Forty years ago, on January 16th, 1986, God's end time Apostle died. Over the following 40 years, God's Church has been tried and tested… and has ended up totally shattered and scattered.
When we look back at this time we will see that 2026 was the year the world changed!
Just this week, in just one day, the whole American political system changed! In the mid term elections, President Trump lost control of both the House and the Senate! The US now has a “lame duck” President. This is a massive political upheaval!
We must keep in mind that most end time events happen suddenly…
“Wherefore thus saith the Holy One of Israel, Because ye despise this word, and trust in oppression and perverseness, and stay thereon:
Therefore this iniquity shall be to you as a breach ready to fall, swelling out in a high wall, whose breaking cometh suddenly at an instant.” (Isaiah 30:12-13)
“Therefore the LORD will cut off from Israel head and tail, branch and rush, in one day. The ancient and honourable, he is the head; and the prophet that teacheth lies, he is the tail. For the leaders of this people cause them to err; and they that are led of them are destroyed.” (Isaiah 9:14-16)
Note that one of the first curses mentioned in Leviticus 26 is that “I also will do this unto you; I will even appoint over you terror…” (Leviticus 26:16)
Just in the last few weeks, attitudes around the world have changed - “there is growing anticipation that something really big is about to happen.”
“There is growing anticipation that something really big is about to happen. Social media is buzzing about the fact that so many governments around the world are urging their citizens to stockpile food, water and other essential supplies right now. Why have all of those governments suddenly developed such a sense of urgency? I wish that I knew, but without a doubt global events have begun to spiral out of control.
Our world is facing crisis after crisis, and most of them have erupted in the last 12 months. The US and Israel are preparing to bomb the living daylights out of Iran after the midterm elections, and the Iranians are making all sorts of apocalyptic threats in response. The Russians and the Ukrainians are absolutely pummeling one another with missiles and drones, and European leaders are being encouraged to consider sending troops into Ukraine.
Cyberattacks have become much more sophisticated and much more frequent, and AI agents are infiltrating financial systems worldwide. Meanwhile, we are facing a global energy crisis, a global fertilizer crisis and a global food crisis simultaneously. On top of everything else, the most powerful Super El Niño ever recorded is causing monster storms, epic droughts and horrific wildfires all over the planet. Unfortunately, many are warning that things could soon get far worse.” (themostimportantnews.com)
“What in the world is going on? Why are governments all over the planet suddenly encouraging their citizens to become preppers? Do they know something that they aren’t telling us? If it was just one nation that was suddenly instructing people to stockpile food, water and other essential supplies, that wouldn’t be a big deal. But it isn’t just one nation. Quite a long list of countries have simultaneously decided that now is the time for everyone to get prepared. So what has prompted this sudden sense of urgency?” (theeconomiccollapseblog.com)
“The Pentagon is planning for its major military installations across the United States to be able to operate off-grid for at least 90 days without relying on civilian power grids, external fuel, or water supplies, its chief spokesman confirmed on October 25. Parnell said he created FORTRESS America ‘because we can no longer rely on two oceans to protect us. That outdated assumption no longer reflects the threats we face,’ he said. ‘We don’t want to rely on standard civilian municipal infrastructure to run our national defense. We just simply can’t. It’s an intolerable risk,’ Parnell told Fox News. ‘Power is combat now. Without electricity, you lose communications, water, logistics, assembly lines and just basic military command structures.’” (theepochtimes.com)
“As hospital patients in Venezuela found out earlier this year during a five-day nationwide blackout, power cuts can do more than just turn out the lights. The hospital staff watched helplessly as their patient died in front of them. Everything the doctors needed to save one woman – including a mechanical ventilator – was tantalisingly close, in the intensive care unit several floors below. But with no power in the nine-floor hospital in Maracay, northern Venezuela, they had no way to reach it. Without electricity the lifts did not work.
By the end of the five days an estimated 26 people had died in the country’s hospitals as a result of the power outage. ‘When the ventilators failed, the nurses and doctors had to do it manually by squeezing a rubber lung,’ he says. ‘They were taking it in turns to keep these patients alive.’
The problems extended beyond the hospitals. Elderly people in high-rise flats had to be carried down stairs. People cooked food with fire and ate by candlelight. Without power, food spoiled in warming refrigerators, traffic lights failed and transport systems ground to a halt. The pumps that drove running water to people’s homes stopped, sending residents on a desperate search for water in nearby rivers, streams and even sewers. The blackouts in Venezuela hit people's homes, causing pumps powering running water to stop and food to spoil in fridges.
In our modern world, almost everything, from our financial systems to our communication networks, are utterly reliant upon electricity. Other critical infrastructure like water supplies and our sewer systems rely upon electric powered pumps to keep them running. With no power, fuel pumps at petrol stations stop working, road signs, traffic lights and train systems go dead. Transport networks grind to a halt.
Our complex food supply chains quickly fall apart without computers to coordinate where produce needs to be, or the fuel to transport it or refrigeration to preserve it. Air conditioning, gas boilers and heating systems also rely upon electricity to work.
‘We want people to be thinking about these things long before there is a problem,’ says John Heltzel, director of resilience planning at the EIS. ‘It’s important because when the electricity grid fails, there is this risk of cascading impacts that can occur from what might at first seem to be a relatively minor event.’
This cascade effect is where the real damage can be done. As the people of Venezuela have discovered, even basic services like water can stop when the power goes out. ‘IT’S EFFECTIVELY [LIKE GOING] BACK TO THE DARK AGES,’ says Heltzel.” (bbc.co.uk)
“Flash forward to a week after the start of the blackout. You still keep your cell phone battery charged from your car, but you rarely get a signal and phone calls almost never connect. Plus, your car’s almost out of gasoline and the fuel at filling stations has long been sent to backup generators at critical facilities. You are almost certainly running low on food and water after a week,
Power plants are having trouble purchasing fuel because, without electricity to power data centers and good telecommunications, banks and energy markets are shut down. Natural gas compressors don’t have power, so they can’t send fuel to the plants. Railway signals and dispatch centers are down, so the coal trains are stopped. Public roadways are snarled because none of the traffic signals work, creating accidents and reducing the capacity at intersections.
Even if workers at critical jobs like power plants, pipelines, and substations still have gas in their vehicles, they are having a really hard time actually getting to work. And even if they can get there, they might not know what to do. Most of our complicated infrastructure systems like oil and gas pipelines, public water systems, and the electrical grid are operated using SCADA - networked computers, sensors, and electronic devices that perform a lot of tasks automatically… if they have power.
Even if you can get people to the valves, switches, pump stations, and tanks to help with manual operations, they might not know under which parameters to operate the system. The longer the outage lasts, the more reserves of water, fuel, foods, medicine, and goods deplete, and the more systems break down. Each of these complicated systems are often extremely difficult to bring back online alone, and nearly impossible without the support of adjacent infrastructure.
Electricity is not just a luxury. It is a necessity of modern life. Even ignoring our own direct use of it, almost everything we depend on in our daily lives, and indeed the orderly conduct of a civil society, is undergirded by a functioning electrical grid.
Of course, the other kind of preparedness is our ability to restore service to a collapsed power grid and get everyone back online as quickly as possible. That’s called a black start, and it sounds simple enough, but there are some enormous engineering challenges associated with bringing a grid up from nothing.” (practical.engineering)
“Ezekiel’s prophecy continues, ‘Wherefore, as I live, saith the Lord God, Surely, because thou hast defiled my sanctuary with all thy detestable things, and with all thine abominations, therefore will I diminish thee; neither shall mine eye spare, neither will I have any pity. A THIRD PART OF THEE SHALL DIE WITH THE PESTILENCE and with famine will they be consumed in the midst of thee: AND A THIRD PART SHALL FALL BY THE SWORD [that's over 200 million people]… and I will scatter a third part into all the winds, and I will draw out a sword after them. Thus shall mine anger be accomplished, and I will cause my FURY to rest upon them, and I will be comforted: and THEY SHALL KNOW THAT I THE LORD HAVE SPOKEN IT IN MY ZEAL, WHEN I HAVE ACCOMPLISHED MY FURY IN THEM’ (Ezekiel 5:11-13, emphasis mine).” (The Plain Truth – June/July 1980)
We’re Not Talking About Just A Regular Catastrophe
“Senator Ron Johnson (Republican for Wisconsin), chairman of the US Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, posed questions to witnesses testifying on Capitol Hill before his committee. He asked R James Woolsey, chairman of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies and former director of the Central Intelligence Agency, what would happen to society if the electrical grid were to be down for an extended period of time, such as a year or two, following an EMP event?
Woolsey responded, ‘It’s briefly dealt with in the commission report of [2008]. There are essentially two estimates on how many people would die from hunger, from starvation, from lack of water, and from social disruption. One estimate is that within a year or so, TWO-THIRDS OF THE UNITED STATES POPULATION WOULD DIE [that's over 200 million people].
The other estimate is that within a year or so, 90% of the US population would die. We’re talking about total devastation. We’re not talking about just a regular catastrophe.” (powermag.com)
“Now after that John was put in prison, Jesus came into Galilee, preaching the gospel [good news] of the kingdom of God …repent ye, and believe the gospel.” (Mark 1:14-15)
Christ preached about it - few believe it today. But that does not alter the fact that we are very close to the fulfilment of that Gospel - that good news - the return of Jesus Christ to take control of all nations. But the world has been blinded… deceived by Satan the Devil… they have little or no understanding of upcoming events.
Pastor General’s Report - 1979
“We have come to that time – the TIME OF THE END! Rapid travel, to and fro, at high speed! We are definitely in the END TIME! Knowledge has been increased on earth amazingly. We have been going with increasing momentum through the age of invention, the age of science and technology, the air age, the space age, and now the NUCLEAR age. Now, for the first time in human history, the weapons of mass destruction have been produced that can erase all humanity from the earth!” (Pastor General’s Report – November 20, 1979)
Plain Truth - 1986 - MYSTERY OF THE AGES
“Daniel described the same most severe trouble of all history. Speaking of a time now in our immediate future, Daniel foretold: ‘And at that time shall Michael stand up, the great prince [archangel] which standeth for the children of thy people: and there shall be a time of TROUBLE, such as never was since there was a nation even to that same time’ (Daniel 12:1).” (The Plain Truth – April 1986)
There is a God in heaven who has a great plan for all of mankind, and He is working out that plan right now!
God promised blessings for obedience: Leviticus 26:1-13
But He also promised punishment for disobedience: Leviticus 26:14-46
“But if ye will not hearken unto me, and will not do all these commandments; And if ye shall despise my statutes, or if your soul abhor my judgments, so that ye will not do all my commandments, but that ye break my covenant:
I also will do this unto you; I will even appoint over you terror…
And I will break the pride of your power; and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass:
And I will bring a sword upon you,
And I will bring the land into desolation: and your enemies which dwell therein shall be astonished at it.” (Leviticus 26:14-16,19,25,32)
A modern translation adds clarity: “Yes, I myself will devastate your land, and your enemies who come to occupy it will be appalled at what they see.” (Leviticus 26:32, NLT)
Total devastation! The greatest nation on earth totally destroyed. And the survivors? “…You will offer to sell yourselves to your enemies as slaves, but no one will buy you.” (Deuteronomy 28:68)
Finally…
“And I will scatter you among the heathen, and will draw out a sword after you: and your land shall be desolate, and your cities waste.” (Leviticus 26:33)
“And yet for all that, when they be in the land of their enemies, I will not cast them away, neither will I abhor them, to destroy them utterly, and to break my covenant with them: for I am the LORD their God.
But I will for their sakes remember the covenant of their ancestors, whom I brought forth out of the land of Egypt in the sight of the heathen, that I might be their God: I am the LORD.” (Leviticus 26:44-45)
This is what the true gospel is all about!
One God
One world ruling government, headed by Jesus Christ
One law - going out from Zion
One pure language
Real peace amongst all nations
“For behold, I am for you, and I will turn unto you and ye shall be tilled and sown: and I will multiply men upon you, all the house of Israel, even all of it: and the cities shall be inhabited, and the wastes shall be builded: And I will multiply upon you man and beast; and they shall increase and bring fruit: and I will settle you after your old estates…” (Ezekiel 36:9-11)
Read the whole chapter of Ezekiel 36. God says,
“…I will also cause you to dwell in the cities, and the wastes shall be builded… This land that was desolate is become like the garden of Eden; and the waste and desolate and ruined cities are become fenced, and are inhabited.” (Ezekiel 36:33,35)
“Notice: ‘In that day shall there be a highway out of Egypt [Egypt still exists as a nation] to Assyria [many of whose people migrated centuries ago to Europe – modern Germany], and the Assyrian shall come into Egypt, and the Egyptian into Assyria, and the Egyptians shall serve with the Assyrians. In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land: whom the [Eternal] of hosts shall bless, saying,
Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria, the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance.’ (Isaiah 19:23-25)
WHAT A UTOPIAN PREDICTION THAT IS!”
(Tomorrow… What It Will Be Like - Chapter 6)
“YOU DON’T HAVE TO BELIEVE IT!
It will happen, regardless. It is sure – the world’s only sure hope.
This advance good news of tomorrow is as certain as the rising of tomorrow’s sun.”
(Tomorrow… What It Will Be Like - Chapter 1)
"Let all the earth fear the LORD: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him. For he spoke, and it was; he commanded, and it stood." ( Psalm 33:8-9 JPS Tanakh )
If you were asked to highlight the greatest problem in the world today, what would you say it is? There are certainly many things to choose from: the spectre of nuclear war in the Middle East, Russia versus Ukraine, USA versus Iran, unfettered immigration, skyrocketing inflation, the Islamic takeover of the West; ferocious weather patterns; transgender issues; AI; corrupt politicians; GM foods — but I doubt if anything even comes close to something far more pervasive and destructive — today's failure to fear The Creator God.
In days gone by a healthy fear of God was quite commonplace within our lands, but today that is not the case. How long has it been since you heard the the compliment; he or she is a "God-fearing man/woman"? Today, it's more likely to be used as a term of derision! A solid family structure is the basis of any enduring nation and has been under a full blown attack for decades ... especially since the 1960's mantra of "Free love". But unrestrained sexual relationships so often result in fatherless families, and without that head of the house, children grow up lacking respect for authority in all areas of life, including a fear of the ultimate authority, God. This was far from the case in years gone by — even when Christ was on the cross the argument between the two thieves crucified with Him was settled by one answering the other, "Dost not thou fear God, seeing thou art in the same condemnation?" (Luke 23:40)
At the same time, and using an evangelical fervour to promote within higher education a totally materialistic ideology via the theory of evolution, rationalism and the systematic rejection of all things spiritual — Satan has driven today's world to a depth of foolishness never witnessed before. The highly educated in this world have become so steeped in the lies of God-rejecting materialism that they simply cannot UN-learn these deceptions without totally rejecting their own cherished position that has taken them an entire lifetime to achieve. That is why so many intellectuals remain as agnostics or atheists when the overwhelming evidence shouts against their core beliefs. They simply have to continue kicking against the pricks — regardless of the evidence — to save face and continue to live as they please. After all, if there is a Being that created reality, He also has the authority to dictate morality!
The Creator God openly labels such individuals as fools (Psalm 14:1; 53:1) and declares: "Let all the earth fear the LORD: let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of him." (Psalm 33:8). Indeed, at the close of this age and the return of Christ to the earth, He will make sure the dishonest, God-denying evolutionary-based concept of design without a designer is forever exposed, with this world-wide angelic proclamation:
By contrast, it can be seen throughout the Bible, that those who do hold onto righteousness and their fear of God, even in the face of adversity, they are commended for it:
Although a healthy respect and the right kind of fear of God is needed by all humanity, it becomes even more vital for those who are in a position of leadership. Leaders who act as if they and their peers are the final word make such leadership absurd and without validity as they are effectively saying there is no higher authority above them. And of such a mindset God says, "When the righteous are in authority, the people rejoice: but when the wicked beareth rule, the people mourn." (Proverbs 29:2) Unfortunately, this is what we find today, and it is this frame of mind which lies at the heart of virtually every problem we see in society:
More and more the removal of godly values is being implemented under the pretext of separating church and state. But that is certainly not God's way. When Moses was advised by his father-in-law on what governmental structure to use within Israel, the fear of God — and all that then flowed from recognising we all operate under that Higher Power — formed its core. It was the very first prerequisite!
When Samuel later added a segment within the Law when the people demanded a king (I Samuel 10:25) — he too was inspired by the Eternal to place the fear of God that came from daily study and meditation of the scriptures as the paramount quality needed by the leader of God's people:
The book of Proverbs has much to tell us of this subject, pointing out that the fear of the Eternal lies as a foundation of all wisdom. All the other qualities of a productive, truly successful life, for all of us — young and old — begin by acknowledging and obeying the One who is over us as our Creator:
Although the demons believe there is One God — and tremble — the spirit currently broadcasting to this evil age (Ephesians 2:2) does not have the kind of godly fear that leads to wisdom but rather the opposite. Unlike the other created beings around God's throne, who openly acknowledge their Creator... "...Blessing, and glory, and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honour, and power, and might be unto our God for ever and ever. Amen" (Revelation 7:12), Lucifer rejected God's authority over him -- he certainly had no correct fear of his creator, and he became Satan, the adversary.
What 'wisdom' Satan has now is therefore deviant, and we see a similar depraved approach at every turn in today's world because he is the true source of such deception (Revelation 12:9). Hating the very Being that created him, Satan blasts out a broadcast that is convincing many to deny even the clear factual evidence of the intelligent design all around them, let alone the Creator who produced it!
Ignoring what today's technology has revealed about the incredible complexity of the cell — and the molecular machinery involved (youtube.com) — life on earth being the result of blind evolution continues to be blasted at us from every angle ... brainwashing a generally unsuspecting public into accepting they are nothing special apart from being the top of the evolutionary tree. The result of this godless approach — that we're no more than "higher animals" — here in the UK even foxes, badgers, voles, bats, dormice and various species of fungi have a greater degree of protection than an unborn child, which can now legitimately be aborted i.e. murdered) right up to the time of birth. It is estimated that in the past 60 years there have been over 11 million lives lost by abortion in the UK alone.
Other levels of depravity continue to worsen. Recently the transgender argument has taken on a life of its own with a mindset that can only be described as insane and utterly perverted, as the sex of every individual is imprinted in each and every cell of their body from conception. Yet, according to the apostle Paul in Romans chapter 1, such depraved practices naturally flow from a wilful denial of the Creator's eternal power and Godhead. The source of these warped ideas is from a being that is genderless and unable to reproduce himself, so we should hardly be surprised at what we see and read!
But TRUE wisdom is what will lie at the very root of the Millennial rule of Jesus Christ, because it will be based on the correct fear of God:
And as kings and priests, all of us who are destined to serve under Him will have the same mindset:
This is the reason we must actively avoid the path found within today's world — the path of a fool who lives his life as if there was no superior power over him. Rather, we are expected by our Father to live this present life as the wise — Godly wise! And such wisdom begins with a fear of the Eternal and holding in high esteem what He has to say.
Mr Armstrong brings this out in the Preface of Mystery of the Ages:...
"God has opened to understanding his Word to those he has chosen, who have yielded and surrendered to him and to his blessed sacred Word. In the 12th chapter of Daniel, it says at this time of the end the “wise” would understand, but “none of the wicked shall understand.” Who, then, are the “wise” who may understand the Bible?
"“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom” (Ps. 111:10) and “a good understanding have all they that do his commandments” (same verse). Yet traditional Christianity has generally denied God’s commandments – says they are done away, nailed to the cross. The clergy and theologians of organized “Christianity,” therefore, cannot and do not understand the Holy Bible." (Mystery of the Ages - Preface)
Just as the world is rapidly heading to its eventual collapse because there is progressively less and less acknowledgement of a Higher Authority to whom we must all answer one day, those of us to whom He's revealed the spiritual solution need to be moving in the opposite direction. Knowing the source of true wisdom, we can grow progressively wiser – prepared and ready for our roles within the coming Kingdom of God.
Before very long, this God-rejecting world will be a thing of the past, as will the horrific curses we have brought on ourselves outlined in Deuteronomy 28. Never again will there be fear nuclear warfare, epidemics, earthquakes, famines etc .... because having seen the horrendous results of this 6000 year experiment, mankind will finally recognise the ultimate authority over him, and be willing to "choose life, that both thou and thy seed may live". (Deuteronomy 30:19) -- a totally different way of life bringing untold blessings, as it will be based on honouring, respecting, obeying and fearing his loving Creator God.