A man cannot be a podiatrist and
trim your toe corns without passing an examination to prove that he is competent
to provide this service. But, any fool can become a legislator, and a lot of
fools do become one. Consequently our laws, as a rule, are the products of
unskilled labor. In trying to draft a statute, it isn't too difficult to word it
so that anybody who is trying in good faith can understand it. The big problem
is to word it so that somebody who is trying in bad faith, to misunderstand it,
can't do so.
We have a somewhat similar problem
with the Bible. Somehow, no matter how plainly the Bible states something, it is
always possible for some little sect to pick some verse out of context, and
manage to completely misinterpret it and then make it a principal doctrine and
off they go. We are going to learn about one of these doctrines.
Today, some of our major churches
don't really believe in the return of Yahshua. They don't require their ordained
ministers to claim that they believe they believe Yahshua is actually returning.
Even those who do believe it, can get some surprising differences of doctrine
about this subject. As to what the return of Yahshua will be like, there is a
good deal about this subject in the Bible and it seems to me to be pretty clear.
I want you to learn what some of the churches have done with this
information.
Confusion has arisen because in
Revelation 16: 15 Yahshua says, "Behold, I come as a thief." When a
thief, or burglar, breaks into your house and steals something, ordinarily we
don't catch him in the act, he gets away without us seeing him. Because of this
short passage, some churches teach Yahshua is coming back but nobody will know
He is here.
From the word, "Behold I come as a
thief," there is the obvious inference that Yahshua's coming will not be
observed in sufficient time. This is very different from saying that He is going
to come and go, and nobody will know He has been here. If somebody tells you
that a thief can stand right in front of you and you can look right through him
because he is invisible, you wouldn't be fooled by that a minute. Yet, this is
what some of these sects teach, as to the return of Yahshua.
Some of these sects teach there will
be, not only a second coming of Yahshua, but even a third. They teach He is
really coming the first time just to collect His church, His elect, to resurrect
some of the dead and translating some of the living. Then Yahshua and His church
are going to flee from the world and leave Satan in triumphant possession of the
earth for three and a half years.
You might get this out of some
fiction story, but you can't get this out of the Bible, not if you honestly read
it. These sects know that Yahshua is coming back; He is going to collect those
who are worthy, the elect. He is also going to judge the whole world. These are
supposed to be two separate and distinct times.
One group even says that Yahshua has
already been here and gotten His elect. When they say this, they are confessing
they themselves are not of the elect because they are still around. They also
can't point to any sudden and mysterious disappearance of some of their church
congregation either. Apparently nobody in the group made it.
What does the Bible really say on
this subject? When we find this simile, of stealthily coming as a thief used by
Yahshua, He always uses it in such a way as to make it perfectly clear that if
you don't notice it in time, it is your own fault for not being on the alert
looking for Him.
Matthew 24:42-44 warns us,
"Watch therefore: for ye know not what hour Yahshua doth come. But know this,
that if the good men of the house had known in what watch the thief would come,
he would have watched, and would not have suffered his house to broken into.
Therefore be ye also ready: for in such an hour as ye think not, the Son of man
cometh."
Is there anything in these Bible
verses from which you could get the inference that His coming is going to be
invisible? Nothing that I can see. It is very plain, if you are on the alert,
you will observe His coming, if you aren't alert, it is your own fault. The same
emphasis upon the need to be watchful is found in the other verses where the
thief idea is used.
We come across this coming as a
thief idea, in the course of the messages to the seven churches. "And unto the
angel of the church in Sardis write, Be watchful, and strengthen the things that
remain, that are ready to die: for I have not found thy works perfect before
Yahweh...If therefore thou shalt not watch, I will come on thee as a thief, and
thou shalt not know what hour I will come upon thee." There is always perfect
consistency. The only reason we wouldn't see the thief is, that we don't know
when to expect him and we aren't watching.
Revelation 16:5 is the first
verse I mentioned, the Judeo/ Christian churches usually only quoting, "Behold I
come as a thief." Let's quote more than this one verse. "Behold I come as a
thief. Blessed is he that watcheth, and keepeth his garments, lest he walk
naked, and they see his shame."
Then we come to II Peter
3:10, it states, ""But the day of Yahshua will come as a thief in the night;
in the which the heavens shall pass away with a great noise, and the elements
shall melt with fervent heat, the earth also and the works that are therein
shall be burned up." It doesn't sound quiet to me!
I Thessalonians 5:1-6
continues, "But of the times and seasons brethren, ye have no need that I write
to you. For yourselves know perfectly that the day of Yahshua so cometh as a
thief in the night. For when they shall say. Peace and safety, then sudden
destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall
not escape. But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day overtake you as
a thief...Therefore let us not sleep, as do others; but let us watch and be
sober."
There is a sentence in there that
ought to be required reading for all of our government officials. "For when they
say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction cometh upon them." No one has
ever trusted the communists in anything, not once, without being betrayed. Why
should we? It is the same old Jewish, satanic organization that has been trying
to destroy Israel for centuries.
There has been plenty of warning in
the Bible that, if we aren't ready, if we aren't watching, we may not observe
the coming of Yahshua until it is too late. What does the Bible indicate that
His return will be like? There are few prophecies in the Bible, all relating to
ancient times, where a date was set. It would say, within so many years such a
thing would happen. This is very rare; it is not the normal procedure in Bible
prophecy. Normally the Bible will give a sign that we are approaching the date
when a certain prophecy will be fulfilled, and it tells us to look for a certain
sign. When we see this sign, we know what is about to happen.
This is the rule concerning
prophecies that deal with our own time. We are told of events which will happen
that will be indications the big event is near, and if we watch, we will see the
event happen. If we are watching, the prophesied event is not going to catch us
unawares.
Matthew chapter 24 tells of
Yahshua and the disciples being near the temple in Jerusalem, the big temple
that Herod built.
It was a magnificent structure. The
disciples were commenting upon the magnificent building when Yahshua said, "The
time is coming when not one stone of this will be left standing upon another."
When the disciples got a chance to talk with Yahshua about it later, they asked
Him about what He had said.
Matthew 24:3 records, "And as
he sat upon the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying,
tell us, when shall these things be? And what shall be the sign of the coming
and the end of the age." The King James Bible says, end of the world, but in the
Greek it says, end of the age. This planet is going to be around for a long time
yet.
Then Yahshua went on to list seven
signs. When we see these signs come to pass, we would know that Yahshua's return
would soon come.
Matthew 24:5,11 tells us the
first sign, false prophets and false Christ�s. Mark 13:6,21 & 22 and
Luke 21:8 tells us the same thing. We are getting false prophets by the
carload lots in the National Council of Churches these days; there have even
been some false Christ�s. Some of you have heard of the Bahai sect. They say
that their founder, who is coming back, the high ruler, is the messiah of all
religions, including those religions, which don't have any messiah. Then there
is the young Hindu boy, Jiddi Krishnamurti; they tried to tell us was the
reincarnation of Yahshua. This has fooled nobody but the Theosophists.
Matthew 24:6-7, Mark 13:
7-8, Luke 21:9-10 give the second sign. There will be wars and rumors
of wars, nation rising against nation and kingdom against kingdom. At this point
Yahshua gave them an additional warning. Don't be deceived by this, because
there are going to be wars all the time. No ordinary war is the sign of a return
of Yahshua; it has to be quite an extra-ordinary one. Yahshua said these are
just the beginning of trouble, but the end is not yet.
The fourth sign, there would be
pestilence. Matthew 24:7, Mark 13:8 and Luke 21:11.
The fifth sign, there would be
earthquakes. Same verses as for the fourth sign.
The sixth sign is something we have
neither heard nor seen for a long time. Yahshua said the gospel of the
kingdom shall be preached for a witness unto all nations, and then shall
the end come. The Greek word translated as end, telos, means really and
emphatically the very end.
In the time of Yahshua and the
original apostles, they preached the gospel of the kingdom of Yahweh. Then, not
long after Yahshua was crucified, the kingdom gospel was forgotten and junked.
All that was preached after this time was the gospel of personal salvation. It
is only within our lifetime has there been any substantial amount of the
preaching the gospel of the kingdom of Yahweh. Note that Yahshua didn't say the
gospel of the kingdom would be preached to all nations to convert them. Quite to
the contrary, this gospel was only to be preached as a witness. This was so
nobody can ask why they weren't told about it. People will have been told and
refused to accept the message.
The seventh sign, the last one. The
abomination of desolate standing in the holy place. The holy place, if there was
ever one that could be called this, would be the site of King Solomon's temple
in Jerusalem. This site was under the control of the Jordanian Arabs, until the
1967 war when the Jews seized the old city of Jerusalem containing the holy
places.
The Jews had been saying they were
going to demolish the Mohammedan mosque, the Dome of the Rock, which stands on
the site of Solomon's temple. They plan to rebuild a Jewish temple on the old
site, saying they are going to rebuild Solomon's temple. There have been many
shipments of high grade American marble stone, cut in Indiana and shipped over
there, ready for use in the rebuilding of the temple.
So far the Jews haven't quite had
the gall to start demolishing the Mosque of Omar, as this mosque is commonly
called. If and when they start the demolition of this mosque, the Jews aren't
going to be facing only a relatively small number of Arabs; they will be facing
the whole Moslem world. This is a very holy site to the Mohammedans, second only
to Mecca. The entire Mohammedan world will declare a holy war immediately and
this is about 450 million people, or more. The abomination that brings
desolation is certainly the Jewish control of the holy place.
In Luke 21:25-35 Yahshua goes
into more detail. "And there shall be signs in the sun, and in the moon, and in
the stars. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a cloud with power
and great glory. And when these things begin to come to pass, then look up, and
lift up your heads; for your redemption draweth nigh...So likewise ye, when you
see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of Yahweh is nigh at
hand...And take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged
with surfeiting and drunkenness, and cares of this life, so that day should come
upon you unawares. For as a snare shall it come on all them that dwell on the
face of the whole earth.�?
How anybody can mistake the plain
meaning of these signs, I don't know. The signs are there if we will watch for
them. There are a lot of people who are going to find this time is suddenly
here, before they are ready for it, simply because they have not been
watching.
There is no doubt the Bible promise
that Yahshua, upon His return, will gather His elect. The Judeo/Christian
churches like to call this the rapture of the church. Some of the dead, those
few who have been selected for this particular purpose, will be resurrected.
Some of the living who have been selected, without experiencing death, will be
given their immortal bodies just like the resurrected dead. It says we will be
caught up into the air to meet Him as He returns.
With their curious ability to
misinterpret the Bible, preachers have taken the seventy weeks period, 490 years
as Daniel prophesied, and teach that the seventieth week doesn't come after the
sixty-ninth week. But, there is a gap of over nineteen centuries between the
sixty-ninth year and the seventieth year. The Judeo/Christians garble what
Daniel prophesied, so it can't be recognized what was to happen in the
seventieth week.
Then they teach that upon the return
of Yahshua, who will come first for the rapture of the church, then He will flee
and let Satan take over, without opposition, for three and a half years, some
teach for seven years. Only after this will Yahshua come back for the purpose of
judgment on the wicked. How is this for convoluted thinking?
How the church could be taken away
before this period of tribulation can't be explained, if we read the Bible. Read
Mark 13:24-27 & 35-37, remember they are quoting Yahshua. "But in
those days, after that tribulation..." This refers to the great
tribulation, this period of war, and famine etc. that we would go through when
the final break up of the age comes.
Yahshua said it would be so
terrible, that if Yahweh had not shortened that period, that no flesh would
remain on the earth. "But in those days, after that tribulation, the sun
shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light. And all the stars of
heaven shall fall, and the powers that are in heaven shall be shaken. And
then shall he send his angels, and shall gather together his elect from
the four winds, from the uttermost part of heaven...Watch therefore: for
ye know not when the master of the house cometh, at even, or at midnight, or at
the cock crowing, or in the morning. Lest coming suddenly he find you sleeping.
And what I say unto I say unto all, Watch."
The whole order of this is going to
be the catastrophic breakup of the age, terrible events, which don't come until
we have first seen those seven signs that Yahshua prophesied. Then will come
this terrible cataclysm and then, after that, there will be the
return of Yahshua. After we have observed His return, then He is going to gather
His elect, the real church.
In Matthew 24:37-39 & 42,
Yahshua gives another explanation of these events. "But as the days of Noah
were, so shall the coming of the Son of man be." This verse alone ought to
correct the preacher's errors. Was there a secret flood, which floated the ark
away, and nobody noticed? Then after the flood, was this the judgment? Obviously
not at all.
Therefore, when we are told that it
will be just as it was in the days of Noah, how can they come to this curiously
foolish doctrine of the secret rapture? "But as the days of Noah were before the
flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the
day that Noah entered into the ark, and knew not until the flood came and took
them away; so shall also the coming of the Son of man be. Watch therefore, for
ye know not what hour your master doth come."
The Bible makes it very clear; there
will be no secret coming. The second coming will be accompanied by the most
tremendous phenomena the world has ever seen. This will be too great for even
the dullest to overlook, once it starts happening. The point is, when it occurs
it is going to be too late to get into the real elect, we have something to do
first. The return of Yahshua will be unexpected by those who have not believed
and haven't been on the watch.
Matthew 25:1-13 gives us a
pretty clear illustration of just exactly what is going to happen, in one of
Yahshua's parables. "Then shall the kingdom of heaven be likened unto ten
virgins, which took their lamps, and went forth to meet the bridegroom. And five
of them were wise, and five were foolish. They that were foolish took their
lamps, and took no oil with them: But the wise took oil in the vessels with
their lamps. While the bridegroom tarried they all slumbered and slept. And at
midnight there was a cry made, Behold, the bridegroom cometh; go ye out to meet
him. Then all those virgins arose, and trimmed their lamps.
And the foolish said unto the wise,
give us your oil; for our lamps are gone out. But the wise answered, saying, not
so; lest there be not enough for you and us: but go ye rather to them that sell,
and buy for yourselves. And while they went to buy, the bridegroom came; and
they that were ready went in with him to the marriage: and the door was
shut.
Afterward came also the other
virgins, saying, Master, Master, open to us. But he answered and said, Verily I
say unto you, I know you not. Watch therefore, for ye know neither the day nor
the hour wherein the Son of man cometh."
Those who reject Yahshua as their
Savior and Redeemer, have no choice remaining to them but to face judgment of
their sins, because they have refused to accept the only way out. Of those who
do accept Him as their Savior and Redeemer, this is only the beginning; this is
not the end of the matter.
Salvation means only continued life.
Both the Hebrew words in the Old Testament and the Greek words in the New
Testament that have been translated salvation, mean only safety. If you
find somebody floundering around in deep water unable to swim, and you grab him
by the collar and pull him to shore, you have given him salvation, and he has
been given safety.
The word salvation is used in the
Christian religion with a further connotation. When this meat and bones that we
walk around in dies, our real personality will not also perish. Yahweh will give
us continued life with a new body of suitable form, so then we will have a
conscious existence. On what level will this be?
Some nominal Christians are going to
be very distinctly low man on the totem pole. They haven't fitted themselves for
anything better than merely continued existence. Most of the churches don't try
to teach you anymore than this. In those few who do try, we don't find much
enthusiasm, on the part of most of the congregation, to learn what it is all
about.
We have had experience, since the
time of Franklin D. Roosevelt, with a miserable botch of a government, conducted
by incompetent bureaucrats who don't know what they are doing. I can assure you
that the kingdom of Yahweh is not going to be anything like this. Those who are
going to have any part in it, those who will sit on the throne with Yahshua and
reign with Him, will only be those who have fitted themselves for it. There will
be many perfectly good saved Christians, as these churches call them, in the
kingdom of Yahweh. They will simply have to sweep the streets and empty the
garbage because they aren't fitted to do anything better, they turned it
down.
Those who wish the higher calling,
to become part of the administrative staff of the kingdom of Yahweh, are the
comparatively few who have studied for it. They know what it is all about and
they will be fit to carry out their duties.
In Luke 13:23-27 it is pretty
clearly indicated again. I am reading this particular passage from Lamsa's
translation from the Aramaic, as it is particularly easy to understand. "A man
asked Jesus, Are there only a few who are to be saved? Jesus said to him, strive
to enter in through the narrow door; for I say to you that many will seek to
enter in and will not be able. From the hour when the master of the house rises
up and locks the door, and you will begin to say, Our Master, our Master, open
for us; and he will answer, saying, I say to you, I do not know you or where you
come from. And you will begin to say, we have eaten and drunk in your presence,
and you taught in our streets. And he will say to you, I do not know you or
where you come from; depart from me, O you workers of iniquity."
What is going to happen to many of
the ministers in our churches today? They will say, Lord, didn't I teach the
people of my church that the Old Testament was all a mistake and had to be
discarded? Didn't I teach them your laws were wrong and were no longer in
effect? Didn't I teach them to violate your laws? Didn't I teach them that at a
church supper they should always have baked ham, one of the forbidden foods,
deliberately violating your law, to show that now we are not under the law but
under grace?
In Matthew 5:18, Yahshua made
it very clear His opinion of the laws. "For verily I say unto you, Till heaven
and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till
all be fulfilled." Can't be any clearer than this!
What was called jot, the
Hebrew letter yod, and the smallest letter in the Hebrew alphabet, is
just a tiny little curlicue made with a pen. What they called a tittle
was only a little curlicue ornament on some of the larger letters. You have
noticed where you have seen old English letters, they are used today in Germany,
and how the letters have all sorts of little ornamental strokes added to them.
Similarly, they would put little curlicues on some of these Hebrew letters,
purely as ornaments, which weren't really any part of the letters. These
curlicues could be left off without changing the meaning of the letters.
So Yahshua said, "...one yod or one
little curlicue shall not pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." Yahshua
continues, "Whosoever shall break one of the least of these commandments, and
shall teach men to do so, he shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven; but
whosoever shall do and teach them, the same shall be called great in the kingdom
of heaven."
There are going to be a lot of
people who are going to be standing outside, knocking on the door and not being
let in. The warning is plain enough, but the truths of the Bible aren't taught
anymore in the churches. What is taught is man-made doctrine and the social
gospel that won't offend the Jews. Remember the prophecy there would be a
famine, not a famine of bread or a thirst for water, but a famine of hearing the
word of Yahweh. This is exactly what has come upon us.
Somebody once said, "The more it
changes, the more it is the same." We have gone through these events before,
several times in our history. There is no record of any exception to this rule,
that an organized church sooner or later becomes a corrupted and apostate
church. If there ever should have been an exception to this rule, it should have
been in Jerusalem, for there they had the temple of Yahweh with the personal
appearance of Yahweh manifested there, and yet what happened? They not only
reached the point where the priests were not teaching the laws of Yahweh, the
priests were leading them into idolatry. Read the Book of Ezekiel.
Yahweh said, "Look what they have
done in my house in Jerusalem: you find in it altars to pagan gods set up in the
temple in Jerusalem." Look what happened after that. In the very early days, the
first century of the Christian era, there was a fairly sound church. From the
early 300s on, as the Catholic Church developed, look what happened. What can
you find of the old Babylonian paganism that is not part of the official
doctrine of the Catholic Church today? The Catholic Church has been utterly
corrupted.
Look at the Protestant churches!
True, they don't recognize the pope as being successor to Yahweh, but they have
a list of corruptions just about as impressive as the Catholic Church. It is
that period of apostasy, which the Bible prophesied.
The ministers and priests are the
people who are utterly unprepared for the return of Yahshua. If I am not
mistaken, the Methodist church of today does not require a student of the
ministry to swear he believes Yahshua will actually return, in order to be
ordained a minister. He can be ordained without this belief. The same is true of
some of the other major churches.
It is going to be rather rough going
for a good many people when Yahshua returns, because the signs are all around
us.
There remains nothing more to be
fulfilled but the tremendous catastrophe that marks the close of this age. The
Russian attack upon us that is set out in such detail in Ezekiel chapters
38-39 and some of the book of Joel. This and the accompanying hardships, is
all that has not yet been fulfilled.
When the Jews do demolish the Dome
of the Rock mosque, the Mohammedan world will go on a rampage. Geographically
the Mohammedan world includes the northern third of Africa, from the Atlantic
Ocean to the Red Sea. It also includes most of western Asia, including Turkey.
Incidentally, those Turks are still tough fighters.
There was a contingent of Turkish
troops with the United Nation's forces in Korea, and everybody admits those
Turks were the toughest fighters on our side. The Mohammedan world includes all
the Arab countries, which are the source of most of the world's oil, outside the
American continent. It also includes much of the Malay Peninsula and even some
of the southern islands of the Philippine islands. When we get all of these
Mohammedans declaring a holy war against the Jews, things are going to get hot
really fast.
The man that the traitors have
already picked as a probable democratic candidate for president in 1972, Senator
Muskie of Maine, is over in Palestine now. He was quoted in the paper, as having
declared publicly that there was no need for a formal treaty of alliance between
the United States and this Jewish nation of so called Israel, because we were
firmly committed to the defense of Israel, no matter what it took.
Before World War II, Europe didn't
depend too much upon oil. All of her electric power plants, railroads and
industrial plants, used coal. Europe has enormous reserves of coal. Then
suddenly, following WW II, somebody saw to it that all the coal-burning furnaces
were dismantled and oil-burning furnaces installed in their place.
In Europe, if they shut down all
non-essential use of oil fuels, they might be able to continue operating at the
maximum, ninety days, no more on the store of oil they have there. All Russia
would need to do would be to mark time, just keeping up a threat against the
eastern front of the free world, but not actually getting into any fighting.
This would keep Europe on the alert, and by the end of ninety days, the armies
of free Europe couldn't put an airplane in the sky. In addition they couldn't
run a tank because there would no longer be any oil fuel to use in them.
As far as running their factories
are concerned, the large steam powered plants would also come to a halt, for
lack of fuel. Then Russia could move in and take everything with practically no
fighting at all.
As far as trying to supply Europe
with oil from the American continent is concerned, this would be an
impossibility. At the start of WW II, Germany had 65 submarines in operating
order, and some of these were just trainers. Never at any time during WW II, did
Germany have as many as 100 submarines in operating condition and Germany almost
conquered the world single-handed.
Russia starts now with an estimated
minimum figure of 350 modern submarines, diesel driven of the snorkel type. She
has nearly as many atomic fueled submarines as we have. Within the next two
years Russia will be ahead of us in the number of atomic fueled submarines. A
more probable estimate of Russia's submarine fleet would be as high as 500. We
couldn't possibly get ships across the Atlantic Ocean to carry oil to
Europe.
When an opportunity like this comes
up, it would be imbecilic stupidity, on the part of the Russians, not to take
advantage of Europe without an oil supply to keep their machinery running. The
Jews that are running Russia are out to conquer the world; they have never even
tried to disguise this fact.
Russia's atomic rockets will come
over the North Pole, to knock out our production centers. They will hit the
Puget Sound area, to knock out the big naval base and the huge Boeing aircraft
factory. Chicago will be a target because it is the most important center of
rail transportation in the country. Gary and Pittsburgh will be a target to
knock out the bigger part of our steel industry and one or two big centers of
machine tool production there.
Russia's rocket carrying submarines off our coasts will knock out our
major port cities. Then, coming down from the eastern Siberian coast, will come
the invasion barges filled with troops. This is all prophesied in the Bible and
known very clearly to our military intelligence. All of this is ready to happen
on short notice.
You people are not in darkness. You
know what to look for to make yourselves ready to survive, during this rough
period. You should be ready to take your place in the kingdom of Yahweh, shortly
thereafter. The average types of churchgoers are not going to be ready. Then
they will wonder why nobody told them about this, but just try to get them to
listen now.
If you notice a sudden exodus of
Jews from an area, take it as a warning that they know something disastrous is
going to happen. I have always thought that when we pray, "Master, come down and
put the lid back on the garbage can, because the lid is off and it stinks". This
prayer might not be answered because Yahweh would say, "Why don't you do it?" We
are supposed to do a certain amount of these things for ourselves, then what is
beyond our reach He will take care of.
There is nothing we can do to stop the disaster that is coming. When the Babylonians captured Jerusalem, there were some of the people who were massacred by the Babylonian army, those who had it coming to them. The rest of the people, since they hadn't learned enough of a lesson, were taken into captivity in Babylon but Yahweh saw that they weren't hurt.