St. Louis, Jericho and Mystery Babylon, part one
The following essay is by our “Good News Reporter,” an individual who wishes to remain anonymous. We offer it to our readers in the expectation that it will stimulate new ways of thinking for some of you. For others, who are already accustomed to this manner of interpretation of current events, we trust that it will continue to strengthen your faith in our heavenly Father and in His wondrous Plan for all of mankind. Remember, coincidences are God’s ways of remaining anonymous. —Dr. James
By the reporter of really good news
Our recent Tabernacles Conference in St. Louis, Missouri was multi-faceted, to say the least. Drs. Jones and Bruggeman have given their excellent reports and this good news reporter has been asked to add his perspective(s) as well.
But before I do that, let me state upfront that we believe that the Bible teaches that all men will be reconciled to our Heavenly Father in due course, through the blood of the Lamb, Jesus Christ. And therefore, as more and more people are awakened to this splendid reality, the doctrinal differences that have separated God’s children will give way to a true unity based on the love of Jesus Christ for all mankind.
Many years ago I received an email that had a picture of a church marquee which typically contains the name of that church and a message. In this particular church’s weekly message, the letters “ur” were removed from the word “Church” and there was a question that asked, “What’s missing?” Well, the obvious answer is “U R,” or “you are!” But I saw something else. I saw that the light of Universal Reconciliation was missing from the organized church system, but that it is going to be restored.
And this brings us to St. Louis and the recently concluded events at this year’s Feast of Tabernacles celebration. We hope to demonstrate how St. Louis played the role of Jericho and Mystery Babylon, even to the point of prophesying both of their conversions to New Jerusalem in the process.
It would be helpful to review the New Orleans Saints articles from February and March of 2010 because these reports provide much background information on how Jericho and Mystery Babylon are simply different views of the same prophetic “city” and how both of them will eventually become New Jerusalem. (Nineveh was included in the New Orleans Saints article, but will not be addressed in our current report).
Let’s begin with Jericho. We know that the name of this city is associated with the moon. This is important because the moon symbolizes the church. It has no light of its own, but simply reflects the light of the sun/Son. The walls of Jericho are the denominational walls of the organized church system that must be brought down.
These walls have been built over the centuries, primarily due to doctrinal differences that separate God’s children from one another. These walls are built on a foundation of fear, primarily because of a hell doctrine that teaches of an eternal torment and keeps each denomination’s members in fear if they stray from such teaching.
The fall of Jericho is recorded in the Book of Joshua and it has long been this writer’s belief that the chapters in this book are not only actual historical events, but that they are also an amazing template for what will take place when Jesus/Yahshua arises from the grave on the third day, or 2,000 years after His first coming. In Joshua 3:4 we are told that Joshua’s army was to stay 2,000 cubits behind the ark when the priests carried it into the Jordan River. This is a veiled reference to the time from Jesus’ first appearing as the Head and Neck of His Body, until His second appearing from the shoulders on down as we have discussed on numerous occasions.
In the birthing of a child—in this case a manchild—the head comes out of the womb first. Paul calls Jesus the Head of the body of Christ. The head is followed by the neck and Deuteronomy 33:12, calls Benjamin, the beloved of the Lord who dwells between His shoulders. Thus Benjamin is the neck and he represents the second tribe of the House of Judah. Remember that God had split the 12 tribes into the two tribes of the House of Judah and the 10 tribes of the House of Israel.
Benjamin was to remain with Judah as a light, or in the Hebrew language, ur, in Jerusalem (1 Kings 11:36). And this is why Pentecost began in Jerusalem with all of the disciples coming from the tribe of Benjamin. This is why the city of Jerusalem is actually in the territory of Benjamin (Joshua 18:28). Ever since then, the church is symbolized as the tribe of Benjamin, and it has the anointing of Pentecost.
When the church age first began on Pentecost Sunday in 33 A.D., it marked the anniversary of the day that King Saul, from the tribe of Benjamin, was crowned king in 1 Samuel 12:17. We know that Saul was set up by God to fail and this is exactly what happened when he died after visiting the witch of Endor. It is this writer’s belief that this is forecasting conditions at the end of the present age as well.
Benjamin, i.e., the organized church, has been set up to fail in their own strength. And just as the first Saul persecuted the David company, so must the modern day Saul church follow suit. However, this time Saul doesn’t die, but is converted to Paul, while on the road to Damascus, or as I like to say, De-mask-us. Could the events taking place in Syria at this moment be forecasting a timing for such a conversion? We shall see soon enough.
Now, back to Jericho. This city is also located in the territory of Benjamin (Joshua 18:12). This is another confirmation that Jericho represents the organized church system, which has lost the light of the Son/sun, for the most part. The fall of Jericho takes place under a corporate Joshua/Yahshua body that brings the UR (Hebrew for “light”) of the sun/Son into the city of Jericho. This can only take place after there is a connection of the corporate Joshua body with its Head, Jesus Christ.
Jesus, our Head, is the Son/Sun and this is why His face shone as the sun when He was transfigured in Matthew 17:1-2. Joshua is buried in Timnath-Serah, which means a portion of the sun (Joshua 24:30). This is because the Joshua/Yahshua body is only a portion of the Son/Sun and must be joined to its Head in the midst of the Jordan, before the full light of Christ can be brought to Jericho/Benjamin.
Jesus is also the Ark of the covenant (the only place where sins could be forgiven) and He was baptized in the Jordan River approximately 2,000 years ago in the exact location where Joshua’s army had crossed, thus we are expecting to see this happen in a spiritual manner this time around.
So how does all of this relate to St. Louis? Well, in the 6th chapter of Joshua we are told the actual details of the fall of Jericho. This chapter begins by telling us that the army marched around Jericho in silence (Joshua 6:10) once a day for six days. Since Jericho is related to the moon, this means they marched full circle, or 360 degrees around the “city of the moon” for 6 days. 360 x 6=2,160, which just happens to be the actual diameter of our moon in miles.
On the 7th day the army of Israel marched around the moon 7 times with the ark and 7 trumpets of rams’ horns going before them. This is a direct connection to the St. Louis Rams football team and the famous rams’ horn logo on the players’ helmets. The word in Hebrew for ram’s horn is #3104 and it is the word for jubilee, which represents the forgiveness of
all debt.
The blowing of the rams’ horns was accompanied by a great shout at the conclusion of the 7th march on the 7th day and then the walls fell down flat and the army of Israel obtained the victory. It “just so happened” that our march around a certain building in St. Louis occurred on the 7th of October, on the 7th day of Tabernacles and concluded with a great shout. We, the army of the Lord, are the rams’ horns declaring a jubilee, or forgiveness to all who have sinned against us because we must follow the lead of our Head, Jesus Christ, who said, “Father forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
There is a timing theme involved here as well which is connected to the “one hour” (Matthew 26:40) that is mentioned by Jesus while in the Garden of Gethsemane. This was discussed in detail in the meetings at St. Louis, (Editor’s note: The audio recordings on CDs will be available soon. We will send an Order Form with our monthly Feed My Sheep mailings. Click here [link is no longer valid] to get on this free mailing list.) but will only be referenced here as relating to the time between Jesus’ first coming at Rosh Hashanah on the first day of the seventh Hebrew month and His second coming, or appearing at the Feast of Tabernacles, fifteen days later. In Ezekiel 4:6, we find that a day is equated to a year and so 15 days can also be 15 years.
On Thursday, October 2, 1997, the Promise Keepers (PK’s) began arriving in Washington, D.C. to crown Jesus as King over America with their theme of “Standing in the Gap.” October 2nd of that year just happened to be Rosh Hashanah. The PK’s represent a type of the Saul/Benjamin church that did not yet have the revelation of Father’s sovereignty in all things, which leads to the realization that He is going to eventually reconcile every soul to Himself.
The PK’s arrived on 10/2/97 and stayed until Sunday 10/5/97. At that time, a man named Samuel Jordan was identified in one of the newspaper articles as the Director of Transportation, or Emergency Services for Washington, D.C. One of the newspaper articles had a by-line that read, “Jordan overrun with Promise Keepers.” That seemed like a nice Jericho reference to this good news reporter.
Exactly 15 years later, to the very day, a group of fellow believers would begin a Feast of Tabernacles celebration in another Jericho on October 5, 2012, in the midst of the feast. And it would certainly be an “appearing in secret” with the intercession work that was done. Unlike the first time, this second Jericho visitation would be accompanied by the Jubilee sign of the Rams’ Horns.
In the original Jericho story there is a key player named Achan (usually pronounced Akin by American clergy). This is another amazing tie-in to St. Louis due to the fact that Todd Akin is a local congressman who is now running for the U.S. Senate in Missouri. This will provide a good segue into our discussion of the next “city,” Mystery Babylon, a discussion in which Achan/Akin plays a major role. (To be continued.)