Herbert W Armstrong

   It's at the end of Satan's dominion. And Satan is the god of this world. He sits on the throne of this world, of the earth. God did set a throne on is earth before man ever occupied this earth. And he put a super archangel called Lucifer there, a cherub, a mighty angel. But he had not developed character. That is something God cannot create himself.

   God did create within him a mind. A mind capable of receiving knowledge, capable of making decisions, capable of weighing knowledge, of having ideas/opinions. And he was perfect in all of his ways from the day that he was created until iniquity was found in him. And that archangel Lucifer then became Satan the devil, and he's on that throne yet today. He still is on that throne. And this is his world. And this world is in utmost confusion today.

   This world is filled with religions. There are many different religions. There are pagan religions all over the world. The largest religion in the world is called Christianity, but it's divided into first Roman Catholicism and then the Eastern Catholicism, and then all of the Protestant denominations, until we get into scores and even a few hundred sects and denominations. And it's all a religious Babylon. Of all of these religions, not a one knows who and what God is. And yet religion is man's relationship to God. That's what it is.

   But man doesn't know who and what God is. Some think God is a trinity. They don't know what and why man is. They don't know how he came to be here. They think man is immortal, an immortal soul. They think he will go to heaven or to hell when he dies. If you just get the password of the Savior, you will be converted and saved.

   I wonder if you realize just what the Protestant religion in this world is. Now, most of us have been brought up in a Protestant world, some in the Roman Catholic world. There's not too much difference between them.

   But modern Protestantism, I have just come to realize in the last few days, as I never did before, they are worshiping a human man. They are worshiping a false Jesus.

   Now, Jesus himself said that many would come in his name, saying that he is the Christ, proclaiming that Jesus is the Christ, and yet deceiving the many. How can they preach Christ to the world and deceive the many? Well, I heard a broadcast the other day with a man who many of you have seen on television. He's had a television program going for the last 30 years, and he's about ready to go off the air now because he's out of money.

   And I saw him on one of the daily programs being interviewed just the other day. They were accepting a few telephone calls asking this evangelist to answer, and one woman called in and asked the question, Do I have to speak with tongues to have the Holy Spirit? He says, Lady, do you have a pastor? Are you a member of a church? Do you have a pastor in your church? Yes, she said she did. Well, he said, then go ask him that question. I am an evangelist; I preach Christ. I don't preach tongues. I preach the giver of tongues. I don't preach salvation. I preach the Savior. I don't preach healing. I preach the healer. I preach only the person.

   And I came to realize it is all deifying a false Jesus. The Jesus they talk about is the Jesus who is a smart-aleck young man who knew more than his father, God, and did away with his father's law and said you can live any old way you want to. Just accept me. And instead of going to hell, you'll go straight up to heaven. You accept me; that's all you'll have to do.

   A great evangelist will speak on television, and sometimes you'll see some of his great crusades in some part of the world a full hour on television at night. And he will say to an audience he has had perhaps 50,000 or 100,000 people in his audience — he gets very great congregations.

   The congregations are made up primarily of the members of all of the orthodox, fundamentalist Protestant churches who go along with a teaching that is somewhat like old-fashioned Methodism and the Baptist religion and that sort of Protestant religion.

   He will say that by this time tomorrow night, or even by tomorrow morning, some people in the world are going to die. It might be you. And by this time, by tomorrow morning, you may be roasting in hell for all eternity if you don't come up here and come up in front of this stage here along with the people tonight and receive Christ. You have to receive Christ. You get Christ. You know what's wrong with this world, the word get? They want to get. They want to take. They want to acquire. They don't want to give.

   Now God is a giver. He gave his only begotten son. Jesus Christ is a great giver. He gave his life for you and me. But they say that you get Christ, you appropriate Christ, you receive Christ, and then that's all there is to it. Then you'll go to heaven. And they don't preach. They don't preach the true Christ. They preach a false Christ. And they deify him as a false Christ as a man.

   Now, we're in a religious confusion today. Why all of this confusion? Because it is the world of Satan, the devil, who is not only the ruler over the world, sitting on the throne and over all of the governments of the world, but he is also over the religions of this world.

   You have come out of the religions of this world into the religion of the real Jesus Christ and the religion of God the Father. And in Revelation, in the 18th chapter, in verse 4, we are called out. And it says here, Revelation 18, verse 4:

   Revelation 18:4: “And I heard another voice from heaven, saying, Come out of her, my people..." that is, out of Babylon. He'd been speaking about this Babylon of religion. ... Come out of her, my people, that you be not partakers of her sins...”

   They don't preach repentance. They don't teach what sin is. They don't know; most of the people don't know what sin is. Sin is whatever they think is wrong, not what God's law says is wrong. Most people don't know that sin is the transgression of the law. But that's what it is.

   Revelation 18:4: “Come out of her, my people, that you (ye) be not partakers of her sins, (and) that you (ye) receive not of her plagues.” And that is the time we're coming into in this generation now. Now, Babylon is described in the preceding chapter in verse 5:

   Revelation 17:5: “...upon her forehead... this great whore, and she's called a great whore, a fallen woman, on her forehead...was the (a) name written, MYSTERY BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.” The Babylonian mystery religion of the ancient Chaldean empire.

   Now, having taken the name of Christ and calling itself Christian, preaching a false Jesus, but not calling people out of their sins, not bringing them back toward God, but deceiving the world. Jesus said, "In vain do you worship me, people like that, teaching for doctrines the traditions of men, making the law of God of no effect by your tradition." Oh yes, they can worship Christ and worship in vain, but they're usually worshiping even a false Jesus and not the true Jesus.

   Brethren, I wonder how much of this Protestant religion is rubbed off on us and we don't realize it. I fear that more of it is rubbed off on us than we realize. The Protestant religion believes any and everybody can be saved. That God is trying to get everybody saved. All you do is get the password; just accept Christ. You receive Christ; you “get”. You see, God's law is a way of giving outflowing love to God and love to your neighbor and loving your neighbor as yourself. But this world is geared to the way of get, not give.

   And after all, God's law is only a way of life. It's the way we live. And God is concerned about that. Salvation has to do with changing your way of life. And sin is the transgression of God's law. It is having lived in, by violation, by violating God's law. And Jesus never did that. He never sinned, and he took your sin and mine and your penalty and mine on himself, and he paid it in our stead. That will reconcile us to God the Father, who has eternal life, and the Holy Spirit to give.

   Now, in the world, I say that Satan is on the throne ruling over the governments of this world. Well, now in {1} John, the first chapter, in the first three or four verses, [Mr. Armstrong paraphrased these Scriptures]. We read that the Word, which became Jesus Christ and the Word was with God from all eternity, and the Word is one personage and God is another personage, and there we have two persons, and all things were made by the Word who became Christ. And without him was not anything made that was made. And in him was life, L-I-F-E. He had life to give, and life can only come from life.

   [Joh 1:1: ”In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

   John 1:2: “The same was in the beginning with God.”

   John 1:3: “All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.”

   John 1:4: “In him was life; and the life was the light of men.”]

   Now, in Ephesians 3 and verse 9, [Mr. Armstrong paraphrases], you read that God created all things, but that God created all things by Jesus Christ.

   Ephesians 3:9: “And to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ:”

   14:37 Jesus Christ is the creator of all that is. And yet we find Satan the devil ruling over this earth.

   Where is Jesus Christ now, and what is his position? Jesus Christ now is in heaven on the throne of God the Father over the universe, but not over this earth. He is a high priest of God's own people of this church, and he's there to help us and to pull us out of Babylon and to cleanse us so that we can be made immortal and can be born again of God. And when Jesus Christ comes, and we celebrated his, the, well, I might say the anniversary of before his coming, just last Tuesday.

   I was down in Nashville, Tennessee, last Tuesday, speaking to an even larger audience than we have here this afternoon. And I've been getting out almost every Sabbath this year, speaking to audiences like this, until I've spoken to perhaps more than two-thirds, perhaps almost three-fourths, of all of the membership of the United States and Canada in that time, since the first of this year. But the entire universe is governed by the government of God.

   Now, God himself put Satan, or he was Lucifer at the time, on the throne of this earth. He rebelled, and he became Satan, but God is leaving him there until a successor could qualify and be inducted into office. Now, Jesus Christ did qualify but has not yet been inducted into office.

   Now, God lives today, Jesus Christ lives, and they are allowing Satan to govern this earth, and yet Jesus is on the throne of his father over the governments of all the universe. The only thing that Jesus Christ governs on this earth is this church, you, and me. Those of us who voluntarily will come, surrender to him, to his government, and surrender to that government in his church. And Jesus Christ is the head of this church, so he's the ruler in this church. But that's all he's ruling on the earth at the present time.

   Now, God knew when he made angels that they needed to work together because he wanted them to accomplish something here on the earth.

   When he created Adam, he was starting to reproduce himself, so he told Adam to reproduce. And he said, Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth. Now, God is reproducing himself through man.

   But God cannot create perfect, holy, righteous, spiritual character and create it instantaneously within anyone. That kind of character is the ability of some separately created entity whom God has created with mind and ability to come to see the right from the wrong. And even though he may want to go the way of the wrong and may have a self-desire or may have other influences pulling the wrong way, will have the character and the will to will to make the decision to go the right way and the will to do it in spite of any pull within himself, with any other pull from outside to go the other way; THAT IS CHARACTER.

   The angels that sinned did not have that character. Now, when God first created man on the earth, first the angels who had inhabited this earth prior to Adam had sinned, and they had brought devastation. They had brought confusion and desolation to this earth. And so we read in Psalms, the 104th Psalm, and in verse 30, we read a scripture here that I think most people have never noticed and have entirely ignored. Speaking of God, or to God, it says:

   Psalm 104:30: “Thou sendest forth thy spirit, they are created: and thou renewest the face of the earth.”

   God sent forth his spirit and renewed the face of the earth after the angels had devastated it. And that was not the state of original creation. But in six days God renewed the surface of this earth for mankind.

   Now, he intended us to continue to beautify the earth. He put Adam in the Garden of Eden that he had made after he created Adam and told him to dress it and keep it, not let it go down to weeds. He meant for us to improve the earth that he put us on.

   But man has polluted, tended to destroy, to besmirch, to ruin every physical, material thing his hands have gotten hold of on this earth. That's what we have done, just as the angels before us did. Now, God had renewed the face of the earth.

   You find it in Genesis 1:1, in the beginning, God, that is, Elohim, and that included God the Father and the Word, who became Jesus Christ later. Although God was not his Father until he was born of a human Virgin Mary, but there he includes the two persons. It is like the word family and like the word church. There can be two, there can be five, or ten people in a family, but it's one family. Not five or ten families, only one family.

   Look here, we have, what do we have here, over a couple of thousand people here, I would say, this afternoon. But we're one group, we're one congregation, not many congregations. And God is like that. God is a family, more than one person. God is not just one person.

   So, God said after he had created everything else, he had created the earth, renewed the face of the earth, and he had created plant life, and then he had created fish and fowl life, and he had created animal life, and then finally on the sixth day, the last part of that day, he created man. Now he had made animals after their own kind, as you read in verses 24 and 25, cattle after the cattle kind, and so on. Now that would also imply dogs after the dog kind, elephants after the elephant kind. And then in verse 26:

   Genesis 1:26: “And Elohim (God) said... [now Elohim is more than one person]. Elohim (God) said, LET US, [not me] Let us make man after (in) our image, after our likeness...”

   Gen 1:27: “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.” But first he created only 1: a male. And he created him out of the dust of the earth. You read in Genesis 2 verse 7:

   Genesis 2:7 ...“The eternal (LORD) God formed man of the dust of the ground...”

   Angels were formed or composed of spirit, not matter. And spirit is something you can't see. It's more like air, sometimes compared to water in the Bible. But nevertheless:

   Genesis 2:7 ...“God formed man of the dust of the ground, (and) breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; [just like an animal]. You breathe through the nostrils, in and out of your lungs... “and man [made of the dust of the ground] became a living soul”. Not an immortal soul.

   What was made of the dust of the ground became a soul. The soul came from the ground. It is not spirit. It is matter. And the Bible says, “The soul that sinneth, it shall die” [Ezekiel 18:4, 20]. It says that twice. And God said to the man he had formed, if you sin, you shall surely die. Man was made of the dust of the ground. He did not have immortal life. He only had a temporary chemical existence. That's all you have. You don't have life.

   Now you read back in John 1, I was quoting a while ago, of the Word, who became Christ. But in him was life, L-I-F-E. He had life, but man does not have life. Man has a temporary chemical existence. That's all we have.

   But God put that man; he was not complete. The first thing God did was to take one of his ribs and make a woman out of it, because he wanted man to reproduce, and man alone couldn't reproduce. He was not complete. He needed a wife, and he was not complete until he had one. So God made a wife for him. Her name was Eve. And he said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth."

   Now God made man also incomplete in another way. He made him with an incomplete mind. God made man different from the animals. God made man with a mind. Now, that mind centers in the brain. And all animals have brains, and there is no difference.

   Now some animals have smaller brains than a human brain. Some have larger brains. An elephant has a larger brain than a human brain, but it's just as good. In quality, it's just as good. Also, even in the oceans, a whale or a dolphin have brains larger than a man. And they're rather intelligent animals, but they can't think. They don't know anything about arithmetic and mathematics. They don't know anything about science. They don't know anything about music, art, or literature. They can't think. They can't reason. They don't make decisions. They act by instinct that is already in their brain.

   Now God did not put instinct in the human brain, but he put something else. He put a spirit in the human brain. There is a spirit in man, as you read in Job. And so that spirit gives man the power of thinking, of reasoning, of calculating, of making decisions. And man must decide whatever he does. And he doesn't have instinct. He has to think what he does, and his mind has to direct whatever his hands, his feet, and the rest of his body does. And man is responsible according to that mind.

   But man was made only half there, incomplete again. He was incomplete physically, so God made him a wife. He was incomplete mentally; he had only one spirit. God made another spirit available, which is the Spirit of God. That's what he needed. The spirit of God would have given him immortal, eternal life. He didn't have it. He had a temporary chemical existence.

   Now, brethren, that's one thing that Protestants, for example, in the religions of this world, do not understand. They think man is immortal. He is not. Man, like an animal, is made of the dust of the ground. He has a temporary physicochemical existence. That's all.

   You're like a clock wound up that is running down. And if it isn't rewound, it will stop running. Now we rewind our clock by fueling it with food and water from the ground. And we usually kind of refuel it about three times a day. Otherwise we'd run down, and we'd just die. We don't have life.

   But in the Garden of Eden, where God put the man, were two trees that were very special in the center of that garden, stood out from all of the other trees; they were special and they were symbolic. They had great meaning. One was the tree of life, the other was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil.

   Now the tree of life, it would have given him life. God said the other tree would give him death because he said, "If you eat of that tree, you shall surely die." So that was a tree of death. But it was also a tree of knowledge. When he took to that tree, Adam took to himself the knowledge of what is right and what is wrong.

   Now if Adam had taken the tree of life, he would have received REVEALED knowledge from God. You see, the tree of life is open to you and me today in the church. God has called us. I'm going to come to that a little later. You've been specially called, or you wouldn't be in the church, and Protestants don't know that.

   But you were born only half there mentally. You had the one spirit, and that spirit would allow you to have physical and material knowledge. You could acquire physical and material knowledge. But man was made to need spiritual knowledge.

   Now man was made to need a relationship with other people because God said, "Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth." He was going to have a lot of children, and they would have children, and their children would have children, and they needed to get along together, and they needed to work together, and they needed to produce and to do something. And if they're just going to fight one another and destroy one another and prevent one another from accomplishing anything, nothing could be accomplished, and they could not be happy. That's another thing. They just simply could not be happy.

   They needed regulation. So just as God put law in effect and government in the first place over angels because they needed regulation, and they needed regulation by law. Now you can't have a government without a foundational law or a foundational constitution.

   When a United States president takes the oath of office, he lays one hand on the Bible. I don't know why he raises the other hand, but they have him do it. I know I went to a United States official for a passport one time. It was a woman. And I had to; she wanted me to swear to something. I said, I don't swear. I said, I will merely affirm. Well, she said, but you have to swear. I said, No, I don't. I said, if you know the law, the law allows me to affirm.

   All right, then now, raise your right hand. I said, "Why?" Well, she said, because you're supposed to raise your right hand. I said, why? I said, Am I compelled by law? Is there any law that says I raise my right hand? Well, I don't know, she said. I said, Well, my yay is yay, my nay is nay, and that's it. I don't know why. I'll tell you the truth. I don't have to raise my hand. Well, she said, I'll raise my hand for you, and she did. I don't know how good it did. I didn't raise my hand.

   Anyway, I got the passport, and I always got a renewal of the passport every so often, you know, and a passport will only last a certain length of time. And I've had to have a lot of them, and I've done a lot of traveling.

   But man was only half there mentally. He needed the Spirit of God. He did not have life. He only had a temporary existence. Now, to have life, he needed to be born of God. Let me explain that a little bit right here.

   How were you born? I'll tell you how you were born. At first, you were an ovum in one of your mother's ovaries. Every one of you, and so was I. And that ovary had a temporary physical life, a physical existence not to exceed 28 days. I doubt it was even that long. I don't think any doctor or any expert knows how long. But if it isn't fertilized by a male sperm cell from the father within 28 days, certainly it's going to die. Now, it does not have life. It has temporary existence not to exceed 28 days. It may only be three or four days. I don't know how long.

   Anyway, in the case of every one of us, our human father was responsible for fertilizing that with a sperm cell from his body, fertilizing that egg cell or that ovum. And that imparted life to it that only imparted human physical life. It wouldn't have even had that. But now it had physical human life, and you then became what? You became an embryo. And for about four months, you were what the doctors and the professionals call an embryo in your mother's womb. And by that time, you began to take on a physical form and shape as a human being. You began to have a head. You began to have a trunk and arms and legs. And I suppose that fingers and toes were beginning to come off your hands and feet. They're just beginning to form.

   And so from that time on, you were called a fetus. And you had still five more months, and you were being nourished from food taken by your mother that came from the ground, and everything in you came from the ground by this process until you were full-grown about so long, ready to be born. And then, after the period of gestation of about nine months, came what we call parturition, or you were born, and you came out of your mother's womb. And even after that, you had to keep on growing and learning.

   Now then, you were born, and from your birth, a spirit entered your mind that gives you a mind power that an animal doesn't have. But that is spirit, and it is psychic, and it gives you sort of a psychic knowledge that an animal, which is 100% physical, can't have.

   You see, there is something a little bit spiritual in you, but it's just that human spirit. But that spirit in you can't think. That spirit in you can't see. It can't hear. So you read in 1 Corinthians 2 that your eye can't see, your ear can't hear the things that God has prepared for us. You can't see or hear spiritual knowledge. In other words, spiritual knowledge can't come into your mind normally and naturally. Only through the Holy Spirit. It goes on to say that these things can be revealed to us by the Holy Spirit of God.

   Now the Holy Spirit then, in your mind, coming with your spirit, will open your mind now to the acquisition of revealed Spiritual Knowledge. Now Adam did not have any knowledge or any way of receiving knowledge except materialistic or physical knowledge. If Adam had taken the tree of life, he could have had Spiritual Knowledge.

   Now the law of God is Spiritual Knowledge. That is the basic law or constitution of God's Government. I said the President of the United States has to swear to uphold the constitution of the United States. That's the basic law of the United States. Every government is based on law, and God's Law is a way of living. It's a way to get along with God and a way to get along with your neighbor.

   Now Adam needed knowledge to have a relationship with God. Adam needed knowledge to get along with his neighbors because he was going to have children, and they would become his neighbors. But Adam was not born with the kind of knowledge to get along with them.

   He needed the Law of God, and the Law of God tells you how to regulate your relationship with God and with neighbors. The first four of the Ten Commandments tell you how to live with God and your relationship toward God. The last six of the Ten Commandments define your relationship of living with your neighbors.

   Now let me say this. The Ten Commandments, the Law of God, is a Spiritual Law. It doesn't tell you how to build a desk like this. I can pound on it. You can hear it. You can see me. It doesn't tell you how to build a lamp or a light like this. It doesn't tell you how to build a microphone and cause it to be amplified and carry a voice off. That's all materialistic and mechanical. Man could learn to do those things without the Spirit of God.

   But man could not learn how to get along with his neighbor. Man could not have a relationship with God until he was mentally complete, and he was only mentally half there.

   Protestants don't know that. I wonder how many of you ever knew that before. Did you just come to see me today, or did you come to learn something? Are you learning something new? I'm here to give you something you didn't know before. And I doubt very much if you knew all of this before. So as an old Roman said one time, lend me your ears and listen.

   Now the tree of life, if Adam had taken it, would not have given him immortal life just as quick as I can clap my hand instantaneously. I'll tell you why. The tree of life is open to you and me today, and we don't get immortal life just instantaneously. On our repentance, which Adam didn't have to do because he had never sinned, but we do have to do because we have all sin, and on our faith and belief we can receive the Holy Spirit. That is the impregnation of immortal life.

   Now I just told you a minute ago how you were born. Each of us is an ovum, an egg cell. The nucleus in each of us is the brain. We do not have life, only a chemical existence, the average of which will extend to 70 years is the normal lifespan. Some of us live a little longer than that. I have already by almost 20 years. But that's all. Our lifetime is limited.

   Now then, I said that when life was imparted to you by your male father, human life was imparted to you. But you weren't alive right away. You had to grow for nine months before you were born.

   All right, each of us is an egg. And we have a spirit, but that one spirit needs another spirit with it to fertilize it, to impart life to it. Now I said a while ago, in the Word was life. The Word became Christ; in Him is life, and in God the Father is life. The Spirit of God will impart life to you and will then impregnate you. But like when you were an ovum and a sperm cell imparted life to you, you were only an embryo for three or four months. And then you had five more months of developing physically before you were even born. And you've had to keep growing even after you were born.

   Now then, each of us is an ovum. The way we gain eternal life is the same way. God is reproducing Himself. The Spirit of God is the sperm cell from God, the Spiritual sperm cell, if you please, that comes from the very body of God the Father. And there are certain terms and conditions under which God will give you that. It's a free gift, but there are terms and conditions to receiving that gift. It still makes it a gift; you don't earn it. And without those conditions, you will never receive it. And you don't have life; you only have a temporary existence. You're not going to go on and live forever without being impregnated with immortal life from the Spirit of God.

   But you don't gain eternal life right now. You weren't born the minute you were fertilized in your mother's womb. You weren't born until nine months later. You had to grow a lot first. We are not born when we first receive the Spirit of God. We have to grow in grace and the knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. We have to grow in knowledge. You read that in 1 Peter or 2 Peter, the very last verse, right at the very end, 2 Peter, the last verse or two. You grow in knowledge.

   Now, one of the trees before Adam was the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. The other, the tree of life, also was the tree of knowledge, of revealed knowledge from God. And he’d have to have grown in that kind of knowledge to have received immortal life.

   If Adam had taken of the tree of life, do you think he would have been made immortal instantaneously? Have you read in the Bible that God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, that God does not change? Well, how does God give us immortal life? First you receive the Holy Spirit, and that means you're impregnated. You are only spiritual; well, you aren’t started with a spiritual ovum, but you become a spiritual, what's the word I used a minute ago, embryo when you are impregnated. That's about all.

   And you have to grow spiritually. Now you receive by the Holy Spirit the love of God, because love is the fulfilling of the law of God, and you can't keep the law of God without love, and you don't have the kind of love that will fulfill the law of God. It is the love of God shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, and that only comes after you receive the Holy Spirit.

   Now you first receive knowledge; you receive the love of God. Then you have to have the faith of God to help you, because you alone can't do it all, and you're going to need help. You're going to have to cry out to God for help, and you're going to have to have power that comes from God to overcome, and power to grow, and to overcome sin, and overcome the devil and the world.

   Oh yes, all those things come, and we have a spiritual growth in this life that spiritually compares to the physical growth you had in your mother's womb before you were born. And we're not born again yet! These people that say that Protestants say they're already born again, they don't even know what it's all about. They don't understand the word of God. They are deceived by Satan the devil. Now, many of them can be just ever so sincere, honest, they mean well, but they are deceived. And they don't have the salvation they think they do. Well, I've got a little more to say about that now as we go along.

   Revelation 12:7: ...“there was a war in heaven: [and that's about this time now and] Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon fought and his angels,

   Revelation 12:8: “And prevailed not; neither was their place found anymore in heaven.

   Revelation 12:9: “And the great dragon was cast out, that old serpent called the devil and Satan. So that is Satan, which deceiveth the whole world; he was cast down to the earth...”

   And he begins to persecute the church, and he's already been persecuting this church. And I think that we're just right at that time now. So that is Satan, the devil.

   Now, meanwhile, I want you to notice something. I want to show you first, though, that God, when Adam made that decision, God then, as you read in the third chapter of Revelation {2} [Genesis] in the last three verses of the third chapter, verses 22, 23, and 24:

   Genesis 3:22: “And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever:”

   Genesis 3:23: “Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.”

   Genesis 3:24: “So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.”

   In other words, he shut up the Holy Spirit. If Adam had taken the tree of life, he would have received the Holy Spirit. He would not have received instantaneous immortal life. He would have had to grow spiritually, because God is not changing. That's the way we get immortal life today, and it's offered to us today. And Adam would have had it the same way.

   But God closed up the Spirit from man. The Holy Spirit was shut up. No man could receive salvation. No man could receive eternal life. No man could be begotten of God and to grow into immortality until the second Adam, Christ, should come.

   Now, why? Why? You might wonder why it is that Adam couldn't have, that God could not then have opened up eternal life to Cain. And Cain, of course, went the wrong way and killed his brother Abel and then lied about it. Well, then maybe he could have opened it up to Abel, but of course, Cain killed Abel. And what about Seth? Well, Seth had sinned before he was old enough to be converted. And everybody has sinned before they were old enough. God could not open up the tree of life until one came that could have the Holy Spirit from birth.

   Jesus Christ was the only begotten of God, born of a human virgin. No other has ever been born human that was begotten of God. All other humans have been begotten by a human father, not of God. Now, we can be begotten of God, but that's for immortal life. That's not for physical human life. Jesus was the only begotten into human life. You see the distinction; I hope you get that point.

   Now, meanwhile, the Spirit of God was all closed up from humanity. And I'd like you to notice next a prophecy about Christ before he was born. It's in Isaiah 7 in verse 14, therefore, this was given to ancient Israel:

   Isaiah 7:14 “Therefore the Lord himself shall give you a sign; Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel.”

   Now, Immanuel, you find in the New Testament, means “God with us.” In other words, he was begotten in the physical womb of the physical woman Mary by God, not by a human man. He then was a son of God and a son of man. Jesus from birth had the Holy Spirit. Jesus from birth was able to resist Satan, the devil, because he had the Spirit of God as no other human has ever had from birth. He was born with the Spirit of God.

   He was able to grow to maturity without sin. And when Satan tempted him, he was so close to God and had the Holy Spirit that he was able to resist Satan at every turn of the road and never commit a single sin, even though he was tempted in all points like you and I are.

   Jesus was tempted. He wanted to commit sin more than once. I'll tell you, he was tempted by the sight of women. He wanted to have a sex relation, but he resisted it. He was tempted to do a lot of things that he never allowed himself to do because he had the Spirit, the mind of God, as well as the human mind, from the very beginning.

   At age 12, he was able to confound the wisest men in the temple. No one was ever born like that. God could not open up the Holy Spirit until someone came that could pay the penalty of sins, because our penalty of sin hangs over us, and we have to be forgiven that before we can receive the Holy Spirit. Adam didn't have to do that if he had only taken the tree of life, but he did not take it. He took the tree that resulted in death.

   Now then, now that we’ve gotten that far. Ancient Israel was called of God, but they were not given the tree of life. They were not given the Holy Spirit. Now some of their prophets were, but their prophets were those born ahead of time, out of due time, like the apostle Paul later said he was. Paul was born a little later, but these were born ahead of time as part of the foundation of the Church: Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and the prophets of the Old Testament, because the Church is built on the foundation of the apostles, the apostles of the New Testament, and the prophets, the prophets of the Old Testament.

   The Church is not built on a foundation of any prophets in the New Testament, not one. There are only four prophets mentioned in the New Testament. Not one of them had anything to do with the foundation of the Church or with the administration of the Church in any manner, shape, or form. Not one of them. It's the Old Testament prophets that were a foundation of the Church, and their writings are for the Church! They were not for ancient Israel. For example, Ezekiel wrote, he was already in captivity as slaves, and Israel was not a nation any longer. Ancient Israel never got his writing. It's the Old Testament. It was not for Israel. It's for us today, for the Church! Protestants don't know that, and we’ve come up in Protestantism, and we need to come out of it. I read you the scripture at the beginning: Come out of her, the harlot daughters, and old mother Rome. Come out of her, my people! We should come out of all of that and come to the truth of God.

   Now then, there was a prophecy that Christ was going to come born of a virgin. All right, now turn to the ninth chapter of Isaiah, verses 6 and 7. Here’s another prophecy.

   Isaiah 9:6 “For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: [that's to Israel] and the government shall be upon his shoulder... Now, I told you the government was on the shoulders of Lucifer, who became Satan. But government is now to come on Christ.

   Notice this:

   Isaiah 9:6 ...“and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, the mighty God, the everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace.

   Isaiah 9:7 “Of the increase of his government...

   The Protestants never preach of him as a government, nor do the Roman Catholic Church. They are deceived, and they are deceivers, and they are deceiving the world. They don't know that Christ came as a ruler to set up the government of God. The Roman Catholic Church claims they are that government.

   Isaiah 9:7 “Of the increase of his government and [the] peace there shall be no end, upon the throne of David, and upon his kingdom, [an actual nation] to order it, and to establish it with judgment and with justice from henceforth [and] even for ever. The zeal of the LORD of hosts will perform [it] this.”

   Now, that was a prophecy. And so in due time Jesus came, born of the Virgin Mary.

   Now, next, I want you to notice that Jesus had been, well, it had been said from the very beginning, before the foundation of the world, that Jesus would come and bear our sins. As soon as Adam sinned, before the world was founded, it was always arranged that Jesus would come, the Word would come, made flesh and dwell among us, and would take the penalty of sin of man on himself and pay it in our stead, so we could get out from under it. So that you read here in 1 Peter 1, verses 19 and 20:

   1 Peter 1:19 “But with the precious blood of Christ, as of the lamb without blemish and without spot:

   1 Peter 1:20 “Who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world, but was manifest in these last times for [us] you,”

   Christ was slain, you might say, from the foundation of the world to come and be our Savior. But when Christ did come, well, first I want to read you this, another couple of scriptures I'd like to get in right here at this point.

   In 1 Corinthians, remember that God shut up the Holy Spirit from all mankind until the coming of Christ. No one had any eternal life, except by promise to prophets did have. But in 1 Corinthians 15, in verse 22:

   1 Corithians 15:22 “(For) as in Adam all die...

   Everyone has to die in Adam because of Adam's sin, and we also die because of our own sin. So in Christ shall all, the same all, be made alive, but every man in his own order. Christ the first fruits by resurrection to immortal life, and he was the firstborn of many brethren to immortal life.

   And afterward, after Christ's resurrection 1,950 some years ago, will become many other brethren. I hope that's all of us. And then afterwards will come the final great judgment.

   But then in Hebrews 9:27, we read:

   Hebrews 9:27 “And (as) it is appointed unto men once to die, [and] but after this the judgment:”

   Now, God set a time of a judgment that was all through the time of Adam's sin. Christ was already slain, you might say, in God's plan and program that he wants to be from the foundation of the world. It was already decided. So in due time Christ came. Now, men have to die once, and then will come the judgment. Now, just keep that in mind. I'm coming back to that just a little bit later.

   Now, next, I want you to notice the scripture back here in Joel. What did I do with that scripture in Joel? Joel 2 and verse 28. No, I'm not ready for that yet. Well, Jesus said, Matthew 16:18 — let me just quote that; I won't turn to it. Jesus came, and he said, “I will build my church.” So he went out and called his apostles and began to teach them first. Said, “I will build my church.” And then the time came; Jesus gave himself to die for us. He was resurrected after three days and three nights in the grave. And then on the day of Pentecost, or I mean, about 40 days later, he ascended up to heaven. And 50 days later, on the day of Pentecost, the Holy Spirit came.

   Now then, that day something happened that Joel had prophesied. It had been prophesied back here in the book of Joel, second chapter and verse 28:

   Joel 2:28 “And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:”

   And it shall come to pass afterward. [This is a prophecy.] It shall come to pass afterward. God says that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh. Now remember, God closed up the Holy Spirit after Adam sinned. And the Holy Spirit was not open to Israel. The Holy Spirit was not open to mankind, just except those that God specially called to be prophets as a foundation of the church. But the time would come when he would open up his spirit to all flesh. The day the church was founded, Peter said that that is what had happened that day. The Holy Spirit had come for part of them, but not all of them, because that was only the first fruits. God had not opened up the Holy Spirit to all flesh yet, only those God called to the church. And that is all.

   So that we read, Jesus said during his ministry, John 6:44:

   John 6:44: “No man can come to me, except the Father which sent me draw him:” No man can come to Christ. Is that what Protestants preach? I should say not.

   They don't preach you have to repent. They don't preach obedience. They don't preach growing in grace. They don't preach the commandments of God. The Seventh-day Adventists do, and then they break one of the commandments by their pictures of Christ, which is an idol. And except for the keeping of the Sabbath, the Seventh-day Adventists are just like any other Protestant religion, except they have a few peculiar doctrines of their own, their investigative judgment, their 2300-day doctrine, their spirit of prophecy, and so on, which are not true, I can tell you. And verily, verily, I can tell you that.

   But now, the tree of life had been closed, but the time was coming to be opened, and it was opened just to the first fruit, just those called now in the church, which are only the first to be called to Christ. Now, there are also some scriptures that apply only to the church. For example, Revelation 3 in verse 21, where Jesus said, this is after he descended to heaven in 90 AD that he said this, and John wrote it:

   Revelation 3:21 “To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my throne, even as I also overcame. and am set down with my Father in his throne.” We are going to help in that government of God. That is to the church and the church only. That scripture does not apply to those that shall be saved in the millennium. That applies to those converted now at this time. That applies to you and me if we overcome.

   Now, at this point, I want to bring out, we have to, once we have repented of sin, we have to come out of sin. We have to grow in the knowledge of God and the knowledge of the law of God. We have to grow in the Spiritual Character of God. We have to develop that kind of character day by day by constant prayer. And we're not doing it, brethren, like we should. We just are not doing it like we should.

   And here we are, the very last generation, and Christ is coming in our time. We are the ones that are to be the bride of Christ. We are the ones that are built into a building, into a glorious temple to which Christ is coming. We're the temple to which he's coming. God has called me as an instrument to be used in the building of that temple. You are that temple. You are that temple. And Christ is coming to this temple. And we are to be the bride of Christ, to be married to Christ. We're to be caught up in the air with the dead in Christ that'll be raised first at his coming. You should have had something on that on last Tuesday, on the day of the Feast of Trumpets. And then when Christ comes, the next thing will be to put away Satan. Satan isn't going to rule this world anymore. Christ is coming as the King of kings and the Lord of lords. But his wife will have made herself ready.

   I want to read that to you in the 11th chapter of Revelation. Revelation 11, verse 15, where it says:

   Revelation 11:15 ...“The kingdoms of this world... Now, they've been the kingdoms of Satan. There is the beast and the false prophet and all of those. They're all, Satan gave them their seat and their power and their great authority. But now Christ is coming, and:

   Revelation 11:15 ... “The kingdoms of this world are become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ; and he shall reign for ever and ever.” Christ is going to reign forever and ever.

   Now we turn over a little bit to the 19th chapter, of Revelation. And you read here in verses six and seven.

   Revelation 19:6 “And I heard as it were the voice of a great multitude, and as the voice of many waters, and as the voice of mighty thundering, saying, Alleluia: for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.”

   He's coming to rule in the place of Satan over the earth. He's only sitting with his father on his father's throne now. The only government is he's the head of the church, and he's ruling in this church. This is the only place where his government exists on earth now, but he's coming to reign over all nations on this earth.

   Revelation 19:6 ...“the Lord God omnipotent reigneth.”

   Revelation 19:7 “Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to him: for the marriage of the Lamb has come, and his wife has made herself ready.”

   We brethren are that wife. We are the temple to which he is coming. You read of that in the second chapter of the book of Ephesians. We grow into a glorious temple in the Lord. The temple of the Holy Spirit, a far more glorious temple than Solomon's temple. And far more glorious than the temple to which Christ came the first time, made of stone and well of wood and of other metals and all that sort of thing. We are the temple to which he's coming. We are the bride of Christ. And it says here, Her, his wife, hath made herself ready.

   Now the church is going to be ready, but that doesn't mean that everybody in it is going to be ready. And if you will read the 25th chapter of Matthew, the parable of the 10 virgins, you will find that half of them at the time of the second coming of Christ — that's half in the church — half in the church are not ready. Their lamps have gone out of oil. The lamp is the Bible, and the oil is the Holy Spirit in you to open up the Bible to your understanding, to light the light that gives light, lights up the lamp, the Bible.

   Brethren, according to the scripture, only half of us are going to be ready when Christ comes. I'm talking to you. Can I just divide it right down the line and say that this half over here will not be ready and these folks are not going to be ready, but you will? I don't know. It'll be one here and one there will be ready, and one won't. But we're on very dangerous ground right now, and we have very little time to go. And this church is not now yet ready.

   Christ is coming, and he's going to rule. And some are going to come and try to get in, but they’ve let their lamps go out of oil. In other words, the Holy Spirit has gone out from you. You haven't been growing in grace and the knowledge of the Lord like you should. You haven't been praying like you should. You've let your mind get on this world too much. You've let your mind get on the cares of earning a living too much. You've let your mind get on sports and athletics. You've let your mind get on entertainment. You've let your mind get on the things of this world.

   How often do you fast and pray? Well, you're going to do it very soon on the fast day, but you need to do it a lot more often. And most of you are not doing it. And I mean you. I don't mean some other people. I mean you people here meeting in Minneapolis today.

   Now there is some good news, because after Jesus comes and his wife has made herself ready and she's gone in, the door's been slammed in the face of those of you that will not have been praying enough. Those of you that haven't studied the Bible enough. Those of you that had your mind on worldly things too much and physical material things too much. You're not going to make it, some of you.

   I'm warning you now. You sit here in a church today; you came to see God's apostle. Well, look at him. He's nothing but a hunk of human flesh that came out of the ground. That's all I am. But the word I preach to you, that is life and spirit. And you better believe it. I am nothing except as far as God brought me and brought about circumstances that almost forced me to surrender to him and let him come in and fill my life and give myself to him, and I haven't always left myself in his hands like I should have.

   I don't deserve to be preaching here before you today. You don't deserve to be sitting in front of me today either. Not one of us deserves anything. But don't glorify me. Glorify God that he used an instrument to bring this message to you. Not the man, but the Christ who died for you.

   The Christ who's the head of the church and the Christ who has worked in a human instrument that is not worthy to bring the truth to you and to move you now as you never did go to your knees and to pray as you never did before. This church needs a shaking up, and it needs a revival.

   Well, I'm going to end it on a good note — some good news.

   Revelation 20:1 “And I saw an angel come down from heaven, having the key [to] of the bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand.” Now this follows what I see right over in the opposite column, how Christ comes with his name, King of kings and Lord of lords. You just heard that sung in the Hallelujah Chorus, how he's King of kings and Lord of lords!

   Well, that'll be a wonderful thing to all of us if we are ready. You need to go home and ask yourself, are you ready? Are you ready? But after that, this angel will come with a key to the bottomless pit in his hand.

   Revelation 20:2 “And (he) laid hold on that [old] dragon, that old serpent, which is the Devil, and Satan, and [will bind] bound him a thousand years,”

   Revelation 20:3 “And cast him into the bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal upon him, that he should deceive the nations no more, till a {3} (the) thousand years [are finished] should be fulfilled:” Then we'll begin the great time that we'll celebrate at the Feast of Tabernacles.

   Now, on next Thursday, we will celebrate the putting of Satan away and getting rid of Satan and coming to the time when Christ is coming to rule. And then beginning the following, you see, I believe it's the following Tuesday or whichever, the Feast of Tabernacles. And you will all be going very soon to that. And then we'll begin to celebrate and get a foretaste of that wonderful time when Satan will be gone and when everybody will be called, not just a few called like today, but everybody will be called, and there won't be any Satan to deter them. And we will be there if we make the grade; we will be there as very God ourselves, helping to save the whole world and helping to get them changed from human beings into God beings, from just temporary physiochemical existence into inherent life, life inherent self-existent life. What a wonderful time that lies ahead; brethren, it's a wonderful time.

   I've given you a rather serious message today, and I want you to take it seriously. And let me say, when I leave here now and I came up, you applaud me. Don't applaud a sermon like this, please. I want you to take it seriously. I want you to go home and pray. This is not a time for applause. It's a time to be pretty serious. It's a time to take it to heart. We haven't got much more time. I may not be able to ever come up here and see you again. There are a lot of other places I need to go too, but I came up here to pour out my heart to you and tell you all I can. That I fear when I find out that half of us and all of us have had a lot of this Protestantism rub off on us.

   Now, we can't condemn the people in Protestantism. It's not their fault. They've been deceived. It's Satan's fault. God will take care of it. All of those who have died are going to be resurrected in the Great White Throne Judgment.

   They'll have the death sentence passed on them, all right. Christ will be the judge, but then they're going to throw themselves on the mercy of the court, and Christ will say, My Mercy is as great toward you as the heavens are high above the earth. And if you really want to live the right way, if you really do repent of how you lived in your first life on this earth, you will have time now to start living the right way and prove it. And they will be given the Holy Spirit and the help of God and the help of you and me. If we make the grade and get there, we'll be there to help them.

   It's a wonderful thing, a wonderful thing. But we're living in sobering days now, and it's a sobering thing for our life. We're coming into the time of final examinations.

   Now, in school, in college, you come to final exams. And your whole year, your whole year's work, depends pretty much on how you pass those final exams. Your whole life's progress will depend pretty much on how you pass from now on to the final exams and the time of the second coming of Christ.

   Well, that's my message to you, brethren, and it's a message of love. I want to see you all in the kingdom of God. I want you to pray for me so I can be there, because I could still be a castaway, just like the apostle Paul said he could. I want to make the grade myself, and I hope that you will be there and that you will make it with me. So continue to pray and fast and pray as you never did before.