The Last Great Day

Ronald Weinland

September 28, 2021

As it was done last year, and as it was also mentioned at that time, that over the last few years we have changed the format at least a little of how the Last Great Day is now to be observed with only one service rather than with two as in times past. Then a little bit more change here as well in that one particular service. So, within that one sermon on this day and within the first section of it we have been covering an outline of the meaning of the fulfillment of what this day is all about, the Last Great Day of the Feast, and this being that commanded observance.

Then we have ended this final sermon with a smaller portion at least of a focus upon other things that concern the Church. Because this is a matter of timeliness on our part, and this being the conclusion of the Feast period, it’s good to have at least a portion of that final sermon, this final sermon covering some of those things that help us to look ahead. That’s truly very needful and was oftentimes included then when we had two sermons. But now with one sermon, been condensing that and putting some of that together, but still, the primary portion of this is about the purpose, the meaning of this commanded observance that God has given to us.

We are so blessed to be able to observe a Feast of Tabernacles, more so at least in most areas together, and when it comes to a point in time when we see some of those things possibly being taken from us, in the sense of being able to come together and realizing the times in which we live, not knowing how long some of that will be in the sense of some of the real hardships that are going to come upon this world, this time becomes even more precious to us and should mean that much more to us.

So, in the first larger portion of this sermon it’s good to review the outline, an outline, if you will, of our understanding of this day, to go through and explain so many of those things and talk about some of those things that this day pictures, that this day foretells, in that respect. Yet when I think about some of this I think there is so much we really don’t know about this day yet. God has given us a kind of outline of what this day is about, but there is so much that we still don’t know.

So much is to be revealed to us, I’m sure, throughout periods of the Millennium and especially even more so during the closing of that first thousand years. As we approach the end of that thousand years there’s going to have to be a lot of work and a lot of preparation for that final hundred-years. Something that is difficult for us to comprehend because we don’t even know what the Millennium will be like at the end of that period.

It’s going to be so incredible, so vast, so mighty, and what God accomplishes far beyond our comprehension and understanding at this point in time because of what the world will be like in itself at that time, let alone the preparation that needs to take place for so many who are going to be resurrected, which is what this day is about.

Since we’ve already covered throughout this Feast some areas of scripture that have to do with this particular day, there isn’t as much need to repeat and focus on those things again, although there may be some reference to those things.

So, let’s begin here in Isaiah 65. The revelation of the first part of God’s plan for mankind is revealed here and this begins to cover some of the things of God’s purpose and God’s plan just in these few verses here beginning in verse 17. God says, [Isaiah 65:17]—For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former shall not be remembered nor come into mind, or in the heart.

So again here, there are things that God is doing in His creation, especially within His Family, because that has been an ongoing creation for 6,000 years now. Because the greater purpose of all the creation is about God’s Family, it’s about Elohim. This is what God has been doing, creating, bringing to a forefront a family.

This period of time of this, what this day pictures, becomes even more exciting because we see then a vastness of people who are going to have such incredible opportunity that we have now that sometimes in our lives we even take a little bit for granted in some ways and not grasping or thinking enough upon how awesome it is that we have this time now and that over the vast humanity that will have ever existed by the end of 7,000 years, very few, especially in this 6,000 years, very, very few had this opportunity that we have now, or have had that opportunity as we look back and see a matter of time, especially in 6,000 years, and then in a thousand there is going to be that much more. But the vast majority of that is still coming, of all the people who have ever lived and died, as a whole during that first 6,000 years.

He says, “Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth.” When we read scriptures like this sometimes, especially in the beginning of our learning, it’s easy to look upon some of this as being a matter of something physical, because especially when you think about some of the things that are said later and the kinds of destruction, if you will, the kinds of terminology that’s used about the earth. It’s almost as if the earth is going to be fully destroyed and a new earth created. That’s not what this is about.

It’s not about some kind of thing taking place in the heaven above the earth or in heaven itself, save for the matter that Christ is coming here and to understand some of those kinds of things that are going to take place. It’s a reality that more of the focus of God’s purpose and God’s plan is going to be here. There is much that God has planned yet for the earth.

He says, “I create heavens and a new earth.” What’s new about it, it’s us. It’s us as we mature and as we grow and as we come to a point of transformation to where God says, “Now I know you,” and then to have that opportunity, just a beginning of life for us to live for all time in God’s Family. It’s about Elohim and their existence and their being here and that family finally coming to pass.

That’s what this is all about. It’s a new earth because the old one is passing away. We’re at the end of 6,000 years and the way the earth has been, the way  mankind has been for 6,000 years, that’s going to go by the wayside because God is creating a new earth with new inhabitants, with new thinking, with a new focus, with reconstruction of everything – government, in what is known as religion in the world, to one truth, and then the effect that’s going to have on the earth itself as so much change is taking place where deserts don’t exist like they do today. They’re going to be able to be inhabited. They’re going to be able to have water and rains and so forth, and things that are difficult for the mind to comprehend. God’s creating a new heaven and a new earth. This terminology is what this is about.

…and the former shall not be remembered. So, those things that have happened over 6,000 years especially, and especially for this time period when people are resurrected, in time the kind of lives they led, as a whole, will become a distant memory because they’ll be creating new ones. Some for good and some for bad, nevertheless, but it’ll be in a new world and a primary focus being there that gives everyone an opportunity to live and learn this way of life.

And so, “the former things,” the former life they had, the hardships, the pain, the suffering. Because there has been so much in this past 6,000 years for mankind, and the vast majority of mankind has suffered so much through time, truly has. Those will become a thing of the past.

…nor come into mind. I think of the three years that for my memory were not pleasant and not good, being separated from family, physical and spiritual, and not being able to accomplish and do the things that I was accustomed to doing on a regular basis. I think it wasn’t very long, a year, two years, and it was hard to even imagine that had even happened. The thoughts of those things, that’s not something I think about. Every once in a while there will be some thought that comes along because something will spark that, of some incident, but it’s a minor thing. And anyway, it’s almost as though it didn’t happen.

That’s the way this is talking about. This is what this is talking about. It won’t come into mind anymore. The bad things can begin to be erased and they can go away and a different focus then for life. What a beautiful thing. It’s healing. It’s a healing of the mind. Awesome!

But be glad and rejoice forever in that which I create. So, if we choose this way of life, if others choose this way of life, if others continue in this way of life and are a part of that creation, God says rejoice in it. Because that’s what it’s about; it’s about rejoicing in a family, Elohim, because that’s all there will be, is rejoicing, in that sense, of the excitement of the focus of things of life. It won’t be bogged down by the drama of human life. That just really bogs down life and hurts people.

To think that this is a new world, a new age, and people are going to be able to rejoice in a way? Just in life itself, life will be exciting. It won’t be where people are depressed and have things of the past that nag at them, that tear at them, that hurt them, or things of the past that just keep popping up because of carnal human nature, and without God’s spirit, or with various measure of it. Even for us in the Church there are still things of our past. To a point, that will always be in a person, but those things will not be hurting a person in the sense of what they’re living at that time because it’ll be a world free from what we experience.

We have to experience things of the world around us and what’s taking place in the world around us that is so negative. Especially today, you think of all the things that are taking place today in the world and everything out there is so negative. How do you even describe it? Massive drama everywhere you turn. When that isn’t in the environment you’re living in, what a beautiful thing. Rejoice in what God is creating. It’s easier to do. That’s the point, we’ll be able to. People will be able to at that time.

I create Jerusalem a rejoicing. God’s way is not the way of pain and suffering, heartache, drama. Because drama causes pain. Drama causes stress and tension and contention between people. Not God’s way. It creates rejoicing, excitement for life.

…and her people a joy. The point being is even for God to look upon it, the family, “and her people a joy.” It’s a joy to see it. Others will enjoy that within others, to see that joy.

Today, as I see drama, when drama emerges, it takes away from life. It takes away from the ability to rejoice. So, when the drama begins to go away it’s beautiful, God’s purpose and God’s plan.

Verse 19—I will rejoice in Jerusalem, Mount Zion, Jerusalem, in His Family, Elohim. That’s what it’s all about: “I will rejoice in Jerusalem.” God knows what He’s creating. What God purposes, what God has set out to do, He does it, it gets accomplished. It will be done. The only thought that comes to mind is what a sad thing for those who don’t choose it. What a sad thing. I think of the last part of this sermon. What a sad thing when people don’t continue on a continuing basis to choose it. It really is insanity. It’s unsoundness of mind.

I will rejoice in Jerusalem, and joy in My people; and the voice of weeping shall no more be heard in her… That’s God’s purpose. It takes us through all this that God is doing, through the first 6,000 years, the next 1,000 years, and especially during this Feast season we’ve been focusing upon that following thousand years, and now this period of time, that hundred years that follows the Millennium.

God’s purpose in all of this is to bring all who do choose it, who will choose it, to bring them to this point that they are able to become Elohim. Because this is what this is talking about, where there is no more weeping, no more sorrow. What a beautiful thing. It won’t exist in God’s Family.

It will still exist in the Millennium because of human nature and how people treat each other and things that happen. Because there will be a measure of drama, just not the measure of drama that we experience today where it’s everywhere you look and being fueled by the kind of spirit world that lives around us. Thankfully, that won’t exist at that time either.

So, you think of this and think, what a beautiful thing, where the environment is so cleaned up – on earth, around our lives and how people live and how people think – at least what the peer pressure will be. Because not all, again, are going to choose it. Insanity. But choice.

…the voice of weeping will no more be heard in her, nor the voice of crying. No more shall there be an infant of a day. This is where Herbert Armstrong came to understand as God revealed it to him, what this verse is all about, that it’s about this period of time, especially here. There will no more be an infant of a day, or an old man who has not fulfilled his days. So again, not family of Elohim, but the point of working toward that, the point of something that’s different here. That here are individuals where there will no more be new birth (we understand that), but to understand that there is that period of time. Because it says, For the child shall die a hundred years old. So, an infant that begins or is resurrected because it died at birth, had life, died at birth, was born, and yet within a short period of time of a few hours, a day, a week, a month or whatever, here is this child resurrected, able to be reared by others that will be excited to have and rear children at that time because, again, a different world completely.

So, here is an infant of day, or an old man that has not fulfilled his days. It says, For the child shall die a hundred years old. We have this hundred-year period that God has revealed to us. What an awesome thing. It says, But the sinner being a hundred years old shall be accursed. So, it takes us through this period of time of a hundred years and at the end here if, it says, “and the sinner being a hundred years old shall be accursed.” It depends on how people live their lives and what they choose and what’s going to take place, because eventually, the point is, it will all come to an end.

So, the child is going to have a hundred years, an old person is going to still have a hundred years. They’re going to continue on in life. They’re going to have a strong life, a healthy life, and have the opportunity to receive God’s way of life. At the end, if someone chooses to continue in sin, will not repent, will not seek God’s Kingdom, has not come to a point in time where God says, “Now I know you,” because they haven’t chosen this, they haven’t fought for this—it takes work—hasn’t worked for this way of life, hasn’t sacrificed, still selfish, still wants their own way and is living a life of sin, that’s what this is about, they shall be accursed. Why? Because life is going to come to an end. At the end of a hundred years there will be no more mankind. It’ll either be people in the God Family or they don’t exist anymore.

And they shall build houses… So, it’s going back and showing things that are going to be different during this period of time. …and inhabit, inhabit them, the houses. And they shall plant vineyards and eat the fruit of them. So, it shows a cycle of life here, of things that people are going to be able to do without interruption. That’s the contrast it’s getting ready to make here.

They shall not build, and another inhabit. Because that’s what takes place so often in wars or when people have oppressed others and taken things from them, or high taxation, endless taxation, and things that governments have done through time. It won’t be that way. What a beautiful thing.

It says, They shall not build, and another inhabit. They shall not plant, and another eat. For as the days of a tree are the days of My people, and Mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands. God’s purpose is that through this period of time, of what this day pictures, is that there are going to be incredible blessings on the earth for mankind because those who are resurrected then have never experienced what people throughout the Millennium are going to have the opportunity to experience, and it’s going to be a totally different world for them.

I can’t even begin to imagine the kinds of suffering that so many masses of people have had in their lives. To be resurrected into something like that, where they’re able to see what God has done, what mankind has been able to accomplish and do under one government, one Church, to see what the earth is going to be like at that time? The difference, they’re not going to recognize it. They’re not going to recognize it for what it is, and it’ll be awesome, it’ll be incredible.

They’re going to be resurrected into a totally different kind of world and these are the things that, in a capsule, if you will, are being discussed, are being covered. Because many peoples have read these verses and never understood what it was about, yet at a particular point in time God revealed it to Herbert Armstrong, what it was about. Whether anyone of the beginning of the Church, if any of the apostles understood that, we don’t know. But most certainly those in the Old Testament time didn’t understand about that hundred years, and very likely those during the time of the beginning of the Church of Ephesus didn’t know such things either. Because God has continued to progressively reveal that plan and purpose, the thousand years, the hundred years, and so many other things in this final period of time from Philadelphia on.

Then it goes on to say [verse 25]—The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the bullock. Not during the Millennium but during the Great White Throne. So again here, there is going to be protection. There is not going to be the threat of life by being around such things.

As it goes on to say, And dust shall be the serpent’s meat. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, says the Eternal. Now, the dust being the serpent’s meat should have a little bit more meaning to us when we grasp and comprehend that. But again, we know what mankind is and what happens to physical human beings. When it’s all said and done there will not be human beings anymore. There will not be mankind, but there will be the God Family. There is a being that won’t have existence. Awesome.

They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain. So, that which is done in the past, the kind of hurt and pain and suffering that even that world has caused will no longer exist either, says the Eternal. But there are other scriptures that talk about how a child is able to put their hand in a hole and there be a poisonous snake there – they’re not going to be hurt. And so, some of these things here that are being covered showing indeed a change in nature of animals as well that God is going to miraculously perform so that there are those things that can live together in better peace, if you will. But it’s going to be a different world, truly is. Incredible to understand that.

Now, let’s turn over to Revelation 20:1—Then I saw an angel come down from out of heaven. It’s showing here that here is an angel coming down out of the sky. It’s not speaking specifically of heaven itself. That can’t be seen. What John is picturing here is that which on a physical plane in part that he is able to see in a vision here.

It says, from out of the heaven, having the key, again here, of the… It’s not a “bottomless pit.” It’s amazing how many things are translated physically in a way because mankind can’t understand these things. An abyss, a place of restraint. They couldn’t picture something of spirit so physical things are used.

God gives us physical things to relate to, words that are used, and even much of that is done throughout the Old Testament, that sometimes we haven’t even touched upon that much. But there are many physical things like that, that picture something that is on a spiritual plane. This is one of them. Simply being a place of spirit restraint it’s hard to grasp. Well, you really can’t because we don’t see or grasp spirit, we don’t know how it operates, and so we have to have physical things like this to teach us about things that can be done through power, through God’s power on a spirit level.

It says, and having a great chain in his hand. It’s not a great chain. But again here, this is something that’s given to help people to grasp, to have certain words that are used to identify something that we can relate to, a chain, bondage, being in prison, being chained down to one’s place, one location or whatever that might mean. But being restrained from doing what they would otherwise do.

That’s what it’s about in this particular case here, of what’s getting ready to be said here of the spirit being. Not literal chains. There is no such thing as a physical chain or spirit chains that hold somebody. God has the power to restrain. God has the power to constrain. He has the power to do whatever He desires within a spirit world. He created it. That’s why it’s only been of recent times that we have come to grasp and comprehend that what God has created in a spirit world, He can change, He can alter. The life He’s given, He can take away. It’s His life. It’s God’s life to sustain, and if He takes it away as well as created it, that’s up to God and how God does it. But God has that kind of power and it’s something that we’ve only recently in time come to comprehend.

It says here, Then he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil and Satan. So, it’s picturing something here in a spirit realm being portrayed physically so that we might have a better ability to at least grasp it a little bit, making it clear Satan is going to be dealt with. Satan is going to be restrained and not have the ability to continue doing what he’s doing.

I think of the example of the seven revivals of the Roman Empire, the Holy Roman Empire, if you will, as we refer to it oftentimes. So, these seven different revivals and each time there is this seal that keeps Satan partially restrained because he’s not fully restrained. He’s still in this world, he still exists, and he still exerts influence and power upon this world, but he’s restrained from the power of bringing nations to war in the same manner that God allows him to do at various times to allow man to do what man wants to do anyway but works to speed up some of that process at different times and bring things to a head, to be allowed to perhaps to do what he’s going to do within certain nations, and generally great nations of the world.

Because what happens is nations become great and eventually they go to war and conquer others. But he is restrained or sealed, if you will, from being able to have that ability at different times, even though he’s able to influence and lead mankind in bad ways and have influence upon different ones. But not able to do the things that he might otherwise do within those different resurrections or revivals of the Roman Empire until it’s God’s time. Then God allows it, He pulls back that restraint and allows Satan to speed up the process of what’s going to happen inevitably anyway in time.

Things that are hard for us to comprehend and understand. God is so powerful, so mighty, knows us inside and out, what we will do as human beings if unrestrained in our carnal human nature as nations become great. Knew what would happen with people that were brought into this particular area of the world, speaking of the United States, and giving them all the wealth because of such wealth that existed here. There is so much!

You look at different parts of the world, you look at places, I think about, sometimes I can’t help but think about the promised land that the children went into. Well, it wasn’t like what they saw when different ones came over and began to see the riches of this country. It wasn’t like that. It was less. There wasn’t as much as there was here. They came into the promised land, and it was so much better than where they’d been. Because if you look at that part of the world, especially today, even though that’s changed over the past couple of thousand years even more so – it’s gotten worse and worse and worse over time. But if you look at those regions of the world, they weren’t as abundant by any measure as to what this nation has in such abundance and being so massive like it is.

You look over there? You know, you look at the nation of Israel itself, it’s pretty narrow, not very long. Yet this is where the children of Israel, went into a lot of that, of course there were parts of Jordan and so forth that Israel had at that time. But you look at some of those areas, and Egypt and so forth, and other areas that were inhabited by different ones, Canaanites and so forth, and a lot of that land wasn’t really great, what some of these nations had compared to the U.S.

To think about that, that here God reserved a place on earth to fulfill things for the end-time, to give a people the ability to become the greatest, the most powerful nation the world has ever known because of the incredible wealth that they would have. God gave it. And what would then happen in time with those people, with Manasseh, as a whole, because He gave it to Manasseh. There was all this wealth and all this power that began to emerge over time and began to come to the forefront more and more as we got closer and closer to a period of time when, as an example, even God raised up Herbert Armstrong.

World war one, the United States began to rise up more and more in power and ability and might. World war two, more so. But all this power and might because of all the wealth that was here, and you know what happens when a lot of power and might and wealth is given to a people? God knew what people would do. He knew what this nation would do. It would become haughty, proud, expecting other nations to be like it, because after all (the attitude of mind is), we’re the best, we have the best of everything, don’t we?

That haughtiness, that kind of pride, and not only that then, “We did it.” “We did it!” And not understanding, no, God gave it to us. Now, that’s on a spiritual plane too.

The point being in all this is God knows us. He knows what human beings will do in various environments. God purposed and planned all these things to take place, that there would be a time that this nation would have a people come to it and they would automatically because of what they were given, become great. With the blessings that were given to them in that process as well because God gave them various gifts and blessings even more so that aren’t as obvious.

God knew what would happen when Herbert Armstrong would be raised up and all the truth that was given to him, of a clarity of a purpose and a plan that God had, truth about all the things that are so different from what is seen in traditional Christianity. For those who are called to that, that was so vast and so great. God gave that into the minds of individuals to be able to see that truth, but as the Body became, the Church became larger and larger and more truth was there, and understanding, if you will, was there, what happened? Laodicea. Laodicea. Laodicea then that led up to an apostasy. Incredible.

So again, incredible things that can happen and how God knows these things about us, about human nature, about human life and what we will do under various conditions. There is so much that God works with to mold and fashion in His plan. Has been for 6,000 years. Of things we are only scratching the surface of right now, that should help us to grasp and comprehend even more so how great our God is. So great. So mighty. So wonderful. We are so blessed to have such a Father. Beautiful.

And so, in this case here this spirit being is going to be restrained and not be able to do what he has done at different times. And this time…Well, let’s read it: Then laid hold of the dragon, the old serpent, which is the Devil and Satan, and bound him a thousand years. So, this time he is being bound for a thousand years. This is more than what’s ever happened to him. Nothing like this has ever happened to him. He’s had power taken from him or God has made certain with His power that there is that which Satan has not been able to do. He’s been constrained, restrained, if you will, and meaning that there is power that hasn’t been made available to him or power that’s used against him to keep him in a certain place or to a certain level (power is taken from him).

In this particular case then it says, and cast him into the abyss, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him. So, here we go with a seal. But this time it says, so that he should deceive the nations no more. Now he can’t even deceive the nations, whereas before for the previous 6,000 years, even though his power at times was restrained and a seal set upon him, as you will, on a spiritual plane in the sense of power (not the holy spirit but a power and abilities), and so, those abilities then when God let him have free rein at different times. God knows what he does when he’s given free rein to do what he does. Then there are times then that God has to restrict that to keep him from doing various things.

Here is a case now where this is going to be multiplied many times over because now he’s not even going to be able to broadcast and hurt people in that manner. Because that’s where his greatest power has been, to influence human beings, to stir up human beings to evil, and to stir up their natural nature, to heighten that to a point where people act upon it more quickly and more readily and give into it more quickly, if you will, because that power is greater than they are, and human beings don’t comprehend that.

…and shut him up and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more until the thousand years should be fulfilled. So, now we’re looking at the Millennium, a period of time that we’ve just pictured in the Feast of Tabernacles here. What a beautiful thing – Satan has no power to hurt what God is creating, what God is doing. He can’t interfere with it like He has. He doesn’t have free rein anymore because God is building and working with, magnifying His purpose and His plan now throughout the thousand years with His government, with the Church. Only the Church; no other religions allowed at that time on the earth.

…that he should deceive the nations no more until the thousand years should be fulfilled.  But after that he must be let loose for a little season. Now, the timing, of how some of this works sometimes, it’s so easy to read things into scripture. In times past because we weren’t there yet, it wasn’t ready to have it revealed yet; Philadelphia and Laodicea, some of these kinds of things just weren’t just grasped nor understood for what’s being said here and what’s going to take place.

There is that hundred years that’s following the thousand years. It doesn’t say how long that’s going to be and it’s not saying here that he’s going to be allowed to have the ability to do something for that hundred years. It’s not about that at all.

It says here he definitely has a seal upon him for the thousand years, and when the thousand years shall be fulfilled then there there’s going to come a period of time, and it doesn’t say when, he is going to be let loose for a little season. Now, it’s a very short while, in that respect, and it’s not a hundred years, but it is at the end of the hundred years. So, there is that hundred years as well, after the thousand years, and just because it doesn’t say “until the thousand years and the hundred years that follow is fulfilled,” because it’s just showing here that the Millennium has to be complete because a new age will come during that hundred years.

There is something else in God’s plan that has to be accomplished that we’re focusing upon today that is about that hundred years, the Last Great Day. The Last Great Day must be fulfilled as well. It must be accomplished as well. Then at that point in time, toward the very end of it, a little season, a short while, Satan is going to have reign again to go out and deceive the nations – full power to do this.

Now again, some of these things are difficult to grasp and comprehend, how such a thing could happen, how such a thing could be, but this is what we’re focusing upon, to recognize that yes, there must be a continuation of life during the hundred years that’s like the Millennium for those who are resurrected where Satan is not around. So, he’s not going to be let loose immediately. Just because it says the thousand years must be fulfilled, this doesn’t say he’s going to immediately be released from his place of restraint. So, again here, but there is coming a time, and after that, a point of time after the thousand years he is going to be released for a little while, for just a little season.

Verse 4—Then I saw thrones, and they who sat upon them, and judgment was given to them. So again here, a picture of this as you go through Chapter 19 and you see this resurrection, and all the chapters before that that talk about 144,000 and then, finally, Chapter 19 and it talks about Christ and his return and an army that’s with him. Then it goes on and describes these that are a part of that army, candidly, and that’s a part of what we’re seeing now as a flow. We’re going on into Chapter 20. Man put the chapters in there and verses, but it’s a continual flow of what’s taking place.

These thrones are seen, and those who sat upon them, and judgment was given to them. So, showing responsibility of jobs that are given. Judgment oftentimes in this case here, it has different levels to it because there is part of this that has to do with the Church. It has to do with a priesthood. And so, there are going to be those who are a matter of kings and leaders and rulers on a government level, if you will, but there is also that which is on a spirit plane in the sense of priests and so forth and what they will do. So, kings and priests as other scriptures talk about that will be in God’s Kingdom. Different responsibilities are going to be within the family of 144,000.

Most of the judgment, the point being is, that much of the judgment, yes, there are things that come through government on a civil plane, but there is that which comes through the Church, through the priesthood, the priesthood that’s on this earth that works to train, to teach, to lead and guide people in God’s ways. That kind of judgment is a matter of judgment like we see within the Church. So again, there will be civil judgment that comes through government, physical in the sense of what we see physically, but still from God’s government, from that which is a matter of an organization through the kings and the leadership of them, and then there will be that which is along the priesthood line that will be a matter of that which is more of a spiritual matter.

The government, so much of that having to do with physical human beings, has to do with physical lives and physical structure of things that must take place. But that which is there in the Church, there is a judgment that must take place there having to do with relationships, with that which is spiritual.

Again here, a division of some of these things here and it shows here then that those that are being seen, And I saw the lives of those who had been “souls” . . .  I hate the use of that word in scripture because the protestant world has this concept of a soul, of something that’s in you, it’s immortal, it continues on. You don’t know what it is, but it’s something that you have, and knocking on the door a little bit about the spirit essence in man, but they don’t even come close to that. This is something else that has a life of its own and once we die it just continues on because it’s like there’s an immortality in us. No, we know better than that. God has to give that life.

When it talks about some of these things here, that’s why I loathe that word “souls,” it’s about life. It’s just about our lives, the breathing existing life. I saw the lives of those who had been cut off for the witness of Joshua. So, what people were living before once they were called, we know what that means. They’re cut off from the world. God’s way of life cuts us off from the world if we choose it, if we want it, if we continue in it. We choose that. We choose God’s way of life. We want to represent and be part of God’s way of life. We don’t want to be part of the world, so we’re cut off from it by choice, our choice. The world, indeed, then cuts us off as well.

When we stand for God’s way of life, when we live God’s way of life, when we will not work on the seventh day, when we will not work on Holy Days and on and on it goes, there are things we will not do in various kinds of practices in business and so forth. We stand and people don’t like that. The world doesn’t like that, so it cuts us off too. So, it’s a double whammy in that respect, which is good.

And I saw the lives of those who had been cut off for the witness of Joshua. So, it’s a witness. That’s what we live, a testimony of God’s way of life because the witness of Christ is to be in our life and there’s a big problem if it isn’t, if we’re not living this way of life, if he, if Christ and God the Father are not dwelling within us. Because if they’re dwelling within us, it’s going to come through us in our actions and how we’re living our life and what we stand for. The fact that we do stand is going to come up in conversation and how we talk and how we don’t talk, how we act and how we don’t act in life. On and on it goes. We’re different from the world. That witness should just flow through us as a matter of a reality because of the way of life we’re living.

So again, cut off for the witness of Joshua and the word of God, and which had not worshiped the beast neither his image, neither had received his mark upon their foreheads or in their hands. So, through time, even 6,000 years, candidly, because of how that being has worked through different religions, because there have always been religions that have deceived and turned people away. Even physical Israel, God warned them not to mix themselves with other nations around them. Not because of race but because of the truth, because of the fact that if they mixed with those other nations, they all have foreign gods, they all have gods, their gods, made up gods, weird things, strange things, demonic things.

This is what it’s talking about. They didn’t worship this being because of what he created in the different religions out there, Baal or whatever it might be, or Astarte, on and on it goes, Isis. They, the individuals who came through all these things, that are going to be resurrected, they didn’t participate in those. Then especially in the past 2,000 years with false Christianity, they came out of that, if they weren’t a part of it. But most have actually been brought out of it.

So again here, this is a part of what it’s talking about. So, it came to the point in time where they changed their lives and they didn’t worship any longer that way, they worshipped God.

Neither had received his mark upon their foreheads or in their hands. So, this even more so because it’s around an environment that has to do with prophecies that have taken place throughout the last 2,000 years within the Roman Empire, the Holy Roman Empire (so-called), and the kind of false Christianity that began to emerge then out of that. That’s why this is speaking in this language because the focus is more so on humanity and mankind in the last 2,000 years.

We can understand these things more. We grasp and comprehend the mark, which actually existed long before because Satan has his counterfeits. His gods were worshiped more on the very thing, the day that we call Sunday pictures. Sun, Sunday worship. That bled over into traditional Christianity, sun-day worship.

Again here, we come into God’s Church, we change. What comes out of our minds, the forehead, the mark, the sign that identifies us is God’s Sabbath, Friday sunset to Saturday sunset. We keep that time. We keep the annual Holy Days. So, there is that which identifies us. There is that which identifies those, speaking of here, that are a part of that world. It’s different.

And so these lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. So, beautiful scriptures here of things we have come to know and grasp and embrace with excitement, to understand what God has done with 144,000. Because this hasn’t been known in the Church that long either. You know, we just take a lot of things for granted if we’re not careful. We have so much truth, things that weren’t even grasped during Philadelphia nor Laodicea. About the fact that there are 144,000, and who they are, and… We have so much, we truly do.

But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. And so, says, This is the first resurrection. So, we understand these things. Even though these verses, the way they’re written and the language that John wrote them, and the order of those things, God has revealed to them the order and the timeliness of them, so we’re not confused by it. But the world is if these things come before them, if they’re brought up to the forefront. Things that they can’t even deal with. They skip right over them because they don’t understand what it’s all about. It doesn’t make any sense to them.

“They reigned with Christ a thousand years.” What’s that? When is that? How does that happen? And who are they? They don’t have any idea who they are. And there’s been a time when we thought it was a lot more than 144,000, this great multitude and vast numbers that couldn’t be numbered. And we haven’t understood those things until, basically, PKG.

But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. So, that’s easy for us to grasp, but the world, they can’t even deal with these. Not only the world, but sometimes the Church hasn’t grasped some of these things to the level that we’re blessed to see and understand.

But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection. So, what’s it talking about? Those who were cut off, those who have now become…who have thrones and judgment that’s given to those, to different ones. And the context is fully about the first resurrection. So, there is no confusion here about the order and what’s being discussed.

Verse 6—Blessed and holy is he that has part in the first resurrection. Of such the second death has no power. When I read something like this I just can’t help but think about communicating to the world, though the world doesn’t read it, doesn’t have any interest. But nevertheless, being communicated, and so going out in the book as it is right now and has in other books before it, talked about such things as this and about a second death. You think, now, what an incredible thing, teachers in the world of Christianity, so called, traditional Christianity, they don’t even begin to touch this, a second death. What is it? How does this fit into their teachings? How can you die twice?

It’s kind of like Nicodemus wanting to know, “How can I be born again.” Something on a spiritual plane, so all he could grasp was something physical. “How can one be, after your old and… How can you enter your mother’s womb again to be born again? What does this mean?” So again, what an incredible thing that we see and understand things. And it’s a beautiful thing, it really is. It’s awesome.

So again here, on such the second death has no power; but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years. So again here, in the context it’s talked about kings and about priests, about judgment. There is that which is judgment on a civil level, that which is judgment on a spirit level within a Church, within the organization. And they go together in many regards, obviously, and during the Millennium and the Great White Throne, but what a beautiful way of expressing it here.

They shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years. And when the thousand years have expired, when they’ve come to an end, when they’re fulfilled, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison. Now, this is where difficult sometimes has entered in because people don’t or haven’t been able to focus upon the order, the timing of all this. Because God just hadn’t revealed it yet and so there were different thoughts and ideas.

And anyway, so it doesn’t say right at that moment. And that’s the problem. Sometimes we read things into scriptures. But when you know the purpose and the plan and what God is doing then everything fits into place perfectly. And that’s the way it’s always been. As God just continues to reveal more all of a sudden we see something that fits in that we didn’t grasp before. It may alter the picture a little bit because now we see something more clearly that identifies… Just like a puzzle, like Herbert Armstrong explained, and beautiful.

And when the thousand years had expired, come to an end, were fulfilled, Satan shall be let loose out of his prison and shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog. And we’ve gone through and talked about some of these things in times past, the kinds of minds that will exist by that time, those who have had opportunity for the truth and still reject it, those who through time had opportunity for the truth within that period of a hundred years and ended up rejecting it. And so, these different mindsets of individuals who still reject God.

And it says here, and to gather them to battle. So, so many things happen this way where God brings things, gives things to human beings when they don’t want His way of life, and brings them to battle. Well, we can see that on the earth no matter what with human nature and nations and they become great, and they go to battle. But when you carry it on to things within the Church or within the environment of what God is doing it becomes another matter.

And I think of things that have happened within the Church. Battles. Horrifying things that have taken place. Someone begins to gain a little power within an area, they begin to talk to other ministers, some individual higher up begins to talk to those that are working for him. They, with carnal human nature, have developed a relationship, a friendship, and they desire, carnally so when they are drifting away from God, to be recognized by that minister because if they are close and they are recognized more by him and this kind of political thing that takes place and has taken place even with the environment of God’s Church. When those things take place they want to receive favor and so will compromise at times and give in to various things. And by doing so their minds become weakened.

And so, what happens? In time a group in an area, like I’ve mentioned in times past, as to what has happened, and all of a sudden there are these different ministers and they have influence then over the congregations because they’ve gotten to know them and the same thing exists there, this relationship. And it’s easier for them then to come along and deceive and teach things that are different. And then there’s a spirit battle that commences, if you will, and what’s going on and what’s taking place and people having to make choices of what side they’re going to be on in the battle, in the war that’s taking place.

And so, the same thing is true here. And what does it do? It always cleans up the Church. So, whether it be a small one, a little battle here, a little battle there, something that someone is battling with themselves and they try to influence some others and they try to get their way in, it’s a battle on a spirit plane. But it can be small, or it can be large, but nevertheless a kind of battle on a spirit plane, if you will, but always to clean up the Church.

So, we continually, and the closer we get to the end of this age, we’ve been going through these things where more and more, as small as we are, we continue to go through a lot of people because people come along and they begin to make wrong choices. They begin to decide something different, and the battle begins to take place there as they are battling with what’s in front of them and they don’t like it, they don’t want it, they want something else. So, there’s this battle that goes on in their minds. And if they begin to talk to others then they have this battle and then they’re together in a battle until finally it’s gotten rid of in battle. Because it’s a type of spiritual warfare.

This is on a massive scale, what it’s talking about here, what takes place. God allows Satan and the demonic world to be released once again toward the end of the hundred years. Doesn’t say directly after the hundred years or right toward the end of it, or whatever, but it’s right in there. And for a very short time, it doesn’t take long, because there are plenty throughout the world who just don’t want God’s way of life. It’s not a part of them. They’ve already, by their lives, witnessed, God knows even if others within the world might not see that, there are those who are seen who definitely don’t want it and there are others who aren’t seen, that don’t… They just don’t want it. God knows the mind.

And so, it comes time to clean it up. Because this isn’t a small thing. God reveals this is massive. And that’s kind of hard for us to grasp. How could it be in such a world, that so many just wouldn’t want God? And even knowing what God says, the mind can become so deceived that it can think that it can work something else out. Even in that environment! That’s what’s so insane, the mind can be so deceptive to itself because it wants something so much, that it sees something that it believes it can accomplish and do without God, without the truth. And maybe it’s not the truth and maybe this really isn’t of… Where does it stop?

And so, God allows this to take place to clean it all up, and candidly, to bring an end to all human life. It comes to an end at this point in time. When this is done there will be no more human life, only Elohim. Beautiful. But horrific, too, because it’s the fulfillment and the end of the 3rd Woe.

So, he’ll go out to deceive the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, gather them to battle, the number who is as the sand of the sea. This is not small. Massive, massive, massive. God already knows this about mankind. Already knows. Already knows what will be chosen.

Verse 9—So, they went up on the breadth of the earth and encompassed the camp of the saints about, the beloved city. What does this mean? Does it mean there’s just this one little city? See, we tend to think that, well, here is Jerusalem, and that’s the beloved city, so they’re all around this beloved city. Jerusalem is the pits right now. It’s not a beloved city. It was the location of different ones in times past who were loved because they dwelt there. And the temple was there at one time so people came in and… That’s why I think of… Really got a good dose of this by visiting there in that region of the world, to visit Israel, to visit Jerusalem. And that’s something that really began to rub at me, and this term that people use, “the holy land.”

Takes me back to a point in time where I think of when the Apostasy occurred that there were those who felt like… I think of the one organization we affiliated with at first, United, and how there was this desire amongst the ministers. “We need to buy Big Sandy. We can’t let it go!” So, whether it be… You know, you think, “Why?” Well, it’s because of this carnal thinking, this physical thinking, “Because that’s us and we have to…. All this money that’s there, we need to use that now, this $14 million by this point in time, it needs to go to enter into a purchase of all that and have the headquarters there,” or whatever it might be. Because they have to do then from there what evidently Herbert Armstrong didn’t finish. So again, this lack of understanding.

So, it’s the same kind of thinking, that there is something holy about Big Sandy. No, it’s Big Sandy for a reason. It’s a lot of sand. It’s hot a lot and it has a lot of pine trees. It’s beautiful in its own right, but there’s just a lot of sand there, buildings that get old and they started to decay. It needed a lot of upkeep. It’s just land, just buildings.

Jerusalem is land and a bunch of buildings, really old buildings, and a lot of congestion, and a lot of evil because of all the different religions that are there fighting each other. Even within traditional Christianity, right there in the old city they fight each other about when they can have their time for certain areas of the city, the old… Anyway. Crazy, insane sometimes, unsound indeed, human beings.

And so it is here. To read something like this and to think, well, this must mean Satan gathers all these people around the world and this massive army and they just start closing in on Jerusalem. It’s not about Jerusalem, the physical city, at all! It’s about a spiritual Jerusalem. It’s about Mount Zion. It’s about the holy people of God.

And so, here going back through this it says here, they went up (verse 9) on the breadth of the earth. So, they went all over the earth. To do what? To influence all the sand of the sea, these people’s, these masses of people who don’t want God’s way of life. Because they can’t influence and draw those away who by this time—by this time—are set. They’ve chosen. They’ve made choices already. They want God’s way of life. They want to be in Elohim, and almost to the point of being able to now enter into Elohim.

The hundred years, we’re talking about a period of time that is over, coming to the end of it, and what’s going to take place. Well, there are going to be those who have already chosen, have already made decisions. And a spirit being coming along, they’re so… After living so long in God’s way of life it’s so much a part of their life they’re not going to want nor choose something else that a being comes along and tries to get them to do that they know is so wrong. But others are inclined to go in a particular direction. Interesting, awesome what happens quite quickly, that there is something else they want. They’re ready to fight for it, what they want, for what they think they can gain.

So, whatever is wrong in the mind to be able to think they’re going to be able to do this is kind of unimaginable, but it’s going to be there. So, they went and brought them together, in that sense, and encompassed the camp of the saints about, the beloved city. So, what does this mean? It means they’re after them. They want to…whatever it is, they want to take away what they think the others have or they want to influence them to join with them. Whatever that might be, whatever that entails, more to be revealed in this in time, in the Millennium. But they’re there.

In other words, it’s clear who they are. By this time wherever they live around the world it’s clear those who are set and those who do not want God’s way of life. It’s there. And so, God comes along and what does He do? Just gather them in one little location? Is that what this is about? Or can it happen throughout the world?

And fire came down from God out of heaven and devoured (consumed) them. So, God has the power, the ability to destroy life in a moment wherever people stand. They don’t have to be in one little location and somehow we see this big fireball coming down out of heaven. That’s not what this is about. It’s revealing a destruction, that life is going to be burned up in the air, whatever that… It just means it won’t exist. And so, that physical body vanishes. It’s burned up, so they’re consumed.

And the devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone. So again here, a spirit being and what it means to come to a point where their spirit life is taken away. We can’t grasp fully what that is, how, what that might be. We definitely can’t see it because it’s on a spirit plane. And this has never happened before on a spirit plane either so it’s going to be something that’s never been seen before, but it’s going to be done here and it will be seen. Because whatever that means, whether it be the same that happens to human life, it’s just gone or whatever. But the point being is it’s like a fire that burns because that consumes up to…where when you can do a huge pile of rubble and all of a sudden where is that big pile of rubble? Well, it’s been consumed. This even more so.

So, it says here, with fire and brimstone; wherein the beast, that false prophet… Because, again here, they didn’t know what they were translating, and this is what it’s about. It’s about Satan. It’s about him being the beast, that false prophet, because these are descriptions of him. It’s about the same being. Because in times past there were those who felt there were, well, there’s going to be this government leader out of Europe, he’s going to be one of these, when you read other parts there of Revelation earlier on, when it talks about some of this. And after it talks about the thousand years and so forth and there are some places there where some of this is discussed.

And it’s like, well, there is this false…there is this beast and the one who’s over it, whoever that leader is over Germany—that’s basically how it was looked upon—he’s going to be one of them. And then that great false prophet, that one over that big church, and he’s going to be the other one. He’s that false prophet.

See, just that carnal, shallow, physical thinking, not knowing the truth. Well, we can’t know the truth until God gives it to us. But we understand those things now, that it’s about Satan. It’s not about a human being. It’s about Satan. He is the beast. He is the false prophet, the one who has always twisted and distorted things that God says to the angelic realm first and then to mankind ever since.

So, it’s just accentuating or magnifying here, if you will, the description of Satan, wherein the beast, that false prophet (as it should be translated) shall be tormented day and night forever and ever. In other words, to know. Because everything he’s witnessed over… We don’t know, millions, billions, trillions? We don’t know how long if we compare it with earth time that would have been, but a long, long time. Everything that God has ever said that He’s going to do He does it. And so, there is that knowledge that everything that God has said He’s done, and so there’s this in the back of the mind that it’s going to come down to this. And as it gets closer to this it’s like, this has been stated as well, especially now because now at this end-time these things have been stated more. So, how does this being take that when even these things he hasn’t known are revealed and he’s able to hear them and know them? Well, there’s a torment to that, the possibility that this is it for all… “There’s not going to be anymore me.”

So, this is what it’s talking about, tormented day and night forever and ever. In other words, until it comes to an end, until it happens. So, from the point of learning or knowing or hearing of some of these things and looking forward or going forward, there is that which gets closer and closer. So, during the thousand years when he has no power at all it’s going to be very much in his mind. It’s going to be torment because he can’t do anything. He can’t hurt God’s creation anymore, what God’s creating. And he has that little burst at the end, but still with that mind, so destructive, so evil, so filled with vengeance and evil in his mind will do this out of spite and evil at the end, but tormented.

You know, when people don’t obey God they’re tormented in their mind. And the more they sin the more torment that’s really there. It’s not peace. The more drama that exists, and not just drama but tormenting drama that exists in the human mind because there is this battle going on. And until people yield and the battle goes away a person can then begin to have peace. When we quit resisting and fighting against God then we can begin to have more peace.

So, wherever drama exists, wherever there is lack a peace there is a battle going on of resisting God. That’s what exists. And candidly, that exists in measures in our human life no matter what until we’re spirit.

And so, going on here, Then I saw a great white throne and He who sat on it, from whose face the … and heaven fled away. And there was found no place for them. So again, what an incredible world that’s coming.

Revelation 20:12—I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God, and the books were opened. So, here is the beginning. And so, it’s taking us through all of that, what’s going to lead up to concerning Satan, but backing up now, that’s what it’s doing here, it’s showing us how this period begins, how this period after the Millennium begins.

I saw the dead, small and great, stand before God. This great resurrection of all who have ever lived and died, and the books were opened. So, we tend to look at books being opened. Well, what happened to us when we were drawn into the Church? The books were open in our minds. We could begin to see it. It’s not about flipping pages, it’s about this being flipped, something inside where all of a sudden the switch and now we can see what is written there.

The books were opened – the mind being opened, people being called, having that opportunity.

Then another book was opened, which is of life. So, it’s a matter of judgment and what goes on then, and reflective of so that we can begin to grasp something here, that it’s like are we written there? In other words, until we become set in God’s way. It’s not that there is some book and all this is taking place, there’s this great big spiritual book in heaven.

So another book, which is of life, and the dead were judged according to those things that were written in the books. What books? Again, God’s word, scripture. So, we’re judged out of the things that God has given us for life, how to live life. Judgment is upon the Church of God because of that. We see a way of life and we’re to live it, we choose to live it or not, what we’re told Sabbath by Sabbath, Holy Day to Holy Day, about what’s in the book and those things that are revealed to the mind as our minds are opened up more and more as we continue to grow.

…according to their works. What work they put into it, because it takes work. You have to fight against this. You have to fight against the world. You have to fight to change bad habits in your life. It doesn’t just happen. There are choices that are made, but then you’ve got to fight a battle. And it takes work! God’s way of life, to embrace it, to receive it, takes a lot of work. And sometimes we’re just lazy spiritually.

Sometimes we can be lazy physically where we don’t want to work, you know. We think that a twenty hour week is just too much or a thirty hour week is…that’s really oppressive. “Forty? Whew! Are you kidding?” So, the world is getting worse and worse, and people don’t like to work. They want to party. They want to play. They want to lounge around. They want to play these little games day in and day out. There are people, that’s all they do. And where is the balance of life?

So, we’re so messed up in this world! And so, sometimes people don’t even like to work physically. We work with different ones, have worked in times past with different ones and try to bring the scripture forward to people to help them to understand that work is required to be in God’s Church. Because if we can’t provide for ourselves then we’re worse than a non-believer Paul said. That’s what God inspired Paul to write. So, that means we need to… If we don’t provide for our families, if we don’t provide that, and if we’re the only one in our family then we better be able to take care of this. And if we can’t take of this, we definitely can’t take care of another person. And yet I’ve seen a lot of that take place in times past as well. So, we have to work. God gave us six days in which we can work. He designed it so we could work.

So, “according to their works.” That’s how we’re all judged, according to our works, whether we work or not, whether we take it easy. Laodicea was an example of not working, of taking it easy, of leveling out, kind of coasting, kind of taking it easy and not hot, not cold, just kind of lukewarm. Doesn’t work that way – not acceptable to God.

So, The sea gave up the dead which were in it, and death and the grave delivered up the dead which were in it/who were in it. And they were judged, everyone according to their works. Stressing it again, judged according to our works. So, spiritually on a spiritual plane we have to work as to how we apply this way of life. It’s not just a matter of knowing the truth and saying, “I believe it,” it’s a matter of living it. That takes work.

Death and the grave were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. So, whoever was not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire. So again, we have this picture that God has given to us of this picture of a thousand years and then the hundred years that follow and all that are resurrected during that period of time and then what happens at the end. It’s all here.

Revelation 21:1—Then I saw a new heaven and a new (fresh), a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. And there was no more sea. No more vastness of humanity. That’s what it’s talking about. So, we think about some of this and we think, well, no more seas and the ocean and… So, it’s what this means prophetically. The sea of humanity. No more human beings. So, it takes us all the way through that.

Then I, John, saw the holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven. So, these are things that happen at the end of the hundred years. We’ve already read what happens to Satan, the demonic world, and those who don’t want God’s way of life. They’re consumed, they’re gone forever, never to be brought back again.

And then this follows and talks about this holy city, New Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven. So, whether this be something that’s pictured by that which goes up into the sky and comes back, we don’t know yet how this is going to be done, the glory that God wants to reveal and show at that time that will be so incredibly magnificent to see. Because there is this change that takes place from all who are alive at the end of the hundred years who are going to become a part of Elohim, that are changed, given spirit life like what will have happened to the 144,000 before and at the end of the thousand years, those.

So, it says, they come down from God out of heaven. Doesn’t mean out of the heaven of heavens where God is, but out of the heaven, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard the voice come out of heaven saying, Behold, the tabernacle of God is with men. Course, no more mankind but this is what it’s talking about, finally God’s plan fulfilled, the tabernacle. This is the tabernacle, this is God’s tabernacle where all dwell, Elohim, in the Family of God, Mount Zion. And God dwells there forever and ever. Joshua the Christ dwells there forever and ever. Awesome!

Says, behold, the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people. Well, He’ll dwell with them because God has blessed us to understand that this is the process now that we experience in part once we’re called and impregnated with God’s spirit, and we’re begotten of God’s spirit and this life begins to develop and grow. And as we grow we have various measurements of God’s spirit that came in and out of our life and when we sin we can begin to be cut off and the flow begins to slow down. But then it’ll be in power forever and ever, never to be restricted, to be restrained. Just filled with God’s life, filled with God’s spirit.

He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself will be with them and their God. So, God shall wipe away every tear from their eyes; there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying. Nothing to do with physical human life. A new creation, a new heaven and a new earth. Beautiful!

Neither shall there be any more pain, for the former things have passed away. So, now we come to a point in time where all of human life, all of human suffering, all that has to do with carnal nature doesn’t exist anymore. What a beautiful day this is, an awesome, beautiful day.

Then He who sat upon the throne said, Behold, I make all things new. He’s made everything new now. He said to me, Write, for these words are true and faithful. Then He said to me, It is done! This sends chills up and down my spine. It is done! Finally, finally after so long a time within the angelic realm, the creation of the universe, the creation of the earth and putting mankind upon it, the building of 144,000, all these things that have taken place, finally. I can’t imagine what God will have to feel at that moment in time.

Because this is prophetic, of every part of His being that will feel this in such a powerful way, It is done! I am Alpha and Omega, the Beginning and the End. I will give unto those that thirst of the fountain of the water of life freely. His holy spirit, His life forever.

He who overcomes shall inherit all things, conquers. That’s what that word is in the Greek language. To overcome is about conquering. And conquering takes work. He who overcomes shall inherit all things, and I will be his God and he shall be My son, sons of God in the Family of God, not something physical that we think of.

But the fearful and unbelieving… The fearful, the unbelieving, those who, it says, “abominable” but it means “those who detest or are detestable,” because it’s both ways. Those who detest don’t want God’s way of life. Detest it, really don’t want it, loathe it. …and the murderers, and the adulterous, the sorcerers and idolaters and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.

Then one of the seven angels who had the Seven Vials filled with the Seven Last Plagues came and spoke to me… This is where God revealed and made it clear about the 3rd Woe. Why is he still here? Because it’s the completion of the 3rd Woe. It happens when Christ first comes and the army that’s with him, this great Woe upon the earth, part of the 3rd Woe, but it’s completed here when it’s finally done. And this completes it all, the last part. And so, he’s still there and this is the aftermath then of what’s happened after the 3rd Woe, after this massive army that has come together with Satan and the demonic world to fight against God and His purpose, and they’re destroyed.

And so he says, Come, and I will show you the bride, the Lamb’s wife. Now this is all over, look at this, look at what has been accomplished, look at what is done. And he carried me away in the spirit to a great and high mountain. Not a physical mountain but it’s showing the massiveness of God’s Kingdom. …and showed me the great city, holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, and having the glory of God. It’s spirit. Spirit life. The God Family. Her light was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, clear as crystal. Something that’s hard to grasp on such a massive scale on a spirit plane. Also, she had a great and high wall with twelve gates, and twelve angels at the gates, and the names written on them, which are the twelve tribes of the children of Israel.

So, what started with the 144,000, the twelve divisions, there will still be twelve divisions. It wasn’t of the physical twelve tribes but it’s this. It’s about the names and it’s about the organization in God’s Family. Awesome!

Then, Chapter 21:22 it says, So, I saw no temple in it, for the LORD, speaking of what was being seen here, for the LORD God Almighty and the Lamb are its temple. Beautiful! They are the center, the focus. It’s their life that’s able to exist in all of our lives once we’re part of Elohim forever.

The city had no need of the sun or of the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God illuminated it. And the Lamb is its light. Even the nations of those who are saved shall walk in its light, and the kings of the earth shall bring their glory and honor to it. So again, what a beautiful picture here of what is given here.

So, that’s the Last Great Day. So much contained in the meaning of this day. But there is just a little bit left here that I want to go through and mention at the end of this. Actually, thankful that there is more in this in this Last Great Day part. It’s going to be a very small portion here in the sense of what we’re going to focus upon now. So, that really concludes everything concerning the Last Great Day and that which we outline year by year of what God has given to us to understand about the meaning of this incredible day that concludes all the Holy Days of the year, concludes God’s plan, when God says now, “It is done.” What an awesome thing!

So, we’ve concluded this particular portion of the sermon, the fulfillment of this day, and as it has become somewhat of our custom now the last smaller portion of this sermon is a conclusion, obviously, of this Feast season and a matter of an admonition for the Church to focus on what’s ahead of us.

There has never been a time like this in the world. Things are speeding up so much. There is so much taking place. Technology and mankind’s ability to properly handle it is pushing the world into its final days of self-government, thankfully. And the new book that’s being written is focusing upon a lot of that and the reality of it.

So, as the question is so often asked now at the end of this Holy Day season, at the end of this Last Great Day sermon, “Will you be in God’s Church by this time next year?” Every year there are those who have been giving up. It’s always been that way. Even within smaller numbers, still with all that God has given to us in knowledge and understanding, people that just quit. Little by little letting down. Little by little turning away. Little by little they’re no longer with us. It’s going to happen between now and next year. Some of you who hear my voice today, little by little. Think, why?

I think of the Last Great Day and where it all ends. After all we’ve gone through, after what is pictured. To be a part of that, those given every opportunity, and refuse? Life will come to an end if we don’t repent, if we don’t change.

Over the next year this same pattern will be followed as more do exactly the same thing. Little by little. Some are doing it right now. Because, you see, it doesn’t happen overnight. It takes time to do this little by little that leads one away from God’s Church. Month by month people go by the wayside. There’ll be fewer next year unless God begins to call more, which probably won’t be the case because there probably won’t be people being called at all until, especially at this stage of what’s taking place here, as things have gone on so far, and things have gotten so worse in the world and the thinking of mankind. That no matter what happens it’s going to take some nuclear weapons to awaken people. And then by the time those go off there isn’t going to be a time to come together in Holy Days.

So, what are you doing now? What are you going to do over the next year? How determined are you that you will be here at next years Last Great Day? And what an appropriate time to talk about, and having had gone through the sermon on the Last Great Day, where does it all end? Can’t we see? That’s what we want? If that’s what you want, so be it. But why, when God offers so much more, so much more that’s so far beyond human suffering and pain and struggle and drama?

To me, it’s such insanity to want any of that, to think that God’s way is too hard. “It’s just too hard. There are things out there I want. It’s just too hard.” And we rob ourselves of ever knowing what the real joy is of fully immersing ourselves in God’s way. The more we do it the less drama, the more peace, the more beauty and excitement that comes into our life.

But no one can give that to you. God can’t give that to you. He’s already given you everything you need to be able to receive it. Just up to us to make choices. What an incredible thing.

In conclusion here, Hebrews 10:35—Therefore do not cast away, throw away your confidence, little by little, what God gave you when He called you, the truth, the boldness of it, of seeing it and knowing it. Follow through with it. Work! Do the work that God gave. There is no greater work to ever be done. And where does it end up? What does it give? What does it produce? Eternal life or life everlasting.

It says, which has great reward. We can’t even begin to grasp the kind of reward that’s there. Even in this life the riches of living God’s way, of getting rid of more and more drama, of beginning to see God’s blessings in our life. Which I’m glad to see more and more of within the Church and people who have continued to work and plod, just keep plodding forward. And even on a physical plane, being incredibly blessed in their lives.

…which has great reward. Literally in the Greek means “to have great payment of wages for the work.” For the work. That’s just God’s way. For you have need of endurance, meaning patient endurance, as the word is, endurance, so that after you have done the will of God, you may receive the promise. You know, what God promises us, which has been promised.

I think what was that life that we’re going to have that’s promised to us. I think of what those in the very early days were told, to stay around Jerusalem for the promise of the holy spirit. And what God is placing before us leads us to something far, far greater, His Family.

Verse 37—For yet a little while, and he who is coming will come and will no longer delay. In other words, no more time to pass, to wait. It’s coming the time when it’s going to happen, and we’re just getting closer and closer and closer. Didn’t happen at specific moments we thought it would, believed it would with all of our being, lived it, but blessed because of that. And gone through various refining and trial and fire because of some of those things that has made us stronger and better. Awesome! But sometimes people get wrapped up in the physical part of it and they don’t grasp the spiritual because they’re not working at it.

So, it says, verse 38—Now the just shall live by faith. We have to live by what we have been given to believe. And if we’re not willing to do that, we don’t want it, it’s a choice. And those choices are going to be made this year where some aren’t going to choose this. But if you want this way of life, then we have to live by what God has revealed to us with all of our being, to want it with all of our being, to cry out to God for help to bring it into our lives more and more with all of our being, to live it.

But if any draw back, My life will have no pleasure in them. God can’t work through those who draw back, little by little letting down, little by little letting up, little by little kind of coasting. Doesn’t work that way. Takes work. And in the work is reward itself, blessings. Peace, true peace doesn’t come without work, without effort, especially in this physical carnal life, to fight against our nature.

But we are not of those who draw back to perdition, to destruction or waste. What a horrible picture, to have in front of one’s self everything that’s beautiful and good and prosperous in life and peace and the fullness and the joy of life, and to let it be burned up, let it be cast away, let it turn to destruction and waste?

But we are not of those who draw back to waste, to destruction, but to those who believe to the saving of life. I wish we were all of that mind. I hope that more will listen and fight the good fight and work on this nature and cry out to God for help to never let up, to never let down, to constantly work at, to fight, to fight against this carnal nature, to fight against the pulls of this world, to fight in order to stand, to seek help to stand strong, to be a light, to be an example just by action. Not by mouth, not by what we say, but how we live our lives.

So, brethren, another year in front of us. It’s not going to be easy. Every year it gets just a little bit harder. This world is getting worse and worse. And the worse it gets the harder it’s going to be, so it’s up to us to fight this fight. It’s up to us to continue to work hard and develop and grow more and more in that relationship with God every day of our life, to have that communication there, to look to God, to ask God for the strength and the help to fight the fight, to be able to see the things that we need to fight and to be stirred up in the power of His holy spirit. That’s what He wants to do, He wants to give you more of His life, of His spirit.

So, as we do this, as we are those who work to the saving of life, which is what it’s all about, then all the examples follow in these verses here in Hebrews of those who persevered. If you go on and read the story, of all those who lived by faith, they persevered in faith, they lived under all kind of obstacles that were in front of them and around them. Because they wanted what God placed before them, they desired it. It wasn’t a question in their minds. They wanted it. They desired it. It became first in their life. And that’s the way it has to be.

And if it isn’t then those with whom it isn’t, they won’t be here next year. But if it is you fight for it! Seek to be determined. Ask God to help you to have that kind of determination, that kind of mind that’s just willing to stand and fight and never give up. And He’ll give you that kind of help and that kind of strength and that kind of power to persevere. Because that’s what this is all about.

That’s why those examples in Hebrews follow. To never give up, to never let down, to never start sliding backwards. Yes, they persevered. They lived what it means to become Israel. Live what it means to be Israel, persevere to next years Last Great Day.

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