God's Original True Church, Pt. 4

Ron Weinland

November 18, 2017

Today we're continuing with the series entitled, God's Original True Church. This is Part 4. This is going to be the last segment of this one.

In Part 3 it was really more about the sixth era of the Church. Philadelphia was covered a great deal through that particular series, or that particular section, and it was emphasised how incredible it was concerning the power and degree to which God worked with one of His end-time apostles to carry a work into all the world and how that so many world leaders were drawn to him and didn't even know why. They didn't understand what was taking place and God has the power to do that. There are some examples of that in scripture where God has done that, and that was done in a massive way in so many different countries, and yet they had an affinity for him, a love for him, and yet they didn't receive the message of what he had to say. They weren't able to, but that's a matter of a witness as well, a type of testimony that God established even for the different world leaders, that it was a part of fulfilling a work that had to be completed before the final end could come. Herbert W. Armstrong was shown tremendous favor by the different world leaders. Again, an awesome thing that we went through, that I've already discussed, some of those world leaders; and you can go back through that list, and to me it's still mind-boggling to this day, and that's just scratching the surface of things that had happened during that period of time.

Thought I'd mention, too, he was the apostle that was literally charged with going to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Some questions have come up about that. I meant to cover some of this, but I thought I'd hit that right quick like here just to make sure that everyone understands what has been said here. James has a thing that he said here toward the very beginning of the book he was writing, and in James 1:1 it says, James, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad. Now, there's no evidence that any of them went to the twelve tribes, went up in to Europe, farther up into Europe where they were scattered. There is some historical evidence (not a lot) that some may have gone into the areas of Great Britain, up through various areas there in Italy and Spain of the known world at that time, because of the Roman world, because of that which the Romans had conquered to that point in time, yet as far as anything biblically there's really not a lot there.

But we need to understand when certain things were given, just like with James here, there is that which God was working toward all along, and in time there would be a message in a very powerful way that would go out to all of Israel, to the scattered nations of Israel. That takes me back to another verse here. Let's go back to Matthew 10. There is so much said here in this particular book, but as Jesus Christ began to talk to the disciples he was telling them various things here, that he was giving them various kind of power, as it says, verse 6, when he told them to go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Now, he goes on and gives more instruction here of things he's saying as he's talking to them and he speaks of some of the things they would be able to do, about healing the sick: cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons. He gave certain powers at different times to accomplish various things according to whatever his purpose was at any moment in time. Then he gave more instruction here as he went through this. I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this, but I do want to follow through and just drive the point home here of some of the things that were being done. This is where he told them not to worry about what you're going to say when you're brought before various people because it will be given to you by the power of the holy spirit. The point being is this wasn't just about them; it was about those who would follow in time as well. The instruction that Jesus Christ gave at different times was instruction that was to be followed and fulfilled progressively so through time. I could go through some other verses here talking about some of this.

Let's see here, as an example it says, verse 23—when they persecute you in this city, flee to another particular city: for surely I say to you, You will have not gone through the cities of Israel before the Son of man comes. So it's talking here about a long stretch of time. This isn't just for them at that moment in time. So sometimes we can read something and think that, well, this is instruction just given to them of what they were to accomplish during their ministry. Not true at all. It's a process of time, just like in Matthew 24 when they wanted to know, "What are the signs of your coming?" and so forth, and he starts giving instruction. Well, some of that, we understand very clearly, verse 14 was for Mr. Armstrong to fulfill and accomplish. And candidly, he was the apostle that God gave to go to Israel to fulfill some of those prophecies that were given there. So it was given to Mr. Armstrong; he was literally charged with going to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. He was given the keys of David to begin to understand certain things about the migrations of Israel and what took place and what countries were literally a part of that by his time.

So again, very inspiring things that are said here, but again, a caution here; sometimes it's easy to read things into scriptures and perhaps to have heard things in the past that weren't totally accurate. But as we go along we have what's called progressive revelation. God continues to reveal more and more to us.

So again, it is awesome what God did through Mr. Armstrong during a period, Church era that was the sixth era called Philadelphia. A lot of people from here [Detroit] were in this era. This is one of the original areas, obviously, that everything began as far as God working to restore things again in the sense of the process there of calling a remnant Church, a remnant group together, that we'll go into a little bit more here in a little bit. But again, very inspiring when you go through some of the history of some of the things that God has done. It's always good to be reminded of our own history and think back about what God did in our life because that's a part of our conviction. When you understand, very powerfully so, that the only way you can understand things, the only way in the very beginning that you understood that this was God's Church and things about the Sabbath, the holy days, and so forth, is because God has to give it to you by His holy spirit. You can't go out and give it to anyone. You can't go out and talk your family into it, relatives into it, co-workers into it. It doesn't work that way. God has to be involved. God has to start it. God has to do it. So we learn those things very early on. That's why it's so important that we always remember how God called each one of us because those are the kinds of things we should hold on to with all of our being because there are so many people who aren't doing that and haven't done that from the very beginning. From the very beginning of God's Church there are people whom God has called who have not held on to their calling, who have not grasped the awesomeness that the Great God of the universe has opened up their minds and given them understanding of things that could come in no other way and then as they become weaker or let down they begin to lose those things that were given to them, and after a time that beginning, that original calling, begins to go by the wayside and they begin to discredit it, begin to not understand it, begin to disbelieve the depth and the power that was there. It's a horrible thing that happens to the human mind. That's why I'm in awe of the scriptures that talk about "many are called." Many have been called through time here, through the different Church eras, seven Church eras, and this process still goes on even with this remnant body, of what has been taking place.

I thought I'd just mention here too, I am awesomely excited about the next series we're going to go into. I can't tell you a whole lot yet, but its coming. Next Sabbath, probably, we'll start. But I am dumbfounded sometimes just how God works and what God gives to us and what He reveals to us at various stages. And again, so much of this has to do with our history and going back and grasping even more deeply what God has been doing in our lives. It is mind-boggling. It truly is. And the more you see the more in awe you can become. But I think of people who rob themselves, who get to a point where they're not in awe any longer. I hurt for them, in one respect, but this is something that has gone on for so long. This process continues on. Since the Feast I am dumbfounded how much God continues to bring to the surface, things that are hidden are not going to remain hidden! We need to get that message and understand we need to be zealously involved in this way of life, honest and truthful before God, worshipping Him in spirit and in truth, meaning the spirit has to come from Him. He gives us that life, He opens up our minds, and we have to desire it with a zealousness, with great desire. Otherwise, why would He give it to us? We've got to want this way of life and understand where we are in time as well and be moved by that and be moved by how God works in our life.

Because this isn't over yet. This Church is being cleansed and the longer we go on, the more that takes place, the more in awe I become of what God does and how He does it. Truly. That needs to be a sober thing in our lives, that we're sobered to the core of our being. That if there is anything in our life that needs to be resolved, that needs to be addressed we'd better be doing it because we don't have a whole lot of time, and God is offering so much. He truly is.

That's why it dumbfounds me sometimes why, in thinking about prayer, that if we kneel before our Great God, if we put our hands up to the Great God in praying to Him, how we cannot be but anything but true and honest. He knows! He knows everything that's up here in the mind. He knows everything in our life. He knows everything we think and how we think as human beings because there is a spirit essence here in our being that gives Him that ability to know what's going on in the mind. He can transform that mind. He can transform that thinking. And that's what we want. We want to change and become transformed in the way we think. We want to become more at-one and in unity with Him and that's a battle. We have to battle this.

So again, I can't help but think about some of that as we continue to go forward here in thinking about this next era we started into, the seventh era, the seventh and the last era of God's Church. Even this, to think about this, the things in Revelation that God gave to Christ who gave it to John – that's the way God works. God gives the things, whatever it is at any particular time, to Jesus Christ, and Jesus Christ, he's the head of the Church, and he gives it to the Church. He talked about these seven eras, seven periods of time, seven Churches that would follow. It's amazing when you go through there to know that in the next 2,000 years it's written out what the Church is going to go through at different times. There are going to be certain things that are going to highlight specific periods of time that explain what that era is like.

Just like most of us are very familiar with Laodicea, the one we're getting ready to talk a little bit more about today. Many of us experienced that. We have lived that. We know what that era is like. We know what that kind of mind is like. We know what that kind of thinking is like, yet what a marvel to understand that every period of time is by design. This is all by design.

And the greatest part of it is that with seven Church eras God is using those periods of time, the things that He's going to take each group through, because God does; the ones He brings through that, the ones whom He works with to bring through that to become sealed, that is their training. We're all being molded and fashioned for something different yet within those eras, as a whole, there are specific things where individuals are going to be able to be fit and placed within a government, within the temple that are unique because of what they experienced. We go through experiences in life and it's through that process that God molds and fashions us. All of our experiences are not to be the same. We didn't have to experience Ephesus or Smyrna or Pergamos or Thyatira or whatever. We had to experience, some of us had to experience Philadelphia and Laodicea and a remnant. That's what we experienced. That experience is more awesome than you can know. The blessings then of God working with us to mold and fashion us because of what we go through is incredible, but it's all by design. He didn't just say, "You know, we're going to have seven eras because seven is the number for being complete. So we'll have seven eras." No! It's all by design and purpose. They were to go through specific things so they could be molded into specific areas. It's the tool whereby God can use to mold people and place them in His temple, place them in His government, in the Kingdom when it comes with Jesus Christ. Awesome, to understand these things!

Anyway, Revelation 3 talking about this particular period of time. You know, if you think about some of this that took place – a prophesied Apostasy that was to take place during that particular era, and it's good to go back and review a little bit of that and then take off from where we left off.

Revelation 3:14—And to the angel of the Church of the Laodiceans write; These things are said by the Amen, the faithful and true witness… It's about Jesus Christ, every one of these. I love this, because every one of these it's about Jesus Christ at the very beginning; it introduces him. He is the head of the Church. And so it says, These things are said by the Amen, the faithful and true witness, the beginning of the creation of God… Again, it doesn't mean he was there at the beginning. But that's what a whole era, actually a couple of eras, read into it, that that's what that meant because God hadn't brought us to a point in time yet where we could grasp and comprehend that no, that's part of the trinity, that Jesus Christ eternally existed. We got rid of the holy spirit, this holy ghost being a person and being a part of the godhead, but not this thing of Jesus Christ eternally existing. So when God finally gave that to us, awesome! But eyes were blind to that. So when they would read this, "the beginning of the creation of God," they believed that he started it all, that he did it from the very beginning. He wasn't around. It's just that everything was based on him. Everything that God created had to do with Jesus Christ, the chief cornerstone, His Son that was going to come in time, in His time. Everything would be built upon it; His Kingdom would be built upon him. So simple. It's amazing why human beings can read into things though, and yet we can't do anything else at times because we have to deal with the present truth.

Verse 17—I know your works…way ahead of time. Way ahead of time He knew exactly what they were going to do, knew exactly what the Church would be like. Awesome! In a time when technology starting to flourish on the earth. Mr. Armstrong saw incredible changes take place. It's interesting to go back and read some of those things in his autobiography and how they got across the country and how they first went out to California and then how they were able to, when he went to various areas, flew to different areas. It's not like today. They had to stop in different areas. They couldn't go at the speed or with the ease and everything else that we have today. So he saw incredible changes that took place over time. And yet as that technology continued on, and the Church, God was going to give to that particular era, the era of Philadelphia, awesome power, things to see and to know that hadn't been known for nearly 2,000 years, 1900 years, and to build upon a lot of that because, just because things are written in here by some of the disciples, some of the apostles, doesn't mean that they understood it all or that they were able to understand all of it together, see? Because they didn't.

So God gave more to Mr. Armstrong at that time, not only to begin to restore things that had been lost through the period of Sardis but to build upon those things that had not yet been given. There is much there just the key of David alone and what that began to mean as far as where Israel was and what that meant for the end-time was something none of them knew, none of them grasped, none of them comprehended at all, but it was given to Mr. Armstrong. So because of the technology and because of all the truth the Church was receiving, and because of all the training different ones received because of going through Ambassador College and then going out into Churches all over the world something very unique happened and God knew what it would be.

He knew what human beings were like when they have all this plenty and how human beings can take that to themselves and the mind begins to be lifted up with pride. That's what took place: "Rich and increased with goods." "What do we have more need of? We've arrived! What new truth could there be? We understand the plan of God from beginning to end; we just wait for Jesus Christ to return." There is so much more. There never comes a time when there isn't more to be learned, when there isn't more to be given by God. So this is what developed. God knew what was going to happen because of the ease of the world, because of technology and how easy life was and the affluence and how incredible it is, especially Ephraim and Manasseh and where the work was raised up in Manasseh, the wealthiest nation the world has ever known. It was not by accident everything was done exactly the way it was done. We ought to be in awe of these things. We ought to be dumbfounded by these things, a plan that God had to mold and fashion His people, His temple. That's really what this is all about! The seven eras are about God molding and fashioning His temple! That's what it's about. And so He did.

I know your works: "I know what you're going to be like. I know what you're going to do. Not only that, you're the era, because of that spirit, that's going to lead into the Apostasy." God knew. It was all planned. The Apostasy was planned long before mankind was ever put on this earth! Do we grasp the power and the might and the mind of Almighty God? Because candidly, we don't. But the longer we go on the more we should be in awe of that. It isn't something that God finally decided, maybe as Jesus Christ was walking the earth, and saying, "Now, what are we going to have you do, son? Well, you're going to die. You're going to come up with Me for a couple thousand years. You're going to be over the Church. How are we going to do this?" And then all of a sudden He figured out seven Church eras. God designed His temple before man was ever created. I believe that God designed His temple before the angelic realm was ever created because that's what God has been wanting to do from the beginning. Jesus Christ is the beginning of the creation of God and so everything was built upon him and planned and purposed so long ago. That's the power and the might and the mind of Almighty God, but we don't tend to think in that way. We really don't as human beings and yet we should strive to because the more you come to understand and know your God, the more you come to see and understand the power that is there. The more you come to understand the greatness that is there, the littler we see ourselves and understand how puny we really are and how awesome it is that God invites us into His Family, that He has something planned for us that is so far beyond anything that human beings have ever heard or definitely never known. Awesome!

It's like Mr. Armstrong was given to know that we're to become a part of the God Family, and yet the world scoffed at that. "God Family? People go to heaven. They go to hell. And if they've been bad they're going to be burning. It's going to be a hot time for all eternity." That's the God they serve, a God that if you're going to disobey your God there are going to be these little things running around with these little hot pitchforks and they're just going to hit you right in the butt every once in a while and you're going to jump up. You know, just like the cartoon type of thing. That's how stupid, how sick the human mind is, to think that God wants to see people hurt, tortured for all eternity because they don't, didn't choose His way. They missed the whole message of this book from beginning to end about a God of love, a God of mercy, a God of patience.

Yet people choose to believe such stupid things because that's the way the human mind is. That's the intellect of a human mind. It kind of goes real close to this thing of crawling out of the slime and evolution. They're real closely related. The human mind is sad, sick, distorted, twisted, perverted, not intellectual at all, pretty dumb, frankly, before God. I'm so glad that God is getting ready to straighten this mess out. I hope, I believe you are too. Sick, sick world. And now with technology and TV and what's purported to be the news. It's like a merry-go-round. It's like going to a circus or something. I mean, its insanity at its height. People are starting to see it, which is what it's all about. They can't get anything done, can't do anything right. Corruption, evil is everywhere. It's just a lot of it's so hidden and so protected that it's hard to get to, hard to bring it out in the open. It's always been there, it's just now it's being made known that it's there all right. Amazing.

I know your works; that you are neither cold nor hot: I would that you were cold or hot. It's been my feeling ever since I've been a minister in God's Church. I hate to see people playing the middle of the road, sitting on the fence post, not being real clear, you're kind of going through the motions of Holy Days and the Sabbath and Feast of Tabernacles, if that's the case, and tithing, and some of those things, but you're not really in this. You're not really fighting for this. You're kind of going through the motions and you have the appearance that you're in the church but are you really in the Church? Are you really in the Body of Christ? So this middle of the ground thing, that's why God made it very clear He doesn't accept that. He doesn't accept that. You can't be lukewarm, can't be half way involved and one foot in the world, out in the courtyard, and one foot somehow in the temple and somehow be in God's Church. Either we're in or we're out. God's been making that clearer and clearer as time has gone along.

This era helped to illuminate that even more so that God won't have that. He won't tolerate that. He'll spew it out of His mouth. He'll separate it from Him because you can't work with it. You can't work with it. You can't give something to somebody who doesn't zealously want and desire what's being offered. If you want it you've got to fight for it. You've got to ask for it even. You've got to cry out to God and say, "Father, yes, I want this! I desire this! I want, I need Your spirit everyday!" And if people aren't doing that, if they aren't saying that then they're not with the program and they'll go by the wayside. We have a short time and yet God's going to have His Church cleaned up. That ought to sober everyone to the core of their being. Will there be a hundred left before this is over? 200? 300? I don't know.

I would that you were cold or hot. So then because you are lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spew you out of my mouth, and that came about as a result of the Apostasy. Then that's when God did it, because that's what it led to. Laodicea led to that kind of attitude and mind led to an Apostasy. It made it possible for a spirit being to influence very powerfully so the leadership of what was God's Church, of ministers who before had been different for a time, but at some point began to let down, or whatever it was in their life that they didn't do right, and they began to be influenced because it makes it very clear that there were things that happened in a very powerful way, that there were powers, signs, and lying wonders. They come from a spirit being called Satan who has great power to influence people when they don't obey God when they have the opportunity to obey God and be filled with His life.

Because you say, I am rich, and increased with goods, and have need of nothing; and do not know… I love that word because it's a Greek word that means, "to perceive in the sense of 'to see.'" We use that "to see spiritually." They don't have the ability to "see" anymore what they really are or what they're really like. You do not know/you do not perceive that you are wretched. Without God, that's what we are, and even as we are we really are wretched, you know, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. It's only God and God's way of life that clothes us. And we have to cry out for that, to be fully clothed in white raiment that comes from God. Righteousness comes from God. It doesn't come from us, but it comes through belief. It comes through exercising faith and living by what God gives us in the present truth that we have.

So it was the Apostasy took place December the 17, 1994. Some of us here lived through that, know what it was like, knew what began to happen to the Church. God spewed the Church out of His mouth, spit it out, spewed it out, making it very clear when you spit something out of your mouth it's no longer in you. It's no longer in you. It's no longer in God. The Church was totally outside the Body of Christ. Everyone was outside the Church of God, had fallen asleep spiritually. And so it was fully separated in the sense that everyone was cut off from the flow of God's spirit. Not a small thing. That's a horrible thing to happen. I've lived it. I know what it's like. Thankfully, it wasn't long before God began to shake the tar out of us and began to help us to see some things and began to get things back on track, to be awakened. It's an incredible thing. That's led us to a lot of truths that we didn't understand at that time, too, because the Church had never lived anything like this. To fall asleep spiritually, and yet to be impregnated with God's spirit, but to be cut off from the flow of that spirit – it's similar to a calling in the sense that God has to be involved to bring you out of that. God has to be involved to call us, to draw us out of the world, to open up our minds to receive His way of life, but once we've received it and fall asleep spiritually it takes God again to begin to draw and open up the mind to begin to see things that otherwise it isn't able to see. In other words, to awaken it to reality that's around it. We learned from that process. We learned a lot through that process. I could give several sermons about what we learned just because God gave that to us, that experience and understanding that we did not know before because we'd never experienced it before.

So toward the end of Laodicea the Church was so weak that other things began to happen. It was ripe for a being to do what he was prophesied a long time ago to do. I think it's good to go back and review that. Though we know these things it's good to go back. 2 Thessalonians 2. Something that's so clear to you, that there are groups that are scattered out here after the Apostasy that cannot see this, that do not accept this, that do not say they experienced an Apostasy, yet what other definition can you give to something so massive that happened in God's Church?

2 Thessalonians 2:1—Now we beseech you, brethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ… So the context makes it very clear what it's all about. It's about the coming of Jesus Christ because a lot of time had passed now, several decades. The apostles were out here teaching in different areas. Paul was out there teaching in different areas. By this time now he was inspired to give this writing, something he'd already been telling some before, as he makes it very clear here he'd said these things, but not to the full context that he did here. He said this is about the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our gathering together unto him, because that's been the desire of God's people from the very beginning. That's what they desired as soon as Jesus Christ died. They had some time with him and then they were told, in essence, he's going to return, but they didn't have any idea when.

All during their lifetime, during Ephesus, they were looking for the return of Jesus Christ. That's what they were doing! They desired to see God's Kingdom set up. They desired that from the moment they started following Christ, when they were disciples. They wanted to see the Kingdom of God established. So this went on into Ephesus and it went on into the other eras as well, a desire to see Jesus Christ return to fulfill his name, Messiah, Christ, the Anointed One, the Anointed One to reign over the earth. They understood that's what that was about.

So he says in this context here, this is what I am writing you about, that you do not soon be shaken in mind, or be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, because a lot of this kind of thing was going on where people were sending out things and saying they were different apostles, and so forth, as that the day of Christ is at hand. So, "Don't let anything trouble you. Don't be shaken to think that that day is now upon us, that he's about to return, because there are certain things that have to happen. So don't be shaken in mind if you hear something from someone else."

Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, making it very clear here that certain things have to happen, except or unless as it is here, there come a falling away first. That's the word for Apostasy right there, the falling away. Falling away from what? We understood that during Philadelphia; it was a falling away from the truth. We understood that in Philadelphia. We knew it was coming. Mr. Armstrong knew it was coming. He preached about things that were going to come, "There's going to come a falling away in the Church." He had no idea the massiveness of it. He had no idea the scale of it but knew it was prophesied that there would be a falling away from the truth, an Apostasy, a defection, as the word means, to forsake. Forsake what? The truth! The Church! Jesus Christ! God!

…and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition. You've heard a lot of different things on that already about what this is. We understand what it is. Someone had to be revealed. In other words, this had to come to light in the environment of the Church before Jesus Christ ever returned. So don't be shaken in mind until you see something like this happen. This is going to take place. When you see this take place then that'll be a sign to us, that'll be the ability to see something that we know is what our heart desires with all of our being, to see the return of the Messiah. So this one is going to arise.

…unless we see a falling away first and the man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition, who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God… "As God," there were a lot of confusing things said about this part now. It was almost as though it could be the Pope that could say these things. How is he going to fulfill this? How is anybody going to arise in the world that's going to deceive God's people? We know. We know where the Church is. We know where the truth is. But to believe that something would happen in the midst of the Church in a powerful way, that someone would rise up? …or that is worshipped; so that he as God sits… To me, I'm amazed at what God has revealed to us through time, revealing to us that this is a matter of something about an individual who's appointed to sit in a place of government. So someone who is indeed sitting in the temple of God. Everyone should understand where that is. The Pope isn't there. No false ministers in the world could be there. It has to be in the Church, someone who appears to be in the temple of God. That's what it appears to be, just like people who have left at different times who have the appearance of being in the temple but they are not. And he was not. But that's the appearance to the Church. That's what it looks like. He sits in the temple of God and he's doing something as he's sitting there. He is in the midst of God's temple, God's people, and he's sitting there in power, the power that was given to him. This is awesome to understand what we experienced yet a scattered Church doesn't see this. They can't understand something that you can clearly see. The only way you can clearly see it is by God's spirit. It isn't by your ability whatsoever, not at all. We need to understand that: God gives it.

…so that he as God sits in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Ooh, that just seems like strange language, doesn't it, but we experienced it and it's not strange to us; someone who sets down edicts, if you would, who says certain things that changes something that we have believed, that obviously raises himself even above God if he says you don't have to keep the Sabbath day anymore because now he's saying you can do something totally contrary to God, so indeed making himself as God. So we understand what these things are. …showing himself that he is God. Don't you remember that when I was yet with you, I told you these things? That this was going to come to pass? That these things had to happen first?

Verse 6—And now you know what withholds… I love this; what holds it. The word means, "what holds back." Hold's back what? Well, what's the context? The coming of Jesus Christ. The return of Jesus Christ. That's what holds it back. In other words, it's like right now. We understand—God has made it abundantly clear—there are certain things that cannot happen to this world until the sealing is complete. That's a part of what's coming in the series, to even expound on that so much more. It's beautiful. It is awesome, the timing of everything, because we can only understand segments as we went along. As much as we did here, any of you who lived through this know that this did not come immediately to a scattered Church. This did not come immediately after the Apostasy, the ability to understand some of these things that are said right here. It came in time. So you can only go by where you are at any moment in time and what God has revealed at that moment. The more that God continued to give the more our eyesight, our ability to see, was opened up to understand where we were, to understand what had happened to us in God's Church. And so you know what holds back, that he might be revealed in his time, whatever that time is. So there's going to come a time when there's going to be a son of perdition, the man of sin, and when that time is here he will be revealed and you will know Jesus Christ is returning. Little did we know it's a countdown to his return. Awesome! Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. There will be a count, whenever it is, that will be absolute and perfect…absolute and perfect. It's not a random number. Everything fits together in awesome ways. I've just reviewed some of those things again and I am still so dumbfounded by some of that.

Anyway, verse 7—For the mystery of iniquity does already work: only he who now, same word, holds back will, in essence, until he is taken out of the way. So this individual is going to do something and he has to be taken out of the way. It's something the Church is going to see. It's something that people are going to recognize. They're going to be able to come to see it. Something awesome has taken place and Jesus Christ is going to return.

Verse 8—And then shall that wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His mouth. This is dealt with directly from God, directly from God. Now, this is in part twofold because there is wicked revealed here in a very powerful way that's twofold because there was a being behind this greater than the physical human being that did it. There is another being and God has revealed, too, what will happen to him in time, but this first of all and foremost is about the man of sin, the son of perdition, and it makes it very clear here that God's going to take care of him. God's also going to take care of the one who is behind it all.

Again, that's where we came to understand that forty Sabbaths later. Some want to make hay out of that by saying, "Well, it wasn't in that hour." Well, in their time zone it was still in that hour. When he was finished saying what he did, when he totally destroyed, went to destroy everything that the Church had been given in saying everything is done away with, in essence, and you can basically go back to what the Catholic Church teaches (because that's what the message was), he died. By the time he finished all that, walked away from all that, in that hour he died. So what's he supposed to do? People want to argue about, "Well, it wasn't that time zone there that it happened in." I've wondered at times, "Why in the world did I write it that way?" Because I forgot, and I'm not sure I ever knew, but I know it's true. And if some even want to get more meticulous than that it could have been to the very second. God takes His spirit whenever He wants. The physical body can be kept alive a little bit longer by artificial means. It doesn't mean the person's not dead. So what your definition of what dead is may not be what God's is. So I really don't care what other people think and say; it’s still forty Sabbaths, forty Sabbaths – 280 days.

…whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His mouth, meaning God's going to deal with it, and shall destroy, the word means, "to cause to cease; to put an end to; to do away with," with the brightness of his coming. It's about Jesus Christ returning. That's what the whole context is about. I don't know about you, but I don't get tired of going through this because it's awesome and inspiring because there are a lot of people out there who lived longer in God's Church than you have with God's spirit in their minds, impregnated with God's holy spirit, who served in God's Church more than you ever have (many of you), and they served faithfully for a long, long time and their eyes right now are blind and they are asleep. Are we better than they are? Not in the slightest. We should be so humbled, every one of us—every one of us—that God has opened our minds and given us the ability to see something that others don’t see, those who are more zealous than we were, who did things more than what we have in serving in God's Church. There are a lot of ministers out there who dedicated their lives, who served faithfully for a long, long, long time, who did more than we did, and yet they're asleep. God allowed certain things to take place for a reason. It's His calling. It's His molding and fashioning. It's by His purpose. It's not because of how good we are or that we're something special, because we're not. We're special because God has made us special. It's because of God's spirit and God's purpose in us that makes us special, a special people. Never forget those things. Be humbled by those things, truly. Be thankful for those things.

And so again here, with the brightness, the appearance, the manifestation, of his coming. This is what made it clear when it began. And I marvel, mathematically to have everything come together to the time periods we've gone through already even up to just 2012 alone, just the mathematics of all that in what took place and the count, and even other counts that have to do with Satan that lay right on top of each other; you can just overlay them right on top of each other and they're there. Coincidence? That many days? That long? That many periods of time? Being very specific? All the meaning that's contained in those kinds of things – awesome! One day you'll be a lot more dumbfounded and in awe than you are today. Truly. "…and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming." In other words, he was taken out of the way as this was a sign, a revealing, a manifestation to the Church of God that Jesus Christ was coming. That's what this is talking about. This is the speech. This is the way that Paul wrote to explain the things that God inspired him to say for us today. Awesome!

Verse 9—even him, speaking of the man of sin, whose coming is after the working of Satan. So he's the one who did it. He's the one who was behind it all. It was by his power this was accomplished, a powerful being. Not a one of you is a match for him. Not a one of us is a match for that being. Not a one of us. That's why I love the verse that talks about, "Greater is He that is in us than he that's in the world." God's power that's in us is what strengthens us and saves us and brings us through these things and without Him we don't have a chance. We have no power. We have no ability to fight such power. It's spirit that broadcasts in the air very powerfully to deceive. …even him, the man of sin, whose working is after the working of Satan with all power, signs, and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in those who perish/are perishing, because of choices they made, of things they did.

It’s just like different ones who continue to go by the wayside. Every year people go by the wayside. I’ve been crying out God's measuring the temple; we're going through a measuring of the temple. I don't understand it all yet but we're going through the measuring of the temple – for good or for bad. It's either one or the other because that measuring has to do with giving more to those who want it and desire it and being molded and fashioned stronger than ever before, or for others who aren't it's going to be gone because it's a cleansing as well. It's dual in that respect, for good or for bad. That has to do with our choices and the choices we make.

So this just goes on and on and on. I'll be candid with you; it's just kind of wearing on me. It's wearying. It's wearing. It's hard. I don't like going through this. I don't. I've been going through this for so long, watching people I love, working with people, walking together side by side in God's house for so long… It's taking its toll. It's hard. It's hard to continue to watch people go by the wayside. It's hard to send people letters and telling them they're suspended or disfellowshipped. I don't like doing that. I'd far rather we keep going to God's house side by side yet I'm here to tell you today that some if they don't wake up, and even right in this room here, spiritually are going to go by the wayside. This isn't over with yet. People, some people aren't taking this seriously yet. You know what's in your life and what you're doing and what you're not doing that you should be doing. Okay? Why should I have to say that? But I do.

This is by God's inspiration right now because I wasn't planning on this by any measure. It's by God's inspiration anyway, but I'm just saying, this added that's being given here right now to sober us up, to help us to realize we need to wake up. We need to get with the program and fight for this way of life! Do you want this? I keep asking this: Do you want this? You've got to fight for it! You've got to be determined to put God first in your life. Something else you're putting first raises it up above God. What are you holding back? What is it you're not doing? You're the only one that can answer that. Because I'm here to tell you God's going to bring every single person to the surface before this is over with, either by things that are made manifest in their life or by death – you will not go into a new age. As much as God kept back tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of people from going into the promised land and saw to it that every one of them died. They were not allowed to go into the promised land. You think God can do that with a few people and not going into His final, His greater, if you will, period of a promised land that people have looked forward to for so long, a Millennial period when Jesus Christ returns to this earth?

I'm crying out to you, truly, with all of my being because this is wearing. It's wearying. It tears me up, and I hate it. I hate it. Almost every week it just keeps happening since the Feast of Tabernacles. Does it scare you a little bit? Because it ought to scare you to the core of your being if you're not zealous for God, if you're not zealously fighting for God, if your prayers don't make that clear to God. Are you praying every day and crying out to God for deliverance, crying out for His holy spirit to live and dwell within you and to deliver you through this period of time because you want what's ahead, you want to experience those things that are ahead?

Some of you aren't on fire. Laodicea is still dragging along. That's the truth of it. God does not accept that which is lukewarm. We're either desirous of this and crying out for it and praying to God for it or we're not. I say this isn't over with because there's more coming.

So this is what they were looking forward to, something to happen that would announce, that would manifest the coming of Jesus Christ. Little did we know it'd be a literal countdown to the return of Jesus Christ from a specific moment in time, from the time that the Apostasy took place. That's when it began. The 1st Seal of Revelation opened on that day. Awesome! Anyone who thinks differently, who would even fool around with the thought of something being different than that is blind as a… I can't say "blind as a bat." Anyway, they have a lot of senses there that we don't have but you know what it means, the expression.

So it goes on to say there talking about this power: with all deceivableness and unrighteousness in those to perish because they received not the agape, the love of the truth. The love of the truth! Do you love the truth that God has given to you? Do you love what He's revealed to you, that you're able to see? Do you love the last seven truths? I love them! I love them all, but I really love them, what God continues to reveal and show us what He's bringing and what He's doing. It's exciting and inspiring and we're so close…so close! ...and with all deceivableness and unrighteousness in them that perish because they received not the love of the truth… It's a choice. It's a choice. You've got to think about them. You've got to review them. You've got to go through them. You've got to pray to God about them to "see" them, to embrace them, to love them. Do you ever ask God for help to love others? Hopefully we have, obviously as we grow and love others in the body. Have you ever asked God to help you to love the truths, to love them as you go through them and think about them? To love them? To embrace them? It's His Word.

Do we understand that what truth we've been given, it's the Word of God; it's the mind of God that He's sharing with us, the ability to see Him, the ability to see His purpose, the ability to see His design, the ability to see what He's creating and how He's creating it? God has given us so much more understanding of this process in the last few years, about how He creates and what He's doing in that series we're getting ready to go into. Even though you've heard some of those things before you didn't get it all, you didn't grasp it all. It was given several years ago and you could not drink it all in. You are unable to. Your mind couldn't do it. Okay? It's something to have to grow in in time. So now many years later we're going to go through some of those things again and build upon them in greater ways because God's letting us see more. Then you still won't see it all. You won't grasp it all. You won't grasp everything that's said. You can't. But if you love it and you continue to cry out to God and you want to see more and more He'll give you more and more, the ability, the mind to do so. "A love of the truth that they might be saved." For us that's even more meaningful now, on into the Millennium, and there's more to that story that that'll come at another time in the future.

Verse 12—that they all might be damned who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness. So that basically makes a clear picture, a distinction between someone that loves the truth and those who don’t, because if you love the truth, if you believe the truth, that means you believe it — because you're not going to love it unless you believe it, and if you believe it then it's going to be a part of your life, and every decision you make in your life is going to be based upon what's in your mind of that truth. Every decision you make in your life is going to be based upon that truth, everything you do, if you're putting God first. Now, if we're putting self first and those don't enter in in all our decisions and we kind of yield to our own mind, well, it comes down to this thing about unrighteousness. Because if we live by faith and love the truth then God attributes that to us for righteousness even though we're not righteous. We know we're not righteous. We're growing in it. We're growing more in the mind of God and able to live this way of life more fully and more completely as our minds become transformed, but the more you grow the more you see things in here that you couldn't see before.

I don't care how long you're in God's Church, you're going to become of greater ability to perceive and know certain things. That's why God's given much training even with the ministry to perceive and know things of attitude and spirit long before things come to the surface. I know some things long, long, long, long, long before they're made manifest, see, because there are just certain patterns and certain things that happen in life by God's purpose and design, by His spirit, and then also by selfish human nature and that spirit. There's a design in those things. One fits perfectly into a mold and a picture of something that's beautiful that comes from God, and the other if it's not, you know what, it can be seen.

It's like the people who still want to smoke and then come to services and it's all over their clothes. See, my mind, I've been away from that a long, long time. I'm talking about something very physical. See, it's very physical but boy can you see it when you haven't been around it for a long, long time. That's the way it is with many sins. There are certain things that people do. There are certain patterns in their life. There are certain things that they do that reflect certain things in the mind. You cannot help it. You can't help it and those things are there and so someone who hasn't been around those things, someone who has a different mind is able to see things. See? That's the difference. It's on a physical plane (as an example of smoking), and it's on a spiritual plane with things in our lives. So we're to love God's truth, draw closer to Him, and have more of His mind, want to be more of the same mind as Almighty God.

Verse 13—But we are bound to give thanks always to God for you, brethren, beloved of the Lord, because God has from the beginning chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the spirit… That's what God does. He set us apart from the very beginning of being called and then it's just choices we make along the way. Do we want to be baptized? That's a choice we make. Along the way God begins to draw us and open up our mind to see things that we otherwise can't see, and then we all have to come to that point in time, do we really want what He's showing us? And then if we really want that then we come to that and we continue to grow on and everything from that point is always a matter of choices and decisions every day of our life. But he's made it possible unto salvation through sanctification, of being set apart for that purpose, of the spirit and belief of the truth. He gives us that ability to believe the truth, but we still have to make the choices. He makes it possible, the ability to see it, but it's up to us. A lot of that has to do with whether or not we love what we're given, if we are in awe of what we're given, if we strive to drink it in and grow in it.

Verse 14—whereunto he called you by our gospel, to the obtaining of the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, brethren, stand fast… That's been the message for God's Church from the very beginning. Stand fast in what God gives you. Stand fast! Don't let it go by the wayside. Don't let it slip through your fingers like water. Hold on to it. Stand fast and hold the traditions; a word that means "that which is delivered to you; the substance of a teaching," in other words. Hold on to that which God has given to us at any moment in time, or we could say, to the present truth. Hold on to what God has given us that we know at that moment in time. ...which you have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle. So, incredible here what was taught right here in something that applies to all people, but especially after the Apostasy even more so this becomes even more important.

So again, the acknowledgement of this truth should lead people to address another truth, to understand the Apostasy took place. You come to a certain point in time and you think of what happened to the Church: a third went by the wayside, a third went back into Protestantism, a third got scattered out here into different groups for a period of time. If someone can just acknowledge that someone did sit in the temple of God and cause this thing, was the cause of what took place, and the Church was scattered like it was, and the hurt and the pain that went along with that. It was like a knife driving through you. No, more like a sword going through your inner most being. The hurt and the pain that went along with those several months was horrible, horrifying, when you saw decisions that people made along the way, things you couldn't fathom. Almost to deal with some of it, I literally talked to different ministers on one night that were of one mind, and then after they got a hold of Joe Jr. the next day I didn't know them. I did not know them. Didn't know them! "Who are you? What happened to your mind?" We talked about this thing in order to deal with it in some ways, and it's laughable, but it wasn't laughable because of what happened, the science fiction thing where the mind all of a sudden was one way and this thing got a hold of them and all of a sudden they were different. It was like Invasion of the Body Snatchers. How can you forget that one? And you think, what happened? Because that was what it was like on a spiritual plane. They were one way one day and the next day you didn't know them. Truly! And we saw this sweep through the Church.

Those of you who have never experienced something like that you cannot know what that was like. You could maybe try to appreciate it by hearing it, but unless you've experienced it you cannot know. See, something was molded. Those of you who did experience it you have the opportunity of something being molded in you that is unique to you, that God can use in a very powerful way in the future. It's a part of molding and fashioning of something that can be placed within a place within the temple that is awesomely unique to you, and you alone, along with some others of that same period of time, that no one else who is resurrected will have had that experience. Not on that level. Not on that plane. Nothing like that ever happened in God's Church. The Church was never that large in the world before Philadelphia at any one time.

So it goes on to say, if someone can come to acknowledge some of that, you know, there are other things that begin to come up, other truths that people can understand. To even understand what happened to us, the stones of the temple, on and on it goes. You begin to understand what happened to God's Church. You begin to see what happened to God's Church. All of a sudden things begin to make sense that are written in other areas, things about Laodicea begin to make sense.

I do want to read one portion here back in Revelation 12, to come to understand something that Mr. Armstrong spoke about many times before he died, to come to understand that the temple of God is the Church. Just with understanding that, to understand about the stones of the temple, but the scattered Church doesn't believe that. Most that are scattered do not believe that truth even though Mr. Armstrong taught it, many of times talked about it. There are a few who have taught it, but not very many. Most don't believe it. Most of the individuals in those bodies don't see it.

Revelation 12:12. So an incredible prophetic period that followed the Apostasy, still in a period of Laodicea, the seventh era of God's Church. This was still taking place, but something else had to happen in the era of Laodicea and this is that something else. It was the first of seven distinct end-time periods of 1260 days that we didn't know until much later. We didn't know. We didn't understand what was being plotted out in front of us, or, actually, we could look back and see, but to understand where it was going, we didn't know for a long, long time.

Revelation 12:12—Therefore, rejoice, heavens, and you who dwell in them. So again a synopsis here of the Church, and even mankind, through some periods of time here all the way up, but all of a sudden then coming up to the end. Therefore, rejoice, heavens, and you who dwell in them. Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and of the sea, for the devil has come down to you, having great wrath—Why?—because he knows that he has but a short time. I still think of Mr. Armstrong talking about when he believed that this took place, when Satan went through this experience, when this happened, literally, as far as God's word is concerned. He believed that to be the time when California was going through what it did in trying to control, take over the Church of God – which wasn't California, but, again, Satan trying to destroy God's Church. A lot of unique things happened back in that period of time to where God wasn't going to allow that, but the Church went through a lot during that period of time and this being who knew that he had but a short time left because there were certain things taking place, certain things Mr. Armstrong was being given to say, and certain things that as things are taught within the Church these beings can hear and learn. And when Satan was told what he was—we don't know what he was told at this point in time, but he knew that something had taken place, that he didn't have much longer. He didn't know how much time but he didn't know how much longer so he's stirred up. He fights against God and will fight against God until it's all over. He'll fight against God's people. He hates God's creation. He hates human beings. He hates those who are in the Church of God and he will continue to fight until it's over with. That's just who he is, but he knows when God says something that God will do it. He knows he has but a short time left.

And when the dragon saw that he was cast to the earth, he persecuted the woman (the Church) which brought forth the man child.

Then we drop down to this verse here, we come to this verse here where it's right there in order, but we're crossing some periods of time here. Everything is not just one year and then the next year, five years later. There are some periods of time here that it's gone over several thousand years in the verses before. And to the woman there was given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, times, and a half a time… Over and over again, different things that God says about this 1260 days, 3½ years, time, times, and a half a time. There's more to the story about judgment, but that's another thing, but this is a basic denominator that God gives about the end-time. And it says here, for she is nourished for a time, times… So God took care of the Church. When was that? It was right after the Apostasy. The Church wasn't to die out. The Church wasn't to be destroyed so God saw to it that the Church was able to continue on. That's what we jump into in verse 14.

So during Laodicea an Apostasy comes along, and the Church is decimated; two-thirds of it gone, in essence, one-third scattered all over the place. So it says here "that she might fly into the wilderness into her place" where God nourished her and took care of her for 3½ years, for 1260 days. I marvel at some of these things and the timing and how these things came out to be from December the 17th down to a specific holy day. It's a marvel, the timing of things and how God works things out and what they have in their meaning, what they contain in their meaning and then what you actually experience in your life. So it says she is nourished for that period of time from the face of the serpent.

So we've gone through this in times past and talked about how that there was a period of time where God had to take care of different ones. The Church was so weak it had to be spewed out of God's mouth, and then there was that that God had to take care of and protect for that period of time so that it wouldn't be destroyed. 3½ years it was going to be fed. God says you're going to be nourished and Satan's not going to be around to be able to do anything to you during that period of time, in the sense of destruction of any kind.

Verse 15—And the serpent cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman, that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood. Did we experience that? Wow! The entire Church worldwide, like a massive flood hit us all at once. One sermon – actually three combined into one, deceitfully so. But anyway, that which went out as a whole later to the Church that the Church saw, that the Church was able to watch on video and listen to the words that were spoken by the man of sin, the son of perdition, and what followed was sweeping around the world. People who were of one way one day, like they wouldn't eat shrimp, went out that day, that night to eat shrimp because now they're free. "I'm free! It's clean!" You think, what insanity! Power, signs, and lying wonders. People’s minds that just changed like that overnight. People who were all of a sudden, who would have never done it in all their life saying in the audience in a sermon, "Praise the Lord!" Where did that come from? Some sent chills up and down your spine when it happened. I remember it happening right in Toledo, just like a wave went through the congregation, a wave, a spirit, to where God let you feel it, what was happening, what was taking place. Incredible!

So this flood that went through the Church – destructive, powerful floods can be ever so powerful when they sweep down on an area and this is what it's likened to throughout the Church, a flood. And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth… You know, in large part that's because we were scattered all over the world, remote places, separated by various things as time went along here, and people by themselves now and not in a congregation any longer because they weren't going to be in certain groups and so forth. Then God could protect and take care of different ones. God took care of certain groups of people.

So it says, the earth opened her mouth, not a physical thing, a spiritual thing, an analogy here of something that God did. It goes on to say in verse 17 then, And the dragon was angry with the woman, and went to make war with—Who?—the remnant of her seed. There is something that was left over. I marvel at this, something that was left over out of this period of Laodicea when God spewed the Church out of His mouth and what happened to the Church during that period of time because of an Apostasy, and yet it talks about this being is going to make war. Why would he make war with the rest? It's deceived; it's asleep. They could do what they want. Leave them alone. Where's he going? What is he going to go after? Where God's working. Where God's spirit is. That's what he will go after every time. That's what he's done for nearly 2,000 years.

And so Satan, it says here, in essence was angry with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed… Notice this because I marvel at some of this because this was never really grasped in time past as to who this was talking about because there was this conflict of ideas that Philadelphia and Laodicea are going to be side-by-side in the end-time all the way to the end, two eras side-by-side. I even read something that was within the Church at that time clear back in 1959 about the Church (but I wouldn't recommend the writing because of who wrote it, because of all the damage it did to God's people). But anyway, something was stated in there because they didn't know back in 1959 about so much that was coming, and didn't know in 1969 or '79 either, but the point was that all that way back there was this expectation of something that was going to happen in the future. These particular eras and stuff, it wasn't known, but at that time there it was made, the comment was made they are very distinctive periods in separate times, in essence, in separate times. They weren't the same time.

But somehow it developed through time, because of where we were and the size of the Church, that how are we going to deal with this? We know that Philadelphia is here. We're all Philadelphian. We're going to stay Philadelphian, but these Laodiceans are going to rise. They're going to rise within the Church but we Philadelphians are going to go all the way to the end because we're never going to change—rich and increased with goods because of how they saw themselves and didn't realize they were already turning Laodicean and there was this concept then toward the end that these two eras are going to be simultaneous. When this verse here was read it was, "This is talking about the Philadelphians."

Anyway, it's not. It's about a remnant after an Apostasy that God worked with who keep the commandments of God, the truth of God, whatever God gives to His people, and more so, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ, the witness of Jesus Christ in their life. You're that group of people. The life, the witness, the testimony of Jesus Christ in your life to understand what you've been given that you're able to live because you're able to see certain things that you do that no one else does. That's awesome! And that's what this verse means. You have the witness, the evidence, if you will, a testimony of the life of Jesus Christ living in this Body, a remnant Church. The truths you see and understand are because of that, because God has given those to you, the ability to comprehend what happened because of an Apostasy, the stones of the temple, and everything else that goes with it. I love those truths, the ability to see all that because if I couldn't see that I couldn't acknowledge who I am. Everyone had to admit that they were Laodicean and that's the problem with a lot of this, is that those who see themselves as Philadelphian, who are rich and increased with goods, can never see themselves as Laodicean because the attitude within the Church was these are some pretty bad people. They're lukewarm. They're not on fire, but we Philadelphians are. It's a thing of pride. Sad. Human nature. Human nature is so sick.

So the blessing of being brought through it all, brought up to a period of time. I want to go back here now and read what it says in Revelation 3, because what it says in Revelation 12 there is about a remnant Church. It's about a remnant people who continued on – no longer Laodicea. When we became a remnant Church we were no longer Laodicea and that's something new, in essence, that God has revealed to us. It's not something that happened in 2008. God gave the ability, the knowledge to know that Laodicea ended, but we didn't know the time yet. We thought it was 2008. It wasn't. It happened long before that.

So this period of time for the Church during the closing period for Laodicea is what this final message to the Church is all about, this final Church era. Revelation 3:18—I counsel you to buy of me gold tried in the fire… Okay, this is after the Church has been spewed out of God's mouth, separated from God, and He says this then to the Church, "I counsel you to buy of me gold tried in the fire." That means that you have to come to understand the need of going through trial, the need of going through hardship, the need of yourself becoming refined because you're not where you should be. You have to come to a deep repentance in order to live this, in order to see this. And so it says, I counsel you to buy of me gold tried in the fire so that you may be rich; with white garments, because the Church wasn't that way before. It wasn't that way during the earlier parts of Laodicea that led up to the Apostasy. It was falling asleep. …and that you may be fully clothed, so that the shame of your nakedness does not appear. So what was it said about Laodicea? "You don't know that you're wretched, miserable, poor, blind, and naked. You don't see yourselves, so buy of Me gold tried in the fire," that which is true, that which I have given you from the beginning of your calling. Grab hold of those things, those truths that I gave to you when you were called," in essence, "and repent where you have let down." So we had to come to a point where we realize we were drifting asleep and fell asleep and had to repent of that condition, every one of us who came into a remnant body, truly.

…so the shame of your nakedness does not appear; and anoint your eyes with eye salve… I love this. This in the Greek has to do with like taking the salve and just rubbing it thoroughly throughout your eye so that your eye can be made whole again, to it can be made well from sickness that's there. It's taking the salve and it means to thoroughly apply it everywhere throughout the eye. …and anoint your eyes with eye salve that you may see. See on a spiritual plane, this word meaning "to take heed; to look closely to." As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten. "As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten." Why? Because we have to grow. It's the only way we can grow. Chastening is just a part of our life, it really is. Sometimes when correction comes along and things happen and things are said to us – I don't care who we are and what is said – God does it in mercy and patience and love. That's the way God is. Then it's up to us to receive it and repent and recognize the mercy, the patience, and the love that God has afforded us, and then grow on and put the past behind. Don't let it beat you up; just repent, seek to be different, move forward. What an awesome God we serve. That's what He offers us. So when correction is given, whoever it is, it's a good thing, done in God's mercy. We receive it and we go on.

As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten; be zealous… That's what I've been crying out toward the beginning of this sermon, to be zealous because in this congregation and in other congregations that are listening today everyone is not zealous. I'm just telling you. You're not zealous for this way of life. You're letting that spirit that existed in the Church before because it's not to be in this Body and God's not going to allow it to be in this Body. He's cleaning it up, the Body, and we either repent and change and grow and do what we know we need to be doing and zealous for God's way of life or not. …be zealous, therefore, and repent.

And so in the beginning of this period after the Apostasy, those whom God began to awaken, that's what everybody had to go through. They had to come face to face with certain things in their life and begin repenting and making choices. So when people heard various things about Passover, because that was the message… Isn't that amazing? That's the main message that God started with to get the remnant raised up. Passover. Why? Because a 14/15th Passover was in the Church, in the environment of the Church that was scattered. It was within the ministry. It was within one particular group, within half (guesstimated), may have been well over, half who believed in a 14th/15th Passover. How do you deal with that? Preach the truth. Preach the truth about a 14th Passover, that it's in that entire day and not in any other portion of any day, that everything has to be fulfilled in that day. So God gave that in a very powerful message over and over and over again.

So there were people who wanted to build bridges with 14/15'ers in different areas. So when you tell them, "You can't do it; it's not going to work. If you try to build bridges you're going to fall apart. Things aren't going to work for you." They don't like to hear that message. So that's what people have to decide. That's where it starts over and over again, things that God gave to us, starting with basic truth, basic truth, the Passover. 14/15, it’s a bunch of garbage. It worked its way into God's Church, worked its way into God's ministry, held on throughout the end of Philadelphia. People held back and didn't teach it. Then they got into Laodicea and some started messing around with it and then after the Apostasy they went full-hog on it, some of them did. Some in one organization started teaching in different areas and got in a little bit of trouble because the rest of the organization didn't fully believe that and so there was a little bit of conflict because they were made up of something that couldn't bind together. You can't bind something like that together because it's not of one spirit, it's not of one mind; it's not of God. And so either you correct it and say, "This isn't going to be allowed in God's Church! And every one of you is fired who believes that crap, that hideous, sick, perversion, because it causes great division and hurt in God's Church!" But who took a stand and said, "You're fired!"? "You're gone." "You're never going to teach; you're never going to preach in God's Church again." That should have been easy. Not only that, "You're out of God's Church! Bye-bye! Bye-bye! You're going to get some severance and that's it. Bye-bye! You're not going to do any more harm in God's Church!" But some wouldn't do it so they couldn't be a part of a remnant. Sad.

Be zealous, therefore, and repent. Be zealous, therefore, and repent. It's the same message today to God's Church. Be zealous! If you're not on fire, if you're not zealous, if you're not crying out to God every day of your life that you want this, that you want to fight yourself, you want to combat and conquer self, that you want to find the things where you're raising up something else above God because you're disobeying God, because you're not in unity with God, because you're involved in certain sin, certain secret sin, perhaps, in your life, you better get rid of it! You better fight it or you're not going to be here much longer!

What more can I say? I'm not trying to be hard. I'm not trying to be harsh. I'm trying to cry out to those who will listen, to those who will hear. Because I know it's still happening. I know what's still going on. God's giving me a big dose of it today to see it clearly. Since the Feast, so many. But I'm going to tell you more. It's not a few that are left. There's just a lot… There's just too many. There's just too many people out here who are not zealous for God's way of life right now. Either you get your life in order and make this Church, God's way of life number one in your life or you're not going to come through this. I can't say this any plainer. That's playing around outside in the courtyard. Repent and be zealous for God's way of life!

So that thing of Laodicea, Satan still uses it because we live in a world of affluence, we live in a world of ease and it affects the mind. And this thing about looking down at your phone and every once in a while looking up, even people walking anymore you've got to be careful when you're driving. They'll walk right out in front of you! I've seen that in parking lots, people walking out of stores. I think of down in Florida, walking out of Costco and people walking across looking down and they don't know any cars are coming! They don't see anything! You think, you're doing it in cars. You drive up beside somebody at a light and their heads are down and you know what they're doing. They're going to town texting people. They can't live without it! "Somebody's texted me! I've got to text them back quick," you know – tweet, tweet, whatever it is you've got to send out it's got to be instantaneous. People are prisoner of this stuff. You think, get a life! You're letting these things control you.

You go into a place to eat. You look around every once in a while, family, four at a table, mother, father, son, and daughter and they’re all looking down. "Yeah, I'll order 'blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah'," and then they go back looking down. That was exciting going out to eat together. That was some well spent time. That's the world we live in and it's affecting you. Technology is affecting you. A life of abundance. In this country all of a sudden it's becoming more affluent. Jobs are out there all of a sudden. Oh, the stock market, oh, it's going up and people are so elated! It is exciting for those who are in it. Ah, what an awesome thing, their futures, and futures, too, whatever market you're playing. And oh, things are looking up. Signs everywhere, "Help Wanted." "Help Wanted." People can't get the help. It's on the news in certain areas of the country where because of some people they lost contractors. They went out of Colorado, one area down there, and they were talking about how hard it is now and things are set back by months now in construction because they're so far behind and they need all these things built yet all these people went down to where they can make more money on the coast because of what happened with some hurricanes. They make more money. You know, quicker, get in and make this money. So they're begging for contractors, begging for workers to come in. Oh, we're living in an awesome time just before it all crashes; just before it all goes down the toilet. That's exactly the state that people have to be in in order to be humbled. To be so happy, to be so elated that things are going along so great and so wonderful, that's exactly by God's design, so when it's over it's over and it's harder and it's more devastating when everything's gone, when everything's taken away. It’ll be far bigger, far bigger than what would have happened back in 2008 if God had allowed it to continue on. Crazy-crazy.

Be zealous, therefore, and repent. So I think of what took place during that period of time after the Apostasy and some of the things that went on for a period of time there and finally by Pentecost of 1998. I think of the timing of certain things and what happened and 1260 days that God protected the people to bring it together, to bring together a remnant Church. Incredible!

Revelation 3:20—Behold, I stand at the door, and knock. The message is the same today, though we're not in this period of Laodicea anymore, we are at the period of a remnant Church. We're what's left over of something that existed before, of something that's gone by the wayside, of something that's asleep, of something that was destroyed in part, third part. If any man hear my voice, and open the door, same invitation that God still gives. See, what's written to the different eras it's written to God's people always. There are certain battles we have in life and certain things come up and there are certain ways to address it and being zealous and repenting is the age-old story throughout the period of all seven eras, and still goes on today. Be zealous, therefore, and repent. Be zealous, therefore, and repent. Be zealous! Be on fire! You've got to ask God for help to be zealous and excited for His truth. You've got to ask God for help to love His truth. It isn't natural in you. It isn't natural. It is not an automatic thing that you're just going to love His truth, okay, to love the things that God is revealing and continuing to give. You've got to ask for help.

I stand at the door, and knock. And if any man hear my voice… Today God's been knocking, again, as God does so often – Christ does, because this is from him, standing at the door knocking, "I'm just about there. I'm just about ready to come through," a short time. Do you want it? Just a short time. What a horrible thing. I am almost speechless that since the Feast different ones have to continue to go by the wayside when we are so close. It shows they don't believe we're that close. I know there are people out here – I know some in the ministry – who don't believe we're that close. I wonder how long that'll last, who by their life and by what their living don't reflect, necessarily, that they really believe that we're just about there. Scary stuff. It should scare the tar out of every one of you.

I believe it. I'm living according to it. Matter of fact, I pretty well have my life banked now on it that it's going to be over with at that point anyway. How long is my heart going to last? It’s not going to last much longer. It's just a reality. I accepted that a long time ago. I don't have to be here to the end to fulfill what God's given. Okay? I want to be, but I don't have to be. And then what will happen?

Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come in to him, and I will dine with him, and he with me. It's a spiritual thing just like we heard at the Feast. It's a spiritual thing to dine with God. That's what God offers us when He offers us His truth, His word, what He gives us in sermons, we dine with God. We receive it. Do we receive it? Do we go back and ask God for help to love His truth and pray this next week, every day of the week, "God help me to love the truths You've given to me," and then we don't go read them and we don't look at them, or anything, but "I want to love the truths." Well, what are they? I know there are 57. See, there's a little more involved in all that in asking God for something and saying, "This is what I want," so there's something you need to do too. If you want to love them they've got to be up here and you've got to think about them as you're going through them. And do we really love it?

Do we really love what God has given to the Church concerning women? I do. I love it. I am so thankful that so much of this garbage that has existed, that's out here in the world that's being made manifest more and more right now, that's a lot deeper than what it really is, than what's really even coming out, because it's a hard thing to acknowledge certain things that have happened to you in your life, and some of its lies and some of it's true. Most of it's true and it's all coming out. This is a sick world we live in. I'm so thankful that oppression is going to go by the wayside before long because it destroys everything to do with families. Everything to do with the family, everything is destroyed because of such things, because of how people think in a distorted, unbalanced way.

To those who overcome I will let them sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and set down with my Father in His throne. So whether it's now or in the future at the end of a thousand years, it's about being in God's Kingdom. That's what we should strive for and desire with all of our being.

So again, amazing, Pentecost 1998, Laodicea was over. That's when it was over and a remnant was raised up. It was the remnant that continued on. It's the remnant spoken about in Revelation 12 there toward the end. It's a remnant who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. They're not that Laodicean Church of the past. That time has gone. That time is over with. It's a completely different group of people, a unique people, PKG, that are going to continue to work until we're there, that are going to continue to move forward until we're there.

Dutch is finally up on the site. German's coming next. Awesome! They just keep getting added to the site one after the other until they're all on there. I know the Russian's coming too. It's almost there. So all these things getting added on. But awesome, of what God is doing. God's doing it. We just are blessed to be a part of it, a small part, but a part of something far greater than what we can comprehend.

Well, I think we're going to stop a little earlier today there. We’ve gone through all seven eras, talked about the things that are taking place, what's gone through time. I marvel at what God's brought to light, to be able to see some of the periods of time that God has taken His people through and why He raised up apostles at certain times and didn't have them at other time, and why it took 1900 years, and why God gave 1900 years in the sense of what He did with Mr. Armstrong when He raised up Mr. Armstrong. 1900 years. That's why Mr. Armstrong was so moved by a hundred 19-year time cycles because they meant something special to him. And then to see it again, I think it was 1953 then when 1900 years, when the gospel started going into Europe. Incredible! Incredible things that God has revealed through time, the things we've experienced.

Well, with that we'll conclude seven eras of God's Church.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1