This knowledge has also opened a door so that we can more clearly see that God is giving us more understanding in regards to the Thunders and Trumpets of Revelation.
It is not an easy process for us to learn in such a manner (through suffering), but there is great purpose in how and why God reveals these things to us in the manner He does. We have touched upon some of these reasons in the last few posts. What is most important to understand more deeply is how God is trying and refining us individually and as a body. For those who will yield themselves to this process, God is molding a maturing faith, godly character, conviction, and spiritual strength within us. It is like the example of refining gold mentioned in the last post. We are tried and tested in fire and the impurities will then rise to the surface in those conditions. When this happens in our life individually, we can then see the dross and we are to work at getting rid of it, for it is impure and not to remain in us. This process heavily involves repentance and the exercising of humility, whereby we can grow even more. God also uses this process to purify the Body of Christ in order to remove what He has tried and tested in fire that will not humble itself before Him, but has instead become lifted up with pride and self-justification for not following His way.
Another purpose for God revealing things to us as He does is because of what He is working out in order to bring Satan and the demons to a time of great judgment upon them, and because of the spiritual wars that are part of this process that include strategies and timing that are critical in great wars.
There is yet another great purpose God is working out in how he is revealing truth to us. The example of our experiences through such suffering will benefit those who live in the Millennium and in the Great White Throne time period because they will be taught this lesson and be able to learn through it. As a result of our experiences, people living during those periods of time will be given clearer insight into God’s transforming power that works in human life. They will be given a better understanding of the process that works to produce a strong and mature faith in one’s life and they will be given greater help in their conversion process apart from the kind of trying through fire that those in Satan’s age of influence over mankind have had to endure.
Matured Faith
As with the example of Job that was covered in the last post, Satan and the demonic world have had an open door to torment and harass God’s Church in their pursuit to separate all whom they could from God. Yet God’s Church has grown strong in His love toward one another (love waxing hot) and individual faith has been rapidly matured by God’s own power to create His “new creation” — Elohim — in a continuing progressive manner and purpose He has been working out. We are very blessed to be experiencing (living) this heightened progressive phase of His creative power at work that has been constructed (built) to be what it is today and where it is at this point that is concluding 6,000 years of God’s building process (progressive process).
We are awesomely blessed to be experiencing this time when this process for accelerated growth and rapidly maturing faith has been put to work in God’s end-time Church. We have been blessed to live a greatly enhanced stage of development (creation) toward the end of 6,000 years of construction just before entering the Millennium when God’s continuing creation of Elohim will be brought to its fullest and most mature stage yet, far greater than even now.
This brings us to the matter of God’s timing within His creating process, where the focus is Elohim and how it is most perfectly created. Yet, an adverse part of this process is reminiscent of clay arguing with the potter. In one example in Isaiah, God speaks of those who go through the motions of religion and approach Him (His House — His people) and speak as though they are at one with God, yet their heart becomes removed from following His way and is instead turned to human reasoning and intellect. It no longer remembers how God molded and lead them through faith and that it was not by what a person “thinks” (reasons) they can see and/or prove by their own ability.
How do such people remove themselves from God and turn their heart from following God by faith? “Woe to those who seek deep to hide their counsel from the Eternal, and their works are in the dark, and they say ‘Who sees us?’ (by their true activities) and ‘Who knows us?’” (Is. 29:15). In other words, they change. They begin to be more secretive in slyly seeking out others who will listen to their reasoning and their interpretations of God’s ways. If they do not find audience with some whom they approach, they will leave them alone (ignore or evade encounters with them) and continue to seek out others while they hide themselves (their true motives and true actions) from discovery.
Why some eventually remove themselves from following God and turn their heart in another direction is because of the age-old reasons and motivations that have remained the same; if such things take root in the heart, the mind will turn inward and away from God. Satan began his course of moving away from God by letting jealousy and pride grow in his reasoning. The same is true throughout the history of the Church as well. Jealousy of others, especially in areas of ordinations, has led to the fall of many such people who turn away. If people begin to judge unrighteous judgment and fail to see God leading His Church, then jealousy can become too over-powering for them, especially when Satan and demons are constantly searching out such attitudes to infect.
This kind of jealousy just in ordinations alone and the accompanying personal misjudgment by such people is something I have witnessed throughout my years in Worldwide. I’m not speaking of a few times I’ve witnessed this, but of dozens upon multiple dozens of times. In thinking of some who recently have harbored such jealousy over another person who was raised to a senior elder, they judged that I had been in error for allowing such a thing and that I really didn’t know this person and their past as I should have. Wow! It is amazing when people lift up themselves and cease to see the magnitude and evil of their own sins and unrighteous judgment of others whom God had long forgiven, just as He had done concerning their own sins. At some point in the future, this matter of God having so many in the Church to be ordained will likely be addressed further, although we were already told why — and that will yet come to pass. However, there has also been another purpose in timing with the number of people ordained. It was for the very reason (at this stage of the end-time) to try and test the Church in a powerful way. There were other ways of testing as well, but this one tends to bring unrepented dross to the surface quickly.
This process spoken of in Isaiah 29 of people who “remove” themselves from God and of their heart turning farther from Him has been the age old way of self deception, pride, and of turning away from what God had before so freely given them. They turn from the truth God called them to and/or had given them along the way after being called. “Surely your turning things upside down shall be esteemed as the potter’s clay (such will believe they have come to “see” something God has given to them instead of how they had received everything in the past), but can the work say to him who made it, ‘He did not make me,’ or can the thing that has been framed (molded, fashioned, constructed) say to him who framed it, ‘He has no understanding?’” (Is. 29:16).
God is saying in Isaiah that by turning from what He called them to (His true Church) and from where they were being fashioned (in His true Church), that although they seek to find fault with the organization or the leadership where God is working, they are actually arguing with God Himself and the means by which He is leading and fashioning His creation — Elohim. Some believe they have found fault or error with what “they believe” is unfulfilled prophecy in Thunders and Trumpets, but in doing so they no longer choose to be led by faith in all that they should have proven (by what they could have and should have lived through personal experience) to themselves of where and how God was leading them.
The object of pointing all this out is that God does not lead through human intellect and reasoning, but through spiritual revelation of living faith. The revelation of God’s will, purpose, and truth is fully in God’s control and timing — not in any of us — not in God’s prophets or apostle either. This reminds me of Ezekiel who was given much prophesy concerning the future captivity of Israel. The people mocked him and considered him a false prophet because their human reasoning was centered on what they could “see” in that Israel was already in captivity. Everyone is tried and tested often as to their oneness and unity with God. Some will seek to hold to what God has placed before them, for they see the great value and treasure it is, and have chosen to always fight for it until God’s will and purpose in them is completed. However, some will choose otherwise as has recently happened to a few and even tonight, when another has followed suit as part of this same group.
My own focus and maturity over this subject, of people choosing to leave, has grown even more as we have come to this moment in time. It has often been stated that there will be those who turn from God all the way up to Christ’s coming, and I have come to greater peace in this process as well, although it does carry certain regret (of the wrong choices of others) and sorrow for those who turn away, but I know that God will still visit them at some future time and give opportunity then of repentance that they have failed to choose now.
As for God’s Church, we must always continue to press forward and to focus on one another in a deeply caring and maturing fellowship (in God’s love being lived more richly toward one another), for what we live toward one another and toward God is the most important part of our spiritual life. We are a family — God’s Family, and we must reflect that in how we live toward one another.
It is my hope that all will choose to continue moving forward once May 19th has come and gone and Christ has not yet returned. That is the thrust of this post, for I believe God is showing us we have much to do before Christ returns and that this world has much to suffer before that day. Christ will return on a Pentecost, and we will move from Pentecost to Pentecost looking and waiting for his coming. Be patient, for all will become clearer as we move forward. There is much to give and only so much can be organized and delivered in each post. Some may not be able to do so — to continue forward. I feel badly for any who would make such a choice, but I can only answer for myself before God what I will do. Hopefully, those who choose to leave will be very few and become less and less as we move forward. Most all of you have already chosen to continue past that date because you are living by a faith that God has matured within the Body of Christ to bring us to this day and that which is yet before us.
This news may be deeply disappointing, as it is for me, for I hate this world and the ways of spiritual Egypt, Assyria, and Babylon. This world so needs God’s Kingdom, but it must come in God’s perfect time and it must fulfill His perfect purpose. As we do move forward, we will become more and more filled with excitement for how we will now be able to better serve in preparation of the Kingdom in God’s preparation for this world, for as of now we have largely been made ready as the primary structure of the Church that is to press forward! Now, a greater work is in front of us!
Know Our History
As God was reestablishing His Church after the Apostasy, He led us to understand what our focus and work would entail by the additional description He inspired to be in our name — the Church of God – Preparing for the Kingdom of God. Since the time we were fully reestablished on Pentecost of 1998, we have been living that preparation. That is what God is doing. We are His vessels through which that preparation and work is being done.
In the beginning, God was awakening a core group, basically, a tithe of the tithe of the third of the Church that was scattered. Our focus during that phase of preparation was to reach out to and preach (and witness) to those who were scattered. There was no focus to reach out to the world as we were too puny, and more importantly, God was not calling people out of the world, but He was primarily working to mold and refine a core remnant.
The next phase began with a gradual change as a result of the first book that was written, as God was beginning to slowly shift our focus more toward a work He was going to do in the world in preparation of His coming Kingdom. All along the way, we have sought to follow where God was leading us because we did not know where to go. Then we came to 2005, and a much greater shift in the direction God was leading us, as the focus began turning more fully toward a work to be done regarding the world. It was in the middle of that year of 2005 that God began to inspire the knowledge for the need of a second book to be written. This was going to be much different from the first book and written in a far different manner. In the first book, God made it clear what needed to be covered in the chapters well before they were written. In the second one, I did not know the beginning from the end and was only given what was to be written as I was writing.
The timing for writing this second book was delayed, however, since I had a triple bypass in August and then a recovery that forced me to slow down for a time. As I was toward the end of recovery, the focus then became the sermons that needed to be prepared for the Feast of Tabernacles. Amazingly so, it was at this Feast that God brought the Church forward in a very great way — farther out of spiritual Egypt and Babylon, just as He led His Church throughout the era of Philadelphia through Herbert W. Armstrong. However, during that era there was one part of the false doctrine of the Trinity from which the Church had not yet been freed. It was during this entire Feast of 2005 that God chose to reveal Himself and His great glory more fully to His people by clearly revealing that He alone has eternal self-existing life. God revealed that He alone is Yahweh Elohim and that His Son had no prior existence to his human birth.
Knowing our history is important for where we are now, for if all do not see God leading His only Church for great purpose in this end-time, then such a person is not grounded spiritually and can easily be led away. It was in this Feast of 2005 that God chose to reveal such clear and great truth, as this separated any doubt concerning all who were scattered from the Apostasy as to where God had established His name once again and through whom He would finish it in this final age of the end-time. For those who have recently left, where do they go? To what group do they go to follow God and be taught by Him from Sabbath to Sabbath? Of all who were scattered, who knows this great truth that clearly identifies where God is? Or are some so presumptuous to believe that God is now working through them to finish His end-time work? Have such questions been asked and answered? If they have not then everything has been thrown away that God so graciously gave.
The building, establishing, and maturing of a Church — a body of people in God’s Church — does not happen over night. The greater the commission and work to be done, the longer it will take to perform it through human instruments. Even with an almost unimaginable and seemingly unsustainable growth rate of 30 % per year, the era of Philadelphia took several decades to get it to where God was going to do great work through Herbert W. Armstrong in taking the gospel into all the world.
After all that God has done in bringing His Church to this time and clearly revealing by numerous truths revealed to it up through 2005, with the most powerful revelation given in that year at that Feast, all who have been called are without excuse to deny where and with whom God is working. So does one go all the way back to the era of Philadelphia to be fed because they do not see God’s Church anywhere? If God’s Church is not out there, then there is no God, for God said it would endure to the end — that nothing could destroy it.
Prophecy
Then God inspired 2008 — God’s Final Witness to be written. Before this book was written, following God as He led us was easier — much easier than now. The truths revealed after the Apostasy and up through 2005 were revealed as matters of reality (truth) where evidence from the past existed, and then God revealed what had been fulfilled. This included all those things written about the Apostasy, the man of sin, God’s people being scattered, the stones of the temple all cast down, the Church being spewed out of God’s mouth, etc. This also included prophecy about a Messiah and his birth, life, then death, followed by immortal life as the first of the firstfruits of God’s “new creation.”
All these truths that were revealed, with God’s Church following Him as they were revealed, were much easier to receive spiritually than to follow spiritually in those things that concern prophecy that were yet to be fulfilled. Since 2005, and especially since 2008, the truths God gave His Church required a greater faith — a maturing faith — as it was no longer a matter of having things revealed that were founded in prophecy that had already been fulfilled, but now God was revealing truth contained in prophecy that was to happen in the future. It is for this reason God has molded and fashioned us through many different experiences since 2008 that we have now been brought to this time so that we are able to be led by God on a greater spiritual plane and through a matured faith that God has molded, fashioned, and constructed within us. We follow God and turn to the left or to the right quickly. We fight on and push forward with greater boldness and confidence, for we more fully know who we are — we know and live God’s Church.
Following God as He leads, through His work of fulfilling prophecy, is fully a matter of faith — not by evidence of what you can see physically — humanly. AND there has never been a time remotely like this in which a body of people has been led through so many prophetic events being fulfilled — and the greatest are yet still to come. Now we have been made ready to do that work that is before us.
People often have some funny ideas about a prophet concerning what they can do or know. There are “expectations” of a prophet that often times are not real. People are much quicker to judge and then condemn as false when things do not happen as they “think” they understand it should, but this should come as no surprise to God’s people because none of it has been meant to be easily understood, but as that which must be spiritually revealed. Then in God’s perfect time (which we will always come to see and understand) the physical manifestation and fulfillment will come to pass and only God’s own people will hold fast in faith to what has been prophesied.
I follow God where He leads. I don’t know the turns until we are there and only God through Christ reveals them. As an example that was recently mentioned about a GPS, we follow a spiritual one that is always true — always right. If there is a problem, it is only with us in our following it.
Since I wrote the second book, I believe there are probably many who think or believe that I know everything about what is written. I don’t! It is prophetic, and most of it has not yet come to pass concerning physical fulfillment. We have learned much about a spiritual fulfillment as with the 3 1/2 years of witness from God to mankind and their response. That witness is a final one and it is upon this that God places His final judgment that is to come upon mankind.
As with all prophets who wrote many prophetic things, like Daniel who declared he did not understand what he wrote but wanted to know, a prophet simply writes or speaks what is given from God. That is basically what I have done in the writing of that book. The apostle John did not know nor understand the vast majority of what he wrote in the Book of Revelation. As John’s counterpart, I have been given more about the meaning and eventual fulfillment of much of that prophesy he recorded, especially within the context of this modern age. Much has been fulfilled in the Seals of Revelation as God has revealed that the first five seals were fully about events fulfilled in the Church — events of the past. The Sixth Seal was the beginning of a transition of events within the Church that were to begin moving more and more toward the world, but the Church would always be in the midst of it all.
Since the end of 2008, we have been living by a faith that God was rapidly constructing and strengthening in us. I do not know all the events that must take place (prophetic and yet to be fulfilled) that are revealed in the Trumpets of Revelation, and not even in the Thunders, which have only partially been fulfilled. God is clearly revealing that there is much more to come.
Where We Are
So where are we? As that question is posed, I cannot help but think of the timing that has worked out so meticulously to this time and of the mathematical probabilities for so many periods of counting that fit so precisely. This is so far past being a coincidence or a matter of chance that it becomes akin to the foolishness of the mathematical probabilities for evolution to be true. Since the day the First Seal was opened on Dec. 17, 1994, numerous periods of “count” have so perfectly fallen into place. It is with this that I think of all that the Church has been through where Satan has exercised such power against God’s Church since the Apostasy to this time when his reign of terror and torment was concluded at the end of a five month period of time. All this fits into what God has allowed him, even with his signature of the multiple of thirteen that we have addressed in the past. How fitting that the counting will now continue without any identity of Satan in it.
God’s work is simply awesome! It becomes more and more exciting the farther we go forward. There is much yet to come and the majority of prophetic events covered in 2008 — God’s Final Witness are yet to come to pass, and even greater events that have not yet been mentioned.
So where are we? We are at the end of the Day of the Eternal, but not fully what we anticipated in that Day, but instead about a time that has been about God’s Church and not about this world. As we go forward, we will become more in awe of sermons God inspired from the beginning of this prophetic day and forward. God told us much, but we could not yet digest it all. This prophetic day has defined God’s Church. This Day is ending with a people who have been made to stand, having been matured in faith, molded and fashioned by God and His Son during His Day, for His people.
There is indeed more than one prophetic “Day of the Eternal” for this end-time. There will be another — the one we thought would usher in God’s Kingdom. That year will come, but God has not revealed when it will be, but when it does come we will know it and the world will see it. It is as the description of the Second Trumpet, for when that happens we will know exactly where we are in those physical prophetic events that are to unfold.
So how much time do we have? I don’t know and will not know it until God gives it. God has shown we do have a focus for timing and it is from Pentecost to Pentecost. Could it be over in the following year? Yes, and if it is, we do not have too long to wait before the effects of the Second Trumpet are seen because God is also clearly letting us know that will be more time for the events to be completed between the Second Trumpet and the time God intervenes on a Pentecost with the Seventh Trumpet. This cannot be fulfilled in just a few weeks or a couple of months. We may have several years before us, but know that the longer it is, then the greater the work God will be doing through us. God simply has not shown at this time how much more there is or how great that work will become, but it is to be more time and a greater work through us. These things may be given to us soon. We just have to look to God and wait upon Him to reveal these matters to us in His time.
If it is a few or several years more, the reality is that some of you will die in the faith. So we are to plan ahead, year by year as we go from Pentecost to Pentecost, and forward looking as well so that we can be prepared for a longer period of two, three, or even more years.
This world is on the verge of a world war that can commence at any time, but it can also be held back. We must be flexible, always on guard spiritually, and ready to move in whatever direction God leads. Right now we need to exercise some patience, for it will take time for God to work through me to give you answers to questions that are there. Answers will come — they always have — but in God’s timing as well. Hopefully all of you recognize a difference between this year and last year. God led us into His prophetic day for us and gave us a focus for that year to come — from Pentecost to Pentecost. He let us know by a post on the Sabbath of May 26th that there was more in front of us. Then this was quickly followed by a sermon that revealed even more. This year, especially within our unique condition and organizational structure, God has been preparing us over the last few posts for this post. I wasn’t sure that was the case, but had suspicion that it was, and now looking back it is obvious. We are even being told a little more in advance (than last year) that we have more before us and perhaps quite a bit more. It all depends upon how much work is before us.
It is my hope that next Pentecost we will see the return of Jesus Christ. If it is, we will not be uncertain for long because God is letting us know that what He will perform and allow to come upon mankind will not happen over one day, one week, or even over a few months, but will instead be experienced longer by mankind because it is the only way to bring the measure of despair and humility to mankind that they must experience, that which is necessary before God’s Kingdom can be established.
Fifth Trumpet
An elder asked a good question about the post that spoke of what had occurred in the Church as a result of the Fifth Trumpet and the five month period we have just experienced. This person was unclear about what was being said about the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th Trumpets as well. It is a good question as statements in that post were made without any explanation at all. The truth is I couldn’t give more, but only gave what was being given to me as I wrote that post. I did not understand it fully either, but knew that it was what I was to give. I knew it was the truth, but I did not understand it all either. God is now giving more, and more will be given in future posts about other matters such as the Day of the Eternal and other similar areas where questions will naturally occur and where we have desire to see more. God will give more as He leads us, but only when He determines to do so.
It needs to be stated first that we do not know when (the actual timing) the Trumpets of Revelation are blown. This was mentioned in a recent post that if it were God’s purpose He could have had them blown at the very beginning. They could have blown together at the same time, or one right after the other, or at other intervals of time, but we do not know. Anyone who “thinks” they know or believe that they have figured it out is incredibly foolish, for this can only be known by direct revelation from God. Who is the prophet to whom this has been revealed? I know of two who have not had this revealed to them as of yet, and I know of no other prophets who live.
Candidly, what can be known is what God has given to His Church to this moment in time. People can tend to look at these trumpets as only physical fulfillment that happen at the moment each trumpet is blown. As it has been pointed out, that is not so. Before this is over, you will come to clearly see that there is also some overlapping in these events. Over a period of time, God has been leading us to come to see that the Fifth Trumpet is not about a single great physical event that involves Germany and a United Europe taking the United States into captivity in a literal sense as having full control over the U.S. and then capturing hoards of people and placing them in prisons and concentration camps.
This trumpet is the most difficult to see because it is the only one that involves spiritual revelation of events that involve God’s Church, and those events had to be fulfilled at a specific moment in time apart from the actual physical affects that will yet come as a result of the blowing of all the trumpets. God has not revealed everything about this Fifth Trumpet, but has given us a much clearer picture now that we understand that Satan and the demons were given free reign to torment God’s Church for five months. This should now be easier to see and understand. It is much like the Church knowing very little about the Apostasy before it actually came and with no indication of when it might occur specifically in time. God was unable to reveal very much because it was to try, test, and become judgment upon God’s Church. In a similar manner, we could not be given to know what was to come upon us during that five-month period of time or it would not have produced the witness and result that it did. It would not have been “just” to reveal anything about it in advance for it to accomplish what God had given Satan to do. We simply could not be given this knowledge in advance anymore than what happened before the Apostasy and nothing more could be given in advance about it, for then it would not have been true and just either.
Suffice it to say that the first phase — a spiritual one — the only spiritual one within any trumpet — was laid out within the Fifth Trumpet. This was only to be revealed to Satan and the demons just before they were given way to attack God’s Church through a specified period of time. There is also a duality in this trumpet fulfillment that is tied directly to Satan and the entire demon army. It is also described as a woe — the First Woe.
Satan was highly unsuccessful in his attack upon God’s Church because of what God had fashioned and matured within us. There is no more that applies to God’s Church from any of the trumpets except for collateral effects that may be experienced from the physical fulfillment of the trumpets. However, there is a duality of torment that will also be upon the scattered nations of Israel that Satan and the demonic world will inflict upon. It will involve Europe and it will involve war. There will be another fulfillment of five months wherein Satan and the demons will wreck havoc and torment upon these nations.
God also revealed long ago that the effects of this Fifth Trumpet would also be used to bring about a great change within the Church of God that was scattered after the Apostasy. It will have much to do with the 63,000 whom God will bring back. As I write this I know that God is giving us much insight concerning this trumpet, but far from all. I know we understand that, and some of its purpose, so be patient and be thankful that our Father who loves us so very much is giving us what He is.
So when will the physical events of this trumpet come to pass? We don’t know and we are not to know until they have begun. We have survived a spiritual “woe” upon the Church and have done so in great victory (the word “overcome” quoted so often in the N.T. is from the Greek word “conquer”) because of what God has molded and fashioned within us — all to God’s glory for what He has given us to conquer. The world will not fair so well when the physical phase of this woe is unleashed. That phase — the physical fulfillment of the Fifth Trumpet — will not occur until after the 2nd, then 3rd, then 4th Trumpet effects have become physically manifest.
The Church of God – PKG presses forward. “The wars are not over!” as was stated in the post “One War is Over and Another is About to Begin.” War in this world is coming. It is not long into the future, but it is not this week either. We will wait upon God to lead us and reveal to us what we need when we need it. One of the greatest spiritual assaults ever waged is now over, but the war itself will continue. Satan and the demons will now turn more of their attention upon this world. Although the power of these beings against us has been greatly diminished in power and strength, because God and Christ dwell more fully in us, they will still seek out that which becomes weak. Don’t let up in battle and don’t let down spiritually by slipping into a lukewarm and sluggish spirit. We must fight ever more determined as we press forward to the Pentecost of Christ’s coming.
The Church of God - Preparing for the Kingdom of God