Herbert W Armstrong

   Today, my friends, we are in the time as foretold by Jesus when he said that this is the beginning of sorrows, just the beginning of trouble and of sorrows in the world today. Today, we're just at the very beginning of the greatest time of tragedy and human suffering ever experienced by mankind on this earth. Hitler is gaining vast new resources rapidly by his European conquests, especially now by his gains in Russia. The British blockade against Germany is no longer effective because Hitler is getting the resources that he needs from the East. Russia is being knocked out of at least 70% of her war industry by the war in Russia. Japan is now getting ready for new adventures which certainly appear to mean war with the United States. Surely the future looks dark today.

   But just what specifically is that future and what is going to happen? What will be the order of events from now on? What is going to happen from now on? Just where do we stand today in the chain of Bible prophecy? As these events in the world events, the events taking place now in the world are vividly foretold in Bible prophecy.

   And so again today, my friends, I want you to notice first Jesus' Olivet prophecy found in the 24th chapter of the book of Matthew. Matthew 24, where in plain language, Jesus explains the symbolic prophecy of the seals of the sixth chapter of the Book of Revelation (Matthew 24:3). Now, Jesus' disciples had come to him privately, and they asked him what would happen at this time of the end of the age, just prior to his return to this earth. And Jesus answered that there would be false prophets preaching false Christs deceiving not the few but the many.

   Oh you read in II Corinthians, the 11th chapter, how Satan is the god of this world, how he is appearing as an angel of light, not as a devil with horns and a tail and a pitchfork, but as an angel of light to deceive the people. His labor is a labor of deception to deceive people, making them think they're receiving truth and light when in fact they're receiving only error and darkness and false ways and sin. And so, it says that Satan has his ministers, and his ministers are transforming themselves into the ministers of righteousness and appearing as the ministers of Jesus Christ, pretending to be Christ's ministers when they're only the ministers of the devil. Now, he's the god of this world; as such, he is worshipped as a god. He has his ministers, he has his churches and his church organizations.

   And I want to tell you, my friends, that Jesus said, and all of the prophecies of the Bible said, that it would be not the few but the many who would be deceived, not just a few wild-eyed, long-haired orators on soap boxes down in the slum districts of some of our larger cities, attracting a small crowd of illiterate and uneducated people. No, not that. But the Bible said it would be the many who would be deceived. And you know how Jesus spoke of the broad and the popular road that leads to destruction and people deceived into thinking they have truth when they have only received error.

   I tell you, my friends, there's too much churchianity today too and not enough of the real genuine Christianity of the message of Christ and of Christ like living today. Well, Jesus' disciples had asked him privately about what was going to happen at the end of this age just prior to Jesus' own return to this earth. And Jesus answered that there would be false prophets preaching these false Christs deceiving not the few but the many and this false teaching doing away with God's law of love, the principle of giving and encouraging the opposite principle of self, which is the principle of competition and of getting. That's the philosophy of all the society of the world today. That would lead inevitably to the next thing that Jesus prophesied, which was war culminating in World War, which has occurred. And now in the wake of this World War, Jesus said would follow famine and pestilence.

   That, my friends, has all happened. Last winter, famine began to grip many lands in Europe just as it followed the World War of 1914 to 1917. And pestilence and disease already has put in its appearance. It will grow progressively worse as time goes on. These stark and grim reapers, the two of the four horsemen, famine and pestilence, will appear in greatly intensified form during this coming winter. And all these, Jesus said, as he prophesied here in Matthew 24 and the eighth verse (Matthew 24:8), all these are the beginning of sorrows, just the beginning. That's all. By far, the worst is yet to come.

   Now, where are we in the train of Bible prophecy? Well, that's where we are right to that point. And then what next? I want you to notice what Jesus said in the next verse, the ninth verse (Matthew 24:9). Matthew 24: "And then they shall deliver you" — you in New Testament language means the Christian, you who are — and by Christian, I mean those who really are keeping God's commandments, who are filled with God's Holy Spirit, because he only gives his Holy Spirit to them that obey Him as we read in Acts the fifth chapter and the 32nd verse (Acts 5:32). The Holy Spirit in us is really God's law in action in our lives because love is the fulfilling of God's law. And it's the love of God that is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit. And what is sin? Sin is the transgression of the law.

   You know, we read all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine and to correct us and reprove us wherein we have been deceived by Satan and his ministers. And one of the scriptures given by inspiration of God back in the 111th Psalm (Psalm111:7) says that all of God's commandments that he wrote with his own finger, the works of His own hands, are verity and judgment. All His commandments are sure; they stand fast, how long? Forever and ever and are done in truth and uprightness. Well, I tell you, my friends, forever and ever has not passed by yet, so they're all still going on. Now, Jesus said, "Then they, the people of the world, shall deliver you, the Christians, up to be afflicted and shall kill you, and you shall be hated of all nations for my name's sake. And then shall many be offended and shall betray one another and shall hate one another. But many false prophets, false preachers, shall rise to deceive many."

   I tell you, my friends, this law question is the thing that all of this persecution and this martyrdom of saints is going to take place over. And ministers will rise up, and preachers, false preachers of Satan, the devil, to try to convince the people that God's law is done away, to try to convince you that the Ten Commandments, God's great spiritual law, the law it is a sin to transgress, is merely the physical law of rituals of Moses. We know the law of Moses was nailed to the cross, but that, my friends, was the law of rituals and ceremonies under the Old Testament church dispensation where they didn't have the Holy Spirit at that time, the Holy Spirit had not yet been given, as we read in Acts the seventh chapter and the 39th verse (Acts 7:39). But at that time, they had rituals, ordinances, and ceremonies as a substitute to teach them and instill in those Israelites of that day the habit of obedience, material physical duties. But I tell you, my friends, God's law is spiritual. It's a different law altogether. It is a law of spiritual principles, defining the way for man to live. And every wail of human woe and anguish and suffering that has ever happened in this world has come from transgressing that wonderful law of love. It's love to God and love to neighbor, spiritual principles. Love is the fulfilling of that law. And so, they're going to arise to deceive people about it.

   Now, Jesus said, "He that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved." Shall be saved. He that endures unto the end. And then at that same time, this gospel of the Kingdom, the good news of the kingdom, shall be preached into all the world for a witness unto all nations. And then shall the end come.

   My friends, we're coming to the time now, and Almighty God says that this good news of His coming kingdom that is to replace all the nations now crumbling in this world. You wonder why Adolf Hitler is permitted by the Almighty God to run amok and to crash down one nation after another. You wonder why the nations are crumbling today? I tell you, my friends, it is the doom of the present order. Adolf Hitler will never build his new order over this world, but he will be used of the Almighty to tear down the existing order that's based on selfishness and greed and self-gain and getting instead of God's way of love and of giving. Jesus said it's more blessed to give than to receive. And you know, I believe that, and it's just too bad that people can't see it and can't come to understand it. Now, this gospel of the kingdom is to go to all the world for a witness and then shall the end come. God's time for His true gospel to go out has now come. It hasn't been preached; it has been all but snuffed out. But the time is coming now for the gospel of the kingdom, the good news of the coming Kingdom of God, that it is coming to replace the present world order, to be preached.

   In II Corinthians, the 11th chapter that I was mentioning to you just a moment ago, you will find how in this day and age people would have been turned to another gospel, another Jesus being preached, a different Jesus than the one described in the Bible. And they would be possessed of a different spirit, just as we read in the fourth chapter of II Timothy (II Timothy 4:3-4), that people have turned away their ears from hearing the truth and have been turned unto fables. Now, the next verse says, at the same time is the time when the foreign armies, and we know it will be the Roman Axis armies, will invade Palestine. This thing shall come, and they will deliver up Christians to be afflicted and shall kill them. And the 21st verse says (Matthew 24:21), "For then shall be great tribulation such as was not from the beginning of the world." At the same time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened, no flesh should be saved. But for whose sake, whose sake, the elect's sake, those who cry out in prayer to God day and night, for their sake, those days shall be shortened. And then what? Immediately after the tribulation of those days, says the 29th verse (Matthew 24:29), the sun shall be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heavens shall be shaken.

   Now, my friends, that is picturing the same thing you find under the seals of the sixth chapter of the book of Revelation. The white horse is the false Christ. The red horse is war. The black horse of the third seal is famine, and the pale horse is pestilence. And under the fifth seal, the souls that had been slain way back in the past in the Middle Dark Ages for the witness of Jesus and for the commandments of God and so on, and they are to rest yet a little season until their fellow servants and their brethren that shall be killed yet in the future now shall be fulfilled as they were. And then comes the sun and the moon being dark, and the stars falling from heaven.

   And listen at the spectacle, and when Almighty God rises, rises up to show himself and his great power, men are going to be struck with fear. They're going to run in frantic terror, they're going to cry the world is coming to an end. And it says here, the kings of the earth and the great men and the rich men and the mighty men, the chief captains and every bondman and every free man hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains. And they said to the rocks and to the mountains, "Fall on us and hide us from the face of him that sits on the throne and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of His wrath is come." And that is the day of God's wrath, the day of the Lord, in the time of God's plagues. But then will follow. And so that, my friends, is the immediate order of events now to come.

   O our Father in heaven, we thank you that you have forewarned us. We thank you that you know that we know what is going to come. And we thank you, Father, that Jesus said that if we would pray without ceasing, pray continually, that we will be accounted worthy to escape even this martyrdom. Only those saints who are neglecting prayer that will be killed, there will be a company who will be taken to a place of safety if we pray enough, if we are close enough to you, keeping your commandments. Help us, O God, to turn to you now through Christ Jesus, our Lord. We ask it in His name.

   Friends, do you know what Bible prophecy says about Hitler's invasion of Russia? Why does God permit the World War and all this anguish and tragedy in the world today? Why doesn't he intervene and stop it? Do you know? And where is the United States mentioned in Bible prophecy? And what does prophecy say of our national destiny? Another article in the Plain Truth: "America Stands in Mortal Danger Now."

   Now, if you want to know what Bible prophecy says about this and the answer to these other questions, you'll find them all in this issue of the Plain Truth magazine published for our listeners. The Plain Truth is free. No subscription price. All you have to do is send your name and your address to Herbert Armstrong, Box 111, Eugene, Oregon. Herbert Armstrong in Box 111, Eugene, Oregon. You receive every number free. So, until next Sunday, same time, same station, goodbye, friends, and God bless you all.