The news today is all bad news. Why, why is the news all bad news in a time of 20th century progress of awesome progress that has been made by science, technology, and through various governments during this 20th century? And yet the news is all bad news, why?
The World Tomorrow. The Worldwide Church of God presents, The World Tomorrow with Herbert W. Armstrong. Ladies and gentlemen, Herbert W. Armstrong.
Let me repeat once again, as I've said again and again and again, how Prime Minister Churchill said before the United States Congress during World War II, 'There is a purpose being worked out here below.' Oh, that is so important that we understand that, that there is a purpose being worked out here on this earth, here below, and it's being worked out by the supreme being, the creator God above, and He is working out a purpose, and He has a master plan for working it out. Now, that purpose is related to the cause of all of our troubles today. People aren't happy today. Hardly anyone is contented. Everyone is discontented. There is nothing but trouble it seems today, and there is a cause, and people seldom relate the present trouble or the present effect with the cause. They seldom realize that something had to cause it. So, let me ask once again, where are we now? In the succession of prophesized events?
Bible prophecy shows the succession of events working out that purpose here below, in the great master plan of the eternal God that is working it out, and He's working out a purpose in the lives of human beings. He's working out a purpose in your life and mine. And it's about time we wake up to that. Well, Jesus Christ himself explained where we are right now and what is going to happen next in Matthew 24. And there you find the greatest prophecy of Jesus Christ in the New Testament. There He's explaining the Book of Revelation. Really, the Book of Revelation. I've done a great deal with it. It is the one great book of Prophecy in the New Testament and Enigma because it had been closed and sealed until now. But the time of the end has come, the time for it to be open. Jesus Christ is the revealer, and He does reveal that in Matthew 24 and Mark 13 in Luke 21, three different chapters in the New Testament from three different writers, all recording their version of the same identical thing, but each one recording it in his own way, just like three different reporters recording a certain event in a newspaper.
Let me go over that once again in Matthew 24 where Jesus Christ had been talking to his disciples in the temple in Jerusalem, clear back about 30-31 A.D., and He had been showing them the buildings of the temple and telling them that it was going to be destroyed. Now it was going to happen in their time. Actually, it did happen in 70 A.D., and He was telling them this about 30 or 31 A.D. He said one stone would not be left on another. Well, a little bit later, and it might have only been an hour or so later, they were up on the Mound of Olives, and the disciples came to Him now privately. And they said, 'Well, tell us, when will these things be that you were talking about and what will be the sign of your coming in the end of the age?' Now, they thought that Jesus' second coming, which He had told them about. He told them He was going to go to heaven. He told them that He would come back again. He said, 'If I go, I will come again.' But they thought it was all going to happen in their lifetime. They didn't realize that His coming again, and the end of the present world and the beginning of the wonderful world tomorrow, a world of peace and happiness and joy, was not going to happen for more than 1900 years. They didn't realize that. And so, they asked Him two questions. First, they said, as you find here in verse three in Matthew 24 when He was on the mount of Olives, they asked him (Matthew 24:3-4), 'When shall these things be,' the things He'd been talking about, the destruction of the temple, and something else they asked him, they thought would happen then, 'What shall be the sign of thy coming and the end of the world' or the end of this present society, this world, and the beginning of the happy and joyful and peaceful world tomorrow?
Now Jesus knew that was going to happen about 1900 years later, but the disciples didn't know. So, He answered their first question first, when would the temple be destroyed? What would happen in their lifetime? And He said to them, 'Take heed that no man deceive you.' Now notice, deceive who He was speaking to, His own disciples in their lifetime. 'Take heed that no man deceive you, for,' He said, 'many will come in my name, saying that I am Christ, and shall deceive many', many false preachers. Many false prophets would come. They would claim to represent Christ, but they would be deceiving the people.
Now, He went on and explained a few things that would be happening at that time, and some of these things—wars and rumors of wars and things of that sort—have been happening from that time, clear on down to now for these 1900 years. But finally, in verse 14 (Matthew 24:14-15), He finally came to what was going to happen at the end of this world and at His second coming to usher in the wonderful world tomorrow. What would be the sign of His coming just before He would come? But it wouldn't be a sign that we're near the time of His coming, verse 14. Now, He said many would come preaching a false gospel. They would pervert his gospel. In the last program, I went through many of the other historical portions of the New Testament showing how they did suppress the gospel of Jesus Christ and proclaimed the gospel of the Kingdom of God. That is the message He brought from God. That is the gospel. The true gospel is not a message of man about the person of Christ. That is only man's message about the messenger. Christ was a messenger who brought the message from God Almighty the Father. And His message was the coming kingdom of God, of which Christ himself, of course, shall be the King. And Christ was born to be a King, and He came preaching a government that will supersede all of the governments over all of the nations on this earth today. That means the government of the United States. That means the government of Britain, of Canada. That means the government in Germany, of Russia, of China, of France, of Poland, of all of these countries. Of Russia, all of it is to be overthrown, and Christ is going to come and set up the Kingdom of God and bring us peace instead of friction and war such as we're having now today.
Now what then is going to just precede it? Verse 14, this is the sign of His coming. And when this was to happen, you would know it is near. After they'd been preaching a false gospel, not preaching the gospel of Christ that brought the Kingdom of God, but preaching a message about the person of Christ just saying, 'Believe in Christ, that's all there is to it, and you shall be saved.' Notice what He said in verse 14: 'And this gospel', the gospel he was preaching 'of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come.' Now, if it had been preached for these 1900 years, its final preaching now after 1900 years would not be any sign of His coming, would it? The very fact it has not been preached, that a false gospel has been preached, that you have not heard the gospel of the Kingdom of God. You have heard Christ preached only as a savior and the redeemer. Surely, He came for that purpose. But He also came as a King, a future King to come again to the earth and to rule as the King of kings and the Lord of lords over all nations. And that was His gospel, the Kingdom of God, which is the family of God into which we who are converted and have the spirit of God or begotten of God or may be born of God into that very divine family.
Now, that which is born of the flesh is flesh. That's what we are. But when we're born of God, when we're born again, we won't be flesh, we won't be human. And I've shown you the scripture of that in the third chapter of John, in the 15th chapter of I Corinthians, and elsewhere, time and again. And if you want to understand it better, write for our booklet, 'What do you mean Born Again?' Almost no one understands it. Many say, 'Oh, we're a born again Christian, born again Christian,' and they don't even know what it means to be born again. Write for that booklet, I didn't intend to announce it on this program. But 'What do you mean Born Again?' It will certainly open your eyes.
Now, what is the sign just before His coming? This gospel of the Kingdom, once again, would go out to the world, the gospel of the Kingdom of God. Then you know that you're very near to the time of the end when Christ will be coming again. Now, then I want you to notice 'when ye therefore shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, set up in the holy place, who so read, let him understand'. He says, 'let them which be in Judea flee to the mountains'. Now, that did happen, that did happen back in 70 A.D. when the temple was destroyed. But that was only a type of what is going to happen in our time at the time of the end. And I want to dwell just a little bit on that which I haven't done before at this time. That abomination that makes desolate, set up in the holy place in Jerusalem. Just what did He mean? Well, in Luke 21 and in verse 20, Luke's account of the same identical conversation with Jesus Christ (Luke 21:20), 'When you shall see Jerusalem compassed with armies, then know that the desolation thereof is near' when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies.
Now that is going to happen, it has not happened yet in the way that it is going to, but it will happen very, very soon. And I would like to read in a more modern translation, the New International Translation of the Bible, that abomination of desolation spoken of by Daniel the prophet. And it's in Daniel 11 and in verse 31 (Daniel 11:31), speaking of Antiochus Epiphanes and his armed forces, it says, 'will rise up to desecrate the temple and will abolish the daily sacrifice,' which happened back at that time in 167 B.C. 'Then they will set up the abomination that causes desolation'. And that did happen. And all tradition says, and it is not specifically identified in the Bible itself. But all tradition says that Antiochus Epiphanes did set up a statue of Jupiter Olympus, a false idol god in the Holy of Holies. And the armies, of course, made Jerusalem desolate.
Now, once again, armies are going to surround Jerusalem at this end time. That hasn't happened at this time, that is going to happen. In the Bible, you find there is a duality in so many cases, a former and a latter. The one is the type of the other, and it's going to happen again a second time, and that will happen again now very soon, a second time. So, notice now, I'll go back to the King James translation again.
Now in verse 40 (Daniel 11:40-41), 'at the time of the end', and then in verse 41, he this king of the north' today. It will still be the one, the king of the north and successor to, or the Antiochus Epiphanes and those that were in the old Roman Empire way back before the time of Christ 'shall enter also into the glorious land', or that is Palestine, of which Jerusalem is the capital over there now, 'and many countries shall be overthrown. But these shall escape out of his hand, even Edom and Moab and the chief of the Children of Ammon' or Ammon, as we know it, which is in Jordan today.
And so, I want you to notice now that at the time of the end, that is speaking now of our time, which is going to happen again in a sense, it happened in 70 A.D., and in 70 A.D., Jerusalem, the whole temple was destroyed. So, let's carry this on. And Daniel now, Daniel 12, and notice the first three verses, (Daniel 12:1-3): 'And at that time, shall Michael stand up, the great prince that standeth up for the children of thy people. And there shall be a time of trouble.' Now, that's yet future. After Jerusalem is surrounded by armies and it will happen. That is after this gospel of the kingdom has been proclaimed all the world. And my friends, you are seeing and hearing that prophecy fulfilled in your eyes and your ears this very minute on this television station, it has not been proclaimed, the gospel of the Kingdom for 1900 years. It was not from 5380 until 1953. Exactly 1900 years or one century of time cycles of 19 years each, and 19 years is the time cycle the sun, the moon, and the stars, which set our time, are in exact conjunction just once every 19 years. Prophecies being fulfilled precisely on time.
Now, this is all going to happen later. You're hearing the gospel of the kingdom now, and that ought to tell you that the time is almost fulfilled. Satan, the devil knows that he knows he has but a short time because he knows this program is now going out to all the world preaching the same message that Jesus had 1950 years ago. The gospel, the good news of the coming Kingdom of God to bring peace to all the world, and it is coming. Now Notice, what is going to happen right after these armies surround Jerusalem. That's very soon now. 'And at that time, shall Michael stand up, the great prince and great super Archangel, which stand up for the children of thy people. And there shall be a time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation, even to this same time. No, never shall be. Thy people shall be delivered, every one of them that is written in the book, and many of them that sleep in the dust of the earth shall awake, some to everlasting life and some to shame and everlasting contempt'. Now, the ones that will arise to shame and everlasting contempt will be 1000 years later, but it groups them all together in the one sentence here at a time of the end.
Now, Daniel's prophecy was closed until the time of the end when he said knowledge would be increased and people would be running to and fro, and I read that on the last program.
But now let's get back to Matthew 24 again. What was the next thing to happen after this gospel of the kingdom is proclaimed in all of the world? And then the armies would come and the abomination that would make desolate, it would be set up armies surrounding Jerusalem. And then we come to verse 21 in Matthew 24 (Matthew 24:21).
Jesus is still speaking. These are the words of Christ himself, 'For then shall be great tribulation, great tribulation such as was not since the beginning of the world to that time. No, nor ever shall be', the greatest time of trouble that has ever happened in the history of mankind, 'except those days should be shortened. There should no flesh be saved alive'. A time of trouble so great that it's going to get down to the place where not a human being, a man, woman, or child would be left alive if God Almighty didn't step in and intervene.
My friends, do you realize that the weapons for the first time in all history in our generation are now available that can entirely blast all humanity out of existence on this earth? It has never happened before, and no weapons have ever been invented that haven't been used. The mass destructions are now available in nuclear warfare that can erase humanity from this earth.
Now, why must we come to that time? I want to tell you no matter how much we preach the truth of God, no matter how much some people will profess Christ and accept Christ as their Savior, they still find pleasure in this world in this world's ways. They still think this is a pretty good world. You know, there is a saying, you can't cure an alcoholic until he admits he is one. The hardest thing in the world is for anyone to admit how wrong he is. The first thing Jesus said, if you want to enter into the kingdom of God is repent, that's the hardest thing to do.
And the next thing is believe, and believe means believe God and believe Christ and believe what He said. They're not talking about what He said. No one seems to be believing what Christ said. They just believe what men say about Christ and about His person. But what about His message? What about believing Christ? Let's believe what He said. I'm trying to preach that to you my friends. It's about time we open our minds as well as our ears and our eyes to the truth and come to understand it.
Now, God is not going to intervene and bring us a time of peace until we get a stomach full of this world until we come to the place where we're so sick of this world that if He delayed one more day, not one human being would be left alive on this earth. That's how bad things are going to get and soon.
And then Christ is going to come and He is going with supernatural power and force to rule all nations as the King of kings and the Lord of lords and Satan, the devil who has influenced this world supernaturally and invisibly is going to be removed for 1000 years and this world is going to find the truth of God. And let me tell you people have been deceived now for 1900 years, but then for 1000 years, the whole earth will be as full of the knowledge of God and the truth of God, which I'm giving you on this program as the ocean beds are full of water, now, you read that in the 11th chapter of Isaiah and the prophecy of Isaiah and the Old Testament and the church is founded on the prophets as well as the apostles.
Now in verse 29 and 30 (Matthew 24:29-30), Jesus concluded this after the great tribulation. 'Immediately after the great 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 heaven shall be shaken.' That is the beginning of the time called in the book of Revelation. The Day of the Lord. The whole book of Revelation is on the theme of The Day of the Lord. And that's when it will begin after the great tribulation.
And that is the beginning of God intervening in the affairs of this world to bring us peace, to bring us contentment, to bring us happiness. To bring us a little bit of love and cooperation, one for another.
'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 Christ, coming in the clouds of heaven in power and great glory.' And he will be coming as the King of kings and the Lord of lords. And we're coming right down to that time very soon.
Now, now, I wish I had time. I wanted to go on and explain another part of the Book of Revelation to you. And I say that I'm running out of time, and I want to go into the 18th chapter or the 17th chapter rather of the Book of Revelation.
A week ago, I believe it was just a week ago, I covered a great deal of the 13th chapter of Revelation with the seventh chapter of Daniel and the second chapter of Daniel where he speaks about beasts that are going to come or wild animals. Well, they're just symbols of something real that is to happen of governments to take place on this earth that are going to really be destroyed when Christ comes.
Now, if you want to understand that and the Book of Revelation, it has never been understood. It is now open, these things were closed and sealed until the time of the end. We're in the time of the end, this gospel of the Kingdom is going out, and that is the sign of we're near to the second coming of Christ. That is the sign it's happening now before your eyes and in your ears.
Now I'd like to offer you a book that once again, I've offered this many times, "The Book of Revelation Unveiled At Last", it was closed and sealed. But now the time has come, knowledge is being increased and we can understand it, and the keys have been found that did keep it locked. No one has ever understood this book. You have to put, to understand the Book of Revelation, among other things, you have to put Matthew 24 together with it where Jesus explains and reveals what is given in symbols in the Book of Revelation, but also the inset chapters of, Revelation 13 and Revelation 17. And it goes on to Revelation 18 are described in Daniel, the second chapter and Daniel the seventh chapter and you have to get them all together.
Now, this booklet puts all of those things together. There is a chart in the second in the center of the booklet explains the whole thing. I don't know if anything that has ever put it all together and ever opened it up to your understanding as this does. It's the mystery of all books, the Book of Revelation. And here it is unveiled. This is just a small booklet I'd like to send it to you. Gratis. No obligation, no charge whatsoever. No follow-up, no request for money. Nobody else is doing that if there are, I wish you'd write and tell me, I don't know of anyone.
And also, I would like to send you a sample copy of The Plain Truth magazine. If you're not already a subscriber. Now, there's no subscription price we don't charge for anything we believe in giving. Not getting giving is God's way. People are not living according to God's way of life. We're trying to live that way on this program. We want to give, we want to help, we want to serve, we want to cooperate. I mentioned the booklet about earlier in this program, "What do you mean Born Again?", and then again this booklet on Revelation and The Plain Truth Magazine, a sample copy.
Just send your request to me Herbert W Armstrong Pasadena, California, that's all the address you need. That's Herbert W Armstrong Pasadena, California 91123. Or go to the telephone and call right away. That is quicker. That is much easier. Just call toll free, a toll-free number. It's a free call, 800-423-4444. Now, the area code is 800-423-4444. Or if you live in California, Alaska or Hawaii, then you call another number, call collect, call collect, area code 213 area code 213-577-5555. Now that's area code 213-577-5555. So go and make that call right away and if the lines are busy, keep trying till you get through because we have many people waiting for your call. So, until next time, Herbert W Armstrong, goodbye friends.
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