And greetings friends, this is Herbert W Armstrong with the Good News of the World Tomorrow. Wages - Death - Gift The Purpose of Life Revelation — Prophecies Christ the Revelator The Coming Great Tribulation
What's happening today and what does it mean? God Almighty has revealed the future. He knows the end from the beginning. He has revealed it in the Bible. We need to be concerned, because the future — the future of this nation, as well as the future of this world is all foretold in your Bible.
Why say your Bible? We read the Bible in the English language. There wasn't any English language when the Bible was first written. When the Old Testament was written, it was written nearly altogether in the Hebrew language. A few chapters of it were written in the Aramaic, but nearly all of it in the Hebrew. All of the New Testament was written in the Greek language. Greek was the common language of the Middle Eastern world around Palestine at the time when the New Testament was written.
There wasn't any English language then. As a matter of fact, if you go back here about five hundred years, I believe it is, the very earliest English translations — we have them here in Ambassador College. We have exact copies of them. And we have some of the oldest editions in the very original printing. And the English language was quite different. You wouldn't recognize a lot of it. You would even see a little bit of German mixed in with it — back in those very, very, early days. So now we have an English language that has been developed and we have the Bible translated into English.
The English language has been changing right along. The Bible, or the Translation as it should be called, rather than just a Bible. The translation of the Bible that is most commonly used in the United States, that I think is most loved, is what we call the King James or the Authorized Version. It was translated, or rather revised from other translations back in the year of sixteen hundred and eleven. That's quite awhile ago.
Now at that time the English language was somewhat different than it is now. As an example, at that time they commonly spoke of putting their potatoes in hell for the winter. And that merely meant to them — they understood that hell was a grave or a hole in the ground that you dig in the ground, cover it up — cover it up with dirt. A very good way to preserve your potatoes for the winter. Just put them in the ground, cover them up.
Of course the King James Translation — it's the most loved, very poetical, very stately — it contains a lot of mistakes. Every translation does. There isn't any that doesn't have some mistakes. I say a lot of mistakes — I mean a lot in actual number. Because there are how many hundreds, or thousands, or millions of words are there in the Bible?
But, it contains very few mistakes, comparatively speaking, and so do all of the translations. Now there is the very fact — there are minor and technical mistakes in any and every translation. There is not one that is perfect. I still feel that on the whole the Authorized Version — the old King James Version is the one that should be your standard. However, I think that the student of the Bible ought to read a number of translations. And I have explained that a number of times and compare one with another. Where one will make a mistake, the others probably will not.
When I say your Bible, I mean which ever one you have. When I say that your Bible tells what's going to happen, it doesn't make any difference which one of those you have, it tells. Now there are a few errors, as I say in some. There are a few differences. The differences are quite slight on the whole — taken comparatively.
And so I will say this, my friends, you can arrive at approximate truth of God's message to man. Of the revelation to man of truth. The revelation to man of basic, essential, necessary important knowledge that you cannot learn in any other way. Knowledge that no scientist knows. That no scientist has any instrument that will find out. Science can't tell you what you are. Now, are you an immortal soul inside of a body? Is that what you are? A lot of you think so. How you going to prove it? Unless your Bible backs that up and tells you so, my friends, I defy you to prove it to me. Science can't prove it.
You know that scientists have looked in vain through all the instruments they have been able to invent. Through every instrumentality known to science, they've looked to try to find a soul inside of a man. And science has never found it. They aren't ever going to find it either. There's a pretty good reason why they won't, of course.
D - E - A - T - H. It doesn't say everlasting life, but then people try to twist that around and they say, well death doesn't mean death. No I suppose up doesn't mean up — up means down to them. And east doesn't mean east, east means west. Everything means just the opposite of what it says. So they say death doesn't mean death — death means separation from God. Now if that's what it meant, I want to tell you, my friends, in the Bible it would have said, the wages of sin is separation from God in hell fire. It didn't say that. It didn't say the wages of sin is separation from God in hell. It didn't say that the wages of sin is everlasting life in any kind of form, shape, place, or anything of the kind.
Oh I know this is, this is pretty strong, because most of you have heard just the opposite. My friends, you've been hearing a lot of false preaching. The Bible says:
"The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." Romans 6:23.
And no man has that gift until he receives it as a gift either. And again, what about God? Who and what is God and what is God like, what does He look like? Why, the astronomers have swept the heavens with their telescopes and they have looked and looked and looked to try to see God through a telescope. And they've never found Him. You know if they ever did really see God, you know what would happen? They would drop like dead men. They would either really be dead, as a result of the shock, or they would at least be knocked senseless for a little while. If they ever really could see God. It's a good thing for them that they don't. No, God reveals Himself in His word. And no scientist is going to find out about God otherwise.
That's in Hebrews in your Bible. I don't care which translation you have, it's there. What is man that God is mindful of us? How insignificant we are!
You know I had to take a flight to Chicago and Minneapolis and back from Pasadena out here on the Pacific Coast. And in the big plane in which I was flying to Chicago, let me see we were about, pretty close to four miles up in the air. And I got to looking down wondering, could I see a man, if there was a man walking down there? Well the automobiles were not much larger than a pinpoint. And then I thought in my mind, now there probably easily could be very comfortably six people sitting in each one of those cars. Could I see one sixth of that — oh no I couldn't. I could just barely see the cars. The tiniest little bits of dots — just barely crawling down there. Why, I couldn't even see a man. Now a man isn't very big. You just get up in the air a little way and you try and look at a man, down on this earth. Little tiny insignificant things — why should God be mindful of us?
Well, my friends, He is. There is a reason why He is very mindful. He is mindful of you. And God knows all about you. And God had you born for a purpose. Now there's another thing — WHY WERE WE BORN? Do you know? What's the purpose of your life? Is there any purpose? You didn't just happen. You were put on this earth for a purpose. The Creator designed you. The Creator knew thousands of years ago that you would be born. And He knows all about you now. You may be, from where God is, smaller than a pinpoint. But God knows all about you. Now why were you put here?
You go to the scientist in his laboratory, you go to the great technical universities. We have one of the two greatest in the United States right here in Pasadena. We have a wonderful institute right here — Cal Tech in Pasadena. And I think it rates as one of the two finest and greatest technical institutions in all of the United States. Great governmental projects are, I understand, under progress there under supervision of the government constantly. And there are some great scientists over there at Cal Tech — just across Pasadena from Ambassador College. It's a very outstanding institution. You go to the greatest scientists over here at Cal Tech and ask them if they can tell you and if science has ever learned why you were born.
What is life for? What is the purpose of it and why were we put here? Well, that is rather important, if you don't know why you're here, you don't know where you're going — do you? If you don't know the purpose of your life, you haven't any goal. And if you haven't any goal, there is nothing you're aiming at, how are you going to hit it?
You take a bow and arrow, you take a gun, you try to shoot at something. If you don't know where you're shooting or what at or you don't know which direction — you aren't likely to hit the mark, are you — if you don't know where the mark is. Now there is a goal for your life. And no scientist can tell it to you. That's beyond the scope of science.
You see, science is a material science. Science deals with matter, but there's a little bit more than just plain matter that we are concerned with, my friends. What is the mind of man and in what way is it different from the brain of a dog, a cow, an elephant, or a horse? There's a great difference. They don't have mind in the sense that a human being does. What is the difference and what can science tell us about all of that. Well, they try to tell us a little something about it, but there still is a something that they don't know. They can't find out, because it gets into the spiritual realm and that is beyond their scope.
Where do we go when we die? What is going to happen to you when you die? Are you going to be conscious, are you going to heaven or to hell, or to some place? Or, where are you going and what is going to happen to you?
Alright, you go to your scientists and great scientific laboratories and ask them what they discovered with all of their wonderful instruments. They don't know, there is nothing. They have watched people die and they have watched to see if they can see the soul leave the body at death and they have never found it. They have never found it. Well I think it is rather important that you know those things. Now where are you going to go when you die? Your are going to go, well where are you going to go? Something is going to happen to you, what is it? Do you just live and pass away these moments, these hours of your life, without much concern about that kind of thing?
Well when I say your Bible tells you, you know, my friends, I, I'm not too much concerned when I say that about which translation of the Bible you may have. I usually use the Authorized or the King James Version, that's true. And the Moffatt Translation I use a great deal, I'll tell you why. Frankly I don't think the Moffatt Translation is as accurate as the King James. It's not accurately a translation in the strictest sense. By this I mean that Moffatt, who was, of course, a great Hebrew and Greek scholar — one of the greatest in the world, as were all of these men that have translated the Bible. They are all great scholars. But Mr. Moffatt did not literally transliterate word for word.
When you translate from one language to another, there are phrases and clauses and idioms and expressions — and it is the way words are put together sometimes in a little clause or a little phrase or a little grouping of words that carries a certain meaning. That if you take just the words plain one by one, it wouldn't mean that. And then you take them literally, the same words and translate them into the exact meaning in some other language and it wouldn't come out the same meaning at all.
Now, the King James has endeavored to as faithfully as possible, word for word transliterate the thought or the meaning as far as possible — when they didn't get into these idiomatic expressions or something of the sort. But Moffatt has not. He has just simply put in plain language, his own language what he thought was the meaning, regardless of any word for word translation. And the result of that sort of thing is, that if the man himself didn't always understand it — and well what it is, in fact, is his interpretation.
And his interpretation is an interpretation and not necessarily the Bible's own interpretation and consequently I think you'll find more real fundamental errors in it than you will in the Authorized. On the other hand, many many chapters — whole chapters, you read it carefully, you check it with the Authorized Version, you check it with others and the meaning is very faithful. And in those cases, the Moffatt Translation, to me, seems to be just about the plainest of any that I know. That's why I use it quite a little, because it makes the meaning clear.
Now first I usually check it with the King James when I read it to you on the air. I usually have gone over it very carefully with the other translations and I'm using the Moffatt where I know that it is an accurate and correct translation. And then I use it, because it's so simple and plain — in today's kind of English. The way we speak today that you can very well understand it. I like to make it plain, that's the purpose of words.
It's in the book of Revelation where you find all of these prophecies joined together in a time order. The book of Revelation doesn't mention all of these prophecies, but it does give you a time order, so you can tell where, or when each one fits in.
Now, as I think I mentioned the book of Revelation is in symbol. And symbols are a good deal like parables, only a parable is an illustration of an occurrence that happened that represents something else. The symbol is a thing, or something that represents something else. And I was showing you in the preceding broadcast how the Bible interprets the Bible. And here in the first chapter we found the picture of Jesus here — with the seven stars in His right hand and He was in the midst of seven golden candle sticks. Now the very last verse interprets it.
Oh yes, it may need interpretation, but the thing is no MAN SHOULD INTERPRET IT.
"No prophecy of the scripture is of a (any) private interpretation." II Peter 1:20.
It can't be privately interpreted by itself, neither can it be interpreted by a private man. The Bible interprets it. It's interpreted by other scriptures, not privately alone by itself.
Now here is the scripture that interprets it:
"The mystery of the seven stars which thou sawest in my right hand, and the seven golden candle sticks. The seven stars are the angels of the seven churches:" Revelation 1:20.
Well, there it is, that's what it means. In other words, where ever He says these stars, He means angels. Now I see that some men will say, well now angels don't mean what it says — that means something else. And that's not true, it means real literal angels.
"...and the seven candlesticks which thou sawest are the seven churches." Revelation 1:20.
That you find described in the second and third chapter of Revelation.
Now, coming to the fourth chapter of Revelation, you find the stage setting of the main prophecy. And John is taken up to heaven. A door is in heaven. That door is open — now he begins to record what he sees. And the prophetic parts of the book of Revelation are recorded in what John sees in vision. He is in a vision. And in this vision he seems to be taken up to heaven. He wasn't in heaven. He was on the Isle of Patmos on this earth.
Apparently he saw things in heaven, but the things that are revealed in heaven, that he sees in heaven are merely symbolic of the things that are to take place on the earth. Now a lot of people see that John appeared to see people up there in heaven. And they say, there — doesn't that prove we are going to go to heaven? Oh no it doesn't — and for the simple reason, my friends, that everything he saw up there is a type of what is going to happen on this earth. It's a prophecy of events right here and he saw them in heaven, apparently. He was taken up there to see it.
So it is the revelation of Jesus Christ. He's the Revealer. He's revealing it to us, and you come to the prophecy proper then, in the sixth chapter of the book of Revelation. And when you come to the sixth chapter, what do you find? A lot of symbols. Here are symbols revealed. And it is all in the vision that John is seeing. In the vision he sees Jesus taking this scroll — the book of the prophecy, opening it up, unrolling it, stripping off the seals one by one.
And first he sees a white horse. And then he sees a red horse and then next he sees a black horse. And then he sees a pale horse. Four horsemen of the apocalypse. Well apocalypse is a Greek word. In English it means revealing or revelation. The four horsemen of the revelation then as we should say. In the Roman Catholic translation of the Bible, they retained the Greek word apocalypse and that's where the word four horsemen of the apocalypse comes from. That's just the Greek word untranslated — means the same thing. It means the revealing or the revelation. The Protestant Bibles have revelation, the Catholic Bible says apocalypse. One is the English word and the other is the Greek word and they all mean the same thing.
Now, what are they and how are you going to understand it? Here it's exactly like the parables. Jesus spoke in parables and even the apostles couldn't understand.
But they came to Him privately and they said "tell us what do these things mean and why do you speak that way." And He said: "I speak in parables, so the people won't understand when they hear." But He says, "it isn't given to them to understand," but He says, "to you it is given to understand." (Matthew 13:10-11 paraphrased) And then He explained the prophecies to them in plain language.
Now in the same way, we must expect Jesus — since HE IS THE REVELATOR — HE IS THE ONE WHO IS DOING THE REVEALING — we must expect Him then, to explain these symbols in plain language someplace. And where did He do it? Why, right back here to His very disciples to whom He explained also in plain language His parables.
In the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew, the thirteenth of Mark, and the twenty-first of Luke, you find it. Well let's take the twenty-fourth of Matthew again — and here we find the same identical things mentioned exactly. And here's the first thing He said; would be many coming in His name, saying that He is Christ. Professing Him as the Christ. Saying that Jesus is the Christ. Coming in His name. (Matthew 24:4,5)
That means they come in the name of Christ and they say "we are ministers of Christ". They take His name and His authority as far as they can use it, but they deceive the people. Now, there is one way you can do that. Jesus said Himself: "Why call ye me, Lord, Lord, and do not the things that (which) I say?" Luke 6:46
A lord is a master, a ruler. Why call Him Master and Ruler when we don't obey Him?
Why go up to someone who is your ruler and call him a ruler and then you don't do a thing he says. Well if you don't obey him, he is not your ruler. And if you don't obey Christ, He IS NOT YOUR LORD — AND HERE TODAY WE HAVE PEOPLE SAYING, LORD, LORD, LORD — they use that word, they work it to death. They even use the word lord where they should use a different word from the Old Testament Translation. And it means master. It means ruler, but they don't obey Him. Why no they say, "oh well but that law is done away. We don't have to obey God anymore."
"Well we have grace today", meaning we have license to disobey. Why, you read in Jude where they were going to turn grace into license, or lasciviousness. And that's exactly what they have done. That's the way this whole world has been made drunk, SPIRITUALLY AND HAS BEEN DECEIVED.
God Almighty is the ruler, the Supreme Ruler and that's the first and the last great truth in your Bible. It is the truth God wants us to know. He not only created forces and energies and static things and people and everything else, He controls them. He upholds the universe. He sustains it and by the forces the energies that He set in motion, God rules. And His laws are living things. You break them, they will break you.
Well, here we are. People professing Christ and yet believing just the opposite and making the law of God of none effect by our traditions. Calling Him Christ. Worshiping Him as Christ and yet, my friends, doing it in vain as Jesus plainly said in Mark the seventh chapter.
Now at the time of the end there will be famines and pestilences and earthquakes in different places, and He said, all these are the beginning of sorrows or travail or of tribulation. There is a great tribulation coming and those things are the beginning of it.
And then when we come to the very beginning, before its really come on us fully — even then He said, shall they deliver you — and you always in New Testament language means the Christians and, not professing Christians. Not those that say lord, lord, but do not do what He says, but those that are obedient. Those that are keeping His commandments.
"They shall deliver you up to be afflicted, and shall kill you: and you will (shall) be hated of all nations in (for) my names sake." Matthew 24:9.
And there He is speaking nationally. And there He means the United States and the British Commonwealth of nations, and the democratic nations of North Western Europe.
"And then shall many be offended, and shall betray one another, then they (and) shall hate one another. Many false prophets shall arise to deceive many." Matthew 24:10-11.
They'll come in the name of Christ. They'll say "I am a MINISTER of Christ". They will come professing Christianity and deceive the many. That's in your Bible. I don't care which translation you have, that's in your Bible.
Then He spoke about this terrible great tribulation that is coming. And Jesus said:
"..then shall be great tribulation, such as was not from (since) the beginning of the world, to this time. No, nor, ever shall be." Matthew 24:21.
And how great will it be? Listen to the next verse — verse twenty-two, Matthew twenty-four:
"...except those days should be shortened, there should no flesh be saved; (alive)..." Matthew 24:22.
If those days are not shortened, there will not be a human life left alive on this earth.
My friends, our scientists tell us today that they have weapons now that are capable of ANNIHILATING human life from off this planet. Think of it. That is what Christ said. Scientists finally have come to the place they can see that. Jesus Christ proclaimed that over nineteen hundred years ago. Nineteen hundred years before today's scientists knew anything about it.
"...except those days should be shortened." Matthew 24:22.
That means cut short. That means the events of those days, unless God steps in to intervene.
"...there should no flesh be saved (alive)..." Matthew 24:22.
Salvation there is not spiritual salvation, but physical that it's speaking of there. ...but for the elect's sake," [He said] "...those days shall be shortened." Matthew 24:22
The elect are the ones that the majority in this world are persecuting. You better be very thankful that there are some of the elect, my friends, because otherwise not a one of you would be left alive as late as twenty-five years from now. MARK WHAT I SAY, MY FRIENDS. WE ARE DOWN TO THE END OF THIS AGE. THE END OF THE WORLD, IF YOU PLEASE. Which is the end of this time, this age just before the HAPPY, THE PEACEFUL world tomorrow will dawn upon us. Thank God He's going to intervene.
Now, ...there shall arise false Christs, and false prophets, that (and shall) show great signs and wonders; in so much that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect." Matthew 24:24
But, thank God that isn't possible. Listen, my friends, I hope you are one of the elect. But if you're not, you'd better be thankful to GOD FOR THE VERY ELECT AND NOT PERSECUTE THEM. Because for their sakes, you're perhaps, going to be one of those that will be saved alive.
Now of course, a lot of people are not going to be saved alive. Probably two thirds of all the people on earth are going to be killed by the horrifying terrifying things that men are BRINGING ON THEMSELVES. AND GOD IS GOING TO INTERVENE TO PREVENT THIS WORLD FROM KILLING ITSELF. FROM COMPLETELY ANNIHILATING human life from off the face of the world.
Now just what is going to happen? How are men going to do that? What are men going to do, that God will have to step in and intervene to prevent them from annihilating human life? What is going to bring about this intervention of God and how will He intervene? How soon is it coming? What is going to happen immediately into the future? That we will begin to go into in the very next broadcast.
And I want to give you an outline of prophecy now. A general outline real rapidly in the next two or three programs and then we are going to take whole books of prophecy and go through them one at a time. Verse by verse and chapter by chapter. Perhaps we will take Jeremiah first, I'm not sure, but I rather thought perhaps we will.