Many believe that during the last days there is to be a blasphemous unholy “trinity” that mimics the Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit. In the book of Revelation we do see three satanic figures emerge, two from the earth and one (initially) in the skies, the heavenlies. Continue reading
We all know we have a mortal enemy, the devil. We experience his attacks, temptations, accusations and lies all the time – and we also know that his activity will increase exponentially towards the End of the Age.The bible doesn’t mince words in describing just how widespread, powerful and persuasive the latter-day deceptions will become, such that “even the very elect” could be deceived by them. Are we not already seeing deception spreading in almost every large church and ministry? As well as deception, the devil aims accusations and lies at us all the time.
But we have not yet reached the endgame of the devil’s plan, so we have to know HOW to stand firm. Continue reading
Lucifer’s Fall
I have been working on research into the gemstones of the bible, and have found it very tough going. The resultant articles are going to be placed in due course on my website (www.birthpangs.org) but I have made a start by considering the gemstones mentioned in Ezekiel as being the covering of this mysterious character the “King of Tyre”.
I will not spend a lot of time discussing the various beliefs about this biblical person, except to say that the majority of evangelicals, including myself, believe this strange bible passage to be a reference to the archangel Lucifer before his fall.
Moreover the word of the Lord came to me, saying,
12 Son of man, take up a lamentation for the king of Tyre, and say to him,
‘Thus says the Lord God:
You were the seal of perfection,
Full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.
13 You were in Eden, the garden of God;
Every precious stone was your covering:
The sardius, topaz, and diamond,
Beryl, onyx, and jasper,
Sapphire, turquoise, and emerald with gold.
The workmanship of your timbrels and pipes
Was prepared for you on the day you were created.
14 You were the anointed cherub who covers;
I established you;
You were on the holy mountain of God;
You walked back and forth in the midst of fiery stones.
15 You were perfect in your ways from the day you were created,
Till iniquity was found in you.
16 By the abundance of your trading
You became filled with violence within,
And you sinned;
Therefore I cast you as a profane thing
Out of the mountain of God;
And I destroyed you, O covering cherub,
From the midst of the fiery stones.
We know little about Lucifer before the Fall, except hints from this passage, but it appears from Genesis and later comments throughout the bible that he was given a very important job of rulership in the Solar System. Later he presented himself as the sun-god, the centre of that solar system and the most important star within it. Such was his arrogance.
Our Solar System
Rather like the later Jewish High Priest, Lucifer had a “covering of jewels” and therefore he was possibly a leader of worship in Heaven. We tend to associate the devil with music, and the passage mentions timbrels and pipes being prepared for him in Heaven – this fact could explain the power of certain types of music to enchant and to open the spirit to demonic power as now seen in the apostate churches.
But it is his role as ruler of the solar system that concerns us here, because it occurred to me that the NINE gems (instead of 12 in the priestly breastplate) might just have a relationship to the nine planets of the original solar system before the Fall.
But to prove it, I needed to know what those nine gems actually were, and what they looked like – no easy task, because hardly anybody knows! The Hebrew and Greek words for the gems are obscure, and the words have been badly translated in a number of cases, or have been educated guesses; also the gems have changed their names over the years so that – for instance – modern topaz is no longer anything like the ‘topazion’ of the bible.
I set myself the task of reading every commentary, old and new, that I could lay hands on and every scholarly book and article that has an opinion to offer. There was much confusion and disagreement amongst them, but some confirmations too where the writers could come into agreement.
Once having chosen the most likely candidate for each gem, without consulting a picture of the solar system (just to be fair to the study), I chose a photo of each gem as best I could in the circumstances, for photos of ancient gems are not abundant on the Internet. If possible I chose an ancient or Egyptian stone.
Then, having photos of the nine gems, I laid them out against the solar system, only to find an almost perfect match!! It went beyond even my best expectations.
I was left amazed at the handiwork of God and the prophetic word He had left us. [click to see the fullsize graphic]
On the photo, as you can see, I have given the King James versions of the names alongside the Hebrew equivalents. Some bible versions use more up to date names for the stones, such as lapis lazuli for sapphire, now commonly accepted to be the true meaning of that word.
There is another question mark to this research as you’ll see on the graphic: what about Pluto, which was demoted as a planet in 2006? Although some argue the point, it does seem Pluto is not a real contender for the ninth planet, so what becomes of my neat scheme?
As it happens, scientists agree that there must once have been a gas giant between Mars and Jupiter. Now there is just debris that we call the Asteroid Belt.
“The early solar system could have had five giant planets instead of four. By plopping an additional giant planet with a mass similar to that of Uranus or Neptune the simulation worked as planned. Jupiter jumped into place, the inner planets remained unharmed and the outer planets stayed behind.The possibility that the solar system had more than four giant planets initially, and ejected some, appears to be conceivable in view of the recent discovery of a large number of free-floating planets in interstellar space, indicating the planet ejection process could be a common occurrence.” [Source]
The Missing Planet
I could conjecture that a great disaster happened when Lucifer fell, disturbing God’s harmonious creation, but we do not know for sure. Another conjecture is based upon the words of Jesus after satan was defeated by the disciples that he commissioned. When they reported back that “even the demons are subject to us”, Jesus “said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven”.(Luke 10:18).
Now it just so happens that the word for lightning is the SAME word (baraqeth) as the “missing gem”! So apart from the obvious and spiritual meaning of what Jesus said, there could be a reference to the baraqeth stone of Lucifer having fallen from his covering at the same time that the actual planet was smashed out of the heavens.
If we replace the stone in line we do see a much more sensible picture, even though I have chosen to show the baraqeth stone as “anthrax” or the “carbuncle” of some translations, that is, like a glowing coal in the fire.
However, Jesus referred to lightning in the sky, which has a brilliant greeny-white or purple tint. The word he used was translated into Greek as Barak (baraq, “lightning-flash”) and I’m well aware of the attempts to link Barak Obama to the satanic fall! I am not going to comment on that, except to say that the word for lightning-flash is indeed Barak and is linked to the fall of satan.
Is there, then, a hint in the bible that the missing gem and the missing planet were a flashing blue-white or purple-white, or perhaps a plasma-like light green?
This keys right into my comments on the supposed “emerald rainbow around the Throne” in Heaven as mentioned by John in Revelation. As I pointed out in my recent study (“A New Approach to Revelation“) the word that the King James translates as “emerald” is in fact the “smaragdos” in Greek which is much more likely to be the carbuncle, anthax or an unknown brilliant white-green gem than our modern emerald.
“The original meaning of the Greek word smaragdos is unknown. The word can be associated with the splendour that looks like the play of lightning among fresh grass. We propose that the Sanskrit word masdraka (not samaraka) was known during the Greek era… …. it is thought to be a word borrowed from the Sanskrit samaraka. Greek smaragdos became the mineral also known as iaspis. or possibly the ruby, or the plasma (‘the mother of emerald’). These have been described as having the greenness of a leaf. One Sanskrit myth describes smargados as the green bile of a god”. (Source, Indian Journal of History of Science, 1994)
But whatever the missing planet looked like, and whatever the baraqeth actually looked like (and we may never know) the fact remains that the nine planets DO have a remarkable and surely non-coincidental likeness to the gems mentioned in the King of Tyre passage.
One remaining thought: in the line-up of planets it seems obvious to any observer that the EARTH is strikingly different both in its colour and beauty. Its gem is the lapis lazuli, a
Lapis Lazuli
gorgeous blue inlaid with sparkling gold! It is plain even to a casual glance that the Earth is something much more than just a random chunk of rock in a row of similar rocks. It shows God’s intervention and handiwork, set at exactly the right distance from the sun to sustain life without being burned up, or freezing over.
Since water is an essential requirement for all known life, the presence of water on Earth seems to be a key design feature. Earth orbits at just the right distance from the sun for temperatures to allow for liquid water. Earth’s atmospheric pressure is also just right for liquid water. All of these properties seem designed to sustain life.
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