They Refuse To Listen To God, Pt. 6

Ronald Weinland

May 22, 2021

This is the continuation of the series entitled, They Refuse To Listen To God, with this being Part 6.

Last week ended after we had just begun to go through a section in Chapter 4 of the book 2008—God’s Final Witness. We began reviewing the section with the heading The Seven Thunders of the Sixth Seal. This is in the midst, all this that we’re going through is in the midst of what God is having us focus upon concerning the hardening of the heart and how much worse things have gotten since 2008 actually, and even going before that, but it’s progressively accelerated and getting worse and worse as far as the world is concerned, and that’s what we’re covering at this particular time.

As we’re going through this it was explained how we have actually come full circle to those things that were addressed clear back in 2008 – actually, back in 2006, because that’s when that book was written, actually published in that particular year, so it started to be written before that. But since that time we’ve been going through much in order to become better prepared for what now lies ahead of us.

It’s like coming full circle. That’s where we are right now and it’s kind of a unique situation to find ourselves going back to that point in time and addressing some of the things that were addressed back then. So again, God lets us see a few things at a time as we go along and continues to guide and direct us, and some of those things take time for us to get to a position, to a place where He begins to add to what He’s already given us. It’s a building block type of thing where you just keep building on a construction site and you can’t get up to a certain level until you’re there, for the building part of it. God has been preparing us for this for a long time.

I had mentioned in the particular book here that one of the most important things that came out last Sabbath was to understand that some of the things that have transpired as far as additional time is concerned is to grasp and comprehend what happened back in 2008. We went through the scriptures that talked about the Philadelphia era and an admonition that was given to the Church of Philadelphia, to “Let no man take your crown.”

That was written, again, to a particular, or in the context of what was in the Philadelphia era, but everything that’s written, that would apply to everyone who actually came into the Church over the past 2,000 years. And candidly, the reality is that many people have gone by the wayside in 2,000 years, but it’s kind of unique in how it’s placed there in this particular context because that’s where we came to by 2008, that there were those who had not…

Well, I should go back up here a little bit and say at that point in time some things began happening in a few people’s lives who went back to the period of Philadelphia in the sense of maybe growing up in the Church at that time or actually having been called during that period of time, and still a part of the church, had gone through the Apostasy and experienced some horrifying times of things that were prophesied to come to pass that they themselves witnessed. Then their minds opened up to understanding or awakened in what we call a spiritual sleep, candidly, of what took place within the Church, of why the Church had to go through the Apostasy, and they had the blessing of being awakened. But they gave up their crown. You think, what a horrible thing to grasp, to comprehend what God has called us to—and I’m talking about the 144,000 because that’s what it’s in reference to—to have an opportunity to become a part of that particular body, of that particular group when Christ returns.

God has blessed us and I’m excited about it, and I hope others are as well, to realize that things didn’t quit at that point in time. God doesn’t stop. He continues to mold and fashion others then to be prepared to be able to be fit into those areas of responsibility, the 144,000. That’s not something that happens overnight.

He’s blessing us to grasp and comprehend indeed why, even there, more has been given as far as time is concerned. Because it takes time to prepare, to mold and fashion those who are going to take those people’s places. I thought I’d just mention today to make sure that people understand that this can include anyone who maybe grew up in the Church, baptized at some later point, even since the Apostasy. It includes people who were especially called from the period of 2006, because that’s when the largest influx of people began to come in, around 2007 and 2008. Again, some of those individuals who were baptized around that period of time or even afterward.

God is the judge of those things. It’s God who determines when that timeline is. But He’s blessed us to understand that there are those within that group who have or are being given that opportunity. We don’t know who it is. All of us recognize that the moment we’re baptized we commit our lives to God. They belong to God.

From that point forward that understanding, that comprehension, regardless of where God places us, whether it be in 144,000 or whether it be living on into the Millennium and being a part of an incredible large vast numbers of individuals who come into the God Family at the end of a thousand years, or whether it be into the final hundred years, if there are those things that can benefit, to help mold and fashion His way in us so that we can be a part of His family, that’s the goal. That’s the desire, to be in the Kingdom of God.

So again here, it’s important to understand that if your life is in God’s hands He knows what is best for us, what we can best accomplish. There may be reasons and a purpose why there are going to be individuals resurrected in the final period of time that are going to be of benefit to others. We don’t know how these things work together and what God is doing, how He does it. But He lets us see a little bit as we go along about what He’s doing.

And to me, that’s exciting. We were talking before services here how that we used to meet north of here in a Hilton Garden Inn. From where we’re located here in Connecticut we were over the line in Massachusetts, just barely in Springfield, and how that there were fifty plus people in the meeting room at that time. Now it’s much, much, much smaller.

Now, I understand that some couldn’t come in today from certain areas or whatever because of whether it be health or other things that are bothering them or they’re going through right now, but even with that we’d still be a very small group here in comparison to the fifty plus that we had at that time.

That’s the way it’s been in God’s Church for so, so long, especially since the Apostasy, that there is a continual whittling down and a continual giving up by people. You think, what a horrible thing, to give up. The mind just really can’t comprehend what they’re giving up by that time. If a person begins to let down, begins to sin, begins to rub shoulders with the world, begins to let down, doesn’t keep up a relationship with God in prayer, and a person gets weaker and weaker, it can’t be helped, a person is going to drift away.

That’s why God gives us all the admonitions He does about persevering, enduring to the end, to keep up the fight, to conquer, to overcome, and all those things that are given to us. Because it’s a fight from the time we’re called to the time this is over with. We have to fight against this. We have to fight against this world out there. We have to stand and resist those things that we’re bombarded with. And right now, we’re living in a period where I know that the Church is being bombarded again in a big way as it had been many years ago and at different stages. There is a time when a spirit world gets more riled up and it bombards people in a greater way.

Again, that scripture in John that, 1 John that talks about “Greater is He that’s in you than he that’s in the world.” When we realize what we’re up against, we can’t resist. We can’t fight against the spirit world, but God in us can – then we can because of God dwelling in us, because of the strength He gives to us. Then we can live the kind of life we need to that they won’t want to be around that. That demonic world, they may bombard and broadcast, but after a time they cannot stand to be in that environment.

That’s why I’ve even mentioned at times to people that when you feel you’re being bombarded, and sometimes not just prayer that you want to be involved with, but sometimes some of the hymns on the site. They can’t stand it. Those beings cannot stand anything to do with God. If your mind is focused upon God and you’re striving to be close to God they’ll flee. They may harass you for a time, but in time you stand firm, they flee.

Sometimes though, people give into those things and give in to the pulls, give into the things that they’re being tempted with or what comes into their mind of various things that can lead people astray. That’s why it’s so important to fight and resist, to stand strong, to draw close to God and cry out to God for help.

So again, it’s a constant battle. This is not an easy road to follow, to be on. It’s always been that way, and for a purpose, because of what God’s molding and fashioning inside of us. And especially, if you look at the first resurrection, those that are going to be in that and what they must go through in order to be prepared for the kinds of responsibilities God gives to them, there is a lot they have to go through in order to be molded into those positions, so, not a small thing. So again, it’s a continual battle.

So again, going back to those individuals. Some may wonder, “Well, is it possibly me?” Well, you don’t know. Some may not want that yet. You know, some people feel that they want to have a family, they want to experience certain things in physical life. Don’t worry, God’s going to let you experience those things if that be the case, if that be the mind set, if that’s what you want, if that’s where you’re at in your growth, in your process of life. But if it’s something you desire and want sooner, again, that’s between each individual and God. But if that’s not what you’re called for then…

In other words, we can’t judge those things. We can’t determine those things. But neither can we be in it just for that. That’s the point I’m trying to make, I guess, is a person can’t be a part of this Church in order just to become a part of the 144,000. That’s missing the mark. It’s to be in the Kingdom of God whenever that might be.

If it’s to live in the Millennium, then that’s an awesome blessing to be a part of God’s Church, to have gone through and experienced the things that you did after the Apostasy, or maybe even during the Apostasy for some and after the Apostasy, and then to live on into a new age and to be among those that will be known as… “You mean, you were a part of that group? A remnant? A small group that was left?” It’s going to be an awesome thing. So, anyway.

I hope some of you are excited by that because I am, of the opportunity that young, different young people that at certain points and whatever, that maybe hadn’t thought about those kinds of things but now realize that yes, it’s going to be offered to different ones, young and old alike who have been called over the past many years and had an opportunity to grow in this way of life.

So again, the subject matter I’m going into is a little difficult for me because of going full circle again. It was uncomfortable then, it’s uncomfortable now, and we’ve had a lot of those kinds of situations in life where this way of life isn’t always comfortable. God has you do something, wants you to do something, you’re to stand firm in certain areas of life. It’s not easy.

Anyway, under the subject of the Seven Thunders here, picking that up under the heading in the book there. Picking it back up again and reviewing a little bit here of where this was headed last Sabbath.

[1]“The Seven Thunders - Not only did God close up the meaning and timing for the events of the Seven Seals of Revelation until they were to be revealed in this prophetic end-time, but He also told John not to write about what he had heard concerning the Seven Thunders. God wanted the Seven Thunders to remain sealed until this very time as well.”

So again, all this is there, and as we’ve gone through these periods of time and God has had us focus upon them, we’ve grown in understanding, not seeing it all but each time we go to it, as an example, God gives us more to see, more to understand.

Just like understanding, to me, which is exciting, that in 2008 some began because of the truth about when Christ would return, that it wasn’t Trumpets, it would be on a Pentecost, that there were individuals who rejected it. And because they rejected it, by 2013 they were out of the Church, some who had gone all the way back to having come into the Church back during the time of Philadelphia. That’s a horrifying thing, to think you were called during the age of Herbert Armstrong in Philadelphia, he died in ’86, then you went through all the period of Laodicea and you saw this incredible change slowly taking place in the Church where the Church was becoming weaker and weaker spiritually, where we began to coast as a people and let down. The entire Church then becoming so stagnant and lukewarm that part of what God gave as a prophecy to John concerning Laodicea was God was going to spew the Church out of His mouth. They experienced those things and then were awakened to understand it.

Because there were a lot of people out there who never could acknowledge that. They couldn’t acknowledge that they were Laodiceans, that they had gone asleep. That was beneath them. I had a battle with it, as I’ve said. When I first started speaking on this and God began to reveal it, when it said they slumbered and slept I thought, okay, I was slumbering a little bit here and there, but I didn’t fall asleep. That was in my mind. It was so hard to accept that. Yes, I did. We all did. That’s why God spewed the entirety of the Church out of His mouth. Until a person comes to that they can’t continue to go on and be fed by God.

Because there are certain things we have to acknowledge. Sin we have to acknowledge, and we have to see it clearly. God brings us to that point where we can acknowledge sin and own what we have done. “I’m guilty.” Until we’re able to do that we can’t go on to another level of growth and maturity. So again here, lessons to be learned all the way through this.

But to understand what some have done, what they did back at that time, they saw all these things, they began to be given truths that others in the scattered Body couldn’t comprehend. The stones of the temple all falling down, the prophecies there in Matthew, you think, they understood that, that there wouldn’t be one stone left upon another.

Because this is what happened to Laodicea. It was scattered. Not one stone left upon the other. Because the temple is about the Church, not about a physical temple, which some of the scattered organizations still believed this is all about a physical temple. Incredible!

So people had their minds opened to those things, and still by the time of 2008… And it wasn’t just because of that truth. That was an excuse. People can let down, begin to be judgmental, begin to think in wrong ways, begin to fool around with things in this world and become weaker and weaker to where they can’t handle then something that God does give to them. In time He allows them, if that’s their choice, to begin to be eaten up inside. That’s what it does. It begins to spiritually, like a cancer as it says, it gets to a point where a person can’t deal with the Church anymore, with the truth anymore. In time they turn, well, sadly, they turn against others in God’s Church. Many of us have experienced those things and gone through those things.

And so, to understand that yes, that was their choice. But what a blessing that God is going to go ahead, continue on and reveal to us that there are others who have been called even since that time in 2008, even afterward, that He’s working with to prepare, to have an opportunity to be a part of the first resurrection.

I hope that excites everyone, because that’s awesome, it really is. It’s not just living on into a new age but it’s having an opportunity. Some are going to replace those individuals who made their choices. God has let us know and learn even more so that there is an angel being held back, or angels being held back from doing what they’re going to do. The First, Second, Third, and Fourth Trumpets can’t begin. The first one can’t begin until the sealing is complete. God has blessed us to understand that very powerfully so, but to understand all the rest of it, we haven’t understood.

I remember speaking in The Netherlands a couple years ago—I think it was two years ago last time we were there—and at the end on the Last Great Day talking about some of this and addressing the matter of everything being held back and the time, that God has it in His control as to when this is. But the primary thing is about the Church because the Church, speaking of those who are going to be sealed, it has to be complete first. And if we’re not ready then it’s not going to happen. There’s much involved in all of that, of God working in our lives, and if we’re resisting in any certain form or if we’re not ready then we want to make sure we’re ready.

Little did I know at that point in time that God’s working with others and they’re being prepared to be sealed, who came out of that period of time before, perhaps through the Apostasy and grew up in the church or some of those who were called, have been called around the period of 2008 and on. For how long? I don’t know what period of time. But most people came in around 2008, 2009 and 10 and in through there. New, in other words, not a part of Worldwide.

Because that was a unique thing we’ve gone through as a Church as well, because as a whole most people in the beginning and continuing on were a part of Worldwide. It wasn’t until that period of time after the first book – we only had two or three or four, I think, different ones – I said there was just one – but they said, no, they came in because of the first book. But not very many, a handful.

Then it was the next book where God began to draw and call and work with individuals. And you look at that, you understand that it’s a matter of what God is doing because it’s not the book, it’s not what any person does, it’s what God does. God has to do the calling. The evidence of that is those who came into the Church and got baptized. But to have the opportunity to become a part of the 144,000? That’s awesome!

Anyway, going on here. So, there is much that God continues to reveal to us to help us have a clearer picture of what’s going on and why it’s happening in the manner that it is.

So again: “God wanted the Seven Thunders to remain sealed until this very time as well. God did all this as a part of a process through which He would reveal who one of His end-time witnesses was, the one through whom He would fully reveal all that John had written in the Book of Revelation concerning the end-time.”

So again, I’m going full circle coming back to this. Because it was uncomfortable then, it’s uncomfortable now, but it’s something that I have to do so it is what it is. And so, I asked last Sabbath, “So, when will this be, that this will be obvious?” Because candidly, it’s not obvious yet. It’s not obvious at all who God’s witnesses are to the world, and perhaps to some in the Church. The evidence isn’t there. It’s a matter of faith strictly in the Church, as a whole.

God will make it known. But you won’t know it from the evidence of those things it says in Revelation until nearly the end. As I had mentioned last week, I think I said something to the effect that it wouldn’t be until the Fifth or Sixth Seal. I meant the Fifth or Six Trumpet. It could be that far into it.

Because just like in the life of Christ, most of the things that God did to show, to prove that He was the Messiah, didn’t happen until the last three weeks of his life. All those things that he did in that travel down toward Jerusalem, and as he went through the area just outside of Jerusalem where Mary and Martha and Lazarus lived, and resurrected Lazarus from the dead, that was the last great event, in that respect, before he went on to fulfill the purpose of Passover. And so, right up to the very end, the major one happening at the end.

Well, it’s the same sort of thing with this. Some of the major things don’t happen until the very end or very close to it.

Going on here, “…John had written in the Book of Revelation concerning this end-time. God gave specific end-time prophecies to John in a vision. John was to write about what he saw, but most of what he wrote was to remain sealed. God predetermined to reveal the meaning and timing of these major prophetic events through His end-time prophet.”

So, they’re to the Church. Then again, it’s still a matter of faith at this point. It’s not a matter of physical evidence that’s in the world at all.

“God has a twofold purpose for doing this. First, God is going to make a clear distinction, in His scattered Church, between who His true minister is, through whom He is working, and all other ministers with whom He is not working.”

And why is that important? Well, because there are those who are scattered who have to come to a point in time where they recognize or where they will acknowledge or address the fact that they aren’t true ministers, that they got caught up in various things, whatever it was, to whatever degree, and they have to come to a point of beginning to acknowledge that. And if they don’t, it’s the Great White Throne. Because especially those individuals are going to have to come to a point of repentance to live into a new age, and there may not be that many who do so.

“This will serve as one final witness to the Church before the devastation of the great tribulation strikes the whole world at the opening of the Seventh Seal.” That means the opening event of the Seventh Seal. So, we know what that is, it’s the First Trumpet, the First Trumpet event. So, when that begins the evidence is going to be out there for the world to recognize.

You think, what are some in the scattered Church going to think when that happens? When the First Trumpet event in the United States takes place? Because they feel that time, as a whole, is a distance off because things aren’t happening in the way that they think they’re going to happen and come to pass. But they’re going to have to address this because it’s going to be massive and it’s going to happen quickly, because the Second, Third, and Fourth can happen very quickly, right there within a week’s time, within a few days’ time, all four of them.

“Secondly, God’s other purpose, for revealing this prophecy in this manner, is to make a clear distinction among all religious leaders in the world. God is going to reveal who His true minister is, through whom He is working to proclaim His truth to the world as a final end-time witness, and He will begin to reveal who all other false religious leaders are.”

So again, uncomfortable to go through and address these kinds of things, but the reality is when you’re supposed to do something, you’d better do it. That’s basically where I am. Because, candidly, I don’t like doing this, so… Anyway.

That’s why I say we’ve come full circle to where these things are to be addressed again. So, I’ve started writing in the book already, as I said last week, and it’s a work in progress. I don’t even have any idea what the title is going to be. I have no idea where it’s all going to go. But I do know that there are certain things are going to come out of all the other four books that have come before this. I thought the last book was going to be that, but it wasn’t, and the reality is there is going to be something out of all four because it’s a progression of where God is leading. Each one of them has a progression of what God is revealing to the Church, and now this to be addressed. I’ll explain some of those things later on as to why this is taking place in the manner that it is.

Anyway, continuing on from last week now: “The timing for the Seven Thunders is during the period of the Sixth Seal.” Now, I want to add here that since that time, since that was written, since God gave us that we knew that it started when the Sixth Seal was opened, we knew that that was a beginning process for the Thunders. But we also learned as time went on that these are going to continue on though, all through the Seventh, all the way to the end. So, the Thunders don’t stop and don’t just have a duration of time within the period of what we might think of the opening of the Sixth Seal. The reality is it continues on to the end.

“Let’s notice what John wrote: [That’s written in the book, Revelation 10:1-11, if you want to turn there]. God has revealed much to us about the Seven thunders in the sense of how they’re going to take place and what’s going to happen, and the majority of them toward the end.

Revelation 10:1— “And I saw another mighty angel come down out of heaven, clothed with a cloud, and a rainbow was on his head, and his face was like the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire. He had a little book open in his hand, and he set his right foot…”

It talks about this little book open in his hand. He’s carrying this book and it’s opened up in his hand. It’s actually a scroll because they didn’t have books back then, obviously, and the word has to do with scroll. So, it’s a small scroll, it’s a little scroll with a little writing on it. It’s not some large thing like the book of Revelation was in the sense of the length of scrolls it would take to write that.

So, this is “a small scroll in his hand, and he set his right foot on the sea and his left foot on the land, and cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roars. And when he had cried, the seven thunders uttered [spoke] their sounds [in other words the message, the statement, what it is they were to say, the message they were carrying]. And when the seven thunders had uttered their sounds [again, the message that was being heard there], he said, I was about to write…” In other words, he was about to write what he heard them saying because there was a message and this power that God gave through them for John to hear. “…but I heard a voice from heaven saying to me, ‘Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered [in other words, what they spoke, what they said, what they declared. That’s what the word means] and do not write them.’”

So again here, this is something God said, this is to be sealed. It’s not to be revealed. It’s not to be given. It’s not to be written. It’s not to be recorded. So, again, then the story goes on from there. Because this is kind of unique in what was taking place. Again, God hasn’t revealed these things all at once, just a little bit at a time.

“The angel whom I saw standing on the sea and on the land lifted up his hand to heaven and swore by Him who lives forever and ever…”

I want to pause there because I just want to think about it, take you back and remind you of progressive revelation because it’s an important thing for God’s Church to understand. Put it this way, I’m always in awe when I start thinking about all the time from the time of Adam and Eve all the way through the time of Noah, all through the time of Abraham and others, Moses, and each time God just continues to reveal more and more, until we get up to the time of Christ (and of course the prophets that went before that), but when you get up to the time of Christ then so much that God began to reveal at that time.

Then the disciples after Pentecost in 31 A.D., the time that Christ had spent with them and now because of God’s spirit dwelling in them and all the things Christ had taught them, these things were in their mind and they were able to go out and preach very powerfully the meaning of those things they’d been told. Because they didn’t even understand them until they had the holy spirit.

So again, progressive revelation. There are things revealed to different ones. Just like to Paul when he wrote Thessalonians. It wasn’t until 2 Thessalonians that he began to write about the man of sin, the son of perdition and the timing for Christ’s coming. He didn’t understand what those things were about. Even John, when he wrote about some of those things referring to antichrists and those who were (and many antichrist), they didn’t understand what those things were leading up to and what it was all about concerning the end-time.

To me, it’s an awesome thing to think back of how God began to work with Herbert Armstrong then, and you think of different prophesies. I think of the different things that were thought of concerning the Seals and the Trumpets and what we used to believe in Worldwide. Because that’s all that God has revealed to him as an apostle at that time, that the Seals were seen as a time of war on the earth.

A lot of that influence comes from how the world has looked upon certain things as well because you’ve heard of the Four Horsemen—we all have—the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. But we know, basically, what goes with that and how it was looked upon in times past. If you see things that are written out there by others not ever in God’s Church, but people who look at that, the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, just by the words alone and by the thinking it’s an apocalyptic time. It’s a time of massive destruction on the earth.

Yet that’s all we could see for several decades as far as Philadelphia and Laodicea. It wasn’t until recent time that God began to show us, no, the first four horsemen are about something that happened in God’s Church. It was apocalyptic to God’s Church, the scattering of God’s Church, because God’s primary focus is the Church.

The world has an opportunity, as whole, for a later time in the Great White Throne, massive numbers of people that live now at this time and at the time of Herbert Armstrong and through the period of Laodicea, millions, billions of people that are not intended to live on into a new age are going to be resurrected. That’s what’s intended for them.

God focuses upon things differently than we do as humans, as His plan of salvation and people aren’t lost. There is that opportunity to work with them later in a greater time in the sense of government in the world and after a thousand years what God has established on the earth and to save human beings, to help mankind to have it easier in that respect, to fight against this if they so choose. Again, when you look at the things that God gave to Herbert Armstrong about the four horsemen of the apocalypse it carried with it a powerful message. But the destruction that went with that didn’t jive with, didn’t coincide with what was said about the Trumpets then because there is massive destruction with the Trumpets.

We learn that God’s focus is about the Church. So often when we go through things in scripture and go through prophesies in times past, we haven’t recognized the importance of God’s Church in His plan and what He’s doing and why He even molds nations and causes things to happen, which I addressed last Sabbath.

God has molded and fashioned certain individuals by changing entire nations and kingdoms and doing things to them in order to mold and fashion, as an example, Moses. Perfect example. Look at what happened to Egypt. God working with him and Joshua at that time and the things that were molded in them that would have happened in no other way except of something unique to them that they’re going to be in God’s Kingdom in awesome ways as a part of His government that we don’t understand yet.

But they had to go through a lot. But because of what they went through and what was molded in them, God literally destroyed an entire nation of people, in the sense of their government. Pharaoh and his entire army was destroyed. What’s more important? Their continual life in a world that has no purpose? Because without God what is the purpose of life? They have that opportunity in a new age, in the Great White Throne. What God’s purpose was at that time was for what was being given to Aaron, to Moses, to Miriam, to Joshua, to different ones that will have that opportunity of being in God’s Kingdom.

We don’t tend to think of things in that light, so when we looked at, as an example, things about the Seals, we looked at the world. Because that was natural. Until God showed us, no, it’s not about the world. It’s about something far more horrendous, in that sense. The world, people can die, but they can be resurrected later. But in God’s Church if individuals come to a point where they turn against God, where they become antichrist, can they ever come back?

We haven’t gone through some of those scriptures in sermons but there are some that are very strong that have to do with a reality that there are going to be more cases than what we tend to think of individuals who have turned against God by choice. That’s far worse because that life is over with if that’s the case. If someone is called into God’s Church and has this way of life and conscientiously turns against God and makes choices that they know that they shouldn’t do because they would rather have the sin, whatever that might be in the world to experience now, what a hideous thing. Because there is no coming back from that.

If a person gets to a point where they commit what’s referred to as the unpardonable sin, which is only sin that one won’t repent of, but if people go that far what a horrible thing. And so, when it goes through and talks about the Seals and the horrible things that took place when you read them, it’s easy to apply it to the world, to see how destruction could take place, but God wants us to see that’s what happened to His Church. That that was far, far worse than what can happen in a physical world.

What happened that led up to the Apostasy and the Seals that were opened, the first four Seals that were opened was far more devastating, far more harmful to the Kingdom of God, to God’s plan and purpose than the Sixth Trumpet or the Seventh Trumpet. Because all the billions that may die can be resurrected and have opportunity for the Kingdom of God.

Does that make sense, to understand that? That it’s far more damaging, it’s a far greater loss when it comes to a point where someone can’t be worked with, where they can’t be changed because they’ve gone too far away from God.

God wants us to grasp those kinds of things. But that’s why some of those things were not revealed during Philadelphia, because it wasn’t for the Church to understand that yet because it hadn’t gone through that period of time yet. Nor was it to be known that it was going to be that bad.

We always knew that there was going to be a great falling away. We understood what it meant in scripture, that it wasn’t even the words in English “great falling away,” it’s the word for “apostasy.” It’s the word “apostasy” in the Greek language, that there would be an apostasy, which means, in essence, a falling away from the truth. We had no concept of how massive that was going to be.

Anyway, we’ve gone through a lot to get where we are, but it is a matter of progressive revelation. So, going back to what I was saying, the matter of the Seals, God didn’t reveal because it wasn’t for the Church to know. It was better to see or to believe what was natural with the carnal mind, a human mind, that this is talking about the physical world.

God allowed us in the Church to believe those things. So, just because it wasn’t known doesn’t mean it wasn’t God’s Church or that Herbert Armstrong wasn’t God’s apostle. Because it’s up to God as to when He reveals the things that He does. So anyway, going on.

It goes on to say here: “The angel which I saw standing on the sea and on the land lifted up his hand to heaven and swore by Him who lives forever and ever,” [In other words, this is coming from God. That’s what it’s showing; that what is being said here it’s coming directly from God Almighty.] “…who created heaven and the things that are in it, and the earth and the things that are in it, and the sea and the things that are in it, that there should be time no longer.”

Well, what does this mean, “time no longer?” Well, time goes on so it’s referring to something very specific here and it goes on to explain some of that.

“But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel [the angel of the Seventh Trumpet of the Seventh Seal], when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God shall be finished, as He has declared to His servants the prophets.”

So again here, what time? To me, it’s an awesome thing how these things can be looked upon and how we looked upon it in times past in the Church. But now, because of what God’s shown to us as far as the growth and where we are maturity wise, that what we’re addressing here is a period of time of the end of 6,000 years of mankind and the beginning of 1,000 years of God’s Kingdom ruling and reigning on the earth. So, “there will be time no longer” means it’s time to complete the way of this world, the way of man’s rulership and bring it to an end and bring the Kingdom of God.

We’ve gone through this, and it was two years ago that we went through this even more so at the Feast of Tabernacles, talking about some of this where God was revealing to us that it was during the time of the Seventh Trumpet, that it was the beginning of one of the Woes that was going to take place. When you look at the three Woes, the 1st Woe was when Europe does what it’s going to do as far as nuclear war is concerned. The 2nd Woe is going to be when China and Russia do what they’re going to do, and it says one-third of all man…everything, it says everything on the earth, mankind included, one-third of everything is going to be destroyed. So, that’s the 2nd Woe given to mankind.

The 3rd Woe God revealed to us has two parts to it, the beginning and the end. The first part of it happens at Christ’s coming. That’s when he comes back with, it says, an army in Revelation, 144,000. It talks about what he’s going to do. It’s going to be a matter of war. That’s what it says about him, he’s going to enter into war and “destroy those who are destroying the earth.”

God revealed to us this is the 1st Woe at that particular time, of the Seventh Seal, but again here, it’s about the Kingdom of God being established and as it says here, “But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound.” It doesn’t mean that that’s when the Trumpet sounds because the sound is about the message, but when the actions, when the activity itself begins to happen that’s what is being discussing here.

“…when he shall begin to sound, the mystery of God shall be finished.” How long does that take? Well, again, going back to what God gave us a couple of years ago, it’s 1,100 years to complete this next phase. As the time for one period has ended, the time for another is beginning. This is the beginning of this one here and it says, “the mystery of God shall be finished.” It takes 1,100 years to finish it, the rest of the plan of salvation where the vast majority are going to have opportunity to become a part of God’s Kingdom “that He has declared to His servants, the prophets.”

So again, what an incredible thing, all the things we’ve gone through since Philadelphia. Basically, nothing happening during Laodicea because it began to be lost, candidly, a lot of these things. Then what happened after the Apostasy, and God just keeps giving us more and more because we’re getting closer and closer, and we should be able to see it because of the way the world is.

So, going on in the book: “What does all this mean? Simply reading this does not tell you anything specific. It was not written so that just anyone reading it could understand. For that matter, none of the Book of Revelation was written so that just anyone reading it could understand.”

And yet every, as a whole, nearly every religious group that’s out there has tried to interpret what the book of Revelation is saying. They want to understand what it’s talking about because they grasp and understand that it’s about some pretty bad things because of this thing beginning with the 1st Seal and the four horsemen of the apocalypse. This is in the thought and the thinking of people and religion today to a point.

“It has to be revealed through God’s servants, and most of it was reserved to be revealed at this end-time through God’s end-time prophet,” and I put in there in the book, “—me.” I don’t like doing this. I don’t like going through and talking about these things. But again, so it is, and I know full well that God’s brought us back full circle because it’s getting ready to take place. That’s where we are. That’s why we’re addressing some of this.

We’re addressing a period of time where some things are going to be happening. I don’t know exactly when it’ll begin, but God will make it known when it starts. That where we thought we were at, at one time, we were being prepared for and we were being shown certain aspects of it, and especially in what was written as to what was to take place. But to be there, well, we’re knocking on the door. We’re there now.

A lot of it’s going to revolve, I feel, around the book and what’s being written there. Some of the things being focused on to me are exciting, but unique because it’s taking knowledge that God has given to us anyway through time, but especially out of the four books, and bringing us to a point in time of starting out, candidly, of focusing back on Herbert Armstrong and what God revealed to him, what God gave to him that people really, if they honestly look at it, can’t deny, some of the things that God gave to him that have come to pass already that are powerful. Just looking at it physically, if people would be honest and truthful, it’s there in front of them and they should be scared to the core of their being because of that. But they’re not. That’s not the way the human mind thinks.

Just like this Covid thing. Here we are seeing the potential now through vaccinations and other things that it’s going to begin going by the wayside more and more, things are going to open up more and more. And what’s behind that? I hope we understand this is a huge Thunder. It’s the loudest one we’ve had yet, very powerfully so, and it’s lasted for a long time because it just continues on.

I think of India right now and what they’re going through. Now they have what they call the Black Fungus and now a White Fungus and how the one is 44% devastating. In other words, you can’t recover from it if you catch that. What was it last week here? Fifty doctors in one day died and still over 4,000 per day dying. That country right now, it’s going through incredible devastation. These things are not small.

And what started out a little over a year ago, who had any idea where this was going to go and how vast it was going to become. It didn’t seem totally real at that time. It didn’t seem real to me either at that particular time, obviously, but we’ve seen the power of it and what God has allowed to take place. And candidly, it’s done a lot to mold and fashion people’s minds in a way that isn’t good, and it just leads into the next problem that’s going to come behind this.

So, going on: “Hopefully you will not make the error that so many do when reading such a bold statement by simply dismissing it because of the way it sounds. Such a statement can understandably sound brazen (brash), but it is not. It is simply a reality, and it is my job and responsibility to clearly speak in these terms. Before I tell you what the Seven Thunders are, there is something that you must be reminded of first.”

So again here, I hope you understand why this is not easy. And especially the more you see, if you see and grasp and comprehend that these things are going to take place soon. At some point here now they’re going to begin a little bit at a time and they’re going to be ramped up in time and to know where it goes and where it ends, which we don’t necessarily fully know.

But things aren’t going to get easier, not for anybody in the Church. That’s part of the warning that’s going out here as well, that we’ve all gone through battles, we’ve all gone through hardships, but some of the greatest are in front of us. That’s not easy to go through. But I should say, included within that though is to understand that there are things being molded and fashioned in you – and I think especially of those who have this opportunity now that we didn’t comprehend before, because candidly, two years ago I still only could see, God had only given to me to understand that the sealing hadn’t taken place because we weren’t ready. Well, the major reason we aren’t ready is because of the new people, that they’re not ready because it takes time.

And yet I marvel because I look back at the time, especially beginning about 2013 where all of a sudden it was becoming clearer and clearer that God is taking the Church through a process that the Church has never known a time of such ability to be molded and fashioned so quickly because of what they’re going through. It’s because of what the Church has gone through beginning with a little bit of what happened in 2012 and 2013 with this and the little “vacation” I took for three years, which wasn’t any vacation.

But anyway, to go through all those things and to realize what the Church went through as a result of that kind of thing, there has never been a time in God’s Church where so much knowledge was there, and to have been prepared for mentally, candidly living it, because people lived it, 2012. People lived it right up until the last day. I marvel at that. When something like that then doesn’t happen it really puts people to the test even more so. But within that is the potential for God molding and fashioning more in an individual because of the height of that, because of the magnitude of all that took place at that time.

I’ve seen a lot in God’s Church since I’ve been in the Church, since being baptized in 1969, and the different changes of things that have taken place through Philadelphia and then Laodicea and then the Apostasy and then the scattered groups and all the battles, all the wars that have taken place out there.

To me, one of the most exciting things is I love new truth when God has given us new truth. But one of the most exciting things for me is when He reveals to us, revealed to me to see how He molds and fashions us, what we go through in order to be molded and fashioned and what it is that’s taking place up here in the transforming of the mind. To see why God and how God does the things the way He does, why He does, to me is exceedingly exciting because it adds another dimension to understanding God, to loving God, to seeing the mercy and the power of God Almighty and how He works with us as weak human beings that we are.

That’s why I’m excited by the things I’ve seen and what’s taken place through time, and especially leading up to that point in time and what it’s done for people, giving God’s people the opportunity to be molded and fashioned quicker.

You go back and look through time, it literally takes a lifetime, as a whole, for a person to be molded and fashioned. But if you look at what’s taken place it’s not a full lifetime for a lot of individuals. There are going to be people who are younger who have an opportunity to be in God’s Kingdom and it’s because of everything that people have gone through in order to be prepared for what’s ahead of them.

So again, I don’t know how to express that in any other way except to say I’m excited by being able to see these things and excited for individuals that are going to be given such opportunity. Because it’s an awesome thing, it truly is.

Anyway, continuing on in the book: “Amidst all the horrifying events that will unfold from this point forward, until the end-time tribulation is over…”

So again, this end-time tribulation. We refer to this tribulation and how long it’s going to be. Candidly, we don’t know when the period of time that some of this is going to last. Some of this can happen so quickly, and yet God can spread it out farther. How long does He work with two witnesses? When does that begin and end? I feel that some of these things have already been filled that it talks about in Revelation concerning the Church, because it’s about the temple and it’s about the Church, but there are also physical things that have to be fulfilled as well. Those aren’t as exciting sometimes to go through because we have to experience them then.

So again here, all these things that are coming together that God is giving to us and what we’re going through is a part of a process that takes time, that is not easy to go through… and I lost my train of thought on part of that. I’ll come back to it here in a minute.

But again here, just thinking about where we are and what’s taking place and how fast it’s going to take place, we don’t know the speed of it. That’s the point of all this, things can still happen quickly. When a nuclear weapon goes off, when something goes off over this country, as an example, you can have two nuclear weapons go off and totally cripple this nation. You can have hackers hack in today and totally cripple areas of this nation. We just saw that recently with one pipeline.

These people aren’t stupid. When they begin to do some of the things they do, they’ve been testing different areas for a long, long time. If there is a single government behind certain things their ability to shut down things at one particular time, if that’s what they’re gearing toward, which we don’t know for sure but knowing how governments work and people work, it doesn’t take a long time or it’s not a difficult thing for them to shut down an electric grid in one area, a pipeline grid in another area, power plants in another area. This is what they’re focusing on. Why? It’s all about war.

We already know there is one nation behind some of those things, that that’s exactly what’s in their mind, that’s what’s in their heart. That’s why they built up their military to be greater than ours is at this point. That’s why their navy is greater than ours is at this point. That’s a horrible admonition for a country this great to acknowledge they have nicer ships, better ships, more well-equipped ships, and more massive numbers of great ships on the ocean than we do now.

Then another one this past week. Why not just put everything out there in front of your enemies? You know, God condemned Israel of old because of the things they did and showing their weaknesses. It’s one of the stupidest things you can do as a nation, to show your weaknesses. We’re going to have great war games now in a massive way with military, primarily naval exercises, and it’s going to show the vulnerability, or where the most vulnerable places are. Isn’t that what you want to show another nation? Because they’re out there testing it.

I don’t know if you remember the time not too long ago, a few years back when in the midst of such an operation a Chinese submarine came up in the midst of the naval fleet and they didn’t even know it was there? Well, these are things that they test and try all the time. They’ve been doing this with jets, Russia has, and China does all the time. They test the limits. When is it you’re going to stop it? How far can we go? What is their reaction?

They’re doing this all for a purpose. It’s all by design because it’s about war games. It’s about preparation for war. So, when these things are unleashed, my point being in all this, is it can happen very quickly. Whatever nation, whatever group it is that does, that’s a part of, that fulfills the First Trumpet is also the same one because the Second, Third, and Fourth are all a part of it. It’s talking about the same thing, candidly. It’s like the first four Seals of Revelation that were opened up that concerned the Church. The first four Trumpets, candidly, are about what happens to this country very quickly. It can happen in a few days, what takes place here that fulfills the first four Trumpets. Then that gives time for Europe to react. That’s the Fifth Trumpet, as to what they’re going to do, how are they going to respond. We know what they’re going to do.

I wish I’d brought that article along. There’s an article out there now that talks about that very thing, about this game that’s being played and how Europe is determining what it’s going to do and how it’s going to do it as far as the United States is concerned, as far as China and Russia is concerned. So, anyway, let me go on.

I want to go back and read this again: “Amidst all the horrifying events that will unfold from this point forward, until the end-time tribulation is over and Joshua the Christ finally returns, God will tell the world what is happening and why there is such devastation.”

So again here, just like what happened just a moment ago. It’s not that anyone in the world is listening but God’s Church listens. But some of these things are written, they’re out there, the last book had some of these very things written in it.

“God will tell the world what is happening and why there is such devastation.” But nobody is listening, nobody cares and that’s a part of prophecy too.

Going on: “God will even tell these things in advance. How will He do this? He will do this through His end-time prophets—His two witnesses, and He will do it primarily through me, His end-time spokesman.”

This is like coming full circle to where we were back in the time so much of this was written and then began to be published. It carries the feeling of déjà vu, the living or actual semblance of what was written and lived only partially back then. So again, comments about some of that and what we’ve gone through as a Church. I don’t like this kind of déjà vu, candidly. It’s not an enjoyable thing to go through, to address, to acknowledge, to think about.

Anyway, at this point here I think it would be good to go back through and look at some of those things that God has revealed to us in this end-time concerning some of the truths that had been given to us because this is something you continually go back to, and it helps an individual remain strong and firm in this way of life and what God has given because it’s your strength. Because a lot of people have turned from it.

Like I said, the first one here:

49 (28) Joshua the Christ will return to this earth on a Pentecost, along with the 144,000.

We are so accustomed to hearing that that we might not think a whole lot of it. I hope that’s not the case. But the reality is that all the scattered Church still looks at a different time, and some of them aren’t even looking to those things anymore. They aren’t even looking at a time that Christ is returning, in the sense of thinking that it could be near because there is so much that they see hasn’t been fulfilled yet.

51 (30) God is restoring knowledge concerning the rightful place of women in the family.

And then 52 that followed that:

52 (31) The ordination of women in the Church.

53 (32) There is an end to Satan’s existence.

To me, this is an incredible thing that God began to reveal during some of the Feast periods especially there going way back when He first began to reveal to us that God created everything that exists, and He can take it away, and just because it’s composed of spirit doesn’t mean its God, doesn’t mean it’s God’s spirit. It’s spirit essence and individuals have been given spirit life, but they don’t have immortal life in them.

That’s where all this was leading when God began to reveal this, that actually led to another truth later on. But to understand because this has caused confusion in God’s Church in times past, and that’s the reason we’re going through this. Some of you who are new don’t have that history, don’t have that background. But others who have been around for a time know what we used to teach and how we used to look upon some of these things and how we did not see things clearly concerning Satan and the demonic world and that God’s going to deal with them. Something that isn’t easy.

They were with God a long, long time, and like with any kind of relationship, to see what they have chosen to do, to see what they’re doing over long periods of time since then has not been an easy thing. To bring it to an end, it’s still not an easy thing. Because God created them. But God’s judgment, God’s righteousness is to destroy them.

But they’re a part of our training. What an incredible thing to understand, that they were left on the earth for our training so we could learn, so we could understand the kind of evil and the kind of devastation that they have caused in God’s creation, and we have in God’s Church. But to understand as well that it comes to an end, that everything that resists God must come to an end otherwise God’s Kingdom, what would it be?

So, it’s a beautiful thing to understand on the other hand, to understand that nothing evil, nothing against God is going to be allowed to exist into the future. One day it comes to an end.

54 (33) Angels were created and composed of spirit essence when given life by God (spirit life [that we just talked about]), yet they do not have self-sustaining life inherent in themselves.

It’s always been exciting to me as well, going through a lot of these truths that God has given to us. One has always led to the other and then the next and then the next because it’s a building process.

55 (34) God created both good and evil…

People read through those scriptures and they don’t comprehend what is being said, because there is no evil in God whatsoever. But He created the potential for those things, so He is the one responsible. He is the one that created a spirit being called Lucifer. But He knew that within that angelic realm there would be those who would refuse Him in time. It was a part of His purpose and a part of His plan to give free moral agency to those spirit beings.

That was all in preparation for His own family, that they had to see that; they had to see what spirit beings were capable of doing. Then in the Church we had to learn what human beings begotten of God’s spirit were capable of doing. We can still reject God. That’s what’s happened. We came to a point in time where we had an apostasy. God is revealing to us how much more hideous that is than what Lucifer did.

Lucifer never had the begettal of God’s spirit. He never had God dwelling in him. He had knowledge of what was true. He had everything that he knew was given by God. He knew these things. But he turned against God and had a third of the angelic realm follow him. They followed the same thoughts and ideas. Then to understand that human beings begotten of God’s spirit, we can have God dwell in us and live a short time.

They lived for a long, long time before they began to do what they did. We can live for a short time and turn against God. I’ll tell you. I know that God is molding and fashioning things too in people in this end-time to grasp and comprehend because there are things of judgment that God’s going to give to His people in His Kingdom of purposes of fulfilling certain things in the future because He shares those things in His Family. There are those things we must become convicted of and understand in a very powerful way and to grasp how hideous it is for a human being to be begotten of God’s holy spirit and then turn against God.

It’s one thing to let down. It’s one thing to fall asleep. It’s one thing to get pulled away out of weakness and then at some point God be able to awaken them out of that, though it’s a horrible, hideous thing that takes place. It’s another thing when people go so far that they loathe and hate God’s way of life.

There were people in Philadelphia who lived on into Laodicea who hated the way of life that God revealed through Herbert Armstrong. What a horrible thing to think. What’s their end? Well…?

God created both good and evil. So again, it’s within those He created, of whether or not good comes out, whether angels and the angelic realm remain faithful, two-thirds have, and candidly, they became more convicted of God, of God’s way, of never doing what Satan or the demonic realm has done. The same thing is true then in those that God calls at different times and will call through the Millennium and then in the Great White Throne, that individuals can become begotten of God’s spirit. Again, the potential for good and evil.

56 (35) Through the power of the holy spirit, Almighty God will “dwell” IN His Family into everlasting life, and they will always dwell IN Him.

So, after having just gone through these things and talking about Satan… Now, we’re going through this as a part of an exercise, that this is your strength. Because what you’re getting ready to go through should bring you back to truths, all truths that God has given, the three we had by the time of Sardis when it had come to an end, all those that God had revealed through Herbert Armstrong, and all those that have been added since that period of time after the Apostasy. All the truths that have been given, they are your strength. It’s a matter of conviction of what God has given to you because of what is coming to pass, what is coming in front of us, is going to be a horrible thing to be able to deal with the human mind.

These are the things that can keep people strong. I hope you understand what I’m saying. It’s good to review these things from time to time and be renewed in them from time to time and realize what God has given to us to grasp, to comprehend. Because it’s like God’s word, all of God’s word, it has power in it, it truly does. There is power there when filled with God’s spirit. We’re going to go through a time when we’re going to need that more than ever in our lives.

Then, finally, this was even being spoken of a little bit before services here today:

57 (36) The name of the Messiah—the Christ— God said his name should be Joshua, not Jesus.

Now, that has been known by different ones, that that’s what the name really meant going way back in time. Anybody who’s actually looked at history of that particular time knows that that was his name. But as far as God’s Church was concerned, we hadn’t adopted that yet and hadn’t come to that point in time where we recognize that’s what we should be using and not the other. That actually fully separated us then and freed us from everything that was false that started in 325 A.D.

Anyway, going on in the book. I hope this is the part that’s in the book because I put in some of my own notes and didn’t do a very good job here.

“To be reminded of what these two witnesses will be doing during the final,” –yes, it’s in the book here because it says here— “during the final three and one-half years of great worldwide tribulation…”

So, even there since that period of time we’ve come to understand that there are different periods that God works within, 1260, 3½ years, time, time and a half a time, all those meaning the same period of time. But what we don’t always know is when they actually began, when they started. Well, just share it. There is duality in some of these, that some of these are actually talking about different periods, but they still have a function within a specific period of 1260 days.

The point being, even the two witnesses don’t just have a 3½ year period. They have other periods that they’ve been in as well that’s very clear that may come out in future sermons here that they have been a part of, and specific periods of time. But they fulfill a period of time that God said would be a part of it, but what’s fully revealed or what’s fully given doesn’t happen until a specific period of time.

So, we’re in the period of time in the last part of it that we’re talking about here, of when they will begin doing what they do, and it’s going to happen in a physical plane on the earth and that’s what we’re preparing for here. That’s what this book is about. That’s what God is bringing us full circle to address.

“Later, in the Book of Revelation, God gives symbolism that reflects the importance of His two witnesses. Notice what God says, ‘And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth [symbolic of humility].’”

Now, this is one of those periods of time that isn’t the same as another period of time it talks about later when it talks about the two witnesses. I wasn’t planning on getting into this right now, but anyway, I hope this doesn’t become a little confusing. But this was a period of time to be fulfilled that took place as far as God’s Church is concerned. There is another period of time that has to do with the world that when it’s all said and done it will have fulfilled a 3½ year period.

“‘These are the two olive trees, and the two lamp stands standing [Gk.—set, established] before [Gk.—in the presence of] the God of the earth” (Revelation 11:3-4).’”

So again, it’s always been about the Church and what God is doing at different times. The greatest of things He’s doing as far as His plan and purpose is right at the end, the end of 6,000 years. To recognize what He’s going to do in order to accomplish, in order to bring about the return of His Son, because we can’t even grasp that when His Son and 144,000 return with him, of people who have existed from the time of Abel on, including Abel. Mind-boggling! 6,000 years of people that have been molded and fashioned at different times in different situations for specific places in the Kingdom of God, in the first resurrection, to rule and reign with Christ for a thousand years, as it talks about in Revelation, is incredible. Yet that’s going to come to the earth. But before it does God’s going to highlight the importance of it by what He’s doing at the very end here, and some of it’s going to be done through what He terms as two witnesses here. As a whole the world is not going to recognize those all the way to the end, but they’ll be there, and God fulfills His word.

Anyway, “A literal translation of this verse is saying [again, this is explained in the book], ‘These are the two olive trees and the two lamp stands which are established in the presence of God unto the earth.’” It’s basically a final witness is what it’s about. And good that we’ve addressed some of these things in times past. 2008—God’s Final Witness. Because that’s what we’re talking about here.

It is about a final witness that God establishes on the earth so that people during the Millennium and the Great White Throne they read back of things that happened from the time of Abel all the way through history, all the things that God did over 6,000 years, and then the next thousand with Christ reigning and they’re going to have all this history to be able to see and understand their life, what they had lived whenever they were alive, at whatever period of time in that 6,000 years. Here they are now with all this history behind them, God’s world, and the ability to change, the ability to conquer and overcome is so much easier.

The first 6,000 years has not been an easy time. It’s a hard time. It’s a difficult time and there are reasons for that. Because that’s what molds or fashions or God uses, has used to mold and fashion things into us that can be molded and fashioned in no other way. It’s not intended that all the God Family have those things be molded in them for what they’re going to be doing later on.

Christ had to go through certain things because of his life, because of what was being molded and fashioned in him and what he was being prepared for. Then all the others, 144,000, the things that have been molded in them is unique to what God is going to place them in. Awesome, to understand these things.

Going on: “These two people are represented as two lamp stands and two olive trees which God sets before Him to reveal His will to the whole earth. The verses that follow these have not yet been quoted. They reveal more about the role of these two witnesses during that last three and one-half years.”

So again here, this is a specific period of time then again, and you don’t know… It may have started. We don’t know. If it hasn’t, we’ve got 3½ more years. If it’s getting ready to then that means that’s how much more time it is. So, whenever it starts or has started it’s going to be a period of 3½ years.

“And if any man will hurt them, fire proceeds out of their mouth and devours their enemies, and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed.” These are not small things. These are dumbfounding things that God is going to perform. But when will they occur? Very likely not until the very, very end of that 3½ years.

“They have power to shut heaven so that it does not rain in the days of their prophecy.” When will that happen? Well, before the end. “…and they have power over waters to turn them to blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will” (Revelation 11:5-6).

I can’t comprehend any of that, okay, but God says He’s going to do it. So again, not a comfortable position to be in, not a comfortable spot to be in, in that respect, because you don’t know what it is, you don’t know how it’s going to happen, you don’t know when it’s going to happen. But if you’re told to do it, you better do it.

So, for the human part of us that life isn’t easy. Life has difficulty in front of it. But all of us, that’s my point, is this better be an example of something to all of us because all of us are going to go through some difficult times. It isn’t meant to be easy. And what happens at the end here is not meant to be easy. The earth is going to suffer and there are going to be those who are called to the Millennium. They haven’t been called to be a part of the 144,000, and they’re going to live on into that time and God’s going to protect them and intervene for them in awesome and miraculous ways to bring them on into that period of time.

Others, candidly, are going to die. That’s just a reality. But if they’ve been prepared and molded and fashioned for 144,000, they’re not dead very long. So, your life is in God’s hands. You said that at baptism. What more could anyone in life ever want, ever desire, ever have than to have that? Your life in God’s hands?

[2]“Thunder perfectly describes what is happening before the final end-time storm of destruction strikes the earth.” This is a little farther down in the book. I didn’t read all of it or not going through all of it right now but covering this.

“The final storm will engulf the whole earth for three and one-half years, but as that storm approaches, the rumbling of this thunder will be heard with increasing intensity.” So again here, this thing of 3½ years, what all does it entail? I don’t know. Could have started with Covid. I don’t know. Some day we’ll know, God will show us when it began. We’re definitely going to know when it ends because that’s when Christ returns.

“These Seven Thunders parallel another prophetic analogy that describes this time of the Sixth Seal [which we understand goes through the Seventh as well]. This prophetic period was described earlier as a pregnant woman in labor pain. This analogy is magnified in the revelation of the Seven Thunders.”

What God gave in that little book, is about the Seven Thunders. That’s what the little scroll was. It’s the Seven Thunders that God said to seal. They weren’t to be opened up until His time, and they’ve been opened up. It’s about a message. It’s about what they are.

So again, that angel that was holding that, it’s all written there and was to be sealed. That’s a part of what was given there and now they’ve been given. Those things will probably be covered in the last book again, one last time, all having to do with some of the things we’re covering now.

So again here, the analogy is magnified of a pregnant woman in labor pain. So, we should be able to recognize that by what’s happened in some of the Thunders that have happened in different parts of the earth, and then we see them increasing and certain ones being louder than others at certain times. One thing that I’ve enjoyed about certain ones in the Church who keep on top of some of these things and share some of these things with one another as well, is to keep people focused on understanding when there are Thunders out there. Because you need to be able to look at them and recognize this is what this is, this is what’s taking place right now.

We see this process that’s getting greater and greater, just like a woman in labor pain, and that’s where we are in the world as we draw closer and closer. So, those things, in that respect, are part of a sign to us and they give us encouragement. They do from time to time though they’re horrifying things that take place. Life is in God’s hands. Millions are dying. They’ll be in a great resurrection. They’re in God’s hands. It’s all part of a plan and a purpose. In everything that happens at the end here is all part of a plan and purpose.

Well, I was going to go through more here but I’m not going to. We’re going to stop there because some of these things are going to be contained in the book and we’ll circle through them again and bring them up to date with the truths we have. But I would appreciate everyone’s prayers on some of these things because this is probably a little more awkward than it was back then for me and what more can I say?

[1] 2008—God’s Final Witness, Chapter 4, Page 84

[2] 2008 –God’s Final Witness, Chapter 4, Page 90