Immediate Conclusions
We must now draw careful conclusions from what Mr. Armstrong explained in this final segment. Comprehending theￂﾠoverall messageￂﾠis nothing less thanￂﾠABSOLUTELY 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 thatￂﾠRevelation 10:11ￂﾠuses 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￢ﾀﾔa second time, the period after 1972￢ﾀﾔ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￢ﾀﾦ” Mr. Armstrong refers to the work of the Two Witnesses beginning on the heels of the fulfillment ofￂﾠprophesying 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 ofￂﾠRevelation 11 ALL ￂﾠwould take the baton for their commission (right after the Temple is measured).
There was to beￂﾠno delayￂﾠafter 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,ￂﾠandￂﾠthe one who did the same thingￂﾠagain, 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 clearlyￂﾠdidￂﾠunderstand that “the greatest Work lies yet ahead.” At least in part, and maybe in whole, this is because he recognized￢ﾀﾔand had no doubtￂﾠalwaysￂﾠrecognized￢ﾀﾔthat the fulfillment ofￂﾠRevelation 10:11ￂﾠimmediatelyￂﾠpreceded 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￢ﾀﾔNo Gap in Time!
To remove all doubt about how Mr. Armstrong saw this prophetic timing￢ﾀﾔthat there was to beￂﾠno intervalbetween “prophesy again” and the Two Witnesses appearance￢ﾀﾔ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 preciseￂﾠwhen, 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￢ﾀﾔ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 inￂﾠRevelation 10:7. Also it isￂﾠfollowed immediatelyￂﾠby 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￢ﾀﾔand could not possibly￢ﾀﾔ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￢ﾀﾔ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￢ﾀﾔ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￢ﾀﾔor he was wrong about himself fulfilling “prophesy again,” and right about the fact that the Two Witnesses would followￂﾠimmediatelyon the heels of theￂﾠRevelation 10:11ￂﾠfulfillment when itￂﾠdidￂﾠoccur!
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, orfullyￂﾠunderstood,ￂﾠafterￂﾠthe death of Mr. Armstrong?￢ﾀﾔandￂﾠafterￂﾠthe apostasy that followed? Can you see why the fulfillment of “prophesy again before many peoples, and nations, and tongues, and kings”ￂﾠmayￂﾠhave 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￢ﾀﾔand this would have been obvious￢ﾀﾔ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 beￂﾠlooking forwardￂﾠin his thinking as he informed the Church of what must still “lie ahead”? And can you also see thatￂﾠRevelation 10 ALLￂﾠand Revelation 11 ALLareￂﾠobviouslyￂﾠONE 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 upￂﾠanother servant￢ﾀﾔin preparation forￂﾠanother Work￢ﾀﾔa final short Work￢ﾀﾔto not only fulfillￂﾠRevelation 10:11, but also toￂﾠre-introduce this prophecyￂﾠandￂﾠexplain it a second timeￂﾠto 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￢ﾀﾔ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 preachingￂﾠagain￢ﾀﾔtheￂﾠSECOND TIME!￢ﾀﾔ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 weￂﾠand we aloneￂﾠrepresent the “short Work” foretold by Paul inￂﾠRomans 9 ALL! Further, this Work will continue and grow right up to the appearance of the Two Witnesses, when two prophets will arise fromￂﾠthis Churchￂﾠto 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￢ﾀﾔThen Famine of the Word.” This sermon is number 21 in theￂﾠProphetic Sequence Seriesￂﾠfound onￂﾠrcg.org. It is one of the most fascinating sermon subjects you could study. When complete, this series will probably be 60 or more sermons.)
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