Roughly 100 years before the coming of Christ, there was “all-out war between the Sadducees and Pharisees that lasted over eight years. Even after the war there were flair ups and sub-factions developed. Everyone claimed to be the rightful rulers (of Israel) and kept trying to assassinate the leaders of the other parties. The Dead Sea Scrolls say at this time “ALL OF ISRAEL WAS WALKING IN MADNESS.” (Ancient Mysteries of the Essenes: The Ken Johnson Collection)
There is a similar madness sweeping over the entire world right now.
Starting in 2020, from Covid 19, to race riots, to political drama, to now the insanity over the Israel/Palestine conflict. Riots have now broken out in Ireland over the stabbing of a mom and three kids by an Algerian immigrant. I’ll give you two guesses as to the official state religion of Algeria.
Famous UFC fighter and former two weight division champion Conor McGregor, a native and resident of Ireland, tweeted about the riots and stabbing, “Ireland, we are at war”. He was only stating the obvious, but is now under criminal investigation . . . for a tweet. Anti illegal immigration? Are you a racist Islamophobe? Well the legal systems are being used to wage war against political dissidents. The message to everyone is clear, you’d better fall in line and watch closely what you say. Big brother is watching, and he carries a big stick.
You see the same thing here in our own country. A reporter at the Jan 6th protest, who was actively trying to convince people to not enter the capital building and never stepped foot inside the capital building himself, is now in federal prison under solitary confinement. Madness and chaos.
Former president Donald Trump is facing 91 felony counts in four criminal cases. But there is nothing political about this, it’s about justice. And, yes, there was fraud found in the 2020 election, but it was deemed not enough to change the outcome. How can we be sure of this? Well, because they told us so. The United States political and legal systems have devolved into a banana republic indeed.
The largest defamation case in US history was recently prosecuted against an alternative news outlet for questioning the government narrative about a mass shooting (Article Here). Never mind the fact that if the government, along with our news media, didn’t lie and cover up real crimes committed by its own so consistently there would be no need for this type of alternative news. But 1.5 billion in defamation against an individual is tantamount to a political assassination, it isn’t about justice.
Elon Musk was recently interviewed on the Joe Rogan podcast about political corruption in America. He informed us about wealthy financiers of both our federal and local elected offices. He said, “He’s (George Soros) doing things that erode the fabric of civilization, getting DAs (District Attorneys) elected who refuse to prosecute crime. That’s part of the problem in San Francisco and LA and other cities.” “Once you get to city and state district attorneys, the value for money is extremely good,” Musk said. “Soros realized you don’t actually need to change the laws; you just need to change how they’re enforced.” (NY Post Article).
We are at war indeed. Once again, something is stirring in the spiritual realm, probably because those beings know something we don’t, but we should. And there are no laws in war, only victors. The victors get to decide who will be held accountable and which laws (those that benefit them) are enforced.
It was a similar atmosphere in the nation of Israel before the coming of the Messiah.
Some two hundred years before Jesus was to be born, the prophecies of Daniel were playing out in real time. There were evil things in the spirit that knew that God was making preparations to bring forth his plans and purposes, and those demonic powers were stirring men to do their bidding in opposition to those plans. An antichrist that Daniel warned about in Daniel chapters 8-11 was now on the scene, it was one of the bloodiest times in Israel’s history:
Ken Johnson, in his book “Ancient Mysteries of the Essenes” tells this story:
“Most of us remember Antiochus Epiphanes, who persecuted the Jews. He killed all those who refused to live a Grecian lifestyle. They could not study the Bible, practice circumcision, or do Jewish sacrifices. The Jerusalem temple was desolated with idols and Jews were forced to sacrifice to pagan gods or be put to death. The Zadok priests refused to obey, and the assassination of Zadok priests began.
The Zadok priests knew of the apostasy that was to come, and under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, took the temple library to Qumran. There the Lord protected them, and they prepared the hearts of the people for the coming of the Messiah. They did this as best as they could in the midst of a growing apostasy in the Sanhedrin, and in the Pharisee and Sadducee parties.
The Dead Sea Scrolls found in Qumran and its surrounding caves are the legacy of the Zadok priests with a complete history from their point of view.” (Essenes p. 316)
The Zadok priests were informed by the Holy Spirit to flee three years before Antiochus took the throne and began his bloody reign over the Jewish people. Those who believed the message and followed the priests were spared the time of trouble. During this time of chaos, a priest from the line of Zadok, Onias IV, read this prophesy from the book of Isaiah 19:
19 In that day there will be an altar to the Lord in the midst of the land of Egypt, and a pillar to the Lord at its border.
Based upon that prophecy and under the direction of the Holy Spirit, Onias and the other Zadok priests gathered the collection of writings from the library of the Jerusalem temple and fled to Egypt to build an alternate Jewish temple complete with a functioning sacrificial system. It was from there they were directed by their knowledge of scriptures and the leading of the Holy Spirit that their assignment was to wait on and prepare for God’s coming Messiah.
They rejected the apostate teachings of the other Jewish schools of thought, the equivalent of modern Christian denominations. The Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Zealots, among others. The Zadok priests separated themselves in remote areas to go into strict training in Godliness. They studied the scripture daily focusing largely on the study of prophecy to discern what God was doing in their day. A significant population of Jews gathered to them in Egypt to spiritually prepare for God to deliver on His soon coming promise of salvation.
The Zadok priests shepherded these communities of faithful Jews who were called the Essenes, which means “healer”. They instructed them in the scriptures and other writings they had preserved from Jewish antiquity in the Jerusalem temple library. After the threat of antichrist was removed, as a consequence of Rome having taken over and restoring order in Israel, many of these people were instructed to return and resettle the area know as Qumran situated just Northwest of the Dead Sea.
Before Jesus Christ was revealed, before any book of the New Testament was ever written, based upon their studies of both the Old Testament and other writings they possessed, here is the the knowledge that the Zadok priests were instructing to the Jewish people under their care:
“The Zadok priests interpreted the Old Testament by the writings of the Patriarchs, the lineage from Adam through Aaron, Moses’s brother. There was a collection of some forty testaments from these people. Currently, less than half of these still exist, and most are fragmented. But if we couple these together with the commentaries from the scrolls, they give us a good picture of what the Essenes believed. Here are a few of their teachings.”
One God exists as God the Father, the Messiah, and the Holy Spirit.
The Holy Spirit communicates with the Zadok prophets, not with the Sanhedrin. The Jewish government is to be judged by the prophets, not the other way around.
The Messiah would be born of a virgin.
The Messiah would come and die to reconcile us to God the Father.
The Messiah’s death creates a group of people called “the redeemed.”
The Messiah’s death would occur on Passover of AD 32 (the Pesach at the end of the first Shemittah after the ninth Jubilee of the eighth Onah of the Age of Torah). (That was correct, and that date can also be deduced via the prophecies of Daniel)
The destruction of Jerusalem would occur 40 years after that. (That was correct)
The Messiah would be killed by the Levitical priests, and because of this, the Levitical priesthood would be replaced by a Gentile priesthood.
The sign of God’s rejection of the Levitical priesthood would be when the veil in the Jerusalem temple would be ripped in half.
The Pentecost after the Messiah’s death would start the Age of Grace.
The Age of Grace has a New Covenant with a new set of Holy Books.
The New Testament would contain teachings from the Messiah, a history about the birth of the “Synagogue of the Gentiles,” a series of epistles from a Benjamite, and other books.
The Messiah would resurrect and ascend. The Messiah would return at the end of the Age of Grace and begin the Age of the Kingdom.
The Kingdom Age (the millennium) would last for one thousand years. (Ken Johnson, Mystery of the Essenes)
That list is shocking. Let that sink in. And while all of these prophecies came true, what is remarkable is that they got actual dates correct. These teachings have been preserved and documented in the Dead Sea Scrolls:
The Dead Sea Scrolls, also called the Qumran Caves Scrolls, are a set of ancient Jewish manuscripts from the Second Temple period. They were discovered over a period of 10 years, between 1946 and 1956, at the Qumran Caves near Ein Feshkha in the West Bank, on the northern shore of the Dead Sea. Dating from the 3rd century BCE to the 1st century CE, the Dead Sea Scrolls are considered to be a keystone in the history of archaeology with great historical, religious, and linguistic significance because they include the oldest surviving manuscripts of entire books later included in the biblical canons, along with extra-biblical and deuterocanonical manuscripts that preserve evidence of the diversity of religious thought in late Second Temple Judaism. (Wikipedia)
Now what is perhaps most remarkable about the discovery of these documents is that it occurred at the exact same time that the nation of Israel was being regathered to their own land after 2,000 years of exile.
That can’t be a coincidence.
Daniel 12:3 And those who are wise shall shine like the brightness of the sky above; and those who turn many to righteousness, like the stars forever and ever. 4 But you, Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book, until the time of the end.
Now at this point, you might be asking yourself, what does any of this have to do with Santa Claus, Frosty the Snowman, and Rudolph the red nosed reindeer?
Well, let’s see if we can connect the dots. When antichrist arose to persecute the Zadok priests where did God send them? And when antichrist arose during the birth of Jesus Christ in the person of Herod to kill all of the firstborn males under two years of age, where did God send Mary and Joseph?
Matthew 2:13 Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream and said, “Rise, take the child and his mother, and flee to Egypt, and remain there until I tell you, for Herod is about to search for the child, to destroy him.” 14 And he rose and took the child and his mother by night and departed to Egypt 15 and remained there until the death of Herod. This was to fulfill what the Lord had spoken by the prophet, “Out of Egypt I called my son.”
At the end of the day, there will be three fulfillments of that prophecy, two of which have already transpired. The original historic meaning, the Exodus of the Jewish people from Egypt. The first prophetic meaning, the first coming of Messiah as a refugee from Egypt. The last prophetic meaning, the second coming of Messiah recapitulating the Exodus from Egypt. The yet future fulfillment we will get to in Part 4 of this series. And then look at this passage:
Luke 2:46 After three days they found him in the temple courts, sitting among the teachers, listening to them and asking them questions. 47 Everyone who heard him was amazed at his understanding and his answers.
Friends Jesus wasn’t born wise, he had to grow and learn just like any other person. In order for him to learn, he had to have teachers who could provide him with good information:
Luke 2:52 And Jesus increased in wisdom and in stature and in favor with God and man.
God had sovereignly prepared a safe place for His newborn son by planting and cultivating faithful people in Egypt who studied the scriptures diligently and followed the Holy Spirit faithfully. People played a vital role in the plans and purposes of God coming to fruition. God has never worked alone.
God was even preparing Mary for the things she would witness and suffer:
Luke 2:34 And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary his mother, “Behold, this child is appointed for the fall and rising of many in Israel, and for a sign that is opposed 35 (and a sword will pierce through your own soul also), so that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed.”
There were even faithful people preaching the message to anyone who would listen:
Luke 2:36 And there was a prophetess, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher. She was advanced in years, having lived with her husband seven years from when she was a virgin, 37 and then as a widow until she was eighty-four. She did not depart from the temple, worshiping with fasting and prayer night and day. 38 And coming up at that very hour she began to give thanks to God and to speak of him to all who were waiting for the redemption of Jerusalem.
Both Simeon and Anna use phrases and ideas that are consistent with what the Essene communities documented in their writings. The Essenes were known to be 100 percent accurate in the prophecies they recorded. And as it pertains to us, this next prediction might be the most sobering of all. It is from one of the scrolls called “The Damascus Document”:
“the priests and Levites, the sons of Zadok, who kept the courses of My sanctuary when the children of Israel went astray from Me… they shall offer to Me the fat and the blood. (Ezekiel 44:15) The “priests” are the remnant of Israel who went forth out of the land of Judah, and the “Levites” are those who joined them. The “Sons of Zadok” are the chosen of Israel, called HaShem, WHOSE PRIESTHOOD REAPPEARS IN THE LAST DAYS.” (Damascus Document 7)
“We have thought it proper to relate these facts to our readers, how strange soever they be, and to declare what hath happened among us, because many of these Essenes have, by their excellent virtue, been thought worthy of this knowledge of Divine revelations.” (Josephus’ Antiquities 15.10.5)