An Extraordinary 4½ Years, Pt. 4

Ron Weinland

December 23, 2017

This will be Part 4 of the series entitled, An Extraordinary 4½ Years.

Again (I'm going to mention this every time), but again keep in mind that this first began to be posted back in May 30, 2013, and has a lot of significance as to what was being covered at that particular time, what we're being shown, and what we've learned in the meantime that we're adding to that and building upon what God already gave us even back then.

To me it's an incredible process because it does reveal to us more and more about how God works with us, how God molds and fashions us, and why we have to go through some of the kinds of things we do. There’s nothing written in scripture about that at all in the sense of what the Church had to deal with in times past, in the sense of what they understood and knew about a process that God works with to transform the mind. I'm excited that God's revealing that more and more because of where we are and what we're getting ready to go into in time here, and that just gives us a greater appreciation of the magnitude, the might of Almighty God and of how He works in our human life and that'll be exciting for those in the Millennium, to begin to understand what people went through during the first 6,000 years to become a part of God's government that will be reigning at that time.

So we left off last week as we just began covering what is stated under the subheading, "Important Lesson." We had just covered that first paragraph or were in the process of doing so, so we're going to start again in that first paragraph under "Important Lesson," and again, to get the context of what was being covered anyway. So it states:

Important Lesson

So what can be learned from this example of Pentecost having been observed for so long on the wrong day of the week?

This is referring back to 1973 and up, and 1974 when Mr. Armstrong addressed that and changed that in the Church. Going on:

By bringing this test upon everyone in His Church, God had prepared a means to further advance the process of a continuing creation through the necessary transformation of the mind.

God uses these things, these times like this, especially these, to try us, to test us, to bring things to the surface that we don't even know. We can't know ourselves. We don't know our own human mind; God has to reveal those things to us. God makes that very clear who knows the mind. God knows the mind. He knows how we think. He knows how we are. But to know our own mind, God had to truly show that to us and in the Church that begins with a process of letting us know we're selfish by nature, we're just selfish as human beings. It's a matter of "the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life," as to how we live life. That's something that human beings have a very difficult time acknowledging, addressing. That is the way we are. We tend to think of ourselves better than that and having more ability or more righteousness than that and the reality is we don't.

So until we're called, until God begins to work with the mind and begins to reveal to us what we're really like, a change can't take place and it takes place through a long, long, long process of continually repenting, of wanting to be different, of wanting to be able to think differently. That's why I love that word for repentance in the New Testament anyway. It means "to think differently," in essence. That's what we learn to do over time. Going on:

This process is always ongoing and the work to produce this change is accomplished by God’s spirit…

It's not a physical thing, it's a spiritual thing. So it is accomplished by God's holy spirit; this ability to work with the mind and to transform the thinking.

…accomplished by God's spirit —by His and His Son’s direct participation, and there is NO other way.

What an incredible thing to understand about our mind and about mankind and the world that doesn't grasp that. Traditional Christianity doesn't grasp this process in any fashion or form. They don't understand what repentance means, not in its deepest form, to feel sorry for what they've done in the past, and so forth, and perhaps some kind of a change there they need to make in their life. But change to what? What do you change to? If you don't know God's way, if you don't know God's laws, if you're not observing those things then what does that mean? It's empty in so many ways; it's not filled with life and we're so blessed that God fills us with that life so we can see and understand, and then in time we can look back and realize, "Awesome! Awesome what's taken place in my life," in our thinking, "in my thinking," in your thinking as you think about those things. Going on:

As part of the spiritual transformation in “this phase” of development (creation) of Elohim, [the development of Elohim], each person must experience trials and tests…

It has to be that way. It'll be that way in the Millennium, not to the magnitude that it is today, but people are going to go through and experience trials and tests, not to the level of what we have in the short time that we have; it's going to be different, but they still have to go through things to be able to see themselves. And they will. God will work with them and mold and fashion them.

What God has been doing for the past 6,000 years though is so much different because those, as a whole, that He's called out of that period of time have had to live in a horrible age…a horrible age. Satan rules the earth, in essence. Again, people don't understand that in the world. They don't understand the kind of world that's out there, the kind of deception that's out there and what they believe and why they believe what they do and that it's false, that they don't grasp those things. So when God begins to draw someone and call someone to His way of life and they have to make a stand for how they're living, to be different from everyone else around them – relatives, community, and everything – they stand out. They stand out mightily. We stand out mightily with whomever we come into contact. Generally, when we're called it starts with relatives, close family, sometimes our own family, within our own families, obviously. So there's a process we go through.

…each person must experience trials and tests along with all the other means God has made available for spiritual development and growth.

This is a big one though. Trials and tests, again, bring things to the surface that we can't see until that event, until that time. Specific kinds of trials bring things to the surface so that we can begin to see them, if we will, and to address them, if we will, and then the ability to have something take place up here, if we will, if we will seek to do God's will and be in unity and oneness with Him.

"Direct trials and tests from God," because He allows us to go through these things, sometimes has designed certain things for that very purpose, so that it can be a trial and a test. Some might think, "Well, that's kind of unfair that God would put us to a trial and test. Why would He do that?" Some might think and go so far as to think, "Well, then, it's almost like God is lying to us." That's so far from the truth, so far from understanding how God works with us.

The thing with Pentecost – yes, God could have given it to Mr. Armstrong very early on, at the very beginning when he began to observe those holy days, him and his wife, Loma, for seven years alone. He could have given him understanding that Pentecost is not on a Monday, but on a Sunday, but He didn't. God just withheld it. God has the right and the power to reveal His truth, any portion of it, at any moment in time to whomever He will and whenever He will and then it's up to us as human beings as to how we will respond to that. That in itself is a trial and a test, or it can be. It can put people to the trial and test, like Pentecost did.

Anyway, this article is covering that subject and what takes place, and what took place at that time. So direct trials and tests come from God. They are direct. God has planned them out, certain events, certain things to take place at specific moments in time for this very purpose – to work with His people, to create Elohim, because there is no other way than we should go through things like this in order to help us to see ourselves, to understand our thinking because we deceive ourselves as human beings: "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked," as it says, because it's selfish. That's what that means. So it's deceitful. That's just the way we are. We want to see ourselves as doing well. We want to see ourselves in a good way, as a whole, not in a bad way. People don't want to see themselves as bad, having evil in them, but the reality is selfishness is nothing but evil. It truly is. It's just evil because it's against God. It's against everything that is about God because that was Satan. It started with him. It started with Lucifer when he did what he did and became Satan.

It's awesome to understand that God has made us for this purpose, to have that kind of a mind, a selfish mind, so we can make choices, one day when that time comes that we choose that way or His way. And without experiencing this we couldn't make a righteous and just choice, truly. There is no other way. This is the only way. It’s awesome to understand that if we understand it.

Direct trials and tests from God help speed up and more deeply strengthen spiritual change that produces far greater faith and Godly character in those who [and this is the "if"] faithfully yield and respond to this process.

Because we have the choice, we are free moral agents. We have to make those choices that we choose God and don't reject and decide to do something different, want our own way, want it some other way. So we're tried at those moments in time. Where are we? What kind of character have we developed to this point in time? Are we going to continue to develop even greater character by going through such a trial successfully? Because that's what will take place if we yield to God.

In this example of Pentecost, people in God’s Church were confronted with choices and judgments [it's about judgment, how we judge] that they would be forced to make…

That's awesome that something can happen in an entire body, in a Church, or even individually in people's lives through time if you go back and look in the Old Testament as God worked with individuals, as a whole. But looking at a Church then and the way God organized us from the beginning in 31 A.D. and the things that have happened at different times, we come to a point in time at certain junctures there, people have, where they're forced to make a decision then and there. They don't have a week, a month, a year to wait and maybe sometimes there is a process they will go through that will take them weeks, take them weeks to work through it. But how they work through it is going to depend on what side they end up on – their own, their own way or on God's, in unity and oneness and harmony with God. Awesome! So again:

In this example of Pentecost, people in God’s Church were confronted with choices and judgments that they would be forced to make in response to this new revelation that was given as a trial and test upon everyone. For the majority of the Church, there wasn’t much of a trial in that year of 1974. The Church was drawing nearer to the end of Philadelphia, but it did not yet begin to be entrenched by the spirit of Laodicea.

So by 1974 we were right at that point where after that it was going to begin speeding up the process of heading toward Laodicea. And that became evident, especially with Mr. Armstrong's illness and what began to stir that process up within the Church because all these happened by design. Mr. Armstrong could have been strong all the way through that period of time. God could have kept him as strong as He wanted to, as He did when he came back and he began to talk about putting the Church back on the right track because of what happened during that period of time when he wasn't able to do the things he had before, to have his finger on the pulse of things in a better way, in a greater way. So again, going on:

The Church was drawing nearer to the end of Philadelphia, but it did not yet begin to be entrenched by the spirit of Laodicea. That spirit of Laodicea began to develop and grow speedily a few years later. So a relatively strong Church spiritually at this time could quickly see what God revealed through Mr. Armstrong. For others, it became a trial that separated them fully from the fellowship of God’s Church.

God used this as a process to clean up the Church, to clean up things within much of the ministry at that particular time. And to me, again, that's awesome to understand these things. Knowing it, knowing our history is one thing, but to understand why and how and what God was doing, to me puts another element in there of understanding, of excitement of how God works in our minds and choices that people make, and to understand more deeply the importance of our choices always day in and day out, of how we live and what we choose to do. Going on:

God used this test upon His Church to clean up the Body of Christ. It was after the manner of John 15, where it describes Christ as the true vine and God as the husbandman (vine dresser). All of the vine is described as needing to be pruned…

You know, there are things we have to go through in our lives where there are times that we have to have things shown to us so that we can have better growth, greater growth and that always means there has to be change in our life individually. So we come to those moments, all of us do at different times, where God's molding and fashioning us and pruning certain things, in essence, cutting it out of our life, working to cut certain things out of our life that need to be changed, that need to be gotten rid of, that can destroy us, so that we can produce fruit. So we're worked with in that manner in a continuing basis.

All of the vine is described as needing to be pruned, which all of those in the Church did experience at that time…

So there are times like that that go through and do much, and sometimes a far greater way within the body because now we're talking about getting rid of and cutting out even certain parts of the Body now, not just out of our own lives individually, of things that need to be gotten rid of, but now we're looking at certain things need to be gotten rid of totally, in this sense, from totally, from the vine. But even we ourselves, being a part of the vine, we have to have things cut out of our lives at times so we can produce fruit.

…but others who were resisting God’s spiritual creation in them were not producing fruit and were as branches that needed to be removed and separated from the vine.

And this has happened periodically ever since I've been in God's Church. Back then less often on a big scale, during Philadelphia, less often. Laodicea even less in many respects because of what took place after Mr. Armstrong's death and because the Church was going fast asleep and didn't know what was happening anyway on a spiritual plane. Going on:

Two primary groups emerged that had to be separated from all fellowship with God’s Church. One group of ministers along with other members left, using the “reasoning” (excuse and justification in judgment)…

Because this is what happens so often because they have to have a means to justify themselves and to talk with others of why it's right and just to do what they're getting ready to do. They have to do something with a conscience, see. People have to justify what they're getting ready to do because this is a big change. So again:

…using the reasoning that God was not working through Herbert W. Armstrong since he had been wrong about the date of Pentecost.

What a conclusion! "Ah, he didn't know about this date. Look how long we've been deceived into keeping it on Monday! He was wrong! God's not working with him." That's exactly what happened. That's exactly the little story that started going around with different groups. "Oh, Mr. Armstrong. Something is wrong here. He's getting old." That went around a lot. "He's getting old. Something is going to have to change before long." That was just the beginning of that attitude. "He's getting old. He's talking about those two trees again." That's how people were thinking. That's sick to think, but that's how some were thinking. "See, we're right. He's getting old. This is evidence of it. You know, he's not thinking as well as he used to." People have to justify themselves so you attack the one who's been teaching you, in that respect. That's what they did.

These individuals deluded themselves into believing God was now working through (or with) them.

So that's what you have to do. You have to come to the point where, "We see these things; God is showing this to us. He doesn't see it so God's working with us now." Every group that has started has had to think that way, as a whole. And since the Apostasy you have to come to that point, if God is working with you, but if He's not people are still going to delude themselves into thinking this is what's happening, because otherwise how can you go forward? How can you justify what you're doing and how you're living? Incredible!

After a short time, some of these went so far as to begin once again (as they had before being called) believing that Sunday was an acceptable day of worship.

Now, the real story in part of this, even going farther, deeper, some began to believe that, but it was because some in the ministry had believed that for a long time and now was their chance. Now was their chance because they had thought about this for so long. It had been so much a part of their thinking, that now they could begin to teach others this. "It's okay. It's okay to worship on Sunday as well. And since everyone else out here does, and since it's okay to worship God on any day, then why make it so hard on ourselves? Why not do like others and not have the kind of unnecessary persecution in our lives, and job problems, and situations." That's how they do it! That's exactly what they do! Incredible!

So there were a group of ministers who believed that way and they led people in God's Church, began to teach this, began to speak this to those who would listen, and they went out. Incredible! So, some went so far to begin once again "(as they had before being called) believing that Sunday was an acceptable day of worship. The other group…"

So there were two groups. What's incredible in this one here as we go through the story, there is one on each side, one to the extreme left, in the sense of being liberal in thinking, extremely liberal, and some to the extreme right, of being to what they felt was the letter of the law, or whatever it might be, but not balanced, not sound, not in unity with God. God is not right or left. He is right on and we have to learn what is right on, what that right way is and be in unity with Him. There is no other way. Anything else, if you turn to the right or you turn to the left away from God, you're off base. It doesn't matter which direction you turn. That's what happened here. There were some on both sides in this case.

I've never seen a time like this where they were on both sides. That was a unique experience and the only one that I can think of right now that ever happened exactly like that in God's Church, especially with ministers who began to teach it.

So again, "The other group rejected the new truth and chose to hold to a Monday…" They were very righteous in their thinking because, "We're going to hold on to what we were taught because what we believed from the beginning could not have been wrong." That was the thinking. Mr. Armstrong's gone off course. "We're going to hold to the course that we were shown from the beginning." You know, there are different kinds of people and we all respond in life to different things. Some of us tend to be by our very nature, sometimes to the right and sometimes to the left. That's just the way we are in our thinking. They're both wrong. They're both unbalanced. But we tend to be that way as human beings, see, and sadly, within the Church sometimes, we don't see that in ourselves, in our thinking.

If we don't understand which side we tend to be on in our thinking than that can be a big stumbling block, and we have to learn what that is. Which side? What way do I normally think so I can be aware of this and be on guard against it?

And sadly, sometimes it goes along with elections. Like in this country before the presidential elections some people will began thinking one side or the other, "Which would be better?" Well, better for what? They're going to do what they're going to do. But sometimes if we're not careful we can begin to take a side, see, and thinking that's the better way. Okay, why did you do that? Why do you tend to think that way? Because we've had some in the Church that have taken both sides, okay? What side did you kind of tend to lean toward and why? Do you know why? It's good to know that about yourself, about how you normally might think.

And so it is here as well, some on the right, "Going to hold to what we have." I have known of so many situations in the Church. I think after the Apostasy some went back to this thinking, "Well, we've got to do what Mr. Armstrong taught." Yes, we do. But what if you begin to grow and things begin to happen and God shows something else, if He's working with a Church? See, because this is what happened. This is some of the things we went through. And some, they couldn't take it, like with Petra. Petra. “We're not going to a place of safety.” You know what people normally do in that situation? "I'm going to find someone who believes that because that's what I believe. I'm going to a place of safety. So who is holding on to that, because that's what's right." See, that's the mind.

Or I think of one instance that popped in my mind about the 144,000: "If I can't be a part of that I'll find someone who believes that because I'm part of the 144,000." On and on it goes because of our thinking and because we can't change with something that God's giving us to help us to see what is sound and true and balanced that comes from Him. God will decide how things are and we just have the choice of yielding to the process and learning and growing wherever we can. So again:

They concluded that Mr. Armstrong was in such error that God must have quit working with Him and was now working with and leading them to hold onto what they had always believed about a Monday Pentecost. Through time, these dissolved, dwindled into nothingness, and even died.

And in this one there was an evangelist involved, an evangelist in God's Church. Got rid of one, had many more to go. Mr. Armstrong's own son and how he thought not too long later in what he did and continued to do in fighting against Mr. Armstrong and in time had to work with different ones. There was a process in time here when Mr. Armstrong was sick, before he came back strong and determined and powerful, that God gave to him, there was that period of time that God allowed there to be a lull. People began to think, "He's going to die." Well, yeah, he's going to die. But their thought was, "Who is going to take over? Where is God going to begin working?" So there were those who began to think (many, many began to think) it was going to be Garner Ted Armstrong. There were others who began to think, because they knew of certain things, "No, it can't be that, so there is some other evangelist, a group of evangelists over here that God is working with," and they began to take sides. This just got to a point where it began to blow up one after another. Incredible what we have seen through time.

And in every case people left the trunk of the tree. They left what they'd been given – some of the most basic things. The number one thing attributed to Mr. Armstrong was government and people think they grasp government. People through Laodicea thought they grasped government. We all became very weak in some of that because of what was taking place in God's Church, but it always goes back to that. That has to do with how God governs, how God works in our life, how God works with us as human beings. That is so important to grasp and understand because God's going to know who will yield themselves to that as a matter of thinking, as a matter of their mind, as a matter of choice, to understand the importance, that yes, everything flows from God: "I must be, I want to be in unity and harmony with that. I don't want to step outside that in any fashion or form."

So they began to go by the wayside, dissolve, dwindle into nothingness, and even died.

This is akin to some over the past years who have come to a point where they believed I had left the truth because of new truth God has revealed to and through me. So they concluded that they will hold onto what was given to them from the beginning, and thereby reject what was new.

We'll go on and read some more here, but there is other thinking involved in this as well, as to how people tend to think. Continuing on:

For any such individuals over the past few years who have rejected additional truth that has been revealed, then if they are being “true” to themselves and others, this means that they must then also reject that there was an apostasy…

Do you understand why? Where did they learn that? How did they come to understand all the things related to an apostasy? I don't see how there was any one of them that couldn't have believed that, didn't believe that with all their being after having talked with them, been around them, especially those who had gone through those things. "…they must also reject that there was an apostasy just as other scattered groups." Because where do you go? Where do you go? Where is God working?

Sometimes it just blows my mind, even on a physical plane (but I understand how it happens), but even thinking carnally, physically, how can you reason in such a pattern, to come to say, "Well, at this point here, because now this is being said…" Okay, where do you go? How far back do you go? Do you go back to the 21 Truths and start over? Or did you believe that there was an Apostasy? And those who did, then how did you come to believe that? And then you just keep adding truths to it. What truth do you decide you're going to cut off here and say, "Okay, this is where He stopped working with him and this is where we will go on now," or whatever it is because that's not how it happens anyway.

That's why some who go back to certain specific groups, one that I came out of; it blows my mind! They received none of the truth, nothing, that group! They don't understand or really embrace some of the 21 as it was, as it is anyway. Going on:

They must reject that there was a “man of sin” revealed or that the Church was spewed out of God’s mouth. They must reject that the era of Philadelphia ended with Mr. Armstrong.

Because they have to go back and believe something that somebody out here is teaching, or in their own minds they're going to have to try to teach something different of what they think is right, or just quit, just give it all up because that's what happens in time to many as well, because after a time they become so weak what do you believe? You don't believe much of anything anymore.

They must reject that Jesus Christ had a beginning in life once he was born of human birth, and they must return to believing…

Because I think of those, many in the ministry, who have left since 2005, or have been disfellowshipped since 2005, and I think, how could you have embraced that with such understanding, and even sometimes in what you had to say how could you reject that and what do you believe now?

…and they must return to believing that he has eternally existed as all the other scattered groups believe. To do otherwise is to clearly live a great lie to themselves and to others. If they choose to judge for themselves which of the 36 additional truths they will accept or reject, then they are acknowledging that truth has been revealed through me that has not been revealed through any others.

You would think that would be simple logic and thinking but it isn't. You know, when the mind begins to become spiritually weak it's amazing what the mind will conjure up, what it will think, what it will come to believe. Soundness, soundness that comes from God's spirit goes by the wayside and that's a scary thing. So going on:

Again, to do this would be to live a great lie to themselves and to others.

There are many lessons that can be learned from the experience of this example regarding Pentecost of 1974.

You know, God gave that for a reason, and a lot of that is not only because it was a process to clean up the Church at that time, but it was also that which would give us understanding more in this time. Because, you see, there were a lot of other things that God hadn't revealed to the Church and left to be revealed later on. 36. Incredible!

As we continue, it is needful that we always remember that such trying and testing from God, as in how it occurred in this example concerning Pentecost, is of major importance to the transformation process of creation in this current age and in the development of this phase of Elohim (for those who will be among the 144,000 and for those who are being prepared for responsibilities in the future [into the Millennium]). God used a period of nearly half a century to confirm and fully establish 18 great truths in His Church. We should be in awe to grasp the significance of 36 additional truths that had been confirmed and established within less than 15 years.

That's mindboggling. The process was speeded up, the process of creating Elohim. That's what it is and there is so much more to this because it's about God and it's about His power and His ability to do the things that He does. And to me that's one of the most exciting things of all, to realize that God has brought the Church to a period in time where this process has been speeded up. The ability, in a short time, not a lifetime in Philadelphia, as it were, to go through various things and to be molded and prepared for certain things in the future, but to be able to go through a shorter span of time and to be molded and fashioned. In some cases beyond, for what God is doing, for whatever He is preparing for the Temple – immediate and into the future. That's why I make comment over and over again that some of you, you're going to be dumbfounded into the Millennium when you come to grasp and understand why God called you at the time He did and what He molded and fashioned within you to put you in that time because there is no other time like this one. To go from this age of Satan's rule into an age of God's rule on this earth, to have experienced that and to live in the Millennium and to know the truth during that period of time and to go through so much of your transformation during this period of time?

Obviously those in the Millennium are going to begin to have their minds opened up, but they're not going to have Satan to deal with. They're not going to have the demonic world constantly broadcasting at them. Do you ever feel a little stressed, a little pressure in life, and have things coming at you… I don't know how to describe it. It's just pressure and sometimes pressure in things that you don't even want in here and you reject them. It's not you, but it's like this broadcasting.

It's like listening to this—try to say this right—this music at this time of year. I can't stand it! I don't want the songs in my mind! I don't want to leave a store and have something in my mind. Generally the quickest way is to think of some other song and maybe some hymn or whatever, and start singing it to get that other garbage out of the mind. I hate it! But it's like this you hear and you've got to deal with it right then. Spiritually you know that things come in here that you don't like and you don't want and it's not you. You know it's not you and yet these things can come at you at different times in attitudes and things that are there. But to understand where it's coming from is so important. That's not what you choose. It's not who you are. It's not what you want and yet it's just like that rotten music except it's on a spiritual plane and it’s broadcast into your mind! That's a power that's not going to exist during the Millennium. If you have never experienced that you just don't recognize what it is yet, because it's out there and it happens. It can happen sometimes just with another individual. They say something and all of a sudden this starts coming into your mind, whatever it is, or about someone. You're thinking about someone and it starts coming into your mind and you've got to deal with it—"That isn't me. I do not choose this. I reject this"—and to understand where it's coming from.

I'll just tell you it's happening a lot to God's people right now, okay? It has been for some time, but its being stirred up more and more. So it's wise to be on guard, to be alert to those kinds of things and to realize you've got to bring your spirit, your mind into check quickly, just as you do with that music and you fight against it and you don't want it in your mind and you have to get your mind elsewhere – maybe on God and pray to God for help to say, "This isn't me. I hate this. Please, please help this to stop. Please cause it to stop." That's an awesome thing to grasp, and to be able to look to God. God wants you to be able to do that, to be able to say, "No. This isn't me. I don't want it. I don't choose this. I don't want it in any fashion or form in my mind. Help me to fight it. Help me to get rid of it, to be rid of it. Please, keep the broadcasting away. Protect my mind." Ask God those kinds of things when those things happen, but you have to be alert to them, what's happening, what's going on.

So again here, incredible that we see and understand these things, how God's working now in such a much shorter period of time through a process that's speeded up. Do you know what that means? There can be trials and tests that come along faster. And when they do, if we'll yield to that process we can grow faster. That's what's been taking place. That's what's been taking place in God's Church. We can make quicker growth, see. We can make quicker change because of these things. That's awesome to understand. Going on:

God’s Church has been incredibly blessed to have experienced such a thing.

Again, it is so deeply important to learn from all this that only God can reveal His truth to us. It is fully within His own will and purpose what He reveals (or doesn’t reveal) and when He will do it.

Who are we to tell God anything else? Who are we to say, "Well, why didn't You do this earlier?" Instead of doing that we need to think, "What can I learn from this, of why God didn't do it earlier, and why He did it later? Ah, now I understand. Now, I understand." It helped clean up people on the left and people on the right who weren't right on, who weren't loyal to the government God had given and how they understood the things they did through God's apostle at that time, Mr. Armstrong, and on and on it goes, lessons that can be learned from that. Going on:

Mr. Armstrong had no ability or choice as to what God revealed about Pentecost or when He revealed it.

God does the revealing. It's not the individual. Mr. Armstrong had no choice in it. I have no choice in it. It is what it is and sometimes the answer is just wait. It's been that way for 6,000 years. Everybody has wanted to know more and when God has revealed something, like to Daniel, "What does this mean? There is so much You've given. What does all this mean? How does it fit into place? When will this be? When does it begin? When does it end?" And He said, "Shut the book, Daniel. It's not for you. Go your way. It's for some other time. It's for later on. It's for the end." So at least he was told that, "Don't fret about it. Don't worry about it. It's going to happen; it's just been given to you to record. Basically, that's it; your job is finished." Awesome!

Mr. Armstrong did not determine by his own study or intellect what was truth and doctrine that was to be taught in God’s Church.

Did he have to study? Yes. Did he have to apply himself? Yes. But God had to lead, guide, direct, and reveal it to him. Amazing! That's what it goes on to say.

God had to reveal it to him, though He did so as Mr. Armstrong studied…

See, if I just keep reading it's there. But you can't help but think about those things and know those things. That's just the answer.

God had to lead and reveal such things all along the way. So it is basic to understand how God reveals truth to His Church. It is and always has been through His apostles and prophets and by no other way.

February 2, 2008, Sermon

We will now return to that sermon given on February 2, 2008, that was entitled, “The 144,000 Are Sealed!” Earlier, I mentioned some of what I said in the very beginning of that sermon. At that time I did not know that God had made me an apostle to His Church back on Pentecost of 1998. All that I grasped was that God was working with me as a prophet, but I didn’t fully comprehend how. There was no one to teach me about the job and function of a prophet in God’s ministry. This was because there was no such position used by God through Philadelphia or on into Laodicea until the time God placed me in that position.

What a wonderful thing if I'd had a bush, you know, if I'd had some angel manifest them self and say, "Blah, blah, blah." But it doesn't work that way. It didn't work that way with Mr. Armstrong. I've learned a lot about that process because of how God worked with Mr. Armstrong, to grasp and understand that God works with us in different ways at different times and what that means. And so, anyway, going on:

We have gone through a lot of background that led up to this period in time in 2008 so that we can better grasp how God had been working in His Church at that specific time and why. The Church was being prepared for what it would experience during the prophesied end-times given through Daniel. The content of this sermon was that God had just revealed to me the meaning of the 1335 days being about the sealing of the 144,000.

I knew it! That's all that was there. It's about the 144,000. That's what the 1335 days is. I didn't know more. I didn't grasp more.

That is the context of my introductory statements in that sermon that I gave as an apostle, though I did not understand that at the time.

With understanding it in this context, it is incredible what was said after I gave the title to that sermon: “God gave to me that this was that day! I did not know all that I would be given for this day until yesterday — last night.” The rest of that paragraph will be quoted shortly, but first these two sentences need to be addressed.

What God gave to me, as a prophet, was to know that the 1335 days of Daniel were about the sealing of the 144,000. That was it! That day in February seemed very important due to the process of judging by the truths we had to this moment in time (present truth).

And that's how we're judged. We have to judge according to what we've been given to any moment in time. Pentecost, we kept it on a Monday. That's what Mr. Armstrong believed. That was all we understood. It was the present truth, if you will, of understanding. We didn't know that no, that's wrong and it should be on a Sunday. It was wrong, but anyone who would keep it on another day themselves would have been wrong. That's an awesome thing to understand. They would have been sinning because they had no right to make the choice and the judgment and the decision themselves save by how they've been given every truth they'd been given to that moment in time through God's apostle. Sometimes that's been hard for some in God's Church to grasp and comprehend, about such a matter as this, but it's true. We can't be presumptuous. God left that open for a purpose.

There was an individual at that moment in time who was keeping it on both days. He was wrong. He was wrong. God will make it clear when He makes changes and He does it in a specific way and we're judged according to that because it isn't our prerogative to decide certain things, though we may think we see them, and we may see them. See, it wasn't my right to begin teaching certain things back in 1975 about Yahweh, that that was not Jesus Christ. I couldn't teach the other, but it would have been very wrong for me to have done otherwise, to teach something about what I believed that God had shown to me.

So there's one thing about being true to something that you believe and see, but you have to wait before something can be done publicly, if you will, within the Body. As this one minister was doing both days, and people knew it, he was teaching. He was teaching something that wasn't right to others. Going on. Again, I'll read that paragraph again:

What God gave to me, as a prophet, was to know that the 1335 days of Daniel were about the sealing of the 144,000. That was it! That day in February seemed very important due to the process of judging by the truths we had to this moment in time (present truth). The first truth that was part of this judgment was what God had revealed to me, as a prophet, being [and here is something else, the other thing] that 2008 was the beginning of His final witness to this world.

That's what it was. 2008. I knew that was the year. So other judgments had to be made from that ability to see that. Did I know everything about it? Not at all and we had to learn some other things as time went along. So again:

It was just a prophetic fact. Secondly, we believed at that moment in time that Christ would return on a Feast of Trumpets. Thirdly, the other truth we had at that time was that the period of God’s final witness would be for 1260 days as stated concerning the time God’s two witnesses would establish that final witness.

So there's duality involved here and there are things here that we're going to talk about as we continue on, because I don't think people have understood this as deeply as we need to as a Church, to grasp and comprehend what was given, what we could see and why at any moment in time. It's important to understand these things.

As an apostle and minister to God’s Church, it was my responsibility to preach and teach about this to God’s people.

It is totally different from that of a prophet: to teach, to teach, to lead and guide and direct according to the present truth that God has given to us.

Based on how God had trained me to exercise judgment with all truth we had to that moment in time, I concluded that God was revealing to us that on that specific day in February of 2008 that the 144,000 had been sealed. I was wrong. Yet if God had desired to do so, He could have revealed that it was not on that specific day that the sealing had occurred. God had only revealed that the meaning of the 1335 days [of Daniel] was about the sealing of the 144,000.

And here just recently at the Feast God revealed some more about that, what it means, what's taking place. It's still about the sealing of the 144,000, but how He was doing it and what He was doing because of what we experienced, candidly, in the mid-part of 2008 is another story that adds to this. So again here:

I drew the wrong conclusion from what was revealed, as I only understood part of what was being revealed.

So again, that's the way it's always been. We preach, we teach, and no one should teach more, except by what we understand to any moment in time. So if you have certain thinking in your mind, certain knowledge of certain facts—2008 is the beginning of God's final witness; 1335 days is about the sealing of the 144,000—but there are a lot of other pieces to the puzzle that aren't in there yet.

So that's why February was the beginning of the thinking at that time because of thinking 2008 is the beginning. I'm going to read this in a moment anyway, but it's pretty simple: If 2008 is indeed the beginning of God's final witness and the job that has to be done at that point in time, and we believe that Jesus Christ is going to return on a Trumpets, then all you have to do is count out or count back. There's a period of 3½ years that has to be in there and that will be on a Trumpets. That's what happened. So that's why it started in February. That was the conclusion. Does that make sense? I hope everybody understands that. Some things in math or some things in time, and so forth, aren't as easy, but it's good for us to try to grasp it.

God chose to reveal later when the 1335 days would actually begin, which was in late 2008, once He revealed that Christ was going to return on Pentecost and not on Trumpets.

So if we didn't know it then what was preached was according to what we understood, so it was to Trumpets. Later God revealed no, it's Pentecost he's returning. Again, 2008 is the year, when is he going to return? Again, it's just a matter of math, but something had to change. Going on:

This whole experience was designed for the Church by God as a trial and test, just as the example of Pentecost 1974 was also designed by God as a trial and test for His people then.

Now, it is good to read the rest of that paragraph that was quoted from that sermon: “As I sat down and read about the number of days of Daniel (these 1335 days), I pondered and got out my calculator. I wanted to see proof! Today, you want to see proof. But for the order of days, from one point to another, there is none!”

It didn't make any sense. It didn't fit into any pattern. God's way is one of being very meticulous, very methodic, and very exact. Things that work out when you're talking about time and days will fit exactly. So in this particular case, just adding to the story, which is, again, covered in part here, if you start looking at that period in time from Trumpets coming back to the period of 2008, that you know it has to be, you come back to February. But nothing coupled with February: no holy days, no periods of time that you could count to other than that Trumpets made any sense backwards or forwards. Nothing fit into place, but that's what we had to that moment in time. Going on:

It was obvious by every kind of calculation that nothing fit into any areas of meaning that might be contained in any of God’s Holy Days.

However, once God revealed Christ would return on a Pentecost, everything changed!

Now, to me I'm still inspired by such things, moved by such things. Dumbfounding, how God works with us and what He gives to us.

With that new and present truth and the revelation of truth that 2008 was the beginning of God’s final witness to mankind, those dates did fall into place in a mathematically and awesomely unique cyclical manner (per calendar dates over years and years of annual holy days).

That's what's amazing when you go back and you look at specific timing of things. I love math! I love how meticulous some of these kinds of things are and you go back and even the first coming of Christ and the timing and the Seventy Weeks Prophecy and some of those things, and especially when you look at that, when you look at how God divided that up in Daniel and you start talking about how He broke it up into different parts, it is awesome, meticulous, perfect to certain events that took place over time to the timing that Jesus Christ began his ministry and to what would happen in the midst of that ministry when he would be cut off from it. All this timing in there fits perfectly into place.

So that's why those things were a kind of nagging at that time concerning Trumpets because nothing fit and then all of a sudden you have something, knowing that 2008 is a beginning of something, and things begin to hit, and I've done this. I've gone back decades and forward in decades and plugged in certain holy days and certain times and certain numbers, okay? There are certain periods of time where you might get one section to fit into a certain place, but not the rest. But the period we live in now? That's why I'm dumbfounded by Chapter 7 and all the timing that's in there that you could plug into no other time on the calendar and come up with everything that fits so perfectly. That's why the mathematical probability of something, just on a mathematical plane itself, is absolutely impossible!

I think of one example of probability where they were talking about evolution in some of the old booklets, and the probability of something happening. It'd be like a bunch of monkeys and having a bunch of typewriters and all of a sudden their being able to type up some of the things of the encyclopaedia, or whatever, to type up an encyclopaedia. The probability of certain things happening is so astronomically out of whack in some of these things, but it seems like proof and mathematics goes out the window when people want to believe in evolution. "We crawled out of the slime and we wanted, or they wanted to, change so much." That's why you wonder, well, human beings have always had a fascination with flying. Why on earth did we not have wings? Anyway, I'm sorry, but some of the thinking about how a few cells of a thing that's living can somehow over time have to make some kind of adjustment in order to become something better than what it is. I don't even like to go there, it's so stupid. It's so insane.

But what God gives to us, and things that do fit into time, and especially now because of what God revealed about Jesus Christ returning on Pentecost, there have been so many things revealed since that period of time about this that make it so much more meaningful that it's so awesomely inspiring and uplifting, encouraging, powerful.

You know, the truth is your power. God's word, God's truth is what empowers you, gives you power and strength of purpose and mind. Truly is. It was our strength through Philadelphia—21 Truths. Everything was based upon that and that was our strength. It was our conviction. It was our mind. It was our being. God has added so much more to us because of what we've gone through. It's incredible, truly is.

"Today, you want to see proof. But for the order of days, from one point to another, there is none!” I'm not sure that's the spot, but I want to start there.

It was obvious by every kind of calculation that nothing fit into any areas of meaning that might be contained in any of God’s Holy Days.

However, once God revealed Christ would return on a Pentecost, everything changed!

With that new and present truth and the revelation of truth that 2008 was the beginning of God’s final witness to mankind, those dates did fall into place in a mathematically and awesomely unique cyclical manner…. That primary date that now fell into place was September 30, 2008 — the Feast of Trumpets. That was simply incredible and awesomely inspiring to see.

We have truly lived through incredible times as we have lived extraordinary experiences as God was preparing us to live through the years of “final witness” [and so adding those dates we didn't have before] (Dec. 14, 2008 to May 27, 2012) and on into these times we are now living in.

So again, some of this being written before May the 30th there and some of the things being covered.

So again, I hope we understand how some of these things were fitting into place and what was happening and what was being spoken of here when it speaks of certain period of time that had to begin, if you look at a holy day, being not Trumpets anymore, but now it was Pentecost, and you back up to a certain moment that was December 14th, that last 3½ years, knowing when that final 3½ years would begin. But if you back up a little farther, little farther to Trumpets of that year you have 1335 days. That's awesome! Awesome to understand what God began to give to us and things began to fit into place. That plus a few others along the way that I believe are going to be covered here as we go along.

Righteous Judgment and God’s Government

We have been focusing upon the subject of righteous judgment. It was stated that we are judged by what we see — know and understand — at any moment in time. That is why we are to discern and judge every matter in life by the present truth [from where we are].

I think of some scriptures here I'm going to go ahead and plug in here at this point. John 7:24. I'll just read this one to you and then, well, you might turn to John if you want to. We're going to have John 7 and then John 8, and then John 5 we're going to look at here so they're all on the same vicinity.

The first one is John 7:24, we're told, Jesus Christ said, Judge not according to appearance. Now, what did he mean by that, "Don't judge according to appearance?" In other words, don't judge by how you see something, by how you perceive something from your own thinking, your own mind. That's what it means. In other words, how it appears to us in how we think about it. See, because that isn't important. How we think about certain things is not what's important, but we tend to think a certain way. That's why Jesus Christ gave us some of this instruction about judging, because he said don't judge in this manner, how you think about it because you're not going to be able to make righteous judgment if that's the case. If you are the judge—that's what we do as human beings—we decide how we think things are. We have that tendency as human beings. It's just the way everyone is in the world. That's how people think – judge from this, by our own experiences, how we think, by how we see it. So he says don't do that.

He said, but judge righteous judgment. Well, where does righteousness come from? It comes from God. So we have to judge everything based on God, based on the mind and being of God, and that means God's word, which means, for us in an expanded way, God's truth, because that's His word. That's who He is. He has revealed it to us from the very beginning, from the first truth on. If you want to look at the first three truths He begins to reveal things about Himself, about His plan and purpose for human beings and how He's going to work with us. Then when Mr. Armstrong came along and those 18 were added, it expanded upon that powerfully, mightily, to be able to see God more clearly, the mind and thinking of God and how He thinks towards us to work with us, to mold and fashion us, why He does those things in a manner that He does. It adds incredible depth of understanding and appreciation to our thinking that we otherwise did not have, and that has to be revealed spiritually and understood on a spiritual plane otherwise we couldn't see anything, just like the world. We'd be out here decorating trees and other things right now.

John 8:15, just adding to this he said, You judge after the flesh. I judge no man. Now, what he's saying here in context is not that he doesn't judge, enter into judgment, but the manner in which he judges. What he was saying, in essence, is "I judge no man after the flesh." He said, "You do, but I don't." That's what he was saying, "I judge no man after the flesh." In other words, the point being, again here, "after the flesh," carnally, physically, by the way we see it, by the way "I" think about it, by what we see physically. How he judged was on a spiritual plane; it wasn't physical at all.

And yet he said, If I judge… So the point being is he judges, he judged, but not as men think, not as people think and judge. He says, my judgment is true.

If I judge, my judgement is true, for I am not alone, but it is, in essence, from (that's what it's about here; that's what it's referring to here), and the Father who sent me. "I am not alone," but it's about himself because of who he was, because of the mind that he had, and because he was the Word of God made flesh, and the Father who sent him.

He goes on to say, It is written in your law that the testimony of two men is true. I am one who bears witness, and it's not "of myself," but he said in essence here, in context, I bear witness myself, one. It's not of himself. God bore witness of who he was. He said, I bear witness myself and the Father who sent me bears witness of me. Okay? Powerful what he had to say there. He's saying, "You judge after the flesh, and you say in your own law," in essence, "that two, that it should be by the mouth of two at least here," in essence, "that judgment, can be given. But I tell you that I am witness myself, and God Almighty, my Father, He bears witness of me." You can't get any greater than that. Two, but on a spiritual plane.

So he was showing something here that they didn't grasp and comprehend anyway. It's for the Church. Most everything he had to say was for later on, for the Church, for people to grasp and comprehend about God's plan. Even as he first came and began to show the spiritual intent of the law, they didn't grasp any of that. They didn't grasp those things. "I tell you not to kill. Not only that, but if you have hatred in your heart toward someone else you're a murderer." In essence that's what he was saying, "You've killed already." They didn't grasp these things. Only in the slightest way even the disciples at that point. Later on it came to them, you know, once they had the spirit and mind of God working in them; then the light went on, the light bulb went on. So in essence he was saying to them, "I speak the truth. You can't. You don't because you judge after the flesh."

John 5, another place that he spoke about judging. John 5:30. Now, I love these because these all drive the point home. And candidly, so few in the Church have ever understood these things. You think, "Oh, surely we understood these always." No, we didn't.

John 5:30, he says, Of my own self I can do nothing. As I hear, I judge; and my judgment is just. Powerful! …because I do not seek my own will. See, it wasn't a matter of judging from a carnal viewpoint of how we might see something, of how "I" see something. We have to get rid of that in our thinking because that just doesn't mean diddly-squat in life, how I think about it, how I see it, who I think should be in office, or who shouldn't be in office, or who shouldn't do this, or who shouldn't do that that.

Whatever judgments we pass on people, so often as human beings, most of the time they begin on a very carnal level, because it's physical, but those are the kinds of things we have to get rid of and make sure with all of our being that we're striving to do it this way, that we're getting rid of our own prejudices. That's the problem so often in life – we don't know our own prejudices. We don't see how prejudice we really are about many things in life.

I think of what we already covered in some of this, the truths about women and what God is doing in the next thousand years that's so different than what He's allowed to be because of the brutality of human beings and because of how human beings can be so sick in their thinking and what they did to women as a whole—men did—and that God is getting rid of that. I can't help but think of those kinds of things and those prejudices that are there from childhood, you know, from the beginning.

I think of something I saw on TV here, that I don't remember what it was. I think it was on "Funniest Home Videos" or something. It was cute, this little girl. She was talking and they were discussing something about something physical—I don't remember what it was—and her wanting something, but the story was this little girl was standing there and they were saying, "Well, how are you going to get all these things?" "I'm going to marry somebody who's rich." Now, we tend to think that's funny as human beings, and it is kind of funny how a person can think. But I thought, "How pathetic! How sad! Already it's been planted in that young child's mind by something out here – by her parent, by her mom—I don't know—by society, by TV that somehow that she's going to have to have a rich man to take care of her, to get the things she wants in life!"

Do you see what I'm saying? What a sad thing because it starts as a little child. The first thing, it is kind of humorous that a child would pick up something like this, but when you start thinking about it you realize, whoa! These things get planted in the mind of children so young! And little boys, when they're so young, there's a thinking because of the world around them and because of the way dad sometimes talks or something they hear on TV, or whatever it is, and they start thinking in a certain way. Those minds are molded when they're so young! When they're old they don't know they're prejudice. They don't know why they think the way they do. A little girl like that, when she grows older, she doesn't realize how screwed up that thinking is in her mind! A boy, when he gets older and thinks a certain way toward that as well, he doesn't know how screwed up his mind is!

People who wear these things over their face—when they're taught as little children, their mom wears those things and society is that way—and they have to look out little peep-holes because of the distortion of the mind and the thinking about what they think about sex and the opposite sex! To subjugate a woman so much that she can only in public look out these little peep-holes and no one can see her face, and I think how sick, demonic that is!

I don't know if you share that feeling, but I get upset. That's just the tip of the iceberg. Because, you see, it's easier to see the prejudice in something like that and how the mind is distorted, but it's so hard to see us and what we grow up with and we think we're so much better. Minds are just as screwed up, just in a different way – the sexes, male and female, and how people think about each other. This world is really sick, brethren. 6,000 years of just carnality and people living by carnality alone and not by God's way, not trying to live and think like in the mind the way God thinks and be in harmony with that and striving to be in harmony with that and wanting to live life in harmony with that, and realizing this is what produces fruit, this is what produces meaning in life that's enjoyable. Everything else produces that which is hurtful, painful—jealousies, envy, perversion, distortion, imbalance, unhappiness—all the things which are opposite of what God's way produces. That's what the world is experiencing.

You know this happy, happy music that they play. I asked a couple people working in an office the other day as I was leaving (as I had to visit this doctor's office), I said, "Do you get tired of hearing this all the time," in the waiting room there, "these songs?" He was like, "Yeah, we get tired of hearing it." They repeat over and over again and it gets in your mind and it's always there. It's this fake thing! It's not real. It's all fake, but it’s supposed to make people feel happier and joyous and we're going to spend more money because we're all so happy. This is the time of year that you go more into debt. Anyway, I'm sorry, get off on these tangents.

So what a pathetic thing, that little girl. And you see, even in God's Church then we've had people who have had battles. There are different levels then of growth as people are able to have something brought to the surface where all of a sudden they see, "Oh, I didn't know I thought that way, I was thinking that way. I haven't been fair or right to this individual in how I have approached them," or "I haven't accepted God's government coming through them like I should." See, this has happened a lot in God's Church because they're a woman or whatever. This has happened a lot in God's Church, brethren, and it's still going on, but less than what it was in the beginning because that's a big change and the prejudice is so deep that you can't know it unless and until God begins to reveal it to your thinking. That's what's beautiful. God begins to reveal to us what we're like and something brings it to the surface – a truth, a revelation.

Not only is God going to change that, but even women are ordained! Even that was given as a truth in God's Church. So that brings another level of tests and trial. See, there are some people who left the Church because of this one not too long ago in the ministry. They couldn't take it. Couldn't take it! Could not take it. Well, that's a choice. Some did it at Pentecost 1974; you did it later on. What's really sad is if somebody lived at that period of time, which they did, in the Church, to think it took all this time to come to this point and you gave it all up because of your own prejudice. You chose your mind, your thinking, your judgment, your righteousness above that which God was giving to His Church. It boggles my mind.

These things should always sober us, to understand we always need to be on guard and in unity and harmony with God.

Anyway, continuing on. …of my own self, I love this verse, I can do nothing. That's the way it is with all of us as human being; we can't do anything that's right and good, not even right and good if it's based on your own carnal thinking because there will be some personal prejudice even if it might agree with something from God. You don't murder because why? Is it because you agree that God has given that? See, because there are people in the world who believe that you shouldn't murder, shouldn't take life except in special circumstances. Then we can go over and kill a bunch of people and children and others, but that's a justified thing. That's different. See the human mind? It's amazing what the human mind will do. But even with us, and sometimes in God's Church, there are levels we have to go through to come to understand more deeply what it is that God is giving and revealing and making certain that we don't judge according to this. Because if we do there will be a prejudice involved in how we think. It's a very subtle thing, the human mind, and we have to make certain.

Do you know how you know? If you strive to make those judgments and decisions, this agrees with something that God has said, that Jesus Christ has said, that God has given to us that's true. "So I'm rejecting how I might normally think about this matter, and I agree with God, therefore, this is my judgment, my choice, my decision." That's an awesome thing to go through in life, and one to work to perfect more and more and more.

Of my own self I can do nothing. As I hear I judge, and my judgment is just because I do not seek my own will: "I don't seek my own way. I don't seek to get my own way. I don't seek to feel better about this because this is how the way I see it anyway and this is the way it really should be and this is the way someone should be doing because this is the way I see it should be done!" See, that's the way we are as human beings. He said don't judge that way, he says, Because I do not seek my own will but the will of the Father who has sent me. And you know what? God has called every one of us and sent us, sent us out in the world. Wherever we are, in our communities, wherever we are, we're to be a light; we're to be an example. Others around us should see something different than what they see in others that they come in contact with – on the job, in families, whatever it might be. They see you first and foremost as standing firm for what you believe. You stand firm for the Sabbath day. You stand firm for what you do and the holy days. They know what you're going to do when they come around. You're going to be at a certain place because God comes first. That's just how you think. They're going to learn from that. They're not going to be able to use it yet, but they're going to experience that.

They're going to experience something different from what they do in the world. They're going to experience something from you, that when you have said something wrong to them or something comes up in a dispute or if something happens because someone gets upset and you say, "I'm so sorry. I did not mean that." Or you go to someone, a boss, a fellow employee at work, and you say, "You know what? I got caught up in that yesterday and I should not have said what I did. I reacted in a way that I shouldn't have and that's not me and I'm sorry for that." Now, how many do you think they have coming to them on the job when those situations happen, saying such a thing? They're to experience something different, that you're willing to admit when you make a mistake, you're willing to admit when you're wrong in how you may be treated or said something to someone and they see something different.

I've had people tell me stories, even of recent time, of some of these kinds of things happening and they're kind of surprised. What do you say about that? Because they're not used to that—amazing—because it isn't in the world. But it's to be in us.

So again, a beautiful, awesome, awesomely beautiful verse. But you seek to do the will of the Father who sent you. God called you to live a different way of life, to be different than everybody else around you. Most of the time that just comes in the fact that you stand firm – not obnoxiously so.

You know, sometimes people think they've got to tell others everything and just kind of be obnoxious. Like you go into a restaurant and, well, you have a certain belief about certain foods, or whatever, of what you can eat and don't eat, and you don't have to go get the chef and find out what he put in the porridge, or whatever it is. I don't even know what the stuff is called, but anyway, it might have something in it that's bad. “What do you use?" We want everybody in the restaurant to hear this, "What do you use when you make this? How did you make this pie? Does it have something in it that might have something that squeals?" Oink! Oink! And you think, "Why are you putting on such a show?" That's a show of what you believe. We're not to do that. We're not to stand out like a sore thumb, like a bad thumb. You know, it's just better to be quiet about it and do what you have to do and what your faith is and belief. Sometimes it's just better to say, if you're not sure and it hurts your conscience say, "I can't. I'm sorry, but I don't think I want that." That's all you have to do. The chef doesn't have to come out and testify as to what he used in his food. This happens in God's Church! It still happens sometimes in God's Church! It drives me wild because it shouldn't.

So sometimes we think we have to be vocal about what we believe to others. No, you don't. What you have to be is one who just lives it. Now, by living it sometimes you may have to vocalize what you believe, tell the boss, "I'm taking off the Sabbath." You don't even have to ask that way, but say, "I'm sorry, but when it comes sundown here this week I can't come in. I can't continue on. I've got to leave." “What do you mean? Oh, it's your Sabbath." You let them know it starts at sundown. "Oh yeah, I remember what you said about that." You know, most of the time it's easily resolved. I hope everyone understands what I'm saying.

Because it's not a show of what we believe. We don't want to be like the world. We don't want to be Pentecostal. We don't want to be like some who have to sit down at a table, and this is why we've quit some of these kinds of things, so we don't do those things in an imbalanced way. Because Jesus Christ said, "When you pray go into your closet alone." So our prayers are very private and in a Church environment they're very private, and we basically have one at the beginning of a service and that is it because we should be praying about these alone, by ourselves where no one else is around anyway before we ever come.

So we're not like the world when they get around at a table in a restaurant and they all have to hold hands and bow their heads, or whatever they do. And you think, "Why do you feel like you have to do something like that?" Or these people that at a certain time of day they'll start bobbing their head against a wall, you know, and put a shawl around their shoulder, or whatever it might be. Those things drive me wild. I think, "That's what Jesus Christ was saying! Don't do this out in the open! Don't show how religious you are." Because by doing it you're showing you're really not – not by what God says. So we're ever growing and learning balance. I'm sorry I've gone off on some of these things, but it's so important that we learn to judge because we're striving to do it, to be in agreement with God's will in our life. We want to be pleasing to God. We want to do things the way He said to do it, not the way we think it should be done. So we should be able to judge by certain things that we've learned, certain things we've been taught. On and on it goes.

Going on, back into the article now under "Righteous Judgment and God's Government." So we judge and we're judged by how we judge according to the present truth. Things are taught to us according to present truth as well.

Until God revealed in 1974 that Pentecost was to be observed on a Sunday, God’s people were judged by what God had revealed to them before that additional truth about Pentecost was given. The timing for when this portion of truth was revealed was totally [totally] in God’s control.

It's awesome to understand that and be in agreement with that, that this is God's choice as to how and why He does things, if we can keep in mind why He does it, why He does these things. What's in the forefront of His mind and His work always? From the very beginning, with Jesus Christ, before anything was created, it's Elohim. It's His family. It's the creation of Elohim always – always – always. Sometimes we don't grasp the importance of a few. We're not a big body like was in Philadelphia, in that period of time. We're very small, a remnant, a leftover, a small portion of what existed. Yet God's focus is on you. Those whom He has called, there is a finishing work He is doing in molding and fashioning those that are part of the 144,000 and those who are going to live on into a new age.

It's not meant that there be large, large numbers of people that are going to be associated with us who go on into that period of time. There are going to be some who are going to be able to repent at a certain phase of time, but to be associated with us, to be able to go to Sabbath services to hear sermons? It’s not going to happen. People who will be awakened and people who will have choices of coming back and things that they will learn, we have hoped, I have hoped that there would be a time that they would be able to come in and have fellowship with us for a time. But especially with what we see now, it’s not going to happen, not going to be like that. Because we have that longing and that desire for what God says He's going to do.

We know He's going to do it, but when some of these take place, well, it's going to be right in conjunction with everything else that starts happening. When people see the first four Trumpets unleashed on this earth, when they see the Thunders that really start to happen. See, because they really haven't started to happen, only in part, only in a small way. That's been for the Church and about the Church. But as to what a length they go and what will happen later, far, far, far, far beyond anything we have ever begun to see to this point in time. Far beyond it. We haven't seen anything.

Then those who used to be a part of our past will have an opportunity to begin to be awakened because there are some things you can't deny. You can deny an Apostasy. You can deny all kinds of things ever took place, but not when this world comes crashing down around your ears and everything that you'd ever heard and been taught, is happening in a greater way than you thought? Just like the Apostasy. We had no comprehension how great it was going to be and those in the scattered Church really have never grasped how great it's going to be, what we're going to experience.

When nuclear weapons go off on this earth, which they will, no one can imagine that. No one can imagine what it's going to be like when there's no electricity. No one can imagine what it's going to be like when there's no running water. They really can't imagine that. They can't imagine what it's going to be like that you can't go down to a supermarket anymore because there's nothing there because there are no trucks running up and down the highway anymore, no trains running up and down the rails. We really can't grasp that. People can't grasp that, but when it happens their whole world has changed. God's going to use that in a very powerful way to awaken people.

So I'm very thankful that we went through a period of time where we came to understand this doesn't have to go on for 3½ years. On the contrary, it was never meant to go that long because we would not survive. You couldn't survive it. So God's been merciful, indeed.

Anyway, read it again here just to get the context back here:

Until God revealed in 1974 that Pentecost was to be observed on a Sunday, God’s people were judged by what God had revealed to them before that additional truth about Pentecost was given. The timing for when this portion of truth was revealed was totally in God’s control. Therefore, up to that change in 1974, God’s people were to assemble on a Monday, and they were judged by their response and obedience to what they knew to that moment in time.

The Church wasn't somewhere else. There was no other means that truth was being given to them except through one man, Mr. Armstrong. I marvel to this day that there are ministers who could come to the point in time at the end of Laodicea or toward the end of it, and even all the way up, to say that he was a great teacher and I learned a lot of great things from him, but… You're the only "butt," to say something like that, to have forgotten how you learned the truth? To understand he was your teacher? To understand you wouldn't know diddly squat save that God revealed these truths through him! Where did you get the Sabbath? Where did you get the holy days? Where did you get understanding of these things? Where did you get the understanding of tithing, whereby you pocket your billfold, or whatever, your bank account? Where did you learn these things? But they can't answer that because they don't ask the question. He was just a great teacher.

…they were judged by their response and obedience to what they knew to that moment in time. This example teaches us much about how and why God works with us as He does (much of which we have already covered). This also teaches a great deal about how God’s government works in our lives through the leadership He has established to be upon His apostles and prophets.

I might just add, throughout the Church, because that's how we're tried and tested. How do we respond to God's government at any moment in time? Is it done perfectly? No, never; we're human beings. Everybody, all the way through the body, it's always been that way, but there is that which will come through them and that which we're to be yielded to and to honor because it's of God. It's about God. It's about the office, or whatever it might be, and to understand it's a process of government, and how we think toward that and how we react toward that we're judged. Going on:

God has chosen to construct His Church through this exact structure. It is by this way that He is creating Elohim in all who will receive God’s government and God’s way of revealing truth to them through these offices He has established: “And (we) are (being) built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner stone…" (Eph. 2:20-21).

So why is that? Because it's how God has structured the Church. First those things that are given, two phases of prophets, one to have inspired understanding of what is written, that it speaks of the word prophet, the other is to be given things that are prophetic for the future. And with those particular things then, obviously, God is giving something different at different times then to the Church, when it's a matter of something for the future that has an impact on how we think. 2008 had an impact on how we think like to understand the 1335 days of Daniel is about the sealing. So that will be built upon. God will give all the pieces of the puzzle when and where they need to be. When it's given you think, "Oh, this is awesome!" Then we think we see it all. We think we understand. We think that's it. Uh oh, that's not all of it yet; there's more to be added to this and be built upon. God will build as He pleases and when He pleases, and that can try us. We learn through the process. It's an awesome process.

So apostles as well, new truth that comes along that God gives at any moment in time, whether it be from the very beginning through the apostles, because they gave a lot continually. That's how God was building something, that after that point in time there was no need for apostles because everything was built upon that that the Church would have all the rest of the way, you know, Pergamos, Smyrna, Thyatira, on and on it goes, Sardis, until we came to Philadelphia. Because so much had been lost, God raised up a man to re-establish it, to have it given once again.

So the Church is built upon that and so that's what this is talking about. That is how we grow. That's how the Church grew through Philadelphia. All the ministry that was out here all the way up to the Apostasy, it was there because of one man, what God did through Mr. Armstrong and no other way. How people can forget something so basic it just boggles the mind! So that doesn't mean either that God won't reveal more later on because sometimes people get stuck in time. Some are stuck out there in time thinking they've got to have a magazine, they've got to have a telecast, they've got to do something because Mr. Armstrong didn't finish and didn't fulfill what God said.

I think we'll stop there. This is a good spot to stop, good place to end. So we'll have Part 5 next week.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1