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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 |