis on our ability to understand what He says. Understanding the Word of God as He is the Word.

The stress at the end-time is on the Bride being able to understand what God means with the mystery-symbols that He has written. We must be able to understand how the Plan of God works.

Food going into the mouth is harmless. 

Words coming out of the mouth can defile a person.

MATTHEW 15:11   Not that which goeth into the mouth defileth a man; but that which cometh out of the mouth, this defileth a man.

It is not what we eat that defiles a man.

It is the evil thoughts in the heart that inspire a man to say unscriptural things. Anything unscriptural is unbelief. The Bible is Light. Unbelief is a lack of Light, a lack of Scripture.

That is darkness in the soul which is the source of evil.

The Pharisees were careful about the food that went into their mouth. It must be very clean.

Jesus was concerned about the words that came out of their mouth.

The only really clean words that we speak are when we say Scriptural things. Not man-made ideas.

MATTHEW 15:12   Then came his disciples, and said unto him, Knowest thou that the Pharisees were offended, after they heard this saying?

The religious leaders were upset by what Jesus, the Word, said. They expected Him to agree with them. They could not handle the fact that He rebuked them.

Religious leaders are always upset when one tells them Scriptures that oppose their point of view. They easily get angry when faced with a Scripture that contradicts them. They ignore or deny or change the Scripture. They are offended that their viewpoint is opposed by Scripture. Because a man is the church leader, he expects everyone to accept his words as truth.

But Judas was also trained as a church leader.

MATTHEW 15:13   But he answered and said, Every plant, which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up.

But God's Word does not respect any person who opposes Scripture.

The only seed worth planting is the Word of God.

God will try to pull the roots of error out of our hearts now. If we do not allow Him to do that then He will throw us into great Tribulation.  That cruel ploughshare of terror will rip through our unscriptural ideas as disaster burns out our unbelief. Then, if we were saved before great Tribulation started, we will be killed in the three-and-a-half years of great Tribulation but spared on Judgement Day.

LUKE 8:11   Now the parable is this: The seed is the word of God.

Church leaders easily blind their people

Who makes the people blind to Scripture? The church leaders who preach regularly to them.

All our ideas must be based on Scripture. Everything unscriptural is going to get pulled out by the roots. That is part of the function of great Tribulation. To smash all the unscriptural ideas out of the foolish virgins who were saved but could not prove what they believed from Scripture. The violence and horror of great Tribulation will make them flee from their church leaders and their man-made church doctrines that had fooled them for so long.

MATTHEW 15:14   Let them alone: they be blind leaders of the blind. And if the blind lead the blind, both shall fall into the ditch.

In AD 70 the ditch was the destruction of Jerusalem.  Today the ditch is the oncoming great  Tribulation.

This is the sad tragedy of the Jews in Jesus' day. The most horrific destruction of a city in Roman times was the brutal attack by the Roman General Titus on Jerusalem that killed over one million Jews in AD 70. The price the Jews paid for following their leaders and rejecting Jesus. They had just relied on human leaders and had no clue how ignorant those religious leaders were of Scripture.

Today we have the same predicament. The awful Tribulation looms in the near future and we do not realize how little our church leaders understand Scripture mysteries. This is why they readily preach on unscriptural topics like Trinity, Christmas, a seven-year Tribulation, and having one person as the head of each church. Claiming that a man can be the infallible Voice of God is unscriptural.

“Blind” is the word used to describe the last church age "of the Laodiceans". They have made up their own unscriptural church beliefs. The preachers are thus responsible for the blindness of their congregations.

REVELATION 3:14   And unto the angel of the church of the Laodiceans write;

:17   and knowest not that thou art ... blind, 

Because the church leader cannot understand the Bible mysteries himself, so what hope have his poor followers got of finding the Truth?

MATTHEW 15:15   Then answered Peter and said unto him, Declare unto us this parable.

Peter kept thinking of natural cleanliness and eating natural food.

He did not yet grasp that Jesus always had a deeper meaning in what He said.

MATTHEW 15:16   And Jesus said, Are ye also yet without understanding?

Peter did not understand that what Jesus was saying applied to the Jews in a spiritual sense as well as to the future church.

It really applied to the heart of man where his deepest thinking develops.

It is our thinking that gets us into trouble, not the food we eat.

But taking ideas into our minds is a similar process to taking food into our stomachs.

Our bodies grow by depending on the nutrients that we eat.

Our faith grows by depending on the ideas that we feed our minds on. The thoughts that we pour into our minds.

MATTHEW 15:17   Do not ye yet understand, that whatsoever entereth in at the mouth goeth into the belly, and is cast out into the draught?

Natural food goes into the mouth and passes out through the digestive tract. Thus it does no real harm.

MATTHEW 15:18   But those things which proceed out of the mouth come forth from the heart; and they defile the man.

But what comes out of the mouth are the words that reveal the inner corruption of the man’s mind.

Dirty words come out of a dirty mind.

Unscriptural words come out of a mind that is not based on Scripture.

The thoughts that we have poured into our minds develop the way that we think.

The heart is the symbol of our most deeply felt agendas and motives.

MATTHEW 15:19   For out of the heart proceed evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, false witness, blasphemies:

Bad thinking produces bad motives and bad actions.

These are the evil thoughts that germinate in the human mind. These are the weeds that need to be pulled out so that the seed of God’s Word can be planted in the soul and grow.

JEREMIAH 31:12   ... and their soul shall be as a watered garden; 

The only good words to come out of a man’s mind are Scriptural words. Anything unscriptural is evil.

MATTHEW 15:20   These are the things which defile a man: but to eat with unwashen hands defileth not a man.

Real dirt is not due to unwashed hands, real dirt is due to unscriptural beliefs.

A Gentile woman wanted the rejected scraps of bread

MATTHEW 15:21   Then Jesus went thence, and departed into the coasts of Tyre and Sidon.

Jesus went to Gentile territory of Tyre and Sidon, just north of Galilee. This area was known as Canaan.

This shows the deep thinking of Jesus. The Jewish religious leaders are offended by the Word that He spoke. They reject what He says so He leaves them and goes north of Galilee into Gentile territory.

There Jesus, rejected by the Jewish leaders, turns to a Gentile woman, symbolic of the future New Testament Gentile church.

This woman wants the Truth that He has. She accepts Him just like the first church age will accept the New Testament as the fulfillment of the Old Testament. She does not argue, nor deny, nor try to disagree with Jesus.

The early apostles are the fathers of the church. The New Testament church is the mother church. The child symbolizes the 7^th church age which is the only church age that can turn back to the first church age, thanks to the Bible mysteries that brother Branham revealed. The first church age was the parent church. We at the end are the children of that church if we turn back to their beliefs. This woman has a daughter that is controlled by a devil. That is very significant because the Bible says nothing good about the end-time church, which is the daughter church.

Every parable and prophecy concerning the last church either criticizes or condemns our church age.

So, the time of deep deception has been unleashed on us. The church has been much fooled by the devil and has very little desire to be strictly Scriptural. That is why there are so many different types of churches. Very few regard the King James Bible as the infallible and Absolute Word of God.

MATTHEW 15:22   And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil.

She showed off her knowledge. "Son of David" is a title of His. But she had no clue what she was talking about. Just like today’s churches that will repeat Scriptures or quotes without knowing what they mean.

Message people say, “The 7 Thunders have uttered”. They have no clue what they are talking about. Brother Branham never made that statement.

The 7 Thunders refer to a future event or events that will happen after the resurrection of the saints from the 7 church ages.

Equally, "Son of David" refers to a future event when Jesus is King in the Millennium or 1000 years of peace.

MATTHEW 15:23   But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us.

She does not understand when to apply this title. As a result, Jesus never answers her. Jesus is setting standards for the Gentile church. He expects us to understand what the Bible says. When your speech has knowledge of certain Bible terms but you obviously have no clue as to what they mean, then the Word does not speak to you. Try proving, just using the Bible, what the seven Thunders say. You cannot. The Word is silent on that issue as John was told to stop writing. Claiming to know what the 7 Thunders uttered, merely displays your lack of understanding of the topic.

"She crieth". But Thunders-believers are vociferous with their emotional outpourings as to how right they are.

As if heat can replace their lack of light.

Thunders-believers carry a strange spirit. The first two Thunders-believers were James and John.

MARK 3:17   And James the son of Zebedee, and John the brother of James;

and he surnamed them Boanerges, which is, The sons of thunder:

But they did not always behave well.

When Samaritans did not want to receive Jesus, James and John wanted to destroy them.
LUKE 9:52   And sent messengers before his face: and they went, and entered into a village of the Samaritans, to make ready for him.

:53   And they did not receive him, because his face was as though he would go to Jerusalem.

:54   And when his disciples James and John saw this, they said, Lord, wilt thou that we command fire to come down from heaven, and consume them, even as Elias did?

But Jesus rebuked them. We should never desire the destruction of those who disagree with us.

Notice how the sons of thunder were trying to imitate the prophet, Elijah. (Elias in the Greek).

Today the Thunders-believers think that they are the real followers of the end-time Elijah who is William Branham.

They preach the Thunders that were never written. This is the opposite of the truth. Brother Branham came to reveal the mysteries that are written in the Bible.

LUKE 9:55   But he turned, and rebuked them, and said, Ye know not what manner of spirit ye are of.

LUKE 9:56   For the Son of man is not come to destroy men's lives, but to save them. And they went to another village.

Many Thunders-believers easily condemn those who disagree with them which is a wrong attitude. A wrong spirit that deserves to be rebuked.

MATTHEW 15:24   But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

The Gentile church needs help. We lack a deeper understanding. So, Jesus sets the record straight for His day. He wants this Gentile woman to understand the truth. He said that His mission at that moment was to try to save the Jews. He was coming to them as their Messiah. Not to the Gentiles.

MATTHEW 15:25   Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me.

Now she got desperate.

Desperation burned away her veneer of knowledge.

Now she worshiped Him. That was the giveaway because you only worship God. Something deep was stirring within her. Somehow she recognized Jesus as being God.

Then she called Him, “Lord”.

At last, she had a true title for that day. He was the Lord. She was recognizing Him for her day.

That was to be the secret for the 7 church ages. Each church age had to recognize God’s plan for their age. The last age has to recognize that we have to go back to the first church-age beliefs.

MATTHEW 15:26   But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs.

But Jesus tests her further. This is important. He expects us Gentiles to understand the Word for our age. Understanding the mysteries of the Bible is God’s great plan for the end-time.

Salvation and the Gospel belonged to the Jews in the Old Testament. So Jesus was coming for them. Not for the Gentiles.

But the Jews despised and hated the Gentile Romans and called them dogs.

PSALM 22:16   For dogs have compassed me: the assembly of the wicked have inclosed me: they pierced my hands and my feet.

The dogs who stood around the cross and formed a circle were the four Roman soldiers who crucified Jesus. A compass draws a circle around a centre point.

JOHN 19:23    Then the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments, and made four parts, to every soldier a part;

The Gentiles were dogs in the eyes of the Jews.

Jesus said that salvation was the Bread of Life to the children of God who were the  Jews.

The Gentiles had no claim on God. The Jews were His chosen nation.

MATTHEW 15:27   And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table.

He called her a dog. A complete insult to a woman.

But she had no ego, no self-pride.

She never argued or protested.

If you want salvation you must just accept what the Word says and not protest. No arguing with the Bible, however insulted you feel.

But she had a revelation. That is what Jesus respected.

In the previous Chapter of Matthew, Jesus fed 5000 Jews who rejected 12 baskets of bread scraps. The 12 was significant, it referred to the 12 tribes of Israel. The Jews would reject Jesus as the Bread of Life, the Gospel, but it would be written up as the New Testament. At the end of the seven church ages the rejected New Testament Gospel would be given to the 12 tribes of Israel during the 3.5 years of great Tribulation. If the rejected scraps of spiritual bread would save the Jews at the end of the Gentile church ages, couldn’t there be some spiritual scraps or some spiritual crumbs for a Gentile woman at the end of the Jewish ages when the Jews are about to reject Messiah? Especially a Gentile woman (symbolizing a church) who wanted the scraps and would not reject them?

MATTHEW 15:28   Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.

Faith is a revelation.

A revelation of Scripture means that God is speaking to you.

Accepting the scraps that the Jews would reject was the key to success for the Gentile church during the 7 church ages.

The daughter church, or end-time Gentile church, will only be made whole when she accepts the full New testament beliefs that the Jews rejected 2000 years ago.

In the end-time, the Bride has to accept all the rejected scraps, all the Bible verses that the churches ignore or change or contradict. What the churches reject becomes the food for the Bride.

Jesus always wants to restore

MATTHEW 15:29   And Jesus departed from thence, and came nigh unto the sea of Galilee; and went up into a mountain, and sat down there.

Up in the mountain implies that Jesus sets high standards. Following Him is not easy.

MATTHEW 15:30   And great multitudes came unto him, having with them those that were lame, blind, dumb, maimed, and many others, and cast them down at Jesus' feet; and he healed them:

But these people needed help so they came to Him.

He restored to normal all those who were disadvantaged.

This was a preview of the church ages, where the original truth would be lost in the Dark Ages. But then Jesus would restore the church back to the original truth at the end of the 7th church age.

MATTHEW 15:31   Insomuch that the multitude wondered, when they saw the dumb to speak, the maimed to be whole, the lame to walk, and the blind to see: and they glorified the God of Israel.

The restoration of truth back to how it was at the beginning. The blind would be able to see what was in the Bible and understand it.

They came to Jesus. Not to the church. We get saved as a personal experience with Jesus and at that time He is the Number One Person in our lives.

Then we join a church and slowly the church leader and the church traditions take the Number One position in our lives.

Jesus is the Word of God.

We must always put the Bible ahead of any church or any person.

7 baskets of rejected scraps are food for 7 church ages

MATTHEW 15:32   Then Jesus called his disciples unto him, and said, I have compassion on the multitude, because they continue with me now three days, and have nothing to eat: and I will not send them away fasting, lest they faint in the way.

Three days.

God was not too concerned about the first church age as He left them in the very competent hands of the early apostles and New Testament writers. They had the truth.

Then, by following ambitious church leaders called Bishops, the early Christians slowly drifted away from the Bible and became more and more unscriptural and condemning of those who disagreed with them. They believed in ideas that were not written in Scripture and killed dissenters. The truth slowly died out and was buried in the Dark Ages.

This was laid out in the first four church ages that were described in Revelation Chapter 2.

EVIL means moving away from the original beliefs of the apostles.

God now placed great attention on the restoration of Bible truth that happened in the last three church ages.

The 5^th church age of the Reformation saw Martin Luther restore salvation by grace through faith alone, not good works. The King James Version of the Bible was perfectly translated between 1604 and 1769.

The 6^th church age saw holiness and outreach grow until it led to the golden worldwide missionary age that spread the King James Bible around the world.

The 7^th church age saw the revival of the Pentecostal gifts and power which then dispersed into thousands of different directions as 45000 different types of churches and denominations formed. Each one is subject to different unscriptural man-made ideas and traditions that have fooled people away from the written Word. These are the foolish virgins (clean women, saved people in churches who have been fooled into believing unscriptural ideas) in their multitudes.

EVIL was the church moving away from the New Testament.

God then set out to reverse EVIL by making the church in ages 5, 6, and 7 return back to the New Testament.

Reverse EVIL and you get LIVE.

LIVE means getting back to the original faith of the apostles.

This worked well until the 7th church age when church beliefs splintered into thousands of different ideas. Thus, the modern church lost direction and the light of Scripture dimmed as more and more unscriptural ideas undermined the churches.

Officially, they all call themselves the Church. Despite the vast swamp of differences between themselves. This sad state of affairs ends in the 3.5 years of great Tribulation. That horror will shock some sense into their heads before they are slaughtered in their millions. But they were saved before great Tribulation started so they will be spared as sheep on Judgement Day.

Then comes God’s real concern for the last church age. He is looking for a Bride who can understand the mysteries of His Word and who loves the way the Bible is written. They want no part of anything that is not written in Scripture. Brother Branham revealed the basic patterns of deep Bible truth that run through the Scriptures. We should therefore be able to take all the difficult verses of the Bible and link them to these deep patterns in order to understand the hidden meaning of these previously not-understood verses.

This revelation of the Bible mysteries will restore the last or seventh church age back to the beliefs of the first church age.

These last three church ages are described in Revelation Chapter 3.

Once the last church age has been restored to the beliefs of the first church age, then the harvest will take place as the Bride is pulled off the earth to meet the Lord in the air.

When a seed is planted, it has to first be buried and die. This happened to the church in the Dark Ages. Then it germinates (think of Luther's Reformation) as a plant and spreads its pollen (like the missionary age) and then the plant slowly

forms a seed that is identical to the seed that was planted.

As the seed ripens, the plant dies as all its life goes into the seed.

Then this seed Word Bride, the wise virgins, are pulled off the plant in the harvest. The beasts of the field, like cows and oxen, then eat up the rest of the plants that stayed behind (the foolish virgins in great Tribulation who are to be destroyed by the Catholic beast or one-world church system).

So, the three stages or church ages that deal with the restoration of Bible truth are of particular importance to God. And Satan is doing everything in his power to stop the Bride from understanding the mysteries of God.

Restoring Bible truth involves the last 3 church ages

On the third day, Jesus feeds the multitude.

This symbolizes the third stage of restoration during the 7^th church age when the Bride turns back to the first church age because they understand the Bible mysteries.

MATTHEW 15:33   And his disciples say unto him, Whence should we have so much bread in the wilderness, as to fill so great a multitude?

Where will we find enough spiritual food? The churches are in a spiritual wilderness where they understand salvation and the basics of holy living and doing good works.

But ask them deeper Bible questions and they freeze up.

Why did God use the blood of an animal to atone for sin? We know He did, but why?

In Matthew, after the resurrection, Mary holds Jesus by the feet. In John, He tells Mary not to touch Him. Why?

The genealogy in Luke has 13 names more than the genealogy in Matthew for the ancestors of Jesus. Why?

The colourless 7-headed beast in Revelation 13 suddenly becomes a scarlet 7-headed beast in Revelation 17. Why?

The little horn of Daniel grows among the 10 horns of the Roman beast but grows from one of the 4 horns of the Greek goat. So, what is the little horn? What does the “little” signify in a power that takes over the world?

The 7 cities in Revelation are all given their usual names except the third city of Pergamum. Why does the Bible give it a Greek ending of Pergamos?

(Notice the Greek in the name Pergamos and in the 4 horns of the goat. That means something).

Why does Daniel describe the clay in the feet of the Gentile image as “miry clay”? Wet clay.

What did Peter not understand about feet washing that he would understand later? He obviously understood humility and the need to wash the dust off his feet inside a house.

What is the name of the Triune God?

What is the one name of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost?

So, there is much in the Bible that we need to understand in the third age or stage of restoration of the truth. (Which happens in the 7^th church age).

MATTHEW 15:34   And Jesus saith unto them, How many loaves have ye? And they said, Seven, and a few little fishes.

Bread signifies doctrine. Jesus is the Bread of Life. Jesus is the Word. So, the Bible is the thoughts of Jesus expressed in Word form.

Thus, the Bible is the presence of God in our midst

because if He stood in our midst He would say exactly what is written in the Bible.

Seven loaves.

Seven church ages where the believers have fed off the Word of God as they slowly learned to understand the mysteries as the church ages moved on.

A few little fishes. Fish are unnoticed under the water. There are always some Christians who have to worship out of sight because of persecution. Today we see a strong but hidden underground church in Iran and China and other countries. Not to mention the underground church that received Bibles from God’s smuggler, brother Andrew, in the days of the Iron Curtain of communist Russian atheism in East Europe.

MATTHEW 15:35   And he commanded the multitude to sit down on the ground.

The way up is down. If you want to be exalted, humble yourself. If you want higher truth, get down on the ground. Especially on your knees.

When you are less noticeable then God can use you.

MATTHEW 15:36   And he took the seven loaves and the fishes, and gave thanks, and brake them, and gave to his disciples, and the disciples to the multitude.

Jesus breaking the bread as a symbol of explaining Bible doctrine.

This is My Body broken for you.

I CORINTHIANS 11:23    For I have received of the Lord that which also I delivered unto you, That the Lord Jesus the same night in which he was betrayed took bread:

:24   And when he had given thanks, he brake it, and said, Take, eat: this is my body, which is broken for you: this do in remembrance of me.

The endless reminder of the price that He had to pay for our salvation and how He alone can reveal the Bible truth to us by breaking difficult ideas into smaller easier steps.

Bible truth came from Jesus to the disciples as they wrote the New Testament.

Then the Bible truth written by the apostles went to the believers in each church age.

These Scriptural truths were believed by the Christians in each church age, as best they could, under their different circumstances.

Only the last church age would believe the same as the first church.

The Bible is not the ideas of the men who wrote it.

God inspired each of those men as to what they should write. It is God’s Word.

The disciples never made the cooked bread and fish. They just passed it on to the people.

From Jesus to the disciples to us.

Jesus inspired the New Testament which the disciples wrote for us (including some disciples who joined the church later). We get the truth from the New Testament which they wrote.

Very important. In the 7^th church age, we have to go back to the writings of the disciples in the first church age if we want the truth from Jesus, who is the Word of God.

MATTHEW 15:37   And they did all eat, and were filled: and they took up of the broken meat that was left seven baskets full.

The Bible provided everything that everyone needed to know during each specific church age.

This miracle has an interesting and unexpected ending.

The Jews rejected enough scraps of bread to fill seven baskets.

Jesus puts a special emphasis on the number of baskets of rejected scraps. Remember. He had to do an incredible calculation. He had to know in advance just how many mouthfuls of bread more than 4000 people would eat. Then He had to create that amount plus an exact 7 baskets full of extra bread scraps that would be rejected. That was an amazing miracle that no computer could do.

Bread is doctrine.

Rejecting these 7 baskets of scraps meant that the Jews were going to reject the Bread of Life, the Gospel of Jesus. Then these rejected doctrinal issues would be carefully collected by the disciples and written down as the New Testament.

The New Testament, rejected as scraps by the Jews, would become the foundation of the seven church ages for the Gentiles.

Jesus expects us to be spiritual enough to understand the deeper implications of His actions.

MATTHEW 15:38   And they that did eat were four thousand men, beside women and children.

There were thousands involved, but the rejected scraps that the Jews ignored were the focus of His attention.

MARK 8:18   Having eyes, see ye not? and having ears, hear ye not? and do ye not remember?

We cannot see the different patterns that link up in the Bible.

MARK 8:19   When I brake the five loaves among five thousand,

how many baskets full of fragments took ye up?

They say unto him, Twelve.

:20   And when the seven among four thousand,

how many baskets full of fragments took ye up?

And they said, Seven.

:21   And he said unto them,

How is it that ye do not understand?

Jesus always stressed the need to understand what He was doing and saying.

Everything that the official churches and their leaders reject, like Acts 2:38, is where the real Life is found.

ACTS 2:38   Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.

:39   For the promise is unto you, and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even as many as the Lord our God shall call.

Rejecting this baptism in the name of Jesus Christ is the major reason why Trinitarians do not know what the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost is. Thus, sadly, they do not know the name of God because their Triune God of three Persons cannot have one name.

7 and 12 were numbers in the Old Testament Tabernacle

A seven-branched candlestick and 12 loaves of shewbread.

God’s two groups in the New Testament days. The 7 Gentile church ages and the 144000 Jews from the 12 tribes of Israel in the 3.5 years of great Tribulation.

MATTHEW 15:39   And he sent away the multitude, and took ship, and came into the coasts of Magdala.

Magdala means Tower.  A tower of strength.

Magdala was where Mary Magdalene came from.

She, as a woman, typed the church. She was very faithful to Jesus at the time of His death and resurrection.

Mary Magdalene, a strong tower of faith, represents the Bride at the time of the resurrection of the New Testament saints.

But to get to that stage she had to have seven devils cast out of her.

LUKE 8:2   And certain women, which had been healed of evil spirits and infirmities, Mary called Magdalene, out of whom went seven devils,

So, each of the seven church ages was attacked by the Devil and Satan had to be defeated in each age.

Thus, Jesus went to Magdala, the home of Mary, as she symbolized the strong church in the seven church ages.

God wanted the church to be His tower of strength during the 7 church ages.

This would only be possible if the church managed to be Scriptural enough for Jesus to cast the devils out of each age. Unscriptural ideas invite the Devil into the church.

Being Scriptural chases the Devil out.

In the last church age, Jesus is seen standing outside the church door as He knocks. If Jesus is outside the church, then it is very easy for the Devil to be inside the church with his unscriptural teachings.