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The following essay is the first of a series by our “Good News Reporter,” an individual who wishes to remain anonymous. The number of parts in this series is unknown at this time, but we offer it to our readers in the expectation that it will stimulate new ways of thinking for some of you. For others, who are already accustomed to this manner of interpretation of current events, we trust that it will continue to strengthen your faith in our heavenly Father and in His astounding Plan for all of mankind. Remember, coincidences are God’s ways of remaining anonymous. Be blest! —Dr. James
By a Reporter of the Good News
In January of 1994 this news reporter was first being quickened to the reality that Father is eventually going to save all mankind. It seems that this revelation, above all others, changed my view of life. It caused me to see that our heavenly Father really is in control of everything and everyone and that each person has an appointed time for coming to this knowledge. It opened the scriptures to me in a new way and brought a new level of peace and hope. It also brought an understanding that everything has meaning and that our Father is far more involved in our activities than previously imagined, including such seemingly frivolous things as sports.
In 2 Timothy 3:16 it says, “All scripture [is] given by inspiration of God, and [is] profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness:”
The reference in this verse to “all Scripture” really means what we today call the “Old Testament.” The realization came that “all scripture” includes every verse and all those mysterious numbers, as well as the meanings of the names of people and places. Father never does anything without purpose and there is a wonderful integration between all components of Scripture through which He reveals His purpose and plan for His creation. It is this writer’s belief that such is still the case today.
And so it was that in January of 1994, Dallas and Buffalo were playing in the 28th Super Bowl which was being held in Georgia for the first time. This was a unique game because Buffalo would become the only team in history to play in four consecutive Super Bowls and lose all of them. The thought came that the wild beast (buffalo) was now “fully drawn and quartered” (four consecutive losses) and ready for sacrifice. It seemed that it was our own beast nature that needed to be offered up as a “burnt offering” through fiery trials and tribulations.
Furthermore, with the game being played in Georgia for the first time, the connection was made to the “cancellation of debt” since Georgia was specifically founded as a colony for that purpose. Many Englishmen were imprisoned because of inability to repay their debts and the concept was advanced to King George to let such men who were of noble character out of prison and give them land in Georgia to start over. Georgia became known as the debtors’ colony and essentially represented the cancellation of all debt for those fortunate enough to sail there. It seemed to this writer that this time the “prison cells” represented the prison cells of our bodies.
Finally, the number 28 is associated with the concept of eternal life in Scripture and such a place is unattainable until there has been a declaration of a “jubilee” or cancellation of ALL DEBT. This law is addressed in Leviticus, chapter 25 and was completely fulfilled by Jesus through His work on the cross when He cancelled ALL DEBT for ALL TIME with the ultimate sacrifice and, in effect, a declaration of a jubilee.
At the same time this was going on, another thought seemed to pop up on the radar screen and it was simply that, “no sign will be given, but the sign of Jonah.” Jesus speaks about Jonah in Matthew 12:38-41, “Then certain of the scribes and of the Pharisees answered, saying, Master, we would see a sign from thee. But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas: For as Jonas was three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas [is] here.”
Now it was understood that Jonah came out of the belly of the whale and it was long believed by some that he was bleached white from his time in the whale’s belly because of the effect of the digestive juices on his skin. Jonah means “dove,” which symbolizes the Holy Spirit, and he came out of that whale as the WHITE DOVE and somehow this was connected to the buffalo. Was our beast nature going to be made white, i.e., cleansed, and be the place where Jonah would appear? Little was it realized at that time that a long prophesied white buffalo would be born later that year on a Janesville, Wisconsin farm on August 20, 1994. Furthermore, O.J. Simpson, a former Buffalo Bill star running back, would suddenly surface in the news two months earlier in June of that same year.
In a study of the story of Jonah it was clear that he had come out of a “submarine vessel,” i.e., the whale. The word “whale” first occurs in Genesis 1:21 as follows, “And God created great whales, and every living creature that moveth, which the waters brought forth abundantly, after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind: and God saw that [it was] good.”
The Hebrew word for whale (tanniyn) is found as #8577 in Strong’s Concordance and it is the same word used for “dragon” wherever it is found in the Old Testament, with just a slight variation in Malachi 1:3.
When Jonah finally arrived in Nineveh after his detour of three days and nights, his preaching resulted in the complete repentance of the whole city. There is no greater story of conversion in the Bible. Since Jonah’s name means “dove,” which represents the Holy Spirit, as well as peace, then it would seem that the “sign of Jonah” is really connected to the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, which is needed to bring the necessary cleansing to Father’s children as “Jonah” is being released from the prison cells of their bodies. This is the pathway to eternal life.
A connection was made to New Orleans because it was the only city in America under sea/see level and it also sits at the “mouth” of the Mississippi which is known as “The Father of Waters.” This river is also called, “The River of the Holy Spirit” on the original Spanish maps. Furthermore, since football was the original focus at that time, it was believed that Father had a hand in naming New Orleans’ professional football team the Saints.
Ancient rabbinical writings suggest that Jonah came out of the whale’s belly on Rosh Hashanah, that is, on the Feast of Trumpets. Paul seems to make reference to this being the same day of the resurrection of the dead in 1 Corinthians 15:52, when he says, “In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.” New Orleans is known as the birthplace of jazz and no musical instrument is more associated with its unique sound than the TRUMPET.
So it seemed that New Orleans was symbolizing the city of Nineveh where Jonah would appear in the form of an outpouring of the Holy Spirit and bring cleansing and repentance to its Saints.
Nineveh was known as the “city of fish” and its residents worshipped the great fish as their god. No wonder they repented at the preaching of Jonah when word spread that the “White Dove” had come out of the mouth of their god. And then Jesus says the same thing is going to happen when He arises out of the mouths of the Saints of the Most High God once their hearts are cleansed. Eventually it was understood that the city of fish was really the church because almost right from the start the symbol for Christianity has been the sign of the fish!
Now a little divergence to the city of Jericho is in order. Jericho means “moon” and it is also a picture of the church since the church has no light of its own, but simply reflects the light of the son/sun. We might say that the church/moon is just a night light that will give way to the daylight of the sun/son when it is time for the daystar to arise in our hearts. The walls of Jericho are therefore equated to the church’s DENOMINATIONAL WALLS that will collapse when the sunlight of the JOSHUA company appears on the scene. Thus it can be seen that Jericho and Nineveh are simply different views of the same city, the body of denominational churches.
Next we find that Jericho is also a picture of Mystery Babylon once we incorporate the following symbols into the mosaic. First of all, Moses is standing on top of Mount Nebo in Deuteronomy 34, looking across the Jordan River at Jericho. Nebo literally means a prophet for a Babylonian deity who presides over learning and letters. Let’s stop and think about this for a moment. After coming out of Egypt and wandering in the desert for 40 years, what in God’s name is Moses doing, looking down at Jericho from the top of a mountain that is named for a Babylonian deity?! Remember, this was several hundred years before the twelve tribes of Israel would even be split into separate nations of two tribes and ten tribes, and hundreds of years more before the two-tribed nation of Judah would go into captivity in Babylon.
The next item connecting Jericho to Babylon (really, Mystery Babylon) is addressed in Joshua 6:18-19, as follows, “And ye, in any wise keep [yourselves] from the accursed thing, lest ye make [yourselves] accursed, when ye take of the accursed thing, and make the camp of Israel a curse, and trouble it. But all the silver, and gold, and vessels of brass and iron, [are] consecrated unto the LORD: they shall come into the treasury of the LORD.”
The four metals in Jericho of gold, silver, brass and iron are the same four metals in “the great image” in Nebuchadnezzar’s dream in Daniel 2:30-45. Note that these four metals represented four kingdoms that would rule the world and the wording in Joshua notes that all four kingdoms (metals) are devoted to the TREASURY OF THE LORD. In other words, it looks like total reconciliation for all the kingdoms in the king of Babylon’s dream.
Finally we see that Achan (who was from the tribe of Judah) simply can’t resist taking some of the things that were devoted to the Lord, including a BABYLONISH GARMENT. Again we ask, what is a Babylonish garment doing in Jericho? Here is the verse in Joshua 7:21, “When I saw among the spoils a goodly Babylonish garment, and two hundred shekels of silver, and a wedge of gold of fifty shekels weight, then I coveted them, and took them; and, behold, they [are] hid in the earth in the midst of my tent, and the silver under it.”
We can conclude that not only is Jericho a picture of Nineveh, but also a type and shadow of Mystery Babylon as well. Both of these cities are referred to as “that great city” in the books of Jonah and Revelation. There is a final city that is also called “that great city” in Scripture and we find it in Revelation 21:10, “And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God,”
So the realization comes that Jericho, Nineveh and Mystery Babylon are really just different views of the same city and that they are all going to be converted to New Jerusalem, the final version of “that great city” in Scripture. But such conversion must be preceded by the appearing of Jonah in the form of Noah’s second flood, which is really a flood of the Holy Spirit.
And so it was, that on August 29, 2005, that Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans and caused the Mississippi, or the River of the Holy Spirit, to flood New Orleans. Katrina means “pure” or “purification.” Seen in this light, we can see that a mighty work of the Holy Spirit was taking place right in broad daylight. Following Katrina it seemed as though then-President George W. Bush was unable to ever speak about New Orleans without referring to it as THAT GREAT CITY. Finally, the USA Today newspaper ran a huge headline that said: NEW ORLEANS: THAT GREAT CITY.
Around the end of September 2005, a meeting of Christians was held in Denver at the time of the Feast of Tabernacles. Colorado had been selected as the location that year for the pouring out the sixth vial. The hotel where the meeting was held was the Doubletree Inn and it was selected in June, long before Katrina. The Doubletree Inn chain is headquartered in New Orleans and the Denver hotel’s restaurant even featured New Orleans style food. Coincidence? We know better.
During the meetings, we were led to discuss the New Orleans Saints and even sang, “There is a house in New Orleans they call the RISING SUN” (see Mark 16:2 for a rising sun resurrection reference) and then sang “Amazing Grace” to the same tune. It was already clear by the end of September, 2005 that a cleansing of the Saints/Sons of the Most High God was underway. According to God’s law, the fruit can be eaten in the fifth year and so five seasons later, the Saints finally became the champions of professional football in the newly-named SUN LIFE of Canada (CANA-da) Stadium in Miami, Florida.
Furthering the Jonah theme, we find that CBS, the Columbia Broadcasting System, handled this year’s Super Bowl. Their last contract to broadcast the Super Bowl had been in 2007 when Quarterback Peyton Manning rode in on his Colts to win the 41st Super Bowl in the same stadium in Miami. Columbia and Jonah both mean dove. Within one minute following the end of this year’s Super Bowl, the CBS announcer, Jim Nantz, called New Orleans, “THAT GREAT CITY“.
This concludes the first part of our report on the New Orleans Saints. We have undoubtedly raised many questions in the minds of readers. We hope to answer them all in subsequent installments.