AN OPEN LETTER

To the true and faithful members of God’s Church

--Worldwide --

Dear Brethren in Christ Jesus our Lord,

 

What will this New Year, 2004, bring on to the world scene and within the Church of God?  This is a question many of us think about each and every year.

Through the understanding God has graced us with regarding His end-time prophecies we cannot help but wonder, for we well realize this world is not going to continue indefinitely as we now continue to view it.

Though we had expected to be inside the millennium before now; we find we are still yet on this side of it. This has led many to believe the time of Christ’s coming is indefinite and as a result members are living their lives in a care-free manner.

Aside from those who have left the Church, for whatever reasons, there are the many members who are yet attending the corporate Churches of their choice who are quite happy and pleased because the millennial age has not yet begun.  They are cozy and comfortable.

Unless they are very careful this kind of thinking can very well lead them into such a Laodicean attitude that they will be caught asleep! They will then have to win their salvation by enduring the Great Tribulation, as numerous Scriptures have made well known to us.  

This kind of an attitude develops largely because we become focused on our own selves, in our own little world, instead of seeing the world around us crumbling and the suffering being endured by the peoples of this present evil age.

All peoples, of all nations, are in great need of what God’s new world can and will bring to them.

Jesus tells us that we are to pray, “Thy Kingdom come.”  Members of God’s Church need to ask themselves if they are really crying out to God and praying for this to happen very sincerely and with yearning and longing.

It is only the members in His Church who are observing and witnessing the violence, agonized suffering, and killings of fellow human beings, and sighing and crying because of it, who will be counted worthy to receive His MARK that means deliverance from the Tribulation as well as our born-again change into His Family (Ezekiel 9:4-6).

Are the others of us saddened, disillusioned, and disappointed, even to the point of being discouraged, because of not yet being inside the Millennium?

We should not be!  This new world is so much closer to us now than before! It is now very, very, close.  Prophecy is being fulfilled and the signs are all about us. At the same time I well realize when we consider the time periods of the coming famine and the Great Tribulation, we are at least, so it seems, seven years away from the return of Jesus Christ.

When will the famine begin?  If we have been watching the weather patterns and how the forces of nature have been affecting this country and other nations of Israel, we should know we can be inside of that time before we realize it.  

Possibly, we are already inside the beginning of it, even now, and do not realize it! God has a purpose in concealing some things from His people knowing it could be detrimental to us if we knew the exact time frame.  

Rather He exhorts us to be alert, watchful, praying always, not knowing when the Lord will come.  This is part of His plan to keep us in an attitude of expectancy and perseverance.

We will only realize the famine is really here when it begins coming down real hard upon us. One of the harbingers, to watch for will be the incurable diseases which already appear to be surfacing!  They are part and parcel of the prophesied famine.

Another thing we always look towards as a guide is the presidential election that takes place every four years in this nation.  This year, 2004, is yet another election year. 

Who will it be: A man, a woman, a conservative, or a liberal?

If it is a man, and he is a conservative, will this mean we will have yet another four years, or more, before we enter into the actual time frame of the end?

While thinking about it and the many dualities that can be found in the Bible; I went to the Scriptures regarding the last king in Israel to see if there were any possible similarities to our time today.

Scripture reveals there were 19 kings who reigned over the split-off 10 Tribes of Israel, beginning with Jeroboam.  The last one was Hoshea.  All of them walked in the sins of Jeroboam.

As you may recall Jeroboam set up the two golden calves for Israel to worship instead of God. He also led Israel further away from God by totally rejecting the Holy Days, choosing his own priests instead of the Levites, and very probably changed the Sabbath to a Sunday observance (I Kings 12:26-33).

Along with all the other abominable pagan practices practiced by Israel, the pagan holidays began to be observed as well, including Christmas and Easter.

Scripture makes known that during the approximate 200 year period that followed, all the kings who followed Jeroboam walked in his pagan and idolatrous ways.  

Though all were sinful kings some were regarded as being very evil. King Hoshea is not graded as one of the worst. 

“… Hoshea … became king of Israel in Samaria, and he reigned nine years.  And he did evil in the sight of the LORD, but ‘NOT’ as the kings of Israel before him (II Kings 17:1-2).

With this as a background, let us consider king Hoshea who was the last king to reign over Israel and compare him to the last president who will govern this great country.

When we consider the kings of Israel, and compare the presidents of today, all of them have continued to walk in the way of Jeroboam, even those in our lifetime.

And just as there were those who were very bad, and also among them the worst, the same is true in the 200-plus years of the history of this country as well.

If we can use this as a guide, the last president does not have to be the very worst – though he or she can very well be!  He or she could very well be conservative, or liberal, and yet not be the final decisive factor of bringing down the walls of Jericho, so to speak.

We need to realize what will bring this great country to its knees will be the famine and the pestilence that will accompany it. 

God’s divine intervention in this manner will weaken this country so greatly it will prove to be no great difficulty for modern-day Assyria in company with nine other nations to conquer Israel of today.

It should also be realized by all of us that when this really begins to take place, it will very probably be too late for those who are still sleeping to awaken and be counted worthy to escape the horrors of the Great Tribulation (Matthew 25:1-13; Luke 21:25-36).

I am both amazed and saddened when I read of the men who are yet ministers, as well as those who have put themselves into the office of the ministry, who have so little regard for all the doctrinal teachings they once knew, and apparently believed, who now have refuted one or more of those teachings. They are moving toward the tribulation and taking the members who are under their care right along with them!

Doctrines, they once taught themselves to the members of God’s Church! And though some still think of Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong as God’s apostle, others do not!  And those who yet say they do – do not fully comprehend what the office of an apostle really means in Scripture!

If they did, they would still be on track! I had a member to tell me recently of what he said to one well-known Church leader: "I am not a ______ man, I am not a ______ man, nor am I a ______ man! I am a Jesus Christ man!

 After hearing these words and his own name mentioned, the minister then said to him, “Then perhaps you had better not attend with us.”

What about you and me?  Are we following Christ, as Paul and Mr. Armstrong both have said we had better be doing?  Both said we were to follow each of them, only as they followed Jesus Christ.  Do your ministers ever say that to all of you?  I seriously doubt it.

Our recent history reveals that most members were only following Mr. Armstrong – not Jesus Christ. For when the leadership changed, the new leaders took the Church fully into Protestantism, and many thousands followed them.  

Many of you are still yet deceiving yourselves by thinking you are following Jesus Christ when in reality you are yet following a man, or a group of men, for you have accepted the doctrinal changes they have made without a struggle. You are still there!

If you really understood the office of an apostle of God then you would not be following the men you currently are who have been changing the doctrinal teachings that God used Mr. Armstrong to restore within His Church.

Before the Passover season we often use the Scriptures to help God’s people to prepare for it.  One of those Scriptures, reads as follows:

“Examine yourselves as to whether you are in the faith.  PROVE YOURSELVES.  Do you NOT know yourselves, that Jesus Christ is in you?  --- unless indeed you are disqualified” (II Corinthians 13:5).

In the context of this Scripture, I challenge you to send for our booklet, “Just what is an APOSTLE”  To read and understand the valuable content of this booklet – could make a real difference in your life, what you believe, and where you should be.

It is free with no obligation.  Unless invited by you, we will NOT contact you or distribute your personal information to any others.  Just write to our address below with your request, or e-mail, or phone me to request your copy.

Brethren, I am writing this in the Spirit of God’s wonderful and caring love with a heart-felt desire to help you make the right and wise decisions.  I do not want you to have to suffer and experience the coming horrors anymore than I want it to happen to me.  This is why I write these open letters to you. I sincerely and truly care about you and about our future together in God’s soon-coming Kingdom.

With brotherly love, and deep concern,

Don Billingsley 

 

P. O. Box 8819, Modesto, California 95357     (209) 772-0737 

www.cog-ff.com