This is a continuation of the word on "the days of Venus" posted earlier...

Salford and sons

As we mentioned before, Jeremiah Horrocks' friend William Crabtree watched the 2nd Transit of Venus in 1639 from Salford, near Manchester, England. As we said before, the English football ("soccer") team "Manchester United" are a figure of the spiritual connection between the UK and America. Therefore, we can say that, while Jeremiah Horrocks is a figure of the UK, William Crabtree is a figure of the US. The UK and the US have been designed by God to act as a 2-witness tandem who will propel God's Glory across the entire globe. The spiritual connection between these two nations has been evident in the past, and it shall be evident again in these latter days.

One of the most famous "sons of Salford" is Alistair Cooke, who was born there on November 20, 1908. According to wikipedia.org, he was born "Alfred Cooke", but officially changed his name to "Alistair" at age 22. In October 1934, Cooke became a film critic for the BBC, and he was also London correspondent for the American broadcasting network NBC, for whom he recorded a weekly 15-minute talk called the "London Letter", a program intended to give Americans an insight into British life.

He eventually made a permanent emigration to the United States in 1937, becoming an American citizen in 1941. Shortly before the outbreak of World War 2 in 1939, he began to air a "reverse version" of the "London letter", a 15-minute talk called "Mainly about Manhattan", which was intended to give the British an insight into American life. This program was interrupted due to World War 2, during which time he broadcast a weekly program for the BBC called "American Commentary", with comments on the war. After the war, the "reverse London letter" resurfaced under the name "American Letter" (renamed "Letter from America" in 1950), a program for the BBC that was initially confirmed for only 13 installments. It ended up airing 2869 installments over a span of 58 years, finishing its run on March 2, 2004, 98 days prior to the 2004 Transit of Venus. Alistair Cooke died 28 days later at age 95, on March 30, 2004, 70 days before the 2004 Transit.

For some 25 years, between 1947 and 1972, Alistair Cooke was a foreign correspondent for the UK's "Manchester Guardian". He became a "pop culture icon", however, as the presenter of "Masterpiece Theatre", a program aired on America's PBS television network; this program gave the American public an access to quality British television. He was its presenter for 22 years, between 1971 and 1992. In 1973, he did a 13-part television series called "Alistair Cooke's America", which was followed by a book of the same title. It was a great success in both Britain and America, and it became the work Alistair Cooke would be proudest of. It was a reflection of his long love for America.

Less than a year ago, on December 22, 2005, the "New York Daily News" reported that Cooke's bones (along with the bones of others) had been surgically removed by bodysnatchers who allegedly wanted to sell the bones for use in dental and bone implants.

As you may have noticed, Alistair Cooke served as a bridge connecting American and British cultures. Therefore, he is a figure of the spiritual connection between the UK and the US. Thus, it is no coincidence that he was born in Salford, the town from which William Crabtree watched the 1639 Transit of Venus. It is no coincidence, either, that the 2004 Transit happened a mere 98 days after the end of his long broadcasting and journalistic career, and a mere 70 days after his death.

In a deep sense, Alistair Cooke represented the spiritual impartation from Britain to America, which happened when British settlers landed on the shores of America, and he also represented the reverse spiritual impartation which God had intended, from America back to Britain. However, the fact that he did not live to see the Transit (despite living 95+ years) is a figure of how America "botched up" that reverse transition due to its stubbornness. The number "98" mentioned above points to the following passage:

Despite God's explicit warnings, Eli the judge was unwilling to judge the blatant unrighteousness of his two "precious babies", Hophni and Phinehas, who committed atrocities before the eyes of God and Israel (1 Samuel 2:22-25, 27-36). In the same way, America was unwilling to judge the Latin American unrighteousness within her ("Hophni"), and was also unwilling to judge the unrighteousness of "Southern Cain" ("Phinehas"). Because of this, America's revival was delayed 4 years, a period during which she will remain in spiritual stagnation as Europe's calling begins to blossom. America had been called to give the UK and Europe a full-blown impartation that would have saved Europe from unnecessary effort and travail. However, America dropped the ball, forcing the UK and Europe to go through a process that was harder than what God had originally intended. This is the reason why Alistair Cooke did not get to see the 2004 Transit of Venus from his apartment in Manhattan, New York. The scheduled epicenter of a massive and global spiritual breakout --- New York --- ignorantly passed up on God's calling. The American Eli was too busy shielding "L.A. Hophni" and "Bible Belt & Heartland Phinehas" from God's full judgments. Therefore, just as Eli died at age 98, Alistair Cooke was forced to die 98 days before the 2004 Transit.

The fact that Alistair Cooke died 70 days before the 2004 Transit points to the following passage:

"²⁵And the LORD came down in a cloud, and spake unto him, and took of the spirit that was upon him, and gave it unto the seventy elders: and it came to pass, that, when the spirit rested upon them, they prophesied, and did not cease. ²⁶But there remained two of the men in the camp, the name of the one was Eldad, and the name of the other Medad: and the spirit rested upon them; and they were of them that were written, but went not out unto the tabernacle: and they prophesied in the camp. ²⁷And there ran a young man, and told Moses, and said, Eldad and Medad do prophesy in the camp. ²⁸And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of Moses, one of his young men, answered and said, My lord Moses, forbid them. ²⁹And Moses said unto him, Enviest thou for my sake? would God that all the LORD’S people were prophets, and that the LORD would put his spirit upon them!" (Numbers 11:25-29)

[As we have mentioned before, the phrase "did not cease" is a mistranslation of the original Hebrew text, which actually says, "... they prophesied, but did not anymore", meaning that the 70 elders only received a temporary and limited impartation, enough to perform earthly chores, but not enough to truly operate in the prophetic.]

As we have studied before, this passage speaks of how the Israelites stayed under an Old Covenant of permanent intermediaries due to the hardness of their hearts. In the same way, the American Church chose to stay under the system of Old-Covenant hierarchies, thereby denying God's New Covenant in which all believers are kings and priests and in which all believers have a direct prophetic relationship with God. Notice how Eldad and Medad received an impartation of the Spirit of God, even when they were not among the 70 "appointed ones". This is a figure of the 2-witness believers who choose to operate in the New Covenant, even when the rest of the Church deems them "unworthy" or "not chosen" for such a "privilege". It is through the Eldad and Medad believers that the Ark of the New Covenant shall be revealed unto all (Revelation 11:19).

Alistair Cooke changed his name from "Alfred" to "Alistair" at age 22. As we have said before, the number "22" points to the spiritual civil war that God has declared over America, as He has drawn a spiritual line that divides America between "east" and "west". As described on wikipedia.org, the title "Kingdom of England" was first adopted by "Alfred the Great" who ruled between 871 and 899. Even though there had been a certain degree of "united rule" in Britannia before then, Alfred the Great represents the first official integration of all the English under one rule. Therefore, the name "Alfred" in this context speaks of "integration". Thus, it is interesting that Alistair Cooke chose to shed his "unifying" name of "Alfred" at age 22, since the number "22" speaks of "internal division" and "civil war".

According to a names-meaning website, the name "Alistair" is a Scottish variation of the Greek name "Alexander", which means "defender of men". As we have said before, the Scots have a strong impartation of the independent black horse, for which reason they fought for centuries against the English to preserve their autonomy. Therefore, the name "Alistair" speaks of believers who choose to separate themselves from abhorrent structures in order to receive a direct impartation from God Himself in the lonely wilderness outside. As black-horse riders, believers become heralds of an individual relationship with God, and they become vicious enemies of those who want to keep believers under "Egyptian bondage", launching invisible judgments into the faraway structures they left behind. In that sense, black-horse riders are "defenders of men"; they are "Scottish" believers who champion the restoration of individual relationship with God.

As we have said before, December 22, 2005 was the final date of America's 3rd testing period, and it was the last day of a 3-day mass-transit strike in New York. Therefore, it is no spiritual coincidence that the story about Alistair Cooke's bones came out on the "New York Daily News" on that very date. This correlates with what happened to Elisha's and Anthony Wayne's bones. Therefore, Alistair Cooke is a figure of those who died without seeing the fulfillment of the promise, not on account of their own disobedience, but on account of other people's negligent reluctance to push forward. New York and America passed up on their opportunity to welcome God's visitation in 2005, a visitation that would have led to a 7-year process of life that would have culminated in a massive impartation of God's Glory from America to the UK and to all of the world. America shall still be used, but not in the massive role that was originally assigned to it, and she shall suffer through a pelleting of judgments from God until she comes to her senses. The heat is on, America, because you asked for it!

From all of the above, we can say that, when Alistair Cooke chose to change his name from "Alfred" to "Alistair" at age 22, it was a prophetic figure of someone who has made a definite decision to utterly reject human structures and who has drawn a line of unequivocal separation between those who want to remain under the Old Covenant of ministerial dependency and those who want to enter into a direct New-Covenant relationship with God. Once that line is drawn, the stage is set for God's green-horse judgments to come and destroy the Korah followers who have chosen to stand on the wrong side of the line:

According to wikipedia.org, the name of Alistair Cooke's birth-town and William Crabtree's hometown --- "Salford" --- literally means "sallow-tree ford". According to Webster's Dictionary, a sallow tree is a small tree of the willow type. The first time willows are mentioned in Scripture is in verse 40 of the following passage:

In this passage, the Lord is decreeing the last of the 7 Israelite feasts, the "Feast of Succoth", also known as the "Feast of Tabernacles". In this feast, the people of Israel were to remember that God had taken them out of Egypt in order to dwell in "booths" (i.e.- tabernacles). In other words, God wanted the people of Israel to understand that He took them out of man-made structures in order to forge an individual relationship with them in the wilderness, under tents or "coverings" that may have seemed "informal" to the Egyptians, but which were the only covering under which God's Uncontainable Glory could dwell, for He wants us to see Him as our invisible covering, instead of seeing earthly man as our visible covering (Revelation 21:22-23, 2 Corinthians 5:1-5). In these latter days, the New-Covenant Tabernacle of David shall be restored (Amos 9:11), for God's 2-witness harbingers of the Ark, the "Venus messengers", are here.

The fact that the name "Salford" (i.e.- "sallow-tree ford") makes a reference to "fords" also has spiritual significance. It was at the "ford Jabbok" that Jacob made an uncompromising and unswerving decision to seek after the Melchizedek blessing of God, rejecting the methods and the "scheming devices" of man, even if it meant shedding his entire life. This is the spiritual reason why the name "Jabbok" means "emptying". "Salford", therefore, speaks of believers willing to shed themselves completely, emptying themselves out in green-horse sacrifice so that God's Glory may be unleashed on Earth.

According to Webster's Dictionary, the word "sallow" can also refer to a pale, sickly, yellow color. As we have said before, the color yellow is obtained on computer screens by combining the colors red and green at 100% intensity. Therefore, the color "yellow" is a figure of green-horse riders who manifest a red exterior of earthly weakness that serves as "vulnerable bait" for Korah, who is then drawn to the green-horse rider in order to kill him or her. That is the prophetic reason why the word "sallow" refers to a "pale, sickly" yellow color, meaning that it speaks of a bright yellow color that is dying and fading away. As we have said before, Korah seals his own doom when he touches and kills God's vulnerable "yellow flowers", for he ends up unleashing the full intensity of God's red wrath, a wrath that is empowered by God's green eternity.

As we said at the top of this section, William Crabtree saw the 1639 Transit from Salford, his hometown. The last name "Crabtree" refers to "crab apple trees". According to wikipedia.org, crab apples are a special type of apple that derives its "crabby" name from the fact that it is "small and sour". Because of their sour taste, they are rarely eaten raw. However, if they are stewed and the pulp is strained and mixed with an equal volume of sugar, and then boiled, their juice can be turned into a delicious tasting jelly with a dark-red color. Crab apples are mostly red, but some happen to be yellow. Crab apples, therefore, are a figure of believers who have gone through the stages of each horse of the Apocalypse:

1. Their red color along with their smallness and unpleasant sour taste point to red-horse believers who are "small" and unpleasant pestilences whose teachings express a "sour disposition" towards the status quo.

2. The "stewing" and "pulp straining" point to the black-horse stage in which believers are exposed to the heat of God's judgments in the wilderness and are purified unto righteousness. As this righteousness is forged, a cloud of God's grace begins to hover around the believer, which correlates with the "sugar" that is added after the stewing and pulp straining.

3. The "boiling" that is done at the end points to the green-horse stage in which believers are consumed like a burnt offering. Despite the grace (i.e.- "sugar") received in the black-horse wilderness, true green-horse believers are willing to surrender their claim to that grace and shed their lives in sacrifice, which lifts up a pleasant aroma unto God, just as the crab apple juice does as it is being boiled into jelly. They are willing to be consumed, just like the water that boils up from the crab apple juice, thereby forming a "cloud of witnesses":

The word "witnesses" in verse 12:1 above was translated from the Greek noun martys, from which we get the English word "martyr". This is no coincidence. As shown by the passage above, Scripture makes a strong connection between "witnesses" and those who are willing to shed their lives in sacrifice for abiding in the truth. In other words, to "testify" or to "give testimony" is equivalent to giving up one's own life for the sake of Truth (Revelation 12:11).

The phrase "compassed about" in verse 12:1 above was translated from the Greek verb perikeimai, which literally means "to lie around", and is derived from the verb keimai, which is used in various passages to speak of dead bodies lying in their burial place (John 11:41, John 20:12), and, on other occasions, it is used to speak of foundations being laid (1 Corinthians 3:11, 1 John 5:19) or of things laid on the ground (John 2:6). Therefore, the word perikeimai has the connotation of things lying below us, surrounding us. Thus, the "cloud of witnesses" which is above us is a result of the "dead bodies" of witnesses that are lying below and around us.

The word "cloud" in verse 12:1 above was translated from the Greek noun nephos, which only appears once in the New Testament. The word normally used for "cloud" throughout the New Testament is the word nephele, which appears 26 (=2*13) times in 22 different verses. Even though the 2 words are very similar, there is a subtle difference between them. While the word nephele refers to well-defined masses of vapor, the word nephos used in Hebrews 12:1 speaks of a great, shapeless collection of vapor obscuring the heavens. In that sense, therefore, we have a shapeless "haze" of vapor hovering around us, waiting for the full manifestation of all things. When that happens, that nephos haze shall turn into a well-defined nephele cloud, the cloud from out of which the Son of Man shall manifest Himself to all the Earth (Matthew 24:30). As we have said before, that nephele cloud is not a literal cloud in the sky, and the "manifestation of the Son of Man" does not refer to a literal, biological, historical Jesus physically reappearing like a Godzilla-type giant in the skies. The world shall indeed be surprised when Yeshua returns, for they will not behold a literal giant appearing in the sky, and they will not behold a literal Jesus giving press conferences from a Jerusalem version of "10 Downing Street" or the "White House"; despite this, they will know that "Yeshua is here indeed", and they shall recognize that He is indeed the King over all the Earth.

On November 9, 2005, the ESA (European Space Agency) launched the "Venus Express", a space probe headed for Venus to study that planet. According to www.esa.int, it reached Venus after a 400-million-kilometer trip, and it began orbiting around Venus on April 11, 2006, 153 days after takeoff from Earth. It descended into its final operational orbit 26 days later, on May 7, 2006, 179 days after takeoff. According to www.esa.int, it is scheduled to study Venus for at least 2 Venusian days (486 Earth days).

According to www.esa.int, the Venus Express project is a virtual twin sister of the Mars Express spacecraft, which was also launched by the ESA and has been orbiting around Mars ever since December 2003. In order to build the Venus Express, the ESA reused the architecture that had already been developed for the Mars Express, which reduced manufacturing cycles and halved the mission's cost. The Venus Express project was approved in late 2002, but it was launched a mere 3 years later due to the advantages of using knowledge accumulated from the Mars Express project. The approach to Venus involved considerations that had not been necessary for the approach to Mars, due to the fact that Venus has 7.6 times more mass than Mars, which makes its gravitational pull much stronger. Venus's closer proximity to the sun and Venus's reflection of sunlight also had to be considered in order to prevent the Venus Express from overheating.

According to wikipedia.org, the launch window for Venus Express was between October 26 and November 23, 2005. The launch was first scheduled for October 26 at 4:43 UT, but problems with the insulation led to a 2-week launch delay, leading to the eventual launch on November 9, 2005.

According to the director of the ESA's science programs, David Southwood, Venus and the Earth "must have been very similar planets", so one of the purposes of the Venus Express was to understand why Venus and the Earth "diverged to the point that one became a cradle for life while the other developed into a hostile environment".

There have been some 20 American and Soviet missions to Venus since 1962. Venus Express will try to answer many of the questions raised and left unanswered by previous missions. In a sense, the Venus Express is out to expose secrets about Venus that have remained hidden for ages.

The Venus Express has 7 instruments onboard; 5 of them are from previous missions: 3 from Mars Express and 2 from "comet-chaser" Rosetta. By the way, comet-chaser Rosetta was launched by the ESA on March 2, 2004 (according to sci.esa.int), while Mars Express was launched on June 2, 2003, exactly 9 months earlier (according to sci.esa.int). "Coincidentally", Rosetta was launched on the very day that Alistair Cooke's "American Letter" last aired.

On June 27, 2006, the ESA announced an interesting finding (posted on www.esa.int). Based on the data gathered by Venus Express during its first orbit around the planet, it was confirmed for the first time that there is a huge "double-eye" atmospheric vortex at the planet's south pole. As shown by a photo posted on www.esa.int, this vortex has the shape of the symbol used in mathematics to represent "infinity" (∞). Scientists are still at a loss to explain the reasons for this south-pole double vortex, which is somehow created by the incredibly fast winds that circle around Venus's upper atmosphere, speeding around the entire planet in just 4 Earth days.

Venus's atmosphere is very "cloudy". The Venusian cloud deck is known to be about 20 kilometers (some 13 miles) thick, and it extends up to about 65 kilometers (some 41 miles) over the planet's surface. Venus Express discovered that, on the night side of Venus, the cloud deck actually extends up to 90 kilometers (some 56 miles) in the form of a "fully opaque haze", and it goes up to 105 kilometers (some 66 miles) in the form of a "more transparent haze".

Venus Express is equipped with a VMC (Venus Monitoring Camera) that will be monitoring the planet in 4 wavelengths, taking advantage of the "infrared windows" present in Venus's atmosphere. The information gathered will allow people to "peek" behind the dense cloud curtain enveloping Venus.

All of the details above bear out the following spiritual facts:

In 1986, a Swedish group fittingly called "Europe" had a hit song entitled "The Final Countdown", which, according to wikipedia.org, made it to #1 in a total of 26 countries, including the UK (but not including the USA). These are the song's lyrics:

When I used to hear this song in 1986, the line "We're heading for Venus" would always catch my attention, but I would never lend it much thought. Now, 20 years later, I finally understand why. Even from then, God was announcing that He would shift His focus towards Europe during the days of Venus, and that He would enable Europe to be the first to launch a mission to Venus after the 2004 Transit. We are indeed in the final countdown. The Earth is headed into the "light" barrier. God's Venus messengers have "left the ground" of natural understanding because they know that there are many "things to be found". Despite any emotional attachment to the Earth, they have begun the journey, and the end result shall be the manifestation of God's Glory throughout the Earth.