The Last Great Day

Ronald Weinland

October 21, 2019

This is the last sermon of the Feast. It is still the Feast, and as it states in Leviticus 23 we are to observe the eighth day of the Feast as an annual holy day, which is today.

So this is the Last Great Day of 2019. I thought I’d mention here again that this is a pre-recorded sermon. This is being done because we need to have the same message, I wanted to have the same message for everywhere, and in order to accomplish that for Australia and New Zealand obviously needed to have this pre-recorded. It just works out better this way, makes it easier for everyone, especially just being able to hear the exact same message. So even in the Netherlands we’ll just be listening to it as it is pre-recorded even here.

So again, this is the Last Great Day. Many of you will be travelling home now, some of you beginning after services to head back to your homes, others to hotels waiting until tomorrow where you have different, perhaps longer distances to travel. But this is a time now that we are completing the entirety of the Feast of Tabernacles period and now the Last Great Day. Before we get here it seems like it’s going to take a while to get here and then all of a sudden we’re here and it just flies by. Time does go by quickly. It is so important how we use the time that we have before us, especially once we’re called into God’s Church.

So getting back to this particular sermon here, there is not much given in scripture about this specific day, the Last Great Day. They’re just really not mentioned at all; hardly anything mentioned at all. I think of Christ referring to or making comment that he spoke something on the Last Great Day, or it was the last day of the Feast, and some of those kinds of things, you just, you go through the New Testament and without knowing God’s plan you wouldn’t know what fits into place. If you go back in time even more so, especially concerning this particular day.

So again, there is not much given about this specific day, and in considering this it’s good to be reminded that God has progressively through time been revealing His plan and purpose to mankind. I’m still in awe of that when I think about it, when I recognize the different periods of time, when we think about those things and what they had in their particular time, different individuals, and to realize just how much we’ve been given toward the end of an age. It just needs to be said over and over again because we need to think about it on a regular basis in order to come to appreciate it and be more deeply thankful of it, of just how incredibly blessed we are to see and know and understand as much as we do because God has given us so very, very much in understanding His plan and His purpose.

We just happen to live at a time when these things were purposed and planned to be revealed to mankind after nearly 6,000 years and before the Kingdom of God comes to this earth, before our High Priest, Joshua the Christ, returns as King of kings. So before God establishes His Kingdom He is more fully establishing His truth in the Church.

I think of Mr. Armstrong being called. I think of what he went through in order to be part of an incredible process of restoring truth to the Church once it had nearly died out during the era, the long era of Sardis, and then God beginning to reveal and restore truth to the Church for the very purpose of what we’re talking about here, to prepare for the end-time, to prepare for events that end 6,000 years of man’s existence on this earth before the Kingdom of God is established on the earth.

Again, we are so incredibly blessed to see, to know, and to understand what we do. We are exceedingly blessed.

So again, we have known and understood that it wasn’t until God determined to free the Israelites from slavery, from captivity in Egypt, that He revealed Passover. It wasn’t until that period of time. So all the time that you go through in history and all the time it took to come to this moment of the exodus, what’s referred to as the exodus, the freeing of the children of Israel from Egypt and God intervening in the affairs of mankind, specifically with the different tribes of Israel, because He began to prepare and plan for a nation of people that would exist all the way up, even a physical nation of people all the way up to the coming of His Son to this earth to reign.

So it began with promises given to Abraham, and then Isaac and Jacob, to Israel, and all those things that then began to be passed down generation to generation. But not a lot revealed until we come to a time when there were such large numbers, hundreds of thousands, hundreds and hundreds of thousands of Israelites. There have been various guesstimates of how many people there would have been at that particular point in time because of certain things that are said in specific areas of scripture in this area of time, perhaps maybe a few million even. It really isn’t known exactly. But a vast number of people, something that’s hard to comprehend; even just a few hundred thousand, to comprehend the movement of those people out of Egypt is staggering, incomprehensible, truly, if you begin to look at that and begin to look at where they went and the travel they took.

But anyway, to look at the timing of those events and that after such a long time now when the children of Israel had come out of Egypt they were in the wilderness those forty years, toward the very beginning God began to reveal Himself more fully to them. He began to reveal more of His plan and His purpose though they didn’t comprehend that. But He began to reveal His law, given to them from Mount Sinai, then while they were there He continued to give structure to them, things about worship and how to have a right relationship with Him, with God, concerning the building, the making of a tabernacle, the formation of a system of a priesthood and all those things that began to take place, and then the giving of the holy days, the annual holy days.

It really wasn’t until before they even came out of Egypt in that process of time when you come right up to the very last plague, in essence, that Pharaoh was going to give in, finally, of all the firstborn of Egypt dying and how the children of Israel were protected. They took a lamb, picked it out on the tenth day of the month, then on the fourteenth day of the month killed it, roasted it, and they were given a physical observance of Passover. They took the blood and put it upon the doorposts of their houses. Again, about protection, about the blood, about the blood of the Passover and how they would be able to be saved from death, spared.

Again, incredible story. But this is the first observance of Passover. Before that all the hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years before that there were no observances of Passover, the Days of Unleavened Bread. God established something on a physical plane to teach something spiritually, coming out of leaven, becoming unleavened and leaving leaven, leaving sin, leaving Egypt, all the things that were physical in manner as to the manner in which they left Egypt quickly. They didn’t have bread they could have leavened and rise. God using all these things to teach, eventually, spiritual lessons, incredible lessons, to the Church, which didn’t come for, again, hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years farther down the road, when finally, the Messiah, the Passover was revealed – specifically the Passover, in that respect, in his role as the Passover.

So again here, things that have been revealed through time. It’s absolutely incredible when we think about those things and then think how blessed we are to know, to see what we do. Sometimes we just don’t think about that enough and don’t have the kind of appreciation and gratitude and thankfulness that reflects such understanding. We need to strive to have that more and more toward God. It’s healthy spiritually. It’s strengthening on a spiritual plane in our lives.

There was the observance of Passover, which was not a high day. We understand that. But it’s the beginning of a process – that you can’t enter into God’s plan without observing Passover, without having that blood whereby death can pass over us.

So again here, we go through these things, the Ten Commandments, the holy days that were given. We even went through this past year then things that we hadn’t fully understood to the depth and degree that we do now concerning even some of this about the wave sheaf and the wave loaves, to have it more fully embedded in our thinking and in our minds that even in this they did not observe Pentecost. They didn’t even observe the wave sheaf even though God gave them this as a part of the command for the observance of the Days of Unleavened Bread. They weren’t able to observe it until a specific time. God told them, “When you come into,” basically, “the promised land, when that happens then there are certain things that you’re to do.” The wave sheaf was one. There was no harvest until they came up to the Jordan River, until they were ready to come across and during that season of the year, the Days of Unleavened Bread, the Passover period that they were going to observe, and the first time then to have a wave sheaf.

Sometimes we don’t think about those things. We don’t consider how little that they knew, even just on a physical plane, let alone a spiritual one. Because they didn’t grasp any of these things on a spiritual plane. Nothing, in that respect; it wasn’t given yet.

Again here, we see this process of time, as we focused upon it this past year, about the wave loaves. They had no wave loaves until they came into the promised land because they saved that grain, they took of the grain, and they then had that particular observance, just as much as they had the wave sheaf for the first time, they had the wave loaves for the first time. Before that, for forty years, they had manna. They had no wheat. They had no new grain. They had no grain that they were able to use and to grind. Again, they had no harvests. Incredible, the history. Then finally they observed something for the first time...for the first time.

So the last annual holy day has not been observed with much understanding until this end-time, candidly. I think of different things that have been given from time to time. I think of what God gave to Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong during the era of Philadelphia, beginning to restore things to the Church. But even then there was much more given that wasn’t even understood during the time of the disciples, the apostles, the early apostles and Paul. There were things that are recorded, especially about this particular day here and the timing of events that lead up to the establishment of the Messiah as King of kings, to the establishment of the thousand year reign, and then of things that were going to happen after the thousand years. That wasn’t given until Revelation.

So John was the only one that had anything that was given, in that respect, to reveal something about timing, about meaning, and so if you look at the disciples and the things that were given to them, they had no comprehension of these things in the manner that was later revealed. And candidly, even then in a time of John there was just that portion written in Revelation, so no more was given to the Church. So they came through time observing holy days but not knowing fully what they meant. Awesome to understand that.

So it really hasn’t been until the time of the end here, really, in the time of Philadelphia and then the truth that was revealed to Mr. Armstrong, on into Laodicea, they carried that with them, but not very well because they got into a point of slumbering and sleeping and being lukewarm and all those things beginning to be watered down in many ways or lost. Then again, finally to be revived once again after an apostasy. Incredible history.

So to think about the lifetime of most of those apostles and they didn’t have what you have today? How blessed are you? How blessed are we with what we know and what we see? And so we can see that more easily in this given about the Last Great Day because there is so little written about it. There is going to be more revealed through time that we don’t understand yet. A lot of that’s going to take place during the Millennium because the focus is going to be more and more, especially as we get closer and closer to it, it’ll be about a focus upon what’s getting ready to take place. There’ll be things written in scripture we have no idea of now. They may well not even be revealed until toward the end of the Millennium, until it’s God’s time to have the world begin to truly focus on that period because they need to prepare for it. That’s not a small thing what’s going to take place in the Great White Throne, in the time of what we’re observing here today called the Last Great Day.

The Last Great Day. Incredible! No more human birth. No more human birth. No more giving of human life, but a process of salvation for life that has been, now a second time. Again, they hadn’t known those things. They weren’t given yet.

So we do not know fully how much John may have been given to understand about what he wrote in the book of Revelation, but most assuredly not to the degree of what was given to Herbert W. Armstrong during Philadelphia because of the things that God has done through time in a matter of a progressive revelation. John wrote the things he wrote and it wasn’t for his time, so, basically, a message to him would have been very much as it would have been to Daniel, “Just shut up the book and go your way. It’s for the time of the end.”

Let’s turn over to Revelation 19 and consider some of these things as we read it knowing that the early Church didn’t have this, the original apostles didn’t have this except what John did in writing this, that Paul never had this. They didn’t know these things. How could they know what it meant anyway because there was nothing like that for their time. There was no great harlot. They wouldn’t have known what that was referring to. On and on it goes. Seven revivals—they wouldn’t have known what that meant—of Babylon, spiritual Babylon.

Revelation 19:1—After these things I heard the loud voice and a great multitude in heaven, saying, Alleluia! Hallelujah! Salvation and glory and honor and power belong to the Lord our God! For true and righteous are His judgments... This is going to be something that’s going to become magnified at the end of 6,000 years as we transition from the time or the age of mankind and his self rule to the rule of God on the earth. It’s a great transition. As that takes place even the angelic realm cries out in these matters, and the Church will as well. We’re learning those things now and that will become more pronounced as time goes along, and then others who are finally freed from that which they don’t understand. They don’t even understand they need to be freed from it. Many of them embrace mightily what they have today. They don’t understand that what they have is wrong, in error, hurts mankind. It doesn’t help. It causes chaos and confusion, disorder, disarray, wars, fighting, unhappy lives, on and on it goes, backbiting, just all the stuff we see in politics and whatever it might be.

So it says, salvation, and glory, and honor, those things that are cried out, finally, finally that will come to the earth just at the beginning of the Millennium. Truth. The world isn’t able to see it. They can’t see it until God begins to draw them to it, to open up the mind so that they can see what they right at this time right now cannot see. So it’s going to be an awesome thing.

Salvation, a rejoicing in that, finally to understand what it is, that people don’t go down into a place where they’re tortured if they haven’t lived perfectly in their life or lived right or haven’t been fully forgiven, whatever that means to people, and to understand no, it’s not going off to heaven either, that there is more to life in this physical life to learn the things we need in order to finally understand what our life is about in the first place. To become a part of Elohim. Man doesn’t know what he’s supposed to be. They talk in terms of becoming something like angels, or whatever, getting their wings or strange things and ideas that people come up with in religion.

So again here, salvation, glory, and honor, and power belong to the Lord our God. It’s this rejoicing that finally 6,000 years is over, finally God has taken this power, is going to exercise this power to finally stop mankind from going his own way, and finally governing mankind the right way, the only way that we can survive, with His government.

So it says, for true and righteous are His judgments. So to truly grasp and understand, even many within the Church oftentimes, not just oftentimes, but it is a process everyone has to go through to come to a point in time where you more fully embrace God’s plan, when you more fully embrace the process of it, life, death, and to understand what happens then. Because that’s embracing God’s plan. Just like for those who are going to be in the first great resurrection, well, that’s an exceedingly great and awesome blessing, and especially at the end of an age because all the others who have died, they don’t know they’re waiting, but they await a time, God’s time when He’ll resurrect them. So some have been several thousand years, some just a few decades, some of recent time.

Those who are resurrected to be in that family have received an incredible blessing, especially those who are alive to the very end and just have a change that takes place, not even having to die physically. Not many human beings are offered that, are given that opportunity. That’s an exceedingly great and wonderful blessing in itself. Though when you die you don’t really know it, you might have some suffering before it, but to accept those things, especially when you know you’re in God’s hands, there is a peace that goes along with that. There is a peace in understanding what happens to people if they’re not able to be in a first resurrection, to understand what’s happened to people when they die, if they’re going to be resurrected in the Great White Throne.

So there is a peace that goes with that in life to realize how much better life is going to be finally when people you have known who have lived and died and they come to a point of death, and you don’t have to worry about them. You don’t have to worry about where they might be because you know where they are. They’re dust and you look forward to a time when finally they’re going to be resurrected. But they’re going to have healthy bodies – healthy bodies – not old, not running down, not their bodies running down as far as health is concerned as sometimes happens by the time you get to a certain stage of life, 35, whatever it is, and you begin going the other direction. Whatever point in time that is then your body starts running down, it doesn’t start getting healthier and better than what it was when it was in its late 20’s and early 30’s. That’s the height. From then on it just kind of goes the other direction. It’s a part of a process. We learn through that, we live through that.

But to understand there are going to be people resurrected that are going to be given incredibly healthy lives and made whole? For so many people that means so much of what they’re now going to have opportunity for. And now the ability to see what is true? All these things that this day pictures. There’s a peace in that when you have that in your mind, when you truly have that in your mind.

Then there’s another aspect, considering some of this, and it’s for those who live on right now into the Millennium, because you’re not going to live to the end of the Millennium. You’re going to live and you’re going to die. It’s still the experience of mankind. It’s still the experience of mankind to experience that separation from people. But I’ll tell you what, during the Millennium there is going to be so much greater peace in people’s minds when they know, “Ah, at the end they’ll be resurrected, have that opportunity to become part of the God family.” Just after a few hundred years to be brought back to life again, but this time spirit in the God family. There is an incredible peace in that.

So to believe and to see God’s plan and purpose through the Millennium, to see it all the way then into the Great White Throne, it’s awesome, it truly is, to see life and death in the way that we’re able to see it and live it. We are exceedingly blessed.

It goes on to say, For true and righteous are His judgments, so again, referring to this thing about judgment because, as I was starting to say and didn’t quite get to it, we all have to go through this where we come to recognize that this process we have to go through from that transition of man ruling himself to God’s rule is a hard thing. Life has been hard though for 6,000 years for mankind, and there have been times of incredible hardship. There has been times of exceedingly long wars that have been fought, decades and decades long, and the loss of life, the loss of limb, the loss of so many things when people suffer like they do, that which happens to the mind because of this. Because in war it isn’t just the loss of certain things in life, it is life itself, but those who live maimed, whatever happens to them, but it’s in the mind, too. Those who survive, those who come through it, it does horrible things to the mind.

Those things have gone on for so long. What happens at the end? Yes, it’s hard, but it’s short lived. Widespread, massively destructive, yes, but it’s short lived. It doesn’t last long. It’s not like so many wars have been. Exceedingly devastating, possibly into the billions upon billions, yes, yes, yes. But God’s judgments are righteous, because there is great purpose in why He’s going to allow a third of mankind to destroy himself before He even intervenes.

So it’s going to be so massive that God allows this because there are things we have to learn. There are things that have to be embedded in our minds, for those who live into the Millennium and for those who are resurrected that are able to look at their time periods of when they lived and then come to understand the history of 6,000 years and why it had to be this way, why this was best. Because it takes that. God knows how to measure things to a level, to a point to receive the maximum benefit in the sense of that which is beneficial to a mind becoming converted and desiring to become a part of Elohim.

So for that to happen to that degree, to that level is of necessity, to drive it home mightily to mankind, because this isn’t the end of life. It’s the end of a carnal, selfish life, but for all those who die they’re going to be resurrected to a life where yes, they’ll still have carnality, but they have the ability to conquer it now just like we do in the Church, the opportunity to conquer it. The longer you’re in God’s Church the more you conquer the happier life becomes. Those of you who strive and apply God’s laws, learn to have right relationships, learn how to correct the kinds of mistakes you make in your life and have made in your life, learn to live better, you become blessed, your mind begins to be healed in a way that can be healed in no other manner.

Indeed, when it says these things we need to understand what it’s saying. “Righteous are His judgments,” see, in everything He’s done. It starts here by showing what He does: because He has judged the great harlot, the great harlot. There are going to be a lot of destruction bringing down things that happen in Europe, that happen to those who trust in their religion, who think that they understand the Bible. Those things are going to be crushed and have it revealed to them slowly but surely, not only that, but it’s all been false! They’ve truly latched onto and believed that which is false!

Now, that’s a good thing, because to come to that kind of a realization on a massive scale it helps one to come to a humble state of mind quickly...quickly! That desperation of mind, of what was trusted in, of what it knew...it knew! ...and now finds out it didn’t know anything? Wow, that’s a blessing, an awesome blessing that God can work with. To take the mind from a state of being exceedingly prideful that He can’t work with to one of humility – righteous are God’s judgments and how God does what He does. He knows His creation. He knows how to mold and fashion His creation. As long as we haven’t gone too far in the corruption of our own minds by the stupid, foolish, wrong, evil choices that we make as human beings then God can work with a mind and save individuals, if they will receive what He offers to them at some point in time, whether it be the beginning of the Millennium or at the Great White Throne that we’re talking about today.

It says, He has judged the great harlot... Now, you think about, again, as I mentioned earlier, the disciples they wouldn’t have known this. What does this mean, “the great harlot?” It wasn’t around. That came several hundred years later, at least with power and ability and strength that it began to have, and even at the beginning wouldn’t have been known for what it truly became later, as massive as it became.

For true and righteous are His judgments because He has judged the great harlot who corrupted the earth with her fornication. They never experienced any of that. They wouldn’t have known what that meant. All the daughters when it talks about harlots, the great harlot and then all of her daughters that popped up, that sprang out of her? Well, we understand what that means today, but going back several hundred years people had no idea, wouldn’t have had any idea, not even in the Church what this was about, in many respects.

Then it goes on to say, and He has avenged on her the blood of His servants shed by her. In time, literally, people’s lives were taken who believed the truth, who were called into the Church. Some early on, yes, but as time went on that oppression, that which came from that false religious body began to persecute God’s Church even far more greatly in time. It happened at various periods of time and even by some of the daughters that sprang out of her. They began to persecute God’s Church and shed her blood, literally, physically, but also spiritually.

Because I think especially of Thyatira and what happened during that period, by the end of it when we went into Sardis, when the printing press became a part of the world and people began to delve into their ideas of what scripture was saying because it hadn’t been available to them like it was then. Then it became more available, and the more that technology grew the more that people were able to delve into it of different kind of religious beliefs began to spring up and pop up and that caused a lot of devastation upon God’s Church, of people who were pulled away from the truth. Spiritually that’s referred to as the shedding of blood as well. So these things we understand. The world doesn’t.

And they said, Alleluia! Her smoke rises up forever and ever! Until it’s over with, which, smoke burning, in this respect, has the meaning of total destruction. It means you see something burning and until it’s fully burned up its smoke just keeps rising. In other words, nothing can put it out, meaning that it’s going to be brought to a complete end. It’s not going to be allowed to be partially burned, you know, half of it burnt, but totally burned up. So its smoke is going to rise until it’s finished being burnt, meaning destroyed.

So again here, not physical things. Some of this is going to happen in the Great White Throne because people are going to be resurrected who have that same mind they had when they died of this corruption that’s in their mind, of these things that are wrong, even the teachers of it and so that way has to be destroyed. It will be done so by individuals making right choices, by choosing themselves to destroy it, to have it destroyed. One way or another it will become destroyed. Those who don’t choose that? It’ll still be destroyed. That will be literal physical as well as spiritual in meaning because it’s going to be complete until it’s done.

So, “her smoke rises forever.” So again here, the apostles, they wouldn’t have known any of these things, what it was talking about.

Verse 4—And the twenty-four elders and the four living creatures fell down and worshiped God who sat on the throne, saying, Amen! “So be it!” “So be it.” It’s an agreement, “so be it.” When you say “amen” in services you’re saying you’re agreeing with what has been said; you’re a part of it. You’re in agreement with it. It is your prayer as well, as what you are desiring as your petition to God. You’re in agreement with what has just been said. That is your desire. That is your prayer because you said “amen.” You own it, see? This is what they’re saying, “Amen!” “In agreement.” “True and righteous are Your judgments,” and on and on it goes here.

So this worshipping God, these things that are stated. For them to come to this point then, Alleluia! Then a voice came from the throne, saying, Praise our God, all you His servants and those who fear Him, both small and great! Whether it be those of human beings, those who are in the Church, to be His servants can be on a spiritual plane within the Church. Physical human beings, referring to physical human beings, but those who are in the Church, servants of God, called to serve, called to be involved in God’s work. So much of that is in ourselves, of yielding ourselves to become a part of Elohim, of conquering and overcoming self.

...all you His servants, and those who fear Him, both small and great! Even in the angelic realm it’s a matter of rejoicing before God.

And I heard, as it were, the voice of a great multitude, and the sound of many waters and as the sound of mighty thunderings, saying, Hallelujah! A time to rejoice before God, a time to praise God, uniquely so. A time of such great change on the earth – from 6,000 years of suffering, of bondage, to a time of freedom, of being made free. For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns! Finally, after 6,000 years, through His Son and through the 144,000, God’s government that has been worked with, molded and fashioned and established and then returns with Christ. That’s what it’s talking about. “For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns!” Christ is going to ensure... He comes back with a rod of iron, with great power to take and destroy those who are destroying the earth, to finish that, to indeed correct mightily those who won’t obey, those who won’t yield to that government, those who fight and resist against it. God talks about how there won’t be rain come upon them. They’re going to suffer. They’re going to suffer because of stupid choices and so forth. Then if they can’t learn by that when all the rest of the world is being blessed around them, if they can’t be humbled by that process then God makes it clear they’re just going to be destroyed.

Some of that will happen at some stages at the beginning of the Millennium because of carnal human nature, because people are so steeped in their ideologies, their religious beliefs, whatever it might be.

So again here, “For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns!” Christ is now King of kings and one Church is going to be established. What an awesome thing. One government. Not other governments that are going to be allowed to rise up. No, no despots, nobody that takes control of anything, allowed to take control of government like happens in some nations where individuals come in and totally by their armies, by their different ones that they have, and totally take over a government. It’s not going to be allowed to happen anymore. There aren’t going to be any elections of who is going to be elected to put in office. Not going to be any political parties. All that garbage is going to be done away with.

For the Lord God Omnipotent reigns. Let us be glad and rejoice and give Him glory... Finally, after so much suffering for 6,000 years, and people arguing over what are the best solutions to their problems. Because everybody out here, especially politicians, they know, they say they know what’s best. Then they don’t do what they think they know in the first place or what they claim that they were going to do. So often it’s a pack of lies just to have the office, just to have the power, just to have the money that goes with it, whatever it might be. People deceive themselves into thinking they’re doing the noble and right things, and sometimes people surely have in their hearts some of those things. But so often that’s not the case. That’s not the primary objective; first, it’s to get elected. So how do you do that?

So we don’t have to worry about that in the future. God establishes the government. Joshua the Christ will establish the government under the 144,000. Individuals will be placed, chosen and placed into areas of service and help. It’ll be areas of service which will be a matter of governing, but it’ll be done the right way.

So be glad and rejoice, and give Him glory, for the marriage of the Lamb has come. Finally, God’s government. That’s what this is about, the first of the firstfruits, the wave loaves, now a part of God’s government and able to govern around the world throughout all the nations of the world.

…the marriage of the Lamb has come and his wife has made herself ready. So, been going on for 6,000 years, especially the last two as far as an organization of a Church, the Body of Christ. She’s been made ready even as we’re doing now. Because we know we’re to be made ready. Those who live on into in a physical world, in the sense of physical life, and those who are desiring and having being worked with – I should say, being worked with by God to be a part of the firstfruits. Because that’s a matter of God’s calling and God’s choosing, in that respect, for specific things.

Verse 8—And to her was granted to be arrayed in fine linen, clean and bright, for the fine linen is the righteousness/righteous acts, as it says in one version here, of the saints. So it’s how people lived. Not being fully righteous, but being forgiven, but striving for that, striving to live right in relationships, learning to make things right, learning how to live right, striving to live right, striving to live better before God, having sins come of the surface, being able to see those things when the fire is there and the dross comes up and then our active part in repenting of those things and seeking to get rid of them. God blesses us in that process.

So here it’s talking about this first great resurrection that takes place before the Millennium is established. We understand that.

Then he said to me, Write: Blessed are those who are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb! And he said to me, These are the true sayings of God. And I fell at his feet to worship him. And he said to me, See that you do not do that! I am, as it is here, a fellow servant. It’s a word that really means a servant together with you and with your brethren who have the testimony of Joshua. So again here, some of those things being stated here that God hasn’t even fully revealed totally all that’s here, but we see far more than any other age of people and we know what this applies to. It’s specifically about that which is to happen up to the very end of this age, to have the witness in our lives, the truth of God, the truth of Christ’s life, the truth of the process of salvation living within us. It’s about what’s living within us.

It says, Worship God! For the testimony of Joshua is the spirit of prophecy. Everything that we’ve gone through, everything about the holy days, everything about this process that has ever been revealed, starting with Passover, Unleavened Bread, Pentecost, it’s all about a process here of salvation. It’s about a process of God’s plan and purpose for all. It is about that which is prophetic, a spirit that leads to the fulfillment of things, and it’s about God’s plan, the ability to know that plan, the ability to see that plan, live accordingly in the hope of that plan because it’s real to us and so we live our lives accordingly to the present truth that God gives to us.

Now I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse. And he who sat on him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he judges and makes war. So again, being in harmony with that, in unity with that, realizing that’s merciful. It’s merciful to have that destroyed which must be destroyed, “that’s destroying the earth,” to bring an end because that’s the only way that it can be brought to a point of greater humility, of some parts of it just having to be defeated so that now they can begin to receive what is true, because otherwise they would just continue to fight.

So just because God begins to intervene doesn’t mean that people will accept it right away. On the contrary. There is massive destruction that has to take place even after God intervenes because that reveals the truth about what human nature is like. People are going to fight against Christ! People are going to fight against what they’re hearing. Because that means they’re going to have everything stripped from them, their power, their armies, what they see as their sovereign right. No, they have no rights after that, in that respect, as far as their own way. It’s God’s way. It’s the truth. It’s how people can live together in peace and harmony. Amen to that, you know.

True and Righteous are his judgments, in essence. In righteousness he judges and makes war. His eyes were like a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns. Ruler over all nations indeed. Not literal physical, but what it pictures. And he had a name written that no one knew except himself. Don’t know what that is. Whether he knows it now, I don’t know, but he knows what it is when it happens and maybe in time this will be revealed, what it’s all about. Don’t know.

Verse 13—He was clothed with a robe dipped in blood, and his name is called The Word of God. So we know, it’s so clear, who it’s about. “The Word of God was made flesh.” He has that name. He has that place, uniquely so.

And the armies in heaven, again here, these things weren’t known to the early Church. They didn’t know what this was about. They had no idea about the timing of when the Messiah was going to come, when Christ, whom they knew, as a whole, when he was going to come back. They were looking for that. But they had no idea it was going to be so long and what all these things here mean then.

It says, And the armies in heaven... They had no idea about 144,000 and what that entailed. Even within the Church in Philadelphia we didn’t know what that was. There were guesstimates and ideas about what it might be and how large the Church had to be in order to accomplish this, but really didn’t even know. Didn’t know until God stabilized and raised up a remnant Church, and then He revealed to them the 144,000 and the great multitude are one and the same. It’s the same body that returns with Christ, 144,000 through 6,000 years, not out of the last era or the last two eras or whatever or out of the Philadelphian era but out of 6,000 years. Something that you know now, see more clearly now, understand now because God’s given it to us at this final end-time during this countdown stage up to Christ’s coming. But they didn’t know these things. Philadelphia, Laodicea didn’t know this!

And the armies in heaven clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed him on white horses. So again here, going to return, going to be a part of what Christ does as he returns. Don’t know what all that entails yet but it’ll be shown to us, it’ll be given to us just like that and we’ll be a part of whatever it is, even a part of destroying those who are destroying the earth and putting a stop to everything quickly.

Now out of his mouth goes a sharp sword, that with it he should strike the nations. So it has great meaning because right away at that moment in time they’re still going to be some suppression, putting down of armies, putting down of those who are still resisting and destroying the earth. That’s going to happen even after he returns. But more of what this has to do with, far more, is that which is a matter of His word, God’s word, and a sharp sword that strikes the nations. Because, you talk about striking the nations, because they have to change everything! Everything has to be changed! The form of government. The form of economies. The form of how people work together, corporations, everything, the economic system, religious ideas and beliefs. Strike the nation’s big time.

And he himself will rule them with a rod of iron. So it’s with power, incredible power. When it’s needed it’s there.

He himself treads the winepress of the fierceness of the wrath of Almighty God. Again here, even in this picture here, when it talks about a wine press and it’s like grapes being stomped on and the juice flowing out, it’s about mankind, and the winepress of God and the blood that flows out upon the earth. Because this is going to be a massive thing that happens before Christ’s rule becomes fully established.

And he has on his robe and on his thigh a name written: KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS. So we know these things, the beginning of the Millennium, the establishment of God’s government on earth, the destruction of man’s government and the putting down of  man’s government, the ending of man’s government, of man ruling himself.

Verse 17—Then I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the birds that fly in the midst of heaven, Come and gather together for the supper of the great God, that you may eat the flesh of kings, the flesh of captains, the flesh of mighty men, the flesh of horses and of those who sit on them, and the flesh of all people, free and slave, both small and great. It encompasses all of mankind, all levels, all peoples. So no one is spared, in that sense, whether it be armies, whether it be religion, whether it be race, whatever it is, education, it doesn’t matter, people are going to go through a horrifying time. Those great birds – we think of vultures, we think of different ones that eat flesh that help to clean up. Well, there’s going to be a lot. That’s the point of it.

And I saw the beast, the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against him who sat on the horse and against his army. So it shows here that it’s not welcome. It’s shown here, especially as they come to understand some of it, but even when they don’t understand, but even more so when they do come to understand the nature is still to fight against it because they don’t want to give up what they think they have even to the bitter end. So they’ll have a bitter end because God’s Kingdom is going to be established.

So when we read such things it’s oftentimes lost on us just how incredibly blessed we are now to be able to see what we actually know and understand that clearly the early Church did not. How blessed are you? Hopefully this is able to be received more fully in this Feast of Tabernacles, in this Last Great Day, than ever before in our lives so that we can take away a gratefulness, an appreciation, a thanking God, a rejoicing before God, especially for whenever this begins, to thank God, hallelujah, finally. Not because we want to see horrifying things happen but it’s because that’s the only way that it can happen, that those horrifying things must take place. True and righteous are God’s judgments. It’s the only way for man to receive the King of kings and the Kingdom of God to rule over them, to be humbled. It takes a lot to humble mankind around the world in this manner.

Now we go on to Revelation 20:1—Then I saw an angel come down, as it says here, from heaven, having the key of the, it’s not a bottomless pit, but it’s an abyss; it’s a place of restraint, and a great chain in his hand. You know, the ideas that people come up with and sometimes it’s almost comical because they have to come up with something physical that they think this might be about, and you know, this hell and this hole and this pit. ...and a great chain in his hand. And he lay hold of the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil and Satan, and bound him.... So often times here too this word here, so that you understand, this word for “angel” is a word that is about a messenger. It can be about even apostles, it can be about different things in the Church, but here it can have other meaning as well. So again, just throw that out there.

Again, laid hold of that old serpent, the Devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years. What an awesome thing, a world without Satan. That one there we really can’t even grasp because we know some things that he has done, but to grasp the magnitude of it all, the power that he has, the power of the demonic world that will be, as it were, imprisoned with him for a thousand years to where that can’t harass mankind, it can’t broadcast to mankind anymore. Just the peace that comes from that, from the cessation of his evil and what he does is going to have an incredible impact on the earth, an incredible impact on human beings because it won’t be around anymore. That in itself is so gargantuan in its magnitude and importance, and effect that it’s going to have.

...and cast him, as it says here in verse 3—and cast him into the abyss, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should not deceive the nations anymore until the thousand years should be fulfilled. So he’s going to stay there until after a thousand years. Even in these things God’s given us better insight and understanding in the last few years about what some of these things entail and the process of how some of this is going to take place. We don’t know it all but it’s clearer now than it ever has been.

Now the thousand years. We know what that brings us up to. It brings us up to that final great day, the last day of mankind. It’s not a millennial period. It’s not like the 7,000 years and the seven day plan that God has given, the 7,000-year plan. There is that number seven that’s used to show that which is complete – the seven day week, the Sabbath that is God’s, the thousand years that is God’s, time for God’s rule and God’s truth to be given. We have a thousand years of that. But then there is one more period of time, referred to as a day, it’s a great day, it’s the last day, if you will, the last days, or the last day of mankind to have existence. Because when this day is finally over there’ll never be human life again.  That’s incredible to understand, to even think about is difficult, to understand that what remains will be God’s family, Elohim, at the end of that hundred years.

But there are some things that have to take place and so for that thousand years this being isn’t around and he isn’t around in the following hundred years, during that last day, okay? Because it says here he’s bound for a thousand years but it doesn’t get specific as to the number of days or the specific period of time that can overlap here, if you will, a little past. It just says he’s going to be bound that long. It doesn’t say 2,000 years, it just lumps it out here a thousand years. It doesn’t say 1,100, it just says a thousand because it’s a matter of that which applies to God’s purpose of revelation here about a plan that is laid out and then this is added to it. This is added to it. This is something extra. This is something beyond.

...and after that he must be let loose for a little season, for a short time. So at some point it’s going to happen, some point. But at the beginning of that hundred years he’s not around. But at some point in there before it’s all over, before the end of mankind on the earth he’s going to be let loose. Doesn’t say when.

And I saw thrones, and they sat upon them, and judgment was given to them. And I saw the souls/the lives of those who had been beheaded, just a word that means “to be cut off,” means cut off. It doesn’t mean that they lost their heads. Some people did. Just like John the Baptist, we know what happened to him earlier on. So some people did, but that is not what this is about. It’s just like what we grasp and comprehend when individuals are cut off from the flow of God’s spirit. That’s the word that’s used. They’re not beheaded they’re cut off from the flow of God’s spirit, they’re cut off from the Church, they’re cut off from fellowship, they’re disfellowshipped.

Well, it’s a reverse kind of an example here now that’s being used here when it speaks of those who have lived God’s way life and are cut off from the world, they’re not received by the world. So their relationships are no longer in the world, they’re cut off from the world. They have a different life. They have a different life, one that’s filled with a right way of life, striving to live right according to God’s laws.

So again here, they’re cut off for the witness of Joshua, because that’s what they’re living, that life that’s in them, Joshua the Christ, God the Father dwelling in them and they, likewise, in God and in Christ. There’s that process of dwelling in one another within the Church and that’s what this is about.

So again here, for the witness of Joshua, in this case that that life is living within them. That’s what it means to have the witness of Joshua in us, that life, that spirit life is living and dwelling in us. What we’re living then is reflective of that life. We’re witness; our life is testimony or witness to him, to what he does in our life, him and his Father.

...for the word of God, and which had not worshiped the beast neither his image, neither had received the mark upon their foreheads. On the contrary, they rejected those things; they were called out of those things and remain called out. Some went back, but they’re not a part of this. So those who continued on and didn’t receive those, that evil into their life, but fought against it, conquered it, and overcame it. So it says here, neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads or in their hands. And they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. So again here, speaking of this period of time over the past 6,000 years of those who are going to be resurrected to return with Christ at his coming, those will reign with Christ for a thousand years.

Verse 5—But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. When you understand it, it’s so clear, but for those who read something like this, “Well, who are the rest of the dead?” Well, the rest of the dead besides these, besides these that return with Christ, besides these who reign with Christ for a thousand years. They were the ones resurrected from the dead in the first resurrection. All the rest of the dead over 6,000 years plus.

But the rest of the dead... Because up to this point in time it doesn’t count the next thousand years. It’s just counting the past 6,000 years. It’s making clear what happens at his return, that a thousand years is established, the reign of Christ and of those who come with him, 144,000, and that is the thousand year reign that it’s speaking of. So the rest of the dead, though, who weren’t a part of that resurrection, they’re still dead. They’re still dead until later on, “until the thousand years were finished.” Then we know what happens. We know there is an incredibly great resurrection – not a spiritual one. There will be one for the Church, for those who have lived through the thousand years, but this one here, we understand, concerning what’s getting ready to follow here of those who were dead, who have the opportunity to live in a physical life for the next hundred years to receive what is true, to conquer and overcome what was wrong...if they so choose. Matter of choices.

So again, it says, This is the first resurrection. In other words, of those who lived and reigned with Christ for a thousand years, those who had been dead.

So what did this mean to the early apostles? Well, they didn’t have these words even. John is the only one of them that had these words and he had to wonder about them, indeed.

Verse 6—Blessed and holy is he who has part in the first resurrection. Of such the second death has no power. The second death. You’d think that’d be a question that Christianity would want to answer, so don’t even address it because it’s a mystery. What does it mean? Well, how blessed are we to see and to know what this means, the second death? To understand that people are going to live twice? Even there the early Church didn’t have a whole lot of knowledge of what was going to take place and what wasn’t. ...on such... Because God has progressively revealed His truth. How blessed are you to know and to see what you see?

So again, on such the second death has no power. So again, making it very obvious here that those who are in the first resurrection it’s to a spirit life, they’ll never die. They are spirit. They have age-lasting life. They’re not going to experience a physical life again but there are those who are going to experience a physical life because they’re going to be able to die a second time, the rest of the dead who are resurrected to a second life.

Those things have come to light at the end of an age. During Philadelphia they began to come to light. God began to reveal them to His apostle, Herbert W. Armstrong, and He’s continued to bless us to build upon those things even after Laodicea. Nothing new, nothing more was ever given during Laodicea, nothing, but it was after the Apostasy.

But, it says, they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years. So driving that point home again here about that 144,000 and their reign with Christ for that thousand years.

And when the thousand years have expired, come to an end, in other words, when they’re fulfilled, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison... Now, sometimes people get so caught up in dates or timing to a point of, well, when is exactly 6,000 years? I don’t think that’s the big thing. It’s in God’s timing and it’ll be closer to 6,000 than 7,000, closer to 6,000 than 5,000, but very close to 6,000. The exact day? Don’t know. Don’t know. Maybe not. Maybe? So we don’t have to worry about those things. That’s in God’s hands and only God knows. Only God knows anyway, as a whole, as it were.

Again here it says, and when the thousand years have expired Satan will be loosed out of his prison... So he’ll be released from that bondage that he’s in, the abyss that he’s in, that place of restraint that he’s in, him and the demonic world. But it doesn’t say immediately. It just makes it clear here that when these things are finished there will come a time when he’s going to be released. But the thousand years have to be complete for sure. So during the Millennium he won’t be around, but there comes a time afterward, after those days have ended.

So that can happen, if we were looking at it, indeed, he’s going to be let loose for a short season, as it is, but it doesn’t say at the beginning of the hundred years. It doesn’t say that immediately when the thousand years are complete. It just says there comes that point after that period is over with that this is going to happen.

...so when the thousand years have expired, come to an end, fulfilled, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison, and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog... So we’ve gone through the meaning of those things. They’re spiritual in what they mean. They’re not literal, physical locations that we understand where those peoples of the earth or where those places on the earth are today if we were looking at it physically prophetically. But we’re not. It’s that which is spiritual and that has already been given to us in times past, of the different kind of mindsets that are out there, the different kind of thinking that is out there and so forth that will even be there toward the end of the hundred years.

The thing about it is, is just because there is a Great White Throne doesn’t mean it’s not a utopia. It’s a much better world. It’s a much better place than what it was during most of the thousand years because of what God has prepared the world for.

Sometimes we think we have it all down pat. Well, just wait. We’ll get there. There is going to be a time we’re going to look back and say, “Where did it go, a thousand years?” We do that at the Feast. “Man, where did those seven days go?” When you live time like that it’s going to be unique. But it will be like that, in a sense. It’s going to be, “Wow! This is the next phase of God’s plan then.” Then what’s after that? Well, we don’t even need to know. God will give it to us when we get there but it’ll be more exciting than anything we’ve ever had.

So it says here that he’s let loose upon the earth, goes out to Gog and Magog, speaking of mindsets and where people are and where they think and why they think the way they do. Because not all are going to receive this. That’s kind of a bit of a mind boggling thing here. Not all are going to be convicted that this is what they want into age-lasting life, God’s way. Think, how can that be? Well, choices that are there. Physical, carnal minds just have to make choices and not all are going to choose the right thing.

So, they gather themselves together to battle, the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.  So there is going to be a lot...a lot! And they went out to the breadth of the earth (Revelation 20:9) and encompassed the camp of the saints about and the beloved city. And fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured/consumed them. And the devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where as the beast and the false prophet were.

So again here, it’s talking about that which is totally destroyed, a system that was destroyed, because all this, finally, this is the end of it all. This is about a destruction that still has to go on, that has to take place in order to completely destroy – that smoke that rises up forever and ever, that until it’s fully burnt, until it’s fully destroyed – this is the final part of that, this is the end of that, finally, that which remains of the Babylonish system, that remains of the system of those who just didn’t want God and still wanted their own way deep down inside.

You know, we’ve seen that in God’s Church. Different ones who hid things for years and years and years. I think of ministers who hid their belief about a 14/15 because they knew if they taught it they’d get in trouble. Because some ministers got in trouble, got put out for it. Some ministers were dealt with and able to remain in the Church but weren’t able to be ministers any longer. So there were things that happened and so people out there they realized, “I can’t teach this. I’m going to end up in the same place.” So they’re more concerned about this job and this is all they knew and never had a different occupation so, anyway, sometimes people will do things for wrong reasons, obviously.

Different ones suppressed it, they didn’t teach it. That’s why when the Apostasy happened certain things came out that were already deep in the hearts of individuals. The things that so many did when they went back to what they came out of, it’s because it was so deep inside of them. That’s what they really wanted.

Some came to the point where they hated, I mean hated Mr. Armstrong. Ministers! Insanity, you think. People in the church, different ones who hated this way. They really didn’t want, they didn’t like this way. They’d rather have what they had, what they came out of, like going back into Egypt with the flesh pots and “I’d rather have the tree. I’d rather have...” whatever it is. “I’d rather worship God on whatever day I want to, be like the world, to be accepted, because this is just too hard,” and the other made a little more sense to them in a distorted, carnal way. Sometimes that’s just hard to grasp. Well, you don’t have to try to grasp it, it’s just a total perversion of wrong choices in the human mind! That’s going to exist in the hundred years.

And shall be tormented day and night forever and ever. So who is? Well, there is that being that knows what’s coming and knows what’s going to happen. He’s been told what’s happened, knows that God will bring about what He says He’s going to bring about. He always has. They’ve witnessed it, some for millions of years. Incredible!

And I saw a great white throne and He sat on it, from whose face the earth and the heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God, and the books were opened. Beautiful verses here but you can’t understand them, you can’t even begin to grasp what this is about unless God reveals what certain things mean in other areas of scripture. But even there God had to give by inspiration the purpose and the meaning of these things to be seen clearly, of what happens, about a second death, there has to be a second life, and then a timing of those things begin to fit in out of Isaiah. God gave it to Mr. Armstrong to see clearly the Great White Throne, more clearly what it was.

We have that blessing with us today, something the early Church never had. Do we have to have it for salvation? No. But wow, what a beautiful thing at the end of an age before the Millennium is established so that we can see in a clearer way what’s coming and why God has done all that He has, and then the hope and what’s going to happen to all who die and how they do it, and to see it’s a beautiful thing when they’re resurrected whole and have an opportunity to receive what we have in the Church today when we were called. They just have to wait a while for it, but they’re going to be totally healthy and whole and complete at that time and be blessed and protected in a world that we don’t have right now. We live in a hideous world. They’re going to live in a beautiful world.

It says the books were opened, And another book was opened, which is the Book of Life. So it’s just a simple way of saying, a physical way, not a carnal way, but a physical way of saying something that with God’s spirit we can understand. For the first time this book was opened, the books that are in here, it was opened. What does that mean? Oh, open it up. No. It means it’s opened up here. They can see it. They can know it now. They can receive it, whereas before they never have been able to. Now it’s in their mind and they can receive the truth. They make choices according to that and they’re judged according to that.

And the dead were judged out of those things. The dead? Well, they were dead. Now they’re going to be judged out of what they’ve been given to see and know, just like we are when we’re called, when judgment now is upon the house of God because our minds are opened to the books that are written here. See, that’s what it means. Simple.

...according to their works... What do you do? What choices do you make? That’s how we’re judged.

And the sea gave up the dead who were in it, and death and the grave delivered up the dead who were in them. See, it’s not hell, it’s the grave. All the dead, they’re not dead anymore. Everyone who has ever lived, in that respect, who are going to be given this opportunity in time, who don’t have some other kind of judgment, they’re going to be able to have this opportunity for the hundred years.

And death and the grave delivered up the dead who were in them, and they were judged, everyone according to their works. You think about people who say you don’t have to have works. Everybody has to have works. If you believe in Buddha you have works that relate to Buddha. If you believe in Hinduism, if you believe in those things, then you live according to that. That’s how you live your life, if you believe in whatever, different things of traditional Christianity or the Catholic Church or, you know, this place that you’re not even heaven and hell but they’ve got this little place in between where people get stuck sometimes and have to be prayed out of it, hopefully. They’re still judged, I shouldn’t say they’re judged, but they have works according to their beliefs.

People who say you don’t have to have works, it’s a stupid argument. It really is a very dumb argument when you see it for what it is. It’s not an argument at all. It’s totally flawed.

Death and the grave were cast into the lake of fire. So again here, everyone is judged. It finally comes to a final point here and when it’s all said and done everything comes to an end, the human life comes to an end. This is the second death. So everyone is judged according to what they have. Finally, life comes to a time of judgment here and people are judged according to their works. Some are going to have a second death, in that respect. As far as a human body is concerned, as far as life is concerned, it will stop. Others, there is going to be a change. There is going to be a change from mortal to immortal.

And whoever was not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire. So that’s one side of the judgment, burned up. It has to do with that which has no life ever again, burned up, the flames, the smoke goes up forever and ever, meaning that there even for them they’re life comes to an end, there won’t be any more life.

But for others, vast numbers, billions and billions have the opportunity of being changed from mortal to immortal because they are judged in a matter of righteousness, that they have done what those who were in the first resurrection did. They have been able to conquer and overcome self. They’ve been blessed with God’s spirit in their life to the point where God can say, “Now I know you,” and they’re resurrected to age-lasting life.

So indeed, God has progressively revealed His plan and purpose to His people through time and the Last Great Day hasn’t had much revealed about it over time until this end-time starting with Mr. Armstrong and the age of Philadelphia. That’s why I marvel at one scripture, area of scripture that God gave to Mr. Armstrong to see, and that’s in Isaiah 65.

So we’ll turn over there, Isaiah 65, and read what is stated there. Though we know these things we’re to look at these things. We’re to review them because every year parts of God’s plan should become more deeply embedded in our being in the sense of the gratification, the thankfulness for what we see, to be able to see things on a broader scale, more sure, greater hope, more that’s absolute in our thinking which in turn gives us greater peace and greater thankfulness toward God and being able to say, “Just and righteous are God’s judgments, what God does.” There is a peace in that and a relationship and a oneness with God in those things when we’re able to grow in that year by year by year.

Isaiah 65:17—For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former shall not be remembered nor come into mind. So there is a creation of God, and candidly, it’s about the creation of Elohim, because that’s the objective. So for a time there is life on earth. For a time there is physical life of human beings on the earth, 7,100 years and that’s it. That’s all it takes. After that, the God family will be complete. God’s creation of the God family will be complete. But it will go through that long process in order to do what He has set out to do before anything was ever created, before a spirit realm was created, before spirit beings were created, before a physical universe was created, before this earth and mankind was put on this earth. Incredible to grasp and understand.

So God says, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former shall not be remembered nor come into mind, in other words, the heart. The things of the past, the suffering, that’s gone. The things we went through to get where we are it was just a little blurb in our life to get us where we chose we wanted to be, when we were offered those choices, when we’re together in the family.

But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create; that’s God’s desire, that we be able to be glad and rejoice forever in God’s creation, that we’re in His family, and that rejoicing to continue on through all time.

For behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing. Spiritual Jerusalem. Peace. The City of Peace. The place of peace. God’s creation of, which is more of what the word means anyway, of peace that we’re a part of. And her people a joy.

Verse 19—And I will rejoice in Jerusalem... God has been looking forward to this for a long, long time and it’s getting closer. And joy in My people; and the voice of weeping shall no more be heard in her, nor the voice of crying. See, this isn’t just something we can say, “Oh, that’s the Great White Throne.” No, this is beyond the Great White Throne because as long as there are human beings there is still going to be some crying, still some weeping. There is still going to be some things that happen. The Great White Throne is not spirit life. People still have carnal nature. They’re going to have arguments. They’re going to have disagreements. Not everyone chooses God’s way. That’s why Satan and the demonic world is able to do what they do. It’s kind of like the final phase of cleansing the earth because they’re able to pull in all the debris after them and it become clear then this is who they are, this is what they have chosen.

Like the Apostasy did, it became clear then. When that being does what he does it becomes clear then, it’s made manifest. God’s judgments are righteous and those who are to end life, have no future life, no more life, it’ll become abundantly clear then. Those who are able to have that said by God, in essence, on a spirit plane, “Now I know you,” well, awesome.

No more shall there be an infant of a day, or an old man who has not fulfilled his days; beautiful expressions here, For the child shall die a hundred years old. So any child that’s resurrected, who maybe just had part of a day of life, they’re going to be able to live a hundred years. That’s what this is talking about.

And the sinner being a hundred years old shall be accursed. So making clear here, regardless if it be a child who has come to a hundred years and they don’t receive God’s way of life, that’s it. This is the time of judgment; no more life. By this we also understand whatever age anyone is that they have this period of time then within this frame, that hundred years, to change, to grow, to conquer and to overcome. God making it very clear that it’s going to last for a hundred years.

And they shall build houses and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them. They shall not build and another inhabit, which so many of them had experienced in their lifetimes. So many billions who experienced these things happening in their lifetime, now they live in a world that couldn’t even begin to be dreamed of or imagined with the kind of technology that will be there, with the kind of beauty on this earth, when deserts, as a whole, as it were, are habitable, where there are things that have plenty of water where there aren’t places that are just arid and nothing growing. Mankind is going to be able to beautify this earth mightily during the Millennial period. What people are resurrected to, to see, it’s going to be hard for them to grasp that this is the same place they’d lived.

They shall not plant and another eat; For as the days of a tree are the days of My people, and My elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. Those who come through it all, the select, those who come to the point where God says, “Now I know you,” they’re going to enjoy life from then on.

They shall not labor in vain, nor bear children into trouble; speaking of that which happens then at this period of time, at the beginning of it. So it’s showing here the contrast of things that have happened from beginning to end and during that period and so forth.

It says, They shall not labor in vain, nor bring children into trouble. So during that period of time there aren’t going to be the problems that people have experienced before they died, if they experienced them at all, because a baby never experiences life, but now they will. They’ll learn things that the human mind has never been exposed to before, in the sense of beauty and awesomeness on this earth.

For they are the seed of the blessed of the Eternal. So again, They shall not labor in vain, nor bear children into trouble. So there aren’t any children born during that hundred year period, and even if they did they wouldn’t be born into trouble, into what had happened in the previous 6,000 years because there’s going to be a lot of hardship, heartaches, and so forth, in life, in the kind of world that’s not governed by God, like the world they came out of, the 6,000 years that they’d lived in previously.

For they are the seed of the blessed of the Eternal, and their offspring with them. What an incredible thing. Families! You know, now a day it’s kind of exciting to think about what your lineage might be. You might learn things about things of your past and so you can have a blood test done and they can go back through and look at genealogy, they can look back and give you percentages of what makes up your DNA. But here, this surpasses that by light years, in that sense, by comparison, because now people are going to know their lineage. They’re going to be able to visit with them. They’re going to come to know different ones. “Oh, you were my great, great grandpa.” “Oh, you’re my great, great, great, great, great grandchild?” whatever, how many “greats” there are. All that lineage is going to be tied together. All history is going to be there because everyone who’s ever lived they’re going to know what happened, they’re going to know, so that’s what it’s talking about “and their offspring with them.”

And it shall come to pass that before they call, I will answer; and while they are speaking, I will hear. God’s presence is there. They’re blessed to have God’s presence in a way that no others have ever experienced to this magnitude and degree because before that, even in the thousand years before that, there were only 144,000 plus one who had come from mankind, one being the Son of God coming from God, but of all the 144,000 there weren’t that many on the earth, even them. But now all the millions, potential billions that might be there to serve, to be a part? The God family is going to have presence in the Great White Throne and we don’t understand that yet. Again, a lot of that might not be given until we get closer to this time.

The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock. Now, there was a time when they thought, people thought this was about the Millennium. No, it’s not about the Millennium, it’s about the Great White Throne. The Millennium is a continuation of the earth the way it is except with God’s government, greater technology growing, yes, but not the change of animal nature and so forth that’s going to happen during the Millennium, like is taking place here where it talks about a lamb and a wolf lying down together. The wolf isn’t aggressive to want to eat because right now in their eyes it’s food. Then it won’t be food.

“A lion will eat straw like the bullock.” Things have to change in their makeup. I don’t understand that but God’s going to do that.

And dust shall be the serpent’s meat. It has some other meanings to it.

They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, says the Eternal. So there is protection that’s given here because basically, the bottom line is, that people are guaranteed life for a hundred years. So because of that there is protection, there is safety in ways that we can’t even begin to imagine.

Isaiah 66, going on, verse 1— Thus says the Eternal: The heaven is My throne, and the earth is My footstool. Where is the house you build unto Me? And where is the place of My rest? For all those things has My hand made... Six... if you want to look at it, 7,100 years, life on earth, all with an objective, all with the purpose and a plan, all the holy days pointing to it and this Last Great Day, the completion of that process to create Elohim where God’s going to dwell for all time.

And all those things have been, says the Eternal. But to this person will I look, Even to those who have a poor and a contrite spirit, and who trembles at My word. So that’s what it’s about. It’s about the humility of spirit of those who can have a transformation take place in their life as they make choices that this is what they want, that they can then become atoned to, reconciled to God, to have that same mind become a part of them, that that mind is in them, that agreement and spirit is in them. Then when it’s complete God’s there for all time and they have spirit life and they no longer have the pulls of a physical life that pull away from God because there is a friction there. The human mind, the carnal life is enmity with God, and so we have that battle and everyone must live through that. It’s all about choices. Then if we make the right choices and want the right things God will make it possible. It’s a beautiful thing.

So whatever you go through in life, when you stumble you have the choice, “I don’t want this. I want to change. I want to live right.” You put effort into it and you cry out to God for help and you cry out to God for help, and you cry out to God for help, and you desire to draw closer to Him He’ll give you what you need and He’ll help you through it. It doesn’t mean you won’t stumble again but you can put it all behind and keep moving forward.

This period of time here that we’re picturing today should give great peace when we think about life and death – especially death. Because we’re not to be like the world. We have a peace about us. So what we’re getting ready to go through around us, to understand that the ways of God, especially in the things that are getting ready to take place, true and righteous are His judgments, and we’re coming into greater and greater unity and oneness with His mind for the right purposes and for the right reasons for exactly why God is doing what He is.

Let’s complete this today in Revelation 21:1—And I saw a new heaven and a new earth, “new” meaning, it can mean “new or fresh.” It’s been refreshed, if you will. ...for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. And there was no more sea. And I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. So everyone must go through the same process of receiving the Passover, of coming out of sin, of having their lives deleavened, unleavened, and all the things we go through. In God’s purpose and plan revealed through the holy days we all have to go through the same thing.

And I heard a great voice out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. And God Himself shall be with them and be their God. So this is that which leads up to the end of human life, the end of the Great White Throne.

So we go through the entire picture then from beginning to end of the Great White Throne and to realize the purpose of it all – to be part of God’s tabernacle, to be in that tabernacle, to be in the temple of God, to be part of the temple of God, to be in Mount Zion, to be in Holy Jerusalem, all those expressions that are used, to be with God for all time.

Verse 4—So God will wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying. When does that happen? After the hundred years because human beings have this until there are no more human beings. Neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things have passed away. And He who sat on the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. Thank God! What a beautiful thing. It just takes time to get there. But that time will come and go just like the Feast of Tabernacles has, and now the Last Great Day. It comes and it goes and it happens quickly.

And He said to me, Write, for these words are true and faithful. Then He said unto me, It is done! I am Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give unto him who is athirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. For all time He’ll dwell in us – we in Him for all time.

Revelation 21:7—He who overcomes, that word conquers. It’s a battle. It’s a fight. ...shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son. But the fearful and the unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whore mongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.

So again, it’s a complete story here of going through all of God’s holy days, this one being the last one. Now we’ve talked about that which leads up to it, that hundred years, and that which goes through it, Satan who is released, and the demonic world, and then finally God just bringing an end to all that which is evil. That example that’s given of the burning that goes up and the first that’s there and the smoke that goes up forever and ever, in other words, until it’s fully destroyed. This is when it happens, at the end of that hundred years when all these things are cleansed. Then finally what remains? God, the God Family, Elohim for all time.

How awesomely blessed are we? Awesomely!

1. Chapter 1