Prophecy 07 - World Tomorrow Radio Program - Prophecy and the Church

(NB Headings are not part of original, but are added for clarity)

The World Tomorrow Radio Program

Prophecy 07 

Prophecy And The Church 

by Herbert W Armstrong 

LINK - (PLAY FROM START)

And now, my friends, let's get prophecy straightened out. What is going to happen next? Where are we now in the fulfillment of biblical prophecy? What is going to lead down to the World Tomorrow, the second coming of Christ? What about Armageddon? When does that come? Is Russia going to attack? Is Russia going to plunge us into World War III? And if so, when and where will she attack? It's all in the Bible. The war that Russia is going to plunge the world into is prophesied. But where will she strike? When is it going to happen? What will happen first? What about this rapture theory? What about the second coming of Christ? What about the Great Tribulation? What happens just before and what happens just after? 

Now, we've been dwelling on this for the last several broadcasts, and we have have been covering in the twenty fourth chapter of Matthew, in that Olivet prophecy of Jesus Christ, the fact that He said, that of course from His time on, there would be many false ministers coming in His name, professing to be the ministers of Jesus Christ. Of course if they come in His name they would profess to be His ministers. They would proclaim that He was the Christ and yet would deceive the world. My friends, that's happened. It's been going on for nineteen centuries. And then He said, that finally, at this time of the end, just before the end of the world and the sign of His coming; 

"...this gospel of the kingdom [which is the very gospel that Jesus Himself proclaimed, the gospel that God sent by Him as a messenger] would be proclaimed in to all the world as a witness unto all nations; and then [He said, would] the end come." (Matthew 24:14) 

That's where we are now. That gospel is now for the first time in nineteen centuries going out around the world. Your ears are hearing it this moment. This is a fulfillment of prophecy. But He also said, that coming down to the time of the end, after there had been wars and rumors of wars, He said that wasn't the end but finally at the end time, there would be world war, nation against nation and kingdom against kingdom. We're already into that, my friends, we're in the intermission or the recess between World War II and World War III. Now, next He said that there would be famines and terrible pestilences or epidemics of disease that the medical authorities would not be able to cope with at all. 

The Great Tribulation

And then, was to come, The Great Tribulation. Now all of these things, the world war - at least the early stages of it - and the famine and the pestilence He said was only the beginning of a time of travail or Great Tribulation. And that's where we are, the main Great Tribulation has not even struck as yet. It is coming next. Now, here's the order. At the present time the Gospel, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, not a gospel of men about the person of Christ, but the Gospel of Christ, the very Gospel that He proclaimed and taught going to the world. Next, is to come the real famine and the pestilence which will be so much greater than anything that has ever struck this world that it will simply astound and dumbfound this world. We've had foretastes of it. As I've mentioned, we're getting some foretaste of it now in the United States. We've been having very topsy-turvy weather as you all know. And, we have had disease epidemics. Those, my friends, are all merely little drops of rain before the great storm, that's all. They're merely sort of forerunners. 

But there's going to come the famine and the pestilence as I read to you just the other day from Ezekiel's prophecy of exactly how great it's going to be. What's going to happen, speaking of our people and our land, in the fifth chapter of Ezekiel. And Ezekiel was a prophet to the house of Israel, not to the Jewish people of Judah. He said here; 

"A third part of thee [speaking of us] shall die with the pestilence, and with famine shall they be consumed in the midst of thee [it is going to take one-third of our people. These are horrifying things that are coming and then]; ...a third part shall fall by the sword..." (Ezekiel 5:12 paraphrased) 

That is when the Great Tribulation strikes. And as I mentioned I think in the preceding program, there are two phases, a dual phase to the Tribulation. One is individual on Christians, and the other is national on our peoples, the peoples of Britain, and America, and of the democracies of Northwestern Europe. We are to fall by the edge of the sword as Ezekiel mentions it here; 

"...a third part [of thee] shall fall by the sword round about thee; and I will scatter the third part [that remains] into all the winds and I will draw out a sword after them." (Ezekiel 5:12) 

Now, it is mentioned in a number of other prophecies that our cities shall be destroyed. You know, my friends, we don't take this seriously, we think, 'Oh, that isn't going to happen here.' I know what most of you people think, you don't take this seriously at all but it is going to strike and where are you going to be, my friends, when it does?You have heard the warning, and if you don't take warning, your blood is on your own hands, it isn't on mine. God has set me as a watchman to declare this thing and to warn you and He has told me He will require your blood at my hand if I don't warn you. I'm giving you the warning. And I know very well that most of you won't heed, because our people have never heeded a warning. 

We find that the Gentile people of Nineveh did heed a warning when God sent Jonah to them but you can't find another place that I remember of. I'd be very happy if you could show me another place in all of your Bible where the people of Israel, or the people of our forefathers ever would listen to a warning from one of God's prophets and repent and turn to God, and where the threatened destruction did not come. There have been cases, of course, where individual kings of ancient Judah did repent and turn to God and some little thing of that sort and where ancient Israel back in the days of the Judges when they were taken captive and invaded and controlled by another nation where they finally would cry out to God for deliverance, they never really repented. And God would deliver them, and soon as they were safe and free, they thought they didn't need God anymore. Just as most people are today, human nature has not changed. And then they began to turn to their own devices, their own ways and the ways of the pagans around them. And then again, a little later they were invaded and put under the rule of some foreign potentate again until God raised up another hero or a judge to deliver them. Again, when they cried out to Him and made a profession of repentance at least. 

Order of Things to Come 

Well now, here we have the order, the Gospel is now going to the world, the famine and the pestilence is to come next, and the flight of those that are accounted worthy to escape. We find a number of places where many are to be accounted worthy to escape all of these things, that shall come to pass, and to stand before Christ at His second coming. You find it, for instance, over here in the twelfth chapter of Revelation where the True Church of God is pictured. And it pictures them here, some of them as being killed in the trouble to come, it says; "...they loved not their lives unto death." (Revelation 12:11) in verse 11 of the twelth chapter of Revelation. 

And then again, "...there was war in heaven [we've gone into that in the past few broadcasts]: Michael stood up, the great archangel of our people and our nations, and we find here in verse seven, of the twelfth chapter of Revelation that he stood up] against the dragon..." Who is defined or interpreted in verse nine as being Satan the devil. And, Satan loses out in that battle and is to be cast back down to the earth. (Revelation 12:7-9 paraphrased) 

And, in verse thirteen; "...when the dragon [who was the devil] saw that he was cast [in]to the earth, he persecuted the woman which [had] brought forth the man child." (Revelation 12:13) 

That's the Church. Now, he persecutes the Church. Part of the Church, however, is to be taken to a place of safety, but not all of it, if you put all of the scriptures together. You read just one passage you might think that by reading this alone, that the entire Church is to be taken to a place of safety, but when you read other passages of scripture you see that there are saints that are really believers in the word of God and in the testimony of Jesus who are to be persecuted and many to be martyred. 

Now, here it says; "...to the woman were given the two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly [she is to take a flight I want you to notice, that she might fly] into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent." (Revelation 12:14) 

Now, how is this Church defined? How is this Church described that the devil is so angry with and why is he angry? The very last verse of this chapter describes it. The dragon, or the devil, was wroth with the woman. And woman here is of course a symbol of the church. You'll find that in Ephesians, the fifth chapter and you'll find it in II Corinthians eleven, and other places in scripture. Where scripture itself interprets the symbol of woman where it is used symbolically, as it is in Revelation, to mean or to represent the Church; 

"And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed [the remnant is the last generation before the end of this world, in other words the Church at this present time, in the twentieth century]. ...and went to make war with the remnant of her seed which [notice, which Church the devil is angry with, he's making war against], which keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ."(Revelation 12:17) 

That's the word of God, the Bible, because Jesus is the Word and the Bible is the written Word, and Jesus was the Word in living human flesh when He was here on this earth, nineteen hundred years ago. And so, here we have the Church that the devil is angry with, have the commandments of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. 

False Church

Now, you turn over a little further in your Bible in the book of Revelation, in the seventeenth chapter, you find another woman pictured. Here is a church too, but this is not the same church. Here, one of the seven angels that had the seven vials, of the seven last plagues, came and talked with John, who sees these things in vision and records what he sees, he sees the events to come on the earth, the prophesied events in vision. And this angel of the seven last plagues said to John, in this vision; 

"...Come hither; I will show thee the judgment of the great whore that sitteth upon many waters:" (Revelation 17:1) 

Now that's not a pure church, that's not the Church of God. There is the tool of the Devil, that is the church that Satan can use. 

"With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication..." (Revelation 17:2) 

What made her a great whore? It's a spiritual matter. A church is regarded as a spiritual instrumentality, a spiritual collective body of people, and this is spiritually speaking. Her fornication here, has been of a spiritual nature. Now, the Church is - at least professes to be, and it's supposed to be, in God purpose and plan - the affianced bride of Jesus Christ. There is to be a wedding, a marriage at the second coming of Christ and He is to marry the Church. Now, He is the head of the Church. It doesn't mean that He's the head and the Church is the rest of the body either, but He is the head the same way that a husband is the head of a wife. And so, here we find that the thing that made her a fallen woman, was having this fornicating relationship with the kings of this earth. 

When Christ comes again, He's coming as the King of kings and the Lord of lords. And the Church is to be married to Him and He will be her husband. And her husband will rule her. You know, that's rather old fashion today, isn't it? Well, it's going to get very new fashioned again at the time of the second coming of Christ. Because the Church and the whole Kingdom of God, and the Church will be changed into immortality at the time of the marriage. How would Christ who is divine being who is God, and very God Himself, how could He marry something that is not divine? How can a human marry some lower animal or some group, is that possible? I never heard of it. And how would Christ, do you think that Christ would marry something that is on a much lower plane when He's up on the divine plane, very God? Is He going to marry mortal animal beings? Because we're in the animal kingdom now. No, we will be changed, from human to divine, from mortal to immortal. And there will be a marriage, and He is coming to rule the world. 

But here's a church that didn't wait for Him. That had a relationship with another lover. And instead of letting the lover that she had - this fornicating relationship with, the kings of this earth,- rule her, she ruled those kings. And the wife ruled the roost. And that my friends, is the very thing that has been taught in today's society. That is the thing that is taking place in so many homes today. Women want to be independent of their husbands. They want to earn their own living. They want the husbands to do their share of the housework today. The woman doesn't want to do the housework, she doesn't want to be the mother and the wife. No, she wants to be independent of her husband so that any time she gets tired of him and he doesn't jump around at the crack of her whip, and do exactly as she wants, that she can get rid of him. And she's self-supporting anyway and she not dependant on him any longer. 

You know, young men and women today, in considering marriage, I wonder if you have noticed it? I know that, you go back about sixty some years ago, when I was considering marriage, and I know I would never thought of ever considering marriage with any girl that I was going to, until I was on my own feet financially and able to support a wife. I would never have dreamed of such a thing. Neither would any of the other fellows that I went with in my day. And today, young fellows never give a thought as to whether they can support a wife or not. If they think they have this flush of love, and it sort of a mushy something, they just like the feeling, and the exhilaration of it, and they want to get married right away. It never would occur to their minds as to whether they can support her. Let her support herself. All the girls and the women are working today anyway. 

What kind of a world are we getting into, my friends, why don't we wake up? You know, today, we don't consider what God said. We just consider whatever is late, that is the latest style, the latest fad and whatever is new, we assume is better. Just so it's different from what we had before. You get a new model automobile, all about is, it's different and we think it's better. Actually, they just change the style and the design a little bit, that's all and we seem to think it's better. And we think that if the present fad and the present style is for women to rule over their husbands that must be better. That's the idea and we go along with it, we're dumb sheep, we don't stopped to think, we don't look at the true values, we don't use judgment and real sense to see whether it's right. 

Now God Almighty set laws in motion and He made laws that work. And, some of these laws are invisible, you can't see them. You can't see the law of gravity, you don't know what will pull some object down to the ground if you don't hold it up. But there's something that is pulling it to the ground and you can't see that something. There is a law that works. And God has made a law that the husband should rule his wife. And when a husband isn't man enough to do it and isn't strong enough to do it and when a wife begins to assert herself, and she has a weakling of a husband, who is more of a mouse than he is a man, you have something that's contrary to very nature that God Himself instituted. And it does not work out. And that is another reason we're having more divorces today. The divorce rate is going up and up. They just... marriages don't work out like they used to and people can't see why. They changed their fad, their style. Well so it is. 

Well, here was a church that wanted a new style. She wasn't going to wait for Christ, she was going to marry the kings of this world and she was going to rule and dominate them. And that's called fornication in God's language and she's called a great whore. That's very ugly language, I wouldn't use such a word on the air except that I'm quoting it out of the very holy, sacred Word of God, it's in your Bible. And she is pictured as the instrumentality of Satan the Devil. Now, she is also pictured back here in the thirteenth chapter of Revelation where this same so-called Beast here, this civil government is mentioned, it's in verse two of Revelation thirteen; 

"...and the dragon [who is the devil] gave [this civil power] his power, and his seat and great authority." (Revelation 13:2) 

Because the Devil is the real ruler of the world. But here is apparently a church that is doing the ruling and giving this Beast his power. So you can see, whose god this church is, and it is made very plain. Now, there my friends, is the persecuting instrument. And there is the instrumentality of the Devil that he can use. And that shows that there is a government going to rise up over in Europe, by a union of ten nations in Europe as you find it in the seventeenth chapter of Revelation. And they are going to attack the American people and the British people. And God says if we don't cry out to Him and heed this warning that we are going to be overcome. 

Now, I tell you, the Devil is going to insist that everybody will come to his religion and give up the Word of God. The Devil does not like the commandments of God. What is the great controversy between the Devil and God? What is it that made a devil out of him? He refused to obey the Government of God. He said, 'I'm going to ascend' and he was an aggressor, he said, 'I'll organize my army of angels.'...I will ascend [up] to heaven. I will exalt my throne above [the angels] the stars of God..." (Isaiah 14:13) 

And so he started to fight God because he would not remain inferior and subordinate to God. He would not obey God and carry out God's government, as God had set him to do. And that's exactly what he had been influencing people and nations to do here on this earth ever since. So, now here we are. 

True Church

Some of the people of the True Church are going to be accounted worthy to escape. They're going to fly to a place of safety. But the ones the Devil is angry with, are those that keep the commandments of God, and they then my friends, are the True Church. Now, we find that this other power has deceived all nations. You read of that over here in the seventeenth and eighteenth chapters of Revelation. That that power - this fallen church - that has gone into the politics of this world, has deceived all the world, has deceived all nations. But now this gospel of the Kingdom of God, the Government of God is to go out to all nations. Not to change them, not to convert them - because they won't heed it, they won't listen - but merely as a witness. Because they are all going to come into the judgment seat of Christ later on, when He comes to rule. 

But some of the church is to be terribly persecuted and martyred. Now, we find the same time order in the sixth chapter of Revelation under the seals. We've gone into it before in previous broadcasts, let's skim over it very rapidly. In the sixth chapter of Revelation, here the first horse that we see here that John sees in his vision where he sees first the four horses in his vision. The first was the white horse, which is the false preachers. And yet nearly everybody believes it's Christ or the true preachers. And second was the horse that was red, and that's the war. And third, is the black horse, which is famine, and next comes the pale horse that Jesus had interpreted as the pestilence or the disease epidemics. 

And then after that, now the very next thing to happen is then the Great Tribulation. The Great Tribulation is dual, as I said, it is nationally an invasion of our people by this very force, this factor, this great power that is now rising up in Europe. The groundwork is being laid, the plans are being perfected undercover right now this very instant in Europe. And also then, it is a phase of persecution against all that are true believers in Christ and in the Bible and who keep the Commandments of God and believe in being governed by God. Who have not been praying enough, and who have not kept close enough to God and have not been watching these events and have not studied their prophecies and don't recognize it when it is coming. And are not worthy to escape and to take this flight to a place of safety. And those that are not accounted worthy, are going to be forced to take up the pagan religion that will then dominate the world and give up the religion of Christ and give up any obedience to God and give up the truth of the Bible, or be persecuted until they are killed, martyred. 

Now here it is, the fifth seal; "And when he had opened the fifth seal, I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain [that's in the past tense. The time of the prophecy is now. And those that have already been slain] for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held:" (Revelation 6:9) 

These are the martyrs of Jesus. And history records that there are between fifty and one hundred millions of them that have been slain, that have been killed for believing the Bible and wanting to obey God as God's word commands in the Bible. 

Now, they cried according to this vision of John; "...they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?" (Revelation 6:10) 

Now, vengeance is God's, we know that. And the judgment where they say judge and avenge us, the judgments are on this great whore, you read here in Revelation seventeen, where this angel said; "Come hither; I will shew...thee the judgment of the great whore.." (Revelation 17:1) 

And then over in the eighteenth chapter, it says; "...Come out of her, my people, that ye be not partakers of her sins...receive not of her plagues [and then again in the eighth verse of Revelation eighteen]. Therefore shall her plagues come in one day, death, and mourning... [and so on. And then in verse ten] Standing afar off for the fear of her torment, saying, Alas...[for the] great city Babylon... [and that city is the power, this false woman here, or church that is pictured] for in one hour is thy [God's] judgment come." (Revelation 18:4,8,10) 

So God's judgment are these plagues that He is pouring out on her. Now, these people want to know, 'How long before your judgments, how long before you are going to judge her?' And those judgments, the seven last plagues are poured out in the very presence of Christ and all the holy angels at the very time of the second coming of Christ.That's exactly when they'll be poured out. So, actually, what they are asking here, pictures these dead souls as asking, 'How long are we going to have to wait until the second coming of Christ, until you avenge our blood, until these seven last plagues?' 

And here's the answer, verse eleven; "...white robes were given unto every one of them; and it was said unto them, that they should rest yet...a little season, until their fellow-servants [and also] their brethren, that should be killed [that's in the future] as they were [that's in the past] should be fulfilled." (Revelation 6:11) 

In other words, my friends, the second coming of Christ will not occur, the last plagues are not to be poured out until there has been another martyrdom of saints. That is the Great Tribulation. 

Now in Revelation six, under the fifth seal, it shows the personal phase of this Great Tribulation. It shows the fate on those Christians that are not accounted worthy to escape. On those Christians that are drowsy, that are lukewarm, that are left behind. You read of them again in the third chapter of Revelation, as the Church of Laodicea. The Church that is lukewarm and Jesus says; "...I will spue thee out of my mouth." (Revelation 3:16) 

He says repent, before it's too late. That's what He says to people that believe they are the true followers and real Christians today. 

After The Great Tribulation

Now, then, what is next? What happens immediately after the Great Tribulation? Let's go back again to Matthew twenty four and in verse twenty nine. Now that Great Tribulation is so great there has never been any time of trouble like it, as I've read to you before that Jesus Himself said that; "...except God steps into it to intervene and to shorten those days no flesh would be saved alive." (Matthew 24:22 paraphrased) 

In other words, human life would be blasted out of existence on this earth. But, for the elect's sake, there is some of the elect Church here being persecuted, there are some of the elect Church here that are now going to be turning to God at that time, and for their sake God is going to step in and intervene and shorten those days. 

Now, verse twenty nine; "Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken." (Matthew 24:29) 

There my friends is the very beginning of the intervention of God. God will first begin, not by an actual physical intervention on earth, but just by signs that men will see up in the heaven, that will throw stark fear and terror into the people. And they will run frantic crying for the rocks to fall on them and hide them from the face they are going to see sitting on the throne in heaven at that time. 

Now, I want you to see one other thing here; "And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven..." (Matthew 24:30) 

Now, if the sign is going to appear, men will see it. Where are they going to see it? It will appear in heaven. They will look up in heaven and see it. Now, what do you find over here in Revelation six, here you are, the same thing; 

"I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal, and... [immediately after the Tribulation] there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; And the stars of heaven fell unto the earth..." (Revelation 6:12-13) 

There you are. Now, stars in Bible language means any heavenly body. It can mean a very small meteor or a great star millions of times larger than this earth. This will naturally be those that are smaller than the earth that will fall. It will be very large meteors falling on this earth. 

The Plain Truth About FASTING

The Plain Truth About FASTING

Is it suicidal starvation? is it nature's way of healing sickness and disease? Is it dangerous, or beneficial?  

by Herbert W. Armstrong  

The Plain Truth, September 1962  

http://wwcg-archives.com/plaintruth/1960-1969/Plain%20Truth%201962%20%28Vol%20XXVII%20No%2009%29%20Sep.pdf#page=29

IT SEEMS almost no one knows the real TRUTH about Fasting. One doctor called it the "Fast Way to Health." Another called it "STARVATION diet."  

One person asked, "If I missed two meals in a row, would I die?" Apparently many people seem to feel that if they missed more than one meal they would at least be in serious danger.  

Some people believe in fasting from the very moment they feel the first warning signs and pains of a cold or an approaching fever. Many people say: "You should always FEED A COLD, but STARVE A FEVER." But is this true?  

Is fasting dangerous? Is it beneficial? Is it nature's way of HEALING?  

Time to Know TRUTH  

 

You think you already know the answer? DON'T BE TOO SURE!  

I know of hundreds, if not thousands of our readers who think they know the truth about fasting — but who DO NOT — and EVERYBODY needs, seriously, to read this article!  

On the one hand sensible fasting is not a "starvation diet," and those who have the "starvation fear" are at one erroneous extreme — whether ignorant layman or professional physician. Most doctors, incidentally, have studied MEDICINE, not fasting as an aid toward elimination of disease. One doctor said to me: "We doctors have been kept so busy treating sick patients with drugs and medicines, we have had little time to study the CAUSES of sickness and disease, or much about diet and nutrition."  

In the "healing arts" — (an unfortunate and incorrect term) — professional men have tended to specialize each in his one field ONLY. The medical physician seeks the cure almost exclusively by drugs, or surgery. The Chiropractor seeks to cure everything by manipulating the spine — perhaps with the aid of prescribed diet. The Naturopath by "natural" means. Medical doctors generally ridicule fasting in the case of sickness or disease, just as they would avoid recommending chiropractic treatments, or any other method outside their one field of MEDICINE. Fasting is simply outside their field. A few medical doctors have advocated fasting, but certainly they are in the minority.  

But to look on sensible fasting as "starvation" is an untrue extreme, based on plain ignorance.  

On the other hand, some go to the opposite extreme of regarding fasting as a CURE-ALL.  

NEITHER EXTREME IS THE TRUTH!  

Wise fasting, under proper conditions, IS BENEFICIAL, NOT DANGEROUS!  

On the other hand, just as I say, truthfully, "there is not a CURE in a carload of medicine, so I say FASTING NEVER HEALS!  

Those two statements, in the paragraph above, will come as a shock to many. Millions firmly believe that medicines cure diseases. I have never heard a physician make such a claim. Many doctors have admitted candidly that medicines DO NOT CURE. "We only use medicines," these doctors have said, "TO AID NATURE."  

But, the few who do believe in FASTING when ill will surely be shocked to see the statement under my by-line that FASTING NEVER HEALS! Yet that statement is absolutely true — and it's about time we come to UNDERSTAND what fasting is — and what it is NOT!  

Fasting Never HEALS  

 

Fasting does not HEAL!  

Healing is a divine miracle. (Write for our free booklet, "Does God Heal Today?")  

Healing is the FORGIVENESS OF SIN — and none can forgive sin but GOD. Fasting is self-inflicted — a HUMAN effort, not divine miracle — and fasting cannot forgive sin.  

Jesus Christ healed the sick. It was always HIS WILL. He healed the sick in ancient Israel, long before His human appearance, born human of the virgin Mary. One of His names is Yahweh-Ropheka — which, translated into English, means OUR GOD-HEALER.  

To the griping, complaining Israelites in the arid lands approaching Mt. Sinai, He said, "I am the LORD that healeth thee." And in the original Hebrew language, in which Moses wrote this, His name was given as "Yahweh-Ropheka."  

David KNEW God heals, as surely as He forgives sin: "Who forgiveth all thine iniquities; who healeth ALL thy diseases" (Psalm 103:3). Isaiah explained how. When Jesus was spending a whole night healing all that were sick, we read, in Matthew 8:16-17: "... and healed all that were sick; that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Esaias the prophet (Isaiah 53:4), saying, Himself took our infirmities, and bare our sicknesses."  

How, then, did Jesus "take them" — that is, bear them — or pay the penalty in our stead? Peter explains it: "by whose stripes ye were healed" (I Peter 2:24).  

Sickness Is a PENALTY  

 

What is sickness — disease — debility — pain and suffering? It is the PENALTY being paid for the violation of the PHYSICAL laws of the human body.  

It is not natural to be sick, it is UNnatural! God so designed the mechanism of the human body that, given PROPER food (and few indeed know what that is!); drinking the right amount of pure water; breathing properly of PURE air; getting sufficient exercise — and that is not necessarily a great amount; obtaining sufficient rest, recreation and sleep; maintaining normal regularity of elimination, which includes more frequent bathing and rub-downs than many realize; and keeping the mind in a positive, cheerful, active and peaceful state, THE BODY WOULD NEVER BE SICK!  

Very few understand this. I have just named the SEVEN LAWS of health, which God has given each of us, as a human individual, the RESPONSIBILITY of regulating.  

Of course, it is true that even many if not most doctors know SO LITTLE about PROPER food and diet that they are unable themselves to observe the DIETARY law of health. That law is the one MOST frequently broken. Violating that law, say some of America's and England's most famous doctors, is the cause of 90% to 92% of all sickness and disease!  

Most people think they can put anything that pleases the palate into the mouth and call it "food." That is not true. Potassium cyanide might TASTE good — I really don't know, for I never experimented, and never intend to! — but EVERY doctor will agree that it is not FOOD! It will kill you — QUICKLY! The only difference is that excess of starchy "foods," sugars, and greases, kills you — SLOWLY, GRADUALLY, OVER A DURATION OF PERHAPS TEN, PERHAPS SIXTY YEARS — and sets up colds, fevers, rheumatisms, tuberculosis, heart diseases, diabetes, kidney disorders, and dozens of other ailments along the way in the meantime!  

Very few know that they ought to breathe more deeply, and be sure to obtain fresh air during sleep — even by leaving a window partly open. And so millions upon millions of people violate this simple health rule. And ALL cigarette smokers!  

Almost NO ONE knows the value, to health and long life, of regular DAILY RUB-DOWNS — good, brisk, vigorous (not necessarily over-vigorous or violent) rub-downs, with a bath towel, brush, or other means. A DAILY shower or bath, ended by such a bath-towel rub-down, is my personal method.  

Some people still have the "every Saturday night" bath tub idea! Your body eliminates poisons through the skin. It needs bathing to CLEANSE it of these wastes DAILY, or almost daily — and, in some kinds of work or sports, possibly MORE THAN once daily. Yet most people on earth are so IGNORANT of GOD'S LAWS respecting physical health that they take a bath once a week — or, like the comic-strip character, "Li'l Abner," they may "take a bath every six months, whether they need it or not." In fact, I have wondered whether some of the nomad Bedouins of the middle-east deserts EVER take baths!  

The food we eat passes through the alimentary canal, with needed elements being absorbed into the blood stream on the way, and the waste then expelled. God has given every normal human a very plain signal to KNOW when elimination time arrives — and this can be regulated into an established HABIT at regular CONVENIENT times of day. Yet probably most women, and a large portion if not half of men, are suffering from constipation — due to PURE NEGLECT, and, probably, faulty diet and in some cases lack of exercise!  

YOUR Responsibility  

 

The point is this: Obeying THESE seven laws is the responsibility of each individual. This knowledge is AVAILABLE! There is no excuse for human ignorance. Such knowledge always has been accessible. These laws we, ourselves, either observe and obey — or else we violate them and bring on lowered vitality, depleted energy, befogged and dulled minds, a feeling of "dopey" laziness, and almost countless diseases.  

Now Jesus Christ NEVER BROKE A SINGLE ONE OF THESE LAWS! And Jesus Christ WAS NEVER SICK — NOT FOR A MINUTE!  

Yet His body was just like our bodies! He set us the example. He demonstrated that, if WE obey the laws God has given as our responsibility to obey, the BODY ITSELF will function regularly, in perfect health, strong vigor, vitality, energy and strength — and NEVER get sick!  

It is a far more precision-designed-and-made mechanism than a Rolls Royce automobile. It JUST WON'T BREAK DOWN or get sick — OF ITSELF! It functions automatically. But, like your automobile, it needs "being taken care of," as one conscientious chauffeur put it. Your automobile needs the right kind of fuel, oils and greases. It needs watching to see that there is proper amount of water in the radiator. Yes, it needs attention.  

The trouble is, most of you GIVE careful attention to your automobiles, but give almost NO ATTENTION to the care of YOUR OWN BODIES!  

Now what is the BIBLE definition of SIN? Sin is the TRANSGRESSION OF LAW (I John 3:4). Of course it means law of GOD — but it includes these PHYSICAL laws. These physical laws, too, were set in inexorable living motion by GOD.  

Sin, SPIRITUALLY, is the transgression of THE SPIRITUAL law of LOVE — divided into the TWO great commandments, Love toward God and Love toward neighbor — enlarged into the TEN COMMANDMENTS, and magnified by Jesus, and all through the Bible — especially the New Testament. This law is a SPIRITUAL LAW! It can only be fulfilled — or kept — by SPIRITUAL love, which is the LOVE OF GOD, which one can have only by God's GRACE, through His Holy Spirit — which IS that spiritual LOVE! The penalty for violation of that law is THE SECOND, and ETERNAL, DEATH!  

When you are sick, the PHYSICAL LAWS that regulate the human mechanism have been violated! Of course, there can be injury from accident or violence. You, yourself, may or may NOT be responsible for that. Accidents nearly always result from carelessness — but of course it COULD be the other fellow's carelessness! Perhaps you drank a germ in drinking water — supposing it was pure water. Yes it is possible — and sometimes happens — that the sick or injured one did not, himself, violate the physical law. But, regardless, NATURE'S LAWS WERE VIOLATED, in every case.  

So, sickness, disease, injuries, are the PENALTY of physical SIN! Jesus Christ Himself said so! Healing is forgiveness of the sin, and MIRACULOUS REMOVAL of the PENALTY.  

Healing Is Forgiving SIN  

 

Once Jesus Christ was in a house in Capernaum. Crowds flocked in. The house became jam-packed, many unable to enter. Then came four men carrying on a pallet a man sick with palsy. Unable to get through the crowd, they climbed on the house-top, tore off several tiles, and let the man on the pallet down through the roof in front of Jesus.  

"When Jesus saw their faith, he said unto the sick of the palsy, Son, thy sins be forgiven thee."  

Immediately the Pharisees and doctors of the law among the crowd began to accuse Jesus of blasphemy — claiming to FORGIVE SIN! He said to them:  

"Whether is it easier to say to the sick of the palsy, Thy sins be forgiven thee: or to say, Arise, take up thy bed, and walk? But that ye may know that the Son of man hath power on earth to forgive sins (he saith to the sick of the palsy), I say unto thee, Arise, and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house" (Mark 2:1-11).  

Jesus Christ performed this HEALING in order to show that healing is THE FORGIVENESS OF PHYSICAL SIN — and, by divine MIRACLE, the REMOVAL of the penalty being suffered.  

How is this penalty removed? By the POWER of the Holy Spirit, BECAUSE Jesus Christ was flogged — beaten with stripes — scourged — he was beaten so that he was disfigured, or marred, more than any man (Isa. 52:14). He, who never broke nature's physical health laws — who never was sick or diseased, PAID THE PENALTY of our physical transgressions IN OUR STEAD. Thus, if we accept HIS sacrifice (of being so scourged BEFORE being nailed to the cross) God, BY DIVINE MIRACLE, has promised to remove from us the PENALTY we are paying in the form of sickness or disease.  

All humans have SINNED — spiritually. Sin is the transgression of God's LAW. All have broken the spiritual LAW. The PENALTY is the second DEATH — and it is ETERNAL punishment. But we can have this penalty REMOVED. How? By the fact that Christ paid the DEATH penalty for us — He BLED TO DEATH — His blood was His physical human LIFE. The LAW took HIS life instead of ours. IF WE REPENT, and BELIEVE, then by divine MIRACLE God's Holy Spirit REMOVES the death penalty from us. Our sins are forgiven by the BLOOD of Christ, and we are SAVED from the second death!  

God HEALS BY PRECISELY THE SAME PRINCIPLE! Not by Christ's BLOOD — but by His STRIPES we are healed (I Peter 2:24). He paid the PENALTY in our stead. He did the suffering FOR US, so God can remove it from us!  

God revealed this dual truth about spiritual forgiveness and physical forgiveness through David: "... Who forgiveth ALL thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases" (Psalm 103:3). It is as much GOD'S WILL to heal as it is to SAVE!  

WHAT, Then, Is Use of Fasting?  

 

Now it ought to become crystal clear that FASTING is NOT healing. Fasting DOES NOT FORGIVE SIN. Fasting is NOT A MIRACLE.  

Yet, I myself have put many people on fasts of from three days to two weeks, who were afflicted with rheumatism, ulcers of the stomach, constipation, high blood pressure, fevers — and after the fast they were RID OF the sickness or disease.  

Well then, didn't the fasting HEAL them? NO — emphatically NO!  

Let me explain what happened. Fasting is good, for certain things — indeed many things — when intelligently and properly used. But what happened is this: the sickness in these instances was brought on by faulty diet. It was THE PENALTY of putting improper things (usually excess starch, sugar and grease) into the stomach. Now the first thing that happened was, that on beginning the fast these people STOPPED SINNING. They stopped, by fasting, putting more of these toxin-producing elements (really poisons, not foods) into their stomachs.  

Secondly, fasting tends to SPEED UP the elimination of toxins and poisons. Fasting is not pleasant. The Bible refers to it as "afflicting the soul" — that is, the body. So, THEY SUFFERED THE PENALTY of having eaten that POISON, supposing it to be FOOD. In fact, the fasting INTENSIFIED the penalty by speeding up the elimination.  

In a word, what happened in fasting was this: 1) they stopped the sinning that CAUSED the penalty they were suffering; 2) they PAID THE PENALTY IN FULL THEMSELVES, in a speeded-up intensified form. And 3) when it was paid, they simply didn't have the sickness or disease any longer.  

But THAT IS NOT HEALING!  

Now we come to the question: If fasting is NOT healing, and we DO believe, and intend to RELY ON JESUS CHRIST as our Healer, should we ever fast, when ill?  

SHOULD We Fast, Then?  

 

The answer is, YES, ALWAYS — PROVIDED you understand it is NOT a means of healing — it is NOT a substitute for healing — it actually has nothing to do with HEALING! But it DOES have a lot to do with STOPPING THE SIN of eating wrong things!  

When Jesus healed, He said, "Go, and sin no more!" (Mat. 5:14.) One of the CONDITIONS to being healed is that we STOP SINNING — stop breaking nature's laws. We need to learn what we can about God's dietary laws, and about proper nutrition and diet.  

In fasting, we do stop the physical sinning of eating wrong things. We let our stomachs REST from the effects of improper food. And, in the case of a cold or fever, ANY kind of food is merely pouring more kerosene on the fire!  

You should emphatically NOT "feed a cold." That old saying, "feed a cold, and starve a fever" is a maxim of Benjamin Franklin. What Franklin MEANT was: "IF you feed a cold, you will soon HAVE TO starve a fever."  

To prevent sinning, always STOP EATING the very moment you feel the first warning signs of a cold or fever — those little pains around the back of the neck, or down the spine. In fasting, you will start paying the penalty you have incurred in intensified and speeded-up manner. But, to have the penalty REMOVED, obey God's command of James 5:14-15, and RELY ON CHRIST, not on the fasting!  

Nearly everyone, today, is eating an excess of starches, sugars and fats. The Bible FORBIDS the eating of animal fat. Starch is a modern invention — millers take wheat, corn, and rice apart, take out the 12 alkaline mineral elements, leave the 4 acid-reacting elements. The sugar refiners do the same to natural sugar.  

START DRINKING LEMON JUICE! Take no sugar with it. Start with a half-lemon every morning — with or without water. As you become used to it, increase to one whole lemon, and, finally 1 l/2 or 2 lemons, depending on how large the lemons are. This has an alkaline-reaction. In a month or two you will notice quite a difference. Your mind will be sharper — more clear. In many cases, especially if not too far advanced, rheumatism or arthritis will disappear under this lemon-juice habit — especially if you eliminate starches, sugars and greases from the diet. Notice, I did NOT say CURE or heal. But, since lemon juice has a strong alkaline reaction in the body, it simply means the stopping of the physical SIN, and in due time you will have paid the penalty. Once paid, the penalty is not there any longer — unless you bring it on again by sinning!  

An authority on nutrition said: "Eat ONLY such foods as will spoil, and eat them before they do."  

WHY do flour millers give us white flour; sugar refiners white sugar? Because freshly-ground natural whole wheat will spoil. By removing the real FOOD value — the 12 mineral elements — and in addition perhaps adding an artificial preservative or bleach, they prevent spoilage. Even most so-called whole-wheat flour you buy today contains artificial additives and preservatives.  

What SHOULD we do? First, if possible (too often it is not), we should procure whole-grain hard wheat, grown in proper soil without synthetic fertilizers, and then, with a home stone-grinder, grind our own whole wheat — using it up before it spoils.  

Squeeze out a glass of orange juice. Let it stand ten minutes. Drink it — and then squeeze out one more orange and drink it IMMEDIATELY. Notice the difference! There will be a noticeable difference in taste. The oxygen in the air makes a change in freshly-squeezed juice within ten minutes. FOODS OUGHT TO BE EATEN WHILE FRESH!  

How Long to Fast  

 

But finally, back to fasting. Jesus never put sick people on fasts for healing. In every case He healed them by divine miracle — and in most cases the healing was IMMEDIATE. The Apostles HEALED through the miraculous POWER of God's Spirit in the name of Jesus Christ — but they did not use fasting as a means of healing. Healing is a MIRACLE.  

Then WHY do I recommend fasting from the very moment of the first signs of sickness, disease, or even a cold or fever? NOT FOR HEALING, but merely to immediately STOP SINNING. Then DISCONTINUE FASTING as soon as you FEEL AND SEE that you are healed. RELY ON GOD for the healing.  

But let us get this straight. Seeing and feeling is not FAITH — and God heals according to your FAITH. Faith must PRECEDE the healing — and remain firm UNTIL you are healed. FAITH is your evidence that God is healing you. But AFTER the healing has taken place, then you will SEE and/or FEEL that you are healed, and THEN stop fasting. I simply know that so many, today, do not have the faith for immediate healing. You SHOULD have — and this FAITH is actually CHRIST'S faith, imparted to you — GIVEN to you through God's Spirit as His GIFT — but if you are so far from contact with God, and so close to the material interests of this world, that you do not have this faith, then I know that it is better that you CONTINUE the accelerated PAYING of the penalty, and continue to PREVENT further violation of nature's laws by continuing the fast — until there is the physical evidence of healing.  

HOWEVER, even then, fasting MUST NOT BE CONTINUED TOO LONG!  

UNWISE OVER-LENGTHY FASTS CAN PROVE FATAL!  

It is true that both Moses and Jesus Christ fasted 40 days. But they were physically in far better and stronger condition basically than any of us today, and besides, they were fasting ONLY for spiritual reasons, to draw closer to God in prayer — not to cleanse the body of toxic excesses. SUCH A FAST WOULD BE MOST UNWISE FOR MOST PEOPLE, TODAY!  

Unless one is under the constant daily observation and supervision of a COMPETENT PHYSICIAN who is fully experienced in fasting, I would advise, with strongest emphasis, NEVER FAST LONGER THAN TWO WEEKS — 14 DAYS, and that only if you are in normal good condition while fasting, and if you are under 55 years of age. Between ages 55 and 65, I definitely would limit any fast to SEVEN DAYS — and over 65, to THREE DAYS.  

NEVER GO TO EXTREMES! If necessary take a series of shorter fasts!  

The IMPORTANCE OF FASTING

The IMPORTANCE OF FASTING

by
Herbert W. Armstrong
July 7, 1948

http://wwcg-archives.com/480707.htm

I wonder if you realize the importance of FASTING? Very few do today. We have drifted SO FAR from God, and His ways as revealed in the Bible, and are so entwined in these modern paganized ways!

You know, of course, that Jesus fasted. Peter and Paul fasted. So did Moses, Daniel, the prophets of old. But have most of you not thought that was just some ceremonial custom for them way back there, and not for us today? Have we not forgotten that those men lived by God's laws and rules, while we lived without realizing by the rules and traditions of this paganized society we call civilization? Jesus said we should actually LIVE BY every Word of God. He set us an example that we should follow His steps. Jesus and the men of God mentioned in the Bible fasted FOR A PURPOSE -- in fact, there are two vital reasons for occasional fasting. One is for health and physical fitness. The other is for spiritual reviving. Fasting and prayer together is the most effective means of drawing closer to God, re-establishing the vital contact and close communion most of us have drifted away from.

I could write a whole book on the subject of fasting. But let me just briefly condense some vital truths on the subject which may help you greatly.

First, its connection with PHYSICAL HEALTH. Most people have come to believe today that it is NATURAL for people to be sick. THAT IS NOT TRUE! Sickness and disease is not natural, or accidental, but caused in every case by destructive habits. Sickness and disease cannot be eradicated until good habits -- living according to NATURE'S LAWS as set in motion by Creator -- are substituted for bad ones. Bad habits of thought may be a contributing cause to sickness and disease or impaired health. Insufficient exercise, lack of drinking enough pure water, lack of deep breathing of fresh air, lack of sunshine, lack of sleep, faulty elimination, often contribute to poor health. But above all WRONG FOOD is the great outstanding cause. Few people realize this. Doctors seldom tell people this vital truth. Yet the nation's most famous physicians and surgeons -- men like Dr. McCollum of Johns Hopkins, the famous Mayo brothers, Dr. Sherman -- later Senator Sherman of New York, Dr. Kellogg and others -- estimate that from 90% to 95% of all sickness and disease are caused by faulty diet. Dietitians have exclaimed that the average American table is a dietetic horror! People eat things they would never thing of feeding their cows or their dogs. God has revealed to us which animal meats He created to be properly digestible in the human stomach, Leviticus 11. Some day we will learn to our astonishment that the eating of filthy swine's flesh has been a major cause of cancer, fast becoming the nation's number one killer! I want, as soon as we can enlarge The PLAIN TRUTH to 16 pages or more, to have an interesting, vigorous article every month on FOOD, and on sickness, disease, and the laws of health. We can SIN physically as well as spiritually. We sin physically by breaking nature's laws -- the laws of God established for physical health. The penalty of this physical sinning is sickness, suffering, pain, and often the first death. The penalty for spiritual sin -- the transgression of God's great spiritual Law, summed up in the Ten Commandments -- is ETERNAL death -- the second death. Jesus continually HEALED THE SICK. When He healed, He said "Go and SIN NO MORE." He was speaking of violating the physical laws of health. Just as the repentant sinner who is converted thru Christ is commanded to turn away from sin and quit sinning (transgressing God's Law), so if we look to God for healing we should try to learn in what manner we have been violating God's physical health laws, and CORRECT OUR LIVING! It is BECAUSE men for untold generations have been living incorrectly, violating these precious health laws. And increasingly so these past four or five generations, that we are a degenerate generation today -- so much so WE DON'T REALIZE IT!

But my space is short, so now about fasting for health. Voluntary abstinence from food for physical benefit or the cure of disease is as old as life upon this earth. Animals and birds instinctively fast as a means of restoring themselves to normal health whenever necessary. There is no such thing as a cure-all pill, drug, or medicine. But there is one thing that comes close to being a cure-all. And that is FASTING. Especially is it the cure for such things as stomach disorders, constipation, rheumatic diseases, and the greatest help and often the cure for such things as kidney diseases, heart ailments, high blood pressure, skin diseases, asthma, anemia, and it is ALWAYS the thing to do in case of colds and fevers.

It was Benjamin Franklin who said "Feed a cold and starve a fever." But he did not mean one ought to feed a cold. He meant that IF one feeds a cold he soon with be starving a fever! The way to put out a fire is not to pile on more fuel. When you have a fever the body is on fire, and food is the fuel that makes it burn. If any member of your family has a cold or a fever, TAKE ALL FOOD AWAY at once! Give plenty of water. Give enemas twice daily, and warm sponge-baths (not soaking in a tub) in a warm room twice daily. If you can give orange-juice, or some other similar juice which agrees with them -- grape fruit, lemon, or tomato juice -- that will do more good then harm. Give a glass of orange juice at a time, every two to four hours. I would not advise people inexperienced with fasting to go on a long fast of more than three, five, or seven days, unless they are under the care of a physician who understands and believes in fasting. And always remember this -- if you have fasted two days or longer: This is IMPORTANT: In breaking a fast, do not start out with a full meal at once. Break it with two small pieces of buttered toast, toasted in the oven, HARD clear thru, and a dish of about five stewed prunes. These should be soaked overnight before cooking, and then cook by just simmering, UNDER THE BOILING POINT, or steamed. If they are not boiled they will be plenty sweet, so add no sugar. Or, as an alternate, a dish of milk toast, but be sure the toast is toasted hard clear thru. Second meal, two non-starchy vegetables such as spinach, carrots, etc. -- not potatoes or peas -- along with a slice or two of hard toast and a little fruit (not rich canned fruit in syrup or canned with sugar). Then normal eating may be resumed by the third meal. I have been on a much longer fast, but I have studied fasting and spent a year, about 18 years ago, lecturing on diseases, diets, and fasting, and have had considerable experience putting many people thru fasts. And I have never known one case where full results were not achieved!


FASTING AND PRAYER: There is, as I said above, NOTHING like fasting and prayer for drawing close to God, re-establishing contact, being filled with His Spirit. For this purpose it is better to fast completely -- no fruit-juice of any kind. In Bible times they sometimes fasted without even water, but sometimes water was used. Personally I think results will be obtained if one drinks water, but nothing else. For purely spiritual purposes a fast of from one to three days is usually sufficient. You may expect headaches, and a very thick-headed feeling the first few days. It is not pleasant. It is, in Bible language, AFFLICTING THE SOUL. It takes courage and will-power, and self-denial. I recommend, for this purpose, dividing your time three ways: about one third in studying the subject of fasting in the Bible, and other Bible study. Use a good concordance, and your marginal references if your Bible has them. If not you should get one which has. Look up all you can find under fasting. Then about a third of your time in meditation -- turning over in your own mind by yourself WHY you have not been closer to God, thinking out just HOW you have been letting the worldly things creep in, meditating on what you have read in the Bible, applying it to yourself and your spiritual condition.

Then, spend one full third of your time in earnest PRAYER. Did you ever spend one solid HOUR in prayer, alone with God in some private room, on your knees? Very few ever have. If you haven't, the first time you do it you'll find it will take as much will-power and self-denial as forcing yourself to stay on a fast and resisting that gnawing hunger feeling. In five or ten minutes, or less, every excuse in the world will come into your mind. You aren't in the mood now -- why not do it later? You just think of something that ought to be done, and you think you must go do it right now. Yes, I know what will come to your mind, for I have done it and I know by experience. But if you will resist every temptation, and STAY on your knees, even tho you think your prayer isn't going as high as the ceiling, in at least 30 or 40 minutes the devil will probably give up and let you alone and you'll find you are establishing contact with God, and you'll find you are beginning to really ENJOY talking to Him -- just pouring out your soul to Him -- telling him all about it. Pause, once awhile, and meditate, and let God talk to you.

SERMON: DAY OF ATONEMENT By Herbert W Armstrong

Sermon given by Herbert W. Armstrong in 1981 on Day of Atonement

DAY OF ATONEMENT 1981  

By Herbert W Armstrong  

http://sermons.wwcg-archives.com/1981-10-08%20-%20Part%20Of%20God%27s%20Refresher%20Course%20Atonement%20-%20HWA.mp3

Brethren, the day before yesterday, in the matter of a moment, world history suddenly changed. The assassination of President Anwar Sadat of Egypt followed somewhat closely on the heels of the attempted assassination of President Ronald Reagan of the United States and Pope John Paul ll. How many more assassinations are going to follow? For the first time in world history, the weapons of mass destruction now exists that can annihilate every one of us. Can erase all humanity, all human life from off the face of this planet earth. I don't think we realize that, I don't think we take that seriously. We hear it, ‘yeah, just something to talk about.' It isn't real. Well, I will tell you, the assassination of President Sadat was real.  

Less than a year ago, I sat next to him and talked to him for quite a little while. I told him about the Kingdom of God. I told him about the Law of God and the way of life. He sat there smoking his pipe and nodding, agreeing with what I said. President Sadat had a different name for the same God. He used the name Allah[...] "

Audio Starts - 

[...]"and when I said that the God that you recognize, Allah is the same that we recognize as God he nodded, 'Yes'. Now this thing was real so far as he is concerned and it happened within about a month of the time I expected to sit there in the Giza Palace in Cairo speaking to him again. Already had the trip planned, already had talked to his chief minister, that is the chief advisor, who is the chairman of the national council. And is the closest man to the President, but not in the political sense, he will not succeed him in office, Dr Hatem.  

But these things ought to wake us up and ought to cause us to realize what kind of a situation we are in now. Now watching world events as we have been doing, I have been right on top of it all of the time watching it very, very closely. It would seem for the last fifteen years that God has been holding up the progress of events in the world, that they had not continued to gain momentum quite as fast as they had prior to that time although they had continued.  

But now all of a sudden it seems that we have hit the time that you read of here in the twelfth chapter of the book of Revelation and beginning with verse seven. John was writing here the things that were revealed to him on the Isle of Patmos. He was seeing things that are now in our time shortly to come to pass. His vision was focused in the time. Most of the events speaking in the present tense are events that were occurring along about the time of 1934 and 1935 and six along in those years. Shortly after the start of this era of the Church of God which started in 1933. Here is one of the things shortly to come to pass. It speaks of it as if it already had happened in the past tense.  

And there was war in heaven, Michael the arch angel and his angels fought against the Dragon; and the Dragon fought and his angels, And prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven. And the great Dragon was cast out, that old serpent called the Devil and Satan which deceiveth the whole world…  

Brethren I wander if you realize, that means you and it means me. We have been deceived. Can you realize that? He deceived you. He deceived me. God has opened our eyes to that deception. I hope he's opened all of our eyes. I hope we're not still blinded. But the god of this world has blinded the eyes of the world lest they see the true gospel of Christ. Anyway.  

Which deceiveth the whole world he was cast out into the earth and his angels, who are now demons, were cast out with him. And the demons are in the earth and have been now for some time. And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, Now is come salvation. People think that salvation comes when they say, ‘I receive Christ. I get Christ. I appropriate Christ.’ They are not getting salvation at that time. Jesus Christ said He that shall endure to the end, the same shall be saved.  

You're not saved now. You're only begotten. Salvation comes with the second coming of Christ to those who have been begotten. No one is born again until the time of the resurrection. And oh how deceived this world is about things of that sort. How deceived they are.  

I heard a loud voice from heaven, saying, Now is come salvation and strength and the Kingdom of our God. (Government) The Kingdom of our God and the power of his Christ. They don't talk about the power of Christ in the religions of this world. They picture him as a weakling, a sissy, just a weak kind of a man who was perhaps a sort of a hippy of some kind. But this speaks of the power of his Christ.  

For the accuser of our brethren has been cast down which accused them before God day and night.  

And they overcame him with the blood of the Lamb and with the word of their testimony; That's the word of our own testimony, that we testify. And they loved not their lives unto death. That doesn't mean they were all killed.  

Anwar Sadat loved not his life to death that is he was willing to risk it for what he saw to be peace. He didn't have the understanding and the truth that you and I have. He had only what he had gained through the Koran and the Muslim religion. But as far as he saw, he wanted peace and he did risk his life and he made that trip in 1977 to declare peace instead of declaring war in visiting the Knesset in Jerusalem and speaking with and giving forth the hand of peace before the Israelis in Jerusalem. He not only risked his life, he gave it the day before yesterday. I sent a telegram to that effect also to his widow, the first lady, Mrs Sadat.  

And when the Dragon saw that he was cast into the earth, he persecuted the woman which had brought forth the man child. And to the woman… now, he has already started that and that has happened to us, the Church, the true Church of God. And he usually persecutes through government, the governments of this world. I'm going to say more about that in just a moment. To the woman… now we are getting into what is just ahead of us now, were given the two wings of a great eagle that she might fly into the wilderness unto her place were she shall be nourished for a time, times and half a time. That is a period of three and a half years. from the face of the serpent. This church will be protected. Now there is a remnant church to follow. We are the Philadelphia era and the last remnant church is to follow us, the Church of Laodicea.  

Now brethren why are we here today? This time of crisis in the world. We're here because God has commanded us here. It's like He has a refresher course going every year. Now we have a refresher course going here on campus for the ministers of this Church. And I think it is one of the finest things that have ever happened to the ministry of the Church of God. Before that we had had Ministerial Conferences calling all of the men here and was more of a social gathering or something, and it did not bear fruit. But now we are calling a smaller number at a time, 35, 45 or 50 ministers and their wives. And they are here for a refresher course and they are absolutely enthusiastic about it. Now, we are going to have that refresher course about every year and a half or so. It will start all over again the first of the year and that's almost a year and a half before it started the first time. So the ones that will be coming here, probably in January, will be those who did come about a year and a half or so ago. Not the ones who most recently came. But God gives us a refresher course every year beginning with the Passover in the spring and on through all of these Holy Days to remind us once again of the same thing over and over and over, lest we ever forget it.  

Now we are here today to realise something that I want to bring to you. Ten days ago we observed the Feast of Trumpets. I observed them to a large gathering, actually a larger gathering than I see before me here, but I'm not sure that it's larger than we have here today because we're gathering in about three of four auditoriums here today. And others are hearing and I hope they're also seeing a televised screen or a larger motion picture screen, precisely what you're seeing here. But we observed the Feast of Trumpets celebrating the second coming of Christ and today we are here to celebrate an event following that. Christ is coming as the King of kings and the Lord of lords. But there has been something wrong with this world. Now I want to go back to the beginning and show you what it is. Why it is and what today really means in the lives of all of us  

Well, once again we have to begin at the beginning in Genesis one and verse one. In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And it should be plural. It is in all translations but the King James and was in the original writing. Elihim is a uni-plural, meaning more that one person, but only one God. God is a Family. God is the Family that is the Creator of the universe. And as Creator, God is the Ruler over the universe He has created. Now God created angels, after he had created man.  

And so we turn to Job the thirty-eighth chapter and you'll notice at the beginning of the first verse. God was speaking to Job. Job was perhaps the most righteous man on earth at the time. Also he was the wealthiest man, at least in that part of the world. A very successful man. Apparently he had just completed the building of the Great Pyramid, the greatest building on earth, and in some respects, still the greatest building on the face of the earth. Probably contains more actual material that will weigh more than any other building on the face of the earth today. It was the tallest building in the world until the Woolworth Tower in New York was built. And that was somewhat new when I first visited New York in 1920 and went up to the top of the Woolworth Tower. That was before the.taller building, the Empire State building. It had not been yet built yet at that time. But God was speaking to Job who was self-righteous. He was pretty good and he knew it and he was proud of himself. He was very righteous.  

Then the Eternal answered Job out of a whirlwind, and He said…Where wast thou when I laid the foundations of the earth? He’d laid the foundations of the Great Pyramid. God showed him that He had laid the foundations of the whole earth! So much greater than just the Great Pyramid. Whereupon were the foundations thereof. that is of the whole earth .fastened? Or who laid the cornerstone thereof, when the morning stars (that is angels) shouted together and all the sons of God shouted for joy.  

Now the morning stars may include only the three cherub who are light bringers. One of them is named Lucifer, which means, 'Shining star of the dawn' or a morning star and all of the holy angels. The reason they were shouting for joy is that the earth was to become the abode and the home of angels. That was long before man. That might have been millions or billions of years before man. The Bible gives us no hint and no idea at all of when it was, how long ago it really was.  

But God lives. God is the source of life. Now life can come only from life and God is the source of life. But in living, you have to live a certain way. And there are certain rules and laws that govern your life. Some ways, some laws you can observe will make you happy and prosperous and full of joy and contentment. Other ways you can live will make you unhappy and those around you unhappy and will do harm and cause suffering and heartache. Physical suffering and spiritual suffering.  

So God is the author of government and over the angels that he put on the earth at that time, he set a government based on his law. Now I'd said again and again and again, you cannot have a government without a foundational law or constitution. And the constitution or the law of the Government of God is simply love. But it is a certain kind of love. It is a love out flowing. It is love to God first of all. Because God first loved us, it is a return of his love towards us that we return to him. Then it is love toward your fellow man, loving your neighbour as yourself. Now that general law applied to the angels the same as it does to us. The Ten Commandments literally apply to man. For example: the law about adultery and things of that sort would not have applied to angels because they had no sex. They had no reproduction. They would not have committed adultery in the sense that humans may, physically. But they could have committed spiritual adultery which humans have done too. But the general principle of that law obtained to them. Now over that government and God put a government on this earth. I want you to remember that and our Festival today has something to do with the government of God on this earth.  

Now turning over to the once again to the Fourteenth chapter of Isaiah beginning with verse twelve. We read here of the, one of which the king of Babylon was only an earthly type. He was the first emperor over a world empire. The first world empire on earth. He was the head of that government sitting on the throne in Babylon. But now it listed to the greater type of which he was only a type. How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer. This is the same statement that I read a moment ago, that he was cast down from heaven. But his name was Lucifer. Lucifer is a Hebrew word which means 'Shining star of the dawn' or 'bringer of light'. So it gives it in the next little part of the phrase here, Son of the morning! (or morning star) how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations! Or thou who didst weaken the nations, cut down to the ground. Of course this was written by Isaiah the prophet only about, let me see, twenty-five hundred years or so ago.  

For thou hast said in thine heart; I will ascend unto heaven; I will exalt my throne. Now he was under heaven, he had a throne. He sat on a throne. There was a throne on the earth. God had set that throne here and had set this archangel, Lucifer, on that throne to rule the Government of God with the Law of God which is out-flowing love to God and to fellow beings. …above the stars of God, I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation in the sides of the north. I will ascent above the heights of the clouds.  

So he was on the earth. He was going above the clouds of the earth. His throne was on the earth. I will be like the most high or he was going to make himself the most high. Yet (it says) thou shall be brought down to hell or to the grave is what it's talking about to the sides of the pit. The word 'hell' in that case in the Hebrew language meant 'grave' and not what people think of a burning hell at all.  

Now he was perfect in all of his ways from the day that God created him. God did not create him a Devil. He created him a perfect angel. Higher than other angels in the status of a cherub. So far as we know, only three of them are mentioned in the Bible of which he was one. Now coming to Ezekiel twenty-eight and beginning with verse fifteen. Speaking of the same Lucifer, it says thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created. He was not a born person like we are. We’ve been born. This archangel had been created specially by God. He was perfect in his ways from the day he was created. …till iniquity was found in thee. So he had been perfect. He was sat on a throne but he rebelled and he let vanity come into his mind. He wanted to exalt himself and not God. He began to covet everything. He coveted more than just the earth. God had set him over the earth, but he coveted more. He wanted to ascend up to heaven. He organised his angels into an army to ascend to heaven and to fight God, to knock God off the throne and to take over the government of the universe. But he was put back down, he was put back down to the throne of this earth and he still sits there today.  

And he has deceived you and me in our life time. He is still there as Satan the Devil. He came to have hate in his heart for other fellow beings. Jealousy and envy, competition and strife were in his heart and he has put that in the hearts of all human beings and he begins working on little children. I might say babies, in the first weeks and months of their lives. And by the time babies are, say about nine months old, they already are selfish. Put one toy down and a couple of nine-month old babies and watch them fight for that toy. O yes, Satan doesn't neglect them! Now parents neglect little babies. They just feed them and take care of them. Yeah they'll work to wash their diapers and things like that, but they do not wash their minds or instruct their minds. They do not teach. They think, ‘O we don't need to teach them. They can't know anything yet.’ But, so then parents neglect their children. Satan does not neglect your little infants. He does not! He did’t neglect you when you were an infant and he began to get selfishness in your mind. He began to get vanity in your mind, to thinking of your own self and how good you are and wanting to be above other people and wanting to take from other people and wanting to get for yourself as much as you could. That is what he has put in the minds of all people and that is just the opposite of the law or the way of life of God. It is a way of life. I simplify it by calling it the way of get. That's what I was expressing less than a year ago to President Anwar Sadat in his palace in Cairo, Egypt. And I don't think he had ever heard it put just that way before. And I was explaining of the fact, that he was working for peace but was not able to achieve it and I explained that the God, which he calls Allah and that we call God, is going to intervene in world affairs and going to bring us the peace that I told him he was not able to give us. Now a week from this Sunday you will see some of that conversation on the telecast if you will watch our programme on television.  

The Government of God was no longer being executed here on the earth. Because the Government of God had been placed here, but this Lucifer was the chief executive and was put here as the ruler and he is still there as the ruler, but he turned against the Government of God and the Government of God was no longer operating. And yet, when Jesus came his gospel was the gospel of the Kingdom which means Government of God. Now the Kingdom of God is actually the Family of God which will be ruling with the Government of God. And that's what we are going to celebrate just ten days from now. no five days from now, this is ten days from the last feast and the next festival, the Feast of Tabernacles begins now in five days. We've already celebrated the second coming of Christ, we begin to celebrate the administration of Christ as the new King sitting on that throne in which Satan the Devil is sitting even yet today. Jesus' gospel was the Gospel of the Kingdom of God, which is the restoration of the Government of God in the hands of the Family of God or the Kingdom of God! The Kingdom of God is the Family of God and God is a Family. Originally consisting of only the Word and God. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us and became Jesus Christ. And he came as a human being and took on himself the nature of man so that he could pay for our sins and so that our past could be forgiven and oh how the world does misunderstand that. I want to say a little more about that a little later. However, Jesus came with the Gospel of the Kingdom of God.  

Now as a result of what this Lucifer led his angels into or Satan led the demons into actually. We turn back to Genesis 1 once again and verse 2 And the earth was (or had become, it became) without form and void. Those words in the Hebrew that Moses wrote were 'tohu' and 'bohu' and they mean, 'waste' and 'empty' and 'desolate' and 'decayed' a state of decay, a complete state of decay.  

Now, I've spent quite a little time recently in talking about how God now is going to reproduce himself in man. God, which is more than one person, said in verse 26 here and God (or Elohim) said, Let us make man in our image after our likeness. God was now going to create man in the same form and shape, the same image, the same likeness as God but of different material. God is spirit and composed of spirit. And he is life and the source of life. He has life inherent. But man, as he said in the seventh verse of the second chapter, he made out. of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living (nephesh or) soul. Not an immortal soul. He made man with a temporary existence.  

And in that Garden of Eden were the two trees that I have mentioned so many times recently. The Tree of Life, now man didn't have life. He only had a temporary existence. But God offered him life freely. Also the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil which if he took would result in death! So one was the Tree of Life, and the other was the Tree of Death. The Tree of Death was the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. Well the Tree of Life was the Tree of the Knowledge of Spiritual Knowledge, revealed knowledge from God and the revealed knowledge of God's Law and of the basic Government of God and the way of life of God.  

Now God set a government over the angels that he placed on the earth to regulate their living, one with another. And to regulate their relationship with him so that he could bless them. So that they could do something on the earth. He put them here for a purpose, to build up the earth, to complete it, to finish it. God had not quite completed it. It was perfect as far as he went, but he hadn't quite finished it. He wanted them, he created them and intended them to finish it, but it took the development of character.  

Now God was developing character. And character is something that God cannot create by fiat, instantaneously. Character is the ability of a separate entity, having a separate mind, a mind like God, but separate from God, that can think, can reason, and can make decisions. Can come to conclusions, can receive facts and information and God had given him all of the facts and all of the knowledge. But this Lucifer and his angels, instead of believing God, believed the opposite way. And instead of believing in the Law of God and the Way of God, the way of giving, they believed in the way of getting and taking. Instead of humility, they believed in vanity and exalting the self. Instead of exalting God, they exalted themselves. Now God, great as he is, does not exalt himself. God is a great giver and he gives everything to us. Jesus Christ did not exalt himself. He came here to give his life for you and for me, that what Satan has deceived us into doing could be paid for by him instead of by us.  

But Adam had to choose in that Garden of Eden and he made the wrong choice. When Satan got to Eve. Satan told Eve, ‘You will not surely die.’ God had said you will die. You do not have eternal life, you only have a temporary existence that will run out, and you will die! Satan said, No, you are an immortal soul. And, do you know, that the people that preach about Christ today, the Catholic Church, the Protestant Churches they believe Satan. They believe we're immortal souls. They think we have eternal life. They don't understand that we have to yet receive life. They don't, they also are taking of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. I've gone over so many things before and how man was created incomplete, just as the earth had been. Now God had renewed the face of the earth for man and he wanted man now to finish the physical earth but man polluted it and destroyed it instead of finishing it and completing it.  

But man was not even complete. He first created a man, but he was not complete. He needed a wife, because God was using man to reproduce himself. And so he had to have man reproduce so that God could reproduce himself in man. And man could not reproduce by himself, so he made a wife for man. And said that they two would be one. And told them to be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth. Now God gave man a mind that still was not completed. It had one spirit and it needed another spirit, the Spirit of God, to give it revealed knowledge and spiritual knowledge to understand the way of life of God. The way we could get along with one another. Man never did receive that and when man made the wrong choice God shut up the Garden of Eden, as you read in the third chapter of Genesis and verses 22 to 24. God shut it up from mankind.  

God did not open up the Tree of Life to Cain or Abel or to Seth or to the others who followed because Satan got to them when they were a month or two old. Satan had them before they grew up, able to be converted, able to make the right choice. They already had committed sin and had the penalty of death on themselves. And so God was not going to let man get eternal life when he was living the way of death. And God shut up the Holy Spirit when he shut up the Tree of Life. He closed up the Holy Spirit from man and from mankind.  

Now we come over to Revelation thirteen and verse eight, Revelation thirteen and verse eight. Where it speaks of, I won't read it all just this part of the verse, the latter part of the verse it speaks of a: Lamb slain from the foundation of the world. Christ is the Lamb of God, slain from the foundation of the world. Now, God and the Word who became Christ already had agreed when Adam sinned, and before the world became this world, and the world is merely the society that man has developed on the world, that Christ would come in due time. That he would be born of a woman and yet born of God and he would be God and he would be born with the Spirit of God whereas God was rejecting the Holy Spirit from mankind. But Jesus would come born with the Spirit of God. And as his mind developed and he grew up, the Spirit of God would give him the knowledge that he had had as his brain matured with God. And he would have the Spirit of God, the knowledge of the way of God and the power of God, the faith of God to resist Satan and to live above and without sin to set us an example so that we should live that way but we have none of us done it. And yet he was made human so that he could die and pay the penalty of our sins and so the Holy Spirit was closed up until the penalty of sin for man had been paid.  

That's why we read then in Hebrews nine and verse twenty-seven: And as it is appointed unto man once to die. Because man has sinned and all have come short of the glory of God, …and after this the judgment. God arranged for a resurrection and before the world was founded, it was arranged that Christ would come and pay the penalty of our sins so we could be resurrected and we would stand in the judgment seat of Christ and he will pronounce us guilty! And he will say, ‘Now I am going to sentence you, and the sentence is death!’ And then they are going to, well what are they going to do when they found they're sentenced to eternal death? And that'll be the second death in the judgment. They're going to throw themselves on the mercy of the court and they are going to find that the court, who is Jesus Christ, will then be. His mercy, I mean, as great towards us as the heavens are high above the earth. And he will say, ‘Well, now if you had a chance to do it again would you live a different way? I realise you were influenced by Satan the Devil. It wasn't wholly your fault, but you did sin. And you did have a mind to decide, and you decided the wrong way and you went the wrong way.’ And if they do repent, he's going to say, ‘Alright, I have paid the penalty of death in your stead. I've sentenced you to death but I paid it for you. I paid that penalty for you. Now, I'll tell you what, I will give you the Spirit of Life, temporarily. I will give you revealed knowledge. I will open up to your mind the knowledge of my way of life and my law so you can live as you should have lived in the first place. Will you live that way if you come to know it?’ And if they say, Yes, they will receive the Holy Spirit of God in the judgment. That judgment is more than a thousand years off yet.  

That's when both Cain and Abel and Seth and all of them are going to be resurrected and all who have lived and died up to now and all of those who shall die between now and the coming of Christ, except those whose names are written in the book of life. The world doesn't understand these things. Now again we read in first Corinthians, the fifteenth chapter, and verse twenty-two as in Adam all die (because of Adam's sin, we have not had the Holy Spirit and all die!) so in Christ shall all be made alive, but every man in his own order and so there are orders. Christ was the first-fruits. Christ was the first born of many brethren in a resurrection nineteen hundred and fifty and more years ago that's just over nineteen hundred and fifty years ago. Christ the first fruits, afterward they that are Christ's at his coming. And that includes the living who will have an instantaneous death and resurrection, just in the snap of a finger. You will die and then be made immortal just so fast you won't know what hit or what happened. All of a sudden you'll find you are immortal but it will be a death and a change in the resurrection. You will be a changed from mortal to immortal, instantaneously.  

Now, meanwhile, something happened before Jesus came and before he was born as we read back here in Isaiah, Isaiah the ninth chapter, beginning with verse six was a prophecy: For unto us that is ancient Israel the ancient nation of Israel. Now remember, they were given God's Law. They were told God's Way. They learned this law but they did not have the Spirit of God, the only love of God in their hearts that could fulfill it and they never did fulfill it. They did not have the Spirit of God. The Spirit of God was locked up and shut off from mankind. Only their prophets did but their prophets were like part of the Church born ahead of time. That was only just a very few men. But God could reveal things for them to write that would be part of the Church and the writings of the prophets are for the Church and not for the Old Testament and very few know that today. They’re for us today. Now here's a prophecy that came to ancient Israel unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given and the government shall be on his shoulder. The government was given to this Lucifer. Lucifer failed, now from the foundation of the world. And his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The mighty God, The everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace. Of the increase of his government and peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth even for ever, The zeal of the Lord of hosts shall perform it.  

Now again in Joel, the second chapter. I guess I didn’t get some of these markers in my bible and I have to turn to it now. Joel the second chapter, well let me just quote that from memory. Anyway it is in verse twenty eight that the days will come when God said, I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh Joel two, twenty eight. Joel two and verse twenty eight when God said the time would come when He would pour out His spirit upon all flesh. Now the Holy Spirit had been locked up from the time of Adam.  

Christ came and said, ‘I will build my Church.’ He trained his apostles. He came and died for us and paid the penalty of sin. So that now the Holy Spirit could come, but only on a few because Jesus had also said, as you read in John six and verse forty four Jesus said No man can come to me, except the Father which sent me draw him. Now there is no way to come back to God and receive eternal life, since you have the penalty death and God the Father has eternal life to give, but you are shut off from him and the Holy Spirit except through Christ. Christ is the only door back to God the Father to gain eternal life. And he said no man can come to me! No one could come through His Son unless the Father drew him. And the Father was only drawing a few for the Church. Because the Church was the first-fruits and not completed. God was calling a few, one here, and then way over here in another city, another, and in some other town way over there, one, and the rest of the people in that town or city were not called. How many others around you, how many neighbours of all of you have never been called, Brethren? But God reached down and called you. I just preach this truth on the air. I didn't practice any salesmanship on you. If I may say so, I was a pretty good salesman in my younger years. But I've never tried to sell the gospel. I just simply preach the truth. God must do the calling. Jesus said to his apostles, ‘You didn't come to me. You didn't choose me. I chose you. You see, Peter and his brother Andrew wanted to be fishermen, they didn't want to follow Christ. But Jesus said, ‘You drop those nets. You come ashore here from that ship and you follow me. I'll make you fishers of men.’ There was something about his voice. God the Father was calling them and the Holy Spirit was calling them, and they came. But God called them. God has called you. He probably has not called your next-door neighbours. He probably has not called hundreds of others that live near you and they can't understand the things you understand.  

Without the Spirit of God their minds can't conceive and can't understand.  

God is calling a few! We are the first-fruits! And God says to us, well I'm going to read that a little later, how we will rule with him on his throne, if we overcome, if we endure unto the end. Now, the Church is only the first-fruits and the day of Pentecost that comes in the summer is to teach us every year that we are only the first-fruits, that God is not calling the overwhelming majority of people even yet. The Holy Spirit is shut off from them! You can't go to your next-door neighbours and witness for them and think you can get them converted.  

I noticed what they call the electronic evangelism preaching on radio. There is on channel, I forget the channel number, it's UHF. I see two names on it, one is, let me see it's a CB Christian Broadcast network and another is Trinity network. And it's just one religious programme after another all day long. Just one religious programme after another. Now they just preach 'Christ' They don't realise it, they are preaching a false, human, man, a human man named ‘Jesus’ and they've got the wrong Jesus. They've got a 'Jesus' who was a smart-alec young man and did away with his Father's Law and said, ‘You don't have to keep the Law of God.’ Once in a while I listened to one of those for a while this morning. Just for a while. They were talking about 'repentance'. If you repent, and they didn't have any idea what 'repent' means. You repent of what think was wrong. Now if you do it again, well, then you have to repent again. They never say if you do what God says is wrong. They don't believe in the Law of God. They think you can decide for yourself, the way of life. God is the one who has decided how we should live. The Law of God tells us how to live! That's what it's all about! They don't even know what life is all about. They don't know what man is. They don't know why he is or how he came to be here. They don't know what salvation is. They don't know about the Holy Spirit! They talk about it and they don't know anything about it! They have experienced something emotional. They have not experienced the spirit of a sound mind. They are Biblical illiterates!  

They don't understand the Word of God! They are not like the men of God, like Abraham, for example. You couldn't imagine Abraham doing like they do, cutting up the antics that they do. All a lot of physical emotion. And they just have no understanding at all. Now does that mean they're lost? No, no, they've just been deceived and they think they're right. They're to be pitied. Maybe they're more sincere than you and I, Brethren. Let's not misjudge them. But they are deceived and God has undeceived you and me and we are being judged now! They are not being judged now! Can you understand that? They are not yet being judged. They are deceived! You and I have been undeceived. Satan is not deceiving you and me, though you can let him, but he doesn't need to. And we can be undeceived. But we are being judged now! And judgment is yet to come on them.  

Now I want you to notice in second Corinthians 4:3-4 But if our gospel be hid, it is hid from them that are lost. Are they lost yet? Yes they are lost. Does that mean they are going to go into hell? No. Does that mean they are going to die the second death? Not necessarily at all. Jesus came to save those that were already lost! Did you know that? They're lost, but that doesn't mean, they think if you're lost that means you're sentenced and there's no way of ever getting out of it. And that isn't what 'lost' means in the Bible. Jesus came, what about the lost sheep of the House of Israel? He said, ‘Go to the lost sheep of the House of Israel, go to the lost.’ Jesus came to save those that were lost. The Protestants don't know those things. They're just Biblical illiterates.  

But, Brethren, God has opened our minds. And we're being held accountable. We're being judged right here and now and those people are not. Oh we can laugh. How they jump up and down and say, ‘Praise the Lord’, and a lot. some of them, I think they have an IQ of maybe 90 or 91. I know it's way below 100. And some others have a good IQ, they're intelligent people, have good minds. But they still are deceived, and totally mislead. It's too bad that God has given us knowledge and understanding they simply don't have and we're being held accountable and they are not yet.  

Oh they'll give account for what they're doing now, but the time will come when God will open their eyes when they can repent, and when they can really know what repentance means. It means change your whole way of life. Change your whole mind in regard to yourself and who you think you are. It means turn around and go the other way, it means begin to live according to the way of God's Law from this time on. Now you aren't going to do it perfectly. You are going to slip down and fall once in a while but if your attitude is right and if you do repent, God says if we, we in the Church, confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. That's speaking to the Church that’s in first John the first chapter, but they just don't understand these things.  

So, to the Church, God says, Revelation 3:21 To him that overcometh. We that are called that's to the Church. That’s a message to one of the Churches. They are those that have been called. They are those who have received the Spirit of God. That is to us, not the world. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I overcame and am sat down with my Father in his throne and it's all a matter of government.  

I say Anwar Sadat was sitting on a throne in Egypt. I've known people sitting on so many other thrones. There was Emperor Haile Selassie on the throne over Ethiopia. He was knocked off and they finally killed him, I think, at least he died. And I think he was killed by his captors when the nation suffered a coup. I've met every Prime Minister in the last ten of twelve years of Japan and His Imperial Highness Emperor. The emperor of Japan won’t come to me. I don't know why names won't come to me. Bible scriptures will come to me and things like that will come to me, but the name of a person. It’ll come to me in a second, Hirohito. Many kings, presidents, prime ministers over nations. Brethren, they all have been deceived by Satan the Devil. They all are trying to rule without having the knowledge and the revealed knowledge of God and some of them are honest men. I think Anwar Sadat was a real honest man. I've talked to him. I know what he did.  

As far as he saw he risked his life and he finally had to give his life for peace, but he didn't know the way to peace. I think that that man will be saved in the judgment. I hope I may have the chance to see him again and help him when that time comes. And many others that I have known are now dead. Many of those that were at the helm of governments over nations that I have talked to and sat with them on their throne, and their throne today is merely the office were they work. Just like any office, and I sit with them, either besides them or across the desk from them or however and we talk. They're just human like you and I, that's all. Most of them are no better than you and I are. Some of them have better minds than some of us, and some of them don't. But all have been misled; all have been deceived by Satan.  

And it is a matter of government and Jesus Christ was born to be a king. Before Pilate, Pilate said, ‘Are you then a king?’ He said, Thou sayest that I am a king, to this end was I born, for this cause came I into the world.’ But he said, ‘My kingdom is not of this world.’ This is Satan's world. Jesus' Kingdom is not of Satan's world. Now I've begun to preach a lot on the air now about the Day of the Lord. That's the day when Christ and when God will begin to intervene in the governmental affairs of this world and the government. Christ was born to be a ruler, a saviour, and a ruler. Now they only know him as a saviour and they don't understand the sin question. They don't know that sin's the transgression of God's Law. They don't know God's Government. They don't know the basis of it is a way of life and it's the law of God and that's what you. The violation of that is what we have to repent of and we have to begin to live that way.  

Now that includes a very great deal of prayer and Bible study, constant Bible study where God speaks to you and shows you how to live and shows you His way of life. Read of the lives of others who did live God's way. Read the instruction in the Bible. Read the prophecies in the Bible. And pray as the men in the Bible prayed and not like some of these Pentecostal people do today. Pray with the whole heart when you do. Most of us aren't doing enough of that.  

Now Christ will be coming soon and we read of that in Revelation 19:6-7. Where in this vision that John had and is writing about here, he tells us what he saw in the vision. I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters. Were you ever at Niagara Falls? Way out over the falls did you hear the water rushing down and the roar of those waters? I've not only been at the site of it. I've been down below it and even under part of it and you hear the roar of many waters or the voice of many people saying something in unison, all at once. And, you know, there's a similarity and that's the kind of a voice that he heard. And as the voice of a mighty thundering, saying, Alleluia; for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth. Let us be glad and rejoice and give honour unto him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come and his wife that’s you and me has made herself ready.  

Now, as I've said time and again, the wife is going to be ready, it says so! I'd like to say, my executive assistant says he's looked at the end of the book to see how the story finally comes out. He says, ‘We win!’ We will, but will we all? The wife will have made herself ready, now that's the end of it. The Church is going to be ready but that doesn't mean every individual now in the Church. It’s every individual that will still then be in the Church that overcomes, that continues to overcome! Every individual that endures!  

O Brethren, I tell you, when I look back and I see how many were with us and are gone and are not with us any longer. They have not endured and I try to analyse why and what happened. And even some of our ministers and some who reached, well you might say the top of the ministry and that's one of the things that was wrong. There was one man, when he was ordained an evangelist here at the head of the ministry, next to the office of apostle. He said, ‘Well, I made it right on target. When I was first ordained, I said, By a certain date, I am going to rise up and I'm going to gain the office of apostle and I got it and I made it right on time.’ And he's not with us anymore. That was a wrong attitude. He was thinking what he could get for himself. Yes he rose to the top. He fell aside. Many others have fallen aside. I look back at old Envoys and see the pictures of students. And I look and here's one and oh he's still with us and look. He’s made good and here's a woman and she's a wife, and been a very good wife of one of our men and these have succeeded and then here's another that didn't and here's one that fell aside and here's one and then my heart aches because some of them are no longer with us. They've turned sour. They’ve been embittered. They have not endured. And several have gone out because they didn't like the government of the Church. They resented it. The only place on the face of the earth where Christ is governing now is in this Church. He's not governing over any nation. But some people just despise the office of government. They despise it. They don't want to be ruled over. They resent it. You'll never get into the Kingdom of God with that kind of attitude, my Brethren. Now I'm getting more and more concerned as time goes on.  

I don't know how much longer I will be with you. Don't let anyone tell you that I've said ‘I'm going to live until Christ comes.’ I have never said that! But I have been quoted as saying that and people have misunderstood . I did not say that, I never have. I may have thought fifteen years ago that that was possible. But I expected the end would come a lot sooner than this, then. I no longer say that. Even though I think it is possible, and I've never said that I really believe it. My life is in the hands of Jesus Christ and of God the Father. I'll do what I can to keep me alive. That's all I can do. I'm just a poor, weak, human mortal. That’s all I am. I just do the best I can. As far as God will empower me, and in his power, and by his Spirit. Not by any power of my own whatsoever. But if those of us that endure unto the end are the only ones, then we will reign with Christ.  

Now we come to the very meaning of this day. When Christ comes, and we celebrated that, as I say, just ten days ago. We come now to the twentieth chapter of the book of Revelation. After the coming of Christ, now here is one of the first things that happens after Christ comes, and we are here today really to celebrate this event. I'm not going into all the details about the ancient services that were held and the two goats and all of that sort of thing, but really what it means. And this is a prophesy of how it comes out. Revelation twenty, twentieth chapter beginning with verse one. And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. And he laid hold on the Dragon, that old Serpent, which is the Devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years, and cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years be fulfilled. Because, as it says back here in the eleventh chapter of Revelation, I didn't read this one. The kingdoms of this world will then have become the kingdom's of our Lord and his Christ. And Jesus Christ will sit on the throne of the earth and Satan will be put away.  

Satan has this whole world deceived, and God has allowed it. And God is the responsible party, but being responsible he gave his only begotten son, who came and paid the price. Now, most of them are still blinded and God has not removed that blindness as yet. He has not removed it as yet. During the Millennium all who still are alive are then going to be called, all will be called! But let me tell you, I think that at least two thirds or maybe nine tenths of all the people alive on the face of the earth today will be dead before the beginning of the Millennium, the Kingdom of God reigning on this earth. All that are still living then, will be called. Everybody will be called. What about others that die in the meantime? Well they'll be called in the Great White Throne Judgment. They’re a part of those that was appointed should die, but after that the judgment and then they will hear about and all of these deceived people that understand about the blood of Christ, but not what it means and they don't understand about the Law of God. They don't know about sin and what it is. They don't know that Jesus came as a ruler. They don't know about the Kingdom of God. They don't know the Gospel of the Kingdom of God. That's the only true gospel. The world is deceived, but Brethren you and I are not deceived. And once again, I plead with you as I have been doing a great deal lately, what are you doing with the knowledge you have? How much are you praying? Now, I tell you, as I see more and more of these people that have been ruling in this world, and have been high in this world, dying and are no longer with us, it just makes me realise and I as see more and more of our people falling apart. I haven't seen too many falling apart, just recently, but in past years I have. I don't mean that a great many are falling apart now and have in the last two or three months, or six months, I don't mean that at all. I'm looking back over the past twenty years when we talk of these things.  

But I know how it will be when the parable of the ten virgins in Matthew twenty-five shows that half of the final Church are going to have let the oil run out of their lamp. In other words, the spirit ran out. And they will be those who have been converted and had the Holy Spirit, but they're going to fall away. That's the main thing. You have to grow in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ! Have you gained more Bible knowledge than you had a year ago? I've been giving you more knowledge than you had a year ago. Have you really understood it? Have you grasped it? Does it mean anything to you? Or is it, ‘Ah I wish that Armstrong'd just quit hammering back, going back to Genesis again. There he is back to those two trees again.’ You betcha! I'll go back to it again and again and again! I want to get you into the Kingdom of God with me! I didn't call you in the first place, but I'm somewhat responsible for feeding you now that you're here. You know that? God is going to hold me responsible. I want you all to go along with me and it isn't going to be easy. Now you've been fasting today and I hope you've been praying through this day. Many of us are going to be leaving for the Feast. We’re going to celebrate a joyous occasion, the Millennium. Well I hope we'll be there. But how many of us are going to be there in the Feast of Tabernacles? In other words, which pictures the coming Millennium.  

Now something has just been handed to me. Total attendance today, 2665; and the total offering today, $64837 or per person $24.33 for every man, woman and child here. Well, Brethren, on behalf of Jesus Christ, and his apostle, I thank you for him. I know he thanks you and wants me to thank you for Him. But, if we do just what we're supposed to do, we're unfaithful servants though. Let's not brag. Let’s go on and continue to do all we can. And remember there are going to be other offerings and many of the things that we said to you today, just before the offertory may apply to just five days from now on the opening day of the Feast of Tabernacles. So we have two more offerings coming, one on the first day, and one on the Great and Last Great day of the fall Festival. So let's remember our liberality at that time. And remember how liberal God has been. He gave his only begotten Son and he has given us everything. Let's let it not be in vain.  

Well, I'm going to see some of you at Big Sandy. I'm going to see some of you, I don't know if any of you will be going down to St. Petersburg, Florida. I hope to go down there, for they'll have the biggest attendance of any one site there. I hope to go down there for one sermon during the Festival and then back here, and on the opening day and the closing day here. And to those of you that have come in from other places to spend the Feast here. I think there are some of you already here today. I welcome you on behalf of the Headquarters Church here and of the work and hope that you will enjoy it. And those of you that are leaving after the Feast keep your eye on the ball when you are driving the car. And remember, the ball is the road in front of you and all the side roads turning in on you at each side. Don't turn round to the back seat and talk to someone on the back seat while your hands are on the steering wheel. Pray and ask God to send an angel with you and protect you while you go. I was driving a car in a storm up in Oregon one night and all of a sudden I came around a curve, I was probably, I wasn't going too fast because I was going around a curve. I was probably going around 25 to 30 miles per hour. There was a car right in front of me and over here there had been a wreck and a car over here and something took my steering wheel and turned it right in my hands and turned me out of.away from the first car and then turned me back again and I didn't have that much space between those cars. I know that God sent an angel and actually turned the steering wheel. God is able to do that, Brethren. He will protect you if you ask him. But do you own part and, as I say, keep your eye on the ball and be careful and drive carefully. Don't try to see if you can beat the speed limits and things of that sort. Because you may not get away with it and it isn't good to do it.  

So God be with you now, through the Festival and let's all have a wonderful Festival and enjoy ourselves. And it will be, we're going to celebrate a time that'll come when there is no Satan to deceive anyone. Satan is still going to try to persecute this Church, but he knows that he has but a short time and it isn't going to last very long and we're going to now enjoy the time when, looking forward to the time, that is, when there won't be any Satan around to destroy or to hurt or to tempt anybody.  

And remember, that in God is safety. Rely on him and have faith.  

Goodbye until next time.

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