Millennium, part 4 - Ezekiel's vision



The heathen who never heard the Gospel but survived Armageddon. The surviving Jews and the Bride.

First published on the 14th of August 2019 — Last updated on the 16th of August 2021

Everyone will speak a new Heavenly language

Ezekiel grasps a totally different realm of reality in his far-seeing visions.

He sees visions of two great events, the 3.5 years of great Tribulation and the Millennium of 1000 years of peace.

Are these images literal or spiritual or both? It is difficult to decide at times.

This great Tribulation will be best understood by the two prophets Moses and Elijah who go to the Jews. The Gentile Bride will not be in the 3.5 years of great Tribulation so there is no real need for God to show us too many details.

Thus we tend to look at these two events through a glass darkly.

But let us see what ideas we can reasonably understand.

ZEPHANIAH 3:9For then will I turn to the people a pure language, that they may all call upon the name of the LORD, to serve him with one consent.

The time is coming when God will create a pure language to be used by everybody in the Kingdom of God, the 1000 years of peace.

54-0401  GOD'S  PREPARATION

The kingdom of God shall rule and reign and smite down every nation, every flag, and there will be one flag, and that will be the Old Rugged Cross. There will be one language; that will be the heavenly. Hallelujah. One people, that will be the saints, and they will rule and reign with Christ on David's throne, His father, and rule and reign here through the Millennium of a thousand years, and then it's over to the new earth.

In the Millennium we will have a new universal language.

We can also picture Israel living in their allotted portions of the Promised Land.

This will be the final fulfillment of God's promise of a Promised Land to Abraham.

A puzzle: Dan and Ephraim are in the Millennium but they were not in the 144000 Jews who come out of the 3.5 years of great Tribulation.

The Millennium, with Jesus ruling as King, is the first period of Heaven on earth.

65-0829  SATAN'S  EDEN

"There was no more sea; the first heaven and first earth was passed away."

What was our first heaven? Was the Millennium. What's the first earth? Was this.

The 144000 will be called out in the 3.5 years of great Tribulation which is before the Millennium starts.

Thus the time of great Tribulation is still under Heaven, as it is before Heaven starts.

DEUTERONOMY 29:18   Lest there should be among you man, or woman, or family, or tribe, whose heart turneth away this day from the LORD our God, to go and serve the gods of these nations;

:20   … and the LORD shall blot out his name from under heaven.

The Millennium is the first Heaven.

Tribes turning to idolatry will be blotted out during the 3.5 years of great Tribulation which is just before Heaven starts on earth.

II KINGS 10:29   Howbeit from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, Jehu departed not from after them, to wit, the golden calves that were in Bethel, and that were in Dan.

JUDGES 4:5   And she dwelt under the palm tree of Deborah between Ramah and Bethel in mount Ephraim:

Bethel was on the border of Ephraim’s territory.

Dan was the main city in the tribal territory of Dan.

So Dan and Ephraim were knocked out of the 144000 Jews who are called during great Tribulation. But they are part of the Millennium as that will be the first Heaven.

Revelation Chapter 6 ends with the sixth Seal, great Tribulation time.

Revelation Chapter 7 deals with the two groups that God deals with in the 3.5 years of great Tribulation. The 144000 Jews and the uncountable multitude of the foolish virgins who are saved (virgins are clean women or saved church-goers) but misled by their leaders and have to die in the time of great Tribulation. The brutality of great Tribulation events will shock them into the need to be Scriptural. It also opens their eyes to the deceptions of their church leaders that they had slavishly followed.

Notice the change of attitude. The Lamb, the Word of God, now feeds them and leads them. No longer do they follow their church pastors and their church doctrines and traditions.
REVELATION 7:17   For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.

America gets knocked out in great Tribulation

Be careful if you believe doctrines from America in these days (2021). America will force everyone into the mark of the beast. Believing doctrines that you cannot prove from Scripture and uplifting brother Branham into the Godhead as the Voice of God.

REVELATION 13:11

And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon.

The American bison or buffalo.

The message started well with brother Branham interpreting the mysteries so that we could understand the Bible and prove our beliefs just from Scripture. Then message preachers began manipulating carefully selected quotes until the message groups became increasingly Bible-illiterate.

"I have a quote ..." replaced, "It is written ..."

No New Testament church ever had a pastor as its head.

13 states on the east coast declared their independence in 1776. Their flag had 13 stripes and 13 stars in a circle.

The sea is the restless multitudes of people who occupied Europe as Roman Catholicism, the first beast, rose to power. The land represents North America where smallpox from the Spanish conquest had killed the majority of the indigenous Native American people. Thus there were relatively few Native Americans living on the great Western plains. Here America grew almost unnoticed into a world power as the Protestants escaped to America from Catholic Europe.

Look at the American Seal.

13 olive leaves and berries for peace. 13 arrows for war.

The motto "E Pluribus Unum" has 13 letters.

It means "Out of Many, One"  or "Unity in Diversity".

So 13 is the number of North America.

 

13 is also the number of rebellion.

GENESIS 14:4   Twelve years they served Chedorlaomer, and in the thirteenth year they rebelled.

The two horns represented the separation of political power from church power.

A church without a Pope and a Republican form of political control that had no hereditary king.

The power of government is held by the people. The people give power to leaders they elect to represent them and serve their interests.

At first, America had godly leaders like Washington and Lincoln and their founding fathers drew up an amazing constitution. The beast spoke like a lamb.

But as time went on Satan crept into the political system as well as the church system. Religious deception united with political power to enter the realm of big business.

The only people who Jesus threw out of the Temple were the religious money makers. Big money opened the doors to demonology in business, politics, and church life.

REVELATION 13:15   And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.

This means:

REVELATION 13:15   And he [the wealthy American beast] had [religious, financial, and political] power to give life [money is the lifeblood of church organizations] unto the image of the beast [the uniting together of the non-Roman Catholic churches], that the [united Protestant] image of the [worldwide Roman Catholic church] beast should both speak [the churches speak with authority due to their financial power and people have to listen], and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.

The official churches will initially gain such political power in the time of great Tribulation that they will be able to destroy the foolish virgins. These are the saved Christians who woke up to the deceptions of the unscriptural denominational systems just too late. Thus they miss the catching up of the church (often called the Rapture) and have to die in the horror and violence of great Tribulation. Jesus is not returning to collect fooled church-goers who prefer church traditions to written Scripture.

Today message preachers condemn and excommunicate those who want to see their doctrines proven from Scripture.

A simple Millennium lifestyle of no cars or airplanes

Technology will not be part of the Millennium. It will be a very simple lifestyle.

You can travel like a thought and will have no need for motor cars or airplanes.

63-0728  CHRIST  IS  THE  MYSTERY  OF  GOD  REVEALED

Lucifer, at the beginning, his purpose in heart was to achieve a brighter and greater thing in Heaven than Christ had, is that right, by seemingly a more cultured, more beautiful, more splendor, than the Kingdom of Christ. Do you think we'll have automobiles in the Millennium, and airplanes? See? See what Lucifer is doing?

Now, the big fancy intellectual denominations are doing the very same thing, gathering themselves together to do the same thing. See? They are gathering and a denominating themselves, each one trying to beat the other one. And now they got so much splendor, they don't know what to do but to unite it with the Catholic church. See? Lucifer again building a bigger kingdom, to push out people that don't believe in denominations; and even take their church buildings and make storerooms, and the pastors of such has no rights at all.

And a man that is a God-sent man would never stay in a denomination after hearing this or seeing it, if he's got enough to go out and look at it. Certainly. See? I don't say that critically; I say that truthfully, see, to see that revealed.

By character assassination, the churches destroy the reputations of any individuals who try to be Scriptural.

The big churches can put on a religious show and musical entertainment that small house meetings cannot compete with. A whipped-up emotional style and show but lacking Biblical substance.

There is no mention of a drum in the Bible.

Today, church worship is usually focused on drum beats.

The saved Christians, who are the foolish virgins who rejected the revealed Bible truths by clinging to their church leaders, will have their eyes opened by the horrors of great Tribulation. They will reject the extreme errors and violence of the church systems in the 3.5 years of great Tribulation. As a result, they will be cut off from the world’s economic system as well as being hunted down and killed.

57-1006  QUESTIONS  AND  ANSWERS  ON  HEBREWS.3

And then when they [the two prophets to Israel] come back and preach exactly three and a half years under the anointing of the baptism of the Holy Ghost, while the blessings are taken from the Gentiles, and the church is taken up, and the cold, formal church is hunted down like dogs by the communist and Roman parties... And when they're hunted down and killed,…

REVELATION 13:15   And he [the American beast] had power to give life unto the image of the beast [the united Protestant churches], that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.

If you are not part of that One World Church then you will be destroyed.

Once the Bride is caught up to Heaven, the Lamb will no longer be on the mercy seat. Then there will be no mercy on earth anymore.

The Holy Spirit Who is Life will leave and then Death enters under the fourth Seal.

REVELATION 6:8   And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth, to kill with sword, and with hunger, and with death, and with the beasts of the earth.

144000 Jews meet Messiah in great Tribulation

The 144000 Jews will meet Messiah in great Tribulation and are then killed.

REVELATION 6:9     And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:

No heavenly beasts are present. No mention of the Lion, Ox, Man, or flying Eagle.

These beasts were protecting the Bride during the seven church ages. Thus the church has been caught up to Heaven and the 3.5 years of great Tribulation are beginning.

These are Jews who were killed for their faith during the seven church ages. They believed the Old Testament but had to seal their own testimony in their blood. Then they were given white robes.

The biggest mistake the Jews made when Pilate found Jesus innocent was to demand His death.

That was their great sin.

MATTHEW 27:25   Then answered all the people, and said, His blood be on us, and on our children.

So Jews must believe in the Old Testament as best they can and then be killed for their faith.

REVELATION 6:10  And they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?

Christians die forgiving their killers.

Jews are allowed “an eye for an eye”. They can claim revenge.

The Bride has come up to Heaven so the Jews from the 2000 years of church history now want God to go down and destroy the Gentiles who have persecuted and killed them for 2000 years.

REVELATION 6:11   And white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet for a little season, until their fellowservants also and their brethren, that should be killed as they were, should be fulfilled.

The Jews never accepted Jesus as Saviour, but God in His grace, because He had blinded them, gave them the white robes of salvation as Abraham’s seed. The Jews are God’s chosen nation.

ROMANS 11:24   For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert graffed contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be graffed into their own olive tree?

:25   For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in.

But these martyred Jews whom God has blinded are told to wait for a little season of 3½ years. This is the time of great Tribulation during which their fellow Jews still have to be killed. These include the 144000 whose eyes will be opened to accept their Messiah at the end of the Tribulation.  Then they are killed and resurrected to accompany the Bride when she returns with Jesus for Armageddon.

The 144000 are referred to as firstfruits.

REVELATION 14:4    ... These were redeemed from among men, being the firstfruits unto God and to the Lamb.

Firstfruits is a symbol of the resurrection.

I CORINTHIANS 15:20    But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.

The 144000 resurrect just as the Millennium is about to start. As such they are the firstfruits of the general resurrection that will happen at the end of the Millennium.

When we look at the 144000 who come out of the Tribulation, Dan and Ephraim are missing.

(Joseph and Levi take their places).

REVELATION 7:4   And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel.

:5     Of the tribe of Juda were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Reuben were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Gad were sealed twelve thousand.

:6   Of the tribe of Aser were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Nepthalim were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Manasses were sealed twelve thousand.

:7     Of the tribe of Simeon were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Levi were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Issachar were sealed twelve thousand.

:8   Of the tribe of Zabulon were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Joseph were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Benjamin were sealed twelve thousand.

II KINGS 10:29   Howbeit from the sins of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, who made Israel to sin, Jehu departed not from after them, to wit, the golden calves that were in Bethel, and that were in Dan.

Dan and Ephraim set up the golden calves of idolatry and money (just as Judas fell for money).

God’s hatred of error is such that He has never forgiven them, even after more than 2500 years.

The Trinity claims that there is one God in three Persons, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Each Person is individually God, yet there is only one God. Trying to understand this mental muddle is impossible. Famous Trinitarians like Billy Graham and Dr. David Reagan admit they cannot understand the mystery.

But it is impossible to find one name for three Persons.

Thus the Christian God has lost His name.

The church-goers speak of the name of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit but they cannot tell us what that name is.

Remember, God is angry with error.

"Trinity. God the Son. God the Holy Spirit. One God in three Persons. Jesus is the Second Person of the Godhead. Jesus is in the Godhead". These are all unscriptural statements.

The third commandment was not to take God’s name in vain. The churches have done this.

They lost God’s name so that people now seek for the name of the Trinity God in vain.

AMOS 6:10   ... Then shall he say, Hold thy tongue: for we may not make mention of the name of the LORD.

Church-goers today also cannot tell us the name of God.

Gods vengeance and wrath will be poured out on the Trinitarian churches in the 3.5 years of great Tribulation.

The measurements of Jerusalem city and the Millennium Temple

Ezekiel saw a man with a measuring rod who measured the Millennium Temple.

The measuring rod was a reed which was 11 feet long (almost 3.4 metres)

EZEKIEL 40:5   And behold a wall on the outside of the house round about, and in the man's hand a measuring reed of six cubits long by the cubit and an hand breadth:

1 cubit (18 inches)  +  1 handbreadth (4 inches)  =  22 inches

So a reed is 6 of these measurements =  6 x 22 =  132 inches   =  11 feet  0r  3.4 metres.

The city of Jerusalem, the Priests, and the Levites are all given a special portion in the middle of the Promised Land.

EZEKIEL 48:2   And by the border of Dan, from the east side unto the west side, a portion for Asher.

:3     And by the border of Asher, from the east side even unto the west side, a portion for Naphtali.

:4     And by the border of Naphtali, from the east side unto the west side, a portion for Manasseh.

:5     And by the border of Manasseh, from the east side unto the west side, a portion for Ephraim.

:6   And by the border of Ephraim, from the east side even unto the west side, a portion for Reuben.

:7     And by the border of Reuben, from the east side unto the west side, a portion for Judah.

:8     And by the border of Judah, from the east side unto the west side, shall be the offering which ye shall offer of five and twenty thousand reeds in breadth,

[3.4 m times 25000 = 85000 m  = 85 km]

and in length as one of the other parts, from the east side unto the west side: and the sanctuary shall be in the midst of it.

:9    The oblation [for the Priests] that ye shall offer unto the LORD shall be of five and twenty thousand in length [85 km], and of ten thousand in breadth [34 km].

[3.4 m x 10000 = 34000  = 34 km]

The Sanctuary or Temple is shown by the red square. It is described in Ezekiel Chapter 45.

EZEKIEL 45:2     Of this there shall be for the sanctuary five hundred in length, with five hundred in breadth, square round about; and fifty cubits round about for the suburbs thereof.

3.4 m x 500  = 1700 m     (about 1700 metres x 1700 metres).  The 1700 metres = 1.7 km.

Back to Ezekiel Chapter 48 again.

EZEKIEL 48:10     And for them, even for the priests, shall be this holy oblation; toward the north five and twenty thousand in length, and toward the west ten thousand in breadth, and toward the east ten thousand in breadth, and toward the south five and twenty thousand in length: and the sanctuary of the LORD shall be in the midst thereof.

EZEKIEL 48:11     It shall be for the priests that are sanctified of the sons of Zadok; which have kept my charge, which went not astray when the children of Israel went astray, as the Levites went astray.

Zadok was a priest in David’s day.

He stayed faithful to the ark of the covenant and to David when Absalom, the son of David, rebelled against his father David.

The son of a famous man is not as spiritual as his father and ends up actually opposing what the famous man stood for, even though he thinks that he is faithfully serving God.

So Zadok will have authority as a priest in the new Temple because he was faithful to David.

This is special to Jesus as He rules in the Millennium as the Son of David.

God gives high positions to those who stayed faithful to God’s Word when all the rest were fooled by popularity into going astray from Scripture.

The Bride will be chosen because of her submission to the Bible and her obedience to what Scripture says.

Jesus said:

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

LUKE 19:16   Then came the first, saying, Lord, thy pound hath gained ten pounds.

:17    And he said unto him, Well, thou good servant: because thou hast been faithful in a very little, have thou authority over ten cities.

Those who were faithful to Scripture will end up ruling in the Millennium.

The princes or leaders must not oppress anyone.

In the Millennium everything must be done fairly and honestly.

EZEKIEL 45:8   In the land shall be his possession in Israel: and my princes shall no more oppress my people; and the rest of the land shall they give to the house of Israel according to their tribes.

:9     Thus saith the Lord GOD; Let it suffice you, O princes of Israel: remove violence and spoil, and execute judgment and justice, take away your exactions from my people, saith the Lord GOD.

:10   Ye shall have just balances, and a just ephah, and a just bath.

:11   The ephah and the bath shall be of one measure, that the bath may contain the tenth part of an homer, and the ephah the tenth part of an homer: the measure thereof shall be after the homer.

:12     And the shekel shall be twenty gerahs: twenty shekels, five and twenty shekels, fifteen shekels, shall be your maneh.

There must be no cheating with weights and measures and coins.

A reminder:

The reed that Ezekiel measured with was 11 feet long which is about 3.4 m.

EZEKIEL 40:5   ... and in the man's hand a measuring reed of six cubits long by the cubit and an hand breadth:

A cubit is about 18 inches and a hand's breadth is about 4 inches.  Added together gives us 18 + 4 = 22 inches.

Six of these is  6 x 22 inches = 132 inches = 132 / 12 = 11 feet (as there are 12 inches in a foot)

Then looking at the City of Jerusalem where Jesus and His Bride shall dwell.

There will be 12 gates around the City.

EZEKIEL 48:31   And the gates of the city shall be after the names of the tribes of Israel: three gates northward; one gate of Reuben, one gate of Judah, one gate of Levi.

:32   And at the east side four thousand and five hundred:

[3.4 m x 4500 =  15300 m  = 15.3 km]

and three gates; and one gate of Joseph, one gate of Benjamin, one gate of Dan.

:33     And at the south side four thousand and five hundred measures: and three gates; one gate of Simeon, one gate of Issachar, one gate of Zebulun.

:34   At the west side four thousand and five hundred, with their three gates; one gate of Gad, one gate of Asher, one gate of Naphtali.

Only the original 12 tribes had a city gate.

The city is square. Each side is 15.3 km.

:35   It was round about eighteen thousand measures: and the name of the city from that day shall be, The LORD is there.

[3.4 m x 18000 =  61200  = 61,2 km]   This is 15.3 + 15.3 + 15.3 + 15.3 = 61.2 km

Ephraim and Manasseh are missing from these gates.

In the tribal territory of the Millennium Joseph is missing because he had a double portion of the firstborn. So his place was taken by his two sons Ephraim and Manasseh thus giving Joseph effectively two portions of land.

But only the tribal territory was involved in the double portion which was the birthright of the firstborn son.

Reuben was the firstborn of Leah but he lost it by being immoral.

Then Joseph, as the firstborn of Rachel, got the birthright.

DEUTERONOMY 21:17  But he shall acknowledge the son of the hated for the firstborn, by giving him a double portion of all that he hath

However, the City which is in the Prince’s portion of the Promised Land, had nothing to do with the birthright's double portion.

The firstborn birthright of the Jews does not apply here.

So God simply allocates a gate to each of the original twelve tribes of Israel.

 

Nations that survive Armageddon will be ruled with a rod of iron

ZECHARIAH 14:17   And it shall be, that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain.

All the heathen survivors of Armageddon will have to worship Jesus. They will have to listen to God and obey Him, or else.

Human self-will and sinfulness led the world to the frightful massacres and destruction of Armageddon.

The surviving sinners will not get a second chance to wreck the world.

ZECHARIAH 14:18   And if the family of Egypt go not up, and come not, that have no rain; there shall be the plague, wherewith the LORD will smite the heathen that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles.

Jesus will use drought and plague to punish nations that do not serve Him as they are told to do.

There will be no compromise with sin and unbelief.

Living in the peaceful and expertly run countries of the Millennium will not be a right.

People’s rights produced Laodicea which has become a disastrous church age that rejected Jesus from the church.

In the Millennium He will reject all who do not serve and worship Him.

He will rule with a rod of iron. Tough love. Strict enforcement of standards.

The Bride will rule as Queen over the earth.

To qualify we must be able to stand strictly for Scriptural truth.

The Word alone can rule the earth.

If we are led away from Scripture by church leaders, then we will not be competent to rule in the very strict Millennium. Thus we will not be there.

REVELATION 2:26   And he that overcometh, and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations:

:27     And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father.

“Keepeth my works” means staying with what is written in the Bible, not following church leaders and their human opinions.

“broken to shivers” speaks of serious punishments for transgressors.

ZECHARIAH 14:19   This shall be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all nations that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles.

There will be heathen survivors from Egypt and many other nations.

Drought will be very unusual in the Millennium and an obvious sign of God’s punishment.

Plagues will be very unusual and another obvious sign of God's anger.

The Earth will be straight on its axis again

The Millennium will have ideal weather because the earth will be straight on its axis once again.

There is ten times more ice on the South Pole than there is on the North Pole. This unequal distribution of ice causes the earth to wobble on its axis.

Nobody knows why the earth tilts on its axis which causes our seasons.

A small wobble can make the earth tilt steeper or less steep. At present, the tilt seems to be slightly decreasing making less difference between summer and winter. This is difficult to confirm with our chaotic climate.

GENESIS 8:22   While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease.

After the Flood of Noah, we get the first mention of hot and cold, which are caused by the tilt of the earth as it faces towards the sun for summer or away from the sun for winter.

Thus God tilted the earth during the Flood.

Atomic explosions will rock the earth closer to the sun in the Tribulation.

REVELATION 16:8   And the fourth angel poured out his vial upon the sun; and power was given unto him to scorch men with fire.

This excess sun’s heat will melt all the ice on Greenland and the South Pole, raising the level of the sea by about 70 metres and flooding our major coastal cities. (The floating ice on the North Pole will not affect the sea level if it melts). Probably 10% of the earth’s land surface will sink under the sea. But the coasts are where most of the major cities are. This will be hugely disruptive to human society.

The time of great Tribulation will be frighteningly different. Far worse than what we can imagine.

Then God tilts the earth upright with the ice removed.

The earth will then have a warm subtropical climate as there will be no seasons.

The main danger of removing winter is that the cold keeps harmful insects like malaria mosquitoes and tsetse flies under control.

All God has to do is eliminate these pests and life in the Millennium would be peaceful.

Wheat grows better if there is cold weather. But it is easy for God to modify wheat plants to thrive in a more regular temperature.

Skeptics look at physical problems as if they cannot be solved. But it is a supernatural God Who will set up the Millennium. He can change whatever He wants to.

Then, as He did in the beginning, God will lift up a veil of water above the atmosphere which He turns into hydrogen and oxygen gases. These absorb the sun rays and spread them evenly over all the earth. Thus the whole world will be at a pleasantly warm temperature.

These gases will also protect people from the harmful sun rays which help to age us. Notice how curtains that are more exposed to the sun tend to fade faster.

Thus the heathen who survive Armageddon will now be able to live for a longer time.

ISAIAH 65:20   There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man that hath not filled his days: for the child shall die an hundred years old; but the sinner being an hundred years old shall be accursed.

The heathen and Jews who enter the Millennium will eventually die and children will be born to them.

Today, a child of 7 years has lived one-tenth of its expected life of 70 years.

If men, as they did before the Flood, live to over 700 years then when they are 100 years old they will be one-tenth of their life span.

Thus we will call a 100-year-old person a child.

But obviously, if a 100-year-old person is a sinner, they will be more than old enough to answer for their sins.

This will be the fate of the heathens or Jews who survived Armageddon.

But the Bride will have eternal life in their glorified bodies.

 

The sinking of Los Angeles will be a dramatic announcement that things are changing.

1965-0429E  THE  CHOOSING  OF  A  BRIDE_  LOS  ANGELES CALIFORNIA

That is solemn warning. We don't know what time, and you don't know what time, that this city one day is going to be laying out here in the bottom of this ocean.

"Oh, Capernaum," said Jesus, "thou who exalted into heaven, will be brought down into hell. For, if the mighty works had been done in Sodom and Gomorrah, it'd have been standing to this day." And Sodom, Gomorrah lays in the bottom of the Dead Sea. And Capernaum is in the bottom of the sea [of Galilee]

MATTHEW 11:23   And thou, Capernaum, which art exalted to heaven, shalt be thrust down to hell...

Thou city,[Los Angeles] who claims to be the city of the Angels, who has exalted yourself into heaven, and sent all the dirty, filthy things of fashions and things [like Hollywood], till even the foreign countries come here to pick up our filth and send it away, to your fine churches and steeples, and so forth, the way you do. Remember, one day you'll be laying in the bottom of the sea, your great honeycomb under you right now. The wrath of God is belching right beneath you. How much longer He will hold this sandbar hanging out over that? When, that ocean out yonder, a mile deep, will slide in there, plumb back to the Salton Sea. It'll be worse than the last day of Pompeii. Repent, Los Angeles.

When a massive earthquake sinks Los Angeles it will trigger events of a cataclysmic scale.

 

 

Brother Branham is referring to the San Andreas fault line where tectonic plates are moving and causing great pressure. These plates are quite capable of causing a massive earthquake and tidal wave that would have huge financial repercussions.

California is America’s richest state.

If California’s economy is crippled, so would be America’s economy. Only the Roman Catholic church would have the money to take over America.

Then the Roman church will rule America.

60-1113  CONDEMNATION.BY.REPRESENTATION

Then when these women help elect the wrong person, then I seen a great woman rise up in the United States, well-dressed and beautiful, but cruel in heart. She will either guide or lead this nation to ruination. (I've got in parenthesis "perhaps Catholic church.")

60-1125  CONFERENCE

And I said, "It will come to pass before the end time comes that there will be a great woman stand up in the United States, because the United States is marked woman. Her number is thirteen, and she'll rise up, either be president, or (I put it in parentheses) perhaps the woman being beautiful and attractive will be the Catholic church but cruel at heart, and she'll lead the nation to pollution.

The Catholic church has attracted 1.4 billion people by 2019. Thus it is a very attractive church. A woman represents a church because the true church is the Bride of Christ.

Thus a very attractive woman is the symbol of an attractive church.

1960-1208  THE  THYATIREAN  CHURCH.AGE

Now, so then I said, "There will be in that time, during that time the women will be permitted to vote, and they'll elect the wrong person." They did it on this last election. [The handsome John Kennedy, a Catholic, was voted in]. That's right. "Which will start the stronghold. During that time it'll come to pass that there'll be a great woman rise up in the United States, she'll be beautifully dressed," and I got in parenthesis: "(perhaps the Catholic church)." See? "That'll take rulership over the power, overpower the others in the United States. She'll be beautiful to look at, but she'll be cruel-hearted as she can be."

I said, "Then I looked again, and I saw the United States just blowed to pieces. There wasn't nothing left on it."

Whoever happens to be president of America, the cruel power that will enslave the Americans will be the Catholic church.

61-0312  JEHOVAH  JIREH

America is a woman's nation. Got her pictures, Her number's thirteen, thirteen colonies, thirteen stripes, thirteen stars, thirteen so... Everything is thirteen, thirteen, thirteen and a woman. See?

[Revelation Chapter 13 deals with the rise of the American beast or power out of the land. Europe had a high-density population. Smallpox brought in by the Catholic Spaniards had killed most of the indigenous Native Americans before the Protestant Pilgrim Fathers arrived ]

And I seen a great woman rise up, beautiful to look at, but a cruel wicked heart. And that will be a church. And she's on her road now.

[In 1960 the Catholic John Kennedy won the presidential election].

Brother Branham here puts the emphasis on the Catholic church. That is the main reason that the woman is dangerous.

LAODICEAN  CHURCH  AGE  -  CHURCH.AGE.BOOK  CPT.9

Then in the sixth vision there arose up in America a most beautiful, but cruel woman. She held the people in her complete power. I believed that this was the rise of the Roman Catholic Church, though I knew it could possibly be a vision of some woman rising in great power in America due to a popular vote by women.

A woman may become president of America.

Message pastors predicted that Hillary Clinton would win the 2016 presidential election as president because she was a woman. Why did they get it wrong? Because God is turning back to Israel and He needed President Trump to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel.

But the real threat in this vision is the Roman Catholic church as she alone will have the money and the political influence inside America to take over America.

A sign of the times is the rise of the Roman Catholic church to religious, political, and financial power. The white horse, red horse, and black horse uniting to form the pale horse of Revelation Chapter 6. The rider is Death.

Death enters when Life, the Holy Spirit, leaves as the Bride is caught up to meet the Lord in the air.

Animal sacrifices for the Jews and the unsaved heathen survivors

The Jews and the unsaved heathen from many nations who managed to survive the 3.5 years of great Tribulation as well as the fearsome battle of Armageddon will then be in the Millennium.

Now we come to one of the most puzzling aspects of the Millennium.

Sacrifices for sin where animals are killed.

The Bride and the 144000 will be in resurrected immortal or glorified bodies.

So will be the Old Testament saints who were resurrected after Jesus rose from the dead and taken up to Heaven when Jesus ascended to Heaven.

Then there are also two groups in the Millennium who have ordinary human bodies.

The heathen who never heard the Gospel but managed to survive Armageddon and the Jews who managed to live through the Tribulation without being killed.

ZECHARIAH 14:16    And it shall come to pass, that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the LORD of hosts, and to keep the feast of tabernacles.

Some people from all the nations that fought against the Jews will survive Armageddon.

But now they must all adopt the Jewish faith.

The feast of the tabernacles was symbolic of the Millennium.

This feast had an 8th day. The seven days represented the complete seven church ages.

The 8th day was a new system that represented the Millennium.

64-0802  THE FUTURE HOME OF THE HEAVENLY BRIDEGROOM AND THE EARTHLY BRIDE

Notice, it was also upon this eighth day. Last day, feast day of the tabernacle, notice after that, after the last feast day, after the last Church Age, after the last complete seven days upon the earth, after the Millennium, that this Holy Convocation comes.

Remember, this is feast of tabernacles, tabernacles, "gathering places." Amen! Where, "In the Millennium," the Bible said, "they shall build houses; they shall inhabit."

But in the New Earth, He has already went and prepared the place. It's built. We have nothing to do with the building of it.

The Millennium is not to be confused with the New Earth, as there will be no death in the new earth.

But there will be death in the Millennium because sinners who survived Armageddon will be in the Millennium.

Any person born of sex cannot live for 1000 years.

Methuselah made 969 years and he was the oldest man.

So all the sinners who were alive at the beginning of the Millennium will have died before the Millennium ends.

Again, the unexpected animal sacrifices that will happen in the Millennium.

EZEKIEL 40:38And the chambers and the entries thereof were by the posts of the gates, where they washed the burnt offering.

:39   And in the porch of the gate were two tables on this side, and two tables on that side, to slay thereon the burnt offering and the sin offering and the trespass offering.

Such is God’s hatred of sin that there will be a return to animal sacrifices in the Millennium. Jesus is no longer on the mercy seat with His Blood.

The heathens who survived Armageddon now have to offer blood sacrifices for their own sins.

This will be a harsh reality in the midst of the great beauty and peace of the Millennium. But it will emphasize God’s hatred of sin. And the awful price of death that sin always produces.

EZEKIEL 40:40   And at the side without, as one goeth up to the entry of the north gate, were two tables; and on the other side, which was at the porch of the gate, were two tables.

:41     Four tables were on this side, and four tables on that side, by the side of the gate; eight tables, whereupon they slew their sacrifices.

Killing the sacrifices is a brutal reminder that sin has to be paid for.

EZEKIEL 42:13   Then said he unto me, The north chambers and the south chambers, which are before the separate place, they be holy chambers, where the priests that approach unto the LORD shall eat the most holy things: there shall they lay the most holy things, and the meat offering, and the sin offering, and the trespass offering; for the place is holy.

The priests will eat the sacrificed meat. This is the same as what happened in the Old Testament.

EZEKIEL 43:18   And he said unto me, Son of man, thus saith the Lord GOD; These are the ordinances of the altar in the day when they shall make it, to offer burnt offerings thereon, and to sprinkle blood thereon.

The unsaved in the Millennium have the same problem with sin that the Old Testament Jews had.

59-1220E  IDENTIFIED  WITH  CHRIST

In the Old Testament when a man want to be identified at the house of God, he took the most innocent thing he could find: a lamb. And he knowed the lamb was free from sin, 'cause it knowed no sin. And he went, and took the lamb, and put his hand upon its head, and confessed his sin; and by faith he transferred his sins on the lamb, and the innocence of the lamb back on him. And then the lamb died because it was a sinner. And the man lived by an act of faith of obeying what God said. But what did he do? He went right back out of the temple with the same desire he had when he come in, because when that blood cell is broken (which the life starts in one blood cell)... And when that blood cell was broken, the life of the lamb would not coincide or come back into the human life, because it was an animal life. The man went out with the same desire he had; so therefore, he committed sins continually all the time again.

Thus they will have to keep on sacrificing all through the Millennium.

EZEKIEL 43: 19     And thou shalt give to the priests the Levites that be of the seed of Zadok, which approach unto me, to minister unto me, saith the Lord GOD, a young bullock for a sin offering.

The Millennium priesthood will be the descendants of Zadok the priest who remained faithful to king David when his son Absalom rose in revolt against David.

David as the great king was a type of Christ.

He was anointed as king but had to wait until his enemy Saul died before he could become king.

Jesus was anointed as King on the banks of the Jordan river after John baptized Him.  But He has to wait until the beast is destroyed at Armageddon before He can take over as King in the Millennium.

By making Zadok and his descendants the main priests in the Millennium Temple, Jesus is showing that the one attribute that He really prizes is loyalty.

We will not be in the Millennium unless we are totally loyal to the Word of God.

We must prize the written Bible as more important to our beliefs than anything else.

EZEKIEL 43:25   Seven days shalt thou prepare every day a goat for a sin offering: they shall also prepare a young bullock, and a ram out of the flock, without blemish.

Sacrifice will be regular in the Millennium Temple.

Jesus is no longer on the mercy seat, so the sinners cannot become born again like we were able to in the church ages.

59-1220  IDENTIFIED  WITH  CHRIST

And then when you put your hands upon His head [Head of Jesus] and by faith confess your sins, say, "Lord, I'm sorry I done it." Then what will happen? God will transfer all your guilt over on Him and take His innocence and put it back on you, and you stand justified in the Presence of God, because you believed on Jesus Christ, His Son. What a plan of salvation. Then you'll share in His glory. The goodness of God will come into your heart. The power of His resurrection will make you a new person. It'll satisfy every longing.

EZEKIEL 44:15   But the priests the Levites, the sons of Zadok, that kept the charge of my sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from me, they shall come near to me to minister unto me, and they shall stand before me to offer unto me the fat and the blood, saith the Lord GOD:

The line of Zadok puts the emphasis on loyalty to King Jesus.

EZEKIEL 44:24    And in controversy they shall stand in judgment; and they shall judge it according to my judgments: and they shall keep my laws and my statutes in all mine assemblies; and they shall hallow my sabbaths.

The priests will judge according to the laws of God.

There will be many issues and disputes among the heathen who survive Armageddon as they are unsaved. But they will have to obey the laws of God.

The Saturday Sabbath will be restored for the unsaved heathen.

EZEKIEL 46:4   And the burnt offering that the prince shall offer unto the LORD in the sabbath day shall be six lambs without blemish, and a ram without blemish.

People will die.

EZEKIEL 44:25   And they shall come at no dead person to defile themselves: but for father, or for mother, or for son, or for daughter, for brother, or for sister that hath had no husband, they may defile themselves.

The heathen who were allowed into the Millennium will die as none of them can live for a thousand years.

EZEKIEL 44:31   The priests shall not eat of any thing that is dead of itself, or torn, whether it be fowl or beast.

Animals will also die.

EZEKIEL 46:17   But if he give a gift of his inheritance to one of his servants, then it shall be his to the year of liberty; after it shall return to the prince: but his inheritance shall be his sons' for them.

There will be a year of liberty when all debts are forgiven.

Amongst these heathen, they will marry and have children. A man can pass his inheritance down to his children.

But these rules have nothing to do with the Bride who will be in immortal glorified bodies.

EZEKIEL 46:20   Then said he unto me, This is the place where the priests shall boil the trespass offering and the sin offering, where they shall bake the meat offering; that they bear them not out into the utter court, to sanctify the people.

The Temple worship will be similar to the Old Testament worship, but there is no mention of the ark of the covenant. No candlestick or table of shewbread.

The ark of the covenant symbolized God. But Jesus is God and He will be in this new Temple.

The candlestick referred to the 7 church ages which will then be over.

The 12 loaves of shewbread referred to the 144000 Jews who came out of great Tribulation. That will also be in the past.

Water and the Holy Spirit flows freely

Now comes an interesting feature.

A river ran towards the east from the Temple after the Mount of Olives was split in two. This river got progressively deeper as it approached the Dead Sea.

EZEKIEL 47:2   Then brought he me out of the way of the gate northward, and led me about the way without unto the utter gate by the way that looketh eastward; and, behold, there ran out waters on the right side.

:3     And when the man that had the line in his hand went forth eastward, he measured a thousand cubits, and he brought me through the waters; the waters were to the ankles.

The river represents the restored Word.

The first step of faith involves getting saved. Repenting and accepting Jesus as Saviour.

The tree represents the spiritual image of the person.

A saved person has some new life but many dead branches.

First, get saved by faith as taught by Martin Luther in the fifth church age.

Shallow water means a doctrine that is easy to understand.

Each of us needs a Saviour and we cannot save ourselves. That is easy to grasp.

Jesus offers us free salvation that we cannot earn by works. That is also easy to understand.

Having got saved from hell by repenting and accepting Jesus as Saviour, we now have to move on and doctrines get deeper and have to be thought about more carefully.

A holy person has more green leaves and fewer dead branches.

EZEKIEL 47:4   Again he measured a thousand, and brought me through the waters; the waters were to the knees. Again he measured a thousand, and brought me through; the waters were to the loins.

John Wesley taught us about holiness in the 6th church age.

The loins produce life. The Pentecostals introduced new spiritual life with the baptism of the Holy Spirit.

The fruits of the Spirit are now visible in the tree.

The only dead branches now are the ignorance that Pentecostals have about the mysteries of Scripture.

EZEKIEL 47:5   Afterward he measured a thousand; and it was a river that I could not pass over: for the waters were risen, waters to swim in, a river that could not be passed over.

Then doctrine got much deeper. A man could not stand on his own feet. He could not rely on his own wisdom.

JOHN 16:13   Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth:

Only the Holy Spirit can reveal the mysteries of Scripture to us.

Between 1947 and 1965 brother Branham revealed the mysteries of Scripture so that we could understand the finer details of the Bible as well as seeing the deeper patterns that run through the Bible.

Now for the first time, the church can be restored to the Bible beliefs of the first church age.

The King James Version of the Bible is our Absolute.

Since 1965 we have lived in the days of his recorded voice. We are supposed to run his quotes through the Bible in order to prove our beliefs from the Bible.

REVELATION 10:7   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.

The final seed that is harvested in the seventh age must be identical to the seed that was planted in the first church age.

Now we can find real depth in the Bible verses that the churches rejected because they could not understand them.

EZEKIEL 47:6   And he said unto me, Son of man, hast thou seen this? Then he brought me, and caused me to return to the brink of the river.

So the end-time Bride must return to the New Testament church.

EZEKIEL 47:7   Now when I had returned, behold, at the bank of the river were very many trees on the one side and on the other.

A tree on a riverbank represents a righteous person.

PSALM 1:3   And he shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that bringeth forth his fruit in his season; his leaf also shall not wither; and whatsoever he doeth shall prosper.

EZEKIEL 47:8   Then said he unto me, These waters issue out toward the east country, and go down into the desert, and go into the sea: which being brought forth into the sea, the waters shall be healed.

This river has deep spiritual implications of the restored church and the 144000 Jews who find the truth.

But as a natural river, it will also flow down to the Dead Sea and bring life to those over-salted waters.

EZEKIEL 47:9   And it shall come to pass, that every thing that liveth, which moveth, whithersoever the rivers shall come, shall live: and there shall be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters shall come thither: for they shall be healed; and every thing shall live whither the river cometh.

The Dead Sea will become full of fish.

EZEKIEL 47:10   And it shall come to pass, that the fishers shall stand upon it from Engedi even unto Eneglaim; they shall be a place to spread forth nets; their fish shall be according to their kinds, as the fish of the great sea, exceeding many.

EZEKIEL 47:11   But the miry places thereof and the marishes thereof shall not be healed; they shall be given to salt.

But some salt marshes will remain as a testimony that this area was once dead and lifeless.

This is a theme of the Millennium.

Abundant blessings but always a reminder that humanity messed up badly because of sin. They were badly punished in the 3.5 years of great Tribulation. The heathen who were lucky enough to survive Armageddon have been given a fresh chance. But if they are not obedient, punishment will be severe.

EZEKIEL 47:12   And by the river upon the bank thereof, on this side and on that side, shall grow all trees for meat, whose leaf shall not fade, neither shall the fruit thereof be consumed: it shall bring forth new fruit according to his months, because their waters they issued out of the sanctuary: and the fruit thereof shall be for meat, and the leaf thereof for medicine.

The abundant fruit of the trees will be meat for the heathen.

The leaves of the trees will have great medicinal value. So sickness will be a problem for the heathen but not for the Bride in their glorified bodies.

A stream of water flows east from the Temple.

JOEL 3:18   And it shall come to pass in that day, that the mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall come forth of the house of the LORD, and shall water the valley of Shittim.

ZECHARIAH 14:6   And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark:

At the end of the seventh church age, there will be a real mixture of truth and error. Churches will get some things right but believe serious errors on other issues.

ZECHARIAH 14:7   But it shall be one day which shall be known to the LORD, not day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light.

Brother Branham will prove his revelations by running them through Scripture. This light will help the end-time Bride who try to establish their beliefs by running the ideas in his quotes through the Scripture. The rest of the church will believe bits of Scripture and bits of human opinion.

ZECHARIAH 14:8   And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in summer and in winter shall it be.

To a person looking east along this river, the former sea would be the Dead Sea which is in front of him. This symbolizes the Bride who returns to the former beliefs of the first church age. The church world regards so much of the Bible as mistranslations, contradictions, and errors that they cannot accept the King James Bible as their Absolute. Thus they effectively kill the people’s faith in many portions of the Scripture. Bible verses that they cannot understand are dismissed as irrelevant or just a detail. They claim that many parts of the Bible are not needed to be known and are thus effectively “dead” rather than being necessary for eternal Life.

“Must we know those verses?” say the foolish virgins or church-goers dismissively.

“We must know!” reply the Bride who strive to run the prophet’s revelations through the Bible in order to understand the deeper meanings.

The light of the end-time revelation and the availability of truth on the internet, despite all the noise of church errors, means that the Bride can grow in the Truth like a seed developing in summer. We have had many easy years to learn the truth.

Then the second Coming of Jesus happens (often called the Rapture).

In the next picture, Jerusalem is shown in a red rectangle.

The river flowing east moves to the Dead Sea, the former Sea, to give it life. The prophet’s teachings revived our ability to understand the Bible so that we could trust the Bible as being absolutely true. Plus our need to prove every doctrine just from the Scripture.

The Dead Sea will cease to be dead when a stream breaks out in the desert. This new river will connect the Dead Sea to the Red Sea in the south.

ISAIAH 35:6  … for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert.

The other river flows to the back or Hinder Sea, the Mediterranean. Symbolic of the Jews getting the truth in great Tribulation when times will be very difficult. Symbolized by the harshness of winter.

Hinder means to make difficult progress. Hinder can also mean behind. Facing the east, the Mediterranean Sea is behind the person.

To those church-goers who rejected proving their beliefs from Scripture and trusted in man-made quotes, will come the unexpected shock and horror of great Tribulation. They are doomed to destruction and the 3.5 years of great Tribulation will be the winter of their discontent.

But in the difficult progress of the time of the 3.5 years of great Tribulation, the 144000 Jews will meet their Messiah.

Moses claims that Jesus is Lord God Almighty, the only holy One

ZECHARIAH 14:9   And the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one LORD, and his name one.

The real truth that Jesus Christ is Lord God Almighty will be revealed to the church-goers in the 3.5 years of great Tribulation.

Look what the prophet Moses preaches during the Tribulation.

REVELATION 15:3   And they sing the song of Moses the servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, Great and marvelous are thy works, Lord God Almighty; just and true are thy ways, thou King of saints.

:4   Who shall not fear thee, O Lord, and glorify thy name? for thou only art holy: for all nations shall come and worship before thee; for thy judgments are made manifest.

Only the Lamb is holy. Thus only the Lamb can be Lord God Almighty. There is no room for a Trinity of three Persons.

 

The salty waters will be healed as this new river flows East from the Temple, into the Dead Sea to overcome the salty water.  At present, the Dead Sea water is 6 times saltier than the normal sea. Thus it cannot support life because of its high mineral content. But the  Dead Sea is transformed into a “living sea” of freshwater that then forms a new river flowing south from the Dead Sea into the Red Sea.

The Dead Sea is dead because the water flows in but not out. But in the Millennium the water will also flow out to give this Sea life.

It is bad when humans just receive, we must also learn to give.

ACTS 20:35   I have shewed you all things, how that so labouring ye ought to support the weak, and to remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he said, It is more blessed to give than to receive.

GENESIS 15:18   In the same day the LORD made a covenant with Abram, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates:

The Promised Land was meant to extend to the Euphrates River.

In the Millennium, the promises of God will be fulfilled.

Satan can hinder God's plans but he cannot stop them.

EZEKIEL 47:21   So shall ye divide this land unto you according to the tribes of Israel.

Strangers will share the land with the Jews

EZEKIEL 47:22   And it shall come to pass, that ye shall divide it by lot for an inheritance unto you, and to the strangers that sojourn among you, which shall beget children among you: and they shall be unto you as born in the country among the children of Israel; they shall have inheritance with you among the tribes of Israel.

The unsaved heathen and the unsaved Jews who survive Armageddon will have children born to them in the Millennium.

EZEKIEL 47:23   And it shall come to pass, that in what tribe the stranger sojourneth, there shall ye give him his inheritance, saith the Lord GOD.

Strangers will also be able to find places to dwell amongst the Jews in the Millennium.

It will be a glorious time of peace, sharing, and harmony because Jesus will be in charge.

“The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you.” — 1 Corinthians 16:23