Omega Message – July 2000
Cecil duCille
(This message was given at the November 1999 Nebraska Sonlight Gospel Convention.)
“In the midst of the week” refers to a prophetic week, which speaks of the last week of time. This week came in the time of Jesus the Messiah. If the Messiah did not come at that time, the earth would have been destroyed. Jesus the Messiah had to offer the one sacrifice that would stop the “consummation” from taking place at that time. Proof of this can be found in Malachi 4:5-6:
“Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord; and he shall turn the heart of the fathers to the children and the heart of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the earth with a curse.”
Another scripture that brings out the same thought (that but for Divine intervention the earth would be destroyed) is Matthew 24:22, “And except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened.”
Because Messiah came as a man, He was able to confirm the covenant with us, the “Israel of God.” The question is, which covenant? The answer: The Covenant. This means that all the covenants that God made with man came down to only one covenant, which Messiah confirms and which embodies all the covenants in God’s word.
Jeremiah 31:33: “But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.”
Here we have the “everlasting covenant” (Ref. Jeremiah 32:40, Hebrews 13:20) which Messiah confirms with His people. He is “the first born from the dead” (Colossians 1:18) and we will be his firstborn.
Now, the seventieth week was that last seven years of Daniel’s prophecy given in Daniel 9:24 concerning the seventy weeks. At the end of the sixty-ninth week, Jesus the Messiah went to Jordan where John the Baptist was baptizing; and John testified of Him saying, “I indeed baptize you with water; but one mightier than I cometh, the latchet of whose shoes I am not worthy to unloose; He shall baptize you with the Holy Ghost and with fire:” (Luke 3:16). Jesus Christ, our Lord, the Messiah, ministered for 3 1/2 years, during which time He preached the Kingdom of God. At the end, when He should be offered as the Lamb to fulfill all the scriptures, wherein the high priest would kill the Passover lamb and they would eat at midnight, He had a dilemma. He was both the Lamb of the Passover (the final Passover) and the High Priest. He was the Lamb to shed His blood, but the High Priest must take the blood through the tabernacle. Not the earthly tabernacle, but the heavenly tabernacle. It pertains therefore that the Man Messiah must be divided into three parts (“For the word of God is… sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the dividing asunder of soul and spirit, and of the joints and marrow…” (Hebrews 4:12)) in order to keep his Divine appointment as the Lamb and also as the Messiah. The Lamb must go through the fire of God’s wrath against sin, and the High Priest must take the blood through the tabernacle of heaven into the presence of God the Father for vindication of the man. In this case, He must: abandon the flesh to the grave; the spirit must go back to God; while the soul goes to hell to take the place of the sinner. This is true death. It is written that every man has a divine appointment with God after death: “And as it is appointed unto men once to die, but after this the judgment” (Hebrews 9:27).
Jesus’ question to God the Father in the garden of Gethsemane gives us a glimpse into the puzzling question as to why 3 1/2 years were left out of Daniel’s seventieth week. God’s covenant with humanity is that man will come into the likeness of God in the last seven years of time. This seven years is split into two 3 1/2 years periods. Jesus Christ the Messiah took the first 3 1/2 years to fulfill the covenant that God gave to man, and the body of Christ must follow to fulfill the remaining 3 1/2. Let us look at the scriptures that say this.
Daniel: 7:25, “And he shall speak great words against the most High, and shall wear out the saints of the Most High, and think to change times and laws: and they shall be given into his hands until a time and times and the dividing of time (3 1/2 years).
Daniel 7:21-22, “I beheld, and the same horn made war with the saints, and prevailed against them; Until the Ancient of days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the most High; and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom.” Here the word “until” occurs, signaling the end of the suffering of the saints, “…until the Ancient of days came….“
In Verse 27, we come to the end of the matter and the identification of the “saints of the Most High” as the ones who will inherit the everlasting covenant: “And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom and all dominions shall serve and obey him.”
The time referred to in Daniel as a 3 1/2 year period is still in our near future. During this time, those who attain to the Firstfruits company through obedience to the Spirit will be anointed with the fullness of Christ, and will manifest the Father on earth even as Jesus Christ did. The Lord told us to pray: “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.” Praying thus is in itself an assurance that this will come to pass, and it will begin during that 3 1/2 year period. Matthew 1:1-17 speaks of there being 42 generations from Abraham to Christ, and we who are begotten of God in Christ are the 42nd generation from Abraham, the man who first received the promise of the indwelling Messiah: “And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee” (Genesis 17:7); and Verse 10: “This is my covenant, which ye shall keep, between me and you and thy seed after thee; Every man child among you shall be circumcised.” The promise of circumcision is a promise of a covenant within the heart of man. (As a Bible student, you will easily recognize this.)
The 42nd Generation will show forth the power of God in the earth for 42 months (or 1260 days, or 3 1/2 years): “But the court which is without the temple leave out, and measure it not; for it is given unto the Gentiles: and the holy city shall they tread underfoot forty and two months. And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackcloth” (Revelation 11:2-3). The same time in which the antichrist will be destroying the outer court church is the same time in which the two witnesses (the Spirit and the Word) will be ministering through the Firstfruits company, and the woman church will be in the wilderness being protected and fed by the Man Child.
The question that everyone would like answered is, “Where are we now in God’s scheme of things?” We are now in the year 2000, according to the Gregorian Calendar. This calendar was made by a Roman Catholic priest upon the order of the pope named Gregory, and was patterned after the Julian calendar of 325 AD. At that time, the calendar that was in use was the secular Roman Calendar of Julius Caesar. In order to make a new calendar, one had to match a year in the old one with the first year of the new one. However, many years later scholars found that the match was less then perfect. For instance, they found that Herod, who tried Jesus the Messiah, was already about four years dead by the Roman calendar when the Gregorian Calendar had Jesus before Herod’s judgment seat. This therefore was accepted by most scholars as an error of four years, but here again there is another error. It is unlikely that Herod died in the same year that Jesus Christ was crucified. It is not, however, clear as to how many years Herod did live after the crucifixion of Jesus. So, we know for sure that our present calendar is at least four years wrong, and probably more likely seven.
At the outside, it would put us at 2007, which would mean we have been in the millennium since 1993. Why would it be so important to be in the millennium? Part of the answer lies in a parable given by Jesus in the tenth chapter of Luke. “And Jesus answered and said, A certain man went down from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell among thieves, which stripped him of his raiment and wounded him; and departed, leaving him half dead. And by chance there came down a certain priest that way; and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. And likewise a Levite, when he was at the place, came and looked on him; and passed by on the other side. But a certain Samaritan, as he journeyed came where he was; and when he saw him; he had compassion on him. And went to him, and bound up his wounds, poured in oil and wine, and set him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn, and took care of him. And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him; Take care of him; and when I come again I will repay thee” (Luke 10:30-35).
In this parable, The Samaritan is Jesus, the wounded man is God’s called out people, the innkeeper is the ministry that Jesus left here to take care of the church, and the two pence are two thousand years. The priest and the Levite represent the religious systems of today. If we are to believe this meaning of the parable of the Good Samaritan then we will see clearly the importance of the year 2000. We have learned in the past that we cannot accept any one scripture with an applied meaning unless there are other scriptures that say the same thing, and that at least three scriptures should attest to the fact.
Let us look at another scripture: “After two days will He revive us; In the third day He will raise us up, and we shall live in His sight” (Hosea 6:2). This scripture clearly tells us that after the second millennium God will raise up the Church (resurrection). The importance of 2000 is thus emphasized. I could give you twenty more scriptures, but since we do not have the space and the time, I will only give you one more. If you study in the Scriptures you will see in the building of the Tabernacle of Moses that the distance between the Outer Court of Moses’ tabernacle and the entering into the Holy of Holies is twenty cubits. This signifies 2000 years. The whole distance which the priest travels in the tabernacle of Moses depicts the development of the Church from Passover, to Pentecost, to Feasting on Christ at the table of Shewbread, to the Candlestick or Lampstand ministry (which is God and man working together to bring forth light), to the Altar of Incense (which depicts the offering of the soul), and finally the entering into the Holy of Holies (which is the realm of the Spirit). This entering in must come after the 2000 years mark is passed. In Moses’ tabernacle, it took a year to make this journey. That Jewish year of ordinances speaks of the span of time from Jesus Christ to His return.
“And this is the will of Him that sent me, that every one which seeth the Son and believeth on Him, may have everlasting life: and I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:40). The phrase “the last day” is used several times in this passage in John. We can see that Jesus was definitely giving us a hint of the time of the resurrection. The last day is the Seventh day in Hebrew terminology. We are in the Seventh Millennium. This is the last day and Daniel’s seventieth week must be finished in this day. It began when Jesus the Messiah was baptized in the Jordan by John the Baptist, and the midpoint of that week was when Jesus Christ was offered as the Paschal Lamb. The only human being who could inherit the promise of God (that He would walk in them and talk in them and be their God and they would be His people) died at Calvary. Therefore, until sons are born to Him, the promise had to be suspended. The Word in Romans 8:29 [and Hebrews 2:10] promises that He will bring “many sons to glory,” which means that sons of God will be born in Christ Jesus to take up the promise of God and finish the remaining 3 1/2 years.
We know that God’s day is sometimes a thousand-year day (2 Peter 3:8). It is definitely so when we are thinking of God’s millennial plan. It is my belief that we have been in the “great tribulation” since 1970. I also believe that God did not bring down the tribulation suddenly upon us, so that we could experience it little by little, and that the thing that is designed to purify the Church would not kill it. I believe that every year since 1970 has been worse and worse, and that we are heading for midnight, which from all the signs we have seen, should begin to come upon us by the end of this year 2000. Those who overcome will be pulled closer and closer into the fullness of His kingdom.
At this time, we see that the Church is being prepared for the coming forth of the Christ within. This, however, will only come when our purging is completed. You might have noticed when we quoted Revelation 11:3 that it says that they will be “clothed in sackcloth.” This means that the Church will go through the tribulation and pass through midnight which is “the time of Jacob’s trouble” (Jeremiah 30:6-7) and then we will come to the “morning” of Joel’s prophecy (Joel 2:2).
Now the question arises as to when do we expect all this to take place. In the Scriptures we are told by the Lord that no man knows the day nor the hour when Christ the Messiah will come, but we are also told that we will know the season and that we should all watch. We are now in the season of the coming forth of the sons of God, but this will not take place until the earth faces total annihilation, and until we come to a period of time which the Scriptures describe as “midnight.” Midnight speaks of a time in the history of the world when God must manifest His glory through His sons to save the planet. This must take place early in the Seventh Millennium. The counting of time by our calendar does not coincide with God’s calendar.
We know that the Jewish time was correct up to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ our Lord. This we know because it was the grand jubilee and Jesus Christ the Paschal Lamb was offered for the sins of humanity. According to God’s order, Jesus Christ’s coming marked the end of the Fourth Millennium and the beginning of the Fifth Millennium when the sun, the moon, and the stars were birthed and made (Genesis 1:14-2:2), thus signifying God’s work in birthing and bringing forth of the Messiah, the Church, and the sons of God in the earth, coming right up into the Sixth Millennium and the beginning of the Seventh Millennium, where we are now, when God will bring His work into perfection. We, however, must see first the birth of the beast and a long period of night through which the “beast” would reign.
What is the meaning of the word “beast” in Scripture? Man was made in the image of God and created to be in His Likeness—spirit, soul, and body. God’s plan is to come first into the spirit of man, then into his soul and from there into his body, thus living and moving in a man who was in the likeness of His Son, Jesus the Messiah. Man, however, has the power to prevent God from coming into his being. When this is done, an alien spirit will occupy the place where God should be. The thought patterns of such a man would change from human to be brutish, and likewise his emotions, desires, and will. Such a person the Scriptures refer to as “beast.”
The nature of the beast is more and more being manifested among the people. We see, for instance, children shooting children. In our time, we had fights, quarrels and rivalries, but never a shooting or a killing. In the whole world, there is this development of the beast nature in men. When Revelation 13:16 speaks of a mark in the “forehead,” in a sense it is describing the nature of Satan being marked upon the minds of the people.
Being now, at the beginning of the Seventh Millennium, we must see all that the Lord has promised come to pass. In Genesis 2:2, we read, “And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had made; and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had made.” There was a finishing work and then He rested. Verse 3, “And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it; because in it He had rested from all His work which God created and made.” The seventh day here is the Seventh Millennium, therefore, in this millennium God will have finished His work in making man His sons, in the likeness of Jesus Christ (Romans 8:29).
We are in the spiritual season of the coming forth of the sons, or what is called in scripture “the man child.” This will be the same event as the bridegroom going into the bridal chamber to consummate the marriage (Matthew 25:1-13) —Jesus Christ and the Church becoming one entity. Before this, we must see the beast, the false prophet, and the antichrist come into power in the world. We know that the antichrist is one who has a claim to Christianity and somehow is a part of the present church. The beast will be the world leader and we can see his kingdom being established in Europe with the seven heads and ten horns (seven kingdoms and ten rulers). The false prophet will be quite likely one of our charismatic miracle-working Pentecostal ministers.
Of course, there needs to be some clarification here. Satan has infiltrated the church system. This began very early in the early church when they were under severe persecution. A bishop who was well respected was arrested by the authorities and imprisoned. At that time there were bribes being given to free the different ministers, and the churches fed the spirit of corruption in order to get their leaders freed. The church also poured a lot of gifts upon this bishop while he was in prison so that he became very rich during his incarceration. He confessed that he was a fake and that he wanted just the money, so the authorities freed him and he left the church.
In these days, we are not so fortunate. Many false teachers and prophets are among us. Most of these people do not know that they are false, but God ordained that the Church should correct them.
A false prophet or false teacher is not one who makes a mistake in his teaching or prophecy, but one who prophesies from a false spirit. I once had a brother traveling with me who showed me a file of ten or more prophecies to him saying that he was an apostle, etc. He told me that at the meeting that night a certain brother would prophesy to him exactly what he had on the papers. At the meeting he had his eyes glued on to the brother and was concentrating on him so that he should bring forth this prophecy. Suddenly the brother stopped what he was saying, turned and pointed to him, and repeated almost verbatim what was on the paper he had shown me before. There was no possibility of his having told this brother before since we came directly into the meeting while it was in progress. This is a known occult practice, and it did not surprise me, except that this man was practicing the occult without knowing it. Prophecy is very close to divination. They are both spiritual action that involves a human being. If our hearing is impaired by uncleanness of any kind of sin, we will hear the devil and think it is God. By uncleanness, I mean desires, lusts, or evil speaking, etc. In 1 Kings 22, four hundred of the Lord’s prophets were hearing from evil spirits of prophecy and only one prophet (Micaiah) was hearing from the Lord. In another instance, when Elijah went to Carmel to wait for the Lord, there were three spiritual manifestations that preceded the Lord which were not God, but he was able to discern them all that they were not God. “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27).
This does not say that it is a sin to hear other voices, but we should not follow other voices, but only the voice of the Lord Jesus Christ. Many of our prophets today give wrong prophecies and refuse to repent when things turn out to be sometimes exactly opposite. Before the election which made Nixon President, a certain well known “prophet” prophesied that Nixon would be one of the greatest presidents of the United States, and that he would bring great blessings and revival to the nation and the church. He failed and brought much disgrace and disappointment to us.
As recently as the last general election, it was prophesied by another of our highly respected prophets that God showed him a newspaper the night before the election that President Clinton would win by a landslide, and that he had a tender heart and would bring great blessings to the church and revival to the nation. He did it with a landslide, but has brought more disgrace to this nation than any other president did. This brother should repent, but instead he goes on prophesying. A false spirit is ministering to him, and this is what the church should discern.
The church, however, is so fragmented, divided and full of sin that these men are not being corrected, but instead they are being lauded as “great.” With the experience I have acquired in over half a century in the church I have seen very much of false prophecies just as I have seen it work in the world. I knew a woman who was the head of a church who could tell me where I was yesterday when the hub cap on my car fell off at high speed, and when the thought flashed across my mind to go back to the place to see if I could find it, she quickly answered my mind and told me it ran off the road into the swamp. I have seen men of the devil wave their hands and knock people down to the ground, and they struggled and could not get up until he released them. I have seen a man who was a bishop and gay, who stood over his wife, and her tongue became heavy and she had no power to move until he released her. I have seen a gay man who was the bishop of a certain large Pentecostal church, whose vision was so accurate that he could prophesy to brethren and tell them what they were doing wrong and what sin was in their lives. Many trembled before him, for he was piercing right through them with his spiritual vision. One night, while he was doing his thing in the church, the Spirit of God descended upon the people as the praise seemed to touch heaven, and the Lord smote him so that he fell off the platform. He began to confess and told of all the men with whom he was involved. The whole church was riddled with homosexuality from the United States to the Islands.
Be not deceived by miracles, for God’s Word says that there would be devils sent forth into the earth to work miracles to deceive those who do not follow the Lord.
In closing let me say that this is the day of Preparation and God is calling to all the watchmen to trim their lamps, for we are not heading for the end but we are in the time of the end. May God richly bless you. Amen.
