Herbert W Armstrong

   We are at the end of an age, and this is an age that man has built. This is the world that man has built, and man is tearing it down. And when man comes to the place where he is at the end of the rope, when he comes to the place that our scientists are warning us today, when mankind is going to be annihilated from off the face of this earth unless something happens to prevent. And the only thing that scientists seem to know to prevent it would be if we could have world government. Because as long as we have competitive governments, and here the United States government has enough hydrogen bombs and atomic bombs and weapons of destruction to annihilate all human life from off the planet Earth.

   It's about time we wake up. We're living in terrifying times right now. We're in sort of a lull. We just have a little kind of a cold war, and it isn't so cold, it seems it's a hot one way or the other. Right now. We don't realize. And Russia is winning it though. We are in World War III, Russian style, but it's not American style, and we don't even recognize it as war. We think we're in a comparative time of peace, and here we are in a comparative time of luxury and economic plenty. And that's the worst thing that could happen to us.

   I wonder if you realize that that's not for our good. I hope you don't misunderstand me. If we knew how to use it, the most pleasant thing in the world would be to have economic prosperity and a lot of luxury. But we don't, and it's lulling us to sleep. It's making us feel just a little too complacent and too sure of ourselves. And right now, we're in our very greatest danger right now, and we're going to be because we have prosperity. Oh, that's what we all want. That's what you want, isn't it? Yes, you want it. If you can just have more money and more of the things that money will buy. There are other things a lot more important that you're forgetting all about, but you don't want to think of those things. If you can just have a lot of money, if you could just win the $64,000 question, or the $100,000 prize. Well, what good would it do? Your Uncle Sam would take most of it, or quite a little over half of it anyway if you got it. But people just want money. If you can only get money, you think you're all right. That's only a part of life. It isn't the most important part either. And if you'd put some other things first and put the right values first, we'd have plenty of prosperity. You'd have everything money can buy that you'd need, that you have any business having at all. If we only got the other things right.

   Well, my friends, you can know what's going to happen. You can know the future. It's all written in your Bible, and about one-third of your Bible is devoted to prophecy. And about 90% of that is referring to the immediate present just ahead of us now. The things that are going to happen in these next 5 or 10 years, and you can know, you can see your future, your life that you're going to live into and what's going to happen because all of these world troubles and world disturbances affect you. You're going to live into these times, and it behooves us to know.

   Well, now I've been going through one of the specific prophecies, the book of Jeremiah, not taking every bit of it. I don't want to take the time, and I don't think that it would be of a great deal of value or interest to you. To have me take the time just now to take every word, every verse, every chapter of the book of Jeremiah. I think we had concluded some things in the seventh chapter in the preceding program and now I want to skip on over to the 10th chapter a little bit. There's something here. I wonder if you have ever noticed it. The 10th chapter of Jeremiah now (Jeremiah 10:1). Hear ye the word which the Eternal speaketh unto you O house of Israel. Thus saith the Eternal, learn not the way of the heathen and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven. For the heathen are dismayed at them. For the customs of the people are vain, the customs, the traditions, the things that we customarily do.

   Now, there are certain things that we do customarily. Customarily, you buy a Valentine and send it to someone on Valentine Day. Customarily, do you go out either to sunrise service, Easter Sunday morning, or attend church or at least you dress up or you have Easter eggs or something of the sort. Maybe you buy some Easter cards and send them to people. It's a custom for people to doll all up and dress up and parade up and down Fifth Avenue in New York on Easter Sunday morning. Customarily, we teach the children to go out to trick or treat or something of the sort on the night they call Halloween. We used to be a little rougher when I was a boy. We had wood sidewalks in those days. We'd go out and tear up wood sidewalks, tear down picket fences, and we really got pretty rough. There was one old woman I know that we boys didn't like when I was 11 years old. Boys can get pretty mean about 11. They get into the gang age about that stage of life. Well, a bunch of us boys ganged up on a woman we didn't like one time. She had a cow and sort of a pasture in her backyard. She must have had two or three lots or there was some vacant lots around. We got that cow, put it up on her front porch, tied it to her front doorknob, knocked on the door and we ran when she started to open the door, the cow started to walk right in and we thought that was a lot of fun. I don't know if that really hurt anybody, but we did some things that weren't so nice.

   Well, those things are customs, now it's customary to cut down a tree out of the forest and to fasten it with nails with some kind of a standard. So, it won't topple over, bring it…

   [Tape seems spliced here.]

   And shall conceive and so on. Well, technically, that's exactly the way it was in the Hebrew. The only difference being there that to a Hebrew in that day, a young woman meant a virtuous young woman. And if she was not virtuous, she wouldn't have been called a young woman, she would have been called a Harlot. And it didn't say Harlot, it said a young woman. And so actually, it should have been a virgin because in today's language, that's the way we speak. And sometimes even a Harlot might be called a young woman today where that was not true in the time of the original inspiration in the Hebrew language. And so I think that's an error certainly, but it's technically correct. Oh, I know you hear a lot of things about the men that translated that translation. Well, they were among the world's best, greatest Hebrew and Greek scholars, regardless of their personal belief. And if you know what I know my friends and you're going to put your trust in a man and how good he is when he does his translating, you know, you aren't going to trust anybody anyhow, it's a matter of scholarship.

   Now, on the other hand, while there are some of these glaring mistakes, some of us know a lot better that isn't going to influence me. I wouldn't recommend that in translation if you want to know what Bible, I recommend and you're going to buy a Bible and you're only going to have one, all right, I'll recommend the old Authorized Version. Sure, I never recommend anything else, but I do recommend that if you really want to understand since there are literally hundreds of errors and mistakes in translation in this old King James translation, I do recommend that you also look at some of the other translations once in a while along with it. Now I use the Authorized of the King James translation more than any other. But to come out with prejudice, like so many people do today, my friends, let's put that away. It's all right to look at any of them and we should have minds that can understand and comprehend and by comparing them all diligently and you have 24 hours a day of time, it's the most important thing in your life. Don't say I haven't time and I can't bother with it. Maybe you haven't time to bother with the kind of a life that will make you happy. Maybe you haven't time for the kind of eternal salvation that's going to give you eternal life.

   Well, if you're so busy, go ahead and enjoy what you've got because you aren't going to last long anyhow, in that case. But we all have the time if we only realize it, and we could compare all of these things. And I do know this, that in spite of some of those errors and I know where they are and what they are, they don't mislead me, and they don't need to you if you also are a student. And if you use the other translations, nevertheless, there are some two or 300 errors in the King James translation that have been corrected in that so-called New Bible that people hate so.

   Now, then I'm going to use the Moffatt translation here a little bit, and I don't think it's the most accurate translation at all, but it is in very plain English. Now, I checked with the Authorized, I checked with other translations to see if it's accurate and then if it is, I like to use it because it's in language that you can understand. This is your language. All right, then the Eternal promises. Now, that's that the consummation of the age, you shall consider it as Moffatt renders the verse I just read to you the last verse of the 30th chapter Jeremiah and now the 31st chapter of Jeremiah (Jeremiah 31:1), then the Eternal promises. "I will be a God to all the families of Israel." Now notice God says "I'll be a God to all the families of Israel." That's not only the Jewish people, it includes them, but my friends that is including America, that's including the Canadians, the British, the Australians, the South Africans, that's including the Dutch and the Danes and the Swedes and the Norwegians. God says, "I'll be a God to all of the families of Israel, and they shall be my people for this is the Eternal's promise. Those who survive the sword shall find grace in the dungeon." Now, I've been reading to you my friends how this sword is coming, but we're going to be delivered out of it.

   I have read to you in other broadcasts and from other prophecies. For instance, the fifth chapter, is it not of Ezekiel or is it the sixth, the fifth? It is in Ezekiel. There is a prophecy of how famine is to come and what is going to happen as a result. And one-third of the population are to die of the famine and the disease epidemic that will follow it. And then on the heels of that will come an invasion of war and the third part of thee shall fall by the sword round about thee says, God and I'll scatter the third. That's the only third that remains into all the winds and I'll draw a sword out after them, just as both Israel and Judah went into captivity and were taken as slaves out of their country and taken to the land of their conquerors to be their slaves. So that's going to happen to us. This says, and the word of God says that if we don't straighten up and we don't return to our God in time, which would prevent it, that our whole nation, the third of us that will remain alive are going to be taken to the land of our conquerors and made slaves. That's in your Bible, believe it or not. Why don't you hear anyone proclaiming these things? Why is it that everybody is afraid? They think it's too shocking or something? It's in your Bible, my friends. And I tell you, it's about time we begin to get it.

   Herbert W. Armstrong will return in a moment. But first, this offer concerning literature of related interest. The White Horse of religion, the Red Horse of War, the Black Horse of Famine, the Pale Horse of Disease, because of the size and scope of a topic such as the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. We are pleased to offer a complete set of four booklets on the subject. Individual editions in concise, full-color format detail specific information on, The White Horse of Religion, The Red Horse of War, The Black Horse of Famine, and The Pale Horse of Disease. These prophetic subjects from the Book of Revelation chapter six are too important to ignore. All four booklets are available at no cost or obligation. All you need to do is request, The Four Horsemen booklets, send your request to Herbert W. Armstrong Post Office Box 111, Pasadena, California 91123. That's Herbert W. Armstrong Post Office Box 111, Pasadena, California 91123.

   Now that is the time of Jacob's trouble. That is the time of the great trouble of America that is coming. It's the greatest time of trouble that has ever happened to any nation. Jesus Christ foretold that time of trouble when he said it was the greatest time of national and of worldwide trouble that had ever come since there was a nation on the face of the earth or ever will. The prophet Daniel spoke of it in the same language virtually. He said at that time, many that sleep in the dust of the ground shall awake some to everlasting life. That is just before the second coming of Christ. It is the time known as spoken of in the prophecy of Jesus recorded in Matthew 24 as the Great Tribulation. God almighty is going to intervene and cut short those days. But the days are going to happen. He's going to deliver us out of this trouble, but we're going to get into it and we're going to be into it until Christ comes to shorten those days. Now the third of our people remaining are going to be in dungeons. They are going to be slaves. But those who survive the sword of that captivity shall find grace in the dungeon. Now, that's the time this is talking about in Jeremiah 31. There you are. I want you to get that.

   Now, let's go on with the Authorized version. The Eternal hath appeared, verse three (Jeremiah 31:3). Jeremiah 31, the Eternal hath appeared of old unto me saying, "yeah, I have loved thee with an everlasting love. Therefore, with loving kindness have I drawn thee, again I will build thee and thou shalt be built O virgin of Israel and thou shalt again be adorned with thy tabrets and shall go forth in the dances of them that make merry." That's where we're finally going to wind up. But we've got some very serious lessons to learn in the meantime.

   Now my friends listen, if you as an individual will heed even though the nation will not. And even though the nation must be punished because God is love. And I was telling you in the preceding program, why God is going to send this punishment because we are doing the things that ultimately would annihilate ourselves and out of his great love for us. God is going to punish us. He's going to bring us to our senses. But oh my friends, I hope you can understand it even though the nation gets into this thing, you as a private individual can be spared if you will turn to God and seek his protection, if you will pray unceasingly, and if you will study these prophecies to know what's going to happen and watch the world news as it takes place day by day and understand. God is going to take you, he will take you, to a place of safety and protect you. And then when the plagues of the Day of the Lord come, when God sends them, which is to follow later, no plague will come nigh your dwelling, you will be protected. You can have absolute protection. You need not fear one particle of this. If you will turn to God, if the nation will turn to God, none of this will happen. But if we don't, I am telling you on the authority of Jesus Christ and of the word of God that it's going to happen and it's going to come to you. And I say you'd better be frightened and you had better be scared enough that you turn to God and escape this thing so that it will not happen. Now, if you turn, it won't happen to you, your neighbor turns, it won't happen to him. If all of us turn to God and turn away from our own evil ways, it won't happen because this is all coming as he says in chapter 13 and verse 14, because thy sins were increased. God will not punish the innocent. It's only the guilty. But I want to tell you my friends, our nation is guilty and stands guilty before God. The handwriting is on the wall of America now.

   A United States of America is being weighed in the balances by God Almighty and found wanting, and it's time for us to wake up. Now let's go on with this, after this has happened. Christ will come at his second coming to rescue us and to save us out of it. And he says, again, "I'll build thee and thou shalt be built, oh Virgin of Israel." You need our book with the United States in Prophecy, to know where we are mentioned in prophecy and to realize that this is talking of America. Let's read it that way again. "Thou shall be built. I will build thee oh virgin of America." You can read it that way and read it accurately because it's in symbolic language so that no one would understand it until now. And if you have this key, write in for this great key that will unlock prophecy, that whole third of your Bible that has been so misunderstood and so neglected. Write in for that booklet, United States in Prophecy, if you don't have it and then apply it as you read the Bible and you understand the prophecies as you never did before.

   "Thou shalt yet plant vines upon the mountains of Samaria." And that my friends is the land of the ancient kingdom of Israel, not the Jews, but the Israelites, the kingdom of Israel, the house of Israel in the northern part of Palestine up north of Jerusalem and of Judah. And you shall eat them as common things for there shall be a day that the watchman upon Mount Ephraim shall cry arise and let us go up to Zion under the Eternal our God. Now, Zion in some ways sometimes means Jerusalem, but it means the church. It's spiritual Jerusalem, so to speak and to come to Christ and to his ways for thus sayeth the Eternal sing with gladness for Jacob and shout among the chief of the nations.

   Now, this is a warning, this is a message to go to the chief of the nations, Israel. The Jews are not the chief of the nations today, my friends, they haven't even been a nation until very recently. They've been scattered in all nations. Now, they've got a little nation, they call it Israel. Actually, it should be called Judah, not Israel. It just shows you how blind and how confused we are today. But anyway, sing with gladness for, let's say, for America and shout among the chief of the nations, the United States and the British, we today are the chief of the nations. Israel is the chief of the nations at this time in the latter days when we're to consider this prophecy, publish he and say, "O Eternal, save thy people., the remnant of Israel. Remnant is the last generation and we're in that generation now.

   In other words, the 20th-century generation of America and Britain. And this is an appeal to warn the people to cry out to God, to save our nation from this destruction that's coming. Now, we don't even need to get into it. Christ says he's going to save us out of it because we will finally learn a lesson if we've got to learn it the hard way. Behold, says Christ here, "I will bring them from the North country and gather them from the coast of the earth and with them, the blind and the lame and the woman with child and her that travel with child together a great company shall return thither and they shall come with weeping and with supplications will I lead them. That's not the way the Jews under the Zionist movement have gone back to Palestine. But this is the way they will come and the way we will go too. When the time comes, I will cause them to walk by the rivers of waters in a straight way wherein they shall not stumble.

   That rivers of waters are spiritual, that the Holy Spirit of God that fulfills the law of God, the love of God in our hearts that will fulfill the law of God. For I am a Father to Israel. Let's read it. "I am a Father to the United States and the British, and Ephraim is my firstborn, hear the word of the Eternal O you nations declare it in the Isles afar off. Ephraim is Britain in the Isles afar off and say he that scattered Israel will gather him and keep him as a shepherd doth his flock. Did you ever read in Ezekiel 34 and in other places where the Eternal says that he's coming again in person to this earth, to feed his own flock and to deliver them out of the hand of the false preachers and the false ministers that have deceived them, for the Eternal has redeemed Jacob and ransomed him from the hand that was stronger than he.

   We think we're the strongest nation on earth. My friends in less than 20 years, we're going to find there will be a stronger power than we on this earth. It hasn't happened yet. You're living in terrifying times and you probably don't realize that you're just so interested in this apparent time of peace and you like to get it out of your mind. And it's a time when we can have mechanical and material luxuries and gadgets and things. And we're so interested in those things.

   We're so self-centered in our own selves and other people and the things that our hands can make in human interests in television, in the new kind of movies that are coming out in everything to amuse and entertain ourselves. We don't realize how empty our lives are either. Hear the word of the Eternal all you nations, declare it in the Isles afar off and say he that scattered Israel, which means here, America and Britain will gather him and keep him as a shepherd doth his flock. That scattering is yet to happen a second time for the Eternal redeemed Jacob and ransomed him from the hand that was stronger than he. Therefore, they shall come and sing in the height of Zion and shall flow together to the goodness of the Eternal. That's after we've learned our lessons, for wheat and for wine and for oil and for the young of the flock and of the herd and their soul shall be as a watered garden and they shall not sorrow anymore at all.

   Then shall the virgin rejoice in the dance, or the young women, both young men and all together for, I will turn their mourning, which is coming on our people. I'm warning you my friends. I says, God, finally, when we've learned, our lesson, will turn their mourning into joy and will comfort them and make them rejoice from their sorrow. And I will satiate the soul of the priests with fatness and my people shall be satisfied with their goodness, saith the Eternal.

   So, my friends, there is the good news that is coming on beyond today's terrible bad news. Now notice here in the next few verses, thus says the Eternal a voice was heard in Rama lamentation and bitter weeping, Rachel who was really the mother of our people now, weeping for her children refused to be comforted for her children because they were not, or as not, thus says the Eternal refrain, thy voice from weeping and thine eyes from tears for thy work shall be rewarded. Says the Eternal and they shall come again.

   Where from? When our people, when Israel goes back, my friends to Palestine, the land God gave our forefathers. Where are we coming from? Every place where it designates where we're coming from will tell you the same thing in your Bible. They shall come from the land of the enemy, not from our own land in North America, but from the land of the enemy where they're going to be scattered. This is in too many places in your Bible, my friends, for you to misunderstand. If you only open your ears and open your minds to the truth of God, there's going to be a great exodus, so great they won't even remember the Exodus from Egypt under Moses. But this coming great Exodus under Christ out of Babylon will be not from the United States and Britain, but from the land of our enemies. And there is hope in thine end saith the Eternal that thy children shall come again to their own border. I have surely heard Ephraim bemoaning himself thus thou hast chastised me and I was chastised as a bullock unaccustomed to the oak turned on me and I shall be turned for thou art the Eternal my God. That's what we'll finally say. Oh, my time is up. I'm going to have to break off there.

   Now we're coming into this new covenant too in this chapter a little later. Some mighty interesting things coming tomorrow.

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