They Refuse To Listen To God, Pt. 6B

Ronald Weinland

May 29, 2021

Last Sabbath we covered Part 6 of the series entitled They Refuse To Listen To God. As I mentioned a couple of Sabbaths ago this is turning into a kind of a difficult series for me to give, at least the last couple ones have been, and it’s because of the content of these last two sermons, which I think you can understandably see that indeed are a little difficult on a personal level.

Last Sabbath was even more difficult for me when I first started to address some of the content that concerns two witnesses, and last Sabbath I had so many things going through my mind on this subject that I didn’t know what I should address and what would be best to simply pass over. I’ve been wrestling with several things in this in the midst of trying to start a book as well, trying to get that off the ground and getting hit with this at the same time. It makes life a little more challenging sometimes and stressful for my wife. That was a joke. No, it wasn’t. She says it wasn’t a joke. It is more stressful for her because I tend to create stress when I get in those situations.

But anyway, the reason for much of this is that I know the last two sermons are very unknown in certain matters, in certain areas of things that haven’t been revealed yet and will be revealed, basically, when they happen. So, we’ll understand a whole lot more obviously then because there are certain things that just aren’t to be known until we get to that point in time. Timing and everything else, obviously.

So anyway, I’ve been going through this, and it reminds me of when I went through some of this the first time when I addressed these things. I made some similar kind of comments, that it was very difficult for me to talk about and to be able to discuss those matters. But we’ve come full circle and I am to do that again so that’s why we’re doing some of this. Some of it will probably be written in the book as well, so even more so the need for it to be circulating through here. Because generally things have to, whatever is being addressed, I’m focusing on and God’s showing some things along the way that help to, especially with progressive revelation that we’ve had, of bringing things more up to date.

That’s exciting to me concerning the book, and I’m so far loving the flow of it, of where it’s starting because it really brings the others together in a way that I thought the last book might, but it didn’t come close, and it wasn’t time for it. So, now it is, so that’s great.

I also know that as I go through some of this, this affects the Church in a very big way because we’re all living this together, we all share in these things together.

So, after the sermon last Sabbath I know it likely came across as like a shotgun blast and went a little bit everywhere, in that respect, as far as what was being said because I was addressing things as I was coming to them. I considered ending the sermons, that sermon series with that particular sermon, but I knew that it wasn’t addressed on a level that I need myself and for the sake of the Church as well that the Church needs.

Candidly, I was quite ticked off with myself when I got through with it so today we’re going to do something rather unique, something that I have not done before, and that is going to be reflected in how I am entitling this sermon today. Not as Part 7 but as Part 6B. I gave 6A last week. Because basically, I’m going to give a repeat, but this time here I intend to give it in the way I really wanted to give it last Sabbath. Again, giving it again, this will be good for me, and it would be good for you in order that you more fully experience what I’m experiencing and go through this process together.

We began by repeating a section of Chapter 4 in the book. So again, this may be a little difficult to go through, in one respect, a second time. You should be up here. Anyway. But I’m going to do it. We began repeating a section of Chapter 4 in the book 2008—God’s Final Witness and we reviewed the section under the heading, The Seven Thunders of the 6th Seal.

Now, this focus is in the midst of what God is revealing at this time concerning how the hardness of heart in mankind has become so much worse just over the last few years, and especially since the time that was written and addressed at that time, obviously. We see this in the world. We are experiencing things that we have never really grasped that we would be.

And candidly, what’s ahead of us, it’s hard to grasp. We have knowledge of certain things but to really grasp it, we can’t. There’s a plus in that as well because it’s going to be difficult enough when we come to some of those things. But we’re being prepared and that’s what the Church is about, the Church of God—Preparing for the Kingdom of God, and there’s a lot said in things like that, titles like that.

I think of the Church of God, the Radio Church of God at one time when Herbert Armstrong first began. Because just looking back in that time period it wasn’t all that long ago in some respects. Some of you who are younger might feel like that was a long time ago, but it wasn’t when you’re my age and the age of some others in here. But you look back at a particular time and you think, it hasn’t been that long ago but think of the impact that had on people and on God’s Church at that time to name the Church by a technology that was now in the world to help do, to perform a commission, to start that process that God had given to Herbert Armstrong. Radio. Incredible.

Now communication is so far beyond that I don’t know if anybody listens much to radio anymore. I don’t. But anyway, I guess for music or whatever some may listen to various things. But as a whole it’s a technology that’s been so surpassed by other things today it’s incredible the world we live in and how fast those things have taken place.

Anyway, as we’ve been going through some of this and talking about some of these changes that have taken place in the world and think about names like that, Radio Church of God, and then it began to grow and publishing began to grow and became the Worldwide Church of God, and then as time went along that didn’t have the same kind of meaning as it had before during a period of Philadelphia. Then we came to this time now, Preparing for the Kingdom of God. Awesome! It shows what we’re doing; addresses what we’re doing, addresses the focus God wants us to have, what our purpose is at this point in time.

We’ve come full circle back to those things being addressed back in 2006, because that’s when some of these began to be addressed and began to be written about as far as the writing of the book 2008—God’s Final Witness.

More importantly since that time some have been going through an intense training and molding if you look at the period of time after 2008. That’s why we’re talking about some of this, and I’m excited that God has revealed some of these things to us at this point in time because some have given up a crown as we have gone through and looked at in the book of Revelation, and now we have a better understanding of some of the reasons why things are continuing on. Because only God has known and could know the events of things that would take place in people’s lives and what would be planned. It’s all for a purpose of training and molding and fashioning.

We have gone through the things we did for the purpose of being trained, molded and fashioned, and speeding up the process especially for those now who are going to have opportunity to receive those crowns. Awesome, to understand such a thing! Exciting to understand such a thing.

And so, we’ve been addressing some of that, of all who have been called during this period of time who have that opportunity, especially between the periods of 2006 and 2013, actually before that when so many began to come along in 2008 and 2009 and in through that period of time as God was calling them. All you have to do is look at the things taking place in the Church, and you learn from that, that God does the calling. And so, whoever is here, if there is growth, it’s because God has given it. If it isn’t then there are things that God has let continue on for a purpose and a reason and we learn from that and we see through that process oftentimes of people beginning to go by the wayside.

Because God gives us time. He gives us time to see what we’re going to do. We have to make choices. It’s an incredible process, what we’re going through.

I want to read a letter that was sent to me this past week, which to me was encouraging to see how this is affecting some. Because I think of those who since the Apostasy, perhaps who grew up in the Church and came to a point of baptism, and others along the way who have that opportunity now of being able to be a part of 144,000 if that’s God’s purpose for different ones. Because He molds and fashions us and prepares us for different things, but some are going to be given that opportunity.

It’s like a calling, any kind of calling, there are those uniquely so in this time who are being called into a new age. There are others who were called to have an opportunity to be a part of an incredible government that’s going to come with Christ when he returns. What a marvel to understand how we’re down to the last few who are to be added into that process. That’s exceedingly exciting.

I want to read this from a young person. It says, “I am very excited about the knowledge concerning the 144,000 that’s been given to the Church last Sabbath. I couldn’t help myself; I had to write this email because of the excitement I have. In the weeks prior to receiving the knowledge, the new knowledge we’ve been given, I was digging through some older sermons about the end-time. Occasionally, I’ll go back and digest those sermons because I wanted to glean more out of them. However, this time I also skimmed through a couple of post titles and stumbled on to the post titled Christ’s Coming. I scrolled through the post and my eyes became fixed on a subheading of the Last Great Day 2011. And I remember that sermon, like it was yesterday, and how I was one of those stunned like a deer in headlights.”

So, it was mentioned then after that how that there was a period of 3½ years that was being looked at, considered, and the impact that might have on individuals, and somewhat preparing the Church in some regards of looking beyond 2012 but not knowing what was there yet. So, some things were addressed.

This individual comments on that and he says, “At that time I began thinking about all the growth I’d be able to make by that time,” by the end of that period of time if something were to happen 3½ years later. Again, we’ve gone through much to understand some of these things, and it hasn’t been an easy process.

But he goes on to say, “It was amazing to go back to that post and read about the thoughts you had concerning the final 3½ years. In addition, it stated how you would be hated far more in the world, which would also include the Church as well. I thought about that time of hate that you referred to in past sermons, patiently waiting for it to be expounded upon.”

That’s an awesome thing to understand, is that we’re all going to experience that from some in our time within the Church at certain points of time because it’s about the message, it’s about the belief, it’s about what God has given us to know and to understand. There are going to be those occasions, there have been those occasions, and obviously your lives that you can relate to, where you have experienced some of that hate. Perhaps from the world. Perhaps from co-workers. Perhaps from relatives, which often is the case. And on and on it goes.

It’s not a pleasant thing to experience but there is a need to experience it and to understand things that others have gone through, to understand things about Christ. It helps us to have a great appreciation of what he went through because he experienced some of the greatest of hatred to a point where he lived a righteous life and yet how they treated him, what they did to him, what can you say? We appreciate, we deeply love that, that he was willing to do that, sacrifice to the extent he did.

And so, we can learn from that process, to be so hated that someone wants to kill you, to put you to death in such a hideous way? That’s the world we live in. There is much hatred in the world, but to be against God, to be against the truth, that’s another matter.

So, he said, “I thought about that time of hate that you referred to in past sermons, patiently waiting for it to be expounded upon. In Part 5 of this current series I kind of thought that you were hinting that those who are younger in spirit have an opportunity to be part of the count of the 144,000, however, I wasn’t sure if that’s what you were saying for sure. I didn’t want to be presumptuous in my thinking and I kept it to myself until the following Sabbath. That’s when you openly stated it. I was speechless. It is and was humbling when I heard it. All this led me to the Extraordinary 4½ Years series. I started going through those sermons up until the sermon that was given last Sabbath. I’ve also thought about what the accelerated process of molding the Church meant, ‘the controversy over Zion.’”

Now, that’s insightful indeed by God’s spirit because the reality indeed is that’s what it’s all about. It’s about this process that God is creating a Family and He is going to create it, and there are going to be exactly—not more and not less—exactly 144,000 when it’s all said and done who have been sealed, who will be resurrected to return with Christ. Awesome, to know those things to understand those things. This is that process of a controversy over Zion because God will accomplish it. It won’t be a controversy.

He said, “I would never have thought it was this. In my case, I only took it strictly as being prepared for the Millennium, but never for anything else. To be frank, I really hope that everyone, especially those who have been through the Apostasy, rejoice that we young’uns have such a great opportunity before us. My drive, my goal is to be part of that Family.”

And that’s fine. That’s good. But he adds the balance to it as well because the reality is it isn’t known for sure what different ones have been called to. But to throw ourselves into it, by all means. To do the best? Absolutely!

“This reminds me of the time that Christ spoke of the workers and how they were brought into work. As the day went on more workers were brought in throughout that day. Then there were workers who were brought in near the end of the workday and they were given the same wage as those who were keeping the field earlier that day. God is just.”

Awesome! So true. All the way to the end all receive the same thing when it’s a part of that particular resurrection.

“I’m grateful and thankful that there is even an opportunity there.” I might back up there again. To grasp and comprehend the Extraordinary 4½ Years series, not knowing fully why it was all being given at that time, that’s what this is about. It’s about this process whereby others have been in this process of being able to be trained, molded, and fashioned more quickly than it would normally take. We didn’t know what was happening, but God was doing it, preparing different ones to be part of the 144,000, to be offering that particular crown. Incredible!

He says, “I am grateful and thankful that there is even an opportunity there,” speaking of being part of the 144,000. “It’s mind blowing to be part of what God is molding in an accelerated fashion. But if it’s to live on into the Millennium I’ll make the most of it. If it’s to be part of 144,000 I’m striving now to make the most of it. That’s an honor I can’t even imagine. I’ll be grateful to be part of any of it. I think of the 144,000 though and all the things they’ve been through and the things they’ve suffered in this world. The world definitely wasn’t worthy of them. That’s a group of people that God’s Church has long awaited to come with Christ, the beginning of the mystery of God revealed. I don’t know what it takes to qualify for such an honor at all, but I desire it. If it’s not something that I’ve been called to, I’ll still enjoy the show in the sky from earth.”

So, right way of looking at things, to fight for something, to work for it, to throw ourselves into it with all of our being, and with a greater zeal than ever before because of what’s there. Well, awesome thing.

I’m going to read Revelation 7. We know these verses, but again, having such an impact as they do and what they mean. Revelation 7:1—After these things I saw four angels standing at the four corners of the earth, holding the four winds of the earth, that the wind should not blow on the earth, or the sea, or on any tree. Then I saw another angel ascending from the east, having the seal of the living God. And he cried with a loud voice to the four angels to whom it was granted to harm the earth and the sea…

What an awesome thing! God has given us such a clear picture of some of these different events. I’m writing about a few of them right now in the book and some of the things that God has given us to see and grasp and comprehend about how things fit together in an order that lead up to Christ’s coming. We’ve been so blessed. This one here in itself when God began to show us these things, it added so much more meaning to this process, of everything we’re going through, and it’s exceedingly encouraging.

Verse 3 it’s says …saying, Do not harm the earth, the sea, or the trees until we have sealed the servants of our God on their foreheads. So, what a beautiful thing that God gave us to understand, that until everything has been sealed those first four Trumpets, the events cannot take place. Because basically they all run together quickly just like the first few Seals did. When those things took place, they really moved one into the other and they overlapped each other in that respect, of what happened to the Church, and the same thing is true here as to what’s going to happen to this country, and it’s explained then in those events of the first four Trumpets.

And so, that can’t begin, because when those things happen, all doubt is going to begin to be removed. It’s going to be the beginning of removing doubt in so many people’s minds, of the time we live in.

I was writing a little bit this morning about the Seals and what’s called “the four horsemen of the apocalypse,” and how the world thinks that’s about catastrophic events that take place in the world not knowing that they’ve already happened and they’re about God’s Church. That’s profound to be able to understand those kinds of things. And because we do, we grasp how far along we are. God has continued to reveal more to us about the other seals and things that have taken place in time.

But consider the things when this country goes through what it does in such a rapid way. It’s incredible to grasp what’s going to happen when four great events take place, the four Trumpets, the first four Trumpets and this country comes to an end. It’s hard to grasp and imagine what’s going to take place, but it’s prophesied to take place; it’s prophesied to happen.

Those who are scattered, they have to begin addressing some of the things that they have failed to address, things that should be clear in front of them, that they’re not going to become large, they’re not going to be 144,000 plus in size, that that isn’t happening. It’s not even coming close. On the contrary. Division continues to take place, whittling down continues to happen, the diminishing of size continues to take place.

To not be able to acknowledge that we had an Apostasy, a great falling way in God’s Church and the Church was spewed out all over the place, there is no excuse. There is absolutely no excuse for that. They have to come face to face with some very difficult reality. Part of God’s purpose and part of God’s plan.

Then I heard the number of those who were sealed, being one hundred and forty-four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel sealed. I think of the time going way back when we began to learn who these were and what this is about, and that it’s not about the tribes and people being called out of those specific tribes. On the contrary. It’s the name God has given them to bear, just like the name of Israel that we have been given to bear and that we are to persevere, that it reflects what we’re living, and if we live that then we have the opportunity to become a part of that, spiritual Israel. But within that structure of God are twelve others, twelve organized groups of individuals, if you will, as a part of a structure of His government, and they bear those names as much as Israel bears a particular name. Incredible, the things we can’t see until God gives them.

So, it’s now been in this series that God has revealed these things, the importance of what’s being offered to different ones and that people have an opportunity to be a part of that sealing now that wasn’t known before, individuals who have been baptized after the Apostasy, individuals who, some who hadn’t come into the Church until that second book was written.

Then in the fourth chapter under the subheading of [1]The Seven Thunders. We were going through this particular section and reading specific portions of it, so I’m going to continue there again today.

“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 heard concerning the Seven Thunders. God wanted the Seven Thunders to remain sealed until this very time as well.”

So, incredible to understand that there were certain things that weren’t even to be written, that were to be written later once they were no longer to be sealed. Everything else John was able to write and tell about. But not this. All for a purpose.

“God did all this as 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 this end-time.”

So again, I mention that we need to pause and ask, “When will such a thing be fully known, fully revealed as absolute evidence?” And the reality is, not until close to the end. There are going to be certain things, things in the Church, some are going to grasp and comprehend in a greater way because of what they see, but as far as the real kind of evidence that exists, that’s written about in Revelation, some of those things aren’t going to happen until toward the very end – perhaps at the 6th Trumpet, some point along the 6th Trumpet, maybe in the 5th. We don’t know. But that period of time, thank God, is not going to be a long one.

Do you know what the world would be like if we had 3½ full years or even close to that of nuclear war on this earth with the power that exists to have nuclear winters? Because that’s what would happen in time. The reality is we wouldn’t be able to live through those things. That’s why God has to intervene at a certain point in time to stop all the insanity of such a war taking place as it is, and to even prevent certain things taking place because even at Christ’s return if certain things aren’t dealt with the ability to deal with them, the ability for mankind to live on, it wouldn’t be there.

I don’t know if any of you have ever read about what nuclear winters can do, how it can change the earth to where things won’t grow, starvation that follows and that’s just touching the surface of it. It gets a whole lot worse. So, thank God it isn’t going to be for a long time when the exchange of these things take place.

That’s why we have to be on guard on a regular basis. Don’t think that because you don’t see a certain thing begin that it doesn’t mean certain events aren’t going to happen soon. You have to be on guard. It’s going to be a Pentecost. What Pentecost? We don’t know. Could be the next one, the one after that or after that. Don’t dismiss it as not being possible because the reality is we don’t know when some of these things start and how God is counting it at this point in time.

We know a particular point of seven complete counts that God gave as far as prophetic end-time segments of time is concerned, and we’ve fulfilled all of those. But we’re in a period of time that God is not showing what it’s all about right now, nor the length of it. God knows. And by what is said in scripture I believe that only God knows. I don’t believe it’s even been given to Christ from what’s been shown, what’s been given to me at this point in time. Other than that, we don’t know. But be on guard.

So again, I believe that we know as a Church what God has been leading us to at this point of time, who is to fulfill a certain role by the very things that God has revealed over time. Understanding how God gives truth in the Church in the first place or reveals things within the Church, we understand and see those things in a unique way. But there are allowances as well for things that we don’t necessarily know that God can perform, that God can accomplish as well. So, we wait for the evidence.

Going on: “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 events through His end-time prophet.”

Now, again here, I am moved, inspired by that particular book because there are things written that God has revealed, shown that are going to come to pass exactly as they’re written, and things about the Thunders and so forth. They’re going to take place. They’ve already been happening but they’re going to happen a whole lot more the closer we get. All that’s for a purpose.

Going on: “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.”

So, this is about the scattered Church still. Because it isn’t a small thing all the thousands and the tens of thousands who are out there, who are still scattered, who are in different groups holding on to what was given up to a certain segment in time and nothing since that time. A lot of that has become weakened and shaken and various ideas and concepts about even that. Because it was weak at the time that the Church first came through the Apostasy in the sense of the scattered Church. There were things out there that were exceedingly weak. Hence, one group primarily that holds the 14/15th Passover. That’s not a small thing to go so far away from the trunk of the tree.

That’s just one of many other things that exist out there whereby different ones are becoming weaker and weaker and beginning to take on a protestant air about them that they believe that there are maybe three or four different groups with whom God is working – like people believe in the world about traditional Christianity, that there are all these different groups and somehow God is working with them with all the different ideas and beliefs and governments and things that are there to bring us through at the end, but just working with us differently.

That concept has now entered into the scattered group whereby it’s thought that, yes, God is working there and He’s working there and He’s working over here and He’s going to bring everyone through this. That’s not how God works! There is one Body, one Church.

Anyway, going on: “Secondly, God’s other purpose, for revealing this prophecy in this manner, is to make a clear distinction among all religious leaders in this world.”

It’s about the Church and it’s about the world, and again, a lot of this is a matter of something that is going to be looked back on in time and candidly, in the Great White Throne. There are going to be things shown that are going to affect people in the Great White Throne because they’re going to die and they’re going to be resurrected then and then they’re going to learn. Especially when you talk about so many false religions in the world, so many false teachers in the world.

Then they’re going to be able to look at a history like we do when we go through the time from Abel all the way up to the end here and learn the history of whatever period of time that they lived in and understand that everything they were taught and all the teachers they had were false. The evidence of what was true is in front of them then. It’s all done. It’s all over with by this time, obviously, one hundred years that’s left. Everything has been done, the thousand years is complete.

“The timing for the Seven Thunders is during the period of the Sixth Seal. Let’s notice what John wrote…” Again, I mentioned that since that time God has made it very clear that, no, those Thunders don’t stop. They actually increase the farther we go into this time period, and they go along with what’s happening in the revelation of the events of the Trumpets.

Revelation 10:1 it says, “And I saw another mighty angel come down out of the 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 on the sea and his left foot on the land, and cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roars.”

So again, going through these verses here because, again, this is about what we are experiencing. This is about what I have to experience or have experienced and God revealing segments of this over time wondering what this was. Then when God shows what it is then everything begins to fall into place.

“When he had cried, the seven thunders uttered [spoke] their sounds [their voice, if you will, to make a statement as they were]. And when the seven thunders had uttered their sounds, I was about to write, but I heard a voice from heaven saying, ‘Seal up those things which the seven thunders uttered [what they spoke, what they declared], and do not write them.’”

Now, we understand the Seven Seals, they were sealed but they were written about. Everything was there, recorded, and people have wondered about them. The world today talks about “the four horsemen of the apocalypse,” and they stop there because they can’t grasp that that was about a Church, it wasn’t about physical events that were going to take place as I mentioned earlier. On and on it goes.

But here is something that wasn’t to be written at all by John. Awesome! All these things being revealed in the end-time, evidence all around us of where we are in time.

That’s why I love the first chapter. Because it drives home the point that God gave powerful evidence through Herbert Armstrong that this was the end-time. No human being has the ability to do what he did, to foretell the things he told so perfectly, so accurately. It’s never happened in the history of mankind unless God gives it to someone to give.

I loved writing about those things again and adding to some of those things. Because I’ve talked about them in times past. Because it is a marvel and I find it exciting too that God has brought us back to that point because that’s the process whereby God began to prepare a Church that would be able to continue on at the end. If it hadn’t been for the things he had given and had done there wouldn’t be a Church, obviously.

That’s why I get so irritated when I think about different ones who refer to Herbert Armstrong, in that scattered group, as being “a great teacher and I learned some good things from him.” That irritates me to the core of my being. And if they were to say it to my face today, they wouldn’t know what hit them. They wouldn’t know what hit them because I’d give them a blast like you’ve never heard loud and forceful, “You fool!” Because that’s what they are. “You wouldn’t have any knowledge of any truth whatsoever! Do you know what you’re doing? Do you know what you’re saying? That all the knowledge you think you have, which you have had access to, which you’ve begun to lose, you have because of what God did through that one man. Without it, you wouldn’t have any of it. Who do you think you are? What you’re doing is one of the most foolish things a human being could ever do and you’ve, candidly, become antichrist because of what you’re doing, because of what you’re saying, because you’re denying that Christ worked through his apostle to give that truth to the world! Who do you think you are?!”

That should rile us up and it should help us to understand what we have and what sacrifice has gone before, as that letter brought out, consider the sacrifice of so many with whom God has worked through time and who worked through that period of time, who remained faithful to the truth that God had given to them, who recognized God’s apostle. Awesome! Those who didn’t, they’ve lost it all. They’ve lost it.

It’s not a small punishment. That’s why some of the things are written in the book as they are, 2008 – God’s Final Witness, concerning that ministry. Because what they did was so hideous, so heinous in their acts of turning others away from God. God calls that murder and a kind of murder that’s far worse than physical human murder. He talks about the blood that’s on their hands, if you will, of God’s own people. Awesome. So, I get riled up when I think of those kinds of things, and there’s a purpose for it for even later.

“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 for ever and ever, who created heaven and the things that are in it, 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. But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel [Beautiful!] [the angel of the Seventh Trumpet of the Seventh Seal] [finally]… But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel, when he shall begin to sound…” In other words, when that particular event begins to take place.

Because we know how long that one takes place to get fulfilled – 1,100 years. What an awesome thing to understand that. Because from the first segment of the 3rd Woe to the last segment of the 3rd Woe, because it’s not fulfilled because it has a beginning and an ending to a 3rd Woe. I marvel at these things, brethren, I truly do, and I hope you do, too.

“…when he shall begin to sound the mystery of God shall be finished…” The mystery of God. Mankind has never known what God is doing. They don’t know why they’re born. They don’t know why they’re on this earth. How blessed are we to know those things, to know that God has a Family? That God’s creating a Family? The controversy over Zion. Awesome, to understand the meaning of those things and that we have such a part in it, called to share in that, the mystery of God that Herbert Armstrong wrote a book about, the mystery of God, to become a part of the God Family. To understand why we were created?

And people think they die, when they die, they speak both things at a funeral about being resurrected or already being up in heaven. Well, which one is it? Are they waiting to be resurrected or are they already up there? Or did they go someplace else that’s not so nice? They can’t help it, that they’re blind to what’s true. I think of how blessed we are for what God has given to us.

The mystery of God is going to be fulfilled, is going to be accomplished. At this moment in time it begins, at the time of the Seventh Trumpet event. Christ returns, a great army – referred to as an army, incredible, coming with Christ. Because the world isn’t going to just rejoice and be excited because of what they see happening and what they see taking place and receiving knowledge that this is the Messiah, this is the Christ, and this is his army, and he’s coming to destroy those who are destroying the earth. It’s going to put a stop to it all, end the war, stop all those who want to continue to fight and destroy, minds who are perverted and distorted who have done atrocious things to one another as human beings.

“But in the days of the voice of the seventh angel,” his pronouncement, his announcement, when that begins to be fulfilled. Because it’s already been told what he’s going to do. The announcement has already gone out.

“…when he shall sound the mystery of God shall be finished, as He has declared to His servants the prophets. Then the voice which I heard from heaven spoke to me again and said, ‘Go and take the little book which is open in the hand of the angel who stands on the sea and on the earth.’ So I went to the angel and said to him, ‘Give me the little book.’”

I think of times past when I’ve heard of the sermons and stuff given because we didn’t know, think about, well, what is this little book? And we tend to think that way, a little book. Think, they didn’t have little books back then. They had little scrolls and they had big scrolls. This is just a little scroll, and it doesn’t have much written on it, but we know what’s written on it.

“‘Give me the little book.’ And he said to me, ‘Take it and eat it…’” It’s about the Seven Thunders. That which wasn’t allowed to be recorded, it’s on that little scroll. It’s the one thing he didn’t allow John to write, to record, and he said that was to be sealed until the end. Now they’re no longer sealed, and that, a part, you can read about. It’s not long. It doesn’t take long to read what it says about them.

He says, “Give to me the little book,” and he said, “take it, eat it, and it will make your belly bitter, but it shall be sweet as honey in your mouth.” So, when God reveals certain things to us it’s exciting, it’s inspiring, but some of the things you experience that are a part of it aren’t so good. They’re hard to go through. They’re difficult. They’re bitter inside as far as what the overall effect is when it’s all said and done. It’s not pleasant to see suffering of human beings, but it’s a part of a process that has to take place. It hurts. It’s painful to see what people go through, what they have to experience. This is a part of that process.

It’s going to be painful to see what takes place when weapons of such power explode on the earth. How we deal with it, to have soundness of mind and sanity is only through understanding God’s purpose and God’s plan for allowing it in the first place, and in that we have peace and comfort because we understand the Great White Throne. They have opportunity to be resurrected in a beautiful world, awesome world, far, far beyond what they’re living in right now. They’re just not going to have that opportunity to be a part of the change that transpires over a thousand years to get to that point in time. So be it. But they get to see the fruit of it all. They get to live in it. Beautiful! God’s mind; God’s purpose.

“…but it shall be sweet as honey in your mouth. Then I took the little book out of the angel's hand and ate it, and it was like honey in my mouth…” [Just like this sermon. It’s hard. It’s bitter inside, in one respect.] “…and as soon as I ate it my belly was made bitter. And he said to me, ‘You must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.’” (Revelation 10:1-11)

So, a whole book was written on that point alone and nobody cares, nobody listens. But that’s part of God’s purpose. That’s why He said what He did. That’s why this book is being written. Because He said, “You are to tell them…” “You are to tell them.” Tell them what? “You are a nation who will not listen.” And that applies to every nation on earth now – primarily to this one first. “You are a nation that will not listen to your God, and it’s about all these things that must come to pass. You reap what you sow. The responsibility is yours.” Incredible.

Wouldn’t it have been a wonderful thing if after the Apostasy some could have humbled themselves and said, “Yeah, we have been spewed out of God’s mouth. I was Laodicean. I was sleepy. I fell asleep.” That takes a lot of humility and you have to be at a point of humility before you can continue on. And so, if we ever get to a point that the pride is so strong that we can’t have humility to repent of sins – because we caused the Apostasy. Every one of us who were in God’s Church that led up to the time of the Apostasy, every one of us had fault because we all fell asleep. It is because of what we did.

If we’re not able to say those things, which the vast majority obviously could never even begin to think to do because pride is so strong. That just shows how strong pride can become. To stand against God, to stand against what He said about an era and say, “Well, I’m not Laodicean. I am Philadelphian. I am still Philadelphian living on into (through), and I have to see all this stuff about Laodicea, all these weak people out here and what they’ve done.”

So, “You must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings.” So, it was told. Again, nobody cares. It was for the Church. It’s for us, primarily. One day they’ll be able to look back and learn, “Yes, I was told.” But basically, the message was one, “If you will listen to God, God will listen to you.” That was the message. That’s what was to be said.

It wasn’t until going through a sermon here recently then where we went through that portion that speaks of what I just quoted, about what every nation basically on earth is now, “You are a nation that will not listen.” So, gone through a process of compiling the evidence and the witness of it all. That’s what we’ve been living. Living through a time of things that God has given and revealed that’s the same as it’s always been for 6,000 years. But this is the apex of it all. This is the height of it all. This is the culmination of it all. God has brought it to this period of time when the change is going to be made, that He brings His government to this earth and enforces His rule upon this earth. Beautiful.

So again, going on in the book it says, “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 that just anyone reading it could understand. 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…”

So, awkward, awkward, awkward. When God tells you to do something, you do it and you try to become stronger at doing it. Because I know there’s coming a time where it has to be said much stronger. You know, when certain things begin to happen there’s going to be a focus on that which was spoken that’s going to be obviously true, the United States fell because of what was stated, exactly as it was foretold, exactly as it was stated. That’s far more than the things that happened in Europe and about ten nations coming together and about having the Euro and about having a common government and what would transpire before the end would come, and then it’s progressed to this point in time where very specific things that can’t be ignored.

That one can be ignored. “Ah, pshew, he got lucky, I don’t know.” I don’t know how you would address that. You’d have to just ignore it, I guess, I don’t know. Because how can you deal with that kind of physical knowledge and truth to see that something happened? So long after he died it still came to pass. It happened exactly like he said. And God is bringing mankind to a point where they can’t ignore it anymore, the nuclear weapons begin to be fired, they begin to go off and this country collapses.

So, will anyone take note of that? Absolutely. The more that happens that’s been written the more that knowledge is going to be there in front of different ones. How that transpires, how that affects us all, don’t know yet, but it’s not going to be an enjoyable process.

So, what we’re being prepared for is very unique because of our ability to live by faith. Especially at that point in time when you live through those things, you know, you know that you know where we are in time and there isn’t much time left. Because once that process begins it all falls into place quickly. That gives you strength whether you comprehend it now or not. That will give you strength and a fortified faith that you have never experienced in your life to that degree. Beautiful, awesome to understand, to live, which you will.

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.”

Well, I come up to that point in time here but not going to go through it in this particular sermon, obviously.

Continuing on: “Amidst 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 it is in such devastation.” So again, it’s out there but nobody takes notice until something actually happens, and when it happens then things spread quickly, and that’s what is going to be witnessed.

Anyway, dropping on down. Like I said, it’s like coming back full circle, déjà vu, and I’m sure it is for you. But it is for me in a very powerful way because of writing those things, writing that book, 2008—God’s Final Witness, and then seeing what God did in the Church in drawing so many and the things He began to reveal directly afterwards. The first thing, the first great thing He revealed that caused a problem, that caused—How can you describe that? —that caused to surface sin that couldn’t be seen in any other fashion that was in people’s lives, primarily in ministers who were with us, who were a part, who had opportunity to be molded and fashioned, who, as a whole, had gone through the period of time of the Apostasy.

They experienced it. They saw it. They knew it. They learned all the things that we learned by that experience, that we were a part of a group of people who sinned by becoming lukewarm and we were spewed out of God’s mouth, and we came to understand that all the stones of the temple have been cast down, that everyone in the Church had been spewed out of God’s mouth, totally separated from God’s presence and we had to repent of that spirit and change.

Going through all of that, learning all those things, and on and on it went. Not a small thing, to experience all that and then to turn against God. Where along the way did any of them begin to miss out on how they received truth that they did? It’s like those in the scattered Body who said, “Well, Herbert Armstrong was a great teacher, and I learned a lot of good things from him.” That’s why we’re told, admonished in scripture to never forget from where you learned the truth. That tells you where God’s Church is. That tells you where God’s ministers are because that’s what they will teach, that’s what they will preach. And if they don’t do that job they’ll be removed. That’s how that works. That’s the history of God’s Church.

So, all the way up to 2008, finally, little things that were happening that people didn’t like, that people were judging in an improper way, wrong relationships that some were having, sins that people were involved in. Then it came out, “Christ isn’t returning on a Feast of Trumpets, he’s returning on the Feast of Pentecost,” and they couldn’t take it. Couldn’t take it. It wasn’t that truth they couldn’t take, it just provided excuse to do something that they had been working on in the mind already, to find fault, to find something wrong. “This is wrong.” It gives you an excuse to go out and do something different. God’s working through them now, working through whatever, or someone else that they’re going to go join.

Can you imagine going back to things you came out of in some of the scattered Body and some of the lies and things that were going on out there and having proven all that stuff before? And then you return to it? It’s like God says, it’s like a pig, or a dog I guess it is (it’s like a pig too), but like a dog returning to eat its vomit. Yummy, yummy, yummy. Or a pig going back and wallowing in the mud.

I don’t know if you’ve ever been around hogs. I learned to hate hogs long before I learned that they were unclean. Because I already knew they were unclean, I just didn’t know they were rotten to eat as well. Because they poop all over the place in mud and everyplace else, and they pee in it, and then they go wallow in it and they love it. And it stinks! They love it! It stinks! It’s the worst smell on any farm that I’ve ever known.

Cattle? You can be around a feed yard, which Lubbock, Texas, some have been out there. And where we used to meet, not too far from the center of Lubbock. It was far into Lubbock. But when the wind came out of the east there are feed lots out there, lots and lots of feed lots, and we had at that time, which referred to as evaporative coolers. They may still have them, I don’t know, that basically drip water down in these areas on the side of a device that’s sucking the air in. And because of the water that’s dripping down on these things that soak up the whatever it is, mesh, that soaks up the water and that air starts coming through that and coming into a building, it helps to cool it off because of the cool water going through those things.

But it doesn’t stop the smell. If there is a smell out there you know it. There are times we had Sabbath services when the smell was pretty steep. But I could take living beside a place like that, I mean out east close to those stock yards, and smell that far, far more than I could the smell of just a couple hundred hogs that you might be living beside. Because they really, really, really stink and they make cattle look pretty clean.

Anyway, I probably shouldn’t have told you that story, but hey, it kind of fits in of what we’re like as human beings sometimes. And to think of what people can turn from, the truth of God, after they’ve gone through everything they have. That’s why God has shown me so clearly, so clearly that there are going to be those who quit to the very end when these things are going to be able to be easily evidenced by what happens to this country. That is mindboggling, that some in God’s own scattered Body right now, as small as it is, a remnant Body, that there are still going to be some because of sin, because of lying to themselves, willingly deceiving themselves by disobedience, that they can be around the truth and come to Sabbath services, or not in some cases, and still think they’re a part. Because that’s going on too.

If you have an ability to be with God’s people and you’re not exercising that ability from time to time, I don’t care how far you have to drive, and you’re not willing to sacrifice on an occasion, you kind of love Covid because that kept you at home and you didn’t have to go anywhere and you didn’t have to be with God’s people. It made some a little lazy. And if you’re not willing to take that trip on occasion, even if it’s on occasion, to be with God’s people because you know and you value the power of fellowship, you’re not escaping what’s coming.

If I am God’s servant, I would be afraid of those words if you know. But you have lost a lot of that, and you have doubts about that. That’s your problem. And you don’t understand.

So, you think God’s going to be merciful to that? I’m not because I know God’s not. I know what’s going to happen to you and you’re not coming through this unless you repent deeply, deeply, and turn things around and start sacrificing like you ought to be as God’s people. I’m talking to some of you looking at me right now on the TV. You know who you are. You should know who you are. Shame, shame, shame on you! Humble yourself. Swallow your pride!

Why, like those individuals did in 2008, why give up at this point in time? That’s insanity in itself. That’s madness in itself. And you are so weak spiritually. So, that’s why God gave to me… And I know. And I know that I know without a single doubt whatsoever, that there are people who are not going to come through this. That if we’re not in this for all of our life with all of our being and want this and want what God has offered us? Do we not value it? To what degree do we value it? That’s what we’re being judged by. To what degree do we value it?

The pearl of great price. What does that mean? Does it have meaning? Because it should be everything as far as our lives are concerned. What can we value higher? But some value things higher, willing to give it all up.

Now, just on a physical plane that just blows my mind, as it did with these individuals here, and most of them ministers who turned against God as late as they did in 2012 and 2013. We fasted in God’s Church and quite quickly God revealed who they were. We fasted again, and God revealed again who they were. You can’t hide from God.

Now, God revealed those things, but some of you are just going to have experience it. Sad. I wish it weren’t that way. I don’t like to speak in those terms but if you’ve been given what we’ve been given and you turn against it, you’re no better than any other antichrist that has turned against the Church over time. No better than those who were a part of instigating the Apostasy. No better because it’s the spirit and the mind of antichrist, working against the power of God’s spirit in your life. To resist, to work against and not humble oneself in order to have fellowship on an occasion at least? What is that? Antichrist. It’s working against God’s spirit. Because if we don’t comprehend and understand the value of fellowship by this time, well, might as well be outside looking in then. Don’t try to come in. Anyway. So far along and to think that these things can happen, that people with God’s spirit…

That was one of the greatest of revelations and one of the most sobering things to come to understand. It’s one of the greatest lessons that human beings can ever learn. You can have the impregnation of God’s holy spirit living and dwelling within you and you can still turn against God. Mind-boggling.

Anyway, like I said, we’ve come full circle back to that point in time, 2008, and we have things in front of us now. How far off? How close? We don’t know. But you better be on guard, stirred up in God’s spirit, crying out for God’s spirit. Because something that I haven’t seen in the past in writing these books has been what has brought us to this book. It’s all those books. God is making it very clear it’s because of all that. We couldn’t be at this point if we hadn’t gone through all that and now, we’re there. What’s being said and what’s going to be put out there, it’s very powerful in that respect, and it’s finished.

And on top of all that, I understand I don’t have a whole lot of time left in life anyway, even if none of that were a part of the consideration. I’m not that healthy. Things working around this heart here are not in that good of shape and they don’t last forever once they go in there and put a bunch of others in there to make things open up a little bit. It’s just a part of life. Death is a part of a life process and that’s in God’s hands.

I don’t know where I’m at so I’m just going to start reading in the book. “To be reminded of what these two witnesses will be doing during the final three and one-half years…” Now, again here, it says three and a half years, but we don’t know at what point God started that process. Because we have work, we have things we do and continue to do and that’ll always be a part of what we’re living. But the ending and then counting back, that’s easier to do, because you already know, you’ve already experienced it. I hope that makes sense. It does to me anyway because I’m living it.

So, the point being is to be on guard because things can happen quickly in this world. They don’t have to be out there for a long time to take place. I might just throw out too that God’s making it very clear about this period of time of 60 days and a period of time of incredible power that’s unleashed on this earth. I believe that’s the period of time that’s before us from what is being shown. But time will tell.

So, it doesn’t have to be a long period of time for some of these events to take place when they finally start. So, sometime before the Days of Unleavened Bread next year? Possibly. I don’t know. Or the year after that? I don’t know. But we have to be on guard and alert to realize don’t get comfortable in thinking, well, that 3½ years hasn’t started yet. Be careful.

“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, I mentioned last Sabbath, which is something that is only in the process, when things are given one truth leads into another. We have to build a certain level of something then we can go on to another. But we have to see certain things before we can be given more. Hope that makes sense. There is a process here that I know is at work as well about these periods of time. There is more than one period of time concerning the two-witnesses. I’ll just put it that way. There is a period of time when certain things are to be fulfilled and another period of time that certain things are to be fulfilled. It’s kind of like all those periods of time, the 3½ years, the 1260 days that have continued on leading up through seven specific periods, and then we’re in a period we don’t know where it is or what it is at this point in time.

So anyway, that’s part of what this is talking about: “And I will give power to my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy a thousand two hundred and sixty days, clothed in sackcloth.” So, it’s about a witness. It’s about what they are to live, what they are to experience, and candidly, a part of this may have well been fulfilled already because of what it can mean as far as the Church is concerned, and there is language that God uses at times that’s about the Church and not about physical things in the world, and then there are physical things as well that can have a type that are to be accomplished and fulfilled.

Anyway, going on it says, “These are the two olive trees…” Candidly, all of us should be this way, clothed in sackcloth. It’s just it’s about humility, humbling ourselves to go through whatever it is that we have to go through in life. Our lives are in God’s hands and there is no point in time where we can look to God and say, “Why am I going through this? Why would You let me experience this? Why aren’t You intervening and stopping it?”

Because I think of different ones at different times in history of the Church who wondered why God hadn’t intervened to solve a certain problem they might have, to heal them or whatever it might be that they want, to solve some kind of conflict that’s going on. The reality is so often God lets us experience things to learn from the experience because that’s how we grow. We learn through the experiences of life, and those experiences weren’t meant to all be easy.

So, that doesn’t mean then that God can intervene and solve every problem when it comes along or heal us at every moment in time when something takes place. He lets us experience those things and we grow through those processes, and we experience things that help us to grow and mature on a greater spiritual plane.

“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, it’s just a matter of bringing something to the end here of what has to be completed to fulfill the first 6,000 years and there are incredible events that are going to take place, and many of them still have to do with the Church, as small as we are.

Because it’s always first and foremost about the Church. It just is. This is God’s primary focus. He’s preparing the world for what’s getting ready to take place but that’s, obviously, on a very physical plane but leading into a spiritual one as time goes on so that people’s hearing can be sharpened, so they can begin to listen. They have to go through a lot to have that happen.

“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. . . And if any man will hurt them, fire proceeds out of their mouth and devours their enemies…” God already gave that a long time ago that that’s by what is spoken. It’s not like being like a dragon that you see on TV and it’s blowing out fire and smoke. But some people probably think that in the world when they read something like this. But it’s by things that are pronounced, things that are said, and kind of like what I did just a moment ago, that those of you who aren’t willing to be with God’s people, who aren’t humbling yourselves to be with God’s people and you think that maybe at a Feast of Tabernacles once a year is okay. You’re mistaken.

So, what will happen if that doesn’t change, if it’s not repented of? I made a statement, “You are not going to come through these things ahead of us.” You will not have life in the Millennium, let alone the offer to be a part of 144,000. If that’s the state of mind, where do you think God has judged about the possibility of sealing certain individuals?

You know, God is very merciful and if we deeply repent of certain things, though we might have been called to be a part of the 144,000, it doesn’t mean that some who were a part of Worldwide in the past can’t be replaced, can’t have given up their crown. Still live into the Millennium if they repent, but you will not have that crown to be a part of the 144,000. I know that there are some like that out there listening right now. That ought to be sobering.

It’s not a matter that you have to do what some of those ministers did around the period of time of 2008 and rejecting the truth that God gave, rejecting God’s servant, an apostle. No small thing. So, anyway…

“If any man will hurt them, fire proceeds out of their mouth and devours their enemies…” Enemies. You know, that’s what antichrist is. If we begin living something that’s against God, against Christ, they’re my enemy. They’re the enemy of God. They’re the enemy of Christ. They are working against the Body of Christ, the Church of God. That ought to be clear to us. We all ought to understand that very easily so.

“…and if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed.” So, this can include a lot of things on a spiritual plane as well as literally physical. It can be either or both. We don’t know yet fully. I know some of these things have happened on a spiritual plane and will likely continue to happen on a spiritual plane because when you begin to turn against God’s Church you know what happens? The first one you turn against will be God’s apostle. You have to justify that. Every person that has ever come to a point during Philadelphia, during the time of Herbert Armstrong being God’s apostle, every person had to come to a point where they turned against him, where they found fault with him. Because they have to justify their own thinking of doing something different than what he said was true and right. They had to go through that process.

An enemy? Antichrist? Absolutely. So, hopefully we can see these things on a spiritual plane as it fits us to this day at this time.

“And if anyone will hurt them,” God’s servants, whatever they might say, whatever they might do to try to hurt them, “in like manner they will die.” So, could be physical as well. Don’t know. Haven’t come to that point in time if it’s physical.

“They have power to shut heaven so that it does not rain in the days of their prophecy, and they have power over waters to turn them to blood…” I’m not going to go through and explain right now some of this can be on a spiritual plane, but the reality is that started a long time ago as far as certain things that were said, that there is no other way to be fed but, in this Body, in this group, in this remnant Church. Every place else the heavens have been shut up. No flow of God’s spirit into their lives. No relationship with God Almighty.

“…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) So, we’ll know when it happens if something physical is to happen, which I believe it is, but time will tell. But again, that won’t be until toward the end.

That’s why I marvel at how God has given us to understand in a very profound way the time of the ministry of Christ and how that certain things went on as normal. He was teaching the disciples and certain ones were listening to him at various times, but it didn’t really get ramped up with power and evidence until the very end. And candidly, in the last three weeks the vast majority of it took place. Awesome!

That gives me strength. That gives me focus. That gives me understanding, that you fight until the end of whatever you’re doing. Because sometimes we can read into things that we’re not supposed to read into. We wait on God and let God show us and lead us along the way.

Anyway, I could probably quit right here today and finish this. I feel much better today than I did last Sabbath. Some of you out there may not feel much better because of what I’ve had to say. It just shows we’ve got to stay close to God all the time. We have to be stirred up in spirit constantly. You have to cry out to God to stir you up in spirit, to help you to be stirred up in spirit, to be filled with that life, that excitement for what He’s placed before us, to want to hold on to it, to want to fight the fight. You just have to continue to cry out to God.

That’s a part of why I went through talking about our confidence, our boldness, to understand things that God continues to reveal. That’s why I went through some of those truths last Sabbath. Because all the truths are powerful, and they mean so much to us. They are our strength on a spiritual plane. That’s why it’s good for us to go back and review them from time to time.

That’s why I really enjoyed Wayne going through some of those things here recently when he pointed out some of those truths. Because those need to be in front of us to realize how blessed we are with everything that God has given us. Because He’s given us so much, He truly has. We have been so exceedingly blessed sometimes I just feel it’s difficult for us to keep that grasp in front of us, that focus, that we have that confidence, that boldness.

Because I think of what’s happened to the scattered group with the 21 Truths they had, and by different contact, different things that are out there that you hear, that you see, and things you see written you realize… It’s a horrible thing to watch, becoming, as it were, protestant in makeup, speaking of things that have truth in it but have turned it to a protestant message. I hope you understand what I’m saying there.

Because we can take the truth of God and make it protestant and not real. That’s what so many have done, where you go through the motions, there’s a truth, but you’re not stirred up by the truth, by a relationship with God. You have to work it up. You have to work it up like the protestant world does, and it’s fake, it’s not real. Especially with God’s spirit, you know it’s not real and it’s just not there.

I’m just trying to decide if I need to go any farther or whether it might be just good to stop here. We’ll stop there. As I said, I was ticked off last Sabbath with this. This Sabbath I feel much better. Thank you.

[1] 2008—God’s Final Witness, Chapter 4, Page 85