Herbert W Armstrong

   The Pope's visit, of course, the 1,500,000 people gathered yesterday at Grants Park to hear this man, and now about another 1,500,000 apparently going to be on the Mall at Washington, D.C., to hear him and to letting him use the federal land, not as a church leader, because they wouldn't let Mr. Armstrong do that, or many of our other church leaders, but because he's the head of a state. And that is a very important thing for you to think about, to letting him do it because he is another head of state, and it is a church-state thing that he represents together. Also, of course, our nation is losing its prestige around the world.

   And I think we recognize that. As the dollar falls and continues to fall, of course, almost monthly, it has its individual variations, but many of the news magazines and the financial journals and the of course financial sections and even the major sections of your newspapers, the Los Angeles Times, the New York Times, and I've read it in Time magazine, U.S. News and elsewhere, how every time the dollar really falls, the European bankers literally tell us, and I'm not saying this for effect, that's what they say, this is a measure of the lack of confidence in your leadership. That's what it amounts to.

   They do not have confidence in the United States or in the leadership of the United States anymore, and they're backing out. And other nations around the world are having the same feeling, that we are a sinking ship and the pride of our power is being broken and the great God who brought us up and who gave us national greatness and national power is in like manner bringing us down. We individually are blessed that those big things are happening, and they're going to continue to happen as long as we have more and more of the abominations that we do experience here in the United States and as they increase.

   And as more and more groups gather together, for instance, as the queers, the perverts, try to gather together and try to get to Pope John Paul and get him to approve their particular activities, and I'm glad humanly, although certainly he's not in God's church, but as a world leader at least, why he said thumbs down and did not do that. But those people are getting together and having more and more power. And as you may know, out in Los Angeles, why they had this Harvey Milk, the county supervisor or city supervisor or whatever he was, who was recently slain out there, who was a pervert, and so the new woman mayor, because the mayor was slain also, George Moscone, the new woman mayor, Dianne Feinstein, felt that she was obligated to appoint another queer to take the place of this queer.

   That's what she said, that just came right out. Well, we've got to appoint another pervert to take the place of this pervert because he was killed. This is the kind of society we're living in.

   And it is getting to be more and more acceptable all the time. And no wonder it is a stench in the nostrils of God. A lot of us need to realize that events in the Middle East could snap the world around within a very short period of time.

   Most of you have read this, but in case you haven't, let me comment on it. There's a narrow passage, I forgot the exact length of it or width of it, 16 or 18 miles, but very shallow with a few channels through it that are deep enough for the deep-dredged ocean-going oil tankers, and it's called the Strait of Hormuz. Most of you have read about that.

   And through that one passage passes about 80% of the oil supply of the Western world. And the PLO could very easily sink a couple of ships in the end across that passage and simply cut off our heat and cut off our automobiles and cut off our whole way of life, as we now know it, within the next few minutes or within the next few days. It wouldn't affect us, of course, within the next few minutes.

   I mean, they could do that. And it would affect us within the next several weeks, probably a few weeks, in fact. We now have, some news journals have come out with, and I don't know how reliable they are, but they say that President Carter has authorized, and I hope that at least he has done this much, a secret commando-type operation mounted by combined units of the paratroopers and the Navy and the Marines, an amphibious kind of an attack force or rather defense force to defend the Strait of Hormuz from that type of attack and to keep the oil supply going for the Western world.

   So the people, and those of you coming down, some of you Norskies, Mr. Scriber and his people, a lot of the rest of you from up there in Minnesota, Michigan, Ohio, New York, you Canadians, and all the other people in the northern parts of the United States, Canada and Europe are virtually freezing to death in many, many cases this coming winter. But our civilized society hangs on a very narrow thread because we're not used to being independent. We're not used to being self-reliant, each one being able to take care of his own family.

   And it's a very narrow thread, and God Almighty could turn events around very quickly if he chose to do so. And we are nearing the end of an age, so it is something to watch as God commands us to, and it is something to pray about. Well, brethren, back in Matthew 24, Jesus tells us an overview of this, and I want to review a few of those things and bring up some new things that you may not have thought about for some time.

   Matthew 24, beginning in verse 3 (Matthew 24:3-6), As Jesus 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 your coming and of the end of the age? The consummation of this age of man, this human society that we build up with our ideas of right and wrong, our ideas about politics, our ideas about various kinds of colleges and education, our ideas about churches and so on, our ideas about religion. Here is the way I look at it, the American people say. And Jesus answered, Take heed that no man deceive you, because he went on to show the vast majority of all human beings are going to be deceived.

   And Satan the devil has deceived all nations, and God has just called a few out. And then he said in verse 6, You shall hear of wars and rumors of wars. Don't be troubled.

   Nations shall rise against nations. And then a different Greek word, alliances of nations, one against another. World wars.

   And the year of world wars began in 1914. And there shall be famines, there shall be pestilences or disease epidemics, and earthquakes. And the scientists tell us certainly the earthquakes are increasing all over this earth.

   A tremendous number of earthquakes have occurred within the last three or four years, more than years before. And they are increasing. All these are the beginning of sorrows.

   They are not the end. Then shall they deliver you, and he is talking to his disciples, and he is talking to us at the time of the end. He means you and me, you who are sitting over on this side and you who are sitting over there, and so on.

   Then they shall deliver you up to be afflicted and shall kill you. And you shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. We need to realize what is coming, brethren.

   We need to commit ourselves to Jesus Christ. We are in a spiritual battle. We are in a battle for the survival of this church, because there is not only danger to the United States, there is danger to this church.

   There is a spiritual war going on to wrest control of this church from Jesus Christ, to wrest control of this church from Mr. Herbert Armstrong, to water down and change our doctrine, our way of life, to take over the government of this church. And we need to realize that. Mr. Armstrong said this morning that he is probably sought after by the devil and his demons more than any other being on the earth.

   And I believe that. He is in the office where if the devil were intelligent and he were powerful, which he is, he would aim his big cannons right at that man. And he does need our prayers.

   And all your ministers need your prayers. The devil is trying to get at us, and he is trying to get at this church. And we need to realize it.

   He is going to try to overthrow us. He is going to try to undermine us. He is going to try to take us over from within, as he has been doing.

   And if he can't do that, he will try to take us over from without. And we need to be ready. And so then, he said, shall many be offended in this warfare and shall betray one another.

   We couldn't understand that a few years ago, but now people have gone out and they are accusing us and hating us. And we could see how it could happen. And he said, they shall hate one another.

   And many false prophets shall arise at that time and shall deceive many. He didn't say way back when, but at the very time of the end. Now, brethren, that means more false prophets are going to arise.

   And the intimation I get from it is not that more of the Buddhist priests are going to arise, or more of the Catholics are going to be ordained as priests and they are going to go out and minister to the local brethren over in Hungary and Poland or Czechoslovakia or East Germany or somewhere like that. But more false prophets are going to arise and they are going to deceive people. Now, we assume, and I'm quite positive we assume correctly, that the Buddhists and the Shintoists and the Taoists and the Mohammedans and a lot of the people who call themselves Christians who don't really know Christ, they don't know the true God, they are deceived already.

   The devil doesn't need to deceive them, they are deceived already. But the devil is going to try to deceive people who are not deceived. The devil is going to try to come after you and me, and he's going to try to come after our prospective members, our coworkers, the people who are hearing the broadcast, the people who are reading the Plain Truth magazine, who are taking our Correspondence Course, and turn their mind and deceive them and take them away from the truth.

   And so we need to realize this. And because iniquity or lawlessness just swamps our society, it's just everywhere. When I grew up as a young boy, I had faced a lot of temptation.

   Certainly I did. And I was normal and carnal and evil, just like any normal 13, 16, 19-year-old kid. I may have told you the story, but I remember Mr. David John Hill saying how when his boy was 14 or 15 years old, named Jonathan, he said, he looked at him one time and Jonathan had kind of a smirky look on his face and seemed to be thinking about something.

   And Mr. Hill remembered what he was thinking when he was that age. He said, Come in here, Jonathan, I'm going to whip you. And many of us men can remember that.

   We needed to be whipped, and our dad didn't whip us at the time. But on the other hand, my sons are subjected to far greater pressures than I was. When I wanted to see something evil, I had to try to sneak downtown and buy Sunshine and Health magazine, and the nudist magazine or something.

   There were very few of them, and they would sort of show a woman from the side or the back or something, and that was a big deal. We didn't have the kind of filth and garbage just swirling all around our young men and our young women even 30 years ago that we do today. All of us who are older understand that.

   The world has changed. And all the way to the Los Angeles airport, you go buy these things. We get used to it, so I don't even pay any attention.

   Nude dancing, live nude this and that and one thing and the other, all kinds of ads and so on from these cheap bars and one thing and the other. And our society is like Sodom and Gomorrah in many ways and certainly getting to be more and more that way every year. Because lawlessness shall abound, it's easy for us to let down, he's saying.

   Because you see, the world has gone so far, we used to lag maybe 20 paces behind the world. Well, now maybe we'd better lag 120 paces behind the world, if you get the picture. Because if we keep the same distance behind the world that we used to keep 20 or 30 years ago, man, we're marching with them right into hell.

   We really are because the world is going to hell. They're going to Sheol. They're going to utter destruction unless they repent.

   And all of us have got to realize that. This does affect us. It does affect our children.

   They don't fully realize it because they've never seen anything else. They've never known anything else. You've got to watch your young people and try to guide their TV-watching habits and the kind of movies they see and the books they read and the magazines they read, the companionships they have and all the rest of it, the kind of music they listen to and the kind of dancing that they do.

   Out at Ambassador College, we're getting away from this, what do they call it, bear-hug type dancing, you know, where in basketball you call it a full-court press. It's the full study of human anatomy or whatever it is, where they put their arms around each other and squeeze and dance like that out on the dance floor. Well, that's vulgar and wrong, but a lot of young people just do that all the time.

   And, of course, it's sin. Jesus said, a man that even looks on a woman to lust after her has committed adultery already in his mind and his heart. And if a man has his arms and his shoulders and everything else around a woman squeezing her up and he's not married to her, maybe had five kids like I have, things like that, then he's in trouble.

   He just is. And you need to realize it. We're in a world where we take too many things for granted, brethren, even in God's church.

   And we've got to back off and we've got to understand it, or we're going to pay the penalty and our children are going to pay the penalty. And we'll be awfully sorry when that happens, because iniquity is just everywhere. It abounds.

   The love of many shall wax cold. They're going to water down the truth. They're going to have one foot in the world.

   They're going to turn aside. But he that shall endure to the end, he that endures, not he that starts out and then gets his feelings hurt. You'd better not get your feelings hurt too quickly, because the end of this world is at hand, and this is the church of the living God.

   He that endures to the end shall be saved. And this gospel of the kingdom at that time, at the very end, at that time, not way back when, at the very end, this gospel shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations. And then shall the end come, the end of this age.

   He says over in verse 21 (Matthew 24:21), For then shall be great tribulation, the greatest time of trouble, of upset, of cataclysmic uproar in human history, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time no nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, the time of this great tribulation and the day of the Lord, the intervention of God and the seven last plagues, except that all should be cut short. There should no flesh be saved alive.

   Every human being would be annihilated from off this planet. This would be a burning, barren hulk. It just would.

   It would look like the surface of those planets pictured this morning, with the great gouges and craters where the atomic and hydrogen bombs had dug themselves into the earth, smoldering with the burning flesh of human beings. And we need to realize that that's exactly what God said. But for the elect's sake, those days shall be shortened.

   Almighty God has an elect. And many of you in this room, and I'm sure most of you in this room, are among God's elect. I don't say all of you.

   I'm not trying to hurt anyone, I'm just being realistic about it. And each of you, of course, has to examine yourself each year at Passover time and all through the year, because judgment is now upon the house of God. But basically we are God's elect.

   He said, verse 29, immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the heavenly signs come the sun shall not give her light the moon the stars shall fall and the powers of the heaven shall be shaken: And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: And then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn. They're not going to be happy, but the people representing every ethnic group, every race, every nation on earth, not every individual, but people representing all of them, are going to be sad. A lot of them are going to aim atomic cannons at this bright light coming down.

   They're going to think it's a new Russian weapon or something. Or they're going to think it's the Antichrist, and they're going to shoot it. They really are.

   That's what they're going to try to do. They're going to mourn. And they shall see this blinding light coming down, the face of the living Jesus Christ whom we serve, whose face shines like the sun.

   And they're going to see him coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory. And he shall send his angels with the great sound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other. And so he's going to gather them from the winds of this earth's atmosphere and, of course, bring them back to this earth.

   He says, Then learn a parable of the fig tree. When he puts forth his leaves, you know that summer is nigh. These things are beginning to happen, brethren, and Christ's coming is near.

   So likewise, when you see these things, know that it is near even at the doors. Amen, I say unto you, this generation shall not pass. What's a generation? A biblical generation seems to be about 30 years.

   I'm not banking my salvation on that. I'm just telling you what the scholars say. And a lot of these things are already happening and have been happening for the last several years.

   This generation shall not pass till all these things be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my words shall not pass away. All these things are going to happen within a particular period of time, and we need to realize it.

   It's going to happen within one generation. The final wars, the famines, the pestilences, the earthquakes, the persecution on God's church, all coming, and then Christ's return. The tribulation, yes, for three and a half years, the heavenly signs, and Christ's return and his feet standing on this earth on the Mount of Olives, all within that last generation.

   And that generation has been underway for quite a number of years, I'm persuaded. And we're not setting dates, but we need to realize that. I want to give you something a little additional to think about that a number of us in Pasadena have been discussing.

   This is not doctrine. It's something to think about, however, because we are your watchmen and we're supposed to watch. Turn with me back to Daniel the 4th chapter, Daniel chapter 4. Here the great king of the greatest empire in human history as far as quality is concerned.

   I'm talking about quality, not quantity, because the Roman Empire was bigger and the British Empire was even yet bigger. The Nebuchadnezzar was the head of gold, if you remember. His empire had the greatest riches and the greatest quality of all.

   Nebuchadnezzar, the king, unto all people, he writes in this 4th chapter of Daniel, and languages, peace be multiplied to you. I thought it good to show the signs and wonders that the high God has wrought toward me. How great are his signs, how mighty are his wonders! This man was great himself, but he could recognize the awe-inspiring majesty of God.

   His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, he said, and his dominion from generation to generation. I, Nebuchadnezzar, was resting in my house and flourishing, and I saw a dream. And then he shows how he was upset, and he sent for Daniel, and he described the dream in verse 10 (Daniel 4:10).

   A tree in the midst of the earth, very great, very high. It grew, and the height thereof reached to heaven, and the size thereof to the ends of the earth and the leaves were fair and the fruit much, and it was meat for all.

   And the beasts of the field had shadow under it, and the fowls of the heavens dwelt in the boughs, and all flesh was fed of it. And the kingdom of men, and gives it to whomsoever he will. And whereas they commanded to leave the stump of the tree roots, thy kingdom shall be sure unto you, after that you have known that the heavens do rule.

   The stump is still there, and it's going to have an opportunity to come forth again. And so then you find in the next few verses that this happened, and Nebuchadnezzar, of course, was driven out, and he grew long hair, and his paws and his fingernails grew out like eagle's claws. And in verse 34 (Daniel 4:34), at the end of the days, seven literal years, seven literal years came over Nebuchadnezzar as a type of his kingdom.

   I, Nebuchadnezzar, lifted up my hand to heaven, my eyes, excuse me, and my understanding returned to me, and I blessed the Most High, understanding that he is God, that he rules over the governments of this earth. Nebuchadnezzar learned that lesson at that time, and God gave him back the kingdom. And of course, he said in verse 37, Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, all whose works are truth, and his ways judgment.

   And those that walk in pride he is able to abase. He learned that lesson. You've got to humble yourself before you're exalted, and if you exalt yourself, you're going to be humbled.

   And that's a lesson all of us have to learn. We have to yield ourselves to God over and over again, or God cannot use us. Now, brethren, in chapter 5 you come to Nebuchadnezzar's son.

   He apparently had not learned the lessons of his father. Sometimes that happens. King David was a great man.

   He made one great mistake, or a series of mistakes, with Uriah the Hittite and his wife Bathsheba. But that's the only major personal sin of that sort that David ever made. Only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite did David sin, God says later.

   David was not an adulterer at all. He just wasn't. He made that one sin, but as far as doing it again or anything else, he just did not at all.

   And God makes that very plain. He did have that mistake, but we tend to dwell on that too much. Through his whole life, David honored God, praised God, worshiped God, danced before God, meditated on God's law, exalted in God and adored God.

   David was a man after God's own heart. He'd had to learn the hard way. He'd had to fight the battle.

   He'd had to hold up in the cave of Adullam, you know, when Saul was after him. He was loyal, but he just kind of holed up with 600 armed men and waited on God. And he had to have patience and humility in many, many different situations.

   Solomon just had the kingdom handed to him. It was too easy for him, and so he began to water things down and turned aside from God. Belshazzar in a different way seemed to have the same problem.

   Notice chapter 5. Here was Belshazzar, Nebuchadnezzar's son or grandson, as some scholars feel, doesn't make any difference. Belshazzar, the following king, made a great feast to thousands of his lords and drank wine before the thousand, it is, and Belshazzar, while he tasted the wine, commanded the gold and the silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken out of God's temple. This is one reason why God intervened at this time.

   He was using the holy vessels from God's temple and kind of bragging. You go on to read the story, and they had this great drunken orgy and he began to brag in one thing or the other, and then verse 4, and they drank wine and praised the gods of gold and silver and brass and iron and wood and stone, all of their pagan idols. In the same hour came forth fingers of a man's hand and wrote over against the candlestick upon the plaster of the wall of the king's palace.

   The king saw this writing, and the king's countenance was changed, and his thoughts troubled him, and it says his joints of his loins were loose and his knees smote against one another. He probably lost control of his bowels, and his knees began to smite each other, and his face turned pale and all the blood drained out of his face, and he was in terrible shape. God Almighty began to humble that man because he was so filled with vanity and self-will and just stinking arrogance, and he had even used some of God's vessels writing this thing.

   So God had this angel right there before him, and so he sent for Daniel, this man who had witnessed to his father, and asked for an interpretation of what this was all about. And of course, Daniel was brought in, and in verse 17 he said, Let gifts be to yourself. I don't want any presents for this, O king, but I'll read the writing to the king and make known to him the interpretation.

   He says in verse 18, O thou king, the Most High God gave Nebuchadnezzar, your father or ancestor, a kingdom. He gave him the kingdom. It came from God, not because he was a great man.

   Not that your family is better than anyone else. And majesty and glory and honor. And for the majesty that he gave them, all peoples and nations trembled and feared before him and so on.

   But when his heart was lifted up, he was deposed, and they took the glory from him, and he was driven from the sons of men, and his heart was made like the beast, and he had to dwell with the wild asses. He goes on to describe here in verse 21, His body was wet with the dew of heaven, till he knew that the Most High God rules in the kingdom of men, and that he appoints over whomsoever he will. Now, my brethren, this has everything to do with the Feast of Tabernacles when you think about it, and I want to interject that, because all of us here are here to learn what? To be in God's government, to be in God's kingdom that will be set up on this earth in a few years.

   That's why we're here. We're picturing the government of God, the overarching majesty of the great governor of the heavens and the earth, and his concern in the affairs of men. So Nebuchadnezzar learned that lesson, but his son hadn't.

   And you, his son, O Belshazzar, you have not humbled your heart, though you knew all this, but have lifted up yourself against the Lord of heaven, and have brought the very vessels of his house before you. And you and your lords and wives and concubines have drunk wine in them. And with my very vessels, God is saying, you praise these demon gods and these idols.

   Then was the part of the hand sent from him, and this writing was written. And this was the writing, Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin, Mene, God has numbered your kingdom and finished it. Tekel, you are weighed in the balances and found wanting.

   Perese, as it is translated here, your kingdom is divided and given to the Medes and Persians. And then Belshazzar commanded, and they clothes Daniel with Scarlet, Belshazzar was humbled and he was scared. He thought, if I honor this great man of God, you see, he was carnal, he wasn't really converted or yielded like his father had been, but he thought, if I make a grand gesture and I honor this prophet, this man, maybe that will get me off the hook.

   And it didn't at all, but he tried to do this and to make him the third ruler in the kingdom. But in that night, verse 30, was Belshazzar, the king of the Chaldeans, slain, and Darius the Mede took the kingdom, being about threescore and two years old. Now brethren, every single history and chronology that we can get hold of, and I've talked to a number of our historians and chronologists over the years, indicates that the fall of Babylon was in 539 B.C., 539 B.C. Now, we used to feel, probably mistakenly, that this was the times of the Gentiles after that and that this meant that the Gentile rulers were going to rule over the earth for the next seven times, that is, the figurative times, the prophetic times.

   Remember, there's the seven times prophecy back in Leviticus 26 and elsewhere affecting the United States and the British, where for 2,520 years the birthright was what? Given to them? So the times, the way it was used there, it was withheld from them for 2,520 years, withheld from them. And what we now begin to see is that the same thing is involved here, that when Nebuchadnezzar was humbled, he himself was forgiven after seven literal years, but his kingdom wasn't. And his grandson went right on with his idolatry and this rebellion and did not honor God, and it was God's purpose to do this, of course, overall.

   And so he struck down that kingdom, and the kingdom and the government and the glory and the power of the direct Babylonian system has not been on this earth for 2,520 years. It was cut off in 539 B.C. and restrained from blossoming again by this iron and brass ring around the stump. It's been in the earth, it's been there, the peoples are there, the possibility is there, but perhaps the understanding is that it's been restrained for 2,520 years.

   If it were the other way around, we'd begin to wonder, and I know I wondered in the original interpretation which Dr. Hoeh and my uncle, Dr. Meredith, came up with years ago, if the heathen were ruling over the earth during this past 2,520 years, we know they have been overall, but how come for the last 170 years, let's say, or 180 years nearly, how come the United States and Britain have come to their greatness and they ruled most of the world and had most of the power up until the last few years, if you follow me? That didn't seem to make sense exactly. What this does apparently mean, and I'm saying apparently here, we don't often do this, but I'm trying to help you to watch. We're going to study it, we're going to go into it, we'll watch events, we'll study it even further.

   What this apparently can mean is that the greatness of Babylon was stopped in 539 B.C., cut off and roped in, in a sense, bound in by this iron ring around the stump. But starting 2,520 years later, Babylon, the modern Babylon, the modern daughter of Babylon described in Revelation 17 and 18, then would be free to start blossoming out once again. And it would rise up in the area occupied, as God indicates, by this same power in more modern times, of course, the United States of Europe, the Holy Roman Empire, as it was called, and so on.

   It would rise up, no doubt, over in central Europe, because this time, instead of being over in the Middle East, it would be a church-state system in Europe, and starting in 1982. I don't say it's going to finish in 1982. Some of you are saying, uh-oh, we remember 72.

   Okay, you do that. You better. You remember 72, and I remember 72.

   And I might remind you, my brethren, I was the guy, and I won't say this very often, I hope you don't take it wrongly, but Mr. Scrive will remember, and our other older ministers here, I was the guy who sent out the letter to all the churches all over the earth in May 1969, three years ahead of time, listing five reasons why we would probably have more time to go beyond 1972. And Mr. Chapman is here, and one of my other old friends from the Los Angeles church, Mr. John Egbert, a local elder now up in the Washington, D.C. area, I don't know where he's sitting, but he's here with his family, and I'm sure they were there, at least the Egberts were there through you were there, too, when I gave that sermon even earlier in Los Angeles in the church. And what was it, Art Hockwell came up and he said, Well, if we're going to have more time, I'd better go out and get my teeth fixed.

   He hadn't been getting his teeth fixed. He said, I'd better go get my teeth fixed. And he did, I guess, which is good.

   So I'm not saying the end is in 1982. I'm saying maybe the beginning of the end is going to start happening in a very obvious way for those of us who understand and are watching and praying that Babylon will start rising in an obvious way in 1982. This is a very great possibility because you count seven literal weeks, seven prophetic weeks, and I don't have time to explain that to you.

   Most of you have been in the church a long time and know what I mean. Seven times, and of course, a time is a year, 360 days, and in a prophetic year, 360 times seven is 2,520, and in prophetic fulfillment it means the literal number of years, 2,520 years. Many of the prophecies of the Bible are fulfilled in that way, and we've seen that happen and we will see it happen again.

   So you count from 539 forward, and you'll come exactly to 1982. Remember in your figuring, there's no year zero, no year zero. So you can just count 2,000, I mean, you can count, you know, let's say 539 forward to year 1 A.D., and that's 539, but then from 1 A.D. until 1982 is what, 1981 years, see, because there's no year zero.

   So you add 1981 to 539 and you come up with 2,520 years, for those of you who are desperately trying to figure out what I'm talking about. I thought I'd better explain it because I'll be getting lots of questions afterwards. Okay, this is something to watch and this is something to pray about, because this very type of thing may happen, beginning at that time.

   Significant moves, a modern Babylon starting to emerge in an obvious manner for those who do understand and are called of God. Now over in Revelation, the 19th chapter, Revelation 19, after this happens, of course, Christ is going to come back. We find in verse 11 (Revelation 19:11), John writes,I saw heaven opened, and behold, a white horse.

   And he that sat upon him was faithful and true, and in righteousness he does judge and make war. His eyes were a flame of fire. He was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood, and his name is called the Word of God.

   He's the living Word of God. He spoke it, he is it, and he bears that title. The armies in heaven followed him.

   He's not the helpless Jesus of Sunday school days sitting sidewise on his white donkey. He's on a war horse, and he has a mighty sword, and he's coming back to conquer the world. He's going to crush modern Babylon.

   He's going to crush the great false prophet, and he's going to crush the great super dictator, the coming Hitler, and he's going to teach them a lesson that they and the world will never forget. And that's important for us to realize. These are historical events, and they're going to happen within the lifetimes of virtually all of us if we keep on living for another 15 or 20 years, or hopefully much less.

   Out of his mouth, verse 15, was a sharp sword, that with it he should smite the nations, and he shall rule them with a rod of iron. Verse 16, he has the name King of kings and Lord of kords. And then, of course, it shows in verse 20 how the beast was taken, the coming dictator, the coming Hitler, who is called the beast, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him.

   I think most of you know that Franz Josef Strauss is making what is apparently his final bid for the chancellorship of West Germany, and the election will be next summer, about 10 or 11 months from now. Next summer, it's not all that far off, 1980. If Strauss would get that, it would probably take him a while to consolidate his position because they call him the Bull of Bavaria.

   But maybe after two years, by 1982, and if the present Pope lasts, and I say if because I do not know that, but if he lasts and if this charisma increases and if he gives himself to that great spirit that is going to be behind this movement, and he would bring the Eastern Europeans together with Strauss representing the West Europeans and the Germans and bring the two Germanys together once again, you could begin to envision a mighty power, a mighty power and a religious power that could rise up very quickly. Because I visited the common market headquarters in Brussels two or three times and had guided tours through, and they have invested literally millions, and I'm not exaggerating, millions, maybe billions by now, but for the sake of argument, I'll say millions of man-hours putting together the rail lines of Europe, putting together their various tools and tool and die-making equipment, putting together the machinery so they could have a common currency, a common this, a common that, and a common something else, including common weaponry. The background work is all done.

   All they need is a strong man to say the word, and they can get together now one hundred times faster than they could have done several years back before all this work had been done. All they need is that strong man, and all they need is a religious fervor sweeping Western Europe to unite the people behind a strong man such as that as the shield against godless atheist communism. Here's a man who came out from behind the Iron Curtain who could stand up and win some of those people over if Russia should falter, if there was a Russian-Chinese war and the Russians had to empty the Western front of some of their troops and make a kind of a rapprochement with some of the Eastern European countries and kind of let them off the hook because they were afraid of China.

   And we start feeding weaponry into China and perhaps Japan, which is so worried about the American lack of power that they're now talking for the first time since the Second World War about developing their own nuclear arsenal. For the first time since World War II, since they dropped Little Boy, the Japanese have started talking publicly in their newspapers about having their own nuclear arsenal, just within the last few months, if you've been reading about that in world news. I have.

   And so they may have a way of scaring the Russians, and this would cause them to let loose a little bit of the grip they have on Eastern Europe, and this power could rise up. It wouldn't take that much time. It could begin to happen by 1982.

   I don't say completely happen and finish, but I say rise up in a significant way where we could really see it and be concerned with it. So the beast, the coming Hitler, was taken by Jesus Christ and this false prophet goes around calling himself a father, and he refuses to be a legitimate father in any case. And his priests, if they're fathers at all, have bastard children strung all over this earth.

   And the graves of little bastard children or little babies that have been killed at birth to save the stain on that church system have been dug up, if you've read the various books on the subject, which I have. And God's going to end that system. He's going to bring that system to an absolute stop when Jesus Christ comes back again.

   I know it looks interesting and I know it looks appealing on the outside, my brethren, but it's not God's way to lock up men and say, You cannot have a wife. You cannot have a normal family. You cannot have a normal expression of love and lock up women the same way and to teach all the other damnable things that are being done, that we go off to heaven and we don't really have to repent of sin, we just do penance and all the rest of it.

   This system is going to end, and the living Jesus Christ who guides this church is going to bring it to an end, and he's going to bring it to an end soon. And so he's going to bring down this false prophet that wrought miracles, false miracles, false miracles, and these both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone, and the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, and so on. Then you read about how the great angel comes down and binds Satan so he can deceive the nations no more.

   And in verse 4 of chapter 20 (Revelation 20:4), I saw thrones and they sat upon them, judgment was given to them. And he says, These people, these saints who had gone through martyrdom, they lived and reigned with Christ a thousand years. Many of us may be in that situation, or our friends or relatives, to live and reign with Christ for 1,000 years.

   And I hope most of us will not be the martyrs, of course, but we may have people or know people that will be that. And so that's our job, to live and reign with Jesus Christ for a millennium, for 1,000 years on this earth. That is the gospel.

   That's what the millennium pictures. This glorious millennial reign of Christ to straighten out the world and to straighten out the problems, where the problems are, and they're not up in heaven, they're here on this earth. Now let's go back to Zechariah chapter 14.

   Zechariah chapter 14, and I'm going to begin in verse 1, (Zechariah 14:1). Behold, the day of the Lord comes, the day of the Lord, the time mentioned over 30 times in your Bible, and thy spoil shall be divided in the midst of thee. For I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; the city shall be taken, the houses rifled, the women ravished; half of the city shall go forth into captivity. Half the city going to be taken, apparently the Jewish half, the other people, the Arabs may make some kind of compact, of course, with the invaders, the Gentile invaders. Then shall the Eternal go forth and fight against those nations, as when He fought on the day of battle. And His feet shall stand in that day upon the Mount of Olives, which is just a big hill out east of Jerusalem.

   I've been there, a number of you have, and He's coming right back to that big hill called the Mount of Olives. And it says in verse 8, And it shall be in that day that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem, a spring of waters, yes, but living truth over the whole earth. And verse 9, The Lord shall be King over all the earth, in that day there will be one Lord, not many different ideas, not Lord Buddha, not Mohammed, not, you know, the Taoist and all these other religions, but one Lord, the true Jesus Christ of Nazareth.

   And beginning in verse 16, It shall come to pass that every one that is left of all the nations which came against Jerusalem, and it just got through saying in verse 1 and 2, that every nation is going against Jerusalem. So this does mean representatives, at least, of every nation shall go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, and to keep the Feast of Tabernacles. This is familiar to you, I know, brethren, a classic scripture, but I hope we can picture it this afternoon.

   This honestly means, and we need to realize it, the people that you know, you know back in your neighborhood, your condominium, your apartment, your block, wherever you live. This is the people down the street, if they live on through the day of the Lord and the coming tribulation. This means Billy Carter, if he's still around, he's going to be there, Brother Billy, and all the rest of them are going to be there, high and low, if they live on.

   Mohammed Ali will be there, if he lives on. All the great basketball players, all the rock singers will be converted, if they live on. And they're going to make the kind of music that Jesus Christ wants them to make in a few years.

   They'll have to go back and start all over so they can learn to make the right kind of music. And I don't mean all their music is bad, but I'd say a lot of it is. But they're going to have to go back and they're going to have to learn the ways of God, but they're going to keep the Feast of Tabernacles.

   And that is an important consideration when we understand how real this is. It shall be that whoso will not come up of all the families of the earth to Jerusalem to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, even upon them there shall be no rain. God says, you don't like my idea, I'm going to speak to you in language you will listen to and you will understand.

   No water to drink. No water to bathe in. No water to run your whole society.

   And if the family of Egypt, you know, who say, that's Jewish, and they don't want to come up, if they come not up, then God's going to smite the heathen with a plague that come not up to keep, not just to watch the Jews keep, but to themselves keep the Feast of Tabernacles. This shall be the punishment of Egypt and the punishment of all nations that come not up to keep the feasts of God. And certainly God's feasts are not one greater than another.

   The Feast of Tabernacles will be kept and the Days of Unleavened Bread will be kept. The Passover, Atonement, Pentecost, Trumpets, they'll all be kept by all nations of the earth and they'll join us. And here in this particular part of the world, if this peninsula is not swamped underground by giant tidal waves never to appear again, and I don't know about that of course, I'm not trying to predict doom, I like it here too, but assuming that this area is still here, we won't have any trouble raising a crowd.

   I mean, we'll have people out in giant football fields, we'll have a million and a half if we need it, or maybe there will be literally dozens and scores of festivals in the area where we can have a crowd where everyone can hear the speaker. And every minister on earth at that time who dares to raise his voice and speak will be a minister of God. And our job will not to be go out, as God says back in Jeremiah 31, saying, Know the Lord, for all shall know the Lord, even from the least to the greatest.

   They'll come to know God and they'll learn his way and then we'll simply have the job of teaching them his way in detail. But they will come to know that God is God and that Jesus Christ is real and that this book says what it means and means what it says. And we've got to deeply believe that.

   We've got to deeply inculcate that into our lives and our minds, into our families, into our way of life, so we can genuinely teach this to other human beings in the world tomorrow. Going back to Deuteronomy 16, and while we're turning, I'll repeat again, as Mr. Armstrong said this morning, there's no other church on earth, not any other church, that understands these things. We're the ones that have been preaching these things to the world, and we need to deeply realize that and understand it and be grateful for the uniqueness of God's church and the responsibility that that brings to us.

   In Deuteronomy 16:13, Thou shalt observe the Feast of Tabernacles seven days after you have gathered in your corn and your wine, and you shall rejoice in your feast, you and your son and daughter, and all your family, and he said, verse 15, seven days you'll keep a solemn feast to the Lord in the place which he shall choose, because the Lord thy God shall bless you with all your increase and in the works of your hands, therefore you will surely rejoice. And so God tells us to observe this feast and to be here. He says in verse 18, right after the passage I just read this morning on bringing an offering according to the blessing God has given you.

   And notice he continues in that same context, it's kind of interesting. He's talking about God's feast, the Feast of Tabernacles, which pictures the millennial rule, and then he launches right into another one of the statutes, these are all the statutes of God here in this section of Deuteronomy, and he says in verse 18, Judges and officers shall you make in all your gates which the Lord thy God giveth thee throughout your tribes, and they shall judge the people with just judgment. And brethren, that's what all of us have got to learn to do with your family, with your workmates in activities in the church, as to who is appointed an officer in the spokesman club, who is appointed a deacon, who is recommended by some of you for assistant deacon or deaconess or whatever.

   Always try to think this is God's government in a miniature way, but it's God's government. We're learning God's government. As a group we've got to practice God's government.

   We've got to think God's government. We've got to pray every day, Father in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, and literally drink in the idea that there's a literal government going to be set up, that we're not talking about some never-never land. We're talking about world trouble starting over in Europe in a few years, climaxing in the Middle East, and completely ending with the second coming of Christ to set up a literal government here.

   And it's going to be fantastic, so we've got to learn to do these things. You shall not rest or distort judgment. You shall not respect persons.

   Don't put a person in just because he's your favorite. God commands you not to do that. You shall not respect persons, neither take a gift or a bribe, for a gift blinds the eyes of the wise and perverts the words of the righteous.

   That which is altogether just shall you follow. I hope this doesn't bore you. This may not be as exciting as the prophecy, but it's even more important, frankly, because this is what's going to get us there, you see, learning to live this way of life, learning to absolutely be filled with the concept, we are God's servants, we are the future kings and priests under Jesus Christ, who's going to be coming as King of kings, so we can be one of those kings under Christ.

   We've got to do everything God's way. We've got to have that fine linen, white and clean. Mr. Bailey talked about it.

   And really have it be fine, and have it be right, and have it be pure, right down to our toenails. This is what our God wants. So he says, that which is altogether just, or in your life, that which is altogether right.

   Don't take that extra beer if you know you're already a little bit sluggish or woozy. You don't need that to begin to pervert your mind at the end of the day where you're a little bit crazy or silly, and you say things you ought not or do things you ought not. Or you sit down and come home from work, have two or three or four quick beers, and you're all groggy.

   You're not drunk, but you're not going to be able to study the Bible that night. You're not going to be able to have family prayer that night. You're not going to be able to teach your children that night.

   You're going to be kind of a groggy, woogy type of condition, not fit very much to be a good husband and a good father that night. Whatever it is that is your thing, whatever it is that is your weakness, whatever pulls you down, you've got to fight it with this concept in mind, that which is altogether just, that which is altogether right. I'm going to do it because I want to be there, and I want to be in God's kingdom, and I want to be in God's government so that I can taste it.

   Thy kingdom come. This has got to be our battle cry, and we've got to look forward to it and anticipate it and prepare for it with all of our being. And Micah, the fourth chapter, turning over to the book of Micah now, and I want to turn to chapter 4 here, a beautiful description of this coming time, Micah chapter 4, just after the book of Jonah, verse 1, (Micah 4:1) But in the last days that shall come to pass that the mountain, or the kingdom of the house of the Lord, shall be established above the other nations, and many people shall flow to it, many nations shall come and say, Come, let us go up to the kingdom of God, to the house of the God of Jacob, and he will teach us of his ways.

   We will walk in his path, for the law, the great ten commandments that tell you how to love God and how to love your neighbor, the law shall go forth of Zion and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem, and he will judge among many people and rebuke strong nations afar off, and they'll beat their swords into plowshares, their spears into pruning hooks. Nations shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more. They're never again going to be taught how to kill, never again have an armed force, never again have a world war, never again have the coffins being unloaded at the San Francisco pier with little numbers and designations on them from the battlefields of the South Pacific or Korea, or more recently, Vietnam.

   Never again shall there be that kind of a scene. This is going to be God's government. My little daughter then would be free to go out and roam around at night as she wanted to and do as I used to do as a child, play kick the can and hide and seek out on the warm summer evenings in the dark without a fear.

   I don't care if she lived in New York or Los Angeles or Chicago or London, Paris or Berlin, it wouldn't make any difference. She would be free, and you women would not have to hide, and you wouldn't have to have bolts and double locks on your doors, and we would be called the land of unwalled villages, having neither bars nor gates, as we are described, in fact, back in Ezekiel 38 and 39, because Christ will be there and Christ's saints will be there ruling and teaching people God's ways. Every man shall sit under his vine and under his fig tree, property ownership not jammed together any more in apartments and condominiums and tenant houses and ghettos and this kind of thing, but having land that you own, that's yours, and an independence that comes from that.

   None shall make them afraid, for the mouth of the Eternal of hosts has spoken it. For all people will walk in the name of his God, and we will walk in the name of the Eternal our God forever and ever. The indication here is that frankly there are going to be all kinds of local gods or judges, and that's going to be you and me if we make it, because all over this earth there will be the local prince, or the local king, you know, King Jim Chapman will be put over maybe Paducah, Kentucky or somewhere.

   I'm kidding. Maybe Mr. Scarborough will be put over someplace up in the northwest that he loves so much, up in the mountain country where it's beautiful, or wherever God wants to put us, of course. We're kidding.

   We'll be the local king wherever God wants us, and then we will report to Jesus Christ as King of kings and Lord of lords, and we will be born into the very family of God. There will be local gods if you want to look at it like that. We will all be members of the God family, the God level of existence, a fantastic future, absolutely fantastic to look forward to.

   In I Corinthians 6. I Corinthians 6 and beginning in verse 1 (I Corinthians 6:1), Paul writes, dare any of you, having a matter against another, go to law before the unjust and not before the saints? How dare you take your brother before a worldly court, Paul says? Do you not know that the saints shall judge the world? This is what God has called us to do, and in the New Testament it just spells it out. That's our training, and this is our training ground right here in God's church. The saints are called to judge the world, and if the world shall be judged by you, are you unworthy to judge the smallest matters? Of course not.

   We should be able to judge. We should have deacons or elders, or if it's a big matter, the local minister make a judgment. If Brother Smith's cow leaps over into Brother Jones' pasture and eats up the grass or eats up the vegetables, then the local minister has to decide disputes.

   We all learn God's government in that way together. This is what we should do. Know you not that we shall judge angels? We're even going to judge angels.

   Now, part of the judging of angels may involve, as we've said, determining the ultimate fate of Satan, but basically that's already determined, and God describes what it's going to be in the Bible. I think the biggest part of this, not to negate the other, but the biggest part of this is probably going to be, as Moffat translates it, manage, because the word judge can be interpreted as discern between or decide between, or manage. You go here and there and work out each individual dispute that they may have in their coordination as servants, and this type of thing throughout all eternity.

   The angels are ministering spirits to minister to us now as human beings. How much more when we're born to the very God family and we're going to have angels to be our servants and to send them here and there and guide our angels to do this and not to get in the way of the others and be sure that they don't have any disputes or misunderstandings, because they're not perfect. One-third of them rebel, remember, and they can have problems.

   So we're going to have to learn to judge, to judge the world and even to judge angels. How much more things that pertain to this life. We've got to learn to judge.

   We've got to learn to decide. We've got to learn to prepare to be members of the very family and the glorious kingdom of God which is about to be set up. We need to study and meditate on these scriptures and think, well, I've got to get ready to be a real governor and a king under Jesus Christ.

   And we need to think about and prepare in detail to serve in a literal government to be set up soon. Back in Leviticus 19, Leviticus now chapter 19, notice another, just as an example, a passage here that we should read from time to time, beginning in verse 9, Leviticus 19:9.

   And when you reap the harvest of your land, you shalt not wholly reap the corners of your field, neither shalt you gather the gleanings of your harvest. You see, leave some for the poor as it says and the stranger.

   Learn to be generous. Learn to lead and to help and to give and care as a constant way of life and the whole kingdom has to be based on that. I am the Eternal your God. You remember this, he said, you are on my property anyway. The earth is mine and the air you breathe is mine. You shall not steal. neither shall you deal falsely, neither shall you lie to one another. And we’ve got to learn, my brethren, not ever to lie to one another, even in God’s church and some have not learned that lesson.

   You shall not swear by my name falsely, you’re not to do that in vain, neither shall you profane the name of the Eternal your God.

   You shall not defraud your brother, you’re not to take advantage of your brother neither rob him. The wage of him that is hired shall not abide with you all night until the morning.

   You are to pay the man what he’s earned and be generous to him. You shall not curse the deaf or put a stumbling block before the blind.

   You're to have mercy and compassion and consideration as a constant way of life for those who are less fortunate in any way to yourself, but you shall fear thy God. I am the Eternal, he says.

   You shall do no unrighteousness in judgment. You're to constantly be fair and just and equitable in what you do, because God is going to judge you. You shall not respect the person of the poor.

   Today, because we have maybe taken advantage of the poor, or we've taken advantage in the past of certain minorities, now we want to make up for that by going to the other extreme. God says either one is wrong. You're to repent of past sins.

   That means you've got to stop doing them, but that doesn't mean you go back and reverse it and then you start persecuting other people for the next 200 years, or whatever it might be. He says you're not to do that, and this is not my instruction, this is just simply right out of the Bible. So you're not to honor the person of the poor, nor honor the person of the mighty.

   You're not to try to spend your time always around the big shots and try to impress yourself with them, or impress yourself upon them. You're simply to give yourself to God and God's people, serve one another, be with some people sometimes in order to serve, or help yourself to serve better later in humility, yes. But you've got to have this attitude.

   You're not to respect the person of the poor, and you're not to be a favorite or to try to favor yourself with the mighty, but in righteousness you shall judge your neighbor. You shall not go up and down as a tailbearer, and many do that, and they bear tales and they gossip and they exaggerate and they color and they distort and they twist, and they just spread stories everywhere. God says if you're going to be in my government, if you're going to be in my kingdom forever, he says you can't do that, neither shall you stand against the blood of your neighbor.

   You're not to plot against your neighbor and try to kill him. I am the Eternal. You shall not hate your brother in your heart.

   You're not to go around with hate in your heart. You cannot do that and be in God's kingdom. You're not only not to kill, you're not to hate, Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount.

   You're not only not to commit adultery, you're not even to have lust in your heart, Jesus also taught in the Sermon on the Mount. But you'll notice even as part of God's statutes, the very statutes along with God's holy days and tithing, these are part of the very mind of God. These are part of the government of God, of the coming kingdom of God that we're going to have to learn.

   And so, my brethren, we need to read these parts of the Bible. We need to meditate on these parts of the Bible and drink in of them and see how we can apply them and think about them and build them into our very heart and mind and being. You shall not hate your brother.

   You shall in any wise rebuke your brother. If you see he's wrong, then rebuke him. That's greater love, even though it hurts him temporarily, than going around hating him in your heart and not suffer sin upon him.

   Help him to realize he's doing something wrong, and then he can repent and quit it. You shall not avenge nor bear any grudge against the children of thy people. Don't go around with grudge and hate in your heart.

   But you shall love your neighbor as yourself. The golden rule, the golden rule right here, you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am the Eternal.

   Brethren, we're to learn this whole way of life, because we're about to teach that way of life to the whole world. And we've got to realize that our message throughout the Bible is the kingdom of God. Turn back to the first chapter of Mark, now, Mark chapter 1, and beginning verse 14 (Mark 1:14).

   Now, after John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee preaching the gospel of the kingdom of God. What was his message? His message was constantly of the coming government of God, a kingdom as a government, and saying the time is fulfilled, the kingdom or government of God is at hand. Repent and believe the gospel.

   And we've got to deeply believe that gospel. We've got to preach that gospel to the world. We've got to prepare to be there, and we've got to practice that government of God among ourselves here and now.

   Some have not believed in that government in the church, and they've departed from us because they did not submit themselves to the government of God. That's very sad. But some who even preach that were not willing to submit to the very government of God through men on this earth.

   And this is something every last one of us has to understand. We've got to know and know that we know, my brethren, that God is alive and on his throne, and that Jesus Christ is at God's right hand. If I didn't know that, I wouldn't be here.

   If I didn't know that, I'd be in all kinds of trouble. I mean that literally. But you've got to know that and know that you know that, and as you watch and observe the world scene and the rise and fall of nations, as you watch this work and Jesus Christ guiding and leading and cleansing and purifying this church, you know that.

   And you can come to know that you know that, that Christ is alive. He is allowing Satan or circumstances or a combination thereof to take this church like a tree, like a great big grizzly bear would grab a sapling and just take it. And so each one on the tree has to hang on, you know, with dear life and just hang on.

   God is allowing us to be tested and tried to see if we really want to be in that government with all of our hearts. We've got to yield to that government because we preached it to the world and we must practice it among ourselves and have faith that Jesus Christ is the living, active head of the church. Back in chapter 28, just across the page, Matthew 28:18, at the end of his gospel of the kingdom of God, Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth.

   Go you therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you, not some different gospel, but the coming government of God. And lo, I am with you always, even to the consummation of the age. Jesus Christ will be with us, and he says, All power is given unto me.

   And we've got to go out and preach this message with power. We really do. That's part of our job.

   That's part of our training ground, to be in the gospel or to be in the kingdom, too, to be sure that we are carrying out this gospel with all of our power and all of our might, that we're reaching America and Britain a lot more powerfully than we have done thus far. You think about it in your own town, wherever you live, how many of the people there actually know what we believe? They may have heard about us, but how many of them really know what we believe? How much greater a job, you think about it, do we need to do?

   Back in Ezekiel, back in Ezekiel the 33rd chapter, notice by way of review this fantastic prophecy here and this command and commission as it is to us. Verse 2 (Ezekiel 33:2), Son of man, speak to the children of thy people, and I'm doing that right now because you are the children of God, and say when I bring a sword upon a land, if the people of the land take a man of their coast and set him for their watchman, and Mr. Herbert Armstrong has been the one that God has set and the people have backed, and he has his lieutenants and helpers and so on, of course, but he's been the main watchman.

   If when he sees the sword come upon the land, he blows the trumpet and warns the people, then whoever hears the sound of the trumpet, this warning, and took not warning if the sword come, his blood shall be upon his own head. He didn't pay attention.

   But, verse 6, if the watchman see the sword come, if we see this thing rising up over in Europe and all the other events happening, and we're not getting very excited about it and we're not doing our part, and he blows not the trumpet and the people be not warned, and the sword come and take away any person from among them, he's taken away in his iniquity.

   Of course he is, because all of us have sinned, and certainly some man out here in the world has sinned and is guilty, but his blood will I require at the watchman's hand, and that certainly includes all of us. So now, O son of man, I have sent you a watchman to the house of Israel. We are that people, therefore you shall hear the word at my mouth and warn them for me.

   Verse 10, Therefore, O son of man, speak to the house of Israel, thus you speak, saying, If our transgressions and our sins be upon us, and we pine away in them, how should we then live? They kind of cry out to God, Well, what's wrong? How can you judge us? And God says, As I live, saith the Eternal God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked should turn from his wicked way and live. Turn you, turn you from your evil ways, for why will you die, O house of Israel?

   God pleads with our people, why will you die? And brethren, we've got to take that message from coast to coast, from sea to shining sea, from the Mexican border up into Alaska and into Canada and over into Great Britain and over into Australia and New Zealand and South Africa and wherever the British Commonwealth and American peoples are, with great power. And we've got to get this message to the democracies of northwestern Europe with greater power than we have, and around the world.

   We've got to get behind Mr. Armstrong, we've got to get behind the work, we've got to believe that this government which we're now representing is about to come back to this earth, and it probably is going to be here in the lifetimes of most of us. And we really need to put our hearts in it and get ready for it with all of our beings. And we've got to realize that we must be close to God.

   We cannot do it by ourselves. We've got to get down on our knees and we've got to say, Father in Heaven, please rebuke and chasten me, please clean me up, please help me to be like you are. I want to be there, and I want you to fashion me and mold me and help me to be what I cannot be of myself.

   Please clean me up even as I pray to you and help me to get the wrong thoughts and the vanities out of my mind so I can just pour out my being to you as I should. We need this, brethren. We've got to have this attitude so that God can truly use us.

   And I hope that you'll do that very, very much, because remember it says back in Zechariah 4:6, not by power or by might, but by my spirit. We don't need a bunch of clever people to do the work. We need people that go forward on their knees.

   We need people that are filled with and led by the very Spirit of Almighty God, the Holy Spirit flowing into them and out from them like rivers of living water. And if we have that, the job will get done. You know it and I know it.

   And that's what the great God wants and that's what the great God is going to do. Back in Luke 21, the parallel chapter to Matthew 24, he said, describing all these things we've just covered, verse 31, Luke 21:31, So likewise you, when you see all these things come to pass, know you that the kingdom of God is near at hand. Amen, I say unto you, this generation shall not pass away.

   This generation is not going to go, you see, until all these things be fulfilled. Heaven and earth shall pass away, but my word shall not pass away. Take heed to yourselves, lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness and the cares of this life.

   You get too involved in cleaning up your house and taking care of your children and doing this and doing that, and you're not putting that main thing first. You're not driving yourself toward the kingdom of God. You're not on your knees every day.

   You're not saying, Father in heaven, teach me out of this book and studying this Bible and drinking in of it and having the mind of God, the mind of God toward America, the mind of God toward inflation, the mind of God toward Pope John's visit, the mind of God toward the United States of Europe, the mind of God toward child-rearing, the mind of God toward every aspect of life, because you're drinking into this book and you're yielding to that Spirit. And that great Spirit is fashioning and molding you, and that great Spirit is causing you to be ready to be born of him into the very kingdom of God. So you explode in a sense, and you change from flesh into spirit, from human to divine, when that last trumpet sounds.

   This is what our God wants us to be ready for. This is what our God wants us to do, brethren, and I think all of us want to. Because he says, you can't afford to let drunkenness and the cares of this life come on you unawares, for it's a little trap, trapping a little animal, you know, and the animal squeals and its eyes bulge out when the trap snaps on the animal.

   It's going to come on everyone on the face of the earth. They won't be ready, but you should be ready. Watch you, therefore, and pray always.

   Our prayers are the barometer of the work of God. Mr. Armstrong has often said that, and I hope we realize that. We've got to put our hearts in our prayers.

   We've got to get down and have the right emotion in our prayers, you see, as we pray. Watch. Watch these world events.

   Watch the events leading up over here in Europe that I've talked about. Watch 1982. Most of you have heard about the Jupiter effect, probably.

   Where scientists say a whole group of the planets are going to line up, and in 1982 there are going to be more earthquakes, more tidal waves, more unusual heavenly signs and this and that happen than any other time. Maybe that will even be a confusing thing to the world. That won't be the end.

   That will just be an unusual time, but during that time period, perhaps, will be the turning point when the really big things in Europe will start happening. 1982, some heavenly signs perhaps, some unusual storms, the Jupiter effect. Watch and pray and understand, because God's kingdom is coming in your lifetime, and I know that you want to be in it, but you've got to get down on your knees, brethren, as I say.

   Drink into this book, meditate on it, make it the first thing in your life, and just beg God with all your heart, Father, fashion me and mold me. I want to know you. I want to know Jesus.

   I want to walk with you and talk with you and have a communion with you, and I want to be with you in your kingdom and in your family and bear your name forever. I want to be there, and I want to be in the very government of God to help these people all over this earth. Pray this way, brethren.

   Get behind this work with your being, and we'll do a tremendous job, and we will fulfill the purpose of the Feast of Tabernacles. Thanks a lot. See you later.