David Berg
—MODecember 13, 1971NO.146—GP
and "THE TIMES OF THE GENTILES!"
My Precious Children: Greetings in Jesus' Dear Name!
1. THIS MAY BE THE LAST LETTER you will be receiving from us for a little while as we're planning to go into a little Winter hibernation to try to complete the books we've been working on for your use: a complete book of our basic classes and perhaps another book of edited MO Letters for general use in both basic and leadership training.
2. THESE HAVE BEEN A GREAT NEED FOR SOME TIME and particularly Europe and new Colonies are crying for them. These two books should combine all of our basic teachings and leadership training into condensed pocketbook form that will be simple to use and easy to carry. We had hoped to have them ready for Christmas but both entail a great deal of work in editing, revising, and streamlining, so you may not get your copy until the Happy New Year! We have several publishing houses already begging us for these books, including our history from the very beginning and willing to print them for us free of charge, as they expect them to be best sellers! Ha! PTL!
3. WE THINK ALSO THAT THE THRILLING DAILY DIARIES OF SOME OF YOUR LOGS WOULD CERTAINLY MAKE A COMPLETE AND EXCITING STORY, both of our beginnings, growth, and present pioneering of Europe and other countries. The truth is more wonderful than fiction, and what could be more inspiring than the actual account of the Acts of these modern Apostles—the Children of God in action around the world! Hallelujah! So pray with us as we work on these volumes for your use as well as to give the true story to the world. Amen? Hallelujah!
4. IT REMINDS US A LITTLE OF THE GOSPELS, THE BOOK OF ACTS, AND THE EPISTLES OF PAUL which have been such an inspiration, encouragement, guide, and food for our souls, as we read these accounts of the First Century Christians!—Why not a grand finale account of the exciting activities‚ basic beliefs, and inspiring letters of the Last Century Christians? Amen? Jesus said "greater works than these shall ye do", so these latter accounts should be even of greater and more widespread action, more exciting events, more thrilling activities, and more inspiring achievements than even those of the First Century! Hallelujah! Amen?
5. WE ARE NOT GREATER THAN CHRIST‚ BUT IT IS CHRIST THAT IS WORKING IN YOU, and He is the same yesterday, today, and forever and has only promised to do greater works in these Last Days through you because they will be needed to stem the tide of iniquity which is rising against His Children: "where sin doth abound‚ grace doth much more abound!"—Power for the Hour!—And we're going to need it as we become the leading characters in God's grand finale of the Greatest Show on Earth—leaders of the Last Day Christians!
6. AS THE ENEMIES ARISE IN EVER-INCREASING NUMBERS TO BE FINALLY LED BY THE ENEMY OF ALL ENEMIES—THE ANTICHRIST—THE LORD PROMISES that "the people that do know their God shall be strong and do exploits, and they that understand among the people shall instruct many!" Our major job will be to stand up as God's strongest witnesses before both the Church and the whole world and to explain to them what's happening and to lead and encourage and feed God's Children to the very End! Praise the Lord!
7. ARE YOU READY?—TO LEAD THE FORCES OF GOD AGAINST THE FORCES OF ANTI-CHRIST? Probably not!—But you're getting ready, being prepared by your present training, way of life, witnessing, strengthening in the Spirit‚ and "continuing daily with one accord"‚ and "steadfastly in the Apostles' doctrine and fellowship," having "all things in common". Praise the Lord!—And these books of our basic teachings of your Apostles should be of great help to you! Who knows?—Maybe one of them will be that little book of Revelation 10:8-11! Who else makes such little books as we do? If you printed anything smaller than our 3x5 you couldn't even read it!—And certainly these little books are going to prophesy before many peoples‚ nations, tongues, and kings! Hallelujah! We've even thought about presenting a few complimentary copies to the FBI, the parents, and maybe even Nitler, to show them we have nothing to hide, we're not ashamed of our doctrine because it's the Truth of God, and to warn them of His Wrath to come! We might have to clean up their language a little bit so they won't be quite so bitter to their belly‚ and you might even find their words as sweet as honey in your mouth! Hallelujah—Even though a little hard to digest! Amen?
8. I ALWAYS WONDERED WHAT THAT LITTLE BOOK WAS, along with the same book or a similar one described in the same way in Ezekiel 2:8 thru 3:3. It certainly symbolised prophecies of God! And if there is anyone who is preaching the Endtime prophecies of God, it's us, so that little book certainly symbolises our teachings, if not being an actual reference to our own dear little 3x5 or the ones about to be published. Certainly they're similar, if not one and the same, and our End-Time ministry is surely similar to that of the prophets spoken of in these passages, Praise the Lord! The Lord has talked about us in a lot of other Scriptures, why not our little book? PTL!
9. SO WHILE WE GO INTO HIBERNATION TO WORK ON OUR LITTLE BOOK OF THE CHILDREN OF GOD—HIS END-TIME PROPHETS, PLEASE PRAY FOR US! We may not be able to get our mail very frequently and may not be able to write you very often, if at all! But we'll be hearing about you, I'm sure‚ and our prayers will be with you. Meanwhile, if you have any problems, questions, or urgent matters to be dealt with, please follow the established chain of command by going first to the Lord with them! He never fails. But if He wants you to discuss it with others, talk it over with your local officers—your own immediate superiors of your local Colony. If they can't handle it, they'll pass it on to the Regional Supervisor; and if it's too much for him, he'll pass it on to your Continental Supervisor, whether Josh in North America or Ho in Europe; and if neither of them can find the answer and it's important enough to require my attention, they'll forward it to me, you may be sure! But it had better be important enough to interrupt our "Little Book" of the COG!—Hey!—maybe we're one of the cogs in God's big wheel that Ezekiel saw! Hallelujah?
10. IF WE GET ANY SPECIAL REVELATIONS, YOU'LL BE HEARING FROM US‚ GOD WILLING! But in the meantime, you've got plenty already on hand to keep you busy for quite a while, if you really study them, absorb them, and try to get something out of them, so you can be fed, led, and bred by them! Praise the Lord? Dallas Gad's treasured hoard of left-over lessons and Letters are being distributed to all of you as rapidly as possible, so you will all be sure to have plenty on hand for reading‚ study, and even distribution until the ultimate "Little Book" comes forth, God Willing. So, keep them busy! The answer to nearly every question you ask is right there! Read 'em!
11. I WAS ASKING THE LORD THE OTHER DAY WHY WE HADN'T HAD ANYMORE OUTSTANDING REVELATIONS RECENTLY—AND I GOT A RATHER STRANGE ANSWER: First thing He said was that it was because of unbelief—that even some of your leaders had had a little difficulty in believing some of the last ones He had given. Therefore "He did not many mighty works there because of their unbelief"! When Israel stopped listening to God and ceased believing what He had to say and quit doing what He commanded, God just stopped talking to them for nearly three hundred years between the Testaments! God does not like to talk to either deaf, unbelieving, or unheeding ears! So He just shuts up!
12. THE NEXT THING THE LORD SAID WAS A REBUKE TO ME, because He said, Why should He give anymore when we had not yet given you even the last one He gave us? It has been so many weeks since He gave it and we've been so busy tending tables, trying to help you get organised and solve your problems‚ that we almost forgot about one of the most amazing revelations we have yet received regarding a definite time prophecy which God gave us which actually startled us at the time!
13. I AM NOW CONVICTED ABOUT IT, AND SO MUST GET IT OFF MY CHEST before going further and getting involved in the book. It all began with the recent monumental, multi-million dollar extravaganza celebration by the Shah of Iran of the 2500th Anniversary of the founding of the Persian Empire near Tehran. You probably saw some of it on TV or in the papers or magazines. It was probably the most extravagant commemoration of any event in the history of the world, certainly the biggest of anything like it in modern times! About fifty kings and queens and heads of state, the largest assembly of royalty and world leaders ever to be convened in the history of the world, gathered at the historic site of the tomb of Cyrus, founder of the Persian Empire, to celebrate with lavish banquets and colossal parades and dramas illustrating its history. All news media proclaimed it for days on end as the greatest gala of modern times, if not in all history!
14. FROM THE MOMENT I FIRST HEARD ABOUT IT I HAD THAT EERIE FEELING, that witness of the Spirit, that there was something very important and significant about it, relating not only to the history of the world, but these End Times. Finally, while looking at some beautiful pictures in a magazine of this colourful display with some of your leaders, I suddenly got the Scripture from Daniel 4: "seven times shall pass over thee!"—But the Holy Spirit added these words: "Until the times of the Gentiles shall be fulfilled!"
15. IMMEDIATELY THE HOLY SPIRIT BURST FORTH IN TONGUES AND INTERPRETATION, a confirmation of something He had just brought to my mind: "Even so hath it been done unto the Gentiles wherein I have spoken by My prophets. The Days of the Gentiles shall come to an end and then I shall be glorified in thee! In the volume of the Book it is written. All these things shall come to pass even as I have spoken."
16. EXCITEDLY I GRABBED MY PEN AND BEGAN TO FIGURE WHAT THE LORD WAS SHOWING ME: That in Daniel, the word "times" meant "years", and that in His prophecy of the ninth chapter, each day represented a year, and that the reign of Nebucchadnezzar actually signified the beginning of the times of the Gentiles, with the Fall of Jerusalem in 586 B.C., the end of the Jews as a nation, a people, and a power, until the present day.
17. THEREFORE, THE TIMES OF THE GENTILES WOULD BEGIN WITH 586 B.C., and if seven times of years were to pass until the Times of the Gentiles be fulfilled, seven years of years would be seven times 365, which equals exactly 2555 years! Now the most exciting part: If you will subtract with your pen or pencil right now the 586 years before Christ from the 2555 years‚ you will find that according to this figuring of this prophecy which God Himself confirmed by the Spirit,—The Times of the Gentiles ended in the Year of Our Lord 1969!—The very year that God's New Latter Day Jews arose in a world-wide spiritual Revolution to claim the Kingdom of God in these Last Days! Hallelujah! Outta sight‚ Man!—But I hope you can see it. This was the very year, that God had previously confirmed by His Spirit, that had been the beginning of our own personal modern day ministry as a New Nation of Spiritual Israel. (At this point, MO bursts forth in tongues and weeping, and the Spirit gave this confirming interpretation!)—"Even so is this saying fulfilled in your ears, as it has been spoken unto My Servant David!" Praise the Lord!
18. YOU WILL FIND THAT THE APOSTLE PAUL ALSO SPEAKS OF THIS TIMES OF THE GENTILES in Romans 11:25 and 26‚ where he says "that blindness in part is happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles be come in. And so (in the original Greek the word here means "then") all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, There shall come out of Sion the Deliverer and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob: For this is My Covenant unto them when I shall take, away their sins." Could this Israel he is speaking of here be you modern-day Children of God, and this Deliverer symbolic of your leadership? And could it be that this Covenant has something to do with the Holy Covenant of Daniel 9:27‚ which the Anti-Christ will confirm for seven years before breaking it in the midst of the seven, followed by the Tribulation? Could this Covenant have something to do with us and our final ministry? I believe it does! I feel it in the Spirit! Perhaps our Brother Joel can work out the details, or already has, with his knowledge of the Word! Praise God!
19. WELL‚ THERE IT IS, AS I RECEIVED IT FROM THE LORD, AND YOU CAN TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT, whichever you prefer! But you'd better believe it, because I know it was the Lord, and He has just confirmed it again by His Spirit! Wow!—What a Spirit! What a wonderful Lord! How great are His mercies and how wonderful His revelations! Praise His Holy Name for ever! Thank You, Jesus! Well, there's your Christmas present!—And may it bring you a very Happy New Year, as you forge on to fulfill it! May God be with you! Like a mighty Army move the Children of God! Hallelujah!
20. LAST YEAR WHEN I WAS ASKING THE LORD "WHAT SHALL BE THE DAYS OF MY YEARS?"—He tapped out three sevens, or a total of 21. If this applies to the length of our ministry or the years of the Revolution, it would begin in 1969 and end in 1990 or 91. Jeane Dixon has predicted in her latest book that the Anti-Christ would arise and take control somewhere about 1985. If this would be about the first of that year‚ then it would give him about seven years to the end of 1991, give or take a year here or there either way! It works out a little too close for comfort, as the possible beginning of his reign and the end of it, with the end of the Tribulation and the Coming of Christ somewhere in that time area! Hallelujah! God's Will be done! He knows the times!
21. SO ONE WAY OR ANOTHER, IT'S GETTING CLOSE, AND THE TIME OF THE END DRAWETH NEAR! So keep your lamps brightly burning, Beloved!—You haven't got much time left to work—And your time may even be closer than that, if God should see fit to make that great final witness out of you known as a martyr in some day soon to come! Hallelujah! Sudden death is sudden glory! Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His Saints!—Their works do follow them! Amen!