Revelation 06 Part 2 Downfall of the Church



Religious Deception, Political Power, and Big Business have prospered the church but ruined the spiritual vision

First published on the 9th of May 2023 — Last updated on the 27th of October 2023

4 bodyguards protect the Body of the Lord

The Body of the Lord is His church.

I CORINTHIANS 12:27   Now ye are the body of Christ, and members in particular.

Revelation Chapter 6 is based on the four beasts in Revelation Chapter 4 that surround the Throne of God in Heaven.

These are each a different manifestation of God’s Spirit as He guides the church during the seven different church ages.

Each beast has to oppose a very clever move by Satan as he endlessly seeks to take over the control of the church.

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.

The Lion represents the apostles who established the New Testament church. Jesus is the Lion of the tribe of Judah. Jesus is the Word of God. The only interest of the first church age was to be Scriptural.

The four beasts are a summary of the seven church ages.

We can represent the seven church ages as the seven-branched candlestick in the Old Testament Tabernacle.

The central Candlestick represents the first church age that was established by the apostles.

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

The Lion-beast represents the apostolic doctrines that established the early church in the first church age.

Each local church was ruled by a group of local elders.

The influence of the apostles got less after AD 170 when the first church age ended. Bishops were controlling the church in the second church age that lasted from AD 170 to AD 312. Three million Christians were killed by the Pagan Roman Emperors and often fed to the lions in the arena. Christians had to be very brave. The worst persecution was started in AD 302 by the Emperor Diocletian. It lasted ten years as he did his best to wipe out Christianity and destroy all Bibles.

In AD 312 the political Roman Emperor Constantine stopped killing Chtistians. The grateful Christians accepted him as head of the church.

That was a deadly mistake. The church must never be controlled or influenced by politicians.

At the Council of Nicaea in AD 325 Constantine forced the church to accept the Pagan Trinity doctrine. That enabled pagans to happily join the church. No rebirth was needed. Constantine gave the Bishop of Rome the Lateran Palace in Rome and much money. The politician thus bought the loyalty of the church. The Roman Catholic Church and the State joined together as the Roman Catholic Church became the official church of the Roman Empire. In AD 350 Pope Julius I accepted 25 December, the birthday of the pagan sun god, as the birthday of the Son of God which he called Christ's Mass which became Christmas. In AD 382 Roman Emperor Theodosius began to persecute pagans. He gave the title of Pontiff, High Priest of the Babylonian Mysteries, to his uncle Damasus who was Bishop of Rome. By AD 450 Pope Leo I was happy to kill the Christians who disagreed with the Roman Catholic church.

The fourth church age began in AD 606 with the Pope calling himself the Universal Bishop. Tens of millions of opponents of the Roman Catholic church were slaughtered like oxen during the Dark Ages when the Bible was banned. Bible truth almost died out. Brave Christians hung on and somehow survived. Twelve hundred years went by as the calf grew into a strong ox. You had to be very strong to survive those endless persecutions.

The Ox-beast represented the truth getting lost in the Dark Ages under elevated human leadership as each church wanted one man as its head.

The fourth church age ended around 1520 when Martin Luther's Reformation started.

EPHESIANS 5:23   For the husband is the head of the wife,

even as Christ is the head of the church: and he is the saviour of the body.

Again, the emphasis that the church must be the Body of Christ.

The body cannot think for itself. The body has to be in complete submission to the Head Who is Jesus, known to us as the Word of God.

Each church replaced Christ with one man as their leader. Human opinions replaced the Scriptures.

The Man-beast represented inspired human scholarship that started around the time of the Reformation which launched the fifth church age in 1520 by using the new invention of the printing press to publish Bible tracts. God blessed human scholarship. The restoration of salvation by grace through faith that was started by Martin Luther in Germany. Then came the translation of the King James Bible in 1611 that was checked and revised for almost 160 years until published in 1769. God inspired their human scholarship to choose the right documents to translate. God also inspired them how to translate the Hebrew and the Greek words. The perfect King James Bible was produced just before the missionary age began in the 1780s. The King James Bible was the foundation of the missionary age. The restoration of holiness and outreach by John Wesley in England started the sixth church age around AD 1750 which led to the great missionary age. Wesley stayed away from politics which saved England from the brutality of the French revolution and the endless battles of the military dictator Napoleon that saw about one million Frenchmen being killed.

Human scholarship was able to restore the doctrines of Justification by faith alone through grace as well as Sanctification. But human scholarship could not reveal the deeper mysteries of Scripture.

The Eagle-beast represented the Pentecostal restoration of the gifts of the Spirit that began the seventh church age in 1906 with the Azusa Street revival in Los Angeles, America. Sadly, they stopped there and just focused on supernatural gifts as if that was the end of the restoration of truth.

As a result, the Pentecostal movement split into many different denominations that lacked direction.

The Bible never mentions drums. But drum-beat music hit the world in the 1950s and became a key issue in church entertainment. Money was always the aim of the modern churches who lost their spiritual vision as their worldly wealth grew to develop megachurches. Hollywood glitz, glamour, and showbiz invaded the pulpit and the church. They offer style without Scriptural substance. Jesus looked so ordinary that Judas had to point Him out in the group.

Churches became embroiled in politics.

The next picture shows the spiritual state of the foolish virgin churches. Virgins are clean women so virgins represent saved Christians. But they are foolish, fooled by the opinions of their impressive preachers. Unaware that they must be restored to the first church age, they sadly lack direction as they concentrate on church growth. They have no idea that they must be restored back to the first church age.

Then in the ministry of William Branham, from 1947 to 1965, we were given an insight (represented by the eagle’s piercing eyesight) into the restoration of the Bible truths of the early church. Now, at last, we can gain an understanding of the Bible mysteries.

DANIEL 12:10  … but the wise shall understand.

If we cannot understand the Bible mysteries then we cannot be part of the wise virgins.

Only by being able to understand the Bible mysteries can we find our direction which restores us back to the first apostolic church.

The eagle-age is to restore us back to the Bible doctrines of the apostolic lion-age.

Only when the individuals in the last church age are able to be restored to the Bible truths of the first church age will the restoration of the Bride be complete.

Then the final events will be triggered by the resurrection of the New Testament saints.

They will arise in their immortal bodies.

When the seven Thunders show us how to change our bodies then we will also be immortal and we will be literally turned to them. The last age will then be exactly the same as the first age. First and last will be interchangeable.

LUKE 13:30   And, behold, there are last which shall be first, and there are first which shall be last.

When we are in immortal bodies just like them, then it will not be possible to tell the difference between the first and the last church ages.

God's restoration of the Bible truth will then finally be complete.

REVELATION 1:17  And when I saw him, I fell at his feet as dead. And he laid his right hand upon me, saying unto me, Fear not;

I am the first and the last:

"Fear not".

It will be a time of danger and rejection.

The two Eagle wings also represent the two prophets, Moses and Elijah, who then pull out the 144000 Jews during the 3.5 years of great Tribulation.

The First Seal has one Thunder and religious deception

REVELATION 4:1   After this I looked, and, behold, a door was opened in heaven: and the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me; which said, Come up hither, and I will shew thee things which must be hereafter.

:2   And immediately I was in the spirit: and, behold, a throne was set in heaven, and one sat on the throne.

In Revelation Chapter 4, John is caught up to Heaven. As one individual, he represents the Gentile church being being caught up to Heaven at the Coming of the Lord.

“After this”.

After the seven church ages are completed then the Rapture or catching up occurs.

In Revelation 5, Jesus is in Heaven with His church who are around His throne.

REVELATION 6:1   And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see.

The First Seal will not open until a mysterious noise of Thunder is heard. That has not happened yet. Thus, the First Seal has not actually happened.

One month before he died and brother Branham was still waiting for the single Thunder and the "shout" and the resurrection.
1965-1127  I HAVE HEARD BUT NOW I SEE
Dear God, in this solemn moment, it's going to be a time like this when there really will be a clap of thunder someday, and the Son of God shall descend from the heavens with a shout, with the voice of the Archangel, and the trump of God, the dead in Christ shall rise.

Between 17 March and 24 March 1963, in Jeffersonville in America, seven angels showed visions of these future events to William Branham.

A vision of a future event, before it happens, is a revelation.

Thus, we have a revelation of the opening of the Seven Seals.

The small print on the cover of this book describes brother Branham as the "Voice of the seventh angel".

His followers had not yet made the mistake of promoting him to the unscriptural "Voice of God" which is never mentioned in the New Testament.

This book is not the actual opening of the Seven Seals which happens when the Bride is in Heaven.

The revelation of the event tells us about the event before it actually happens.

AMOS 3:7   Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.

God shows a prophet a vision of a future event before it happens.

The mystery Thunder will determine when the event actually begins.

That single Thunder will tell us when the Seven Seals actually are opened.

The beast that speaks is the Lion which symbolizes the Word of God.

The first church age was set up under the Lion-like influence of the apostles to be the correct model for all the church ages. Each age should have tried to copy the first church age.

The New Testament is the fulfilment of the Old Testament outline or shadow.

Accordingly, Satan first had to undermine the Scriptural authority of the New Testament apostles.

The apostles established local churches that were ruled by local elders.

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

ACTS 20:28   Take heed therefore unto yourselves, and to all the flock, over the which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers, to feed the church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood.

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

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

A wolf becomes the leader and controller of a flock. But a wolf destroys the flock.

He gets the people to follow him as that takes their attention away from the early apostolic teachings. John was the last apostle left. When he died around AD 100 then Satan began to elevate a one-man head for each church that was very efficient for church growth but it moved away from the example of the apostles. The church head had to ensure that he got enough money collected for himself. Then he had to keep rival ambitious men away. When God raised up a genuine Bible-teaching ministry then the church head would regard him as a threat and excommunicate him.

A Nicolaitan was an elevated holy man who took over the leadership of the church. God hated this idea. So did the early church.

REVELATION 2:6   But this thou hast, that thou hatest the deeds of the Nicolaitans, which I also hate.

The apostles never set up a priest or reverend or pastor or bishop or vicar to be the head of a church.

REVELATION 6:2   And I saw, and behold a white horse:

and he that sat on him had a bow;

and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.

White is clean so it represents religion where people hope to get their sins cleansed.

A horse is a powerful animal, ridden by a proud and dominating conqueror. This represents competitive Christianity. My church is better than your church.

The rider is a mystery as he has no name.

The rider is that spirit of antichrist that has been around ever since the beginning of the first church age.

I JOHN 4:3   … and this is that spirit of antichrist,

whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world.

The Bible never says, “The Antichrist” as though an all-powerful politician will emerge in the future from Europe or the Middle East.

Antichrist is a spirit that has always been present in the church.

Judas was a church leader seeking money.

That is the nature of that antichrist spirit.

He has a bow but no arrow. Thus, he is bluffing.

The rider represents that spirit of antichrist who relies on religious deception.

As a deceiver he uses his tongue to shoot out lies. This kills the truth of God’s Word.

JEREMIAH 9:8   Their tongue is as an arrow shot out; it speaketh deceit:

REVELATION 6:2   And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow;

and a crown was given unto him:

and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.

Crowns are not usually worn by religious leaders.

Around AD 860, Pope Nicholas I was the first Pope to wear a crown as he felt that made him equal to the kings. By 1314 Pope Clement V had introduced the famous triple crown which Popes wore until 1963. In that fateful year the Pope died and the Catholic President of America John Kennedy was killed. That was the year brother Branham revealed the Seals and exposed the link between the triple crown and that spirit of antichrist which is the deceptive horse rider. Pope Paul VI, the new Pope, was crowned but then took off the crown that revealed him as a continuation or successor of that spirit of antichrist.

REVELATION 6:2   And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him:

and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.

The Roman Catholic church has thus been prophesied that they will conquer the world and the Protestant churches.

Their unscriptural Trinity, Christmas, 25 December, Good Friday, pagan Christmas tree, and having one man as the head of each church, getting saved by good church works and conforming to the church, and paying a lot of money to the church to book a place in Heaven have encouraged Protestants to be unscriptural.

Thus message-groups now readily accept unscriptural ideas like William Branham being the infallible Voice of God and the Son of man. They mistake the mighty Angel of Revelation 10 that comes down to perform the resurrection of the dead by claiming that the Angel was a supernatural cloud that stayed at a height of 42 kilometers above Flagstaff city in Arizona for 28 minutes after dark on 28 February 1963. Their logic is hopelessly muddled.

They then claim that seven angels coming invisibly down to brother Branham on 8 March at Sunset Peak was also, somehow, the coming down of this mighty Angel, Who is Christ. But Sunset Peak is in the Sonoran desert, and Christ does not come down in a desert. Again, their logic is all wrong.

MATTHEW 24:26   Wherefore if they shall say unto you,

Behold, he is in the desert; go not forth:

Unscriptural error keeps spreading in the churches and mutating like a virus.

Brother Branham never said that the seven Thunders have uttered.

But his followers claim that the seven Thunders have uttered.

They have produced over twenty different variations of the seven Thunders’ doctrine to further confuse the issue.

All these errors just give the critics of brother Branham fresh ammunition to attack his ministry.

This spirit of antichrist was told to conquer church-goers so it will continue to do so until the end.

You have to be strictly Scriptural if you want to avoid being fooled by message-churches and thus joining the rest of the churches as part of the foolish virgins.

Virgins are clean women who represent saved Christians. Saved by grace through faith from hell. But then, sadly, fooled by the church errors that doom them to be cast into great Tribulation with all its horrors.

The mystery of the First Seal is it is partly revealed

We know about the antichrist errors in the past church ages but we do not know all of his errors that he is spreading now. Much less do we know the even more deceptive errors that will come out in the future.

The white horse rider was told to conquer which is why so many message-followers of brother Branham are still being fooled today.

In 2023 a new instrument of subtle error has emerged, Artificial Intelligence (AI). Computers can now develop a brilliant defense of error. They can launch far more deadly attacks against the truth of the King James Bible. They can now think of deadly but dangerous interpretations of Scripture that the first church age never believed. Artificial Intelligence will think up cunning misinterpretations of brother Branham’s quotes that will fool many.

When asked about the future, Jesus first said:

MATTHEW 24:4   And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you.

Our biggest problem is being fooled. That is when we join the foolish virgins of Matthew Chapter 25.

Being saved does not stop you from being fooled by church doctrines.

Remember that there are 45000 different kinds of churches and denominations today. All different yet each claiming to be correct. Thus, there is a lot of error swirling around in the churches.

The horse rider is not a man otherwise he would just be around for one lifetime.

The rider is that spirit of antichrist that guides the succession of Popes.

REVELATION 17:8   … when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is.

The beast (the power of religious deception) always “was” because they claim Peter (the first apostle to be chosen by Jesus) to be the first Pope. That is a lie as Peter never made such a claim.

“and is not”.  The Pope dies.

“And yet is”. A new Pope is elected.

Thus the succession of Popes will continue to the end. The Popes are the longest line of rulers in the Western world.

That spirit of antichrist jumps from the Pope who dies to the next Pope who is elected. The Popes change but it is the same spirit that possesses each Pope. The man dies but the spirit moves on.

Religious deception was a powerful force (symbolized by the horse) whereby Satan distorted and changed the original Scriptures. Eventually, Christians no longer felt any need to be strictly Scriptural.

Pope, Cardinal, and Archbishop are all unscriptural titles.

That spirit of deception is still powerfully controlling the churches of today.

So much so, that there is no end-time prophecy or end-time parable that says anything good about the end-time church.

Religious deception aims to get people to stop thinking for themselves.

Unthinking people are easy to control with church propaganda.

We learn at school to pass exams by believing what we are told, not by thinking to understand.

The Roman Catholic church established the rule that you must conform to what the priest, who is the head of the church, says.

Protestants have accepted this same rule. They have merely replaced the priest with a pastor.

But no man was ever put in charge of a New Testament church.

This rider of religious deception will continue to ride until he is in great Tribulation. He will only be destroyed right at the end just before the Millennium is set up.

The Second Seal of Political Involvement by the church

REVELATION 6:3   And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see.

The second beast around the throne is a young calf.

EZEKIEL 1:10   As for the likeness of their faces, they four had the face of a man, and the face of a lion, on the right side: and they four had the face of an ox on the left side; they four also had the face of an eagle.

Yet Ezekiel had seen this second beast as an ox.

A calf has to lose its life-giving ability and be castrated to become an ox. Then it produces great strength. Thus, the ox represents the 3rd and 4th church ages when the truth was lost as the church descended into the Dark Ages.

The truth became rejected when Emperor Constantine accepted the Roman Catholic church as the official church after he took power in AD 312. The Trinity was forced onto the churches in AD 325 at the Council of Nicaea. By about AD 350 Pope Julius I had accepted Christmas (an unscriptural word) on 25 December (a pagan birth date). This darkness spread for 1200 years (60% of the church ages) as more and more Bible truth got lost until Martin Luther began the Reformation about 1520. He restored salvation by repentance and faith in Jesus, not good church works. Those 1200 years were plenty of time for the calf to grow up into an ox. During these Dark Ages, tens of millions of true believers were slaughtered like oxen by the Roman Catholic church. An ox has to work hard and at the end it is killed for its valuable meat.

JEREMIAH 11:19   But I was like a lamb or an ox that is brought to the slaughter;

The Christians of the third and fourth church ages had to die in their millions. They had to be incredibly strong to offer up their lives for such a long time when it seemed that all hope was lost. The 0x-Spirit sustained them. They lived in a brutal time which knew no mercy or compassion. They paid an incredible price.

REVELATION 6:4   And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword.

“Another horse” but not another rider. So, it is the same rider, that spirit of antichrist on the red horse.

The sword of politics enabled the Roman Catholic church to slaughter its opponents.

Satan now began to work from within the church, killing all dissenters.

He rode his horse through human blood until his horse became red.

The Old Testament never allowed one man to be king and high priest. That was too much power for one man to wield.

Power corrupts people.

That is why God in the New Testament wanted local churches to be ruled by a group of local elders and not by one man.

A major failure of the church was when that spirit of antichrist enabled the Pope to rule the church and also to seize political power over the people.

The Pope rose to political power by crowning the kings of the Barbarian tribes that had destroyed the pagan Roman Empire. Thus, the Pope gained political power in Europe. The Spanish and the Portuguese explorers conquered South America and many eastern areas. They ruled these countries with the sword and thereby extended the power of the Pope over the world. Today there are about 1.4 billion Roman Catholics worldwide.

The First World War unleashed a spirit of dictatorship as governments took full control over their people in order to fight the war. Then in the Second World War, Hitler as a natural dictator unleashed those killing demons on natural Israel, the Jews. Six million Jews were killed in “the tribulation of those days” as a preview of the Sixth Seal which describes the 3½ years of great Tribulation. The war ended in 1945 and those killing spirits had to stop killing Jews.

In 1948 those killing spirits entered the World Council of Churches in order to crucify Christ, as the Word of God, afresh in the churches.

They have succeeded well. Hardly any Christians believe that the King James Version of the Bible is the perfect and Absolute Truth.

They have now replaced the King James Bible with over 100 different versions of the English Bible. Thus, they believe that no Bible can be completely correct.

What you say about the King James Bible is what you say about Jesus, because He is the Word of God.

Make any criticism of the King James Bible and you are criticizing Christ Jesus. That is a sin.

Today, The Roman Catholic church is heavily involved in politics.

Protestant churches have copied this example as they rush to support the politicians of their choice and condemn the politicians that they disagree with.

The apostolic church of the first church age never did that.

Nero was a brutal Roman Emperor. He killed wealthy Romans in order to confiscate their wealth. He told them to commit suicide and leave a note that left all their money to him. He slaughtered the Christians in very cruel ways.

Yet Paul never speaks against Nero in the Bible.

The apostolic church had no political involvement. They were concerned with the Kingdom of Heaven, not earthly kingdoms. Earthly kingdoms rise and fall. As such they are just a distraction. But God uses the physical kingdoms to produce certain effects. Under cruel Russian Communism, almost all the people of Poland were strongly Catholic. Roman Catholic Pope John Paul II played a big political role in removing Russian Communism from Poland. But with their freedom from Communism, the majority of the Polish people are now no longer committed to the Catholic church.

This is the law of unintended consequences. When a church is involved in politics, strange things happen.

Between AD 64 (the start of Nero’s persecution of Christians) and AD 312 (the end of Diocletian’s persecution which was the most ruthless and brutal of them all as he tried to eliminate Christianity), about 3 million Christians were killed.

In AD 312 Constantine became Emperor and stopped killing Christians. The Christians in gratitude accepted Constantine as head of the church. Their biggest mistake. They should have had nothing to do with him. In AD 325 at the Council of Nicaea he then forced the church to accept the pagan Trinity doctrine.

In AD 382 the Roman Emperor Theodosius handed over the title of Pontifex Maximus or Pontiff to the Bishop of Rome, Damasus, who was his uncle. That way the Mysteries of Babylon entered the Roman Catholic church. The Babylonian priests gained high positions in the Roman Catholic church. The church got Emperor Theodosius to persecute pagans. The political power of Rome was then used to persecute the enemies of the church. By AD 450 Pope Leo I was happy to kill Christians who were not Roman Catholics.

Then the Western Roman Empire collapsed around AD 476 but the cruel pagan Roman spirit resurrected up on the ruins of the Roman Empire as the Roman Catholic church.

The Roman Catholic church became the strongest force in Europe and during the Dark Ages they killed tens of millions of Christians who believed differently to them. They became the biggest mass murderer in history.

The fatal mistake of merging religion and politics.

Third Seal of Big Business demonology in the church

Religious deception and political power had established the Roman Catholic church which dominated Europe in the Dark Ages. Now the church had to develop as a financial power to further extend its hold over the people. The church became an open door to big business. Remember Judas, he was a church apostle who fell for money.

Greedy and ambitious men strove to buy high offices in the church.

REVELATION 6:5   And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand.

The first horse was white. Then another red horse. Now a black horse. That makes three horses.

But the rider is always “he” or “him”. Never another person. So, the three horses of white (cunning religious deceiver), and red (cruel political ruthlessness), and black (Big Money greediness) all have the same rider who has ridden through the seven church ages. The rider is that spirit of antichrist because there are many antichrists.

I JOHN 2:18   Little children, it is the last time: and as ye have heard that antichrist shall come, even now are there many antichrists; whereby we know that it is the last time.

The antichrist spirit was right there in the church at the beginning in the time of the apostle John.

I JOHN 4:3   … and this is that spirit of antichrist,

The Bible never says “The Antichrist” as if he is a politician that will arise from Europe.

There are many antichrists wrapped up in that spirit of antichrist. Legion was one person yet he was possessed by many demons.

MARK 5:9   And he asked him, What is thy name? And he answered, saying, My name is Legion: for we are many.

So, a more accurate picture of the Third Seal would look like this.

 

That antichrist spirit moved on down through the succession of Popes.

They developed cunning deceptions like Trinity and Christmas on 25 December which infiltrated and fooled the saved Protestants, turning them into the foolish virgins.

Political power and influence enabled the church to turn Christianity into Big Business. People paid much money to the church to find favour with God.

About 2.2 billion people call themselves Christians. They are divided into 45000 different types of denominations and churches, all of whom have different beliefs. They choose from over 100 different versions of the English Bible. No wonder that no prophecy about the end-time church says anything good about the church. No parable about the end-time church says anything good about the church either.

The balances are a symbol of the end.

The church world is sadly out of balance with Scripture. Church people are woefully ignorant of what is written in Scripture. All difficulties are just dismissed as details that are not worth worrying about. They cannot explain why God filled the Bible with so many irrelevant details.

Daniel saw the end of the first Gentile age of natural Babylon when there was handwriting on the wall next to the candlestick. The writing was next to, or outside, the candlestick. That symbolized that the seven church ages were over with Christ outside the church. The seventh age of the church of the Laodiceans in Revelation Chapter 3 sees Christ outside the door of the church.

DANIEL 5:5   In the same hour came forth fingers of a man's hand,

and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaister of the wall of the king's palace:

and the king saw the part of the hand that wrote.

 

DANIEL 5:25   And this is the writing that was written, MENE, MENE, TEKEL, UPHARSIN.

TEKEL comes from the word SHEKEL which was the coin that was weighed out in the Temple.

Numbered. Numbered. Weighed and divided.

Numbering or counting up the coins in the Temple money. Religious money-making as they counted out the number of coins handed in.

“Numbered” is repeated twice. This emphasis in the church at the end-time is on counting the money.

Jewish businessmen had to conduct their business in Roman coins which had the Roman Emperor’s image. These pagan images on the coins were then brought into the Temple which defiled the Temple. No graven images were supposed to be allowed in the Temple. Roman coins had the head of the Emperor graven on the one side

But the priests allowed this unlawful trade in Roman coins because that was the real money of the Roman Empire. No wonder Jesus whipped these corrupt money-makers out of the Temple.

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

The angel or messenger to the last age was the American prophet William Branham.

Notice it is not the church in Laodicea. It is the church “of the Laodiceans”. The church of the people.

Christians have become so obsessed with their own rights that they feel that they have the right to make up their own church beliefs. They also demand that they have the right to rewrite the Bible in a way that suits their beliefs.

REVELATION 3:17   Because thou sayest, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing;

For the first time in 2000 years of church history, the church of the Laodiceans has a chance to speak.

They focus on self. “I am …”

Our age is obsessed with selfies. People taking photographs of themselves. Self-obsessed.

They point to the success of their lives as being an example to all Christians rather than pointing to Jesus.

“I am rich and increased in goods”. Admire me. Look how much money I have made.

The church judges its success by its ability to make money.

“And have need of nothing”. I have got everything I need.

If I need nothing, then I certainly need no correction. Do not try to tell a modern church-goer that they are wrong. They cannot accept that.

Jesus cast out the money-makers from the Temple three times.

The first time near the start of His 3½ year ministry. The second time was on Palm Sunday which began the last week of His ministry. He did it again the next day on Monday. That was going too far. He was killed on Thursday.

The Jewish leaders tolerated Jesus calling them hypocrites and vipers (snakes in the grass) but not when He threatened their income.

DANIEL 5:27   TEKEL; Thou art weighed in the balances, and art found wanting.

Numbered. Numbered. Weighed and divided.

The Babylonian kingdom, the first Gentile kingdom, was weighed up by God and though it was rich it was found lacking in worthwhile substance. Belshazzar and his exalted nobles were all going to die that night. Their big drunken party was the sign of their end.

Humans judge value in terms of how much wealth and possessions we have and the importance of our position in the church.

God judges value in terms of how much of the King James Bible we believe and understand. Only the revealed mysteries of the Bible can guide us in the right direction to be ready for the Second Coming of Jesus.

Moving in the right Scriptural direction is more important than the elevated positions that Belshazzar’s nobles occupied that day, which was their last day on earth.

There is a basic law of physics. The more you focus on your position (looking at yourself) the less you can focus on the direction in which you are moving (looking away from yourself so that you can see your goal).

God wants the local churches to be ruled by local elders who each play a part. Thus the position of an elder is a little vague. But then the church can move in the direction of being restored back to the original first church age of the apostles.

Elevate a man to be the head of a church. That is an unscriptural position. Then he cannot guide the church back to the way it was at the beginning. Because the early church never had one man in charge.

Church leaders today have fallen into the same material snare of self-deceit.

The apostle Peter said, “Silver and gold have I none”. Peter never pursued wealth.

Peter is claimed (falsely) to be the first Pope. But the modern-day Popes in the Vatican cannot say that they have no silver or gold. The Vatican is the world’s wealthiest organization.

Jesus chased the money-makers out of the Temple. Those people were successful materially, and very important in the Temple but irrelevant to God’s plan.

Jesus said, “Woe to you rich” but “blessed are the poor”.

In our materialistic world the church made the fatal mistake of calling wealth a blessing. As if wealth is something to aspire to. That is an extreme focus on self. Yet we are meant to die to self. Sadly, the world’s wealthiest man often cannot keep his wife.

A multimillionaire, accused of abusing under-age girls, recently committed suicide in prison. So, does money really make people happy? We buy more but enjoy it less.

We are humbled by loss, not by success.

John was put into a horrible prison colony on the island of Patmos before he could receive his incredible Revelation visions to close off the Bible.

The more our physical situation shrinks, the more our spiritual awareness opens up.

The opposite also often happens. The richer you get materially, the poorer you become spiritually.

Venezuela has the most oil but is the least productive oil exporter. So, having a lot does not make us better or more effective.

A minister is a servant, not the head of the church.

A wealthy church leader gives the orders because he is the boss and not a servant. After all, he has a business to maintain which requires years of targeted self-promotion.

A half-hour of a TV Televangelist broadcast must have a pull for money and all-too-often the brief appearance of a pretty face to attract attention to the program. Hollywood has taught the churches useful tricks for catching attention. A coffee cup, usually untouched, is on the desk or table to create a homely feeling. Cameras that come in from different angles to create change and thus hold our attention. Distant cameras to include the big audience as well. An upstairs camera to show that the huge church hall has an upstairs balcony as well. All designed to impress. Because they know that deep down church-goers today do not seek truth, they seek to belong. And they want to belong to the biggest and the best church.

Then they introduce disco drum-beat music to entertain. Although drums are never mentioned in the Bible.

All of these gimmicks come from worldly TV programs. But it is effective to pull in the crowds and more importantly, the money.

The broadcasts have style and show, but lacking the substance of understanding the revealed Bible mysteries which Daniel promised would be made known in the end-time.

The churches have much in the show room but little of value in the stockroom.

Churches now accept unscriptural gay rights, same-sex marriage, abortions, and gender change.

We have multiplied our possessions but reduced our values.

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.

People move around the earth these days and humans certainly know a lot.

DANIEL 12:10   Many shall be purified, and made white, and tried; but the wicked shall do wickedly: and none of the wicked shall understand;

but the wise shall understand.

Only the wise virgins from the Parable in Matthew Chapter 25 will understand the meaning of the Bible mysteries and symbols and patterns.

The foolish or fooled virgins will not be interested in understanding the revealed Bible mysteries. That will be the major success of the white horse rider, that cunning and devious spirit of religious deception. The foolish virgins keep saying that understanding the mysteries is not important.

When they are unable to explain a Scripture, they just dismiss it as a detail. Too trivial to worry about. But that is wrong.

Jesus put an emphasis on understanding little details.

MATTHEW 16:9   Do ye not yet understand, neither remember the five loaves of the five thousand,

and how many baskets ye took up?

Twelve baskets of rejected scraps were collected.

Jesus expected us to understand the significance of the 12 baskets.

The Jews were rejecting the Gospel. Bread and meat refer to doctrine. The doctrine of Jesus was being rejected by the Jews.

The disciples collected or published these rejected doctrines as the New Testament.

The Jews, who are the 12 tribes of Israel, rejected the Gospel. But during the 3.5 years of great Tribulation at the end of the seven church ages (represented by the schoolboy’s five loaves and two fish) this rejected New Testament would return to the twelve tribes of Israel.

Then 144000 Jews will be pulled out of the twelve tribes of Israel to receive Eternal Life as they are filled with the Holy Ghost.

The wise virgins must be able to understand the mysteries of Scripture in order to be classified as wise.

The saved church members who foolishly insist that the mysteries of Scripture are not important and can be ignored cannot be called the wise virgins. They are fooled into ignorance by their church leaders. Thus, they will find the Door shut when the Lord comes. The church today dumbs the people down so that they become more Bible-illiterate.

Wheat and barley and oil are signs of the end

REVELATION 6:6   And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.

Wheat and barley make bread which is a symbol of the Word of God.

Oil is symbolic of the Holy Spirit.

God’s Word and God’s Spirit are essential to help the wise virgins through these turbulent times.

Only the Holy Spirit can enable us to understand the revealed mysteries of the King James Bible.

In the parable of the workers, Christ said that a penny was a day’s wage.

This indicates a frightening increase in the cost of living when the Word of God is sold by the churches for much of what a man earns.

The COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic wrecked the world’s supply chains with its shutdowns. Russia’s invasion of the wheat, barley, and sunflower oil producing Ukraine in 2022 added to the world’s financial woes.

That was a sign of the times

as the emphasis was on making wheat, barley, and oil scarce and thus expensive.

Ukraine is the world’s fourth biggest producer of barley. The sixth biggest producer of wheat. And the world’s biggest producer of sunflower oil.

God is using that Ukraine-Russian war to tell us something. But we are not hearing.

In the fifth church age which was Martin Luther’s Reformation, Northern Europe broke away from the Roman Catholic church. The Pope lost a lot of money. But Portuguese and Spanish sailors had discovered South America which was rich in gold and silver. Spain and Portugal conquered South America and Mexico which made the Pope very rich again.

The 6th church age began about 1750 which is when the Industrial Revolution, based on steam engines, started. Using machines enabled factory production to produce huge quantities of goods and this greatly increased the amount of wealth in the world.

The scientific revolution produced new technology that was joined to free competition, property rights, and a strong work ethic in the West.

Prosperity flourished as a consumer society developed where workers could earn enough to buy these goods that they produced, and the churches grew wealthy. Overseas trade routes developed into empires as colonies were established and global trade grew.

Looting the colonies enabled the colonial powers to grow rich. The British Empire was about exploitation and extraction of wealth more than education and enlightenment, and American history is no better.

In 2017 President Macron of France confessed that colonization was a crime against humanity

The United States of America rose from the ashes of its civil war to become an economic colossus. They killed many of the Native Americans in the process and confined them to reservations on unproductive land.

The sword of the red horse and the balances of the black horse.

The Americans made much money by forcibly taking over the Native American lands.

The world had become wealthy thanks to the Industrial Revolution and the churches intended to claim their share.

The Vatican would be the most successful money-taker as they rose to be the world’s wealthiest organization and money-maker.

The love of money is the root or source of all evil. Thus, demonology (symbolized by the black horse) flourishes easily when people desire to be rich.

LUKE 6:24   But woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received your consolation.

REVELATION 18:2   And he [an angel], cried mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen, and is become the habitation of devils,

The black horse represents the Dark Ages where religious money-making dominated and made the Roman Catholic church live in pomp and luxury. But it made them err from the faith as they were in bondage to the Trinity-doctrine that introduced much unscriptural error and lost the name of God. Trinitarians cannot find one name for three Persons.

I TIMOTHY 6:9   But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition.

:10    For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows.

Indulgences (paying for forgiveness of sins) brought much treasure into the Roman Catholic church.

The Roman Catholic church had invented Purgatory where you began to be tormented to start atoning for your sins when you died. But indulgences could be bought from the church to pay for your sins and thus buy your way out of Purgatory. You could also pay for other people, your friends and family, to be released from Purgatory. Indulgences made the church able to make money out of the living and out of the dead. The sales of indulgences paid for the building of St Peter's church as well as the painting of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican. It was an incredible source of income.

The cardinals who ran the church were appointed more as business men than as spiritual leaders.

We are still living at the end of this Third Seal.

The pursuit of money by the church preachers still obsesses the churches.

Look what the last church age (of the Laodiceans) says about itself.

REVELATION 3:17   Because thou sayest,

I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing;

and knowest not that thou art wretched, and miserable, and poor, and blind, and naked:

The proud goal of the modern church is their ability to accumulate wealth.

But God is not impressed with material wealth.

LUKE 6:24   But woe unto you that are rich! for ye have received your consolation.

Today is the uniting time and sign

What is happening in the spiritual world today.

The uniting of the three horses of religious deception, political power, and Big Business demonology in the church.

The 2000 years of church history has seen the antichrist rider control the white horse with its spirit of religious deception that today rejects the King James Bible as flawed.  Preachers who find themselves “entrapped by what the audience wants to hear”.

The Roman Emperor Constantine enabled the antichrist spirit take control of the red horse with its spirit of political power.

The Roman Empire took no notice of Jesus, who was in the Roman scheme of things nothing more than a minor provincial criminal put to death on charges of sedition, until his followers became a bother and then a useful scapegoat. Nero and Diocletian in particular couldn’t get enough of persecuting them. The greatest harm however was done by Constantine, whose cynical realpolitik and usurpation of “Christianity” birthed centuries of apostasy and spiritual darkness.

1965  THYATIREAN  CHURCH  AGE – CHURCH AGE BOOK CPT.6
This chapter shows the power of the Roman Catholic Church and what she will do through organization. Remember this is the false vine. Let it name the Name of the Lord, it does so only in a lie. Its headship is not of the Lord but of Satan. It finally ends up completely identified with the beast.

The whore riding on the scarlet beast distinctly shows her power is the god of force (Satan)

and not our God, the Lord Jesus Christ.

In verse 17, it emphatically shows that

she will gain absolute control of the commerce of the earth, for no man can buy or sell apart from her.

This is borne out in Revelation 18:9-17 which shows her involvement with kings, princes, merchants, all of whom have to do with Rome and commerce.

Then that antichrist spirit infiltrated the church with the black horse and its spirit of love of money.

They fight for power and money.

Their power to take your money.

We have been desperately clinging to any and every glimpse of evidence no matter how dubious, that things will turn out the way we wish for them to be.

Our attention is grabbed by extreme weather or the COVID-19 Pandemic or the Ukraine invasion or the Israeli-Hamas war and we are distracted from our goal of returning to the first church age. That no longer seems important.

An information overload of so many meaningless ideas leaves people unsure of what to believe, while we cling to fantasies.

We discard reality and substitute it with a fantasy. We dare not look for the mistakes in our church. If we do find mistakes we do not have the courage to expose them as that would make us unwanted in the church.

The richest 1% own 25% of the nation’s wealth. The richest 10% own 70% of the wealth.

Just as the writing on the wall at Belshazzar’s feast said. Weighed up and found hopelessly unbalanced.

Wealth provides the items with which people define their lives.

Joyless millionaires and the bleakness of the unthinking excesses of their empty lives.  The grotesque blinkers that affluence and privilege puts on people, with their obsessive self-importance.

Prince Harry is a sad example of a luxury-loving millionaire who has no real purpose in life.

A sterile lifestyle drenched in privileges.

A life of denial as we slowly realize that money does not buy happiness and inner peace.

The Greek influence was strongly based on self-glorification and a strong desire to be competitive and better than everyone.

Do not correct a fool or he will hate you. Correct a wise man and he will appreciate you.

“Have need of nothing”.

I need no correction from outside my church. Thus, people fool themselves.

The end-time turbulent and baffling events will distract almost all from the mysterious Bible pattern that emerges in these tumultuous and agitated days.

Only the Bride members, who are strictly Scriptural,

will distinguish the true signal or message from the confusing noise of popular opinion.

Those who do not understand the revealed Bible mysteries prefer to dabble with man-made ideas that depend on fake news on social media and the growth of the dictatorial rule of the church pastor in the church.

Bible knowledge is not the filling of a vessel but the focusing of a lens.

THE EHESIAN CHURCH AGE

I said that the True Church would always try to be like it was in the Book of Acts.

That is exactly right. But we have discovered that the Word also teaches

an invasion of the error until there is a complete blackout of truth in the last day when the Lord is about to appear.

HOSEA 4:6   My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge:

because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee,

62-1230  IS  THIS  THE  SIGN  OF  THE  END  SIR

Notice Revelations 5:1. Listen at this now.

And I saw in the right hand of him that sat upon the throne a book written within (the writing was withinside) and on the backside, sealed with seven seals.

Now, there is writing on the inside of the Book. But, the backside had Seven Seals, on the back of It, that wasn't written in the Book. Now, this is the revelator talking, John. Now, remember, It wasn't written in the Book.

"And in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, all this mystery that's written within should be finished." It should be taken care of, in that day.

[Unquote: only the written mysteries will be revealed. Not the unwritten mysteries like the 7 Thunders, the 7th Seal, and the new name of Jesus]

Now do you see what I mean? Are you following me?

Then is the time for the seven voices of Revelations 10 to be revealed.

When the Book is finished, there is only one thing left, and that's the seven mysterious voices of thunder that was wrote on the backside of the Book,

that John was forbidden to write. Let me read it.

The Book has to be finished. All the written mysteries must be revealed that are needed for the Rapture of the saints so that they can be caught up to meet the Lord in the air.

Only then will it be time for the unwritten seven Thunders to utter.

Bible truth is disappearing. People are becoming Bible-illiterate.

The resurrection of the New Testament saints is the next great event.

Then the seven Thunders will reveal to the Bride how to change their bodies into immortal bodies.

We need to understand the King James Bible so that we can recognize the unknown seven Thunders when they do utter. (They had not uttered by June 2023 when this study was updated).

In some deep and mysterious manner, they will somehow agree with the Bible patterns.

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