Prophecy and the United States
81-08
Telecast Date: March 12, 1981
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   Ladies and gentlemen, greetings! Once again, I want to ask you: do you know what is prophesied to happen to the United States? And that means, to you and yours, and I mean what is prophesied to happen, perhaps in less than 10 years, perhaps more certainly within 20 years, certainly, and before the year of 2000, I would suppose. But what is definitely prophesied?
   You know, I've lived a lot longer than most of you. I've seen most of the modern advances taking place in this world. You know, up until in the 19th century sometime, this world went along on a pretty even keel for some 6,000 years, or should I say for 4,000 years since the Flood, so it's about 4,500 years or something like that. There was no transportation except by foot or on camelback, or muleback, or horseback, or something of the kind, or by a rowboat, or by just, finally they had sailboats, but that was pretty slow transportation.
   There was no communication except to go up and go from where you are to where somebody else was. If you would send a letter, someone had to take it from where you were, and they had to go by foot or the slowest way of travel there is. Today, we have almost instantaneous communication from one part of the world to any other point on Earth. I can be in Japan, I can be in Paris, I can take up a telephone and just dial it without going through an operator. and I can get my own home, back over here, I can get our office, I can get almost anybody I want, anywhere in the United States, just dial direct and you hear funny little sounds, and it's about, I don't know, 3, 5, 7 seconds and here they are.
   You know, when I was 11 years old, no man had ever flown in the air? I think a few people had gone up a little distance in a balloon. That was rather dangerous, and they didn't go very high. But they weren't going much of any place, unless the wind blew them a little distance, and that was pretty dangerous. We had railroad transportation. We had steamship transportation, and that's only come in comparative recent years. Until the printing press was invented, knowledge didn't increase very fast. We have lived in a world that had just, advancing rapidly all of a sudden.
   And did you know that it came to the place where knowledge actually doubled, the world's fund of knowledge doubled in the decade of the 60's? And I understand it doubled, or very close to doubled, all over again in the 70's, but our troubles doubled with it. Our troubles doubled with it. We send men to the moon and back. Today we send unmanned satellites to bring us photographs from the surface of Mars. We send unmanned satellites to bring us close-up photographs from Jupiter and Saturn that just boggle the minds of our scientists.
   We're doing some marvelous things, and nearly all of it has happened in this 20th century. All of man's boasted knowledge has not solved his problems, because our advances, our great achievements, are physical in nature and our problems, I say again and again and again, are spiritual in nature. So, events have been changing. Now you've heard about the end of the world. That doesn't mean the end of the Earth's existence, but that is referring to something that Jesus Christ said over 1950 years ago. He was talking about the end of this world, that is, this society, this civilization on the Earth, not the end of the Earth at all.

Humanity Is Plunging Faster And Faster

   But we're coming very close to that time, to the end of this world as it is. Humanity is plunging and plunging at an ever-accelerated rate, faster and faster, down to the final climax, and now for the first time, as I have said again and again, for the first time since man has inhabited this globe, he has invented and produced the weapons of mass destruction that can wipe out all humanity from the face of this Earth, can annihilate all human life, just erase human life until there isn't a one of us left on Earth.
   Now we're simply depending on the idea, and the hope, and we're trusting in men, that no man will be foolish enough to start a nuclear war. Do you have that much faith in man? I don't. Do you know that there has never been a weapon invented yet of mass destruction that has not been used? And we've already used nuclear destruction in Japan, where we killed around 100,000 people with one atomic bomb. Now the hydrogen bomb is so great that an atomic bomb only triggers, to set it off. A hydrogen bomb will destroy more people, more buildings, than all of the bombs that were exploded by both sides in World War II combined? Can you believe that?
   And now there are many smaller nations that have nuclear weapons, and a madman in any one of them could start the explosion that would engulf the whole world and destroy mankind. And we're just hoping it won't happen. Well, I'll give you some good news - it isn't going to happen because there is that all-powerful, unseen, strong hand from someplace that is going to intervene and save us from ourselves, or it would happen! I tell you, it would happen!
   There is an Almighty God, the Creator, and you'd better believe it! Because your eternity depends on it, your life depends on it. If there is not an, if there is not an Almighty God who is going to intervene and save us from ourselves, humanity is not going to last another 30, 40 years on this Earth. We're going at that kind of an accelerated rate. It's just like the one I said in a program some little time ago, I think just two or three weeks ago.
   I said that joke that everybody has heard, of the good news and the bad news. The good news is that, on an airplane, the captain said, "Ladies and gentlemen, this is your captain speaking, and now I have both good news and bad news for you. Now I'll give you the bad news first - we are lost. We don't know where we're going, we have no way to tell which way to go. Now I'll give you the good news, we're gaining speed rapidly and we're making extra fast time."
   You know, that's absolutely true of this world. We've lost our way. We are lost, and we are gaining momentum and speed, and we're going faster and faster on to our destruction. That's exactly the place where we are. Staggering things are going to happen, and happen very soon! You know, if someone was just not thinking, you can notice the day's news day by day and not realize how it is increasing, and how rapidly evils are increasing and coming up on us all the time.

God Can Foretell What Is Going To Happen

   Now Almighty God can foretell what is going to happen, and does. I want to read for you once again something I read, I think it was a week ago on this same station, and it's in the Moffatt translation, and it's in the 33rd Psalm, and beginning with verse 10 (Psalm 33:10): "The Eternal," meaning God, God Almighty, "The Eternal wrecks the purposes of pagans. He brings to nothing what the nations plan." The nations are planning things. You know, they'd like to get together on this salt, s-a-l-t, to limit production of nuclear weapons. But we're having a hard time getting together. But listen to this: "The Eternal wrecks the purposes of pagans, he brings to nothing what the nations plan, but the Eternal's purpose stand forever, and what he plans will last from age to age. Happy is the nation whose God is the Eternal."
   We have put on our money, "In God We Trust," but do we believe it? Do we really do it? Do we mean it? We haven't really meant it. Let's just not kid ourselves about it.
   "Happy is the nation whose God is the Eternal, the people that he has chosen for his own. The Eternal looks down from heaven, beholding all mankind. Where he sits, he scans all who inhabit the world, he who alone made their minds." I have a mind, you have a mind. My mind is greater than anything I can make. I said that once before, I say it again. It took a greater mind than mine to produce my mind, and it'd take a greater mind than yours to produce your mind.
   God has the great mind. To tell me that things happen by purposeless nature... No mind, no purpose, all the design we see in the world just happened, put itself together? You believe that? "He who alone made their minds, he knows all they do. Armies do not bring victory to a king, the warrior is not rescued by sheer strength." Armies didn't decide the end of World War II; Almighty God did.
   I was broadcasting the news every single week, and part of the time before the end of the war, daily: "God Almighty soon will step in and stop it all and straighten out this crooked, twisted, confused, and hell-bent world. The Eternal God has a plan. You can't understand this war or present world conditions and events, unless you understand Biblical prophecy." And I saw how it was happening, and it was things that were supernaturally directed that really turned the tide of the war in Europe. "Cavalry are in vain for victory. There is no winning for the strength of that, but it God who determines the outcome of wars."
   Now I'd like to read from the 41st chapter of the book of Isaiah, and I will go now to the King James translation, the 41st chapter and beginning with verse 21 (Isaiah 41:21): "Produce your cause," this is God speaking. And God says, to one who might profess to be God, he says, "Produce your cause, says the Eternal. Bring forth your strong reasons, saith the king of Jacob, Let them bring them forth and show us what shall happen." Show us what's going to happen in the future. Only God can tell you what's going to happen.
   Well, we've had our forecasters. We have our weather forecasters, and sometimes we listen to them on television or radio every day. And sometimes they're right, sometimes, but sometimes they're not right too. "Let them bring forth, let them show what shall happen. Let them show the former things, what they be, that we may consider them and know the latter end of them, and declarest the things for to come. Show things that are to come hereafter, that we may know that you are gods." In other words, that is a proof of God, if you can show what is going to happen in the future.

About One-Third of The Bible Is Prophecy

   Now, about one-third of all of the Bible is prophecy. That is the word of God, and about a third of it is devoted to prophecy telling what is going to happen, and about 90-95% of all prophecy is devoted to things of the present right now! The Bible is a now book, not a yesterday's book. It's a present-day book, and a tomorrow book, and it's talking about what is happening now, and what is going to happen in the next 5, 10, 15, 20 years or so. I can't try to give you the exact year, I'm not setting any dates. I just know it's very, very near, that's all.
   Now, I would like to turn to the 46th chapter of Isaiah, the 9th and the 10th verses (Isaiah 46:9-10). Isaiah 46, God says, "I am God, and there is none else. I am God, and there is none like me, Declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things which are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, I will do all my pleasure."
   You know, most people don't believe God, they don't believe what he says. Now I say that about 90% of prophecy is on our time now, and prophecy tells what is going to happen to the United States of America, specifically and in the very near future. Now perhaps you're not a bit concerned, you don't care what's going to happen to you or your children, your family, all of your loved ones. Well, I do care. I care, for one. I really do.
   Why have not our leaders understood what is prophesied? Why have they not known what God says is going to come on this nation? I mean this nation. The nations haven't understood, the leaders of nations, and the leaders of churches have not understood. Why? Well, there are two reasons why they don't understand. One is, they do not have the key that will unlock prophecies to understanding. Secondly, they have not believed God, and if they knew, they wouldn't believe, because they don't believe God.

Adam And Eve Didn't Believe God

   Now, the first humans did not believe God. Adam and Eve didn't believe God. People don't believe God today. Do the leaders of nations believe God? Some of them believe in God, but do they believe God? That is, do they believe what he says? Let me just give you a little bit of history on that. Go back to our first parents, Adam and Eve. God says, 2nd chapter of Genesis, beginning with verse 15 (Genesis 2:15): "And the Eternal God took the man" that he just created now, "and put him in the Garden of Eden to dress it and to keep it. The Eternal God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the Garden you may freely eat, but of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, thou shall not eat of it, for in the day that you eat of it," that is, if you eat of it, "you shall surely die."
   He doesn't mean you die that same day, but you eat of it this day, you're surely going to die. God said that. They didn't believe that. The devil came along and tempted Eve, and he deceived her. Adam wasn't deceived, but the devil got to Adam through his wife Eve. So Satan said to her, "You shall not surely die. God knows that in the day you eat this fruit, that your eyes will be opened and you will be like God," living and having everlasting life, living forever instead of dying. Now what happened? The woman did believe Satan, but she did not believe God.
   Next verse (Genesis 3:6): "And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, a tree desired to make one wise..." Now you notice, she began to look at it. It was pleasant to the eye. It was beautiful, it pleased her. It was desired to make one wise. It was good for food. "She took the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also to her husband with her, and he did eat." And they disobeyed God. They didn't believe what God said.

Not Very Many Believed Jesus Christ

   Now Jesus Christ came, and incidentally, I wonder if you know that the God who spoke to Adam and Eve was the same one who became Jesus Christ and was born as a babe in Bethlehem, and not at Christmas time either, but probably in late September or very early October? And that he came as a human, and was called "God with us," but he preached to thousands upon thousands, but not very many believed what he said. Now let me just show you one passage on that, beginning in the 8th chapter of John, beginning with verse 30 (John 8:30). I'd like to read this to you, because people don't believe him today. A lot of them just say, "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved." Well now, let me show you what happened to a lot of people who believed on him.
   "As he," Jesus, "spake these words, many believed on him." Now these are people who believed on Christ, but they were far from saved. Now listen. "Then said Jesus to these Jews which believed on him, If you continue in my word, then are you my disciples indeed, and you shall know the truth and the truth shall make you free. And they answered him, Well, we're Abraham's children. We were never in bondage to any man. How do you say we shall be made free?" So they began to argue right away. They didn't believe what he said.
   "And Jesus answered," verse 37 (John 8:37), "I know that you are Abraham's children," or seed, "but you seek to kill me..." Now these people who believed on him, they sought to kill him. What about people who believe on Christ today, millions who say, "I believe on Christ." "You seek to kill me, because my word has no place in you." In other words, what he said, they didn't believe. They didn't believe his word. Now, down to verse 45 (John 8:45): "And because I tell you the truth, you believe me not." They didn't believe what he told them. He told the truth, they didn't believe him. They just simply didn't believe him.

People Don't Believe What God Says

   People don't believe him today. They didn't believe him then, and they don't believe him today. You know, it's a pretty serious thing to not believe God. Let me read another little scripture over in the 66th chapter of Isaiah, in verse 2 (Isaiah 66:2). "God says, to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word." That trembles at my word. Here's the word of God, in the Holy Bible. But do people tremble before this word? Oh no, they're not even concerned about it. They're not even interested about it, and you read it, and they say, "Well..." See, this is God speaking, but people don't pay any attention. People don't believe what God says.
   Does the preacher even believe what God says? I heard a preacher say on television, "When the Bible says, when we all get to heaven..." I'll give you one thousand dollars if you can show me where the Bible says, quote, "When we all get to heaven," or show any promise that anyone ever did, ever will, go to heaven except Jesus Christ himself. Now put up or shut up, I'm offering that publicly over the air. One thousand dollars. Find it in your Bible, in any accepted and reliable translation. It just isn't there, because God doesn't say that.
   But people don't believe God, they believe Satan. And it's about time we wake up. God tells us what's going to happen in this world! He tells us what's prophesied, and there is a key to unlock these prophecies. Now, some say that the Bible prophecies are closed, that you can't understand the prophecies. Well, maybe they're closed to most minds, and indeed the prophecies have been closed until this present time, but the time has come when they are to be opened. And that's made very plain. I'd like to offer some of these times, a book to open up the book of Revelation to you, but I'm not going to offer that to you today. I'll save that for some other time.
   The prophecies have been closed, but they are now opened. But I'll tell you, the leaders of governments don't have the key, and the leaders of the churches don't have the keys that will unlock, that will unlock the prophecies to our understanding. But the time has come, God's time has come, when he wants people to understand. And for the first time, you can understand what is happening. For the first time in all history of mankind, the weapons exist that can destroy all mankind. And we're coming down to the end when God is going to intervene. And now God's time has come, he wants people to understand what he says is going to happen. God is the only one that can foretell the end from the beginning. Only God can do it, but will you believe it?

Free Book Offer

   If I send you a beautiful book, illustrated in full color, explaining where the United States is mentioned in Bible prophecy, and what it says is going to happen... Here is a book of over 200 pages. This is a new edition that I didn't know we had printed yet when I announced it just a week before. This was a book of more pages, it's the same book exactly, but it's in a little bit larger type and a few more pages. It's a full book.
   Now you can buy it in bookstores with a hard cover, and pay a price for it if you'd like to get it that way. Or I'll send it to you gratis, absolutely free, and no requests for money. We believe in give, not get. I've said a lot about the different ways of life, of give and get. We're living the way of give. I'd like to give you this book: The United States and Britain in Prophecy. It will open your eyes as no book you ever read will. And that's a lot of book, and a very beautiful book, illustrated in full color, over 200 pages. No cost to you. I'd just like to give it to you.
   But will you believe it when you see it? And it's going to show you a lot of things, and where to look at them in your own Bible. And you can read it in your own Bible, there in your own home, but will you even believe what it says when you do? I wonder, is it going to do you any good? That's my challenge to you. Well, I hope you'll accept this challenge, and I hope that you will believe. I want you to prove... Well, don't say prove me false, because I'm not saying you won't believe, I just say that most people have not believed, and I hope you will.
   So, all you do, if you'd like this book, no follow-up, you just send your request. United States and Britain in Prophecy. Address it to Herbert W. Armstrong, Pasadena, California, 91123. Just Herbert W. Armstrong, Pasadena, California, 91123. Or, a toll-free call, no charge, just toll-free 800-423-4444. That's 800-423-4444. Or, in California, call collect, area code 213-577-5225. That's 213-577-5225. For your free copy, so I'll be waiting for you, to send it. We'll be glad to mail it to you with our compliments. So until next time, this is Herbert W. Armstrong, saying goodbye friends.

Please Note: The FREE literature offered on this program are no longer available through the Address and Phone Number given, please visit www.hwalibrary.com for all FREE literature offered on this program.

Telecast Date: March 12, 1981
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