The Existence of Evil, Pt. 1

Ronald Weinland

July 22, 2023

We have gone through the review of sermons, or we’ve been going through a review of sermon series, series that began back on January 7th of this year, and it bringing things up to date. Last Sabbath gave the one about More To Build Upon, Part 4, and decided that’s the last of that series. I was going to give another one today, Part 5, but actually, some of that is going to be reviewed at the Feast so there is no sense to review it right now because the important things that need to be touched upon a little bit here and there will be covered at the Feast in the sermons we’re going to have. So, we don’t need to continue on with that.

We’re going to go into a new series today but thought I’d mention, in the meantime, that the reason for what we’re going through, what we’re reviewing, and so forth that’s all leading up to a process here of a construction. I like to use the finishing stages of construction (and I’ve mentioned that before), again, just before Joshua the Christ returns and establishes God’s Kingdom on Earth.

So, to think that we’re at that stage (because that’s where we are), at the end of six thousand years, and indeed the finishing touches are being put on the Temple, and those pieces, hopefully, are ready soon, all of us.

So hopefully, we’re likely better able to understand the analogy of construction, again, on finishing stages. But spiritually it’s a literal matter of creation, God’s creation, and what He’s creating, what He’s doing. But again, it’s hard for us to grasp such things. We know we’re a part of that and so we have to relate it to physical things as God does throughout so many things throughout scripture. We see physical things and we learn from that, and later He shows us more of the spiritual intent and purpose and we begin to grasp that. But it’s a building process.

I thought it’d be good before we begin, or as we begin here today, to consider the titles of those sermons, again, the series that I mentioned, what they were entitled (because that’s a part of the building process), and then to better understand this particular series, what we’re going into next before I actually give the title to it today.

We began in January with the three-part series entitled The Creation of God’s Family. Then we went into another three-part series entitled Place Your Trust in God. As a natural progression, God then gave us a longer series, a six-part series to focus upon what His creation is based upon, The Love of God. Then again, as a natural progress, we had a nine-part series.

Just looking at some of those sometimes I am dumbfounded how much God has had us focus on specific things and how much was put into that focus. And so, here now a nine-part series emphasized the purpose and the importance of us learning through experience, choices, and the transformation that’s taking place within us, what is meant by Exercising God’s Love. A lot of responsibility there we haven’t fully grasped as a Church before.

Then, of course, we reviewed all those series, that we just finished, again, with this series called More to Build Upon. Today's series, a new series, is entitled The Existence of Evil, with this being Part 1.

One of the most important lessons for those in God’s Church is to learn how evil began. That’s the reason we were made physical. That’s the reason we’re made the way we are – so we can learn this. That’s what it’s all about. Six thousand years of human life, a thousand, one hundred to follow, and we’re to learn this distinction, the difference, the things that God wants us to comprehend of what began a long, long time ago.

We have to come to understand our own nature and the way we are as human beings, because that’s a part of this and it’s a part of the reason, again, why God created us as physical human beings.

So again, it’s one of the most important lessons for those in God’s Church, again, to learn how evil began, how hideous and destructive all evil is, and that God will destroy all that is evil. He gives us the opportunity to begin doing that in our lives when He calls us, but it’s a part of a process, that by the end of seven thousand, one hundred years all evil will have been destroyed.

That which is within our lives as a matter of choice, a matter of a desire to change, to be transformed, and become something different. But we have to be able to see it for what it is and understand just how bad it really is. That helps us in that battle and in that fight, to become convicted of such things.

There are far too many who have tasted the glory of God’s calling… Because it is a glory. Not to have physical human life without knowledge of why we’re on this earth, what’s ahead, what life is all about, what the purpose of it is, who God is, what His plan is, and not to understand as we should as God’s people because of a calling, because of His holy spirit living within us. There is a glory in that! Because it’s from God Almighty and He lets us taste of that, He lets us experience that. We’re to see that and grasp that, and the more we see it and grasp it the more thankful we’ll be for what we’ve been given.

So indeed, many have tasted of that and then later chose to turn against God. The majority. That’s what God is helping us see more and more. That’s why He’s been helping us to see that what takes place during the Millennium is not a utopia. Human nature is human nature and it’s still evil. It’s still ugly. There are going to be battles. The Great White Throne, there are actually going to be greater battles then, if we can comprehend that and know why. We should know why.

It always comes down to whether or not God is truly first – by our choice. Whether God is really first in one’s life, in one’s mind, in one’s thinking. That’s what it boils down to. All a matter of choices in that.

Obviously, all evil began with Lucifer…with Lucifer. Considering all that he had been given, all that he did, being given the opportunity in God’s purpose and God’s plan to be part of as God created and the things that were given to them to accomplish and do that they shared in with God, that we don’t know the full extent of that or the power that was there and how. A lot of time involved…a lot of time.

So again, all evil began with Lucifer who willingly chose to become the adversary, an adversary, Satan the devil, an adversary to God. He tasted the greatest glory. He tasted of the greatest glory that God had given within the angelic realm; the greatest of them all.

Then as time continued and mankind was created large numbers began to be called to a glory greater than the angels. What an awesome thing to understand, “to a glory greater than the angels.” There’s a greater purpose in what God’s creating. A glory given to begotten children of God.

So many in God’s Church never learned the lesson of Satan. It’s one of the most important, to start there, in that sense, to understand where it all began, why God’s Family had to begin in human life, in the creation process, being physical. It starts there. Then in time God can call and draw people and give a begettal in the mind of His holy spirit, of His spirit within the spirit that’s within us and a change can begin to take place. Because we can’t be the way we are. Awesome to understand these things!

But most in God’s Church have never learned that, never… They’ve heard of it. They were taught certain things about it but never became convicted of it in the way they should have. Not even the larger portion of those who were evangelists in the era of Philadelphia.

Now, you would think that within the structure of God’s government, within the Church as large as it was during Philadelphia, that surely those in that position directly under Herbert Armstrong would have been exceedingly faithful, would have been prime examples of what we’re all to look to and follow and think about. And sadly, a lot of people did look to different ones, but they were not teaching the right things and they weren’t doing the right things.

I think of Garner Ted Armstrong and how people looked to him en masse because he had a very charismatic kind of personality, and because of that people were drawn to him. He began to do things and things that people knew about, his lifestyle and the things that were published in time even in newspapers and so forth, and it’s like the people who were drawn to some of that, they had excuse to do the same things.

“Well, God’s evangelist, the one who may be one of the two witnesses,” because that was a thinking of a time period there in the ’70s, “that we’re going to be at the end here and the two who would most likely be there, obviously God’s apostle and his son.” That was the thinking of people in God’s Church. It seemed like a natural progression.

Then he began to do some of the things that he did and began to draw people away. People began to let down because of that wrong example. People began to let down in God’s Church because of that wrong example, because it justified: “Well, if he does this, then God knows my frame, He knows we’re weak and we have these weaknesses.” It justified some of that. What a bunch of you-know-what! Hurt thousands, tens of thousands of people in God’s Church. Massively destructive.

Then other evangelists who were vying for power who wanted the state to come in and take over so that they could take over in California. Incredible these things that took place, people looking to different ones “Because Herbert Armstrong is about to die. So, who is going to have the control? Who is going to have the power?” You think, what a great example!

God’s Church?! They weren’t living God’s Church. They weren’t doing the things that God wanted them to do, told them to do in how to live their lives. So, they’re there for an example. Sadly, people look to them for the wrong example.

That’s why we went through the things we did. That’s why God allowed it – so we could learn from that, the evil…the evil that was there.

So again, that’s why so many never learned some of those things. You would think that they wouldn’t have done these things at that particular period of time, but it happened.

Those who turned to evil and turned against God as adversaries. Because the moment they turn against God’s apostle, they were adversary. They never grasped that nor comprehended that because they had already gotten too weak. They didn’t grasp they were turning against God and against Joshua the Christ. They didn’t know. They didn’t believe. They weren’t convicted of the fact that they were antichrist. Those are very strong words.

And to use them today? And if some of the scattered people heard me saying some of those things, about people in the past, they’d think, “Oh, you are sick! What’s wrong with you to talk about people like that, to use their names?! How could you do that?” Well, Paul did that, and he told who was out there and who they had to deal with. He named some by name because of all the damage they had done in God’s Church so that people could be aware of, “This is wrong. They were wrong. Look at the damage they’ve caused!” That’s done out of love if we grasp it and comprehend it.

So, why is it so hard to learn this lesson? Well, we’re going to read portions of Ezekiel 28 again because that’s where a lot of it is. How many times have we read it? Well, it’s like asking how many times we kept a Passover. How many times have we had Pentecost? How many times…? We address those things once a year (God tells us to), and there are times we’re supposed to go back and review some of these things and build upon it and learn from it even more so.

Ezekiel 28, portions of it here that speak of Satan and what he did. But the first ten verses I found to be rather unique, in a sense, because of what we have known in times past, but the first ten verses have not been known as clearly as they are even today in this sermon. I’m going to go back and cover some portion here of a sermon that was entitled, All Belongs to God, Pt. 1 that was given on the last Sabbath of 2019.

Because some of this was talked about at that time, All Belongs to God, in that particular series. Now it’s nearly three and a half years later and yet God is still showing us more so we can learn more, giving us more understanding because of the subject matter and because of all the subject matter we’ve been covering this year because of the subject matter we’ll cover at the Feast this year.

The reason for mentioning some of this is because the first few verses of this chapter were not known at that time to be specifically about Satan. Didn’t really fully know that at that time.

Here is how these first ten verses were introduced in that sermon in 2019, just to show where we are now compared to that point in time, nearly three and a half years later: “Ezekiel 28 records much about the attitude and spirit of Satan. But before that description, God first addresses a spirit and an attitude of a world leader.”

Now, it was about a world leader, in that respect, but now we’re being given to see that this was a type of Satan, and it was really all about Satan. It was so we could learn something about an example of a world leader, to realize this is Satan. These are the things that describe Satan and what he did in terms that, as I mentioned earlier, we look at construction and we can understand some of that. But to understand God’s creation and that process there is much harder for us, so He gives us physical examples of certain things so that hopefully we’re going to grasp them more deeply. And so it is here in these verses about Satan.

Ezekiel 28:1—The word of the Eternal came unto me, saying, Son of man, say unto the prince of Tyrus/Tyre… As stated in that sermon (this was what was stated): “What is being covered here in Ezekiel 28 is really quite profound when you come to understand the background of this ancient Phoenician port city with history going back to about 2000 BC.” That’s going back a long way, four thousand years ago. So, mentioning here, “In myth, Tyre is known as the birthplace of the princess Europa, and the name means ‘rock.’ … Carthage actually received…”

You think of all the counterfeit things that Satan has done. Well, Satan was very much involved in all of this. He has been with nations throughout the past six thousand years. But here is one that he was very much involved in, but it’s about him.

“Carthage actually received its rise from the Phoenicians ‘who fled in that region as Tyre and other areas of the Phoenicians were undergoing periods of war and becoming conquered.’” I’m just going through some of the things covered in that sermon. “They were noted for their commercial trade, especially by ships which became even greater once Carthage was established. The people of Tyre were known as workers of dye from the shell of the Murex shellfish. … The purple dye was highly valued and held royal connotations in the ancient world.”

That’s why purple to this day is seen as being something of royalty by so many peoples. It’s the color associated with that because this is where it began.

“It also gave the Phoenicians their name from the Greeks, Phoinikes, which means ‘purple people.’” Now, perhaps it was because they were working with this, and when they were through with it it not only dyed the cloth, but it dyed a lot of their skin, whatever. But they were called “the purple people,” or maybe it was just because this is where it came from, and they were able to get it and people wanted it and they gained great wealth from this.

You think about today. We have so many things we can choose from, and we just take it for granted because of technology and things that mankind has learned and all kinds of colors and things out there. But back then it wasn’t so simple, it wasn’t so easy. It was difficult.

Ezekiel 28:1. Just better to have that, a little bit of that introduction there to talk about some of this just to show where our thinking was.

So again, to understand this is a building process. Now we’re going back to it because three and a half years later God’s bringing us back for a purpose and for a reason, to drink in more, to see more, to learn more in a context of a sermon series that hopefully helps us to become more convicted about this subject of the existence of evil and what it really means as part of God’s plan.

Ezekiel 28:1—The word of the Eternal came unto me saying, Son of man, say unto the prince of Tyrus/Tyre, Thus says the Lord Eternal, Because your heart is lifted up and you have said, I, god, (I am God), I sit in the seat of God in the midst of the seas, Yet you, a man, or are a man. Very awkward translation, but anyway, and not God.

So, just going through this from the very beginning, knowing what it’s about more fully now than ever before in that respect. People in the Church in times past when they have done some of the things they’ve done, the man of sin, the son of perdition, did not consider himself, he wouldn’t have thought that he is putting himself as God. He wouldn’t have thought he was doing that. Those evangelists wouldn’t have thought, they wouldn’t have believed. “No, I’m not setting myself up as God.” But that’s what they did.

That’s what they were doing because of their actions and because of their thinking and because of their going against God’s apostle at that time and what he had taught. They were coming up with new things and teaching different things. They were deciding for themselves good and evil. They were deciding for themselves what was right and wrong in the word of God, and they weren’t relying on the way that God teaches and guides and directs us in the Church.

That’s evil. It’s absolute evil because it’s not of God. So, they raised themselves up as God, sitting in the position of God. That’s what human beings do. Everyone who has ever left God’s Church has done that, everyone! Everyone has made excuses, a reason, thinking that they have to justify inside for why they’re going to do or have done what they have done. God’s letting us know it’s a lot more evil than what we’ve ever known in times past. That’s going to come out more at the Feast.

“I am God.” They don’t say that, but God is saying, “This is what you’re doing…this is what you are saying because of what you’ve done. Can’t you see it?” No, you can’t. They can’t see it. They don’t believe that.

“I sit in the seat of God.” It’s the thing of pride and the human mind getting so lifted up, or Satan himself becoming so lifted up in his self-importance, of how important he sees himself. This is an evil. That’s why the more we can see what it is, the more we can see pride and braggadocio and lifting ourselves up and wanting to be seen by others, the more we’ll want to puke at the thought of ever doing it.

It'd be better if we puked on someone, you know, just all that gushing out. You ever seen some of those clips on TV once in a while and they come on and they show some of that stuff, and it’s like “gag.” You feel like you’re going to do the same thing. Yet that would be a lot kinder to an individual if you just puke on them, then to lift yourself up with pride and say, “Look how important I am.”

Which stinks the worst? Well, you might think it’s the puke. No, it's the spirit. It’s the doing of it. It’s the perversion of the mind. God’s letting us see those things, how bad they really are.

Because the more we understand how evil certain things are the more we’ll want to fight against them, the more repulsed by them we’ll be in ourselves. Because that’s where it starts. It starts by seeing it in ourselves and then thanking God that we can see those things so we know what to fight against, so we know what is repulsive, so we can have the mind of God, the right thinking, so we can be in agreement with God and His thinking. Because that’s what we’ve chosen, to trust in God! Second series.

“I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas.” When that says, “in the midst of the seas,” it’s not talking about being out here in the midst of the seas and they’re out there, whatever sea you want to mention. No, it’s a word meaning the “sea of humanity, mankind,” or the “sea of the angelic realm,” because it’s numbers, such a vast number of beings.

I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas. Yet you are a man. It’s really more, “You are as a man.” You’re not what you think you are. You’re not so great. …and not God. Because that’s the contrast being made here.

Though you set your heart as the heart of God. Now, see, just talking about this makes me feel very repulsed at such a spirit and such an attitude in human beings, to think that this is what we can be like, that we can raise ourselves up so much that it’s our heart and our thinking that isn’t a heart like David’s heart, after God, we’re after ourselves. So many people I’ve known in times past who have left God’s Church, and the things they’ve done, they lifted up themselves.

One individual was a graduate of Ambassador College, once PKG had begun, barely began, and here we were planning things within the Feast of Tabernacles and assignments were being given to different ones who were going to speak. One individual became very upset with me, who was an Ambassador College graduate and had ability, just not spiritual. I didn’t see it. I didn’t feel it. God wasn’t showing it to me, so I didn’t give him an assignment.

And basically, one Holy Day just before the Feast came up to me and almost in these words – I don’t remember the exact words, but it was almost these exact words, “You haven’t given me to be on the speaking schedule. You are taking all the sermons!” It’s like, “Who…” and he might have even said it because it was that brash, “Who do you think you are?!” Well, right away my mind goes to, “Well, I pretty much know who I am. I’m the pastor here. You? You haven’t been ordained. How does God’s spirit work?” I didn’t bother telling him all that because it wouldn’t have done any good because his mind was already made up.

Lifted his heart up. Far greater self-importance than what he really had. I don’t care. I don’t care if you went ten times to Ambassador College, had forty years at Ambassador College, that doesn’t impress me! What impresses me is God’s holy spirit working in someone where I see God at work because they’re yielding themselves to God. Then there is no question.

I sit in the seat of God, in the midst of the seas. Yet you are a man, and you are not God, in essence, is what it’s saying there, though you set your heart as the heart of God. Behold, you are wiser than Daniel! It’s like, what’s Daniel got to do with this back in Ezekiel? I’m not sure. Was it really about Daniel or was it the word? Sometimes they’ve used words in places here where it’s not really about the individual, it’s about the words that are being used. The words mean “God is my judge,” or “God who is judge.” The one word is God, “el” at the end, Dani-el. The first part has to do with judgment. Awesome!

You are wiser than God who is judge. God has determined all that’s right and wrong, so that’s what you’ve made yourself, wiser than God. That’s what it’s talking about here. “People should be in awe of you.” Like some were of Dr. Hoeh sitting on the front row when he’s reading his book and Herbert Armstrong is up there preaching. People were in awe. Students were in awe. Still blows my mind.

And they would tell the story. It’s like, okay. My experience of people reading a book, they’re actually reading a book. They don’t have the ability to tune in to two different things. Let’s turn on some other things up here. Maybe they can take in four or five, maybe their home has six TVs, and they have them all at the same time and they can watch it all, I don’t know. Maybe they’re really great! (I’m sorry.) Hope you see what I’m saying, how sick those kinds of things can be.

He should have been ashamed of himself. Individuals should have known right away, “You have the gall to sit there in front of God’s apostle on the front row and you’re reading a book and you’re not showing attention or that you agree with what God’s apostle is saying? You’re not showing here by anything in your expression here, setting an example to people around you, to students who are watching your actions, that you’re deeply involved in what he’s saying and giving your support?” That’s what he should have been. But he didn’t do that because the spirit of evil was already working in him a long, long time ago.

There is no secret that can be hidden from you! What’s that saying? “You’re wise. I’m in awe.” That’s what it’s like, “I’m just kind of in awe of you, that you have such ability, that your education is so great.” I think of him because people, that’s what people thought, “He’s such a smart man.” Smarts and intelligence have nothing to do with it. That’s not what we’re supposed to be moved by. We’re supposed to be moved by God’s spirit and be aware of when it’s God’s spirit.

So, it’s kind of tongue in cheek here, “There is no secret that can be hidden from you.” Have you ever known anyone who by the things they were saying with the authority and supposedly the informed mind that they had, that they made you feel a little inferior just because they came across so strong because of what they were saying? And if you didn’t believe the same thing, you just weren’t as in tune with what’s being said out there? Same spirit. I know some of you know what I’m talking about. That’s the kind of mind we’re talking about here.

There is no secret that can be hidden from you. And so, sometimes people listen as students did to Dr. Hoeh because they felt very inferior. When they were around him they felt they couldn’t say anything, be careful of what you ask or what you say because you don’t want it to appear as being stupid like we must be around him. Have you ever felt that way around anyone in life? Well, we shouldn’t.

There is no secret that can be hidden from you with your wisdom and with your understanding. See, it’s how you read this that becomes important. It’s not God saying to them, or someone saying to them, “I’m impressed by you.” No, it’s tongue in cheek. “Too bad you can’t really see what’s true about yourself.” “Too bad you can’t see yourself,” is what it’s saying here.

With your wisdom and with your understanding, you have gained riches for yourself. You’re wealthy and have gathered gold and silver into your treasuries. I marvel at when I read something like this you think, kind of like that series, All Belongs to God. Everything that the wealthiest of human beings, supposed wealth, of things that they consider to be wealth…

Today it might be crypto. You were just able to invest in it and it’s gone up so high and now you have this bank fall of, well, not really in the bank, a safe full of… well, not really the safe. Where is it? I don’t know, but I’ve got a lot of it, this crypto and it’s worth billions and billions. I’m wealthy.

And so, in the mind of individuals, they can be very wealthy, and they can go out and buy things with it as long as others are stupid enough to do the same thing and trade in all these things. If you understand what I’m saying.

Zeroes and ones. I’ve got so many zeros and ones, I’m wealthy. I’m not saying it’s wrong to have any of those things, please don’t misunderstand me. I think some misunderstood me in times past when I said that. If you have some, just you don’t want all your eggs in one basket either. Someday all of this stuff, God says, even silver and gold is not going to be of any value to anybody. What’s going to be of value is maybe a next glass of water, maybe a can of soup that’s even rusted on the outside but I’m ready to eat it.

So, what’s amazing about all this, all belongs to God. So, even Lucifer, as much as he thought he had and as much responsibility as he had, it was all God’s. But he was allowed to have certain power and authority within that process, obviously, but it’s in his mind that he’s wealthy. It’s in the mind of a lot of people, the people who are wealthy in the sense of what the world sees and what they think and the things they’ve done. Well, great achievements in some cases. But so often it goes to this and then they know they’re great. “You’re not so great but I’m great. My ideas are great. You should listen to me; I should govern. You should follow what I have to say because I know how to do this. I know what’s best for you.”

Verse 5—By your great wisdom; it’s about how they see themselves. In trade, in merchandising, you have increased your riches. What are our riches? I don’t care how wealthy someone is, sadly, every human being if they could only grasp it, should comprehend it all, it’s all God’s. We’re only able to use what’s already there. Now, how we do that and what we do is important in life, but to not honor God, to not thank God? And that’s the problem.

Even within God’s Church sometimes these things have happened, people begin to lift themselves up by their own abilities, by what they do, why whatever. Achievements and things are great, but we have to be careful that we don’t take it to self, that “This is what I’ve done.”

By your great wisdom in trade (in merchandising) you have increased your riches. There is nothing wrong with increasing one’s wealth. We all hope to be able to do that, to have more of those ones and zeroes, or whatever it is the world uses. But to use it properly, to thank God for it, knowing it’s God’s. You have use of it for a time and not a long time. So, it’s all about how we see things, how this individual saw themselves.

…because of your riches. Therefore, thus says the Lord Eternal, Because you have set your heart as the heart of God, behold, I will, therefore, bring strangers upon you, and the most terrible of the nations. Again, in other words, the word is basically used in the sense of being awesome or the strongest in the sense of who will use terrible power against them Because it’s about what’s going to happen to them. It’s going to be terrible against “you.” It’s not that they’re terrible or horrible or whatever it might be. That’s not the focus. It’s about what’s going to happen to “you.” That’s what is being shown here.

And they shall draw out their swords against the beauty of your wisdom and they shall defile your brilliance, which means “pierce through.” I think of the fact that when people begin to understand and know the truth and what happens to the power of Satan. It begins to be weakened if he were around at certain periods of time. But even in God’s Church that’s what happens, it begins to be pierced through because you begin to pierce through the lies and the deceit and God begins to show us what is true even in those things that Satan has put out there as counterfeits.

What an incredible thing, we see through Christmas, we see through Easter. We see through Sunday. We’re able to pierce through that which is false and see what is true. Because those other things begin to be destroyed. It’s about destroying them and destroying that power of that being over us. Awesome!

“And they’ll defile your brilliance.” Because you’re not brilliant. It’s going to disappear. It’s going to go by the wayside.

They shall bring you down to the pit, as the word means “to sink into the destruction, the corruption, the grave,” that’s going to happen to “you,” and you shall die the death of all slain in the midst of the seas. “All humanity, everyone dies. And you’re going to be just like them. Your end is coming.”

What an incredible thing to understand after all the things God’s revealed to us about what’s going to happen to him at the end.

Will you still say before Him who slays you… God’s going to take care of it. God’s going to take care of him by His great power. Are you still going to say, I am a god? “I am great. Look how great I am,” when God brings him down. “Are you going to be able to continue to do the things you did? Are you going to be able to continue on as you have in times past? Not going to happen.”

But you are as a man, and no god. Meaning “You’re going to die. You’re just like any human being who can go as the dust of the earth.” …and no god in the hand of Him who slays you. You shall die the same death as the uncircumcised by the hand of foreigners. So, that would have been something that would have been looked upon as, here Israel goes out and fights in wars and battles, Judah goes out in wars and battles, and the enemy out there who don’t know, haven’t been told about the ways of God and so forth, and they’re the ones that are able to take your life and what are you now?”

For I have spoken it, says the Lord Eternal. So again, the ability to see something like this on a spiritual plane, to me, is awesome, to understand what God is showing that we’re to drink in and to understand here was a type of a physical leader, ruler, whatever, and yet it’s all about Satan. That’s the point of it all. That’s why it goes into the next verses specifically talking about him because it's about Satan and what he did and what’s going to happen to him in a nutshell.

His attitude and his spirit, just as the attitude of so many through time has been. The worst of those are the leaders who have done the evil that they have done. Because if we can understand it spiritually, in too many cases they’re worse than physical murderers. Because to take a physical human life, as heinous as that is, isn’t nearly as bad as being on a spiritual plane and being responsible for leading individuals away from God.

Now, they had to make their own choices, but to be responsible in part of that and upfront in that and they followed your example and they’re cut off forever, dead, dying, going to die in too many cases. Doesn’t mean people don’t have an opportunity to repent but it does not mean that everybody who has gone through this is going to repent by any measure. That’s what God is showing us. Not by any measure. It’s far more serious if we can grasp it.

Because what happens to the mind, the mind is a precious thing once God has called us and gives us the opportunity to be transformed in our thinking. If we abuse and misuse that we’re playing with fire, a bad fire.

So, we come to the next verses then that are specifically about him. Verse 11— Moreover or But even more so, as the word would be expressed, the word of the Eternal came unto me, saying… So, it’s actually just building upon what’s already been said but driving the point home now. It’s about Satan.

Son of man, take up a lamentation upon the king of Tyrus. We have always been taught and have always believed since the period of Philadelphia on, that this isn’t about a physical king; it is about, in a sense of a type, but it’s specifically about Satan because it talks about in the day he was created. So, God makes it very clear here, has to the Church for a long time, this is about Satan. Just didn’t understand the previous verses to this.

Son of man, take up a lamentation of the king of Tyrus (of Tyre), and say to him, Thus says the Lord Eternal, You sealed up the sum, full of wisdom, perfect in beauty. You have been in Eden, the garden of God; every precious stone was your covering. He was given the most of all the angelic, in the angelic realm. Truly was. … You were the anointed cherub who covered, and I had set you so.

You were upon the holy mountain of God. So, to us, we can read through something like this and say, how could he have done that? He had all this beauty, as far as an angelic being. He had all this ability, as far as an angelic being. He had all this responsibility in God’s government as an angelic being at God’s throne, at His very throne. That’s what it pictures, the power, the glory, the purpose of God, and what He was doing at that time, and from then on once he was created. So, why would he ever turn against that? Why? How could such a thing happen?

Well, worse has happened within the environs of the Church because he never had the impregnation of God’s holy spirit. We need to understand that and what that means and the power and the blessings and the glory that God has given to us once He’s called us as weak, physical human beings, to have the impregnation of His holy spirit in us. Awesome! Profound.

You were upon the holy mountain of God. Government. As far as the angelic realm, in the top of it. And you have walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. “The angelic beings, you have been there.” You were perfect or complete as it is in your ways from the day you were created until iniquity was found in you. God knows when it happens. God knows when the process starts in any individual when they begin to deviate away from something and hold on to something else, like 14/15th Passover, as Dr. Hoeh did.

He did it a long, long time ago, at Ambassador, and the day he started that deviation was the day he cut himself off from God’s spirit. He was still in the environs of the Church and people didn’t know any better because God didn’t reveal it, didn’t bring it to the surface. He let the Church experience that so we could experience it to this day, the evil that was there.

Nothing to be admired. Not an individual to be looked up to. Not an individual to be “Ooo, aah, I was so impressed by him, when he taught us.” I’ve heard more people express that who have been in the scattered Body since the Apostasy than they were of Herbert Armstrong who was God’s apostle! They should have been in awe of that! Not because of him but because of who he was and because of how God worked through him. And yes, of him, in one respect, but within balance and soundness of mind.

You were perfect (complete) in your ways from the day you were created until iniquity was found in you. It is through the multitude or abundance of your merchandising that the midst of you has become filled with violence. He became lifted up with it.

That’s what happens to human beings. Every person who has ever left the Church begins to be filled with the stinking, rotten, putrid pride to think that we could do something of that nature, to turn against what God gave us from the very beginning! What did we have when God called us? We had nothing but the confusion of the world that everybody else has! Then He opens our minds to see the truth. He gave that to us. It’s not our wealth, it’s God’s! But if we treasure it and hold on to it and love it, well, that’s what we’re supposed to do.

But I have known so many people, so many people who began to feel that they had a special calling or that they had a special responsibility or that they could see something that other people couldn’t see or something that other ministers couldn’t see and that the Church needed to see it.

We still have that going on to this day! Someone who thought they were a prophet, that they’re going to give a sermon at Pentecost. Think, where do these things come from? From that same being that broadcasts, and if we’re not careful we get tuned into it. All those individual ministers who did what they did, they tuned into the wrong broadcast.

That same individual I’ve been talking about, that evangelist, would bring people possessed—he knew they were possessed—into his office and he would try to reason with them because he thought that he could. He was so intelligent (he thought), that he could reason with them to see what they’re doing amongst themselves and what’s going on in that spirit world.

And you think, stark, raving mad to have done such a thing, to invite them into your own office and to try to reason with them. Just made him worse. Because he did that it made him worse. He didn’t know what got a hold of him. He had no clue. He thinks he won that because he’s greater and more powerful? No, God says, it’s only because of He who is greater in us. It’s only God. And if we’re close to God then those kinds of things, no worry, you don’t have to worry. But you don’t invite them in. You don’t play around with it. You don’t play around with things that you know are not the teachings of God’s Church.

To think that somehow you have this special calling in the Church to do certain things. If you’re uncertain, ask me if you’ve been called to a certain thing. I’ll let you know. See, you already know the answer. Everybody already knows the answer except the one who might do something like that.

We’re talking about the existence of evil. It’s in the mind, in the minds of beings that God has created, whom God has created. Spirit, and of course, physical. Certain thinking.

Again here, verse 16—It is through the multitude or the abundance of your merchandising that the midst of you has become filled with violence. Hebrew means “with what is wrong.” It’s because of this that this has taken place. “You filled yourself with all this thinking. You have done it. You are great; you’ve lifted yourself up and you have sinned.”

So again, God declares He created Lucifer as the pinnacle of the angelic realm. What an incredible thing. Then Lucifer sinned. He became Satan, became adversarial to God.

I think of so many who have left. They just don’t comprehend that they’ve become adversarial to God. They have no concept. They wouldn’t believe it anyway because they’re too raised up with self-importance in their own understanding of things to think that they might be antichrist. They just think, “Oh, you’re just all sour grapes. To think that I’m that way because I’ve left the Church or I’m out of the Church?” Incredible.

Satan couldn’t create anything on his own. Everything that he had, that he thought he had his wealth from, was God’s. It was from God. Satan didn’t create anything. Well, he did. Evil. Because of his thoughts, his thinking, he created evil. It was the beginning of evil.

All who choose to lift up self and follow their own way simply have chosen the same thing, to follow the way of evil, the same way of Satan. We’ve had thousands and tens of thousands since the Church began who have done this. I wonder what do you think God thinks of that? Do you think all those individuals, every one of them has opportunity to be resurrected in the Great White Throne in order to live a hundred years and then be in God’s Kingdom? Do you think that’s going to happen to everyone? Do you think they would, given that opportunity in every case? Because they would see themselves for what they did when they had God’s spirit in them already before? What happens to the mind? What happens to the thinking?

It is through the abundance of your merchandising that the midst of you has become filled with violence, with all that is wrong, and you have sinned. Therefore, I will cast you as profane out of the mountain of God. In God’s Church whenever anyone has been called, they’ve been called to be kings and priests, to be a part of something so incredibly great in God’s Family over His creation, to inherit all things, that we can’t even begin to comprehend that. And yet God has the power to cast them out, that they not have part of it.

He says I will destroy you, O covering cherub, from the midst of the stones of fire. Your heart was lifted up because of your beauty. We have to be careful how we see ourselves, how we think about ourselves. To seek a humble spirit, a meek and humble spirit, to realize we have a lot to conquer inside.

You have corrupted your wisdom, what God gave to you. God gave him so much to know, to see, and yet because of his actions, he corrupted that. Every person that’s ever left God’s Church has corrupted the truth, the wisdom, the mind that God gave them opportunity to be part of. Every one of them.

…by reason of your brightness. Not because they were bright, but because of the way they saw themselves, how important they thought they were, how important they saw themselves in what they held on to and what they believed, and what they think everyone else should see.

I will cast you to the ground. I will lay you before kings, that they might behold you. You have defiled your sanctuaries by the multitude of your iniquities, by the iniquity of your merchandise. Whatever it was that was valuable to them. Whatever it is that they thought was so valuable that others should believe the same way that they do and hold on to the same thing and go down the same road. There is only one thing that’s valuable, that you treasure. It’s all that comes from God. That’s the treasure. That’s what’s valuable.

Therefore, I will bring forth a fire from the midst of you. And I will devour you. And I will bring you to ashes upon the earth in the sight of those who see you. That expression is being used, not that it’s physical ashes, but it’s comparing here to mankind. We go back to the dust of the earth. Our bodies can be burnt, we can be in ashes and sprinkled around somewhere, maybe in a lot of different places. We don’t know it, what somebody else is doing with the ashes. We’re gone.

That’s what He is showing him, “You’re going to be just like that. It’s going to come from the midst of you,” whatever that means, and it’s going to devour him to where he disappears as a spirit being. Just like ashes.

All those who know you among the people shall be astonished at you. To see what happened, what he did. Those who know the truth, those who are able to see the plan of God, those who come to understand. I am astonished at what so many have done through time. I am astonished at what people have done who have been given the greatest of opportunities.

An individual who was allowed to be the speaker because of an ability he had that God had given to him in a charismatic way, that people were drawn to that by his personality, by his looks, by his voice. But he misused that for himself, for selfish reasons. Not to glorify and honor God.

So, after a while all he could talk about was evolution because he couldn’t grasp things that were spiritual. He couldn’t see things that were spiritual. But he could give some pretty good sermons or broadcasts about evolution. Yet he had those opportunities. I think, what a horrible thing… Astonished?

I think of different evangelists and what they did and why they did it. It’s really dumbfounding. Heinous, sick, distorted.

I’m always dumbfounded by individuals who decide to leave or who choose some relationship. Usually, that’s the big one. Some relationship with someone else and begins to compromise on what is true and what is right and what God has given and does things that they know are wrong, or whatever it might be, in order to experience whatever it is they think they’re going to experience. Then after they’ve experienced it, maybe for years and years and years and all the problems that come with that because they’ve done it in a wrong way and everything else that’s happened, it’s not so exciting anymore. (Sorry.)

It's amazing what human beings will do. Never satisfied. That’s why drugs are so evil and so bad. Because people can never receive what they want and they have to have more and more and more until it just destroys them, until they have no mind, until they have wretched, miserable lives. Sad.

All those who know you among the people shall be astonished at you. It’s not “You shall be a terror.” It’s not the words in Hebrew at all. You have been destruction, or You have been terror, and you will never be anymore. Caused a lot of terror and destruction, but you’ll never be anymore, God says to him.

I wonder about some who have left in times past over the two thousand years. There is something awaiting them somewhere up the line. As long as we can repent as human beings God will give us repentance. But sometimes people don’t realize what they do to their own minds, like what Satan did to his mind. And once you’ve been begotten of God’s holy spirit can you go too far? Can you corrupt your own mind? Questions to be asked, and God is giving the answers.

So, we live in a very evil age right now. It is the most evil age of mankind yet, truly. It has surpassed the evil of the age of Noah. It has surpassed the evil of Sodom and Gomorrah by a long shot. They didn’t have technology as we do today that’s used to magnify, to accelerate, to promote, to empower, to twist and distort, to promote evil.

That’s what we’re living in. That’s what you’re witnessing. That’s why I hope and pray with all my being this doesn’t go much farther because it’s accelerating so fast, and what it’s doing to human beings and what it’s doing to the minds of people. It’s better that World War III happen soon. That’s the merciful thing if you can see it.

So sadly, people can be like frogs, that I’ve given that example of, in water that’s slowly increasing in heat until it boils. And supposedly then the frog stays there, and it becomes a part of the boiling. Supposedly, if it’s really hot and they put him in it jumps out. Whether it is or isn’t it’s a good thing to think about in the mind, of what we can be like as human beings. Because the reality is that far too often if we’re not careful we can slowly accept evil as normal.

As human beings, things change, and we can slowly begin to accept evil as being the norm. If you look at history and things that have happened, the last ten years, the last twenty years, the last thirty years, depending on how old you are, I can go back a little farther in things that I have seen and how things have changed in society and the world, slowly but surely it just gets worse and worse and worse, as normal. Something that just has to be lived with in the world and people begin to mix with it, begin to bring it into their families not realizing what it can do.

That’s why I personally have a problem with the rainbow now, rainbow colors. I really do. Because they cram it down your throat. They try to force feed it upon you. And if you say anything about it? It’s bad, really bad, so you have to be careful.

So, I thought I’d just spend a little bit of time here diving into a little bit of news. We live in a sick, evil world, and all we’re getting ready to go through. So, just to bring us up to date a little bit. Because in times past here, we’ve gone through some news articles and it’s good for us not to get to a point where we think this is the norm. Don’t be lulled to sleep. Because you can do that in God’s Church because a lot of people through time have.

We need to always to be on guard and alert to the age we live in. Do you realize that as a whole the Church has looked for Christ’s return in every era? Do you know that in the Old Testament they were looking for the Messiah to come to establish God’s Kingdom on earth, to have the city whose building and maker is God come? They wanted to see it. They wanted to see it. They wanted to be alive when it happened. Everyone has.

That’s the way we’re to be because this has something to do with the way we think and the way we function. Because if we have that as our goal, as our desire, then we’re going to live a certain way of life. We’re going to keep that in focus. That’s what we want. That’s what we desire. That’s what our life is all about and that’s what I’m going to live my life toward until it happened or until I die. Most have died. Now we live at a point in time we’re almost there.

I think of what God gave to Herbert Armstrong, to understand that it would be at a time when man had the ability to annihilate himself. We’re there. Incredible. To where God has to intervene and stop it. We see ourselves just inching closer and closer. Some of these news articles here, hope you understand, it’s just pushing it and pushing it. There is a power at work out there that God has allowed to be at work out there that is pushing. It’s like they’re pushing for a war. Some are.

But they don’t understand the consequences. They don’t understand what’s going to take place. They don’t understand the end result. But they keep pushing.

It’s just like in relationships and people and businesses, there is a way to get along with people and there is a way to agitate them. There is a way to push them into a corner to where they’re going to react poorly to you and do things against you if they can. Not such a smart thing when you’re talking about nuclear weapons and war in this day and age. And yet there are people doing that today and it’s just getting bigger and bigger, growing greater and greater, stronger and stronger. At some point, it’s not going to be very hard, when it’s God’s time it happens.

Here is up to July here, part of this.

“US Arming Taiwan With Volcano Mine-Laying Systems After Biden Called Xi A Dictator.”[1] How to win friends and influence people? Why would you do something like that? People play these political games, and they don’t realize there is a lot at state here. You’re talking about nuclear war. This isn’t a war that’s going to be fought in tanks and in trenches in Taiwan. It’s going to go past that really quickly.

“Taiwan has finalized a new defense deal with the US worth $146 million to acquire Volcano Vehicle-Launched Scatterable Mine Systems, seen as crucial for defense of the self-ruled island in the event of a Chinese military invasion. This comes the same week the State Department announced approval for $440 million more in ammo and logistics deals for Taiwan.” Hmm. I wonder where all that stuff is being manufactured. Oh yes, in the United States. Oh yeah, we’re selling it to them.

We’re selling war. Huh. I wonder what history says about that. If you go back in history and see some of those things, the Germans were really good at this, and they’re still pretty good at it. That’s what they’re known for, manufacturing for war, and the things they sold to many different countries. But the United States saw that at some point and there’s a lot of money in that. And when you’re in trouble financially and you’re spending a whole lot more than what you’re making…

Somebody is in that room all night turning that wheel, just cranking out dollar bills, hundred-dollar bills. If they had million-dollar bills they’d be doing that. They could do it a little slower maybe. No, they’d be doing it fast. We’re sick, what we’re doing. But to have money involved because it’s war and it benefits us? I won’t say it. I was going to use a certain name there… like Reaganomics, yeah, you’ve heard the word.

“Medvedev names options to stop war: Either negotiations or nuclear strike.”[2] We talked to some of those up in Canada, some of those that are up in certain areas up there around Spokane when they go up into the mountainous areas and regions where there are bears, and one thing when you get up into Canada in certain areas you want to make sure that if you’re in certain areas that you probably have a big container. Now, some people only have a small container of what you call pepper spray. I want something like a fire extinguisher pepper spray.

So, anyway, we can see that on a physical way, but why can’t people understand there is a good analogy there? It’s a bear. And you mess with a bear, it’s not smart. If you’ve ever seen some of these things on video sometimes and somebody will be traveling down in an area, Wyoming or whatever, Yellowstone, and they get out of their car to take pictures of dangerous animals. They’ll go up to bears. They’ll try to get up there and take a selfie. I’ve seen it on TV! You got a big bear behind you, or a moose. You don’t mess around with moose. They’re known for attacking people, attacking vehicles. They don’t like you. They don’t want you. You’re not pleasant to their eyes except to be made into mincemeat. People do the stupidest things, and so do human beings.

“Dmitrii Medvedev, Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of the Russian Federation has again threatened to use nuclear weapons in the war against Ukraine.” "In general, any war, even a world war, can be ended very quickly. Either if a peace treaty is signed or if you do what the Americans did in 1945…” See, justifying what you might do or what you’re going to do, because they’re thinking about it, “When do we do it? Do we do it? Hmm.” At some point they will. But how and what order, we know a lot of that story.

“…or if you do what the Americans did in 1945 when they used their nuclear weapons and bombed two Japanese cities. They really then curtailed the military campaign. The price was the lives,” as it says here, “of almost 300,000 civilians." So, in other words, they’re justified in killing a few civilians along the line. “How can you say that against us when the United States did it in 1945 when they were in a war? And after all, these people that are coming after us and trying to come into Crimea, these terrorists, how dare they come across at us?!” Do you see the forked tongue there, the backward thinking? You think, “How nuts can you be when you’re invading them but they’re terrorists?”

Anyway, another one here: “‘The EU is on the brink of bankruptcy,’ says Hungary’s Orbán at EU summit.”[3] Well, it just shows you the way people think. Sometimes if you make enough noise, sometimes others will listen to you and there’s a rippling effect that some of these things cause.

It says here, “The first question asked by Prime Minister Viktor Orbán in his Facebook post is: ‘The only question everyone is asking here in Brussels is: Where has the money gone?’” That’s pretty much in every country.

“The prime minister then went on to list what Brussels is demanding for the budget. ‘They want to get €50 billion from the member states to give to Ukraine, while they cannot even account for the money we have given them so far. They want more money from the member states so that they can pay the interest on the European Union loans that they have previously taken out. These are loans that Poland and Hungary have not seen a single cent from so far,’ Orbán said.”

“Orbán said the EU commission is asking member states for more money for migration, not for border protection, but to bring in illegal immigrants.” You think, you know, this is just insanity that’s happening in different parts of the world.

“‘Of course, they didn’t forget about their own pockets. They are asking for billions of euros to raise the salaries of Brussels bureaucrats,’ he said. ‘The Hungarian position is clear,’ he said. ‘First, we want to know what the huge amount of money we have given them so far has been spent on.’” He’ll never get that answer. It’s like so many things here in this country and different places, some kind of a secret accounting book somewhere, or maybe there is no accounting book at all, I don’t know.

But anyway, “‘Afterward, we want to know who is responsible for the fact that the European Union is on the brink of bankruptcy.””

Another one here: “Poland beefs up border security as Belarus' Lukashenko warns of 'nuclear showdown.'”[4]

“1,000 Buildings Burnt, 5,600 Vehicles Destroyed, 3,300 Arrests in First Week of France Riots.”[5] Now, whether that number is exactly right, we don’t know, but you think the things, the unrest, the unease in the world and the way people are, it’s just getting worse and worse out there, of what’s taking place. The unrest in governments, the unrest on the streets.

Now you go shopping in some cities… I don’t even want to go into certain cities, don’t even want to be close to certain cities, frankly, and the only reason I would go there is because of the Church. I think of certain places you sure don’t want to shop because it takes maybe half an hour to get someone with a key to unlock certain things so you can get what you need. What have we done?

“Evictions on the rise in American cities as rent goes up.”[6]

“Worrying Heatwaves in Atlantic, other oceans fueled by climate change.”[7] The reality is there are certain changes taking place yet, all the reasons, but it’s a part of a process here that was to happen at this time, of what mankind is doing to himself. Don’t want to touch that one. But anyway, you think, yeah, it’s heating up out there around the Gulf right now. Means a possibility of horrible hurricanes. Things are burning up in Europe and different places hitting records of all kinds as they did last year. Now this year it’s even worse. Things happening in different places, one extreme to the other, back and forth, back and forth.

“Iran issues call to non-Western states.”[8] “‘The hegemony of the Western world has contributed to the hegemony of the dollar. It is necessary to remove this instrument of hegemony in the global practice and use national currencies for settlements…’” So, the big news here about BRICS and different meetings that are coming up. They’re just about there, finally, in a more united way than ever before.

And do you think that if someone thought they were going to lose the control that they would consider a war so as to not to lose the control over nations?  Do you think that any country might go that far, that others would feel that threat and maybe act first?

“US will snatch half of Berlin’s $109bn military upgrade fund – German arms maker.”[9]

“China is preparing for war.”[10] The Telegraph. Well, somebody is watching the news. “In the longer term, is war with China inevitable?” General Mike Minihan of the US Air Force says it is, a hawkish stance that I suspect is shared by quite a few in the US military. But as is the way, there are plenty who believe that the situation will continue to be managed by ongoing diplomatic efforts and the deterrent effect of our combined militaries.” I’m sick of even reading that article.

You see different leaders and what they do when they go visit other areas. You know how they think, you know their stance, and you think, they’re representing a certain country and it’s shameful. I don’t know if you saw the one bow down to Xi. Bow down to China! Representing, supposedly, the greatest nation on earth. That’s diplomatically saying something. Not sure it’s too good.

I’m going to skip through a bunch of these. I just get so sick of going through some of these things, week after week, day after day, how the world is getting more insane, more unsound, pushing each other, pushing each other toward war, everybody throwing out words. When they get to the point where they keep throwing out this nuclear thing, it’s out of control. No one is going to stop that. Instead, they just escalate it. But we know that has to happen before what we know is going to take place happens.

It’s just like North Korea. You keep pushing at somebody that paranoid and at some point someone close by, a little bit to the north, could send them information that supposedly is top secret about something some nation is getting ready to do, perhaps even on a certain date. How do you think they would respond with that kind of paranoia and belief, that they have this secret information now?

Do you think the world doesn’t function like that, that some places are just like little puppets? Live in a sick, sick world. At some point that’s exactly what’s going to take place. And now, they pronounce this “Wagner,” I wouldn’t be totally shocked if it was a total ruse from the very beginning. No pun intended there for Russia.

“Wagner mercenaries reportedly tried…” You might as well laugh about some things as well as cry. “Wagner mercenaries reportedly tried to steal backpack-size nukes during mutiny.”[11] This is from the New York Post. “Wagner group mercenaries came dangerously close to entering a Russian nuclear base to steal nuclear weapons that could fit into a backpack to use as leverage during their short-lived mutiny last month, according to Ukraine’s chief spymaster.”

You know, I don’t remember, were there any great battles on the streets in Russia with the Wagner group where hundreds were killed? Did you see that? Huh. Amazing, isn’t it? But they kept going closer to Moscow. Huh. And Russia, they didn’t do anything about it? Wow. And then just, “Ah, we finally made a deal, they can go to Belarus. Everything is okay; nobody will be prosecuted for all this.” And you think, somebody is pulling my string or trying to. Are we stupid?

“While the main force of the rebels, directed by Wagner Group founder Yevgeny Prigozhin, rumbled toward Moscow on June 24, purportedly to capture Russia’s top military brass,” sorry, but this is really, pretty funny, “a smaller group drove east en route to a fortified army base.” Put on this huge show. Well, somebody put on a huge show. It maybe is a bigger show than what we know.

“A source close to the Kremlin with ties to Russia’s military confirmed parts of the account, saying that Wagner fighters ‘managed to get into a zone of special interest, as a result of which the Americans got agitated because nuclear munitions are stored there.’ The rebels’ attempt to steal nuclear explosives was apparently so alarming to the Kremlin that it prompted President Vladimir Putin to agree to a peace deal…” You think…? They just feed them whatever they want to feed them, and people lap it up. “Oh yeah, that’s good news. I’m going to report that. Well, I got the scoop on that one!” “…with Prigozhin, which was hastily brokered by Belarusian leader Alexander Lukashenko, according to a source in Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine.”

I’m going to keep reading some of these because they pop back up in the news a day or so later here and then something else is added to it. More of the story keeps coming out.

“Delays leave U.S. Navy with just 31 ready attack submarines.”[12] Well, let’s just tell the whole world our state. Let’s just tell the whole world that we’ve depleted all of our supplies of certain munitions and we have no more to send. Let’s just tell the whole world.

Here is one: “Where Is Everyone? Disney World ‘Just About Empty.’”[13] Yay! I’m sorry, not supposed to take sides. Well, in that one there, maybe to stand up for something that’s right, that’s fine. Just not going to preach about it or anything else. But I just couldn’t help that outburst. Can you imagine because of all they’re doing that some people might rise up against some of the stupidity and garbage and evil that’s there? Evil. Evil! Evil! Evil! Evil.

That little duck that runs around or that mouse that runs around, whatever it is, and those great, big ears, looks so sweet, looks so kind, they’re filled with a lot of evil out there, they really are. What they promote, what they’re doing, going along with some of the other evil that’s in this country, of things that people are trying to do, where people don’t know if it’s it, they, them, whatever, LGQRSTUV, whatever the letters are. I lose track and I don’t try to know what they all stand for anymore. I just know that that’s kind of a bunch of gobbledygook. What a horrible world we live in. Evil. Evil. Evil. Call it what it is.

May not last long on YouTube, but anyway. Seriously! That’s what it is, it’s just a bunch of evil. Have to find some other means—and we can—just to communicate with one another. I don’t want to read the article because it just should make us sick anyway of seeing what’s taking place out there, the pressure that people are putting on others in society, companies and corporations that take sides, companies that make huge decisions about a certain type of beer. Whew, did it backfire? Can you imagine? At least some of the backfiring is taking place once in a while. 20% loss of sales, 25, whatever it was? Well, hurrah. That much beer is not good for you. (Sorry.)

“Lavrov called US plans to give Kyiv F-16 an example of a dangerous development of events.”[14] Yeah, it sure is. Yeah, it was never going to happen. It was never going to happen that they would ever train any fighters to fly those jets. It’s never going to happen that any of those jets are ever going to be given to them, because what would that do? It would just instigate things and make things worse and draw us closer to nuclear war.

So, where are we? Send them in. Get them in. NATO first, a few here and there, and then after a while a few more.

Another one here: “WWIII IS COMING: Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev Warns 'Completely Mad West.'” I’m sure he believes that. I am sure he believes the West has gone mad. We probably believe that everyone has gone mad. “That All-Out Global Battle is 'Approaching.'”[15] Isn’t that amazing, what they’re saying? An all-out global battle is coming. People are seeing it. Finally, it’s in the horizon. Do they really believe it yet? Are they really convicted by it, that they’re afraid and fearful of what’s getting ready to happen? No, they’re not there yet because it's like that frog in the water, and after a while, “Well, this is just the norm. It’s kind of normal to go ahead and send F16s to a country that’s fighting such a powerful, powerful force.”

I don’t even want to read about El Nino.

“US Strategic Petroleum Reserve Will Not Be Replenished Anytime Soon.”[16] Wonderful articles. It just should make everyone who is in government and in the military feel very secure of what they’re trying to do in securing the people that they’re there serving. They feel really good about some of those things. And you think, just tell your enemies. Tell them you’re out of ammunition, “I’m out of ‘this,’ I’m out of ‘that.’” No oil. Don’t worry, we have nothing. Don’t come after us. (I’m sorry.)

Another one here: “Russia To Overtake Saudi Arabia As The Largest OPEC+ Oil Producer.”[17]

I don’t even want to go through all these articles. I do want to get to this one here: “Wagner move to Belarus give mercenary group ability to quickly strike NATO, Russian politician warns.”[18] This is from FOXNews now. Really, really accurate and uplifting things to watch on there. They’re all bad and they’re getting worse and worse and worse.

“‘The repositioning of the Wagner Group was part of Putin’s plan to open the second front in Belarus, which is now in possession of tactical nuclear weapons…" So, they're saying, someone is saying to them, and they’re reporting that, which is probably true, that they didn’t have to go in there and get them. They were probably on the highway waiting for them. Probably just a point that they had to get to to load them on the trucks.

"Putin -- under the guise of the so-called 'Prigozhin coup' -- placed Wagner, his best fighting force, in a much more threatening position: within striking distance of both Kyiv, Ukraine and NATO’s border - Latvia, Lithuania. While Koffler does not believe the move means Putin is seeking to strike NATO, she did argue it was a way in which Putin could ‘be ready’ in the event the Kremlin fears an escalation of the conflict by the U.S. and NATO.”

Just like a little lullaby and don’t realize how close we are to absolute all-out war.

As we go through some of these series that we’ve been going through, and as I prepared the Feast sermons and so forth, I am exceedingly sobered. Truly. We are getting so close to one day waking up and the world will have changed. You are going to be scared to the core of your being because you know, you know in ways that the world doesn’t comprehend what’s going to take place. It’s going to be a very fearful thing.

That’s why it’s so important then to do exactly what that second series was about, to trust God. That’s what our lives are about. We are God’s people. You read a lot of things in scripture about God’s protection, how He intervened for His people over and over again, did incredible things.

If people can walk into a furnace seven times hotter and not even smell like smoke you ought to feel pretty good about that. Can He do the same thing for you? Absolutely.

Oh, one final article. I just wanted to read this one here. “Prigozhin resurfaces in Belarus…” There was talk for a while there, where did he go? Some thought he was back in Russia. Well, how could that be, thought he was kicked out. He’s going to have problems if he goes back to Russia. And some talk, yeah, he went back to Russia and supposedly he even met with Putin. You know, you don’t know.

Anyway, it says, he “…tells Wagner fighters they have the 'biggest job in the world coming up.'”[19] What did he mean? I can guarantee you; it wasn’t good.

So, we don’t have to look very far to see that yes, indeed, there is incredible evil in the world, truly, and should be moved by that to realize how dangerous, how bad things are getting. And please, please, please don’t ever get to the point where you’re kind of like a frog, and all of a sudden you’re starting to accept things as being normal out there. We should be more on guard and more sobered than ever before in our lives in the Church.

Frankly, as we go further into this the more that should be true. It really should be. Crying out to God more and more and more.

We’ll quickly end in one of the sections in Proverbs, and we’ll close here today.

When going to the book of Proverbs we’ve been given understanding that its focus is about wisdom, and God has given us to know that this is about Him. It’s about His mind, His being. It’s like the word “logos” in the New Testament. It’s God. It’s His mind. It’s His being. It’s His revelatory thought. These are the things that come from God that we are to desire. True wisdom, true soundness of mind, true balance in life and how we’re to think and how our minds are to work and things to hold on to and things to discard, if you will, in life.

So, it’s about His mind, His thinking, His being, His, again, revelatory thought.

Proverbs 8:6—Listen, for I, wisdom, will speak of excellent things, from the opening of my lips will come right things. Always from God. It’s always right. It’s just a matter if we choose the same thing, if we choose to be in agreement with the things that are right.

For my mouth will speak truth. What a beautiful thing when we know what truth is, and the more truth God gives to us the more exciting life is.

Wickedness is an abomination to my lips. A word that sometimes simply translated as “evil.” “Evil, wickedness is an abomination to My lips.”

All the words of My mouth are with righteousness. Nothing crooked or perverse, in other words, twisted is in them. They are all plain. That’s why I love the name Plain Truth. God’s spirit was in there to make the most basic of things plain.

That’s why Herbert Armstrong was able to talk to world leaders in a manner that they could grasp and comprehend. Some leaders in God’s Church found fault with him and basically started the rumors around or the things around in other Churches that he wasn’t promoting the gospel when he went and talked to these world leaders. Because the gospel was to go into all the world and all he had to do to different ones of them was talk about good and evil, right and wrong, a nature of mankind and the way we are, that there is a being called Satan.

To watch certain world leaders agree and talk to him, I remember some of those in the Middle East where they agreed, “Yes, there is a being called Satan.” The world doesn’t agree with that, as a whole. It’s like this mythical thing out here and it’s got to be this bad being out there and so forth.

It’s like the flood. Teachers in religion now, “It was a nice story.” “It’s a nice children’s story to be admired…and God…and didn’t really happen.” So many other stories they do with that in the Bible because it’s just too much for their minds to grasp.

They are all plain to those who understand and right to those who find knowledge. All comes from God. What a beautiful thing when He gives those things to us. What a sick, sick, perverted, disgusting, and evil thing when people leave it, when people turn against it.

It’s all I’ve ever known. It’s all I’ve ever known since I’ve been in the Church, truly, the masses, the majority, and it’s not good. It doesn’t feel good. But it’s a reality and it helps us to have wisdom and to be thankful for those who hold fast, to those who are going to be a part of 144,000, to those who are going to be a part of establishing God’s government on earth whether mankind wants it or not. Whether mankind agrees with it or not is immaterial. It’s going to come to pass.

Then people have a choice. You can be a part of it, live forever, as God said from the very beginning to Israel, or you could just die. Whichever. It’s your choice. It’s that simple. Which do you want, life or death? And most in the Church have never really believed that. And for a lot, not a few, it’s going to be death. In God’s way and in God’s time at the very end it will be death.

Nothing is owed to us, and we can destroy the mind that God gives to us. It’s a precious, precious thing when God has given us the truth.

Verse 10—Receive my instruction and not silver, and knowledge rather than choosing gold. Which is greater? It’s all God’s. But the greatest of all, it’s that which is true and right that we can have in here, for that’s how life is lived.

For wisdom is better than rubies, and all the things one might desire cannot be compared with her. It takes God’s spirit to understand that spiritually. I, wisdom, dwell with prudence, to find knowledge and discretion.

The fear of the Eternal is to hate evil. To have a right mind and a right thinking, to know the consequences. Not to be afraid. But if you’re in unity and oneness with God this is where it starts, and growing in these things, and to understand the importance to hate evil. The more we hate evil in our own lives the more you’ll conquer and overcome it. The more you hate pride and self because you’re the only one that knows when it’s truly popped up if we can admit it and look in that mirror. Now, others can see it, too, but the point being that in order for it to be changed we have to see it.

The fear of the Eternal is to hate evil. Pride, self-exaltation, the evil way, and the perverse mouth I hate, God says, and we should too.

Counsel is Mine, and sound wisdom. I am understanding. I have strength. That’s what God offers us, understanding and strength on a spiritual plane that is profound to live, truly.

[1] https://www.zerohedge.com/military/us-arming-taiwan-volcano-mine-laying-systems-after-biden-called-xi-dictator

[2] https://news.yahoo.com/medvedev-names-options-stop-war-122615769.html

[3] https://www.zerohedge.com/geopolitical/eu-brink-bankrutpcy-says-hungarys-orban-eu-summit

[4] https://www.upi.com/Top_News/US/2023/07/02/poland-poland-beefs-up-border-security-belarus-lukashenko-nuclear-showdown/1131688314096/

[5] https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2023/07/03/1000-buildings-burnt-5600-vehicles-destroyed-3300-arrests-in-first-week-of-france-riots/

[6] https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/07/05/rising-rents-eviction-notices-across-us/70349779007/

[7] https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2023/07/04/heat-waves-in-oceans-fueled-by-climate-change/70339174007/

[8] https://www.rt.com/business/579194-iran-russia-dollar-national-currencies/

[9] https://aryavarthnews.com/world/us-will-snatch-half-of-berlins-109bn-military-upgrade-fund-german-arms-maker/

[10] https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2023/07/07/china-preparing-for-war/

[11] https://nypost.com/2023/07/11/wagner-mercenaries-tried-to-steal-nukes-during-mutiny/

[12] https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/delays-leave-us-navy-with-just-31-ready-attack-submarines/ar-AA1e7DDK

[13] https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/where-everyone-disney-world-just-about-empty

[14] https://defconwarningsystem.com/2023/07/24/lavrov-called-us-plans-to-give-kyiv-f-16-an-example-of-a-dangerous-development-of-events/#:~:text=%E2%80%9CJust%20one%20example%20of%20an%20extremely%20dangerous%20development,said%2C%20adding%20that%20%E2%80%9Cno%20assurances%20will%20help%20here.%E2%80%9D

[15] https://radaronline.com/p/russian-president-warns-world-war-iii-approaching/

[16] https://www.zerohedge.com/energy/us-strategic-petroleum-reserve-will-not-be-replenished-anytime-soon

[17] https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/russia-overtake-saudi-arabia-largest-opec-oil-producer

[18] https://www.foxnews.com/world/wagner-move-belarus-give-mercenary-group-ability-quickly-strike-nato-russian-politician-warns

[19] https://news.yahoo.com/prigozhin-resurfaces-belarus-tells-wagner-151440838.html