No One Knows

Ronald Weinland

May 25, 2019

It is incredible we are fast approaching Pentecost of 2019. It’s amazing the things we go through in God’s Church sometimes, the timing of events and what we look toward, what we look for. But again, we understand, we know full well that Joshua the Christ obviously is not returning in this Pentecost, and we actually knew that well before Passover period and felt pretty strong about that in late February as well.

So what now? Well, we’re to ask the question when we don’t know exactly what to do at any moment in time, ask “What do we do now?” because obviously we have to continue to look forward. As I’ve given in sermons before as well, we have markers that God gives to us, or at least that we have, that we know that we can look at, and we keep pressing forward to those. I think of long races, because if they didn’t have markers on a long race, of exactly where you have to turn or where you have to go, especially when you get up to 10 miles or 26 or whatever it is. I’m not even sure how long some of those are. But anyway, they’re long and a lot longer than what I want to run or ever have wanted to run. But you have markers along the way and they really do give you encouragement.

Probably the longest I can remember markers was about 3½ miles. I did run 10 miles once and that was a killer. Never did it again. Once was enough. But 3½ I remember distinctly different areas that we could see and you keep pushing for those hoping that there aren’t too many markers behind it. Because you just get worn out when you run, when you race. At least I do. I think most people do, but if you don’t have something to look toward, to look for it can become very, very negative. It’s something you have to fight against. You do anyway when you’re running. At least, again, I go back to the time when I used to run. It’s been a long time since I have. But when you’re in a race like that or any kind of a race running you have to drive yourself. The longer they are the more you have to push yourself, especially if you’re trying for time or something of that nature.

So we’re going on to another marker. What is it? Well, we’ll talk about that a little bit in this sermon. But this sermon has a rather unique title to it. It’s entitled No One Knows. So, “Interesting title,” someone said when they came through and saw it on the screen back there.

So the title of the sermon should indicate what we in God’s Church need to address at this particular time. We’ve now come full circle concerning this particular subject, if you will, and we’ll see that as we go along throughout this. But let’s begin looking at some verses that touch on that very specific phrase—I think everybody in God’s Church is very familiar with that phrase—and then build upon what our focus must be.

Matthew 24:32. In some of this at this point in time, I really don’t know fully what I’m going to say about all of this. I have an idea of where it’s going fully but there are some things that will come out in the sermon I’m sure, help be clarified as we go along.

But, this is about the parable of the fig tree here in verse 32. Christ said, When its branch becomes tender and puts forth the leaves, you know that summer is near. Now, I’d think that the farther north you live the more exciting that is. In some areas of the world it doesn’t mean much; it doesn’t mean the same thing at all. But if you have full four seasons of the year and you have a winter time, especially if it’s cold and been a little nasty, you kind of look forward to this point in time here when all of a sudden you see a tree begin to change. You know that there is a tenderness that comes on there when the sap begins to come up into a tree once again and it’s going to come back to life. And, incredible process that God gives in so much of His creation like that.

Again, you realize that we’re going to have a change in season, it’s not going to be cold forever, and you look forward to it. I think, what an incredible parable to use in this particular case here, because he used this as an example of giving signs. We live in a world much like, in some respects, if you don’t like winter and it’s been bad you look for a change. You want to change. We look forward to a change. We look forward to a time, I think the more we see what’s happening in the world. It’s getting so much worse with technology. It’s accelerating so fast, the things that are taking place out here. I don’t know about you but I ache inside to see a different world, to see people not have to live in the kind of confusion and the kind of misery, the kind of suffering that’s taking place. It’s all over the world...all over the world, the kind of suffering that’s taking place. We see it more today probably because of technology than ever before.

I was talking to a teacher here just before services, talking about how much worse it’s gotten and how much worse it’s getting. The school systems and young children and what they have to live through, what they have to live through, what they’re experiencing now that they didn’t have to experience 15, 20 years ago, didn’t have to think about back then. Now they do. They don’t understand what they’re experiencing, but someone who has lived through those things can see a difference, and it hurts. You don’t want to see a generation of young people growing up and learning, having to learn and having to focus on some of the things that they focus upon now days. It wrenches the heart. Things you see on TV, things you see that are common place in TV shows anymore. The world has changed, incredibly so.

So I think of the example when it talks about Lot and it says, “He vexed his righteous soul day by day,” living in the area of Sodom that he did, Gomorrah area, region. He hated to see what people were going through. He hated to see what his own family was going through and it hurt him inside. That’s why it uses that expression, “He vexed his righteous soul day by day,” because of what he saw. He desired something different. He wanted a different world.

God’s people, they’re shown various truths. They didn’t have much then, to be candid with you. They knew about God’s Kingdom, that there was going to be a Messiah, but candidly, at that time, the time of Abraham, they didn’t know very much as far as those things that God was planning. We’ll hear more about that on Pentecost, by the way. But it’s incredible the things we go through in time.

Again here, we understand, because of examples like this, that we’re so near, nearer now than we’ve ever known it in God’s Church. This coming fall I’ll have been baptized 50 years in God’s Church, and I think, “Where did the time go?”

Verse 33—So also, when you see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors! He had given various things here before this. He’d been talking about various things that were going to happen. Because the disciples asked of him, they wanted to know, basically, when is the end going to be? When is the end of this age going to be? They wanted to know when the Kingdom was going to be established.

Now, they didn’t even grasp the things that Christ was saying, not even until after he died. After Pentecost 31 AD, then the things he taught them, because they’d received the holy spirit, they began to see then what he had spoken. Same as with some of these things here. But even then, they didn’t grasp a lot of the things that were given at this particular time even later on.

So, verse 33, “So also, when you see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors!” I’m working on a post right now and writing various things about the age, this time we live in, and it’s incredible to witness what’s taking place. Because I can’t help but think of God working through Mr. Armstrong, what God revealed to him at various stages along the way, and of the things that the world was going through during his particular time and things that God gave to him to speak about. I think about the end of the period of time after WWII when he came to an understanding there in the last ‘40’s that Germany was going to rise again, that Europe was going to rise again. God began to give him understanding.

I think of the period of time that led up to 1950 when he sent a crew to the first meeting of the European Common Market when they were coming together as a common market, and that was written about then, that particular meeting. The reason he did that was because God had just given to him previous to this, not too long, an understanding that there was to be another revival of what is referred to in Revelation and other places here, but Revelation, of the Roman Empire, and the seventh revival, the last revival would be, indeed, the last one. He was given to know what that particular time, when he started seeing these things, that what they’d just experienced because of WWII was the sixth and that there was one more to come.

That’s why even I believe it was Look magazine after WWII and some other magazines had written articles on the fact that they didn’t believe that Hitler was killed, as was being reported. There’s been that debate still going on to this day whether he really died or whether he escaped to some other area. Again, Mr. Armstrong heard some of that and he felt maybe because of some of the things being reported in the news that maybe he would rise up again, maybe his job wasn’t over with. When he made some of those comments people mocked and made fun, but again, it was a matter of him thinking about, well, what is the nearest thing that could take place where a power could come back or be revived quickly but that one?

Because it was a matter in the Church (it’s always been a matter) that God’s given us this sense of urgency, a matter of looking at certain things and realizing this could be soon and being prepared for it, because if you don’t think that way you’ll tend to drift. If you don’t have a sense of urgency about your calling, and especially now at the end of an age, about where we are, and not preparing for it, you will coast. I’ve seen hundreds and thousands of people do just that. That’s kind of what really led into the Apostasy. It was a coasting and becoming spiritually weak. God warns us against that over and over again.

So, as he looked at some of these things that were being given to him it’s like, “How could this be? What could take place that could cause Europe to come together again after all the devastation?” People mocked because they saw Europe and how it was bombed, and to make a statement like that, it was absurd to them, but he was looking to what could take place.

Time went on and he was given to understand that yes, there is going to be a seventh revival, yes there is going to be another world war, and then he was beginning to see some other things and it had to do with what took place in Hiroshima and Nagasaki because of the power of the atom bomb. Then other scriptures began to make more sense, that basically if God didn’t intervene man would annihilate himself, man would destroy himself. Now the means for mankind being able to destroy himself was at the forefront more than ever before, because before it was kind of hard to see that concept. How could mankind destroy himself? But as technology has grown, as the use of weaponry has grown, especially in that particular area, that understanding has become more real to us. We understand. And especially after we saw the rush of Russia and (the U.S.S.R. at that time), and the United States, the hundreds, and hundreds, and hundreds, and hundreds, and hundreds, into the thousands of nuclear weapons. You think, “What kind of insanity is this?”

It was at one time there after I was in the Church early on, that various things had been written about how that mankind could destroy himself forty times over with all the nuclear weapons, every living thing forty times over! You think, it only takes once! But at least that reality was in the mind.

So we live in a period of time that is incredible as far as the human mind is concerned, to understand that there is one more revival. So he sent people to that meeting, that first European Common Market meeting because he was telling people there have to be three things that come together in Europe. A common currency and people made fun of that. That didn’t happen until long after his death. That didn’t happen until after a long time after he was dead, that finally they had a common currency. I think it was in 1999, if I’m not mistaken, the first Euro came into existence. He died in 1986. You think, what an incredible thing; finally came to pass.

They would have a union of nations come together there in Europe. He said there would be ten; it would come down to a matter of being ten nations. That was clear back then during that period of the common market. That they would have a common military. I think of all the time that’s come along. Finally, all those nations are there. 28 nations and now they’re talking about 9 and 10. I just saw an article the other day where they, an individual was commenting, commentary on some of the facts of things coming out of news out of Europe. They’re having elections right now in the European Union, getting ready for that—I don’t know if it’s happening at the moment here but they’re getting ready for that right now, for elections to take place with the European Union—and the rhetoric right now is that there are certain nations that are going to push forward for a much stronger Europe. They know they’re at the brink. They know that they have got to do something to keep it together.

That’s why I love that example there in Daniel, iron mixed with clay. Very strong and very weak, not cohesive, not strong at all in that respect as far as real unity, but as far as power? There’s a lot of potential power there, just like the economic power – if they had a better unity in that they’d be a very strong force to reckon with. But they can’t pull that together. They’re fighting for their own existence, and the reality is they will fight for their existence when it’s all said and done. They will make decisions based on fighting for their existence, for their survival. But the commentary now is that there are nine, ten nations that are ready to leave the rest behind. The rest can be affiliated with them but not doing and being a part of the same thing that the initial core, the primary core is, that they’re the ones that are going to control various aspects like the military and so forth, and others can participate in an economic form and fashion like they are now, but there are some others that are talking about a breakaway and moving forward with plans.

So we live in an incredible time because there hasn’t even been a military until now in the past year. Finally, they’ve made certain decisions and choices where they have their own system set up where they can move armies across Europe quickly. These things are already in plan. Even the U.S. right now, I think I even have an article here if we get time I’ll read part of it. But the U.S. has been threatening them—I don’t know if you can call it threatening. It’s a bullying that takes place. That’s how other nations see it and it kind of is that way.—to back away from their military, from their weapon development and so forth because the U.S. sees it as a conflict because of NATO, and they’re openly saying that.

But think about it, being a European, and think about some of the things they’ve been saying. “You have had a free ride now,” which they have, basically, in a big way, “for a long, long time. Now you have to pay for it.” Well, their idea is “Who is in charge? You’re going to tell us everything we must do? This is about us. This is about Europe. Who is better and more willing to deal with Europe than Europeans? We don’t want someone else telling us what to do and how to do it. We don’t want someone else bullying us in our politics and in our exports and our imports and who we do business with and who we don’t.” They’re very upset about not being able to deal with Iran and they’re going ahead and doing it, certain nations, the most important ones, France and Germany. So this battle is going on.

I was amazed this past year, just recently here now being over there, and seeing the news over there compared to what it was even a year before, and there is no love. There is an attitude that has totally changed toward this country. It’s incredible to see that shift like it has. It’s very powerful and this is all necessary for what’s coming. If that wasn’t the thinking, if that wasn’t the mind, then certain things wouldn’t come to pass as quickly. They’re at the door.

So he says, “So also, when you see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors!” So we live in a time, I live in a time where I’ve seen all these things that he said, that he was given to see, about three things with the European Common Market, and then changed to the European Union, all these things come to pass. The Euro, now talking about ten specific nations in the news, and then a military. They’re done. They’re there. Incredible!

Assuredly, I tell you, this generation shall not pass until all these things be fulfilled. In other words, all these things previously outlined concerning end-time events. So there’s been discussion ever since I’ve been in God’s Church, what does it mean by “this generation?” How long will that be? So there are all kinds of ideas of what it could consist of.

Well, I’ve a pretty strong feeling I’m in that generation. I’ve just talked about how that since I’ve been in God’s Church that it’s been an awesome thing to see these things actually come to pass, to see one of the greatest signs that was even given to the Church come to pass. Because the greatest sign given to the Church that the Messiah was now going to come, was now coming, was in 2 Thessalonians 2. It was about a great falling away, the word in the Greek “apostasy.” To imagine that? We couldn’t comprehend that. We had no idea what that meant. A Church that was of ninety-seven-some thousand baptized members around the world, Feast sites that would be upward sometimes 14-15-16,000 people at a Feast site. If you’ve never experienced that, that’s hard to grasp. I’ve been in some of that. I think of the Ozarks that was around 14,000 about when we were there that time. But there was one road in and one road out and there were people out there that were out there for an hour, hour and a half trying to get out of that parking lot after services. That many people in a big convention. Incredible!

So it’s hard to imagine if you haven’t lived it, haven’t been a part of that. Then to be whittled down to what we are? Awesome! Incredible, to understand these things. Something that scattered Churches don’t even acknowledge yet – we had an apostasy, a falling away from the truth. You’d think that would be so simple to see, to know, and to understand. You’d think it would really be a simple thing even on a physical plane without God’s spirit. You would think that the ability to look at something and analyze it and say, okay, a third, right at a third just quit altogether. No beliefs anymore as a whole. None of the scattered Churches. No religious belief as a whole, as far as going back to the Protestant world. Just quit in their ideas and beliefs about anything.

Then another third that changed to what they had been called out of as far as that which is along the lines of traditional Christianity. Then another third is just scattered all over the place, several, six hundred plus organizations that sprang up, that tried to, in some form or fashion, hold on to things about the holy days, the Sabbath, and various truths that God had given the Church through Mr. Armstrong. All a part of what it says in scripture and yet people deny that they lived through an Apostasy. To me, I’ll be candid with you, to me that’s kind of mind boggling because, again, you would think on a physical plane you’d be able to see that and to address it and say, yes, that’s what happened. But there are reasons why such acknowledgment isn’t made.

“...this generation shall not pass.” See, seventy years old coming up here. Someone just told me it’s Thursday. Where did it all go?  Well, we shall see. 50 years in God’s Church. But there are others out here, too, but I think this has a lot more meaning with it than what we might understand. But there is a generation of people at a particular period of time that will have experienced the things that God gave to Mr. Armstrong, things that have to do with the end of an age, the Apostasy being the biggest in the sense of a sign given to God’s people, “Now...” Because Paul said “Don’t think that that coming, his coming,” if you read through that chapter (it’s an incredible chapter, Chapter 2). It basically was about when will he return. “Don’t believe anyone if they say this or say that because his coming will not be until a certain thing takes place, and then he goes on to say there must be an apostasy in God’s Church, basically, is what he’s saying. We’ve seen all that, lived through all that.

...this generation shall not pass until all these things be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words will not pass away. Now, we can’t comprehend fully what that’s talking about, whether it’s literal or what. It very well could be, because we don’t understand time, we don’t grasp. We can’t grasp millions, billions of years and what God’s purpose and God’s plan is in time, through time. We don’t know what’s ahead. We have no idea. We don’t know what it’s like to be a spirit being, to be in a spirit body. The older you get the more you know what it’s like to be in a physical body, but we have no concept of what it would be like to be in a spirit body. We have no concept fully. We have ideas of it because of the Church and because of experiencing God’s spirit living in our lives, but to be at one with God forever? To be in agreement because of that mind that you now have grown to and God gives you then a body, and freed from “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” that war against that very thing? Now to be in unity and oneness? Awesome! That’s all you can say. Bring it on!

But of that day and hour no one knows, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only. Well, I’ve had some battles with this one. I think of some of the radio interviews. Someone will bring that one on and I basically made the comment of what I believed at that moment in time. Present truth. Because it goes on and talks about some of these things as we go along here. But again, what some of this is talking about, indeed, there are some literal things here. We came to a point in time where I know we know the day in the sense of a holy day, but we don’t know. The reality is we haven’t known the actual year. I don’t know the year. I don’t know if it’ll be next year Pentecost, the year after that, seven years up the road, I have no idea. I have some ideas on a physical plane and with the truth that God has given to us to look at those things, because it will fit into some pattern. God is very specific about things that He does.

That’s why I marvel, and we should all marvel, of what’s written in the last book that’s outlined very clearly so about time. To think about how we’ve lived through seven end-time periods, prophetic periods of 1260 days is absolutely astounding. The first five, if you look at those and the full numbers (I’m not going to go through all those) because there are two patterns there of dual numbers that all come out being the same when it came out to 2012. That left us 70 days in there, and 70 has always had to do with prophecy concerning Christ’s coming. You think of all those days, all those periods of time, five of them, and then to have 70 more days – awesome! But it wasn’t then. Now we’ve lived through two more periods of time like that coming up to this Pentecost and it’ll have been that plus 50 more days. The Wave Sheaf, the count to Pentecost. Again, dumbfounding.

So when is it going to be? Well, my eyes are set on something very specific because we follow patterns. It’s like there’s a marker here, there’s a marker there. I know it’s not 2019 so my next marker that I’m looking at is 2020. After that, the marker is quite a ways down the road. It could be sooner. There could be other things that God can do to fulfill it, but that’s all I can see and understand at this point in time with what God has given to us. So we do follow markers, if you will, in that respect, because God, candidly, just has not given it. That’s the reality. What we lived through up to 2012, that was something very real and something we went through very powerfully so in God’s Church, but it wasn’t then. It’s not now either.

That’s kind of tough. It’s kind of hard when you look at some of those things. I have conversations with God every once in a while, and have had recently, that’s okay, we just move forward. This is the truth. We have been given so much. I wish it weren’t so. If there were any other way... I think of Christ telling Him, “Father, if there is any way, any other way, please take this cup from me.” I haven’t really enjoyed the cup I’ve had to drink up to this point in time in some of these things, but C’est la vie, such is life, you move forward and whatever God’s purpose is He’ll show us at some point in time and we’ll learn from it. I have learned much from all these things.

Again, it goes on to say here the angels in heaven don’t know. Now, I love this expression because it makes something very clear here that we have come to understand in a bigger way when it says, “but my Father only.” The reality is, is that there are things that are given to God’s Church that the angelic realm, whether it be those who are faithful to God or those who have not been and are demonic, demons, they all have one great desire when it comes to things that God reveals in time because God reveals things at different times in different ways and the reality is they don’t know. That’s why it speaks of their desire to hear what God gives to the Church. They want to know because there are things that are not communicated, they’re not communicated to them, they’re not given to them but by what God gives at any moment in time to the Church. Then they can learn and they can grow in understanding of what God is revealing at any moment in time.

It’s just like all the truths that have ever been given to God’s Church, the angelic realm hasn’t known those things. They haven’t known the things that have been given at all until it’s time.  That’s why I’m looking forward to some sermons being given, because it’s an awesome thing looking at various periods of time. To me it’s an awesome thing looking up to the time of Noah and what he understood, which is very little. Awesome to know what happened by the time of Abraham, ten plus generations later. Abraham, who was around fifty years old when his great, great, great (whatever it is) grandfather finally died three hundred years after the flood (plus), and to see what they understood at that particular time. Then later on Moses and what God gave to him, which we’ll talk about hopefully on Pentecost. Then all the way up to the time of Christ, another 1500 years later.

Incredible the times and what God chose to reveal and give at various times. So it is at this time. There are things that aren’t known until God gives them.

But as in the days of Noah, so it takes us all the way back, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage... So what’s it talking about? Well, obvious, it’s just talking about life just goes on as normal. Nothing changes. Nothing changes for people in the world as a whole. In the days of Noah people didn’t make much mind of anything that Noah was saying except to see this huge thing being built out in the middle of nowhere. It wasn’t being built on a river. It wasn’t being built by a lake or on a lake. A hundred years plus building this thing? I can only try to imagine some of the mockery that went with that. But here it is, he’s making an ark. People didn’t pay any mind.

It’s just like the world today. They’re going to continue doing what they’re doing until a moment in time. And only then, as a whole, only then will they be shaken, just as the time when rain started to come down. That’s what it’s talking about here. They just continued to live life, plan life, marry, have children—that’s what it’s talking about ...until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and they did not know until the flood came. Incredible. It just kept raining, kept raining, kept raining, rivers got higher and higher until finally there was water everywhere. Finally, some of the things that he said had to begin to sink in a little bit and a little bit more depending on how long different ones lived. It wasn’t very long.

It says...and they did not know until the flood came and took them all away. Then it was over. No thinking about it anymore. God brought a judgment upon mankind. He said, He stated, in essence, that they had so defiled their minds, they had so perverted their thinking. The same sort of language was used toward Satan when he made the choice that he did to turn against God. When he first made a choice to go against God he defiled his mind, his thinking. On a spirit plane that is something different from a human being. That was an instant change as far as that being was concerned. From then on his mind was set to go a different way. He did not choose God’s way.

It says here, they did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so it will be when the Son of Man comes, or the coming of the Son of Man, when that will be. So again here, we have lived through that. Nobody listens. That’s why some of the comments in the book, “If you will listen, God will listen.” The reality is people don’t listen. They don’t want to think about it. They don’t want to think about another war. They think that somehow, as people have in different generations, that it’s just not going to happen, that it’s too horrifying that anyone would do that. Well, tell that to some of the people who think that way. Tell that to some of the people who don’t think like in this country, that we do. They think differently. There are people who just think differently. They’ve grown up differently. They have different minds. They have different things that have molded and fashioned their minds.

For people to talk about the power they have, to talk about the kind of destructive power they have, this is being done openly anymore. Putin does it. He does it quite regularly. He makes some startling statements in a very powerful way. The Chinese and some of their thinking and some of the things that they have developed and are developing? For one great purpose. It’s just a matter of when will they use it.

So again, we look at verses like this, scriptures like this, and we want to know. It’s been the age old thing, “When is it?” Well, my marker is set one year ahead. That’s my first marker. After that? We’ll have to wait, see if God shows us more, gives us more if times goes on beyond that. My hope and prayer, candidly, is that it not for many reasons. And most of it, candidly, for all of you because this is not easy going through these kinds of things and living through these kinds of things.

That’s why it’s so important to understand the truth, to know the truth, to understand how you have it, why you have it, to be able to see the things you see, to understand and grasp how God works in your life, and to hold fast to those things because that’s what everyone has ever done through time. They’ve held on to what God gave to them. They were convicted of what God gave to them. They fought for what God gave to them. They fought against a world who wanted something different, who believed something different, and they held on to something because of the spirit that God had given them in their minds to be able to see and to know various things. They latched on to those things and they lived by that, they lived by faith and because of that God accounted them as righteous, as we’ve gone through and talked about in those sermons.

So I share with you openly this is not easy as far as these shoes down here. That there are times that I recognize, I do recognize, the responsibility that’s there and I feel for God’s people, for you, but you are God’s people and all I can do is strive to do the best I can with what God has given to me. That’s why I think about my commission and my job is to fulfill a calling as a prophet and as an apostle. I think of some of that process, of what I’ve experienced and what I’ve gone through, and that’s all I can relate and share with you. But I think of the first book when I knew that I was to put on there about myself, that I was a prophet, but not in the sense of a for prophecy prophet.

There are two expressions in scripture about a prophet. One is one who can understand, be given understanding to understand prophetic matters in the sense of grasping things that God has said. Another is to go beyond that and state certain things. I realize and come to see in a very great way, hey, mine hasn’t been as far as the dates are concerned. I am no prophet there whatsoever, because of what happened during 2008 and 2012 I believe with all my being that I was. I believed that was the job I was fulfilling, and still might have been as far as God’s work is concerned because there are certain things we went through and God brought it all to the forefront of why we had to go through and experience some of the things we did, because it was about the Church.

Sometimes I have battled with knowing that I’m a prophet, and is this speaking as a prophet or as an apostle. I’ve come to understand that first and foremost I am an apostle. To understand some of the things that are a matter of prophecy, that’s in God’s hands. Some of the things that have been written, it’s in God’s hands as to how He brings things to pass because there are certain things that I know that have changed prophetically, even concerning Europe and how some things are going to be done because of what God has chosen to do in the sense of not following through and doing what He did like in the days of Noah. Because it’s about judgment. When God came to the point that people had so hurt their own minds, their own thinking that God said the best thing for you is to die. Because then in a new age, in a new world, for those who haven’t polluted their minds, haven’t gone too far, they can still be worked with at some point in time. But if they continue in the course that they’re going now they will not be able to be worked with.

It had come to the point in time where some had so damaged their thinking in their minds that no resurrection would ever change them. That’s how evil man had become in those days. That’s why at this time we are accelerating in that area of life in the world as far as the way people think, especially in other nations, but even in this nation. There are minds that are going so far that an individual can be so corrupt in their thinking that if God offers His holy spirit to them to be able to see and know various truths they won’t want it. God knows those things. He knows what’s in the mind. He knows the spirit essence that He’s put in the mind.

That’s why it uses that expression, “as in the days of Noah,” because we are like that, the world is like that once again. There’s a judgment upon the world at the end of an age. That’s why I’ve remarked so many times when I’ve heard people talk about judgment, and so forth, they don’t understand so often that it’s about a specific period of time and everyone is going to be judged, but there is a judgment where God passes out a punishment, if you will, like He did in the days of Noah. We’re at that time. He’s bringing the world to a point in time where He’s going to reveal to them what we would do if given enough time and the kind of weaponry.

That’s why I cringe sometimes when I see things on the news about technology and what mankind would do with it. They’re talking about robotic life. Some of these things on TV are not so far out sometimes. Things that used to be out there, like Dick Tracey and this thing you could talk to, they’re not so far out anymore. Back then they were. It was like, “Yeah, right, a watch you could talk on and you could see on,” or whatever it might be, and now it’s there! Now they’re talking about a type of robotic life that can make their own choices and decisions about various kinds of things. Not with a human spirit. They don’t understand that. They don’t grasp that. But the ability within a program to “grow,” to become something different than what they’re programmed for because of the type of programming that’s there, that that’s what’s next.

Now, I don’t know about you but that’s some scary stuff, it really is. Because the reality is if God allowed time to go on the kind of things that human beings would do, the kind of things that they would do with genetics, with genes, with some of the things that they’re playing with now would make some of the things that some of those did in WWII in Germany look kind of mild, with the kind of sick, perverted, distorted things that human beings are thinking about. I look at that and think about how horrifying that would be to live through some of those kinds of things. I think just time to wipe the slate clean and let people be resurrected in a different age, a new time, which is what God’s going to do. That’s mercy.

So going on. I understand that sometimes, again, I have spoken as a prophet. Most of the time it’s been as an apostle. Both function differently. So again, foremost I realize I am an apostle and I may work with things that God reveals as far as truth is concerned and then build upon those things that God has given to us.

So anyway, this is not an easy thing to go through and discuss in some of these matters about because I battle with it: Is this a matter of a prophet? Is this a matter of an apostle? So I choose and want and desire to work as an apostle. The prophet part isn’t too much fun.

Matthew 25. Sometimes we can look at things in life. I think of different ones that I knew during the time of Philadelphia, people who desired to be in the ministry, people who desired to be in certain jobs, to be an evangelist. They have no idea what they want. When people did do the things that were right and just before God they were blessed. When it came right down to it there weren’t very many evangelists that actually lived that way, that really chose and desired and fought for being faithful, being loyal as well, not just to God but to those that they served, as Mr. Armstrong, because I think of all the betrayals that went on through time and things that different ones did. It’s incredible what we live through, brethren. It’s incredible some of the kinds of things we see.

I want to read Matthew 25. I’ll come back to some of this in a moment. Matthew 25:8. This is in the parable where the ten virgins are being discussed. I thought about going through a lot of this here and discussing some of this as to what we used to believe in the Church, but it hasn’t been that long ago that God gave us understanding of what the 10 virgins was all about. There was a time when there was five wise and five foolish, and in God’s Church there was a time (because it hadn’t been given yet), that there would be two eras at the end of the age, two eras of the Church.

The first era was Ephesus, the Church of Ephesus during the time of the apostles on all the way up through the time of John, then when John died another era came into being. Then we came all the way down to Thyatira, which was over a thousand years long as God’s Church. Then Sardis for several hundred years and then by the end of Sardis it was dying out. The truth was dying out. They had three truths left when Mr. Armstrong was called to raise up the Church once again and restore truth to the Church was in the 1930’s, the early 1930’s. They only had three truths left in Sardis. The Church was about ready to die out, and basically, that’s what God said of it, you’re dead. You’re dying and what you have is dying and basically you’re dead spiritually. So God raised up Mr. Armstrong to be an apostle at the end of an age in the Philadelphia era and it was a time of restoring truth. So that’s why we have those 18 truths that God built upon and gave above and beyond the three truths that were still existing during the time of Sardis. That’s why history is so important to remember, what God has given to us and what God gave at that particular time.

But God didn’t give everything and just like with the ten virgins there was this idea that, well, at the end there would be Philadelphia, the age that Mr. Armstrong was raised up after Sardis to raise up the Church, to restore truth in the Church. And then would come along in time, toward the end, Laodicea, and Laodicea would be a lukewarm body, a lukewarm group of people but that they would co-exist at the same time. Now, we didn’t realize, no, no, they follow each other. They never co-existed. One era has never co-existed with another. But we didn’t know that back then. So there was this idea, okay, the ten virgins, five wise, five foolish. The five wise are Philadelphian. The five foolish are Laodicean. Seemed to make sense at that time because the foolish, they become rich and increased with goods in what they think they know and they become lukewarm. They don’t really fight for this way of life. They’re not really living right toward one another. They don’t really exercise love toward one another within the Body. So much of that was true about what was going to happen in Laodicea, but it didn’t happen until toward the end of Mr. Armstrong’s death.

That’s why I marvel sometimes what Mr. Armstrong said at various stages. I remember during the late ‘70’s after the heart problems he had and he came to a point where he was talking about the Church and putting it back on the right track because some of the things some of the evangelists had done while he was ill, while he wasn’t doing well. Some of the rumblings taking place in the Church, they were basically waiting for him to die and they were starting to take sides. Now, that sounds like someone in the Church of God, doesn’t it? It’s totally carnal! God allowed it to happen, for people to have battles like that.

When Mr. Armstrong was in essence revived he came back stronger than ever and you could see it. When he came up to the podium, as old as he was, those frail hands, bones showing, and he would start beating on that podium, because he gave it his all, he truly did. He cried out and he was warning a Church because he saw what the evangelists and those close to him had done and what they were doing. He knew the battles that were going on. The Church didn’t know about them, but he did. He got stronger and stronger and he cried out toward the end because he was talking, thinking about this thing of Laodicea, because he saw Laodicea. He saw it! He saw it coming into the Church. At one point he talked, in essence, about fifty, fifty percent, and then toward the end he was very strong and he said, “I wonder if 10% of you get it!” If ten percent of you, in essence, are Philadelphian. That was the context.

He saw the spirit of Laodicea coming. And you know what? As soon as he died it came. That was the era that came upon God’s Church. Incredible! His work was done. The work to that point in time was done. The work of going, the gospel going into all the world. So if you read Matthew 24 and what it says it says, “This gospel of the Kingdom will go in all the world,” and that’s all the farther he went with those verses, “and then the end shall come,” because it goes on to show what happens.

I’ll just turn over there right quick like. It’s good to remember our history and what we’ve gone through. It’s not so hard for me to remember because I lived through that portion. If you’re newer, you were called at a later time, it’s good to know your history and what’s happened in God’s Church from the time of Ephesus on.

Matthew 24:14—This gospel of the Kingdom will be preached in all the world as a witness to all nations, and then the end will come. Well, he knew this was his commission. He believed this with all of his being. He told us over and over again, “This is my commission, the gospel.” So The Plain Truth magazine going out to over eight million plus. I went by a building here the other day, RR Donnelley, and I thought, “What is that building? That rings a bell.” It was a publishing place, a printing place, one of the plants. I don’t know if it was this one here that’s in this area, but RR Donnelly was the name of the company that in the United States that printed The Plain Truth magazine. Over in Europe they had another printing house there in Radcliff. But millions of Plain Truths going out to the world, and also the Good News magazine. The broadcast and the telecast. It was the largest work of its kind in what you would call Christian type, if you will, who spoke of various beliefs as far as the Christian world is concerned that was going out into the world. Whether it be radio? Worldwide Church of God was the greatest. TV? Had far more coverage than anyone else. When it came to an end it came to an end, it was done.

Again, And the gospel of the Kingdom will be preached in all the world to a witness to all nations, and then the end will come. Therefore, when you see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place...then let those who are in Judea flee unto the mountains. Well, this is a message to the Church, but the first thing that people do is look at this physically. Judea, that’s Jerusalem area, that they have to flee into the mountains because something is going to happen there. No, it’s not about them at all. It’s about the Church. This is all about the Church. It’s about God’s people. We came to understand that finally.

The abomination of desolation, I don’t know if you know some of the story. I hope you do. I’m going to spend time to talk about this. There was a period of time where Antiochus Epiphanies offered a pig upon the altar, and that was called, in essence, the original abomination of desolation that took place. There are those today, even in some of the scattered group, who think that there has to be an altar and a pig has to be slaughtered up on it again. Mr. Armstrong before he died made it very clear there is no altar. There is no Levitical priesthood. There is no temple. There was one evangelist that’s made a comment on one of the TV programs that in essence that there had to be an altar at least in Jerusalem and there had to be a pig, if you will, slaughtered upon it.

Well, again, all these things that we understand, for us, for the Church, the abomination of desolation, is a spiritual thing. It wasn’t about a physical thing. It wasn’t about a temple being rebuilt. I don’t know if you’ve ever heard different ones talk about various stones have to be brought into Jerusalem, they have to be cut out without hands and they’re going to rebuild the temple, they’re going to start a rebuilding. It’s not going to happen. There is not going to be an altar put up there. It’s about God’s Church and we’ve already lived through this portion.

An abomination of desolation where someone is going to offer up something before God, and it’s about what Mr. Tkach did. So I don’t want to go back through all that. We’ve discussed it in different times. But it marks a very important point in time here when there was that which was set to destroy God’s Church. It was about an abomination that was set to destroy the Church. Here he came, the man of sin, the son of perdition, who sought to change every truth that God has given to the Church and turn it back into the Protestant world. That’s where we had the Apostasy take place.

“...and those in Judea flee into the mountains,” well, that’s what happened to us on a spiritual plane. I’m not going to go through all that again to explain all that. It’s all been written, all been spoken of before.

Matthew 25:8. So the parable of the ten virgins, it’s going through this story here about five wise and five foolish, but it’s going through a story here that we understand and grasp in God’s Church brings us up to the end of an age of that which was going to take place with God’s people all the way to the end. The foolish said to the wise, Give us of your oil, for ours are going out, our lamps are going out. Well, this is about God’s spirit. The oil, it’s symbolic of God’s holy spirit. And so we have understood for a long time, yes, if you don’t do what you’re supposed to do, if you don’t watch, if you’re not spiritually alert and spiritually on guard and praying to God and desiring to draw closer to Him then your light, in essence, is going to go out. You’re not going to have enough oil to have any light in your life as to what you’re living. You’re going to start drifting and you’re going to go farther and farther into darkness. So that’s what this is talking about here.

But the wise answered, No, or there will not be enough for us and for you. In other words, every one of us has to fight on our own. In other words, each one of us is answerable to God. There is nothing we can give to another person. There is no truth you can hand to another person. You can’t reason with someone else. You can try to encourage someone and so forth but it’s up to, inevitably it’s going to be up to each individual as to how they respond to what God gives and how we respond spiritually, how much we’re going to put into it, in that respect, as far as repentance and prayer and really desiring to draw closer to God.

But the wise answered, No, or there is not going to be enough for us and you, but instead, go to those who sell and buy for yourselves. Well, this is an example here, where does God’s spirit come from? Where does the oil? It comes from God! There is where you have to go. You have to go before God and cry out and say, “I need, I want that oil, that spirit in my life to be strong. I want to become stronger spiritually. I want to be more convicted of what is true. I want to get away from the things that are wrong. I want to live in righteousness. I want to get rid of the crap and the garbage of my human thinking, “lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, and the pride of life.” I want to get rid of those things!” Now, see, each person, you’re the only one who can do that, and if you’re not doing that day by day, week by week, crying out to God just like that then you’re missing the mark. You’re not fighting. You’ve got to fight against this, first and foremost. You’ve got to fight against this before you can fight against the world. You’ve got to fight against this before you can fight against the spirit world, because you can’t really fight against it, it’s God that does that, because of the strength and the power and the life that’s in you. That’s why it talks about drawing closer to God. The closer you draw to God the more Satan is going to flee from you because he doesn’t like God’s spirit. He doesn’t want to be around God’s spirit. So each one of us have to fight. That’s what the parable is about.

It says, Then while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage; and the door was shut. So the reality is there comes a point in time. Now, spiritually this has applied to God’s Church from the beginning, 31 AD, because everyone must live like this. They must have that desire to be filled with God’s spirit, to live wisely. God has shown us how to live wisely, spiritually. Wisdom comes from God; the truth, the word of God, it comes from God. God is the source. So we have to cry out to God for those things if we’re going to live wise, otherwise we’re just foolish. If we don’t listen to those things, if we don’t do those things we’re foolish.

How foolish can one be counted who has had every opportunity to be called by the Great God of the universe, to have their minds opened up to truth, to be able to see the truth when the vast majority of the world, they won’t have that for another thousand years, from this point. They won’t have that until a great resurrection. Some are going to have that opportunity that live into the Millennium, but most are going to have it in the Great White Throne.

So how blessed are we? If we don’t use those opportunities given to us, foolish is a good word. How dumb! How foolish would we be to start coasting, to deceive ourselves somehow into thinking we can do various things that God says don’t do, and we don’t even fight against it?

I marvel how far the human mind can go sometimes. I’ve used this example many a time because it reveals something that shows how far a human being can go even with one of the truths that God gave, was still there at the end of Sardis. Tithing. They still understood that the name of the Church is the Church of God. It’s God’s Church! The Sabbath, the seventh day, they still understood that was the right day, and tithing. They understood that. They only had those three truths until Mr. Armstrong came along. I think of how much in the last few years I’ve cried out about some of those things.

Now, I think of an individual who was given so many opportunities to get their life in order. So much mercy that was given to them to get their life in order. Time that was spent to them talking to them in love and care to get their life in order, to reason, that if you don’t get a hold of this... And then how anyone could come to a point where they want other things so much more than they want God. You know, God knows what’s in the heart. What would that be? What would you think? What is God to think? I know what God thinks. We should all know. If someone, in one of the most basic things that’s given to them of a truth, that tests us, that tries us as to where our heart is, and if someone’s heart is not in God, in God’s Church, in God’s way of life, that is one of the big tests, because that’s something that affects us on a physical plane very powerfully so. It’s just the way the world is. If we see something else out there we want and we go for it and we don’t hold on to something that God has given us the ability to know and see, how foolish are we? So what a great example here, the wise and foolish.

So while they went to buy, the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage; and the door was shut.  Now, in reality this is very true for those who are a part of the 144,000. I know very powerfully so that there were those who had been called to have an opportunity to be a part of 144,000 all the way up to 2000 and, well, somewhere between 2008 and 2012 that God made the decision and said, “No, it’s not going to happen. You have rejected. You’ve rejected Me.” So what does God do? If we reject Christ, we’ve rejected God? We can’t just continue on living a lie. God will take care of it. That’s what God has done.

I think of some who had been around for decades, in some cases, to come to a point in time where you make certain choices and certain attitudes creep in and you begin to work against or speak against various things that God has given? To me, that boggles the mind. But see, it happens. It’s happened through time because of human nature. Those who became foolish who weren’t always foolish. Foolishness doesn’t always happen right away. Foolishness can creep into your life. Being, acting foolish can creep into your life. It’s happened to tens of thousands of people whom God has called.

...the bridegroom came, and those who were ready went in with him to the marriage; and the door was shut. So the reality is there comes a point in time where those who will be a part of that will be a part of that. Not all have been called to that. Especially now, since that period of time there have been others who have been called to live on into a new age in the Church, to be a part of the beginning of the Church, the foundation. Incredible!

...and the door was shut. Afterward there came also other virgins, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us! Incredible. But he answered and said, Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you. We know, we understand that to be a part of, of you will, the 144,000, that it has to be a point where God says, “Now I know you.” If some haven’t lived what they should be living there comes a point in time when the reality is God’s going to say, “I don’t know you.” If someone comes along all of a sudden and all of a sudden they see certain things... It’s going to happen. There are going to be certain things happen in this world, there is going to be horrifying things happen out here, and then all of a sudden it’s going to be like, “I want to be a part of this. I was wrong. I was in error.” A little too late then. It’s too late. Incredible.

Therefore, watch... So that’s what we’re commanded to do. Watch, for you do not know... This is why my thrust has been, because this applies to everyone who has ever been in God’s Church, this is what, for me, the present truth has been all along, in essence, that everyone who is called is to be alert and on guard. They’re to be as a wise virgin, not foolish, but one who desires this way of life, who cries out for it, who fights for this way of life, who desires God’s spirit in their life. That’s what the word “watch” entails. It’s a word that means to be on guard, spiritually, if you will, to be alert spiritually. Other scriptures that we’ve talked about in times past, that’s what it’s about.

Therefore, watch, for you don’t know the day or the hour when the Son of Man comes... Because for each individual who has ever been called into the Church, for them there’s a time that a decision is made, “Now I know you.” If you want to look at the past 2,000 years, those, the majority, candidly, who have come along in the past 2,000 years who have been called, “Many have been called but few have been chosen.” Why? Because of their choices. They were foolish. Somewhere along the line they gave into foolishness, if you will.

Therefore, watch, for you don’t know the day or the hour. So that’s why you’re to be on guard all the time all the way to the end, whatever that end is. Let’s say of Mr. Armstrong, as an example. He died, different ones before him, they died, on way back they all died, and those who were wise, those who were watchful, those who were spiritually alert, who grew with God’s spirit, they didn’t know a particular time that they might die, they just we live and die. But there were others with him, there were others along the journey as well who were called to the Church to live this way of life and very likely a lot of them lived up to a point of death. But long before that there was a point where they were rejected, where God says, “I don’t know you. You’re not a part. You’re out in the courtyard.” They were never able to repent and come into the temple.

I hope you understand what I’m saying. For them that was their day and their hour of Christ’s coming because they have been such individuals who make such choices. Those who made certain choices they did back in 2012, that choice was, that’s what was made, “I don’t know you.” That’s when a person is severed from the Body of Christ, from the Church of God.

Mark 13; a little different, some of these that speak here, but I want to read this one first. Mark 13:20— And except that the LORD had shortened those days... So this was the verse I was referring to earlier, about what mankind is going to do that Mr. Armstrong came to understand, there should no flesh ... except those days were shortened no flesh would be saved. So this is a part of the story where literally even on a physical plane certain things will take place in the world because this is about the end-time. God makes it very clear that in essence if He didn’t intervene that we would annihilate ourselves, that mankind would destroy himself. It says, but for the elect’s sake, and this is a word for “select.” Those who are called, who have been selected by God. Even within the 144,000, but even those that God has selected to live into a new age, they have opportunity to live into a new age, even here at the end.

No flesh should be saved; but for the elect’s sake, whom He has chosen... So all of God’s people have been selected by God. That’s why He called us. He opened our minds to the truth because He selected us. He’s first selected us out of the world. We don’t understand any of that. Don’t even bother thinking about it because there is no point, “Why me?” It’s not because of anything good that we’ve done. We come to understand that. It’s just a matter of God’s choosing for whatever purpose He has in working with us and molding and fashioning us. So ours is one of responding and “I’m thankful. I’m grateful.” If we’re smart, wise, we’re going to fight for it then.

But for the elect’s sake, whom He has chosen; he makes it clear God is the one who’s chosen. He’s the one who has selected us. He has shortened the days. Now, this is talking about right up to the end of the age here then. So for the sake of the Church, for God’s people first and foremost, and I’ve made this comment over and over again, it’s first about the Church. It’s first about those whom God has called because we’re the ones who have the impregnation of His holy spirit, that He desires for us to either be a part of that first resurrection or to be a part of the next one after the thousand years, and to live on into the Millennium, in other words, to have opportunity to continue on in the Church. God has to do that calling. Christ made it very clear, “No one comes to me except God the Father draw him,” call him.

So it says, He has shortened those days. Thank God! Thank God that we don’t have a long, long period of time we have to go through of great suffering on this earth. It’s going to be short.

Then if anyone shall say to you, Look, here is Christ! or, Look, he is there! Don’t believe it. That’s the way it’s been for a long, long time in the world, even in God’s Church, even now especially if you look at the scattered Church, what’s happened since the apostasy. Because that’s what everyone claims as a whole. We claim that and we believe it with all of our being because of the truth that God has given us. Others hold on to that hope, that belief in their minds. That’s just the way people are.

People in the Protestant world, they believe that they’re right. They believe that what they’re doing is right, others are wrong. A Church of Christ person believes they’re right, not a Seventh-Day Adventist, not a Baptist, or else they would be there. They would choose to be with them. So people think about different things about what’s right and what’s wrong.

For false christs and false prophets will arise and show signs and wonders to deceive (seduce), if it were possible, even the elect. Now, this used to be, I think it’s stated in the King James in a wrong way. There was, it was stated before in times past the idea and the thought was “the very elect.” It’s like there’s this very elect group. Anyway, there is this concept. But the point being is there is an elect. No one is better than anyone else except there is just a calling that God has given and those who are the elect are a part of God’s Church. Those who are responding to it are a part of that select, whoever they are.

It says here, in essence here, that even for us we have to be on guard, we have to be alert. People who have had come out of the Apostasy, especially at that time, they had to apply these things more than anyone else at that moment in time, to be careful what you do, what you choose, and why.

But take heed; see, I have told you all things beforehand. Verse 24—For in those days, after the tribulation... So it shows there’s going to be a time of great trouble on the earth. It says, the sun will be darkened, and the moon will not give her light. It’s hard to grasp and comprehend. There is another news article, a report that came out recently about what would happen if Pakistan and India got into a nuclear war. I mean, they’re talking about these things and they’re talking about a kind of winter, a nuclear winter that would take place and how it would blanket the earth and how that indeed light from the sun, obviously light from the moon, they’re cut off because of what’s in the atmosphere. That’s why they call it a nuclear winter, because of what happens with the temperature when there’s no light hitting the earth. That’s something we can’t comprehend. Thankfully those things will be short lived. But there is going to be a period of time for that until God intervenes and stops that and ends it.

But it says, the stars of heaven will fall... Well, they don’t literally fall but there are things that happen that appear if you look in the sky when these things take place, and the powers in the heavens shall be shaken. Well, what an incredible way to talk about the powers in the heavens shaken, when you see what takes place when those things do what they do.

Then will they see the Son of Man coming in the clouds with great power and glory. So thankfully it’s a short lived thing, because the reality is mankind couldn’t live very long. They talked about how many million would die instantly from that kind of a war just in that region there, how many millions, how many millions more would die later because of the disease, because of the nuclear winter, and so forth. These are all things that scientists, people understand can take place in such conflict. If you know the kinds of numbers of weapons they have, they have a lot, both of them.

Verse 27—And then He will send His angels, and gather together His elect from the four winds, from the farthest part of earth to the farthest part of heaven. So again, a type of language here that takes place at the very end of the age.

Mark 13:28. We’re now going once again into the parable about the fig tree. So this is where it comes along but something else is added this time that’s not in Matthew, and that’s why I wanted to go through and read some of this. Mark 13:28—Now learn a parable of the fig tree: When its branches become tender, and puts forth leaves, you know that summer is near. So also, when you see these things beginning to take place know that it is near—even at the doors! Well, even at the Feast last year we talked about how that the stage is already set; it’s just a matter of God’s time. Everything is staged already; it’s just a matter of time. Things are not going to happen until a very specific time, until it’s God time to allow man to do what he’s going to do.

There will not be an economic collapse until it’s God’s time. There will not be the beginning of a nuclear war until it’s God’s time. Certain nations are not going to do what are prophetically stated until it’s time. But we’re at the door.

Assuredly, I tell you that this generation shall not pass until all these things take place. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. So to live through all these things about the end of an age, to come up to, within the Church, to live through a period called Laodicea, to see the last era of God’s Church, and that within that era of God’s Church toward the end of it an apostasy took place, and then to see other part fulfilled concerning a countdown, if you will, because of what took place from the Apostasy on until it comes to an end.

Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away. But of that day and hour no one knows, no not the angels which are in heaven... and this is the one that finally really struck me hard: neither the Son. Now, I understand that in a way that I didn’t grasp it before, because the reality is, and the reason stated in this fashion, is because everything that the Church receives comes from Joshua. We have nothing except it comes from him. I believe with all my being that we haven’t been given that, obviously, that it hasn’t been given to him. The reality is no one knows the day or the hour. We know it’s going to be a Pentecost. We know a lot of events that are going to take place when Christ and 144,000 stand upon the Mount of Olives. We know that day. But what year? What’s specific hour? Well, even that, it doesn’t say what time it’ll be on Pentecost that it’s going to take place. We just know it’s going to be on a Pentecost.

So God’s given us a lot, in that respect. He didn’t give it to us until 2008. The Church really didn’t know it until 2008, that it definitely was going to be on a Pentecost that he stands upon the Mount of Olives. So anyway, the reality is I have not known the day or the hour, you have not known of the day or the hour, speaking of the year or the hour, but since 2008 we have known a day that it’ll be on. We just don’t know the day, which means we don’t know that specific year.

God has His reasons why He’s allowed us to go through what we’ve gone through. I don’t know what they are. I wish I did. But I’ve always known, too, and we know that there have been spiritual battles that have been fought and that it’s not just about the Church. There are wars that take place that we don’t grasp, that we don’t comprehend that God allows.

I think of the time of Daniel when even an angel couldn’t even come and speak to Daniel until a certain war had been fought; Michael and Gabriel fighting against Satan. Now, I don’t comprehend that. I can comprehend physical wars that God allowed to take place, that God even worked with Israel in some of those wars, a lot of them, candidly. But we read about some of those things in the Old Testament that God allowed and when they went into the promised land God told them destroy everything, and because they didn’t, they’re having some problems to this day. But anyway. The reality is that there are wars that God allows to be fought. He allows them on a spirit plane, which, again, I don’t comprehend, but I know they’re taking place.

At the end of an age when Satan knows that he has but a short time he is more furious than he has ever been at any time in his life. Because there is one thing about him. There are certain things that he’s always tried to thwart and change but hasn’t been able to. He’s constantly fought against God. He’s fought against anything that God does. He tries to destroy mankind. He tries to destroy the Church, God’s people. He’s done that through time. But he also knows he has one more great hurrah because God’s going to allow him—and he knows this—He’s going to allow him to have another war, and probably in his perverted mind there are probably things he thinks he can do to still thwart God’s plan. He tried to destroy the Christ. You think, after all this time can’t you grasp that you can’t fight against God? But that’s his mind. I don’t understand that, to have that kind of a distorted mind to continue fighting against the Great God of the universe.

There are things that take place, the only reason that there are things that God doesn’t give to us, because of things like that, and other things that He hasn’t revealed to us yet. But that’s a big one because there are certain things that being isn’t to know until God does it. If God gives it to the Church then he knows exactly. So Satan has been kept off track. I was going to say, too, and it’s true.

Take heed... God tells us what to do, Take heed, “Listen to what I’m telling you,” watch and pray, because when it’s all said and done that’s the most important thing. The parable of the ten virgins, that’s the most important thing, to watch and pray, to be on guard, to keep moving forward, to know, to be thankful for the truth that God has given to us, and to hold on to it because that’s your life, that’s your power. That is your strength. The truths of God gives to you, they are your strength.

That’s why I marvel and repeat those things so often about what was given to Mr. Armstrong concerning ten nations that would arise, concerning a European Union that would come together and have a common currency. Awesome, when that came together in 1999, the Euro, after he died. He didn’t get to see it, to see a European Union in a very powerful way come down to a point in time where they’re talking about ten nations, to see, finally, a military that they do have now that’s their own under their own government. Incredible! Everything is set.

So it says, Take heed, watch and pray, for you do not know when the time is. So we just continue to move forward and we set markers. So we’ll have markers. I’ll have markers. If it isn’t 2020 I don’t like the marker that’s behind that one, because as I said, I ran a ten mile run one time with a fellow that talked me into it (which I never did it again), but a race is not an easy thing, and looking ahead to certain things thinking you can’t make it, “I can’t make it,” if you understand that about yourself as a human being that’s a good thing, because without God, without God’s spirit you can’t make it, you can’t do this, we can’t do this. We have to do what it says here, watch, be alert, be on guard.

That’s what we’re striving, I’m striving to live by as far as the thrust of what we’re doing with advertising, with the book or whatever might happen there because, how do I put this, within the year I’m going to decide whether there is going to be a fourth one. It will be a combination of all three. It’ll be the best of all three in one. Now, that’s what’s in my mind, whether I have time to do that or not, but that’s where my focus is right now. If we go beyond 2020 it’ll definitely take place.

So I have to try to decide what can we do best as a Church, what is our thrust, because I think I’ve shared this with you. I don’t know if it was last week or when. But we’re not going to just throw money away into advertising if nothing is happening. What’s the point? There’ll be a point in time where God shows us, in essence, this is where we are. That’s where we unload and do everything all at once. We tried to do that at the end of, well, not the end of, but the beginning of 2012 all the way up to Pentecost. We tried to unload everything that there was into advertising to warn, to reach out in the world. That’s really a large part of our job, it’s still to watch and to be, as it were, like Ezekiel says, a watch man, a watchman, a watch person, if you will, because it’s for men and women in God’s Church. So some of the expressions there I don’t really like but that’s how it was written in large part, which has other meaning. That’s not always about, obviously, the men. It’s about all of us in God’s Church.

We are to watch and pray and that’s our job. That’s my job as a watchman. That’s your job as a watch man, to do what we can do, to best use the finances we have, to advertise in the best way we can. That’s why there are going to be certain segments we’re going to set up, which I’m excited about. As far as the Church is concerned we’re going to start having snippets like five minutes, maybe ten minutes long that will be a part of YouTube and advertise them to the scattered Church. So that’s the next phase of what we’re going to do because we’ve already done various testing and so forth with the book in various languages, and I’m going to cut back almost to nothing on those because there is no point. No one is being called. No one is being called.

So I hope you understand what I’m saying. Back in 2007 and 2008 we put a lot of effort, a lot of focus and money into advertising because there was fruit being produced. God was calling people into the Church. God does the calling. We don’t. That’s why people can print a magazine, people can have a telecast, they can spend millions on telecasts, on radio, and unless God’s calling people into His Church there is really no point. Does that make sense? I hope it does. And basically, I have to strive to make some of those decisions and I’ll be honest with you, I don’t like making them, but I have to. I ask for help, for guidance in those things, in how to do it. Along the way God gives help and guidance. Sometimes I don’t see some of those things or know what’s happened until afterwards and I look back and think, okay, that was the answer. That’s what we have been doing and that’s why we have been doing it.

So I don’t mean to be just rattling, but I’m trying to share with you, as a Church, where I am coming from, what I am striving to do. And knowing that we’re at the door whether it’s a year or several years is immaterial, we continue to move forward.

I think of some articles here that I thought I would read just to show you we are at the door. I’ll tell you what, it boggles my mind (and I don’t want to give part of this away in some of the post that’s coming out), but I’ll tell you what, if you’ve watched the last couple of years, the news, those of you who especially have some, if you haven’t done it on your own perhaps someone has sent some of those things to you. But to see a change of what’s taken place as far as the way people are talking in various countries? Not so much the United States because most stuff here is about politics, politicians, and people’s opinions about politics and politicians. I mean, that’s the news. Every once in a while you get something else, but there is no soundness. Markets don’t respond in ways that they used to. And constantly, I don’t know if you’ve seen articles like this, but constantly economists are talking about “This reminds me...this looks like 2007, 2008 all over again, déjà vue,” one said here recently, “It’s like they’re seeing the same things take place except now it’s worse because it’s more inflated.”

Things that are happening the world, people aren’t hearing news of the world. There are a lot of people who don’t understand of what’s been taking place around the area of Kashmir between India and Pakistan. They don’t realize how close they’ve been coming to a really horrible conflict. But candidly, there are certain ones that fit into place in their time.

People don’t realize what’s taking place with Turkey. They don’t understand the danger of that. And they hear Erdogan, they don’t care. “Who’s Erdogan?” “What’s that?” They don’t even know the name, and yet that should be a mightily important name if people just understood what God has prophesied to take place with Turkey, that they betray Israel, speaking of Ephraim and Manasseh and the rest of the tribes of Israel. They’ve already done it. They’ve already done it. The betrayal of what they might do could be a whole lot worse before this is over with because they’re at a focal point of a lot of this. They’re right there in the middle of a lot of things, and that man has a particular mindset that is geared in a particular direction, and it’s not a pretty sight. He has ideas about an Ottoman Empire.

Then farther to the east and a little bit to the north you have another individual who wants back his empire, the U.S.S.R.. That’s his vision. That’s what he wants. He doesn’t like just having Russia. He wants the U.S.S.R. with all the other countries. And while you’re taking that sometimes people take more, or they have visions of taking more.

Things that are going on in China, people have no idea. People have no idea about the sabre rattling as a whole that’s taking place. Every once in a while you hear about a couple of ships that have gone into the South China Sea and how it’s upset China. Oh, you haven’t heard the half of it even if you’ve heard that. But most people in this United States, they don’t know about the South China Sea. “Well, where’s that?” There are some clues in there.

Anyway, different things that go on, things that are going on with Taiwan right now. People don’t know about that. They don’t realize that they’re running drills right now, preparation for a war with China because they’re afraid, because China is threatening them for what they’re doing militarily. Because to them, China, “That’s still ours. That’s us. And if you do this or that, you’re going to pay for it.” So people don’t know the kind of threats that are in this world, that exist out there. Incredible!

Here is an article: US Reportedly Warns EU Against Developing Own Arms Projects, Exposing NATO Rift[1]. See, there’s an attitude in Europe right now. A lot of it has bent toward a leader, President Trump, but on a broader scale it’s toward the United States because they feel that they’ve been bullied for a long, long time. The reality is in many ways they have been. But they see the bullying now in a bigger way. That’s how they feel and they don’t like it and they’re not going to take it, and only in the past year to make comments that their two enemies that they’re concerned about, the U.S.S.R. and the United States. Now, that blows my mind! I, candidly, didn’t think I would hear that, see that day. I thought they would do certain things in secret, in a particular time, but to be so open about their feelings and about their attitudes, that’s quite a thing you’re witnessing out here.

In this particular article it says here (I just wanted to read part of this): US President Donald Trump has consistently criticised NATO, urging member states to boost their defence spending and accusing them of taking advantage of the United States. He, however, has been "very insulted" by European President Emmanuel Macron's idea of creating a pan-European army to protect itself from China, Russia, and even the US, as they said recently. So again, there are attitudes out there and these things are important, because when people have a certain attitude and a certain thinking that’s why they do the things they do. They realize, they understand they live at a different time. They have never seen this country speak in the terms that it speaks, and they don’t like it.

I’m just going to read several things that have come out, and here are just some headlines in one week’s time.

US Sends More Warships, Patriot Missiles to Mideast Amid Escalation With Iran.[2]

Another one: Trump Pulls The Trigger: Begins Process Of Raising Tariffs On All Remaining $300 Billion China Imports[3] This kind of thinking is what leads into real war, and anybody who doesn’t understand that is not very bright. Sadly, there are a lot of people in this world who are not very bright, and yet history has told about these kinds of warnings and so forth and yet here it’s happening again.

Another one: U.S. warns merchant ships of possible Iranian attacks; cleric threatens U.S. fleet[4]

Another one: Iranian cleric threatens U.S. Navy fleet amid warning regime could target commercial ships[5]

US Policy in Middle East leaves Germany Nervous and Helpless.[6] The Americans, it says here, are currently escalating the conflict with Tehran with unpredictable consequences for their allies in Europe. In Berlin political circles worries are growing about the potential threat of war.

How do you think the Europeans are going to react, especially in Germany, if they think this is on the horizon? Do we grasp that this is how people are thinking? This is how their minds are thinking now, of what these prospects will mean because they know what it involves with them.

Another one here, the one that’s supposedly have been elected in Venezuela that the U.S. is backing, it says, Guaido Begs US Military To Help With Maduro Regime Change[7]

So again, all these little hotspots here and there and there and the world is in turmoil and when you put the whole picture together then it really is a scary picture.

Another one: Taiwan Breaks Ground On First Submarine Factory Amid Invasion Threats From China[8] Who hears things like that about Taiwan? There’s a lot more about those as well, but anyway.

Another one: Turkey Flexes In "Largest Ever" East-Med Naval Drills Amid Cypriot Oil & Gas Grab[9] They’re causing a lot of trouble with the Greeks, with Greece, down through that region of the world. There is oil now out in that part of the world and people want their portion. Turkey is flexing their muscles. They want in on it. Israel has theirs in a particular region as well. How many people know about that, that they have found that now in the Mediterranean, large reserves? If you ask the average person on the street they don’t know diddly squat. They don’t know what that means. I don’t even want to go into things Erdogan has been doing toward Greece. But anyway. There’s a war. There’s a war on the horizon and it’s just any time.

State Department orders non-emergency U.S. employees to leave Iraq amid Iran tensions[10]

Canada Dumps Most US Treasuries In 8 Years, China Resumes Selling[11] All these little things; they amount to something not so little.

Global Trade Collapsing To Depression Levels[12]

Another one: Merkel Says Postwar Order Over, Calls on Europe to Unite in Face of US[13] So this rhetoric that’s getting stronger and stronger about, especially now during their elections, things that are being said out there are really strong in Europe. But we don’t hear any of that in the United States.

Anyway, that was just in one week, minor articles here and there.

Another one here recently: Iran Says Uranium Enrichment Quadrupled, On Pace For Weapons-Grade Levels[14] They don’t care. They’re just going to do what they want to do. It says, It appears Iran is following through on its prior warnings issued to European leaders that it's ready to surpass enriched uranium production limits previously agreed to under the 2015 nuclear deal (JCPOA). News that Iran has "quadrupled its production of low-enriched uranium" comes as rhetoric between Tehran and Washington has reached new belligerent heights, with President Trump tweeting Sunday that US attack would be the "end" of Iran.

So how do people respond to such things? It’s like pushing someone in a corner, what do they do? Well, they push back a lot of times. If we could just learn to don’t push at a bear either. Anyway, we’re not too bright.

I don’t know if you’ve all been watching some of this but a lot of this rhetoric going on in the Middle East, especially in that particular area, it’s not a small thing.

Another one here: China Testing Long-Range Cruise Missile Fired From Concealed Ship Container[15] The repercussions of such things are mindboggling. How many ships come into the ports of United States cities from China? Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds, and hundreds of them at times just off the coast. They show a picture of it, just have it like a container like you see sometimes when they’re offloaded off of a ship and they put them on wheels, pulled away by a semi, those are the ones that they’ve developed. Out and coming in on a ship, they can bring them in on a ship, have a nuclear missile on them right off the coast. No way to react to it. What do you do? There’s no time.

I just want to read part of this: Could the next great Chinese advanced missile threat come disguised as an innocuous looking shipping transport vessel? A new report ... details China's new long-range cruise missile which can be launched directly from a shipping container device, which is meant to conceal detection of the threat right up until the moment of launch.

Alarmingly, it's already being flight tested, according to analysts cited in the report, which further finds the technology "could turn Beijing's large fleet of freighters into potential warships and commercial ports into future missile bases." And this is just one of so many things that they’re doing. There are so many things that Russia has right now and Putin openly talks about some of them. It’s mindboggling. Did you see the one about where he’s talked about, spoken of nuclear missile that can go off in the ocean, create a tsunami? Anybody heard about that? Three hundred feet high? We can’t comprehend such things and such thinking. Would people dare? People hear something like that and they say, “They would never do something like that. It would destroy millions upon millions of people on the coast.” You know, when an all out war breaks out and if somebody decides to pick on somebody as big as the U.S. is, it’s not something they’re going to do without thinking it through top to bottom.

Anyway, If cruise missiles can be hidden in international shipping containers, China could be a major threat to western targets simply as it moves millions of tons of goods every year. Goes on to say, A Russian previously unveiled a similar weapon system in the international arms market. Isn’t that amazing? You know what that means? It means other nations can buy it, because you’re showing it at an international arms market so it’s for sale. “Who wants to buy it?” It’s called the Club K cruise missile system. Launched out of ship containers. Crazy world we live in!

Another article: The Crash In US Economic Fundamentals Is Accelerating[16] This is week after week after week, warnings out here and people don’t care. It says here, The bottom line is, the next crash has already begun. It started at the end of 2018, and is only becoming more pervasive with each passing month.  This is not "doom and gloom".... this is simply the facts on the ground.  While stock markets are still holding (for now), the rest of the system is breaking down right on schedule. The question now is, when will the mainstream media and the Fed finally acknowledge this is happening?  I suspect, as in 2008, they will openly admit to the danger only when it is far too late for people to prepare for it.

Another one here: Erdogan And Putin Pledge Closer Military Ties In Moscow; S-400 Purchase A "Done Deal"[17] Meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Monday –this is an article from Tuesday, on the 9th of March. This is going back a ways, but just showing something that’s happened clear back then—Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan once again affirmed "everything is done" regarding Turkey's moving forward with its purchase of the Russian S-400 air defense system, despite persistent condemnations and threats from Washington. I mean, they’re a part of NATO. How could such a thing even be? It’s mindboggling that they’re even allowed to be a part, but they are.

Echoing similar statements of the past weeks in the face of US ultimatums related to blocking orders of Lockheed's F-35 stealth fighter, Erdogan said, “those who ask or suggest we backtrack don’t know us,” and told reporters further after meeting with Putin, “If we sign a deal on an issue, that’s a done deal. This is our sovereign right, no one can ask us to back down.” It appears the long running controversy will end in US defense planners' worst fears come true: in place of strained and worsening ties with Washington, Turkey is fast moving into Moscow's orbit.

Well, there is more here but on and on. I want to see if there was more here I wanted to read on part of this. I think not. That’s enough. But the point being is that so often we just don’t see what’s happening in the world around us. We need to be alert. Especially for us, that’s a part of watching. That’s a part of being alert. There are things we’re to watch as far as the world is concerned because when you see all these things together in one big package it ought to be more sobering to us, it ought to be something that motivates and moves us to be more on guard spiritually.

This is not a time to let down. This is not a time to pull back and yet that will still happen in God’s Church all the way to the end here. Some will choose to let down, to coast, to begin to whatever in their life. It’s always been that way, but as a whole, as I mentioned last Sabbath, I’ve never seen a time in God’s Church when people have been more united and stronger than they are right now, as a whole. But there are still some who try to get close to a fence, straddling the fence, and the reality is we can’t.

So hopefully, brethren, I just wanted to bring this out, to talk about this again, that the reality is we have to acknowledge, have to come to a point in time where we haven’t known the day or the hour. I’ve had to come to a point in time where I’ve come to see it more deeply for what it says. Though you think, “Well, that’s pretty plain, isn’t it,” well, it hasn’t been to me. I’ll just be candid with you. I can only teach what is really plain to me that I believe comes from God.

This is one thing He’s made abundantly clear – we do not know the day or the hour. We haven’t been given it. It hasn’t been given to the Son, which, like, duh, or else we would have it. Whatever is given to the Son is given to the Church. That’s what we need to understand and grasp, because that’s why it’s given to him.

So whatever God reveals and gives to the Son, to His Son, then he teaches, molds and fashions and gives those things to us as a part of the Church. That’s how government works. That’s how God works.

The big message for us is that no, we don’t know that, but we continue to move forward. We hold on to what God’s given to us and we do it with zeal because if you let down just because this hasn’t happened now...? Hang on, at some moment it will. It could be as early as Pentecost. What do I mean by that? I mean that at any time, including Pentecost, shortly after, this world could change drastically at any moment in time. We don’t know. It could be in less than a year that horrifying things begin to happen. We don’t know, and so we strive to move forward with all of our being to watch, to pray, to stay close to God.

[1] https://sputniknews.com/world/201905141074983252-us-warns-eu-defence-projects-consequences/

[2] https://sputniknews.com/middleeast/201905101074899860-US-Send-More-Patriot-Missiles-Middle-East-Iran-Fears/

[3] https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-05-10/trump-pulls-trigger-begins-process-raising-tariffs-all-remaining-300-billion-china

[4] https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-iran-guards/us-warns-merchant-ships-of-possible-iranian-attacks-cleric-threatens-us-fleet-idUSKCN1SG0PX

[5] https://www.foxnews.com/world/iranian-cleric-threatens-u-s-navy-fleet

[6] https://www.spiegel.de/international/world/u-s-policy-in-middle-east-leaves-germany-nervous-and-helpless-a-1266777.html

[7] https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-05-12/guaido-begs-us-military-help-maduro-regime-change

[8] https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-05-12/taiwan-breaks-ground-first-submarine-factory-amid-invasion-threats-china

[9] https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-05-13/turkey-flexes-largest-eastmed-military-drill-amid-cypriot-oil-gas-grab

[10] https://www.cnn.com/2019/05/15/politics/state-department-iraq-travel/index.html

[11] https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-05-15/canada-dumps-most-us-treasuries-8-years-china-resumes-selling

[12] https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-05-15/global-trade-collapsing-depression-levels

[13] https://sputniknews.com/europe/201905161075052110-germany-us-rival-merkel/

[14] https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-05-20/iran-media-says-uranium-enrichment-quadrupled-pace-weapons-grade-levels

[15] https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-03-28/china-testing-long-range-cruise-missile-fired-concealed-ship-container

[16] https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-05-04/crash-us-economic-fundamentals-accelerating

[17] https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-04-08/erdogan-and-putin-pledge-deepened-military-ties-meeting-despite-us-threats

1. Chapter 1

2. Footnotes