What Herbert W. Armstrong Didn't Know - Section 5

January 16, 2015

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What Herbert Armstrong Didn’t Know

[Fifth Section]

Argument: As a self-educated theologian, Herbert W. Armstrong as the Pastor-General of the former Radio Church of God and Worldwide Church of God, never understood the basic construction of Hebraic poetics, that the visible, physical things of this world reveal and precede the invisible spiritual things of God, with outwardly circumcised Israel forming the chiral (or left hand) image of circumcised of heart Israel, the assembly of inner selves born of spirit through the indwelling of Christ Jesus. Because Armstrong never understood theological chirality, Armstrong placed importance on the surfaces of things and people; importance on appearances, gender, skin color, and genealogy. He therefore prevented himself from understanding the mysteries of God, and was and remained a spiritual novice throughout his ministry that extended from 1934 to 1986.

The movement from physical to spiritual undergirds all of Scripture: this movement underlies the New Covenant, the Second Passover liberation of Israel, spiritual birth, thought-couplets poetics, and biblical prophecies. And when this movement pertains to prophecy, nations and peoples within the geographic region of ancient “Eden” topographically represent the conscious mental landscape of all human persons; hence, Bible prophecies apply inwardly to everyone … the concept of geographical landscapes forming the chiral image of mental landscapes is not one that has been significantly explored by theologians, but one incorporated in phrases such as the mountain of God, or in cities being assemblies as in New Jerusalem being the Bride of Christ. This concept is compatible with fleshly bodies of people being clay houses (Job 4:19) or vessels of clay or in the most intriguing example, being the whale [great fish] that swallowed Jonah, with Jonah representing the inner self of the person.

The “fruit” of the spirit, according to Paul, is nine facets of character (Gal 5:22–23), nine attributes of a single fruit that has the spirit being a tree [vegetative growth] and the character of a person growing as harvestable fruit. Paul likens Gentile converts to wild olive scions grafted to the root of righteousness, Christ Jesus (Rom chap 11). In Daniel, King Nebuchadnezzar is likened to a tree whose crown is in heaven, the tree felled and its stump banded (Dan chap 4). And in the “P” creation account, born of spirit disciples are represented as “vegetation, plants yielding seed according to their own kinds, and trees bearing fruit in which is their seed, each according to its kind” (Gen 1:12), and ancient Israel [circumcised in the flesh Israel] is represented as dry land (v. 10), with Moses having parted the waters and Israel crossing the Sea of Reeds on dry land.

Jesus only spoke in figures of speech, in metaphoric and metonymic expressions (John 16:25); for the words of this world that name the things of this world are incapable of naming the things of heaven except when used metaphorically. Love as a man knows love is at best a dark shadow of “love” as God loves His sons. Nevertheless, the only means by which a person can express the person’s understanding of the mysteries of God is through human words used metaphorically—

Thoughts sprout and grow from mental landscapes, with “lust” as a thought growing from the spiritual equivalent to the fertile fields of the Nile Delta; with “idolatry” also growing in their fields figuratively irrigated by the foot (flood irrigation) as if these fields were vegetable gardens. But the figurative hard barley representing the firstfuits of God grow on the representation of ancient Judean hillsides, watered by the early rains, gathered into barns over a seven week period between the Wave Sheaf Offering and the Feast of Weeks, these seven weeks—like the seven days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread—representing the seven endtime years of tribulation, with the harvest becoming heavier as the counting of weeks advances seven days at a time, the harvesters working six days then resting on the seventh; resting on the forty-ninth day, the day before two loaves of bread made from new grain, beaten fine, and baked with leavening are waved before God, the baking process having killed the leavening [yeast].

Disciples are these two loaves, one of which represents the Elect, disciples glorified while still dwelling in fleshly houses; the other represents those persons who were not glorified through the indwelling of Christ Jesus before receiving glorified houses in which to dwell. This “other” includes the righteous of old as well as all those who come out of the seven endtime years of tribulation.

When the First Unleavened and seven days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread (the high Sabbath of the seventh day of this Feast included)—eight days altogether—are laid over the seven counted weeks leading up to the Feast of Weeks, also a high Sabbath, disciples able to think in metaphors see that the Feast of Unleavened Bread (preceded by the First Unleavened, from Matt 26:17, that is the Preparation Day for the great Sabbath of the Sabbath, from John 19:31, thereby making for eight days when Israel eats the bread of affliction) will have the last high Sabbath of Unleavened Bread representing the harvest of humanity that comes from the seven endtime years of tribulation.

The first high Sabbath of Unleavened Bread symbolizes the day when Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth (Ex 12:37) on the 15^th day of the first month, and represents the day of the Second Passover liberation of Israel, the 15^th day of the second month. This high Sabbath has been and presently is the great Sabbath of the Sabbath that is Unleavened Bread. But this changes when dominion over the single kingdom of this world is taken from the Adversary and given to the Son of Man. Circumcised of heart Israel will no longer be greater Christendom; will no longer be spiritual Cain that martyred its righteous brother, spiritual Abel. Another son will be born to the second Adam, a spiritual Seth, born through the Holy Spirit being poured out on all flesh (Joel 2:28) when the Son of Man begins to reign on the second day of doubled day 1260. This spiritual Seth is the third part of humanity (from Zech 13:9), and this spiritual Seth has only to endure to the end to be saved (from Matt 24:13; 10:22). This spiritual Seth has no work to do, no message it must take to the work, no evangelism to undertake. Its work will be “enduring,” learning to trust God; for this spiritual Seth will not be able to buy or sell without marking himself for death. And on the last day of the Endurance, the last day of all seven endtime years of tribulation, Christ Jesus will return as the Messiah, thus transferring “greatness” from the first high Sabbath of Unleavened Bread to the last high Sabbath.

After the Second Passover liberation of Israel, the high Sabbath at the end of Unleavened Bread becomes the high Sabbath that is the Feast of Weeks, Pentecost. It is for this reason that the high Sabbath of the Feast of Weeks is not seen in the Millennium … a passage from Ezekiel chapter 45 that addresses the changed holy days will be cited later in this piece.

In this piece, I have too often used Herbert Armstrong’s lack of spiritual birth to excuse his errant teachings. Nevertheless, I’ll do it again; for Armstrong never taught his disciples not to eat leavened bread on the First Unleavened. A great many of his disciples went out for hamburgers after Passover services …

Did all of his disciples on the 14^th day of the first month eat what was leavened after taking the Passover sacraments and thereby making themselves unleavened? I cannot speak for all, but I can discus many: tired from last minute cleaning, their homes having had leavening and leavened crumbs removed, with no time to eat before heading to Passover services, many of Armstrong’s disciples ate hamburgers in restaurants (at least in America) so as to leave crumbles there after Passover services, the leavened buns filling their stomachs but sparking no thought about actually reading Matthew’s Gospel in Greek and seeing what the author said about the night on which Jesus was betrayed and taken. A better meal would be eaten the following night, the Night to be Much Remembered. So at roughly ten o’clock at night on the night of the 14th, a hamburger was enough to take the edge off hunger.

How dense can disciples be? By ingesting the broken bread and sipping from the cup, the disciple symbolically ate the body and drank the blood of Christ Jesus, the Passover Lamb of God, who was without sin. The disciple was without sin, with leavening representing sin on the First Unleavened and throughout the seven days of the Feast of Unleavened Bread. So why would disciples, having just taken the symbols of the Passover and becoming free of sin, willingly take sin [in the form of a hamburger bun] back inside themselves? Is this not what Christians will do in the great Apostasy, when after having been liberated from indwelling sin and death at the Second Passover, these Christians almost immediately return to ingesting Sin [unbelief of God] and thereby commit blasphemy against the Holy Spirit?

I know that Armstrong’s disciples, members of the former Worldwide Church of God (WCG), went out for hamburgers after Passover services—after truly working hard all day getting the tiniest specks of dust out from between carpet fibers in a last minute effort to remove all leavening from houses, there was no time to grab more than a bite so as to satisfy what Paul had commanded in 1 Corinthians 11:22.

Pressure was on members of WCG to clean homes, businesses, vehicles, and to have them clean before the high Sabbath began, with it preached from podiums that the pressure members felt came from the Adversary. There truly was no time to eat on the day of the 13^th. But the pressure dissipated after Passover services. So I, and most of my acquaintances in WCG, would after Passover services meet together in a restaurant where we talked in an environment less somber than Passover services where chitchat was forbidden. And those (including myself some years) who hadn’t finished unleavening shops and work spaces would return home to do more cleaning as wives knocked themselves out preparing the meal for Night to be Much Observed, usually an over-the-top Thanksgiving-type meal.

Where did we go wrong?

We were wrong in about everything we did; for we made the Feast of Unleavened Bread into a physical observance as we placed more focus on a Cheez-It © lost on the pickup’s floorboards than upon removing sin from our lives, not that we didn’t examine ourselves before taking the Passover sacraments, but that we put more effort into physically cleaning houses than went into changing inner selves.

Where is there any love toward brother and neighbor in physically cleaning one’s house, with the ministry telling members that they had to clean their own homes for the leavening in their homes represented their sins—and somebody else couldn’t remove their sins for them … you want to run that by me again, for what is it that Christ does for us if not take upon Himself our unintentional sins?

One spring on the Kenai, I didn’t have time to vacuum the pickup’s floorboards to the satisfaction of the deacon; so I hosed down the floorboards, floor mats, and under the seat. The WCG member at the shop at the time, my last customer for the day—sun was setting and we were about to leave for the Night to be Much Observed meal at a friend’s—was appalled, but I assured him that in the mud on the floorboards was no leavened bread that I would eat … I’m not sure he believed me.

I did wash a Cheez-It © out from under the seat and onto the ground. A year earlier, I had been criticized because I dumped baking powder into the outhouse hole—I was supposed to remove leavening from my property. I asked those who criticized if they would go into the outhouse hole and get that baking powder so I could dump it on my neighbor’s property, thereby giving him my sins. They weren’t that interested in my affairs.

Eden and the Garden of Eden here on earth formed [past tense, for both were erased when the world was baptized into death as that Cheez-It © was] the spiritually lifeless shadow and copy of heavenly Eden, the garden of God (Ezek 28:13) where iniquity [unbelief leading to rebellion] was found in an anointed guardian cherub. Eden’s geographical boundaries encompassed the Fertile Crescent:

A river flowed out of Eden to water the garden, and there it divided and became four rivers. The name of the first is the Pishon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. And the gold of that land is good; bdellium and onyx stone are there. The name of the second river is the Gihon. It is the one that flowed around the whole land of Cush. And the name of the third river is the Tigris, which flows east of Assyria. And the fourth river is the Euphrates. (Gen 2:10–14)

As earthly Eden was destroyed by wickedness, so too was heavenly Eden. As the world was baptized into death with the Flood of Noah’s day, so too was Eden, the shadow and copy of heavenly Eden, suggesting that the rebellion of the anointed guardian cherub, now the Adversary, destroyed heaven through a reality typified by the fate of Korah and his friends (Num chap 16), a rent in the fabric of heaven opening and spirit gushing from this rent as blood and water gushed from the wound in the side of the crucified Christ Jesus (John 19:34), this spirit forming the Abyss in which all that is physical was created, a rent that can still be seen in X-ray photographs of the universe… the new heaven and new earth that will replace the existing heaven and earth are recreations, the second or spiritual presentation of what has been physical.

From west of the Nile—the exact location of the Pishon and of the Gihon is unknown—to the Tigris and then on to the Euphrates, the pre-Flood land of Eden incorporated Egypt (the topographical representation of Sin), Assyria (the representation of Death), and Babylon (the representation of transactions, buying and selling) as well as Judea (the representation of life). As in a Venn diagram that has circles overlap, these overlapping segments forming new fields (transforming three into seven), the major empires within “Eden” overlapped, giving rise to other peoples and giving to Scripture a Middle East focus or centricity, which has caused the peoples of the Book to vie with each other for dominance over shifting sand and stony hillsides.

When pre-Flood Eden existed as a type of heavenly Eden, and when earthly Eden was destroyed because of “the wickedness of man was great—“every intention of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually” (Gen 6:5)—the wickedness of man will have a human author, the first Adam, who when seeing Eve eat the fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil ceased to believe God and ate from that tree himself … by the thought of his mind and the act of his hand, Adam introduced unbelief of God into this world, this unbelief leading to death (Gen 2:16–17; Rom 5:12; 6:16).

John addresses the physical presentation of sin: “Everyone who makes a practice of sinning also practices lawlessness; sin is lawlessness” (1 John 3:4).

Paul addresses the spiritual presentation: “whatever does not proceed from faith [pisteos — belief, as in belief of God] is sin” (Rom 14:23).

When the hand or body transgresses the Law—as in murder, an act of the hand, being sin (Matt 5:21) or as in adultery, an act of the body, being sin (v. 27)—the Law is physical and the sin is covered by Christ Jesus’ death at Calvary. But when the Law moves from being written on tablets of stone to being written on tablets of flesh, murder moves to being anger (of the heart) and as such sin (v. 22) and adultery moves to being lust (of the mind) and as such sin (v. 28). And unbelief replaces transgressing the Law as sin.

Unbelief prevented the nation of Israel (except for Joshua and Caleb) numbered in the census of the second year from entering the Promised Land (Heb 3:19). Unbelief following liberation from indwelling sin and death at the Second or Spiritual Passover will prevent the vast majority of “Christians” from entering heaven: they will be like the nation of Israel that left Egypt. And the third part of humanity (again, from Zech 13:9), none of whom are today Christians, will be like the children of Israel that crossed the Jordan behind Joshua [in Greek, ’Iesou — Jesus]. This third part is today Muslim, Buddhist, Hindi, Shinto, atheist; and this third part will be filled with the spirit of God [pneuma Theou] when the Holy Spirit is poured out on all flesh (again, Joel 2:28) three and a half years before Christ Jesus returns as the Messiah.

Israel’s forty year trek from Egypt to Canaan represents the seven years of the Affliction and Kingdom and Endurance in Jesus.

When dominion over the single kingdom of this world is given to the Son of Man on doubled day 1260, all peoples will immediately be My people (Rev 18:4), the people of God. All peoples will be filled with spirit and taught by God, but being filled with spirit wasn’t enough to prevent Christian unbelief in the Affliction. Likewise, being filled with spirit will not prevent third part unbelief. Something more is needed, the testimony of the two witnesses, their testimony being the defeat of Death through their resurrection when dominion over the single kingdom of this world is given to the Son of Man.

A “thing” is established not by the testimony of one witness, even when that witness is Christ Jesus, but by the testimony of two or three witnesses. The defeat of Death, the demonic King of the North, wasn’t established by the resurrection of Christ Jesus, about whom the Adversary can claim that Jesus was resurrected from death because He came from heaven as the unique Son of the God who created all things physical. The defeat of Death will be established by the resurrection of the two witnesses, two brothers who will be as Moses and Aaron were.

The endtime good news [gospel] that must be proclaimed as a witness to all nations and to all peoples is, All who endure to the end shall be saved (Matt 24:13–14). All will be saved because all will be filled with spirit and liberated from indwelling sin and death. All will have the Law [Torah] written on hearts and placed in minds so that all know the Lord. All will be taught by God, not by other men. And unless a person returns to sin, thereby committing blasphemy against the spirit [figuratively splashing out spirit so as to take unbelief leading to death back inside the clay vessel], all will continue to be liberated from indwelling sin and death and will be saved spiritually.

This third part of humanity will be the last that is first.

And Herbert Armstrong, because he was not born of spirit and did not understand spiritual birth, never understood what the endtime gospel was that must be proclaimed to the world. He skipped past the third part of humanity and went directly from the Affliction, the first 1260 days of the seven endtime years (when the Adversary remains the prince of this world), to the Millennium, ignoring all of the Endurance in Jesus, represented by Revelation chapters 13 through 19.

If a ministry is based on a particular reading of prophecy, and if that reading of prophecy is wrong—not just a little wrong or mistaken, but fundamentally wrong in everything it proclaims—then the ministry functions as a false prophet … Herbert Armstrong was fundamentally wrong in what he proclaimed, and knew he was. But he persisted; he persevered; and he continued to proclaim the same physical reading of sealed and secret prophecies. In doing so, he did more harm than good to two, three generations of Christians who were willing to keep the Commandments and to believe God, especially if they had been rightly instructed.

Just prior to Passover 2004, my wife and I were invited to dinner by the Detweilers, he a Brethren pastor and his wife newly convinced to keep the Sabbath. Also invited was Chris King and his wife.

Chris, then in his late 90s, was a lifelong [seven generations long] German Seventh Day Baptist. And I sat with Chris and explained why Christians should keep the Passover. He listened—his mind was sharp—and when I finished what I wanted to say, he said, “That sounds right, but nobody ever taught us this.”

I was flushed with sadness. Nobody ever taught us this—why not?! The pastor of the German Seventh Day Baptist Church at New Salem was a Messianic Jew who kept a Passover Seddar service at home every year [I know for he invited me to the service a few days after visiting the Detweilers]. Why wouldn’t he broach the subject of keeping the Passover with his congregation? Was he a theological coward, more concerned about his paycheck than teaching what he knew to be true? And why had generations passed without anybody introducing the Passover to willing believers? I have read Huguenot Passover instructions from a 1737 translation (French into English) of their beliefs [liturgy]. Huguenots in America early in the 18^th-Century [when German Brethren formed their first Sabbatarian community] kept both the Passover and Easter. So among Anabaptists in 18^th-Century America was knowledge of both the Sabbath and of Passover observance.

Nobody ever taught us this—I did. And what Chris King did with what I gave him is between him and Christ; for he died not long afterward. He died before he could challenge the German Seventh Day Baptist pastor about why he wasn’t teaching the congregation to keep the Passover … maybe the congregation wasn’t to know to keep the Passover. After all, if they wouldn’t believe Paul, they wouldn’t believe Jesus—and if they won’t believe Jesus, they won’t believe anyone who teaches what Jesus taught. They, like Sabbatarian Christians in the splinters of the former Worldwide Church of God, have set themselves up to be physically martyred in the Affliction; for every Christian has to make two journeys of faith as Abraham made two, the first into belief of God as Abram “believed” God that his offspring would come from his loins (Gen 15:6), and a second journey into ontological obedience that makes belief of God complete, analogous to Abraham’s journey to the land of Moriah where he was commanded to sacrifice Isaac.

At the Second Passover liberation of Israel, every “Christian” who professes belief of God by declaring that Jesus is Lord will be filled with spirit and thereby liberated from indwelling sin and death without doing anything: the Law [Torah] will be written on hearts and placed in the Christian in a manner analogous to the parents of a Hebrew male having their son outwardly circumcised on the 8^th-day following birth. At and after the Second Passover liberation of Israel, whatever journey the Christian would have taken to arrive at Sabbath observance, topographically represented by the Land beyond the Jordan, will be made for the Christian by having the Law written on hearts; therefore, following the Second Passover, it is Christians’ second journey of faith that has significance, the journey from belief of God to ontological obedience.

The war being fought inside the Elect between the now-living inner self that desires to keep the Commandments and the spiritually dead fleshly body that does what the inner self hates (from Rom chap 7) will be, for all Christians following the Second Passover, moved from inside to outside Christians, with other Christians—those who are theologically of Cain—functioning as fleshly bodies have for the Elect, doing what the obedient inner self hates. For those Christians who really want to obey God, their Christian brothers, their Christian neighbors will betray them, and will even martyr these obedient Christians, all the while believing they do God a favor.

For the obedient, the place of safety is the grave, not Petra (nor Palmer, Alaska, an inside joke). And this Herbert Armstrong never understood … the living inner selves of martyred Elect, sacrificed as Jesus was sacrificed, will join the souls [psuchas — from Rev 6:9] that presently sleep under the heavenly altar. The Elect, when filled with spirit, will be as Jesus was, in that they will be without sin and without any covering for sin but their obedience.

Following the Second Passover liberation of Israel, no Christian will be under grace. All of spiritual Israel will be stripped of the garment of Christ’s righteousness; for without indwelling sin and death, there will be no need for the glorified Christ to bear the transgressions of His disciples, those in whom He dwells through the indwelling of His spirit [pneuma Christou]. Under the New Covenant, God will no longer remember sins, transgressions of the Law (Heb 8:12; Jer 31:34) … if sins are remembered no more, then no covering of sins is needed. Unintended transgressions of the Law will not matter. Whether the Christian believes God matters; for if the Christian believes God, the Christian will be able to perfectly keep the Law. To do otherwise will be blasphemy against the spirit.

Herbert Armstrong, like physically minded Pharisees in the 1^st-Century, could not envision a Christian being able to believe God yet not keep the Sabbath—and this possibility does stretch minds. But as in Chris King saying, Nobody taught us this, there are a great many Christians today who believe God but who have been so falsely taught that they do not know to keep the Sabbath or the Passover. Thus, God will have to take the teaching of Christians [this includes Sabbatarian Christians] away from their present pastors and do the job Himself by writing the Law on hearts and placing it in minds. Then all will be without excuse. All will know the Law, know the Lord, and know what is expected of each of them.

And God will get the attention of Christians through their liberation from indwelling sin and death following the sudden death of all firstborns, legal [in heaven] and biological [on earth], in a day. Roughly 2.4 billion persons will die suddenly, and the only link from dead person to dead person will be their birth order, that of having opened the womb but not having taken the Passover sacraments of eating unleavened bread and drinking from the cup on the night when Jesus was betrayed, the dark portion of the 14^th day of the first month, this month to begin with the first sighted new moon crescent following the spring equinox wherever the person lives … a person will keep the Passover in the spring of the year, not at harvest time. Therefore, the person in the Southern Hemisphere will keep the Passover half a year out of sync from the person in the Northern Hemisphere, this declaration supported by what the prophet Ezekiel relayed in a millennial prophecy:

Thus says the Lord [YHWH]: In the first month, on the first day of the month, you shall take a bull from the herd without blemish, and purify the sanctuary. The priest shall take some of the blood of the sin offering and put it on the doorposts of the temple, the four corners of the ledge of the altar, and the posts of the gate of the inner court. You shall do the same on the seventh day of the month for anyone who has sinned through error or ignorance; so you shall make atonement for the temple.

In the first month, on the fourteenth day of the month, you shall celebrate the Feast of the Passover, and for seven days unleavened bread shall be eaten. On that day the prince shall provide for himself and all the people of the land a young bull for a sin offering. And on the seven days of the festival he shall provide as a burnt offering to the [YHWH] seven young bulls and seven rams without blemish, on each of the seven days; and a male goat daily for a sin offering. And he shall provide as a grain offering an ephah for each bull, an ephah for each ram, and a hin of oil to each ephah.

In the seventh month, on the fifteenth day of the month and for the seven days of the feast, he shall make the same provision for sin offerings, burnt offerings, and grain offerings, and for the oil. (Ezek 45:18–25 emphasis added)

In the Millennium, in which hemisphere a person lives will not matter for the same offerings will be made spring and fall. In the Millennium, when and how holy days [festivals] are to be kept change; for the symbolism attached to each day will have changed. And the change comes from Jesus being the Passover Lamb of God, covering Israel with His righteousness, then liberating Israel from indwelling sin and death, then moving from being Israel’s high priest to being King of kings and Lord of lords.

For as long as the sins of Israel were covered by the sacrifice of a Passover lamb, Israel did not die for transgressions of the Law for Israel had no indwelling spiritual life. But when the spirit was given, Israel received indwelling eternal life—not all who claimed to be of Israel, but those truly born of spirit through the indwelling of Christ Jesus. However, the transgressions of the inner self were covered by the garment of Christ’s righteousness; they were not paid-for. No spiritual death penalty had yet occurred to cover them. And Christ Jesus as Israel’s high priest bearing or covering the transgressions of the inner self is the reality of grace.

But when Israel is liberated from indwelling sin and death at the Second Passover, the garment of Christ’s righteousness will be stripped away. Israel will have to bear its own transgressions; for Israel should never again transgress the Law. To do so will be blasphemy against the spirit.

Herbert Armstrong never understood the symbolism that grace represented; never understood the symbolism of the Sabbaths and high Sabbaths of God; never understood how this symbolism changed after the spirit was given, and how it would change following the Second Passover. Plus, Herbert Armstrong trusted rabbinical Judaism to give him his calendar by which he kept the Passover, but rabbinical Judaism has been unfaithful for a very long time. Their calendar isn’t to be trusted, for approximately one year in three (with 2015 being such a year) rabbinical Judaism will keep the Passover a month too early because of when rabbinical Judaism adds the month Veadar, adding the month into next spring [2016] rather than this spring [2015]. In other words, Armstrong wasn’t the last Elijah; wasn’t God’s essential endtime man; but was a pastor in a long line of pastors working to advance understanding of the mysteries of God. In this, he helped. However the harm he did, or his ministers did by claiming he was more than he was undercuts the good he did.

The world is a dangerous place. No one need tell anyone that. No biblical prophecy is needed for a Christian to know that Iran possessing nuclear weapons will change geopolitics. No biblical prophecy is needed for a Christian to understand that Islamists killing Islamists is a theological cancer that will kill the Body Politic. Everyone realizes that Black on Black violence in inner cities, if not stopped, will eventually spread to suburbs and ignite a race war. No one, even today, is unaffected by drug related violence, by the resurgence of Fascism, by hatred of fellow human persons, said with the understanding that there probably are exceptions at the margins of civilization. But the point is no one needs biblical prophecy to identify global hot spots where ideological spontaneous combustion is ready to burst into flames that will threaten human life everywhere. And this doesn’t take into consideration nuclear contamination already in the Pacific, or about to enter the Columbia River, or that could possibly enter the Mississippi if dams on tributaries failed.

No one needs biblical prophecy to scare the person into fearing for bodily safety. Twenty-four hour television news channels already do that, with their commercials for gold sellers paying to keep these stations on the air. So it costs nothing to be scared. It costs plenty to not be afraid; for to have no fear, the person must walk in this world as Jesus walked. The person must walk as an outwardly uncircumcised Judean, a Judean circumcised of heart.

Why bother with Bible prophecy, especially when most prophecies have obvious fulfillments?

Why should an American atheist be concerned about Palestinian rockets landing on Israeli schools, and Israeli missiles blowing up Palestinian leaders as they drive from one rocket launch site to the next?

Why should America spend billions to nation-build in Iraq or in Afghanistan? Is the reason because American political leaders are willing to resist any ideology that would return women to being fully clothed and covered; any ideology that would threaten the amorality of Western civilization; any ideology that threatens to behead homosexuals, that threatens to cut the throats of liars, that threatens to cut off the hands of thieves, that threatens to stone adulterers? From the perspective of both social Democrats and free market Capitalists, these would be good reasons to fight 7^th-Century fundamentalism over there rather than here where war fought among skyscrapers would harm the commodities market, while clogging streets with the dead bodies of Gay Pride activists.

But if there is a God—and there is—whose side would He be on in a war between peoples that almost keep the Commandments but have no love for neighbor and brother versus people that make no pretense of keeping the Commandments but have a little love for neighbor and brother but more love for themselves? Or would God even bother to take sides in such a conflict, choosing instead to turn His back to what is happening and wait until He is ready to intervene in the affairs of men to bring human self-rule to an end?

Because Herbert Armstrong was not born of spirit [I’m doing it again, excusing his falseness], he had no understanding of spiritual matters, no understanding of the mysteries of God. As a self-educated intelligent person, Armstrong realized that a third of the Bible pertained to still unfilled prophecy. What he didn’t realize was that all of the Bible formed the lifeless shadow and copy of the living Book of Life in which disciples are epistles and the Word of God is the glorified Christ Jesus.

Armstrong didn’t realize that earthly Jerusalem is merely the shadow of heavenly Jerusalem, the Bride of Christ; that Nebuchadnezzar as the human king of Babylon was the shadow and type of the Adversary, the spiritual king of Babylon (Isa 14:4); that Nebuchadnezzar never reigned over the children of men wherever they dwelled (Dan 2:38), never reigned over beasts of the field or birds of the air (same verse). Armstrong never realized that Nebuchadnezzar was not the head of gold of the humanoid image that both he and Daniel saw in vision, that Daniel spoke hyperbole in telling him that he was, spoke in metaphoric speech; for the king’s vision was—in Daniel’s words—“‘what will be in the latter days’” (v. 28) when the great horn that is the first king of the federated King of Greece is broken (Dan 8:8) because he is an uncovered legal firstborn at the Second Passover liberation of Israel.

This great horn would have appeared on the image Nebuchadnezzar saw as an erect penis—and this horn is conspicuously missing from the image, but legs, feet, and toes are present, with the kingdom of the Son of Man as a stone cut by no human hands smashing the gold head, silver arms and chest, bronze belly and thighs, iron legs and feet, and mingled iron and miry clay toes. All of the metals of the image are present when the image is smashed: the image would have been bicolored, yellow [gold and bronze] and white [silver and iron], and in this color pattern, the little horn on the head of the fourth beast (the King of the North) can be identified as can be the firstborn of the spiritual king of Babylon, the great horn of the King of Greece.

The stone cleaved without hands doesn’t come as a thrown brick, but is the split Mount of Olives that comes together to swallow the armies of the Adversary (Zech 14:4, also Rev 12:16; Ex 15:12; Dan 9:26) as the Sea of Reeds came together to swallow Pharaoh’s army.

Common bronze (90% Cu, 10% Sn) is the color of 14 carat gold (58.5% Au) when copper and silver are mixed with the gold.

Armstrong never realized that the four beasts of Daniel chapter seven are the four kings that emerged from around the stump of the broken (because he was first) great horn of the King of Greece (chapter eight) and are also the four horsemen of Revelation chapter six, that the little horn of Daniel chapter seven is the little horn of chapter eight and by the little horn the two visions can be aligned, with both being for the latter days.

And I heard a man's voice between the banks of the Ulai, and it called, "Gabriel, make this man understand the vision." So he came near where I stood. And when he came, I was frightened and fell on my face. But he said to me, "Understand, O son of man, that the vision is for the time of the end." … He said, "Behold, I will make known to you what shall be at the latter end of the indignation, for it refers to the appointed time of the end. … And he shall even rise up against the Prince of princes, and he shall be broken—but by no human hand. The vision of the evenings and the mornings that has been told is true, but seal up the vision, for it refers to many days from now." (Dan 8:16–17, 19, 25–26)

And,

But the court shall sit in judgment, and his dominion shall be taken away, to be consumed and destroyed to the end. And the kingdom and the dominion and the greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven shall be given to the people of the saints of the Most High; His kingdom shall be an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey Him. (Dan 7:26–27)

This compares to,

And in the days of those kings the God of heaven will set up a kingdom that shall never be destroyed, nor shall the kingdom be left to another people. It shall break in pieces all these kingdoms and bring them to an end, and it shall stand forever, just as you saw that a stone was cut from a mountain by no human hand, and that it broke in pieces the iron, the bronze, the clay, the silver, and the gold. A great God has made known to the king what shall be after this. The dream is certain, and its interpretation sure. (Dan 2:44–45)

And,

“And now I will show you the truth. Behold, three more kings shall arise in Persia, and a fourth shall be far richer than all of them. And when he has become strong through his riches, he shall stir up all against the kingdom of Greece. Then a mighty king shall arise, who shall rule with great dominion and do as he wills. And as soon as he has arisen, his kingdom shall be broken and divided toward the four winds of heaven, but not to his posterity, nor according to the authority with which he ruled, for his kingdom shall be plucked up and go to others besides these. Then the king of the south shall be strong, but one of his princes shall be stronger than he and shall rule, and his authority shall be a great authority. … But you, Daniel, shut up the words and seal the book, until the time of the end. Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase." Then I, Daniel, looked, and behold, two others stood, one on this bank of the stream and one on that bank of the stream. And someone said to the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the stream, "How long shall it be till the end of these wonders?" And I heard the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the stream; he raised his right hand and his left hand toward heaven and swore by him who lives forever that it would be for a time, times, and half a time, and that when the shattering of the power of the holy people comes to an end all these things would be finished. I heard, but I did not understand. Then I said, "O my lord, what shall be the outcome of these things?" He said, "Go your way, Daniel, for the words are shut up and sealed until the time of the end.” (Dan 11:2–5; 12:4–9)

The visions of Daniel were not to be understood until the generic time of the end was upon humanity. Therefore, if this time of the end is not yet upon humanity, then Daniel’s visions remain sealed and secret. However, if the time of the end has come upon humanity, then Daniel’s visions can be read and understood. My argument is that this generic time of the end began 1900 years after the Body of Christ died at the end of the 1^st-Century (ca 100–102 CE, most likely on or about the second Passover of 101 CE, with the time of the end beginning May 8, 2001, the second Passover, when NSA picked up electronic chatter about the Twin Towers, chatter that Dick Cheney reported to President Bush but chatter that slipped through cracks until 9/11) … Justin Martyr (dob 100 CE) claimed to be contemporary with the Apostle John, a claim that is otherwise without support. But the claim would have slight merit if John were still alive after Justin was born, and this seems to be the case, with John living seventy years after Calvary and with John’s physical death representing death of the Body of Christ.

Other than the Body of Christ died at the end of the 1^st-Century and returned to life through the calling of a remnant [the Elect] born of spirit at or near the beginning of the 21^st-Century, none of the preceding can be established beyond doubt …

The period between 71 CE, forty years after Calvary, and 101 CE seems to be the period when the Father quit drawing disciples from this world, but the Body of Christ continued to live through those disciples already drawn and inwardly glorified remaining physically alive. This period would form the shadow and copy of the period between 1972 and 2002, the period in which the Father began to draw those individuals whom He foreknew and predestined to be glorified but who were not yet born of spirit; who would not be born of spirit until a century of time-cycles passed.

Herbert Armstrong placed importance on the year his ministry began, 1931, when he was ordained by the Oregon Conference of the Church of God, Seventh Day, 1900 years after Calvary … if 1900 years has importance as the length of time when the Body of Christ was spiritually dead, then Armstrong’s argument would deny spiritual birth to Jesus’ first disciples, meaning that for Armstrong their mother was not heavenly Jerusalem, despite what Paul claimed.

In order for Armstrong to retain a 1260 day tribulation [what he taught], he had to misread all of Daniel’s visions that were sealed and kept secret through assigning to them fulfillment by the course of history stretching from Babylon to Rome—

But Rome is outside of ancient Eden, therefore outside of biblical prophecies.

The two iron legs that physically satisfied Daniel’s explication of Nebuchadnezzar’s vision were the Ptolemaic and Seleucid Empires, with ambassadors from the Chinese Empire [the size of the Roman Empire and perhaps more advanced] claiming that the Seleucid Empire was the size of China and had technology similar to that of their own empire. So the Seleucid Empire, mostly inside ancient Eden, as one iron leg of Nebuchadnezzar’s image satisfies the type of the image. This will have the Ptolemaic Empire as the other iron leg, with neither leg stronger than the other.

The person who inserts Rome, the Roman Empire, the Roman Church, or the Roman See into Daniel’s visions is a false prophet, said without caveat! And Herbert Armstrong, like Ellen G. White before him, identified the two legs of Nebuchadnezzar’s vision as the Western Roman Empire that had Rome as its capital, and the Eastern Roman Empire that had Byzantium as its capital. Such identification can only come from a poor understanding of history, or deliberate fraud; for the Roman Empire didn’t split until the days of Constantine in the 4^th-Century CE. And the kindest thing that can be said about such a person is that he or she is unintentionally ignorant. The most accurate thing that can be said is that the person seeks to deceive others more ignorant than him or herself.

Ancient Chaldeans [Babylon] defeated both Assyria and Egypt and sacked Jerusalem. As such, earthly Babylon forms the lifeless chiral image of spiritual Babylon that rules over both Sin [the King of the South, Egypt] and Death [the King of the North, Assyria] but that cannot give life—spiritual Babylon will continue to rule Sin and Death until the Second Passover liberation of Israel when all firstborns not covered by the blood of Christ will perish in a day. Armstrong didn’t realize that at the Second Passover, Sin would be separated from Death [the King of the South from the King of the North after the pattern of Daniel 11:5]. Spirit-filled Christians will be liberated from indwelling sin and death, but they will remain mortal, subject to Death from outside causes such as martyrdom.

The problem Christians have never been able to overcome is their small-mindedness. Why would a Baptist in California or a Catholic in Brazil be more important to God than a Buddhist in China? Neither are. So why would God save only Christians—and then, which Christians—but not save the Muslim who manifests love for unbelievers that come to him, or the Hindi who never harmed even a bug?

Until God sets His hand to save humanity by bringing to an end the Adversary’s reign as prince of this world, the prince of the power of the air, wars and rumors of war will continue as they have since the days of Noah. There will be hunger and poverty and great perils. There will be nuclear plumes that threaten life on a continental scale. But there will be only a few who sigh and cry about abominations committed by spiritual Israel—it is for the sake of these few that God will intervene to keep alive some of humanity …

God’s purpose for establishing a demonstration to show angelic sons of God that the Adversary’s schema for self-rule are all doomed to fail would be satisfied by humanity wiping out humanity. God doesn’t have to prove the negative; He doesn’t have to prove that only His governance leads to life. He only has to show that self-rule doesn’t work. In order to squelch the concept, introduced when iniquity was found in an anointed guardian cherub, He only has to permit the Adversary’s rule over humanity to utterly fail. But for the sake of the Elect, the demonstration doesn’t end when dominion over the single kingdom of this world is taken from the Adversary and his angels. The demonstration continues for another thousand years.

And yes, human beings serve as pawns played by cosmic forces on the fields of Eden, where ideas are personified by physically living persons …

I would like to quote from the beginning of Chapter Three of, A Philadelphia Apologetic, Volume One:

A point on a two-dimensional plane would (if it could) perceive a cylinder as a circle: none of the cylinder’s height (a third dimension) would be discernable. But because a point on a two-dimensional plane perceives a cylinder as a circle doesn’t make the cylinder any less tall, and if the point were to call a cylinder a circle, the point would merely illuminate the limitations that have been placed upon it.

Likewise, three-dimensional objects in a fourth dimension—space-time, a dimension necessary to allow for movement of entities possessing mass—will be unable to perceive evidence of life in another inclusive dimension; i.e., heaven. And that is what heaven is: a timeless supra-dimensional realm in which the four known forces exist as unfurled primal force. It is the dimension that exists on the other side of a sudden creation, a dimension in which all living entities must function as one entity in a similar way to how cells in a human person function together to produce one person. Timelessness dictates that what-is must co-exist with what-was and what-will-be, and in this analogy, disobedience or lawlessness is like a cancerous tumor. Because of conflicting values, disobedience produces paradoxical gridlock in a timeless realm, and as such, must be eliminated whenever found. Thus, denying the existence of an inclusive dimension and a supreme deity reveals the limitations placed upon the thoughts of the person doing the denying.

(There is another understanding of a fourth dimension that makes it like the first three dimensions, an understanding that does explain some of the difficulties produced by quantum mechanics.)

Nietzschean antinomianism is both valid observation and a revealing of how little is culturally known about the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob; it can be likened to a point both describing a cylinder in two dimensions and denying the cylinder’s existence in an unperceived third dimension.

Although that point on a two dimensional plane when encountering a cylinder would not be able to perceive any of the cylinder’s height, if the cylinder cast its shadow onto the two dimensional plane, that point could determine the cylinder’s height by observing where the light was and where the light was absent (or where it was dark). However, the shadow would be meaningless unless the point knew to attach significance to the presence and absence of “light,” which would through the cylinder’s shadow reveal to the point the height of the “circle” (the point would not have a word for a “cylinder”).

Now move to more dimensions: human beings are not points on a two dimensional plane, but rather, they are enlivened jars of clay in four dimensions. But human beings will have no more knowledge of what occurs in another dimension—heaven—than a point on a two dimensional plane has of height. Only through shadows can human beings “see” into the heavenly realm, but these shadows are not cast upon the earth’s geography … shadows made in the heavenly realm are cast upon the mental topography (mental landscape) of humankind, with this mental topography revealed though the actions or acts of fleshly human beings. Unrighteousness is, now, spiritual darkness stemming from something or someone in the heavenly realm blocking the “light” that is God. And it is the prince of this world that blocks that light. Therefore, the visible things that have been made—the left hand enantiomers—reveal the invisible things of God as the physical precedes the spiritual. The first Adam, a clay corpse before the Lord breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, serves as the visible, physical shadow and copy of the last Adam, a living human being before the divine breath of the Father descended upon Him as a dove, thereby imparting a second life, a spiritual life—as the right hand enantiomer—within the same mortal tent of flesh as was born of water from the womb of Mary. The first Adam and the last Adam are enantiomorphs, with chirality being the central metaphor informing typological exegesis. …

The perishable is visible because it is not “light”; the imperishable cannot be seen by human eyes, except by the shadow that the spiritual casts, with this shadow not being a dark likeness lying lifeless on the ground but the perishable or natural. So the man of dust was the shadow and type of the man of heaven as physical breath is the shadow and type of spiritual breath that is the glory of God.

Herbert Armstrong was as a point on a two-dimensional plane: he was unable to discern spiritual “height” or said otherwise, he was unable to eliminate physicality from his thinking. For Armstrong and his ministers, the physical blocked the light that is God and left him/them in spiritual darkness with their eyes open. They weren’t/aren’t blind. They said/say that they “see”; therefore they are as the Pharisees were who asked Jesus,

Some of the Pharisees near Him heard these things, and said to Him, "Are we also blind?" Jesus said to them, "If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, 'We see,' your guilt remains. (John 9:40–41)

Because of what was preached and is still being preached from Sabbatarian Church of God pulpits, guilt remains for unbelief remains … it is extremely unlikely that any minister in the splinters of the former Worldwide Church of God doesn’t know what has been and is being declared in this extended message. I know for certain that some know … one minister, upon reading a draft of the first edition of A Philadelphia Apologetic in 2002, returned the copy with his comments, which initially were critical but as he continued through the manuscript to just past halfway changed in tone and ended with a note: If I read more, I will have to agree with you. He didn’t read more.

One fellow (not a minister) in Norway after reading for a year said, If you’re right, then everyone else is wrong—and I can’t go there … I don’t like what Armstrong taught about God working with one person at a time. I don’t want to believe that is so. But where are others with understanding? Show yourselves. For I say what Paul said,

If anyone thinks that he is a prophet, or spiritual, he should acknowledge that the things I am writing to you are … of the Lord. If anyone does not recognize this, he is not recognized. (1 Cor 14:37–38)

As previously stated, the transfer of dominion over the single kingdom of this world from the Adversary and his angels to the Son of Man, Head and Body, serves as the witness mark by which all biblical prophecies can be spiritually aligned. This transfer is identified by John the Revelator as [the] Kingdom that is sandwiched between the Affliction (the first 1260 days of the seven endtime years), and [the] Endurance in Jesus, the last 1260 days. This Kingdom encompasses the doubled day 1260, counted from “0” to “1260” in the Affliction and from “1260” to “0” in the Endurance, with the first day numbered 1260 representing the last day on which the Adversary holds dominion over living creatures and with the second day numbered 1260 representing the first day that the Son of Man holds dominion in a countdown to the beginning of the Thousand Years when the Adversary will be bound in the Abyss.

John the Revelator wrote, “I, John, your brother and partner in the Affliction and Kingdom [no definite article] and Endurance in Jesus [no definite article, and no patient], was on the island called Patmos on account of the word of God and the testimony of Jesus” (Rev 1:9) … without <Kingdom> and <Endurance> having their own definite articles, they are not separate from <Affliction>: they share its definite article, thereby making Affliction, Kingdom, and Endurance into one entity of 2520 days duration. John’s vision is about this entity, not about all of history leading up to the transference of dominion. This also causes the letters to the seven named churches to be delivered on the Day of the Lord, the day when dominion is transferred … as a disciple in Ephesus could visit disciples in Laodicea at the end of the 1^st-Century CE, an endtime disciple of spiritual Ephesus will be able to telephone (or post a photo to a spiritual Laodicean’s Facebook wall) disciples of the other six named Churches, the seven Churches co-existing in the 21^st-Century as they co-existed in the 1^st-Century.

The seven named Churches represent seven endtime mindsets that do not necessarily have seven geographical locations: in one fellowship can be members of several of the named Churches. And this was not understood by Herbert Armstrong who taught that the seven Churches were seven Church eras, beginning with Ephesus in the 1^st-Century and concluding with Laodicea in the 20^th-Century … he did not expect the return of Christ to be in the 21^st-Century as evidenced by what he wrote in the cited portion of that December 8, 1947, co-worker letter.

John laid out the chronological structure for the Book of Revelation: the Affliction first, during which the 1260 day ministry of the two witnesses (Rev 11:3–14) occurs, with the Affliction representing the time, times, and half a time of Daniel 7:25, and the 1260 days of Revelation 12:6. During the Affliction, the Adversary remains the prince of this world. All authority in heaven and on earth has not yet been given to the glorified Christ; thus, Revelation chapter 4 through 11:14 belong to the Affliction, with these forty-two months symbolically representing the six hours between midnight and dawn; between when the death angel passed over all the land of Egypt, slaying all uncovered firstborns in that land, from the firstborn of Pharaoh who sat on his throne to the firstborn of prisoners to the firstborn of livestock (for all firstborns belong to the Lord unless redeemed) and when dominion over the single kingdom of this world is taken from the Adversary and his angels and given to the Son of Man.

The forty-two months of the Affliction equate to the six hours between midnight and dawn when Israel was to remain in their houses. Thus, an hour equates to seven months; a half hour to three and a half months, 105 days. And a timeline for the Affliction can be worked out—and has been worked out, with the beginning date for this timeline being the second Passover in a year when the 15^th day of the second month occurs on a Thursday, and the great Apostasy of day 220 occurs on a Sunday in December …

The year isn’t known. But in moving from physical to spiritual, the midnight hour physically comes when the night can get no farther away from the light—when dusk and dawn are equally far—thus, the spiritual midnight hour will come when humanity can get no farther away from God, the light of day; when dusk and dawn are equally far. Thus, the question must be asked, can humanity get farther from God than it is? Yes, but not very much farther. Has human governance demonstrated that self-rule will not work; that democracy will not work; that representational democracy will not work; that collectivism will not work; that autocratic dictatorships will not work; that monarchies will not work? Yes, yes, and yes. But is humanity on the brink of annihilating all life? It possesses the capacity to do so, and Islamic Twelvers would push for doing so, and the modern nation-state of Israel has promised not to be driven into the sea, that it would take the world down first. Rounds are chambered, safeties are off, and fingers are on triggers. But this is what Herbert Armstrong preached in that 1947 co-worker letter. And what has occurred since I was one year old? A lifetime lived under the shadow of sudden destruction—and I loop back to what Jack Etsel said while eating fried chicken in 1985, Armstrong preaches that time is short because time is short for him.

Do I preach that time is short because it is short for me, or is it really short?

The visions of Daniel were still sealed and secret in 1985. This Armstrong didn’t know and really couldn’t know because he wasn’t born of spirit. But as everyone ages, coming day by day closer to the person’s end, most everyone believes that the world has gone to hell and is about to come to an end. Such was preached at the close of the first millennium of the Common Era. Such was preached as the bubonic plague scourged Europe. Such was preached during and following World War I when the swine flu was killing millions. And if the generic time of the end is not upon humanity, such will be preached a century from now.

My argument is that the visions of Daniel are not about the course of human affairs, but about what happens at the end of this age—and mostly about what happens in the Affliction, the last 1260 days of when the Adversary and his angels hold dominion over humanity; over all living creatures. My argument is that biblical prophecies are ultimately about the mental landscape of living creatures; that they warn against not manifesting genuine love for neighbor and brother, against relying on the realm of transactions. And when Scripture is “read” as a book about the mind, not about the Islamic State eventually possessing nuclear weapons—Allah will provide—and beheading the world, or about Russia establishing a world-ruling empire ala the doctrine of the Third Rome, effectively used by Stalin to rally Mother Russia to fight Nazis, then Scripture is the better instruction manual for how to live than anything else written. Scripture is about how a person is to relate to neighbor and brother, parents, God. Scripture is a unified storied told by many authors, most of whom knew little or nothing of the story. And evidence that through poetry, redacted history, prophecies about regional nations, biography, and corrective epistles a unified story about how a person is to live his or her life, from the outside to the inside—while assuring participants in a demonstration of mindsets that more life lies beyond death—has been told for all who have eyes to see is perhaps the strongest evidence that God exists prior to the Second Passover liberation of Israel.

But before dismissing the immediacy of the day, this day, today, Christ Jesus left His disciples with the example of Him washing feet and eating the Passover, changing the symbols from a sacrificed bleating lamb to eating unleavened bread representing His body and drinking from the cup representing His blood. Moses left Israel with a model for keeping the Passover; Christ Jesus altered this model but kept the structure. And following the Second Passover liberation of Israel, the nation to be circumcised of heart, the Passover will again be altered. But until then, what will not be altered is that the person who is of Israel, the firstborn Son of God, will either take the sacraments on the dark portion of the 14^th day of the first month or be as a person of the nations, an Egyptian. And if the person is a biological firstborn, the uncovered person will die when death sweeps around the globe, following the darkness of being as far from God as humanity can get.

Because of the difference between 1260 days and 1290 days, the thirty days between the Passover in the year of the Second Passover and the second Passover has significance that is outside the shadowing of Scripture … the majority of filled-with-spirit Christians will rebel against God on day 220 of the Affliction, with this day beginning the count for the 1290 days, complete 250 days into the Endurance when almost all of the third part of humanity (from Zech 13:9) will rebel against the Adversary who has been cast to earth and comes claiming to be the Messiah. This third part’s rebellion against the Antichrist will be made complete in the 45 days between 1290 and 1335 days after the great Apostasy of day 220 of the Affliction, and when this occurs is recorded:

Here is a call for the endurance of the saints, those who keep the commandments of God and their faith in Jesus. And I heard a voice from heaven saying, "Write this: Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord from now on." "Blessed indeed," says the spirit, "that they may rest from their labors, for their deeds follow them!" (Rev 14:12–13)

Another time marker: God effectively pulls the fangs of the Adversary 295 days into the Endurance; for if after this marker the Adversary kills one of the saints, the person is sealed in death and assured of salvation. If the Adversary is to have any chance of preventing a holy one from entering heaven, the Adversary will have to permit the person to live and perchance join the rebellion against God in order to engage in transactions. The holy one, though, has to do nothing but endure to the end to be saved. No work beyond feeding him or herself will be necessary. No preaching will be necessary. All that is needed is to believe that God will provide, the mantra of Islam, with former Muslims making up a significant percentage of the prophesied third part of humanity. And this is what Herbert Armstrong didn’t know and Sabbatarian Christendom cannot accept.

God will provide—God will teach all to know the Lord. And when the Law [Torah] is written on hearts and placed in minds, all will, indeed, know the Lord. So Armstrong’s ministry (as well as the Christian ministries of this present era) only hindered potential disciples from coming to obedience. And that should not have happened nor should it continue to happen as it is today. But when those who teach are in need of teachers themselves, the result will be, “In those days there was no king [no Caesar] in Israel. Everyone did what was right in his own eyes” (Judges 21:25).

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