A New Phase For This End-Time, Pt. 1

Ronald Weinland

October 7, 2020

Feast of Tabernacles Sermon

We are going to begin a new series today. It will be in three parts, and something I have never done in such a manner at a Feast of Tabernacles. I’ve never given a three-part series at a Feast, in that respect. I’ve given different ones that tie in closely together, and so forth, but not with the same title. So, hopefully, this fact in itself will stir you to grasp more fully the importance of what God and Christ are giving us in the three sermons of this series, this, obviously, being Part 1.

This is entitled A New Phase For This End-Time. Rather long title, but again, has a lot of meaning to it as we go through it. I’m going to do quite a bit of reading here in the beginning so pardon me for looking down at my notes and trying to see what I’ve written. Some things in this series will be repeated and we’ll be covering and repeating some things that have been addressed since last year’s Feast.

Something unique happened as I was writing the last chapter, Chapter 9 of the last book, When The Countdown Ends. As I was writing the finishing portion of that last chapter something was shown to be ever so evident and we’ve grown in that since that time even.

Now, these things are happening pretty fast because we’re talking about since last year’s Feast certain adjustment, certain changes that God has shown more and given us more understanding, then the writing of the last part of the book and that coming out after last year’s Feast, and now where we are and God’s still helping us to tweak, to understand, to clarify the present truth in what we’re doing and how God is working in our lives.

So, the beginning of a shift with a new kind of focus for the Church was being given at that particular time when I was writing that. That’s about, again, a new phase that we have entered at this particular time.

As we experience, as we live in or through this new phase, we are to be learning from what we are experiencing. This is why the first series of what was given at the Feast here now going to tie-in, because it’s about this process. It’s about how we experience things, and we learn from the experience. You cannot fully learn and become convicted of something through knowledge. You must have the experience.

I can’t help but think of a Feast of Tabernacles when a minister was giving a sermon and it was about family and it was about children and how to rear children and he had two boys. Now, he might have had more, but I just remember the two boys. They were very passive in the sense that they just didn’t cause any problems. Their energy level was different than some kids. Some kids are all over the place.

And so, he was giving this and you could tell by what he was saying, because of our experience and our family, that he didn’t have experience of other things in his life. By what he was giving it was a lot of what he had understood or been shown at Ambassador College.

I’ve heard different kinds of sermons like that through time, going back and hearing different individuals, especially younger individuals going out in the ministry who would give child rearing sermons. It didn’t take really very long, if you were a parent, if you had children, if you’d been around other families a lot, you’re going to know through experience there are differences, and you can tell whether someone really grasps.

I hope that makes sense. There are things you grasp more fully, you become more convicted of, you understand, you see. Knowledge by itself isn’t enough. It really isn’t, and to make knowledge come alive you have to experience certain things in your life. This is an awesome thing when you understand God and Christ and how they’re working with us, how they’re molding and fashioning us, how they’re leading the Church, how they have led the Church. Because we talked about that in this last series, this process and how it takes time. We go through a lot as a Church and individually. This same kind of process works.

Again, it’s exciting, it’s inspiring, but it becomes even more exciting and inspiring to me because as you can see these things and you recognize experiences and you can see one step to another step to another step, it shows God’s construction. It shows how He’s building. It shows the process. There is so much to learn from that, there truly is.

We’re going to go through this discussing some of these things and repeating some of these things. But we are to be learning from what we see God is doing on this earth, especially in our lives. We’re to be growing through what we are learning in these experiences because experiences can teach you more, give you greater depth, greater understanding and appreciation.

So again, knowledge is knowledge. You can read about it, you can be taught it, but to make it come alive and make it real and have the conviction is something else, it truly is. Experiences that God lets us have as we continue to press forward. So, again, we don’t know how long, and this is a part of this whole process. But we’re learning from that as well because He could give us everything all at once. He could tell us exactly certain specific things and He could have done that to Herbert Armstrong when he first began back in the 30’s. But it didn’t work that way. That’s why we discussed some of those things in that last series.

We’re to learn through time. You can’t learn and have the experiences crammed into one little moment in time. It doesn’t work that way. Not with human beings. Not with anyone.

But before we get into more about this new and final phase for this end-time it’s important to first understand, again, how God has been leading us since the Apostasy. That has much to do with what I’ve just stated about what God gives us to experience. God has been leading us in such a manner that we are able to see much more on a spiritual plane than ever before. Again, I find this awesomely inspiring because the longer you’ve been in God’s Church there are things you can see and experience and learn.

Going back to 1969 and being baptized then, there has been a lot that has taken place through time. The state of the Church today because of where we are and because what God has been doing, we’re very small, and God is working with that to bring greater unity and oneness. We have the technology to do something we couldn’t do back in Philadelphia or even in Laodicea.

I remember when we first began and how we had telephone hook-ups and how we had these little devices made where people could call three others on a line so we could hear the sermon, you know, at the same time. On and on that goes.

Now we’re able to do something like this where we see it, we have the video, people can watch it at the same time and then we can record that and have that so that everyone else around the world when it comes time can hear it as well. Awesome!

That helps to strengthen the message in the sense of what God is giving to us rather than having thirty or forty or a hundred or four hundred ministers around the world teaching things and not knowing exactly what, because what happened with time was then the message began to break down, the faithfulness that was there in minister’s lives began to break down.

We learned a lot from that as well, that it doesn’t work. That even a Church, regardless of how large it becomes, can’t work that way. It can’t work with human beings that way. You can’t bring a bunch of ministers in over a period of two or three years that are all over the world and give them a refreshing program and they’re going to go back out and be faithful to that. No, because there are things going on in their lives and people begin to let down and people begin to sin. Ministers have their human nature and God allowed it to happen. That’s what led into Laodicea.

So, that doesn’t work. Herbert Armstrong could not control it. It was out of his control. He entrusted evangelists. He entrusted pastors, regional pastors and on down the line to faithfully go out and teach the things that had been given in college, that they were being given, had been given. Didn’t work. Oh, it worked to a point. It worked to the point that God could work with and mold and fashion us, and God protected the Church in large part from knowing what was really happening in many people’s lives. He protected us. He blessed us. We didn’t know all the things that were going on.

But the point is only in God’s Kingdom can it work. Only then can the Church truly work in a powerful way. Because then the message, there’s going to be absolute assurance and knowledge and knowing if anyone begins to deviate from the teaching that they have received, if they begin to put in their own little flavors, which is exactly what happened.

If they begin to teach a 14/15th Passover it’ll be known immediately and they’ll not be teaching ever again most likely. Depends on the repentance and what people do in their lives. But as a whole, if that’s their mindset and that’s what they believe, that’s over with and they probably wouldn’t be entrusted again with that ever again for doing such a thing. That’s the way it should be as a whole.

So again, it just helps to solidify the knowledge only God’s Kingdom can work when Joshua Christ and 144,000 are all over this earth working with mankind, working with the Church, working with the governments that are established. That’s awesome to understand. Because it won’t be like it was back in Philadelphia where things could happen, where a regional pastor in a particular area could do his… What is the word there, again, that I mentioned yesterday, this process of what Satan used and his trafficking and this little mouth that begins to traffic other ideas and disagreement about Herbert Armstrong or about what he was teaching and instead teaching something else, and they began to talk about these things, their injustices and this was done and it shouldn’t have been done this way, and disagreements that came along. Then, finally, they would start working with different ministers in whole regions, in some cases with large numbers of people in the Church, because then they would go back and start blabbing and teaching the Church the same garbage that had been trafficked to them from the regional pastor. And so, it just got passed down.

You’d have some cases where hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of people, into the thousands, would leave God’s Church in different regions. I think of Hawaii. I think it got hit three times! Decimated! Every time! I think of a region over around Washington, D.C. area, decimated! Entire churches! This is before the Apostasy! Incredible! This was during Herbert Armstrong’s time as an Apostle. Didn’t work, did it?

That’s what God helped us to learn from that. We need, we must want, desire with all of our being God’s Kingdom, what this Feast is picturing, this Feast of Tabernacles, a period of time going into the future where God’s government is going to reign. That, and that alone, can help ensure a unity and a oneness of message, of truth being disseminated, being given around the world.

Because it broke down in the Church. We had to learn from that. God let us experience that so we could learn that and become more deeply convicted that only His Government, only His Kingdom could work and produce what it needs. Awesome, to understand that and to know that.

So, that’s conviction, something you have in you that if you have that you will never lose it. God will use it powerfully so. It’s a molding and fashioning for a particular period of time. Different ones are being molded and fashioned for different things through time. They have been, especially, over the past 2,000 years because the building, it’s not all the same. Just like here, not all doors. Not all a corner. Not all a ceiling. Not all a part of the floor. So, there are different types of things in a building, and so there is in God’s building in our lives and what we’re to do, different functions that work together to give us something awesome.

God has been leading us in such a manner that we are able to see much more on a spiritual plane than ever before through this process of those things that we have been given to experience. We can actually come to a deeper conviction and confident faith through this process. That’s what it’s about because it has to do with belief of what we know because of our experiences.

I mean, when you have the point of conviction in your belief because you’ve experienced certain things, that’s powerful faith. I hope you see that. That’s powerful. That’s the goal. That’s the desire of faith, to have that inside of you, in your mind.

All this has to do with the manner in which God has been leading us from the beginning since the Apostasy as far as PKG is concerned. PKG really didn’t get started until Pentecost of 1998, which I believe that God is showing some things about that as well, which we’ll talk about later.

Now we’re going to look at some very familiar scriptures and truths. Your reaction could be one which reflects that you may feel too accustomed to hearing or reading such things as often as we do, like the two trees I mentioned. But it’s constantly building and giving more, building upon what we have, coming to deeper understanding through a deeper conviction of this process and how God has been working in our lives. So, there is much to receive from it.

So again, a three-part series at a Feast of Tabernacles. I’m moved by that because I rely on God to give me what I have, on Christ to give me what I have, to give to the Church because it’s God’s Church, it’s Christ’s Church, it’s the Body of Christ. And so, to be brought to that point of doing something like that I recognize the importance of it.

To be candid with you, on a physical plane, had some hesitation about parts of it because I know that some things have been mentioned may times. So, the carnal side is like, well, people are going to be lost in some of this. Some may be tired of hearing. The two trees.

Then the spiritual side of that, tough. It is what it is. God gives what He gives. Our desire (and I know that’s there), is to drink in what He gives us at any moment in time. But if we put it in that context, hopefully we grasp more the importance of what is taking place here.

What we’re going to now focus upon is a vital part of our beginning and it constitutes a big portion that has to do with what we will cover a little later in this sermon or the series about the Feast of Tabernacles and the importance of it’s meaning for sitting in booths. Now, this ties in again very closely with what we covered in the first section about experiences, sitting in booths, and so forth. Theirs was always a matter of looking back in the past, of coming out of Egypt.

We have a spiritual part of that, which has a portion of looking back with the intent of being able to see clearly where we’re going. It’s the ability of looking forward into God’s Kingdom. It’s looking forward into that time when the Messiah establishes God’s government on this earth and then beyond that into the final hundred years.

Sitting in booths. Awesome! What we’re doing at this Feast, and candidly, what we’re being told, shown, to come to a deeper conviction of understanding.

We’re going to begin with the first truth addressed after the Apostasy. These need to be deeply embedded in our minds. Review. Review. Review. To know how God has led us, why we see what we do, how one experience led to the next revelation. Because of what we were experiencing God could mold and fashion and teach us more.

It’s just like in construction. There are things that you work with and you start working with a particular thing, and until you get that done and in place you can’t go on with the rest! I could go into my little project right now, but I’ll refrain from it. But you have to do it step by step by step and you can’t jump ahead, you can’t put that up there until the sides are up (the ceiling, the roof). There’s a process you have to go through.

If we understand what’s taking place as far as the Church and a spiritual process that God is taking us through, through these experiences, it can become far more exciting because then we see God more, we see the clarity of something that is spiritual and powerful as to how God molds and fashions us and works with us that we’re a part of. It helps us to come to appreciate more deeply what He has given us.

Because it hasn’t come easy. It didn’t come easy. Not at all. It came through a lot of suffering and a lot of pain, and a lot of fire. But a continuing to move forward and God continued to build more and more and more and when you experience all that together it becomes immensely exciting. It truly does.

22 (1) There has been an apostasy…

Well, that’s not new to us! But it’s awesome to know that God blessed us to see it. Now, there is one group out there that talks about an Apostasy and some things that took place, but they don’t understand it at all. They don’t understand… I won’t even go into what they don’t understand. There’s no point in it.

22 (1) There has been an apostasy that is unprecedented in the Church of God as prophesied in 2 Thessalonians 2:1-3.

What an incredible thing to know that we see that so clearly. It’s just as sure as the sun comes up. We know what took place. It came up yesterday. It came up the day before and it’ll come up tomorrow. Incredible!

“There has been an apostasy.” Awesome to understand that the scattered Church doesn’t grasp that. What are they looking for? We used to talk about a falling away in the Church. I heard sermons. I heard things contained in sermons in times past back in the 70’s, back in the 80’s, back in the 90’s, things about a falling away. Concern, especially through the period of Laodicea, that we didn’t know was fully Laodicea because of what we were living through and becoming weaker, falling asleep spiritually. So, a falling away and we knew it meant apostasy. We knew the Greek word was apostasy. No comprehension, no idea of what it was going to be about, what it was.

After going through what we did as a Church, a Church of baptized people of nearly a hundred thousand, what can anyone else out there be waiting for when they talk about a falling away? What does it mean if you started out after an Apostasy with around fifteen or sixteen or fourteen thousand people and grew to fifteen thousand, mainly because people were shifting from one group to another and then finally settling in in a particular group?

So, let’s say you’re fifteen thousand, and then you come to a split and now you’re like four thousand and six thousand because others have scattered out and gone to different places and people become disillusioned. And so, these numbers keep changing. Was that a falling away? Was that an apostasy because a split took place? No, that isn’t brought up.

What do you believe? Even on a physical plane to look at something, what do you believe? Now, we know what we believe because we see it, because we’ve experienced these things to bring us up to this point in time. Those that were called later can talk with, can visit with people who had that experience, and they know they experienced that. You see it because God opened your mind to understand it.

2 Thessalonians 2:1—And now, brethren, concerning the coming of our Lord Joshua the Christ… Now, it can’t move people who are scattered when they talk about a falling away because this doesn’t tie together with it. They believe he’s coming, maybe coming in a period that’s not too far away because of things that are happening in the world. But what they’re looking at happening first isn’t going to happen the way they think.

So again, it’s about the coming of Christ. It’s the context of the whole thing. …of our Lord Joshua the Christ, and gathering together to him. So again, clearly about the time for the first resurrection when he would return.

We ask you that you not be soon shaken in mind, or troubled, either by spirit or by word or by letter as from us, as though the day of Christ is at hand, that it’s happening now, that he’s coming now. That’s what the context is.

Now, they were going through and talking about this because they’d been hearing things, they’d been taught about various things here, about this very event and began to recognize that there were those who were working against Christ, working against the Church. Some in the ministry had to be put out of the Church. Paul had to deal with some individuals, put them out of the Church so they couldn’t continue to infect and affect people in the manner that they were.

It says, Let no one deceive you by any means. So, they were dealing with a lot at that time and things that different ones were popping up and starting to say and to teach their own thing. Just like what happened in Philadelphia, the era, of those who went to Ambassador College and began to teach their own little things, their own little pet ideas of what they thought they’d come to understand. “Oh, it’s a 14/15 Passover.”

Let no one deceive you by any means, for that day will not come unless the falling away, the apostasy, comes first and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition. So, what could anyone look for?

What is amazing is to understand this is our experience. We experienced it. It helped us as far as a group of people to begin to be awakened in a very powerful way. Truly.

We came to understand this truth by what we were experiencing as God was leading us through those early stages after the Apostasy. It didn’t come right away. It didn’t come right away as it took some time for us to experience what we needed. We didn’t know what we’d gone through yet. It took time. We had to experience some more to come to a point where we realized that was it, what we’ve gone through, the hurt, the pain, the suffering, the divisions of people.

We didn’t know in the beginning there was a third and a third and a third. We didn’t understand these things. We didn’t understand who the man of sin was yet. Not at all! We began to experience things and God helped us to begin to put some things together through what we were experiencing, through the pain and the suffering of it all.

It takes pain and suffering to grow in the experiences we need as God’s people. It truly does. It’s not just an experience of life. It’s an experience because it’s etched into your being because of choices and decisions you have to make. That experience is what helps you to become more confident in God’s way of life. That experience, when it’s filled with the truth, and you see that truth, and you can build upon it then. Awesome!

It didn’t come right away as it took time for us to experience what we needed to in order to grow in faith, belief of what we were experiencing. You think, well, that should be easy to see and understand. It wasn’t. It wasn’t. There are a lot of hurt people, damaged people. We were hurting. We didn’t know what was taking place. What’s happened to God’s Church?

Some, like I’ve talked about in times past, a third, basically, they had lived this for so long. Some had grown up in this and they knew there was no such thing as Easter and Christmas and Sunday and all the stuff that was out there. And they could see, they’d experienced things about a Sabbath and things about the Holy Days, and if this is God’s Church and all this that they’d been taught, where is God? How could something like this happen? So, they just gave up. It’s like, if this isn’t God’s Church then they kind of almost turned to the point of becoming atheist, no Church, no church worship, no going to some other group.

Now, we saw another third, started going to different groups and some staying with Worldwide and back into the Protestant world that they’d been called out of. Awesome, what we experienced.

But those of us scattered didn’t grasp these things right away. We couldn’t see them right away. Do you know why? We were coming out of a deep lethargy. We were coming out of a deep, deep sleep. Now, when you wake someone up and they haven’t had the kind of sleep and they’ve been totally exhausted and you wake them up and get them up to do something earlier than what’s good for them – I’m sure you’ve seen people, and maybe you’ve experienced this, where you’ve been such a deep sleep.

Have you ever started to wake up and you don’t even know where you are? Where am I? This has happened to us sometimes when we’re travelling and you’re so exhausted and certain things happen and it’s like, “Where are we? What city? What hotel?” That doesn’t happen a lot, but it has happened.

And so, when you’re in that state and you spread that state out, because that’s what it was like spiritually, it takes longer to wake up. It takes some time to wake up. It takes some time to start receiving things in your spiritual faculties so you can see more clearly, so that you can hear better what God is showing and revealing.

To put things together it takes time because we were coming out of a deep slumber, a deep sleep and we experienced it, and we experienced other things that followed that that God used to mold and fashion us, to make us stronger. Incredible.

It took time for us to experience what we needed in order to grow in the kind of faith and belief of what we were experiencing. We were learning and growing as we went through all this, and it took time.

The 22nd Truth, as it’s stated by the Church. Again, I want to read this exactly like it is in the site there.

22 (1) There has been an apostasy that is unprecedented in the Church of God as prophesied in 2 Thessalonians 2:1-3. The context of 2 Thessalonians 2 is for the end-time, before the return of Joshua the Christ, and was not for the time period of the early apostles. The word “apostasy” means “to forsake and depart,” and in this apostasy there was a forsaking and falling away from the truth God had given to His Church. Never before had this happened with the top leadership of the Church of God. Never before had there been such a large departure from the truth by the membership of the Church.

Now, we can sit here and go through this and say, “So clear. So clear.” It wasn’t. Because what God gives when it comes to any truth, it’s spiritual. The ability to see it and be convicted of it is a spiritual thing that comes from God’s spirit.

It’s like some in the world can keep the Sabbath day. But it’s not because of God’s spirit and conviction that comes from God, of putting it in their mind and they know it and they see it. They do it because of it’s on a physical plane and reading something like the Israelites did. Judah has, basically, held on to it; that’s why they didn’t lose their identity. The rest of the tribes lost it all, gave it all away. But Judah always stuck to it, the Sabbath day. They know when the Sabbath day is. They have known ever since they’ve been Judah. Not that they kept it right and perfectly by any measure, as a physical carnal people, but they kept it. They kept hold of it, as with so many of the Holy Days. Eventually, they began to pollute those things, and we know the story. They had to go into captivity because of that pollution, for seventy years. Brought back.

The others lost their identity. That’s why their identity was gone, because they didn’t continue on with those things God had given. The others just had polluted them, but at least they kept them. We know the story.

So again:

Never before had there been such a large departure from the truth by the membership of the Church.

It’s happened in spotted areas. It was growing; there was a lot of shaking. That’s why the word that talks about a shaking, or an earthquake, people think, “Oh, had to be a physical earthquake.” No, it’s a word that has to do with a shaking, and when the shaking takes place in the Church that’s what happens. When something happened to Hawaii and everybody left, it was a shaking in the Church over there, and it affected different people and family members in different areas.

When it happened around Washington, D.C.—and I wish I remembered the numbers—but it was well over a thousand, two thousand people, or whatever it was at that particular time and throughout that region and ministers as well. I mean, ministers under this particular regional pastor. A shaking in the Church because that was unsettling, that something like that could happen, to see that happen. And if you knew different ones and had met different ones or you have relatives there, friends there, that hurts! It was a shaking, an earthquake, those things that would lead up to some of what we’re going through, talking now.

This had to happen before the unfolding of end-time events that would lead to the return of Joshua the Christ.

The apostasy had to come first. Now, we know these things inside and out, but it’s the experience and the process that we can learn from and become more deeply convicted, and should be.

Many in the scattered Church do not yet believe that this apostasy has happened [That’s incredible!], and so by implication, they believe they must grow much larger in number than what Worldwide was in order to fulfill this prophecy.

If you look at it logically and you look at those things, that’s what you’re left with. So, what has happened? All have become smaller. All have had division and separation and been split up at different times because people don’t agree, primarily, with government and how things are administered and how money is spent and where to do this and where to do that, and on and on it goes.

Where is God? Well, that’s the question. Where is the truth. Where is the learning from the experience of what we went through to see a Church so decimated?

Wouldn’t you think that would be pretty easy to see on a physical plane? It hasn’t been to this day. That’s why God gave two booklets to be written, candidly. Time is Running Out, and then Time Has Run Out that was primarily geared toward the ministry of the Church that was scattered, as a witness, as a testimony of the truth.

This experience that led to the acknowledgement of the 22nd Truth then clearly led to what had to be addressed next. We had to come to the point over some time where we could acknowledge what God was revealing about the one who instigated the Apostasy.

You might think that was pretty simple. It was exceedingly hard. When I started talking about it, there were some very uncomfortable people listening to me. Because at that particular time it was like you don’t mention anyone’s name in the context of something negative – although it was happening a lot in the Church always, people judging one another and stuff that would happen in peoples lives and then friction and conflict and so forth.

But to do it from up here from a minister, to mention someone’s name, a ministers name in a way that showed, basically, the truth of what they did? But to do that it was like, “Well, we really shouldn’t do that.”

It wasn’t an easy thing to come to that point. But God blessed us to see it so clearly. Then once it was done then our eyes began to be opened up more and more and we saw, yeah, absolutely. Anyway, I’ll go on. So, here is 23:

23 (2) The Man of Sin has been revealed to be Joseph Tkach, Sr., who initiated the end-time apostasy. Joseph Tkach tried to change the law of God, and his actions led to great destruction within the Church.

Why can’t others see that? My point in all this is how well do you see this? And you see it! Do you know how? Do you know what God has given you? God has given you His spirit to see it as much as He has the Sabbath day. Every truth that we have God has blessed us, blessed us mightily. Yet just like the Feast of Tabernacles teaches, we are to sit in a booth. And this, what an awesome time to reflect on these things, to look back at what we have gone through so that we can see more clearly where we are going, what God is doing, to have a greater conviction of keeping on, to keep moving forward, to want to receive, to fight for what God has given us.

Because this isn’t easy. Things pull people away! Every year people leave God’s Church. We get smaller and smaller. It’s horrible! I hate to experience that. But we do.

I see things happening just because of what’s happened with this Feast site thing, that some aren’t coming through this very well, that some aren’t handling it very well. It’s bringing some things to the surface. God is going to bring it to the surface. I hate to see it. But on the other hand, it is what it is.

We are to move forward. We are to recognize sin. We have to address sin individually and in God’s Church. That’s the way it will be because we are to be prepared for Christ’s coming as a Church, and especially in the 144,000, whoever fulfills that and completes that portion. But that attitude and spirit should be in every individual to move on, to continue on, whatever that is.

Going on:

By changing the law of God, he exalted himself above God. The word “sit” in 2 Thessalonians 2:4 means “to be given authority.”

What an incredible thing to come to understand those things! To sit in the temple of God. Well, who was sitting in the temple of God? Who is it? The Church didn’t even know what the temple was anymore. The Church had totally lost that during Laodicea. Herbert Armstrong was teaching it very powerfully so just before He died, especially there in the early 80’s. Well, the portion there, mid-time before he died in 86. And hitting it hard!

Well, it was God Almighty and His Son Joshua that was stirring him up to hit it hard so that there would be absolutely no excuse in the Church to ever lose such knowledge and insight and understanding of the temple. He made it so abundantly clear that the temple is not a physical temple being spoken of, that he’s not returning to a physical temple.

Yet the Protestant world and people who believe in such prophetic things about an end-time and so forth, they have to bring some stones in. They have to have these things that are cut out and they can bring them into the temple area and somehow, maybe, have an altar constructed because all that’s been destroyed. And so, maybe these things can be fulfilled.

Ever since I’ve been in the Church there has been some rippling of someone out there that’s carving out some stones somewhere or it’s being brought on the way to Jerusalem to the temple, these conspiracy things, these ideas that people have. It’s like, as soon as they’re there then it’s going to start. Because it’s all about a physical temple to a Protestant world.

That started working it’s way into God’s Church and people begin to lose sight. We are the temple. We, the Church of God, we constitute the temple that God is building. It just shows how blind individuals can become after having been in God’s Church five, ten, fifteen, twenty, twenty-five, thirty, thirty-five, forty, forty-five years, and lose all that!

Talking about a lot of knowledge that’s lost when those things happen, and the inability to hold on to something that God’s apostle gave to the Church, very powerfully so, before he died, making it very clear. First of all, there is not even a Levitical system to establish the functioning of a physical temple. Duh! And if they tried to do it, it wouldn’t be acceptable to God even if it’s physical. But it’s not about a physical temple.

That’s so clear to you, but how did you get to here? Don’t forget. Remember. Be moved by the process. Be moved by the conviction. Be moved by grasping the power of God’s spirit that has been working in your mind and in your life to bring you to here so that you can see and build upon all this, to see more clearly, to have the conviction, a deeper conviction, if you really want it you’re going to fight for it.

But all aren’t. Some are going by the wayside. Those who sit on the post, who sit on the fence, one side or the other, they’re not going to come through this. I’ve seen all this before, massively so, within God’s Church.

If we come down to the size of a hundred worldwide, if we come down to the size of fifty, so be it. It’s not about the size. It’s about the relationship with God Almighty and Joshua the Christ. Those who are faithful and those who seek, and those who truly want because of conviction what God is offering, God will give them the help all along the way through the worst of times. But if not, it’s not owed to anyone.

And because of all that we’ve been given, the result of that, we should understand, is even worse. Because we have everything that’s been given to us at this point in time far above and beyond the scattered Body that’s still out there. To understand what we’ve been given and not to want it, to fight for it? There is no excuse.

Basically, just saying, in essence, the punishment for that, for the disobedience, the judgment, involves a punishment, in a respect, to what we live, to think that the reality that some will not live through this war that’s coming. That is going to happen to some in God’s Church! That should be sobering to understand.

God had the power, God has all power, but look what He did when they were coming up to the promised land. Forty years in the wilderness and thousands, and tens of thousands and tens of thousands, and tens of thousands, and multiple tens of thousands died in the wilderness and were not allowed to come into the promised land up to a very specific age, except for a very few and we’re not nearly that large.

Does God have the power to make certain? Does He hold a greater accountability for us than He did for them, a physical carnal people who didn’t really know much? But they were still under judgment on a physical plane. We have far more judgment being on a spiritual plane, having the impregnation of God’s spirit. And if we don’t use that with the opportunity, we don’t treasure it, what is wrong with us?

What is wrong with someone who still doesn’t give Holy Day offerings when God says to give a Holy Day offering? He doesn’t say to give it around Halloween. He doesn’t say, “Well, I didn’t get around to it until Christmas!” What can I say about that? It should be shocking! It shows where our priorities are. They’re not putting God first. Can we see that?

Even within the ministry, which I have said, which anyone who has been in the ministry in times past, who didn’t send in their reports on time, it’s the exact same spirit! What’s important to us? What do we raise up in importance to honor God, to please God, to follow the guidelines, the direction He gives? I would hope so with all of my being!

So, what’s important to us? Sometimes we just need a bit of a shaking spiritually. I don’t like giving sermons like this, this portion of it, the correction side. I never have. But it goes with the territory sometimes. I don’t like to have to tell people, “You’re disfellowshipped.” I don’t like to have to tell people, “You’re separated from the Body because of this.” I don’t like to tell people and make decisions about choices, “You can’t do ‘this,’ and you can’t do ‘that,’” when my desire is that we all be able to be together and do and continue on as a body. But I don’t have an option in that. I know that.

Regardless of who it is, is immaterial. Doesn’t matter. God matters. Christ matters. The cleansing of the Church matters. The strength of the Body of Christ matters. Sin in our lives that we won’t repent of, that we won’t change, that we don’t fight for God’s way of life more, God’s going to know before that first event of the First Trumpet begins exactly where every person is. Whether we’re fighting for this, whether we really want it out of deep conviction or not.

You know whether you do or don’t. I know I do! There is not an inkling of doubt of anything in my mind whatsoever! To the point of death? I don’t care! God is first! His way of life is first. Somebody comes along and threatens or whatever, what can they do?

That’s what they said in here! “What are you going to do to me? Take my life? I don’t care. I’m not concerned about that. You’re not going to take it unless God lets you take it.” That’s our attitude. And if He lets them, well, it was part of a purpose, something being done here, so be it.

That’s the way we should be. Do we really believe that? Do we really think that way? Because our life is not ours. It wasn’t yours the day you went under the water and you shouldn’t want it to be yours. That’s why you went under the water. Because you wanted it to be God’s. You wanted it to be in oneness with Christ and with God. That’s what we did. That’s what we said. “I am Yours! Do with me whatever You desire, because I know it’ll be exciting and inspiring, and I know where it’s leading. I believe Your promises.”

People who do not tithe faithfully, people who do not give offerings faithfully, people who are fooling around with other things out there they shouldn’t be fooling around with, temptations and so forth, sayonara, auf wiedersehen, do svidania, good bye. On and on it goes. I’d say the Spanish part, but it slips my mind.

I hate to see it happen, but I don’t want it here. God doesn’t want it here. That’s why I don’t, because I know God doesn’t. He’s going to clean the rest up, whatever that is. So, what will we be? I don’t know. I hope it’s everyone! But I know it’s not going to be. I know it’s not going to be. No one can make those choices but us, right?

We were in 23:

23 (2) The Man of Sin has been revealed to be Joseph Tkach, Sr., who initiated the end-time apostasy. Joseph Tkach tried to change the law of God, and his actions led to great destruction within the Church.

We experienced that! Then we came to see these things, after God showed us.

By changing the law of God, he exalted himself above God.

It should be so easy to see, but it’s not unless God gives you the ability to. “Oh, man, this fits right into 2 Thessalonians! I didn’t see that!” That’s right.

The word “sit” in 2 Thessalonians 2:4 means “to be given authority.” Joseph Tkach was given authority in the Church to be its physical head under Joshua the Christ, and shortly afterward he turned against God. Joseph Tkach Sr. [and this is amazing], Joseph Tkach Sr. died 40 weeks to the very hour that he delivered his sermon of apostasy…

I know there are people, “It wasn’t the same hour! It wasn’t the same time.” I think, “Well, what are you looking at? What time it was in Atlanta or what time it was in California? Do you even think about the differences of some of those things and maybe at what point of the sermon, that was a long sermon, that God determined, ‘Because you said that, because you have done that, you are judged, and this is what is going to happen to you and your life is going to be taken’?” Forty weeks. It’s awesome to understand the count.

Even if it weren’t to the same hour? Forty weeks; that should be enough. But people want to look at the other. It reminds me of some of this goofy garbage news out here. Want to twist and distort things. “Well, look at that!” Well, how many times did his blood, or whatever it was, oxygen level go down below 95? We’re hearing conflicting reports! Who’s really right out there?” They miss the big picture of anything else because they want to find something.

So it was with those, “It wasn’t to the very hour! Don’t you know how to count time?” Yep.

Joseph Tkach Sr. died 40 weeks to the very hour that he delivered his sermon of apostasy…

Forty times seven. I mean, for us, for me, that opened up everything. That brought it to the point in time that I knew at that point in time that God had shown us without a doubt who the man of sin was.

Now, there was another group and someone else saying he was the man of sin before that, but they did that presumptuously and because of false ideas and thoughts and so forth and reading into scripture. God allowed that, and it fooled several thousand people who went along with him. Sad. Pathetic. Because to do that presumptuously with God’s word before God shows it, before God reveals something and you begin to teach something… That’s why people should fear saying something and starting to teach something that hasn’t been taught already, that God hasn’t already given. Amazing.

So again:

…[he] died 40 weeks to the very hour that he delivered his sermon of apostasy which was a sign to God’s Church that Joshua the Christ was now coming and that final end-time events had begun.

Now, we could only see this, a little bit of it, but because of the things we experienced afterwards for several years we’ve grown in that, massively so. Awesome!

The verses that follow 2 Thessalonians 2:1-2 that we’d read earlier, and what Paul was speaking of concerning the timing of the revelation of Christ’s coming began to unfold more in the following verses. And this, in it’s time, had to be addressed. Because it was God’s time, He gave it, and so it’s addressed. That’s the way it works.

2 Thessalonians 2:3—Let no one deceive you by any means. For that day will not come unless a falling away (the apostasy) comes first, and the man of sin is revealed, the son of perdition. Who is going to reveal him? Only God can! …who opposes and exalts himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; so that he as God sits in the temple of God, showing himself that he is God. Do you not remember that when I was yet with you, I told you these things? So, these things have been taught in the Church for some time, about certain things that were going to take place, of certain rumblings, and so forth, that would happen.

Verse 6—So now you know what withholds, a word that means “holds back.” Holds back what? Well, what’s the context? Christ’s coming. So now you know what holds back (restrains or detains), that’s the Greek word. An apostasy had to take place before he could return, before he could begin the process. It’s about the Church, a preparing for his coming.

That’s why I’m very moved by the name that God gave us attached on to His Church, “Preparing for the Kingdom of God.” Because that’s when God began to prepare us, to begin to prepare the last phase, the last part of a group of people, a remnant that came out of this massive apostasy. God began to do that. We have experienced that. Scriptures come alive that we can see ourselves in and it should be moving and humbling.

Who wouldn’t want to hold on to this with all their being, having that kind of conviction and that kind of knowing in their heart and in their mind? It just shows in some cases that some haven’t come to that point because of sin, because of a lack of repentance, because of a lack of desire to place God first, an unwillingness to stand firm that God is going to be first. Nothing, nobody, there is nothing going to get in the way of that. God comes first.

God tries us in those things. Is He really first in your life? Are you really fleeing sin, things that can lead you? Please, understand anything that can lead you away from God, begin to tear down your spiritual life, you are to flee!

So now you know what withholds, so that he (the man of sin) might be revealed, meaning “to make known,” obviously, “to disclose what before was unknown,” is what the Greek word means, in his time. For the mystery of iniquity is already at work.

Well, they learned that didn’t they? This mystery of iniquity. How could someone receive of God’s spirit, be called into the Church of God and then begin to turn against Christ, begin to turn against the sacrifice of why he was sacrificed, begin to sin and move toward sin, begin to teach other things, believe other things than what was given to them through the apostles? Because that’s what was beginning to take place. How could that happen? So, the mystery of iniquity was already working.

You have to understand, this was a shock to people in God’s Church when they began to see these things taking place. Just as much as it’s been a shock to some of us when we come along and you were friends, you were close to someone, you walked to God’s house side by side, you were close and all of a sudden something is revealed and someone is not a part of us anymore and someone has done something you… It’s a shock! How could this happen? How could this happen to anyone in God’s Church? We all have choices. Choices. Choices. Choices. It shows the importance of choices.

And if we don’t make the right choices, it’s going to be we’re going to leave. Because we can’t help it. God doesn’t want you around. He’ll let you stay around for a length of time, sometimes to test and to try others so that others can learn through the experience. I’ve had a lot of that. I’ve understood why then God has allowed different ones to be in a body, to do things, even to teach things that are wrong so that we can learn the most important things of life and become more deeply convicted of it because of that experience. That’s what it does if you continue to follow God.

For the mystery of iniquity is already at work.  But for now, it is only withheld (held back), until he is taken out of the way. Wow! He was taken out of the way alright, forty weeks afterward. Because there were enough within a scattered Body, though they be asleep, that knew this is insane. He’s telling us everything that had been given to us through Herbert Armstrong and passed down and that we still had, that the Sabbath is no longer commanded by God? The Holy Days? That maybe Christmas and Easter aren’t so bad, if you do both or kind of a mixture of all of it together. Just get a big old pot up here and blend it altogether like a witch, you know, just stir it around. What are you going to drink and what are you going to eat? Anyway, sorry.

Amazing to live through all that, to experience all that!

I want to continue on here.

So, we experienced this. As it talks here then about, again, verse 8—Then shall that wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His mouth, showing that He’s the one who does it. And when He does it, that is what will reveal it. God had to reveal it. He was going to destroy the individual. He, personally, was going to bring him to death. That’s what God did. Just as much as He did Ananias and Saphira who came in and lied to the disciples, to the apostles, about what they were giving to the Church at the beginning of the Church. They’d given everything! And they held half of it back. They lied.

Now, they didn’t have to give all that. They didn’t have to give a fourth of it. They didn’t have to do that. But the way they did it and because of what they said, God held them accountable for lying to Him, to the holy spirit. That’s what they were told, “You’ve lied to the holy spirit,” which is to lie to God. Because He knows what you’ve done. He knows exactly what’s in your mind and what you did. This is not a small thing. This the beginning of the Church and you treat this this way? Not going to be allowed.

That example is stamped in the beginning of the Church for all to have, should have a measure of fear to lie to God. And yet we tend to if we’re not doing what we should be doing, if we’re messing around with sin in our lives, if we’re not doing the things that should be so clear. It’s lying to the holy spirit. It’s lying to God. It’s lying to the purpose of why Christ died for us, working against it, if you will, anti.

Then shall that wicked be revealed, meaning “made known; illuminated,” that’s what it means, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of His mouth and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming. Is he coming right then? That’s not what it’s about. It’s the fact that this is the beginning of something awesome that’s leading up to what this Feast is picturing and Christ coming and establishing the Kingdom of God on earth.

That brightness, when we can begin to see it, now he’s coming, the time is no longer being held back. But as human beings we want it quicker. We want it faster. That’s just natural, and in that respect, in one respect, is not wrong or bad. But we have to be careful with that.

God then used our experiences of these matters to once again bring us back to the importance of end-time prophecies concerning the temple of God being that which is about the Church. So, we came to #24. So again, all these like building blocks. We can’t do one until we’ve gone through the other and it becomes deeply embedded in our thinking, in our mind.

24 (3) The “temple” in Matthew 24, 2 Thessalonians 2, and in many other prophecies, is about the Church of God.

Why did we have to have that? Because it was gone. What Herbert Armstrong had taught in the early 80’s there, began to really hit hard, it had been lost, as a whole, within the Church. People had lost sight the temple was the Church.

That’s why I think of this one organization and their primary leader had come to a point where he was talking about how some on their—I can’t think of how they referred to them at that particular point—but some of those who were their, basically, their scholars, some in the ministry or whatever and within that council, that they had come to a conclusion that at least the temple itself didn’t necessarily have to be built, but the altar did. It wouldn’t be that difficult then to at least have an altar there. That those prophecies could be fulfilled if there is an altar erected.

Now, we see this. That’s so lame. Because of what we see and know. But they didn’t know that. They couldn’t see that. Because they’re looking at Antiochus Epiphanies and the blood of the pig being offered upon the altar and that because of that then there was an abomination of desolation. They don’t recognize that what we’re talking about here was an abomination of desolation in God’s temple because it’s about God’s people, and an abomination to God above, far more than a pig being offered upon an altar when it’s His own people! That goes way beyond something physical like that. You can’t compare them as to the abomination involved there. Incredible.

So, it’s about the Church, “the Man of Sin, who ‘sat in the temple of God,’” all of a sudden, because of what we’re experiencing. Now, you might think, well, why? Didn’t you know all that? No, no, no, no, no, because I was in the midst of the whole thing, slumbering and sleeping in Laodicea, falling spiritually asleep, getting weaker. When you do that you begin to lose certain things. But God had a purpose in allowing Laodicea, bringing us to that point, bringing us to a point where there would be an Apostasy, and bringing us to a point where there would be a remnant called out of it. All in prophecy. All for a purpose. Awesome!

We’re talking about being measured, in the sense of being able to be placed within the temple, to be able to go through a process of learning, of being molded and fashioned into a unique place in the temple. All those things that we have to go through and experience sometimes in life in order to have molded within us what needs to be there for God’s purpose, it’s incredible. It truly is.

So again, the temple in Matthew 24? We began to grasp it, what was written there. 2 Thessalonians 2; it was in the temple, and in many other prophecies, that it’s about the Church of God.

The Man of Sin, who “sat in the temple of God,” was Joseph Tkach, Sr., who sat in authority in the Church of God. As it was taught by Herbert W. Armstrong before his death, only God's presence makes anything holy…

The physical temple was a physical temple. Is he there? So, we know that. But we had to be brought back on track. We had to be brought back to a point where God could continue then to give us those things in a stronger way through what we had experienced.

Because we became stronger in that than what was even given to Herbert Armstrong. We became stronger in that spiritually for what we could see. But we couldn’t do that without these experiences that we went through, so that God could help us to grow in greater conviction, understanding, because of what we had experienced. It was embedded in our minds far more deeply then.

What an awesome process to experience and sometimes we just don’t grasp how much God is working in our being, in our minds. The more we grasp that the more thankful we will be, the more we’ll be able to rejoice as we sit in the booth. Because we’re living this! That’s what we’re living! Because we can see what we went through spiritually. Not physically coming out of Egypt, and not just spiritually what it means to come out of spiritual Egypt. Far more than that! It’s to go through and see God, what God was doing all along the way.

Because how did they come out of Egypt except by God? How were they able to do the things? What did they receive after they’d been out there for a while? A codified law! God began to establish a priesthood and things about a temple. That’s what it’s about. It’s about what those things picture.

It’s not just a matter of a physical story of coming out of Egypt and into the promised land. For us, all that then becomes spiritual. And we sit in booths, powerfully so, and if we don’t, we miss out. And sadly, some at this Feast of Tabernacles are missing out. Going right over a top of a head. Right over.

You can only receive spiritually what you do through a relationship with God Almighty and His Son, Joshua. I can’t give it. By the words I’m speaking, that doesn’t give it. It’s that spiritual relationship that unlocks the mind, that convicts the mind through the experiences to where one can see—because it’s spiritual—and then is able to rejoice and thank God for what they have and to understand how blessed they are, and to know that nothing is going to get in the way, nothing, nothing, nothing is going to stop “me” from moving forward.

What is it? I think of the scripture, “What is it that will separate us from the love of Christ?” What is it? And yet it happens year after year after year. So, where is the conviction. That’s only something each one of us can answer before God, and my desire for everyone within the Body is only there because it’s God’s desire and Christ’s desire that lives in us, that we should have toward one another within the Body. That’s why it hurts—and it hurts them because they have that desire, that’s why they’re called. That’s why God called us, to have that opportunity.

But not everyone receives it. Isn’t that amazing? That’s just mindboggling. But those are choices that lead into Elohim. God has to know who we are. Sometimes we don’t know ourselves because we don’t want enough what it is that God has placed before us, what He is offering us.

So again, all these things building upon it.

25 (4) The Abomination of Desolation is about what Joseph Tkach did in the Church. This “abomination of desolation” began within the Church as a result of the sermon he gave in Atlanta on December 17, 1994, where he changed the laws of God. This initiated the Apostasy, which was an attempt to defile … the very “temple of God…”

An abomination of desolation! Not a pig on an altar. Give me a break!

…to destroy the very “temple of God,” which is God’s Church. This became the prophesied event spoken of by Daniel of the “abomination of desolation standing in the holy place.” (Mat. 24:14-16)

And we see it so clearly. How? Because of God’s spirit. But because of this experience there is something in us, if we have that kind of conviction to see where God is leading and what God has done, to grasp what God is doing with us, to be thankful for that part in it that we have, it should be ever so moving.

To sit in a booth, especially during the Feast of Tabernacles, to think about these things and our part in it and what it means. You are living. They did it physically. We’re to do it spiritually, not just at the Feast, which God is giving us a greater opportunity to do this year, we’re to be doing this all the time. Truly. Living it. Living it. Living it. Living it. It’s a beautiful thing.

As we’re going through these matters during this Feast of Tabernacles, much like the purpose God has given to the Church, the spiritual meaning of sitting in booths (I’ve already said it because it’s in my notes, but I got to read it; don’t want to miss anything) are you beginning to grasp more deeply the importance of how God works with us and leads us? We need to be able to see that. The more we’re living this process, the more we will see that, the stronger we will be, truly.

We’re to be learning from what we see God is doing on this earth and in the Church. We’re receiving a lot of that at this Feast whether we grasp it or not. Hopefully, we all grasp it, although I know we don’t all grasp it. We’re to be growing through what we’re learning in these experiences as we continue to press forward.

So again, as a result of God opening our eyes to see the importance of these truths we’ve just covered, this then led to Him being able to bring us into a deeper repentance. And it takes time, doesn’t it? These things don’t just happen quickly. Completing what needed to be completed because of what happened in 2008, because of the choice of some who gave up their crown and didn’t want this enough and didn’t desire enough, and they turned against Christ, antiChrist, then others had to be prepared for it, had to be molded and fashioned  to take that.

But it came out then what they were, who they were. Now, I don’t know at what stage, and yet I know it was a part of God’s plan and purpose because we learn from this. But God allowed it. But they had been called to that purpose and then rejected. A lot of people through time who have been rejected in that.

That’s why I love what it says there in Revelation, “Don’t let anyone take your crown.” Because that’s what God has called us to receive now or in the future, at the end of a thousand years. Whenever it is, it’s still a part of God’s Family, a part of the government of God.

26 (5) The stones of the temple are about the people of the Church of God at the end-time.

Awesome when we came to that point, and it’s because this is so much of a stone, hard to get through, to chisel down to. Sometimes it’s hard to grasp that’s what we are; we’re the stones of the temple. What an awesome thing. I mean, to live through that and come to see and understand that all the stones of the temple have been cast down? Incredible!

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

What a beautiful description of something. An ugly thing, a hideous thing that took place, but that’s what took place. We lived it! And so, we became more deeply convicted of that and could build upon other things then.

But getting to that point, brethren, took time. It wasn’t easy! That’s the way it is working with this, with human beings, with carnal minds. To strengthen something of God, the spirit, the mind of God inside of us requires much in the sense of our response to God and our desire before God to receive what He has, to want it, to cry out for it in our prayers day by day by day. To understand the value, the importance of praying every day, that we want and need and know that we need His spirit to not only hold on to what He’s given us but to build and to grow in that, whatever He has for us.

We don’t want to be a resistance in that and yet that happens so much in our lives because we are carnal human beings.

This, in turn, led to see what also had to be acknowledged that could not be learned with the kind of conviction, the faith, the confidence that God wants us to have, wanted us to have as a remnant people. This was just the beginning of the construction of the remnant. There is much more He’s going to give but you’ve got to have those experiences and learn and build upon those things. Just like in a building, before you can go on and next row of bricks, next row of blocks, whatever it might be, you’ve got to have these down here to support that. And if you don’t have it, you’re not going to have a building.

So again, had to be acknowledged that it could not be learned and could not have come to the kind of deeper convictions that we have except by our experiencing all this in exactly the way we have. Do we see that, that God Almighty is doing this building? God Almighty is the one doing the work, and His Son, because that’s a spiritual work. Then if we respond to that we will grow in that in the spirit, in God’s spirit, to see the things He’s molding and fashioning and wants to give to us. It takes time.

We should be able to see this sitting in booths, being able to see what God has been doing and how He’s been doing it.

This experience then led to the next three truths. Incredible! The next three truths.

27 (6) All in God's Church during the era of Laodicea were Laodicean.

Wow! So simple! But it wasn’t then. Do you know why? Because the present truth before that period of time for God’s Church was that Philadelphia and Laodicea would exist at the same time together, and yet just didn’t quite fit and it wasn’t God’s time yet to show why it hadn’t. Because an era is an era by it’s own definition. And what do you mean two eras together at the same time? We didn’t know because we hadn’t been given that yet.

So, to say this? Do you know what that did to anyone who was being called into the remnant? You had to acknowledge then you were Laodicean, which leads to other truth. You had to experience that, to say that, to repent, to grow in what God was building. Others out there in the Body could not do that because it takes a great deal of humility to say, “I remember it well. I am a Laodicean. I lived as a Laodicean.” It reveals a lot, doesn’t it, if we understand the flow of our history then.

Sitting in booths. Thankful for what God gave to us. Knowing that we had to experience that to go on to what was next. Awesome. Awesome. Truly, truly, truly awesome, the hand of God and that of Christ working what He’s working within us. It’s their work; we just have to respond to it, want it, desire it, yield to it, cry out to God for the help in it, and continue to grow. Where there is sin, we quickly repent.

So again here:

… (referring to the period after Mr. Armstrong’s death in January 1986 up to the Pentecost of 1998).

Laodicea. We were still in Laodicea in that first 3½ years. I hope you understand that. That’s why, and even this we didn’t grasp and understand until farther up the line. Then we could look back, and God blessed then, to be able to see then what we had experienced. Because we didn’t yet know.

There have been a lot of things that God has shown us, of what we went through and what we experienced, so we could learn from that, so that we could build upon that and understand things more deeply. Just like this. It took that long to work with a group of people to establish something that God could then say, “Now, you are My remnant.” It took 3½ years to be separated from the presence of Satan. God protected the Church during that period of time to establish then a group that would continue on.

That’s incredible to understand. It truly is, to understand that the remnant Church didn’t start at the Apostasy. It didn’t start when whatever. It started on Pentecost of 1998. Which kind of opens up some other doors. But time will tell. The more deeply we understand those things.

I’ll just mention it. I don’t know! Well, I think I know. Let me take a drink. Just a moment. We’ve had markers. I’ve talked a lot about markers. We are in a new phase, we understand that right now, of what we’re addressing. That’s a large part of what this series is about, the experiences and seeing the things we do.

But we understand that there were five specific periods of time that led up to 2012, plus seventy days. It has a lot of meaning to it. We know there are two more past that that led up to 2019 Pentecost. But the reality is, is the remnant has really only lived through six specific periods of time. So, I don’t know. Maybe? Maybe not. I don’t know. I’m definitely not going to hit on a marker.

But I know that within the process there will be or have been seven specific markers. So again, we continue to grow in this, brethren, and in time we’re going to be able to see what it was. Are we unique in a period of time and because of the Apostasy on that there were seven specific markers? Very likely so. Because the first event of the First Trumpet could happen at any time. Because, God isn’t showing this, and for whatever purpose and whatever reason we have experienced things that we know there is timing involved, but to me, because of my desire, my enjoyment of mathematics, until I got to calculus… But anyway, that’s another story. But to enjoy that kind of thing and to see things fit together in such a way that’s impossible, really, as far as human life is concerned, and you see things that God has done and brought together in time and in quantity, it’s a beautiful and a marvelous thing to see that and to have been a part of that.

Again, we’re still learning and we’re waiting to see what is going to take place. We continue to move forward. I’ll mention that more as we go along but just throwing that one there out about the remnant and that we were still Laodicea up to 1998 of Pentecost, all of us that are here today that came through that that are still together.

What does all that mean? Well, we’ll see. Because there is definitely meaning in it, I just don’t know what it is yet, okay? God has to give it. And until He does, I can’t give it. Until He gives it to us, I can’t give it. So, we wonder; we look at certain thing and we wonder. So, we wait and see and then God will take away the wonder after a while.

“All in the Church in Laodicea where Laodicean.”

28 (7) All of Laodicea was spewed out of God's mouth as prophesied, separated from Christ, and scattered.

Because, you see, once you come to the one you can begin to see the next. You’ve experienced it. So, what you read it’s like, it’s so clear. If indeed we can recognize that we were Laodicea, we recognize what it says about Laodicea, this is also stated about Laodicea, “God’s going to spew you out of His mouth.” All of it! Not a part of it, all of it. What does that mean? It means to be separated from God, to be cut off from His holy spirit.

What does that mean? Do you know what that means? It means you have to repent if you’re going to come back into a relationship with God. God offered that to several thousand people in that 3½ year period. Several thousands who scattered into many different organizations. God offered that. Different things happened and people had to make different choices along the way. This is one of them.

Because people heard about it. Individuals had to think about it. There are those who said, “You may be Laodicean…” Because that’s what existed in the Church. We knew about a Laodicean spirit. Mr. Herbert Armstrong talked about it! That’s why he said at one point earlier on, and I don’t remember the exact time, but toward the end of the 70’s, early 80’s, or whatever, he made comments about, “I wonder if…” I can’t say it the way he did, but “if 50% of you get it!” Then the comments at times then would lead into this concept that there were two eras together.

Well, yeah, that attitude was there, but it wasn’t the era yet. But that attitude did co-exist at the same time for a period of time, Philadelphia and Laodicea. But Philadelphian, to be Philadelphian it was like, “That’s what I am!” Unless you really think about the name and you really understand what God says about agape, that you can’t compare that with philia. Because it’s just human fraternal love.

One great organization, one “great,” because of size at that time, said they’re Philadelphian. “We are Philadelphians, and you are not to have anything to do with those Laodiceans. You cannot fellowship with the rest of them out there because they’re all Laodiceans. Because if they were here, they would know that they have the name Philadelphian.” That truly defines who they are! Anyway, I’m sorry, but it’s amazing the human carnal mind sometimes and how it works.

But that was the attitude that existed, and if you didn’t live that, strive to learn it from what’s being said here. But again, when you experience something like that and you realize, wow, if you’re going to say to a bunch of people, if you’re going to write about Laodicea and “We are Laodicean because that’s why the Apostasy happened,” that’s a toughie. That’s a toughie for people scattered.

Why? Because if they’re going to be able to address what happened, that it was an apostasy, they have to be willing to say, “I was Laodicean.” What does that say? “I was spewed out of God’s mouth. I was the cause; I was part of the cause of the Apostasy!” You want to repent of that one, don’t you? Because it happened because we were all guilty because we all had to be separated. He wouldn’t accept any of us in that state of Laodicean, of lukewarm.

God wants us to be on fire. He wants us to love His way of life, to fight for His way of life instead of just kind of lollygagging along and going through the motions and thinking somehow we’re going to have it then, that somehow we can do this or that and eventually send in a Holy Day offering and that’s okay, and tithe most of the time and that’s okay, and go to the Feast of Tabernacles and the Sabbath once in a while, and that’s okay.

That’s Laodicean and God won’t accept that. Sometimes, it’s actually, it’s a whole lot worse sometimes because of what we’ve gone through and what we know now. So, anyway.

To acknowledge that you were cut off from God’s spirit? That means one thing – you have to repent. “Because I don’t want to be cut off from God’s spirit and I know that there is sin involved then and I’ve got to change because I can acknowledge this.” God blessed us to be able to come to that point that we could acknowledge this because of what we were experiencing and what He was showing, and it was so clear. Felt sick about it. Felt sick about it! And that’s good! Because that’s good when that goes along with repentance. Because you feel sick about it because you see it for what it is, how ugly it is. If you see how ugly sin is, that stands between you and God and cuts you off from God, it’s ugly. Anything that cuts us off from God’s spirit is just downright ugly. It’s that pile of poop that I mentioned yesterday.

29 (8) The entire Church fell asleep just as it is described in Matthew 25:1-13.

I remember when God gave that. Some of you remember when God gave that. It was in a basement here in Cincinnati. I remember going through some of those things about the 10 virgins. Because we hadn’t understood that in God’s Church, and all of a sudden, we could see this was what was being lived, the experience.

It’s amazing how your sight is so sharpened when you experience something and can acknowledge it, and all of a sudden, it’s staring you in the face. And all it requires then is a willingness to repent of the wrong involved in all of that and a desire then and a gratitude and a thankfulness for the truth that you see. Then it becomes so beautiful, it truly does.

Sitting in booths. Awesome! Awesome. Awesome. Awesome.

I’m not going to go through all that and read that in Chapter 25, but it’s quite incredible, it really is, what we have gone through, what we have experienced.

Our experiences through the time following the Apostasy included, and I want to definitely throw this in here before we close today, our experience through the time following the Apostasy for quite a long time included much suffering, anguish, hurt, pain, deeper than I have ever felt in my life. That which is in the mind and the struggle because of, well, because of what we experienced. Because to get where you’re going and to be able to grow and go through something like that, it just required a lot of fire and a lot of choices that had to be made. Incredible!

Anyway, a lot of anguish, a lot of suffering, being more deeply humbled. Because that’s what a lot of this was about. Because one thing led to another that just led to a greater need for humility, more humility, an ability to see what had led to that and all the things that weren’t right that had to be acknowledged in that.

To acknowledge sin, to be able to repent just requires more humility. You have to have a humble spirit and a willingness to repent. That’s what humility is about, a willingness to repent. It requires repentance, as I mentioned, much mental pain as well. Then resistance and a continuing rebelling, that’s what we experienced; it was a rebelling that took place in God’s Church.

It was difficult. It wasn’t easy. Those of you who are together to this day who experienced the Apostasy… Let me see how many hands out there. How many experienced the Apostasy? Okay. Come a long, long way. The children of Israel could look back and see that they had come a long, long way as far as time was concerned, coming out of Egypt as they sat in booths and thought about some of those things. But that was so mild and very physical.

Yet we have something that we can do that God has brought us to this moment in time, to this Feast of Tabernacles, to learn more about this process that we’re able to experience, and to understand this is what we have been living and this is what we continue to live as we move forward. We’re almost there. The Millennium is not far off.

Incredible, to grasp those things about that in itself that we’ve already gone through and discussed, in that respect, and then to come to understand that this phase right now is a final phase. We are there, whatever that’s going to consist of that God hasn’t fully shown yet. We should be so sobered to realize what we’ve gone through, where we are now, what God gives to us, and what’s in front of us.

The world cries out powerfully so, and when it happens, like I mentioned yesterday, you are going to experience a level of fear that you have never experienced in your life. But you’re being prepared for that.

So again, all that we’ve gone through to bring us to this point in time was not an easy thing to experience. That’s what fire is about. That’s a willingness to serve, a willingness to sacrifice. It’s a willingness on our part. That’s what it requires, that God is first. Regardless of what we suffer, God must be first! Because there is our life. There is our future. And it’s a beautiful one, far more than we can begin to grasp and comprehend. We have to latch on to it with all of our being and want it and fight for it. God will give it; it’s what He’s called us, to give us that.

But some won’t be here because of things I mentioned.

It was not an easy thing to experience all that we have. It has been hard! No sugar coating it whatsoever! It’s just flat been hard and that’s because of us, carnal human beings, that resistance that’s in our nature. It takes time to go through various things to be molded and fashioned. God can’t just mold and fashion us immediately. It takes time. We have to go through certain things to get to where we are what He’s molding.

It’s been hard, but what we’ve experienced through all this has been so incredibly invaluable. You cannot put a value upon it. It’s a gift of God. Awesome!