(NB Headings are not part of original, but are added for clarity)
The World Tomorrow
The Book of Revelation
by Herbert W Armstrong
(PLAY FROM START)
Recently the European press, especially in France and in Belgium, have devoted a great deal of space to the predictions of the sixteenth century Nostradamus. However, the interpretations of his prophecies seem always to have been made after the event happened and not before. People always seem to be interested in the predictions if they can be convinced that they actually happened, if predictions were made by an ordinary human man. But what did Jesus Christ prophesy for our time and for the immediate future in which you and I live now? I mean prophesy before it happens, so that we can really interpret it and know before it happens, what is going to happen.
Now the outstanding book of prophecy in the New Testament is the book of Revelation. I have been devoting considerable time to it in recent weeks on this program. The book of Revelation is understood by almost nobody, because it is the revelation of Jesus Christ. Now the book is written in symbols, and no wonder people can't understand it, it take Jesus Christ to reveal it, but it is a revealing, not a hiding, not a concealing. Revelation means revealing, but the book itself was closed with seven seals, and it has been closed to understanding. And the reason people cannot understand it, they have missed the point that only Jesus Christ can open it to our understanding.
Now John wrote the book, Jesus Christ must tell us what it means. Many Bibles, if you have a Bible, it may say in a caption over this book of Revelation, 'The Revelation of St. John the Divine.' But that caption, if it is in your Bible, was written in our time and our generation by uninspired men, it is not part of the Bible at all. And the book is not the revelation of St. John the divine. John was not divine and he did not reveal it, he only recorded it to writing. It is Jesus Christ who must reveal it, and we must look somewhere else beside the book of Revelation to see how He explains it and reveals it and deciphers its symbols so that we can understand it.
Now I want you to notice once again, although I have gone over this a number of times before, but just this first verse, chapter one and verse one, the book of Revelation:
"The Revelation of Jesus Christ [not of St. John the Divine, the revelation of Jesus Christ] which God gave unto him, to shew unto his servants [not to show to the whole world, not to show to anyone but His servants and no-one else seems to be able to understand it. To only His servants] those things which must shortly come to pass; and he sent and signified it by his angel unto his servant John:" (Revelation 1:1)
John recorded it in writing, and of course we have the writing. Now, I've gone over this a number of times before, so I'm going to just slip down to verse ten. I want to get you... the main thing I want you to understand this time is the theme of the book. And the real theme of the book is given us in verse ten of this very first chapter, where John is recording what he saw in a vision, and he said:
"I was in the Spirit [in] the Lord's day, and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet, Saying..." (Revelation 1:10)
And then he begins to record what he heard that was being said. He was in the Spirit, that is in a vision. Now he was actually on the Isle of Patmos in the Mediterranean Sea, but it seemed like he was in a vision taken into heaven. Now no man has ever gone to Heaven. Jesus Christ said no man has ever ascended to heaven, but Christ Himself would come down from there (John 3:13). But John seemed in a vision to be in heaven, and in heaven he was seeing things that take place on the earth.
He even saw much people in heaven. That doesn't mean people will go there, that was merely a vision. But the Bible itself says the earth has God given to the sons of man. "The heaven, even the heavens, are the LORD'S but the earth hath he given to the [sons] of men" (Psalm 115:16). And the wicked shall not inhabit, but the righteous shall inherit the earth (Matthew 5:5) as an everlasting possession, not heaven. That is what the Bible says.
Satan Has Deceived All Nations (PLAY FROM 05:12)
Now he was taken in a vision into the Lord's Day. Now the Lord's Day is the Day of the Lord. I wonder if you ever heard of the Bank of Morgan in New York. The Bank of Morgan was Morgan's bank. The Day of the Lord is the Lord's Day. There are different time elements, and the word 'day' has many meanings in the Bible. Sometimes it means a twenty-four hour period from the sunset to sunset, or sunrise to sunrise. And in other times it is the day of certain events, a period that may be of various length of time.
We have been in the day of man, or more properly, you might say the day of Satan, but we're coming now into the time of the Day of the Lord. We have been in a day when man has been deceived by Satan, and when God is going to send Jesus Christ to intervene in the affairs of this world, and to come as the King of kings and the Lord of lords, and to set up the Kingdom of God to rule all the nations of the earth. And it will be the day when God is ruling.
Actually, Satan has been ruling in a sense because you will read in the twelfth chapter of the book of Revelation and verse nine, how Satan has deceived all nations. All PEOPLE have been deceived, except Jesus Christ Himself, He never was. You have been deceived. I have been deceived, everybody has been. I hope some of us have gotten our eyes opened and become undeceived, but everybody has been.
Anyway, this is not speaking of a day of the week. So far as that is concerned, the day of the week, you'll read in Mark the second chapter and verse {1} twenty-eight, in the last verse, how Jesus Christ said that even the Son of man - Christ - is Lord of the Sabbath day, not Sunday, it said the Sabbath day. That is the day He was talking about. So this is not talking about any day of the week at all, it's talking about a period of time.
The Two Trees (PLAY FROM 07:35)
Now this period of time, this day of man, or the day of Satan, had started with the creation of the first man on the earth, the man Adam in the Garden of Eden. And you know Adam had to make a choice. There were two trees in the Garden of Eden, two symbolic trees. There were many trees there, many beautiful flowers, vines, branches, all kinds of things. This is the most beautiful spot. But there were two very special symbolic trees in the midst of the garden. One was the Tree of Life and the other the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil.
Now the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil was really a tree of death because God said if they took of that, which He forbad them to do, they would surely die. That's what He said to our first parents Adam and Eve (Genesis 2:17). However the Tree of Life was the other tree. They did not have life, they only had a temporary chemical existence. And in order to gain immortal, eternal life, if they took of that tree, they would have received God's Holy Spirit, because the Holy Spirit had been opened through Jesus Christ to His church. And you don't get immortal life immediately, you will receive God's Holy Spirit, and the Holy Spirit gives you spiritual knowledge.
Now man was created with one spirit within him. One spirit which will give him the ability to acquire physical, materialistic knowledge, but he needs more than that. He needs knowledge that is spiritual to deal with his fellows, to deal with fellow man. And he needs knowledge to have a companionship and a relationship with God because he was made in the image of God, and he was made of the God kind. He was made to be begotten and finally born of God. But he needed another spirit, he was not complete. I have said before, Adam was not complete as God first created him. He was not fully there. He needed a wife, so God made a wife for him, and they two became one. They two became one.
But he was not all there mentally. He had one spirit, and that spirit empowered the physical brain with the power of intellect. But it can have intellect only so far as the brain can acquire knowledge. And all the brain can acquire is what it can see through the eye and hear through the ear, smell through the nose, taste through the sense of taste, or feel through the sense of feel and touch. And you can't see spiritual things, you simply cannot see spirit. You can't understand spiritual things.
You can't have a relationship with God without His Holy Spirit. You can't get along with neighbor without it. I have said so many times, look at the paradox today. Look at the absolutely astounding things that man has actually produced and the things that he has done. Absolutely astounding! Awesome things, going to the moon and back. Well, just take television, what a marvelous thing it is, just coming in through the air, the sound, the picture, everything.
Here I am speaking in our own studio in Pasadena, California, but you are hearing it through the air wherever you are, in your own home, or wherever you are hearing, or seeing or viewing on a television set. And so many miracles. At the same time there has never been so much trouble in the world as we have today. Man can't get along with man. Husband and wife don't seem to be able to get along and one out of every two marriages today are ending up in divorce.
Parents and children don't get along together. Capital and labor don't get along together. Black and white don't get along together. Neighbors don't get along together. Nation doesn't get along with nations so we have wars and we have trouble. We have heartaches and we have suffering, and the world is full of it, because Adam took only of the physical knowledge that gave him a carnal, physical mind, and that's all that he has had.
Now then, we have been in the age of man confined to that kind of knowledge and led and deceived by an invisible Satan who broadcasts through the air. I've explained that before, I don't really have time to explain it right now. But the Lord's Day is not Satan's day or man's day, that's the day we have been in for 6,000 years, almost. And now we're going to come to the Lord's Day, which will begin just prior to, and begin with, the seventh thousand year period, and from thereon out.
Prophecy Not Understood (PLAY FROM 12:55)
Now there are some 24 and more prophecies throughout the Bible, both Old and New Testament, about the Lord's Day. You don't hear about that. Have you heard very much about the Lord's Day? You hear much preaching, you hear it in pulpits all over. You hear it on the air. You hear it in religious broadcasts, but do you hear about the Lord's Day? We're coming to that time. That's one of the next things to come, and the whole book of Revelation is concerned about the Lord's Day, or the Day of the Lord.
We've been in the day of man and we need to understand the Day of the Lord. Now let me say right here, people have not understood prophecy. I want to open these things up. I've been going through the book of Revelation and I've gone through the first six chapters, just almost verse by verse. Very few do that because there is so little understanding of it today. People do not understand biblical prophecy. About one third of the entire Bible is devoted to prophecy and it is so little understood, and do you know why? It’s because there is a key to unlock prophecy to our understanding. So much of it is written in symbol, and the key that unlocks prophecy has been lost.
Now let me say right here, I hadn't intended to say this, but I have a special booklet I'm going to offer you right now, called 'The United States and Britain in Prophecy.' 'The United States and Britain in Prophecy.’ It explains where the United States and Britain is mentioned in prophecy. Now this is not a pamphlet. It is not a cheap tract, this is a full color, very attractive booklet and illustrated in full color inside. Illustrated in full color, and approximately 164 pages. Not just a small pamphlet. I'll be glad to send it to you gratis, no charge, no request for money.
I know that is quite unusual, but that is God's way of doing things and we are trying to do everything God's way, and so it is free for the asking. Now I am not going to mention that again at the close of the broadcast, I just say it now and I'll give you the mailing address, or the telephone to which you can call without any charge whatsoever, at the end of the program. You'd better jot it down now. The booklet 'The United States and Britain in Prophecy,’ where are we mentioned in the Bible? Where are we mentioned in the Bible? That is very important. And thousands upon thousands of people have been writing in for that booklet.
Well where are we now in the panorama of prophesied events? Preliminary events right now are happening to the greatest time of trouble that this world has ever had. I said we are in the day of man, or it could very well be called the day of Satan. Satan has been deceiving this world. Satan is a former archangel. Satan is a former archangel who was perfect in all of his ways from the day God created him until iniquity was found in him. You'll find that in the twenty-eighth chapter of the book of Ezekiel. But he rebelled and he'd made a choice, he turned the wrong way.
Satan's Time is Short (PLAY FROM 16:44)
God gives you the right of free choice. He's given His angels the right of free choice. You can sin. God will allow you to sin, but you’re going to pay the consequences. Whatever you sow you shall reap, and the day of accounting is coming. Yes, the Judgment Day is coming and everybody is going to give account whether they realize it or not. However, Satan knows that we are coming to the end of the 6,000 years that he is allowed to remain on the throne of the earth invisibly. And he is there invisibly, you don't see him, I don't see him, nobody sees him.
But he is swaying this world in the way of vanity. In the way of lust and greed. In the way of jealousy and envy toward others. In the way of trying to get. In the way of revenge against others, and in the way of rebellion against authority. All of those are the things Satan himself is guilty of. Now, Satan knows now that he has but a short time because the time is soon coming when God Almighty through Jesus Christ is going to intervene and take charge of this earth and send Jesus Christ back to this earth as the KING OF KINGS and the LORD OF LORDS, and RULE the earth with peace and happiness. And the world will be BUBBLING OVER with happiness and filled with joy. And joy is merely happiness brimful and running over. That's what it is and we're going to have it very soon.
But Satan know the time is coming and he is stirring up this world to final trouble, and you see the rumblings of it now, the greatest time of trouble that this world has ever known. That is called in the Bible, ‘The Great Tribulation.’ Let me read you the prophecy of that just a moment, it's in the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew. Matthew 24:21-22:
"[And] then shall be great tribulation [it's a time just ahead of us now]..." (Matthew 24:21)
Well let me show you the time we are in right now, it's in verse 14. They had asked Jesus for the sign of His second coming and when He would come to rule the earth and banish Satan and take over this earth and the Day of the Lord. In other words in the day of God's rule. And in verse 14 He had said;
"And this gospel of the kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations; and then shall the end [of this world] come." (Matthew 24:14)
And this world is Satan's world, and that would be the end of Satan's world. Now we are getting very close to that time because that gospel is being preached. That is the gospel Jesus Christ preached, the gospel of the kingdom of God. I've gone into that time and again on this program. The gospel of the kingdom of God. But in 53 AD that gospel was beginning to be suppressed, and by 70 AD it was suppressed.
And I read to you in Galatians the first chapter, verses six and seven, how it was suppressed at the time Paul, the apostle Paul, wrote the book to the church of Galatia, Galatians in the New Testament, when they were preaching another gospel and getting away from the gospel of Christ, that Christ had preached. The gospel of Christ is the message that Jesus preached, not a message of man about the messenger. Jesus was the messenger who brought the message from God Almighty.
Now then, one hundred time cycles of nineteen years went by until the year of 1953, and the largest and the biggest radio station on earth, the most powerful, Radio Luxembourg in Europe, was opened to me, and I began proclaiming to the world the gospel of the kingdom. Already it had gone coast to coast in the United States prior to that, and beginning in the year of 1934. And now it has been going to all the world.
And I have been taking that gospel message into nation after nation, and to king and prime minister and president and emperor after emperor. In fact there have only been two of those in our time. One of them is now dead and I've known them both, and have had personal talks with both of them. In fact, one, Haile Selassie, just before he was taken and shortly before his death, one of the last things he did was to send me a telegram congratulating me on my 82nd birthday, that's some years ago now, because he and I were both exactly the same age, only eight days apart. So he knew my birthday and I knew his. Well, that gospel has been going out and that's a sign that we're near to this time, and Satan knows he has but a short time to come. He know this, whether you know it or not, my friends. That doesn't make any difference, Satan the devil knows it.
He has but a short time and he's stirring this world up to the greatest time of trouble this world ever had. We have been in a day when man has been deceived by Satan, and when God is going to send Jesus Christ to intervene in the affairs of this world and to come as the King of kings and the Lord of lords and to set up the Kingdom of God to rule all the nations of the earth, and it will be the day when God is ruling.
Actually Satan has been ruling, in a sense, because you will read in the twelfth chapter of the book of Revelation in verse nine how Satan has deceived all nations. ALL PEOPLE have been deceived, except Jesus Christ Himself, He never was. You have been deceived. I have been deceived, everybody has been. I hope some of us have gotten our eyes opened and become undeceived, but everybody has been.
Anyway Satan knows that we are coming to the end of the 6,000 years that he is allowed to remain on the throne of the earth invisibly. Now you read of it here in the twenty-fourth chapter of Matthew, and I'll just read these two verses now.
God Will Cut Short the Days (PLAY FROM 23:24)
"For [verse 21] then [coming after this message is going out to the world, then] shall be great tribulation, such as was not since the beginning of the world to this time, no, nor ever shall be. And except those days should be shortened there should no flesh be saved: [alive] [that is the way this should be translated and is in Moffatt and other translations. No flesh be SAVED ALIVE] but for the elect's sake..." (Matthew 24:21-22)
God is going to intervene and cut short those days and send Christ to rule the earth and bring in the happy, peaceful world tomorrow. Another world. It doesn't mean the end of the earth, it means the end of this world of wretchedness and trouble and suffering and war. And it means that we will be turning into a world of happiness and joy, because we'll be living the way of God's law, the way that leads to peace. We'll be causing peace instead of retribution and trouble, and everything that is being caused now.
Now then, I see time is slipping by and I wanted to say a lot and I'm not going to have time for it because we are running out of time. Well, what I just read to you in Matthew 24:21-22, God is going to intervene and cut these days short. And when He intervenes, that will be the beginning of the Day of the Lord.
Now that Great Tribulation is prophesied in the fifth seal in the book of Revelation. I've gone into that before. And in the sixth chapter of the book of Revelation, the first six of the seven seals are opened. There were seven seals on the whole book. They'd closed the book. It was in a roll, a scroll rolled up, not a book with pages like we have today, but one long scroll rolled up. And the first six seals are all opened in the sixth chapter. And ALL the rest of the book, beginning with chapter seven is devoted to that one seventh seal, and that IS the Day of the Lord.
Turn now to the book of Revelation, chapter six and beginning with verse twelve on to the end of the chapter. Now then, I want to go back once again and read to you Revelation the sixth chapter and beginning with verse twelve.
"And I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal [that's after this great tribulation and when God comes to cut short those days...I beheld when he had opened the sixth seal], and, lo, there was a great earthquake; and the sun became black as [the] sackcloth of hair, and the moon became as blood; And the stars of [the]heaven[s] fell [to] the earth, even as a fig tree casteth her untimely figs, when she is {2} shaken of a mighty wind. And the heaven departed as a scroll when it is rolled together; and every mountain and [every] island were moved out of their places. And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the dens and in the rocks of the mountains; And said to the mountains and [the] rocks, Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of his wrath is come [the Day of the LORD, the day of the Lord's wrath is come], and who shall be able to stand?" (Revelation 6:12-17)
God is going to vent His wrath on the sins and sinners of this world that have been going the way of Satan, the way of lust and greed, the way of competition and strife and WAR, and everything that is harmful and harming everybody.
Now I wanted to go back and begin to read you in Isaiah and Jeremiah and Ezekiel and other prophecies in the Bible, and then in the New Testament, many of the scriptures that you probably have never heard, of the Day of the Lord that is coming next. Time is running out and I don't have time, but I want to tell you that you can get all of this about the book of Revelation in a booklet that I have. Now this is not a full book like I mentioned a while ago but it's a pretty good size pamphlet.
Let me see how many pages. This one about 48 pages, but it is a nice booklet, a chart in the middle explaining and giving a chart of the whole book of Revelation by chapters and by subjects. You've never read a booklet like it, it's 'The Book of Revelation Unveiled at Last!,' opening the book of Revelation to your understanding as Jesus Christ Himself reveals it. It's not my revealing. It's not the revealing of Herbert W Armstrong, it's the revealing of Jesus Christ. But this is the way He reveals it, and you've never understood that mysterious book before.
Now there's no charge and we don't ask for money.