Audio - 15 Feb 2025

Latest Audio - 2025-02-15

mp3 rm
stream
World Tomorrow
by Mr Armstrong
Prophecy part 6 - 7 Times Punishment
broadcast 1980s - played Wales UK 15 Feb 2025
show/hide info
mp3 rm
stream
Sermon
by Jon Bowles
Penance, Purgatory and Passover
given Bristol UK 13 Feb 2010 - played Wales UK 15 Feb 2025
show/hide info
Pastor’s Report - 15 Feb 2025
God's Final Solution

Holding a Life-Saving Vision

"Where there is no vision, the people perish: but he that keepeth the law, happy is he." (Proverbs 29:18)

"Arbeit macht frei"Work sets you free.This infamous sign was erected at the Auschwitz 1 main gateway, a former Polish Army Barracks converted into a concentration camp which initially did commence operation as a labour camp but along with Auschwitz 2 a mile or so away (Birkenau) was complicit in the mass murder of more than a million people - as part of the Nazi's "Final Solution" to the Jewish question.

On 27 January 1945, Auschwitz was liberated by the Soviet Red Army. Although most of the prisoners had been forced onto a death march, about 7,000 had been left behind. The date is recognized as International Holocaust Remembrance Day and its 80th anniversary was just a couple of weeks ago.

One of those 7,000 was psychiatrist Viktor Frankl, an Austrian Jew. In 1942, just nine months after his marriage, Frankl and his family were sent to the Theresienstadt concentration camp. His father died there of starvation and pneumonia. In 1944, Frankl and his surviving relatives were transported to Auschwitz, where his mother and brother were murdered in the gas chambers. His wife Tilly died later of typhus in Bergen-Belsen. As Frankl witnessed the brutality and degradation around him, he began to see that those inmates who had some meaning in their lives were more likely to survive.

Frankl observed that those who survived were able to connect with a purpose in life; something to feel positive about and who then immersed themselves in imagining that purpose in their own way, such as conversing with an absent/imagined loved one. According to Frankl, the way a prisoner imagined the future affected his longevity in the present. The stronger the hold a prisoner had on having a hope in the future, the more likely he was to survive but once a prisoner lost that hope, he was doomed.

Shortly after the liberation, Frankl wrote a book which became an international bestseller – and by the time of his death in 1997, had sold over 10 million copies and had been published in 24 languages. That book – "Man's Search for Meaning" – is still available today, and is now available in a staggering 52 languages.

"There's nothing in the world, I venture to say, that would so effectively help one to survive even the worst conditions as the knowledge that there is a meaning in one's life. As the saying goes; 'He who has a WHY to live for can bear almost any HOW'. In the Nazi concentration camps, one could have witnessed that those who knew that there was a task waiting for them to fulfil were most apt to survive." (Man's Search for Meaning, Viktor Frankl)

The Builder's Stone

In her recently published book "The Builder's Stone ... How Jews and Christians built the Westand why only they can save it", Jewish journalist, author and broadcaster Melanie Phillips explains the "WHY to live" of the Jewish prisoners and how it was reflected in their actions in the most appalling circumstances. From an account in chapter 7, we read of inmates risking their lives to gather for Chanukah (the victory of the Maccabees over the Syrians) – albeit with just one solitary candle; of some writing prayers on cement sacks in lieu of paper – at the risk of death if found out; and the determination of some to keep the days of Unleavened Bread, a vital annual reminder of their rescue from a previous heinous slavery – Egypt!

In 1943, rabbis and other Jewish religious scholars incarcerated in the Auschwitz extermination camp painstakingly calculated and etched a cryptic, veiled Jewish calendar on the barrack's walls showing the times and dates of the Jewish festivals.

Before Passover that year, Jewish prisoners working in the camp's bakery secreted a little sprinkling of flour each day under cover of the routine cleanup. Meticulous care was taken to avoid anything coming near this flour that would make it unusable on Passover, when observant Jews ensure that nothing they eat has come into any contact at all with chametz, the term for any leavened products. Enough of this flour was set aside for the making of five matzos, the unleavened bread eaten during the festival.

At great risk, one of the bakers crept into the kitchen at night and administered the final checks to make the oven ready for Passover baking. The preliminary steps of koshering the oven – ensuring it contained not of crumb of chametz – had already been carefully taken in the final hours before the kitchen had been locked up for the day. Under camouflage, the oven had been scrubbed, cleaned and torched.

Five round matzos were rapidly shaped and baked. Ten men – the number who comprise a minyan, the Jewish quorum for prayer – were to eat it. It was decided that only those who vowed not to eat any chametz throughout the entire week of Passover would be part of this minyan. Camp inmates were emaciated, grossly malnourished and starving. The ten decided they would give away any chametz they received in their meagre rations to others who wanted it.

The ten each survived on a half matzo and water for that entire Passover week. There were those who ate their share within the first two days. Others made it last until the end of the seventh day, when Passover was deemed to have ended.

There are many other stories of Jewish concentration camp prisoners going to extraordinary lengths to observe the Jewish festivals, despite the murderous and depraved conditions in which they were being systematically starved, beaten, tortured, and gassed. Such stories provoke astonishment. These inmates could barely remain alive on their starvation rations. They lived in terror of their vicious and barbaric Nazi guards. Any step out of line risked almost certain death. One might think their attention would be focused wholly upon how to survive each day. And yet untold numbers of them were focused on something else – something that would actually be crucial in keeping them alive, even while it increased the danger of being murdered. ("The Builder's Stone" by Melanie Philips, chapter 7)

Sabbath Made for Man
  • And he said unto them, The sabbath was made for man, and not man for the sabbath: (Mark 2:27)

One hundred years ago this year, Mr Armstrong faced the dual challenges of which day was the Christian Sabbath and creation rather than evolution. These were the issues that God used to bring him to an in-depth study of His Word:

Then I began to see that on the very seventh day of creation week, God set that day aside from other days. On that day He RESTED from all He had created by WORK. On that day He created the Sabbath, not by work, but by REST, putting His divine presence in it! He made it HOLY TIME. No man has authority to make future time holy. No group of men – no church! Only GOD is HOLY! Only GOD can make things HOLY. The Sabbath is a constantly recurring space of time, marked off by the setting of the sun. God made every recurring Sabbath HOLY, and commanded man (Exodus 20) to keep it holy.

WHY did He do it? WHY does it make any difference? I found it in the SPECIAL SABBATH COVENANT in Exodus 31:12-18. He made it the SIGN between Him and His people. A SIGN is a mark of identity. First, it is a sign that GOD is the CREATOR, because it is a MEMORIAL OF CREATION – the CREATION is the PROOF of God – it identifies Him. No other space of time could be a memorial of CREATION. Thus God chose that very space of time for man to assemble for worship which KEEPS MAN IN THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE TRUE IDENTITY OF GOD AS THE CREATOR. Every nation which has NOT kept the Sabbath has worshipped the created rather than the Creator. It is a sign that identifies God’s own people, because it is they who OBEY God in this commandment, while this is the very commandment which everyone else regards as the LEAST of the commandments – which they REBEL against obeying! (Autobiography Volume 1, chapter 16)

Note: the Sabbath was made for mankind in general, and at a time when there were only two human beings on earth and neither of them were Jewish! And not only does keeping the seventh day Sabbath remind us of WHO we are – the Israel of God, (Exodus 31) but also WHAT we are, as it points us to our Creator, in whose image we have been made (Genesis 1:27), as opposed to nothing more than a bundle of cells which has developed over billions of years to become the top of the evolutionary tree.

  • Speak thou also unto the children of Israel, saying, Verily my sabbaths ye shall keep: for it is a sign between me and you throughout your generations; that ye may know that I am the LORD that doth sanctify you.
  • Six days may work be done; but in the seventh is the sabbath of rest, holy to the LORD: whosoever doeth any work in the sabbath day, he shall surely be put to death.
  • Wherefore the children of Israel shall keep the sabbath, to observe the sabbath throughout their generations, for a perpetual covenant.
  • It is a sign between me and the children of Israel for ever: for in six days the LORD made heaven and earth, and on the seventh day he rested, and was refreshed. (Exodus 31:13, 15-17)
An Identifying Sign

There is a saying that it's not so much that the Jews keep the Sabbath, as it's the Sabbath that has kept the Jews. This fits with what Ms. Phillips points out:

Performing these rituals, however truncated and inadequately, reaffirmed these prisoners' connection to their historic identity ... It meant that the Nazi's attempt to dehumanize them had failed. They still knew who they were. And this gave them strength to resist the despair that would otherwise certainly kill them.

In the midst of that hell, where others may have concluded existence was rendered meaningless, they found meaning and the will to live through reaffirming their communal identity, the identity on account of which they were being slaughtered – and expressing gratitude for it. That reaffirmation was the key to survival for those who lived. After the Nazi genocide, it was also key to the astounding renaissance of the Jewish people. It is, in fact, they key to survival of any people. ("The Builder's Stone" by Melanie Philips, chapter 7)

This is why "The Lost Ten Tribes of Israel" became lost to world history. Unlike the Jews who keep the Sabbath, it was by giving up on Sabbath observance they steadily lost their identity until they themselves, and most of the entire world today, believe them to be gentiles!

Holy Days - OUR Identity

After proving the veracity of the command to keep the weekly Sabbath, Mr. Armstrong saw the need to also keep the annual Sabbaths, so he and his wife went on to keep the Holy Days for 14 years, not understanding why initially, but being willing to obey God's clear commands in the Bible.

So God has given the Church seven annual Holy Days. Now He gave the Sabbath to man. And Jesus said the Sabbath was made for man; and therefore Jesus, the Son of man, is Lord of the Sabbath day. So the Sabbath is the Lord's Day, not Sunday. The Sabbath was given when man was made. Man was made on the sixth day of what is called “Creation Week”, which is only a re-creation; and, on the very next day, God made the Sabbath for man. The first thing He made for man was the Sabbath.

But He didn't give man the annual holy days until the Church started. And the Church started in two phases. One was the physical material phase of ancient Israel. And the other is the spiritual phase, which is the Church of God that started with Christ. And so the annual holy days were given to ancient Israel, and they didn't know the meaning of it. (Feast of Trumpets sermon 1985)

The observant Jews for millennia have kept the Holy Days in a physical way, not yet understanding that in each of them God lays out His plan for every single human being since the time of Adam and Eve ... Christ having been slain from the foundation of the world. (Revelation 13:8) And the Holy Days of Passover, Unleavened Bread and Pentecost in particular reveal OUR identity!

  • For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
  • The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: (Romans 8:15,16)
Holding the Vision - OT

One of the most well-known stories in the Bible is that of Joseph; his coat of many colours and the jealousy of his brothers leading to his imprisonment in Egypt. (Genesis 37) Life seemed to have dealt him a very unfair blow , and being just a young lad he would have experienced times of frustration and discouragement – but God knew where Joseph was and why, and would make sure he didn't forget those dreams. It wasn't until many years later – when he was about 40 years old and second in command under Pharaoh – that he could look back on those years and see them for what they really were ... training!

  • And God sent me before you to preserve you a posterity in the earth, and to save your lives by a great deliverance.
  • So now it was not you that sent me hither, but God: and he hath made me a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and a ruler throughout all the land of Egypt. (Genesis 45:7,8)

In the same way, God also had a special purpose in calling Abraham, and although it would be many years before God fulfilled His promise of a son by Sarah, He continually encouraged him to have a clear vision of the future He had for him and his posterity:

  • And the LORD said unto Abram, after that Lot was separated from him, Lift up now thine eyes, and look from the place where thou art northward, and southward, and eastward, and westward:
  • For all the land which thou seest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed for ever.
  • And I will make thy seed as the dust of the earth: so that if a man can number the dust of the earth, then shall thy seed also be numbered.
  • Arise, walk through the land in the length of it and in the breadth of it; for I will give it unto thee. (Genesis 13:14-17)
  • And Abram said, Behold, to me thou hast given no seed: and, lo, one born in my house is mine heir.
  • And, behold, the word of the LORD came unto him, saying, This shall not be thine heir; but he that shall come forth out of thine own bowels shall be thine heir.
  • And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be.
  • And he believed in the LORD; and he counted it to him for righteousness. (Genesis 15:3-6)
Holding the Vision - NT

In New Testament times also the individuals to whom God had given a specific – and often hard – "row to hoe" were given extra help through visions of some kind. The apostle Paul – whose life was far from easy – mentioned he'd been given visions of the third heaven. Peter, James and John had the vision of Christ talking with Elijah and Moses. Even the deacon Stephen, just before he died, was given the vision of Christ at the right hand of God. And the 12 apostles were given a clear vision of THEIR future, by being able to talk, walk and eat with the resurrected Christ.

The vast majority of church members probably won't experience these kind of visions but God HAS given us the ability to see the future in our mind's eye through the visions He gave to His prophets in the Old Testament. Depending on our individual situation and life's experiences, our "vision" will probably differ from someone else's ... but the important thing is that we hang on to and meditate on our personal part – and that of our seed – in the soon-coming millennial reign.

  • For I will pour water upon him that is thirsty, and floods upon the dry ground: I will pour my spirit upon thy seed, and my blessing upon thine offspring:
  • And they shall spring up as among the grass, as willows by the water courses.
  • One shall say, I am the LORD’S; and another shall call himself by the name of Jacob; and another shall subscribe with his hand unto the LORD, and surname himself by the name of Israel. (Isaiah 44:3-5)
The Ultimate Freedom

Upon returning home, the prisoners had to struggle with two fundamental experiences that could damage their mental health: bitterness and disillusionment. The last stage is bitterness at the lack of responsiveness of the world outside—a "superficiality and lack of feeling ... so disgusting that one finally felt like creeping into a hole and neither hearing nor seeing human beings any more" (p. 113). Worse was disillusionment, the discovery that suffering does not end, that the longed-for happiness will not come. This was the experience of those who—like Frankl—returned home to discover that no one awaited them. The hope that had sustained them throughout their time in the concentration camp was now gone. [Frankl cites this experience as the most difficult to overcome.] (Wikipedia, "Man's Search for Meaning" Viktor Frankl)

For those with whom God is working, and has given the precious understanding of His Plan through the Holy Days, we have God's unbreakable promise that the individuals Frankl cited – and ALL mankind eventually – will experience TRUE freedom and will be joyfully reunited with their loved ones, as pictured by the Last Great Day. (Ezekiel 37 – the Valley of Dry Bones)

  • For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.
  • For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God.
  • For the [creation] was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope,
  • Because the [creation] itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. (Romans 8:18-21)

Our life-saving vision embraces the understanding of WHO we are (God's firstfruits and His begotten children) and WHY we are (teachers in training) and should help us to endure our personalised "work experience", and leave the specifics – the HOW – to God, our Father and faithful Creator.

  • Now unto him that is able to keep you from falling, and to present you faultless before the presence of his glory with exceeding joy,
  • To the only wise God our Saviour, be glory and majesty, dominion and power, both now and ever. Amen. (Jude 24,25)
  • And in this mountain shall the LORD of hosts make unto all people a feast of fat things, a feast of wines on the lees, of fat things full of marrow, of wines on the lees well refined.
  • And he will destroy in this mountain the face of the covering cast over all people, and the vail that is spread over all nations.
  • He will swallow up death in victory; and the Lord GOD will wipe away tears from off all faces; and the rebuke of his people shall he take away from off all the earth: for the LORD hath spoken it.
  • And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited for him, and he will save us: this is the LORD; we have waited for him, we will be glad and rejoice in his salvation. (Isaiah 25:6-9)
News Review - 7 Feb 2025
Russia 2025

From the Romanovs to Revolution… from Glasnost to Perestroika… the Cold War to Cuban missile crisis… Sputnik I to Yuri Gagarin… Chernobyl to Ukraine
now …

RUSSIA 2025

20th Century Russian Roots

The Romanov family was the last imperial dynasty to rule Russia. They first came to power in 1613, and over the next three centuries, 18 Romanovs took the Russian throne - including Peter the Great - until the Russian Revolution!

November 6-7, 1917: The violent Russian Revolution marks the end of the Romanov dynasty and Russian Imperial Rule, as the Bolsheviks, led by Vladimir Lenin, take power and eventually become the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

1929-1953: Joseph Stalin becomes dictator, taking Russia from a peasant society to military and industrial power.

1939: World War II begins, and, in accord with a pact between Stalin and Adolf Hitler, Russia invades Poland, Romania, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Finland. Germany breaks the agreement in

1941, by invading Russia, which then joins the Allies. The Russian army’s win at the Battle of Stalingrad serves as a major turning point in ending the war.

March 5, 1946: In a speech, Winston Churchill declares ‘an Iron Curtain has descended across the Continent’ and the Cold War grows as the Soviets promote revolution in China, Asia and the Middle and Near East. In 1949, the Soviets exploded a nuclear bomb, hastening the nuclear arms race.

October 4, 1957: The Soviet Union launches Sputnik I, the first artificial satellite that orbits the Earth in about 98 minutes and spurs the Space Race.

In 1961, Soviet Yuri Gagarin becomes the first person to fly in space.

October 1962: The 13-day Cuban Missile Crisis leads Americans to fear nuclear war is at hand with the installation of Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba. Soviet Leader Nikita Khrushchev eventually agrees to remove the missiles, while President John F Kennedy agrees to not invade Cuba and to remove US missiles from Turkey.

July-August 1980: The 1980 Summer Olympics are held in Moscow, with several countries, including the United States, boycotting the games in protest of the December 1979 invasion of Afghanistan.

March 11, 1985: Mikhail Gorbachev is elected general secretary of the Communist Party, and, thus, effectively Russia’s leader. His reform efforts include perestroika (restructuring the Russian economy), glasnost (greater openness) and summit talks with US President Ronald Reagan to end the Cold War.

April 26, 1986: The Chernobyl disaster, the world’s worst nuclear accident, takes place at the Chernobyl nuclear plant near Kiev in Ukraine.

June 12, 1991: Boris Yeltsin wins Russia’s first popular presidential election, urging democracy.

December 25, 1991: Following an unsuccessful Communist Party coup, THE SOVIET UNION IS DISSOLVED and Gorbachev resigns. Yeltsin begins lifting Communist-imposed price controls and reforms, and, in 1993, signed the START II treaty, pledging nuclear arms cuts. He resigns in 1999, naming former KGB agent Vladimir Putin, his prime minister, as acting president.

March 26, 2000: Vladimir Putin is elected president, and is re-elected in a landslide in 2004. Because of term limits, he leaves office in 2008, when his protege Dmitry Medvedev is elected and served as his prime minister. Putin is then re-elected as president in 2012.

March 2014: Weeks after Russian soldiers in unmarked uniforms seized control of government buildings in the Crimean Peninsula, Putin announces Russia is annexing the region, which had been part of an independent Ukraine since the breakup of the Soviet Union.

On March 18, Russian voters re-elect Putin as president for a fourth time, which under Russian law at the time is his last possible six-year term.

July 1, 2020: Russian voters overwhelmingly vote in favor of a referendum proposing constitutional changes that would allow Putin to potentially remain in power until 2036, rather than when his current term ends.

February 24, 2022: After eight years of conflict between Ukrainian government forces and Russia-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, Russia launches a full-scale invasion of Ukraine with dozens of missile strikes on cities around the country.

March 17, 2024: After 25 years in power, Putin wins re-election by a landslide, capturing more than 87 percent of the vote. The Kremlin proclaims the victory a sign of support for the war in Ukraine and Putin’s defense of the nation from a hostile and dangerous West.” (history.com)

False Fear

November 1982
The warning went out.

“Now, we are a long ways from Russia; and WE ARE FEARING THE SOVIET UNION. The two great powers in the world are the Soviet Union and the United States – the Union of Soviet Socialist Republic and the United States; AND WE ARE REALLY FEARING RUSSIA. Let me say right here: I know of no prophecy in the Bible that speaks specifically of any war between Russia and the United States; and I have been saying for years and years that is not the way that World War III will come.” (Sermon - United States Of Europe Is Coming)

This wasn’t new information, back in 1950 Mr Armstrong wrote:

Contrary to most self-professed ‘authorities’ on Bible prophecy, NO ALL OUT FULL SCALE WAR IS PROPHESIED BETWEEN RUSSIA AND THE UNITED STATES.” (The Plain Truth, August 1950)

The Real Threat

This is what should be feared!

October 1964: “Germany — a UNITED GERMANY with her former territories restored — is ready to emerge as the strongest nation on earth at the head of a revitalized… Europe! THIS POWER COLOSSUS IS THEN GOING TO DEAL A DEATH BLOW TO THE UNITED STATES AND BRITAIN.” (The Plain Truth, October 1964)

…And that was the same message in the very first edition of the Plain Truth magazine, written nearly 30 years prior (in 1934)!

A German-led Frankenstein Monster

Talking about the Holy Roman Empire, Mr Armstrong wrote:

“In its final phase, to appear in our day, will merely be a restoration of that ancient Roman Empire – a United States of Europe which we are beginning to foster within the confines of the ancient Roman Empire! We are building the Frankenstein Monster that is destined to destroy us!(The Plain Truth, June 1955)

The Game Changer!

On 25th February, 2022, President Putin declared war on Ukraine. The response from Germany was both sudden and dramatic. Just two days later …

Fear Goes into High Gear!

“Something dramatic, even historic, happened in the Reichstag building in Berlin on February 27th. Olaf Scholz, Germany’s chancellor, announced a plan to spend an additional €100 billion ($111 billion) on defence; to support imposing sanctions on Russia to export weapons to Ukraine and to consider acquiring the American-made F-35 as the next generation of nuclear-capable German aircraft.

This was a massive and ALMOST COMPLETE POLICY TURNAROUND, with a number of German foreign policy’s sacred cows slaughtered.” (economist.com)

Germany Has Woken Up
11/03/2022

“Nowhere has the change in policy been so stark as in Germany, where decades of policy have been cast aside virtually overnight. War has firmly united the transatlantic alliance. Germany’s decision to prioritize energy security over climate goals speaks volumes. Russia has awakened Germany from its slumber.” (heritage.org)

‘We Need Stronger Europe!’
13/03/2022

“The European Union has been sent a huge warning by former European Parliament Brexit Coordinator Guy Verhofstadt. ‘We need stronger Europe!’ EU sent huge warning by Verhofstadt to ‘defend our interests’. The former Belgian Prime Minister was speaking after attending the Conference on the Future of Europe in Strasbourg where Ukrainian citizens spoke about the recent Russian invasion. ‘We need a stronger, more sovereign, more united Europe to defend our values and interests.’(express.co.uk)

The German Military — Europe’s Best Hope
27/03/2022

Germany is the only country that can provide the necessary army forces to secure NATO’s eastern flank against Russia. With the return of a territorial war in Europe, the point has been reached where the security situation has changed so drastically that all options must be examined without taboo.” (worldcrunch.com)

‘Germany Needs Hard Power
11/04/2022

Power is what Scholz decided his country needed, after diplomacy failed to bring Putin back from the brink. The chancellor said, ‘Germany needs hard power.’(msn.com)

The European Union Needs Its Own Army
20/05/2022

“Europeans have neglected their own security for far too long. It has been all too comfortable delegating its security concerns to the United States, which provides military cover through its NATO commitment.” (washingtonpost.com)

1982 - The Russian Threat To Europe

Over 40 years ago, in 1982, Mr Armstrong warned that fear of Russia would cause Europe to unite.

“Now one of the great things that is urging Europe on, and perhaps the greatest thing that WILL CAUSE THEM TO HURRY AND GET TOGETHER on this, is their FEAR of what’s going on in the Kremlin and the Soviet Union [Russia]. And Andropov [now Putin] is frightening them, and that is going to rush them.

They are losing confidence in the United States as having a military umbrella over them to protect them, and they want their own military force to protect themselves.” (Sermon - United States Of Europe Is Coming)

War In Ukraine

In February, 2022, when President Putin declared war on Ukraine the German response was both sudden and dramatic.

This was the ‘Fear of Russia’ in action!

Meanwhile, Russia and China are forging a new trading alliance with the founding of the BRICS nations – challenging both the EU and the West financially. Interesting to remember that the European Union was also initially formed based on trade! Right now, BRICS is also all about trade. But given a common enemy, this group too could form a formidable military force. And we know the eastern nations will ultimately attack the resurrected Holy Roman Empire according to Bible prophecy.

THE GOSPEL WENT OUT

(as per Matthew 24:14)

In a co-Worker letter in 1981, Mr Armstrong wrote:

“As John the Baptist prepared the way, in the PHYSICAL wilderness of the Jordan River for the first coming of the HUMAN Jesus (both man and God), then coming to His MATERIAL temple, and to His PHYSICAL people Judah, ANNOUNCING the Kingdom of God to be set up more than 1,900 years later, SO God would use a human messenger in the SPIRITUAL wilderness of 20th-century religious confusion, to be a voice CRYING OUT THE GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD, about the SPIRITUAL CHRIST, coming in SUPREME POWER AND GLORY to His SPIRITUAL TEMPLE, to actually ESTABLISH that spiritual KINGDOM OF GOD.

Brethren, HAS THAT BEEN DONE BY THIS CHURCH?

Did God raise up a one-man LEADERSHIP to be used by Him in building this spiritual TEMPLE and in proclaiming after 1,900 years the true GOSPEL OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD in ALL THE WORLD – to even go to kings and heads of nations (Rev. 10:11) – in bringing the Church back to the FAITH ONCE DELIVERED (Jude 3)?

HAS THIS HAPPENED, IN YOUR DAYS, AND HAS GOD BROUGHT YOU INTO THIS PROPHETIC FULFILLMENT AS A PART OF IT?

HAS ANYONE ELSE DONE IT?

Brethren, HOW did the living Christ prepare me from youth to lead you? … In that first beginning six months’ deep study of the Bible, I learned I had believed the very opposite of WHAT GOD SAYS.

In that period God OPENED MY UNDERSTANDING to most of the MAJOR BASICS OF GOD’S TRUTH THAT THE CHURCHES AND RELIGIONS OF THIS WORLD HAD LOST – indeed, even the flickering remnant of the TRUE Church had lost!

He opened my mind to HIS LAW. Not only the Ten Commandments and the Sabbath, but the annual festivals and Holy Days. I learned the truth about God’s GOVERNMENT having been established on earth under the archangel Lucifer, and the origin of Satan and PURPOSE of God in restoring God’s Government over the earth. I learned Jesus was born to be a KING, which traditional ‘Christianity’ seems not to know. I learned our identity as being of the lost tribes of Israel, and the difference between the kingdoms of Judah and Israel.

THIS GAVE ME THE KEY TO UNDERSTANDING PROPHECIES!

God revealed to me the symbols and truths of the book of Revelation as revealed through Matthew 24 and Daniel. I learned the Kingdom of God will be ON EARTH.

NO MAN taught me these truths. As the original apostles were taught by Jesus IN PERSON, so was I taught by Jesus Christ IN WRITING. It is the SAME WORD – the SAME TEACHING.” (Co-Worker Letter – March 19, 1981)

We Were Informed … Just As God Had Promised!

Surely the Lord GOD will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the prophets.” (Amos 3:7)


We Were Informed of Upcoming Events Long Before They Happened!

And because we were warned in advance

We remained alert! We Watched! We Waited! We witnessed!

We watched the sudden fall of the Soviet Union, the old USSR.

We watched as the Berlin Wall was torn down.

We watched as East and West Germany was united.

We watched as the Eastern European nations joined the EU.

We witnessed Matthew 24:14 - The Gospel was preached to all nations as a witness

We witnessed the apostasy come unexpectedly from inside the church – from the top!

We lived through the Falling Away (II Thessalonians 2:3)

We witnessed the shattering of God’s people (Daniel 12:7)

We see Russia and China joining forces + the BRICS nations.

Now we see fear pushing Europe to rearm to protect itself from Russia…

Right now, we also see the "far-right" AfD's rising popularity in Germany. Who knows what the upcoming elections will bring?

We are told to watch in a spiritually alert way as God’s plan unfolds.

Now learn a parable of the fig tree; When his branch is yet tender, and putteth forth leaves, ye know that summer is nigh:

So likewise ye, when ye shall see all these things, know that it is near, even at the doors.(Matthew 24:32-33)

Upcoming Events

Now, we watch for:

  • A very probable worldwide financial collapse (as detailed by Mr Armstrong in Prophecy Part 1 - 7 July 1984)
  • Followed by the final rise of the Holy Roman Empire
  • God’s people fleeing into the wilderness (Revelation 12:14)
  • The Great Tribulation – the time of Jacob’s trouble
  • An attack by the eastern nations on the Beast power
  • Getting almost to the point of blasting life off the earth
  • The return of Jesus Christ to take over world government!

"So likewise ye, when ye see these things come to pass, know ye that the kingdom of God is nigh at hand." (Luke 21:31)

Transcript - 31 May 2022

Latest Transcripts:


HWA Bible Study:
I Corinthians 1 and 2 20 Jul 1980
Site Last Updated...

10 hours and 26 minutes ago

To be notified by email whenever this site is updated, contact email

“Just what is an APOSTLE?”
Just what is an Apostle?

Today we find the Church of God in a “wilderness of religious confusion!”

The confusion is not merely around the Church – within the religions of the world outside – but WITHIN the very heart of The True Church itself!

Read online or contact email to request a copy

Listen to Me, You who know righteousness, You people in whose heart is My Law: …I have put My words in your mouth, I have covered you with the shadow of My hand, That I may plant the heavens, Lay the foundations of the earth, and say to Zion, “you are My people” (Isaiah 51:7,16)