The Sign Of His Coming
Introduction
In this age of great expectation, we all knowing that some great thing is about to transpire, it is with great reverence and respect toward God’s Word that we try, with all of our heart, to preach the gospel to every creature. As great sorrows and calamities befall mankind, our desire is to say something that will encourage and lift up the heavy-hearted. Because of so much bereavement, it seems that the world has become void of joy and happiness.
Sin is on the rampage, taking its toll with its devastating blows of cruelty and brutality. It is for certain that all of these things are pointing to “The Sign Of His Coming,” whereas so many people are unaware of the spiritual Christ that, at this time, is appearing in the hearts of mankind.
We would do well to stop and consider, and likewise ponder, the path of our feet, as we altogether seek a sober direction of life, for, being natural people, we are told by the Scriptures that we are carnal, which means natural minded. Therefore, since life exists in the spirit, we find ourselves in a wilderness of frustration and anxiety. Most assuredly, if God is a Spirit, then we who think in natural terms cannot comprehend spiritual things, for there are two different worlds that one must cope with, and the world of natural things belongs to Esau, so long as it is under the curse. The spiritual Jacob only has access to the tangible things of matter, so long as everything is filtered through the process of godliness and faith. We can easily see by this, what the Scriptures mean when they speak of the wicked being cut off or blinded at the coming of the Son of God.
May the Lord, through His goodness, give us the Spirit of revelation, so that we, as the Apostle Paul has stated in his writings, may have our eyes enlightened, so as to comprehend the height, depth, width and the length of the understanding of Christ. When the Jews said to Jesus, “Will you, at this time, restore the kingdom to Israel?” Jesus answered by saying that the kingdom of God was not of this world, and neither could they find the kingdom of God by human observation. He pointed out to them that the law and the prophets were until John and that, since that time, the kingdom of God had been preached. He made them to understand that the kingdom of God was a spiritual inheritance, and that it was within them as individuals, and that, from their innermost beings, by the act of faith, the transformating power of God would change them from glory to glory, as it sprang forth from within as a great light of understanding. By this, we can see why the change of our outer being shall be in such a manner that human intelligence will not understand, in that God likened human reasoning to darkness because of satanic infiltration, which is a derivative from the tree of knowledge in the garden of Eden.
The mind of Christ is referred to as light" therefore, if human understanding is referred to as darkness, then we know why Christ shall be as a thief in the night to the unprepared, whereas we, being children of the day, know that “The Sign Of His Coming” is now at hand.
May the Lord bless you as you enter into these writings. We trust that they will be an enlightenment and encouragement to your heart.
Founder and first President of Jesus Christ’s Eternal Kingdom of Abundant Life, Inc.
Holiness Unto The Lord
The Sign Of His Coming
Matthew 24:3-22: “And as he sat upon the mount of Olives, the disciples came unto him privately, saying, Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world? And Jesus answered and said unto them, Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ" and shall deceive many. And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows. Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake. And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate one another. And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold. But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations" and then shall the end come. When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:) Then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains: Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days! But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day: For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.”
I feel like the coming of the Lord is so near, until we need to be stirred and to know something about the Scriptures and what God is going to require of us.
It is evident here, in the 24th chapter of the book of Matthew, that Christ is speaking of the end time. It is also evident to me, whereas it might not be to you, that this has to do with the sixth seal of the book of Revelation, whereas the Bible speaks of the heavens rolling back like a scroll and the Lord appearing in the heavens, and all the tribes of the earth mourning before the Lord.
Now, there is one thing that we need to thoroughly understand, and that is that the coming of the Lord is not going to be a secret. A lot of people are trying to leave the impression that the coming of the Lord is a great secret, but it is no secret. As Jesus expressed it, it is not going to be in some secret chamber. It is not going to be hidden away somewhere in the desert. It’s not going to be secretly coming in some human being’s life. It is going to come as an open thing in the heavens where Jesus, Himself shall appear in a literal body, in that He has a natural body just like you and I have. He is going to appear in the natural heavens, in the natural clouds, and all the natural people of this natural world are going to look upon His natural person. People who have a doctrine that Christ is now coming in the Spirit, and there is no such thing as a natural coming of the Lord Jesus, are preaching false, because that is not true. Jesus Christ" that is, God the eternal Spirit, has a human person, a body, just as much as Brother Pike has one, and someday that human body that was laid in the grave, that was taken up out of the grave, that’s sitting at the right hand of the Father with a vesture dipped in blood, will come back (Revelation 19) riding on a white horse, and all the armies of heaven shall follow Him in their own personage, and they’ll return into this earth to execute judgment upon them that do wickedly, and the blood will run up to the horses’ bridle.
Now, there is no secret in the coming of the Lord. The only thing is that the coming of Jesus will be so sudden that we who are not ready and watching will not be able to make the translation. I know that there is a secret coming of Christ. There is a secret appearing of the Christ, whereas He comes like a thief in the night to gather His spiritual people into one unit and into one body. That spiritual coming is in the personage of human beings. It is not the body of Jesus Christ, who is the Lord and Savior of all. It is in the hearts of mankind, a spiritual coming to the Gentile world, whereas the Gentile people will not be able to see Him, neither will the Jews be able to see. Nobody will know that this is happening except the elect, until God has gathered together His people and caught them all away and hid them all away as it was with the ten virgins: caught away and shut in. Then, the others will awaken to the fact that something has taken place that they had not counted on" but the coming of Jesus Christ, the Lord Himself, shall not be secretly. It will be an open thing where Jesus, a literal body, will appear in the heavens. I’ve tried to express to my people and those that I’ve preached to that there is a difference in the appearing of the Lord Jesus Christ as Christ in the Spirit and the appearing of Jesus as a human being, or the coming of Jesus. The coming of the Lord is when He comes to gather His elect, which is the Jews. The Bible says that they are elect for the father’s sake. The natural Jews are the natural elect that are looking for a natural Jesus, but we are spiritual Jews, that are the spiritual elect, who are looking for a spiritual Christ.
When the body of Jesus returns in the heavens, by this time, it will be too late for anybody to make preparations to meet Him except for the Jewish people. The Jews, having been blinded, God will allow them at that time to go through the tribulation period. Those people will be able to go through that because they are predestinated. They are elect, for God, Himself hath blinded them until the fullness of the Gentile people comes in, but at the coming of Jesus, it will be too late for anybody to make a change or any kind of preparation to go with Christ.
So then, there is a difference. In Matthew 24, He wants us to understand that if somebody says, “Over here is Jesus!” then that is wrong. If somebody says, “Jesus is in the secret chambers!”, then that is wrong, because Jesus was in the grave, He’s resurrected from the dead and is gone to sit at the right hand of the Father. That same Jesus will so come in like manner as they saw Him at Mount Olivet ascend and go! So shall He return again to Mount Olivet, and Mount Olivet shall cleave in half. That is to say, that same Jesus that went up from the apostolic church and the apostolic leaders will come back to the Jews on the same Mount Olivet that He left from. He’s not going to come back over here in America. He’s not going to come back over there in Russia, neither in Germany, but He will return to Mount Olivet, and His feet will set down upon it.
Now, the coming of Jesus is to the Jews, but today, the Christ that we are looking for is already appearing to you and me. The Christ is already coming into our heart, already standing at the heart’s door, knocking and asking if you will give to Him an entrance into your life. If any man denies that, then he is antichrist. I believe in the literal coming of Jesus, but I also believe in the rending of the veil at Calvary, where the Jesus and the Christ were separated. I believe that the body of Jesus is sitting at the right hand of the Father, and that Christ, which was in that body, has returned into this earth to do a priestly work in our bodies.
Now, He’s called prophet, He’s called priest, and He’s called redeemer. We know that He’s referred to as the Son of David, the Son of God, and the Son of Man, which are the three offices that refer to Him, in that He had a specific work to do. I believe, with all my heart, that this same Jesus will come back as a natural man, to the people of the world, and that they shall see Him, and all the tribes of the earth shall mourn because of Him. We know that He has been here as the Son of Man. We know that He has been here as the Son of God. We know that He has been here as the Son of David, because He said He was the Son of David when He was here, but there are three places, three depths of distinctions, and He will take up His abode in these three offices. As the Son of David, He will rule on the throne in the millenium. He came as the Son of Man and was crucified. He was led to Calvary and died as a human being, and He is a high priest and an intercessor, as the Son of God, sitting up there, making intercession for you and me. I want you to know that this same Jesus, this same Son of God is sitting at the right hand of the Father right now, and that the Spirit of Christ has left that body, to this extent, to come down and make intercession between you and me and the Father.
When He ascended up on high, He started His priesthood work. It was an intercessory work, and the work of intercession is still going on. He is mediating between man and God. That body is the mediator between my spirit and God’s Spirit. That vesture that is dipped in blood (the blood that was spilled at Calvary) is the only means of communication or mediation that I, you, or any other person in God has with the Lord or with God, the eternal Spirit. It takes the spilled blood. It takes communication with God, through His name.
The other night, somebody was telling one of our people here, that if they prayed to Brother Branham, they’d get an answer a lot quicker, but I want you to know that you can pray to God through Brother Branham’s name until you turn blue in the face, and God will never answer you one time! Not one time! You can pray to God through Brother Pike’s name until you fall flat on your face, but God will never give you one answer! Not one! You’ll never get an answer. There is no other name given under heaven save the name Jesus.
Somebody might say, “Well, just wait until we get this new name. This new name is going to do it!” There is no such thing with God as a new name, except the name of Jesus Christ, for there is none other name given under heaven whereby man must be saved, except the name Jesus. The devil certainly would like to do away with the name Jesus Christ. Now, you say, “Brother Pike don’t you believe there’s a new name?” There certainly is a new name, and the Bible says in the book of Revelation, that God will give it to us, but there is no new name that will bring salvation. There is no other name. There is no other name under heaven that you can turn to. You can’t baptize in Brother Pike’s name or in Brother Branham’s name, or in anybody else’s name except the name Jesus, because that is the only name for the remission of sins. I believe that Christ lives in the heart of mankind by measure. I believe that He has dealt every man a measure of Christ if he is a believer. I believe that, but there is a difference of measures in the human body. Some people have a greater measure than others. Your measure might be greater than my measure, but everyone has a measure of Christ in his heart, and because of that, he has a responsibility to God that he himself must take care of. Nobody else can take care of it. Now, it might be the responsibility of going and telling somebody about Jesus, or of sending somebody to tell about Jesus. Now, I know we’ve got a lot of people that want to go, and they’re going to go. It doesn’t make any difference what they say. You can tell them whatever you want to tell them, and they want to know the will of God, but the only will of God they want to know is to “go ye”, and they’re going to “go ye” if it’s to grandma’s or grandpa’s, Texas, or wherever it is, to say what they want to say. It’s not a matter of preaching the gospel or telling somebody about Jesus. They’ve got a zeal that they are going to do it, and you’re not going to get it out of them. That doesn’t mean that you are preaching, or that God told you to go. It doesn’t mean that you’ve got a thing. Not a thing! A lot of them are going to die and go to hell just for doing that very thing. No man taketh the priesthood to himself. It is a calling in Christ, but if you do have the calling, if you do have that measure (and God does have evangelists, pastors, teachers, etc.), then you need to be out there doing it.
I’m going to tell you something, folks: a lot of these people that are running to and fro have not been chosen to do the work of God. Somebody said, “Well, don’t you believe they’ve been called?” I’m satisfied that many of them have been called, in that the Bible says “Let whosoever will, come.” The call is to whosoever, but the Bible says, “Few are chosen.” Few are chosen, and a lot of them are not chosen. You say, “How do you know that, Brother Pike?” The Bible says, If these men had stood in My counsel and in My presence, they would have caused My people to turn from their sins.” If God had sent them, they would have caused the people to turn from sin. The churches wouldn’t be full of miniskirts and bathing suits, and the men running around with long hair and tight britches. If these men would have been called of God, the house of God wouldn’t be filled with professional men that are interested in the things of the world. If these men would have been called of God, they would have set the doctors, lawyers, dentists and a lot of others down and said, “Now, you see here. You can come to this church if you want to, but being a doctor doesn’t mean anything to me" being a dentist doesn’t mean anything to me" and being a leader in the world doesn’t mean anything to me. You’re going to wear decent clothing and you’re going to live right, for that’s the way the Bible teaches.”
Now, we know that God’s Word says that the wicked lived not again until the thousand years was finished. I realize that the wicked will not be able to understand the coming of the Lord until the great white throne judgment after the thousand years, but they will see the great white throne of judgment in its appearing, for the sea shall give up its dead, and everybody, both small and great, shall stand before the great white throne, as God appears in the heavens in the great white throne as the New Jerusalem comes down out of heaven as a bride, adorned for her husband, setting down on this earth. I realize also that the Lord Jesus, in His first coming as a natural man, is not going to be a benefit to the unprepared people of the world. It’s only the saints of God who will benefit. The Jews will reap a benefit from it by going through the tribulation period, but I know that His coming is going to be to our benefit. He’s only going to come to those that have already reaped the benefits of the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He’s not coming to anybody who is expecting to reap a benefit at the coming of the Lord, like these miniskirted churches, these basketball teams, these evangelists, preachers and pastors that are allowing their people to do all of these things, telling them that it’s just a little while and the rapture is going to take place, and God is going to come, and the Lord is going to take them away with Him. That’s wrong! God isn’t going to take them anywhere. They are going to go through the tribulation period, but those that love His appearing will be taken. Somebody would say, “Well, Brother Pike, don’t you believe that all of these people love His appearing?” No! There are some of them that can’t hardly stand the thought of Him coming back. It tears them up to think that He’s going to come back, but they know that they’ve got to meet Him, so they say they’re ready and that they are a Christian. They say, “Even so, come Lord Jesus,” but they don’t love His appearing.
His appearing is as a revelation" as a Christ that comes on the inside of us, that causes the outer man to conform to the ways and life of the inner man. This is the appearing that you must love. You must love His appearing! Love His way of life! Love that which makes you to conform to the things of God. Love the standards of holiness and His appearing from within you, coming into this outer man to change your life into the life of Jesus Christ. If you don’t love that way and love that life and love those things, then you haven’t been born again.
The coming of Jesus Christ will bring salvation only to the Jews. Those that already have salvation now, by the new birth and regeneration, are the only ones of the Gentile people that are going to be able to meet Him at the coming of what we call the rapture.
Now, the reason I am trying to explain this so thoroughly is because I have had so many people to come to me, asking me how that the thing was going to take place and what I thought about it. The book of Revelation says that every eye shall see Him. Those that crucified Him shall narrowly look upon Him. Whether in the grave or out of the grave, even those that crucified Him, shall see Him. In the book of Revelation John said, “I heard everything in heaven, I heard everything in the earth, I heard everything under the earth saying, ‘Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty’.” Everywhere, in heaven, in the earth and under the earth, they all gave honor and praise and glory to the Lord Jesus Christ" but that does not bring them out of the grave, for the wicked dead will not live again until after the thousand years are finished.
A lot of people ask, “Well, if they’re dead, how are they going to give praise to God?” How many of you know that when the rich man died, in hell he lifted up his eyes and began to talk to Abraham? He was officially pronounced dead. The physician, or whatever they had in that day, officially pronounced him dead, but he was carrying on a conversation with Abraham. Now, Abraham was officially dead. He had already departed from this world, but he was carrying on a conversation somewhere. Isn’t that right? That’s what I tell you a lot of times, that death is not when you lay down in the grave, which is sleep, but death is when your soul or spirit is eternally separated from God, to never have contact with Him again. This is called the second death, whereas you are cast into the lake of fire when this takes place. Otherwise, it is only a sleep. That’s why we know that we have passed from death unto life. As far as ever dying or going into the lake of fire, you and I can never do that, being born again, because we’ve passed from death unto life, through the atonement of Jesus Christ.
Matthew 24 gives us an account of the things that are going to take place. It says that the sun shall be darkened and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven. Then, the sign of the Son of Man shall appear in the heavens. Now, what is it? It is the sign of His coming, for then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven, and all the tribes of the earth shall mourn.
The sixth seal of Revelation expresses that they will take their money and their riches and will throw it to the bats. It doesn’t matter how much money the rich man has. At that time, it won’t hold any value. The Bible teaches that he will literally throw it to the bats. Everything that he’s got, he will forsake, and the Bible says that he will cry to the rocks and the mountains to fall upon him, to hide him from the face of Him that sitteth upon the throne, for the Bible says that He shall come and sit upon His throne, to be seen in all of His glory, and that all of the nations of the earth shall gather themselves unto Him.
The coming of the Lord Jesus will literally catch you and me up into the air. People have asked me again and again, “Brother Pike, what is going to happen to us? Are we going to be preserved and hid away, or are we just going to be here? Are we going to go up into the air, or what’s going to happen to us?” The Bible tells us that the Lord, Himself shall descend with the voice, the trump of God and the voice of the archangel. In a shout, He’ll come forth, and when He does, we which are alive and remain shall not prevent them that are asleep, for the dead in Christ shall rise first. Then, we who are alive and remain shall suddenly be changed. Now, you say, “What kind of change is that?” This outer crust shall take on the new man. Somebody would say, “But, Brother Pike, I thought that is what we are doing now, changing from glory to glory.” That’s true, we are changing, but the Bible says that it doth not yet appear what we shall be like.
We are already the sons of God, already going through the change, and are already moving into the wholesomeness of God, according to the revelation. We are changed from glory to glory, but the instantaneous change that Paul speaks of is where he said, “It doth not yet appear what we shall be like, but we know that, when He appears, we shall be like Him, for we shall see Him as He is.” Now, I know that the appearing of the Lord is that inward coming of Christ, and I know that we are seeing Him as He is, which is a spiritual revelation, a spiritual glory, that is transformating us and changing us. We use the song, “The light of the glory of His unveiled face, it’s the glory that is changing me,” but that which must be manifested outwardly, when God completely removes the veil off of humanity, and there we stand, in all of the brilliance and splendor of that which we really already are. We are not going to become any special thing that we are not already. Do you understand? We will only recognize or wit the redemption of our body, or the great appearing of the Lord will cause our faith to come to such a climax that, at that moment, we will be changed immediately into the glorious image of the Son of God.
A lot of people have asked me, “Well, what is the manifestation of the sons of God?” That is the manifestation, when we are changed into His glorious image and likeness. Now, a lot of people who are wild about fame and popularity have spent thirty years trying to manifest themselves, so that everybody could see that they were manifested sons of God, so that people would drool after them. You know, they have some silly child-like notion in their heart. They can’t understand, because they say, “Well, Brother Pike, if that’s true, then everything will be over. What can I do? Woe is me.” So, you see how silly they really are. In other words, “I didn’t get to show myself off. I didn’t get to run around and let everybody see that I was a son of God, you know, and be a super human. Woe is me. I just don’t have any interest in it any more.” I’ve talked to people, and as you say, the feathers go down when they find out that they just can’t be a super human. They say, “Well, what does the Bible mean when it says that the earth is groaning and travailing, waiting for the manifestation of the sons of God? What is the Lord talking about?” He is talking about the time of the sons of God setting the government in order in the coming age of the millennium. You will be a super-duper, but it won’t be here. It will be out yonder in the millennium.
Now, I know that you can manifest God here. I’m not cutting that short by any means. I don’t mean that, but I mean as far as the manifestation of the sons of God is concerned. It is when God is manifest in the coming millennium. Somebody would say, “Well, the world will be over then.” No, the world won’t be over, it will be going through its third stage. God puts it through three stages: One, up until the flood, another, up until the coming of the Lord Jesus, and then another, out in the millennium. Is that right?
There are four thousand years from Adam to Calvary and two thousand years to the coming of the Lord and one thousand years to the coming of the great white throne of judgment, so it’s going through another stage. There was a government to the people in the present age, and there will be a government to the people in the coming age, but the coming age will be the kingdom age. A lot of people say, “That will be the age of the Jew.” No, that won’t be the age of the Jew, it will be the age of the saints.
Now, I know that the millennium will have the Jews as the head of the nations. I know that is true, as far as the world seeing them, but the celestial powers will be in control of that government, and it will be our kingdom age out there.
The Jews had a kingdom back in the days of David, and the Gentiles have had a kingdom now, but the church has never had a kingdom. There is going to be a natural kingdom in this world of the church and the manifestation of the sons of God, when we’re going to rule with a rod of iron, and all nations are going to come, bow down at our feet and know that God has loved us.
Will we be caught up? We will! Will we be hidden away? We will! Now, you say, “How can we be hidden away and be caught up?” It’s like right now, I’m hidden away. You say, “I see you,” but the Bible says I’m hid with God in Christ. I am hidden away. The world doesn’t see me! Somebody would say, “Well, Brother Pike, don’t you know that the world is looking at you, and in your ignorance you say that the world doesn’t see you?” The world does not see me! The world hasn’t seen me since the day that they had my funeral and buried me somewhere in the water. Ever since then, they’ve seen Jesus and they’ve never seen me any more. I’ve been hid with Christ in God, whom the heavens have received, and it’s not I that liveth but Christ that liveth within me, and the life I now live, I live by the Son of God. The Bible says that as many as have been baptized into Christ, they have put on Christ. I put Him on, and today, I’ve got Him on. This is His body today, bone of His bone and flesh of His flesh. I’ve put on the Lord Jesus Christ, which is the wedding garment. Now, you can’t tell it except through spiritual eyes, but at His appearing, if you’re standing close to me, you’ll recognize then what’s been with you all the time. It is a true fact that we already have Christ" that we’re already hidden with the Lord" that the world doesn’t see us, and that we are passing through a great tribulation stage.
The saints of God are going through great perils, great trials, great sorrows. Not in the natural, but in the spiritual, because the Jews always go through the natural part of it, for they are the natural people that receive a natural inheritance, but the saints of God are going through something spiritual that there is no match for in the natural tribulation. There will be nothing in the natural tribulation that can even touch what they are going through in their spirit: fighting devils and demons, having heartaches, tribulations, troubles, woes, perplexities, bewilderments and fears. There is no match in the natural for these things. We’ve been continually hidden with the Lord, and we’ve been going through a conflict ever since we’ve been born again: killed all the day long, accounted as sheep for the slaughter, but the Bible says that in this, we are more than conquerors.
Now, it is a true fact that the Jews are going to go through the tribulation, but we’re going to be caught up into the air. We are going to be changed when the Lord comes, and He is coming before the tribulation. Somebody said, “I don’t believe He’ll come until after the tribulation.” I know a number of leading evangelists are teaching that message, and I believe they’re honest in it. I believe they believe it or they wouldn’t teach it, but it’s not right. A lot of the teachers are wrong. Some of them really need help. It’s like one minister, who’s supposed to be a great man, but one brother came through Corpus Christi and said that some of the girls were running around down there in shorts, some of them with their pants cut off, with those little old overalls and that kind of thing. That ought not to be. He might be a great man, but that’s wrong.
So then, they say that the church, that is, Christ’s body, will go through the tribulation period, but it will not. The body of the Lord Jesus Christ, according to the book of Thessalonians, will be changed before the tribulation period and caught up, and in the middle of the week, when the man child goes up, then the three and one-half years of tribulation and sorrow begins to fall. We positively will be changed, caught up into the air, and we will fade away into nothing, and as the world would say, they cannot see us. We will not appear again until the 19th chapter of the book of Revelation, where we come back on the white horses with the Lord Jesus Christ, His vesture dipped in blood.
We will be caught up. Your type and shadow is in Genesis, where it shows the saints going into the ark (the body of Jesus), and that body being caught up over the harsh tribulation that destroyed the people, and that ark being caught up to the top of Mount Calvary, riding over until it could visualize, beyond the great wrath of God, the new earth, landing on that side. We will go up as the body of the Lord Jesus, over the tribulation period, to come down in the millennium on the other side (Revelation 19) at the finishing of the tribulation period, that we might get out on the new earth.
The first thing that they did was have a sacrifice. Remember, they never got their meat covenant until after they left the ark. We are not going to go into that, but I’d like to get into it sometime, where they put their hands under the thigh, and why they did it" why the sinew shrank on Jacob like it did" but anyway, riding over the tribulation period, coming down in the new world" that’s where they got their meat covenant, and until then, they did not have one.
Now, I know that you don’t understand what I’m saying there, but, just briefly, to give you a thought, over on the other side of the flood, it was a water covenant, made with Adam in the garden. It was nothing but a vaporized thing. You ask, “Is that right?” Just like Christians: they are Christ, it’s a spiritual thing, but over on the back side of the tribulation period (Revelation 19). Coming back, it’s then that we take our swords and literally dip them in the blood of living human beings. It’s a different type of covenant altogether, and over there, we will literally slay people until their blood is spilled, because the first thing they did in the new earth was they had a sacrifice, and that’s the first thing that we’ll do when we come back. We’ll sacrifice the people by the slaying of the sword before God, to bring in the new earth.
Now, a lot could be said about that, if we were to get into it, but I tried to take my time, just to explain a few things concerning the coming of the Lord, to try to make it clear in your mind that there is not going to be some kind of secret coming that somebody might overthrow you with. So, even when they taught about Brother Branham being the Lord Jesus and that kind of thing, it wasn’t true. He was William Branham, not the Lord Jesus. Now, I know he was the Lord Jesus as far as bone of His bone, flesh of His flesh, and as far as the Spirit according to his measure is concerned. He was the Lord manifested in the earth according to his measure, but he was not the Lord, in the full measure of Jesus Christ in the earth. All of us are the Lord Jesus in the earth according to our measures, and some of us are of greater measure than others. Now, you might take it like you want to, and some of you are going to do it anyway, but I tell you this: there has never been but one that was Jesus. Just one, and that’s all. Jesus. The Bible says that the Father gave not the Spirit by measure unto Him, but the fullness of the eternal Spirit dwelt and executed authority through the body of Jesus Christ, not through Brother Branham.
All right now, he had a great measure and he did a great work, and so did Elijah, Moses, and others, but that doesn’t take away from the deity of the Lord Jesus. We are looking for a human personage that is going to be the natural capstone of all living bodies" but don’t be foolish enough to wait for the coming of a Christ that is going to capstone everything in the Spirit, because He’s already here. There is a great thing taking place, my brother and sister, and you’re a part of it. That Christ is appearing within your human temple, for the Lord shall suddenly appear within His saints to be glorified within them. You are His great cloud of witnesses, and Christ is in you, the hope of glory. If any man denies that, he is antichrist. You have Christ inside of you, but don’t forget that there is a human personage. There is a body coming, and that body will not be Brother George Pike, Brother William Branham, Elijah (as some Jews believe), nor will it be anybody else that will be raised up. It will be Him, the human personage of Jesus Himself. He will be the preeminent one, He and He alone. You shall see Him and not another.
One thing is worthy of our consideration, as we ponder over what the angel said to Daniel concerning the tribulation period. He said that seventy weeks were determined to his people, and that this would make a full end to the transgression, which had begun with the garden experience in the fall of Adam and Eve, lasting until the coming of the Messiah, which was at Calvary, but would not be recognized until the end of Daniel’s last week and at the consummation of the world.
The angel appeared to Daniel while he was in Babylon, giving him this information concerning the end time. He had learned by reading the scrolls of the old prophets that, prophetically speaking, a day equals a year in prophecy. Seven times seventy, being four hundred ninety, would be years, and from the going forth of the commandment to restore the city until the coming of the Messiah would begin with King Artaxerxes, when he told Nehemiah, his cupbearer, to take timber from the king’s forest to rebuild Jerusalem. At about 536 BC, Israel came out of the Babylonian captivity to begin the great task of restoration. Building in troublesome times, as the angel had said, they encountered great difficulty with half-breeds, led by Sanballat.
The spiritual significance of this angelic visitation is seen by the opposing group of religious, or charismatic, order, who do not believe in a real life of holiness. Being half-breeds and wanting only the plush side of life and the blessings of God, they have no desire for true Christian conformity, that part which reveals the travail and sufferings of Christ, in that we subdue the outer man, thus eradicating the infiltration of intellectual dogmas and sensuality from the human person (body), which, of course, is the redemption or change of our body. We see in this Christ appearing from within, into our body for glorification: justification for the spirit, sanctification for the soul, and glorification for the body: these, of course, being the doctrines of baptisms that Paul spoke of.
Looking back now at the historical or prophetical side of our teachings, we can see that there was only about five hundred years left until Jesus came to die for our sins. Sometimes this period is referred to as the silent centuries because of the lack of prophetical utterance.
Just prior to the great exodus of Israel from Babylon, the great Babylonian leader had sent forth and destroyed the temple that was in Israel. Nehemiah built it back up on a moderate scale, as the four hundred ninety years took up practically all of the time that was left between the exodus and the coming of Jesus.
Herod later enlarged on Nehemiah’s efforts, being more elaborate in his outlook" yet, it did not prevent the fulfillment of Daniel’s prophecy, inasmuch as the angel stated that the prince that was to come would destroy the city and plow it like a field, thus referring to Titus, who did exactly that in 70 AD, exclaiming that it was the hand of God because of the great calamity which befell Jerusalem at that time inasmuch as it far exceeded his goals and intentions.
Notice this again, as we relate it to you (Daniel 9:24-27):
“Seventy weeks are determined upon thy people and upon thy holy city, to finish the transgression, and to make an end of sins, and to make reconciliation for iniquity, and to bring in everlasting righteousness, and to seal up the vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most Holy. Know therefore and understand, that from the going forth of the commandment to restore and to build Jerusalem unto the Messiah the Prince shall be seven weeks, and threescore and two weeks: the street shall be built again, and the wall, even in troublous times. And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off, but not for himself: and the people of the prince that shall come shall destroy the city and the sanctuary" and the end thereof shall be with a flood, and unto the end of the war desolations are determined. And he shall confirm the covenant with many for one week: and in the midst of the week he shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, and for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, even until the consummation, and that determined shall be poured upon the desolate.”
To explain the words of this angelic visitor, let us say again that he spoke of seventy weeks. One week has seven days, while seven times seventy equals four hundred ninety. A day, being as a year prophetically, would mean four hundred ninety years. It was 536 BC when the commandment from Artaxerxes was given to rebuild the wall and streets back to the Messiah. The four hundred ninety years would be the fulfillment of that period from then until Calvary, if you figure your time according to the Jewish calendar.
It was stated that He would make an end of sin, which was the crucifixion of Christ, and that He would make reconciliation for iniquity, which means that we would have a way of being reconciled back to God from our iniquities. This would do away with temporal atonement for temporal righteousness, for it would bring in everlasting righteousness. The Bible tells us that after He had offered Himself, once and for all, for sin, that He sat down at the right hand of the Father, expecting until His enemies should be subdued to be His footstool.
It was also said that it would seal up the vision and prophecy (the vision Daniel was seeing and the prophecy that the angel was giving) and it would anoint the Most Holy. This was fulfilled when Jesus said, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me.” He is the Most Holy, and being the physical tabernacle of God, the eternal Spirit, it pointed to the anointing of the temple and the king at the consummation of the world.
He tells us here that there will be seven weeks, and three score and two weeks, and that after three score and two weeks, the Messiah shall be cut off, but not for Himself, thus meaning that He should die for the people’s sins and not His own.
This first seven weeks (forty nine years) was the provided time for the rebuilding of the walls. Now, we can see that there were four hundred eighty three years until the Messiah was cut off (crucified). It said that the prince that would come would destroy the city and the sanctuary, which Titus did, and that the end would be with a flood (people are likened unto waters) and unto the end of the war, desolations are determined, which means loss of human lives.
Notice that the twenty-seventh verse separates itself from the coming of Titus in 70 AD, with the church ages being caught in between that great destruction of Jerusalem and the antichrist, who is referred to as he that would confirm the covenant with many for one week. It tells us that in the midst of the week, he will cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, for the overspreading of abominations he shall make it desolate, until the consummation, and that determined to be poured upon the desolate. The confirming of the covenant means that he shall convince them that he is one of them, and with flattery, he shall overthrow their reasoning and judgment for a time.
When it says with many for one week, this is because the angel of God was informed that there would be only one week left to the consummation or consuming of antichrist and his evil. This one week refers to Daniel’s last seven years, or the tribulation period. The term “week” is used because it is referred to as seventy weeks, so it means that at the rapture of the church, the Gentiles, along with their antichrist leader, knowing that there is no hope for Christ’s favor nor the church’s favor in that at this time the church will be gone, they will feel that the only hope for eternal preservation is their friendship with the Jews, who will be occupying the Holy Land during the tribulation. Out of fear, they will submit to the Jewish people, seeking a covert from God’s wrath, but when the Jew is accepted of God in the middle of the week, Lucifer will be cast out of heaven and personify himself in a human body, and this one, who is referred to as “he”, shall seize upon the Jewish inheritance, thus seeking to enslave and rule over the Jews. Satan, within him, will seek to take over Jerusalem, showing himself as God in the temple of God. Thus, the covenant of the week is broken" the sacrifice and worship of God is at an end. He makes the sacrifice and the oblation to cease, that he might spread out with his abominable and evil practices (overspreading of abominations). Thus, it becomes desolate of the Spirit of God for a period of three and a half years, until the consummation. That which is determined is God’s determined thing of judgments, concerning the vials and such-like things that Revelation speaks of, being poured out upon the desolate. Antichrist and his people are desolate of the Spirit of God.
Four hundred and eighty-three years brings us to Calvary. So, we only have one week left, the seven years, or Daniel’s last week (the tribulation). Remember one thing, and that is that the church ages are referred to in the Scriptures as the times of the Gentiles, whereas the tribulation period (Daniel’s last week), the last week of the seventy weeks, is referred to as the time of Jacob’s trouble, referring back to his bereavement of Joseph, and the famine of Canaan and Egypt.
Remember, Benjamin received a double portion at the time that Joseph received his brethren, the twelve patriarchs. They all were made rulers, which denotes the millennium government, with Jesus (Joseph) at the head of it.
By bringing in Ephraim and Manasseh, it makes allowance for twelve rulers. Joseph (Jesus), as the supreme ruler, and Benjamin, the son of Jacob’s old age, denotes the latter part of Israel, which also shows the people, in general, under the rule of this leadership.
Israel, being made the head of the nations during the millennium, will show this double portion. The twelve patriarchs, ruling on thrones beside Jesus, are referring back to the time of the brethren being in rule down in Egypt, under Joseph’s administration. In the millennium, those that refuse to come up to Jerusalem to worship will have no rain on their crops. This, of course, shows the famine during Joseph’s great rule (Jesus), inasmuch as all other nations have no source of substance, save in Jesus or Jerusalem.
The last seven years will be tied to the four hundred eighty-three years to complete Daniel’s seventy weeks (four hundred ninety years). This last week will not be until after the seven church ages, because the times of the Gentiles must first be fulfilled. Remember, it was over four hundred years, and then the cup of iniquity of the Egyptians was full. God then delivered Israel. Let us then remember the prophet liken unto Moses: Jesus, our great deliverer.
The reason that the last week of the seventy is prolonged to the end is because, when Jesus was crucified, Israel killed their head or king by rejecting Him, and the life then left their body. It moved into a new body, the body of Christ, the church, and is now perfecting that body. The law, folded up and laid away" the rejected body of Jesus (Isaac), in that the Father turned on Him" the broken covenant of Moses, the transgression of the law, for by the law, no flesh shall be justified. Jesus Himself could not be justified by the law, though He kept every jot and tittle, for by the law no flesh shall be justified. He was delivered for our offenses in His body (as Jesus), raised again for our justification (as Christ), and we have peace with God through the second covenant, which is Spirit, having favor with God through grace by Jesus Christ.
So, we see that until the Spirit of God finishes with the Gentile people, the life cannot enter back into the Jewish people. When it does, it will be the end of the world, for it will show the resurrection of the dead. Paul saw this by revelation, and said that if the casting away of the Jews (rejecting them at Calvary) is the reconciling of the world (salvation to the Gentiles), then what will the receiving of the Jews be but life from the dead (resurrection)?
So then, the last week of Daniel’s prophecy will begin at the rapture of the church. God will again return to Israel, for it speaks of the 144,000 being sealed, which shows Elijah’s mantle going back to Elisha, who had twelve yoke of oxen which he offered as a sacrifice. Elijah, crossing the Jordan, shows the conquering of death at the rapture of the church. The whirlwind and the fiery chariot shows the rapture, while the mantle denotes the Spirit (seal) going to the Jewish people at the time of the church’s departure.
This leaves no room for question as to when Daniel’s last week begins, nor for speculation concerning the end of the world. It is very clear and precise, from the time that the church is raptured out or caught away, that the seven years of tribulation or bad government will set in immediately.
Revelation 19 records the return of Christ and the church, the end of antichrist, and the binding of Satan for a thousand years in the bottomless pit. At this time, it is the battle of Armageddon. It is also where Jesus shows the nail prints, a nation born in one day and the millennium sets in for one thousand years. Then, Satan is loosed from his prison for a short season to go upon the breadth of the earth, to gather together the seed of Gog and Magog, and to try to overthrow the kingdom of Christ. Then, fire will come down out of heaven and devour them. The Ancient of Days shall appear, and this natural earth, which has been a garden for a thousand years in its restoration, will then be translated into a celestial world. The New Jerusalem will settle down upon the new earth, and of the increase of Christ’s kingdom there shall be no end.
The two trumpets that shall gather Israel and send them forth in battle just before Armageddon will be the two prophets of Revelation, Moses and Elijah. The great whore will be overthrown as the fabulous cities of the world crumble. The sickle will be thrust in, as the great reaper of Revelation appears in the clouds. The vintage will be cut down, cast into the winepress of Almighty God, and trampled without the city.
We have heard it said, “This went through the grapevine.” The human vine of the earth is what God has reference to. The winepress is the Jewish armies, slaughtering the armies and people of the world, and in the valley of Jehoshaphat is the battle of Armageddon, where the blood flows up to the horse’s bridle.
Knowing all of these things, what can we say? Just as John, Even so, come. Lord Jesus!
By Rev. George Leon Pike Sr.
Founder and first President of Jesus Christ’s Eternal Kingdom of Abundant Life, Inc.
Holiness Unto The Lord