Difference between revisions of "Immediate Conclusions"

Latest revision as of 23:57, 19 June 2012

A Final, Closer Look at Revelation 10:11

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We must now draw careful conclusions from what Mr. Armstrong explained in this final segment. Comprehending the overall message is nothing less than ABSOLUTELY CRUCIAL TO YOUR FUTURE! These conclusions have everything to do with where and what is the Work of God for the remainder of the age.

First, recognize that Revelation 10:11 uses the unusual term ;prophesy again.” It is clear from what you have read that Mr. Armstrong believed he fulfilled this passage when he went as before—a second time, the period after 1972—to ;peoples, and nations, and tongues and kings” with the Ezekiel Warning. He grew even stronger in this conviction during the year following this letter, because this was the year of his heart attack (1977). He knew God had brought him back to put the Church back on track and he believed at that time to finish God’s Work for this age.

Return and reread the paragraph beginning, ;Read right on. Chapter 11 is…” Mr. Armstrong refers to the work of the Two Witnesses beginning on the heels of the fulfillment of prophesying again. This is crucial because he makes clear that preaching the message of the ;little book” was to continue right to the time these two servants of Revelation 11 ALL  would take the baton for their commission (right after the Temple is measured).

There was to be no delay after prophesying again was complete!

Mr. Armstrong died in January 1986, over 25 years ago. There is no possible way that the long gap in time following his death could permit him to have been both the one who took the Ezekiel Warning to the nations of Israel, and the one who did the same thing again, later. Why?

His ministry did not pass the baton directly to the Two Witnesses!

On the one hand, Mr. Armstrong could not possibly have known of all that would happen after his death. On the other, he clearly did understand that ;the greatest Work lies yet ahead.” At least in part, and maybe in whole, this is because he recognized—and had no doubt always recognized—that the fulfillment of Revelation 10:11 immediately preceded the Work of the Two Witnesses (who were nowhere in sight in the mid-80s).

Pause and ponder what you have read. Do not let it escape you before proceeding!

No Interval—No Gap in Time!

To remove all doubt about how Mr. Armstrong saw this prophetic timing—that there was to be no intervalbetween ;prophesy again” and the Two Witnesses appearance—let’s fast-forward to January 20, 1981 and what he wrote in this later Brethren/Co-Worker letter. Mr. Armstrong wrote a number of times about this subject (I have reviewed letters for nearly every year thereafter into the 1980s), because it was on his mind from 1976 forward. However, the following quote speaks specifically of the timing, the precise when, of ;prophesy again,” and whether Mr. Armstrong believed many years could separate this fulfillment from the Two Witnesses’ appearance.

Particularly focus on the second paragraph (italics mine):

But there is an important prophecy in the tenth chapter of Revelation. The apostle John is recording what he saw revealed in a vision. An angel came with his hand lifted to heaven saying, There should be time no longer—or, better translated, There shall be no more delay. Then a voice from heaven told John to take and open a very small book in the hand of the angel, and eat it. In his mouth it was sweet as honey, but in his stomach very bitter. Then the voice said to John, God’s apostle, Thou must prophesy (preach or announce) again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, AND KINGS.

Now what is the TIME setting of this prophecy It is sometime PRIOR to the sounding of the seventh trumpet, at which time Christ shall come. That is clear in Revelation 10

7. Also it is followed immediately by the three and a half year mission of the two witnesses. Their three and a half years BEGIN with the Great Tribulation. So the TIME of this prophecy is just shortly before the Work of the Philadelphia Church is finished. After that shall come the Great Tribulation, and the Day of the Lord, when there shall be supernatural disturbances striking the world with astonishing AWE in the sky.”

Remember, Mr. Armstrong explained previously that certain events must be fulfilled before ;subsequent events” can be understood. He did not—and could not possibly—have realized that a complete falling away from everything he taught would occur by the hand of successors who would betray him on a breathtaking level. Nor could he have imagined the splintering of people into so many organizations teaching so many differing doctrines, and combinations of doctrines—never mind could he have envisioned that three-quarters or more of the WCG membership would fall away altogether!

For those who say I am changing what Mr. Armstrong taught regarding ;prophesy again,” the only response is that it is not possible to agree with him on two opposing points. Much as we might like to—this is not possible. Either he was correct in saying that he fulfilled warning the nations of Israel for both the first time and then ;again” later, but was wrong about how quickly the Two Witnesses would appear—or he was wrong about himself fulfilling ;prophesy again,” and right about the fact that the Two Witnesses would follow immediatelyon the heels of the Revelation 10:11 fulfillment when it did occur!

Both cannot be correct!

Can You See?

Can you see this? Can you also connect the problem to why ;subsequent events” could only be understood, orfully understood, after the death of Mr. Armstrong?—and after the apostasy that followed? Can you see why the fulfillment of ;prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings” may have been in Mr. Armstrong’s thinking when he said, six days before his death, that ;the greatest Work lies ahead”? Can you see that he would have realized—and this would have been obvious—that the Two Witnesses were not remotely on the scene, and neither was the Tribulation? Can you see that if his thinking was so continually focused on the fulfillment of ;prophesy again,” he would have had to be looking forward in his thinking as he informed the Church of what must still ;lie ahead”? And can you also see that Revelation 10 ALL and Revelation 11 ALLare obviously ONE CONTINUOUS THOUGHT, only broken by men dividing the Bible into chapters? (We will come to ;measure the Temple.”)

Finally, can you see God would have had to begin at some point to train and raise up another servant—in preparation for another Work—a final short Work—to not only fulfill Revelation 10:11, but also to re-introduce this prophecy and explain it a second time to God’s people in light of ;subsequent events” following Mr. Armstrong’s death? Can you see that the survivors of the apostasy would have to decide whether they would participate in support AGAIN in reaching and warning Israel—or not?

The answer to all these questions should be obvious to every objective reader.

Let me state emphatically for all who will hear. I tell you with Christ’s authority that The Restored Church of God is preaching again—the SECOND TIME!—the warning to the nations of Israel (Isa. 58:1) and the announcement of the kingdom of God to all nations of the world (Matt. 24:14). I state with the same authority that we and we alone represent the ;short Work” foretold by Paul in Romans 9 ALL! Further, this Work will continue and grow right up to the appearance of the Two Witnesses, when two prophets will arise from this Church to carry out their commission!

The latter chapters will describe more about why the Work you have come in contact with will become so large that it will literally bend the imagination of God’s people and countless millions more. This chapter and the previous ones have introduced prophecies that, when they come to the full, will truly shock the world’s consciousness. Most have simply not understood the awesome magnitude of what God has always had in mind as the final Work for His Church before the arrival of the Great Tribulation and the Day of the Lord!

Some will comprehend, others will not!

(You may wish to listen to my detailed sermon titled ;Prophesy Again—Then Famine of the Word.” This sermon is number 21 in the Prophetic Sequence Series found on rcg.org. It is one of the most fascinating sermon subjects you could study. When complete, this series will probably be 60 or more sermons.)

More About Duality

The commission to ;prophesy again” involves the biblical principle of duality, already mentioned and explained. It was Mr. Armstrong who taught the Church this important principle in watching prophetic fulfillment. Yet, never have fulfilled prophecies demonstrated that the same person or same event in a prophecy fulfills bothtypes—both parts of the duality.

Consider. There was the first Adam, but the second Adam was Christ (I Cor. 15:45). The first type of Elijah was John the Baptist, but the second was a man who would come much later, Mr. Armstrong. (Of course, the reader will need to prove this by reading the splinter book on this subject.) The Old Covenant involved physical Israel—;the church in the wilderness” (Acts 7:38)—but the New Testament Church involves spiritual Israel. Abraham offered Isaac as a type of the Father later offering Christ, ancient Israel was liberated from Egypt, modern Israel from all nations, etc.

Ask yourself: When has one human being or one event foretold in Scripture ever been BOTH TYPES of its fulfillment? This has never happened—and this is why God had to raise up a final shorter Work to follow Mr. Armstrong’s ground-breaking Elijah Work. Further, God realized it would take time after the apostasy to gather all those who would anoint their eyes, refuse all compromise and rekindle a Philadelphian spirit—it would take time to gather the people whose hearts would return to the full truth and to the same kind of Commission Mr. Armstrong taught them for 52 years!

There should be no difficulty accepting that Mr. Armstrong would only naturally conclude that his recovery from heart failure was a kind of ;coming back” to the same Work to be done ;again.” He simply could not have understood in 1977, still nine years before his death, all that would come after, and that ;Jacob’s trouble” was still far in the future. Yet, by late 1985, his thinking having shifted, this latter realization was probably weighing on him.

A Final, Closer Look at Revelation 10:11

Back to The Work of God