The 7 Churches of Revelation and End Times Apostasy
(part 1)
Origins of The Modern Signs and Wonders Movement
Now what does Zionism have to do with false prophets / prophetesses?
To answer that question; we have to look into the history of where the modern "signs and wonders" movement in Christendom came from.
What is the modern "signs and wonders" movement?
It's gone by many names in the past decades; but today is loosely dubbed "the modern pentecostal movement". Today though, it is (or at least most certainly appears to be) an end times church phenomena that consists of a variety of "signs and wonders".
Now I know that sounds like a stupid, simplistic and not very informative answer; (the signs and wonders movement contains signs and wonders….. duh!) but in order to understand "signs and wonders" we have to go back and look at Old Testament Israel, as well as the 1st century and what Jesus says about "a wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign".
"For the Jews require a sign and the Greeks seek after wisdom."
1 Corinthians 1:22
Keep this verse in mind; it's very important for end days historical context. Think dispensationalism, Schofield, Zionism the political movement, the proliferation of false "Christian" sects etc. For next we will see how the modern "signs and wonders" movement in the church (which is only about 100 years old) connects to the occult. (Of which Rabbinic Judaism also connects to the occult.)
So let's dive in here; where did all this start?
The roots of this started (in an unrelated way) with the Wesleyan (Methodist) tradition. John and Charles Wesley lived in the mid 18th century. One was a preacher and the other wrote song lyrics.
The main tenants of the Methodists were that:
1. Personal relationship to Jesus Christ (being born again) is essential to faith. This is manifest in 2 primary ways: justification (believing the gospel) and sanctification (repentance from sin). The two together were loosely dubbed "regeneration" which was one's "entire sanctification".
2. The members of the congregation are the ministers. (You are to help each other.)
3. Church should be free. (No pew fees.)
Methodism sprung out of the Great Awakening, which was a revival that started with Jonathan Edwards in the 1740's. This revival spread to Britain and the next "up and coming" preacher was George Whitfield. (Preached between 1750's - 1770's)
At this point these concepts had not moved outside of Biblical orthodoxy; as their views on regeneration and sanctification reflected the teachings of the Puritans and the Reformation; who all believed sanctification was a process and to be sinless in this life, was not possible. (Which Scripturally speaking, of course is true. We will never be sinless this side of the grave.)
The "holiness movement" that sprung out of the Wesleyan tradition began to gain traction in the late 1860's in the American south. This was the belief that one could attain to a state of "holiness" that enabled them to "lead a pure life". This was called "Christian perfection" and adherents to this teaching believed they had attained to sinlessness. This doctrine was referred to as the "second work of grace". (The "first work of grace" being what Wesley called "entire sanctification".)
This is where we get into heresy; for once the "speaking in tongues" movement begins; the adherents of that doctrine begin to dub it as "the third work (installment) of grace". Here is what the term "baptism in the Spirit (spirit)" eventually morphs into.
Early History of the modern signs and wonders movement:
Now when I began to write this chapter, I originally started with where the "Apostolic Faith Movement" commenced; which was about the turn of the 20th century. As I dug more though, I found that the "signs and wonders" movement actually goes back to the late 18th century. The thing most worthy of noting though; is that it started with heretical sects and cults.
The first practice of "speaking in tongues" as it's applied today; (undecipherable gibbering "prayer language") began with a group called the Shakers. These people were a splinter group off the Quakers who came to America in the late 18th century. (1780's).
The second group to "speak in tongues" were the Mormons. That sect started in the US in the 1830's.
The Shakers:
The group originated in England in 1749 and were first known as the "Shaking Quakers"; for their ecstatic behavior during worship services. They would often "shake" while performing a song and dance as part of their worship.
Today, there is one Shaker "village" and I think only about 3 to 4 living members left. They are all quite elderly and (I believe) they are all women?
The Shakers had some interesting beliefs. Unlike the Amish and certain Mennonites; the Shakers were not anti-technology. They were very good at "building a better mousetrap" and were excellent at designing furniture and very beautifully crafted, simple, yet highly practical tools for everyday life. They were not a "self propagating group" though, because they did not believe in marriage. (Think back to Paul's admonition - those forbidding marriage. Prediction or "interesting coincidence" there?)
Only people who converted to the Shakers were the source of membership of the group; seeing how even married couples who joined (even previously having had children) were not allowed to live as families / married couples. Sex was seen as something that "distracted" from "God's work", so therefore marriage was forbidden.
The Shakers also believed they could speak to the dead and were often stated to have "spirits" in their services. Here is an example of where the "Spiritus Movement"; (which started in the mid 1700's, sort of more as a secular philosophy about the existence of the soul / adjunct to Darwinian evolutionary theory) and "Christian" sects "merged".
The "Spiritus Movement" was "canonized" by a French educator who recorded what he was witnessing at seances. His 5 books of the Spiritus Codification were later picked up upon by a Lutheran Swedish philosopher / scientist and theologian by the name of Emmanuel Swedenborg.
Swedenborg went on to write his own theological take on the dangers of the Spiritus Movement; which he was in process of penning Apocalypse Explained. He claimed he was directed by Christ to "reveal the doctrines of His second coming" and that attempting to communicate with the dead, represented a danger to one's soul. (I would agree with him there.)
As Swedenborg descended into his "spiritual research" though; he invented a religion that was a quasi combination of Christianity and reincarnation. Though he did try to establish a church; he never did attain a formal "church following". He was quite influential though in writer's circles and several famous authors and high ranking Masons studied the articles and books he authored concerning his "dreams and visions".
He was the very earliest progenitor to dispensationalism, as well as an adherent to the idea of "Christian perfection". And these ideas are what sprung up splinter "Christian" groups of the late 18th century like the Shakers.
The latter half of the 18th century was a caldron of various philosophies, spiritual moments, secular, humanistic and scientistic movements. This was "simmered" upon by the proliferation of European (led by the American colonies) literacy and access to published reading materials. (Thanks to Guttenburg's printing press.)
And of course the final result of this, is that these external influences find their way into mainline protestant denominations. So by the 1840's, "movements" begin to merge into new types of "revivals".
So eventually we go from Wesleyan concepts of "Christian perfection" into the "Holiness movement"; where the adherents of these movements believe their "spiritual experiences" are what gives them the "power" to be "holy". So thus practice switches from the belief in obedience to Christ through following the moral aspects of the Scripture (the law); to a belief that's fueled by emotional experiences.
The Mormons:
Now this segment has been really hard to write because there are more obvious connections between the Mormons, Masons and the occult than between the Shakers and Masons; even though Shakers connections to the occult was more obvious because of the influence of the Spiritus Movement in their religious practices.
There is a lot of "undercurrent" conflict though between the Mason and the Mormons, because more Mormons have been more vocal about their "religious secrets" getting out, than the Masons have been. There are some very obvious connections between the Mormons and the Masons regarding rites and ceremonies, that neither wants to acknowledge of the other.
Frankly, I'm not really sure why that is? Other than Masons did not want to be associated with earlier groups that they had connections to; (like Knights Templar) where "they" received a lot of social backlash for suspected occult practices that impacted events in local townships back in "old country" Europe.
These fraternal type monastery modeled brotherhood groups of the late middle ages, going into the Renaissance; often found themselves in the middle of heated debates over why were the peasants' children disappearing? There are several examples in Britain of monks being killed and monasteries being burned down by villagers; on account of things such as suspected ritual human sacrifice.
The Knights Templar had been an organization of the Roman Catholic Church that arose to dominance as part of the crusades. (Similar to the Jesuits post Reformation.) They "officially" don't exist any more. Knights Templar picked up a lot of their military practices (as well as some of the folklore / creeds of their brotherhood) from their contact with Islam in the Middle-East. Islam, (as we know) gets much of its "Biblical" folklore from the Talmud. All of these organizations (Rabbinic Judaism, Islam, Knights Templar, Jesuits, Masons) all have connections to the occult.
As we get into the latter half of the 18th century and Free Masonry becomes more socially visible; so does its suspected connections to Rabbinic Judaism and the occult. This is due to rites and lore "leaking out" that practices of both groups have the same origin.
(As just mentioned): This is true of Islam too. Much of the folklore in the Quran comes out of the Talmud, just as much of the mythos of the Masons (though claimed to be a secular organization) also comes out of the Talmud.
Mormonism is a "Christianized" morph of the Masons. The Masons are believed to have originated with the Knights Templar; whom their rites and lore comes from Islam; who's lore comes from the Talmud; which comes from ancient Babylonian occult religion. (Remember Old Testament Baal and "Queen of Heaven" pagan religious practices carried over into Roman Catholicism? This was covered in the "Satan" chapters of the study on Angels, Ghosts and Extraterrestrial Life.) Also, remember back in the first chapter (chapter 9 of END TIMES?) about Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion; one of the Jewish paper publications claimed Jews had created the Mormon Church.
So, the Mormons being the second major group to "speak in tongues"; we'll now cover a bit of the history of the Mormons.
This religion is well enough known, that most people have some familiarity with its founder having "received his revelation" in Western NY, outside of a small town named Palmyra, back in 1830. The closest large city to Palmyra is Rochester.
The most notable event of the Mormon church in the area, is called the Hill Cumorah Pageant; which has taken place every July since 1937, although 2020 is scheduled to be its last year. (Covid 19 has now moved the final year to 2021.) It is a large theatrical production; and as a theatrical production, it is well done. I personally had gone with friends to see it one year. It's about an hour and a half long and tells the Mormon version of Bible stories and how they relate to the Mormon religion and Joseph Smith's "revelation".
According to Mormonism; the "lost tribes of Israel" came to North America and eventually "became" the American Indians. Genetics obviously has disproved this claim; as Native Americans are descended from the peoples of Far East Asia and not Semitic people.
Anyhow, Joseph Smith claimed he was visited by an angel named Moroni where he received golden plates that he wrote the Book of Mormon (as well as other things) from.
Now there are several conflicting records of this account that had actually been published in local newspapers of the time. Smith had been arrested for "vagrancy", in that one of his first "occupational endeavors" was what Mason's called "money digging".
This was a form of treasure hunting that involved a "seer stone"; which was said that the user could "see" evil spirits hiding a treasure. (Thus the "money digging" practices' connection to the occult.) There is some conflagration between Joseph Smith's "money digger" stone and the "angel" he'd allegedly received his religious revelations from.
Now the "seer stone" practice came from Europe. (Seer stones allegedly helped people find lost things. That is the secular "wives tale" of the practice.) The Mormons interpret this practice of using "seer stones" as going back to Aaron and the Urim and Thummin stones that were contained in a pouch the high priest wore as part of the "breast plate of judgement". This was part of the Old Testament's high priests garments and the breast plate also contained the 12 stones that represented the 12 tribes of Israel.
Even with all the Bible studies I've done. Until now, I never realized that detail of the high priest's garment, until working on this study. Urim comes from the word "fire" and Thummin comes from the word "finish". An "add on" extrapolation of the word "finish" meaning "righteous", "upright", "fairness", "integrity".
These two stones are mentioned in Exodus, Deuteronomy, Ezekiel and Nehemiah. In three of these passages, the context is in helping the leaders of Israel make a decision about something. Combine this with the "white stone" of "Antipas" we just read about in Revelation. The Urim (or fire stone) was probably "black" because it was "burned with fire" and the Thummin was probably "white" representing a "finished" / "righteous" decision "in favor of".
So obviously these stones in the high priest's breast plate had nothing to do with "seeing" things, as the Europeans, or Joseph Smith used "seer stones".
So, where did Joseph Smith get this practice from?
The Mormons and the Masons:
As previously mentioned, the Mason's called them "money digger" stones. Joseph Smith's father (Joseph Sr.) was a Master Mason of a lodge in Canandaigua NY. Joseph Smith "obtained" this "seer stone" by 1818; shortly after his father and brother had become Masons. Joseph eventually joined the Masons himself.
Now as I was digging through the history of the Masons and Mormonism; I found a very intriguing connection of Mormonism to the occult. The Mormons have an "under the table" practice called "blood atonement". Although this doctrine does still exist in Mormon "foundational teachings": Since 1978 the church has "officially" deemed it "no longer in practice".
This practice entails that in order to "save" an apostate Mormon's soul; the church allows its members to commit murder. Several of these types of murders have happened in the past nearly 200 years and are part of the public record of the state of Utah. Matter of fact, much of Utah's capital punishment laws sprung from the Mormon belief that death by firing squad (or beheading), was suitable for "blood atonement" purposes. (Now isn't that a gruesome addition to American civil law!)
Although the Mormon church today will not admit to such acts; church members have been implicated in multiple such type criminal murder investigations conducted by civil authorities in multiple states.
As far as the public face of Masonry goes; there are no documented "blood rituals" that have been published (either from past history or current history) that Masons have "claimed" in the name of Masonry. Unlike the Mormons, there is not a publicly documented teaching about any sort of blood sacrifice type ritual. Of course this doesn't mean that they don't exist in Masonry. Looking at the Mason's predecessor organizations (from Knights Templar, Islam, Rabbinic Judaism; all the way back to the golden calf incident in Exodus) and post "Christian" parallel (Mormonism), it's not much of a stretch to assume the Masons have similar rituals.
Historically we do see some clues. In 1826 two fellows, one from Batavia NY (which is not far from Palmyra NY and Mormonism's founding in 1830) threatened to publish an expose' exposing Masonic rituals. They'd both infiltrated the Nauvoo lodge which was the same lodge Joseph Smith was a member of. One of these fellows "mysteriously" disappeared after several Masons bailed him out of a Canandaigua jail.
Now here is where it gets interesting. William Morgan was a local politician and obviously anti-Mason, who lived 12 miles from Smith in Palmyra NY. His disappearance sparked much of the anti-Mason sentiment that birthed latter anti-Mason movements throughout the US.
His widow Lucinda married a jeweler named George Harris from Batavia NY, who was also involved in the anti-Mason movement. Interestingly, though they lived over his shop in Batavia; they were married in Palmyra NY. ? They stayed in Batavia for a while before moving to Indiana.
And… low and behold; In 1834 George and Lucinda Harris became… Mormons.
Mormonism Masonic Rituals and Symbols:
As the Mormon church gained notoriety in NY; members began to migrate west looking to avoid scrutiny and legal issues related to both "blood atonement" and polygamy.
I recall reading an article that there was a Masonic lodge in (Minnesota?) that attempted to sue Joseph Smith in civil court for stealing Masonic rites and rituals; yet at current, I can't find the article, or evidence of the court case.
It is true, that anyone who does any research on the decorations of Mormon buildings will see Masonic symbols. (The square, the compass = Masons; the "all seeing eye", the sun = ancient Egyptian religion; and the pentagram = the occult. The pentagram is often depicted in the occult with Baphomet (the goat headed figure) within it.) More has "leaked out" about Mormon temple rituals and practices than has "leaked" about the deeper hidden rituals of the Masons; but it's very clear, the symbols are the same.
Knights Templar armor symbol also has a "compass" even though the organization's most common symbol was a red triangular shaped cross on a white background. Besides this there are several coats of arms that contain crossed swords that are of similar style as the compass / ruler of the Masons. Jesuits also have the triangular cross and crossed swords symbolism, as well as the sun and "sun within a compass" symbols.
Judaism has a "Star of David" within a compass symbol; although this symbol isn't common in modern Judaism. The "Lion of the Tribe of Judah" symbol resembles ancient Babylonian lion art. Egyptians have similar stylized "sitting lion" human headed figures. The cherubim inside the temple and on the temple curtain were similar styled lion headed figures with wings. Judaism also has a "Shofar"; (which I think it's suppose to be a ram's horn trumpet) but looks like the Islamic sword as you'd see on Saudi Arabia's flag. They also have a "Hamsa" which is a decorated "hand" symbol that is also in Hinduism.
Kabbalism on the other hand; has a "tree of life" symbol that the Masons have, as well as an upside down compass and square Masonic symbol. They also have the "all seeing eye" (Egyptian) as well as the pentagram with Baphomet in it.
Islam has a sword symbol (most often seen on national flags). Of course the "crescent moon and star" symbol; but also a "Rub el Hizb" symbol that resembles an 8 pointed compass; (similar to the "Star of David" compass symbol). Also the Arabic scripted word "Allah" resembles a Menorah. Islam, like Judaism also has a lot of "script" symbols; which Hebrew and Arabic are not all that different in written script appearance.
Also worth noting; the "coat of arms" flag of Hayreddin Barbarossa has a very clear Masonic compass symbol on it, as well as a "Star of David". Hayreddin Barbarossa was a 14th century Ottoman naval leader. He obviously predated the Masons. (Interesting side note here: Operation Barbarossa was also the code name for the German invasion of the Soviet Union in WWII.)
And here; (generally) concludes this chapter.
On a last note though: As per Mormons and the modern "tongues movement"? Joseph Smith claimed "tongues" was the language Moroni gave him to translate the Book of Mormon and that it represented "Pure Adamic language".
The modern (unintelligible) "gift of tongues" is also practiced in Sufism (Islamic spiritism movement), Kabbalism (Jewish spiritism movement) and in Hinduism.
Which raises the very valid question of what kind of "gift" would the Holy Spirit be giving to apostate and false religions in a tongue they don't understand to begin with?
(And yet another example of how the system of the two beasts in Revelation 13 spreads across cultural and religious boundaries!
And why is this? (Because the Jew; going all the way back to the golden calf incident in Exodus "seeks after a sign".)
So those who "seek after a sign" receive a false sign; which (hearkening back to the Babylonian captivity (which is where Rabbinic Judaism started)); is a language they don't understand because it's not actually a tongue.