Praying for you John!
Dear Doves,
I have been admitted to hospital since yesterday due to low blood count. Was given blood transfusion early this morning. My colonoscopy is scheduled for tomorrow afternoon local time. Pls pray for me that all is well and that I will be back soon for keeping the letters updated.
The LORD is VERY NEAR!
John Tng
19 May 2024
Today (May 19th) my wife and I were outside in our backyard cleaning up after a couple of trees had blown down last week. As we sat taking a break we watched a couple of swallowtail butterflys circling each other in the air in some sort of dance. This went on for some time as they flew around each other in the air. I can't recall seeing anything so beautiful. I looked at the date, May 19th and thought that doesn't sound significant. But then I saw John's note, "The LORD is VERY NEAR! - John Tng - 19 May 2024". The number 19 means Faith. Does this May 19th have more significance to His return? I don't know.
Let me add context. Twenty years ago in 2004 I published a book called, "Passion, Power & Glory - Watching for the Return of the Prince of Peace" which featured on its front cover a picture of two linked swallowtails. To me it was the perfect representation of the link between Jesus Christ and His Bride.
A word of explanation of what is shown below regarding what I wrote in the book about the butterflys book cover. At the time I was hoping the "anointing of the prince" to end what I clearly saw as the seven weeks of Daniel's 70 weeks which started on 6/7/1967 and ending on 9/23/2015 would be God the Father anointing Jesus Christ at His return. Sir Isaac Newton had a similar interpretation. However, exactly seven prophetic years before 9/23/2015 on 10/29/2008 I realized this interpretationn must be wrong. What I now realize is the "prince" must be the prince of this world, the man of sin. The people of the prince must be the people that formed nations that were part of the Roman Empire, most notably the United States. The one to do the anointing must be the highest authority out oe fht Roman Empire, the Pope. And seven prophetic years later this realization was fulfilled in real life. Of interest is Sir Robert Anderson in "The Coming Prince", while having the seven weeks wrong, appears to have interpreted correctly that the Prince would be the man of sin. Anyway, below is what I wrote regarding the two butterfly cover in the book 20 years ago.
The front cover includes a double butterfly picture symbolizing what can be called the most powerful event in human history, the raising from the dead of the saints and the joining together with those saints that are alive, in the rapture, the bride theft, to Jesus Christ, the bridegroom. This picture is surrounded by the glory of a sky turned golden with a rainbow in the middle, the promise of God not to destroy the earth again by a flood, which symbolizes the glorious appearing of Christ as Messiah in Jerusalem after the 10 “days” of tribulation. These are the two expected manifestations of His second visitation. The double butterfly picture was taken by the author on September 23, 2000 which if the September 23, 2015 date holds true for His glorious appearing would be a period of exactly 15 years.
A dear old Christian friend of the family, Ida Gatewood; had long emphasized how butterflies symbolized the risen Christ. And one can see the symbolism in how He was wrapped in death in a cocoon wound from strips of linen cloth held together with the sticky glue of aloes.
And there came also Nicodemus, which at the first came to Jesus by night, and brought a mixture of myrrh and aloes, about an hundred pound weight. Then took they the body of Jesus, and wound it in linen clothes with the spices, as the manner of the Jews is to bury. John 19:39-40
On the third day He broke open the cocoon and rose like a beautiful butterfly. The dead in Christ will first be raised from their graves, their cocoons, to join Christ in the air. Then we who remain of His bride, will join Christ in the air.
For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first: Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord. I Thessalonians 4:16-17
The uniting of Christ with His Bride is pictured by the uniting of the upper butterfly with the lower, the one's wings with white dots in the shape of a Cross pointing Heavenward while the one with more yellowish dots almost a perfect reflection of the glory of the other, the glory of Christ.
After this picture was taken, the upper butterfly flew off, carrying the lower one which was not flapping her wings, behind him. The bride shall be carried up by angels wings? The butterflies carry a cross made of dots, upon their backs which is split in two when they open their wings. We serve a resurrected Christ! They are united to one another, being one. In the picture they are resting on a jasmine vine which is a member of the olive family.
For if thou wert cut out of the olive tree which is wild by nature, and wert graffed contrary to nature into a good olive tree: how much more shall these, which be the natural branches, be graffed into their own olive tree? For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in. . Romans 11:24-25
And then surrounding the double butterfly picture is a picture of the glory of a late day when the sun was reflecting gold against the sky and a rainbow was visible. This glory represents the glory of His appearing upon the Mount of Olives in power and glory as the Mount of Olives is split in half. While satan will counterfeit the glory of the Prince of Peace’s second appearing during the ten years of tribulation when he appears as an angel of light to fool the inhabitants of the earth, there will be no way that satan will be able to counterfeit the cleaving of the Mount of Olives. May the wise take heed:
And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south. And ye shall flee to the valley of the mountains; for the valley of the mountains shall reach unto Azal: yea, ye shall flee, like as ye fled from before the earthquake in the days of Uzziah king of Judah: and the LORD my God shall come, and all the saints with thee. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the light shall not be clear, nor dark: But it shall be one day which shall be known to the LORD, not day, nor night: but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light. And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in summer and in winter shall it be. And the LORD shall be king over all the earth: in that day shall there be one LORD, and his name one. Zechariah 14:4-9
Shalom,Ted Porter