Hebrews 10:1, "The Law having a shadow of good things to come, and not the very image of the things, can never with those sacrifices which they offered year by year continually make the comers thereunto perfect."
God's building His kingdom upon faith in His unchanging Word. Now faith is a clear understanding of the mind of God -- what His Word means. Faith grows out of belief, and faith grounded and settled in experience produces expectant hope in our hearts of realizing the Gospel promises and seeing the Word produce what it says from our lips.
So faith isn't knowledge or learning the Word, it's understanding or knowing the Author of the Word. Faith is a personal relationship. God first declared His will and the consequences of belief or sin to Adam in Eden. It was conditional and man failed to obey.
Later God introduced the Law which was Spiritual and righteous but it too was conditional, and in his fallen condition, man could not fulfill the righteousness of the Law. With the Law as His Absolute or yardstick, God was establishing examples for the instruction of we who live under the New Covenant in Christ's blood which makes those who approach the Throne of grace perfect. In shadows of the past we see in type the blessing of obedience and the curse of missing the mark of the high calling.
God presented His Word to these men and women who received reward or punishment according to the exercise of free moral agency and their faith or unbelief. He next recorded these real life examples in His Bible for our instruction.
If we study the examples of what God did in the lives of those Old Testament heroes, we will see in the shadow an outline things to come in the Church, and from the shadows already projected in the lives of the Church Age saints, the silhouette of glory.
We're going to follow Abraham's seed because Abraham is the father of faith and his seed is heir to the world.
Genesis 12:1-3, 6-7: "The LORD had said to Abram, 'It's best that you leave your own country, and your relatives, and your father's house, for a land that I will show you: And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and you shall be a blessing: And I will bless them that bless you, and curse him that curses you: and in you shall all families of the earth be blessed'."
My! No "ifs" or "buts" about It. That's an unconditional promise of God's unfailing Word. "I WILL bless you, I WILL make you a great nation."
Verses six and seven, "And Abram passed through the land to Canaan, to a place called Shechem, (located in a valley between Mount Gerazim and Mount Ebal occupied by the Hivites -- Serpent's seed. This is where Joshua divided the whole company as Moses had commanded, setting one half against Mount Gerazim where he recited the blessings of obedience, and the other half against Mount Ebal where he recited the curses of disobedience). And he set up camp beside the oak or terebinth at Moreh (meaning "teacher" as in the teaching or former rain).
"And the LORD appeared to Abram, and said, 'Unto your seed will I give this land: and he built an altar to commemorate the LORD'S visitation'."
God's calling and unconditional promise was Abraham's election. The promise is "to Abraham and his seed forever" (Exodus 32:13). We being dead in Christ are Abraham's seed and heirs according to God's unconditional promise (Colossians 3:3-4; Galatians 3:27-29).
Election is the result of God's sovereign grace, foreknowing those who are His own and receivers and doers of His Word. Those who are Abraham's seed are joint heirs with Christ in the unconditional promises of God.
Sometimes we might wonder about our election. But if we understand the PRESENT Truth and can see It living through us -- not just faith, but living faith -- we have the assurance of our election, and the promise being unconditional is ours. Then we cast down all doubts, put failures under the blood, and press on to overcome and attain the prize of a glorified body.
(To hell with the Devil and his lies. Let him have the doubts). So Abraham foreshadowed our election. And if we have faith like Abraham, we have his attributes and are his children.
Abraham's promised seed in the natural was Isaac. Isaac was not a natural child, he was the manifestation of Abraham's faith in the promise of God Who named him before his birth, as He named Jesus before he was born (Genesis 17:19). Being the answer to Abraham's faith in God's promise, Isaac represents justification.
Romans 4:1-5, 13-17, "If by faith we confirm and establish the Law, what of Abraham, the father of Israel humanly speaking? For if Abraham were justified by works, he had grounds for boasting; but not before God. For Scripture says, 'Abraham believed God and his faith was credited to him for righteousness' (Genesis 15:6).
Now the worker's wages are not a gift of grace, but an obligation. And one who isn't working but fully believes on Him Who justifies the ungodly is honored as righteousness by his faith'."
Therefore the just shall live by faith. And by foreknowledge, God knew Isaac would also be faithful. We know that from Romans 9:7, "Neither, because they are the seed of Abraham, are they all the children of God's promise: but, 'In Isaac shall your seed be called'."
Isaac was justified by faith foreknown and was the justification of Abraham's faith (as Sarah was barren from her youth). Abraham's other children were offspring of fertile women, the justification of his carnal works.
After the Fall, God placed enmity, that's hatred, between Adam's seed and the Serpent's seed. But He told Abraham, "Whoever curses you is cursed, and whoever blesses you is blessed" (Genesis 12:3). This explains to us how Jesus could declare those who are good and kind to the Bride are "saved" -- Buddhist, Baptist, Catholic or Moslem -- and will be granted into eternal Life at the White Throne Judgment (Matthew 25:31-46). As a husband is glorified in his wife and Christ is glorified in His Church, these who honor the Church they are glorifying Him in the saints. And He is the Word, and the Word is God.
Isaac begat twins -- Esau and Jacob. But all of Abraham's seed is not in the election. Esau had the birthright but he was a sinner and traded it to Jacob. So Jacob represents grace. He prevailed with God and overcame in that God answered his prayer. God changed his name and touched his thigh so that Jacob walked with a limp thereafter and could not have fought his brother in his own strength. But by grace God stood for Jacob and softened the heart of his brother Esau so there was peace between them.
There's a type of the Church. God has given us a new name, we are Christians, Spiritual Israel. Since we prevailed with God we have become princes with Him and joint-heirs with the Prince of peace. Since He touched us we have a different walk. We walk in His ways, and not the ways of the world.
Jacob begat the Patriarchs, and once again we see that as not all of Abraham's seed were accounted in the election, all Jacob's seed is not Israel. For we find Jacob's firstborn, Reuben, was a rascal who in defiling his father's couch, forfeited the birthright.
The birthright passed to Joseph who represents perfection. There's not one word spoken against Joseph. A perfect type of Christ Who was without sin. Joseph was loved by his father and hated by his brethren. Perfect type of the Church also which is loved by the Father but hated by the denominationals.
Joseph was adopted or placed by his father and given a coat of many colors like the sign of God's rainbow covenant, and God spoke to Joseph in a dream, saying that his brothers would all bow down in homage to him. Another type of Jesus Christ before Whom every knee shall bow and Who was adopted on the River Jordan. Following His baptism by John, the Shekinah overshadowed Jesus in the Form of a dove, and a Voice said, "This is My beloved Son, in Whom I am well pleased" (Matthew 3:17). That Shekinah appears full circle around the earth below the Throne of God as a horizontal rainbow in Revelation 4:3, representing the fullness of the Holy Spirit that was given in part through each of the Seven Church Ages.
Like Jesus Christ, Joseph was a Spiritual man, a prophet who had dreams and saw visions. His brothers were carnal and unprepared to receive the revelation even when it was explained. How like Jesus' brethren in the days of His flesh? They claimed to be Moses' disciples and read the Law, but when Jesus pointed out He was the prophet Moses foretold, they couldn't receive the vindicated Word. Today His denominational brethren read the same Bible as we do but will not receive the faith because it destroys their theology.
Joseph was betrayed by Judah and sold by his brothers for twenty pieces of silver. Jesus was betrayed by Judas Iscariot, then sold for thirty pieces of silver by His brothers. Today He is betrayed for a creed that will unite the power of His denominational false brethren to defeat the Communist might of the Ashkenazim, and rule the world in their own Roman strength against the Word. After the betrayal of his brother, Judah married into the physical Serpent's seed line (Genesis 38:2) as the denominations are now uniting with Rome, the World Council of Churches, Charismatic Renewal (so-called), Ecumenism, etc., which are spiritual Serpent's seed.
Joseph was purchased by Potiphar, an officer of Pharaoh, and chief of his executioners. God prospered Potiphar for Joseph's sake but He was falsely accused by Potiphar's wife and cast into prison. So everything in the prison prospered.
While he was there, the King of Egypt's head butler and head baker were imprisoned. And each had a dream. This is a bit grizzly, so we'll read it from the Bible. We have time.
Genesis 40:7-22, "They each dreamt one night, and Joseph inquired of Pharaoh's officers, "Why do you look so sad today?"
And they said, "We've dreamed a dream, and there is no interpreter of it." And Joseph said, "Don't interpretations belong to God? tell me them, I pray."
And the chief butler told his dream to Joseph and said, "In my dream, I saw a vine before me and in it were three branches: and it budded and blossomed and brought forth clusters of ripe grapes: Pharaoh's cup was in my hand and I took the grapes, and pressed them into Pharaoh's cup, and I gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand."
And Joseph said, "This is the interpretation: The three branches are three days: within three days Pharaoh shall lift up your head, and restore you to your place: and you shall deliver Pharaoh's cup into his hand, after the former manner when you were his butler. But remember me when you prosper and show me kindness, and mention of me to Pharaoh, and bring me out of this house: For indeed I was stolen away out of the land of the Hebrews: and here also have I done nothing that they should put me into the dungeon."
When the chief baker saw that the interpretation was good, he said to Joseph, "I was also in my dream, and had three white baskets on my head: And in the uppermost basket was all manner of bakemeats for Pharaoh; and the birds ate them out of the basket on my head."
Joseph answered and said, "This is the interpretation: The three baskets are three days: within three days Pharaoh shall chop off your head, and hang you on a tree; and the birds shall eat your flesh."
And on the third day, which was his birthday, Pharaoh made a feast to all his servants: and he lifted up the head of the chief butler and of the chief baker among his servants. And he restored the chief butler to his butlership; and he gave the cup into Pharaoh's hand: But he hanged the chief baker: as Joseph had interpreted."
Like Joseph, Jesus was falsely accused and cast into prison, then hanged upon the cross with two thieves. The thief on His right was pardoned and the thief to His left was condemned.
Eventually Pharaoh had a dream no-one could unfold, and the butler recommended Joseph to him. After God revealed the interpretation, Pharaoh raised up Joseph and made him his right-hand man. No body could come to Pharaoh but through Joseph, and whenever Joseph went through the cities, men ran ahead of him crying, "Bow the knee, Joseph is coming."
God raised up Jesus from the grave and set Him at His right hand. No-one can come to God except through the Atonement, Jesus. Since His exaltation runners announced His visitation in every city-Age: in Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Philadelphia and Laodicea, they announced His Coming. The runners were the angels, messengers or major apostles to the Seven Church Ages -- Paul, Irenaeus, Martin, Columba, Luther, Wesley and Branham.
Through the new birth or Spiritual marriage union, Christ and His Bride, the true Church, are one (or in agreement in the unity of the faith) as He and His Father are one (John 17:21-26). Therefore as everyone, including his own brothers, bowed the knee to Joseph, and as we now bow the knee to Jesus, every knee shall bow before Him at the White Throne Judgment. There our denominational cousins will bow before us (Revelation 3:9).
Reuben's birthright was given to Joseph. And while separated from his brethren Joseph married a Gentile Bride who bore him two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim who became joint heirs in his double portion. Like Reuben, natural Israel forfeited his birthright to the Lord Jesus Christ when he rejecting Messiah. For when God sent back the Holy Spirit, Israel laughed, mocking those who received Him, and calling them drunkards (Acts 2:13). That was blaspheming the Holy Spirit which is the unforgivable sin (Matthew 12:32).
Jesus turned to the Gentiles to take from them a Bride, a people for His Name (Psalm 2:8; Hosea 2:23; Amos 9:12; Malachi 1:11). All who are genuinely born-again are joint heirs with Christ and have the double blessing in the temporal consolation of the baptism of the Holy Ghost and very soon now, a new body.
When Christ turned to the Gentiles, God cut-off Israel until after the fullness of our dispensation. He will return to Israel after the earthquake sinks Los Angeles and splits the mount of Olives.
God sent a famine over all the world but He warned Joseph who laid aside food for whomsoever will, and for his brethren. Once again God has sent a famine over all the world according to the prophecy of Amos 8:11. Our Joseph, Jesus Christ, has laid aside food by the ministry of the late William Branham who RESTORED the apostolic faith (Malachi 4:5-6; Matthew 17:11), and FINISHED the mystery of God (Revelation 10:7; Acts 3:21; I Corinthians 13:10).
In "The Greatest Battle Ever Fought" and "Wisdom Versus Faith", Brother Branham interprets a spiritual dream wherein some Brothers who wanted him to join them on a holiday overseas tried to justify it by booking some speaking engagements for him. But the Lord told Brother Branham to stay home and preach, laying-up food in the storehouse for the famine that is in the world today.
God has Spiritual Food in due season available for whomsoever will come out of Babylon into the evening-time Light. But it will mean leaving those denominational chains that imprison. You may have to worship out of town, or move interstate like Israel's sons.
Jesus said, "Wheresoever the carcass (or fresh Food) is, there the eagles will be gathered together" (Matthew 24:28). Not around some rabbit run over in Luther's day, or some manna He sent for Moses' day. But the PRESENT Truth. Even the foolish virgin who could not receive the genuine revelation ran to and fro trying to buy from those who had It, or claimed they had the faith. Praise God, It's without money and without price.
Eventually Israel and his family were starving down in Canaan. And there's a famine among the Israelites today. All those phony Jews trying to shove the Talmud down their throats. It's poison. Is it any wonder they're starving! In the Kingdom, the Gentile Bride is eating a full seven-course Gospel meal.
Don't you worry, those Israelites will get hungry one of these days when they see something real. In the meantime they'll run around in Trinitarian circles like the children in the wilderness, playing church with the Messianic Jews (so-called). It's a golden calf out of Babylon like the other one from Egypt. One in Dan, the other in Bethel.
Praise the Lord, while Joseph was with the Gentiles, Benjamin was born. Israel departed from Bethel to Ephrath where Rachel bore the little fellow, naming him "Benoni", or "child of my sorrow," dying in childbirth. But his father called him "Benjamin" which means, "son of the right hand". Joseph and Benjamin were children of the same mother, Rachel, Israel's true love.
And while Jesus has been away receiving His Kingdom, Israel His mother has borne him little Benjamin. 144,000 little brothers and sisters in the flesh. When the Gentile Bride has been translated into the heavenly Palace, Jesus will reveal Himself to the 144,000 as Joseph revealed himself to his brethren when little Benjamin was presented. They'll weep when they catch the revelation of His "parousia" and say, "Where did You get those wounds in Your hands, and that terrible hole in Your side?"
Jesus will reply, "In the house of My friends. Your fathers did it to Me. But don't be angry with yourselves, God sent Me before you to preserve your lives" (Genesis 45:5; Zechariah 12:10-13:6). That will be the REAL day of Atonement. No more lambs, turtledoves and heifers.
Election in Abraham, Justification in Isaac, Grace in Jacob, and Perfection in Joseph.
Romans 8:28-30, "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose. For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom he did predestinate, them he also called: and whom he called, them he also justified: and whom he justified, them he also glorified."
Amen! Perfection.
After Joseph came Moses, the Deliverer (Acts 7:25). He called-out Israel who became the church or separated ones. But Israel was afraid of their deliverer. They didn't want to receive him. He was rejected. And throughout the centuries the churches have been afraid of our Deliverer, the Lord Jesus Christ. As Israel yearned to go back to the garlic and leeks of Egypt, the children of the Protestants yearned for the "comfortable words" of Roman liturgy, the security of organized religion with traditions and ceremonies, and the ease with which they could have some kind old priest "do" their religion for them . . . and live any way they chose.
It's the same today. People in the denominations are afraid of our Lord Jesus Christ in the fullness of His Word. They love the Gifts of the Spirit -- so long as they can speak with other tongues and prophesy without the Spirit, and contrary to the Word. How they adore the historical Jesus. But don't you try to present the Word. They hate That.
The only way God could get Israel out of Pharaoh's clutches was to plague Egypt. The last plague was death. God's been sending seven Trumpet plagues upon Israel since Calvary, trying to call them out of spiritual bondage into the liberty of sons. God's been calling His Church out of bondage in Spiritual Egypt, pouring-out seven bowls or vials of plagues to distinguish the false church from the foolish virgin throughout the seven Church Ages. The last plague will stone the old harlot church with hail from heaven, and cast her into the Lake of Fire with her children, the Protestants (so-called). Read Revelation 16:21 and 18:8 at home.
Spiritually, the denominations are called harlots and daughters of the great whore. Like mother like daughter. They claim Christ the Word as their espoused Husband yet they are in adultery with their creeds against the Word. An adulterous woman is already as one dead to her husband.
The Death angel is in the land today. While there's grace, won't you heed the cry of the seventh angel to "Come out of Babylon" for why would you perish (Revelation 14:9-11; 18:1-4; 22:18-19)?
Now quickly, All of these things we are living through today were already typed in the Old Testament. Spirits don't die. God takes His man but never His Spirit. He anoints someone else. And the Devil takes his man but never his evil spirits. They just look for another house in which to live. That's one reason why history repeats itself. And by grace God has revealed these things so we can see by the pattern of those who have lived before us the blessings of obedience and the curses of disobedience. Only as we look can we live.
Abraham typed the Lord Jesus Christ. As Abraham left his father's house to establish a dynasty in a strange land, Jesus left His Father's House to found a Kingdom here on earth. Abraham is father of the faith and founder of the Old Testament church. Jesus is the faith and founder of the New Testament Church. All who bless Abraham's seed are blessed; Jesus is Abraham's seed and the fount of all Blessing.
Isaac was the justification of Abraham's faith. He typed the Lord Jesus, for when God provided a substitute lamb, he was restored to his father as one raised from the dead. Jesus is our Lamb, Who was substituted in our place on Calvary's cruel cross, and raised for our justification.
Jacob received grace despite his grasping nature. He prevailed with God and overcame the things of the world like Jesus, Who also prevailed and overcame the world as he wrestled with God in the garden of Gethsemane.
Joseph represents God's perfection. There's not one fault recorded of Joseph who types the sinless Lord Jesus Christ.
After Joseph, Israel became a nation and God's Church. In its walk through the wilderness on its journey to Canaan, Israel patterns the New Testament Church as Paul expounds in I Corinthians 10. The twelve Tribes each went their own way after they settled in the Promised Land which was the Place of their Covenant and rest and did not reunite in a common cause until the Lord's Christ was presented. According to Exodus 12:6, the passover lamb was to be kept until the fourteenth of Nisan when the whole assembly of the congregation of Israel shall kill it in the evening.
Israel had a uniting time and sign. They united to kill their own Messiah Who was the Passover Lamb. Only a little flock received Him
Since Pentecost and the promised Place of Spiritual rest for the New Testament Church -- in Christ the Word, not in a natural land, the Churches have each pretty much run their own course after favorite doctrines and sometimes after no doctrines at all. I am of Paul, I follow Cephas, we baptize, we sprinkle, I'm Unitarian, I'm a Trinitarian, and so-on. But since the apostolic faith was restored through the ministry of the late William Branham, Christ has opened and revealed the Seven Seals. Now He is gathering His elect out of her, the church and all of this doctrinal mess, unto Himself, the Word (II Thessalonians 2:1) for the manifestation of the Sons of God -- Abraham's seed.
Since the Seven Seals have been revealed we now have the fullness of the Word -- Christ is here in WORD Form (I Corinthians 13:10). And the denominations are uniting together, just like Israel, for the second crucifixion of the Word (Hebrews 6:6).
Abraham's Seed -- watch those shadows and types. While the churches are uniting against the World, Christ is gathering Abraham's Seed bringing us to maturity in the unity of the faith (Ephesians 4:13) for the manifestation of the Sons of God and the translation.
Don't miss the Millennium, coming right up right after the Wedding upper of the Lamb in the sky. bb981209.htm