Herbert W. Armstrong Audio Sermon Transcripts
The Church of God Faithful Flock brings you transcripts of sermons given by Mr. Herbert W. Armstrong.
The Plan of God
Feast of Tabernacles
Sermon Date: September 25, 1980
Well, greetings everybody. This is a definite first. It's the first time in the 53½ years I have been keeping these days and these festivals that we've ever been able to speak to more than one feast site at the same time, and even now we're having our difficulties and we've been delayed a little bit. I think at the beginning of the time that many of you people over in the United States and many of you people in England where you began at 9 o'clock (and now it's about 10 o'clock I think there, almost 10 p.m. or after) and I think you began hearing a news broadcast from Tokyo that was being beamed to the United States and to England because they got their wires mixed up a little bit on the satellite. But here we are speaking by satellite to ALL of the feast sites in the United States and Canada. That is, the continental United States and also in Hawaii and also to all you brethren over there in England. And so this is the first time.
Now I have spoken to feast sites in England a couple of times. I've spoken in the feast sites in France, and also to all of the feast sites in the United States one at a time when we didn't have as many of them as we have this time. But even now we have had a few technical difficulties, and I hope they have ironed it out. The last that I heard, about 5 minutes ago, they were having difficulty getting the video (the picture) into the Savannah feast site. I hope you people in Savannah have got the picture by now; and I hope that the technicians will work it out very soon, if you don't have it even yet.
So this definitely is a first for us. It is a marvelous thing: the things that science and technology are doing in a physical manner, in a material manner. It is too bad that the world is spiritually blinded, but physically we are doing some wonderful things.
Now as I said to you last night (and I think that you all saw the program on the screen last night, although I had recorded it ahead of time), this is the largest conclave — this is the largest festival — of the largest convention held anywhere on the face of the earth every year. There are upwards of 100,000 of us meeting for eight days all over the world, besides the 27 (ah, yes 27) large convention sites in the United States. Now we have about 5,000 people right here in Tucson, which for the last 2 ½-3 years has been my home city. We have about 5,000 people here. We have a similar number in many other feast sites.
Some feast sites (like down in Fiji and in islands of the Pacific, in islands of the Caribbean) we have a smaller number, just a few. But there are feast sites all over the United States, feast sites in Australia, New Zealand, feast sites in the Philippine Islands, with thousands of people there assembled — fifty-nine other feast sites (besides those in the United States and England) that I am speaking to right now live.
Brethren, why are we here? (We are late getting started. I want to get right through this message because we have been delayed.) We are here to celebrate and to receive a foretaste of something that is coming that the world doesn't know is coming to this world, and that is an absolute UTOPIA! Don't laugh when I say utopia because I MEAN UTOPIA. Look in the dictionary for the word utopia. It's an imaginary fool's dream about a perfect civilization with a perfect government, with a perfect society, with perfect education, with everybody economically well off and everybody having a perfect time in every way. Brethren, that is what is coming to this world, and coming soon; and we're here to enjoy a foretaste of it; and we're here to prepare ourselves to help usherit in, and to be in the government of Jesus Christ when He will rule and govern the entire world.
Now it was not so long ago, there was an editorial in one of our largest news magazines in the United States, "The United States News and World Report." It said that it would seem that the only hope of survival of humanity now is the sudden appearance of a STRONG UNSEEN HAND FROM SOMEPLACE to intervene in world affairs and save us from ourselves. Let me tell you, we are very close to that time; and that very same thing is going to happen.
World famous scientists have been saying now for the past 10 years and more ... I would say for the last 20 years, they have been saying that our only hope is one world government having one military force, where there are no armies in other nations that could come to war: only the one nation, no world wars of any kind. But, brethren, they overlook something. We still wouldn't have peace among ourselves.
What about the home and the family relationships? It's on the way down and out in the United States and Britain and Europe, in the entire Western world; and the rest of the world is following a little bit slower after us. They are adopting our Western ways in China and Japan. They are adopting our Western ways in India and in other parts of the world, in South America and all over the world. They've adopted everything that is WRONG in American music. They are adopting everything that is WRONG, that is going out ... that has been spawned in the United States and that is going out to the rest of the world; and that is the kind of a world you live in today.
Brethren, we've gone pass the place where we can save ourselves! The scientists, who say that the only hope is a world government, will say in the same breath it's utterly impossible in the hands of human beings; and it is, and we couldn't bring it about. No, I tell you, it's like the editor ... Well, he is now a former editor of "The United States News and World Report" that that unseen hand from someplace is going to have to intervene and is going to have to save us from ourselves. Humanity will not save itself. Humanity is on the way DOWN, DOWN, DOWN AND OUT. Thank God there is a Creator God above that isn't going to LET US GO ALL THE WAY OUT.
SO LISTEN TO ME WITH THIS MESSAGE. Yes, I am an old man. I'll soon be 90 years of age. I'm senile? My mind isn't working any more? I was supposed to be a high school dropout. I was supposed to be a failure in business (although between ages 25 and 28 I was making from $100,000 to $175,000 a year according to the 1980 dollar value). So that'd be a failure! How many young men of that age are making that much today?
Well, I'm supposed to be a LOT OF THINGS TO PEOPLE THAT DON'T LIKE GOD AND DON'T WANT ANYTHING TO DO WITH HIM. IF I DIDN'T BELIEVE GOD ... AND I SAY, "BELIEVE GOD!" HERE'S HIS WORD IN FRONT OF ME. I BELIEVE IT. I know a lot of ministers that pretend to be the ministers of Jesus Christ. THEY DON'T BELIEVE WHAT GOD SAYS IN THIS WORD. I DO BELIEVE IT.
Now, in order to believe it, I had to give up what had been stuffed in my mind. What is education like in this world? You know, back in the year of 1927 I envisioned a national magazine, The Plain Truth. It was just a vision. Of course, how would I ever start it? Where would I get subscribers? How could I afford it? How would I have it printed? I didn't know. I just knew it ought to go out. I wrote an article. I employed a professional letter artist to draw up a front cover for me, and it's the same front cover we have on there today. I left room for pictures or something on the front cover, but the masthead is the same. Of course, that magazine is being published now and has been a great many years, with a circulation going on toward 3 million copies to 3 million subscribers monthly. Today it is one of the mass circulation magazines of this world.
I had a picture of education. I wrote an article. It's never been published. I don't know what happened to the manuscript. If I could find it, I would publish it today. I might do a little rewrite on it, but I would run it. It was an article on stuffing lies into your child's head. And I had a picture of a schoolroom with children in that room sitting at their desks. Every child had a funnel stuck in the top of his head. And here was the teacher with a great big pitcher; and on the pitcher was labeled "false, untrue knowledge;" and she was pouring that false propaganda and false knowledge down through the funnel into the child's head — and they were expected to believe. When final exams come along, if you don't report on what you have been taught, you're flunked.
It's like a grandson of mine when he was in one of the grades growing up, and the teacher one day asked him to recite and said, "Larry, tell me, see if you know who discovered America." Larry says, "Yes Ma'am, the Indians." Well, the teacher said, "Larry, now you know better than that. You know Columbus discovered America." He said, "No Ma'am, I don't." He said, "Weren't the Indians already here long before and waiting here to welcome Columbus when he finally got here?" The teacher flunked him. He was supposed to BELIEVE WHAT HE WAS TAUGHT no matter how false it is.
THAT IS OUR SYSTEM OF EDUCATION TODAY. Education is something that you get like you go to the store for a loaf of bread. Which reminds me: one of our children, when they were young, didn't like milk that came from cows. She wanted milk that came from stores. When we went down to visit some relatives on a farm one time, she saw milk coming from cows. She said, "I don't want to drink any milk that comes from cows." We lived in the city, and she only knew about milk that came from stores.
Well, you go to a store for a loaf of bread instead of baking at home of course today. You put your money across the counter. They put another piece of paper around the bread, which is already wrapped anyway; and you go out with it. So you bought your loaf of bread, and you go home. That's the way you get an education. You go to school, and you let them stuff something in your mind; and education in this country is a process of memory training. There's something wrong with it.
And so the Eternal God put it in my mind to establish a college, a different kind of college, where we wouldn't teach a pack of lies but where we would teach the truth. And where do you go to get truth? The world doesn't know. Isn't that too bad? There are a lot of people today who believe in Jesus Christ (not too many, but there still are some). BUT DO THEY BELIEVE CHRIST? HERE IS CHRIST IN PRINT. THEY DON'T BELIEVE WHAT IT SAYS.
In the 8th chapter of John, beginning with verse 30, you'll find there were a lot of Jews in Jerusalem who believed on Christ. And to those Jews who believed on Him, Jesus said: "He that believes on me ... out of his innermost being will flow rivers of living water." [John 7:38] And "If you believe what I say, you shall be free indeed." Well they said, "What do you mean be free? We are Abraham's children. We've never been in bondage to anybody. We've never been slaves. Our forefathers have been." But they didn't realize, forgotten I guess. He said, "You believe on Me, but you don't believe what I say. You want to kill Me because you don't believe what I say."
Brethren, I had been stuffed with a lot of false knowledge too up until age 34. At age 34 I was challenged, and I began to study the Bible because I wanted to prove that what the churches all say and what had been taught me
in one of the very highly accredited and (What's the word I want?) responsible, or highly esteemed, Protestant denominations ... I had been brought up in Sunday school until I was 18, but somehow religion never caught hold of me; and at age 18 I dropped out of church and of Sunday school.
Oh, I have visited different churches once in a while (sometimes a Baptist, sometimes a Methodist, sometimes other churches); but I knew that I believed certain things. I believed the immortality of the soul. I believed that when you die you go to heaven or go to hell, depending on how you've lived. I believed a lot of things like that. I believed if you just confessed Christ at some time in your life that you'd go to heaven.
I began to study the Bible, and I began to see that the Bible says precisely the OPPOSITEof a lot of those things that I believed. And there it was in PLAIN LANGUAGE, AND HERE I LOOKED AT IT AND IT SAID SO. Well, of course, that's the English language; and I said, "Well, that was written originally in the Greek language, or in the Old Testament that was written originally in the Hebrew language." And so I looked up the Greek and the Hebrew, and I found what God says. And I went on and studied, and I proved that this is the Word of God. This Bible is God speaking to you in print, and speaking to me.
Now, was I going to give up what I believed when I saw it just exactly opposite to what I read here to what God says? I had to decide would I believe what MEN taught me, what CHURCH taught me, what SCHOOL taught me that came from other people and organized HUMAN SOCIETY, or would I believe what God says? And I believed God, and that's the whole difference right there. THAT IS THE DIFFERENCE. How many leaders in the world of Christianity are there like that? No, no. What they've been taught, they say, "Well, that's been church teaching all these years, I've got to believe it. Well, maybe I just don't understand the Bible?" So they GO ON BELIEVING WHAT OTHER MEN, OTHER PEOPLE, STUFFED IN THEIR MINDS. That's what they believe.
Well, brethren, why are we here? As I said, we are here to celebrate a foretaste of that utopia that is coming — a world of peace, a world of perfect government. But the Eternal God, the Creator, is going to have to intervene (that strong hand from someplace) and is going to have to come and save us from ourselves and establish the government of God Almighty, the Creator. There will be perfect peace. There will be perfect government; and there will be, at last, perfect education. Think of that!
We will ALL be taught education based on the Word of God. Tell me any university or college in the United States where you can find that, except one that I know of. There will be universal prosperity for everybody, and there won't be illiteracy, and there won't be poverty. Think of a world ridded of poverty and of illiteracy and all that sort of thing. It'll be a world filled with happiness and joy. It'll be a world as full of the knowledge of God as the ocean beds are full of water. I hope to read you a scripture on that before we are through this afternoon (or tonight, as it is for you people over in England).
Today people laugh at the word utopia. Well, WHY SHOULD WE LAUGH at that idea? Because we have never had it in this world, and we can't understand how we could ever come to have it. We ought to have it. Why shouldn't we have it? Why? We are living in a very sick, sick world. This world is full of every evil you can think of. It's filled with illiteracy. It's filled with poverty. It's filled with starvation. It's filled with violence. It's filled with wars. Another one began about, what was it, about 5 - 6 days ago now over in Iraq and Iran; and that could explode into something pretty big.
I want to tell you the governments at Washington, the governments at Moscow, and also the governments in England at London, and Paris, and in Bonn — they are watching this very carefully because they know it could explode into a world explosion. Let us hope it won't. Weapons of mass destruction exist now that can erase all human life from this planet; and, just last night, on television I saw a discussion of so-called authorities and men that are supposed to be in the know (men in government and men in educational high places) about the proposed development of chemical warfare in the United States.
Should we, or should we not, go ahead with chemical warfare? That's one of the big problems the President has to consider now, and the candidates for the presidency. I would say so far as the candidates for presidents are concerned I'm not going to take any sides on that one way or the other. I'm just going to say, "Thank God, only one can win anyway."
But this is a world that is full of crime. It is full of immorality. The family structure is being broken down completely. Kids live a life of their own. They don't eat at home with parents anymore. Wives are not at home taking care of their children. Only 13% of families in the United States now have a husband, a wife at home, and two or more children. I think I should say one or more children, I believe the statistic is. I forget the exact figure of the statistic. We're down to 13%; and a solid family structure is the basis and the foundation of any solid, and any perfect, and any enduring civilization.
What does that mean? It means we are on the way down and OUT unless you can arrest that trend. There's one of the causes of the troubles lying ahead. So we're filled with crime, immorality, corruption — corruption in politics, corruption in business. Corruption is everywhere: A hopeless world offering NO hope to the world. Young people stare a hopeless future in the face, so they are frustrated. We are living in a world of pain, and suffering, and sorrow, and too much suicide; and suicides are increasing very rapidly like everything else that's bad.
So I say to you, utopia is coming in this generation. God Almighty ... I thank God every day and every night that the One supreme Power is a power of good — a power of LOVE, of OUTFLOWING love toward all others. I know there is another very, very EVIL power that is invisible; and, being invisible, people don't believe that power exists. It isn't fashionable to believe in a devil today. No, that's not very fashionable.
But I thank God that there is one supreme Power, and that that supreme Power is based on love that is OUTGOING love toward OTHERS (not incoming love, that isn't love but lust) — a God who is more powerful and can put down, and WILL put down, every other power. Oh, I thank God for God Himself! But most people don't like God. I'll tell you why I am persecuted, because I am a man of God, because I believe God. I not only believe IN God. A lot of people believe there is a God. That's all right. A lot of people are going to believe that. I think if I believed in the kind of hell people talk about, I would say hell is paved with that kind of people who believe there is a God. No, it's a lot more than that. Do you believe God? Do you believe His way is right?
The government of God is coming. What is government? Government is based on LAW. Government is based on a basic constitution, or a LAW; and a law or a constitution merely is a way that regulates our lives. It's a way of life, a lifestyle. The only trouble is we have laws that allow wrong lifestyles and wrong ways of living; and we're going to have a government that will be based on the law of God, which is out flowing love.
Now that's a little too much for people to get, because love has come to mean lust. They CHANGED the MEANING, so I put it in simple words that a six-year-old child can understand. The right way of God is GIVE. God is the great GIVER. Jesus Christ said, "It is more blessed to GIVE than to receive." The other way is GET. There are just the two philosophies of life. You have to go one-way or the other.
How are you living? Is your motivation what you can GET? Is your motivation accumulating? Is your motivation vanity; exalting yourself? You want the chief seat for yourself? You want the big things for yourself? You want to be looked up to? You want what you can get? You want how much you can own? Well, if you are not like that, you are a funny individual in this country (or in any other country for that matter), because that is the way human beings are. Yes, human nature too.
Why do we live in a world like we do? There has to be a cause for every effect. Something had to cause it. Something is continually causing all of the troubles in this world. But people are trying to deal with the effect, and you never can cure the effect until you can get to the cause and change that. Now, you can say the cause is human nature; but people don't understand human nature. They don't realize what it is. They don't know what is its origin. They don't know where human nature came from.
You think God created human nature in people? Human nature is an evil attitude that wants to go the way of self. SELF-CENTEREDNESS, the way of GET! God did not create that way; and God's law and everything about God is just the opposite way, just the opposite. Something has caused the present world upset and chaos.
Now you can go to listen to the political speeches. They'll tell you, everyone says, "Vote for me. I'm going to straighten everything out. I'm going to reduce taxes, but I'm going to give you everything." And you know everything the government gives you is only what they can take from the people in the first place, and they give part of it back; and people don't realize that.
People want to GET. So they want to get from the government; and they vote for the man that promises to give them the most, so that they can GET the most. And then they don't like the taxes; and so the government then prints more money, and that causes more inflation, and people wonder why we have inflation! If government was properly run, we wouldn't have any; and in tomorrow's utopia I am talking about (that we're here to celebrate) there won't be any inflation, and there won't be any unemployment, and the budget will always be balanced! Now what do you think of that? And let me tell you something, children and their parents are going to eat together at home.
Kids go to movies by themselves, and they want to go to X-rated movies if they can manage it; or else they spend hours and hours a day on the one-eyed monster! And television is a business, and business is in business for PROFIT; and the television managers know that — what people want. You know it's the old saying, 'Jones pays the freight, give Jones what he wants.' And what does Jones want? He wants to be entertained. He wants to be amused and entertained, so television is pure entertainment.
EVEN THE NEWSCASTS are entertainment. Don't you kid yourself they're not! That's why people ... Look, so they have one kind of entertainment for kids. What happens every Saturday morning on television? You don't find adults looking in. That's for kids. But kids also look in the rest of the time, and what do they see? They see illicit so-called 'love' that's only lust. They see everything wrong, everything that is contributing to all of the trouble we have in the world; and that's what kids are being fed. They see violence. They see people getting high on drugs and think, "Maybe I better try that." They see everything wrong. So that is why there are plenty of causes in this world.
But something is going to have to cause that utopia I've been telling you about. WHAT IN THE WORLD COULD CAUSE THAT? HOW DO YOU EXPECT HUMAN BEINGS TO CHANGE? Frankly, I don't. You people are not going to change. The people in the WORLD are not going to change. I think, or hope, most of you people in this audience have already changed. I hope you've let God change you by putting His Spirit within you.
During World War II, Winston Churchill, one of the greatest men in English history (at least in recent ancient history certainly), spoke before the American Congress; and he said to the United States Congress: "There is a purpose being worked out here below." Indeed, there is a purpose being worked out here below; and it's being worked out from God above.
Now what could be that purpose? WHY ARE WE HERE? Why did God put humanity on the earth? How did we come to be here? Do you think we just grew out of a brainless amoeba and we came by evolution? Yes, I looked into that too. Thank God, I never did really believe it; but I did examine it very thoroughly. I studied Darwin. I studied Haeckel and his buddy (one of the champions of Darwin), Huxley; and I went even back before their time to Laurel and Lamarck and some of those geologists and scientists. I studied it thoroughly.
Not very many people know that Charles Darwin gave up his theory before he died; but Huxley and Haeckel wanted to promote it anyway, so they tried to hush up the fact that Darwin had lost confidence in his own theory before he died. Well, I lost confidence in it too. I didn't believe what God says until I proved that this IS the Word of God. Now if you've proved it, fine. If you haven't proved it, well that's too bad. That's your ... I was going to say your funeral, but I won't say that. At least, that's your prerogative!
God is working out a purpose here below; and, FOR THAT PURPOSE, HE HAS WORKED OUT A MASTER PLAN.
Now, God called on me to build a college; and, before I got through, I built three colleges: One in Pasadena, California; one in eastern Texas; one in England. However, they were built only to teach and to train personnel, including ministers for local Churches of God's Church, but much more than just ministers. They are not just ministerial colleges by any means. They are liberal arts colleges. And, as soon as we had enough personnel, we did close up (because they had fulfilled their usefulness) the college in England and in Texas; and there is just the one college now still going on — the original college in Pasadena, California.
But I had to have, when we were building a campus, I needed a master plan. I went to the largest firm of architects and engineers in the world. I said, "I would like to have your services. I want you to help me design the finest campus in the United States." Well, they were a little shocked because we didn't have too much then. As a matter of fact, most of that campus was built on what was the only part of Pasadena that could have been called a ... Oh, not a ghetto; but a completely run down, blighted area. But we bought up those properties, and we have built some of the most beautiful buildings in the United States in their place.
Incidentally, just recently, for the third time we received the award for having the most beautiful, the best designed, the best landscaped, and the best-maintained campus in the United States. If you want to see a better campus, if you don't believe what I say, just come out to Pasadena, California. The sightseeing buses go by there every day anyway, that's one of the stops. So, you come out by yourself and look over the campus and see the beauty and the waterfalls and the fountains and the statuary and the beautiful modern buildings and the finest auditorium on the face of the earth in Ambassador Hall that is now the leading place for the performing arts in Southern California.
Well, they designed a master plan; and they built the college according to that master plan. GOD ALMIGHTY didn't start to build what He is doing for this purpose until He had worked out a master plan for it. Now behind ALL was the supreme Mind of the Eternal God. We didn't come from a lifeless nothing, resident forces without any intelligence. Brain didn't come from nothing. Intelligence didn't come from the non-intelligent. Life didn't come from the nonexistent (or non-life). Creation and life demands the pre-existence of a Creator of supreme Mind, who could think it out and plan and design.
When I look out the window in my home and I see the birds (We feed the birds; and they come in there every day, just swarms of them.), and I see the beautiful trees (Half of our grounds are desert, and half are garden and green.), and I think the beautiful leaves on the trees, the birds, the animals, the dogs (We have a couple of ferrets. I remember I had a ferret as a pet when I was a boy 11-years-old. We have a couple of ferrets now.) — they were all planned, and thought out, and designed. It took a Master Mind to do all of that! You tell me that it was never thought out by a mind and that all these things just happened; and I tell you, you insult my intelligence!
That Creator, that Mind, rules His creation; and He rules it with GOVERNMENT. His GOVERNMENT IS BASED ON LAW, ON A BASIC LAW OR CONSTITUTION; and that law is summed up in the one word: LOVE, which is GIVE — OUT FLOWING love. That is the basis of it all, and it is a way of life. And that law, the way of out flowing love, is the basis of the government that will rule the whole world.
Today we have laws and the whole lifestyle of all humanity is on the opposite way of GET. The opposite way of love is based on GET, on COMPETITION, on STRIFE, on HATE — not on love, because they've lost sight of the word "love." They don't know what it means. The Greeks had three words for it, if you want to look into that. You ought to study some of the Greek language and see what they mean by love.
Now God is a Creator; and God began His creation (even before this earth, believe it or not) by creating angels. I wonder how many people know that God created angels before the earth even existed. Well, let me read it to you. Here it is, in the 38th chapter of the book of Job.
Job 38:1 Then the [Eternal] [God] answered Job out of the whirlwind ... [He began to talk to him. That's in Job 38. That's verse 1.]
Job chapter 38, now verse 4. God said to him:
Job 38:4 Where were you [Job]when I laid the foundations of the earth? Declare if you have any understanding.
Now Job had built a GREAT BUILDING, the greatest building on the earth (and it remained the greatest building and the tallest and highest building on earth until the building of the Woolworth Tower in New York); and that building was the Great Pyramid in Egypt. I've been in it. I've been all through it, and through its chambers — the king's chamber, the queen's chamber, and the tunnels, and so on.
Job was not the Pharaoh. The Pharaoh of Egypt hired Job to plan it, and design it, and build it. So we say that the Pharaoh built the Great Pyramid. Well, maybe you can say I built the campus in Pasadena; but I employed architects, and we employed contractors to do the work. I didn't do the work. I had something to do with the planning of the campus and our auditorium. I designed ... It was my idea to have the great pillars rising up seven stories high of the auditorium, out of an artificial lake. That was my idea, and the architects went along with it. And they are the largest firm of architects in the world. They have built some of the highest skyscrapers, not only in Los Angeles but other cities all over the world, even over in the Middle East in some of the oil rich countries. They are a very large company of architects and engineers.
But Job had built a building. Let me show you something more about it: So God is talking to him in the language of one who is familiar with building. He says:
Job 38:6-7 Whereupon are the foundations thereof [the earth, that is] fastened? Or who laid the corner stone thereof: [Now He is talking about a corner stone, who laid the corner stone.] (7) When the morning stars sang together, and ALL the sons of God shouted for joy?
The only "sons of God" at that time were angels. They are only sons of God by creation because He created them. They were not 'begotten' or 'born' sons of God as human beings can be, as Jesus Christ was. But they were sons of God, and are here called "sons of God" — and they are also in the 1st chapter and the 1st verse; and the 2nd chapter, in the beginning of the 2nd chapter of Job. However in the 1st chapter of the book of Hebrews you find that they are not the 'begotten' sons of God in that sense.
Now, when the morning stars (or the angels) sang together and shouted for JOY at the COMPLETION of the earth. The building Job had built was one where the corner stone was the capstone, the LAST stone laid. In the ordinary building, a corner stone is laid first in the foundation before you begin to build the real building on top of it. But Job had built a building where the corner stone was the final last stone laid, and apparently it never was laid. There is no evidence that the final top stone had ever been laid, and there is a reference to it in the Bible; and where Christ is called the capstone, or the cornerstone, that the builders rejected and wouldn't accept, and so on.
Now God created the earth; and He created it as the abode of angels first, not of man. That was LONG before man was created, and that might have been millions or billions of years ago. No one knows. The Bible doesn't say. It does not give you the number of years. It doesn't go into those details. But now turn over to II Peter for just a moment. There were angels; and we read here in II Peter, the 2nd chapter and the 4th verse that:
II Peter 2:4 God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell [And the word "hell" is translated from the Greek word "tartaroo" — the only place in all the Bible that word is used. It does not refer to any 'hell' that people can ever go to, but a special kind of 'hell' or 'place of restraint' for angels. It's a different word altogether; and I prefer to just see it say "tartaroo," because it doesn't mean anything to our people anyway. They don't know what it means.], and delivered them into chains of darkness to be reserved unto judgment.
So angels sinned. Now, over here in Jude, you will read that the angels "kept not their first estate." I'm not going to turn to that. I want to move along. We're a little late now as it is. But on the throne over that whole time, on the throne ... God set a super archangel on the throne to rule over the angels; and He set His own government, the government of God. Now it had to have a foundation, a constitution of the government, a basic law; and that law was the law of God, which is the way of love, the way of outgoing concern towards others and not incoming lust for yourself.
Now, in the 14th chapter of Isaiah, you read a little about the one who was set on the throne; and beginning here with verse 12 it says:
Isaiah 14:12 How art thou fallen from heaven O Lucifer [Lucifer was the name of that super archangel. He was a cherub. Notice: "O Lucifer ... "], son of the morning! [And it means a morning star, or a light bringer, one who brings light.] how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!
A better translation: "How art thou, who did weaken the nations, cut down to the ground."
Isaiah 14:13 For thou has said in thine heart, I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt mythrone above the stars of God; I will sit also upon the mount of the congregation in the sides of the north:
That's where God's throne is — in the sides of the north, on the mount of the congregation. He had a throne. He was going to ascend from it and go to heaven. He was under heaven. He was on the earth. His throne was on the earth. Let's read a little further. He says:
Isaiah 14:14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds ...
So he was below the clouds. HIS THRONE WAS ON THE EARTH. There was a throne on the earth, and an archangel who sat on that throne; and he was given the government of God to administer, and he had an administration. (Now we have an administration in Washington. Mr. Carter is in it right now. There are two other men that want to get his seat and take it away from him if they can. Well, I won't predict anything about that.)
Job 14:14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds [he said], I will be like the Most High.
Or, "I'll make myself in the place of God." That's what he said.
Now we see a little more about him. In Ezekiel the 28th chapter, it speaks of this same being; and in Ezekiel 28 beginning with the 14th verse.
Ezekiel 28:14 Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth ...
It's speaking of the same one. (I could have begun with that other verse, but I don't want to take the time.) "Thou art the anointed cherub ... covereth." This archangel was a cherub. There are three kinds of angels: ordinary angels, seraphs (or seraphim, which is the plural), and cherubs (or cherubim, which is the plural for cherub). Now a cherub is not a little child that you would see on a valentine or something like that. A cherub is a super archangel next in power to any created being that ever existed, next to God. "Thou art the anointed cherub that covereth." His wings covered the very throne of God. You read that back in the 24th chapter of Exodus.
Ezekiel 28:14-15 ... thou hast walked up and down in the midst of the stones of fire. [Now let's see.] Thou are the anointed cherub that covereth... I have set thee so ... (15) [And he says] Thou wast perfect in thy ways from the day that thou wast created till iniquity was found in thee.
God created a PERFECT archangel. God showed him the right way to live. He had been at the very throne of God. He had been trained there, just like we train ministers at Ambassador College and then we send them out in the field to pastor a Church. He had been trained at headquarters, and then been sent out to this earth to administer the government of God; but, when he got here, he decided to turn against it. So you read here in verse 17:
Ezekiel 28:17 Thine heart was lifted up [Let's see. "Thou was perfect in thy ways ... till iniquity was found in thee." Now in verse 17 it says, "thine heart was lifted up:] because of thy beauty, thou hast corrupted thy wisdom by reason of thy brightness: [and] I will cast thee to the ground ...
Well, he tried to ascend to heaven; but he was cast back down to the earth. As a result of all of that sin, they brought chaos to the physical earth. They were put here to improve the earth, to finish the creation of the earth. The finishing touches God left for them to put on; but, instead of that, they have brought confusion and wasteness and emptiness and decay to this earth. This Lucifer then became Satan; and God changed his name to Satan — which means enemy, or adversary, or competitor. That's what it means, and he's all for competition in the sense of hostile competition. There might be a competition that is all right, but not hostile competition.
He became Satan. Satan is a spirit being. He is not human like we are. He doesn't have to breathe air. He doesn't have a heart pumping blood. He has self-containing Life. He is an immortal spirit being, and he will live forever and ever. He has IMMORTAL LIFE. Now, that Satan is still on that throne (believe it or not) to this day. But people can't see him. They don't realize WHO IS ON THE THRONE OF THE EARTH TODAY. It is not God Almighty. God is allowing Satan to be there.
All right, now let's go right on with the theme here. He's still on that throne, but the government of God has been inoperative ever since he changed and ever since he quit administering it; and so the earth came into a state of decay. Now you go back to the 1st chapter of Genesis, in the 1st verse and the 2nd verse.
Genesis 1:1-2 In the beginning God created the heaven(s) and the earth. (2) And the earth was [or became] without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep [or, that is, over the fluid surface of the oceans].
The earth became in a state of confusion. "Without form and void" as it says in the Bible is translated out of the Hebrew words that Moses wrote. Originally that was written by Moses in the Hebrew language. All we have is a translation in the English language. The Hebrew words are 'tohu' and 'bohu;' and they mean chaotic confusion, waste and empty, or decayed. That's what they mean, and that's what happened to the earth; and decay came to the earth as a result of that.
Now God had a purpose, and God's purpose included something that had to do with mankind. I'm coming to that in just a minute. But first I want you to notice the 104th Psalm — 104th Psalm and verse 30. Here's something very few people realize ever happened.
Psalms 104:30 Thou sendest forth thy spirit [God sends His Spirit, which is the POWER that does the creating. Christ is the Word, who speaks and it is done. There's a Psalm that says He spake and it was done. "Thou sendest forth Thy spirit ... "], they are created; and thou renewest the face of the earth.
God had renewed the face of the earth. The face of the earth had become devastated. It was in that condition. Now let's go right back to the 1st chapter of Genesis and notice again the last part of that 2nd verse.
Genesis 1:2 ... And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters.
It was ALL waste and empty, and it was full of darkness. The light had gone out. Satan had brought darkness; and also he brought spiritual darkness, which means a lack of truth. And there was darkness; but God is the author of light, not darkness. Then:
Genesis 1:3 God said, Let there be light; and there was light.
And then, in 6 days, God REMADE the surface of the earth. He renewed the face of the earth in order to put man on it. Now He created the fish of the sea; then He created the birds in the air; and then He created the land animals, coming down the 6th day. And then, coming to verse 26, after He had created the cattle after the cattle kind, other animals after their kind (like horses after the horse kind, dogs after the dog kind) then:
Genesis 1:26 God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.
In other words, "Let Us make man after the GOD kind." He made man after the God kind. Man was made in the image of God. Man was made to have a contact with God. Man was made to have intelligence that animals don't have, and very few people know why that is: Because God put a spirit in man that does not exist in animals; and that spirit imparts the power of intellect to the physical brain. I don't have time to go into that, but in the 2nd chapter of Genesis and verse 7:
Genesis 2:7 And the [Eternal] God formed man of the dust of the ground [He didn't make us like He had angels, out of spirit. He formed us out of matter, out of the dust of the ground.],and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
Not an immortal soul! There is nothing in the Bible that says that. A living soul! Man was made from the dust of the ground, but he has the spirit in him; and that spirit needs another Spirit to go with it. Now then, the man that He created, and He created a wife for him (so He created a man and a woman). But the man was mentioned because man was made to be the head of the family household, as Christ is the head of the Church. People don't believe that today either. Adam was the progenitor of all of the human race. He was the progenitor of humanity, of the world. He was the start of the world.
Now in the Garden of Eden were the two trees, you read on just a couple of verses after where I was:
Genesis 2:8 And the [Eternal] God planted a garden eastward in Eden and there He put the man whom he had formed. (9) And out of the ground made the [Eternal] God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight and [it] was good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of [the] knowledge of good and evil.
The tree of the knowledge of good and evil — that is, a tree of creating knowledge in your own mind; deciding for yourself what is good and what is evil. Now here was this Lucifer (now called Satan), and he was right there. He is still on the throne. However, he is invisible; and he wanted to get to Adam. And he was smart enough, and shrewd enough, to know he could get to the man through his wife.
Now we have an E.R.A. today, and I don't think very many people know who was the real creator and the one who really started the E.R.A.; but, I tell you, it was old Mother Eve. She did not agree with God, who told her that the husband was the head of the wife. She said, "No, but I want 50/50." But 50/50 means the wife's going to wear the pants every time. And it will always work out that way, because one has to take the lead. I don't care if you have 2 people, or 100 people, or any group of people — you've got to have a leader.
We have to have a leader in the United States, and that's the President of the United States. A lot of men want that job; and a lot of men, who could fill it and would be capable of it, don't want it (and they wouldn't run for it). That's too bad too, isn't it?
Now Adam made a choice. Adam had to make the choice for ALL HUMANITY. Here was this LUCIFER, WHO WAS SITTING ON THAT THRONE, ADMINISTERING THE GOVERNMENT OF GOD. HE HAD MADE THAT GOVERNMENT INOPERATIVE. HE HAD TURNED TO THE OPPOSITE WAY. And here was a MAN who could have said, "I WILL REJECT THE WAY SATAN'S GONE. I WILL ACCEPT THE GOVERNMENT OF GOD. I will administer to my children (who will be the world)."
Instead Satan was so clever that he got to EVE, and she took her husband by the nose and lead him right along; and she took of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In other words, she took to HERSELF the manufacturing of the knowledge, the producing of the knowledge, of what is right and what is wrong. She took of the tree of good and evil. She took that knowledge to herself, and gave to her husband, and he went right along (the poor sap); and he did just what his wife led him into. How many husbands are going right along with their wives today and letting their wives lead them? Well, I don't know that every wife is going to lead her husband off the wrong way; but certainly old mother Eve did.
Now, ADAM MADE THAT DECISION FOR ALL POSTERITY. HE WAS THE FOUNDER AND HEAD OF THE HUMAN RACE. He was the head of all humanity, and he made the decision for all humanity. So God decided that He would make binding what Adam had decided. Adam made the decision, not God; but Adam made it for the WHOLE WORLD THAT WAS TO FOLLOW FROM HIM AND COME OUT OF HIM by reproduction. So God drove them out of the Garden of Eden; and in chapter 3, beginning with verse 15 of Genesis:
Genesis 3:22-24 And the [Eternal] God said, Behold the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil [He is knowing, or manufacturing, within his own mind the knowledge of what is good and evil; and that's the knowledge that can only come from God.]: and now, LEST he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever: (23) Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. (24) So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life. [Lest Adam, or his children, and all humanity, and all the world, go back and get of the tree of life.]
The tree of life was merely a symbolic tree representing the Holy Spirit of God. So man was CUT OFF from the Holy Spirit of God. Man was created with a spirit to give him material intelligence, material knowledge, material and physical thinking, but not spiritual knowledge and spiritual discernment and spiritual understanding.
Now let's get back to the purpose of God that's being worked out here below. His purpose was to reproduce Himself through mankind, and He made man in His own image so that could be. And He made man with arms and legs like He has, and with hands and feet like He has, with fingers and toes like God has. God has a nose. He has two ears. He has a mouth. He has two eyes. God has hair on His head, and the only examples that are given say it is white as wool. However, God is composed of Spirit. You will read in John 4:24, God is composed of Spirit. And God's eyes are like flames of fire, and God's face is like the sun in full strength. But, in form and shape, God is like we are.
But the purpose was to reproduce Himself and restore HIS GOVERNMENT ON EARTH THROUGH MAN. ADAM FAILED to restore the government. God's plan is dual: it's both physical and spiritual. The first man, Adam, was physical; and the physical part of God's creation started with Adam. But the spiritual phase of God's creation started with the second Adam, who was Jesus Christ — who was the Son of God as well as the Son of man. And Christ had to meet this Satan and overcome him. Now that happened 4,000 years later.
God's physical earth of men started with Adam, but the spiritual creation started with Christ. Now Christ overcame Satan. Let's turn clear back to that now, in the 4th chapter of the book of Matthew; and I just want to read a verse or two and go on. I wish I had time to go through the whole thing, but notice in verse 10. Jesus finally said (after He had resisted Satan's temptation):
Matthew 4:10 ... GET THEE HENCE, SATAN ...
He gave a command, "YOU GET OUT OF HERE! I HAVE CONQUERED YOU." And Satan slunk away. JESUS CHRIST CONQUERED SATAN, and decided He would go the way of God, and ACCEPTED the government of God. And the government of God is based on the LIFESTYLE of God, the way of LIVING of God, the way of give instead of get. That's the way Christ accepted. Now Christ said, "Get out of here, Satan." So Satan got away from Him, but he didn't leave the earth. He is still on that throne.
Now I said that God cut off mankind. Adam cut off his human race and made the choice for all the human race. And God cut them off when He sent the man out and put flaming swords to guard the way lest people go back and get the tree of life and take of the Holy Spirit of God and live forever. MANKIND HAS BEEN CUT OFF FROM GOD.
All right, now next I'd like to have you notice in John, what Jesus said. John the 6th chapter and verse 44:
John 6:44 No man [said Jesus] CAN come to me ...
Now the only way you can get back to God — the only way you can receive eternal life — is through Jesus Christ our Lord. But how are you going to come to CHRIST? Some of them say, "ANYONE WHO WILL can come." Show me that in the Bible. The only place it appears is in the last page of your Bible, which is way after the thousand-year reign with Christ, and in the world to come, and after Satan is gone. You can't find it in applying to the time of the present, not once. 'Anyone who will' cannot come! "NO MAN CAN COME TO ME [said Jesus], except the Father which sent me draw him." — John 6:44.
JESUS SAID THAT, but people don't believe that. They don't believe what Christ said. That's the Word of God. That's what God said. That's what Christ said. He said He only spoke what His Father told Him to say. Therefore that's the Word of the Father as well as the Word of Christ. I happen to believe that! You think I am a little bit off? You think I am a nut because I believe Christ? Then you believe God's a nut! It's about time we wake up! It's about time we wake up. (Now I got my notes all mixed up.)
Jesus had conquered Satan. He said that no man could come to Him except the Father call him. Jesus Himself chose His own apostles. God called them. Jesus chose them. Jesus trained them. You know Peter didn't come to Jesus and say; "Look, I'd like to become the leader of Your group of apostles." No, Peter wanted to be a fisherman, so he went out to fish; but Christ called him. The others of the twelve, Jesus said; "You have not chosen Me. I have chosen you."
There is such a thing as predestination in your Bible, and very few understand it. Only those that are 'predestinated,' God is calling now; and the rest of the world is not called. What about the rest of the world? Are they then LOST? Oh, no. Who got that idea up? I don't know. But a lot of evangelists believe it today in the name of Christianity, but it is not in your Bible. That's not what God says. Maybe that's what a lot of preachers say, and what a lot of evangelists say; but it is not what God says. God says no man can come to Him except the Father (God) draws him. And, if you read the two places in the Bible where predestination is mentioned, it has nothing to do with the decision you are going to make. It has only to do with whether and when you are to be CALLED to be saved.
Now, what about all the rest of the people? THEY CAN'T COME TO GOD — THEY CAN'T COME TO CHRIST — unless the Father draws them. WHAT ABOUT THEM? They're just not being judged. What about those people that lived back before the Flood? What about ancient Israel? God never let them have His Holy Spirit. Are they lost? NO! "ALL ISRAEL SHALL BE SAVED" (you'll read in the 11th chapter of Romans in the New Testament), but not now. That's later in the Millennium and in the Great White Throne Judgment. We are going to see about that a week from today; but not today, not now. Remember God cut off the world because Adam made that decision, and God made it binding.
Now Jesus chose His own apostles. Then God added to the Church. The apostles didn't go out and talk people into being converted. They didn't say, "Please, oh, I plead with you, come and give your heart to Christ tonight." You can't find that in the Bible! The apostles didn't preach like that. Rather Peter said, "You are wicked men. You destroyed the very Christ." He didn't say, "Please come." But GOD called them, and GOD added to the Church such as were being saved. That's what the Bible says. Let's begin to believe it.
Now traditional Christianity seems blinded to another fact. They talk about Christ as Savior, and indeed He is. But they don't talk about Christ in another category. Christ was born to be a King! And they don't quote those passages, like back in the 9th chapter in the book of Isaiah, and you read it in the beginning of Matthew, and the beginning of Luke — where Christ was to be a King and sit on the throne of His father David and to rule over all of the earth, and Christ was born to be a King. When He was on trial for His life, Pontius Pilate asked Him, "Are you then a King? And Christ said, "You say I am a King. To this end WAS I BORN, for this cause [to be a King] came I into the world." That's what He said. vGod's purpose is to restore the government of God that had been taken away, and He is CALLING OUT A FEW to be TRAINED TO SIT WITH CHRIST ON THAT THRONE WHEN HE COMES. MEN are not going to create a world government. GOD is going to do it, and CHRIST is going to come with all the supernatural POWER of the ETERNAL GOD; and it's going to be done TO man, not by man. The world doesn't have to believe it. I'm not trying to convince the world. If any of you are not in the Church of God and you are here today, you may laugh at that. You may not believe that. That's up to you. I don't care what you do. I'm just told to tell you. That's my job. I don't have to convince you of it. It doesn't make any difference whether you believe it or not. It's going to happen just the same. And it's going to happen TO YOU, and not by you.
But God is calling some of us, and those that He is calling now have to fight off Satan. Now the others are not now being judged one way or the other. They are not lost, neither are they saved. THEY JUST ARE NOT JUDGED. Now get that. The world itself cannot come to Christ. The world itself is not being judged. They can't be saved, they can't be lost — now! God is calling some now, in the Church. And I don't know any church but the one Church of the Living God on the face of this earth that BELIEVES THAT, BECAUSE THE WORLD IS DECEIVED; and Satan is the great deceiver that has blinded and deceived all nations.
How many of us still want to go along with the way of the churches of this world and believe that anybody can be saved who wants to? That is not true at all! But the others, maybe they are just as sincere as you are. Maybe more so? I don't know. They could be absolutely honest. But they're not being judged. They are not lost. I'm not condemning them. I'm not trying to save them either. Neither is God; neither is Christ, believe it or not. Now some people think that's blasphemy to say Christ isn't trying to save them. He is not. We are to be kings with Him.
Now then, I'd like to have you notice in Revelation, in the 3rd chapter of Revelation and verse 21.
Revelation 3:21 To him that overcometh ...
And we have to overcome Satan. When God calls the others, Satan will be gone and the Kingdom of God will be ruling. And then we're going to call all the world to be saved, and they won't have a devil here to deceive them the way he deceives us now. Now when I spoke to those of you from Pasadena just last Thursday ... Was it last Thursday? No. Last Sabbath. Last Sabbath I mentioned to you how Satan begins to instill the self-way of life and the get way of life, and the selfish way, into little children during the first year of their life; and people are brought up that way. But the people, when we are ruling in the Kingdom of God, little babies won't have that, and the Satan influence will be gone, and the world won't be deceived any longer, and the world will be full of the truth of God as the waters cover the ocean. So now notice:
Revelation 3:21 To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne ...
We have to overcome Satan now and Satan's way, and accept the government of God; and we are to sit with Christ in His throne. That's the throne that Satan now has. Satan is still there. Satan is still alive. But Christ is going to come and take that throne. He's already qualified to do it, and we're called now to come and sit with Him. DOES THAT MAKE SENSE? It makes a lot more sense, let me tell you, than what the so-called evangelicals are preaching today. And how they do hate us, brethren! Let me tell you, they sure do.
Revelation 3:21 To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down with my Father in his throne.
Jesus had to overcome Satan, and He will sit in the throne of His father David on this earth; and, if we overcome, we will sit with Him on His throne. Now in chapter 2:26
Revelation 2:26-27 And he that overcometh and keepeth my works unto the end, to him will I give power over the nations (27) and he shall rule them with a rod of iron ...
Brethren, we are called to be trained in this life in the way of God, the government of God based on the law of God, which is a way of LIVING; and we have to LIVE in that form of lifestyle. Now that doesn't mean we wear crazy clothes. It doesn't mean we do foolish, crazy things. It just means we live the way of loving our neighbor as much as ourselves, and loving God above ourselves and everybody else: That we just have that way of loving our neighbors as ourselves, and we make good neighbors. I hope you are all good neighbors where you live, and I'm sure you are because I hear that kind of reports coming from everywhere!
You know what people say of us? We come to the Feast of Tabernacles and people will say (as I have heard said in past years and maybe they'll be saying it here this year, I don't know), they say; "Well, you people, we find you're the finest people we've ever seen. Well, you just seem ... . Wish everybody could be like you are. But I can't understand why such good people like you, why do you have to believe that crazy religion?" Yes, it seems crazy to them; and actually their way is crazy and they just can't see it. But a crazy person I guess always thinks the other guy is crazy. Well, anyway, however that is.
Christ died for our sins; and He paid the penalty of our sins so that, even though we have sinned, the penalty is paid for us. We can receive the Holy Spirit of God. The world does not have the Holy Spirit of God. We can learn the way of God. We can come to have spiritual understanding, spiritual knowledge, and spiritual discernment, and to be prepared. And we are the Bride of Christ, being prepared for His coming.
Now the Work of the Church in the past two years, and the prime work on me, has been to turn this Church back upside down (or right side up again) and get us back to be prepared for the coming of Christ, because it's going to be soon. It should be in our lifetime. I don't know any longer whether I will live for it; but I think very possibly I shall because, let me tell you, I can live as long as God Almighty wants me to live; and don't you think I won't. And I don't know, regardless of my age, that's what the calendar says. I know this: I have never reached middle age yet. Well, if I ever did, I don't know it. I don't know when it was. I never knew it!
So now I want you to notice a little further in Revelation about the 2nd coming of Christ. HE is that unseen hand that is coming from someplace. HE is the one who is going to come and do it and TAKE OVER the government (instead of Lucifer), and with the ALMIGHTY POWER of the CREATOR GOD! He is going to take over the rulership of all the nations on this earth.
Now the government of the United States at Washington is going to go down. The government of England at London is going to go DOWN. The government of the Kremlin is going to go down in Moscow. The government in China (where I was at the seat of government and talking with the heads of government and one of the top three men, with whom I spent a full hour, or a little more) that government is going to go down. And I've been telling them about this government that is going to take over and rule the whole world. Christ is coming in all the power and splendor of the Great God. Let me read that to you. That's back here in the book of Revelation, in the 19th chapter, beginning in verse 11.
Revelation 19:11 And I saw heaven opened ...
John is telling what he saw in a vision now. Now we're coming down to the end here. "And I saw heaven opened ... " That's just ahead of us a little while. It might be ... Well, it's bound to be 3 or 4 years at the very least because other things have to happen first. But it's VERY near to us now, very near.
Revelation 19:11-15 And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. (12) His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written that no man knew, but he himself. [I told you His eyes were like flames of fire, and in the 1st chapter you'll find His face was like the very sun in brightness.] (13) And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood; and his name is called The Word of God. [Jesus Christ is the Word of God.] (14) And the armies which were [with him] in heaven followed him upon white horses [And you'll find that in the 25th chapter of Matthew, and that's all of the holy angels.], clothed in fine linen ... and clean [which is a symbol of righteousness]. (15) And out of his mouth goeth a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations [But His sword is not a sword of steel. It is a sword — the Word of God — which cuts both ways, not just one way. And He'll smite the nations, that's with the Word of God.], and he shall rule them with a rod of iron ...
THERE WILL BE ONE WORLD GOVERNMENT and only one military force; AND NO MORE WORLD WAR. And under that government we'll have a new educational system; and God started it through me at Ambassador College; and it's going to go ON. It's been started through the Imperial Schools (in the 1st Grade and the 2nd and 3rd grades) and High School (junior high and senior high); and that educational system will go on in the World Tomorrow.
Revelation 19:16 And he hath on his vesture and on his thigh a name written, KING OF KINGS, AND LORD OF LORDS.
Christ will come as a King over all of the kings of the earth, and LORD of Lords. Now come right on to the 20th chapter:
Revelation 20:1-2 And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand. (2) And he laid hold on the dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and bound him a thousand years.
Satan is going to be bound and taken away from this world and taken away from that throne, and Christ will sit on that throne; and YOU and I, if we are overcomers and if we endure to the end, we're going to sit there and rule with Him. Or maybe we won't sit there. Maybe we'll be sent to some other part of the world and rule.
Revelation 20:3 And cast [Satan] into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him that he should deceive the nations no more till the thousand years should be fulfilled [And there'll be a thousand years. Now, after that, Satan will] ... be loosed a little season.
And then something else will happen; and I'm going to speak to you one week from today, and I'm going to explain all of that to you at that time, one week from today. Now I'd like to give you a picture of that time, of the government of God. (Do I have a little more time? Can I see someone up here? Our time is limited. I don't know how long we are on the satellite. Have I got about another 5 minutes? Well, someone had better let me know if we don't have and I can stop right here; but I hope we have a little bit more time.)
I'd like to turn back to the 11th chapter of Isaiah; and here we take a look into that Kingdom after Christ comes and is reigning, in the prophet Isaiah way back in the Old Testament.
Isaiah 11:1 And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse ...
Now Jesse was the father of David, and the 'rod out of the stem of Jesse' was Christ.
Isaiah 11:2-3 And the spirit of the Lord shall [be] upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding [That's on Christ when He comes as ruler.], the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD; (3) And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the LORD: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears.
He won't judge on hearsay. He won't judge on false evidence. He will be able to read men's hearts and their inner motives and intent of their minds.
Isaiah 11:4-5 But with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth; and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. (5) And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins.
And He'll be reigning and ruling over all the earth. Now, what will happen?
Isaiah 11:6 The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.
Can you imagine that? That's the way it is going to be in the Kingdom of God. And I would like to read from the 14th chapter of Zechariah. ALL NATIONS are going to keep the Feast of Tabernacles like we're doing. That seems crazy to the people right here in this city now. That seems crazy that we are keeping the Feast of Tabernacles. They'll ALL be keeping it then; and, if they don't, they are going to have no rain. And then if they don't do it, there will be plagues coming on them until they do, because they will do it. Now verse 9:
Isaiah 11:9 They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.
As I told you before: as full as the waters cover the ocean beds. And it goes on to show that God will call all the Gentiles to salvation. Then He is going to call ancient Israel to be resurrected from their graves. Of course, that will come at the end of the thousand years; but He is going to convert ALL of the nations, and the world will be full of peace. Wild animals will be tamed. The government of God will rule.
Under Christ, I think undoubtedly, will be Abraham. Over the nations that come from the twelve tribes of Israel will be David, sitting over and ruling over all of those nations. Over each one of those nations will be one of the twelve apostles. Jesus said all of that. Jesus has explained all of that, and we know that those things are true.
(Oh, I think something was laid here. Oh, it's 15 minutes I have. Okay, I'll be off the air by that time.) Now I just want to say to you people in England over there, if you are still there... It must be pretty late over there by now. It's about, it's pretty close to midnight, or is it after midnight? I guess it's after midnight in England. I hope they can get a little sleep for tomorrow's service. But I expect to be in England and speak to the Churches in and around London in about 3 weeks. I don't know the exact date; but it will be announced, and you will know in time. I'm planning to leave shortly after the feast for a trip over there. Then I must see Mr. Sadat in Cairo and Mr. Begin in Jerusalem; and also I hope that we can have a trip to see the leaders in Poland. There has been quite an upset in Poland lately, as you know. The door has always been open to me there, and I hope that it still is. We're working on that now, and I will announce all of those things later.
However, I will speak to all of you again one week from today in this same ... by satellite and with partly ... at least Pasadena is on microwave, and at least we have a live hookup so that I can speak live to all of you; and I will hope to be back and speak to you again by one week from today. And, in the meantime, enjoy this festival to the full, every one of you. I have tried to give you a bird's eye view of what it all means: the whole purpose of God — the master plan of God, working it out; and these festivals of God picture that master plan to us.
So goodbye for now, and God bless you all.