But when? He said, “For then…,” referring to the globe girdling events of His famous Olivet prophecy He had just explained to His disciples. He had spoken of drought, famine, wars, religious persecution, disease epidemics, and earthquakes—of nature in chaos, and nations struggling in massive wars. Are we about to enter that terrible time? Just where are we, now, in Bible prophecy?

What is going on? The news reports we receive daily are about a never-ending series of floods, drought, famines, wars, terrorism, arson, racism, crime, drug abuse, murder—a horrifying tale of human tragedies—accounts of man’s inhumanity to man, and nature in chaos!

Governments are in upheaval in Korea, Japan, Russia, Thailand, and many other countries.

The narrow victory of Benjamin Netanyahu in Israel immediately triggered renewed vicious terrorist attacks in Southern Lebanon and Israel. Hezbollah guerrillas ambushed an Israeli army patrol, killing five young men, and injuring eight others. A man and wife, recent immigrants to Israel from Russia, were machine-gunned to death in their car north of Jerusalem.

Major weekly news magazines at home and abroad trumpeted warnings that the peace process was dead. Netanyahu’s narrow victory was a severe setback to the Clinton administration, which had heavily backed Shimon Perez.

Major Arab summits take place, and in the immediate aftermath, the largest terrorist bomb in history shatters a U.S. Air Force building in Saudi Arabia, killing nineteen young Americans, injuring hundreds more!

Are we in the beginning stages of the Great Tribulation Jesus prophesied?

One thing is sure. We are living in frightening times! Jesus Christ astonished His disciples when He foretold the complete destruction of the temple in Jerusalem. When they came to Him privately, atop the Mount of Olives, they asked Him, “Tell us, when shall these things be? and what shall be the sign of Thy coming, and of the end of the [age]?” (Matthew 24:3).

Many suppose Jesus talked about the end of the world. He did not. He specifically promised mankind would not perish from the earth (Matthew 24:22), but that God would cut short the horrible time of world wars and the threat of nuclear annihilation.

What Christ talked about was the end of civilization as we know it. The Greek word means “age,” or the “cosmos,” the societies of man.

They did not ask only about the destruction of the temple in Jerusalem, but about the sign of His coming, and of the end of the age!

Jesus then gave them the most important prophecy in all the Bible the Olivet prophecy. It is lengthy, detailed, specific!

Millions “believe on” Jesus Christ. Millions claim Him as their Lord and Savior. Yet, many do not believe what He said; they do not believe Christ!

Like a newscaster Who looked far beyond His time, down into our time, now, Jesus Christ foretold the major events which would rock the world, ending in the time of God’s intervention through the Tribulation, Heavenly Signs, and Day of the Lord. 

Religious Deception

First, He predicted religious deception. He said, “Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in My name, saying I am Christ; and shall deceive many” (Matthew 24:5). He elaborated on this prophecy as He continued, saying, “And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many,” and, “For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect” (Matthew 24:11,24).

Today, there are thousands who preach “in the name of Jesus.” Millions believe their messages; believe they are “saved” if they only believe on Jesus Christ. At the same time, they do not believe they must obey Christ, or believe what He said!

Christ’s warning about false ministers was not only for the time in which we live. From the very beginning of the New Testament church, there have been false Christs and false prophets. Today, complete religious confusion reigns. Hundreds of disagreeing denominations and thousands of small, independent churches all claim to preach only the truth. Yet, each disagrees with all the others.

Churches and religious organizations divide, split, then divide again. New churches spring up. This is true in every religion, from Judaism to Islam, from Buddhism to nominal Christianity.

Religion generally is a babylon of confusion, with thousands of sincere searchers wondering, “Where is the true church today?” Many wonder if Daniel’s prophecy is occurring right now; if a “falling away” (2 Thessalonians. 2:3) is taking place. Daniel wrote, “and when he shall have accomplished to scatter the power of the holy people, all these things shall be accomplished” (Daniel 12:7). This was in response to Daniel’s question to a powerful angel, “How long shall it be to the end of these wonders?”

Daniel was asking, just as many of us are asking today, about the Great Tribulation.

The heavenly messenger had said, “And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time” (Daniel 12:1).

The duration of this great time, which is the exact same time as the “Great Tribulation” spoken of by Jesus Christ, is “a time, times, and an half” (Daniel 12:7), or three and one-half years.

The tribulation upon Israel is to last for three and one-half years. Jerusalem shall be “trodden down of the Gentiles” for three and one-half years, and the ministry of the two witnesses (Revelation 11) is to last for three and one-half years.

Obviously, once the Great Tribulation begins, this world is only about three and one-half years away from the second coming of Christ!

Jesus said, “But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but My Father only” (Matthew 24:36).

On the one hand, Christ went to great lengths to explain to His disciples the general trends and conditions on earth prior to His second coming. On the other hand, He said we cannot know the exact time.

He said people would be living life as usual; unaware, oblivious to the danger. “But as the days of Noah were, so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of Man be. Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left. Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come” (Matthew 24:37-42).

He is not describing riotous drinking, or gluttonous eating. He is describing life as usual—people going about their everyday lives as if completely unaware of what is about to happen to them! Yet, they had no reason to be unaware then, for Noah was a “preacher of righteousness,” who not only preached for one hundred and twenty years, but produced the evidence of his message of witness and warning as the great ark took shape before the eyes of his generation.

Tens of millions of people in the United States, Canada, Britain, South Africa, Australia, New Zealand, and many, many other countries have heard the message of witness and warning the gospel of the Kingdom of God, since the early 1950s, and even before!

People often comment: “I used to listen to you and your father on radio back in the 1960s!”

But only a few have truly heeded the message. Only a comparative few have truly taken warning, and made the changes necessary in their lives. But a few have become a vital part of the work of God for this age.

The vast majority of those who have heard, and who are viewing the telecast or reading our literature today, take no action. Some ridicule. Some completely reject God’s truth.

Peter said people would actually be sneering and scoffing at those who would warn them of the impending intervention of God in human affairs—the Day of the Lord—”Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking in their own lusts, and saying, ‘Where is the promise of His coming? for since the fathers fell asleep, all things continue as they were from the beginning of the creation'” (2 Peter 3:3,4).

Many people argue, “Oh, there have always been droughts! There have always been disease epidemics. There have always been floods, and hurricanes, and earthquakes. These things come in cycles!”

But God’s word says, “For this they willingly are ignorant of, that by the word of God the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of the water and in the water: Whereby the world that then was [during the time of Noah], being overflowed with water, perished: But the heavens and the earth, which are now, by the same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men…but the Day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night; in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and their works that are therein shall be burned up” (2 Peter 3:3-10).

Willingly ignorant? Does God mean people really don’t want to know?

Callused Disregard

Christ said the influence of society would be a major factor on people’s attitudes. We know Satan the devil hates God! He hates God’s people, and he hates God’s work! It follows that he will do anything he can to attack those who are doing God’s work.

Notice: “Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake. And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, and shall hate on another. And many false prophets shall rise, and shall deceive many. And because iniquity [lawlessness!] shall abound, the love of many shall wax cold” (Matthew 24:9-12).

Today, the climate that is created by the wretched trash shown on television and in motion pictures—the incessant din of mayhem, murder, violent explosions, and crimes of every description—wears callouses on the consciences of many of God’s people.

Like a continuous barrage, the news media and what passes for “entertainment” assaults decency, sympathy, empathy, and consideration for others. Millions are cold, heartless, aloof toward the suffering of others.

Hatred reigns. Dozens of racist hate groups meet together, plot their next drive-by shooting, or arson. Hundreds of thousands of youths form gangs, spray graffiti all over every bridge, overpass, wall, or building they can reach, and plan how to murder their rivals. Drive-by shootings and murder are initiation rituals among many gangs in the United States!

The cacophony of violence wears upon the conscience and attitude of God’s people. Christ said so!

As the cruelty and heartlessness increase; as people become colder, more dispassionate and nihilistic, so the God-ordained traditional values of family, home, the church, and patriotism wane. Anyone who does not know America is in serious trouble from within is simply uninformed, or living in a dream-world.

Now, let’s look at the step-by-step series of events Christ said would lead into the Great Tribulation and Day of the Lord.

False Christs; False Prophets

As we have read above, Jesus Christ especially warned His true followers to beware of counterfeits. He said that many—the majority of those who claimed to be His representatives—would be false Christs and false prophets.        He said some of them would have demonic power!

“For there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect!” (Matthew 24:24).

The very elect are those specially called and chosen of God; those who have been granted repentance and conversion; those in whom God has placed His Holy Spirit.

They are the ones of whom Christ spoke when He said, “I am the Good Shepherd, and know My sheep, and am known of Mine” (John 10:14). He said, in His parable of the sheepfold, “And when He putteth forth His own sheep, He goeth before them, and the sheep follow Him: for they know His voice. And a stranger they will not follow, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers” (John 10:4,5).

Are you one of those? Have you been so deeply convicted by God’s word, and have you so thoroughly proved to yourself the truth of God, that it would be impossible for a false prophet to deceive you? If you have never heard it, write, or call immediately for a free sermon tape entitled, “How Not To Be Deceived!” It will be a real eye opener.

Actually, Satan had attempted to confuse the world by sending “false Christs” to masquerade as the true Messiah long before Jesus was born. From the time of His ascension into heaven, false Christs and false prophets accomplished their deceitful work.

They were so numerous in the first century that much of the New Testament was written in an effort to keep the church free from false doctrine! Paul continually resisted those who wanted the early church to go back into rituals such as circumcision, or pagan “converts” who espoused hedonism.

The letters to the churches of Revelation 2 and 3 reveal the terrible conditions that had become extant as a result of false teachers. They represented every extreme, from asceticism to bacchanalian orgies.

Simon Magus was one of the first (read Acts 8:5-24). But there were many others. Finally, near the end of the first century, Jude, the brother of Jesus, wrote, “Beloved, when I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto you, and exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered to the saints” (Jude 3).

Already, before the last books of the Bible had been written, false teachers were leading God’s people into false doctrines.

Those words might well be heeded by thousands of God’s people today, who have been led into incredible error and apostasy!

Jude continued, “For there are certain men crept in unawares, who were before of old ordained to this condemnation, ungodly men, turning the grace [undeserved forgiveness] of our God into lasciviousness, and denying the only Lord God, and our Lord Jesus Christ” (Jude 4).

When false doctrines and deception failed to stamp out God’s true church, Satan inspired the apostate church to attempt to murder all who remained faithful to God’s truth.

As the centuries passed, horrifying persecutions took place against those who clung to the truth of God. The large, visible church had become completely apostate. Eventually, countless thousands were martyred in the most vicious manner!

Before the close of the first century, the Emperor Domitian pursued a violent persecution against Christians. Literally thousands were killed! He even killed his own cousin, Flavius Clemens.

Many of the most famous of the so-called “church fathers” were killed. Polycarp, who was a student of the apostle John, was burned alive. Ignatius, who lived from about A.D. 67 to A.D. 110, was thrown into an arena to be torn to bits by wild beasts upon the orders of the Roman emperor, Trajan. Justin Martyr (whose name has ever after meant death for a cause) was murdered in Rome. Iranaeus was martyred. Origen was imprisoned and tortured until he died upon orders from the emperor Decius.

There were hundreds of others who were viciously killed for their faith; thousands, over the years. Fox’s Book of Martyrs is not good bedtime reading, for it recounts the most heart-rending details of deliberate murder in the “name of Jesus.”

Thousands died as the great false church sought to exterminate those who dared to continue to observe God’s Sabbath days, or to keep the Passover on the 14th of Nisan.

Religious persecution continues in many, many nations today! In nations all over the world, religious and ethnic hatreds boil over; regional wars break out; “ethnic (read, “religious”) cleansing” in Bosnia was carried out in the same way Hitler’s SS massacred helpless civilians in Poland, Russia, and many other countries. Thousands have died, many brutally shot down where they stood, to be buried in mass graves by bulldozers.

Within recent weeks, the sickening sight of UN investigators uncovering moldering bones, shoes, bits of clothing, soiled driver’s licenses and personal identification has appeared on national television.

Why were these people killed? Because of the hatreds between nominal “Christians” and Muslims!

As horrifying as it sounds, and as unlikely as it may appear, given our comparative time of peace and safety in the United States and the western world of Christianity today, Jesus Christ said terrible martyrdom is going to afflict the people of God before the time of the end.

Millions believe they will be “raptured” away to heaven before having to give any personal witness. Many thousands believe they will be whisked away to a “place of safety,” so they will not have to be involved in God’s great work during the horrendous times of the “Great Tribulation.” It is vitally important that we understand the role of each individual Christian during the years ahead.

Wars and Rumors of Wars

A fundamental truth needs to be understood about Christ’s famous Olivet prophecy. That is simply this: that each of the signs leading up to Christ’s return to rule this earth began almost immediately!

There were “false Christs” long before Jesus Christ Himself walked this earth, just as there were wars, droughts, famines, earthquakes, and other calamities.

Jesus Christ was not saying the very first false prophet in history would not begin to preach until just before the Great Tribulation, any more than He was saying the first war to ever be fought would occur then. Rather, He was showing how each of these events would begin to develop in greater intensity and that they would overtake and overlap each other, until all these terrible events would be occurring at the same time.

False Christs and false prophets cause racial, religious, and political hatred. They become a root cause of human societies waging war against each other.

Wars cause famines, because they destroy infrastructure, transportation, water and food supplies, and the means of peaceful productivity, hygiene, and good health. Massive dislocation of whole populations, thousands of refugees without food, shelter, clean water, and the means of survival bring about terrible disease epidemics and wholesale starvation.

One only needs to remember World War II, the Korean War, Vietnam, and, more recently, Bosnia, to understand how warfare usually kills more helpless civilians than soldiers.

Droughts are not always “acts of God.” By man’s voracious rape of forests, grasslands, and important watersheds, underground aquifers are depleted, soil erodes and blows away in great dust storms, and regional and national temperatures and climatic conditions are altered by man’s interference.        Diseases are not always “acts of God.” Bacteria are capable of virtually infinite variety and adaptability. There were no “AIDS” viruses lurking under rocks in the Garden of Eden.

Today, “super bugs” gradually develop immunity to man’s most powerful chemicals. Many reading this have experienced any number of infectious diseases, from an infected sinus to chronic bronchitis, and found that the antibiotics which seemed to “work” only a few years ago are no longer effective.

Warfare is certainly not an “act of God,” but the insane means used by humans to enforce their wills on others. Wars are the result of human lust, ego, vanity, jealousy, and greed.

James wrote, “From whence come wars and fightings among you? Come they not hence, even of your lusts that war in your members? Ye lust, and have not: ye kill, and desire to have, and cannot obtain: ye fight and war, yet ye have not, because ye ask not. Ye ask, and receive not, because ye ask amiss, that ye may consume it upon your lusts” (James 4:1-3).

Describing our times; the times just before the Great Tribulation, Heavenly Signs (Revelation 6,7) and Day of the Lord, Jesus warned, “And ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places. All these are the beginning of sorrows” (Matthew 24:6-8).

Since the end of World War II, during which about forty-five million people died, there have been more than sixty-five wars. Korea, Vietnam, and the war in the Gulf were major wars involving the United States. Then there was Grenada, Panama, and Haiti, not to mention Somalia, which was a massive troop movement under the aegis of humanitarianism.

Today, U.S. troops garrison hot spots the world over—in Bosnia, Korea, Germany, Haiti, Japan, and many other countries.

The mere “rumor of war” when Saddam Hussein ordered his army to conduct “war games” near the southern Iraqi border caused the dislocation of tens of thousands of U.S. troops, and the ordering of several U.S. carrier attack groups to the gulf.

The price tag for this, certainly soaring into the hundreds of millions if not into the billions of dollars, will probably never be known. Yet, it was another blow to an already shaky U.S. economy, merely because of a “rumor” of war.

The potential for violent war exists all over the world. Bosnia could erupt again at any time, especially in the harsh winter months. It could widen into a struggle between Serb-backed Russia and Iranian supported Muslims. If Turkey became involved, Greece would respond. Token U.S. troops are presently garrisoned in Macedonia, along the northern border of Greece with Bosnia. Greece and Turkey are ancient enemies; have warred over Cyprus and other areas. Again, religion and race are behind the hatreds. The Greeks are essentially Greek Orthodox, and nominally “Christian,” and the Turks are Muslims.

A widening war in the Balkans is the last thing the pentagon or the U.S. government wants. It was a calculated risk to send U.S. troops into Bosnia, and “advisory” groups into Macedonia.

War could erupt at any time between China and Taiwan; between North and South Korea. Either event could bring about global repercussions, with Japan being deeply involved.

Massive civil war could erupt in Russia over recent elections. Millions of Russians remember the “good old days” under Stalin; want to return to total communism.

Of critical importance to the whole world, and of vital concern for any Christian who is truly watching, as Christ commanded, is what might take place in the Middle East in the near future. Few know how narrowly the powers involved in the Gulf War averted the nuclear destruction of Baghdad, and a widening war, in which the coalition forces would have disintegrated, and all arab nations would have turned on Israel.

It has been revealed by high-ranking Iraqi officials who defected that Saddam Hussein had chemical warheads fitted to some of his Scuds. Had he unleashed them on Israel, the Israeli Air Force was prepared to drop atomic bombs on Baghdad!

Frantic calls by then President George Bush averted it! Had not the U.S. immediately shipped Patriot anti-missile batteries to Israel; had not the major thrust of the air war against Iraq been shifted from bombing the Republican Guard to Scud-hunting in the western Iraqi desert, Israel may well have attacked Iraq, with unimaginable consequences. More on these possibilities later.

As I write, I know it will be several weeks, if not a couple of months, before you will be reading these lines. By that time, any number of wars could have broken out, possibly civil war in Russia, possibly war in the Mideast!

True to the prophecies of Jesus Christ, just as many other calamities are occurring on this earth, we are living in a time of increasing “wars and rumors of wars.” 

“And There Shall Be Famines”

Massive famines grip many countries in the so-called “third world.” Can anyone forget the major military effort made by the U.S. and UN forces to alleviate famine in Somalia?

As mentioned earlier, warfare causes famine and starvation, because it destroys infrastructure, brings about massive dislocation of populations—fleeing civilians who have no food or water. Famine and disease are automatically related.

Famine can occur from any one of several causes. Drought destroys crops, or prevents them from maturing and producing; floods destroy crops, and prolonged wet weather, as has occurred in the spring and early summer of 1996, prevents planting at the proper time. In Somalia, thousands died of starvation because the distribution of emergency food grains never reached remote areas.

There is also simple economic famine. millions of people in the so-called “developing” countries are chronically undernourished, which causes low resistance to disease and infant mortality.

The World Press Review, quoting from the prestigious Guardian in Britain, November, 1995, trumpeted, “Next, Wars over water!” The facts presented were shocking. Eighty countries are already experiencing water shortages that are threatening health and national economies, and nearly half of the population of the world has no access to clean water, or proper sanitation.

The demand for water because of exploding populations, has been doubling every twenty-one years. The water situation across North Africa and the Middle East was characterized as “precarious.” Currently, serious drought grips Northern China, western and southern India, parts of Pakistan, and South America.

In some of the most populous cities in the world, water supply is becoming critical. The water table providing water for up to fifty large Chinese cities drops from three to six feet each year.

Even a cursory investigation of water supplies and management in the world would require several very lengthy articles. Waste, mismanagement, pollution, water disputes involving international borders, increased salinity, disappearance of underground aquifers all play a part in a mounting global water crisis.

The World Bank, on the eve of a “water conference” in Stockholm, Sweden, warned, “Wars of the next century will be over water.”

To emphasize their warning, they cited how Egypt now fears appropriation of the waters of the Nile river by upstream Sudan and Ethiopia; how both Syria and Iraq are anxious over Turkish construction of dams along the headwaters of the Euphrates; how Hungary and Slovakia are arguing over a huge hydroelectric dam proposed on the Danube River, which is their common border.

As mentioned earlier, the Middle East and northern Africa are both critical water shortage areas. After Israel diverted much of Jordan’s water source, the famed River Jordan, the underground reserves of Jordanian water have been pumped virtually dry.

Cited by the World Bank as stark examples of waste were the fact that most city supply systems leak from 30 to 50 percent of their water underground; that most urban sewage all over the world passes untreated into rivers, thus not only polluting surface water, but wasting vast potential in recycled water.

They reported that “in Jordan 56% of water put into urban supplies does not reach customers,” and said, “The Middle East is the likeliest crucible for future water wars.”

The Economist, in Britain, in its issue of August 12, 1995, said, “The working assumption seems to be that it [water] is an unlimited public resource, and the result is that few consumers have any incentive to use it sparingly.”

They warned that, “the time is coming when water must be treated as a valuable resource, like oil, not a free one like air.”

Within only a few years, America’s wheat and corn belt has gone from terrible floods to drought, and sometimes both have devastated farm and ranch lands at the same time, as occurred during the spring months of 1996.

Severe drought has gripped the “wheat belt” in some places for three straight years. Western Kansas, Nebraska, the Oklahoma and Texas panhandles and eastern Colorado experienced early freezes shortly after the 1996 crop was planted, then fifty-mile-per-hour winds caused further damage. The region has had only about one quarter the normal amount of rainfall, and the topsoil is dry. The effect is devastating to farmers.

There is a strong demand, worldwide, for the hard red winter wheat of America’s wheat belt. The grain is used for bread, rolls, and all-purpose baking flour. As a result of increased demand and failing crops, wheat prices have almost doubled. The drought has a double effect on cattle growers, with ranch-land grasses turning brown and brittle, and the price of grain soaring.

In a domino-like effect, ranchers sell off cattle that are too expensive to raise; stockyards bulge with an oversupply, and beef prices drop to a nine-year low.

The drought may drive up to ten thousand farmers and ranchers in Oklahoma alone into bankruptcy, and the impact upon banks and state and federal governments is obvious.

In a recent special ABC television report, viewers were warned that “the Great Plains could turn into sand dunes.” On the same program, scientists warned that “vast areas of farmland are vulnerable to becoming desert,” and said “dust bowl days might be on their way back.”

One-fifth of the United States was affected by the infamous “dust bowl” conditions of the 1930s. The program was chilling in its warning that this dry spell may be the “beginning of a mega-drought.” Pictures were shown of Falcon Lake in southern Texas, which is forty-seven feet down; and of the ruins of whole towns, such as old Padilla in Tamaulipas, Mexico, which was abandoned so the waters of lake Vincente Guerrero could form a huge lake. The lake has so shrunken that old Padilla is now completely dry; buildings which were inundated now standing like ancient ruins in a parched landscape.

Former businesses such as fishing docks and marinas stood abandoned above the dry, cracked earth where a beautiful lake once lapped the shore.

“The drought is one of the worst on record,” said Ray Motha, of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. One official of the New Mexico Farm and Livestock Bureau said “there was more rain during the Dust Bowl than they are getting in Roosevelt County.” The county is in the eastern plains of New Mexico, hard hit by drought.

Already, the extremely dry conditions have brought about earlier-than-usual fires in New Mexico, Arizona, and Colorado.

When a devastating fire raced through northern New Mexico’s Carson National Forest recently, an official of the U.S. Forest Service said, “We have kiddingly called the Carson the asbestos forest because it is always so wet and at such a high elevation that it never burns. With the Carson burning, and so early, that told us this was going to be a rough summer.”

Every major weekly news magazine in the United States carried stories about the drought; about corn, wheat, and cattle prices. Is it only a passing phenomenon? Is it only “cyclical”? Perhaps. There have surely been droughts before; there have been floods before; there have been forest fires before. But when world conditions are added together; when every aspect of Christ’s Olivet prophecy is taken as a whole; when we consider the implications of geopolitics and the condition of all nations politically, militarily, economically, and socially; when we truly watch world news, and observe the entire panorama of events, it is obvious all is not well with the world. major events are taking place which could well mean we are on the very brink of the Great Tribulation.

The prophecies of Amos could well be printed as today’s news in many areas of the United States, and in many other countries, as well.

He said, “And I have also given you cleanness of teeth in all your cities, and want of bread in all your places: yet have ye not returned unto Me, saith the Eternal. And also I have withholden the rain from you, when there were yet three months to the harvest: and I caused it to rain upon one city, and caused it not to rain upon another city: one piece was rained upon, and the piece whereupon it rained not withered. So two or three cities wandered unto one city, to drink water; but they were not satisfied: yet have ye not returned unto Me, saith the Eternal. I have smitten you with blasting and mildew: when your gardens and your vineyards and your fig trees and your olive trees increased, the palmerworm devoured them: yet have ye not returned unto Me, saith the Eternal” (Amos 4:6-9).

Plainly, God says He controls the weather. God can bless those who obey His laws and live according to His word, and curse those who do not.

Massive famines have occurred in the past, true. But Jesus Christ of Nazareth said all the events of the coming tribulation would happen at the same time. Make no mistake. Great drought and famine are in the offing, and it will not always be something Americans, Canadians, Britons, and others in the British Commonwealth will read about in their newspapers in some far away, overpopulated, third-world country like India or Bangladesh.

“And Pestilences…”

Christ said, “For there shall be wars and rumors of wars…and there shall be famines and pestilences…” (Matthew 24:6,7). Pestilences refers to any disease that spreads rapidly, and causes many deaths, such as smallpox, yellow fever, or the plague.

As was mentioned earlier, warfare often brings the terrible consequences of famine, disease, and starvation. When a nightmarish civil war erupted in Rwanda, terrified refugees fled to bordering Zaire; more than one hundred thousand died of cholera, resulting from the pollution of surface water by human waste. For the better part of fifty years, the developed nations have believed medical science had almost eradicated such diseases as typhoid fever, smallpox, cholera, and the plague.

Yet, such diseases are making a comeback. Always, it is the helpless civilians who suffer when maniacal despots wage war, just as occurred in Rwanda and Bosnia.

Who has not heard about the Ebola virus and AIDS? Public awareness about pestilence was such that a motion picture starring Dustin Hoffman was made in the mid-1990s entitled Outbreak, and a made-for-TV thriller called Virus was created by Robin Cook. A documentary was produced about the same time called The Hot Zone, which is about the Ebola virus deaths in Zaire.

Only a few quotations from The Hot Zone are chilling: “Ebola was unpredictable. An airborne strain of Ebola could emerge and circle around the world in about six weeks, like the flu, killing large numbers of people…Ebola is a rather simple virus—as simple as a firestorm. It kills humans with swift efficiency and with a devastating range of effects.”

Ebola crops up suddenly, and its victims bleed to death in a very few days. It was first identified in Germany, then, later versions of the virus cropped up in the Sudan, then in Zaire, then, shockingly, in Reston, Virginia.

The Hot Zone said, “The virus [the strain identified in Zaire] was not airborne—it traveled in blood, and the bleeding victim did not touch very many other people before dying, so the virus did not have many chances to jump to a new host. Had people been coughing the virus into the air [like the flu]…it would have been a different story.” Frighteningly, when the leaders of a bizarre cult in Japan, responsible for releasing deadly Serin (a nerve gas) into crowded Tokyo subways, were arrested, it was revealed they had sent representatives to Zaire to deliberately cultivate the Ebola virus.

Would biological warfare be contemplated by demonic human leaders in waging war against others?

It has already been proven that such methods would be used by hate-filled despots. Such is the virulent hatred that motivates some human leaders that they would resort to any means, no matter how cruel, how heartless, in order to destroy any who would oppose them. Who can forget the pictures of the bloated bodies of Kurds—women, little children, helpless civilians—against whom Saddam Hussein of Iraq had used mustard gas? Such satanic cruelty is beyond the ability of any Christian person to contemplate.

Many countries have stores of biological weapons. Saddam Hussein was working on biological weapons. Robert Wright, who wrote an article entitled “Be Very Afraid” in The New Republic said, “Biological weapons are essentially devoid of international control, yet they’re the scariest of the three [nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons]…Not futuristic, genetically engineered, genocidal viruses, though these may be along eventually, [but] plain old first-generation biological weapons…are the great unheralded threat to national security in the late 1990s.”

U.S. intelligence documents released following the Gulf War prove that not only did Saddam Hussein possess biological and chemical weapons, but that his extended-range Scud missiles and aerial bombs had actually been loaded with biological agents and deployed on the battlefield.

Captured Iraqi documents and recently-released U.S. Intelligence reports prove that not only did Saddam possess such chemical and biological agents, but that he had ordered his field commanders to use them against Allied forces. His orders were not obeyed.

U.S. spy satellites had located no less than twenty-four chemical and biological decontamination sites installed by the Iraqis in southern Iraq and Kuwait. These were large washing sites for tanks, trucks, and personnel, should the Iraqis experience “blowback” from their own biological and chemical attacks, or should the Allies retaliate with their own biological and chemical weapons.

Some Gulf War veterans groups believe some 70,000 veterans and their dependents may be suffering today as a result of Allied bombing of Iraqi chemical and biological weapons sites. They believe such agents were released into the atmosphere and dispersed over wide areas, and that low-level exposure resulted.

As early as June 1988, the U.S. government knew that Iraq was developing biological weapons; knew that Iraq was receiving toxic strains from a company in Rockville, Maryland, with export licenses approved by the U.S. Department of Commerce.

Swiss and Italian firms were supplying Iraq with large-scale fermenters needed to grow toxic agents.

By the winter of 1990, the Pentagon knew that Iraq had succeeded in packing anthrax and botulinum toxins into aerial bombs. American commanders were warned that they might encounter such weapons on the battlefield. Network news featured pictures of U.S. tanks and troops fitted with anti-chemical and biological coverings; bulky, incredibly hot full-body suits and masks were shown being worn by some soldiers.

When the United Nations began inspecting Iraq after the war, they wanted to know what had happened to seventeen tons of biological growth media that Iraq had purchased in 1988 and 1989, but could no longer account for.

The New Republic reported in its January 29, 1996 issue, “The missing seventeen tons of media [biological cultures] could have grown enough biological agent to ‘kill every man, woman and child on the face of the earth.'”

The Iraqis claimed the media had been destroyed during the Allied bombing. Had it? Of have the Iraqis successfully hidden it and other weapons of mass destruction?

It is scarcely crying “wolf! wolf!” to acknowledge the facts that have emerged from captured Iraqi documents, from Iraqi defectors, from U.S. intelligence spy satellites, and from UN specialists on the ground.

And which nation is more keenly aware, disturbed, concerned, and perhaps frightened about such a threat? Israel, naturally! It was Israel upon which Saddam Hussein unleashed a rain of Scud missiles. Had they contained chemical or biological warheads, the results would have been unimaginable! Hundreds of thousands or millions would have died! Israel would have dropped nuclear bombs on Baghdad and other Iraqi cities!

World War III, featuring all the horrible panoply of weapons—nuclear, chemical, biological—would have spread around the world. Perhaps some day we will learn just how close we came to such an event.

Germ warfare is without a doubt just over the horizon. Such would create a biological holocaust if ever unleashed. Both Time magazine and the prestigious British Economist reported in their July 1995 issues that Iraq had admitted to producing large quantities of biological weapons in 1989 and 1990. Be reminded that Saddam Hussein has already used nerve gas and mustard gas against his own citizens.

Newsweek, a couple of months later, reported the enormity of Saddam Hussein’s plans: “For several days at the end of 1990 and the beginning of 1991, the world stood on the brink of the first holocaust ever caused by biological weapons…”

They said the Iraqi arsenal contained “at least 25 missile warheads carrying about 11,000 pounds of biological agents, including powerful botulism poisons and the germs that cause anthrax. An additional 33,000 pounds of biological agents were placed into bombs to be dropped from airplanes…the result could have been as horrifying as Hiroshima or Nagasaki,” wrote Newsweek’s Christopher Dickey.

He said, “Anthrax and botulism were not the only germ weapons at Saddam’s disposal…seven principal biological agents were actively tested for possible use, including viruses.”

In 1993, the U.S. Office of Technology Assessment reported that 220 pounds of anthrax spores released from a plane flying over Washington D.C. might kill as many as 3 million people. A single Scud missile can carry twice that amount.

Time reported, September 4, 1995, “The Pentagon estimated that just one Scud missile filled with the toxin [botulinum] could contaminate 1,430 square miles.”

John Donnelly of the Knight-Ridder Tribune News noted that “Anthrax is so infectious and lethal that it’s stockpiled by several armies as a biological weapon. An accidental release of anthrax spores from a Soviet research center in 1979 killed hundreds: the Pentagon called it perhaps the world’s most deadly biological agent.”

Since Haiti is one of the hottest areas for infectious anthrax, perhaps it not so illogical that the government sought to stop illegal Haitians, many of whom were known to be HIV positive, from landing on America’s shores.

Those who discount the frightening conditions on this earth today, who argue “there have always been diseases,” or, “there have always been droughts and floods,” simply miss the point.

Yes, there have “always been” diseases, droughts, floods, hurricanes, tornadoes, earthquakes, and other “natural” disasters. But have there “always” been nations feverishly working on stockpiling deadly toxins, anthrax spores, and viruses? Have there always been intercontinental ballistic missiles, and shorter range missiles, like the Chinese silkworm and the Scuds, which can deliver biological warheads hundreds, or thousands, of miles distant?

Meanwhile, the AIDS epidemic continues to spread, most recently making vast inroads into Asia. In the past twenty years, the virus has infected about twenty million people, most of whom are in Africa, but by the year 2000, it is estimated over forty million people will have AIDS!

There is no American who does not know there are political, racial, sociological, and religious consequences to the terrible scourge of AIDS. Too many famous people have died from the disease; too many famous living people have been reported as “HIV positive,” and too many gay rights demonstrations have occurred for anyone to be completely ignorant of the spread of AIDS.

“AIDS was unique. It touched every nerve that polarized Americans: sex, homosexuality, race, Christian family values, drug addiction, and personal versus collective rights and security” (The Coming Plague, p. 319).

The same book reported, “By 1992, they [the World Health Organization] estimated 12.9 million worldwide had been infected with HIV, 2.7 million of whom had already developed AIDS. By the year 2000 a minimum of 38 million [other authorities estimate 40 million] people would have been infected with HIV, according to the Global AIDS Policy Coalition, but a more realistic projection is that this figure will be higher, perhaps up to 110 million. In that scenario, 24 million people would have died of AIDS between 1980 and 2000” (ibid. p. 486).

Today, AIDS is growing more rapidly among Asians than any other race. It is spreading more rapidly in southeast Asia than in any other part of the world.

The World Health Organization in Geneva “estimated the number of AIDS cases worldwide has risen by 60 percent…land predicted a continued explosive increase in Asia.”

Shocking as it may sound, there were those who began spreading the absurd charge that AIDS was being deliberately spread by the government! Some few minorities began saying that the white race was spreading AIDS among them in order to exterminate them! Such is the illogical panic that such dread diseases produces.

It is neither the government nor members of other races who force drug abuse and casual sex upon minorities. These are the two principal causes of the spread of AIDS; actual exchange of human bodily fluids and blood. If both of these major causes were removed; if mankind turned to God, and God’s laws; if all casual sex, homosexuality, and drug abuse were halted tomorrow, then tomorrow would be the last time any new victim contracted AIDS.

Has AIDS always stalked mankind?

Have there always been enough nuclear weapons stockpiled to annihilate over twenty times the population of earth?

As mentioned earlier, the prophecies of Jesus Christ strongly indicate that all the things He said would come upon mankind during the Great Tribulation come at the same time.

“And Earthquakes, in Divers Places”

Christ said the Great Tribulation would also feature earthquakes in different places. We have been in a time of unusual earthquake activity all over the world. Who does not remember the massive quakes that have struck Los Angeles, collapsing major freeways and buildings; San Francisco, where many died, fires burned out of control, freeways collapsed, killing those underneath; in Kobe, Japan, where thousands died, and hundreds of thousands are still homeless.

Earthquakes have struck in Turkey, Peru, the Philippines, the United States, and in many other countries. Today, the “ring of fire,” the continuous volcanic chain of mountains that stretches completely around the world, is becoming very active.

Mount Saint Helens was a major disaster. Other mountains along the American coastal Cascade range are showing signs of restiveness, including famed mount Rainier, overlooking Seattle.

References to Christ’s predictions in His Olivet prophecy are not meant to be like childhood stories of “chicken little,” who ran about saying, “The sky is falling, the sky is falling!” After all, there is nothing anyone can do about an earthquake, even though thousands have moved away from active faults, such as the famed San Andreas fault in California.

Actually, there is little, if anything, that anyone can “do” about any of the chilling warnings Jesus Christ issued except look into one’s own life and make sure we are one of God’s very elect!

God can, and will, protect His own elect from the nightmarish things coming upon this world; specifically, those things to come upon Jacob, the “lost ten tribes” of Israel.

One thing we must not do is set dates, try to engage in elaborate chronological schemes, decide we know within a month or two in advance when major events will occur, and then make foolish decisions, like fleeing to some remote place and becoming “survivalists.”

Religious people have forecast very elaborate prophetic scenarios in the past. Some have actually attempted to foretell the day of Christ’s return, and then, when the “great disappointment” occurred, many people turned away in disgust.

Religious fanatics have caused people to sell their homes and businesses, gather together in some hideout or retreat, and then await some great event—all to no avail.

Christ encourages His servants to watch and to pray always, “that ye might be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man” (Luke 21:36). His emphasis was on watching, on praying, and on being accounted worthy. It is up to God Almighty to provide deliverance or escape.

Near the end of the Olivet prophecy, Jesus said, “And when these things begin to come to pass [all the terrible things He had predicted in this lengthy prophecy], then look up, and lift up your heads [don’t hang them down in terror, fear, or deep depression]; for your redemption draweth nigh!” (Luke 21:28).

The Great tribulation is coming as a result of man’s governments, man’s attempts to govern himself apart from the laws of God. There is nothing “religious” about terrible droughts, or floods, or tornadoes, or hurricanes, or earthquakes, or famines, or disease epidemics. There is nothing “religious” about warfare except that hate-filled religious fanatics sometimes precipitate wars.

There is nothing “cultic” about reading your daily newspapers, watching major television news, reading weekly news magazines, and watching world events, comparing how all this might lead into events Christ said would bring about the Great Tribulation, the Heavenly Signs , the Day of the Lord, and His glorious return to this earth as King of kings and Lord of lords.

Yes, Christ’s prophecies contain a lot of bad news. There is nothing good about droughts, disease, famine, and war! But there is great, wonderful good news beyond it all—the best news mankind could ever hear; that God will intervene in time; that because of the “very elect” of God, mankind will not perish from this earth; God will stop the terrible wars that are coming, saving mankind from himself!

No one in the Intercontinental Church of God, believes we must gather together in some place and “flee” somewhere or other. God was able to protect Israel in their own homes in Goshen!
The main purpose for Christ’s servants to watch is so they can warn others! The warning of Ezekiel, as the “watchman” of Israel, was directly from God, Who said, “As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways; for why will you die, O house of Israel?” (Ezekiel 33:11).

Jesus Christ does not want His servants doing the exact opposite of what He taught! He said, “Therefore take no [anxious] thought, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or, ‘Wherewithal shall we be clothed?’ (For after all these things do the nations seek:) for your Heavenly Father knoweth that ye have need of these things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and His righteousness: and all these things shall be added unto you” (Matthew 6:31,32).

He said His people should face each problem as it comes, on a daily basis, living one day at a time. “Take therefore no thought [anxious thought] for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof” (Matthew 6:34). 

Christ did not contradict Himself!

He said, “Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come. But know this, that if the goodman of the house had known in what watch the thief would come, he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to be broken up. Therefore be ye also ready, for in such an hour as ye think not [when you least expect it!], the Son of man cometh. Who then is a faithful and wise servant, whom his Lord hath made ruler over his household, to give them meat in due season? Blessed is that servant, whom his Lord when He cometh shall find so doing” (Matthew 24:42,46).

What wondrous words! This is the crux of the matter! Jesus Christ does not reveal His plans to His servants so they will flee like bleating sheep in all directions; so they will get “spooky” about signs, or chronology, or history, or elaborate prophetic scenarios, or imagined evils! No, He expects them to be engaged in patient continuance, in “so doing” His work, just like a faithful servant who is over his Lord’s household!

There is no concept here of preparing a cadre of Christ’s “very elect” so they can creep into caves and sit on the sidelines while their families, their friends, their communities, their cities, their states, their nations, and the rest of mankind are enmeshed in the horrors of the Great Tribulation! Christ is not training people so they can retire!

His warning about the terrible things to happen is so we will be watching, praying, living a life of overcoming (Revelation 2:26), and “so doing” the Lord’s work!

His warning is not meant to terrorize His own servants, but to inform them! It is not meant to make them feel time is closing in on them, but to make them understand time is opening up before them; that Christ’s Kingdom is soon to come; that their children and grandchildren will have a fabulous, peaceful, joyous, happy life in the world of tomorrow!

So remember, as you read of the terrible news of man’s misrule; of man’s vanity, jealousy and greed; as you read of the many events which will finally coalesce into the Great Tribulation and Day of the Lord—the end result of it all is the second coming of Jesus Christ! Now, armed with those positive thoughts, take a look at more of this present evil world, and why we may be on the very cusp of the Great Tribulation which is to come! Nuclear Proliferation

With the end of the “cold war,” millions in the western world breathed a collective sigh of relief. At last, a moment-by-moment threat of nuclear annihilation seemed over.

The Soviet Union and the United States signed a series of test-ban treaties. Notwithstanding this, France continued with its nuclear testing in the South Pacific, and China has been conducting nuclear tests all along.

The problem is that as Russia and the U.S. downsize their nuclear arsenals (to about 3,500 warheads each), there is the difficulty in dismantling all those ICBMs and IRBMs—what to do with the deadly materials.

As The Economist reported in June of 1995, “Ways must also be found to get rid of Russia’s 170 tons of weapons-grade plutonium. Russia would like to build a plant to make it into mixed-oxide fuel (MOX) for use in reactors. An alternative idea is to send it to Germany, which has a MOX plant standing idle because of local opposition to it. Might the locals feel better about their plant working for the disarmament cause?” (emphasis mine).

In the spring of 1995, U.S. negotiators finally persuaded 170 countries to sign agreements that would extend indefinitely the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT). However, what worries many western intelligence communities is what happens when a nuclear power, like Russia, begins to disintegrate economically and politically. What happens then to all the tens of thousands of nuclear weapons and thousands of tons of bomb grade plutonium?

U.S. experts in the civilian Ministry of Atomic Energy charge that security is so lax in the former Soviet Union that theft of weapons grade nuclear materials is happening with frightening regularity.

Nearly every U.S. specialist dealing with the issue has his own horror story to tell. When Charles Curtis of the U.S. Energy Department was visiting a building of the Kurchatov Institute in a Moscow suburb, he saw that about 160 pounds of weapons-grade uranium cast into tiny spheres was stored in high-school type lockers, and secured only by a small chain on their handles.

Newsweek magazine reported in July, 1995, that “William Potter, who tracks nuclear thefts for the Monterey Institute of International Studies in California, was transfixed by a Russian Navy investigator’s report on the theft of almost 10 pounds of enriched uranium from one of the Russian Navy’s main storage facilities for nuclear fuel, the Sevmorput shipyard outside Murmansk. The thief had climbed through one of the many holes in the wooden fence surrounding the fuel-storage area, sawed through a padlock on the warehouse door, lifted the lid on a container and broken off three pieces of a submarine reactor core.” The investigator told Potter, “Potatoes were guarded better.”

The article went on to reveal that the CIA has documented thirty-one cases of thefts or seizures, most involving low-grade Russian materials found by German police.

“In Prague last December, police found almost six pounds of highly enriched uranium in the back seat of a Saab; also in the car were a Czech nuclear scientist and two colleagues from Belarus and Ukraine.”

Charles B. Hanley, special correspondent for the Associated Press, reporting from Prague, wrote, “What Czech police seized that day last December, along with three alleged smugglers, was a pair of metal canisters, crudely fashioned, wrapped in plastic, tossed in the Saab’s back seat. They were loaded with six pounds of granulated doom—2.73 kilograms of nearly pure uranium 235, one-third of a Hiroshima bomb’s worth” (reported Sunday, March 26, 1995 in the South Bend Tribune).

Germany has been increasingly in the news as a hot bed of illicit nuclear smuggling. There were 182 cases in Germany alone involving illegal dealing in radioactive materials in 1994. Louis Freeh, FBI director, said nuclear smuggling presents “the greatest long-term threat to the security of the United States.”

Obviously, police and other officials (Germany established a “nuclear office” with a staff of twenty in November, 1994) know they are intercepting only the “top of the iceberg.” Just as in the U.S. drug trade, for every arrest much more material gets through than is intercepted.

Where does it go? The police don’t know. A top German investigator admitted, “In these cases, for this kind of material, there could be buyers. But we don’t know who they are.”

What the government does know is that Libya’s Kadaffy has repeatedly tried to purchase nuclear material; that Iraq may still have secret stores, a secret program; that Pakistan may have material and equipment to produce up to twenty-five nuclear bombs, some within hours; that North Korea may have enough material for two or three nuclear bombs; that Argentina, although a signitor to the non-proliferation treaty, had a nuclear program in its early stages; that Iran is pursuing a secret nuclear program, even though it is believed they are some years away from producing a bomb.

Currently, Russia has about 10,000 nuclear warheads deployed, although they are not, according to treaties, “aimed at the United States.” One wonders how long it takes to program the computerized aiming devices. Minutes? An hour? Of those missiles, 2,560 are aboard submarines, 6,078 are land-based, and 1,410 are on bombers.

The United States has 8,500 deployed, 2,090 on land, and slightly more aboard U.S. nuclear-powered submarines. France, China, and Britain all have nuclear weapons deployed both on land and aboard submarines and bombers, and Israel has an estimated fifty to one hundred nuclear bombs capable of being fired from Jericho I and II rockets. India has the capability for eighty nuclear missiles with their Agni/Prithvi rockets, and Pakistan is believed to have capability for fifteen to twenty, using Chinese-made M-11 missiles.

What concerns western governments most today is not a nuclear showdown between superpowers, as it used to be during the Cold War, but that ingredients for an A-bomb could leak out of Russia (and probably already have), and fall into the hands of terrorists.

As the beleaguered population of Jerusalem and Tel Aviv well know, some terrorists cheerfully turn themselves into human bombs, blowing themselves to bits along with their victims. With nuclear components now capable of being carried about in a couple of suitcases, the day of the deliberate triggering of an atomic bomb by terrorists may not be many years into the future.

Officials know that the long road to building nuclear bombs via breeding reactors and enrichment plants is a very difficult one. But the theft of primary materials, which have already been turned into weapons-grade by the former Soviet Union, short-circuits any such process. As Newsweek’s John Barry said, “history has turned the nuclear threat on its head, and the terrorist scenario has become frighteningly real.”

Man has never invented a weapon he has not used. Though the sheer horror of atomic weapons brought about nuclear stalemate, the insane arms race proceeded to bankrupt the Soviet Union, and, if the truth were known, to catapult the United States from the world’s greatest creditor nation to the world’s greatest debtor. Countless hundreds of billions have been spent, not only by the two superpowers of the ’50s to the ’90s, but by France, Britain, and many other nations. For decades, American governments frantically spent billions on ever more efficient weapons of all kinds.

Each new development in missile, aircraft, submarine, or any other kind of military technology by the Soviet Union brought about an instant demand for matching technology in the west, and vice-versa. For decades, ever more effective weapons were developed. Today, abandoned missile silos, huge weaponry boneyards in America’s western desert loaded with thousands of obsolete aircraft, rusting or dismantled aircraft carriers, and dangerous stockpiles of poison gas, along with other chemical or biological agents, gives testimony to the insanity of the arms race. It was the Reagan administration’s intent to spend billions on anti-missile technology (billed “Star Wars” by the media) that finally made Soviet leaders realize they could no longer keep matching vast U.S. expenditures (on borrowed money) for military research and development.

Today, with the vast arsenal of nuclear weapons of the former Soviet Union now in the hands of several different sovereign nations; with more and more nations gaining nuclear technology; with illegal trade in nuclear components occurring with frightening regularity; with third-world countries like Pakistan arming themselves with nuclear bombs; and with the specter of nuclear weapons of suitcase-size in the hands of fanatical terrorists, there is little reason to believe the threat of nuclear attack is over.

Again, there is nothing whatsoever you and I can “do” about such things. We can only do as Christ commands, “watch ye therefore, and pray always that ye might be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of man” (Luke 21:36). We can only write, and speak, and preach, and talk to others, trying to inform them, trying to convey not only a witness and a warning, but the great good news of Christ’s gospel of the Kingdom as well!

Following His prophecies of war, famine, disease, and religious martyrdom, Jesus Christ became very specific about a major sign for which His servants are to watch. 

“When Ye Therefore Shall See the Abomination of Desolation”

Christ and His disciples were seated on the Mount of Olives, just across from the temple mount. They only had to turn their heads to see the temple, gleaming in the distance.

There could have been no doubt whatsoever in the minds of His disciples what He meant when he spoke of the “holy place.”

Notice: “When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place (whoso readeth, let him understand:) [Matthew inserted parenthetically] “Then let them which be in Judaea [the Roman province around Jerusalem] flee into the mountains: Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house: Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes. And woe to them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days! But pray ye that your flight [those who are in Judaea; those who would WALK to safety] be not in the winter, neither on the Sabbath day: For then shall be GREAT TRIBULATION, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be” (Matthew 24:15-21).

As Matthew warned, let us understand what Jesus said.

Daniel’s prophecy spoke of Antiochus Epiphanes who appears as a type of the coming beast power of prophecy. Daniel wrote, “And arms shall stand on his part, and they shall pollute the sanctuary of strength [in the temple of God], and shall take away the daily sacrifice [which the Levites offered in the temple], and they shall place the abomination that maketh desolate” (Daniel 11:31).

Antiochus occupied Jerusalem, then sacrificed swine to “Jupiter Olympus” in the holy of holies, thus fulfilling in prior type the prophecy of the setting up of “the abomination of desolation.”

An abomination is something that is detestable, despicable in God’s sight. As a result, it brings about “desolation,” or waste, and destruction. Kitto’s Bible Cyclopedia says, “The abomination of the desolator, which, without doubt, means the idol or idolatrous apparatus which the desolator of Jerusalem should establish in the holy place. This appears to have been a prediction of the pollution of the temple by Antiochus Ephipanes, who caused an idolatrous altar to be built on the altar or burnt offerings, whereupon unclean things were offered to Jupiter Olympius, to whom the temple itself was dedicated. Josephus distinctly refers to this as the accomplishment of Daniel’s prophecy” (Kittos’ Encyclopedia of Biblical Literature, Vol. 1, p. 22).

Of the later typical fulfillment following the time of Christ, Kitto wrote that the setting up of Roman standards over the eastern gate leading to the temple (which had been destroyed) and the soldiers offering sacrifices to them constituted an “abomination of desolation.”

“Nor was this [the roman standards] the last appearance of the ‘abomination of desolation,’ in the holy place for, not only did Hadrian, with studied insult to the Jews, set up the figure of a boar over the Bethlehem gate of the city [which was then named “Aelia Capitolina”] which rose upon the site and ruins of Jerusalem, but he erected a temple to Jupiter upon the site of the Jewish temple, and caused an image of himself to be set up in the part which answered to the most holy place” (ibid. p. 23).

Daniel’s prophecy is one of the most intricately detailed in all the bible. The eleventh chapter is the longest single prophecy in the Bible. Toward the end of the eleventh chapter, which leads into the prophecy of the Great Tribulation (Daniel 12:1 with Matthew 24:21,22), the time of the end is portrayed.

Daniel wrote, “And at the time of the end shall the king of the south push at him [the king of the north]: and the king of the north shall come against him like a whirlwind, with chariots, and with horsemen, and with many ships: and he shall enter into the countries, and shall overflow and pass over” (Daniel 11:40).

The prior typical fulfillment of these verses did not take place “at the time of the end”! That is our time, now! From the time Daniel’s eleventh chapter introduces Antiochus Epiphanes, the personality of the “vile person” who is the “king of the north” never changes. Antiochus succeeded Heliodorus, who was a tax collector. Hitler succeeded the “Hohenzollern” family of Germany. The name “Hohenzollern” means “tax collector.”

Speaking of Antiochus, who seems like a type of Adolph Hitler, Daniel wrote, “And in his [Heliodorus’] estate shall stand up a vile person, to whom they shall not give the honor of the kingdom: but he shall come in peaceably, and obtain the kingdom by flatteries” (Daniel 11:21).

Hitler did not obtain the chancellorship of Germany by a military coup, but by his flattering rhetoric about “pure Aryan blood” and the Germans being a “super race.” The German aristocracy and most of the higher officers in the German army loathed Hitler in the beginning.

In a shadowy forerunner of Daniel’s prophecy about the “king of the north” moving into Palestine in a war against the “king of the south,” Mussolini invaded Ethiopia in 1935. Within only a few years, Hitler’s armies invaded north Africa, and Rommel’s panzers were deep inside Egypt, heading toward Alexandria. The specter of the axis powers controlling Middle-eastern oil and the Suez canal, so vital to Britain’s survival, brought about the joint efforts of the U.S. and Britain to drive Rommel from Egypt and Africa. Alexander’s British Eighth Army began pushing Rommel back out of Egypt; Americans and free French landed in north Africa, and began fighting their way toward the east. Eventually, the Germans were driven from Africa.

Just as the destruction of the temple and Jerusalem in A.D. 71 was a forerunner of the end-time destruction Jesus prophesied, so these events were but a forerunner of the end-time prophecy of Daniel.

Notice that the king of the north is to invade Palestine. “He shall enter also into the glorious land, and many countries shall be overthrown: but these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom [Turkey], and Moab [probably Iraq], and the chief of the children of Ammon [Amman is the capital city of Jordan]. He shall stretch forth his hand also upon the countries: and the land of Egypt shall not escape. But he shall have power over the treasures of gold and silver, and over all the precious things of Egypt: and the Libyans and the Ethiopians shall be at his steps [on his borders]. But tidings out of the east and out of the north shall trouble him: [eastward lies China, and northward lies Russia]: therefore he shall go forth with great fury to destroy, and utterly to make away many. And he shall plant the tabernacles of his palace [his headquarters; his principal seat of government] between the seas [the Mediterranean and the Dead Sea] in the glorious holy mountain [Jerusalem]: yet he shall come to his end, and none shall help him” (Daniel 11:40-45).

It is not clear just yet who is meant by the “king of the south.” At this moment in time, with a new government in Israel, and an emergency Arab summit meeting just concluded in Cairo, it appears Hosni Mubarak of Egypt is attempting to emerge as power broker among the Arab nations.

Obviously, the “king of the north” invades the Middle East, overruns Palestine, sets up his principal place of government in Jerusalem, and also invades Egypt. Yet, it appears Turkey, perhaps Lebanon, Iraq, and Jordan, are not involved.

When are these events to occur?

“And at the time of the end,” says Daniel. It is men who divided the Bible into chapters and verses. Daniel 12 continues right on: “And at that time [the time of the invasion of the middle east by this northern power] shall Michael stand up, the great prince which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of trouble [the Great Tribulation], such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time: and at that time thy people shall be delivered, every one that shall be found written in the book” (verse1).

Christ spoke of a time of trouble that was worse than any time in history; worse than any time before or since. The time of trouble spoken of by Daniel takes place in the Mideast—in Jerusalem, and in Palestine! It is a time of massive invasion by the king of the north who sets up his “palaces” or his principal place of government in Jerusalem.

Notice the twofold nature of Christ’s prophecy about the specific great events which signal the beginning of the Great Tribulation: “When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place…then let them which be in Judaea flee into the mountains…for then shall be Great Tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be” (Matthew 24:15-22).

Then, Christ said, “And when ye see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh” (Luke 21:20). Armies cause the desolation, or destruction. a great false prophet will come on the scene, and an idolatrous abomination is to be set up under the protection of powerful military forces.

Notice, in Luke’s parallel account of Christ’s Olivet prophecy, that religious martyrdom immediately precedes the setting up of the abomination of desolation and the surrounding of Jerusalem by powerful armies. Read Matthew 24:9-11 with Luke 21:16-20.

Notice that it is when the abomination is set up and when armies surround Jerusalem that they which live in Judaea are warned to “flee into the mountains” (Matthew 24:16; Luke 21:21).

This does not say to people in Spokane, Washington, Ft. Myers, Florida, or Ojai, California, that they are to flee to the Jordanian desert. It specifically says “they which be in Judaea.”

Now what events would bring about the occupation of Israel—not by nearby Arab states, who themselves are invaded by occupied by the king of the north—but by a northern power, who is one of the successors to the “beast” power of history?

Remember, two key events are to take place:

(1) An abominable, blasphemous, idolatrous thing is to be set up “in the holy place,” probably meaning the temple in Jerusalem.

(2) Armies will surround Jerusalem after having attacked “many countries,” including Egypt.

But before an “abomination of desolation” can stand “in the holy place,” there must be a holy place!

Today, the famous Dome of the Rock stands on the Temple Mount. Adjacent to it is the Al Aksa mosque. We have written extensively, as well as produced many television programs, about the avowed intention of various Jewish religious organizations to build the third Temple.

I have in my possession a finely-printed, glossy, full-color table-top book entitled, The Odyssey of the Third Temple. On the overleaf, one reads, “The Odyssey of the third Temple emphasizes the central role which the Holy Temple occupies in the life of the Jewish people and all mankind…It also clearly demonstrates how the commandment of God to build the temple is the central theme of Judaism. More than any other previously published work, ‘Odyssey’ proves that the eternal commandment to build the Holy Temple is alive and well in Jerusalem…waiting to be fulfilled by the Jewish people.”

There are hundreds of illustrations; pictures of many kinds of pots and brazen vessels already constructed for temple worship; artist’s renderings of sacrifices in progress; even a list of suggested donations and costs for various objects, so that Zionist Jews can contribute to the building of a temple.        That this is a serious effort to build a temple is strikingly obvious from this very expensive book. On page 104 it says, “The Temple Institute of Jerusalem was founded on the principle of action. Its goal is to provide a basis in research, planning and infrastructure for the third temple.”

Detailed are plans for restoring Levitical music and musical instruments, construction of special vessels, the weaving of priestly garments (much of this is on display in Jerusalem), the purchase of the precious stones and metals for the breastplate of the high priest, and the creation of the “book of the sanctuary.”

The book is obviously a very impressive attempt at fund-raising. At its conclusion it states, “Therefore, whoever is inspired and motivated to do something for the Temple, may bring the message of the Temple Institute to the attention of others: that an opportunity exists to contribute towards the hour of building the Temple in Jerusalem” (p. 110, emphasis mine).

The institute was created by Rabbi Yisrael Ariel, who served in the paratrooper brigade which liberated the Temple Mount in the Six-Day war of 1967, and was one of the first soldiers to reach the Mount.

Of course this institute is not by any means the only Jewish organization urging that a third temple be built. When Gershom Solomon (whose interview appears in the brochure, Will a Temple Soon Be Built in Jerusalem?) attempted with some of his followers to lay a symbolic cornerstone some years ago, riots broke out. Many young Arabs were killed, and the infamous “Intifada”, or Arab boycott of Israel, began.

Along with it, many acts of terrorism occurred, and continue to occur to this day.

The five tons of explosives that were detonated in Saudi Arabia recently illustrates the point.

Though the motives of the terrorists who bombed a building housing U.S. Air Force personnel in Saudi Arabia may be mixed, there is little doubt that the U.S. is seen by Islamic extremists as the “great Satan,” while Israel is characterized as the “little Satan.” As mentor of Israel, and sponsor of democracy throughout the world, the U.S. is viewed with virulent hatred by such extremists.

Terrorists who bombed the U.S. Marine Corps barracks in Lebanon years ago succeeded in driving the U.S. from Lebanon. This stark lesson has not been lost on the terrorists of today. They actually believe that governments can be forced to bow to their will, change policies, abandon allies, trade land for peace—whatever, if they can make day to day life miserable enough for their enemies.

The two major targets for terrorist attacks today are Israel and the United States.

Do not doubt that the bombing in Saudi Arabia will strengthen, rather than weaken, Benjamin Netanyahu’s insistence on “security first” in any peace negotiations in the Middle East.

A New Government in Israel

Benjamin Netanhayu was elected as Israel’s prime minister because he essentially promised the Israeli people four things.

(1) The future of Jerusalem is not negotiable. Jerusalem will remain an integrated city, the capital of Israel.

(2) The Golan Heights (above the Sea of Galilee, along Israel’s border with Syria) will remain in Israeli hands. They are not negotiable.

(3) The Jewish settlements (on the West Bank and elsewhere, towns and villages built to house immigrants in what was once Jordanian or Syrian-held land) will not be abandoned, but will be continued.

(4) There will never be a separate, sovereign “Palestinian State.”

Yet, the so-called “peace process” begun by assassinated former Prime Minister Ytzak Rabin was leading, in a slow-paced, steady manner, toward ultimate negotiations on every one of these points. The entire process was aimed at “trading land for peace,” just as Israel gave back the Sinai to Egypt.

In a recent emergency summit of Arab leaders in Cairo, each one of the four points mentioned above were absolutely insisted upon by all the Islamic nations.

(1) They demand that a sovereign, separate Palestinian State be created.

(2) They demand that the Old City of Jerusalem become its capital.

(3) They demand that existing settlements be abandoned and destroyed, and that no new settlements be constructed.

(4) They demand that Israel return the Golan heights to Syria.

In an interview with CNN, Egypt’s President Hosni Mubarak emphasized each one of these four points. Though he claimed to be “optimistic” regarding Netanyahu’s new government; though he spoke of meeting with President Clinton, and, later, with Netanyahu himself, he nevertheless made it clear that all the Arab nations are united in their demands regarding those four points.

One of the leading spokespersons for the PLO, Hannah Ashwari, was even more direct. She told CNN that it was “absolutely inevitable” that Jerusalem would become the capital of a Palestinian State.

An official high in the Syrian government said, “We have been weak. But we shall become stronger. And when we are strong enough, we shall force the Israelis to withdraw from the Golan.”

Strikingly, while the Arab summit was in progress in Cairo, the European Union issued a plain warning to Israel’s new government that the “peace process must continue!”

This is new!

Never before have you heard that Europe is now beginning to use political muscle, becoming involved in events in Israel and the Mideast!

Study those four points above. Wildly cheering Israelis elected a new prime minister because of his very specific promises involving those four points! Tens of thousands of Russian immigrants now form a significant voting bloc.

Those Russian Jews want the settlements to continue.

Two very large Jewish religious parties gained a significant number of seats in the Israeli Parliament, the “Knesset.” Because of his narrow margin of victory, Netanyahu will be forced to listen to them.

The world needs to recognize, as it speaks vainly of “peace, peace, when there is no peace” (Jeremiah 8:11), that there is war ahead in the Middle East!

Now, what great events could bring about the building of a temple? What would cause a European power to intervene in the Middle East? Who, or what power, will set up the abomination of desolation?

The Specter of War

The major industrial powers of the world anxiously want peace in the Middle East. Is there anyone who does not remember the apocalyptic scenes on global television of hundreds of Kuwaiti oil wells burning; of vast seas of oil dumped into the Gulf, killing fish and birds, befouling miles and miles of shoreline, threatening fresh water plants?

The last thing in the world the European Union wants is warfare in the Mideast! Major pipelines run from Saudi Arabia across Jordan and Israel to the Mediterranean. Oil is produced in the Sinai, in all the Gulf states. One of the most chilling scenarios in the past years, including the protracted war between Iraq and Iran, was the sinking of a supertanker in the narrow Straits of Hormuz, blocking tanker access to Gulf ports.

The United States knows, as does Europe, that if Israeli citizens were to die in chemical, biological, or nuclear attack, Israel would retaliate with nuclear weapons!

Many years ago, a retired Israeli Air Force general was overlooking Jerusalem as his aircraft came in for a landing. He was being interviewed by a journalist who recorded his words. In effect, he said, “Before we Jews would ever again be herded into cattle cars to be taken to the ovens, we would pull down the temple of humanity!”

Obviously, he was referring to blinded Samson, who pulled down the pillars supporting a large building where his tormentors stood, jeering. By this suicidal act, Samson killed more people in his death than he did during his life (Judges 16:30).

Obviously, he was implying Israel, through the use of nuclear weapons, has the capacity to do just that!

It is now known that Saddam Hussein did possess chemical and biological weapons. Captured Iraqi documents and information from high-level defectors has corroborated this. It is also known, in spite of U.S. media reports to the contrary, that Saddam had warheads containing biological and chemical materials affixed to Scuds, and to aerial bombs.

What is not known is how many other Islamic states, from Saudi Arabia to Libya, from Syria to Iran, have their own stocks of such horrifying weapons.

As was covered much earlier, if a single light plane, flying over a large city, could cause the death of countless thousands by spraying anthrax, then what could missiles do if they showered hundreds of canisters that were set to explode in the air over major population centers?

Today, the Arab nations act, in their pronouncements and warnings, as if Netanyahu had not been elected! Their demands are that he continue the very peace process of his predecessor, when his campaign rhetoric was very much against that process!

Each one of the Arab spokespersons interviewed reiterated the same four points mentioned above! Yet, it is the utter intractability of the Israeli government on those points which forms the very basis of Netanyahu’s new government!

Do you see any room for negotiation in those stated positions?

Obviously not. Yet, all speak of “peace,” and say they are “optimistic.” Arab leaders, following their major summit in Cairo, issued statements about the “peace process” which sounded for all the world like they believed Perez had won, instead of Netanyahu. It was as if they brushed aside the very campaign issues that propelled Netanhayu into office, and began making it known they expected the new Israeli government to continue the previous government’s policies.

They say “peace,” and talk of the “peace process.” But, with the intractable demands by the PLO and all the Arab states that Israel “trade land for peace,” and Israel saying “not one inch!” there is little hope for peace in the region.

Rather, it is only a matter of time until war breaks out once again in the Middle East.

How will it come? Almost weekly, we read of Israeli Air Force planes and Israeli artillery retaliating against Hezbollah villages and camps in southern Lebanon, after ambushes of Israeli soldiers or terrorist attacks against civilians are carried out. It is as if a state of war already exists, but in a limited sense.

If a major war were to begin, and if, this next time, chemical or biological (or both) weapons were used against Israel, there would very likely be nuclear retaliation by Israel against its enemies.

In a frenzy of anti-Arab hatred, the mosques in Jerusalem could be dynamited and bulldozed to the ground.

In a national outcry, mourning thousands and tens of thousands of their dead, the populace might heed the constant demand by several of the religious parties (who now have a much stronger voice in the parliament) that a temple be built!

The deeply wounded nation might well attempt to repeat the example of Josiah; turn back to the God of Israel as best they know how, in hopes that God will deliver them from certain destruction!

In the event of a large-scale war against Israel, it is quite possible frenzied Israelis might destroy the mosques. That would so enrage all the Arab states that the entire Middle East would erupt in large-scale warfare; this time, in an attempt to literally annihilate the Jews, drive them “into the sea,” as many Arab states, particularly the Palestinians, have said ever since the Jewish state was established in 1948.

It is also possible that a temple could be built alongside the mosques, leaving them relatively undisturbed.

It is also possible that a symbolic corner stone could be laid, and that a dedication ceremony could occur. Even this event could trigger a massed Arab military response.

Whether war comes from an Arab attack from without, triggered by Israeli actions (or inaction, in the case of “land for peace”), or whether the Israelis themselves decide to drive deeper into southern Lebanon, war will eventually come to the Middle East—to Jerusalem—again!

Jesus Christ said so!

How the Great Tribulation Will Begin

In the event of major chemical, biological, and/or nuclear attacks in the Middle East, the whole world would be involved!

Europe depends to a large extent on Mideastern oil, just as does the United States, Japan, and much of the industrialized world!

Faced with disruption or destruction of oil-producing and shipping facilities, the major powers would be forced to intervene.

The United States, even today, could not risk a unilateral “invasion” of any Arab state. George Bush’s “coalition” was a very risky, very delicate matter of balancing many different suspicions and hatreds; of extremely difficult negotiations. Egyptian forces, for example, were not placed where they would be killing brother Arabs. Though Kuwaiti forces were allowed to enter Kuwait City first, other Arab forces did not invade Kuwait, or Iraq.

Major British forces were involved in the Gulf War. Germany sent minesweepers to the eastern Mediterranean, and contributed other token forces, but was not involved either in the bombing campaign or in the ground war.

Next time, it will be different. Within only a few years, we may see another terrible war in the Mideast. This time with European forces intervening—perhaps occupying Israel and attacking Egypt (Daniel 11:40-45)—in order to prevent a global nuclear war from breaking out, or halting a war in the region after nuclear weapons have once again been used.

Which nation could gain the most from appearing as the savior of Israel but Germany, as if in atonement for the holocaust of World War II?

Which nations could guarantee the safety of the world’s most prestigious and most popular religious figure, if he decided to go to Jerusalem?

What if this “vicar of Christ,” who would be viewed as a “prince of peace” were to ensconce himself in a newly-built temple? What if he were to have such power that great signs, wonders, and miracles were performed? What if his very presence there halted a major war already in progress? Read all of 2 Thessalonians 2 slowly and carefully.

Paul wrote, “Let no man deceive you by any means: for that day [the coming of Jesus Christ] shall not come, except there come a falling away first, and that man of sin be revealed, the son of perdition; Who opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is worshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God shewing himself that he is God” (2 Thessalonians 2:1-4).

The “man of sin” who claims to “be God” is the prophesied “antichrist,” the great “false prophet” who is in collusion with the beast power. He is prophesied to “sit in the temple of God, shewing himself that he is God!”

The “little horn” of Daniel 7 is the very same person as the antichrist, or the “man of sin,” called the “son of perdition.”

Daniel saw the fourth beast as “dreadful and terrible, and strong exceedingly; and it had great iron teeth: it devoured and brake in pieces, and stamped the residue with the feet of it: and it was diverse from all the beasts that were before it; and it had ten horns” (Daniel 7:7). This was the last of the four great world-ruling empires depicted in Daniel 2 and Daniel 7. It is the same beast as that of Revelation 13, which embodies all the strongest characteristics of its predecessors.

A vast majority of Bible scholars know that Daniel’s prophecy identified the ancient Babylonian, Persian, Greco/Macedonian, and Roman empires. Most of them know that the successive stages of the so-called “Holy Roman Empire” are meant by the ten successive (not contemporaneous) governments of that system revealed in Daniel 7:7-10.

The little horn is a great church/state religious system, called “Babylon the Great” (Revelation 17:1-5). It is a mystery religion, one that is actually a state, and has concourse with many nations.

Notice: “I considered the horns [symbols of governments], and, behold, there came up among them another little horn, before whom there were three of the first horns plucked up by the roots [the Ostrogoths, Vandals and Heruli were overthrown by the Vatican]: and, behold, in this horn were eyes like the eyes of man, and a mouth speaking great things. I beheld till the thrones were cast down, and the Ancient of Days did sit [a picture of the second coming of Christ, and the judgment of God], whose garment was white as snow, and the hair of His head like the pure wool: His throne was like the fiery flame, and His wheels are burning fire. A fiery stream issued and came forth from before Him: thousand thousands ministered unto Him, and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before Him. The judgment was set, and the books were opened” (Daniel 7:8-10).

When does the little horn speak great things? Notice that this prophecy leads directly to the time of the second coming of Christ!

John wrote of the same thing: “And I beheld another beast coming up out of the earth; and he had two horns like a lamb, and he spake as a dragon” (Revelation 13:11).

This lamb-like beast speaks as Satan, yet “appears” Christ-like. It masquerades as “Christian,” but is led by Satan.

“And he exerciseth all the power of the first beast [he uses the power of the state—military and political] before him, and causeth the earth and them which dwell therein to worship the first beast, whose deadly wound was healed” (Revelation 13:11,12).

The deadly wound was the collapse of Rome in A.D. 476. The “deadly wound was healed” when the empire was restored by Belasarius in A.D. 554.

This Christ-like beast is the same as the little horn which speaks great things, the same as the “man of sin” of 2 Thessalonians the second chapter, the same as the Antichrist.

Notice: “And he [the lamb-like beast which speaks as Satan] doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men, And deceiveth them that dwell on the earth by the means of those miracles which he had power to do in the sight of the beast…” (Revelation 13:13,14).

Just as Daniel’s prophecy shows the little horn to be destroyed by Christ at His coming, so Paul wrote, of this man of sin who will appear in the temple of God, “And then shall that wicked [one] be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the Spirit of His mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of His coming. Even him, whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved” (2 Thessalonians 2:8-10).

This great false prophet is seized by Jesus Christ Himself at His second coming, and thrown into Gehenna fire!

“And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and their armies, gathered together to make war against Him that sat on the horse [Jesus Christ], and against His army. And the beast [the coming military dictator over the final ten nations comprising the beast power—see Revelation 17:12-14] was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone” (Revelation 19:19,20).

Obviously, the final fulfillment of the “abomination of desolation” will be in human form, not as an idol, or the sacrifice of unclean animals.

This time, it is a false prophet who shall “think to change times and laws,” and who has a “mouth speaking great things,” who will have the power to call down fire from heaven to deceive the world. The blasphemous abomination which will stand in the holy place where it ought not will be the little horn, the Antichrist, the false prophet who is in collusion with the beast power.

When this occurs, millions will believe it is God incarnate who sits in the Temple; millions will be deceived. All but the “very elect,” that is. Such an occurrence is not something which would affect the United States alone. All of Europe, all of Central and South America, all of the nominal “Christian” world would be directly affected. Hundreds of millions of those who have been among the protesting “daughters” of the great harlot church (Revelation 17:5-18) will recant when they see such things!

Millions will then go right back into the great false church, believing that God incarnate is sitting on a throne in the Temple! These events will appear to be as a wondrous salvation to the millions. They will not view it as an evil thing, but as if God Himself had intervened to prevent the annihilation of Israel, and of the entire human race!

This event would occur as a move toward halting massive war in the Mideast. It would occur as a move to save the remaining Israeli population. It would occur as a move toward world peace. This great false prophet would be looked upon as the “Prince of Peace” by adoring millions in many, many nations.

By the time this occurs, the United States of America may be so deeply in the grips of the many other phases of the Great Tribulation that it will be unable to intervene, militarily, or in any other way.

Something is going to bring about the setting up of the abomination of desolation, which is twofold—an abomination standing in the holy place, and “Jerusalem surrounded by armies.”

Perhaps the aforementioned scenarios will not play out as it appears they might. They are certainly not the only possibilities. But major events seem heading in such directions, and it behooves God’s people to watch conditions; to be alert, to be aware, and to be engaged in the work of God of witness and warning so that others might also be aware, and take the actions in their own personal lives that are necessary.

No one needs to know dozens of intricate details about Bible prophecy in order to receive salvation. Salvation does not depend upon a vast knowledge of prophecy. But it was important for the prophets to know! It was important, and is, for the watchmen to know!

Only if people can know what is coming will they take the necessary actions in their own lives, with their families and loved ones. Only when people are shocked into an awareness of how near we are to the most tumultuous time in world history will they begin to call out to God in heart-felt repentance, and seek His loving mercy. 

What Events Might Cause War in the Mideast?

Perhaps a temple will be built prior to an outbreak of another major war in the Mideast. On the other hand, perhaps the outbreak of war will bring about the building of a temple, as mentioned before.

Now think about what has occurred in Saudi Arabia, where the most massive truck bomb in history killed nineteen Americans and injured hundreds more. Though four different groups claimed responsibility for the blast, both Saudi and American officials believed it was the work of Islamic extremists, probably from the Shi’ite branch of Islam.

Suddenly, the Saudi government shocked the United States and Israel when Crown Prince Abdullah, Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler (King Fahd is 75, and ailing), flew to Damascus for two days of meetings with the presidents of Syria and Egypt.

This surprising development occurred immediately following Benjamin Netanyahu’s narrow victory in Israel.

It was seen as an attempt to resurrect the old axis of the largest Arab powers set up by Egypt’s President Nasser in the late 1950s, called the “United Arab Republic,” or the UAR.

Quoting Yaha Sadowski of the Brookings Institute, the Washington Times said, “The old Saudi-Egyptian-Syrian axis that launched the 1973 Yom Kippur War has been reconstructed, not to wage war but to expedite the Israel-Arab peace process.”

The three Arab leaders, in a plain-language warning to Israel, said, “Any retraction by Israel on the basis of the peace process or going back on its commitments and pledges that have been reached…represents a real threat of returning the region to the cycle of tension and violence.”

Abdullah is also exploring improved relations with Iraq as a counterbalance to the threat from Shi’ite Iran. About10 percent of Saudi Arabia’s population is Shi’ite Muslim, and they live in the oil-producing eastern regions of the country.

The speed with which the Arab summit in Cairo was set up was another surprise for both the United States and Israel. Saudi Arabia has previously kept a low profile in international diplomacy.

At the present time, it is not clear who will emerge to fulfil the Biblically-prophesied king of the south of Daniel 11. Neither is the king of the north clearly revealed as yet.

Still, with movement toward a new pan-Arab union of some kind, with the European Union issuing warnings to the Israeli government, and with the United States in the awkward position of maintaining a military presence in Saudi Arabia while at the same time heavily supporting Israel, it will not be very long before U.S. leadership in the region will be replaced by other powers.

How will the Great Tribulation begin?

It will begin exactly as Jesus Christ said it would, with droughts, famines, disease epidemics, wars, and rumors of wars. The preliminary part of the Great Tribulation may already have begun! “Tribulation” means “trouble.” A time of great world trouble, such as was never before. Review all you have read. Think about what you see and hear in your own nightly news.

It yet remains for the detailed, specific things Jesus predicted to come to pass. At this moment, there is no temple in Jerusalem. Just now, we do not yet know who will emerge as the king of the south or the king of the north of Daniel 11:40-45. At the moment, though Europe is united in many ways, it certainly is not a military dictatorship. At the moment, there is no abomination of desolation standing in the holy place. At the moment, there are no armies surrounding Jerusalem (Luke 21:20). Yet, many, many other events which Jesus described seem to be taking place, mounting up, growing in proportion. The potential for major war in the Middle East is growing rapidly, as is the potential for war in Korea and elsewhere.

“Then Lift Up Your Heads…”

In spite of these terrifying conditions all around us, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ tells us “see that ye be not troubled, for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet” (Matthew 24:6).

As I have researched and written this booklet, I have come to know more than ever before the feelings of some of God’s prophets of old who were astonished, and who rendered physically sick at what God revealed to them! the horrors of drought, famine, disease and war are extremely depressing—just as nearly all of our nightly news is depressing!

Somehow, God’s people must resist this feeling of woe, hopelessness, and depression! We must be joyfully obedient to Christ’s command, “see that ye be not troubled!”

Jesus also said, “And when these things [the events of the “Great Tribulation”] begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads, for your redemption draweth nigh!” (Luke 21:28).

When we are “down,” we tend to look down. We walk with stooped shoulders, downcast. But Jesus Christ tells us no matter how horrible the events around us, we should look up; hold our heads up, square our shoulders, have courage and faith to know that all will be well in the long run.

The old saying, “it is always darkest just before the dawn,” should be applied. things are going to get much, much worse in our old sin-sick world before they get any better. All these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet!

Now, do you know which specific prophecy Jesus Christ said would be fulfilled just before the tribulation?

Notice what He said, “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come” (Matthew 24:14).

Notice that this verse immediately precedes His warning about the abomination of desolation, yet comes after His predictions of wars, droughts, famines, disease, and religious persecution!

Paraphrased, Jesus said, “And this joyous, happy announcement of My coming world-ruling government shall be proclaimed all over the world, and then the end of man’s civilization will come.”

Jesus Christ is coming to rule this world with a rod of iron (Revelation 2:26; 3:21; 20:4; 19:11-21). He will intervene just before mankind would completely exterminate himself in a mindless frenzy of chemical, biological and nuclear warfare!

“And except those days [the terrible days of tribulation] should be shortened [the time cut short, stopped!], there should no flesh be saved: but for the elect’s sake those days shall be shortened” (Matthew 24:22).

How we should praise God for those great words of encouragement, for Christ’s promise that His elect will be spared from these horrifying things to come!

There is not one person in the United States or the entire British Commonwealth of nations out of one thousand who truly knows and understands what is coming on our nations; on Israel, the Mideast, and the world!

The millions are in complete ignorance of the meaning of the times in which we live!

Recently, when Islamic terrorists blasted the lives out of nineteen Americans and injured hundreds in Saudi Arabia, a courageous sergeant, stationed like a “watchman” on the roof, looked down and saw the big tanker truck pull up, followed by a car. He saw the men hurry out of the truck and jump in the car, and saw the car speed away.

Frantically, he ran down into the building, began yelling at the top of his lungs, banging on doors, trying to alert and warn his fellow service personnel. “BOMB! BOMB!” he screamed out. Some few responded, but he only had time to cover about the top three floors before the huge blast shattered the night, blew him off his feet, and killed and injured hundreds!

What would you do if your neighbor’s house were on fire, and you thought they were asleep in an upstairs bedroom with their children? Would not you care deeply? Would not you want to warn them of what was happening?

So it is with God’s people who are deeply dedicated to the “work of the watchman,” who believe God’s work must be done before the end of our civilization as we know it.

What are their motives?

As God told Ezekiel, “As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye! turn ye from your evil ways; for why will ye die, O House of Israel?” (Ezekiel 33:11).

Their motives are completely selfless! They are gripped by spiritual zeal, an urgency to do God’s work! They know it is a saving work, a work that urges people to repent, to be baptized, to receive God’s Holy Spirit, and become His begotten child—but also a work which urgently seeks to save their families, their precious children and grandchildren alive!

They know Christ said, “Watch ye therefore, and pray always [pray without ceasing, daily prayer], that ye may be accounted worthy to escape all these things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man” (Luke 21:36).

Yes, how wonderful it would be to be able to escape all these things that are to happen—to have protection for ourselves and our loved ones!

God promises to His elect, “A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee. Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked. Because thou hast made the Eternal, which is my Refuge, even the Most High, thy Habitation; There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling” (Psalm 91:7-10).

Christ said, “And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake, but there shall not an hair of your head perish” (Luke 21:17,18). 

So what are we to do?

First, we need to know that we are repentant before God. We need to know He has begotten us as His own child. We need to know we are a part of His work. We need to know we are among those “whom his Lord when He cometh shall find so doing” (Matthew 24:46).

Clearly, God promises each and every one of us we will not be tested or tried “above that we are able to bear” (1 Corinthians. 10:13), but will make a way of escape for each of His people (Revelation 3:10).

There is not one thing you or I can “do” about the situation in the Middle East, or about drought, or famine, or plague, or war. We cannot influence government, and of course we do not attempt to do so.

But we can do the work of the watchman! We can be like the courageous sergeant who shouted out a warning to his fellows; who urgently, desperately tried to save as many of them as he could!

May the Eternal God inspire you to have a part in His work of witness and warning; His work of proclaiming the blessed, happy, joyous good news of the coming Kingdom of God to a suffering, pain-ridden, war-torn world!

Let us never forget to pray as we watch. Remember, the very first request Jesus Christ said we should make in our daily prayers is “Thy kingdom come”!

The nearer we are to the horrifying times of the Great Tribulation, the nearer we are to the second coming of Jesus Christ! Therefore, let us, as we see these things coming upon a sin-sick, suffering world, “lift up our heads,” because we know our redemption draws nigh.

You may copy and distribute this information only to friends and family without changes, without charge and with full credit given to the author and publisher. You may not publish it for general audiences.

This publication is intended to be used as a personal study tool. Please know it is not wise to take any man’s word for anything, so prove all things for yourself from the pages of your own Bible.

The activities of the Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association are paid for by tithes, offerings and donations freely given by Christians and co-workers who are dedicated to preaching the gospel according to Jesus Christ.

The post The Great Tribulation… Is It About to Happen? first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Tuesday, September 11, 2001, a “day which will live in infamy,” I was aboard a McDonnell-Douglas 800, American airlines jet, at 37,000 feet over eastern Arkansas, en route to Norfolk, Virginia, from Dallas/Fort Worth. I was headed to Norfolk to join old shipmates I had not seen in 50 years for our 50^th reunion of the USS Antietam (CV-36), and our nine-month’s long cruise off-shore Korea during the Korean War. It was to be my first reunion. Then, I was (and still am, as I write) scheduled to speak at 12:00 Noon on September 15th, near Norfolk and Virginia Beach, in the Quality Suites, as a “Personal Appearance Campaign.”

As I was reading a book, looking out now and then at the landscape far below, our plane suddenly slowed down and began a descent. Having been a pilot for decades, I knew something was wrong. The Captain came on the intercom and said: “Ladies and gentlemen, we are going to have to interrupt your trip to Norfolk, and land at Little Rock. There is nothing wrong with this airplane; the airplane is perfectly safe, but there has been a threat concerning aircraft headed toward the New York area, and since we are en route to the general vicinity, we are being required to land.” He then apologized for any inconvenience, and we continued a rapid descent.

A few minutes later, he came back on to say that we were not the only airplane being required to land; that there were “about a thousand aircraft being asked to land immediately.” At that point, I knew something big was happening. As we landed, I could see that four or five other large jets had arrived before us. As we taxied in another American Airlines jet landed, and I could see yet another one in the landing pattern.

We had to wait for a ramp, for the airport was rapidly becoming crowded. Eventually, when I exited the plane, I saw people gathered around a TV monitor to my left, beside the entry gate. Many were crying; some with eyes and mouths wide open; some sitting on the floor, faces in their hands. I looked in amazement as I saw the two twin Trade Towers in New York; one of them in flames. It was as I watched that the first huge building began to collapse from the top —floor after floor smashing into the floor below, slowly disintegrating before my eyes, with huge billowing clouds of smoke and dust rising into the air. Apparently, the camera I was watching had not yet caught the sight of the SECOND airplane smashing into the other tower. I was shocked, stunned; it was a mind-numbing experience! Immediately, I thought “Bin Laden!” Or SOME terrorist group! At the moment, I was sickened, stricken with grief for the awesome sight of mass death before me — yet, I remembered that only days before, during a sermon in Tyler, I had repeated the statement that I had seen from some of the lesser-known news sources, that “something big was going to happen, which would make the destruction of the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City look like a walk in the park.”

The airport was a scene of utter chaos. Someone said about 15 to 17 jets had suddenly landed at Little Rock; the gates, ground handlers and baggage crews were overwhelmed.

I knew I needed to get back to Headquarters as soon as possible! But how? I quickly canvassed the rental car agencies, only to find all of them except Hertz completely sold out —with a line of about 150 people waiting in front of Hertz. The co-pilot of our flight came up to me and asked about cars, and I told him the situation. I then decided to go back to the gate — a long walk — and see if they were going to offload the baggage here, or continue on to Norfolk. I was not permitted to pass back through security — they had closed down the airport. It was later I learned no flights were going to be allowed into the air for perhaps two days!

By the time I finally managed to find a taxi, and go to a nearby motel (the main ones were full), I found a line of about 7 to 10 people waiting at the desk of the “Day’s Inn.” The harried young lady was checking them in, with apologies that the rooms were not made up. I found I could obtain a room, and, in about a half hour, did so. I quickly called home; called the office; let them know where I was, gave them my telephone number. Time and again (for it took many calls) all circuits were busy, and it took me quite a while to get through. Meanwhile, the television set was tuned to CNN, and I was watching in horror as I learned that the Pentagon had also been attacked, that another aircraft had plunged into the ground in Pennsylvania!

It was then that a different camera angle showed the second aircraft flying straight into the second building and exploding in a huge orange ball of flames!

Adjectives cannot describe what I saw; what I felt. Outrage. Anger. Rage. Shock. Pity. My mind balked at recreating the scene aboard those aircraft; the screaming, begging, crying, praying people, knowing that their plane was in the hands of a madman who was going to crash it — the victims who were suddenly crushed as thousands of tons of concrete came collapsing upon them as those gigantic buildings disintegrated into clouds of smoke and rubble. One thing I know: No airline pilot would have been at the controls of those airplanes and flown them straight into those buildings, or into the Pentagon! No, this attack was carried out by persons who knew how to fly those planes. Either they had been airline or military pilots from some Middle Eastern country, or private pilots, who knew enough to steer the aircraft! Any pilot, knowing he was going to die in any event, would refuse, even at the cost of his own life, to do such a thing!

To me, the crash in Pennsylvania was the outcome of just such a scenario. The pilot of that aircraft must have fought the terrorists; managed to plunge the airplane into the ground, instead of proceeding — (in my opinion) either to the White House or the Capitol building —most probably the White House. Think about it! These filthy, bestial, insane, hateful terrorists struck at the largest, most imposing symbols of American power, wealth, and military might! For decades, those huge towers amazed millions of visitors from all over the world. the Pentagon, built during the second World War, is known to house the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and is the chief nerve center of America’s command and control for our military forces all over the world; in communication with all our ships at sea; all overseas bases; all troops, deployed wherever they are. Obviously the airplane sent plunging into the Pentagon was trying to cripple our military, worldwide!

The most significant target left would be the White House! Perhaps we will never know the things that took place in that plane which crashed in Pennsylvania, but I cannot help but think of it as a desperate struggle between a wounded pilot and crew — either a crash which occurred during that struggle, or a brave, self-sacrificing pilot who determined he would NOT obey those filthy terrorists, and crash his plane into the White House!

Now, what will be the impact of this massive attack? Several times yesterday, as I waited around a TV set in the lobby, I remarked to people that “more people have died today than were killed in the Korean War!” This morning, while it is yet dark outside (I arose at 5:00 a.m., after a very brief, and very restive, disturbed sleep), I called our local minister in the New York City area, whose son works in Manhattan, Mr. Larry Summerfield. I was very relieved to hear that Larry, his wife and son are all right; his son was “about fifty blocks” from the building, and was among those who took to the streets, evacuating the area, as he saw the gigantic clouds of dust and smoke billowing up into the air. I have asked them to contribute their own eyewitness experiences, and will publish them here, for I think they give an eyewitness account:

“Dear Mr. Armstrong:

Shortly after my arrival at work yesterday a co-worker called and said, in a shaken voice, that a plane crashed into one of the Towers. He lives 20-25 short blocks away. She later said that she heard a plane fly over or near her apartment. She then went to the window and saw the first plane crash into the first Tower. She then saw flames and enveloping smoke.

I then called my mother and father. We live in Queens, on the opposite side of the East River, on the fifteenth floor of a building overlooking the east side of Manhattan. We have a clear, unobstructed view of the east side, including downtown and the World Trade Center. I told my mother that a plane just crashed into one of the Towers. She then turned toward the window and saw the smoke and fire. She quickly looked at the TV, remarked to dad that the second plane was flying abnormally low, and then turned toward the window again as the second plane crashed into the second tower. My parents saw the Towers collapse.

I was at work (I work on 46^th Street and 3^rd Avenue, a few blocks from the U.N. which is about 40-50 short blocks from the WTC). We saw the smoke from our windows on the 8^th floor. Manhattan is situated on a grid, so you can see north, south, east and west. As the radio reports confirmed that planes crashed into the WTC, and then the Pentagon, and then into a field in Pennsylvania, we were dumbfounded. We didn’t know how to react. We were like zombies, either sitting in our cubicles or walking around and talking to each other in disbelief. I left work at 12:00 Noon. Thousands of other people were walking uptown to a bridge connecting Manhattan to Queens, one of the outer boroughs of NYC. I did not see anyone panic; people were complying with the directions of the many cops, cadets and other city workers. Others, like myself, went to blood banks, where the response was, according to one worker, overwhelming.

As I walked across the bridge, over the East River, with thousands of other people into Queens, I looked toward the carnage. I saw a mountain of smoke, slowing drifting across the river. It was surreal: aside from the thousands walking across the bridge, and aside from the sirens and the occasional F-16s flying above, it was a picture-perfect day. The sun was bright; the air and water were still; it was about 80 degrees. On the north side of Manhattan, from the other side of the bridge, everything looked normal; on the other side, chaos.

I and my brother-in-law work in Manhattan. We don’t know of anyone personally affected, at least not yet. My sister works in Queens, in a school. Her co-workers were affected: Amy Driscoll was about to be married by a priest who was killed. Amy Ferstedig’s husband was opening the door to one of the Towers as the first plane hit; he lived. Diane Graff’s brother worked at the WTC. She was hysterical when she heard the news. She tried to contact her brother but was unsuccessful. She then turned toward the TV and saw her brother, running or walking quickly past one of the cameras stationed nearby.

According to my brother-in-law, who is at work, Manhattan is like a ghost town. This morning I looked out the window of my apartment and saw smoke, shaped like a mountain, over downtown Manhattan. Downtown Manhattan looks a lot shorter. As of this writing, the three buildings comprising WTC have collapsed. Some of the surrounding buildings, like the Millennium Hotel, seem unstable and may collapse.

My father will try to send you two area newspapers; the NY Post and the Daily News. One of the more haunting pictures is that of silhouetted figures jumping from the Towers, from the higher floors, some seemingly sixty to ninety stories high. He will try to FedEx them to you, but due to air restrictions, I’m not sure when you’ll receive them.

Thank you for your concern. We also appreciate the many telephone calls from other concerned brethren.

James Summerville

For decades, I have been warning that a GLOBAL ECONOMIC COLLAPSE would occur; that a GREAT DEPRESSION will strike this earth!

This will give rise to the rapid rise of dictatorships! Autocrats; military governors will oust inept civilian rulerships in countries here and there! The United States of Europe will NOT result from a gradual, peaceful, slow-moving coalition, but from NECESSITY, from the result of WARS which give impetus to the need for a super-powerful MILITARY, capable of intervening in world events.

For years, I have emphasized that the flash point for the beginning of the Great Tribulation is JERUSALEM! God has said, “Behold, I will make JERUSALEM a cup of trembling unto all the people round about, when they shall be in siege both against Judah [the Jews] and Jerusalem. And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: ALL THAT BURDEN THEMSELVES WITH IT SHALL BE CUT IN PIECES, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it!” (Zechariah 12:2, 3).

Palestinians in Jerusalem, Ramallah, Hebron, Bethlehem — all over Gaza and in the West Bank CELEBRATED!! Their children danced in the streets, waving Palestinian flags, gleefully shouting out their happiness that the United States, which they call “The Great Satan” had received such a massive blow!

What kind of a religion is it which promises “heaven” or their version of it for MASS MURDER? Surely, Satan the devil is pleased and proud over the terror, the shock, the death of tens of thousands of helpless civilians!

It is because of OUR SUPPORT FOR ISRAEL that these bestial, murdering terrorists have mounted such a massive attack against us! The MOTIVES for such hate-filled killing are those of RELIGION! And, behind the scenes, from an economic and political point of view, it is also about OIL!

I knew, the moment I saw those buildings go down, that this would deal a MASSIVE blow to the global economy! Already, stock markets are plunging! Our U.S. market has (wisely) been SHUT DOWN! They knew that PANIC would set in; knew that the hundreds of major corporations and businesses which maintained offices in the World Trade Center would be plunged into chaos! TENS OF BILLIONS of dollars have been lost! Thousands of computers, with their hard drives chock full of financial and corporate data; contracts, insurance documents, legal documents — all gone in a massive destructive fire and collapse! The shocks will (and are now) reverberate all over the world!

As a symbol of the greed, avarice, and thoughtless, calloused cynicism of mankind, as I was leaving Little Rock, when a kind and thoughtful church member drove all the way from Tyler to Little Rock to pick me up and bring me home on the day of this terrible disaster, we saw that gas stations had taken down their price signs; had pasted a hasty sign on the pump —ALREADY THREE DOLLARS per gallon! May God reward them according to their works! There are always, like vultures waiting for prey, those who will gouge, and take advantage of the suffering of others! As we left Little Rock, we found some stations within only about 30 miles whose prices were still at the dollar thirty-nine level!

Now, watch oil prices. Watch the stock markets. Watch what happens if and when the U.S. government determines WHO masterminded this huge attack!

IS THIS THE BEGINNING OF WORLD WAR III? Remember, World War II did not begin all at once! It began SLOWLY, with Hitler scrapping the Treaty of Versailles, and marching his troops into the Rhineland. It was two years BEFORE America was bombed at Pearl Harbor that Europe was plunged into war!

IS THIS THE BEGINNING OF THE PROPHESIED GREAT TRIBULATION?

All of you, who are a part of this WORK of the Watchman, are most probably, just like me, SHOCKED at this — BUT YOU ARE NOT SURPRISED!

Just how important, now, are the little, petty grievances among and between brethren? How important are “hurt feelings” when TENS OF THOUSANDS ARE DEAD AND DYING?

Just as the President has called upon Americans to COME TOGETHER in this time of terrible national tragedy, so I call upon God’s divided people to COME TOGETHER in their most determined, spiritual resolve to DO THE WORK OF GOD; to let the peoples of our country, and nations all over the world, know that these mind-numbing events are but a prelude to GREAT TRIBULATION which is surely coming upon our people!

Christ said the time is ahead when NOT ONE STONE will be left atop another in Jerusalem! Will a massive WAR now break out in the Mideast? Will the U.S. attack Afghanistan, or Iraq, or Iran, or other Gulf states? Will Israel join in? Will Europe respond?

I cannot know each daily event in advance, but I DO KNOW the overall picture, according to the prophecies of the Bible! I know that GREAT EVENTS are now beginning to take place, as I have warned, and warned, and warned! It is time, and past time, for God’s people to JOIN TOGETHER AND DO THE WORK!

The foregoing, with a few additional comments, is what I immediately posted on our web site in the “Word From” section. As I write, our government has not indicated that they know who was the mastermind behind this massive, horrifying attack. However, as many at home and abroad have said, “It has all the earmarks, and carries the signature of Osama Bin Laden.” Here is a little insight into the possible arch criminal behind this horrific carnage, how his mind works; who he is, and why he hates the United States.

Many years ago, during the Russian war against Afghanistan, the CIA actually sent money and arms to Bin Laden and the guerrilla fighters who were resisting the Russian Army! This was in the 1980s, as you remember. Afghanistan was the then Soviet Union’s “Vietnam,” in the sense that it cost many Russian lives, and ended in an ignominious Soviet retreat. Following that war, Bin Laden went home to his native land of Saudi Arabia. When Saddam Hussein invaded and occupied Kuwait, Bin Laden was furious with then President George Bush, and even more furious with the Saudi royal government for permitting “infidels” on “holy Saudi soil.” No non-Muslims are allowed into the so-called “holy cities” of Mecca and Medina, and, to Bin Laden, the entire nation of Saudi Arabia is “holy.” Laden began gathering some of his Mujahadeen cohorts from the Afghan struggle, and rallied them around his accusations against the royal house of the Saudis, saying King Fahd had “sold the holy sites of Islam” to the United States!

Eventually, the royal family had enough of Bin Laden’s attacks (he is a multimillionaire with huge business interests), and their intelligence officials arrested him for criticizing the monarchy. He was not imprisoned for any period of time, however, and soon fled to Sudan, where he put together his “Al-Qaida” organization, based upon the most fanatical hard-line Islamic fundamentalist doctrines, and dedicated to waging “Jihad” (“holy war”) against the Israelis, and especially against the United States.

From that time, in about 1992, there have been a number of horrifying attacks against U.S. facilities and military. But all of these attacks, except the first attempt on the twin trade towers several years ago, were outside the U.S.

Though this evil, monstrous terrorist has always dodged behind disclaimers, he has rejoiced publicly at each event, from the bombing of American troops in the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia, to the attack against the USS Cole. The embassy bombings in Kenya and the Sudan were traced to Bin Laden, and; you will remember the U.S. retaliatory attacks against guerrilla training camps in Afghanistan–which, even though some of the guerillas were killed, missed Bin Laden.

He is protected by the hard-line “Taliban” in Kabul, Afghanistan, who are fanatic Islamic fundamentalists, and he is said to never stay more than one night in one place. He has urged young, fanatical Islamic adherents worldwide to “wage holy war against the United States.”

How virile is Bin Laden’s hatred? When the 17 U.S. Sailors aboard the USS Cole were killed, Bin Laden appeared at the wedding of his son in southern Kandahar, in February of this year. He had a poem he had prepared in Arabic. It translates, “The pieces of the bodies of infidels were flying like dust particles. If you would have seen it with your own eyes, you would have been very pleased, and your heart would have been filled with joy.”

All over the Middle East on Tuesday, September 11, hundreds of thousands of Arabs celebrated! From the streets of Gaza to Hebron; from Lebanon to Baghdad; from Kabul to Tehran, youthful Arabs shouted, cheered, danced in the streets. Palestinians rejoiced, gave each other sweets and presents, waved Palestinian flags.

While their leaders indoors condemned the attacks, the people in the streets rejoiced!

Incredibly, illogically, a Lebanese Palestinian said, “People are happy. America has always supported terrorism. They see how the innocent Palestinian children are killed and back the Zionist army that does it. America has never been on the side of justice.”

Another Palestinian said, “This is the language the United States understands and this is the way to stop America from helping the Zionist terrorists who are killing our children, men and women every day.”

How does one cope with such incredible, mindless ignorance, hatred, and blindness? How does one cope with a mind set which has been inserted into these impressionable young people by their parents, by their governmental leaders from their birth? The answer is that it is impossible to reconcile the many different religions of the world; utterly impossible to reconcile human minds poisoned by the lies and deceptions of Satan the devil himself!

As an American, and one who LOVES this great country, and loves the FREEDOMS we enjoy, I simply balk at attempting to get into the mind set of such hate-filled, bitter, vitriolic, vicious people! Any religion that promises its adherents immediate entry into their version of “heaven” by MURDERING helpless men, women and children is a despicable, hateful religion!

Now, WHAT DOES PROPHECY SAY WILL HAPPEN? If you have not read my major book on EUROPE AND AMERICA IN PROPHECY, or my booklet entitled MIDEAST STRIFE —WILL IT LEAD TO ARMAGEDDON? please return the coupon for them immediately! Those who have access to a computer (available at your Public Library) might want to peruse our web site for other literature.

Notice what God says will happen, eventually to DAMASCUS, the capital of Syria! “The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap” (Isaiah 17:1). This prophecy goes on to describe the time of “Jacob’s trouble,” and the time of Christ’s intervention in world affairs!

Remember, Christ warned “And when ye shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is nigh.

“Then let them which are in Judaea flee to the mountains, and let them which are in the midst of it depart out; and let not them that are in the countries enter therein to.

“For these be the days of vengeance, that all things which are written may be fulfilled.

“But woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck, in those days! For there shall be great distress in the land, and wrath upon this people.

“And they shall fall by the edge of the sword, and shall be led away captive into all nations: and Jerusalem shall be trodden down of the Gentiles, until the times of the Gentiles be fulfilled.

“And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in the stars; and upon the earth distress of nations, with perplexity, the sea and the waves roaring;

“Men’s hearts failing them for fear, and for looking after those things which are coming on the earth for the powers of heaven shall be shaken.

“And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power and great glory.

“And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and lift up your heads, for your redemptiondraweth nigh.

“And he spake to them a parable; Behold the fig tree, and all the trees;

“When they now shoot forth, ye see and know of your own selves that summer is now nigh at hand.

“So likewise ye, when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand” (Luke 21:20-31)

Now, here is what is LIKELY to happen!

OIL prices will be terribly unstable. A shock to the global economy will occur!

The United States may slip deeper into recession — PERHAPS into the GREAT DEPRESSION I have predicted.

Economic collapse will mean the overthrow of moderate governments; the rise of despots and dictators!

EUROPE will coalesce into TEN POWERFUL NATIONS; a kind of “United States of Europe” which will eventually become the most POWERFUL ENEMY of the U.S. of America!

A KING OF THE SOUTH (Daniel 11:4-45) will emerge, and probably clamp down an OIL EMBARGO against Europe and the U.S.

Europe will react with a swift, massive invasion of the Mideast, probably at the very time that Israel is under an attack by combined Arab armies; featuring chemical and biological, maybe even NUCLEAR weapons! Europe’s response will be under the aegis of the pope in Rome, who will give sanction under the guise of “saving the Jews from extinction.”

The pope will declare that the “mother church” must return to the “place of her birth,” that the ONLY SOLUTION for the protracted struggles over the holy places in Jerusalem is for him to set up a kind of “second Vatican” there.

If a Jewish TEMPLE is built — and it may be only after HORRIFYING loss of life causes the government in Israel to give in to the religious right, and the famed “Dome of the Rock” and the “Al Aksa7mosques are destroyed, it will so inflame ALL the more than 800 million Muslims of the world that all Arab nations will attack Israel!

The European Army will OCCUPY Palestine AND Egypt!

Jesus Christ will send His “HEAVENLY SIGNS” (Revelation 6 and 7) which will STOP all human activity, unless a gigantic nuclear exchange would destroy all mankind!

The DAY OF THE LORD will commence, with God Himself taking a hand!

When you have seen, with your own startled eyes in these past days — not this time “special effects” in mindless horror movies, but REAL MASSIVE CRASHES AND HORRIFYING DESTRUCTION, is only the BEGINNING of what is to come on this earth!

Jesus Christ SAID so!

It is time now, for God’s people to COME TOGETHER! It is time to put all petty, insignificant “feelings” of petulance, self-pity, accusations, and a lack of forgiveness BEHIND us, and GET BEHIND THE WORK which must go out!

The nations DO NOT KNOW WHAT IS TO COME UPON THEM — OUR PEOPLE DO NOT KNOW, THE ISRAELIS DO NOT KNOW!

WHO WILL TELL THEM?

With love, and in haste,

Garner Ted Armstrong

You may copy and distribute this information only to friends and family without changes, without charge and with full credit given to the author and publisher. You may not publish it for general audiences.

This publication is intended to be used as a personal study tool. Please know it is not wise to take any man’s word for anything, so prove all things for yourself from the pages of your own Bible.

The activities of the Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association are paid for by tithes, offerings and donations freely given by Christians and co-workers who are dedicated to preaching the gospel according to Jesus Christ.

The post Has It Begun? Is This the Beginning of the GREAT TRIBULATION OF PROPHECY? first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

This scripture obviously refers to God’s church. The “woman” is a symbol for the converted, called-out ones who comprise the spiritual Body of Christ. But what of the other symbols in this verse? While the “great eagle” obviously means a divine intervention from God, do the “wings” of this eagle represent airplanes? Is the church actually to take “flight” aboard airplanes? WHERE is this “wilderness,” called “her PLACE”? During what time is the church nourished and protected “from the face of the serpent” (Satan)? Tens of thousands believe there is a place of safety, probably in the Jordanian desert, awaiting God’s church. Thousands fervently hope they can QUALIFY to flee to this “place” to escape the coming Great Tribulation. Is this a valid hope? WILL the church go to such a place? Are YOU headed toward a “place of safety”?

IT IS instinctive for us human beings to avoid harm.

Sensing something is extremely hot, we instantly jerk our hand away from the heat source. Seeing a wildly careening car approaching, we scramble frantically out of the way. If someone shouts “Fore!” on the golf course, we instinctively turn away from the sound, duck our heads and probably cover the top of our heads with our hands.

No one wants to suffer pain, injury or death! Yet the “Great Tribulation” spoken of in the Bible (Matthew 24, Luke 21) promises terrible persecution, pain, suffering and DEATH by martyrdom for Christians!

Who are these Christians?

WHY are they singled out to suffer in the Great Tribulation? Jesus said, “But there shall not an hair of your head perish”! (Luke 21:18). WHO are those who will escape unscathed?

Jesus said some of those in God’s true church would be put to death but others would be spared! Why? What’s the difference?

“And ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends; and some of you shall they cause to be put to death. And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake. But there shall not an hair of your head perish. . .” (Luke 21:6-18).

Jesus was describing the time of the GREAT TRIBULATION, just prior to the DAY OF THE LORD, and the end of this present age.

He was describing the events to take place just prior to His return to this earth as King of Kings and Lord of Lords!

Some of His true disciples were to be “delivered up.”

Notice. “But before all these [wars, earthquakes, famines and pestilences], they shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues [churches], and into prisons, being brought before kings and rulers for my name’s sake.

“And it shall turn to you for a testimony. Settle it therefore in your hearts, not to meditate before what ye shall answer: For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist” (Luke 21:10-15).

Here is a picture of true Christians, those who are a part of the Body of Christ in the final generation of this world’s civilizations, doing the work of God. That work they are accomplishing becomes such a stench in the nostrils of carnal-minded, God-defying human governments and religious organizations that Jesus prophesied His remnant church would be terribly persecuted—many of them MARTYRED for the sake of His name, and His work!

Notice the time is coming when they will be “brought” before kings and rulers!

Why? “. . . For my name’s sake”! For the simple reason that they unfailingly preach the gospel of the Kingdom of God IN JESUS’ NAME! NEVER Will the true servants of Jesus Christ fail to give honor, glory and credit to HIS NAME!

NEVER Will they “package” the gospel, watering it down, secularizing it, soft-pedaling the dynamic message of God in order to make it more palatable to pagan, despotic, carnal-minded kings, presidents, prime ministers, emperors and heads of state!

And who are these who will be “delivered up”?

Are they inferior? Have they become lukewarm? Are they the “Laodicean church,” whom Christ is going to “spew out of His mouth”? (Revelation 3:14-16).

Notice Mark’s account. “And the gospel must first be published among all nations.

“But when they shall lead you, and deliver you up [this means arrested, being ‘brought’ before officialdom], take no thought beforehand what ye shall speak, neither do ye premeditate: But whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye: For it is not ye that speak, but the Holy Spirit” (Mark 13:10, 11).

Obviously these are deeply converted Christians! Filled with the Holy Spirit, they can confidently expect that Almighty God will put powerful, moving witness in their mouths by which they will convict their tormentors. As such, they will join the ranks of those righteous men and women cataloged in the 11th chapter of Hebrews, “of whom the world was not worthy.” They will join ranks with Stephen, who gave powerful witness as he was being murdered; with Peter, who was probably crucified upside down; with the apostle Paul, who died a martyr; with Jesus Christ of Nazareth Himself!

Are these, singled out by Almighty God and by the HEAD of His true church, Jesus Christ, “inferior,” lukewarm Christians?

Were those mentioned in Hebrews 11 inferior? Was Stephen? Was Paul? Was Jesus Christ?

WHO is better able to give a powerful witness and testimony before the highest courts, before religious conclaves, before officialdom at every level, including heads of state?

Those who are lukewarm? Those who have not been deeply studying their Bibles, who are not truly converted, who have not been overcoming by the power of God’s Spirit, who are not close to God in prayer?

Strangely, there are many who seem to believe that the prophecies concerning martyrs apply to “the Laodicean church.”

This supposition is as follows:

It is assumed each one of the seven churches which existed contemporaneously in Asia Minor in the first and second centuries portrays a special “era,” or “phase,” from the first century to the end of this modern age. Without identifying each, and its supposed “age” in history, it becomes instantly obvious, on the face of this theory, that the Ephesian “era” was that of the apostles, and that the “Laodicean era” is the last.

But wait!

Those who believe the “Laodicean church” is comprised of those “lukewarm” members of God’s true church also believe that the “Laodicean church” is more like an “attitude” in the hearts and minds of perhaps 50 percent of those WITHIN another church era.

That “era,” they say, is “Philadelphia.” This church era is called “the church of brotherly love.” That this connotation is completely unscriptural is lost on many. While it is true that the Greek word philadelphia means “brotherly love,” there is nothing which leads us to apply the meaning of the Greek names of all of the churches to each “era” (so-called) which they identify. Smyrna, Thyatira, Pergamos and Laodicea are merely names.

According to this belief, at some moment in time (expected continually, reinforced by excited, speculative sermons repeatedly), the “Philadelphia era” will be whisked away to a “PLACE OF SAFETY”!

Perhaps they will be taken up by the grounded fleet of DC-10s—Almighty God supplying “a 10-inch angel” for each so-called defective “10-inch bolt”! You may laugh at this, but this supposition was PREACHED before nodding, agreeing, believing people!

Of course, the DC-10s are no longer grounded, but perhaps some inventive preachers have found other methods and means to keep the faithful looking confidently over the horizon at that moment of their “great escape”!

As the supposition goes, those who are “lukewarm” (of the “Laodicean attitude”) will be SHOCKED when this pseudo-rapture occurs, and their own beloved friends, perhaps family members, even husband or wife, are suddenly GONE, but they are “left behind” to suffer the pangs and horrors of the GREAT Tribulation!

Is this scenario true?

For, if it is Not, then literally tens of thousands of the members of God’s church are being completely DECEIVED; are banking on a FALSE HOPE, and are doomed to great disappointment, and perhaps some will stumble, spiritually, and simply give up when they discover they have believed in a completely FALSE doctrine!

Church Eras—True or False?

What about the concept of “church eras”? Did God foreordain that His church would pass through specific, different “eras,” or “phases,” down through history each “era,” or “phase,” of His church having distinctive characteristics, strengths and/or weaknesses which would clearly identify that particular era?

Certainly there can be no argument against the obvious fact that the seven churches of Revelation 2 and 3 are symbolic of the entire Church of God, both during that apostolic age, and down through all history!

Why?

Simply because Christ is represented as standing in the midst of but SEVEN golden candlesticks. Seven is the number of completion or perfection. Christ is represented as a whole person, standing in the midst of a complete, or perfect, number of churches.

Obviously the big churches at Jerusalem, Alexandria, Antioch, Thessalonica, Corinth, Rome, Colossae and others are not mentioned.

However, the Bible does single out sevencontemporaneous churches which existed along the old Roman mail route in Asia Minor, which began at Ephesus, and ended at Laodicea.

Repeatedly the Scripture warns that all members of God’s church are to hear what the Spirit says to all the churches!

None of the supposed “eras” is told to ignore what the Spirit said to all the other “eras” (so called), paying attention only to the message directed toward themselves.

Certainly it is obvious that this section of the book of Revelation was indicative of the general trials, persecutions, tribulations and difficulties affecting the whole church at that time!

Further, it is very likely indicative of the general type of trials, troubles and persecutions which would afflict the whole church throughout history, and which does afflict the church NOW!

But are we to understand that each of these seven contemporaneous churches represented a completely separate, different “era” or “phase” through which God’s true church would pass from the time of the apostles until the final remnant spoken of in Revelation 12?

There are some grave difficulties with this view.

For perhaps 40 years, my father, Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong, taught the church that the Church of God (Seventh Day), through whom he had learned a great deal of truth, and which church he had acknowledged was “that one body,” and which church ordained my father, had become the “Sardis church.”

He said, dozens if not hundreds of times, that they had become spiritually “DEAD.”

For literally decades the “Radio Church of God,” and, later, the “Worldwide Church of God,” has taught its members they represent the “Philadelphia era” of the church, and that “Sardis” was the Church of God (Seventh Day).

For many years I myself believed this concept, taught it, preached it very powerfully, wrote about it—and I can find numerous sermon notes still in my possession in which I preached powerful sermons resupporting this doctrine, warning the brethren in the church against the final emergence of “the Laodicean church.”

While some few have believed the Laodicean church was to become a completely “different organization,” the bulk of the ministry, including my father himself, believed it would emerge FROM the Worldwide Church of God—that, when the Worldwide Church of God (identified as “the Philadelphia era”) was taken to a place of safety, those who would be LEFT BEHIND would comprise the “Laodicean church.”

During many, many years it was supposed that those who are taken to a “place of safety” are those who are WORTHY (Luke 21:36), while those who are left behind are obviously UNWORTHY, and must suffer the pangs of torment, torture and martyrdom in order to cleanse and purify their minds and hearts through physical torture.

THEY, those “left behind” when the “Philadelphian era” FLEES, would be that part of the church which would be “lukewarm,” almost sound asleep, like the sleepy virgins who beg those who were alert, awake and watching to borrow some of their oil (Matthew 25:1-13), and who would richly deserve the terrible torments coming upon them!

IS THIS SCENARIO TRUE?

First, take a look at what this doctrine presupposes.

It assumes that at least THREE of the so-called “eras” are extant NOW!

My father freely admitted that the members of the Church of God (Seventh Day) were members of God’s true church. After all, many of those early pioneers are still alive today, including some who were in the ministry with my father, and including at least one gentleman with whom I have spoken who shared campaigns with my father, and whose preaching I remember from my boyhood.

After all, the Bible DOES plainly say that “Sardis” is a part of GOD’S TRUE CHURCH! The Bible promises that “thou hast a few names even in Sardis which have not defiled their garments; and they shall walk with me in white: For they are worthy … and I will not blot out his name out of the book of life, but I will confess his name before my father, and before the angels” (Revelation 3:4,5).

There are only seven churches.

Therefore, by written, oral and tacit admission, the “era” theory presupposes that THREE out of the SEVEN are EXTANT NOW!

But why?

If the remainder of the theory presupposes that each era supersedes the other, and emerges and becomes extant only after the passing of the other (even if it admitted there is a transitional period), WHY should more than one third of the number be presupposed to remain extant contemporaneously, during the last days?

For, if Sardis is yet alive, and there be those who will “walk with Christ in white”; if “Philadelphia” comprises another, separate organization; if “Laodicea” either comprises lukewarm members WITHIN that organization, or another organization, you have THREE of the SEVEN existing side by side, contemporaneously! Then why not FOUR or six, or all seven?

What About “PREDESTINATION”?

Dire warnings of having their “candlestick removed out of its place” were made against the Ephesus church.

What choice did those people have?

Do you understand?

In other words, if you had the misfortune to be born, grow up and come into the truth of God, becoming converted and a member of God’s church at some given “era”; if that “era” fulfilled a part of the prophecies of Revelation 2 and 3, and the church leaders of that “era” caused it to have the peculiar character or nature as revealed in Revelation 2 and 3, what chance did you have? Did FATE determine what would happen to you?

Or would you reason there could have been exceptions?

IF you reason there could be “exceptions” to the rule; if you reason that just because the “leaders” became corrupt, allowed the doctrines of the Nicolaitans, or “that woman Jezebel,” to teach the members of the church to eat unclean meats and commit fornication, but that there were exceptions, meaning some scattered individuals within the church who did not go along with these false teachings; then what are you saying?

You are saying what is probably the obvious truth concerning ALL SEVEN of the “eras” or so-called “phases” of God’s church!

Before summarizing this obvious conclusion, ponder that question of “predestination.”

Was it mere blind FATE that anyone converted and becoming a member of the Church of God (Seventh Day), whether third or fourth generation family member, or new convert, just automatically was consigned to the “Sardis era,” and therefore was (and is) looked upon by Almighty God as spiritually “DEAD”?

If, on the other hand, you had the fortune to be born into a family that was members of the Worldwide Church of God—you grew up, came to Ambassador College and became a dutiful church member—was it your “good fortune” to end up as a member of the “Philadelphian era”?

Or, if you are a member of that church but are not really studying, praying, overcoming—if you are not watching world events, and not truly close to God—are you one of the “Laodiceans” who will be left behind when the day of the “great escape” comes?

Confusing, isn’t it?

The conclusion which you should logically have come to earlier? The conclusion is that there were (and are), no doubt, exceptions in EVERY church!

Consider the average local congregation for a moment.

Say you are dealing with a congregation of around 200 people in a Midwestern city.

At any given time of the year, there will be a small handful of people who have just barely been baptized, who are brand new in the truth!

If you remember how it was when you came out of this world, began to hunger and thirst for the truth of God, began hungrily devouring the Bible, and finally were baptized, had hands laid on you for the receiving of God’s Holy Spirit, and went to your very first feasts, you remember what it means to be “in your first love”!

The “character” of the “Ephesian era” seems to be that of a church which is encouraged to regain its lost “first love”!

Perhaps some few in your congregation of 200 are powerfully attracted by some of the satanic entertainments—X-rated motion pictures, pornography and other assorted forms of licentiousness.

Perhaps you could say they are like those in “Thyatira” and have similar problems.

You might find a number of people in the congregation, such as a few elderly widow ladies, who truly seem to have the spirit of “brotherly love.” Maybe they exemplify the attitude of 1 Corinthians 13.

Surely they would be thought of as exemplifying the “Philadelphian attitude.”

But would there be those who could be called “spiritually dead’? Tired, dejected, “burnt-out” old Christians who are just “waiting it out” to the end?

Would there be a number who would be adjudged by the pastor to be “lukewarm” in their faith?

Of course!

ANY average, local congregation would be made up of hundreds of DIFFERING personalities, characters and levels of spirituality.

In other words, each local church might well exemplify EVERY ONE of the various difficulties, trials and tribulations, strong points or character of the “seven churches” of Revelation 2 and 3!

And THAT, most likely, is the true answer to the whole question of “eras.”

Remember, God’s Word says “he that hath an ear, let him hear what the spirit saith unto the churches”! (Revelation 2:7, 11, 17, 29; 3:6, 13, 22). All members of the church are to heed the warning to all the seven churches! None is to listen exclusively to a warning to his “era”!

“The Two Wings of an Eagle”

Much has been made of the promise that “to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place. . .” (Revelation 12:14).

“And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent” (Revelation 12:14).

There is no doubt about it. Almighty God plainly says, in His Word, that He will protect, and preserve alive, a “remnant” of His true church!

That the “woman” is God’s church is without doubt. That the symbol “wings of a great eagle” connotes God’s protection is without doubt. However, we have learned that “the wilderness” could have included (as it did in the Middle Ages) all of Europe, including the deep, plunging valleys of the Swiss Alps, the French Alpine region, the provinces of Northern Italy, and the rugged terrain of Spain.

Also, we know that the “time, times and half a time” corresponds to the Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord!

The ministry of the two witnesses also takes place during 31/2 years! Further, Israel is said to be suffering the pangs of the Great Tribulation for approximately the same period of time.

This is the identical time span during which “Jerusalem will be trodden down of the gentiles.”

Apparently, the “CREAT TRIBULATION” (which is Satan’s wrath) will be falling upon the Israelitish nations for approximately 2 1/2 years. This period of terrible national punishment will be followed immediately by the heavenly signs (Revelation 6) and the repentance of the 144,000 and the vast, countless multitude from all nations (Revelation 7). Then follows the great and terrible DAY OF THE LORD (probably one year in duration)! Apparently, the entire period of tribulation, heavenly signs and the Day of the Lord transpires over 3 1/2 years, or 42 months!

During this time, all organized preaching of the gospel will cease, and a “famine of the Word” will prevail over the whole earth. Only two witnesses will be actively preaching the gospel as a witness and a warning before the beast and the false prophet and high officials of those governments which have been given their power into the 10-nation combine that is called “the BEAST” in Bible prophecy.

The Wrath of SATAN

John saw, in a vision, the final attempt of Satan the devil to overthrow the very throne of God!

“And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.

“And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him” (Revelation 12:7-9).

That this occurrence takes place just prior to “the Great Tribulation” is obvious from the language of verse 12, and the fact that the dragon makes war with “the remnant of her [the woman, meaning the church] seed.”

Further, it is at this time God offers salvation to countless humans who have previously heard His warning message:

“And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, nowis come salvation, and strength, and the Kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accuse them before our God day and night.

“And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they LOVED NOT THEIR LIVES UNTO THE DEATH”! (Revelation 12:10, 11).

Reread carefully those verses!

At the beginning of the Great Tribulation it is Not (as some have preached and written) TOO LATE for salvation!

Remember, the entire host of the 144,000, plus the vast, innumerable multitude (Revelation 7), are converted as a direct result of the calamitous events of the tribulation!

Notice the characterization of God’s true servants during this terrible persecution from Satan. How do they overcome the devil? “They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb”!

Further, they were involved in more than just an “organized” work, for each one of them, at some time or another, will be called upon to give his own PERSONAL testimony! They also overcome Satan “by the word of their testimony. . .”

What kind of people will they be?

Will they be terribly concerned about sustaining, extending, preserving and protecting—at practically any cost—this human, physical life?

No! “. . . And they loved not their lives unto the death”! (Revelation 12:11).

Remember! Those righteous men and women who were singled out to make a final witness before the satanic forces of this evil world, and who were MURDERED because of their righteous stand for God and His laws, are not the “weak” of God’s church!

For years, many ministers have taught FALSELY that Almighty God will use physical punishment, the GREAT TRIBULATION, martyrdom and torture before death as the final means of expiating guilt; the final manner in which God will cleanse unrighteousness, and bring about brokenhearted REPENTANCE in recalcitrant, unyielding or “Laodicean” (lukewarm) people!

Ask yourself the following question: “Is that why Stephen died?”

What about all the others?

Turn to and read the famous “faith” chapter, Hebrews 11!

Notice! After mentioning a host of the righteous patriarchs, prophets and some of the judges of Israel, including Gideon and Samuel, God’s Word summarizes this catalog of His holy martyrs by saying, “Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions,

“Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to fight the armies of the aliens.

“Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection:

“And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment:

“They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented;

“(Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in desserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth,

“And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise:

“God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect” (Hebrews 11:33-40).

Here God is dealing with two different categories of people!

Notice that some subdued kingdoms, obtained promises, escaped the lions’ den (as did Daniel), waxed valiant in fight, or fought alien armies. Some women received their dead raised to life again! Each of these is a “success” story!

But OTHERS were “tortured,” and others “had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings—were thrown in prison, stoned, sawn asunder,” etc.

Was it because of a difference in their character?

No! It was because of a difference in their CALLING!

Notice what God says!

“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a crowd of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

“Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross [Greek: stauros, a ‘stake’ or ‘tree’], despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God.

“For consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.

“Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin”! (Hebrews 12:1-4).

WHERE are the members of God’s true church to look?

Are they to get their minds and hearts on some means or method of ESCAPE?

Are they to focus upon a particular geographical location? Should they be thinking about ways and means of traveling to a far distant place, across seemingly boundless seas and oceans, harsh deserts, forbidding mountain ranges, and wondering what they will wear, what articles they can take with them, what foodstuffs they should provide?

Should God’s people have their minds on valid passports, saving seeds and cans of honey?

Should a rational, sane, humble minister of Jesus Christ be encouraging people to think about a physical, geographical location on this earth; telling them, laughingly, that, since hundreds died in a fiery crash of a DC-10, and the fleet of DC-10s was subsequently grounded, God will very likely provide that grounded fleet of DC-10s to take them to faraway PETRA? Is God amused by references to the failed “10-inch bolt” being replaced by a “10-inch angel“?

No, the Eternal God in heaven above is not amused by irresponsible blatherings or sick humor.

WHERE should we look?

Your Bible says, “Unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith”! And who WAS this Jesus Christ?

He was the most important martyr of ALL TIME ! WHY did He die? Was there something inferior about Him? Did He “need” to suffer death in order to expunge some slight imperfection?

A blasphemous suggestion!

Petra

Among precipitous rock cliffs, in a basin among the mountains which form the eastern flank of the Wadi-elAraba (the great rift valley running from the Dead Sea to the Gulf of Akaba), is one of the most important tourist attractions of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan: Petra.

Following the loss of the tourist attractions of the Old City of Jerusalem, including Hebron, Bethlehem and Jericho, Petra represents one of the remaining few reasons why tourists from Western countries visit the desert kingdom of Jordan.

Petra has a somewhat obscure, though interesting, history.

It is mentioned by the writers Strabo and Pliney as the capital of the Nabataeans, during whose occupancy a major trading center flourished in Petra.

Archaeologists and historians are divided as to whether Petra is actually mentioned in the Old Testament. The Hebrew equivalent is “Seir,” or “Sela.” This Hebrew word is used in Judges 1:36, Isaiah 16:1, 42: 11 and Obadiah 3. The difficulty is obvious, for, when a specific geographical location is designated by such a term, confusion could prevail quite easily. For example, the town of “Red Bluff,” Calif., is named for a nearby reddish bluff. If a historian were to write of someone hiding at “Red Bluff,” he may designate a site in the Black Hills or the Rockies with similar features, and some might later assume he meant “Red Bluff,” Calif.

There is some speculation that Amaziah, king of Judah, captured the city and renamed it. It is said that he “slew of Edom in the valley of salt ten thousand, and took Selah by war, and called the name of it Joktheel unto this day” (2 Kings 14:7).

However, no further mention of the name “Joktheel” is found in the Bible, and authorities assume the name passed from usage with Hebrew occupation of the region. The first notice in history of Petra under the Greek name is connected with the expedition of Antigonus, one of the successors of Alexander, who sent two expeditions against the Nabataeans in Petra (Diod. Sic. XIX, 94-99).

Strabo wrote: “The metropolis of the Nabataeans is Petra, so called; for it lies in a place in other respects plain and level, but shut in by rocks round about, but within having copious fountains for the supply of water and the irrigation of gardens. Beyond the enclosure the region is mostly a desert, especially towards Judea” (Geog. XVI, page 906).

Pliney, the ancient Roman historian, described Petra as situated in a valley of less than two [Roman] miles in width, surrounded by inaccessible mountains, with a stream flowing through it. In the fourth century A.D., Petra is mentioned several times by one of the so-called “church fathers,” Eusebius, and again by Jerome. The last known mention of Petra in ancient history was approximately 536 A.D., when it appeared one of the bishops present at the Council of Jerusalem (Theodorus) included Petra as a part of his metropolitan area.

Petra: Ancient Tradition

The river running through the area is called “Wadi-Musa,” which means “River of Moses” in Arabic. Josephus, Eusebius and Jerome all state that the “Mount Hor” where Aaron died was in the immediate vicinity of Petra.

Tradition still says that a mountain which rears its lonely head above the vail of “Wadi-Musa” is Mount Hor. Kitto’s Bible Encyclopedia says: ‘The ruined city lies in a narrow valley surrounded by lofty, and for the most part, perfectly precipitous mountains. These natural barriers seem to have constituted the real limits of the city; and they give an extent of more than a mile in length, nearly from north to south, by a variable breadth of about half a mile. Several spurs from the surrounding mountains encroach upon this area; but, with inconsiderable exceptions, the whole is fit for building on. The sides of the valley are walled up by perpendicular rocks, from four hundred to six or seven hundred feet high. The northern and southern barriers are neither so lofty nor so steep, and they both admit of the passage of camels.”

What has puzzled archaeologists for years is the plainness of the caves of Petra (many of which are completely filled with rubble and unexcavated) as contrasted with their magnificently carved facades.

This has led archaeologists and historians to conclude that there were at least three separate periods of occupancy. While some of the ancient columns cut into the solid rock of the cliffs are Ionian, and therefore quite old, others are of much later design (Corinthian), and the startlingly beautiful facade of one of the most important temples is obviously Roman.

Some evidence, both in profane records and in the Old Testament, may suggest that the “Kadesh” occupied for long periods of time by the Israelites during their wanderings may have been Petra.

It is at least likely that “Kadesh” (from which the spies were sent into the promised land) is also the “Kadesh-barnea” mentioned in the Bible.

First mention of Kadesh occurs in the story of the capture of Sodom by the eastern kings (Genesis 14).

In Numbers 12:16, we read that “the people removed from Hazeroth, and pitched in the wilderness of Paran.”

It was from this place the spies were sent out.

“.. . They returned from searching the land after forty days. And they went and came to Moses, and to all the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh” (Numbers 13:25, 26).

Obviously, this means that “Kadesh” was only about one day’s journey from the site of “Hazeroth,” which, in turn, was only about four days’ march from Sinai. A major difficulty with connecting the two is that a close examination of Deuteronomy 1:19-21 compared with Numbers 33:18-36 proves that between these two sites there were a great many intervening stopping places. However, in Numbers the 12th chapter all of these are omitted, as Moses’ intent was, apparently, to group together the main events.

Wherever it was, we know that Kadesh was on the southern border of Canaan. Looking at the journeys of the Israelites in Numbers 33, it is obvious that the Israelites went from Ezion-Geber toward Canaan, and came to Kadesh (verse 36). Comparing with chapter 20 verse 16, we know that this “Kadesh” was on the borders of Edom, not far from Mount Hor.

By no means is this identity proved, but it is at least interesting that these important historical events took place in the vicinity.

For example, Moses said in his message to the Edomites: “Behold, we are in Kadesh, a city in the uttermost of thy border”! Numbers 20:16).

Kitto points out that there was a very prominent fountain at Kadesh. Fountains, springs, artesian wells or oases were naturally very prominent landmarks in the region, for they were quite rare. Kitto says that all the local traditions which now linger around Petra are “far too obscure to have any influence on a question of topography.

“One fact alone is final against [emphasis mine] the identification of Petra and Kadesh. The former is ten miles within the border of Edom, and in the very heart of Mount Seir; whereas Kadesh was on the border of the territory of Judah, and became apparently one of the cities of that tribe (Joshua 15:3, 23).” (Kitto’s Encyclopedia of Biblical Literature, Vol. 2, page 705).

The Encyclopedia Britannica (11th edition) says: “… We have no means of telling exactly when the history of Petra began; the evidence seems to show that the city has a relatively late history though a sanctuary may have existed there from very ancient times … The reference in Judges 1:36; Isaiah 16:1, 42: 11; Obadiah 3, is far from clear” (Vol. 21, page 309).

The Mystery and the Lore

Petra has been an attractively curious, mysterious and alluring “place of safety” to various religious groups over the centuries.

The study of lost civilizations; the fables of lost “Atlantis,” abandoned desert kingdoms; supposed huge cities buried under the sands of the Sahara, or in the Gobi Desert of interior China—these have long fascinated the adventurers, discoverers, historians, or merely the mildly curious.

Who has not heard of fabled “El Dorado” in the Amazonian jungles, where it is said the buildings and streets are of solid gold?

For centuries, visiting Arabs passed on the fable that the huge urn, carved out of solid stone, adorning the top of one of the principal temples in Petra contained treasures of gold and jewels. Unfortunately, since it was completely inaccessible, they could only chip away at it with their ancient flintlock muzzle-loading guns and, consequently, the urn is badly scarred.

Is anything more fascinating than “ghost towns,” or whole cities left desolate, without a single occupant?

The sheer inaccessibility of Petra; the dozens of caves hewn out of solid rock, the narrow, winding defile called “the siq,” which can, in some places, virtually be touched on both sides by outflung arms, has led to easy speculation that Petra was a formidable fortress in the midst of an uninhabited desert which could be defended by but a handful of men.

Surely it would take no great stretch of the imagination to quote the scripture of Revelation 12:16: “And the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened her mouth, and swallowed up the flood which the dragon cast out of his mouth,” and apply it to Petra.

The beast power would send his armies after them, closing the waters over the pursuing armies of Pharaoh, God would allow the last member of God’s church to escape through the “siq,” and then, just as a whole army was pursuing along behind, would perhaps allow the earth to collapse, thus burying the army under billions of tons of solid rock.

But is this scenario true?

Common Sense Versus Irresponsible Fantasy

I have often related how, in 1966, standing at the top of the Roman amphitheater in Petra, I was talking into my microphone, describing the place, in the hopes of using excerpts from my recordings in radio programs when I returned to Pasadena. During my ad-libbed description of the region, I was interrupted by the loud roar of two big U.S.-made Jordanian army helicopters which came clattering over a nearby ridge, flew down into the valley and hovered around the area for some time.

Probably they were bringing dignitaries, special guests of King Hussein or his brother, to see the site from the air.

It was then, in 1966, as I experienced Petra, that I began far more serious thought and research into the subject as to whether Petra was going to be the fabled place of safety” that I had previously assumed.

First, let’s come to understand what is necessary for Almighty God to protect His people from modern armies if those armies seek to destroy helpless, unarmed civilians; the elderly, men and women, and children alike.

Today we live in the age of nuclear weapons. Pinpoint accuracy can deliver nuclear weapons to within a hundred yards or so of a target. Intercontinental ballistic missiles, intermediate-range ballistic missiles, nuclear bombs dropped by aircraft, parachute bombs, nuclear warheads in artillery shells, rocket-launched nuclear warheads from mobile, truck-mounted launchers; these and a host of other methods of delivering huge, multimegaton thermonuclear explosions are in the arsenals of modern armies.

Helicopter gunships, even if using the more “conventional” weapons, such as cannon, machine guns and napalm, could completely obliterate the place in a matter of moments.

Chemical warfare, nerve gas or biological warfare could completely exterminate ALL LIFE in this narrow, confined valley in a matter of moments!

“Ah,” you say, “but the people who would be there would be supernaturally protected of God!”

IF any of God’s true church, OR, more likely, scattered remnants of the Jewish race from Jerusalem are hiding in Petra, it WILL INDEED take God’s miraculous, supernatural protection to preserve their lives!

And THAT’S THE WHOLE POINT!

Do you see? No matter WHERE a human being may be located on the surface of this earth, if a satanically inspired, determined enemy seeks todestroy that individual or that group of individuals, it will naturally require the supernatural protection of God to save him!

The point which should finally occur to anyoneis that, while Petra, or any other wilderness place featuring sheer rock walls and caves is completely obsolete as a “place of safety” in the face of modern weapons and methods of warfare, God’s protection will never be obsolete!

“The Daughters of Moab at the Fords of Arnon”

For many years, many in God’s church have assumed Isaiah 16:1-5 is a prophecy of God’s church, being protected in PETRA.

First, read the entire passage as it appears in the King James version:

“Send ye the lamb to the ruler of the land from Sela to the wilderness, unto the mount of the daughters of Zion.

“For it shall be, that, as a wandering bird cast out of the nest, so the daughters of Moab shall be at the fords of Arnon.

“Take counsel, execute judgment; make thy shadow as the night in the midst of the noonday; hide the outcasts; betray not him that wandereth.

“Let mine outcasts dwell with thee, Moab; be thou a covert to them from the face of the spoiler: for the extortioner is at an end, the spoiler ceaseth, the oppressors are consumed out of the land.

“And in mercy shall the throne be established: and he shall sit upon it in truth in the tabernacle of David, judging, and seeking judgment, and hasting righteousness.”

From the very first verse, there are difficulties in translation. For example, the word “lamb” is a totally different word from that used to connote “lamb” elsewhere in the Old Testament!

This particular word is used only in Isaiah 16:1, and is the Hebrew word “kar,” which is used in the sense of “plumpness.” It is used for a “battering ram,” also “a meadow” (as for sheep); also a pad or camel’s saddle (as puffed out)—captain, furniture, lamb, (large) pasture, ram.

The authorities are agreed that the translation should read, “Send ye the ‘tribute lamb,”‘ or send “the tribute of lambs.”

This is obviously a reference to the tribute of lambs which the Moabites had previously paid to Israel (2 Kings 3:4, 5).

Remember, you must understand biblical prophecy in its context, and in the light of all other cogent scriptures.

Isaiah 15 and 16 are prophecies against Moab! Read the entire 15th chapter, and then study the entire 16th chapter in context.

This is a prophecy about the Moabites—THEY are the “wandering bird cast out of the nest,” and they are the ones who are “God’s outcasts,” Not members of God’s true church!

For example, verse 4 should read: “Let mine outcasts [the daughters of MOAB] dwell with thee—as for Moab, be thou a covert to him from the face of the spoiler, for the extortioner is at an end…”

The Critical and Experimental Commentary says: “Let the outcasts of Moab dwell with thee.”

In the prophecy of Daniel 11:40 to the end of that chapter, we see that “Edom and Moab and the chief of the children of Ammon” escape out of the hands of “the king of the north” (the beast power) when the land of Palestine is occupied.

Later these nations are to be punished of God from the huge armies which will come into the land of Palestine out of the north and the east!

This prophecy found partial fulfillment when the armies of Shalmanezer, incensed because the king of Moab had thrown in his lot with the king of Israel, sent armies in a passing campaign to obliterate some of the cities of Moab.

That there may be a veiled reference to “Petra” is possible. That there is reference to a cave is sure. Also, that there is reference to the coming Kingdom of God (verse 5) is also sure.

What is not SURE is that this is a prophecy concerning God’s true church! The following points are certain from a careful study of this passage:

1. “The lamb” does not refer to Christ, but to “tribute lambs” sent by the king of Moab to the king of Israel in supplication.
2. The wandering bird cast out of the nest is not “God’s people” but “the daughters of Moab”!
3. They are not at the “Wadi-Musa” in Petra but “at the fords of Arnon,” a river forming the southern borders of the land of Moab.
4. “Mine outcasts” are not the fleeing remnant of God’s true church, but fleeing Moabites.
5. The leaders of Israel are commanded to “be thou a covert to them[the daughters of Moab].”
6. They were to protect them from “the face of the spoiler” who was Shalmanezer in ancient history.

Your “Hiding Place”

Jesus Christ is continually referred to as the Rock of our salvation! (Deuteronomy 32).

David said, “… The Eternal is upright: He is myrock…”(Psalms 92:15).

He called God his “. . . defence; and my God is the rock of my refuge” (Psalms 94:22).

He spoke of God as “…as the rock of our salvation” (Psalms 95:1).

Jesus Christ is called “that ROCK” who followed the Israelites in the wilderness (1 Corinthians 10:4), thus combining two biblical types of God’s protection.

For remember that God said that He bore up the Israelites “on eagle’s wings” when He removed them from the land of Egypt, and watched over them during the 40 years’ wandering; also, He continually showed them He was their “ROCK” of refuge!

In each case these are biblical types which portray the protection, and, more important, the salvation of God!

WHERE is your “hiding place”?

“If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above [NOT some desert cave on this earth], where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above [God’s soon-coming KINGDOM, and eternal life], not on things on the earth [including desert ‘places of safety’].

“For ye are dead, and your life is HID WITH CHRIST in God”! (Colossians 3:1-3).

Note that well!

If you are a member of God’s true church; if you have received the Holy Spirit of God (1 Corinthians 12:13), then your life is ALREADY HIDDEN! Does God say you are to FEAR persecution, even imprisonment, torture or death? Notice! “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul [Greek: psuche, meaning the life], but rather FEAR HIM who is able to destroy both soul [psuche] and body [soma, meaning our physical, temporary bodies] in Gehenna“!

Man may be able to kill us, physically! Yet God says, “The spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs WITH CHRIST: If so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together”! (Romans 8:16, 17).

There is a “SPIRIT IN MAN”! When Almighty God imparts to us His Holy Spirit, His Holy Spirit begets that spiritual essence” which lifts our minds above the mere “brain” of human animals, and gives us our humanity, our personality, and our character.

Almighty God begets us as His CHILDREN!

We become co-HEIRS with Jesus Christ! Notice! It tells us, “If so be that we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together”! These tremendous promises show us that we are not to fear what MAN is able to do unto us. God does not promise that every Christian will escape all suffering!

Refer back to Matthew 10:28, and the succeeding verses. “Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing And one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father.

“But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.

“Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows”!

Does Jesus Christ say we are to spend a great deal of our conscious thought deeply concerned over how to “FLEE” to a physical, geographical location of PROTECTION?

No! “He that findeth his life shall LOSE IT: AND HE THAT LOSETH HIS LIFE FOR MY SAKE SHALL FIND it”! (Matthew 10:39).

Your Bible says, “And the dragon was wroth with the woman [the church!] and went to make war with the remnant of her seed [the last generation of the true Church of God!] which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ”! (Revelation 12:17).

Are these “lukewarm” Christians? Christians who ARE KEEPING THE COMMANDMENTS? Christians who HAVE THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS CHRIST?

Notice! “I beheld, and the same horn made war with the SAINTS, AND PREVAILED AGAINST THEM; until the Ancient of Days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the most High; and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom”! (Daniel 7:21, 22).

Here, just as in the book of Revelation, it shows, NOT that all of the members of God’s true church are safely tucked away in some cave in the wilderness, but that Satan the devil actually “prevailed against them”! For how long “Until the Ancient of days CAME”!

In other words, just as Jesus warned (Matthew 10), there will be some members of the Church of God who will be specially called and chosen to give a powerful witness and TESTIMONY to the satanic forces of evil in this world, and who will pay for their loyalty and faithfulness to Almighty God and Jesus Christ their Savior with their lives!

Notice! “But beware of men: For they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues [churches!]; and ye shall be BROUGHT [not ‘invited’ or received in a gracious manner, but DRAGGED, ‘brought,’ as PRISONERS] before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the gentiles.

“But when they DELIVER YOU up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak: For it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak. For it is not ye that speak, but the spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.

“And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: And the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death.

“And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’ssake [how can this BE, if some in the church are ashamed of the name of Christ?], but he that endureth to the end [even if it means the end of his life] shall be saved”!

These are powerful words.

They clearly foretell that SOME in God’s true church—NO, not the “weak ones” but the STRONGEST—will be “brought before governors and kings” and will be called upon to give powerful witness and testimony!

To Which “Church Era” Do the Two Witnesses Belong?

Clearly, at the time of the great persecutions to be brought upon God’s church during the tribulation, which is SATAN’S WRATH, all organized preaching of the gospel will cease. “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord Eternal, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Eternal:

“And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even unto the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Eternal, and shall not find it” (Amos 8:11, 12).

NOT because they are sitting on the sidelines, huddled in caves for their own physicalprotection, but because they are being “delivered up to the synagogues” and being subjected to terrible religious persecution, the true servants will be unable to carry out any organized preaching of the gospel.

But God’s work will still go on!

How?

God says, “And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy [including inspired preaching and witnessing] a thousand two hundred and three score days [3 1/2 years] clothed in sackcloth.

“These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth [see Zechariah 4:3], and if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: And if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed.

“These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: And have power over waters to turn them into blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will.”

Who are these two witnesses? The Bible doesn’t say. Yet it is obvious they are two human beings who very likely are alive right now, and who will be used to carry on God’s work in the very last few years prior to the second coming of Christ!

Their ministry BEGINS when all organized preaching of the gospel by the church ceases.

When the Great Tribulation begins, the nations of Israel are subjugated and taken into captivity, the church scattered and persecuted, the great, end-time ministry of the TWO WITNESSES begins!

There are many biblical types evident here.

Just as Moses and Aaron went before Pharaoh(a type of Satan) and his two magicians, Jannes and Jambres (types of the beast and the false prophet), continually saying, “Let my people GO!” while the plagues fell upon rebellious Egypt; so shall the two witnesses go before the beast and the false prophet in Jerusalem, demanding that Israel be RELEASED from their captivity, and will be met with the same “hardness of heart,” resulting in their calling down PLAGUES upon the beast power!

Those who believe in “church eras” have apparently completely overlooked the fact that, IF the entire so-called “Philadelphian era” is “taken to a place of safety” (meaning PETRA, in the Jordanian desert), and the only onesexempted are the “Laodiceans” (usually spoken of in deprecating terms, as totally and wholly unfit, lukewarm, sleepy, unconcerned, weak ones), then to which “church era” do the two witnesses supposedly belong? The only remaining choice is “LAODICEA”!

Whoever they are, they are finally killed, and their bodies, lying in the streets of Jerusalem, cause great rejoicing over the whole earth.

Later they are resurrected in what is apparently a physical resurrection, PRIOR to the actual second coming of Christ (Revelation 11:11).

They are the FINAL martyrs for the name of Jesus Christ. Like their Savior, Jesus Christ; like Paul, Stephen, Peter and so many others, they not only dedicate their human lives insofar as their work is concerned to the name and the coming Kingdom of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, but they literally lay down their lives for His name’s sake, and are finally MURDERED because they thunderously urge the leaders of the world to REPENT, to STOP the hellish wars they have begun, and to recognize the supreme LORD OF LORDS and KING OF KINGS, the coming King of the Universe, Jesus Christ of Nazareth!

God Can Protect You Where You Are

Study the 91st Psalm!

Here is one of the most encouraging of all of the Bible promises concerning a “place of safety” for You!

“He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

“I will say of the Eternal, HE is my refuge and my fortress: My God; in Him will I trust.

“Surely He shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence [disease epidemics and plagues].

“He shall cover thee with His feathers [like the analogy of ‘eagle’s wings’] and under His wings shalt thou trust: His truth shall be thy shield and buckler.

“Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day; nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand, but it shall not come nigh thee.

“Only with thine eye shall thou behold and see the reward of the wicked.

“Because thou hast made the Eternal, which is my refuge, even the Most High, thy habitation,

“There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling”!

Here God absolutely promises that people can and will be protected (if that is in God’s plan for their own personal calling) right where they live!

Even as the plagues fell on Egypt while the Israelites were still within their own dwellings, and God protected them RIGHT WHERE THEY WERE, so this PROMISE from God concerns protecting His people from suffering and death, if that is His perfect will, IN THEIR DWELLINGS!

And WHICH is the greater MIRACLE? Protecting countless THOUSANDS, in thousands of different locations, under thousands of different circumstances, or protecting a group of people in ONE place?

Remember, there IS NO DOUBT God promisesSOME (not all) of His people protection(Revelation 3:10). But

WHICH?

Notice: “…Ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends; and SOME OF You shall they cause to be put to death!

“And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake.

“But there shall not an hair of your head perish”! (Luke 21:16-18).

Obviously, if verse 18 (“there shall not an hair of your head perish”) is to be taken to mean not one of the true church will be martyred, then How are you to understand verse 16?

Obviously, Christ is saying that SOME will be put to death, while others will be delivered!

But how does God make that choice?

Notice! “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: But God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation [trial] also make a way to escape, that ye may be ABLE TO BEAR IT”! (1 Corinthians 10:13).

This scripture says a GREAT DEAL!

God absolutely promises that the degree of trial, trouble, pain, suffering or “temptation” placed before each individual will NOT be more than that individual is “able to bear”! Who, then, is weakest and who is strongest? Are not those who are able to endure the MOST the stronger? Are not those who would very quickly give up their faith, perhaps swear allegiance to the beast, the number of his name or his image; even curse their God (and this has been REQUIRED of people in the past!) under threat or the actual pain of physical torture or death, the weaker?

And are not those who are able to “endure unto the end,” even if it means the end of their own lives, spiritually STRONGER?

Does it not become OBVIOUS, then, that God would provide a “way of escape” and supernatural protection for those who are WEAKEST, while perhaps singling out for a last testimony and final martyrdom those who are STRONGEST?

Make no mistake!

God did not call you to His truth, beget you as His child whom He LOVES, only to have you live a life of fearful concern over the very things of which YOU REPENTED!

What were some of these?

Did they not include the mundane, daily concerns of HOW YOU WILL SURVIVE; how to feed, clothe, care for, preserve and protect yourself?

Do you see God’s people, according to the Word of God, spending decades worrying about whether they are “qualified” to GO TO PETRA, or, instead, watching world conditions, praying, studying God’s Word, fellowshipping together as His church, caring for and visiting the sick, helping the poor, OVERCOMING their human nature by the power of His Spirit—busily ACCOMPLISHING HIS WORK?

If YOUR LIFE is “HID” with Christ in God—cannot you say, with the apostle Paul, “I will not fear what man can do unto me”?

God has not given His people the spirit of FEAR, but of POWER, and of LOVE, and of a SOUND MIND”! (2 Timothy 1:7).

IF God has determined you are one He must supernaturally PROTECT from the terrible times ahead—and He knows your strengths and weaknesses—THEN HE WILL PROTECT YOU! It does NOT MATTER HOW, OR WHERE!

If He has HONORED you with the decision that you are to give powerful WITNESS for HIM and HIS ETERNAL GOVERNMENT He will soon establish on this earth—then you will join ranks with the most righteous, spiritfilled, dedicated, COURAGEOUS men and women in all history—those like Stephen, Paul, Peter and your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ Himself!

CHRIST is your PETRA! He is your ROCK, and your hiding place!

You need no other.

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No one wants to suffer pain, injury or death! Yet the “Great Tribulation” spoken of in the Bible (Matthew 24, Luke 21) promises terrible persecution, pain, suffering and DEATH by martyrdom for Christians!

Jesus Christ prophesied, “Then shall they deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and ye shall be hated of all nations for my name’s sake” (Matthew 24:9).

Who are these Christians?

WHY are they singled out to suffer in the Great Tribulation? Jesus also said, “But there shall not an hair of your head perish”! (Luke 21:18). WHO are those who will escape unscathed? Who are those who will be afflicted and killed?

Are the ones to be afflicted the “inferior” Christians; people with hidden sins, spiritual weakness; in a “lukewarm” condition, while those who escape are praying, studying, meditating, overcoming, zealous Christians?

Jesus said some of those in God’s true church would be put to death but others would be spared! Why? What’s the difference? Why are some spared, but others allowed to suffer tribulation and even martyrdom? Notice what Christ said:

“And ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends; and some of you shall they cause to be put to death. And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake. But there shall not an hair of your head perish. . .” (Luke 21:6-18).

Obviously, when Christ said “SOME of you…” He is describing the whole church, and saying of SOME that not a “hair of their head would perish,” but of others that they would be betrayed by family and friends, and taken into terrible trials.

Jesus was describing the time of the GREAT TRIBULATION, just prior to the DAY OF THE LORD, and the end of this present age.

Some of His true disciples were to be “delivered up,” but not all!

Notice. “But before all these [wars, earthquakes, famines and pestilences], they shall lay their hands on you, and persecute you, delivering you up to the synagogues [churches], and into prisons, being brought before kings and rulers for my name’s sake.

“And it shall turn to you for a testimony. Settle it therefore in your hearts, not to meditate before what ye shall answer: For I will give you a mouth and wisdom, which all your adversaries shall not be able to gainsay nor resist” (Luke 21:10-15).

Here is a picture of true Christians, those who are a part of the Body of Christ in the final generation of this world’s civilizations, doing the work of God. That work they are accomplishing becomes such a stench in the nostrils of carnal-minded, God-defying human governments and religious organizations that Jesus prophesied His remnant church would be terribly persecuted—many of them MARTYRED for the sake of His name, and His work!

Who are these who will be “delivered up”?

Are they inferior? Have they become lukewarm? Are they the “Laodicean church,” whom Christ is going to “spew out of His mouth”? (Revelation 3:14-16).

Notice Mark’s account. “And the gospel must first be published among all nations.

“But when they shall lead you, and deliver you up [this means arrested, being `brought’ before officialdom], take no thought beforehand what ye shall speak, neither do ye premeditate: But whatsoever shall be given you in that hour, that speak ye: For it is not ye that speak, but the Holy

Spirit” (Mark 13:10, 11).

Obviously these are deeply converted Christians! Filled with the Holy Spirit, they confidently, in FAITH, expect that Almighty God will put powerful, moving witness in their mouths by which they will convict their tormentors. As such, they will join the ranks of those righteous men and women cataloged in the 11th chapter of Hebrews, “of whom the world was not worthy.” They will join ranks with Stephen, who gave powerful witness as he was being murdered; with Peter, who was probably crucified upside down; with the apostle Paul, who died a martyr; with Jesus Christ of Nazareth Himself!

Are these, singled out by Almighty God and by the HEAD of His true church, Jesus Christ, “inferior,” lukewarm Christians?

Were those mentioned in Hebrews 11 inferior? Was Stephen? Was Paul? Was Jesus Christ?

WHO is better able to give a powerful witness and testimony before the highest courts, before religious conclaves, before officialdom at every level, including heads of state? Those who are lukewarm? Or those who have been called of God to deliver a witness and a warning to God-rejecting, sinning mankind?

WHO were the “spokesmen” and the “watchmen” of God in the past? Why, they were the prophets and the apostles! God did not select the WEAKEST among His people for His spokesmen, but the strongest!

The “Laodicean Church”

The false concept that lukewarm Christians will be martyred; “left behind” while the “Philadelphian Era” will be “taken to a place of safety” came from the false notion that God’s church would pass through seven successive “eras” or stages of development.

Study Revelation 2nd and 3rd chapters in this regard.

Because the “letters to the churches” were revealed successively, along an old Roman mail route, commencing with Ephesus and ending with Laodocea, it began to be assumed that these letters were intended to be understood as “eras” of the church, one following another.

Thus, since “Ephesus” is mentioned first, it was assumed that the first century, when the apostles were alive and working, was the “Ephesian era.” This would be followed by “Smyrna, Pergamos, Thyatira, Sardis, Philadelphia and, finally, the Laoocean era.”

However, notice that the truly large churches; those where Paul primarily worked, and where Peter preached (Peter wrote from Babylon, or near modern day Baghdad, while Paul worked among the Gentiles in Corinth, Thessa-lonika, Philippi, Colossae, Galatia (Lystra, Iconium and Derbe), and Rome), as well as the large church in Jerusalem and the other large one in Alexandria, are not mentioned!

Further, notice that the rejoinder to each of the seven churches in Asia (Asia Minor today, or modern-day Turkey) are warned, “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit saith unto the CHURCHES” PLURAL! (See Revelation 2:7, 11,17, 29; Rev. 3:6, 13, and 22 in this regard.)

Elaborate attempts were made to assign various dates and events to justify this doctrine.

Those who believe the “Laodicean church” is comprised of those “lukewarm” members of God’s true church also believe that the “Laodicean church” is more like an “attitude” in the hearts and minds of perhaps 50 percent of those WITHIN another church era.

That “era,” they say, is “Philadelphia.” This church era is called “the church of brotherly love.” That this connotation is completely unscrip-tural is lost on many. While it is true that the Greek word philadelphos means “brotherly love,” there is nothing which leads us to apply the meaning of the Greek names of all of the churches to each “era” (so-called) which they identify. Smyrna, Thyatira, Pergamos and Laodicea are merely names. Laodocea was named for “Laodice,” the wife of Antiochus Epiphanes! If one is to claim application of the Greek meaning of philadelphos to so-called “eras” of the church, then one must also explain the meaning of all the others!

According to the belief in “church eras,” at some moment in time (expected continually, reinforced by excited, speculative sermons repeatedly), the “Philadelphia era” will be whisked away to a “PLACE OF SAFETY”!

Perhaps they will be taken up by the grounded fleet of DC-10s—Almighty God supplying “a 10-inch angel” for each so-called defective “10-inch bolt”! You may laugh at this, but this supposition was PREACHED before nodding, agreeing, believing people many years ago, in the wake of a terrible, fatal crash of a DC-10 in Chicago.

As the supposition goes, those who are “lukewarm” (of the “Laodicean attitude”) will be SHOCKED when this pseudo-rapture occurs, and their own beloved friends, perhaps family members, even husband or wife, are suddenly GONE, but they are “left behind” to suffer the pangs and horrors of the GREAT Tribulation!

Is this scenario true?

For, if it is Not, then literally tens of thousands of the members of God’s church are being completely DECEIVED; are banking on a FALSE HOPE, and are doomed to great disappointment, and perhaps some will stumble, spiritually, and simply give up when they discover they have believed in a completely FALSE doctrine!

Now, think!

The concepts I have explained above require that THREE of the seven eras must be CONTEMPORARY during the final century of this age!

Those who accepted this concept in the 1950’s and 1960’s should therefore believe that the “Philadelphian era” died when my father died, in 1986! The church which emerged would then be WHICH CHURCH, according to this concept?”

Why, Laodicea, of course!

But this concept leaves no place for the more than TWO HUNDRED different churches and groups which have resulted from one of the most (if not THE most!) gigantic apostasies in history! The church God used my father and me (as well as many other “pioneers” of the 1950’s and 1960’s) to raise up, DISINTEGRATED!

None of those groups which sprang up wanted to lay claim to being the END TIME ERA, and so NONE of them has incorporated as “The Laodicean Church of God!”

Church Eras—True or False?

What about the concept of “church eras”? Did God foreordain that His church would pass through specific, different “eras,” or “phases,” down through history each “era,” or “phase,” of His church having distinctive characteristics, strengths and/or weaknesses which would clearly identify that particular era?

Certainly there can be no argument against the obvious fact that the seven churches of Revelation 2 and 3 are symbolic of the entire Church of God, both during that apostolic age, and down through all history!

Repeatedly the Scripture warns that all members of God’s church are to hear what the Spirit says to all the churches!

None of the supposed “eras” is told to ignore what the Spirit said to all the other “eras” (so called), paying attention only to the message directed toward themselves.

Certainly it is obvious that this section of the book of Revelation was indicative of the general trials, persecutions, tribulations and difficulties affecting the whole church at that time!

Further, it is very likely indicative of the general type of trials, troubles and persecutions which would afflict the whole church throughout history, and which does afflict the church NOW!

But are we to understand that each of these seven contemporaneous churches represented a completely separate, different “era” or “phase” through which God’s true church would pass from the time of the apostles until the final remnant spoken of in Revelation 12?

If the remainder of the theory presupposes that each era supersedes the other, and emerges and becomes extant only after the passing of the other (even if it admitted there is a transitional period), WHY should more than one third of the number be presupposed to remain extant contemporaneously, during the last days?

For, if Sardis is yet alive, and there be those who will “walk with Christ in white”; if “Philadelphia” comprises another, separate organization; if “Laodicea” either comprises lukewarm members WITHIN that organization, or another organization, you have THREE of the SEVEN existing side by side, contemporaneously! Then why not FOUR or six, or all seven?

But there is a far more important truth which destroys the theory.

As I have asked out of the pulpit, and in private conversations, “This is NOT a `trick’ question:

WHEN did the detestable, lukewarm “Laodi-cean” attitude first rear its ugly head in the Church?”

Usually, when I ask this, people remain silent. They become confused; speculative. What do I mean by the question?

It is a simple question _ not a trick! The answer is OBVIOUS to anyone who knows his or her Bible.

Surely, if you are one who remembers the elaborate theory of “church eras,” you well remember the answer. The answer is, “why, IN THE FIRST CENTURY _ contemporaneous with all the others!”

Of course!

Then, if one must cling to the “church era” theory, the following statement is true: “Laodicea was part of Philadelphia!” Right? Of course it is! There it is, in your own Bible, in Revelation the 2nd and 3rd chapters! For IF the time of the apostles; the time when John wrote the book of Revelation, was the “Ephesian ERA,” then ALL the problems, attitudes, and spiritual difficulties which are set forth in Revelation 2 and 3 were extant right then, in the end of the FIRST CENTURY!

Why of COURSE they were!

Then, admit to yourself what is as plain as the nose on your face that, even as ALL the described difficulties, from those who had left their first love, to those who were “spiritually dead,” to those suffering persecution, to those before whom God had set an open door, to those who were lukewarm, were taking place WHEN JOHN WAS TOLD TO WRITE THE LETTER TO THEM!

They were contemporaneous!

They all existed at the same time!

And that is the point. The warnings contained in Revelation 2 and 3 are for ALL the church, EVERYWHERE, ALL THE TIME!

They were never intended to be understood as phases or eras. God did not “foreordain” that people born during the middle ages HAD to belong to the so-called “Thyatiran era,” while those born in the early part of this century HAD to belong to the so-called “Sardis era.”

IF the so-called “Ephesian era” was the first 100 years or so of church history, and IF it was the era of the apostles, then why did not any of the apostles warn the church that they were about to lose their place; that they had “lost their first love?”

WHO was the apostle who most exemplified LOVE? Why, JOHN, of course! He was “that disciple whom Jesus loved”; the disciple who leaned on Jesus’ bosom during the last supper. He wrote repeatedly about LOVE in his three letters in the Bible.

Never did Paul warn the many churches in his jurisdiction that “their candlestick would be removed out of its place,” or that they “had lost their first love.” Neither did James, or Peter, or any of the others.

ONLY EPHESUS, that specific city where John had been the overseer for many years, is warned that they “had lost their first love” (Revelation 2:4). But, since all the churches were contemporaneous, IF the days of the apostles comprised the “Ephesian era,” then this warning should have been repeatedly proclaimed to all the church for DECADES! Instead, it went ONLY TO EPHESUS, and not to Jerusalem, Alexandria, Rome, Corinth, or anywhere else!

Actually all New Testament literature would supposedly represent “Ephesian era literature,” and should be replete with many warnings about “losing one’s first love” IF an era was involved. The absolute silence concerning any such warning throughout ALL the New Testament except for those few verses in a book not written until about 92 AD proves none of the apostles remotely thought that they were living in “the Ephesian era.”

Some have said, “Yes, but what about Revelation 12? What about the woman who flees into the wilderness on the wings of an eagle?”

“The Two Wings of an Eagle”

Those who cling to the idea of a “great escape” into a wilderness; a kind of “physical rapture” into a place of safety, are fond of quoting Revelation 12:14, which says, “And to the woman were given two wings of a great eagle, that she might fly into the wilderness, into her place, where she is nourished for a time, and times, and half a time, from the face of the serpent.”

There is no doubt about it. Almighty God plainly says, in His Word, that He will protect, and preserve alive, a “remnant” of His true church!

That the “woman” is God’s church is without doubt. That the symbol “wings of a great eagle” connotes God’s protection is without doubt. However, “the wilderness” is metaphor, and could include (as it did in the Middle Ages) all of Europe, including the deep, plunging valleys of the Swiss Alps, the French Alpine region, the provinces of Northern Italy, and the rugged terrain of Spain. In Biblical terms, it usually meant any desolate, uninhabited wilderness.

Also, we know that the “time, times and half a time” corresponds to the Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord!

The ministry of the two witnesses also takes place during 31/2 years! Further, Israel is said to be suffering the pangs of the Great Tribulation for approximately the same period of time.

This is the identical time span during which “Jerusalem will be trodden down of the gentiles.” All of these great events are to take place within the same three and one-half year period.

Not only is the term “wilderness” metaphorical, so is the expression “two wings of a great eagle.”

Notice what God says about how He rescued ancient Israel from the wrath of Pharoah and the Egyptian army: “And Moses went up unto God, and the LORD called unto him out of the mountain, saying, Thus shalt thou say to the house of Jacob, and tell the children of Israel;

“Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself.

“Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is mine” (Exodus 19:3-5).

Remember, the Israelites WALKED every step of the way, or perhaps rode animals, or were carried in carts, by horses or oxen! They were protected in Goshen in their own homes, and then protected by the miracle of the parting of the Red Sea. God described this entire experience as having borne them “on eagle’s wings.” So the metaphorical expression “two wings of a great eagle” does NOT mean DC-10s, or any kind of aircraft at all, but merely is referring to God’s supernatural protection.

The term “that she might fly” does NOT connote actual flight, as in an aircraft. Fleeing is “flight.” The expression “take flight” when one flees from danger or an enemy is quite common in literature, and never connotes flying in an airplane.

Now, notice what Christ said in His famous Olivet prophecy about WHERE, or in which direction the saints are to “take flight” when they see all the terrible events of the Tribulation coming to pass: “When ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, stand in the holy place, (whoso readeth, let him understand:)

“Then let them which be in Judaea flee [i.e. “take flight”] into the mountains:

“Let him which is on the housetop not come down to take any thing out of his house:

“Neither let him which is in the field return back to take his clothes.

“And woe unto them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!

“But pray ye that your flight be not in the winter, neither on the sabbath day:

“For then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be” (Matthew 24:15-21).

WHY PRAY AT ALL, that one should not have to flee either in the winter, or on the Sabbath, if such “flight” is by SUPERNATURAL MEANS?

The “flight” away from danger for those who SEE that the tribulation is about to take place involves PHYSICAL RIGOR! Just as when the Israelites walked out of Egypt, so these end-time Christians will WALK, or use whatever physical means of transportation available to them, to escape!

WHICH Christians? Christ said “…they which be in Judaea,” NOT “them which be in Seattle, Washington, or Miami, Florida, or London, or Sydney, or Cape Town!”

And WHERE would they flee? Christ said “to the MOUNTAINS.” Jerusalem is high up in the mountains. Steep, precipitous mountains are in every direction from Jerusalem; North, South, East and West. Christ did NOT say to flee across the desert to Petra. He said those in Judaea (which includes the entire ancient province so named by the Romans) should flee to the mountains!

Now, what of Christian people who are NOT in Judaea, but are living in countries all over the world?

Notice what the Bible says about WHERE God’s converted saints are to be found at the coming of Christ! Jesus said, “And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory.

“And he shall send his angels with a great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other” (Matthew 24:30,31). The angels do NOT gather God’s elect from ONE SMALL LOCATION in a desert hideout in Jordan! Instead, they gather them from every point of the compass; from Canada, Australia, Africa, Europe, Asia, South America, the United States – the Islands of the seas – from “one end of heaven to the other!”

Where are they? ON THIS EARTH. Notice, “For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord, that we which are alive and remain unto the coming of the Lord shall not prevent [precede] them which are asleep [death is described as a deep, unconscious sleep!].

“For the Lord himself shall descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel, and with the trump of God: and the dead in Christ shall rise first:

“Then we which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds, to meet the Lord in the air: and so shall we ever be with the Lord” (I Thessalonians 4:13-17). Clouds are part of this earth’s atmosphere. They are generally found under 50,000 feet, and are formed from water vapor and tiny ice crystals.

Clouds are a part of the three “spheres” forming our earth, which are the “bathysphere” [oceans and waters], “lithosphere” [rocks and land] and the “atmosphere.” By way of analogy, if you have a desk-sized globe, the actual mantle of air where the clouds form is thinner than the lacquer finish on your globe! Christ is coming back to this earth! He will descend to the MOUNT OF OLIVES in that same day!

“Then shall the LORD go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle.

“And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east, and the mount of Olives shall cleave in the midst thereof toward the east and toward the west, and there shall be a very great valley; and half of the mountain shall remove toward the north, and half of it toward the south” (Zechariah 14:3, 4).

NONE of the scriptures describing the return of Christ refer to a special group of people hiding in caves in the Jordanian desert, or anywhere else!

The Bible says those in and near Jerusalem should flee to the mountains! It says the saints of God will be gathered by the angels from all over the world to meet the descending Christ in the air! It says nothing about all of God’s people being in some special place!

The Wrath of SATAN

John saw, in a vision, the final attempt of Satan the devil to overthrow the very throne of God!

“And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, and prevailed not; neither was their place found any more in heaven.

“And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent, called the devil, and Satan, which deceiveth the whole world: he was cast out into the earth, and his angels were cast out with him” (Revelation 12:7-9).

That this occurrence takes place just prior to “the Great Tribulation” is obvious from the language of verse 12, and the fact that the dragon makes war with “the remnant of her seed,” meaning the church.

Further, it is at this time God offers salvation to countless humans who have previously heard His warning message:

“And I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, now is come salvation, and strength, and the Kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ: for the accuser of our brethren is cast down, which accuse them before our God day and night.

“And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they LOVED NOT THEIR LIVES UNTO THE DEATH”! (Revelation 12:10, 11).

Reread carefully those verses!

At the beginning of the Great Tribulation it is not (as some have preached and written) TOO LATE for salvation!

Remember, the entire host of the 144,000, plus the vast, innumerable multitude (Revelation 7), are converted as a direct result of the calamitous events of the tribulation!

Notice the characterization of God’s true servants during this terrible persecution from Satan. How do they overcome the devil? “They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb”!

Further, they were involved in more than just an “organized” work, for each one of them, at some time or another, will be called upon to give his own PERSONAL testimony! They also overcome Satan “by the word of their testimony. . .”

What kind of people will they be?

Will they be terribly concerned about sustaining, extending, preserving and protecting—at practically any cost—this human, physical life?

No! “. . . And they loved not their lives unto the death”! (Revelation 12:11).

Remember! Those righteous men and women who were singled out to make a final witness before the satanic forces of this evil world, and who were MURDERED because of their righteous stand for God and His laws, are not the “weak” of God’s church!

For years, many ministers have taught FALSELY that Almighty God will use physical punishment, the GREAT TRIBULATION, martyrdom and torture before death as the final means of expiating guilt; the final manner in which God will cleanse unrighteousness, and bring about brokenhearted REPENTANCE in recalcitrant, unyielding or “Laodicean” (lukewarm) people!

Ask yourself the following question: “Is that why Stephen died?” Is that why Paul died? Is that why Peter died? Is that why John the Baptist was beheaded? Is it why they killed James, the brother of John, with a sword?

What about all the others? Polycarp was a student of John the apostle, and was burnt at the stake!

Was it because he was a “Laodicean?” No, of course not!

Turn to and read the famous “faith” chapter, Hebrews 11!

Notice! After mentioning a host of the righteous patriarchs, prophets and some of the judges of Israel, including Gideon and Samuel, God’s Word summarizes this catalog of His holy martyrs by saying,

“Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions,

“Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to fight the armies of the aliens.

“Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection:

“And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment:

“They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented;

“(Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth,

“And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise:

“God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect” (Hebrews 11:33-40).

Here God is dealing with two different categories of people!

Notice that some subdued kingdoms, obtained promises, escaped the lions’ den (as did Daniel), waxed valiant in fight, or fought alien armies. Some women received their dead raised to life again!

Each of these is a “success” story!

But OTHERS were “tortured,” and others “had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings—were thrown in prison, stoned, sawn asunder,” etc.

Was it because of a difference in their character?

No! It was because of a difference in their CALLING!

Notice what God says!

“Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a crowd of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us,

“Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross [Greek: stauros, a `stake’ or `tree’], despising the shame, and is set down at the right

hand of the throne of God.

“For consider Him that endured such contradiction of sinners against Himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.

“Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin”! (Hebrews 12:1-4).

WHERE are the members of God’s true church to look?

Are they to get their minds and hearts on some means or method of ESCAPE?

Are they to focus upon a particular geographical location? Should they be thinking about ways and means of traveling to a far distant place, across seemingly boundless seas and oceans, harsh deserts, forbidding mountain ranges, and wondering what they will wear, what articles they can take with them, what foodstuffs they should provide?

Should God’s people have their minds on valid passports, saving seeds and cans of honey?

WHERE should we look?

Your Bible says, “Unto Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith”!

How Modern Weapons Render a Physical “Hiding Place” Obsolete

Today we live in the age of nuclear weapons. Pinpoint accuracy can deliver nuclear weapons to within a few yards or so of a target. Intercontinental ballistic missiles, intermediate-range ballistic missiles, nuclear bombs dropped by aircraft, laser-guided “smart bombs,” wire-guided tank rounds, cluster bombs, parachute bombs, nuclear warheads in artillery shells, rocket-launched nuclear warheads from mobile, truck-mounted launchers; these and a host of other methods of delivering huge, multimegaton thermonuclear explosions are in the arsenals of modern armies.

Helicopter gunships, even if using the more “conventional” weapons, such as cannon, machine guns and napalm, could completely obliterate any given place in a matter of moments.

Chemical warfare, nerve gas or biological warfare could completely exterminate ALL LIFE in major cities, and in whole regions of countries!

“Ah,” one might say, “but the people who would be there would be supernaturally protected of God!”

And that is precisely the point! If God chooses some to be supernaturally protected, He will do so. If he chooses some to be martyred, as he did some of the greatest men and women of all time, He will do so. There is not one iota of proof, and not one iota of LOGIC in the thought that God will ONLY protect those who are in “Petra” but WILL NOT protect those who do not make it there!

The point is: WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES IT MAKE IN ETERNITY?

If you are a converted, begotten “new creature in Christ” developing within your human body, you are SAVED! Paul said, “If in this life ONLY we have hope in Christ, we are of all men most miserable!” (I Corinthians 15:19).

Paul did not urge his fellow Christians to concentrate on “escaping to a place of safety!” Instead, he wrote, “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?

“As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.

“Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.

“For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come,

“Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:35-39).

The entire concept of a “place of safety” is based primarily on FEAR. Fear of being “left behind”; fear of physical hardship or pain; fear of being “looked down on” by others. Yet, Paul wrote, “So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me” (Hebrews 13:6).

FEAR produces a kind of bondage. It keeps those who are fearful quavering before various would-be spiritual leaders who promise them protection,  but only if they measure up to the demands of the leader! Jim Jones was one of these. His idea of “escape” from the United States federal Government, and escape from the consequences of the murders his henchmen had carried out was to commit mass suicide, demanding that nearly a thousand of his followers drink “Kool Aid” laced with a powerful poison! Earlier, this group had been commanded to FLEE to the jungles of Guyana!

They thought they were in their own “place of SAFETY!” Notice what Paul said about the “spirit of bondage” which Jim Jones practiced, and which other would-be religious leaders impose upon their followers: “For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the

Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.

“The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God:

“And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ; if so be that we suffer with him, that we may be also glorified together.

“For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us” (Romans 8:15-18)

What sufferings? Did Christ promise His true disciples that they would never have to suffer? Would they live a life of a church-going, feast-attending, socially active member; taking part in youth programs, sports programs, cookouts, regional holy day meetings, and have to wrestle only with the day to day difficulties of living, but never experience real persecution? After years and years of this, would they then be supernaturally whisked away in a kind of “pseudo-rapture” to a cave in the wilderness?

Such a fanciful notion is nowhere justified in scripture.

Jesus Christ Has Conquered Death, And The FEAR Of Death!

The reason the concept of the “rapture” is so popular, and the reason many cling to the notion of a “place of safety” on this earth is because it is a part of our nature to fear pain, suffering, and death!

One of the most powerful of all human instincts is “self preservation.” The “survival” kinds of television programs and movies; those such as the “great escape” from a prison camp in Germany during World War II, are very popular. They appeal to the carnal human nature of fear of suffering and death.

But Jesus Christ has CONQUERED death, and He has conquered the fear of death! In Him, you and I MUST do the same thing!

Notice what God’s word says about spending a lifetime in fear of death: “Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the devil;

“And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage” (Hebrews 2:14, 15).

Jesus Christ, was HUMAN as well as divine, and He was tempted in every point like as we are.

Therefore, in the night in which he was betrayed, He flung Himself on the ground, earnestly praying to His Father to “remove this cup” (of impending torture and death) from Him. Yet, he very quickly added, “…nevertheless, not MY will but THINE…” After the third prayer, signifying finality, He knew God the Father would NOT CHANGE what had been decided. He knew He must endure what lay ahead.

Christ commands you and me, “Fear them not therefore: for there is nothing covered, that shall not be revealed; and hid, that shall not be known.

“What I tell you in darkness, that speak ye in light: and what ye hear in the ear, that preach ye upon the housetops.

“And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell” (Matthew 10:26-28).

The Greek word for “soul” is psuche, which means the life, and not something immortal. The point is clear: man can kill a human being so that the body becomes inert; lifeless; dead! But man CANNOT kill the “new creature in Christ” which is SPIRIT.

Paul wrote, “But ye [you who are Christians: you who have been begotten of God, and are no longer carnal] are not in the flesh [your life is not constituted merely in the flesh], but in the spirit [your life is now a SPIRIT life; the “new creature in Christ”], IF so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.

“And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness” (Romans 8:9, 10).

Of course! This is why the martyrs of God could face death, saying to their tormentors, “You can kill THIS, this body of mine, but you cannot kill ME; my SPIRIT which is secure for God’s kingdom!”

This great CONFIDENCE; to know one is SAVED, and that the spiritual creature developing within one’s mind is gradually taking on the “divine nature,” becoming more and more like Christ, means one can overcome the fear of death!

Again and again, Christ told His disciples, “FEAR NOT!”

Then WHY do so many want to cling to a doctrine which is entirely based on FEAR?

The point is that, while Petra, or any other wilderness place is completely obsolete as a “place of safety” in the face of modern weapons and methods of warfare, God’s protection will never be obsolete!

“The Daughters of Moab at the Fords of Arnon”

For many years, many in God’s church have assumed Isaiah 16:1-5 is a prophecy of God’s church, being protected in PETRA.

First, read the entire passage as it appears in the King James version:

“Send ye the lamb to the ruler of the land from Sela to the wilderness, unto the mount of the daughters of Zion.

“For it shall be, that, as a wandering bird cast out of the nest, so the daughters of Moab shall be at the fords of Arnon.

“Take counsel, execute judgment; make thy shadow as the night in the midst of the noonday; hide the outcasts; betray not him that wandereth.

“Let mine outcasts dwell with thee, Moab; be thou a covert to them from the face of the spoiler: for the extortioner is at an end, the spoiler ceaseth, the oppressors are consumed out of the land.

“And in mercy shall the throne be established: and he shall sit upon it in truth in the tabernacle of David, judging, and seeking judgment, and hasting righteousness.”

From the very first verse, there are difficulties in translation. For example, the word “lamb” is a totally different word from that used to connote “lamb” elsewhere in the Old Testament!

This particular word is used only in Isaiah 16:1, and is the Hebrew word kar, which is used in the sense of “plumpness.” It is used for a “battering ram,” also “a meadow” (as for sheep); also a pad or camel’s saddle (as puffed out)—captain, furniture, lamb, (large) pasture, ram.

The authorities are agreed that the translation should read, “Send ye the “tribute lamb,” or send “the tribute of lambs.”

This is obviously a reference to the tribute of lambs which the Moabites had previously paid to Israel (II Kings 3:4, 5).

Remember, you must understand biblical prophecy in its context, and in the light of all other cogent scriptures.

Isaiah 15 and 16 are prophecies against Moab! Read the entire 15th chapter, and then study the entire16th chapter in context.

This is a prophecy about the Moabites—THEY are the “wandering bird cast out of the nest,” and they are the ones who are “God’s outcasts,” Not members of God’s true church!

For example, verse 4 should read: “Let mine outcasts [the daughters of MOAB] dwell with thee—as for Moab, be thou a covert to him from the face of the spoiler, for the extortioner is at an end…”

The Critical and Experimental Commentary says: “Let the outcasts of Moab dwell with thee.”

In the prophecy of Daniel 11:40 to the end of that chapter, we see that “Edom and Moab and the chief of the children of Ammon” escape out of the hands of “the king of the north” (the beast power) when the land of Palestine is occupied.

Later these nations are to be punished of God from the huge armies which will come into the land of Palestine out of the north and the east!

This prophecy found partial fulfillment when the armies of Shalmanezer, incensed because the king of Moab had thrown in his lot with the king of Israel, sent armies in a passing campaign to obliterate some of the cities of Moab.

That there may be a veiled reference to “Petra” is possible. That there is reference to a cave is sure.

Also, that there is reference to the coming Kingdom of God (verse 5) is also sure.

What is not SURE is that this is a prophecy concerning God’s true church! The following points are certain from a careful study of this passage:

1. “The lamb” does not refer to Christ, but to “tribute lambs” sent by the king of Moab to the king of Israel in supplication.
2. The wandering bird cast out of the nest is not “God’s people” but “the daughters of Moab”!
3. They are not at the “Wadi-Musa” in Petra but “at the fords of Arnon,” a river forming the southern borders of the land of Moab.
4. “Mine outcasts” are not the fleeing remnant of God’s true church, but fleeing Moabites.
5. The leaders of Israel are commanded to “be thou a covert to them [the daughters of Moab].”
6. They were to protect them from “the face of the spoiler” who was Shalmanezer in ancient history.

Your “Hiding Place”

Jesus Christ is continually referred to as the Rock of our salvation! (Deuteronomy 32).

David said, “… The Eternal is upright: He is my rock…”(Psalms 92:15).

He called God his “. . . defence; and my God is the rock of my refuge” (Psalms 94:22).

He spoke of God as “…as the rock of our salvation” (Psalms 95:1).

Jesus Christ is called “that ROCK” who followed the Israelites in the wilderness (I Corinthians 10:4), thus combining two biblical types of God’s protection.

Remember that God said that He bore the Israelites “on eagle’s wings” when He removed them from the land of Egypt, and watched over them during the 40 years’ wandering; also, He continually showed them He was their “ROCK” of refuge!

In each case these are biblical types which portray the protection, and, more important, the salvation of God!

WHERE, then, is your “hiding place”? Is it in Jordan’s most popular tourist attraction, the “Rose Red City of Rock,” Petra? Or is your life “hidden with Christ,” instead?

“If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above [NOT some desert cave on this earth], where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above [God’s soon-coming KINGDOM, and eternal life], not on things on the earth [including desert `places of safety’].

“For ye are dead, and your life is HID WITH CHRIST in God”! (Colossians 3:1-3).

Note that well!

If you are a member of God’s true church; if you have received the Holy Spirit of God (I Corinthians 12:13), then your life is ALREADY HIDDEN! Does God say you are to FEAR persecution, even imprisonment, torture or death? Notice! “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul [Greek: psuche, meaning the life], but rather FEAR HIM who is able to destroy both soul [psuche] and body [soma, meaning our physical, temporary bodies] in Gehenna”!

Man may be able to kill us, physically! Yet God says, “The spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: And if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs WITH CHRIST: If so be that we suffer with Him, that we may be also glorified together”! (Romans 8:16, 17).

There is a “SPIRIT IN MAN”! When Almighty God imparts to us His Holy Spirit, His Holy Spirit begets that spiritual essence” which lifts our minds above the mere “brain” of human animals, and gives us our humanity, our personality, and our character.

Almighty God begets us as His CHILDREN!

We become CO-HEIRS with Jesus Christ! Notice! It tells us, “If so be that we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together”! These tremendous promises show us that we are not to fear what MAN is able to do unto us. God does not promise that every Christian will escape all suffering!

Refer back to Matthew 10:28, and the succeeding verses. “Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing and one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father.

“But the very hairs of your head are all numbered.

“Fear ye not therefore, ye are of more value than many sparrows”!

Does Jesus Christ say we are to spend a great deal of our conscious thought deeply concerned over how to “FLEE” to a physical, geographical location of PROTECTION?

No! “He that findeth his life shall LOSE IT: AND HE THAT LOSETH HIS LIFE FOR MY SAKE SHALL FIND it”! (Matthew 10:39).

Your Bible says, “And the dragon was wroth with the woman [the church!] and went to make war with the remnant of her seed [the last generation of the true Church of God!] which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ”! (Revelation 12:17).

Are these “lukewarm” Christians? No, they are Christians who ARE KEEPING THE COMMANDMENTS! They are Christians who HAVE THE TESTIMONY OF JESUS CHRIST!

Notice! “I beheld, and the same horn made war with the SAINTS, AND PREVAILED AGAINST THEM; until the Ancient of Days came, and judgment was given to the saints of the most High; and the time came that the saints possessed the kingdom”! (Daniel 7:21, 22).

Here, just as in the book of Revelation, it shows, NOT that all of the members of God’s true church are safely tucked away in some cave in the wilderness, but that Satan the devil actually “prevailed against them”! For how long “Until the Ancient of days CAME”!

In other words, just as Jesus warned (Matthew 10), there will be some members of the Church of God who will be specially called and chosen to give a powerful witness and TESTIMONY to the satanic forces of evil in this world, and who will pay for their loyalty and faithfulness to Almighty God and Jesus Christ their Savior with their lives!

Notice! “But beware of men: For they will deliver you up to the councils, and they will scourge you in their synagogues [churches!]; and ye shall be BROUGHT [not `invited’ or received in a gracious manner, but DRAGGED, `brought,’ as PRISONERS] before governors and kings for my sake, for a testimony against them and the gentiles.

“But when they DELIVER YOU up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak: For it shall be given you in that same hour what ye shall speak. For it is not ye that speak, but the spirit of your Father which speaketh in you.

“And the brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and the father the child: And the children shall rise up against their parents, and cause them to be put to death.

“And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake [how can this BE, if some in the church are ashamed of the name of Christ?], but he that endureth to the end [even if it means the end of his life] shall be saved”!

These are powerful words.

They clearly foretell that SOME in God’s true church—NO, not the “weak ones” but the STRONGEST—will be “brought before governors and kings” and will be called upon to give powerful witness and testimony!

To Which “Church Era” Do the Two Witnesses Belong?

Clearly, at the time of the great persecutions to be brought upon God’s church during the tribulation, which is SATAN’S WRATH, all organized preaching of the gospel will cease. “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord Eternal, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Eternal:

“And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even unto the east, they shall run to and fro to seek the word of the Eternal, and shall not find it” (Amos 8:11, 12).

NOT because they are sitting on the sidelines, huddled in caves for their own physical protection, but because they are being “delivered up to the synagogues” and being subjected to terrible religious persecution, the true servants will be unable to carry out any organized preaching of the gospel.

But God’s work will still go on!

How?

God says, “And I will give power unto my two witnesses, and they shall prophesy [including inspired preaching and witnessing] a thousand two hundred and three score days [3 1/2 years] clothed in sackcloth.

“These are the two olive trees, and the two candlesticks standing before the God of the earth [see Zechariah 4:3], and if any man will hurt them, fire proceedeth out of their mouth, and devoureth their enemies: And if any man will hurt them, he must in this manner be killed.

“These have power to shut heaven, that it rain not in the days of their prophecy: And have power over waters to turn them into blood, and to smite the earth with all plagues, as often as they will.”

Who are these two witnesses? The Bible doesn’t say. Yet it is obvious they are two human beings who very likely are alive right now, and who will be used to carry on God’s work in the very last few years prior to the second coming of Christ!

Their ministry BEGINS when all organized preaching of the gospel by the church ceases.

When the Great Tribulation begins, the nations of Israel are subjugated and taken into captivity, the church scattered and persecuted, the great, end-time ministry of the TWO WITNESSES begins!

There are many biblical types evident here.

Just as Moses and Aaron went before Pharaoh (a type of Satan) and his two magicians, Jannes and Jambres (types of the beast and the false prophet), continually saying, “Let my people GO!” while the plagues fell upon rebellious Egypt; so shall the two witnesses go before the beast and the false prophet in Jerusalem, demanding that Israel be RELEASED from their captivity, and will be met with the same “hardness of heart,” resulting in their calling down PLAGUES upon the beast power!

Those who believe in “church eras” have apparently completely overlooked the fact that, IF the entire so-called “Philadelphian era” is “taken to a place of safety” (meaning PETRA, in the Jordanian desert), and the only ones exempted are the “Laodiceans” (usually spoken of in deprecating terms, as totally and wholly unfit, lukewarm, sleepy, unconcerned, weak ones), then to which “church era” do the two witnesses supposedly belong? The only remaining choice is “LAODICEA”!

But how ludicrous it would be to believe that these two powerful witnesses; prophets with more power than Elijah and Elisha, are “luke- warm!”

Whoever they are, they are finally killed, and their bodies, lying in the streets of Jerusalem, cause great rejoicing over the whole earth.

Later they are resurrected in what is apparently a physical resurrection, PRIOR to the actual second coming of Christ (Revelation 11:11).

They are the FINAL martyrs for the name of Jesus Christ. Like their Savior, Jesus Christ; like Paul, Stephen, Peter and so many others, they not only dedicate their human lives insofar as their work is concerned to the name and the coming Kingdom of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, but they literally lay down their lives for His name’s sake, and are finally MURDERED because they thunderously urge the leaders of the world to REPENT, to STOP the hellish wars they have begun, and to recognize the supreme LORD OF LORDS and KING OF KINGS, the coming King of the Universe, Jesus Christ of Nazareth!

God Can Protect You Where You Are

Study the 91st Psalm!

Here is one of the most encouraging of all of the Bible promises concerning a “place of safety” for You!

“He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.

“I will say of the Eternal, HE is my refuge and my fortress: My God; in Him will I trust.

“Surely He shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence [disease epidemics and plagues].

“He shall cover thee with His feathers [like the analogy of `eagle’s wings’] and under His wings shalt thou trust: His truth shall be thy shield and buckler.

“Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day; nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand, but it shall not come nigh thee” [because of God’s supernatural protection! NOT because one is huddled in a cave!]

“Only with thine eye shall thou behold and see the reward of the wicked.

“Because thou hast made the Eternal, which is my refuge, even the Most High, thy habitation,

“There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling”!

Here God absolutely promises that people can and will be protected (if that is in God’s plan for their own personal calling) right where they live!

Even as the plagues fell on Egypt while the Israelites were still within their own homes, and God protected them RIGHT WHERE THEY WERE, so this PROMISE from God concerns protecting

His people from suffering and death, if that is His perfect will, IN THEIR DWELLINGS!

And WHICH is the greater MIRACLE? Protecting countless THOUSANDS, in thousands of different locations, under thousands of different circumstances, or protecting a group of people in ONE place?

Remember, there IS NO DOUBT God promises SOME (not all) of His people protection (Revelation 3:10). But WHICH ONES?

Notice: “…Ye shall be betrayed both by parents, and brethren, and kinsfolks, and friends; and SOME

OF YOU shall they cause to be put to death!

“And ye shall be hated of all men for my name’s sake.

“But there shall not an hair of your head perish” (Luke 21:16-18).

Obviously, if verse 18 (“there shall not an hair of your head perish”) is to be taken to mean not one of the true church will be martyred, then how are you to understand verse 16?

Obviously, Christ is saying that SOME will be put to death, while others will be delivered!

But how does God make that choice?

Notice! “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: But God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation [trial] also make a way to escape, that ye may be ABLE TO BEAR IT”! (I Corinthians 10:13).

This scripture says a GREAT DEAL!

God absolutely promises that the degree of trial, trouble, pain, suffering or “temptation” placed before each individual will NOT be more than that individual is “able to bear”! Who, then, is weakest and who is strongest? Are not those who are able to endure the MOST the stronger? Are not those who would very quickly give up their faith, perhaps swear allegiance to the beast, the number of his name or his image; even curse their God (and this has been REQUIRED of people in the past!) under threat or the actual pain of physical torture or death, the weaker?

And are not those who are able to “endure unto the end,” even if it means the end of their own lives, spiritually STRONGER? Did not God choose the STRONGEST men in all history to be His witnesses and His martyrs?

Does it not become OBVIOUS, then, that God would provide a “way of escape” and supernatural protection for those who are WEAKEST, while perhaps singling out for a last testimony and final martyrdom those who are STRONGEST?

Make no mistake!

God did not call you to His truth, beget you as His child whom He LOVES, only to have you live a life of fearful concern over the very things of which YOU REPENTED!

What were some of these?

Did they not include the mundane, daily concerns of HOW YOU WILL SURVIVE; how to feed, clothe, care for, preserve and protect yourself?

Do you see God’s people, according to the Word of God, spending decades worrying about whether they are “qualified” to GO TO PETRA, or, instead, watching world conditions, praying, studying God’s Word, fellowshipping together as His church, caring for and visiting the sick, helping the poor, OVERCOMING their human nature by the power of His Spirit—busily ACCOMPLISHING HIS WORK?

If YOUR LIFE is “HID” with Christ in God—cannot you say, with the apostle Paul, “I will not fear what man can do unto me”?

God has not given His people the spirit of FEAR, but of POWER, and of LOVE, and of a SOUND MIND”! (II Timothy 1:7).

Who Are “Those Who Are Taken, And Those Who Are Left?”

For many decades, an important scriptural quotation from Jesus Christ was turned around backward from its intended meaning! Christ had warned about the “Days of Noah.” Notice it, “But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.

“But as the days of Noe were, so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

“For as in the days that were before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noe entered into the ark,

“And knew not until the flood came, and took them all away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be.

“Then shall two be in the field; the one shall be taken, and the other left.

“Two women shall be grinding at the mill; the one shall be taken, and the other left.

“Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour your Lord doth come” (Matthew 24:36-42).

Many impassioned sermons were preached from this passage; sermons which inspired FEAR and

APPREHENSION! “Will I be LEFT when the others are `TAKEN TO A PLACE OF SAFETY?” people wondered!

But notice the meaning Christ Himself placed on His words!

Plainly, He said those who escaped were LEFT ALIVE (in the ark), while it was the raging flood waters which TOOK AWAY those who were unaware; who had not heeded Noah’s witness and warning!

The emphasis was placed on the fact that the woman grinding at the mill, going about her daily chores, would be LEFT RIGHT THERE, unmolested, undisturbed! But the other woman would be TAKEN AWAY. Christ would not shift or change metaphors right in the middle of His statement!

Christ said that if two would be going about their daily work in the field, one would be TAKEN, and the other left unmolested! People have looked at this scripture entirely BACKWARD from its true meaning — the meaning Christ Himself placed upon it!

IF God has determined you are one He must supernaturally PROTECT from the terrible times ahead—and He knows your strengths and weaknesses—THEN HE WILL PROTECT YOU! It does NOT MATTER HOW, OR WHERE!

If He has HONORED you with the decision that you are to give powerful WITNESS for HIM and HIS ETERNAL GOVERNMENT He will soon establish on this earth—then you will join ranks with the most righteous, spirit filled, dedicated, COURAGEOUS men and women in all history—those like Stephen, Paul, Peter and your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ Himself!

CHRIST is your PETRA! He is your ROCK! HE is you special “hiding place,” and you need no other!

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