Herbert W Armstrong

   The World Tomorrow, The Worldwide Church of God presents Herbert W. Armstrong, internationally recognized ambassador for World Peace, visiting prominent leaders around the globe, discussing the cause of world problems and proclaiming the good news of The World Tomorrow. Ladies and gentlemen, Herbert W. Armstrong.

   World leaders are now beginning to wonder, will there even be a day after, or can nuclear warfare explode so furiously that it can blast all humanity off the face of this earth, every man, woman, and child on the very first day? That's a question we need to face. Now, they're beginning to realize that what had been called the unthinkable is now very thinkable. And what is the answer? The answer can only be found in one place, and that's a place the world looks to last. That's a place you don't seem to understand, most of you. That is the Holy Bible, the word of the living God.

   Now, this sure word of prophecy in the Bible says that nuclear world war is coming; it definitely will come. And soon. Now in our generation, let me read that to you in a prophecy given by Jesus Christ himself over 1950 years ago. It's in Matthew 24 and verse 21 (Matthew 24:21). And this is the greatest prophecy of Jesus Christ written in the New Testament. And in verse 21 Jesus said, "For then," and speaking of a time just ahead of us now as I will show you later, "for then shall be great tribulation or world trouble such as was not since the beginning of the world to this same time, known or ever shall be."

   Now, just how great will it be? How great is it going to be? Notice the next verse, "and except those days should be shortened" or cut short and stopped after it starts, unless it could be cut short after it starts, "there should no flesh be saved alive". Every man, woman, and child would be blasted off the face of their humanity would be gone. The earth would have no life left upon it. "But for the elect's sake, those days shall be shortened." So, it is going to be shortened, but it is going to come.

   Now, let's go a little further. What is going to happen after that? And then I'm going to come back to it. I want you to notice this great tribulation, and I'll read you of other passages in the Bible talking about the same thing in just a moment. But continuing now, verse 29, "Immediately after the tribulation of those days", terrible things are going to happen up in the sky. God Almighty is going to begin to move in, and the day of God, the day of the Lord will then come when God is going to intervene in human affairs. And notice this, "Immediately after the tribulation of those days, shall the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light, and the stars shall fall from heaven, and the powers of the heaven shall be shaken."

   That's going to take the supernatural power of Almighty God. That's not the work of man or mankind. "And then shall appear the sign of the Son of Man in heaven, and then shall all the tribes of the earth mourn, and they shall see the Son of Man." That's Jesus Christ, "coming in the clouds of heaven with power and great glory" and coming to rule all the nations of this earth and bring us peace at last, intervening from what man is bringing on himself, which would exterminate mankind. And God is going to save humanity before that happens and come down and rule us and force us to have peace and force us to be happy, force us to enjoy life and make life worth living for the first time because we've been defying God, and he's going to bring us to our senses at last, and this world is finally going to have peace after all.

   But now let's go on. I want to bring up some other points immediately after this, beginning with verse 3. I want to bring it into the context of what I'm talking about. Now, "as Jesus sat upon the mound of olives, the disciples came to him privately saying, Tell us when shall these things be?" They had just been in the temple and just outside the temple, Jesus had been showing him the buildings of the temple and telling them that a time of destruction would come, and it did come in their lifetime, and that the temple would be destroyed, and not one stone would be left on another in that in the buildings of the temple.

   Now, they suppose that would be the time of the end of the world and the second coming of Christ. And so they said, "Tell us, when shall these things be?" and something else, "and the sign of thy coming and the end of the world." That's the only place in the Bible where this term "end of the world" is mentioned.

   Now, you've heard a lot about doomsday; you've heard a lot about the end of the world. And fortunately, this world is coming to its end, and a better world is coming on ahead for mankind. Now, let me go on with it and explain it.

   Jesus answered and said unto them, "Take heed that no man deceives you." He was talking to his disciples back in the first century, over 1950 years ago. For he said, "Many shall come in my name." Now coming in Christ's name as ministers of Christ. "Many will come in my name, saying that I am Christ," saying that Jesus is the Christ, "and shall deceive many." That did happen, that did happen. He said, "and ye shall hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you be not shaken, for all these things must come to pass. But the end is not yet." That wasn't going to be the end or the coming of the false apostles, claiming to be the ministers of Christ and yet deceiving the people. I'll show you a little later how they deceive the people. But he said that wasn't the end.

   For verse 14, he said, "This gospel of the kingdom, the same gospel he preached, would be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come." Then would come the end of the world, then would come the second coming of Christ in the beginning of a better and a happier world, a world of peace, a world of joy, a world of real happiness, prosperity, great production, everything wonderful as it ought to be and could be and will be when this time comes.

   Now then, I want to show you a few other things about this same prophecy back in Daniel, the 11th chapter and verse 40 (Daniel 11:40) says, "and at the time of the end," it goes on to tell what will happen. And then it comes right on the 12th chapter and first verse (Daniel 12:1). "And at that time of the end, shall Michael, a great archangel Michael stand, and there shall be a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time." Now, that's talking about the same thing that Jesus was talking about. There can't be two times of trouble each greater than the other or greater than anything that ever happened. It's the same time greater than any other time of trouble. It's the same thing that Christ was talking about.

   "And at that time, thy people, God's people shall be delivered every one that is found written in the book and many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth, that is those who are dead in their graves shall awaken, some to everlasting life." Many will awaken, some to everlasting life, talking about the resurrection. Now, you find in the book of Thessalonians and the new first Thessalonians in the New Testament that at that time, the time of the coming of Christ to rule all nations, "The dead in Christ will rise first in a resurrection (I Thessalonians 4:16)". And then those that are Christ's "shall be changed in the moment in the twinkling of an eye and this mortal will put on immortal (I Corinthians 15:52)." There'll be changed from human to divine. There'll be changed from man to God, and they will rise with the dead, who have been resurrected, the dead in Christ and meet the returning Christ at his second, coming in the air. And that same day, his feet will stand on the mount of Olives just east of Jerusalem, and the saints all will be there with him.

   And now what will happen to the United States when all this occurs? And when this terrible time, a time of trouble such has never happened before, there has to be that of nuclear World War III, and it is coming and coming soon. All right back in Jeremiah, the 30th chapter and beginning with verse 3 (Jeremiah 30:3), I would like to show you what is prophesized for us in the United States. "For all the days come," says the Eternal, "that I will bring again the captivity of my people, Israel and Judah, says the Lord."

   Now, let me pause right there and explain something that most people read over in the Bible. They read this, and they don't understand what it's saying at all because most people don't understand that the ancient nation of Israel was divided into two different nations. In the days after Solomon died, King Solomon, the son of David, when Rehoboam was the king over Israel, the son of Solomon, because Solomon had been overtaxing the people, he built, remember the great temple, he lived in gorgeous splendor, he had many great works, but he overtaxed the people. And they came to his son Rehoboam, who is now on the throne as king, and said, "If you reduce the taxes, we will still serve you. Otherwise, we're going to go in for democracy and elect another king." He said, "That I'm going to lay the taxes on you heavier than my father ever did." And they did then appoint the man who had been Solomon's today, we would call him the Prime Minister, really running the government for Solomon. Jeroboam. They appointed him king and opened up a new capital in Samaria to the north. Then the tribe of Judah seceded, just like the south and what's tribe to secede from the United States. And they call themselves the Kingdom of Judah, and the tribes of Benjamin and Levi went with them. And now that was one kingdom, the Kingdom of Judah. And yet the main kingdom was still in Israel, and there were 10 tribes there because Joseph had two tribes Ephraim and Manasseh. And so there were still 10 tribes up there though, there were three in the Kingdom of Judah. And you have to understand all of that background.

   The 10 tribes became lost, they lost their name, they lost their language, they lost who they are. They lost many things. And if you want to know who and where they are, you need to read our booklet, "The United States and Britain in Prophecy," "The United States and Britain in Prophecy." Millions who are listening to the broadcast or who have listened have received this booklet. We've sent out millions of copies, "The United States and Britain in Prophecy." You need to know where we are mentioned in prophecy. You need to know what is going to happen to our own country, the United States, in this coming world war that is predicted. I'll come back to that in a moment. Now let me go on from where we were (Jeremiah 30:3-8).

   "I will bring again the captivity of my people, Israel and Judah, and I will cause them to return to the land that I gave their fathers, and they shall possess it. And these are the words that the Eternal spoke concerning Israel and concerning Judah." Now, this is concerning Britain and the United States in prophecy in the future and also the Jewish people, Judah and the Jewish people. "For thus says the Eternal, 'We have heard a voice of trembling of fear and not of peace. Ask you now and see whether a man is in travail with child. Wherefore, do I see every man with his hands on his loins as a woman in travail and all faces turned into paleness.'"

   "Alas for the day!" Now, he's talking about a day that was prophesied to come, and it is coming in our generation now. So, you better listen because not many understand the Bible, and very few understand the prophecies of the Bible, and especially a prophecy like this. "Alas for the day is great so that none is like it." There it is again, the same time I've been reading to you about in both Daniel and the words of Jesus in the 24th chapter of Matthew, a time greater than it ever happened before. Now notice, "Alas for the day is great so that none is like it, it is even the time of Jacob's trouble." Now, who is Jacob? You have to understand that Jacob, before he died, laid his hands on the two sons of Joseph, Ephraim, and Manasseh, who became the heads of the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh, and said, "Let my name Israel or Jacob be named on them," and they carry the name of Jacob and not the other tribes in that sense."

   Now "let my name be named on them," he said. And in this, now this time of great trouble is the time of Jacob's trouble. It is the time that is going to be on the United States and the British people and the democracies of Northwestern Europe, that includes Canada, that includes Australia, and the English-speaking people.

   "For it shall come to pass in that day," says the Lord of hosts, "that I will break his yoke from off thy neck", we are going to go into captivity, this whole country, and while others are lulling you to sleep, some voice has to cry out and warn you of what God almighty says in the prophecies, it is going to happen to this country. We have not obeyed our God, we have forgotten God. There is a great deal about preaching Christ. But they preach a gospel about Christ, and they don't preach Christ's gospel and they don't obey God. Thet don't obey God's Commandments. They have robbed God. God says they have robbed him this whole nation, because they don't tithe to him and to his work, and this nation is going to go into captivity because of those very sins. Now, "for it shall come to pass in that day says the Lord of hosts that I will break his yoke from off his neck and will burst thy bonds that will hold us in slavery, and strangers or Gentiles shall no more serve themselves of Him," and that is of this nation.

   But now, why is all that going to happen? Now, next, we turn to the 50th chapter in verses four and five (Jeremiah 50:4-5), "In those days and at that time," says the Eternal, "the Children of Israel shall come, they and the Children of Judah together," that is our people and the Jewish people and the Israelis of Israel together, going and weeping, and they shall go and seek the eternal, their God. And they shall ask the way to Zion. Zion is Jerusalem with their faces thitherward saying, 'Come and let us join ourselves to the Eternal in a perpetual covenant that shall not be forgotten."

   Then God says, "My people have been lost sheep. Their shepherds have caused them to go astray. The ministers have caused them to go astray" (Jeremiah 50:6). The ministers have been teaching that God's law is done away, or they preach about Christ. Jesus said in vain, do they worship me teaching for doctrines the commandments of men and making the law of God the Commandments of God of no effect by your tradition, they preach traditional Christianity, which is Man's message about the messenger. Christ was a messenger sent from God with a message to humanity. But humanity has not heard that message for 1950 years or over 1900 years except on this program.

   Now, then if I have time to go back to Leviticus 26 beginning with verse two (Leviticus 26:2), where God said to our people, Israel, this was in the days of Moses, but it's for the whole future. "You shall keep my Sabbath and reverence my sanctuary. I am the Lord. If you walk in my statutes and keep my Commandments and do them, then will I give you rain in due season, and the land shall yield her increase?" And he goes on and says that ancient Israel would have become the most prominent and the most wealthy nation on the face of the earth.

   Coming down in verse 14 (Leviticus 26:14-19), "But if you will not hearken or listen unto me," says God, "and will not do all of these Commandments" that I just mentioned, including the Sabbath and tithing and the things that are important to God, then he says, "I will set my face against you, and you shall be slain before your enemies, and they that hate you shall reign over you, and you shall flee when none pursueth you. And if you will not yet for all of this listened onto me, then I will punish you yet seven times for your sins." And that was a total of 2,520 years. "And he said, 'and I will break the pride of your power."

   Now, let me say that Israel's punishment began in the year of 720 B.C. The 2,520 years ended in 1880. And in the year 1800, London had already become the banking capital of the world, and the United States was coming into great power. By 1803, the United States had acquired the Louisiana Purchase and all of the land from the Atlantic clear out all through the Middle West, becoming a great nation. The United States and Britian have risen until finally, after World War I and before World War II, we possessed and we owned more than two-thirds and almost three-fourths of all the cultivated wealth of the entire world, and all the other nations put together had less than one-third of the wealth of the world. God blessed us, now, we put on the money that he's blessed us with, "In God We Trust," but we disobey God, and He says our ministers, that profess Christ and preach in His name, have caused the people to go astray.

   Some voice has to cry out and warn you people of what's going on and what is coming and what is coming on this nation. But for the elect's sake, those in the church, God is going to cut short those days, and Christ is going to come and he's going to reign and the saints are going to reign with Him, and those that are in His true church, and not the false churches that dot the whole United States and Europe, but the true church. Are going to reign and rule with Him, and be given power over the nations until all the nations find the way that will lead to peace. God's ways would have led us into peace, happiness, and prosperity, much greater wealth and prosperity than we've had and what we have had. God gave us because He promised it to the ancient Abraham long before even the days of Israel. We have had it, but we have turned our back on God. It isn't fashionable today, I guess, to even think about God. God doesn't even enter into the consciousness of the average life. Does He enter into yours?

   People listen to a broadcast like this, and they think because it isn't like all of the others, they shrug their shoulders and quit listening. You have been being led astray. I ask you to open up your Bible, write for the literature we offer, and we don't charge you for it, and we don't beg you for money like others do. Wake up, you viewers and you listeners, wake up. God is sending a voice to cry out to you and tell you the truth. If there has to be only one voice, so be it. I wish there were hundreds and thousands, but I don't know of others.

   Now, I'm going to stop right there in this program. And I want to announce once again this book that we've announced dozens and dozens of times on the air, and millions of our viewers have already received this: "The United States and Britain in Prophecy." Now, I want to call your attention to the final chapter, Chapter 14, what's prophesied, to happen now to the United States and Britain. You need to read this, especially that last chapter, but you need to read everything that goes up to it. It's profusely illustrated in color. It's a very interesting book, and it's priceless. There's no price on it, and you've never read a booklet like it.

   Now also, "The Plain Truth Magazine" is one of the largest circulation mass-circulation magazines in the world. Now, finally, let me show you this 50th-anniversary issue of "The Plain Truth," the fastest-growing magazine in the world. And there are thousands upon thousands who regard it as by far the best magazine in the world. There's no subscription price. We don't sell it. You haven't got enough money to buy it. It isn't for sale. Some people think if anything isn't for sale, it can't be worth anything. God's truth is too precious to sell, and God says, "Buy the truth but don't sell it." And we observe that. We don't sell God's truth, and we'd like to have you come on to the mailing list absolutely free and no subscription price.

   Now you just send your name and address to me, Herbert W Armstrong Pasadena, California, Herbert W Armstrong Pasadena, California. The zip code is 91123. But better yet go to the telephone and call toll-free 800-423-4444 jot this number down because sometimes some people don't get through and then they give up please keep trying. It's a free call. 800-423-4444. And so, until next time, Herbert W Armstrong. Goodbye Friends.

   For the free literature offered on this program write, Herbert W Armstrong Pasadena, California 91123 in Canada Box 44. Vancouver BC or in the Continental United States including California. You may call this toll-free number 800-423-4444 in Alaska and Hawaii call collect 818-304-6111. If the lines are busy, please try again. The preceding program and all literature were produced and sponsored by the worldwide Church of God.