COUNTDOWN
TO THE GREAT TRIBULATION
“The Russian Prime
Minister, Primakov, declared today at the world economic summit in Davos,
Switzerland, that although Russia is currently preoccupied by serious economic
difficulties, Moscow remains a great power whose views must be considered in
global politics discussions. He said
that
In spite of its
current economic difficulties, Russia is still a strong military power, with
great resources and military potential, he said. Although its current economic problems will
take at least a year to resolve, they are a temporary phenomenon which would
not prevent Russia from playing an active role in international diplomacy.” (Radio Free Europe, February 1, 1999).
It seems an awfully long time since the
Russian Prime Minister, Yevgeni Primakov, made that statement, yet that was
only earlier this year. Our times are moving so fast it is hard to keep up with
world developments anymore. Russia is
now having its third Prime Minister since then.
We have been expecting this kind of
assertiveness from the Russian leaders for some time now, and when it came it
did not surprise us. But it raised a few
eyebrows among those who have written Russia off as a superpower years ago.
Ever since the Soviet Union was signed out of
existence in 1991, we have continually warned the world that Russia would rise
once again and be the main player in the end-time nuclear holocaust -
known in the Bible as the great tribulation.
So when we heard of Primakov’s statement, we were curious what the
mainstream media had to say about it.
This is what we found in The Australian:
“It
would take Russia at least a year to pull out of its economic crises, but its
economic woes would not prevent it playing an active role in international
diplomacy, Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov said at the weekend. He told the World Economic Forum annual
gathering that Russia’s economic problems were a “temporary phenomenon” and
even if “it will take time and probably more than a year to get out of these
dire straits . . . it will not do anything to prevent Russia playing an active
role” in international diplomacy. In the
Middle East, in Kosovo” and elsewhere “we are going to play a positive role in
all these places”, Mr. Primakov said.
“The difficult economic situation does not create the best conditions in
which to pursue an active foreign policy.
We want to use our influence in order to stabilize the situation.” (The Australian, February 1, 1999).
Can you detect the differences between the
two accounts? No mention of Russia’s great military potential, or its
opposition to a “unipolar” world in The
Australian. In other words, no mention of its claim to
superpower status alongside the
Since the beginning of our work, it has been
our policy to send our magazines to national and religious leaders, and to
media representatives, as part of our efforts to witness the restored Gospel of
the Kingdom of God to as many people as possible. Early in our work, we received a reply from
the religious writer of The Australian who told us among other
things that he “always answers letters”.
We took that to mean that he wanted us to continue sending him our
magazines, which we did. That was the
first and last we heard from him, but that was not the end of our communication.
In our very first edition, we revealed that
the time was ripe for the fulfillment of a major biblical prophecy: the visit
to Israel of the head of the Catholic Church.
This is what we wrote then.
“Because three major world religions -
Judaism, Christianity and Islam - claim [Jerusalem] as
a central place for their faiths, the only possible solution is to make that an
international city. That way we would also have the conditions for a Pope to
visit that city. Did you know that no Pope ever visited Jerusalem in two
thousand years of Christianity? Only one Pope will God Almighty allow to step
foot on that land, and most likely he will come to inaugurate the ‘new era of
peace!’ When that happens, be ready for
Armageddon.” (The Christian Herald, No 1, 1990, p. 16).
Only a few months later, the Vatican
announced that the Pope would indeed like to visit Jerusalem as “a messenger of
peace”. We were taken by surprise by
that announcement because we did not expect it to come so soon. As it turned out, that event was still almost
a decade away. But after a few false
starts, we know for sure now that that event is scheduled to take place
sometimes in the year 2000. In
subsequent editions of The Christian Herald, we discussed the implications of that visit, and explained
that it would take place after a new leader took over in Russia from
Yeltsin. We understood from biblical
prophecies that Yeltsin would not be the man responsible for the end-time
nuclear holocaust (For a detailed analysis of those prophecies see The Christian
Heralds Nos
But then we were taken by surprise by an
article in The Australian, signed by its religious editor, which said that the
Pope’s visit would take place no later than 1995. Being an ordained preacher, we assumed that
he had inside knowledge about this event.
So for a while, that put us in a conundrum -
we just could not see how that could happen so soon. But when that date passed and his prediction
did not eventuate, it became obvious that he had expressed not an informed
opinion, but his own personal desire. He
was very anxious for that visit to take place as soon as possible. Why?
Because that would have made us false prophets.
Afterwards, we noticed a peculiar change in
the editorial policy of this newspaper.
As we continued to point out the perilous condition of the world, and the
increasing tribulations it was experiencing since the beginning of this decade,
which coincided with the beginning of our work, this newspaper began to play
the Devil’s advocate.
Natural disasters? Nothing unusual compared to previous
times. Environmental degradation? Nothing that cannot be repaired. Danger of nuclear holocaust? The world has entered a peaceful and
prosperous new age. Overpopulation? The earth could accommodate many times more
people than it does now. Famine? Only a matter of distributing the resources
evenly. Warming of the planet? The earth
is experiencing one of its many cycles.
And so they went, the more we pointed out that these are the preceding
signs and stages to the great tribulation, the more they reassured their readers
that there is nothing to worry about.
Nothing in the world seemed to disturb these
people. But in their effort to present a
rosy a picture of the world, they emaciated and sanitized their paper so badly,
one could no longer get an accurate picture of the world from its pages. So we had no choice but to give up wasting
out time on their newspaper.
We relied instead on The Sydney Morning Herald , by far the most informed and insightful newspaper in
“There are sinister echoes of the rise of National
Socialism in moves for a Slavic union.
Its hardly surprising that Western media keep missing important – and
troubling – political trends in
Some of the omens ignored by our media include the
visit to Russia of Vojislav Seselj, the Vice-Premier of Serbia, as well as his
sensational appeal for a Slavic Union of Russia, Yugoslavia and Belarus. Of course, Seselj is habitually called the
“mad dog” of Serbian nationalism, an “irreconcilable” next to whom even
Slobodan Milosevic looks like a moderate. What’s really important, though, is
that in the Russian city of Yaroslav, Seselj’s appeal got a standing ovation.
Missed as well was the Belarus President Alexander G.
Lukashenko’s depiction of Ukraine as a betrayer of the common Slavic
cause. Seselj and Lukashenko are
politicians, not amateur travellers. Unlike our media, they must have smelled
change in Moscow’s political air. Why else would they bother suddenly forging
an alliance with Russia’s own “irreconcilables”, the anti-Western nationalists
who have worked hard for the last seven years trying to provoke a confrontation
with the West?
For all their ravings about the Zionist conspiracy
deliberately ruining Russia, these gentlemen were until now of limited value to
their Serb and Belarus brethren. With Yeltsin in the Kremlin and lacking a
credible and popular leader, they had no chance to change radically Russia’s
foreign policy. Not any more, though, not when they are rallying behind a
formidable presidential contender in Yuri Luzhkov, the Mayor of Moscow. If so, their political program would seem to
deserve some media scrutiny. Especially the points that are of such concern to
Seselj and Lukashenko:
- The immediate Anschluss of Belarus, which for Russia
would be the same as Austria’s consolidation with Germany in 1938.
- The return to Russia of the Ukrainian city of
Sevastopol (compare it with Hitler’s demand for the return of Danzig on the eve
of World War II).
- The creation of a Slavic Union of Russia –Belarus,
Yugoslavia and Ukraine, which Lukashenko intends to lead. If the “treasonous” Ukrainian leadership
refuses to join the ranks, Seselj and Lukashenko will threaten a civil war – 10
million Russians, after all, live in Ukraine.
So what happens if Luzhkov wins the presidential
elections? Given that he is one of the most fervent champions of incorporating
Belarus as well as of the return of Sevastopol, some kind of Russian-Ukrainian
confrontation would be on the cards. If
that occurs, its hard to imagine the
Russia would be ruined economically, just as Serbia
is. Yet, again like Serbia, Russia would
be fuelled by an all-consuming “patriotic” fervour of imperial restoration.
It’s easy to envisage what the emergence of such a nuclear mega-Serbia would
mean. Just imagine the mayhem that Iraq in the Middle East or Serbia in the
Balkans might create if allowed to operate with impunity behind a Russian
nuclear shield.
Yes, this is a worst case scenario.
The Russian “irreconcilables” may not come to terms with Luzhkov –
though it’s hard to see why they wouldn’t.
And Luzhkov himself may be defeated in the elections (though it’s hard
to guess by whom). Still, it’s hardly wise to give him a helping hand by
sticking to the course designed by the International Monetary Fund, which
generates only misery in Russia and nationalist outrage towards the West. It’s not too late to realise that what the
West has been doing to Russia in the last seven years is a carbon copy of what
it did to Weimar Germany in the 1920s. Should we be surprised if identical
policies produce identical results?
The whole thing looks more bizarre when we recall that a remarkable
generation of Americans after World War II rejected those failed Weimar
policies of financial manipulation in favour of a solid strategy of
reconciliation of former enemies – a strategy crowned with success in both
Japan and in Germany. We didn’t give them money then that could be stolen just
as it has in Russia. We modernised their
industries instead. Why not follow
George Marshall and Dean Acheson, fashioners of the Marshall Plan? Why refuse to
face the fact that radical reform is needed, not just by Russia’s economy but
in our own policies as well?
First things first, however. Right now our main preoccupation in Moscow
must be to assure that in the next five years there is no Russian Milosevic in
the Kremlin – if only because there must still be a Russia after 2000 willing
to accept a reformed Western policy.” (Alexander Yanov, Sydney Morning Herald,
December 30, 1998).
So, “the Western media keep missing important – and
troubling – political trends in
FALSE PROPHETS AND
PROPHECIES
“Today, we refuse to learn from the signs
of history. And some of those signs are
happening inside that very same nation -
Germany! Our peoples are again refusing to see what is really happening.
Germany is prophesied to rise one last time, again to be the enemy of
This is what Gerard Flurry wrote in his
magazine The Philadelphia Trumpet of
January 1999. If you do not know who
Gerard Flurry is, you will find out shortly.
Sufficient to say here that judging by the speed with which he expands
his religious empire, and the number of television stations that carry his
message, he appears to be the most successful preacher in the world at the
present.
As you can see, according to this man, it is
not Russia and China that represent a great danger to the world, but Germany. So sure is he of this fact, that he gave us
biblical references to check them for ourselves. So let us do just that, let us see what
"Woe to
I will send him against an ungodly nation,
And against the people of My wrath I will give him charge, To seize the spoil,
to take the prey, And to tread them down like the mire of the streets.
Yet he does not mean so, Nor does his heart
think so; But it is in his heart to destroy, And cut off not a few nations.”
Can you see
It is true that
Add to this the following prophecy from the
book of Revelation, dealing with the same event, and you have an even better
picture of which countries it might refer to.
Now even if you find it hard to accept that
Rosh, Mesheck, and Tubal are
- First,
its location in the “far north”. Look at
a globe and see which country is far north of
- Second,
look at its allies:
If you think that the aim of world revolution
has come to an end with the collapse of the
Even the Russians who helped bring down the
old repressive Soviet system are having second thoughts about what they got
themselves into - a recycled old Russian
feudal system.
At a recent meeting between the leaders of
“Leaders unite to protect borders. Facing a
growing threat from armed Islamic fundamentalists, the leaders of
“China-bound.
“
We have come a long way since 1992 when
President Yeltsin, hand in hand with President Bush, declared that
Yevgeni Primakov is not
- Third,
the army of two hundred million people is coming from the north-east across the
Now let us consider what would be at stake
for
And yet, Gerard Flurry assures us that
Nuclear war requires above all else large
uncontaminated area to serve as refuge for the survivors. That is why only countries the size of
“It is almost 10 years since the Berlin Wall
came down and people believe that the Cold War is over. Not so. The US
Department of Energy has never conceded that the possession and possible use of
nuclear weapons is an outdated and obsolete concept, and it is presently funding
a program to design, build and test new nuclear weapons at a cost of $4.5
billion a year over the next 10 to 15 yeas, which exceeds the annual average
spending at the height of the Cold War.
So extraordinary is this new endeavor that the department’s Assistant
Secretary of Defense Programs, Mr Victor
Reis, described it as “a scientific and technical challenge perhaps as
formidable as the Manhattan Project".
This concept originated in 1994 when President Clinton announced a
Nuclear Posture Review. calling for nuclear forces to remain a cornerstone of
Two years later, on
Now the nuclear
weapons labs - Los Alamos, Lawrence Livermore and Sandia - are designing and
building huge supercomputers that will simulate actual nuclear testing, while
at the same time testing sub-critical quantities of plutonium at the Nevada
nuclear test site, thereby directly violating the spirit and the letter of the
CTBT. Extraordinarily complex and
expensive scientific experimental facilities are on the drawing board and under
construction at the labs for "virtual" nuclear testing. These include
the Dial Axis Radiographic Hydrodynamic Test
Facility, Advanced Hydrotest Facility, National Ignition Facility, Advanced Radiation Source and the
Atlas Power Facility. Several of these
machines are designed to simulate the turbulence within the Plutonium trigger
in the nanoseconds before explosion. This is called hydrotesting.
Other exotic
scientific procedures include high energy evaluation, gap analysis,
spallation/ejection, aging evaluation, new design evaluation, dynamic material
properties, gas cavity. studies, fission ignition and burn, and radiation
transport. The nuclear Scientists at the
labs will also study nuclear performance in flight, electromagnetic pulse,
pulsed power source, simulation of radiation environments, stockpile to target
sequence and hydrodynamics of solid rocket fuel. In all, America Is planning to develop a new
arsenal of “modernised" weapons, many of low or moderate yield, to be
fitted to an array of faster stealthier, longer range delivery platforms with
sophisticated electronics, fully integrated into a 2lst century "battlefield”
controlled by satellite surveillance, remotely deployed sensor arrays and
precision targeting.
According to military
documents, the
In short,
- Since 1994, in fact, the Department of
Energy has already designed and constructed a new "earth penetrating"
nuclear weapon and has plans to build more new types of weapons. It is also moving towards the possible
development of a pure fusion bomb, which will not require the use of fission
materials. This is an extremely serious proposition because arms control
verification is dependent upon the satellite detection of fissionable isotopes.
So pure fusion development, if successful, will end the global process of arms
control.
During the Cold War,
nuclear weapons were only to be used against other nuclear nations - the
"Manhattan Two"
programs have already been initiated by the four other declared nuclear
nations -
The five universities are Stanford,
The most serious
consequences will be the development of both "horizontal" and
"vertical” proliferation. Because the
Now lest you think that the
“In a rare
meeting of the Kremlin Security Council devoted to nuclear weapons policy,
President Boris Yeltsin has approved a new blue print for beefing up thousands
of short-range or tactical nuclear weapons that were taken out of service
unilaterally earlier in the decade, officials said. The decision was announced by the Security
Council secretary, Mr Vladimir Putin, who said it had nothing to do with the
conflict over Kosovo. However, other
sources said the decision clearly reflected
Can you see now why Jesus Christ said that
His return, and the great tribulation, will take the world by surprise? Those who ought to know better, are deceiving
the world into a false sense of security by focusing people’s attention away
from the real danger, and towards a country which is not even a nuclear power,
and which has unilaterally renounced nuclear weapons. If we have to wait for
Flurry says that he sees “disquieting signs”
coming from
During the Balkan conflict earlier this year,
not once did he speak against the atrocities committed by the Serbs against the
Albanians of Kosovo, yet all the time he blamed Germany for what was happening
in that country. In his twisted
reasoning,
At the height of that conflict, in his May
1999 edition of The Philadelphia Trumpet,
Germany was mentioned directly or indirectly in no less than 23 pages of the 28
that his magazine contained.
He thinks of himself as a prophet of God, yet
shows no sympathy for the hapless victims of gang rape (women and girls even
below the age of puberty), of torture, starvation, wholesale slaughter, and
mass deportations. He and his ministers
would have you believe that Jesus Christ cannot return to this earth before a
new temple is built in
The effect of this preaching is to hide the
true identity of the “abomination of desolation”, and cause people to look elsewhere
for the fulfillment of this prophecy, and thus be unprepared for their
Savior’s return. We have amply documented from historical and
biblical sources, that this is none other than the head of the forth “beast” of
Daniel’s prophecies - Pontifex Maximus.
Mystery of the
Philadelphia Church of God
Before this year, we knew nothing about
Gerard Flurry and his church, except that he was just another offshoot of the
Worldwide Church of God. But then, a
friend of ours, knowing that our teachings were diametrically opposed, handed
us some of his publications and asked us to comment on them. It was then we discovered that we were wrong
to have dismissed this man so lightly in the past. He does not want to be considered just
another offshoot of the WCG; he claims nothing less than the mantle of Herbert
W. Armstrong, and the leadership of the Philadelphia Church of God.
Before the death of its founder, Worldwide
Church of God members believed that their church was none other than the
Philadelphia Church of God of the book of Revelation, but even Herbert W.
Armstrong hesitated to make that official, fearing perhaps what other churches
may think, or that they might scoff at the idea. Not so Gerard Flurry. He did away with all pretenses and came out
into the open. After considering all
the facts, we believe that he is right.
He is indeed the rightful inheritor of Armstrong’s mantle, and the head
of the Philadelphia Church of God. On
the back of the title page of his Philadelphia
Trumpet he makes the following
statement:
“The
Philadelphia Trumpet has no subscription price -
it is free. This is made possible by the
tithes and offerings of the membership of the Philadelphia Church of God and
others. Contributions, however, are
welcomed and are tax deductible in the
He “holds fast” to the traditions established
in the “true church” by Herbert W Armstrong.
He did well to put the words “hold fast” in inverted comas, but forgot
to do the same with the words “true church”.
After the death of Herbert W. Armstrong, when his sins, excesses, and
false doctrines were exposed to the world, not one of his top evangelists
wanted to have anything to do with him anymore. They either took their flocks
and created new “Churches of God”, or set about to dismantle everything that he
stood for. Then, out of that chaos,
rose a white knight, whom hardly anyone knew, who determined to preserve the
memory of his mentor and restore his religious empire. Hence, the Philadelphia Church of God. He succeeded beyond his wildest dreams,
surging ahead at phenomenal rates of growth.
His message is now being broadcast by more than 120 television stations
around the world. In the January 1999
edition of The Philadelphia Trumpet,
we found this:
“For over 50 years, the late Herbert W.
Armstrong taught a strong prophecy message which included God’s prophecies
about a “beast” power comprised of ten nations or groups of nations (Dan.
2:28-43;Rev. 13). That multi-national religion-led superpower is now rising to
the forefront of world economic news before our very eyes, and will soon
dominate the world and all of its inhabitants (Rev. 13:16-17). A European economic and military powerhouse
led by
It was Herbert W. Armstrong who first began
the polemic against Germany. He preached
about the danger coming from that country as early as the 1930s. He was justified in doing so then, but failed
to understand the new geopolitical realities that arose from the Second World
War. When he saw Germany making great
strides in rebuilding itself after the war, he assumed that this country would
once again rise to become a world power and a threat to his people. Germany, however, developed into a stable
democratic country, thoroughly integrated into the European Community, and
unilaterally renounced nuclear weapons.
These developments however were totally out of character with
Armstrong’s preaching, nevertheless he held on to his believes until he
died. In the new world only two
countries counted as great military powers, the Soviet Union and the USA, yet
he continued to speak of the threat coming from Germany and ignored the one
coming from Russia.
After his death, if some of his followers had
doubts about his preaching, they were quickly forgotten when they saw the
catastrophic collapse of the Soviet Union in 1990. They were convinced then that Germany’s time
had come. That is when both Gerard
Flurry and us began our works in earnest.
He has been telling the world that Germany represents a great danger to
the world peace, while we have been telling it that the danger comes from
Russia and its allies. Now if success
is measured by the number of people converted to one’s cause, we are an abysmal
failure. Flurry on the other hand, could
rightly claim to be the most successful preacher in the world at present. Since both Flurry and I were once baptized
into the Worldwide Church of God, let us see where we stand in relation to the
Philadelphia Church of God of the book of Revelation.
Notice carefully verses
So then a “good minister of Jesus Christ”
would never preach “doctrines of demons” such as “forbidding to marry, and
commanding [people] to abstain from foods which God created to be received with
thanksgiving by those who believe and know the truth”. Anyone who preaches otherwise, obviously does
not know the truth. For Flurry and his
followers it is as if these Scriptures do not exist, as they did not exist for
Herbert W Armstrong and many Churches of God.
They make a great virtue out of keeping these dietary laws more strictly
than the Jews. By denying the New
Testament doctrines, they deny the name, and sacrifice, of Jesus Christ.
Can you see now why Jesus Christ spoke of two
kinds of people in His Philadelphia Church? There are some who claim to be
“Jews”, but who are instead a synagogue of Satan. Bear in mind that Jesus Christ calls His
followers Jews not Christians. That is
in line with the point made earlier in His ministry that salvation belongs to
the Jews.
Now a few words about “forbidding to
marry”. This interdiction must be seen
in context of the changes that occurred between the Old and the New
Testaments. In the Old Testament, the
Jews were forbidden to marry people of other races, but in the New Testament
this distinction no longer applies.
The only restriction in the New Testament for
the people of God is that they must marry from among those who are members of
the Congregations of God.
In the New Testament, we have a marriage
covenant with God, just as the Jews of old had a marriage covenant with
Him.
Gerard Flurry holds on to the Old Testament
marital restrictions by forbidding people of different races to intermarry even
if they are baptized and full members of his congregation. Once again, in so doing he annuls the New
Testament and denies the name of his Savior.
You may have noticed the word “unclean” in
We can destroy our marriage with God Almighty
by going after idols. That is what makes
us spiritually unclean, not the eating of foods. Apostle John told us to test the spirits to
find out which are true and which are false.
Add Apostle Paul warned us not to be deceived
by those who come disguised as ministers of Christ, but who are ministers of
Satan instead.
We hope you are in a better position now to
distinguish between the true and the false ministers of Jesus Christ.
Mystery of the Worldwide Church of God
During my brief period in the Worldwide
Church of God, in the early 1970s, I found it hard to believe that its leaders
would regard Germany as a great threat to America, yet treat Russia (then
incorporated into the Soviet Union) as if it did not exist. To me that represented a major fault in
their preaching, but I could do nothing about it because, 1) I did not know
much about biblical prophecies, and 2) my English was at the beginning stage
then. But as I grew in “grace and
knowledge”, I became more and more convinced that they were wrong in their
prophetic understanding, and tried to tell them about it. But the ministers in that church would have
none of it. It was inconceivable for them that a newcomer could see things
better than their great prophet.
So successful was Herbert W Armstrong in his
brainwashing techniques, that his followers still believe his prophecies even now
when the whole world could see that they have failed.
My conviction about the danger coming from
the
Having been indoctrinated in the communist
ideology for no less than seventeen years, it is nothing short of a miracle
that I am now preaching Christ instead of Marx.
When I arrived in the West, most people were
interested in my story. I remember how
at one time, at a party in Vancouver, Canada, people sat around me for hours,
asking dozens of questions: how I escaped from the Iron Curtain, how I survived
in the West, how was life in the communist world, in the communist army, in the navy, what was
I planning to do in the West, etc. At
the end, many people advised me to write it down and publish it, but of course
I could not do that. It was one thing to
tell a story at a party in a broken language, and quite another to publish
it.
After that evening, I toned down my story and
seldom talked about it, preferring instead to look to the future than to dwell
on my past trials and those of my family.
It was the best thing I could have done for myself, opening up a new
world of possibilities and freeing myself from the shackles of the past. I feel sorry for the people who relieve long
past injustices and injuries every time they remember or talk about them.
What could I have achieved if I had remained
bitter about the injustices of the past?
I and my family were victims of the communist system, not of nazism, and
we all know that
Those who had illusions that this world can
deliver justice, must have come down to earth with a thud when they saw what
happened to Pinochet of Chile. If the
man is guilty of crimes against humanity, let him face the courts indeed, but
who will arrest the people on the left of the political spectrum for their
millions of victims? Dare anyone lay his
hands on Fidel Castro for example? Or on
Mengistu of Ethiopia who took refuge in the “paradise” of his close friend
Mugabe of Zimbabwe? Or on Jiang Zemin of
Who will bring to court Ion Iliescu for
taking revenge on my mother for the articles I wrote in this magazine when he
became President of Romania by crooked methods, or for the victims of his
collectivization when he was second in command under Ceausescu, which ruined
the country and brought misery to millions?
And just the same, who will bring to justice
the Judges of Australia who put me in the street on a disability pension and
gave my house to my millionaires wife who divorced me because I had
“squandered” the money on this work? Can
one get justice for preaching Christ when he is judged by Jews, and divorced by
a wife who also happens to be Jewish? In
The Judge in my case even had the temerity to
acknowledge before the court that he was delivering a crocked justice when he
said in the hearing of all: “I am sorry to do this to you, Mr. Sbarcea!”
To which I replied, also in the hearing of
everyone: “You are doing it to yourself, Sir!”
Of course, he did not believe me then, but he
will shortly. For had he applied God’s
righteous principles, and used the Bible for guidance, he would have known that
one must not “judge according to appearance, but judge with righteous
judgment" (John 7:24), because “with what judgment you judge, you will be
judged; and with the measure you use, it will be measured back to you” (Mat
7:2), for one does “not judge for man but for the LORD” (2 Chr. 19:6).
No, not much has changed since the time of
Jesus Christ. Christians are still
getting the same raw justice their Lord got two thousand years ago. And this from the people who ought to know
better, who themselves endured great injustice only half a century ago.
If “justice” is the name of the game, then
let there be justice for all not only for those who fought the evils of
communism and Satanism. We wish the
Jewish victims of the Holocaust good luck with their compensation, but we
advise them to spend it quickly, for their billions will be worthless in just a
few, very few, short years.
And before anyone starts jumping up and down,
accusing me of anti-Semitism, let me make one point clear: I happen to believe
that I come from the same stock as the Jewish people, though I cannot prove
it. Not that I care to.
What that Judge did not know was that the day
I was summoned to appear in court, was exactly the day of completion of our
mission (Rev.11:3). He had placed himself in the service of the Wicked One, who
had began his relentless war against us.
We were hoping and praying that that would mean the end of our trials,
but the Almighty showed us that we must continue until
It may
well be that the reason the ministers in the Worldwide Church of God began to
give me cold shoulders after I was baptized in their church, was that we were
beginning to speak a different language.
I could no longer accept their notion that in order to be a Christian
one had to keep the Jewish dietary laws and obey the law of tithing practiced
in ancient
Another reason, of course, was that no story
was allowed to overshadow that of their great leader. He was the one who had
succeeded against all odds during the great depression; he had suffered great
hardship during much of his life; he had risen from great poverty to lead the
greatest institution on earth. Now he
was entitled to all the accolades and adoration he was receiving from his
grateful followers for whom he was preparing a “paradise” on earth.
No one was allowed to cast even a shadow of a
doubt over the validity of his doctrines and teachings. My salvation came from the fact that I did
not allow others to determine the path of my life for ever. Anyone who exercises his brains in the
minimum can see that churches serve as the babysitters in the early stages of
one’s spiritual growth. But then one
must stand on his own feet or forever be slave to others. What else could the following Scriptures
mean?
Mat
Mat
Mat
Mat
Mat
Mat
Mat
Mat
Who are they who prophesy in Jesus’ name,
cast out demons in His name, and do wonders in His name, yet still practice
lawlessness, if not those who are leaders in His churches? Those who claim to
be “Jews”, yet are a synagogue of Satan inside the very churches which carry
the name of our heavenly Father - the Churches of God!
Every single one of the seven Churches of God
mentioned in the book of Revelation, had problems with these people. This is the great mystery of our world, that
God Almighty has allowed the children of the Wicked One to rule in His churches
over His children who needed to be chastened in order to develop the character
suitable for His eternal Kingdom.
So take hold of a good Bible and “work out
your own salvation”, for if you rely on others all your life you will not make
it into the
THE
BLIND LEADING THE BLIND
Herbert W. Armstrong did not live to see the
changes that took place in the world in late 80’s and early 90’s, but his
hirelings saw them and were heartened by them, believing that their master’s
prophecies were finally beginning to come true.
But as the years past by, the unthinkable occurred. Instead of
“
So after demolishing
Now did you notice how many biblical
references they gave us to prove these assertions? None! None, because there aren’t any. And there aren’t any because this is pure
fallacy not biblical prophecy. That
booklet was published in 1996, but by 1999 Flurry and his ministers had another
change of heart. “This former
superpower [
“Over the past year the Western press has
presented the world with a picture of an ailing
Breathtaking hypocrisy! It is the Western media which presented a
false image of an ailing
People pay up to thirty per cent of their
income, under the same ruinous tithing regime invented by Herbert W. Armstrong,
to hear this kind of utter trash. Flurry
gave us
Then he gave us
Do you see a “multinational-led superpower
rising before our very eyes” in this passage?
Both these references are outright misquotations. Our “watchman of God”
does not appear to be very sure of his Bible.
Could it be that his inability to prove his points is because he did not
take them from the Scriptures but blindly accepted them from Herbert W.
Armstrong?
We added verse 18 to that quote to make it even more clear, and because
this verse is closely linked with the previous two verses. We do not know why they left this one out,
except perhaps because it tells us to calculate the number 666 which identifies
the “beast”.
By assigning numerical values to letters, the Pope’s title, “VICARIUS
FILII DEI” (“Vicar of the Son of God”) in Latin, adds up to 666. The letters “Lateinos” (the Latins) in Greek
also add up to 666. And, astonishingly,
the letters “ROMIITH” (the Romans) in Hebrew also add up to 666. This is how Joseph F. Berg presented them in
his book, The Great Apostasy.
|
V |
5 |
F |
0 |
D |
500 |
||
|
I |
1 |
I |
1 |
E |
0 |
||
|
C |
100 |
L |
50 |
I |
1 |
||
|
A |
0 |
I |
1 |
—— |
|||
|
R |
1 |
I |
1 |
501 |
|||
|
I |
5 |
—— |
|||||
|
U |
0 |
53 |
501 |
||||
|
—— |
112 |
||||||
|
112 |
53 |
||||||
|
—— |
|||||||
|
666 |
|
GREEK - Lateinos |
|
|
L |
30 |
|
A |
1 |
|
T |
300 |
|
E |
5 |
|
I |
10 |
|
N |
50 |
|
O |
70 |
|
S |
200 |
|
|
—— |
|
|
666 |
|
HEBREW - Romiith |
|
|
h |
200 |
|
i |
6 |
|
r |
40 |
|
t |
10 |
|
t |
10 |
|
p |
400 |
|
|
—— |
|
|
666 |
“Now we challenge the world to find another name
in three languages : Greek, Hebrew, and Latin, which shall designate the same
number”, wrote Joseph F. Berg.
If this superpower is rising up “before our
very eyes”, how did the ancients know about it too? We find similar explanations in Christian
writings as early as the third and fourth centuries AD. Does not this tell you that this prophecy has
long since been fulfilled?
Whose purpose does it serve then to hide the
true identity of this “beast” by telling people that it is yet to rise when in fact
it has already risen? Who is interested
in keeping Christians unprepared for the return of their Savior by making them
believe that there are still many years before these prophesies are fulfilled?
Verses 16 and 17 of
Most people never check other people’s
references because they think that they are true as a matter of fact. But true
they aren’t, because we are not dealing with honest people but with deceivers,
“whose god is their belly, and whose glory is in their shame”.
Now let us look at
It took these countries more then 50 years to
reach their present awesome nuclear capabilities. Now even if
Here we have two “beasts”, one arising from
the other. The first “beast” lasted for
forty-two months, during which time it blasphemed God and made war with the
saints. Then the second “beast” arose from the first and made those who dwell
on the earth to worship the first “beast”.
Now which “beast” is supposed to rise “before our very eyes”, the first
or the second?
If
But if it is the first “beast” which rises
“before our very eyes”, then it must reach its potential in just forty-two
months. That is, if we take the
forty-two months to mean 1260 days, but if they mean 1260 years -
a day for one year, as it often does in biblical prophecies - then that would make this prophecy an
impossibility in our time.
If, on the other hand, this “beast” is the ancient
Roman Empire, as we have proven after extensive historical and biblical
research (See TCH 3&4), is it a
mere coincidence that from the foundation of Rome in about 750 B.C. until the
collapse of that empire in about 510 A.D. are 1260 years?
The second “beast”, of course, is the
Remember, the prophet Daniel said that this
empire would be different from the previous three - the Babylonian, Persian and Greek -
and would last until the end of this age.
Now we know what he meant. This
empire is different in that it transformed itself from an expanding imperial
power into an expanding religious empire. Its doctrines and beliefs, false and
dangerous as they are, have penetrated every corner of the world.
It is this “beast” which has stamped its sign
on people’s foreheads long ago by imprinting its pagan beliefs in their heads,
and on their hand by forcing them to
work and dishonor their God-given Holy Days after imposing on them its own
pagan holy days. Flurry’s Philadelphia Trumpet gave us another
reference which is supposed to prove that a superpower of ten nations would
arise in
“For
over 50 years, the late Herbert W. Armstrong taught a strong prophecy message
which included God’s prophecies about a “beast” power comprised of ten nations
or groups of nations (Dan. 2:28-43; Rev. 13).
Let us do the usual and check
Convinced by it? Do you see in this passage a ‘beast’ power of
ten nations rising in our time in central
A “best” power will indeed arise shortly, in
fact it is rising before our very eyes, but not in central
HOW THE
MIGHTY HAVE FALLEN
In the February 1999 edition of The
Philadelphia Trumpet, there is a revealing article about what happened in
the Worldwide Church of God after the decease of its founder. The article began very ‘subtly’ with the
following biblical quote:
“Will a man rob God? Yet ye
have robbed me.
But
ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee?
In
tithes and offerings.” -Malachi 3:8
Then it continued:
“
The Auditorium brought world renown to
And all the while, a tight-knit band of administrators
at the church’s headquarters have weathered the storm: the fleeing membership,
the plummeting income, the downsizing and phasing out. They can now survey the
desolate landscape of a once-prosperous church they’ve destroyed. But they can
do it with a smile. Last month, on the very day Mr. Armstrong died 13 years ago,
the Los Angeles Times reported that WCG officials had sold the Ambassador
campus and church headquarters in
When I was a member of that church in the early 1970’s, it took me about
three years to discover the hypocrisy and deception that permeated the highest
echelons of that church. You may think
that three years is a long time, but you have to remember that, like Gerard
Flurry today, Herbert W. Armstrong made a strong case that he was God’s special
instrument on earth. Some people spend a
life time in that kind of servitude without ever growing out of it.
It is God’s principle that this world’s churches and religions are the
kindergartens for His children until they grow to spiritual maturity and can
stand on their own feet. Having escaped
from the “Iron Curtain” only three years earlier, I was starved of emotional
and spiritual comfort, and so I was easy pray to those who claimed that I could
find the love of God in their church.
What I found instead was anything but the love of God. What struck me the most about the Worldwide
Church of God was the similarity between its regime and that of the communist
world from which I had escaped. Neither allowed dissent, and neither forgave
easily those who overstepped their mark.
The communists could throw you in jail, even execute you, but they could
not take the spiritual salvation away from you.
But being expelled from the WCG meant your spiritual death, and that,
according to its leaders, was the worst possible fate awaiting anyone. It was a recipe for total control over their
members, which explains why so many people never make much progress in their
spiritual growth. They prefer to remain
in the security of their church no matter what the cost, content in the belief
that their minister knows better, fearful that if they probe too deeply into
aspects of their church which they do not like, they may get into trouble. And so they fulfil Jesus’ parable of the
unprofitable servants.
The tragedy of these people is that by failing to grow spiritually, they
are losers on both fronts. Not only do
they condemn themselves to a lifetime of servitude, but lose their salvation
too. The burdens which the members of
the Worldwide Church of God had to endure almost defied belief. I knew a girl who was quite beautiful, but who
was so skinny I wondered whether she was anorexic. After befriending her, I discovered that it
was her financial situation which was causing the problem, not her mind. After complying with all the church
requirements, she simply did not have enough to live on.
Although I was having doubts about the applicability of this doctrine in
the New Testament for sometime, I was not quite ready to confront the minister
about it, but the discovery that people were actually starving as a result of
it, forced me to act then. The result
was a foregone conclusion.
At that time I was even entertaining the idea of proposing to that girl,
but when the minister expelled me from the church, I become a pariah to
everyone, including herself.
In that church one was not allowed to
“cheat” on the “Government of God”.
Like most fundamentalist churches, they had all the records and knew
everything about their members: what they earned, how they lived, what they
spent their money on, and, of course, how much they gave to the church. It was not hard for them to determine whether
one was a dedicated member or not, and woe befell those who were not. Those who tried to hide anything from their
ministers were actually punished. They
used an example from the Bible which is totally unsuited for that purpose.
Now obviously when all members live communally, and one holds back from
the common obligation, he is cheating.
What Apostle Peter was telling
Ananias and everyone else, is that no one forced him to join their
congregation. He could have held back until he was ready for it, if ever, but
once he made the commitment, and began partaking of the common pie, then he
could no longer hold back on what he possessed, because that was cheating on
the others who had placed everything at everybody’s disposal.
That this example is no longer applicable today should be obvious to
all. The church people of today no
longer live communally and share everything as they did in the very first
church. Apostle Peter’s experiment was a
bold one, but the world was not ready for that kind of communism, and shortly
afterwards it scattered them in all directions, making it impossible for them
to continue that way.
Apostle Paul’s Gentile churches on the other hand, which became the
mainstay of the New Testament, were organised on a different principle. People
retained control of their possessions and gave to the church only what their
heart allowed, or what they could afford.
That way, the onus remained with them, to prove themselves before God
not before men. At no time did Apostle
Paul invoke the tithing principle in his dealing with his churches. But in the Worldwide Church of God things
were different. The vast majority of
people were brought to the point in which they gave “voluntarily” all their
surplus, being told that the more they gave the more God would bless them. The
idea was that if you weren’t blessed, and suffered deprivation, it was your
fault for not giving generously to the Church.
And so the circle went: the more you gave, the poorer you became, the
less blessed you appeared to be, and the greater your psychological
trauma.
People were brought to such a state of psychological dependency upon the
church environment, they could no longer reason normally or maintain a logical
discussion with outsiders. That is why
it is so difficult to debrief those who have been exposed to their brainwashing
techniques. It is paramount that people
stand on their own feet as soon as their spiritual understanding overtakes that
of their mentors. Otherwise they sink
into a worse state of spiritual confusion than before they joined the
church. This is what Jesus Christ meant
when He said:
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!
For you travel land and sea to win one proselyte, and when he is won, you make
him twice as much a son of hell as yourselves”
(Mat.
Although Jesus Christ knew what happened
in those congregations, He still told people to go and obey those in command.
“And Jesus said to him, "See that you tell no
one; but go your way, show yourself to the priest, and offer the gift that
Moses commanded, as a testimony to them."
(Mat. 8:4).
He also knew that the time
would come, for those who are true children of God, when they would just
naturally be put out of their congregation.
"They will put you out of the synagogues; yes, the
time is coming that whoever kills you will think that he offers God
service” (John 16:2).
It is a badge of honour for anyone to be put out of a church for having
committed no sin. They never told me why
they put me out of their church, except that I disagreed with them over their
tithing doctrines and because I told them that God Almighty has chosen me to be
one of His witnesses.
People think that just because Jesus Christ used the word “Pharisee”,
His words applied only to the Jews of the Old Testament. If anything, His words are more valid now
than they were then. The Pharisees of Jesus’ time did not enforce the tithing
principle on their people, but the “Pharisees’ of our time demand even a second
and a third tithe.
At one time, when I was a member of that church, in order to shut the
mouths of those who were claiming that their ruinous regime condemned people to
a perpetual state of poverty, the leaders announced that they were taking a
survey among their members to determine how many had acquired new homes or
apartments while in the church. The
results of that survey were never made public.
Can you think of a reason why?
When the old man died, and the walls of his religious empire began to
crumble, the same people who had failed to grow spiritually, suddenly saw an
opportunity to fulfil their dreams.
Hundreds left and listed themselves as a new church, most having no more
than their families in their congregation.
A Directory of Sabbath Observing
Groups published in
Now we are witnessing a reverse process.
Whereas in the late 1980s and early 1990’s these churches were growing
like mushrooms after a shower, now they are disappearing just as quickly. They did not find the pot of gold at the end
of the rainbow as they thought they would.
The reason so many failed is undoubtedly because most were a carbon copy
of the Worldwide Church of God. They
thought that they could subject their recruits to the same ruinous doctrines
they themselves were subjected to.
There is nothing intrinsically wrong with tithing. It is a good
principle in the right circumstances. Tithing basically was the taxation law of
ancient
Herbert W. Armstrong, however, had no such qualms. For him these Scriptures did not exist. He never considered what effect his three
tiered tithing system might have on his followers. And if that was not enough, when he decided to
build a “House for God”, he imposed even greater burdens on his followers. As Flurry pointed out, that “House” had to be
built from additional donations, not from the normal tithes.
In his meetings with foreign dignitaries, whom he often visited with
expensive gifts, he used to boast that it was the philosophy of giving not getting
that brought him so many blessings. Of
course, he was adept at getting not giving.
Whatever he gave was in the shape of “free” booklets, magazines and
religious tracts, which had the effect of enslaving even more people and
bringing him even more blessings.
Gerard Flurry made the point that it took 13 years to built Armstrong’s
“House for God”. He said that, “To many
Worldwide Church of God members and former members, these 13 years have been
gut wrenching.” I’ll say! There is an
interesting similarity between Armstrong’s “House for God” and Solomon’s “House
of the Lord”.
It took Solomon seven years to build a “House for the Lord”, and
thirteen years to build a house for himself.
It took Herbert W. Armstrong thirteen years to build his “House for God”
too. Thirteen is unmistakably associated
with the Devil in the Bible. We hope you
can see now why all these “Houses” ended up on the scrap hip of history?
But Armstrong took thirteen years to build a “House for God” not for
himself, one might say. The only god Herbert W. Armstrong ever knew was
himself. Initially he wanted to build
that “House” in
His followers used to wonder why not even members of his family could see
him. Only his most trusted adjutants
were allowed to come near him. But there
was a very good reason for that. Herbert
W. Armstrong had suffered a stroke and was exhibiting not the signs of an
Apostle, of Elijah, or of one of God’s witness from the book of Revelation,
which he had so assiduously cultivated, but those of the famous false shepherd.
Zec
Zec 11:16
"For indeed I will raise up a shepherd in the land who will not
care for those who are cut off, nor seek the young, nor heal those that are
broken, nor feed those that still stand. But he will eat the flesh of the fat
and tear their hooves in pieces.
Zec
That could not be revealed to the world, or to anyone outside their
close circle, for if they did, they would all lose everything. About a decade later, after years of
trying, and after abandoning all the doctrines and polemic which Armstrong had
used to expose other churches as false, the Worldwide Church of God was finally
admitted into the forum of the mainstream churches. Its leaders must have reckoned that one is
better off being associated with these churches, lacklustre as they may be in
terms of scriptural compliance, than with the religion of the man whom they
discovered to be the foolish and cruel shepherd. In so doing they threw out the
baby with the bathwater. It does not
mater to them that the family of churches hatched by Armstrong’s theology claim
foul and describe them as a fallen away church, or that they have lost almost
half their membership in the process.
They know what they know, and they can not confess it to anyone.
The death of Herbert W. Armstrong created another unexpected
problem. A new person had to be found to
fulfil the prophecy of
“And I saw three unclean spirits like frogs coming out
of the mouth of the dragon, out of the mouth of the beast, and out of the mouth
of the false prophet.”
We know who the dragon is.
Satan! We also know who the
“beast” is. Pontifex Maximus and his empire!
But who could the false prophet be?
Well, we now know who that one is too.
He disclosed himself. He who
claims the mantle of Herbert W. Armstrong!
It used to be that people remembered and talked about major world disasters
for years, even decades, but hardly anyone anymore. They have a hard time coping with what is
happening in their midst at the present, to be bothered by what happened last
year or the year before.
The international rescue teams from
Hundreds of earthquakes occur every year, but their pattern has been to
take place mostly in unpopulated areas.
But as we approach the day of reckoning, they are moving closer and
closer to populated areas. Heaven is
giving us a warning that the world is on a collision course with its
Maker.
Earthquakes are not the only signs that characterize our times.
Now if this year’s disasters fade from memory so quickly, what can we
say about those from yesteryear? Does anyone remember last year’s headlines? Here is a sample:
“Fires - no fewer than 10,000 of them - in
Health authorities advise people to stay indoors? Why not advise them to
stop breathing altogether, for if they can’t go to work the effect would be the
same only more prolonged. People used to
open their windows to get fresh air from outside, now they close them to keep
the bad air out and the good one in. Brave new world we live in.
The bog fires of
Last year meteorologists told us that seven of this century’s hottest
years occurred this decade. And that was
even before the decade was over. After
the excessive heat and draught of this year, you can be sure that that number
will change.
This year, scientists are telling us that surface temperature in the
oceans has increased by as much as
The trends have been with us since the beginning of the decade, as we
have consistently reported in our magazines, yet, as late as three years ago,
scientists and the mainstream media were telling people that there is nothing
to worry about.
“Study scotches fears
of a long term drought” “Temperatures are rising steadily but there is no
indication the drought of recent years indicates a long-term trend to drier weather,
according to one of the most intensive studies of weather patterns in
Australia. The results of the study by
Dr Janice Luff, a senior research scientist with the Australian Institute of
Marine Science, will be published soon in the International Journal of Climatology.
Dr Luff has analysed rainfall throughout
"It is not possible to say yet whether the greenhouse effect or
anything else is involved," Dr Nicholls said. Despite heavy rains, the drought continues
its relentless march, with 41 of
Never before has humanity been surrounded by so many perils and
threatened from so many quarters, yet never before has there been more
ignorance about the true reasons for these problems.
Since ancient times until the advent of modern science, people knew
exactly what the main reason for their misfortunes was. They knew that alienation from God brought
disaster upon them, so they always returned to their God, imperfect as that may
have been, and survived. But now they
are no longer turning to God because they have been conditioned to think that
there is no God, or that if there is one He does not care anymore.
A seismic change has occurred in people’s perceptions about the worth of
religion. But this does not mean that
people’s hunger for spiritual fulfilment has waned away. What it means is that this hunger is no
longer being fulfilled by preachers from the pulpit, but by commercial
television stations which have discovered that there is profit in tackling
subjects which were taboo only yesteryear.
Within days of each other, the two most popular commercial television
stations in
These signs are exactly of the kind Jesus Christ said that would occur
before His return. First He told us
that there would be no faith in the world at this time, meaning that it would be
impossible to perform true miracles.
Mat
Mat
Then He said that Satan would use every possible trick in an attempt to
deceive the elect.
Mat 24:23 "Then if anyone says to you, 'Look, here
is the Christ!' or 'There!' do not believe it.
Mat 24:24 "For false christs and false prophets
will rise and show great signs and wonders to deceive,
Mat 24:25 if possible, even the elect. "See, I have told you beforehand. "Therefore if they say to you,
Mat 24:26 'Look, He is in the desert!' do not go out;
or 'Look, He is in the inner rooms!’ do not believe it.
Mat 24:27 "For as the lightning comes from the
east and flashes to the west, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.
So the sign of His return cannot be found in obscure places at this
time, but can be observed in heaven at the appropriate time. Now is it a mere coincidence that all these
fake signs are connected with the Roman Catholic Church?
All roads lead to
“Why are the religious claims under investigation in Signs From God of a distinctly Catholic
variety? Does God only communicate in Catholic idioms?” (SMH, The Guide, August 16-22).
Regarding the program on Channel 9, incredibly, not one of the seven
signs they gave us as proof of Christ’s return is biblically and prophetically
accurate. And they couldn’t be because
like Gerard Flurry they were also talking about the rise of a superpower in
central
Anyone who believes those signs will undoubtedly be caught unprepared by
the return of Jesus Christ, for all of them require a long time to be
fulfilled.
As we watched that program, it became obvious to us that its main
purpose was to divert people’s attention from the most important event of our
time - the planned visit to the
On the steps of Abraham? Is he
the “Vicar of Abraham” or the “Vicar of Christ”? Why would the “Vicar of Christ” want to
follow in the steps of Abraham, instead of the steps of Jesus Christ? Or is he afraid of what he is about to do and
is merely testing the waters nearby to see what happens before he plunges into
fulfilling the most awesome prophecy of the Bible?
This Pope is a brave one. Having visited some eighty countries so far,
he is now bracing for the mission of his life.
And to show us how brave he is, he has just reintroduced the indulgences
which shook the church in the Middle Ages and led to the Reformation of Martin
Luther.
“Lest anyone think that indulgences are a medieval
anachronism, the
A visit to one of
A recent major study in the
“CHURCHGOERS will have another reason to praise the
Lord each Sunday, with a
God told His people long ago that this is exactly what would happen if they
remained faithful to Him and obeyed His laws and statutes.
Deu
Deu
Deu 5:16 'Honor
your father and your mother, as the LORD your God has commanded you, that your
days may be long, and that it may be well with you in the land which the LORD
your God is giving you.”
But unbelievably, this study, which should have gladdened the hearts of
all preachers, which confirms from a scientific point of view what God has told
us long ago, has upset the Catholic Church.
“Father Brian Lucas, a
Has this man never read the fifth commandment which specifically says
that if people honour their parents they prolong their life on earth? If this is not a spiritual matter what is
it? We hope you understand now who is
the “Mother of Harlots” – who would dominate the world – and who is the little
flock of Jesus Christ that would perish at its hands.
During the former Prime Minister’s Netanyahu reign, the peace process in
the
“Barak seeks peace agenda” said a
headline in
After giving us the details of how this peace is to be achieved over the
next 15 months, they concluded their article with the following revealing note:
“
A country the size of
A few days later,
“Watch
The assessment of General Shaul Mofaz underscores the
urgency for
“The main threat today is surface-to-surface missiles
and the biggest threat, as of today, is
Maybe Israeli leaders know more than they can tell us. Either way, they are doing well to be prepare
themselves for any eventuality. They
would do even better to declare a national day of repentance and turn to their
God and, dare we say, to the Son whom their forefathers had carelessly
crucified. After paying for their sins
to the brim ("His blood be on us and on our children." Mat 27:25), it
is time their eyes were opened to what they have done, and repent, for He
eagerly waits for them to acknowledge the calamity their forefathers have
bequeathed on them. This way they can turn their misfortune to their advantage,
for God is ready to grant them their rightful place at the top, but only if
they apply His laws, judgments and statutes righteously and faithfully.
Zec
Zec 8:23
"Thus says the LORD of hosts: 'In those days ten men from every
language of the nations shall grasp the sleeve of a Jewish man, saying,
"Let us go with you, for we have heard that God is with you."' "
Does the Jewish nation need to undergo another fiery trial before its
leaders – spiritual and political – abandon their myopic refusal to see reason
and continue to close their eyes and shut their ears to the call of the
Almighty, who is prepared to place them above all nations if only they repent
and accept the sacrifice and message of the wisest and greatest man who ever
lived – their own Son Jesus Christ? Time
will tell, but the current signs are not encouraging.
WHAT IT IS ALL ABOUT
In the last few years, a
pernicious new religious fad has been spreading through
Of all the letters we have
received over the years, none have been as persistent as those that came from
people who took us to task for not adhering to their “sacred name”
doctrine. At first we treated them with
the attention they deserved, ignoring them altogether, but the time has come to
put these people in their place, lest they pester us to death.
The common thread among
them is the idea that God’s only sacred name is the original Hebrew “YAH”. This fallacy is easily exposed by the fact that
no one quite knows how to pronounce it, or even how to write it down: Yah,
YHWA, Yahweh, Jehovah, etc. This is
what the Assemblies of Yahweh have
told us:
“The Assemblies of Yahweh present this volume, The Sacred
Scriptures, to the reader in our humble
endeavour to give you a special gift of greater biblical knowledge. We have restored the Sacred Name, Yahweh (the
Tetragrammaton) and proper titles to the English text of the Old Testament as
well as returning the Name of Yahshua, our Savior, to the text of the New
Testament.
The Sacred Scriptures, Bethel Edition, is based
upon the translation work of the American Standard Version, 1901, known as the
most accurate English version ever put into print.”
But The Remnant of YHWA said this:
“In the Hebrew tongue, as in most languages including
English, vowels are very important elements for determining the correct
definition of words. . . A Prime example
is the three-letter consonant :Q-D-SH.
Pronounced qo-desh it means: to be set apart for righteousness, but
pronounced qe-desh’ it means: prostitute - quite a contrast you could say. Likewise, if we give the wrong
pronunciation of the Messiah’s name, it too will have a different meaning other
than the definition inspired in Matt. 1:21.
Since the death of the Apostles then, everyone on earth has been
pronouncing the Messiah’s Hebrew Name incorrectly, including the :Sacred Name”
groups in
“The Jewish
Messiah, whose name is “Yahsha”, meaning “YHWH is Salvation” (Matt. 1:21), went
everywhere announcing the great news of peace to come. This message of peace is
the great news, and it is the only hope of mankind’s survival. It is the coming
Kingdom of YHWA (Yah-weh) and the 1,000 year rule of its King - Yahsha Ha’Mashiyakh.
If traditional mainstream religions really understood and taught the
true message of the Jewish Messiah, then this world would understand that the
Kingdom of YHWA must come soon to be established on this earth. Ironically, traditional religion fails to
teach this”. . . “In the coming
thousand-reign of Yahsha Ha’Mashiyakh,. . . not only will the Ten Commandments
be observed, but the entire Covenant: the Sabbaths, the annual feasts, the
clean and unclean food laws, and all other Laws, statutes and judgments
contained in the Torah.”
And still others, who
simply signed themselves as The Faith of
Yahweh, wrote:
“These are the eternal names of the Heavenly Father
and His Son. Like Them, they never change! See Mal. 3:6.”
Very soon will
begin the tribulation over all the earth. There will be the beast system of the
Anti-Messiah in Rome, its number is 666.
You won’t be able to buy or sell without this mark. Don’t take it! Now
they are already talking about imprinting numbers in the hands of people to be
read by computers! The tribulation will end in a great battle in the valley of
Armageddon near Jerusalem. YAHSHUA will
return, and will descend down to Mount Zion and His millennial reign on the
earth of 1,000 years begins. But watch out! Many won’t survive until it arrives!
Read Zach. 14:1-4; Rev. 20:5-6; Isa. 65:16-25;
Have these people convinced
you of the need to return to the Hebrew roots of our Father’s and our Saviour’s
names? Is our Father’s name Yahweh, or
YHWA (Yah-weh)? And our Saviour’s,
Yahshua, or Yahsha Ha’Mashivakh?
First, the Assemblies of Yahweh told us that they
were “humbly endeavouring to give us a special gift of greater biblical
knowledge by restoring the Sacred Names”, then The remnant of Yahweh endeavoured to restore the names which the
first ones got it wrong, and finally The
Faith of Yahweh authoritatively told us that, “These are the eternal names
of the Heavenly Father and His Son. Like Them, they never change! See Mal.
3:6.” These are by no means the only
people who graced us with their advise, but some are so atrocious, we would be
committing blasphemy, as they do, if we reprinted them.
We would like to go over
all their references, as we normally do, to show you how misplaced they are,
but you can do that for yourselves. We
will have a look only at
"For I am the LORD, I do not change; Therefore you are
not consumed, O sons of Jacob.”
That is how the New King James Bible, which we use in
our writings, has it, but if you think
that perhaps the Jews might have it differently, this is how The Jewish Tanakh of the Holy Scriptures,
published in 1985, renders this verse.
“For I am the LORD-I have not changed; and you are the children of Jacob-you have not ceased to be.”
Aside from the fact that
this is an extremely poor translation, as anyone can see even without going to the
original, which proves that modern Jewish scholars could be as good at it as
their Christian counterparts when they set their minds to it, this example
proves that the Jews themselves have ceased to use the original “sacred names”,
preferring instead, quite sensibly, to use their modern equivalents. The attempt to return to the Hebrew roots of
the Bible falls into the same category as the dietary laws, which these people
also preach.
“We affirm that adherence to the law of clean and
unclean meats in Lev. 11 and Deut. 14 remains in effect and binding in our era,
and that it is important to our physical health,
We have no qualms with Lev.
11 and Deut. 14, they served their purpose at that time and were true as far
the Old Testament lasted. But let us
look at their references from the New Testament.
Do you see anything to do
with “physical health” in this passage? See how easy it is to trap these people
in their own webs of deception? The word
“unclean” refers to idols, which are an abomination to the Lord. Anyone touched by them, or better said,
anyone who prays or pays respect to them, becomes spiritually unclean, not
physically unclean. Apostle Paul took
this reference from the Old Testament, from
The Canaanites were to be
driven out from their land not because they were eating “unclean” food, but
because they were spiritually “unclean”, having polluted themselves with their
“engraved stones and moulded images”.
Not only do these people fail to prove their point, and are misquoting
the Scriptures, but avoid the very biblical references which prove that they
observe “doctrines of demons”.
Now if someone “departs
from the faith, gives heed to deceiving spirits and doctrines of demons”, and
“commands people to abstain from foods which God created to be received with
thanksgiving”, he is pure and simply a Satanist. Once again here are the words of the man who
wrote most of the New Testament.
Now these are not our
words, but the words of your own Bible.
If you don’t believe the Bible, nothing in the world will fill the void
in your soul. So don’t believe us,
believe what you read in your own Scriptures.
It is the height of lunacy
to claim that people of
Exo 20:7 “You
shall not take the name of the LORD your God in vain, for the LORD will not
hold him guiltless who takes His name in vain.”
Every single name of God,
in whatever language it is pronounced, or by whatever sound people know Him, is sacred. I happen to speak in two tongues. (That is,
two real tongues, not the babbling of the Charismatic Christians who utter
sounds totally unintelligible and call them “tongues”). Depending of the company I am with, if I
speak Romanian, I address Him by the Romanian names; and if I speak English, I
address Him by the English equivalents.
I can assure you that my Father in Heaven, and My Lord Jesus Christ,
hear me when I pray to Them, or when I worship Them, and know for a fact that
They appreciate the names by which I address Them. In the Old Testament, God used several
names, all of which are sacred. Here are
a few examples:
Exo 3:13 Then
Moses said to God, "Indeed, when I come to the children of Israel and say
to them, 'The God of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they say to me,
'What is His name?' what shall I say to them?"
Exo
Exo 6:2 And God
spoke to Moses and said to him: "I
am the LORD.
Exo 6:3 "I
appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by My name LORD I was not known to them.”
So “YAH” is only one of
many names by which our heavenly Father may be known and addressed: Almighty God, I AM WHO I AM, I AM, Lord, Most
High, Wonderful Counsellor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace,
etc. The same is true of Jesus
Christ. He is known by several names in
the Bible, all of which must be regarded as sacred.
Mat
Mat
Mat
So just to recap, these are
the names by which our Saviour may be known, or their equivalent in whatever
language people happen to address Him:
Immanuel, Prince of Life, Lion of the tribe of Judah, Root of David, Word
of Life, King of Kings, Lord of Lords, Lamb of God, Advocate, The Way, The
Truth, The Life, Dayspring, Lord of All, Lord God Almighty, Messiah, Son of
God, Saviour, Shepherd and Bishop of our Souls, Author and Finisher of Our
Faith, Chief Cornerstone, Righteous Judge, Light of the World, Morning Star,
Head of the Church, Chief Shepherd, Resurrection and Life, Alpha and
Omega. If you use any of these names to
refer to Jesus Christ, you must regard them as sacred in that particular
context, otherwise you cannot possibly expect the blood of Jesus Christ to
atone for your sins. Now before we
conclude, we will draw your attention to another dangerous doctrine from these
people.
“We affirm that in order to preach this true doctrine
of salvation around the world, every member of the body of the Messiah is
obligated by scriptural law to tithe (10 percent of his increase) to the
Assembly of Yahweh, Prov. 3:9. These
tithes are to be paid to the headquarters treasury so that no duplication of
the ministry shall occur, Mal. 3:8-12; Lev. 27:30-33; Matt. 23:23. The Assembly of Yahweh teaches also the
second (feast day) tithe, Deut.
Like the Worldwide Church
of God under Herbert W. Armstrong, and the Philadelphia Church of God under
Gerard Flurry, these people also preach the ruinous tithing doctrines. We hope you noticed that it is not only ten
percent that they require, hard as that may be, but thirty percent - the “second” tithe to be used at the Feast of
Tabernacles, and the “third” tithe to be used every third year for the
poor. For the other two years presumably
the poor must live on air, or eat stale bread two years old.
THE “ORIGINAL” BIBLE IN A MUDDLE OVER ITS
TITLE
It used to be
that undertaking a major work such as producing a new translation of the Bible
was fraught with dangers. William
Tyndale, who tried to produce the first English Bible, was accused of heresy
and lost his life in 1536 before he could finish his work. But nowadays, it seems people undertake such
a task for no other reason than they can do it.
This could explain the explosion of new English versions in the last few
decades. A few years ago we were
informed that another translation was in the making, only that this was not
going to be just another Bible, this was to be an “Original” Bible.
It took these
people several years until it dawned on them that a translation could never be
called “original”.
Dr Tabor, the
author of this work, was finally forced to appeal to his “associates” to help
him find a new title for it. Faithful as
he is, he also asked us to help him with this near impossible task. And since we are not the type of people to
turn our backs to a person in need, we immediately went to work assiduously on
his behalf. We have good news for him,
but first this is what he told us in his Original
Bible Project Newsletter of January 30, 1999.
“One
thing we have not settled is how we will refer to this Bible, once it is
published. In other words, do we want to
give it some distinctive name? We have
called our overall efforts The Original Bible Project, but in terms
of a name, it is not clear whether we would want to call out final product “The
Original Bible” or not. Every translation has a name, a distinctive tag or
designation, from King James Version, to the Jerusalem Bible, to the New
Revised Standard Version. One thing I am sure about, I do not want it called
the “Tabor” Bible! It might be that calling it “the Original Bible” would sound
a bit too pretentious. After all, we want this Bible to appeal to the general
audience, but also to be respected by all the Biblical scholars. There are many excellent translations on the
market, and although we believe none is quite like ours, we do not want to come
across in a way that would sound foolhardy or vain. Many Bibles are simply called: The Holy
Bible, or The Holy Scriptures, with the name of the translation given as a
descriptive tag. I find that approach
rather appealing—but that still leaves open the question of our descriptive
name or tag. If any of you have ideas along this line, please pass them on to
us.”
He acknowledges
that “there are many excellent translations on the market”, but does not tell
us why we need yet another one. Since he
discarded the idea that he is going to give us an “Original Bible”, it stands
to reason that his project has become redundant too. But after duping people
for years into believing that he is producing a masterpiece, he can’t just
abandon the project for they might demand their money back. So he is now seeking their help in getting
him out of a sticky situation.
One can’t help
but be moved by Dr Tabor’s sense of modesty.
He does not want to call it the “Tabor Bible” or “the Original Bible”
because it “would sound too pretentious”.
Well, we don’t think so. We think it would be perfectly all right to call it the “Tabor Bible”. Nevertheless since he past off the
opportunity to achieve immortality this way, we came to his help. After all, isn’t this what friends are there
for? We think that the most appropriate
title for his “Original” Bible is . . .
the . . .
“Johnny-come-lately-Bible”. Or
rather, the. . . “James-comes-lately-Bible”.
And to show our good faith, we are even forfeiting our royalties, which
could amount to quite a bit given the commercial success of such a title. But then, we know that Dr James Tabor does not do this for financial
reasons. He never tires of reminding his
“associates” of this fact.
“We
have never had to beg, plead, or badger any of you for funds. Our costs over the next year will be higher
than in the past, but I am confident we will have what we need to move on to
completion”.
See, he never
“begs, pleads, or badgers” people over their heads for funds. Coming to think about it, do you know of
anyone who does, or did, that? Some of
you who were once under the spell of Herbert W. Armstrong might be tempted to
say yes, but really, don’t they all say the same? Dr Tabor, once a victim of Armstrong’s
theology himself, is not averse to using his methods for his own ends. Except that he is more refined. He knows that an innocuous reminder in the
right place could have a greater psychological impact, and bring more rewards
than badgering people with crude requests for funds. How honest is it then to
claim that he never “begs, pleads, or badgers” people for funds when in the
very next sentence he reminds them not so subtly that his expenses are going to
be higher next year than they were in the past?
The idea of an
“Original Bible” was first expressed by Dr Martin two years after we started
publishing The Christian Herald and
began calling for a return to the original
Gospel. But after convincing Dr
Tabor to take over his project, he dedicated most of his efforts to combating
our work. We all know how successful he has been at that (See TCH No 7).
Now we would
like to conclude this article with the words of Dr Tabor once again. In his January 1999 edition of the Original Bible Project Newsletter, we found the following
P.S.
“Congratulations
to Dr Tabor upon his promotion to the rank of Full Professor at the
Now who do you
think takes credit for these congratulations?
A fellow academic? No! His
mentor, Dr Martin? No! Someone we don’t know perhaps? No! It is none other than . . . Dr Tabor, err, Professor Tabor, himself. Once again his discreet sense of modesty
comes to the fore. But then, maybe that
is how they do things at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.
WHICH
BIBLE CAN WE TRUST?
During our filed missions, in which we try to
witness the Gospel of Jesus Christ to as many people as possible, we sometimes
quietly participate in the religious service of the churches that happen to be
our way. Once we visited a church which
displayed religious literature on two large tables in the church foyer before
their service began. Among them, there
were two books which immediately caught my attention: Which Bible can we trust?, and Westcott
& Hort - the Occult
Connection and the New Greek Text. Both
were compiled and edited by Less Garrett.
When I offered to buy them, I was told to
wait until the end of the service when the author himself would hand them to
me. So we waited quietly and patiently
at the back of their congregation until the end of their service. As it turned out, the author himself was
their guest of honor and the main speaker of the day. It soon became obvious that he was a well
known and traveled person. He had just
returned from a lengthy tour of the USA, and people seemed to be delighted to
hear his experiences in that country. He
told them how he had been invited to speak and appear on many radio and
television programs all over that country.
When he got to the main topic of his sermon, he began by saying, “We are
not like other churches, which say one thing and do another. We follow the
Bible accurately”.
Now nothing pleases us more than to hear
people say that they follow the Bible accurately so we listened the more
attentively. But towards the end of their service we realized how accurately
they do that when they began to “speak in tongues”. And when the wife of the local preacher,
listed as their second “pastor”, led the closing ceremonies, we had another
good example of how accurately they follow the Bible.
During his speech, Less Garrett made a
statement which he will probably never forget.
He said that he would give a thousand dollars to anyone who could prove
to him that Jesus Christ spent at least one night in Jerusalem. But, not to embarrass his audience, he
quickly added that he would not hold it against them if no one claimed his
prize because no one ever did it. No one
did it because, he said, it is not true.
Now I don’t know why he made that statement, since it did not seem to
fit into his sermon, except perhaps to impress his audience with his knowledge
of the Scriptures. But as soon as I
heard him, I thought to myself, “Oops, here I am about to get richer by one
thousand dollars - enough to pay the expenses of this trip”. I should have stood up and showed him the
following Scriptures in the hearing of everyone, and he would have had no
choice but to pay. But I waited patiently to the end of service after he had
finished talking with everyone, then I addressed him and said: “Sir, you owe me one thousand dollars, but
after paying for these two books it comes down to only 960 dollars.”
He looked at me and laughed, thinking perhaps
that I was joking. But when I opened the
Bible and read the following passage from the book of Luke, his face went
pale.
Clearly, the Boy Jesus slept in
Many years ago, during my brief encounter
with the Worldwide Church of God, I had an almost identical experience in that
church. Garner Ted Armstrong, in his
radio broadcasts, used to say that he would give $10,000 to anyone who could
prove to him from the Bible that people go to heaven after death. So one day, I had nothing better to do than
to quote to him
In the first example, the souls are held in a
kind of animated suspense until the resurrection time, but in the second, it is
human beings, resurrected to spiritual life, that are in heaven before the
throne of God Almighty. Admittedly, they
are elevated to heaven after a resurrection, but in heaven they are
nevertheless.
The reason Garner Ted Armstrong was sure no
one could claim his money is that his church preached that people don’t go to
heaven because the
Had these people read to whole book of
Revelation, they would have come across the following passage which clarifies
that statement.
The