God’s Witnesses – Pt. 3

Ron Weinland

May 5, 2012

We’re currently going through a sermon series entitled God’s Witnesses with this being Part 3, and today is the last one that’s in this series.  I guess we could have another series, part 1 and part 2, but I don’t think we will.  We’ll probably have different sermons.  I really don’t know what’s coming yet.

Once again let’s read through these verses again in Revelation 11.  It’s awesome what’s here, it truly is, things that are there in front of you all the time, but until its God’s time to see some of those things we don’t see them, we don’t know until He gives it to us.  And that’s what we’re doing now in going through Revelation 11.  Although we’ve read this a great deal here now in this sermon series I think it’s wise that we put it together again here just to get into the context, the flow, of what it’s talking about and then we’ll continue on from where we left off last Sabbath.

It says, Revelation 11:1 - And there was given to me a reed, used for measuring, like unto/in the form of a rod/a staff or a sceptre: how awesome these things – here talking about power, authority that God has given.  Later on it talks about some of that power and what the purpose of it is and so forth later for the latter part but it still started at this point here.  It says, and the angel stood, saying, Rise up and measure the Temple of God... It’s about the Church of God, and candidly, it always has been.  When we started through the 7 Seals and the 1st Seal that opened, we didn’t know in the beginning what it was, we didn’t know what was going on, we didn’t know the 1st Seal had opened.  We didn’t know what the apostasy was all about in the Church and then all of a sudden God brought us to that point to understand, basically because of the definition of what a Temple is, and being brought back to that, bring brought back to some of the things Mr. Armstrong said before He died when He said, “No one would be authorized to build a new temple.  No one would be authorized to function in it.  It can’t be, there can’t be a temple, a physical temple, in that sense.”  And he talked about how that it’s a matter of a spiritual one.  It’s the Church!  ...always has been.  That’s been God’s focus for the past 2,000 years; it’s about those whom He’s called.  And that’s His focus, because those are the ones He’s working with – especially in the past 2,000 years to become a part of the 144,000.  Those are the ones; those are the individuals whom God is working with to bring all the way down to the end.

All going back to the Temple and a definition of what it is, and it’s about the Church.  And the more we come to understand about what God is doing, why God is doing it, His focus hasn’t been on the world.  God has a time for all the world, a time for all those who have lived in the past 6,000 years and we understand that’s for the Great White Throne when they will live again.

Human beings, to live again a second time!  Those scriptures that are so clear in Revelation that people don’t understand in the world but they’re there. Talking about a second death... you can’t have a second death unless you have a second life.  Those things are simple to us, are plain to us but the world isn’t even aware of!  That’s awesome what we’ve been given, the truths of God!  And so it continues on, it’s about the Temple.  Even here it’s still about the Temple, but the Temple at the very end.  The Temple has gone through a lot beginning with the apostasy.  For a long, long time there were things written in scripture, things written in prophecies having to do with what was going to happen in the end-time; and God’s focus in all that?  The Church.  The Church at the end-time and what would eventually happen in the Church.

And it’s kind of interesting to note, even here in Revelation 11, because of not knowing all those things in times past in Philadelphia, and because of a concept that is easy for man to get when he reads the book of Revelation, when he reads about various things that are going to happen in an end-time, when people read about ‘Armageddon’, when people hear those things and read those things it’s so very easy to read into it what isn’t there, and yet there are horrible things that are going to happen at the very end but we tend to read into it more than what’s there.  And there’s a lot to learn from that because things aren’t ending at all like we had thought they might as far as devastation on the earth, as far as what was going to take place, what we believed, for a period called the ‘great tribulation’, for a period of 3½ years.   Thank God!

What an incredible thing...I’ll just tell you, thinking about this a great deal, especially with the last post, in one hour if God so chooses, if it’s God’s desire, every one of the events of the 7th seal can be fulfilled.  The continuation of and the final fulfillment of the 1st Trumpet, the continuation and finally the sounding of the 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, and 7th can candidly happen in an hour time.  And you need to think about that a little bit if you think that’s impossible.  No, it’s highly possible!  Highly possible that it could happen that way if God so chooses it.

But anyway, going on with the scriptures here...Rise up and measure the Temple of God, and the altar, and those who worship therein.  Beautiful description of those who serve God, that go before the altar in repentance and seeking God’s favour and seeking God’s help in their life and desiring to live spiritually a living sacrifice before God themselves.  And those who worship therein, we understand to worship in spirit and in truth that God has given to us over and over again in how we live our lives.

But the court which is without the Temple, outside, leave out and do not measure it; So it’s talking about the Church and that which can no longer be measured as a part of the Temple, that which is going to be obvious it’s a part of the Temple, those who worship therein, those who go before the altar of God – measure them!  But the rest, don’t measure.  Again, about the Church and what happened after the scattering, what happened after the apostasy in the Church.

...for it is given unto the Gentiles: again, that term used over and over again, non-believers, the other nations.  In the beginning it was about Judah, when you see the word used over and over again.  Whenever you see Gentile used it is about other nations other than Judah, in the beginning, and then the gospel began to go to...  Because to that point in time the temple was still in effect, the physical temple, to that point in time, to the point of Christ and the point of Christ’s death, the things that took place in Jerusalem.  It was about the temple and the worship there and so forth.  And in those terms that the apostles used and things that were used in that time and even early on, that term was still used until much later, even by Paul; talked about the Gentiles, he was sent to the Gentiles, to the others, not to the Jews.  Peter and the rest of the disciples, the apostles, were sent to the Jews.  'Gentile' is basically a term that has always had to do with non-believers, those who don’t believe, those who don’t know the truth.

But this happened to the Church, that some should be classified as Gentiles, not the Body anymore, not a part of the Temple anymore.

...and the holy City shall they tread under foot, trample on, trample under forty-two months. It comes to that point in time, finally, they’re to be measured, there is that which measures them, the truth of God.  They’re being measured themselves by the truth that God gives to the Church, and their rejection of it is the very thing that measures them.  We don’t!  I don’t!  It’s just what God gave and the way He gave it to the Church!  And those who received it, received it, those whom God awakened and drew, otherwise we understand they couldn’t anyway, they can’t see it.  And we see a spirit there, an attitude that God wanted to magnify, that even with His spirit you can turn against Him, you can lose out, you can turn from God.  We’re not there until we’re there...until we’re changed from mortal to immortal. So that part of the Church in the court area is going to trample underfoot - their spirit, their attitude – the truths of God.  That’s what it’s about.  They’re going to become.... awesome to understand...they’re going to hear them, those who do hear them, because not everyone has to hear it, but there’s a large, large number that’s large enough to be a huge witness percentage wise within the scattered Body and they’re going to reject, over and over again, from the different organizations, the different people, the different ministers that I know have read, because they have written and given sermons about different things that they’ve heard over time, for a long period of time since this began, of things they disagree with and then they tell why.  And they don’t know what they’re doing!  ...that they’re talking about God, they’re talking about God’s truth, and they trample the truth underfoot!  And who represents the truth?  Who has the truth?  We do.  So it’s us that’s spoken of here; they trample us underfoot.  That’s their attitude and their spirit toward this Body.

And I will give unto My two witnesses and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and threescore days – forty-two months – all those things that go together over and over again, clothed in sackcloth.  It’s a matter of humility; it’s a matter of understanding.  Because we understand!  We understand they can’t help it.  We understand by the mercy and the grace of God that we were awakened and had an opportunity and have had ever since to not be asleep any longer, and we should have compassion on them and take whatever is thrown at us just as much as we would the world that doesn’t understand.  When people get upset and on fire because they hate your beliefs, from different organizations and churches in the world, it’s water off a duck's back because we know they can’t help it.  Do we appreciate it when it’s happening?

You know, the Worldwide Church of God and it's brethren put out thousands and thousands and tens of thousands of stands with ‘The Plain Truth’ in them and people, especially I know some in Texas where we were, the Church of Christ and the Baptists that went out there to destroy what they could, literally destroyed the stands as soon as someone came out, as their job might be, to put ‘The Plain Truth’ into the stand again.  Someone would come along right behind them as soon as they saw them and take them out and throw them away, take them out to the trash somewhere and throw them away.  Some went a little farther, they destroyed the stands – because they thought they did God a service, because this is so far out to them.

And we understand that, we take that in humility because we don’t strike back, we follow the example of Christ.  We don’t act like they do, we don’t go do stuff to their... “See, they have some advertisements up there on the wall, I’m going to take them down. I’m going to rip those up.”  No, we don’t do things like that!  We take it!

And so have we with the Church that was scattered – a little bit like water off a duck's back except that we know them, and sometimes things cut deep.  But we’re still to take it in humility, aren’t we, to receive it in humility, not to have a haughty spirit by any measure.

Awesome!  ...clothed in sackcloth.  That’s our attitude, that should be our response in being humbled before God and not getting a big head and thinking we’re better than anyone else, not thinking we’re better than them.  That’s a big mistake people make!  That’s a big mistake that people in the scattered Body make, because people tend to think, “We’re better than them.”  That’s why they’re not joining them, because, “We’re better than them.”  Well, we know we have the truth but we know we’re not ‘better than’ them.  So again, different attitudes here that we’re to have, and as I mentioned last Sabbath, it’s itchy. I’m convinced that sackcloth itches when you wear it, it doesn’t always feel good.

These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before/in the sight of/with God to the earth. And if anyone will hurt, that word meaning, ‘act wickedly’ or ‘do wrong toward’ them, fire proceeds out of their mouth, not literal fire!  We understand what fire is in scripture and how it’s used.  We talked about the sword that’s used, that comes out of Christ’s mouth – that example is given.  We know it’s not literal; it’s the word of God that’s sharper than a two-edged sword.  It’s that which cuts asunder, that which shows individuals if they’ll receive it, what’s right and what’s wrong in their life that sometimes cuts very deep.  That’s why in the protestant world people hate the truth, that’s why they came around and destroyed ‘The Plain Truth’ magazines and the newsstands and so forth.  That’s why they wrote literature against the Church back in Mr. Armstrong’s time.  And those things haven’t stopped in the world, have they?  And so it cuts deep sometimes, cuts them deep, because they have to fight against it because they have to uphold their ideas, their beliefs and so forth.

...fire proceeds out of their mouth and devours/eats up their enemies: it eats them up sometimes, truly, inside it becomes a torment, a type of torment to them; so when/even when anyone will hurt/act wickedly toward/do wrong toward them, they must in this manner be killed.  Again here, talking about a judgement that’s upon them, a judgement if they don’t repent what will happen to them in time.

These have power to shut heaven, ‘power to shut heaven’ that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: and have power over waters to turn them to blood, so we talked about that last Sabbath, what that means.  Again, things about Christ, things about a process of the truth and the power.  Because it’s the truth, and those who are drawn out of scattered groups or those who are drawn out of  the world toward the end-time, these are things that take place as people are turned toward Christ and are able to have their lives cleansed and washed and made – just like your garments – to be made white.  ...and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will. So again here, some of those verses here that we read last Sabbath; I don’t want to spend a lot more time on them.

But let’s continue on today now with verse 7 - And when they shall have finished their testimony, the beast who ascends out of the bottomless pit shall make war against, or as the word is, with them, and shall overcome them, and kill them.  Pretty strong!  Pretty strong language in what’s being used here.

And when they shall have finished their testimony... now, there’s a big problem with how this verse is translated into English because translators have most often repeated an improper use of the Greek tense that is used here.  They consistently use the term ‘shall have finished’ which gives the impression that this is speaking of when the two witnesses have finished their witness then another event follows, and that’s not true.  Because there are a lot of examples in scripture, because they try to understand what God is saying, that even with verbs and what we refer to as a verb that’s different in the Greek language here, but even with various words, of how they will actually end up translating it into English to mean something they think it means even though sometimes it has nothing to do with the type of tense in the Greek language.  And that’s what they’ve done here, because they’re trying to follow a flow here of something they think is being said.

So these translators have misused the actual tense of this phrase by adding the word ‘have’.  It doesn’t belong there, it’s not used there in other examples in scripture; and they have added the letters ‘ed’ to the verb ‘finish’ here, so having to do with ‘have finished’ which makes this sound like action in the past, or when it finishes, comes to a point, especially the way it is here, ‘shall have finished’.

So, before we jump into this verse we’re going to begin by taking a little time to first become somewhat educated about a Greek grammatical term.  And I know this isn’t a lot of fun but just strive to understand the flow of what’s being said here.  It is the use of this word that gets very specific in the Greek language; it’s ‘aorist’ – subjective active.

In Greek grammar the aorist tense is a class of verb forms that is used for simple undefined action.  Here we have a term that is ‘active voice’ but what is most important here is that this is what is called the ‘subjunctive mood’.

So, I want to read this, just bear with me a moment.

This mood makes an assertion about which there is some doubt or uncertainty – about what’s being said – it is closely related to the future tense which helps to explain the fact that often the uncertainty about what is being said arises only because the action has not yet occurred.

So that’s where the uncertainty comes in, because the action has not yet occurred.  There are things in different languages and some of you that have other language backgrounds and so forth, English is unique, every language has unique rules and laws or whatever that regulate how it’s used and so forth to be grammatically correct. But I though it would be good just to use some examples here just so you can see how this word is used in some other areas.  You don’t have to know these things in depth; it’s just a matter that sometimes if you see how it’s used in other places it will help you to better understand what is being said here and how they misused it.

John 13:1 - Now before the Feast of the Passover, when Jesus knew that His hour had come that He ‘should depart’ out of this world; and that word, ‘should depart’ is the same tense here that’s being used as we find later on.  It’s not ‘should have departed’.  So again here, you have to be careful of what you add into a meaning of something that’s being said.  So again here, that He should have departed out of is world unto the Father, having loved His own who were in the world, He loved them unto the end.  And so to add the word ‘have’ in there and ‘ed’ to ‘depart’, it changes the meaning.  ‘So, when He knew that His hour had come that He ‘should have departed’’?   A little strange; it doesn’t fit, does it?  It’s clear there.  He knew where He was in time.  He knew that He was approaching that time and something would happen later on.  But it hadn’t happened yet so there’s that uncertainty there – hadn’t happened yet but it is coming.  He knew the hour had come, that this was upon Him, but you can’t change it from there.

Another one, John 19:15 – I’m trying to make this as simple as possible to show how they have used it in Revelation 11 and how these verses are and that if you misuse it like they did in Revelation 11 that it totally changes the meaning – and so it does in Revelation 11. But they cried out, Away with Him, away with Him, impale Him on the stake. And Pilate said to them, Shall I impale your King on a stake?  And it’s that word ‘shall impale’ again here.  Shall I impale your King on a stake? And the chief priests answered, We have no King but Caesar.  Amazing what took place here.  You read these things and I am just still dumbfounded by the attitude and spirit.

So, if you change it like they did in Revelation 11 he would be saying; ‘Shall I have impaled your King on a stake?’  It doesn’t fit, it’s not the timing, it’s not the right use of the tense here at all, it puts a totally different meaning on something - and that’s what they did in Revelation 11; totally changes what God is saying.

John 19:31- same chapter - The Jews therefore, because it was the preparation, that the bodies should not remain... again, this same tense, ‘should remain’.  ...that it should not remain upon the stake on the Sabbath day, because it’s the word in the Greek for ‘stake’ not a ‘cross’, not a ‘crucifix’.  ...upon the stake on the Sabbath day, (for that Sabbath day was a High Day,) a Holy Day, an annual Holy Day, asked Pilate that their legs might be broken, and that they might be taken away.  So again here, we know the story, why the breaking of legs, so they couldn’t hold themselves up any longer and they’d have to suffocate so they could be taken down before the High Day came, and then they came to Christ and He was already dead because a soldier had come by and ran a spear through His side, as it says.

But again here, to change this word here ‘that the bodies should not remain’ – to change it to ‘should not have remained’; again, it’s changing the timing completely, it takes it totally out of context of what’s being said here.

1 John 2:24 – and if this doesn’t make any sense to you, don’t worry.  Some of you it will, others it’s like...Greek!  Let that therefore abide in you, which you have heard from the beginning. If that which you have heard from the beginning ‘shall remain’, continue in, that word we oftentimes use about abiding in/dwelling in/living in, as God’s spirit dwells in us, lives in us, as the truth remains in us, lives in us, dwells in us by the power of God’s spirit.  If that which you have heard from the beginning shall remain in you, you shall continue in the Son, and in the Father.  Because that’s how it’s accomplished, by remaining in the Father and in the Son and they in us; that’s how we’re able to remain in God’s way of love and in the truth.  That’s what he’s discussing here in essence.  But to change that to say, ‘if that which you have heard from the beginning shall have remained in you’ – again, totally changes the meaning.  And if you don’t do it for these verses you can’t do it for Revelation 11 either.  And you think, “How could they blatantly do things like that in scripture?”  But over and over again you find occasions where they do.

1 John 4:15 – one more example here... Whosoever ‘shall confess’ that Jesus is the Son of God, and we understand that is by how they live their life; that’s how you profess, confess, that Jesus is the Son of God, by your belief in the truth, by what you do and how you live your life according to the truth.  It says... God dwells in him, and he in God.  So again here, to change that to ‘Whosoever/Whoever ‘shall have confessed’ that Jesus is the Son of God’; again, it takes away the meaning from what is being said – foolishness to do so.

So again, back here in Revelation 11.  So the correct translation of this is not ‘And when they ‘shall have finished’’... take out the word ‘have’ because it shouldn’t be there, and the ‘ed’ on the end.  It just simply says, And when they shall finish their testimony...

Another word we need to look at before we give the full meaning of this.  Next, the Greek word translated ‘finish’ also means ‘accomplish and fulfill’.  And when they shall finish, accomplish, fulfill their testimony...  When do they accomplish, finish, fulfill their testimony?  During the period of 1260 days.  It’s not saying when they have finished it at the end; it’s not a term that’s being used when it’s all over with, of when it’s completed.  It’s when they do their job, it’s when they go through and complete and do those things that fill a period of time, specifically 3½ years, forty-two months, 1260 days.  It’s that simple.  That’s what it’s talking about.

And so ‘when’ – in other words, during the time they shall accomplish their testimony, their witness, the beast who ascends out of the bottomless pit shall make war against/with them.  So we know that this beast is what’s spoken of back here in Revelation 9:11 – I’ll just read that to you again because it’s....the point being it’s showing you who it is, not the timing, because some could say, “Well, that doesn’t happen until toward the end of the 3½ years; at some point he’s going to be let loose as far as what he does in Europe and that part of the world.  We’ve already gone through that in scriptures recently.  That’s not what that’s taking about.  It’s talking about the identity of the one who comes out of the bottomless pit, and that’s the whole point of this.

It says, [Revelation 9:11] - And they had a king over them, who is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue his name is Apollyon.  Satan.

So again, ‘the beast makes war’ - but not when he comes out of the bottomless pit, he does it for a full 3½ years.  That’s his primary focus that’s being spoken of here.

So again: For forty-two months Satan wars against God’s witnesses, against God's Church, and to understand how he does it is what is the point of all of what’s being discussed here in Revelation 11.  And it states that ‘he overcomes’, conquers, prevails over them by ‘killing them’. Oh, we’re very much alive so what does this mean?  That’s why, because of how it’s stated here, that’s why they mistranslated the words beforehand, because they think this means ‘after it’s over with’ and it’s not, it’s about the duration of the time that something takes place.  So physically, again, we tend to only see a single one time moment when such an event can take place, henceforth again that awkward translation...and the reality is that the war of Satan’s doing lasts for the full 3½ years, the full forty-two months.  And the forty-two months is a giant clue in the first place because it shows how he does it, shows how he makes war.

So, to understand fully what this means we need to read the following verses to grasp what’s taking place.

Verse 8 - And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great City, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was ‘crucified’ [impaled on a pole].  Again, not saying it’s the same place but its letting you know where this place is that’s being spoken of.  It’s about Jerusalem, but here we understand as we already went through in Part 1, it’s talking about the Church again.  It’s spiritual!  ...and what happened to the Church.

And they of the people and kindred’s/families and languages and nations shall see their dead bodies three and a half days, and shall not suffer/allow their dead bodies to be put in graves. So again, what is our natural tendency?  We read right into this physically as we always have, what’s going to take place before the 3½ days at the end here and a death that takes place and bodies that are literally lying in a street... until God shows us that’s not what it’s all about at all.  It’s what’s been taking place in the past nearly 3½ years now with the Church and with the Church that was scattered.

So again, I’m repeating some of these things but I want to make sure the points are driven home.  As we have covered the meaning of 3½ days as being literally the time for the two witnesses of God to fulfill, to accomplish their work being done in 3½ years, then what can it mean when ‘their bodies are as dead in the streets of the City for this duration of time’?  Well, we’ve covered how Sodom and Egypt spoken of here, when described in these verses spiritually, is about Jerusalem, its spiritual condition which is about the Church and what happened to it after the apostasy.

Verse 8 - And their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great City, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was ‘crucified’ [impaled on a pole].  So again, what is the ‘street of the great City’?  We should know these things!  I mean, they’re so simple in so many ways.  I think of the example of when we talk about oftentimes how that we understand the spiritual meaning of how that God led the children by ‘the way of the Red Sea’.  There was no ‘way of the Red Sea’. Today we talk about ‘high-ways’ where people travel, and in a city it’s not a matter – especially in Jerusalem – it is streets, not highways.  There aren’t ‘ways’.  The way of the city, like old Jerusalem if you’ve ever seen it, is not something where you drive a car through – not allowed, not big enough, it wasn’t built for that.  There are streets where you walk with steps throughout the city because of the different levels and so forth, and you... well, you could maybe take a motorcycle through there but you know, it’s not a matter of somewhere that you drive literally.  It’s talking about the same thing, ‘ways’.  That’s why God said He didn’t take them the way of the Philistines which would have been much easier – that ‘way’.  And so God takes us in a ‘way’.  We understand the spiritual meaning of those things.  He leads us in a way that we don’t understand or we don’t know, and God has to reveal it to us all along the way.  That’s why oftentimes I talk about ‘being at the Red Sea’ and God has to show us ‘the way’ because we don’t know it!  God has to show us!

And so it is here.  So again, the street of the great City; it is about that which identifies all those who are classified in this manner, all who are classified as the Gentiles, nations, if you will, the Jerusalem that is the Church who spiritually became as Sodom and Egypt that has refused God’s truth...is all who are scattered after the apostasy who are not now in the Church of God – PKG, just to say it bluntly.  There is ‘their way’ – every one of them has a different way, candidly, and we have ‘a way’.  See?  But in ‘their way’, in ‘their part’ of the City we are identified in a different manner totally.

So, the street of spiritual Jerusalem that is holy, talking about the true Body of Christ, is what identifies ‘the way’ of that Body of people.  It’s God’s way, it’s the truth, it’s what we’ve been living by.  It is ‘the way’ we follow; it is the life that God has given to us.  They don’t agree with that – none of them do – they don’t follow that ‘way’, they have a different ‘way’.

So again here, the street of spiritual Jerusalem that is holy, speaking of the true Body of Christ, is what identifies ‘the way’ of this Body of people, of us, which is the way of God’s truth that He has given.  It is the way He has used to measure the Temple.  It’s the truth!  That’s how God has measured us, that’s the power and authority that’s mentioned back there in the first two verses; it is the way of life we live, it is the truth we live by, it is the 57 Truths, if you will, that we live by.  That identifies us, who we are, and the way we follow.  It isn’t their way at all!  And over time that way simply grew and has become stronger and stronger ever since the apostasy, as I said, now 57 Truths identify ‘the way’ we walk, ‘the way’ we live in spiritual Jerusalem.  It is the way you walk, it is the way you follow, it is the way you go from one place to another within spiritual Jerusalem.  There’s a way of life you live; it’s just another way of describing that.

So, to this Body of people, especially during the past 3½ years, we’re as ‘dead’ to them – God’s way is dead to them, it truly is!  The truth – fully rejected, fully trampled upon, fully mocked and made fun of.  And those who believe in it?  You know how you’ve been treated for nearly the past 3½ years by different ones.  It is ‘their way’.  And so how you are viewed, how this Body is viewed, how the truth is viewed is quite unique in the way God, in a poetic kind of manner, describes these things prophetically for the end-time.

Ever since, and to varying degrees even before, but ever since the revelation of the 144,000, that they’d been sealed, and the two witnesses were declared and began their work, the many who have not repented but have become more deeply entrenched in pride are those who have powerful disdain for God’s Temple, and at every turn when the subject of God’s Temple arises they tread it underfoot.  That describes their actions, their ‘way’.  They tread it underfoot as lowly, disgusting, beneath them, as dirt, and even as ashes, spiritually, because their pride is so great that they think, they believe God’s Temple is a shameful thing, His truth a shameful thing; two witnesses – “...a man and a WOMAN?!”  That’s the attitude!  “You are nuttier than a fruitcake!  Crazy!  How could you ever believe such a thing?!”  And yet, it’s the truth.  It is the truth of God, but it’s trampled underfoot with incredible distain, even hatred.  I’ve experienced it, it’s written all over out there, it’s easy to find the attitude and the spirit and the mind of individuals on a spiritual plane toward God’s own people.

And so again, a thing to be mocked and ridiculed, even a thing to be hated and treated with contempt, bitterness, and repulsion.  See, I can ask you, “Have you received that from any of our past?  ...those of you who have been around any length of time?”  And I know you have.  I know how people talk, I know how they act towards the truth of God, to those who represent the truth – and so God just uses a term, a focus in scripture to identify that in a greater way because of what it does.  It’s a witness!  And so He says He has two witnesses that He is focused on at the end, that every attitude toward them and what they represent and what they believe is treated in this manner – because it identifies, that identifies the truth, the way of God, what God has revealed over the past many years, 57 Truths.  It identifies who you are and what you believe in a greater scale.  That’s what we are. It’s who we are.  It’s ‘our way’.

And because of their being stuck in time and not having grown in spiritual knowledge...and if any of them hear me, I know what they say.  This stabs them deep!  They get upset!  And I think, “Why do you listen to it then?  Why do you bother?  Why do you do this to yourself?  Why do you torment yourself like that?”  It doesn’t make sense but they do!  And because of their being stuck in time and not having grown in spiritual knowledge, truth, they foresee that over a longer period of time the scattered Church can be reunited by God.  There are those who believe out there that God’s going to bring it all together again – but not us....  not us, not with our beliefs, we’re too far out there, we’re too far gone, we’ve gone too far astray.

Again here, that the Church can be reunited by God, that’s some of the basic belief out there in some of the scattered Body, that many who have been scattered or those who have fallen away can be saved at a future time, those who were deceived or perhaps never converted (again, in their thinking, in what they’re thinking), but for God’s Church who now believes that women can be the head of a home due to God’s spiritual government in the Family, or the ordination of women, or the fact that the Church of God – PKG is following a ‘false prophet’ who has declared himself such... - some of the different ideas, this is how, again, they’re thinking – or the fact that none of this group believes that Jesus Christ has eternally existed... then they’re dead.  Because this is what they think, this is how they view the Body.  Not only that, but there are those who believe that it’s the third resurrection. How much ‘deader’ can you become? Eternal death.  Dead in the city, in the streets, in the ways, because of their ways and what they’re doing.  And so it’s like they’re so far gone they can’t even be helped.  Sad.  Because it is the truth of God.  It is what God has given His Church and what we’ve continued to grow in.  Things that should be so simple that are rejected – Petra, it’s God, it’s not a place in Jordan where people are going to go during the ‘great tribulation’.  The apostasy, it did take place, our scattering proves it; the Church being scattered into over 600 groups and bodies, proves it, is witness of that truth...and yet that’s rejected.  And if you believe it something is wrong with you – they’re thinking.

So this is a description here in Revelation 11 about two different ways all the way through, that which is a part of basically God says, Gentiles, non-believers, outside the Temple area, in the court, can’t be a part of the Temple, can’t be measured in there.  And then there is the Temple and those who are blessed to worship God in spirit and truth who’ve been awakened, who continue to go forward, who continue to follow God...and there’s that distinction made between two groups all the way through Revelation 11 and it’s identified through what God has given as His two witnesses that represents, that shows the way of the Church, the truth that God has given to the Church.  On and on it goes.

And so again, there is that feeling out there that there is no hope for those who have gone so far doctrinally from what existed up to the time of the apostasy.  They are confined to the final death.  That’s sad.  That’s sad, truly is.  I’m glad we’ve come to understand things and grasped things even in that area that haven’t been fully understood.  I think of one group out there very early on that had that attitude and spirit toward everybody else- they left very early on, more out of rebellion and disagreement with various things, but out of rebellion at that time because it wasn’t a matter of something done justly, one who began to call himself a prophet, I think even ‘The Prophet’.  That’s how he identified himself at one point in time.  And anyone that was not with them, everyone else, basically were written off, confined to death.  That started a long time ago, that attitude and spirit; and that was the attitude toward others.  “If they’re not with us it’s the third resurrection for them – they’re dead, they can’t be helped unless they repent and come with us now...because if they wait much longer and if they die it’s the third resurrection.”  Some of you are nodding your head, you know that’s true, you understand what was taught by them, what’s been taught by them, what is still taught by them.

Through time that attitude has grown within the scattered Body and their attitude and their feeling toward the truth, toward the true Body.

So again, God uses quite an incredible manner here to describe something throughout Revelation 11 in terms that are not easy to be understood, because they’re terms that are used to describe something spiritually about His Church and about His people and those who were a part but aren’t at this moment.  Let’s go on.

And their dead bodies, in other words, as the Gentiles, the non-believers, the spiritual Jerusalem that is now Sodom and Egypt, as they see it in attitude and spirit toward the truth, toward the true Body, toward, even more so, the two witnesses... and their dead bodies in the street of the great City, the words ‘shall lie’ aren’t even there – those are added.  If yours are in italics that’s because they aren’t even in the Greek language.  But see, they’re trying to interpret something and put it into English in a way that they think is being described, because they see a literal physical city, and so these words are added.  And their dead bodies in the street of the great City, as they see it, this group out there, which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt where also our Lord was ‘crucified’ impaled on a pole.

And they of these people or they of the people, it’s these people that’s being talked about, and kindred’s/families and languages and nations shall see, again, as they see it, shall see their dead bodies, their attitude for the past nearly 3½ years has been this over and over and over again; and they shall not allow, suffer/allow their dead bodies to be put in graves.

Although this next example is about the gospel going to the Gentiles, I want to look at another area here, Acts 28.  We’re going to come back to this and finish this but we need to look at another area here in what is being said.

Although this next example is about the gospel going to the Gentiles it also applies here to the truth that has gone to spiritual Gentiles.  Let’s notice this and then we’ll come back to this flow here in verse 9.  Acts 28:24 - And some believed the things which were spoken, and some did not believe. And when they did not agree among themselves, they departed, after that Paul had spoken one word; so here it’s talking about an encounter with Paul and what Paul was preaching and so Paul goes on to say – not just one word – but what he had to say in word to them now one more time.  He said, Well spoke the holy spirit by Isaiah the prophet unto our fathers, Saying, Go unto this people and say, Hearing you shall hear and shall not understand; and seeing you shall see and not perceive: so again, they will see but it will be here, if you will, as they see it when you talk about what is taking place here with this Body that we’re discussing.  Because although this is applied to the Gentiles, although this is applied to all non-believers, the word ‘Gentiles’ is used for a purpose back in Revelation 11 because it means ‘those who refuse to believe’, ‘those who are non-believers’, those who don’t believe what God said’, not matter who they are!  And so this kind of a term, this kind of a description is as much for them on a spiritual plane.

For the heart of this people is waxed gross, interesting Greek word here, it means ‘thickened’, ‘to become fat’, their heart thickened and their ears are dull of hearing, and their eyes have they closed... I think of the one truth above all others out there – that if that’s not accepted you can’t even begin to go forward, and that’s the truth that an apostasy occurred in the Church of God.  And if that can’t be acknowledged, what a horrible state - you can’t progress, you can’t begin to understand what happened to you, you can’t understand why there are so many different groups out here and why we were scattered in the first place – but to accept that truth means you’ve got to accept everything else that goes with it: all the stones came down, not one remained.  You have to accept what God said about Laodicea, that He vomited it out of His mouth, the whole Body, the whole Church, not just part of it.  On and on you have to go and otherwise you willingly close your eyes, as it says here, they’re dull of hearing, their eyes have the closed, they made the choice, they don’t want to see it, they don’t want to hear it.  And they become so steeped in that that after awhile those who really believe what is true are looked down upon as has been for the last nearly 3½ years for this Body, for this group.

That’s why there are such sick, perverted, disgusting, twisted things said, written, and so forth out there, that’s why they exist, because of this spirit and this attitude and this hatred and this that seems to almost torment some to where they have to listen.  It’s like they get a pleasure of tormenting themselves, of being tormented.  You think, “Why do you do that?”  I’ve mentioned that many of times over the past few years, “Why don’t you just go fishing?  Why don’t you go do something that you can enjoy?  Why torment yourself if you hate what you hear?  Where is this coming from?”  And they don’t know; they don’t understand where it’s coming from.  Sad, truly is.

So again here, this is happening just as God said here in Isaiah to the literal Gentiles, it’s happening to those who are spiritual Gentiles as well. For the heart of this people is waxed gross, their ears are dull of hearing, their eyes have they closed lest they should see with their eyes, hear with their ears and understand with their heart and should be converted and I should heal them.  Can’t be healed.  Can’t go through a healing process.

Let’s go back to verse 9 here: Revelation 11:9 - And they of the/these people, what people?  What are ‘the people’ it’s talking about here?  It’s talking about these same ones.  It’s all the way through here – there are only two groups being spoken of - unless it’s speaking of two witnesses, but they represent one group, that’s what’s there, the Church of God, the truth, standing with God before God to the whole earth. That’s what it is, the Church of God is that way, we are that way, that’s what we live, it is the truth, it is where God gives the truth, and so God gives that description throughout scripture here – and the other group, the one that was scattered, the one that has become non-believing in what God has given and their attitude towards God’s truth that He has given.  And they of these people, and kindred’s/families, and languages and nations, because they’re all over the world, just like we are, scattered all over the place where God called different ones in the beginning or during a period of time during Philadelphia.  ...they shall see, in other words, their attitude, their spirit, as they see it their dead bodies for three and a half days.  This is going to continue on for 3½ years.  That’s what God says.

So you know what?  I know it’s going to go all the way to the end.  See, if I’d known this several years ago we’d have organized things in a different manner – but God didn’t want them organized in a different manner, He wanted them organized in the manner they are right now.  We are unique in how we’re set up, we truly are.  We have quit ordaining people now because we understand some of these things.  There will be ordinations after Christ returns, I can tell you that right now, again, to go out and do a work.  But there’s been training and preparation for training, the same training those individuals are going to receive immediately after Christ returns from the same place, because the Church continues on and the website will still be out there.  It’s going to be back out there, where it gets cut off, it’ll be back out there, get’s repaired.  That’s how it get’s repaired.  It’s going to be repaired so that people can work through it again.  It’s going to become looked upon in a different way in the future.

But what an awesome thing that God has done to organize us, to prepare us, to help us to understand so that many can be brought on quickly and trained quickly in various areas.  And we thought we would be doing a lot of this stuff, because it was God’s purpose that we thought this.  Please understand – God’s in control.  I think back in time, I think back about... the big one for me in the beginning after coming in the Church in 1969 was Pentecost.  God could have shown that to Mr. Armstrong as soon as God told him the truth about the Sabbath, or revealed that to him. He could have revealed the truth about Pentecost; that it’s not on a Monday, but on a Sunday.  But God didn’t!  God, candidly, waited for a long, long, long time –not until 1974 was it changed to the truth, that Pentecost is always on a Sunday.  But it tried the Church, it tried people, to see where they were, just as God did in the Old Testament as He said, He did different things at different times to try them.  He knew what they were, what they were doing, what they were like, but it’s to reveal their attitude and their spirit, and their heart.  And that becomes more important once you’re a part of the truth, the Church, because now God is working with you on a spiritual plane to mould and fashion you.  Before it was just a physical nation, now we’re a spiritual one.  Now it becomes important, and in the sense of that which is lasting and has to do with our eternal life or our life into everlasting life, if you will, eventually.

And so again, it’s an incredible thing how God has worked with us as a group of people and has with the Church for the last 2,000 years, if you want to talk about the Church. And so we have organized in different ways, but God’s still going to use that, it’s just not in the time we thought, in the way we thought.  There will be those who are changed, become a part of the 144,000, and their job isn’t going to be the same as what it is for the Body of the Church and the functions given to it, because God’s purpose is that it be done differently.  People aren’t going to be baptized by the 144,000.  They could go out and do it zip-zip-zip-zip-zip, get around the world quickly.  That’s not God’s purpose and God’s plan.  He lets us share in it, and what has happened in the last 2,000 years is going to continue on except it’s going to be magnified many times over.  Awesome where we are in time and what God is doing and what He’s getting ready to do, of things we really can’t fully grasp yet.  We really can’t grasp it, we just believe it.

I can’t grasp the next three weeks.  I can’t grasp the potential of what can happen in the last day.  I can’t grasp it!  I can’t grasp fully what’s going to happen at about 12:30 – 12:00 on the Sabbath of the 26th here in the eastern time-zone.  I can’t grasp that fully, but I believe it; you believe it.

That’s something I marvel at too.  I marvel at how God brought different people at different times to believe, to live a certain way of life, to live by faith; most often single individuals who live by faith, as a whole.  You see a lot more when you see what Moses did, but that’s because more of Moses and because of the miracles that happened in Egypt and Aaron and Miriam and a few, a handful of people that God worked with to do something on a physical plane, to do something as they determined to leave Egypt and what God did with them at that particular time and the awesome miracles that God performed in order to do so.  But if you go through time and you look at Abraham’s life, you look at different people’s lives through time, things that God told them to do.  Noah; it was Noah and his family, but I marvel at what God has done at this end-time, and I hope you do too, to bring a Church that is scattered all over this world, people who listen in on the Sabbath across this country and Canada, that listen to it probably the same time right now because people don’t want to wait, the rest of the world as well, but able to listen in and to hear what’s being said, and how we all believe the same thing, we all go forward not knowing how this is going to come out but we’re still doing it.  It’s difficult to grasp, it really is.

I read a letter here the other day that I’m going to ask for permission maybe next Sabbath to read, from an individual and what he’s going through and some of his feelings since 2008 and this process he’s been going through – not yet with us but he’s there, but not with us yet and he says it very well in a way that I think means a lot because it kind of sums up a lot of the things that all of us have gone through, even within the Church, even with the Body, all those who are here. Because this has been an incredible journey, it really has, and I marvel if you think about faith and what God does.  Candidly I was talking to someone the other day, it reminds me of 2005 – I think it was Terry the other night – we were discussing how this reminds me of 2005.  To me that was such a moving thing!

I had never experienced something like that in such a massive scale where I knew a major doctrine was being addressed.  The only other experience that came even close to it was Pentecost in 1974.  This here was gargantuan.  To discuss things about Jesus Christ, that He hasn’t eternally existed, something that the Church as a whole had always believed.  And to bring us to that point in time where God gave sermon after sermon, inspired things to be said to help us to see clearly, by the time the Feast was over brought us into unity and oneness (as a whole) – a few, a handful that didn’t believe those things – and I already know something else had to be going on in their lives for that to happen – because of how things happen, because they don’t happen overnight.  But the receiving of the truth at that time – I’ve had that as a part of my life ever since that day because I witnessed something that was such a powerful spiritual thing to take place in the Body of Christ.  It could have happened no other way, that something so major could be addressed in that manner and be received as it did on a spiritual plane save that God did it...and that gave me tremendous boldness and strength on a spiritual plane.

This, what I see here today; this, what I’ve seen as we travel from area to area around the world, gives me incredible strength and boldness to know who we are, to know what God is doing, to witness it, to see it.  It’s an awesome thing!  For God to work through a Body of people – think about it – to mould and fashion our thinking, our minds to be at one, that we live by the same faith and we walk forward...maybe with cans under your bed and in your closets, and wondering what are you going to do with it now.  Well, don’t throw it away, because, candidly, when things come to a screeching halt for a while, as they will – they have to...  the kind of things that are described that are going to happen, even if they happen quickly in such a short length of time... when these semi’s aren’t running up and down the road everyday ... because it’s going to take a while to get things running again.  You just won’t have to use them at a time when you thought, it will be a different circumstance around you.  How blessed we are, truly.  It’s awesome!

And so they, of these people and kindred’s, and languages and tongues shall see, again as they see it, their dead bodies for three and a half days, 3½ years. ‘Dead bodies’, again, is a Greek word used in only four verses; once in verse 8, once in verse 9, and it’s a word that literally means ‘fallen body’.  That’s how it’s used in scripture.  That’s what it means in the Greek language, their ‘fallen body’ – how do they look upon us?  Fallen, not necessarily dead but fallen, fallen from the truth.  How much farther could you fall?  ...which affects the Body.

I’m going to read you a scripture here about John the Baptist. Mark 6:9 – this is the account of when John the Baptist was killed.  And when his disciples heard it, they came and took up, speaking of John, his corpse; now there’s another word that’s used for ‘body’ in places.  This here just simply means his fallen body, that’s what it’s referring to here.  They took up his fallen body, that’s literally what it means in the Greek, and laid it in the tomb. So... dead?  Yes, but more explicit here, more to the point, a fallen body.  So they picked it up, carried it, and put it in the tomb.

Let’s go on and read Matthew 24:14 – because there’s one more location here that we’re going to read that’s about this very end-time, actually.  It’s amazing to me how you can just continue to go through various areas and God just continues to add a little bit more and a little bit more of something we thought we had fully understood and saw before, and He just continues to add more and more as He reveals other things as time goes on. And this gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all ‘nations’. That word is used for Gentiles, to non-believers, that’s the point.  As a witness, as a purpose here of something that’s being done and those that God was going to call out and draw out for the Church, for the sake of the Church.

And this gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.  Mr. Armstrong finished that work!  That’s why when a lot of us began early on in different organizations out here after the apostasy, thought that that had to continue because... like it hadn’t been finished yet and this is what you have to keep doing, the gospel has to go into all the nations as a witness.  But we didn’t know when the apostasy took place that was the end, the rest of the verse, and Mr. Armstrong, in essence, then fulfilled that.  Yes, a little bit of it continued on for a time because of the telecast, or because of ‘The Plain Truth’ and that began to be watered down through time.  But again here, powerful! Basically as a whole, Mr. Armstrong, the work of Philadelphia finished this, they did it.  And then what began to transpire was a new era, the last one, Laodicea, because as soon as Mr. Armstrong died that era was fully in force, fully at work – the end – the last era and what they would do.

And this gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come. Therefore when you shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place... How awesome is that?  That we didn’t know that and understand that until well after the apostasy!  That it’s about the Church; ‘standing in the holy place’!  Where is the holy place?  It’s God’s Church!  And so again, the abomination of desolation, that which... well, again, we’re not going back through all that.  ...(whoso reads, let him understand:)

Going on here in verse 21 - For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, nor ever shall be.  And for the Church it was spiritually great tribulation.  We entered into it immediately, it was horrifying.  Went back and repeated some of that story here - we’ve repeated it several times - but here just the other day telling some about what took place, what we went through, what happened, what happened when the ‘News Watch’ began to be written and then other publications, and what happened after the apostasy – all those things that we’ve gone through, how horrifying it was, that one day you’d be talking on the telephone to somebody, a minister, discussing some of these things and how are we going to help the Church, the Church out here is hurting. There are people who want help, how can we help them?  We can’t help them in this body, in this organization any longer, what can we do to help them?  And you talk to them the next day and they’re not there, as I mentioned here in a sermon recently, they’re not there, they’re different, they’re gone, they’re somebody else, somebody you never knew before – because they’d talked to Joe Jr. and they swallowed all that swill and they changed.  Awesome!  Power, signs, and lying wonders, of things we experienced in the Church!

For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, nor ever shall be.  And because it doesn’t happen at a time we felt like it could, believed that it probably would, doesn’t make you not of the truth.  That’s in God’s hands.  Everything is in God’s hands, but it will still happen.  I’ve had conversations with individuals recently here, talking to people about some of these news articles that you read day by day in the news if you know where to look or if somebody is getting them for you – that no matter if nothing happened on May 27th you’d better know this world is headed for World War III, and if God doesn’t intervene there would be nothing left!

Somebody reminded me of... what was that crazy movie?  War Games.  Is that the one with this giant computer and it kind of took over and this kid was in there playing this game and this computer wasn’t, it was playing different scenarios for World War.  And there are nations out here, including this one, who have plans of what they’re going to do if various things happen...and all these scenario’s out there.  Russia has them.  China has them.  They all have them!  And what do you think is going to happen if in just one port city in this country a weapon goes off?  Do you think there’s going to be some kind of quick retaliation?  Someone who wants to do something quickly?  And if another one goes off – what do you think people are going to do?  Do you think they’re just going to sit around and say, “I don’t know what to do?  Where is this coming from?”  Do you think something like that can’t happen so quickly to change the face of this earth?  ...and that people respond quickly, and the first one to push a button that sends several devices in a particular direction.  As soon as they’re in the air...  do you know that someone else already knows they’re in the air... what do you think they’re going to do?  ...and how long does all this take?  In 15-20 minutes there could be several nations with several nuclear weapons in the air criss-crossing each other’s paths and unless God intervenes and stops that from happening in that way God makes it very clear that every human being would be erased from the face of the earth.

The world doesn’t really acknowledge that we live in those times.  I remember people talking about the 50’s.  We didn’t really have them in Western Kansas, we really weren’t too concerned about getting hit by a nuke, I guess, small as we were out there; but I’ve talked to people that lived during the early 50’s and different schools and how they had to crawl under their desks to practice air raids.  They had places you had to go to, not for being bombed by a bomber, but by a nuclear weapon coming in close to you, and they had these raid drills in school!  Some of you may think that’s a long time ago, the 50’s, the early 50’s, mid-50’s.  To me it wasn’t all that....   Your perspective changes as you get older.

But people used to crawl under their desks!  They were told to get under their desks... You think, “What in the world?  If that hits close to you what in the world is that going to do to help?”  But there was a fear!  There really was a fear in the world at that time about a war that could take place and this cold war that was taking place with Russia and some of the things taking place in the world out there and there was real fear of what could happen.  What happened with Cuba and the missile crisis...that was...  but in time the world just kind of erased the possibility of anything like this really happening.  It’s not taken seriously.

I want to read a couple headlines/articles that have come out just the last couple of days here:

EU PLOT TO SCRAP BRITAIN[1]

Friday May 4,2012

Express.co.uk

By Macer Hall

SENIOR Eurocrats are secretly plotting to create a super-powerful EU president to realise their dream of abolishing Britain...

There are those who don’t want Britain to be a part, and there are those in Britain who really don’t want to be a part.  It goes on a little bit later, it says:

....

The new bureaucrat, who would not be directly elected by voters, is set to get sweeping control over the entire EU and force member countries into ever-greater political and economic union.

....

Opponents fear the plan could create a modern-day equivalent of the European emperor envisaged by Napoleon Bonaparte or a return to the Holy Roman Empire of Charlemagne that dominated Europe in the Dark Ages.

How incredible is that?  To read something like that in your newspaper in London – how incredible!  Talking about a Holy Roman Empire and what’s happening in Europe and where they’re headed.  It goes on to say:

“This is a plot by people who want to abolish nation states and create a United States of Europe,” he said. [Independent Labour peer Lord Stoddart of Swindon.]

And there are those who just slough it off, “Oh yeah...”  People think this way!

Another one here:  This is from Turkey, the ‘Daily News’ there.  It says, ‘LEADING NEWS SOURCE FOR TURKEY AND THE REGION’.  But anyway, the title here is:

NATO’s missiles are ready, summit guest list is not[2]

May/02/2012

The summit coming up in Chicago, when they’re telling some local people to leave...  It says:

As NATO prepares to announce the completion of the first important phase of its missile defense shield system....

See, people read through things like this and they just [makes gesture to slough it off]... doesn’t mean anything to them.  Oh, this has Europe in a tizzy, the Russians – they are not happy campers with this and what’s being discussed and what’s happening, and the timing of it being now.

As NATO prepares to announce the completion of the first important phase of its missile defense shield system — a part of its new “Smart Defense Strategy” — at its May 20 and 21 Chicago summit, the guest list for the summit has not yet been finalized, due to a diplomatic quarrel.

The quarrel is over whether the European Union should be invited to the NATO Summit in its institutional capacity, according to diplomatic sources the Hürriyet Daily News spoke with.

The proposal was made by the French government following the meeting of NATO defense and foreign ministers in Brussels April 18 and 19, on the basis that the EU has contributed a great deal to recent NATO operations in areas beyond NATO’s defined operational geography, for example in Afghanistan and Libya.

And there are countries who are not happy with that, what happened in Libya, and they’re basically saying, “It’s not going to happen in Syria, we’re not going to let it!” It only takes one small stupid trigger to start this, one person to do something stupid, one country, one leader to do some dumb thing and it all starts.

But the proposal was not immediately welcomed by a number of NATO countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom and Turkey, on the basis that the EU’s top officials have already been invited to the opening dinner of the Chicago summit, and most EU countries are also NATO members.

Politics!  Don’t you just love it?  Hate it - hate it - hate it!  But the reason I’m reading this is I want to read the last part here, because this thing about what they’re calling the system here, the ‘Smart Defence Strategy’, supposedly, and what it’s all about, supposedly about Iran, but the Russians aren’t necessarily taking it that way because their concern is you can take out our ICBM’s and it’s a deterrent for our being able to retaliate if we’re attacked.  So it goes on to say here:

....

In addition to the adaption of the Smart Defense Strategy, NATO’s Chicago summit is expected to see the announcement of “interim operational capability” for its ambitious missile shield system, in which Turkey has assumed a critical role by hosting its early warning radar.

So, as this goes up the Russians are unhappy.  That brings me to the last article I’ll read here right now. This is from the ‘The Washington Times’, May 3rd, so you’ll understand where they’re coming from:

Russia threatens to strike NATO missile defense sites[3]

By Shaun Waterman

The Washington Times

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Russia’s most senior military officer said Thursday that Moscow would pre-emptively strike and destroy U.S.-led NATO missile defense sites in Eastern Europe if talks with Washington about the developing system continue to stall.

“A decision to use destructive force pre-emptively will be taken if the situation worsens,” Russian Chief of General Staff Nikolai Makarov said at an international missile defense conference in Moscow attended by senior U.S. and NATO officials.

The threat comes as talks about the missile defense system, which the U.S. and its allies insist is aimed at Iranian missiles, appear to have stalled.

And this is his comment then:

....

“We have not been able to find mutually acceptable solutions at this point, and the situation is practically at a dead end,” he said.

And so to them if there is no solution they say they have the right to pre-emptively strike those particular areas.  So that was his comment.  A little bit farther down here it says...

....

But Russian officials insist the missile-defense system [has the capability to shoot down their ICBM’s thus] will rob their nuclear deterrent of its credibility and destabilize the balance of mutually assured destruction that has persisted since the Cold War.

• This article is based in part on wire service reports.

Isn’t that amazing?  Sick, sick world we live in!  But who reads those things?  Who pays much attention?  Even in that article there, the one U.S. official basically sloughed it off as we’re going to come to it, we can’t do it now because we’re getting into the elections and maybe after the elections are over we can get back into the talks.  In the meantime it still is being built and the Russians know that and they’re not happy campers.  Incredible what’s taking place and the timing of every bit of it around the world.

Going back to Revelation 11:21 - For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, haven’t really understood fully the magnitude of that statement, those days should be shortened... and so there are those who mock and make fun of because it hasn’t been for a full 3½ years – no credibility whatsoever that it’ll ever happen, because they didn’t believe it before, they don’t believe it now, and the fact that it could be up to the very end is just more a thing of mockery and foolishness to them and lifts them up even with greater pride.  “See, we knew all along!”  Not knowing, foolishly, it’s still coming.

And except those days should be shortened there should be no flesh saved: So how long does it take?  At what point does God intervene, say, “This and no more!”?  You know what it tells you basically in scripture?  He allows certain countries, it says, to destroy a third of the earth.  That’s the 6th Trumpet; and He says that He comes to destroy those who are destroying the earth.  So there’s going to be that much done by them alone, speaking of Russia and China and that part of the world, just their pushing of the button and what they do.  Because their desire, their thoughts are different than our thoughts here in this nation, or different from the thoughts of those in Europe. Those in Europe will be a part, they’ll do some but not to the degree the others are, because when they push theirs they have sites all over the world targeted already, and that’s evidently what they’re going to do.  That’s what God makes clear.  A third of all the earth, and then God says, “No more!”

Verse 23 - Then if anyone shall say unto you, Behold, Christ is here, or there; How is that done?  Different organizations.  That’s what people say, “He’s here!”  That’s what people think, that’s why they don’t go to some other organization, “He’s over here.  He’s in this group, this organization.”  Now, we believe He’s here...we do.  Only one can be true.  Not everybody can be true.

So he’s speaking to those who know the truth, so wherever you are with the truth that’s where you stay. Behold, Christ is here, or Christ is there; do not believe it. For there shall arise false Christ’s, and false prophets, and shall show great signs and wonders; which we have gone through in the Church, which still continues on to this day, of people being deceived, insomuch that if it were possible they shall deceive even the elect. So there’s only one group that God says are His elect, His people, the Church. Shows how powerful some things are, how powerful some arguments are, how powerful some thinking is sometimes.

Verse 25 - Behold, I have told you before. Again, it’s just finishing this off.

Verse 26 - Wherefore if they shall say unto you, Behold, He is in the desert; Interesting – how do people read this?  “Oh, He’s out in the Sahara!”  That’s not what it’s talking about!  It’s not talking about being out in some desert someplace and that somebody would be fool enough to follow out there!  What is the desert about?  What is a place where nothing grows?  What is a place like that, religiously, spiritually, as far as what’s happened to the Church?  Place of drought, a place of no water, a place of no food, a place where there’s famine; a desert describes it pretty good, and that’s exactly what it’s talking about.  So if they say, “Come over here... there’s no food, there’s a famine going on; we’ll take care of you.” God says, “Don’t believe it!”  In other words, it’s just common sense spiritually and this is what it’s discussing.

And he says, don’t go there; and behold, He is in the secret chambers; I like this one; it’s a word used for ‘a small storage closet’, ‘a closet’, as ‘a closet or a food storage bin’ being used here as a very small group of people, a few who believe that they have the true stories of truth. That’s the example that’s being given here; that’s all it means, spiritually.  In other words, it’s like how ridiculous can you be that you’re going to have a group here that God is working with that is so small – we’re small – but there are some that have splinted off that are so small that it’s maybe 2-3 people.  What are you doing?  What is God doing there?  What are you doing to prepare?  How is anyone being helped?  What is the proof?  God’s just describing various things that happened to the Church and how far and what they mean spiritually to Him that we should grasp and comprehend on a spiritual plane.  Doesn’t matter how large you are – the largest are a place of famine – the largest are places in the desert spiritually.

Verse 27 - For as the lightning comes out of the east, and shines even unto the west; so shall the coming of the Son of man be.  So, in other words, as He is coming up to the time of His actual return all He does will shine brightly, even His literal return.  So God will make it clear.

Verse 28 - For where ever the fallen body is – the carcass – same word, goes right along with Revelation 11, that’s what it’s talking about.  How everyone else looks upon it, God says, “That’s where it is.”  It’s not out in the desert, it’s not in something so small out here that nothing is being accomplished, somebody that just has ‘teacheritus’ and has to have 2-3 following him.  And some do that out here, those things have happened ...or very large - it’s not about that.

It says...for where ever the fallen body is, there will the vultures, that’s what it’s talking about, be gathered together.  So where are they?  Which one?  Some of those things are the very things that identify even more so where God is working because that will be the one that people look upon as being like... why are vultures there?  It’s like a dead body, fallen body, easy prey, easy pickings, we can pick-pick-pick, because that’s the way they look like to them.

You go through examples like this and it’s really quite amazing, how God describes them, of what we’ve been living through.  See, this may not mean as much to you but if you think about it it’ll mean more to you because this is what I’ve been living, this is what you’ve been living.  I have been living it in a very powerful way for 3½ years nearly – truly!  ...and so have you.

Verse 29 – it says, Immediately, directly, straight away, after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, right up to the end... Right. Up. To. The. End. ...and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the power of the heavens shall be shaken: things that mankind has never witnessed before nor will ever have to witness again; a kind of shaking of something that is going to happen on this earth, powerfully so, to where the moon will disappear in some parts of the earth, where the stars will disappear in certain parts of the earth because of what’s thrown up in the atmosphere.

Verse 30 - And then, and the Greek literally means, ‘then’, at that time shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. God has to intervene – timing... impeccable, perfect - to accomplish exactly what God has always said He’s going to do right to the very end.

And let’s notice another verse, Verse 37 - But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. This ought to mean more to you now than five years ago, three years ago, two years ago... For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, And they did not know until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.  It means more today than ever before.  We’re down to the wire – we’re there!

So back to Revelation 11:9 - And they of these people and families and languages and nations shall see, again, as they see it, their fallen bodies/their dead bodies three and a half days/three and a half years, and shall not allow their bodies to be put in graves. So this last phrase is also interesting.  For this one here to be grammatically correct for this tense a simple word needs to be inserted here because again, it’s a matter of someone that took liberties and it’s not translated properly because of the context.  ...and they shall not be allowed, ‘ed’ in this case, they shall not be allowed their dead bodies to be put in graves, or another way of saying it, and they shall not be allowed to put their dead bodies/their fallen bodies in graves.  What on earth can that mean?  They’re not dead so what does this mean?

This group of people not measured in the Temple, those who are Gentiles, non-believers, shall see their fallen bodies, again, as they see it, for three and a half years and they will not be allowed to bury them, in the sense of getting rid of them, the true Church, of being able to get them out of sight and out of mind.  God doesn’t allow it...of doing away with them or burying them out of sight, as they must see them for the full 3½ years.

We have been constantly out there, being cussed and discussed among those scattered groups; some preaching about us, writing about us, blogging about us, eaten up with us, talking often about us.  It’s true.  ...with disdain, with hatred, anger, mockery, ridicule, disbelief, etcetera, etcetera.

So, let’s go back and read this again: verse 7 – And when they, during the time, they shall fulfill/accomplish their testimony/their witness, the beast who ascends, later, speaking of it, that it is identifying who it is, Satan, out of the bottomless pit shall make war against/with them, and shall overcome them and kill them and their dead bodies, again, speaking of that one group, in the street of the great City which spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also our Lord was ‘crucified’...not crucified, placed on a stake. And they, of these people, and kindred’s, and languages, and nations shall see their dead bodies three and a half days and they’ll not be allowed to put their dead bodies in graves.  That’s what it’s talking about.

Now, the next verse: and they who dwell upon the earth shall rejoice/be glad over them/upon them, and make merry,  the word literally means ‘to celebrate’ upon them, seeking to make themselves, because that’s the kind of celebration it is, to look better – because this is looking down, ‘trodding underfoot’, if you will.  It’s what people do!  It’s a sad, pathetic thing in life when people so talk down upon others to lift themselves up to feel better about what they’re doing, to justify what they’re doing, motivated with incredible motivation to have to try to prove something wrong because it eats at them.  Eats at them – it’s a spiritual thing – eats away at them with such power, with such might, it’s as though they’re motivated, they can’t get rid of it, they can’t get it out of their mind, they can’t bury it, they can’t get it out of sight, they’ve got to go to it over and over again.  Awesome what God describes here!

...and shall send gifts one to another; because these two prophets tormented them who dwelt on the earth.  It’s what it’s discussing here!  It’s the truth that does that!   It’s the truth that torments when you reject it, when you trample it under.  And this expression here, ‘and shall send gifts one to another’, the word ‘send’ in the Greek here is a unique word, it’s a word used in the sense of ‘dispatching word’ – the kind of gift, ‘dispatching word about something or someone’. The word ‘gifts’ is one fully associated with ‘gifts in religious sacrifice and offering before God as gifts at the altar’.  What do we think of?  Christmas, meh...birthdays...I don’t know...gifts.  Not talking about that!  See, but that’s how we take it physically in the mind; but that’s not what’s being said here. It’s that which is ‘dispatched by word’ about something, someone, and it has to do with an attitude of service as though - just like we talked about earlier – as though they do service to God.  They’ve got a mission; they’re righteous in what they do.  We are so wrong, so hated they can’t wait to prove you wrong – it eats them up, it consumes them it’s so powerful in their life.

It’s kind of hard to understand but that’s what we’ve been experiencing for the last 3½ years, and before, but especially in the last 3½ years, and this is what God is addressing.

Let’s turn over to John 16.  So we have here that which is ‘dispatched in word’ as ‘sacrifice and offering in religious service’; this is how they approach others who are in agreement with them about these witnesses.  And they do this in their righteousness, they are right, they are justified, in their minds.  They’re almost, as it were, on a mission, a religious crusade.

John 16:1 - These things have I spoken unto you, that you should not be offended, says basically here, ‘to stumble or fall’. They shall put you out of the synagogues: expel from the synagogues, yes, the time comes, that whosoever kills you will think that he is doing God service. This is literal and spiritual.  I think of those things that God led us to understand very early on within the Church, prophecies in Ezekiel and other places where God condemned the ministry and talked about the blood on their hands, like the death of people though there was no literal physical death, but because of what happened, because...  when you believe the truth, when you know the truth and someone does not do their job, when someone leads you astray, when someone follows something different than what has been given to them, is not faithful in the word that God gave - if that’s their job to teach those things - then God has a very stern warning for that and it has to do with a death that’s worse.

See, sometimes its difficult for us to grasp things on a spiritual plane that are stated this way because to God this kind of thing is far worse than a physical death, because God can resurrect someone. That’s His plan for the vast majority of mankind in the Great White Throne.  But when you mess around with someone’s spiritual life, when you mess around with things that are taking place that God is moulding and fashioning, it becomes a very dangerous thing for those individuals and God doesn’t take it lightly – what happened in the Church.

Please understand that – what I just said – more than anything else.  ...how important it is to God and why this is such an incredibly important time of what the Church has gone through, one that God wants people to know throughout the Millennium and the Great White Throne, that will be used as a reference, as a guide, as a tool to teach to help people to understand the dangers, to understand the spirit of various things so they can not do, not go this direction, to flee from it in a greater way.

Going on, verse 3 - And these things will they do to you, because they have not known the Father, nor Me. That happens in time, that’s happened to the scattered Body. When people begin to be cut off they lose what they had before and they can hold onto a resemblance of something like the Jews did and have through time, the Sabbath, some things about the Holy Days, but it just gets weaker and weaker and no life in it anymore because the life comes from God, it’s a matter of God’s spirit.  And this is what’s being referred to here.  But these things, He says, have I told you, that when the time shall come, you may remember that I told you them. And this, again, is what Jesus Christ gave as a final warning toward the time He was going to die.

Revelation 11:10, again, And they who dwell upon the earth shall rejoice, be glad over them/upon them, and celebrate.  It makes them feel better about what they believe.  If you can continue to send these gifts back and forth, these things that are said in order to tear down, in order to find fault with, and see, there’s another thing, that’s another thing they’ve said and it hasn’t happened either.  Why are people so consumed and so concerned about this Body? This is why.

I have to wrap some of this up here, but the truth, it’s the power of the truth that causes torment.  That’s made clear over and over again.  That’s why I’m just going to read this verse to you: John 7:6-7 – Then Jesus said unto them, My time has not yet come: but your time is always ready. The world cannot hate you; but Me it hates, and the same thing has happened to those who have turned against the truth, who have not received what God gave to the Church about what happened to us, that we went through an apostasy, and can begin to hate and trample on the truth.  It’s about the truth and what God gave.

He says ...but it hates Me because I testify of it, that the works thereof are evil. So, God gave us a job to do that isn’t well looked upon and not taken well by any measure.

There are so many things we could go through here. Revelation 11:11 - And after three and half days,  3½ years, the spirit of life from God entered into them, not physical life but spirit life, after 3½ years; it’s the same 3½ days – same period of time all the way through, forty-two months, three and a half days, three and a half years – the spirit of life of God entered into them; so it’s not talking about physical dead bodies it’s talking about bodies that are changed from physical to spirit, those who are still alive that are part of the 144,000 at the return of Jesus Christ, and they stood upon their feet; and great fear fell upon them who saw them.

This goes along with the terminology that’s used.  Psalm 122:1 - I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go up to the house of the Eternal. Our feet shall stand within Your gates, within Your ways.  If you’ve been in Jerusalem, the gates lead through the ways of Jerusalem, that’s exactly what this is all about still.  It’s talking about a way they’re able to live, even more so here, Our feet shall stand within Your gates, O Jerusalem. Jerusalem is built as a city that is compacted/joined/united together: Beautiful verse here, what’s being said, and it has very much to do with Revelation 11 and what we’re reading here.

Revelation 11:11 ... and they stood on their feet; and great fear fell upon them who saw them.  Now the ones described as ‘those who saw them’ is referring, again, to those who are the Gentiles, the non-believers who have, if you will, considered the witnesses as fallen, to them.  Because the picture, again, is about the two witnesses all the way through – although you may have received some of these things from others because you represent the same thing, the truth, the Church of God - but more is said because of things about the witnesses, obviously, and what has gone out before.... so that everything they believed and stood for was empty, without life, was dead, as far as they’re concerned.  But they will come to see the two witnesses were correct – then they will fear.

That’s what it’s talking about here; it’s talking about a timeframe of when they see them stand, made to stand by God.  Because for the last 3½ years we all wear sackcloth, but there comes a time when God shows, “No, they are right.  They are of the truth.  They are the only true Church.” ...and people’s attitudes... it’s going to help in a massive way for people to receive something and accept something, when God says it in a more powerful way...when they see that God has made them to stand in His Kingdom, because that’s what it’s about.  It’s not about a dead body standing up on its feet all of a sudden; it’s about a way of life, that yes, they stand, they stand in My Kingdom.  Then attitudes can no longer be what they are; they either repent or...whatever.

Verse 12 - And they heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, they heard, the two witnesses, reflecting all those who are changed at that time, heard a great voice from heaven saying unto them, Come up here. And they ascended up into heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them. Not literal, again.  They’re not all going to be gathered into one place, that someone they’re all going to be brought together so they can see this event take place.  It’s not what it’s about; it’s about what it represents and how God says this in a way that’s so often is just taken physically.

So, when they behold or see them, is about a time, because it doesn’t have to be at that exact moment, either during that time period or a later period.  When do they find out that they indeed are in God’s Kingdom?  They’ll find out, if they live, and if they don’t, they’ll find out later.  There will come a time when they will see it, just as things about what Jesus Christ said about Himself, of those who will see it, and see Him.  They didn’t all see Him; they didn’t all see those things come to pass.  There are those who are dead who will see it in the future, in the Great White Throne, those scriptures and examples we don’t have time to go through right now that Jesus said about Himself, about others who will see Him.  And the same is true here.  When they behold or see them is about a time when the witnesses are seen by these people to be standing in the Kingdom of God – part of the 144,000 – when they come to see that all they have said was true.  That’s what this is talking about.

And they heard a great voice from heaven saying to them, Come up here. And they ascended up to heaven in a cloud; and their enemies beheld them/saw them/came to see them.  That’s really what it’s all about.

Verse 13 - And the same hour, in other words, the same hour when they were resurrected, there was a great earthquake, a great shaking, and the tenth part of the City fell: What’s the City?  What City have we been talking about?  Have we been talking about a physical one all the way through here?  We’ve been talking about one that is true before God, part of it that’s resurrected already by this point, and a part that has been the Gentiles, the non-believing part, the Egypt and Sodom part.  ...and a tenth part of the City fell, and in the shaking were slain seven thousand people: and the remainder were made afraid, brought to fear, and gave glory to the God of heaven.  So in this shaking were people slain, seven thousand, there’s a word missing here that isn’t translated in most areas in English translations between the word ‘slain’ and ‘men’ here, and God hasn’t revealed all of what it means yet but it’s pretty powerful, what it’s saying, what it does mean.  It’s the Greek word ‘onoma’ - O-N-O-M-A – it’s not even translated in your King James Version; they didn’t even bother with it.

It’s a word that’s translated most often as ‘names’, just the names of individuals.  I’m just going to read some scriptures to you.

Matthew 10:2 – Now the names of the twelve apostles are these... so they are named, specific individuals.  The word is used when it’s very specific.

John 17:11 – And now I am no more of the world, but these are of the world and I come to You, holy Father, keep through Your own name – authority, names, those whom You have given Me, that they may be at one as We are.

Acts 19:5 – When they heard this they were baptized in the name of Jesus Christ.  Most often this word is used about authority having to do with Jesus Christ and God.

James 5:10 – Take my brethren, the prophets who have spoken in the name of the Lord, for an example of suffering affliction and of patience.

This word, again, is used often only as stating a person’s name, but makes it specific who it is, but it’s used extensively when coupled with action that represents something done in a person’s name, as we just read, the authority to do so.

So, how does this apply to this expression?  Revelation 11:13 – And in the shaking, because that’s what it’s talking about, a shaking that takes place that shakes the Church that was scattered, some event, something that we don’t know about yet that God hasn’t revealed fully yet that will take place, were slain by name, literal translation, of people, seven thousand... ‘by name’.  Sends chills up and down my spine a little bit because I believe it’s also by authority and by name who they are, because of what they have done, of those who aren’t going to come through certain things and God’s going to see to it personally that certain things are done, taken care of, will not live into a new age.

So reading the verse again here there is something else that is somewhat hidden that God will reveal in time...and not today: In the same hour, when they are resurrected, in other words, there was a great shaking and a tenth part of the City fell... How much of the City fell? 7,000 people.  How big is the City?  70,000 - That’s what it’s telling here; 63,000 left.  What an awesome thing if there are far more saved than we have ever known in God’s great mercy.

Anyway, God will reveal what these things mean in time.  3,500 to 63,000... Whew!  It’s made me go back to Ezekiel, and I was going to spend some time in Ezekiel today but I don’t have time to go there.  I’ve come to see in a far greater way that the things in Ezekiel were about what happened in the beginning and not what happened at the end.

Good place to stop.  God’s been very, very merciful to all of us, He truly has; what we’ve gone through, what we’ve experienced.  I think of what it talks about, ‘but for the elect's sake those days will be shortened’.  For us, for the Church – that we haven’t had to suffer.  We’ve had 3½ years where God’s blessed us.  That hit me in such a strong way at Passover period because, candidly, God hadn’t revealed yet about the five months and what it says there at the 5th Trumpet, we didn’t know what those things meant fully yet at that point, and so because of those verses I candidly believed with all my being that there would be no way on earth I’d ever be back to Australia and New Zealand, because we would be deep into it, it would have already started by that time, by Passover season.  And so because of that I believed that I wouldn’t be there...but when I was there, when we were there I thought, “How incredible that God has blessed His Church to be able to meet together at every High Day and every Sabbath, perhaps every Sabbath all the way to the end.”  How awesome would that be?

~~~end

1. EU Plot To Scrap Britain

2. NATO's missiles are ready, summit guest list is not

3. Russia threatens to strike NATO missile defence sites

Table of Contents

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EU Plot To Scrap Britain