Bible Believers' Newsletter 1348
"We focus on the present Truth – what Jesus is doing now. . ."
ISSN 1442-8660Christian greetings in the precious Name of our Lord Jesus Christ; we are pleased you could join us in fellowship around God's unchanging Word.
Our Main Article introduces important historical actors, their nations, place and purpose in the fulfillment of history and raises certain clear historical and scriptural facts we must reconcile by historical proofs and two or three scriptural witnesses. One must establish one's self in the faith. (Gk) 'Chronos' "time is no longer, and the mystery of God is finished" (Revelation 10:6-7). The close of the Gentile dispensation is approaching followed by seven last year's allotted to Israel's elect.
This Newsletter serves those of like precious faith. Whoever will receive the truth is welcome to feed their soul from the waters of the River of Life. Everything here presented should be confirmed personally in your own Bible.Your brother-in-Christ
Anthony Grigor-Scott
From 'Fake Peace' to 'Real War': Obama's Trillion Dollar 'Humanitarian' Nuclear Weapons Program to Prevent Al Qaeda Terrorists from Acquiring Nukes
August 6, 2025 — At the outset, the Jewish Obama administration (2009-2017), was rewarded for his commitment to a nuclear free World.
In 2009, president, Obama, and Russia's president Dmitri Medvedev signed an historic agreement at the Kremlin to cut nuclear arms. In April 2009 President Obama addressed a crowd in Prague: "The existence of thousands of nuclear weapons is the most dangerous legacy of the Cold War. And as the only nuclear power to have used a nuclear weapon, the United States has a moral responsibility to act. We cannot succeed in this endeavor alone, but we can lead it, we can start it." He then cited some of the "concrete steps" the United States would take "toward a world without nuclear weapons."
Already at this important 2009 event in Prague, Obama raised the issue of terrorists acquiring nuclear weapons: "terrorists are determined to buy, build or steal a [nuclear weapon]. (The terrorists are the CIA, MOSSAD, MI6, and Al Qeada.
And on October 9, 2009, President Obama was granted the Nobel Peace Prize. "The US has a moral responsibility to act. A World without nuclear weapons."
The Norwegian Nobel Committee cited two important concepts:
1. Obama's commitment to nuclear nonproliferation,
2. Jewish Obama's "Reaching out to the Muslim world"
America's War on Terrorism. Prevent Al Qaeda from Acquiring Nuclear Weapons. Barely a year later, President Obama at a Summit aimed at securing the World's stockpile of nuclear weapons, raised the issue of Al Qaeda terrorists. Recruitment of Mujahideen, described by Ronald Reagan as Mulim "Freedom Fighters" . . . Full story: globalresearch.ca
Demonstrations target United States Role in Gaza Genocide
August 7, 2025 — Since the beginning of the Al- Aqsa Flood on October 7, 2023, the Gaza Health Ministry says that more than 60,000 people have been killed in the Strip. In addition, 145,000 others have been injured as none of the 2.3 million people living in Gaza are safe from the daily bombings and shooting by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).
If these daily atrocities involving rapid gunfire massacres, artillery launches and aerial strikes were not enough to continue terrorism against the Palestinians, the blocking of medicines, food, tents and water can only be interpreted by those inside and outside of Gaza as another method of fostering genocide against the people. Prior to the intensification of the IDF blockade against Gaza, there were 600 trucks carrying humanitarian assistance into the territory every day.
Over the last five months, the Occupation regime with the full backing of the administration of United States President Donald Trump has denied the Palestinians in Gaza access to the United Nations and other aid agencies for Gaza to carry out their work. For several months, reports from various UN and humanitarian organizations have sounded the alarm saying that famine was on the horizon in Gaza . . . . . . Full story: globalresearch.ca
Digital ID is the Last Step toward Full Enslavement
August 6, 2025 — Decisions about digital IDs, also called e-IDs, will be made across the board by all countries (193 UN member-states), or have already been made. In some cases, like Switzerland, people will have a choice, they will be able to vote on the decision.
In other countries, the governments, or those who pull the strings behind their governments, will take the decision without consulting the people.
A digital ID would be your last step to full enslavement—even if it is sold to you as a "benefit," an "all-in-one" ID, that allows you passage to everything. What it does not say is that this "passage" comes at a high cost of liberty. It is granted only if you comply fully with the conditions of the e-ID and the linked QR code.
It is an infamous QR code that follows you everywhere and controls every move you are making; and what's worse, it can block you from making any move, from using your money, from traveling, from simply living because it can impose on you a potentially harmful or deadly "vaccination" mandate (remember the covid vaxxes). Stay away from any QR code as much as you can.
See this and this . . . Full story: globalresearch.ca
An Introduction to some Actors and their Nations
One Subscriber commenting in reference to the 8.8 earthquake and Kamchatka volcano in Russia last week said: "I don't know where you get the idea that current eruptions will cause the Los Angeles collapse. I don't think Brother Branham said anything like that".
I suspect that idea was your own; it was certainly not Brother Branham's idea. He quoted Jesus Christ. "I beheld when He had opened the Sixth Seal, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; and the stars of heaven fell unto the earth, even as a fig tree casts her untimely figs when she is shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and island were moved out of their places . . . for the great day of His wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand" (Revelation 9:12-17).
According to Chapter 6 in the Book unprecedented force will move earth on its axis. Chapter 16 asserts "a great earthquake such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great".
Quoting the Prophet I said the Krasheninnikov Volcano in Kamchatka, Russia, will participate in the earthquake that sinks Los Angeles next year. "This is the first historically confirmed eruption of Krasheninnikov Volcano in 600 years, yet it is 15,000 feet high." The map on this video shows Kamchatka, perhaps 600 miles north of the 1,500 X 300 – 400 segment of earth's crust that will sink Los Angeles. Much of California south to San Diego and perhaps Nevada's Hoover Dam will fail. Arizona will become the West Coast. Tsunamis will ravage Mexico, sink Islands in Japan, the Pacific and invade the East Coast of Australia. The 9.3 earthquake and tsunami on March 27, 1964, like Russia's 8.8 earthquake on August 3, 2025 and the Good Friday earthquake on April 3, 2026 will all commence in the Aleutian Islands.
The tsunami should reach the East Coast of Australia in about two hours with devastating effect. Because of traffic congestion and perhaps night time panic.
Australians are ignorant because of Pulpit delinquency. Ministers will not study their Bible and rest upon theology rather than knee-ology.
Virtually one hundred percent of nominal Christians are ignorant of the fact the Seventh Church Age ended in apostasy in 1963 (Revelation 3:15-17). They know nothing of the Laodicea Church Age (1906 – 1963). The Good Friday earthquake will mark the close of the Gentile dispensation; they have no understanding of the judgment each will face.
Three days after the close of the Gentile Dispensation on Good Friday, the resurrection of our sleeping Church Age Saints will commence, Church Age by Church Age. Meanwhile Christ's end-time Bride will become a hunted and persecuted little group, manifesting that they are the Sons and Daughters of God. From the Day of Pentecost we who are alive and remain will change in the atoms to meet the saints for the Wedding Supper in the Air.
After the Day of Pentecost the Lord will turn to Israel. The Mount of Olives has cleaved toward the east and toward the West, moving half of the mountain toward the north, and half toward the south, demolishing es Sakhra, the Dome of the Rock, and Al Aqsa Mosque on Mount Moriah. About this time Russia has invaded the USA. Satan is cast down, incarnate. The Pentagon has surrendered and the nation has concedes (58-0108, Handwriting on the Wall, par. 84-107; 58-0309, Handwriting on the Wall, par. 84-90, 107).
This will entice non-Semitic, self- styled so-called Khazar and Sephardim Israelis with Gentile citizenship to mass exodus. Womenfolk and apostate Edomite Jews will bid "good riddance" to Israel's Promised Land and fill flights overseas, while genuine blood Israelites of Jacob's lineage will occupy inbound flights. On the Feast of Trumpets on September 11 – 13, 2026 prior to the Feast of Tabernacles from Friday, September 25 – Friday October 2, 2026 the Lord will turn to an election of blood Israelites—not Jews.
At last Jerusalem and Palestine will be divided as agreed in UN Resolution 181 on November 29, 1947. "The Lord God will divide all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken and the houses justly rifled" by genuine Semitic Palestinians who have been subject to rape, murder, genocide and unimaginable cruelties by non-Semitic, anti-Semitic monsters who have no lineage from Abraham, Isaac and Jacob/Israel, and no history in the Middle East or North Africa and are absent the Book of Life, which is Adam's genealogy.
Recently we have given thought to the last Week of Daniel's seven years. The houses will be rifled and the women ravished in Israel and they will not escape the US: half of the City shall go forth into captivity, and the residue shall not be cut off from the City. Then in the second half of the Seventieth Week "the Lord will go forth and fight against those nations, as when He fought in the day of Battle" (Isaiah 13:6-16; 34:1-8; 63:1-6; Daniel 12:1; Zechariah 14:3; Haggai 2:6-7). In Israel's last three and a half years 144,000 elect Israelites will be gathered into the faith and martyred.
Cyrus founded the Persian Empire; he was Semitic like present-day Iranians, Iraquis, Syrians and Israel's ten Tribes sheltering "for fear of the Jews" since 721BC. Under Jewish rule the pagan United States is killing these Semitec people.
Cyrus the Great, founder of the Achaemenid Empire, was of royal descent through both his father and mother. His father, Cambyses I, was King of Anshan, and his mother, Mandane, the daughter of Astyages, the Median King. His lineage, as stated on the Cyrus Cylinder, traced back through his father, grandfather (Cyrus I), and great-grandfather (Teispes), all of whom held the title of king. Because of a dream Astyages directed Harpagus, his favourite to have the child Cyrus destroyed, but the herdsman to whom he was given preserved him. When he grew up his kingly qualities betrayed his birth. Enraged, Astyages, served a feast to Harpagus the flesh of his own son. Harpagus in revenge helped Cyrus at Pasagradae near Persepolis (559BC) to defeat and dethrone Astyages; make himself king of both Media and Persia. The Persians, like Israelites and Iraqis were Semitic while the Medes were Japhetic like me. Cyrus afterwards conquered Crossus, and added Lydia to his empire. In 538BC he took Babylon by diverting the course of the Euphrates into another channel, and entering the city by the dry bed during a feast at which the Babylonians were reveling as Isaiah 21:5; 44:27; Jeremiah 50:38; 51:57 foretell.
At the overthrow of Babylon, Darius the Median received the kingdom, being about 62 years of age (Daniel 5:31).
Isaiah 13:17 and 21:2 confirm Daniel as to the Medes share in destroying Babylon. Daniel 6:2 joins the two. "Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius and in the reign of Cyrus the Persian (Jeremiah 51:11, 28). The honourary precedence given to the Medes was in the formula "The Law of the Medes and Persians altereth not." Daniel 5:28 marks their original supremacy. But the expressions "Darius received the kingdom" (Daniel 5:31) . . . and "Darius the son of Ahsuerus (the same name as Cyaxares and Xerxes) of the seed of the Medes . . . was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans" (9:10), Mark that Cyrus was the supreme king and conqueror, while Darius was representative of the deposed Median line of supreme kings, whether he is to be identified with Astyages or his successor Cyrus II, and that Cyrus deemed it politic to give him a share of royal power, in order to consolidate by union the two dynasties and conciliate the Medes. Darius reigned as viceroy at Babylon from 538-536BC when Cyrus assumed the Throne there himself; whence Ezra 1:1 regards the year of Cyrus, beginning to reign at Babylon as the first year of his reign over the whole empire though he was king in Persia 20 years before so also II Chronicles 36:22. The prophesies of Isaiah 44:27-28 and 45:1 attribute the capture of Babylon to Cyrus, not Darius; "Cyrus declared Jehovah is My shepherd . . . the Lord's anointed," a type of Messiah, the true King, Son of Righteousness, and Redeemer of His people from mystical Babylon (Malachi 4:2). "Ahasuerus" is another form of Cyaxares, whom Xenophon represents as uncle of Cyrus and son of Astyages.
The pure monotheism in which Cyrus had been reared as a Persian predisposed him to hate the Babylonian idols and favour the Jewish religion. Zoroaster about this very time reformed the popular nature of worship in Persia, and represented the sun or fire as only a symbol of the one God. In Cyrus' decree for the Jew's restoration from Babylon he intimates his acquaintance with Isaiah's and Jeremiah's prophecies concerning Him, which he had heard from Daniel the prophet of Belshazzar's doom: "the Lord God of heaven hath given me all the kingdoms of the earth, as He charged me to build Him a house at Jerusalem which is in Judah . . . He is the God."
His gift of the golden vessels out of the treasury (Ezra 1:7-11; Ezra 6:5), the allowance of the temple rebuilding expenses out of the royal revenue (Ezra 6:4), and the charge to his subjects to "help in 457BC is a significant year associated with the decree of King Artaxerxes of Persia mentioned in the Book of Ezra. This decree, allowing the Jews to rebuild Jerusalem, is considered the starting point for the 70 weeks prophecy in Daniel 9:24-27. This prophecy is interpreted as a timeline leading to the coming of the Messiah, with the 70 weeks (490 years) culminating around the time of Jesus' ministry and crucifixion. Still leaving the seventieth Week of seven years".
If we can match Bible prophecy with historic fact we have identified God's living vindicated Word and are bound to receive and prove His prophet's Message from Genesis to Revelation to ensure we have the mind of Christ in us. I believe that prophet was the late William Branham.
We will match Bible prophecy with historic fact to discover just who is Esau/Edom today!
Edomites are the descendants of Esau who married into Cain's race thereby committing genocide in his lineage from Adam, Abraham and Isaac. Esau might have continued the lineage as the firstborn son, had he not marred his heritage. According to the Book of Jasher and the Haggadah (Av. Zar.3a), Esau slew Nimrod and stole the coats of skins God had made for Adam and Eve and which Noah is said to have preserved in the Ark. Escaping his pursuers, Esau fled to his father's house, wearied, exhausted from the fight and ready to die through grief he came before Jacob, and to preserve his life from the sword of the king's men, Esau sold his birthright for a bowl of red lentils. Thus not only did this profane man disregard God's ability to fulfill His Promise to Abraham and his seed, but through intermarriage with the seed of Cain he would have ended the Adamic race through his branch of the family had he not also married an Ishmaelite.
Esau's perverse race has imposed miscegenation upon the world by imposing miscegenation under the Talmudic subterfuge 'multiculturalism,' which is the repetition of the 'original sin' on a global scale "as it was in the days of Noah" (Genesis 6:1-4; Matthew 24:37).
Had Esau the faith of his grandfather Abraham, he would have known that as possessor of the birthright, "all the king's horses and all the king's men" could not have killed him. God's promise had to pass through Esau so long as he respected the birthright. And—my Brother or—Sister, if you are truly born of the Word of God for THIS day, Satan cannot slay you physically because God has promised He will translate His end-time Bride. She will not see death in the flesh, but change in the atoms. So against all hope, believe in hope and hold fast to His Promise.
Maccabees I and II are extra canonical books in the Catholic Bible that relate the history of many successful revolts against the Romans by the noble Maccabee family who ruled Idumea for one hundred years. According to The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia (1977 p. 589; and Encyclopedia Judaica 1971, Vol. 6, p. 378) "Judah Maccabee's son, John Hyrcanus (109BC), conquered the whole of Edom and undertook the forced conversion of its inhabitants to Judaism (Josephus., Ant. XIII, 9,1). Thenceforth the Edomites became a section of the Jewish people." They are Cain's people, absent the Book of Life, and hated by God (Genesia 3:15; Ezekiel 25:12-17; Obadiah 1; Malachi 1:1-5).
A hundred years before Christ, Judah was inhabited by Edomites and native Israelites who were both followers of Talmudic Judaism, seeming to heal the breach between Jacob and Esau. But the Edomites proved to be a discordant element. And in 37BC, Herod the Great (74-4BC), an Idumean or Edomite whose wife Mariamne was a Maccabean, became at the age of 36, undisputed ruler of Judea. The Pharisees gained ascendancy over the Sadducees, and there were many Edomites in the population at the time of Christ.
The Edomites participated in the defense of Jerusalem against the Romans during Titus' siege (AD66-70). According to The Jewish Encyclopedia (1904, Vol. V, p. 41), "Immediately before the siege of Jerusalem 20,000 Idumeans appeared before Jerusalem to fight in behalf of the Zealots who were besieged in the Temple." They fought for Rome. More than a million inhabitants of Judea died and 97,000 were taken captive. An unknown number fled either before or during the siege.
What is fascinating is that this is the last mention in history of the Edomites as a people. Yet Bible prophecy indicates that Edom would be an enemy of Israel in the latter days, and we find that their only connection to a present-day people and religion is with the so-called Jews and Rabbinism, or Judaism. As the Edomites are accursed of God, we may assume their disappearance from historical records was intentional, for we see that they stole or assumed the identity of another race. An interesting observation is that the policy of the Illuminati is always to act under another name and a different occupation. So in order to find out whom and where these Edomites are today, we must discover who the Jews are today.
A glance at the Encyclopedia Britannica or any Jewish encyclopedia under "Statistics" will reveal that the Jews of today fall within two main groups—the Sephardic and the Ashkenazi Jew.
The Sephardim are also known as "Spanish Jews" and descended from the Canaanites who colonized Carthage. Following its sack by Rome, they adopted this name for deceptive purposes and constitute 5% of world Jewry today.
The Ashkenazim are the "East European Jews" found in Khazaria, Poland, Russia, Germany, Western Asia, the United States and Israel; they constitute about 90% of the "world Jewry" (so-called). The remainder include genuine blood Israelites among whom 144,000 are elect of God.
The most eminent scholars and historians of Jewry agree than most Ashkenazi Jews come from the Khazars. According to The Jewish Encyclopedia, (Vol. V, (1904), p. 41), the Khazars are "A people of Turkish origin whose life and history are interwoven with the very beginnings of the history of the Jews in Russia . . . Historical evidence points to the region of the Urals as the home of the Khazars." Curiously the nation of Khazaria has disappeared from the atlas and history books.
Ashkenazi Jewish author and historian, the late Arthur Koestler agrees that the large majority of Jews are of Khazar and not Semitic origin. "That their ancestors came not from the Jordan but from the Volga, not from Canaan, but from the Caucasus; . . . and that genetically they are more closely related to the Hun, Uigur and Magyar tribes than to the seed of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob" (The Thirteenth Tribe, p. 17).
Historian H.G. Wells states, ". . . the Idumeans (Edomites) were . . . made Jews, . . . and a Turkish people (Khazars) were mainly Jews in South Russia . . . The main part of Jewry was never in Judea and had never come out of Judea" (The Outline of History, 3rd Edition., p. 494). According to the Jewish Encyclopedia (Vol. IV, (1905), p. 3), the original stock of the Khazars came from the land of Edom.
The Jewish Encyclopedia tells us that "Edom is modern Jewry." This witness from the 1905 edition records the connection between modern-day Jews and the race of Edom: "Some anthropologists are inclined to associate the racial origins of the Jews, not with the Semites, whose language they adopted, but with the Armenians and Hittites of Mesopotamia, whose broad skulls and curved noses they appear to have inherited" (The Jewish Encyclopedia, (1905), Vol. X, p. 284).
When we speak about the racial mixtures that brought about the Jews of today, we must highlight events surrounding the captivity of Judah which included some from the tribes of Benjamin, Levi and Simeon taken by Nebuchadnezzar to Babylon. At the same time Edom was put under Babylonian rule, causing some Edomites to be brought to Babylon along with kindred races from Sidon and Tyre (Jeremiah 27:2-7).
When the Medes and Persians overthrew Babylon, Cyrus issued an edict (538BC) allowing Judah to return and rebuild the temple (Ezra 1:1-5). However, only 50,000 returned to Palestine (Ezra 2:64-65). Many preferred to remain in Babylon, having intermarried with Babylonians and Edomites and adopted their religion and law—the Babylonian Talmud, synagogue and rabbis—which became the foundation for Pharisaism in the time of Jesus and practiced today under the present name "Judaism." Queen Esther said, "Many of the people of the land [from India to Ethiopia] became Jews. . ." (Esther 8:17).
The historian Josephus, writing for the instruction of Greeks and Romans and falsely regarded as a traitor to the Jews, coined the term "Judaism" in order to pit it against Hellenism (the civilization, culture, customs, manners, science poetry, that had spread from Greece). The Jews themselves detested Josephus and refrained from reading his works, hence the term "Judaism" was unknown to the Jews until comparatively recent times.
Although called "Jews," an abbreviation for "Judeans," the people were a hybrid of Canaanites, Babylonians, Edomites, Hittites, Judahites, etc., They migrated to other lands over the centuries, but retained their identity as "Jews" or so-called Judahites and brought with them the religion of Babylon. These racially mixed "Jews" were among those who returned to Jerusalem (Ezra 2:62; Nehemiah 7:64; 13:3; History of God's Holy Bible and the so-called Jews).
Let us recognize that the original meaning of the word "Jew" did not signify a race of people or a religion, it signified ALL peoples who lived in a geographic area called Judea, except for the Romans. In the days of Jesus, it is probably true that most of the residents of Jerusalem were Edomites, for with the exception of Judas, Jesus chose His disciples from Galilee (Acts 2:7). Jesus returned to the Capital to fulfill the prophecy that His enemies, the Canaanite Jews, would crucify Him.
The words "Jew" and "Judean" had a geographic import until after the death and resurrection of Jesus. The only people who held the name "Jew" were those who rejected Jesus Christ, and whose descendants still do(nl039.htm). It is an incontestable that the word "Jew " did not come into existence until the year 1775.
Judah's captivity began in 606BC and in 539BC Babylon fell to Cyrus the Great without a fight. The (Semitic) Persians and (Japhetic) Medes were generally tolerant toward the nations they defeated, allowing them to retain their culture and religion. Cyrus issued an edict (in 538BC) allowing Judah to return and rebuild the temple (Ezra 1:1-5). However, only 50,000 returned to Palestine (Ezra 2:64-65); the majority remained in Babylon which was the center of scholarship and commerce until the twelfth century AD. The people having intermarried with Babylonians and Edomites and their religion and law—the Babylonian Talmud, rabbis and the synagogue became the foundation for Pharisaism in the time of Jesus, and practiced today under the name "Judaism." Queen Esther said, "Many of the people of the land [from India to Ethiopia] became Jews. . ." (Esther 8:17; nl1080).
The northern kingdom was dissolved and carried away in 721BC and remnants of Tribes identified with Judah rather than Ephraim and many went into Babylonian Captivity with Judah.
The Temple was completed on Adar 3, 515BC (Ezra 6:15-21), a sin offering was made for "ALL Israel." "The children of ISRAEL, who had returned from the captivity, and all such as had separated themselves from the filthiness of the heathen of the land, to seek the LORD God of Israel, ate the Passover".
Eventually the political power of the Babylonian priesthood (Chaldean magi) became a problem; the priests frustrated the Persians' tolerance when, in an attempt to retain their behind-the-scenes political power they installed their own Babylonian ruler. In 487BC King Xerxes destroyed Babylon, demolished the temples and removed the statue of Marduk. Around 480BC the Chaldeans fled to Asia Minor and fixed their central college at Pergamos An Exposition of the Seven Church Ages, p. 181-189 . The teaching of the Babylonian religious practices continued in the city of Pergamum for centuries. The Chaldeans did not cease from wielding politico-religious influence, injecting their presence into Rome, the next world empire (vision).
In 559BC Cyrus made himself king of both Medes who were Japhetic and Persians who were Semitic, he then conquered Croesus and added Lydia to his empire. In 538BC he took Babylon by diverting the course of the Euphrates into another channel, and entering the city by the dry bed during a feast at which the Babylonians were reveling. This was prophesied by Isaiah 44:21 - 45:10 in about 607BC.
In Daniel 5:31 we read "Darius the Median received the kingdom, being about threescore and two years old." In 712 and 714BC Isaiah 13:17 and 21:2 prophesied more than a century in advance of the Medes' share in destroying Babylon. "Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius and in the reign of Cyrus the Persian" (Daniel 6:28). In about 596BC Jeremiah prophesied the devastation of Babylon. Precedence was given to the Medes in the formula, "the law of the Medes and Persians altereth not," as confirmed by the handwriting on the wall (Daniel 5:25-31). But the expressions "Darius received the kingdom" (Daniel 5:31), and "Darius the son of Ahasuerus (Cyaxares or Xerxes) of the seed of the Medes . . was made king over the realm of the Chaldeans" (Daniel 9:1).
Cyrus was the supreme king and conqueror, Darius was subordinate king under him, in order to consolidate by union the two dynasties and conciliate the Medes. Darius reigned as viceroy at Babylon from 538 to 536 BC, when Cyrus assumed the throne there himself; from whence Ezra (Ezra 1:1) regards the year of Cyrus' beginning to reign at Babylon as the first year of his reign over the whole empire, though he was king of Persia 20 years before. This agrees with II Chronicles 36:22-23. Isaiah's prophecies attribute the capture of Babylon to Cyrus, not Darius (Isaiah 44:27-28; Isaiah 45:1, "Cyrus My (Jehovah's) shepherd . . . the Lord's anointed," a type of Messiah, the true King, Sun of righteousness (Malachi 4:2), and Redeemer of His people from Babylon.
"Ahasuerus" is another form of Cyaxares, whom Xenophon represents as uncle of Cyrus and son of Astyages. The pure monotheism in which Cyrus had been reared as a Persian predisposed him to hate the Babylonian idols and favor the Jewish religion. Zoroaster about this very time reformed the popular nature worship of Persia, and represented the sun or fire as only a symbol of the one God. In Cyrus' decree for the Jews' restoration from Babylon he intimates his acquaintance with the prophecies of Isaiah and Jeremiah, which he doubtless heard from Daniel regarding Belshazzar's doom: "the Lord God of heaven has given me all the kingdoms of the earth, and He hath charged me to build Him a house at Jerusalem which is in Judah . . . He is the God".
Smith's Bible Dictionary truly says: "the fall of Sardis and Babylon was the starting point of European life; and the beginning of Grecian art and philosophy, and the foundation of the Roman constitution, synchronize with the triumph of the Aryan race in the East."
The term "Aryan" was originally used by Indo-Iranian peoples as a self-designation meaning "noble" and was not tied to race but to cultural and linguistic identity. The Hindu Rig-Veda and Zoroastrian Avesta, ancient religious texts of India and Iran, describe Aryan identity in terms of language, religion, and ritual, not biology: the idea of racial superiority has no scientific basis.
Cyrus represents Eastern concentration and order, Alexander the Great Western individuality and independence. The two elements exercised an important influence upon the history of the world and of the church, and Cyrus' restoration of the Israelites is one of the great turning points in the development of God's mighty scheme for ultimate redemption. Xenophon celebrates Cyrus' humanity. This, with his Zoroastrian abhorrence of idolatry and its shameless rites, and veneration for the "great god Ormuzd," the special object of ancient Persian worship, would interest him in behalf of the sufferings of the Jews, whose religion so nearly resembled his own. Thus, their restoration, an act unparalleled in history, is accounted for. His acknowledgment of "the Lord God of heaven" (Ezra 1:2), whom he identifies with Jehovah of the Jews, and his pious ascription of his wide dominion to His gift, accord with silver, gold, goods, and beasts" (Ezra 1:4) accord with his characteristic munificence. His giving so high a post as the government of Babylon to a Mede agrees with his magnanimity in appointing two Medes in succession to govern the rich Lydia (Herodotus, 1:156,162). See Rawlinson's Historical Illustrations of Old Testament J.W. Bosanquet gives reasons for thinking that the Cyrus (son of Cyaxares and grandson of Astyages) who took Babylon is distinct from Cyrus son of Cambyses who conquered Astyages. nl1348.htm
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Brother Grigor-Scott is a non-denominational minister who has ministered full- time since 1981, primarily to other ministers and their congregations overseas. He pastors Bible Believers' tiny congregation, and is available to teach in your church.
Bible Believers' Church
Gunnedah NSW
Australia 2380e-mail Bible Believers
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