ENDTIME REVIEW! DO 1904 1/85
1. PTL! HOW ABOUT SOME REVIEW? What book are we studying at the moment, or we were studying the last time yesterday? (Fam: Revelation.) And what chapter were we on? (Fam: We just started 13.) Well, the last one we were actually reading in was 17 & I really zipped through that lickety-split because my time was short! Sometimes my fervour is great because I know that my time is short! That's a paraphrase on something in Revelation 12. So I think it would be wise if we'd go back & kind of review a little bit & see what you remember from yesterday.
2. WE ACTUALLY WENT ALL THE WAY FROM A VERSE IN WHAT CHAPTER, CLEAR UP THROUGH 17? What was the verse the furthest back that we dealt with? (Fam: 13:1?) Even before that. (Fam: 11.) Yes, & what happens in Chapter 11 was announced in Chapter 10!--What verse? (Fam: Verse 7.) And what does he announce is going to happen when what happens? (Fam: When the seventh angel's trump blows.) When the seventh angel sounds the trumpet--what trumpet? (Fam: The 7th Trumpet!)--Also known as the Last Trumpet. Beside that verse you should have at least three Scripture references. (1Cor.15:51; 1Thes.4:16-17; Mt.24-29-31) The best place to keep your notes is in your Bible--underline words, circle words, bracket verses, make notes. If you haven't got enough room in the margin, write'm in the paragraphs, but especially cross references to others, what they call chain references. That way you can go from one verse to the other--providing you also put the next reference beside the next verse--& you can read all these verses in a row!
3. OH, I WAS GOING TO HAVE YOU DO SOMETHING ELSE TODAY, SOMETHING YOU SHOULD KNOW SO WELL BY NOW! Let's say you're witnessing to somebody about the Signs of the End & the Last Days etc. How would you tell them those? We numbered them into about 16 points, events, periods etc., but of course they don't originally have numbers & that's just our own way of keeping them in order & classifying them. But when you're witnessing to somebody outside you wouldn't say, "Well, now number one is the Last Days, number two is Signs of the Times", would you? But how would you tell'm? Now I'm going to start it off for you & I want to see who wants to volunteer to tell me the rest of'm in that fashion. Remember, like a Spelling Bee, if you make one mistake you've got to sit down & somebody else has got to volunteer to carry on. Now I'm witnessing to somebody:
4. DID YOU KNOW WE'RE LIVING IN THE LAST DAYS? YOU CAN TELL BY THE SIGNS OF THE TIMES! And do you know what the next major sign is going to be?--The Economic Crash of the whole World, the greatest World Depression the World has ever known! And do you know what that's going to bring on? (Fam: That will bring on the Great Famine, & then will be the rise of the Antichrist who will sign a Covenant which will bring freedom of religion.) We'd express it freedom of religion sometimes, but it would be better to say that it sort of guarantees peace between these various nations & religions really. (Fam: But after 3-1/2 years he's going to break this Covenant & he's going to set up his Abomination of Desolation in the Holy Place.) What's that? (Fam: He raises up his Image of the Beast.) Actually the False Prophet does it for him, but anyhow, it's his idea, I'm sure. What does he stop first? The first thing he does is stop something. (Fam: He stops the daily sacrifice.) Whose daily sacrifice? (Fam: Of the Jews.) Right!--The daily sacrifice of the Jews. So by that time they must have what? (Fam: The Temple re-built.) Right.
5. AND OUT IN FRONT OF THE TEMPLE, WHAT DID THEY MAKE THE SACRIFICES ON? (Fam: An altar.) Why couldn't they have the altar inside the Temple? (Fam: Too smokey!) Too much smoke! The fire never went out, they were cooking constantly on that fire 24 hours a day! They were cooking, they were literally barbecuing! They had a constant feast going on there in front of the Temple all the time! And do you know what they did with all that meat they cooked? Where did they get all the meat? (Fam: From all the sacrifices.) Right. They also cooked loaves of bread there, did you know that? Some people brought wheat & barley because that's all they had to give, & they cooked bread there on that great fire, on that grill & in those pans. It describes all the kind of utensils they used in the sacrifices, pans, all kinds of stuff, made bread, told'm how to make it, etc. They were roasting whole carcasses of beef & lamb & even little doves, believe it or not. The poor who couldn't afford to give any more would bring a pigeon.
6. SO THEY WERE COOKING CONSTANTLY, ALL THESE GIFTS BROUGHT FOR THE TEMPLE. And they had barns & barns all the way around the Temple. The Temple grounds were immense! The Temple itself was not very big, but what were the barns for?--To keep in storage all these gifts that were being brought.--To keep the grain, keep the corn, keep the animals, so that when it came time they would sacrifice them. Who was doing the sacrificing? Who did the cooking? Who were the cooks? (Fam: The priests.) How about that? That ought to encourage some of you cooks! It's a ministry! Most of you are on the cooking schedule once a day or maybe only two or three times a week, well, the Priests & the Levites had their cooking schedules too! The Levites were of the priestly tribe, the helpers of the priests who were the actual ones who performed the ceremonies. But they were cooking, roasting & barbecuing beef & lamb etc. constantly on that altar. I'm always getting off into something like this, but isn't it interesting? (Fam: Yes!)
7. AND WHO IN THE WORLD WERE THEY COOKING FOR, ANYHOW? (Fam: Themselves.) Themselves for one thing, there were literally hundreds & hundreds of priests on duty! There were thousands of priests amongst the Levites & they would even come from distant cities. The Levites were a Tribe of Israel, right? They had no land, but what did they have? (Fam: Cities.) They had six cities of refuge & 48 cities that were the property of the Levites. (Jos.20,21:41) They obviously had a schedule for them & they would come even from these distant cities.
8. WHAT PARTICULAR OUTSTANDING LEVITE CAN YOU REMEMBER THAT COMES FIRST TO YOUR MIND WHO WAS SCHEDULED TO WORK AT THE TEMPLE? He had to be away for awhile while he was working at the Temple because he didn't even live in Jerusalem. What Levite was that? (Fam: Zacharias.) Who's Zacharias? (Fam: The father of John the Baptist.) And the husband of Elisabeth. And where did they live? Doesn't it say? I don't remember!--Ha! They lived out in the country someplace, I remember studying about it, in some little town. Maybe it's tradition, maybe it's history or something, but supposedly in some little town not too far from Jerusalem. (Luk.1:39,40) So his turn came to go serve in the Temple, & what was his job? (Fam: Burning the incense?) I think it was burning incense. It's funny how we can forget some of these things! (Luk.1:8-10,23)
9. THEY HAD ALL KINDS OF JOBS IN THE TEMPLE, MANY MORE JOBS THAN IN CHURCH! THE TROUBLE WITH THE CHURCHES IS THERE'RE SO FEW JOBS AVAILABLE! About the only jobs available are the preacher, & the preacher's wife, who's a kind of a counsellor for the women, & the pianist or the musicians, & if it's a big church, maybe a choir or even an orchestra. Then there are ushers & doormen. And of course there's the church Board--the officially bored--& the Chairman of the Board, like the president of the synagogue, the layman. Well, that's quite a few jobs, but not near enough to keep'm all busy. So they tell the rest of them, "Well, you just go home & work & earn some money & bring it back on Sunday & that's your job!"
10. THEY SELDOM EVER EVEN THOUGHT ABOUT EVER GOING WITNESSING OR SOUL-WINNING, MUCH LESS EVER GOING TO SOME FOREIGN MISSION FIELD! "Goodness, I don't speak any foreign language, I couldn't be a missionary, so send my kids!" That was about the way it worked. "Here am I, Lord, send my sister!" 80% of foreign missionaries are women. The church has given the toughest job that God has to give to the church to their women. God bless the women! If it hadn't been for the women, we wouldn't have had many foreign missionaries. While the men are hiding behind the pulpits, the women are out fighting in the front lines & doing the missionary work. Well, in our church, thank God, it's both men & women, they go together, thank the Lord!
11. BUT IN THE CHURCHES, THAT WAS USUALLY A JOB THAT WAS CONSIDERED CONSIGNED TO OLD MAID MISSIONARIES. Most of the missionaries were women & virtually all of them were old maids, so that's where they got that expression "old maid missionary"!--Because 8 out of 10 were old maids! After all, if they went to the mission field without a husband they rarely found one there because there were so few men. Only 2 out of 10 on the mission field were men, & they were usually already married & had their wives with them, so the rest of the poor women had to go without. But here, thank God, we go together! PTL? A few have had to leave their wives or their husbands to serve the Lord fulltime, but thank the Lord you have been willing to do so. Praise God! So where was I? (Fam: The jobs in the Temple.) Oh, the jobs in the Temple, my oh my!
12. WELL, YOU KNOW WHO THEY GOT THE FOOD FROM, EVERYBODY WHO CAME TO WORSHIP AT THE TEMPLE HAD TO BRING A GIFT, A SACRIFICE OR AN OFFERING, but what happened to all this food that was being cooked there continually? The fires never went out, the cooking never stopped! What was happening to all that food? You said it fed the Priests & the Levites & that's true. Some estimate there were at least a thousand to two thousand Levites & Priests just working at the Temple in the Temple grounds. Somebody had to take care of all the animals & the grain & the offerings & the business. They had money-changers there & all kinds of people, as well as the Priests who were officiating at the ceremonies & the guys who were cooking & all that, from one to two thousand people working at the Temple.
13. BUT THEY WERE COOKING SO MUCH MEAT, GOODNESS GRACIOUS, IT WOULD HAVE FED A LOT MORE PEOPLE THAN THAT! WHO ELSE WERE THEY FEEDING? (Fam: The poor!)--Right! They were feeding the preachers & the poor! Nowadays when people go to church, who do they figure on feeding? (David: The building.)--Mostly the building! That was a very good answer, I never got that answer before! Most people say they're feeding the preacher, "It's what we feed the preacher for, we feed him to preach to us!" But you're right, most of their expenses go to the building & the rest goes to the preacher. And how much of every Protestant dollar goes to missions, at least of the biggest denominations? (Fam: Five cents.) Only five cents out of the dollar goes to missions, think of that! Most of it goes to the building & the upkeep of the building.
14. IN OUR LITTLE CHURCH, THE SUNDAY NIGHT OFFERING ALWAYS WENT TO THE BUILDING & THE SUNDAY MORNING OFFERING WENT TO THE PREACHER, & WE GOT ABOUT $10 IN THE PREACHER'S OFFERING. In our case, because our expenses were pretty cheap & I was paying for the building materials myself & I was doing the labour free & there was no rent, all they had to pay was $25 a month on the property payments & the lights. So they didn't have to pay much for the building, thank God, so the Sunday night offerings were only about $4 or $5. The monthly payments were pledged. In that case I was a specially benefitted preacher, I was getting only $10 a week to live on with a family of six, a man, wife & four children! Well, of course we would have starved to death even in the '50s on $10 a week, we couldn't depend on that. Thank God we were getting out Prayer Letters then & we solicited funds for the building & for us & it was really a missionary church out in the middle of Arizona! We had friends that were very faithful in giving, TTL!
15. BUT YOU'RE RIGHT, MOST OF THE MONEY GIVEN TO CHURCHES GOES TO THE BUILDING ITSELF, paying for the building, lights, gas, heat, air conditioning, fancy pews, organ, cushions, hymnbooks, janitor, caretaker & all kinds of building expenses. And usually the biggest one was their mortgage payment on the payments for the building itself, because buildings often ran as high as one or two million dollars! The one that dear Elvis Presley built for his favourite church in Memphis, his hometown, one of the biggest Assembly of God churches, Pentecostal churches in the United States, cost two million dollars!--And he gave very heavily to that, he was the largest donor.
16. HE WAS BROUGHT UP IN AN ASSEMBLY OF GOD CHURCH, THAT'S WHERE HE LEARNED HIS ROCK-&-ROLL MUSIC! That's the kind of music they have in the Assemblies of God, there's nothing new about that! If you want some good old-fashioned Negro rock-&-roll music, just go to the Pentecostal churches, especially the Black Pentecostal churches. Brother, you have fun there!--I mean fun! They not only have rock-&-roll music, they've got jazz & dancing & one real hullabaloo of a time! If you've never been to a Negro Pentecostal church you really missed something! They have fun, a lot like us. We're not even as noisy as they are, we can't be, it's too dangerous! My goodness, how did I get on Pentecostal churches?
17. THEY WERE FEEDING THE POOR AT THE TEMPLE, A CROWD ESTIMATED AT TWO OR THREE THOUSAND POOR WERE USUALLY THERE IN THE DAYTIME WAITING TO BE FED! If you were too poor to own any property or raise anything or had nothing, you could come to the Temple & eat. They had a daily barbecue every day, a continuous barbecue! I say barbecue because that is something a Texan will understand! The Texans bring out a whole side of beef or even several beefs, several whole carcasses at a political barbecue or a family get-together & feed thousands of people at one of those Texas barbecues! So they know what I'm talking about when I say barbecue. Well, it was a similar situation at the Temple. But how did we get onto the Temple? (Fam: Because the Antichrist is going to take away the daily sacrifice.) Does anybody want to pick up from there & carry on? David didn't miss a thing, but how about somebody else volunteering? How would you witness, how would you tell others about that? Where would you go from there?
18. FIRST THING HE DID WAS TAKE AWAY THE DAILY SACRIFICE, LET'S START WITH THAT, THEN WHAT DOES HE DO? (FAM: HE SETS UP THE ABOMINATION OF DESOLATION.) Which is what? Strangers you're witnessing to don't know what the Abomination of Desolation is! You don't even have to say that, they don't even understand that! I would say that's good for us, but at least explain what it is. (Fam: Which is the Image of the Beast.) Who's the Beast? (Fam: The Antichrist.) Who's the Antichrist? (Fam: He's the man that becomes possessed by the Devil in the Endtime.) Well, we've got lots of people possessed by devils right now! (Fam: He's the World leader in the Last Days.)--World dictator, that's an expression that they understand, or king of the World in the Last Days. Don't laugh, you'd say the same thing! You're using the right words, the Scriptural words, words we've given you, but you're witnessing to somebody that doesn't know all these big theological terms. They don't know who you're talking about even if you say Antichrist or Beast or whatever. (Fam: This starts the last 3-1/2 years of Great Tribulation.)
19. WHAT ELSE DOES HE DO BESIDES STOP THE SACRIFICES? This is important for you to know, because how are you going to know when the Antichrist really breaks the Covenant? He stops the Jewish worship, the False Prophet has his Image set up, & what else? What does the Antichrist himself do? (Fam:He sets himself up as God.) Where? (Fam: In the Temple.) There's another proof the Jewish Temple is going to be rebuilt, because 2nd Thessalonians 2 tells us "he sitteth in the Temple of God claiming that he is God". In the Temple of God, think of that! And then what do they start to do? (Fam: He requires all to receive a Mark in their right hand or their forehead.) No, he doesn't do it. (Fam: The Image does.) The False Prophet has the Image set up, & then they gear that Image in some way to insist on the Mark of the Beast & to decree that what else? What about the Mark of the Beast? (Fam: That no man is able to buy or sell without the Mark.)--Without this tattoo of this social security number or whatever it's going to be. Okay, that was very good, does somebody else want to carry on from there? What's next?
20. WHAT DOES ALL THIS BRING ON, WHAT TERRIBLE PERIOD? (FAM: THIS WILL BRING ON THE GREAT TRIBULATION.) In which what happens! (Fam: In which the King of the World is possessed by the Devil & he has many wars.) Mostly against whom? (Fam: Against the Jews.) Yes, but not just the Jews. (Fam: And also at the end of this Great Tribulation period he has the great Atomic War & he destroys the U.S.A.) Very good, we've got the wars here, she's really got'm down straight for sure! But what is one thing that we're going to have to deal with as Christians particularly? (Fam: Well, we are not going to accept the Mark of the Beast, neither bow down to his Image. So we're going to have to hide in the wilderness.) So we're going to suffer what? I'm trying to get you to say that word persecution, that we Christians are going to suffer persecution.
21. (FAM: SO THAT CAUSES US TO FLEE INTO THE WILDERNESS.)--AND WHERE'S THE WILDERNESS? (Fam: The wilderness is the nations of the World that don't like the Antichrist, the King of the World.) Right, & who have refused his Mark & who are even fighting these wars with him. So the Lord says we're going to fly away on the wings of a great eagle! Isn't that how we got here?--On the wings of great eagles into the wilderness of the Third World! To Americans, even the most civilised countries of the Third World would seem like a wilderness, even the most advanced & developed! But most of them are so uncivilised & undeveloped that the average American or European would really consider it a wilderness, right?
22. ISN'T THAT MARVELLOUS HOW THE LORD DESCRIBED ALL THAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN?--AND HERE WE ARE! As I said last time, I often used to tell people in the United States, "One of these days you're going to wish you were a missionary when the Lord starts dealing with America! You're going to wish you had gone to the mission field, because the missionaries will be the safest ones on Earth! We've already flown to the wilderness, amen?--On the great wings of great eagles! And there who helps us? (Fam: The nations of the World.) The actual word the Scripture uses in that chapter is the Earth! That's one reason I'm reviewing it, so you can know a little bit about it! Somebody else now can pick it up from there.
23. SHE SURE GOT THOSE WARS STRAIGHT! They were mostly with the Jews & the Jews' friends, the first 3, & then the 4th one apparently seems to be fought with whom? (Fam: America, the U.S.A., Babylon.) Well, it starts with whom? (Fam: The Kings of the East.) The Kings of the East, & he also has trouble at home. Who knows? That's the one re-corded in this particular passage, but maybe the war with the Kings of the East is even another war, maybe a separate war from the destruction of Babylon, the Atomic War.
24. IN THAT ATOMIC WAR, THE DESTRUCTION OF BABYLON, WHAT PART OF THE WORLD ESPECIALLY COOPERATES WITH HIM? (FAM: EUROPE.) And how many nations of Europe? (Fam: Ten.) That sounds like all the major nations of Europe, doesn't it?--The Ten Kings. How do we know it's going to be ten? (Fam: From the ten toes in the statue of Daniel, & the ten crowns on the horns in that vision of the Beast.) Which one?--Daniel's or John's? (Fam: John's.)--It's in both! The 7th Chapter of Daniel talks about the ten horns too. (Dan.7:7,8) In fact, on some things Daniel is even a bit more specific politically than John, because he says that the Antichrist will be the Little Horn, an 11th horn. And what will he do? (Fam: He destroys three of the other horns.) He breaks & uproots three of them, beats them into submission or whatever. And he'd only have to beat how many nations of Europe into submission in order to get all Europe to follow him? Can you name'm? What are the three leading nations of Europe? (Fam: Britain, Germany &...) (David: France.) Very good! She hesitated so I gave you a chance. Those are the three major nations of Europe, the three leading nations, & the way they go, the rest of Europe goes. And if he beats them into submission or makes them turn his way somehow, the rest will follow easily.
25. OKAY, SO NOW WE'RE GETTING UP TO THE LAST OF THE WARS, & WHAT'S THE LAST WAR THAT HE FIGHTS? (FAM: THE BATTLE OF ARMAGEDDON!) Right! There are five wars definitely that we know of, but let me bring out that question of possibility, that the 4th war speaks of the Kings of the East etc., but then in the next chapter we pointed out how the Euphrates is dried up to permit the Kings of the East to come. So it could be part of that in the long run. The Battle of Armageddon is the last war of the Antichrist, but the main thing is to remember that there are several wars, at least five that we know of, and there might even be another one. The Atomic War might even be a separate one from that. All right, we've just about gotten there, who wants to carry on from there?
26. WHAT HAPPENS IN THE BATTLE OF ARMAGEDDON? (Fam: In the Battle of Armageddon we come down with Jesus & we'll wipe out all the wicked people.) All the wicked people? Well, the most wicked people. Let's be more specific though, who is it we really wipe out? (Fam: All the people that receive the Mark of the Beast.)--All those who've received the Mark of the Beast, all the followers of the Antichrist. Will any of them be left? (Fam: No, none that received the Mark of the Beast will be left.) What happens to the Beast & the False Prophet? (Fam: They go to the Lake of Fire.) They're cast in the Lake of Fire right off the bat, & the rest of the Mark of the Beast people are slain with the sword.
27. WAIT A MINUTE, WE JUMPED OVER TO THE BATTLE OF ARMAGEDDON, I'M SORRY, BUT FIRST TELL US WHAT FALLS IN THE ATOMIC WAR? (Fam: Babylon, in one hour.) Who's Babylon? (Fam: The U.S., the Great Whore.) Only the U.S.? (Fam: And all the nations that befriend it.) All her friends. And this would just about include how many? (Fam: The West.) Most of the West. But what about Europe? (Fam: No.) Europe cooperates with the Antichrist & destroys Babylon, so it couldn't be Europe. But we almost could say the West is the one that's going to suffer, obviously North America & mostly the U.S.A. We usually think of the U.S. as Babylon the Great Whore.
28. WE COULD ALSO SAY BABYLON IS REPRESENTATIVE OF WHAT KIND OF A SYSTEM? (Fam: Capitalist?) Capitalism! Who is the head of the Capitalist World of today? The greatest & the richest Capitalist nation on Earth? (Fam: The U.S.A.) She is the one who is the greatest promoter of Capitalism & is promoting Capitalism to the extent that she's willing to go to war with the Communist nations to defend her system of Capitalism. What is Capitalism? (Fam: The worship of money.) That's what it really, literally amounts to, the worship of Mammon. What's another word for that? (Fam: Materialism.) Very good. The god Mammon literally means money & wealth, including power. There's another term we've sometimes used--the Capitalist system is what kind of a system? (Fam: Commercial system.) Very good!--The commercial system, system of trade, buying & selling, the profit system, the money-making system.
29. IT HAS MORE TEMPLES THAN ALMOST ANY OTHER RELIGION IN THE WORLD! EVERY BANK IS A TEMPLE OF MAMMON, EVERY OFFICE BUILDING IS A TEMPLE OF MAMMON! The greatest temples of all are in New York City, those tall skyscrapers! Are they churches? Usually when we say "church" we mean a Christian church. Are they Christian churches? (Fam: No.) But they're huge temples, the greatest temples man builds, skyscrapers, temples to Mammon, to big business, money, the commercial system, Capitalism! They build the biggest temples in the World! All the tallest buildings & all the greatest temples in the World are temples of Mammon. They may not know they're worshipping Mammon, they may not recognise the name Mammon, however, that name is pretty familiar nowadays. The Jews know it & they even still use it, because it was one of the vile gods of the heathen World in opposition to them in ancient times.
30. IT WAS THE WORSHIP OF MAMMON WHICH WAS THE MOST OFFENSIVE OF ALL WORSHIPS IN THE ANTEDILUVIAN WORLD, THE PRE-FLOOD WORLD. And what was this god Mammon, this god of riches & wealth? (Also identified with Moloch.--Moloch was the "god of any cause to which dreadful sacrifice was made" (Chambers 20th Century Dictionary), so he can certainly be identified with Mammon today.--The cause of all wars!) What was the usual sacrifice to this god? How was the idol made? I've described it already. (Fam: It was a big image with a big mouth & a fire burning inside to which they sacrificed babies.) It had hands out like this with hinged elbows, & the mothers would put their babies in these 2 hands & the priest behind the idol would cause the elbows to work by leverage & counterweights & machinery & cause the baby to be thrown right into the fire!
31. OH, MODERN CIVILISATION IS HORRIFIED BY SUCH A THING!--The worship of the god Mammon, throwing little babies into the fire! But what do they do today? (Fam: Abortion!) They kill many more babies today by the millions every year, slaughter them right in the mother's womb, kill'm & carry'm out in buckets of blood as I've described to you before, & dump'm in the hospital garbage! They don't even give'm the ceremony of the grave, that's just part of the garbage! Think of it!--Millions! How many million did Americans kill last year by abortions? It's in the WND. I believe it was 1-1/2 million babies slaughtered by abortion! (See WND46, Page 8, & WND56, Page 4.)
32. SO YOU'RE HORRIFIED BY THE GOD MAMMON, THE ANCIENT WORSHIP OF MAMMON, THROWING LITTLE BABIES INTO THE FIRE, BUT WHAT DO THEY DO WITH THEIR SONS? (Fam: Send them to war.) They send them into the fire, right?--Even a more horrible fire than the bonfire inside of the god Mammon! They even call it fire, right? The parents make them go whether they want to or not! They've got a nice word for it, the draft, conscript them, they don't like to actually admit that they're forcing them, compelling them, making them go to war even when they don't want to. They force their sons, & their daughters too nowadays, into the fire!
33. AND WHAT DOES GOD SAY ABOUT THESE PARENTS WHO FORCE THEIR CHILDREN TO PASS THROUGH THE FIRE INTO DEATH, INTO THE NEXT WORLD THROUGH FIRE? Does He bless them? What does He do? I gave you a bunch of verses on that from the Old Testament. He hates it! He hates the parents who "cause their children to pass through the fire". You'd better look up those Scriptures again, I don't remember them right now but they're Old Testament Scriptures. (Lev.18:21; Deut.18:10; 2Ki.17:17; 23:10; Jer.32:35; Eze.16:21; 20:26,31) It was one of the Abominations to God, "those that cause their children to pass through the fire." The Old Testament prophets were speaking expressly about the worship of Mammon, throwing the babies into the idol, into the fire, but modern people do it too. They throw out the murdered babies from the hospital & burn'm! They throw out their sons into the battles & they're burned, killed, slaughtered, wounded in the firing on the firing line. Don't they call it the firing line?--Killed by enemy fire? The word "fire" is used all the time! They were firing, shooting, causing their children to pass through the fire! Isn't that horrible? Well, how did we get on that, anyway?--The commercial system!
34. BABYLON, THE SYSTEM THAT'S DESTROYED, HAS A NUMBER OF DIFFERENT DESCRIPTIVE NAMES YOU CAN USE FOR IT--capitalism, commercialism, the profit system, the worship of Mammon, materialism--& the Bible sums it all up in one word describing this woman, what is that? (Fam: The Whore.) And what's her name? (Fam: Babylon.) And what does the word Babylon actually, literally mean?--The Great Confusion! What about the Capitalist Western World today, is it in confusion?--It's in one hell of a confusion! They don't know which way they're going, how they're going to get there or what's going to happen! They're in such horrible confusion that they've even given up trying to reduce their debts & budget & the deficit, they know they can never pay it off! These big nations that have borrowed millions & billions & billions of dollars from their people & from other nations can never repay it! They're already bankrupt! So they're going into the worst confusion, & what did the Lord call it in direct prophecy to us?--The Great Confusion! That's what He also calls it in the Bible, Great Babylon, Babylon the Great, the Great Confusion! There's your Western Capitalist System & Western commercial World, great confusion!
35. THE COMMUNISTS ARE NOT EVEN IN THAT MUCH CONFUSION! They know what they want. They know where they're going. They have an ideology, they've got a plan, they've got a goal! Just because I say that, some people think I'm pro-Communist.--No, I'm just saying the truth about the Communists! We don't like Communism any better than Capitalism, for we say that Capitalism is just as anti-Christ as Communism! So the Capitalists can't be so self-righteous & holier-than-thou & pharisaical & hypocritical as to claim that they are for God, they are a Christian nation, blah blah! They're doing everything they can to get rid of Christ & the Bible & prayer etc. So Capitalism hasn't got anything to brag about being any more religious or Christian than the Communists! The Communists at least claim to be for the poor, claim to share the wealth. This is a part of the propaganda which the Antichrist spreads in Daniel 11, isn't it?--"Scatter the prey" to the poor & "divide the land for gain" & preach peace propaganda & peace, peace, peace, when there really is no peace! But at least they've conquered more nations by that peace propaganda than ever by war.
36. OKAY, WE'RE STILL TRYING TO REVIEW! WE GOT TO THE DESTRUCTION OF BABYLON BEFORE ARMAGEDDON, & EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENS AT ARMAGEDDON? That's what I was trying to get at. (Fam: We come with Jesus!) We come with Jesus how? (Fam: Riding on white horses!)--Right! You don't believe that? (Fam: Yes!) Why smile? It's not funny! I believe it, it's the truth! We're going to come charging down out of the sky! That's one reason why that song "Ghostriders in the Sky!" used to really raise the hairs on the back of my neck! That was about the Devil's ghostriders in the sky, remember?--The Devil's men etc. But that's the way we're going to come, Ghostriders in the Sky! I think that song was almost inspired! It just used to give me the chills! It's a terrific song! (Maria: Windy has one, "Across the Sky"!) Yes, we've got one of our own now. Thank God we've got our own "Ghostriders in the Sky" song! (Sings:) "We're gonna ride across the sky!" PTL?--And it's even more beautiful than the other one, TTL! We're going to come charging down out of Heaven on white chargers! You know, horses used to be used in war all the time. That was the way that they used to charge into battle, with war horses, & they had horses that were fearless & really knew how to trample on men & how to kick & fight right along with their masters. So that's really going to be some battle! And who wins? (Fam: We do!)
37. YOU ALREADY TOLD US WHAT HAPPENS TO THE ANTICHRIST & THE FALSE PROPHET & THEIR PEOPLE, & WHAT ELSE? (Fam: The survivors go into the Millennium.) And who are these survivors again? (Fam: The Living, those people that didn't accept the Mark of the Beast.)--Exactly right! Obviously some of them whose names were written in the Lamb's Book of Life. They're allowed to live at least, to live on into the Millennium. And then for a Thousand Years...somebody else? (Fam: We'll rule & reign with Jesus for a Thousand Years on Earth.) Who? (Fam: Those who are saved & raptured. And we have our spirit bodies at that time.)
38. WATCH OUT ABOUT SAYING "SPIRIT BODIES"! That's true, & I use that term because it's hard to describe, but remember, they're not just like ghosts, they're not like smoke. Jesus said, "Touch Me, feel Me!" It is a material body of some kind that you can touch & feel & love, not just a spirit. He said, "For a spirit hath not flesh & bones as ye see Me have!" (Luk.24:39) We're going to have bodies much like the ones we have right now, of flesh & bones, but He didn't say blood. For this present life of the flesh is in the blood. (Lev.17:11) Supernaturally, what are we going to have flowing through our veins instead of blood? (Fam: Spirit!) Good girl! That's a good answer! We're going to have the Spirit of God, the fire of God, the electricity of the Lord flowing through our veins!--The power of God! Praise God? Hallelujah!
39. AND WE'RE GOING TO RULE & REIGN WITH JESUS OVER WHOM? (Fam: Over all the people who survived through the Wrath & the Battle of Armageddon.)--Right! And they also probably survive what else? (Fam: The Tribulation.)--Tribulation, Wrath of God, Armageddon--of course that's actually the end of the Wrath of God--& then into the Millennium. And who are those people? How would you describe them? We've got a little code lettering for it? (Fam: The Anti-Antichrists!) The A-ACs, the Anti-Antichrists! They're not saved, they're not Christians.--Well, they might even be unsaved Christians, because there are going to be millions of unsaved Christians, remember that, some of whom might be such Modernistic Christians they'll follow the Antichrist & receive the Mark of the Beast! So I believe there are going to be millions of formal Christians, church Christians. Did you ever know any Christians that weren't saved? Would you say that most church Christians are saved or unsaved? (Fam: Unsaved!)
40. SO HERE YOU'VE GOT MILLIONS OF UNSAVED CHURCH CHRISTIANS WHO ARE NOT GOING TO GO UP IN THE RAPTURE, but to whom the Lord might be good enough to spare'm, since maybe their preachers never told'm how to get saved. Obviously they didn't get'm saved, so they must not have told'm. They must not have preached Salvation. They preached a dead Christ, a Teacher, a Philosopher, like so many Modernistic churches do, which is just the same as the Reform Synagogues of the Jews teach. They teach that Christ was a great Teacher, great Rabbi, great Philosopher, a few would even go so far as to say He was a great Prophet, but not the Son of God. A lot of Christian churches preach that very same thing.
41. --LIKE HARRY EMERSON FOSDICK OF ROCKEFELLER'S RIVERSIDE BAPTIST CHURCH! TALK ABOUT A TEMPLE, IT LOOKS LIKE THE SUPREME COURT BUILDING!--Right on Riverside Drive in New York City. The biggest, most costly, expensive church in New York City is not Saint Paul's or Saint Peter's or whatever it is, it's Riverside Drive Baptist Church, built & sponsored by the Rockefellers. Because old John D., he was a real Baptist, I think he really knew the Lord! He used to sit up on the front bench of a little church in Florida near Orlando, out in the jungle there, a little kind of frontier Baptist Church. If you packed'm in it couldn't have held more than about 100 people.
42. AS A KID I HEARD THAT ROCKEFELLER WENT TO CHURCH THERE SOMETIMES & THAT HE WAS GOING TO BE IN CHURCH, SO I WENT, & SURE ENOUGH HE WAS THERE! He was sitting on the front bench & he held his songbook high in the air! He looked like my Grandfather, like Rameses, & he was singing away at the top of his voice! That's old John D. Rockefeller Senior, the first real Rockefeller that made his millions in oil, from the Standard Oil Company. I must admit that my interest was not particularly in his religion nor in just John D. Rockefeller as being famous, but I heard that after church he always gave out dimes to all the kids, nice little shiny brand new minted dimes!--So I went up & got my dime!
43. I WAS ABOUT AS OLD AS DAVID HERE, BECAUSE I CAN REMEMBER I HITCH-HIKED OUT TO THAT CHURCH & HITCH-HIKED HOME AGAIN! I don't know how I ever got away with it, but I was getting away with a lot of things in those days. I was so tired coming home & all those cars were passing me. When the last car passed me my heart sank & my face must have fallen & I must have looked like I could've tripped over my under lip, my chin was draggin'!--Because after she'd already passed me & gone quite a ways down the road, this lady finally stopped & backed up. I said, "How come they all passed me & you didn't pass me?" She said, "Well, you looked so sad after I passed you I didn't have the heart to pass you up!" So how did I get on John D. Rockefeller?--Riverside Baptist Church!
44. HARRY EMERSON FOSDICK, THE PASTOR, USED TO PREACH SERMONS ON GLORIFYING EVOLUTION, THAT EVOLUTION WAS NOT REALLY CONTRARY TO THE BIBLE, BLAH BLAH! And guess what? In the alcoves of the foyers surrounding three sides of the church there, it had a kind of a great hall going around the auditorium, & in this hall he had great statues of all the great men of all time, the philosophers like Socrates & all those philosophers, & Christ was one of the statues, & guess whose statue was also there along with Christ & the Greek philosophers? (Fam: Darwin.)--A statue to Charles Darwin, the author--well, the Devil's the author I'm sure--but the promoter of Evolution, in the Riverside Baptist Church of John D. Rockefeller Junior!
45. IT WASN'T THE OLD MAN WHO BUILT THAT CHURCH, THE OLD MAN WAS REALLY TIGHT & PINCHED THE PENNIES & MADE HIS BOYS WORK FOR EVERY PENNY THEY GOT FROM HIM! One of his boys wanted a speed boat, an outboard motor boat, & he wouldn't even give it to him!--And he had millions! He said, "You've got to earn it! You've got to do the yard & you've got to do this & you've gotta work on that & build the boathouse, you've got to earn the money!" I thought that was good! He made his boys work for a living! They couldn't just get it from the old man like too many boys in America do. They ask Dad for the keys to the car & "gimme some money to go out & entertain the girls" & blah blah! They spoil'm!
46. BUT JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER DIDN'T SPOIL HIS BOYS, HE MADE'M WORK FOR IT!--AND THE FIRST SET WERE PRETTY GOOD BOYS, AT LEAST THEY REALLY MADE GOOD. They worked hard & one became Governor of New York, another became Governor of Arkansas, & last I heard another became Governor of West Virginia. They picked on some up-&-coming backward states, went in there where there was a chance for a new politician & worked their way up to Governor. Of course, I'm sure they worked their way up greasing palms & whatnot! They had the money to buy their way. You've got to be a rich man to become a politician nowadays. You can't be a Mayor, you can't even be a Congressman any more unless you're a millionaire & you've got money to pay for advertising & a big campaign. They spend millions on it! It's a national scandal how much money these political campaigns cost.
47. DEMOCRACY IS THE MOST WASTEFUL, EXTRAVAGANT, INEFFICIENT, CONFUSED GOVERNMENT ON THE FACE OF THE EARTH! Billions are literally wasted on these political campaigns, money that could have been spent to help the poor or the country or the state, build highways or dams or do something good. It's spent on advertising, making Madison Avenue in New York--the advertising capital of the World--rich on politicians' money, just buying votes & buying television advertising, buying billboards, buying newspaper ads, buying radio advertising, buying politicians! Even the movies show how crooked the politicians are. They're everybody's friend, & yet they're really nobody's friend. They lie without battin' an eye!--Terrible! Well how in the World did we ever get on Rockefeller? (Fam: Unsaved Christians.) Very good! I'm sure glad you're keeping notes on where I'm at! Let's finish this review at least, shall we? You say, "Dad, I thought we were going to learn something new today?" Well, if you don't learn what you're already supposed to know, what good does it do to go on to something new?
48. SO WE'VE GOTTEN AS FAR AS THE MILLENNIUM, & WHO ARE WE RULING OVER IN THE MILLENNIUM--OURSELVES? (FAM: NO, THE LIVING!) And who are the Living, since they're not saved? (Fam: The unsaved who didn't receive the Mark of the Beast.)--Those who didn't receive the Mark of the Beast, who refused the Mark of the Beast, whole nations who fought wars with the Antichrist! Now at first, remember, he's going to fool a lot of people, he's even going to fool the religions & pose as a peacemaker who's going to make the religions make peace with each other. And for awhile some people are going to sort of be wondering after the Beast, wondering about him & thinking, "Well, this guy's solving our economic problems, he's bringing about some peace between the nations & the major religions, let's play along with him & see what happens!"
49. BUT WHEN HE SETS UP AN IDOL OF HIMSELF--OR THE FALSE PROPHET DOES IT FOR HIM--& CLAIMS HE'S GOD & DEMANDS WORSHIP AS GOD & starts marking the Mark of the Beast people, what do you think some nations of the East who have strong faith in God or other gods are going to do? Those who have strong religions like Christians, Muslims, even Oriental religions, what do you think some of them are going to do? (Fam: Rebel!) They're going to flatly refuse! They may have already become part of his system & his World government, but when he becomes absolutely Devil-possessed & goes against everything he's promised & breaks his covenants & his word & everything else & tries to stamp out all other religions except the worship of himself, countries who have strong religions of their own & strong faith or belief in God or some kind of god, are going to flatly refuse! There are going to be plenty of them that flatly refuse!
50. THAT'S WHY HE RISES OUT OF WHAT PARTICULAR KIND OF IDEOLOGY OR GROUP OF NATIONS OF TODAY WHO WILL FOLLOW HIM & WON'T MIND WORSHIPPING HIM AS THEIR GOD BECAUSE THEY DON'T HAVE ANY OTHER GOD? (Fam: The Communists.) He's going to be the leader of the Communist countries & they're going to be the first to fall for him. When he demands their worship they won't think anything of it! "So what? It's okay! He's our god, we don't have any other gods!" But he's going to have a lot of trouble with the various religions, & nations who have those religions. I think countries even like Spain, as Christian as they are, & the Latin American countries, as Christian & as Catholic as they are, most of them are going to flatly refuse!
51. OH, THERE MAY BE A FEW HERE OR THERE, MAYBE THESE DOUBLE TWO-FACED POLITICIANS WHO JUST FOLLOW AFTER ANYBODY THAT'S GOING TO PAY'M OR GIVE'M POWER OR APPOINT'M OR MAKE'M PART OF THEIR GOVERNMENT! They don't have any religion anyhow, they don't have any God! Their god is already Mammon & they might as well worship this guy as somebody else! But I think he's going to have trouble with some of those great Christian countries like Spain & the Latin American countries & the Muslim countries who worship Allah & even some of the Oriental religions who worship a god, a spiritual god, a spirit god, Buddha or whoever they're called. The Oriental religions talk about Nirvana & your Karma, but what is Nirvana? Isn't that when you become one with the Almighty?--When you reach your destiny & you finally are released from this merry-go-round of reincarnation & you get to arrive in Nirvana, their Heaven, which is a sort of an idea of nothingness, do nothing. Well, it's not too far from Churchianity's idea of Heaven either.
52. WELL ANYHOW, A LOT OF THOSE PEOPLE, THOUGH THEY'RE SINCERELY WRONG, THEY'RE SINCERELY RELIGIOUS & THEY WOULDN'T THINK OF WORSHIPPING SOME MAN, especially some Devil-man who tries to stamp out their religions, & they're going to fight! Those nations are actually going to fight the Antichrist! And amongst some of those nations we are going to find refuge & a haven & safety, because we too are anti-Antichrist, against the Antichrist. So they're going to even protect us & keep us, even though we may not be of the same religion. Think of that!
53. THE LORD AS GOOD AS SAID THAT FOR AWHILE EVEN WE ARE GOING TO PLAY ALONG WITH THE ANTICHRIST GOVERNMENT. Doesn't the Lord say that you're supposed to obey the power?--And as long as he doesn't try to make us deny Christ, or insist that we deny our faith & insist that we worship him, as long as he doesn't do that & we can still be Christians & still witness, we can serve under any kind of government, right?--Even a Communist government, even an Antichrist government! So during the first 3-1/2 years of his reign it's quite possible that even we could cooperate. The Lord said something about that in one of the prophecies, didn't He? I have a vague remembrance of it. (See Nos.163,183,248:13) You guys probably remember some of these things better than I do! I'm just like a pipe. The water that goes through it, it doesn't always retain any of that or even remember it. I have to go back & refer to those Letters myself & I am astounded sometimes when I read some of the things that I supposedly wrote or said, because it wasn't me, it was the Lord! When I read some of Apollos' & Isaac's Condos I say, "Boy, those guys are terrific!"--Ha!
54. WELL, WE'VE ONLY GOT ONE MORE STEP TO GO--WHAT IS IT GOING TO BE LIKE DURING THE MILLENNIUM? (Fam: No Devil.)--No Satan, & that means his whole bunch. Not only is Satan going to be in prison, but if their master is going to be in prison, certainly they're going to be out of the running too for awhile. God's not going to contend with those guys during the Millennium, He's going to give these people a real good chance, better than they've ever had before. What else is characteristic of the Millennium? (Fam: The Curse will be removed.) Yes, most of it, from those who obey. Of course, any countries who don't obey & who rebel, they're going to be cursed.
55. WHAT ELSE? (FAM: WE'LL RULE WITH A ROD OF IRON!) Yes, & this literally means what? (Fam: Like a dictatorship under Jesus.)--Great force & power! In other words, those people, even if they don't want to, are going to be forced to obey! It doesn't literally mean you & I are going to go around with a steel girder in our hand, but it's an expression meaning with great power & great force. A rod of iron is pretty hard. I wouldn't want to get hit by one, would you? You'd really get clobbered if you'd get hit by a rod of iron! Isn't that what a belaying pin on a sailing vessel is made of? Oh, you guys don't even know what a belaying pin is! It used to be a deadly weapon they used sometimes. (Fam: I think they're made of wood now.) Well, in the old days it seems they did have some of iron. They're shaped kind of like a billy club & they go in holes along the railing of the deck, places where they tie the lines, the ropes for the sails etc. Well anyhow, it's going to be a pretty tough club! Maybe it's going to be electricity, maybe it's going to be zap-zap or freeze-freeze or whatever!
56. ALL THIS STUFF YOU SEE IN THESE SCI-FI MOVIES ETC., THIS IS WHAT MAN IS DREAMING OF & THE DEVIL IS IMITATING! AND THERE'S NOTHING THAT EVER COMES INTO THE MIND OF MAN THAT GOD HASN'T ALREADY THOUGHT OF! There's nothing in man's imagination, whether it be Heavenly or Hellish, that God hasn't already known about & there isn't some sample of it somewhere in reality! And a lot of that stuff you see in sci-fi is going to really happen when we take over! We're going to be like those powerful beings that go zap-zap & just look at somebody & zoom, they disintegrate & vanish into smoke! We're going to have powers like that! That's one reason I kind of enjoy watching sci-fi videos, I can imagine us like that & doing things like that!--Although some of them were pretty weird & stupid.
57. FOR A LONG TIME THERE THEY WERE GOING TO BE RULED BY MACHINES, MAN WAS FINALLY GOING TO MAKE MACHINES THAT WERE GOING TO RULE HIM! Well, we've got a sample of that in the Bible. What's going to happen in the future? (David: The Image of the Beast.) The Image of the Beast is going to rule the World by dictates that it's going to speak itself & tell things to them. Isn't that what these computers are doing? Don't they ask computers questions & they answer & they give them direction & advice? Well, this one's going to give orders!
58. I'LL NEVER FORGET HOW WEIRD IT WAS WHEN I SPENT THAT WEEK AT THE IBM DATA PROCESSING CENTER IN LOS ANGELES, THIS HUGE BUILDING FULL OF SUPER COMPUTERS. They would talk about those machines like they were personalities! "Well, he said so-&-so, he said this, it said so-&-so, & so-&-so." It was really weird! And I began to think then, "Boy oh boy, how much like the Image of the Beast those things are!" That's where we first got that idea that I wouldn't be surprised if it's going to be some kind of a computerised Image that's going to be able to talk & speak & cause people to be killed!
59. ANYWAY, WE'RE GOING TO RULE THE WORLD, & WHAT ELSE ABOUT THE MILLENNIUM? WHAT'S IT GOING TO BE LIKE? (FAM: WE'LL STILL BE WITNESSING & WINNING PEOPLE!)--Right!--These people that never heard the Gospel or didn't really know how to be saved. People that actually knew how to be saved & had a good explanation of Salvation & said "no", I don't think they deserve a second chance, do you? I think they're the kind of people that are going to receive the Mark of the Beast. They don't have the Mark of God in their foreheads, that's for sure!
60. I'M MORE INCLINED TO BELIEVE THAT THESE IN THE MILLENNIUM ARE THE PEOPLE ABOUT WHICH THE SCEPTICS & THE ATHEISTS ALWAYS USED TO ACCUSE THE CHRISTIANS: "Well, what are you going to do about all these people out in the jungles of Africa & the wilds of India"--of course, India is much more civilised now--"& a lot of places in the World where they never even heard about Jesus, they never heard about the Gospel, they never knew how to get saved, what are you going to do with all those people? Is God going to send them all straight to Hell?"--That's what the churches taught, that everybody who never heard the Gospel, God was going to send them to the Lake of Fire to burn forever & ever! I don't believe it! I'm sure that's not so. If that was so, God is a monster! But God's not a monster, He's a God of Love!
61. THE TRIBULATION IS STILL WITHIN OUR PERIOD OF GRACE RIGHT NOW, BUT I THINK MAYBE EVEN IN THE WRATH OF GOD SOME PEOPLE ARE GOING TO GET SAVED! Don't you think some people are going to repent then?--Especially if they find out somehow how to get saved. And it says that in the very last of the Tribulation the Gospel's going to be preached to the whole World, so even if we don't finish the job, an angel's going to finish it! Think of that! So those people in the Wrath of God, it sounds to me like a lot of them certainly are going to know how to be saved, so they might get saved then. And if there are people who don't know & never heard, really didn't understand Salvation or how to receive Jesus, those people are going to be given another chance in the Millennium. I believe it!
62. I'M A FIRM BELIEVER IN WHAT'S CALLED THE SECOND CHANCE!--Actually a first chance! There are some churches that are furious when you talk about a second chance & they teach dogmatically, "This is the only chance you're ever going to get & you'd better get saved now or you're going straight to Hell!--Everybody, including the ignorant heathen & the savages of the jungles of Africa that never heard about Jesus & don't know anything about Him!" Well, Jesus even went & preached to the spirits in prison, Hell, so why shouldn't He give the people a chance in the Millennium? "This is the Light which lighteth"--or will light--"every man that cometh into the World!" (Jn.1:9) Everybody that was ever born is going to have a chance!--Everybody! Jesus even gave them a chance in Hell, think of that! (1Pet.3:19, 4:6)
63. THERE ARE OTHERS WHO ARE EVEN GOING TO BE GIVEN A CHANCE MAYBE RIGHT AT THE GREAT WHITE THRONE JUDGEMENT! Don't you think that if there are people who repent even during the Great White Throne Judgement & are sorry for their sins & really want Jesus, don't you think that God will save them? I've got a verse for it: "He that cometh unto Me I will in no wise cast out!" (Jn.6:37) There are plenty of verses about God's mercy, how if they'll just repent & ask for God's forgiveness, He'll forgive them. So I believe it's possible to not only be saved during the Millennium, but even at the Great White Throne Judgement!
64. BUT WE HAVEN'T QUITE FINISHED THE STORY, WE'VE GOT TO GET ONE MORE BIG IMPORTANT EVENT THAT HAPPENS BEFORE THE MILLENNIUM IS OVER. Well, it's actually over then, & what's that? (Fam: Battle of Gog & Magog.) If it's a battle, between whom & whom? What's happened to the Devil then? (Fam: He's let loose.) To do what? (Fam: Deceive the nations.) There are still nations over whom we're ruling, but then he's allowed to go out & try to deceive them. And will some be deceived? Some of those rebels who never really did receive Jesus even in His visible, personal reign & rule on Earth & who wouldn't obey us & who wouldn't follow us & nations that rebelled even then, from whom God withheld the rain & cursed, they're going to follow the Devil again. It will even be some of the people who survived the Tribulation & the Wrath of God. You know why? Even though they didn't receive the Mark of the Beast, God knew that in their hearts they were going to be rebellious, even if He gave them another chance. Do you know why it might even be some of those not-so-good people? Obviously not all of these people who survive into the Millennium are going to be saved. So when they get their chance & make their choice, they're still going to rebel. Think of that! It's right there in the Bible, here it is! (Rev.20:7,8)
65. WHY COULD IT POSSIBLY HAVE BEEN SOME OF THE PEOPLE WHO EVEN SURVIVED INTO THE MILLENNIUM, THAT GOD WAS GOING TO GIVE THEM A CHANCE EVEN THOUGH THEY HADN'T HEARD? COULD PEOPLE BE THAT OLD? What's going to happen during the Millennium? Part of the Curse is early death, right? (Fam: They'll have a kind of a supernatural body, not as strong as ours.) No, not in the Millennium. That's not till the New Heaven & New Earth. (Fam: In the Millennium it says that the child will be 100 years old, so people will live longer.) (Isa.65:20) Yes! You'd be considered just a child if you die at a hundred years of age! If things are going to be like they were in the early days of the Garden of Eden & even thereafter until the Flood, how long would people live then? (Fam: A thousand years!)--Almost a thousand years! So there could even be people who had survived the Battle of Armageddon & God allowed to live into the Millennium, many of those people may live the whole Thousand Years!
66. IN FACT, IT'S MY PERSONAL OPINION THAT THE MILLENNIUM IS GOING TO SLOW DOWN THE DEATH RATE. That's obvious from the description. People are going to live longer. What happened during that period between the Garden of Eden & the Flood?--They not only lived longer, but what about their children? (Fam: They didn't have so many babies.) They didn't have so many children, & they didn't even start having children in the earliest days till they were some 50 or 60 years of age! They were just considered very young then. I remember when we asked old Leland Valentine why he married so late in life, he said, "When I got to my 40's I just felt like I was still such a young fellow I was too young to get married!" Well, he lived clear up into his 80's, so I guess maybe he was right! So people are going to live a long time & they're going to feel like they're too young & maybe not wise enough to get married yet.
67. AND THE BIRTH RATE IS GOING TO BE A LOT SLOWER!--BECAUSE WE'VE GOT A LOT OF PEOPLE TO TEACH & A LOT OF PEOPLE THAT NEED TO LEARN! You ought to be heaving a sigh of relief, Sara & Maria! If we kept on multiplying during the Millennium at the rate we've been multiplying now, we would really be up to our ears in babies for sure, or over our heads! We need to train the ones we've got & take better care of them & grow them up in the nurture & the admonition of the Lord. So the Lord's going to make the job a little bit easier for us by letting the people live longer & the birth rate slow down. Of course the infant mortality rate will go to virtually nil. I don't know what a child would have to do to die at a hundred years of age, but he must be a pretty naughty boy! But anyway, the job is going to be sort of prolonged & made a little easier for us in that way.
68. DOES ANYBODY KNOW HOW MANY TIMES THE POPULATION HAS DOUBLED IN THE PAST THOUSAND YEARS? Well, it's quintupled just since I was a teenager! The population of the Earth now is nearly five billion, when I was just a boy it was only one billion, that's in only 50 or 60 years! How many times do you think it's multiplied within the past thousand? I wonder if anybody can get us an estimate of that, if you have any estimates of the population of the Earth during recorded history. That should be pretty easy to find. Let's find out how many times the Earth's population has multiplied just during recorded history of the past thousand years. And starting off in the next thousand years, we don't know just how many are going to survive, but let's say maybe the Lord spares a billion people, how much would the World's population multiply during the Millennium if it kept up at this rate? We would be overloaded with people & problems & all kinds of things! So the Lord's got to slow it down, slow it all down--slow down the death rate, slow down the baby rate & everything during the Millennium.
69. I DON'T KNOW IF THERE'S GOING TO BE ANY CHECK ON THAT DURING THE HEAVENLY PERIOD BECAUSE WE WON'T HAVE ANY PROBLEMS THERE--NO PAIN, NO DEATH, NOTHING BAD! So maybe we can have all the children we want There. Techi said she wanted a thousand the first time I asked her, but next guess she said, "Well, maybe five." (Techi: I said two because I only have two nippies!)--Finally two. Well, that's enough to start with I think. That's enough to take care of, two at a time at least, not much more.
70. SO THE MILLENNIUM ENDS WITH GOG & MAGOG, & if the Devil then gathers followers from the nations of the Earth to follow him, whom do you think they're going to be fighting? (Fam: Those saved in the Millennium.)--Exactly! It says that they "encompass the camp of the Saints about", the Millennial Saints, wherever they finally are driven to & headquarter. Can you imagine? The Devil thinks he can still win a Battle & cause trouble! Well, he's just used by God to sift the population, to give people a choice & then give God a real good excuse & a good reason for destroying the wicked rebels completely!
71. SO THEN WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THEY ENCOMPASS THE CAMP OF THE SAINTS ABOUT & THEY'RE BESIEGING THE CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY?--Whether that means in one place or all over the Earth, we don't know. (Fam: He raptures those who are saved, & then He destroys all the face of the Earth.) Yes! I don't think He's going to let the saints of that day pass through the fire, although He allowed a lot of martyrs to die in fire. But it's my personal opinion, pure theory, I can't prove it, that He certainly would catch the Millennial Saints out of that World just like He's going to catch us out of this World at the end of the Tribulation! And then what? (Fam: Then He destroys all the Wicked & the face of the Earth.) Right, destroys all the rest, & what does He do with the Earth then? (Fam: Creates a New Heaven & a New Earth.)
72. THE EARTH ITSELF, THE BALL, GOD'S WORD SAYS IS FOREVER! There are several Scriptures about it. It says the Throne of God shall endure as long as the sun & the moon endure. (Psa.78:69, 89:36,37) So God has not made this creation to be destroyed. He has not made the solar system & the planets & the stars to be destroyed, so don't believe that junk you see in some sci-fi movies! The Earth is here to stay, but He's going to purify it. He's going to burn off the surface, He's going to burn up all those poisons & pollutants & bad people & junk--junk in the heavens, junk in the stratosphere!--Even space is getting filled with junk! He's got to burn it all up! That's why He's got to burn up the heavens as well, so that it's all burned up & purified, & there's no purifier like fire! Praise God?
73. AND THEN WHAT WILL THE NEW EARTH BE LIKE? (Fam: No more seas.) And that's how many times as much land? (Fam: Four?)--Five times actually. I notice there's some difference in some people's figures, but when I was in school they said 4/5 of the Earth was sea. Maybe they've found something different by this time, I don't know, but I'll stick by that until somebody proves something different. We'll have five times as much land! Think of that! That could house a lot of people!--A lot of those people who still need healing & still need help & still need to be taught. They're not worthy of being in the Holy City but they're outside, & that's Heaven on Earth, so they can be thankful they got that far!
74. AND WHAT IS THE EARTH GOING TO BE LIKE? (FAM: LIKE THE GARDEN OF EDEN!) Like it was in the Garden of Eden, like it was in the Beginning!--Recreated, gorgeous & beautiful & perfect! Even the Millennium will be much like that, with the Devil & all those curses gone, but there's still going to be a lot of wreckage left & a lot of stuff we've got to clean up. But the final mop-up is by God Himself, a New Earth & a New Heaven! There will be new atmospheric heavens too, of course, because people are going to have to live outside on the Earth.
75. AND WHAT'S THE NEW HEAVEN LIKE?--WELL, JUST LOOK AT OUR POSTERS & YOU'LL KNOW! Don't laugh! You might be surprised when you get to Heaven & find that God did fix me up a Corner just like I ordered! How about that? I thought that was a pretty good idea! After all, I got it from my trip Up There & some of the buildings I saw. I figured, "Well what are those buildings for, anyway?" It kind of looked like a World's Fair, it really did!--Those big buildings & those garden walks & all that, beautiful gardens, park, it really looked like a World's Fair!
76. I USED TO SAY TO PEOPLE, "YOU KNOW WHAT I THINK THESE WORLD'S FAIRS ARE?--IT'S THE DEVIL TRYING TO IMITATE HEAVEN!"--Especially that last great New York World's Fair, that was the greatest of all, they've never had one like it since!--And it was a little bit of Heaven in a way, beautiful! They even had their own police & their own beautiful gardens & walks & beautiful buildings & music. Going through that gate into there from the outside World was like going from Hell in New York to Heaven! It was an imitation of Heaven, a sample of Heaven! So if Heaven's going to be a little bit like that, it's got to be a glorified Universal Fair!--Not a World's Fair, but the Fair of the Universe!
77. YOU JUST MIGHT BE SURPRISED WHEN YOU GET THERE TO FIND OUT HE'S GOT A LOT OF THOSE BUILDINGS THERE BECAUSE I ORDERED THEM! If He gives me the desire of my heart because I delight myself in Him, why shouldn't He make me a corner of Heaven like that? (Maria: I'll be surprised if it's not!) Maria's got such faith, she said she's going to be surprised if it's not that way, God bless her! Well, I had to use a little imagination, but I really thought & prayed about what would be important things to have There & what do we need There? We need to re-educate a lot of people & we need to know a lot of things & answer a lot of questions, so what better way could He have than to have all these exhibits & here's all your answers! Isn't that what the World's Fairs were for?--All kinds of science exhibits & this exhibit & that to explain to you & show you all these facts & figures & truths etc. about the World. Why shouldn't Heaven have a place like that? Well, I'm hopin' so! By faith we sketched it out for you & I'm expecting God to fix me up, if not a whole corner, at least some spot There like that!
78. THAT'S WHAT I WANT TO SEE, THAT'S WHAT I WANT TO KNOW! I put in Heaven things I thought you ought to be able to be educated by, & what better way to educate you than by such exhibits? We don't want to just sit down in a little classroom with a blackboard & a bunch of textbooks having to learn things like they do in school today. Weren't those World's Fairs some of the biggest education you ever got? You go in there & see all those exhibits & you learn faster that way than any other way, right?--Seeing it, watching it, models, samples, all kinds of things! Yes, beautiful models too, pretty girls, thank the Lord! But all kinds of models--models of the Universe, models of the Solar System.
79. YOU COULD GRASP IT A LOT BETTER THAT WAY, LIKE AT GRIFFITH PLANETARIUM IN LOS ANGELES OR SOME OTHER PLANETARIUM. They have at least 15 planetariums in the U.S.--one I know of in New York City, one at Los Angeles & I think one in Chicago. That is an illustration of the Universe. You sit in this darkened auditorium with a dome & this big machine in the middle projects on the dome-like surface the stars & the planets & the sun & all these things & you watch them revolve.--Marvellous! You can understand it a lot better that way as you see it! Well, in my Solar System Exhibit, brother, you're going to see a 3-D model of the Solar System! You're going to see not just pictures of the planets on the ceiling, you're going to see little planets whirling around! Wouldn't that be terrific? I believe the Lord's going to give me my heart's desire! I want that for you, & for me too, so you can be well-educated & learn all about creation & everything. Hallelujah!
80. SO PTL! YOU MAY NOT LAUGH THEN, YOU MAY FIND OUT IT'S TRUE! Praise God! We know Heaven's true, of course, the Bible says so. We know that description of the Heavenly City is accurate, it's got the actual specifications, the materials & everything. We know that! But my little Universal Fair Corner, maybe some people kind of smile & smirk over that. Well, that old sinner down there in Brazil didn't think it was so funny, did he? He said, "Boy, if that's what Heaven's like, I'd like to go There!" He never heard of that in church! Well, I'd better quit yelling or they're going to hear me outside! PTL!
81. WE ALREADY PRAYED THE LORD'S PRAYER & we're not going to bed so we can't pray the "Now I Lay Me", so somebody else close in prayer. Oh, we could pray the Lord's Prayer again now that you know what it really means! Maybe you can pray it with a lot more meaning & understanding! Amen? So let's pray the Kingdom Prayer that the Lord taught us to pray: (Prays Kingdom Prayer) PTL! God bless you all! ILY! (Sings:) "When we all get to Heaven, what a day of rejoicing that will be! When we all see Jesus, we'll sing & shout the victory!" We won't have to worry about shoutin' too loud then or singing too loud & being one of Jesus' children, all the enemies will be gone! Thank the Lord!
82. IT SURE WILL BE EASY TO TEACH UP THERE! PRAISE GOD!--WITH SUPERNATURAL BODIES, SUPERNATURAL INTELLECTS & ALL THOSE EDUCATIONAL FACILITIES, AUDIO & VISUAL DISPLAYS & EXHIBITIONS! Boy oh boy! Wouldn't you like to take one of your classes on a tour of that Heavenly Corner, my Corner of Heaven? Praise God! I've already ordered the kind of mansion I'd like & drew up the plans for the Lord, so I wouldn't be surprised if He got Buckminster Fuller Up There shapin'r up?--Why not? (See WND 13 Pg. 36 & GN Book 10 Pg. 188) He said if I delight myself in Him He'd give me the desires of my heart, why shouldn't He? Praise God? How about you? Why don't you tell Him what kind of a mansion you want?
83. "IN MY FATHER'S HOUSE THERE ARE MANY MANSIONS", DON'T FORGET THAT! I wish my house was big enough for all of you, but the Lord's House is! In my Father's House, that great big House, the Heavenly City, there are many mansions! I'd love to have the whole Family in my mansion with me, but that would be too big, like some of these big churches with thousands of people.
84. WHO COULD POSSIBLY PASTOR A CHURCH OF TEN THOUSAND PEOPLE?--ME!--BUT I DO IT BY MAIL! That way I can pastor each one personally with the lit. But a preacher getting up in his pulpit & preaching to 10,000 people, how can he really take care of those people? So we've got little Homes & each one has a pastor, little Homes of a dozen or so. Nowadays they're getting to be two dozen or so, & that's good on the mission field, they need that, with pastors. So praise the Lord! I'm not the only pastor, I'm just the overseer. I'm sort of like a Bishop, I guess, or an Archbishop or whatever you call'm. But we did away with all that stuff. Anyhow, I'm your Father in the Lord, praise the Lord?--Bishop of your souls, praise God, & Shepherd of the sheep as well as a few other things.
85. SO LET'S GO OUT & ENGINEER SOME MORE MAINTENANCE, SHALL WE, BOYS? Praise God? That's my pleasure, to go out & do things with my hands. That's easy, a lot easier really than working with your head! Of course, to do things with your hands you've got to work with your head too, which is what I'm trying to teach the boys. But that's fun! Physical work really in a way is fun. This kind of leadership work is a little harder work & a lot more responsibility, where you have to make decisions & all kinds of things. So as the guy said, "Do your eight hours work & don't worry, some day maybe you'll be a big boss running a whole city & have all the worry!"--But then you'll have the Lord & the Millennium & the angels & the spirits to help you, as well as lots of Worldly experts etc. PTL? You're dismissed! GBY! ILY! If you don't go I'll keep right on talking till one o'clock! Well, if you love me, come here & kiss me! PTL! ILY! Oh boy, we've got about the next best thing to Heaven, we've got Heaven right here, beautiful gorgeous angels & all! TYJ! GBY! ILY!
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family