God's Purpose For The Millennium – Part 2

Ron Weinland

7th Feast of Tabernacles Sermon - 2009

Today is the sixth day of the Feast of Tabernacles.  On the fourth day I gave Part 1 of a series entitled 'God's Purpose For The Millennium.'  Today is Part 2 – God's Purpose For the Millennium.  We need to review just a little bit to get back on course here of what we covered toward the end of the sermon of Part 1 so that we can pick up a little bit of the context.  From time to time I will be repeating some things and building upon some things because this is a focus that God desires us to have.  He is excited about the time period we’re getting ready to go into; He has waited for so long for this to come to pass.  The excitement of His Son being here on earth two thousand years ago was immensely exciting for Him.  And to be able to bring something to pass that He had purposed and planned so long before that, before anything in the creation, before anything in a spiritual creation of the angelic realm and so forth.  So God is immensely excited and He shares that with us, He shares that excitement through the things that He gives to us.  There is so much of that now because we’re getting so close and what that means for the earth, what it means for mankind; we are beginning to have more of that excitement as well.  Although we know it’s going to be a rough time, a difficult time before we get there, but it's still immensely exciting.

I think especially for the Church because we're going to be focussed upon people who are being called; we are going to be focused upon and excited about individuals who are having their minds opened up.  And not on the destruction, not upon the humbling process the world has to go through.  Certainly we’re going to experience some of those things our self – the hard times, the difficult times.  And yet that's not going to cause a great problem in many respects for us; it's something we expect to take place.  We’re going to understand why it is happening, the world doesn't; but we are going to be able to give encouragement and hope and strength to people by those things that we know, that we’re going to be able to share with them.  And as we talk to them their mind is open to see it; being able to be tuned in and hearing the same thing, understanding the same thing that you believe.  Just as you talk to them about it at that moment, you are all in that respect, as you continue to live faithfully toward God, going to have that opportunity over and over again.  Talking to individuals and for the first time their minds being opened up to hear and understand what you are saying.  That's an awesome thing to comprehend, people that you come in contact with; God will work those things out because God has a great purpose in that.

A very inspiring and exciting time that we're getting ready to go into.  And God is sharing with us an  understanding of more things, having right understanding or a better understanding and a greater balance in that respect of understanding what is getting ready to come to pass in the Millennium.  Not false expectations because before we weren't there and because we had more maturing to go through as well for the Church.  God has allowed, as I mentioned in the first sermon, for us to believe various things or to think about certain things that weren't fully mature, they weren't fully balanced, they weren't really given from God yet because the time was not yet and so there are different ideas that people have had about the Millennium that are not true and there are things we need to have a balanced mind and attitude and spirit toward concerning that period of time: and not to have false expectations, not to be let down.  What a horrible thing, to go through all this, be in a new age and then have a let-down feeling that certain things aren't going to work out the way maybe some of us wanted them to: or expectations we thought we were going to receive.  What a horrible thing to go through that and then to be disappointed in God, in God's Plan?!  That’d be horrifying.  The fact that we continue on and live on should be immensely exciting to us; to be able to live on into a new age should be immensely exciting to us indeed.  And so God wants us to have that kind of mind and that kind of excitement for what is coming that we’re going to be able to share in with Him and with His family for what is to come to pass.

Let’s go back over to John 5 and read that once again because this set of verses will be the only ones we need to review in the beginning.  It is be a good place to begin today, just to remind ourselves of what is being said and then we'll continue on bringing in some new things and some things we've already discussed into the context.  John 5:26 - It's amazing how we can read things for so long and yet until it's time and God shows us a specific reason...there are many verses in the Bible that have fulfilment at various times and a repetition because of what God is doing with mankind anyway.  There are things in the book of Revelation that we'll be most likely looking at on the Last Great Day; going through some verses that have had different times that they can be applied to God's people.  It's like any of the scriptures at different times that God has given, various parables; you can always learn from them.  Like all the Church eras, they may not be specific towards a particular period of time, but we can learn from all of them, we can profit from all of the things and the lessons that all seven eras went through.  The positive and the negative – we can learn from those lessons.  And some apply more at specific times obviously, specific eras as an example.  But there are other things in the Bible that are very much like that; not to a specific time or era, but are a process of growing and building and learning and understanding.  But then there are times that it has the maximum fulfilment, the purpose for its fulfilment and we are finding much of that as we enter into a particular age here.

Verse 26:  For as the Father has life in Himself; so has He given to the Son to have life in Himself; awesome thing, what God is saying here – eternal life, eternal existence in Himself.  From a moment in time; from then on – didn't always have it, obviously we understand that now, but He had a beginning.  But from that moment on – life in Himself.   And He has given Him authority to execute judgement also, because He is the Son, and because of God's purpose in and through His Son, beginning with Passover and the things that are revealed all the way through to the Last Great Day that God has given authority to His Son to accomplish and do.  And so it says here:  He has given Him authority to execute judgement also, because He is the Son of Man.  Righteous judgement.  God is righteous in everything He does and how He does it; the process from beginning to end of what He does: just judgement, righteous judgement.  It's an awesome thing when you understand, when you see those things come out over and over again.  And so because Jesus Christ,  born of mankind, and yet the Son of God – unique in all of God's creation, unique in all of God's Plan, unique purpose in all of God's Plan.  And so God has given Him all authority and power at this time to bring all the earth into subjection unto Him first Himself, and then given to the Father.

Turn to 1 Corinthians 15, and notice some of those verses.  I love the way it's stated here.  It's the section about the resurrection; we refer to it as the 'resurrection chapter' as Paul is going through here and reasoning with different ones about the resurrection of the dead and so forth and the hope, and their testimony of their witness of things that they are saying have taken place because Jesus Christ did rise from the dead.  We then come down to verse 19 here.  It says, If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable.  He is going through here and explaining there is much more here, there is much meaning and some people were being deceived and going off-base and so he is bringing them back on course, or striving to do that with the Corinthians here; telling them about the fact that there is a resurrection from the dead: and that Jesus Christ was resurrected from the dead and if we have only hope in some of the message about Christ in this life only and there's nothing beyond this; then what's the purpose of it all?  Where is the hope?  What is God's plan?  And so he's reasoning about them with these things.  And he says, But now is Christ risen from the dead, and become the firstfruits of them that slept.  ...that were dead.  Jesus Christ died and He was resurrected then from the dead; the first to be resurrected of mankind from the dead, to live on, to be a part of God's Family.

For since by man came death, by man came also the resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all die, because all humans have sinned except for Christ and so He had to come and Paul talks about that in great detail throughout some of the chapters here.  It is showing a process, especially here in chapter 15 if we were to read it all, making it very clear what this is talking about...  For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.  And then in verse 23 - But every man in his own order: every person then in their own order; Christ the first fruit; and afterwards they that are Christ's at His coming. All first fruits in a part of God's Plan.  Jesus Christ two thousand years before the rest that are to be brought into that group of first fruits pictured in Pentecost: it pictures the very time they are going to be resurrected.  What an awesome thing when God blessed us to understand that more fully.  Understanding a process here of Trumpets that is very broad and a blowing of Trumpets, it's very broad; and yet God revealing certain things on Trumpets last year and on Trumpets this year that we’ll talk about on the Last Great Day that continues on and more things to be given in that: as a process here that's leading up to an awesome time – a great resurrection.  The first great resurrection if you will into God's Family.  So now 144,000 that are coming as a part of God's Family and God's Kingdom that’s coming to this earth.  But everyone in his own order: Christ the firstfruits; afterwards they that are Christ's at His coming.  Then comes the end, when He shall have delivered up the Kingdom to God, even the Father; when He shall have put down all rule and all authority and power. Everything that resists God; everything... everyone because only beings resist God; His creation doesn't, what He's made out here doesn't resist Him, only those with minds have resisted God.  Those given free moral agency, free choice in life, whether it be of mankind or whether it be of the angelic realm.  And so it says here that He is going to put down all rule, all authority and all power in essence, that resists Him.

For He must reign, until He has put all enemies under His feet. Powerful what's being said here and what's being given. The last enemy that shall be destroyed is death.  For He has put all things under His feet.  The example of that which is given in Hebrews, the example of that which is given in Psalms 8 and then a long process of that being accomplished and being brought to pass. For He has put all things under His feet.  But when He says all things are put under Him,  it is manifest that He is excepted, it's like the word 'exempt' in that respect, which did put all things under Him.   In other words, 'God the Father is not under Him.'  This is what this is about; everything else is to be brought under Him as far as authority and power; to be in subjection to God.  And when all things shall be subdued unto Him, then shall the Son also Himself be subject unto Him that put all things under Him, that God may be all in all.  Powerful verse here, a lot to be revealed and given even more in time, as we go forward in time of what is being said here and what is being given to God's people and to the Church and to His Family.  And so all judgement has been given to Jesus Christ and that's the process of time that we’re going through here.  That's why it says in John 5:27 - God the Father, God Almighty through His Son, has given Him authority to execute judgement also because He is the Son of Man.  Marvel not at this: for the hour is coming, in the which all who are in the graves shall hear His voice, all without exception, who are in the graves, shall hear His voice And shall come forth; making it very clear here that there is only one moment in time that this specific verse is truly fully fulfilled, accomplished.   And shall come forth; they who have done good, lived right, responded to God, grown, conquered, overcame, matured spiritually, fought against human nature, didn't fall asleep spiritually because all of these things can happen to any human being at any time; no one is immune from falling asleep spiritually.  No one is immune from becoming complacent, taking things for granted, beginning to just kind of drift in life and live life and not continue in the fight.  Everyone who becomes a part of God's Family must fight the fight; everyone must come to understand their human nature and the ugliness of selfishness.  Everyone has to see that, it doesn't matter when they live; all those who live during the Millennium must come to understand their evil, selfish nature because human nature is selfish.  And it's ugly and it's evil because it resists God, it fights against God, 'it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.'  And just because a person has God's spirit dwelling within them, or has access to that, we have learned in great ways that that isn't enough; you have to want it with all of your being.  Your mind has to be convicted that you desire it and want it with all your being and you have to fight against your own nature for it and you can't receive it in a complacent manner, you can't receive it in a lukewarm manner.  You have to be hot and on fire, you have to desire and want what God has placed before you; if that isn't there then God's spirit can't work with us.

That's what God revealed, a powerful revelation that is given at a proper time in all of God plan, at the end of six thousand years; so that lesson can be taught for the next thousand and one hundred beyond that as well; but there is going to be a greater lesson beyond that one.  But for a thousand years, to teach that you cannot be lukewarm, that you’ve got to be hot, you've got to be on fire; to be lukewarm is not enough.  God can't use that, that's what He revealed to the Church. God is saying to everyone  “ I cannot have that which is lukewarm; it isn't enough! It isn't sufficient; it doesn't cause change.” God’s spirit can't work in that environment; by the very laws and ways of God.  Because if we don't hunger and thirst, God doesn't cram it down our throat, that is against His way.  God does not force His way upon us, and so when He gives us opportunity to choose Him; that choice carries with it a fire, a desire, a zeal, and great, great yearning for what He has to offer.  We have to come to that conviction with all of our being, with all of our mind and that doesn't change during the Millennium.  It doesn't change.  Mankind must still do the same.  I think we had the concept in times past that everybody is going to receive it on a golden platter.  Everybody is going to receive it and have it on a golden platter and it's just going to be a cake-walk into the Kingdom of God.  As long as you are in this human body – it is no cake-walk.  As long as you are in human flesh, it is not a cake-walk.  It isn't easy, it’s difficult, it’s hard; human nature is a hard battle.  Seeing self is a hard battle, seeing pride is a battle and people during the Millennium have pride; they still have pride.  It's not a utopia; they haven't changed yet.  God's Government is on the earth, the God Family is on the earth, but so are human beings – amazing.

And they who have done good, unto the resurrection of life; a resurrection to life at a moment in time.  There’s coming a time when all who are in the graves, who are dead... they’re going to be resurrected and they who have done right, lived right, conquered and overcome are going to be resurrected, given eternal life. ...and they who have not done good, they who have not responded or...it involves a lot of people over a large period of time here because it is talking about a period of seven thousand years.  ...unto the resurrection of, same word as 'judgement' above, it's a word for 'judgement'.  ...'the damnation' as it's used in scripture, the 'condemnation,' the reaping of what someone has done doesn't come until the end, the very end; the last death, never to be resurrected from again.

So what an incredible thing to understand, that there is a transition in time that God is helping us to understand very fully because He wants us to understand the period that follows the Millennium.  There is a period following the Millennium, we understand what it is, the Great White Throne Judgement; a time when everyone’s going to have that opportunity, finally, in living in a second life, a second time in human life: are going to have that opportunity to truly address everything in their life, to change, to conquer and to overcome and hopefully not receive an end of judgement that is one of punishment, eternal punishment.  Not being eternally punished, but a punishment for all eternity, never to be resurrected from again, just eternal death.  But this one here is unique – awesome, incredible to understand what God is giving to us to understand because this helps us to understand more fully what God's purpose is in the Millennium.  And what God's purpose is in the Great White Throne that are different from each other.  They are very different from each other, they are fully different periods of time, vastly different periods of time when you really understand it; what God is working to accomplish and what God is going to be doing and He wants us to understand those differences.  And when we read scriptures to grasp and understand what it's referring to.  All things that sometimes we have taken to refer to the Millennium are not about the Millennium; they’re about the Great White Throne period, they truly are.  So if we can more fully see the importance of the first resurrection that consists of 144,000 and now clearly see the next second resurrection of mankind; some to eternal life and others to a second physical life.  What an awesome time at the end of a thousand years, all those who have lived and died and those who have conquered and overcome; those like the 144,000 who are going to have an opportunity now into the millions of being resurrected to eternal life – for a great purpose.  Just as much as God for six thousand years has prepared 144,000 to help govern the earth, to work with mankind, to work with this world with Jesus Christ, to accomplish great things during the Millennium.

But there’s far greater need for far more in the God family to accomplish far more in the future – in a time that is highly unique; highly unique: the Great White Throne period.  A time when God makes promises to those people that the people in the Millennium don't have.  He makes great promises to those who live a second life-span that those in the Millennium don't have and those in the previous six thousand years never had either.  We’ll understand as we go along, God wants us to because there are great differences and it helps us to understand His purpose and what He is doing, how beautiful it is.  A part of what we heard yesterday in the sermon about being a witness and talking about the glory of God; understanding the character, the mind, the nature of God.  And those things are revealed in His plan, and His purpose and what He is doing.  You know, there is nothing more exciting when you understand the awesomeness of what God is doing; His plan and His purpose from beginning to end and how He’s bringing so many into His Family.  Incredible glory, the glory of His Family, of His name, of His being that He is bringing to pass; it is indeed awesome and powerful and mighty and it excites us, or at least it should, in every way when we think on those things.  And so is the Great White Throne... and so is the Millennium, but they’re different.

So the first six thousand years – all that was for the calling, moulding and fashioning of those who would make up the foundation, the very beginning, of God's government in His Family.  The next thousand years is for the moulding and fashioning of those who will be added next to Elohim, to the Family of God.  And not by a long stretch of the imagination will everyone who lives during the Millennium be part of that resurrection.  I think we have believed in times past, like we did at one time in Philadelphia, that everyone who was living during Philadelphia is going to be in the first resurrection.  And we have found out, there aren't going to be very many out of all of Philadelphia who lived on into Laodicea, who are going to be part of the first resurrection – very few!  And so in large part it's going to be similar in kind and type during the Millennium.  Don't you think that's healthy for everyone that lives in the Millennium to understand that?  To know that?  That, “This is not owed to me. It is not owed to me that I be in God's Family.  It is not owed to me! I must desire it! I must choose myself; do I really want it?  And am I willing to fight for it?  And fight against this human nature and strive to yield myself to that government that's on this earth, to the way of God because I want to be there in that resurrection?  When Jesus Christ's voice goes out and all who are in the graves are given life, some eternal life and some a second physical life.”

I've mentioned this often, I do not want to live twice.  It's abhorrence in my mind to think that I'd have to live twice.  If I did then so be it – didn't learn what I needed to learn the first time around.  So be it because I want to be in God's Family: that's the mind and attitude we should all have obviously.  But I really loathe the thought in the mind, with the knowledge I have now and people can't understand that unless they have the knowledge that we have now.  I do not want to do this twice in this body.  That's almost like a bad dream, like the worst bad dream you could ever have in all your life and you have to live it for a hundred years?  I'll just tell you, sixty is quite sufficient for me – more than enough to know what self is like and I don't like it.  I don't like selfishness, my selfishness, I don't like anyone else's either; but I definitely don't like mine.  I don't like it, I loathe it. I loathe it – the pride: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes and the pride of life that we have to battle.  But because I see those things and because I desire something greater that God offers; I want to fight against that.  But there are going to be people in the Millennium who don't want to do that fight; they kind of like the way they are.  They kind of like what they have.  There were a lot of people in Philadelphia who kind of liked what they had – go to services, have fellowship with different ones, have youth functions together, have various outings together and that was good: but it wasn't enough.  You can have all those kinds of things and people not change and people not grow and people begin to take it for granted.  Not only take it for granted, but begin to expect it; begin to expect all those things being given and offered like it's owed to them.

That's a bad thing in the world, when people get to any position in life where they kind of expect things to be given to them – it's owed to them by whomever.  It used to blow my mind sometimes in the Church of God when people would expect the Church to provide things for them, to give things for them.  “Oh, see we have third tithe...okay, I need this, I need that – I want third tithe.  I need this, I need that for my life, and so forth,” and expect things to be given to them.  Not trying to do anything on their own at that point, just getting to a point of expecting it; not going to family and asking for help.  Not going some place else, just expecting the Church to do it for them – amazing, mind and attitude – see? You expect God to give you everything you have?  You're not willing to fight for it and work for it yourself? A lot of you don't know what I am talking about because you didn't live through that, but when people begin to expect things of God, or of God's government, or of God's Church; they have crossed the line.  When you begin to expect things because you think it's owed to you, you no longer see yourself as you should.  There is no gratitude and thankfulness in spirit and mind towards God.  There is no appreciation or understanding of what God is doing and offering to us and we just expect it to be given to us.  And if not careful, if God didn't tell His Church these things today, if God were not giving us these things before the Millennium came...if people went into that period of time and at some point in time those things were not told quickly on in the Millennium and warned about because this is going to be a warning throughout the Millennium and people aren't going to listen.  There are going to be people into the millions who will not listen!  And I think, “How is that possible?”  I hope you think, “How could that be possible?”  God shows it's possible; not only possible, it happens powerfully so.  It's not just something that happens at the end; it's something that happens throughout the Millennium.  The evil of it is only manifested at the end, just like it was in the Church.  It was manifested at a moment in time: finally when people are asleep, then it can be manifested and that's exactly what God is going to do at the end of a thousand years.  He is going to manifest it, to show a spirit and attitude that existed for a thousand years that wasn't fully conquered, nor overcome.  Some understood and some responded by the millions, this time by the millions – not just a few through time, 144,000 in six thousand years; but now millions during the Millennium are going to get the message and they are going to fight against their human nature because they want, they desire to be in that next great resurrection to eternal life.

And all of those of you who are called now that are growing and conquering and overcoming, living on into a new age; that is your desire.  To live your life to the fullest, to respond to God with all of your being, to fight against your nature right now and in the Millennium and never to cease fighting your nature.  So that your desire, your will, your choice is, “I want to be in that next resurrection!  I don't want to have to be dead... because I am going to die...” all of you know you are going to die.  It's just a reality just as it has been for six thousand years; man lives and man dies.  We get old and we die or we have an accident and we die.  But somewhere we are going to die because it is God's purpose, but it's what happens after that that we want to be concerned with.  Do you want to do it twice?  Do you want to go through it twice?  I don't, I wouldn't, it's the worst nightmare I could think of – being me twice?  Being me once has been quite enough, thank you, really, really and we have to all see ourselves that way - being me once is plenty.  I don't want to be me twice.  Thank God.

Thankfully God has offered that to some, not everyone has been offered that; the vast majority of mankind, they don't have that choice.  The vast majority of people who have ever lived, they have to live again; but they don't know what we know and they’re just going to be really, really thankful as a whole.  Not all will but those that are will be really thankful that they have another shot at this, this life again and God's way of life now with the understanding.  And they are going to be able to see all their errors, why they have all of those errors, why their minds were so distorted.  What was taught to them that was all wrong, everything was wrong, everything they were taught was wrong.  Everything about traditional Christianity, I don't care what it is, it's wrong, wrong, wrong.  There’s nothing to be salvaged there, everything to be gotten rid of.  Everything in the Catholic church from beginning to end is absolutely all wrong, distorted, perverted, backward, upside down.  Judaism – it's all wrong.  The only thing you could say might be right is that they happen to have some of the stories that they read out of the Bible if they don't add to or take from it and just read it as it is, but then they don't get that because they can't, they don't have God's spirit.

So the next one thousand years is for the moulding and fashioning of those who will be added next to Elohim, to the Family of God because God is so orderly, everything is so awesomely organised and planned; His creation, what He is creating; the new heaven and the new earth that it talks about, a Family meticulously organised and prepared: and all that during the thousand years, preparing for the work of the next hundred years that's to follow; everything is geared toward that.  Everything during the Millennium is truly geared for the next great phase of salvation, that's what it's all about.  So these as well that are a part of that resurrection, when Jesus Christ's voice goes out and all who are in the graves, it says, hear His voice.  Those who are resurrected now to eternal life into God's Family at that moment in time, that are going to have a great work to do as 144,000 do for a thousand years and now the millions added to that to do the next hundred years that God adds to that, you know.  They’re not first fruits, they are not a part of the first fruits, they’re a part of the fall harvest - the Millennial period, that is the fall harvest, so don't confuse the two.  There is no one to be added to the first fruits.  When the first fruits is there, serving for a thousand years, they are the first fruits, they will always be the first fruits, just as Jesus Christ was the first of them; the first of the first fruits.  And then that fall harvest that's pictured this time of year, the Feast of Tabernacles as we picture and look forward to that period of time of the Millennial period and the Great White Throne on the last day, on the eighth day because it's all tied together isn't it?  One thousand years, Tabernacles, a period of time that’s pictured for the Millennial period as a whole; there are other things taught within that as well obviously.  And then the period of time upon the end of it, attached to it, the next hundred years, it's very powerful – the great fall harvest of salvation God has for mankind, planned for mankind.  And incredible that there are those who are a part of that first, that have to go on into the eighth day.

Death will continue on during that time, during the thousand years and many will be resurrected to eternal life at the end and many will be resurrected again a second time to physical life.  So how does all this add to our understanding?  Well, it's what we've been talking about.  But first, it should very clearly reveal that as free moral agents with free choice, that there are people who simply do not choose God; they do not choose God's way of life, not fully, not in spirit and truth.  And those who are among us, who lived during Philadelphia or into the first phases of Laodicea, before the apostasy, they have seen that.  They are a witness of those things.  They understand that people can go back and forth from services on the Sabbath and go back and forth to the Feast of Tabernacles and not be fully convicted of this way of life.  Not be fully desirous with all their being for this way of life, in spirit and in truth, it's a hard thing sometimes to comprehend.  Maybe it's hard for some of you who are new to think, “How could that be?” Give yourself time, every one of you, God is going to give you that time; give yourself time and you will learn it.  You will learn what time does because with time, we can begin to take things for granted; in time, human nature not only takes things for granted, it begins to have expectations, things owed, that's just the way of human nature.  Don't think that doesn't exist; it exists, it's a very basic part of our nature.  And if you know those things, then you know what the battle is and you know what to fight against; it is a fight.  It won't happen right away at the very beginning because some things are going to happen in such a way to shake us so much, but give yourself more time and you will have to address those things in your life, you truly will.

And so very early on God is giving us admonition and warning, just as He did to all seven eras of His Church, wrote it all, gave it all to John and told John, “John, here are the eras of the Church, these are the things that are going to happen through time.  These are going to be some of their battles, these are going to be some of their strengths, in these different times,” because God knows exactly what circumstances and what things affect us, how they affect us and how we are going to respond.  He knows us inside and out, He knows human nature inside and out, He knows what we’re like, what we'll do under all circumstances of life. God knows what human beings will do.

Revelation 20 - Lets go back and read some of those things that we have already looked at, of especially of that toward the very end of the Millennial period that we in our minds may consider is unfathomable, it's unimaginable - How could such a thing take place?  And God wants us to understand that more and more and more. I marvel that in some respects, just as the Church in Philadelphia was warned about Laodicea: because we were warned.  Mr. Armstrong used to get pretty strong and those feeble hands of his when they would beat down on top of that desk...and you would see the wrinkles in his hands because of his age and wonder about the strength and the power he had there that his hand didn't shatter, but he did it with strength and power that would make you sit up and take note of what he was saying.  And he would discuss things about Laodicea and what he saw taking place in the Church and what he believed at different phases of time.  When he saw and believed that half the Church easily could be Laodicea now and it came to a point in time towards the end and he said, wondering, “Are there ten percent even?  Ninety percent who are Laodicean, maybe there are only ten percent now,” and maybe that's what it was.  But the change was taking place during his life when he was still alive before he even died; Laodicea was coming on the scene, the stage was set.  And when Mr. Armstrong died it was there.  And then the message was there to Laodicea – powerful, powerful message, but we didn't hear it.  I thought I heard it. I believed I heard it. I thought at the time, “I hear you, I'm shaken by that, I don't want to be Laodicean!”  But when it came I was there, it's what I was; God knew what I would be at that time.  By that period of time God knew exactly what all of us would be and He warned us about being lukewarm.  Some of us fought to whatever degrees in some of that and some didn't fight at all.

I think back, those of you that were around, you would think that if we had congregations of a hundred and fifty, two hundred and fifty, three hundred and fifty, four hundred, five hundred, six hundred.  The first area I went to when I was being drawn, it was a little over three and a half hours away I believe up to North Platte, Nebraska, from where we lived in Kansas.  I went there for a few weeks and was baptised just before I left for college back down toward the centre of the state and we didn't think anything about that.  And that's the way people are today as a whole, you don't think about those things, distance doesn't mean anything, you’re just thankful that there are different times you don't have to go all the way to Pasadena – that's a long way away.  Because we didn't know, that's the only place where the Church is: Pasadena, California: “man, that's a long way away.  When are we ever going to be able to be in services and so forth?” and “We’re out here stranded,” and when we found out it was that close, it was like that's exciting, to find out the Church is really that close.  And the next Church area I went to had about six hundred people in it, in the congregation, usually by that time they start dividing it up into different congregations, but Wichita, Kansas at that time filled a huge auditorium.

And I think of the messages we were given and what we were told, what was going to come to pass, what was going to take place but I couldn't hear it... and we thought we heard.  And some of us sitting here today, it's a little bit of the same thing except you have an advantage.  You know what that advantage is?  Laodicea – because now we see what did happen, what did transpire, what did take place because we lived it, those of us who lived during that time period.  Those of us who lived back then and experienced some of those things, we’re able to share that with others; we’re able to tell what finally did happen and how people did respond and what did happen to the destruction of the Church.  And you are all able to see those things, look back and say, “Yeah it did, and we see the result of that, we see a small remnant that’s left because of that and we see a scattering that took place where there are over five hundred different groups out here small and large.”  We can believe that and we can utilise that throughout the Millennium.  You need to hold on to those lessons and those things will be taught over and over and over again, but just because we’re taught something, it doesn't mean we really see it and understand it sometimes and that's the way it was with things that were coming.  And so all during the Millennium, can we grasp and understand?  You think this isn't going to be on people's minds at times?  At the end of the thousand years, “how is this going to happen?  God's Government’s here, there's one Church, one government,” and it's going to dumbfound some people, “How could this be possible?”  The more they come to understand their own human nature, the more they’re going to understand it’s possible; not just possible, it will happen.

Revelation 20:7 - And when the thousand years are expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, his place of restraint, And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, it's not about specific locations, individuals or races as these words are used here.   Some people think, “Well it’s just a specific race of people.” No it's more than that, it's what it represents, what it’s talking about.  It's not about a specific location as much as it’s about the use of the words; again, meaning ‘a distant nation of people’ and ‘a distant, barbaric people’.  Not because of the peoples of a race or a region, but because of their choices, because of what they’ve been choosing to do or not to do in their life.  What they have been yielding to or not yielding to, you know; those that are yielding to God, they are not barbaric, but human beings can be very barbaric if they’re selfish, especially on a spiritual plane.  I have seen that in the Church of God because it's a spiritual matter here, it doesn't have to be a physical matter, it's a spiritual matter; we'll get to that a little bit later here as we go on.

But again it says, to gather them to battle, the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.  It's not a few, it's a lot, multiple millions of people.  That's the expression here: it's not a small amount, it's a large percentage of the population that exists at that time on the earth and that's still a little hard to grasp, even with all that I see and know to this day.  And they went up on the breadth of the earth and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city, What's in their minds?  What does all this mean?  I can't tell you yet; I don't know, and I think that's probably going to be the message throughout the Millennium.  We are going to be given an outline as God so often does, just like He did with Laodicea; He warned Laodicea that there would be that...He would spew them out of His mouth.  We couldn't see it, we couldn't grasp it because of choices, because of things we have done in error.  And so this is going to take place and some of these things are going to have meaning then at that time in ways that we can't fully understand it right now even; of what they are going to do, and what they’re going to try to accomplish.  But what has Satan always tried to do?  Overthrow God – as perverted as that mind is, a mind when it chooses things that are false and wrong, it becomes so perverted and distorted it can't think clear, it's can't think right – he can't think right.  That's what happens to people the more they allow themselves to enter into, get away from things that are right and go farther and farther away in their mind and in their thinking; they become so unsound.  That's why things in psychology and so forth sometimes I get so disgusted with; when there's this attitude out there, “Well let’s look at their life and try to understand how this happened and why they finally made these mistakes.  And let’s get in there and maybe we can help them the more we can understand what they came out of and...”  You can't understand perversion!  You can't make soundness and reason out of distortion and yet there are people out here with all their brilliance who try to do that in life.  You can't do that.  Now you can help people out of it: how do you do that?  By the truth of God, by the word of God, the choice is do you want to live this?  In this manner you can begin to have your mind healed so that you can begin to think right.  Satan can't do that - see?  Human beings can to a certain point if they haven't committed the unpardonable sin: if their minds aren't so distorted by choice that it's permanent because that can happen to a mind.

So in his perversion he thinks and they think he is going to be able to easily dupe human beings into thinking that they can turn it upside down – that which they see existing, all the beauty of the earth at that point in time; all that's been accomplished, all the government that exists, somehow they think, as Satan has always tried to do, he's tried to turn upside down God's government so that he could have it.

And fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.  Now that doesn't mean He fully believes that at this time, but he’s going to thwart and try to deceive people into doing that no matter what.  So there are things from God he believes and knows, but that doesn't mean he doesn't keep trying.  And fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured them.  A lot of people die just before Jesus Christ's voice goes out and all who are in the graves hear His voice.  There are going to be a whole bunch of these, I don't know if I should use the expression - who are fried to a crisp: who all of a sudden are resurrected to life again – those who haven't committed the unpardonable sin because there will be those who have and they’re not going to have that opportunity.  There are people who have lived in human life who will not be given the opportunity: some who have never known God who will not be given the opportunity because of their choices in human life.  We have sometimes thought that every human beings is owed, is owed a resurrection to second physical life again – no they are not.  There are some minds who have been so perverted and so distorted, God knows exactly what they would do if He put His plan in front of them – they would spit on it; it's the way they are.  They would reject it, they don't want it because their minds are so perverted and so distorted.  So there are some who were never intended to live that second life again and there will be some during this period of time here because they had access to God's spirit; most assuredly those who have committed the unpardonable sin will not be resurrected.  But there are going to be a lot of people who are just flat deceived by a spirit they have never had contact with before; by a movement they’re going to see and become a part of; that they’ve never had before like you have.  You are learning some of this, even as young as you are in the body, you are learning about powers that exist out there and influences that come at you at times - maybe directly, or even through other people.  And you realise, “This isn't normal,” and “Why are they upset like this?” and you realise there are powers, but those at the end of the thousand years have never experienced these things at that point in time.  And so it’s going to deceive a lot of people and they have an opportunity to learn from that - see?  They have an opportunity to learn from that and to repent when they’re resurrected back into physical life again – incredible, God's plan.  Even to the very end, or beginning like this.

Zechariah 14.  You would think...wouldn't you?  ...that even though they are told, “This is what’s going to happen to those who rebel at the end, and try to thwart God's Government, try to upset God's Government, try to destroy something they see on the earth.”  You would think that by this time they would all believe that God means what He says and that they’re not going to succeed!  But you know what?  They're just not living by faith anyway.  They don't fully believe it - that's the difference.  You have opportunity always to live by faith and you are able to believe things and you know things before they ever come to pass because you believe them and because you believe God, what God says and you hold onto that.  That's what faith is all about – you believe God and you live accordingly then in your life.  There are going to be a whole lot of people who just don't.

Zechariah 14:16 - And it shall come to pass, that everyone who is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem shall even go up from year to year to worship the King, the Eternal of hosts, notice who they’re worshipping?  Primarily, God Almighty – God Almighty, the Yahweh, the Eternal of hosts; that's what we do and we’re going to do that in the Millennium.  People in the Millennium are going to do the same thing that we’re doing now.  The worship is geared towards God the Father always, in and through Jesus Christ as a matter of salvation.  Prayers are going to be the same way, although Jesus Christ be on the earth and the God Family is here on the earth working with Christ to accomplish God's will on the earth.  But all worship at the Feast of Tabernacles, worship during the Sabbath is always the same; it's toward God the Father in and through Jesus Christ – that's how we worship.  And worship doesn't change then.  Some people have read this and think this is all about Jesus Christ. No it isn't; that's a part, but God the Father is always in the picture.  God the Father is always in the forefront: His purpose, His plan, always first; God is always first, God Almighty, the Eternal God.  That's why we had those series of sermons at one point in time of going back through and showing the names of God in the Old Testament – King, Lord.  This word LORD here though is capital letters and I didn't look it up, but I feel confident that it is, is it in your Bible? Capital letters?  That means it's the word Yahweh, the Eternal, the self-existing one, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.

So peoples are going to come up, it talks about all nations; And it shall be that whosoever will not come up of all the families of the earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King, the Eternal of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain.  So, you think, well now... “you means everybody in the world is going to come up to Jerusalem?” No, no, no, no, no, no.  But just as in the world... -may be a bad example in one respect, the United Nations, there are people who represent various peoples and they come together in various areas and there will be representations of people and so forth.  And people are still going to have things of government, things they will govern; mankind is still going to have things that they are going to do and choices they are going to have to make even amongst peoples and groups of peoples on the earth.  And there will be representations of people who go up and in then their own areas then as well, to continue as a part of that, to keep the Feast.  Every place throughout the world there will be Feasts that people will be keeping – not just in one location, but that shows where it’s centred.  It comes from that particular part of the world and that's where it's all centred and so there is much here that is being explained.  But it says those who don't come up as a people, as a representation of people and they are not observing the Feast themselves which they will not be in this manner; God says there will be no rain for them.  Can we learn something from this by thinking about it just a little bit? That people have choices, even different peoples around the earth, they still have choices.  God does not cram His way down anyone's throat.  He will deal with, government will deal with...it says He is going to rule with a rod of iron.  There will be punishment for those who do not yield, but it's kind of like this concept of someone getting ready to sin and someone's on their shoulder saying, “Don't, don’t, don’t, don’t - don't do that!  This is the way, walk you in it.”  That's Protestant.  That's Protestant, it's not real life and God doesn't treat people like zombies, like you have no mind.  On the contrary – He wants us to use our mind and so He teaches us and if we choose the wrong things then we will have things to deal with and there will be correction that happens in our life as God deals with us in our lives.  But some of the things that are going to take place are not in some ways as has been thought – they are real, they are realistic.  And there are things that take place because of God giving choice to human beings in different parts of the world as well.  And just because someone is being taught in different parts of the world how to live, they've got to want to be taught that way as well; they are not going to be forced.  They are going to be invited to be a part of the Church.  People have to choose whether they want baptism; whether they want to be invited and respond to the invitation that God gives, but God doesn't go out there and force them to accept the invitation – that is not God's way.

So there is going to be a lot more freedom amongst peoples than sometimes we have thought, they are going to be allowed to make mistakes, that's God's way, even during the Millennium.  It is not utopia, it is not force-fed to everyone that this is what you have to do.  We’re not going to have God beings going into a particular region of the world and making everybody do everything.  You can't make people do everything –see?  Sometimes some elders have made some mistakes trying to get too involved in some people's lives, trying to make them do everything just right, how they talk, what they say.  I've had some situations I've had to deal with in that regard.  You can't do that to people, you've got to let people have choice and people make mistakes - see?  You can't regulate, you can't police people's lives and God Almighty is not going to police the Millennium!  It's not His way – He offers it and people have to choose it.  This is just an outline of those things, we’re not getting real specific in everything yet.  God is going to reveal those things, Jesus Christ is going to reveal that, but this is enough to begin to think, to understand that some things of the past we haven't had fully right and we need to not have wrong expectations about God and God's Kingdom and what it's going to be like.

It's going to be a beautiful earth, a beautiful time through history, awesomely beautiful because God is using that to show what it’s like when His government existed on the earth and what was offered for mankind in justice and righteousness; and what six thousand years before that was like with corruption and politics and lying and distortion and greed and wars that He is not going to allow to exist.  But people are still going to make choices and they’re going to make wrong choices.  God is not going to allow world wars to exist, or even warring between nations, that will be put to an end, that will be stopped.  So there are boundaries of things where God does get involved, just like in the Church, there are times when we do get involved in the Church, when people begin to hurt each other.  Then we may have to go to someone and say, “That's not right, you need to address that.  What you have done, that's sin” - see?  And then they have to make a choice whether they are going to make that change or not.

And it shall come to pass, again, those who don't, there will be no rain.  And if the family of Egypt will not go up, if they will not keep the Feast before God on their own in their own regions, or have that representation that shows they are at one with God and striving to be at one with God, and come not, who have no rain; they have already experienced not having rain and they still refuse to obey God!  ...there shall be the plague.  They are going to die, there is going to be death in some of those nations of the world because they refuse to obey God.  You remember what happened to the Israelites at different times when they sinned?  God didn't force them to obey during all that period they were in the wilderness.  Mankind is mankind – everybody has access to God's spirit, but not everyone chooses access to God's spirit at various times.  And finally the world changes so much, by three and four generations later like Mr. Armstrong said, it's going to take that long to weed a lot of this garbage out of minds of human beings and so they can begin to see what God is offering and after a time then...oh the world is so beautiful in every respect.  And the peer pressure – oh, people do respond to peer pressure.  In Worldwide things that happened in the Church in Philadelphia, that’s what I was looking for, during the period of Philadelphia, a lot of people just responded to peer pressure. “If a lot of other people are doing this, then to be a part I've got to do it to.  So what I'm going to reflect is going to be more of one of obedience and unity and agreement, yet my mind might not be there,” just as we heard yesterday.  There are times that in your mind there might be something else.   You might not know what's in their mind – amazing.  And so there will be a lot of peace just because of that, because human beings tend to be that way, they respond to peer pressure.  So as the world goes on it's not real hard after a while.  You start dying... you know what the Israelites did when different plagues came along as carnal as they were?  Like all human beings are carnal, like they will be at this period of time, “Oh, we have sinned, we have sinned before you God.”  So there's that moment of a little bit of a wake-up; it doesn't mean they stay awake, but it doesn't take long to slip back into sin.  But after you have had a lot of people die around you and you’re sick on your bed; it's a whole lot easier to start crying out to God.  People tend to do that when there is something more powerful; that's why this tribulation has to happen like it is in the world.  That's why the bad things have to happen here shortly, that begin to take place where God begins to get their attention because of what He is going to bring on this earth with great power.

And so, those who don't come up, it says, there will be a plague; and this word is used always in association with ‘death to destroy.'  It’s exactly what God is going to do.  So generally what we have focused upon in the past is, 'They won't have rain.  Oh, that will surely change them,' and we didn't go on to focus on the rest, we really didn't: that if they don't come up then, there are going to be plagues, destruction, death; a lot of those peoples that don't come up.  You remember the thousands that died in Israel out of  just a few million people with plagues that came upon them?  You remember the snakes?  What was it, twenty six thousand died that time because of their sins?  The plague of snakes that came around and finally God told Moses to get this pole and wrap a snake around it and every time somebody looks upon it...that means that it teaches something.  “I've been bitten by a snake; if I want to live I think I am going to go look upon that pole.”  It makes a believer out of you real soon.  Not that the pole did anything, but their obedience did and so they would obey, “I want to live! I'll go and look on the pole.” You know?  “I want to keep the Feast of Tabernacles next year!”  Anyway... that's how it works, human beings.

But God is letting us see these things more and what is reality and what is right and what is practical and what is sound in life and how things really work in life.  And not to have any, what I call Protestant kind of ideas of this wishy-washy, nicey-nice...that isn't really real.  Human life is something that, because of human nature, there's a way we respond to things and even that serpent on the pole, I still marvel when I see an ambulance running down a highway, I don't know if you have them here in Australia.  They have the snake.  Still to this day, because the Israelites thought that this pole had some kind of healing power in it, they began to worship it; to a point seven hundred years later, they had to destroy that pole.  They had to cut it up, grind it up, get rid of it because people started looking upon it as having some kind of power to heal; like some people do when they see a woman with a little baby.  And these little statues like it has some kind of power to heal, or to answer prayers and all these little beads; anyway, that's what the Israelites did because they were so physically minded.  They began to look upon that pole and to this day, especially where the Israelite people are, they have these poles with a snake wrapped around it as a symbol of healing.  That just really blows my mind, but it teaches a very powerful thing, how things are passed down from generation to generation to generation – ideas, customs, beliefs, religion, perverted religion, as far as beliefs are concerned.

And so it goes on to say here then, these are going to be destroyed, there is going to be destruction, there is going to be death in those nations that will not come up.  It had to be pretty tough and why does it mentions Egypt?  That has to be a tough one for those people that had believed, as they do in a religion, that it was Ishmael that God intervened for with Abraham; that Ishmael was lying upon the rock, to be offered in sacrifice, that was saved by this ram, this goat or whatever that appeared.  And was offered in place of Ishmael, that's what they teach; as much as Judaism teaches that it was Isaac.  And so they believe that and so for them to humble themselves, to send representation to an area of the world that has brought so much war and misery and unhappiness; it's a pretty tough thing, but they will be humbled and they will come to repent.  And they will come to begin to see that God's desire is for all mankind and that there are no 'special people’ that are better than everyone else.  They were given opportunity, salvation came to them first – the offer of it, but they did the same thing as has always been done, human nature.

It goes on to say here:  wherewith the Lord will smite, the Eternal, Yahweh, will smite the heathen who come not up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. So they will be dealt with.  This shall be the punishment of Egypt, and the punishment of all nations who come not up to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.  If you don't want to obey God and the punishment of the seven last plagues was not enough for you and you didn't learn through all of that, of what happened at the end before Jesus Christ and 144,000 came to this earth; then they will continue to come upon you until you repent, until you turn from your ways.  Because there will be one government, there will be one Church upon the earth and God is going to see to it that it be so.   So they still have choice in it, just like God said, 'This day I set before you life or death.  Choose life.'  It's still a choice. It's still a choice, it's just that the death comes a little faster if you don't respond and if that's your choice, so be it.  So again, the Millennium is not a utopia because the nature of man is still the same and with that always comes sorrow: not as it existed in the world before, not as has existed the last six thousand years obviously, a big change to an incredible degree, totally different – but nonetheless, it will exist.

Death will exist, disease will exist, things will happen because of disobedience.  The more people obey God, the more they are blessed; the less they do, they’re not blessed as much, intervention then will not be as often, see?  It's a personal thing.  Do you realise that even in the Millennium, it's still a personal relationship between each person and their God and how they respond to God.  Answers they receive in their life, things that happen in their life, is going to be determined by that relationship.  Accidents will exist, God isn't going to prevent them, God does not prevent accidents, just like a horrible one that was just recently.  Gut-wrenching as it was, a young man killed on a motorcycle: very sorrowful, very painful.  He has an opportunity again in another time, we know when that is and we look forward to that time, but God didn't prevent it from happening.  His aunt came up to me at one point there who is not a part of the Church, but she asked me, “Why did God let this happen?”  Choice; things happen in life, accidents happen in life: you hit a slippery part in the road, you lose control of something, things happen; we make mistakes sometimes in life, things happen.  Like I was talking about the other day, you know, a carpenter takes a short-cut, doesn't go over to a saw horse to cut a board and he uses his knee instead.  I've known these things that have happened to people, they've cut into their leg with a saw.  Those kinds of things happen, people take a short-cut; it takes a little bit longer to do something and so they've done something so often, so long in construction or whatever it might be because I grew up around some of those kind of things.  I saw people do crazy things.  I think about bricking a building one time up on the fourth floor, I was carrying mud to the brick-layers and down through these areas where they have these rafters and I'm not nuts about heights.  But anyway this is the fourth floor up there on this scaffolding and pushing these wheelbarrows full of mud and I saw people take some of the stupidest chances.  And you know what?  Every once in a while there were accidents because people take chances in life.

And in the Church of God, God isn't there to protect us from all those things, to keep us from having those things happen to us; we learn from that, other people learn from it and things just happen.  Someone runs through a stop sign, they’re talking, they’re distracted.  Have you ever done something on a highway where you realise that if time and chance had been a little different, how horrible it could have been?  Just a few seconds?  Because you were talking, you were distracted, you were looking at someone?  Things happen, we get distracted, does God prevent that from happening?  No, we learn from those things in life and it's just a part of life; God does not regulate our lives like that, to where He prevents everything from happening, anything that's bad.  And that's the way it is in the Millennium, we've had ideas in times past that God is going to prevent, there won't be anything like that - yes there will! That's free choice; it's a part of time and chance.  It must be that way, it truly must be that way.  That's why God has designed it so and thank God He has given us another time whereas if something like that does happen; we will be able to be in a better world, a more beautiful world, a world of greater promises, and be able to continue to work and to fight and to conquer and overcome in order to be a part of His Family because the Great White Throne is different, it is different to the Millennium.  It is better than the Millennium, it has promises that go above and beyond the Millennium that God's going to give to people that's exciting and inspiring for everyone who has an opportunity to live at that time.  It’s awesome what God is offering.

So again, things of healing – I think in some ways maybe some have thought in times past that every time something happens, somebody has a sickness, something happens because of certain conditions of health, maybe they’re not watching their health, maybe they’re not eating like they should be eating, maybe they are not exercising, then God's going to let it happen.  He's not going to make us all be in good health: He's not going to make us always eat the right things, the best things for ourselves. He lets us do things and then we learn some lessons from that sometimes – and sometimes we don't.  We learn things about our lives that God allows and so sometimes we get sick and you know what we do?  They’re going to do the same thing in the Millennium, they are going to call on the elders of the Church and ask for healing.  They have an accident and something happens and they’re going to ask for healing, that God will heal them.  Something takes place, their body begins to wear down, you know what?  When people get close to death a lot of times, they want to be healed and there comes some times when God says , “No, you must die.”  Everyone I've ever known in the Church, that has died in the Church, that happened to them.  There came a point in time where God said, “No, no more.  It's time to die, time to let nature take it's course,” it's a part of life – death.  For human life, we learn from that and God doesn't prevent it all from happening and He is not going to during the Millennium either.  There is much to be learned from those things, that it is healthy for us, it's beneficial to us, we grow from that.  We grow in appreciation and gratitude and thankfulness to God through that process and if we didn't have that there, oh we would be so fat and sassy spiritually, there would be no one saved in the Millennium.  If everyone lived all the way to the end, nothing ever happened, God always intervened, we would be so spiritually spoiled; we would be so spiritually asleep part way into the Millennium that no one could be saved.  That's the reality: that's the truth.

Let’s turn over to Isaiah 65.  This brings us to another misunderstanding because people have not fully understood God's purpose for the Millennium and God's purpose for the Great White Throne and that they are immensely different.  They are distinct and very different in so many ways.  They have similarities in some things, the government of God on the earth and a greater part of the government of God during the Great White Throne; they are distinct, they are unique.  Mankind still has human nature in the Great White Throne, but God's purpose for mankind has greatly changed once we enter into that particular time period.  And the greatest change at that time is that the vast majority of mankind is being resurrected to live a second physical life and obviously much is learned from that as well.  And by this time the world is so vastly different after one thousand years of God's government being on it and what people see and what people recognise and what people learn from what has been accomplished and achieved – but human nature’s still there.  But it's night and day between the first six thousand years and the last one thousand years.

Isaiah 65:17 - For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.  God's desire in time is that all past, all the hurt...because that's what it’s talking about: all the hurt, the pain, the suffering, the crying, the tears, the sorrow; that all those things in time can be forgotten.  Our life-span is really short compared to God's purpose for us, just like blinking your eye; it's there and it's gone – incredible.  We think it's a long time, seventy years is a long time, it is if you are living in a physical body.  Verse 18:  But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create: and we do, we are excited by it.  We are excited by seeing what God is creating, the God Family and how He is bringing this to pass and what is going to happen as a result of the Millennium and then what is going to happen as a result of the Great White Throne. But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, because it's spiritual what He's creating, it's a spiritual creation in the God Family, and her people a joy.  And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in My people: and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying. We covered some very similar scriptures, didn't we?  On the first day in the book of Revelation, let's turn back there, because it's what it's talking about.

Revelation 21:1 - And I saw a new heaven and a new earth: for the first heaven and the first earth were passed away; and there was no more sea. Again, expressions here to express something very powerfully so, of something that God has been doing and working at for so long.  Not a literal destruction of the earth, not a here it's gone one moment and then it comes back as something different; that's not what it's talking about.  The whole purpose and plan of God, everything in the creation is about one thing – the God Family.  Everything leads to the God Family and it's about creating of that.  A new heavens and a new earth – Jerusalem, holy Jerusalem as it talks about, Mount Zion.  And so the chapter begins by jumping to a period of time that's finally fulfilled through the purpose of the work of what's being done in the previous one thousand one hundred years, but it's a process.

Verse 2 - And I John saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband.  And so that's a process of a resurrection and what God does, and what God brings to pass, all that is pictured in that.  Whether it be at the beginning of the Millennium, or the end of the Millennium, the beginning of the Great White Throne, then finally at the end.

Revelation 21:3 - And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them.  How?  It's a process that starts out with His government – Jesus Christ being on the earth.  It begins to be magnified at that time in that way, in a unique way with a spirit-born Family, the Kingdom of God that is now set upon the earth and that's how it begins. But it continues on and becomes greater and greater and that's what these verses are about – that process.  ...and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, and be their God. And God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.  Immediately?  No, it's a process of time that leads up to a new heaven and a new earth, and there shall be no more death, I Corinthians 15, there's only one period of time when that happens, when it's all done, but it's a process of time after the one thousand years one hundred years has been accomplished. ...neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away. And He who sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. He’s referring to His purpose and His plan, He‘s referring specifically to all mankind and that which is going to be made new, that He’s been working at for so, so long a period of time. Write: for these words are true and faithful.  So very powerful all these things that God reveals in Revelation and talks about that we’re to understand and put in their rightful place.

Let’s go back to Isaiah 65:17 - go back and review some of these things being addressed and notice some differences here that we’re to see and why they are different.  Isaiah 65:17 - For, behold, I create a new heavens and a new earth: and the former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind. But be you glad and rejoice forever in that which I create: for, behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her people a joy.  And I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and the joy of My people: and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her, nor the voice of crying.

Verse 20: There shall be no more thence an infant of days, do you realise this is the only verse in the Bible we understand by how long this period of time is that follows the thousand years. This is the area it comes from.   There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man who has not filled his days: for the child shall die a hundred years old; but the sinner being a hundred years old shall be accursed.  So a lot is said here, there is a lot in this particular verse that people in the world read right over; they don't begin to comprehend and understand what God is doing, but God blessed Mr. Armstrong to understand what this was talking about and the Church has understood it ever since.  So during this time there are greater promises that ensure a specific life-span and protection that God wants us to grasp.  During this period of time there are going to be babies that are going to be resurrected who have died, who have opportunity to live out a long life – up to a hundred years.  It says, There shall be no more thence an infant of days, nor an old man who has not fulfilled his days/filled his days: for the child shall die a hundred years old; so that child will have opportunity to live that long.  So that means there’s a period of time of judgement that God gives all human beings and indeed, around eighty years max because that child has to grow up to be around twenty before they make choices and decisions and come to a point of baptism, because that’s what they come to.  They come to a point in time where they will choose baptism, so generally earliest around that time of accountability – nineteen, twenty, twenty-one, in through there at the earliest.  And then they begin a process of growing and overcoming just like we have, just like those during Philadelphia and Laodicea that are going to be a part of God's Family and those who are being drawn now and throughout the Millennium who will become a part of God's Family, that process.  But those who have died through time, who are resurrected at the end, during that one hundred years, very specific here what's going to take place.  And the awesomeness of it all is that God has given insurance here of promises, of something He’s going to do – a child shall not die, until they have reached a hundred years.

Let’s go on, verse 21: And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them. They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat: incredible, for as the days of a tree are the days of My people, and Mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands.  They shall not labour in vain, nor bring forth for trouble; for the seed, talks about here, for they are the seed of the blessed of the Eternal, and their offspring with them.  Some of this certainly starts during the Millennial period, but this is not talking about the Millennial period; this is talking about what is going to come afterwards, after it’s all done, the hundred years to follow.  And it says, And it shall come to pass, that before they call, I will answer; and while they are speaking, I will hear.   There are incredible blessings that are going to be there for those who live during that period of time who will respond to God, who will yield to God; that God is going to work with and give opportunity for His way of life because God knows.  God knows the minds of all whom He resurrects and things that they are going to do and respond and how they are going to respond to certain things that He gives them.

Notice verse 25 - The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock:  I'm just going to tell you right up front, that doesn't happen during the Millennium.  Does not happen during the Millennium because the purpose is not the same during the Millennium as it is the last hundred years.  God is going to guarantee certain things on this earth.  A lot of things are going to be taken away where He is going to make changes of various things as well, so that people are not threatened by things like they are today, or will be in the future and that's why these examples are given.  ...and dust shall be the serpent's meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, God's not going to allow certain things to happen during the Millennium either, we saw that at the end, but meaning here that they shall not kill anyone; meaning that these things here will not kill anyone.  They’re not going to hurt anyone, why?  Because they have to live a full life in order to be judged; there are certain guarantees and promises that God is going to give that we can't fully grasp and comprehend, but that's why those promises are there.   So that the world is different.

It's different than the previous seven thousand years and people are going to be able to see what God did for the thousand, compared to the six thousand years before that.  That lesson is going to be able to be taught in a very powerful way to people who are resurrected during that time period; things that they’re going to be able to understand and comprehend.  That until that time period comes, that they wouldn't be able to see and grasp and comprehend to the same degree.  And so these things are being discussed here because God has a purpose of what He is going to accomplish and an assurance of life that is not given during the Millennium.  An insurance from accidents that will not take place because God will be there before they cry out, “Save me God!” and God is there to save them.  Incredible what's going to take place, that people are going to be able to have intervention in their life, speedily, quickly, fast because the purpose is that they live a full life; so that they can choose and make choices because there's no other time to be resurrected again that God offers!

There is no other future resurrection and so if He allows them to die prematurely, if He allows them to die before they are judged, before they are able to come to a point of judgement, then what happens?  That's why the hundred years is different, uniquely so, than the previous thousand – fully different.  And what a beautiful time for human life.  What a beautiful time for those who have never had an opportunity for what God's going to give them.  Everyone that's resurrected whole and healthy.  Whole and healthy, complete, their minds, their bodies – no disease, no illness, no premature death, that's what God promises during that hundred years.  Otherwise, there are going to be a lot of busy things going on, “They died, I'm going to have to resurrect them again so they can keep going.”  And just resurrecting people right and left because of accidents that happen and illnesses that happen and so forth.  No, people are going to be able to live the full life-span, whatever that is, regardless of what age they are resurrected.

Those who are resurrected who are nine hundred and fifty years old, nine hundred and sixty years old, they get to live another hundred years.  They are not going to have to worry about their bodies getting old, they are ensured they are going to live during a period of time of judgement, whatever that is, that is required in order for them to make the choices of God's way of life.  To grow and overcome, to become a part of the God Family; God is going to ensure and give those things and there is much we don't understand about that period of time that will be taught.  And probably most of it won't be taught until toward the end of the Millennium because just like with what's happened in the Church today, God is preparing us for the Millennium and there are some things that are left to be like an outline, an overview.  It's like things that some of you have asked me questions about, about the Millennium and I don't have the answers – about the economy, banking, credit cards, money.  Will we have some of those things?  How is it going to be done?  I don't know.  I don't have the foggiest idea. God hasn't shown me those things.  Those are things that God is going to show us how to work upon, how to take care of in the Millennium once we are there.  Right now, we just have a kind of an overview of some of those things and God is giving us a better overview because we are about to go into that period of time.  And He will give us a better overview...just because Jesus Christ is here and the God Family is here, doesn't mean we are going to be given everything that we have questions on.

Some things are left in time, you can't tell everything about what happens when Satan’s released; there may not be any more given than that verse, those verses, than what's written there – period.  Just like God couldn't tell us in Laodicea or Philadelphia exactly how the great apostasy was going to take place.  We had to live through certain things and experience it. He did not tell us; otherwise it would have taken away certain things about choice and so forth.  There are things that God allows to take place.

Let’s go to Isaiah 11.  God wants us to begin to understand there’s a difference now between the hundred years and the thousand years and neither one are a full utopia because human nature is still human nature.  But there is something that God places in the minds of people during that hundred years, there is something that happens because you know, and you are going to know with all of your being that you were dead.  Children that grow up, the environment for them is going to be totally different, what they are going to be able to work with in an awesome way.  And intervention that God gives that is not purposed that He give in the previous one thousand years because that wouldn't be fair, it wouldn't be just.  Do you realise that God cannot do certain things during that thousand years?  Because then everyone could say, “Well, sure,” those during the previous six thousand years, Satan could claim that.  God is just in what He does, so there are certain things that God can't intervene and do; it would be against His way, against His purpose, against His law, His mind, His being because God is fair and righteous and just.  And so there are certain things that human beings are still allowed to have during the Millennium, mainly human nature, without direct intervention always there to help them out of every rut and every problem - see?  Because if that was offered during the previous six thousand years, then it would be easy to say, “Yeah, that isn't fair.  If we had that, if mankind was given that from you God, we could have built a different society, we could have had better things.  You know?  We could have made it!“

Isaiah 11:1 - And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots: And the spirit of the Eternal shall rest upon Him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Eternal; And shall make Him of quick understanding in the fear of the Eternal: and He shall not judge after the sight of His eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of His ears: But with righteousness shall He judge the poor, and reprove with equity the meek of the earth: interesting how it says this too.  There are certain things here, the meek of the earth, because you have to be of a teachable spirit to be taught by God, to be taught by Christ, to be taught by the God Family, to be taught by the Church of God.  A person has to be of a meek spirit because there are going to be those that won't have a meek spirit and they’re not going to be able to receive what God is offering them. ...and He shall smite the earth with the rod of His mouth, and with the breath of His lips and shall slay the wicked.

Verse 5 - And righteousness shall be the girdle of His loins, and faithfulness the girdle of His reins. Notice this, what does it all come to? The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.  During when?  It's a process, it begins with the Millennium, but this doesn't.  This part doesn't happen until a specific moment in time and it is the last hundred years.  So young people in the Church, or you're not in the Church yet, but your parents may be; you're not going to have pet lions, sorry.  You are not going to have pet poisonous snakes because they can still kill, they can still cause great pain during the Millennium.  God doesn't take that away, but there does come a time when God does give special blessings and special intervention and does change: there are going to be changes in some of the nature of animals because there are spirit beings that can do things with animals; to cause them to do various things to people that they have done through time as well, they are perverted beings – the demons and Satan.  And there is that which they magnify through things in the world, but even with that said; animals are still animals.  They still have basic nature about them and they’re still going to have it during the thousand years, but there does come a time when, a wolf also shall lie down with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.  Will not be harmed, cannot be harmed because God’s going to prevent it, will not allow it, so He actually even changes the nature of animals at this particular moment in time – awesome.

Would it be fair, would it be just, would it be right if He did that at the beginning of the Millennium?  And He didn't offer that to mankind in the previous six thousand years?  No, that's why He won't do it that way.  So during this period of time, the nature of such animals must be changed because of God's purpose during the last hundred years.  And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. That means that God has to change their bodies, their metabolism, the way they live, the way they survive; they’re not going to be ripping up what people are raising out there – the lambs, the cattle and whatever.  God is going to change them, there has to be a change in all of those animals of creation that He does change and God can easily do that in a moment.  And the suckling child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den. And they shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of God, as the waters cover the sea. Incredible!  This is not the Millennium.  People have read this in times past that this is about the Millennium; it is not.  It begins in a process with God's Family on the earth and God's government on the earth: but the Millennium, just like the last six thousand years if we can understand and grasp, the last six thousand years has been about the training and the moulding and fashioning of God's government for the Millennium.  And the Millennium is about the training and the moulding and fashioning of those to serve in, to give to, to help those during the last hundred years; that's what it's all about.  It's always for a purpose.  God has a plan of how He is going to accomplish it and this is a part of the revelation of that plan of what He is doing and what He’s going to change.

And so it says, They shall not destroy, nor hurt in all My holy mountain:  and verse 10 it goes on to say, And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek: and His rest shall be glorious.  And it shall come to pass in that day, that the Lord shall set His hand again the second time, this chapter is very specific in what it's referring to and what it is talking about and it is not the Millennium.  There is a distinction between the Great White Throne judgement, that day, the Last Great Day and the previous thousand years.  ... shall set His hand again the second time to recover, the word is 'to purchase, to redeem,' the remnant, which means 'the residue, the rest.' Who are the rest? 'And the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished.' the rest of His people, who are His people?  It's not just about a physical people, it's not just about Judah, it's not just about Israel; it's all mankind, who shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea.  And He shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and shall gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.

In that day, it's talking about the Last Great Day, it's talking about a great resurrection of all mankind who have the opportunity for a second life this time ensured by God to live a full life.  This time to be whole and healthy and complete; this time to have millions in the God Family all over the earth; this time dispersed all over the earth in a very powerful way.  The God Family, always present, always there.  Can you imagine?  Millions?  144,000, you can spread them out quite a bit over the earth, but millions and millions, perhaps hundreds of millions? We don't know, but all over the earth along with human beings that are living a second life, able to see them, visit with them; all the things that are going to be an advantage to them – protection and blessings that are there.

I'll tell you what, that gets close to a utopia, far more than the Millennium, but human nature is still human nature and people still have choices.  It's awesome what God’s going to offer them though and how much easier it is going to be for them because all the suffering and all the work that has been done for seven thousand years before has prepared for that day – a time of massive salvation for human beings.  Including those during the previous one thousand years who died and fell asleep spiritually when they were dead so that they had to be resurrected, so that they could continue on a particular course; if they haven't committed the unpardonable sin.  Awesome... awesome... awesome...

We'll stop there today.  It's exciting what God ‘s doing; it is exciting what God gives to us; it's exciting what He reveals to us.  And we are very blessed right now to begin to be given that opportunity to make a distinction of things between the Millennium and the Great White Throne and God is giving that to us, so that we don't have false expectations – and so that we don't teach the wrong things to others as they begin to have their minds opened up now, during this period of time that we’re getting ready to go through.  So that we can tell them rightly so, what to expect on the other side and not paint it something that is somewhat Protestant in nature.  We want to be totally away from that and totally be dealing with all the reality of what God is bringing and the beauty of it.

~~~end

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