Ancient Symbols and Prophetic Parables with Perry Stone (Part 1)

Welcome to Manifest, hosted by international evangelist, teacher and author Perry Stone. Enjoy unique insight into prophetic and practical truth. It's time to feast on fresh manna, so get ready to be blessed and encouraged. And now, here is your host and teacher, Perry Stone. Let me welcome each of you today to a very special DVD teaching that we're going to be talking about the ancient symbols and prophetic parables that relate to Christ's return. I think you're going to have fun today. You're going to enjoy this teaching. Hopefully, you're going to learn a lot. Luke chapter 12, verse 35 gives us a verse that Christ said, let your loins be girded about. Now, the loins, that's very interesting. We don't use that term today that much. And your lights burning. So when we read that verse, we see the word loins used in the King James translation. We see lights burning. We think of lights in the ceiling and flipping the switch on. Totally different in Christ's day. The reason I use that verse is because a lot of things can only be understood in the context of the Jewish culture of the time of Christ. And there are some stories in the Bible, especially in the parables, that only make sense in the context of the Roman time. For example, the use of a sickle, which we don't use today, and also a grinding stone where the Bible talks about grinding at the mill. Now, if you go to Israel on a tour, you can see some of these objects. Some of them are authentic. Some of them are replicas that are existed back in the time of Christ. So sometimes you have to understand the culture of certain objects of that day. Also, in studying the Bible, some words require a Greek word study if it's in the New Testament, because an English word translated in the New Testament 1611 translation, for example, can actually have two meanings with the same English word. The word power, for example, can be two to three or four different Greek words. Some words require a knowledge of history of the times. For example, when Jesus talked about being a white sepulcher full of dead men's bones, we don't use the word sepulcher today. We talk about a grave, a tomb or a monument. And we'll talk about that verse a little bit later on in Matthew 23, 27. So to understand where we're going with this is we have to understand the culture of the day. The first thing you have to understand about the culture of Christ's time is to understand that there were four main languages that were spoken in the time of Christ. You have the Hebrew, the Syriac Aramaic language. You have the Greek language and you also have the Latin language. Now, the Hebrew was spoken by the religious Jews, mostly in the area of Jerusalem. The Syriac Aramaic was spoken among the common people throughout Israel. Predominantly, that was very heavy in the Galilee area. The Greek was spoken among the Greeks in the Near East and the Latin was spoken by the Romans. It was the main language of the Roman Empire spoken by the Romans, mainly among the Roman citizens. Now, the three main cultural influences in Christ's day would be the Greek culture, which is called Hellenism or the Greek influence. And this came through under the conquering of Alexander the Great, who conquered the whole Middle East all the way to India and into Egypt. And so Hellenism, when you see that term, refers to Greek influence that existed even in the Roman time. You had the second cultural influence was the Roman government. Roman laws ruled the world. The Roman Republic held complete military control. And then also you have the Jews who were under Roman occupation. In other words, the land that we call Israel was under the occupation of Roman law and the Roman soldiers. And even the temple was under the control of Roman Roman leadership, Roman centurions, etc. They're also and this is important to understand that there are certain words or phrases in the New Testament that are only understood in a cultural setting. So the the Jews, for example, use very few symbols for fear of idolatry. For example, in the temple, you don't find faces. You don't find the heads of leaders. You find that they, for example, would not allow coins with Caesars on them into the temple area itself. So a lot of times the coins that were used for temple service either had pictures of the temple. This was I'm sorry, not that was the the revolt later pictures of geometric designs, pictures of trees, pictures of fruit, pictures of things of that nature. Because the Jews were afraid of something leading to idolatry. Now, the Romans, on the other hand, the Greeks had coins of their empresses and their emperors. So in that setting of the of the languages of the day, in that setting of the culture of the day, we are going to study the symbolism in the time of Christ. Now, a lot of symbolism can be found, for example, if you go to the city of Rome and you visit, which I have on two occasions and you go to what's called the Roman catacombs. Now, the catacombs were underground burial caves. They're about 40 miles long with just all sorts of tunnels. They have artwork in them. They have symbols in them. And when I say 40 miles long, I'm in total underground in all different directions. If you total of that and the a lot of the symbols are Christian symbols in the catacombs and they represent in some form or another Christ or the resurrection. What I'm going to do, I'm going to show you some of the symbols that are in the catacombs of Rome since we're talking about the Greek Roman culture of Jesus day. And I'm going to explain very briefly what those symbols represent. The first is called the good shepherd. Many times in the catacombs of Rome, you will have the emblem of a good shepherd, which is a shepherd holding a sheep on his shoulders or carrying a sheep. And that is for the reason for that is because of Psalms 23, for example, the Lord is my shepherd. He leads me through the valley of death. So the good shepherd emblem is a picture of Christ taking that believer through the shadow of death. Also, it's common to see from time to time the the painting of a dove on a catacomb. Now, the dove is represents in the in Matthew chapter three, verse 16, the Holy Spirit that descended in the form of a dove upon Christ. There was an early church father, Irenaeus, in the second century A.D. that used the dove. And he noticed that if you take the word dove in the Greek and you add the numerical value of dove, it is totals to 801. And he also noticed that the alpha and omega, which is the first and last letter of the Greek alphabet, if you take alpha and omega and total it up, it also total to 801. So the dove that came upon Christ represented Jesus being the alpha and the omega in the numerology of some of the early church fathers. A third symbol that's found in the catacombs is the Ark of Noah. And this is very simple because eight souls, according to Scripture, were saved out of the flood and the destruction that came upon the earth. And the eight souls began a new life after they came up out of the water. So this represented believers who would die to their old self in water baptism and be resurrected when they would come out of the waters of baptism. They would be resurrected to newness of life. So the Ark of Noah represented the death in the water and the resurrection of new life. But it also represented the believers who would be resurrected one day into a new life, into the kingdom of God. Just like the old world died and a new world came forth through Noah, the old world will one day die. And according to John and Revelation, there'll be a new heaven and a new earth. And this is the reason why the the Ark is seen in that emblem in many of the catacombs. A fourth emblem which is found in the catacombs is the whale of Jonah. And this is very simply explained because in Matthew, chapter 12, verse 40, Christ said, as Jonah was three days and nights in the belly of the fish, the belly of the whale. So the son of man must be three days and nights in the heart of the earth. So this, again, represented Christ and his resurrection. So when a believer would die many times, they would paint an image of a whale to simplify how that Christ came back from the dead after he was crucified and buried and they came back from the dead. And so believers would one day, if they trusted in Christ, would also be resurrected back from the dead. Now, a very strange emblem. I remember the first time I went to Rome and I went to the catacombs. One of the very strangest emblems that I saw appeared to be a swastika. And the priest that was with us, I said, well, that's a swastika. He said, well, this swastika is inverted in a different direction. When Hitler took this emblem, he turned the stem in the opposite direction. Now, this is very interesting because most people don't know this. This emblem of what we today call the swastika was actually used in the Greek and Roman Empire to mean life of life or it actually meant eternity. Now, later on in the Christian faith, this emblem was never used because there were other religions throughout the world that was using the same emblem to represent life or represent reincarnation. So the Christians eventually never used this emblem. Of course, this emblem should never be used today because it's very offensive today. And because Hitler used it and many false religions used it, you won't find that in connection at all or should never, I should say, find that in connection at all with Christians or with Christianity. But it is an emblem that oddly enough appears in some of the large tombs and catacombs of believers in the late, late first, second century in the catacombs of Rome. Now, in line with this, the early Christians also had symbols and these symbols are very, very important. I'm going to give you at least four symbols that were found in the time of the early church. Also, up into the first, second and third century, late, late, late third century into the fourth century, actually. And several of these emblems, one of them in particular, continues to be the emblem of Christianity. And we're talking about symbols that were used in the Greek and Roman time, especially the Roman time, the Roman period during the Roman Empire. And the first is called the Ictus. And the Ictus is very common even today. It's the fish. And in the fish, if you've ever noticed the emblem of the fish, the Ictus, you'll know that that there is the I-C-H-T-U-S represents. It's an acronym for Jesus Christ, son of God, savior, Jesus Christ, son of God and savior. And according to Clement of Alexander, who somewhere around 150 A.D., he wrote this, that these the fish with the Ictus with those letters on the inside that in Greek represent Jesus, the son of God. Let me get specific. Jesus Christ, son of God, savior was a seal that was used in the early church. So, in other words, this emblem was quite known in the second century, third century into the fourth century. And it's still used today by Christians around the world to represent Jesus Christ. And, of course, that's based on somebody's tradition. Number two, and this is a very common emblem. This is one of the most common emblems was the cross. Now, the second century cross was probably a T-shaped cross and Clement of Alexander, who was an early father, called it the Lord's sign. So there are different types of crosses that have been used throughout the centuries, different shapes. You have the Byzantine cross, you have the St. Andrew's cross, you have they're given different names, St. Peter's cross, you have the Roman cross. And so the crosses that we have today that people wear date back to that time frame, which was a symbol of Christ himself, of Christianity, but also a symbol of the Lord's crucifixion. Now, another emblem, and this emblem was available at one time on a stone in Jerusalem. And I hate this happened. Somebody came along and erased that emblem on the southern steps of the Temple Mount. It is a stone that had a beautiful carving with the Alpha and Omega emblem. You see the Alpha on the left side there of that symbol and the Omega symbol on the right side with the cross in the middle. And, of course, this is from the statement of Jesus in Revelation 1, verse 8, Revelation 21, 6, where he said, I am the Alpha and the Omega. The Alpha is the first letter of the Greek alphabet. The Omega is the last letter of the Greek alphabet. And it represents Christ being the beginning and Christ being the end. Actually, it represents, you know, we know that Christ was with the father, had no beginning. He will never have an ending. But it represents, I am the start of this and I will finish this. He's the author. That's the Alpha and the finisher. That's the Omega of our faith, Alpha and Omega. And then we have the two Greek letters, which, again, were very famous, called the Cairo, which it's two letters in Greek. And when they're superimposed in this emblem, it forms a monogram for Christ. The letters of the name of Christ, the first two letters of the name of Christ. So these emblems were very, very known in the Roman period. They were known, let's say, the first century, late first century, second century, third century, fourth century. And a lot of these emblems, if you go, for example, to the Orthodox Church, you may see the Cairo emblem in certain things there. You may see the fish emblem there, but you will definitely see the cross all over the world. So anytime you see the cross, especially the Roman type of cross, it is a type of a picture of Christianity. There's another emblem that was found that I need to tell you about. And it's called the Messianic seal of the early church. In 1963, in a desert, an Arab found a silver artifact that had on it the oil of the spirit. Now, later, there was a grotto on Mount Zion and I have been there. In fact, I was the only guy that probably ever took pictures of the inside of it, according to the gentleman who did the research on this. There was a grotto in which a monk by the name of Tico Theos in 1969 was excavating the area. And Ludwig Schneider, who later met him, was given eight pieces of this pottery. And it was publicized in Israel Today magazine. And Teak found 40 pieces of pottery. And it had a very strange symbol on the side. And the symbol appeared to be a Jewish menorah and the Ichthys, which is the fish. And when you take the base of the menorah and you take the tail of the fish, it appears to form a star of David. And you can see on the bottom left screen there on that big rock, probably the best picture there that has that on it. And this became an emblem of the Jews represented by the menorah and the Gentiles represented by the fish becoming one new man in Christ. Now, it's real interesting that the star of David, which appears it looks like that's the star of David where the tail of the fish and the base of the menorah intersect, actually would one day become the emblem of the nation of Israel. And so this was found after the 1967 Six Day War, again in 1969, when Jerusalem was reunited as the capital of Israel. And today we see the Jews and the Gentiles coming together. Many of the Messianic Jews coming together with Gentile believers under Jesus Christ. And again, that's it's not the star of David, but it looks like the star of David is joining the two together. So it's a very, very famous emblem. We put it on television under God's news behind the news, went to the grotto, put the pictures on TV. And I mean to tell you, it became very, very famous. It became popular. And of course, 40 pieces of pottery. There were the eight pieces that Ludwig Schneider was given that he kept in a vault. And that is the emblem that has now become people wear the jewelry. We actually at Voice of Evangelism have a lot of jewelry made in that emblem. And it's a great conversation piece as well. So it again represents in the interesting that that that emblem was probably in the second, third century church. And it was it was found again after the 67 war when Jerusalem was united together and the barriers are torn down, becoming one city. And today we talk about the Jews and the Gentiles coming together as one new man. It's interesting, I think, that that was found right after Jerusalem was united as the capital. I almost think it's prophetic if I can if I can say that that's my opinion. Now, in the Bible, there were two. There are some words that and even objects that are mentioned in the Bible that we don't understand in the West because of the Greek and Roman culture. Christ first appearing reveals some of these. Let's talk about these before we get into the prophetic. I want to have some fun here with you and show you some things. Let's read this verse. This is about the birth of Jesus. Mary brought forth her firstborn son, wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger because there was no room for them in the end. Now, I want to keep on the word in that verse that laid him in a manger. Now, in our Christmas plays, a manger is a bar is basically either a box made out of wood or it's two pieces of wood that form a V shape and they put the straw in it, lay a plastic baby Jesus in it. But in the time of Jesus, a manger was actually made out of stone and it's carved out of limestone. And it's about three foot high, two and a half feet long, where the where the cut long ten about 10 inches deep. And, of course, that can vary cut out of limestone rock. Now, the area where Jesus was born traditionally is the Church of Nativity in Bethlehem. And they have a marble floor there that people visit the Church of Nativity. And they say this is the grotto, the cave where Mary had Jesus and where he was laid. But the in Israel, though, there are pictures of the mangers that are found. One of them is in Megiddo. There's a picture of Megiddo of an actual manger and it's made out of stone. Again, you can see it there and you see the little opening there and it would be big enough to lay a baby in. So that is an actual manger. So here again, if we read manger in English, it is a whole different thing when we see it in the Middle East. And, of course, that one would date back to pre-Roman or Roman time, perhaps. Then we have another verse that she took him and wrapped him in swaddling clothes when she laid him in the manger. Now birth, a baby was washed and rubbed in salt and pieces of cloth were wrapped around the infant. They would take a large square piece and put the body in it and wrap that and then take strips to hold it together. And this is interesting because there is a picture of what swaddling clothes would have looked like when Mary wrapped up Jesus. But what is interesting is that this was a sign that one day his body would be washed. Remember, after his crucifixion, they came and washed the body. They put spices on the body and then they took a shroud and covered it up and they would have taken pieces of cloth just like that picture. And they would have tied that shroud up with the body of Jesus in it. So it's a beautiful picture that the Lamb of God that was born in Bethlehem, where the lambs are born, that will be sacrificed for the temple one day for the lamb in the morning and the lamb in the evening and for Passover, that this beautiful Lamb of God would one day be born. And he was born, they say he was born in a stable. Why is that significant? Because all sacrifices were born, little animals were born in stables. And here was Jesus was wrapped in swaddling clothes, a picture of one day him being wrapped in that tomb. But thank God he did not stay. He was resurrected from the dead. It's interesting because they stayed in the stable. Some people say, boy, that's so bad. And it was it was cold in the winter. But Jesus was probably conceived around the time of Hanukkah, which would be December, born around tabernacles. And so really, a lot of the Jewish people back in that day that celebrated tabernacles would have to stay outside. So it may have been Jesus may have been born at that time and staying in a stable, which would have been the fall months would not have been that bad because it says the word was made flesh and dwelt among us. That means tabernacled among us there in John. It's just a little note to add that might interest you. Now, let's talk about another object in the time of Christ. This we're going to read the scripture. Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees. Beautiful outward, beautiful outwardly, but are are within full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness. Now, what is a whited sepulcher? This is very interesting. We in the West bury our family members or loved ones six foot under in a wooden coffin or a metal coffin. Then they place the dirt over top of them. In the time of Jesus, however, the graves were caves. They were cut into limestone rock. And then inside the limestone rock, there were niches. And when the person died, they would take the body and wrap it up the way that you read about the body of Jesus there in John's gospel. And they would lay the body inside of that niche. And later on, after the person deteriorated, they would come back a year later and they would undo the cloth and they would take the bones apart and they would take the bones and put what's called an ossuary. Now, they're an ossuary. Now, at the tombs of Bethlehem, there are large ossuary. This is in Israel that have the names of the individuals carved on them. So you see these big they call them bone boxes, these big bone boxes. And they would lay the bones inside of there and put a real heavy stone on top. And this was to prevent the grave robbers from coming in, because a lot of times people back then were buried with their some of their wealth, some of their gold, silver, pottery, things of that nature that were favorite to them. So in Jesus time, remember that the sepulchers were caves and they were all white limestone. Even when Jesus died, you can read where Peter had to stoop down to get inside the tomb to see where the body had laid. And that's because the openings were not that large and they would take a big round stone. They would cover the entrance. So we we noticed that. And let me just add this talking about the crucifixion of Jesus that in in 1991, we were in Israel and they a bulldozer hit a burial site and we later found out it was the the family tomb of the Caiaphas family, Caiaphas, who was the high priest back in the time of Jesus. I wish I'd have gotten out and taken pictures because that would have been pretty, pretty. They stopped the bus because of this tomb. Also, at the Israeli Museum, they found. Let me say we reward that they have it on display at the Israeli Museum. They found the heel of a crucified man again when they were digging a road and it was an ossuary. And look at that. That is the nail that bent when it went into the cross, probably hit a knot and it bent the nail and they couldn't get the nail out. So they cut the man's ankle off and with their pieces of wood on either side that were there as well. And that is the evidence of Roman crucifixion. We don't know the exact date on that. They estimate the exact date on that. But I think it's very interesting. And so a white a sepulcher is a tomb where they put dead people. So this is the reason Jesus said you're a white a sepulcher full of dead men's bones. And once again, we're showing you objects from the Roman time and how we don't understand them in the West. And we need to have an understanding of these things as we later understand by prophecy. Now available is Perry Stone's latest DVD series, The Antichrist, His Confederacy and the World's Final Eighth Empire. This new eight hour expanded and detailed DVD teaching will explain the empire that will seize the world in the future. This teaching will unlock the final mystery of the Antichrist. In this series, Perry will explain where the theory of the Antichrist originates in Scripture, what the prophets, Christ and the apostles taught about the Antichrist, the early father's teachings about the Antichrist, the men in history who were candidates for the Antichrist, the major prophecies concerning the Antichrist kingdom and his ten kings, the role Islam has in the future eighth kingdom. Discover the area the Antichrist comes from, where he rules and what he will do. Learn details of the mark and image of the beast and global economic control. You will also discover numerous prophetic insights seldom known that are now revealed. This study will answer hundreds of your questions. It also includes word studies, amazing history and combines Old and New Testament prophecies to give a clear understanding of this subject. These four DVDs, approximately eight hours of teaching, has numerous pictures and charts. This DVD series is manifest offer AK139 and is available for a gift of just $65 or more. To order, visit perrystone.org or call toll free 1-888-21-BREAD. That's 1-888-212-7323. You may also write to us and send a check or money order to Perrystone Ministries, and request offer number AK139. This offer is available on television for a limited time, so we look forward to hearing from you soon. I hope you enjoyed this. This is going to be a great series now on the parables, and I hope you haven't missed any of them. Don't forget, this Antichrist DVD series took me years to put together. I did all the study so that you wouldn't have to go digging through and reading 25 books, things of that nature. And you've got to get this. I believe this man is alive somewhere on the planet. He has to be revealed in his time according to the prophetic scriptures. But please get this as soon as possible. Now, give me your attention. I'm looking forward to the summit, prophetic summit. I'm looking forward to Warrior Fest. These, of course, are already filling up. I am coming, now pay attention to this, to Evangelical World Prayer Center, July 15th through the 18th. This is Bob Rogers Church on Biltown Road for a major conference. I've not been there in two years. All you folks been writing me saying, coming back, I'm expecting to see you there, okay? Then we're going back to Texas at Family Faith Church on the Willis Campus, Friday, August the 13th and Saturday the 14th. And then on the 15th, we're coming to Family Faith Church at the Huntsville Campus. I'm so looking forward to being with my friends there again. Now, we're coming also back, we haven't been there in a while, to Christ Temple Church in Huntington, West Virginia on the 27th, 28th and 29th. Now, that'll be a Friday night, two services on Saturday, several services on Sunday. Again, Christ Temple. Now, we've had so many of you writing us, Perry, please come back to our area. So we wanted to select some of our precious pastor friends that we love them and they love our ministry and our family and our wonderful friends and partners and come back and minister to you. I'm coming with the fresh word. You need to know that. I'm not coming in there with just half-baked bread. We're going to minister the Word of God to you in a powerful way. I do want to remind you that live within an hour radius of Cleveland, Tennessee, that once a month on Tuesday night, and you can go to our website at perrystone.org for the information. I preach at Ramp Cleveland at the Omega Center International. Also, the last Sunday night of every month, 3.30 to 5 o'clock, last Sunday of every month, ISO, International School of the Word, I'm ministering there on the Awaken America Conference. And on the next program, I'll be sharing with you something very special that has just opened up that I want to tell you about that we're excited about. So we'll see you next week on the Manifest Telecast. Perry Stone invites you to join him June 24th through 27th at Omega Center International in Cleveland, Tennessee for the 2021 Prophetic Summit. Come hear uncensored and urgent prophetic messages from Bill Cloud, Joel Richardson, Mark Biltz, and Perry Stone. Seating is limited, so register today. Go to perrystone.org for more information. Don't miss this incredible opportunity to be a part of the most significant prophecy event of the year. The 2021 Prophetic Summit. We'll see you there.