This Is The Truth, Pt. 1

Ron Weinland

August 3, 2019

Last week I determined that we’d conclude the series entitled What is Truth. There really wasn’t a point in continuing on through what was written by Mr. Armstrong, in that respect. The major points that I wanted to make in that sermon, that we needed to make in that sermon, had been made. After that, again, decided that what would really be good – kind of hit me – we ought to go through the other part of this. So basically, the sermon is entitled today, This Is The Truth.

So we’re going to go through the truths, some of the truths, the ones since the time of Philadelphia. I thought it would be good to touch on each one of those, mention them in one form or another, go into some of them a little bit more because our history is awesome to understand. It’s one thing for those who experienced it after the Apostasy, leading up to the Apostasy and afterwards, but again, it’s good to go back for those who never experienced any of that to be able to hopefully try get a bit of a feel, a better feel for what we really went through in the Church because it’s a unique thing, our history is, and some of the things we experienced because of the truths coming along they may not mean the same to some of you, but at the time because of what was happening they were incredible, what we experienced and what we went through. That’ll come out more as we go through the sermon.

Again, that’s why I love the expression “the present truth” because we grow, the Church grows, the Church changes in things that are there as far as being able to see truth in a greater light. I’m always amazed when I think about that, going back the first 4,000 years there wasn’t really a lot there as far as what people understood about God’s plan and God’s purpose. They primarily focused upon a desire that they had of seeing a Messiah, seeing one that God would send. That’s been since the time of the beginning of creation that God has made sure that that message has been out there, that there is more, that God exists and He revealed Himself to a few people then through time, but very few, in that respect, until we come up to the time of Israel, and then that was done on a physical plane and not a spiritual one.

So even for them the history is written there as to how they received Him, which wasn’t good, because we’re carnal human beings. We’re selfish by nature and that selfishness really came out in them. If you’ve seen that part of the world you know that where they were wandering and where they were that forty years wasn’t good. It was pretty tough. You couldn’t just go out and plant crops. You couldn’t just go out and have livestock and so forth the way we do in the States here or different parts of the world where people have more rain and the like. But they didn’t have it there. It’s a dry, dry, dry, dry area. That’s why they were murmuring and complaining about water. There wasn’t any water, so the miracle that was done there even in providing them with water is recorded.

So again, incredible history. Then we go up through time and prophets were given various things to write. We have things recorded in scripture. Israel had a beginning. Incredible, the life of David and the things that God gave to him, because He gave him more than anyone else, in that respect knowledge or at least inspiration to write various things about a Messiah. You read through so many of the Psalms it’s about God’s plan, it’s about a Messiah, it’s about what God is going to do for mankind, and yet people don’t really understand those things until they receive a calling, until they’re able to receive help from God and God’s spirit to illuminate those things, to magnify those things so that they’re understood for what is written.

I marvel at how there were things that didn’t come along and really weren’t understood. I think about David, what he had to say in Acts 3 – it’s recorded in 3, he didn’t say it there. But it’s recorded there in Acts 3 and not understood by the Church as a whole, and yet it’s a very strong testament, if you will, a very strong message there about who Yahweh was, who the Messiah was, and that the prophecies that were written there that were taken by so many to be about (and the Jews especially), David. It wasn’t about David. It wasn’t about a relationship between God and David. It was about a relationship between God Almighty and His Son.

Those things began to be revealed after Christ had been resurrected and given to the Church. So it was given to the Church from the very beginning. So again, to me our history is fascinating, things we’ve gone through, but present truth means a lot as you go through that because there were things given on Pentecost that were never known...never known, never understood, and obviously, couldn’t be anyway because God was working with individuals. He wasn’t working with an organized group of people like a church. But that was the beginning of the Church on 31 A.D., on Pentecost, and so a process began and truth began to be established even more so because things the disciples didn’t even know, on Pentecost they began to understand them. God began to pour out His spirit upon them and they began to preach and teach things that were finally clicking for them. Even before that they didn’t see it yet, they didn’t grasp it all. Now, finally, it was coming together for them because God was pouring out His spirit upon them so they could perceive and understand it and receive it.

So again here, to understand certain things like that requires God’s holy spirit. So we’re going to start with #22. Again, there were 21 the Church had by the time of the death of Mr. Armstrong, and after that period of time they weren’t held on to really well at all and they began to become watered down by some, by some in the ministry, and people became weaker and weaker. The Church became weaker and weaker during that period of Laodicea.

So, the first one that we have written here for this particular period of time, for the Church after the Apostasy was this: 22 (1) There has been an apostasy that is unprecedented in the Church of God as prophesied in 2 Thessalonians 2:1-3.

Now, for those of you called later this doesn’t have the same impact as what it did upon us, candidly, when it happened because we didn’t grasp fully what had happened. It was a nightmare for the Church. For those who wanted to hold on to what God had given to them it was difficult because it would come in the mind, “How could this be the Church of God?” We had already seen, we were seeing already that people by the droves were leaving and not desiring anything as far as religion was concerned. It blew their minds, if you will, that if this happened in God’s Church, what they had believed was God’s Church all this time, they knew that the Sabbath day, they felt that as a whole was correct, they knew that Easter and Christmas were wrong, so where is God? If this happened to God’s Church it’s like, what is there? And so they just gave up. Nearly a third of all the Church just gave up and any belief system they had was gone.

What wasn’t grasped at that point in time was they had gotten to the point they were asleep, spiritually weak. The whole Church did. The whole Church came to that point (which is covered later here). And so being in that condition, weak in God’s spirit, you’re not able to grasp what is really taking place and so you can only rely upon what is in your mind that you’ve learned, candidly, on a physical plane, not with God’s spirit any longer. It shouldn’t be a shock or a surprise that that happened to people, that they just quit, they didn’t have anything to hold on to because they had certain things they believed and knew and now it’s like, oh well, go on about life then.

Then the real tough one is to realize a third grabbed a hold of what was given through Mr. Tkach, grabbed a hold of the lies, the deception. And you think, how in the world can people begin to turn back to the very things that God had called them out of, things that should be so simple, that Christ wasn’t born anywhere near December 25th, but people, you know, people went back to that, they gravitated back to that. “Oh, but it’s a nice time for families to get together. It’s a nice time to give out presents to your children and it’s family time,” and so people gravitated back to that. And you think, how could that be after you experienced ten, twenty, thirty, forty years in God’s Church, and then go back to that? Powerful. That’s why some scriptures we’ll read later on explain part of that and show part of that, how powerful some of those things can be without God’s spirit, without being wide awake spiritually.

If we don’t watch and aren’t on guard that’s a dangerous space to be in because you can lose what God has given to you. If nothing else is learned through the Apostasy that should be learned powerfully so, you can lose what you have, what God gives to you, and it’s not that hard to lose it. If you let down, if you let up, if you’re not on guard spiritually, if you don’t desire and want this with all of your being, with all of your might it’ll go by the wayside.

Then there were a third scattered not knowing what had happened. We started, speaking of what happened in Toledo, didn’t know what to do, didn’t know where to go so we tried to establish that which people could at least receive that had been taught before, that we had learned from Mr. Armstrong, through Mr. Armstrong as God’s apostle. As time went along God began to give us more and more. But we didn’t know what to do. We didn’t really know fully what had happened. Apostasy? Didn’t know that yet. Had suspicions that something of that magnitude has taken place, but you think, “Well, how couldn’t you...? Why can’t that...? Why couldn’t that be so clear? Why couldn’t you just say immediately, ‘There’s been an apostasy?’” You didn’t live through it. If you lived through it you’d understand. We were weak. We were asleep as a people, as far as Laodicea was concerned and what had happened and the apostasies that took place.

So to experience that, to live it was unique to those who experienced it. So what do you do? Well, eventually we were crying out to different ones that were in the leadership of God’s Church, in contact with them on the phone. A lot of time was spent on the telephone, “What was happening?” and “What was taking place?” and phone bills back then, because you had to pay long distance in a way that  we don’t have to worry about today, but back then $400, $500, $600, $700 phone bills in a month was not uncommon in the ministry because people were trying to talk to each other, to get something moving and trying to talk to different ones out there, “We’re waiting on you to do something. What are you going to do? We need to get together!”

I remember, looking back now, there was a group out of Houston that was talking about coming together, some ministers and so forth, and we wanted to come together because we knew they were that same mind. We wanted to hold on to what was true. And yet those that were out in Pasadena, out in California, weren’t doing anything! It wasn’t until some had agreed to come together down in Houston that all of a sudden, I think it was the next week, a meeting was organized in Indianapolis, Indiana. Okay?! Now it was going to be bigger because now – How do I say this? – a bunch of them “got off the pot” (that’s the way I express it), and decided, “We better do something or something else is going to get organized!” Already politics was coming in. “We want to get something organized because they’re going to organize something different and a bunch of people are going to go over there.”

So it was a mess, because the Apostasy was a nightmare to God’s Church, in that respect, and to live it... to live it... There are things molded and fashioned into every one of you who lived that that you would never have received if it wasn’t for experiencing what you have experienced. What you have is a treasure because there are things molded and fashioned in the mind that will never be taken away. As long as one stays close to God it’ll always be there, very powerfully so, that God can mold and fashion in peoples’ minds that couldn’t be molded and fashioned in any other way.

So again, that’s why I mention so often God is preparing people for different functions, for different jobs, for different places within the Temple. To experience that, there is a place that is unique. Because others through time have experienced things that are unique to them that I’ve never experienced, that you’ve never experienced. We’re all different in the Body in that respect, and God places us where He wants to place us. Awesome to understand that.

So we came together and an organization got started. But there was this desire to have what we had before. Some thought we ought to buy Big Sandy back, all the money that was coming in to this one, the largest organization out of all the organizations that came together. Eventually there were over 600 organizations that came out of the scattering of the Church. People had different ideas and some were very, very small, just a few in hand, others that are about, four or five that were larger. The largest of them, it was like, “We need to buy it.” There was this kind of debate within the Church, within/amongst ministers, “We need to buy Big Sandy because we can’t let someone else have that and we need to keep that.” You think, it’s a physical place. We are scattered. We are hurting. What about the people? What about God’s people?

Then there is the desire to have a magazine. So some had already organized earlier, two in particular, one of the larger organizations they already had a telecast, they already had a magazine. It was to duplicate what Mr. Armstrong had done. We didn’t grasp yet what Mr. Armstrong did was over; the gospel going into all the world had been finished. So some, I guess, had to learn the hard way, and some never did learn, the majority.

So anyway, we’ve learned things through this process. So when I read something like this I am struck by the fact that there are a lot of people in God’s Church today that don’t grasp the impact of what that had on people’s lives. It’s powerful, the truths you have, the truths you’re blessed to have. You see there is a group of people out here in the thousands, tens of thousands, who don’t know this, who lived it, who experienced it, who are in some of these organizations. I don’t know how many exist anymore, whether there is 600 or 400 or 300 that are still have some semblance maybe of the past on a physical plane of the truths that existed. But as time has gone on those things have become worse and worse in the sense of what people have held on to, watered down massively so.

There has been an apostasy that is unprecedented in the Church of God as prophesied in 2 Thessalonians 2:1-3. The context of 2 Thessalonians 2 is for the end-time, before the return of [and I’m going to read these as they are] Joshua the Christ, and was not for the time period of the early apostles. The word “apostasy” means “to forsake and depart,” and in this apostasy there was a forsaking and falling away from the truth God had given to His Church. Never before had this happened within the top leadership of the Church of God. Never had taken place. This was massive because of the size of the Church at this particular time.

Never before had there been such a large departure from the truth by the membership of the Church. There have always been rumbles through time and ripples through time, just like in the process of what we know, “Many have been called; few have been chosen.” So the vast majority of people who have ever been called and given an opportunity haven’t been able to continue forward with it so at different times different ones fell away. It was happening in the time of John. John wrote a lot about it. Paul talked about it, of what was taking place. John wrote more because by his time, by the time he wrote all the rest of the apostles had been killed, put to death. Paul had been put to death. They’d all died except John. John was the only one, and so he was still alive and so he wrote some of these things of what was taking place already in the Church by that time. Awesome, the history of the Church and what was taking place toward the end of Ephesus, the era of Ephesus, if you will, the Ephesians Church. Maybe that’s a better way of saying it, the Ephesian era.

So again here, going on: This had to happen before the unfolding of end-time events that would lead to the return of Joshua the Christ. Many of the scattered Church do not yet believe that the Apostasy has happened... See, most in God’s Church, obviously in PKG, are well aware of it. It’s just like when you were called, whatever year that was, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2010, whenever it was and you be able to join in and be a part of a group, that you never experienced the Apostasy but you see those things and you’ve read about them and you can read this, it has an impact. But wow, what an incredible thing to understand, that there are so many in the past, tens of thousands who can’t acknowledge this one basic thing: Why are they scattered? You would think even physically, on a physical plane you’d be able to ask the question, “What happened to us?” Because people know that a third just quit. People understand that. They don’t maybe know the exact third or the exact number there but they know approximately that a third went back into what they had believed before. They know that there are large numbers here scattered all over the place.

But to deny an apostasy? To not be able to say, “This is what’s happened to us, this is why we only have 7,000 in this group, 15,000 in this group, 300, 400 in this group. What happened?”

So again: Many in the scattered Church do not yet believe that this apostasy has happened and so by implication, they believe they must grow much larger than what Worldwide was in order to fulfill this prophecy. Because they don’t believe that a falling away occurred. There is this belief that still is a part of the thinking that there has to be at least 144,000 baptized members because of what it says in Revelation, because they don’t understand what that means now. So if you only have 15,000 people and you’re not growing how long is it going to be before you ever have 144,000 in the Church who are baptized. That didn’t even exist in Mr. Armstrong’s time. That didn’t exist during the period of Laodicea at any time. There were only 97,000 approximately baptized members in the Church at its height.

If you’re waiting for 144,000, for the end-time to come, how far away is that? That’s why one individual, I think he was an evangelist, the one that came to talk to me that time in Detroit when things got a little muddy, he was an evangelist. I think he was ordained as an evangelist. Anyway, he began to basically talk about how that things couldn’t happen for another twenty-five years or maybe a lot longer. Incredible, again, what we’ve gone through, an apostasy. It did happen in God’s Church.

23 (2) The Man of Sin has been revealed to be Joseph Tkach, Sr., who initiated the end-time apostasy. In time that became very clear. We not only had an apostasy – to have an apostasy you have to have the man of sin, because it’s all in 2 Thessalonians.

Mr. Tkach tried to change the law of God, and his actions led to great destruction within the Church. Johnny and Myrtle were sitting there in Atlanta when it happened, because you see, that’s where it first happened. Then later on a contrived video came out that took up some that was said in Big Sandy, and I think some that was said in Pasadena, but for sure in Big Sandy, of what had been said in Atlanta, basically teaching that the holy days of God are done away with, in that respect. You can worship God on any day of the week, it doesn’t just have to be the seventh day. So here we go... “It’s okay to eat clean and unclean meats. They’ve been cleansed by God. We understand, you know.” So just right back to the Protestant world, of what we came out of. Mindboggling what came out in that particular sermon.

Now, he came prepared that day to give a different sermon, but because of some things that were going on already in Atlanta, because the minister there had already been teaching, if I remember my history here, for about two years already these things in the church, in Atlanta, already teaching some of these things here and there, that Mr. Tkach went there. They weren’t prepared. They were still preparing to do all this but not that quickly.

That’s a marvel to me, because, you see, knowing some of these stories and what took place it becomes very evident that God had a timing and a plan of something He was going to work out, okay? He was moved to give that sermon on that particular day because of certain kind of challenge, if you will, that came forward, and decided that he was going to give it then. Now, see, they had literature that came out a little bit later behind all this to back some of these things up, but they weren’t ready, so they had to do this quickly and some of it was quite sloppy.

Now, the one on tithing it was like it didn’t take too long and they rethought that one. I’m sorry, but that just blows my mind. Tithing, the thing the Sardis Church still had. They understood the need to obey God’s law about tithing and the importance in order to be fed, in order for the Church to be cared for, that God provided that system for the Levitical system in the Old Testament, and He provided it for the Church, obviously, to be taken care of. When individuals came along and Mr. Tkach as well there, “It’s not required anymore,” something happened. People quit and because they quit how are we going to function? So they basically came out and said, “We were a little hasty on that.” I can’t help but get the chuckle again, but human nature is really sick. So that one was required then when it was all said and done. “We have to revisit... That is required.” You just did away with the Sabbath, the holy days of God, and so many other things, and that one stays?

People went out immediately. They were so excited to be able to go out and have shrimp again and lobster and pork and didn’t waste any time of doing it and flaunting it and letting people know, “I’m free! I’m free!” What are you free from? Sick. It’s a matter of obeying God. Basic things.

Mr. Tkach tried to change the law of God. How do you think God received that? That’s why it’s written the way it is in 2 Thessalonians. It was prophesied through Paul that this was going to take place. God gave to him, Christ gave to him what was to be given to the Church and so it’s recorded there in 2 Thessalonians 2 of what would come to pass in time, a man of sin, a son of perdition, worse, worse by far than what Judas Iscariot did.

Mr. Tkach tried to change the law of God, and his actions led to great destruction within the Church. By changing the law of God, he exalted himself above God. That’s what spiritual idolatry is. Whenever you sin you’re raising up something above what God has told you so it becomes more important to you. It’s as a god. That’s why I made comments in times past that just something simple like smoking, you know, told it’s not right to do within the Body, it’s not love toward others. It’s a very simple, small, basic physical thing in life but it’s amazing how many people have had battles with those kinds of things. It just goes to show there how difficult certain things and pulls in this world can be and to overcome various things.

So again, any time people sin, whatever it is, whatever it is you’re doing, you’re raising that up in importance, that you can do that and disobey God. So who does that make a person? As God, greater than God, because you’ve said that what you can do that God says you shouldn’t do, that that’s okay, then that is the height of idolatry, spiritual idolatry.

By changing the law of God, he exalted himself above God. That’s what it talks about in 2 Thessalonians there. That’s what it’s discussing. The word “sit” in 2 Thessalonians 2:4 means “to be given authority.” To sit in the temple of God as though he is God? It’s authority. It’s power. He was given a place within the Church of God, of authority. That was passed along to him from Mr. Armstrong at his death. Not an apostle, but he had authority that was given to him, responsibility to care for, to nurture the Church, and to continue on with what the Church had been given to that point in time. Laodicea began, the beginning of Laodicea. In the beginning he did that fairly faithfully, if you will, if you want to look at it on a physical plane, and spiritual plane, too, candidly. Then a few years went by and jealousy began to creep in and some other things began to creep in and things began to change, spirit began to change, became more and more aware, especially in looking back.

Mr. Tkach was given authority in the Church to be its physical head under Joshua the Christ, and shortly afterward he turned against God. Joseph Tkach, Sr. died 40 weeks to the very hour that he delivered his sermon of apostasy... It’s amazing the arguments people get into, what they say. The reality is where he was, in his time zone, it did happen that way in his life. His life came to a screeching halt. That’s where he lived. He did it in another area at a certain time so people want to gripe and complain and quibble over little petty things sometimes and not accept what’s right in front of them.

Even if it wasn’t to the hour, to the day, 280 days later, ought to be a dumbfounding thing in people’s minds. Seven, completeness, the Sabbath, the holy days. You think of what God uses seven for and then to understand that forty is a number... forty years in the wilderness after what they did, the spies, in that period of time there, and so what God had done, what God did to them at different times through history, if you look at that number there it’s about trial, it’s about judgment, if you will, God’s, and to understand then because of what Mr. Tkach said, the Sabbath day is done away with, seven times forty, you think, “How incredible!” God took care of it because He said He was going to, prophetically.

So again here, Joseph Tkach, Sr. died 40 weeks to the very hour he delivered his sermon of apostasy which was a sign to God’s Church that Joshua the Christ was now coming and that final end-time events had occurred because what is stated in 2 Thessalonians is powerful.

24 (3) The “temple” in Matthew 24... Now, I want to go back and revisit 23 a little bit because, you know, when I first started to do that it’s like, “You’re going to say someone is the man of sin, the son of perdition? That’s not a small thing.” Within the Church we’d gotten to a point where it was like you couldn’t mention anyone’s name who had ever done anything wrong, and yet it’s done in the New Testament. Paul did it at different times. He warned people of different ones who had gone astray, some in the ministry who had gone astray in some of the things they had done and mentioned them by name because for the Church it’s a protection of the Church, and yet it was like we came to a point in time where you couldn’t mention someone’s name of something that was done in a bad way as a matter of sin. Well, there is a big difference between speaking about someone in God’s Church and another thing in the sense of gossip or in the sense of tearing them down or whatever it might be and to make a distinction with that of protecting the Church, there’s a night and day difference. But the Church had become so wishy-washy in some of this stuff that to mention someone’s name like this wasn’t looked upon very good. Got a lot of criticism, a lot of condemnation for that from different ones in different groups and so forth, and different ones in the ministry, “How could you mention someone’s name like that?”

Well, in time I was able to mention some of their names, too, as a warning to God’s Church, beware, be careful. Like Dr. Hoeh and some of the garbage he taught about 14/15 Passover, because people need to know the name to know what to beware of. They need to know the name of the ones responsible for some of the garbage and some of the evil that went out through God’s Church and destroyed — and God calls it in the Old Testament, killing them, blood spilled to the earth because, candidly, those things are worse than a physical life. Do we grasp and understand that God can resurrect anyone again to physical life if they die physically? But if you begin to destroy a spiritual life? If you’re responsible for hurting someone spiritually and hurting their spirit before God is finished molding and fashioning them, if someone is responsible for doing those kinds of things, how do you think God takes that? Do you think one is worse than the other then? That which is done physically or that which is done spiritually to someone? Because if you hurt the spirit, if you get to a point in time where you can be responsible for leading someone astray in the sense of what can happen to the spirit in a person, the mind, that’s far, far worse.

So anyway, continuing on we’ll go on to 24 (3). The “temple” in Matthew 24, 2 Thessalonians 2, and in many other prophecies, is about the Church of God. You think, well, that’s simple. If you came along later on after the Apostasy that’s a simple thing. Sure, obviously it is. But you didn’t live through it. That’s why it should be more profound to you when you read these things to understand the history and how important this is to God’s Church. Because, you see, when Mr. Armstrong came back from the time he had his heart attack and his health problems and he talked about putting the Church back on the right track in the late 70’s there on into the 80’s until he died, that was his constant focus, putting the Church on the right track, because he saw a trend of something taking place in the Church. The Church had a tendency to become weak and he was concerned about Laodicea and that spirit of being lukewarm. He preached powerfully against it and it was given to him to tell the Church, the temple. The Church hadn’t known this. He finally came to that point where God gave it to him to give to the Church the temple is the Church. The temple is about the Church of God. The temple is about what God is building, Mount Zion, and on it goes.

Now, before that we didn’t have that truth, in that respect, as strong and as pronounced as it was. That’s why it could be written as one of the truths, could be 19. Hey, there are a lot of things that are there in the period of time that could be written as a truth, but the reality is there are certain things that we look to that can give strength and help to the Church, and that’s what it’s about.

So again, it’s amazing by the time we got into Laodicea and the administration of Mr. Tkach, the Church began to lose that and the ministry began to lose that and began to go back and think about a physical temple, that certain prophecies were about a physical temple. The abomination of desolation was about a physical temple; it couldn’t be seen as a spiritual one. There are different groups out here, different ones that teach, because of the past, that the abomination of desolation is like what Antiochus Epiphanies did when he offered a pig (swine) upon the altar of God. So there is this concept, this idea that the temple may not get rebuilt, the physical one, because they can’t see a spiritual one! And yet Mr. Armstrong said it’s a spiritual one.

Now, these things are profound and these are awesome truths that you are blessed to grasp and comprehend. Because it’s not confusing to you, the spiritual temple, but there are tens of thousands who have been in God’s Church or were in God’s Church before the Apostasy, been in it a lot longer than what you have been, a lot longer, and did so faithfully until they started becoming weak. What a warning to go out to God’s Church, what can happen to God’s people. Because many in PKG have gone astray as well, became weak. Always important to be on guard, to be watchful, to be spiritually watchful.

The Church began to lose sight of this and so it couldn’t piece these things together, what had happened to the temple, what happened to God’s Church. When God blessed us to grasp and comprehend we’ve had an apostasy He blessed us to see that everything else began to fit into place. That’s how it worked. He began to show us what happened to the Church. This is how this could happen to God’s Church – you did it! We, as God’s people did it. We were guilty of letting down, of becoming lukewarm, and God allowed it to happen for a purpose, so that these things could be recorded, so it could be a witness through all time.

These are some of the greatest lessons. The end of 6,000 years contains some of the greatest lessons that will ever be able to be taught on a spiritual plane to people during the Millennium and the Great White Throne. Some of the greatest because here is where it finally all comes together.

So again, The “temple” in Matthew 24, 2 Thessalonians 2, and in many other prophecies, is about the Church of God. The Man of Sin, who “sat in the temple of God...” So what would anyone be looking for when it says in 2 Thessalonians that this man of sin, the son of perdition would sit in the temple of God? We had one evangelist not too many years ago before he died spoke of the fact of how different ones in his group and certain ministers had come to the conclusion that at least an altar has to be built. Maybe not the temple but there has to be an altar. Why? So the same thing that happened during the time of Antiochus Epiphanies could happen again, so that someone could come along and offer a pig upon the altar in order to have an abomination of desolation. But the abomination of desolation is what happened to God’s Church, see! And that’s awesome that you understand, that you know that! Truth? Yes, this is the truth that God has blessed us to have in the end-time. This doesn’t change. Nothing here can change. This is absolute. This is what we experienced as God’s people. Awesome!

So again here, The Man of Sin, who “sat in the temple of God” was Joseph Tkach, Sr., who sat in authority in the Church of God. As taught by Mr. Armstrong before his death, only God's presence makes anything holy... See, that’s something that Mr. Armstrong made clear. I’m going to read the rest of this: and a physical temple built by the Jews today could not be holy because they are not God's people spiritually. Mr. Armstrong began to address some of that before his death, about a temple, that it’s about the Church. Made it clear the Jews couldn’t build a temple. How could a temple be built? How could an altar be built? How could it be holy unless it’s consecrated because God gives a process. What would it be, a Levitical system? That’s been done away with. Hebrews makes it clear the Levitical system was done away with. They can’t build a physical temple.

Every once in a while, you hear some of these different groups in the Protestant world talking about how there’s this stone being cut out that’s going to be brought in. Ever since I’ve been in God’s Church there’s somebody that’s going to rebuild the temple. There are people in the Protestant world who think that a temple has to be rebuilt. Well, there are people in the scattered Church of God who think that some parts of it have to be, a foundation has to be established or something or at least an altar has to be brought in so that these things can be fulfilled so that Christ can come. No, they don’t know the Church. They don’t know the temple is about God’s people, about God’s Church.

So again here, Mr. Armstrong made this very clear. God’s presence is the only thing that can make something holy and if some came together and said they were Levites, and maybe could even prove their heritage, which some can, or of the Jewish belief, and they started building something and had an altar and so forth, it’s not holy. That stopped a long time ago. Incredible that people could believe those kinds of things. I’m talking about people in a scattered body, but that’s what can happen in the mind when you go to sleep spiritually.

So he made it very clear a physical temple built by the Jews today could not be holy because they are not God’s people spiritually. Mr. Armstrong made that clear before he died. God gave that to him to make clear. Why? Who so late in the game to make that clear? Easier to lose. Easier for things to be fulfilled about the temple. Easier for a scattering to take place, for prophecy to be fulfilled. God chooses to give what He will when He wants for purpose, by design. It’s not by accident. Everything that happened, has happened in the past 2,000 years in God’s Church, what He’s allowed and why certain things have taken place the way they have is because He’s been molding and fashioning people to go through various experiences in life to be placed in the temple in specific areas to accomplish and fulfill an awesome work when it comes together, when God’s Family comes together at Christ’s return, the first phase of it.

25 (4) The Abomination of Desolation is about what Joseph Tkach did in the Church. See, these just fall into place. That’s how God blessed us to begin to see these things. When you can see one then the other one came because then God used that to illuminate, to magnify, to reveal what the others were about and they just started falling into place. Awesome!

The Abomination of Desolation is about what Joseph Tkach did in the Church. This “abomination of desolation...” What’s worse? A pig getting cut and his blood spilling out upon a physical altar that had nothing to do with the forgiveness of sin that Christ fulfilled in his life as our Passover? Those were physical things to work with people in basic things about a certain structure of something on a physical plane. God’s spirit was not in it with the people of Israel. They didn’t have access to God’s spirit. The Church has and those who were called out, called by God in the first 4,000 years that we know of in scripture when you can read about them, people like Moses and David, and on and on it goes, the prophets and so forth, and God speaks of different ones that He worked with individually. Not a lot of people in the first 4,000 years. Then a Church started – hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people in the beginning began to be drawn into God’s Church, began to be called into God’s Church, and then in the thousands. Awesome, what God did.

Again here, it’s about the Church. The Abomination of Desolation is about what Joseph Tkach did in the Church. This “abomination of desolation” began within the Church as a result of this... Oh, I was going to ask— sorry, interrupted myself, my own flow. So what is worse, that pig getting slaughtered up on a physical altar that taught things on a physical plane that we can grasp now on a spiritual plane because it’s all about something spiritual? It’s all about what God is building spiritually. Then put that together with something, an abomination of desolation within God’s family, in the Church of God with people who have God’s spirit dwelling within them. What abomination of desolation is more important to God? There is no comparison. A pig on an altar, okay, we can learn from that. But that doesn’t equate at all with God’s own people who are begotten of His holy spirit, of His presence, His being, and their lives, far more important than a pigs.

This “abomination of desolation” began within the Church as a result of the sermon he gave in Atlanta on December 17, 1994, when he changed the laws of God. This was an attempt to defile and to destroy the “temple of God.” Satan was behind it. Satan was the one responsible. If you want to look at someone who was at the top of all this, it was him. Others were pawns and they gave into physical things and physical pulls, separated from the spirit of God and the life they otherwise could have had.

Matthew 24:14—And this gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come. I still marvel, because I think it’s exciting, it’s inspiring, it’s astounding to know that whenever Mr. Armstrong read about this he always stopped there. He did not proceed to the next verse and he basically made comment how that this was his commission, “and the gospel...” He knew it, that he was called to that purpose.

The Plain Truth magazine, incredible the numbers of magazines in all the languages in which it was written. Awesome! So what were the numbers per month on some of that? Around 8 million a month. 8 million magazines a month. I mean, for a religious organization to be able to do that, and that massively, is incredible. No other organization came close to anything like that, something that was produced month by month given into the world, The Plain Truth. Then all the other magazines as well that came out as a result, Good News magazine that was out for the Church and others who wanted to go farther into what they were seeing in The Plain Truth.

Then all the other publications, published in all the world. The radio, the use of the radio. Incredible! All the stations around the world and even in the early days in the pirate ships, in what they call the pirate ships off of Great Britain because they had certain control of things and they wouldn’t allow anything, so there were established pirate stations that were broadcasting into Great Britain. They couldn’t stop it because the technology was there. Mr. Armstrong used that, and all of a sudden, the truth starting going into Europe and God started raising up Churches in Europe. Awesome, what took place. Then television came along. More than any other religious organization, and some more than a bunch of them even put together, of what a small group of people around the world were doing through the leadership of Mr. Armstrong. Incredible what took place. To experience that, awesome! I’m so glad I had that experience to witness and see what took place.

So did the world take note, that they’re the largest organization that’s doing this in the world? No, they tried to fight against it and tear it down and everything else and published against it because it was a threat to them. The truth was a threat. The threat of, the reality of the truth about three days and three nights and the proof that Christ, who Joshua really was, that that was the proof that he was the Messiah, three days and three nights in the earth. Others then that come along and had this idea that, oh, he died on Friday and he was resurrected on a Sunday morning, and it destroyed the very thing that was the proof that God said he was the Messiah...what he himself said, that he was going to be in the heart of the earth three days and three nights. And you know what? This became such a threat to some organizations that one person finally, one of the preachers out there who was very large, became very large as an organization himself acknowledged it, that it was true, that they had it wrong. Wow! That was a big one for someone in a carnal, physical world, because they were being threatened.

Well, that’s the very reason that the Jewish people and the leaders at that time wanted to kill Christ, because he was a threat to them. What he was teaching, what he was showing, the truth from God was not what they were teaching. People were listening and people were being moved, and then the miracles that were being accomplished and the healings of things that were taking place, it was a threat to them, so much so that’s why they wanted to kill them. It makes it very clear in scripture that’s why they wanted to put him to death and finally did. They hated him with all their being. Incredible, what’s taken place through time. God’s way, God’s truth always hated by carnal human nature until God begins to draw and begins to open the mind.

So again, And this gospel...shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come. So it continued into Laodicea. Not as strong, got weaker and weaker, but it was still going on, still going out there, though it was finished at Mr. Armstrong’s death because that was the beginning of the end; Laodicea was the beginning of the end. It was the last era of God’s Church. The end did finally come for God’s people, for God’s Church, and it was marked by Laodicea, a Church that would be lukewarm, not zealous toward God, not on fire toward God in any fashion or form, but become weaker and weaker until it fully fell asleep so that the Apostasy could occur and do the kind of damage and destruction that it did. So God allowed human beings to go their natural, carnal, physical course in life.

Verse 15—Therefore, when you shall see the abomination of desolation... So Christ was speaking here and telling about the end-time. Chapter 24 is about the end-time. The disciples asked him, “When will this time... When is this going to happen?” They wanted to know. They didn’t understand what he was getting ready to go through, he was getting ready to die, be in the earth for three days and three nights, be resurrected. They didn’t know those things. They didn’t grasp what he was saying. They wanted to know when the time of this establishment of God’s Kingdom would be, and so Christ told them in these verses here through Chapter 24. Awesome chapter!

So he led up all the way to the point in time here going through the eras of God’s Church, up through Philadelphia. They didn’t know about the eras of God’s Church! John hadn’t even written them yet! Hadn’t been recorded. They didn’t know anything about eras and that time was going to go on for as long as it would.

So again here, “this gospel...will be preached in all the world as a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come.” So that’s why you go through and read what we were reading, what I was reading last week, read the whole story of what Mr. Armstrong was feeling back in 1972. He didn’t know to what extent because he believed by that point in time that there were things that could be definitely stated, yes, it’s gone there now because of these nations and different things that had happened. He’d already been invited in to speak before, even in China, you know, in the great hall. Nobody has been asked to go in there, religious leader. I mean, what happened was profound! He was able to go in there and speak, and it was making it very clear it was up to the government. Because of the system that they had you couldn’t have a magazine go in there; you couldn’t have something preached on the radio or TV in some of those parts of the world.

So it goes on in the next phase here, “Therefore, when you shall see the abomination of desolation...” That’s why people are waiting for it, because they know and believe what’s written here to a physical extent, that there has to be something about a temple. How can you have an abomination of desolation, spoken of in the book of Daniel, referred to by Christ here then, accomplish something of such magnitude that you could say that something has happened in the temple of God of this magnitude? An abomination of desolation? What is this? Well, it was about a Church; it was about God’s people. It wasn’t about a physical temple. Awesome!

“Therefore, when you shall see the abomination of desolation...” For the world it’s looking for a temple to be built. For the world it might be an altar to be placed there in that part of the world. I’ll tell you what, you try to put an altar there in that part, on the temple mount, there is a war! There would be all out war in the Arab world. Not just the Arab world, but with Muslims. It just can’t be done. They try to take one block of stone in there it’s going to break loose. So even that is ludicrous, to think that someone could somehow accomplish something like that on a physical plane. It’s nuts; I mean, close to what you’d have to call stark raving mad to believe something like that could happen.

“Therefore, when you shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place...” See, in people’s minds that has to be Jerusalem. There is nothing holy about Jerusalem! God’s presence isn’t there! God drove that point home powerfully so when I had the opportunity of visiting there. There is nothing holy there. Well, there was. We were there. Where God dwells then there is something God has set apart for holy use and purpose. God’s people have been sanctified, set apart for holy use and purpose. It’s in the temple. That’s where God dwells. It’s a spiritual temple.

But as far as the physical land was concerned some people call it “the holy land.” No, it’s not holy. It’s not a land that’s holy. God’s not dwelling there. He hasn’t sanctified it in any special way. But that’s the way carnal human beings think. It not only has to be there, but it has to be in Jerusalem. It has to be on the temple mount because they’re thinking physical, a physical temple, so the abomination of desolation has to take place in the temple mount where there is a mosque right now.

Therefore, when you shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place (whoever reads, let him understand)... How can you understand without God’s spirit? No one can. To everyone else it’s a physical carnal location, physical place, if you will, not a carnal. But it’s pretty carnal there, too. Anyway, it’s a physical location. ...then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains. It’s all taken physically. So “those who are in Judea flee into the mountains?” What does that mean?

Well, we understand what that means in God’s Church. You’re blessed to be able to understand what that means, that there are those things that God has given that are physical by nature, by name, just like the name Israel. People hear the name Israel, they think of a country. They don’t understand the Israel of God. They don’t understand even the physical part of it, of where most of those countries, nations are. They just understand one where the Jews are. They’re in a land called Israel. They don’t understand that the vast majority of all of Israel was taken captive by the Assyrians into Europe. They don’t understand those things. They don’t grasp what happened to what became known as the last ten tribes of Israel, far greater than the Jewish tribe that will remain behind. You are blessed to know and understand those things. Awesome! The migrations of Israel, a physical, carnal people.

That’s why I think of Ireland and what happened in Ireland and what happened in the time of Jeremiah and the lineage that was able to continue on of a kingly line because God promised that there would be someone ruling over Israel until the end, until the throne was transferred, the government was transferred from a physical nation of people to a spiritual one. That’s the throne that Christ comes back to, that he receives, it’s his. From the time of king David on. You know, and for the world to hear these things, “Oh, you’re nuttier than a fruitcake.” But the history is there, so much so that some try to squelch it.

You know under the throne — I have a picture of it in my Bible—the throne where every king and queen for the last thousand plus years has been coroneted on. Used to have, when I went to college in Bricket Wood, had a plaque underneath it, referred to it as Jacob’s pillar stone. It had the stone there, the stone that they have fought over in Great Britain and Scotland, and Ireland. But Scotland, it’s the stone that some students came down and I think it was the 40’s maybe, somewhere in there, back there, from Scotland because there was still this intense feelings. I don’t remember when it was, but they actually stole that stone out of underneath the throne and took it back to Scotland because they claim it’s theirs. The stone of destiny, Jacob’s pillar stone. Why is it “Jacob’s pillar stone?” Oh, the one he had his dream on. Awesome!

But, see, a lot of this is lost by people. They don’t understand why that stone is so important to them. They actually dropped it and broke it. Some people don’t know that, what took place. They had to have a mason, an individual that was able to put that piece back on the rock. Anyway, incredible history of things that have taken place.

But the point being is they actually took that away, the plaque that was underneath there telling what it was primarily because of Mr. Armstrong, primarily because of truth that was going out about Israel and that, candidly, that which was ruling over Great Britain was Jewish, of a Jewish lineage from king David, and they can’t have that.

So even the history of Ireland and the migrations of what he did when Jeremiah went up there, fled, took the lineage of king David with him and what happened to the queen, if you will. Yes or no? Incredible history of some of these things, things that we’re able to grasp and comprehend, that we’re blessed to see and to know.

So for us we understand when it talks about an abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel in the holy place. We know where that holy place is, where the temple of God is. It’s the Church of God. That’s where the abomination of desolation at the end-time had to take place. The gospel of the Kingdom would go into all the world for a witness. What is that witness? World rejects it, all the nations Mr. Armstrong visited and told the truth. I think of all those in Japan, several prime ministers, who considered him a close friend – incredible – members of the Japanese Diet. It’s incredible how he was recognized for the things he was and yet they couldn’t receive the truth because they weren’t called of God. It’s not their time yet, and yet these things happened on such a massive scale.

So, “when you see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet stand in the holy place...” So it’s the Church of God; that’s the holy place. An abomination took place in the Church of God. You think of a third going back into Protestantism, a third just quitting after all that they’d been given to see and know and they understood the 21 truths? “Then let them which be in Judea flee into the mountains.” Again, it’s what happened to the Church, spiritual Judea. It’s what it’s about. God uses these words, these terms over and over again. Spiritual Jerusalem? It’s the Church. Mount Zion? It’s the begotten Church.

26 (5) The stones of the temple are about the people in the Church of God at the end-time. The discussion between Christ and the disciples in Matthew 24 is about the end-time. Christ stated that the stones of the temple would be cast down before he returned, before God’s Kingdom was established. This happened immediately after the apostasy at the time of the scattering of God's Church—the spiritual temple of God.

I think it’s good to read that in Matthew 24 because this is what Christ was addressing. They wanted to know when will this be, when will this time be when these things are fulfilled, when these things are accomplished, when the Kingdom of God is then established. They were looking to a Messiah. Even those before he was put to death, when he came into Jerusalem they were crying out to him because they believed that he was going to help re-establish or to establish the Kingdom of God on earth and that finally they were going to be freed from the Roman rule. That’s what they felt. It was a physical thing to them and they were crying out in excitement about Christ coming into Jerusalem.

Matthew 24. So again here, he talked about this. Matthew 24:1—Then Joshua went out and departed from the temple, and his disciples came up to show him the buildings of the temple. And Joshua said to them, Do you not see all these things? Assuredly, I say to you, not one stone shall be left upon another that shall not be thrown (cast) down. So again here, this would be a shock to them to hear “All the stones?”

Now as he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, Tell us, when will these things be? When is this going to happen, this destruction, this kind of thing take place? And what will be the sign of your coming...? Not his second coming. They didn’t know anything about a second coming. They had no comprehension that he was even going to be put to death yet. So what is this about? It’s about him coming as the Messiah establishing the Kingdom of God on earth. This is what the questions are about. This is what they’re curious about. They want to know, “When is this going to take place?” He’s telling them.

They said, Tell us, when shall these things be, and what shall be the sign of your coming and the end of the age? All the verses that follow, the one we just read in 14 and 15, the gospel had to go into all the world for a witness and then the end would come. Then verse 15. Incredible. An abomination of desolation that had to take place in verse 15, a spiritual thing that would happen to God’s own Church.

So truths that we have? See, when we went through the Apostasy these are impacted in our being, in our minds in profound ways. Because each one of these, when God reveals something new, something that we hadn’t seen before, something that was always written here but we didn’t understand it yet, and then God began to reveal it, “This is about you; the stones of the temple, you’ve all been thrown down.” Not a one was left on top of another. The whole organization came crumbling down. Everything that had been established came crumbling down and we were trying to figure out what can we do to continue to move forward. God began to reveal various things starting with the understanding that Mr. Tkach was the man of sin and that we had gone through an apostasy, the very thing that was prophesied that would have to take place before Christ could return.

27 (6) All in God's Church during the era of Laodicea were Laodicean. Now, some of this is being tweaked. Some of this is being refreshed or freshened, ever how you want to put it, because we live by the present truth that God gives to us, and so some things, as I mention, when we grow and when we learn and when something is wrong, it has to be addressed.

So it’s in parenthesis, I think, here on the site there that (Referring to the period of Mr. Armstrong’s death up to Trumpets of 2008).

So again, “All in God's Church during the era of Laodicea were Laodicean.” So it’s come up here how long was Laodicea? Well, at a particular point in time in addressing this we understood something that the Church hadn’t understood before because the concept, the idea was that Philadelphia and Laodicea were going to continue on until Christ’s coming. But God began to reveal, no, two eras, they’re eras; they’re periods of time and they don’t overlap each other. They’re specific periods of time. When one ends another begins. It never happened before that two would overlap but there were ideas about prophecies that had to be fulfilled and so God just hadn’t brought the Church to a point of understanding these things yet, and for a purpose.

When the Apostasy did happen there were people who felt they were Philadelphian. “I am a Philadelphian. You may be a Laodicean, because...” I’m a Laodicean, but some believed they were Philadelphian. Some believed they were so much Philadelphian because they couldn’t be a part of that that took place because always in the Church Laodicea hasn’t been too pretty, spoken of too well. Pretty much well looked down upon, and indeed it should have been, in the sense of what it did, which we were all a part of who lived through that period of time. But Philadelphia, it ended when Mr. Armstrong died. That’s something that people just couldn’t address. One organization had to call themselves Philadelphian. Brotherly love, but Philadelphian, like this is the height of all the Church eras in time and so forth. You think, no.

Going on, The Church of God formerly believed that at the end there would be two eras coexisting side-by-side: Philadelphia and Laodicea. One (Philadelphia) was to go to a place of safety and the other (Laodicea) would have to go through the great tribulation. So, God just hadn’t revealed yet what the truth was about that. There has always been a grappling, once we have certain amount of truth, when you understand that there are eras, when you come to understand there is a Sardis era and what happened and that becomes clear to you, then you begin to realize there is another era that followed that, that truth is being restored in the Church. Philadelphia was easier to see, but to grasp what might yet happen in the future wasn’t and so some things were jammed together with the current or present truth.

See, you always have to deal with what you have at the present. That doesn’t mean that there won’t be something that God reveals more fully later on that will affect what you understood to that point in time. It’s always been that way with God’s people. It was that way with the disciples. Look at how much, even with Christ teaching them on a physical plane, that they had to address as soon as their minds began to see and able to understand and put these things together. But, obviously, so much more so as you go through time and see what happens when God’s working with the Church and what happened during the time of Philadelphia.

So again here, there was this idea, this concept that they were side by side and that the Laodiceans would have to go through the great tribulation. I’m jumping ahead in the truths because one of the truths is there is no place of safety physically. There is no Petra that everybody is going to be taken to, some rock out in the desert. Basically a desert; it’s not a very nice place. People are going to be taken to this place called Petra to this day that’s in the nation of Jordan. I can tell some stories about some of that but I won’t, of some who have been trying, wanting to get in there, make some headway of getting in there ahead of time and make some progress.

What a relief when God began to show us, no, there’s not going to be a 3½ year period where somehow God’s people who are Philadelphian are going to be able to be transported, have transportation there, whatever means that might be, to be there and then all those who are just lukewarm are going to stay behind. In order for them to come through this they have to go through this great tribulation on the earth, which I’ve explained in times past isn’t a whole different than this idea of the rapture and that people are going to be whisked way and if one of them has a jet pilot and you’re on that jet, bad news. That is bad news. If that happened and you were on a jet and the pilot is gone, you know, he has a heart attack, who else is going to land that plane?

But this is how goofy and strange some things happen with the human mind when you’re thinking physically and carnally. God reveals the meaning of them as time goes along for us, for the Church.

So the truth is one era cannot overlap another, and history has shown that all who lived during the era of Laodicea were Laodiceans. That’s owning up to who you are. See, it’s hard for people to say, “I was Laodicean. I became lukewarm. I let down. I wasn’t doing as I should have been.” If you can’t acknowledge such things, wow. Just like truths. Just like error. It shouldn’t be hard to say, “Yes, I was wrong.” You know, I found through time that one of the hardest things for parents to do is to tell their children, “I was wrong. I made a mistake. I was in error,” because of pride. “Parents can’t tell their child that!” I don’t know if you grew up like that, if you know of people like that in times past, but I’ve seen that throughout the Church in times past, where it’s very difficult for sometimes for people to say, “I was wrong.”

How often has it been that people can say that to one another in God’s Church in times past? Hopefully today you’re able to do that readily when you’ve done something stupid and wrong and said something you shouldn’t have and you can say, “I was wrong. I’m sorry.” That should just be natural with us. But in times past it’s been difficult a lot of times for people to say, “I was wrong.” What is so hard about that?

There is a real relief and a peace with God when you can acknowledge what’s true, and if that’s true, that you’re wrong, how can you repent when you’re wrong if you can’t acknowledge you’re wrong? We are fallible human beings. We all have problems. We all have weaknesses. There is none of us perfect. We’re striving to grow and become more at one with God. We’re striving to change our lives, and within the Church we do a lot, obviously, ever refining and becoming stronger and better at what we do, but acknowledging when we’re wrong.

But see, there are a lot of different organizations out here who could never come to that point in saying, “I was Laodicean. I became lukewarm,” and because of that pride the sleep became greater. The sleep became stronger, the spiritual sleep. There are tens of thousands of people out there waiting to a time (they don’t know it), that God’s going to awake them out of a spiritual sleep. He’s going to shake them, say, “It’s time to wake up.”

They have the impregnation of God in their mind, in their head, but it’s not working right now. There is no spirit, holy spirit flowing to help them. They’re asleep. God can awaken that at any moment He so chooses just like He did in me and some of you. God had to awaken you out of your spiritual sleep. It’s almost like a calling but it’s not because wherever you were with whatever you had and you receive then that truth, once you’re awakened, whatever truth you need to have at that point in time (and there is a lot of truth that we have today that we didn’t have back in 1994), it’s awesome what can happen to the human mind right away, to say, “Oh, how could I have been so stupid.” Well, that’s what happens when we fall asleep spiritually, when we let down and become lukewarm in spirit.

So again, God showed one era cannot overlap another and history has shown that all who lived during the era of Laodicea were Laodiceans. Everyone that’s ever going to be awakened in the future has to come to that point where they can say, “Man...” Whether it’s even in the Great White Throne because there are a lot of them dead now, and they can say, “I fell asleep. I did!” They have to deal with it. They have to come to that point in time because repentance and change can’t come unless you can acknowledge such truth. That’s what repentance is all about.

Now, the rest of it? I have a big long line through the rest of it because it’s not there right now. It’s still there on the site but it’s going to leave: While some may exhibit some of the traits of the other eras, all are spiritually lukewarm and full of pride, until they acknowledge and repent of this condition in their lives and God begins to work in their lives once again. No need for that to be there so we’re just going to leave it as a simple thing about Laodicea and eventually they’ll come to acknowledge those things. Even though the rest is true it doesn’t need to be in this particular truth.

Matter of fact, I’m going to add a little bit more here to parts that are out and tell you what those pieces are because it’s clearer today. So again, I’m going to read it again as it will be on the site: 27 (6) All in God's Church during the era of Laodicea were Laodicean (Referring to the period after Mr. Armstrong’s (speaking of Philadelphia) in January of 1986 (when he died) up to Pentecost of 1998). It wasn’t Trumpets of 2008.

So some of those things as time has gone on have become clear, of what God was doing in our lives, how He was working with us, and the reality is we understand that the Church was established after 3½ years, as it talks about in Revelation, that protection from a being that was over this anyway, Satan, that God gave the Church protection for 3½ years. We had that to become established and finally came to the point in Pentecost of this particular year, 1998, that the Church was re-established once again. Because before that we were still coming out of Laodicea. We were still a part of Laodicea. To me, in this respect here, this makes it very clear that this was when God began to work with a re-established Church, a body of people, and basically, we’re organized totally. A remnant, if you will. That’s when the remnant became established. Laodicea was over; God was now working through a remnant. We weren’t established until that point in time as a separate body, as a separate organization, if you will.

Then, finally, the end here; This era became progressively more and more lukewarm and filled with pride, speaking of Laodicea. After the apostasy only a few began to repent of this condition in their lives and then God began to work in their lives once again. It’s more succinct, more to the point, and you can read it later on in the PDF file or on the site once we get it cleaned up.

28 (7) All of Laodicea was spewed out of God's mouth as prophesied, separated from Christ, and scattered. Awesome! Again, one after another that God began to help us to grasp and fit pieces together that we couldn’t see, and still fitting some things together that we haven’t clearly seen because, again, it’s by the present truth of what we know at any moment in time. This is what God gave to us then, “All of Laodicea was spewed out.” God makes it very clear He was going to separate the entire Church from Himself. Every one of us was guilty of becoming lukewarm, of letting down.

So here is what it states under there: This happened in order to help awaken some of God’s people. God will not accept that which is only lukewarm and steeped in pride. So it said, basically, we became lifted up with the truth, if you will, with riches, with what we thought we knew and thought we had. God will not be around sin and pride is sin. See, just like being able to acknowledge, “I was Laodicean.” That takes humility. You have to be able to acknowledge what is true. If one can’t then God can’t work with that mind.

That’s why everyone who has not experienced that needs to be careful, because that can happen to anyone. If you let down, if you’re not watchful, if you’re not alert, striving to stay close to God, crying out to God for His power, His holy spirit to be in your life, allow sin to continue in your life without addressing it, without fighting it, without dealing with it, that’s what happens. Our history proves that too, because we’ve had hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people since God re-established us, in that respect, who have come and gone by the wayside.

Pride and spiritual sluggishness permeated the Church of God through the mid-90’s, and the entire Church was, therefore, separated from God, as prophesied in Revelation 3:16. Until this condition is acknowledged and repented of, God will not work in the lives of such people. That’s what repentance is all about. Even after that point, spiritual sluggishness is a condition that must always be fought against as those in Laodicea were admonished. So again, that’s a spirit, it’s an attitude. All those warnings of all the eras, of things that human nature can do have to be looked at and acknowledged from time to time or addressed from time to time in people’s lives because they’re attitudes in spirit.

29 (8) The entire Church fell asleep just as described by Matthew 25:1-13. This was the direct result of being Laodicean and lukewarm. The Church used to believe that there were five wise virgins who went on to the wedding and that the five who were foolish were rejected by the bridegroom. Yet the Bible says that all of these virgins fell asleep and it does not say who was accepted by the bridegroom. Many in the scattered Church today go through the motions of religion like the Protestant world, talking about the truth, but without genuine zeal for it. Only those who repent of the Laodicean condition will be accepted by Christ at the end-time. This was written a long time ago but this exists, this is true. That’s why people have to be on guard spiritually all the time.

The last sentence: Only God can awaken someone out of a spiritual sleep that has encompassed the whole Church that remains scattered. So again, these things were being revealed at a time of scattering, at a time when God was showing us what had happened to us as a Church. I’ll just spend the time here; I’ll finish this here on this one here.

But again, Matthew 25. This is about... (lost sound for a couple of minutes, and picking up where it came back on...) So, again here, parable of the ten virgins. Five were wise, five were foolish. The foolish didn’t take any oil in their lamps, but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. So again, you can’t burn bright; you can’t have a light without God’s spirit, without oil. This is what this story is about on a physical plane.

But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept. They all slumbered and slept. See, we didn’t really focus on that in times past when we saw them separated, one Philadelphian and one Laodicea, there are five, half and half, whatever. Anyway, the point being was it says all of them. They were all guilty of falling asleep. They all slumbered and slept, all ten of them, the wise and the foolish. So those who had even been doing more of what they should have been and hadn’t fully fallen asleep earlier on, there was still that which was going on. But again, not what we should have been as part of Laodicea and what happened finally toward the end of Laodicea.

All did fall asleep. In God’s Church we actually, we had to acknowledge that, “I fell asleep.” You know, that was hard for me. I remember giving that sermon because when I gave that I was still struggling because I realized that’s about us, this is what we did. We slumbered and slept. Now, I was grappling with the fact I don’t think I was fully asleep, but slumbering a little bit, nodding off? It was kind of like nodding off to sleep. So I was wrestling with this, could I have really have been fully asleep. It’s like, no. Slumbering, dozing off here and there? I had to come to have to acknowledge you know it’s all the same thing. But that’s hard!

When you’re shown things about yourself and what you did and you think, “Did I? Was I really? Did I...?” Yeah, you really did. And then you just have to say, “Thank you, God,” because then you can go on. You can repent of that and be so convicted to never allow, have anything like that ever happen in your life again, to fight against it, to see the little smallest smidgeons of it when it begins to raise its ugly head, and to be able to see that in the Church.

That’s why I’ve been able to cry out about certain things at certain times within the Church, because I’ve seen it in certain people’s lives, of what they’re doing, and realize this is what we did, don’t let it happen to you! And yet how many hundreds have gone by the wayside because they let it happen to them? It’s a spiritual thing and it’s an individual thing with each one of us before God as to what we do with what we’ve been given.

So they all slumbered and slept. I might have grappled with it for a little while but as soon as I spoke it and taught it began to come to grips with the reality, yeah, you weren’t just dozing off, nodding every once in a while, you were out too. We slumbered and slept.

And at midnight a cry was heard, Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him! I’m sorry, but I can’t help think about the Apostasy. You talk about a cry going out! 2 Thessalonians 2 — took us a while to see it even, to even be awakened to that point in time to get—How do I explain this?—to get stronger. Because it takes time. When you’ve been asleep for a time it takes a little while to get back, and then finally to begin to see what really took place and what really happened, to put everything together? It takes time for us as human beings. God gave us time and He showed us.

Again, I think of this process of falling asleep. It happened to the whole Church. What began to wake us up? I know what began to wake me up. The Sabbath is done away. The holy days are done away. Clean and unclean meats, you could have whatever you want to eat, the whole Church starting to scatter and split up, the government, everything that had happened. That was a shock and it shocked a lot of people. We didn’t know how to deal with it. We didn’t know what to do. The organization is gone. We’re not a part of it.

I stayed around for a little while, continued as a minister for a time thinking surely someone is going to hear what I’m saying. Then finally coming to a point where I’m resigned so I went a couple more weeks. My wife didn’t. She couldn’t. No more sitting in there. I did because I thought that out of a large congregation like that that surely someone is going to come up and say, “Why did you resign,” and I’d be able to tell them then the truth. They were already set. It was already a done deal. It was hard to see that, that we could be that, a body could be that way.

So again, a shock, a shock to the system. Behold, the bridegroom is coming; go out to meet him! That’s really what we had to start doing. PKG. It took us a while to get to PKG. It took us a while to become re-established. It took us a while to become strong again on a spiritual plane. It took us a while. It took time. That’s what slumbering and sleeping does. As God continued to reveal more and more then we became stronger and stronger and we could begin to see how all these things fit in together. As we were going through that 3½ years we became much stronger. Awesome!

So again, a cry did go out. 2 Thessalonians is all about that cry. It’s all about that cry and what happened to the Church, because Paul made it very clear by what God gave him to write that his coming wasn’t going to take place until this event took place, a falling away, as it’s translated in the King James, as a whole. But the word in the Greek is “apostasy,” to leave. In essence “to leave what is true.” To leave, to rebel against what is there, what you’ve been given. Indeed, to fall away from what you’ve been given.

So up to the Apostasy the condition of the Church had become one of slumbering and sleeping. A cry did go out. A great sound did shake the Church. Shook the tar out of the Church from one end to the other. So again, the Apostasy that occurred, which was a sign that Christ was coming, the countdown had begun. That’s what God began to show.

That’s why I marvel. See, for me it’s not 19-year time cycles. It’s end-time counts and how they fit together. There’s more. But anyway.

Verse 7—Then all those virgins arose and trimmed their lamps. So again, all those who at that time were still virgins before God, those who could actually be shaken by what had happened. Because we went through a lot. The reality is some were not longer there. Some were gone a long, long time ago. Some hated the truth. Some from headquarters hated Mr. Armstrong. They hated him! They hated the truth and they couldn’t wait and they were working with different ones. They couldn’t wait. Finally, Mr. Tkach succumbed to it, that pressure, those pulls.

So all who were virgins, indeed, considered by God to be so, those He would work with, those that could be worked with at any point by being shaken from a sleep. Then it was between them and God.

And the foolish said to the wise, Give us of your oil, for our lamps are going out. But the wise answered, saying, No, lest there shouldn’t be enough for us and you; but go to those who sell and buy for yourselves. In other words, go to God! God is the one where this oil comes from. No one can give it to anyone. You might want someone else to make it. You might want someone else to come through all this but you can’t give it to them. You can’t coax them into it. You can’t talk them into it. People still try to save different ones in families and stuff. You can’t! You can try to be a light and an example, and you can tell the truth but you can’t save anyone! Only God can. It’s up to each individual whether they’re going to respond to that, whether they’re going to change and want God’s spirit in their life because it’s between each individual and God, it really is.

It’s up to your conviction and what you want in your life. Do you want this? If you do, you’ve got to cry out to God for His spirit. You’ve got to know the importance of your needing it in your life. You can’t work it up! It’s just a matter of something that God will give if you’re striving to live what is right and do what is right and crying out to Him for the help to do it and the ability to see when you’re wrong and able to come to repentance when you need to come to repentance so God can give you more. It’s a relationship with God.

So “the wise answered, said, No, lest there not be enough for both you and us; go unto them who buy and sell.” So again here, things that happened in the Church I’m not going to go into, but again here, it’s up to each individual what they do.

And while they went... And while they went to buy... God gave time. God gives time to people to see what they’re going to do. It’s up to each individual with whatever you’re given as to what you do with what God gives to you.

...the bridegroom came, and then it says... It doesn’t say the five wise. See, the Church always believed that five wise were the ones who were ready, the five wise are the ones who came through it. The reality is, no, they fell asleep, but our eyes were blind to that until God gave it to us to say, no, the wise and the foolish, everyone fell asleep. I hope you understand what I’m saying.

Again, while they went to buy the bridegroom came, and those who were ready... Not all the wise, not all the foolish; those who were ready. I think of PKG, those who are preparing, those who are working at whatever God has given to them.

So again, who could ready themselves? Again here, speaking in this context, only those whom God awakened. Others have been drawn along in time as well but learn from these things. But speaking of those who went through this period of time and those who experienced those things, we’ve seen everything. We have seen everything of people who went through that actual time and were a part of this body as well and are no longer around. Sad.

...and those who were ready, some of the wise and some of the foolish, went in with him to the wedding; and the door was shut. That’s what it’s about, the door was shut. Afterward, it says, other virgins also came, saying, Lord, Lord, open to us! But he answered and said, Assuredly... Every parable you can only go so far. But again, there are things that happen that we can relate to and learn from. Here should be the same thing.

Others, who at a point in time had been designated in this category, that they had that opportunity, they had an opportunity of being awakened, it says, “Lord, lord, open to us!” There are people out here who are so deceived who were once a part of what God had given to them, who had the opportunity, who came through those things, who were accounted as virgins at that time, and yet, what a horrible thing to be awakened and then to do the same thing again, to turn against what God has given and opened the mind to.

I marvel at that because we have literally had hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds upon hundreds of people in the time that this body has been here, a remnant body, who have come and have gone.

But he answered and said, Assuredly, I say unto you, I do not know you. Now, he knows them. He knows who they are, but not in a spiritual fellowship and relationship. That ended long ago whenever that was when they left, when they did what they did, when they betrayed God once again.

Watch, therefore, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming. So it’s always this thing about being on guard, being alert. We understand what that means spiritually. We also understand now, because of recent time here, that even more of that, to that.

We’ll continue on from there next Sabbath.

1. Chapter 1