Herbert W Armstrong

   However, I have really a very serious and a very important announcement for you this afternoon. We've been talking about giving thanks, and we've had Thanksgiving Day. And I remember when I was just newly converted or being converted. I don't know whether I'd even been baptized yet. But I was attending different churches. I was looking into the truth for the first time in my life. This is about 55 and a half years ago now. And I was attending a certain Baptist church one Sunday. And they’d had a contest going on, and they gave an award for the one that could answer the question the best of what is the most prevalent sin? The most often committed sin. The most widespread sin. I don't know how you would answer that question. I'm not sure I'd answer it. {Skip on tape, and Mr. Armstrong seems to say, “Does that all start over?}” {Then he picks back up where he left off.} But anyway, a young woman won the prize by saying that the most prevalent sin is “ingratitude”??"failing to be thankful for what you have. And certainly it's a sin that just about everybody commits.

   Now it happens that I sort of begin my prayers regularly by giving thanks. I'm not sure that's just the way it ought to be, but I don't think it's the wrong way. But Jesus gave us a sample prayer. I want to mention that. And he didn't say give thanks the first thing. He might have, because it certainly is right. But the sample prayer he gave was:

   Matthew 6:9 “...Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name.” Exalting the name of God. In a sense, that is giving thanks, and giving thanks is hallowing God's name; because, you're giving thanks to him. But the next thing he said to pray:

   Matthew 6:10 “Thy kingdom come. Thy will be done on (in) earth, as it is in heaven.” Well, Brethren, we should be praying for that. “Thy kingdom come.” I have news for you: God's kingdom is a lot nearer than we thought when I left on this trip.

   I learned a number of things in Europe. In Europe, I talked with heads of government. Especially in Athens and in Spain. I had a very fine meeting with the King of Spain, King Juan Carlos, whom I had met 8 years before when he was the Crown Prince. And he was very glad to see me again. And in fact, when he heard that I was coming, he personally gave orders that we were not to be questioned. We didn't need to show passports. Our whole party just walked off the plane, came through a VIP lounge into the cars that were waiting. No questions, no formalities, no anything. And the King personally asked me if they had taken {Mr. Armstrong chuckled} care of his order. He was checking up on them. And they certainly did.

   Well, I had a very enjoyable 40 minutes with him. He's a man that Dictator Franco had selected to succeed him, and shortly after Franco died, he was made king and is now the head of state in Spain. But both there and in Athens, I learned that the very thing that I had been proclaiming for the last almost 50 years that I put on the air 48, 49 years ago is just about to happen and very possibly within the coming year.

   I want to tell you a little more about it. And that is the coming of the United States of Europe. Now, brethren, you've heard me mention that time and again. And I think that perhaps we don't realize what a pivotal thing that is in world history and what it means to us especially. Well, I can tell you now that the whole world is soon going to be rocked with astonishment and amazement when they find that possibly within a year now there is a new super nation, a new superpower possibly greater than the Soviet Union or the United States has gone together in Europe. The prophesied resurrection of the so-called medieval Holy Roman Empire, the United States of Europe. Now the very first issue of The Plain Truth was published in February 1934. It came out right on the 1st of February 1934 that is practically 49 years ago. Just almost 49 years ago.

   I'd like to read you what I said. Now I wonder if you can see it on the screen. I think we have it, and you can see a copy of the front page of that issue in The Plain Truth. And I believe they have it ready to show you on the screen. Well, I don't know if you can see it very well or not. Anyway, I would like to read to you some of the things that were in that. I haven't read it myself for several years. I've seen it. I've seen copies of it. We have a number of copies around. It's been reprinted a number of times. I was rather astonished when I once again read what I had written there very close to 50 years ago. In just a couple of months, three months, it'll be 49 years.

   Well, the heading is, “Is a World Dictator About to Appear”? Will it be Mussolini, Stalin, or Roosevelt? Now, Mussolini and FDR were both in office at that time. It continues. Everybody senses that something is wrong with the world. That some mighty event is about to happen. What is it? Bible prophecy tells. Here is a solemn warning, and it is the plain truth. We live today in the most momentous, anxious moments of Earth's history. Today, we stand on the very threshold of colossal events that will stagger the mind of mortal man.

   Just now, it is like the lull before a great and devastating storm; everyone senses it. Then there was a subhead??"the lust for world power. Ever since the pharaohs ruled in Egypt, down into ancient Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome, on to Napoleon, and then to the Kaiser, and then to the time that I was writing when Mussolini was in office, there has been a lust for power to rule the world. It is commonly known today that Mussolini's whole aim is to restore the ancient Roman Empire, that is, the resurrection of the Holy Roman Empire. Now, this was nearly 49 years ago that I wrote this. In all of its former splendor, power, and glory, and Rome ruled the world.

   Now, as a matter of fact, it was about that time that Mussolini proclaimed he had done that very thing. He had taken, along about that time, an expedition down to Ethiopia and had conquered Ethiopia with his air forces, and it was, I had remarked at the time in many of the sermons I was preaching and the broadcasts on the air, that this time in prophecy it said he would pass over, whereas before his predecessor had passed through, and passing over meant in the air.

   Anyway, he had conquered Ethiopia. He added that to Italian Somaliland, which he already had, and Eritrea and Italy, and had made a concordat with the Vatican, so that once again there was a union of church and state; although, it wasn't a real union, but he proclaimed he had renewed the Roman Empire. Now, I'm going to read you, if I have time, a little later, in the 8th verse of the 17th chapter of Revelation, that very thing. It was the beast that was, and is not, and yet is, at that time.

   Now, continuing, I wrote today Prime Minister MacDonald. That's funny {Mr. Armstrong chuckles}. That's before your time, most of you, but he was the Prime Minister of England at that time. Prime Minister MacDonald in Great Britain and President Roosevelt are striving frantically to avert or to postpone the impending next world war. World War II had not yet come.

   Well the next world war, while the nations prepare even more feverishly for that war, three or four short years ago, many laughed and scoffed when I said that there would be another world war in five to seven years. They do not laugh and scoff now. Everyone knows that the world war is coming, and soon. And it did come in 1939, and this was written??"I mean in, wait a minute, 19??"this was written in 1934, and world war came in 1939, just five years after I wrote that. So once again, the plain truth, even in its first issue, was way ahead of its time. It was predicting what was going to happen; people scoffed; They said, "That's a crackpot; he doesn't know what he's talking about", but World War II did happen. It did come.

   Now, however, the reunion of Europe, Mussolini didn't have a real reunion of Europe, and what he had didn't last. It was just the one, as you read in the eighth verse of the seventeenth chapter of Revelation, {Revelation 17:8} which it was, and was not, and yet it was, and the announcement was on the “inside” of newspapers at the time. It didn't even make page one. It was not considered a great world event. But it did fulfill a prophecy nonetheless.

   But now, why the delay? I have known for years, and now you've heard me proclaim again, and again, and again, that the United States of Europe is coming. They're going to unite ten nations in Europe. And the Vatican will be on top of the heap. Why has it not happened? Forty-nine years have gone by. At last, I can tell you that it is; all the pieces are falling into place now, all of a sudden.

   Well, in Europe, there are many nations; they speak different languages. They're divided by various languages. They're divided by different national aspirations and national patriotisms and by different currencies. They have the German mark, the French franc, the English pound, and the lira in Italy, and the peso or whatever it is in Spain. They have different kind of currency, different kind of money. Now, they have gotten together in an economic system. That's been going on now for a good many years. The EEC, or the European Economic Community. But that is only something that knocks down tariff barriers for international trade among the nations of Europe. Now, what they want is political union. What they want is one military force. What they want is one great world power. And, actually, they're right on the borderline of the Soviet Union.

   Now, we're a long ways from Russia, and we are fearing the Soviet Union. The two great powers in the world are the Soviet Union and the United States. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and the United States. And we are really fearing Russia. Let me say right here: I know of no prophecy in the Bible that speaks specifically of any war between Russia and the United States. And I've been saying for years and years that is not the way that the World War III will come.

   However, let me say that the resurrection of this so-called Holy Roman Empire that existed from 554 on to 1814 in Europe will trigger World War III, the nuclear World War III that is going to destroy our major cities. I mean, destroy them. One-third of our people are going to be killed. Another third are going to die of famine and pestilence, according to Ezekiel's prophecies. And the third remaining are going to be taken as slaves into other nations and moved out of this country. Now, this thing coming is going to immediately trigger all of that. I don't know; maybe that doesn't mean anything to you, brethren. But I want to tell you, it had better, because now it's really going to happen and soon. We're getting very, very close to it.

   Now they've even been divided in religion. The Roman Catholic Church was on top of the heap from 1954. Actually, the old Roman Empire had succeeded the Greco-Macedonian Empire, which had succeeded the Persian Empire, which had succeeded the ancient Babylon or the Chaldean Empire. That goes back to 604 B.C. 604 to 585 B.C. The first world empire. God had given Nebuchadnezzar, who had put that empire together, a message that God had given him his seat and power and authority. And through the prophet Daniel, God had told Nebuchadnezzar that he ruled everything. And he had given Nebuchadnezzar, the Gentile king, a chance and an opportunity to yield to God and to let God really rule him and his empire. And I don't know what might have happened if Nebuchadnezzar had done it, but Nebuchadnezzar did not do it. And as a result, the empire was taken away from him. He was sent off for seven years, and he became like a wild man. Later, his kingdom was restored to him, but his son denied God. And you remember there was the handwriting on the wall and his son Belshazzar. And that very night the empire was overthrown. Darius the Mede came in and took it over. And then began the times of the Gentiles. And Jerusalem has been now trodden down of the Gentiles ever since, except that Judah is back over there for a time now.

   Now, in 554, well, the Roman Empire actually started before the Greco-Macedonian Empire had been swallowed up. It really started in 31 B.C. But by, before the time of Christ, the Roman Empire was really ruling, you might say, the world. And in the days of the New Testament, the Apostle Paul, the Book of Acts, the Roman Empire was ruling. That lasted from 31 B.C. until 476 A.D. Then it wasn't very much later, from 476 to 554, but in 554, Justinian, who was the emperor in the east of Constantinople. Constantinople has been changed now to Istanbul. I've been there a couple of times. And it's a large capital in the east, and it was the capital of the empire in the west.

   Now, the Roman Empire had two capitals, one of Constantinople in the east, one at Rome in the west. That is pictured by the great image in the second chapter of Daniel, the dream that Nebuchadnezzar had, that the prophet Daniel interpreted for him. The two legs of that image were the Roman Empire, and it was the divided empire, both east and west. Now, in time sequence, it came clear down to the feet and toes. And it says, let me just read that for you for a second. It's back here in Daniel, second chapter and verse 44, just the tail end; after Daniel had explained this dream to the Gentile king, Nebuchadnezzar, and he saw a great stone, not in human hands, but as a miracle from God, come down out of the sky and smite the image on the feet and toes, on the ten toes, and destroy them. Now, those ten toes are the ten divisions of ten nations that are going to form the United States of Europe now that's coming together right now. And here's what you read, verse 44.

   Daniel 2:44 “And in the days of these kings...[now, half of them were in Eastern Europe and half in west. That's the thing I want you to notice]... the God of heaven shall set up a kingdom, that shall not be left to other people, but it shall break in pieces and consume all these kingdoms, and it shall stand for ever”. That'll be the kingdom of God. In other words, it is the time of the second coming of Christ. And brethren, we're getting just that close to it. Now, for the first time, I can tell you that. I've never been able to tell you that before. I can't say now that this is going to go—the pieces will all fall together and it will actually come into being within a year, but it very possibly may. And there are reasons to believe that the Vatican is setting next year as the year. They're setting next year as a certain year of reunification in Europe, and the whole Catholic Church is proclaiming that.

   Well, I want to go on a little bit further. Now, even the religion has been divided. We've had the Eastern Orthodox Catholic Church and, of course, the Roman Catholic Church in Rome. And the religion has continued to be divided down to now. Now, many of the political leaders, while they want a political union in Europe, they have all these things to overcome: the various languages, different nationalities, different patriotisms, everything of that kind. But then the religion is divided.

   Now, many of the leaders, the political leaders over there, don't want religion to have anything to do with it. They'd rather religion would stay out. But they cannot bring themselves together. And the Pope at Rome knows that, and he made that very plain in his recent trip to Spain. I didn't discuss that part of it. I purposely didn't when I was talking with King Juan Carlos. But nevertheless, we have a report on everything that the Pope said, recorded in the press. Now, the Eastern Orthodox Church has refused to go together with the Roman Church because the primary thing is they have rejected the papal supremacy. They have rejected the idea that the Pope has got to sit on top of the heap.

   And so now I would like to show you what we learned on this trip. Now, I arrived in Athens. I had come up from South Africa and from Nairobi. And in Nairobi, I had started a college with President Kenyatta back a little over six years ago. And we had made a certain small contribution through the Ambassador Foundation. And then those congressmen in the Diet of Japan who consider themselves my Japanese sons, as they call themselves. There were eight originally, and now there are about 15 who call themselves my Japanese sons. We have a lot of fun about that. But they got busy in the Japanese Diet and appropriated about 29 million United States dollars, or the equivalent in Japanese yen, for that college.

   And now it is the Jomo Kenyatta College of Agriculture and Technology. And they built quite a college there with 29 million dollars. They have been able to build quite the college. And they gave me quite a plaque, all carved in copper, as a co-founder with President Kenyatta of that college. And it's quite a plant. They have many buildings, all new. They're not quite of the caliber of the buildings that we have here on the Ambassador College campus, but they are new, they're ultra-modern, they're very good. They're less costly in construction, but they have an auditorium, they have an administration building, they have a big science hall, they have a big Home Ec hall for women, they have greenhouses with all kinds of plants and things growing, because it's an agricultural college as well as mechanical. And they even have an athletic track, and they have many things. I was given quite a welcome there and presented with, as I said, quite a plaque.

   Now, I came on up to Athens. It was, I think, a day before I arrived that what is called, I think they call it the European Parliament, had had a meeting in Athens. Now, the European Parliament, it's not official, but it's a body that has been elected of leaders in Europe that are working for political union of Europe, trying to turn the common market, which is only economic and a matter of trade, into something that is political, monetary, military, everything, as a super-nation. And they had had a meeting in Athens. And Mr. LaRavia had flown over and had arrived, I think, about two days before I in Athens, and he attended this meeting, which occurred before I arrived.

   Now, here's what he wrote me about it that I could use to give you and for the plain truth. This is the information and statements made by the Rotary President. And by the way, I gave an address to the Rotary Club in Athens, and I found that the President that he speaks of here, who is, let's see, well, anyhow, there were two very prominent men. Both of them have been reading the plain truth for a long time, and one of them is head of the big shipping concern over there that having had freight ships going up and down the Mediterranean. It's quite a big concern. And the other one is head of the Olympia Airlines, the national airlines of Greece. And both of them have been reading the plain truth for some time.

   So now let me read Mr. LaRavia's report. This is information and a statement made by the Rotary President, Konstantin R. Rengis, Mr. LaRavia, {Mr. Armstrong chuckles} if I mispronounce it, pardon me, President, Hellenic Mediterranean Lines, the shipping lines, concerning the reunification of the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church.

   Now, by the way, let me interrupt right there and say that the last time I was in Jerusalem, the patriarch of the Eastern Church at Jerusalem came to see me in my hotel suite. And he gave me what he considered the highest prize he could give, which was the Cross of Constantine. Constantine the Great, which dates back to 325 AD, only 325 years after Christ. And Constantine, you know, is the one who called the Nicene Council and who practically dictated a lot of the doctrines of the Catholic Church. Constantine was the ruler of the empire at Constantinople, and Constantinople was named after him. Well, this cross, it's quite a good-sized cross; it was hanging on my, I think it's supposed to hang around your neck and hang down in front. And it would really show; it is of gold and quite decorative, solid gold. And I was the 129th person to receive that award since 325 AD. So they consider it’s a very high honor because very few have ever received it.

   Anyway, I asked the patriarch of the Eastern Church; he's the patriarch at Jerusalem; he considers he's probably the highest man in the Church, but I think generally the one at Athens is considered the highest. Nevertheless, I asked him, do you think that there will be an ecumenical movement so that the Eastern and the Roman Church will go together and be rejoined? And the answer was, we are praying for it.

   Now here's what I learned on this trip, which I had never known before, and I think this is a banner headline news story:

   One: The disagreement on the giving of the Holy Spirit that's been a problem with them has been resolved. The issue had been this: The Roman Catholic Church dogma concerning the Holy Spirit states that the Holy Spirit is given by both God and Jesus Christ. The Eastern Orthodox Church contended that the Holy Spirit is only given by God the Father. The Roman Catholic Church was willing to concede on this. Now the Roman Church conceded on that. Well, there was a little trade made.

   Now 2nd: The issue as to whom will head the United Church has already been resolved. Now that was news to me. The Eastern Orthodox Church has already agreed to accept a secondary position for the Patriarch, now that’s of the Eastern Church, in deference to the Pope, so that the Pope will be on top of the heap. Just as the Bible says. Exactly. We only want??"this is a quote??"“we only want to have our input, and in fact the Pope will be the leader of the combined churches”.

   Now 3rd: The only disagreement that remains to be resolved is the infallibility of the Pope. Quote: “We can't buy that, they say in the East. He is only a human being." Well, let me say that it is my understanding that the Pope does not claim to be anything but a fallible human being, and their contention is that he does not claim to speak infallibly only when he speaks officially for the Church, and he makes it known that it's like an encyclical or an official pronouncement, and he does not make, apparently, such an official announcement without having consulted the heads of the Curia in Rome, and now they are the chief, of course, the top men. I could have that name in my mind, but only the words and names stick on my mind. Cardinals, that wear the red beanies on their back, you know??"{everyone burst out in laughter} that's what they seem to me {Mr. Armstrong has a little chuckle too}. Anyway, the chief cardinals, which is the highest office next to the Pope, and it's something like in our Church.

   We have a number of the highest people here in office next to Pastor General are the evangelists, and we have a certain number of evangelists here at headquarters. Now on the advisory council of elders, I have a number of the evangelists who are resident here in Pasadena. There are other evangelists that are resident in other parts of the world. England and, well, I guess Canada and other places that would qualify perfectly to be on the advisory council, but they're just not as convenient; they're not handy, and we don't have a Curia, however, but the Roman Catholic Church does.

   So my understanding is that the Pope does not speak infallibly except, that is to claim infallibility, except when he has checked it with his Curia, and I think that Rome will now make the concession that they will also listen to the top Greek officials before he makes any such pronouncement. But that won't be much of a give-and-take for him, and I'm quite sure that will be done, and I think it will be done very quickly.

   Now something else has happened on this trip that is putting all these things right together. It's all of a sudden going together, and that is that while I was in South Africa and I was having a meeting that night at the home of Dr. McCarthy, and they announced and it sort of startled me because I couldn't get my mind on much of anything else for that evening because I could realize the very importance of it. President Brezhnev of the Soviet Union had died, and we just got the news. They had held it up 24 hours, and this was just 24 hours later when they had made the announcement that day, and someone got the news there and told me that night.

   Well, Brezhnev is gone, and Andropov, former head of their, well, the same thing as ours, not secret service but FBI and he's been a real tough guy, as they say, and he is now president and has taken over everything that Brezhnev had, and he is starting out in a very tough manner. His speeches are very tough. Now one of the great things that is urging Europe on and perhaps the greatest thing that will cause them to hurry and get together on this is their fear of what's going on in the Kremlin and the Soviet Union, and Andropov is frightening them, and that is going to rush them. They are losing confidence in the United States as having a military umbrella over them to protect them, and they want their own military force to protect themselves. That's the way they feel over there. Now that is a chief incentive to unite them, and that is taking place.

   Now furthermore, while the Pope was in Rome??"I don't mean Rome, I mean in Spain??"the Pope just recently, just a short time before I was there, had made a tour of Spain, and it was a terrific tour. It's the first time that any Pope has ever visited Spain, and yet Spain is the most Catholic of all the Catholic countries and was just 100% Catholic under, yet again I had his name, I've mentioned it already, and I can't think of it again now. The dictator that just died recently. Anyway, this whole United States of Europe, when it goes together, is going to trigger nuclear World War III. Now let me tell you what else it's going to do. It's going to end our work. Our work will be through getting the gospel to the world. That is very shortly after it goes into force and effect because they will move in such a way that it will end it. And then I'll tell you what’ll happen. As you read here in Amos, the 8th chapter in verse 11 of Amos,

   Amos 8:11 “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord GOD, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread...but of hearing the words of the LORD.” In other words, the gospel has not been preached for 1900 years until it didn't go to the world until I went on Radio Luxembourg the first week in January of 1953. Exactly one century of time cycles from the time the apostle Paul wrote to the churches in Galatia that the gospel had been suppressed and was not being proclaimed any longer.

   Now, I want to read you some of the things about that. Matthew 24, the disciples had asked Jesus,

   Matthew 24:3 ...“Tell us, when shall these things be?...He’d been talking about the destruction of the temple, which did happen in 70 A.D... and [something else] what will be (shall be) the sign of thy coming, and the end of the world?”

   Now He went on to tell them that they should not be deceived, that many would come preaching about him, claiming to be his ministers, come in his name, saying that Jesus is the Christ and yet deceiving the world. How can they preach Christ and deceive people? How can they believe in Christ? How can they accept Christ and still be deceived and lost? Well, Jesus said in vain, do they worship me? You can even worship Christ all in vain. How? He said, teaching for doctrines the commandments of men, making the law of God and the commandments of God of no effect by your tradition. They will not accept the commandments of God, neither the Protestants nor the Catholic Church.

   A very prominent cardinal of the Catholic Church, Cardinal Gibbons, this goes back about 60 or 70 years ago, but I remember it very well. He said, “You may search the Bible from beginning to end and you cannot find one word authorizing Sunday worship”. Everywhere, the Bible enforces the Sabbath, Saturday. The only authority you have for Sunday is the authority of the Roman Catholic Church, and you Protestants are bowing down to us, the Roman Catholic Church, and accepting our authority every Sunday morning. It is Sunday, is the mark of the beast. And the Sabbath is the sign of God. And God made it a Sabbath covenant for all eternity, in the 31st chapter of Exodus, verses 12-18.

   Now then, Jesus said many would come deceiving, preaching in his name, and they did, and they have up till now. They have not preached the Gospel of the Kingdom, the Gospel He preached. And finally, He got down to their second question about the sign of his coming, and He said,

   Matthew 24:14 “And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end come.”

   Brethren, I wonder if you can realize it; that gospel was not preached for one thousand nine hundred years. Now, 19 years is a time cycle. The sun, and the moon, and the earth are set in conjunction to set off spaces of time. One revolution of the earth measured by the sun is a 24-hour day. One revolution of the moon around the earth is a lunar month. One revolution of the earth around the sun is a solar year. So you see, the sun, the moon, and the earth mark off days, months, and years of time. And they only come into conjunction exactly every 19 years. So 19 years is a time cycle. God does things on time. And precisely a century of time cycles after the gospel was suppressed and not preached to the world, God raised up this church to preach it through me to the most powerful radio station in the world, Radio Luxembourg. And for 19 years, and beginning precisely 19 years before that, right down to the same week, the first week in 1934, I began preaching it in the United States and had gotten it coast to coast all over the United States in that 19 years. Then it began going to the whole world. And let's go on a little further. After that gospel is proclaimed to the world in verse 21:

   Matthew 24:21 “for then shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this same time, no, nor ever shall be.”

   Matthew 24:22 “And except those days should be shortened, there shall no flesh be saved...” alive. In other words, humanity would be erased. There wouldn't be a man, woman, or child left alive if God didn't supernaturally intervene to stop it before it goes that far. Now it's going to start, but it won’t go that far. God will stop it before it gets that far. You know, it did happen once that God blotted out all the lives except eight on the earth. A flood in Noah's day. Jesus said, “As it was in the time of Noah, so will it be in the days just before his second coming.” Just before His second coming.

   Now let's go on a little further:

   Matthew 24:22 ...“but [he said] for the elect's sake...[brethren, that is you and the rest of our brethren around the world in the church of God]...for the elect's sake those days shall be shortened”. Before it's too late, before all humanity is destroyed. It got down to eight people in Noah's day. I think it will not get down to that small a number this time, but it’ll be a great many millions and millions and hundreds of millions of people that are now living, are going to be killed in the next few years, brethren. You're right on the threshold of things. I don't know; I think sometimes we sit there and think, Yeah that was a nice sermon Ms. Armstrong preached. I was entertained by it. Well, I think you've got to be STARTLED by it! Because the end of our work is at hand. And the end of this life is about at hand. Things are going to happen that are going to SHAKE you up, brethren. And shake the whole world in a way that its never been shaken before. Now dropping down to verse 29, same chapter:

   Matthew 24:29 “Immediately after the tribulation of those days shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, (and) the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens, [which means Satan and his demons] shall be shaken:”

   Matthew 24:30 “And then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in heaven: {1} and (then shall) all the tribes of the earth [shall] mourn, [that’s all of the nation’s] and [then shall they see] (they shall see) the Son of man [Jesus Christ] coming in the clouds (of heaven) with power and [in] great glory.”

   And all the supernatural power of the great God to take over this earth and to rule. That's what we celebrated on the Day of Atonement. I wonder if we just think that we celebrate these annual holy days just as sort of a custom that doesn't mean anything. You know, they're looking forward to the greatest event that are going to just, well, stagger this world beyond words. I don't know how to put it in a way to, sometimes, I think I need to shake everybody up and make us realize the seriousness of these things, and I just feel like I'm totally unable. I just don't have the power to do it. I read in the Bible how people have been just so nonchalant and they're just not interested. Just like on Thanksgiving Day they were interested in football and turkey and things like that. They're not interested in what they should be. But that means the second coming of Christ.

   Now, to see what this thing in Europe is going to trigger, I say it will trigger World War III. Well, let's go on; let me prove that now. Let me go on and show you a little bit more. The 13th chapter of Revelation. Let's get back to that now. John is telling what he saw in his vision here in the book of Revelation, chapter 13 verse 1:

   Revelation 13:1 “And I stood on the sand of a seas, [shore] and [I] saw a beast...Now, he takes a wild animal, and this wild animal is only a type of a great nation. And he uses the kind of animal whose nature typifies the nature of the nation or the empire that it's talking about... and [he] saw a beast rise up out of the sea, having seven heads and ten horns, and upon his horns ten crowns, [Now, they were not on the heads but on the horns] and upon his heads the name of blasphemy.”

   Revelation 13:2 “And the beast which I saw was like unto a leopard... Now, it wasn't a leopard. A leopard is “cat-like”. And a cat is one of the very quick animals. It moves quickly and gracefully...and his feet were the feet of a bear, [that is the preponderant part of a bear, its feet] and his mouth as the mouth of a lion...that's the strongest part, especially of a male lion, the mouth, and even a female lion, they catch their prey, they break its neck, or they snap it, and they kill it with the mouth...and the dragon gave him his power, and his seat, and great authority”.

   Now, Revelation 12:9 {paraphrased}, the dragon is that old serpent, called Satan and the devil. And it identifies it right just ahead of this in chapter 12, verse 9. The dragon gave him his power and seat and great authority. Now, Satan is sitting on the throne of the earth. And this is Satan's world, not God's world, and it is Satan. Now, God gave Nebuchadnezzar his seat. Nebuchadnezzar did not take it. But Satan has given that seat to those in the times of the Gentiles ever since Belshazzar saw the handwriting on the wall and his kingdom was taken that night. Satan has given the power and Satan great authority, and they have observed the, well he is the God of the world. He appears as an angel of light. And deceived people don't know they are deceived.

   Brethren, I don't say this thing to accuse. I don't say it because I'm angry at the people, at the so-called beast or beast power, or the person. And maybe I already know in person, somewhat intimately, the one who will be that beast. If so, I feel sorry for him. And I don't accuse him of anything because he believes he is right. He’s sincere. And we need to realize that God has not called us to sit in judgment. Christ is the judge. Let us be thankful God has opened our eyes, our minds, and called us out.

   Come out from among them in this world and be separate. The world is deceived. But there is a lot of good in this world. You know the people in this world; they have their professional ethics. They are people of what they call high morals, of high standards, good standards. Oh yes, they think they’re right. And yet they don't have God's Spirit. They don't have the love of God. It isn't their fault. They don't know any better. We’re not to sit in judgment of them. We’re not to hate them. We’re not their enemies, but they’re not our enemies. Well, I hope they’re not our enemies, anyhow.

   Revelation 13:3 “And I saw one of his heads as it were wounded to death; [that’s the last head, the Roman Empire] and his deadly wound was healed: [that was in 554, that I just told you, the Holy Roman Empire] and all the world wondered after the beast.”

   Now, you have to go back to Daniel 7 to learn what is meant by the symbol beast. In Daniel 7, Daniel saw four beasts. The first was like a lion. The second like a bear. The third was a leopard. It had four heads. And the last one had the sort of a combination of all of those first four, but different from all of them. And it had one head, but it had ten horns. So there you have the seven heads and ten horns, and so on.

   Now, it says that they are kings or kingdoms or empires. The beasts then are kings or kingdoms, as you read in Daniel 7. Now, also it says in Daniel 7, I won't take time to go back and read all of that; the saints are finally going to take the kingdom and rule the kingdom forever. But the Gentile empires, from the Chaldean Empire on down through the Roman Empire and into this coming reunion in Europe, it's finally going to be taken over by the saints. And we will rule under Christ forever.

   Now, I read to you from Daniel 2:44. And in Daniel 2, you find who those empires are. The one, the lion, the head was the same as the head of the image, and that was Nebuchadnezzar in the Chaldean Empire. The bear, then, was the Persian Empire. The leopard was the Greco-Macedonian Empire, divided into four divisions for its four heads. And the other, strong as iron, was the Roman Empire. Now, it had ten horns, and each of those horns became another head, as you find in the seventh chapter of Daniel. Now, then, we want to go back to the 17th chapter of Revelation. The 17th chapter of Revelation, and notice the first six verses:

   Revelation 17: 1 “And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials...Now, these are the seven last plagues poured out at the time of Christ's coming. Remember, I'm reading you what John saw in a vision. And what he saw in a vision was just before the coming of Christ. And so the seven angels, having the seven vials that are poured out, or plagues, poured out on the very time of the coming of Christ. ...and [he] talked with me, [and] saying unto me, Come hither; I will shew thee the judgment of the great whore... That is, God is doing the judging, or Christ is doing the judging, on a great whore, a fallen woman...that setteth upon many water:” Now, she sits on many waters. And down here in verse, let me see, verse 10, verse 9, I guess it is. I've got so many marks on here, I can't even read it.

   Revelation 17:9 ...“The seven heads are seven mountains...” No, what's the one that said it? No, that’s another place. Oh, here:

   Revelation 17:15 “And he saith unto me, The waters which thou sawest, where the whore sitteth, are peoples, and multitudes, and nations [and languages] or (and) tongues.” In other words, many nations speaking many different languages. In other words, Europe. Same thing, all just what I've been telling you about. See, the great whore that sitteth on many waters, that is, many nations speaking different languages, with whom the kings of the earth of those who have committed fornication. They claimed to be the church. The church is supposed to be the fiancé bride of Christ. But she didn't wait to be married to Christ at his second coming. She was married to the kings of this world.

   Now, the Pope's name, he's called the “Vicar of Christ”. I wonder if you know what “vicar” means. Look it up in the dictionary. “Vicar of Christ” means “in place of Christ”. It doesn't mean a representative of Christ. It means one who has just shoved Christ aside and knocked him out of the way and taken over. One who said, Christ, get out of here, I'm taking over for you. I'm running it now. In place of Christ. The Roman Catholic Church has claimed that the kingdom of God is the Roman Catholic Church. That the Pope is in the place of Christ. The second coming of Christ occurred. He is ruling what were the nations of the world. And they ruled for 1,260 years, the nations of Europe, and they call it a Holy Roman Empire. That's why the Bible speaks of her in such terms, of rottenness, of filthiness. Let me go on and read it to you.

   Revelation 17:3...”I saw a woman set upon a scarlet-colored beast... Now the beast is the civil government, the political government. The woman is a church. [A] “...beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns.”

   Revelation 17:4 “And the woman was arrayed in purple, [that's the color of royalty] and scarlet [the color of a harlot or a whore, a] scarlet colour, and decked with gold and precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand... A woman is always a symbol of the church. A civil government is spoken of in the masculine gender, in a symbol in the Bible. ...in her hand full of abominations and the filthiness of her fornication:”

   Revelation 17:5 “And upon her forehead [the church's forehead] was a name written, MYSTERY BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS...” In other words, the Babylonian mystery religion, the ancient pagan Babylonian mystery religion. Now called falsely, Christianity and claiming to be the original church. And notice that, and a mother of harlots, who came out of her protesting and calling themselves Protestant in protest. And God calls them harlots. Now they're deceived; they don't know it. I'm not calling them names; I'm reading what God says. It is God who's doing it. God has a right to call them names if he wants to; I'm not doing it. Harlots and abominations of the earth. This thing is filthy in God's sight. And yet we've come up among some of that. We've believed a lot of that. And Christ has said, Come out from among them and be separate. Christ has called his church out from among all of that to be separate brethren. And we have to live a different kind of life.

   Revelation 17:6 “And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints...” You know that she called them, if they kept the Sabbath instead of Sunday, they were declared heretic or anathema from Christ. Now the accusation anathema from Christ made by the church was considered a capital crime by the government. And the government, the political state, put them to death. And they were martyred. And the woman is drunken on the blood of the saints. The woman says, Oh, I never killed anybody. Oh no, we didn't put anyone to death. No, we just pronounced them anathema from Christ. It was the government. The government put them to death. But the woman sat on top of the beast. A woman riding a horse is weaker. The horse is much stronger. It carries her. But she makes it go, you know, gee or haw, turn right or left. And she controls it and guides it which way it goes and what it does. And that's exactly what happened. A woman riding a beast.

   Revelation 17:6 “And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, I wondered in great admiration. Now we come down to verse 8.

   Revelation 17:8 “The beast that thou sawest was, and is not... Now I have to get the time of this prophecy. At what time was John seeing in his vision? And I think it was right around the year of 1934. And that's about the time that Mussolini claimed that he had revived the so-called Holy Roman Empire. And I say I don't think it even made front page headlines. But I saw it and I announced it on the air at the time myself.

   Revelation 17:8 “The beast that thou sawest was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, [You see, it's to come out one more head yet] and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder... [when they behold] whose names [that are] (were) not written in the book...” all except those in the church, they are going to just look on with absolute dumbfounded wonder when they see this United States of Europe rise up.

   Now undoubtedly Greece will be in. The Pope is going back to Poland in just a few months. And they're declaring this coming year a certain year of rejuvenation of Europe. And I know that they're planning to try to put it over in this coming year. Now really they know they've got to work fast now. And it's going to go to pieces, fit in piece, not to pieces, very very soon. Now let me show you a little bit of the final and the end of it.

   Revelation 17:12 “And the ten horns (in verse 12 I want.) The ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast.”

   The beast will be over the ten nations. Each nation will have a king on its own. Well, there may be five in Western Europe, five in Eastern Europe. Poland may break away. Czechoslovakia would like to. I'm pretty sure that Romania would. I've been there three times. And I've had even the top people from Romania right near the top of the government as our guest here in Pasadena. And they say that we are communists but we certainly are not Moscow communists. And they would like to cut loose from Moscow. And also so would the former nation of Tito or Yugoslavia. Now Yugoslavia seems to be hanging together. It's really several nations put together and I thought they might split after Tito died. But they seem to be holding and I think that they might come in. Undoubtedly Greece will come in. The people I saw in Athens are very anxious to come into this. And strangely enough even the United States politicians want this thing to go through in Europe. They're all for it. But now notice this:

   Revelation 17:13 “These have one mind, and shall give their power and their strength to the beast.” They're saying the military power of their nations, and:

   Revelation 17:14 “These shall make war with the Lamb, and the Lamb shall overcome them: for he is Lord of lords and King of kings...” That means the second coming of Christ. They will fight against Christ when he comes. Now that gets you right down to the very time just before the second coming of Christ. Now I'm afraid I'm going to have to take a little extra time. I've still got a little time. I hope I can get this without going over time. But now next I want to show you what connection that has with the Great Tribulation and with the United States and with us. Isaiah 47 now. Back in Isaiah 47 and beginning in verse 1. Now let me see. I want the first seven verses.

   Isaiah 47:1 “Come down... [this is a prophecy.]

   Isaiah 47:1 “Come down, and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon... Now remember the ancient Babylon was always a he, a masculine gender under king Nebuchadnezzar 604 years before Christ down to 554 B.C. That was in the masculine gender. But this is a daughter of that Babylon. This is a church. Remember the “her” is always the church.

   Isaiah 47:1 “Come down, and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon, sit [in] on the ground: there is no throne, O daughter of the Chaldeans...A church that has been riding on top of governments speaking different languages. This ties right in with what I just read you in the book of Revelation...for thou shalt no more be called tender and delicate” [in female terms].

   Isaiah 47:2 “Take the millstone and grind meal: uncover thy locks, make bare the leg, uncover the thigh, pass over the rivers.”

   Isaiah 47:3 “Thy nakedness shall be uncovered, yea, thy shame shall be seen: (and) I will take vengeance... [that's God speaking] ...I will take vengeance and I will not meet thee as a man.” That is, God won't meet as a man.

   Isaiah 47:4 “As for our Redeemer, the Eternal (LORD) of hosts is his name, the Holy One of Israel.” [Meaning Christ].

   Isaiah 47:5 “Sit thou silent, and get thee into darkness, O daughter of the Chaldeans: for thou shalt no more be called, the lady of kingdoms.” A church riding over governments. The lady of kingdoms. God says, I was wroth with my people. His people are Israel and we are Israel. And you have to know who is Israel and who is Judah to understand this.

   Isaiah 47:6 “I was wroth with my people, I have polluted mine inheritance, [which is Israel] and [gave] given them [down] into thine hand: [this church riding over the kingdoms]... and given them into thine hand: and thou didst shew them no mercy... [Now notice that] thou didst shew them no mercy; upon the ancient has thou very heavily laid thy yoke.” Notice that yoke. Is going to be on our people by this very united Europe.

   Isaiah 47:7 “And thou saidst, I shall be a lady forever: [That's the daughter of Babylon] so that thou didst not lay these things to thy heart, neither didst remember the latter end of it.”

   Now there's a great deal more to the prophecy and I'm just cutting it short to give you the general meat of it as quickly as possible. It's addressed to the house of Israel. The next chapter starts out here it is, O you house of Israel, and so on. This message all the way through is to the house of Israel, which is Britain and the United States and the English speaking people. Now, next I'd like to go to Jeremiah 30. Jeremiah 30, and beginning with verse 2. {2}

   Jeremiah 30:3 “For, lo, the days come, says the Eternal (LORD), that I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel and Judah...”

   Now then, for example, the Israelis are really Judah and not Israel. But there are more Jews in New York City than there are in Palestine or in the country called Israel. And there are almost as many out here in Los Angeles. There are a great many Jews in Los Angeles. And for some reason the Los Angeles Jews they misunderstand us and they have been against us and I wish they weren't. I wish they knew how we've cooperated with their own people over in the nation Israel and what friends we have with them over there.

   Jeremiah 30:3 “For, lo, the days come (saith the LORD,) that I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel and Judah, saith the Eternal (LORD): [of hosts] (and) I will cause them to return to the land that I gave to their fathers, [that's back in Palestine] and they shall possess it.” Now that's after the second coming of Christ.

   Jeremiah 30:4 “And these are the words that the Eternal (LORD) spake concerning Israel and concerning Judah.” Showing they’re two different peoples altogether, because they were divided.

   Jeremiah 30:5 “For thus says the Eternal (LORD); We have heard a voice of trembling, [and] of fear, and not of peace.”

   Jeremiah 30:6 “Ask ye now, and see whether a man doth travail with child? wherefore do I see every man with his hands on his loins as a woman in travail, and all faces are turned into paleness?”

   Jeremiah 30:7 “Alas! for the day is great, so that there is none like it... In other words, there can only be one time so great and so terrible that nothing has ever been like it before or ever will again. Again, it's the great tribulation. So that none is like it....even the time of Jacob's trouble...” Now Jacob means Israel, not Judah in this case. Because the dying Jacob crossed his hands on the sons of Joseph, Ephraim and Manasseh, and said, Let my name, Jacob, be named on them. So we have that name, Jacob, not Judah.

   Jeremiah 30:7 “Alas! for that day is great, so that none is like it: it is even the time [day] of Jacob's trouble; but he shall be saved out of it.” He'll get into it, but be saved out of it after he gets into it. But it's going to be terrible.

   Jeremiah 30:8 “For it shall come to pass in that day, says the eternal (LORD) of hosts, that I will break his yoke from (off) thy neck... Remember I said that Babylon, the daughter of the ancient Babylon, will have a yoke on us? And here it is again. [Come]...off thy neck and will burst thy bonds, (and) strangers shall no more serve themselves of him:”

   Jeremiah 30:9: “But they shall serve the Eternal (LORD) their God, and David their king, whom I will raise up unto them.” That is the resurrection at the coming of Christ. David is to be resurrected and is to be king over all of the nations that come from the twelve tribes of Israel. As this includes the United States, the Israelis, Britain, France, Holland, Sweden, Norway; all of these countries. And David will be resurrected and be king over us. Now, the next scripture that I want to read is Jeremiah 50 and the first four verses:

   Jeremiah 50: 1 “The word of the Eternal (LORD) against Babylon and against the land of the Chaldeans by Jeremiah the prophet.” Now, let's see. I want to hear the first four verses.

   Jeremiah 50:2 “Declare ye among the nations, and publish, and set up a standard; publish, and conceal not: say, Babylon is taken, Bel is confounded, Merodach is broken in pieces; her idols are confounded, her images are broken in pieces.”

   Jeremiah 50:3 “For out of the north there cometh up a nation against her... Now, this is against Babylon. And this is speaking of the communist countries finally coming against what you would call Catholic Europe, which Russia is to the north and they are to the south.

   Jeremiah 50:3 ...“out of the north there cometh up a nation against her, [they] which shall make her land desolate, and none shall dwell [there] therein: [and] they shall remove, [and] (they) shall depart, both man and beast.”

   Jeremiah 50:4 “In those days, and in that time, says (saith) the Eternal (LORD), the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together, going and weeping: they shall go, and seek the Eternal (LORD) their God.”

   Jeremiah 50:5 “They shall ask the way to Zion with their faces thitherward, saying, Come, and let us join ourselves to the Eternal (LORD) in a perpetual covenant...” That's the new covenant, and then he goes on to say:

   Jeremiah 50:6 “My people hath been lost sheep: their shepherds have caused them to go astray, [the ministers] they have turned them away on the mountains: [that’s various nations it means here] they have gone from [the] mountain to hill, [and] (they) have forgotten their restingplace. And it says beginning with verse 8:

   Jeremiah 50:8 “Remove out of the midst of Babylon, and go forth out of the land of the Chaldeans, and (be) as {3} [for] (the he) goats before the flocks.” To Israel, God says a lot of those things, and there's a lot more here, but it shows that he's talking about the time just before the second coming of Christ, and going into that time, our people are going to be taken slaves. The third that are left alive now in all of our dwelling places, our cities, are going to be destroyed. That is in Ezekiel. Well, let me see. I think I have that all marked out here to. I’ll read that. Here it is in Ezekiel 6 in verses 6 and 8:

   Ezekiel 6:6 “In all your dwellingplaces the cities shall be laid waste...” Again in verse 8 {4}

   Ezekiel 6:7 “And the slain shall fall in the midst of you...” And this is to the house of Israel, not to Judah. This is to the United States and Britain and our people and our nations; if you don't know that, you can't understand it.

   Ezekiel 6:7 “And the slain shall fall in the midst [before] (of) {5} you and ye shall know that I am the LORD.” Now that expression, “you shall know that I am the Lord, or the Eternal,” is one that occurs several times in Ezekiel's prophecy. Always it refers to the second coming of Christ. They did not know he is the Eternal. They will know it when he comes the second time, and that is mentioned a good many times there. Now that is repeated here just a few verses later let me see it is over in the 12th chapter in verse 20:

   Ezekiel 12:20 “And thy (the) cities that are inhabited shall be laid waste, and the land shall be desolate; and you (ye) shall know that I am the Eternal (LORD).” That’s the second coming of Christ. These are things that will happen just before the coming of Christ and then he’s going to take us and those that are left alive of our people back.

   Now then, you also have to read in the third chapter of Revelation, speaking of the Philadelphia Era of the Church. We are going to be taken to a place of safety or to a place of protection during this time. And I don't know how to make anything else out of it, and that’s in two different places in the Bible. But we begin in the 12th chapter of Revelation, we are to fly into a place where it is prepared. Now how God is going to do that, how he is going to bring it, well, we just have to trust him in faith to open our minds to understand it when the time comes, and I think it is now going to come very, very soon.

   Well, brethren, I have been preaching this now for the last 48 or 49 years; that’s before a great many, I’d say half of you, have been born since that time, and now it’s all coming to pass, and it is reality. It’s going to come very soon. You can laugh it off. You can go off and say, Well, I think that we’ve called Mr. Armstrong God's apostle. I guess he is just a crackpot; if you want to, or you can heed and be protected.

   Now let me tell you what else is going to happen, and this is one thing that has been seen in Rome very lately: tags giving the days of the week and showing that the 7th day of the week is Sunday and that Monday is the first day of the week and that Saturday is the 6th day of the week. You get the significance of that, brethren? They’ve been trying to change the calendar in Europe for the past 20, 30, 40 years. They haven't changed it yet. The new United States of Europe will do it.

   Now there is one Commandment that is the test Commandment. I want to tell you, the people of the world and of Protestantism and the Catholicism, they will admit that we shouldn't have other gods before the true God, the first Commandment. They will admit that we should not make images. I don't know if the Catholic Church will or not but with Protestants most of them will. Of God, that we shouldn't take his name in vain.

   They will admit that we should honor our parents. They will admit that we shouldn't commit adultery. That we shouldn't lie. We shouldn't steal; it's wrong to steal. Murder is wrong. Oh yes, we have human laws against those things, against stealing and murder especially, and of course lying, sometimes if you lie in court and it's called perjury. Why, you can be held in contempt of court and get fined; of course it's now a time anyway.

   And that it’s wrong to covet. But they won't admit that the seventh day is the Sabbath and that it is Holy to God and we're commanded to keep it Holy. There is one Commandment they will not accept! That is God's TEST Commandment, and it's going to be a test for us, and the “Mark of the Beast” is soon going to be enforced. And you're going to find that you will not be able to have a job. You will not be able to buy anything. You will not be able to receive any money unless you turn back to Sunday.

   Brethren I tell you that's going to happen in the very next few years, and it may happen by next year or the year after. The mark of the beast is going to be enforced, which is Sunday instead of Sabbath. Sabbath is God's Sign. I've got to preach some more sermons on it. And I've just heard that I didn't realize that when this church was beginning to go liberal just before I began to work might and main to put it back on the track, there only three, four years ago. But they were also beginning to say, ‘Oh, you can buy all your merchandise; you can work if you have to or anything on the Sabbath.”. They were saying that even the ministers in this church, they're gone; they're out of here now, and you show me any minister who will say that now, and I'll see that he gets out of the church in a hurry, because no such minister belongs in the Church of God.

   It's time this Church gets cleaned up. It's time we get all the way back on the track. I've been moving every way I could to get us back on the track.

   I'm pretty well torn apart physically. I'm past 90 years of age now, and I still have to be the dynamo that keeps it going. I can hardly read! I just see out of one eye, and it's so blind I've bothered you, and I'm sorry. I apologize for having had you have to sit there while I struggle to try to read the Bible to you, but I do the best I can, and I hope you'll do the best you can, brethren.

   You know, I'm just reminded the last time I saw Mrs. Thatcher of England, the Prime Minister, as we were leaving, she said, “Well, there's one thing our two countries, the United States and Britain, must absolutely continue to hang together.” And I said, “Well, if we don't hang together, {Mr. Armstrong chuckles a little} we'll probably hang separately”, and that's the way it is with us brethren.

   We had better get on the track and be sure that we are better. I wish you could have all heard the sermon this morning. I have to preach on things like this; I have to bring these things to you. Other ministers can bring you Spiritual food for your everyday living. Brethren, there are things like this that I have to bring to you, and we're going to have to get back on to the Sabbath question and what is the “Mark of the Beast”. I've been giving you a little bit about who the beast is now this afternoon.

   All of a sudden I've been preaching this for years, and now all of a sudden these things are all falling into place. It’s going to happen. The question is, are we ready? We're going to be put into a test that you can't dream of. The “test Commandment” is going to be a test, and your life is going to depend on whether you can trust God or whether you will give in, and I predict that some of you are going to give up the Sabbath and give in and go with the world, but the plagues of God will be on you if you do that, but everything that the civil government and police and the power of man can do to you will be on you if you don't give in on the Sabbath/Sunday question. Where are you going to stand? You're going to be put to a test such as you've never had before, brethren, and very soon. And I tell you, the time has come when you better do a little fasting and praying and get back close to God and be sure that you're so close to Him that you can rely on Him, that you can trust Him, because you're going to have to trust Him with your life, and very soon.

   Now I hope this shakes you up a little bit because if I can shake you up, now that's fine, but if I don't, the conditions in the world are going to shake you up, and very soon. Well, let's all get back, and we better hang together, so pray for me as I pray for you. We need to pray for one another now as never before. Thank you, brethren.