Pastor's Comments March 2, 2012

While exiled on the island of Patmos, the Apostle John saw in VISION “The World to Come” (Hebrews 2:5):

for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away. Also there was no more sea. . . .” Revelation 21:1.

In this writing I intend to focus on the third area “T\he Renewing of God’s Creation,” Genesis 1:3.

2) Genesis 1:1-2 And followed by: The creation of the Antediluvian World; and much later in time, God’s perfect creation wrecked

When we compare the Millennial World that is almost here along with the Spirit World to Come, with ‘The World That Then Was’ and this ‘Present Evil World’, we should be able to see the destructive and painful price of SIN that mankind is experiencing together with nature itself!

And at the same time we should also understand why Revelation 21 and 22 make known only those who have repented and turned away from SIN will become a part of this Wonderful World To Come.

This is why the PASSOVER is so very important to each one of God’s true people and ultimately will to the world – beginning with the millennium.

We need to seriously think about the horrible price Jesus Christ, the true Lamb of God paid, to make possible the forgiveness of sin and removal of the death penalty – not having to perish in the lake of fire.

Luke 22:39- the fervency of His prayer to His Father – not just for Himself, but the potential of eternal life of all humanity, including you and me, hung on His faithfulness unto anguish and death on the tree.

This Passover and the preparation for it, and future ones, should be of the utmost importance to each of us. Beginning to examine ourselves trying hard to put our sins under the blood of Jesus Christ and cease doing whatever it might be that is sinful.

To enable us to see the fallout of sin – that Lucifer brought on God’s creation – I intend to read a letter sent to me after having given the previous sermon about the PREDTOR/PREY WORLD that he brought about once he sinned.

And this should teach us – SIN does not stop with the individual – it affects others as well – bringing about heartache and often painful deaths because of thoughtless sin.

“. . . if you don't mind, you mentioned something in your sermon and then again in this last weeks the Pastor's Comments, that I strongly disagree with. On page 6 & 7 you wrote "It was a predator and prey world then just as it is today." Do you honestly believe GOD who is of love, would create such brutality in animals?

GOD is love, everything HE creates it built on that principle. We are even instructed to treat our animals with care, if one falls into a ditch, it's alright to pull it out even on the Sabbath, as well looking after a neighbors lost animal and returning it to him. Out of principle, I don't believe GOD would look kindly on us if we abused, mistreated or beat our animals.

What animals do to each other is far from what love is. With exception to scavengers (who don't kill, but for reasons of sanitization, clean up by eating animals that are already dead), the predator/pray animal life is vicious.

Predators rip apart their pray limb by limb, the prey's guts are pulled out while they are still alive and alert, struggling to get away, being eaten alive (literally).

Many times these animals don't even kill out of necessity, but out of sport. Anyone with just a plain house cat witnesses this as they chase mice and birds. How many times do you see the prey get away because they "play" dead?

This isn't just with domestic or pet animals, but wild ones as well. I've seen a video of what I believe was a bobcat, that came across a snake. Two predators fighting, but only entertainment for one. The bobcat went up to the coiled snake just to quickly detach its head from its body, afterwards to swiftly go on its way, leaving its prize to rot in the sun.

This doesn't sound like behavior created by a GOD of love. Instead it's a world of kill or be killed, of competition and brutal entertainment. GOD speaks of HIS kingdom as a safe place full of peace, a time and place where the wolf will dwell with a lamb, where a leopard will lie down with a kid, a calf, a young lion, a fatling and a child, a place where the cow and bear feed and lie down with their young ones together, where a lion eats straw like the ox. Wouldn't this imply that this is the original way of GOD's creation.

Why would HE at anytime create a predator/pray world that is not at peace? I can't believe that GOD created a world were animals prey upon each other in such horrible ways (sadistic ways). What possible purpose would there be for that? A GOD of love would only create in love, and the slightest possibility of HIM creating anything else (because HE changes not), opens a thought process that leads down a dark and dangerous path, one that is not of GOD, but instead of a warped mind of sin, that of Satan.

Mr. Billingsley, please don't take this as a personal attack on you. I understand that GOD's ways/thoughts are so far above mine and that my reasoning is but foolishness to GOD. If I'm wrong then I hope GOD in HIS loving mercy will make it clear to me. I'd appreciate I'd you could help shed some light on this.

This a great and well-written letter and is much appreciated. His question will be answered in this writing.

“First of all, God had created angels. After that, and for angels and for humans who were to be created later, God formed and brought into existence the earth and the entire universe. And so we come now to that which is revealed in Genesis 1:1: “In the beginning [of the physical universe] God created the heavens and the earth.” These are material and physical. . . .

Pages 74-75 > Genesis 1:1-2. Verse 1, . . . implies a perfect creation. God is the author of life, of beauty, of perfection. Satan has brought only darkness, ugliness, imperfection, violence. Verse 1 shows the creation of a perfect, if unfinished earth, glorious and beautiful. Verse 2 reveals the result of the sin of the angels.

“And the earth was [became] without form, and void.” . . . A better translation is “waste and empty” [empty of physical life forms] or “chaotic, in confusion and in a state of decay.” . . .

David was inspired to reveal how God renewed the face of the earth: “You send forth Your Spirit, they are created; and You renew the face of the earth” (Psalm 104:30). . . .

[Hebrews 11:3 “By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible” (Job 25:13; 9:8-10).

NOTE: The worlds were created from invisible, intangible non-physical essence, out of spirit, or spirit essence into atoms and molecules. An atom is a tiny universe of energy.]

From verse 2 of Genesis 1 on, the remainder of this first chapter of the Bible is not describing the original creation of the earth. But it is describing a renewing of the face of the earth, after it had become waste and empty as a result of the sin of the angels.

What is described from verse 2 on, in the supposed creation chapter of the Bible, did occur, according to the Bible, approximately 6,000 years ago. But that could have been millions or trillions of years after the actual creation of the earth described in verse 1. . . .”

“The World That Then Was”—perished! Its death was brought about by the rebellion of Satan trying to overpower God. The beautiful heavens and earth that had been created perfect in its beginning was then brought into chaos and confusion—a dormant and lifeless world, as Scripture makes known:

Genesis 1:2 The earth became without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep (Hebrew: Abyss=deep [A Worldwide Flood of Water covering the earth]).

This was due to the wreckage of God’s perfect creation by Satan and his demons (Isaiah 14:12-15; Ezekiel 28:12-17). As the result the earth came to be a lifeless world – all physical life had violently perished.

Psalm 104:29 “You hide Your face, they [huge creatures of “The World That Then Was”], they are troubled; You take away their breath, they die and return to their dust.”

Along with the death of that world, so also did the flora and fauna, trees, etc. perish; a physical creation especially designed by God to provide the needs for the huge vegetation eating creatures of that time.

Unknown exact years later from that time, God began to renew His creation of the planet earth.

Genesis 1:3-10 Then God said, “Let there be LIGHT”: and there was LIGHT . . .”

By thinking about the following Scriptures one should be able to see the great God of all LOVE making possible through the re-creation of the earth one that would be user-friendly and habitable for mankind while providing for his needs (I John 4:8, 16).

Psalm 104:30 “You send forth Your Spirit, they are created. And You RENEW the face of the earth.” II Corinthians 4:6.

God then created a different kind of plant and tree life from the one that had provided the needs of the previous world

Genesis 1:11-12 Then God said, “Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb that yields seed, and the fruit tree that yields fruit according to its kind, whose seed is in itself, on the earth.” And it was so . . . And God saw that it was good.

Genesis 1:13-26 After having renewed the earth and created new life in six days, it came time for God’s Master Piece to be created, the very purpose of why He had created the physical universe and the planet earth, mankind (Romans 8:18-23, 30; Ephesians 1:4-14).

So it was, during that same sixth day, MANKIND was created that had been planned before the beginning of time (Titus 1:2; II Timothy 1:9).

Genesis 1:26-31Then God said, “Let US make man in OUR IMAGE, according to OUR LIKENESS. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over the cattle, over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

So God created man[kind] in HIS OWN IMAGE; in the IMAGE OF GOD He created him; male and female He created them [1,786 years from here to the Flood].

Then God blessed them [first marriage, Genesis 2:25; 3:6)], and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth [fill the earth up again, angels before] and subdue it (but not yet, Genesis 9:1), have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living things that move on the face of the earth.”

Then the LORD God made known to Adam and Eve all the fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts, animals, sea life, and birds, that would provide delicious and healthy foods for them to eat and enjoy while providing the strength and health needed for sustenance of life.

And God said, “See I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food. Also, to every beast of the earth, to every bird of the air, and to everything that creeps on the earth, in which there is life, I have given every green herb for food (further clarified, Leviticus 11; Deuteronomy 14)”; and it was so. Then God saw that everything that He had made, and indeed it was very good. . . .

Genesis 2:1 Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them were finished.

Genesis 2:2-3 And on the 7^th Day God ended (completed) which He had done and He rested on the 7^th Day from all His work which He had done. Then God blessed the 7^th Day and sanctified it, because He rested from all His work which He had done.

The verses 1-3 from chapter two should have been the concluding verses of chapter one.

Genesis 2, is a reiteration of Genesis 1, from a different point of view. It also emphasizes the reason and purpose behind the creation of Adam and Eve:

Genesis 2:4 This is the history of the heavens and the earth when they were created in the day that the LORD God made the earth and the heavens.

Genesis 2:7 And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and BREATHED into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.

God breathed into Adam the spirit of life – Job 32:8; 33:4. The spirit of life activates man’s brain cells, and thus = mind; a thinking creative mind.

NOTE: Mr. Armstrong: Since, Adam’s spirit in man is transmitted through the sperm cell from the father.

It is also awesome to realize that God through His awesome creative power made each man and woman completely unique from all others; no two people alike (DNA).

Psalm 33:15 “He fashions their hearts individually . . .” I Corinthians 15:38.

Psalm 139:13-16 “For you FORMED my inward parts; You covered me in my mother’s womb. I will praise you for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; marvelous are Your works, and that my soul knows right well. My frame was not hidden from You, when I was made in secret, and skillfully wrought (Soncino Commentary: lit. embroidered alluding to the veins and arteries which run through the body like colored thread) in the lowest parts of the earth. Your eyes saw my substance being yet unformed. And in Your book they all were written, the days fashioned for me, when as yet there were none of them.”

The LORD God created a very special and beautiful place for man’s habitation that would be a type of where Solomon’s Temple was built and where the New Jerusalem will be centered in “The World To Come”.

Genesis 2:8-9 The LORD God [had – created with the original creation – Mr. Armstrong] planted a garden eastward in Eden [meaning: “DELIGHT’ – in what came to be known as Jerusalem] and there He put the man whom He had formed [when created].

And out of the ground the LORD God made every tree grow that is pleasant to the sight and good for food [type of Revelation 22:4; Ezekiel 47:12 ]

The TREE OF LIFE was also in the MIDST of the garden, and THE TREE OF THE KNOWLEDGE OF GOOD AND EVIL. . . .

Verse 18 > And the LORD God said, “It is NOT good that man should be alone; I will make him a HELPER comparable to him (Hebrew: at his side – fit to associate with – a helping supporting role. An example: Proverbs 31:16-31).

Verse 19 > Out of the ground the LORD God [had] formed every beast of the field and every bird of the air, and brought them to Adam to see what he would call them. And whatever Adam called each living creature, that was its name.

The animals and creatures that the LORD God brought before Adam to name were not carnivorous, wild and vicious; rather they were gentle easy to pet and enjoy. >

Verse 21-23 > And the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall on Adam and he slept; and He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh in its place. Then the rib which the LORD had taken from man, He made into a woman, and He brought her to the man. Then Adam said, “This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh; she shall be called woman (Hebrew: ishshah), because she is made from man (Hebrew: ish).

Verse 24 > Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be JOINED to his wife (not wives, but wife! speaking of a sexual relationship within the home), and they shall become ONE flesh (KJV ‘cleve’ a clinging or joining of the wills, a more intimate relationship, I Corinthians 6:16).”

Verse 25 > And they were both naked, the man and his wife (1:28), and they were not ashamed.

And as it is with all of God’s true people, it became necessary for Adam and Eve to be TESTED whether they would obey God or not. The LORD God removed Himself from Adam and Eve and permitted Satan the devil to TEST them.

Genesis 3:1-7 Now the serpent (Satan in the guise of a serpent) was more cunning than any beast of the field which the LORD had made (Ezekiel 28:12, Satan, and his counterpart, the serpent is very wise as made known by Jesus Christ, Matthew 10:16), And he said to the woman, “Has God indeed said, ‘You shall NOT eat of every tree of the garden’?”

And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden; BUT of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God has said, ‘You shall NOT eat it, NOR shall you touch it lest you die [Hebrew: “dying you shall die” – the second death].’”

Then the serpent said to the woman, “You will NOT surely die, for God knows that in the day you eat of it YOUR EYES WILL BE OPENED (the mind), and YOU will be like God, knowing good and evil.”

So WHEN the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she TOOK of its fruit and ATE. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.

THEN the eyes of both of them were opened [their minds to Satan’s way of life – using human reason to make their decisions in life instead of by God’s revelation], and they KNEW that they were NAKED; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves coverings (margin: girded coverings).

[NOTE: Adam and Eve learned something from Satan that he had told them. So that between them they began looking on sex as evil—a newly found shame; but because of the strong sex drive within man and woman they continued to have a sexual relationship and bore children.

It would appear that by Satan teaching them sex was evil they would forgo having sex and thereby not give birth to children; thus thwarting God’s plan of expanding His Family.

Over time sex began to be misused between man and woman and became perverted.

After the Flood, Ham’s grandson, Canaan, found his grandfather Noah in a drunken state and sodomized him (Genesis 9:20-25). Later this same perversion so permeated Sodom and Gomorrah that the LORD God destroyed them (Genesis 19:1-29).

This also spread into the Tribe of Benjamin so much that it almost destroyed them as a Tribe of Israel (Judges 19:22; 20:1-48).

The Apostle Paul wrote about God turning such people over to debased minds, Romans 1:18-32). It is widespread in all of the tribes of Israel today.]

God had commanded Adam and Eve NOT to eat of the Tree of good and evil, but left them as free moral agents to obey His commandments that would point out the way to eternal life or choose death instead (Genesis 2:17; Psalm 19:7-11; Deuteronomy 30:15, 19-20).

Eve had looked at the tantalizing and delicious looking fruit on the Tree of Good and Evil and began to experience a spirit of resentment that God would withhold what Satan said she could have by choosing to eat of this fruit that symbolized an expansion of a much greater and different kind of knowledge that had not been offered to her by God.

This led to her coveting and lusting after this fruit that did not belong to her. She then dishonored God by putting another god before the true God; she stole it from the tree and began eating it; thus breaking the Ten Commandments of God which they already knew for the LORD God had taught them.

Eve wanted the knowledge that Satan had said she could have by eating the fruit that would enable her to think and reason for herself the difference between good and evil. He had cleverly deceived Eve into believing the wrong way was the right way!

She then urged her husband to also eat of it and he obeyed her instead of God and ate the fruit:

I Timothy 2:14 “And Adam was NOT deceived (he knew better), but the woman being DECEIVED, fell into transgression.”

Because Adam and Eve disobeyed the LORD God a change began taking place in their minds from innocence and purity to that of Satan’s nature (mistakenly called human nature) that is hostile to God (Romans 8:7).

Genesis 3:22 Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become ‘DIFFERENT FROM US’, to know good and evil (Ephesians 2:1-3, 18; II Corinthians 11:3; 4:4-6). God cannot look upon evil (Habakkuk 1:13).

They had moved away from the revelation and teaching of God way of life and were now on Satan’s wave length (Ephesians 2:2).

“When Lucifer allowed thoughts of vanity, jealousy, envy, lust and greed, then resentment and rebellion, to enter and occupy his mind, ‘SOMETHING HAPPENED TO HIS MIND’! His mind became perverted, distorted, twisted! His thinking became warped. . . .”

Since this is Satan’s world, his mind change also affected all life, human and otherwise on this planet earth as can be witnessed today.

The identical same thing took place with Adam and Eve’s mind when they chose to disobey God:

MYSTERY OF THE AGES, ‘Immortal Life Offered’, Pages 117, Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong:

Pages 117, “. . . The mind and attitude of Satan entered into him and worked in him, even as it has with all his children that have composed this whole world (Ephesians 2:2). Adam disobeyed God and sinned deliberately. But even though he was not deceived in the original temptation, his deliberate disobedience of God’s explicit command cut him off from God, producing a state of mental perversion and opening his mind to the deceptions of Satan. From that moment, Adam and all his children after him were receptive to the sway of Satan [I John 5:19]. Satan began working in the mind of Adam, even as God would have worked in his mind had he taken of the tree of life.

“But instead Adam chose a different kind of knowledge—he took to HIMSELF the knowledge of good as well as evil. He relied wholly on himself—both for the KNOWLEDGE as well as the power of performance of good as well as evil. He REJECTED reliance on God and chose the course of SELF-reliance. The only righteousness he could acquire was SELF-righteousness, which to God is like filthy rags.

When God “drove out the man” from the Garden of Eden, and barred reentrance—lest he go back and receive eternal life in sin (Genesis 3:22-24)—God PRONOUNCED SENTENCE!

God said, in effect: “You have made the decision for yourself and the world that shall spring from you. You have rejected Me as the basic source of knowledge—you have rejected power from Me through My Spirit to live the righteous way—you have rebelled against My command and My government—you have chosen the way of ‘GETTING,’ ‘TAKING’ way of Satan. Therefore I sentence you and the world you shall beget to 6,000 years of being cut off from access to Me and My Spirit—except for the exceeding FEW I shall especially call. And that FEW shall be called for special service preparatory for the Kingdom of God. They shall do what you have failed to do—reject resist and overcome Satan and his WAYS, and follow the ways of My spiritual law.

“Go, therefore, Adam, and all your progeny that shall form the world, produce your own fund of knowledge. Decide for yourself what is good and what is evil. Produce your own educational systems and means of disseminating knowledge, as your god Satan shall mislead you [as has taken place with the leadership]. Form your own concepts of what is god, your own religions, your own governments, your own life-styles and forms of society and civilization. In all this Satan will deceive your world with his attitude of SELF-centeredness—with vanity, lust and greed, jealousy and envy, competition and strife and violence and wars, rebellion against Me and My law of LOVE.

After the world of your descendants has written the lesson in 6,000 years of human suffering, anguish, frustration, defeat and death—after the world that shall spring from you shall have been brought to confess the utter hopelessness of the way of life you have chosen—I will supernaturally intervene. By supernatural divine power I shall then take over the government of the whole world. With reeducation, I will produce a happy world of PEACE. And on repentance, I shall then offer eternal salvation to all. After a thousand years of that happy world to come, I will resurrect from death to mortal life all who have died uncalled during this present 6,000 years. Their judgment shall then come. And on repentance and faith, eternal life shall be offered them. . . .”

Genesis 3:14 So the LORD God said to the serpent [because of its use by Satan]: “Because you have done this, you are CURSED MORE than all cattle, and MORE than every beast of the field; on your belly you shall go, and you shall eat dust all the days of your life (6,000 years Jude 11). And I will PUT ‘ENMITY’ [mutual hatred] between you and the woman (type of Israel, later the Church of God, Revelation 12:13) and between your seed [your followers] and her Seed (Jesus Christ and His followers); He shall bruise your head (render him powerless, plots and plans, Luke 22:14), and you shall bruise His heel (implies Christ’s death, Revelation 13:8).”

Genesis 3:15 And to the woman He said, “I will greatly multiply your sorrow and your conception (will be removed in the millennium due to no more curse); in pain you shall bring forth children (not just the pain of giving birth to babies, but more like Rachel weeping for her children (Jeremiah 31:15; Matthew 2:16-18 – problems that mankind has chosen – the way of pain, Psalm 139:24); your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.”

NOTE: Verse 15 > Latter part of the verse is dual; first and second coming. Also Numbers 21:5-9, Brazen serpent – Atonement and Redemption pictured.

Genesis 3:17-19 Then to Adam, He (God) said, “Because you have heeded the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree of which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall NOT eat of it’:

“Cursed is the ground for your sake; in TOIL you shall eat of it all the days of your life. Both thorns and thistles it shall bring forth for you, and you shall eat the herb of the field. In the sweat of your face you shall eat bread till you return to the ground, for out of it you were taken; for dust you are, and to dust you shall return.”

Though they are not mentioned, the word ‘THORN’ may also include all kinds of noxious insects as well as poisonous weeds. (Companion Bible). – such as gnats, flies, fleas, ticks, mosquitoes, etc.

All these should be reminders of the CURSE that came on this earth because of sin that Adam and Eve brought on themselves and their descendants because of their SIN in disobeying God by choosing the wrong tree.

Because of their sinful disobedience to God, Adam and Eve were driven out of the Garden in Eden, (‘Delight,’ Paradise) into a tough, trying, and cursed world! Job 5:7; 14:1; Ecclesiastes 2:23.

Genesis 3:22-24 “. . . And now lest he put out his hand and take also of the Tree of Life, and eat and live forever—therefore the LORD God sent him out of the garden in Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the Garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way to GUARD the way to the Tree of Life.”

It would appear the Cherubim and the Garden in Eden remained there until the Flood. People saw them and knowledge of them was passed on afterward beyond the Flood. Calf (Ezekiel 7:14), Egyptians learned of their likeness and began worshipping angels; India does, and so did Israel.

Having been driven out of the Garden in Eden shut them and their descendants off from access to God the Father and salvation (John 6:44). Jesus Christ came and revealed the Father and opened access to the Tree of Life to a selected few during this age (John 17:5).

Galatians 1:2-3 “Grace to you and peace from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave Himself for our sins, that He might DELIVER us from THIS PRESENT EVIL AGE . . .

NOTE: Not only was the nature of Adam and the nature of Eve changed, but also the nature of the animals, marine life, and bird life as well to that of being violent and savage.

Genesis 3:14 “. . . and I will put enmity between you and the woman . . .”

Scripture makes know this is Satan’s world; it belongs to him just as it did in “The World That Then Was” (Matthew 4:7-8; John12:31). When Lucifer sinned a curse came on him from God and it also befell that world just as it did with Adam and Eve for it is his world.

It seems without question when we consider the principle of DUALITY, which can be found throughout the Scriptures, the same took place in that world, just as it did in this present world.

It became a hostile, violent, and savage world that epitomizes Satan’s nature.

Indeed, God is LOVE, and once Satan is put away, and this world becomes under the loving rule of Jesus Christ in the millennium, then it will then be changed back to the way it was in the Garden in Eden – Delight, Paradise – a peaceful world – no longer a Predator/Prey world, as made known by God through His Prophet Isaiah:

Isaiah 11:6-9 “The wolf shall also dwell with the lamb (in peace), the leopard shall lie down with the young goat, the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. The cow and the bear shall graze; their young ones shall lie down together; and the lion shall eat straw like the ox, the nursing child shall play by the cobra’s hole, and the weaned child shall put his hand in the viper’s den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all My holy mountain, for all the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD as the waters cover the sea.”

These writings are intended to make known the horrible consequences of sin – rebellion against the Most High God and their perfect righteous way of life that we see taking place in this present world.

Because of the abominable evils being practiced today, and worsening, a type of Genesis 6, when God had no recourse but to destroy all humanity with the exception of one family of eight people, God is once again going to deal with humanity in a manner very similar to what we have seen in these writings – only this time it will be far worse!.

Jesus said what will take place here at the very end time of this present age will be worse than has ever been or ever will again (Matthew 24:21), not only during the time of the Great Tribulation, but from the fury of nature:

Records continue to be broken as we witness the curse and anger of God beginning to come down hard on His people Israel.

Are we giving it all to have a close relationship with God? It is only by having this kind of relationship that we will escape these disasters and coming horrors— and then be able to stand before His glorified presence.

I do not believe any of us are taking seriously Satan and his continued efforts to destroy all of us – his deception for now – and persecution later. All are designed to remove us from our God and His Truth and Way of Life.

I John 5:19 “We know we are of God, and the whole world lies under the sway of the wicked one.”

Do we really grasp this? We need a real reverent FEAR of God – knowing we have to struggle for our heritage.

Note: “Fight! Contend! Do battle! When apostasy arises, when false teachers emerge, when the truth of God is attacked, it is time to fight for the faith [once for all delivered to the saints]. Only believers who are spiritually “in shape” can answer the summons. . . .”

Jude 1-11 “To those who are called, sanctified by God the Father, and preserved in Jesus Christ . . . I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to CONTEND EARNESTLY FOR THE FAITH WHICH WAS ONCE FOR ALL DELIEVERED TO THE SAINTS . . . For certain men have crept in UNNOTICED . . . ungodly men, who turn the grace of our God into lewdness and deny the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ. But I want you to remind you . . . and the angels who did NOT keep their proper domain, but left their own abode; He has reserved in everlasting chains under darkness for the judgment of the Great Day . . .”

We MUST take our calling and selection from God very seriously. Today is our day of salvation – not another. As we prepare for the Passover – think about the consequences of sin as has been made known in these sermons and writings– and try even harder to live God’s way of life – while looking forward to the ‘World That Is To Come.’

This will be concluded in the next writing that will pick up with the birth of Cain and Abel.

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