David Berg
ET #39DO 21614/85
ZECH.14:6–8
1. (ZECH.14:6:) "AND IT SHALL COME TO PASS IN THAT DAY, THAT THE LIGHT SHALL NOT BE CLEAR NOR DARK." How about that! I started by reading the Scripture. This is going to be a record, red-letter day! (Verse 7:) "But it shall be one day which shall be known to the Lord, not day, nor night; but it shall come to pass, that at evening time it shall be light." What event are we studying? (Fam: Armageddon!) And it looks like the battle is just about over, but it must have kicked up a lot of dust & smoke if it was such a dark day!
2. NOW HERE COMES THE GOOD NEWS! WELL, EVEN ARMAGEDDON IS GOOD NEWS, it's getting rid of the old Devil & all his minions & dominions & all of his bad wicked people. We'll get rid of them all, even the Devil & all the demons! Think of that! The Antichrist & the False Prophet, all the Mark-of-the-Beast people & the Devil & all of his demons are all cast into the Pit! So we don't have to be worried with that kind of enemies any more. Who's left? (Fam: The Survivors.) We're the supernatural people, we're flying around in supernatural miraculous bodies. And who do you think the survivors are? (Fam: The A-ACs.)—The anti-Antichrists. We don't know how many of them God's going to spare, but in His mercy He is going to spare whom He sees fit to spare to give them what?—A second chance? Another chance?—Watch out! (Fam: A first chance.)
3. I DON'T THINK IF ANYBODY'S HAD ONE CHANCE THEY DESERVE ANOTHER ONE, DO THEY? So the Survivors are probably going to be all the people who never really heard or understood the Gospel or had a chance to receive Jesus, not those who had a first chance. Watch out about that! I slip up on that once in awhile too & give them another chance‚ a second chance. That's what the church would call it & that's what they accuse us of, that we believe in a second chance.—In fact‚ not only a second chance‚ but a third chance & a fourth chance & several other chances according to our critics!
4. (VERSE 8:) "AND IT SHALL BE IN THAT DAY THAT LIVING WATERS SHALL GO OUT FROM JERUSALEM, half of them toward the former sea, & half of them toward the hinder sea: in summer & in winter shall it be." And if you want to read more about that you have to go back to Ezekiel in his description of the Temple in that day, which shows there's go-ing to be another temple in Jerusalem.—Not in the New Jerusalem, not in the Heavenly City. We don't need'm. Because the Lord is the Temple there! And we're the Temple too.
5. BUT ON EARTH THERE ARE STILL GOING TO BE EARTHLY PEOPLE WHO ARE GOING TO GET THEIR FIRST CHANCE, the good people who fought the Antichrist, at least mostly good people. I believe it's going to be mostly people who really are trying to be right & religious & sincere & love the Lord & believe in God & know that the Antichrist is of the Devil & false‚ so that they have been fighting him & resisting him & protecting us. Think of that‚ isn't that wonderful?—Whole nations, kings, leaders!
6. AND WHERE DO YOU THINK MOST OF THOSE COUNTRIES ARE GOING TO BE? Do you think that's the U.S.A.? Do you think that's Europe? I doubt it! Do you think it's Russia where we're going to get protection? Well, we are getting protection there right now, TTL! His Angels are protecting our little bands of disciples there, God bless'm, & they're booming‚ TTL! Wonderful! It's amazing!—But it's cert. not the Gov't!
7. WE'RE THE TEMPLE, PRAISE GOD‚ but in Ezekiel you can get more of a description of this period & this time, a very supernatural miraculous period, the beginning of the Millennium! It gives all kinds of measurements & tells about these waters that are going out & where they go etc. (Eze.47)
8. AND YOU CAN TAKE THIS LITERALLY, IT SOUNDS PRETTY LITERAL, "TOWARD THE FORMER & THE HINDER SEA." Does anybody have any idea what those are?—"The former sea", half of them, & "the hinder sea". (Fam: The Mediterranean & the Dead Sea.)—Very good!
9. I CAN BELIEVE IN MIRACLES‚ CAN'T YOU? IF GOD WANTS TO CAUSE A FOUNTAIN TO ERUPT IN THE MIDDLE OF OLD JERUSALEM to water those poor old Jews that got saved & let the waters flow out, I'm sure He can! Boy, if there's anything that Israel needs, it's irrigation! They just hunger for water there. They are doing everything they can think of to use every available bit of water to irrigate the land. The land will still grow wonderful crops & is blossoming like the rose, like the Prophet predicted (Isa.35:1-2), but it needs water & God's going to send them water. I can believe it's literal.
10. NOW SOME PREACHERS INTERPRET THIS AS MEANING IT'S SPIRITUAL, because this is a typical Fundamentalist Evangelical Scofield Bible interpretation, that old Jerusalem is going to be the international headquarters of the Church & the Christians to rule the World!—And of course they think it'll be led by the saved Jews, they always put themselves on top. Even the Christian Jews, the so-called Hebrew Christians, always make sure that you recognise the fact that, "Well, you're Christians, but you're only Gentile Christians. We are the Christians, the Jewish Christians! And of course nobody could be more Christian than a Jewish Christian! We've got it all, we've got them both, we've got Moses & Jesus!"
11. WHO DOES THAT SOUND LIKE? (FAM: THE CONCISION.) It's the Concision, or Circumcision they call them too. Why did they call them the Circumcision? (Fam: Because they believed you had to be circumcised.)—Yes, they were all circumcised & they believed you had to be circumcised & you had to keep what laws? (Fam: The Mosaic.)—The old Mosaic Laws.
12. THEY SAID, "THAT'S FINE, YOU CAN HAVE JESUS, you can proclaim Him as the Messiah & you can believe in Jesus the Messiah, but you still have to be a Jew, you still have to keep the old Mosaic Laws." In other words, Jesus wasn't enough to save you. The Messiah wasn't enough if you didn't keep Moses too. Isn't that sad?
THE SCOFIELD BIBLE!
13. THIS SHOWS YOU WHAT WRITING IT & PUTTING IT IN BLACK-&-WHITE & SHOVING IT UNDER THEIR NOSE CAN DO! The Scofield Bible has misled the whole modern Evangelical Fundamentalist Pentecostal Baptist church, all these Fundamental denominations, has led'm all astray when it comes to Bible Prophecy! Well, they knew very little about Bible Prophecy anyhow, little or nothing! So when Scofield came along‚ that seemed like it was better than nothing. Well, it was very good in many points & you'll find that if you check a Scofield Bible we agree with most of the most fundamental points such as Salvation by grace.
14. SCOFIELD WAS STRONG ON GENUINE ETERNAL SALVATION, GIVE HIM CREDIT FOR THAT, God bless him! And he was strong on the Second Coming of Christ‚ only he got it misplaced.—He put it before the Tribulation instead of after. He's strong on the Millennium, thank the Lord, & of course it does come after the Tribulation, there's no question about that!
15. WE AGREE ON MOST OF THEIR DOCTRINES. Believe it or not, we're in pretty good unity with the doctrines of the Scofield Bible & the Evangelicals & Fundamentalists‚ as far as real Salvation, the coming of Christ & the Millennium & eventually Heaven, though they don't seem to know much about that!
PRE–TRIB RAPTURE/POST-MILLENNIAL DOCTRINE!
16. BUT THEIR LEADING FALSE DOCTRINE‚ & IN FACT THE WHOLE SCOFIELD BIBLE WAS PRACTICALLY WRITTEN TO TRY TO PROVE THIS PECULIAR DOCTRINE, IS THAT THEY BELIEVE JESUS IS GOING TO COME BEFORE THE TRIBULATION. This doctrine originated with the Coonyites. It arose in about 1795, the end of the 18th Century, close to 1800‚ & that's nearly 200 years ago. That doctrine arose amongst some of the Pentecostals of England. They were called Coonyites after their leader Coony, & for the first time in church history, in fact World history‚ someone claimed & taught that the church was going to be raptured before the Tribulation. Up to that time it was standard, Orthodox church doctrine both of the Catholics, the Lutherans & the Episcopalians—if they dealt with it at all, & they do have notes in the Book of Revelation & various places—they all taught that there was going to be an Antichrist & a Tribulation period, & then Jesus was going to come.
17. THEY HAVE A GREAT DIFFERENCE OF OPINION ON THE MILLENNIUM, whether it's going to be in the future or whether this is now the Millennium, the so-called Church Age. That was very popular back then when the church ruled the World. It looked to them like it was the Millennium because here the Saints had already taken over!—The Popes & the Bishops & the Archbishops & the Cardinals. They ruled nations! They ruled the Western World! So they got to teaching that maybe the Millennium was spiritual, therefore we were now living in the Millennium!
18. FOR SOME REASON OR OTHER, THAT DOCTRINE HAS SORT OF FADED OUT LATELY, CAN YOU IMAGINE WHY? I haven't seen any lambs lying down with lions unless the lamb was inside the lion! I haven't seen anybody beating their swords into plowshares & spears into pruninghooks, have you?—In fact it seems to be getting worse, not better. There's more war than ever! There's more horror than ever! There's more deviltry than ever! During the Millennium the Devil & his demons are supposed to be bound in the pit for a thousand years! Then who the Hell is carrying on his business now, anyhow? It's a silly stupid doctrine!
19. BUT THAT WAS ANOTHER ONE OF THE DOCTRINES OF THE CHURCHES. They were priding themselves on having themselves introduced the Millennium & they were now ruling the World. Well, it was pretty popular during the time when that was pretty much so, at least the church was ruling the World. It was not Heaven-on-Earth, I'll tell you, it was Hell-on–Earth, just as bad! But it's getting worse, not better.
20. IN THOSE DAYS THEY BELIEVED THAT AS THE CHURCH RULED THE WORLD IT WOULD GET BETTER & BETTER. Well, I think events have sort of proved that so-called Post-Millennial doctrine wrong! That's the technical, theological doctrine, that the Millennium is now & Jesus is going to come after the Millennium. In other words, they were going to prepare the World for Christ!—Christianise the World, get the World all saved & establish Heaven-on-Earth, & then Jesus was to come & take over His Kingdom that the Church had already made for Him!—Ha!
GOD'S COMING KINGDOM!
21. WELL, IN A WAY THAT IS PARTIALLY TRUE, BECAUSE JESUS IS ALREADY PREPARING HIS KINGDOM IN US, & His Kingdom is already here, as Jesus said.—In us, in our hearts! And we are preparing the way for His Kingdom. But this is not it, not in the outside World. Only in our hearts & our Heavenly Homes do we find the Kingdom of God today! We don't even find it much in the churches. We're preparing the Church, you‚ for the eventual Kingdom of God on Earth!
22. THERE ARE SO MANY THINGS THAT CAN BE TWISTED, THAT ARE PARTIAL TRUTHS THAT THE CHURCHES TWISTED COMPLETELY BACKWARDS, inside-out, upside–down, into saying "Jesus Himself said the Kingdom of God is here & within you, the Kingdom of God is at hand‚ it started back when Jesus first came" etc. And then they claim that that's the Millennial period. Well, the Kingdom of God is here on Earth already in you & me, but only in you & me & only in our Homes! You look out the window & you'll see Hell on Earth most places! You read the newspaper & all you can see is hell & hell & more hell! It's pitiful!—Confusion, trouble, crime, war, destruction!
23. LET ME TELL YOU, THAT'S NOT GOD'S DESCRIPTION OF THE MILLENNIUM! We may be the Kingdom of God on Earth already & it's in you & in our Homes & the Homes of any other real Christians, but this is not the Millennium, not yet! Because that's going to be a beautiful time which we've tried to picture for you of total peace & justice & plenty & the rule of Jesus Christ in person‚ the King of Kings, & His Saints‚ us, throughout the whole Earth. That's the Millennium! And the only way that's going to happen is for Jesus to come‚ & with us in supernatural angelic powerful bodies establish the Millennium over this godless Earth by force!
24. "OH GRANDPA, AREN'T YOU GETTING ON DANGEROUS GROUND NOW, TEACHING THE OVERTHROW OF THE EARTH'S KINGDOMS BY FORCE? They've got laws in some countries that if you teach the overthrow of the government by force‚ they can put you in jail!" Well, I'm not advocating that we're going to do it now, in fact we certainly shouldn't! Jesus said, "If My Kingdom were of this World"—in other words, the Roman World in which He lived in that day, or like this World's kingdoms—He said, "then My servants would fight!" But He said, "My Kingdom is not of this World", meaning this kind of worldly World, this World System. (Jn.18:36) He didn't mean it wouldn't be on the Earth.
25. SO WE'RE NOT TO FIGHT NOW TO ESTABLISH GOD'S KINGDOM, THIS IS NOT THE TIME FOR THAT. WE'RE TO DO IT WITH LOVE, giving everybody a chance to receive God's Kingdom in their hearts through Jesus & His Spirit willingly, voluntarily, lovingly‚ without force or violence. But the time is coming when enough people have had their chance & God knows He's got to stop the World or things are going to go completely haywire!
26. I READ IN THE PAPER EVERY DAY SOMETHING ELSE THAT THEY'RE DISCOVERING, WHICH IF THEY CARRY ON WITH IT IS GOING TO BRING DESTRUCTION, or it's going to bring damage to God's Creation or man's going to pervert the human body & all kinds of terrible things! We read the other day about Dr. Jarvik, the inventor of the artificial heart, something that really struck us. Someone asked him, "What about the future of these artificial organs & transplants, etc.?" And he said, "Oh, I believe there's going to be a tremendous future in it, where almost all organs can be replaced. And not only that, where man can so control the power of the brain that he can cause the brain to control machinery & electronics." Remember how I told you about that guy who attached electrodes to his head & he could turn the TV off & on & switch channels & things like that? It's already happening!
27. BUT YOU SEE, GOD DID NOT GIVE THAT KIND OF TALENT TO EVERYBODY. One of these days we're going to have it & we partially have it now, God can answer prayer & do miracles, right? But my Lord, He certainly can't trust wicked, earthly, irreverent, reprobate man with virtually supernatural powers & talents like that! Otherwise man would just totally pervert the World!
28. AND IN THE ANTICHRIST KINGDOM IT'S GOING TO BE A LITTLE BIT LIKE THAT, WHERE THEY'RE GOING TO RUN THINGS ELECTRONICALLY & no doubt with brainwaves & implants in your head that'll be controlled from some central computer & that sort of thing. See, it's getting so bad that God has got to stop it before long, or man would wreck man & the Earth! And I see it time & again‚ there are so many things.—War, pollution & scientific discoveries that could lead to man's total destruction.—Which is the aim of the Enemy, to destroy God's Creation by man's creation through the Devil's inspirations.
29. SO GOD HAS TO BRING AN END SOON, IT JUST CAN'T GO ON MUCH LONGER! Just look around you‚ it's impossible! God has to come &put a stop to it, & then the age of voluntary, willing, peaceful acceptance of the Love of God & His Kingdom in hearts is going to come to an end in a certain way, in that they are going to then be ruled over by us & forced to obey the Kingdom of God & the rule of God & the Law of God. They are going to be forced to do so & God is going to enforce peace on Earth, enforce equality, enforce justice‚ enforce all the things that man does not have today, but should have & would have had if he'd followed the Lord.
30. THE DAY OF THE VOLUNTARY ACCEPTANCE IS GOING TO COME TO AN END. They are going to be forced to obey, & we're going to get into this in this Chapter as we go. They are going to be forced to obey & the Kingdom of God is going to be imposed by force on whatever is left of man & the Earth.
31. NOW FOR THOSE WHO WILLINGLY, GLADLY RECEIVE IT‚ GOD STILL WON'T HAVE TO USE FORCE, WILL HE? Those who see it & hear it & recognise & believe it for the first time, they will receive it willingly & gladly. So there will still be a certain amount of voluntary acceptance of the Lord & His Kingdom, which there is today.—But‚ the difference being‚ those who refuse & who won't & don't‚ will be forced to obey or be destroyed! That is not so today. Well, it is partially so, the Lord has supernaturally destroyed some of our enemies. We wanted to be friends, but they refused to be friends.
32. GOD WANTS TO BE FRIENDS WITH EVERYBODY, BUT MILLIONS OF PEOPLE REFUSE. God wants to be friends of all the people in the Millennium, but eventually some of them are going to refuse. They make us their enemies! God wants to be their Friend, their Lover, their Saviour, but they refuse, so they make God their enemy by becoming His enemy. Well, that's kind of a little foretaste of what we're reading here today.
ZECH.14:8—THE FOUNTAIN!
33. SOME PEOPLE BELIEVE THIS IS REALLY GOING TO BE A BIG GEYSER HERE IN VERSE 8, an artesian spring that's going to burst forth in Jerusalem. You know, Jerusalem was on top of sort of a mountain or a range of hills‚ therefore the watershed on the East side goes down into the Dead Sea, & the water flowing from the West side would go into the Mediterranean. So that's a simple physical possibility if it means a natural fountain of water. Some people interpret it spiritually, especially these Jewish Christians who believe old Jerusalem is going to be the Lord's Capital. We know better! What Jerusalem is going to be the Lord's Capital? (Fam: New Jerusalem!)—The New Jerusalem!
34. SOME INTERPRET THAT SPIRITUALLY ABOUT THIS FOUNTAIN THAT'S GOING TO BURST FORTH IN JERUSALEM & THE WATERS FLOW EAST & WEST. There's a lot of difference of opinion on some prophetic interpretation, as you have found out. We differ from them, & sometimes we differ with each other, but we pretty much stick together, praise the Lord! Once in awhile we change our mind, or God changes it, thank the Lord! If we are wrong, He tells us.
35. THAT OLD JERUSALEM IS NOT GOING TO BE JESUS' CAPITAL, AS IS OBVIOUS, SINCE HE'LL HAVE HIS BEAUTIFUL NEW JERUSALEM up in the Heavenlies or in the sky somewhere. It hasn't come down yet, but I believe it's going to be our Capital & I believe it's going to be our Headquarters. My goodness, why would we want anything on this Earth when we've got something like that to go Home to! We'll be commuters, PTL! Those who are involved in ruling on the Earth, we can commute!—In fact, we can shoot back & forth to Heaven!—Not just commute, but shoot, fly! So one of these days it's going to come out of the Heavens from God down to Earth‚ but I believe it's going to be right up there close by somewhere where we can go back & forth! Why not? That's the logical Headquarters for us, the safest place for us!—To go home to our Heavenly Homes & our Mansions so that we can enjoy it, have all this & Heaven too! PTL!
36. SO I DON'T PUT ANY STOCK IN THAT FOOLISH INTERPRETATION THAT OLD DIRTY JERUSALEM FULL OF JEWS IS GOING TO BE JESUS' ACTUAL CAPITAL. Isn't that ridiculous? But, He still loves those Jews & He's going to save some of them. Some of you are the living proof of it! And I wouldn't be surprised if He's going to give them what they need the most right then, because they're always thinking in physical terms.
37. WHEN JESUS DIDN'T BRING IN THE KINGDOM ON EARTH THAT THEY WERE EXPECTING WHEN HE FIRST CAME, THAT'S ONE OF THE EXCUSES THEY USE FOR SAYING HE'S NOT THE MESSIAH‚ because He didn't establish this great Millennial Kingdom that He promised. See, they're really screwed up‚ they're saying that that's proof He wasn't the Messiah‚ because the World's not at peace & there's not plenty & there's not this & not that & it's not the Millennium, therefore Jesus must not have been the Messiah, He couldn't have been because He didn't bring the Kingdom of God on Earth.
38. WELL, YOU CAN UNDERSTAND HOW THEY COULD SCREW IT AROUND THAT WAY & THINK THAT WAY‚ SINCE THAT'S ALL THEY HAD ON THEIR MINDS, power & possessions & material wealth that the Messiah was supposedly going to bring them & make them rulers of the Earth! That's how they interpret those Scriptures. Of course‚ we know better. We know He is the Messiah, that He is going to establish His Kingdom on Earth by power & force, & that the true Israel of God‚ the true Jews of God are going to rule it!—Us!—And all real born-again Christians.
39. ALL THAT TO SAY THIS, MY OPINION IS‚ SINCE THE JEWS ARE ALWAYS LOOKING MORE FOR NATURAL MATERIALISTIC BLESSINGS & SEEM TO APPRECIATE THEM MORE, I wouldn't be surprised that they'd rather have a fountain in the middle of Jerusalem than the Messiah!—Because a fountain can bring them money & better crops & irrigation & be a materialistic blessing! So who needs the Messiah? Well, they're not going to get away with that attitude, of course, but I'm just saying that to support my theory that I wouldn't be surprised if it's actually going to be a literal fountain just like it says here, & part of the water is going to flow this way & part of the water that way for irrigation.
40. BOTH OF THOSE VALLEYS NEED IRRIGATION. (Dad points to map:) Here is Jerusalem & there is a valley here on the West between this range of mountains here, & then there's a coastal range & a valley. This all needs irrigation. And over here on the East there's also a valley between here & the Jordan, & that all needs irrigation. So I wouldn't be surprised that it's literal, the Lord's going to give them water.
41. AND OF COURSE THOSE OLD JEWS READING THESE OLD TESTAMENT PROPHECIES WOULD PUT MUCH MORE STOCK IN THIS, "Now we're going to have water, lots of water! We're not going to have to worry about water any more! Hallelujah! Our Jerusalem is going to have lots of water!" So here He's going to give it to them. The Lord knew His Jews, He knew they'd really be thankful for that.
ZECH.14:9-11
42. VERSE 9‚ HERE'S THE RINGER! "AND THE LORD SHALL BE KING OVER ALL THE EARTH: IN THAT DAY SHALL THERE BE ONE LORD, & HIS NAME ONE."—And are they going to be surprised Who that is! Who do you think that Lord is? Who do you know that Lord is? (Fam: Jesus.)—Jesus! He is going to be the Lord of the Earth. The very One they spit at & spit in your face about & knock your Bible out of your hands if you read about Him, even out of their own Old Testament, the very One they hate & have hated for centuries & taught their children to hate Him‚ curse Him, their favourite curse word, is going to be their King!—Whether they like it or not, one Lord‚ one King! PTL?
43. VERSE 10, "AND THE LAND SHALL BE TURNED AS A PLAIN FROM GEBA TO RIMMON SOUTH OF JERUSALEM." That's this area down here which is now all mountains. Somehow or another, I don't know whether it's going to be through the war or atomic bomb explosions or what‚ but it's going to be levelled! And if there's anything that those dear Jews would appreciate, it's a little more level land in Israel instead of so many mountains‚ where they could grow more crops. So the Lord's going to be good to them. He knows His Jews‚ He's going to give them the kind of things they like. Amen?
44. "AND IT SHALL BE LIFTED UP & INHABITED IN HER PLACE, FROM BENJAMIN'S GATE"—He's talking about Jerusalem now—"unto the place of the first gate, unto the corner gate, & from the tower of Hananeel unto the king's winepresses." We don't have time to go into that now‚ but He is describing the exact boundaries of the Jerusalem that's going to be existent on the face of the Earth, natural old Jewish Jerusalem, Jewish & Arab. He's describing the exact boundaries of it here.
45. AND IF YOU WANT TO JOT DOWN A REFERENCE YOU CAN READ LATER WHERE YOU'LL GET AN EVEN MORE DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE BOUNDARIES, IT'S JEREMIAH 31:38. And believe it or not, I know because I've seen pictures of it & heard descriptions of it, the description there by Jeremiah of the boundaries of the city limits of Jerusalem were far beyond the old city limits of Jerusalem back there in the Prophets' days. Even in Jesus' day Jerusalem had not grown like that! The old city of Jerusalem is fairly small, but the new city of Jerusalem, that is, the new construction outside of the old city walls, has spread out with modern buildings‚ apartment houses, architecture, hotels, business & office buildings, far beyond its ancient walls, & believe it or not, within the exact limits described here in the Bible!
46. THE PRESENT MODERN BOUNDARIES EXTEND TO EXACTLY THESE PLACES POINTED OUT HERE. Today's boundaries of modern Jerusalem have fulfilled those boundaries exactly!—Naming from gate to gate & from this place to that place. It goes completely around the city & comes back to where it began, describes what the boundaries of Jerusalem are going to be like in the future. And they've already fulfilled that now. This is the future as far as that particular prophecy is concerned. So there's another wonderful fulfilled prophecy!
47. VERSE 11, "AND MEN SHALL DWELL IN IT & THERE SHALL BE NO MORE UTTER DESTRUCTION; BUT JERUSALEM SHALL BE SAFELY INHABITED." What does God do after the war? Well, we can read about that in more detail other places. But what is the final last straw that precipitates our invasion of this Earth from the Heavens? (Fam: The Antichrist comes up to the walls of Jerusalem.) Yes, so we come down to save Jerusalem as well as the Jews still left that are going to accept the Lord & some of the A-AC people. That's why we come at that point, at that moment. The Lord for some reason still loves that old city because of sort of nostalgic fond memories, & He knows the Jews adore it! So for their sakes, "the sake of the fathers‚" He's going to spare the old city of Jerusalem, & we come with Him to help Him do it & to save the remnant of Jews who are going to be saved, who are still there, & in Israel.
48. BUT THAT IS THE CRISIS TURNING POINT IN THE WAR! The war rages from the Height of Megiddo, all the way up the Valley of Megiddo‚ clear up to the walls of Jerusalem, to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. And there's another Verse that says Jehoshaphat is the Valley of Decision. (Joel 3:14)—In other words‚ the crucial turning point in the war.
49. UP TO THAT TIME THE ANTICHRIST FORCES ARE VICTORIOUS! They are winning the Battle of Armageddon! They have come to the very walls of Jerusalem & have surrounded them & are besieging Jerusalem when we come down & save the city & save the people & win the war & destroy the Antichrist & his forces. We've gone over that some other places‚ as I recall. Maybe we haven't gotten into much detail on that, but just take my word for it for now. Some of those Scriptures are here in Zechariah, we read some of them at the beginning of this study.
50. ALSO LOOK UP THE REFERENCES TO ARIEL. (ISA.29:1-8) THE LORD COMES DOWN TO SAVE ARIEL‚ WHICH IS ANOTHER NAME FOR JERUSALEM, kind of a spiritual name, as though it were the spiritual representative or guardian angel of Jerusalem. We come down to spare the city & what's left, which isn't very much‚ but apparently enough. "And there will be no more utter destruction!"—At least not until the end of the World.
51. WHEN IS THE END OF THE WORLD, AS FAR AS THE WORLD IS CONCERNED? (Fam: At the end of the Battle of Armageddon?) Well, the end of man's rule is at the end of the Battle of Armageddon. But the end of the World as we now know it, this Earth as we now know it‚ when is that going to come to an end & be totally destroyed? (Fam: At the Battle of Gog & Magog.)—In the fire that comes down from God out of Heaven at the end of the Battle of Gog & Magog to destroy again the enemies of God & again rescue His people, this time from some place called "the camp of the saints", their headquarters somewhere on Earth.—Those are the Millennial Saints, the folks saved during the Millennium. (Rev.20:9)
52. (DAD CLEARS HIS NOSE & THROAT.) EXCUSE ME, BUT I LIKE TO GET IT UP! It's good for me to talk like this, it helps shove it out! The winds of the Word of God are driving the Devil out! Praise God!—Even out of my throat! TYL!
MILLENNIAL REBELS!
53. OKAY, 12TH VERSE! NOW HE'S GOING TO TELL YOU HOW HE'S GOING TO DEAL WITH THE REBELS OF THE MILLENNIUM! Not all of these A-ACs, not all of these people that He spares to give'm their first chance to really understand the Gospel & to understand Salvation & have an opportunity to receive Jesus are going to be saved.—Why?—For the same reason not everybody's saved today. There are still going to be hard, rebellious, wilful, idolatrous hearts who are going to rebel & stiffen against the Will of God, against the Kingdom of God. There are going to be rebels in the camp!
54. THERE ARE GOING TO BE A FEW REBELS‚ APPARENTLY, THROUGHOUT THE MILLENNIUM, THIS IS WHY WE HAVE TO GO AROUND RULING WITH A ROD OF IRON! Some of our artists have pictured a literal big iron rod in our hands! I don't take it that literally, although if you want to carry around a heavy iron rod, that's up to you. But why?—When we have such supernatural miraculous powers & we can just go zap-zap-zap! That's our rod of iron! But how could a Prophet of that day describe things like that? They had no electronic or laser beams or anything like that in his day, so how could he describe it? If he saw in vision what looked like a ray going out from the hand of a Saint or an Angel & zappin' people, then how's the best way he could describe it? Wouldn't it look like a rod to him sticking out there? So that's the only way he could describe it, he just called it a rod! And that's a pretty good comparison.
55. BUT I DON'T THINK WE'RE GOING TO HAVE TO USE ANYTHING AS PRIMITIVE AS AN ACTUAL ROD OF IRON. They're kind of heavy to carry, anyhow. I know we'll be supernatural & have great strength, but we won't need any rods of iron. The World has been fighting with rods of iron for ages, spears & swords & all kinds of things, iron & steel, until iron & steel have become the curse of the Earth.
56. THAT'S ANOTHER ONE OF THE CURSES OF THIS EARTH! THAT'S WHY THE LORD WOULDN'T LET THEM USE IRON TOOLS IN THE BUILDING OF THE ALTAR. I believe that's why! He has an abhorrence for these weapons of iron & steel that have slaughtered millions for generations. So I don't think the Lord cares much for iron & steel & I doubt very much if that's what the rod of iron is going to be. If any iron & steel have to be used, He says it's going to be used for plows & for pruninghooks.
57. PRUNINGHOOKS ARE FOR TRIMMING TREES, ETC. You've seen our pruningsaw, that saw we have on a long handle, that's really a pruninghook. You notice how the saw's kind of hooked? That's really a pruninghook. Except that the old-fashioned pruninghooks actually had a curved kind of a sickle blade like that, very sharp, & they could just reach up there & instead of having to saw off small branches, which are usually what has to be pruned, they'd just hook it over the base of the branch & give it a jerk & the branch would fall off.—Old branches, diseased branches‚ dead branches.
58. THIS IS WHAT THE LORD TALKS ABOUT WHEN HE SAYS‚ "I AM THE VINE‚ YE ARE THE BRANCHES" & that He's going to cut off the branches that don't bear fruit, etc. (Jn.15:1–2) The picture here is of Him pruning the tree‚ pruning the vine, cutting off the dead, dying, diseased‚ weak or feeble branches that don't really serve Him, don't really do their job, don't witness‚ don't win souls, don't evangelise the World & don't become missionaries!—Or support one!
DESTROY THE MIGHT OF THE CHURCH!
59. IT LOOKS TO ME LIKE HE'S BEEN PRUNING THIS CHURCH FOR A GOOD MANY YEARS, & FROM WHAT I CAN SEE OF THE CHURCHES, IT LOOKS LIKE THERE ARE VERY FEW LIVE BRANCHES LEFT! So it looks like He's about to cut down the whole tree because of its disobedience & wickedness, & chop the whole thing down in the Tribulation.—The visible powerful church, the might of the church. God's Word says He's going to "destroy the mighty & the holy people." (Dan.8:24)
60. HE'S GOING TO ALLOW THE ANTICHRIST TO DESTROY THE CHURCH'S POWER‚ ITS TEMPORAL EARTHLY POWER, like the Catholic church, who own billions & billions of Dollars' worth of property & they've got a tremendous political machine of about 600 million people & all their officers & their costly cathedrals & churches & buildings & idols! Not only that, they own a lot of other property too, including the Coca-Cola company & a few other industries! They're very powerful & very rich & they can influence governments wherever they are! In fact, for years they ruled over the governments. Now they're not quite as powerful as they were. God is already beginning to destroy their power, & it began with the Reformation.
61. BUT DURING THE ANTICHRIST PERIOD OF THE TRIBULATION IT IS GOING TO BE TOTALLY DESTROYED. The power of the church, the so-called "holy people", their might & their power & their physical organisation, their property, is going to be totally destroyed or taken over by the Antichrist. And the only church left is going to be the True Church, the human, physical True Church built of Living Stones, as God's Word says. (1Pe.2:4-5) Who's that? (Fam: Us!)—You & me! We're the Living Stones! We, along with the other true Christians, are the True Church & the only Church that God has.
62. ALL THOSE BUILDINGS ARE NOTHING TO THE LORD! THEY'RE NOT CHURCHES AT ALL! The word "church," as used in the New Testament, comes from the Greek word "ecclesia," which means "the called out ones", the elect! People!—Not buildings! There I go again on that subject! Well, you can imagine why I get so mad about it when you think how the church has gone to nothing but buildings. The church has not gone to the dogs, they've gone to buildings!—Worse than dogs! At least dogs are alive!—Man's best friend, they say. Even dogs are of more use than those God-damned buildings! And the preachers have got a string of degrees, including D.D., which my Grandfather said stands for "dumb dogs which cannot even bark & warn the people!" (Isa.56:10) Well, I'd better get back on this chapter again! I get off on those churches & God help us! But He's going to destroy the power of the churches.
63. DO YOU KNOW WHAT THEY DID TO THE CHURCHES IN RUSSIA? IT'S ALREADY BEEN DONE THERE. They destroyed the power of the church completely until the church is now a slave of the government & their priests are all Communists. All the Russian Orthodox priests take Communist training & are only loyal Communist Party Members that belong to the government, trained by the government to preach Communism in the churches & to preach loyalty to the government! And what churches that they decided to leave open are very few. What did they do with the rest of the church buildings? What happened to Saint Sophia Cathedral, the greatest Orthodox Russian church in all of Russia?—It's a Museum to Atheism now, & they turned many of the great cathedrals into museums, anti-religious, anti-God, anti-Christ museums!
64. THE KREMLIN WAS A GORGEOUS PALACE OF THE CZARS BEFORE THE COMMUNISTS EVER CAME ALONG‚ & IT'S STRANGE THAT THERE ARE GORGEOUS PICTURES OF JESUS & the Saints, the Disciples & all kinds of Biblical scenes painted on the great domes & walls of the Kremlin, so that the leaders & the kings of Communism are face-to-face with pictures of Jesus & the Gospel every day they go in & out of that Building! They didn't want to destroy those gorgeous works of art because they're masterpieces! They're ancient relics like antiques, like you keep antiques that are not good for anything else besides the fact that they're just old, & sometimes beautiful & usually valuable.
65. A LOT OF RICH PEOPLE PUT THEIR MONEY IN ANTIQUES BECAUSE THEY FIGURE IT'S SAFER THAN PUTTING IT INTO BANKS THAT CAN FAIL & currency that can fail & gold that's hard to lug around sometimes. They'll put it into pictures that they can roll up & take with'm because they're worth a lot of money‚ some of them millions of Dollars! And they'll always be valuable. In fact, the more the World goes on, the more valuable they get, because the currency is going down & the banks are going down, but art objects will always be beautiful & valuable‚ that is, if it's real art. I'm going to be the first to want to destroy all this modernistic horrible demonic art of the World!
66. JUST THINK WHAT A BIG JOB WE'RE GOING TO HAVE IN THE MILLENNIUM! We've got so many things to do! Talk about burning Bibles like the Devil used to do, I'm going to start burning so-called works of art!—Cezannes‚ Picasso, baloney! I'm gonna burn'm & destroy'm because they're demonic!—Of the Devil! The whole works! All that modern art is poorer drawings than our kids can draw. I think so. At least our kids draw about nice subjects!
67. IT'S GOOD ART EVEN IF IT'S CHILDISH! And some of it looks just as good, if not better, than some of these great modernistic masterpieces that you can't even tell which way you're supposed to hang'm on the wall, which side is up! Well‚ no side is up with that kind of art, it's all down, out of the pit of Hell!
68. HOW DID I GET ONTO ALL OF THAT ANYWAY? THESE VERSES ARE JUST LIKE SPRINGBOARDS! I just jump & take a big bounce & I dive right in the sea‚ a whole sea of educational material that I try to pass on to you!
ZECH.14:12–21
69. SO HERE'S HOW THE LORD IS GOING TO FIGHT THE ENEMIES THAT WILL ARISE. There are still going to be people who will resist the Gospel. They've had their chance & now it's their last chance & they resist & they refuse. Their resistance is going to be pretty weak at first. It is not until the Devil comes back with all his demons to possess them again that they're going to get in such power that the Devil's going to lead whole nations once again against the Christians, against the Kingdom of God at the end of the Millennium, the Battle of Gog & Magog. But at first their resistance is pretty weak & you can read this now & understand why it's going to be plenty weak!
70. (VERSE 12:) "AND THIS SHALL BE THE PLAGUE WHEREWITH THE LORD WILL SMITE ALL THE PEOPLE THAT HAVE FOUGHT AGAINST JERUSALEM." He's talking about the end of the Battle of Armageddon now, right? We're going to get to the plague that's going to happen during the Millennium in a minute. But this is the plague that's going to smite all the people who have come up against Jerusalem. This is the way we're going to smite'm.—Or maybe they've even smitten themselves with atomic bombs & things like that, because the description here is almost exactly what happens when an atomic bomb falls!—Either that or we're going to use atomic power to do it.
71. "THEIR FLESH SHALL CONSUME AWAY WHILE THEY STAND UPON THEIR FEET!"—THAT'S EXACTLY WHAT HAPPENS IF YOU'RE NEAR AN ATOMIC BLAST. "And their eyes shall consume away in their holes." This is exactly what happened to some of the people in Nagasaki & Hiroshima who looked at the blast & their eyeballs melted right in their sockets & ran down their cheeks! This happened! It's already happened, folks, in atomic blasts! Think of that! "And their tongues shall consume away in their mouth." I don't know whether that happened or not, but it was such a heat blast & radiation that it probably affects their tongue too. So maybe we're going to use some kind of atomic power as our weapons in destroying these enemies.—Either that or they're destroying each other with atomic blasts.
72. (VERSE 13:) "AND IT SHALL COME TO PASS IN THAT DAY THAT A GREAT TUMULT FROM THE LORD SHALL BE AMONG THEM; & they shall lay hold every one on the hand of his neighbour & his hand shall rise up against the hand of his neighbour." What are they going to be doing? (Fam: Fighting amongst themselves.) Has that ever happened before? (Fam: Yes!) It happened in the Bible several times.
73. I REMEMBER ONE TIME A GREAT ARMY OF ISRAEL'S ENEMIES WAS DESTROYED‚ I think 20-some-thousand men were destroyed! The Prophet of God prayed against them & they rose up in the middle of the night & got confused & began killing each other until they practically slaughtered themselves. That's going to happen too! (Jud.7:22; 2Kngs. 19:35.)
74. (VERSE 14:) "AND JUDAH ALSO SHALL FIGHT AT JERUSALEM." Now God's going to even help the Jews to defend themselves, but of course they could never have defended themselves against the great hordes of the Antichrist if we hadn't helped them. "And the wealth of all the heathen round about shall be gathered together, gold & silver & apparel in great abundance."—Just what those Jews always wanted.—Ha, ha! God's going to give it to them. Isn't that sweet? They love things like that. He couldn't have made'm any happier than to promise'm gold & silver & jewels & raiment & wealth in great abundance. "You're gonna get it, dear old Jews, just wait! When I come I'll let you have it!"
75. (VERSE 15:) "AND SO SHALL BE THE PLAGUE OF THE HORSE, OF THE MULE, OF THE CAMEL, & OF THE ASS, & OF ALL THE BEASTS THAT SHALL BE IN THESE TENTS, as this plague."—Sounds like the Antichrist army is going to have a lot of animals & will be using a lot of beasts of burden. If you can't depend on electronically controlled tanks & trucks etc., they're going to have to use horses & mules etc. That's a fact! It says so, amen?
76. THANK GOD THERE ARE STILL LOTS OF HORSES & MULES & CAMELS & SAILBOATS IN THE WORLD TODAY. They're even still building carriages as you'll see in some of our articles. God is keeping alive these talents, these skills, & probably the ones that are doing it now are going to have to run whole schools teaching people how to do it for themselves! Look how many jobs there are going to be in the Millennium, there's going to be so much to do! PTL! Isn't that wonderful?
77. I LOOK FORWARD TO IT AS A TIME OF ACTIVITY & PROFITABLE WORK & SKILLS & DOING THINGS!—Not floating around on a cloud playing a guitar! Well, some of our musicians might like that‚ but I've got to have something a little more concrete to do. We need the musicians too‚ don't misunderstand me. That's okay‚ musicians, you can float on the clouds & play to us while we work. Well‚ let me tell you‚ making music is hard work too.
78. (VERSE 16:) "AND IT SHALL COME TO PASS THAT EVERYONE THAT IS LEFT OF ALL THE NATIONS WHICH CAME AGAINST JERUSALEM SHALL EVEN GO UP FROM YEAR TO YEAR TO WORSHIP THE KING." It says "everyone that is left" of all those nations. There are going to be Antichrist forces out of every nation‚ right? But also there are going to be people left out of every nation who did not go up, who refused to go up.—The A-ACs, some of them out of all the nations in the Earth. The nations who officially, governmentally came up with the Antichrist to besiege Jerusalem‚ those that are left out of those nations who didn't.
79. IF YOU READ THIS WRONG IT SOUNDS LIKE THE PEOPLE THAT GO UP AGAINST JERUSALEM ARE GOING TO BE SAVED—NO! Get it? These are the people who are left out of those nations. The people who went up against Jerusalem are destroyed!—Right? These are the people who are left out of those nations. It's clear as can be if you read it right & you understand it. Just like a lot of things I say, people get'm twisted & backwards & mixed up & sometimes I get mixed up myself. Sometimes the Bible is a little difficult to understand, the way it's worded & the sequence of the words & phrases, & sometimes even the order of the verses. It's a little bit difficult because of see-sawing back & forth from one event to the other & flashbacks & foreflashes & all kinds of things.
80. BUT THESE ARE "THE PEOPLE WHO ARE LEFT OUT OF ALL THE NATIONS", THE A-ACS, THE GOOD PEOPLE, the religious people who are sincere & trying to do right, just the people who are left. They're all going to "go up from year to year to worship the King, the Lord of hosts, & to keep the feast of tabernacles."
81. DO YOU KNOW WHAT THE FEAST OF TABERNACLES WAS? IT WAS A TENT BARBEQUE! They went out & camped out & had a big feast & a barbecue‚ not only in tents, but they'd build little shanties & little shacks out of palm branches, etc. And did you know the Jews still do that to this very day? I have seen them out on their porches in Miami Beach during the Feast of Tabernacles. They built a little shelter out on the porch out of palm branches. I don't know what they want to celebrate that for, but anyhow, the Lord did tell them to celebrate. They're celebrating the time that they spent out camping in the wilderness—travelling, camping, pilgrims, strangers, mobile, the 40 years they spent on the road camping out.
82. WELL, TO TRAVEL IN THOSE DAYS YOU'RE GOING TO HAVE TO CAMP OUT, RIGHT? There are probably not going to be motels all along the way, fancy restaurants & all that. They're going to have to camp out as they go. But a lot of people are going to come up to Jerusalem & worship, & I imagine especially the Jews, they love that old city.
83. (VERSE 17:) "AND IT SHALL BE THAT WHOSO WILL NOT COME UP OF ALL THE FAMILIES OF THE EARTH UNTO JERUSALEM TO WORSHIP THE KING"—capital K! What King is that? (Fam: Jesus.) All right, they come there to worship the King but He's not necessarily going to be there, not in the old city, that's for sure. Oh, He might visit it. He does visit it when He comes back at the end of the Battle of Armageddon. Where does He visit the City of Jerusalem? (Fam: At the Mount of Olives.)
84. WHY DO YOU SUPPOSE HE CAME BACK TO THE MOUNT OF OLIVES? I told you last time. (Fam: That's where He left.) But why do you suppose He left from there? Why was the Mount of Olives so dear & precious to Him that He chose that place to leave the Earth the last time, & He's going to choose that place to come back again? Can you remember anything else about the Mount of Olives? Well, if you knew Jerusalem as well as I do & from pictures & everything else, the Garden of Gethsemane is located on the slopes of the Mount of Olives.
85. SO THAT'S WHERE HE SPENT HIS LAST NIGHT BEFORE HIS CRUCIFIXION, with His precious disciples, & where He went through that agonising prayer, & where He made the decision to allow Himself to be sacrificed to save the World, the Garden of Decision. It was the decision that Jesus made there on the Mount of Olives that saved you & me. So that mountain is precious to Him. Besides, it's a pretty place to be. I don't think He wants to honour Mount Moriah & all its temples, He would rather land on top of the beautiful Mount of Olives where the lovely Garden of Gethsemane still is! It's still there, believe it or not! Of course they've got little chapels all over the place of different religions‚ but nevertheless, that's where He left, that's where He's going to return, so He must sort of love that old Mount of Olives. He's going to split it wide open for some reason, crack it open so that the waters can flow through, probably so those waters from Jerusalem can get out of there. So that's where He lands.
FAMINE!
86. THE FIRST JUDGEMENT WAS AGAINST THE PEOPLE THAT ACTUALLY WERE FIGHTING AGAINST JERUSALEM‚ THAT'S THE END OF THE WAR. Now we're talking about the Millennium & the people who refuse to obey, the rebels who don't come up. (Verse 17:) "And it shall be that whoso will not come up of all the families of the Earth unto Jerusalem to worship the King‚ the Lord of hosts, even upon them shall be no rain."
87. YOU KNOW, GOD DOESN'T HAVE TO SEND GREAT STORMS OR EARTHQUAKES OR VOLCANIC EXPLOSIONS, not even atom bombs & great fires & all kinds of cataclysms & destructions & catastrophes. Some of you have seen that tape of catastrophes‚ horrible things! But you know, one of the most death-dealing catastrophes that God can possibly perpetrate on the Earth comes very quietly & very slowly‚ it's the slowest form of catastrophe. He just withholds the rain, which causes a drought, which causes the crops to fail & the beasts to die & then the people die. It's slow death, starvation. The Bible calls it Famine & Nostradamus calls it Famine.
88. AND DID YOU KNOW THE FAMINES ARE GROWING RIGHT NOW?—Growing & growing, & the Sahara is growing, & the Western great American Desert is growing. All deserts are growing rapidly now & it seems even more rapidly now! Some of those areas have had 2, 3, 4 or 5 years without rain now! And whatever people didn't starve to death already have moved out & just deserted! Whole cities, whole towns are completely deserted because the people had nothing to eat‚ couldn't grow crops, couldn't feed their animals, had no water to drink & they just had to go.
89. THE FAMINE, BELOVED, HAS ALREADY BEGUN! Do you recall that Nostradamus predicted a great Famine in the Last Days? God predicts Famine too, & I believe that that's probably going to be one of the things that's going to accompany the Crash‚ the Famine. Nostradamus says it's going to become so great, people are going to be so hungry they're going to eat each other! Well, it's not the first time, man's done that throughout history.
90. EVEN IN THE BIBLE SOME WOMEN WERE GOING TO EAT THEIR LITTLE BABIES BECAUSE THEY WERE STARVING TO DEATH! The Bible has some gruesome gory stories in it! Remember the story of the Famine there in Samaria? The Lord tells these stories just to show how bad people could get! These two women each had a baby & agreed that they were going to eat each other's babies. They said, "We'll eat yours first" & then after they ate hers first, then the other woman refused to let hers be eaten. So she came to the king to complain about it‚ "She ate mine but she won't let me eat hers!" (2Kgs.6:28-29)
91. ISN'T THAT HORRIBLE THAT PEOPLE CAN GET SO BAD & SO WICKED & SO EVIL? If it came to that, I think I'd rather just starve to death with my poor little baby starving to death in my arms & not go eating babies! See, there are even worse things than abortion! The day's going to come when they're going to not only kill'm but eat'm! I'm sorry to have to tell you those terrible stories right here in class, but it's true! That's how wicked & how bad people are, where they're not only going to kill their babies by the millions like they're doing right now, but they're going to eat'm too!
92. WELL, THE FAMINE HAS BEGUN! IT'S GROWING ALL OVER THE EARTH IN MANY PLACES, especially in the most wicked places like Africa & America & several other places. So that's one of the easiest things the Lord has to do, in fact He doesn't have to do anything, He just has to stop doing something, stop sending them rain, just sit back & let'm starve! If they refuse to obey, refuse to thank God, refuse to give Him glory & thanks for the rain & all the things that He's given to people, finally He just quits sending the rain, the blessing.
93. GOD'S WORD SAYS THAT HE'S SO MERCIFUL & LOVING THAT HE SENDS THE RAIN ON THE JUST & THE UNJUST! (Mt.5:45) But the day is coming when He's not going to send the rain on the unjust any more, they've had their chance, especially here in the Millennium. They have seen the visible, personal reign of Jesus Christ & His Saints & Angels on the Earth & all their miracles & marvels! They no longer have to just believe by faith, they can see it! All the people who said, "Well, seeing is believing," all right, they're going to get a sample, a big sample, the Earthwide Kingdom of God! They're going to see it! People in that day that won't believe that & won't receive the Kingdom of God are bad!—Very bad!
94. (VERSE 18:) "AND IF THE FAMILY OF EGYPT GO NOT UP, & COME NOT, THEY HAVE NO RAIN." Now here He can be speaking of the literal country of Egypt, but Egypt also typifies the System, the World, the wicked. "There shall be the plague wherewith the Lord will smite the heathen that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles."—In other words, those who refuse to worship the Lord. (Verse 19:) "This shall be the punishment of Egypt & the punishment of all nations that come not up to keep the feast of tabernacles." It's already happening now, God is judging nations with famine. But in that day He'll be very specific & very quick about it.
95. JUDGEMENT'S GOING TO BE SWIFT & SURE, THEY ARE SOMETIMES EVEN NOW.—Great earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, great hail‚ all kinds of storms & horrible things! But sometimes God's wheels of justice grind exceeding slow‚ but when there's no rain‚ slow as it is, it grinds exceeding fine.
GRANDMOTHER & THE CAPSULES!
96. I WAS IN THE UNITED STATES WHEN THE FAMOUS "DUSTBOWL" OCCURRED‚ WHEN GOD WITHHELD THE RAIN from not just the American desert, but from the Southwestern United States clear into Texas, Oklahoma & Arkansas, usually very fertile, well-watered prosperous States! The soil was just turned to dust, absolutely dust‚ after not enough rain for two or three years‚ & finally no rain at all, & the crops were just totally desolated! And as though that wasn't enough‚ He sent great plagues of locusts! We came through Oklahoma when it was already the dustbowl, & what little was left, the locusts had swept through & there wasn't a leaf on the trees or a blade of grass, not a green thing left, it was completely gone!
97. I'LL NEVER FORGET SOMETHING FUNNY THAT HAPPENED ON THAT TRIP. My Mother felt so sorry for these poor people & we stopped at a filling station & the filling station man was grieving over how terrible things were, no rain & no crops & all dust & even the locusts had finished off everything green that there was, leaves off the trees! There wasn't a tree with a leaf on it, not a blade of grass! The whole place was brown & dusty. And she felt so sorry for the poor fellow.
98. SHE USED TO KEEP THESE CUTE LITTLE MEDICINE CAPSULES & ROLL UP SCRIPTURE PROMISES IN THOSE CAPSULES & GIVE THEM TO PEOPLE & say, "Here, this will really help you! Here, take this & it will really heal you!"—In other words, kind of a simile to the medicine. In other words‚ "This is the best Medicine you can have!"—And there was a little Scripture promise inside like your little Bread of Life things, only on a piece of paper that was rolled up & tucked inside & then they closed the capsule. She used to have hundreds of these & she'd give them out in churches on certain nights. She'd say she was going to give them a little gift, a priceless gift etc., & it was the Word, verses of Scripture Promises in the capsules.
99. SO SHE SAID, "HERE, BROTHER, THIS WILL HELP YOU!" She figured a promise of God would encourage him. Later on when we were at the restaurant & she was going to go to the restroom, a lot of those poor places didn't even have soap, they hardly had any water. And she kept searching around in her purse & she had some little capsules about the same size with soap powder in them, for when she went to places that didn't have any soap in the rest room. And she'd given this poor guy a capsule of soap powder! She said, "Well, the Lord let me do it, so maybe he would understand that better than a verse of Scripture." "Here's soap, brother, now trust God for the water! This is a promise you're going to have enough water to use it!" PTL!
LIFE IN THE MILLENNIUM!!
100. (VERSE 20:) "IN THAT DAY SHALL THERE BE UPON THE BELLS OF THE HORSES, HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD."—HORSES AGAIN, WITH BELLS! Well, praise God! We're going to go back to horses & carriages & buggies & sleighs & bells on the horses! And what's going to be written on the bells? (Fam: Holiness unto the Lord!)—"Holiness unto the Lord!"
101. (VERSE 20B:) "AND THE POTS IN THE LORD'S HOUSE SHALL BE LIKE THE BOWLS BEFORE THE ALTAR." Just ordinary pots are going to be like golden bowls in that day. God's Word says the time is going to come when gold & silver are going to be as common as the stones in the streets of Jerusalem.
102. (VERSE 21:) "YEA, EVERY POT IN JERUSALEM & IN JUDAH SHALL BE HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD OF HOSTS; & all they that sacrifice shall come & take of them, & seethe therein: & in that day there shall be no more the Canaanite in the house of the Lord of hosts." He's just saying that everything's going to be holy then, everything's going to be right. People are going to sacrifice to the Lord true sacrifices. They're not going to have animal sacrifices any more. The natural people living on the Earth still have to eat & cook, etc., so they'll just boil food in pots & bowls, etc. But there's not going to be any more meat.
103. HOW DO WE KNOW THEY'RE NOT GOING TO HAVE MEAT ANY MORE? (FAM: "NOTHING SHALL HURT NOR DESTROY IN ALL MY HOLY MOUNTAIN.") (Isa.11:9)—Yes, & there's no enmity any longer between man & the animals. So what are they seething in those pots?—Soy beans, rice & grains, natural foods that God first gave man to eat.
104. NOW I AM NOT A VEGETARIAN, AS YOU KNOW‚ & I DON'T GO FOR THAT STUFF NOWADAYS. Because man today is suffering from the cosmic rays & the other effects of the Flood & the removal of certain protection that man had before the Flood. Science has even proven that these cosmic rays now get through & are what make you age & get old & die, because we don't have the protection that God had out there before the Flood, the waters above the firmament that protected us from the harmful rays of the Sun & even the cosmic rays of the Universe, probably some of the things that the Devil controls, the Prince of the Power of the Air. (Eph.2:2)
105. WE NO LONGER HAVE THAT PROTECTION‚ & AFTER THE FLOOD PEOPLE BEGAN DYING OFF EARLY! They only lived about a hundred years. The days of a man's life, the allotted time, was only 70 or 75 years, threescore-&–ten. David said, "The days of a man's life shall be threescore-&-ten. Yet if by reason of great strength they be fourscore, yet they are more trouble & sorrow." (Psa.90:10) Isn't that about the average age nowadays? It's gotten to where people usually die in their 70s. Some people die before that & a few people even live longer than that, but it's rare. That's the usual life limit, called life expectancy. And since the Flood people have been dying younger. Before that‚ 75 was young, if you were only 100 you were considered a child, & it's going to be that way again in the Millennium.—Isa.65:20
106. SO AFTER THE FLOOD GOD GAVE MAN MEAT TO EAT TO GIVE HIM GREATER STRENGTH in order that he can even survive that long. Science says there's no substitute for the strength that amino acids of meat can give you.—In this day & age of early death & destruction & short longevity. 75 to 100 years is a lot shorter than a thousand! But people are going to again live a thousand years!
107. SOME OF THESE PEOPLE THAT START IN THE MILLENNIUM AT THE BEGINNING ARE PROBABLY GOING TO LIVE TO THE END, THINK OF THAT! There's not going to be as much need for conception because there are already going to be plenty of people to rule over & give us work to do & cause us trouble & probably going to be just about like it was before the Flood. It seemed like they didn't even start having kids till they were in their 50s & 60s. That was the normal age to start having children. Can you imagine our girls here waiting till they're 50 or 60 before they start having babies? Well, God made it possible for them now to have children at 13 or 14. Some girls have had them before that!
108. SO THEY'RE STILL GOING TO BE COOKING‚ BECAUSE THERE ARE GOING TO BE LOTS OF NORMAL, NATURAL PEOPLE IN THE WORLD THAT NEED TO COOK & EAT. So they're going to have to be growing food. And the animals will be used for transportation & work & plowing & things like that. Things are going to go back to the beautiful‚ wonderful, original kind of creation God made‚ almost like the Garden of Eden! However, because a lot of these people aren't exactly like Adam & Eve & aren't that righteous, they're not going to get to just wander around naked picking fruit off of the trees. There are still going to be quite a few people that aren't so good & God's going to have to keep them busy with hard work to keep them out of mischief & out of trouble, because idleness is the Devil's workshop! So they're still going to have to grow their food.
109. THEY'RE GOING TO HAVE PLOWSHARES, WE KNOW THAT. WHY ARE THEY GOING TO BEAT SWORDS INTO PLOWSHARES UNLESS THEY NEED TO PLOW? (Isa.2:4)—Or what do they need plows for if they're not going to grow crops? They're still going to have farms! So when I show you pictures of the Millennium or Heaven, especially the Millennium, they're still living just about like they do now‚ with farms & animals & growing crops etc.
110. BUT LET ME TELL YOU, THAT KIND OF AN EARTH OF MY CHILDHOOD, ESPECIALLY BACK IN THE FARM COUNTRY & UP IN CANADA, WAS HEAVEN-ON-EARTH compared to this Hell on Earth that we have today! I'm sorry you guys missed that, but you'll get it again, thank the Lord! You're going to see how wonderful that World was! That was the good World! That was the wonderful World! Who needed television, radio, cars, all these gadgets & whatnot? Who needed all that junk when you had all these wonderful live animals to live with & entertain you & pet & take care of! Isn't that more fun? So sorry you can't have any live animals here. When you have dogs & cats & horses, etc., you've got to have a lot of room for them, like a big farm or a ranch.
111. MY KIDS USED TO BEG ME FOR PETS WHEN I WAS IN MIAMI LIVING IN A HOUSE RIGHT DOWNTOWN. I said, "Nothin' doin'! This is no place for pets, there's not even a yard for them to go to the toilet in! But you wait until we get out on the ranch, we'll live on a farm some day‚ & I'll let you have all the pets & animals that you want!" And by & by, I think it was in '61 or '62, we got run out of Miami & we moved to the TSC Ranch, 400 acres, half–a-square mile, & there was room for everything & everybody! We had horses & cows & goats & sheep & pigs & cats & dogs & we had everything!
FARM LIFE!
112. IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE! It's a hard life in a way, there's lots of hard work‚ but that's good for you! You never heard about the farmers of times past being very sick or unhealthy. They had plenty of fresh air, no smog, no pollution, nice fresh water, no insecticides & sprays & poisons & all that junk that they have even on farms today. Think of it!
113. THE WATER WAS PURE, THE AIR WAS PURE, THE CROPS WERE PURE! THAT WAS HEAVEN ON EARTH! That was already like the Millennium in those days! Of course, there were still some of the Devil's pests around & problems‚ but it was just about the closest thing to Heaven!—The only better thing I can think of besides our life here! I could sing that old song: "The farm is better than this, oh my‚ what joy, what bliss! Walking down the trails of mud & trees, telling a story that never grows old!" PTL! The farm is better than this!
114. WE HAVE HEAVENLY HOMES, BUT LET ME TELL YOU, THOSE OF OUR FAMILY WHO ARE BLESSED TO BE ABLE TO LIVE OUT OF THE CITY & out on the farms & even in the small towns & rural villages, ministering to the people there, can thank God that they don't have to live in the big cities! I must say‚ of course, there are more people to witness to in the city, but it's a great sacrifice, it's a real deprivation to have to live in the city.
115. THE WORLD THINKS IT'S GREAT TO LIVE IN THE CITY‚ THEY LOVE CITIES! They love the concrete asphalt jungles! People who live in New York hardly know what God's Creation is like, they've never seen it! They can't even see the sky for the smog! I started to say that about all they can see is the sky, but the smog & clouds & the fog & whatnot is so dense they can hardly ever see the Moon or the Sun! Besides, they live inside & they go running along like rats in burrows under the ground called undergrounds, subways. They live in caves, in cliffs, they're very high, 87‚100 stories high.—Cliffdwellers! They live in caves & run along in burrows. They hardly ever see the Creation of God, hardly ever know what it's like! Isn't that sad?
116. BUT I'LL TELL YOU, LIFE ON THE FARM IS AS CLOSE AS YOU CAN GET TO THE BEAUTIES OF GOD'S CREATION IN THIS EARTH, this time, it's beautiful! I loved it! I loved the Ranch & my children did too & they hated to leave it. It was a real sacrifice for them to leave the Ranch. But do you know why they left the Ranch?—So they could save you! They left the Ranch with tears, but they left to go out into the World & the big cities to find & to save you! Aren't you glad? (Fam: Yes!) It was a real sacrifice.
"NO MORE CANAANITE!"
117. OKAY, BACK TO THE LAST VERSE: "IN THAT DAY THERE SHALL BE NO MORE THE CANAANITE." Who were the Canaanites? (Fam: They were Black.) And what land did they live in? That's almost as easy as asking, "Where was Joan of Arc from?" (Fam: Canaan!) What was Canaan? (Fam: The Promised Land.)—Or geographically speaking it was Palestine & some of it certainly ought to be Palestine, but it's Israel today. And what were the Israelites supposed to do when they took over this country that was occupied by these Black Canaanites, sons of [Canaan, the cursed son of Ham—see ML #2928], Ham being an Egyptian word that means "black." They were [grand]sons of Ham, that boy who was wicked to his father Noah, & his [son Canaan] became like him. What was their major sin? (Fam: Sodomy!) Today they give it pretty names like "gays", "homosexuals" & we used to call them "pansies" when I was a kid. But they were Sodomites, the worst kind of sexual sin that God still condemns to this day!
118. THEY WERE NOT ONLY SODOMITES, SONS OF [CANAAN], BLACK, WHAT ELSE WERE THEY? (FAM: IDOL-WORSHIPPERS.)—IDOLATERS! They worshipped abominations, abominable idols! They were very wicked people, very wicked in every way. They worshipped idols, they committed sexual sin‚ sodomy, & they were the people that God had cursed & said because of their sins He would make them servants of servants & the others would rule over them. Now that is God's Word & you can read it right there in the Chapter right after the Flood, about Noah & Ham & Canaan. (Gen.9:25-27)
119. HAM WAS NOAH'S SON, CANAAN WAS HAM'S SON, & THEY WERE CURSED BY THE LORD FOR THEIR WICKEDNESS. Let's see, the Flood occurred about 2600 B.C., & when they occupied the Promised Land was about the 1400's. So that's about a thousand years later & they were apparently still wicked & maybe even more wicked in Moses' day!
120. SO GOD TOLD THE CHILDREN OF ISRAEL TO DRIVE THEM OUT COMPLETELY!—Drive'm out or kill'm! He said, "Otherwise they will be thorns in your flesh & pricks in your eyes." (Num.33:55) In other words, their sins would infect the children of Israel. Well, God said to get rid of'm, to drive them out!
121. THIS, OF COURSE, IS TALKING ABOUT THE UNREGENERATE, UNSAVED, NON–CHRISTIAN, NON-BORN–AGAIN [CHILDREN OF CANAAN]. God's for driving out any people that are not Christians‚ black or white or whatever colour they are!—And for giving the country or the place to His Own people, & that's what He's going to do in that day. They're not going to have any place in the cities of God & the positions of rule that they have today.
123. I'M NOT TALKING ABOUT CHRISTIANS! IN THE BODY OF CHRIST THERE'S NO MALE NOR FEMALE‚ BLACK OR WHITE, Jew nor Gentile, rich or poor, whatever! (Gal.3:28) We're all brothers‚ we love'm! We've got good Black brothers & sisters that are doing a great job‚ God bless'm! But God had an aversion for the wicked [Canaanites] & He says there will be no Canaanites in the land then.
127. THAT LAST VERSE says there will be no more Canaanites. Maybe it's used in a symbolic, spiritual sense—no more of the wicked, idolatrous, sexually-sinning people like the Canaanites were. Maybe that's what it means & you can translate it spiritually if you want to.
129. But I know we're going to be in Heaven! I know all of us who are Blacks that love the Lord & are Christians & our hearts are white as snow, the colour doesn't matter to God a bit! And they will rule & reign with us on the Earth over blacks & whites & yellows & reds & all the rest when the time comes! Amen? PTL! All right, let's have prayer, shall we? TYJ! PTL! Hallelujah! TYL! [Note: "All Blacks are not sons of Canaan, they are not all cursed. Ham had three other strong sons who became great nations. So we've got to recognise the fact that most Blacks are not under the curse of Canaan. It's obvious that the vast majority of Blacks are not under that curse" (ML #2928:12,13).]
CLOSING PRAYER!
130. THANK YOU JESUS FOR ALL THESE WONDERFUL THINGS YOU'VE PROMISED US, THE THINGS THAT ARE GOING TO HAPPEN SOON, the wonderful future‚ the wonderful land, the wonderful period of history You're going to give us, the Heaven on Earth, Lord, of the Millennium, during which we will rule & reign over all the other people, teach them, give them all the Gospel & get lots of them saved, praise the Lord, & have power over our enemies & win the final victory at last! TYJ! PTL! "Even so, come quickly, Lord Jesus!" (Rev.22:20) Praise You Jesus! Hallelujah! TYJ! But help us to get the job done before You come, Lord. As we pray Thy prayer together: (Prays the Lord's Prayer.) Lord bless & keep us all safely the rest of this day & help us to get lots done for Thy Kingdom! Amen!
131. I KNOW YOU GUYS LOSE A LOT OF TIME FROM WORK & THINGS THAT YOU NEED TO DO, "BUT ONE THING IS NEEDFUL, & MARY HATH CHOSEN THAT GOOD PART THAT SHALL NEVER BE TAKEN AWAY FROM HER"! (Luk.10:42) And with all Maria has to do, she still enthuses about having classes, can you imagine that?—When she's got work up there stacked up, & yet she'd still rather I have a class! GBH! (Maria: This is more important!)
—Amen?