God's Kingdom Is Closing In, Pt. 3

Ron Weinland

March 3, 2018

Today is Part 3 of the series entitled God's Kingdom Is Closing In.

We've been covering how incredible it is that God has given us so much witness of how final end-time events are coming together rapidly. And from all that's taking place that we're able to see around us week by week I'm really quite dumbfounded by it. It's becoming clearer indeed that which we can see, that God is making evident to us at this time that time, in that respect, is not being held back any longer. I'll tell you, there are some incredible things taking place and it's like everything is being set in place and it's speeding up. And some of the things that happened this week are the things that push nations in to war. It's our history. It's the history of the world. And how we can be so foolish in some of these things is astounding. But people seem to think they can work something out, make it work for their favor, that they have the power and ability to do so, but that's not the case this time around. So again, things are fitting into place so rapidly.

So much of what God has given us to watch in this end-time is what now testifies to what prophecy reveals happening just before Jesus Christ's coming and it's what is now being powerfully reverberated throughout this world. In Part 1 and 2 we went through a lot of news articles that clearly reveal God's Kingdom is closing in. And that ought to sober us to the core of our being. I've also been preparing sermons well beyond this period of time because of preparation for Passover and I am inspired and in awe of what God is revealing to us about the importance of this Passover and what it means.

So again, we live in some incredible times, and indeed, it's incredible how much testimony and witness, as I said, that God is giving us to see. And we're seeing it come together. You're witnessing that. You're able to watch this. It's that front row seat, in that respect, that Johnny sometimes refers to. We are able to watch it come together, things that have been talked about for so long, things that Mr. Armstrong began to preach more powerfully starting in 1950 even, and even before that. But especially after 1950. Time is closing in.

And I can't help but think about some of those things revealed to Mr. Armstrong during his era, that era, the Philadelphian era, and that being in the end-time. God began to show him that he was in the end-time. And everything that God did through him, I should say, was a matter of God preparing for the end-time. It was setting a foundation for things that were to take place later on, things that were to become deeply embedded in the Church, taught in the Church in a very powerful way concerning this era of time and the witness that he was to accomplish as well because of what God was doing through him. So I think it's good that we review a little bit of that, some of those things as well as we go through this, and those things, again, that God gave to him about this being the end-time.

I'm going to go over to Revelation 17. So if you'd like to turn over there we're going to spend a little bit of time over there. Because the fact that God was revealing to him that we are in the end-time – actually God said, Jesus Christ talked about being in a particular period of time as the end-time. But that was with a vision of 6,000 years. 4,000 years had passed and God had worked with individuals throughout that 4,000 years, had called them, worked with them, molded, and fashioned them for His Kingdom. And then He began to work in a greater way with the Church, with more people at one time, far more massively so throughout the next 2,000 years that would follow, being in the end-time. But the very end-time, the things that are referred to before Jesus Christ returns have to do with things that God revealed powerfully so to Mr. Armstrong. And we are rapidly zeroing in on those things. And that's what the world testifies to right now. That's what is so awesome about what we're able to see, and understanding that God's Kingdom being established on this earth is right behind it.

So again, these things are recorded throughout prophecy, but this one here, I want to start with this one, of what God began to reveal to Mr. Armstrong about the importance of Europe in prophetic end-time events.

Revelation 17:1—And there came one of the seven angels who had the seven vials… So this is in the context, what are the Seven Vials, the Seven Last Plagues, the last Trumpet, the last thing to take place when God directly intervenes and begins, as it says, "to destroy those who are destroying the earth?" God is going to allow a lot of things to take place before that moment in time that happen, thankfully, over a short period of time. But because of the kind of war this world gets into God has to directly intervene or otherwise mankind would annihilate himself. No one is going to stop pushing buttons unless God intervenes. And so God has to intervene. And He tells us exactly at what point He's going to do that, how massive all this is taking place, how much is destroyed, basically, before He finally steps in, before He finally intervenes. Mankind has to experience in a very profound and powerful way what his governments have brought them to, their governments, I should say, has brought them to. Man cannot rule himself. Man cannot govern himself. Man can't give peace to anyone and they can't live and produce peace. Human nature is too selfish. And yet it's something that mankind has not learned yet. And so God has given 6,000 years for people to get their fill of all this and then finally have to come face to face with the truth, that "Given the technology you would have destroyed yourself if I hadn't of intervened and stopped it."

And so that's exactly what God has to do. It's a horrible thing. Human nature is a horrible thing, that we have to come to that point, that far in order to learn something that can be deeply embedded in us, so that the next thousand years that follow the hearing is sharpened. And man has the proof and the history of what it was like in the previous 6,000 years, 6,000 years of absolute misery on this earth. Sadly some people don't realize they're living and dwelling in misery because they're able to escape it. The more wealth they have the more plenty that God has given to them (which they don't acknowledge God giving it in the first place), but the more that they have the more that they turn their eyes away from the misery that's in the world around them.

I'm amazed how I just mentioned here just recently about driving down through San Francisco/Oakland area and how sick it is. Homeless people all over the place. People on drugs all over the place. Filth and dirt all over the place. Garbage and… I heard a thing on the news about how they had to go through and clean streets there was so much human waste along the streets and in different places. I've been in some places where they let them have dogs in cities and they go out and they go everywhere and they don't bother cleaning it up. But to imagine human beings like that and you have to go through and wash it all down once in a while?

And so it's been talking about California in the news here recently after what was stated. Filthy, some places just absolutely… It's hideous that human beings can lower themselves to that when we have such wealth around us. Sick world!

Anyway, the Seven Vials. It's in the time frame here. It's in a picture of something that God's bringing people face to face with, "This is what brings you to the Seven Last Plagues, the Seven Vials that are poured out upon this earth," when God has to intervene and punish (correct, if you will), this world. Because if He didn't do that we would destroy ourselves. There wouldn't be a human being, there wouldn't be any living thing left on earth. Satan did it once where he destroyed every living thing on the earth, and the earth was filled then. The sun couldn't even get through to the earth. It makes it very clear when you come on the scene in Genesis 1:1. And it makes it very clear in other scriptures that God created this earth beautifully so and Satan came long and destroyed it, sought to destroy it, sought to destroy God's creation. And then God came along, and it talked about dividing the things in the atmosphere and so forth. It was already here. The earth was already here.

I marvel sometimes at the ignorance and the blindness of the world that teaches about God and hasn't done enough studying to be… Should be able to see something on a physical plane, but they so loathe God's way and God's truth they reject those things. There are certain things they don't even want to see, and so God doesn't give it to them obviously. I'm so thankful we're about to get past some of this stuff.

Verse 1 and 2—And there came one of the seven angels who had the seven vials and talked with me, saying to me, Come here and I will show you the judgment of the great whore. So something that God wants us to grasp and comprehend at the end-time, what brought us to the Seven Last Plagues when God has to intervene and bring judgment to mankind and say, "No more! No more. You are destroying the earth and you're going to be destroyed unless you will stop and listen. Unless you stop this you are going to be destroyed at this time. You're not going to live into a new age." And so the focal point of a lot of this right here? The great whore. Not politically correct to talk like this. We live in such a politically correct age you don't dare mention something like this, as a whole, and yet it's something that people should come to see and understand, their history and why they believe what they do, because they don't understand. And it's not their fault.

Blindness is not their fault. It is the teachers. It is those who have studied. It is those who have refused to acknowledge things that they can clearly see in scripture but don't want to teach it because it's about this [money], and if you start teaching what is true and the more you teach, that you see that it is true the more people are going to turn away from you and go someplace else. They'd rather belong to something that has maybe five or six thousand people where you maybe have a swimming pool and tennis courts and basketball courts and different kinds of functions and people get divided up as to all kinds of things they get to do then and keep them deeply involved in things that they're doing on the side that have nothing to do with the Church whatsoever or what God teaches. But anyway, another story.

I will show you the judgment… Why? Because judgment's come. Those Seven Last Plagues have to do with God's judgment being poured out upon the earth. And it's being poured out in a very powerful way upon what is referred to as "the great whore," because for the past nearly 2,000 years they're the primary cause of so much hardship, so much evil, so much death, so much persecution upon God's true Church, and so much lying and deception that is taking place to where people will get together and be excited about putting a tree up in their house and decking it with lights and so forth, and having a fable story here that they tell their children until they get wise enough to understand, "You lied to me!  There is no ho-ho-ho and someone who comes down through the chimney." And they couldn't fit through it in the first place they're so fat! And all these stupid, dumb stories that people tell.

And kids can learn this at five or six years old. I did. "This isn't real. Those things aren't possible. Rabbits don't lay eggs." If you grow up on a farm that's a no-brainer.

…the judgment of the great whore who sits upon many waters. Power. That means power. "Many nations." With whom the kings of the earth have committed fornication… It's our history. It's the history of the world. It's a history of Europe especially. …and the inhabitants of the earth have been made drunk (intoxicated) with the wine of her fornication. It's like this false teaching is a drug to them. It's like a drug and they get all excited and twitter-pated by it and it gives them good feelings, you know, to give gifts. "You don't give gifts to your children on December 25? You're cruel!" Because they get excited about that. "You're not going to let your children go out and look for eggs? You're cruel." And they have no idea where all this "stuff" comes from. They're intoxicated. That's how God describes it. It's like an intoxication that's affected them. They like it. They want it. And anything that interferes with that you're in trouble.

So throughout history the Roman Catholic Church, the Roman Empire, the rise of many nations and their kings through time, all starting with people like Constantine, who originally placed power into the right… He is the one who established it. He is the one who was used by a demonic being, the head of all the demonics, if you will, Satan himself, moved by and inspired by that being to raise up a false church, to give it power, to give it the power of the Roman government behind it. He is the one who pushed various things through. They didn't come through and decide what was going to be done. He did. He is the primary push of those things that came about. Everything that came about he had his finger on top of it. Nothing passed without his knowing about it, in that respect and getting that religion started. And it had tremendous power then, the power of the Roman Empire behind it to the point they outlawed the keeping of Passover.

This is 325 A.D., the trinity was born, you know, this three musketeers type of God that no one can understand. They say it's a mystery because no one can understand it. "We can't tell you what it is because no one understands. It's just a mystery so don't question it. And we'll teach everything in Latin so you don't have to worry. If you're some other languages we're still going to teach it in Latin and we'll keep you mystified forever, you know, as long as we can do this in Latin."

I'll tell you, there's some amazing things that have happened throughout history to keep people in the dark. I'm sorry, but I get worked up over these things, I truly do, because I see the lies and the evil, because it's an evil being that was behind it, that was in it. To turn God into the three musketeers is sick, perverted. The holy spirit and His power and His might. His spirit is His power and His might, by which He does and executes everything that He does and accomplishes. Incredible! Spirit power that does whatever He wants to be accomplished and then His holy spirit that coveys His truth, His way of life to the mind. And they try to block, do everything they could, this being did, so that people couldn't receive it. Lies. Lies. Lies. Lies. So turned God into something that's a mystery that no one can understand, no one can approach before God, and paint Him in a certain way that His Son came along and finally set up something where people could have something that finally you can kind of live a certain way of life without this "old harsh God of the Old Testament." Not understanding Jesus Christ is of the exact same mind. He is of His mind. He is of His being. He is the Word of God made flesh. All the lies, it's disgusting. And that he eternally existed? Lies. Lies. Lies. Lies.

So again, Constantine who originally placed power of the rise of the Catholic Church. And then there were people like Justinian, Charlemagne, or Charles the Great who was crowned by Pope Leo III. Where'd they get their power? Where'd they get their recognition? They had greater power because they had the backing of the pope, you know. You have your power within the resurrection of the Roman Empire, one of the resurrections of the Roman Empire, so you have your power, you have authority; you have "this is from God." You have the right to destroy other people. You know, and as time went along, "You have the right to go in and kill kings and queens." "You have the right. No only the right but you have the duty!" If you have someone in England who is trying to become Protestant, who is protesting, you have the right to have them killed, taken out because of what the pope says. See? And so they did. Spain had the backing of the pope and they continually wanted to come at Great Britain over and over again.

And I marvel at some of that history, how that it had to happen for the Church and for the end-time to take place, for the United States to become what it had to become in time. Incredible, the things that have happened in time that people are blind to. And one day they will be able to see and understand and marvel at God and the power of God to bring it about.

Then there was Otto the Great of Germany who was crowned by Pope John XII as Roman Emperor and carried the title of Otto imperator augustus, or Otto the Great Emperor. No, he wasn't. He was sick. They were all sick. All distorted. And what they believed was distorted and perverted. That they had the right to destroy various things? Just like when it started out, when I mentioned here, with Constantine who outlawed the keeping of Passover throughout the Empire, who eventually outlawed then as well, not too long behind that, outlawed the keeping of the seventh day Sabbath. If you were you could be put to death for it. So that gave excuse to kill all the Jews or to take them prisoner or whatever, or into slavery, which they did. That's how the Coliseum in Rome was built, by 100,000 Jews taken into slavery. So things have happen throughout history that they had the "right to do," supposedly. Incredible, the things that happened throughout history. Perverted things. Distorted things. And people in God's Church who lived in a unique time, that if you kept the Sabbath day you could be put to death – if you're found out, if you're caught. Done by the Catholic Church.

There were the only two churches that existed that called themselves Christian for hundreds of years. Wasn't for a long, long time until finally some began to protest the authority of the pope, though they kept the same stupid beliefs. They took those with them. And by doing so, because the Catholic Church makes very clear the only authority for changing the seventh day Sabbath to Sunday is the pope. They acknowledge that. They acknowledge it's not scriptural. And so the Protestant world take their authority from the pope. Tell them that and see how they respond. "Oh, no we don't!" Yes, you do.

From the Hapsburg family was another crowned by Pope [Clement] VII, Charles V, who through his father inherited central Europe, Italy, and Germany, and through his mother, who was the daughter of Spanish monarch's Ferdinand and Isabella, he inherited Spain and its American possessions. Incredible what's happened throughout history by that power that God said would have different resurrections; it would come up in power at different times.

Then there were other kings of Europe who were greatly influenced or nearly controlled, if you will, by the popes of the Catholic Church throughout Europe's history. That's who they gave certain recognition of, if you will. Some resisted some of that and as time went along it got a little worse; as time went along to the point now where it's going to be their waterloo, so to speak (no pun intended), because of what was involved there in the raising up of Napoleon himself, one of the resurrections of the Holy Roman Empire. So there was… That's just it, that was the fifth revival; Napoleon Bonaparte who first crowned himself as Emperor of France and was later crowned Emperor Napoleon I by Pope Pious II. Catholic Church in the middle of things. And through time though it's begun to lose its luster. God prophesied that would happen as well.

Continuing in Revelation 17:3—So he carried me away in the spirit in the wilderness: and I saw a woman seated on a scarlet coloured beast, that great whore, full of the names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And so again, we understand what that is because of what God revealed through Mr. Armstrong. God showed him "You're in the end-time." Showed the last one was going to have these ten horns, these ten nations that would rise up. That's why Mr. Armstrong from 1950 when he first sent people over that were writers of The Plain Truth magazine to be there at the first European Common Market meeting that they had in order to report on it in The Plain Truth magazine that was going out at that time hundreds and hundreds of thousands throughout the world. That was even back at that period of time.

Anyway, he sent them over there because he knew that there was another rise of the Roman Empire that had to take place and that it would be a nation that would have its main involvement in it, but ten nations would finally agree together in the last revival.

And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, a lot of wealth connected to it, having a golden cup in her hand full of the abominations and the filthiness of her fornication. All the false teachings that are there. All the evil things that had been done. I marvel at some of the things that you can see about in history of what they did to people, of what they did in the inquisitions and different times, and punish people and torture them enough to get them to supposedly repent and accept your authority and that they had been wrong about what they have been doing and the pope is always right. It's amazing what's happened through history! And I'm talking about such perverted and distorted things I candidly don't know how such minds can ever be healed. I candidly can't understand and don't know and have my doubts as to whether or not they will have the ability to be healed or even resurrected to be given such an opportunity in some cases. Because those minds are so gone! Because some of those minds are so evil, far worse than some of the things that were taking place before God did what He did at the time of Noah. So perverting their minds to do such things to human beings in the name of religion.

And upon her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, it's a mystery alright, BABBLE… It says it well, Babylon. Babble. It's what it means. Confusion. "You can't understand it because it's a mystery, so don't question it. You don't have to understand Latin. Just listen and do what you're supposed to do and do your," whatever those things are called. I can't even think right now it's… "Don't read your Bible. You don't have to worry about reading your Bible. Don't get bogged down with that kind of thing." What are those things called that they have? "Catechisms, that's what's important." So are we loved by saying such things? Am I loved for saying such things? Was Mr. Armstrong loved for saying such things to the world? No wonder there's such hatred and people have been killed through time because of what they believe when it comes to the truth. Because it's the opposite of what the world believes.

Upon her forehead, again, MYSTERY BABYLON, "Mystery Confusion," THE GREAT; BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS... So everything that came out, it came from there. Everything about Sunday, trinity. Everything that came came from there. That's where their authority is. Easter, Christmas, whatever, the trinity, Sunday worship, it came from there. It's not in the Bible. None of it! Show me where "ho-ho-ho," is in there. I don't mean to make fun of it, I'm just sick of it. 6,000 years of garbage on this earth. 2,000 years nearly of such confusion about God's Church.

And I saw the woman intoxicated… It's like someone intoxicated because they're filled with these things and that's what intoxicates them. They're intoxicated in their own beliefs. …with the blood of the saints. "You're not to keep Passover. You're not to keep the Sabbath. And if you do, you can be put to death for it. You can even be tortured for it." …and with the blood of witnesses, it's not "martyr," its "witnesses." And some ideas about martyrs and so forth. It's a word for witnesses of Jesus: and when I saw her, I was astonished with great wonder (questions). Questioning, what is this?

And the angel said to me, Why is it you have such wonder? Why are you so inquisitive? I'll tell you the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that carries her, which has the seven heads and the ten horns. The beast that you saw was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition. Awesome. People read this and say, "That's a mystery," because they don't know. They haven't been taught. They can't grasp it. …and they who dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world. In other words, God has a purpose and a plan and there are those that He's going to call, a certain number of people throughout the first 6,000 years. And so, in that respect, it's not the individuals' names or anything like that. There are some names that have been chosen and some did carry those, that God was involved with, but not as a matter of predestination. It's a matter of a calling. …whose names are not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, because there are those who are, in that respect, when they're called to it, when they shall behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is. So how can you have something like this? Something that was, is not, and yet is?

And here is the mind which has wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, seven governments, on which the woman is seated. And so these are specific resurrections, the latter part then of the Roman Empire, the Holy Roman Empire that began with the Catholic Church and those things that followed through time that have that kind of influence in their lives that are predominately of that particular religion, as a whole. And so that still exists in Europe to this day, that primary religion, although there are others, the harlots as well, the ones that have spun off from her. But primarily that's still the main one that's there. And the seventh one we know has the ten horns, ten nations that make up who she is.

Then we come to what was revealed to Mr. Armstrong, verse 10—And there are seven kings, in other words, seven specific periods of time where there is a revival. …five have fallen, and one is, and the other has not yet come. Awesome! In the mid-forties, the late forties there World War II was raging on the earth and Mr. Armstrong was given to understand something. Five have fallen, there is one right now, and there is one yet to come. One more to follow. So that at the end of World War II Mr. Armstrong was expecting, was moved by God's spirit to understand there is one more kingdom to come. There is one more revival of the Holy Roman Empire, or Europa, if you will. Europa – even in her name.

...and when he comes, he must continue (thank God), a short space. Means only a short time in the Greek language. "A little while" is how we would say it. Thankfully that's the case. I made some comments – January, late January, early February we're going to know whether it's right now or not. We'll know because there are certain amount of days of some things that have to take place before the Wave Sheaf offering. There are certain things that have to take place before that can happen. Because that's when God steps in. That means there are certain things that have had to materialize and take place primarily over a sixty day period in the minimum in that respect, that have to happen in advance before God begins to do what He's going to do. That means there's going to be a great war, a great nuclear war that begins to take place on this earth; at some point there. And we may know well before that. But that will be the latest. And if it doesn't then we'll keep planning forward. At least we'll have more wisdom and understanding now than ever before.

But it's closing in, brethren, regardless. If there is a period of time that follows that it's going to be short and God'll show us what it is.

And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth… It's talking about Satan because he's been there the whole time. He is, but at times he's not, when you're talking about the rise of these kingdoms. And so when these kingdom's rise he is at the front of it. He is the one behind it all. He is the instigator. He is the one who stirs it up so many notches because of human beings that he has the power to work with and work through – just as he did during Hitler in World War II. That's why you see some of those fanatical, crazy speeches he gave, he had help. He had a lot of help, okay? And there are people through history who had a lot of help in them, inside of them in the sense of their minds, in the sense of those things that those beings have had power to do. And Satan had been given that power to have such influence of those who are of a certain mindset in the first place, who are able to be worked with and put in those places.

It doesn't just happen. The Apostasy didn't just happen. There was a man of a certain mindset that God knew inside and out and knew exactly what he would do given power to do so. That he would be the one at the head of an Apostasy, that he'd be the one who would try to destroy all the doctrines of God's Church, that he would commit what he did. He knew it was in him. He knows the minds of various ones and various ones that Satan can work with throughout time and throughout history that demons can work [with].

That's why it's so important – your mind is such a precious thing. It's so important for people to be in control of their minds. That's why things like drugs and alcohol and various kinds of things that you can lose, in essence. The power of control up here is so important, and so dangerous in life to mess with in life. Because we're to be in control. We're to be of a sound mind and know what we're doing and be in control of our choices and decisions. Not that we won't stumble in those, but you don't want these beings able to get a foothold in your life. Because that's how they do it, primarily.

And so again here, he is the eighth; and is of the seven, because he's been over, he'll be over… He's been over all six of the rises so far, those that have risen, and he's over the last one here that's almost there. It only takes one day. It only takes one day to fulfill what it says right here. And as soon as they decide it they regret it and it's too late to turn it back. For whatever they do it's too late to turn it back. And that's what God reveals about this last one that takes place.

And the ten horns which you saw are ten kings, who have received no kingdom as yet; so that was Mr. Armstrong's time. Five have gone by, one is (toward the end of World War II), there's one more to come. …but receive power as kings one hour, it says, with the beast. And that's all. Whatever it takes – it may be literal, I don't know – whatever it is that's determined and decided happens quickly and they all agree, all ten agree quickly and it's too late to turn it back once they start. These have one mind, for a short while, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast. Whatever they start is exactly what Satan wants to take place. And what does he want to do? He wants to destroy as much as he can. He wants to destroy this earth. He knows he has a great, big (for him), a big hurrah coming at the end here, his last big one – to lead mankind into a war now with the kind of technology we have. He relishes in that. He loves that. He loves to destroy. Demons love to destroy; it's the way their minds are. You can't understand that – such perverted, such distorted thinking, so hateful of God, so hateful of God's creation, so hateful of all mankind.

So closely related to this is what you find over in Daniel 2. We'll turn over there as well. Daniel 2:42. Mr. Armstrong was given to see that there are things stated in Daniel about what happens at the very end. Verse 42—And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, see, there are ten, symbolic of what is going to arise, symbolic of those same horns that take place there. And this great statue, at this particular time, is being referred to. And the ten kingdoms, the ten kings, if you will, that finally give their voices one, that have one mind, is what happens within the European Union when there will only be ten who finally agree to do what they're going to do. All the rest are going to be ostracized. All the rest are not going to be a part of it all. All the rest will not…

And as the toes of the feet were part of iron, and part of clay, so the kingdom shall be partly strong, and partly broken. It isn't a strong, cohesive union. And what they decide is not strong and cohesive at all. But there's enough at this one point in time that ten of them who have the greatest of power and influence agree. And whereas you saw iron mixed with miry clay, they shall mingle themselves with the seed of men: and they shall not cleave one to another, even as iron is not mixed with clay. So here is something that makes it very clear. Can you picture iron and clay together? It just doesn't mix. It's not strong. It's easily broken. It's faulty. It's weak. It has strength and great weakness, and it's only supposed to exist for a little while. So, not going to last long but it's going to play a very crucial role in what takes place here at the end-time.

And in the days of these kings shall the God of heaven set up a Kingdom. So here is the last one, the seventh one, the time when God finally intervenes. And He intervenes during those Seven Last Plagues. That's why Revelation, these are so closely tied together because the timing is the same. And here we are at a point in time then that God says in the days of these, these final ten, He's going to intervene, and He's going to establish His Kingdom on this earth. That's what's pictured by the great thing that takes place here in all of this when it says …His Kingdom, (the Kingdom of God), which shall never be destroyed. There will never be another war. After this no more wars. God is not going to allow it. Even though Satan is let loose for a while he's not allowed to have a war. He tries to.

…And the kingdom shall not be left to others. I love that phrase because we should understand what that means. It's not going to be left to men. It's not going to be left to others. God's in control. He has His who have been appointed, prepared, those who have been prepared for 6,000 years who are going to be a part of that Kingdom, that government when it's established. 144,000, He said—He gives the exact number—over 6,000 years that He's chosen and placed within the Temple exactly where He wants it to rule in His government, with Jesus Christ at the head of it all.

…which shall never be destroyed. And the Kingdom shall not be left to others people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand forever. So that's what God begins to do at the very end of the Seven Last Plagues, begins to destroy those who are destroying the earth and whatever remnant is left of that, whatever still resists once Jesus Christ returns, it will be destroyed. And those who don't yield to it, they'll be destroyed in time. But the biggest part is done by what God Almighty does before Jesus Christ sets His feet again upon the Mount of Olives. Awesome to understand these things!

Verse 45—Forasmuch as you saw that the stone was cut out of the mountain without hands… And so it's talking about this great big statue that's here in Daniel being spoken of and the different kingdoms that have existed on the earth, and the last one then being the different parts of the Roman Empire until you get down to the toes and the last part of it. And then it talks about this great stone that was cut out without hands, meaning it's from God. It's from God. Jesus Christ, the Rock – God Almighty, the Rock. God uses those terms and those expressions to reflect things of His power and His might. Petra. Our place of safety, God Almighty.

And so again here it talks about this stone that comes down and crushes then this statue, symbolic of what God is going to do at the end-time here when He takes control. …and that it broke in pieces the iron, the brass, the clay, the silver, and the gold; everything of all of man's government that's typified by those different kingdoms of what man has done through time, God is going to work to destroy that history, destroy those kinds of ruling, that kind of ruling on the earth, if you will. Because they're going to be resurrected, so many of them resurrected during the Great White Throne, and so this is symbolic of God destroying it all. Because people are able to be called into the Church, are able to begin to see what they did and what they were a part of and reject it and refuse it and accept God's truth and God's way of life.

So talking again about the gold: And the Great God has made known to the king what shall come to pass hereafter: and the dream is certain, and the interpretation thereof sure.

I'm want to read once more here what I read last week about "PESCO." I'm going to read it one more time because this is exceedingly important, what took place over in Europe concerning the European Union. All these things that are fitting into place all over the world so quickly, so rapidly. It's not a small thing. What happened this week here is more dumbfounding than you can grasp at this point in time and you'll see it all come together. And when it does…

"PESCO, a dormant Lisbon Treaty provision to deepen defence integration among EU Member States, finally saw the light of day."[1] That's what they've wanted all along. It's been the design all along. Mr. Armstrong prophesied about it from the beginning. People made fun of him when he talked about how there would be three things that are prophesied very clearly that would happen in the European (at that time) the Common Market, that eventually it would come into ten nations, a United States of Europe, a combine of ten nations. It would have a common currency – and people laughed. And it wasn't, I think, until 1999 when finally the Euro started to come out. So it waited a long, long time, long after Mr. Armstrong's death before it finally had a common currency, the Euro, till it was able to deal with that. And yet Mr. Armstrong taught about that. And again here, talking about the unity they would have in time here, talking about the different member states and so forth, a common government that would become stronger and stronger until it came down to ten. And a military. And that's been the last thing. And slowly but surely it's been building up. The power that they have is a lot more, I think, than what people recognize. The amount they spend on military is far more than what people realize in the EU. But now it's starting to be united, brought together under power, under authority.

So, it's "a dormant Lisbon Treaty provision to deepen defence integration among EU Member States, finally saw the light of day. While broad questions remain about the future of European defence, the initiative surely promises to be the biggest leap forward for the bloc's defence policy in decades. Twenty-five EU countries have announced they will participate in a new cooperation pact in the area of security and defence policy, known as Permanent Structured Cooperation (PESCO), which was officially launched at a Foreign Affairs Council summit on the 11th of December. The decision activates dormant Lisbon Treaty provisions … to establish a legally binding pathway to deepen defence integration among Member States capable," see how they hide some of these words, "capable and willing to do so." There will only be ten who are willing when it comes down to what it's going to come down to. And they have provisions in there to establish that as well.

"Participants have agreed on a list of commitments that include devoting 20% of defence spending to investment, increasing defence research, and technology expenditure…." "PESCO is firmly established in the EU's institutional landscape. The High Representative (HR/VP)" as he's referred to, "will be in charge of assessing compliance by participating Member States (with the – remote – possibility that individual States can be forced out)…" If you're not in compliance. And it just takes the sweep of a pen signature. So again here, he'd be in charge of "assessing compliance by participating Member States … together with the European Defence Agency (EDA), which will also play a supporting role in capability development."

And then this week a giant Thunder, cause that's what it is – protectionism, tariffs, taxes. Haven't learned our lessons of history. Seen it coming. And it's going to talk about protectionism anyway but then all of a sudden it happens – 25% tariff (tax, if you will) on steel and aluminum. The world is not happy. Most all the world is not happy because they see this rippling into many areas of life. And yet the more we turn inward to bolster self… That's where wars have come from. That's what happened. That's what led, things led in World War I in a very powerful way, things that led into World War II, exactly the same kinds of things that were happening on earth. Because, you see, this says it all to nations and governments and powers that exist.

And so Europe, Europe is not happy. This motivates Europe. This pushes Europe closer together, let alone other parts of the world. But see, Europe, this does not go well because they're very strict about some of the things they're striving to accomplish amongst the nations there and this pushes and forces them more into a corner. Even Europe. And they have talked about, and Germany has talked about swift retaliation and how that's going to be materialized.

And a lot of countries, there's a little whispering coming out now, "Your treasuries..." To dump treasuries and not to buy as well at a time when we're boosting everything we want to sell out there to other parts of the world. And now China in March doing what it's going to do in what was announced last week, or what we made comment about last week as they open the markets to the first competitor to the petro-dollar, the petro-Yuan. It's there. It's on the doorstep. All these things are dumbfounding.

And I'm dumbfounded (and not) that it's all happening at a time when God gave this series; in essence inspired this to be spoken of, to be talked about, to be given to His Church. Because that's how things work. And those things are being revealed more and more so and God wants us to be sobered by it indeed, to recognize there are things on our doorstep – regardless of the timing. But I believe the timing. But regardless of it it's on your doorstep. You are seeing things come together that Philadelphia, Mr. Armstrong never saw. He just saw a little bit of it. He didn't even see the Euro come about. He didn't even see what he said come about, and yet it came about, many, many years after his death. And this combining then of Europe as it has been over time. It's taken a long, long time since 1950 to be where it is today. And they are today exactly where its designers have intended it to be when they make one final decision now as to who truly has power when the time comes. And they will give themselves to that power. Awesome to understand! The last revival of that Roman Empire, Europa. Amazing!

So as a Church we have already lived through much. We're well beyond the beginning for when God began to finish or complete all things spoken of in Daniel 12 concerning this end-time.

Let's turn over to Matthew 24. You don't need to turn there but I want to repeat this too because this, again, was accomplished through Herbert W. Armstrong and has led into the work we're doing now. It's been long, but it all comes together in its time and then things speed up, things come to fulfillment, things come to a completion. Never forget something the scattered Church can't see – verse 14—And the gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations. There has never been, never been any religious organization on this earth who had the power of television and the printed press to the degree that God gave the Worldwide Church of God through Mr. Armstrong. Millions and millions a month in so many languages going out to the whole world. The telecasts and the broadcasts that were going throughout the world. Incredible! And yet who listened? Only those that God called. Because He has to open up the mind. He has to bring people to that point of being able to hear through working with them individually and humbling them.

…and then shall the end come. Took a few years but the Apostasy finally took place. And it did follow that period of time; it did come, the end. Because that's what it's talking about. Because, you see, the Apostasy was the beginning of a countdown. Something that God showed us very early on when the Church had scattered, we began to understand things about the man of sin, the son of perdition, and God revealed to us in a very powerful way there is a count that started. We didn't understand what it was. Knew a countdown had started, referred to it as a countdown. Little did we know or understand that we as a group, a remnant, would be established by Pentecost of 1998 – 1260 days later, time, times and a half a time. These things are awesome to understand! And to fall on Holy Days that have the meaning that they do? Incredible what God has given us through time!

When you, therefore, shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso reads, let him understand). Oh, we understand now. We didn't understand before and we didn't understand as it was happening, but once it was over and the dust began to settle and God began to jar and shake a few, became clearer we had a great falling away. There has been a great rebellion, an Apostasy that's taken place in God's own Church. Incredible! Incredible to have witnessed that, to live through that.

And as this verse in Matthew 24:15 makes plain once the gospel of the good news was published throughout the world to the degree God judged it to be fulfilled then the end did come. The last era came. Laodicea. And it was in Laodicea we had the Apostasy.

So we lived an incredible history, and I want to read just a little bit of that as well today. 2nd Thessalonians 2. It's our history. It's something that no one else who was a part of Worldwide sees, grasps, and understands. But you can. Awesome to understand that! Verse 1—Now we implore you, brethren, by, literally means in the Greek "or about; or concerning" the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, when he's going to come, when he's going to return. Because people have been looking for the Messiah. They thought when he first came as a Passover that he was the coming of the Messiah at that time. They thought he was the Christ then and that he was actually going to set up God's government on this earth. And they didn't understand he was going to die and be gone for 2,000 years and then return and then set up God's Kingdom on this earth. Incredible! The things that give us strength, the truth that gives us strength and focus and vision, and to understand what we have been blessed to see and understand and hold dear to us to take us through anything that we go through as God's people.

Now we implore you, brethren, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ (about, concerning) and concerning our gathering together unto him, so that you do not become soon shaken in mind, or to be troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from us, as that day of Christ, speaking of his coming, is at hand, or "has now come," as it is in the Greek. That's what it literally means, or "is present." Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day shall not come, except there first come a falling away, an apostasy (that's what that word is), and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition. Awesome to understand that on that day the first Seal was opened. It was the beginning of the opening of the Seals of Revelation. It was the beginning of a process that God works through perfectly so by design when it comes to counting, to numbers, to perfection in how He does things. Incredible! It's going to happen exactly to the timing that God has determined.

Then we come to a moment in time within this final period of a countdown. I want to mention here too, something that we need to be sobered by, because it says a little farther down here referring to those who did not repent, those who did not acknowledge that they were Laodicean, those who did some of the things they did. It says "they did not receive the love of the truth." That's why I talk about that so often. We must love God's truth! We must love the Word of God and the truths that God has given to him. To love His truth is to love Him and His Son, because that's the Word of God. It reveals who God is.

All those truths reveal His mind, His being, His purpose, His design, the awesomeness of His plan, the way that He's bringing about and creating His family, Elohim. It's beautiful, awesome. And as I was thinking about that I couldn't help but think of two in there in the midst of all that toward the end here – God's purpose for women from the beginning, that God's going to bring it back to that purpose and people are going to have the right foundation for families and in the Church as well. Beautiful. Awesome. It reveals the mind of God. And for 6,000 years people have thought they had certain rights and certain privileges way above that which is scriptural, but they use the Bible; they try to use it and twist and distort scriptures to give them certain kinds of authority to do things that were not right. I'm so thankful that that's being cleared up; just those alone, but how much more everything together.

So then we come to a moment in time within the final period of a countdown to Christ's coming that God speaks of bringing everything for the end-time to a completion. It's what Daniel spoke of concerning a time when God would finish or complete or bring a complete end to end-time events. That's what it's speaking of. Let's turn over to Daniel 12.

Daniel 12:6—And one said to the man clothed in linen, so here an angelic beings, and speaks of them as in the appearance of men, who was upon the waters of the river, How long shall it be to the end of these wonders? Things that had been revealed and given even throughout the book to Daniel; everything that Daniel had seen and known to that moment in time and those things that were being shown then.

And I heard the man clothed in linen, which was upon the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left unto heaven, and swore by Him who lives forever that for a time, times, and an half; when He shall, it says here "have accomplished," or "…when He shall have accomplished"; it's actually when He shall accomplish to scatter the power (hands). It's the word for "hands" but it's about power of the holy people, all shall be finished. I marvel at this because God reveals things when we need it.

And I marvel at this one here because that's something that I just couldn't understand for so, so long. And you can't until God gives it. Why would God want to scatter the power of His holy people? Because it's talking about a relationship with Him. Now, we understand what happened in the Apostasy, and this is not about the Apostasy in that respect, but to understand that something would happen to His holy people in the end-time that has to do with something that God is doing to them? Because the Apostasy is what we did to ourselves. We made choices and decisions, and we fell asleep, and we drifted off, and we had to be spewed out of God's mouth. But here is something that God does. And to understand then when God reveals to us it's about our own hand; it's about self. It's about what has to be gotten rid of in ourselves. That which needs to be shattered in self, conquered in self, a period of time to go through. This 4½ year thing that we've talked about, what we went through like a pressure cooker that no one else has ever experienced anything to that degree and that often as things we were looking forward to – because the focus we had that God… of what we were looking to toward God was incredible through that time and those things that then were used to mold and fashion us – if we kept our eyes and focus on God and kept repenting and kept doing as we should have.

And so it say here once that's been accomplished… I marvel, made stronger than ever before to where Satan has no power. God has given that already. He's given it to those who are already sealed and He's given it to those who have opportunity to become sealed. Satan has no power. We can only hurt ourselves in life as human beings. And everyone else who has been called to this time has opportunity and has a power; God's power, not our own; more, and more, the more we continue to fight. That means if you're engaged. That's why I've been crying out. That's why God has been blessing me to cry out to the degree that I have been, because it's God's desire for us that we use this opportunity to fight against self, to continue in that battle.

Just because we did it for a period of time is not a time then to back off or to let down or to begin to coast. You cannot coast to the end of this age! You do and you won't be able to drink of it, of Christ's return. And the exact analogy that God gave, that over a period of forty years He saw to it that every person died of a certain age who was not allowed to go into the promised land, by the tens and hundreds of thousands of people, that God has that power to do to a few in His Church who do not yield themselves to what He has granted and blessed them, to great riches of life, the greatest of riches of life.

How many people in 6,000 years do you think would love to see this day that's in front of us? To experience what we're blessed to experience? To see God finally come to the point in time where He intervenes to stop man from destroying himself and He sends His Son with great power, with 144,000? And to witness that? To see that? To be a part of that? You think other people through time wouldn't have loved to trade places with you? Because they would. They would have given almost anything. But they're dead. You're alive. And God expects or looks to you. Do you love it? Are you excited by that? Are you motivated by it? Are you on fire and zeal in it? Or are you doing things that you should not do? Are you starting to let down and coast? Are you not tithing as you should?

That one there still blows my mind! How can anyone do that to God Almighty? Steal from God! I don't comprehend that. I don't! In God's Church?! And everything else we can look at it, but especially those because that's one of them that God didn't allow to be even lost during Sardis. That was one they had. They had the Sabbath. They had the name of God, the Church of God, and they had tithing. They understood. And God let that, made certain that was there, okay, to the time of Mr. Armstrong. Shows how important it is. And for people to lie against God? I'm sorry. And then for anyone to let down at this time, to not be zealous and fighting against self and fighting the filthy and the filthiness that's out here in the world, the garbage that's out here? To fight it in the mind. To pray to God for help to be saved, to live right? We can't play games!

Time is crushing in around us very fast, very rapidly. You don't know when. It doesn't take much. We're at a point now where just one little domino and it all comes crumbling down. One domino! If you've ever seen a bunch of dominoes lined up it only takes you pushing over one and they all start falling – wham, wham, wham – that's why four happen so quickly, the first four Trumpets. Shock the earth! Shock the world! Shock this nation! Because those four happen so quick and the fifth isn't far behind. It's right on its heels.

You're going to see things happen so fast it's going to make your head swim. Just this last three weeks I have been dumbfounded by what's coming out, how much the world everywhere is heating up. China, Pakistan, India, Russia, Korea, Syria – I don't care where you look it's all prophetic things taking place, all written in scripture of things to happen in the end-time. Turkey! Disgusting! And yet God said that's the way it would be. And he's fulfilling things right and left. The mind is gone as far as sanity and soundness is concerned. Sorry, but that's the reality of it.

So the year that followed… Well, I'll just read this again: The farther we go the more God has been revealing to us what we have experienced. We went through a period of final witness where God did work with the Church to scatter the power, the hands of those with whom He called and was transforming. And that primarily took place over that period of the "Year of the Lord." We're going to learn more and more how awesome that timing was, of all those things that we've gone through.

And so that year that followed this, that time, times, and half a time, speaking of after Pentecost of 2012. Because when that power was shattered or scattered was in that time from Pentecost of 2012 up to 2013. The greatest tests that came upon the Church and God's people happened during that period of time. It was the beginning of the measuring of the temple as well. But that year was an awesome year. And so, again, it was a period of time when God proceeded to complete… See, a period of time after that 1260 days, after that time, times, and a half a time. That period of time between Pentecost 2012 and 2013 God proceeded to complete all that was necessary in order to fulfill all that was yet ahead. Awesome!

After that period of 1260 days and then the year that followed we went through a time where the Church had been humbled to a spiritual degree unparalleled. Truly. It's one thing to go through trials and test of various kinds. It's one thing to lose your life for what you believe, which many have through time. It's another thing to live through it and to experience certain things to the degree of understanding and knowing that you have at that moment in time and to be tried in that. And that's hard to understand, I'll just tell you. For us it is hard to understand, to put it in its proper perspective.

And those who continued to focus on God's city, Holy Jerusalem, those who have that motivation, a zeal and a desire for God's Kingdom, a  desire to live on into a new age, who love that, who want that with all their being, who see that everything else in their life is pittance, unimportant compared to that, that that is the goal and that's the desire, to be a part of something so awesome and to fight against and continue to fight against their own nature. Because you don't stop. Just because some are sealed doesn't mean they stop. God already knows them! Their mind is to always do that, to always repent when they sin, to always fight against their own nature. To always see God Almighty in their life, that He is number one, that He is first and foremost. And so to fight against their own human nature with their own "hand" power if you will becoming diminished, have been blessed to continue on into the final time of God completing all things. That must be fulfilled in order for God to usher in His Kingdom on this earth.

There is a section (Isaiah 34) in Isaiah that reflects this very period of time aptly so. As with so many things that are written by the prophets there are certain parts that apply to a specific moment in time and others do not, and has a particular type of story flow because of what's happening in the world at that time or what God is talking about in that time on a physical plane. There are other things that apply, just like so many things that Christ gave about himself and told about himself, and others wrote about in time about himself. You can't know that – you don't know that's what it is until he said that's what it fulfilled, that's what it is.

Isaiah 34:1—Come near, you nations, to hear; and listen. That's what its saying. A time that God does this in a profound way on the earth. …and listen you people: let the earth hear. Listen. That's what they're being told. …and all that is therein; the world, and all things that come forth from it. For the indignation of the Eternal is upon all nations. They've already been judged; they were before 2008. Already judged. And more so then between that and 2012, powerfully so, a final witness. But God has extended mercy to give a little more time to them to listen and to be able to extend that mercy without executing judgment to the degree the world is worthy. Because that's what God is making plain, "You're worthy of this kind of destruction. Now it's up to you. Will you listen? Will you repent? Because if you don't you're still going to have that kind of destruction – and now, more. More. Because mercy was extended to you and how did you respond?" See, history of mankind is not too good in this.

For the indignation of the Eternal is upon all nations, and His fury upon all their armies: He has, says here "utterly destroyed them" and that's not what it's saying at all. That's not what the Hebrew says at all. He has devoted them for something, destruction, meaning in essence set them apart for as in sacrifice and offering – an offering if you will. "Devoted them for," "set them apart for" – it's the same kind of terminology that's used. But here it's about He has set them apart for something. He has delivered them (set them apart) to the slaughter, to be slain. It's just because this is where we are in time and it's the end of 6,000 years. And before God's Kingdom can be ushered in God says the world's going to change and it's going to be something different. The tuning is going to be made a lot sharper as far as the ear is concerned and the listening is concerned, and a willingness to listen to God Almighty when they are brought to a point of being humbled. "To realize everything you have ever hoped in, everything you have ever believed, everything you hold on to is destroyed. It's false. It's wrong. You can't govern yourselves. And everything you believed about anything with religion, it's all wrong. And you have to humble yourselves mightily if you want to see the truth and to experience the truth of God that He's bringing to this earth."

And God isn't playing games. And He's not playing games with us. That's why this is such an important time for the Church right now. He's not playing games with us and He's not playing games with the world. The world either starts acknowledging, and we acknowledge, in a greater way that God Almighty rules and we love God. And the world has to come to understand they're not so powerful. They're not so mighty. And everything they've ever had is because God gave it to them. Everything we have on this earth is because God gave it to us. But who acknowledges God for that? And so 6,000 years of this. God says no more. "My Kingdom; My Kingdom will reign. You're going to learn what right life is all about. You don't have a choice anymore to do something else. You don't have choice for other religions. You don't have choice, 'Oh, let us have a king like all the other nations around us have.' Oh, you're going to have a King all right, and it's going to be one who reigns with power and might. He is a Lion. He comes back as a Lion, the King of kings, and it says he rules with a rod of iron. He doesn't play games." There's not going to be any kind of government rise up on this earth anyway anywhere. God will destroy it quickly if anyone tries. That's right. That's just. Because God is right and just.

Who is man to argue against their Creator and say something different or to try to do something different? Who do people think they are? And sometimes, who do we think we are to ignore God Almighty?

He has devoted them, or set them apart for destruction. He has delivered them to the slaughter to be slain. That's just where we are in time because they refuse to listen.

On down in verse 8—For it is the day of (time for) the Eternal's vengeance. After 6,000 years of this now it's time. Things are going to be corrected and set right. …and the year of recompenses. So the Hebrew is used here for "recompense" but also has the meaning in it "to finish; to be finished." Awesome! Time to finish for the controversy of Zion. I love this expression more and more and more, because it's all about, it goes back through time to the time when the first rebellion took place. Satan loathed the idea, the thought of God creating Elohim. He hated the thought of human beings who God had a purpose for to become greater than the angels, greater than he was. He hated it! And he deceived and worked with millions and millions of angelic beings, a third of the angelic realm, God said, who went off with him in rebellion, who swallowed that as well and hated what God was doing. "Something greater than us?!" And yet that was God's purpose from the beginning of time. That's why He created the angelic realm – because of Elohim, because of His family.

So the controversy of Zion has been going on for a long, long time. Does God Almighty have the power to not only create a spirit world; does God Almighty have the power to create angelic beings? Does God Almighty have the power to create a universe that we can't even begin to comprehend? And mankind can't even find the edge of it yet. And the farther we go out there, "Oh, there's more out there! Whoa! Wow! We got to rethink some of this. Maybe it's not just 13 billion light years away. It looks like it's a little farther than that." Duh. The power, the might, the glory of Almighty God, and who honors Him and glorifies Him as being all mighty? So few, only those who have been given the blessing and the ability to see that.

How blessed are we to see what we see? That He is God. To the point that we see those things so clearly that we just laugh at things like evolution. It is so stupid! The reasoning, the soundness of scientists, of people who work with… Someone was talking to me earlier here about mathematics and something they had seen somewhere, maybe on TV or whatever, but anyway some of the mathematics. Perfect. Beautiful. It's either right or wrong and it follows a pattern and it never changes. And the thing you do once you can do again and if you deviate from it it won't work. Because it's perfection and it reflects things about God in a very powerful way. Order. And people would rather believe "It was a big bang. I don't know where all the stuff came from, but it was just a big ole' bang and all this order came into being from the big bang." I'm sorry, but I get so sick of that stuff. Anyway, it's so clear to us.

It's, to me, like the Far Side. That's why I love it! It's like the Far Side comic. You know, Larson, who wrote all that and did all those. I love that. Because sometimes he wrote things I don't even think maybe he knew how much it was actually making fun of the stupidity of some in science and evolution and things. That's about how crazy the world is. But it's clear to us. But it's not to them. I mean sharp, educated (supposedly educated) minds, and truly minds that are great in so many ways. Far beyond mine in what they can do. Sciences, math, and so forth. But to acknowledge Almighty God, that He put it all into motion and that yes, everything is a matter of order and perfection?

The controversy of Zion. So the Great God who can bring all this into being, can that God bring about Elohim? That's the controversy! Can He create something greater? How great? Because He can't create anything greater than Elohim, His own family.

So this thing about… I love this phrase, "The controversy of Zion," because it's gone on for so long. Can God do it? Can God bring out 144,000 over 6,000 years exactly to the number, exactly, and have something so constructed, so made in such an awesome way that it's all made ready? Beautiful. The controversy (or the cause, as it's translated in some places) of Zion. That's what it's all about. And this comes out more and more here at the end-time, because now we're at the point in time where God's going to make it manifest. He has one, His own Son, see, who's in His family, and now out of mankind and human flesh only He's transforming and has been transforming for 6,000 years minds that once they're resurrected can be given great power and might and spirit bodies and spirit life and always have God in them – always, always, always. Something the angelic realm never had, God dwelling in them, the holy spirit always, always, always in them. Beautiful. The controversy – Zion is about Elohim. Beautiful.

Isaiah 35:1—The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them. For who? Zion. …and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose. It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon, it comes from the word "to be white or purified." …the glory of Lebanon, being made white, purified, shall be given unto it, unto Zion, the excellency of Carmel, means "from the vineyard." Beautiful things! To be a part of the vine. "I am the vine, you are the branches; no one bears fruit…" Awesome! Awesome! …and Sharon (straight, right; to be made straight), words, names that have meaning, and they shall see the glory of the Eternal, and the excellency of our God.

Verse 3—Strengthen (grow strong, as it is) your weak hands… Hands, power that has been humbled. You see how all this fits together in such a powerful way and the timing of what we have been experiencing and what God says to us now even more so of what we should have? You've been humbled; your hands have been made weak. Now make them strong in the power and the might of Almighty God, even more so in your life. …and confirm, means "to encourage or strengthen," the feeble knees. That which is recorded in Hebrews means a lot more now than it ever has.

Let's just look at that one. Hebrews 12. I'll come back to here in a minute so just hold your place here in Isaiah. I just want to read that one in Hebrews. Hebrews 12:11—Now no chastening at the present seems to be joyous, but grievous. And I think of what we have gone through in a short period of time. That's what this is even more so about, yet it's happened for the last 2,000 years or less, almost 6,000 years for those with whom God has worked. But this is a specific focus in time that we're looking at here, and means more now and applies more now than ever before.

Nevertheless afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness unto those who are exercised thereby. If we will respond then and do what we need to do. If we don't just go through that and then begin to drift. That's not what it was all about. It was about what was potentially made available to us so that we could fight more, so that we could be more fully focused and strive for the final part of the race, the final marker (wherever that is). And if you don't see it yet you will see it. You just keep running and you don't quit, as I've given examples of, of people who did that or let down and start walking. Because that's not a race. Now, sometimes in a race you have to, but not this one, okay? It's not a matter that if you start walking and start taking it easy and you can still make it to a physical marker that you're going to make it to the one God has set before us. You have to fight for this one. You have to race for it with all of your being. Fight against this [self]. That's what it's about. That's why those things are so applicable.

…nevertheless afterward it yields a peaceable fruit of righteousness unto them which are exercised thereby, therefore, lift up the hands which hang down, that have been humbled more than ever before. Lift them up and lift them up to Almighty God! He is your strength. How much do we cry out to God every day for help and for His holy spirit to live and dwell in us? How much do we recognize the need in order to think right, in order to be of a right mind, in order to fight the kind of battles we have day by day in this filth and filthy, disgusting world we  live in. And it is filthy! It's filled with filth and sickness and perversion. …and the feeble knees. And make straight paths for your feet—that's what God desires—lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but rather, let it be healed. That's God's desire. To be strong. To be healed. To make straight paths. Don't fool with this world and the ways of this world. This isn't the time for that. This is the time to be more serious than you've ever been.

Follow peace with all, and holiness… It ought to be very clear that God dwells in you in the way you talk about others in the Church and out? The way you speak to others in the Church and out, it ought to… Whether you… Whether others see it or not God and Jesus Christ, they see it. …holiness, without which no one shall see the Lord. So we're to follow that.

Looking diligently… It doesn't just happen because we go back and forth from services or that we tithe or that we go to the Holy Days. It doesn't just happen because of that. It happens because you're diligent in applying yourself and fighting this fight that's before us. …lest anyone fail of the grace of God.

Now returning back to Isaiah 35. I'm racing 100 mph here but I didn't think I'd get this far, and we're there. Isaiah 35:3—Strengthen your weak hands, you know, the power that's been humbled, selfish power that's more yielded to God, and confirm (encourage and strengthen) the feeble knees. Say to those of a it's not the word for "fearful" at all, it's the word for "quick or hasty in the sense of being too quick to act, to respond; overanxious in certain things," in the sense that that can pull you away. To let down. To let up at this particular time. This isn't the time to be like that. This is the time to be more zealous than ever before. Be hasty, be foolish to do the other because you're caught up in being anxious about your world and the world around you and whatever it might be. So Say to those who are of a hasty heart, Be strong and do not fear. Be strong. It comes from God. The ability to have confidence, the ability to have boldness, the ability to see through all the things that otherwise can distract people and lead people away, comes from God, our need for God every day of our life.

…behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with recompense. Now, this word here means "to deal bountifully; to reward; to give great favor." Because that's what's at the end of all this race, of this particular race. For those who are sealed and going to be sealed yet and for those who are going to live on into a new age, awesome blessings, things you cannot comprehend, because you were a part of this at the end-time, of God's calling at the end of an age. Incredible. He will come and save you.

Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped. It's the way the world is going to be as God does this in the world, as we come to a point in time when God's Kingdom is ushered in on this earth and the great change that takes place at that time. Then shall the lame leap as a hart, and the tongue of the dumb (mute) sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert. And so, yeah, there are going to be physical changes on this earth, but this is about spiritual ones and about the healing that's going to begin to take place on this earth with the minds of people. A process that we've been experiencing because we've been going through a healing process in our minds when God begins to transform the mind, and the peace that God gives you when you begin to see what it was all about. "Now I understand; we're all selfish." And God is showing us a way to something beautiful that's opposite of selfishness, that's the way of sacrificing love, if need be, to live His way of life, to give. To not be inward, to not be sucking it all in and taking what we can take and get what we can get to be happy, to be satisfied like a baby does in the very beginning and we start learning that through life. "Waa-haa-haa! Feed me." "I want 'this.' I want 'that.'" And put two children beside each other and there's one toy, what happens? And to get rid of that stuff that's a part of our nature and to begin being able to be something different through the power of God's holy spirit.

And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: in the habitation of serpents, some translate it as "jackals," where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes. The point being is things begin to flourish. Yes, on a physical plane on the earth. There's so much that's just waste on this earth and hasn't been used and utilized yet because man selfishly uses the best he can find and rapes the earth and whatever else. But in time there is going to be that which is more, in the sense of seeing ahead in time and beginning to use things in a powerful way, and to sacrifice for right purpose for all mankind, for the common good of all. And those things that will come forth.

But also a spiritual plane, how incredible will it be to think—I can't comprehend that—that every place you go people are going, on the seventh day, they're going somewhere to services and they're being taught in a very powerful way truth that before they could not see and could not understand because now their minds have been opened to see something on a spiritual plane as God communicates these things to their spirit in their minds. Awesome!

And a highway shall be there, and a way, which God builds, a way, His way, and showing the way of His way to all mankind, and it shall be called the way of holiness.

Then verse 10—And the ransomed of the Eternal shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads. And they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee from them. Look forward to that. The end of drama. Or the beginning—I should say—the beginning of the big end for drama, because we're still human beings and people will learn. But it's… I think of back in the time during Philadelphia when no matter what Church area you went to and hundreds and hundreds of people being in a local Church area. I don't remember what it was here in the Cincinnati area, but if you came here on a Holy Day it was around 1,500, something like that, around 1,500 gathered together just in the Cincinnati area alone. And different areas you could go to. And I think of the one Church when I first came into the Church back in '69 down in Wichita, Kansas, between 500-600 people in one Church alone.

And to think that thousands and tens of thousands and hundreds of thousands? Wherever people are there are going to be places for them to go close by. Not having to drive three hours to get to Sabbath services, or two hours, or an hour, you know, it's going to be close by. Awesome! And peace that people have and peace of mind because they understand God's way!

With that, God's Kingdom is closing in.

[1] http://politheor.net/pesco-one-giant-leap-towards-european-defence/

Table of Contents

Chapter 1

Footnotes