CLOSING THE CHURCH AGE IN LAODICEA 2001
In 2001, I went on a tour of the “seven churches” of Asia with a small group.
We went to the ruins of each assembly, in order, as they appear in Revelation chapters 2 and 3. (Ephesus, Smyrna, Pergamum, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia, and Laodicea)
Betty Cook had told me that she was going on this trip because Abba had instructed her to do intercession over each assembly location to “close the church age.” I agreed with her that He was closing the church age – for its pagan roots were turning towards apostasy.
He is now concentrating on perfecting a remnant of the whole House of Ya’cob, to bring them to Himself as a spotless Bride. As those of Revelation 12:17, who have the witness of Yahushua Messiah, but guard the Torah of Yahuweh as the early believers did, this Bridal remnant follows Yahushua Messiah, and the teachings of His Apostles in the first century.
When Betty, the three others, and I, got to the ruins of the amphitheater of Laodicea, it was nearly sunset. The sky was cloudless, almost. Right in front of us was a cloud formed like a misshapen circle. I immediately saw that it was shaped like a location map of the seven assemblies. I grabbed Betty and said: “Look! The circle is the map of where we’ve been – and look, the circle is closed. The church age is closed!” She burst out in tears. I ran for my camera. I got a picture of this “ring” as the cloud turned from rose-colored to a faint gray. Surely it was our sign, that our intercession had been acknowledged by Yahuweh. Now Yahushua Messiah could concentrate on drawing to Himself those who go on with Him, returning to the ancient paths, and walking in the fullness of His Truth!
The year 2000 Yom Teruah, a Shmittah year, began the second of the three final 7-year cycles before Messiah would return.
The first began with the signing of the Oslo Agreement on September 13, 1993. The second began on a Yom Teruah, Smittah year, 7-years later (the Oslo Treaty was a seven-year treaty) September 29, 2000 Tishre 1 – going into 2001 on the Creation calendar. September 12, 2007, Tishre 1, Yom Teruah, a Smittah year, began the third and final 7-year cycle before Messiah comes – beginning the literal 70th “week” of Daniel.
Today, September 15, 2013, I was reading through an article on the Great Pyramid that Derek sent me yesterday: My mind went numb upon seeing what I report on below. It is His confirmation that what was done in October 2001 was His doing! Truly, He always confirms!
From: From http://www.biblebelievers.org.au/great.htm: The Great Pyramid
In restoring the revealed Word Brother Branham retraced the Gospel Light from the East through the Seven Church Ages to the Presence in the West; there on Sunset mountain in Arizona he was caught up into a constellation of those seven portions of the Spirit shortly before their work of quickening the PART-Word saints was completed at the end of the Laodicean Church Age. As they departed Westward they formed the Pillar of Cloud signifying Christ's imminent 'parousia' Coming promised in Matthew 24:3, 30; 26:64, Daniel 7:9, Acts 1:9-11 and Revelation 1:7, 14. At the close of Laodicea they left this earth and returned before the Throne of God, and as we read in Revelation 4:5, "Out of the throne proceeded lightnings and thunderings and voices: and there were seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, which are the seven Spirits of God" (I Corinthians 13:10).
From the article The Great Pyramid, giving Brother William Branham’s statements of his own experiences:
The Grand Gallery terminates at a Great Step beyond which, a level floor under a low passageway takes one to the Ante Chamber of the King's Chamber. Known as "Enoch's circle," the Ante Chamber is 10 feet long by 42 inches wide, by 12 feet high. Here we met the Prophet of Malachi 4:5-6 and Revelation 10:7 who stood in the gap or breach after the end of the Laodicean Church Age andChrist's Mediation, but before the revelation of the Seven Seals by which he introduced us to the King (God's Only Provided Place of Worship, p. 33:217). Just before the passageway to the King's Chamber two granite beams cross the chamber, suspended just below the ceiling, one above the other, 52 inches above the floor.
This is incredible! The cloud in the picture below is identical to the cloud I saw over Laodicea in 2001 only turned counterclockwise, more like this picture:
Picture this: At the bottom of the left side is where Ephesus is located. Moving a little higher up the left side is where Smyrna is located. Moving towards the top is where Pergamum is located. Moving a little down towards the right side is where Thyatira is located. Moving a little further down the right side is where Sardis is located. Moving still a little further is where Philadelphia is located, and moving to the bottom of the right side, before the cloud takes a turn to the left, is where Laodicea is located.
Look at this map of the seven assemblies, and see how this cloud, and the one Betty and I saw, trace the map of the seven assemblies. What is most amazing is that Branham also saw the cloud as announcing the Laodicea Age of apostasy!
THE SEVEN LAMPSTANDS
ARE THE SEVEN CHURCHES
Map from goodnewspirit.com
Tracing a ring of their locations makes a distorted ring, not a perfect circle, however both the 1963 cloud, and the 2001 cloud, seem to connect Laodicea and Ephesus, making the ring complete.
The gap is between the closing of the Laodicea Church Age and the opening of the seven seals. Abba had told me to go to Patmos, to be there September 29, 2000, a Yom Teruah, a Shmittah year, the second of the final three 7-year cycles before Messiah returns, to proclaim the opening of the seals. That doesn’t mean that the seals were opened on that day. I didn’t get to Patmos because I had come back from Africa in August with weakness from malaria. But, He sent me to Patmos May 11-14, 2001, to represent the Bridal remnant there. (Revelation 1:9)
A little over 1 year later, Abba had commissioned Betty and I to proclaim the closing of the church age at Laodicea. By the cloud, he assured us it was finished!
By the cloud of the same shape He confirmed to Brother Branham the identical same things.
By the closing of the church age, the seals could be opened, the rider on the white horse could ride. In the meantime, Yahushua began gathering His set-apart ones, calling them out of the church system to return to His Abba’s Covenant Torah. William Branham also called the Bridal remnant out of the church system.
THE SUPERNATURAL CLOUD
26 miles high and 30 miles wide: “A lot higher and bigger than a cloud should be”
This supernatural cloud was formed on 28 February 1963 by seven Angels to proclaim the opening of the mysteries of the Seven Seals of the book of Revelation. It was not the coming of the Lord as supposed by some.
They later met with Brother Branham 40 miles northeast of Tucson, Arizona on March 7, 1963 as foretold by vision and told him to go back to Jeffersonville Indiana, where the mystery of the Seven Seals would be revealed to him.
Mr. Gene Norman and Mr. Fred Sothmannwere present with William Branham when this event occurred.
Here isFred Sothmann's account;
Witness of the Visitation of Seven Angels
I happened to be privileged in 1963, to be at Sunset Mountain when that happened out there, which Brother Branham tells on tape. Tells all about it before it ever happened, told in Jeffersonville and I believe in Phoenix, and we was out hunting pigs, Brother Gene Norman and myself and Brother Branham. Well we heard this blast … it sounded like seven of them planes breaking the sound barrier at the same time, it was such a bang. I thought “Mercy, they’ll hear that all over the country” and, when we come back together, I could see at the very time that that blast went, there was the Pillar of Fire above Brother Branham … and I could see that Brother Branham, he looked different and truly he was different and he told Brother Gene and I something that we can’t tell but I happened to be privileged to be a witness at seeing this.
Fred Sothmann
Former Trustee
Branham Evangelistic Campaigns
Jeffersonville, IN.
Life Magazine, May 17, 1963
Avery public announcement that God was about to do
something of Dispensational importance
My note: I understand that this means it was a sign that Abba was moving us from the “age of grace” to the age of the Kingdom! There is a bridge between these two ages – where “grace” ends, and Torah is restored, and then the King comes to rule by Torah.
From William Branham.com
The Cloud 1963
July 28, 2006 by Martin
On February 28, 1963, over in Arizona, U.S.A., a constellation of seven angels appeared to a man named William Marrion Branham in the form of a ring shaped-Cloud. These seven angels came from the presence of God revealing to him the hidden mysteries that were sealed in the Book of Daniel and the Book of Revelation. This was to inform the people of God of the perfect will of the Father in preparation for the oncoming millennial reign of Jesus Christ upon this earth. It was as they left Brother Branham that they formed this mysterious cloud which Life Magazine had featured in their May 17, 1963 issue and Science Magazine in their April 19, 1963 issue. The original glossy prints reveal the full face of the Lord Jesus Christ as the picture is viewed from the right side angle “like unto the Son of Man, His head and His hairs were white like wool, as white as snow” (Rev.1:13).
Life Magazine
Life magazine
May 17 1963, p.112
…And a High Cloud Ring of Mystery
Hovering like a giant's smoke ring, a great cloud appeared at sunset over Flagstaff, Ariz, last Feb. 28 and set off a continuing scientific mystery. Watchers struck by the cloud's odd shape and huge size, took pictures, like these four, at different times and from widely scattered locations in the state.
Dr. James McDonald, a meteorologist at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics in Tucson, has been accumulating the pictures. Using them as the basis for trigonometric calculation, he has made a startling discovery that the cloud was at least 26 miles high and 30 miles across – "a lot higher and bigger," he says, "than a cloud should be." The circle was too high to be made by a jet plane, and so far as Dr. McDonald can determine, there were no rockets, rocket planes or bombs being tested nearby that day. He hopes anyone else with pictures will lend them to him, for he would like some more clues about the cloud 26 miles up – no water droplets exist at that height to make a cloud.
The photographs on the following pages were scanned from p.112 of Life magazine May 17, 1963.
Science Magazine, April 19, 1963
Science Magazine
19 April 1963 Vol. 140 No. 3564
Cover Story:
Ring-shaped cloud seen at sunset on 28 February 1963 in northern Arizona and areas of nearby states. The height, as estimated from four photographs made in Tucson, Arizona, about 190 miles to the south of the cloud (which appeared overhead near Flagstaff), is about 35 kilometers. This photo was taken by Clarence E. Peterson of Bremerton, Washington, while he was looking almost due north from near Camp Verde, Arizona.
The unusual nature of the cloud was evident to observers who noted its striking luminosity long after the sun had set at ground level. It was at least 11 kilometers higher than the upper limit of possible jet contrail formation, and was at least 5 kilometers higher than previously reported nacreous clouds of the arctic type. Its true nature is still unknown; more photos are being sought for triangulation purposes. See page 292.
Stratospheric Cloud over Northern Arizona
Abstract. An unusual ring-shaped cloud was widely observed over northern Arizona near sunset on 28 February 1963. From a large number of observers' reports it is known to have appeared overhead near Flagstaff, Arizona. From initial computations based on four photos taken in Tucson, 190 miles south of the cloud, its altitude was approximately 35 kilometers. The most distant observation reported was made 280 miles from the cloud. The cloud remained sunlit for 28 minutes after local sunset. Iridescence was noted by many observers. Tentatively, the cloud may be regarded as similar to a nacreous cloud; but its unusually great height and unusually low altitude, plus its remarkable shape, suggest that it was a cloud of previously unrecorded type.