The Restitution Times
"Whom heaven must receive until the Times
of Restitution of all things" Acts
A series of papers devoted to the restoring of
original truth.
By Arthur & Rosalind Eedle
Oxleigh,
Home page www.oxleigh.freeserve.co.uk
No. 18 Truth Bombs
Job.38:22
The Lord, speaking to Job, asks him, "Have you entered into the
treasuries of the snow? Or have you seen the treasuries of the hail,
which I have reserved against the time of trouble, against the day of battle
and war?"
In this
series of studies on the Last Battle, we have seen much that focuses on the
subject of TRUTH and LIES. Throughout the Bible there are constant references to
people either telling lies, or acting a lie. The Lord had
much to say concerning this plethora of deception. His anger would rise up, and
judgment pronounced. It is instructive to notice that on several such occasions
there is mention of a hail storm. This brings us to the reference quoted from
Job 38, where the Lord made a distinct connection between hail and times of
battle. It will be good to follow this up.
The best
place to start is Isaiah 28:15-18 "Hear the word of the Lord,
you scornful men, that rule the people of Jerusalem. Because you have said, 'We
have made a covenant with death, and with sheol we are in agreement; when the
overflowing scourge shall pass through, it shall not come unto us, for we have
made lies our refuge, and under falsehood we have hidden ourselves.' Therefore,
thus says the Lord God, 'Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a Stone, a Test
Stone, a Precious Corner Stone, a Sure Foundation. He who believes shall not
flee away. Judgment also will I lay to the Line, and righteousness to the
Plumbline, and the hail shall sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters
shall overflow the hiding place, and your covenant with death shall be
annulled, and your agreement with sheol shall not stand; when the overflowing
scourge passes through, then you shall be trodden down by it.'"
This is
clear enough, and in later times it was amplified by the prophet Ezekiel
(Chapter 13) where we read, "My hand shall be upon the prophets
that see vanity, and that divine lies; they shall not be in the assembly of my
people, neither shall they be written in the register of the House of Israel,
neither shall they enter the Land of Israel; and you shall know that I am the
Lord God. . . They have seduced my people, saying 'Peace' when there is no
peace. One built a wall and others coated it with whitewash . . . but there
shall be an overflowing rain, and you, O great hailstones, shall fall, and a
stormy wind shall rend it."
In each of
the above we find falsehood centred in the company of God's people. This is a
tragedy. One might expect to find lies in the world at large, but when a
preponderance of falsehood rests comfortably ensconced within the sanctuaries
of the elect, there is turmoil in heaven, and anger from the Throne. As I see
it, the situation so graphically stated by Isaiah and Ezekiel now rests firmly
within the Church of Jesus Christ. It is heart-rending to observe the
proliferation of falsehood that has emerged, especially during the last 200
years. But it is not surprising. Jesus spoke about Satan in the following
terms, "He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the
truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks the lie, he speaks of
his own, for he is a liar and the father of it." (John
8:44) Satan need not worry himself over much with the world, because as
John said, "the whole world lies [asleep] in the [arms] of the
wicked one." (1 John 5:19) But to gain absolute dominion, Satan
has to work on God's Elect, if it be possible to turn them away from foundation
truths into a multi-coloured spectrum of falsehood. Hence the Last Battle. The
great Armageddon-style conflict between "Michael and his angels and
the Devil and his angels," until victory is achieved. "They
overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb, the word of their testimony, not
loving their own lives unto death." (Revelation 12)
And so we
find the subject of hail turning up once again in Revelation. When the first
angel sounded his trumpet, "There followed hail and fire with
blood." (8:7) And when the seventh angel sounded his
trumpet, "There were lightnings, voices, and thunderings, and an
earthquake and great hail." (11:19) And when the seventh
angel had poured out his bowl of wrath, we read that, "there fell
upon men a great hail out of heaven, every stone about the weight of a talent;
and men blasphemed God because of the plague of the hail, for the plague
thereof was exceeding great." (16:21)
So the
theme of hail finds its place in Scripture from Job, perhaps the earliest
writing of all, to Revelation, the last. And the very last reference speaks of
a storm of unbelievable proportions. A talent weighs about 125 pounds (56 kg)
and some may doubt that this is possible. If we try to establish this prophecy
in literal terms, it does sound rather fantastic, but wait a moment. Let's hear
the evidence first.
On May 8th
1802 a mass of ice measuring 3 ft by 3 ft by 2 ft fell in Hungary during a
storm. How much would that weigh? Not far short of 1200 pounds! I have numerous
other historical references, found within the pages of William Corliss's book,
entitled, "Tornados, Dark Days, Anomalous Precipitation, and Related
Weather Phenomena." (1983) He has gathered an amazing collection of data
from historical records about "Hydrometeors", many of which weigh as
much as a hundredweight. The usual theory about such formations relates to
tornados, which are capable of lifting huge masses into the air and depositing
them elsewhere.
However, I
get the strong impression that we are here provided with figurative language,
not only in the Revelation references, but also in Ezekiel, where the hail
broke down a whitewashed wall. The wall was certainly a description of the
fabrication of lies built up by the false prophets, and therefore the plague of
hail was something that destroyed that "wall." The wall and the
hail were therefore both figurative. What are we to conclude?
I have
found a rather interesting fact by looking at a couple of words and their
Gematria. (Gematria is the study of the transposition of letters by numbers in
languages that have no symbols for numbers, but use letters instead, thus Alpha
= 1, Beta = 2, and so on in Greek, Aleph = 1, Beth = 2 in Hebrew.) The
words in question are Hail and Truth.
In Greek,
Hail is Chalaza (calaza) Adding up the letters, 600+1+30+1+7+1=640
Truth is
Aletheia (alhqeia)
Adding up the letters, 1+30+8+9+5+10+1=64
Truth,
being 64, or 8X8, is therefore found TENFOLD in Hail at 640. May we therefore
speak about Hail as TRUTH BOMBS? The Veil cast over all nations is made up of
lies. It is thick, like a blanket, shutting out the light of God's
truth from mankind . But if this veil were to be struck by a violent storm
of hail, as Truth Bombs, then it might very well smash the blanket. That is a
far more useful symbol to have in mind than imagining that God is going to send
a literal storm of hundredweight-sized hail stones.
In the
prophecy I presented earlier concerning the rending of the veil, the attack was
seen as coming from BELOW the veil, simply because it depended on the
faithfulness of God's children. But in Revelation we see what happens from
ABOVE, in the sending of the hailstones. This grants us the intelligence we
need to understand the ways of God. The Holy Spirit infuses the mind of God
into the hearts of His children, who then act in faithfulness to His word, and
the result is seen as a divine act from heaven. Only thus does God accomplish
victory in this final battle. How great is our responsibility to act. Each one
responding to the Lord according to the vision granted, each one praying
fervently, disregarding his own safety, speaking the word of testimony, this
will bring victory, no matter how small the number, for Gideon's army of 300
was selected from a total force of 32,000. "Fear not, little flock,
it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the Kingdom." (Luke
12:32)