Today we continued studying the first of the 3 Frog Spirits of Revelation 16. Continuing our study of the second frog spirit, which is the spirit of antichrist, in order to understand the work of this spirit, we must study the Branch prophecies - and their fulfillment in Yahshua.
Here are a few highlights from our study today:
Topic Prophecy Scripture:
Revelation 16:12-14 “And the sixth angel poured out his vial upon the great river Euphrates; and the water thereof was dried up, that the way of the kings of the east might be prepared. And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs come out of the mouth of the dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth of the false prophet. For they are the spirits of devils, working miracles, which go forth unto the kings of the earth and of the whole world, to gather them to the battle of that great Day of God Almighty.”
Identity of the Frog Ruling Spirit #2: spirit of antichrist.
· The second frog spirit comes out of the mouth of the beast. So this spirit assists the beast with its demonic goals. To understand this frog spirit's identity and work, we need to know the Messianic prophecies, also known as the Branch prophecies in Scripture - and how Messiah fulfilled them.
Suggestion – memorize the Branch Prophecies and Yahshua’s fulfillment Scriptures.
The Branch Prophecies: 5x in Scripture the word BRANCH appears, translated from the Hebrew Tsemach. Why they are so important?
· They portray the 5-fold ministry of Messiah (aka Christ)
· these are critically important because they prove Yahshua’s Messiahship
· The Branch IS Messiah
THE LAMB BRANCH PROPHECY - Isaiah 4:2-4 “In that day shall the Branch of Yahweh be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the earth shall be excellent and comely for them that are escaped of Israel. And it shall come to pass, that he that is left in Zion, and he that remaineth in Jerusalem, shall be called holy, even every one that is written among the living in Jerusalem: When Yahweh shall have washed away the filth of the daughters of Zion, and shall have purged (in) the Blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment, and by the spirit of burning.”
Lamb – represents Yahshua as the BRANCH Who is the PASSOVER LAMB, THE WORTHY LAMB OF YAHWEH WHO TAKES AWAY THE SIN OF THE WORLD.
· GOSPEL WHICH SHOWS YAHSHUA'S FULFILLMENT OF THE LAMB BRANCH PROPHECY - The Gospel of John was written to demonstrate Yahshua’s fulfillment of the Lamb Branch prophecy
o John_1:29 “The next day John seeth Yahshua coming unto him, and saith, Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world.”
o John_1:36 “And looking upon Yahshua as He walked, he saith, Behold the Lamb of God!”
· 1 Corinthians 5:7 - “Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.”
How the Spirit of Anti-Messiah (Second Frog Spirit) Undermines / Attacks Yahshua’s Fulfillment of the Lamb BRANCH Prophecy
·
o Hebrews tells us that when a Sacrifice is perfect, it causes all animal sacrifices to cease.
o So, according to Scripture – and in the Eyes of Heaven – when did the shedding of animal blood in sacrifices come to an end? Is it true that animal sacrifices ended only because the Temple was destroyed? Or did the sacrifice of Yahshua, as Messiah, completely fulfill the animal sacrifices, making any future shedding of animal blood completely unnecessary, and an attack on Yahshua’s fulfillment of the Lamb Branch Prophecy?
o In 70 AD, when the 2nd temple was destroyed, Jewish records show that the temple sacrifices – shedding animal blood – officially stopped. And if the animal sacrifices were only stopped because the temple was destroyed, it is logical to conclude that the Jews must be right in wanting to rebuild a third temple – and reinstate the animal sacrifices.
o Is the Passover Lamb a menu item or a sacrifice? – THE PASSOVER LAMB IS A SACRIFICE
§ 1 Corinthians 5:7 – “Purge out therefore the old leaven, that ye may be a new lump, as ye are unleavened. For even Christ our Passover is sacrificed for us.”
§ Exodus 12:27 – “That ye shall say, ‘It is the sacrifice of Yahshua’s Passover, who passed over the houses of the children of Israel in Egypt, when he smote the Egyptians, and delivered our houses. And the people bowed the head and worshipped.”
§ Exodus 34:25 – “Thou shalt not offer the blood of my sacrifice with leaven; neither shall the sacrifice of the feast of the Passover be left unto the morning.”
§ Deuteronomy 16:2 – “Thou shalt therefore sacrifice the Passover unto Yahshua thy God, of the flock and the herd, in the place which Yahshua shall choose to place His Name there.”
§ Deuteronomy 16:5-6 – “Thou mayest not sacrifice the Passover within any of thy gates, which Yahweh thy God giveth thee. But at the place which Yahweh thy God shall choose to place His Name in, there thou shalt sacrifice the Passover at even, at the going down of the sun, at the season that thou camest forth out of Egypt.”
According to Scripture, when did the animal sacrifices cease?
· Daniel 9:26-27 “And after threescore and two weeks shall Messiah be cut off… He shall cause the sacrifice and the oblation to cease...” (Yahshua, not antichrist, caused the sacrifices to cease at His Death)
· Hebrews 10:1-10 (Amplified Bible):
o vs 1 - “For since the Law has only a shadow, just a pale representation, of the good things to come—not the very image of those things—it can never, by offering the same sacrifices continually year after year, make perfect those who approach its altars.”
o vs 2 - “For if it were otherwise, would not these sacrifices have stopped being offered? For the worshipers, having once-for all time-been cleansed, would no longer have a consciousness of sin.”
o vs 3-4 - “But, as it is, these continual sacrifices bring a fresh reminder of sins to be atoned for year after year, for it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.”
o vs 5 - “Therefore, when Christ enters into the world, He says, “Sacrifice and offering You have not desired, But instead You have prepared a Body for Me to offer.”
o vs. 9 “…Then He said, “Behold, I have come to do Your will.” And so He does away with the first [sacrificial system as a means of atoning for sin based on animal sacrifices] so that He may inaugurate and establish the second [Atoning for sin by the Blood of the only Messiah].”
o vs. 10 - “And in accordance with this Will of God, we who believe in the message of Salvation, have been sanctified-that is, set apart as holy for God and His purposes-through the offering of the Body of Yahshua Christ-the Messiah, the Anointed-once for all.” (Yahshua’s Death covered-ended-completed all sacrifices)
It is true that the Jewish leaders who stubbornly rejected Yahshua as the Messiah continued doing animal sacrifices in the temple, even after He had died.
But even the Jewish Talmud notes that HEAVEN stopped honoring their sacrifices about 40 years before the temple was destroyed. This is especially significant since Yahshua died about 40 years before the Temple was destroyed.
Both the Jerusalem and Babylonian Talmuds tell of four supernatural events which took place 40 years BEFORE the Temple’s destruction – which signified to them that their sacrifices were no longer being accepted by Heaven.
I share these things, not in support of the Talmud, but only to demonstrate that even in Jewish writings there is record of a drastic change in Heaven’s acceptance of their sacrifices – a change which occurred at the time of Yahshua’s Death.
“(About) forty years before the destruction of the Temple [the Temple was destroyed in 70 AD and Yahshua died in 28 AD, about 40 years prior], the western light went out, the crimson thread remained crimson, and the lot for the Lord always came up in the left hand. They would close the gates of the Temple by night and get up in the morning and find them wide open" (Jacob Neusner, The Yerushalmi, p.1 56-157).
"Our rabbis taught: During the last forty years before the destruction of the Temple the lot ['For Yahweh'] did not come up in the right hand; nor did the crimson-colored strap become white; nor did the western most light shine; and the doors of the Temple would open by themselves" (Soncino version, Yoma 39b).
What are these signs which appeared and/or disappeared in the last 40 years prior to the Temple’s destruction?
THE MIRACLE/OMEN OF THE BLACK STONE: The first of these miracles concerns a random choosing of the ''lot'' which was cast on the Day of Atonement (Yom Kippur). The lot chosen determined which of two goats would be "for the Lord" and which goat would be the ''Azazel'' or ''scapegoat.'' For two hundred years, when the High Priest picked one of two stones, again this selection was governed by chance, and each year the priest would select a black stone as often as a white stone.
But for the last forty years of the second temple’s existence – and for 40 years in a row, the High Priest always picked the black stone! The odds against this happening are astronomical The chances of this occurring are over one trillion to one!
Among the Jewish leaders, who tried to hide and bury this sign, this was considered a dire event. To the Jewish leaders it signified something had fundamentally changed in this Yom Kippur ritual. This was the first strange sign, which is recorded in both the Jerusalem and Babylonian Talmuds, which began about 40 years before the Temple was destroyed.
What did this sign mean to Jewish leaders? It meant Yahweh wasn’t forgiving them!
According to the Talmud, every year until about 40 years before the temple was destroyed, the red cloth turned white on Atonement, after they had completed the animal sacrifices (according to Scripture for the Day of Atonement). But suddenly, just around the time when Messiah died, the cloth stopped miraculously turning white. From that point on the cloth remained crimson each year to the time of the Temple's destruction.
For clarity, according to Jewish record, there was not a time when the scarlet cord did not turn white until the time of Yahshua’s death. After that, for forty years prior to the destruction of the temple, that scarlet thread did not turn white. The second temple lasted 585 years. The tradition of using a scarlet thread began in the first temple period, and the first temple lasted 410 years. In essence, the thread not turning white disrupted well over 500 years of the thread turning white.
Again, the Jewish leaders tried to hide what was going on from the people – and almost no one mentions these strange quotes in the Talmud, but when the cloth remained crimson — the Jewish leaders quietly took it to be a sign that Israel's sins were not being pardoned and ''made white.''
THE MIRACLE/OMEN OF THE TEMPLE DOOR: The next miraculous sign, which the Jewish authorities acknowledged, was that the Temple doors swung open every night of their own accord.
This too occurred for about forty years, notably beginning around time of Yahshua’s Death – although the Talmud gives His death no credit for the miracle. The leading Jewish authority of that time, Yohanan ben Zakkai, declared that this was a sign of impending doom, that the Temple itself would be destroyed.
''Said Rabban Yohanan Ben Zakkai to the Temple, 'O Temple, why do you frighten us? We know that you will end up destroyed. For it has been said, 'Open your doors, O Lebanon, that the fire may devour your cedars' '' (Zechariah 11:1)' (Sota 6:3).
THE MIRACLE/OMEN OF THE MENORAH LIGHT:
The fourth miracle was that the most important lamp of the seven candle-stick Menorah in the Temple went out, and would not shine.
Every night for 40 years (over 12,500 nights in a row) the main lamp of the Temple lampstand (menorah) went out of its own accord — no matter what attempts and precautions the priests took to safeguard against this event!
Ernest Martin wrote a paper which he titled The Significance of the Year CE 30… Martin assumed that Yahshua must have died in 30 AD because of these signs. But it was a common Jewish practice to give dates in approximates – just as the Bible says that Yahshua was about 30 years of age at His baptism, but it actually means He was nearly 30 years old, but not precisely 30 (He would have 29 years old at His Baptism).
The Talmud reference to these signs taking place for 40 years is worded in Hebrew in such a way as to suggest it is an approximation, rather than an exact time.
As Shauna shows in her Synchronizing the Gospels series, Yahshua plainly died in 28 AD, which is exactly 42 years prior to the Temple’s destruction. But in the Hebrew terminology, saying that all this happened about 40 years prior is accurate – stated in approximate time.
Martin explains the fourth and final miraculous sign which began about 40 years prior to the temple destruction in 70 AD:
“…We are told in the Talmud that at dusk the lamps that were unlit in the daytime (the middle four lamps remained unlit, while the two eastern lamps normally stayed lit during the day) were to be re-lit from the flames of the western lamp (which was a lamp that was supposed to stay lit all the time — it was like the 'eternal' flame that we see today in some national monuments). This 'lamp' was to be kept lit at all times.
For that reason, the priests kept extra reservoirs of olive oil and other implements in ready supply to make sure that the 'western lamp' (under all circumstances) would stay lit. But what happened in the forty years from the… year Messiah said the physical Temple would be destroyed? Every night for forty years the western lamp went out, and this in spite of the priests each evening preparing in a special way the western lamp so that it would remain constantly burning all night!'” The Significance of the Year CE 30, Ernest Martin, Research Update, April 1994, p.4
Jewish records clearly list all of the high priests who served in the Second Temple, which was first built by Zerubbabel after Solomon’s Temple – known as the first temple - was destroyed.
According to the Talmudic record, these four signs began during the leadership of Joseph Caiaphas, who was the high priest from 18 to 36 AD – and was the high priest at the time of Yahshua’s Death.
Animal sacrifices would have ceased to be offered if they were enough to cleanse us from sin. But the animal sacrifices continued – until one DIED who WAS PERFECT and whose sacrifice ‘WAS ABLE to take away all sin – that was Yahshua.
If we continue to sacrifice after Yahshua died, we say that we consider His Sacrifice to be imperfect – incomplete – not good enough! This is a blasphemous idea! – It is straight from the 2nd frog spirit – who is the Spirit of Antichrist.
- Torah in End-time Prophecy part 1: Issues of Dominion
- Torah in End-time Prophecy part 2: Paradise Lost
- Torah in End-time Prophecy part 3: Serpent's Seed
- Torah in End-time Prophecy part 4: Noah and Sodom
- Torah in End-time Prophecy part 5: Divine Adoption
- Torah in End-time Prophecy part 6: Seed of Abraham
- Torah in End-time Prophecy part 7: Law of the Kingdom
- December 23 - No Classes
- December 25 - No Classes
- December 30 - No Classes
- January 1 - No Classes
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