This Is The Truth, Pt. 2

Ronald Weinland

August 10, 2019

Today we’re continuing with Part 2 of the series entitled This is the Truth.

We went through truths listed from 22 through 29 last Sabbath. We ended with truth #29, and since last week I’ve added a little more clarity to that truth. Couple questions came in about some things, and not only that but I tend to go back and read something after a period of time. I’m excited by being able to reduce some of these or at least to go through and clarify it because they needed to be updated, and primarily because of dates and so forth that were there. The freedom of being able to just get rid of all that is great.

So anyway, I feel much better about it and it really helps to clarify a lot of things as well and put things in their proper perspective. That’s why we’re going through this, to bring everything, indeed, up to date. I was talking before services here that to me it’s an awesome thing, progressive revelation that God gives, and so much in this end-time. Sometimes by going back and doing something like this some of these truths have popped out and I think of the time it was actually written. Because some of these I know exactly when it was written because it was dealing with a specific situation within the Church and within the Church that was scattered in some cases, and so much more has been revealed since that time that helps to clarify it even more, to help drive it home even more. To me that’s an exciting process because God has been giving so much to us as a Church. Some of that is going to come out in some of the sermons that we hear starting with Trumpets and then Atonement, and some of the Feast sermons as well.

Sometimes, again, I referred to this here in recent time anyway, it’s hard for us to grasp just how much God has given us, especially those who have come in in the last five, seven, eight, nine, ten years, in through there, that’s your norm. I think of those in the Millennium. What they have at that time, that’s their norm. It’s going to be a totally different world. Those who are born in that and grow up in that and they’re going to read things that happened maybe 15-20 years before, and to try to grasp that, what the world was like, it’s going to be difficult for them because the norm for them is it’s going to be one government. It’s going to be one truth, one religion in the world. The Sabbath isn’t going to be a problem. The holy days aren’t going to be a problem. That’s hard to grasp. To grow up with that, to have that kind of a world around you, what an awesome blessing. Sometimes for us then to grasp all that God is pouring out because we’re so close to that which He has looked forward to for so, so long, that which those throughout time have looked forward to, the time the Messiah does come and take up the reins of God’s government on earth.

So being that close to it God is giving more because of that, because that’s what goes on into the world as far as the Millennium is concerned, into that period of time. God is giving much because of that.

Anyway, to me it’s exciting. It’s an exciting process when you can see more of why God does what He does in the manner that He does. It’s awesome!

So we’re going to go back through, since we ended on this, review it again, add a little bit more here and there, little more clarity; #29 overall. 29 (8) The entire Church fell asleep just as it is described in Matthew 25:1-13. [I’m just going to read it as it is.]This was the direct result of being Laodicean and lukewarm. The Church used to believe that there were five wise virgins who went in to the wedding and that the five who were foolish were rejected by the bridegroom. Yet the Bible says “all” of the virgins fell asleep, both the wise and the foolish.

So even since this was written, even since it was first given in understanding (and again, that was in a basement right here in Cincinnati when I first gave that many years ago and different ones of you were there), and since that time even more clarity has been given because we have lived through more that helped to explain this even more clearly.

Yet the Bible says “all” of the virgins fell asleep, both the wise and the foolish. Both had to repent for not using the oil available to them. I’ll just read this, otherwise I just get ahead of myself, and then maybe I can add to it. When the cry went out that the bridegroom was coming, then it was time for those virgins to wake up and begin “using” the oil (God’s spirit) in order to prepare themselves (to trim their lamps to give proper light in their life)... So this is a little bit addition to last week. That’s what that is talking about when it’s talking about trimming the lamps. Because the process of trimming a lamp was so that you could have or give out more light, and just because there is oil in the lamp doesn’t mean that it’s being used. That’s the way it is in our lives as far as this way of life is concerned.

Just because someone before the Apostasy, in that respect, might have been looked upon in that sense of being wise because they were or had acquired or developed a process of a relationship with God through prayer doesn’t mean they were using the oil that they had available to them. The foolish just weren’t doing what they should be doing at all anyway. So the concept was the wise are Philadelphian, the foolish are Laodicean. The reality is they were all Laodicean and all fell asleep. Just because certain ones had a certain pattern in their life and going through the motions better than others doesn’t mean they were truly using the oil. If they had been using the oil properly, if I had been using the oil properly I wouldn’t have fallen asleep. Others of you, you wouldn’t have fallen asleep. We did! That’s a reality of life.

That’s what makes it so hard for some to acknowledge there was an apostasy, because if they do or did they’d have to acknowledge this about themselves, they fell asleep. We all did. So that’s what it’s talking about here, “the cry went out.” When did that cry go out?

It does not say how many or who was accepted by the bridegroom, whether they were of the wise or the foolish. 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. They do not comprehend that an Apostasy happened in their midst, and therefore remain asleep. Only those who are able to repent of the Laodicean condition can become accepted by Christ at this end-time. And only God can awaken someone out of the spiritual sleep that has encompassed the whole Church that has remained scattered. So only those virgins whom God has awakened can repent and prepare themselves for the wedding.

It’s very clear what we’ve gone through. We know this in ways that are much, much stronger than when this was first given because we have lived it, we have experienced it, and it’s in us, in that respect, for those who went through the Apostasy.

I’ve added here, again, putting this in the notes in this time, and will be on the site, Matthew 25:1-6. (Mat. 25:1-6) Then the kingdom of heaven shall be likened to ten virgins who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom. Now five of them were wise, and five foolish.  Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them...

You know, what a horrible thing if there is that conviction of a way of life... It’s not a time to take it easy. It’s a time to respond to what God says. To live foolishly, well, it says it all, doesn’t it? Not too bright. You have to desire this way of life, want this way of life, and you have to go through certain things and apply certain things in your life or you just can’t grow.

...but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. So those who did do, did apply things certain things more so in their life in the sense of those things that were being taught in the Church, again here, just because they had the oil doesn’t mean that they were using it even to the extent that they should have been because we begin to get drowsy, we begin to get sleepy, and in time, as time went on that got worse and worse. Though some patterns were there in their life, the doing, the applying, the ability to see or have that life in your life illuminated even more so became dimmer and dimmer. That’s what was taking place. To fall spiritually asleep means that the light was going out, that something needed to be done. It’s a matter of how you use that oil. It isn’t enough just to go through the motions and be faithful to those things, because that’s kind of the analogy that’s being given here. It’s the matter that it has to be used properly. You have to use God’s spirit properly in your life, you truly do.

Again, a parable can only go so far in what it teaches, but we’re to learn from that and these are the kinds of things we’re to learn.

Those who were foolish took their lamps and took no oil with them… So that’s really dumb because then you can’t have any light at all. That’s kind of the way it became in large part. You know, to have no light at all in your life, to have nothing that really reflected what it should be reflecting, what a horrible thing! …but the wise took oil in their vessels with their lamps. But while the bridegroom was delayed, they all slumbered and slept. That’s what happened to us as a Church. So that’s why that analogy is given. It’s always been that way in large part – some more active than others – some clearly in the Church who weren’t doing at all what they should have been doing.

At midnight there was a cry made, “Behold, the bridegroom is coming. Go out to meet him!” We in God’s Church ought to know when that was, “The bridegroom is coming.” You know, that’s what Paul talked about, “Don’t be concerned as a letter from us or anything else, that Christ is going to return, until a certain thing takes place,” because when he does it’s going to be clear, in essence to the Church, paraphrasing some of that in 2 Thessalonians 2. There are certain events that have to take place. A man of sin has to be revealed, a son of perdition. But going along with that is the reality of an apostasy, a falling away from the truth. In large part that would seem, if you lived at that particular time or at any time in the Church in many parts, especially in Philadelphia, to think that there would be a large number of people who would just fall away from the truth? It would seem like, because it did, “That can’t happen!” “How could that happen?” Especially when it was misconstrued with some other truths (that come out a little bit later here), that it could be about the pope.

How can any false religious leader on earth deceive anyone who is truly in God’s Church? So it didn’t make a whole lot of sense, in that respect. It seemed so impossible that anything like that could happen. So God had to reveal a lot more about what we were going through and what actually took place when we finally went through it.

So again, And at midnight there was a cry made, “Behold, the bridegroom is coming. Go out to meet him!” It took us a little while. Even after that happened it took us a little while! It took a good 280 days before we could say, “Wow!” Might have had suspicions about certain things but now we know who he is, we know who he is, who he was. So the cry did go out.

So it took us a while to awake out of sleep and to be where we needed to be so that God could help us to see again on a spiritual plane, because the lamps weren’t very bright. Even after repentance, even after some change started taking place it took a while for that oil to really start burning. To trim the lamps, that didn’t happen overnight, so that the wick would have more brightness to it. The trimming of the wick is one thing, but it’s all about the burning of the oil and the clarity of the light when it comes out, when it’s there. It’s a matter of the analogy here, of what’s being shown is, is that you want the lamp to be bright, to be shining bright, to have light coming from it – our lives. So it took time.

Up to the time of the Apostasy, the condition of the Church had become one of slumbering and sleeping. Then a cry went out [a great sound that shook the entirety of the Church]. For some it was God’s not here. If God’s not here, He’s nowhere; just quit, just give up. To another bunch, they saw something else. What a horrible thing! They welcomed what came along. But to those who were really shaken by some of the things that took place and wanted to be able to hold on to something that we’d had in the past, well, it was something that God used as a tool to wake people up, but it was a slow process.

Have you ever shaken somebody who’s asleep and they’re so groggy and it takes them a little while? Sometimes you can wake up from something and you don’t even know where you are. I don’t know if you’ve ever had that happen. We have that happen sometimes when travelling, “Where are we this week?” You’re so worn out.

The Apostasy occurred which was a sign that Christ was now coming—the countdown had begun.

(Vs. 7-10) Then all those virgins arose [of those who had been awakened], that’s who it’s about. It’s not about all the others that were scattered who accepted whatever. It’s about those God began to awaken, to work with. Then all those virgins arose [of those who had been awakened], and trimmed their lamps [...those awakened of both the wise and foolish...] Because none of them were using the oil like they should have. They all had fallen asleep and they all need that light in their life. So they were [...shaken awake by what had happened].  Then the foolish said to the wise, “Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out.”  But the wise answered, saying, “No...” So different people had different things to deal with.

Some who had not applied themselves like they should have in times past during Philadelphia or on into Laodicea, or maybe only in Laodicea because maybe that’s when they were called, hadn’t applied themselves and so there was an even greater shock as time went along, and in some cases took longer for them to be shaken back. But they came to a type of repentance that was far deeper than what they’d had before. That’s a wonderful thing, meaning that they had the opportunity along with the wise (because that was before, but they fell asleep too so they weren’t any better when it was all said and done), but now the foolish, talks about the foolish here, some of them responded in a powerful way. Shook them so deeply and when God awakened them from the sleep to be able to put all this together, sobered them to a reality of where we are in time, to realize that things are taking place and that you’ve got to hold on to this and you’ve got to fight for it with all of your being, so they were able to change mightily! There was a greater change, in many cases, there than what there was in the wise, for those who came on through it, have been coming on through it, because this isn’t over with yet.

But the wise answered, saying, “No, unless there should not be enough for us and you, but go rather to those who sell, and buy for yourselves.” So some repented to the point, speaking of those that were foolish, the change in them was far greater than in the wise. I’ve seen that. While they went to buy, the bridegroom came... So they had this process. It was a part of their life, those who did do it, those who went to truly apply themselves of both the wise and the foolish, because the wise had to be consistent and grow and repent of certain things, of not using it in the way they should have, and the foolish, the things they had to do to come up to this point in time, to be fully alert, to be fully on guard.

While they went to buy, the bridegroom came and those who were ready... And it doesn’t say that the five wise were ready and the five foolish weren’t. That’s what has been read into this in times past in the Church of God, okay? Some of you have never lived through that; that doesn’t phase you, but for those who did it can still be a struggle. While they went to buy, the bridegroom came and those who were ready... Who was ready? Those who were using the oil, burning the oil, and the light coming out of their life now being reflected, as it says in Revelation 12, the witness of Christ was in their life, keeping the commandments of God and having the testimony (the witness) of Joshua the Christ in their life. That’s something that’s reflected, that witness that’s able to be seen by others. The only way that can be seen, again, is a spiritual condition, of the use of God’s spirit.

While they went to buy, the bridegroom came and those who were ready [of those who previously were described as being from among the wise and foolish], went in with him to the wedding, and the door was shut.

Beautiful parable, in that respect, of what is taught here about the very end-time and certain things that took place up to the time of the Apostasy and afterward.

(Vs. 11-13) Afterward the other virgins also came... Well, who are they? Who are they? Who are those other virgins? It doesn’t say it was the five foolish but that’s what people read into it in times past. Afterward the other virgins also came […of those who had not properly made themselves ready]... There are a lot of people – it’ll come out in some of these truths as we go along – who had opportunity to be a part of God’s remnant Church. Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people who had opportunity to be a part of God’s Church. Some who came along and were a part of it for quite a long time. Others who at the very beginning had the opportunity and rejected it – maybe a week, maybe a month. Incredible things that have happened in our history, things that have taken place.

But again here, “Afterward others came.” Do you think that’s not going to happen to some thinking that they’ve done the right thing, so distorted in their thinking and perverted in their thinking that they really think that they have done the right thing? The human mind can do that. Those who went off on a tangent, went back to Protestantism. A third of the Church thought they were doing the right thing. When you’re cut off from God’s spirit you don’t know the right thing, you can’t see the right thing anymore. It’s been with those who have been a part of or had opportunity to have their minds opened up to the truth of what God has been doing in a remnant group of people. So some of them are going to be rather shocked and surprised if they’re given such opportunity. It doesn’t say when this is going to take place, but again here, it’s a parable.

“Lord, Lord, open to us!” But he answered and said, “Assuredly, I say to you, I do not know you.” On a spiritual plane this simply teaches one primary thing, that without God’s spirit, without God’s help you can’t see, you can’t know what is true. You can deceive yourself and fall away and the reality is whether some are allowed to live into a Millennium or not, which most are not, they have to wait until the Great White Throne to be able to see some of these things, to realize, “I can’t have that change,” and Christ, in essence, saying to them, “I don’t know you.” That just means you are cut off from God’s spirit. That’s the reason he doesn’t know someone, because they have been cut off, out of the Church of God, thinking they’re in the Church of God. So there are a lot of people out there who still think they’re part of the Church of God and they’re not. Therefore watch, for you know neither the day nor the hour in which the Son of Man is coming.

Going on in #30 here: 30 (9) Matthew 24 is first and foremost about the Church at the end-time. As Joshua the Christ gave prophecy concerning events that would lead to his coming as the Messiah, he first spoke of events that would occur in the Church (vs. 4-21). These events have been believed to be about physical events that would happen on earth, but they are about the Church and the spiritual meaning of those events.

So again, God let us focus on the world, physical things for a time, and because that’s what we do as human beings. You know what? We look at physical things because we can kind of understand, or with God’s spirit and with where we are at a certain time, if you look at a progressive revelation that God gave through Philadelphia and on into Laodicea, it was kind of a natural course of things. We just tend to do that. That’s why I love John 14, because without God’s spirit there are certain things you cannot understand. They could not understand what Christ was telling them on that night of Passover. To me that’s a marvel to understand that, things you can’t comprehend. When Christ said, “If you’ve seen me you’ve seen the Father.” Where does the mind go? To something physical, “We’ve never met Him yet. How can we see Him if you haven’t shown Him, if He hasn’t come here to us?” They didn’t get it. They didn’t understand what he was saying.

Troubles in the Church began in the 1970s. Ministers began to rebel against Mr. Armstrong and the Laodicean condition began to slowly set in. While Mr. Armstrong tried to put the Church "back on track," as he stated many times, he openly doubted just how many people really got it. He saw this condition coming into the Church. He saw certain things before he came back from his illness, or at the time he was coming back from that, and it had to be shocking to all of a sudden see things around you, to see what the ministry was doing, especially the ministry and those the closest to him, the leadership of the Church, to see what it was doing and to recognize this is then the condition of the Church! Because that’s passed along to them. They can’t help but be affected by it. That’s what was taking place.

Although he was desiring to put the Church “back on the right track,” as he stated many times, he openly doubted just how many people really got it. He warned the Church many times that they were falling asleep during the 1970’s and 1980’s, up until his death in 1986. Incredible! This is what was being spoken of in the verses before Matthew 24:14, with wars and rumors of wars, and earthquakes ("shakings")... It’s about a shaking and yet it’s translated as “earthquakes,” but had nothing to do with the earth. But if we read something like that physically that’s what we start looking for. Now, there are going to be those kinds of things that happen more toward the end of this age. There are going to be periods of time, and there are already things that have happened. We see some of the results of that that are still with us. Fukushima, as an example. Just saw a thing on TV here the other day the amount of water that they’re storing in tanks that they can’t release, and talking about how that they have about two more years or whatever it is, I think it was, or three more years and they’re building more tanks and they have no place to put them. The amount of water is staggering in the mind, the tonnage of water that they have already taken because it’s still seeping into the ground and seeping into water and it’s incredible what’s taking place. Well, that was a result of an earthquake, a tsunami and those things that take place.

Although those physical things take place more so in the end-time this was not about that. This was about the Church and that’s what we couldn’t see. Because we tend to look at things physically because it’s easier for us. So when we hear of wars, yes, God lets that be there because it is a type, in that sense, of something we know is going to happen; there’s going to be a great war. But it’s about the Church and that’s what we couldn’t see until we had already been in it, candidly, gone through it. And it’s still going on.

Again here, things about wars, a shaking of the Church. I think about some of those shakings that came along, that began to happen. First one I witnessed was in ’72, 1972 where it shook certain areas a little bit here and there within the Church of something that had happened when some minsters began to say, when Mr. Armstrong talked about The Incredible Human Potential, wrote the book, and some thought that he was talking about how that we have an immortal soul. He wasn’t teaching that at all!

Then in 1974 with Pentecost and what happened then, now, that was a bigger shaking. Then when he became ill in the later 70’s there and some of the ministry and the evangelists in the Church began to rise up because there is a realization he’s getting close, close to dying. Just waiting around for him to die and when he does, who takes control? Who has the control? Who’s going to rise and be there? Think, what a horrible thing for human beings to begin thinking like that. What evangelists are some going to back? Politics! That’s all it is, politics and a desire for power, of thinking... Anyway. Some of those things are so atrocious, they truly are. These things were happening within the Church and on it goes. But it says, "but the end is not yet."

After Mr. Armstrong died and the gospel had been preached "into all the world," Laodicea and the final end-times began. Verses 15-28 describe the Church being scattered, fleeing into the mountains... The human carnal mind, “Oh, so it has to be in Judea and there has to be a fleeing into the mountains there of people. But the Church isn’t over there so who’s it talking about? Who is this about then? Just the people who live in Israel and they’re going to have to flee into the mountains when these events begin to take place?” That’s kind of how the carnal mind thinks, the human mind apart from God’s spirit. Because it only sees things physically first until God reveals that which is really the meaning and the intent and the purpose of it. To know the meaning, that it’s about the Church, mountains, what they always picture, hills and mountains, organizations, government. It’s about different governments.

We saw all kind of governments springing up, some that had sprung up before the Apostasy actually occurred, two in particular, fairly good-sized ones, and then many more after that. What happened then to the Church? That’s where they started fleeing, fleeing into the mountains. That 3½ years, we flew into a mountain. We flew into the biggest mountain. I did. I flew into the biggest mountain. Didn’t fly into it, but I did flee to it. I guess that’s a better way of saying it, the right way of saying it. I did flee to the largest mountain eventually there, and didn’t take me long to flee out of it again to something else, to make a different mountain. That’s what we did. Actually, it was a hill as far as a government, as far as an organization is concerned.

These things here are hard for the human mind to comprehend and to understand what God is saying until it’s time, and then He gives it, and then He helps us to understand, “Ah, now I understand this.” 600 organizations. 600 little hills and larger ones and big hills, and finally three or four mountains out here. They’re the biggest ones. The one that we were with was the biggest for a while.

(...governing Church organizations that sprang up from the scattering), and of greater trials upon the Church, including spiritual warfare, deception, and famine. All these things, those are the things we lived through.

I marvel at this, what it talks about when it talks about the famine. It’s not about a physical famine. Will there be physical famine on the earth? Yeah, there’s going to be famine right here in this country when those semis quit flying up and down the freeway like they are. Because right now they’re flying up and down the freeways. When they come to a screeching halt what do people do? Well, food’s not going to last all that long. You can’t just go down to Kroger or Albertsons or Piggly Wiggly or whatever some of these places are, and get the food off the shelves. I’m trying to think of different areas in the country. Safeway, whatever. You just can’t do it anymore. There is nothing there. You think something looks bad when you’ve been in an area where there’s a hurricane coming and the shelves are stripped. They’re stripped because people go out and grab that stuff immediately and store up. It’s going to be a whole lot worse. We can’t even grasp what it’s going to be like. That’s why we’ve been encouraged to do something for a small period of time at least. Because it’s coming, because it’s going to happen. And you won’t go to Kroger and you won’t go to Safeway, and you won’t go to some grocery store to get anything because there won’t be a single can there.

Some of these things when we think about famine, then to think about, well, what happened in the Church? Did we have famine? Oh, you better believe it. The worst famine ever. The worst famine ever as far as the size of an organization and what took place, what was being given. There wasn’t anything there, and because of that, people didn’t have anything to eat, and what was being fed even after the Apostasy wasn’t very good. It wasn’t healthy, as a whole, in what was taking place out here in so many areas.

Events like these will occur in the world, but these scriptures apply more fully to the Church. God has now shown that there is a duality concerning both the Church and the world that applies to verses 21 and 22. All these prophesied events in Mat. 24 lead up to the time of the very coming of the Messiah to this earth (vs. 29-31). So all this is in the writing here.

God has now shown that there is a duality concerning both the Church and the world that applies to verses 21 and 22. All these prophesied events in Mat. 24 lead up to the time of the very coming of the Messiah to this earth (vs. 29-31). So that’s what it’s about. It’s about the Church and the coming of the Messiah, so putting it all in context it becomes clear when it’s time for God to make it clear, and only God’s spirit can make it clear.

So there was a time when we began to see this in a way that others haven’t been able to see it yet because they’re still looking at something physical that has to take place. To them it’s not about an apostasy. To them it’s not about a spiritual famine. To them it’s not about these things. It’s not about rumblings and earthquakes that have happened that have shaken the tar out of God’s Church. Even the scattered Body out there that still has earthquakes from time to time because it becomes consumed with politics. It becomes consumed with so many different things that it’s still a continuation of what happened in the beginning that hasn’t stopped yet.

31 (10) The first four Seals of Revelation are about the Church, and these parallel Matthew 24. These four Seals are not about physical events at the end-time. So why say that? Because those of us who came through the Apostasy knew what was taught beforehand and what so many still believed after the Apostasy, that the Seals, the first four Seals of Revelation are about physical things! They’re about physical events in the world. They are not about physical events at all. It’s not about physical destruction. But until God gave it to us after the Apostasy we didn’t know that, we couldn’t grasp that. So we began to understand Matthew 24 first and that led to understanding this.

These four Seals are not about physical events at the end-time. Herbert W. Armstrong taught that these four Seals of Revelation could only be understood by understanding Matthew 24. True. But they still didn’t understand what it was then. But Matthew 24, after we understood that on a spiritual plane, then we could see this. Yes, they do go together. That was given to him. These tie together perfectly.

He was correct about this, but he thought this was about physical events rather than spiritual ones that concerned the Church as God later revealed. Most of those who are scattered still do not understand that this is not about physical events, but spiritual ones. So we can take it for granted. If you’re not careful, those who received that later on, who weren’t a part of all this, who don’t have that history can take this for granted and not be as important in the mind as it should be, a truth. Because, see, you need to understand what you have! This is your life! It’s the truth. When God gives you the ability to see what is true and you look at all those who have gone before you who are still out there asleep and scattered, what you have been given is incredibly precious. It truly is. To be able to see it clearly as you do, that’s not a small thing. But if we’re not careful we can think that it is. You think, well, this is so clear it’s easy to understand. Yeah, it’s clear. The first four Seals, obviously it’s about the Church. Well, that’s what you were taught because you never knew anything different. See? But those who had to go through that had to learn something different. Then it becomes more precious because we realize what God has given to us, what He’s revealed to us in opening up the mind so that we can see something that thousands and thousands and others who have walked before us can’t yet see.

As the Church lived through these events, it became evident that Matthew 24 was about the Church, and so is Revelation 6:1-8. The First Seal is about the Abomination of Desolation. It’s amazing how that when finally it happened, what was prophesied to take place in time, an apostasy, when it did take place and God just shook the tar out of us and began to wake us up and helped us then to understand the need and gave us the ability of using the oil because He was opening up the mind. The light became brighter and as He revealed one area of scripture to us then another one He would lead us to that became clearer. He helped us to start seeing things that we could not otherwise see. Awesome to live through that and to experience that!

As the Church lived through these events, it became evident that Matthew 24 was about the Church, and so is Revelation 6:1-8. The First Seal is about the Abomination of Desolation. The second concerns the spiritual warfare in the Church. The third is about a famine of the preaching of the word of God (Amos 8:11). It’s spiritual! That period of time that led up to the Apostasy, incredible famine that was out there. That’s why we fell asleep. But it was a lot worse afterward, after the Apostasy and what began to take place out there through different ones and different organizations and so forth.

The Fourth Seal speaks of the perpetuation and worsening of all of these conditions within the scattered Church organizations that sprang up from Worldwide after the Apostasy. So that fourth one was just a summation of all the things that were happening in the first three and just went on through time and is still going on within the scattered Church. Still going on.

32 (11) Ezekiel 5 has been fulfilled (spiritually) through the scattering of the Church of God since the Apostasy. That’s what it’s about. It’s about Ezekiel 5. It’s about the Church and some of the things that took place in the scattering. That’s where we were able to come to see more clearly about the thirds, to recognize what had happened to us as a Church, so when you go through and read some of those things about the razor and the like that was to be cut, the cutting the beard as it talks about taking even the razor and cutting around some of it and other that’s thrown into the fire, and the three examples that are given there, and some scattered in the wind. That’s what happened to the Church. The kind of destruction that came, a third, that’s what happened immediately to those who receive what was given in the Apostasy, who believed what was given. Another third just scattered, nowhere to go, nothing, had no belief anymore, had no foundation anymore. “If God isn’t here, He’s definitely not out there because we know.” When you know certain things, Christmas is a fable, Easter is a fable, the trinity, and you have that in your mind, pounded into your mind, but then this happens to the Church and, “If this is God’s Church how can this happen?” So where is God? Maybe there is nothing. Because people just quit and gave up. Scattered in the wind.

I may have part of that wrong there. I should have read that, maybe need to put it in here, Ezekiel 5 and clarify some of this. But basically, there were three thirds. That’s what happened to us. Another third, we were scattered. I’ll get there. We were scattered indeed, and that’s what happened to us. But another had, was thrown/tossed into the fire if I remember.

I’ve just got to go over there. Let me do this. You know what, it’s just better to read it, isn’t it? Ezekiel 5:1. (Just go there, Ron! Ugh! I’d smack myself up the side of the head here but sometimes this hurts. I’m not going to do that.) Amazing some of these things that are written here before that and after that. Verse 1—And you, son of man, take a sharp sword, take it as a barber’s razor and pass it over your head and your beard; then take scales to weigh and divide the hair. To me this is an amazing thing in itself because you have thirds and when you looked at the numbers of what had happened out there it was like this is incredible! Incredible!

You shall burn with fire one-third in the midst of the city, when the days of the siege are finished; then you shall take one-third and strike around it with the sword, and one-third you shall scatter in the wind: and I will draw out a sword after them. So it’s the part that was scattered. That’s who we were. I got that wrong before. I apologize. I should have read it.

But anyway here, You shall burn with fire one-third in the midst of the city, when the days of the siege are finished; then you shall take one-third and strike about it with the sword. So again here, it shows a destruction of a third that was just almost, as it were, instantaneous. Well, that’s what happens when you go back and you leave everything there that you’ve ever been drawn out of. What a horrifying thing to take place in the human mind of so many that actually this reflects. Then to strike the other third, as it says around here, with that sword. What did they have? Again, a type of destruction that was there, not totally destroyed but kind of in a vacuum of some sort. There’s just no where to be, nothing to belong to.

And one-third you shall scatter in the wind: and I will draw out a sword after them. So again, it was not hard to see that wow, a third is wanting to hold on to certain things here, has a resemblance of the past, but look at what’s happening. Look at the battles that are taking place. Look at the fighting that’s taking place and the divisiveness that’s taking place. It’s just like being cut up more.

You shall also take a small number of them and bind them in the edge of your garment (in your skirt). A word, I think the King James uses “wings.” No, it does say skirt. It’s the Hebrew word for “wings.” I’ll read this in a moment up here as well. I’ll just stop there because it starts talking about some, that particular portion that is bound there. It starts talking, it talks about a remnant, describes some of that.

So again here, just going back to some of what is written here I’ll just start reading this again. Ezekiel 5 has been fulfilled (spiritually) through the scattering of the Church of God since the Apostasy. After the Abomination of Desolation, approximately one-third of the Church remained in Worldwide (or accepted the same kind of beliefs of other false churches in traditional Christianity), one-third gave up completely, and one-third went into the various organizations that formed afterwards [600+]. The last third was to endure further trials, mirroring what God had said about Laodicea. So again here, it was mirroring some of the same things that had taken place.

Within all this spiritual destruction, God prophesied that a tithe (ten percent) of a third would survive captivity within the end-time destruction and be offered to become His remnant Church that would continue to the very end. This small remnant Church is spoken of in many other prophecies of the Bible. So again here, God said that He would offer that, that He would give that, and He did. That’s why I sometimes think of those who have come and gone and given opportunity but made choices. Because that’s what God gives us no matter what, He gives us choices. He doesn’t force us to believe. He doesn’t force us to live a certain way of life. It’s a matter of a choice and people have made some really bad choices through time for whatever reason. Sometimes it’s because of a wrong relationship or a relationship with someone else that’s pulling them away, a relationship that’s physical that they can’t stand and live what they need to live regardless of the consequences.

So God tries us in many different ways. He allows us to go through trials in many different ways, but it’s up to us how much do we want what He’s shown us, what He’s given to us. How well do we grasp or how much do we grasp how richly blessed we really are? The truths that God gives to us? How deep is the belief that a countdown began in a specific moment in time? We don’t know it all yet but it’ll be precise when it happens. God has made that abundantly clear.

To see all these things that we’ve gone through? I still become appalled at times when I see people just not doing what they should do and allowing themselves to begin to be cut off from God’s holy spirit after everything we’ve been through, and yet it’s something that’s happened through time. It’s happened after the Apostasy, it’s happened through the time of the remnant Church. Even those opportunities—and this is one of the worst of all—if you were a part of the Apostasy and went to sleep and were awakened to be able to see what had happened to the Church and why, that it was an apostasy, and then to turn back, to turn to something else, to turn away from what God had given in that understanding in the first place. To have the ability to grasp that an apostasy has taken place, to understand what Mr. Tkach did, and then to leave that when it’s nowhere else out there? It’s not there! To understand these things, the truths we’ve been going through since last Sabbath. Incredible! To understand Matthew 25. To understand Matthew 24. To understand the Seals are about the Church of God and not about what’s happening in the world or going to happen in the world.

So to me that’s a far greater offense toward God than almost anything I can think of. Truly! Because there has never been a time when so much has been available and given by God to His people in His Church. It didn’t exist during Philadelphia. Didn’t exist any time during Laodicea, obviously. Then all of a sudden God begins to give more and we begin to see, have a greater ability to see, like Mr. Armstrong used to say, a puzzle and this picture and more and more pieces just keep getting filled in, and that picture has become so clear since the Apostasy. Then to turn against from that, to turn away from that to something else, to one of the other mountains out here that’s still deceived and doesn’t grasp where they are? It’s a hard one to grasp...and then it isn’t because it’s all about the oil. It’s all about God’s spirit, how you use the oil.

Whether you’ve been foolish or wise before and came through some of this at the beginning and you had opportunity to now truly be wise and go beyond the matter of being wise in the example of the parable here, but now to be burning that oil, to understand the need for God’s spirit to live through you, to be a witness, indeed, of the testimony, of the truths and the way of Joshua the Christ and all that God has been giving in the Church, that’s another matter. To turn against that? Wow!

So again here, Within all this spiritual destruction, God prophesied that a tithe (ten percent) of a third would survive captivity within this end-time destruction and be offered... Be offered. Doesn’t mean they hold on to it or they’ll accept it. ...and become His remnant Church that would continue to the very end. So the remnant Church will continue to the end but not everyone given that opportunity makes the right choices. This small remnant Church is spoken of in many other prophecies of the Bible.

33 (12) There is no literal physical place of safety for the Church during the time of the great tribulation, but there is a spiritual one.  Might not seem like a big deal, but you know, all through Philadelphia, all the way up through Laodicea, and in the scattered body there is this concept of a place of safety, and I don’t know what some of them are teaching out there now that are scattered, about something like that. But whether it’s an actual location in Jordan or not, I don’t know what they’re teaching.

But that was a strong belief within the Church. Even though we understood what that word meant (many did, I feel), the two were never able to be drawn together, that this Petra is not about a physical rock. It’s not about a physical location that bears that name in the nation of Jordan. To understand that it’s spiritual? Because I think of how we’re kind of like a big piece of rock in the head, thick, thick, thick, and it’s hard for us to sometimes when God’s opening up our minds or enlightening things in our life, which again, is by God’s holy spirit, by the oil that’s burning. If it’s burning in our life we’re going to be able to see, see. If we’re able to see then we have choices to make and this is a part.

Again, is it a spiritual one? Is God indeed our Rock? Is that how we’re going to come through these things? Or is it by being able to somehow, some strange way get somewhere. I’ve heard some really strange things since I’ve been in God’s Church, especially at the beginning in the late 60’s there and 69 when I came in, and then early 70’s about ideas about how people thought they were going to get to Petra. Some of them, I don’t even want to tell you they’re way out there. How far the human mind can sometimes go on a physical plane, it’s like, how are we going to get over there? It’s almost like even there it’s like, is God in the picture? If we’re supposed to be there then how is God going to get us there? Ship’s pretty slow so surely it’s going to be jets, you know. You’re going to be able to land over there somewhere. It’s going to take a lot to get 144,000 over there plus. Anyway. Incredible.

It’s about God, our Rock, Petra. Awesome! That’s where our hope is. That’s where our life is. It’s God who determines, who can guarantee whether anyone is able to go through whatever is ahead of us, to be alive, if that’s necessary in order to live on into a new age, if that’s what we’re to have, or to come through whatever needs to be gone through to come to a point in time where God can say, “Now I know you,” and to be sealed.

Again, There is no literal physical place of safety for the Church during the time of great tribulation, but there is a spiritual one. The wings referred to in Revelation 12:14 are symbolic of protection, as are the skirts. Again, that’s the word, as I mentioned earlier, in Ezekiel for wings. It’s about protection. It’s been used over and over again by God. It’s a matter of God showing there’s a protection. It’s about His protection.

This is in reference to a specific time period of protection for a few whom God first began awakening and calling to be part of a remnant. This period of time that lasted for three and one-half years has already come and gone. Even there, to understand what that means. There was a period of time, in Revelation, when it talks about this protection, “two wings of a great eagle,” awesome to understand what that’s about. It’s about a protection that God gave us for a period of time that Satan couldn’t have us, He couldn’t come after us. God gave that to a lot of people. He gave it to a lot more than who are here. That was a first opportunity that God began to give ability to people to begin to see and to recognize certain truths that were out here, of certain things that we had experienced. But then they were dismissed quickly by hundreds. Incredible.

I’m going to go ahead and read this because this is going to be added to the site so that people can read it: Ezekiel 5 we just read, so I’m not going to read that again. I had it here. I could have read it. I forgot that I even put it in here. I’m way ahead in writing some of these things and looking at them so I just forgot what I’d already done here a while back.

So I want to read this here in Revelation because, again, it’s an overview of things that took place. It’s amazing how often they come up. Found some more today about some of these things that are tied together, haven’t seen before in the book of Daniel even. Because everything ties together. Everything that’s about the end-time all ties together perfectly, beautifully, and we’re able to see them in God’s time. Sometimes I’ve jumped ahead. I got in trouble for it.

Revelation 12:13. You know, when your life, truly, when you’re geared toward this, I understand Daniel. He wanted to know. Different ones, I can understand this desire, “I want to know what You’ve given to me.” I can’t imagine what John must have felt because it wasn’t given to him either. What do all these things mean? They had no comprehension. They couldn’t grasp what all these things were about that he just wrote. Couldn’t see a thing about what they pictured because the vast majority of what was being pictured was all in front of them. All he could see, if he was given to see any of it, in the sense of what it applied to, would be the era of Ephesus, the Ephesian era. Everything else was way beyond them. And eras? How long a time would go on? It wasn’t in their minds.

Revelation 12:13—And when the dragon saw that he was cast unto the earth, he persecuted the woman who brought forth the man child. So it goes through a bit of a history backing up a little bit here about, in a nutshell, of a long, vast period of time. Then it brings it right down to the end, because everything here in Revelation is about what leads to the very end and so it brings us up to that point in time. To me this is exciting, to be able to see, to know these things.

Mr. Armstrong, as I’ve mentioned many of times, felt that this was during a time when the Church was being persecuted, in that respect, when the State of California did what it did and put receivership over the Church of God. Mr. Armstrong was living in Arizona and God gave protection for him to be away from all that, from him being able to battle that, because the Church was to go on. It wasn’t to be taken over. Some of the betrayal of evangelists at that time who helped that to come to be what it was? Sick! So sick, what was going on, the history of what took place during that time period, what led up to it and the State doing what it did in the first place. Mr. Armstrong felt that this was the time that finally, that this took place, the dragon was cast to the earth. Incredible. As time goes along I have no reason to think otherwise, and to believe indeed that this was given to Mr. Armstrong, just like Matthew 24:14.

Verse 14—And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness into her place. Petra. That’s what this was about. It was this idea, going to Petra. “Two wings of a great eagle.” Well, wings of some jumbo jets. I’m sorry, when you can’t see you can’t see. When things are physical, they’re just physical and you can’t help it.

And to the woman (to the Church) were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness into her place where she is nourished for a time and times and half a time, 3½  years, 1260 days, from the face of the serpent. So there was a protection. It’s about protection. We needed a specific kind of protection in the beginning after going through an apostasy and God gave that to us in that first period of time that led up to Pentecost of 1998. (I want to make sure I get these dates right.) Three and a half years. Awesome that we had that and what took place, and what helped us to be in a position that when that period was over we were ready.

What happened? Satan came after us. But God protected us so that we could become established up to that point in time. It wasn’t easy but God had a purpose in giving that protection. Because without it, we wouldn’t have survived. We couldn’t have gotten to a point where the light was burning bright, where we could see, because coming out of a spiritual sleep like that it doesn’t happen overnight. It doesn’t happen overnight. A lot had to be set in place.

Verse 15—Even, it’s not just “and.” There’s more that’s given here, “Even” or “also,” and “and” can be a part of this, but it’s truly better translated, Even as the serpent... Because what it’s doing here, is telling us this is something that took place. “The woman was given two wings of a great eagle,” because something else had taken place. Then it’ll explain that behind this. Man put in the verses, but it’s the complete thought that’s still going on of why the Church was given two wings of a great eagle and protected for 3½ years.

So, “because this had happened,” or “even as” it says here, the serpent had cast... It’s “had cast” out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman. So this is something else that saw a tie in today with some other things. Awesome. ...had cast out of his mouth water as a flood after the woman. So it’s about the Church and it’s about what this being wanted to do to destroy. God had to give it protection so that it wouldn’t be fully destroyed. What an incredible thing here to use an example of something that would destroy so massively, a flood, of people, the Church because this is what happened to the Church. “as a flood.” That’s the example that’s being given here. That’s what he had done. ...that he might cause her to be carried away of the flood.

He’s done all kinds of things through time and that’s something that’s mind-boggling in itself. To continue to fight a losing battle, but so perverted in mind, so hateful toward God and God’s way he’s just done that through time, through people through time, and on and on it goes.

I think of the time of Christ and how he moved and motivated a certain ruler to go and send out those who would destroy and kill babies because of this mind, to think that “Going to get him! Going to kill him. Going to get him in the midst of all this.” That’s who was behind it. Satan. Incredible! Even tried to kill the Christ child. Awesome. He’s just kept doing that. He keeps persecuting, he keeps fighting against God and fighting against God’s plan. You can’t understand that kind of a mind.

That’s why sometimes when people in the world, they try to understand, “Well, why did someone get of that mind that they would go and do something like that?” “We’ve got to try to understand how did this happen in their life? Where did they get this from?” You can’t understand that because there is no soundness, there is no reason in it, because it’s without reason, it’s without soundness of mind. The mind is messed up – that’s all there is to know, and when the mind gets that messed up people can do some really awful things in life, in the world.

Then the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and swallowed up the flood which the dragon had cast out of his mouth. That’s the protection. When God gives the ability and illuminates what happened and why these things are stated in the way they are, to me it’s a beautiful thing. I’ve already said that in some sermons that are pre-recorded here, but to me when you can see it, it’s beautiful. You talk about something to be excited about that’s beautiful, this is beautiful in the way God records things and the way He gives things. Then when He lets us see them to see them for what they are, this is awesome! Because what a way to describe something, a flood that comes along, this being that does this to His, to God’s own Church and God allows it to take place for great purpose.

And then what happens? It says the earth opened up her mouth to swallow up the flood. You think, what an incredible thing to realize what happened to a few then that survived. It says, Then the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth and swallowed up the flood which the dragon had cast out of his mouth. Again, a protection. But what’s it about? The remnant. It’s about a certain protection that God gave in the verses before. He’s going to give protection for 3½ years. And how did that happen? Because we were so small and scattered all over the place, just like in a flood upon the banks, and a few then were able to come through all that, a flood. Because we were so small and so scattered all over this earth—that’s where God plucked up a few—Australia, New Zealand, different spots all over the United States. How do you deal with that? How do you work with that? That was a task in itself because we’re not large. So what do you do? Well, a little bit at a time that God gives. Georgia, then it began to move across other places and then finally moved to Europe, finally over to Australia and New Zealand. A little bit here and a little bit there to help people who had been scattered, who had been washed up on the shore, in essence, like after a flood.

No threat to Satan. No threat to that being at all. We had protection because we weren’t a threat. As far as he’s concerned, look what he’s done to the Church. Incredible! Look at the confusion. Look at all the fighting. Look at the disagreement in doctrine. Look at what he did with Passover alone and all this stuff coming to the surface. What would that being look at that like? Done a pretty good job. More than any other time in his mind I’m sure that any other time in history, seeing the Church as large as it was, seeing that now he had a third who worship him, who worship that garbage he gave back in 325. Pretty pleased I’m sure. That’s what a perverted mind would do.

Another third is all over the place, not having anything anymore, just quitting. Then the other third, look at them. Look at all the different groups out here and what they’re doing – fighting with each other, disagreeing with each other. They don’t have any unity. They call themselves after unity, you know, United. Nothing united about it and on and on it goes. Incredible!

I marvel when I see something like this, when you can see it on a spiritual plane that God gives. It’s beautiful, the truth. Not of the ugliness that exists within what happened, because there is a lot of ugliness there, but to be a part of a remnant because God said, “This is what I’m promising and I’m going to give at the end?” Why? Why? For God Almighty to make it clear, “Not by might nor power but by My spirit I am doing this.” You are small! You are blessed to be a part of something great. But what happens in the end, in essence, God does it all. We can be a small, a very, very, very small part to participate in it and our impact is negligible. It’s not millions of Plain Truths. It’s not all over the place with, what, TV and radio. It’s not there. Just not there, by design. Beautiful!

Then the dragon, love this... Then the dragon was angry with the woman... Saw what God had done. Saw that there is that which God is working with. Saw that there is something that God had done, that it wasn’t fully destroyed. ...and went to make war with the remnant of her seed... Did he know where it was? Yep. The remnant of the Church who keep, this is how he knows, who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony, the witness of Joshua the Christ in their life. Powerful! Powerful.

34 (13) Most of all this has been condensed and rewritten. 34 (13) Of all who have been scattered, or basically here, because of time, had been scattered God... not “is” anymore, in that respect, because we don’t see that happening. He was. We’ve passed in time now. Since this was written there is time that has passed and even the writing of it, tenses have changed.

God has been awakening a remnant out of it as a final witness of this end-time. This witness is to both to the Church (about God's calling into His Church through time and especially in this end-time) and the world (in how the world has consistently responded to God over the past 6,000 years). Now, I marvel at this because when it comes to judgment God is meticulous. There are things that God does when it comes to a matter of judgment, how He executes judgment, and that’s the time period, in essence, at the end-time when God does that with the world, He enters into the execution of judgment upon the world. So there are certain things that are judged before it’s fully executed. That’s where we’re coming to. Everything that’s written throughout time, through the prophets and so forth, that God is going to do has to do with what man has done for the past 6,000 years.

To me this is an awesome thing to understand about God. Every period of time has evidence of those things to be judged because it has to include the entirety of all that time. It can’t be just segments of it, but all of it. That’s why at the very end God gives a witness, gives a testimony of what has happened all through time to wrap it all up. It’s like a summation. It’s like—hate to think about that—court and what’s finally given at the very end. (Because I’ve lived through a part of that in a bad sort of way.) But if it’s from God and He’s doing it in the world and so forth, it’s an incredible thing because here now we’re coming to a point where a summarization is taking place here. Anyway, that’s what God has been, is doing with the Church and what He’s been doing through this period of time that we’ve been living through. So there is that witness of that which has been taking place through time showing it’s happening now and this is a judgment, a final judgment, and this is why. Because this is the way it’s always been. This is the way it’s always been.

We’ve had to live through things to show, to be evidence of this is the way it’s always been and here with a very small remnant group, look, it’s still going on and this is why this is happening. God’s making it abundantly clear. He gives a clarity to us first and then it’ll be to the world. Candidly, only those who live through and go on into a new age will be able to know and learn of these things, and then in the Great White Throne they’ll be shown these things, why God does things in the way He does. Because He’s righteous in His judgment, righteous, and this is what we’re watching, this is what we’re living, this is what we’ve been experiencing, a righteousness of God in His judgment over 6,000 years of mankind.

We live in a unique space of time, not in any of the eras. The eras are over. But finally, with one last group and the witness. See, that thing in Revelation 12 means a lot more than what we can see on the surface, as a whole. It’s spiritual. It’s about the Church. It’s about the remnant. So when it talks about “those who keep the commandments of God and have the testimony, the witness of Joshua the Christ,” it means a lot more than what’s perceived by reading it because it has everything to do with what I’m telling you right now about judgment. It’s an awesome thing. It’s just being pronounced in a powerful way at the end in a small group of people when God has given more than He’s ever given at any time in all of man’s history of His plan, His purpose, and what He’s doing and why.

This witness is both to the Church (about God's calling into His Church through time and especially of this end-time) and the world (in how the world has consistently responded to God over the past 6,000 years). That’s why right now I have a difficult time making certain judgment about what to do with what God has given to us. God commands us to tithe. He commands us to give holy day offerings, and so that’s been building up because there is no purpose in doing more than what we’ve already done at this point in time. I know there will be a time when it comes time to dump it in the sense of throwing everything into what we have here.

But now is not the time. Why? The world could give a flip! The world doesn’t care. You can advertize all you want and maybe somebody here by accident – unless God’s drawing them and calling them, because he’s not doing that yet. You know by the evidence. Know by the evidence that God is not awakening any more people out here. We know by the evidence. There are certain signs that some might be having a bit of a glimmer but they’re not there yet. When God really starts to draw someone, when He begins to pour out His spirit and help people to see, “You’ve been in an apostasy. This is why...” then it’ll be a different thing. But we’re not even close in the sense of seeing the evidence of that. Are we close in time? I can only hope.

But as far as what’s taking place, the evidence isn’t there. God has let us learn a lot about seeing the evidence of things. That’s why it should be abundantly clear to people what has taken place. Because the evidence is all around. Every organization that was scattered should be able to say, “We are the product of an apostasy.” Really! Because the evidence is there from God. Because if God does something and if you’re where God is right now, then, and you believe certain things because you don’t believe an apostasy took place, then where are the people being called? How long is it going to take you to get up to 144,000 if that’s what you believe? I mean... I’m sorry, it’s just insane, without God’s spirit, the human mind and what it can dream up, what it can think of. We need to grasp what God has given to us to be able to see these things.

These are not small things that we’re going through. That’s why we’re taking the time to go through truths. This is the truth because sometimes things can happen to us in life, we can go through a testing and a time and think, “Well, that didn’t happen then,” and then to throw out everything. What a horrifying thing! It’s like the expression, “Throw the baby out with the bathwater.” Save the baby! Anyway, sorry.

The vast majority of the Church has never repented of the Laodicea condition, and therefore, they remain prideful and lukewarm. God promised to awaken ten percent of a third of Laodicea as a witness of what He is doing in His Church, and a witness of what the scattered Church did during Laodicea and what they have continued to do.

Another great witness of this end-time concerns a very large percentage of those who were awakened and given opportunity to become part of a remnant of God’s end-time Church. They were awakened from a spiritual sleep and given the opportunity to see these truths, and have rejected them. Just as it has been within the Church for the past 2,000 years... A final judgment to show what happens at the end during a period of time when God has given more to human beings, more to people in His Church than at any other time. Those who were given that opportunity, this opportunity to be a remnant had more than the original apostles, had more than Paul, had more than John who was the last alive, more than any who lived after that, more than what God gave to Mr. Armstrong at that time because it wasn’t time yet to reveal some of these things. We weren’t there yet. They weren’t to be known until they came to the time of fulfillment, and then God has shown us.

To turn away from that? To reject that? What a judgment. What a lesson in judgment. What a lesson to be established here. A witness of Joshua the Christ, it’s still going on.

Just as it was within the Church in the past 2,000 years the witness is that many have been called, but few chosen. What a horrible time at the end to have so much and then to be among the few. Thank God that you’re among the few. Because the only reason you are is because of God and His Son, and your desire. Because you have to make the choices; you have to make the choices to desire this way of life and to fight for it. Because over the past several years, since about 2013, God has been measuring the temple powerfully so, bringing things to the surface. Nothing is hidden. Nothing will remain hidden. It’ll all come up.

So again, the witness is that many have been called but few chosen. That is because even though those who have been given such great blessing and opportunity to receive God, His Son, and the truth into their lives, most—Most!—have eventually rejected it. That boggles my mind. But it’s God’s judgment, a witness that’s being established to show what’s happening even now, even now when there is so much there that can be seen.

35 (14) We understand that Joshua the Christ is “continually coming” in the flesh of those who are in the Church of God. Where are you going to go to find that one? Sometimes we need to grasp how important these things are to our lives. This is the mind of God. This is one of the, to me, one of the greatest revelations God ever revealed to the Church. It truly is. Because it’s the very reason Joshua died. It’s the very reason he gave his life. It’s the very reason he suffered as our Passover, so that we could have and experience this in life, the life of God Almighty and His Son to come into our lives, to dwell in us and we in him on a spiritual plane. It’s one of the greatest revelations ever given. It’s one of the things that’s helped us to come in time, as God opened our mind to see it, other truth of what’s going to happen in the future, of what it means once we’re spirit, once we’re a part of God’s family in Elohim, the temple of God and God always in us and we being in God, what that means. Because it’s spiritual. The angelic realm never had that relationship. They don’t have it because they’re not of that family. They’re of a different creation for a different purpose.

That’s what’s so awesome to understand what God is creating. He’s creating that which He is, Elohim. Awesome! Awesome! Awesome!

This has only been partially understood by the Church. Some scriptures refer to Christ “coming” in the flesh. So there were certain things that were understood about God’s spirit dwelling in us and so forth, but to understand these expressions to their fullest, in their fullest way, hasn’t been there. Much of the Church has taken this physically, meaning that he first came to mankind while in the flesh, as a man, that this is the proof. Well, the whole Protestant world believes that. What is that? Well, that’s not what it’s about.

Other expressions about Jesus Christ “coming” are taken as though it is speaking of a time he will return to this Earth, in other words, a future time. It’s neither one of those. Yet the literal Greek concerning this word is neither about a “past tense” existence in a fleshly body, nor of a “future tense” return. So to understand that’s what the scattered body believes out there still. These are the things they look at because they haven’t come to this point; they haven’t been brought to this point by God. God has to reveal it. God has to give it. He has to awaken first those who are in that position, and then give them the ability to see what you just see. Some of you, that’s all you’ve known. You haven’t known the other. You haven’t believed the other unless it was in a physical world in false religion, and so forth.

Yet the literal Greek concerning this word is neither about a “past tense” existence in a fleshly body, nor a “future tense” return. The closest expression in English is that of being “present progressive,” meaning that Joshua the Christ is “continually coming” into our lives (in our flesh)... And we learn more about that. It shows it better be, because if you start quenching the spirit, like choking off the spirit how horrible that is in life. Or if you get cut off from it totally how horrifying that should be in our lives, a fearful thing to be cut off from the flow of God’s spirit. Because he died so that that flow could always be in us, so that that mind, so that we could have that mind in us. Have physical battles, yes, carnal human nature, yes, lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride of life, yes, but greater power to combat and fight against those things.

So again here, The closest expression in English is that of being “present progressive,” meaning that Joshua the Christ is “continually coming” into our lives (into our physical lives of flesh)—of God’s spirit dwelling (abiding, continuing, living) “in” us, as we understand it to mean.

This could be rather fast: 36 (15) No one goes to heaven, not even the 144,000. That is an amazing thing. See, there is a being cast down and a being that was restricted in his ability of doing something that began to be taken for granted in his life and began to sin against God. Anyway, it’s something he’s wanted mankind to believe, you know, this false thing that when you die you can go to heaven. Incredible.

But anyway, No one goes to heaven, not even the 144,000. Of all who have ever lived and died, only Joshua the Christ has ever gone to heaven. That should be so strong in our minds, that scripture that talks about that. He’s the only one. When it talked about David in Acts on the day of Pentecost and Peter was talking? He made it abundantly clear this is not about David. David is dead and buried and in the sepulchre to this day. He’s there. His bones are there or the dust is there. He’s not up there or wherever it is. He’s not in heaven. This is about something else. It’s about the Christ. It’s about the Messiah. It’s about Joshua. He’s the only one who has ever ascended into the heaven.

Of all who have ever lived and died, only Joshua the Christ has ever gone to heaven. Satan has deceived many religions into teaching that mankind will go to heaven. Even many in the Church of God scattering believe that the 144,000 will go to heaven for training before Joshua the Christ returns. There used to be arguments – thirty days, forty-five days, and different things going on there.

There was a section here totally taken out, obviously. I’ll just read that. This has been taken out: The resurrection of the 144,000 begins on the prophetic day (see Truth #47) that is fully completed when Christ once again stands upon the Mt. of Olives on Pentecost of [yes, I said it] 2019. So obviously that’s been taken out and it now reads: The resurrection of all 144,000 occurs just prior to Christ’s return to establish the Kingdom of God to reign over all nations. This first great resurrection from the dead into God’s Family of those who have lived at some period of time over the past 6,000 years, who will return with Christ to reign, has been misunderstood by many. The sea of glass that is mentioned at the time of this first resurrection is misunderstood to be the very throne of God in heaven. It is not!

This sea of glass mentioned at this resurrection (Rev. 15:2) is the location in the upper atmosphere of the “heavens” above the earth where this great event takes place. Even the people on earth can see some of this spectacle in the heavens (as a great light), because God’s going to manifest portions. People will not understand what they see. Again, because this is all spiritual and they can’t see. You can’t see a spiritual creation. You can’t see spiritual beings. You can’t see this because it’s spiritual. It’s not a physical thing.

People will not understand what they see, but God has revealed that there are those things that will be made physically visible at Christ’s coming concerning events happening on a spirit plane. That sea of glass upon which the 144,000 are resurrected within earth’s atmosphere is not to be confused with the sea of glass (spiritual creation) that exists before God in the spirit heaven of His very throne (Rev. 4:6). So indeed, no one goes to heaven, even as God reveals that no one has ever ascended into heaven except Joshua the Christ.

So you think about some of these deceptions that Satan has foisted upon mankind, this thing of going to hell and being tortured for all eternity, all time. Then this, the other extreme, the other end of the pendulum, if you will. Incredible. He’s done a number to this world, he truly has.

We’ll stop there for today and continue with #37 next week.

1. Chapter 1