SUPERBOWL 2013
Note: This dispatch is by our intrepid, roving reporter of the really good news, who wishes to remain anonymous. – Dr. Bruggeman
Greetings to All Fellow Body Members of Christ,
We are at that time of year, once again, where the NFL Super Bowl (SB) has just been played in the Super Dome in New Orleans on February 3, 2013. This was the 47th annual SB and this year’s contestants were the San Francisco 49ers from the National Conference and the Baltimore Ravens from the American Conference.
Those of us who are sports reporters for the planet on a daily basis were expectant about the prophetic implications for this year’s big game. There were multiple threads that had been observed and discussed in the games leading up to this final match that we won’t be able to address in this report. However, WE DO want to focus on our most important observations that were in place before any of the playoff games even began.
These included the sign of Jonah in his visit to Nineveh, including a 10-year Hezekiah factor event from February 1, 2003, the forgiveness of all debt through a jubilee declaration and the emergence of the “double portion” prophet named Elisha.
Let’s begin with the sign of Jonah, which Jesus spoke about in Matthew 12:38-41. This sign is so important that when the scribes and Pharisees asked Jesus for a sign, He said that the only sign that would be given to an evil and adulterous generation seeking after a sign, would be the sign of Jonah, which included the prophet’s three days and three nights in the belly of a whale and Jonah’s subsequent resurrection from that location, followed immediately by his trip to Nineveh, which resulted in the single greatest repentance and conversion story in the entire Bible.
In taking a closer look at this sign, we must first establish some important symbolic connections in this story. Jonah’s name means dove. We know that the dove is a symbol for the Holy Spirit and this is made clear when John the Baptist is baptizing Jesus and he sees the Spirit descending upon Him in the form of a dove. (John 1:33) Thus the story of Jonah is really about the Holy Spirit visiting Nineveh in the form of Jonah.
This only happens after Jonah has tried to run away from his assignment of preaching to Nineveh. But our Heavenly Father knew exactly where Jonah was headed and so we are told in the Book of Jonah that God prepared a “great fish” to swallow Jonah for three days and three nights (Jonah 1:17). Our prophet calls this location the “belly of hell” (Jonah 2:2) and although it must have seemed like an eternity, (Jonah 2:6) we already know that it was really a much shorter period.
We learn a very interesting thing in Jonah 2:10, which says that God spoke to the fish and it vomited Jonah out. That must have been the most unusual amphibious landing in recorded history. I wonder what language God used to instruct the whale. How coincidental that a news report broke just before the Super Bowl about the discovery of a lump of sperm whale vomit that was found on a beach in Great Britain. We will have more to say about this matter, later in this report. (http://now.msn.com/whale-vomit-worth-dollar180k-fo...) [Link is no longer valid.]
Jonah is now told a second time to go preach judgment to Nineveh to persuade the inhabitants of the city to repent. An examination of the origin and meaning of the name “Nineveh” yields this quote from Wikipedia:
“The origin of the name Nineveh is obscure. Possibly it meant originally the seat of ISHTAR, since Nina was one of the Babylonian names of that goddess. The ideogram means “house or place of fish,” and was perhaps due to popular etymology (comp. Aramaic “nuna,” denoting “fish”).”
Now this is very interesting when we realize that the common symbol of communication between the earliest followers of Christ was the sign of the fish. And this sign is an obvious connection with Jesus’ statement to his earliest disciples, that although they were fishermen by trade, He would make them become “fishers of men”. In other words, the fish are really men, who would be transformed into saints once they were caught in God’s “fishing net”.
Matthew 13:47-50, may be a reference to the “mother of all nets” that is cast into the sea of humanity and it’s going to be drawn to land when it is full of fish of every kind. This net sounds World Wide in scope; almost like a giant spider Web of some sort. This writer believes that the symbol of the fish has far deeper meaning than we realize. For the shape that is formed is really a vesica pisces. Here is what Wikipedia has to say about this form:
“The vesica piscis is a shape that is the intersection of two circles with the same radius, intersecting in such a way that the center of each circle lies on the perimeter of the other. The name literally means the “bladder of a fish” in Latin. The shape is also called mandorla (“almond” in Italian).”
The symbol of the fish was further empowered by making an acronym for Jesus Christ, along with his nature and title, from its Greek letters, ΙΧΘΥΣ (If the Greek letters do not appear on your computer, it transliterates to this: ichthus).
Iesous Christos Theou Uios Soter =Jesus Christ, Son of God, Savior
It has been said that the Vesica Pisces is a sacred symbol of the creative act. It is the geometric womb, a symbol of the mother of Christ, from which all shapes can be created. This shape, representing Jesus Christ, has been described as a door, or portal from the world of things invisible to the realm of visibility. Could it be that this shape, more than any other, is an expression of Colossians 1:16-19:
“For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether [they be] thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all [things] he might have the preeminence. For it pleased [the Father] that in him should all fulness dwell;”
The reader is encouraged to study this topic in much greater detail for their own edification. It is believed that the implications of its importance will become much more visible in the coming days. We will leave this portion of our discussion for now, with this segue; the vesica pisces is also shaped like a football.
Nearly twenty years ago, revelation was given to this writer, that New Orleans was a type of Nineveh. Let’s revisit our Jonah symbolisms above and find out why. Jonah’s name means dove and we established the Scriptural fact that the dove is a symbol for the Holy Spirit. Since Nineveh is the city of fish, it’s really a type and shadow of the saints of Christianity that are in need of sanctification, or purification. It’s not until Nineveh is hit with an outpouring of the Holy Spirit in the form of Jonah, that a complete humbling and repentance transforms the entire city and dramatically changes the direction in which it was headed.
Hernando De Soto, the Spanish Conquistador and explorer who is credited with discovering the Mississippi River, named it Rio de Espiritu Santo which means “River of the Holy Spirit”. At this point it was not difficult to connect the city of the New Orleans Saints with Nineveh.
On August 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina would hit New Orleans and cause the levees protecting the city to break, which resulted in a flooding of the city by the River of the Holy Spirit.
Coincidentally, it just so happened that the name Katrina means pure and so it was that a purification has taken place since the tragic events of that day. (To be continued.)