I wonder if we really grasp the fact that we are virtually at
the point in time where the count-down can almost begin any time now! The
time that will let us know the approximate time of the beginning of the
Great Tribulation, the departure for the place of safety, and at that point,
to then realize the approximate time of the return of Jesus Christ?
The way some members are living their lives seriously makes
me wonder.
A New Temple? --
New items here and there, along with the recent ones, quoted
below, indicate the possibility exists of the construction of a new Temple
being built rather soon in Jerusalem. A structure that appears to be needed
to also fit into endtime prophecy and make possible the sacrificial
offerings that are prophesied to begin taking place by the prophet Daniel:
Daniel 12:9-12 “... And FROM the time that the daily
sacrifice is TAKEN AWAY, AND THE ABOMINATION of desolations is SET UP there
shall be 1290 days. Blessed is he who WAITS, and comes to the 1335 days.”
To make these sacrifices possible, there has to be the proper
place for them to be offered.
BIBLE NOTES FROM EARLY YEARS –
“... According to many texts pertaining to sacrifices
there must be a restoration of a temple with sacrifices if we are to
interpret them literally, since there is no other interpretation for these
texts as sacrifices. Haggai shows us in only 5 years the temple was
completed.”
Considering our modern construction methods, and the fact
that the religious leaders have everything in readiness for its
construction, and with very zealous and energetic builders, we could see it
up and functioning in days, not years! Almost overnight it can materialize!
Consider the following news items that have been found and
passed on to other members about what is now being planned:
NAMES WITHHELD
"Yes, it is hard to tell what this means and how it
will play out. There is no doubt the world is a mess and the only answer is
the Kingdom.
"Getting back to the Temple. Some do not think a
Temple will be built in this age and perhaps that is true as far as a great
Edifice is concerned but it does seem that much has been put into the effort
to do something and I am of the opinion that the Jews will do something,
right or wrong.
“I believe I mentioned that Clyde Lott, a cattle
Breeder from Mississippi, who developed the Red Heifer, and was for a time
very close to Rabbi Richman of the Temple Institute, told me they expected a
short war which would bring the Temple Mount under the control of the Jews.
“As you know there has been an effort to go up on the
Mount every year to set a corner stone but the Jerusalem police have
prevented such action because of the problems it would bring. However, the
cornerstone is over there, stored, until they CAN go up and set it. If they
get to do that, a Temple or something to serve as such, could be constructed
very quickly, taking into account modern building methods where whole walls
are set up in one piece.
"Some are looking at 2012 for the return and allowing
for 7 years of Tribulation [which would include the famine and disease
epidemics for 3 and one/half of those 7 years], we could be very close to
the start of big trouble. As the Scripture says, look up for your redemption
draws near."
"Hello all, ________ called last night to say that
Hal Lindsey has reported that the Institute has prepared everything needed
to begin the Sacrifices EXCEPT the location to do so which is to them, the
Temple Mount. Clyde Lott, the fellow who developed the Red Heifer, was of
the opinion that a short war would ensue during which the Jews would come
into possession of the mount. A thought in all this is the new PM who was
just elected to replace Arafat. and if there will be a deal made or that war
WILL happen. All this will certainly bear watching. Sam"
"Hey ______ I just got a message from ___ _________
who reminded me that the Sanhedrin was also very recently re-established.
Things do seem to be going together. Sam"
Yaakov Katz, THE JERUSALEM POST Jan. 12, 2005
Will Jews begin proclaiming "Long live the king" in
the near future? According to a group of 71 Jewish scholars who met this
week in the Old City of Jerusalem in the form of a modern-day Sanhedrin - a
duplicate of the religious tribunal which convened during the time of the
Second Temple - a coronation day is growing closer As one member of the
group put it, "We would have liked it to happen yesterday. But we are
willing to wait until tomorrow." There hasn't been a genuine Sanhedrin in
Israel for nearly 1,600 years; the last one to be proclaimed was in France,
by Napoleon, for political gain. Shortly after the establishment of the
State of Israel, religious affairs minister Judah Leib Maimon raised the
notion of reinstituting the ancient body, to no avail. The group composed
largely of Kahane sympathizers that gave itself the name Sanhedrin in
October, however, met Sunday to discuss the creation of a Jewish monarchy in
the State of Israel. For the past several years a group called the
Monarchists has conducted extensive research into the lineage of several
families in an effort to discover who has the closest bloodline to the
biblical King David - a requirement for any future Jewish king. Rabbi Yosef
Dayan from Psagot, known for his recent threats to place a death curse on
Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, is said to be a leading candidate to become the
"king of Israel."
"Dayan has the best lineage to King David," several
members of the Sanhedrin told The Jerusalem Post. They say he has two
documented ancient sources which draw a direct line between him and the
males in his family to King David some 3,000 years ago. "Many people can
show they are descendants of King David, but they cannot show that the line
is only male," one Sanhedrin member explained. "That makes Dayan the leading
candidate to become king."
"The Monarchists have consulted with non-Jewish
experts on lineage. They concurred that, without a doubt, Dayan is a direct
descendent of the House of David.
The only question now is how to establish the Jewish
monarchy in spite of the presiding democratic government.
"There are two possibilities," Dayan explained. "The
first is that the nation or a majority from within will want the monarchy
and will uproot the presiding democratic government." The second, more
realistic option, he said, is "the one cited by Maimonides - and that is
that no one will know how it will be until it happens." Some of the other
ideas discussed at the Sanhedrin meeting included the construction of an
altar on the Temple Mount to be used for the Passover Offering during the
upcoming holiday.
One of the ideas, members said, is to climb the Mount
and build the altar within minutes and sacrifice the lamb before security
forces can stop them. Another, said leading Sanhedrin member Baruch Ben-Yosef,
is to pray for a tsunami-like disaster on the Mount. "In one second, God
wiped out 150,000 people," he said. "Who knows? Maybe he'll help us if we
show him we are ready." Participants also discussed Ben-Yosef's idea of
reinstating the Sanhedrin's authority to announce Rosh Hodesh, the beginning
of the new lunar month. "It is very important to reinstate the Sanhedrin's
authority to announce the month, because it will force people to understand
that God gave us the power to control the calendar and our own destiny,"
Ben-Yosef said.
FESTIVE MEAL IN ANTICIPATION OF HOLY TEMPLE: The
annual "Temple Mount Dinner" will take place this coming Monday night in the
Binyanei HaUmah Convention Centre in Jerusalem. Close to 1,000 people are
expected. Rabbi Yosef Elboim, one of the organizers, explained some of the
background to this unusual event: "This will be our 11th annual dinner, and
it shows that we mean what we say when we pray three times a day about our
desire for a return to the Holy Temple. We would like to have permission to
light the Menorah twice a day and to bring the ketoret twice a day, as these
are actual Biblical commandments that are applicable today. We are actively
preparing by studying and involving ourselves so that we will be ready when
the time comes." "There are [many] Biblical commandments that are important
to us," Rabbi Elboim continued, "that we perform with a festive meal - such
as a wedding, brit milah (ritual circumcision), finishing a course of Torah
study, etc. Maimonides made a feast every year on the day that he went up to
Temple Mount, on the 6th of Cheshvan." One of the main sponsors of the event
is past- and future-U.S. Senate primaries candidate in South Carolina, Orly
Benny Davis. She arrived in Israel this week for the purpose of "talking
about the issue of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount." To begin with, she is
pushing for U.S. President Bush to fulfil his pledge to move the American
Embassy to Jerusalem. We have to realize that Israel's capital is still not
recognized as such in the international arena, and 'Palestinians' are
running around the world and talking about Jerusalem as their capital.. .If
we don't make sure that the Bush Administration moves the Embassy to
Jerusalem, we will have failed. Prof. Hillel Weiss, of the Professors for a
Strong Israel organization, told ARUTZ-7 that Davis' intention to "bring
peace and love within Israel, and from this to the entire world, via the
Holy Temple, is in accordance with the verse stating that the Temple will be
a house of prayer for all nations." [Arutz-7, Arieh Zaritsky]
Excitement is Being Seen as Prophecy is
being Fulfilled —
From what can be understood from these quotes reveals these
people are very excited about the very real prospect of a new Temple being
built very soon! I wonder if this does the same for each of us?
As I wrote in my most recent Pastor's Comments, based on the
news that we read and see on television, we can see we are on the very
threshold of the beginning stages of the prophesied famine, disease
epidemics, and the coming together of the revitalized Roman Empire.
The new Temple will be another needed prophetic fulfillment
before the coming of Jesus Christ.
Once this construction is completed, and the sacrifices being
offered, and then be forced to cease from offering them, we can then begin
the countdown as made known in prophecy (Daniel 12:11).
We have heard those prophecies preached to us over and over
again from God's late apostle, Mr. Armstrong! Repeatedly he was used by God
to try and drum these things into our minds and with it the imperative need
for us to be getting the spots off of our wedding garments.
Mr. Armstrong has been gone from us for a full 19 years.
Though we play his sermon tapes it seems with many it is so easy to let our
minds drift while listening to those repeated sermons and fail to realize
God intends those sermons should be just as meaningful to us now, as they
were at the time he gave them. In addition, they are far more timely now
than they were at the time he gave them. We should be fully alert and
listen carefully to what we hear from them, whether they are for our
correction or prophecy, etc.
Moving Away from Mr. Armstrong —
Very shortly after his death we were told at the Feast of
Tabernacles by the pastor in charge of the Feast Site in Tucson, Arizona,
that we should not speak about Mr. Armstrong in our Feast sermons! His
reasoning, or instructions given to him, was there would be people there who
had never heard or knew anything about him. I assume this was also said by
others at other Feast sites.
How so very quickly leaders wanted us to forget and put
behind us the very man God had chosen to PREPARE His people at this endtime
for the return of Jesus Christ. The Elijah who was to come, and did! We
should realize that moving away from ‘the man’, would be putting what he
taught behind us as well. This was the real target! In this manner Satan
opened the door for the end result that we witnessed in December, 1995.
Moses with God for 40 Days –
I recall Mr. Armstrong speaking in a sermon many years ago
about Moses having gone up into the mountain to be with God for 40 days and
he then asked, "What would you people do if I were to go away?"
When we analyze what took place after Moses failed to return
in that period of time and compare it to where we now are, the answer
becomes obvious! All we have to do is to look around and see what has taken
place since his absence of a full 19 years.
Think for a moment about what happened regarding the absence
of Moses. Possibly, they only became vocal after most of that time had gone
by as they did not know when Moses would return.
However after almost the very close of that 40 day period the
leaders in Israel were quite sure Moses wasn't coming back! As the result
they put him out of their mind for he had been gone so long they very
probably thought he was even dead.
With the thought of Moses not returning there was no one else
to fear for it was Moses who had the the voice of authority and the
leadership directly under God to keep them under some control!
To remove any possible obstacles to their strong desire to
commit acts of sin, pressure was put on the one who was left in command,
Aaron the high priest, to mold and shape a golden calf to worship! Aaron
acquiesced to the strong pressure from those rebellious leaders! There were
also the men and women who were clamoring for excitement and lusting after
unlawful sexual relationships!
Aaron then created the golden calf for them and even
announced a special day of worship for it in the name of God. Aaron sinned.
Spiritual Similarities —
The spiritual similarities from what Aaron and Israel did at
that time are with us today within the many corporate Churches of God. Our
time can also be compared to the time of the Book of Judges when there was
no king to rule over them and everyone did that which was right in their own
eyes. Possibly the bloodiest book of the Bible.
It is sad to see the leadership move away from those
doctrinal teachings of God in one way or another while trying to establish
their own leadership and recognition before others. As far as I know hardly
any leader plays Mr. Armstrong’s taped sermons in their services or even
speak favorably of him anymore. If so, it is only a passing thought with no
positive strength in what is said.
Our Time Today Prophesied --
Scattered as we are, God makes known a major purpose for our
being scattered is to PROVE US THROUGH TRIALS AND TESTS FOR OUR PURIFICATION
(Daniel 12:7). A time here at the end when we no longer have a chief
shepherd with the voice of authority and leadership directly under God to
keep us in check by and through the Government of God.
Think seriously about what God led His prophet Daniel to
write, and ask ourselves how we are measuring up:
"Many shall be purified, made white, and refined. BUT
the wicked shall [continue to] do wickedly, and NONE of the wicked shall
understand, BUT THE WISE SHALL UNDERSTAND" (Daniel 12:10).
God has to Know --
In which category do we fit? Are we among the wise? Think
about the following with each of us individually in mind.
Mr. Armstrong has written that we are in the time of FINAL
EXAMS! The time of cramming to enable us to pass those vital examinations so
as to not only be counted worthy to escape the horrors ahead of us, but more
importantly to be accepted by Jesus Christ at His return and be changed into
His likeness.
The Purpose of our Trials --
If we are truly to be counted as being among the WISE, then
we should also realize God has a purpose in permitting the hard and trying
trials to come upon us. Some trials are very hard, such as a death in the
family, or some form of persecution from family members or from others, a
lack of employment, or whatever.
In regard to a death in the family, God permits these to take
place and can be a real sore trial for family members. People who have
experienced these grievous losses are then put to the test as to whether
they will accept the death in faith, while accepting the fact that it is not
always necessary that we understand why! We trust God for whatever reason He
did not intervene and keep it from taking place.
At the same time we must also know God did not bring it about
Himself, but did permit it to happen. The tragic thing about this is that
sometimes family members began to blame God for it knowing He could have
prevented it, and did not! Then some turn away from Him in bitterness.
Some years ago I was told about an evangelist's wife who
voiced the thought that she wondered what her husband would do in regard to
his faithfulness to the Church if something were to happen to her. Sometime
later she died, somewhere in her late 50s or early 60s. Sometime later her
husband got caught up in the Protestant teachings and began to espouse
them. It would appear she had cause to wonder.
Any kind of a serious problem will often put us to the test!
Years ago I had to try and help a man who had been unemployed for a long
time. His savings were rapidly dwindling and he was very concerned. With
all of this in his mind, he observed his neighbors and they were doing well
while he was a unemployed member of the Church of God and obedient to God’s
laws. He just could not understand and began to blame God. Thankfully I was
able to help him.
There are the personal problems both men and women struggle
with in regard to the use of makeup and hair coloring. In trying to justify
its use we tend to forget the human nature within us that continually tries
to override God’s laws (Jeremiah 179-10).
A nature that is very powerful and can only be controlled by
self-determination along with the help of God’s Holy Spirit. It is Satan’s
nature! And it has to keep suppressed if we are to be true people of God
(Luke 14:26-27).
Mr. Armstrong has often said that the primary inherit problem
of the human nature within us is that women want to be pretty, and men want
to be important. All of us want to look our best and there is no problem
with this as long as we do so God’s way and not our own way!
However there are the men and women who have so far flunked
their examinations in this area for they refuse to obey the ruling God led
His late apostle to make in regard to the Church. This ruling was made
because it was seen as sin in its spiritual form and it was also creating
DIVISION within the Church of God!
The Church who stated to me they were 100 percent behind me
DREW THE LINE when I reinstated the ruling Mr. Armstrong had made regarding
its use. All the women refused to accept the reinstatement, and their
husbands found cause to support them. Everyone without exception of the
almost 30 people attending that Church then left and went back to the one
they had cause to leave some little time before for they had no problem
regarding the use of it. Some of the members here and elsewhere also left.
There is the failing of final examinations among those today
who take away from the authority and high office God gave to Mr. Herbert W.
Armstrong after coming to know him well and seeing he was a human being like
all of us and had faults. This supposedly gives them license to do what they
wanted to do all along in regard to changes in the doctrinal teachings,
traditions, or rulings, God led him to make. The same was true with Moses
(Numbers 12: 16:).
In no way do I try to compare myself to those men of God, but
the principle still fits. People who come to know me also see my humanity as
well. And this gives them license to disregard whatever teachings they
choose that are exactly the same as was taught by God's late apostle.
There is office and government within the true Church of God
as Miriam, Aaron, Korah, Dathan, and Abiriam found to their detriment in
those chapters mentioned above. Judgment is now on all of us and we will
never be accepted in God's Kingdom and rulership with Him, UNLESS, we also
learn government and are obedient to it with a right spirit and heart. To
rule we must first learn to be ruled!
I could go on with other examples but this should be enough
to compare with the trials some of you are now undergoing though your
problems are not the same as the ones I have mentioned here.
Remember this Christian way of life is A LIFE OF FAITH AND WE
ARE TO LIVE IT BY TRUSTING GOD WITH THE FINAL ANSWERS though they are
sometimes long in coming.
This is especially true regarding the death of a loved one!
The answer here again is FAITH -- faith in the fact that though there will
be the loneliness, grief, and real sorrow, there is the coming resurrections
in which ALL will be made alive, And IF we fail to pass our examinations
that come upon each of us, then we won't be there to see them alive, and
well again.
It can be a wonderful reunion -- if we remain faithful and
trust God with the outcome of every trial always having in mind there will
be deliverance, sooner or later, for God has promised and He cannot lie
(Psalm 34:15-18: Matthew 28:20; Hebrews 13:5-6).
God warns us about the BITTERNESS that we sometimes feel
swelling up within us while continuing to do battle with a terrible crushing
problem.
"... looking carefully lest anyone fall short OF THE
GRACE OF GOD; lest any ROOT OF BITTERNESS springing up cause trouble, and by
this many become defiled. ..." Hebrew 13:12-17).
Nothing Else Really Matters, Regardless ---
Our relationship with God is the only thing that really
matters. If it is right then we do not have to be concerned and be afraid of
whatever for we are looking to what is beyond this physical life to one that
will endure forever and without fear of anyone or anything.
Brethren, we must always work with ourselves and try very
hard to overcome anything that stands in the way of a right and close
relationship with God and what He holds forth before each and everyone of us
(Hebrews 12:1-2). Trials and tests are to be overcome with faithfulness to
our God. And if we do remain faithful, we have God's good and awesome
promises that will be fulfilled in our lives to come
Nothing should be more important to us than the future that
what God wants to give to each of us (Matthew 16:24-27). Let us face the
final exams before us with confidence in God and trust He will see to it
that we will pass them -- by and through His grace and caring love for us.
The end is virtually in sight! Do we see it?
Our love and prayers are for you continually,
Don Billingsley
